Building a Record

It was late at night. Adrien checked around and saw no motion from anybody else living within the confines of the Agreste estate. They must all be asleep.

Adrien returned to his room and transformed into Cat Noir and he immediately noticed that a voice message was left on his device. He opened the relevant file and Pierre's voice announced calmly: "Hey Cat, I pulled some strings and I got an area of the Grand Palais to myself. I'll be there until 1 AM, if you can't make it, you can leave a message with my secretary about your next available slot for a long discussion."

It was 11:15PM, and there was no way that the journey from the Agreste manor to the Grand Palais would take so long that by the time he got there the deadline would have passed, especially since Cat is very quick and he once tested his speed and he could make it from one side of Paris to the other in no less then thirty minutes, so going from where he was to where he needed to be was going to be a cinch.

Cat was correct, he arrived at the Grand Palais at 11:22PM, he entered the large area. He recalled how in this very spot that he almost put on a Cat Noir mask in addition to a handmade Cat Noir costume he was already wearing before Chloe stomped in and put an end to Clara Nightingale's auditions for the video she was planning. If Chloe never did that, Adrien's identity as Cat Noir would have been revealed. At the time, it was a bad memory, and something that made him antsy about this location, but eventually, the memory became amusing. He chuckled thinking about it.

"Hello!" Cat Noir yelled into the Grand Palais' main area and his voice echoed through the darkness. A light came on in the distance.

"Ah, Mr Noir, I was hoping you could make it, what took so long, were you still washing your fur suit?" Pierre joked. He was sitting on a brown chair and he set aside a black chair for Cat to sit on and between the two comfortable seats was a blue table and upon it were two large glasses and a water vessel filled to the line printed on its side and with ice added in to keep the water within chilled.

"Mr Noir?" Cat asked as he used his staff to vault up to the area Pierre was waiting. "I think I like it, I like it a lot. As for fur suit? I will have to say no to that, this outfit was created in thanks to the power of the miraculous, not sure how much of it can be removed or even if this zipper is operational, I've never had a chance to try, but even if I did, Ladybug would scold me for even trying."

"How ironic, a cat wielder with the lack of curiosity. You are aware of why I summoned you here, right, Mr Noir?" Pierre asked.

"Yes, captain Lefevre, you want me to act as a character witness for Ladybug." Cat noted.

"Please, Pierre is fine. You save Paris almost everyday, you've earnt the right to be causal with even the Commissaire de Police. As for you being a character witness for Ladybug, I have to ask if you are comfortable with proceeding, even masked vigilantes, albeit illegal by their own merit, have rights here in Paris."

"Yes Pierre, I'll be happy to help."

"I have to inform you that a prosecutor has been assigned this case. As to be expected, the man is a bully when it comes to the world of Paris law. Everyone else is too kind and believe in Ladybug, so they claimed that they had conflict of interest, and hey, who was going to argue with them? The venue has been set as Cour d'assisses, so you will not be appearing as a witness, your statements here will be compiled in my record, which I will remind you, will be required to be completed in seven days time. Nobody will stop you from appearing to support your partner from the audience, and causal dress for such a position isn't out of the ordinary, but it may shock some people to see a guy in a cat suit show up in any court let alone Cour d'assisses."

Cat Noir processed all the information that was provided. He didn't know much about Cour d'assises, but if Cat can't act as a witness, then he had to conclude that such a place was closed off to public opinion. "Before I begin singing Ladybug's praises, I must know, how does the venue being the Cour d'assises work?"

"I see you intend to ask me how a trial within said venue would work. There are three judges, I don't have names yet, but one of the three would be the head and the others would be their assistances. There would also be 6 juries, and the only thing they have to determine is if the record I am creating would be enough to convict Ladybug. François Moreau, the prosecutor will do his best to sway the nine to believe 'yes, we can convict Ladybug with this record.' While Ladybug's representative will argue 'maybe there are things in this record that show that she may be innocent.' Or they will make some argument that frees Ladybug from conviction. That is why I want to get all sides of the story to add to the record before the deadline comes to an end, and that why it is so important that I have all possible character witnesses speak about who she is so we can make sure both sides have equal footing when the time comes."

"So, you are on neither side?" Cat noted.

"Most of the time I side with the evidence, but in this case, my objective is to remain in the middle. Evidence shows that Ladybug is most definitely guilty, so now we need to figure out the complete story. We only have pieces, such as she was angry at Lila for all the lies she'd told, but can we really say its true? There is also the fact that the murder weapon was a lucky charm, something which vanished after the crime and yet nobody was seen taking it or leaving with it, and we have a few witness statements..." Pierre took out his notebook and flipped through a few pages before arriving at the information he was looking for. "That say that the knife quote 'turned into pink bubbles from one end and the bubbles went from that end to the other, and the bubbles were followed by a line of pink line, and as the line moved, more and more of the lucky charm disappeared.' end quote."

Cat thought about this information. "I think more information could be gathered from the grimoire, but only Ladybug knows what's contained within, and I think she has shared some of the information with Rena, who discovered how Ladybug could unlock new abilities. If it wasn't for Rena Rouge, Ladybug would never have created charms to ward off akumas. But as for the lucky charm, it always gives the wielder what they need to defeat the villain they are facing off against. Usually the charm acts as a piece of the solution, but it is never alone the solution, and I've never seen it been used lethally except for when Chloe was akumatised, and with that Ladybug sentimonster, and not to mention that the Ladybug from that other universe might have been summoning lethal stuff before she was reformed, not that I can remember that all that well seeing that that event lasted all night and it left me quite exhausted, and it still feels like a dream."

Pierre scribbled some notes. "So you are saying that only if the ladybug wielder wants to use their powers for evil can they be provided with something lethal and something that in of itself can act as the solution without it being part of the solution, while if its being used for the purposes of greater good, the lucky charm acts as a piece of the solution?"

Cat nodded. "That's right. Ladybug would never act evilly. She believes in the greater good beyond anything. She's been wanting to stop all the villains, sure, but every time she purifies the butterfly that caused their powers, she speaks with the person who was given those powers to help them see the error of their ways, and with few exceptions, it has never failed to help them grow as a person."

"You really believe in Ladybug, don't you?" Pierre asked. "Are you sure you can trust her? She lost all the miraculous after all."

"Well, we still have ours, and we saved the rabbit miraculous, so not all is lost. But I promised her that we will work together to get the miraculous back!"

"So, she has never done anything to weaken your trust, not even those times she defeated Moolak and Gigantitan without you, and especially not when she claimed on live TV that you were just a partner like any other?"

Cat Noir was not happy to hear that Pierre knows about those moments. "Ok, maybe I gave up my miraculous because I felt useless as the cat holder as Ladybug kept ignoring me, I don't know what she wasn't telling me or why, but it created a lot of despair and I was at my lowest point."

"So, although you and Ladybug were the ultimate unstoppable duo, you lost trust that that would always be true. So Ladybug is capable of neglecting even her most reliable and supportive loyalists to the point that said loyalists give up trying. Are you the only example of this?"

"Well, me and Chloé Bourgeois when she turned into Miracle Queen after Ladybug ignored her for too long. Ever since then, Chloé has been an irredeemable bully who has stopped caring about being nice. You know, its shocking to me that Lila is the only victim that Ladybug has 'killed' and Chloé was ignored. Also, why would Ladybug wait to take Lila out under the Eiffel tower? Ladybug knew where she schooled, and as you and I saw the news about the crime caught on camera, it should have been obvious that she wasn't above committing the crime in public. In fact, the very fact that it was public to begin with makes it harder for me to believe that the murder is real. There are many dark alleys and hidden corners in Paris, Ladybug and I know them all, and she could have just as easily done this killing in secret and you want me to believe that she'd kill anyone while live on camera and with a lucky charm instead of her yo-yo? I just can't see her being guilty."

Pierre nodded as he added this information to his dossier. "Can you tell me more about this Miracle Queen, I can't seem to recall such an event."

"No doubt about that, Chloe was Queen Bee when she was akumatised which allowed her to summon wasps that not only had the power to paralyze people, but also allow Miracle Queen to control their mind. Monarch probably uncovered the identities of the miraculous holders at that time. But the point is, because of those wasps, its likely anyone stung by them would have been put into a mental fog, and that would explain why you don't recall the events. I can't go into details as I would reveal the identity of the old guardian, and even though he remembers nothing of the time he cared for the mother box, I rather you leave him alone regardless." Cat explained.

"Ah, good idea. So, Miracle Queen is one of the few undocumented akumas due to the abilities she was provided." Pierre noted. "Now, other than what you've already told me, is there anything else you can say in Ladybug's defense?"

"I've already told you she would never go to the lengths of taking another human's life, she has saved so many, this must be a trick, a joke, and it must be a bad one because I'm not laughing."

"What a surprise, I had no idea that you had a serious side, Mr Noir, I thought you were nothing but a joker."

"I can have other moments and be serious when I chose, I just prefer to chose silly over seriousness."

"Well, we both best get some rest, I hope to see Alya tomorrow and get her opinion. By the way, take a hold of this, you may as well have a copy, so that you can think about how it impacts you. We've checked and are happy with the wording within it." Pierre noted as he got up and passed a folded piece of beige paper to Cat.

Pierre departed. Cat opened the letter and read it through.

Dear Ladybug,

Let this letter show that first the police are currently looking into finding your civilian identity, but even if we don't figure it out, we do request that you appear before the police to accept the arrest that we would like to put you under for the crime of murdering Lila Rossi in the first degree.

We would also like you to transfer the ladybug miraculous to a trusted successor, most likely Scarabella, for the time until you are cleared of the charges. We believe that it would be in bad taste to allow somebody who was caught on camera for committing a crime to battle against any villain. This is due to the belief that you are no longer restrained when it comes to how you finish a villain, we just can't be sure if no other bodies will be added to your death toll.

Lastly, you are being processed in Cour d'assisses, and as such, we would like to request a copy of the grimoire to add to the record that captain Lefevre is making.

We all hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards, Vance Lindon.

Cat Noir was confused. Why would the police hire a non-Frenchman to write the letter. Who was this Vance Lindon and where did he come from, he clearly wasn't French as Lindon wasn't a French surname. But what did he really know? After all, he is just the comedic half of Paris' superhero duo and as such he kept his knowledge of the French people to a minimum. But perhaps it was time for him to be as studious as his partner, and perhaps this would allow him to impress Ladybug. She would probably be happy to have him be on equal footing with her.

So Cat decided that the earliest he would be free from his father's intense monitoring that he'll start dutifully investigating the mystery starting with this unforeseen name written at the bottom of the letter that would most definitely one way or another would find its way to Ladybug.