Trail III: Monarch's Involvment

The audio of the court room was filled with disbelief and uncertainty. "If we could calm down, please?" Alian Dubois announced; his voice heavy with both respect and discipline. The court calmed quickly. "Thank you, Madame Durand, it appears that your first major argument has been qualed and I don't like where this is heading for you side, but I'll remain impatial."

"As will I." Luc added. "But, Ladybug looks more guilty."

Sophie waited for Luc to add 'than before,' but she then realised that what he said was all that was going to come out of him. Luc has shown again and again that he was a man of few words and Sophie felt silly to expect more from the young judge.

"Madame Durand, it's time to continue with the cross-examanation of the record, don't you think?" Isabelle added with her sweet voice. "If you have nothing further, you should ask to begin your closing statement."

Sophie nodded. "How about this? Just now, the prosecution brought up Vance Lindon's interpretation of the story. I'm not sure we can trust this information as it came from a party outside of the law."

"Objection!" François interjected. "As I've established, I was the one who got that information. Even though the info was given by a civilian, it is just acceptable as info from the police as someone in law, me, has accepted it."

"Substained." Alain remarked. "We've already gone through this, and you've yet to come up with a good rebuttal against the theory."

"That's true." Sophie added with one of her hands to her chin in thought. "However, one of the things pointed out is that the major active villain in Paris right now, that is Monarch, is mentioned in Vance's theory. Meaning that there is a pluasability that he committed the crime. After all, the victim hasn't been proven to be fake yet."

François laughed at this. "How droll. First, let's discuss the body." He turned through the pages of the record. "The coroner took samples from blood and tissue, he also took her prints, and scanned her jaw and bones. Everything that could be matched did match."

"Objection!" Sophie said as quickly as a whip. "The record shows that there is no other confirmation, and now you're saying that a doctor did get dental records and X-rays?"

"I said that all that could be matched did match. There were no other dental records or X-rays related to Lila Rossi to match the samples against." François added. "If there were, wouldn't it be clearly written in the record?"

"Objection overruled." Luc added. "If something was to be found, it would have been found."

"Luc is correct," Isabelle added. "A week has passed since the crime occured, I expect we have everything necessary for the record."

François cleared his throat. "If I may continue, I still have another point to make."

"By all means." Alian added.

"My second point, which I would have elucidated if it weren't for Sophie being too quick to the buzzer, is about Monarch himself. Now, near the end of the record, we have all of Monarch's victims, when they were akumatised, how many times they transformed into villains-of-the-week, and of course the plans that were associated with them." François added.

"Yes, I've seen that." Sophie interjected. "What is your point?"

"Let's look at Monarch's most prevelant plans. First is Vulpina, a fake heroine designed to create illusions and use those to catch Ladybug, and can you guess which individual was akumatised into that fiend?"

Sophie gasped in revelation. "Lila Rossi!"

"Correct, the victim." François added with a smirk. "Following that, the next major villains were Queen Wasp, Style Queen and Malediktator. All powerful in their own right, and Style Queen came closest to success during that time frame. After they were defeated, the next major event was the scarlet army created by Scarlet Moth. He was able to akumatise many due to an event he had created by Vulpina."

"The fake battle between Darkbug and Cat Noir." Sophie noted.

"Hold it!" Isabelle interjected. "There is no mention anywhere in the record that the illusion of the akumatised Ladybug was known as Darkbug."

"That's true, your honor, but I thought it would be a good idea to at least give her a name so we have something to call her from here on out." Sophie explained.

"Oh?" Isabelle relayed with her sweet voice. "That sounds like a good idea, I'll allow it."

"As will I." Luc remarked.

"Three for three." Alain relayed. "The record will show that the Ladybug in the fake battle between her and Cat Noir in Vulpina's illusion will hereby and forevermore be dubbed 'Darkbug,' are there any objections to this?"

"The name could have been better, but it's still good nonetheless." François conceded. "Besides, it will save time, this way I won't have to refer to her as 'the illusion of an akumatised Ladybug' if she comes into conversation again."

"No objections heard, then the record will be adjusted later to reflect this new agreed decision." Alain relayed and banged his gavel to make it official.

"Now, if I may proceed, my argument has been left incomplete." François added.

"By all means." Luc announced.

"Thank you, Judge Boucher. As I was saying, Monarch used Vulpina to create a fake battle between Darkbug and Cat Noir. Darkbug won and fear was thick throughout Paris allowing Monarch to akumatise multiple people." François added.

"Ah yes." Isabelle added. She was appearing more the spokesperson of the courtroom, as she was the judge who'd spoken the most in the trial thus far. "The record mentions a villian known as Catalyst. She was the one who enabled the multiple akumas, correct?"

"Insightful as always, Judge Leroy." François added with a bow. His handkerchief remained stationary this time, he had indeed secured it since it fell out in the prior chapter.

Isabelle laughed girlishly with a small blush. "Thanks, however, I am curious as to how this villain came to knowledge, the record shows that Ladybug, I mean Marinette, never told us about 'Catalyst' and there is nothing that shows she was aware of it."

Sophie was aghast. A judge, and not her, pointed out what she was about to say. Well, she couldn't complain, a case is easier when a judge does your job for you.

"Ah, so you've noticed that? Go to later and you will see how I got that information." François instructed.

Everyone with a copy of the record excluding François flipped through the record. "Ah, here it is!" Isabelle announced. Then her face turned to shock. "Oh, my! It says here that you were visited upon by Monarch?"

"Indeed I was." François added. "He was just a hologram, however."

"The record reflects it." Luc added. "How did you know?"

"The way most would if they saw Monarch." François added with a brave face.

"By running for the hills?" Sophie interjected with comedic timing.

"My apologies, I mean the way most officers would." François corrected.

"Don't tell me you ran toward him to attack him?" Sophie added with a cold sweat visable on her brow.

"I don't think it was embarrassing to at least try." François admitted.

There were varios reactions from the audience of the Cour D'assisses. Some people seemed to be experiencing second-hand embarrassment, some were shaking their heads like Sophie was doing, and some were laughing at François' actions.

"What would be embarrassing would be if he decked me." François concluded.

"You ran through him, and that's how you knew he was a hologram." Sophie added.

"It's all in the record. If you could just be literate once in your life and read it all, then you'd be aware of what I'm saying." François added with a smug smile.

"Prosecuter Moreau!" Alain announced at full volume, which silenced all the vocalisations from the courtroom. "You've been warned once before about your venomous remarks, please try to refrain from further insulting the defence."

François broke out into a sweat and wiped his brow with his handkerchief. "Yes, your honor, I'll try avoiding it in future."

"Thank you for the save, your honor." Sophie added.

"The same goes for you, Madame Durand, just like Monseiur Moreau, we, the court, do not want to hear you playing the games he has been playing." Alain added.

Sophie nodded. "Yes, your honor."

Again silence was upon the courtroom again.

"So," Sophie continued. "It was a hologram you spotted, and you knew this because you attempted to attack Monarch to what… arrest him? I guess he was smilling smugly during that."

"I guess I forgot to add many details to the record about it." François added. "If I did, the record would probably be reaching the ceiling. But yes, I did want to attempt an arrest on the master villian as he has caused so much damage over his tenure. I will also confirm that he smiled smuggly as he ran toward him, but I didn't know the reason why until I went through him."

"According to this he combined the power of the fox and rooster to achieve the hologram." Sophie continued tapping pages of the record.

"That was what he said, and why would he lie?" Fraçois relayed.

Sophie nodded. "Yes, there doesn't seem to be any advantage if he lied. He informed you of Catalyst at that time and confirmed the plans that Ladybug noted?"

"He also added details, it took up half the afternoon, and my secretary was worried when I had been out of touch for three hours or so." François confirmed.

"This Catalyst, they've only shown up twice, and once she almost got Marinette akumatised, and we know that if you get one hero, it's only a matter of time before you get the second." Sophie added. "Mind telling us why the Akumatisation failed on Marinette that time? Also, the fact that this akuma attack was just after she'd been expelled by Lila Rossi's lies is an important factor."

"Monarch didn't tell me the identity of Catalyst, that appeared to be a secret he was willing to take to the grave, but he mentioned that the civilian behind the Catalyst mask was deathly ill and her disease flaired up during the second Scarlet Moth attack, and due to that, Monarch decided that the attack had to be called off and all the people who absorbed one of those red butterflies soon turned back into their civilian selves." François confirmed.

"So, this is how all Monarch's attacks were finally catalouged, because he came to confirm them." Sophie noted.

"You are finally getting it, Madame Durand." François added. "But I tire of this back and forth. I will now make the point that I wanted to from the beginning. Now that the court understands that Monarch's list of villians have been confirmed by the antagonist himself, I would like to infer that none of the plans in his repertoire have been anywhere near as complex as the plot laid before us. But do you know who could manage this plot? That's right, the defendant herself!"

The court was in an uproar again. Fear, anxiety, worry, displeasure and so much more was quite apparent, and the longer Sophie remained stunned the more the atmosphere in the courtroom darkened. After a minute Sophie took action. "Objection!" She shouted and this made people quieter but the murmurs continued. "What about Risk and Strike Back? Ladybug lost her yo-yo and the miraculous from the mother box during that time, if it weren't for either of them, Monarch may still be Shadow Moth, or maybe he'd just have given up!"

"Objection!" François rebutted. "That's not the whole story and you know it! Yes Shadow Moth created Risk and Strike Back for the purpose of a win and that purpose was fulfilled, but it was because Félix Fathom was in town that Ladybug entrusted him with the miraculous of the dog thinking he was Adrien Agreste. If she'd given the miraculous to any other, then Monarch would not have the miraculous now. It was pure coincidence that the right person for Monarch to get those miraculous happened to be there."

"Objection!" Sophie added. "Félix came to give Adrien freedom after Félix saw Adrien upset on the news when Adrien was informed that he had to travel the world with the victim, Lila Rossi. He made himself be there!"

"Objection!" François countered. "Even so, it was Ladybug that mistook one for the other and she had no prior knowledge Félix was in town, so it was still a coincidence."

"But was it?" Sophie interjected. "The record shows the true identities of both Ladybug and Cat Noir as Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste…" At this point there were collective gasps from everyone in the courtroom. There were even two people who said: 'What!' and those two were Marinette and Cat Noir who was transformed and wearing a suit and tie over his costume. "It was clear to me that Marinette had a crush on Adrien and that's why she chose him."

Marinette came to the middle of the courtroom. "Sophie! What are you doing! That's not what I said on record!" Marinette intervened.

"Mademoselle Dupain-Cheng, please return to your seat and let your representative speak for you." Alain forewarned. Marinette obeyed with slumped shoulders. "As for you, Sophie, we will not allow conjecture, please stick to what is in the record before we penalize you."

Sophie did some meditation breathing exercises. "My appologise. The real reason Marinette thought she could trust Félix was due to one factor, and one factor alone, and it wasn't because of love."

"Please, go on." Alain added.

"Risk infected all in Paris to take risks and according to testimonials from Alya Césaire, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Monarch in the record, Risk's power only worked on people who hear his song but also if they have his mark on their nape. A frog mark visible to all, you must have noticed it on the rear of people's necks when you were indulging in risks, your honors and members of the jury." Sophie pointed out. "I noticed them too, but I wasn't aware that they were why I was taking risks until today."

"It's true." Luc added.

"Same here." Isabelle conceded. "So that's why I was doing all the silly things I would never have done otherwise. Thank goodness Ladybug fixed everything, if I were a cat, I would have lost all nine of my lives."

'That's concerning.' Sophie thought. "Félix, disguised as Adrien, had no mark seeing as he wasn't in Paris until after Risk had marked everyone and only those in Paris that night would have been marked. Ladybug tried to stop him from leaving Paris on his trip around the world, and the reasoning she gave at the time was that his departure could've opened a void of sadness in Paris, but it gave her the oppertunity to see that no mark existed on the back of his neck. Her crush made her notice the lack of a mark and that lack of a mark led to Félix getting the dog miraculous and all the others afterward." Sophie concluded.

"Are you done getting all the wind out of your sails, Sophie Durand?" François asked. Sophie knew that it wasn't a good sign that François was using her first and last name, as she knows from experience when he does that, it means you've exhausted his patience and that he cares little about the shenanigans you've pulled up until the moment he says your first and last name together.

"What? Don't tell me you still object?" Sophie asked.

"Sophie, Sophie, Sophie, it is you who is yet to make a valid point." François spoke calmly. Yet another red flag, François is cocky, but when he's not, that's when things can get dicey and it puts a bit of fear in Sophie's heart.

"I think I have, it's not Monarch's fault his plan succeeded." Sophie reiterated.

"But, didn't you know Sophie Durand? That's the point I was making from the beginning." François added.

"W-what?" Sophie stuttered. She had no idea that this lowered Marinette's confidence in her.

"Sophie Durand, do you know the reason we've been circling through this argument? Each step you've been solidifying my inference without you even realising it. Monarch has come up with stellar plans before, and some have come close to succeeding, yet Ladybug's luck got in the way each time. The only way to succeed is if Monarch could counter it, and not a single plan in his playbook has done that, proving that he hadn't thought of a plan to dismiss the luck factor. The plot in action does dismiss Ladybug's luck because this trial has demasked her and Cat Noir. What has happened is far beyond the brilliance of Monarch. Thus I must conclude that he wasn't behind any part of it. But Ladybug, via her plan to defeat Backwarder, which is included in the record, has shown that she had the brilliance of coming up with a plot that makes Monarch seem suspicious, but unfortunately, brilliant writer Vance Lindon saw through her deception and helped our record be stronger for a conviction of the masked vigilante than ever before. So you see, Sophie Durand, all you've done is solidify Monarch's innocence!" François bowed to add insult to injury.

"Noooo!" Sophie screamed painfully. She thought she was onto something, but she was falling into a pit trap without even knowing there were spikes at the bottom waiting to skewer her.

Another bout of shouts came from the audience. More people felt deceived by Ladybug. Trust was falling for her, and at an extremely steep rate. It wouldn't be long until all people in Paris began to believe that Ladybug was guilty. Even Sophie was beginning to have doubts about this case.

"Madame Durand. I highly suggest we begin our closing statements, this farce has gone on long enough, don't you think?" François asked. The slimy fellow had her wrapped around her finger and she knew conceding here would mean the end. She had to counter somehow.

She settled down and did some deep breathing. She shook her head. "Monsier Moreau, don't count your eggs before they hatch, I think there may still be a way Monarch is involved."

"We've been through this Sophie Durand. He couldn't have planned this." François added in a snarky tone.

"Maybe he couldn't but what if this isn't his plan, and he akumatised the person who did plan it?" Sophie asked.

"You are teetering on the edge conjecture again." François added with a warning tone.

"Isn't it possible that someone asked to be akumatised?" Sophie inquired.

François wanted to rebut, but he couldn't. "It is, and the record shows it. Chloé Bourgeois did accept an akuma from Monarch when she became Miracle Queen, so I suppose I can't deny the possibility as it is in the record."

"Since the possibility is proven, we can say that someone other than Monarch came up with this plot and Monarch akumatised them to make the plot possible." Sophie added.

"But, even so, in order to keep the plot going, that person must remain akumatised, even now." François noted. "But that can't be true, Mr Pigeon was akumatised three days ago!"

"Prosecuter Moreau." Sophie said with a smile. "Don't tell me you didn't read the record thoroughly like you've been asking us to do. There is a testimonial from Xavier Ramier saying he wasn't akumatised and it was Socqueline Wang that was akumatised. Since you were so kind to add Monarch's hologram to the record, then we can also say that what we saw of Xavier Ramier was also the combination of the fox and rooster, if not the creation of the person akumatised to make it look like Lila Rossi was murdered."

Once again murmurs fell about the courtroom, this time in favor of Ladybug. Sophie was tipping the scales back at last.

"Still, Monarch can't akumatise two people at once." François added. "He could only do so as Scarlet Moth and because of Catalyst's illness they won't be able to assist in that transformation. Besides, you have yet to show if someone is still akumatised via the record, so how do we know its true?"

"That's because it would be impossible to do so… but if there is an akumatised villain about, then there is only one way guaranteed to reveal them!" Sophie added. "A lucky charm."

"Poposterious!" François rebutted. "Lucky charms only provide part of the solution and not the whole, it says so in the grimoire."

"I think it's worth a shot." Isabelle interjected.

"As do I," Luc added. "But you better not disappoint."

"As head, I agree with my associates." Alain added. "There are no rules in law about the miraculous and we have been flying blind regarding them, however, if Sophie's stance is correct and the only way to prove it is via a lucky charm, then I see no reason to deny her the chance. Any objections, François?"

"Your honor, really?" François added.

"That didn't sound like a real objection. So, now it is decided, this court will recess for half-an-hour, in which time Marinette will contact Scarabella to summon a lucky charm in this courtroom. Sophie will be the first to investigate it to infer its meaning, and if the lucky charm leads to an akumatised victim, then we may have to concede that the record was made in bad faith, until then, court is adjorned." Alain banged his gavel.

Sophie didn't know why, but that single bang was the loudest one emitted from the gavel that she thought during the trial. Was it ominous, or hopeful, she couldn't tell for sure, but what she was just glad about is that the war was still ongoing, and as long as she could keep it up, then Paris would get to keep their favorite heroine.

Sophie survived François' pit trap and has come out smelling of roses, if it had been any other defence attorney, who knows? It may have been the end of Ladybug's saga. But there was still more battle to fight, this was nowhere close to over!