Explanation IV: The Final Piece

As you recall, Socqueline Wang was turned into a copy Scarabella, at the same time, Tikki, the kwami that empowers the ladybug earrings, went missing. You'd probably be surprised if I told you that Monarch had shared Tikki's powers to Socqueline via a new ring he crafted, like he did so with the other miraculous in his possession. However, this time is different, he had to leave the original earrings intact so that no suspicion would arise that he not only knew Scarabella's identity, but that he had access to Scarabella's jewels. I hope it doesn't come as a surprise, but the grimoire had the recipe to create miraculous, just as it has pages dictating how to fix them should the need arise. Even if the Grimoire was missing the details, Monarch would've asked Storyteller to use his abilities to uncover how the Ladybug earrings were made. Let's just say, once Monarch got his hands on Tikki, he used her essence to make a perfect copy of the earrings and then turned the copies into a ring that he could put Tikki's essence in when he needed to. But of course, this may not be sufficient enough, so I shall delve into the details.

I will first explain the details of how Monarch got his hands on Tikki.

As you may be aware, I pointed out in an earlier chapter that Scarabella was wielding an Alliance. If you haven't watched Jubilation or Kwami's choice part 1 & 2 then allow me to inform you that Gabriel or Tomoe added tracking software to the Alliance rings, and this software would notify the admin, Gabriel himself, if someone had done an effort beyond human capability, which would tell him if a miraculous weilder was wearing an alliance while transformed.

After Scarabella returned home during the chapter titled 'Masked Meetings' of this very storyline, Monarch was notified that Alya Césaire had performed feats beyond human capacity.

"Storyteller, tell me if my data is correct." Monarch asked from his hidden base.

Vance opened the storybook and flipped through the pages and checked the latest updates to it. "I can confirm, Monarch, Ladybug has passed on the Miraculous to Alya Césaire, AKA Scarabella."

Monarch nodded. "Perfect, I have access to at least one miraculous." He then thought for a moment. "Wouldn't that little book of yours tell you Cat Noir's identity too?"

"It did, and also Pierre Lefevre deduced it." Vance confirmed. "There's a chance it'll be revealed during the court procedure in a few days, I could spoil it for you now, but I think it would be better to wait, after all, this would be cheating."

"But you just told me about Scarabella, how is that not cheating?"

"Really Monarch, must you ask? You got proof from your Alliance and you called on me to cement it, this is not cheating as you designed the Alliance without magical concern other than their ability to hold onto a kwami's powers during an akumatization."

Monarch nodded his head in agreement, which Vance couldn't have seen as they were communicating through telepathy. "Now that I know her identity, I can take the earrings from her."

"Are you sure that is the smartest idea? Why not play with the heroes?" Vance replied menacingly.

"What do you mean, Storyteller?"

"Well, Monarch." Vance replied. "You have with you the recipe to recreate the miraculous and also the method to assign a kwami to it. Would it not make sense to have others access the power of creation while attacking Paris? Who knows, having the power of creation and luck on their side will make it easier to demask Cat Noir or get his miraculous and you won't have to wait for it to come out in court."

Monarch smiled a malevolent grin. "What a brilliant idea! I shall get to work and I'll have it done in less than three hours."

Monarch searched through the grimoire, he couldn't believe the stupidity of the magician who first created the jewels and brought the God-like kwamis from a plane where nobody could speak to them or see them to the plane of existence that humans have spent so long adapting and evolving, changing the land around them to survive. The originator of the miraculous jewels had not only written down how to repair a damaged miraculous, but also how to create a new one and assign a kwami to it. This was probably because the magician was aware that the concepts he was aware of and found kwamis for may not be all that there is and that he may have run out of time before finding them all, so he left for his followers ways to find new kwamis and produce jewels for them to empower and allow said kwamis to communicate, and now, his generous forethought has become something he'd never imagine.

"Looks like I'll indeed be able to make a new miraculous for precious little Tikki." Monarch announced his discovery.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work!" Vance intoned.

"What if nobody shows up I can give the new power to?" Monarch inquired.

"It's only a matter of time, you must have picked up on the mass anxiety that is constantly growing becuase of our misadventures." Vance added.

"You're right, there is so many dark emotions abound, I could easily akumatize many in a fell swoop if I had the help of Catalyst." Monarch mused. "Unfortunatly, I've lost her faith in me, she won't be helping me any longer."

"You could just enhance your powers with the rooster miraculous, but I suggest not to do that, after all, you're limited to only holding onto 6 powers and that is probably as many as you will be able to send. Besides, the last time you tried that, you almost lost your miraculous."

Monarch nodded. "Your right, best to be patient until I know Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities, that way I am guaranteed to get their jewels. What about Tikki? She will tell her owner or the temporary holder of the miraculous that I had kidnapped her."

"Just erase her memory or make her unable to speak the information, you can stop Nooroo from going a few meters away from you, so, owning the miraculous you could command the kwami it's connected with."

"Smart, very smart."

Monarch absorbed the powers of the rooster, bee and horse and he made himself invisible and waited for Alya to be in her room in her pajamas and then he struck. He stung her and took the ladybug earrings and Tikki came out and was shocked about what she was seeing. "Come, Tikki, we have things to do."

"No! I would never listen to a monster like you!" Tikki shouted.

"Remain quiet, you don't want the others in this household to know that Alya is Scarabella, do you?" Monarch asked.

"You won't get me to bend to your insanity." Tikki remarked in a whisper.

"I'm sorry, but I hold your jewels, and you must obey, now you will be silent!"

Tikki's mouth disappeared and she tried to speak but all that came out was sounds one would make if their mouth was tapped.

"Isn't that better, kwami of creation? Now you can't mess with my plans with a lucky charm, and who knows what else would come into existence if you summoned that power, and what danger it would bring to Paris."

Tikki remained mute, she couldn't reply to Monarch. She scanned the room and saw a notebook and pen and she flew over to them.

"What are you going to do? Leave a message for your old owner? Or perhaps you'd give up such a precious secret to get out of coming with me?"

Tikki tore off the top piece and passed it to Monarch.

"'What do you plan to do?' You have good handwriting for a floating creature, little Tikki, oh don't you worry about that, I'm just going to split your essence between two miraculous. The main one was created by that wizard so many years ago and a fancy new ring which I can use to absorb your essence and send it to another person."

Tikki had no mouth, but you can see it in her eyes, they said 'no! He's not really going to do that… is he?'

Monarch summoned a brand new portal with Kaalki's essence and went into his lair. It took him a few hours to finally create a new version of the ladybug earrings, similar to the old, he then went through the process of attaching Tikki's essence to it. Once he did that, he transformed the copies into a ring.

"Tikki, Nooroo, unify." Monarch announced as he released Tikki from her prison. He became Monarchbug. "Good, the old miraculous still works, Alya won't know what I've done tonight. Divide." Tikki was released from the earrings only to be placed into a cage. "Tikki, your power is now mine!" He announced and the cage came to Monarch and Monarch absorbed the kwami into his newly formed ring. "Lucky charm!" He announced, and some ladybugs appeared above him and formed a pamphlet. It was an advertisement for Wang's art shop. The border of the pamphlet was red with little black spots, while the rest of it retained the original colour. "Storyteller, are you still awake?"

"Thanks to your akuma, I have infinite energy, I haven't felt sleepy since our arrangement." Vance replied.

"Vance, keep it down, I'm trying to sleep." Ryan Quarry from the other side replied.

"Sorry, Q, I'm chatting with Monarch." Vance relayed.

"When are you going to thank him for the digs?" Ryan asked.

"Later, my associate." Vance replied.

"Who are you speaking to?" Monarch inquired.

"Ryan Quarry, he and I were on the same plane, and we were friends before our flight here." Vance added as he walked out into the hallway. He headed upstairs and kicked the door down to the pool area. "May I ask why you choose to contact me at such a late hour?"

"I must ask if someone working at Wang's art shop will gain negative emotions in the future, or if there is something important in their story that will help us." Monarch informed.

"May I ask why?"

"That'll be no issue, Storyteller, I absorbed Tikki into a ring to make sure that both the original miraculous and the copy I made of it work as intended, the ring of creation gave me a lucky charm that gave me a pamphlet of the store I mentioned. These are always clues on how to win, so there must be a reason why I got that."

"Alright, but you must try and limit these requests, not that changing the information inside my storybook is that hard, but I would prefer to keep that at a minimum."

"Ladybug's trial is no less than a few days away, I don't think there'd be many more opportunities for me to ask for you to change the subject of your magical noval, but remember, I'm in charge here, I can take away your power if I'm not satisfied with you."

"Fair enough, book of tales, come to me." Vance demanded, and the book of tales came flying to him. "That's probably a broken window I'll never explain. Oh, book of tales, show me the future of those working inside Wang's art shop."

The book's title swapped to 'Wang's Art Shop.' Vance opened it and scanned through it. "Your lucky charm sure is amusing." Vance informed Monarch after a brief skimming.

"What's so amusing about it?" Monarch replied with a somewhat confused tone.

"Book, show me more about this 'Socqueline Wang' and her tenure as a Ladybug copycat!" Vance commanded. The title of the book changed to 'Adventures of Socqueline Wang; Hero in Disguise.'

"Did I hear you right? Mlle Wang is a Ladybug copycat." Monarch asked.

"According to this new stuff, she's been taking action in a Ladybug cosplay for months without notice of the original, and looking at the cover art, she is quite similar to how the real Ladybug looks, same hair colour, same blue eyes, a little taller, and the pigtails are a little longer, and likely, she may not even sound the same as the original." Vance explained.

"She sounds like the perfect person to assign these new powers to." Monarch was practically salivating. "Will she be angry enough to be akumatise in the future?"

"She will have an encounter with Scarabella where they'd talk about Socqueline being a fake weilder, this will upset Socqueline, and give her pause to think, but the reaction in writing doesn't appear to be strong enough to make her an akuma victim, but then again, whenever has a book been 1:1 with reality?"

"Looks like I will still need your help, Storyteller, make her mad enough for me to akumatise her with your power."

"It will be done, but only when the events take place in reality, will that do?"

"I've been this patient, I can wait a tad longer."

Vance nodded, he went back to his room and went to bed.

The day came when Scarabella saw Socqueline Wang performing her heroics while wearing that Ladybug cosplay. Storyteller, from a distance, was watching, not with images, but by reading the story as it was repeated in writing, word for word, like a live replay. He could read it as fast as it happened, the language was detailed, giving him immersion that only a few authors could pull off.

Soon, Storyteller read as Socqueline walked into the storage room, the words Scarabella told her working around in her brain, she was trying to figure out what to do next. She was starting to see a way out, a way to see Scarabella's words in a new light. Storyteller wasn't going to have that, Monarch had already decided that Socqueline would be his next victim, so he had to do what he needed to ensure that she would be. He changed the ongoing story and Socqueline felt this sudden burst of anger, her thoughts went from 'I think I can be a hero even without a mask' to 'how dare she think she knows best? She's just a substitute!'

Monarch felt the newfound anger. "Thank you Storyteller, for this is just what I needed to have Socqueline Wang become my next villain."

"Just a swish of the pen, now hurry up before she gets her senses." Storyteller relayed.

"Kaalki, Trixx, Orikko, Pollen, your powers are now mine!" Monarch announced and absorbed their essences. He made himself invisible and teleported to Alya's house and she was already there, he froze her with venom and then he got Tikki from her pouch. "Tikki, your power is now mine!" He announced, and Tikki was absorbed into the ladybug ring. He then opened the top of his staff where a megakuma was waiting. "Voyage, Megakuma, we've got work to do." He then teleported back to his lair as the akuma flew into Socqueline's glasses.

"Monarch? Is that you?" Socqueline asked.

"It is I, I will help you show Ladybug and her substitute that you are indeed good enough to be a masked vigelantte on the street." Monarch remarked.

"I will show that stuck up second fiddle that I am worthy of being a hero." Socqueline relayed, her anger through the roof.

"Fakebella, you will become a copy of Scarabella so that only the real one will see your capacity once and for all, I shall give you a villain to battle, and at the end, you will claim Cat Noir's miraculous for me. Do we have a deal?"

"No problem Monarch."

"To complete the deception, I am sending you the essence of the miraculous of creation." Monarch remarked.

Before Monarch could transfer the power, Socqueline, being curious, asked: "You have the miraculous of the ladybug? I had no idea."

"No, I left the miraculous with Scarabella, I only took her kwami."

Socqueline was unaware about the alliances and Monarch's rings. She had no clue that sharing the powers to her would mean Scarabella couldn't appear, but she guessed that because Monarch had Tikki, it meant that Scarabella may not show, and that's why the deal was only to get Cat's miraculous.

"Send me the power, and I'll ensure you'll get that ring by the end of the day." Fakebella demanded.

"Transfer." Monarch announced and sent the essence of creation to Socqueline.

You already know what happened next. Monarch combined the powers of illusion and pretention to make Mr Pigeon reappear and be felt as a real villain.

Fakebella's ruse was seen through and Tikki appeared in the cage behind Monarch after her defeat. Monarch fed the poor creature and released her. "You will not speak of this to your owner."

"But—" Tikki began.

"Do you want to be put in more pain than a mortal could survive?" Monarch threatened.

Tikki remained silent. "Sorry." She said in a whisper. "I will not say a word."

"I place this order on you, if you break that promise then my prior threat will come true." Monarch relayed.

"You're a real monster, what would your son say about this if he found out? Gabriel Agreste?" Tikki asked.

"He will never know, now begone, also, I prevent you from telling anyone my identity." Monarch relayed.

Tikki flew away and arrived back into Alya's arms. Marinette was relieved to see her, but that you knew already.

So, at last, all the backstory is done, you now understand what happened in the background, and now that no more questions are left to be answered, it is time for the tale to come to its conclusion.