Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

[I feel like this should be a Damianette story or just platonic relationship after Jon got aged-up to seventeen and Damian wanted a friend his age but doesn’t want to admit it.]

So basically there is this big bad in Gotham using magic that Batman was fighting at the time and enlisted John Constantine to help out.

John realises that the villain is using a Miraculous.

“Oh. I think I know how he gets his powers. And lucky for you, Bats, I know an expert on this special brand of magic.”

And he did the smart thing and called up Marinette who at the time was already Guardian and was looking for other lost Miraculouses like in the Treasure Hunter AU I wrote.

He calls her at a really bad time. She was in the process of being chased by the guardians of the place. Monsters and evil spirits.

“Hello, Dad. What do you need and can you do it quickly?”

“Hey, sweetheart, it’s me. How is my little cupcake up to these days?”

“You called at a bad time.” Gunshots.

“WAS THAT A GUN I HEARD? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, YOUNG LADY?!”

“Somewhere in Japan. Getting a Miraculous. And why can’t you call me to check in on me and not ask me to help you with whatever mess you got yourself into.” More gunshots sounds and it was telling that Marinette was using a gun.

“Where did you get a gun? And don’t you have school?”

“It’s summer break. Don’t worry Maman and Papa know. Well, the fact that I am in Japan anyways.” Marinette sounded a little out of breath. Roaring and horrifying sounds at the other end. “Can we do this later?”

“As it happens, there is a villain going around Gotham with what I think is a Miraculous.”

Swears on the other end.

“Oi. Watch your fucking language, young lady.”

“How about a No and move the fuck back, old man. I am coming over right now.”

“Old man? I am not old-” as a magic blue portal opens up in the Bat Cave.

And a red Chinese dragon comes out with someone riding it.

Its rider was a black-haired girl. She had a trench coat similar to Constantine's. I imagine her with a fedora. Like Carmen Sandiego style but not red. Sometimes red but only when she has to steal it from a museum or high security places and she leaves a name card with the name Carmen Sandiego. A sword strapped to her back and a dagger to her thigh.

She had a gun in her hand which she used to shoot the monsters as it was halfway through the portal and yelled out the spell to close it.

“Brilliant entrance but you are in lots of trouble, little lady. What were you thinking about going to another country unsupervised? And isn’t there still a butterfly problem in Paris?”

“One, I wasn’t unsupervised. I had Tikki, a billion years old being and a sort of god. Two.Well, it got boring trying to track Hawk-bitch down. And I found this legend about a guy with a Miraculous who disappeared in the temple and thought hey, more miraculous could mean another edge to defeating Moth-man.”

More bickering and John grounding Marinette who was acting very nonchalant about it.

Okay, at this point, I should say that Batman and Robin are in the background trying to make some sense.

Batman is surprised to find out that Constantine has a daughter who is also involved in magic like her Father but an apparently more specialized kind called the Miraculous. He is a little miffed that he didn’t know about John having a daughter. He did consider it weird at first that she had a slight french accent unlike her father’s Liverpool accent although she pronounced some words like he does.

He also connected some dots that she is also the Parisian heroine, Lady Rouge who Wonder Woman introduced to the League a while back and had declined to join the Young Justice or Teen Titans until everything in Paris was resolved.

Damian on the other hand was suspicious of the new arrival and came to the same conclusion as his father about the daughter thing.

Batman after a few minutes, clears his throat.

The Constantines stop arguing.

“Bonjour. Batman. Robin. Pleasure to meet you. I am Mari Constantine and yes, I am this homeless looking man’s brilliant daughter.” “Hey”

“Well, Mari. Your father thinks you can help us with this new criminal turning Gotham upside down. Literally in some cases. He said that you might be able to help us.” Batman said as he pulled up zoomed in picture of the Miraculous.

Mari looks through the Miraculous grimoire and tells them all about it and power-ups, basically the most effective thing to defeat the guy is to get the Miraculous off them. Plus a spell that would make the Miraculous ineffective if casted within a certain radius of it.

“Thank you for the information, Mari. Constantine, let’s go.”

Mari made to follow them.

“You young lady are grounded and staying here.”

“I don’t need another supervillain using the Miraculous which are my responsibility as Guardian to retrieve them for their own misuse and wreaking havoc on the city. And what if there is an akuma in Paris? I can’t go there if I am grounded in the Batcave although it is a cool place to hang out.”

“You can portal back to Paris but you are not going to follow me. Understood?”

“yes. crystal”

“Good. After me and Batsy get the Miraculous, you can do your Guardian duties.”

Damian snickers. Until Batman cut his mood short, “You are staying behind too. Robin.”

“But Father, why? I am much more capable than Constantine.”

“Hey!” Both father and daughter.

Damian is staying behind too because of the Miraculous power or other reasons and keeps an eye on Mari.

Damian stays behind and there were some protests about mari mad about having a babysitter and Damian doesn’t want to be a babysitter. Despite the two of them being around the same age.

“I got an eye on you so no funny business.”

“Okay, Dad, I am not going to have sex with Robin and I am also not a slut. Unlike you.” Mari said with a shit- eating grin. Robin definitely didn’t blush.

“I hate you sometimes.”

“I love you too, Dad. Go save the world. Byee.”

John eyes her suspiciously because she is not one to give up that easily usually.

He casts a spell to watch her as they leave. and which she totally knew about.

“So...I have one question.”

“Tt, ask and don’t bother me anymore.”

“Is Batman Bruce Wayne?”

Damian looks up, totally caught off guard.

“I am going to take that as a yes.”

Puts sword at her neck. “How did you find out?!”

“Opened up Google Maps and saw that we are under Wayne Manor. Connected the dots. Also I already knew when Dad made a bet with me once to find out Batman’s secret identity but he never did confirm it for me. And can you please not tell your father about this? I don’t feel like being interrogated by the Bat in the future yet.”

“Father must know about this.”

“I saw you looking at Scarlet here. An animal lover then? You can give her some belly rubs. She deserves it after helping me outrun those monsters.”

His silence was brought. To pet a dragon.

One thing after another and he ends up bringing out his pets-Jerry the turkey, Goliath the dragon-bat, Titus- and her introducing him to her other pets like a hellhound, griffin and other mythical creatures who mostly roam free but come to her when she calls for them and also the kwamis, at least the ones who came with her.

After 30 mins have passed, “So Robin how do you feel about disobeying our fathers?”

“Depends. Are we going after the (villain's name) ?”
“Yes.”

“I am in.”

Awesome montage of them getting rid of the spell John casted and flying out of the Batcave on their respective giant flying pets to the villain’s base.

Meanwhile, their fathers are not doing so well and are trapped in a death trap. John can’t say the spell because the villain made him unable to talk.

“At least, the kids are staying put.”

Cut to Damian and Mari jumping off their pets and onto the roof. Taking out the guards posted there and going into the building all sneakily and also taking out the guards that come their way.

They dropped into the room where their fathers and the villain is.

“Why am I not surprised?”

Villain starts an evil monologue about his mastermind plan to which Damian cuts it short by trying to cut him down with his katana. Mari goes to deactivate the death trap.

They are evenly matched with Damian’s training and the Miraculous.

Mari steps in as Damian was about to be killed. Taps on the shoulder of the villain and when he turns around, gives an awesome right hook that knocks him out.

Takes away the Miraculous and curses him. Wiped the dude’s memories of it.

“When I said stay in the Batcave, I meant stay behind at the Batcave. What point of being grounded, don’t you understand?”

“You mean, Oh, Mari, light of my life, my wonderful daughter, thank you for saving my ass. You are the best.’ by that, right?”

Mari and Damian exchanged numbers and email addresses.

As she was about to leave the Batcave, “It’s been nice meeting you, Mr. Wayne.” and leaves with a wink.

John ‘ungrounds’ her for the look on Batman’s face.

After this, Marinette and Damian become friends who bitch and vent to each other about their alter egos and various villains of their respective cities. (In codes, just in case) They also share updates about their pets and love of drawings.

They have that type of friendship where they trade favors. Mari calls Damian to Paris sometimes to help out with the akuma of the day and Damian sometimes calls her in when Bruce doesn’t let him go investigate a case so he can sneak out by magical means or as back up for when his brothers were too annoying to deal with.

It’s summer break so no missing school.

John and Bruce are aware of their friendship and some of the shenanigans the pair gets into behind their back.

Chapter Text

John and Sabine first met when the latter was still in college somewhere in France. John was tracking down a demonic entity which was targeting Sabine for some reason and she was the next target.

John saved her life and exorcized the demon. There was a heat of the moment thing and they had a one-night stand. There were a few more flings and hook-ups after that night.

And nine months later, Marinette Cheryl Cheng-Constantine was born.

When Sabine first found out, she called John to come over and he thought that it was a call for another hook-up and was very surprised to find out that it was not and that he was going to be a father.

They both like each other but do not want to be in a relationship together so they both remained as friends and John agreed after some strong-arming at the very least to meet his daughter before he goes to do his job.

And pay for child support.

And help Sabine during her pregnancy.

Pregnant Sabine was someone you don’t want to mess with. And John has never met a demon or anyone scarier than her.

He was at first not into meeting his child and there was a self-pity party he threw himself with how the child was going to live a bad life because he was the dad and how he destroyed every good thing in his life.

That’s why he is going to meet the baby once and leave maybe a letter and the occasional birthday present and stay out of their life. Forever.

The day Marinette was born and it took one look into her eyes for the HellBlazer to fall under the spell and all of his plans to stay out of her life to burn away.

At first, he tried. He really tried but he couldn’t do it.

Lasted 4 months before he came back, wanting to place protection spells on her and sigils around the house to keep away the forces of Heaven and Hell and other entities so they won’t use her against him as a bargaining chip.

Sabine calls him to babysit. He could have refused and Sabine would have easily found a babysitter. He moans and whines about how he is a great mage and not a bloody babysitter. Sabine retorts that it is actually called parenting since he is Marinette’s father. He grumbles but in the end, agrees.

The great John Constantine is wrapped around the little girl’s finger.

He was around for some of Marinette’s firsts. Her first word was “John”.

 It made him cry. He wasn’t a good man and he doesn’t deserve someone this precious. His daughter doesn’t deserve someone like him as a father but fate made it that way and what can you do about it.

After an exhausting week of doing the usual and coming back from Hell, he saw that Sabine had sent him a video. It was Marinette taking her first steps.

Chas swears that in all the years that he has known John Constantine he has never seen the man look so happy.

When Tom came into the picture, John was there to take care of a toddler Marinette while Tom and Sabine went on dates.

Insert John threatening a much bigger Tom while holding a baby Marinette with wide eyes and hugging a teddy bear with the same coat as John’s. (It was something Sabine brought on a whim and to tease John when he came around.)

Tom is supportive and treats Marinette like his own flesh and blood.

John resolved to leave for good now that Tom would be there to be a father figure for Marinette.

That plan fell into the drain the moment he was going to leave for what was supposed to be the last time before Sabine pulled him back and knocked some sense into him.

His face was a big giveaway. Sabine knows that despite his claims of being a terrible father for Marinette, he was a good one and damnit she was going to make sure that Marinette would get to know her actual father.

Tom later made an awkward talk with John about how he was not going to replace John’s role as Marinette’s father.

Marinette was the flower girl at Tom and Sabine’s wedding. John was there too.

During bedtime, John would read her stories and use his magic to make it come to life. Although he would feel a little drained afterwards, it was worth it to see her smile.

Sometimes he told stories about his tamer adventures. ( After cutting out some of the inappropriate bits )

When Marinette was about 5 or 6, Sabine was out on an errand and Tom was at home with Mari and helping her with her homework. There was a crash downstairs at the bakery. Tom went down to check it out to find John lying on the ground.

With a weak cough, he said, “Close the door. Close it.” Before losing consciousness

Tom did before a man with pitch black eyes slammed against it.

Thankfully John had installed heavy wards around the bakery when it first opened.

They held against the demon on John’s tail. Tom brought John inside and unsure of what to do, grabbed a rolling pin on the counter.

The man outside started pounding on the glass door and every time his hands touched the door, light glowed outwards, showing the invisible magic barrier around the bakery. Sparks and steams fizzled with every pound.

Despite the reddening and burns of his hands, the not-human didn’t slow down.

“ʝօɦռ....ʏօʊ ӄռօա ȶɦǟȶ ɨȶ'ֆ օռʟʏ ǟ ʍǟȶȶɛʀ օʄ ȶɨʍɛ ɮɛʄօʀɛ ɨ ɮʀɛǟӄ ȶɦʀօʊɢɦ ȶɦɛֆɛ աǟʀɖֆ. օռƈɛ ɨ ɢɛȶ ʏօʊ,” He laughs, the sound sends chills down the large man’s spine , “ȶɦɛʀɛ ǟʀɛ ֆօ ʍǟռʏ ȶɦɨռɢֆ ɨ ɦǟʋɛ քʟǟռռɛɖ ʄօʀ ʏօʊ.”

Tom knew that Marinette’s father was a con man. Come on, Master and Practitioner of the Dark Arts and Occult. But he was a good father nonetheless despite all his flaws and Sabine liked him enough so that was good enough for him.

Before today, magic was just the sleight of hands and use of fancy tools to sell the illusions. Now, with a could-be-a-demon knocking on his door to get to the father of the girl he sees as his daughter, he’s not so sure.

“Tom? Qu'est-ce qui se passe? (What’s going on?)” A little voice came from the stairs, “Dad!” Marinette padded across the floor to the body of her passed out father.

She shook him awake and there were a few soft slaps to the face.

“Dad, what’s happened?”

John mumbles, “Demon…. possessing some rich guy….. Exorcism…. Doesn’t like me very much…Don’t worry...wards going to hold.”

John manages to stand before falling down and Tom catches him before he hits the floor. He has a concussion. Tom turns to Marinette, “Go, Hide and don’t come out until It’s safe.” which she did

Unfortunately, a while later, Sabine returns from her night out and the demon upon seeing Sabine. “ɛӼƈɛʟʟɛռȶ..”

The demon possessed Sabine and the previously possessed dude hit the sidewalk with a thud.

“ ɨռȶɛʀɛֆȶɨռɢ.... ” The voice coming out of Sabine didn’t sound like her mother which scared Marinette a lot. “ օքɛռ ȶɦɨֆ ɖօօʀ օʀ,” the demon pulled a knife out of thin air, ,“ȶɦɨֆ ɮօɖʏ ɢɛȶֆ ɨȶ.”

Tom hesitated until the demon put the knife on Sabine’s neck and put enough force for a thin line of blood to be shown.

He opens the door and the demon knocks him out. Stepping over his unconscious body and looking down on it, “ʄօʀ ȶɦǟȶ, ɨ ǟʍ ɢօɨռɢ ȶօ ʟɛȶ ʏօʊ ʟɨʋɛ ʊռȶɨʟ ɨ ǟʍ ɖօռɛ աɨȶɦ ʝօɦռ, օʄ ƈօʊʀֆɛ.” and cackles. The sound was so wrong and unnerving and little Marinette tried very hard for her sobs not to be heard.

Too bad the demon had super hearing. “Come out, my little blossom. Maman is home. Why don’t you come out and give me a hug?”

It sounded so much like her mother and she nearly believed that it was her mother and not some entity in control of her body.

But she knew better from John’s stories of dealing with demons and how they would use the voice of loved ones to lure them out and into a trap. ( Definitely not something one should tell as a bedtime story but Marinette was very different and had an unconventional childhood with John Constantine as her father. )

Wait...she got struck with an idea but she wasn’t sure if it would work.

Before she could do anything, the door of the cabinet she was hiding in was opened and she was dragged out.

The demon lifted her a few feet above the ground by the collar of her dress.

It heard Marinette saying something. “ աɦǟȶ ǟʀɛ ʏօʊ ֆǟʏɨռɢ ƈɦɨʟɖ, ֆքɛǟӄ ʟօʊɖɛʀ? ”

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica.” Marinette was now screaming the words at the top of her lungs. She repeated the spell over and over again with fierce determination.

John, being his paranoid self, taught her the spell for an exorcism, just in case. Demons spared no one, not even a girl.

It screamed “NO….” as Sabine’s body contorted in strange angles before a dark shadow seemed to be dragged down into the ground. It made a desperate attempt to possess John before it was pulled away and disappeared. There was no sign that there was a demon attack.

After John woke up, he managed to piece together that his 5-years-old (Sorry 5 and a half) daughter sent a demon back to hell.

He was a very proud dad. ( He was a tad worried about the consequences from this event and demons hold one hell of a grudge. He wanted his daughter to live a very safe and happy life. The bakery’s wards also need an upgrade. )

He also got the job of explaining what he actually did to Tom. And lots of reassuring.

Sabine, on one hand, was not happy that Marinette knew how to do magic. That is until John told her that he did it just in case so she can protect herself and later it was agreed that Marinette can learn some Magic spells and charms to better protect herself and when she is older, she can decide if she wants to continue or not.

Chapter Text

To say that Zatanna was surprised to find out that John had a daughter was an overstatement. She knew that he was bound to have one lying around with the way he slept around but it didn’t prepare her when he showed up holding the little girl’s hand with a pink backpack after she called him for help.

What threw her off-guard was to see the British magician acting so...fatherly towards the girl and pampering her like a princess. It weirded her further to see the usually foul-mouthed man chiding others for swearing in front of the child.

She seriously considered Constantine being replaced or mind-controlled but it turns out he was just a very overprotective dad. Layering the building with the magic equivalent of presidential security in addition to its already good protection before they left was a big clue.

“John, who is she?”
“She’s Marinette, my daughter.” Confirming what Zatarra already knew, “Her mother and her husband were going to be out of town this weekend and I was going to watch her.”

“Do you usually do this?”

“I visit on a bi-monthly basis or take care of her when the bakery has a big order coming up.”

“Do they know? And is she like you ? us?”

“They know and against their better judgment, trust her with me time and time again. Marinette...well...there was an….. incident a few months ago. Lead some trouble to their doorsteps and I am teaching her how to properly defend herself now with a few flashy tricks thrown in for fun. When she gets older, I am going to let her choose. Let’s hope she chooses the right path. The one that does not make her turn out like me.”

“Wait... I heard some rumors about a little girl exorcizing a demon a few months back. Was that her?”

“It’s just a rumor.”

End of conversation as John, Zatanna and co. goes to do what they were going to do.

Unfortunately, the big bad villain of the week knew about Marinette and sent a hellhound after her.

Fortunately and somehow, John and Zatanna came back to find Marinette hugging the ‘doggy.’ and it was licking her?

It took a lot of convincing, a bribe of ice-cream and John wanting to weaponize Marinette’s puppy eyes to make her let go of the hellhound which was renamed as ‘Wolfie’. Somehow Marinette had tamed the hellhound and John had to summon a few demon allies of his to know how to take care of it. It was an enlightening experience.

John now has a pet hellhound loyal to his little girl and it doesn’t seem like a bad thing. Although the mangy mutt shed its fur all over his house as the best option was to keep the thing was with him and the bakery can’t have any pets, supernatural or not.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t often that the Batfamily was together to do patrol.
Nightwing was busy in Bludhaven.
Red Hood was out of Gotham for the past few months and returned for a short break from the Outlaws.
Red Robin finally had enough sleep after the exhausting space mission with his team.
Batgirl and Black Bat were back from Hong Kong.

None of their training prepared them for what happened after a glowing blue portal opened up in the Batcave of all places and a girl in a trench coat walked out with the latest Robin complaining at her heels.

“Ugh...do I really have to do patrol?! I am still sore from last night. I think I lost the feeling in my legs because of you.”

“It was just three rounds, pet. Don’t be such a baby. I could have still gone for more if you didn’t call it quits. Considering who your father is, I thought you would have lasted longer.”

“I would have, Constantine. But I was tired from yesterday. There was a bank robbery.”

“Excuses. You would have gone down to me either way. I did give you the option to tie me up. Which you were too proud to accept.”

“Considering your father, I didn’t think you would be that good.”

“Look who’s talking. Mr. I-will-make-you-kneel-before-me and didn’t live up to his promise.”

“I am sure that the thing you did with your tongue was illegal.”

The pair continue to bicker. The rest of the Batfamily who were suiting up nearby before they arrived were privy to their conversation. Oracle and Batman, who were both at the Bat-computer, were too far away to hear the heated exchange.

“I am confused. Did Demon Spawn actually get laid or does he not know what he sounds like?” Jason asked in a low voice, not wanting to break the conversation filled with sexual innuendos in front of him.

“I don’t think he knows.” Dick replied, “I mean this is Damian we are talking about.”

“He did seem happier than usual. It is a small possibility that he did the...you know with the girl. He didn’t even threaten me a few days ago after I touched him by accident.” Tim commented

“Did he get the Talk yet?” Jason asked loudly.

Cass signed to Stephanie, asking to clarify what the boys were talking about. “They are debating whether or not Damian had sex with the Constantine chick. But I am pretty sure he didn’t.”

Robin finished changing, without a single break in the bickering and went towards the Bat-computer, the girl following along. The others quickly finished what they were doing and hurried towards them.

“Hello Mari.” Batman greeted not looking up from the Bat-Computer.

“Bonjour Monsieur Batman and here’s Robin. Like I promise, back before patrol. I am going to go back now before Hawk-bitch decides to send out another akuma.”

“Remember what I told you to do.” Damian almost sounded concerned.

“Hah. Says the guy who couldn’t beat me in a all-out brawl last night.”

Damian did not comment on that. Instead he said, “Just be careful.”

She rolled her eyes, “Okay, Damian.” She opened a portal, and gave them a  wave without looking back. “Au revoir”

A while later on patrol….

“Now that I think about it, I regret not making a bet out of it.”

“I would have won.” Dick pointed out, “You thought that he was having sex.”

“Shut up, Dick.” Jason hissed back.

“I can hear you, idiots,” Damian’s voice came from the comms, startling the others “We are not having sex! And we are still minors and she’s my friend.”

“You have another friend?!” Dick exclaimed, “One that isn’t Jon and a human. I am so proud of you, Lil’D.”

“Well, who’s the chick, Demon Spawn?”

“Lady Rouge of Paris.”

“The one who fights those akuma thingies with a yo-yo? I think I heard her mention it.”

“Hey B. Why haven’t you adopted her yet? Black hair, blue eyes and with a superhero background for a past. She will fit right in.”

“I am not going to adopt her.” Batman replied, “and she already has a father. John Constantine.”

A few seconds of silence….

“It was pretty obvious now that I think about it.” Tim said, mildly embarrassed.

“Tt. What gave it away, Red Robin? The coat, the similarities or the fact that I called her Constantine in front of you.” Damian snarked.

“Be nice, Robin.”

Chapter Text

Because Marinette has John Constantine as a father. She might retaliate against Chloe in more….magical ways.

John brings Marinette over to his house to tutor her in magic more safely in a place more equipped to handle stray spells.

And said house is full of books filled with magic spells and some of them are exclusively filled with curses.

If a 9-year-old Marinette happened to go home one day with a book that was definitely off-limits to her. Her father doesn’t have to know.

Well, it’s just a coincidence that Chloe was unable to talk for a whole day because she could only ribbit like a frog.

And that she had a very nasty rash afterwards that made her absent for over a week.

And she somehow had her hair in a horrible shade of purple that was such an eyesore that made her too ashamed to come out of her room.

It was also a big coincidence that Chloe suffered from those bad things after she bullied Marinette and made other kids cry.

Sabine while talking to John about something on the phone one day, “I know I agreed to let you teach Marinette to protect herself but were the curses really necessary?”

John was confused and a horrible niggling feeling started in the back of his head. “Curses? Like what?”

“There is this mean girl in her class. Teachers let her get away with bullying because her father is the new mayor. Making people have lumps all over their body like a bubonic plague victim got to be one of your magic tricks. I appreciate you looking out for her like that but you have to tell me about things like this beforehand.”

“Sabine, darling, can you hold on for a few minutes? I need to check something.”

“What? John! Don’t you dare hang up on me! I just want some answers.”

A few minutes later… There were a few swears heard on the other end before John came back.

“Oh Bollocks! Sabine, if I didn’t believe you then, I believe you now. Marinette is definitely my daughter.”

“Okay, what happened John?”

“Well, it looks like one of my books has been replaced with…’The Witches’ by Ronald Dahl. I don’t know whether to be angry or proud.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“The Witches is a classic, Mr Dahl nearly got it right except for the money thing, witches actually make diamonds instead."

"John!"

"As for the book of Hecate? It would be best if I took it off her hands before one of those spells backfires badly.”

Marinette was grounded but she somehow got her parents to agree to let her learn curses. She can only cast them at most five times a year so she had to make them count.

( Sabine shouldn’t really encourage this behavior but Chloe had made Marinette miserable and that school lets her get away with bullying other children. And because of Chloe’s father, they can’t do anything much. This might teach that awful girl a lesson or two. )

Chloe suspected that Marinette was behind the bad things happening.

No. Chloe knew for a fact that Marinette was behind the bad things happening to her.

After nearly everyone left the class except for Marinette, Chloe walked up to Marinette and did her usual mocking and how superior she was.

Instead of the expected reaction of tears, the ravenette simply looked at her straight in the eyes and chanted ominously in a foreign language.

Chloe at first rolled her eyes and commented that she was a freak until light shone from Marinette’s hands and Chloe began to glow but not in a good way.

“What did you do?!” Chloe shrieked, struggling to move.

Marinette after the spell was done, held up a mirror and Chloe saw that she had fur all over her body and she looked like a monkey. She screamed.

She felt something moving from her butt and turned around to see a tail sticking out of her skirt.

Chloe screamed again and fainted on the spot.

Marinette used an invisibility charm and got out of the classroom as the teachers came in to see the source of the screaming.( CCTV just showed Chloe being alone in the class with Marinette being the last one to leave. She tried very hard not to laugh when they questioned her. )

The doctors couldn’t figure out how Chloe ended up like that and everytime she shaved the fur off. It grew back the next morning. They discuss surgically removing the tail to which Chloe paled although it was hard to tell with the fur.

Chloe didn’t leave her room until Sabine told Marinette to lift the curse when she found out about it. Which was two weeks after the incident.

During that time, Chloe plotted revenge.

First day back, Chloe stomped up on Marinette and began accusing her of turning her into that monstrosity and she will pay for it.

Marinette simply rolled her eyes to the back of her head so the whites of her eyes were shown which John had taught her for funsies and began chanting in that unknown language. ( Which was actually the recipe for her family’s famous cupcakes in Latin. She only had 2 chances left for curses and was going to save them. )

Chloe freaked out and she scrambled away from Marinette as far as she could, calling her a freak and a monster along the way.

“I prefer to be called Enchantress.” Marinette shouted after her good-naturally, her eyes back to normal.

The entire courtyard was silent before cheering. Congratulating the pig-tailed girl on defeating the wicked witch of the west.

Kim being a drama queen and kneeling before Marinette, “O Enchantress, you protect us from the wicked witch. We are forever in your debt.”

“Rise and live out your lives free from her ugly blue eyeshadow and terrible color palette.”

Chloe tried many different tactics to make other people believe that Marinette had magic and was putting curses on her.

Mme Bustier lectured Marinette about being the perfect example and to stop with the magic curses.

Marinette, not agreeing with the bullshit philosophy and being a Constantine, meaning she treats the rules as more of a guideline, cursed her teacher to have bad luck for a while.

( Sabine was at first angry that Marinette cursed her teacher until she found out about forgiving others' philosophy that Bustier tried to force on Marinette even though Marinette didn’t do anything wrong and Chloe had insulted Marinette’s heritage. )

Marinette, being a little petty, entered the school talent show and did non-magical magic tricks, lessons courtesy of Aunty Z (Zatanna) and looked straight into Bustier’s eyes as she announced what she was going to do.

This all results in Chloe less likely to pick on Marinette and try to stay out of her bad side as much as possible. Picking on other kids also results in curses so she is much less of a bully.

Chloe still thinks that everyone is beneath her but she doesn’t try to cause trouble as much for fear of retaliation.

She does actively try to prove that Marinette was the one putting curses on her which mainly backfires because everyone thinks it’s cool and Marinette is magic confirmed after placing first in the talent show. ( John was there with Zatanna to see the efforts of her lessons and looked like a proud parent the entire time. )

Bustier doesn’t push Marinette to be the perfect example anymore but deeming her as a problem child and giving her detentions for it.

Tom and Sabine got the school board involved who were upset at Bustier for giving detention to a student who wasn’t even causing trouble in class except for entertaining her classmates with ‘magic’ tricks during lunch.

She was reprimanded and had to attend a few training courses and seminars.

Chloe gets away with less things afterwards.

Mayor’s daughter or not.

Chapter Text

When Adrien and Alya came into the picture, things were more different.

Marinette’s first day of school, happened like in canon.

Except Alya walked in on Marinette was arguing with Chloe about her seat and Marinette began chanting in Sumerian, causing Chloe to scream in horror and calling for Sabrina to stop her. Alya thought that was cool and wanted to befriend this awesome quirky girl with pigtails.

Marinette thought that the new girl would make a nice friend with how she backed Marinette against Chloe. She might have to be more careful of her things when letting Alya over.

 Stoneheart still happened except Marinette’s first reaction to Tikki was a little different.

Marinette called her dad because the stone monster thing that was once Ivan had a hint of magic and she didn’t know what it was and how to fix it.

She told John about the Stoneheart before noticing a black box on her desk.

She didn’t have this box in her room before and someone managed to get through her wards to put it there so she was very suspicious of it. (Master Fu didn’t take note of the small shock when he went through the invisible barrier. Wyazz on the other hand was curious at the magical protection surrounding the new Ladybug but kept his observation to himself. )

“Dad, you didn’t happen to come into my room while I was at school, did you?”

“No, why?”

“There is a strange box on my desk that wasn’t there before. I am going to open it.”

“Don’t open it until I get there-”

She cautiously opened it, a spell on her lips when there was a flash of light.

“Hello, Marinette. I am Tikki and you are going to be a super-”

Tikki didn’t manage to finish her sentence before being trapped in a magic cage that resembles a crystal.

“Hello, sweetheart, Mari, darling you there?” John’s worried voice came from the phone speaker.

“Yeah, there is a floating red bug mouse thing called Tikki trapped in my room. How fast can you get here?” Marinette replied.

“It will take a few days to tie up some loose ends, after that I will be taking the next flight to Paris.”

Tikki giggled, “I am not a bug mouse. I am a kwami and I give you superpowers to be a hero.” 

Marinette gave her an incredulous look, “You are joking, right?”

“A Kwami? Haven’t heard that in a while. What is a powerful magical artifact doing in the hands of my little girl?” John was very surprised and curious. He was also worried because they were only in use when the world needed it most.

“I don’t have time to explain but Marinette was chosen for the task. There is an akuma loose in Paris. It’s the stone monster you saw earlier. Marinette, you need to put on the earrings and transform.” Tikki quickly filled in her powers and what she can do.

“And this is important. No one can know about your identity.”

“Too late for that. My dad knows.”

“Your dad is that strange talking metal tablet?”

“What? No. Don’t you know what a phone is? You know what. I will explain later. Tikki, spots on.”

Her costume is a black bodysuit under a crimson coat with a black hood, fastened with black buttons and accented by tasteful black dots. Her full black mask, with white eye lenses, hides her identity instead of the classic domino mask.

Marinette slumped on her chair, exhausted.

Apparently, she had a partner. Chat Noir was a little over the top and not properly informed or trained for what they are up against. She might have to talk to him about it later.

She looked at the black butterfly fluttering around in the jar with trap wards carved into it. Marinette wanted to keep it and study it

Tikki told her to purify it with her yo-yo like it was something that made sense. But when it comes to Magic, everything and nothing does.

Right now, she was catching Tikki up on what has changed since the last time she was out.

Tikki was a little worried about her dad knowing about Ladybug. But Marinette assured that her father was good at keeping secrets and he isn’t in Paris all the time so there are less chances of him getting akumatized.

Apparently there is an idiot with a powerful magic brooch loose in Paris and is responsible for turning Ivan into that Stoneheart thing. And the city of Love is going to see more of these attacks often.

Boy, was her dad going to love this.

Marinette goes to school the next day while she is there, the butterfly somehow manages to escape.

She meets Adrien and upon feeling his destructive aura which surrounds him like she saw on Chat Noir yesterday. She tried not to groan at the fact that Chloe’s friend is apparently her partner and she doesn’t want to put her life in the hands of someone who is going to ‘torment’ her in her civilian life.

She wonders how he even got chosen as Chat Noir and be trusted with something as powerful as the embodiment of destruction.

She is going to have a talk with Tikki to find this mysterious person that ‘chose’ her and she was going to give them a piece of her mind when she finds them.

Turns out the idiot with the powerful magic artifact is a dramatic bitch that chose the name ‘Hawkmoth’ who wanted her earrings and Chat Noir’s ring.

She was also going to have to find better entrapping spells.

Another thing is that Chloe’s friend is not as mean as she is. So one less thing to be worried about. A bit too trusting and naive for her taste.

No crush because this Marinette is much more cynical.

( It’s obvious to her that he puts on a charade to school and this boy was given the miraculous of destruction for a reason. She tries to find out why, resulting in Alya thinking she has a crush. )

Chapter Text

While 8-eight-year old Marinette waited at her father’s house for their weekly lessons, John was running a little late because somebody got into trouble with the supernatural and he was cleaning it up as fast as he could. The life of a warlock.

John thought he managed to trap the spirit/ ancient thing but underestimated how powerful it was. It was lying in wait to get revenge on John.

John comes home, dragging a heavy chest which had the trapped thing inside it.

“Sweetheart, I am home.”

“Dad! What took you so long?”

“Sorry, sweetheart. This bloo- er I mean this entity was just difficult to catch. This chest now contains a powerful and ancient demon which should never be released so you can’t open it.”

“Like Pandora’s box.”

“Exactly”

Turns out that ‘demon’ was the infamous Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, the Great Sage who was equal to Heaven, blah blah blah... who managed to break the chest open at that moment from the inside, was pretty pissed at being locked into a chest. A very extravagant one but nonetheless, he hated being trapped.

He grabbed Marinette and took her with him.

John is left behind, cursing and blaming himself for being a terrible father and letting a demon, contained or not near his daughter. He began tracking spells to find out where the monkey king had taken her. He didn’t look forward to telling Sabine about this. When he got his hands on that demon, he was going to rip him into bloody shreds before sending it to hell.

They ended up in one of Sun’s old haunts, a clearing filled with fruit trees, left untouched for years by magical means.

Marinette asked who he was and was definitely excited to find out that he was the Sun Wukong. She heard stories of him from her mother’s relatives, her great uncle had told stories about him to entertain the kids during the annual family reunions.

She babbled on and on about Sun's amazing feats and asked if he actually did it.

Sun was happy to have a little fan and it was doing nice things to his ego.He gave her details that were not known by anyone. Internally he was like ‘I have this girl for over a day and if anything happens to her, I would kill everyone and then myself.’

She later asked if the dragons still existed and Sun took her to a river where one of the not man-eating dragons lived.

Too bad that he was gone for over a few decades and he didn’t get the memo that the river was now occupied by a very vicious dragon who loves human meat very much.

Seeing the little girl at the river, it didn’t hesitate to kidnap Marinette, ignoring who she was with.

Wukong was angry that someone was kidnapped under his nose again and a quick flashback to his journey to the West days . A few moments later, the dragon was killed.

They later found out that the dragon had an egg. Which Sun gladly let Marinette keep. Giving a few tips on taking care of a dragon when it hatches.

Soon, Marinette wanted to go home to which he surprisingly took her back, unable to deny her puppy eyes.

John came home from another wild goose chase to find Marinette to see her asleep on his couch, hugging an egg.

That’s how John had a red dragon the size of a raccoon in addition to a hellhound in his house. It doesn’t help that Sun Wukong would come around from time to time and steal Marinette away for an ‘adventure’

Although she does come back unscathed everytime to his immense relief and to his annoyance, with a new animal in tow from time to time. His house was going to be a bloody zoo at this rate. Sun gets a kick out of seeing the blond’s eye twitch every time Marinette happily brings home a new ‘pet’. That’s what you get for trapping the Great Sage equal to Heaven in a box.

At least John doesn’t have a hard time tracking down rare creatures for potion ingredients like a phoenix feather, unicorn horn powder or Nemean Lion fur which sheds all over the place and he has to clean up once a week..

Chapter Text

Marinette and Alix were best friends a few years before Alya came into the picture. And Alix is the only one who knows about Marinette doing actual magic and not the illusions and sleight of hand kind.

It started with Alix mentioning how her brother thinks the new relic in the museum is supposedly haunted because he saw a ghost near it and there being a supposed curse attached to it.

Marinette being a rebellious and reckless teenager, wanting to put her skills to the test and proving to her father that she can do it after John told her that no, she wasn’t allowed to go with him and get rid of a spirit.

She got Alix to let her in after visiting hours were over.

They snuck to where the exhibit was displayed.

Marinette recognised what the relic is from a book once she saw it and knew what she had to do.

She tried to make Alix leave and the shorter girl was insistent on not leaving her alone.

Before they knew it, the ghostly figure appeared and they were sprawled on the floor outside the room where the relic was after being thrown out. The ghostly figure looked like a soldier of an ancient civilization (Aztec, Han Dynasty, Indian, Egyptian, Babylonian, take your pick I was too lazy to do research for it) and was standing beside the relic as a guard. Their weapon on standby.

Alix groaned, “I will never hear the end of it from Jalil about this.”

Marinette started to run towards the warrior, reciting a spell.

Unfortunately it backfired and sent Marinette into the air again.

Alix basically demands Marinette to explain and Marinette gives her the rundown about ghosts and demons being actually real and that she learned about it from her biological father who is an expert on these kinds of stuff.

It took a long time ( An hour and a half at most ) but in the end, the ghost warrior was gone after Alix’s quick thinking about the history of the place where the relic came from and serving as the distraction while Marinette summoned the spirit of the monarch who originally ordered the warrior to guard the relic to dismiss him from his duty which it worked.

Alix promised to keep what she now knew as a secret.

A week later, Alix told everyone at lunch about a new exhibition that supposedly brings bad luck to those who come in contact with it and was brought into the museum this morning. She later invited Marinette over to check it out.

It changed into a regular meet-up where they looked through newspapers and internet forums for supernatural sightings in Paris and checked it out during the weekends.

Sometimes, they get into life-threatening situations but they manage to get out of it each time with a few scrapes and bruises which they pass off as injuries from skating and parkour.

John found out that his daughter was in the ‘family business’ when he unexpectedly showed up in Paris after a portal mishap.

He went to the Dupain-Cheng bakery and Sabine told him that Marinette was out with a friend.

He went out to a nearby convenience store (what is the Walmart or Tesco equivalent over there?) and bought some silk-cut cigarettes.

John was in front of the store, trying to make his lighter light up and the next thing he knew, an earthquake happened. But it was no ordinary earthquake. This particular one was caused by the roar of a Minotaur. An angry one.

A shopping cart pulled by a unicorn whizzed down the street, occupied by three girls.The pink-haired girl was waving a club and yelling insults. The one, with black hair with purple streaks, looked terrified, hanging on for dear life but seemed to be having fun.  A very familiar face was in the front holding the reins of the cart. 

Marinette and John made a brief eye contact before the shopping cart continued on its way and around a corner.

The Minotaur chased after the cart.

“Bloody Hell.” John muttered as he put away his unlit cigarette to chase after his wayward daughter.

“Merde" Marinette cursed along with a few others that she heard her mother say as she realized that her father was in Paris and just saw her getting into magical shenanigans. Which he explicitly told her not to do. She was fucked.

Usually she would postpone these adventures out with Alix until her father was not in the country. She was careful to not let anything about it slip. ( Bribing demons with cookies for their silence worked, who knew. Plus she didn’t even have to sell her soul. )

Juleka wanted to explore the catacombs and Alix and Marinette had tagged along because they had recently found some news about people disappearing in them and didn’t want their friend to disappear too.

After they accidentally stumbled into the lair of one famous Greek mythological beast, Alix made it angier by grabbing its club and hitting it on the head so they could make their escape.

It chased them to the surface. Marinette got rid of all the illusions of being a normal girl in front of Juleka and summoned her pet unicorn while Alix commandeered a shopping cart left outside a store to use as a chariot. ( The unicorn is Mocha due to the shade of its coat being the same colour as the Mocha macarons that her parents make. Its horn was a rose gold colour. )

John managed to track down the girls and the creature to a skate park.

Alix was now riding the unicorn and using a metal pipe as a jousting stick against the Minotaur who now had his club back. Juleka was on the sideline, standing on the overturned shopping cart with a guitar, adjusting the strings and ignoring what was happening in front of her.  ( It’s Luka. Anarka didn’t even blink an eye at the shopping cart pulled by a horse that dropped her daughter off who grabbed the guitar and told her that she will be back for dinner. )

His daughter, the reason he might die of a heart attack in his thirties , was yelling nonsensical phrases in what sounds like Spanish as she waved around a bright red coat around like a bull-fighter and nimbly dodged the Minotaur when he charged at her.

“I am ready.” Juleka shouted.

On her signal, Marinette threw her coat towards the charging Minotaur with a spell which made the coat wrap itself around the Minotaur like a red straightjacket.

As the creature struggled against its new bonds, Juleka strummed a lullaby on her guitar but the lyrics however were to Jagged Stone’s newest single, Labyrinth which was oddly fitting.

The creature soon became sleepy and slowly stopped struggling before it fell asleep.

Marinette whispered a spell to the Minotaur which made its eyes glow from under its eyelids and then waved her hand, her coat returned to her. She opened a portal on the ground beside the Minotaur which showed a stack of hay in some dark underground place on the other side. John guessed it was the Minotaur’s lair.

The three of them pushed the Minotaur to no avail until Mocha the unicorn and John helped them.

Despite being shoved and falling from five feet, the creature didn’t stir, not even when Alix dropped its club on it. A very exhausted Marinette closed the portal and used the other two as support to remain standing. Not really wanting to face her dad on top of everything.

“Hi. Dad, how are you doing? I didn’t know that you were in Paris.” She faced him with an innocent smile on her face.

“I had some magic mishap and ended up here. I decided to visit my darling daughter while I was in the neighbourhood. And can you just imagine how I felt when I found her doing the one thing I told her not to?”

“There was more than one thing you told me not to do. But that’s not what you want me to say, is it?” Marinette avoided looking at her dad who gave her the look, “Umm...do not make deals with demons?”

“Yes, that is true. But your sass is not appreciated, young lady. I have told you to not involve yourself with magic. As for the demons, Gowther had a few choice words regarding you.”

“You know!?”

“Of course, I do. I visited him a while back and he told me all about his very brief visit to earth. As your parent, I have to say….. I am very proud of you, Marinette.”

“I know that the holy water thing was a bit far but… wait what?”

“I am proud of you, kid.”

“Hold up. You are not mad or disappointed? Is this some reverse psychology thing?” Marinette said, internally panicking.

“Nope.” John grinned “That’s your mother’s job. And you know that she’s not going to like this. My job is to clean up messes and protect you as much as I can. By the way, tricking a demon to drink holy water instead of alcohol was brilliant. I couldn’t have done it better myself.”

“How about me doing magic?”

“I am a little mad about that. But you were never going to listen to me about that anyways. At least you are not robbing a bank using your powers.”

“About that...Alix and I broke into the bank last month.”

“You what?”

“We had to get a magic coin for that annoying leprechaun.”

“Oh. I need to know more later but let me rephrase. As long as you are using it for the right reasons, helping people and not turning into a power-hungry sociopath, I am fine with it. But I want you to call me when you can’t handle it. I don’t want you to needlessly sacrifice yourself and overwork yourself like you just did.”

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“Alright then, try standing on your own without your friends holding you up. Come on. Prove it.”

“...”

Juleka only sometimes tags along on the other two girls’ adventures, staying behind more often despite the numerous invitations and is usually the one to find new cases for them to check out.

Marinette would leave texts of where she is going and call her father when demons are involved or when she is overwhelmed like she promised. (Alix is the one to make the calls often because Marinette is stubborn at times.)

Sabine is well aware of what Marinette gets up to with Alix during their ‘sleepovers’. John told her after the Minotaur.

Marinette was grounded for a while but was allowed to continue her shenanigans afterwards with Alix on the condition that it doesn’t affect her grades because they all knew that Marinette was still going to do it anyways.

( John muttered under his breath that at least she’s still in school. )

Chapter Text

The Magic Trio (Marinette and Alix plus ‘honorary member’ Juleka) once appeared on an episode of Buzzfeed unsolved while investigating a haunted house. Sort of.

After hours of searching, the house appears to be a fluke. As Marinette and Alix were going home, Shane and Ryan entered with the filming crew so the girls decided it was a good idea to fuck around and be the ghosts of this house.

They started by using magic or simple things like strings and paint to make it seem as haunted as possible. Lowering the temperature in certain areas, high-pitched eerie giggles, paint to mimic a person with bloodied hands being dragged away, words like ‘GO AWAY’, ‘HELP’ in french, you know, fun stuff.

They also mess with the torches and equipment a bit. The magic making them flicker or glitch.

Juleka snuck in a while later through the back door, bringing some dresses and long hair wigs. They accidentally make the door banged shut, bringing attention to the rest of the occupants and nearly exposing the whole thing. Thankfully, they managed to stay off the crew’s radar.

Alix used her roller skates to make herself look like gliding and Marinette used her magic to make her look a little more ghostly and paler. She skated past the crew while they were in the kitchen, wearing a white dress and moaning.

Everyone thought it was just the creepy vibes getting to them and they were seeing things.

The crew was hoping to pick up ghost voices using a recorder thingy and Juleka’s faint voice was heard from the recorder asking, “Are you my Mommy?” in French over and over again to every question they ask, even the ones said in clumsy french. Until it sounds like it wasn’t coming from the recording but from behind them. They turned around to see Juleka briefly appeared wearing a black dress and holding a teddy bear, asking the question before the lights flickered and she was gone.

They were all freaked out, some of them were starting to suspect something and the rest wanted to get out of the house.

They went to the final room, the master bedroom, to get over the entire thing against their better judgment, to see a girl in a red dress facing the window.

In a soft French accent, she asked, “Mommy, Daddy, are you home?” before her neck turned 180 and her face had a too wide grin and hair covering her eyes.

Most of them ran out of the room at the sight and out of the house. To their relief, the door still was open.

The episode aired and after Marinette's neck turning around 180 degrees, the screen immediately went black and later said ‘After we got out of the house, this happened.’

The footage showed the three girls with long hair and each wearing the same dresses as the ghost had, sitting in front of the house. Shane and Ryan pulled off the girl’s wigs to show their faces. Ryan apologizes for pulling Juleka’s actual real long hair.  They explained everything about the back door, the paint, etc.. Scooby-Doo style and how the girls were able to pull off this amazing prank.

They introduced themselves by variations of their first names like Mary, Alice and Jewel.

The girls later explained the parts Ryan and Shane missed of how they did it, cutting out information about the magic. Marinette mostly did the explanation since she was most proficient in English because of her father.

Marinette added a little fun by demonstrating how she turned her head with some explanation of her neck joint being more flexible when she actually used magic. She didn’t explain some of the stuff and just said that her father is a magician and she honors the magician code and won’t reveal some of the tricks.

They got a neat good photo later.

The episode ends with the girls saying, “We would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling adults.” in faux anger before giggling.

After the crew packed up everything onto the car, they turned towards the girls to ask if they wanted a ride home to find any sign of them gone like they disappeared into thin air.

( It brought many questions like are they humans pretending to be ghosts as a prank or actual ghosts pretending to be humans pretending to be a ghost? They may never know the true answer and some mysteries are best left unknown )

However, Jalil did a spit take when he saw Alix and her friends on the newest episode of his favourite show.

( He burst into her room while she was sleeping to demand answers and nearly fainted when he saw the picture she had taken with the Buzzfeed Unsolved co-hosts, which were also autographed, hanging on the wall. )

Chapter Text

Good things come to an end sadly. When Hawkmoth appeared, not many supernatural creatures stuck around in Paris because of the Miraculouses being active and they were a natural deterrent for them.

Alix finds out about Marinette being Ladybug after 10 months when she sees Ladybug using a magic spell which she saw Marinette used before which she knew was complicated. There were also hints before that didn’t seem to click until she de-transformed in front of Alix who was waiting for Marinette in her bedroom to ask her about Ladybug possibly being a magic user.

She covers for Marinette with shitty excuses that everyone accepts because Marinette has done weirder stuff before like the time she skipped a class to spend it with her Monkey uncle who is apparently the King of all Monkeys or spend an entire day in the park looking for invisible people who apparently owe her money.

( The fae now refuses to ever make deals with little girls wearing pigtails. )

They spend every weekend, looking for Hawkmoth’s identity or testing the limits of the Ladybug Miraculous.

They told Juleka because she is part of the Magic trio despite all her protests about being just an ‘honorary’ member.

When Marinette became Guardian ( Master Fu passed it on due to old age ), they tested out the other Miraculouses. They used Kalki and expanded their range of cases. They looked through everything for supernatural sightings in other countries, mainly in Europe.

John had to come out and help when demons or other ancient deities were involved.

( After the incident with Sekhmat, the Egyptian lion goddess, they were added to the list of ‘things that we need to call Mari’s father for’ It’s a very long list. Marinette usually ignores it and tries to take care of the problem herself. Usually, she managed to do it through sheer stubbornness. )

When Hawkmoth started, Chloe accused Marinette of being him, even bringing in Officer Raincomprix to arrest her. It nearly worked but everyone just pointed out that Marinette does harmless magic tricks with her doing simple tricks like pulling a coin out of the officer’s ear to prove a point. Plus pointing out other logical things like Hawkmoth being a full grown male.

Too bad, Marinette can’t outright curse Chloe anymore because it just might backfire on her with Hawkmoth around creating akumas and someone might actually think she is Hawkie. Another reason why that butterfly coward must go.

John arrived a few days after the Stoneheart incident, and brought some texts about the Miraculous he could find, a few of which were ‘borrowed’.(read: stolen)

Tikki gave as much information as she could that might help against Hawkmoth.

John decides to talk to Wonder Woman when it is revealed that Hippolyta used to be a wielder.

 That weekend consisted of the father and daughter duo finding ways to find the missing miraculouses to varying degrees of success.

The Miraculous are old magic and courtesy of this ‘Order’ that kept everything about it a closely guarded secret, there wasn’t much they could do, short of dealing with demons or other entities for help and that was completely off the table.

Tikki is of course not telling who chose Marinette so she used some magic to review the day Stoneheart happened and see the old man she helped.

“Tikki, did this man choose me?” Marinette asked, pointing at the picture of master Fu in her magic mirror.

“Kwami aren’t allowed to tell you who the Guardian is without his permission or unless it is an emergency.” 

“Guess he is this Guardian, then.” she said, taking the non-answer as a yes. As Marinette continues to watch the mirror, showing the Guardian wearing the turtle miraculous and bypassing her wards in her room like it was nothing.

“Looks like I have to add new wards now.” She sighed.

“I don’t think they will work if he can get in that easily with your current ones. You might find something in these texts that will keep a lot of them out but if you are going to keep being Lady Rouge, it’s best you don’t so you don’t accidentally get locked out of your own room.” John pointed out.

“I will just find a way around that. I always do.” And she did.

The new wards will let her and anyone she allows to enter, into her room.

Tikki had told her that she was surprised to know that Marinette was well-versed in magic. Only for Marinette to raise an eyebrow because she thought that was the reason why she was chosen to be Ladybug, causing Tikki to backpedal on her mistake.

After some interrogation and withholding cookies on Marinette’s side, Tikki admits that the Guardian thought that she was a good match after observing her and setting a test which she passed.

Marinette finally meets this mysterious Guardian after Tikki gets sick.

She at first tried to cure on her own until Tikki said that the Guardian was the only one who could help her.

Marinette only relents to let Tikki take her to Master Fu so she can finally meet the person who thought it was a good idea to put the well-being of an entire city on the shoulders of two teenagers with minimal training. ( And she would have eventually gotten Tikki better if she had more time but Ladybug being out of commission for a long time was not ideal. )

When she gets there, she waits until Tikki gets better to wreck things Constantine style. She off-handedly mentioned how she thought that the Temple of the Order was destroyed so long ago causing Master Fu to freeze and internally panic.

“You should really be careful about giving powerful artifacts to random teenagers, Monsieur. And I have some questions. Number one: Why did I get the Ladybug and not an adult?”

“Young minds are more flexible and not restrained like adults.”he stammered out. “Reasonable.”

Questions continued, and he automatically answered in shock while internally falling further down into a spiral as the current Ladybug revealed information about the Miraculous she somehow has and some of them are tightly guarded secrets the kwamis aren’t privy to and only Guardians should know about. A few he didn’t even know

( Mari being a little shit, slipped in some misinformation. Girlboss, Gatekeep, Gaslight. )

Wyazz took over answering some of them after seeing his master in no state to answer properly.

The question about why Adrien Agreste has the Black Cat made Fu spiral down further because who the hell exactly was Marinette and how did she know this? The critiques about picking the boy with a famous face, the fact that he lacked professionalism and he has no real world experience from being so sheltered didn’t make him feel better about any of his decisions.

He felt worse when he found that he had no answers on how to find Hawkmoth and his efforts so far, when nothing had been done and he had been shamelessly spying and shipping them on both sides of the mask for the past months.

(Civilian-wise. It’s mostly Alya with very rose-coloured glasses and dead set on pushing Marinette to ‘confess’ to Adrien despite her many protests that she doesn’t feel anything for him other than indifference. Invisibility charms are useful in avoiding Alya and her schemes of playing Cupid. If she doesn’t stop the match-making or trying to find out her identity, Marinette might have to take drastic measures.)

After finishing her 79 questions, she shook the frozen Master Fu’s hand, thanking him for his time, all smiles and none of the threatening aura from earlier. She left. Tikki followed her holder, looking a little worried for the Guardian.

A few days later, Fu was visited by the infamous Hellblazer with a strangely familiar smirk on his face and the rumours he had heard of the blond man, put him in a state of terror.

The visit left him thoroughly shaken and regretting his choice in putting little effort into researching about the ones he chose. Ladybug’s father was not someone to piss off.

He became a little more active and tried his best to translate the books on the Miraculous with his more abundant free time which Marinette brought to him once a week.

( Some had bloodstains and he didn’t dare ask why. )

He taught her all he knew and told her about Feast way earlier.

( The Rules instilled in him by the Order that he tried to pass on to her were largely ignored. )

Chapter Text

After she met Damian, she would often go to badger Damian to find lost miraculouses together or invite herself to whatever he was doing when Alix or Juleka were too busy to go monster hunting. Damian trained her to fight better which was pretty useful when fighting akumas and not tire herself faster after using a lot of magic.

Alix and Damian finally met during winter break when Marinette and Alix were in Hong Kong to find out some mysterious disappearances that her father had deemed safe and easy enough for her to resolve on her own.

( “ At least this way ,” John thought, “ she won’t recklessly get into another Sekhmat situation and I can partly keep an eye on her. Two birds with one stone.” )

Damian was there to visit Cass because he wanted time away from his more idiotic family members and spend more time with his favourite sibling.

When he glimpsed a familiar red coat on the rooftops out of the corner of his eyes, he quickly put on his Robin suit before he ran after it and informed Cass that he would be late.

He saw Marinette talking to a pink-haired girl in French.

“Constantine.” he called out.

Marinette turned around surprised to see Robin, “Robin, fancy seeing you here in Hong Kong. What are you doing here?”

“Visiting Black Bat. What about you? And who is she?”

“Dad wanted me to check something out for him. This is my friend, Alix. Alix, this is Da- Robin. Robin of Gotham.”

Alix waved, “Hey Robin. Nice to meet you, I guess. Is he a hero too?” She spoke in a thicker accent than Constantine, he noted.

“They prefer to be called vigilantes.”

“Do you require my help, Constantine?”

“No. But-”

“I think we are fine on our own.” Alix answered.

Some snarky bantering between the two until Marinette interrupts it by reminding them that they have something important to do.

Marinette invites Damian along and says he can join them if he’s not busy.

They went to the place to do what John asked them to do. Alix and Damian fighting with each other the entire time.

Surprise, surprise, their stealth mission didn’t go well and they had to fight for their way out.

Marinette gets knocked out mid-spell.

Alix and Damian worked together and managed to drag the unconscious Marinette out of the lair.

Damian piggy-backed her while Alix used his katana despite never holding one in her life, the way she fought that made him want to strangle the pink-haired girl but couldn’t because of the dead weight on his back.

After getting out and crashing at Cass’s place, Marinette finally wakes up to find her two best friends had bonded over having to deal with her chaotic nature, recklessness and forcing her to take care of herself better.

They go for round 2 with a better plan and better prepared knowing what to expect. They succeeded in their mission.

Damian promised to teach Alix how to wield a katana properly the next time they meet. They exchanged numbers to vent about the latest stupid thing Marinette did while she was with them.

Damian was once kidnapped by the league of assassins and taken to some new hidden base that was very hard for the Batfam to find.

Marinette, not knowing that her friend was kidnapped, just sauntered into the base after the portal she opened just led her to the place Damian was, calling out, “Hey, Damian. Are you free? How does a day trip to the Philippines sound?”

Upon seeing Damian tied up and gagged and not aware that she was in the middle of the League of Assassins, “Oh, why are you tied up? What did you do to piss your brother off again?”

Damian tries to warn Marinette, frantically trying to make her see where she’s at. He was a tad bit slow because of the drugs in his vein.

“Come on, Damian, don’t tell me that you are afraid.” She unties him from the table he was tied to.

At that moment, a few dozen daggers, arrows, some poisoned, were thrown at the intruder before the target was blocked and repelled by the thick fur of a Nemean Lion, who was summoned by his owner to carry her friend out of wherever they were.

The assassins were a little freaked out by the huge lion appearing out of nowhere and the fact that their daggers and arrows were not only unable to pierce its fur but also shattered on impact.

“Damian, meet Kratos. A Nemean Lion. You know, like from the twelve labors of Hercules. I think you will like him.” Marinette, still oblivious to where she is, dragged Damian on to the lion and jumped through the portal to somewhere else.

Upon realizing that Damian was drugged, she opened a portal to the Batcave to demand, why did they drug Damian on top of tying him up!

The Batfam erupted into more chaos on top of the chaos of organizing a search party for Damian.

Batman came up to her and said, “Thank you, Marinette for bringing Damian back. But next time, don’t launch a rescue mission on your own.”

“Wait, hold up. What are you talking about?” Marinette asked, confused.

“You mean, you don’t know?”

“Monsieur Batman, I have no clue what you are talking about.”

“Damian was kidnapped by the league of assassins a few days ago and we had no clue where they had taken him. Until now.”

“I thought he pissed Jason off and got tied up for a few hours in some creepy warehouse as some revenge prank.”

“First off, I would never do that, I would drop him in the middle of the ocean and second, how did you get into the League of Assassins’ base and find out where he was when we couldn’t?”

“Um...My portals focus on the general area where Damian is so I don’t really know where he was kept?”

“So no clue. At all.”

“Yeah...sorry.”

“Then, we will never know where their new secret base is.”

“Well, you could use the tracker.”

“They got rid of Damian’s tracker. And you keep getting rid of your trackers after every visit.”

“Because I like my privacy, thank you very much and I meant the tracker that Damian placed on me when we first met that I pretend I have no idea about.”

“Why did he get the tracker privileges?”

“Because he’s my friend and you were terrible at hiding them, Timmy.”

“I am not.” Tim replied with a pout, typing into the Bat computer to access Damian’s phone for the tracker program.

Damian was out through it all, recovering from his kidnapping.

Chapter Text

Marinette and Raven became friends after her impromptu visit to the Titans Tower to help Damian unpack. (FYI: I am taking the Teen Titans from the DCAU.)

She got a hostile welcome from the Teen Titans after popping out of nowhere, asking if they knew where Robin’s room was. 

She managed to take down most of them and was in the middle of a magic battle against Raven.

Until Nightwing, Starfire and Robin come in to see a mess in the living room of Titans Tower with Raven and Marinette panting from exhaustion and the rest of the team down.

“Tt, Constantine, why do you always have to make the most dramatic entrances?” Robin crossed his arms and glared at his ‘friend’.

Said girl straightened up and tidied up her coat. “Well, Robin, I was just nicely asking if they knew where you were before I nearly got blasted in the face.” She said, glaring at Blue Beetle who looked a little sheepish, “The next thing I know I was in a magic battle with her.” She finished, pointing towards Raven.

“But did you have to destroy the living room?” Nightwing asked, not looking forward to cleaning up.

She waved away their concerns, “Don’t worry. I will clean it up.” She chanted a spell.

Right before their eyes, the living room was fixed up and spotless, more so than it was before she arrived.

Then, Marinette went limp and fell onto the couch. “Phew. I am tired. Haven’t had a nice fight like that in a while. What’s your name, the one raised in Azarath?”

“Rachel. Rachel Roth. But my hero name is Raven.”

“Well, Raven, it’s not often that I can practise fighting against others without the use of my Miraculous so thank you for that. And oooh... pizza, can I have some?”

“Here you go, Red Raven.” Beast Boy nervously said as he handed her a slice.

Raven and Marinette struck a tentative friendship over using magic, demons and the strange adventures they had been on.

She can also be found meditating with Raven in the latter’s room to have better control over her emotions after a brutal akuma or another of her class drama.

They both also spend hours improving each other’s magical abilities.

She gets Raven to be more sociable with people.

Marinette sometimes drags Raven to her adventures in Europe with Alix and Juleka because she needs a second opinion on magic and the supernatural.

Raven hits it off with Juleka, due to the latter being very interested in the supernatural and fascinated in Raven’s half demon heritage. Raven prefers the usually quiet girl over Marinette and Alix who are both too energetic for her to handle at times.

Marinette helps Raven out as much as she can with destroying Trigon’s influence and control over her.

The half-demon doesn’t notice how often Marinette tries to catch her attention and spends a lot of time with her.

Chapter Text

John Constantine doesn’t interact with Diana much other than during League business or a crisis. It was a surprise to the Amazonian when he approached her, asking about what she knew about the Miraculous.

When asked why, he told her about the Ladybug and Black Cat appearance in Paris and the Ladybug would like to meet Diana’s mother to understand more.

Suffice to say she was excited to meet the new holder and the kwami, Tikki, from the stories her mother once told her about and arranged a meeting somewhere outside of Paris to meet with her mother.

The Amazonians were surprised to find out that the new holders were so young.

The young heroine was de-transformed. Tikki came out and greeted her old wielder when she climbed out of the invisible jet. John was there for reasons Diana can’t fathom.

 Hippolyta knew more about the Miraculous than the books they had scoured and their history.

Sadly, she wasn’t able to provide more information on the Butterfly. She was angry to find how the Butterfly was abused to create akuma and thankfully, they were far enough from Hawkmoth’s radar.

Meeting concluded with Hippolyta and Diana both offering to give help when Lady Rouge asked for it and an invite to Thermiscyra. Diana was sticking around Paris for a while to give the new heroes some training.

Lady Rouge left first because of an akuma.

John mostly just stood by and let the girl do most of the talking, injecting a few questions here and there during the entire meeting and said his goodbyes.

“You are not as bad as I heard from the others. You have a good heart. Helping that young girl like that.” Wonder Woman said.

“I don’t know about that, princess. The rumours are true. I am a nasty piece of work. And if Lady Rouge wasn’t the Ladybug holder, I am not sure I would have done what I just did. Asking you to meet her.” John replied.

Diana tells him that he’s not but then, realized that the girl and John had some resemblance to each other.

“Oh.” Realization on her face.

“What did you figure out?” John asked.

“She’s your daughter, isn’t she? That’s why you were so protective of her.”

“Keep that one to yourself, Princess. I have tried stopping her from doing this hero thing to keep her out of danger but she’s so stubborn like her old man unfortunately. And I have enemies. Some are so much more dangerous than Hawkmoth. It’s better if less people knew that I am a father so they wouldn't use her against me.”

“Understood. I will keep this secret.”

Wonder Woman left on her jet with John smoking a cigarette on the ground.

The next day, she declared Paris off-limits to super-powered heroes and held a brief meeting to explain about the Miraculous. She kept out John’s involvement.

Marinette’s life was going great. Mostly.

Sure the akuma situation was currently at a stalemate but she has so many books to go through to find ways to defeat Hawkmoth.

She meets up with Diana on the weekends to train. She would invite Chat Noir but he claims to be too busy.

Hearing about how packed Adrien’s schedule is from Nino, it was a wonder he can even show up to akuma attacks.

Chapter Text

When Lila appears, Marinette ignores her in general but was more interested in the book Adrien brought to school. She did feel insulted and angry on her Aunty Z’s behalf when Lila lied about coming up with most of the magic acts that Zatanna does.

The silly boy doesn’t even know the importance of the book he found.

Gabriel is now on the suspect list but she doesn’t bring it up to Chat Noir, knowing that he would try to argue with her about it and convince her to get him off the list.

After the Collector, she doesn’t take him off the suspect list entirely but puts him in the category of might be working with/for Hawkmoth.

Marinette takes the book home.

Later, she heard from Nino that Adrien was pulled out of school because of the book being missing. Chat Noir wanted her to give the book back when he found out that Lady Rouge had it, pleading that Adrien was in a lot of trouble and needed to get the book back.

So she makes a fake that looks mostly the same except:

• option (1) bee movie script (*winks*) in a nearly forgotten language that looks similar enough to the Guardian language. With the ‘ya like jazz’ written in illegible handwriting besides a bee miraculous holder and the bee miraculous have the face of Barry B Benson on it if Gabriel bothers to look closer.
  
  
• OR option (2) Something equally cursed (Twilight? Fifty shades of grey? My Immortal fanfic? Lyrics of Never going to give you up? All of the above? So many options) in the same dead language.

She swung into a surprised Adrien’s room, pretended to have brought Chat’s lie and gave the fake to him.

The fake book has something bonded to it like a shade or some spirit who spies on Gabriel for Marinette and reports back their findings.

Or it was supposed to but it was caught spying on Gabriel by some dumb luck. The man realized that it might be one of Lady Rouge’s tricks so he used Nooroo to cut the connection between Marinette and the shade.

Marinette gets frustrated from the lack of progress of her investigation but at least she got some useful information out of it.

Lila gets akumatized because she insulted Chat Noir by calling him a terrible hero and Adrien makes some excuses to leave and comes back as Chat to yell at her.

Lila hates Lady Rouge because Mari refused to buy into the lie of Volpina being a hero and outs Volpina as an akuma which pisses her off.

After being de-akumatized, Lady Rouge talks to Lila to come clean or she will take drastic measures. Lila refuses to do so.

Lady Rouge then called over Alya who was nearby because she wanted a photo of the heroine and her ‘best friend’.

Lady Rouge told Alya to take down the video due to the misinformation and the probable target on Lila’s back from Hawkmoth because of it. Alya is confused and Lady Rouge explains that Lila is lying.

Entire class gathers gradually to see Lila trying to cover up her lie with another lie about the heroine protecting her and Lady Rouge losing her cool for the first time ever and calling Lila out on her shit. ( Her voice was grating on her last nerves and no one calls Aunty Z a fake and gets away with it. )

“But- but- but Lady Rouge, I am your best friend. No need to be so mean to hide our friendship.”

Everyone can tell that the heroine was rolling her eyes under her mask. Mari took in a deep breath, “I will apologize for being rude, it has been a long day with your akuma , you understand but,” using a voice modifying spell to sound nearly other-worldly and demonic, “ ł ĐØ ₦Ø₮ ₳₱₱ⱤɆ₵ł₳₮Ɇ ₱ɆØ₱ⱠɆ ₩ⱧØ Ʉ₴Ɇ ₥Ɏ ₦₳₥Ɇ JɄ₴₮ ₣ØⱤ ₴Ø₥Ɇ ₳₮₮Ɇ₦₮łØ₦ ₳₦Đ ₥₳₭Ɇ ₥Ɏ JØ฿ ₳ⱠⱠ ₮ⱧɆ ₩ⱧłⱠɆ Ⱨ₳ⱤĐɆⱤ ₣ØⱤ ł₮. ₴₮Ø₱ ł₮ ₮Ⱨł₴ ł₦₴₮₳₦₮ ØⱤ ɆⱠ₴Ɇ. ”

(For those with difficulty reading that, it is:
I do not appreciate people who use my name just for some attention and make my job all the while harder for it. Stop it this instant or else.)

With a zip of her yo-yo, the heroine was gone, leaving everyone shaking and relieved that Lady Rouge was on their side.

It was a slap of reality that made the Akuma class realize that Lila was lying. No one believes Lila’s stories anymore and usually does a basic google search for whatever comes out of her mouth.

A few of them tried to show Lila that she doesn’t need to lie to get friends but stayed away after Lila shouted at them that she wanted people to adore her, not get herself all chummy with the low lives. Everyone stayed away from her as best as they could to Mme Bustier’s disappointment who wanted them to apologise to Lila for isolating her.

Lila was gone the next week and Mme Bustier told them that Lila was on a charity trip with her mother to Achu to which the class scoffed and rolled their eyes.

Chapter Text

Guy Gardner happens to be passing by Paris one day and sees two costumed people fighting with each other. One dressed in red and fighting with a yo-yo of all things. The other was yellow and black. (Chloe got akumatized. Again.)

They were causing massive property damage. So he does the heroic thing for the people of Paris and puts the two troublemakers in constructs to contain them.

They both claimed to be heroes and that the other one was the villain. Well, Wasp Queen was doing that, Lady Rouge just told him that she’s the hero and the Justice League is supposed to stay out of Paris. 

He ignores them both and throws them into the cells in the Watchtower, usually reserved for super-powered villains or brain-washed League members and are able to handle Superman-level threats.

Chat Noir arrives on the scene, just in time to see the two being carried away.

Marinette was mad at being ignored but on another hand, it was the perfect opportunity to cause some chaos.

She stayed silent the entire time they were carried to the Watchtower. Once she was in the cell however,

“Hey, Green Nightlight, am I under arrest? Cause if so, can I get my mugshot? And make sure to get it at a good angle. I want to take it home after I bail out of here and give it to my dad.” she said in her best Liverpool accent to drop some heavy hints of her parentage.

“No one can bail you out of here, kid. Not even your rich daddy. ( Marinette snorted because he was talking to the wrong girl if he wanted to be bribed by a rich daddy. ) Only JL founders can. ( Bullshit, she said in her head. ) According to protocols, you are staying here until we find a better way to contain you.”

“Then, you should know that our source of power is magic and you should get an expert on it like...I don’t know...Zatanna?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I should. I am a genius. Wait a minute, this isn’t some plot to break out of here, is it?”

“No. These things can hold Superman. We have no hope of getting out of here, even with our super strength. See.” She demonstrated, trying her hardest to push against the cell walls. “Guess we will still be here when you get back.”

Guy went away to find Zatanna.

Meanwhile, Wasp Queen, in her thankfully separate cell, yelled at him to let her go because her father is the mayor and the Justice League can’t keep her here.

Lady Rouge just opened her yo-yo and texted Zatanna to follow Green Lantern when he asks.

[ From the phone of Lady Rouge ]

M: Hey..Aunty Z so in a few minutes, a douchey Green Lantern is going to ask you to come with him and I need you to agree.

Aunty Z : Mari? Why? What are you up to?

M: Nothing.

M: Except someone didn’t know about Paris and now I am in one of the Watchtower’s holding cells with the akuma screaming in the cell beside me.

Aunty Z : Do you want me to get you out?

M : No. Thank you.

M: I got it covered.

Aunty Z: So what do you want me to do?

M : I want you to take a picture of me in the cell and send it to Dad.

Aunty Z : …

Aunty Z : What the hell. You got it, M.

Aunty Z: He deserves this for the time he woke me up at 3 AM to bail him out of jail.

Aunty Z: He’s going to die from high blood pressure if you keep doing things like this, you know.

M: I know. And I go by Lady Rouge in the mask.

Aunty Z : Good luck, kiddo.

Barely Tolerable: Hey Robin.

Barely Tolerable: Robin!

Barely Tolerable: ROBINNN

Traffic Light: What is it, Constantine?

Barely Tolerable : Where’s your dad?

Traffic Light : He is in a League meeting.

Barely Tolerable : Does that mean that Wonder Woman might be there?

Traffic Light : Yes. Why?

Barely Tolerable: Because I am in the Watchtower’s holding cells, courtesy of one glowing Green Nightlight who showed up in Paris while I was fighting an akuma.

Traffic Light : WHAT?!

Barely Tolerable: Got arrested for ‘property damage’ and something about misuse of powers.

Traffic Light: Can’t you tell him that you are the hero.

Barely Tolerable: To be fair, I was bringing down the Eiffel Tower onto the akuma when he saw me.

Barely Tolerable: Back to the topic, I apparently ‘need’ a ‘JL founder’ to bail me out and I personally know only two so I thought why not both?

Barely Tolerable: Can you tell your father to get me out of here?

Traffic Light: I have informed my father of your predicament. Wonder Woman insisted on coming when she heard the misconduct of that Green Glow Stick.

Traffic Light : I am coming too so I can teach that green imbecile a lesson.

Barely Tolerable : I knew you cared about me.

Traffic Light : tt

[ From the Phone of Zatanna ]

Zatanna: {Picture of Lady Rouge holding up a peace sign in a JL jail cell}

Zatanna: Like father, like daughter.

Zatanna: What is it about your family that people like to throw you guys into a jail cell at a young age?

John: Tell me this is a joke.

Zatanna: I found her like this.

John: She asked you to take the picture, didn’t she?

Zatanna: Yes

John: She is trying to kill me.

John: So why is my daughter behind bars?

Zatanna: Guy Gardner just got back

Zatanna: And he didn’t get the memo about Paris.

John: I always hated him.

John: Why aren’t you getting her out?

Zatanna: She said she got it covered.

Zatanna: Uh..oh

Zatanna: Oh.

Zatanna: She’s brilliant.

John: What?

Zatanna: I will tell you later.

John: Zee

John: ZEE

John: ZATANNA!

John: WHAT IS GOING ON?!

John: Dammit Z. Just tell me.

John: I am coming over there right now.

Wonder Woman stormed to the holding cells and everyone jumped out of her way, never seeing her this angry before.

Batman followed, his cape billowing behind him dramatically, not as angry but clearly upset. Behind him was Robin who had a tight grip on his katana and seemed equally pissed as the Amazonian.

When Guy Gardner saw the two of the JL founders and a murderous Robin all with scowls on their faces, he, failing to read the room, greeted them and told them about them the wannabe ‘heroes’ in the containment cells.

“That’s why we are here to talk to you about.” Wonder Woman said with a hint of anger in her voice.

“So they are dangerous. Good thing I caught them when I did-” A hand slammed across his throat. “-right?” The Amazonian glared at him in anger.

“What you did was imbecilic. You should be thrown in there instead of Lady Rouge.”

“Lady who?”

“Lady Rouge, heroine of Paris.”

Batman walked to the cell holding Lady Rouge and let her out. Zatanna hid her smile at Guy’s flabbergasted face.

“But- but, she was destroying the Eiffel Tower.”

“If you listen or read the briefings you were given when you came back to Earth before you went on an unauthorised trip to Paris, you would have known that there are heroes operating there and one of them, Lady Rouge, has the power to restore any damage done in a fight.” Batman said.

Batman and Wonder Woman both chewed Guy Gardner out for ignoring the JL protocols.

While in the middle of it, John Constantine enters the scene. Sees his daughter beside Zatanna. Both enjoying the Green Lantern squirm in Wonder Woman’s tight grip as the two Leaguers shouted at him and Robin holding his katana menacingly with Wasp Queen yelling in the background to let her out too.

John pushes past Wonder Woman and grabs the Green Lantern by the collar and slams him against the wall and menacingly threatens Guy for what he did.

Suffice to say, Guy Gardner got the chew out of the century and from then on, follows  protocols to the T.

Chapter Text

So Marinette meets Luka pretty early on, way before Hawkmoth, due to her friendship with Juleka.

He discovers what they do, hunting down monsters in Paris by accident while he was doing his delivery job.

Since then, he is the responsible mom friend who tries to make sure they don’t die and helps out when he can.

He first met John after Marinette called her father over to deal with a very high ranking demon. She may be stubborn but she’s not stupid enough to face one from Lucifer’s court and a former Fallen angel at that, without adult supervision.

It was also the first time Marinette called her dad to help out.

Luka thought that the man’s voice and song was familiar but he couldn’t pinpoint why until he found his mom’s old albums she collected over the years during one of the rare days of spring cleaning the ship.

He vaguely recognised the man on the cover so he played it. His mom heard him playing the CD and told him about the band, Mucous Membrane. Luka ran out before he hears about how she, Jagged Stone, John Constantine and Veronica Delacrox (apparently John’s first love) were in a foursome.

He gave it to Marinette the next time she came over and told her it was something she might find interesting.

Upon seeing the cover, a smirk appeared on her face and she thanked Luka and made multiple copies of the songs. She also tracked down as many of the band's songs as she could.

The next time John was in Paris, Marinette smirked and played ‘Venus of Hardshell’ on her phone. (The wiki said it is one of the band's songs.)

Chapter Text

So John got into a little trouble with a high-ranking demon.

John proposed a small contest to get out of trouble and knowing the demon’s competitive nature. He was hoping for a contest of wits or something he could cheat his way out of.

The demon surprisingly chose video games for the contest. Specifically Ultimate Mega Strike 3.

Making John grin. It was a stupid plan. Was Sabine going to kill him if she ever found out what he was going to do? Absolutely. Was it crazy to have a lot of faith in his child’s almost magical talent for video games especially this inane one and with his soul on the line? Yes.

“What are you smiling about, Constantine?”

“I mean, video games. Certainly wasn’t expecting that. I am quite good at it. Especially that one. You know what? To make it fair on you, I am choosing my daughter to be my champion to whom I have taught my tricks of the trade.” He bluffed when it took him far longer than needed to get past the opening menu.

“Hiding behind a child, Constantine? Not a good image for the fearsome Hellblazer.”

“Well, yeah. Or are you just scared of your arse being kicked by a middle schooler.”

“Very well. I will accept your terms for the challenge.”

“One more thing, we are not going to get her soul involved in this little deal of ours.”

“How noble of you, considering the last one,” John tried not to react at the mention of Astra. The demon continued, “but fine, anything else?”

“Any mention of my daughter doesn’t leave your territory. That’s all. Now I am going to get her.”

He opens the portal to Marinette’s schoolyard after the bell for the end of the day had rung.

“Dad!!! You are here.” yelled an excited 10-year-old Marinette as she ran and hugged her dad’s legs, “But it’s not Friday yet.”

“And you are right, sweetie. But I thought it would be a nice surprise, you know. Give me a moment to talk to your mom and we can go to this nice place I found.”

She nodded excitedly and pulled her father to the direction of the bakery.

When John brought Marinette to the room where the video game contest was going to be held, Mari immediately narrowed her eyes at her opponent who was obviously a demon.

“Dad. I need to talk to you.” Marinette tugged on her father’s coat sleeve.

“Getting cold feet, little girl? You should be because I beat the best of the best in UMS 2. If it weren’t for Lucifer’s no possession rule, I would have crushed the international competitions.” Gowther taunted.

“No. I need to pee. Really bad.” She retorted.

The demon made a face, “Oh. You mortals and your fragile bodies. Very well. The bathroom is down the hallway, 2nd door on the left.”

Once the father-daughter duo was out of his hearing range, “Dad,” hissed Marinette, “What happened?”

“Well, you were there. You needed to use the bathroom and you dragged me along with you for whatever reason. I think you are old enough now to go on your own.”John dodged the question but she wasn’t having it.

“Not that. You know exactly what I am talking about, Daddy dearest. That’s a demon I am playing against. What did you do!? Maman will be mad if she finds out that you took me to Hell.”

“Hold on, squirt. I think we can discuss this. There’s ice cream in it for you if your mother doesn’t know about this little contest. And the fact that I brought you to Hell.”

Marinette simply raised her eyebrow.

“Fine. I may have done something I really shouldn’t have and now, my soul may be at stake and relies heavily on you to be better than him at that video game.”

Marinette gripped her hair in frustration and breathed in deeply for a few seconds.

Joh worriedly asked, “You okay, kiddo? Listen, please don’t back out. My soul’s on the line here. Please don’t let that demon take away your poor father’s soul.”

She loosened the grip on her hair and deeply sighed, “Fine. But ice-cream after.”

“That’s the spirit, love. And don’t tell-”

“Yes, I know. I know. Don’t tell Maman. Now get out.”

“Why?”

“This contest made me nervous and now, I really want to pee.”

“Okay, okay. Can I get you anything else?”

“Just go, Dad.”

“Alright.”

Of course, Marinette Constantine-Cheng crushed her demon opponent.

Gowther was not happy but hey, a deal was a deal and Constantine the senior gets to keep his soul for a little while longer and he will keep his mouth shut about the spawn.

A few days later, the little hell spawn pops in again on Sun Wukong’s shoulder to play UMS 3.

She’s definitely her father’s daughter as she keeps conning favours out of him by challenging him in UMS 3 and betting her parents’ sinfully delicious devil cake recipe. She keeps beating him no matter how much he practised.

Gowther was mad when she showed up with a spiky pink sidekick to send him back to hell after some teenagers had summoned him and spiked his drink with holy water. Like father, like daughter.

Chapter Text

Marinette was in London alone to investigate some paranormal activity because her father was busy, actually saving the world while Alix had to go to her father’s birthday and Juleka opted to stay home.

Running around in London going through several leads to track down something malicious took a lot out of her. So rather than popping into her father’s house to get some cash for coffee, she decided to do some magic card tricks in a very popular area of London to get some money to buy a drink.

It went pretty well for most part and a lot of people handed over their money in foolish hopes of winning the ‘bet’ she had set after her spectacular impromptu magic act. (The sleight of hand kind. She will never hear the end of it from a lot of people if they find out that she had used actual magic in public.)

Unfortunately for her, some uptight rich British blond boy exposed her and outed her as a con-artist which resulted in many people demanding back their money. She threw down one of the smoke bombs she stole from Robin to make her escape. Good thing, she hid her face well enough with sunglasses so she won’t be recognised almost immediately.

Sighing, she brushed over some of the sigils sewn into her coat to change it from a bright red to the beige of her father’s coat. She threw away the ( probably expensive ) sunglasses she had stolen from Chloe a week earlier into the trash along with the itchy blond wig.

So sue her for being a little paranoid, she had no one to get her out if she got caught. ( Jason Blood was still probably annoyed with her from her last visit to consider bailing her out. Her dad is still doing )

Marinette whistled as she went into a nearby cafe and ordered coffee which she paid with her ‘hard-earned’ money.

As she was leaving with her order, the stupid blond who exposed her walked through the cafe door. Feeling petty, she muttered a spell to make him trip.

She caught him before he fell and stole his wallet in the process. After telling the guy to be more careful and leaving a bad luck charm in one of his many pockets, she walked out feeling vindicated. That is until she felt her pockets for her own wallet and found it missing.

If she ever come across that blond brat again, she’s going to give him one free trip to hell.

Marinette continues in her investigation. She followed the thing into the British Museum.

As she was about to enter the ‘Employees Only’ area, someone grabbed her. Her reflexes kicked in and she flipped the person who grabbed her. She then see that her attacker was no other than the rich uptight blond brat.

She asked if the boy was following her. He replies and listed off her criminal offences.

He knows that she’s obviously a thief by the stolen sunglasses which is custom designed for and can only be owned by Chloe.

“And you know this. How?”

“Unfortunately, our parents had forced us to have playdates with her. I know this because she wouldn’t stop bragging about it at her seventh birthday party.”

“You would think she would stop there but she talks about it for the rest of the year until her eighth birthday and then she got a new phone. I would know that because I was unfortunately her classmate for the past 10 years.”

“My deepest sympathies.”

They bond over Chloe’s brattiness and introduced themselves. He was Felix Culpa and looked strangely familiar.

The previous incidents of disturbing her con, stealing wallets from each other was forgiven. ( but not forgotten ) Felix decides not to call the police and hear her out.

“So what were you doing breaking into the British Museum.”

“If you knew, not only would you be putting me into jail but also the mental asylum.”

“Try me.”

She admits that she was trying to hunt down a supernatural entity to which Felix laughs. He then realised that she’s not kidding and mock her for believing childish tales. Marinette simply grins and shadow travels him out of the Museum to the Louvre. When Felix realised where he is, she shadow travelled him back to an alley way showing that they are back in London and did some flashy magic.

Felix freaks out a bit and Marinette laughs as she enjoys people’s first reaction that Magic was real.

Felix after getting over his freak out session asks if he can join her in hunting down the monster.

It was the start of a beautiful friendship. And they managed to find out who was behind the mysterious kidnapping and banished the creature.

So Felix totally knows that she’s Lady Rouge since she didn’t bother to hide it and transformed in front of him, opened a portal and went to defeat the akuma of the day.

He simply sips his coffee and said to himself, “Why am I even surprised?”

He meets Alix and Juleka and somehow fits into their dynamics and becomes an honorary member of the Magic Trio.

Felix bothers Marinette to teach him how to do actual magic to which Marinette tells him no and takes him to Newcastle and about the tragedy that occurs there.

Felix then accepts the compromise of learning at least basic defence methods against the supernatural and how to spot them.

Felix goes to Paris to steal the rings but it goes a little differently.

Marinette is showing him around and at one point they were sitting down at some cafe for a break.

Alya, Rose and Mylene spots Marinette and who they thought was Adrien together on a date. 

So the next day, they decided to tease Marinette that she finally gotten over her denial and “when is the wedding?”. Stuff like that.
Marinette is just confused and replied that she wasn’t dating anyone at the moment. Adrien is also confused when the girls interrogate him about the ‘date’.

The three girls thought that the two of them were lying and hiding their relationship from the public because of Gabriel.

They overheard Marinette telling Alix that she was meeting up with someone. The three decided to catch Marinette in the act. Chloe joins them because she can’t believe that Adrien was dating someone, especially Constantine and wanted to ruin the date. Sabrina joins because Chloe joins.

Coincidentally, Marinette was meeting up with Felix at the same park Adrien was scheduled to have a photoshoot so they jumped to conclusions.

Marinette was going to get ice-cream with Felix. Chloe has a feeling that the blond Dupain-Cheng was with is not Adrien when the other girls dragged her to go catch the ‘couple’ in the act.

The others simply thought that Felix with his suit and tie and slicked back hair was Adrien who had just finished modelling. They did like the gotcha thing and that they knew that Marinette was dating Adrien.

Felix teased her a little and playing up that he’s Adrien and calling her pet names.

Marinette is just annoyed at other people wanting to interfere with her love life and Felix wasn’t helping matters.

Then, actual Adrien appears and asked if there was a class meet-up that he didn’t know about. Now, everyone gets confused as Chloe figured it out and yelled at Felix for daring to impersonate her Adrichou.

Marinette clears her throat and calmly introduced Felix to them. Adrien then tells them that Felix is his cousin and Marinette is surprised since she doesn’t know.

The two then make their leave to go get ice-cream and everyone now assumes that Marinette was actually dating Felix.

Next day, there are rumours of Marinette dating Adrien’s cousin. Marinette denies it but Alix who is a chaos maker and wanted payback at Mari for leaving her in the House of Mystery and forgetting to get her out a week ago, confirms that it is true and that the two are just in the early stages.

The skater texted Felix who joins in on the fun by showing up at lunch time with flowers and chocolate and calling Marinette by a pet name. Exaggerating the loving boyfriend role.

Marinette just gives up and goes along with it.

Later, they continue to fake-date so Felix has an excuse to bring Marinette with him to his uncle’s house and get her help to steal the rings. Marinette gets a chance to fuck with Gabriel.

Meanwhile, Gabriel is paranoid.

His nephew is up to something, he just knows it. Inviting his ‘girlfriend’ over into his home without his permission.

Unfortunately, Amelie was taken with the girl and argued with him to have her stay. The good news is that the girl is one of Adrien’s classmates and it would be easy to get any information about her from Adrien’s blabbering reports.

Bad news, the girl is a self-proclaimed ‘magician’ and according to Adrien, great at sleight of hands trick due to her relation with a famous magician, Zatanna. Whether they are truly dating or not, Felix must have brought her in as an accomplice to steal the twin rings from him which cannot happen. She is also frustratingly hard to akumatise.

He grudgingly admit that the girl possess a good taste in fashion despite her insistence to wear a red coat similar to the one sported by their local crimson menace. 

At the end of Felix’s stay in Paris, Gabriel has a fake peacock brooch in his possession and missing one ring.

Chapter Text

Thought about it and decided that Damian and Marinette and Raven in a love triangle is a small fun idea

The beginning : Raven has a slight crush on Damian > Damian has feelings for Marinette and is in denial of it > Marinette is straight out flirting with Raven who is oblivious that she is flirting.

Progression of the Love ‘Triangle’ :

Marinette one day thought about how her best friend Damian is hot and panics because she likes Raven. It’s fine to like two people at once but one of them is her best friend and she doesn’t want to ruin her friendship with him. She had to walk out of the room due to the sheer number of butterflies in her stomach when she saw the two of them together and how cute both of them looked, especially playing with her various pets who she had left with Damian while she dealt with her half-siblings who are literal demons ( story for another time ). Certified bi disaster mess. Her father is of no help, laughing at her hopeless crushes and no, she isn’t going to fabricate a scenario where she traps all of them in one place so she can tell both of them that she likes them.( A lil bit of foreshadowing ) At least, uncle Chas and aunt Z were better help. For now, she is going to maintain her distance until she can get her shit together enough to confess.

Damian , still enjoying the river of denial, finds out that the funny feeling he gets when he sees Marinette flirting with Raven is jealousy but comes to the conclusion that he likes Raven and Marinette is his competition. He actually started to like Raven as more than just a friend as he hung out more with her. He feels a little bad for Constantine since she keeps leaving the room everytime she sees the two of them together and, dare he say it, sad that she isn’t around as often and inviting him out on one of her adventures. It hits him while he was patrolling in Gotham with Nightwing that he had a crush on Marinette too. Causing him to misfire his grapple but luckily his brother saved him from falling into the horrid smelling dumpster.

Raven on the other hand, after getting over her jealousy of Marinette because of her closer relationship with Damian, has a quick gay panic and finds that she actually does like-like Marinette that way. The Constantine girl had worn down her defences and Raven was more fond of her than she was willing to admit. It hits her when she notices that Marinette hasn’t been visiting her lately and that she misses her and the way Mari made her feel when she was around. ( Mari was spending the week in Amity Park which is rumoured to be one of the most haunted towns in America. ) One of the Titans casually reveals to her that Marinette had been flirting with her the entire time . And Damian had been hanging out with her more often which she was happy about but Marinette wasn’t around as often.

There is a betting pool on who ends up with who. There is definitely lots of pining and high tensions that makes everyone in the JL frustrated.

It all comes to an end with a mission. The three ended up trapped together for 48 hours in some pocket dimension Marinette opened at the last minute so they could escape but she and Raven were both too drained to open it again to the real world.

Feelings are revealed. At the end of the 48-hours, they all avoided each other for a few days to come to terms with everything because all of them are terrible with emotions. Also they have to deal with a world-ending crisis.

They decided to meet up and talked it out after some encouragement from friends and family.

The next day, the three of them are seen at Andre’s ice cream cart, getting ice cream.

More chaos ensues when everyone in the JL thinks each of them is two-timing the other but nothing is confirmed.

It gets cleared up when Marinette walks in holding both Raven’s and Robin’s hands to a JL meeting and announces that they are dating.

Everyone loses it. The winners of the betting pool were Nightwing, Oracle and Zatanna. John had betted on Marinette and Raven because liking demons (or half-demon) is somewhat of a family trait and he didn’t think that Damian would man up to ask either of them out.

Damian's phone rang and he picked up.

Damian: Hello?

Mari: Great, Damian, by any chance do you know the best way to cover up a crime scene?

Damian, pinching the bridge of his nose: What did you do, Constantine? And I hope you didn’t forget that it’s date night.

Mari: For the record, it was an accident. A bloody and messy accident. I think I am going to be late for date night. By the way, do you know any dry cleaners who will ask no questions? This shade of red won’t hide the bloodstains as well as I hoped.

Damian: I will ask Todd for you, he probably knows how often his jackets get so much blood on them. Back to the accident, did you accidentally kill someone?

Mari: Oh, they were already dead. The ghoul was just impersonating them. Those were always so messy to kill.

Damian, sighing heavily: What do you usually do with the bodies?

Mari: So...usually I kill ghouls in dark places, deep underground, catacombs mostly. There was this one time in the forest. I just leave the body there to decompose on its own because people don’t happen to find the body until a long long time later. This time….it’s in an apartment building where its previous victim lived.

Raven, walking into the Titans living room with some snacks: Is that Mari? Did she forget that it’s date night?

Damian: How do you know it’s her?

Raven: You have a face that you make when she gets herself into trouble.

Mari, over the phone: Rae? Can you tell our boyfriend to help me? Better yet, portal him to my location.

Raven: Turn on the speaker, Damian, To Mari: Depends. What did you do?

Mari, nervously laughs: I may have... killed a ghoul and it was messier than I had intended and now the apartment looks like murder scene.  

Raven: Why don’t you get your father to help you?

Mari: No. Absolutely not. He will be mad that I took on the ghoul by myself. Look, just portal Damian over and help me clean this up before nosy neighbours come and investigate. I will owe you guys one. I can do this all on my own but the faster this place is clean, the faster we can go back to our scheduled date-

As Marinette rambles on, Raven mutes the call and looks at her other partner. Mari worriedly asks why they aren’t answering when it got quiet on the other end.

“Some days I can’t believe we are dating this disaster,” said Raven.

“At least we will never be bored. And we knew what we were getting into when we both said yes. You do remember who she is related to?” replied Damian.

“Yes. How unfortunate that she inherited those traits. So...are we going to help her?”

“Might as well. Don’t want our girlfriend going to jail on murder charges.”

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

Mari turned around to see her partners, stepped into the puddle of blood while she was rolling the body up with the carpet.

Damian told them each what to do. Mari gets rid of the body while he and Raven clean up the crime scene.

“Thanks, guys. I will make this up to you, I swear.”

“You can by letting us pick the movie for tonight.”

 Marinette’s eyes widened in horror as she knew what her partners wanted to watch. “No. Please no. I beg of you.”

“Yes. We are going to watch Miraculous Adventures of Lady Rouge and Chat Noir.” Damian said with a smirk.

“No. Anything but that movie.”

“Why do you hate it so much?” Raven asked as she used a spell to dispose of the innards of the ghoul.

“They made it without my knowing. There are so many things wrong. For starters, they didn't even get my suit right.”

“A few inaccuracies in the costume is a common mistake in the film industry.”

“Well, then that costume was the biggest mistake in the history of movies. Ladybug, they even changed my freaking name for no reason but kept it in the movie title, I call false advertising. Anyways, Ladybug is a normal girl with a normal life with a big secret which is wearing a plain, boring polka-dotted skin-tight suit that shows how well-toned she is, and she doesn’t wear anything else to cover it up. Is it practical? Probably, given how many superheroes have a preference for it, offence intended to your brothers, Damian.”

“They can take the criticism.” he replied, getting the cleaning supplies out.

“Back to my point on that suit, where is the flair? Where are the dramatic applications that come with a coat or maybe a cape? If I ever get my hands on that suit, I am going to burn it in the flames of hell. It’s too simple and plain for my taste and it’s a stupid excuse for horny males to stare at a nearly naked girl. How come Chat Noir has a near identical costume in the movie and I don’t even have my coat. It’s like my signature look. Stores ran out of red coats after the first month I showed up. Plus what even is the plot? It made no sense-”

She continued ranting as she finished rolling up the body and dragged it through a portal to who knows where to get rid of the body.

Damian and Raven shared an amused grin as they continued cleaning up the apartment. They are definitely going to see that movie.

Chapter Text

One weekend, a ten-year-old Marinette was sleeping over at the House of Mystery while her parents were going on a trip somewhere and John was looking after her.

She woke up in the middle of the night and went to get some water. Instead, she dropped into the middle of her father’s poker game with a few other special guests like the Demon Etrigan.

She sleepily bumped her head against his arm and he patted her hair in acknowledgement.

“Go back to sleep, sweetheart.”

“Don’t wanna. I want to watch you play.”

“Okay, one round and back to bed, you little rascal.”

Marinette giggled as the other players cooed or rolled their eyes at the father and daughter duo. A few were confused about John having a little girl in his house.

John had betted a hefty sum and the others were hesitant on calling. They weren’t sure if John was confident to win or bluffing like he usually does.

That is until Marinette in her innocent voice said, “Why don’t you have any good cards, Daddy? I thought you said you were good at poker.”

Everyone else raised their bets.

John sighed deeply before in a dad voice explained, “Sometimes, sweetie, you make people think you have good cards even though you don’t have any by betting really really high. That’s called bluffing. Sometimes, you can even double-bluff them into thinking that you don’t have any good cards when you have great ones.” he said as he revealed that he got a hand better than the others.

“What?!” all the other players exclaimed.

“Trickery!” A demon stood up and exposed its blades.

“Come on, mates. I can’t believe all of you fell for my ten-” “Nearly eleven,” Marinette injected, “-sorry, my nearly eleven years old daughter’s first con.”

“If she wasn’t your daughter, I would have snapped her neck for her deception, Constantine.”

“I would like to see *yawns* you try.” Marinette yawned again and rubbed her eyes.

“No taunting the demons and off to bed with you, lady luck.” John said as he nudged Marinette towards the stairs.

“You owe me half if you win.” She flashed them a familiar grin before racing up the stairs.

A 21 years old Marinette is playing poker with other Justice League members in her Lady Rouge suit.

The others had folded.

Marinette with a very good poker face due to her mask was against a very confident Green Arrow with lots of money at stake as her father sauntered into the room, a cigarette hanging off his lips, completely disregarding the no-smoking rule of the Watchtower.

John looked over her shoulder to see her cards. “One of these days, I am going to have to ban you from poker because wearing the Ladybug miraculouses for a long time gives you too much luck and everyone and their mother loses everything to you everytime.”

Marinette snickered. “You are such a sore loser. I can still win Ladybug luck or no.”

“Well, I wish the rest of you, sorry lot, the best of luck.” he said before continuing on his way.

Green Arrow looked less confident at John Constantine’s words. “I fold.”

“Hai! Told ya that I would still win Ladybug luck or no.” She reveals a very bad hand, making Green Arrow scream in outrage and cursing a storm.

Marinette smugly collected her pot, “To anyone who says that I am cheating because I wore magic lucky earrings for two years. I am currently wearing the bad luck ring to counter it for a fair game. Zatanna or any other magic user other than John can confirm.” She said, gesturing her head towards the magician who was watching them play. Zatanna nodded to confirm and not mention the many tricks Lady Rouge had deployed so far to cheat. Like father, like daughter. Plus she promised 10 percent of her winnings if the magician kept quiet. Green Arrow was rich, he will get over it.

Chapter Text

Nino knows that his childhood friend can be eccentric at times.

That is mostly due to her rebellious spirit and her equally weird father who talks of demons and monsters when Nino and Kim came over for a sleepover at Marinette’s house while he was visiting.

They both are too embarrassed to ever admit that they were scared while Marinette remained entranced by the ‘bedtime’ stories.

Over the years, he had seen her do unexplainable things that were all brushed off as magic with childlike wonder. There were a few hazy memories of a shrieking Chloe being levitated into the air and Chloe being ‘cursed’ which he brushed off as a dream.

Marinette was very interested the moment anything supernatural was mentioned. Later, Alix and Juleka joined her in that odd hobby of hers.

The three of them would disappear for a weekend and come to school on Monday with scratches and bruises, passing them off as accidents from trying out parkour.

While he and Mari has known each other for years, there are still things that are hard for him to explain or rationalise when it comes to Marinette Constantine-Cheng and the inevitable conclusion was that it just is.

That was also the reason he was hiding in some room in the Agreste mansion, hoping that she would pick up her phone.

“Ello?” Marinette sleepily answered.

“Dudette, help.” He whispered as quietly as he could into the phone, hoping whatever it was that was after them couldn’t hear him, “I didn’t know who to call. We were just goofing around and now there is something chasing us. Please tell me how to stop this.” His voice filled with fear.

On the other side of Paris, Marinette shot up, more awake. “Hold on, Nino. What happened?”

“We are at Adrien’s house…and….Kim…he brought an ouija board. I swear we were just playing around and….Oh god, I don’t know what happened to him. Please help, Marinette.” Nino heard something moving and it felt a little colder than before. The hair on his neck raised.

“Hurry.” was the last thing he said before he hung up and covered his mouth and breathe as quietly as he could. How did things go this bad?

Flashback to 10 hours earlier...

The boys were talking among themselves about something or the other and Adrien’s room came up.

It devolves into the boys planning a sleepover in Adrien’s room while his father was out of town for his upcoming trip.

Max did a little hacking so they can sneak pass the security and Adrien let the boys in through the window.

They did the usual party games and played around in Adrien’s admittedly very cool room with the Arcades, mini basketball court, rock climbing wall, etc..

Then, Kim brought out the Ouija board because his reasoning is no sleepover isn’t complete without something spooky.

Plagg sees that this is a bad idea ( He might be irresponsible at times but his holder might die from this because spirits are out of the his domain ). He tried to get Adrien to not go along with it but Adrien ignored him thinking that Plagg was just being over-dramatic.

Plagg decides that the best thing to do was to find Lady Rouge aka Marinette since he heard from Wyazz that Tikki’s holder’s father is a famous magician who dabbles in the dark arts with the title Hellblazer. Where did Pigtails live again?

So the boys are summoning something but nothing happens for a few minutes so they takes their hands off the   planchette.

And the planchette began moving on its own.

Max tried to rationalise the phenomenon while Adrien excuses himself to find out that Plagg was missing.

He thought that Plagg was messing with him so he starts insulting the spirit and the other boys tried to get him to stop. When Adrien declare to cut the ghost off from camembert, everyone is confused. Then, the spirit starts to go crazy and attacking people.

The boys spilt up and ran. They were all glad that Gabriel was away because their screams probably had woken up the entire neighbourhood.

Adrien finally realised that Plagg wasn’t making things up or it was the kwami behind the ouiji board and by taunting the entity, he had fucked up. He followed the other boys out the door.

Plagg arrived at Marinette’s place, just as she had just hung up with Nino and changing into appropriate sprit-hunting attire.

“Pigtails, I don’t have time right now but I need you to come with me. Adrien is in danger. You need to follow me right now.” Plagg stopped in his tracks as he realised what just happened and turned to face Marinette, “Wait, you knew?!”

“Knew what?”

“That Chat Noir is-” Plagg paused, “Adrien.” The kwami’s eyes widened at the implication.

Plagg was beginning to feel a sense of panic as bubbles didn’t appear when he said his holder’s name.

“Oh, that…it was kinda hard to ignore the enormous amount of destruction magic from the ring on Adrien.” Marinette said offhandedly as she shrugged on her red coat

“And Master Fu let you keep the earrings.” Plagg said with awe, eyes wide.

“Well…I am not giving him a choice about it and no one is going to do a better job than me right now. Besides, once I set my eyes on something, I am pretty stubborn in seeing it through. Burning Hawkmoth in his ridiculous suit is what I want to see.”

Plagg grinned, “Now I wished he had given me to you instead, Pigtails.”

“Marinette, we talked about this. No arson.” Tikki sleepily flew towards them. “And what are you doing here *yawns* Plagg?”

“My kit ran into some trouble with supernatural creatures. The non-Miraculous kind. I am here to ask for Pigtail’s help.”

“I was going to go anyways.” She opened her coat to reveal the inside pockets made especially to fit kwamis. “Hop in, Plagg. Tikki, go back to sleep. It won’t be long. I hope.” She said as she opened a portal to the inside of Agreste Mansion.

Tikki sleepily mumbled a goodnight as the portal closed before she flew back to the cosy bed Marinette made for her.

Meanwhile Nino closed his eyes and breathe through his mouth quietly, hoping whatever the fuck it was chasing them would disappear when a cold hand touched him.

He screamed and tried to fight off the attacker who covered his mouth with their hand and turned him around.

It was Marinette.

“Nino, don’t give us away.” she hissed. “Now, are you going to scream when I remove my hand.”

Nino shook his head and she removed her hand.

“What? How…? How did you get in? Max said that the house has like insane security.”

Marinette gave him a secretive smile, “I have my ways. So where is this creature that you have unwittingly summoned?”

“It was in Adrien’s room…..but then, it chased us and- and we split up and I don’t where it is or where the others are. Oh my God, are we going to die? We shouldn’t have listened to Kim and play that stupid game. Adrien is probably already dead.”

“Why would Adrien be dead?” Marinette doesn’t seemed concerned that one of their friends might have possibly be a corpse but also looked bored with the entire thing.

“I don’t what exactly he was talking about. Something about getting rid of camembert.”

A muffled cry from Marinette’s direction made him look up but her expression remained unchanged. “And what happened next, Nino?”

“The thing didn’t like that apparently and it started going crazy.”

“Did you get a good look at it?”

Nino described the creature as best as he could.

“Sounds like a revenant or a wraith.” Marinette said thoughtfully.

“Is there a difference?”

“Kinda? I mean, if you see one undead hell-bent on killing people, you have seen them all. But depending on the type, ways of containing or getting rid of them are different. Sometimes, we can bargain with them to go away. Luckily, most efficient way to getting rid of anyone of them is by destroying what is anchoring them here. So we need to get that ouija board.”

Marinette stood up and opened the door of the room they were in, only for the ‘ghost’ to be on the other side of the door.

Lots of glowing symbols shows up on Marinette’s coat which causes the creature to scream as if it had been burned and flee.

Marinette looked disappointed and swore in English under her breath, “Dammit another wraith. Why can’t they bloody stay in Scotland?” 

Meanwhile, Nino looked on in awe. “Woah, Dudette, how did you do that?”

Marinette pulled out a bunch of necklaces with symbols from every religion and a few protection talismans her father gifted her.

“Always useful to have a few of these on you at all times. Never know what kind of spirit you might run into. If you don’t have anything, salt will do in a pinch.” She explained.

Then, Marinette confidently walked out of the room, and Nino scrambled from his position on the floor to catch up to her.

“Where- where are we going?”

“To the kitchen, of course.”

“Why?”

“To get salt.”

“But why?”

“Did you think that I am going to do all the work? This is partially your fault and you called me here at the middle of the night when you know how hard it is for me to wake up in the mornings and get to school on time.”

“Sorry about that, Dudette. I would have been dead without you. But why the salt?”

“Salt is believed to be pure and ward off spirits….” Marinette listed why salt is the number one thing you should have on hand during supernatural situations and the zombie apocalypse. 

Embarrassingly enough, she had forgotten to refil her salt reserves before coming to the Agreste Mansion so she hoped that Gabriel is not one of those rich people who doesn’t keep salt in their house. If not, she could lock herself in the bathroom and teleport home to get some.

Marinette decides to not tell Nino that the worse thing the wraith would do was knock him out and have nightmares. And then, he will wake up in the morning with a slight headache and feeling a little emptier and depressed as they would like to feel on happiness.

( They are mostly harmless on the supernatural scale of what she has faced and the victims usually get better in a week or a year at most if the wraith had been feeding on them for a long time. Plus Nino deserve this for waking her up at 12 am to fix the boys’ mess. )

On the way to the kitchen, they met up with Kim and Max who were hiding and jumped out to attack Nino and Marinette whom they thought was the beast after them.

Unfortunately for Nino, Marinette moved out the way of the attack causing the two boys lost their momentum in their surprise and crashed on top of Nino with Kim at the top of the pile. ( For those wondering about Markov, he can be either at home charging or got lost when the wraith attacked. )

Kim recovered first and recognised the raven-haired girl. “Marinette! You are here. We are saved.”

Max looked up at his friend’s exclamation, glasses eschrewed, “How did you get in here? By yourself, there is a 5.3% success rate of getting in here.”

“It’s Marinette, Max. She’s magic and she can get into wherever she wants.” Kim stated in the same way one would say the sky was blue.

Marinette helped them up so poor Nino can finally breathe properly, “Nino called me for help. We were going to the kitchen to get some salt. This place like a maze.”

“So how did you get in here?”

Marinette smirked, “Like Kim said, Magic.”

Kim fist-pumped the air and laughed.

However, Max frowned, “That is not a definitive answer.”

“Sorry, Kante, some things are best left unanswered. Now, come on. We need to get salt.”

“Can you at least tell us why we need salt?”

“Salt, in most culture, is believed to be pure and an excellent repellent for most undead and supernatural creatures. Same with silver and iron. Those ancient people knew what they were doing. Anyways, if you want to see the light of tomorrow, we need to be armed, boys.”

Kim mock-saluted, “Aye, Aye, captain.” Marinette giggled.

They raided the kitchens for bags of salt and grabbed a few silverware just in case. ( Marinette reluctantly grabbed some camembert at Plagg’s insistence. )

On their way out, they bumped into someone and Nino threw a fistful of salt into their face.

“MY EYES.” Adrien screamed.

“Oh shit, dude, I am so sorry.” Nino tried to help his bro the best he could with a bag of salt in one hand and the other clutching a silver fork.

Kim and Max lowered their ‘weapons’ when they saw who it was and went back on guard in case the wraith came their way while Marinette looked around for something to help Adrien.

Plagg used the opportunity to get back to his holder after Marinette guide Adrien into a nearby bathroom to rinse his face while the boys stood guard outside.

Once Adrien recovered, “Marinette, how are you here?”

“A little black cat god with a stinky breath came to me while I was sleeping and told me to follow him here because he needed my help.” Marinette deadpanned.

Adrien stiffened and panicked internally. Oh my god, she knows. Master Fu is going to take Plagg away and I won’t be Chat Noir anymore. whatdoidowhatdoido

Marinette grinned and laughed, “Nah, I am just kidding. Nino called me, in the middle of the night by the way , about the trouble you boys got yourself into. You sunshine owe me a nice large of coffee with extra cream and sugar in the morning.”

Adrien nervously chuckled along with her. “The cat thing. Was it just a joke?” he asked weakly.

“Is he even trying to be subtle at all?” Marinette thought but she answered him anyways, “I was just messing with you.”

“I am going to see if the others are still alive. We will be waiting for you to get done.” she said before closing the door behind her.

Plagg came out of his hiding place, “Hey, kit.”

“Plagg, you are alive. Where have you been?”

“Of course, I am alive. It will take more than some measly soul to take a handsome cat like myself out. As for where, I went to seek the comfort of my dear camembert while you kids mess around. You can’t deny it but I told you so.”

“You were right, Plagg. I shouldn’t have ignored you.”

“That’s why you should listen to me more often.”

“I am going to get you more camembert after this.” Adrien paused in his excitement.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you do like what Marinette told me?”

Plagg laughed, ( although oblivious sunshine boy didn’t notice that it sounded a little forced ), “That was just a coincidence. Headphones kid called her as soon as he managed to find a hiding spot. Besides, some kwamis can travel in dreams like Nooroo but I am not one of them. So stop worrying about the ring being taken away if you think that pigtails might have found out who you are.”

“Thanks, Plagg.”

“No problem, kit. Now get out there before your friends starts to worry.” 

Adrien armed himself with a salt shaker and a silver spoon. ( His father might be angry if he finds out about this. ) He looked around and saw that Marinette wasn’t armed.

“Hey, Marinette. Where’s your salt? ”

Nino answered instead, “Marinette don’t need it. She has her own protection thing and it’s awesome.”

“Oh, I wanna see.” said Kim.

“It’s nothing, guys.” She replied, “Religious symbols have gained power over the years and they can keep spirits at bay. A few ‘Hail Marys’ or some prayer from a holy book can buy you some time.”

“Just show them your bling, Mari.”

She sighed and opened her coat so the boys can ooh and ahh at the many protective charms and symbols she wore.

“This is like some Supernatural shit.”

Marinette rolled her eyes but kept quiet the fact that she had visited the Universe of that show. ( Speaking of, she should sent Jack back a letter. )

Surprisingly destroying the ouji board was the easy part.

Adrien volunteered to be the bait while the others were in charge of keeping the wraith busy. They also ran into Ivan, Natheniel and surprisingly Luka along the way.

Luka gave her a look which Marinette chose to ignore as she laid out her plan.

“Mari…”

“Luka, your mother would be very proud of you. Sneaking into a mansion late at night and using a sleepover as an excuse. If she knew, she would be popping the champagne.”

“She doesn’t even know that I am here.”

“More reason for her to be proud. Besides, I will make sure to take care of what you are worried about.”

“Just know, I have your father on speed dial if it turns out to be something stupid.”

“I am not that reckless.”

“And Lady Rouge didn’t jump into the mouth of a T-Rex just last month.” ( Yes, Luka knows too. He immediately recognised the person who would be dramatic enough and take the opportunity to be a mysterious person with a terrifying power like Lady Rouge is often portrayed as .)

“I am not like her. Besides, this is a routine job at most. I am more surprised that the wraith stuck around even though it is in the presence of a Miraculous.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Apparently, Miraculous are the equivalent of a repellent to the supernatural.”

“Is that why you guys haven’t been stirring up trouble in Paris for the past year?”

Marinette grinned as she finished setting up the salt circle in an elaborate pattern that would alleged hold the wraith while buying time for her to completely destroy its source, “Yeah. We had to look outside of Paris to get anything.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Great, if the boys are ready, let’s get this show on the road.”

“MARINETTE, what do you mean look outside of Paris?”

Adrien taunts the wraith and draws it towards a guest room  where the circle was and where the rest of the boys were hiding in.

They all poked it with the silverware and threw lots of salt at it so it got inside the circle.

Meanwhile, Marinette booked it to Adrien’s room where the Ouji board was and started chanting to cut the connection between the wraith and the board.

But before she started to chant, she noticed something particular about the board. Looks like her work wasn’t done for tonight.

After cutting the connection, she took pictures of the board before asking Plagg to destroy it.

She walked into the guest room where the boys were all passed out on the floor.

“What’s wrong with my kitten?”

“He’s fine. They all are. Cutting the wraith’s tie to the mortal realm made it release the energy it had collected so far into a blast that knocked them out. They will be fine in the morning with just a slight headache with the probable side effect of seeing glimpses of each other’s memories in their dreams since wraith feeds on memories and what not.”

Marinette walked up to Luka and woke him up with a slap to the face.

“Ow. What? Mari? What happened? What did the three of you do now?”

“Do you remember anything?”

“I went with the boys in your class to sneak into Adrien’s house while his dad was out of town because Juleka and Rose were worried they might get into trouble. We were finishing a pillow fight and was going to do something else. I can’t remember what.”

“Temporary amnesia like I suspected. You boys have been missing for three days.”

“What?” Luka sat up in panic and rushed out of the room before realising he was still in Agreste Manor. He took his phone out to see only a few hours had passed.

“That was not funny.” Luka said as he re-entered the room where Marinette was dragging a passed out Ivan.

“It was to me. Now help me move them back to Adrien’s room because it’s not long until dawn and I don’t have the energy for a clean up spell.”

“What are we going to tell them when they wake up?”

“Nothing. You are going to tell them nothing.”

“What?”

“They probably won’t remember what happened in the past few hours the same as you. So that means that my powers will remain secret.”

Luka picked up both Max and Nathenial. “Why?”

“One, to better hide my extracurricular activities. And two, I promised my Maman that I will try to live a normal life as possible and that would be impossible if they knew.”

They cleaned up as best as they could and Marinette made sure that all footage of last night was erased.

She portalled herself directly above her bed as soon as she was done.

Luka pretended to be asleep when the others woke up an hour later.

They all hurried to sneak out of the house as the sun rose.

Thus, Adrien’s first sleepover ended.

The next morning, the chef hired by the Agreste was confused by how little salt was left in the bag he brought just a few days ago.

The cleaning maids were surprised at how much of a mess the usually neat Adrien had made of his room last night.

Adrien decided to make a stop at a coffee shop and bought extra large cup of black coffee with cream and sugar. He didn’t remember why exactly he felt like he had to buy it until Plagg filled him the blanks and told him that he had called Marinette last night and she asked for that in exchange for keeping quiet about the sleepover.

Adrien placed said cup in front of a tired Marinette who perked up at the smell of coffee, causing Alya to squeal at the scene.

Only for her boyfriend to later also enter with a large cup of coffee and placed it in front of Marinette.

“Why are you giving my girl a ridiculous amount of coffee?” Alya asked, completely baffled as boys continued to filed in with cups of coffee which they all placed in front of Marinette.

The boys didn’t have an answer for her but they knew that last night, they had messed with something they shouldn’t and Marinette was the one who saved them.

Chapter Text

Dick live streaming or something on Tiktok to keep up the appearance of not being the Batfam.

Tim drinking an unholy amount of coffee and gaining a lot of respect from college students. Shows them the library and makes small talk with Duke who was there.

Pretends Jason is not there in the corner to troll people into thinking that he is a ghost. Cass doing a short ballet show. You know the Wayne Family’s daily life.

He comments on how Damian is not awake yet which was unusual for him.

So being a big brother, he goes into Damian’s room without knocking to wake him up. Only to find topless Damian sleeping next to Raven in his bed. Damian woke up to Dick’s loud greeting.

“GRAYSON, GET THE FUCK OUT.”

“Sorry, lil’D, didn’t know that you had company over. So that’s what those noises from last night were.”

The chat is absolutely going crazy at this point.

Damian picked up a pillow to throw at Dick.

Then, Marinette sat up from the other side of Damian, half-asleep and wearing one of Damian’s signature black shirts. She yelled, “I am up. I am up.”

She then sees a shocked Dick.

“Go away, Dick,” she said and pulled Damian down to cuddle.

 Dick closed the door before the pillow Damian threw could hit him

Suffice to say, #likefatherlikeson and #PlayboyIcePrince was trending on Gotham twitter for a while.

Until Damian said in an ‘interview’ that he was in a relationship with both of them and would kill sue the hell out of anyone who dared to call his girlfriends harlots and other degrading names.

No one ever dares to bring up his relationship ever again.

Raven gets taken to Hell by her father, Trigon.

Marinette is friends with a few demons who know about her relationship with Raven.

So those demons were all too willing to spill the beans about Trigon’s big plans when she came knocking on their doors in fury and a deadly former assassin by her side, asking about where their girlfriend was.

Trigon is talking to Raven about how she was going to be used in his latest plan to take over the world.

Meanwhile, his front door is knocked down/ blown open by one Marinette Dupain-Cheng in her signature red coat.

Trigon grinned as he felt the intruder in his domain, “Well, looks like that Constantine girl of yours came to rescue you. I am going to have so much fun, ripping her head off in front of you.”

“No. Don’t hurt her.” Raven cried as she struggled against her bonds.

“Be patient, dear daughter. You will meet her soon. Maybe with less of her than you remembered.” Trigon vanished with a laugh.

“NO! NO! NO! FATHER!!!” Raven screamed after him.

Marinette is thrashing Trigon’s minions, using every Miraculous she has and every trick she knows when Trigon shows up.

“You are rather good. For a mortal.”

“Why. Thank you.” Marinette cheerily replied while sticking a paper talisman to a demon’s face. Her tired body struggling to keep up against the horde of demons told a different story.

“Well, let me put you out of your misery, pest.” Trigon said as he threw a bolt of lightning at her.

She expertly dodged it and it hit another demon instead. She grinned at him, “I will also take that as a compliment.”

“You are just a foolish child. What makes you think you can defeat me?”

“And you are a piece of shit who just got awarded the worst father of the century.” Marinette retorted before grabbing the demon who was coming behind her, “Of course, I can defeat you. With the power of love. And a shit ton of firepower.”

She sat the demon she was holding on fire and threw it at Trigon

Trigon just batted it away.

The battle continued for a few minutes. Marinette was feeling the effect of using all the Miraculous in her possession. 

“Hah. Give up. It’s only a matter of time before you lose. You are already weakened by the overuse of the Miraculouses.”

Marinette just gave him a smile. She stood where she was and smiled. And it wasn’t just a smile. It was a familiar Constantine smirk that said ‘Shit is about to blow’.

Then, the room they were in started shaking.

“What did you do?”

“I am just the distraction, Trigon.” Her smirk widened into a grin as Raven in rage mode burst into the room. “And you forgot that me and Raven have a wonderful boyfriend.”

Damian showed up besides with a few Miraculous of his own.

Fade to black as Trigon gets his ass kicked by his daughter and her two partners.

BONUS:

John is just chilling at a bar when the bartender gets possessed by Gowther.

“What do you want?”

“Do you know that your spawn is in hell?”

“I am aware she takes unsupervised visits from time to time but it’s not like I can stop her. She’s too bloody stubborn to let something like being grounded stop her.”

“Yeah, about that. She just lost her shit and is basically going to war against Trigon to get her girlfriend back.”

“She’s WHAT?”

“Thought you might appreciate knowing.”

“You just love being a snitch to get her in trouble since she beat you in that new video game.”

“That too.” Gowther cheerfully agreed.

“She’s in bloody trouble, alright. I am telling her mother.”

“Ooooh. Calling in the big guns, are you?”

“Now, shoo before I bring out the Latin and the holy water. I have a child to go save from her own stupidity.”

Bartender put his hands up in surrender. “Okay, John.” Black eyes disappear as the eyes roll to the back of the body’s head.

John leaves a few bills as he went to make a call to Sabine.

Chapter Text

Marinette was face down on the couch as her dad stood in the middle of the living room, shirtless and painting some concoction on himself for a ritual.

Marinette groaned for the nth time that day.

John took that as his cue to finally ask what was wrong, “Sweetheart, what are you doing here?”

Marinette slightly turned her face towards him so her voice wasn't muffled.

“Hawkmoth is being a bitch again.”

“Why haven’t you stopped him then? You already know who he is. Get the cops. Knock down his door and arrest him then.”

“You know why. It’s just circumstantial evidence on my part.”

“You don’t have to find a cure for his wife, you know. Take the matter into your own hands if you don’t want cops involved.”

“I am trying to save Emilie for multiple reasons and top of the list is to make sure Adrien has at least one parent when this whole mess is over.”

“I know he is your nemesis’s son but why do you care so much about him?”

“Because he is also Chat Noir.”

John stopped what he was doing. “Say what now?”

Marinette realised that she had given her father more ammo to complain about Master Fu.

“Are you telling me that the old fool gave one of the most important Miraculous to the Butterfly Man’s own son?!”

“To be fair, before he got taken away by the Order, I didn’t know for sure that Hawkmoth was Chat Noir’s dad.”

“How come I didn't know about this until now?!”

“I thought you knew.”

“All you told me was that he was a boy in your class!” John sighed. “Fine. Anything else I need to know about?”

“Nothing I can think of.”

“Then, why are you still here? I have to finish painting over my body for the cleansing ritual and I can’t do that with you around.”

“I am bored. My friends are either out of town or busy with their own thing. Damian and Raven are on that Teen Titans mission in the next galaxy for 10 days. And I hit a dead end on the cure.”

“Then go to hell or something. I am sure you can find something to entertain yourself with. That’s what I do sometimes.”

John went back to painting before he realised what he had done when it had gotten too quiet.

He looked up to see his daughter gone from the couch.

He hesitated before deciding that his daughter is a more responsible person than he was and probably won’t get into much trouble.

That was his mistake.

5 days later, John was at a Justice League meeting when his phone rang.

The number was 666 which was worrisome because it was Lucifer’s number.

It wouldn’t shut even when he took the battery out.

“Constantine, turn off your phone.” Batman ordered.

“Look, mate, I am trying but the bloody Devil is calling me.” John showed his phone battery out of the phone and the screen that is still showing 666. “He will probably keep ringing until I answer.”

“Then, answer and get it over with.”

"This is the bloody Devil, Bats. Who knows what he wants with me?"

"Just answer the damn call." Batman said, at the end of his patience.

John reluctantly accepted the call.

“Hello, your Majesty. Can you hurry up on what you need? Because I am in the middle of something here.” John answered.

“Ah. Constantine Sr. You finally picked up.” Lucifer’s smooth baritone is heard by everyone in the conference room, “You already know who I am so I will keep this short.”

“What do you want?”

“I am calling on behalf of Hell to tell you to come pick your daughter up.”

“Wut?”

“Your daughter, Lady Rouge. She refuses to give me her actual name. She is currently in my castle dungeons although I am not sure how long that will be true. She has caused quite a bit of trouble in my realm and well, my subjects are not happy.”

“What did she do?” John sighed, already feeling a headache and dread at what his daughter had done. Damn, he was beginning to understand why Batman sighed so much when his kids are mentioned.

There was a bit of paper rustling from his end. “Oh my me. There is quite a list of complaints but from the paper I am reading from. The gist is that your hellspawn had made a deal with a lot of demons.” Lucifer seemed to be suppressing his laughter.

“She appeared to have found a way to abuse each of those deals and made a deal with another demon to take her place in the deal. There are quite a few loops. Unless the perfect conditions are fulfilled, every demon is stuck trying to hold up their end of the deal. There is an UNO game made up of at least 20 demons that is never going to end because they all made a deal that the game wouldn’t end unless a red Zero is placed down and she appeared have given all of the red zeros to Mammon who is tasked to guard it with his life unless someone manages to get all the golden bust of the Founding fathers of the United States and exchange them for the cards. Except Alexander Hamilton is being moved every hour and George Washington is part of a prize pool for a Super Smash Bro Tournament where Gowther has to win every game and when he wins the tournament restarts. You get the idea.”

“Can’t they just… stop?”

“They could stop but they would lose the souls they all had collected till now. You know how prideful demons are. At least one third of the demon population is stuck in what they are now calling the Ouroboros deal and the soul stock market crashed 3 times since she arrived. Once literally.”

( Ouroboros is that symbol of the snake eating its own tail.)

John was quiet for a minute and said, “Please tell me that’s it.”

Lucifer laughed. The bastard. “Sorry, Constantine. That would be a lie and I don’t lie.”

John groaned. It had been five days since he last saw Marinette. Since Hell ran on a different time, 5 days could be either 5 weeks or 50 years in Hell’s time.

Fuck, even Batman was giving him a look of pity. A few other Leaguers had gotten popcorn to watch his hair turn grey in real time.

“What else?”

“Let’s see. Trigon’s territory is a bit of a mess now but he can’t do anything because most of his minions are part of the Ouroboros deal. There is a pack of hellhounds and wild animals loose in Dis. Your daughter was caught five times and escaped each time. She was last caught because she was waiting in line for boba tea.”

John took a moment to use those calming breathing techniques he heard worked. “You sound too happy for a monarch whose realm got thrown into chaos.”

“This is the most entertained I have been in years . And I also scheduled a vacation in LA for the next year or so. Plenty of time for Beelzebub to get it right. I can always extend my vacation if Hell still isn’t fixed by then.”

“So why are you calling me?”

“Your daughter made a deal with me to get her out of Hell in one piece, mentally unscarred and soul intact in exchange for information on how to break the Ouroboros deal. She is quite the evil mastermind.”

“I suppose it’s not going to be easy and very beneficial for her.”

“The conditions are either to make Emilie Agreste wake up again or make sure Gabriel Agreste isn’t allowed to send out any akumas or amok for 5 years. The problem is that the demon she made this deal to had a third condition to fulfil and because they chose to do the third, the entire Ouroboros deal started.”

“Oh no. What was the third condition?”

“To disguise themselves as any inanimate object. Change location and appearance once every twelve hours and not be found for 5 years in Earth’s time. If they get found, they have to fufil one of the other conditions. If they succeed any of the conditions, they would get a soul from her.”

“Whose soul did she put down for all this trouble?”

“A girl named Chloe Bourgeosis apparently. Apparently, the demon bought the lie that it was her real name. Essentially she is inconveniencing nearly half of Hell unless they solve her pest problem or they are stuck in a loop for the next 5 years. And all we would get out of it is some bratty girl’s soul.”

“I definitely didn’t teach her that. I will come pick her up in a few hours or so. Tell her  to sit still in the dungeon.”

“Sure. But make it fast.”

John put the phone away and turned to Zatanna. “Bottle of the strongest whiskey you have.”

She gave him a sympathetic smile and handed him a glass of water. Traitor.

Chapter Text

Marinette is at the Mystery House to do something and sipping coffee since she didn’t get much sleep last night due to an akuma. She wasn’t paying any attention to her surroundings, too tired to register and walking past the dark haired boy who was nervously sitting on the couch in the living room.

A moment later, she realised that there’s a kid in the house of Mystery.

She backtracked and the kid was now trying to avoid her gaze.

Marinette slapped herself, much to the boy’s confusion, and muttered, “It’s not a dream then.”

The boy nervously looked at her and said, “hey…?”

Marinette blinked and realised that she was supposed to say something.

“Bonjour. I mean, hi. I am Marinette. Sorry, it’s just that we don't get many visitors at the house. Who aren’t demons or other non-human entities. Especially kids cause Dad’s bad around them. And I am a little tired right now and I am babbling like a moron. So what’s your name?”

“Um…” he hesitated but less apprehensive than before.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. Fae rules are like that. Are you okay with me calling you kid instead? Or do you prefer something else?”

“No, it’s okay. I am Billy. Billy Batson. It’s just weird since I didn’t think that anyone else lives here besides Mr. Constantine.”

“I don’t. I just pop in from time to time.”

“Oh…But um…how do you know Mr. Constantine?”

“He’s my Dad.”

“He’s married?”

Marinette snorted, “Hell no. I am a product of a one-night stand. My mom and him had a friends-with-benefits kinda deal. My mom is married to someone else. They run a bakery together.”

“I didn’t think that he would be someone’s dad.” Billy said. “He looks so… irresponsible.”

Marinette snorted, “I know, right? He doesn’t strike people like a father figure. So, Billy, what brings you here to this House of Mystery .”

“He’s Captain Marvel.” John’s voice came from the side room and there were sounds of him moving stuff to find something.

“Who?”

“You know, the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Champion of Magic.” Billy explained, finding it weird introducing himself like that.

“Oh. Shazam’s successor. The asshole finally picked someone.” Marinette said.

“You knew the Wizard?”

“I met him once. Wu Kong made a wrong turn and we landed on the Rock of Eternity. Man, it was even more awkward when Tikki came out and basically threw hands with the guy.”

“Who’s Tikki?”

Said Kwami came out from her hiding place in Marinette’s pocket. “Hi, my name is Tikki and I am a kwami. I give Marinette her powers to become Lady Rouge.”

“Isn’t Lady Rouge that Parisian hero that made Green Lantern cry?”

“It wasn’t me. Well, it was partly my fault but having both Wonder Woman and Batman being angry at you would be terrifying for anyone.”  Marinette tapped Tikki’s head. “And Tikki, never seen you this excited to reveal my identity to someone?”

“Marinette, I have to make a good impression on the new Champion. It was a tragedy what happened to the old one.”

“You know about Black Adam?” Billy asked

“Yes. His story is quite a sad one. Teth-Adam was a great Champion and fought alongside one of my holders. Shazam locked him away over a misunderstanding.”

“Ah yes. The classic old tale about foolish old men who dump all of their responsibility on children and can’t even give simple guidance and talk in the vaguest riddles like they know everything because they have lived for so long. I know that Shazam had died but I thought he would have the common sense to have his Champion be someone older.”

“I can take care of myself. I know what I am doing.”

“Billy. I am sure you can but you shouldn’t have too. Those old men were just cowards, afraid of the consequences of their actions, covering up their mistakes as best as they could and when it finally came back to bite them in the ass. They put the task of cleaning up their messes on us. We would have lived normal lives and never have to see the horrors we have seen or make the hard decisions at such a young age when we should have been having fun.”

“Oh. I never thought it was like that. Being Captain Marvel made me believe that someone like me who is just a nobody that I can save the world.”

“You aren’t wrong for thinking like that. Having powers is cool and I have taken that for granted before I got Tikki. You are a better person than me, Billy Batson. But still it was wrong of them to give us the tools that would be bad in the wrong hands and have us fight their war for them.”

“Who was your wizard?”

Marinette laughed before answering Billy, “Have you ever heard of the Miraculous before?”

“A little.”

“Well...” Marinette told Billy about the situation in Paris and Master Fu.

The two talked about their respective hero work and bond while John searched for whatever he needed to help Billy.

Marinette gave Billy a card with her number and told him to call her if he ever needs help.

“I will come over wherever you are. Immediately. No questions asked.”

“But why?”

“Well, you are a kid and I just emotionally adopted you as my little brother now so you can’t get rid of me. Besides, I am easier to get hold of than my dad if you ever need a bit of expertise on a few magical matters.”

Then, John came in with a thick book in his hands and looked between the two of them, “Found it. Did you two have a nice playdate?”

“Billy is my new brother now.”

“I am not going to adopt him. He already has his own family and one hell spawn is enough for me to deal with.”

“I love you too, dad. Don’t be afraid to ask for a favor, Billy. I have to go. I have school in -like-” She looked at the grandfather clock that showed time in another dimension where time runs backwards, “-an hour.”

“Don’t run just on stamina potions for three days straight again and go to sleep once school is over. I will call your mother to check on you. I know you came here to get your hands on the ingredients for it.” John called after her.

“Okay. Bye. Love you. See ya” Marinette said as she stepped through the portal.

John turns back to Billy, “Kids, amirite? That’s why you have to use protection.”

“I’m twelve.”

“But she’s right, Billy.” John added, “You need someone who’s an expert when you find yourself in a pinch. As much as I hate to say it, she’s good at the family ‘business’. Besides, I might not be available all the time. She can teach you magic too when I can’t be bothered.”

First time, Billy called Marinette. She portaled to his location immediately and found Billy as Captain Marvel in the phone booth, awkwardly standing inside as the area they were in was in chaos.

“So what happened?” She asked in her Lady Rouge suit.

“Um, who are you?”

“Whoops. Sorry.” Marinette removed her mask. “It’s me, Marinette. This is my hero costume and the magic makes me unrecognizable by other people. I go by Lady Rouge.”

“Okay.”

“So what’s up? And why is everything on fire?” she asked as she put her mask back on.

Billy explained. There is a demon on the loose. Somebody in Fawcett had the bright idea to summon one but didn’t do the ritual right. He tried everything but the demon bastard was slippery to catch.

Every time he is close to catching the demon, there will be people nearby who will be in danger so Billy has to let the demon go in order to save the civilians.

“At this point, I need some help.” He sheepishly ended. “Hope I wasn’t a bother to you.”

Lady Rouge reached up and ruffled his hair, “I made a promise to you, kid. You call for whatever you need and I will come. Now, let’s go catch that bastard.”

They set a trap and Captain Marvel tries to lead the demon towards it. It gets trapped.

Lady Rouge being dramatic steps out the shadow, “Well done, Cap. Just as planned.”

When the demon caught sight of who was helping Captain Marvel, it shrieked, “IT'S YOU!!”

Lady Rouge tilted her head confused, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I have ever met you before.”

“You don’t need to know my name. I am leaving. I swear I will never come to the human side ever again. Please let me go. Please.” It begged.

Lady Rouge just rolled with it. “How can I trust you to keep your promise?”

“I swear on my name. I swear on everything I have. Please. Please let me go.”

Lady Rouge took the demon’s hand, used a sharpie to draw something that looked nearly phallic and chanted a spell that glowed bright. The demon cried louder.

“Don’t be a baby. That was a simple tracking spell. It doesn’t hurt.”

“You used angelic runes!”

“Oops. But now I will know if you come upside again. Oh, by the way, tell all your friends down there that my sentence was lifted.” She said before opening a portal to Hell under the demon.

Captain Marvel stared at her.

“What?”

“Why was that demon so scared of you?”

“Nearly every low-level demon thinks I am a demon. High-ranking ones won’t say shit because they know how much of a headache it would be if it got out that I was just a human or because they think what I do is entertaining.”

“That’s kinda messed up.”

“It’s hell, kiddo. Of course, it’s kinda messed up. I can give you a tour of the place one day.”

“It’s fine.” Billy didn’t want to go to where demons lived willingly. “What did you mean that your sentence was lifted? Are you banned from going to hell or something?”

Marinette looked away and muttered something quickly in French.

“What?” The infinite wisdom of Solomon meant he could understand what she said but he wasn’t sure he heard it right.

“I was grounded because I might have… caused a ruckus down there a while ago.”

“What did you do?” he questioned.

“It’s a long story. You don’t need to know.”

“I heard something about the crashing of the stock market and loopholes.”

“There were a lot of things one after another. First, my girlfriend was taken away by her demon father and he was a high-ranking one so it caused a lot of buzz. For the next few months, I was getting tired of fighting akumas so I did a lot of.. Troublemaking for the denizens of hell for stress-relief and long story short, I fucked over Hell’s governing system and the Devil himself made a deal with my father that I won’t be able to go to Hell for my entire lifetime so they wouldn’t have to deal with me.”

“You… you got a lifetime ban from hell.”

“Yes, when I die, I might go to hell but as long as I am living and breathing, I can’t step foot in there.”

“But you told the demon that you were coming back.”

Lady Rouge’s mask widened and Captain Marvel knew that she was grinning under her mask. “That’s the fun part. They don’t know that. And they are going to send Hell into a frenzy because they are scared of me returning.”

“You are basically Hell’s bogeyman.”

Lady Rouge laughed. “Oh my kwami, that sounds awesome. I am putting that on my business cards.”

Chapter Text

A girl in a red coat walked into Amity Park, her nose stuck in a book.

She bumps into one Sam Mason, making the goth drop her pot of foxgloves which she managed to get her hands on.

"Oh, I am so sorry. I should have watched where I was going." The girl in the red coat apologised as she dusted off her book and somehow managed to fit it inside her coat's inner pocket.

"It's fine."

The girl held out the pot of foxgloves which Sam swore was broken and dirt scattered a few minutes ago.

"I apologise all the same."

"Well, I haven't seen you around here before."

"Oui, I am just travelling around. Amity Park, world's most haunted town. Thought I would pop in and see if it's true."

"Cool. The name's Sam. Sam Mason. What's yours?"

"Marinette Constantine. My friends call me Red cause-" She twirled around, her red coat swishing along to make her point.

The two girls chatted and found similar interests. Especially the occult and witchcraft side of things.

Sam wouldn't ever imagine the bubbly girl to have an interest in the dark arts.

They exchanged numbers and Sam jokingly said, "If the ghosts don't scare you away, let's meet up again."

"I am immune to fear. So see ya around."

Sam really likes this girl.

"Hey, Sam. What took you so long?"

"I met someone."

"Oh who?"

"A tourist. And she's into the dark arts. We plan to meet up. that is if she is going to stick around." The blush on her cheeks didn't go unnoticed.

"Oooh. Someone's got a crush. Was she pretty?"

"She got that whole mysterious thing going for her, ya know? And her voice. She must be French or British because her voice is just..."

"Uh huh. Go on."

Sam shyly tucked a hair behind her ear and forced to look away.

"Her name is Marinette. Marinette Constantine. She's great. "

"Oooooh. Tell me more."

"Yeah, I feel like I heard that name before." Danny said.

"Marinette is not that common of a name." Sam pointed out.

"I mean Constantine. I just couldn't put my finger on where I heard that."

"Now that you mention it. It does sound familiar." Sam said.

"She says that she's here." Sam said, looking at the text she got from Marinette. She looked up to see a red coat approaching the entrance of Nasty Burger

"Guys, be cool." Sam told the boys.

"Sure, we wouldn't want to act lame in front of our friend's crush."

"Shut up.” Sam hissed before waving her hand, “Hey, Marinette. We are over here."

"Hey, Sam. Nice to see you again. So this is Tucker and Danny, right?"

"Yup. Did Sam tell you how cool we are?"

"Oh, so you are the idiots she talked about."

"Dude, not cool." Tucker said to Sam.

"I am going to go order. Do you have any restrictions?" Danny asked.

"Holy water." She deadpanned. Making Sam laugh.

"Hah. I am going to use that from now on."

"I can’t place your accent. You sound French."

"I was live with my Mom in Paris. But my dad lives in London so every break I spend some time there. I also visit my friends on this side of the pond when I can. That’s probably why my accent sounds all over the place."

"Are you travelling alone?"

"Not really. I have a friend with me. I am just here to see a ghost."

"Stick with us and you might. We are like ghost magnets."

Marinette moved closer towards Sam, causing her to turn pink.

"Then, I am going to stick around if you don't mind."

"Not at all."

They chatted and watched the Buzzfeed Unsolved episode where Marinette and her friends pranked the Ghost Boys.

"Holy shit. That was fucking creepy."

"You wanna know the best part?"

"Yeah?"

"After filming and they packed up, we slipped off without saying anything. So they probably wondered if we were actual ghosts or just really committed pranksters."

"Oh my Ancients." They all laughed.

"This is the hardest I laughed in a while. If you don't mind spilling a few secrets."

"Depends on what you want to ask."

"Can you do the neck Twisting thing?"

"Well, it's not a full 360 and I was slightly sat in the way that doesn't make it obvious I was sitting facing left."

She gave a demonstration that has the Amity Trio clapping.

"How do you do that?"

"I know an acrobat and my aunt, she's actually a friend of my Dad but I call her Aunty Z. Aunty Z is a magician. She taught me how to do magic. The sleight of hand kind, not magic magic." Marinette nervously clarified.

Marinette takes out a deck of cards. “Wanna see a few tricks?”

“Cool.”

Marinette somehow moves to the topic about Danny's parents during the card tricks. Doesn't push when he looks uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, there was a ghost attack.

Danny rushes off to the bathroom because ghost senses.

Sam and Tucker told her to run and rushed off to see if they could help Danny.

Danny's not doing too badly as he and Skulker duked it out in the parking lot.

Annoyingly, the bounty hunter and Johnny 13 had teamed up.

So when the other ghost showed up, it became a tougher fight.

Then, Marinette calmly exited Nasty Burger like it was normal that there were ghosts fighting in the parking lot. Skulker sees an opportunity for a hostage and dived bombed at her.

Danny screams for Marinette to get away.

Marinette ignores him. Calmly turns her back at the approaching ghost.

Then, her coat ate the ghost.

The lot is silent as Johnny stared and then, noped the fuck out of there.

"Marinette! Are you okay?"

Danny stopped a foot away from Marinette in case her coat ate him too.

"Dude, what the heck was that?"

"My coat is magic and I think I should probably explain something."

They hear screaming from inside her coat.

"What is that?"

Marinette chuckled darkly, "My afternoon snack."

The screams turned louder.

"I am joking. Geez, the whole eating souls thing is just a rumour." Marinette took out a jar with Skulker in his pipsqueak form inside it. Which he can't seem to phase through because of the weird symbols drawn on it.

"So how do you guys usually take care of them?"

"Usually we put them in a thermos, not a jar and throw them back where they belong."

"Do you mean through the portal in the Fentons’ basement?"

"Yeah. Wait. How do you know about the portal in Danny’s basement?"

"Well…. A little bit of breaking and entering never hurt anyone. Before you ask, I didn't know how you lived there, Danny."

"It’s fine" Danny froze as he realised, "Hold on. How did you know it’s me?" He asked in a slightly panicked tone.

"Ah. Right. I was supposed to be the clueless friend. The type that doesn't question your lame excuses which is your alibi for superheroing. Guess I just blew my cover too. So how about Danny change back and we can take this somewhere less public?"

Takes her to Sam's house (because it is the nearest)

"Oh. You're rich." Marinette commented.

"Is that a problem?"

"No. Just found it funny because half of my friends are made from money."

"What?"

"Yeah, one of my classmate is a model. His cousin is one of my best friends and heir to a famous British entertainment company. My other best friend is daughter of a rock star."

"So lame excuses. That's what gave it away?"

"Well, there was some background research I did. The breaking and entering. Also from one superhero to another, it's easy to spot a lie when I see one. That's what basically cinched it for me."

"Which hero are you?"

"I will tell you if you promise to never ever step into Paris."

"Why?"

Marinette gives a rundown on the Hawkmoth situation.

"Lemme guess you are one of the superheroes working there."

"Would be really awkward if I was Hawkmoth. I would just need one akuma to take the heroes down. He's just an idiot with a magic artefact and really underutilizing it. The real reason the problem is dragged out is because there is some complication around his identity."

“Meaning?”

“He’s a rich asshole who has the mayor under his thumb.”

Danny recognised that feeling. “You have one too?”

Tucker tapped away on his PTA to find more about Marinette’s alter ego. "Oh my ancients, her costume is so cool."

"Damn. How does no one think that it's you?" Sam asked because of the very iconic red coat that Lady Rouge wore.

"Red coats were really in fashion in the first month or so. Afterwards, people just think I am a big lady rouge fan."

"What is your reason for being here?"

"My dad grounded me from going to Hell so I am trying to find something else to occupy my time." Marinette casually said.

The trio sat there in silence. “Say what now?”

"You are that demon child!! The one who turned hell upside down and turned it into.... even more hell" Skulker yelled from inside his jar.

"Oh so you heard of me."

"Of course, we do. The Infinite Realms and Hell are connected. We get rumours about the crisis it is going through."

“There is a gate to Hell from your world?” Marinette questioned the ghost.

“There is. I, Skulker, have hunted many from that realm.”

“Yes. And where is the entrance to Hell?”

“Wait a minute. What do you mean Hell? Like H-E-double hockey sticks. Hell?”

“Yes.”

“Is it real? With demons and stuff?”

Marinette smiled as she explained how Hell was real.

She had a fun afternoon learning more about ghosts on a more scientific level and learning the culture of the afterlife.

There was an unwanted attack from Vlad in which Marinette used her powers to seal him in a jar like Skulker and tossed him into Hell. Just the first level because she was not that mean. The rules just stated that she can’t step foot in Hell, tossing her unwanted junk into the place was a fun loophole she loved exploiting.

Sadly things come to an end as Marinette has to leave and return home.

The Trio gets together to say goodbye to her, somewhere they won’t be seen.

“Bye, Marinette. Hope we get to see you again.”

“Next time, I might bring my birdies here with me to meet you guys.”

Sam froze at the affectionate nickname. “Birdies?”

“Yeah. My boyfriend and girlfriend. Their hero names are Robin and Raven so I like to call them my birdies.” Marinette replied with a lovesick grin.

“Oh... I see.” Sam tried to show how heart-broken she sounded. She forced a smile. “It would be awesome to meet them.”

Then, Marinette hugged Sam. “Thank you for a wonderful time, Sam.”

“You’re welcome.”

Sam watched as Marinette said bye to Danny and Tucker respectively. She was fine. She’ll be fine.

Marinette summoned a portal and stepped through, waving at them.

After she was gone, Danny turned to Sam with a worried look. “Sam, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Sam sighed. “Of course, the most perfect girl in the whole world is taken.”

Imagine the Teen Titans on a mission. Marinette tagged along because the mission had something to do with a group of rich people messing with rituals that they don’t understand.

Raven is handy with anything demonic but Marinette is more well-versed in the different types of magic and supernatural things like ghosts, vampires and werewolves.

Back to the group of rich people messing about, they were trying to get more powers via making a deal with the Ghost King.

The Teen Titans didn’t manage to stop them in time from completing the ritual.

Only… there was a teeny tiny small surprise they didn’t expect.

The Ghost Realm had a recent change in Management. Aka Danny became the Ghost King.

“DANNY?” Marinette exclaimed as she kicked a henchman in the crotch.

Danny was minding his own business and doing his homework for once when he felt this tug in his chest.

He suddenly found himself woozy and transformed in a desperate attempt to fend himself against a potential threat.

He was shocked to find himself in a creepy lair surrounded by people who dressed like they were in a cult and heroes. It was a pleasant surprise to see the iconic red coat fighting among the heroes.

“MARINETTE?”

“You know the Ghost King, Marinette?” Nightwing asked. Why was he even surprised by this turn of events?

“I met Danny last summer but I didn’t know that he was the bloody Ghost King .” She gave Danny an accusing glare as she said the title.

“This was a very recent development.” He replied with his hands raised.

“Well, want to kick some ass with us?” She offered.

Danny grinned which had all the cult people quivering. “Hell yeah. Get me out of this circle.”

“Nightwing, if you please.” Marinette asked.

“I trust you, Rouge.” Nightwing flipped his way over and used his escrima sticks to rub part of the circle out, releasing the ghost.

Danny gave him a thankful grin as plasma blasts formed in his hands.

Chapter Text

John Constantine was watching Marinette while Sabine went on a date with Tom.

He looks away from one moment to get some diapers and the next thing you know a demon is in the living room playing peekaboo with his 8 month old daughter.

He stands there in shock and scared of how the demon got through the wards he had set up. Said demon looks up to see the John Constantine so they are also scared.

There is a few seconds where the two of them just stares at each other like the spiderman meme while Marinette crawls over to her dad and tug on his coat to get his attention and introduce him to her new playmate.

John was the first to recover and picks Marinette up and use a spell to trap the surprisingly low level demon in a barrier.

“How did you get in here, demon?” He threatened the white furred demon. It simply wasn’t possible for a low level one like him to get in.

“Woah, toots, I was just walking around the hotel when I was summoned and little girlie over there said I was her teddy. I was just playing with her, that’s it, I swear. Stealing kids souls aren’t really my thing.”

The demon had white fur so it was logical for a toddler to assume that he could be an ‘imaginary friend’. However, the fact that he was dressed in striped pink and white stripper clothes ruined the effect of innocence.

“You were summoned?”

“Yeah, I felt the pull and instead of giving someone the night of someone’s life, I got a little girl who wanted to play peekaboo.” The demon pointed his thumb to somewhere behind him.

John looked and saw a simple summoning circle on the floor, crudely drawn with a bright pink crayon. His summoning book opened beside it. The word 'succubus’ was in bold on the top of the page.

He had enchanted the book to be toddler-proof to prevent scribble. So Marinette must have found another way to amuse herself.

“What’s your name?”

“Angel Dust.”

“Like the drug?”

“Yeah. Like the drug”

“Drug.” Little Marinette repeated.

John’s face paled in horror.

“The missus isn’t going to be too happy about that new word.” Angel Dust pointed out.

“Don’t bloody tell me.” John snapped.

15 years later….

“Hey, Angel, how did you first meet me anyways?” Marinette asked as she played against Husk and she wasn’t definitely cheating , “One night stand with my dad go awry? You got into trouble and he helped you out so you had to repay a favour by babysitting me?”

Angel Dust sipped his drink, he had offered the kid but she told him something about underage drinking, “You summoned me.”

“Really? But Dad only told me about summoning when I was twelve and I knew you way longer.”

“You were just a baby when you did it. Daddy left some of his books lying around and you being a little rascal copied out the pwetty drawings with crayons. Needless to say, it was the most hilarious shit I had ever seen.”

“I am surprised that Dad didn’t exorcise you on the spot.” she placed down a card that made Husk growled.

“I don’t know how but every time your dad so much as mention exorcism you cried. He let me stayed until you fall asleep and just sent me on my way.”

“That’s it?”

“Why?”

“It was surprisingly wholesome. I was expecting more threats honestly.”

“There were a lot when you started repeating 'drug’ over and over again every time you saw me. Satan, it was worth dealing with all the dirty diapers I had to change when I had to babysit you brat.”

“What did you get out of babysitting me?”

Meanwhile, Husk was swearing and yelling that she was cheating.

“My rates were a gram of drug for every hour and I get to drink his whisky. Hell has shit liquor.”

“So why is one of my earliest memories is of you shoving me into Alastor’s arms and running away?”

Alastor showed up behind her, making Marinette jump a foot in the air, “I would assume that Angel thought that it would be hilarious to shove a baby into my arms to see what my reaction would be. Fortunately for you, my dear, you are such a delight to be around. No one appreciated my singing like you did.”

“I really loved your lullabies of one hundred and one ways to kill someone and the right way to cut someone open. Also your retelling of Hansel and Gretel where the children get eaten. Actually, I had nightmares if I so much as see a candy.”

“I am glad you liked it.” he said before walking away. “And you really should stop tormenting poor Husk like that.”

“Lucifer damnit, I knew it.” Husk looked murderous.

“Uh oh.” Marinette dropped her card and ran out the front door. “Bye Angel it was nice talking to you.”

“Bye, kiddo.” Angel chuckled as Husk rammed into the magic wall that suddenly appeared and disappeared a moment later.

Chapter Text

Marinette, aged 9.

An enemy of John and picked her up from school.

Marinette followed them.

Five hours later, John knocked on the door of the evil guy who kidnapped Marinette.

A very dishevelled sorcerer opened the door and once he saw who it was, he screamed, “Take her back. Take the demon child away.”

“Excuse you, my Marinette is a darling angel.”

The sorcerer was already gone and came back to thrust Marinette into John’s arms.

“Hey, sweetheart. What did Mommy tell you about following strangers?”

“He looked like you at first.”

John gave her a look.

“Okay, I knew that he wasn’t you from the moment he talked. I just wanted to mess with him a bit.”

John sighed as he looked down, trying to hide the smile on his face.

“Look, sweetheart. Next time, follow the stranger danger rule. Scream and run away. You  made your mother very worried and she was angry at me because she thought that it was actually me that took you away.”

“Okay, Dad.”

“Good girl.”