Chat Blanc Against the World is a Miraculous Ladybug oneshot fanfic by penguinnomad that explores the premise of what would happen if the events of "Optigami" led to all of the temporary heroes learning Ladybug's secret identity and getting their Miraculous permanently.
With Ladybug relying more and more on the temporary heroes, Chat Noir finds himself being left out. When he learns the truth, he finally reaches his breaking point, allowing Shadowmoth to create his most dangerous akuma ever. Can Ladybug save her partner? Or will Chat Blanc destroy the world once again?
Can be read here
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Chat Blanc Against the World contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Who was it who stole the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses? The hints that Gabriel arranged it would suggest that it was Nathalie, but it seems unlikely that she would just leave Gabriel to rot. Alya thinks that she turned traitor, but remember who the show has been hinting would be the new Butterfly villain...
- Anti-Magic: More of an application of his powers than their exact nature; Chat Blanc proves that he can even destroy magical techniques such as Shadowmoth's mind link or Rena Rouge's illusions.
- Big Damn Kiss: After Chat Blanc surrenders and forgives Marinette, the two of them share a kiss, signifying the end of the conflict.
- Bittersweet Ending: Leans heavily on "sweet"; just when all seems lost, Ladybug finally opens her heart to Chat Blanc, admitting to what he means to her and why she pushed him away. Chat in turn forgives her and stands down peacefully. Before his akuma is purified, Chat and Ladybug reveal how they fell for each other on both sides of the masks, and Ladybug promises that even if Chat forgets what happened after he is deakumatized, she will tell him everything. Afterwards, all of the heroes apprehend Gabriel to make him face justice for his crimes as Shadowmoth, with Adrien disowning him as his family. Unfortunately, a mysyerious figure snatches the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses out from under everyone's noses, ensuring that the war is far from over. The fic ends with Ladybug and Chat Noir meeting up on the rooftops of Paris, their bond repaired and stronger than ever now that there are no more secrets between them.
- Didn't See That Coming:When Shadowmoth granted Chat Blanc the power of infinite destruction, he didn't realize that he would be able to use it to destroy the Psychic Link link between them, preventing Shadowmoth from controlling him or recalling the akuma. He also never suspected that Chat Blanc would have a grudge against his civilian identity, and was thus caught unprepared when his house was hit with a mega Cataclysm.
- Didn't Think This Through: Both Rena Rouge and Ladybug fall into this:
- When Chat demands to speak to Ladybug after learning about the new full-time heroes and the fact that they all know her secret identity, Rena decides that the best way to calm him down is to use her powers to impersonate Ladybug and talk to him herself before she even passes the message on. The problem is that she fails to consider the possibility that Chat would catch on to her ruse, which is exactly what happens.
- One of the reasons why Ladybug pushed Chat Noir away was because she feared that if they became too close, it would cause the events that led to the Bad Future she saw where he was akumatized and destroyed the world. Unfortunately, she failed to consider how going out of her way to avoid him would affect Chat. Ultimately, all her actions did was make Chat increasingly upset and resentful until he ended up akumatized anyways.
- Enemy Mine: After Chat Blanc severs his connection to the Akuma and goes rogue, Shadowmoth seeks out Ladybug and Co. for help in stopping him.
- From Bad to Worse: When Chat learns the truth about the new heroes, he's angry enough to quite, demanding a private meeting with Ladybug just so he can turn over his Miraculous. Then when Rena Rouge and Carapace try to pull the wool over his eyes, he decideds to do one better and keeps the ring just to spite Ladybug. And then an akuma infects his bell, and everything goes downhill from there.
- Genius Bruiser: Rather than use his unrestricted access to the power of destruction to overwhelm the heroes instantly, Chat Blanc uses skill and clever tactics to subdue them one by one so he can steal their Miraculouses.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: When Shadowmoth senses Chat Noir's anger, he practically leaps at the chance to akumatize the hero. Unfortunately for him, Chat Blanc proves to be too powerful to control, and all he gets for his troubles is being Cataclysmed twice, getting his identity revealed and being arrested and abandoned in the end.
- Hope Spot: The story practically begins with one. While Adrien is initially bitter over Ladybug relying more and more on the temporary heroes over him, a talk with Plagg helps him realize that she is only doing so to alleviate the stress she has been under since becoming the Guardian, and that he needs to be more supportive of her. Even when he learns through Rena Rouge that Ladybug has scheduled him to patrol with Carapace instead of herself without talking to him first, he resolves to make the most of the situation and actually manages to bond with the turtle hero (who is unbeknownst to him his best civilian friend Nino). Unfortunately, Carapace inadvertently reveales to Chat that all of the "temp" heroes now have their Miraculouses full time and that they all know Ladybug's secret identity. Things only get worse from there, which ultimately leads to Chat getting akumatized.
- The heroes get another one later when Pegasus and Minotaruoux team up to send Chat Blanc through a portal to space. Unfortunately for them, Chat just happened to have a space potion on him and simply transformed to fly back.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Chat Noir declares his intention to quit, Ladybug (actually an illusion created by Rena Rouge) tries to placate him by promising to schedule more time for him. Unfortunately, this just reminds Chat of his strained relationship with his father, and if anything only hardens his resolve to give up his Miraculous.
- Invincible Villain: No matter what the heroes throw against him, Chat Blanc always finds a way to counter attack or bounce back. When Shadowmoth tries to browbeat him into compliance, Chat Blanc uses his powers to sever the telepathic connection between them, allowing him to act with complete autonomy. When the "temp" heroes confront him, he takes out the two with power over time first, eliminating their greatest advantage. When Pigella tries to use Gift to distract him while Vesperia tries to hit him with Venom, Chat Blanc's keen hearing alerts him to the sneak attack and he redirects it to Pigella. When King Monkey tries to use Uproar, Chat Blanc uses his ability to fire his Cataclysm to avoid touching it. And so on and so forth until only Ladybug is left standing. It's quite telling that her Lucky Charm is not an item needed for a plan to take him down, but a hint that Ladybug needs to open her heart to him.
- Kick the Dog: When Chat Blanc discovers that Carapace is his best fruend Nino, he spitefully tells him that he failed Adrien at every turn just to hurt him
- Laser-Guided Karma: After abusing the power of his Miraculouses to turn people into his brainwashed minions to terrorize Paris for well over a year, Shadowmoth's latest victim breaks free of his control and attacks him twice, while also inadvertently creating the circumstances that lead to his identity being exposed and his subsequent arrest.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Deconstructed; Ladybug's habit of keeping secrets from her own allies, including things that they need to know about, seriously bites her in the ass here. Not only does she not inform Chat Noir that all of the temp heroes are now operating on a full time basis, she neglects to tell said heroes that Chat does not know about it. This ultimately leads to Chat finding out anyways when Carapace, who naturally assumes that Ladybug has already filled him in, blabs about both this and the fact that everyone but Chat knows Ladybug's identity.
- Never My Fault: When Chat catches onto Rena Rouge's ruse, she acts as if she should be the one outraged over him trying to quit, as if that wasn't supposed to be a private discussion between himself and Ladybug. Chat swiftly and viciously shuts her down.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Alya certainly had good intentions in wanting to have Chat Noir calm down before he confronted Ladybug in order to avoid causing her friend more stress when she was just starting to get better. Unfortunately, her plan to accomplish this was to impersonate Ladybug and talk to him herself before telling Ladybug about the situation when Chat was already upset over being deceived and restricted on when he could speak to his own partner. She also never accounted for the possibility that Chat would catch onto the ruse. Ultimately, Alya's short-sighted and rather disrespectful plan only serve to push Chat over the edge and get him akumatized.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Chat Blanc thinks this about himself after finally understanding how much of a burden Marinette had been carrying, realizing that if their positions had been reversed, he likely would have made the same decisions she did out of fear and selfishness.
- Official Couple: Ladybug and Chat have become this by the end.
- One-Man Army: One akumatized Chat against thirteen heroes. Care to guess who wins?
- Poor Communication Kills: This story would never have even happened if Ladybug had simply been willing to talk to Chat Noir and treat him like an actual partner. Instead, she let her various fears and anxieties cause her to push him further and further away, to the point that she has Rena Rouge inform him about the changes she made to their routine behind his back, causing his resentment to build up until he finally snaps and gets akumatized.
- This also applies to her failure to inform the other heroes that she was keeping Chat Locked Out of the Loop about all the changes she made, which led to the events that caused him to find out anyways.
- Strong and Skilled: Chat Blanc is already powerful enough that he could probably beat the heroes through sheer brute force if he wanted to, but instead he shows a surprising amount of skill and creativity in using his Cataclysm, using guile and skill as much as strength to defeat his opponents.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: None of the heroes are happy to be working with Shadowmoth. Even Carapace mentions that the only reason they haven't thrown him to Chat Blanc is that Chat's mostly confining his damage to settling his grudge against Ladybug, rather than going after civilians.
