Fanfic / Miracle Queen Aftermath

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Miracle Queen Aftermath is a One-Shot by ChaoticNeutral, penned in response to the third season finale of Miraculous Ladybug. As such, the story naturally contains Late-Arrival Spoilers for the events of "Heart Hunter" and "Miracle Queen".

Chloé Bourgeois has really done it this time. After years of constantly getting away with all of her selfish, spoiled behavior, she's finally managed to pull off a stunt of such magnitude that her father can't shield her from the consequences of her actions anymore. But she's not the only one paying the price... and unfortunately, Mayor André isn't the only one who believes his precious daughter shouldn't be held accountable for anything. While Miss Bustier presents her students with a highly questionable assignment, Adrien tries to convince Marinette that it's her responsibility to stand up and defend the indefensible.

She shouldn't be surprised, really. He's done this before, after all. But this time, Marinette actually has people in her corner, who aren't willing to stand by and let Adrien guilt-trip anyone for daring to want Chloé to face the music for the first time in her life.

She's not the only one who's been hurt by this, after all.

This fanfic includes examples of:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the show, Chloé exposing the identity of the other Miraculous holders didn't amount to much in the long run. Here it's revealed that Nino, Alya and the other holders might have to move from Paris to someplace else or go into protective custody due to their identities being exposed by Chloe.
• Accusation Fic: In addition to holding Chloé accountable for her actions, the story takes Adrien to task for constantly defending and turning a blind eye to her bad behavior throughout the first three seasons.
• Adaptational Karma: While Chloé would end up Hated by All and basically exiled from Paris in canon, it would take much longer than it does here; she also didn't face any legal or lasting punishment from siding with Hawk Moth besides Ladybug taking the Bee Miraculous from her. Here she is brought into police custody awaiting trial and has her reputation tarnished beyond repair.
• Adapted Out: Lila does not appear in the story nor is she mentioned.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Pretty much everyone in Paris starts celebrating when Chloé — who's long been a Karma Houdini due to her father's mayoral position — is arrested for willingly aiding Hawk Moth. The Ladyblog crashes after making the announcement, her school closes for a few days when the teachers party a little too hard, a guy hands out cupcakes to random people on the street, and Mr. Ramier organizes a "21-pigeon salute" on her rooftop.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • The first real chink in Adrien's denial comes when Alya asks him point-blank why he expects Marinette and the rest of them to 'save' Chloé instead of doing the job himself:
    Adrien: You've given her chances before! Can't you find it in your heart to give her another chance this time?
    Alya: Why haven't you? If you're so certain Chloé is the victim in all this, then why aren't you stepping up to help her? Why are you pushing Marinette and the rest of us to do it?
  • After Sabrina reveals that her therapist doesn't want her involved with Chloé anymore for the sake of her mental health, Adrien tries guilt-tripping her anyway:
    Adrien: But don't you want to help Chloé?
    Sabrina: Of course I do!
  • Later, Alya hits him with another one that he can't answer:
    Alya: We all have to live with the consequences of Chloé's choices. So why shouldn't she?
• Bittersweet Ending: By the end of the story, Adrien finally recognizes just how much damage Chloé did, and how selfish it was to demand that all of her victims forgive everything she'd done to them. What the future holds for everyone is uncertain, especially since several of the exposed heroes' families might be going into Witness Protection, but the story ends with the whole class embracing each other.
• Blaming the Victim: Adrien Invokes this on Chloé's behalf, claiming that Hawk Moth manipulated her. Alya shoots back that she and the rest of the temporary heroes who were mind-controlled and outed were her victims, along with everyone she'd bullied for years, and that Adrien is the one who's engaging in this.
• Call-Back: On top of the events of "Miracle Queen", Chloé's various other crimes and trespasses are brought up, often repeatedly as the class tries to make Adrien understand just how bad her list of offenses is.
  • Despair Bear is referenced in regards to the party Chloè threw when Marinette, still blaming herself, points out to Alya how she had previously said Marinette was like Chloè, but Alya counters that she had only said that to get Marinette to go to the party.
• Character Development: Marinette starts out the story with a bad case of It's All My Fault, blaming herself for everything bad that's happened. By the end, thanks to her friends' encouragement, she fully realizes that she's not to blame for how Chloé turned out and stands up for herself when Adrien still tries to insist she can help somehow.
• Character Witness: In an effort to help Chloé, Bustier abuses her authority by assigning her whole class to write letters testifying about all of her positive traits. Nobody is willing to make the effort.
• Chewbacca Defense: A follow up shows how Chloè and her parents are working with a lawyer and some of the excuses they come up with to defend Chloè working with a known terrorist fall into Insane Troll Logic.
• Connections Are Not Power: Chloè gets arrested for both causing a train accident to save the day as Queen Bee and for being caught willingly working with Hawk Moth, with it being mentioned that not even her dad's connections could get her out of that.
• Damned by Faint Praise: About the only good thing any of the students can come up with about Chloé is that she threw a decent party.
• Deconstruction Fic: The fic deconstructs the times in the show where Marinette is told to reach out to her long-time bully, essentially putting the brunt of reforming Chloé entirely on her, while also giving Chloé constant Aesop Amnesia. It's shown that this did nothing to deal with the problem in the long term; Chloé simply got worse and worse until she ultimately chose to side with Hawk Moth, and she's now facing Laser-Guided Karma that not even her father's connections can save her from.
• Didn't Think This Through: Bustier wants the class to write letters testifying about Chloé's positive traits for her upcoming trial. As Max points out, because nobody besides Adrien has any positive experiences with Chloé, Bustier is essentially asking the class to commit perjury.
• Double Standard: Much of the conflict stems from how Adrien holds Marinette and the rest of the class to staggeringly different standards than he does Chloé. According to him, Chloé can do whatever she pleases, never having to show so much as a flicker of remorse for anything, because they all HAVE to forgive and defend her... because "that's what good people do!"
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Adrien repeatedly does this throughout the story:
  • He repeatedly insists that Chloé is just being misblamed and unfairly held accountable for what Hawk Moth did... while brushing off, downplaying and dismissing the fact that she's been systematically bullying her classmates for YEARS, long before Hawk Moth ever came into the picture.
  • When Sabrina reveals that her therapist has advised she stay away from anything Chloé-related for her own sake, Adrien prods "But don't you want to help Chloé?", fully intending to guilt-trip her into doing what he wants.
  • When Marinette spells out that she has given Chloé plenty of opportunities that the Spoiled Brat has completely squandered, asking Adrien just what he expects her to do, he retorts "You can just try," blowing off how Chloé refuses to make the effort he's demanding of Marinette.
  • Upon being asked why he can't fight for Chloé himself, Adrien protests that he's just one person... ignoring that MARINETTE is only one person herself.
• Engineered Heroics: Chloé's attempt to engage in this during her "heroic debut" as Queen Bee is repeatedly brought up, as Adrien's classmates struggle to help him grasp that she nearly killed people in the process. It's eventually revealed that Marinette and her parents were on the train, much to the horror of everyone but Adrien.
• Entitled Bastard:
  • Thanks to being constantly coddled, Chloé naturally expects that she'll always get her way, and that people will bend over backwards for her just as a matter of course. This directly led to her akumatization into Miracle Queen when she couldn't handle being told "No" for once in her life.
  • Adrien also shows shades of this, expecting Marinette and the rest of the class to do what HE deems "morally right", regardless of their own feelings on the matter.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: When Adrien tries to play the Parental Neglect card, nobody buys it:
  Adrien: Chloé's had a hard time. You know how her parents are—
  Alix: Oh yes, her 'Daddy the Mayor'. Like we don't hear enough about him every time it comes to something Chloé wants. She only threatends us or anyone with him every other day.
  Adrien: It's only because her parents aren't there for her emotionally.
  Alix: Again, not seeing how this is our problem? Or justification for anything she's done to us? Or how this excuses her willingly helping a supervillain?
• The Ghost: While the fic focuses on how her actions have impacted everyone she knows, Chloé herself doesn't make an appearance.
• Guilt-Tripping: Adrien is all about this, trying to convince Marinette that she needs to help him convince the others to help Chloé. He also tries pulling this on Sabrina even after she'd revealed her therapist didn't want her involved in anything Chloé-related.
• Hard Truth Aesop:
  • If someone has shown repeatedly that they cannot learn their lesson, stop giving them second chances. Chloé never truly tried to become a better person, but she avoided consequences for so long because people like Adrien kept shielding her from punishment.
  • Sometimes, if you want people to become better, you have to let them face the consequences of their actions. If Chloé had ever been properly punished for her actions, like if she had been forced to leave Paris after her disastrous first outing as Queen Bee, she may have turned out better. Secondly, Adrien only has a Jerkass Realization after he's thoroughly chewed out by his classmates.
  • There are some actions that, once taken, immediately place you as unworthy of redemption. Chloé willingly working with Hawk Moth, a known terrorist, means that nothing her father does can protect her anymore. Many of Chloé's classmates believe that she crossed this earlier with her deliberately trying to crash a train. Either way, Chloé stopped being redeemable a long time ago.
  • Don't ever insist that the victims of bullies forgive them. It is always selfish. People are allowed to be happy that those who have wronged them are no longer in their lives.
  • A few good deeds are not the same as trying to become a better person. Adrien's insistence that Chloé was "getting better" is rebuked by his classmates pointing out that those "good deeds" basically boiled down to throwing a nice party and helping out with Malediktator. And as Alya points out, the latter doesn't even really count because that situation was Chloé's fault to begin with.
  • While trying to become a better person is all well and good, in the end it only matters if you stick the landing. Chloé might have been getting slightly nicer, but she ultimately chose to ally with a known terrorist.
• Hated by All: The vast majority of Parisians are thrilled to learn that Chloé's Karma Houdini Warranty has finally expired, with many openly celebrating in the streets.
• Holier than Thou: According to Adrien, Marinette and the rest of his classmates NEED to forgive and defend Chloé precisely because they're classmates, and that punishing her won't magically make her a better person. The idea that letting her get away with her awful behavior for so long clearly hasn't helped her improve is repeatedly pointed out to him, to no avail, as he gets angrier and angrier at their resistance.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Adrien continuously insists that Chloé is a victim of Hawk Moth, ignoring not just the fact that she willingly helped Hawk Moth but the multitude of horrible actions she undertook even without Hawk Moth's influence.
• Ironic Echo:
  • Ivan repeats Chloé's assertation of "Once a monster, always a monster," adding that "I guess she'd know more than anyone."
  • Ivan also reveals that he overheard what Adrien said near the end of her party in "Despair Bear":
    Ivan: She made Mylène cry. She made Mylène cry and you just laughed.
    Adrien: I didn't mean—
    Ivan: You said it yourself: 'she'll never change'. Except you said that like it was a good thing.
  • While attempting to explain to Adrien how much Chloé has hurt her, Marinette emphasizes that her long-time bully has never even tried to change. When she asks him just how much more he expects her to do, he replies that "You can just try," driving home his double standards and refusal to listen.
• It's All About Me: Used for Plot Parallel purposes. Not only was Chloé hopelessly self-absorbed, Adrien only starts to grasp just how awful her actions were when it sinks in how HE might be personally impacted by them. He doesn't even bat a lash at learning Marinette and her parents were on the train Chloé attacked during her "heroic debut".
• It's All My Fault: Marinette starts the story silently drowning in guilt, grieving the loss of her mentor and trying to come to terms with everything that happened while believing she's personally responsible for everything that went wrong. Adrien's attempts at guilt-tripping her into helping Chloé only make it worse, to the point that when the rest of their classmates confront him on it, she initially blames herself for upsetting everyone.
• Jerkass Realization: By the end, Adrien finally realizes how he was ignoring how much Marinette and everyone else was affected by Chloé's actions and apologizes for his insensitivity.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Chloé's has officially expired here, as willingly working with a magical terrorist isn't something her daddy's influence can save her from.
• Loving a Shadow: When Adrien brings up Kim's old crush on Chloé, he brings this up:
  Adrien: But there had to be something that made you like her in the first place.
  Kim: Maybe so, but was it something that was really there? Or something I just wanted to see? Because I'm looking back and quite frankly, I don't know what past me was thinking.
• Misplaced Retribution: Adrien sees Chloé as a victim of this, believing that the only one who should be blamed for her actions as Miracle Queen is Hawk Moth. His classmates repeatedly stress that not only did Chloé choose to work with the magical terrorist, she's got a long list of crimes and bad behavior which have nothing to do with Hawk Moth.
• No Listening Skills: Adrien's classmates spend much of the story repeating the points they're trying to make to him several times, to no real avail. Adrien is effectively ignoring anything and everything that isn't ''exactly'' what he wants to hear.
• No Sympathy:
  • Adrien's sympathy for Chloé renders him completely incapable of sympathizing with the rest of the class, as he focuses upon her feelings to their detriment. It takes having it spelled out for him how her decisions have impacted him personally to break through and get him to realize how callous he's being.
  • Downplayed when Sabrina breaks down crying after revealing what's been happening to her. While most of her classmates do sympathize, Rose is the only one who moves to comfort her; the rest feel that she's somewhat brought things upon herself by serving as Chloé's Beta Bitch for so long.
• Not Helping Your Case: Adrien earns Alya's ire when she catches him trying to guilt-trip Marinette into pressuring the rest of the class into doing what he wants. He proceeds to keep digging himself deeper and deeper with his efforts to defend Chloé by downplaying and minimizing all of the awful things she did while demeaning and dismissing their feelings on the matter. Even when repeatedly warned to let things go, he keeps pressing the issue and upsetting everyone further.
• OOC Is Serious Business: When one of the students asks if Bustier will attempt to grade them on what they write, Max briefly considers the idea before saying he'd rather fail than write anything praising or defending Chloé.
• Plot Parallel:
  • Like Adrien, Miss Bustier cares more about Chloé than the rest of her students, believing it's their duty as her classmates to Turn the Other Cheek and forgive every trespass against them. She uses her authority as their teacher to try and force the issue by assigning them to write letters praising her character, and swiftly excuses herself rather than risk having to defend her stance, much like how Adrien didn't want to have to confront his classmates directly and expected Marinette to do all the work for him.
  • Adrien shows himself to be just as self-centered and entitled as the absent Chloé, effectively acting as her stand-in throughout the work. Much like his childhood friend, he couldn't care less about how anyone else was hurt by her actions, insisting that it's incredibly unfair to hold her accountable for anything she's done and that Marinette and the others have to bend over backwards for her sake. It takes him realizing how he personally might be impacted by everything she's done for it to finally sink in that she screwed up.
  • Sabrina is the only other student in Bustier's class who wants to help Chloé; however, unlike Adrien, she's already dealing with the consequences of supporting her, as the police took her in for questioning and she started seeing a counselor. While her peers mostly sympathize with her plight, only Rose directly comforts her, mirroring how Adrien is isolating himself by stubbornly defending Chloé.
  • Near the end of the story, Alya admits that she'd been keeping the fact that her parents were considering moving away to herself because it was just too much to deal with. Marinette recognizes that she was doing the same thing regarding all of the guilt and grief she was carrying from recent events, and that while she can't share everything with her classmates, there are still things they can discuss with each other to lighten the load.
• Point of Divergence: Unlike canon, Chloé's willing collaboration with Hawk Moth is exposed to all of Paris, along with the secret identities of all the heroes she'd unmasked.
• Post-Support Regret: Adrien finally starts reconsidering his spirited defense of Chloé after learning that Nino, Alya, and the other exposed heroes might have to leave Paris or go into protective custody, forcing him to realize just how badly she's hurt others. Tellingly, this is coupled with him realizing that his father might use the fact that he's defended Chloé for so long against him.
• Psychological Projection: Implied with Adrien, particularly when he insists that Chloé is a victim of Parental Neglect and is incredibly lonely, reflecting his own issues as a Lonely Rich Kid upon her. One interpretation of his behavior is that he subconsciously wants Marinette and the rest to "prove" they'd be willing to fight for him, hence his insistence that he can't do anything by himself.
• Skewed Priorities: Adrien considers protecting Chloé from the consequences of her actions to be far more important than anyone else who was impacted by them in any way. Even having it repeatedly stressed to him that others could have DIED as a result doesn't seem to sink in.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Caline Bustier only briefly appears in the story and swiftly excuses herself from the narrative after informing her students that she wants them all to write letters praising Chloé which the court can use as evidence of her better traits. This kickstarts the central conflict with Adrien.
• Tempting Fate: When Adrien follows her out of the classroom, Marinette briefly thinks about how she can always count on him to be supportive and understand how she's feeling... right before he remarks "Poor Chloé" and starts Guilt-Tripping her.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted; Sabrina reveals that she started seeing one after the police interrogated her about her relationship with Chloé, forcing her father to realize just how incredibly toxic her friendship with the mayor's daughter was.
• They Just Don't Get It: It takes Adrien multiple Armor Piercing Questions and statements to understand why none of his classmates intends to write character witness statements favoring Chloé - even the fact that knowingly lying could get them in legal trouble for perjury doesn't really get through him.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Chloé served as one to both Adrien and Sabrina: Adrien constantly makes excuses for her behavior and doesn't see anything wrong with prioritizing her over everyone else, while Sabrina served as her Beta Bitch.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Deconstructed; both Adrien and Miss Bustier believe that Chloé's classmates should automatically forgive everything she's done to them, since punishing her won't magically make her into a better person. Of course, refusing to do anything has only enabled her bratty behavior and encouraged her selfishness, something neither of them wants to acknowledge.
• The Unapologetic: It's stressed several times that Chloé has NEVER shown any remorse over any of her crimes, aside for when she didn't get what she wanted as a result.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Bustier steps out of class immediately after revealing their latest assignment, and doesn't return by the end of the story. So she never learns that they've outright refused to write any letters, and it's never revealed whether she had the audacity to make this a graded assignment.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Alya is utterly FURIOUS when she catches Adrien trying to pressure Marinette into doing what he wants. The rest of his classmates aren't too thrilled with him, either, and much of the story revolves around them trying to impress upon him why they're so upset.