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English
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Miraculous Crossover, miraculous ladybug
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Published:
2020-10-12
Updated:
2021-01-18
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14,031
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9/20
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Bridge The Gap

Chapter 9: Prepare

Summary:

Some snapshots in what happens next for our team.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

It had been a fairly short conversation in the end, Robin dragging Marinette out had resulted in her explaining the situation fairly simplistically. She had been to tired to keep denying herself support, and it really showed.

Thankfully, everyone in the tower seemed to understand that.

"We are here with you," Starfire assured her.

Marinette smiled, taking deep breaths as subtly as possible to calm herself down. Admittedly, this had been so much simpler then she'd talked it up to be in her head. Though she still had that one major issue to deal with. "Thanks, but I don't know what to do."

"We can help with that," Robin reminded her.

"I could try to track him down, and since we already got paperwork sent to the city for you to be legally part of the team, you're protected there. If he releases your identity he could go to jail.," Robin reasoned.

"He's rich," Marinette reminded him. "And he could try to argue he didn't know since the city won't release that information for another three weeks at least."

"Okay," Cyborg rubbed his palms together in concentration. "Whats stopping us from just ignoring this douchebag?"

"I'm guessing that Adrien figured out my identity from Nathalie during the final battle, as she figured it out. Adrien would have been allowed to see both Nathalie and Gabriel before the trial, so she probably told him then. He could blackmail me with my identity, and there's nothing I can really do about it," Marinette summed up.

There was a moment where no one spoke, each trying to imagine a different solution. Robin was just wondering how he could find Adrien before he would a chance to say anything. But in the end it was Beast Boy who spoke first.

"Why don't you just reveal yourself then?"

Starfire blinked, turning to him curiously. "Forgive me, but is that not what we are trying to prevent?"

"I mean sure," Beast Boy agreed. "But you live with the Teen Titans now. It's not like you're unprotected."

Marinette considered it, imagining any way it could possibly go wrong. Adrien hadn't been her friend during her last years in Paris, so he didn't know anyone she knew personally, and Chloé and Kagami had more then enough power and influence to protect themselves. Luka also had protection from Jagged Stone, and Chloé and Kagami. Finally, Marinette found herself drawing a blank.

"That could work," She breathed out.

Robin nodded, a small grin on his face. "I'll set up a press conference for tomorrow then?"

Marinette smiled brightly, letting herself relax back into the couch. "Tommorrow."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"My name is Marinette, and I originally came from Paris. I've been living at Titan Tower for a bit now on a bit of a trial period, and am proud to announce that I am officially joining the Teen Titans."

Marinette fought to not rub her eyes as another camera flash went off. A young reporter in the front row raised his hand confidently and she nodded to him.

"Civillians have reported that each battle scene has been mysteriously wiped clean of all damage since you joined the team, can you explain that?"

"Yes actually. I have a special ability called the miraculous cure that enables me to reverse any damage done while I am involved, no matter the size or severity."

Exited muttering overtook the room, though several doubtful glances were also thrown her way. Most believed her on account of the literal green man and cyborg standing beside her, but some would always doubt her she already knew.

"How can we trust that you are who you say you are?"

"There's always going to be some mystery, but the rest of the Teen Titans have protected your city for years now, and have not let you down. Do you really believe they would hire me without having looked into or having known me for some time now?"

Marinette rubbed her palm against her suit pants as discreetly as possible, feeling her skin itch in discomfort. The press conferences she had done as Ladybug felt different looking back, though she had been extremely stressed then as well. She felt more bare now, having her name and face out there unmasked. "Yes?"

"Why did you originally become a vigilante?"

"I was put in a situation when I was younger where I had to be a hero or let someone close to me at the time get hurt, it's become a big part of who I am now I suppose," She admitted. Faintly, she heard Robin's watch beep, signaling the end of the questions. She gave a last smile to them, trying to force as much confidence into her voice as possible. " I know I'm new here, and many of you are unlikely to trust me off the bat, but I'm here to help. Thank you for your time."

Marinette took a deep breath as she stepped off the stage, feeling the breath in her lungs fully for the first time in what felt like weeks. She wouldn't ever have to worry about secret identies again, she was safe. Adrien couldn't blackmail her, or anyone else for that matter. Sure, she'd have to dodge some calls from Paris- but she was finally safe.

And that made a world of difference.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That wasn't to say that anything was necessarily easy, Slade was still out there.

Slade bots began attacking more frequently after the press conference, randomly appearing in Jump city to cause havoc, and disappear as soon as the Titan's began to beat them. They also seemed to be responding more to Marinette's attacks, anticipating her moves more and more. It wasn't an issue really, as Mairnette was an expert at fighting 'differantly,' but it annoyed Cyborg to no end. He was the one who would have to study the new lines of code or new parts.

"Yep," Cyborg grumbled, scanning a minimally crushed slade bot after another quick battle. "Slade defiantly put some new code in these ones, shouldn't take long to check them out though."

"Alright, get on that."

"You're the boss," Cyborg grouched, ignoring Robin's exasperated look. Marinette felt sorry for him, but was overall just glad she didn't know how to code. She didn't want any part of that busywork thank you very much.

"See you back at the tower, I'll bring you some cooked?" She offered, ignoring some envious looks from the other members of the team. She made them all cookies, so they really had no reason to be so upset.

"Thanks Mari," Cyborg chuckled.

Cyborg wasn't the only one affected by the new normal, everyone had something new to do for it. Robin had upped the training schedule of course, though it was mainly because they were often interrupted from their old schedule. Beast Boy had been sent out to talk to witnesses most as he did have the most charisma in the group when it came to civilians, Starfire often was sent out for airial recon, and Raven and Marinette were subjected to reviewing hours upon hours of footage from battles which would be later double checked by Robin.

Not that anyone brought that up to him.

Of course, Raven had actually seemed to take the new influx of Slade bots personally, viciously tearing them apart when she got the chance. But it had become more so lately.

"Raven?"

"Yes loveliness," Raven turned a page in her book, knowing perfectly well what was coming.

"Why is one of Slade's robots strung up inside your room?"

Raven glanced over the end of her book to find the scene exactly as Marinette depicted it. Well, more or less. "I don't know what your talking about, the head is sitting on the dresser."

Marinette spun around to find the Slade bot's head exactly where Raven had said it was. It had a large scratch around the side of it and something black and goey leaking into the dresser. Realy she shouldn't be surprised at this point.

"Yes I can see that, shouldn't we take this to Cyborg?"

Raven considered it a moment before sighing and placing down her book. Standing next to Marinette she looked at the scene again. "I guess."

Marinette just chuckled turning towards her with a find smile. "Wanna spar afterwards? Pretty sure Robin won't come out of his Slade obsession for another three hours so we have the training floor if we want it."

"I would say five hours, but alright," Raven chuckled. Black encased the robots and floated behind the girls as they left the room.

Yeah, maybe things were different now, and war was brewing on the horizon. But don't let it be said that the Titans were all high strung and anxious. There was still time for jokes and quiet moments.

Until he showed up.

Notes:

I know I haven't updated this one in a long while! I have the outline done, I've just been distracted and also focused on some other works. I'm trying to not have so many wips, but inspiration is a fickle and cruel mistress.
I know this one's shorter, but it's mainly just to give information and some set up before shit starts going down.