The rest of the school year passed quickly and the heroes worked hard to balance their schoolwork with akumas and patrols. With the assistance of the Paris Watch reports, they had been able to narrow down Hawkmoth's location to a single block in the city. Very suspiciously, none other than Adrien's house had a large butterfly window, that he told them he'd never seen from inside. This caused them to reinvestigate Gabriel, who had been dismissed before for his akumatization.
Luka volunteered to sit across the street one weekend and witnessed the window opening and an akuma flying out, confirming that Gabriel must be Hawkmoth. Adrien's upset frown at realizing Mayura must be Nathalie made Ladybug's heart hurt. All the heroes, including Aurore and the new rabbit hero Alix, who had been on a student exchange program for the first semester and hadn't been involved in the Lila situation, met up and had an impromptu meeting on the situation.
Chat wanted to go charging in, while Helmine, Adder, and Ladybug were fans of a more cautious approach. Bunnyx and Vixen, Aurore's hero name, chose to abstain from the vote, so the more conversative plan won. The heroes waited until Gabriel and Nathalie left the house briefly for a meeting with Kagami's mother before entering the house through Adrien's bedroom window which he'd purposefully left open.
Hawkmoth hadn't akumatized anyone in the past few days, so it was likely there would be another akuma soon. Ladybug settled on a wide metal beam near the ceiling which hid her from view for the most part while the other heroes hid in the shadows with the assistance of Vixen, who illusioned them all to hide them as soon as they heard someone coming. As she wasn't an adult, Aurore could only hold her illusions for so long and would have only a limited window of time to conceal the team.
When Gabriel entered the room, Ladybug was worried he was alone for a moment, as they needed both his and Mayura's miraculous, but thankfully Nathalie joined him moments later, typing something on the tablet she always carried. Poised to leap into action, Ladybug leaned forward slightly before flinging herself down and snatching the brooch off Gabriel's shirt as he reached for it. The man's eyes widened in shock and he reached for some nonexistent weapon, yelling angrily, "Nathalie!"
The woman looked up from her tablet and promptly clutched the peacock pin at her throat, getting out the words, "Duusu, spre-" before she was tackled from behind by Chat and Helmine.
The pair were escorted forcefully out of the building by Vixen, Adder, and Helmine and Bunnyx called the police, handing over the recording of their attempted transformations to Officer Raincomprix as Gabriel and Nathalie were taken into custody for terrorism. Ladybug and Chat were nowhere to be seen, still inside the house.
Ladybug watched Chat as he sat on the floor with his head in his heads, moving to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Would you like to do the honors?" She said, gesturing to the dozens of white butterflies fluttering around them.
Chat inhaled shakily and nodded, standing and moving to examine the butterfly window, finding a button and pressing it which opened the panels covering the glass. A small square hole in the middle provided an exit and the butterflies cautiously fluttered closer, a few landing on Ladybug hair and Chat's nose as if thanking them before gliding away into the sunny afternoon sky.
The two heroes joined their friends outside, giving a statement to the police about the defeat of Hawkmoth and Mayura and Ladybug agreed to a brief statement with Nadja. She made sure to state clearly that all the heroes were retiring, but that they would be there if Paris ever needed them again. After that, she led the team to a private rooftop and everyone dropped their transformations together, handing her their miraculous which she tucked safely away in the box next to the others. The peacock and butterfly were also placed in their spots and the box was now complete.
Aurore had been the only one in the group who didn't know the other's identities, not purposefully but Bunnyx's powers had rendered it impossible to hide from Alix. She seemed amused at herself for not realizing before, knowing that without the protective identity magic she probably would've figured it out already. Her friends hadn't been very subtle, the magic had just prevented her from putting 2 and 2 together until now.
As the current Guardian, Marinette was the one in most danger if anyone tried to dig for information about the heroes or their miraculous, so Vixen suggested staging an illusion of a false guardian who took the miraculous and left Paris. Ladybug didn't like deceiving the people, but knew it was a good idea to protect her and her family, so agreed to the plan. The scene was successfully pulled off with just enough people to spread the word and the heroes weren't spotted again in public, while Marinette built a nice hiding spot behind a fake vent in her room to hold the miraculous box.
They still met up sometimes to train and hang out, but for the most part they tried to get used to normal civilian life again and focus on school and friends. Adrien was now a regular fixture in the Dupain-Cheng household, having been taken in by Sabine and Tom after his guardians were sent to prison. They had moved classes, joining Aurore in her class and Alix also moved to their new class after convincing her parents.
Before the heroes publicly retired, Chat and Bunnyx had dropped by Lila's new school and were pleasantly surprised to see that while she had attempted to lie again, none of the classmates believed her and that she'd given up and instead made a few true friendships and that she was currently living with a foster family as her parents had proved to be neglectful. Marinette had smiled when she heard this, glad that Lila was able to get the help she'd needed. These days, she had forgiven the girl for her actions and was relieved that her former friends had revealed their true selves.
"Marinette! You're going to be late for school!" Her mother called from downstairs, pulling the girl in question from her thoughts. She leaped up from her chair, grabbing her school bag and tying off her long braid with a red ribbon.
"Coming!" She called, rushing down the stairs and past her fondly exasperated mother to find Adrien waiting in the kitchen, ready to go. They walked out the front door and were joined by Aurore, who lived nearby, on their way to the school. Their teacher had assigned a group project the previous day and they discussed what topic they were going to choose as they crossed the street and made their way quickly along the sidewalk to the school. The weather was nice that day and Marinette caught a glimpse of a large blue butterfly, smiling at the sight which no longer meant panic for the citizens of Paris.