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Chapter Text

(Prologue starts after this blurb and Warnings)
Some things to remember about this version of the universe. 

Our story (after the prologue) takes place during the end of Ladybug Season 2 just before the episode 'Mayura : Heroes Day'.

I’ve shifted the in-story years of the Miraculous Ladybug show from 2014-2015 to 2017-2018 to make them better fit the MCU timeline and made the time they have been heroes into the full two years, rather than just six months.

Any mention of ‘Heroes from other Countries’ from the show should be considered to have been about the Avengers and others from Marvel, instead of the United Heroez (Who do not exist here)

At the time of writing this I had not seen season 4, so please bear with my version as I may have changed some cannon unknowingly.

Because Ladybug and Chat exist in the MCU universe now, there may be moments were I shift a spoken line or iconic moment to having Lady or Chat do it instead of the hero who had originally done it in the movies. This is not because I want to take away from that other hero's legacy or anything. I just need them to mesh into the world.

Rating and Warnings. (These warnings contain spoilers)

Rather have them here than a billion tags to clutter the website.

Rated PG-13 for Violence, Language

Trigger Warnings : Contains Parental Loss, Grief, Mind Control, Sad Moments, Dealing with Scars (emotional and physical). Major Character Disappearances/"Deaths", Blood.

Cover Art 

Prologue – Avengers, Not Assembled

September, 2017, New York

“Please, tell me the situation in Paris has stabilized.” Tony Stark said as he entered the main briefing room at the Avengers Campus. “Because who knows how long it will take the U.N. to push through our request to mobilize. Hell, even with being prudent and requesting it early, I can't imagine we will be given the go-ahead in time to curtail any of the major damage...”

James Rhodes looked over at him with a contemplative expression and shook his head. The colonel had been monitoring the events unfolding in the capital city of France since it had first begun a couple hours before. As Tony sat down, Rhodes punched up a video for him to see.

“Well, I can't say whether or not things will continue to escalate or not, but the rock golem rampaged through the city for about thirty minutes before it found its way to The Parc des Princes stadium where it was finally stopped. However, It's the 'by who' that I think you’ll find most interesting.” Rhodey said as he pressed play. “From the looks of it we have two undocumented enhanced in play.”

The shaky phone recording now being displayed showed a black suited individual battling with the rock golem using an impressive extendable staff. As far as Tony could tell, the staff wielder looked like he was dressed as a cat. Perhaps this person was a Black Panther fan, or copycat of some kind.

Tony frowned at the unintentional internal pun.

Stark leaned forward and squinted at the video, he then grabbed his phone and pressed a few commands on it to slave the monitors controls. He then altered the videos zoom levels so that he could see the cat in question better. From the physical stature of the hero, it was likely just some kid, but he was clearly holding his own against his giant rocky opponent. Or, that is to say, he was until the golem grabbed him in its hands.

“What are you waiting for super red bug, the world is watching you!” a female voice on the video said in French. The screen then displayed a girl's face alongside the video and listed her name as Alya Césaire.

The camera then focused on a second suited individual. Again, Tony worked his magic with his phone controls and zoomed the image.

"You really just gonna take the controls like that?" Rhodes asked him dryly, but Tony just continued to work.

The hero now in the center of the frame was a female this time, but clearly also a kid. This one's suit was clearly modeled after a ladybug.

"Do they just like, toss a dart at a board of animals when choosing these alter egos?" Tony asked, not really expecting an answer. "What's next, a turtle guy?"

"This coming from the guy who recruited the spider boy." Rhodes retorted.

Tony's interest piqued now as he watched the ladybug girl leap from the highest point in the stadium and throw out a yo-yo of all things. He noted that her agility was quite impressive as she used the yo-yo to grab on to the golem legs, slide past it and then trip it. He marveled at the tension strength of that yo-yos wire and wondered what material it was made out of. The fact it hadn't snapped during that move was a marvel all in itself.

But then, the next few minutes of the video made very little sense to Tony.

For some reason the cat boy destroyed a goal post by simply touching it, then he ran at the golem haphazardly and was knocked back by a punch. It was fairly obvious that these heroes, while physically capable, were very much amateurs.

Tony raised his eyebrow when the ladybug girl somehow summoned a random object from the sky. He couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was also red and spotted like she was. Did she just utilize some kind of teleportation tech, or perhaps it was a projection?

What followed was a random series of events, seemingly guided by the heroes, that led to the Giant Golem being defeated and transformed back into yet another kid.

Rhodey stopped the video and switched it to a live feed from WHiH World News.

“It appears the golem transformation was caused by an outside source, and the boy in question doesn’t actually have any residual powers of his own or memories from his time as a glorified pile of rocks." Rhodey summarized. "Reports are now saying that shortly after this fight about twenty other people in the city also became rock golems, but these ones are not moving. So, while the situation is definitely still ongoing, there seems to be no immediate threat to the populace.”

The screen now showed footage of the transformations in question, all of which were happening to random civilians. The source of these alterations was what appeared to be purple butterflies, of all things.

The screen zoomed in on one of the butterflies and the word “Unknown” appeared alongside.

Tony’s phone chimed and he looked down at it. The message he had received made him sigh.

“Apparently, the Parisians are entrusting their safety to their new heroes Ladybug and Chat Noir. They have declined assistance from the Avengers.”

“Why wouldn’t they want more help?” Rhodes asked sitting down, the motions of his robotic leg exoskeleton humming as he did.

“It’s possible they simply prefer to leave it to the locals rather than bringing in outsiders.” Stark said standing up and walking for the door. Ever since the Sokovia Accords were signed, more countries than he had liked had started to decline their help during a crisis. He bit his cheek at the fact that Rogers had been right about the whole 'having our hands tied' thing. “Well, there isn’t much more we can do about it.”

After he exited the room and the door closed behind him, Stark looked down at his phone.

“Friday, Open new files for Ladybug and Chat Noir.” He requested. “Track all the information you can on them, notable events, powers, and any opponents that crop up.”

“Sure thing, Boss.” The AI’s chipper voice responded.

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Comic Frame Artwork created in collaboration with Tyler Street.  [email protected]
Added Aug 31,2021

Chapter Text

July 24 2018, 4:15pm, Paris

“Bye bye, little butterfly.” Ladybug said as she opened her yo-yo to release the now purified akuma. She then smiled as she watched it flutter away into the rainy sky.

In front of her curled up on the deck of the ship after his defeat, the super villain Fishmonger had already begun to transform back into his original unassuming form as a simple fisherman.

Chat Noir dropped from above and landed beside her so he could hand her the fishing rod that her Lucky Charm had summoned to assist in defeating the villain.

“Well then, M'lady. I think it’s about time we bring this ship back to shore.” He quipped. “Besides, you’re already the best catch one could hope for.”

She rolled her eyes at her flirty wise cracking partner and threw the polka dotted rod and reel into the air.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Around them, all of Paris went from being a completely rain-soaked city to bone dry in an instant as thousands of ladybugs undid the damage caused by Fishmonger. Thankfully, this included the storm he had summoned. The flying boat they had resided upon also vanished and they were safely deposited onto the patio rooftop of a building that had been below them a moment ago.

And then, as if nothing had been amiss at all, everything was back to normal with the sun shining once again, naught a cloud to be seen anywhere.

With her smile still present on her face for another job well done, she turned to see Chat Noir helping the fisherman to his feet.

“Ladybug, Chat Noir?” the man questioned, clearly not understanding how he had gotten there.

It was then that Ladybug frowned. She always felt so sorry for those poor souls who had been akumatized by Hawk Moth. After all, not being able to remember what had happened to you must truly be a terrible position to find oneself in.

She was about to explain to the man what had just occurred, but an almost melodic sound of thunder came rolling across the sky and interrupted her thoughts.

“That’s odd M’lady.” Chat said to her as he looked up at the sky above, “I thought your Miraculous had cleared up all the stormy weather?”

Ladybug also looked up to survey the blue horizon. There were no clouds anywhere, so she wondered how exactly there could even be thunder to be heard. In that moment a feeling of dread came over her and a kind of instinctual warning came forth from her heart and a shiver ran down her spine. All of this made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

“Somethings wrong.” Ladybug said over the sound of her earrings letting out a quiet beep.

"We are about to transform back. Perhaps we should-” Chat began to say, but he had stopped speaking mid-sentence which drew Ladybug's attention away from the strange rumbles in the sky which seemed to be continuing without reason.

As her eyes fell on what Chat was looking at, she froze. The fisherman who they had just saved had been replaced by a flutter of ash, leaving behind an afterimage of the man which after a quick moment dissipated into the wind.

“He… He, disintegrated.” Chat said with a fear present in his voice that Ladybug was not accustomed to hearing.

Ladybug spun around as she heard an explosion in the distance, followed by screams from the streets below. Could it be another akuma already? Whatever was happening, she knew that it was up to them to protect the people of Paris. So, without any further hesitation she squeezed her fingers into a fist, struck a combat pose and turned to her partner.

“Chat, we need to…” She had begun to say, but she noticed that something about her partner seemed off.

Noir's suit was starting to flake and turn to ash bit by bit, although much slower than the fisherman as a whole had vanished.

“M’….M’lady…” Chat began to say but his eyes slowly rolled back, and then he began to fall to the ground.

“Chat!” Ladybug called as she quickly swooped in to catch him.

She was able to prop him against her and wrap her arms around him before he hit the ground. But now she could do nothing but watch in horror as parts of his black suit continued to fade into ash, all the while being replaced by the normal clothes he had likely been wearing before his transformation. She knew that this was not a normal transition from superhero to civilian though as the magical rush of light she was used to seeing as it happened to her was not present. Even still, in a matter of moments he would be completely out of his Chat Noir outfit.

She quickly closed her eyes and looked away from her partner to spare him is secret identity, but then she heard something strange that cause her eyes to shoot open.

Ladybug could swear she heard a tiny voice that sounded like Plagg scream out ‘Adrieeeennnn’ and then trail off into silence. She quickly looked down again at Chat whose black outfit was completely gone now replaced by the familiar stylish clothes that were always worn by the friend who now lay in her arms.

Adrien.

Ladybug stared in confusion, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. Adrien was Chat Noir? This whole time she had been fighting alongside her crush, the very boy she pined for?

All of those times that she had rebuffed Chat Noir’s advances, she had been unknowingly turning down Adrien. That meant that if she had simply said yes, then she would have been able to be with him. Ladybug shook her head at that thought, because that wasn’t really true. They had been forbidden from knowing each other's identities, so even if she had let Chat Noir in, she would have never truly known it was Adrien that she was with.

And now, something had happened to him, possibly robbing her of the chance from ever truly telling him how she felt. She squeezed him in her arms and found that he seemed completely lifeless. Could he be… was he dead?

Her earrings beeped again but she didn’t really register the sound of it. All she could hear now was her heartbeat pounding in her ears caused by the tumult of emotions coursing through her body. Not even the feeling of her ladybug suit coming off of her and her super strength waning from her body barely even registered to her.

Marinette did however snap out of her daze when she saw Tikki land with a hard thud on the ground beside Adrien.

“Tikki!” Marinette yelped as she shifted Adrien to lean against her right side so she could then reach down to gently scoop up the little red ladybug. “Are you alright?”

“Mari...nette” Tikki moaned opening her eyes slightly, clearly dazed from weakness. “You let the time run out on your miraculous. What happened?”

Marinette frowned and looked down to draw Tikki’s attention to the boy in her arms.

“Adrien!” Tikki gasped. “Is he alright?”

“He… Adrien is Chat Noir, Tikki.” She said flatly, sadness welling up inside her. “His Chat suit, something made it disappear into ash and he...”

“His suit… turned to ash?” Tikki croaked out and began looking about frantically. “Plagg... Plagg, where are you!?”

Marinette looked down at the frantic Kwami in her hand and wondered why Plagg was nowhere to be found. She then finally worked up the courage to hazard a glance down at Adrien’s chest and to her relief she could see that he was in fact still breathing, but there were no other signs of life from him. She slowly shifted him and lowered his head to the ground as gently as she could. She then lifted his arm to look at his hand where Chat Noir normally wore his ring but found that nothing was there.

His miraculous, Plagg, they were both gone, faded away into nothing.

Another explosion in the distance drew Marinette’s attention.

“Tikki, something really bad is happening. I hate to say it, but we can’t spend too much time looking after Adrien. Others may need our help.” Marinette said closing her eyes and forcing herself to stand, a tear falling from her eye as she opened her purse. "Here, eat this and get your strength back.”

Tikki, seemed hesitant and overcome by sadness, but soon grabbed the pink macaron Marinette handed her and started to eat it. Marinette then carefully dragged Adrien’s body over to a nearby patio lounge chair that was on the roof they now resided and placed him upon it in the shade of its attached umbrella.

She bent down and after a moment's hesitation, kissed him on the forehead.

“You’ll be safe here, my … my beautiful Chat.” she whispered to him.

She looked up at the sound of another scream in the distance and stood with determination. Marinette walked over to the edge of the roof and looked at the scene playing out below.

From her vantage point she could see people running around calling out for loved ones who seemed to now be missing. There was even a stroller caught on a street sign with a crying baby inside, but no mother anywhere in sight.

Marinette looked at Tikki who was just finishing up her food and then over to Adrien’s motionless body. She gritted her teeth.

“I’ll be back for you,” She whispered and then turned to take a step off of the side of the building. “Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette transformed mid fall, deciding she had no real time to waste, and landed as Ladybug.

She quickly ran across the street and scooped up the crying baby, looking around desperately for somewhere safe to bring it.

A man ran by her with desperation on his face and she tried to get his attention, but he ignored her and kept running.

Before she could consider what to do, another man ran up to her and held his arms out for the baby.

“Isabeau!” The man said relieved. “Thank god, thank you Ladybug. My wife went for a walk with our daughter, and when I saw everything that was happening outside, I came to check on them.”

He looked around.

“Did you see…”

Ladybug frowned at the man and shook her head.

The man seemed to realize the implications of that response and frowned.

“Is, is this an akuma? Will you be able to reverse it?” he asked with a glint of hope in his eyes.

Ladybug peered around her and took in everything that was happening. If this was an akuma, there was no gloating super villain in sight, no one to fight, no one to blame. She honestly didn’t know what to say to the man, so she put her hand on his shoulder, put on a brave face for him and told him she would do whatever she could.

She then pulled out her yo-yo and started to swing down the street, looking for anyone else in need of immediate help.

After only ten minutes, Ladybug had already used her yo-yo to prevent a bus full of passengers from falling into the river, evacuated a family from a burning building and helped a crowd lift a car so they could get a trapped passenger out. It was the same chaos everywhere she went.

Most people she encountered seemed to need comfort more than anything she could do with her powers, and she sadly felt her time was better spent in the more dire situations. So, she continued on.

After what seemed like ages and countless rescues, she landed in front of a familiar building and looked up at the massage parlor sign.

She slowly walked up to the door, took a deep breath and entered.

When she got to the room where she usually found Master Fu, she saw that it was dark and empty. The power had apparently gone out in this part of the city, and even though it wasn’t night yet, an eerie darkness had rolled in, seemingly desaturating the color from everything.

Coming to a halt in the center of the room as she felt herself step on something, she looked down and found that the turtle Miraculous was sitting there. She hesitantly bent down and picked it up.

“Master… Master Fu?” Ladybug called out.

In the shadows of the parlor, she could just make out a small streak of green as it flew out from behind a wall scroll.

“Ladybug!” Wayzz the turtle Kwami yelped as he approached her. “I’m so glad you are here!”

“Wayzz, where is Master Fu?” She asked him, a gloom descending upon her. She felt that she already knew the answer he would give.

“He… faded away.” the turtle said with a frown that made his entire body droop.

Ladybug slowly sat on the floor where she held her hands in front of her and stared at them. A tear drop fell into her left palm, and she quickly wiped her eyes.

What was she supposed to do now? She didn’t have Master Fu to turn to for guidance, or a partner to help her in this fight. This fight that seemed to have no opponent.

While it was true that Adrien hadn’t actually faded away like so many of the people around the city, she somehow knew that he wouldn’t be waking up any time soon. Something about the way his suit had faded away had damaged him. And Plagg, the black cat kwami that she had met here in this very room not too long ago. He also seemed to be gone somehow.

That thought made her shoot up and run across the room to the Miracle Box in which all of the Miraculous were stored. She had to check on the rest of the kwami, but she had no idea how to open the Miracle Box.

“Here.” Wayzz said as he floated in front of her carrying a folded piece of paper. “He had this note hidden for me to give to you in case… In case something happened to him.”

Ladybug took the note and unfolded it.

Dear Ladybug.

If you are reading this, then some terrible fate has befallen me.

And in this case, I am transferring guardianship of the Miraculous to you.

Unfortunately,  I had no time to teach you of this new duty in which you must now take on.

But I believe in you Ladybug. In you, Marinette.

I have never once doubted your abilities, or my choice to give you the Ladybug miraculous.

Keep them safe.

The yo-yo is your key.

Master Fu.

Ladybug began to cry again. This time, she didn’t hold back. There were no civilians here to keep on the brave face for and everything was starting to weigh down upon her now.

Master Fu was truly gone, and clearly, he had foreseen the worse and prepared this note just in case. But why had he chosen her as the new guardian? Surely there was someone else, anyone else.

She felt a tiny hand on her cheek and opened her eyes to see Wayzz trying to comfort her.

“Wayzz.” She said straightening up and wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her Ladybug outfit. “Do you know anything about what is happening?”

Wayzz seemed to ponder her question for a moment and then shook his head negatively.

With no answers to be found by waiting, Ladybug pulled her yo-yo from her hip and looked at it.

“The yo-yo is your key?” she said aloud.

She decided to try the most obvious answer and placed the yo-yo on the top of the Miracle Box in the center of the intricate design present there. After a moment, her yo-yo began to spin and float into the air above the box. As it moved further away from the box, the box lid opened and all of its drawers slide out revealing their contents.

Or what was left of the box's contents.

From what she could see, the bee, the mouse, the rabbit, the monkey, and the pig, were all missing.

“Where… where are they?” Wayzz squealed “No one has been in here! I would have seen them if they were stolen!”

“Tikki, spots off.” Marinette whispered and then watched as Tikki appeared beside her and slowly floated down toward the open miracle box.

“Then it’s true. Plagg, and the others, are gone.” Tikki said somberly.

“Gone? What do you mean gone?” Wayzz flew over to Tikki and begged her to respond but she didn’t, instead she held out her little arms to hug her fellow kwami and began to cry tiny sobs.

Marinette slowly walked over to the window and looked out at nothing in particular. She wondered if anyone else she knew was gone, dreading and needing to know the answer at the same time.

She pulled her cellphone from her pocket but saw that the cell service was down.

“Tikki, I need to check on my parents, and Alya, and.…” Marinette stopped cold. She could list everyone she knew, but it would do her no good. They were either gone or not, and until she knew for sure there was no point in feeling sorrow or fear about their loss. That helped no one.

This was no time to curl up and cry. It was not the time to take the easy way out and run away or hide from the truth. She was a hero, and the people of this city were counting on her.

She gritted her teeth and shed as much grief as she could muster by shaking her head and slapping her own cheeks.

“Come on.” she said to the two kwami as she walked over to the Miracle Box, closed it, hoisted it beneath her arm and headed toward the door. “We have work to do.”

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Comic Frame Artwork created in collaboration with Tyler Street.   [email protected]
Added Sept 4,2021

Chapter Text

It had taken Marinette until dusk to make her way back to her home because of all the chaos in the streets.

It was true that if she would have become Ladybug it would have hastened her journey significantly. But Tikki was in no condition to be sharing her power right now, having just lost so many of her friends, and Marinette didn’t want to burden her little partner any further if she didn’t have to.

One good side to traveling as Marinette, was now that she wasn’t in her Ladybug outfit, she was able to blend in with the frantic crowd. The box under her arm was the most important thing right now, and she needed to get it somewhere safe as soon as she could. So, discretion was important.

People would have called for Ladybug's help if they had seen her, and as much as she hated the idea, while she carried this box, she would have had to ignore them. At least this way, Ladybug's image wouldn't be tarnished.

Thankfully, as far as she could tell though, most of the immediate danger to the civilian population had already ceased. Whatever it was that had caused this, had culminated in one moment where people all over had vanished, all at once. This of course had caused immediate dangerous situations and destruction from their sudden absence, like out-of-control cars or devices and machines being left on. But then, nothing. No more lingering effects or continuing disappearances, at least that she had seen.

Whatever had happened was over, and all that remained were the consequences, and the loss.

Marinette looked up as she rounded the end of the block and could finally see her family's bakery. Her mouth dropped open from the shock of what she saw.

There, sticking into the side of the building where her bedroom was, were the blades of a helicopter. The rest of which she could see was now burning in the street off to her right. It appeared that it had sliced right through the side of the building as it was falling from the sky, its pilot having likely been one of the vanished.

Thankfully, the helicopter hadn’t hit the building outright or she may have come home to a pile of rubble and fire.

She rushed forward and pushed the door open, the familiar entry bell chiming cheerfully at her arrival.

“Mom! Dad!” She called out into the darkness.

After she recieved no response, she pulled aside her black over shirt allowing the two kwami hiding there to fly out.

“Tikki, Wayzz, can you do a quick look around for me, please?” she asked.

“Of course, Marinette.” Tikki said, seeming determined. And then both her and Wayzz zipped into different walls.

Marinette slowly stepped toward the counter and reached underneath to where she knew a flashlight would be. She flicked it on and shined it about the shop.

After a moment her light shone over a pan of bread on the floor, where it had apparently been dropped by someone. She walked over and bent down. After she placed the miracle box beside her, she turned to drag her hand across the floor. She found that there was a slight layer of ash there.

She closed her eyes hard.

“Dad, Mom?” She whispered. “Is this you?”

She looked over to the bread strewn across the floor and frowned at it. The last creation her dad had ever made, ruined.

She reached over and grabbed a loaf and held it close to her.

“I couldn’t find anyone.” Tikki said as she came down through the ceiling above her.

“Me either.” Wayzz said coming from the back wall. “Maybe they went to-”

“No!” Marinette yelled, cutting him off. “They are gone. Both of them!”

Marinette curled up on the floor, having finally lost her battle with grief. She had been pushing herself to stay strong, to keep fighting. But this, this was too much.

She lay there for a good while, letting all of her tears flow freely, but then the bell above the door chimed again as someone entered. Marinette quickly sat up, startled.

She was glad that she was currently behind the counter and obscured from sight, as part of her began to worry that maybe it was a looter or someone else with not-so-great intentions. She held her finger up to her lips to tell Tikki and Wayzz to stay quiet.

She wondered if she would have time to transform, if need be, without giving away her identity.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Alya’s voice asked coming forth out of the darkness.

“Alya!” Marinette cried out as she quickly stood. When she had fully gotten to her feet, she saw Alya and Nino standing together by the entrance holding each other close.

“Oh my goodness, girl! Am I glad to see you!” Alya said as she rushed forward and embraced Marinette who all but fell into her arms and began sob.

Thank goodness. Someone was still here.

Marinette slowly climbed the stairs to her bedroom with Alya and Nino following behind her. As she lifted the trap door, she heard a clanging sound of something rolling off of it. It was a good bet that her room would be in shambles from the helicopter's blades.

And as she stepped up into the room, she got that confirmation.

One whole side of her room was shredded to pieces and all of her belongings were strewn about the floor. Her computer was a total loss, having been crushed by her bed's loft that had fallen down. The photos of Adrien that lined the wall were shredded, gone, or still flapping in the wind.

“Ouch.” Alya said as she climbed up the steps. “Good thing you weren’t home when this happened.”

This thought made Marinette shudder. She had actually been home sitting at her computer doing homework when the akuma had attacked earlier that day. She realized now that Fishmonger had likely saved her life.

“Is anything salvageable?” Nino asked as he bent over to pick up her jewelry box which fell to pieces as he touched it. “Oops, sorry.”

She shook her head to let him know it was okay and she continued to sift through the wreckage with her foot, almost as if she didn't care.

Just then, the lights in the room came on, or at least some of them did.

A spark of electricity arced out from an exposed wire in the wall as the power came back on. A small whiff of smoke shot up and the sparking ceased, the wire burnt through.

Alya's phone made a chime in her pocket after a moment, and she looked at it.

“Phone service is still down, but it looks like the Wi-Fi is back up.” her friend said as she scrolled. “Let me see if I can find out any news.”

Marinette hadn’t spoken since she had told Alya and Nino that her parents were gone. Both of her friends had looked at each other sorrowfully and then Alya had said that she had also lost some of her family. Not having the heart to ask for more details she had simply hugged Alya and then wordlessly started to head upstairs. Her friends hadn't questioned her silence, as it seemed that they were in a similar level of shock.

“Oh my… It can’t be.” Alya said, her voice cracking.

“What is it?” Nino asked as he moved over to stand beside Alya and see what she was looking at on the screen.

“It’s not just Paris. It’s everywhere. The whole planet.” Alya said, barely able to make it through the whole sentence.

Marinette looked out of the broken window near the corner of her room. Things were looking bleak. Clearly this was not Hawk Moth, an akuma or anything else to do with the Miraculous. That meant that it likely couldn’t be reversed by her powers like the damage from those could.

It was permanent. A true disaster.

“They are saying it may have something to do with an alien spacecraft that appeared over New York. Some of the Avengers apparently fought them off, Iron Man, and Spiderman were both there.”

“Speaking of heroes, see if there is any news about Ladybug and Chat Noir.” Nino said.

At the mention of her superhero alter ego, Marinette grimaced and looked down at her feet. She caught her own reflection in the broken mirror shards scattered on the floor. Why was she here in this shattered place? Clearly, she no longer had a home, a family, or a normal life. There was little chance that she would find herself going to school any time soon or hanging out with her friends just to have fun. If this event was truly worldwide, then it was clear Ladybug's existence had a paramount importance now over that of Marinette. And without that normal life to protect, what point was there to have a secret identity?

Marinette looked away from the countless broken reflections of herself and glanced back over her shoulder at Alya and Nino who were both transfixed on the news showing on the phone.

She gritted her teeth again, and then mused that she needed to make sure she didn’t make that into a bad habit, or she would have no teeth left by next week. But she couldn’t help herself. She was picturing Adrien, still laying up on that rooftop alone. At the time she had figured he would be safer there, more so than down on the street, that was for sure, at least until she had been able to get help to him.

But it had been nearly four hours since then, and from the look of things, there was no help coming. She imagined all of the hospitals were chaos, and there were few ambulances if any, to call.

Her partner, her friend. He was hurt and alone. The thought of it made her feel alone as well. Chat was her balance, her other half, and without him she felt lost. Could she even face being Ladybug if she was alone?

She turned to face her friends and finally spoke.

“I need you both to help me.” Marinette said, her heart beginning to race at the prospect of what she was about to do. “But first there is something I must confess to you.”

She had imagined doing this so many times before, but never in her wildest dream would she have thought she would reveal herself to both Alya and Nino together, let alone ask them to do what she was about to.

“Tikki.” Marinette said, closing her eyes. “Spots on.”

She felt Tikki's power flow through her, then waited a moment and listened for a reaction.

There was the sound of a phone hitting the floor and Ladybug opened her eyes.

Both Nino and Alya stood there with their mouths agape.

“I know, I am sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I was sworn to secrecy by…" She said and then hesitated. "Well, let's just say that the person who told me the rules is gone now, but he left a note for me informing me that I was to take his place as Guardian of the Miraculous. So, I say, as of right now, the rules are changing. The world needs heroes, as many as we can muster, and I am looking at two right now.”

A full minute passed before either of her friends blinked. For a moment, she legit thought they had passed out and just remained standing.

“Marinette.” Alya finally said. “You’re… Ladybug?”

“Yes…” She said with as much of a smile as she could muster. “And once upon a time, as Ladybug, I offered you both a Miraculous so you could help me fight akuma. Now, in this moment, I am asking something more of you. The reason I wanted you to know who I am, who I really am, is because I am asking you to suit up to face an unknown that has apparently struck the entire world. No one time deals. No take backs. This is a request for you to become a full time Miraculous holders and risk your lives going forward without any promise of safety or reprieve. And I feel like I should only be asking you that with everything out in the open. So, I am asking you, as both Marinette and Ladybug, will you accept this duty?”

“I accept.” Alya said without hesitation as soon as she had finished talking.

“I’m in.” Nino said stepping forward.

Ladybug found a bit more strength to smile again. She wasn’t alone anymore.

“Alright then.” Ladybug said, “Stay right here, I’ll be right back.”

She quickly ran down three flights of stairs and then over to where the Miracle Box was stashed under the bakery counter. She hoisted it under her arms and ran back up the steps to her shattered bedroom.

As she approached, she could hear Nino and Alya talking.

“I totally guessed it.” Alya was saying.

“No way, you were oblivious, just like the rest of us!” Nino countered.

“To be fair, the Miraculous prevent people we know from recognizing us while we are suited up.” Ladybug said breaking into their conversation. “I’ll explain more later, but right now, we need to go help Adrien.”

“You know where Adrien is?” Nino all but yelled and stepped forward with a shocked look on his face. “I tried to find him when this first happened, but I couldn’t. No one answered at his home and those gates are all but impenetrable.”

“Yes. I know where he is.” She replied knowing she was about to blow their minds again. “Adrien was with me. Fighting Fishmonger.”

From the look on her face, Alya nearly did a backflip at hearing that.

“Adrien is Chat Noir!?” her friends both yelped in unison.

Ladybug paused a moment and looked down at the Miracle box she had placed on the ground in front of her. She fought the tears as best as she could, but they came anyway.

“I had no idea he was, until today.” She finally said through the sobs. “And something happened to him when this all started. He… there was nothing I could do.”

“I assume since you said we need to help him, that he didn’t vanish like the others.” Alya deduced as she put her arm around Marinette to comfort her.

“No, but his Chat suit did.” Ladybug explained as she leaned into Alya’s arm for emotional support. “And when it did, it broke him somehow. I had to leave him there to try and find help. And now that you are here…”

“Understood.” Nino said suddenly. “What do you need us to do?”

Ladybug regained her composure long enough to open the Miracle Box and reach in to grab the Fox Miraculous to hand to Alya. As she did, it immediately burst into light and became Trixx.

“Hello again Alya.” Trixx said in greeting. “It will be a pleasure to work with you again.”

“Wayzz” Ladybug called out.

The turtle appeared from wherever he was hiding and flew over to where Nino was standing.

“Hello again little guy.” Nino said. “I think it’s time suit up.”

Both Alya and Nino donned their Miraculous and after placing the Miracle Box in a backpack for Ladybug to carry, the three of them leapt from the shattered remains of Marinette's life.

Comic Frame Artwork created in collaboration with Tyler Street.   [email protected]
Added Sept 11,2021

Chapter Text

Nathalie stared at the empty floor in front of her, the ache in her knees growing along with the pain in her heart.

She knew that she had been kneeling there for quite some time now, but the image of Gabriel turning to dust kept flashing before her eyes over and over and she couldn't bring herself to stand.

Hours before, Gabriel had just lost another battle with Ladybug and Chat Noir and angrily transformed out of his Hawk Moth form.

Nooroo, the tiny creature who gave Hawk Moth his power had actually attempted to apologize to Gabriel for being unable to help him achieve his goals, even though Nathalie knew that the little creature didn’t want any part of this endeavor.

Gabriel outright ignored the apology and dismissed Nooroo back into it's Miraculous, then threw the brooch onto the floor in anger.

And then without any warning, it was as if a gust of wind simply blew Gabriel out of existence as he faded into ash.

Nathalie had called out to him and attempted to catch parts of him in her hands as he fluttered into pieces, but it was to no avail. She slowly fell to her knees after he had fully disappeared, the great darkness of grief overtaking her.

Now as she knelt motionless and broken, she wondered what could have done this to the man she loved. What power could simply erase someone like that?

Could Ladybug and Chat Noir have found a way to defeat him? Would they have used such a method to win?

No. They were too kindhearted and too weak for that kind of thing, which is why Gabriel was sure to win. Or, he would have been, she regretfully amended.

A beep on Nathalie’s tablet shook her from her grief and she glanced up from her silent vigil. Someone or something had tripped the buildings emergency security system.

She hadn’t even known the system had been online, as it only activated during power outages.

Thankful for the distraction from the darkness inside her, she quickly stood, wiped off her suit pants and picked up the tablet to load the location of the alert.

“Do you think he will be alright here?” Rena Rouge asked as they gently placed Adrien onto his bed.

Ladybug looked down at Adrien and then around the extravagant bedroom. She knew that this place had been like a gilded cage to him for so long, the place his father had forced him to remain all of those years before he had been allowed to go to school with the rest of his friends.

It had always been apparent to Marinette that Adrien was downplaying how his father treated him, and only every now and then his true feelings on the matter slipped through. Yet still Adrien was always gracious to his father or anyone else who treated him poorly. It was actually one of the things she loved most about him.

“We should see if someone is here.” Carapace suggested. “As long as there is someone to watch over him and make sure he gets the care he needs, then I am sure this is the best place for him.

Before Ladybug could respond, the door to Adrien’s room burst open, and Nathalie, normally composed and proper, came into the room like a hurricane.

“What have you done!” the woman yelled, her eyes red as if she had been recently crying.

“Um, we, ah… We found Adrien like this, and we decided to bring him here so he would be safe.” Ladybug said, fumbling with the excuse.

Nathalie shoved Ladybug aside and fell to her knees beside Adrien’s bed where she immediately began to gingerly stroke his face.

“Adrien, what did they do to you?” She whispered to him as she gripped his blanket tightly in her hands. “Why is this happening, first Gabriel and now Adrien. I can’t bear this!”

“Mr. Agreste?” Rena Rouge asked with a gasp. “Did he vanish?”

Nathalie’s head shot up and glared at the three of them as if she had daggers in her eyes.

“I never said he vanished! How did you know that?” The woman yelled as she stood and attempted to attack Ladybug with a sweeping kick. “You did this! I know you did!”

Ladybug dodged the woman’s attacks as best she could, but did not fight back. Nathalie was definitely trained in combat, but she was no match for Ladybug who knew that it would not do any good to harm the woman. Especially when it was clear that she as only attacking Ladybug out of misdirected grief, as It made no sense to blame Ladybug of all people for Gabriel Agreste's disappearance. After all, what grudge could Nathalie think Ladybug possibly held against the man that would make her want him to vanish like that?

The very large TV across the room flicked on and grabbed Nathalie’s attention.

The words ‘Billions around the world vanish.’ crawled across the bottom of the screen as videos of people turning to dust were being shown. Nathalie quickly fell to her knees, clearly realizing that what was happening was on a scope larger than she apparently knew a moment before.

Ladybug looked over to Carapace and saw that he had been the one to grab the TV remote. It had been a smart move on his part as it had been unlikely they would have been able to convince the distraught Nathalie that they had nothing to do with Gabriel Agreste’s disappearance or Adrien’s condition. Or, at least not entirely in Adrien’s case.

Her gut was turning over and over at the thought that perhaps she could have prevented this if she had been able to defeat Fishmonger more readily, allowing them to transform back sooner. Plagg would have likely still been lost, but perhaps Adrien would have…

“That doesn’t explain Adrien.” Nathalie said flatly.

Ladybug walked over and knelt beside the woman.

“We don’t know why he won’t wake up.” she offered, a partial truth. “I swear to you, we brought him here so he could get the help he needs.”

“You've done so.” Nathalie said coldly. “Now leave us.”

Ladybug pursed her lips, and stood. She wanted so badly to be able to stay beside Adrien and never leave him until he awoke again. But something inside her was pushing her to go and find out if there was some way to reverse his condition, to reverse everything that had happened. She knew very well however that she couldn’t do any of that if she stayed here, tethered to him by grief.

Silently, she nodded to Rena Rogue and Carapace and without another word the two heroes made their way back to the open window they had entered through.

Before she followed her friends to leap out into the night, Ladybug looked back to find Nathalie once again kneeling beside Adrien.

“Gabriel would have wanted me to make sure you were safe.” Nathalie said. "So that is what I will do."

Ladybug lowered her eyes and then nodded to herself. It was clear that Adrien would be safe here and that he wouldn’t be alone. That above all else was what she needed to know before she felt comfortable leaving him.

So with that, she turned and leapt through the open window toward whatever lay ahead.

Comic Frame Artwork created in collaboration with Tyler Street.   [email protected]
Added Sept 19,2021

Chapter Text

One Week Later

Marinette stepped out of the Elevator onto the long term care floor of the hospital.

As she walked she couldn’t help but consider how quiet and empty the world felt now. Her trek to the hospital had been almost eerie, as ever since the disappearances, people hardly went out unless they had to. It was no wonder that people had come to call the event, The Decimation.

Almost all non-essential jobs had simply ceased to exist, many unable to fill the positions of those who had vanished, and others simply because there was no need any more for such things. This of course meant that economies the world over were in shambles. On top of that, it was a miracle that any governments even still functioned because so many of those who held political positions had also vanished, leaving gaps in the structure of it all.

In terms of Paris, Mayor Bourgeois had vanished, which was a shock to the city for sure, but something more in that particular announcement had made it hit closer to home for Marinette. It seemed that Chloe had vanished as well, and as much as Marinette had despised how the girl had always treated her, she had still cried when she had found out. At this point, most grudges people had held with those that had vanished, had also disappeared.

All anyone could do now was hold out hope for every person they checked on to be someone who was still there. But it turned out, so many had gone.

Only Alya, Nino, Adrien and Mme. Bustier had been spared from Marinette's normal class. Everyone else, just memories.

Here in the city, it had become a time of giving and goodwill, as there were very few who had not lost someone to The Decimation. The remaining population had come together to work through the grief and tough times, many citing the fact that they had all been facing akumas for so long here, that they knew how to cope better than most. Marinette knew she couldn’t say the same for other parts of the world, but at least here it was quiet now, even if it was a disconcerting quiet.

Marinette looked up as she approached the end of the hall where she looked to find the nameplate Agreste on the door in front of her. She hesitated a moment and then walked into the room.

As she rounded the curtain that blocked vision of the room from the hall, she saw that a nurse was checking Adrien’s vitals.

“Hello, is it alright if I visit for a little while?” she asked softly.

“Of course Marinette, you are always welcome here.” said a familiar stern voice from behind her.

Startled, Marinette turned and saw Nathalie sitting in a chair in the corner behind her.

“You were always someone who Adrien cherished having around.” Nathalie said to her as she stood. “It will do him good to hear your voice.”

Marinette smiled meekly at that. The last time she had seen Nathalie was when the she had attacked Ladybug in Adrien’s bedroom a week earlier, but of course the woman couldn't know that. But Marinette still found it odd nonetheless to receive such high praise from her because of that fact.

“Thank you.” Marinette replied, honestly grateful for the kind words.

The nurse who had been checking Adrien’s vitals passed by Marinette to pull the curtain out of the way and then left the room without a word.

“I’ll give you some time alone with him.” Nathalie said. “I have some things I need to take care of.”

Marinette nodded as the woman left and then she turned to Adrien.

He looked so peaceful laying there, almost enough for her to forget his current condition.

“Hello there.” she said to him as she approached.

She didn’t really know what else to say, so she silently sat in the chair beside his bed and reached for his hand to hold it.

His skin was warm, that fact comforting to her, a reminder that he was still here.

“So, Alya and Nino told me to say hi for them. They would have come to see you themselves, but someone had to patrol, and Alya all but insisted I be the one to come.” She said, trying hard to force a smile. “That girl, always trying to get me to talk to you, even now when you can’t even respond.”

Marinette looked toward the machine that tracked Adrien's heartbeat. Still strong, still beating.

“You know, ever since I met you... any time we spoke I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth without tripping all over myself. You must have thought I was so clumsy, so silly.” she said as she closed her eyes. “And now I feel like if you were awake, I could talk to you all day long. No fear, no stumbles.”

She bit her lip and opened her eyes once more with a flutter of her eyelashes, a vain attempt to un-blur her vision of the tears that were forming.

“It means that I could finally tell you the one thing I have longed to.” she said, feeling flush.

She hesitantly looked toward the door back out into the hall to make sure no one was there and then leaned in close to his ear.

“Silly Chat, it’s time to wake up.” She whispered as tears started to flow fully now. "Wake up so I can tell you that I love you."

After a moment of silence, as if she was waiting to give him a chance to respond, she wiped her tears and straightened in her chair. Then she reached into her purse to retrieve something from it.

“I know that you are still in there somewhere, and I know that laying here all day must be pretty boring and lonely.” she said as she moved her hand and the object she now held to a spot near his pillow. “So I thought that I would bring you a little friend to keep you company. Someone you already know, someone who was always there with you even when I couldn’t be.”

She pulled her hand away leaving behind a small knitted Plagg doll.

Marinette stared into the little black cats smiling face, a reminder of who else had been lost.

“Keep an eye on him, you hear?” She said with a wink at the motionless figure. "Or Tikki says Adrien won't give you any of that smelly cheese you love."

She felt her tears began to well up again she stood and walked toward the door.

When she was just about to reach the exit, she stopped and turned to look back at his sleeping face once more.

In the corner of her mind, she imagined that she could hear him saying goodbye to her. But she knew that it was only wishful thinking, so without further hesitation she turned and continued out of the room.

It took everything she could muster to not break down right there in the hall, but she kept walking nonetheless.

There was part of her that wasn’t sure if she could come back and face him again, not without some kind of way to wake him up. It was all just too much hurt to bear. But then the other part of her, the part that needed him, it screamed for her to turn around now and stay there with him. The entirety of her being was in conflict, which of course made her tremble with uncertainty.

This of course meant that when she reached the elevator and attempted to push the call button, she missed it completely.

“Here, let me get that for you.” A woman’s voice said from beside her.

“Thank you.” Marinette said as she tried to steady herself. Her emotions were all over the place, and she wondered how much of a mess she looked.

“Anytime, Ladybug.” The woman replied nonchalantly.

Marinette froze as the elevator door opened, her heart immediately beginning to pound in her chest so hard that she could actually hear it.

Slowly she turned her head to look at who was standing beside her. Who was this person that knew that she was Ladybug?

Her vision was still blurry from crying, but it didn’t matter. The moment she saw the woman's face she knew who it was. Marinette had seen her face on TV and there was no mistaking her now.

“You’re....B... B...” Marinette said in a stammer.

Black Widow smiled at her.

“My friends call me Nat.”

Comic Frame Artwork created in collaboration with Tyler Street.   [email protected]
Added Sept 23,2021
Unfortunately this is the last comic frame for a while.

Chapter Text

Two Days Earlier, Avengers Campus, Upstate New York

The face of Scott Lang, The Ant Man displayed on the screen and Natasha Romanoff frowned.

She typed out the word ‘Missing’ in the current status field and continued on to the next file. She had been at this for only an hour and she had already seen so many faces she recognized that it was testing even her steely resolve.

Next up was Hank Pym, former Ant Man, and creator of the suit he and Lang both wielded for a time. After reviewing the information streaming to her from Tony’s A.I. assistant Friday, she typed the same word on his file that she had typed on Lang’s.

“Hey there.” A familiar voice came from behind her.

She turned and saw Bruce awkwardly lingering by the door to the room.

“Banner.” She greeted him, clenching her jaw as she looked back toward her work. She hoped the use of his last name would strike him as a fairly obvious hint that she wanted to be alone right now.

“Ah, back to a second name basis are we?” he said, clearly not getting the picture. “Don’t worry, I’m not really here to talk to you about that… er… us.”

“And yet you are still talking.” Nat said pressing a key to bring up yet another photo. This one was a bit more close to home and it almost broke the wall she had been building since Thanos had snapped his fingers.

Protect yourself, keep on task, do not let the pain in.

These were tenants from her training in the Red Room that she followed even when she joined the Avengers. Eventually though, as she began to consider the Avengers her family, she realized that those walls she had always put up were hindering her cohesion with the group and began to shed them.

But that family had just been sliced down the middle and perhaps those walls were needed once again.

She clenched her fists and then typed out the word ‘Missing’ beside Clint Barton’s image.

“You know, we haven’t gotten full confirmation that he was one of the vanished.” Bruce said as he sat down beside her.

She looked at him sternly, knowing well that her eye was twitching.

He held up his hands defensively.

“I know.” he said slowly turning to look at the images before her. “What are you doing anyway? I’d hate to think you are just passing time updating personnel files. I’m sure we can do that later, when things are a bit less… fresh.”

She looked forward again.

“We are at a diminished capacity.” She said flatly. “Tony kept extensive files on every superhero in the world and we need to take account of who is actually still standing and willing to fight. That way we can rally and find Thanos. Make him reverse this god awful thing he has done.”

“Nat, we don’t know where Thanos is. He could have literally teleported to anywhere in the universe with the space stone.” Bruce began to say, but another stern look from her made him stop talking.

“I know that.” She conceded. “In either case, the world is still here, and we still need to protect it. Do you think we can do that with our current numbers.”

She quickly stood and motioned with her arm towards the windows of the room.

“We were attacked from space by an army of aliens.” she said forcefully. “And it’s not the first time! So there is no telling if it won’t happen again, especially if these disappearances happened everywhere, even out there on other planets. There could be a mad rush for dominance… to fill the vacuum left behind.”

Bruce swallowed hard and shifted his weight in his chair.

“Tony isn't here, and Fury has gone dark, so we must assume he is gone too.” she said changing her tone to a somber one. “Someone needs to take the reigns and make sure we can mount a proper defense.”

He didn’t immediately say anything so she sat back down at the computer and continued to scroll.

The next image that appeared was someone named, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, The Ladybug.

“She’s just a kid.” Bruce said.

Nat glanced over at the current status information. The young girls parent’s had been reported as some of the vanished, but the status of the Ladybug showed that she had remained active as a protector of Paris, being seen as recent as earlier that same day. Nat looked to Bruce.

“Kid or not.” she said as she began to type something. “She’s still out there fighting after losing everything. And that is the kind of resolve we need right now.”

Bruce leaned back in his chair and brushed his hand through his hair when he saw what she had typed.

The words “Seek Recruitment” was now listed by Marinette’s image.

Back in the Present

Marinette awkwardly stared at her own reflection in the chrome elevator door as she and Black Widow rode it to the roof access level.

After introducing herself, the Avenger had asked Marinette if they could talk and motioned to the elevator. Marinette had said nothing but stepped inside.

How had Black Widow known who she was? Did she know who the others were? For that matter, why was she here now, talking to her of all people? These and a multitude of other questions raced through her head until the elevator finally chimed it’s arrival at their destination.

Nat, as she had called herself, stepped out first and started to walk away but when Marinette tried to move her legs they refused. Widow seemed to notice she hadn’t been followed yet and turned to look at her.

“Sorry!” Marinette said shaking her head and then pushed herself forward to follow.

“Don’t worry about it.” Widow replied, still speaking fluent French, “I’m sorry if me knowing your identity threw you off.”

Marinette was walking in step with the woman now and couldn’t help but grip the strap of her own purse with both hands as if she was trying to hold on to her reality.

“I… how did…” Marinette started to say and wondered if Tikki who was hiding in her purse was freaking out as much as she was right now.

“Tony Stark is pretty meticulous when it comes to surveillance of people with extraordinary abilities.” Widow replied to her unfinished question. “Going as far as tracking movements of a person and narrowing down where a super hero tends to appear and disappear every day.”

Marinette frowned. She had assumed she had been careful with keeping her identity safe, but she had never really been thinking about those who had access to a global surveillance network. It had just been her friends, family, Hawk Moth and the people around Paris who she had focused on keeping the secret from. But Tony Stark, a genius halfway around the world who had literally built himself into having super powers, he had never once crossed her mind.

The woman with bleached blonde hair looked down at her and smiled.

“Don’t worry though.” Widow reassured. “Your secret is safe with us.”

“Us?” Marinette asked. “The Avengers?”

Widow seemed to stiffen at that.

“What’s left of us, anyway.” Widow said after a moment.

Marinette dropped her shoulders at that and looked down at the ground in front of her as she walked. It made sense that some of the Avengers would have vanished as well. It seemed that no one, no matter how powerful, had been safe from this seemingly random erasure.

“That’s actually why I am here.” Widow continued as they exited through the hospitals roof access door. “We were hoping you would join us for a meeting at our Headquarters in New York to discuss the state of the world.”

Marinette looked forward again and saw that a very high tech jet of sorts was parked in the middle of the hospital helipad as if it had just landed there from straight above.

“But, before all of that.” Widow started to say as a ramp lowered on the back of the jet. “I understand there are more of these ‘Miraculous’ in your group.”

Marinette stopped walking and looked Widow in the eyes to try and get a read on her. This woman was literally known as a super hero, an Avenger, but could she trust her? Marinette considered the fact that some of the Avengers had fought aliens in New York directly before the decimation had occurred. So that meant that there was a good chance that if she was going to discover a way to help Adrien, finding out what the Avengers knew on the subject would be a good place to start.

She looked off to her right and from their vantage point she could see most of Paris.

Her city. Her home. It still needed protecting.

“Honestly, yes there are other Miraculous, but I think I want to hear what you have to say before I involve them.” Marinette said looking back toward Widow. “If, if that’s alright.

Widow smiled a soft smile.

“That’s perfectly fine.” the Avenger said and waved her hand towards the ramp into the jet. “Please, After you.”

Chapter Text

Marinette peered to her right toward Black Widow who was sitting in the cockpit, the woman's eyes closed.

It had been about thirty minutes into the flight when the Avenger had told Marinette that she had set the QuinJet to autopilot and that she planned to get some ‘shut eye’ during their trip. And now that ten more minutes had passed, Marinette was left wondering if the woman had fully fallen asleep yet or not.

She sighed and looked down at the tablet which now sat in her lap. Widow had handed it to her right before they took off and told her to ‘read up’.

Displayed on the screen were the words, Classified Files : The Decimation.

There was some movement to Marinette's right and she glanced to find Tikki crawling out from her usual hiding place in Marinette’s purse. Marinette quickly looked toward Widow again, wondering once more if and hoping that the Avenger was truly asleep.

“Tikki,” Marinette whispered after the kwami had flown up to land on her shoulder. “Do you think that this is a good idea?”

Tikki looked over at Widow and back again to Marinette with a thoughtful look on her face. 

“I understand your hesitance. But it’s the best lead we’ve had.” the little ladybug whispered in her ear. “Well, it's actually the only lead we've had.”

It was true. Over the course of the last week they had not uncovered any information at all about The Decimation. No news source had offered any details, and not a single government or worldwide organization seemed to indicate their understanding either. It was all still a complete mystery to everyone.

There however was this small chance that the Avengers knew something.

Yet even now, forty minutes after take off, she still had not found the courage to press the button to open the files on the tablet and read them. Something inside her was causing her to hesitate. Perhaps it was that she was afraid to find out the truth behind what was going on, because if she didn’t know the details then she could keep her hope of being able to fix everything. But what if it stated plainly in these files that it was irreversible or beyond her power to do anything?

Could she face that?

Marinette shook her head lightly and then bit her lip as she considered where life had brought her up to that point. Somewhere along the way she had stopped being just a normal girl trying to get by each day by dealing with childish problems and social dramas. She had become a hero, and she knew that heroes shouldn't let fear of failure stop them from trying to do what they could to save whoever was in danger.

Yet as it was, the world was not in danger of falling into a precipice, it was already well over that edge and tumbling downward. So the only option left to her was to leap in after it and try to catch it before it hit bottom.

Boldness growing inside her, she once more looked down at the tablet and slowly hovered her finger over the touch screen button, and then pressed it.

When the files appeared and spread out on the screen to become a long list of headers and icons, Marinette realized that this would all take a little while to get through. Supposedly the flight would take four hours more, so at least she would have the time necessary to do dig into it all.

Tikki flew down and landed on the edge of the tablet, pointing to one of the files.

“That one.” Tikki said as she looked back up at Marinette with an urgent look on her face.

Marinette pressed the icon and the file maximized to be readable. The header of the file was listed as Infinity Stones.

Before she could read anything however, Marinette heard a vibration inside her purse. She quickly scrambled to pulled out her phone while she looked towards Widow to see if the woman had heard the sound and awoken. Thankfully, it seemed as if she she was still fast asleep, which was good because Tikki was still out in plain sight.

Marinette turned her phone over and looked at it. On the screen was her conversation with Alya, a new message at the bottom.

(in case the image doesn't load...)

Marinette : Hey, I got a lead, but it’s gonna take me out of Paris for a bit, can you and Nino keep an eye on things while I’m gone?

Marinette : Sorry to drop this on you so suddenly, I kind of got taken by surprise.

Marinette : OH! And Adrien is alright.

Marinette : Well, I mean, they are taking good care of him.

NEW - Alya : Of course girl! Nino and I got this! Let us know what you find out!

She sighed with relief. At least things were covered back home while she was gone.

There hadn’t been an Akuma attack since The Decimation and the three remaining Miraculous holders had concluded that Hawk Moth was either gone in the disappearance himself, or had realized that a fight right now helped no one. This somewhat period of calm meant that Ladybug was okay to leave for a bit, as there was currently no need for her power of de-evilizing.

She placed her phone back into her purse and looked back to Tikki and the tablet. The little kwami had already started reading without her apparently.

“Marinette…” Tikki said turning to look up at her. “If the stones are involved, then this could be worse than we thought.”

Marinette listened intently as Tikki explained about the infinity stones, what they were and the power they held.

Six stones, created at the dawn of the universe alongside the kwami, were much like a foundation holding a building together. Each stone held an aspect of reality in check, and just like the Miraculous, they could be wielded to control those energies, but with much less restriction. It was interesting to hear just how directly related to the kwami the stones were, having basically been the catalyst for their birth.

After Tikki had finished her fairly verbose explanation, the kwami looked again at the tablet and suggested that Marinette should now press the file with the header “Thanos Causes The Decimation”.

This particular file was laid out as a timeline of events that happened just the week before,

So, Marinette read about Iron Man's battle in New York versus the two aliens that had arrived there, then about the battle in Edinburgh, Scotland where The Vision and Wanda Maximoff had fought two more. Each group of aliens had been in search of an Infinity stones, and the Avenger's had attempted to stop the aliens from obtaining them.

Lastly, laid out in very plain, unfeeling text, was the battle in Wakanda, at which the one known as Thanos had snapped his fingers.

Marinette lowered the tablet, her arms shaking slightly and a single tear running down her cheek.

This had all been caused by the snap of someone's fingers? That was what erased her parents and so many others?

This one individual had used the immense power of the infinity stones and simply wished half of all life from existence. Had it really been that easy?

And for what? According to this file, Thanos had apparently wanted to 'improve life' for everyone in the universe by making sure the resources that were available to them would last longer. In his eye's there would now be much less of a worry about food, or overcrowding.

Marinette leaned back in the flight chair as she realized now that Ladybug and Chat Noirs battle with Hawk Moth had been all that more dire, more so than she had known before. During Tikki’s explanation about the infinity stones connection with the Kwami, she had learned that combining the Miraculous of Creation and Miraculous of Destruction as Hawk Moth had wanted, could be just as devastating as Thanos Snap had been.

If their Miraculous ever fell into the wrong hands…

She shook her head as she conceded that it didn’t matter any longer anyway as Plagg was gone, taking the Miraculous of Destruction with him. That meant that they could no longer ever be combined to grant a wish. But that of course didn't mean people wouldn't still seek to obtain them, especially since Marinette, Alya and Nino were the only people in existence that knew of Plagg's fate. Or at least that is what she believed to be true.

Looking again at the file headers on the Tablet, she didn’t see anything coming even close to pertaining to the Miraculous or Kwami's. So it was a fair bet The Avengers didn’t know anything about the little godlike creatures existence or what Tikki had explained to her about the Ultimate Power wish.

Marinette frowned at that.

She had originally been afraid that she would have nothing to offer up in this meeting of super heroes. But now, she was afraid of the opposite fact. She had a lot of information to offer, but she didn’t like the implications of what they may ask of her if they found out about any of it.

Marinette placed the tablet on the empty chair beside her and Tikki flew up to land on her now outstretched hand.

“Tikki.” She said, contemplating the question she was about to ask and whether or not it made her sound like a bad person for even thinking it. “If we still had Chat’s Miraculous, could we have used it to reverse The Decimation with the Ultimate Power wish?”

Tikki looked down for a moment in thought.

“I don’t know Marinette.” the little kwami admitted. “But when a wish like that is made with the Miraculous, an equal and opposite cost would be enacted by the universe in reaction to it. Things would likely be just as bad as they are now, just in a different way. The Infinity Stones do not have that limitation.”

In a way, Marinette was actually thankful for that last fact. Even if somehow Thanos had learned of the Miraculous, he likely would have not considered them as a viable tool for achieving his goals. And that was a relief because she couldn’t imagine she and Chat Noir would have been able to fight off an alien army like the Avengers had done. Especially seeing that the overall attempt to protect the stones they had possessed had still failed in the end, even with their groups numbers and impressive powers.

Suddenly a yawn overtook her. She had been out patrolling the entire night before, and had been awake most of the day before Widow had showed up. So at this point, she was running on only about an hour of sleep for two full days of being awake.

Marinette looked at the time displayed on the cockpit autopilot. It displayed a three hour countdown until their arrival.

Glancing down again at the Tablet beside her, she figured that there was a lot more to read up on. But at this point, she figured she had gotten the gist of the situation at least enough to keep up with any conversation on the subject that may come up.

“Tikki, I think I am going to get some sleep so I can be alert at this meeting we are headed to.” Marinette said as she stretched her arms over her head, letting out a second yawn. “Feel free to have a snack from my purse, and try to get some rest too.”

Tikki nodded to her and flew off out of sight.

As she closed her eyes, Marinette began to think of Adrien, and soon she was fast asleep.

Chapter Text

A loud thud jarred Marinette from her slumber. For a fleeting moment she had forgotten where she was and had groggily tried to reach for her blanket to pull it over her head, but it was not there.

“Did you sleep well?” Widow asked while climbing out of the pilot's seat.

Marinette stretched her arms and nodded an affirmative. Somehow she had actually slept fairly comfortably, even while strapped into a flight chair in a sitting position.

“By the way, how’s your English?” the Avenger asked her.

Marinette frowned, honestly it wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't so great. Most of what she knew had been learned playing video games, or watching American movies.

“Uh. It’s not too bad, uhm, well, I…” she stammered.

“Don’t worry, here, take this.” Widow said and handed her a small earbud. “Stark designed our communication equipment with built in translators. All of the Avengers wear these at all times in case we have to deploy at a moments notice, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about a language barrier.”

Marinette graciously took the earbud and looked at it. The device in her hands was likely made from tech worth millions more than she would ever see in her lifetime.

Don’t lose it, clumsy girl. She thought to herself.

The ramp at the back of the Quinjet was already almost fully lowered and Widow had started to walk down it. Marinette quickly realized that she should probably gather her things and follow along before she got left behind. She attempted to stand before realizing that she was still harnessed into the flight chair. After she recovered from being snapped back into the chair she closed her eyes and hoped that no one had seen that.

“Totally saw that.” Widows voice said coming from outside.

Marinette pouted and then unbuckled herself, grabbing her purse as she stood. However, she had a passing thought as she turned to leave the Quinjet. She was about to meet some of the earths mightiest heroes, and right now she appeared to just be a simple normal girl. How would she be able to make an impression dressed like this?

She quickly placed her new earbud on the chair beside her so it wouldn’t be affected by her transformation and then opened her purse to let Tikki out.

“Tikki, Spots on.” She whispered.

Her clothes and purse were replaced by her Ladybug suit in a flash, then she retrieved the earbud and put it in her ear. Now she figured that she was good to go.

As she descended the ramp, she noticed the look on Widows face. Clearly the woman hadn’t expected Ladybug to emerge from the jet.

“Wow, and I thought I could change quick.” Widow said as she gave a nod of approval.

As the two of them walked across a courtyard away from the Quinjet Ladybug looked up at the sleek looking building before her with the big A on it's side.

It was honestly hard for her to believe that she was actually here. Back when she had first started out as a super hero she had researched everything and anything there was on other heroes. She sought inspiration on how to act in public, how portray herself to the press, and even to see if she could mimic some of their flighting styles.

For the most part, what she had learned was that most other super heroes out there didn't even hide their identity, and the few that still did were enigma's as a whole, only being seen in quick moments, never staying to talk to the press. It had made it strange for her to fall into that strange middle ground, where she was well known as a hero, active during the day and interacting with the press, but still keeping her identity secret. Yet, of course, she understood the need of that secret, especially with Hawk Moth always on the hunt for her and Chat Noir's Miraculouses.

Of course her research had also made her feel small compared to groups like the Avengers, as they had literally saved the planet on numerous occasions. And yet, here she was walking into their headquarters to have a meeting with them at their behest.

“Wow, am I seeing spots, or is that way too much red for one hue-mi to be wearing?” Ladybug heard someone say from her right. She glanced over to find a raccoon standing on it’s hind legs like a person would, it's eyes remaining fixed on her as she walked. She then couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when the animal was revealed to be the one who was speaking. “Hey Widow, ain’t you named after a bug too? Why ain’t you got a super sleek outfit like that?”

“Good afternoon, Rocket.” Widow said deflecting the racoon’s snide comment without actually looking toward him. “Ignore him, he’s new to the planet and doesn’t understand Earth etiquette yet.”

“Naw, I understand it, just choosin to ignore it.” Rocket said and laughed.

Ladybug shook her head in disbelief as she continued to follow Widow into the building leaving the rude racoon behind. Now it was true that she had seen some interesting things in her time fighting akuma, but most of the time there was an almost altered sense of scale and reality at play. This of course was largely due to the fact it was all being created by magic and that made it easier to comprehend the strangeness of it all.

But Rocket was a very real animal, person...thing? Ladybug shook her head at the confusion and made a note to ask about the proper terminology later, so that she wouldn't offend the raccoon by accident.

That whole thing though, it made her realize now that she really had no idea what to expect here in this place.

As they rounded the next corner a middle aged man was also turning it almost ran directly into Widow.

“Ah! Nat, you’re back!” The man said as she attempted to not stumble over. He then glanced over at Ladybug and quickly offered his hand for her to shake. “Hi there, I’m Bruce, you must be The Ladybug.”

“It’s just Ladybug.” Marinette said meekly and shook his hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh, sorry about that.” The man said as he took his hand back and Ladybug couldn't help but feel like he seemed nervous. Not of her in particular, but everything in general, as if he was perpetually walking on eggshells.

“Where is Steve?” Widow asked Bruce who then responded by pointing over his shoulder.

“He’s uh, He’s in the gym.” Bruce said and then started to walk away from them with a small wave. “It was nice to meet you Ladybug.”

Ladybug awkwardly waved back at him, and stayed focused on him long enough to realize that Widow had started walking away without her. So yet again, she quickly moved to catch up.

After walking through a couple different sets of doors they eventually came to what was clearly the gym complex. It had everything, Exercise Equipment, Gymnastic mats, combat dummies, a climbing wall, a pool, a basketball court and punching bags.

‘Steve’ as Widow had called him, was in the middle of the gym using one of those punching bags.

Ladybug should have realized that when Widow had mentioned Steve, that she meant Steve Rogers, THE Captain America.

The bearded man was throwing hard punch after hard punch into the sparring bag and it was straining under the power of it. It actually looked like he was backing every punch with a serious amount of emotion.

As Ladybug and Widow drew closer, he threw one very hard final punch and the bag flew off its stand, coming to a halt about three meters away. It was Impressive to say the least.

Steve turned and looked at Ladybug for a second, then to Nat, and then focused on taking the wraps off his hands.

“Who's this?” he asked, which surprised Ladybug a bit. Did he not know she was coming?

“This is the new asset from Paris I told you about.” Widow said.

Steve looked at Ladybug again and made a face that indicated he was contemplating something.

“Hey kid.” He said, “Show me what you can do.”

Marinette hesitated for a second, not having been expecting a request to demonstrate her powers. But she quickly looked around the room and tried to decide on what to show him.

Using her ability to spot important items, she saw spots appear on the bag he had just knocked over, then on a suspended beam running along the ceiling about seven meters above them, and finally a basketball hoop across the gym.

Without any further delay she sprang straight into the air, clearing the full distance to the ceiling in the single bound where she then threw her yo-yo down to wrap around the downed punching bag. She used the taughtness of the Yo-yo to tilt her trajectory and flew over the beam, landing on the opposite side with her legs bracing her against it. Then, with her Yo-yo countering her weight, she pulled with all of her might and used the beam as a pulley to lift the bag to the top where she quickly grabbed it with both hands. Then, using her whole body as a lever, she did a back flip to rocket the bag across the gym a good forty meters distance, where it completely shattered the basketball hoops backboard.

As she landed directly beside Steve, barely registering the drop from the height she had fallen from, he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Alright then.” he said with a smile. “That's good enough for me.”

Ladybug smiled back with pride, glad that she had been able to impress him. Even Widow offered her a nod of approval.

Over the course of last two years, Ladybug had found herself wondering what the real limits of her strength were. There had been a few times that she had surprised herself during a fight with an Akumatized Villain, because in many of those battles she had never even considered if she could pull off a move before she simply attempted it anyway as there had been no other option to win. In the end she had always been successful.

But now she was standing beside two Avengers, and she had a feeling that her true limits were going to be tested soon enough.

Hopefully she would be up to the challenge.

Chapter Text

Marinette glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed to herself.

The meeting had already been going on now for a bit more than two hours, but boy did it felt like way more than that.

While this gathering of super heroes and other skilled individuals was impressive, to say the least, the sheer number of topics that everyone wanted to approach was making things move quite slowly. It was clear that with everything that was happening as a result of The Decimation that there was a hectic sort of rush to handle things, but she was starting to feel they could have at least organized the topics a bit better beforehand.

So far the discussions had covered everything from local and global crime levels, to strange phenomena that had been noticed in relation to the disappearances, such as the fact that all octopus had vanished, not just half of them.

Ladybug herself had not had much of a reason to speak yet, so she was quietly standing near one of the windowed walls of the lounge where the conference was being held. Of course, her silence had another reason. It had quickly dawned on her when she arrived that not many of the others had worn much in the way of their super hero outfits, mainly being dressed in their civilian clothes. So now she felt an awkward sense of self awareness burning inside her as she tried to look as unassuming as possible, but she imagined that she still stood out quite a bit.

Thankfully, Nat had taken to time to introduce Ladybug to everyone that was there before things had started to kick off. So at the very least she could be relieved with the knowledge that everyone there knew who she was.  Of course this didn't mean that she wasn't worried that she wouldn’t be able to remember all of their names when it came down to it.

Squinting at the people around her, she looked at each of them categorically to test her own recollection.

On one end of the room were most of the mainline Avengers; Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Thor, and James Rhodes, who was also known as War Machine.

To the right of them, over near a dry erase board marked with various algorithms and calculations, stood both Astrophysicist Doctor Erik Selvig and Geneticist Doctor Helen Cho.

Over on the same side of the room as Ladybug, was Matt Murdock the 'Daredevil', Pepper Potts the CEO of Stark Industries, Rocket the cybernetically enhanced racoon, Okoye of the Dora Milaje, and Wong a 'Master of the Mystic Arts'.

Out of the entire batch, Wong was the one that had interested her the most, or more to the fact, it was he who seemed to have taken the most interest in her. An obvious fact given by how many times throughout the last two hours he had glanced her way and looked lost in thought. Ladybug guessed that because the man was a ‘Master of the Mystic Arts’ that, unlike all of the scientists in the room, Wong would be the most likely to know of the Miraculous and their relationship to the infinity stones. This left her wondering if his interest in her stemmed from that knowledge or if it was something else unknown to her altogether. Of course such thoughts made her anxious, but with everything already on her mind, could she really manage to worry about another thing?

She had already been feeling anxious as it was about the possibility of the Miraculous coming up as a subject of discussion, especially because she would find it hard to be both helpful to the group and yet also protect the secrets she was ordained to as the Guardian. Thankfully though, the conversation was currently still falling into the realm of a more scientific nature.

Bruce Banner was standing beside a screen that displayed an image of a small computerized device that had discovered after The Decimation. He was currently explaining it to the group that they had detected it by way of it's energy sygnature which was not of terrestrial origin.

“After tracking the energy signal to it’s source, we found this device laying with other various debris in the street.” Banner said, “The back of the device is emblazoned with a series of numbers that Natasha says is Nick Fury’s special emergency directive ID, so we are going under the assumption he was the one who activated it just before he vanished.”

“I’ve analyzed the signal it is producing and it is quite powerful, capable of reaching into the furthest reaches of space without much trouble.” Dr. Selvig chimed in.

“There is no knowing who or what this thing is signaling too.” Steve Rogers said. “For now all we can do is keep it active and hope that Fury knew what he was doing.”

Bruce slid the image on the screen to the left and it changed to an image of the Earth with the representation of a wave of energy expanding outward from it.

“On the same topic of energy signals, we have been attempting to analyzing the massive burst of energies that appeared when Thanos snapped his fingers. Our hope is that we can utilize this information to be able to track Thanos’s use of the infinity stones and discover his current whereabouts.”

"Unfortunately we are having trouble locking down the exact signatures themselves." Dr. Selvig added. "They seem to blend directly into the background radiation of the universe itself, and without another controlled burst to use as a framework we are really working blind."

“The energy produced by the infinity stones is mystical, defining the natural world without actually being part of it.” Wong said, chiming in for the first time. “You would have better luck with having us masters of the mystical arts attempt to track them. Or, by simply asking a being made up of the energy itself.”

No one in the room spoke for a moment, as they were likely not sure what to make of the last bit of what Wong had said. Ladybug however knew quite well where he was going with this, and her pulse started to quicken.

“I don’t suppose you know where to find one of these beings?” Steve Rogers finally asked Wong.

Wong looked toward Ladybug and raised his eyebrow.

“There is one right there.” he said with a nod, outing her, or more accurately, Tikki.

Everyone in the room looked at Ladybug, and she felt her cheeks flush a bit from the attention. This of course had been exactly what she was afraid would happen.

“Ladybug?” Rogers said as he stepped forward. “Do you know what he is talking about?

“I, uh, yes. I do, but…” she said, unsure of what she should admit to. Still, it was clear now that there was no point in hiding Tikki's existence since Wong had already made her presence known. So she decided that she might as well just come out with it. “To be completely honest, it’s not my place to speak for her. And I am unsure if she would be willing to appear for all of you.”

“Why don’t you let Tikki come out, and see what she thinks.” Nat said with a soft smile. “If she isn’t comfortable, we can always seek alternate routes.”

Ladybug’s eyes widened at the mention of Tikki's name. It seemed that Nat had in fact not been asleep on the Quinjet after all. Had the woman feigned the whole thing to spy on her and find out what she knew? Widow was a spy of course, so it made sense that she would always be looking for new information to use, but by the way Steve was looking sidelong at Nat right now with a raised eyebrow, clearly he had not known about any of this. So at the very least it seemed like Nat had kept what she had seen and heard to herself, until now that is, so it left Ladybug conflicted as to whether or not she could truly trust Widow or not.

Regardless though of what she thought about Widow, all eyes were on Ladybug now and she was the one who held the information everyone seemed to be seeking, so there was really only one course of action.

Ladybug sighed and stepped forward to place the earbud that had been in her ear on the table.

“Tikki, spots off.”

Ladybug could see wonder wash over everyone's expression as she became Marinette, her tiny kwami partner flying out to hover in the air beside her at the same time.

“I’m sorry, Tikki.” Marinette said as she put her earbud back in.

“Don’t worry Marinette, we knew that this might happen.” Tikki replied with a small huff.

“Amazing.” Thor said with awe in his voice. “In all my many years I have never met a spirit such as this.”

Marinette found herself surprised to hear that one type of god knew nothing of another. She knew that Thor came from another planet entirely, so maybe that meant Earth was truly the only place where kwami had taken physical form. That of course limited the knowledge of their existence in a way that was actually advantageous to the secrecy the Guardian's of the Miraculous were entrusted with. And that also confirmed that Thanos had likely never even heard of the Miraculous, making the thought that he would have sought them at all, a moot one.

“Can someone tell me what I’m lookin at here?” Rocket asked as he jumped up on the table to get a closer look at Tikki.

Marinette quickly drew forward to put herself as a center point of attention, something she would normally try to avoid, but she was driven by an almost instinctive need to protect her partner.

“Tikki is the kwami that empowers my Miraculous and gives me the power to be Ladybug.” Marinette explained and then looked at the little red kwami. “But, If you want to know more about her and her kind then she should be the one who decides what she wishes to share.”

"Thank you, Marinette." Tikki said with a bashful smile. "Please give me a moment to decide."

Marinette knew that she was technically the Guardian and that meant that the kwami would within reason do as she told them to. But she wasn't about to make Tikki hand out information she may not want to divulge, so it had felt better to give her friend the choice. Of course a small part of her wondered if it appeared to anyone there like she was just opting out of the responsibility herself, because that wasn't really her intention.

No one said anything for a short while as they all watched Tikki hover in place looking from person to person as if she was sizing them up.

"I believe I can trust all of you." Tikki finally said with a small smile. "But please do not spread this information outside of this group as our existence is best kept a secret. I hope you will come to realize why that secret is of paramount importance as I explain."

Tikki flew forward and hovered at the center of the room, likely so that everyone could hear her tiny voice.

“All kwami are born from the very same energies that coalesced to form into the Infinity Stones when they themselves were created at the birth of the universe.” The little red ladybug explained. “In a way you could consider the stones our cousins, were they actually living breathing entities like we are.”

"Does that mean you have a level of power similar to the stones?" Rhodes asked.

Wong interestingly enough was the next to speak.

“If you were to make a pyramid ranking everything in this universe that can access the fabrics of reality itself, you would place the infinity stones at the top, and then the kwami directly below them.” the master of the mystic arts offered.

“That is correct.” Tikki said, “But while we kwami do have access to the energies of the universe ourselves, our control over that power is volatile when we try and use it alone. That is why we require a Miraculous and it's wielder to become a lens to focus those powers for use.

"So, What kind of powers are we talkin?" Rocket asked.

"Each kwami is the embodiment of an abstract concept of reality that has come into existence and offers their holder powers in relation to that concept, such as defensive abilities for the concept of Protection." Tikki answered. "As I was the first kwami to be born at the dawn of the universe, that makes me the kwami of the concept of creation.”

“Wait. So let me get this straight.” Matt Murdock said. “This young girl walked in here literally wearing the powers of creation as old as the universe itself?”

Marinette blushed and awkwardly rubbed own arm as everyone looked her way again.

Tikki flew over to Marinette and landed on her shoulder, a proud look appearing on the kwami's face.

“Marinette has been chosen as the Guardian of the Miraculous, so not only is she my friend and partner, she is also my master.”

Everyone merely blinked at this revelation. Marinette could feel the weight of the responsibility Master Fu had given her pushing down upon her, even more so than before. Tikki had just told Earths mightiest heroes that Marinette was indirectly the most powerful person in the room.

“So, Tikki. “Nat chimed in, thankfully drawing attention away from Marinette. “Given your connection to the infinity stones...Is there any way you could track Thanos for us?”

Tikki shook her head, and everyone in the room seemed defeated for a moment as it seemed they had been on to something that could have worked. But then the little kwami spoke again.

“But given time to become more tempered to the power she possesses, Marinette could.” Tikki said.

For the third time in such a short while, everyone looked at Marinette.

Chapter Text

Marinette looked at her reflection in the mirror and breathed out slowly.

It would be an understatement to say that she was exhausted. Overall it had taken six hours for the meeting of heroes to complete, with two of those hours relating directly to her, Tikki, and everything Miraculous. And then, even when the topic shifted, everyone kept seeking her opinion on things because she was in such a prominent position to make a difference going forward. It all dragged on for so long that she had nearly begun to cry tears of joy when the meeting was called to a close.

Now, twenty minutes later, most of the others who had been in attendance had already left the compound, leaving the small handful of heroes that normally lived on site to discuss other matters further. She had been asked to remain and discuss the possibility of her staying in New York permanently until the matter with Thanos was dealt with. It was a discussion that she had been expecting ever since she first found out about the infinity stones connection to the kwami. But before Marinette could even think about facing such a life changing topic, she had said that she needed a break and had come to the washroom to take a moment alone.

Well, alone with one exception. 

“Don’t worry Marinette.” Tikki said as she floated beside her. “I’m right here with you.”

“Thanks, Tikki.” she replied as she rubbed her tired eyes. “I’m sorry that so much of that ended up being about you. I really hope you don’t feel like everyone is trying to use you to achieve their own goals.”

Tikki flew down and hugged Marinette’s arm.

“I’m not worried.” her partner said. “I know you will keep me safe.”

Marinette smiled softly and turned to the kwami.

“Always, Tikki.” she said. “So, can I ask you about something you said out there?”

“Of course.” Tikki said.

Marinette had mostly listened without saying much at all while various heroes had asked Tikki questions about the Miraculous and their users. Some of the things Tikki had stated were well outside the scope of what Marinette herself had been aware. The sheer depth of information was definitely more than anything Master Fu had shared with her. Of course, she figured that he had likely planned to slowly ease her into these things, but had been snapped away and had ever had the chance.

“You said the users of the Miraculous become tempered to their use over time, and that is why I would eventually be able to track the infinity stones.” Marinette said. “What exactly did you mean by tempered?”

Tikki floated back and forth for a moment, perhaps pondering how to answer.

“I’m not sure how you will handle the answer to that.” Tikki said finally. “But I explain it if you really want me to.”

It worried Marinette that Tikki had just given her a choice rather than outright answering. But she figured that whatever this tempering was, it was better to know than to live in ignorance of it. After all, she knew that she was already using the Miraculous, and that whatever it was would already likely be in happening to her.

She nodded.

“Would it surprise you to know that Master Fu was one hundred eighty six years old?” Tikki asked.

Marinette’s jaw dropped. She knew that Master Fu had told her stories of ‘when he was young man’, but he had never actually said anything about how along ago it was that he had actually been that young man in his stories.

“When you are a Miraculous user, it places your soul directly in the apex point of the kwami’s connection with mystical energies. You can imagine it like pointing a magnifying glass at a piece of paper to focus heat from the sun to start a fire."

Marinette's eyes went wide.

"Woah, am I the paper in that analogy?" she asked. "I'm not really keen on bursting into flames."

"I am the light source, your spirit is the lens, your body is the paper, and the heat generated is your Ladybug power. Don't worry though, we kwami can control how much light we send and in that way shield our users from being destroyed outright by it."

"Well that's good to hear." Marinette replied. "And the tempering? Does that have something to do with the amount of energy your sending?"

"Actually, it's not how much energy is sent, instead it's about how long it happens for. Over time, the constant flow of mystical energy tempers the individuals body and soul to the point where more and more energy can be given to them without worry of damaging them in any way. All of this also means an increase in the powers they can wield."

"So it's like exercise." Marinette mused. "The longer you keep up your routine the stronger you get, and the more stamina you have."

Exactly. You become attuned to the heat in a way that allows you to simply shrug off the negative effects of it. And because of this you also become less affected by the negative effects of all mystical energies, including those of time itself. Which of course accounts for the expanded lifespan.”

“Wow. I had no idea about any of this.” Marinette said. "Does that mean I'll be stuck looking like a teenager for a really long time?"

Tikki laughed.

“Marinette. That level of tempering requires at the very least twenty years before it will start to slow your aging.” Tikki explained. “However, as I have told you countless times before, you are the chosen one. The reason I have said that is because while the powers I give you do indeed temper you to mystical energies, your attunement seems to actually be happening at an accelerated rate when compared to any of my previous Miraculous bearers. So at this point, I've been able to give you access to twice as much energy as any of those wielders had. And that's after only two years of you wearing the earrings, so there is really no telling how powerful you will eventually become by the time you reach your personal peak limit, or when that will even happen.”

Marinette looked down at her hands and wondered why she was so different than all those who came before her. What exactly was it that made her able to be the chosen one?

Before she could inquire anything more from Tikki however, Marinette heard someone's voice directly outside the washroom door. She turned her head and listened for a moment.

It sounded like someone was having a conversation with themselves, as no other voices could be heard in response. Though it was entirely possible that whoever was out there was talking on a cell phone.

Marinette glanced back at herself in the mirror and pondered doing something she normally wouldn't. It was true there was still a lot of information that she had learned at the meeting that she needed to digest, but she wondered if she should take a page out of Black Widow's book and attempt to learn even more. Even if it meant she had to be sneaky about it. Marinette considered where she was, and also how the day had gone. The Avenger's had learned a lot about her and the Miraculous, so it would only be fair for her to learn about them if she could, right? After all, if there was even the slightest chance that she could gain that one bit of information that would lead her to be able to help Adrien, then it would all be worth the effort. Right?

Nodding to reflection as if giving herself permission, she slowly turned and walked toward the door to try and learn what was being said, and by whom.

After a moment, she realized it was Wong’s voice.

"I see, that is most interesting." The mystic said. "Then the kwami's disappearance may actually be linked to your current predicament."

Marinette blinked and furrowed her brow. Who exactly was Wong talking to that knew about the kwami and that some of them had disappeared. She hadn't shared that particular tidbit at the meeting, so if someone else was aware that some of the Miraculous had vanished, then it was possible they could also know something she didn't.

“If what you say is true, than there is a chance that your Miraculous could be pulled back from the abyss it was sent to.” Wong then said after another short pause.

Marinette stood up straight in shock. He was talking to a Miraculous user? But who?

After she made a questioning glance toward Tikki, who shrugged her little shoulders, she let her curiosity take control of her and she burst out of the washroom door to find Wong standing alone in the hall with his hands behind his back. From a quick glance, it was clear that he had definitely not been talking on a phone.

“Ah, Guardian.” he said as if nothing strange was going on. “Just the person I hoped to speak with.”

“I’m sorry, were you just talking with somebody?” Marinette asked as she looked around curiously.

Wong waved his hand to the empty air beside Marinette as if introducing someone who wasn't there.

“Yes, I was talking with someone who says he is a friend of yours.” Wong said. “Do you by any chance know someone named Adrien?”

Chapter Text

Paris, One Week Earlier

Chat Noir cast the hook from the polka dot fishing rod and successfully hooked the boom at the bottom of the flying ship's sail. Then, as Ladybug had instructed him to do, he reeled hard to his left so that the boom would swing toward Fishmonger.

The Villain was so distracted while shooting octopus ink at Ladybug down on the deck that he didn’t see it coming.

After the Villain had been knocked down, Chat activated his Cataclysm and touched the topmost hooks on the mast on which he stood. He couldn't help but a grin as the rear sail collapsed down upon Fishmonger, pinning him to the deck. It was the perfect trap to hold the villain so that Ladybug could grab the ink launcher and break it to release the Akuma.

Chat Noir always loved when a plan came together, and Ladybug was always the perfect partner to pull them off with. Sure, his partner could be ‘all work, no play’ most of the time, but in the heat of battle, he couldn’t imagine anyone else being by his side.

When the white butterfly flapped by him and bounced off into the rain, he couldn't help but feel pride in their teamwork.

“Well then, Mi'lady. I think it’s about time we bring this ship back to shore.” He quipped after landing beside her and handing her the Lucky Charm. “Besides, you’re already the best catch one could hope for.”

He watched as she rolled her eyes at him.

“Miraculous Ladybug!” she yelled.

He loved this part.

While thousands of ladybugs appeared and righted all that was wrong in the world, he watched the one thing that was always right with it. His Ladybug.

Chat new that in many ways it was strange for him to be so enamored with a person he only knew fifty percent of at best. But he had always figured that the person who was behind that red mask would have to have a heart capable of the optimism and strength he witnessed in Ladybug every day.

She wasn’t perfect, he knew. He had seen her waver, seen her fall, and had even seen her cry tears from the burden she had to carry. Yet she always got back up, and it made him love her even more.

“Ladybug, Chat Noir?” the man who had been Fishmonger questioned after Chat had helped him to his feet.

Before he could say anything to the man, Noir heard a roll of thunder move across the sky which sent a shiver down his spine.

“That’s odd Mi’lady.” He said as he looked up in wonder at the clear blue sky., “I thought your Miraculous had cleared up all the stormy weather?”

Ladybug looked up as well.

“Somethings wrong.” Ladybug said over the sound of her earrings letting out a quiet beep.

Adrien realized that his Miraculous would likely beep its final warning in less than a minute as well. And if something was truly wrong as Ladybug warned, then he would need a moment to feed Plag.

He decided that it would probably be best if he brought the fisherman down to street level quickly while he still had his powers, then he could run to find a secluded place to transform.

“We are about to transform back. Perhaps we should…” He began to say. But when he had turned to grab the fisherman, he noticed that the man was crumbling to pieces of ash.

“He… He, disintegrated.” Chat said, fear gripping him. It had been unlike anything he had ever seen before. The fisherman had seemed unaware of what was happening to him as he had become random debris lost in the wind.

Chat then started to feel as if his skin was being torn off anywhere his suit touched him. He looked over toward Ladybug and reached his arm up into the air to ask her for help. When he did, he could see that his Chat suit was starting to flake into ash. He dropped his arm back to his side, defeated.

He realized that he was likely being ravaged by the same affliction the fisherman had just experienced. Was this it? Was he about to become as fleeting as a breeze and pass into nothingness?

“Chat, we need to…” Ladybug said as she turned to him, and he knew that she could clearly see his fate as well, because the look on her face said it all.

No! He forced himself to think. I will not cause her to know that kind of pain! I will not be the cause for her tears!

“Mi’….Mi’lady…” He began to say, trying to tell her to look away, but he felt as if a black hole was pulling at the back of his mind trying to tear it from his body. He blacked out for a moment to the sound of Ladybug calling out his super hero name.

When his vision returned a moment later, all of the pain and strange sensations were gone.

He shook his head and turned again to look toward Ladybug to tell her he was OK again, but he stopped cold at what he saw there.

Ladybug was sitting on the ground cradling his unconscious body in her arms, and the Chat suit his body wore had almost completely crumbled to pieces.

Did that mean his consciousness was no longer in his body? Was he dead?

Before he could wonder about it any longer, he watched Plagg appear from the ring on his body's finger. He had just long enough to lock eyes with him before some sort of black rift opened directly behind the kwami.

“Adrieeeennnn!” Plagg called out as the little black cat kwami fought against the pull from the blackness of the void that he grew ever closer to.

Adrien reached out for his friend, but couldn’t reach him in time. Plagg was already gone, the rift closing immediately after swallowing him.

“Plagg.” He croaked as he fell to his knees and looked down at his hands, surprised to see that the dead even had knees and hands.

He hadn’t been strong enough to save him. His partner. His friend. His family.

“Ladybug, I need… help.” he said, forcing out each word. He then turned his head again to look toward her and he could see now that his body, still being held in her arms, was fully detransformed.

Ladybug was holding him. Adrien.

The look in Ladybug’s eyes was distant, lost and empty. It was almost too much to bear to see her like this, all because of him. He tried to cry, but somehow it wasn’t working. He could feel the emotional pain reach the surface and the need to cry, but it just wouldn’t happen. No tears came. Perhaps the dead were not allowed to cry. What torture.

Was this real, or was it some kind of nightmare he could someday wake up from? Or perhaps this was some kind of new akumatized villain that could send you into this dreadful place?

“WHAT IS THIS!” he yelled.

He heard a weak beep to his left and turned to look at Ladybug once more. Her timer was running out, but she didn’t move or make any attempt to flee and hide before her transformation would be forced upon her.

She was staying with him.

“Mi’lady.” he said mournfully, but it was clear that she could not hear him.

Adrien then watched as Ladybugs costume was removed, the five minutes since calling upon her Lucky Charm having passed.

In that moment, he again wished he could cry.

“Marinette?” he said, both overcome by love and loss, together as one single emotion.

Chapter Text

I have no paper in this place to write on

and not even a pen to scrawl with

the best I have are my own thoughts

to save and track all of these passing moments.

And because my memories dwell on you, Mi’lady

These thoughts I make, are now a ballad of us two.

Adrien had watched in horror as Marinette had moved to take a step of the edge of the building, fearing for a moment that she had let her grief take her. How thankful then he had been to hear her called for her spots before she fell.

Not wanting to be left alone here with no way to be sure of her safety, he had quickly decided to follow her. Lucky it was then, that he had found that he could float along in this form without hindrance to wherever he pleased. And of course, where he had pleased to be was by her side. So that is where he had gone.

If this is what the afterlife is

then I find death to be as one would expect,

predictably torturous, yet surprisingly meaningful

because there is no difference here.

And now as I am surrounded by both silence and noise

In this place between peace and the edge of insanity,

I hold on as tight as I can to your simple presence.

Adrien had smiled as Ladybug pulled the bus back from the edge of the bridge, gritted teeth, determination in her eyes. This was the Ladybug he knew and loved. There was no hesitation as she went from disaster to disaster saving who she could and not once did she stop moving forward, nor did she ever look back. He was glad that he could fly, or else he may have not been able to keep up with her in her current fervor to save lives.

Yet the look saw in her eyes in those quick moments that she had thought she was alone, perched on rooftops, surveying the next areas of devastation before moving on to save yet more lives. Those eyes told another story.

Part of her was still back on that rooftop patio, cradling him in her arms.

When it becomes apparent to you

that you missed something so obvious

you start to wonder if you have ever known yourself.

It becomes clearer now that in this thinly veiled afterlife

I now exist as a contradiction, as much as I had before

So blinded by my love for the mask you wore

that I missed the you standing there un-hidden.

Adrien had never been to the massage parlor before, but when Ladybug had called out for Master Fu, he knew then why she had gone to that place.

She had sought guidance and help.

But in the end, Master Fu had been gone, much like the countless others who had seemingly vanished from existence.

And so too they had come to find that the same fate had befallen some of the Miraculous, having joined Plagg in that darkest of places.

He had tried to place his hand on her arm to comfort her, but he found that he had no substance in his touch.

He was at least glad in that moment that Marinette had Tikki and Wayzz with her, and that she wasn't facing this alone.

Because he knew all to well the feeling of loneliness, being what it is that it plagued him even now.

Its a wonder I ever felt alone there in my room

all those years before I met my friends at school

because now I see what it is really like

to have no voices, no gazes, meant for you.

What I wouldn’t give now to have you see me

to look my way and free me

at this point, I would even accept your ire

because at least then, I would know that I am really here.

There had been no greater pain to him than there had been while watching Marinette curled up on the floor of the bakery, so desperately clutching that loaf of bread. He cursed that he could not hold her or wipe her tears, to tell her that he was there, or to push away her fears.

Thankfully it had not been long until others had arrived to do just that.

He couldn't have been gladder to see that their friends had not been among those who had vanished.

And then of course, Adrien had not expected to find out that Alya and Nino were familiar heroes as well.

But now that he knew Marinette was Ladybug, it made all the more sense in the world why she had chosen them.

Because she was never one to second guess the strengths of those she knew.

I wanted to tell you that I have realized now

That you were always helping people

like when helped Juleka overcome her class photo curse.

or when you brought Nathanial and Marc together

so that they could make that comic book.

Even when you helped me get to the movies

so I could see my mother on the screen.

That’s why we all always wanted to be around you

because you were an everyday Ladybug to your friends

And now I see that you were always there

My super Marinette.

Adrien had felt such pain when he learned of his father's fate, and even more when saw Nathalie so distraught there by his bedside.

He had never realized how much the woman had truly cared for her boss and her student.

Yet he knew, that with as much as he saw her each day, she had indeed been like part of his family.

That had made it hard to leave her there alone, crying by his silent body. So he chose to stay with her for a while and had figured he could catch back up to Marinette later.

After all, there had been a certain freedom in this death of his.

Perhaps ‘family’ and ‘stranger’ mean the same thing

as they are concepts that have more depth than one would think

As a watchful father can indeed be absent

a total stranger to your arms embrace.

The irony then of a stoic tutor who never talked,

being the one who silently cries for you.

Adrien hadn’t known why Nathalie had wandered into his fathers studio so late at night, but at the time he had himself been wandering there, as spirits do, to feel closer to his father.

So, it had come as a surprise to him to see her open some kind of hidden elevator near his mother's painting.

But mysteries as they are, often lead to answers you never knew you wanted, but in many ways always needed.

And as the ghostly figure that had stood there blocking his entrance to the elevator seemed to know.

Sometimes, the wait was worth it.

“Mo... Mother?” he had asked, having figured he had simply lost his mind.

But reality came rushing forward as she softly replied.

“Hello, my beautiful boy.”

For him, in that moment, there was no greater sense of joy.

Chapter Text

“Adrien?” Marinette exclaimed. “What do you mean he’s here?"

Wong slowly crossed his arms behind his back and looked to contemplate his answer.

“It appears your friends soul was forcefully removed from his body, and he is currently moving about as an astral projection, invisible to the naked eye.”

Marinette felt as if her heart was about to jackrabbit out of her chest, but her mind was still trying to catch up to with what she had just heard.

“If that is true, then why is it that you can see him and we can not?” Tikki thankfully asked, Marinette's kwami partner seeming to realize that she was currently struggling with the thoughts in her head and unable to form words of her own.

“We masters of the mystic arts carry enchanted objects and tools that are much like your Miraculous, just significantly weaker. Each bestows upon us certain abilities.” he explained and then patted the cloth wrapped around his waist. “In my duties to protect the Sanctum, I must be able to detect all intruders, including those using different layers of existence to move about. So I wear the Sash of Mummudrai to be able to always see into the astral layer.”

Marinette looked at Tikki and then back to Wong. She then slowly looked to the empty air beside her where he had indicated Adrien was. She began to shake slightly as she imagined Adrien standing beside her, his handsome face appearing in her minds eye for a moment, an image built up from her memories alone. But was it truly possible that Adrien could really be there next to her, following her about like some kind of ghost? There was little other way she could think that Wong would even know about Adrien, so it seemed like a good bet the master of the mystic arts was actually telling the truth.

“Could the decimation truly have caused something like this to happen?” Tikki asked tilting her head in thought. “Have you encountered many others who are in this state, or is it just him? Because It seems odd that his soul would be removed while everyone else who was affected outright vanished."

Wong hummed in thought and tilted his head slightly.

"He is the only one I have encountered who bears such an affliction." Wong explained and then crossed his arms in front of him. "So perhaps there is more to his situation than we are taking into account. Your friend has stated you were with him when this happened, so please, tell me exactly what you witnessed."

Marinette looked to Tikki and breathed in. It wasn't really a memory she wanted to pull to the surface, but if it meant that she may be able to help Adrien, then it was worth it.

“Well, he was using his Miraculous powers as Chat Noir when the decimation began. The man we had just saved vanished into that flutter of ash, and when I saw ash begin to flake off of him in the same way, he actually seemed resigned to what was happening and went limp." Marinette recounted, starting to tear up as did. "But unlike the man a moment before, only Chat Noir's suit vanished, leaving Adrien there unconscious in my arms. It was then that I noticed the ring that housed his Miraculous had vanished, his kwami partner with it.”

“I see. Then perhaps we have our answer.” Wong said with a nod. “Kwami, while technically immortal spirits, made a pact to become physical beings just like the rest of us mortals. If Thanos wished away half the life in the universe, that means kwami’s could have also been susceptible to the effects of that wish. This would mean that his kwami, and the ring that housed him where what truly vanished that day."

"But why would that put Adrien into a coma?" Marinette asked.

Wong began to rub his chin and then continued his hypothesis.

“It is documented that if a Miraculous user tries to use a damaged Miraculous that the now uncontrolled essence of the kwami passing through the wielder's spirit can drain energy from their soul, thus rendering them slowly into a state of unconsciousness from which they will never wake. This is because your spirits energy has literally ebbed from your body leaving it as an empty husk. So it is possible that the same thing occurred here, just instantaneously. When his kwami was being ripped out of this world, the boy’s spirit would essentially have been in the way. No human spirit could fight against a force like that, so it was pulled out as well.”

Marinette's shoulders drooped as she listened. The explanation fit perfectly, but understanding the why didn't make her feel any better. If anything, it made her even more fearful for her chances to be able to restore Adrien to his normal self.

“That also explains why some of the other Miraculous were gone from the Miracle Box, because the kwami were still inside them at the time.” Tikki said. “We witnessed those who vanished take their clothes and held objects with them, In the same way, the Miraculous were being possessed by the kwami when they were pulled out of this world in their dormant state, causing the objects they inhabited to no longer exist as well.”

“However.” Wong interjected. “From what your friend says, his kwami partner did not simply fade away like all other life that did. He was apparently drawn into some kind of vortex rift. This means it’s possible that he was transferred somewhere else, rather than just erased. This is why I had suggested to Adrien that we may be able to retrieve it somehow. But that itself is honestly just a theory, because I have no idea why kwami would have been treated different by the decimation.”

Marinette turned around and started to pace back and forth in an attempt to sift through all of the information Wong and Tikki were offering. There had to be an answer somewhere, but she was completely new to being a Guardian of The Miraculous, so learning about all of this during a crisis made her feel inadequate. There was so much she still didn't know about the kwami and the Miraculous, and sure she would learn in time, but that was precious time that Adrien did not have. And for her to have to rely on Tikki and Wong, who was basically a stranger to her, honestly made her feel fairly useless.

She stopped pacing and squinted.

Feel.

“Wait!" Marinette exclaimed spinning around to face Tikki and Wong. “Kwami are the literal embodiment of an abstract concept or emotion that  exists in the universe, right? That means, you can’t just remove a kwami from existence or you would be removing that concept as well. Plagg is the kwami of destruction, and there has been plenty of destruction since he vanished so that concept clearly still exists.”

Wong nodded as he contemplated what she had said.

“Yes, that seems most plausible.” he said. “That indeed offers us proof that the kwamis were not destroyed outright by the decimation. Just their physical forms that existed here on our plane were, leaving the rest of them intact on the other side of the spirit realm in which their true form exists.”

Before Marinette could say anything further, her cell phone vibrated. She really didn’t have time right now to be checking her messages though so she ignored it. However, before she had a chance to even consider continuing the conversation with Wong, someone came running down the hall behind her.

“Marinette!” Nat called out as she approached. “We’ve got a problem. You should all really see this.”

Wong, Marinette and Tikki quickly passed a glance between themselves and then followed Widow back down the hall the way she had come.

As she ran, Marinette noticed her phone vibrate again. She pulled it out and hazarded a glance at the screen which led her to come to a dead stop because of what was displayed upon it.

Alya – Red Alert girl! Need you ASAP!

Alya – Not an Akuma. Something new.

Marinette slowly raised her gaze from her phone to find that Wong, Tikki and Widow had entered through the glass doors in front of her and had joined Steve, Bruce, Thor, and Rhodes who were looking up at a series of monitors inside to conference room. Each of their faces indicated shock and awe at what they were watching.

Fearing the worst, she could only force herself forward one agonizingly slow step at a time. She slowly opened the glass doors, entered and then walked over to where she too could see the screens.

Multiple news broadcast were showing aerial views from Paris. The words ‘Paris Monster Attack : No Sign of Ladybug.’ displayed along the bottom of one of the screens and a pit formed in her stomach. And true to the words displayed, there moving among the buildings, was a very large hydra. Three heads and all.

The image on the screen zoomed in and she could see that Carapace was there protecting people down on the ground. But there was no sign of Rena Rouge that she could tell. Alya had just texted her however, so it made sense that she would not transformed currently, but why? It was clear that the people needed their heroes, and right now, only one of them was present.

She swallowed hard as she realized that the people of Paris were expecting Ladybug to show up and save the day, but what they could not know was that she was no where near being close to being able to help them. She was currently an entire ocean away.

“Marinette, is this one of those Akumatized villains you mentioned?” Steve asked turning to her.

“No. This appears to be something else. But I need to get back there as quickly as I can.” Marinette replied. “While it's true that my Miraculous partners are already there, without me they may not be able to defeat it or reverse the damage it causes.”

But Marinette knew that was a tall order. It had taken them six hours to get here in the first place.

“I can open a portal for us.” Wong said. “Won’t take but a second.

Marinette raised an eyebrow at that. Okay then, that was one crisis averted at least.

“I’m going with you.” Widow said stepping forward.

“Woah, Nat, That’s a five story three headed dragon.” Bruce said and held his hands in front of him in protest. “What are you going to do. Kick it?

Nat tilted her head in thought.

“Will look good on the resume.” Widow then said with a smirk.

“I too will accompany you.” Thor said. “I have been feeling the need to hit something big.”

“Well then, seems like we’re all going.” Rogers said with a nod. “Bruce, hold down the fort. Rhodes, suit up.”

“Alright then.” Marinette said as she tossed her earbud into the air. “Tikki, Spots on!”

Chapter Text

As she stepped through the spinning portal made of sparks, Ladybug found herself standing atop one of the two central rooftops of the Palais de Chaillot museum complex. To her right was the Seine River, and beyond that was the Eiffel Tower being lit by the light of the dawning sun.

It would have actually been what most would call a lovely morning, if not for the fact that about five hundred meters away in the center of the Washington Equestrian statue intersection, there stood a Hydra. It was one thing to see all of this on television, but to look upon it with your own eyes and to feel the rumble of each of it's steps, now that was an entirely different experience.

On either side of Ladybug, Wong and the Avengers were also surveying the situation with as much trepidation as she was.  Now, Marinette knew that under normal circumstances having more allies in a fight would be a good thing, but in this particular case the heroes she stood beside tended to fight a different breed of enemy than the ones she and her friends always had. But honestly, this Hydra was also a bit out of the norm from their usual foe, so who was to say how things would go.

“Before we jump in there.” Ladybug said and turned to her new allies. “I have some things I need to cover.”

Everyone turned to look at her and this time she fought her instinct to feel overwhelmed by the focus of so many. This was no time to have reservations about speaking up, so she decided to jump right in and assert herself.

“While this Hydra may not be an akumatized villain like the one's that normally attack Paris, it is likely that there may be such a villain controlling it.” She explained. “If you encounter this villain, please remember that they are actually just a normal person who is being manipulated into evil because by an Akuma. So please do what you can to subdue them without harming them.”

“Non-lethal means.” Widow said as she holstered her pistols and pulled out the two batons that had been attached to her back. “Got it. What else?“

“I can usually reverse all damage and effects done to the city and it’s people caused by an akuma after the battle has been won. This is because the akuma are also created by a Miraculous, and their connected nature with my power allows for this. But, as I said, this does not seem to be an akuma, so I am not sure if I will be able to fix injuries or outright reverse death like usual. So above all else we need to make sure all civilians are evacuated somewhere safe.”

Everyone gave one pointed nod that they understood.

“Alright, Rhodes, you’re our eyes in the sky. Nat and I will look after civilians. Thor, you’re with Ladybug. Remember everyone, this is Ladybug’s area of expertise, so from here on out she’s calling the shots.” Steve Rogers said surprising Marinette. It was true that she had spent the last two years coming into her own as a hero and even as a leader among the other Miraculous users, but lead the Avengers into a battle? She wondered if somehow this was a test run Rogers was putting her through, to see the limits of her skills and how well she worked with a team. It seemed odd to test such a thing in a real combat situation, but she figured that with the search for Thanos still weighing over them, he likely wanted to find out if he could rely on her as soon as possible.

“I’ll remain here and keep this location clear for evacuation in case you need to leave in a hurry.” Wong said as he closed the portal they had come through with a sweeping motion of his hands. “Furthermore, I have someone I need to discuss some things with.”

Marinette looked around at the open air beside Wong and wondered if Adrien had followed them through the portal, and if he was the one who Wong needed to talk to.

“Alright then, let’s get in there.” She said with a turn as she started to spin her yo-yo.

About fifteen seconds later, Ladybug had landed behind the Hydra with Thor at her side. To her right she could see that Carapace was still blocking swing after swing of the hydras tail with his shield. It appeared that the main focus of two of the Hydra’s heads was on causing destruction wherever they could, and the third was completely focused on Nino.

“Hey there, Carapace.” Ladybug said nonchalantly with a smile. “A little fox told me that you needed some backup.”

“Ladybug!” Carapace replied, glancing over between blocks. “Is that Thor there with you? No way man! That’s totally rad!”

Thor, looking nonplussed by their relaxed tone, raised his large axe in a halfhearted greeting.

“Are you always this cheery during a fight?” The Asgardian asked through his teeth as he smiled.

“Better than the alternative.” Ladybug shrugged and then faced the Hydra. “Let’s see if we can’t get this things full attention.”

Thor nodded and then flashed a wicked grin. From the look that was now on his face it was clear that he had been waiting for this moment with a fair bit of anticipation. Back at the Avengers compound, when Thor had mentioned he had wanted to hit something big, she had picked up in his voice a little bit of anger mixed with some grief. It made her wonder if it had to do with what happened in Wakanda, when Thor had failed to kill Thanos before his 'snap'. She could understand the feeling of self doubt from failure that he was clearly suffering from, as she had been in a similar place herself after Stoneheart had reappeared because of her failure to purify the akuma that day. She had no way of knowing if Thor would be able to bounce back, but she knew that she had been able to in time. Of course, having half the universe's populations absence weighing on your mind was likely a bit more extensive a pain than the one that she had felt.

Beside her she started to hear crackling, and with a glance she saw that Thor’s eyes had become filled with electrical energy. Then with a raise of his Axe, a large plume of lightning shot down from the sky and hit the Hydras center head.

The head seemed to shift it’s weight under the force of the attack, but mainly seemed unaffected by it. When the lightning faded and Thor lowered his Axe once more, they both watched as all three heads turned slowly and look down at them in anger.

“Well, we have it’s attention.” Thor said. “Although, I dare say it looks a fair bit angrier than it did a moment ago.”

Ladybug could see now that each of the beast's heads had a different color set of eyes. One red set, one blue set and one set that was completely white with no irises or pupils at all. For a moment she wondered if that head was blind.

White Eyes was in the center, and it was clearly not all pleased about what had just happened to it. All three heads let out a deafening roar in unison, and then Red Eyes lowered itself toward them and began to breathe inward, a glow appearing in the back of it’s throat.

“Ah.” Thor said dropping his battle stance. “That’s unfortunate.”

It seemed to Ladybug that Thor was going to simply stand there and take the hit, and she considered trying to push him out of the way, but then Carapace landed in front of them.

“Shell-ter!” Carapace yelled, holding his shield above him.

Flames burst forth from Red Eyes mouth and swathed around the green hexagonal shield that now protected them. Thankfully, the flames passed quickly and they were able to then move into cover behind a bus parked along the avenue.

“That was some impressive work, green boy.” Thor said slapping Carapace on the back.

Carapace looked to Ladybug and mouthed 'green boy' in confusion, but all she could do was smile and shrug.

“Carapace, where is Rena Rouge?” She asked him as she looked around. “I haven’t seen her anywhere.”

Carapace frowned.

“I’m not sure. She messaged me a red alert and to come as quickly as I could. But I haven’t seen her yet.” He replied. “It's possible that she had already used her Mirage ability and had to flee to feed her kwami. And unfortunately, now so do I.”

“You three by the bus should probably find a new place to be.” Rhodes voice crackled forth. Ladybug jumped a bit as she had all but forgotten that she had a communicator in her ear. So far, it seemed that she was still not used to working with a team this large, especially not one that used communication devices during battle.

The reasoning behind Rhodes suggestion became clear as a shadow fell over the three heroes which made them all look up. There above them now was Blue Eyes, grinning at them with his many rows of sharp teeth. As it opened it’s mouth to bite down at them Ladybug quickly spun her yo-yo and threw it up at the incoming maw. She was able to entangle it in such a way to force it's mouth shut and prevent it from opening again. She then pulled back on the string to launch herself into the air so that shw could land on the top of its head.

Great Marinette, now you are riding a Hydra, what’s your next brilliant plan? She derided herself in her own mind.

Blue Eyes began to shake from side to side in an attempt to dislodge it's new rider, and as Ladybug held on for dear life she noticed that White Eyes was now looking in her direction and seemed to be preparing itself to attack. Perhaps it wasn’t blind after all.

Suddenly from above there came a large series of bright flashes and swirling lights directly between her and White Eyes which caused the head to turn away to protect its vision. Shielding her own eyes and looking up, Ladybug saw that it had been War Machine that had dropped a series of flares to assist her. Of course, what Ladybug was now worried about was the fact the Red Eyes was looking her way again. Not only that, it had already started to breathe inward in preparation to spit fire once more.

Reacting as quickly as she could, she unraveled her yo-yo from Blue Eyes and dove for the ground out of the path of the oncoming flames.

After she rolled, flipped and then came to a sliding halt facing back the way she came, she saw that Red Eyes had completely seared Blue Eyes with it's breath. Clearly the hydra's teamwork could also use some improvement. 

Blue Eyes seemed to not be in a good way after the attack, and after a moment it's head crashed to the ground.

“Ha! A cunning plan indeed!” Thor cheered as he ran to Ladybugs side.

Ladybug looked to him and gave him a wry smile.

“Honestly, it was more of a happy accident.” She admitted as she looked up at the other two heads, considering their next move.

The remaining two Hydra heads however seemed to have something else in mind. Both heads stretched their necks and rose as high as they could to a position above where they simply took to staring down at Thor and Ladybug.

“Why is it looking at us like that?” Ladybug asked.

"It is quite curious." Thor commented.

Then came the unmistakable sound of footsteps behind them and they both turned to find that it was Black Widow walking purposefully toward them with a strange grin on her face, and an odd purple glow in her eyes. Even more odd was that the assassin was again holding both of her pistols, each aimed directly at Ladybug.

Ladybug froze, but thankfully just before Black Widow began to shoot, Thor grabbed Ladybug and dove out of the way behind some nearby debris. 

“What’s going on, why is she shooting at us?” Ladybug asked as a rain of bullets riddled the area around them.

“I know not.” Thor said grimly. He then motioned with his axe when Widow stopped firing to reload. “But it appears that she is not alone.”

Ladybug peered around the debris and looked out beyond where Black Widow stood. There she could see a shadowy figure standing in a dark corner. Whoever it was, their eyes were glowing purple just like Widow’s were.

Ladybug clenched her fist. Perhaps they had finally spotted the Akumatized Villain.

“Ladybug.” A loud booming female voice came from behind them. “I am so glad to see that you have come.”

“Uh, Anyone else seeing this?” Warmachine asked.

Ladybug and Thor both turned and looked toward where the voice had come from.

There, directly in front of the Hydra, was a large floating face made up entirely of butterflies.

Chapter Text

“Allow me to introduce myself.” The swarm of butterflies said with a wicked grin. “I am Luna Moth, and I have come to offer you a bargain, Ladybug.”

Ladybug pursed her lips and squinted as she considered how to approach this new situation. This face was clearly not Hawk Moth as the voice was that of a female, so she began to wonder how this person had gained access to the Butterfly Miraculous. Perhaps it was true that Hawk Moth had been one of the vanished after all, and this meant someone had come into possession of the Miraculous afterwards and decided to use it for evil just as their predecessor had. It was an awful notion to think that one or more people were aware who Hawk Moth had been and had not only not tried to stop him, but had decided to continue his work.

Glancing to Thor, Ladybug noticed him seeming hesitant to step out and face the butterfly face, but she didn't have that luxury as the one and only counter to akuma. It was literally her job to face this new threat head on, just as she had done the first time a face like this had appeared. So, without giving it any further thought she stepped out from hiding and walked out into the open. At the very least she figured that until the bargain had been offered, it was unlikely that Widow or the Hydra would attack. Clearly this Luna Moth wanted something from her, and it was customary to ask for it first before trying to take it by force, even for villains.

“Let me guess. Like Hawk Moth before you, you want my Miraculous.” Ladybug said after stopping before the large swirling mass. “You Villains really need to get a new script.”

“Silence!” Luna Moth demanded but then reared back some as if to collect herself. Clearly this villain didn't want to be seen as petulant. “You misjudge my intentions. While obtaining your Miraculous is indeed part of my bargain, you may find that it is the reason behind my desires that differ from Hawk Moth and perhaps even find yourself agreeing with my goals.”

Ladybug shook her head and placed her hands on her hips.

“The why doesn’t matter.” She rebuffed.

The giant butterfly face shifted and grew closer to Ladybug.

“That is where you are wrong my dear.” Luna Moth said. “Look around you Ladybug. At this world torn asunder. Billions gone with no trace or reason. Look to your new friends, the Avengers. It seems that some of them are not here right now. Perhaps like the rest of the world, many of them have vanished. You see Ladybug, while Hawk Moth wanted your and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses for selfish reasons, I want them to help everyone. It is not my goal to just bring back those I have personally lost, but to bring them all back!”

Ladybug sighed as she let Luna Moth's intentions sink in. Of course she knew this also meant that everyone in the world had just learned something about the Miraculous that was known to only a select few. She glanced behind herself to look at Thor and found that his face gave away that he was curious as to what Luna Moth was saying.

“People of the world!” Luna Moth said loudly, talking to the news helicopters that were likely nearby. “What Hawk Moth never made clear to anyone, was why the Miraculous were so important to him. But I will gladly share it with all of you. And you will see that Ladybug is the real villain in this case!”

Ladybug started to spin her yo-yo. She had already heard enough of the bargain to know it was not going to sway her toward giving up her earrings. But more importantly, if Luna Moth kept talking, then soon everyone would want the Miraculous for their own purposes and that would complicate things a tad.

“You see, even now, she plans to stop me from telling you.” Luna Moth said, stealing away Ladybugs chance. If she attacked now, people would still wonder what Luna Moth had been talking about. Ladybug would lose the trust of some, and likely never get it back. And what was a hero without the trust of the people?

So she stopped spinning her yo-yo and shook her head.

“You are wrong Luna Moth! About everything.” Ladybug said. “And to prove it to you, Allow me to tell them.”

The giant butterfly face smiled at that. Clearly this was the Moth’s plan all along, but Ladybug knew something that the villain did not and it was time to play that card.

Ladybug turned and looked above her at the nearest news helicopter.

“To everyone who can hear my voice, I ask the following question. What would you do if you learned that wishes were real?” She began. “Not all wishes, mind you, but special, powerful wishes granted by beings of immense power beyond all comprehension. Wishes that no matter what, you knew would be granted when made.”

There was a silence that fell around her. It was as if the entire city had stopped moving, every person watching and waiting. Ladybug noticed that even Rhodes had stopped flying about and had stopped to listen at what she had just said.

It was more than likely that every single person watching was enamored by what she was saying, and she knew exactly what wish they would all be thinking to make.

Bring them all home.

Ladybug breathed out and then held up her hands beside her in a sweeping gesture.

“That power exists!" Ladybug exclaimed. "And what Luna Moth want’s tell you in an attempt to turn you against me, is that I wield such a power that is capable of granting that wish.”

She heard a loud clang and looked down to see that Thor had dropped his axe, pure confusion spreading across his face. It was no surprise that he seemed to be struggling with the idea in his head. He, and everyone watching, probably wondered why she would have not made such a wish already if it was possible. But they couldn't possibly know the truth about the Ultimate Wish. Heck, she had struggled with the concept herself since Tikki had first told her about it.

Ladybug held up a hand toward him and shook her head to convey that he should wait for her to finish before making any judgements. She then looked back up at the helicopters to continue her explanation.

"But I swear to you that such a wish would not give you the outcome you desire. Because the great irony of it all, is that the ‘Ultimate Power' bestowed by My and Chat Noir's Miraculous can not be reeled in and it can not be focused or controlled. It would be like, using a super nova to light a candle. There would be unforeseen costs and consequences beyond your comprehension. You could try and wish for everyone back, only to swap everyone who is here now for everyone who is gone! We would be no better off.”

The butterfly face shifted closer yet again, and seemed to grow in size.

“But we must try!” Luna Moth bellowed. “Why would you deny us that? Are you truly so callous that you do not care for those who are gone enough to even give it a shot?”

Ladybug swept her hand in the air in front of her.

“Enough!” She yelled. “Believe what you want, but in the end it a pointless debate anyway. For even if I was willing to hear your arguments and attempt such a thing, the power to grant such a wish is no longer possible.” Ladybug said with a frown and then turned back to Luna Moth. “You see, what you do not realize is that the power to grant that wish has left this world. As Chat Noir’s Miraculous no longer exists. It was destroyed by the decimation.”

“You are lying. Only living beings vanished!” The villain retorted. “You would say anything to deter it's use, or perhaps you simply wish to keep the power to yourself!”

Ladybug bit her lip and stepped forward. She let her true pain show through now as it would be the only way to get her point across. It may have been true that as a hero she should always aim to present herself with poise and offer hope to anyone who saw her, but in this case, bitter honesty was the only option.

“I lost my partner, my parents, and many of my friends to the decimation. And yet, I know that not even I can ever use the power I once possessed to bring them back. Don’t you think that eats away at me every day?” she said, speaking slightly softer and softer as she continued. “And even if I could, there was a reason I was chosen only to protect this ‘Ultimate Power’, and not to someday actually wield it. Because in all of reality there is no one capable of using that power without there being consequences to all of existence. So it is my duty to keep people from trying, to protect everyone else from the attempt and it's assured failures effects.”

The giant face swirled but said nothing more. Perhaps she was getting through to the villain. But still she needed to be sure that everyone, and not just the villain before her, knew of her sincerity.

“But please, if you truly think you are capable of controlling the same powers born at the creation of the universe and make it do your bidding without consequence, possibly risking literally everything that exists in the process.” Ladybug said and lowered her head. “Then I implore you, take it from me and find out just how wrong you are. It may be my duty to protect this power, but I am banking on a hope that telling you the truth, will do exactly that.”

Ladybug took a moment and looked up at the sky and basked in the blueness of it all. She knew that there was no turning back from this, and she knew very well it would have consequences. But this war, the war over the Miraculous and the ‘Ultimate Power’, would end today, one way or another.

She reached up and took out her earpiece, tossing it on the ground in front of her. She felt a surge of adrenaline rush through her as she considered the fact that her next action would at most give a villain more power than they already had, and at the very least end her freedoms as an individual. But in the end, it was her duty to protect the Miraculous, and the only way to do that now that the secret of their potential power had been outed by Luna Moth, was to prove that she was telling the truth. Because in that moment, any trust she could earn would be her only weapon.

“Tikki, Spots off.” Ladybug said.

Marinette breathed in as she felt the exposure on her skin as if it was actual heat. Nonetheless she looked up at the face before her with a steadfast resolve and held her hand out. Sitting there in the palm of her hand were the ladybug earrings. Part of her couldn’t help but notice that she did not see Tikki anywhere, but it was likely that her partner had hidden immediately as to prevent her exposure as well.

“You…” The face said, finally stirring. “Marinette?”

Marinette looked up at the sound of her own name being spoken. Clearly the person behind Luna Moth knew who she was.

“Is the Chat Noir Miraculous really gone?” Luna Moth asked. Perhaps the villain was starting to believe.

“I swear to you.” Marinette said and then decided to bluff a bit. "As you can see, I have nothing left to hide."

The pause that happened then seemed like an eternity.

“I believe you.” Luna Moth finally said.

“Then you'll end this?” Marinette asked.

“Yes” The face said, almost seeming to soften. “I truly only wanted the ‘Ultimate Power’ to bring them back. But without that possibility, I have no use for your Miraculous. For any of them.”

Marinette lowered her hand, and gripped her fingers around the earrings. She then breathed out after she realized that she had been holding her breath in anticipation. She had risked it all, and it had worked. 

“Amok, I recall you.” Luna Moth said, and the Hydra vanished.

Ladybug didn’t know what an Amok was, but she was glad to see that the villain was already being true to her word and had clearly lost all desire to continue this fight.

“Heart Tide.” Luna Moth called out “I release you from the akuma’s hold.”

“I decline.” a familiar voice said from behind Marinette.

Marinette quickly turned around to see who had spoken. There, stepping forward from the shadows to stand beside Widow, was an akumatized Lila. She was surprised for as far as she had known her classmate had vanished in the decimation. But it seemed that like everything else about Lila, that had also been a lie.

“What?” Luna Moth said, clearly confused. “Why can’t I renounce your akuma?”

“Perhaps it is because you lack vision.” Heart Tide said with a smile. “You did after all give me the power of shifting loyalties. That power has now superseded even yours and I simply shifted the akuma's loyalty to me.”

“Lila! Marinette yelled. “Fight this! You can beat the akuma’s hold!”

Heart Tide smiled a wicked smile.

“Why would I want to do that, Marinette? “Heart tide ask. “After all, now that I know you are Ladybug, I can remove two problems in my life at once.”

Marinette felt the bullet hit her, before she even heard the shot.

Chapter Text

When it comes to death, some people would say that you should stay away from the light and fight to live. But honestly, those people have never seen the light.

That white glow, it was surrounding her now and was so welcoming, so comforting, that it was almost indescribable. But if she were to try to tell you what it was like, she would have to say that it reminded her of those simple summer days where she would lay in her loft bed with her canopy door open, basking in the sunlight and breeze as she chatted with Tikki. No worries, no places to be, just simple moments with someone you care about.

Of course, one could easily get lost in those moments without even trying, and perhaps even forget the job you had to do or the people who were counting on you back in those less bright parts of life. And in times like that, you would hope that someone could be there to pull you back and remind you that you were not done yet and that there was still work to do. It seemed for Marinette, that person was Tikki.

“Marinette.” Tikki’s voice echoed forth from the light itself. “Marinette, it’s time to go back.”

She shook her head, a refusal that surprised even herself.

“Let me stay here in this light, where its warm, where the pain can’t follow.” Marinette replied, after all, she deserved a moment's rest, didn't she?

But Tikki wasn't the only one there it seemed as Marinette could also hear a distant voice, or were there multiple voices? People talking. Muffled. No, they weren't here in the light, they were back there in the other place.

“I’m so sorry.” Tikki’s voice came forth again. “You can’t stay here, it’s not safe for you to linger.”

Marinette wasn't sure if it was her doing, or Tikki's, or perhaps someone else's altogether, but she started to feel the light slip away. But she tried to hold on to the light, to stay there and bask in its warmth. But it was to no avail as the other voices started to grow louder, clearer. Steve Rogers voice was there, and so was Nat’s. But their words were still disjointed and unclear.

She wanted to beg, to grovel, to give up anything she could to stay. She knew very well that she had to go back, but was very sure that she didn't want to leave either. But, sometimes a choice has to be made and you can't live in the middle, because between life and death there surely is no gray area.

“Wake up!” Tikki’s voice came once more, almost seeming to come from within Marinette's own mind this time and the sudden closeness of it shook her so hard, that she did indeed wake up.

Marinette’s eyes shot open so fast that the sun light streaming in from some nearby windows caused her to recoil and close them once more. It may not have been the same light that was comforting her a moment before, but it was definitely warm and welcoming nonetheless.

“Woah, easy there.” Nat’s voice came from beside her.

Slowly opening her eyes this time, she peered up and took in Nat’s face which had a smile spread across it. She seemed relieved.

Marinette moved her legs, shifted as she felt the coldness of the sheets and blankets that had not already been warmed by her own body. The realization that she was now lying in a hospital bed slowly dawned on her and her mind tried to reach back and find a memory of how she had come to be there.

Lila, Nat, The sound of a gun.

That final memory shot into her just as the bullet had and she quickly grabbed at her heart where she recalled the pain having been.

“Don’t worry, you’re fine.” Nat said reaching over to take Marinette's hand into her own. “Your Ladybugs made sure of that."

Marinette slowly laid back against the pillow behind her once more as she pondered the woman's words. What exactly was Widow saying? Marinette didn't recall having the chance to summon a Lucky Charm, let alone activate her Miraculous Ladybug restorative power. In fact, if her memory served her, she hadn’t even been wearing her Miraculous when she had been shot.

“I don't understand.” She said, her confusion growing the more she thought about it. “My ladybugs?”

Nat straightened and nodded to the opposite side of the room where Marinette saw a ceiling mounted television.

The sound was not on, but the screen was currently displaying the local news. The text “Ladybug Identity Revealed.” showed along the bottom in big bold print and her school photo was in the top right corner. Marinette frowned at the new reality of her identity being known, but in the grand scheme of things that was really the last thing to worry about. Besides, it had been her choice to do what she had, and she stood by that choice even now. But that didn’t mean she didn’t still feel the nakedness of the exposure nonetheless.

She focused on the main video playing alongside her image which was a view from a helicopter hovering over where the battle with the hydra had taken place. The video being shown was clearly a recording of from when she had been standing before Luna Moth, because she could see the butterfly face and herself clearly on the screen.

Marinette watched as her past self yelled something toward Lila, and then saw herself being shot and falling to the ground. The sight of it made her wince, but so far it all matched up with her memory.

But then, as the video moved on past the point of her own recall, there was suddenly a very bright beam of light that emerged from the bullet hole in her heart and shot up toward the sky. At that same moment, the helicopter that was filming seemed to be struck by sudden turbulence that made the cameraman lose focus on what was happening below.

When the camera righted itself again and was able to pan back, Marinette could see herself once more, but to her surprise she was somehow standing again. The beam of light was gone from the hole in her chest, but her eyes were now glowing with a similar otherworldly luminescence to that which the wound had been. She then watched her past self throw up her arm, much like she always did when she used her Miraculous Ladybug power to restore everything that had been destroyed.

And that is exactly what occurred on the screen. The camera followed the thousands of Ladybugs as they swarmed outward and repaired the city. And then after surveying the pristine city for a moment, the camera panned back again to where she had been standing a moment before only to find that she had once more fallen to the ground, unconscious.

Of course, Marinette wasn't sure how any of it had happened, because she was absolutely sure she had already been... dead?

“When I came to, Thor was already scooping you up to get you to safety.” Nat said drawing Marinette’s attention back from the TV. “Seemed that on top of healing you and fixing the city that your ladybugs also released Heart Tide’s grip on my mind. I’m sorry to say however, that in all of the commotion she got away.”

Marinette breathed out as she moved her gaze up toward the ceiling and contemplated the look that had been in Lila’s eyes at the end. Lila had truly wanted to kill her, there was no doubt about that. Sure, it may have been the akuma that had given her the power to do it, but she knew that deep down, the motivation behind the act had been Lila’s.

Hawk Moth had always been motivated in his actions by a desire to steal the Miraculous, the same was clearly true for Luna Moth as well. But Lila, she seemed to be driven specifically to do Marinette and Ladybug harm, all for taking a stand against her lies and of course damaging the girl's credibility in the process. It was strange to think that a normal teenage girl would put herself in a position to claim an actual super hero as her nemesis, but Marinette wondered if that in itself had been Lila's way of pulling herself up to the level of importance she had always been seeking with her lies to begin with. Of course, that meant that Lila might never back down now, especially not since she had a taste of hurting Ladybug.

Marinette shook her head to perish the thought and then looked to her right at the bedside table where she saw that there were a few cards and bundles of flowers. The closest card to her had been signed by Alya and Nino and had the words ‘get well soon’ on it. Get well?

“So, if my bullet wound was healed instantly, why did I get brought to the hospital?” Marinette asked.

“Because you have been out for three days.” Steve Rogers voice drew Marinette to turn and find that he was now standing in the doorway.

"Three days?" Marinette echoed softly as she looked to Nat who nodded at her in confirmation.

“Whatever power it was that you used really packed a wallop and had you out for the count.” Rogers said walking up to the bed side opposite Widow. “Your vitals were all over the place there for a while and gave us quite the worry. Doc wasn't sure if you would even wake up.”

Rogers regarded Marinette for a moment and then nodded to Nat who turned to walk from the room. It was clear that he wanted to talk to Marinette alone and this fact made her feel a tad self-conscious. She found herself looking down at her hands to nervously play with her own fingers as she waited for him to say something. The man's mere presence was palpable, after all, he was one of the most famous super heroes that ever existed. Of course, this was what made it feel so strange to have him in her life, let alone have him checking up on her personally.

“Well kid.” Steve finally said, drawing her attention back to him. Of course, this meant she looked up just in time to see him crossing his arms. “That was pretty risky what you did back there.”

At that, Marinette averted her eyes from him. Was she really getting scolded by Captain America? Seriously, what exactly was her life now?

“I’m sorry.” She said as she slowly looked back at him. “But it was something I had to do.

Rogers tilted his head and uncrossed his arms.

“You didn’t let me finish.” He said with a pause. “You did good.”

Marinette’s eyes widened as she watched his face turn into a smile.

“It takes a special kind of bravery to look your enemy right in the eye and tell them, No.” He continued. “And you did it in a way that left no doubt. Not to Luna Moth, not to anyone watching, not even me. You made us all understand that this Ultimate Power of the Miraculous was not a solution to the decimation, and as such it is out of our hands.”

Marinette could see that some things were clearly weighing on his mind by the way he paused then.

“You know, my best friend Bucky vanished in front of my eyes. And that was after I had just got him back in my life after seventy years apart.” Steve said sitting down in one of the bedside chairs.

“I’m so sorry.” she said, her thoughts falling on Alya, Nino, and Adrien. She couldn’t imagine being apart from someone so important for that long.

“Thanks." Rogers said with a small smile and then furrowed his brow. "You know, some of the things you said in your speech to Luna Moth really spoke at a level of someone who already understands the great burden we are asked to carry in this hero's life. I assume you've faced your fair share of trials as the protector of Paris?"

Marinette nodded.

"Well then, you should know that no matter the weight of it all, it will always be our duty to carry those burdens any way we can, even when we fail. Because that is simply who we are, and there are no easy ways out.” He said looking out the window. “But that doesn't mean we can't find joy in life and bring a positive energy to the world. Bucky may have disappeared, but I’m still here and capable of living up to the friendship he and I shared by keeping safe everyone else who remains.”

Marinette smiled as she also looked out the window. What he had said made her realize that she was indeed on the right path. A few times over the last two years of her being a hero, she had experienced moments of hesitation and lapses into fear that she was not good enough to bear such responsibility and power. Yet she had persevered. Not only that, but she had grown as a person in her normal every day life as well, thanks to her friends and family. And of course thanks to Chat Noir and Adrien, who in the end had actually been one in the same.

And then there was Tikki.

Marinette’s eyes widened and she quickly reached for her ears to find them bare.

“Tikki!” She yelled sitting up and looking around frantically. “Where are my earrings, where is my Miraculous?”

She couldn’t believe that she had been so forgetful about something, no, someone so important.

“Don’t worry,” Steve said to calm her. He then leaned over toward the table of get well soon gifts and slid a jewelry box closer to her. “You were clutching these in your hand still when you were brought in. So we made sure they stayed somewhere safe.”

Marinette slowly picked up the box and held it close to her.

“Thank you.” She said. “She is like family to me.”

Steve nodded to her and then stood. He then brought his finger to his ear and spoke to someone over his comms.

“Bring her in.” He said and then turned back to Marinette. “There is actually something else that someone would like to return to you.”

Marinette looked up, confused. After a moment, Adrien’s tutor Nathalie appeared, being pushed along in a wheel chair by Widow.

“Mademoiselle Sancoeur!” Marinette said as the woman came to a halt beside her bed. “What’s wrong, what happened to you?”

“You may call me Nathalie.” she said raising her hand. “We have met too many times while you were Ladybug for you to be so formal now.”

Marinette nodded. It was true. As Marinette, there had been only a few times that she had ever spoken with Nathalie directly, most of those times when she had been told be the woman that she could not see Adrien. But as Ladybug, she had interacted with her on numerous occasions while protecting Adrien, and his father Gabriel Agreste from various super villains.

“Although, it is the most recent time we interacted that is the reason I am here.” Nathalie offered.

Marinette thought back to the hospital room where Adrien slept. That was the last time she could recall. Did that mean...?

“Is Adrien alright?” she asked, fearing the worst.

“He is fine.” Nathalie said and then shook her head. “But you left him something that made little sense to me at the time. And when I found it, I truly had no idea what it meant.”

The woman pulled something from below the blanket on her lap and placed it on the edge of the bedside table. It was the Plagg doll Marinette had left on Adrien’s bed.

“It wasn’t until something you said to me later, after I found out that you were Ladybug, that I put two and two together.” Nathalie admitted.

“What did I say to you?” Marinette asked, confused again. She had not seen her since that day in Adrien’s hospital room, especially not since her identity had been revealed.

Nathalie smiled, and the closed her eyes as she recited back to Marinette a paraphrasing of her her own words.

“Chat Noir’s Miraculous is gone from this world.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide, realizing what she was saying. She looked to Steve and Nat who both nodded to confirm the revelation.

“Luna Moth?” she said, barely audible.

“It wasn't until you had transformed back into Marinette that I had truly understood the depth of what you were saying. That his power was gone. Adrien had been Chat Noir, but no longer.”

Nathalie’s face remained stoic and unwavering as she pulled two more objects from under the blanket on her lap, one in each hand. She held both in front of her, offering them to Marinette.

The Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous.

“These belong to you.” Nathalie said. “As I told you then, I no longer have use for such things.”

Marinette took them both without a word and just continued to stare in disbelief.

“And to answer your earlier question. My current state of health is because I foolishly believed that I could handle using two Miraculous at once. One of which is damaged to begin with.” Nathalie said, and then coughed a ragged cough, almost as if on cue. “The doctors are saying that it taxed me in such a way, that I likely won’t last the week. But that is fine by me, I will soon be at peace, no longer burdened by the loss of the man I loved.”

Marinette frowned.

“There must be something we can do.” she said woefully. The woman may have been a villain, but it was clear now why Luna Moth had wanted the Miraculous so badly. Gabriel Agreste, she had been in love with him. It also explained why she had so dutifully watched after Adrien, before and after the decimation.

Nathalie held up her hand to stop her from continuing, and then silently nodded to Widow, who wheeled her out of the room.

After they had left, Steve turned to Marinette.

“If you are feeling up for the trip we are heading back to New York.” he said. “Adrien’s care has been transferred over to us, and he will be moved to the Avengers facility. We have some of the best doctors in the world there. Although, Wong has suggested that it may not be a doctor that he needs.”

Marinette nodded.

“I would like to see my friends before I go.” she said. “If that’s okay.

Steve nodded and then left the room.

Marinette leaned back in her bed, a Miraculous in each hand. She placed them both on the bedside table, and then lifted the jewelry box that was in her lap.

As she opened it and saw what was inside. Her world crumbled.

The earrings had no spots. And that meant Tikki was not inside them.

“Tikki?” Marinette whispered to herself. “Where are you?”

Chapter Text

Three Days Earlier

When Adrien saw the swarm of butterflies pass overhead heading towards the direction of the Hydra, he knew things were about to get dire for Ladybug. The last time he had seen such a formation, had been when Hawk Moth had appeared that fateful day that he had first become Chat Noir.

But if what his mother had told him was true, then Hawk Moth, having been his father, was gone from this world. So that meant the only person left to wield the Butterfly Miraculous was Nathalie. And if she was still in the same state he had seen her last, her grief was just as deep as Adrien’s fathers had been.

“I know what you are thinking.” Wong said as they both stood on the edge of the museum complex rooftop. “But there is nothing that you can do in your current state. You must trust the Guardian of the Miraculous to handle this herself.”

Adrien frowned. He trusted Ladybug with his life and had always stood by her whenever she had asked him to do something crazy to win an akuma fight. But that was why he was so anxious now, Chat Noir was not there to back her up.

It’s true that she had some of the Avengers with her, but there was no team dynamic between them and Ladybug, not like there had been between her and Chat.

“I have to do something.” Adrien said turning to Wong. “Isn’t there some kind of spell that can make me whole again?”

“I have not had a chance to review the sacred tomes about this.” Wong said shaking his head. “For now, you will just have to remain steadfast a simply bear witness to the world around you.”

Adrien squinted at the man's words.

“Well, if bearing witness is all I can do.” Adrien said as he clenched his astral fist. “Then that is what I am going to do.”

He could hear Wong’s protests from behind him as he floated off toward the battle, but to him, all that mattered now was Marinette.

When Adrien arrived, he could see that Ladybug was deep into a conversation with the large butterfly face.

As he listened to them speak, he passed by Black Widow who he couldn’t help but notice was aiming her pistols at Ladybugs back.

This isn’t good. He thought as he peered at the spy and saw that her eyes were glowing purple.

He then floated over toward Ladybug and stood beside her. He tried to hold her hand to give her his strength, but it passed right on through. So, as Wong had said, he simply listened and bore witness.

The entire conversation between Luna Moth and Ladybug affirmed in him the pride he had to be her partner, as it seemed by her words alone, she was swaying Nathalie to give up her villainous pursuits.

And then after Ladybug transformed back into Marinette and Luna Moth had said she would end the fight; Adrien smiled a sigh of relief.

But then Lila, in an akumatized state, came forth from the shadows and things turned bad quickly.

Adrien had tried to step in front of the bullet to take the hit for her, an act he had done many times in the past as Chat Noir, but of course, this time his presence had no effect.

He frantically floated over to Marinette and watched as blood began to pour from under her shirt, a direct shot to her heart.

He needed to help her, but he had no idea how.

It was when he placed his hand over her wound, a fruitless attempt to stop the bleeding, that something happened.

Suddenly, he found that he was somewhere else.

An empty, bright white void of nothing but a warm comforting light which seemed to come from everywhere.

He quickly looked around in an attempt to find Marinette but could not see her anywhere.

“Hello?” he yelled. “Is anyone there?”

He hadn’t really expected to hear a reply, especially not one in the sound of his own voice.

But as it turned out, it was not really a reply, instead it was a conversation between he and Marinette, being played for him almost like a recording.

“So, what’d you think of Chat Noir, was he awesome?” Adrien asked

“I mean sure, yeah, but not as awesome as you of course, because who could be. You’re the most awesome of awesome.” Marinette replied.

“Sooo, that’s a, yes?” he replied unsure of how to take that answer.

Before Adrien could process what he had just heard, he also began to see images appearing all around him. They seemed to be ghostly living memories of moments shared between he and Marinette. Countless conversations they had shared came forth one by one, and he watched and listened in earnest to each one.

“Wow, we won again, thanks to you!” Adrien said.

“Oh uh, yeah, yes we did.” Marinette had said with a giggle.

“We, that was practically all you.” Adrien said and placed down the game controller. “You’re amazing Marinette.”

Adrien started to tear up and realized suddenly that he could actually cry here in this place. And he was glad, as he was overcome with both joy and sadness. He saw now things he had never noticed before, like how close he and Marinette had actually been, and how truly awkward she had been around him. How was it that he had he never seen that she had feelings for him? Had he truly been so blind?

“What is all of this?” Adrien finally asked as the memories continued to flood past him, some of them even repeating.

“These are some of Marinette's most joyous moments, flashing before her eyes as she dies.” a sad voice echoed forth from all around.

“What!” Adrien yelled as he looked about frantically for the source of the voice. “Marinette can’t die!”

“Everyone dies, Adrien.” the voice said mournfully. “And over the last five thousand years I have watched so many of my holders die, in one way or another. But I will be honest with you. This one hurts me the most.”

Adrien’s eyes widened.

“Tikki?” he asked.

“Yes, Adrien.” Tikki said. “It’s me.”

“There must be something we can do!” he said. “I’ll do anything!”

There was no response for a moment.

“I always carry the lucky charm you gave me wherever I go. And I think it works pretty well.” A memory of Adrien said. “So, I figured it was my turn to make one for you.”

“You’re so wonderful, er, uh, it’s wonderful!” Marinette replied frantically. “What a charm, er, the charm, I mean. I’ll wear the charm. Um, basically, thank you?

“If you are willing, there is something we could try.” Tikki finally responded. “But I can’t guarantee it will work, and she may die in the end anyway, and take you with her.”

“What do you need me to do?” Adrien said without hesitation.

“It will take me a moment to prepare.” Tikki replied.

An area off to Adrien’s left started to swirl and blur, and Marinette appeared. She appeared to be sleeping.

“Marinette!” he cried out and floated over to her side.

She looked so peaceful, and there was even a smile on her face.

Adrien reached over and touched her face, this time making contact.

“What is this place Tikki?” he asked as he pushed some of Marinette’s hair out of her face.

“This is the other side of the lens that we kwami create between the physical and mystical worlds. Everything that you see now is my true form.” she replied.

Adrien looked around him. Was he really inside of Tikki?

“All of this is you?” he asked. “It’s so… vast.”

“My true form actually spans the entire universe, as creation exists everywhere.” Tikki explained. “The connection between a Miraculous user’s spirit and their body is the bridge we divine spirits use to pass into the physical world. A lens of sorts is created from our energy at the bridging point, allowing us to safely transfer through, but that bridge is tiny, so we kwami also become such on the other side.”

Adrien was in awe. He had somehow actually passed into the layer of existence where the kwami existed in their true forms.

“How did I get here?” Adrien asked. “The last thing I did was try and cover Marinette’s bullet wound with my hand.”

“You likely touched Marinette’s Miraculous just as I was using it to reopen the bridge between her spirit and body. Somehow the opening of that bridge must have caused you to be pulled in.”

Adrien pondered that.

“But I never touched her earrings.” he pointed out.

“That is because that is no longer where the power of the Ladybug Miraculous resides.” Tikki explained. “When Marinette removed her Miraculous to offer them to Luna Moth, I curiously found myself back here and not inside the earrings. When I realized that the gate I normally used had closed, I, for lack of simpler terms, had to try and reconnect. When I did, I found that Marinette had somehow created a new Miraculous.”

“A new Miraculous?” Adrien asked. “How? Where?”

“I don’t know how.” Tikki admitted. “But the new Miraculous, it’s her heart.”

Chapter Text

Marinette entered the Césaire residence with a gloom hovering over her like a cloud, and she knew that she likely looked a fright. She figured though, that anyone who saw her would just assume she was recovering from the trauma of being shot. As for the real reason for her current state, she had no idea how to explain it to anyone.

She had not mentioned to any of the Avengers that Tikki was missing, and she didn’t plan to yet, not until she knew how or why. Her best bet was to ask Wayzz, Trixx or the other kwami if they knew of any reason Tikki would have gone missing from the Miraculous she had carried. But part of her worried that the little bugs absence somehow had to do with her offering the earrings up to Luna Moth, perhaps that act invalidated her worthiness to bear the Miraculous.

When she had taken the earrings off and held them in front of her as a bargain of her own, she had never intended to really give them away. In fact, the entirety of her being in that moment had been focused on protecting the Miraculous with everything that she had. Regardless of that fact, she had not been able to ignore the chance that Luna Moth could be convinced to turn back from the darkness.

It was in Marinette’s nature to believe in the best of people, especially those who were clearly acting in bad judgement out of grief alone. And in that moment, it had indeed been that fact that had separated Luna Moth from Hawk Moth. For as Luna Moth had correctly suggested, the why did matter in the end. She still, even now, had no idea what Hawk Moth had wanted to gain from the ‘Ultimate Power’ and his war for the Miraculous, but at the very least, she knew that war was over now.

“Marinette is that you girl?” Alya asked, her voice coming from the kitchen.

“Yes, It’s me.” Marinette responded as she dropped onto the couch, emotionally exhausted.

Alya came around the corner with a huge smile on her face.

“Thank goodness.” Alya said and sat next to her where they then shared a very long hug. “When we saw you in that hospital bed, we had feared the worst.”

“I know, I’m sorry to have worried you.” Marinette said meekly and frowned, avoiding Alya’s eye contact.

However, she could almost feel that Alya was looking at her with that questioning journalistic gaze of hers.

“Something’s wrong.” her friend said. “Spill it girl. We have no secrets anymore, remember?”

Marinette looked at Alya and could feel her tears coming already.

“It’s Tikki. She’s not inside of the Ladybug Miraculous anymore.” Marinette admitted as she began to cry. “I don’t know if it was something I did. Maybe I am no longer worthy of her.”

Alya simply stared at her and didn’t say anything for a moment.

“You are joking right?” she said firmly, startling Marinette out of her self-pity. “Marinette, the savior of Paris, not good enough? I’ll crack the head of anyone who thinks that, and that includes you.”

Marinette wiped her tears and looked to see that Alya was grinning at her. Marinette couldn’t help but feel a warmth inside her that quelled her tears.

She smiled softly at Alya in thanks.

“Trixx.” Alya called out, her kwami partner appearing a moment later. “Any ideas on why Tikki wouldn’t be in her earrings anymore?”

The little fox slowly floated toward Marinette and looked her up and down questioningly.

“I don’t understand.” Trixx said finally. “You have an aura about you… it’s almost as if-.”

The little fox quickly flew around Marinette, circling her many times, eventually stopping directly in front of her face. Then, with her tiny paws, the kwami squeezed Marinette’s cheeks together.

“Twix, whu are fu dofing?” Marinette attempted to say through her now overly puckered lips.

“I’m looking for Tikki.” Trixx said nonchalantly in her little sly voice.

“You know partner, I doubt that Tikki is inside Marinette’s mouth.” Alya said with a chuckle.

Even in her downtrodden state of mind, Marinette couldn’t help but give into the humor in how ridiculous she must look at the moment. But what Trixx said next, made all humor inside her vanish.

“I can’t explain it, but I’m certain that Tikki is inside you.”

Marinette pulled her face away from the kwami's little hands in shock.

“What?” Marinette asked as she involuntarily put her hands on her own cheeks, as if to look for Tikki herself. “Why would she be inside me?”

Trixx turned to look at Alya and then back to Marinette.

“As you know, we kwami can sometimes sense the presence of each other, and you are definitely radiating the same energy Tikki normally does. But it’s dialed up to ten.”

Marinette turned and looked at nothing in particular as her mind raced. She thought back to the video of when she had been shot, the bright light that shot out from her.

“Trixx, can a kwami possess a person?” Marinette asked. “Or, like, take control of them to activate their powers if the Miraculous user is unconscious, or dying?”

Behind Trixx, Marinette saw Alya’s eyes go wide. The little fox herself, seeming to consider the facts, was shaking her head slowly.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing happening before.” Trixx replied. “But if it were possible, the amount of energy required would likely have left Tikki’s physical form so exhausted that she would have probably slipped into a state of hibernation to recover.”

Marinette sat back and sighed. It was a relief to hear that Tikki was still with her, but she wondered how long her partner would be asleep. It had taken Marinette herself three days to wake up, so there was no telling really the toll it had taken on Tikki.

One important takeaway was that Tikki had very likely save her life.

“Thank you, Tikki.” Marinette whispered to herself.

There was then a knock at the door as Nino opened it to peer inside.

“Nino!” Marinette said gleefully as she jumped off the couch and hugged him as soon as he entered.

“Hey Marinette! So stoked that you are okay!” he said as he hugged her back. “By the way, did you know THE Black Widow is outside right now? How cool is that?”

Alya jumped up.

“Really? I tried to talk to her at the hospital, but she seemed busy. Maybe I could-” Alya said excitedly, but then remembered something and shook her heard. “Sorry, Part of me forgot that I put the Ladyblog to rest.”

Marinette frowned. She knew it had been hard for Alya to give up her blog, but it made little sense to report on superheroes when she herself had also become one. Her friend had even apologized profusely to Marinette for all of the times she had almost revealed her identity over the last two years. Of course, Marinette had told her to not worry about it.

“Nat insisted she drive me over, just in case people knew where I was staying these days.” Marinette explained. “Now that the Ladybug is out of the bag.”

“Oh girl, you are on a first name bases with an Avenger?” Alya said, clearly jealous. “I wish I could have been there to see them in action.”

Marinette’s ears perked up at that.

“That reminds me. Why didn’t Rena Rouge show up to the fight?” Marinette asked.

Alya frowned at the question.

“In the spirit of complete honesty.” Alya said, passing a glance to Nino. “I admit that I almost really messed up.”

Alya turned around and walked over to the cabinet that the Miracle Box was currently being kept inside of.

“I don’t how she got the jump on me so easily, but Lila must have touched me with her Heart Tide powers just as I arrived as Rena Rogue.” Alya explained. “I don’t remember what happened after that. But when your ladybugs righted everything, I found that I was standing over the Miracle box with my hand out, about to take it.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. Not only had she almost died, but the most powerful objects she knew of were almost stolen. They had really been on the edge of a precipice, and just barely stepped away.

“I feel so horrible.” Alya said frowning. “You asked me to keep an eye on things, and I almost gave away the game.”

Marinette moved over to Alya and embraced her.

“Alya, everyone knows that when an akumatized villain's powers take you over, you can’t fight it, no matter how strong you are.” Marinette said. “If anything, I am to blame for not taking the Miracle Box with me to New York when I left. After all, I am the Guardian of the Miraculous.”

“Besides.” Marinette continued as she pulled the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses out of her pocket. “That war is over now.”

Somewhere, not too far away, Heart Tide looked up and smiled.

“This war isn’t as over as you think, Marinette.”

Chapter Text

Marinette fell back onto her bed, exhausted.

It had been three days since she had left Paris and had moved into the Avengers Campus, and so far, her time here had been more like school than her actual school back home had been. Except there was one big difference that weighed on her in this place. It was that her friends were not there with her.

Alya and Nino had opted to remain behind to continue to protect the city rather than train with the Avengers. But she could understand their decisions, especially Alya’s. With her dad and three sisters all having vanished in the decimation, Alya would have never chosen to leave her mom alone like that. And Nino of course, would always choose to stay where Alya was.

Both had however been very enthusiastic at the prospect of someday visiting the campus when things calmed down around the world.

Even now, the pain of the decimation was still all too fresh. It had only been thirteen days since Thanos's finger snap, and the exact numbers of who had vanished were still being reported. There was a live counter of the vanished in the main conference room, and the last that Marinette had seen was that the number had reached three billion. A harsh reminder that her ability to track and locate the Infinity Stones and Thanos was of paramount importance.

When Steve Rogers had heard about Tikki’s hibernation, he had offered her some time to rest before beginning her training and efforts to track one responsible for all of this. But she had declined the offer and had opted to begin immediately.

And that is what she had done, diving right into everything they threw her way.

The last few days had been filled with team dynamic exercises with Steve, studies about the kwami and the Order of the Guardians with Wong, and extreme calisthenics and combat training with Nat. All of which were things that would not require her Ladybug form.

She had however been as surprised as the others to discover that she was actually fairly tough, even without her Miraculous powers activated. This was especially true when it came to her stamina. She had found that she was able to continuously run at full exertion for almost two hours before she had begun to tire. Wong of course, had reminded her that her Miraculous use had tempered her body in certain ways, but she hadn’t imagined it would affect her non-super hero form as well.

However, regardless of her expectations, it indeed seemed that there was less and less distinction between Marinette and Ladybug, instead she was slowly becoming both simultaneously. A strange reality to be facing, to be sure.

But boy, was she still as clumsy as ever, almost magnificently so.

While she had been sparring a motionless dummy, she had somehow managed to kick and miss so badly that she sweeped her own leg and fell face first on the mat. One good side, was that Nat dropped her usual stoic manner and started to laugh a good hearty laugh. Something she had not seen her do since they had met.

But even worse still, in matters of clumsiness, was that while Wong had been trying to show her how to use a sling ring, it had slipped right off her fingers and hit the master of the mystic arts right in the face.

“Why am I like this?” Marinette said rolling back and forth on her bed like a rolling pin that didn’t know where it was going.

During one of these rolls, as her head was in a position where she could see out the window, she she saw something strange outside in the night sky. This distraction caused her to roll a bit too far and slip right off the bed.

She quickly got back up onto her feet and moved over near the window for a better look at what she had seen.

A bright light was in the night sky, growing steadily ever closer toward where she now stood. For a moment she was sure it was coming right at her, and had prepared to leap out of the way, but at the last second the ball of light shifted course and simply landed on the grass in the courtyard outside.

She could see now that it had been a flying, glowing woman. A woman who was now walking with a purpose toward the main building. As far as she could tell, It wasn’t anyone she recognized from the Avengers themselves or anyone that she had ever seen in any of her super hero research from two years before.

Marinette, her curiosity getting the better of her, ran out of her room and down the connector hall between the barracks wing and the main complex.

After only a few turns she encountered the woman who had landed outside. The stranger was walking away from her down the corridor towards the labs. Marinette slowed and started to creep along, not wanting to draw the woman’s attention.

The woman turned a corner near Bruce’s Lab, and then entered it. Marinette quickly moved to the entryway and listened when she realized she could hear voices inside.

“...It’s still plugged in, it just stopped.” Rhodes was saying.

“Reboot it, send the signal again.” Rogers requested.

“We don’t even know what this is.” Bruce replied.

“Fury did.” Nat said. “Tell me the second you get a signal, I want to know who is on the other end of that thing.”

Marinette hazarded a peek into the room. She could see that the woman had come to a halt behind the four Avengers. When Nat turned and came face to face with the unknown intruder, the stranger finally spoke.

“Where’s Fury” she demanded.

Rhodes and Bruce exchanged a glance in surprise, but Rogers and Nat didn’t break eye contact with the woman in front of them.

“I’m afraid he was one of the vanished.” Nat finally said after a moment. “Who are you?”

From where Marinette stood, she couldn’t see the expression on the woman’s face, but she could tell that the information she had just received had affected her greatly.

“Danvers, Carol Danvers.” she offered. “Fury was... an ally.”

“The emblem on her chest.” Bruce said with a lean towards Rhodes and a nod at Danvers. “It’s the same as the one that had been on the device.”

“Well, ally or not, how did you get past our perimeter security?” Rogers asked.

“I saw her fly in and land in the courtyard.” Marinette said as she stepped into the room, drawing everyone’s attention.

Danvers seemed to take surprise at Marinette’s presence.

“The system should have detected a craft landing, I guess I need to calibrate it again.” Bruce said to Rogers, almost apologetically.

“I don’t have a craft.” Danver’s explained, drawing surprised reactions from everyone but Marinette. “Flight is one of my powers.”

“It was amazing, she was all glowy.” Marinette found herself saying before she could think better of it. “I, uh, mean, It looked real cool, er, awesome.”

Danvers smiled at the attempted compliment and then walked toward Marinette. “Hey, Kid. What’s your name?”

Marinette was getting tired of being called kid all of the time, but she figured she should get used to it. All of these other heroes were nearly double her age, or more.

“I’m, uh, Marinette.” she replied awkwardly, but then opted to smile and offered her hand in greeting. “It’s always nice to meet someone new.”

Apparently this had been the wrong choice though, as when Danvers and her hands touched, there was a flash of energy and Marinette found herself two rooms away lying against a pile of debris that used to be a bookshelf.

“Marinette!” Nat yelled as she came running into the room and looked her over. “Don’t move until I can see if anything is broken!”

“What... was that?” Marinette asked weakly as she lay as still as possible. She felt like she had been hit by a truck and there was a ringing in her ears unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

“I don’t know, you both went flying in opposite directions.” Nat said.

It was then that a radiating pink glow emerged from Marinette’s chest and floated into the air above her. As the glow faded, Marinette could see that it was Tikki.

“Tikki.” Marinette whispered almost inaudibly. She then reached for her partner and realized too late that it had been a bad idea to move. She hurt everywhere.

“That was just what I needed!” Tikki said opening her eyes with a stretch of her arms. Then after a moment she noticed Marinette below her and immediately looked panicked. “Marinette! Oh my goodness, are you alright?”

“Honestly, Tikki.” Marinette said. “With you here again, I feel better than I have in days.”

She then shifted her leg and felt a searing pain.

“Silly girl, your leg’s broken.” Nat said. “Who knows what else.”

“Well then.” Marinette said with a weak smile “I feel great, except for the broken leg.”

And with that, Marinette blacked out.

Chapter Text

“What did you do?.” Thor asked Thanos as they both looked down at the smoking gauntlet.

What did you do!” Thor yelled again.

Thanos looked around, almost seeming confused, and then opened a portal to vanish into.

Marinette Opened her eyes slowly. It had been a strange nightmare with so much detail that it had almost seemed real to her. But with as disjointed as it was, it had been like random moments in a story without context, she had been confused by it’s meaning. Not to mention that it had seemed to be about Thanos, whom she only recognized because of the image she had seen in the Avengers files.

From the first moment of the dream that had a raven haired man in green attempting to stab Thanos, all the way to where Thor had yelled at him, asking what he had done, it had been  a roller coaster. One she had been pulled along on a journey through many places, containing many faces that she didn’t recognize, except of course, Thor.

Actually, no, now that she thought about it, there had been one other exception. At one point near the end of the nightmare, she could have swore that she had seen Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit, sitting on the ground before Thanos, looking defeated.

“You know, we gotta stop meeting like this.” Nat said looking down at her.

Marinette shook her head and cleared her mind of the strange dream as she focused on Widow’s face. She could see worry there, in the woman’s eyes.

“Sorry, It’s in my nature to be clumsy.” Marinette wallowed.

“It wasn’t entirely your fault alone, kid.” Carol Danvers voice chimed in. “If I had known that you had similar energy to mine running through you, I would have been more cautious.”

Marinette looked around the infirmary to get her bearings. To her left, behind Nat, Doctor Cho was looking over a few x-rays stuck to a light board on the wall. Near the door to the room keeping her distance, Carol stood with her arms crossed and a smile on her face.

On her right stood Bruce, giving Marinette a fairly pitying look.

And then, there was Tikki, floating above her pillow beside her.

“Tikki!” Marinette said gleefully as her little partner swooped down and hugged her cheek. “I’m so glad I hadn’t dreamed you. I thought I had lost you forever.”

“Oh, Marinette.” Tikki said. “I’m sorry I worried you.”

“Don’t you ever go anywhere ever again. You hear?” Marinette said, tears starting to come forth. “I don’t think I could bear it.”

“Actually Marinette.” Tikki said floating backward. “Somehow I doubt you and I could be apart ever again, even if we wanted to be.”

Marinette looked on quizzically, unsure what Tikki meant by that.

“What…” Marinette started to ask. “What do you mean?”

“Well, little miss.” Bruce said as he stepped forward. “It seems you are something of an enigma, at least scientifically speaking.”

Bruce held up an image in front of Marinette, but she couldn’t really figure out what it was supposed to be. It just looked like a big splotch of light in the center of another dark blurry splotch.

“This is a scan of your heart.” Bruce said. “As far as we can tell, it’s been entirely crystallized.”

Hearing this caused Marinette’s heart, of all things, to start to race, as made evident by the beeping of the heart monitor she could hear beside her.

“As for what kind of crystal exactly...” Bruce shook his head. “I can’t make heads or tails of this spectrometer readout.”

“There is something more amazing about all of this, Marinette.” Tikki said holding her arms wide. “Somehow, Your heart has become a Miraculous, the one that I am bound to.”

Marinette’s eye’s went wide. It made sense now why Trixx had claimed Tikki was inside her, but how had this happened? As far as she could tell, Tikki didn’t even know the answer, and if the oldest kwami didn’t, then it was unlikely anyone else here could tell her either.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” Nat said, clearly having noticed her increased heart rate. “After all, it doesn’t seem to be affecting your health, and you got your little friend back.”

Marinette focused on that and realized that Widow was right.

Ever since Tikki had first appeared to her that day, when Stoneheart had first attacked, her life had been full of strange and inexplicable events. And yet even with all of the wild things that had happened,her time partnering with Tikki had been the happiest most fulfilling of her life. Why now should this be any different?

Marinette’s heart rate dropped as she found a reason to smile.

“Not to mention that without your crystal heart, Adrien and I wouldn’t have been able to save you when you had been shot.” Tikki said with a gleeful smile.

“Adrien?” Marinette asked sitting up in the bed so quickly that it caused her a bit of pain in her leg. “You saw Adrien? Where?”

Tikki floated down and landed on Marinette’s lap. The look on the kwami's face indicating that she had said something that she felt that she shouldn't have.

“I, um. He somehow found his way to the other side of the lens where my true form is.” Tikki said, starting to speak a bit more quietly. “He was so determined to save you.”

Marinette’s cheeks started to flush. Had Adrien really done all that for her? Had he fought for her to live even as his own body lay in the next room unable to wake? She hadloved him for so many reasons before, and that had been without even knowing of his exploits as Chat Noir, let alone his traveling into thespirit realm to save her life. If she fell any further for him, she imagined her new heart would burst into a million crystal pieces.

She so very much longed for a time that she could see him again.

“Marinette, I…” Tikki said sadly,drawing Marinette out of her wistful thoughts. “I am afraid, in our efforts to save you, his spirit may have been... destroyed.”

Marinette felt as if her entire body had been crushed in one moment.

The room around her fell silent and all eyes had fallen on Tikki.

“You were dying Marinette.” Tikki explained. “And there was nothing I could do to save you. I had to simply sit there and watch as your soul ebbed back into the energy of creation, as had happened with all of my other partners.”

Tikki looked to be about to cry, but Marinette was still reeling too much from what she had just heard to try and comfort her.

“But you have to understand, I was devastated.” Tikki continued. “You have become so much more to me than just another partner, you are my family.

Tikki began to float up toward Marinette’s face, never breaking eye contact.

“And if he hadn’t appeared there, in that place.” the little kwami said. “I would have not been able to try what we had.”

Tikki drooped her whole body and finally broke eye contact from Marinette.

“I am not sorry that I accepted his offer to help, because as selfish as it sounds.” Tikki admitted. “I wanted you to live as much as he did.”

“What exactly did you do?” Marinette asked, no emotion in her voice at all.

Tikki looked up, her large eyes filled with grief.

“After your spirit had left completely, I pushed his inside your body with as much energy as I could muster.” Tikki said as she began to cry. “When he was there, he was able to wield your heart, the Miraculous, and call forth my restorative powers to heal your wound.”

Tikki then turned her head away from Marinette, seeming ashamed.

“But holding his spirit inside a body that was for all intents and purposes, dead, took so much more energy than I had expected.” The little ladybug said with a gasping sob. “And when I found that your body had recovered, and I could not sense his spirit anywhere on the other side, I feared the worse. He did not return.”

Marinette slowly raised her hand and placed it underneath Tikki where the kwami plopped, defeated by her own emotions.

“I understand if you hate me.” Tikki blurted out.

“Tikki.” Marinette said softly. “It’s okay.”

Tikki opened her misty eyes and looked at up at her.

“If it was Adrien’s wish for me to be saved.” Marinette said, beginning to cry. “I can’t possibly hate you for granting such a wish.”

Tikki all but collided with Marinette’s cheek, hugging her with everything she had.

Marinette felt someone place a hand on her arm. Looking up she saw that it was Nat, whose eyes were red.

“I’ve never had the chance to meet Adrien.” Widow said. “But from everything I just heard, something tells me that he isn’t one to just give up. So neither should you.”

Marinette shook her head.

“He is still alive.” she said. “I don’t know how, but I know he is.”

At some great distance from Earth, immeasurable to most, an Astral form fell from the sky and landed with a soft thud in a vast pool of shallow water.

When Adrien’s vision cleared, he wasn’t sure what to make of what he saw.

After all, it wasn’t every day you saw a floating figure with a red skull peering down at you.

Chapter Text

“Welcome, Adrien. Son of Emilie.” The cloaked figure said to him as he stood.

Adrien hesitated at the sound of he and his mothers name being spoken. He was not keen on the fact that this unearthly being before him seemed to know about him.

“It seems that I am at a disadvantage here.” Adrien said. “Seeing that you know who I am, and I couldn’t even come close to guessing who or what you are.”

The figure grew closer and began to speak slowly and deliberately.

“Be glad that you are not cursed with knowledge such as I, young one. As is such, my name is inconsequential, but you may consider me a guide.”

Adrien looked around and saw an unfamiliar sky with an eclipsed star on the horizon. For miles around him there was only sweeping sand, and shallow pools of water. He currently stood at the base of the only thing that appeared to be present here, a large mountain. As he followed the mountain slope with his gaze, he could see that aligned with the peak of the mountain was a vortex where there clouds appeared to move up into forever. It was a foreboding place that made Adrien feel cold for the first time since he became an astral form.

“What is this place?” Adrien asked, dreading the answer.

“This is the dominion of death, at the center of all celestial existence.” the guide replied.

Adrien frowned as he figured that this probably wasn’t a great place to find oneself. He and Tikki had just attempted something that she said could destroy him, and now he was here in this place of death. Had it all gone wrong as she had predicted? Was this where spirits went when they were destroyed?

“So, what now?” he asked. “Am I supposed to move on or something?”

“For the first time in the many years that I have been guide here, I have no answer.” the form replied. “You are the first to enter this place from that above which is normally the exit.”

Adrien looked up at the vortex above him.

“Well then, I suppose If I’m coming and not going, I’ll need to find a way home.” he said, determined. “Marinette, will be waiting for me.”

“Marinette, Daughter of Tomas.” The form said, startling Adrien. “She is here as well.”

Adrien’s eyes immediately focused on the red face before him.

“What do you mean she is here?” he asked frantically.

Could it be that he and Tikki had failed after all? Was she meant to be leaving through the same way he had entered?

The form said nothing as he floated toward Adrien and raised his bony red hand. He pointed directly at Adrien’s chest and then began to float around him in a clockwise circle, continuing to point.

Adrien followed the figures point with his gaze alone, not turning his body, his feet frozen in place. As the figure moved behind him, the focus of it's point moved slightly to direct Adrien to something on his back, which caused him to look over his own shoulder.

Adrien could see this something now, using the reflection of the water in which he stood.

Extending out from his own back at about the midpoint behind his heart, was a string of energy, almost like a ribbon or tether. It extended out a few feet and then continued as it faded out into nothingness.

“What is that?” Adrien asked as he tried his best to get a better look.

“Marinette, Daughter Of Tomas.” the figure repeated flatly. “Far from this place, yet here all the same.”

Marinette sat cross legged on the floor of her bedroom, her left leg in a wrap, but mending very quickly. Much quicker than it should have been normally, but Marinette guessed she should get used to not being normal.

Two meters in front of her was the Miracle Box, opened. She had been here, staring at the box for almost four hours.

It had been a full day since the incident with Carol, and yet she still felt a tingling in her toes and fingers from the energy interaction that had occurred between them. It had made it tough to sleep, so she had laid awake watching Tikki, who had slept peacefully on her pillow beside her.

Eventually when fatigue did finally find her, she had hoped she would dream of Adrien. But insufferably, it had been the same nightmare about Thanos again.

After she awoken in the morning, she had asked Tikki about the recurring dream, and her response had been cryptic, at best.

“Sometimes we focus on the things that are weighing on us.” her kwami had said. “Perhaps you are just worried about your task at hand?”

Marinette had thought it was possible that her partner was right, but the dream was too structured, too real.

So now, she sat, staring at the Miracle Box and it’s contents as she formulated a plan. Specifically she was focused on the spot where the Fox Miraculous normally sat.

She had an idea of what to do, but she needed Trixx. But the thought of asking Alya to give up her partner, even for a little while, weighed on her mind.

She picked up her phone and opened her messenger app and began to type.

Marinette – Alya, I may need to borrow Trixx for a bit.

Marinette – I wouldn’t ask, but it may lead me to Thanos.

She waited a few minutes for a reply, but there was nothing. Perhaps Alya was out on patrol and didn’t have her phone.

Biting her lip, she stood and called to Tikki who had been sitting on the nearby window sill enjoying the sunset.

“Are you sure about this Marinette?” Tikki said. “We haven’t transformed since you created the new Miraculous. And there is no telling how this will go.”

“I would wait, Tikki. Give it more time, and figure this all out.” Marinette said. “But I need to contact Rena Rouge. And this is the quickest way to do it.”

Tikki nodded.

“Tikki, Spots on!”

The familiar feeling of her transformation washed over her, but she couldn’t help but feel like it was different somehow.

She glanced over at the mirror on the wall to confirm she was Ladybug once again.

There, in the reflection, Marinette saw her own face, no mask to be seen. Her hair also seemed to be in a different configuration than usual, now flowing freely with a polka dotted clip holding it to one side out of her eyes.

The rest of her usual bodysuit remain unchanged, at least as far as she could tell.

Apparently, somehow her transformation had reflected the fact that she no longer needed to hide her identity. Had it been a subconscious decision of her own? A choice of Tikki’s? Who controlled such things exactly?

Whatever the case, she had a job to do.

She held up her Yo-yo and tried to contact Rena Rouge.

Thankfully, this time, the fox hero answered.

Chapter Text

36 Hours Later

Marinette had felt awkward being the one to call the Avenger’s for a meeting.

She still felt out of place among the more experienced heroes, and she really didn’t want to make any mistakes to cause them to doubt her. Because of this, she had spent more than half the last day and night reading reports, watching video accounts, and studying ancient tomes given to her by Wong, all to verify her findings.

When all was said and done, she was sure that she had something important to share with them, and that superseded any fears of failure that she had.

Wong had also been kind enough to portal Marinette to Paris so she could borrow the Fox Miraculous from Alya. And of course, Alya had been fine with it and was as gracious as always. She had even reminded Marinette that as Guardian of The Miraculous that she technically hadn’t needed to ask. But Marinette knew that if someone had asked her to give up Tikki, she would be devastated, so she had felt better asking.

Once she had the Fox Miraculous and had talked her plan over with Trixx and Tikki, she did a few test runs to make sure it was all going to work.

Then she had asked The Avengers, Carol Danvers and Rocket to all join her for a meeting.

“So, What does Miss Miraculous have for us?” Thor asked.

Marinette blushed at hearing the nickname that Thor had been calling her since the hydra battle. It was embarrassing, because he always said it with such pomp and circumstance. She was however, glad to see him in better spirits than he had been previously because of the decimation. The Asgardian had been in a good mood ever since the day before when a ship, or half of one, had arrived on Earth carrying what was left of his people.

“I, Uh, thank you all for coming.” Marinette said, scratching the back of her neck. “I wanted to make you all aware of something I have discovered regarding my powers.”

“Is that something we all really need to be here for?” Rhodes said crossing his arms.

Marinette scrambled to respond to make sure she could quell any doubts.

“Er, I mean, It is related to my powers, but mainly it is about Thanos.” she said quickly.

“Alright then.” Steve said, seeming suddenly interested. “You have the floor.”

Nat who was leaning against the wall next to Steve, also perked up at the mention of Thanos’ name.

“So, ever since Carol and I, uhm, short circuited.” Marinette began motioning towards Danvers. “I have been having the same dream over and over. A dream about Thanos. But I think it may not be a dream, but actual events that have occurred.”

Everyone in the room looked at each other.

“At first I couldn’t figure out why Carol’s energy would have caused this or how it was related to Thanos. That is, not until I was able to review the dream over and over. Sometimes in slow motion, or in reverse, and then stopping it at important moments to look around.”

“How did you manage to do that?” Bruce asked.

“Trixx.” Marinette said. “Come out and say hi to everyone.”

The fox kwami appeared and flew up to float beside Marinette.

“Greeting’s everyone.” Trixx said.

“Another one?” Rocket said. “Just how many of these things are there?”

Marinette ignored his question and continued.

“Trixx is the kwami of illusion which allows their partner to summon a facsimile of anything they desire. So using that power, I will be able to recreate the dream and walk us all through it.” Marinette explained. “However, I want to let you know, some of the things you see, may stir up bad memories.”

Thor stepped forward.

“Show us.” the Asgardian said. “No one here is afraid.”

Marinette looked from person to person, and they all nodded in agreement.

“Alright then. Trixx, Tikki.” Marinette said. “Let’s unify!”

The room was filled with gasps and chatter as Marinette finished transforming using both Miraculous at once to become who she had decided to call, Lucky Fox.

Her current appearance could only be described as a fox from the countryside. Her fox form was similar to that of Rena Rouge, minus the mask. However, this particular mixed form wore a red ladybug bandanna around her neck and had blue jean overalls with polka dotted patches here and there.

“Woah, This kid has more tricks up her sleeves than a Skrull.” Rocket said in awe.

“Now, if you would all please be sure to not touch anything you see directly.” Lucky Fox said. “It will cause the illusion to disappear.”

She lifted her Flute and played a few notes.

“Mirage!” she called out.

The room became flushed with a bright light and then everyone present was standing on the Asgardian ship Thanos had destroyed half of.

In the center of the circle of heroes now stood Thanos, with a raven haired man trying to stab him with a knife. The flow of time in the image she had projected was frozen in place and not proceeding forward.

Lucky Fox hazarded a glance toward Thor, and saw his jaw was rigid. She had feared his reaction to this the most. From what she understood now, the raven haired man was Thor’s brother, Loki.

“This is amazing.” Bruce said stepping forward. “It look’s just like I remember.”

“How is it possible that you dreamed this so perfectly when you hadn’t been there?” Nat said kneeling beside the illusions facsimile of Thor, who was bound and gagged by metal behind Thanos.

“Well, after studying every single part of the dream. I noticed one particular thing that happened during every event that I was shown. Thanos would use the blue stone, the uhm, the space stone’s power.”

Carol had moved over to examine the blue glow around Loki’s dagger for herself.

“The space stone gave me my powers.” Danvers offered.

“Yes, and that was the connection. The powers of creation that Tikki embodies, are in part also made of those similar energies.” Marinette said. “With Tikki’s true form expanding to entire width of the universe, she herself has become a historical record of sorts for tracking the bursts of energy from any stone I can attune to. But it appears the window into those moments is only for the few seconds before the stone is activated, and not after.”

“You figured this all out on your own?” Bruce asked. “That’s really impressive.”

“Tikki and Trixx helped.” Lucky Fox said with a smile.

She caught glimpse of Nat giving a head tilt to Steve, almost as an ‘I told you so’.

“Loki, brother.” Thor said from behind Lucky Fox. “I am sorry I could not save you.”

When she turned and saw that the Asgardian was standing beside his brother to lament, she figured it was the best time to move things along.

“I can only hold this illusion for five minutes, so I need to move us to the next event, if that is alright?” she asked and kept her focus on Thor. She hoped that her excuse, while true, would be enough to pull him back from his grief.

Thor clenched his jaw and looked away from Loki, then he nodded.

She closed her eyes and moved the dream forward, to the next important place.

Now, they were all standing in burning rubble on some unknown world. Thanos was holding a woman hostage in his arms and a man stood before them with a look of fear on his face.

“Quill!” Rocket said stepping forward. “Gamora!”

“Do you know this place, Rocket?” Steve asked.

“It’s a mining colony called Knowhere.” the raccoon explained. “It’s where the reality stone was being kept. While Thor, Groot and I went to Nidavellir, the others came here to try and stop Thanos.”

Rocket walked over to where Quill was standing.

“Look’s like things didn’t go too well though.” Rocket said softly and then asked. “Do you know if any of them made it?”

Lucky Fox nodded and closed her eyes to concentrate on moving the dream forward in real time.

Everything began to move and Thanos smiled.

“I like him.” he said.

Thanos then opened a portal, pulling himself and Gamora into it. Quill was left standing alone in the rubble.

“So Quill might be alive still?” Rocket said looking to her for an answer.

Lucky Fox frowned.

“Just wait a moment, we will see him again in a minute, but there is more to get through.” she replied and began to form the next part of the illusion.

“This one, may be hard to watch.” she said as a room formed around them.

In the center of the space was a cybernetic woman who was floating in the air, somehow torn into disparate pieces. Gamora and Thanos stood nearby.

She started the time flow for the event.

“Where is the soul stone?” Thanos asked Gamora.

The woman shook her head in a refusal to speak.

Then Thanos used both the space and power stones simultaneously to spread further the pieces of the poor woman floating in the air.

She screamed a terrible scream and many who watched looked away.

The event froze just after Gamora yelled Vormir.

“Thanos, tortured his own daughter?” Rocket said and shook his head. “I knew he was evil, but this…”

Everyone was silent for a moment, lost in their own thoughts.

“Keep going, Marinette.” Steve said somberly. “Show us everything.”

Lucky Fox nodded and once again closed her eyes.

The next place they went was to the middle of a battle on an alien planet. Thanos stood with his arm raised towards a moon behind him. In front of him a few paces away, Iron man knelt on the ground.

“Tony!” Rhodes exclaimed, speaking up for the first time since this history ride had begun. “He made it!”

“My god, is he going to do what I think he is? “Nat asked as she looked up at the moon Thanos was motioning towards. Everyone else looked up as well.

Lucky Fox allowed time to flow.

The moon above became disjointed and broke apart, falling towards the planet and Iron Man in particular. Stark attempted to flee, but a large chunk of the moon rocketed into him.

No one spoke.

She decided to continue on.

The next moment, was the last she planned to show. It was still the same location, but it appeared to be a little while later, nearer the end of the same battle.

The scene was frozen.

Thanos was being shot at by Quill who was flying toward him with rocket boots. Tony, in an Iron Man suit that was more pieces than suit, was sitting on the ground in front of Thanos, wounded but still alive.

When she started the time flow, Quill’s shots hit Thanos one after the next, and then the gauntlet wielder opened a portal and vanished.

Then all of the illusions faded as well.

“Trixx, Tikki, Divide.” Lucky Fox said and soon became Marinette once again.

Now back in the conference room, everyone stood for a moment without a word while the two kwami floated over to a tray of snacks nearby.

Marinette watched as Thor turned and walked out of the room without a word. Marinette worried that seeing Thanos had brought back the pain he had felt previously. Had she made a mistake?

“I’m not sure if any of that meant anything, or if it helps us at all, but I wanted to let you all know that I was able to track where Thanos had been. So there is at least a hope that I might be able to track where he is now, given time.” She said nervously rubbing the back of her right leg with her left foot.

Steve walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You did good.” he said. “Seeing that Tony at least survived the fight, gives me hope that he may still be out there somewhere.”

“I recognized the last planet.” Carol said stepping forward. “That was Titan.”

“What are the chances Tony is still there?” Nat asked rounding the table.

“If they have the Benatar, it’s likely they blasted out of there a long time ago.” Rocket said. “But from the looks of that battle, it could have been damaged or destroyed when that moon was pulled out of orbit.”

“Well, if there is a chance any of them are still alive there, or anywhere in the vicinity of Titan, I’ll find them.” Danvers said.

“You can really just fly out there and look?” Rhodes asked.

“May take me a few days to get there, but I’ll make sure I give it a good once over.” Danvers confirmed. “If I find anyone, I’ll see if I can’t get them back here somehow.”

Marinette felt someone put their hand on her back. She turned to see that it was Nat.

“I knew I had a good feeling about you.” Widow said. “Glad to see I was right.”

Marinette smiled, simply grateful that she had been able to help.

But she knew that there was still work to do.

Chapter Text

Natasha watched as Carol Danvers began to glow and then rocketed into the night sky, and at any other time, maybe she would have been in awe of it all.

But the spectacle that she had just witnessed courtesy of Marinette and her kwami, had really shaken her. She had done her best to hide her true feelings when she had thanked the young woman for giving them at least a small chance to find Tony, but now, it was all she could think about.

Steve Rogers face soon appeared beside hers reflecting in the glass of the window where she now stood. She didn’t turn to greet him, instead she continued to watch the distant glow of Danvers become smaller and smaller.

“You know, sometimes it still amazes me to find that people with that kind of power exist.” Rogers said.

Nat smiled grimly and lightly shook her head.

“And then you watch someone drop a moon on your friend’s head.” Nat said pointedly. “Kind of make’s it hard to feel amazed after seeing something like that.”

Steve sighed. He could clearly tell what was on her mind.

“After what we saw in there, it’s a fair bet that Thanos couldn’t have been stopped.” he said. “He was too determined. Too powerful.”

She scoffed. And started to walk away. She really didn’t need to hear this.

“Nat, none of us should start blaming ourselves for what happened.” he said from behind her.

She stopped cold in her tracks and turned to him, a blank expression on her face.

“When it was our time to try and stop him, and all he had to do was wave his hands to bury me under literal pillars of earth.” she said glancing downward as she remembered how she had felt in that moment. “I can say that I had never felt more powerless in my life.”

Steve shook his head.

“Power isn’t defined by what you can or can’t do, because there will always be someone who can do more.” he offered. “It is defined by your strength to keep going. To prepare for the next fight, regardless of the last battle’s outcome.”

Nat bit her lip and smiled angrily at him. Was he really doing this?

“I don’t need to hear one of your speeches right now, Steve.” she said, her eyes starting to get teary. “I’m not lacking motivation! If I could use motivation as a super power, then Thanos would be dead already.”

He stood there in silence after that.

Natasha walked forward after taking a moment to compose herself.

“Look, I know that it doesn’t matter how much training I’ve had, or even what serum you have running through your blood. Hell, The God of Thunder himself couldn’t stop Thanos.” she said softly. “I didn’t feel powerless because of my lack of powers. I felt that way because half of all life in the universe was wiped out, and in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter who was there fighting stop it from happening. Because fate doesn't care about power.”

“You think that this was all supposed to happen, and that is why we couldn’t stop him?” Steve asked, shaking his head.

“I just…” Nat began. “In the weeks since the decimation, we’ve discovered that there are not only divine spirits that embody every aspect of existence, but also that an afterlife of some kind exists. Tikki spoke of Marinette having a literal spirit, one that her body was shedding as she died. She said it like it was common knowledge that such things happened, but I had never even given such things a thought.”

Steve seemed to contemplate that.

“No theology classes in the Red Room I take it?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Well, I suppose faith is something that everyone has to come to terms with at some point.” he said. “But if it’s any consolation, we’ve seen first hand that those divine spirits can feel, cry, and experience things that are out of their hands. So they are definitely not in control of our fate. We are.”

Nat looked over through the glass wall of the conference room. She could see Marinette talking to Tikki and Trixx, a smile on all of their faces. Even now, the young girls optimism surprised her, and Natasha worried that there would be a moment someday that the young hero might have to face crossing a line. A line that would make Marinette more like she was.

“I was younger than Marinette when I was recruited into the Red Room.” Natasha offered. It wasn’t often she spoke of those days with her friends in the Avengers. “And if we are truly the ones in control of our own fate, then I have to live with the fact that I’m the one who recruited her into this fight. And I worry, that with this all moving along the way it is, if she find’s Thanos for us…”

Steve frowned, but it didn’t deter Natasha from continuing.

“I’m pretty sure she has never had to kill someone before. I just don’t want her to go through the same things I did. I literally felt like I was sinking deeper and deeper every time I was ordered to kill. Eventually Natasha was gone and there was only Widow.”

Steve shook his head and crossed his arms.

“Well, no one here is ordering her to kill anyone.” he said adamantly. “And if she does have to kill, for whatever the reason, we will be there for her to help keep her head above the water.”

Then he smiled at her, which took her a bit by surprise.

“Besides, I’ve seen something change in you since she came here.” he said. “And I feel like she’s been the one keeping your head above the water.”

Natasha blinked twice and then looked over toward Marinette again, contemplating his observation.

Marinette happened to turn and see her looking at her at the same moment, and waved gleefully.

Nat couldn’t help but smile.

Chapter Text

Marinette squinted and looked for an opening to attack. But she found that Rocket Raccoon was too quick, and any opening she saw had already quickly closed.

She couldn’t believe that it was going to come to this, defeated by such an unlikely opponent. If only she had been able to prepare, then maybe she could have been able to at least hold her ground better than she had.

“Player one wins!” the announcer from the game Ultimate Mecha Strike 3 shouted.

“HA! And you said you were good at this game, humie?” Rocket gloated.

Marinette leaned back and smiled, shaking her head.

“I qualified for a regional tournament last year.” Marinette said with a shrug.

Rocket jumped down from the couch and turned to her with a toothy grin.

“Well, I will admit, you did far better than Thor.” Rocket said and nodded toward the corner of the room where Marinette saw one side of a joypad controller sticking out of the wall.

“I, uh, didn’t realize Thor played video games.” Marinette said in surprise.

“Oh, he doesn’t, but he is very competitive.” Rocket said with a laugh.

Marinette smiled. She could totally see that.

With a stretch of her arms, she stood and thanked Rocket for the game. He nodded and told her she could come back for a rematch any time, if she dared.

Things around the campus were quiet for the most part that day, as many of the Avengers were off on various missions. So that had meant that Marinette had been able to take the day off from her studies and training to get some much needed rest. After all, the prep work that she had done for the dream presentation yesterday had drained her to the edge of her last bit of sanity.

Sometimes, you just needed to have some fun, and when she had realized that it had been two weeks since the decimation and that she had not stopped moving, working, or fighting since that day, it had been the line for her.

So today became a rest day.

Even Tikki had taken to getting some rest, having opted to enter the Miracle Box to spend time with her fellow kwami. Trixx had joined her.

So, Marinette had spent the early morning exploring the various corridors and outdoor areas of the campus. At least the ones that hadn’t been off limits.

Then for about an hour she had video chatted with Alya. She missed her best friend dearly, and was glad for any time they could connect, even if it was only over video.

Then came her game with Rocket, and now she was heading toward the kitchen for lunch.

When she entered the well stocked room, she noticed that a very tall multi-stacked sandwich had already been prepared on the center counter. When she heard the fridge door to her left close, she saw Thor standing there.

“Hello There.” She said with a smile.

Marinette couldn’t help but notice him contemplate how to answer, but then he simply nodded to her. She wondered if he was still upset from the dream sharing the day before.

She decided it was best to not prod him on the subject and instead just focus on her own meal.

As she passed him and moved to the fridge to decide what to eat, she noticed Thor wordlessly retrieve his sandwich and leave the room.

She sighed.

While it had been true that they had fought beside each other and had even gotten to know each other a bit over the last week, she still didn’t feel close enough to him to try and to talk with him about such a sensitive subject. But she really wished there was something she could do to at least cheer him up.

As she stared at the selection of foods before her, she had an idea.

Thor awoke suddenly to a sound to his right.

He had fallen asleep while reclined in an armchair in the shared lounge space.

Looking toward where the noise had come from, he saw someones foot just as it was moving out of sight around the corner. It appeared to have been the Miraculous girl.

Thor frowned.

He couldn’t help but feel bad about how he had treated her earlier when he had seen her in the kitchen. But he had still been feeling the need to be alone at the time.

He knew it was not her fault that he was feeling this way, not really. It was true that she had been the one to create an illusion of his brother just before his death, but Thor had asked her to do so, thinking himself prepared for whatever he would see.

He had been wrong, and now his thoughts dwelled on his brother.

Though Loki had been a troubled soul, Thor had always seen him as his brother first, and then everything else after. Even when they had fought in New York, and Loki had stabbed Thor, he had not lost his love for him. And in the end, right before Loki’s death at Thanos hand, his brother had looked to him, and Thor had seen that love finally being returned in a single glance.

And then he was gone.

Thor sighed as he sat up in the chair he had been asleep in. This brought his gaze to fall on the table in front of him.

There, on a plate, was a pile of small round snacks of a kind he had never seen before.

The topmost snack of the pile was decorated like a Ladybug.

Marinette now sat at Adrien’s bedside, his hand gripped firmly in hers.

She had visited him consistently since he had been moved here, and at this point, she felt like she couldn’t finish a day without seeing him.

His vitals were all exactly the same as they had been the entire time, and he still looked just as peaceful as he slept.

“So, I lost to a Raccoon at video games today.” she said to him with a smile. “I have to say, life is pretty weird these days.”

Adrien did not respond, of course.

“I think you would like him.” she continued. “He’s big on making jokes and kind of reminds me of how you were when you were Chat. Although, he’s a bit more vulgar than you ever were.”

She then made a sweeping motion with her other hand in the air.

“And of course, he’s been to space! Or... he’s from space.” she said with a tilt of her head. “I’m still not too sure on the details there.”

She glanced over toward the nearby window to see that the sun was already low in the sky. She had spent almost five hours making up a batch of her fathers famous macaron recipe for Thor. Normally it would have not taken nearly as long, almost half of the time in fact, but she had been unfamiliar with the kitchen and where exactly everything was located in it.

Not to mention the fact that at two different times, she had broken down and cried. Baking had reminded her of her parents, and of course, that brought all the feelings of loss back to the surface.

She yawned. It seemed her rest day hadn’t been entirely so restful after all.

She pushed a bit of Adrien’s hair to the side and then she laid her head on the bed beside him and closed her eyes.

“I hope that, wherever you are right now, you know that I am here with you.” she said softly.

She must have fallen asleep there like that, because the next thing she knew was that she felt someone gently placing a blanket over her back and shoulders. She didn’t move in reaction to this, as it made her feel that much more comfy and she began to feel sleep pulling at her again.

She was at the very least able to groggily open her eyes in time to see Thor walking away from her and out of the door.

A small smile spread across Marinette’s face as she once again fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Adrien sighed.

It had been, what, seven days since he had arrived here? Honestly there was no real way to tell.

The sky in this place hardly changed at all, no day, no night, just an everlasting purple twilight.

The red skulled ghost man, or Mr. Drawl, as Adrien had started to call him, was poor company and really hadn’t help stave off any boredom.

All that the self proclaimed guide ever wanted to talk about was death, spirits, his curse of knowledge and the soul stone. Any time Adrien had attempted to get anything beyond that out of him, it was met with either silence or a flat deflective response.

Adrien had floated around the immediate area multiple times, and had even visited the top of the mountain peak each day. And yet, he had found nothing in the way of an exit from this place. Besides of course the one exit he knew he didn’t want to take.

Most annoyingly of all, because he was in an astral form, he couldn’t interact with the world around him, so there was no way real way to pass the time. He wished so badly that he could just throw a stone or two, or perhaps draw in the sand, but it was not possible.

He currently sat crossed legged, floating about two feet above the ground. Across from him floated Mr. Drawl, staring at him blankly like always.

“So, I don’t suppose you wanna play ‘I Spy’?” Adrien asked, knowing well the answer would be silence.

When he got no response as he had predicted, he rolled his eyes.

Adrien uncrossed his legs and looked up at the sky. The vortex was vortexing, and the eclipse was eclipsing, as always.

“You know, If a ghost could die, I would die of boredom right here, right now.” he said.

Before Drawl could say anything in response, not that he would have, Adrien suddenly found himself being struck by a large amount of energy. It didn’t hurt in a way that you could describe as physical pain, but it hurt all the same.

After a moment the pain subsided, and Adrien found himself floating a few millimeters from the ground, as if he was actually laying on it.

“What was that?” He asked as he righted himself.

He could see that Mr. Drawl had a curious expression on his face, almost like one of nostalgia.

“I know that energy.” the form said. “It is that which cursed me here to this place. The energy of the space stone.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.

“Really? So why is it running through me?” he asked.

“It appears to have come along there.” Drawl said, pointing to the tether coming from Adrien’s back.

He considered this, and realized that meant that Marinette may have also come in contact with such powerful energies. He hoped that she was alright.

It was then he heard a subtle, distant voice calling Marinette’s name. It sounded a lot like Black Widow.

Adrien looked around.

“Did you hear that?” he asked.

Drawl simply stared at him without another word and Adrien was again left with his own thoughts to pass the time. It was really starting to frustrate him.

He grunted as he kicked at a rock forcefully, his foot passing through it.

This rock however, moved slightly and then rolled a bit down the sandy slope away from him.

“Okay, that’s new.” Adrien said to himself. He wondered if something about the energy that had hit him had altered his current astral state somehow? Or was if that he was emotional that time? Only one thing to do now. Test it.

He started to try and move things all over the place, and each time found that they would actually react slightly.

It was something. But he wasn’t sure how much it would help him.

A fair amount of time later, as Adrian was making ripples in a pool of water, he heard a resounding boom up in the sky above him. When he looked up to see it’s source, he saw what looked like a space ship of some kind coming in for a landing.

He watched as it came to rest fairly close by.

After a ramp extended from the ship, a strangely dressed man walked down it and made their way towards the base of the mountain.

Adrien mused that the man’s clothing would likely be considered gaudy even by earth’s modeling standards. However, the draping white fur coat which matched the man’s white hair, really made the ensemble seem-

Adrien shook his head. Why was he thinking about fashion and modeling now? There was definitely something more important at hand.

He watched as Mr. Gaudy stopped a few feet from where he floated and pulled out a small device. After sweeping the device around in the air, it beeped when it was aimed in Adrien’s direction.

Mr. Gaudy looked up and seemed to contemplate something.

“Welcome, Taneleer, child of the Celestials.” Mr. Drawl said from behind Adrien.

The man named Taneleer tilted his head and then bowed deeply in an overly exaggerated manner.

“I seek something of great importance.” Taneleer replied. “I do not suppose either of you fine ethereal folk have seen a stone of power here?”

Adrien became startled and looked down at himself. Was he visible to this man?

“To any who seek the soul stone, I must inform that it no longer resides in this place, as it has recently been taken by another who sought it’s power.”

Taneleer seemed to contemplate this answer.

“So the Titan found another stone.” he said. “I suppose I should not be surprised after the tenacity in which he took the one in my collection.”

“Pardon me, fine sir.” Adrien broke in. “If I may be so bold with someone who clearly is above my station.”

Taneleer peered at Adrien with a look that could only be called ‘appraisal’. Adrien had figured that this man, who from his appearance and actions clearly valued his position over all else, would react kindly to such deference. He had interacted with many like this man in the past during his career as a model and had learned how to deal with them.

“If this Titan you speak of is the one named Thanos, I may have valuable information for you regarding the stones he sought.” Adrien offered.

His time spent shadowing Marinette in his astral form had definitely allowed him to accrue a large amount of information on the subject. He had been present when Marinette and Tikki had read the files on Thanos and the stones in the Quinjet, and also during the subsequent meeting with the Avengers afterward.

Taneleer stepped forward and walked around Adrien, looking him up and down.

“Seeing that my scan’s show the energy of the space stone radiating from you, I suppose I must concede that the information you carry is indeed of the value you claim.”” Taneleer said with a strange movement of his arms. “What do you seek as compensation?”

“All I require is a ride from this place to my home.” Adrien said. “If Earth is not outside the range and capabilities of your fine ship, that is.”

Taneleer grinned and motioned to his ship.

“Of course, I would be able to convey you there quite readily.” the white haired man said.

“Alright then, we have a deal.” Adrien said.

After a very short farewell to Mr. Drawl, Adrien followed Taneleer toward his ship.

Chapter Text

It was late when Marinette woke from her slumber there at Adrien’s bedside. The lights in the room had dimmed and the world outside the windows was pitch black. Looking at the wall clock, she saw that it was two in the morning.

After stretching and taking a glance at Adrien to make sure he was alright, she stood and made her way toward the door to the hall.

Marinette couldn’t help but notice that Tikki wasn’t with her, meaning that the kwami must still be inside the Miracle Box. It seemed a bit odd of her to remain away so long.

As she was about to enter the main lobby of the facility and head towards the barracks, she saw something she did not expect.

Now slowly entering the front entrance doors were armed soldiers, all moving in tactical formation. Startled, Marinette quickly hid around the corner and peeked around it’s edge to see what was happening.

She didn’t see any patches or logos on the outfits these soldier’s were wearing, so she had no idea who was attempting to breach the base. But then, the person she saw enter behind the soldiers made things all too clear for her.

It was Heart Tide.

She knew that Nat had been trying to track Lila's movements since the day she had disappeared, but she had left no traces at all. She had apparently covered what tracks there could have been by temporarily taking control of people, using them as pawns to hide her movements, then releasing them without a memory of what had happened.

Perhaps the villains endgame had been to come here to remove any opposition before it came for her instead.

Marinette contemplated her next move as she realized the soldiers and the villain who led them were between her and the Miracle Box, and Tikki. She turned and looked back down towards the infirmary and tried to remember the layout of the campus. Perhaps there was another way around.

She kicked off her shoes and picked them up so that she could run back down the hall without making much noise. Unfortunately, it seemed like all of the day staff in the infirmary had gone home for the day and there was no one to warn or seek assistance from. Everything had been left to A.I. automation.

Perhaps she could warn the A.I. who could in turn wake the others. What was the computer’s name again?

“Friday?” Marinette whispered as she entered Adrien’s room once more.

“Good Evening, Marinette.” a chipper voice responded. “How may I assist you?”

“Heart Tide has soldiers breaching the campus, we need to alert the others.” Marinette said, wondering how the A.I. had not detected these men already.

“I am afraid that during a scheduled training exercise that I am unable to assist you in tactical matters or communications access.”

Marinette paused and contemplated the A.I.’s response. A training exercise? But Heart Tide was definitely inside the building, and as far as she knew, no one else there could make illusions like she and Trixx could. So this was definitely a real situation, but why would the A.I. assume it was a training exercise?

“Who scheduled the training exercise?” Marinette asked. “And when?”

“Colonel James Rhodes.” Friday responded. “Two hours ago.”

Marinette frowned. That meant that it was likely War Machine was under Heart Tides control. And honestly, there was no telling who else had the villain gotten to. This also meant that the A.I. would likely not be able to assist her much, as it was essentially under the control of the enemy.

She needed to get to Tikki, as quickly as possible.

She glanced again towards Adrien who lay there, blissfully unaware of the dire situation.

“Wish you were her Chat.” she said. “Could really use the backup.”

She looked out into the corridor and didn’t see anyone yet. Perhaps they hadn’t considered that anyone would be in the infirmary at this hour. An advantage for her, but sadly, she didn’t know how much of one it would be. The Miracle box was clear on the other side of the facility.

She decided to try making her way through the kitchen and started down the hall in that direction. After about thirty seconds, she reached one of the many glass encased sky bridges that connected the different buildings of the facility.

Marinette peered across towards the direction she was headed and saw no one. This was her chance.

She started to run across, but before she made it all the way to the other side, she heard the familiar sound of War Machines flight repulsors. With no other options available to her, she dove onto the carpeted floor in the center of the sky bridge just as she heard the clang of him landing outside in the courtyard below.

She had no idea if he had seen her or not, so she crawled slowly toward the edge of the glass so she could peer down and see where he was looking.

Thankfully, he was facing the opposite direction, so she quickly crawled along toward the attached building. Upon reaching the other side she leaned against the wall there, and tried to catch her breath. This was getting all too real for her.

She knew that Lila cared little for taking her prisoner. She had been shot without as much as a thought last time they had encountered each other, and this time would likely be no different. So if War Machine saw her, that would mean she would get the full brunt of his many weapon systems.

She looked down at her clothes. Just plain old Marinette.

She thought back to her training with Nat, and frowned. There was little chance she had received enough of the training to be able to take on more than one of the soldiers at a time, if that. Even with her slightly enhanced strength and stamina, she had no real field experience in unarmed combat yet, and she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t be as clumsy as usual.

She stood and began to move towards the barracks again, however she did not get very far before she heard a familiar voice down the hall to her right.

“Release these men!” Thor yelled.

Stopping to look in his direction, she could see Thor standing in the center of the conference area, surrounded by the soldiers who interestingly enough, were not aiming their weapons at the Asgardian. Instead, each one held a pistol to their own heads.

Marinette grimaced.

Heart Tide definitely knew her enemy. Thor would do nothing to harm those under her thrall, as they were innocent people being controlled. This left him at a disadvantage to such tactics as threatening to order her own men to kill themselves if he did not comply.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Heart Tide replied. “But if you are worried about them, what better way is there to make sure they will be okay than to join them?”

“I will not yield, foul siren.” Thor said defiantly.

“It’s cute that you think you have a choice.” Heart Tide said with a laugh,

The end of a whip came into view as it cracked against Thor’s chest. His eyes immediately turned purple.

Marinette clenched her fist. This was not good at all.

But there was one positive from this situation. Because Thor had encountered the villain where he had, that meant there was a chance that they had not made it to the Barracks or the Miracle box yet.

Marinette once again began to move towards her bedroom and after a few moments was about to round the final corner of the hall that would lead her there. But she heard footsteps and stopped herself to duck into another bedroom that was there on her right.

Two of the soldiers walked by outside the door as she hid. They were heading right for her bedroom. She was too late.

Marinette clenched her fists, and stood.

No. She wouldn't allow them to take the Miracle Box. It was her duty to protect it, to her dying breath.

She quickly exited the bedroom and grabbed the collar of the nearest soldier and pulled back as hard as she could. The unfortunate soldier flew back and slid along the floor and made a loud thud as he came to a sudden stop against the opposite wall.

The other soldier quickly turned to try and aim his pistol at Marinette, but she swept at his leg with a kick. Thankfully, she didn’t trip herself this time, and only her target was affected. The fall caused the soldier to fumble his weapon, and Marinette kicked it away along the smooth floor.

The soldier pulled out a knife as he quickly stood, the purple glow of his eyes reflecting on the blade.

Marinette backed away a few paces and bit the inside of her cheek. She then ran at the man.

As he swiped at her with the knife, she kicked her right leg down in front of her which put her whole body into a slide where she passed under the blade. She grabbed the mans legs as she passed underneath him and pulled him down hard.

Marinette quickly got back onto her feet and turned around to look down at her opponents. They were both unconscious.

“Wow.” Marinette said in surprise to herself. Her strength had apparently improved a bit more than she had realized because of the Miraculous tempering.

Without much more thought, she turned and entered her room and hastily dove beside her bed to retrieve the Miracle Box from underneath.

But the Miracle Box wasn’t there.

Chapter Text

Marinette leaned against the edge of the bed, still sitting on the floor.

How had she messed up this badly? The Miraculous Box, stolen, the Avenger’s compromised. And she knew that it was all her fault. And now, it was only a matter of time before one of her own allies came into the room and killed her.

“Damn you Lila.” Marinette said, overwhelmed and unsure what to do.

She pulled out her cell phone, but there was no signal, having most likely been jammed. As it was no use to her, she placed the phone on her bedside table.

She stood and ran over to her dresser where she pulled out some darker clothes. She needed to be able to hide, and her normal outfit was everything but inconspicuous.

As she changed her pants, she noticed the wrap that was still on her leg and touched it curiously. In all of the commotion, she had completely forgotten her leg had been broken a few days before. But it seemed completely fine now, in fact, she had used it to sweep the soldiers legs a few minutes ago.

Tikki had told her of the tempering, and she had seen the effects first hand with her stamina and strength, but this kind of healing seemed to be on another level completely. Part of her was actually worried that there may down sides to all of this, but who knew what they might be.

Marinette frowned. Was she even human anymore?

She finished pulling on a black turtleneck t-shirt completing her dark ensemble, she then made her way back to the door to her room and peered out into the corridor. No one was there, except the two unconscious soldiers from before.

What she needed was a weapon, and this thought made her long for her yo-yo.

She wondered if there was something in Nat’s room that she could use, so she cautiously headed down the hall in that direction. She entered Widow’s room just as she heard loud footsteps behind her.

Turning she caught a glimpse of Thor passing by and heading towards her room. It seemed like she had just managed to slip by. Perhaps luck was on her side after all, even without Ladybug.

Of course, she regretted thinking that the moment she turned to look toward the center of Nat’s room where she saw a dark figure standing silently. Turns out that the rooms owner was present.

The batons in Widow’s hands extended and the ends became electric. Marinette’s eyes went wide as she looked around quickly for something to use as a weapon.

Before she could react however, Nat ran forward and jumped toward her with a flying kick.

Marinette blocked her face with her arms and prepared to take the hit, but instead she heard a crash to her right. She quickly lowered her arms and looked to her side.

Nat had kicked a soldier that had just entered the room and sent him flying through the door, unhinging it completely from the wall.

“You alright?” Nat asked her.

Marinette couldn’t help herself as she dove into Widow’s arms and hugged her, tears forming.

“I thought everyone had been turned against me!” she cried out.

She felt a hand gently pat her head as Nat hugged her back.

“It’s okay.” Nat comforted. “I’ve got your back.”

Outside, the loud footsteps could be heard again. Thor was coming back. Nat seemed to take notice of this as well because she grabbed Marinette’s arm and dragged her from the room. She then released her grip, pushing Marinette down the hall away from Thor.

“Go, I’ve got this!” Widow said turning to face the Asgardian.

“There’s no way, he’s too powerful.” Marinette yelled as she backed away toward where Nat had instructed her to move.

“And I’m motivated.” Nat said wryly and then looked over her shoulder at her. “Now Go!”

Marinette didn’t hesitate any more and began to run. She wasn’t sure where to go to, but her thoughts fell on Adrien. If Lila found him alone, in his current state...

Her pace picked up as she rounded another corner onto the sky bridge she had crossed over before.

To her left she heard the unmistakable sound of something metal spinning. She realized too late that it was War Machines chain gun preparing to fire. The glass walkway began to come apart as she ran through it. She threw her arms around her head to protect it from falling shards, and she continued to run.

She felt as countless tiny pieces of glass stabbed into her arms, her legs and her sides, but her only hope was to not stop running. She screamed as she passed into the other building and fell onto the ground, rolling into the wall. This of course did not do great things for the glass now sticking out of her.

She gritted her teeth, fighting against the pain she was now feeling. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before, but she needed to go.

Keep moving.

She stood and began to limp toward the door to Adrien's room as best she could. Behind her she heard the loud thud of War Machine landing on what was left of the walkway.

Don’t stop.

She passed through the door into Adrien's room and quickly slid the sliding door shut. She knew it would do little to stop the mechanized warrior, but the longer she could hold out, the longer she could breathe.

She all but fell onto the floor from exhaustion and pain. She forced her head up so she could look up at the bed where Adrien lay. If she was not going to make it, then she wanted to see him one last time.

But her heart was filled with dread, because there standing beside Adrien, was Heart Tide. Not only that, The Miracle Box was sitting on the table beside her.

“Hello Marinette.” The villainous Lila said with a smile. “Nice of you to join us.”

“Lila.” Marinette croaked, her strength waning. “Get away... from him.”

Heart Tide cocked her head and began to laugh.

“Why Marinette, you look dreadful.” Heart Tide said almost ruefully. “I was hoping that you would put up more of a fight. But you look like you are about spent already.”

Marinette squeezed her eyelids together and forced herself to stand, ignoring as much of the pain as she could. Heart Tide made no move to stop her, instead she merely watched with glee.

There was a sudden explosion of glass behind Heart Tide as Nat flew through the window, passed over Adrien and crashed into the far wall with a very painful thud. It was apparent that Widow’s fight with Thor had gone very badly.

Marinette looked up from Nat who now lay unconscious and looked back to the villain in front of her, who shrugged.

“Seems like your alone again.” Heart Tide said with a feigned frown.

“That’s where you are wrong!” someone outside the broken window said, surprising Heart Tide and drawing her attention away from Marinette.

That voice, it couldn't be.

“Adrien!” Marinette yelled as the boy’s smiling face floated up into view from below. But How?

Marinette glanced to her left at the sleeping Adrien’s body and then back to the Adrien out the window.

“That’s impossible!” Heart Grip yelled as she stepped toward the window. “You’re an illusion!”

Marinette started to feel feint from a combination of blood loss and the shock of seeing Adrien, this caused her to fall against the wall behind her and she slid to the floor. She figured that there wasn’t much time left, but something on her left drew her attention.

Rocket Raccoon had dropped down from a vent in the ceiling over by Nat. While Heart Tide was distracted by Adrien, he grabbed the Miracle Box and slid it across the floor towards Marinette. When it slid to a stop beside her, the top sprung open and Tikki exited.

“Tikki.” Marinette whispered, barely able to get it out.

Heart Tide heard her and spun around furiously.

“Noooo!” the villain yelled reaching out her hand.

“Spots On.”

Chapter Text

Natasha opened her eyes just in time to see Ladybug kicking Heart Tide directly in the chest, sending the villain flying out the window.

Widow shook her head to clear the flashes she was seeing in her vision. The fight with Thor hadn’t gone well at all, and she had been hit so hard that she hadn’t even registered she was now clear on the other side of the compound.

There was a sharp pain in her chest, likely a broken rib or two. But she had definitely had worse in the past. She climbed off the ground and got to her feet, prepared to continue the fight, but she stumbled slightly.

“Careful, you’re not looking so hot.” Rocket said, attempting to steady her.

“Doesn’t matter, there’s still a job to do.” Natasha said twisting her neck to get a crick out of it.

The sound of War Machines footsteps out in the hall seemed to make her point for her. He was very close.

“Adrien, can we get another distraction?” Ladybug yelled over towards the window where Nat now saw a floating form of the young boy who was still asleep in the bed beside her.

The floating boy nodded and flew in through the room passing right through the wall towards where War Machine was.

“Okay, Now I’ve seen everything.” Widow said.

“Careful, any time you say that, you just know that your asking for something weirder to happen.” Rocket quipped.

“Natasha Romanoff, Rocket.” Ladybug said as she quickly walked over to the Miracle Box and bent down to grab two of the objects inside. “I am bestowing the power of a Miraculous to each of you to use for the greater good. Once this fight is done, you will need to return them to me. Do you accept?”

Natasha’s eyes went wide. Was Marinette offering her similar powers to the ones that Ladybug herself had? Could she just give them out like that to anyone she chose, or was there some other determining factor?

“I gotta give it back after?” Rocket said beside her. “Well, maybe we can negotiate about that later. But I accept!”

Natasha wasn’t sure about her own answer. She had to admit, the situation definitely necessitated the use of these Miraculous. There was no way any of them could face Thor or War Machine without one. But with how Marinette’s body was changing because of their use, she wondered if even just a single time use would affect her own body permanently.

Rocket had already taken the pair of glasses that Ladybug had offered him and was putting them on his face when a bright light appeared out of them. A tiny horse kwami appeared and regarded rocket.

“I dare say, this is the first time I have had the pleasure of being partnered with an animal.” the horse said in a very posh voice. “But you do seem quite intelligent indeed.”

“I mean, she’s not wrong.” Rocket said.

“Kaalki here will give you the powers of teleportation.” Ladybug explained looking over her shoulder towards the window. “All you have to do is say, Kaalki Full Gallop.”

“Kaalki, Full Gallop!” Rocket said and a flash of light passed over his body. When it was done, Rocket was wearing a black bodysuit with straps around his chest and a very sleek pair of sunglasses. The color of the fur on his face and head had been inverted, leaving him appearing more white than brown.

“Wow, I feel amazing.” The Raccoon said as he pulled the horseshoe from his back and separated it into two boomerangs. “You gotta try this, Widow.”

Natasha looked down at the panjas bracelet that was in Ladybugs hand. She knew very well that time was running out to decide.

“I accept.” she said, taking the bracelet and putting it on her dominant left hand.

Just as when Rocket has donned his Miraculous, a bright light appeared in front of Natasha. A pink kwami with the appearance of a tiger greeted her.

“Salutations, I am Roaar,” She said peering at Natasha closely. “I sense a great level of skill emanating from you. It will be a great honor to be your partner. Simply say, Roaar Time to Stalk, and the powers of secrecy will be yours to command.”

Natasha raised and gripped her fist closed.

“Roaar, Time To Stalk.” she said with a nod.

Widow then felt a power flow through her unlike anything she had ever felt before in her life, and with it the pain in her ribs immediately vanished. After the transformation had completed, she looked down at herself.

Natasha could see that she was now wearing a light-purple outfit with dark-purple stripes in various places. Her hands were covered by black gloves with some very vicious looking claws on them.

“Alright, I think our time is about up.” Ladybug said as a metal fist came through the door all but shattering it completely. “Let’s get somewhere with a little more space!”

After grabbing the Miracle Box under one arm and draping Adrien’s unconscious body over her shoulder, Ladybug leapt from the room through the window, and Rocket and Nat both followed.

Once they were down in the courtyard, Nat looked around for any sign of Heart Tide, but there was none. She saw that Ladybug had quickly laid Adrien against the wall of the building and placed the Miracle Box beside him.

It was going to be hard to fight the enemy, and protect the boy and the box at the same time.

“Anyone got eyes on the krutacker with the whip?” Rocket asked using a swear Nat didn’t recognize the meaning of.

“Are you talking about little ol’ me?” An innocent sounding Heart Tide said from the rooftop above them as the exterior campus lighting came on. Beside the villain stood Thor. “So, it looks like you upped the anti by adding some more heroes.”

“Give it up Lila, you can’t win.” Ladybug yelled.

Heart Tide laughed.

“Yet another fool who lacks vision.” Heart Tide replied. “I don’t think you understand the full gravity of this situation yet.”

Another person came into view beside Heart Tide and Thor. It was Carapace.

Chapter Text

Blocking War Machine’s weapon fire with her yo-yo was taking all of Ladybug’s focus, which unfortunately prevented her from being able to help the others. But from what she could tell, Natasha seemed to be able to hold her own against Thor now that she was empowered by the Miraculous.

The tiger wielder had caught the Asgardian’s first punch with her hand, and then immediately retaliated with a series of pummeling hits using her Miraculous weapons, which turned out to be her gloved fists. Apparently the tiger empowered pugilists, and she smiled at her correct choice of Miraculous which complimented Nat’s already impressive fighting skills.

On her left, Rocket was currently dealing with a mass of soldiers that had come around the corner a moment ago. He had disarmed them readily with his boomerangs, and was now leaping from soldier to soldier doing various knock out moves on the mind controlled victims.

Ladybug hazarded a glance to the nearby rooftop where she saw that Heart Tide and Carapace still hadn’t moved. She was at least thankful about that, as they would not be able to handle further attacks at the moment.

But Ladybug knew that this reprieve would not last long. Her position by the Miracle Box and Adrien would be overrun soon enough, and that was likely what the villain was waiting for. Heart Tide was looking for an opportune time to swoop in and take one, or both. Ladybug knew that if Adrien was threatened, she would not be able to do anything but surrender. And she couldn’t allow herself to be controlled like that.

It was apparent to her the weakness that the knowledge of her identity had created, and it had always been on her mind. Adrien was now an Achilles heel for Ladybug which prevented her from being able to fight without distraction. But, she had to live with all of that now, and there was no going back.

As if he was somehow hearing her thoughts, Ladybug saw the astral form of Adrien float down towards her.

“Ladybug!” he called out. “Is there anything I can do?”

“I’m afraid your ability to cause a distraction faded once they figured out you can’t really do anything besides float around.” she replied and grunted as she rolled to follow War Machine's bullets with her spinning shield.

Adrien seemed distressed at the thought of only being able to watch the battle play out and not take part.

War Machine suddenly stopped firing, which caused Ladybug to temporarily be distracted.

“Look Out!” Adrien yelled, but it was too late.

She felt a solid hit from her side as Carapaces shield bounced off the nearby wall and hit her. She rolled and landed on her feet again, but saw that an opening had been made near the Miracle Box, and Carapace was now landing there.

“Shell-ter!” the purple eyed hero yelled. A shell forming around him, Adrien, the Miracle Box.

“It seems that I am now the king of the hill.” Heart Tide laughed.

Ladybug grimaced. She knew very well that she would not be able to penetrate that shell, so for the next five minutes, the Miracle Box was out of play and Adrien was their prisoner.

Thor flew by Ladybugs vision and smashed through a nearby wall, and then Nat landed beside her in a fighting stance.

“We need to find where the akuma is.” Ladybug said. “My bet would be her whip.”

“But, we have to keep our distance so she can’t use it on us.” Nat replied. “We really can’t afford more of us to fall under her thrall.”

War Machine began to fire again and Nat dove to drag Ladybug around the edge of the building. They both knelt there in cover for a moment to catch their breath.

“Think it’s time for your Lucky Charm?” Nat asked her.

Ladybug shook her head.

“If I use it, I’ll only have five minutes before I transform back.” she replied. “Somehow I doubt I can run off and hide anywhere to feed Tikki in this mess. Best to just stay and fight.”

Nat reached over and put her hand on Ladybug’s shoulder.

“I trust that you will know when it is the right time.” Widow said reassuringly. “For now, let’s get back out there.”

They both nodded and leapt back towards the fray.

Adrien clutched his hand into a fist.

Being able to only watch the fight that was playing out before him was well beyond infuriating. He needed to get back into his body. But how?

When this had first happened to him, he had tried to simply crawl back into his body, but he didn’t stick. His discussion with Wong on the rooftop of the museum complex had yielded no possibilities either.

Adrien shook his head after he watched Rocket Raccoon jump on a nearby soldiers shoulders and started to do a choke hold on the man.

There had to be something he could do.

He looked toward his own body, surrounded by the green shell Carapace had generated. Perhaps there was some way to get through to Nino and break the hold Lila had on him. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.

He floated slowly toward the shield and held up his hand. It was likely that the Turtle Miraculous’s power would still stop him in his current form, but the was always a chance it wouldn’t.

He pressed his hand forward and it passed right through.

Well, That’s something at least.

Once fully inside, Adrien placed himself in front of Nino and peered into his eyes. There was little to no reaction at all to his presence.

“Nino, my friend. It’s me, Adrien.” he said woefully. “You can beat this!”

But there was no response and Adrien sighed.

He heard a thud and looked to see that it had been Widow who had bounced hard off the shield, having been thrown by Thor.

“This fight’s not going so great. You need to wake up and get out there.” Adrien said as he looked down at his unconscious form.

He floated over to the Miracle Box and saw that it was still unlocked. Apparently the battle had distracted Ladybug and she had not had a chance to close it completely.

“Lucky Charm!” Ladybug yelled behind him and drew his attention. Clearly she had gotten desperate in the battle if she had resorted to that ability. But he knew that also meant five minutes now remained until the battle would be lost.

He could see Ladybug was now holding a polka dotted defibrillator, a confused look on her face.

Adrien looked to his body again, which was only a meter or so away. Perhaps the Lucky Charm was actually a message for him. He then smiled, an idea forming in his mind.

If he correctly understood everything that Tikki had told him about the gate and how kwami worked through them, then the Lucky Charm had just showed him how to fix himself.

Adrien concentrated and shoved his hand through the Miracle Box in a way that even in his astral form would knock it over.

A few of the Miraculous spilled out onto the ground. He focused on the bracelet which had landed very close to his unconscious body’s hand. He just needed to get it closer.

“Prowl!” Widow said from somewhere on the battlefield. When Adrien looked up to see what was happening now, he couldn’t locate the Avenger anywhere, but saw that Thor was also looking around as if he had lost track of her as well. Had she gone invisible?

He shook his head and looked down again, he needed to concentrate on moving the Miraculous.

With motions that were both subtle and deliberate, he was able to push the bracelet to a place where it had just barely touched the skin of his hand. And just as he had hoped, a bright light appeared.

“Greeting’ssss, my name isss- ” A snake kwami began to say as it appeared over Adrien’s unconscious body. It seemed confused about the fact his new partner was asleep. “I, um, hello?”

“Hi there.” Astral Adrien said, drawing the little snakes attention.

“Oh!” the kwami said, startled. “Another you!”

“It’s a long story.” Adrien said with a smile.

Ladybug landed hard, the defibrillator falling from her hands. War Machine had just launched rockets at her and she had only been able to dodge two of them, the third striking too close for comfort.

She crawled off the ground and shook her head, but found that she only had a moment to regain her bearings before she had to dodge another attack.

She frowned. What exactly was she supposed to do with this darn defibrillator? The problem she now faced was that she hadn’t had time to stop and survey the battlefield to see if she could spot it’s proper use. War Machines attacks we relentless and computer targeted, so there was hardly a chance to dodge them, let alone take a moment of respite to think.

She heard Thor grunting to her right, and saw that he was swinging his fists around wildly at the air. He still couldn’t locate Nat, and that was good. But Ladybug also had no idea where her tiger partner had gone, which made it a double edged sword.

On a positive note however, it seemed that Rocket only had three soldiers left to take down, so they were making some headway in the overall battle.

She glanced over towards Carapace as she rolled out of the way of another incoming salvo that added to the many craters now in the courtyard. She could see that the green barrier was still up, but it would fall any minute now.

What play would she make when it did fall? Would she grab Adrien or The Miracle Box first? Could she choose between them if she didn’t have time to get both?

Her focus was cut short once more as a repulsor blast bounced off her yo-yo and caused a small explosion at her feet. As she landed, she rolled into the shell around Carapace and came to a hard stop that knocked the wind out of her.

Then for a moment, she thought she heard Adrien’s voice behind her, but before she could glance to see who he was talking to, she heard him say something she didn’t expect.

“Sass, Scales Slither!”

Chapter Text

The plan was simple, maybe.

Adrien figured that the two parts of the bridge between his body and spirit still existed, they had just been severed from eachother. If he was able to use a Miraculous, then perhaps that connection could be mended by the kwami when they tried to move their energy through the bridge.

He just needed to make sure there was a connection in the physical world too.

“So, what is your power, exactly?” Adrien asked the snake who had introduced itself as Sass.

“With the powers of intuition, Second Chance will allow you to ssset a point in time that you can return to within a five minute window. It is great for situationsss where thingsss have gone terribly wrong.” Sass said.

Adrien considered the power for a moment, and it sounded quite useful. But in all honesty he didn’t need a specific power, just the kwami and it’s connection itself.

“Alright then little guy, let me get into position.” Adrien said.

As he climbed inside his own body he heard a thud to his left and looked to see that Ladybug had rolled into the green barrier that surrounded him.

“Well, it looks like there is no time like the present.” Adrien said. “Sass, Scales Slither!”

This was the first time his transformation with a Miraculous had hurt. And boy did it really hurt, almost twice as much as it had when his suit had been flaked off of him during the decimation. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be on fire.

Thankfully, the pain, while extreme, subsided quickly. He found himself breathing in hard as he sat up, and after a quick glance down he realized that he was indeed back in his own body. His plan had worked.

Now to join the fight.

He looked up at Carapace, who was still ignoring him completely. Strange due to the fact he had just yelled out in pain a moment before.

“Nino, my friend.” Adrien said as he stood and grabbed the Lyre from his back. “Sorry about this.”

With a hard kick to Carapace’s arm, he caused the mind controlled hero to drop his shield which forced the removal the Shell-ter bubble surrounding them. Then before Nino could react, Adrien grabbed his friends hands and trapped them between the strings of the Lyre like a pair of handcuffs.

“Adrien!” Ladybug said as she landed beside him where she then began to stammer. “I can’t… you’re… It’s…how?”

“We can swap pleasantries later, Marinette.” He replied with a smile. “All you need to know is that I’ve got your back again.”

She smiled back at him with such a joyous look on her face that it seemed like she was glowing. He wasn’t used to seeing Marinette as Ladybug without her mask, and he found himself feeling very weak in the knees for a moment.

Of course, it was a short lived moment as War Machine landed between them, causing them both to need to dive away to dodge his metal fists.

“About time we got some backup.” Rocket said landing beside Adrien who had just finished his dodge roll. “So what’s the plan?”

Ladybug landed in front of the two heroes, her yo-yo spinning to provide them cover while they all spoke.

“Now that Carapace is out of the way, we need to focus on Heart Tide.” Ladybug said. “The Akuma is most likely in her whip. But if we get too close…”

“Then she could take us over too.” Rocket said nodding. “I’m not too keen on that prospect.”

Adrien watched as Ladybug seemed startled by something and placed her hand over her heart.

“My five minutes are almost up.” she said. “We need to hurry.”

Suddenly, Thor fell from above them and landed with a heavy thud. He looked to be unconscious. All three heroes looked up to see the purple suited Widow standing on the edge of the rooftop, two glowing batons in her hands.

“Sorry about the delay. I had to go back and get these.” Nat said with a grin.

Adrien looked down at the Asgardian in awe.

“How did you do that?” he asked. “Isn’t he the God of Thunder?”

“I was curious as to why he hadn’t attacked us with his lightning.” Widow said as she dropped and landed beside them all. “Turns out, Heart Tide’s control doesn’t play well with electricity.”

The four heroes all looked up to the rooftop that Heart Tide was watching them from. Strangely, even having just lost two of her controlled heroes and all of her soldiers, the Villain seemed unperturbed.

“Now it’s just Lila and Rhodes.” Ladybug said looking up at the Armored enemy hovering between them and Heart Tide. “Rocket, you think you could remove him from the equation temporarily?”

“Sure thing!” Rocket said as he touched his sunglasses. “Voyage!”

Adrien watched as Rocket spun his arm in a swooping circle which caused a portal to appear beside War Machine. Then with a swoop of the raccoon’s arm, the portal swallowed War Machine.

Now with their last obstacle gone, Ladybug, Adrien, Widow and Rocket all leapt up onto the rooftop where Lila stood in wait. They had each landed in a way so that they could surround her on all four sides.

“Second Chance!” Adrien said as he activated his bracelet, thus setting his five minute window. He knew that there was no telling what the villain had up her sleeve. But from the look on her face, she knew something they didn’t. So now was as good a time as any to prepare for the worst.

“Well, isn’t this a pretty little picture.” Lila said with a wicked grin, looking around herself. “Four heroes, ready to save the day.”

“Give it up.” Widow said. “The odds are no longer in your favor.”

Heart Tide placed her hand on her cheek, seeming insulted.

“Oh my.” the villain said. “What ever shall I... DO!”

With an emphasis on her last word, Heart Tide struck out with a second whip that Adrien hadn’t seen her have a moment ago. She swiped both whips in a wide sweeping motion in opposite directions which almost caught him off guard. Thankfully Adrien was able to dodge it with a leap as it swept below his feet. When he landed, he suddenly found himself needing to dodge a second time as the other whip came around too.

“Adrien!” he heard Ladybug yell from the opposite side of Lila. “Look out!”

On alert, Adrien looked to his right just in time to see a purple eyed Rocket jumping at him. It seemed that the raccoon had not been able to dodge the surprise attack.

He traded attacks with Rocket for a few moments, and then found himself having to dodge another whip strike.

As he landed, Adrien was hit by a kick he didn’t see coming. This time the attack had come from the left by a mind controlled Widow. The force of the kick knocked him from the roof and he landed with a hard thud on the ground below.

He shook his head to clear the stars he was seeing, and then looked up toward the edge of the rooftop.

It was then that he saw Ladybug, Rocket, and Widow all step to the edge and peer down at him with glowing purple eyes. He was the last one standing.

Without hesitation, he reached for his bracelet.

Ladybug eyed Heart Tide cautiously. They had been able to defeat Carapace, Thor, and had removed War Machine from the battle. Now the four Miraculous wielders stood surrounding the villain who remained.

Or, at least they had been surrounding her. Strangely, Adrien had suddenly leapt from the rooftop after he used his Second Chance ability. Did he know something she didn’t because of that ability? She had been able to read up on each of the Miraculous and their powers, thanks to a tome Wong had given her. So she knew that he was likely acting on information he had learned in their previous attempt.

“Well, isn’t this a pretty little picture.” Lila said with a wicked grin, looking around herself. “Three heroes, ready to save the day.”

“Give it up.” Widow said. “The odds are no longer in your favor.”

Heart Tide placed her hand on her cheek, seeming insulted.

But before the villain could reply, suddenly without warning, Adrien appeared beside Ladybug and wrapped his arms around her.

“Adrien, what…?” she began to say, but he gripped her tight and leapt from the building with her in tow.

As they landed in the courtyard, Ladybug shook free of his arms and turned to him.

“Adrien what are you doing!” She yelled. This wasn’t at all what she had expected him to do. “You just left Rocket and Widow to fend for themselves!”

She noticed then the look on his face. He almost seemed, devastated.

“Marinette.” he whispered and fell to his knees. “I can’t do it anymore.”

Ladybug slowly knelt beside him. Why was he acting like this?

“I can’t…” he said again. “I have watched you all get mind controlled, watched you die, I’ve even watched you kill yourselves. So many times I have tried to save you. All of you. I can’t do it anymore!”

He started to weep and covered his face with his hands.

“What do you mean?” she asked. “How many times have you used your Second Chance?”

“I lost count after twenty five thousand.” he sobbed falling into her arms. “I’ve been at this for months, and I can’t bear to see you die another time. Not you, not again.”

She felt a dread fall over her. Had he really been trying that long to save them? Was there truly no way to win the battle?

“I am so sorry.” He said looking up at her with despair in his eyes. “Scales Rest.”

She watched in horror as he transformed back into Adrien, a little snake kwami falling to the ground beside him, exhausted.

“No!” she cried. “What have you done! Now you can’t reset anything!”

“I decided to stop trying.” he said looking away, ashamed. “To just accept the fact we are going to lose no matter what I do. Instead I just wanted to be able to spend my final moments with you.”

She pulled him close and hugged him as she tried to juggle all of the emotions she was feeling.

There was no way that she could ever truly understand what it meant to try so long for a different outcome that never came. And she knew it would be wrong to be angry with him for his choice, so instead she decided that she would give him the moment he asked for.

She felt so broken about the entire situation. She had finally gotten her Adrien back, after having been torn apart by the decimation. And yet he was here now, in her arms, and he knew that she was Ladybug. He had always been in love with her alter ego, and now that he knew, she wondered if he loved her too. Would finding that out now even matter if they were both going to die?

“Adrien, I…” she began to say as her heart shook inside her for the fifth time, letting her know he de-transformation was upon her.

It was then that she heard Heart Tide chuckle from behind her.

Chapter Text

When he heard Heart Tide chuckle from behind Ladybug, Adrien felt an anger rise inside him like that he had never felt before. It was a multilayered fury, with so many causes that he could barely register them all.

There was rage towards Nathalie for having turned Lila in the first place.

Resentment against Lila for having such hatred for Marinette that she would choose to stay akumatized of her own free will.

And most of all, anger at himself for failing to use the snake Miraculous in a way that could save the one he now held in his arms.

Adrien pulled back from the embrace and locked eyes with Marinette. Her eyes held such pain, yet he saw no anger there. How could she not be angry after all of this?

In fact, contrary to how he felt, Marinette’s frown actually turned into a smile.

“No matter what happens.” she said. “I want you to know that I love you.”

Adrien felt a rush of joy in his heart, and then immediately a pit in his stomach as Ladybug transformed back into Marinette, her five minutes having run it’s course.

His eye’s went wide at the terrible sight before him.

Marinette had returned to how she had been before she had transformed into Ladybug. She was covered in bloody cuts and deep abrasions all over, and she immediately closed her eyes and slumped against him.

“Marinette!” he cried out as he tried to put his hands over the worst wounds he could see. Then he noticed Tikki, face down in the dirt beside them and he quickly reached to pick the little kwami up. The little ladybug seemed completely unconscious as well.

He held both of them close to him and closed his eyes in grief.

“Aw. This is so much more precious than I could have hoped for.” Heart Tide quipped, now standing directly beside them. “Would be a shame to take control now and ruin the moment. So, I think I’ll just leave you to it.”

Adrien forced his eyes open and through his tears watched Heart Tide saunter away as if she had no cares in the world. When the villain was fully out of sight, Adrien placed Tikki on Marinette’s lap, and lifted her into his arms. He slowly stood and walked towards the Avengers building, his own strength sapping from him, but he fought against it and continued on.

As he walked with her there in his arms, seconds seemed like minutes, and minutes seemed like hours. She was dying, or perhaps, she was already dead.

He moved entirely on impulse alone, making his way toward the infirmary. But what would it matter? There was no one left here who could help her. No doctors, no staff.

In his current state, he barely registered someone run up beside him.

“Damn it!” Widow croaked. “Marinette!”

Adrien blankly turned to look at the Avenger standing beside him.

“Adrien, can you hear me?” Widow said grabbing his face. “Adrien!”

“She…I can’t” Adrien tried to speak.

“Give her to me.” Widow said and scooped up Marinette in her arms. Adrien had almost instinctively fought to keep her in his own arms, but he had no strength left to do it.

As Widow ran out of sight with Marinette, Adrien fell to the floor, his mind and heart completely broken. He pulled his legs up against his chest and placed his head on his knees.

“I love you to.” he whispered, destroyed by the fact he had never had a chance to say it back to Marinette.

Adrien then slowly closed his eyes, gave into his fatigue, and blacked out.

Taneleer Tivan stood on the ramp to his ship and regarded the stars in the night sky.

The ethereal boy named Adrien had immediately departed before he had even been able to land completely. It seemed that there was some kind of emergency happening in the compound in which they had come in for a landing, and before Tanaleer could stop him, the boy had flown right through the hull of the ship.

A few minutes later, when Taneleer himself had exited his ship, he had heard countless explosions in the distance, so he had opted to simply wait for whatever was happening to be over. The best prizes did tend to be left after wars were won or lost.

He smiled.

The ghostly boy had indeed been full of useful information, and Taneleer had come to revel in the value of the trade he had made. Adrien had explained to him about the Avengers, the Infinity stones, Thanos use of them to remove half of all life in the universe. But it had been the boy’s explanation of object’s called Miraculous that had caught his attention.

He squinted at the thought. These Miraculous were unlike anything he had ever heard of before in his many billions of years of existence. Yet, the kwami, he knew of very well.

He had tried to collect one a few billion years before, but because it had no physical form he had failed and given up the pursuit of such a prize. But now, supposedly the humans on this planet had harnessed the energies of the kwami and had been able to assist them in becoming material in this world.

If only he could come to possess one of these Miraculous, it would be a great start to building a new and improved collection.

“And just who might you be?” a voice said to his right.

Taneleer turned to regard this newcomer to his presence. It turned out to be a strange looking human girl. She had unnatural looking bright coloring's to her skin, hair and clothes and a glowing whip on her belt. She almost seemed out of place against the dull colors of the planet upon which he now stood. Perhaps she was one of the Miraculous holders he had heard so much about.

The look on the girls face seemed to suggest she was sizing him up as well.

Whatever her thoughts were, it caused her to smile an evil looking grin at him.

Natasha placed Marinette down on the cushioned medical table and swung the mechanical metal arch up into place over the wounded girl. Then she stepped back and placed her hand on her head as she regarded the machine’s control panel.

She had watched Doctor Cho use this same device years before on Barton’s leg wound, but that wound had been so much less severe than this. Hell, she didn’t even know where to start or if she could run it correctly at all, especially since she was doing this all from memory.

She pressed a few buttons to have the machine calibrate to Marinette’s physical parameters.

A green laser scanned Marinette’s body up and down and then displayed every wound present, which caused Nat to grimace.

The poor girl had wounds over sixty percent of her whole body and the display listed a fifteen percent chance of her survival, even with the repairs it would be doing.

Natasha frowned, and hesitantly changed a setting on the device. The chance of survival went to fifty percent, but at a cost.

“Sorry about this, little one.” she said with a hard look at the unconscious Marinette. “But, I can’t let you die.”

Widow then pressed the button to start the procedure.

Chapter Text

“Seems like you’ve had a rough night.”

Natasha lifted her face out of her hands and looked up to see Rogers standing in the doorway, a sympathetic look on his face. She imagined that she looked dreadful.

“You just get back?” she asked him, quickly wiping her tears and trying to look as stoic as she could muster.

Steve entered the room while nodding and turned to look through the glass to his right. Natasha followed his gaze. On the other side of the clear partition in the surgical bay, Doctor Cho was tending to Marinette’s care in the regeneration cradle. Tikki was floating nearby, ever watchful.

It had been four hours since Natasha had placed the poor girl under the machine, and three hours since she had finally been able to call for assistance.

“Rhodes checked in a few minutes ago.” Rogers said. “He’s currently somewhere over Brazil, still two hours out.”

Natasha silently nodded.

Everyone who had been mind controlled had been released unceremoniously once Heart Tide had left the area, either something she had done willingly, or it was that she could only control someone from a certain distance. Whatever the case, there had been a lot of confusion for those she had controlled, as they had regained consciousness in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by rubble and covered in bruises with no memory.

Rocket had apparently tried to explain the best he could, but of course, most of the soldiers were just as shocked to see a talking raccoon as they were to have found out they had been mind controlled.

“So, whose your little friend?” Rogers said after an awkward moment of silence.

Natasha blinked a few times. She had almost forgotten about the little tiger kwami that was asleep on a pillow in her lap.

“Oh, this is Roaar. The kwami of secrecy.” she explained. “I’d probably be dead now if Marinette hadn’t partnered her with me. Thing’s got pretty bad, enough for her to break out the big guns.”

“I can see that.” Steve said and looked down at the medical wrap around Natasha’s midsection.

“Just a couple broken ribs. It’s nothing to worry about.” Natasha deflected and looked back towards Marinette. “Especially in comparison.”

Steve turned away from Nat and faced the glass outright, crossing his arms.

“How is she doing?” he asked.

“She’s finally out of the woods, but it was not looking great there for a while.” Natasha replied. “She needed two blood transfusions just to keep her stable while the cradle closed her wounds enough to stem the bleeding.”

Natasha looked away from Marinette and started to tear up again. She felt the weight of the choice she had made coming back to haunt her again.

“I had to…” she began to say. “I had to cut some corners to save her.”

Steve didn’t say anything, and she figured he was giving her time to compose herself.

“In order to close the wounds as quickly as possible, I reduced the time the cradle would spend on each one by more than two thirds.” she said sorrowfully. “So she’s going to have scars over sixty percent of her body for the rest of her life. And Doctor Cho say’s there is likely be a lot of nerve damage present because it wasn’t able to properly heal the wounds.”

She started to shake her head, as if doing so would make it all go away. But instead her tears began to fall again.

Steve knelt beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“You saved her life, Nat.” he offered. “She’ll understand.”

Natasha bit her lip and looked back towards Marinette in the cradle, a silence falling on the observation room for a moment.

“How’s the Agreste boy?” Steve asked. “I understand he woke up?”

Natasha closed her eyes at the mention of Adrien. The image of the boy carrying a dying Marinette through the hall, a trail of blood behind them, came rushing back to her.

“He’s lost consciousness again.” Natasha finally said. “According to Sass, the kwami he was partnered with, Adrien apparently spent two months in a time loop of sorts, trying to win the fight, trying to save Marinette.”

Steve raised an eyebrow, and she understood his reaction.

“It’s a long story.” she continued. “But suffice to say, Adrien exhausted himself to the point where he literally had no strength left to keep trying. So he was forced to give up and accept that he couldn't save her. Which ironically, was the only choice that led to us being able to make it out of there alive. We are guessing that Heart Tide assumed Marinette would have no way to survive, and just left.”

“So you are saying, this was literally the best outcome?” Steve said, understanding the situation more than Natasha would have expected him to without further explanation of the Second Chance ability.

“Yes.” Natasha said.

Steve nodded.

“These really are some strong willed kids.” Steve said and then turned to Natasha again.

“Kids.” she repeated flatly. “If only they had the luxury of still being kids.”

Steve clenched his jaw at that.

“Which brings us back to our earlier discussion.” he said. “I was able to touch base with Pepper. She was able to call in some favors and has the papers all drafted up and ready to go.”

Natasha frowned. Was this really the time to discuss these things?

“I know.” he said, clearly understanding her thoughts without her having to say anything. “But we really don’t have any choice in the matter.”

Natasha looked over at Marinette once more.

“You know how much I hate paperwork.” she said ruefully.

When Marinette woke, she had done so screaming.

The sudden return of the pain throughout her body as she had regained consciousness had taken her by surprise. And soon after, when she had been told that the pain would likely never go away, she had wanted to cry, but didn’t.

She now stood, leaning against her bed, staring at her naked body in the mirror.

Look how broken.

The scars were everywhere. Her arms, legs, back, sides, neck, chest, they were all in tatters. The only places left unscathed were her face and head, having had been protected by her arms during the incident.

She bit her lip and pulled her hospital smock closed again, the new reality of her life truly setting in.

“Marinette, I...” Tikki started to say, but stopped when Marinette shook her head hard.

She knew that her partner would try and cheer her up, but all she cared about right now, was making sure Adrien was okay. If she couldn’t change anything about her current state, then there was no reason to dwell on it.

No reason to dwell .

She grabbed onto the IV stand that was attached to her arm and used it to help her walk, as she was finding it difficult to do so.

She had almost made it to the door to the room when it opened and produced Nat.

“Are you supposed to be up and about?” Widow asked.

Need to keep moving.

“Get out of my way.” Marinette said forcefully. “I need to see him.”

Natasha held up her hands defensively and stepped aside and Marinette continued to move forward out into the hall.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to go far. Adrien was in the room directly across the hall from hers now, as his former long term care suite upstairs had been completely destroyed in the battle.

As she entered his room, she saw Wong standing beside Adrien’s bedside. When the master of the mystic arts noticed her approaching, he stepped aside without a word.

She cleared the distance between the door and the bed quickly, and nearly fell at the end. She clutched the rail on the side of the hospital bed and held herself there, looking down at Adrien’s face.

“Adrien.” she whispered and then looked up at Wong questioningly.

“The patch he was able to make between his soul and his body is very weak.” Wong explained. “The fact he was able to keep going for as long as he did, is honestly a miracle.”

Marinette looked down at Adrien again, and smiled a painful smile.

I wasn’t worth all of that.

“He did it to save me.” she said, regret in her voice. “Will he be okay?”

There was a pause which caused Marinette to look back toward Wong, who she saw had a pensive look on his face.

“It’s hard to say.” he finally replied. “I think if he is as determined to survive now, as he has been, then there is a good chance he will recover.”

A tear fell from her left eye and landed on her hand which was still gripping the safety rail on the bed. She looked down at the tiny dot of water and then shook her head.

Not the time to cry.

She forced her self to straighten up and tried to turn but her leg gave out and she began to fall.

Nat caught her, and she tried to shake free from the woman’s grip.

“I need to…” Marinette began to say, grasping at the thoughts in her head. “I want to… I can’t...”

But Natasha held her tight, refusing to let go, and instead pulled her closer so she could embrace her fully.

Marinette began to sob uncontrollably there in Nat’s arms.

Stop. Stop! STOP!

She fought to push the negative voice in her head away, and stopped allowing it hold her down.

The pain, the tears, the regret, she let it flow.

Maybe I am worth it, after all.

Chapter Text

“So, Lila took the Miracle Box?” Marinette asked flatly.

Rocket frowned and walked around the side of her bed. He had just come into the room a moment before to deliver her the bad news.

She had fully expected to hear it though. There was no way the villain would have just walked away empty handed, even if her plan had truly just been to kill Marinette.

“Yeah, but boy is she going to be mad when she figures out how to open it.” Rocket said, his frown immediately turning to a toothy grin.

Marinette looked at him questioningly as he jumped up onto the foot of her bed.

“While Widow had her distracted, I was able to hop down and get all the Miraculous, I then closed the box and left it there all nice and pretty for her to find.” the raccoon said as he pantomimed what he had done and then laughed a hearty laugh. “Evil bitch probably doesn’t even know it’s empty yet!”

Marinette felt a tinge of relief hit her. In all of this, it was the first good news she had received.

“Where are the Miraculous now?” she asked.

“Until we can get you a fancy new box, we got em in there.” Rocket said as he pointed to a shoe box on a table across the room.

Marinette glanced at the box and frowned. What a pathetic looking Miracle Box. She really wasn’t so great at this whole Guardian thing.

“Thank you Rocket.” she said with a genuine smile. “You’re my hero.”

If raccoon could blush, she imagined the face he made would have been accompanied by a fair bit of red. Something told her that he hadn’t received much praise in the past.

“I, uh, Don’t worry about it.” Rocket said with a slight stammer. “Just doin’ my part. Oh, and before I forget…”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the horse miraculous and held it in front of him.

Marinette looked down at the pair of glasses, and then back up to Rocket.

“I think Kaalki would agree with me when I say you’ve earned the right to keep wearing these.” she said pushing his hand back towards him. “Take care of her, and she will take care of you.”

Rocket’s mouth went agape, and then he rubbed his hand through the fur on his head and placed the glasses on his forehead where he normally kept his goggles.

Kaalki appeared and nodded to Marinette and she smiled back. Rocket didn’t seem to know what else to say, so the raccoon and his kwami partner left the room in awkward silence.

Marinette leaned back in her bed, a hot radiating pain shooting throughout all the skin in any body part that she moved.

“Tikki.” Marinette said turning her head to her right.

Tikki, who had been curled up in the crook of her pillows, flew around and landed on her lap.

“Yes, Marinette?” Tikki asked.

“I know you think the world of me as Ladybug. But am I a bad Guardian?” she asked.

Tikki frowned.

“You are still learning.” Tikki said. “I’m sure Master Fu made mistakes when he started out as well.”

Marinette reached over and patted Tikki on the head. Somehow she knew the kwami would give that kind of answer. But she wondered how Master Fu would look at her now, a shoe box full of Miraculous, laying in a hospital bed barely able to move.

A knock at the door shook her from her thoughts.

“Come in.” she called.

The door opened and Nino’s head appeared.

“Nino!” she said, a smile spreading across her face. “It’s so good to see you!”

He stepped into the room with a shamed look on his face.

“Honestly, Marinette, I wondered if I should come see you.” he said. “After all the trouble I caused.”

She shook her head at him, smiled, and then pointed commandingly at the chair beside her bed.

He walked over and sat down.

“Did you already stop in to see Adrien?” she asked. He paused a moment and then nodded, a frown on his face.

“Is it true that he was awake?” Nino asked her.

“Yeah, really saved the day too.” she said, and then frowned. “Although, I am not sure if he knows that yet. Last he knew, I was…”

He nodded as she trailed off.

“I’m glad you are okay.” he said and then glanced at the scars on her arm. “I mean, glad that you are alive. I, uh. Shoot. Sorry.”

“It’s alright.” she said, giving him a pitying look. He was trying so hard.

Marinette saw a little green head pop up from behind Nino’s left shoulder.

“Wayzz” she said. “Why are you hiding?”

The turtle poked his head out fully and frowned.

“Marinette, I must apologize. It was my fault that Nino got mind controlled.” the little kwami said regretfully. “She took me over when Nino wasn’t looking after we transformed back after the hydra fight.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide. That was almost two weeks ago. He had been under her control that long?

“It’s my fault that I didn’t even notice he was acting strangely.” Nino said with a frown. “I would transform into Carapace, be under her control, and then any time I transformed back, she must have altered my memories so that I was none the wiser that anything had even happened. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m the one who gave away that you were here.”

Marinette clenched her fist. The villain had done so much to hurt her and her friends. And she had vowed to hunt her down and make her pay for what she had done. No matter how long it took.

“Is it true she got away on an actual space ship?” Nino asked, reminding Marinette of a key detail that would of course make that hunt a bit difficult.

“Yes.” Marinette said. “Mind controlled the owner and just up and left the planet. She’s out there somewhere though.”

Nino reached up a scratched the back of his neck.

“Is it weird to say, that I hope we never see her again?” he said nervously.

She understood his trepidation, but she wouldn’t give in to the same fear.

“I promise you Nino, I’ll never let her hurt any of you ever again.” Marinette said.

After declaring this, she spent the next half hour or so talking with Nino about the good old days. He had also mentioned that Alya was coming to New York to stop by and visit. Marinette was glad to hear that she was going to be able to see her best friend sooner than later. Right now, she needed as much of a support structure as she could get.

About ten minutes after Nino had left, Thor stopped by.

The poor thing felt so guilty about his part in the whole affair, that he had all but vowed to make it up to her by swearing on ‘all that was good in the world’. She had of course told him it wasn’t necessary. Besides, having a literal god from legend owe you one, seemed weird to her.

Thor stayed for three hours, telling her of his home, his family, and many other stories that any actual historian would have killed to been present to hear. And then he had asked her to speak of her family. She had attempted to say that her life was unremarkable by comparison to his, but Thor had insisted that remembering ones family by sharing tales was the best way to honor them when they were gone. And true to his word, he had honored her and her family by listening intently to the tales of the bakery, her home, and her life.

Before he left, he had thanked her for the Macarons from the day before. And she admitted that with everything that had happened, she had completely forgotten having baked them for him.

Then at about mid-day she fell asleep, exhausted.

When Marinette woke a few hours later, she found Nat quietly standing near the door to her room, looking at her intently.

“You, uh, been there a while?” Marinette asked feeling a bit awkward at the thought of someone watching her sleep.

“Sorry, I just…”Nat started to say. “Seeing you there sleeping, you just reminded me of my sister.”

Marinette sat up and tilted her head in question.

“I had no idea you had a sister.” Marinette admitted. “Older or younger?”

“Younger.” Nat said coming over to sit down beside her.

“I’ve always imagined what it would be like to have a sibling.” Marinette said with a smile. “Although, I suppose Alya is kind of like a sister to me. Even though we aren’t related.”

Nat smiled at that.

“Real family isn’t always only dictated by blood.” Nat said with a smirk as if thinking of some kind of inside joke. “Trust me, I know.”

Marinette looked down at the file folder in Nat’s hands.

“So, what do you have there?” Marinette asked and then smiled and held up her hands jokingly. “I hope it’s not a bill for repairs to the building. I swear, it was like that when I found it.”

Nat smiled for a moment, and then her face went flat and she swallowed nervously. Marinette couldn’t tell what was on her mind, but clearly it was something important.

“Sorry.” Marinette said.

“Don’t worry about it.” Nat replied. “Interestingly enough, it’s on the subject of family, in a way.”

Marinette frowned. She thought of her parents, and wondered if it had something to do with them.

“So, bureaucracy being what it is, even now only a couple weeks after the decimation, we are getting pressure from the U.N. to register you on the Sokovia Accords as an internationally recognized hero.” Nat explained. “Apparently, word got out that you weren’t in Paris anymore and were working with us.

Marinette looked down at her hands. It made sense, but what did it have to do with family?

“Basically, as long as you remained in Paris, France had claimed you as fully sanctioned local hero with full rights on that soil, without the need to register to the accords.” Nat continued. “But now, we are getting pressure to have you sign.”

“I have no issue signing.” Marinette offered.

“We figured you'd say that.” Widow replied. “But there is one small snag, in regards to your current age, and the fact you are currently an orphan, on foreign soil, with no guardian to allow for such a signing to take place.”

Marinette felt her stomach drop. She hadn’t even considered the fact that she was an orphan now. She had been so focused on being a hero, and saving lives, that being ‘just a kid’ was never on her mind.

Natasha must have noticed her reaction, because she reached over and took her hand.

“I understand that this is really a terrible time to talk about all of this.’ Nat said softly. “If you want, we can put this off for a bit. I doubt there will be any immediate backlash.”

Marinette bit her lip and thought of her parents again. She didn’t want them to be struck from her lives, not even if it was just on paper, not after everything Thor had just told her about honoring them by remembering them.

But she also knew that if she wanted to continue on as a hero, and not be hounded by world governments at every turn, then this was a requirement.

“What…” Marinette said as she struggled with what to say. “What are my options?”

Nat opened the folder she had in her lap and handed it to her.

Marinette took the pile of papers and read the first few lines. She then looked up in shock.

“You want to be my Guardian?” she asked Widow.

“To be honest, it was Steve’s idea.” Nat said, and then quickly amended that. “I mean, I’m not saying I don’t want to. I just never imagined…”

As Nat trailed off, Marinette looked back down at the papers in her hand and started to tear up.

“Look, It’s just paperwork, and it doesn’t have to mean anything.” Nat started to say trying to cheer her up again, but then started to stumble over her words in a familiar way. “Your parents will still be your parents, and you won’t have to call me mom or anything, oh god, please don’t call me mom. I’m not sure how I would handle-.”

“Okay.” Marinette said cutting her off.

Nat smiled and squeezed her hand.

“Okay.” Widow repeated, almost as if she was also making the decision in her own head.

Chapter Text

One Week Later

“Alright, go ahead and give it a try.” Rocket said after calibrating a few settings on the device in front of him.

Marinette looked down and placed her hands on the grip points extending out from the side of the impressive looking machine.

“Tikki” she said closing her eyes. “Spot’s on.”

Her transformation washed over her, the normal daily pain she felt vanishing from her body in a sweeping, cooling sensation. She opened her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. Being Ladybug was an escape from the scars and nerve damage she had suffered as Marinette, but she knew it was only temporary, as she couldn’t stay as Ladybug forever.

Rocket looked up and smiled as the device beeped and the large antenna it was attached to began to spin and turn.

“Looks like that’s it!” Bruce Banner said. “We’ve got it locked on to the energy signature that matches Tikki’s.”

Ladybug took her hands off the bars and walked around to the other side of the console to look at the screen. She saw the words, ‘Scanning energy layer’ displayed on the bottom left.

The three of them watched with bated breathe as the spinning circle that indicated it was scanning slowly turned into a solid green light.

“We are in business!” Bruce cheered.

Ladybug and Rocket exchanged a smile.

“Alright, now that we’ve connected, we need to make sure we aren’t causing interference to the layer.” Rocket said and turned to Ladybug again, this time with a frown. “But, uh, we can wait a bit if you-”

“No, it’s alright. We need to be sure.” Ladybug said before he could finish. She frowned and then breathed in deeply to prepare herself. “Spots Off.”

The pain came rushing back and hit her all at once. She grimaced so hard that she almost fell over, but Bruce caught her arm to steady her. She turned to him and nodded in thanks, and then they all looked to Tikki when she appeared again in front of them.

“Tikki, can you sense any anomalies, interference or damage?” Rocket asked hovering his hand over the abort button on the devices console.

Tikki closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again with a smile.

“Seems alright, I’m not feeling any pain or anything.” the kwami said. “It actually feels kind of light and airy.”

Bruce nodded and pressed a few commands on the touch screen.

“Alright, let’s test the recall function of the layer.” the scientist said. “I’ll start with the date and time of the decimation as that will have the largest detectable surge present.”

They watched as the image on the device turned into a star map, and moved around as the date changed. Then, when it got to the imputed time, it centered on a single star, zoomed in and focused on the third planet.

It was Earth.

As the timer hit the exact point of the decimation, an energy wave could be seen expanding out from the planet. The words ‘Recording Event Data’ appeared and multiple readouts started to show information that was way over Marinette’s head.

“That’s amazing.” Rocket said. “Look at the energy levels, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Bruce looked over at Marinette and smiled, likely relieved that their efforts had finally come to fruition.

She thought back to six days before when Rocket and Bruce had come to her with their idea. They had said it was a long shot, because the energies involved were up to that point undetectable to science, but they had been determined to try.

The plan had been to connect directly to Tikki, and use her universe expanding form as a scanning device. Much in the same way Marinette had previously done to experience and share her dream of Thanos.

They had hypothesized that the layer of energy that Tikki embodied, was much like an ageless tree whose rings could be measured to discover historical events. Except these were metaphysical rings that recorded any and all events that altered or accessed that specific energy layer for all of time.

And they had done it, very quickly too. She supposed they were fairly motivated though as the quicker they could get this up and running, the sooner they could all start looking for Thanos.

“Now we just need to wait, and see if he uses the space stone again.” Bruce said. “When he does, we will know exactly where he is.”

Marinette clenched her fist. This is exactly why she had left Paris, her soul mission since that day that everyone had vanished.

Thanos. We are coming for you.

Thanos smiled.

The sun was setting below the horizon which caused the garden before him cast long shadows toward his newly built cabin. This place was every manner of beautiful, which was the reason he had chosen it.

A place to rest after a long work had been completed.

He stood and took one last glance toward the horizon, his eyes falling on his armor, hung up nearby.

He had placed it there to remind him of the death and destruction that had been left in his wake, a memorial to those who had been sacrificed for the betterment of the universe. And while it had all been necessary to the work, he was actually glad that it was finally over.

He walked into the cabin and reached for his cooking pot, the evening meal almost prepared.

But then he felt his left hand began to vibrate.

He lifted his arm curiously and looked at the gauntlet which was still stuck on his hand, crushed into place by the infinity stone’s use.

The space stone was vibrating.

He squinted his eyes at it, and wondered what it meant.

There was one possibility that he considered immediately and frowned.

“So, it comes to this.” he said as the sunset’s natural light from outside finally faded.

Two Days Later

Marinette looked at herself in the mirror and sighed.

“Tikki, I’ve never done a public appearance with the press as Marinette before, I’m not sure what to do with my hair.”

“I’m sure if you wear your hair like usual, it will be fine.” Tikki replied with a smile. “They are coming to see you sign the accords, not recruit you for fashion week.”

“Easy for someone who has no hair, and is invisible to cameras to say.” Marinette said slyly.

Tikki giggled as she landed on Marinette’s shoulder.

The signing of the Sokovia Accords was scheduled for the next day, and as far as she knew, every one of the Avengers was going to be there, dressed in their best. Supposedly, they had wanted to make it as public an event as possible to instill hope in people that heroes still existed and were willing to keep fighting for the greater good. And she knew well that the world needed that kind hope in this dark time.

Steve had even said that he might shave off his beard. Apparently Nat had suggested he looked more ‘Iconic’ without it, and that people needed as much of that kind of projected symbolism as they could muster right now.

She looked at her neck and arms and wondered if she would project hope in her current state.

People would undoubtedly wonder where the scars had come from, and she had considered going as Ladybug to hide them. But Nat had insisted that she go as herself, as people ‘accepted’ and ‘connected’ better with heroes who looked more like themselves.

Marinette admitted that she wasn’t so great with all of the psychology of being a hero, or the concept of projected appearances to the public, so she had conceded to her guardians judgment on the matter.

She looked to a picture she had hung along the side of her mirror. It was of her entire friend group back in Paris, before the decimation. Everyone looked so happy.

Her eyes fell on Adrien and she frowned.

“I wish Adrien could be there with us.” Marinette said.

“I know.” Tikki replied.

He had only woken up once in the last week, but he had fallen asleep again quite quickly afterwards. She hadn’t even been able to get there in time to see him. Supposedly, as time passed, he would wake more often and for longer periods. So she was hopeful that someday soon, she would be able to finally talk to him again.

There was a knock at her door, and she called for whoever it was to enter.

It turned out to be Pepper Potts.

“I just wanted to check in with you before tomorrow.” the woman said. “To make sure you are all set with everything we discussed.”

Marinette nodded.

The Stark Foundation had sponsored her citizenship change to the US, since that was where her guardian lived. And Pepper had been personally checking in to make sure the situation was moving along as planned.

At first Marinette had wondered why the head of one of the largest companies in the world would handle such matters herself, rather than having some lawyer or lackey do it. But she had quickly discovered that Pepper Potts was not one to simply leave important matters in the hands of others, and that was how she had found her success over the years. Also, apparently Stark himself had relied on Pepper to handle most, if not all of his affairs personally in the past.

The woman was a powerhouse of purpose and responsibility.

“I have the itinerary right here.” Marinette said and lifted the paper in front of her. “I’ve gone over it a few times already.”

“Good.” Pepper said. “We just need to-”

The mirror in front of them started to vibrate and drew their attention.

Marinette looked up at Pepper and then around the room. Everything was vibrating, almost as if a plane was passing directly overhead.

She leaned to look out the window to her right and saw something she didn’t expect.

Carol Danvers had returned, and was slowly floating down from the sky carrying a large spacecraft above her head.

After exchanging a look with Pepper, they both ran out the door.

Chapter Text

The Next Morning.

Marinette was sitting on the floor of the conference lounge listening to Rhodes and Nat bring Tony Stark up to speed on what had taken place twenty three days ago when Thanos had come to Earth. Rocket was sitting beside her and she was holding his paw to comfort him.

After Carol had brought the space ship to a rest the night before, it had quickly become apparent that no one from the raccoon's former team had survived. The only people on the Benatar were Tony Stark and Nebula, the woman who she had witnessed being tortured by Thanos.

Marinette had grown close to Rocket over the last week, and they had become fast friends. So seeing him in such despair about the loss of his friends had hit her hard as well. Of course, reminders of the toll the decimation had wrought were not hard to miss during the current presentation for Tony.

Across the room in various places, Images of faces were cycling on holographic screens, each being one of the vanished. Marinette recognized a few as other Avengers, but for the most part they were all strangers to her.

By the way that Pepper had gotten upset and walked out of the room the second the memorial slideshow had started, she imagined that Tony also likely knew most of them closely. And from his facial expression, she could tell that he was not taking this well at all.

“He did exactly what he said he was going to do.” Nat said. “Thanos wiped out fifty percent of all living creatures.”

There was a pause as everyone took a moment to reflect.

“Where is he now?” Tony said, seeming suddenly sober to the situation at hand.

“We don’t know, he just opened a portal and walked through.” Rogers answered.

Marinette frowned, remembering what she had seen in her dream.

Tony scoffed and reacted to the answer by moving his wheelchair forward slightly. He then looked out beyond a glass partition to Thor who was outside in the hall sitting by himself.

“What’s wrong with him?” Stark asked with a weak underhanded point.

“Well he’s pissed, Thinks he failed.” Rocket replied. “Which of course he did, but you know there’s a lot of that going around ain’t there.”

Stark’s face turned to one of shock as he focused on Rocket.

“Honestly until this exact second, I thought you were that kids build-a-bear.” Stark admitted, almost sardonically, and then took on a sarcastic tone. “In fact, since when do we run a day care here, someone call this kids parents.”

Marinette felt a pit grow inside her at that statement. It was clear that Stark was in a bad place emotionally and was lashing out indiscriminately, but the offhand comment had hit her hard either way.

“Tony.” Rogers said in a reprimanding tone. “Marinette is the only reason we were able to find you. So you may want to reel in your attitude a bit.”

Tony moved his jaw some as if mulling over what he had just heard, and Marinette held his gaze as he did not break eye contact with her. Thankfully Rogers continued talking and drew Tony’s attention away.

“As for Thanos. We’ve been hunting him for three weeks now. We’ve built a deep space scanner, but so far we’ve got nothing.” Steve said and then glanced at Marinette. “Tony, We know that you fought him-”

Stark tilted his head up at hearing that.

“Who told you that?” he asked, some anger present in his voice. “I didn’t fight him. No. He wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker street magician gave away the store. That’s what happened. There’s no fights cause he’s not beatable.”

“Ok, ok.” Steve said trying to deflect Tony’s ire. “Did he give you any clues? Any coordinates?”

Tony made a sputtering noise with his mouth as he mocked Rogers with a halfhearted salute, as if the suggestion that looking for Thanos was somehow a joke to him.

Marinette ground her teeth together. She had always thought Tony Stark was a man of integrity, at least from his public facing persona. Eccentric, sure, but he had always at least appeared to be concerned about doing the right thing. But it was clear now that the man was broken, damaged by his interaction with Thanos.

Still, she refused to listen to his random diatribe any longer. She had more important things to do, so she stood up quickly, gave him a curt look and then left the room without a word.

As the glass door closed behind her, she realized that Rocket had followed her out.

“That’s the genius everyone was raving about?” Rocket asked. “I guess I don’t see it.”

Marinette frowned and looked over her shoulder and back into the room.

Tony was standing now and saying something angrily to Rogers.

“People deal with loss in different ways.” Marinette said as she turned to look down the hall at Thor who was still sitting alone in silence. “I won’t blame him for his pain. But that doesn’t mean I want to sit and listen to all of that negativity either.”

She saw Rocket nod in understanding and then noticed Bruce was walking towards them from the labs.

“Ah, Just the two I needed to see.” Bruce said. “I think we’ve got something on the scanner.”

Marinette and Rocket exchanged a glance and then followed Bruce back towards his lab.

When they arrived Bruce pulled a holographic monitor to the center of the room and expanded it’s size.

“It’s been taking the computer a while to unspool all of the data from the scanner. I mean, it is a live feed from the entire universe after all, and that is quite a bit to sift through.” Bruce explained. “But there was a spike in energies two days ago that made the layer shift considerably.”

The image on the screen changed to become an image of a planet that then showed a similar energy explosion to the one that had been present on Earth during the decimation.

“Well, that’s probably not good.” Rocket said as he reviewed the data. “I know we were hoping he would use the space stone again so we could find him, but it actually look’s like he used all of the stones again.”

“Do you think he’s still there?” Marinette asked.

“I’m not seeing any residual or continuing shifts in the layer at that location after the initial one.” Bruce said. “So it’s a good bet that he is.”

She bit her lip and then looked down at Rocket.

“How quickly do you think you can fix the Benatar?” she asked.

Rocket looked up at her and grinned a toothy smile.

When Marinette and Bruce had returned to the conference lounge to inform everyone of their findings, they arrived just after Tony had apparently collapsed outright from exhaustion. They had ended up moving him to the infirmary.

Bruce and Rhodes had just exited the room where Tony now slept, Pepper remaining at his beside to sit with him.

“I gave him a sedative to help him get some sleep.” Bruce said. “Stubborn as always, wouldn’t give in to sleep even when his body is failing him. But he’s probably gonna be out the rest of the day.”

For once, Marinette was glad she wasn’t the one spending all day in bed recuperating. Even still, she felt bad for Stark, regardless of the fact that he had been rude to her.

“You guys take care of him.” Carol said. “And I’ll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back.”

“Where are you going?” Marinette asked in surprise. Danvers had only just returned after a full week away scouring space, why was she running off again so suddenly?

Everyone turned as Carol walked past them to leave.

“To kill Thanos.” the woman said over her shoulder as she stepped into the next room.

Everyone present exchanged glances and then immediately followed her.

“Hey!” Nat said as they all caught up with Danvers. “You know, we usually work as a team here.”

Carol stopped and turned to face them, an impatient look on her face.

“Look we realize up there is more your territory.” Rogers admitted. “But this is our fight too.”

“You even know where he is?.” Rhodes asked, challenging her decision to leave.

Carol smiled and tilted her head.

“No, but I know some people who-.” Carol began to reply.

“That’s not necessary.” Marinette interrupted abruptly, causing everyone to look at her.

As Marinette exchanged a glance with Bruce, he took a step forward and stood beside her.

“We, uh” Banner said. “We know exactly where he is.”

Marinette fidgeted in her seat and sighed.

It had been nearly an hour since she had arrived at the U.N. building and the wait was making her anxious.

After having discussed the scanner readouts with the rest of the Avenger’s and all deciding to go forward with the plan to head into space to confront Thanos and get the stones to reverse his snap, they had all been relegated to waiting for the Benatar to be be repaired.

This of course meant that her signing of the Accords was still on, as they wouldn’t be leaving for at least a day or two.

“You’ll be fine.” Nat said, now sitting beside her. “Just smile big and don’t say anything.”

“I’m not nervous about this.” Marinette replied. “I’m just anxious about the upcoming mission.”

Nat pursed her lips and looked down, almost seeming ashamed of something. An odd reaction.

“Actually, Steve and I were talking and we don’t think it’s best that you come with us.” Nat said.

Marinette felt her blood go cold.

“Wait. What?” she asked, confusion gripping her.

“Look, I’ll be up front with you, Marinette.” Nat said. “If this goes at all like last time, then there’s a good chance that things could go badly.”

Marinette stood and was about to yell at Nat, but noticed the cameras and press down the hall, and quickly sat back down. Had Nat told her this here because she knew Marinette wouldn’t want to make a scene?

“That’s all the more reason for me to go.” Marinette said frantically, through a fake smile. “You didn’t have me or the Miraculous last time.”

Nat shook her head.

“Think about it.” she said. “If we lose, and Thanos gets his hands on a Miraculous, then he would have even more power, and then no one would ever be able to stop him, or get the stones back to reverse this nightmare.”

Marinette sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. She hadn’t been expecting to be left behind while everyone else went off to fight. It wasn’t fair.

“In fact.” Nat continued. “Rocket and I won’t be bringing our Miraculous along either. Just to be safe and make sure they don’t fall into his hands.”

Marinette opened her eyes and started to shake her head in disbelief.

“How do you expect to have a different outcome this time if you just try the same things again?” Marinette asked, trying to convince Nat she was wrong about all of this. The Miraculous were a leg up for them against the powers of the Infinity Stones that Thanos commanded. To not use them would be suicide.

“Well, we have Carol this time.” Nat said with a shrug, almost as if she herself didn’t really think it would make a difference. “Besides, we need somebody to stay behind and protect the Earth. Might as well be our most powerful member. And you can empower more Miraculous wielders to help you if we end up… if we don’t come back.”

Marinette looked down at her hands and then back up at Natasha. They had calculated everything already, even a contingency plan. And they had deemed her as the best option to replace the Avengers, should they fall. It was hard to not see this as somehow both a show of their absolute faith in her, and an insult to her contribution at the same time.

And then there was the most important part of what Nat had said.

“I…” Marinette started to say. “I don’t want to lose you too.”

Nat frowned and then looked down toward the press line.

“I know, little one.” Widow said, clearly sharing the sentiment.

Marinette began to tear up.

It was the first time someone had called her a nickname like that, where she didn’t entirely hate it, mainly because of who was saying it.

“You better come back.” Marinette said forcefully, which drew Nat’s gaze again. “After all, if you don’t, there won’t be anyone stopping me from going after him myself.”

She could see Nat’s jaw tighten at that and then her guardian silently nodded in understanding.

Chapter Text

Two Days Later

Three hours after the Avengers had left for the garden planet on which Thanos now resided, Marinette found herself for the most part alone on the campus.

In terms of super heroes, Stark was still on bed rest in the infirmary, and Adrien was still unconscious. But besides them, there were maybe five other various grounds staff and doctors present on site.

Marinette had wandered the quiet corridors for about an hour before finding herself inevitably by Adrien’s bed side.

Tikki had flown over to sit on the sill outside the window so that Marinette could be alone with Adrien. Marinette sat now with her head laying on her arm on the bed as she looked up at Adrien’s face. Thoughts of days that seemed so long ago now slowly passed before her eyes.

Eventually, she fell asleep there.

But it was not for long, as she soon woke to find that someone was holding her hand.

When she opened her eyes and looked up, she found that Adrien was still laying there, but he was looking over at her with a smile on his face.

Her head shot up and she glanced down at their hands which were clasped together on the bed. The feeling of blood rushing to her cheeks overtook her.

“Hey there.” Adrien said softly.

Marinette looked to his face and saw that he still seemed exhausted. Yet, she wondered how he still looked so perfect after being asleep so long?

“Hi.” was all she could muster. She somehow forgot to close her mouth, letting it hang awkwardly agape for a moment and then snapped it shut.

“I gotta say, waking up to see you here, is probably the best thing I could have hoped for.” Adrien said squeezing her hand.

She relished in the pressure on her hand and squeezed back contentedly. She tried to think of what to say, but there was too much to sift through in her mind. This was the first time they had been able to speak outside of a crisis in more than three weeks.

Say something. Anything! She prodded herself, but Adrien beat her to the punch.

“I love you, too.” he said, as if out of the blue. This of course made her freeze and her eyes went wide. Why was he saying that so randomly, so bluntly? And what did he mean by too?

Then she remembered back to the moment after the battle with Heart Tide.

“No matter what happens, I want you to know that I love you.” she had said back then, without hesitation or even a hint of a stumble. It was a wonder to her now how she managed to get it out so perfectly when she normally would have likely just tripped or drooled all over herself or something.

“I just wanted to make sure I got that out this time.” Adrien continued. “Before something else happened, and I lost my chance.”

She felt like her skin was being heated in an oven. Adrien was there in front of her, telling her that he loved her. Her. Not Ladybug, but Marinette.

“I never imagined…” she began, a tear of joy forming in her eye. “That this day would ever really come. Perhaps I’m dreaming.”

Adrien made a sour face and squirmed a little.

“Oh, too soon.” he said. “I’ve been asleep for who knows how long, and you bring up dreams?”

Marinette blinked and made a serious face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

He quickly released her hand and brought his up to touch the side of her face.

“I’m kidding.” He said with a smile.

She brought her hand up and held his to her cheek. This was a feeling she could get used to. She smiled and closed her eyes to cherish the moment and better commit it to memory.

“I know that back at the hospital you told me that you felt like you could finally talk to me without stumbling.” Adrien said. “But honestly, I hope you never change. It’s beyond adorable.”

Marinette froze again. She hadn’t even thought about that day since she discovered that Adrien had been an astral form. That he had actually been there, listening to her talk to him while she thought he was unconscious. She realized now that he had already known she loved him, weeks before she said it to him as Ladybug.

She felt her face go red again.

“I’m… I’m glad you heard what I had to say.” She said with a tiny smile. “I still can’t believe you were Chat the whole time.”

Adrien moved to try and sit up and she helped him as best she could.

“At least I know that you can understand my surprise when I found out that you were mi’lady.” Adrien said. “Honestly, it wasn’t how I wanted us to finally discover each others identities, but I suppose, beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Well, I definitely choose you.” Marinette found herself blurting out before she fully realized, and then went wide eyed again. “I mean, I, uhm. I would like to… and hope that you...”

She bit her teeth together and looked away embarrassed.

“Why wouldn’t I choose you?” he asked sincerely.

Marinette frowned, and looked down at her arms, scars all over.

Before she could say anything though, she felt him take her hand again and begin to pull her closer to him. What was he-?

When his lips touched hers, Marinette found herself quickly moving from being shocked to feeling light and airy. Her eyes, which started out wide in surprise, slowly closed as she fell into bliss. Her heart beat was racing and her mind was blank, the moment itself lost to her even though she knew that she wanted to remember it forever.

When the kiss ended, she pulled back, her eyes still closed.

“I hope that was alright.” he said.

“It was lovely.” she said, her eyes still closed, a flutter in her chest.

“I meant if it was alright that I did it, not how it was.” he said with a chuckle.

She opened her eyes and blinked a few times to clear her vision. Had that really just happened? She really felt as if she had no cares in the world in that moment. Everything was perfect. He was perfect.

“No complaints here.” she finally said.

Adrien smiled at her and his eyelids started to droop. Marinette sobered from her blissful emotional state some when she realized he was likely falling into his slumber again. She didn’t want this to end, not yet.

“Then I’m glad I took the chance.” he said leaning back against his pillow. “See you soon, Bugaboo.”

And with that, he closed his eyes and began to sleep, a very content look on his face.

“See you soon. My Chaton.” Marinette said and laid her head once more on her arm at his side as she had been before.

It could be almost poetic how a day that had contained her most contented moments, could be turned right around so readily.

But leave it to Stark to be the one to ruin it for her.

She had just left Adrien’s bedside and was passing Tony’s infirmary room when she heard his voice.

“Hey, red bug girl.” he called out. “Got a minute?”

She stopped in her tracks and turned to him with a dour look on her face.

“It’s Ladybug.” she said stepping into his room. “Or, you know, my name. Marinette.”

Tony was sitting in his hospital bed with the back reclined up. In front of him on an over-the-bed table were three to five tablets, and various folders full of papers.

“Alright then, Mari.” Tony said looking at her over his large rimmed glasses. “I understand you are the one they put in charge around here while I’m under the weather.”

Marinette bit the inside of her cheek at his butchering of her name. And then decided to go with it and play the role he was implying she was supposed to have.

“Yup, so don’t you think I’m gonna let you out of that bed.” she said firmly.

He held up his hands playfully, or mockingly, who’s to be sure.

“Wouldn’t dream of it Sheriff.” he said. “Actually, I need to ask you about some things if you wouldn’t mind taking time out of your busy day.”

Marinette sighed. Nat had warned her that Tony was used to getting his way, and she figured that if she tried to deny him any requests that she would never hear the end of it. Or more likely was that he would keep at it until he got what he was after anyway, so there was no point to avoid it.

“Sure.” she said with a huff. “What do you need to know?”

Tony lifted the tablet in front of him and looked at it while he talked to her.

“So, this Miraculous Box.” he said. “Would you say it had any kind of magic in it? Or is that just in the trinkets inside?”

She pursed her lips. Why was he reading up on the Miracle Box?

“The box was enchanted with a special lock, that only the Guardian can open.” she explained.

“I see.” he said, as if the information was unimportant, even though he had just asked about it. “Would you say that the fact it was stolen is a big deal, or just a minor inconvenience?”

Marinette fought a feeling of guilt that welled up inside her at what he had just said. Was he trying to goad her, or make her feel like she wasn’t doing a good enough job as the Guardian?

“It’s not like it was a good thing.” she admitted. “But the fact that no Miraculous were taken is all that matters in the end.”

Tony placed the tablet down on the table and simply looked at her over his glasses again.

“You know, your little friend who stole it, Lila was it-?” Tony began to say.

“She’s not my friend.” Marinette snapped.

Tony help up his hand defensively.

“Sorry, your... classmate.” he amended. “She did a lot of damage around here.”

Marinette looked down at her arms.

“Trust me, I’m aware.” she said really wishing she was anywhere else but here.

Tony grabbed another tablet and looked at it.

“Do you think she will return?” he asked as he pressed keys on the touch screen.

Marinette frowned. Was this line of questions really necessary. He likely already know that she didn’t have a firm answer. Perhaps he was testing her through her replies.

“There’s no way to know.” she replied. “She didn’t get any Miraculous, but as far as she knew, she killed her primary target. So it’s fifty-fifty I would say.”

Tony made a face of consideration, then nodded and leaned back into his pillows.

“Alright then.” he said with a flutter of his hand in the air. “I’m done with my questions.”

Marinette bit her lip in frustration. The man was infuriating. She had given him the benefit of the doubt because of his grief, but he was getting to the line where she would have to just consider him to be irredeemable.

Without a word more, she walked out of the room.

Tony watched as Marinette left and then looked down at the tablet in front of him.

Displayed on the tablets screen were two project files.

Barn Door Protocol

Miracle Box, Mark 1

Chapter Text

“Gone?” Adrien said in shock. “Where did she go?”

Natasha frowned and looked at the ground. She found herself hesitating to tell the young man the truth as to why Marinette had run away. In his bedridden state, she was unsure what the news would do to his recovery efforts.

“She blamed herself for Thanos destroying the infinity stones so we couldnt undo the decimation.” Natasha said and then looked away ashamed. “And, unfortunately she wasn’t the only one who did.”

Adrien shook his head and searched Nat’s eyes for answers.

“Why would it be her fault?” he asked.

Natasha crossed her arms and looked out the nearby window.

“Before Thor killed him, Thanos told us the reason he felt it necessary to destroy them.” Natasha said. “Trust me, we were all surprised when he said her name. That Dupain-Cheng was watching him, and that he knew we would be coming for the stones because of her.”

Adrien’s eyes went wide.

“How could he possibly have known about her?” he asked.

Natasha shook her head. Anything she said would merely be conjecture, but she decided to go with the possible explanation Bruce had given her.

“It’s likely that when they used Marinette’s transformation into Ladybug to connect the deep space scanner to the energy layer, that Thanos became aware of her. Much in the same way she was aware of him.”

Natasha watched as the young man mulled over what she had said. Poor thing had just woken for the first time in a week, a smile on his face, immediately asking for Marinette. And Nat had dashed his hopes with this bad news.

She couldn’t imagine how disjointed and painful his position was, waking randomly now and then to simply hear about the world that was passing him by.

Not to mention that Nat had seen how Marinette had always looked at Adrien, and it was obvious that the two loved each other. So she knew that waking to find her gone like this must be heartbreaking for him.

“Did she give any indication of where she was going?” He asked after a few moments.

“Actually, she left you something.” Natasha replied.

From her pocket, Natasha pulled the sealed envelope Marinette had left and handed it to him.

Adrien took it and held it in his hands for a moment before opening it. She stood quietly and watched him read it, hoping that he may offer something up as to where Marinette went. It was a private letter, but Nat couldn’t help but hope it would lead to finding her lost ward.

After a moment, his face became sad and he looked up at her. Without a word he handed her the note, offering for her to read it.

Natasha took the single piece of paper and turned it over to look at it.

Dearest Adrien.

I’m sorry that I can’t be here when you wake, like the last time.

But I have something I need to do.

I am the reason that our parents, our friends, everyone who vanished, aren’t coming back.

So to make up for that, I promise you that I will not stop until I find a way to restore Plagg.

So that at least you, my love, can be whole again.

Please know that I’m carrying a part of you with me, my Chaton.

And that nothing will stop me from coming back to you when this is done.

Love,

Marinette.

PS. Please tell Nat I’m sorry, and that she doesn’t have to worry.

I’ll be back soon.

Natasha looked up and locked eyes with Adrien who, a credit to him in this the situation, actually smiled.

“When Marinette gets determined, she’s hard to stop. So I’m sure she will be back soon, like she says.

Natasha nodded, even though she was not feeling very reassured. Then she looked back down at the letters last word.

Soon.

One

----Year

--------Later

Marinette furrowed her brow as she looked ahead of her at the stone steps curving upward and out of sight towards the highest points of the mountain.

“Why do all of these hidden temples have to be so, hidden?” she said with a huff. “I mean, I don’t see why the sling ring couldn’t take us right there.”

“The temple is warded against teleportation, remember?” Tikki said from her shoulder. “But I’m sure we are almost there, that peak seems familiar to me”

Marinette shook her head as she pulled out her small weathered notebook and turned to the most recent page to review the information scrawled there.

“A lot can change in five thousand years, Tikki.” Marinette said. “Besides, are you sure your memory is that good?”

Tikki crossed her arms and made an overacted huff.

“You try living this long and remembering your first address.” the kwami said with an air of humor. “Besides, you’re one to talk, you forgot about your own birthday last month.”

Marinette frowned, reminded of the lie she had told. She hadn’t had the heart to tell Tikki that she hadn’t really forgotten, but instead she had just not wanted to face the fact it had been a full year since they had left on this quest.

She had turned sixteen alone, with no friends or family around to celebrate with her.

No Alya, No Nino, No Nat.

Worst of all, No Adrien.

But it hadn’t been all bad. The kwami had all surprised her with the gift of a song, one that they had learned thousands of years before, and it had been lovely.

And she was sure if Wong knew her birth date, that he would have said something when she had checked in with him last.

A cold wind blew past her and she shivered, pulling her coat tighter.

“Well, let’s hope this temple isn’t too much higher up, or we may freeze before we find it.” Marinette said.

“Are you sure you don’t want to become Ladybug?” Tikki asked. “We could get there much quicker, and you wouldn’t be affected by the cold.”

Marinette shook her head and started to walk again, determined.

“I won’t give them the chance to find me again.” she said, her breath becoming visible as the temperature grew colder. “You know very well they can track me when I transform outside of the Sanctum.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tikki droop in defeat.

“Tikki, I’m sorry.” Marinette said to try to comfort her partner. “You know that I need to do this alone. Especially knowing what we do now about the ceremony. I can’t risk anyone else being there, or trying to stop me.”

Tikki looked up at her, and nodded in understanding.

After trudging upward for another ten minutes, they finally reached a stone door into the side of the mountain. A symbol matching the one that had been on the Miracle Box etched into it.

Marinette and Tikki exchanged a glance and the kwami flew into the door, passing through it. And after a moment the door started to slide aside so that Marinette could enter.

Thankfully, it wasn’t as cold inside, but it was dark. She lit her lamp and started down into the passageway, Tikki peering at various etchings in the wall as they went.

“This is definitely the place. I remember these.” the little red bug said excitedly.

“Any idea what they mean?” Marinette asked shining a light toward them as she walked.

“They are memorials to every past Guardian of The Miraculous.” Tikki said. “The further into the cave, the newer the memorial.”

Marinette watched as the etchings grew more extravagant as they went along and wondered as to the significance.

Eventually the passage opened into a large cavernous room. In it’s center was a stone pedestal, surrounded by countless etchings on the floor and walls.

“Is this it?” Marinette asked.

Tikki flew forward and landed on the pedestal and then turned to Marinette.

“Yes. This is where I was first bound to the Miraculous and obtained my physical form.” Tikki said, almost seeming nostalgic.

Marinette looked around the room and followed the memorial carvings with her eyes as they spun around the perimeter and eventually stopped directly across from the pedestal. If the memorials were truly added as time went on, she wondered what the plan had been when there was no space left to add any more. As it was now, there was likely only room for one more etching.

After placing her backpack on the ground, she stepped forward and placed her hand on the pedestal. It was warm.

There was mystical energy here still.

“Alright then. Let’s get set up.”

Chapter Text

The strange howl of the mountain air passing through the tunnels around her was fairly eerie. Especially when coupled with the quiet rumble of the mountain itself which seemed to shift as if it was alive somehow.

The absence of any kind of life here left her feeling more alone that usual. Not to mention that she almost felt as if the rows of etchings on the wall were watching her somehow. But they didn’t have any eyes or faces, just lines in lovely patterns.

Marinette sat cross legged in the center of the room, leaning against the stone pedestal, her eyes closed.

Atop the smooth rocky surface behind her she had placed six rather normal looking objects.

A hair comb, a pendant necklace, a pocket watch, a circlet, an anklet, and a ring.

Of course, that had been almost a day ago.

“Tikki.” she said with a sigh. “Maybe I missed something?”

Tikki, who had been sitting quietly the entire time, watching from outside the circle etched upon on the floor, started to float and came toward her.

“I’m not sure what else there could be.” the kwami said. “We prepared the ritual to the letter.”

Marinette uncrossed her legs and rubbed her face to get it’s feeling back. She had been sitting perfectly still concentrating for hours.

“Maybe It’s not possible to empower Miraculous if you already possess one?” Marinette hypothesized as she stood and turned to face the pedestal.

“Well, there is no way for you to renounce me.” Tikki said landing on the pedestal next to the ring. “My Miraculous is literally part of your body, it would be impossible to remove.”

Marinette furrowed her brow.

Impossible.

Had she come all this way and discovered that she wasn’t able to do this?

Marinette shook her head in frustration. But before she could say anything more, on the wall directly opposite her, something glinting in the light from the fires she had lit caught her eye.

The empty space she had noted the day before, as the ‘last place’ for an etching to be added, now contained one.

“Tikki, was that always there?” Marinette asked as she stepped around the pedestal and walked toward the curious new addition.

“I’m not sure.” Tikki said. “But it seems different than the rest.”

Her partner was correct of course. She could see now that the lines of the etching, rather than appearing to be carved into the wall itself, was instead formed from crystal looking veins that had simply sprouted forth and taken shape.

She regarded the shape of it. Not sharp lines and perfect angles and curves like the other etchings, but instead almost disjointed patterns and noise.

As she stared at it, a new bit of crystal appeared on the outer edges and she stepped back startled.

“Is it... growing?” Marinette asked.

Tikki said nothing, so she turned to look at the kwami, and when her eyes fell upon her she saw that her partner seemed almost entranced by what she was seeing.

“Tikki?” Marinette inquired.

But Tikki said nothing.

Marinette thought back to the scrolls and tomes she had read on the ritual that had been used to make the pact with the kwami five thousand years before. There had been no mention of what would happen if a kwami was already present in the chamber.

A strange wind sound across the room drew her from her thoughts and she looked toward the entrance she had come from. It had almost sounded like the tunnel was breathing outwardly. But she could see nothing there.

She glanced back to the etching, and saw that it’s crystal lines were spreading. A lot. They had already reached the previous guardians etching and had started to replace it.

“What have I done?” she asked fearfully.

This temple had been pristine and untouched for thousands of years, and she had come and broken it. Was she truly so destined to be clumsy that her mere presence would destroy the things around her?

She slowly reached her hand up to the etching that was now being overtaken by the newest one. As she touched it she got a sudden flash before her eyes of the image of a face and pulled her hand back reflexively.

It had been a face she recognized.

“Master Fu?”

She looked around at all of the etchings and realized then that each must have been added mystically. As no one had likely been here to add Master Fu’s etching when he had become the last guardian.

So did that mean that this new etching was representative of her? If so, why was it spreading out like it was? Even now it had already doubled in size and had overtaken Master Fu’s completely. Yet she noticed that it had not actually overwritten it completely, instead it had turned the stone lines of his, into crystal lines just like hers.

She slowly raised her hand to the center of the new etching. If it was hers, perhaps she was supposed to interact with it, reel it in somehow with her own will.

She bit her lip, unsure.

As her hand made contact with the crystal lines, there was a flash before her eyes, much as there had been before. But this time, the image she had seen before pulling her hand back had been that of a nightmare.

Even though it had been only for a split second, the image still lingered now her eyes.

It was an image of her, completely bathed in a light that exuded from her body. The earth around her crumbling, and countless people crowded together around her, all turning to ash. Her vision had shot back then to that of the entire earth, vanishing within the light.

Overtaken by the imagery, she fell to the floor, breathing hard, a cold sweat pouring down her face. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to scrub the image from her mind, but it remained.

“Marinette!” she heard Tikki call out to her.

She snapped opened her eyes to look to her partner, but before she could focus on Tikki, her eyes went wide at the sight before her.

She quickly stood and looked around wildly.

The entire room was covered in the crystal veins. Every inch of stone wall, every corner and cranny, all etched.

“Tikki?” Marinette asked, barely able to form the words.

“Thank goodness!” Tikki said floating down in front of her, relief on her face. “I was starting to worry you wouldn’t ever come back.”

“Come back?” she asked with a confused blink. “What do you mean?”

Tikki floated there for a second in contemplation.

“Marinette…” the kwami said hesitantly. “You’ve been in that trance for a week.”

Marinette felt herself feeling a bit feint at that revelation. A week? There was no way that was possible, she would have starved. Not to mention that to her, only a split second had passed.

She glanced at the room around her again at the crystal veins. If it was true that so much time had passed, then it made sense how the veins had grown so far and so instantaneously, at least from her perspective.

Her eyes then fell on the six objects in the center of the room atop the now completely crystal vein covered stone pedestal. There were familiar colors and shapes now present on the previously generic version of the objects she had laid there.

There they were, all six previously lost Miraculous.

She had done it.

“Tikki.” Marinette said questioningly as she walked over and stared down at the Miraculouses before her. “I thought that there was to be some kind of communion with the universes energies? A pact that I was supposed to make. Why don’t I remember anything?”

“I’m not sure, Marinette,” Tikki replied. “Perhaps you are not meant to remember.”

Marinette looked around her again, and frowned. If she couldn’t remember the pact, how would she know what she had given up? The ritual was said to have a cost, a toll on the ones who were present. It had been the reason she wanted to come alone.

She had worried that it may have taken more than one person to make a pact with so many kwami at once, but she hoped that her body and soul’s tempering would help. And perhaps it had. But at what cost? This room of memoriam was now completely and forever changed.

She glanced back to where her guardian etching had begun to appear. There was no more room, no place to make any more Guardian etchings. Somehow she knew what that meant.

She was the last Guardian there would ever be.

Not sure as to the implications of that, she shook her head and focused on the matter at hand, reaching down for the Black Cat Miraculous.

She shared a glance with Tikki as she picked it up and slowly placed it on her finger.

There was a flash of light as a little black kwami appeared with a smile on his face.

Chapter Text

Adrien glanced up at the Gothic looking building in front of him, focusing for a moment on the large round window above him.

The address plaque to his right said 117a Bleecker St.

He pulled out the letter he had received from Marinette the day before and double checked the address. Seemed like this was the right place.

Slowly he walked up the two steps to the front door and knocked.

His heart was racing. It had been a year since he had seen Marinette, and he had longed every day for a chance to do so again, and it seemed that day had finally come.

While it was true that she had sent him letters occasionally to let him know that she was thinking of him, he had never been able to send a letter back. She had never included her return address, and her whereabouts were unknown to even the Avengers.

Nat and Bruce had attempted to track Marinette using the scanner she herself had helped build, locking onto her energies any time she became Ladybug. But by the time they could reach where she had transformed, she was always long gone. Natasha had even said she was impressed by Marinette’s ability to avoid detection.

Adrien frowned at the thought of the Avenger’s hunting Marinette like she was some kind of threat to them, even though he knew that’s not why they were doing it. He knew that Natasha was Marinette’s legal guardian and had a responsibility to keep track of her and make sure she was alright.

But Marinette was not making Natasha’s job easy.

The door in front of Adrien made a clicking noise as someone turned the latch. He breathed in, not knowing what to expect. Would it be her on the other side?

“Adrien.” Wong said as the door opened fully. “Please come in.”

Adrien stood in shock for a moment. Wong had assisted him almost weekly over the last year to heal his spirit bridge, and yet the master of the mystic arts had never mentioned being in contact with Marinette.

He breathed out to clear his mind of the slight feeling of betrayal and followed the man through the open door. Soon they were inside the impressive foyer, which actually reminded him of the one in his old home at the Agreste Manor in Paris, just darker and more gloomy.

“Please wait here, she will be with you shortly.” Wong said and then walked toward the left of the impressive stair case in the center of the room and then out of sight.

Adrien stood in silence at the foot of the steps, and slowly turned to look behind him at the door back out to the streets of Greenwich Village. The last year, almost seeming to stretch out behind him like a bad memory, was something he wanted so badly to forget.

He had been through a rough recovery, only waking once every few days at first, and then more often as the weeks went by. But eventually he had regained his life, and now he only slept when he was tired and laid himself down to rest of his volition.

Part of him had held frustration toward Marinette for abandoning him during his recovery. But after finally hearing the full story about how Rhodes had lashed out at Marinette and blamed her for the stones being destroyed, he had understood her desire to get away. The colonel of course had regretted his actions, even going so far as to apologize to Adrien himself for causing Marinette to run away.

Eventually, Adrien had found himself with a normal life, or at least as normal as you can have living at the Avengers campus. Usually, only heroes would stay there within those walls, but Bruce banner had agreed to be his legal guardian, much in the same way Natasha had become Marinette’s. So he remained there under the watchful care of the brilliant man.

Adrien had even registered with the Sokovia Accords, regardless of the fact his powers were technically gone without a Miraculous. Although, like Marinette, he had discovered that he was skilled well above average in most physical capabilities for his age and stature. This was due to the effects of the tempering from his prior kwami bonding while having been Chat Noir.

“Adrien.” Marinette’s voice came from behind him which caused his heart to ache at the melody of the sound.

He turned slowly to look up at her and saw that she was coming down the steps.

Breathing in hard he took in her visage, and marveled at her. She looked to be carrying herself in a way that made her seem older, yet at the same time she had hardly changed in appearance at all.

The only real difference in how she looked from the last time he had seen her was her hair.

Her normally bundled locks were instead free, long and flowing, well past her shoulders and reaching down toward the center of her back. As she walked, her hair swayed back and forth, bouncing around her shoulders and arms at times. Yet she didn’t seem to care that it was so unruly and free.

“Marinette.” Adrien whispered as he steped forward to meet her at the bottom of the stairs.

They both stopped as they reached each other and simply stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment.

“I missed you.” she said, her eyes becoming watery. “I’m sorry it took so long.”

He reached his hand up and touched her face, much like he had the last time they were together. And in the same way she had then, she reached up and held his hand there.

“I missed you too.” he said and then pulled her in close to embrace her.

They hugged tightly for a time, and Adrien could feel the wetness of her tears on his neck as she pressed her head against him. She was crying, from joy or something else, he did not know.

“Are you alright?” he asked pulling back from the hug and looking her in the eyes.

She nodded to him and wiped her tears, a smile forming on her lips.

“I just didn’t know if you would even want to see me again after how I left.” she admitted. “And when you hugged me, I felt relieved for the first time in forever.”

Adrien shook his head and put a hand on either side of her face to focus her gaze on him.

“I understand why you left.” he said to reassure her. “The only thing I wished, is that you hadn’t felt like you needed to do it for me.”

Marinette looked down at the ground between them, almost seeming ashamed.

“I just wanted to make you whole again.” she said.

“Marinette.” He said without hesitation. “You’re the one that makes whole.”

She smiled at that, and before he realized what was happening, she was kissing him.

This kissed lasted longer than their last, and he relished in it, not wanting it to end.

“Aw man, I come back from the brink of oblivion, and I gotta endure seeing this kind of thing?” a familiar shrewd voice broke into the moment.

Adrien opened his eyes and pulled back from the kiss with a smile. He looked to the right and up the stairs to where he now saw Plagg, floating beside Tikki.

“Plagg!” Adrien cried out in joy as the kwami floated toward him with a smile.

“Now, before I get any closer, you aren’t going to kiss me too are you?” Plagg asked cautiously.

Adrien smiled and shook his head with a chuckle.

“Okay then!” Plagg replied and quickly flew into Adrien’s cheek where he hugged him. “I’ve missed you, Adrien!”

Adrien turned to look at Marinette, who had been joined by Tikki beside them.

“When you said you were going to find him, I never imagined...” he said, then asking. “How did you do it?”

Marinette smiled and pulled some hair out of her face, seeming almost shy suddenly.

“Well, it turns out that the decimation had ended the pact any vanished kwami had made to be in the physical world.” Marinette said. “Took me a long time to discover the things I needed to restore that pact in the same way it had been created five thousand years ago.”

Adrien was in awe. She had done it. He had definitely always had faith in her ability to succeed, but at the same time, he had assumed it was just an impossible a task and that her determination would have just faded over time.

“There’s more though.” she continued. “It’s almost as if I was meant to do this. That this was all supposed to happen.”

Adrien looked to Plagg, who shrugged.

“What do you mean?” he asked, his curiosity growing.

“The Chinese monk who originally made the pact with the energies of the universe all those years ago.” Marinette said. “Turn’s out I’m his last living descendant.”

Adrien’s mouth dropped and he quickly recovered his composure. She was right that there was little chance that something like that would be a coincidence. But that would mean the universe had intended she become Ladybug even before she had been born. The real question now was whether or not that also meant that the universe itself had known the decimation would occur and that she would be the one to restore the lost kwami.

“It’s also why I have such a strong reaction to the Tempering.” she explained further. “It’s literally in my blood to be a Miraculous wielder.”

“That’s incredible.” Adrien exclaimed.

“There’s a lot more I need to show you. But first...” Marinette said as she took off the black cat ring from her finger and handed it to him. He hesitated, and then placed the ring on his own finger.

Plagg having returned to him, Adrien realized that Marinette had been right in her earlier assertion. He did feel whole again.

He watched as Marinette lifted her arm and pressed a button on a little red watch she was wearing which Adrien couldn’t help but feel was of an oddly familiar design.

When he heard a strange whooshing sound from behind him he turned and saw a rectangular case floating towards them. It was being propelled by propulsors that he immediately recognized as being of Stark design.

Adrien looked to Marinette questioningly.

“Yeah...” she said with an attempt to make an innocent face. “Tony Stark has been helping me.”

Adrien sighed at learning yet another truth that was contrary to what everyone had thought.

Stark had left the campus shortly after Marinette, and he had appeared to be leaving the hero life behind him. Roger’s had tried to convince Tony that they needed him still, but the man had declined in order to spend time with his fiance.

But it seemed that Stark had other things on his mind besides retirement and marraige, and Adrien now wondered why he would be so keen to help Marinette.

The Stark case landed in front of them, and produced a green laser that scanned Marinette up and down. When it completed, the box opened at multiple points and produced various Miraculous.

Adrien realized then that it was a Miracle Box.

He watched as Marinette pulled out the Miraculous shaped like a pocket watch.

“I wanted to bring you in on the plan.” Marinette said, determination in her voice.

Adrien looked at her and noticed that she almost seemed to be wearing a dire look on her face.

“What plan?” he asked.

She held up the pocket watch and a glowing orb appeared which produced a rabbit kwami.

“To go back in time and stop Thanos.” she said confidently. “Before he snaps his fingers.”

Chapter Text

After Adrien had transformed into Chat Noir for the first time in more than a year, he found himself almost on the verge of tears. He had missed this feeling of actually being able to make a difference in the world, and to fight for what was right alongside his partners.

He glanced beside himself to where Ladybug was conversing with fluff, the little rabbit kwami that he had just been introduced to. Supposedly the rabbit Miraculous contained the power of evolution which granted the ability for it’s user to travel through time and space.

Marinette had explained that she intended to use that very ability to travel back to the day before Thanos snapped his fingers, to try and assist the Avengers in their fight against the titan in hopes of preventing the decimation.

“Altering the future, I mean the past, wait, was that it? Well, it’s not a power that should ever be taken lightly. You could break the world.” Fluff said as she flew about in place, even spinning upside down at one point. The little kwami seemed very hyper or scattered, or perhaps both.

“I’m afraid we are already out of other options, Fluff.” Ladybug said. “At this point, the world is already broken, and we are looking to repair it.”

“So, did we want to call in the Avengers on this?” Chat suggested. “I mean, the more heroes the better, right?”

Ladybug turned to him and seemed to consider that. But then she shook her head.

“They all already exist in the past where the fight takes place.” She explained. “I figure since we were still in Paris at the time, we have less of a chance of causing some kind of paradox by meeting ourselves. The less interactions like that that we have the better.”

Chat didn’t quite understand the whole time travel and paradox thing, but he figured that Ladybug had been planning this for an entire year, so he may as well give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Besides, Stark seemed fairly adamant that time travel was not possible without some kind of negative side effect.” Ladybug said with a frown. “He said something about boards and scales, I don’t remember. But in the end, he was only considering time travel via science terms, not magic.”

Chat looked down. He knew that Stark was a genius, so perhaps they shouldn’t preclude his opinion completely.

“What if he is right?” he asked. “Couldn’t we do a lot of damage?”

Ladybug looked at him sharply, as if she was about to yell at him. But her expression immediately softened again when she locked eyes with him. He figured that if anyone else had said what he had, she wouldn’t have recovered from the anger so readily. He wondered what it was she was so mad about.

“Listen, I’ve thought a lot about this.” She said. “It’s far past time to undo the decimation. Even if we cease to exist because of it.”

Chat’s ears perked up at that.

“What do you mean?” he asked hesitantly.

She looked at him again and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“If this works, then this future we live in will no longer exist. Therefore, neither will we.”

Chat frowned. He wanted more than anything to fix all of this and to undo the decimation. But if they erased this present, then the past versions of them would never be able to fall in love like they had in this timeline. They would never have discovered each others identities, never admitted their feelings, never kissed.

He shook his head to perish the thought. Was he really weighing he and Marinette’s love against trillions of lives throughout the entire universe? No, she was right. The stakes were too high to not consider sacrificing themselves to fix it all.

“I understand.” He said having resigned himself to whatever fate would befall them. “And I’m with you.”

She smiled a sad smile and began to walk away, but he put his hand on her shoulder and stopped her before she got to far.

“Just in case we do cease to exist...” he said and then pulled her close to him where he kissed her deeply one more time. She wrapped her arms around him and it felt as if she never wanted to let go.

As they both eventually pulled back from their kiss, Chat cursed at fate for only now giving him such joy, amid this broken and bleak future.

“Tikki, Fluff, lets unify!” Ladybug said without further hesitation and added the powers of the rabbit to her already transformed ladybug suit.

When she had finished the unification, she appeared to now be dressed as a white and blue polka dotted ladybug with what looked like a bunny eared hood pulled back down onto her back. Her hair was up in two top-knotted pony tails that almost looked like large pointed ears themselves.

“Should I call you Lady Cottontail now?” Chat asked wryly.

She looked up at him and smiled, only rolling her eyes a little bit. He liked this new acceptance of his flirtations that she had come to offer.

“You know, I’ve missed that wit of yours.” she said, not giving him any indication of if she actually liked the name or not. So he figured he would just go with it.

“Alright, let’s give this a go.” she said.

Lady Cottontail closed her eyes to concentrate. After a quiet moment, she lifted her arm and started to make a circle in the air with her hand.

“Burrow!”

In front of the two heroes a circle of white light appeared and floated in place.

Chat Noir and Lady Cottontail looked at each other questioningly, and then they held eachothers hand and leapt into the circle together.

Suddenly Chat found himself falling from a fair height towards a pile of what looked like wreckage below him. Thankfully, before he hit the ground, he felt an arm wrap around his waist and halt his fall.

When he looked up to the one holding him firmly with her arm, he saw Lady Cottontail, and they were both floating down safely now, thanks to an open umbrella of all things.

“Glad that I can always count on you, Mi’lady.” he said with a smile and a wink.

She rolled her eyes again, but also winked back afterwards.

When they landed on the ground, They both looked around curiously.

“Uh, Mi’Lady.” Chat said, a tad confused. “I’m not sure this is Wakanda.”

The landscape around them was unfamiliar, littered with the ruins and debris of strange star shaped architecture. Above them, floating in the air were bits of rubble, suspended as if gravity wasn’t working quite right here.

“No, it’s not.” Lady Cottontail said. “But I do know this place.”

“This is the planet Titan.” a deep intense voice said from behind them which drew Chat’s attention. He turned to see a man wearing an extravagant looking blue tunic and red cape, with a large golden medallion hung from his neck. The medallion itself was glowing green with strange symbols and shapes floating in the air around it.

“Okay then, and who might you be?” Chat asked.

“My name is Doctor Stephen Strange.” the man replied. “And both of you, Adrien Agreste, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, are not supposed to be here in this place, or in this time.”

“Well, to be honest with you, this isn’t exactly where we were trying to go.” Lady Cottontail admitted.

Strange walked forward and stopped before them, regarding them both as if looking at children.

“That is because you attempted to alter the past.” he explained. “The Eye of Agamotto, and the time stone within, has been set to draw all similar energies to it to prevent alterations of space time.”

“But we must be allowed to accomplish our goal.” Lady Cottontail said, frustration in her voice. “Trillions of lives hang in the balance.”

Chat watched as Strange shook his head and then appeared to take on an air of sympathy.

“I understand your position.” the man said. “But I can not allow you to threaten the singular chance we have at winning this fight against Thanos.”

“Who is we?” Lady Cottontail asked.

Strange turned and nodded toward their right. When Chat turned to see where he was indicating, he saw a small group of people standing nearby looking at another copy of Doctor Strange, who appeared to be in a trance of some kind. They all appeared to be frozen in time.

At the groups front he could see Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit.

“We already know how this fight ends, you don’t win.” Lady Cottontail said flatly.

“I already know we lose this battle.” Strange said. “But the war will be won later. After the decimation.”

Chat turned to look at Strange, shocked at what he had said. This was clearly a time right before the decimation had happened, but the man already knew of its impending arrival.

“How can we win the war later?” Lady Cottontail asked with a snap in her voice that Chat wasn’t used to. “The stones are all destroyed in our time. Are you saying we need to take the stones back with us?”

Strange motioned with his arm and a line of golden light appeared as if a strand of rope was before them. He waved his hand and images of the six stones appeared circling around the rope of light.

“If someone from the future was to take the stones from the past within their own timeline, then time itself would unravel and be looped, split, and broken all at once.” Strange explained as he pulled a stone symbolically from the strand. The light rope scattered into thousands of tinier pieces that looked like stray hairs that each became gray and faded away. “There is another option, but your Miraculous is not capable of such a task.”

“What is the other option?” Chat asked.

“To obtain stones from a new timeline that is branching out from our own. Similar enough a timeline that the stones will still work within our universe, but different enough to not alter our own future.” Strange said. “But as I said before, your Miraculous is only capable of allowing you to travel within your own prime timeline.”

“Then how are we supposed to get the stones?” Lady Cottontail asked.

“It is not a task for you to complete.” Strange said flatly. “You must accept that your role in this war is different. Unfortunately I can not say what your role will be or things may not come to pass as they should.”

Lady Cottontail turned away from Strange suddenly and started to walk off into the distance.

“Where are you going?” Chat Noir yelled after her.

When she didn’t answer, Chat started to run after her and tried to grab her arm to stop her. But the moment he touched her, an image flashed before his eyes.

An image of Marinette, destroying the world.

Chapter Text

In the exact moment that Lady Cottontail felt Chat grab her arm, the same image that she had seen flash before her eyes in the Guardian temple did so again. But something had changed.

The same light was exuding from her body as before, but the look on her face was that of grief, rather than the flat indifferent look it had been before. Because this time, held in the arms of the Marinette within the vision, was a broken and beaten Adrien.

Otherwise, everything else remained the same. The people still became ash, and the world still crumbled.

She stopped dead in her tracks when her vision cleared and felt the same cold sweat she had before.

Why had it changed? Was this some kind of warning, a vision of the future? Or was she simply being tortured with these nightmarish visions as payment for the pact?

Ever since she had first seen the nightmare, she had felt an apprehension growing inside of her. And from it, an anger at herself for being the cause of something that hadn’t even happened yet, or may never happen.

“Marinette?” she heard Chat say from behind her. She couldn’t help but noticed he had used her normal name.

She turned her head slowly to face him and found that he was climbing up into a sitting position on the ground behind her.

“What was that?” He asked with fear in his voice. “What did I just see?”

Her eyes went wide. Had he seen what she had?

“I…” she started, but then stopped and looked at the landscape in front of her.

The lifeless planet on which she and Chat now stood was almost representative of the vision itself. Something similar had happened here, all civilization wiped from the face of it.

Was she to be the bringer of a similar fate to Earth?

She glanced behind her and saw Doctor Strange still standing at a distance, watching them.

“Stay here a moment.” She said abruptly to Chat and walked back toward the sorcerer.

Wong had told her about the man, and how he had quickly become able to grasp so much of the mystical arts and their working nature. A prodigy.

Whatever his skills may be, only one thing explained how he was able to know who they were, and why they had come there. He had seen it himself, perhaps also with visions.

“I have the feeling that you’ve seen the outcome to all of this, and there is one question I need to ask you before we leave.” She said firmly as she approached him once more.

Strange simply nodded.

“This power that’s been growing inside of me.” she began. “What is it’s purpose?”

Strange looked beyond her towards Chat and then back again.

“As long as you have the right catalyst…” he said with a pause. “You will balance and restore that which has yet to be lost.”

She ground her teeth together. Was that really an answer, or was it meant to be some kind of riddle? And was he really making some kind of cat pun or had she just become so used to Noir’s that she heard them everywhere now?

The sound of her pocket watch beeping broke through the moment and caught her attention.

“It’s time for you to go.” Strange said and then waved his arm in the air. The green lines and symbols that appeared near his hand and his medallion began to spin.

She felt time around her begin to rewind. Her body began to move backward against her will and she quickly experienced everything that happened in the last five minutes again, but in reverse.

Soon enough she and Chat where flying back up through the time portal they had entered through.

When she felt time return to normal, she blinked and looked around. They were back in the Sanctum as if they had never left, the time portal sitting open in front of them.

“So, are we going in… or have you changed your mind?” Chat asked her after a moment.

She realized then that Strange had reset it all, even Chat’s memory. But why did she still remember? Was it a choice Strange had made to keep her from trying again, or was it an effect of the evolution Miraculous that she could remember a time that hadn’t actually happened?

“No.” she said waving her arm and closing the portal.

Chat seemed confused by her sudden turnabout but didn’t press her for an explanation. She felt a tinge of guilt about the fact that he always seemed to be so willing to follow her without question, because right now she had no idea what to do next.

“Tikki, Fluff, divide” Lady Cottontail said, becoming Marinette once more.

She turned to Chat and the two kwami and tried to look as calm and collected as she could, even though inside she was full of turmoil and uncertainty.

“It’s time to go home.” she said.

For some reason, Fluff giggled.

Marinette stepped out of the car when Adrien opened the door for her.

She felt Nat’s gaze upon her the moment she was clear of the vehicle and her heart sank. She wasn’t looking forward to the lectures she was about to get.

“Hey Nat.” Marinette said weakly, not making eye contact.

She was startled when she found Nat suddenly hugging her.

“Welcome Home, Little One.” Nat said, squeezing her tight.

Marinette didn’t know what to say, so she simply looked up at Nat when she pulled back from the embrace. The woman’s eyes were red which made Marinette feel guilt well up inside of her.

After they all moved inside, they were greeted by Rocket. Marinette again avoided eye contact.

“Hey.” the raccoon said, sounding a bit awkward about the whole thing, which Marinette understood.

And yet, again she was surprised when Rocket took her hand in his paw. She looked down and met his gaze.

“Glad you ain’t dead.” he said flatly, yet Marinette caught the hint of sentiment in his words.

She felt the guilt again.

They moved on again, and when they reached the glass doors of the conference lounge, she saw Rhodes standing inside looking up at some monitors. Her heart sank when she saw him take notice of her.

She quickly looked away and started to walk on past the doors towards her room.

“Marinette.” she heard Rhodes say from behind her before she could get too far. She stopped walking and clenched her eyes shut.

“I was wrong to blame you.” he said.

Marinette opened her eyes slowly and then turned back to look at him, but he had already begun to walk away down the opposite hall.

Nat and Adrien were standing nearby, watching her still.

“I don’t get it.” she said. “After what I did…”

“You did exactly what we asked you to do.” Nat said as she took a step forward. “You found Thanos for us.”

Marinette still didn’t really feel like she deserved this warm welcome, but she nodded anyway.

Adrien stepped into place beside her and took her hand.

“Stop it.” he said.

She looked up at him quickly, with a look of confusion on her face.

“I know you are still blaming yourself for the stones.” he said looking her in the eyes. “But it isn’t your fault.”

She frowned. Was she really being that obvious?

“You say that, but I was-” Marinette began to say, her guilt edging itself toward the surface.

“Being too awesome?” Adrien said quickly with a smile.

She looked at him, confused again.

“Thanos destroyed the stones because he knew you had found him, right?” Adrien said with an almost wry tone like one she would have expected from him as Chat Noir. “So it’s not a stretch to say that he was scared of you. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.”

Marinette’s mouth fell open, unsure what to say.

“He’s right.” Nat said, also with a smile. “Everyone here was afraid to face Thanos again. And yet he was afraid of you.”

She knew that they were trying to cheer her up, but she just couldn’t see the things they were.

“I still ran away and made you all worry.” she said, fighting against their reassurances. “That’s on me. I was being selfish.”

Adrien shook his head again, and nodded toward Plagg who was floating beside Tikki to their right.

“You saved Plagg and reunited him with me.” Adrien offered. “Doesn’t sound very selfish to me.”

“I was with you the whole time Marinette.” Tikki said. “You never stopped worrying about everyone else. Not once.”

“And in the same way you worried about us, we just wanted to know that you were safe.” Nat said as she stepped beside Adrien. “Because you are a part of this strange, beautiful family.”

Marinette looked at each of their faces and saw nothing but sincerity there. Had she been mistaking their attempts to find her all this time for something more negative? She had assumed they were trying to stop her, to keep her from making more mistakes, because they didn’t trust her.

Deep down, she felt something that began to slowly replace the guilt that had been eating away at her.

A sense of relief and comfort.

She was finally home.

Chapter Text

Adrien woke in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat.

What a strange nightmare it had been.

He sat up and breathed in heavily, trying to scrub the images from his mind by thinking of happier thoughts. But it was to no avail.

Marinette had just returned home that same day, so it made sense that she would be on his mind, and possibly even in his dreams. But the severity of this nightmare had caught him off guard.

He threw his blanket and sheets aside to let his body breathe. Perhaps he should have slept above the covers, his pajama pants and shirt likely being enough on this warm summer night in upstate New York.

He sighed and climbed out of bed. The entire ordeal had made him worry about Marinette, and he wanted to check on her.

Looking at the clock, he saw that it was two thirty three in the morning. She would likely be fast asleep, and it would be strange to check on her at this hour. But he couldn’t shake the feeling the nightmare had given him.

A sense of dread that she was in trouble.

He hazarded a glance to the small bed that he had made for Plagg and saw that his kwami partner was fast asleep, yet still quietly mumbling about cheese.

Deciding not to wake Plagg, Adrien crossed the carpeted floor and quietly opened his bedroom door. He could tell that no one else was awake at this hour, as the hall was dark and quiet. So he made his way two doors down, passing by Widow’s room.

In the back of Adrien’s mind, he imagined that Nat would not be too keen on him sneaking to Marinette’s room in the middle of the night, and who in their right mind would want to anger a former assassin?

Yet his compulsion to check on Marinette continued even still.

When he reached Marinette’s door, he considered knocking. But he figured that the chances that she would be awake were slim. So instead he slowly turned the knob and cracked open the door.

I’ll just peek in and make sure she is alright, and then go back to my room. He thought, convincing himself that it wasn’t weird. Or was it?

He shook his head, clearing the argument against himself from his mind.

As the crack in the door got big enough for him to squeeze his head inside, he did just that.

Marinette’s room was darker than his had been, as her room was not on the side of the building the moon currently shone down upon.

But apparently it didn’t matter how dark it was.

What Adrien saw immediately gave him pause, but confirmed that he had been right to come check on her.

Marinette was glowing. Or, more specifically, the scars on her body were.

He frowned. It was almost just like it had been in his nightmare, albeit she was glowing a lot less brightly, and of course, he was not laying bloody and bruised in her arms.

He pushed the door open a bit more so he could step inside and immediately wondered if he should get Natasha, or someone else. But it was also possible that Marinette knew that this happened to her at night, and it was not a threat to her.

The problem was, if she was in danger, waiting until morning to ask her about it could be too late.

Marinette started to squirm and roll her head back and forth, all the while mumbling something.

She seemed to be in distress, perhaps she was also having a nightmare.

He looked around the room for Tikki, and found that she was sleeping in her own tiny little bed, much like Plaggs. It appeared that Marinette’s tossing and turning was not enough to wake the kwami.

Adrien bit his lip and then crossed the room to where Marinette was sleeping.

“Marinette.” he whispered, trying to rouse her.

She didn’t respond or wake and continued to toss and turn.

He glanced down the scar on the right side of her neck and saw that the glow almost seemed as if it was a liquid, rolling over itself and constantly changing in luminosity at various places.

He reached down and touched her arm, hoping to draw her from her sleep.

It seemed to work, because as soon as his skin touched hers, the glowing stopped and her eyes shot open. She sat up with a start.

“Marinette.” He said again, slightly louder this time, but still a whisper. “Are you alright? You looked like you were having a nightmare.”

She looked at him, and breathed heavily, her forehead dripping of sweat.

“I was…I...” she started to say and then put her hand on her forehead. “Adrien, I am so glad you are here.”

She wrapped her arms around him and began to sob, so he returned the embrace and placed his hand on the back of her head so that he could comfortingly stroke her hair.

“It’s alright, it was just a nightmare.” Adrien said even though he himself was not able to shake the feeling that it had been more than that.

She shook her head and pulled back to look him in the eyes.

“I wasn’t honest with you today.” she admitted to him. “Something happened with the time portal, and I kept it from you.”

He felt a pit in his stomach. There had clearly been something strange about when she had opened the portal and then had immediately decided not to enter it, but he had not questioned her. She was his Ladybug, and he would gladly follow her lead, just as he had in the past during the war with Hawk Moth.

“Tell me whatever you feel comfortable telling me.” he said offering her the chance to open up on her own terms.

She reached over and turned on the light on her night stand.

“Marinette?” Tikki said groggily from nearby. “Adrien?”

“Tikki, I’m going to tell him.” Marinette said sitting up. “Everything.”

Adrien noticed Tikki seemed relieved.

He turned to Marinette and sat on the bed near her knees and took her right hand in his. He then nodded to her, prepared to listen.

Marinette told him everything that had happened at the Guardian Temple with the etchings, the visions, and blacking out for a week. Then she explained what had occurred with Doctor Strange earlier that same day.

When she was done, Adrien looked at her and bit his lip, not sure how to approach the subject he was about to mention.

“I’m not sure how to tell you this.” he said hesitantly. “But I had the same vision you did, but I thought it was a nightmare. It was why I felt the need to come check on you.”

Marinette’s expression turned dour.

“But that’s not really what has me concerned.” he continued with a frown, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. “When I came in here, you were glowing just like in the vision.”

“What?” Marinette croaked.

“Your scars were all filled with this mesmerizing light.” he explained. “Honestly, if I hadn’t of seen the vision first, I would have actually considered it to be beautiful.”

Marinette closed her eyes and tilted her head down, seeming exhausted by the entire ordeal.

“I just feel like everything is working against me.” she said, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I’m just glad I have you here beside me again.”

He reached up and wiped away the tear, which caused her to look him in the eyes once more.

“You know, I never had a chance to tell you what happened to me while I was in astral form all that time.” Adrien said. “I suppose now is as good a time as any. If you are up for it?”

She nodded, rubbed her eyes with her hands to clear away the tears and then leaned back in the bed to listen to him speak.

He then told her of every moment he spent floating along beside her, trying to comfort her when she cried, cheering her on when she stood up against Luna Moth, trying to stop the bullet, and being pulled inside of her afterlife.

She began to blush when he mentioned seeing all of the moments they had shared flashing before her eyes as she died.

“I can’t believe you saw all that.” she said, clearly embarrassed he had witnessed something so personal, so private. “But I suppose, If anyone was to see it, I would want it to be you.”

He smiled and then continued on.

She seemed truly absorbed in his story about the planet with the red skull apparition, the man who had called himself a collector, and Adrien taking passage on a spaceship.

“Tikki, what are you doing?” Marinette asked at one point, drawing Adrien out of his current line of recollection.

He looked behind himself and saw that Tikki was floating around by his back, a curious expression on her face.

“I’m trying to see if there is still a connection between you.” the kwami said.

“I doubt you could see it now, It was only visible in my astral form.” Adrien said. “Besides, it’s been a year since then. Perhaps the connection has faded.”

Tikki shook her little head and flew up to land between them.

“If you are both having the same nightmares, it’s possible that you are indeed still connected in some way.” Tikki suggested.

Adrien raised an eyebrow and looked to Marinette. She smiled at him, clearly in a better mood than she had been.

“I suppose you are right.” he conceded and then looked at the clock on the wall to see that it was now four fifty one. “Perhaps I should go and let you sleep now.”

“Wait.” Marinette said, taking his hand again. “Could you stay with me until I fall asleep?”

Adrien smiled a soft smile and nodded. She released his hand and laid down in her bed, not breaking contact with his eyes as she did so. He sat on the floor beside her bed, leaning against the night stand where he could place his head directly in front of her vision.

They sat in silence for a while without breaking eye contact, and he felt more content than he had any other day in his life.

And then at some point Adrien fell asleep.

Chapter Text

When Marinette opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Adrien, still fast asleep leaning against her night stand. This of course brought a smile to her face and a feeling of joy to her heart.

But all things being equal, that feeling of joy was immediately replaced with fear and panic when she heard a knock at her door.

She sat up quickly and looked with wide eyes as the door to her room then began to open.

“Marinette.” Came Nat’s voice, sounding almost singsongy. “Bruce made pancakes and-”

When Nat had opened the door fully and her eyes had fallen near where Adrien was sitting she stopped dead in her tracks.

Marinette looked down at her pajamas and then to Adrien, and then back to Nat. She could feel herself turning a bright red that would rival her Ladybug outfit.

Nat’s face changed to one of confusion, and then she looked like she was about to be very angry.

“I can’t believe it!” Nat said in a harsh tone as Marinette pulled her covers up to her shoulders. Then her guardian whipped around and left the door way.

“It’s not what you think!” Marinette called out as she looked down at Adrien again, his eyes starting to open now.

“Marinette, whats…” Adrien said groggily and then seemed to realize he was still in her room. “Oh, uh. Good morning?”

“We are so dead.” Marinette said.

Before either of them could say anything else, more yelling came from out in the hall and after a quick moment Nat reappeared and was pulling Stark along by his arm.

Stark locked eyes with Marinette when he had fully entered the room and then looked away, clearly embarrassed by something.

Marinette glanced down at her pajama top again and quickly pulled up her covers to cover herself.

Oh god, kill me now.

“Can you explain this to me?” Nat yelled with a sweep of her arm in Marinette and Adrien’s direction.

Tony seemed non-plussed when he looked from Marinette, then to Adrien.

“Young love?” Tony replied with a shrug. “I mean, I’m not sure they have reached bird’s and bee’s territory yet, but-”

Marinette felt as if she had shrunk to the size of a pea. This was so embarrassing.

“What?” Nat spit out, seeming almost confused for a moment. “No! Not that!”

Nat walked over towards where Adrien was sitting and angrily pointed to something beside him.

“What is THAT!” She reiterated.

Marinette, Adrien and Stark all leaned to look at what Natasha had indicated and saw that it was the Miracle Box Stark had built.

“Oh, That.” Stark said, seeming to sober to the question.

“Are you telling me, you knew exactly where Marinette was this entire time?” Nat said as she walked back over towards Tony with her arms crossed.

Marinette tilted her head and wondered about the question. Stark was scratching the back of his neck, seeming to contemplate how to answer.

“I mean, I sent it to her care of Wong, I figured he would know how to get it to her.” Stark said in his own defense. “I wouldn’t say that means I knew where she was.”

Nat shook her head and pointed again at the box.

“No, Stark, I know how you are.” Nat said with a frown. “Your tech has tracking software built in from the get go. You knew EXACTLY where she was.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide. Had he been aware of her location the whole time? But if he had been, why hadn’t he told the others?

Just then, Bruce walked into the room.

“What’s going on in here?” Banner asked as he locked eyes with Marinette and then quickly looked at Adrien, still on the floor beside her. “Oh, I see.”

Marinette made a sound that could only be described as ‘Eep’, and this time pulled her covers up over her head and curled into a small ball under the blankets.

Yup, it’s official, I’m cursed.

“Bruce, Tony knew where Marinette was the whole time!” she heard Nat say, listening from the safety of her blanket cave. Everyone knew the rule that kids swore by, if you were under your covers, then you were safe from all harm.

“Tony, is that true?” Bruce asked, sounding almost betrayed. “You knew we were looking for her. Why didn’t you say anything.”

“Finding her was never in my my agenda.” Tony said.

Marinette furrowed her brow wondering what agenda he did have, if it hadn’t been that. She had wondered why Stark was helping her for the last year, but had never thought to look the gift horse in the mouth and ask him.

“Then what was?” Nat asked, as if reading Marinette’s mind.

“To keep track of the most powerful objects in existence.” Tony said flatly. “With the infinity stones gone, those little trinkets are the new ‘be all, end all’. I’d rather know where they are.”

There was a silence in the room.

Marinette swallowed hard. He was right.

Back at the first meeting of heroes she had attended here at the campus, Wong had said the kwami were the second most powerful things in the universe. She hadn’t considered that the hierarchy had been changed since then.

Of course, the fact that he hadn’t been helping her for her sake, made her feel a tinge unimportant.

“Wouldn’t having her here at the campus have made it easier to keep an eye on them?” Bruce asked.

“Yes.” Stark replied. “But Marinette is a variable we have to take into account.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Adrien asked, seeming offended and speaking up for the first time since this awkward situation had begun. Marinette winced as she had hoped he wouldn’t say anything at all to try and avoid drawing attention to the fact he was even there.

But perhaps with the current argument happening, she wouldn’t get scolded for having a boy in her room all night. Or maybe it would just mean that Nat would already be in a bad mood when she finally got around to her and Adrien’s ‘sleepover’.

“Her Identity is pretty common knowledge now.” Stark explained. “And if people knew where she was at any given time, say, by being a regular staple at Avengers campus, they would know where the Miraculous were too. It was best to have her in the wind, hiding from us, and everyone else.”

Marinette frowned. Did he really think that she was a liability. Did he really think so little of her?

“Besides, she seemed to have had things well under control.” Tony said, Marinette’s ears perking up. Okay, maybe he didn’t think so little of her after all. “I mean, seeing that not even Romanoff could find her, then I’d say it was the right choice.”

“Yes, but it wasn’t your choice to make!” Nat yelled. “She’s my responsibility, and I need to keep her safe!”

Marinette started to feel her skin get warm, and she closed her eyelids together hard. All of this talk about her importance, her safety, it was starting to make her feel like an object to be coveted as much as the Miraculous themselves. Of course, she knew that in a way, she was one.

“I really wish you would all stop talking about her like she isn’t here in the room.” Adrien said with a scolding tone. “Or treating her like she is some kind of burden or means to an end.”

There was silence for a moment again.

“Marinette is the Guardian of the Miraculous.” Adrien said. “That means that any choices regarding the Miraculous are her decision, not yours. They are not your property, and neither is she. So she should be the one to decide what she wants to do about all of this.”

Marinette found herself slowly forming a smile on her face.

I love you, you silly boy.

She could tell by the silence in the room that what he had said had made them all think hard about their own positions on the matter.

“She’s just a kid.” Stark said, in counter to what Adrien had.

“Yeah, well, so are you some days.” Nat said wryly.

Marinette snorted out a short burst of a laugh and then realized she had drawn attention to herself again.

“Hey chuckles.” Tony said. “If what your boyfriend says is true, then why don’t you join the conversation. Tell us what you think.”

Marinette blushed at the word boyfriend but quickly recovered. She slowly lowered the covers from over her head and left it at her shoulders. Looking from face to face, she found that everyone was staring at her.

“Morn’in there sunshine.” Tony said giving her an appraising look. “Care to offer up your opinion on what you want?”

Marinette contemplated what she wanted to say. Clearly they had all their own opinions on what was the correct action when it came to her and the Miraculous. And she had to admit, she really wasn’t sure what to do half the time, usually just winging it when any dire situations had arisen. So whose to say any of them weren’t more right than her?

She could see that Tony respected her powers, but still considered her too inexperienced to truly protect the Miraculous on her own. Nat seemed focused entirely on trying to protect her, as she had since the day they had met, ignoring the Miraculous part of the equation completely. And Bruce had found everything about her and the Miraculous interesting, curiosities to be researched, but respected.

And then there was Adrien, who was now standing beside the bed, looking down at her with a smile. What did he want from her? He had always been so willing to stand beside her in a fight, regardless of what she had asked him to do. Above all else, he had even almost sacrificed his own life to save hers when she had been shot.

In that way, Adrien was the only one here she truly understood. It was clear that he loved her, and she loved him. There were no other agendas present between them that she could tell.

So what should she say to them, these people in her life who all viewed her differently and wanted different things from her. What exactly should she tell them that she wanted?

She glanced over to Tikki, who was sitting on her own little bed, watching the whole conversation. The little red kwami nodded to her reassuringly.

Suddenly, something deep inside began to gnaw at her, a feeling in her gut that made her immediately know what she wanted to say.

She looked at Nat and smiled.

“Honestly.” Marinette said. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m kind of thinking I want those pancakes, now.”

Everyone’s expression changed to that of befuddled surprise.

“What?” Marinette said innocently. “I’m really hungry.”

Tony chuckled and shook his head with a smile.

“At least she knows what she wants.” Stark said. “Can’t fault her on that one.”

Five minutes later, after everyone had left so she could get dressed, Marinette was exiting her room as well.

She stopped when she heard someone clear their throat from behind her. She turned and found Nat leaning against the wall beside her door, her arms crossed.

“Look, if this is about Adrien and I…” Marinette started to say in panic.

Nat shook her head.

“Honestly, Adrien is too much of a boy scout for me to worry about you two in that way.” Widow said with a smile. “Actually, I wanted to apologize to you.”

Marinette furrowed her brow questioningly.

“Look, ever since we met, I’ve had this image of you in my mind that in many ways is insulting to who you really are.” Nat explained. “I saw you as someone who, while powerful, needed to be protected. But in reality, you are an amazing young woman who can handle herself as well as anyone else here.”

Marinette blushed a bit and then shook her head to attempt to disagree.

“Let me finish” Nat said. “I also want to apologize to you for seeing those scars on your body as a reminder of how fragile you can be. And not as the reminder of the fact that regardless of everything that has happened to you, you are still standing strong and fighting.”

Marinette smiled weakly and looked down at her own feet. She really wasn’t so great at taking compliments.

“Thank you.” Marinette said, unsure of anything else to say.

“Oh, and I almost forgot.” Nat said turning around and picking up a neatly gift wrapped box off the floor at her feet. “You weren’t around for your birthday, so I never had a chance to give this to you.”

Marinette tilted her head and felt a bit overwhelmed. This was a bit unexpected.

She took the gift and looked up at Nat who nodded for her to go ahead. Ripping at the paper she found that inside the wrapping was a fairly impressive sewing and design kit.

“Adrien mentioned your skill as a designer, and even showed me some of your portfolio, and it was all very impressive. But he also mentioned that your whole workspace back at your home in Paris had been destroyed by a helicopter.” Natasha said. “So I figured I would get you something so you could start a new one here. Give you something to do to take your mind off of everything.”

Marinette stared at the kit in her hands and began to tear up. She then proceeded to hug Nat so forcefully that the woman almost fell over.

“It’s perfect.”

Chapter Text

One Day Later.

When Adrien had asked Marinette the favor of coming with him back to the Agreste Manor in Paris, she hadn’t seen any reason to decline. But he hadn’t mentioned as to why they were going.

When they stepped through the sling ring portal into the foyer of the impressive building, Marinette felt slightly nostalgic. Yet, things seemed strange as it was quiet, dark and dusty now, no one having been there in quite some time.

Marinette glanced to Adrien to make sure he was alright. There was a good chance he wasn’t going to take this kind of trip down memory lane very well. After all, when she had just started to be on the run the year before, Marinette had actually stopped by the bakery, and had definitely a hard time of it.

She had found the outside windows covered in thank you cards and letters to her, thanking her for all the times she had saved the city, and wishing her well after having been shot. As heartfelt and endearing that it had all been, Marinette had not taken it very well to see her parents legacy usurped by her own. Nor had she been prepared to see that, because of the helicopter crash, her old room was full of pigeons and the filth they left behind.

She had been forced to sleep in her parents old bedroom that night, which meant she didn’t get much sleep, as the thoughts of them kept flooding back to her. It was true that she had already removed all of the important keepsakes back during the first week after the decimation, but there were still enough photos and memories lingering about to really make her miss them again.

And now, here stood Adrien, facing his past for the first time since he had awoken. Apparently he had inherited everything his father had after the man was counted among the vanished. But until today, he had not stepped foot in the house, stating that he hadn’t wanted to face the past alone.

She reached out and took his hand, and he looked to her with a smile.

“I want to show you something.” he said to her, a melancholy look in his eyes.

He led her by the hand into where his fathers study had been, and over toward the large painting of his mother that was on the wall there.

“I never told you, or anyone else this.” Adrien said looking up at the painting. “But when the decimation happened, I found out that my father was Hawk Moth.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide. She had never even considered that to be a possibility, not even after Nathalie had been revealed to her as Luna Moth. Of course, now she realized how obvious it was and how silly it was that she hadn’t figured it out herself. After all, it explained how Nathalie had come into possession of the butterfly and peacock Miraculous in the first place.

Perhaps the fact that the war for the Miraculous had ended had allowed her to put the villain out of her mind, with no need to pursue his identity any longer.

She looked at Adrien’s face, clearly he was still hurt by the revelation, even a year later. She furrowed her brow as she considered the shock that must have hit him when he had discovered all of this. And of course the wonder of it all, someone so close to him being his own enemy. What were the chances that he had been chosen to be Chat Noir without his father’s identity having been a factor?

Master Fu had always acted like he had no idea who Hawk Moth was, so clearly he hadn’t chosen Adrien for that reason. So had it been fate, or bad luck, or some cosmic joke by the universe to lead the former Guardian to choose this particular Miraculous holder?

Marinette shook her head. This was another yet another clue that suggested that someone, or something, was guiding everything that happened to them. She had been slowly feeling more and more like she had less and less control over her own fate.

She watched as Adrien pushed a few spots on the painting with his fingers, and she was startled when the painting made a clicking noise and the floor below them was revealed as an elevator.

They rode downward in silence.

When they approached the bottom, a large room opened up before them fully visible through the glass elevator shaft. In the center of the room, on a raised platform, was a small garden of now dead plants and what looked to be a glass coffin.

As the elevator door opened, Adrien stepped forward and walked across the catwalk leading to the raised platform in front of them. Marinette followed silently, looking about her curiously.

Adrien stopped in front of the empty glass coffin and placed his hand upon it.

“This is where my father had my mother stashed away.” he said solemnly. “She was in a coma, much like I had been after the decimation.”

Marinette’s mouth dropped open as she looked at the empty container. She knew that Adrien’s mother had been missing, but to learn that his own father had been keeping her locked away all while claiming to not know her whereabouts. It was overwhelming.

Then something dawned on her.

“Our Miraculouses.” she whispered. “He wanted them to save her.”

Adrien nodded.

Marinette placed her hand on the coffin too now and Adrien looked over to her questioningly.

“I’m sorry we couldn't save her.” Marinette said. “Perhaps if we had known…”

Adrien shook his head.

“The ultimate wish is too dangerous to risk on just one person.” he said. “Besides, Mother has already come to terms with her fate.”

Marinette looked at him questioningly. What did he mean? He said that like he had spoken with her personally. When Adrien looked at her and saw the look on her face, he smiled.

“Here.” Adrien said, pulling something out of the shoulder bag he carried. It appeared to be some kind of sash. “Wong loaned this to me for the day.”

She blushed when Adrien pulled her close to him, and then proceeded to wrap the sash around them both. Then when it was fully wrapped and tied tight around them, Adrien turned her around to face back towards the elevator.

There standing before them, she now saw a woman who she immediately recognized from the picture that they had just walked up to moments before.

“Hello Marinette.” Emilie Agreste said with a smile. “It is such a great pleasure to meet you.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide.

“He...Hello…” she stammered.

“Mother, I am so glad to see that you are still here.” Adrien said a relief in his voice.

Adrien’s mother smiled at him with such an endearing smile that made Marinette want to cry.

“And I am glad to see that you found a way to become whole again.” Emilie replied. “But how then is it that you can see me?”

Adrien patted the sash around his waist.

“Well, at least for today it’s possible. And since it’s unlikely we will have another chance again later.” Adrien said with a pause and then placed his arm around Marinette. “I wanted you to be able to meet Marinette.”

Emilie smiled. Then her form started to fade and flicker for a moment and she clutched her head as if she was dizzy.

Marinette glanced to Adrien and he didn’t seem surprised about what he was seeing. When he noticed her questioning gaze he shook his head with a frown.

“Her body was taken in the decimation, but the bridge between her body and soul was already severed, so her astral form was able to remain untouched.” he explained. “But being a form without a body, it’s like being a battery without a charger.”

Marinette looked at Emilie and frowned. Did that mean that she would eventually fade away completely?

“Is there anything we can do?” Marinette asked trying to step forward, but was stopped by the sash around her and Adrien.

“I’m afraid that without my body, my fate is already sealed.” Emilie said, not seeming sad. Clearly Adrien had been correct in stating that she had come to terms with all of this already. “Besides, having finally been able to speak to my Adrien was the only thing I had wanted before I left this world for good.”

“I spent two days here talking with her after I was pulled from my body.” Adrien explained with a smile. “If it’s one thing I am grateful to the decimation for, it is that we had the chance to say goodbye.”

Emilie floated forward and reached her hand out to Adrien, but when he reached up to take it, it passed right through. Marinette saw a frown flicker on the woman’s face for a split second, but then she took on the look of acceptance again.

“I am surprised that you have returned. I had thought our last meeting would be the last time I saw you.” Emilie said. “But I am truly glad to see you again. And you Marinette, he told me so much about you.”

Marinette swallowed hard. Meeting Adrien’s mother had not been on the list of things she expected to do today. Suddenly she felt embarrassed and wondered what had he told his mother about her.

“The reason I came, is because of Marinette actually.” Adrien said. “I know there are certain things a mother looks forward to in her life, and while you still had the chance I wanted you to to meet the one that I am in love with.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide and she imagined that she was turning red again. She looked over at Adrien with a look that screamed ‘why didn’t you warn me first.’

Emilie chuckled and Marinette looked back to the woman who smiled a warm smile at her.

“Love?” Emilie said tilting her head. “Somehow I doubt that it’s something so simple as that.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow and looked to Adrien, who seemed puzzled as well.

Emilie pointed to something behind them and they both looked over their shoulders.

There, visible to them now because of the sash they wore, was the tether that Adrien had mentioned, flowing between them like a river of energy.

“Love is something grand indeed, but since all people can experience it, it becomes a common thing and sometimes even turns fickle without reason.” Emilie said drawing their attention back to her. “But for a lucky few in this life, finding ones soul mate is the truest of treasures.”

Marinette felt a warmth flow over her, but it was not embarrassment this time. She looked toward Adrien who met her gaze.

“Your love is blessed by fate.” Emilie said. “Or perhaps something greater.”

Adrien smiled, and it made Marinette feel weak, her heart fluttering.

“And of course it is blessed by me.” Emilie said, her voice sounding strangely distorted.

Marinette and Adrien broke eye contact and they looked to his mother once more. Marinette could see the woman’s image was fading again, even more so than it had been before.

“Mother?” Adrien asked, concern in his voice.

“I’m glad you were able to come today, my beautiful ones. Perhaps another twist of fate, that it was today of all days.” Emilie said, her voice sounding distant as she became harder to see. “Please know that this was the truest gift you could give me. And that I love you both.”

“Mother!” Adrien yelled reaching outward.

Marinette watched, unable to speak, an overwhelming feeling of loss suddenly flowing over her.

“Take care of each other.” Emilie said, almost a too quiet to hear.

And then she was gone.

Marinette felt Adrien slump beside her and she wrapped her arms around him to comfort him.

“Goodbye, Mother.” she heard him whisper.

Chapter Text

“Any chance you boys could point me towards Central Park?” Chat Noir said as he rose into sight above the edge of the rooftop using his extendable baton.

The three men who were holding two woman hostage there all turned and aimed their guns at him, thankfully surprised enough to not choose to aim at the hostages themselves.

“Sorry, did I cat-ch you at a bad time?” He quipped as he easily dodged when they began to fire at him.

Chat landed on a nearby fire escape and turned to look back towards the three men, spinning his staff to deflect their bullets. They were focused on him entirely and had left the two woman unguarded a few paces behind them.

Purrfect.

He watched as Ladybug’s yo-yo appeared from the opposite direction, wrapped around the two woman and pulled them out of sight. When the three men noticed this they started to scatter in different directions. Clearly they hadn’t expected the ambush.

“The hostages have been safely removed from the area.” Chat said through his ear equipped communications device. “You’re up, Widow.”

Chat leapt down towards the alleyway below him and landed near a bullet hole filled police car that was parked there. The officers who were taking shelter behind it nodded to him.

“Afternoon Officers.” Chat said with a quick salute. “Does it seem like rain to you?”

Chat extended his staff and leaned on it like a cane. The police officers looked at each other and then back to him befuddled.

Then, just as if on cue, the three no longer armed men landed in the dumpster behind him, all letting out various grunts and yelps as they landed.

Noir looked up toward the top of the three story building and saw Widow, transformed with the tiger Miraculous, looking down at him with a smile on her face.

“You two better hurry up, or we will miss the start of the ceremony.” Ladybugs voice came through in his ear.

Chat nodded to Widow and looked toward the two officers again.

“Paw-don us gentlemen, but we have a prior engagement.” he said and motioned to the dumpster. “Could you take the trash out for us?”

A second patrol car pulled up beside them and the officers nodded to him as they aimed their weapons at the dumpster. Chat smiled and then extended his baton once more to ride it to the top of the building across the street.

Twelve minutes later Adrien was quickly walking down a path in central park wearing a tuxedo. He was late, just as Ladybug had warned, mainly because he still wasn’t quite as familiar with New York City as he had been with Paris. Of course the impromptu hostage rescue hadn’t helped.

“Hey there stranger.” he heard a familiar voice say from beside him.

He stopped walking and turned to see Marinette standing there in an extravagant red dress, her hair down and flowing.

“Wow.” he managed to say, everything else locked in his brain behind the image of her beauty.

She smiled and walked over to him.

“I thought you were going to stand me up.” she said with a small playful pout.

Adrien shook his head and held up his hand for her to take.

“I would never dream of it Mi’lady.” he said.

In the distance he heard music start playing, the ceremony was likely about to begin. They should have still been hurrying, but for all he cared, he could just stay here with Marinette and have a wonderful evening as is.

But right after she took his hand, she kissed him on the cheek and then began to pull him forward, almost into a sprint. Clearly she didn’t want to be late.

As they rounded the next bend they were met by security who immediately recognized them and let them pass without them having to stop running at all.

Adrien marveled at the fact that Stark had somehow rented out this entire section of Central Park for his wedding. The logistics of it were mind boggling. But apparently this had been the last place he and Pepper had seen each other before the decimation and Stark had said that they wanted to be married here to ‘go back to where they were before’.

As they approached the top of Bethesda Terrace they slowed to a walk and looked down over the balcony ledge at the scene before them.

A large number of chairs filled with various dignitaries and friends were laid out in the lower area between them and Bethesda Fountain. At the edge of the fountain on a slightly raised platform, stood Stark, his best man, Rhodes, and his groomsman Bruce. The sun was setting and the sky was clear and full of reddish hues, truly a perfect evening for a wedding.

“Good, looks like we haven’t missed it.” Marinette said with relief in her voice. “Tikki?”

Adrien watched as Tikki flew out of Marinette’s flowing hair. He could see that the little kwami was wearing a little fancy hat to honor the occasion. He mused at the fact that Plagg had decided to stay in his pocket to sleep. Clearly the black cat still wasn’t big on romance.

“Are we ready?” Marinette asked her ladybug partner.

“Yes, Marinette.” Tikki replied.

Adrien gave Marinette a questioning look. What was she up to?

All Marinette did was smile back at him and put her finger to her lips as if to tell him not to say anything. Then she pulled him along again down the steps towards their seats in the front row.

“You two were starting to make me worry.” Nat said from beside them as they sat down.

“Sorry, we got caught up in the moment.” Marinette said apologetically.

Adrien shrugged innocently at Nat who shook her head with a smile and then looked toward the fountain to wait for the ceremony to start.

“I thought they said there was gonna be food at this shindig.” Rocket said from the seat on the opposite side Nat.

“The food is afterwards Rocket, first is the ceremony.” Rogers said as he walked up to them.

Adrien was honestly surprised to see Steve had come. Tony and Cap were still at odds about the current state of the world and it’s need for the Avengers. But Adrien supposed that it was likely that Steve was able to put everything aside for a special occasion such as this. And from the nod he saw Stark give Cap as he sat down, it seemed Tony was able to do the same.
Adrien felt Marinette squeeze his hand and he looked over at her.

She was looking forward towards the fountain with a smile on her face, and he loved that she was so happy. Things had been so bleak there for a while and he knew that she needed this kind of joy in her life.

He squeezed her hand back, and she looked at him, a glint in her eye.

“This may seem like a silly thing to say.” Adrien said. “But has anyone ever told you that red really suits you.”

Marinette giggled and leaned to place her head on his shoulder.

“You’re the first.” she said softly as the music changed to indicate the bridal march was about to begin. Marinette sat up straight again and looked as if she suddenly had somewhere else to be.

When everyone turned to look back toward the upper area where Pepper would be coming from, Adrien felt Marinette release his hand. He turned to see her standing and walking toward a tent that was set up nearby. Adrien looked questioningly to Nat who shook her head, clearly also not understanding why Marinette had left suddenly.

Adrien bit his lip. Perhaps this had to do with what Tikki and Marinette had talked about when they had arrived. He shook his head and decided to watch the ceremony, whatever Marinette was up to, he trusted her enough to not need to pry or worry.

After Pepper’s bridesmaids had all reached the altar, Pepper herself appeared in a very simple looking wedding dress, interesting given the money involved in this event. It wasn’t dull to say the least, but it also wasn’t extravagant by any means. Either way, Pepper looked stunning.

Then Adrien could have sworn he heard the sound of a flute being played for a moment, matching up perfectly to the music of the march, which was entirely being done by piano.

Suddenly, Pepper’s dress began to transform. It grew a magnificent long veil and train that seemed to flow in sync with her movements, and her entire gown began to sparkle in ways that seemed to defy logic. It was mesmerizing, and he could hear the crowd murmuring at it’s splendor.

Adrien glanced at Stark and saw that he was transfixed by what he was seeing, just as much as everyone else.

Then, just as the sun fully dipped below the horizon, as if by magic, the brightly lit buildings around them on all sides melted away, replaced by an impossible night sky that shone brightly with every star normally not visible in the city.

Some people in the audience seemed startled by this, but as Pepper continued walking unafraid and a smile on her face, they all seemed to realize that this must be a planned part of the event.

As Pepper took Tony’s hand when she reached the altar, the light from her dress began to shimmer upward toward her arm and traveled into Tony’s tuxedo where it gathered at a point in the center of his chest where his arc reactor used to be.

Tony looked down at the light as it gathered and then smiled at Pepper. She said something to him, and he replied, but Adrien couldn’t hear what exactly from where he was.

The ceremony continued on like normal from there for the next few minutes, the city still hidden from sight. Then when the bride and groom kissed, the sky was filled with hundreds of shooting stars, and the fountain seemed to shoot water so far into the air it never came back down.

Everyone stood and clapped as Tony and Pepper walked away from the altar, and as they climbed the steps to leave for the reception ahead of everyone else, the city slowly reappeared and everything returned to normal.

“So was that what I think it was?” Rocket asked as everyone began to mingle and converse.

“More like who it was.” Adrien said as Marinette approached with Trixx and Tikki floating beside her, a smile on all of their faces.

Chapter Text

“There’s the little wizard.” Tony said to Pepper as they approached.

Marinette and Adrien both stood from the table they were seated at so that they could greet the newlyweds.

“Congratulations to you both.” Marinette said with a smile.

“Thank you so much for what you did tonight.” Pepper said and hugged her. “It turned out so lovely.”

Marinette glanced over and caught Tony’s eye while she was hugging Pepper and he also seemed happy, and she was glad. The entire situation between Nat and Tony three days before had made her concerned that it would spoil the upcoming happy festivities.

As she later found out, Tony had arrived at the campus that morning after not having been there for a solid four months, claiming to be there to prep for the wedding. But of course it had turned out that he had shown up because Marinette and the Miraculous had returned, and he was curious as to why. Then the entire argument in her room about Stark tracking her had made things awkward, for sure. But Marinette had been able to defuse it temporarily with her desire to eat pancakes. Of course, that reprieve hadn’t lasted long.

Once breakfast was done and over, it all started right up again, and this time Steve joined in on the argument. That’s when things had almost come to blows.

Marinette had hated feeling that she was becoming a catalyst for such a rift between the Avengers, and of course Adrien had done his best to reassure her that it wasn’t her fault, but it still hurt.

Thankfully Pepper had shown up, wondering where Tony had gotten to. He had apparently skipped out on his suit fitting, and Potts was not having it. Then when Pepper heard the argument at hand, she stepped in and ended it. She had pulled Marinette out of the room, apologized for Tony’s actions, blaming his compulsive need to protect everyone, and said that was part of what she loved about him.

It had been then that Pepper had asked her about the illusion idea, and Marinette had agreed in hopes to win Tony over toward considering her more than just a liability.

“That was really something.” Stark said and gave her a hug, clearly something he was not used to doing as it was very awkward. “You are really full of surprises aren’t you, Mari.”

Marinette’s eye twitched a bit at that, and then notice Pepper give Tony a dour look.

“Marinette.” He corrected quickly with a smile.

“I’m just glad I was able to enhance the already lovely ceremony.” Marinette said as she watched Adrien shake Tony’s hand in congratulations.

“Well, I’m just glad you gave us an excuse to only have a five minute ceremony.” Tony quipped, drawing a glance from Pepper who shook her head with a smile. “When Pepper got to the altar and said ‘We have five minutes, don’t grandstand’ I actually felt relieved.”

“That’s rich, seeing that you had six pages of vows written.” Pepper said with a playfully stern grin.

Marinette giggled. The dynamic between Potts and Stark was weird, but endearing. Clearly he loved to push her buttons, and even though she acted so aggravated by it, she could tell that Pepper really loved the man’s personality and enjoyed the banter she shared with him.

“How do you know how long my vows were?” Stark said defensively.

“Because you made Rhodey listen to you practice them ten times, and as the good friend he is, he warned me.”

“Where is he!” Tony said in an over exaggerated joking tone and began to walk off towards where Rhodey was talking to Bruce, Nebula and Rocket. “Where is that treasonous best man of mine?”

Pepper turned to Marinette and Adrien and smiled to them before she followed her husband off to keep him out of trouble.

Marinette felt Adrien take her hand and she looked over to him with a smile.

“It was really lovely you know, the gift you gave them.” he said. “You’ve always been an amazing friend to those who know you, Marinette. Even those who have slighted you. It’s no wonder I find you so amazing.”

Marinette blushed and hugged him as a thanks for the compliment.

“So are you two going to sit here at this table all night?” Nat asked as she approached them through the crowd. “Or are you going to get out there and mingle? I understand the governor would like to meet you.”

Marinette frowned. While she knew a few people at the reception, the larger bulk of them were strangers, and she kept noticing people giving her odd glances, their eyes falling on her bare arms and legs.

She had chosen to wear a dress that didn’t cover her scars, as she had long come to terms with their presence, the pain she felt every day making it hard to ignore them. But she wouldn’t let the damage to her body rule her. However, while she had been in hiding for the last year she had not interacted with very many people at all, so other people’s opinions and social attention were not something she really thought or worried about.

Adrien squeezed her hand.

“I can do all of the talking, if you aren’t feeling up to it.” he offered. “I’m used to all the attention from back in my modeling days.”

Marinette nodded in silence and Nat led them both into the crowd.

After about an hour of meeting various people, and Adrien being a master at drawing attention away from Marinette, yet still including her in a way that was meaningful to all parties involved, they had found themselves near the dance floor just as a slow song had started to play.

“Would you do me the honor of a dance, Marinette?” Adrien asked taking both of her hands in his. She meekly nodded with a smile, still feeling a bit shy about their openly offered affections.

They had spent the last few days since she had returned barely leaving each other sides. Yet she was still overwhelmed by his presence, his touch and his ability to make her swoon with a single glance.

She was so happy that they were together now, really together.

He led her out onto the dance floor, passing by a few other couples who were already embraced and slowly turning to the music. When they found an empty space, they turned and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

She breathed out in contentedness as she leaned into him and placed her ear on his shoulder.

As they danced, she lost herself in the moment, feeling as if she had become one with her own emotions, with his heartbeats rhythm guiding hers.

She felt him kiss her forehead and she smiled, closing her eyes to simply drift with him across the floor. She barely even noticed the music, or the murmur of people talking anymore. It was just him and her, alone without a care in the world.

“Marinette?” Adrien asked suddenly. “Are you… are you doing that on purpose?”

Marinette opened her eyes to ask him what he meant, but when she did she immediately noticed what he was talking about.

Her scars were glowing.

She quickly stepped back from him and looked down at herself. The glow didn’t fade this time, in fact it was getting brighter.

She looked up and noticed that the other dancers had all stopped and everyone was looking at her questioningly. She began to tear up, overwhelmed by the sudden interruption of their wonderful moment and the embarrassing nature of it all.

She looked to Adrien who must have realized that she was in shock because he immediately took off his tuxedo coat and threw it over her shoulders to cover her.

Nat then appeared beside them and took Marinette by the hand, leading her off the dance floor and out of the ballroom, away from prying eyes.

“What’s going on, are you okay?” Natasha asked as they entered a side room that no one was using. “What is this glowing?”

Marinette shook her head, tears really starting to flow now.

"We aren’t sure, we only discovered it the other day.” Adrien said. “Tikki?”

Tikki appeared from her hiding place in Marinette’s hair, followed by Trixx, and then shortly after by Plagg who made an appearance from inside Adrien’s coat which was still draped over her shoulders.

“Woah.” Plagg said. “I was wondering why it was so bright in there all of a sudden.”

“I’m not sure what’s happening, but I feel really strange.” Tikki said. “Whatever this is, I think it has to do with my connection to Marinette.”

“Do you feel alright?” Adrien asked her as they sat her down on a chair.

“I feel…” Marinette said, appraising her own body for a moment. She felt a rush of warmth passing into her body from her heart. Her veins felt like they were filled with fire, but it didn’t hurt as much as it felt as if she herself was generating heat and radiating it outward.

And then there was her emotions. Amid the shock and fear that was gripping her because of the unknown nature of this all, she still felt as if she was more content than she could say she ever had been in her life. Overwhelming contentedness even. Unbearable, uncontrollable contentedness. Too much contentedness. “Honestly, I feel like I’m about to…”

Before she could say explode, it hit her. A blissful feeling unlike any she had ever felt in her life. Pure Joy, unfiltered, exuding from every inch of her skin.

She was so caught up in the feeling that she only partially registered that every light bulb in the room had exploded.

Chapter Text

When the light hit Natasha, she tried to cover her eyes.

The next thing she knew she was standing in a playground, the sounds of kids playing nearby assaulting her ears. Confused, she looked around herself for Marinette and Adrien, but neither were there.

A little girls laughter caught her attention and she turned around to find a young girl, probably six years old, running up to her.

“Mommy.” the girl said gleefully. “Can we get some ice cream?”

Natasha felt a pang at the back of her throat at the word the child had called her. From the shape of the girls face that matched her own, she felt like this little girl could indeed have been hers, but that made no sense.

“Hey there, little one.” Natasha said kneeling to catch the little girls hug when she got all the way to her.

“What’s wrong mommy?” the girl asked. “Why are you crying?”

Natasha reached up with one hand and felt the tears on her own cheek. It was so real, but much like the memories she had been forced to relive at the hands of Wanda’s mind manipulation years ago, this could easily be a forced dream.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Nat said to the child stranger in her arms. “I just think that getting ice cream would be a lovely idea.”

“Yay!” The child cheered and climbed out of her arms. “I’m going to get a chocolate one!”

Natasha watched as the child ran away from her, slowly fading from existence. As her eyes followed the path that the child took as she disappeared, Nat’s gaze fell on someone familiar.

Marinette was standing there at the edge of the playground. Or at least, a slightly older, twenty something Marinette, with a hard distant look in her eyes.

“Marinette?” Nat said stepping forward.

The Marinette shook her head at her and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out as she moved her lips.

“What?” Natasha asked continuing to walk closer, even faster now. “I can’t hear you.”

As she got close enough to touch the young woman, she suddenly found herself running into an invisible wall that knocked her down.

She looked up at the Marinette, and caught glimpse of her saying something again, this time, she could make out her lip movements enough to understand.

“I’m sorry.” the Marinette had said.

Then a bright light filled her vision again.

Adrien blinked to clear his vision and then looked around.

Where was he? This wasn’t the hotel he had just been at. No, this was his room back in Paris, just as it had been before the decimation. Had he somehow fallen into a memory, or gone back in time?

The light streaming in from the large wall of windows nearby let him know it was daytime now, and not night as it had been moments before. So it was clearly a different day.

“Adrien, your photo shoot has been moved up an hour, we will need to leave in about twenty minutes.” he heard a familiar voice say, and he turned to see Nathalie standing near the door.

“I, uhm.” Adrien stammered and then figured he should play along. “Alright.”

Nathalie nodded to him and began to leave, but then stopped and turned to him again.

“Don’t forget, your mother is going to be picking you up afterwards to go to London.” Nathalie said. “So be sure to pack your overnight bag.”

Adrien froze and tried to nod, but he felt a pain inside his chest at what he had just heard.

Nathalie stared at him for a moment and then proceeded out of the room.

Adrien quickly looked around the room, and his vision came to rest on his desk and the computer monitors that were there.

He saw that there was a slideshow of images set as his screensaver and he watched them fade in and out as he slowly walked over towards the desk.

The screen cycled through pictures of he and Marinette, clearly dating, and very happy. Then some of him and his mom, doing activities he had no memory of. There was even a few of Him, Marinette and his mom, all spending time together.

He squinted. There were no images of his father which wasn’t so odd in itself, but if his mother was still around in this place, then why wasn’t his father more present in his life like he had been before his mother had gone missing?

A thought crossed his mind, and he ran from his bedroom passing Nathalie as he did.

“Adrien?” his tutor called out to him as he entered into his fathers studio.

But he found that it wasn’t his father’s studio any longer. Instead, it was filled with his mothers belongings. Costumes, mirrors and a bookshelf of playbooks lined the edge of the small stage that was there. And there on the wall, where the picture of his mother had been, was instead a similar picture of his father.

“What is this?” Adrien asked aloud to himself.

He turned and was about to leave the room when outside the tall window of the studio he saw a face peering in at him.

“Marinette!” Adrien yelled, but then realized that this Marinette looked different. She appeared to be much older, probably in her late twenties, and her hair was shorter, almost a pixie cut. Lastly, she had no scars on her neck like his Marinette did, but she did have a single scar across one of her cheeks.

Adrien looked into this impostor Marinette’s eyes and saw grief, and pain he could not quantify. Her gaze was almost unrecognizable to him. His Marinette always had strength and hope in her eyes when she looked at him, even in the worst moments. But this Marinette, seemed lost, and broken.

“Who are you?” Adrien asked. “I know that you aren’t Marinette.”

The Marinette outside the window frowned at him and said nothing, a tear falling from her eye.

Adrien was about to ask another question, but a bright light overtook him again.

When Marinette came to, she found herself on the floor of her classroom back in Paris, her best friend looking down at her.

“You okay, Girl?” Alya asked her. “That was way more than your usual tumble.”

Marinette took Alya’s offered hand to be helped up to her feet and then she looked around.

Her classmates were slowly coming into the room and taking their seats. She felt a pang in her heart when she looked at each of their faces as none of them had survived the decimation, and she had mourned them all.

“You really are clumsy, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Chloe said from her normal seat, without as much as a glance toward her. Marinette grimaced at the sound of her full name being spat out by Chloe, she hadn’t missed that in the slightest.

“What is…” Marinette began to ask but stopped when she saw Adrien come into the room. She then quickly ran down towards him. “Adrien!”

Adrien looked at her questioningly.

“How did we get here?” Marinette asked him. “Where is Nat?”

Adrien looked over at Nino and then back to Marinette, seeming confused.

“I’m sorry Marinette, I’m afraid I don’t know any Nat.” Adrien replied. “Are you alright?”

Marinette blinked and realized that this was not her Adrien. She quickly looked down at her arms and saw that she had no scars. Was this some kind of dream, or perhaps another vision? There was only one way to be certain. She quickly ran from the room as Mme. Bustier passed her.

“Marinette, where are you going? Class is about to begin!” her teacher called out to her, but Marinette ignored her and made her way down the nearby stairs.

She rounded the corner and ran into the library where she sat at one of the computers. She quickly typed up the name Natasha Romanoff in a search.

The results came back with zero matches for that specific name.

She then typed in a search for ‘Avengers’.

Again, there were zero results that matched any of the people she knew.

Then after a moment’s hesitation, she typed in Ladybug.

Thankfully, an image of her wearing her familiar costume came up. She sighed in relief and then clicked on the first story listed.

Now displayed was an article on an event that happened in New York the month before where Ladybug and Chat Noir assisted in a battle alongside the United Heroez. She squinted at the name as it was unfamiliar to her. What was this place?

A shadow fell upon her from behind and she turned to see who was standing there.

When she saw herself, she fell out of her chair.

She rolled onto her back and stared up at the mirror image of herself. Or actually, the near image of herself. This Marinette seemed older, and still had her scars.

“Who are you?” Marinette asked hesitantly.

The mirror Marinette pointed at her, but said nothing.

“Okay then, who am I?” she asked, figuring it was the next best way to ask a mirror image of herself who it was.

Mirror-nette looked to the monitor with the search results on it and then picked up the chair in front of her. She then proceeded to smash the computer to bits.

Marinette covered her face to protect herself from the bits of computer flying about. When Mirror-nette was done her rampage against the machine, she looked down at her again, a flat uncaring look on her face.

“What was that all about?” Marinette asked.

Then, she watched as Mirror-nette raised the chair above her head again, ready to swing it down at her this time. Marinette held up her arm to protect herself, but before the chair could make contact with her, she was engulfed by a bright light.

Chapter Text

Adrien opened his eyes to the sound of a slight constant beeping, and he immediately recognized the ceiling of the infirmary at the Avengers campus.

“Please don’t let this be a dream too.” He whispered.

“Adrien?” Bruce said from somewhere nearby and then came into his vision as he stood next to him. “Hey pal, how are you feeling?”

Adrien closed his eyes for a moment and regarded his body. Honestly, he felt fine. But he was uneasy, an emotional turmoil eating at him because of the vision he had seen.

“Physically, I feel fine.” He finally replied and sat up in the hospital bed. “Where’s Marinette.”

Bruce smiled a soft uneven smile, and then turned his head to look behind himself. Adrien looked in the direction his guardian had turned and saw Marinette on a bed nearby in the same room, unconscious. There were countless wires and nodes all over her body. He couldn’t tell at a glance what her condition was, but at the very least she wasn’t glowing anymore.

“Where’s Nat? Is she okay?” Adrien asked. “She was with us when it happened.”

Bruce mulled at the question, seeming to wrestle internally with the answer.

“Honestly, I’m not sure yet.” Banner said. “She hasn’t woken up yet, but she seems like she will be fine.”

“Adrien!” Plagg’s voice came from near the door to the room which drew Adrien’s attention. His little partner flew towards him, landed on his lap and looked up at him. “You’re awake! Thank goodness!”

“Hey, Plagg.” Adrien said with a smile. “I’m glad to see you came out unscathed.”

Plagg looked at Bruce and frowned.

“You didn’t tell him yet?” Plagg said scornfully.

“He just woke up, I wanted to ease him into it.” Bruce replied and held up his hands defensively.

Adrien looked at them both and then furrowed his brow.

“What is it?” he asked, waiting earnestly for one of them to respond.

“Well, whatever it was that Marinette did, it really did a number on me and Trixx.” Plagg explained. “Took me a solid week to recover. And poor Trixx is still out for the count.”

Adrien looked to Bruce in shock.

“A week?” Adrien gasped. “How long was I out?”

Bruce rubbed the back of his neck and stiffened a bit.

“Sixteen days.” Bruce said with a frown.

Adrien’s eyes went wide. Had it really been that long? Going just by the dream as an indicator of time, he would have said it had been a couple of minutes from his perspective, an hour at most. He shook his head, and glanced over to Marinette. If it had taken him this long to wake up, how long would it take her?

“Well, it would have likely been longer if you had any underlying conditions or wounds.” Bruce said. “The light that Marinette gave off has a curative effect unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. But it takes time for more severe conditions to be repaired.”

He glanced at Bruce who seemed pensive about what he had just said. Adrien then looked to Marinette and saw that her scars were still present on her arms.

“It didn’t do anything for her scars.” Adrien noted.

“No, it had no effect on Marinette herself… and you had no significant wounds to heal.” Bruce explained. “But Nat. She…”

Bruce hesitated and seemed lost in thought, and Adrien could have sworn the man was about to cry.

“Nat’s regrowing an entire set of organs and glands that she lost a long time ago.”

Three Years and Eight Months Later

(It is now four years and nine months after the decimation)

Ladybug stepped forward from the alleyway and glanced to her right past the edge of the hooded cloak that she wore. There she could see a crowd of people gathered in a half circle, all yelling toward the building in front of them.

She frowned.

“I’ve got another mob.” she said and started toward the group. “I’ll take care of this one and head back to you.”

“Alright, be careful.” Chat Noir’s voice came through her earpiece. “And go easy on them, they are just desperate for the food.”

Ladybug bit her lip as she approached the group and stepped in between a few of the people there so she could make her way towards the front. No one paid her any mind thanks to her disguise.

When she got through the crowd far enough, she could see the shop owner was there standing in the doorway of his shop brandishing a pistol of some kind.

This would turn violent soon.

Ladybug released the grip on her right hand and she felt the yo-yo fall to a length enough for her to spin it. Then she pulled her hood back and turned to face the crowd.

She didn’t need to even say or do anything. The looks on the people’s faces said it all as they scattered in fear of her.

“Thank… Thank you...” the shop owner said, fear in his voice too, and then he closed the door to his shop and locked it.

Marinette sighed and looked up at the green tinted sky above her.

Both suns appeared to be going down, and there would actually be a night for the first time in six days. She squinted, contemplating the chances of a riot tonight and then started to make her way back towards home.

Home. She mused as she walked.

“I miss the blue skies. Tikki” she whispered.

“I miss the macarons.” Tikki’s voice came from nowhere in particular.

Ladybug felt her stomach growl at that. It was understandable, she hadn’t eaten in half a day.

“You can have the larger portion of my ration tonight.” Ladybug whispered. “You need your strength.”

“Marinette, you need to eat too.” she heard Tikki say but she decided to not respond. It was best not to try and argue the point. She knew that without Tikki, she couldn’t become Ladybug. And without Ladybug, she wouldn’t be able to keep herself safe here.

Regardless of the fact that they could communicate while transformed now, a skill they had picked up a couple years before, neither of them spoke again the entire journey home.

After walking to a point about a kilometer outside of the city, passing a few fields of crops that were completely picked clean of their yields, she arrived at the small metal hut she and Adrien called home.

“Hey, did it go alright?” Adrien asked as she entered, Plagg floating beside him, concern on both of their faces.

“Yeah, they dispersed when they saw me.” Ladybug said. “Tikki, Spots off.”

Marinette felt a sudden rush of pain and weakness hit her, but felt Adrien’s arm as he caught her before she could fall to the ground.

“You are getting weaker.” Adrien said as he eased her down into the chair behind her. “I think we need to consider revitalizing the crop again. We are almost out of our rations. And I think the settlement needs another harvest to keep them sated. Things were getting bad there today.”

Marinette looked up at him and frowned as Tikki came to land on her shoulder, exhausted.

They had chosen to come to this planet a year before because of the food shortage caused by the decimation. Even now so many years later, every planet in the universe was still reeling from the sudden loss of half of all life and it’s lasting effects on ecosystems and societies alike.

The locals here had been an agrarian colony that had come to terraform the planet, but when more than half of the settlement’s farmers had vanished, there were not enough trained workers to fill the needs of the remaining populace. Crop’s died, and people starved.

Carol Danvers had told her about the need here, and Marinette had felt as If she could at the very least use her condition to help stave off the worst of the populaces need. And they needed somewhere remote for her to occasionally release the buildup of the energies of creation inside of her, without it affecting anyone else, like it had done to Bruce.

She grimaced at the memory.

Poor Bruce. He had been constructing a device to help her deal with the constant overflow of her energies, and had gotten too close to her when she released one day. The result of it was something no one had expected. The curative powers of the energy had somehow forced him into a balance with the Hulk who had lain dormant inside him for years, and it turned him into a strange middle combination of Bruce and the Hulk.

He had tried to tell her he was okay with his new form, but she had still felt horrible about it.

She couldn’t live with the idea of causing any of her friends that much grief again, so she had chosen to leave to keep them safe. Thankfully, the energies seemed to have no lasting effects on Adrien anymore, so he had been safe to accompany her.

And so they had spent the entire next year on this distant planet together.

Their relationship had blossomed, and they were as close as anyone could be. And yet there were days that she still felt shy when looking into his eyes, and a stumbling mess after they kissed.

She cleared her mind of her memories and looked up and nodded to Adrien in agreement. He helped her to stand again so that she could cross to the glass chamber that was in the next room.

She stepped inside and sat down in the chair that was there, Tikki remaining outside.

Adrien closed the door to the chamber and activated the intercom.

“Alright, don’t overdo it.” he said with worry in his voice. “Just enough to do the eastern fields.”

Marinette bit her lip and concentrated.

“No.” she said. “I think it’s been long enough since the last time. I’m going to do them all.”

Adrien gave her a glance, but didn’t argue.

She looked down at her arms and saw that the glow had already started. She squeezed her eyes shut and willed the bridge between her body and spirit open, as far as it would go.

“Tikki, Crank it up.” She said.

She felt overwhelming joy strike her as the energies of creation burst forth. And she remained there, soaking in the bliss for a long while. She smiled contentedly. At least this part of the process wasn’t so bad.

When she felt as if a long enough a time had passed, she reeled it in, and the glow stopped.

Adrien helped her to her feet again, and they both walked outside to view the outcome of her efforts.

Surrounding their little hut now, were fields of crops growing and sprouting even as they watched them. And it was true for every field they could see, all lit in the darkening twilight by a glow in the ground that was still fading.

“Grab what you can.” Marinette said. “They will be here soon.”

After harvesting enough food to last them a couple weeks, they started to hear yelling in the distance at the edge of the fields. In response, they quickly moved their yield inside and closed the metal doors and windows on their hut, locking them all from the inside.

Marinette and Adrien both spent the next few hours of the night curled up in bed together, unable to sleep through the sounds of the settlers tearing through the fields, taking what they needed.

Thankfully, the locals seemed content to leave them and their hut alone, as they likely understood that the alien strangers were the source of the food that regrew every couple weeks. And it was best to not bite the hand that fed you.

Sometime later, in the middle of the night after the noise outside had subsided, Marinette heard a beep from the communication device Carol had given them, indicating that there was a new recorded message.

She watched as Adrien climbed out of bed and activated the message.

A holographic image of Carol appeared.

“Hey you two. I got some intel you might be interested in.” Danvers said, her usual serious tone present in every word. “I’ve got reports of a strange affliction on Sakaar, people there are being seen with glowing purple eyes, memory loss, the works.”

Adrien glanced toward Marinette who sat up in the bed and squinted at what she was hearing.

They had finally found Heart Tide.

Chapter Text

Rena Rouge landed on the rooftop of the Collège Françoise Dupont and looked around. It seemed she was the first one here.

She walked towards the edge of the roof, peered down at the street below and realized she hadn’t been back here in almost five years. When the decimation hit, most schools closed until the students and teacher who remained could be reshuffled to better handle the new student counts in a given area.

She had ended up going to a different school about ten blocks away, at least on the days that she went of course. After Marinette had been afflicted with her ‘energy bursts’, she had bestowed Trixx back upon Alya so that she could protect Paris again, alongside her man Nino and his partner Wayzz. So going to school had fallen to the wayside on most days, as the decimation had also caused organized crime to increase three fold.

Of course, Alya knew that Wayzz and Trixx hadn’t been the only Miraculous Marinette had bestowed at that time. From what she understood, there were seven total that Marinette had given to those she found worthy of being a Holder.

And after receiving the call that she had from Marinette earlier that same day, she knew that she would be meeting some of them for the first time in just a few moments.

She heard someone plop down behind her.

Turning she saw Carapace, and smiled at him.

“Hey there, Hon.” Rena said. “Did you remember to lock up before you came over?”

“You better believe it, Love Dumpling.” Carapace replied with a smile all while he made finger guns at her.

Rena couldn’t help but giggle. She and Nino had been together for almost five years at this point, and they had even gotten engaged a few months ago. She found it so nice to have someone she could spend both a normal day, and a crime fighting night with.

Another subtle plop of someone landing on the roof caught her attention. This time it appeared to be the snake Miraculous holder.

“Hello there, I’m Viperion.” He said with a smile. “Nice to finally meet you both, been a fan for a long time.

“Hey there, Always a pleasure to meet another hero.” Rena said and shook the snake holders hand. “I understand you have been protecting La Rochelle for a few years now.”

“Yeah, but I used to live right here in Paris.” Viperion said. “Moved away shortly after the decimation because my mom and sister were some of the vanished and I figured that it was a good time to get away on my own. Away from the memories.”

Rena nodded. She understood that. She had lived with her mom for three years after everyone had vanished, but soon found herself in need of her own place, away from the reminders of what they had lost. So she and Nino had found a place together when they both turned eighteen.

“I would assume I was late, but it is clear that you were all early.” a female voice said from behind them. “And being late is not really something I am capable of.”

The three heroes all turned to see the Dragon Miraculous holder leaning up against part of the sloping glass structure that made up the front of the building.

“Ah, you are Ryuko, correct?” Rena asked. “We saw you stop that freak lava flow in Tokyo on the news last year. It was impressive.”

Ryuko remained perfectly still, but smiled at the compliment.

“Yes, I endeavor to bring honor to the name of us Miraculous wielders.” the dragon holder said flatly. “So I am glad to know my reputation proceeds me”

Alya squinted. The no nonsense way the dragon holder talked seemed very familiar to her, but she couldn’t place it.

Marinette had given them all personal choice as to whether or not they wanted to reveal their own identities to each other or to the world, and so far, the only ones who had were Adrien and Marinette themselves. Of course, she knew that Adrien had done it mainly to sign the Sokovia Accords, and that those did not apply to any of the rest of them as of yet, as each of their respective countries had labeled them as local heroes.

A fourth hero leapt into sight from the street below and landed beside them all, this time it was the bee Miraculous holder.

“Hello everyone” she said. “I am Miss Apis.”

This hero Alya had not heard about, and had not seen on any news broadcasts. Perhaps she was a newly appointed Holder that hadn’t made a name for herself yet.

“And where do you hail from, Miss Apis?” Carapace asked in an overly dramatic way, as if addressing royalty.

“I am from Shanghai.” Miss Apis said.

Rena nodded at that. It made sense now why she hadn’t seen any news of her. Many parts of China were still under strict information blackouts ever since the decimation. With the country having the worlds largest population, it also meant that they had suffered the most citizens who had vanished as well, and that had left the country in a state of chaos.

Of course, now there was the question of how she had gotten all the way to Paris so quickly.

Everyone chatted for a bit about their perspective origins and the hero work they had been doing the last few years while they waited for the guests of honor to arrive. Then when a spinning portal of sparks appeared, they all turned and watched in wonder as Ladybug and Chat Noir stepped through.

“I’m glad to see that the five of you could make it.” Ladybug said, and nodded to each of the other heroes in turn. “I’m sure you are all wondering why I have asked you here today.”

“Besides the chance to cat-ch up of course.” Chat Noir said, earning him a sly glance from Ladybug when he did.

“Well, I wanted to ask you all something in person.” Ladybug continued. “If any of you would like to volunteer to take on a mission of utmost importance.”

“Volunteer? Why would any of us say no to you Ladybug?” Rena Rouge ask and then looked to her fellow heroes who all nodded in agreement.

Chat looked at Ladybug and they both frowned, which Rena knew wasn’t a good sign. It wasn’t very often that Chat let down his playful exterior, not even after all of these years of being outed as Adrien. He still kept up his humor and charm routine, as if he didn’t care the world knew who he really was. Heck, he even still had his mask appear when he transformed, something that Ladybug had long since abandoned.

“Well, it’s not every day that I ask you to go to another planet, to fight a super villain who could very well be in control of the entire population there.” Ladybug said and shook her head.

There was silence for a moment as everyone took in what they had heard.

Rena looked to her fiancé and knew that he was in for going already, as long as she was. She knew that Nino would find the chance to go to another planet too awesome to pass up.

“I’ll be honest with all of you.” Ladybug said. “This will be a very dangerous mission, and our enemy will likely have the upper hand. So I wouldn’t fault any of you for saying no.”

Viperion stepped forward.

“If it is as dangerous as you say, then you will need my Second Chance.” he said. “I’m in.”

Rena noticed Carapace look to her for permission, and she nodded to him. They then both stepped forward at the same time.

“We are both in” Rena said.

The dragon and bee holders both exchanged a look, and seemed to mull something over. Then they both quickly stepped forward and said “I’m in.” at the same time. Then they both frowned and looked at eachother.

“I was in before you were.” Miss Apis said crossing her arms.

“No, I believe you will concede that I was in before you.” Ryuko countered.

Rena exchanged an amused look with Ladybug and they both chuckled. This would be an interesting mission, indeed.

Chapter Text

Marinette frowned as the door closed in front of her.

“I wouldn’t take it too personally.” Brunnhilde said as she leaned against the side of the building. “Thor really hasn’t been in good sorts lately, and treats pretty much everyone the same way.”

Marinette turned and smiled at the woman who had introduced herself as Brunnhilde. Of course, a moment ago Thor had called her Valkyrie, so she wasn’t quite sure what to call her anymore.

“I figured as much.” she admitted. “When he let me crash here a few years back when I was on a pilgrimage of sorts, he hadn’t been doing well then either. I just hadn’t expected it to get this bad.”

Brunnhilde frowned and began to walk beside Marinette as she started back toward the center of New Asgard.

“He’s really let the decimation eat away at him.” Valkyrie explained. “I had hoped that building a new kingdom here would give him reason enough to pull himself back up. But he is too filled with grief about losing half of his people to even face ruling the other half.”

Marinette looked ahead of her at the magnificent looking buildings that made up most of the village. The Asgardians were truly masters of craft work and architecture and they had built a lovely new home here.

“Well, I suppose I shouldn’t be too insulted that he refused to come with me off world then.” Marinette said. “Especially if he refuses to even step out of his own door.”

Marinette looked up as Korg walked by them carrying a large keg under each arm, headed back towards the home he shared with Thor. She smiled at him as he passed and he nodded to her in return.

The last time she had been here, she had met the rock man and had immediately subconsciously compared him to Stoneheart. Of course, he had turned out to be a very pleasant individual and clearly a good friend to Thor. So in the end they had also gotten along well.

She was glad to see Thor still had his friends here, taking care of him in his current state. She knew that depression and grief were hard, and should never be faced alone, something she had learned first hand when she had tried to do just that.

“So, you’re really planning on heading to Sakaar then?” the Valkyrie asked and Marinette looked up questioningly.

“Yeah, word is that the people there are being mind controlled by an old enemy of mine.” Marinette said. “We are headed there to stop her, and I was hoping to get Thor’s help as a guide. I remembered him telling me once he had been there.”

Brunnhilde stopped in her tracks and moved her jaw around as she thought about something, and Marinette stopped to appraise her.

“Well, he’s not the only one who has been there.” the woman said after a moment, placing her hands on her hips and looking out over the water crashing into the stone docks nearby.

“You have?” Marinette asked, suddenly hopeful.

“Yeah, but I gotta say, after spending thousands of years there, I’m not too keen on the prospect of going back.” Valkyrie said.

Marinette frowned and looked out over the water as well. Her attempt to find a guide wasn’t turning out so great. But if need be, they would go in without one.

“Don’t look so glum.” Brunnhilde said with a smile. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it.”

Marinette looked back to her, surprised.

“When Thor, Banner and I broke out of there, we had done so in a hurry, and let’s just say I have some unfinished business there.” Valkyrie continued. “I suppose if you are headed back there, I could show you around and see if I can’t square it away at the same time.”

At the mention of Banner’s name Marinette internally winced. She had considered asking him to come as her guide, but she still found it hard to face him after what she had turned him into.

“You’d really help me? Marinette asked. “A stranger, just like that?”

Marinette hadn’t met Brunnhilde before today. The last time she was in New Asgard she had kept a low profile, being on the run and all. So it was strange to think that this Asgardian would be so gracious to a stranger.

“Well, There are few here who haven’t heard of your deeds.” Brunnhilde said with a smile and began to walk again. “A few years ago, the earthquake in Rome. You and your cat friend rescued hundreds of people.”

Marinette blushed a bit. It was still strange to her to have people recognize her so readily. But for a couple years, before heading into exile on the agrarian planet, she and Adrien had worked with the Avengers in keeping the people of Earth safe, and had even made a name for themselves worldwide. They weren’t just heroes to only the Parisians anymore, but were as household a name as any of the Avengers at this point.

“Well, we are leaving tomorrow, if you are really up for going back.” Marinette said. “I’m holding a briefing for the rest of my team en route. So if there’s any input you would like to add at the planning stage, I would be grateful.”

Valkyrie nodded to her and the two woman continued talk as they returned to the seaside village.

“Wow, you look terrible.” Rocket said flatly.

Marinette shook her head and then leaned down to hug Rocket. She had missed her furry friend dearly over the last year.

“Yeah well, you don’t smell so great.” Marinette retorted.

Rocket scoffed.

“You try spending a month cooped up on a space ship with no proper bathing facility, and see how great you smell, Princess.” the raccoon said with a smile.

Marinette looked around and appraised the Benatar. They were currently floating in deep space, not near anything in particular. She had sling ringed her entire party to the ship from Earth a few moments before.

When she had found out that Rocket and Nebula were out running recon in deep space, she had contacted Rocket to ask him a favor of using his ship as a jumping off point for the mission. Apparently it had been the right idea, as Rocket said he even had some important intel in regards to Sakaar that he could share.

Marinette looked up as Kaalki floated up and out of a nearby storage compartment to greet her.

“Greetings Guardian, it is a great pleasure to see you again.” the horse kwami said.

“Hey Kaalki, Have you been keeping this furball out of trouble?” Marinette asked with a playful smile.

“You say that as if him staying out of trouble was an option.” the little posh horse said giving Rocket a side glance.

“Hey, I’m right here!” Rocket said seeming offended, so Marinette reached down and scratched behind his ear. This of course distracted him completely from the off handed remarks.

Marinette turned and looked into the rear compartment where her team had started to get settled in for the briefing. Carapace of course was moving about the ship, saying how rad everything was, and Chat was trying to keep everyone from being too rowdy. They were guests on the ship after all.

“So what’s the word on Sakaar?” Marinette asked Rocket with a hushed tone.

The raccoon looked up at her and frowned.

“Well, it seems something has affected the normal workings of the planet.” Rocket explained punching up an image on the display in front of him. “Sensors show that the wormholes normally surrounding it have shifted and caused a lot of chaos on the surface.”

“Any indication on what made them shift?” Marinette asked and rocket shook his head.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of phenomena in space that are acting out of the norm lately. Perhaps without the infinity stones, the universe is out of balance.” He hypothesized.

Marinette mulled over the new information. The wormholes would cause some trouble for them on the planet for sure. She had already known they wouldn’t be able to get to Sakaar by ship because of the spacial distortions, but to see that they were now even closer to the planet, even inside the city in some cases, made their task seem a bit more arduous. Thankfully, her sling ring wouldn’t be affected by the wormholes, but if she somehow lost it in the fight…

“Rocket, could you do me another favor?” she asked turning to him.

“Depends on the favor.” Rocket said cautiously.

“Just as a precaution, If you don’t hear from us in one week, could you and Kaalki teleport out anyone standing…” Marinette said with a pause as she slowly moved her finger around the a map of the city they would be headed to. “There, at the base of that statue. Just in case we can’t leave for some reason.”

Rocket smiled and looked up at her.

“That’s Marinette for you.” he said. “Always planning a backup for when things inevitably go wrong.”

“It’s not inevitable.” Marinette scoffed.

“Oh yeah?” Rocket said. “What about the raid on the drug cartel in Germany? Or the refugee ship from Xandar? Or the-”

“Alright, Alright.” Marinette interrupted and smiled. “I get the picture.”

“Yeah, well all of those times you saved our butts.” Rocket said. “You and your good luck.”

Marinette looked again into the rear compartment where she saw Nebula had entered and was asking Carapace to stop pushing buttons on a console. Rena Rouge was standing nearby shaking her head with her hand covering her face, clearly embarrassed.

“Yeah, well, here’s hoping that good luck holds out.” She said, hopeful that it would do just that.

Chapter Text

Rena Rouge peeked around the edge of the alleyway and out into the square full of various mingling aliens. She didn’t see any purple eyes yet, so that was a good sign. Thankfully, it seemed as if the whole planets population had not been mind controlled as they had first feared.

She turned to glance at Miss Apis who stood beside her wearing a cloak over her Miraculous outfit just as she was. They had been there for a few hours now, getting the lay of the land, and trying to not draw attention to themselves.

The plan had been to first do recon in pairs, keep an eye out for anything that didn’t look normal, and try and discover the lair that Heart Tide was using. Then they were meant to regroup at the colosseum-like arena in the center of the city. Valkyrie had given them a rundown of the major landmarks in the city and the places to avoid, so they at least had a leg up on the terrain.

But Rena was finding it hard to determine what should be considered ‘out-of-the-norm”, seeing that it was her first time on an alien planet and a man with three heads had just walked by.

“See anything?” Miss Apis asked.

Rena Rouge shook her head and then pulled her cloak over her face more as a few of the cities denizens walked by a bit too close for comfort.

Rena turned and appraised her team-mate. She didn’t know anything about her, and it made their recon pairing together a bit awkward as there was little to chat about while they skulked around the city streets. She had considered asking to be paired with Carapace, mainly to keep an eye on her man and keep him out of trouble, but in the end she had accepted the pairing Ladybug had given her.

They had each been paired based on their Miraculous power and it’s utility. Each team of two had one battle power, and one support power. Her Mirage had been considered a support power, while the Venom attack the bee possessed was considered a battle power.

Carapace and Viperion had been paired, with Shell-ter being the battle power and Second Chance being the support.

Ladybug had paired herself with Ryuko, as Lucky Charm was mainly a support ability, and the dragon's elemental transformations could be used quite well in combat for attack or defense.

And lastly, Chat Noir had been paired with Valkyrie who had opted not to utilize a Miraculous when one had been offered to her. Her strengths as an Asgardian basically made her a weapon enough as it was, and Chat’s cataclysm was actually more of a support ability, since he couldn’t use it directly in combat without outright killing someone.

The four pairs had each taken a cardinal direction and moved to that part of the city, with Rena and Apis taking the southern side.

“All teams, check in.” She heard Ladybug say through her earpiece.

“South, all clear.” Rena reported, and then listened as each other team reported the same.

Apis nodded to her and pointed upward, indicating that she was planning on heading to the rooftop, so Rena followed suit after her partner leapt into the air when the coast was clear.

“So, I bet when you first met Marinette, you didn’t think it would lead you to end up somewhere like this.” Miss Apis said with a grin as Rena landed beside her. “I gotta tell you, I’m having a hard time believing this is my life right now.”

“You’re telling me. Who would have thought that sweet, innocent, clumsy, Marinette would be leading a crack team of superheroes to save an entire planet?” Rena replied and scratched her head behind her right fox ear, irritated by it being squished down under the cloaks hood. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you two meet?”

Miss Apis smiled and shook her head.

“I don’t mind at all.” the woman said as she looked down towards the street below to keep an eye on things. “About a year after the decimation, I came home to find Marinette had stopped for the night to rest in the Temple ruins that I lived in. Of course, she hadn’t realized that anyone lived there, poor girl. She was so embarrassed to have encroached on my home.”

“You lived in a temple ruin? Rena asked cautiously, not wanting to pry into what could be a touchy subject.

“Yeah, I’m an orphan.” Apis said, thankfully not seeming offended by the question. “I was stuck in a rut, refusing to leave the temple that had been my home before it was destroyed. I had been sworn to protect it by my father before he passed, but I had failed to do so. Marinette helped me, by being a good friend, and also calling in a favor with some rich guy she knew. Somehow she managed to fund the rebuilding of the temple.”

“That’s Marinette for you, always helping out when she can.” Rena said as she looked up at one of the wormholes above them to make sure it hadn’t shifted to close.

“Yeah.” Miss Apis said with a smile. “At the time I didn’t realize that the temple had significance to the history of the Miraculous, and that was what had brought her there in the first place. But even so, she kept in touch over the years to make sure I was doing alright, and in a way she became my only family.”

Rena smiled and reached out to touch Miss Apis on the arm.

“Well, you’re family is bigger now, if you’ll have me.” she offered. “I’m Alya.”

Miss Apis smiled and took Rena’s hand gingerly.

“I’m Fei.”

“So this was your home?” Chat Noir asked as he and Brunnhilde entered a small building on the northern edge of the city.

“Not really, I actually lived on my ship the Warsong.” The Valkyrie replied. “But she got destroyed during our escape. This is just somewhere I kept all the various things I used in trade.”

Chat looked around and saw piles of boxes and various bits of scrap parts and debris. But he figured, on a planet covered in junk, at least some of it had to be useful to someone.

“Are we looking for something in particular?” he asked as he watched her start sifting through the various piles all while haphazardly throwing things around like she didn’t care for any of it.

“Yes.” She said standing up, gripping something in her hand. “And here it is.”

Chat didn’t really recognize the object or it’s intended purpose, likely some kind of trinket that only meant something to it’s owner.

“Come on. We have one more stop to make before we meet up with your friends again.” Valkyrie said making her way to the door.

Chat frowned. Marinette had told him that she had made a deal with Valkyrie to assist her in squaring away some kind of unfinished business that she had on Sakaar. All in exchange for the Asgardian acting as a guide. But he still felt weird focusing on this now and not the mission at hand.

Nonetheless he followed the woman as she led him through the streets toward a particularly tough looking part of town.

“Let me do the talking.” Valkyrie whispered to him as they approached a door with a large bulky alien standing in front of it, much in the way a bouncer would at a club.

“No entry here without prior allotment” the bulky alien said without even looking at them as if he said it all day long and was tired of it.

“I’ve got an allotment.” Valkyrie said looking up at the bouncer. “Let Yskir know Brunnhilde is here to cash out.”

The bouncer glanced down at Valkyrie, and then he pulled a communicator of sorts from his pocket and repeated what she had said into it.

The door buzzed open and they were shown inside.

Chat felt a pit in his stomach when it also then closed behind them and made a locking noise.

“So, this Yskir” Chat whispered as they waited for someone to meet them in the empty room. “An old friend of yours?”

“He’s my old master.” Brunnhilde said with a frown.

“He trained you?” Chat asked.

“No, I was his property.” Valkyrie declared. “Just like everyone else here, I started from the very bottom.”

Chat swallowed hard and decided not to ask any more questions, lest he find himself disliking the situation any more than he already did.

A door on the opposite side of the room opened and a slow moving bulbous form of a man entered walking with a cane followed by two rather large looking guards. A protective glass barrier rose into place from the floor between them. Which explained why they had not taken away Valkyrie's sword.

“So, Brunnhilde.” Yskir said as he looked them both up and down, his voice as raspy a voice as Chat had ever heard. “I assume you have come to pay off your debt.”

“In a way.” Valkyrie said with a grin and then held up the object she had retrieved earlier from her storage building. “I’ve come to inform you that my debt is hereby rescinded. And demand you return my property to me.”

Yskir and the two guards all glanced at each other and then he alone began to laugh. Chat tensed a bit. What was she playing at?

“You demand?” Yskir said, humor dripping from his words. “I would think that after all these thousands of years that you would understand how this all works, my dear.”

“Actually, after all of these thousands of years here, there is only one thing that I truly came to understand.” Valkyrie said looking down at the man’s cane. “That revenge is sweet.”

Chat watched as Valkyrie turned the object in her hand over and opened the top with a flick of her wrist, a button appearing. Yskir seemed to realize a second too late as to what was she was about to do and attempted to drop his cane. But she had already pressed the button and a series of large arcing bolts of electricity shot forth from the cane and shocked the man so hard that he flew into the glass partition smashing it completely.

Chat struck a combat pose and was ready to defend himself against the impending attack he expected, but Valkyrie shook her head at him.

He watched as the two guards looked down at their now dead master and then back to Valkyrie.

“You are free now.” she said flatly as she picked up a device that was in the dead man’s pocket and held it up to her mouth to speak into it. “I Brunnhilde, as the benefactor of Yskir's death, do hereby renounce all my inherited belongings and ownership titles to their previous owners, be they alive.”

A beeping sound came from a circular disc attached to each of the two guards necks and then fell off of both of them. The two guards looked at eachother, nodded and left the room without so much as a word, clearly caring little about the man they had been serving.

Chat looked to Valkyrie questioningly as he covered his nose to protect it from the smell of burning flesh.

“If you kill someone here, you get their belongings.” she explained with a shrug. “Not as much a law to maintain order as it is a means of population control.”

“Why didn’t you do that before now if you clearly already had it all set up?” Chat asked as he followed her into the back room that Yskir had come from.

“The law of benefactor comes with a bit of a stigma here.” Valkyrie said as they passed into a large atrium like area. “Let’s just say, I wouldn't have done it unless I knew for sure I was going to be able to leave again.”

“So, was that all just about revenge then?” Chat said, not sure he would have agreed to this if he had known the plan ahead of time.

“No.” Valkyrie said with a grin as she opened another much larger door. “This was about family.”

When Chat saw what was inside, his eyes went wide with wonder.

Chapter Text

Ladybug glanced over her shoulder toward the center of the city and the large tower with giant faces built into its side. So far, that was the most likely place for Heart Tide’s base of operations. Yet they had not seen any evidence of mind control in the local population near it, or anywhere else for that matter.

In fact, there were hardly any hints of anything at all that was bothering the citizens here. Even the fact that the wormholes were moving around and depositing garbage in places they shouldn’t be seemed commonplace to everyone.

Something wasn’t right.

Carol’s intel had multiple reports of mind control here, in a large scale enough to frighten some of the population to risk attempting to flee the planet, something that usually ended in death during the attempt. Yet still they had found nothing at all.

Ladybug turned to face Ryuko who was leaning against a nearby wall looking contemplative.

“You are thinking the same thing I am, aren’t you.” Ladybug asked.

“If you mean that this is clearly a trap.” Ryuko replied. “Then yes, I am.”

Ladybug frowned and looked across the courtyard in front of them. The entrance to the large fighting coliseum was completely empty as far as she could tell, and no fights had taken place there in quite a while.

“If it’s a trap, then she is taking her sweet time tripping it.” Ladybug said. “Unless we got lucky and she doesn’t know we are here yet.”

“Well, if we managed to avoid detection so far, what do you think we should we do with the advantage?” Ryuko asked.

Ladybug contemplated her answer. There was no benefit to letting any of this drag out. The only thing they could do was try and be prepared to counter whatever trap may be coming. But this was an alien planet with technologies and customs different than that of earth, so there was little way to know what Heart Tide might throw at them.

“We only know about the threat that her mind control poses. So that’s really the only thing we can plan for ahead of time.” Ladybug said.

Ryuko stood up straight and straightened her cloak.

“Well, sitting around here is getting us nowhere.” the dragon holder said. “Perhaps we should regroup, then at least we will have strength in numbers.”

Ladybug nodded and touched her earpiece.

“All teams, make your way to the rendezvous point.” she ordered and listened as each team offered an affirmative in return.

Ryuko nodded to her and then leapt up toward the nearest rooftop. Ladybug prepared to follow, but a noise above her caused her to stop in her tracks and look up.

She watched as Ryuko fell from above and landed in front of her with a hard thud.

“We have activity at our position!” Ladybug quickly sent out over the comms and then began to spin her yo-yo as she watched the rooftops above her, expecting an attack.

She waited a few moments, but when no one responded to her message and no attack came from above, she decided to run over to Ryuko and check on her.

“Are you alright?” she asked and helped her off the ground.

Ryuko shook her head as she stood up.

“Ran into some kind of energy barrier.” Ryuko said and then pointed above them. “Hurt like hell. Likely would have killed a normal person.”

Ladybug looked up and saw nothing, so she started to spin her yo-yo and threw it towards the open air above them. As it reached a point about four stories above them it collided with the barrier in question and bounced back. The full barrier appeared for a moment and shimmered into sight all around the alleyway, showing them that it now blocked their exit on all sides.

It appeared they were already inside the trap.

“Well then.” Ladybug said with a grim smile as she looked to her partner. “At least we can take comfort in the fact that we were right.”

Rena Rouge looked cautiously over the parapet that she and Miss Apis were hiding behind. They had stopped on a rooftop near the rendezvous point when they spotted troop movements nearby. From her current vantage point she could see a large gathering of ships and soldiers mingling around an area about a hundred meters away.

She frowned. From the looks of things, there was a good chance that one of the teams had been captured. This had been the first mobilization they had seen the entire five hours they had been on recon, and shortly afterward they had discovered that both their Stark-made and Miraculous weapon communicators were being jammed.

“Who was over that way?” Miss Apis asked.

“Ladybug and Ryuko.” Rena replied as she saw movement to her left.

She glanced over in time to see Carapace and Viperion landing on the opposite roof top, immediately taking cover as well. She motioned for them to join her and Apis.

When the coast was clear and all four heroes had been able to gather together, they all cautiously peered toward the soldiers again.

“That doesn’t look very promising.” Carapace said as Ladybug and Ryuko came into view being led away at gunpoint. “So, What’s the plan?”

Rena considered the possibilities. It appeared that their two comrades had not put up a fight, an indication that they were accepting their capture gracefully, and perhaps that was the point.

“Our best bet is to follow them and see where they are being taken.” Rena said turning to the group. “That will be a good indication as to where Heart Tide is.”

She quickly motioned for Miss Apis to keep a lookout while they formulated a plan.

“Any sign of Valkyrie and Chat Noir?” Viperion asked.

Rena looked around at the nearby rooftops and saw nothing.

“They may have been captured as well.” she said. “Without comms there is no way to know.”

Miss Apis suddenly motioned for everyone to take cover, which they all managed to do just as a large ship flew overhead and headed toward the large tower at the center of the city.

“Ladybug and Ryuko were loaded aboard that ship.” Miss Apis said nodding at the flyby as it pulled away from them.

“Well then, it looks like we have our target.” Rena said. “Let’s get to it. Remember, teams of two, if your partner get’s mind controlled activate their shocker.”

“Will they still work if comms are jammed?” Carapace asked.

Viperion reached up and touched his earpiece. Carapace then shook his head with a small yelp.

“Seems to still be working.” Viperion said with a slight smile. “Must only be long range comms that are out. Means we might have to get pretty close to each other for it to work.”

“It’s better than nothing.” Rena said and then nodded to the others.

Then after again making sure the coast was clear, they each leapt from the building in sequence, heading towards their new destination.

Ladybug tapped her foot impatiently as they rode the elevator to the topmost floor of the tower.

She glanced to her right at Ryuko who stood stoically beside her. There was no worry showing on the woman’s face, if anything she seemed bored. Leave it to Kagami to find being captured uninteresting.

Ladybug turned to look at one of the men holding them at gunpoint. Currently there were about ten of them huddled around them in the elevator. Their bulky armor and helmets made it impossible to see their faces or bodies and she wondered to herself what they looked like underneath.

When the elevator dinged, she looked forward again and prepared herself for the worst.

The two doors slid aside and they were pushed forward from behind, indicating that they should exit.

They now found themselves in a large open room with glass cases lining either side of the hall. Inside each case there were various impressive looking objects and sometimes even people who were sitting there looking miserable.

Ladybug looked around curiously at the strange collection. What was this all about?

“Ah, yes!” a man who had been sitting in an extravagant chair at the end of the hall said as he stood to greet them. “My new acquisitions have arrived!”

Ladybug wondered about his statement and then glanced down at the man’s outfit and wondered how anyone could possibly dress so gaudy. She then had a realization as she recalled a conversation with Adrien from years before.

“So, You must be Taneleer, the Collector.” Ladybug said as they came to a stop in front of him.

She noticed Ryuko glance at her sideways. She figured that Kagami was curious as to how Ladybug knew the man, as he had not been a part of the mission briefing. Which had been mainly because she hadn’t even considered that Heart Tide would have kept the man around after using him to escape earth five years before. Lila’s modus operandi had been the same each time she had been encountered on earth. The villain tended to use people, and then drop them later to cover her tracks, so there was little reason to think now would have been any different.

But here was Taneleer, alive and well, clearly not under mind control. So either Heart Tide was working with him, or she had long since left this place.

“It’s nice to see my reputation persists in the grand scheme of things.” the Collector said with a grand bow. “And you, Ladybug, master of the kwami, I have been waiting with bated breath for you to arrive for quite some time now.”

Ladybug squinted at the man. What did he know, and what did he want from her exactly?

“You knew we would be coming?” Ryuko asked looking to Ladybug.

“Of course! I made sure of it.” Taneleer said with a grin. “One does not simply leave things like this to chance. A whisper here, a rumor there...”

Ladybug frowned as she came to the conclusion that Heart Tide’s presence here was a deception from the get go.

“So, Heart Tide isn’t really here then?” Ryuko asked.

The collector smiled again and spun around in place, laughing.

“You are mistaken! I am not prone to lying, nasty business that.” he said placing his hand on his chest. “And I have a reputation to keep for when I deal with traders and bounty hunters. Wouldn’t want anyone to refuse a deal because my word isn’t any good.”

He walked slowly toward a nearby case that was filled with some kind of ominous black smoke and tapped on the glass.

“Come on out my little prize.” he said and turned to allow Ladybug and Ryuko see the case.

Suddenly a hand was pressed up against the inside of the glass followed shortly by a snarling face.

Ladybug gasped. It was Lila, but she seemed so twisted and broken.

“What did you do to her?” Ryuko yelled stepping forward as far as she could before being stopped by a soldier.

“Me?” Taneleer said with a frown. “I take good care of my collection. How dare you insinuate I did anything to her.”

Ladybug slowly stepped forward, and when no guards moved to stop her she continued until she reached the glass case. She put her hand up on it and watched as Lila slowly moved as if to try and smell it.

“No, this seems to be what happens when one remains empowered by a corrupted akuma for an extended period of time. It breaks you, bends you to it’s evil, and then consumes what’s left.” Taneleer said from behind her. “You see Ladybug. I did nothing to her. It was you by means of inaction that has.”

Ladybug’s eye twitched as she felt a tear fall down her own cheek.

Chapter Text

Ladybug’s eyes were locked with Lila’s as she wondered what the poor woman must be going through. How many of the last five years had she spent in this state? At what point had she lost herself to the darkness inside? And more importantly, could she be saved?

It was true that Lila had hated her, and had actively chosen to let the akuma stay inside her so that she could try and kill Marinette. But as of right now, Ladybug didn't care. No one deserved this fate.

“That’s not even close to being true.” she heard Ryuko say from behind her. “Ladybug would have saved her if she had known where she was. So it is not valid to blame her for her current state as if she had a choice in the matter.”

Ladybug turned to look at Taneleer.

“If she has been part of your collection this entire time. How can you not see that it is your fault that she is like this?” she asked him.

Taneleer held up his hands defensively.

“I offered her a ride on my ship.” he explained. “It’s not my fault she hadn’t considered what her payment would be until after the fact. I’m simply taking my payment.”

“I’m honestly surprised she didn’t just mind control you.” Ryuko said.

Taneleer laughed.

“When you’ve been alive for billions of years, concepts like loyalty are lost on you.” he said motioning to his own head. “So there is no amount of sway that can control me.”

Ladybug squinted. So this man had truly been alive that long? It definitely explained how he considered people to be property he could own. At the age he was, no one else could come close to falling into any terms of equality in his eyes. They were all beneath him.

“And now you want to add me to your collection.” Ladybug said flatly. “What if I refuse?”

Taneleer regarded her for a moment and then walked over towards her, clearly not afraid of any kind of retaliation or attack.

“It is not you exactly that I am after.” he said and placed his hand on his heart as if to show he longed for something. “But instead I am interested in your little friends, the kwami.”

“Let me out so I can speak to him.” Tikki said to her, unheard by everyone else.

“Are you sure, Tikki?” Ladybug asked thin air, which drew a questioning look from Ryuko.

She had yet to tell any of the others about her and Tikki’s ability to talk while joined, so she imagined Ryuko was confused by her current actions.

“Yes.” Tikki said. “I have an idea.”

Ladybug considered the fact that if she became Marinette now, she wouldn’t be in any position to put up much of a fight if things went sideways. But she trusted Tikki.

“Wait for my signal, and then let out the light.” Tikki said as a hint towards her plan.

Ladybugs eyes went wide as she looked towards Lila’s cage, now understanding the plan. She then glanced over to Ryuko and raised an eyebrow, an unspoken question meant for her kwami partner.

“Don’t worry, her Miraculous form will protect her.” Tikki offered to quell her worry.

“Tikki, spots off.” Ladybug said and felt the familiar pangs of nerve damage strike her as she became Marinette once again.

Taneleer spread out his arms with glee as he witnessed the spectacle and then greeted Tikki with a reverence he had not seen fit to give Ladybug and Ryuko. Clearly the fact that Tikki was as old as he, gave her a bit more leverage.

“Hello again, Tivan.” Tikki said. “It’s been a very long time.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow. Had Tikki somehow met Taneleer before?

The Collector himself seemed pleased by being remembered.

“So, I was correct.” Taneleer said with a smile on his face. “It was you who I attempted to collect all those many years ago.”

“Without much success.” Tikki said, defiantly. “Your efforts will go much the same now.”

“Ah yes, but you have physical form now, and are tied to an object which one can indeed possess.” Taneleer said looking to Marinette, his eyes searching her for something.

“You will not find a Miraculous on her.” Tikki said. “She does not carry one.”

Marinette couldn’t help but notice how carefully Tikki had chosen her words.

Taneleer and Ryuko both seemed surprised at the revelation that she didn’t carry a Miraculous. Again, like her ability to communicate with Tikki, the fact that her heart had become a Miraculous wasn’t something she advertised openly, not even to her friends. And as far as she knew, only a few of the Avengers, and Adrien, knew of her crystal heart and the implications of it.

“How can that be?” Taneleer said. “Both Adrien and Lila explained to me the function of the Miraculous. I doubt they were both so sorely mistaken.”

“Let’s just say, if you wish to possess me, you will need to convince me.” Tikki said, clearly attempting to stall the man. “But I doubt there is anything you could offer me that I would find acceptable as a payment.”

Marinette began to feel a warm sensation deep down inside her heart and she glanced down to see that some of her scars had already begun to glow softly. She attempted to reel in the power some, as she didn’t want to give away their plan too early. Thankfully, Taneleer seemed too focused on Tikki now to notice.

“I must possess you.” Taneleer said reaching out his hand toward the ladybug kwami, seeming almost obsessed. “If you join my collection willingly… I …”

Taneleer seemed to search for something to say. Clearly he had not been prepared to bargain in this particular instance.

“I will free the girl.” He said motioning to Lila. “And I will let your current holder and this other one go as well.”

Marinette took the distraction Tikki was giving her as a chance to glance to Ryuko and wink at her to get her attention. When the dragon holder locked eyes with her, she motioned with her head towards Lila’s cage.

Ryuko’s eye’s went wide. Clearly the woman understood what Marinette wanted her to do, and found it to be a crazy idea. So she motioned again and then nodded once more to let her know she really meant it.

After a moment of hesitation Ryuko nodded back.

“I don’t think that’s enough.” Tikki said, almost sounding amused by the charade she was putting on. “Besides, they won’t be here much longer anyway.”

Taneleer seemed confused by what Tikki had said and turned to look at Marinette.

Marinette smiled at him and closed her eyes to concentrate.

“Ryuko!” Marinette yelled.

“Lightning Dragon!” she heard Ryuko yell from behind her, and then shortly after, a smashing sound to her right.

“What have you done?” Taneleer yelled. “She will consume the whole planet!”

Marinette opened her eyes and glanced towards where the cage had been. Now there was an ever expanding black cloud that was emanating from it in all directions. Inside the inky blackness she could see a humanoid form stepping toward her, a purple glow in it’s angry eyes.

“Lila.” Marinette said holding out her arms as if to welcome an embrace from her. “You have been this way far too long. It’s time to come home.”

The black form suddenly lashed forward towards her with a snarl and Marinette once again closed her eyes to concentrate.

Marinette then felt an overwhelming burst of joy explode from her.

Rena covered her face as the large window above her shattered in an explosion of light.

She and the other three Miraculous holders had been scaling the side of the tower for the last few minutes and they had been about to reach the top when they were almost caught in the blast from above. A blast that Rena figured could have only been caused by one thing, Marinette’s energy burst.

She had never seen it happen herself, but by how it had been described to her, it was the most likely explanation.

“What was that?” Carapace asked, gripping onto the side of the building for dear life, the explosion having thrown off all of their footing.

Rena knew that none of the other Miraculous holders knew about Marinette’s bursts, so she felt it was best to simply ignore the question. She really didn’t like lying to her fiance, but it wasn’t really her secret to tell.

“I have a feeling Ladybug and Ryuko need us.” Rena said preparing to make the last jump to reach the top. “Let’s go!”

As she landed in the opening that used to be a window, she took a quick glance around to survey the scene.

Scattered around the room were a few soldiers, laying motionless, clearly knocked out by the explosion.

Ryuko was nearby, climbing up off the floor shaking her head, likely attempting to clear her vision. The blast had consisted of the brightest light Rena had ever seen and she was still seeing spots. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like to have been inside of it.

Off to Ryuko’s left, Marinette was laying on the floor unconscious, no longer transformed into Ladybug. Rena could see that wrapped in her best friend’s arms was a deakumatized Lila, who also appeared to be unconscious.

A slight motion to Rena’s right caused her to look over just as a tiny white butterfly flew past her.

Marinette had done it.

However, it had clearly been done with a burst of creation energy itself and not her usual de-evilizing technique, and it seemed that doing so had overwhelmed Marinette to the point of knocking her out.

“Looks like we have company!” Carapace said as he climbed up into the empty window frame beside her, Miss Apis and Viperion following shortly after.

Rena turned around to see that there were seven, no, ten very armed ships closing in on the top of the tower. They would likely begin to fire at them any second.

“Can you guys cover us for a minute?” Rena asked the three other miraculous holders. “I need to check on Marinette.”

The three heroes nodded to her and turned to face the oncoming foes.

Rena turned to run further into the room as she heard Viperion activate his second chance ability behind her, preparing for the worst. Hopefully he wouldn’t need it.

As she reached where Marinette lay with Lila in her arms, she couldn’t help but notice that Lila was still as young as she had been five years before, when she had first been akumatized.

Tikki was nestled into the crook of Marinette’s arm and glanced up at Rena.

“She might not be awake for a while.” Tikki said. “It was a little less controlled a burst than usual.”

“What exactly was that?” Ryuko asked walking up beside Rena.

“It’s a long story, which we can get into later.” Rena said looking back towards the battle that had just begun outside. “We need to get out of here first.”

Rena scooped Marinette up in her arms, and Ryuko did the same to Lila. They both ran over toward the window they had come in through with Tikki floating along behind them.

When she reached the edge and looked out at the battle taking place, Rena frowned. There was far too much happening to be able to safely get down this way while carrying two unconscious people with them.

“What we need is a ride.” Ryuko said. “It’s too bad we don’t have a ship.”

“Did someone say, ride?” Chat Noir’s voice came from above, causing Rena and Ryuko to look up, startled.

There, Flying into view on the back of a winged white horse, was Chat Noir and Valkyrie.

Chapter Text

Marinette woke to silence.

She slowly sat up and looked around, finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings. She was in a dimly lit room full of various boxes and random pieces of junk. None of her friends were anywhere to be seen.

“Tikki?” Marinette called out.

The little red kwami floated up into sight from where she had been on the floor beside her.

“Good morning, Marinette.” Tikki said. “How are you feeling?”

Marinette rubbed the back of her neck. The mat she had been placed upon while she had been asleep was not particularly soft.

“A little stiff, but otherwise I’m alright.” Marinette said. “At least the dream was fairly tame this time. Weird, but tame.”

Marinette had experienced more than a hundred dreams of different versions of her life at this point, each one coming after she had experienced one of the more uncontrolled energy bursts that had put her to sleep. This last dream had been one of the stranger ones, but at least had not been filled with pain, grief and death like some others had.

Oddly enough, this time her life had been presented to her as if it was a computer-animated kids show. She and Adrien had still been Ladybug and Chat Noir in the show, but in this version of her life everything was so colorful, and each akuma attack was neatly tied up inside a weekly episode.

She had been annoyed by the Adrien and Marinette ‘will they, won’t they’ subplot, as it seemed to be presented more for drama value than anything else in the show was. The idea that her love life was somehow existing simply for the entertainment of others was infuriating to think about.

Still though, she noted that it had been another dream without the Avenger’s existing in the same world. That made only three dreams so far that she had experienced that were missing the hero team. She wondered why that was the case. Was it pure chance that such a large percentage of her dreams included them, or was whatever was causing the dreams trying to say something to her?

And then there had been the alternate Mirror-nette. Each dream had one, and each one had been different in appearance and in personality, and no two had been the same. This one had been almost militaristic in dress, going so far as to even have an eye patch over her left eye. Like the others, this Mirror-nette had not said anything and simply stared at her, pointing at the TV which was playing the cartoon for the entire time she had watched it.

“At least this time you only slept for a day.” Tikki said landing on Marinette’s raised knee.

“Where is everyone?” Marinette asked looking around again.

“They are all making patrols of the perimeter. The Collector has been sending his goons out in force to try and find us.” Tikki explained. “It’s lucky Valkyrie had this safe house, or we likely wouldn’t have had a place to hide until you woke.”

Marinette frowned. She was the only one who knew how to work the sling ring, and they had all been stuck waiting for her to wake up so they could escape from this place. At least now that their mission was over, and they knew that Heart Tide had never been the real threat, they could leave this trash planet behind.

“Where is Lila?” Marinette asked. “Did the plan work?”

Tikki smiled at her and nodded.

“She has returned to normal.” Tikki said. “Although, she seems to still be the age she was when she was akumatized. For her, it’s like no time has passed.”

Marinette frowned.

It was likely going to be an awkward reunion as it was, but Lila now being so much younger than her would make it even stranger.

She heard footsteps and then the door to the room opened. Adrien stepped inside, a smile crossing his face as he saw her looking over at him.

“Marinette my love, How is it you always look so beautiful when you wake up?” he said as he walked over to her “Are we sure you weren’t the one who was a model?”

Marinette couldn’t help but smile.

“You really need some new material.” she said as she stood and gave him a quick kiss. “You said that exact same line to me a few months ago.”

Adrien smiled slyly and gave her a hug.

“I’m glad you are awake. Things around here are getting kind of crazy.” Adrien said as he took her hand in his and then started to lead her into the other room. “The sooner we leave the better.”

As they entered the next room, Marinette noticed Lila huddled in the corner of the room, her knees up against her chest and her eyes barely open. Clearly she was distraught, and who could blame her.

“Get all the others back here so we can leave.” Marinette said to Adrien. “But, give me a few minutes. Okay?”

Adrien glanced over at Lila and then looked back to Marinette.

“She’s refused to talk to any of us.” Adrien said. “So she doesn’t exactly know what’s going on yet.”

She nodded to him in understanding and he kissed her on the cheek and left the room.

Marinette looked to Tikki, who nodded to her and then also flew from the room as well.

“Hello Lila.” Marinette said, an inflection of caution in her voice.

She watched as Lila slowly glanced up at her, her gaze falling on her scars for a moment before she looked away again.

“Marinette.” Lila said flatly. “You look so different.”

“It’s been a long time.” Marinette said cautiously. “A lot has happened.”

Lila looked like she was about to cry.

“Five years…” Lila said, her voice cracking a bit. “Or so, that’s what I overheard the others saying.”

Marinette decided to sit in front of Lila against the opposite wall so that she could regard her on an equal level.

“Yes.” she replied as she finished sitting. “You’ve been akumatized this entire time.”

Lila looked up at her again and this time she seemed to be searching Marinette’s eyes for something.

“You’re Ladybug right?” Lila asked. “Did you leave me this way… to punish me?”

Marinette fought to not react to the accusation, because part of her could understand why Lila might think that.

“I didn’t have any desire to punish you Lila.” Marinette offered sincerely.

Lila looked away again.

“Are you sure?” Lila asked. “I remember a few things from the nightmare I was in.”

Marinette winced internally. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like to live in such a state for so long, and to hear that she remembered some if it made it even worse.

“I did that to you, didn’t I?” Lila said, nodding to Marinette’s scars. “I remember being pleased… which I realize now is pretty awful. I honestly hated you Marinette, but… not to that extent.”

Marinette crawled across the room to sit directly beside Lila, who looked away from her, clearly ashamed.

“I will admit that I hated you too.” Marinette said. “But if I’ve learned anything, is that all that hate does is build walls between you and peace of mind.”

Lila looked her in the eyes again.

“Can you forgive me?” Lila asked her. “For everything I did to you?”

Marinette reached over and took Lila’s hand in hers.

“I already have.” Marinette said.

Natasha glanced up at the hologram of Rocket that was being projected in front of her.

“So you were in direct contact with Marinette and you didn’t tell me?” she said angrily.

“Look, she’s her own woman.” Rocket said defensively. “She had something she needed to do, so I helped her.”

Nat walked around her desk and then leaned against the front of it.

“But now your saying you haven’t heard from her or her team in a week and two days?” Nat said accusatorily. “How am I supposed to be glad that ‘she is her own woman’ if she is missing?”

Rocket looked away clearly feeling ashamed. Nat knew that Rocket was just as close with Marinette as she was, so perhaps she was being a bit harsh.

“It might not even be a big deal.” Rocket said. “From the sensor readings we are getting, time flow on Sakaar seems a bit out of the norm with the space around it. Nebula did the calculations and it seems that only a day has passed for them. So we may just be worrying prematurly.”

Nat bit her lip.

“So, now what?” Nat said walking towards the hologram. “Are we just supposed to wait two months and wait for a week to pass there so you and kaalki can send your little rescue portal?”

“Oh, you really did the math in your head that quick?” Rocket said quietly, as if he didn’t think Nat could hear him. He then raised his head and tilted it sideways. “I’ve considered going in myself and seeing if I can’t find them.”

Nat shook her head.

“No, stick to the plan she gave you.” she said commandingly. “Whatever time and place you are supposed to send the portal, you do just that.”

“But, you just said yourself that it might take two months…” Rocket said with wide eyes.

“You’ve made your bed, Rocket.” Nat snapped. “Now sleep in it.”

She abruptly closed the channel and stared at the dead air where the hologram had been.

“What were you thinking, Little One?” she said aloud and then glanced over to the picture that sat on her desk.

The smiling faces of her and Marinette eating ice cream together stared back at her.

“I’m sure she’s going to be fine.” Bruce’s voice came from her left.

“And Just how long have you been standing there?” she asked without looking at him.

“Long enough to know that you are angry, and that It’s probably safer for my health to leave you be.” Bruce said.

Nat chuckled through her frustration.

“You know, the Hulk telling you that you are dangerous when angry, really makes you step back and think.” Nat said and turned to him with a newly minted smile. “Did you need something?”

“Well, I don’t need anything.” Bruce said as he walked over to her and then leaned forward to expose what was nestled in the crook of his massive arm. “But I think Phillipa wanted to see her mother before she got tucked in.”

Nat smiled at their half asleep two year old daughter and picked her up to hug her.

“Well, it seems that her father kept her up much later than he should have.” Nat said looking up at Bruce with an incriminating look.

Bruce shrugged innocently and smiled.

Nat smiled back at the gentle giant, but the worry she had been feeling a few moments before returned.

Marinette had been the one to give her the chance to have this family. So it was hard to not think of her other daughter, just wishing that she could know that she was safe.

Chapter Text

Chat Noir jumped down from where he had found Carapace perched as a lookout.

He had already informed the rest of the team that they were pulling back to the safe house so that they could all sling ring off of Sakaar, but the turtle holder had been a bit further out into the city than the others.

“Looks like we are cutting things pretty close.” Carapace said landing beside Chat and looking behind them. “It look’s like they are starting to search this area now.”

“Leave it to my Marinette to have both lucky and unlucky timing at the same time.” Chat said with a sly grin as he began to move through the alleyways toward the safe house.

Ever since he and Marinette had begun officially dating, and spending nearly every waking moment together, he had discovered so much more about her that he had never noticed before. Little things, like the fact that she would dance when she thought no one was looking, or how much she had conversations with herself in her own head and completely spaced on what was happening around her.

And of course the bigger things, like how her bad luck and clumsiness stood out a bit more to him now. Whenever she wasn’t ladybug, she seemed prone to all of the bad luck the universe had to throw at her. But more often than not it was never anything terrible, small trips, silly slip ups, and seemingly random harrowing events all directed at her.

Perhaps it was some kind of karmic balance. As Ladybug she was the embodiment of good luck, so reality had to offset that by making poor Marinette the punching bag of bad luck. Whatever the case, he had always made sure to never laugh at her misfortune and always be gracious in helping her back up off the floor, which she seemed to always be landing on.

He couldn’t help but love her for the strength she had though. She always seemed to bounce right back up, laugh it off, and always seemed ready to keep fighting the good fight no matter the cost. And that meant of course, so would he. Nothing would stop him from keeping her safe, keeping her alive and smiling. Nothing.

For some reason, the thoughts he was having now of his love for Marinette made his heart tingle in a different way than usual. It almost ached with love.

And suddenly, Chat heard a sound he hadn’t heard in a couple years. His ring beeping at him.

He stopped running and glanced down at it curiously. The older they had gotten, the longer they had been able to remain transformed, and recently it almost seemed like they could remain powered up indefinitely if he didn't use his Cataclysm. There had even been times he had been able to use two, even three Cataclysms in one battle without losing power.

But now his ring was beeping, and it as far as he could tell, there was no reason for it.

“Is something wrong?” Carapace asked as he came to a halt beside Chat.

“I don’t know, I need to transform and rest, apparently.” Chat said looking around to make sure the coast was clear of prying eyes. “Plagg, Claws in.”

He felt himself transform into his normal self, but he noticed that he didn’t see Plagg anywhere.

“Plagg?” Adrien called out, but there was no response.

“My dude. Your hand.” Carapace said from behind him, a worried tone in his voice.

Adrien turned to look at Carapace and then held up his right hand to look at it. There he saw the black dust particles that normally accompanied the activation of his Cataclysm, but it was coming from his normal hand, not Chat Noir’s black glove.

He then watched as some of the particles fell from his hand and landed on the ground at his feet and caused the dirt to crumble into nothing and become tiny holes.

Suddenly he started to feel cold inside. Freezing even. And on top of that, it was if he was being filled with grief, possibly anger, or was it just an overall general discontent? He couldn’t quite place the emotion, but he knew it wasn’t anything he himself was feeling at the moment, because he felt like all he should be feeling now was fear. But the discontent was starting to grow, starting to become too much, overwhelming even, much like how Marinette had described-

His eye’s went wide.

“Carapace, RUN!” he yelled and started to back away from the turtle holder. “Go! Get as far away as you can!”

He watched as Carapace didn’t hesitate and turned to flee as fast as he could, but would he have enough time to get away?

“Oh god.” Adrien said as he felt the feeling of discontent surge throughout him, a black cloud of particles starting to exude form his pores.

There was no more time.

Marinette stood quickly to her feet when the room suddenly shook.

There had been some kind of explosion in the distance, and now she could hear people screaming.

She quickly took note that all of the team was in the safe house now except for Chat and Carapace, and this fact made her heart drop.

“Chat.” she said at the same time Rena Rouge said “Carapace.”

When both woman’s eyes locked, neither had to say anything to each other before they were both headed to the door together.

“Tikki, Spots on!” Marinette said, transforming in full sprint.

When they were outside they turned and looked south just in time to see a large skyscraper collapsing to the ground. It seemed to have been filled with large cracks, almost like a web of weakness had spread through it suddenly.

Brunnhilde ran up beside Ladybug and looked at her sidelong.

“What is happening?” the Valkyrie asked.

“Not sure yet.” she replied. “We need to get up higher to get a good look. Can I get a ride?”

Valkyrie nodded to her and turned to go get her steed.

“What should we do?” Viperion asked as he, Miss Apis and Ryuko all came to a halt beside their team leader.

Ladybug glanced to Rena Rouge who a few paces ahead frantically scanning the rooftops and then looked back to the three heroes beside her.

“We don’t know what this is, but if it’s a trap…” Ladybug began to say and then shook her head. “Regardless of that, priority is to rescue and evacuate anyone who is hurt or in danger.”

They had a job to do, and as heroes they had to weigh their own possible peril against helping anyone they could when the opportunity arose.

All of the heroes nodded in understanding and began to leap off toward different points of the unknown catastrophe, spreading out to cover more ground.

Ladybug turned as Valkyrie and her mount Aragorn rode up beside her. She quickly jumped onto the horse behind the Asgardian and they flew up into the sky in one quick flap of it’s wings.

When they reached a sufficient height, Ladybug peered downward and surveyed the scene.

A large scar of destruction was torn through a portion of the city, almost like that which was left by lightning when it struck the ground. A fractal of cracked, burned earth, and split, crumbling buildings spread in all directions outward from a central point.

And there at the center, she could just barely make out a lone figure laying on the ground.

“Oh no.” Ladybug whispered.

“Is that...?” Valkyrie began to say.

“Get me down there. Now!” Ladybug demanded.

Valkyrie quickly aimed their flight downward and when Ladybug figured that she was close enough, she dismounted and took the rest of the distance in a free fall without a care that she might hurt herself.

She landed hard and did a roll to slow herself, coming to rest right beside Adrien.

“Adrien!” she cried out as she lifted his head into her lap. “Wake up!”

When he didn’t react, she looked down and noted that he was still breathing.

Still alive, thank goodness.

She glanced at the destruction around her once more, and noticed that it all led back to this point right where Adrien was, almost as if it had exploded outward from-

Her eyes went wide.

Was it possible that he now suffered a similar affliction as she did, but instead of creation energy it had been destruction. If that was the case, than that meant-

Interrupting her own train of thought a second time, she glanced down at Adrien’s Miraculous ring and touched it. It crumbled into dust under her touch and she pulled her hand back.

“Plagg?” Ladybug asked, looking about.

“Ladybug.” she heard a tiny voice say from behind her.

She turned and saw Plagg floating there, looking confused.

“I lost connection for a moment…” Plagg said with a squint of his green eyes. “And when I reconnected…”

Ladybug looked down at Adrien.

“His heart is a Miraculous, isn’t it?” She asked the kwami.

Plagg nodded wordlessly.

Ladybug frowned and looked up at the rubble around her again. For the most part, her energy bursts had been manageable so far, mainly because it was creation energy that could be channeled to do good if she tried hard enough. But this was entirely different.

This was destruction, death.

Then as if to make that point, she heard a cry of absolute despair in the distance, from a voice that she recognized as coming from Rena Rouge.

Chapter Text

Ladybug, Adrien now in her arms, landed beside Rena Rouge amid the rubble. What she saw there, made her stomach churn.

The fox holder was kneeling on the ground beside Carapace who lay motionless and broken. The visible skin of his face below his mask was covered in black veiny scars, and parts of his super hero costume on his right side had been replaced by tatters of black thread and cloth. He almost looked as if he was made of glass that had broken, but had yet to shatter and fall apart.

Ladybug slowly placed Adrien against a nearby wall and then moved to kneel across from Rena Rouge, on the opposite side of Carapace.

She glanced up at Rena and saw that she wasn’t moving much, her eyes closed, silently holding Carapaces hand in her own.

“Rena…” Ladybug said. “Is he…”

Rena Rogue opened her eyes and looked up at her slowly, and now Ladybug could see the pain in her unmoving eyes.

He was dead.

Ladybug looked down at her friend, and began to cry.

“No.” Ladybug croaked out. “No!”

She felt an anger well up inside her then, an anger at fate, at the so called destiny she had come to think controlled the universe. So many things in the last five years had made her believe there was a purpose to it all, that something was controlling their path. The communion she had shared with the universe, the fact that it had given her this power, this curse, had all implied that there was a reason. And she had believed it meant something, that it was all leading to a grand reveal of her destiny.

Even Doctor Strange had seemed to hint at her power’s purpose as if he had seen it in the future with his own eyes. Perhaps she had been naïve to think that she would play a part in all of this, that she would somehow be big enough, important enough, to save the entire universe from the decimation.

Still, if she found that somehow she was indeed connected to this story, this ever growing universal epic, then this was not a cost she would have been willing to pay. She had gone to that temple alone so that no one else would be harmed, so that the payment the universe took would be paid by her and her alone.

So why was he dead? Was it just chance? Bad luck?

She looked up at Adrien through her blurry tear filled vision and ground her teeth together.

She grimaced at the thought of having to tell Adrien what had happened when he woke. The inevitable look on his face, the shame.

Why was it that Adrien was cursed now too? Why him? Why was it that he now had to live with the pain and knowledge of killing his own friend?

The anger in her turned to pity as she looked across to Rena who had closed her eyes again. Ladybug could see that her friend had shed no tears yet, shock and grief clearly outweighing any sadness.

Alya, my dearest. I’m so sorry. She thought, unable to speak. Ladybug knew that she herself had been the one to bring them all here to this place. In the end it was her fault.

She clenched her hand into a fist and thought of the futility of it all.

Before the decimation, she and her friends had been heroes, fighting in a war that had no real casualties. She had always been able to restore everything after each fight, even those who had died. No cost, no consequences, no risk.

She wished with her very soul that she was able to do that still.

A sudden glow from below her vision caught her attention. Looking down at herself, she saw that her ladybug spots were all glowing in a similar way that her scars usually did. But she had never had an energy burst while she was ladybug before, so this was definitely a first.

She glanced at Carapace. Perhaps this was the answer.

She reached over and placed her hand on Carapaces chest and focused on the energy inside her.

Channel it. She thought hard. Almost willing her mind, body and spirit to obey her.

Rena Rouge opened her eyes and looked up, her mouth dropping open.

“Marinette?” Rena asked, her eyes glancing up at something behind Ladybug, but she really couldn’t spare the concentration to look away now and see what was so interesting.

Give him back !

Suddenly all of the light in her spots surged downward toward her hand and out into Carapace’s chest. As the glow lingered there, she watched as the black veins on his face began to recede, and instead started to appear on the glove of her own suit, turning it black.

She felt a terrible pain in her hand as she continued, but she fought through it. Nothing would stop her, not even if it killed her.

This was a trade she was willing to make.

“Marinette?” She heard the distant sound of Nino’s voice somewhere in her mind.

Yes!

She willed herself to push harder, fighting against a resistance she was starting to feel. Something, or someone, was trying to stop her. But that was too damn bad. She had been given this power, and she planned to use it.

The light from her hand started to spread towards the ground below Carapace and then weaved out quickly towards other parts of the city in an instant. She closed her eyes as she experienced a surge of pain.

She felt a strange, disconnected feeling then. Hundreds of voices in her head, there alongside Nino’s. It was so loud that she was overwhelmed at first, but she fought against it and continued on.

She opened her eyes and glanced up to follow one of the trails of light until she saw that it led to a burn mark on a nearby wall. A silhouette of a person, something she hadn’t noticed before.

As she watched, and as the pain grew, the silhouette took form out of the wall and became a person. One of the cities inhabitants who had been killed in the blast was reforming, even after having been completely incinerated. Was she doing this?

She glanced down to her hand again and saw that the blackness was creeping up past her elbow now. The pain moving with it. But she didn’t care.

Fix it! She thought hard, clenching her jaw. FIX IT ALL!

With that one last push, the light snaking through the ground doubled in brightness and Ladybug felt pain shoot through her whole body as her entire suit turned black. And after letting out a blood curdling scream, so did her vision.

Rena Rouge watched in horror as Ladybugs entire body turned pitch black, no color to be seen anywhere, not even in her skin. The scream the woman had let out was unlike anything Rena had ever heard before. Such pain had been carried within it.

Then Ladybug’s normal color suddenly returned and she slumped down into a heap beside Carapace. It was then that Rena noticed that her fiancé's eyes were open.

“Nino!” she cried out pulling him into her arms with as much force as she could muster.

“Woah, careful, still a little sore.” he said grunting. “What just happened?”

“I thought I had lost you.” she sobbed, tears finally coming to her.

Carapace fought to pull back from her embrace and looked her in the eyes.

“I think…” he started to say. “I think you did though. I was definitely dead.”

Rena blinked a few times and then noticed various sakaarians standing up from the ground around them, all looking about confused. Had they all been brought back from the dead?

Rena looked over toward Ladybug, still slumped over unconscious behind Carapace.

She had watched in wonder as Ladybug had transferred her energy into Carapace, and had even seen the large glowing wings that had appeared behind Ladybug as she had done it. But it was still a wonder to her that it had even happened. This was not her normal ladybug revival using the ladybug swarm that undid everything. No, this had been Marinette herself, channeling the energy directly.

Rena then thought about the blackness that had passed from Carapace into Ladybug and began to worry.

“Marinette.” she said and then crawled over to her. “Don’t tell me that you…”

Had her friend traded herself for all of these people, and for Nino? Somehow she knew that if anyone would do such a thing, it would be Marinette. The woman’s selflessness knew no bounds, but that thought didn’t make Rena feel any better about the possibility of it all.

Rena quickly rolled Ladybug over so that she could see her face. Thankfully, she could see that she was still breathing.

“Thank goodness.” she whispered, relief washing over her.

“Adrien, you alright my man?” Rena heard Carapace say from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see that her fiancé was trying to rouse his friend just as she was hers.

The only difference was that Adrien seemed to actually stir, and then he opened his eyes.

“Cara… Nino?” Adrien said weakly, dropping the formality of it all. He then sighed in relief. “Thank goodness, you got away in time.”

“No dude.” Carapace said. “I didn’t. There was no getting away from that.”

Rena watched as Adrien sat up with a confused look on his face as he looked around at the destruction around him.

“What did I…” Adrien started to say, fear spreading across his face.

“You didn’t do it on purpose.” Carapace said, cutting him off.

Rena squinted. Had this all been done by Chat Noir? Was this a cataclysm that had gone wrong?

Adrien shook his head and looked down at his hands.

“I’m dangerous, you should all get away from me.” Adrien said as he stood to his feet where he finally caught a glimpse of Ladybug, her head still resting in Rena’s lap.

“Marinette!” he cried out and quickly ran to her side. “Is she...?”

“She’s alive.” Rena said reaching over to put her hand on his shoulder.

Adrien began to cry and pulled the limp Ladybug up into his arms.

Rena stood and looked around. A crowd was forming around them now. Curious sakaarians, newly revived, all peering down at Ladybug while chattering among themselves. She could only hear murmurs of what they were saying to each other, but it was apparent that each and every one of them knew that Ladybug, no, Marinette had save them from death.

“I saw her.” Carapace said stepping beside Rena. “There was nothing there. Just darkness. And then suddenly there was Marinette. So beautiful, glowing. Calling me home.”

Rena glanced down at Adrien and Ladybug.

“Problem is…” Carapace continued. “She wasn't there alone.”

Rena looked to him questioningly.

"I think it was Death.” Carapace said. “And she wasn’t happy to see Marinette.”

Chapter Text

Adrien lowered Marinette onto the sleeping mat and then placed Tikki on the pillow beside her. Her Ladybug suit had automatically transformed off a few minutes ago as he was carrying her towards the safe house. Tikki had appeared and fallen immediately to sleep, which was never a good sign. She had  clearly expended a large amount of energy.

“We always seem to be waiting for Marinette to wake up.” Plagg said. “She ends up asleep more than a cat does.”

Adrien frowned and glanced to Plagg who must have realized that he wasn’t in the mood for jokes because the kwami looked away from him the second he made eye contact and then floated to the other side of the room. He contemplated calling the kwami back, but as it was, Marinette was all he could think of right now.

He turned back and looked down at Marinette’s face, contemplating what had happened.

From how Rena had explained it, Ladybug had essentially absorbed the death of hundreds of people into herself, canceling them out. He figured that it was not something that could be done without some kind of consequence, and now he worried as to what it was.

He lowered himself to kneel beside her on the floor and began to gently drag his fingers across one of the scars on her arm like he had done many times before. She had always told him that it cooled the pain when he did it, so he had done it as often as he could. They had silently lain in bed for countless hours, him moving from scar to scar as she smiled at him and looked into his eyes. His sole desire had been to make her pain go away, and if this simple action somehow helped, then it was what he would always do.

Interestingly enough, when he touched her skin this time, he felt a cooling sensation on his own fingers that he hadn’t before. He squinted in curiosity, and then gently pressed the back of his hand against her forehead and found that the entirety of his hand became cooled. He wasn’t feeling pain like she usually was to begin with, but the sensation was comforting to him nonetheless.

Marinette began to stir and Adrien wondered if his touch had somehow helped rouse her, so he took her hand in his. Again, his hand felt cool at the touch of her skin.

“Adrien?” Marinette mumbled, her eyes barely opening more than a tiny slit.

“I’m here.” he said and lifted her hand to his lips to kiss it.

“Nino… is he…?” she began to ask.

“He’s fine now, thanks to you.” Adrien said.

Marinette reached up and placed her hand on his cheek, the cooling sensation present once again. If this is what she had been feeling every time he touched her scars, then he could understand why she had asked him to do it. It was so soothing.

“I’m glad to see you are alright as well, my love.” she said opening her eyes a bit more. “I was so worried when I found you out there in the middle of all that destruction.”

Adrien frowned and looked away from her. He knew he had been the cause of that very destruction, and her mention of it brought the shame back to the forefront of his mind.

“It was me.” he said regretfully. “I did all of that. I think I suffered an energy burst like the ones you have.”

He fought tears now at the idea of being the cause of so many people’s deaths. And if it hadn’t have been for Ladybug bringing them all back, then he knew that he would have simply not been able to handle such a burden of guilt and shut down completely.

“It’s not your fault.” she said turning his face back to her with a gentle pull of her hand.

“You can’t say that for sure.” he said, his words dripping with grief.

He saw her eyes shift slightly away from him, and then back again.

“Have you ever once blamed me for my energy bursts?” she asked him. “Or for tearing you from your life to live on some distant planet with me for a year so I wouldn’t hurt anyone with them?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but then realized that he had never considered blaming her, not once for even a second. So he shook his head as an answer to her question.

“So, why would you ever think to blame yourself now?” she asked him. “I’m sure you had no desire to do such a thing. I know you Adrien, you are the kindest soul there is.”

Adrien’s tears began now anyway, a mixture of joy at her comforting words and the overwhelming nature of their situation.

After Marinette’s initial burst at the Stark and Potts wedding four years before, her sudden eruptions of creation energy, which had come monthly at first, had not affected him in the slightest. They had never discovered why he had become immune afterwards when so many others caught in the blasts would be stricken with sleep, forced restoration of their bodies, and dreams of other possible lives. But whatever the reason, he had been glad that he could be with her still, so she hadn’t been alone.

Yet here at the edge of possibly having to also go into exile to protect those around him from literal death, there was little hope that she would be able to join him. Even if she was to be immune like he had been after her first burst, she would have to actually survive one first. And from what he had just seen, it was unlikely anyone would, not even a Miraculous holder.

“If this tracks with what happened to you, it’s going to happen more often, more unpredictably.” He said. “I won’t be safe to be around, I’m going to have to-”

She had sat up and kissed him before he could react fully. The cooling sensation from her lips almost seemed to radiate into him, calming his mood as well. He closed his eyes and basked in the comfort of it.

When she stopped kissing him, he opened his eyes and found her staring into them.

“You aren’t getting rid of me that easy.” she said. “We will figure this out, together.”

Adrien couldn’t help himself and felt compelled to hug her, so he did.

Even through their clothes, she radiated cooling comfort.

Nat ran out the door of the main complex of Avengers Campus toward the spinning ring of sparks that had appeared on the front lawn.

“Please be alright.” she said to herself as she watched one Miraculous holder after the next step through the portal. She looked to each of their faces as they came through, and they all seemed somber and exhausted. The mission must have been a rough one.

When she finally saw Marinette, following through after a winged horse of all things, Nat ran up and all but tackled her errant adopted daughter with a hug.

“It may not seem like it, but I am very angry with you.” she said, squeezing Marinette tight in her arms.

Natasha struggled to control her emotions, but it was no good. After almost twenty six years without having one, she still wasn’t used to all of the hormones her fully restored reproductive system generated. Bruce had told her that she had softened greatly the last few years, and in this time of loss, for her it had been like a gift. Long gone now was the stoic, unfeeling Black Widow, replaced by someone even more impressive, capable and even dangerous if the need arose. A mother.

So she had given up the moniker of Widow, and fairly unceremoniously been given something more fitting to her new role. Everyone called her Director now, a name that in many ways made her miss her former leader, Nick Fury, even more. He had made leadership look so easy. And yet, she was only in charge of the Avenger’s team, a comparably small weight on her shoulders that made her wonder how Fury had ever carried all of S.H.I.E.L.D on his.

In the end though, it had made sense for her to take on the position. She had wanted to be close to her child and that meant she could no longer run off to risk her life at the drop of a hat. But her expertise in military strategy, knowledge in world cultures, and even her ability to speak multiple languages, had all made her the right choice to lead and be liaison between the U.N. and the Avengers. Well, at least what was left of the Avengers.

Steve and Tony had both taken to a more simple life, both opting to no longer lead the team themselves or take on any missions. Hell, Stark even had a child now, and Nat had been surprised at just how much the mans priorities shifted when Morgan had been born. Something that to everyone’s surprise had occurred only two months after the wedding. Potts had been almost seven months pregnant when she had walked down the aisle, and not a single person there could have been the wiser to it. Not even Tony.

Talk about a surprise wedding gift.

Of course Nat could understand both the weight and joy that suddenly being a parent could bring. When she had become Marinette’s guardian, she had not foreseen their eventual familial bond at the time, nor the fear she would have every waking moment as she worried about her. And now, here holding that child who had since grown into a woman, she still felt the need to protect her with every ounce of her being.

“I’m so sorry if we worried you, mom.” Marinette said pulling back from Nat’s hug.

Nat shook her head and smiled.

“Ah, pulling the mom card to play to my sympathies I see.” Nat said as her anger subsided some, having to concede to herself that it had worked. “Well, Little One, I have half the mind to ground you. And before you say you are too old, as your Director, I can still do it.”

Marinette playfully grinned back at her, and shrugged.

“Well, sometimes we kid’s just feel the need to rebel against our parents. It can’t be helped.” Marinette said jokingly, and then suddenly sobered. “But if it is the price I have to pay to have finally been able to save Lila from her Akuma...”

At the mention of Lila, Nat looked off to the right and saw the girl in question being led along by Miss Apis. She appeared quite distraught, clearly years under the influence of an Akuma had affected her greatly.

“I want to hear about everything that happened.” Nat said looking back to Marinette.

“Of course.” Marinette said and then looked over her shoulder. “But first, we need to get Adrien to the burst chamber.”

Nat blinked in confusion and then realized what she was saying.

“Bruce, meet us in the energy lab.” the Director said into her earpiece, immediately getting down to business.

Chapter Text

Two Days Later

Adrien looked down at the flat, hexagonal device that Bruce had just placed on his upper chest. It had adhered to his bare skin without any kind of suction or mechanism he could figure out.

He watched as Plagg poked at it curiously and then flew up to land on his shoulder.

“I modeled it after Tony’s arc reactor design.” Banner said. “But it actually does the opposite of generating energy.”

Adrien looked over toward Marinette who was sitting in a chair opposite of the glass isolation compartment Adrien now occupied. He could see that she was wearing a similar device now too, the edges of it peeking up above the top of her blouse.

Bruce had spent the last two days tirelessly perfecting his solution to the energy bursts. He had actually started the project years before and had originally come up with the isolation chamber for Marinette.

After the accident which made Bruce permanently Hulked, causing Marinette to opt to live off world, it seems that Banner had continued his efforts without her, in hopes that he could allow her return to earth someday. That meant that the chest device had been near completion already, and had just needed some calibration and software finalization before it had been fully ready. Thankfully, because redundancy was important in science, he already had a second device ready as well.

“This should allow us to detect any impending bursts, and allow the energy from it to be collected safely before an eruption occurs.” Bruce explained. “Although, I don’t have your bursts full energy profile yet, so we will have to run a few tests.”

Adrien nodded with a frown and then pulled his shirt back on. This entire situation still had him on edge. He was worried even now that he may erupt and kill everyone nearby, as there was no guarantee that the isolation chamber would even stop his destructive energies.

Bruce stepped outside the chamber and closed the door behind him.

“Alright, the collector has a full set of scanners on it, so I’ll need you to transform into Chat Noir so I can start getting a base profile built. Then I’ll have a comparison for when the next burst happens.”

Adrien nodded and then looked to Plagg.

“Plagg, Claws out!” Adrien called.

Once he was fully transformed, Chat Noir looked down at the device. It had been integrated into his normal suit just below his bell.
Years ago they had figured out how to change their desired appearance after transforming, much like Marinette had done with her decision to not have a mask. They also knew how to allow certain aspects of what they were wearing beforehand to remain unchanged. That meant that things like their communication earbuds were not overridden by the magic completely.

“Alright, I’m getting the initial readings.” Bruce said as Marinette walked over to look at the screen as well. “Interesting.”

“What is it?” Marinette asked.

“His base energy profile, it’s not even close to what it was when I scanned him years ago.” Bruce said to Marinette as he sifted through the data. “It’s become a completely perfect inversion of yours.”

Chat mulled over what he was hearing. Perhaps the inverted nature of their energies was the reason he and Marinette now felt cooling sensations when they touched each other. As if they were each an ointment for the others ailment.

“Alright, I think I’ve calibrated your device to properly absorb the energy if it gets to too high a level.” Bruce said. “But I think we may need to try and force a burst to test it.”

“I’m not sure I want to.” Chat said pensively. “Especially not with either of you anywhere nearby.”

Marinette walked over to the glass and placed her hand on it.

“Well, I’m not going anywhere.” she said. “I told you that we are doing this together.”

Chat shook his head.

“Damn it, Marinette.” he said sharply. “I can’t risk losing you!”

Marinette’s face softened and she turned away from him.

“And I can’t let you face this alone.” she said, looking over her shoulder slightly. “You never left my side, not once. No matter what the risk had been.”

Chat swallowed hard, then he glanced over to Bruce for support and saw that the man was rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Don’t look at me.” the large green scientist said and then motioned towards the door. “I can leave if you want. The system is set to automatically record the data.”

Chat nodded to his adoptive father, and watched as he left the room.

“I’m sorry.” Marinette said. “I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

“I’m not angry.” he replied stepping up to the glass and placing his hand on it. “I’m scared.”

Marinette turned and faced him again.

“So am I.” she said glancing at the device on his chest. “But if this works, maybe we can finally have a semblance of a normal life again.”

Chat smiled.

“Normal?” he said ruefully with a weak smile. “What’s been normal about our lives?”

She smiled back and then made a silly face at him which broke the tension a bit.

“A girl who fell in love with a boy. Seems fairly normal to me.” she said as she placed her hand against the glass where his already was. “Nothing else that has happened matters, as long as we are together.”

“Marinette...I...” he started to say. “Claws in.”

He looked her in the eyes as he became Adrien once more. His thoughts were on a moment that had occurred a year and a half ago as they had lain underneath a starry sky together. They had spent many hours that night chatting about them, and their future together. And she had said something that evening that had caught him off guard. Something that he had never felt right asking her about.

Until now.

“We’ve been together for a while.” he said, not entirely sure how to approach the subject. “And we know for a fact that we are literal soul mates. So I have to ask. Why did you tell me you didn’t want to ever get married?”

Marinette looked down momentarily and then back up to him.

“It’s because of something I noticed in the dreams the bursts cause.” she explained. “Every version of our lives that I have seen that we had tried to get married, one of us died shortly before, or after. Hell there was even one where you died during the ceremony. So I’ve been left with this feeling about us trying to find real happiness. That something out there would try and stop it. As if reality itself is against us.”

She shook her head and frowned, clearly distraught.

“We have no way of knowing if those dreams are even something real.” Adrien offered. “It could just be your subconscious mind being overwhelmed by the energy.”

“I know.” she said. “But you asked me why, and that’s the reason. I just can’t ignore it.”

He felt a pang in his heart, mainly because he now understood her reluctance, and he really had no good position to try and convince her otherwise. But regardless, he was with her and he would never trade that for anything.

“Well, whether we are ever married or not.” he began, starting to feel a tingle in his skin. “You are my everything and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Marinette blushed and leaned her head against the glass.

“I love you.” she said.

The devices on both of their chests beeped and they both glanced down at the same time.

“What’s happening?” he asked as he watched Marinette quickly walk back toward the console.

“That’s odd. It looks like energy is gathering for a burst.” Marinette said looking up. “In both of us at the same time.”

Adrien bit his lip as he looked at her. He still wished she was far from here just in case his burst turned out to be unable to be contained.

“What are the chances that we would both have a burst at the same time?” he asked as he felt discontent growing inside him.

She looked up and seemed to contemplate the answer.

“Honestly.” she said. “Somehow I doubt it’s a coincidence.”

One Minute Earlier

Somewhere in San Francisco, thousands of miles from Adrien and Marinette, a confluence of universal energies was rippling outward.

Then, in a brilliant flash of light, Scott Lang was expelled from the Quantum Tunneler that had been built into the back of a large brown van.

Chapter Text

Marinette felt the sudden influx of joy and contentedness reach a small peak and then fade completely as the device on her chest started to glow.

She looked up and over toward Adrien whose burst regulator was also glowing. With a quick glanced at the monitor to her left, she saw that the levels of both energy bursts were dropping at the same rate, having already begun to be siphoned.

It had worked.

Marinette quickly ran to the isolation chamber door and opened it, immediately hugging Adrien as soon as she could.

The cooling sensation from his touch added so much to their embraces that she never wanted them to end, but she pulled back from it so she could look at him in the eyes.

“And just like that, life is good again.” she said smiling at him.

He smiled and then kissed her excitedly.

“We should really tell Bruce that it worked.” he said when she started to hug him again.

She shook her head in the crook of his neck.

“More of this first.” she whispered to him and heard a chuckle resonate through his chest before he leaned his head down onto hers.

She hadn’t been this happy in a long time. What he had said to her a few minutes before was still lingering inside her heart, warming it. She knew that for her marriage was off the table, but it was true that she also wanted to spend her life with him, and you didn’t need marriage for that.

Her mind wandered then to the tempering their bodies were experiencing and her eyes opened at the thought. The rest of their lives might just end up being a long while if Master Fu’s age had been any indication. In fact, if their tempering was as far surpassing her former masters as she had figured, than there was no telling how long they would live.

She smiled.

A hundred or more years of being loved by Adrien?

Yes, Please. She thought.

Four days later at sundown, Marinette was sitting in the conference lounge eating a sandwich while idly listening to the weekly check in that Nat was holding with some of the Avengers. Marinette and the Director were the only ones on campus currently, as Adrien had gone back to Paris to visit Nino, and Bruce had taken Phillipa out for the day for some father and daughter time.

This of course meant that across the room, Nebula, Rocket, Okoye, Danvers and Rhodes were all present only via a series of holograms which were spread out in front of the Director.

There had already been few points of interest discussed so far, including a highly suspect warship that Rocket and Nebula had been sent to check out. It had apparently turned out just to be a garbage scow and poor Rocket had of course been fairly upset that he now smelled badly because of it. Marinette had fought hard to not laugh and interrupt the meeting, but had failed and earned a reproachful glance from Nat.

“Carol, are we seeing you here next month?” Nat asked.

“Not likely.” Danvers replied.

“What, gonna get another hair cut?” rocket quipped. This of course caused caused Marinette to grimace.

Even after five years, Rocket still didn’t quite understand some of earths customs, so she knew that he hadn’t really understood why Carol had shaved her head three years before. A close friend of Danvers had been fighting a battle with cancer, so in solidarity she had buzzed off her blonde locks. Sadly though, her friend lost her battle and had passed away.

But now, Marinette wondered how Danvers would react to the misguided comment.

“Listen fur face.” Danvers said with an angrier than usual tone, but then seemed to recover quickly. “I’m covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on earth are happening everywhere. On thousands of planets.”

“Alright, Alright, That’s a good point.” Rocket said, reacting to the rebuttal with a somber look.

Marinette shook her head somberly at the point as well. The last few years there had been strange phenomena cropping up all over the planet, all without much explanation at all. Things like, earthquakes in normally calm zones, auroras appearing in deserts, and even an instance of the entire population of a city laughing uncontrollably at the same time for three minutes.

And that had just been the things they had seen earthside. If what had happened with the moving of wormholes on Sakaar was any indication, these strange phenomena and alterations of normalcy were happening everywhere, just as Carol had indicated.

It was a good bet this was all connected to the decimation and the destruction of the stones in some way. After all, the timeline of events seemed too coincidental to dismiss as pure chance. Whatever else Thanos had caused by destroying the infinity stones was still to be seen. But she knew that there was one thing that was certain.

The universe was broken.

“Alright. Well…” Nat said standing straight to address everyone. “This channels always active, so if anything goes sideways, if anyone’s making trouble where they shouldn’t, it comes through me.”

All of the holograms nodded and then began to flicker out as they each left, but Rhodes hologram remained active which caught Nat’s attention only after she had already sat down again.

“Was there something else?” Nat asked him.

Rhodes peered behind himself and glanced toward Marinette. She knew he couldn’t actually see her, but he had likely heard her laugh earlier.

“Marinette, would you mind giving us the room, we have something of a personal nature to discuss.” Rhodes said. Marinette nodded and smiled to Nat as she stood to leave.

Just as she exited and closed the glass door behind her, she found herself face to face with Steve Rogers.

“Hi there, I didn’t realize you were back on earth.” he said with a smile and then leaned in to hug her.

“Yeah, been back about a week.” She said hugging him back. “What brings you back to the compound?”

She watched as he glanced past her toward Nat who was still talking to Rhodes.

“Figured I would stop by and do some laundry.” he said.

Marinette smiled softly at the excuse. It was the same one she remembered him using a year and a half ago whenever he had stopped by to visit back then. She could tell that Rogers wasn’t handling the simple life all too well and he clearly felt like he needed an excuse to cover up his real reason for stopping by. Last she had heard was that he was running a daily grief councilor meeting for the survivors of the decimation. She figured the reminder of that event every day was likely eating away at him.

And when one got thinking about the past, they tended to want to be near family, and his family was here. So he kept coming back.

“Well I’m sure the Director would love to see you.” she said with a knowing smile. “Find me later, I’d love to catch up as well.”

He smiled and nodded to her as he reached to open the door to the conference lounge.

Less then ten minutes later, Marinette was running back towards the conference lounge.

Nat had called her back saying that they had an unexpected visitor. When she entered she found Rogers and Nat watching a man she didn’t recognize pace back and forth while muttering to himself.

“Marinette, this is Scott Lang, The Ant Man.” Nat said.

Marinette furrowed her brow at the name. If she remembered correctly, he had been one of the vanished. So how was he here now? Was there a chance that some of the vanished were returning?

Scott was pacing still, and hadn’t even acknowledged Marinette had entered the room, or that he had been introduced.

“Scott.” Rogers said finally getting the man to look up and break from his muttering. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Scott replied and placed his hands over his face as if to collect himself.

Marinette moved to stand beside Nat after giving her a questioning look. Nat shook her head back at her, clearly also lost as to what was going on.

“Have any of you guys ever studied quantum physics?” Scott said after a moment more of silent contemplation.

“Only to make conversation.” Nat replied flatly.

Marinette smiled at that response. She figured that Nat had learned some over the years so that she could make small talk with Bruce.

Scott pointed at Nat excitedly, seeming to take her answer as a cue to start sharing his thoughts.

“Alright, so.” Scott said and then continued quickly, barely pausing to breathe. “Five years ago, right before Thanos. I was in a place called the quantum realm. The quantum realm is like it’s own microscopic universe. To get in there you have to be incredibly small. Hope…she’s my um...”

Scott paused a moment, seeming to get choked up.

“She was my…” He started to say. “She was suppose to pull me out. And then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there.”

“I’m sorry.” Nat said. “That must have been a very long five years.”

“Yeah, but that’s just it.” Scott replied. “It wasn’t. For me it was five hours.”

Marinette and Steve exchanged a glance.

“See, the rules of the quantum realm aren’t like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable.” Lang explained and then to match his statement he pointed off to the table nearby. “Is that anybody’s sandwich? I’m starving.”

Lang crossed the room to retrieve the sandwich that Nat had made for herself earlier during the holo-meeting.

Marinette sighed and looked to Nat who shook her head, befuddled.

“Scott” Steve interjected, likely trying to get the man back on task. “What are you talking about.”

“So…” Scott started to say with food in his mouth. “What I am saying is time works differently in the quantum realm. The only problem is right now we don’t have a way to navigate it. But what if we did?”

Marinette watched as Nat and Steve glanced at each other. She wondered if the man had lost his mind. His thoughts were all over the place and he seemed to be rambling. Perhaps spending so much time in this quantum realm he was explaining had scattered his thoughts.

“What if we could somehow control the chaos and we could navigate it?” Scott said pointedly, motioning with his hands. "What if there was a way that we could enter the quantum realm at a certain point in time, but then exit the quantum realm at another point in time.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. She knew exactly what he was about to suggest.

“Like…” Scott hesitated. “Like before Thanos.”

“Wait.” Steve interrupted. “Are you talking about a time machine?”

Scott shook his head as if that was a crazy notion.

“No, no. Of course not. No not a time machine." He replied and then held up one hand as if to pull the thought out of the air. “This is more like a… like a… Yeah. Like a time machine. I know, it’s crazy. But I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“It’s not crazy.” Marinette said abruptly. “And that is exactly what we are going to do.”

Nat and Steve both looked at her and she breathed in deep breath. She had never told them of her and Adrien’s the trip down the rabbit hole, or what Doctor Strange had said to her while they had been there. As it had turned out, time travel through magic had not been the answer because of it's strict linear nature, but perhaps this quantum realm was a way they could pull it off. A way to get to those offshoot timeline branches that Strange had mentioned.

“Marinette.” Nat said giving her an incriminating look. “Why do I have a feeling you know something we don’t.”

“Because, I do.” she replied and then crossed her arms. “I’ve time traveled before.”

Scott, Steve and Nat all looked at her in shock.

Chapter Text

Tony Stark shook his head in disbelief.

Natasha, Steve, Scott Lang and Marinette were all standing on his porch, waiting for him to respond to their plan. They had come uninvited and unannounced to his home and dropped the bombshell of attempting time travel on his doorstep.

“I told you this before, Marinette.” Tony said looking to the youngest Avenger present. “Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition.”

Marinette didn’t break eye contact with him, but she didn’t really look like she was taking any of this to heart. Much like the last time she had approached him with this idea, he wondered if she would ignore him and try again anyway.

Hearing about her attempt and subsequent failure to change time using her magical animal friends just proved to him that she was more reckless than even he had ever been. So he needed to make sure she understood this time, without a doubt.

“In layman’s terms, there is no way to navigate and find your original timeline. So if you try this, then you will not be coming home.” Stark explained.

“I did.” Scott offered.

“No, you accidentally survived.” Tony rebutted. “It was a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna push your luck and pull a… What did you call it?”

“A time heist.” Scott said with a smile.

“And this will work so much better than your last attempt, why?” Tony asked, looking to Marinette.

“Because this will be time travel based in science, not magic.” she replied and then looked him in the eye again. “And because this is exactly what Stephen Strange said would happen.”

Tony felt an anger surge through him and he placed his drink down on the railing of the porch with too much force, spilling it all over. He stepped forward and held up a finger toward Marinette.

“That man, you want to know what he told me once.” Stark said angrily. “He told me that out of fourteen million six hundred and five possible futures, we only beat Thanos one time. And guess what, this was one of the ones we lost. You will never convince me that it wasn’t because he gave away the time stone. No, I don’t think I’ll listen to Stephen Strange ever again.”

Marinette swallowed hard and looked down at her feet. Perhaps this time she was understanding the big picture. Tony turned and looked out over the lake behind his cabin. It was such a beautiful day, and they had to come here today and ruin it.

“Even if you somehow got this to work, it would be just as likely that you screw everything up even more than it already is.” Tony said coming down off his anger a bit.

“I don’t believe we will.” he heard Rogers say. This of course made Stark feel a tinge of anger again.

“You know, I gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism.” Tony said turning back to the group so that he could face Steve. “But I’ll tell you right now, if there is no safe tangible way to pull this off, then I am not on board.”

“Tony, we have to take a stand.” Natasha said. “This is a second chance, maybe not to defeat Thanos, but to bring everyone back.”

Stark squinted.

“You have as much to lose now as I do.” Tony replied lifting his arm to motion to Natasha. “I’ve got a wife, a daughter. What if this plan of yours wipes them out? What if it wipes out Phillipa? No. They are our second chances. Do you really want to roll the dice on them?”

The front door of the cabin opened and his daughter Morgan ran out and hugged his leg.

“Mommy told me to come and save you.” she said as he picked her up into his arms.

“Good job. I’m saved.” Tony said and then turned to his four guests. “I wish you were here to ask me something else. Anything else. I’m honestly happy to see you all.”

He started to walk toward the door of the cabin and then turned to them all again.

“Look, if you don’t talk shop, you can stay for lunch.” He offered. “We can easily sit seven at the table, so it wouldn’t be any trouble.”

But they all opted to leave, clearly disappointed he had turned them down.

Tony watched as each of them stepped through the spinning portal that Marinette had created. He hugged Morgan tightly as he thought about the determination still present on Marinette’s face before she had left.

“She’s going to convince them to try anyway.” he said as he turned and walked toward the cabin door. He supposed there was only one thing to do.

He had to make sure they didn’t fail.

Adrien frowned.

Marinette had just finished telling him about the plan to travel into past offshoot timelines and retrieve infinity stones to reverse the snap. And that Stark had been against the plan, again.

Adrien didn’t have the heart to tell her that he also had reservations about it.

“What’s wrong.” she asked him, “You seem unsure.”

He sat forward in his chair and took her hand.

“I just…” he began. “I feel like Stark may have a point. What if we make things worse?”

She shook her head.

“Strange made it clear that someone was going to get the stones from the past.” she said. “We will just be fulfilling his prophecy.”

He let go of her hand and stood to his feet, unsure how to say what he needed to. He began to pace back and forth.

“Plagg, Tikki.” Adrien said. “Could you give us a minute?”

The two kwami both nodded and flew to the other side of the room out of earshot.

Marinette stood, walked over to him and looked him in the eyes.

“There’s something else behind your hesitation, isn’t there?” Marinette said.

He nodded and sighed. He was not so great at hiding his true feelings from her as it was something he rarely did.

“I really didn’t want to keep this from you.” He said. “But you had enough on your plate already and I hoped that it was something that I could just ignore.”

She took his hand between hers.

“I don’t mind you keeping secrets. We used to have to do it with out identities.” she said. “I trusted you then as I do now, and I know you would tell me if it’s something important.”

He smiled at that. She was so gracious to him, even when he had assumed she wouldn’t be.

“Well, now that I’ve heard your plan, I know that it’s something important.” He said. “Something’s been happening to me since we came back from Sakaar.”

He sat back down again, this time on the couch so he could sit beside her.

“I’ve been having a dream every night.” he said looking down at their hands. “A dream that has me worried that if we succeed...we will also lose”

Marinette squeezed his hand and he looked into her eyes. She had a look of worry on her face.

“This dream, is it like the ones I have?” she asked. “Is it alternate versions of our lives?”

He swallowed hard and then shook his head.

“No, it’s something else.” he said. “It’s always the same dream, with the same ending. It’s actually why I wanted to go visit Nino alone the other day. I needed to confirm something with him.”

He watched as Marinette furrowed her brow and seemed to be waiting for him to continue.

“When you brought him back from the dead, I overheard him mentioning something to Alya about you not being alone in the place you retrieved his soul from. That someone else had been there, trying to stop you.”

Marinette leaned back some, clearly shocked.

“Who?” she began to ask.

“Lady Death.” he replied.

“Lady Death?” she repeated questioningly.

“Apparently Death's a woman, and she wasn’t happy with you bringing Nino back." Adrien said looking up and away from Marinette. "Or perhaps, it was because you brought back so many sakaarians as well. Who's to know.” 

“Well that’s too bad.” Marinette said, defiance in her voice. “I wasn’t going to be stopped.”

Adrien smiled a dour smile.

“I know.” he said. “And I’m glad you succeeded.”

“So what does this have to do with your dream?”

Adrien closed his eyes to imagine the things he had been seeing every night, so that he could explain them better.

“It always starts with me watching you saving Nino, and Lady Death is there. She notices me watching and smiles at me as she grabs my arm.”

He shivered as he remembered the bony hand gripping his arm, and that fleshless face grinning at him.

“Then, she drags me somewhere else where I see us all; me, you, the Avengers, standing on some kind of giant machine. I assume it’s the time machine you are planning to build.” He explained.

He opened his eyes and glanced to Marinette who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.

“Then, she pulls me somewhere else, and I see you and I together on Vormir.” He said grimly.

“Vormir.” Marinette whispered to herself. “Isn’t that the planet you were on when you were in your astral form?”

He nodded to her.

“It’s her dominion. And its always where my dream ends, with Lady Death pointing as us.” Adrien said, feeling his blood run cold. “I think it’s where one of us will die.”

Chapter Text

Marinette looked down at the counter in front of her at the large spread of tacos of various configurations that had been laid out for everyone to pick from. She contemplated the selection as Scott Lang merrily picked up one of his own beside her. She could tell that he was in good spirits now that their plan was on track to succeed.

It had now been one day since their first test of the quantum tunnel. A test that, suffice to say, had not gone very well. They had attempted to send Scott back in time temporarily, and instead he had been turned into a child version of himself, then an old man, and finally a baby, all within the span of a minute. Bruce had been able to reverse the effects and return him to normal, but it was clear that without Stark they would have a long way to go before success would be found.

Thankfully, shortly after that failed test, Tony had actually shown up and informed them that he had changed his mind and had actually already solved the navigation issues of quantum time travel in his spare time. Of course, they had only just gone to see him at his cabin three days before, so she had been surprised by the speed at which he had actually done it. It had taken Bruce nearly as long just to figure out how to work Hank Pym’s quantum tunnel in the first place.

“I understand they are going to try and convince Thor to come help with the heist.” Scott said looking over at Marinette as he chose what to drink. “I haven’t had a chance to meet him before, so that would be cool.”

“Yeah…try.” she replied, remembering her own attempt to convince the Asgardian to join her mission to Sakaar. “Somehow I wonder if they will have any luck with that.”

Scott looked up again and frowned.

“You don’t think he will come?” he asked.

“Let’s just say, he’s got some things to work out.” Marinette explained. “Although, it’s possible that the prospect of reversing Thanos snap alone will be enough to get him out of the rut he is in.”

Marinette finally decided on a taco and then glanced down at Tikki who she saw was trying to lift one as well, it’s comparative size making it difficult to do without it’s contents spilling everywhere.

“Here, let me get that for you, Tikki.” Marinette said reaching down to help her little friend.

“Thank you.” Tikki replied as she flew up to land on Marinette’s shoulder.

Marinette glanced over to Scott again and saw him staring at Tikki, but when he noticed he had been spotted doing so, he smiled awkwardly, held up his taco as a kind of silent salute and headed outside to find a place to eat. She smiled as she thought back to his first reaction to seeing a kwami three days before. The man had been dumbfounded and had stammered his way through saying hello.

She had found Lang to be quite endearing, and his childlike reaction to the unknown had been a welcome addition to the previously quiet corridors of the Avengers Campus. It was almost as if everything about super hero life was a wonder to him, even though he himself was technically a super hero too. She figured the fact that he hadn’t spent the last five years in a daze of grief like the rest of them had preserved his positivity and he hadn’t had a chance to be jaded to it all yet.

Scott had of course been full of questions about her and the kwami, and she had happily obliged him with answers. He had asked her if it was weird to always have someone else basically following her around, never having a chance to be truly alone, and Marinette had honestly not known how to answer. It was true that Tikki was always with her, but over the years she and her kwami partner had fallen into a nice routine that worked for both of them. There were even times that Tikki went dormant inside of her heart, still present and able to be called on, but disparate enough to allow Marinette some true time alone.

This of course had allowed Marinette and Adrien to comfortably become a couple and be intimate with each other without having two godlike parents awkwardly looking over their shoulders all the time. Adrien had always been able to take off his ring when they had wanted to be alone, but her inability to remove her Miraculous had complicated things. Thankfully, it hadn’t taken Tikki long to discover that she could go dormant without the Miraculous needing to be fully removed, and that had been that.

“Wow, Tony really went all out.” Bruce said as he walked into the kitchen and looked out over the spread of taco’s. Adrien entered beside him and also went wide eyed at the sheer amount of food.

“I guess it’s a good thing that the others have been recalled, there’s no way we could eat all of this.” Adrien said.

“Speak for yourself.” Plagg exclaimed as he rubbed his tiny paws together and floated over toward the counter. “I’m still reeling from that year of rationing. And I think today is as good a day as any to catch up.”

Marinette giggled and kissed Adrien on the cheek as she walked by him.

“I’ll be in the lounge.” Marinette said and Adrien nodded to her with a smile. She knew he would join her as soon as he got his food so she made her way there to get settled.

She was glad to see Adrien was in fair spirits today. The dream he had been having was really weighing on his mind, and their conversation about it had really been rough.

As it turned out, Adrien was not actually afraid of dying to save half the universe. Hell, she had figured as much already because four years ago they had both been resigned to changing the past and possibly erasing themselves from history to do so. No, what he had admitted to her was that he was afraid of only one of them dying, leaving the other to grieve alone. And she had to admit, now that fear also gripped her heart.

But she wouldn't let fear alone keep her from this task, not if it meant saving so many from oblivion. Not to mention that there was a chance that his dream had another meaning than implying one or both of their deaths. Her own dreams had been something she had feared at first, but in the end, they had all been so random and different that she had come to stop guessing at their possible meanings. There was too much variance to think they could mean something specific to her, like a prophecy of vision would.

Even still, she had kept an electronic journal of each one and for a while had even tried tracking the differences in the lives she saw. So many versions of her own existence, so many Mirror-nette’s, all the same but different. Not to mention all the different Adrien’s she had seen there in those lives, and the different variations of their relationship, friendship, or even sometimes hatred of each other.

She sat down on the sofa in the lounge as she continued to think about Adrien’s many dream doppelgangers.

His many smiling faces flashing by in her mind suddenly made her realize something about the many Mirror-nette’s always present in the dreams. None of them had actually seemed happy. For the most part she could only remember seeing frowns, or angry grimaces looking back at her from her own mirrored face, like they had all experienced the worst things possible.

Except one. There was one Mirror-nette that her mind fell on now as she watched Tikki gleefully munch on the crunchy meal in front of her. The Elder, as she remembered having called her in her journal, was the oldest Mirror-nette she had ever seen in her dreams. So old in fact that she had almost not even recognized herself in the woman’s wrinkled face. But there she had been, smiling as she leaned on a cane etched with symbols like the ones she had seen in the first kwami temple.

Perhaps it was Adrien’s nightmare about Lady Death that now made her remember that the dream the old woman had accompanied had also been far and distant from the rest among the multitude. She squinted at the realization that no other Mirror-nette’s had been that old, nor had they shown her a life beyond the time she now considered the present. Only that one had shown the distant future, and had contained the only happy Mirror-nette.

“Friday.” Marinette said, looking up at a nearby monitor. “Could you do me a favor and bring up my dream journal for review?”

“Of course, Marinette.” Friday replied as the monitor came to life with a list of the entries. “Is there a specific entry you would like to see?”

She frowned. She hadn’t thought about that particular dream in years, so she had no idea what entry it was.

“Could you find the entry that contains the word Elder?” Marinette said as she raised her hand and pinched her fingers toward the monitor to drag the information displayed there onto a holo screen down in front of her so she could read it.

"Entry forty two. January nineteenth, two thousand twenty one.” Friday replied as the text also came up on the holo-screen. “This entry was recorded with dictation, would you like to hear the playback?”

“Yes please.” Marinette said and leaned back in the sofa.

As the recording began, a small tired sigh that she recognized as her one of her own could be heard over the speakers.

“Alright, um, today’s dream was a break from the normal grim depictions of my life.” Her younger self said. “Instead it was of a time long from now, and far from all the pain and uncertainty the others dreams have shown me.”

As the recording continued, Marinette noticed Adrien walk into the Lounge carrying two tacos, followed closely by Plagg. Adrien tilted his head as he approached and began to listen as well.

“The feeling I had while I was in that place, it was almost…pure joy.” Her voice continued. “Perhaps it was the Elder version of me that was present there that had made me feel that way. Or maybe it was what she had guided me to that did.”

Adrien slowly sat next to Marinette and looked at her questioningly, so she raised her hand to have him hold his questions.

“I’ve thought a lot about my future these last few years, after everything that has happened. So to see it depicted in this dream as actually having a happy ending, was actually something I think really needed.”

Marinette closed her eyes and tried to remember the day she had recorded this. It seemed so long ago now. But part of her could remember the comfort the dream had brought.

“The grave-site where Adrien and I had been buried was so lovely. Far out in the countryside, exactly where I don’t know. But it was quiet, peaceful.” Past Marinette said, almost choking up some. “At first when I saw the large gravestone we shared, I had thought maybe it was another dream about loss or pain. But then I saw the death dates carved into it. They were both listed for the same day two hundred and forty five years from now.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow and glanced to Marinette who smiled back at him somberly.

“I still don’t know what these dreams mean, but to see that we lived so long, and that Adrien and I were listed as husband and wife, loving parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents... It all made me feel so complete.” Past Marinette said through sobs now. “The Elder Mirror-nette that looked on with such wisdom and age in her eyes, she seemed so happy too, and I couldn’t help but feel like perhaps there was a chance that I could be her some day.”

Hearing this all again was making present Marinette feel like crying as well, so when Adrien took her hand in his, she actually started to.

“But most of all, out of all the things that I saw there. It was the one phrase that was etched on the stone below both of our names that made me realize that I have to keep fighting so that we too may see such a future some day.” Past Marinette said and then cleared her throat to recite the phrase she had seen. “Ladybug and Chat Noir. Brought balance back to the universe. Forever missed and never forgotten.”

Chapter Text

One Day Later

Marinette watched in disbelief as Thor walked down the ramp of the Benatar with a beer in his hand. Somehow it seemed that Rocket and Bruce had actually convinced the Asgardian to join their quest. She wondered to herself what it had taken to do so.

“Ah, Miss Miraculous.” Thor said gleefully as he approached. “It is so good to see you again!”

She sighed. He seemed even more drunk now than he had been when she had seen him last. If that was possible.

“I am always glad to see you my friend.” Marinette said with a weak smile and then hugged him. She grimaced at the smell coming off of him but remained hugging him nonetheless. He was family, and it didn’t matter how he looked or smelled, she was truly glad he was there.

“Wow, how are you breathing in there?” she heard Rocket ask as he and Bruce walked by them. “I could smell him ten minutes before we even got to New Asgard.”

Marinette smiled and turned to shake her head.

“Sure, because you always smell like flowers.” she retorted and then turned to Thor. “Don’t mind him, he’s just jealous you got a hug and he didn’t.”

Thor chuckled and held up his beer.

“You hear that rabbit!” Thor called out. “She likes me better!”

“That’s not what I…” Marinette started to say and then chuckled. “Whatever, come on, let’s get you settled. You could probably use some rest after your flight here.”

She led him to his room and sat him on his bed where he immediately fell back and seemed like he was going to just pass out. So she pulled off his boots and swung his legs up onto the bed and then turned to leave.

She reached for the light switch, but before she could turn the lights off, he called out to her.

“Hey, Hey, Hey.” He said, stammering through his drunkenness. “Do you have any of those little round cakes that you always used to make?”

“I could probably make some later, sure.” Marinette replied.

Thor smiled a childlike smile.

“Oh good, I really love tho-.” he said, falling asleep before he could finish.

Marinette grinned as she turned out the lights, exited and then closed the door behind her.

She found Steve Rogers was standing outside of Thor’s room with his arms crossed.

“We’ve got our work cut out with that one.” he said.

“I’m confident we can get him on his feet before the new quantum tunnel is built.” Marinette said as Steve turned to walk alongside her down the hall.

Tony had already begun work on the much larger version of the device that was in the back of Scott Lang’s van. The inventor had said that he could get it up and running in one weeks time, so there was a small window of opportunity to get Thor whipped back into shape, or at the very least, sober.

“The fact that he is here though…” Marinette said and then let out a contented sigh. “It really makes this place seem complete again.”

She glanced up to Rogers who seemed lost in woeful thought.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Marinette said, realizing her faux pas. She sometimes forgot that there had been a lot more Avengers here before the decimation. She had never had a chance to meet any of them, so for her this was the norm.

“Don’t worry about it.” Steve said. “Hopefully you’ll get to meet them soon enough.”

Marinette smiled and then looked out the window to the right.

“Did someone take the Quinjet out?” she asked after noticing the vehicles absence on the landing pad.

“The Director had something personal she needed to take care of in Tokyo, she left early this morning.” Rogers said, his jaw clenching.

Marinette furrowed her brow in wonder. Perhaps Nat’s trip was related to the private conversation she and Rhodes had the other day before Lang had shown up. It seemed that Steve knew the real purpose of it by how he had reacted to the question, but Marinette figured it was best not to pry.

“Where is Phillipa?” Marinette asked, wondering who was watching the child while both her parents were coming and going.

“She’s napping.” Rogers said, seeming suddenly pensive. “Nat asked me to babysit until Bruce returned from New Asgard.”

Marinette smiled at the thought of Captain America changing diapers and tried very hard from letting out a loud ‘awww’. But then she realized something. Nat hadn’t asked her to babysit.

She glanced down at the burst regulator attached to her sternum and frowned. Perhaps everyone was still unsure about how safe it was to have her and Adrien around. Yet she could understand their apprehension as the devices they now wore were new and still unproven over long periods of time.

As they rounded the corner and found themselves outside the conference lounge, Marinette noticed that Rhodes, Lang and Nebula were inside discussing something, a hologram of a slim, armored red and white power suit displayed in front of them.

“Looks like the quantum suit design is coming along.” Steve said as they continued on. “Thing’s are really coming together.”

Marinette nodded and looked down at her feet as she walked.

“I understand that we have a limited supply of Pym particles to use for the mission.” Marinette said.

“Yeah, looks like someone might have to stay behind.” Steve said. “But it really depends on the what we come up with during the planning session in a few days. We may not even need to send everyone.”

Marinette stopped walking and Steve turned to look at her questioningly. She looked him in the eyes with a hard expression on her face.

“I want to make it clear that Adrien and I need to go on the mission.” she said adamantly.

Steve crossed his arms and looked down at her burst regulator with an appraising look.

“I know.” she said. “But they are working as intended. I just… There is a reason we need to go, and I can’t tell you what it is. You’ll just have to trust me when I say that it’s the only way we will succeed.”

Rogers uncrossed his arms and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Well then, when the time comes, I’ll back you both going.” he said. “Because I do trust you."

Tokyo


Kagami had heard the gunfire from quite a distance away, so by the time she had transformed and been able to arrive at the scene she had only just caught a glimpse of some of the fighting. It appeared that one single hooded combatant was attacking the Yakuza head on.

She looked down at one of the Yakuza members that had been mercilessly slaughtered in the rain soaked street and frowned as she followed the trail of bodies with her eyes. There was no need for this kind of rampant violence, not even against an obviously terrible criminal organization. Whoever it was who was doing this was taking the term vigilante to a whole new level.

She heard a window break above her as two men leapt from the nearby building and landed in the street. One of the men was the hooded vigilante attacker, and the other was clearly the leader of this particular Yakuza group. Both men brandished swords toward each other and began to hurl accusations at each other in Japanese.

From what she was able to hear through the sound of pouring rain, each man claimed the other to be the bigger monster, and then they started to clash swords. Ryuko cared little for who was right and who was wrong in this particular case however. She would not allow such a display of rampant aggression to continue in the streets of Tokyo.

She drew her own sword and leapt in between the two men, catching both their swords on her own.

“You will both end this fight, and submit to the authorities.” she demanded and then spun her sword in a way that knocked both opponents off balance as they attempted to hold onto their blades.

The Yakuza leader seemed shaken at the sight of her, likely because her reputation preceded her. And it was for good reason too. She had taken down three other Yakuza leaders herself over the last two years. But it had not been done by killing them, instead by subduing them and delivering them to the police along with evidence to hold them accountable for their crimes.

“I’m afraid I can not comply.” the hooded man replied. “Not until justice has been served, and balance has been restored by Akihiko’s death.”

“You call senseless murder, justice?” she asked preparing her sword to fight.

Before the man in the hood could reply, Akihiko struck forward with his blade which took Ryuko off guard, but as she dodged she noticed that the hooded man had knocked the Yakuza’s sword back before it could hit her. Whoever the vigilante was, he didn’t want harm to come to her, only his desired enemy.

The three sword fighters all traded swings with each other for a solid minute, each switching from opponent to opponent for each parry and thrust. The three way fight was a flurry of steel and grunts as each of them seemed fairly matched.

But Ryuko had a few more skills that these two opponents did not.

“Wind Dragon!” she called out and disappeared into a cloud of swirling air. The gust she created caught both men directly and tossed them aside as if they were made of paper.

She reformed herself between them again and then spun her sword around in a flourish to indicate that she was not to be trifled with.

Akihiko climbed off the ground onto his feet and then tossed down his sword, conceding.

“I am no fool.” the man said. “I will not fight a demon of wind and air.”

She watched as the hooded man also stood to his feet, but it seemed that he did not wish to end the fight, instead he readied himself for another attack at Akihiko. He was determined, she would give him that.

But before either of them could proceed, the vigilante suddenly lowered his sword as if startled, and looked off behind Ryuko and Akihiko.

Glancing behind herself, the dragon holder saw a woman in a long brown coat holding an umbrella. It took her a moment to realize that it was Natasha Romanoff.

The vigilante sheathed his sword and then pulled at his hood, revealing his face.

Ryuko squinted at him in surprise. Even as the rain poured down his dour face, she was still able to recognize the man from all his time spent on the news many years ago.

The vigilante had been none other than Clint Barton, the Avenger.

Chapter Text

Three Days Later

Adrien took Marinette’s hand in his own as he watched Clint Barton step onto the large glass platform in front of them. To their right, every Avenger was present and standing nearby to witness what was about to happen.

The first test of Stark’s larger Quantum Tunneler was about to begin, and if this worked then they would all be headed into the past to retrieve the infinity stones in two days time. And perhaps then, Thanos Snap could finally be undone.

Adrien knew that Marinette had been fighting toward this moment since the day of the decimation, and of all his personal reasons to want this, the biggest  was so that she could finally be able to rest and stop pushing herself. Her parent’s being restored, all of their friends, it was all of course a goal as well, but her happiness and her health, they were paramount to him. And while it was true that his father would return too, he really wasn’t looking forward to confronting the man about his actions as Hawk Moth, nor the return of his mothers now soulless body.

Clint Barton, the man who was now risking his life in this test, had lost his entire family; all three kids and his wife. Adrien couldn’t have imagined what the Avenger had gone through because of that loss, but in the end he figured it was what had driven the man to become a vigilante for the last five years. It also explained why he had so quickly volunteered to take on this dangerous attempt. He had nothing left to lose, but instead everything to regain.

Adrien hadn’t told Marinette this, but he had been glad when Barton had returned to the compound just in time to suggest that he would be the best test subject. Because part of Adrien knew that Marinette would have been willing to try, and he would not have been alright with that.

It was already a hard press to know that the vivid nightmare he had been suffering was likely actually a vision of some kind. It had been too specific on details to be anything else but that. Especially now that he saw the device Stark had built and it matched his dream one for one. However, Marinette had convinced him that death was not a certain because of the vision, having offered her doubt that this 'Lady Death' would stop short of showing it outright to him if it was the intended outcome.

“Alright Clint.” Bruce said as he manipulated the controls in front of him. “We are going in three… two… one…”

The center of the glass floor of the platform morphed into a giant tunnel and Barton was pulled into it in an instant.

Then there was a long pause where no one breathed as they all waited the preprogramed five seconds to fully pass. Adrien felt Marinette squeeze his hand and he looked at her. He could see that her eyes were transfixed on the spot that Barton had disappeared from. She looked about ready to jump out of her own skin in anticipation.

The large machine began to whir again and the large array of mirrors above the platform began to rotate and aim. Then they could hear a distant scream echo from nowhere and burst forth into reality as Barton himself appeared again, kneeling on the platform.

Nat, Tony, Steve and Rocket all ran up to check on Clint. From where he was standing, Adrien could see that Barton was holding something in his hand. It looked like a baseball glove. The target Barton had chosen for the test was his own farmhouse, a full day before the decimation. So it was likely that the glove was from there, and it meant that they could take objects back with them from the past during the return quantum tunneling.

“We did it.” Marinette whispered. “There is no turning back now.”

Adrien frowned, his apprehension getting the better of him.

Beside them, breaking into his tension, Adrien heard Thor start to hum to himself as he listened to music through a pair of large white headphones, clearly disinterested in what had just taken place in front of them. Adrien shook his head. This mission was going to need all the luck they could muster.

Everyone else seemed so elated and invigorated by the successful test, that they started the brainstorming session almost immediately after. They moved from the large test bay to the conference lounge without as much as a pause to enjoy the moment. Everything was moving along so quickly that Adrien honestly felt as if he was being pulled along by a runaway train he couldn’t stop. A train that may indeed be destined for the end of the line.

“So the how works, Now we gotta figure out the when and the where.” Rogers said as the six infinity stones were being displayed on multiple holoscreens. “Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones.”

“Or, substitute the word encounter with ‘damn near been killed by' one of the six infinity stones.” Tony added.

“Well, I haven’t.” Scott Lang said, and Adrien was right there with him. It was true that Marinette had been connected to the space stone via a dream, so in a way she had technically encountered one, but he and Lang were the odd men out.

“Regardless. We only have enough Pym particles for one round-trip each.” Bruce said as he crossed the room to look at the screens. “And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history.”

“Our history.” Tony said. “So not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in unnoticed, yeah?”

“Which means we have to pick our targets carefully.” Barton said.

Adrien furrowed his brow as he remembered back to the day he and Marinette had almost portaled to the past using the evolution kwami. Marinette had said something then about not wanting to include the Avengers because they were already present in the time they had been headed. And it seemed they would be facing the same dilemma now.

It was true that they would be creating branch timelines upon arriving in the past, regardless of how sneaky they were, but it would complicate things if the Avengers in those new timelines tried to stop them from taking the stones. So it was indeed best to avoid them if possible.

Adrien listened as Roger’s asked Thor to explain the Aether stone’s history to them. And at one point in the Asgardian’s drunk ramblings, he mentioned that at the Aether, also known as the reality stone, had once been on Asgard possessing his ex-girlfriend.

So after a long deliberation, they had settled on the year twenty thirteen on Asgard as the best time and place to obtain that stone, with Rocket and Thor being the members of the team to retrieve it.

Next, over a Chinese take out dinner, Rocket explained about the Power Stone. Apparently one of Rocket’s former crew mates had stolen the stone from a planet called Morag. And supposedly the vault in which it was being kept only became accessible once every three hundred years as the tides there kept it submerged deep under the ocean. So the best window of time to retrieve it from would actually be at the same time this ‘Quill’ had done so.

So, twenty fourteen had been chosen, with Nebula and Rhodes heading to Morag to intercept Quill and attempt to retrieve the stone before him.

Then, the moment Adrien had dreaded came.

“Thanos found the soul stone on Vormir.” Nebula explained.

“Yes, we’ve heard that name before.” Nat said as she looked over her notes. “Where was it again?”

“It’s the Dominion of Death.” Adrien said, his voice flat. “At the very center of celestial existence.”

Everyone present looked at him and he averted his eyes, not wanting to give away too much of his fear. Yet even without looking he could tell that they all seemed to be waiting for him to explain how he knew that.

“I’ve been there before.” Adrien explained looking to Marinette. “When I was in astral form. It’s where all souls pass into the afterlife.”

“It’s also where Thanos murdered my sister.” Nebula added.

Everyone in the room was silent for a moment as they processed the information that had been offered. 

“Not it.” Scott said, likely trying to break the tension in the air.

“Don’t worry, Adrien and I will take care of this one.” Marinette said as if it was already common knowledge. Adrien himself felt his heart sink after she said it, but he had known this was coming.

“Any particular reason?” Nat asked, an uncertainty in her voice that suggested that she may not allow such a thing.

“As Adrien said, he’s been there before.” Marinette explained. “And I have reason to believe we are the only ones who can obtain this stone.”

“I don’t suppose you want to elaborate?” Nat prodded, giving Marinette a stern questioning look.

“Not particularly, no.” Marinette replied and leaned back in the sofa, almost defiantly. Adrien wasn't used to this side of Marinette. She had always been so close to Nat that her keeping anything from her was strange to him. But he knew now that in this particular case, if anyone else found out about what they knew, that they would be denied this mission.

“Let’s move on for now.” Steve suddenly suggested, giving Marinette a nod. “We can swing back to this later. It may be that we need them to take this one anyway if the rest of us are needed elsewhere.”

Adrien couldn’t help but wonder why Rogers seemed to be helping Marinette in this particular case. And Nat didn’t seem pleased, but she conceded and they moved on.

The time stone, space stone and mind stones, interestingly enough were all in roughly the same time and place during one particular event on earth in twenty twelve. The Chitauri Invasion of New York, of which the Avengers themselves had stopped. This of course meant that a larger team would be needed. So Bruce, Steve, Tony and Lang were selected to take on the task of getting those stones, and of course, avoiding the battle as best as they could.

So then, they of course swung back to the soul stone as Steve had suggested.

“I’m still not comfortable with you two going alone.” Nat said and then looked to Bruce. “If Bruce and I hadn’t decided that I would stay behind with Phillipa just in case things went sideways and... well, then I would say I would go with you. But at the very least, Clint?”

“Yeah, I can keep an eye on them.” Barton said looking over towards Adrien and Marinette.

“We don’t need a babysitter, we aren't kid's anymore.” Marinette said angrily. "Besides, we will have Plagg and Tikki with us."

Adrien was now glad that Marinette had asked Plagg and Tikki to not be present in the briefing, as the two kwami would undoubtedly be asked about the subject and possibly give away what he and Marinette were keeping under wraps.

“No, you aren't kid's anymore. But it will make me feel better.” Nat said. “Will you do this for me, please?”

Marinette glanced to Adrien as if to ask him what she should do, and he gave her an honest shrug. He really had no idea what to say. Adrien had not seen Clint in his dream, so the mans inclusion actually made him feel a bit better in that way because it might mean it wasn’t being controlled by destiny. Of course, if his dream was indeed a vision of the future, then perhaps something might happen to Clint and they should avoid him coming to prevent it.

“Fine.” Marinette huffed.

Chapter Text

The beeping of Marinette’s burst regulator drew her from her slumber.

Strange, she could have sworn she had set it to silent mode. That meant the only reason it would go off now, is if there was something wrong with it’s normal function.

She glanced down and saw the front face glowing as it tended to after it had just activated, but the impending burst light was also lit. Was she having two bursts in a row? No, the light was flashing when it was normally solid to indicate an upcoming burst.

Adrien stirred beside her and sat up.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Then his Regulator beeped as well drawing both of their attention.

Marinette frowned as she felt multiple continuous increases and decreases of feelings of contentedness. It almost seemed like she was being bombarded by tinier bursts than usual, one after the next. This could not be a good sign. Whatever normally caused their bursts to happen seemed to now be in full tilt.

“Marinette… I’m feeling kind of weird.” Tikki said as she floated up to her.

“You’re telling me.” Plagg added as he plopped down onto Adrien’s open palm. “My head feels like it’s splitting open.”

After a quick glance to each other, they both quickly leapt from their bed and headed for the energy lab. They knew that if either of their regulators failed, their best bet was to get inside the isolation booth as soon as possible.

When they arrived there though, they found Bruce already standing at the computer. It was the middle of the night, so to find him there was a bit strange. The expression on his face made Marinette worry even more than she already had been.

“Bruce, what’s wrong?” she asked.

He shook his head as he moved from screen to screen pushing buttons.

“The deep space scanner has been sending out alerts the last half hour or so. Something’s up with the energy layer we have it connected to.” He explained, and then pointed to the burst regulator on Marinette’s sternum. “It would also explain why that is happening.”

“What exactly is it showing?” Adrien asked stepping up to the computer to get a better look.

“The entire layer is being lit up like a Christmas tree.” Bruce said as he punched up an image on the screen. “And it’s shrinking.”

“Shrinking?” Marinette asked. “But it spans the entire universe, how could it be-”

She stopped cold as she realized the implication. She glanced at Tikki who was watching the monitor, wide eyed.

“The entire universe is collapsing in on itself.” Tikki exclaimed.

Tony fell back into his chair, overwhelmed.

What Bruce had just explained to the group was not news they had expected in the slightest. While it was true that they had been seeing strange phenomena all over the place, the cause hadn’t been immediately obvious, but they finally knew why. The universe was experiencing it’s death throes.

“How much time do we have?” Steve asked, seeming more collected then anyone else in the room, besides perhaps Marinette who seemed oddly focused.

Tony glanced to Bruce and waited for him to answer. But Bruce seemed to hesitate.

“We have all the time in the world.” Thor said as he slammed down his drink. “We have Stark’s time machine! We can go back, get the stones, get everyone back and fix this mess. I don't see why you are all worried.”

“I’m not even sure that will fix it.” Bruce said. “We aren’t entirely sure why this is happening. It could be that the stones being used to make such sweeping changes caused this in the first place. Using them again for such purposes could just collapse it faster.”

Everyone was silent for a moment and Tony took the moment to think of his daughter, Morgan. Was it truly possible that his daughter would not live to see her fifth birthday. No. He would move heaven and earth to prevent that.

“Well, there’s no harm in trying then is there.” Marinette said standing to her feet. “Especially if doing nothing would have the same outcome.”

“Damned if we do, damned if we don’t, huh.” Tony said and then also stood, determined. “Well then, we leave in twenty. So get your gear, and let’s do this thing.”

Everyone in the room hesitated and glanced to Nat, who nodded in agreement. Soon everyone had filed out, but Tony stood a moment and looked down at his left hand which was shaking slightly. He squeezed it over and over to clear the tension in it.

Then Tony felt a strange cooling sensation on his arm and he glanced over to find Marinette had placed her hand on him as if to comfort him.

“We’ll fix this.” she said as if there was no doubt in her mind. “She’ll be fine.”

Tony squinted. Was he that obvious, or did little miss wizard read minds now?

“You seem awfully sure.” he said and then raised an eyebrow. “You see this all in one of those dreams of yours?”

“Maybe.” she said with a sly smile and then gave him a questioning look. “What about you? Did you see it in one of yours?”

Tony stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the young woman who met his gaze almost as if she was challenging him to deny her assertion.

“How did you know?” Tony asked, impressed by her intuition.

“Something in the way that you always seem to be fighting to protect the world.” She said, a thoughtful expression spreading across her face. “It’s like you know something is up. And it’s definitely not just fear or you preparing for the worst either.”

Tony smiled and shook his head. None of the others had ever seemed to catch on, not even when he had mentioned seeing this all coming down the line and his insistence to build a suit of armor around the world.

“Honestly, I can’t explain it.” Tony admitted. “But I do see things in my dreams occasionally, as if someone is trying to warn me. I even saw Thanos in my mind years before he came for the stones. Hell, he even knew my name when we fought on Titan. So clearly we were connected somehow.”

“Sometimes, I wonder if someone out there is guiding us, giving us these glimpses.” Marinette said as she turned and started to walk out the door, so Stark followed beside her. “Fate, or destiny perhaps.”

“Or the great spaghetti monster in the sky?” Stark said incredulously.

Marinette shook her head and smiled.

“Maybe him too.” she said. “But whatever the case, I refuse to believe this has all been for nothing. That we will all simply cease to exist and that is that.”

Tony mulled over what she was saying. Did he believe in destiny or even precognition? The visions of the future he had seen, could they be explained by something else?

“You know, once upon a time, I actually felt small.” Marinette said. “Like I couldn’t possibly be important enough to make even a ripple in the matters of the world, let alone the universe.”

To his own surprise, Tony actually felt himself chuckle as they rounded the corner and could now see the Quantum Tunneler in front of them.

“Well then, here’s to making biggest splash ever.” Tony said with a grin.

Chat Noir breathed in deep and looked around the circle of heroes standing upon the glass platform all wearing their new quantum suits. This was it.

“Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends, We lost family, We lost a part of ourselves.” Steve Rogers said looking to each of them in turn. “Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams. You know your missions. Get the stones, bring them back. One round-trip each. No mistakes…no do-overs.”

Chat swallowed hard and stood up straight as he listened to the speech.

“Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn’t mean we should know what to expect.” Rogers continued. “Be careful. Look out for each other. This is a fight for our very existence. And we are going to succeed. Whatever it takes… Good luck.“

Chat felt a rush of exhilaration flow through him. Having the stakes thrown out there like that alongside the air of confidence in Cap’s voice, it really gave him hope.

“He’s pretty good at that.” Rocket said in regards to Steve’s motivational speech.

“Right?!” Scott Lang exclaimed in agreement.

Beside Chat, Ladybug held up her hand and in her palm he could see the Benatar, shrunken down for easier transport through time.

“You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?” Rocket asked.

“As long as you promise me you’ll come back in one piece too.” Marinette said bending down to kiss Rocket on the forehead.

“I uh, of course.” the raccoon said, clearly flustered.

“I expect a similar promise from all of you.” Nat said from down near the control console, Phillipa in her arms. “I better see you all again in a minute.”

They all nodded to her, and then turned to face the center of the platform as the machine began to spin up.

Adrien held his breath when the helmet on all of their suits popped into place automatically. He had no idea what to expect. Would it hurt? Clint had been screaming when he returned after the first test.

Before he could think any longer about it, he watched the world around him grow to enormity as he himself shrank and was pulled into the vortex at his feet.

For a split second, his stomach was in his throat as he felt as if he was falling at a hundred kilometers per second, then his heads up display registered the activation of his quantum gps. He felt himself be pulled this way and that way through multiple tunnels of light, energy and matter, only occasionally catching glimpses of the others who were in the time tunnel with him.

Then, suddenly he found himself standing on Morag.

He quickly deactivated his helmet and looked around. It appeared that Rhodes, Nebula, Clint and Ladybug had all made it too. He sighed in relief.

The three soul stone retrievers had come to Morag as a jumping off point because it was unknown if the mystical energies on Vormir would interfere with the quantum time tunnel itself or the sling rings portals. And with such high stakes, they didn’t want to leave anything to question, so they had opted to use the Benatar to get there.

“So, this is Morag.” Clint said looking around. “Gloomy.”

“This is nothing. Wait until you see Vormir.” Chat said as he looked around.

Chat saw Ladybug had walked a few paces away and had placed the Benatar on the ground. She then returned to where the rest of them were now standing and pressed a button on her quantum suits wristband. They all stepped back slightly in reaction as the spaceship grew again to it’s normal size.

“Alright, let’s get the pod unloaded and head on out as soon as possible.” Marinette said walking towards the ship.

“She really is all business, isn’t she.” Clint said.

Chat smiled. Clint hadn’t really had a chance to get to know them all that much in the last few days, so he figured that the man was about to get a crash course in Ladybug’s “no nonsense” approach to missions.

Over the next few minutes, the five heroes all worked together to unload the pod so that Nebula and Rhodes would have a way to pursue Quill if he got away with the power stone before they could intercept him. And then when that was done, Chat, Ladybug and Clint all walked up the ramp into the Benatar and turned around to wish the others luck.

“You guy’s watch each others six.” Rhodes said looking up at them.

“Always.” Chat said, glancing to Ladybugs backside.

“That’s not what he means. Chaton.” Ladybug said with a slight smile. She hadn’t even been looking at him to see what he had done, which made him smile at the fact that she knew him so well. Of course, when he saw the serious look that Clint was now giving him, his smile faded.

“Alright lovebirds, let’s get this done.” Barton said as the ramp was raised into place for takeoff.

As Chat watched Clint walk up towards the cockpit, he felt Ladybug grab his arm.

“Yes, Mi’lady?” he turned to ask and found her looking him directly in the eyes.

“When this is all said and done…” she began, and then stepped even closer to him. “I want you to marry me.”

Chat felt a rush of blood in his face. He hadn’t expected this at all.

“You got it, Princess.” he said, without hesitation.

He then closed his eyes as she kissed him deeply.

Sadly, in the darkness of his closed eyes, all he could picture was the memory of Lady Death’s face smiling back at him.

Chapter Text

As the Benatar screamed through space, it’s autopilot in control, Ladybug glanced over to Clint Barton who she could see had a huge grin on his face.

“First time on a space ship?” she asked amused by his apparent giddiness as it was the first light emotion she had really seen from him since they met.

Clint nodded to her. He looked forward again and seemed to try to regain his composure, but then smiled again anyway as he continued to enjoy the ride. She glanced back at Chat who was in the chair behind Clint and found that he was already looking at her, a smile on his face.

She wondered what was going though Chat’s mind right now. She had basically just proposed to him and had likely caught him off guard, especially after telling him not so long ago that she was afraid of trying to get married. But there was something so final about the fact that the universe was collapsing in on them, and if they indeed could find a way to survive that, then they could survive anything fate could throw at them. And if they failed to prevent the universes death, then nothing would have been lost by her letting him know she wanted to be his wife.

She smiled at him and gave him a wink to let him know he was on her mind.

He tilted his head and beamed a bigger smile than he already had been.

She looked forward again as the pilot console in front of her beeped, indicating the impending arrival at their destination.

The chairs they all sat in swayed slightly as the ship completed the jump and a planet appeared in front of the ship. Suddenly Chat was standing beside her looking out the viewport.

“That’s it.” he said with a gloom in his voice. “That’s Vormir.”

An image of the planet appeared on a display in front of them, and it showed a single mountain and structure being the only things of note on the planet’s surface.

“We should touch down there.” Chat said pointing to a point near the mountain.

“Alright.” Ladybug said as she entered the coordinates into the autopilot. “We’re making our decent now.”

After a quick and uneventful landing, the three heroes were all walking down the ramp of the Benatar and setting foot on the sandy surface. Ladybug looked up in wonder at the large vortex of clouds above the mountain, and the permanent eclipse on the horizon that provided a never ending twilight. Adrien had described it all to her in great detail, but to see it with her own eyes was a completely different experience. She could almost feel the ominous nature of this place resonating in the air around her.

“I can’t say I missed this place.” Chat said as he came to a stop and looked up at the mountain in front of them.

The planet shook slightly under their feet, a rumble much like a small earthquake.

“That’s odd.” Chat said looking to Ladybug. “I don’t recall anything like that happening while I was here before.”

Clint walked up towards one of the pools of water nearby and looked down into it.

“Is this normal?” the Avenger said he knelt at the waters edge.

Ladybug moved to stand beside Clint. As she looked down at the water, she could see that it seemed to be rippling away from them. Or more specifically, away from her. She bent down and attempted to touch the water and it moved completely as if to stay away from her, flowing away unnaturally towards the other end of the small pond.

Then there was another rumble under their feet, a slight bit larger than before.

“Anyone else get the feeling this planet isn’t happy we are here?” Clint asked.

“No. It’s just Tikki and I.” Ladybug said standing to her feet. “We embody life and creation. And this place is the dominion of death.”

“Well then, are we sure it’s the right choice for you to come?” Clint asked as he turned to face her.

“Actually, regardless of how the planet is reacting, I’ve been invited.” she said looking to Chat.

Clint seemed confused at her statement and it made sense. She and Adrien had not explained to the Avengers about his dreams or the fact that Death herself seemed to be beckoning for them to come. She knew it was putting Clint in a bad position to not know what he was getting into, but they honestly didn’t know what to expect either.

“Why do I feel like there is something more you aren’t telling me.” Clint said with a serious tone.

“Because there is.” Ladybug said nonchalantly and then looked toward the mountain. “But if that bothers you and you want to wait on the ship. Feel free.”

Clint seemed to mull over the option.

“I made a promise to Nat, so you aren’t getting rid of me.” Clint said.

“Well then, let’s go, I’m sure Mr. Drawl is waiting for us.” Chat said heading away from them toward the mountain.

Clint and Ladybug exchanged a terse glance and then followed the cat hero. She knew there was a tension now between her and Clint, but it wasn’t her concern at the moment. She had a job to do and she couldn’t really be worried if someone liked her or not.

When they reached the base of the mountain, they found that just as Chat had suggested, there waiting for them was a floating figure with a red skull.

“Welcome, Clint, son of Edith.” Mr. Drawl said.

Ladybug could see now why Adrien had called him that in the first place. The way he spoke was slow and methodical, as if every syllable was a story all it’s own.

“What, no greeting for us?” Chat said as he put his hands on his hips.

“You have both been here before.” Mr. Drawl replied.

Chat looked toward Ladybug, clearly confused.

“But I don’t come here until three years from now.” Chat replied. “How could you possibly know about that?”

“Linear time means nothing in the eyes of death.” Mr. Drawl replied and motioned to a path behind him that led up the mountain. “Nonetheless, you are expected.”

Ladybug squinted, the figure had also mentioned that she had also been there before, which she definitely did no recall ever happening. Perhaps there was more to all of this than they knew.

The mountain shook slightly as Ladybug took her first step upon the rocky ground that it was made up of. She glanced to Mr. Drawl who simply kept pointing up the mountain path. She swallowed hard and kept walking, each step seeming to anger the mountain a bit more.

“Well that could make the hike up a bit treacherous.” Chat said and turned to Ladybug. “Might I make a suggestion?”

Before she could say anything, Chat scooped her up in his arms and held her close to him.

“Well...” she began to say as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “This isn’t quite the threshold I had in mind. But carry on.”

Chat smiled at her and started to walk. Apparently the cushion of Chat between her and the planet was enough to stop the rumbling, which was a relief because there likely wouldn’t have been much mountain left if she had been left to walk up the entire way.

When they neared the peak and the wind began to become more chilled, Mr. Drawl stopped and turned to them again.

“I will remain here.” Drawl said. “She awaits you ahead.”

“She?” Clint asked, still very much out of the loop.

“Lady Death.” Ladybug said.

She could see that Clint didn’t like her answer much. He stiffened and drew his sword to prepare for the worst.

“You will not need your weapon.” Mr. Drawl said.

“Well if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll keep it at the ready.” Clint replied and Mr. Drawl seemed to not care either way. So they continued on.

When they reached a point where the path passed between two large stone monoliths which sat on either side of them, they stopped. There standing at the edge of the cliff facing away from them was a figure clad in a dark cloak.

Ladybug breathed in and patted Chat on the shoulder to be let down out of his arms.

The moment he placed her down, the entire mountain rumbled enough that some small bits of the stone structures on either side of them began to crumble and fall to the ground.

The figure before them remained facing away, but raised it’s head as if to acknowledge their presence.

“There is something to be said for the silence of death.” the figure said in an oddly beautiful voice that sounded oddly familiar. “As life is noise, and filled with a constant shuffling from one place to another in an attempt to stave me off. And yet, you have shuffled here to find me.”

Ladybug looked to Chat Noir who simply shrugged. Were they supposed to say something, or were they just meant to listen? One really didn’t want to make Death angry by interrupting her.

When no one said anything, the figure turned and they could finally see it's face behind the edge of her flowing hood.

Ladybug gasped and her eyes went wide with horror.

Lady Death’s face was not as Adrien had described to her. There was no skull, no flesh-less grin. No. Instead, Ladybug could now see that the face of death was in fact, her own.

Chapter Text

“Let’s sync up.” Rhodes said as he reactivated his quantum suits helmet.

Nebula raised her arm and prepared to do so.

They had succeeded in obtaining the power stone on Morag without much complication and were preparing to return to the present with it. All in all, the mission had been fairly simple. Quill had arrived on the planet as expected, and they had knocked him out and taken his thieves tools. Those tools had allowed them to gain access to the vault and Nebula had used her cybernetic arm to reach into the protective barrier around the power stone to retrieve it.

Now, all there was left to do was head back.

“Three, Two , One.” Rhodes counted.

Just as Rhodes pressed the button on his wrist and vanished, Nebula found that she could not move her finger to do the same. She felt a strange sensation in her neural network and it was interfering with her systems.

She struggled for a moment to regain control, but it was no good. Her suits helmet deactivated and she started to feel sparks of electricity in her face as she began to overload.

An image flashed before her eyes as she fell to the ground.

It was her father, Thanos, standing beside her sister, Gamora. And both were still alive.

Nebula began to realize that it had been a mistake for her to come here. The Thanos of this time, somehow he had detected her presence and was accessing the Nebula from now’s network to view her memories from the future. She couldn't stop the access, couldn’t move, couldn’t call for help. And that could only mean one thing.

Thanos would soon know what they were up to.

“You seem surprised” Lady Death said looking over to Ladybug. Her rasping voice tearing at Chat’s ears. It was the most horrible thing he had ever heard. But he figured it matched her appearance all to well. Her flesh-less face, her empty eye sockets, and the bony hand now lifting up to motion to herself.

“Am I not what you imagined I would be, Marinette?” Lady death continued stepping forward slightly, all while making a terrible toothy grin.

Ladybug seemed to be at a loss for words so Chat stepped forward in an attempt to get between her and Lady Death.

“I mean if you truly are Death, I’d say you look about as horrible as expected.” Clint said from behind Chat. Honestly, he was surprised the Avenger had found himself able to speak, as Chat himself was finding it hard to find any words either. The fear was sitting in his throat and keeping him silent.

Marinette seemed taken aback by the comment however, almost offended even. Which of course was a strange reaction.

“Ah, as horrible as you expected Death to look?” Lady Death hissed as she looked over toward Clint and let out a cackle. “You have no idea how right you even are.”

Chat glanced behind himself and found that Ladybug’s face was hard, and unmoving. He was concerned about her. She had been so adamant before, so unwavering in her ability to face her fear of Death and come here. What had changed so suddenly that made her waver so?

“What’s wrong young one?” Lady Death asked stepping even closer to Ladybug. “Does my face bother you so much that you refuse to speak?”

Chat stepped in front of Ladybug fully now.

“That’s far enough.” He said defiantly as Death came to stand directly in front of him. No fear would stop him.

“What a good little kitty.” Lady Death said bringing her face and empty eye sockets in closer to peer at him. “Yet again protecting his love from Death herself. It’s almost enough to make you want to die.”

Chat swallowed hard but stood his ground.

“Why…” Chat heard Ladybug whisper from behind him.

“Why?” Lady Death said straitening up and lifting her arms in a grand gesture. “Why do I look so horrible to you? Why is your image of death what it is? Come now Marinette. You know the answer to that!”

Lady Death laughed a hearty laugh, surprising since she clearly had no lungs.

“I appear to each individual as they perceive death to be.” Lady Death said as she took a few steps back and then pointed to Clint. “A fleshy rotting ghoul.”

Now a point to Chat.

“A skeleton with no face.”

And then finally to Ladybug.

“And clearly the worst of all, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Chat’s eyes went wide and he turned to Ladybug who he could see had tears forming in her eyes. If it was true what Death was saying, then why in the world would Ladybug conjure an image of Death that appeared as herself?

“I’m honestly not sure if I should be offended or flattered.” Lady Death continued with a snarl and am almost theatrical wave of her arms. “To have such an image in your mind of what I should look like. To consider yourself as an equal to Death. The gall, the flattery!”

Chat faced Death fully once more and stepped forward.

“Why don’t you just drop it and get to why you summoned us here.” Chat demanded.

Lady Death stopped her grand exaggerated movements and turned to face him, serious once more.

“It’s been ages since I’ve spoken to anyone.” Lady Death said, almost looking downtrodden. “And yet you want to do away with the pleasantries?”

“From what we’ve been told, time has no meaning to you.” Clint said. Chat noticed that the man still held his sword at the ready.

“That is quite true.” Lady Death admitted with a shrug. “The irony there is quite funny if you think about it. Time is a hunter, stalking every mortal, bringing them to their knees and making them into dust. Time is even the one thing that brings the most souls to my doorstep. And yet, it has no meaning to me as I am as ageless as existence itself.”

Lady Death looked down at her bony hands.

“I wonder, what will become of me when time ends and no more souls come forth to give me purpose.” Lady Death said, seeming suddenly somber. “Of course, that is why you are here, isn’t it. Because your existence, your time, is quickly crashing in on itself.”

“We’ve come for the soul stone.” Clint stated flatly.

“So you can what?” Lady Death asked. “Stop the collapse of the universe?”

Lady Death began to laugh again, louder and longer than before.

“I’m not seeing the humor in that.” Chat said boldly.

Lady Death stopped laughing and looked at him hard.

“No?” she retorted. “Well perhaps that is because you are not seeing the big picture. And I suppose you will need me to explain? Is that it?”

Chat looked to Clint and then to Ladybug, who was still remaining silent, her eyes distant.

“Or perhaps Marinette here would like to explain it to you?” Lady Death said looking over toward Ladybug once more. “The reason you see yourself as Death. The reason the universe is collapsing. How it is your fault. Explain it to them.”

Chat heard Ladybug let out a gasp behind him and he turned to look at her questioningly. What exactly was Death saying? How exactly could Marinette to be to blame?

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Ladybug yelled, seeming suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.

Lady Death regarded her for a moment and then shook her head.

“I suppose it would have been foolhardy to think you would remember.” she said. “I suppose it’s only natural. Even with the power that resides inside you, you are still only human.”

“Then it’s true.” Ladybug said suddenly seeming lost in thought. “I have forgotten something.”

“One could hardly expect a mere human to be able to commune with the universe and not have it break your mind.” Lady Death said. “I’m honestly surprised you even subconsciously know that you are to blame, enough to conjure me this face.”

“The bargain I made.” Ladybug whispered and then stepped forward around Chat to face Death directly. “What was it?”

Lady Death grinned.

“Allow me to show you.” Lady Death said and stepped toward the cliff behind her.

With a wave of her bony arm, an image, almost like a ghostly movie appeared.

There, Chat could now see a younger Marinette standing in large room with a pedestal in the center. She was staring at a wall covered in strange stone etchings, regarding a single one outlined in crystal before her.

She then reached up her hand and touched the crystal etching.

A bright flash of light engulfed her and the ghostly image that Lady Death was projecting expanded to engulf the entire mountaintop they now resided on, and suddenly they were being surrounded by the afterimage.

Standing now in the center of the half circle of stone that was present on the cliff edge was past Marinette looking about wildly at her new surroundings. To Chat’s left were ghost images of Lady Death, and three other unearthly looking beings. Then a booming voice from above drew all their attention.

“ Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you have requested communion with the universe . Speak your desire and I shall listen. ”

The ghostly Marinette looked up and swallowed hard.

“And, who are you exactly?” she asked sheepishly.

The ghostly image of Lady Death stepped forward and raised her hand to the giant glowing being in front of them.

“Welcome, to the court of the Living Tribunal.” she said with a toothy grin.

Chapter Text

The following is a record of what occurred during deliberation by The Living Tribunal on one, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, mortal resident of universe 199999.

Greetings outside observers, Watchers and Beyonders alike. I am the one known as Eternity.

I am here to facilitate in your understanding of the matters at hand, and share with you the flow of proceedings during this Nexus event. Suffice to say, there will be no need for questions as you will know all I know, or rather, what I wish you to know.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng attempted communion with the universe on august twenty second two thousand and nineteen, by her kinds measure of such things. At the time, she did not realize the implications of this action or the possible outcomes that may occur. But such is the true nature of linear existence, to not know one’s future.

Her great ancestor had also brought about such a communion five thousand years before, and the outcome had been one that We, the four cosmic entities that balance all of existence, weighed heavily upon.

I, Eternity, giver of all life and weaver of all creation.

My son, Entropy, taker of life, and destroyer of all things.

My sister, Infinity, She who controls the space in which all who live and die exist.

And Death, she who manages that which once lived, but does so no longer.

We four, creators of the six Infinity Stones at the dawn of the universe, presided over the bargain that allowed our many children, the kwami, to experience physical life. We did so, so that they may too know the joys of existence beyond that of mere spiritual energy. Above all however, we wished them to learn from these lowly mortals the meaning of singular being, and responsibility of ones actions. To learn to control their own essences, as the kwami were volatile and commanded too much authority over the universe.

So we allowed such, a lowly mortal, to harness the powers of the kwami and tame their essences for their own mystical uses. In exchange we sought for our children to be imprinted in return with mortal values and understanding.

But now, that mortal’s descendant, Marinette, has returned to seek further amendment on the bargain once made.

“Thanos broke the first bargain.” the young one spake. “I have come to restore it. To reclaim the kwami who have been lost.”

Lady Death had of course been incensed by the mention of Thanos, the being who had prevented so many souls from ever entering her domain. Death had even advocated for Marinette to succeed, a surprise to me, as we rarely saw eye to eye.

This timeline, one among a countless multitude facing the same disastrous event, had been sundered with fifty percent of all life having been removed. Thanos had sought balance, yet there had been an imbalance in the Titan’s ‘snap’ that he had been unaware of, one on a level above his own existence and understanding.

The energies of the universe that the kwami spread to it's edges within their full spiritual form, were a resource Thanos hadn’t considered. Every mortal life removed had vanished into nothingness, yet did not die. And with them they each took a tiny bit of the energies of creation, those which would have normally been returned to the universe upon their mortal deaths. So a vacuum had been created in the place of that lost energy.

This imbalance would have outright destroyed the universe, collapsing it in on itself. But we four had taken action and removed certain kwami, our own children, in an attempt to prevent that event. We stopped the bleed, but the wound remained.

And now, because countless universes all suffered the same sundering, with countless Thanos’s snapping countless fingers, erasing an incalculable measure of energy from the multiverse, it had drawn the attention of The Living Tribunal. And so this matter became above even us four now, as any further action would affect so many more timelines than just this one. This entire branch of existence was on the brink.

Each timeline stemming outward from this one was at jeopardy, all rushing toward an end that would cause them to fizzle out into nothingness. It was not normal for such things to occur, such a large scale of existence ceasing at once. Yet occasionally, multiversal wars, hungry interdimensional beings, or even the Living Tribunal Himself, would end such timelines. Yet Thanos had unknowingly doomed an entire corner of all reality to the same fate such cataclysmic event’s wrought. Nothingness.

But perhaps there was hope.

This Marinette, she carried with her such reverence for the universe, for those within it, and for our children the kwami. Much like her ancestor before her, we could see such potential in her very existence. So it was no wonder that when Wanda Maximoff had vanished, that Marinette had become the replacement Nexus being for this period of the timeline, as there must always be one present. Little did she know that she alone now guided the outcome of her universes existence.

“I will pay whatever price you ask of me.” she supplicated, knowing not what it truly meant to do so. Her innocence and purity of heart were palpable.

“Your universe is in dire need of correction.” The Living Tribunal spake. “If you facilitate this correction, I will grant you what you seek.”

“What does that mean exactly?” she requested elaboration.

“The energies connected to your crystal heart, they will become the vessel for my will. When the time comes, based on either your ability to correct the imbalance created by Thanos or by your failure to do so, then your universe shall be judged. In that moment, it will be seen either as a danger to those around it and removed, or it shall be restored.”

“Do you know what must I do to correct the imbalance?” She sought guidance. “Is it by undoing the decimation somehow?”

“It is not through my action or knowledge that you shall fail or succeed, but your own.” The Living Tribunal commanded. “Seek your own answers, and the guidance of others like yourself. Many countless versions of you now face the same possible fate in their own universes. Perhaps one of you shall learn from the mistakes of the others. But know this. In the end, I will only allow one of your universes to remain to become the new base timeline that which all others on this path will stem from.”

I watched on as Marinette considered her options, her mind filled with both fear and hope. I could hear her thoughts, and she knew not who We beings around her were, nor the true implications of her bargain. But she decided in that moment to be the savior of her reality.

“I accept your bargain.” she made covenant.

The Living Tribunal then reached down and pointed to Marinette. He then drew from My energy and imbued her with the power of creation to either save or destroy her own universe.

Her heart, now became something else that hadn’t existed before in any timeline. It carried inside her my own will, my power, greater than all the other six stones combined.

She now possessed the Infinity Stone of Creation.

“Well, this is all way above my pay grade.” Clint said.

Chat looked to the man standing to his left, and he understood how he felt. They had just watched a being of great measure, who seemingly controlled all of existence, decide the fate of their universe in a single conversation. Or more accurately, placed that fate in Marinette’s delicate hands. It was enough to make even the most bold of individuals feel tiny and insignificant.

As the ghostly images of Marinette, The Living Tribunal, Lady Death and the other three unknown beings faded away, Chat looked now to Ladybug.

The look on her face was distant, overwhelmed. And it made sense. To suddenly be told that all of existence and those within were relying on you alone, it must have been more shock than he himself could imagine dealing with.

“Marinette.” he said, placing his hand on her shoulder. She felt cool to the touch, as usual, but this time she felt almost too cold.

She slowly turned to look at him, and then strangely she smiled.

“I failed.” she said, her smile twisting into a frown, and then back again.

“Uh oh, I think she’s broken again.” Lady Death quipped in a now beautiful familiar voice.

Confused, Chat slowly looked behind him toward the immortal being and realized that he too now saw Marinette’s face upon her visage.

“Oh my, now that is an interesting development.” Lady Death said, touching her face. “Perhaps now you too see the gravity of this all. And you see her for what she truly is.”

Chat slammed his eyes shut and turned back to Ladybug.

“I don’t care what my eyes say, or what she says.” Chat said. “I trust my heart, and it believes in you, Marinette.”

“Why?” He heard Ladybug ask, barely audible. “Clearly I am not the version of me who succeeded. Our universe is collapsing. That means I didn’t correct the imbalance.”

“No.” Chat said opening his eyes once more. He looked her dead on and gave her a hard look. “We are still here. We can still succeed. This isn’t over until there is no time left.”

He then heard Lady Death laugh behind him and he balled up his fist in anger.

“If the universe is truly ending, and we can’t do anything about it.” Chat began to say and then turned around to face Lady Death. “Then there would be no harm in you giving us the soul stone. If you truly find this so humorous, then why not simply let us flail about for your amusement?”

Lady Death smiled at him with the lips of his lover, and it made him sick to his stomach to see her use Marinette’s appearance in such a way.

“Oh you clever little boy.” Lady Death said gleefully. “You treat me with such a disrespect unlike anyone has ever been brave enough to do. I like it. I can see why she loves you. Perhaps I will take you for myself, one last indulgence before this universe ends.”

Lady Death was suddenly in front of him placing her hand on his cheek. There was no cooling sensation this time, only an empty feeling of nothingness. He found that he couldn’t move to get away and he could feel his energy start to ebb from him as her touch persisted.

Then the sound of a bow string being pulled back could be heard. After a quick moment he could see the sharp end of an arrow being aimed directly at Lady Deaths eye at point blank range.

“I don’t really know if this would do anything to you.” Clint said. “But you let go of him right now or we will find out.”

Lady Death turned to Clint and winked at him. The man began to seize and fell to the ground beside Chat. His own vision began to grow dark as he felt himself start slipping into the unknown.

“Tikki, Spots off!” he heard from what seemed like a thousand miles away.

Then, the pain on Chat’s face vanished and Lady Death was backing away from him. Chat shook his head to clear his vision and looked to his right where he saw Marinette stepping forward, her right hand on her burst regulator.

“Don’t you ever touch him again!” Marinette yelled and then tore the regulator from her sternum. “Or I shall be forced to touch you, with all of the power of creation I can bring to bear!”

Chat watched as Marinette continued forward, and Death backpedaled away from her.

He couldn’t help but smile at the implications of it all.

Death was actually afraid of Marinette.

He blinked and the borrowed appearance of Marinette faded from Death’s visage in that moment, again becoming the bony skull he had seen before. It seemed that something deep inside of him had come to realize that Marinette was not the bringer of death he had momentarily seen, instead she was once again his savior.

Clint stood to his feet beside Chat, neither of them looking away from the scene before them.

“Damn.” The Avenger said. “I wouldn’t believe it if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes.”

Chat and Clint looked on, as two very large wings made of light expanded out from Marinette’s back and stretched to either side of her. The mountain began to shake violently again with every step Marinette took, and the sky seemed to grow lighter than it ever had been the entire time Adrien had been there before.

“Alright, Alright.” Lady Death finally said as she backed to the edge of the cliff, no where else to go. “If you truly want the soul stone. Then take it and be gone from my domain!”

Lady Death then stepped back off the edge and fell out of sight.

There was a rumble in the clouds above them and Chat looked up to see a blue energy traveling up into the darkness of the vortex. Then a burst of the same energy shot out along the edges of the spinning maelstrom continuing outward like an explosion. And with that, in a flash of blinding blue light, he found that he was somewhere else.

Chat sat up quickly and saw that he, Marinette, Tikki and Clint were all now sitting in a pool of water, not too far from the Benatar.

Marinette no longer had her wings, and her regulator was back on her sternum as if it had never been removed. He watched as she raised her closed fist and looked at it questioningly. She slowly unconstricted her fingers and there in her palm he could see a small orange stone glowing brightly.

She had done it.

They had the soul stone.

Lady Death watched with trepidation as the three mortals entered their spaceship. Then she sighed as Eternity walked up beside her.

"I'm surprised." He said. "You didn't tell them that you were not the one who gave Adrien the dream that led them here." 

"Well, she didn't really give me any more time to explain." Lady Death said. "Your little vessel has a lot of gumption."

"You have no idea." Eternity said and then smiled, a billion galaxies and stars shifting in the reflection of his face as he did.

Chapter Text

Ladybug stared down at the orange stone in her hand.

Part of her felt as if it was speaking to her, calling to her in some strange unheard fashion. She felt it’s pull, and she wanted so badly to somehow speak to it.

“Are you alright, Ladybug?” she heard Chat ask her, pulling her from the daze that she was in. She glanced to her left and saw her soulmate staring at her from his flight chair, a concerned look on his face.

“I don’t know.” she replied as she glanced up towards the colors and light of the hyperspace tunnel they new traveled through. “I think I am. But it’s just all too much to process.”

“I’d honestly be concerned if you thought you had a complete handle on all of this.” Clint said. “What we just witnessed, what we are facing, I’m surprised you aren’t screaming and running for the door.”

Ladybug nodded and then squinted at the soul stone once more.

“Trust me. For a moment there I was headed for the door. Checking out, giving up.” she admitted and looked over toward her companions. “But I saw you both in trouble and it was like something else took over. I’m just not sure if it was fear, bravery, or something else.”

Clint looked at her with an appraising look.

“Fear is good, bravery is too.” the Avenger said with a grin. “But somehow, I feel like it was more about love.”

Ladybug glanced to Chat.

“No, not romantic love. Even if that was part of it...” Clint said, drawing her attention back to him. “As weird as it sounds, you seemed driven, like a mother protecting her young.”

She squinted her eyes in thought. Perhaps he was right in a way. She had just discovered that every person, animal, plant, even bacteria, every single living thing in this universe was now under her care. And when she had seen two of them threatened, she had felt a strength surge through her unlike anything else she had ever felt before. A determination to protect.

As she pondered this, the soul stone began to hum slightly, as if it was singing to her. She glanced down at it again and could swear she was hearing tiny distant voices. Her voice. Countless copies of her voice. She struggled to listen, and suddenly all other sound she could hear simply ceased.

She looked up again and saw that all time around her had frozen. The ship, Chat, Clint, everything had stopped in place.

She again held up the stone and peered at it. What was this?

As she looked deeper into it, she found suddenly that she was no longer sitting. She quickly glanced up to see that she was somewhere else entirely.

A great endless void of yellow, red and orange hues, all spanned by a floor that was like smooth, unbroken water. The horizon of this place was infinite, and nothing else seemed to be around beside a single structure. She started to walk towards it and realized that it was a representation of her family’s bakery, yet with no walls or form.

The windows were there, the counter, even the large oven. But the stairs up to their apartment simply ended halfway up, and each place a wall would normally be was instead empty space. It was as if it was a set from a stage play.

“Hello?” she heard a tiny voice from behind her. She turned to see a much younger version of Ladybug looking back up at her, a soul stone held in her tiny open palm. This smaller Ladybug still had a mask hiding her identity, but it was still apparent that she couldn’t be more than eight years old. “Are you a Ladybug too?”

“Yes.” Ladybug said with a smile. “What’s your name?”

“I’m supposed to keep my name a secret.” the young Ladybug said, looking away unsure. “But seeing that you are a Ladybug too… I’m Marinette.”

“Well then, it seems we are meant to be friends, My name is Marinette as well.” she replied as she knelt beside the younger version of herself and offered a comforting smile.

“Don’t coddle the girl.” she heard from behind her. “It will do her no good to be treated like a child. She's a hero and she needs to act like it.”

Ladybug turned to see another Ladybug now leaning against the counter. This one was more her age but her suit had white spots instead of black ones and a solid black mask and gloves.

“I suppose you are another version of me too?” Ladybug asked.

“It’s obvious isn’t it?” her counterpart replied with an eye roll. “We are having a communion with all of our other selves to figure out what to do about the collapse of our respective universes. But clearly some of us know more than others.”

Ladybug glanced down at the younger Ladybug beside her and wondered exactly what the universe she had come from had been like for Master Fu there to have recruited such a young hero.

She then started to hear other voices now and looked behind herself. Ladybug’s were fading into existence all around the bakery and in the void outside it. A few at first, then a hundred, then thousands. It started to get a bit overwhelming and loud. There were Ladybug’s with differing suits, ages, hairstyles, even a few Marinette’s scattered about. Some had burst regulators on their sternum, some had them on their forehead or attached firmly to their wrists, and some didn't have one at all. The sheer amount of differences was mind boggling.

“Well then.” Ladybug said looking down to the younger version of her who seemed just as overwhelmed. “Why not stick with me so you don’t get lost in the crowd?”

The young superhero seemed to consider her options and then looked back up to Ladybug and gave a tiny nod.

Ladybug sighed. It had been hours, or perhaps days. Maybe it was that time had no meaning here at all. Deep down she hoped that time had remained frozen in the real world as she spent time here, because she knew time was running out back there and she didn’t want to leave her friends and family waiting on her.

She had mingled with so many other versions of herself for what seemed like ages, but most of the conversations had gone no where in particular. Each Ladybug she had met had seemed consumed with the idea that they were the one who should take charge, refusing to concede to any of the others.

The much younger Ladybug she had first met was piggybacking on her back now, having remained quiet the entire time. Ladybug had asked her a few times if she was doing alright and had received a meek nod in return.

It was really quite humbling to know that there were so many lives she hadn’t lived, so many choices she could have made differently. Part of her wondered if her life was at all special amid this multitude of others. How exactly had her life differed from the others to make her who she was? Had anything that had happened to her in her life set her on the right path to be able to guide anyone else there find a solution? Was she the needle in the haystack, or was she just another piece of hay?

At this point she had spoken to so many versions of herself that she had even started to recognize some of them from her burst dreams. Eye-patch was there, having formed a semicircle of other Ladybug’s with similar militaristic personalities, and they seemed to at least be discussing various strategies. When she had tried to join them however, she had only received annoyed glances.

She had then searched for the Elder version of herself that she had seen in the one dream that had ended in happiness. But no one she asked here had any idea what she was talking about. While many of them had experienced the dreams, none of those who had could say they had seen the same vision as her. No future, no gravestone, no smiling old woman. In the end she figured that it was likely one of these current Ladybugs would someday become the Elder, and they just didn’t know it yet.

Now she found herself about a kilometer from the tableau of the bakery in a sea of Ladybug’s that all seemed content with debating rather than working together. So when she heard laughter off to her right, she started off in that direction to find it’s source, because up until now everyone had been all business.

As she pushed her way through the crowd, she started to hear someone talking loudly above all the rest of the voices.

“And then Chat was all like, ‘Please don’t do this Ladybug!’.” A Ladybug who had a black suit with red spots was saying with a chuckle. “And then I pushed him off the ledge to his death! It was a shame, I really did love that pain in the ass.”

Ladybug’s eyes went wide and she gasped. What in the world was this? There, sitting in a small circle, were six Ladybugs of various darker colors and grim looking suit designs, all laughing about the apparent murder of a Chat Noir.

The Ladybug who had been telling the story had noticed her gasp and sneered up at her.

“What’s wrong?” the black suited Ladybug snapped as she held up her hands to her chest before she continued to speak, in a mocking tone now. “I suppose you want to tell me how you got the soul stone without sacrificing him? Damn, you other Ladybugs are really so vanilla.”

“I honestly don’t care how you got your soul stone.” Ladybug said as she shifted the young girl riding on her shoulders and then gave black suit Ladybug a hard look. “What I do care is that you sacrificed what you did to get it, and yet you still don’t seem to want to do anything about any of this now that you are here.”

“Oh, really?” the black suited Ladybug said with a frown. “And what do you want me to do exactly? We've all heard the rumor that only one of us will make it through this. And there’s little chance my universe will be the one chosen to survive all this. After all, judging from what most of you ‘others’ have said to us, we ‘Dark Ladybugs’ clearly don’t matter! What could we possibly have to offer?”

The Dark Ladybug stood and crossed over to her.

“You all think you are SO perfect, with your good luck charms, and your various healing powers.” Dark Ladybug said almost seeming offended and hurt. “Well, you can all go to hell for all I care. Just go on and keep ignoring us all because we that live in universes where it’s all apparently upside down! Bad Luck is the key to our power, and until today we thought that was just how it was supposed to be. Well guess what! Nope! So why don’t you just leave us freaks alone!”

Dark Ladybug turned away from her in a huff and moved to go sit in the circle again. She could see the faces of the other five in the circle seemed sullen. Ladybug glanced around and saw that many of her doppelgangers near the small circle who had all witnessed the outburst were all now moving further away, doing just as the Dark Ladybug had suggested. They were ignoring the small group as if they didn’t matter at all.

She frowned. This was not right. They were all supposed to be working together. It didn’t matter what universe they had come from, or what their lives had been like. They all needed to come together to find the solution.

She furrowed her brow and appraised all the Ladybugs and Marinettes that she could see in the sea of hers, all arguing and trying to be the one who had the answers. The issue here had clearly become that the Living Tribunal had said only one universe would survive, and it was putting them all at odds with each other.

She glanced down at the circle of Dark Ladybugs once more and then turned her head to look back at the young girl clinging to her back and saw her smile and nod at her. At least she seemed to be on the same page.

Ladybug stepped forward and hoisted the little Ladybug up and off her shoulders so that they could both sit at the circle in front of them.

The Dark Ladybug who had yelled at her raised an eyebrow.

“If it’s all the same to you.” Ladybug said with a sly smile. “We would like to hear what you think about all of this.”

Dark Ladybug seemed to think a moment and then looked to her counterparts before again looking back to Ladybug herself.

“Well aren’t we special, ladies?” she said with an evil grin. “Out of millions of uptight, selfish losers, we found us a couple of real heroes.”

Ladybug could tell she was still being mocked, but she didn’t care. She had a job to do. Because regardless of what The Living Tribunal had said or what the goals of all of these other Ladybug’s were, she was now certain of her own desire.

She planned to save them all. Every Ladybug, Every single universe.

“So.” Ladybug said and then turned to the woman sitting to her right. “Tell me everything.”

Chapter Text

Ladybug wasn’t fond of the nickname she had been given in the Multitude, but she was glad that she was one of the seven who had been selected to head the Council of Ladybugs. It had taken months to get all of those present there inside the soul stone’s void to cooperate and sit down for deliberation. But she had been one of those instrumental in doing so. So she had gained a seat.

Each major group of Ladybugs had received a representative to speak on the council, to better facilitate everyone’s voice being heard. And there were seven major groups based on seven major differences that they had been able to determine existed among the sea of red and black.

She was now known as ‘The Dreamer’. Both because she had lofty goals that the other Ladybugs considered a dream, and because she was the speaker for the Ladybugs that had experienced dream visions of the others before meeting here.

The other six groups consisted of the following.

The Military Bugs. Ladybugs and Marinettes who had joined a government or military organization. This was led by ‘Eyepatch’, who apparently worked for a version of S.H.I.E.L.D that still existed in her universe.

The Mystic Bugs. Those heroes that had been trained in the use of magic to levels that they were no longer just Ladybugs but masters of the mystic arts as well. These were led by ‘The Sorceress’.

The Augment Bugs. Any Ladybug that had used various types of technology to expand their roles as a hero. This was led by ‘Iron Bug’. The sole non-ladybug Marinette on the council, outfitted only with a suit of armor much like Iron Man's.

The Miracle Bugs. A fairly small group of Ladybugs who had somehow been able to utilize all of the Miraculous at their disposal at once without outright dying. This was led by ‘Chimera’.

The Anti Bugs. All evil or demonically inspired Ladybugs fell into this group. One that Dreamer had advocated to be included, even against the better judgment of the majority of Ladybug’s present. This group was led by the same Dark Ladybug she had first encountered, whose nickname was now ‘Shadow’.

And then there were the Variance Bugs. This group was mainly filled with anyone who didn’t fall into the other six categories. Of these, the young Ladybug was counted here, as she was the only one like herself present. Much like the sole Misterbug, an empowered Adrien who somehow to his delight had found himself surrounded by millions of Marinettes. And she had also met an overly optimistic girl named Bridgette who had no other counterparts here. This mishmash of a group was led by ‘Princess’, a Ladybug that was actually descended from royalty and had her Miraculous given to her as part of her family's tradition.

And so, the council had been formed.

Dreamer missed her Adrien, and her friends and family after spending so long inside this void. But it had been determined that it was the best option for them all to remain there as long as possible to figure out the best course of action. There had been a fair number of Ladybug’s that had vanished after a while, those who felt they could bear the void no longer. She figured they returned to their universe to face extinction rather than be stuck lingering in what most were now calling Purgatory. A fitting name for somewhere they would all reside a while before simply ceasing to be.

This Purgatory at least had some interesting and useful quirks to it. They never needed to eat or sleep here, and they could create objects they needed if enough of them simply willed it to be. So they had settled in and gotten to work. The Grand Chamber Hall of Ladybugs was willed into place, and the council had been voted in. Each Ladybug even wore a little name badge so they could be differentiated from the others. There had been a lot of overlap, so some Ladybugs had received numbers after there given names.

Dreamer had found herself leading the charge to organize as she was one of the few who actually chose to speak to Ladybug’s outside her own personality group. And after having spoken with at least a hundred Ladybug’s in detail about their lives and how they had come to be who they were, she had garnered a pretty good picture of some of the major differences that existed.

A few of those differences were apparently unique to her alone.

There had been no other Ladybug that she could find that had experienced meeting Lady Death on Vormir, and no other had been shown their meeting with The Living Tribunal. Supposedly, the rumor that had spread about only one universe being chosen to survive had actually come from her in the first place. She had unknowingly spread that information while talking with other Ladybugs when she had first arrived without realizing it was unique information. Sadly this meant that many of the other Ladybugs considered it just that, a rumor. In the end she had decided to keep it secret that she had been the source, content with the knowledge that everyone at least knew of the stakes without really knowing how.

“I still don’t see how that is something we should be concerned about.” Princess said with a huff. “There is no proof that more of our universes won’t survive.”

“And I suppose you think that it’s simply a lie, perpetrated by us darks?” Shadow replied with a sneer. “I first heard about it from one of you Variances.”

“Please, this arguing is getting us nowhere.” Eyepatch interjected. “We should focus on the current issue brought forth by Iron Bug. Whether or not we should consider using the stones to restore the vanished or not.”

Dreamer swallowed hard. It had been brought to the attention of the council that a large number of Ladybug’s believed that it would be like torture to bring those poor people back into existence. Because there was a high chance that they would be faced with simply ceasing to exist again in the collapse of their universe.

“But, there is the possibility that bringing them back will reverse the collapse itself.” Chimera offered. “We can’t simply ignore the fact that this all started after the decimation in the first place.”

“Yes, but there is no way to place a pin into a grenade that has already exploded.” Eyepatch said. “It is likely that the force of the collapse will outweigh any attempt at fixing it by reversing it’s original cause.”

There was a murmur of talking in the chamber as multiple Ladybugs tried to speak at once.

Dreamer shook her head. Even after all this time, they were getting nowhere.

Then in the back of the chamber room, the door flew open and in waltzed a Chat Noir.

Everyone present stood suddenly in shock and watched as this newcomer approached the group. An Augment Bug who had been outside the chamber door also rushed in and whispered into Iron Bugs ear.

“Who exactly are you?” Iron Bug demanded after a moment of listening to her lackey convey information. “I’m told that you got into Purgatory without possessing a soul stone.”

The Chat Noir looked around the room at the various Ladybugs and as his eyes fell on Dreamer he smiled.

“I came to find my Ladybug.” He said stepping toward her and then bowing. “Mi’lady.”

All of the council peered toward her.

“How do you know I’m your Ladybug?” she asked him.

“Well as you know, when I’m in astral form I can see the energy ribbon that connects our souls.” he said pointing to his back.

Dreamer felt a rush of joy come over her and she leapt over the table in front of her to embrace her Chat.

“I’ve missed you so much.” she whispered to him.

“Wow. How long have you been in here exactly?” he asked stepping back and looking around at the chamber room.

“I don’t know, months probably. Time is weird here.” she replied. “How did you get in here? We hoped time was frozen out there.”

The other council members began to talk among themselves. The fact Chat was here meant that they had been mistaken about how much time they had to deliberate. If he had been able to actively enter this realm, that meant time was indeed moving on the outside. And if time was passing then that meant the universes could already be close to collapsing completely.

“Well, if it’s been months for you, there is definitely a time difference between inside and outside. It’s been about an hour since you fell unconscious.”

There was a sigh of relief from multiple Ladybugs.

“That does not explain how you got inside the soul stone.” Chimera said. “And what is this energy ribbon you spoke of?”

Chat turned to face the council and scratched the back of his neck.

“My Ladybug and I are soulmates. So there is a ribbon of energy that connects our souls, literally. Are you not all soulmates with your Chats?”

The council members all looked at each other in confusion.

“I can’t believe I missed that.” Dreamer said. “I thought I had found all the things that made me different from all of the others.”

Chat turned again to Dreamer and raised an eyebrow.

“So, is this what The Living Tribunal meant when he said to seek guidance from others like yourself?” he asked with a smile. “Are they all really you from other universes?”

“Wait, what did you just say?” Eyepatch snapped. “You know of The Living Tribunal?”

“Of course.” Chat said turning back to the council before Dreamer could stop him. “I was with Ladybug when she found out about the bargain she made.”

Dreamer lowered her eyes in shame and moved to grab Chat’s arm. He had given away her secret. But it wasn’t his fault as there was no way he could have known.

“Chat…” she whispered. He glanced back at her and seemed to suddenly realize his mistake.

“So that must mean the fact that only a single universe is allowed to survive is true.” Chimera said with a reproachful glance at Dreamer. “We were unaware of the source of that information until now.”

“So, Dreamer. Of all of the Ladybugs here, you were the one who knew the truth.” Shadow said, a confused look on her face. “And yet you were the one who advocated for us to ignore that rumor and aim to find a way to save all the universes. Why? Why would you push such hope on us if you knew it wasn’t true? Did you simply want to see if you could save your own universe, possibly at the cost of the one that was supposed to survive?”

It seemed that an outside source confirming the rumors assertions that only one universe would survive had been validation enough for the council to now accept it as fact. By how they were all reacting, they all immediately knew that the reality of their choice had changed. But she still didn’t want them to give up on the option of fighting for them all to live.

“I did it because we all have a right to survive! All of us!” Dreamer exclaimed. “Look at us all! With our combined powers it must be possible! I can’t accept such a terrible fate befalling so many universes!”

Iron Bug looked to each other Ladybug on the council, and they nodded to her in turn.

“Apparently, our fate as a cumulative whole is truly out of our hands.” the armored Marinette said. “And as of now, deciding which universe we will all work to help survive is also out of yours. We can not allow someone who has clearly placed her own agenda above that of the rest of the council, or the truth, to remain. So you are hereby removed from your seat.”

Dreamer didn’t try and fight the decree. Instead she simply began to walk toward the chamber door, her head lowered.

“Well that’s a load of bull.” Chat said suddenly from behind her.

“I beg your pardon?” Iron Bug asked.

“I know my Marinette pretty well.” Chat said motioning to Dreamer. “I know for a fact that whatever she did, she did to put the lives of everyone in every universe before her own, her own family, even me, the man she loves. If she thinks that it’s possible to save everyone, then she would do everything in her power to make it happen.”

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what she want’s to be true.” Chimera said. “If what you both say happened is actually true, then this Living Tribunal has given us a choice. And we have to make it.”

“It is true.” Chat said and then shook his head. “And you have chosen poorly.”

Chat did not say anything more to the council, instead he turned and took Dreamers hand so that they could exit the chamber together.

“Let’s go.” he said to her. “If they won’t help you figure out how to save them all, then we will figure out a way to do it ourselves.”

Dreamer managed to form a smile.

“Silly Chat.” she whispered. “I don’t know why you trust in me so much.”

He squeezed her hand and stopped in the middle of a crowd of Ladybugs and Marinettes who were out in the hall outside the council chamber.

“I could try and list for you the reasons why I love you. I could attempt to count off the reasons why I know you are the one for me. I could explain at length all of the ways I know you are honest and true to me, and to yourself.” Chat said and then gestured to the crowd around them who had started to listen to him speak. “But I’m sure every one of these other yous who hear it will think of their own Chat, their own Adrien. There would be no difference to them. So when you ask me why I trust you, and not any of these other yous, the answer is simple.”

He stepped closer to her and took her in his arms. She felt a bit flush as she heard a lot of gasps from the crowd around them.

“I trust you, because when I touch you, I can feel your truth.” he said leaning closer to her face. “In those moments I exist as part of you. Always and forever, we are one.”

He kissed her then and she closed her eyes as a feeling of pure joy came over her.

For a moment she forgot about the hundred or so other hers all watching this display of affection and simply lived in the moment.

Behind the darkness of her eyelids, she pictured something clearly that she had never seen before.

Two crystal hearts. One dark and one light, floating in the emptiness together.

Chapter Text

Tony Stark shook his head. He couldn’t accept what he was hearing.

“Only one.” Tony repeated what Clint had just told them. “Only one universe out of millions gets to keep on spinning?”

Clint nodded and looked wistfully out over the large body of water that ran along one side of the Avenger’s campus. A silence then fell on the dock which Bruce, Rogers, Stark, Clint and Thor now all stood.

“I don’t get why you are all acting like this.” Thor said in a belligerent tone. “As long as we have the stones, we can bring everyone back and stop the collapse. Isn’t that right? So let’s stop this shit! We’re the Avengers, get it together!”

“It’s out of our hands .” Clint interjected.

Thor turned and seemed frustrated with Barton’s statement.

“What? What’s he-?” Thor stumbled as if he simply wanted to will away what he was hearing by pretending it wasn’t being said.

“We can’t do anything.” Clint stated with finality ingrained in his tone. “We cant.”

The Asgardian looked to Tony and then back Clint while shaking his head.

“Look, I’m sorry, no offense...” Thor began to say with a wave of his hand in the air. “But you’re a very earthly being, okay? And we are talking about space magic. And ‘can’t’ seems very definitive, Don’t you think?”

“Yeah, look, I know I’m way outside my wheelhouse here.” Clint said as he turned to face Thor, showing his frustration. “But this is how it is. We can’t change that fact. Or that’s at least what the giant golden being with three faces had to say! So maybe you wanna go talk to him! Okay?”

Clint stepped forward and put a finger in front of Thor’s face.

“Go, grab your hammer and you go fly and talk to him!” Clint yelled angrily and then looked away from the imposing man.

Tony shook his head. Their emotions were getting the better of them. While death alone was something a person could face with dignity, this was different. This was possibly the end of everything, everyone they knew. Tony understood that this was more than just him dying, it was Pepper and Morgan too. It was doubtful that anyone facing the end of all existence would be able to simply look nothingness in the eyes and say, ‘bring it on’ without crumbling to their knees first and begging for their loved ones to remain safe.

Tony pondered the facts and attempted to work them through in his mind, his own personal way of fighting the fear. There must be something they could do to improve their universes chances of being the one chosen by this all powerful being, this god or whatever it claimed to be.

It was true that they had all six infinity stones now, or, all of the stones but the one they couldn’t get at quite yet.

When all of the teams had returned from the time heist, Chat Noir had appeared holding an unconscious Ladybug in his arms. Apparently something about the soul stone that she clutched in her hand had caused her to fall into a deep sleep. And there the stone had remained, so close, but out of reach.

But what good would it do if they could even get access to it?

If this Living Tribunal had decided that only one universe would survive, then any choice they made now could be judged for or against them being the chosen one. And if they attempted to bring back the vanished, it could either help or hurt their situation even more. But as far as he cared, that didn’t matter, it was still the next step in the plan because there were really no other options that they knew of.

“I have a daughter. You can’t just expect me to sit here and accept that we have no control.” Banner said.

“Look, I understand your fear, and even your anger. But if you saw… if you felt… Death, she literally tried to kill me on that damned planet. All it took was one glance.” Clint said, his expression turning sullen. “I felt my life ebbing from me, and Ladybug, she stepped in to save me with that... that light of hers. So right now, I’m going to trust in her, and that’s really all any of us can do.”

Bruce roared angrily and grabbed a bench that was on the edge of dock, throwing it will all his super human might. They all watched as the bench soared out of view and then they all turned to look at Bruce again.

Tony sighed and looked at Rogers who hadn't said anything yet. Cap simply shook his head in resignation.

Regardless of what they all wanted, it was apparently all up to Marinette.

Ladybug opened her eyes to find her adoptive mother there looking down at her with a smile.

“What did I tell you about this young lady?” Nat asked.

“No more meeting in the infirmary like this.” Ladybug said with a grin as she sat up. She glanced down at her right hand and saw that it was balled into a fist, and then to her left hand and saw it clasped with Chat’s who was laying beside her.

“So it looks like Adrien’s plan worked.” Bruce said stepping beside Nat. “He was actually able to go in and get you out?”

Ladybug nodded and opened her fist to see the soul stone there.

“We were starting to think we would have to cut that out of there.” she heard Stark say from behind her. “That’s one tight grip you’ve got there little wizard.”

“Sorry.” Ladybug said as she felt a squeeze on her other hand. She glanced and saw Chat was opening his eyes and smiling at her. “There was something I had to do.”

“From what Barton says, you’ve had a pretty big responsibility placed on your shoulders.” Stark commented and stepped forward. “Savior of the universe, was it?”

She could tell that Stark wasn’t keen on the idea of it all being out of his hands now. But she knew the man had visions and dreams such as she did and wondered if that meant he too had a destiny that neither of them could see yet.

“So did everyone make it? Did we get all of the stones?” Ladybug asked looking to the Director who nodded with a smile.

“We were just waiting on the soul stone.” Nat replied. “Stark’s already got all of the others installed into a gauntlet that he fashioned with his nanite tech.”

She glanced over to Stark who was waiting patiently by the door with his arms crossed. She held up her hand and offered him the stone. He reached to take it and then hesitated a moment before quickly pressing a button on his watch to call out an armored glove around his hand.

“Safety first.” Tony quipped as he gently lifted the stone from her palm. “Alright, I’ll get this little baby installed and as long as there are no objections, we can get this show on the road.”

Ladybug bit at the inside of her cheek as she watched Stark leave with Bruce following behind him. She was hesitant now as she carried the worries of millions of Ladybugs with her. There was still no knowing if it a good idea to try and bring everyone back, or if it was true that they would only be giving those poor souls a few days to say goodbye before they would ultimately disappear again along with the universe as a whole.

“So what was it you had to do exactly?” Nat asked Ladybug as she swung her legs around the bed and let her feet fall to the floor.

“I met with all of the other versions of me from other universes.” Ladybug said looking down at her spots. She honestly was kind of sick of seeing red and black at this point.

“You should have seen it.” Chat said with a glint in his eye. “Never have I seen so much beauty all gathered in one place before.”

Ladybug smiled at him as she reached her hand up to pat his head and then playfully ran her hand through his hair. He actually began to purr.

“Well, were you able to learn anything?” Nat asked while giving Chat a questioning look. He didn’t usually purr with other people around and Ladybug couldn’t help but smile when he stopped suddenly and blushed. “At this point, we could use any and all new information available to us.”

Ladybug furrowed her brow in thought. After so much time spent inside Purgatory, she couldn’t even be sure if she had gained enough knowledge to know what needed to be done. The other Ladybugs had deemed her plan to try and save every universe as foolhardy or just plain impossible. So whatever the consensus would ultimately be from the council of Ladybugs, she had figured it would not include her, and that was why she had opted to return to reality rather than wait. But there had been one thing she had done before leaving that place.

The memory of saying goodbye to the younger version of herself passed in front of her eyes now. There had been no doubt that their goodbye was forever, so it had been an emotional one. Not to mention the fact that the last thing the young girl had said to her would likely haunt Ladybug for however long she had left to exist.

“If it’s true that only one of us gets to live, I really hope it’s you.”

Ladybug didn’t really understand why the young girl said that to her of all people. She didn’t feel that she was any more deserving than any other Ladybug that existed, including the child herself. Especially since she knew just how brave the little girl had been in her own universe to begin with.

It had turned out that the eight year old hadn’t been chosen by her Master Fu after all, it was her mother who had been given the Ladybug earrings. Sadly the woman had been killed during a mission with that universes Avengers four years after their decimation, and her daughter had chosen to take up the mantle in her stead. And then, after being adopted by that universes Natasha Romanoff, they had eventually found themselves on Vormir together while searching for the soul stone, and a sacrifice had been required...

Ladybug clenched her fist and looked at her own Nat. She honestly couldn’t imagine witnessing her adoptive mother sacrifice herself, or what it would do to her emotionally. So knowing that her younger self had endured that was an awful truth.

“If anything I have too much information now.” Ladybug admitted, fighting the pit in her stomach that was forming. She didn’t have a good answer for her Director because she honestly didn’t know what to do with all of the tales of other Ladybugs and other Marinettes gathered there in her memory now. If it was all supposed to help her as The Living Tribunal had suggested, she really had no idea how.

“Marinette, I have something I would like to report, would you mind if I speak?” Tikki asked her internally.

“Of course, Tikki, spots off.” she said and felt the usual transition flow over her. It had been months since she had been Marinette, and part of her had oddly missed the normal feeling of pain from her scars. And of course she had missed Tikki. “I’ve missed you my friend.”

While inside Purgatory, everyone had been stuck appearing as they had when they had entered the stone. So while it was true that she had been wearing her suit for the entire time, Tikki hadn’t been able to communicate with her while she was there. It seemed that their suits had simply been a creation of the stones world and not a true connection to their Ladybug powers.

“I would say that I missed you too, but it was only a bit more than an hour for me.” Tikki said giving Marinette a hug anyway. “But now that you are awake, I wanted to tell you that the odd feeling I was getting from the universe collapsing, it’s changed.”

“Plagg?” Chat said looking off into thin air and then looked back to Nat. “He says his connection feels less strained as well.”

“Friday, can you show us the information streaming from the energy layer?” Nat asked looking to a nearby monitor on the infirmary wall.

“Of course, Director.” Friday said as the screen came to life.

They watched as the line indicating the amount of creation energy left in the universe became less sloped and flattened out a bit.

“Looks like the collapse has slowed down some.” Nat said. “Perhaps it’s from all the stones being present again?”

Then as they all watched, the line began to slope downward again, becoming almost steeper than it had been before.

“Wait, what happened?” Marinette asked looking to Tikki. “Why is it dropping so fast now?”

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely causing me pain again.” Tikki said as she grabbed her little head.

“Great.” Marinette said. “Looks like we have even less time than we thought.”

Chapter Text

“Hey there, Blue” Nebula heard someone say from behind her.

She turned her head slightly to find that the terran named Tony Stark had just entered the lab. She nodded to him and then turned to look back toward the gauntlet in front of her, five infinity stones attached to it’s knuckles. She didn’t want to rouse suspicion before she could enact the plan, so she turned to leave. The less contact she had with these Avengers, the less chance they would have to notice she wasn’t the Nebula from this time.

“Leaving already?” Stark asked her. “Bruce has gone to find Rocket so we can attach the last stone. Should be an interesting watch.”

“I have something I need to take care of.” She replied curtly and then hesitated as she searched the memories she had taken from the Nebula captured on Morag in the past. “But… Thank… You.”

Such niceties were not part of her normal personality, so it felt foreign on her tongue. She waited for Stark to accept her response, and then exited when she figured he was too distracted by his current task to find her actions strange.

Nebula scanned the hallway and found no one else nearby. Inside her internal processor she called up the schematic of the complex in which she now stood and mapped herself a route to the sleeping quarters. Specifically, the room of one Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

She had already attached a radioactive isotope to the infinity Gauntlet that Stark had built so that she could track it from anywhere on the planet. Next was to do the same to this Miracle Box possessed by the young woman who controlled the kwami.

Nebula felt purpose burn inside her as she walked. Her father had tasked her with pretending to be the Nebula who had come from their future, to replace her here and get the lay of the land before ultimately finding a way to bring Thanos himself forward as well. And these foolish heroes had so far not suspected a thing.

As she passed by another lab, she looked in the door and saw a representation of the universes remaining energy displayed on a monitor there. Nebula continued on and ignored her thoughts, focusing only on her goal. The fact that this universe was collapsing meant little to her, and she would die if need be. This mission was paramount, and she would do anything to prove herself to her father and help him fulfill his destiny.

Thanos would have his prizes. Both the Infinity Stones, and the Miraculous.

Marinette paced back and forth as Adrien, Tikki and Plagg all watched her from the nearby couch.

She had no idea what to do, or what to say to the others. She knew that literally everyone was counting on her now and it weighed heavily on her. This was all too big, too much for such a small person to face.

The entire universe. No, Millions of the universes. She felt like she wanted to throw up. Her mind somehow seemed sharper than it had ever been before, but all of the information in her mind was mixing together into a fuzzy mess. Not to mention that her throat felt like it was going to close up. If she didn’t think of something soon, she figured she was going to have a panic attack.

As she turned to start another pacing lap, she found herself face to face with Adrien. Before she could react to his presence however, she found herself in his embrace. She blinked from the suddenness of it as it tore her from her thoughts.

“Adrien… I…” She started to say, but the cooling sensation he introduced into her body with his touch calmed her almost immediately. She closed her eyes and began to hug him back, soaking in the comfort.

“You looked like you needed this.” he whispered to her.

She smiled. He always knew.

“Marinette.” Tikki said from the couch. “Perhaps you should try and brainstorm this with the others. Perhaps they will have insights or ideas you are not thinking of?”

Marinette opened her eyes and looked over toward the two kwami.

“There is too much information, I don’t have time to share it all and…” Marinette said, stopping mid sentence when she realized the best course of action. She pulled back from her embrace with Adrien and looked him in the eyes. “I’ll be right back. Tell the others I’ll meet them in the lounge in ten minutes. Tikki, come with me.”

Marinette grabbed a nearby tablet and walked from the room, filled with new purpose. There was no time to sift through all of the information she had obtained inside the soul stone. No time to cross reference all of the different lives she had learned of. No time at all.

Soon she was turning a corner into the hall that led to her and Adrien’s bedroom, and when she did she almost collided with Nebula who was coming from the opposite direction.

“Oh, sorry Neb.” she quickly apologized and continued on without a second glance.

As she entered the bedroom she pressed the button on her watch and the Miracle Box in the corner of the room began to scan her immediately. After it detected that she was who she was supposed to be, it opened and revealed each of the Miraculous hidden inside it’s inner compartments.

She quickly grabbed the pocket watch and watched as Fluff appeared.

“Fluff. Tikki. Unify!” she said before the little rabbit could say anything.

After she felt the power rush through her, she looked over at the nearby mirror and saw Lady Cottontail looking back at her.

“It’s time to make some time.” she said. “Burrow!”

When the white portal appeared, she stepped through without any hesitation.

Adrien had gathered the Avengers in the lounge and they were all waiting now for Marinette to arrive. While they waited, everyone was standing in small groups talking about various things. Stark, Bruce and Rocket were discussing the gauntlet and the stones. Rhodes and Lang were discussing the possibility of using the quantum realm to evacuate people into different timelines, but the lack of Pym particles made that a tenuous option at best. And Thor, Barton and Rogers were discussing something out of his earshot. Nat was standing quietly in the corner near Adrien, occasionally glancing at the baby monitor nearby.

He had not actually been able to find Nebula or contact her over comms, but when he mentioned this to the Director, she had shrugged and told him not to worry. The cybernetically enhanced woman was known to be pretty reclusive at times, so it was possible she just wanted to be alone for now.

Adrien glanced at the Director and smiled. The woman had been such a comfort to Marinette, and had been like a mother to her over the last five years. Well, a mother that knew how to kill a person with any mundane item in the room, but still a mother through and through. And in the same way, Bruce had been like a father to Adrien on a level that his biological father had never even come close to achieving. So they had all four become a strange little family of no blood connections, but plenty of love and trust to go around.

And then when Phillipa had been born, turning four into five, both Marinette and Adrien had technically gained the same sister, even if only through their adoptive connections. He imagined that someday it would be weird and confusing from their sisters point of view if Adrien and Marinette did get married… but in the end it was all still just relation through paperwork.

Hell, Bruce and Nat had never actually dated in any significant meaningful way, nor had they ever been married, instead they were only bonded through the parenthood of their mutual child. Adrien had once asked Bruce why he had never married Nat, and he had simply said it was too complicated.

“So, how is Marinette holding up?” Nat asked Adrien, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“She is overwhelmed I think.” he replied. “It’s a lot to have on your shoulders.”

Nat nodded and then shook her head.

“She reminds me of myself sometimes by how focused she gets.” she said. “Her sheer determination to succeed however is miles beyond anything I have ever seen in myself.”

Adrien nodded and was about to reply when a white portal suddenly appeared in the center of the room. Everyone present turned and immediately prepared to fight.

“Wait!” Adrien yelled stepping forward and holding up his hands. “It’s not an enemy!”

Lady Cottontail stepped out of the portal, a tablet in her hands. Everyone dropped their battle stances and looked on in confusion.

“Alright.” she said as the portal vanished. “I think I’m finally done. Tikki, Fluff, Divide.”

“You were Lady Cottontail?” Adrien asked stepping toward Marinette, Tikki and Fluff after they finished dividing. “Wait, does that mean you just traveled in time?”

She smiled at him and turned to look at everyone present in turn.

“Yes, and No.” Marinette answered. “With the Rabbit Miraculous I can create a pocket of time, like a burrow, and just remain in there for a while to work through my thoughts. And…”

She held up the tablet in her hands.

“Friday, please analyze and record all of these notes.” Marinette requested.

“Analyzing, twelve thousand six hundred and two pages.” The A.I.’s voice chimed.

“Wow that’s a lot of notes.” Bruce remarked. “Sound’s like a dissertation from hell. What is it?”

“Well, first I wrote down every interaction I had inside the soul stone, all of the one hundred and sixteen lives that were described to me by other Ladybugs. Every detail I was given, every facial expression the other mes had when telling the stories, all of it.” Marinette said with a tilt of her head. “And then I wrote down every major moment of my life for comparison. But to be honest I have no idea how I can recall it all so exactly, my memory has always been fairly average and I’m usually so scattered that I end up being pretty awful at remembering anything specific.”

Adrien vigorously nodded in agreement, which earned him a sly smile from Marinette. But it was true, her memory wasn’t terrible per se, but it definitely was not twelve thousand pages of perfect recollection good either.

“Your notes have been analyzed and recorded.” Friday stated.

“Thank you, Now, could you make a projection for me?” Marinette asked plopping down on the nearby sofa. She looked totally exhausted and Adrien wondered how long she had been in the portal. “If the decimation were to be reversed right now, and the energy levels that were lost during the event were returned, what would the current status of the universe be?”

“The universe would have seventy eight percent energy levels, and would remain unstable, likely continuing to collapse.”

Marinette nodded.

“Alright then. Scan the energy layers historical database and determine the change in total levels from whenever we Miraculous holders used our powers, or times Adrien and I experienced a burst. No matter how insignificant the amount. Could you then please predict the state of the energy layer if those same values had not been removed in those ways, starting at the decimation itself.”

“Calculating.” Friday explained.

“Marinette, What exactly are you trying to find?” Stark asked. Adrien could tell what Marinette was saying was making some sense to the inventor because he seemed very interested in what was being displayed on the screens around the room as Friday worked through the data.

“I’m just verifying my hypothesis.” Marinette replied. “But suffice to say, so far, it look’s like undoing the decimation with the infinity stones won’t help us much.”

“Projection complete.” Friday said after a moment. Everyone else in the room continued to remain quiet as they listened to Marinette work.

“And what is the projected energy level of the universe with both the Miraculous removed and the decimation reversed in a one for one manner?” Marinette asked, leaning back in the sofa and closing her eyes.

“The projection shows the universe having a stable one hundred percent energy level.” Friday replied.

“Son of a bitch.” Tony Stark said.

Chapter Text

Marinette watched as the discussion taking place in front of her grew into a debate. After she had explained that it would do no good to remove the Miraculous or kwami from the equation now, because the leak of energy was already too pronounced to stop, no one seemed to be able to come to a consensus on what the best course of action was.

Steve, Lang, Clint and Thor thought the best thing they could do was to use the infinity stones to bring all the vanished back, restoring what energy they could. And with that they would have more time to work the problem and also be able to be with their loved ones at the end if they couldn’t solve it. But Marinette was still unsure how fair that would be to the poor people being brought back.

Tony, Rhodes and Rocket, were all on board to try and evacuate as many people as they could into an alternate universe, the past, or some different realm. But Marinette figured that wouldn’t work either, as there would be no way to know how long until such a large influx of people would affect the energy levels of wherever they went as well. Not to mention the sheer amount of planets and peoples that existed in one universe… they would never be able to save them all.

Adrien was talking with Tikki, Plagg and Fluff to see if the kwami knew of any other possible options, but so far seemed to be coming up empty.

Nat had left the room and gone to look after Phillipa, and Bruce had taken to standing quietly, looking down at the gauntlet that Stark had designed, the six infinity stones all glistening in it’s knuckles.

Marinette wondered what was on Banner’s mind so she walked over and placed her hand on his arm. He looked down at her with thoughtful look.

“I’ve been thinking about what The Living Tribunal told you.” Bruce said. “What were the exact words he used about a single timeline surviving?”

Marinette closed her eyes and pictured the massive three faced being looming over her.

“In the end, I will only allow one of your universes to remain to become the new base timeline that which all others on this path will stem from.” she recited. Again, she was surprised her memory was so exact.

Bruce squinted and pursed his lips as he thought.

“Have you ever heard of the Big Bounce theory?” Bruce asked. After she shook her head, he continued. “It’s been hypothesized for years that a big crunch would happen to our universe someday, and when it did, a new big bang would stem outward from all of the condensed energies and create a new universe in it’s place.”

Marinette considered what he was saying. If that was really the case, then existence was a cycle of birth, death and rebirth, infinite and repeating. But the energy of the universe wasn’t being condensed, instead it was simply ebbing off to somewhere else.

“So, wait. Are you suggesting that the Living Tribunal wants us to correct the imbalance by causing a big crunch on purpose?” Marinette surmised.

Bruce nodded.

“The timeline itself would survive, just … not this particular cycle of it.” Bruce said, again looking down at the gauntlet. “Perhaps we are supposed to make sure there is enough energy left to ensure a new big bang will happen. We would need to cause the collapse early, because if we wait, with this energy leak our universe is experiencing, there may be nothing left to jump start a new cycle.”

Marinette looked back towards the others, all still locked in debate. She figured they would not want to hear this option as it meant that they would be giving up on their own lives, and all of their loved ones.

“How much energy do you think the universe would need to have to still pull off a new big bang?” Marinette asked.

Bruce scratched the back of his neck.

“I’d say at least more than fifty percent.” Bruce said. “But we are at twenty nine percent right now.”

“So we may actually have to bring back everyone who vanished first…” Marinette said somberly. “And then … use their energy to collapse the universe ourselves?”

She frowned. That was definitely not something she wanted to do. All of those who were already gone, they had not suffered in any way, or had they had a chance to experience fear or worry about the end. They were just gone. But to bring them back just to find themselves facing the end of the universe shortly after? It was an awful prospect and she wondered if it made them any better than Thanos for considering it. Could they really sacrifice all life now to save all life that would come later?

Marinette could tell that Bruce seemed to be weighing the same issue in his own mind.

However, before she could say anything more, the building shook slightly. Everyone seemed to take notice and looked around questioningly.

“Friday! Activate Barn Door Protocol!” Tony Stark yelled, drawing Marinette’s attention. She saw that he was peering up through one of the skylights above him, his Nanite Iron Man suit already forming over his body.

Around the room, large metal blast doors began to slide into place over all of the windows and entryways. Then there was then a series of distant explosions that were followed quickly by closer ones.

Before Marinette could call out to Tikki or Fluff, she felt herself being thrown across the room by the force of a blast directly off to her right.

Natasha had watched as all of the windows and doors in the nursery were covered by emergency bulkheads. Her combat training kicked in and she immediately scooped Phillipa up and dove to slide under a nearby table. They got into cover just as the room around them started to be rocked by large explosions that moved through compound. Thankfully she could tell that the large bulkheads that had moved into place at the last moment were keeping it all from completely falling in on her and her child. She had to admit, Stark really did know how to be prepared, and it had likely saved their lives. However, she knew that whatever was happening was likely not over.

She had to get Phillipa away from here.

When the explosions ceased and everything had settled, she began to crawl out of the wreckage, Phillipa still cradled in her right arm. Surprisingly the toddler was not crying or panicking, but instead silently looking around them in wonder.

“That’s it.” Nat said to her. “Everything is fine. Just hold onto mommy.”

She wished she could feel as calm as her child right now, but her heart was racing. She didn’t know the status of any of the team, or where they were. What if they were all buried under the rubble, what if they were dead?

“Can anyone read me?” she said as she pressed her finger to her earbud as she got to the top of the rubble where she felt the signal would penetrate better.

“Nat! Are you and Phillipa alright?” Bruce’s voice came forth from the static.

“We are fine.” Natasha said as she stepped out from the edge of the building and then looked up. She swallowed hard at what she saw.

Hovering above the compound was a very large spacecraft, the same one that they had detected in space before their fight in Wakanda five years earlier. It was Thanos’ battle cruiser.

She watched as a beam of light came forth from the front of the large vessel and deposited ten of the same snarling beasts they had fought in Wakanda.

Nat quickly ducked back into the rubble to hide. She couldn’t properly fight these beasts while holding her child, and she wouldn’t abandon her here either.

“Actually, I take that back.” Nat said to amend her previous statement. “I’m going to need some backup. We’ve got hostiles here.”

“I’m on my way to you.” Bruce’s voice crackled forth again, the signal weak.

She peeked around the rubble again, and saw the creatures were all gone now. She looked around and couldn’t make out where they had gotten too. Then she heard a raspy breathing from above her and a bit of slimy saliva fell to the ground in front of her.

“Shit.” she said looking up to see that one of the beasts was looking down at her, its massive teeth parting. It slowly spread out its four arms to prepare to leap at them. She prepared to dive out of the way of the impending attack, but before she could, a long extended baton passed her sight and belted the creature hard enough to send it flying.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” Chat Noir said as he landed beside her, his baton shrinking down to bo staff size.

Nat sighed in relief.

“Where is Marinette?” She asked looking around.

Chat Noir looked at her with a quick glance and then looked away again toward the beast who was recovering from the attack.

“I don’t know.” he replied. “This was all I could find.”

With his free hand he held up the rabbit Miraculous, but she could see that the pocket watch was now cracked down the middle, blood staining it’s surface.

It wasn’t a good sign at all. Nat glanced behind herself at the rubble.

“Where are you, Little One?”

Chapter Text

Marinette’s eye shot open.

She quickly glanced down at her right hand where she was feeling an unbearable amount of pain. There, she saw that her arm below her elbow was being held in place by a large pile of debris. She tried to pull herself free but let out a scream as the pain got worse.

“Marinette!” Tikki cried out flying over toward her.

“Tikki. Spots on.” Marinette said through gritted teeth. Hopefully Ladybug wouldn’t have any issue freeing herself.

She felt the transformation take her for less than a second and the pain faded, but then she felt her powers vanish once again and the pain returned.

She looked over to Tikki who seemed dazed after reappearing.

“Tikki, what’s wrong?” Marinette asked, again trying to shift her arm to free it. It wasn’t budging. “Why can’t we transform?”

Tikki shook her head and frowned.

“My true form is being ravaged by the collapse, and it’s throwing off my connection.” Tikki said as she slowly floated down to the ground to rest. “As far as I can tell, there’s only a few galaxies left in the universe, everything else is gone already. We are running out of time.”

Marinette caught a glimpse of movement off to her left. She noticed Clint was there shaking rubble off of himself as he sat up from where he had come to a rest after the explosions.

“Clint!” She called out.

Barton glanced over to her while he stood to his feet. As he quickly walked toward her he looked down and seemed to appraise something that was there. He bent over and picked up Stark’s Infinity Gauntlet, and then continued toward her.

“That doesn’t look so great.” he said as he knelt beside her and looked closely at her trapped arm.

Marinette shook her head to indicate it was definitely not good.

That’s when she heard the growling in front of them down a nearby passageway through the debris. Clint gave her a dire look and pulled out his bow, aiming it toward the snarling. He fired an arrow with a glowing tip and it illuminated the tunnel. There, crawling along the walls, were creatures of unearthly origin, slowly making their way toward them.

“You’re going to have to cut it off.” Marinette said flatly, not taking her eyes off the approaching beasts.

“What?” both Clint and Tikki said in unison.

Marinette glanced to Clint and then to her arm.

“You either cut it off or I get mauled!” she yelled looking up at him with tears in her eyes. “There’s no time, just do it!”

Clint quickly stood, drew his sword, and without any hesitation he brought it down hard on her arm at the closest point to the debris.

Marinette screamed at the pain, and forced her eyes shut.

“What the hell?” she heard Clint say and she reopened her eyes.

Her arm was still stuck, and there in two pieces now was Clint’s sword. It had broken on impact with her arm. The skin where he had sliced into her was indeed split and bleeding, but only so far in as a few centimeters, then below that was something else. Her muscle, her bones, it was all crystallized.

She gritted her teeth and looked back toward the creatures who had already cleared half the distance between them.

“Take the gauntlet and go!” she said to Clint as she tore off her burst regulator. “Get away from here!”

Clint nodded to her with a grim look and then scooped up the gauntlet to run in the opposite direction of the closing enemy.

Marinette grabbed the hilt of Clint’s broken sword which still had a fair amount of blade attached and held it up in front of her. She shifted herself as best as she could in her trapped position to be able to swing the weapon.

“Tikki, go dormant, I don’t want you to watch this.” Marinette said with a grimace at the thought of the pain she was about to feel. Regardless of her newfound partial indestructibility, her skin was still very much damageable and she could definitely feel it when it happened.

“I’m not leaving you.” Tikki said adamantly.

“I said go!” Marinette ordered. Tikki frowned but then entered her heart.

Marinette glanced down at her scars and could tell that the glow wasn’t bright enough yet. She looked back up at the closest beast that had slowed to a stalking crawl and was now approaching her with a toothy grin, it’s claws all extended to strike.

She squinted her eyes and breathed out slowly through her nose. She had to buy Barton time to get away. She saw that a few of the other creatures were now looking toward where Clint had gone so she banged her broken blade on the stone beside her and it made a loud clang. They all looked at her once again.

“Come and get it.” she said with a grin.

Clint couldn’t hear any of the beasts behind him and wondered why they were not giving chase. When he reached a dead end he looked up and saw that there was a large round passageway leading toward the surface. He pulled out his bow and fired a grappling arrow upward quickly attaching the other end to his belt so that it could lift him and leave his arms free to fight and hold the gauntlet.

Before he left the ground, in the distance he heard Marinette start to scream. He ground his teeth at the awful sound. Then he caught a glimpse of a few of the beasts as they came into view below him, beginning to climb when they reached the dead end.

“Damn you!” he yelled as he threw some of his daggers at the nearest beast, killing it instantly.

As he rode the wire to the top, a very bright light exploded from the tunnel below him and engulfed the remaining beasts as they tried to ascend. Something about the light caused them all to fall as if they had become unconscious. Barton himself had gotten just far enough away to not be touched by the light directly and upon reaching the top of his grapple line, rolled to safety.

He lay there for a moment breathing heavily. He regretted leaving Marinette behind, but he knew that she had been correct in telling him to go. The gauntlet was of paramount importance now, and these creatures seemed to be homing in on it somehow.

He heard footsteps beside him and began to prepare to fight, but when he saw Nebula walk up he relaxed and laid back again.

“Oh, hey, I know you.” he said as she reached down and took the gauntlet from him. He was glad to have the backup.

When Nebula straightened she touched her forehead.

“Father, I have the stones.” Nebula said while looking down at him, disdain on her face.

Clint felt a pit in his stomach.

“What?” he asked.

She placed her foot on his chest to prevent him from sitting up and pulled out her weapon and aimed it at him. He gritted his teeth.

“Hey, Blue!” Clint heard Rocket’s voice come from behind Nebula, drawing her attention.

Clint glanced over and saw Rocket as he emerged from around the corner. The raccoon was wearing a black coat and sunglasses, and his fur also seemed to be a different color than usual.

“Somethin’ tells me you ain’t our Nebula.” Rocket said with a snarl and then struck a combat pose, holding what looked to be two boomerangs in his paws.

“Your Nebula is a traitor.” she said, now aiming her weapon at Rocket. “She’s aboard my father’s ship, where she can’t do any more harm to his destiny.”

“Well, then I’m going to have to ask you to drop the gauntlet.” Rocket demanded.

Clint took the opportunity while nebula was distracted to pull out one of his explosive arrow tips and glanced to Rocket.

Rocket noticed his intention and tossed his boomerang, jumping out of the way of Nebula’s first shot. Clint watched as the boomerang hit the hand Nebula was holding the gauntlet with and it fell to the ground. He quickly jammed the arrowhead into Nebula’s leg that was still pressed down on him and twisted his weight to push her down the shaft he had just come from.

He heard her scream as she fell, followed by an explosion which silenced her.

Clint stood to his feet and glanced down at Rocket.

“What the hell is happening?” Barton asked.

“If I would have to guess, it seems that our Nebula got captured in the past on Morag, and the Thanos there came forward. Big ol’ ship out there.” Rocket replied as Clint picked the gauntlet back up.

“Is everyone else alright?” Clint asked.

“I just came from Nat, she had Chat Noir take Phillipa to safety.” Rocket said. “Haven’t seen anyone else. You?”

Clint frowned.

“Marinette was with me…down there” He said motioning downward. “She was trapped though, and she told me to leave her to get the gauntlet out.”

He and Rocket glanced down the hole that Nebula had just exploded in. It was all collapsed now and there appeared to be no way to get back down.

“I’ll find her. You get the gauntlet to the others.” Rocket said and then made a motion with his arms. “Voyage!”

Clint watched with fascination as a portal appeared in front of Rocket and the raccoon stepped through it. Then the portal vanished.

Barton shook his head as he broke into a sprint down a nearby passage through the debris.

“I leave for a few years and everything gets all weird.”

Chapter Text

When she entered her dream state, Marinette found herself relieved at the fact the pain she had been feeling was left behind in the real world. She figured that waking up however, that was going to suck.

She glanced around her and wondered where she was this time. She had not had a burst dream since she met the others in the Multitude, and she wondered if she would see anyone she had met there this time around.

Currently she was sitting on a park bench in Paris, fairly close to the bakery. Or… strangely, it seemed she was actually somehow close to everything. All of the buildings around her seemed to be shuffled about, in places they shouldn’t have been.

The bakery was now directly beside her school, and both were across from the Seine river, with the Notre-Dame across from that. It was as if someone had taken Paris and jumbled it all up, putting things where they didn’t quite belong.

“Is this seat taken?” a woman’s voice came from beside her. She glanced to her side to find an elder version of herself looking at her with a smile on her face.

“Please.” Marinette said, motioning to the bench.

Marinette found it odd that this dream was allowing her other self to talk to her, as it had never seemingly been possible before. Even odder was that The Elder seemed as if she had been expecting her.

“You likely have a lot of questions.” The Elder said as she sat. “But please, our time here will be short, so I’m going to have to ask you to simply listen.”

Marinette fought the urge to say anything, as being told to not ask questions had made her want to ask even more questions. Like how exactly The Elder knew how much time they even had.

“First, I want to let you know that you are not actually dreaming a burst dream right now, not really.” she explained.

Marinette looked around at the world around her. It all definitely seemed like a dream, so what was it if it wasn’t one?

“Think of this more as an illusion, but one inside your mind. I am using a unified Trixx and Fluff to send this illusion to you from the future.” the Elder said, holding up her arm to motion to nothing in particular.

Marinette’s eyes went wide. If The Elder was using Fluff to utilize magical time travel, such travel that could not jump into different timelines, that meant… the Elder was actually her. She hadn’t seen The Elder in the Multitude, because she was going to someday be her.

Her older self smiled at her and nodded to let her know she was correct in her current thinking.

“I remember sitting where you are now, experiencing this day as you.” she told her with a soft comforting smile. “It’s as if it was yesterday, even though it’s been a quite a long while since then. Most of all though, I remember what had just happened to you, there in that rubble.”

Marinette frowned and swallowed hard. It had taken much longer to activate her burst than she would have liked. And it had been long enough for many of the creatures looming over her to strike at her and tear at her skin many times. She had fought hard, killing a few, but there had just been too many.

Her burst had come just as she was about to pass out from the pain of it all.

“But I came to you now, to tell you that you should not give up, your journey may still be far from over. And while many more hardships may indeed lay ahead, you need to keep fighting.” The Elder said placing her hand on hers. “While I know my past and see it clearly in my mind, you should know that your future is actually unwritten, as time is fluid and always changing. I may not even exist after today, depending on what you choose to do. But I have faith in you.”

The Elder chuckled.

“That seems a bit self serving doesn’t it?” she continued with a grin. “But I suppose trusting in ourself is an important lesson we have always needed to learn.”

Marinette furrowed her brow and looked down at her feet.

“I know. You still feel like you are not strong enough, important enough.” the old woman said. “But, while I can’t tell you outright what is about to happen, I can tell you this. You are enough.”

Marinette looked up at her older self and opened her mouth to ask a question, but then stopped.

“Why come if I can’t tell you the future?” The Elder asked, as if reading her mind. “Actually, I’ve come to tell you something that happened in your past. Something you are unaware of, but need to know.”

The Elder gripped her hand in hers and held them both up to Marinette’s chest, directly over her heart.

“You have been given a gift by The Living Tribunal.” The Elder said. “The power he has placed inside of you. It’s a new Infinity Stone.”

Marinette’s eyes went wide and she looked to the older woman.

“This new stone is made from the remnants of three which Thanos destroyed, reformed into one. You now possess the powers of space, reality and mind. All which are controlled by that which we know as creation.” she told her and then looked up at someone walking toward them. The image of the approaching person was blurry and out of focus. “As for the other three lost stones; time, power and soul.”

Marinette watched as the blurry image cleared and an elderly man stepped into place before them.

“Hello bugaboo.” the old man said with a sly grin.

Marinette’s mouth dropped. Was this old man, Adrien?

“The Living Tribunal was a real cheeky fella with those cryptic words of his.” the older Adrien said. “When he said that the energy connected to your heart would be the vessel for his will… he really meant it.”

She watched as Adrien pointed to a spot behind his back.

“Soulmates.” Adrien said with a smile. “Always connected to each others heart. Forever and always.”

The older Adrien looked down at his own Marinette and winked at her. Marinette couldn’t help but notice that her older self still blushed at his flirtation, even now. This caused her to smile, to know their love could persist so long, and even seem exciting still at such an age.

“The Infinity Stone of Destruction.” The Elder said pointing toward Adrien’s heart. “Together, with creation and destruction, you have the means to both collapse and restore the universe. Our very own Ultimate Wish.”

Marinette closed her eyes and breathed out. Bruce had been right. The Living Tribunals goal was to reset everything. Everyone she knew, this entire timeline, no, all of the other Ladybugs and every connected timeline too, they would all be lost.

But that made no sense, because if that was truly how it all was to play out, then her future self could not be here. Unless she and Adrien, because of the role they would play, would be allowed to survive? Marinette wasn’t sure if she could accept that.

“It’s up to you to figure out what to do with the power you now know resides within you.” The Elder said standing to her feet with her Adrien’s help. “But there is one last thing you should know.”

Marinette looked up at her future self and raised an eyebrow.

“There is still not enough energy left in the universe to enact your plan.” she explained as she turned and balanced on her cane. “So something will need to be done about that first.”

The illusion around her began to fade as buildings blurred out of existence.

“Goodbye, Marinette.” The Elder said with a nod. “And good luck.”

“Bye bye, beautiful.” Adrien said to Marinette and then turned to his aged love. “You you know Mi’lady, It’s almost enough to make me jealous of my younger self…”

Marinette smiled to herself with a shake of her head. It was good to know he would always be her silly Chaton.

And then the illusion was gone, the pain returning in its absence.

Thanos looked up from where he sat amid the rubble and smiled. Three of the Avengers were walking toward him, appearing prepared to fight. They still seemed capable, even after having survived the explosions that wracked the compound. It was impressive, even for such insignificant beings.

He glanced around as he stood to greet them. There had been no sign of Nebula since she had communicated that she had found the stones, but it was only a matter of time, he was sure. And if she failed, he had other plans he could set into motion. For now though, it was time to put these fools in their place.

“I should thank you.” Thanos said. “If it were not for you, I would not be able to correct a mistake that I was destined to make.”

None of the approaching Avengers said anything to him, so he shook his head.

“I thought by eliminating half of all life. The other half would thrive.” He said as he put on his helmet to prepare for the fight that was likely about to start. “But you’ve shown me, that I miscalculated. No one will survive what I have put into motion.”

“So why are you here then?” Stark asked. “Are you just all kinds of stubborn?”

“I’m here because I know now what I must do. I will take the stones you have collected for me...” Thanos explained and then kicked the Miracle Box he had been sitting on to draw their attention to it. “...and with these Miraculous, return to a time where enough energy exists so that I can shred this universe to it’s last atom. I will simply start anew, creating a universe of my own design. One without those of you who struggle, those of you who can’t leave well enough alone.”

Nebula had already used her cybernetics to unlock the box for him, bypassing the terran’s puny security defenses. So now all he needed to do was get the stones, and locate the one Miraculous that would allow him to travel through time within the same timeline. But that appeared to be missing from the box and was likely still in the possession of the one named Marinette.

The future version of his Daughter had been a great source of information indeed. And with the knowledge he now possessed, there was little these Avengers could do to stop him.

He watched as the three ‘heroes’ before him exchanged glances, and then Thor’s axe and hammer both became electrified.

“Whatever you make, it will be born out of blood.” Steve said, holding his shield at the ready.

“And yet, no one there will ever know.” Thanos said with a grin. “Because you won’t be alive to tell them.”

Thanos hoisted his large blade as Thor yelled in anger, and then the three Avengers all attacked him at once.

If it was a fight they wanted, it was a fight they would get.

Chapter Text

Lang peered over the edge of the rubble and down toward where Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Thanos were locked in a battle.

“We should get down there and help.” Scott said turning to face Natasha, Bruce, Rhodes and Barton who were all standing around the gauntlet containing the infinity stones.

He was surprised when the Director shook her head.

“We need to think about this on a larger scale than just that one battle.” Nat said and then looked up at the large ship looming over them. “It won’t be long until Thanos unleashes anything and everything he’s got in that ship of his so he can get these stones.”

“What we need to do is get these stones as far from here as possible.” Barton said. “If they are what he wants, we need to make them harder for him to find.”

“No. Thanos is distracted right now, and we have an advantage.” Bruce said. “We need to use the stones, bring everyone back to… restore our full fighting force.”

Lang noticed that Banner had lingered on why he was suggesting they snap everyone back, almost as if he was considering something else instead. It was true that Scott was still new to working with this group, but he could tell a misdirect when he saw one. His time as a thief had taught him similar tactics and he wondered what Banner was up to.

“What we need to do is take out that ship.” Nat said pointedly. “Do we have anything at all that’s capable of that?”

A tiny plopping sound came from behind Scott and everyone looked over to find Chat Noir walking towards them with a grin on his face.

“I could do it.” Chat said, holding up a single paw. “I just need to get close enough to touch it.”

Scott raised an eyebrow and wondered how exactly the cat hero thought that he could pull off such a feat alone.

“I could get you up there.” Rhodes said stepping forward in his War Machine armor. “But I can guarantee you they will see us coming a mile away.”

Lang looked out over the devastated compound and mulled over the possibilities.

“I could give you a distraction.” he said. “But It will leave me pretty open as a target.”

Just then, a large series of lightning blasts struck down upon where Thanos was being fought. Everyone looked over and saw that Cap was now wielding Thor’s hammer and calling down it’s power upon their foe.

“Wow.” Barton said. “Doesn’t that make him a king or something?”

Scott winced as he watched Thanos throw Rogers to the ground, the Hammer slipping from his grasp. Even with the extra firepower that the hammer had given Cap, it seemed the fight was still going badly.

“Focus people.” Nat said, pulling a single pistol from her leg holster. “Lang, get ready with that distraction. Chat, Rhodes, take the long way round through the cover of the forest. Make it look like you are fleeing and cut back when I give the signal. Bruce, Clint and I will keep these stones safe.”

Everyone nodded, but before they could all move off to enact the plan, a voice came from their right and they all turned and raised their weapons at it’s source.

“Attack the ship from the aft side.” Nebula said coming into view, another woman walking beside her.

“Nebula?” Clint asked. “Is that really you this time?”

Lang saw Nat and Clint exchange a glance, an unspoken question being asked.

“Yes.” Nebula replied. “My sister was able to free me. And we disabled the sensors on the aft side of the ship to hide our escape.”

Clint lowered his bow and everyone else followed suit by lowering there weapons as well.

“You must be Gamora.” Nat said, nodding to the green skinned newcomer.

Lang couldn’t help but notice that Gamora's eyes went to the gauntlet on the ground first and then up to Nat when the woman nodded in response. He wondered to himself if they could they trust her.

A series of loud clangs could be heard from the fight below and Lang looked over to see Cap’s shield being struck over and over by Thanos large sword. The shield actually started to break under the force of the blows and Rogers was losing his footing.

“We are out of time.” Nat said. “Rhodes, Chat, go aft. Lang, you are up.”

Scott nodded and breathed in.

It was time to be a hero.

Steve Rogers landed hard and rolled along the ground until he came to a stop.

He tried to get up, but his strength was almost completely gone. The fight with Thanos had not gone well. He, Tony and Thor had all been bested by the mad Titan. Steve had been the last to fall, even after he had lifted Thor’s hammer and used it vigorously in the fight. None of it had been enough though. Tony and Thor were both unconscious somewhere off to his left, and he didn’t know where anyone else was. For all he knew they were all still buried in the rubble.

Steve lay now on the ground, his arm and shield both broken by the sheer strength of the blows from Thanos and his massive two ended blade. But Steve was not about to give up, especially not with the entirety of existence being on the line. If Thanos was allowed to reach the stones and snap his fingers again, then it would truly be over.

So he forced himself to sit up, to prepare for the next bout.

“In all my years of conquest…violence...slaughter...” Thanos said to him from not too far away. He actually seemed to be patiently waiting for Steve to regain his footing. “It was never pers-.”

Steve felt a rumble beneath his feet, and Thanos also took notice, stopping his speech mid word.

From beneath the rubble behind them burst forth a flying Marinette, floating above the ground in much the same way Vision always had. She had a glowing aura of light around her and a large set of wings made of that same light extending from her back.

“Ah.” Thanos said with an almost knowing nod. “I was wondering when you would show yourself.”

Marinette floated down and landed beside Steve, the light fading from her as she returned to looking like her normal self. She wasn't in her Ladybug form, yet she was using powers, and he couldn’t help but notice that the scars she had carried for the last five years were gone.

She smiled at Steve as she reached over and touched his arm, the pain he felt everywhere fading. She had healed him somehow.

“Thank you.” Steve said, unsure what else to say. The look on Marinette’s face seemed almost sad, even through the smile she had given him. Something in her eyes said that she was about to do something she would regret.

“Please...don’t thank me.” She replied. He had no idea what to make of how she was acting.

But before Steve could said anything more to her, a large pillar of blue light came down from the battle cruiser behind Thanos, depositing a large group of the mad Titans warriors. The same warriors they had fought in Wakanda. It seemed that Thanos was done fighting alone. Perhaps Marinette's presence had finally made the enemy consider sending in reinforcements.

Then, from somewhere behind them, a large piece of debris flew over their heads towards Thanos’ ship, smashing into it’s side. Steve glanced behind himself to see Giant Man hoisting up another cluster of rubble to throw. It seemed that someone else had survived after all.

“If you truly wish to drag this out. So be it.” Thanos said as two large tooth shaped drop ships detached from his ship and crashed to the ground behind him. “What we are about to do to this this stubborn little planet, I’m going to enjoy it.”

Steve ground his teeth together and tightened the strap that held what remained of his shield to his arm, preparing to fight again.

“Thanos.” Marinette said stepping forward. The Titan gave her a dubious look as he looked down at her. “Once upon a time, I was a normal girl, with a normal life. But then you took that from me with a snap of your fingers. You changed everything, and set me on a path toward this very moment. And now that we are here, there is something about me that you should know.”

Thanos hoisted his sword onto his shoulder.

“I already know everything there is to know about you.” he said with a wave of his hand.

“Oh really?” she replied, almost seeming amused.

Steve then watched as she raised her arm and a blue glow came forth from it. The glow extended out and surrounded Thanos, lifting him off the ground. The Titan seemed surprised, and as his armor began to crack and be crushed, he grunted under the force of it.

“The one thing about me that no one knows yet, my secret.” Marinette continued. “Is that I am to be the end of everything. And I’m starting with you.”

Steve squinted as he watched Thanos struggle in the air against her attack. What exactly did she mean by that?

“Rain… Fire.” Steve then heard Thanos mumble.

Chapter Text

Chat Noir clung to the back of War Machine as they gained altitude and approached the Battle Cruiser from it’s aft. When they were within fifty meters of the ship, he noticed that it had begun to fire it’s energy weapons at the ground near where the other’s had been fighting Thanos. Hopefully they weren’t too late.

“Cataclysm!” Chat yelled, lifting his clawed hand in front of him. The black dusty particles began to fall from his open palm and as War Machine turned to pass along the side of the massive vessel, Chat dragged his hand along it leaving a trail of decay and cracks in it’s wake.

The cruisers guns stopped after a moment and it shifted as it’s engines failed one after the next. Having done their job, Chat and War Machine pulled away and headed back towards the ground.

“Looks like that’s done it!” Rhodes said. “Good job!”

Chat looked over his shoulder and watched as the ship crashed into the large body of water nearby, a large wave rippling out in all directions. He hoped that the larger portion of enemy forces had still been on board at the time so that they wouldn’t have too many to fight in the aftermath. However, the idea that he may have just killed so many, even if they were enemies, weighed on him.

“Let’s get back.” Chat said, pointing toward where they had last seen Nat and the others.

Rhodes shifted their flight path again and soon they were flying over the battlefield from before. All over the ground below them were hundreds of the same snarling beasts from earlier, a few larger beasts that looked like large gorillas mixed into the bunch.

A large number of smoking craters were present here and there, likely the targets that had been hit by the energy beams from the ship above before it had been downed. The dust and smoke from the impact points was making it hard to see the entire battlefield.

Still, up ahead he could see Thor, Iron Man, Giant Man, Bruce, Clint, Nat, Nebula and Gamora all fighting the horde back as they held a spot near where the compound had been. He peered around, trying to locate Thanos, or any sign of Marinette who had been missing since the initial attack. As he scanned the perimeter of the area, there off to the left away from the main bulk of the battle, Chat could see that Cap was locked in a fight with thee varied alien opponents and looked like he was having a bit of trouble all alone.

Without a word to War Machine, Chat spun his baton above his head and leapt from the armored heroes back. Using his spinning weapon to slow his own fall, he landed next to Cap, surprising the horned female opponent that was about to strike Roger’s in the back. With a swing and quick extension of his baton, he knocked her onto her back.

“Looks like you could use a hand!” Chat said as he swung his baton again, this time at the large hulking opponent wielding a massive hammer.

Roger’s didn’t reply vocally as much as he acknowledged Chat’s presence by rolling over the black cats back so that he could use the momentum to launch a kick at the goblin looking enemy on the other side.

Suddenly, Chat felt himself begin to float involuntarily. Glancing to his left, he saw that a new opponent had approached their brawl and was using some kind of magic or mental power to simply will Chat Noir into the air.

“Woah, If this is mind over matter, then that means you think I matter, right?” Chat said with a grin, all while swinging his feet in the air to no avail. He quickly extended his baton so that he could use it to touch the ground and at least orient himself upright.

“Be warned, child.” the enemy that was now lifting him said. “We, the children of Thanos have no love for humor. It is reason enough to hasten your death at our hands.”

Chat watched as the hulking brute with the hammer steadied his weapon to swing it at Chat who was now perched like a golf ball upon a tee. This was not going to be pleasant.

The hammer, swung with full force, suddenly stopped just before it hit Chat directly in the chest, a blue glow now present around it. Chat looked to his left and saw Marinette holding her hand up which was also glowing blue.

“Marinette!” Chat yelled. “How-”

Before he could finish, Marinette threw her arm aside and Chat watched as the hammer slammed back into the brute with full force, turning his head completely around, killing him. Chat’s eyes went wide. Since when did Marinette have telekinesis powers, and when had she become so brutal in her actions that she was okay with outright killing an enemy?

Chat fell to the ground as he felt the force holding him aloft suddenly vanish. He quickly climbed to his feet and watched as Marinette floated up into the air where she then waved her hand at the enemy who had been using his powers to lift Chat. The alien screamed in horror as he simply turned into what appeared to be glass and then shattered into a thousand pieces.

The horned woman and the goblin man both looked at each other and began to run away, but Marinette didn’t let them get far. She had raised her hand again and lifted them into the air with such ease that it was as if she was raising nothing at all.

“Marinette!” Rogers yelled. “Stop! They are fleeing, you don’t need to-”

Chat watched in horror as Marinette ignored Cap’s plea. The two helpless opponents rocketed into the ground with so much force that there was a horrible crunching sound, likely breaking every bone in their bodies in an instant.

Chat quickly ran over to where Marinette was floating and looked up at her.

“Marinette!” he called out. “What is wrong? Why are you acting this way? This isn’t like you at all!”

She slowly looked down at him, a frown on her face. He could see now that she was crying.

“I don’t want to do this.” she replied. “But they are the ones who did this to me.”

“What do you mean?” he asked as he watched her float down to land in front of him.

Chat could see Rogers peering at Marinette from behind her at about ten paces, a worried look on his face. Clearly her actions had not sat well with the Avenger, and Chat couldn’t blame him for being wary. Chat didn’t know what was going on, but he knew his Marinette, and he would give her the chance to explain before jumping to any conclusions.

“The Living Tribunal” she said, the look in her eyes seeming distant. “He wants me to reset the universe. He wants me to … erase everyone…”

Chat felt his stomach drop.

“Why would he want that?” Chat asked. “Were you not meant to correct the imbalance?”

Marinette looked down at her feet.

“That is how I am meant to correct it.” she explained through tears. “I am to collapse the universe, and use the remaining energy to rebuild a new one.”

Chat glanced over to Rogers who had stepped closer. The man seemed to be contemplating what he was hearing.

Marinette shook her head and all but growled.

“I’m just so angry…” she said gritting her teeth. “Thanos, his children, all of them. They brought us to this point. They caused the situation that made this my destiny. I hate them, I hate them for making me hate myself!”

Chat cautiously raised his arms and took her into an embrace. She was his love, and he knew that normally she wouldn’t ever hurt him, but he had never seen her this way before. She was being overwhelmed by her apparent ordained duty, and her emotions were all over the place, so there was caution to be had.

“It’s alright to hate those who have hurt you.” Chat said hugging her tightly. “But you shouldn’t let that hate consume you, to change who you are at the core. Not you, my love. You are the embodiment of all things creation. You are beauty, and love, and all good things we each aspire to be. I’m here with you, and together we will find another way.”

Marinette shook her head against his chest.

“You are destined to do this with me.” she said, sobbing fully now. “I don’t want it to be true, but it is. You and I are to wipe everyone we love from existence. The power has been placed inside us, and it’s already been set in motion.”

Chat felt as if the blood had drained from his body.

“The six stones that Thanos destroyed...they have reformed inside us as two new ones.” she explained, pulling back from him. “I carry the stone of creation, and you have the stone of destruction. We are to use them to destroy and then rebuild the universe. An Ultimate Power wish with a cost that is so obvious that it’s impossible to ignore.”

“So. You are supposed to do the exact thing we are fighting to keep Thanos from doing?” Chat heard Rogers ask. “After all of this effort to save the universe, the planning, the time heist... We are just expected to give up and let it go?”

The sound of Iron Man’s propulsors came from behind them and the armored hero could be heard landing with a thud.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” Stark said after his helmet opened. “I will do what I must to protect my family.”

Marinette looked over toward Iron Man.

“Either we destroy the universe now and have a chance to build a new one, or it simply collapses on it’s own and no life returns to this timeline, ever.” Marinette said. “These are the two options set before us. I posses the powers of the mind stone now and I have run the calculations hundreds of times. There are no other options.”

Stark looked to Rogers and then shook his head.

“No. That doesn’t work for me.” Tony said, his helmet reforming. He then raised his hands as if to prepare to fight. “I’m afraid I am going to have to ask you to call your master here. So we can have a talk with him.”

Chat moved in front of Marinette and raised his hands into a combat stance. He didn’t want to fight Stark, but no one threatened his love. Not to mention the fact that it was clear that Marinette was not keen on all of this herself, so him attacking her seemed a bit misguided.

“The Living Tribunal isn’t our master, he simply is the one who told us what we have to do.” she said. “Trust me, I don’t like this any more than you do.”

“Well, if he doesn’t want his grand plan ruined…” Stark said as four floating beam arrays parted from his suits back, all taking up position to aim at Chat Noir and Marinette. “He will come here and speak to us, before I destroy his precious stone carriers and put a stop to it myself.”

Chat then felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

“I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen, Stark.” a familiar rasping voice said from Chat’s right.

Everyone present glanced toward the newcomer.

“But you can speak to me if you wish.” Lady Death said with a toothy grin.

Chapter Text

Marinette’s mind was racing. She almost couldn’t see past all of the information streaming in front of her eyes now. When she had awoken from the illusion created by her future self, she had decided to try and tap into the power of the three stones inside her, and she was starting to wonder if that had been a mistake.

The mind stones power, it was almost too much for her human mind to comprehend. She could see calculations, predictions, and every minutia of knowledge about anything she looked at, and it was all becoming a noise that spilled into her own mind which was unable to keep up with it. But at very least, she now knew how she had been able to recollect her own memories of her time in the Multitude so easily, because she literally had a universally powered computer processor within her.

Then there was the space stone. It made her feel connected with everything around her, as if there was no distance between them. She could manipulate that distance, the speeds, anything within that space.

And of course, the reality stones power was most terrifying to her. She could almost feel the energy and matter that made up all reality around her, as if it was all talking to her, all able to be coerced into being something else at her whim. This kind of power, it made her feel tiny and yet beyond everything at the same time.

She struggled now to keep herself grounded, to remain as who she was.

Marinette. I am Marinette!

She kept repeating that thought in her own mind, over and over, as if to keep herself from being lost in the sheer hurricane of power that was now within her mind and body. Unfortunately, in the process of fighting to keep her sanity, her own self, she hadn’t realized that she had become angry, lashing out at those who had wronged her.

Chat Noir’s voice had pulled her back into her own thoughts. Her love, her balance. There he was, standing below her as she floated. He seemed worried about her, no, she knew he was.

She could see his pulse rate, his pupils changing sizes, every single facial muscle movement, and they all indicated worry. She could even swear that for a moment she heard his thoughts, but the noise of everything around her, it made it impossible to discern. But she found then that if she stopped concentrating on it all, it would almost become like a background haze that she could look past to see the world around her like she had been able to before. It was a strange battle inside herself, to concentrate on not concentrating.

As her vision steadied, she could see that Stark and Rogers were there, looking at her with the same trepidation that Chat was. She had known she had been speaking moments before, but it was hard to determine what exactly she had been saying. It was almost as if she had been acting on impulse, moving, speaking, without as much as a thought. Even the tears on her face seemed foreign to her, as while she knew she was sad about something, she didn't know what.

Iron Man had activated his suits energy weapons and aimed them at her. In a split second she calculated the exact yield he would be able to produce and bring to bear against her. It was indeed of an amount capable of destroying her, even in her current powered state. But she could tell he was bluffing, or at the very least unsure of his own actions, the variations in the tone of his voice giving it all away.

She forced her mind again to fight against the computer like need to analyze everything, to focus on the moment.

“I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen, Stark.” Lady Death said. “But you can speak to me if you wish.”

When Marinette looked over at Death herself, she didn’t see the bony form that she was expecting. Instead, she saw a physical structure representing the calculation of conservation of energy and matter, embodied in a being of immense power. Death was an intricate machine, built for purpose, to funnel and control the distribution of matter, to be reused elsewhere wherever it was needed. These calculation all blended together into the form of what could only be described as an angel, one made of both light and shadow.

“You’re beautiful.” Marinette found herself saying.

Lady Death seemed surprised by her statement and then looked down at her own hands.

“No one has ever seen my true form before.” the immortal being said. “So therefore, neither have I. Not until this very moment.”

The calculations inside Lady Death changed and shifted slightly as a smile formed on her glorious face. It all indicated that she was actually happy, likely for the first time ever in her existence.

“Thank you.” Lady Death said stepping forward.

“Alright… Not to break up this very strange moment...” Iron Man said hesitantly. “But, Grateful Dead, yeah, you. Why are you here exactly?”

Lady Death seemed perturbed by the nickname Stark had chosen and turned to face the Avenger who had interrupted the moment.

“I have come to make sure that the Living Tribunal’s plan is not be hindered by one such as you.” she replied. “It is my duty to ensure it’s success, for the sake of this universes survival.”

Marinette squinted. Lady Death had attempted to kill Chat on Vormir. Why was she acting so differently now? If she had killed him then, the plan would have failed. So maybe it had been a fake out... Or perhaps it was becase they had been in an offshoot timeline at the time and it had been a different Lady Death.

There really was no way to know without more information.

“You are all for the universes survival.” Iron Man said in retort. “But not everyone who lives in it.”

Lady Death shook her head at him.

“I would say that was a very selfish position to take.” Death replied. “But I understand you fear not for yourself, instead you wish to save your wife, even more so, your child. A feeling I understand all too well myself as I too fear for the continuation of my children.”

“You... have children?” Rogers asked, almost seeming like he was fearful to pry into Death’s personal life.

Lady Death slowly walked, and/or floated, over toward Chat Noir who suddenly became tense and stood up straight to face her.

“Come out my child.” she said with a wave of her angelic hand.

Chat Noir’s suit faded from him as he became Adrien once more, and then Plagg appeared.

“Hello, little one.” Lady Death said, holding her hand up for Plagg to land upon.

“Mother?” Plagg asked as he slowly landed on her palm.

“Yes child. I am she.” Lady Death replied and then looked over toward Stark. “You see, we created the infinity stones to balance the universe. While doing so we also birthed our own children, the kwami. And now, with the universe collapsing, I, and my Children, are also in threat of ceasing to be if things continue on without correction.”

“You will be erased as well?” Adrien asked. “What about all of the other universes? Won’t death still be needed there?”

“I am but one among infinity, such as yourselves. The only difference between you and I is that if the universe is reborn, I will remain and remember this previous existence.” Lady Death explained holding up Plagg and kissing him on the cheek.” And my children will be as newborns again.”

“So, that is why you are all for the universal reboot plan.” Stark said, clearly still against the idea. “You have nothing to lose from it.”

“If you truly knew the scope of the damage such imbalanced universes could do to those around them…” Lady Death began to say, but then simply shook her head instead of continuing.

“Then explain it to me.” Stark demanded, finally lowering his arms and putting his floating energy arrays away. He even lowered his helmet so that he could look at Death directly, clearly wanting her to know he was serious. Or perhaps it was it desperation? Marinette fought the urge to simply calculate his current state.

Lady Death peered at Marinette.

He knows not. But you do.

Marinette jerked her head at the intrusion in her mind.

You can see it, can’t you. The breaks at the seams where this universe connects to all others, every realm, every dimension. This broken universe, it burns them all like an infection, threatening to spread.

“Get out of my mind!” Marinette yelled, shaking her head. “It’s already too loud without you in there!”

Adrien, Rogers and Stark all seemed startled by her sudden outburst.

“I don’t know what I am seeing.” Marinette said in frustration, grabbing her head and bending down into a squat. “It’s too much!”

“The mind stone can be overwhelming, indeed.” Lady Death said. “It was not meant for mortal minds. But soon you will not be mortal any longer. So you will adapt.”

Marinette’s eyes shot open and she looked up at the woman before her. What did she mean by that? The look on Lady Deaths face showed that she knew she had piqued Marinette’s curiosity.

“Rebuilding a universe will take a lot of time.” Lady Death said. “Would be a shame if those who were doing the work died of old age. It’s a gift you and Adrien should feel lucky to have.”

Marinette slowly looked to Adrien and she could see pain in his eyes as he clearly realized he too would survive when no one else would. She shook her head again, becoming more overwhelmed than she had already been a moment before.

“Lucky? To be cursed with knowing that I will get to live forever?” She yelled. “I don’t want it! What I want is to save everyone!”

“Save everyone…?” Lady Death asked and then glanced to Adrien. “That’s not your job, Marinette.”

Marinette stopped shaking her head and peered at Lady Death again. The grin on the beings angelic face seemed to suggest she knew something Marinette didn’t.

Marinette glanced to Adrien. Her vision turned black and white and his body flashed with pink spots before returning to normal again. She blinked in confusion. Like so many times before, the universe seemed to be giving her a clue, but rather than ponder the riddle with her own mind, she let the mind stone work uninterrupted again for a moment.

Her eyes went wide as trillions of calculations and images flowed in front of her vision. The energy calculations were coming up short still, but nonetheless, there it was.

She knew what to do.

Bruce was in the middle of throwing a snarling beast when he heard the voice in his head. At first he hadn’t realized it was Marinette and that she was somehow speaking to him inside his mind, but when he heard what she had to say to him, he clenched his eyes shut in relief.

I know how to save them. Everyone. Her voice came through from nowhere, clear and comforting.

Bruce glanced back at Nat who was reloading her pistols, preparing for another wave. His heart jumped at the sight of her. If Marinette could truly save them all… then perhaps he could finally find time to marry the woman he loved.

But then, when Marinette’s voice continued, Bruce felt a hole grow in his chest.

I’m sorry Bruce. She is part of the cost.

Chapter Text

Thanos pushed the large bulkhead that was pinning him down and slid it off of himself.

As he climbed out of the crater where he had come to rest after his own cruiser had fired down upon the battlefield, he angrily tore a few broken pieces of his armor off and tossed them aside. This Dupain-Cheng had been more powerful than he had expected, and she had somehow been wielding the powers he knew were attributed to the infinity stones. Yetas far as he had seen, she had not been wearing a gauntlet, so he wondered how exactly had she done it.

He realized that this meant that at his current power level he would likely not be a match for her, so his best bet was to use more of the knowledge he had garnered from the future Nebula. Looking around he quickly discovered the Miracle box sticking out of the ground nearby and tore open the container with his bare hands.

He quickly glanced over the available objects and found the one he was looking for, attaching it to his breastplate. And then, when the little creature that appeared to him refused to tell him the words needed to activate it’s powers, he decided to show it his determination.

He picked up a second Miraculous and held it in his hand.

“If you do not tell me what I want to know, then your little friends…” Thanos said as he crushed the Miraculous in his hand with all of his might, shattering the object. “They will meet the same fate as this one.”

Not surprisingly, the tiny creature became more willing then and indeed told him what he wanted to know without any further hesitation.

Thanos smiled to himself as he activated the Miraculous, newfound powers flowing through him.

Nat had just fired her pistols at the closest gorilla beast, but all it seemed to have done was anger it. Thankfully, Bruce jumped in front of it and started to grapple with it before it could reach her.

Glancing around she could see that the battle was actually going in their favor, especially since the enemy cruiser had been downed and all that remained of the attacking forces were those who were pouring from the two drop ships. They could have easily been outnumbered a hundred to one, but instead they were only facing a force of a ten to one ratio. Still not great odds, for sure, but definitely more manageable.

“Lang, You got a large group coming up behind you.” She heard Rhodes say over the comms.

Nat glanced to her left and saw Giant Man turn and start to kick at the swath of beasts at his feet, but she knew very well that he could only hold his larger form for a short while and it was likely already starting to strain him. She wordlessly glanced to Clint who nodded at her and started to head toward Scott’s direction to be available to give the man aid when he ultimately returned to regular size.

“Nat.” Bruce said, catching her attention. He had apparently finished his fight with the gorilla and had come to stand beside her. “Nat I…we...”

She was taken aback by the pain showing on his face.

“Bruce, what’s wrong?” she asked as she dropped her pistols, out of ammo. She then pulled her two batons from her back.

He seemed to be contemplating what to say when Nat caught sight of something she didn’t expect to see here in this place.

Her eyes went wide as the purple butterfly landed on Bruce’s quantum suit bracelet. She then stepped backward in horror as she watched a neon purple butterfly symbol appear in front of Bruce’s face.

“Oh god.” she said looking up into his eyes. “Bruce, fight it!”

But he ignored her and his face became dark as he closed his eyes.

“Yes, Thanos.” Bruce said. “To save her, I’ll do anything. So you will have your prize.”

Nat looked down at the Gauntlet which was laying on the ground to her right. She realized that she needed to keep it away from him, but as the Hulk he outmatched her in every way, and that was without whatever akumatized powers he was about to have.

A purple haze overtook his body as he became a much larger version of himself, purple skinned, and very angry looking.

She hesitated as the hulking brute looked down at her and then to the gauntlet. His hand slowly raised to reach for it, but Nat dove to grab it before he could. She deftly scooped it up under her arm and rolled out of the way as a large hand attempted to grab her.

“We’ve got a problem here.” she said as she began to run, the sound of large footfalls following behind her. “Bruce has been akumatized, and Thanos is wielding the butterfly Miraculous.”

“Come back!” she heard Bruce yell to her in an altered, deeper than usual voice. His speech pattern was more like Hulk’s used to be, very childlike and broken. “Just want save you!”

Nat knew that akuma’s latched onto negative emotions, and Bruce seemed fixated on saving her from something, but she had no idea why he had suddenly become so worried about her well being to begin with. And without knowing the cause it would be hard to talk him down, if that was ever a possibility. And on top of that… she still had no idea where Ladybug was.

The one hero here that had been able to purify akumas in the past, the one trained specifically to combat them, was no where to be seen.

Suddenly, Thor ran in front of Nat and looked up at the beast following her.

“I will keep him busy, you get the stones out of here!” the Asgardian told her as she ran past him.

Unfortunately, not even a moment later, she heard Thor grunt and felt something smash into her from behind, knocking her to the ground. As she landed, she lost her grip on the gauntlet and it tumbled away from her.

Gritting her teeth, she realized she had likely re-broken a rib or two from previous injuries. She struggled to roll onto her back, and then attempted to recover her footing as quickly as possible, but she found it was already too late. Hulk’s larger than usual hand gripped around her tightly, the pressure knocking the wind out of her. She grabbed onto the large finger wrapped under her arms as he then raised her up in front of his face and smiled at her.

“Rage keep you safe!” he said and then the butterfly symbol appeared again in front of his face. After a quick moment, Rage looked down and picked up the gauntlet in his other hand.

“This is not good.” she said to herself.

She fought against Rage’s grip, but he was just too strong. Thankfully it did seem that he meant her no harm, but it did her little good to be trapped here, unable to fight.

From her now higher viewpoint she could make out Clint looking up at her, calculating his options. She quickly waved her arm at him to indicate that he shouldn’t try anything as he stood no chance against this large opponent. Thor hadn’t even stood a chance, being thrown aside like he was a rag doll, so what were they to do now?

Nat then saw a large portal appear off to her left, outside of the main area of the battlefield. And after a moment, six figures emerged from it. Nat could see that it was the other Miraculous wielders; Rocket, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Miss Apis, Ryuko, and Viperion.

Perfect. It seemed backup had finally arrived.

When Rocket had found Marinette trapped underneath the compound’s rubble, she had seemed to be in a daze and had ignored him completely. She had even pushed him back when he had attempted to help her free her hand, so he had been at a loss as to what to do. However, she had been mumbling over and over about the other Miraculous and that she needed them, so he had decided to use his teleportation ability and retrieve the other heroes from around the world.
But now having returned, Rocket’s mouth sat open in shock as he watched a two story tall purple hulk trudging by holding Nat in his closed fist. He had no idea what was happening, but it was clear that the Director was in trouble.

“Well then.” Ryuko said. “It seems like we got here just in time. Looks like an akuma situation.”

“I’ve never fought an Akuma.” Miss Apis said sounding concerned

“Me either.” Viperion added.

“Don’t worry, just follow our lead.” Rena Rouge said as she nodded to Ryuko and Carapace. “We need to find where the akuma is hiding. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to have much in the way of places to hide it. My bet is that it’s in that bracelet of his.”

“I concur.” Ryuko said. “I will attempt to draw his attention. Carapace, Viperion, you attempt to free Romanoff while the rest of us try and break that bracelet.”

“Alright then.” Viperion said. “Second Ch-”

Before the snake holder could finish his call of power, a large figure landed amidst them and started to swing at them with a cane, knocking many of them down hard.

Rocket immediately recognized that it was Thanos, even in his newly donned butterfly Miraculous outfit. Of course, the fact the mad Titan had not chosen to hide his face with a mask had made it particularly easy to identify him.

Rocket had been able to dive aside and rolled to land on his feet, all while pulling his boomerangs from his back. He knew that Thanos was already quit powerful, even without a Miraculous, so fighting him while the brute was empowered by one was not going to be easy. Hell, with his first attack it seemed he had already knocked Viperion and Carapace out cold.

And as if to further make that exact point, Thanos grabbed Miss Apis out of the air as she attempted to leap aside and smashed her to the ground, releasing her as she made full contact. The sound that escaped her lips as she bounced upward again from the force of the collision caused Rocket to flinch.

Rocket heard Ryuko scream furiously and watched as she rushed forward to stab at Thanos with her sword multiple times, but the Titan quickly parried each attack with ease.

While the dragon holder held Thanos’ attention, both Rocket and Rena Rouge leapt over and turned Miss Apis over to check on her.

“I… I… I think my legs are broken.” the bee said, wincing. “I’m sorry, he caught me by surprise.”

“No need to apologize, let’s get you out of here.” Rena said lifting the yellow hero into her arms.

But it seemed they were too late, again. Thanos was already there swinging his cane at their feet, tripping both Rocket and Rena to the ground. Rocket heard poor Miss Apis land with a hard thud nearby again, groaning.

Before rocket could recover, he looked up to find Thanos standing over him with a huge grin on his face. He stepped down on Rockets right paw, pinning him in place.

“All too easy.” the Titan said as he raised his foot to stomp down on Rocket.

Rocket closed his eyes in anticipation of the attack.

But it never came.

He opened his eyes and saw Thanos frozen in place mid stomp. Quickly he glanced to his side to see that Miss Apis had crawled over, broken legs and all, to sting Thanos in the leg with her bee power.

She smiled at him weakly and then her head drooped and her face fell into the dirt, clearly losing her battle with the shock of the pain she was feeling.

Rocket pulled at his hand that was under Thanos foot, sliding it free, and then quickly climbed to his feet.

He glanced around at all of the other Miraculous holders, broken and beaten, their unconscious forms strewn about the area. He then looked up at Thanos and snarled.

“You’ll pay for that.” Rocket said angrily. “You’ll pay for all of it!”

Rocket reached up for the butterfly brooch on Thanos breastplate to tear it off of him, but before he could touch it, he felt himself being struck from the side.

Rocket landed with a hard thud, rolling into Ryuko’s motionless form. He could hear her breathing raggedly still. Thank goodness, at least she was alive. He glanced off toward where Thanos was, and saw that the akumatized Hulk had been the one who had knocked him aside.

Rocket’s eyes went wide as the Hulk held Stark’s gauntlet between his two massive fingers and slowly lowered it onto Thanos motionless hand. The design of the gauntlet made it so that it could form perfectly around it’s users hand, so even without Hulk needing to open Thanos' fist, it slid on with ease.

“No!” Rocket yelled out. “Don’t do it!”

Rocket climbed off the ground and began to sprint at Thanos, but it was too late. The energy from the stones had already begun to course through the Titan and it seemed to reverse Miss Apis freezing ability, allowing him to move once more.

Thanos screamed out and arched his back.

Rocket knew he still had to try, so he leapt forward and aimed for the Gauntlet. Perhaps he could get it off of him.

But Thanos caught him mid air with his gauntlet hand itself.

Rocket felt the power of the stones humming around him as he was held in place.

“Why do you struggle so?” Thanos asked and then held Rocket close to his face. “Don’t you see that I am inevitable?”

Rocket felt weak, and began to black out.

He could only just barely make out Chat Noir yelling Cataclysm as everything went dark.

Chapter Text

“We’ve got a problem here.” Nat’s voice chimed in through Adrien’s earpiece. “Bruce has been akumatized, and Thanos is wielding the butterfly Miraculous.”

Adrien’s eyes went wide as he glanced to Marinette, but he saw that her facial expression was blank, her gaze distant. He had heard Marinette’s voice in his head a couple minutes before, telling him that she knew how to save everyone, and from the expressions on Stark’s and Rogers’ faces at the time, they had heard something similar in their heads as well.

He could see that Lady Death was staring intently at Marinette now, seeming transfixed, both woman seeming unperturbed by what was happening around them.

Taking a moment to look off into the distance, Adrien could see the large shape of a purple Hulk moving amid the remnants of the compound.

“We need to get over there.” Rogers said stepping into place beside him.

“Agreed.” Adrien said as he glanced to his other side and saw that Stark was standing still, also intently staring at Marinette. “Plagg, claws out!”

Adrien noticed that his transformation seemed to take a bit longer than usual, likely due to the loss of universal cohesion taking place.

“Tony, Marinette?” Adrien heard Rogers ask, drawing his attention back to the three figures standing behind them. But neither Tony or Marinette replied so Rogers turned to Chat. “Guess it’s just you and me.”

“Seems that way.” Chat Noir replied. “I just wish I knew what was going on.”

“It sounds like she has a plan.” Rogers said. “We just have to give her some time to work through it.”

Chat nodded, glad to see that Rogers still clearly had faith in Marinette, even now with things spiraling out of control. He knew that it would have been easy for the man to turn on her after hearing that she planned to reboot the universe, but is seemed that he had remained steadfast in his loyalty. Of course deep down, he wondered if Stark could do the same, and part of him worried that Iron Man was remaining behind to stop her at the first chance he had. And as odd as it sounded in his own mind, Chat hoped that Lady Death would keep Marinette safe in case of just that eventuality.

“Let’s go!” Rogers said before breaking into a sprint.

Chat took one last quick glance to Marinette and then followed after Cap.

It took the two heroes less than a minute to cross the open battlefield, having to stop only a few times to fight off some of Thanos beastly soldiers. But even still, by the time they were able to reach where the akumatized Hulk now stood, they saw that they had arrived too late at the scene of a lost battle.

Laying here and there were the other Miraculous holders, all beaten and bruised, a Miraculous powered Thanos standing in the middle of them. Not only that, but the massive purple Hulk had just finished lowering Stark’s infinity gauntlet onto the Titan’s fist.

“No!” Chat heard Rocket yell out. “Don’t do it!”

As energy coursed through Thanos, Chat watched Rocket leap into the air toward the Titan, but the raccoon was caught mid leap in the madman's gauntlet. Then Thanos pulled Rocket close to him to say something that Chat couldn’t hear.

Chat knew that he had to act quickly if he was going to save his friend.

“Cataclysm!” he called out as he leapt into the air toward Thanos, his right paw outstretched.

Tony Stark blinked twice when he realized that he was no longer standing on the battlefield. The world around him had faded into a strange empty region of smooth unbroken water and endless horizon.

There with him was Marinette and Lady Death, and they were both looking at him.

“Uh, what just happened?” he asked.

“I needed to talk to you.” Marinette said. “And there is no time to waste, so I pulled you into my mind to give us a moment. Time here will pass at fraction of that which is happening outside.”

Tony looked around and raised an eyebrow. This place looked a lot like how Adrien had described the interior of the soul stone, but he figured Marinette had simply co-opted the landscape from her own memories when she had created it.

“Okay then, so what is she doing here?” He asked, pointing to Lady Death.

“Don’t mind me.” Death offered. “I’m just here to bear witness.”

Stark sighed. He had definitely had enough of these ultra powerful beings toying with him and his universe, but there was little he could do so he shrugged and stepped toward Marinette.

“So, Little Wizard, what is it you needed to talk to me about?” Stark asked.

She frowned at him, the look in her eyes causing him to feel a small pit form in his stomach.

“Out with it.” he said impatiently.

Marinette peered into his eyes even further now, almost as if she was searching for something.

“To save the universe, I need to show you something.” Marinette said stepping forward, placing herself directly in front of him. Stark reflexively pulled away as she held up her hand toward his head.

She gave him a comforting smile, and he relaxed some. He really had no idea what she was up to, but he figured that here in this place she had all of the power, so it was best to just let her do her thing.

“Fine.” Stark said. “Go ahead.”

When she touched his forehead, he was overtaken by images flashing before his eyes. In that moment, he once again saw every vision he had ever had since that first one Wanda Maximoff had given him in Sokovia. But then the images continued on and he witnessed countless moments he didn’t recognize, and also some altered perceptions of moments he had lived, slight changes throughout them.

He stepped back and grabbed his head.

“What was that?” he asked. “What did you just do?”

“I made you my proxy.” she said.

“What does that mean?” he asked still trying to clear his thoughts.

“For years you have been seeing visions of the future, ever since Wanda Maximoff touched your mind.” Marinette said turning away from him. “Or more specifically, they were actually given by the mind stone which empowered her in the first place.”

Tony squinted. Had it really been the mind stone giving him his visions this entire time? After all, it made sense, as those visions had led him to actually create Vision, the being who had housed the stone in question within his head.

He peered questioningly at Marinette as she raised her hand and a large series of lines and calculations appeared in the empty air before them. Most of numbers and algorithms he saw were way over his head, but he recognized a few from his efforts making sure the quantum GPS had worked for the time heist. Then, as she turned one of the lines into a Mobius strip, his eyes widened.

He knew what she was planning.

“The change Wanda made to your mind allowed me to be able to save something in your memory. Something that will remain regardless of what changes may come. Think of it as a boot disk for your brain.” Marinette continued as she waved her hands about, changing numbers and moving lines around. “So that when the universe restarts, certain things will still happen as they should, guided unknowingly by you.”

“Wait, if you are planning to do what I think you are…” Stark said. “Wouldn’t that mean-”

“That I’ll no longer exist.” Marinette said flatly. “Yes. That is why I need you to make sure certain things still happen in my absence.”

She had placed a lot of information in his mind, he could tell. Somehow the sheer overload of new information hadn’t caused him to go crazy, but he figured the mind stone being in play had prevented that outright.

Stark tried to focus on some of the memories in question and thought back to the images he had seen a moment before. He found himself seeing his memory of the briefing he had been given upon returning from deep space on the Benatar with Nebula, after having first lost to Thanos on Titan. He squinted as he pictured Rocket sitting on the floor, making his comment about Thor failing.

And just has she had said, in the memory he saw that Marinette was gone, no longer sitting there with the raccoon holding his paw, as if it had always been that way.

Tony shook his head to push the memory from his mind and he felt a pang of guilt inside him. He had been angry with Marinette for saying she was going to reset the universe, but it seemed she had grander, loftier goals in mind. A goal that would require her to sacrifice herself, and perhaps her love Adrien as well.

The selflessness of this woman surprised him. Over the last five years, the few times they had interacted, she had always been driven to find a way to save everyone, even if it meant her own death. And now, she had found a way, or more accurately, been given a way by some cosmic entity.

Yet still, he wondered if she had been chosen because she had been Ladybug, or simply for her determination to save others, a super power she seemed to have far outside the scope of her Miraculous weilding.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, this brave woman before him, she was the kind of person to give it all up for something greater than herself.

He again glanced up to her calculations and could make out some of the subtle changes she was making. It appeared that while her plan would actually reset the universe to square one, her selfless act would then rebuild it from the ground up to be almost exactly as it was now, just without her, Adrien or the Miraculous in it. The same timeline, same history, just set a slight bit off course. Thanos would still exist, the decimation would still occur, but success against the mad Titan would be possible then without the energy drain caused by the kwamis’ physical existences.

Marinette broke the silence with a sigh as the Mobius strip turned red and flashed as if something was not working correctly.

“The problem is.” she said turning to him. “Is that there is just not enough energy left in the universe. So all of this planning may be for nothing.”

“Would bringing back the vanished help?” Stark asked.

Marinette furrowed her brow as the lines and numbers behind her started to shift again as if she was working the problem. Tony was in awe of the display. Her mind was beyond any other in existence at this point. From the algorithms being displayed, it was likely she literally knew everything there was to know. The mind stone encompassed all knowledge that had ever existed, anywhere in the universe in all of time, and she was simply sifting through it.

A representation of the universe appeared and then shrank in size to only show part of the Milky Way. Tony’s eyes went wide. There was less than two percent of the galaxy remaining, Earth smack in the center of what was left.

“Yes, it would give me enough energy to enact the plan, but it’s going to be crowded.” Marinette said. “Trillions of lives were snapped away and there’s only a tiny corner of the universe left to bring them back to. But I suppose, it won’t matter how comfortable everyone is afterwards anyway.”

“Well then, let’s get back there and snap them back before we lose any more ground.” Tony said and then hesitated as she frowned at him. “Unless there is something else you need to say to me?”

“There is a good chance…” she began to say, sadness creeping into her eyes. “That as my proxy in the new timeline, you will have to die in order to defeat Thanos.”

Tony glanced over at Lady Death who smiled at him, almost knowingly.

“Would… would Pepper and Morgan be safe?” he asked looking back at Marinette.

Marinette calculated, new lines and numbers forming behind her.

“I’ll make sure of it.” she said.

Tony swallowed hard.

“Then so be it.” he affirmed and then a bright light expanded outward from Marinette.

Tony shook his head when the battlefield returned to his vision and then he activated his helmet.

“It seems we have a problem.” Marinette said as she floated into the air beside him.

Stark glanced off toward where she was looking and with his helmet’s HUD zoomed in to see a very large version of the Hulk, colored purple, standing over Thanos, placing the gauntlet on the Titan’s hand.

“Son of a-” He began to say, but was interrupted as Marinette launched herself forward, crossing the distance in almost an instant.

Stark lowered his arms to prepare to launch himself in the same direction using his suits propulsors, but a voice behind him stopped him cold.

“See you soon.” Lady Death said.

Marinette had not considered this possibility when she had begun to make her calculations for restarting the universe. She internally derided herself now. She had been so focused on her duty to rebuild and how she would save everyone in the process that she had overlooked the need to focus on the now, on fear.

It was such a simple mistake, one she felt that she would not have made if not for the mind stone clouding her vision or overriding her normal judgment with logic. She saw now that she had forgotten who she was for a moment, and that was all it had taken for her to lose her concentration.

The single moment of time she was seeing now, slowed down by the mind stones ability to analyze everything for what it truly was, was a bleak sight indeed.

Six different heroes were there, trying to stop what was happening before them. Captain Rogers, Chat Noir, Colonel Rhodes, Clint Barton, Rena Rouge, and Natasha Romanoff were all screaming out with their arms raised, unable to do anything about what Thanos was doing in that very moment.

Rocket was mid freefall to the ground, having been released from Thanos grip within the gauntlet, allowing the Titan to be in the position to snap his fingers. And it seemed he had done just that, a light extending outward slowly from the point of connection between his fingers. Normally, the light would have moved so fast that no one would have seen it, but Marinette’s perception was simply faster now, so it all played out as if in slow motion.

She could see that Chat Noir’s hand was on Thanos’ neck, Cataclysmic energies already taking effect turning his purple skin black. Yet still, it seemed that her partner had been a millisecond too late with using his attack.

The white light was still moving outward, even in this slowed down time, and as it reached Rocket, the closest one to the convergence point, she watched as he simply started to turn to dust.

She wanted to close her eyes and look away, but her body would not react as quickly as her mind could, so she was forced to witness this all in harrowing detail.

Now, with only one trillionth of a second having passed since Thanos had snapped his fingers, Chat Noir also began to flake away as the light touched him.

She began to wallow inside her own mind. She had failed Adrien, failed everyone. Not only that, she had failed herself. Perhaps this truly was not the universe that was meant to survive.

No. A voice deep inside her thought as it broke to the surface of her mind. It definitely sounded like her own voice, yet it was clearly not twenty year old Ladybug, nor was it the empowered infinity stone bearing version of Marinette who was viewing the world now through these logical eyes. This voice was of a teenage girl from Paris, the daughter of Tom and Sabine. A young person filled with hope and love, a desire to save her friends, to save her soulmate Adrien.

I am Marinette. The voice said. And I refuse to allow this.

She opened her mind to allow the younger version of herself from within her own memories to come forward and to take control. Clearly this other part of herself had something in mind, something that her focused, mind stone wielding self could not fathom or will into being.

Suddenly, multiple red streaks of light started to reach out from her body and arced toward every one of her friends and family present on the battlefield. The red light seemed to be moving infinitely faster than the light from Thanos’ snap, mainly due to it all being directed at singular points rather than spreading out evenly.

She watched as the red light even found a single piece of rocket that remained and it began to glow as well, no longer in threat of being completely erased.

With all of this in motion, time suddenly normalized for Marinette and the white light from the snap engulfed everything else that existed.

Adrien felt weightless. Even without looking he could tell that his chat suit was gone from him, his powers with it. Glancing around himself he found that he was floating in an endless void, surrounded by his friends and allies. And there in the vast distance he could see millions of strands of white light snaking through space like mussed up hair. Each strand seemed to be slowly growing shorter and shorter, a darkness overtaking the entire void as they did.

Alya floated by him, a terrified look on her face. He tried to speak to her and found that there was no air, yet somehow he found that he was not suffocating.

Looking from person to person he saw that none of the Miraculous holders were powered any longer, and it appeared that the kwami were also absent. Everyone was wearing whatever civilian clothes they normally did, and it seemed that the Avengers had no weapons or technology like armor any longer. Everyone had been healed of any wounds and Bruce had even returned to human form, being no longer akumatized or hulked.

Thanos and the gauntlet did not appear to be present, likely destroyed by his Cataclysm, which caused Adrien to wonder how exactly they themselves had survived the madman’s snap if he himself hadn’t. He figured that the most likely scenario was that Marinette had done something to protect them, so he looked around again to try to find her in the small crowd. When he eventually found her floating among the group, he saw that she had a look on her face that was clearly despair.

Adrien attempted to swim toward her in the emptiness, but he could not move himself, no physics or force seemed to exist here. The universe was truly gone.

Marinette seemed to notice his attempt and she held up her arm, a blue glow extending outward from it and surrounded everyone there. They all began to float along, at least, it seemed like they were as there was no outside object to orient themselves with. Yet Marinette seemed to be focused on something in the distance, a small spec that slowly grew bigger and bigger.

When they got close enough, Adrien could make out that it was some kind of massive rock formation filled with large veins of crystal zigzagging through it.

As they reached the geological structure, a red glow extended outward from Marinette surrounding it's entire surface and suddenly Adrien felt weight return to him as he slowly descended to land upon it. Then his ears popped as an atmosphere appeared.

Everyone gasped as they filled their lungs, a normalcy and familiarity returning to replace the oddness of not having to breathe that had been present a moment before.

“What in the world.” Alya asked looking around. “What just happened?”

“Did we just lose the universe?” Lang asked.

“Yes.” Marinette said, sadness in her voice.

Adrien glanced over at Marinette again and saw that she was now crouched and hugging her own knees, a pained look on her face. He quickly walked over and knelt beside her.

“You saved us somehow, didn’t you?” Stark asked looking down at her.

“It was all I could do.” Marinette said flatly. “But I failed to reset the universe.”

Nat started to look around frantically.

“Phillipa?” she called out. “Oh god.”

Bruce seemed stricken as well at the sound of his daughters name.

“She’s fine.” Clint said carrying the child over from the opposite side of the large circle of heroes that was starting to form as they all gathered. “I saw her floating near me and grabbed on.”

“Thank goodness.” Nat said taking the toddler into her arms. Adrien couldn’t help but notice that Phillipa seem unperturbed about everything that was happening. Yet it was fairly par for the course, as the girl had always seemed calm and collected, even at such a young age.

After hugging Nat and Phillipa, Bruce knelt down beside Marinette on the opposite side of Adrien and put his arm around her.

“She was pretty far from the battle…” Bruce said. “It must have taken you a lot of effort to make sure she was alright. So, thank you.”

Marinette shook her head.

“Don’t thank me.” she said. “I’ve just doomed us all to float here aimlessly on this rock.”

Everyone was silent for a moment and Adrien contemplated their situation. He could feel the power of the three stones inside himself still, and he wondered if like Marinette he could somehow alter things here to make their chances of survival better. Unfortunately he had not had time to learn to tap into such power yet, so for now he was just going to have to rely on her.

“Hey, I’m just glad to be anywhere. I’m pretty sure I was gone there for a second.” Rocket said looking around. “But where is this exactly?”

Marinette looked up and squinted at the space around them and then at the ground at their feet, slowly reaching out to touch a strand of crystal that was there.

“This is part of the mountain that contains the first kwami temple. All that remains of our universe, a tiny bit of the Earth that I accidentally infused with my essence four years ago.” she explained. “As for everything else… I think we are outside of time and space.”

She stood and looked out at the strands of white light slowly fading into nothingness in the distance and crossed her arms.

“And my guess is that those are the other universes, other timelines like ours, also fading away.” Marinette said with a huff. “Seems we were one of the first to go.”

“I’m not sure I understand what is happening, but is there truly nothing we can do?” Gamora asked. “From what we just witnessed, it is clear that you still have power within you enough to send us elsewhere. Perhaps to another universe?”

“To what end?” Nebula asked. “Those other universes are collapsing as well.”

“Maybe if we wait long enough we will see one that isn’t.” Rhodes offered as he peered upward at some of the strands that were above them.

“Do whatever you want. I need time to think.” Marinette said abruptly as she started to walk away from the group. Everyone seemed startled by her sudden statement, but no one said anything more as they watched her leave and step around the corner of a craggy bit of rock out of sight.

Adrien frowned, wanting badly to follow her, but he quickly decided to give her the space she seemed to want. Or so that was what he had planned to do.

“I need you.” Marinette’s voice beckoned inside his mind.

Adrien glanced at everyone else who had started to break into smaller groups to talk about their current situation. He then began to walk toward where Marinette had gone to a moment before.

“Hey, my dude.” he heard Nino say to him, stopping him in his tracks momentarily. “Tell her we believe in her, and that we are with her till the end.”

Adrien glanced back at where Nino was and saw the other Miraculous holders were all staring at him as well. They each nodded in turn and he smiled at their show of loyalty. He then turned again and walked off to find Marinette.

Chapter Text

When Adrien found Marinette, she was standing on a rocky outcropping overlooking the nothingness before her.

“I’m sorry.” she said as he approached.

“Why?” he asked. “You did everything you could have.”

She turned to face him and shook her head.

“I know. It’s not that.” she replied. “I’m talking about needing to get away from the others.”

Adrien glanced over his shoulder towards where he knew the others were. He could hear them all talking from here, but everyone was out of his line of vision. Looking back to Marinette he saw a strange emotion flash across her face, one he couldn’t quite place.

“I just can’t look at them without being reminded of what we have lost.” she said looking away from him again. “Perhaps it was selfish of me to bring those ghosts along just to prevent our loneliness.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow. What she was saying was starting to worry him.

“What do you mean…?” he asked hesitantly.

Marinette turned her head slightly so he could see the side of her face, but she remained looking away from him, her gaze distant.

“I was only able to save their minds. Their consciousness, memories, personalities.” she replied. “What you were seeing back there, that’s only a tiny fraction of everything they were before.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. Was she saying that they were all some kind of astral projections?

“To them, everything is fine.” Marinette continued. “They feel as if they are themselves, but they are incapable of actually feeling any of the emotions they may think they should be. I can sense that they are all in shock, angry, feeling despair. But blood can’t boil without heart, and you can not cry without tear ducts.”

Adrien clenched his fist and looked down at his feet. He remembered all too well the inability to cry as a projection, the sheer torture of it all, so he knew that the others would figure it out soon enough.

The realization that a small handful of unaware ghosts were all that was left of their entire reality began to creep up inside his chest. Until now he had at least felt felt like he could face this unknown as long as they were all still there with him. And in a way they were, but it made sense why she had apologized to him, as he found himself wondering if they would have been better off without the reminder as well. Not to mention the torture those ghostly versions of their friends would all start to endure when they realized their current state of being. Interestingly enough though, with that thought he found that he had begun to cry, a tear falling down and landing on the ground.

Marinette’s hand was already there to brush his cheek and wipe away any tears that remained. He looked up at her questioningly as he wondered why it was that he could cry.

“You and I are for the most part still whole. So we can still feel every emotion” she said taking his face in her hands to look him over. “But… we are not actually as you see us now. Our human forms are a projection as well, layered over what we have become.”

Marinette stepped back from him and smiled a weak smile as she held up her arms. Adrien watched in wonder as the image of Marinette faded from the surface of her form. She appeared to him now as a humanoid crystalline figure, a beautiful glow ebbing from beneath her smooth surface that made him feel more content than he had ever felt before. As she stepped forward and reached up to take his hand her appearance returned to that of Marinette.

“Lady Death was right.” she said somberly. “We are immortal now.”

Adrien didn’t know how to feel about that fact. On one hand, he had always feared death, even when he had been willing to sacrifice himself to save the world, and now he never had to have that fear again. But on the other hand, what was the point of immortality if there was nothing you could do with it? It was true that he was here with his love, but they had nowhere to go, no goals, no purpose. Could he bear the thought of such an infinitely empty existence? He looked into Marinette’s eyes as she watched him think, and found himself feeling comforted, a warmth growing inside his heart.

“We were supposed to rebuild the universe.” Marinette said after a moment and then held up her hand where a tiny speck of light floated up from it. “But this is all that remains of the energy of our universe.”

Adrien stared in wonder at the small speck.

“Tikki, Plagg, all of the millions of kwami.” She said holding it up for him to take. “This is them. Reduced to a single atom each.”

He carefully took the speck of light from her by moving his hand underneath it. It floated above his skin and he felt it’s hum of energy. It felt heavy, even though it floated there, and part of him could even swear he sensed his friend there inside the light, asking him for cheese… a food that technically no longer existed.

“So what now?” Adrien asked after a moment.

Marinette frowned and looked over toward where the others were.

“I think we should let them know… everything.” she said. “I don’t want to keep them in the dark. It’s not fair to the memories of who they were. And if they choose to let go… I’ll let them.”

Adrien somberly nodded in agreement and he took her hand in his.

Before she started to walk back however, she glanced up at him and smiled.

“I’m glad you are here with me.” she said. “Eternity would seem bleak without you by my side.”

He smiled and then leaned in and kissed her deeply, finding himself amending his earlier thoughts on facing an eternity without purpose.

Marinette would be enough for him.

Marinette watched as all of her friends and allies started to glance down at themselves in wonder. They had all just listened to her explanation of their current state of being, and she was now waiting for any of them to respond.

Adrien was beside her, still holding her right hand with his left, the speck of light hovering over his other.

“So, we aren’t dead?” Stark asked after a moment. “Just consciousness… displaced?”

Marinette nodded.

“You can stay here, and experience existence for as long as you want. You will not age, not fade away, not while Adrien and I remain.” she explained and then lowered her head. “But if any of you wish to move on… to let go…”

She kept her eyes on Tony. Of everyone there, she could feel Stark’s pain the most, having been recently connected to his mind before the snap. His thoughts were likely on his lost wife and daughter, and she figured if anyone wanted to choose to end it all and fade away, it would be him.

“Move on? What is there after this?” Rhodes asked. “Is there an afterlife for those without a universe?”

Marinette frowned at that. She didn’t know what to say and her silence made the others all begin to frown as well. Everyone except for Nebula, who oddly enough was smiling.

The woman’s cybernetic appearance began to fade, replaced by an unaltered version of herself with long beautiful blonde hair that almost seemed to shimmer. It seemed that Nebula had realized that her self image was no longer one she had to simply accept as it had been, and had changed it to what she wished it to be.

“Wow.” Lang said staring at Nebula in awe.

“In many ways I was already displaced from my body.” Nebula said. “So for me… this is a gift.”

Then Rogers stepped forward and looked around the group.

“I’ve always been one to get up when knocked down and then roll with the punches.” Rogers said nodding. “And if this is our existence now, then I say, so be it. Besides, we can always decide otherwise later on if it gets to be too much. Right?”

Marinette nodded.

Everyone began to turn and talk among themselves as they decided their own fates and she watched them for a while, without a word. Adrien stood there with her, his hands embrace giving her comfort as she wrestled with her anxiety and fear of losing any one of these people. As much as the reminder of what was lost hurt her, she also wanted to hold on to each and every one of them as long as she could.

After a moment Nat was standing beside her holding Phillipa in her arms.

“I know it’s kind of unimportant now. But I need to ask you something.” Natasha asked. “Bruce told me what you said to him before he was akumatized. And I need to know… what was the price you mentioned?”

Marinette glanced to Adrien and then back to Nat. The plan to reset the universe was no longer possible, so would it make any sense to even mention what it would have required? If she did tell her, it would likely end up being yet another thing to bring turmoil to Nat’s mind in this place. But Marinette found herself not wanting to hide anything any longer. Secrets were a product of the old universe, and perhaps the desire to keep them should also be lost to time.

“I had a plan in place to restore the universe exactly as it was, just without Adrien, myself or the Miraculous in it. But for that plan to work, someone would have had to take our place on the mission to obtain the soul stone.” Marinette explained. “And in most of the other universe I learned about while in Purgatory, you had been the one to sacrifice yourself to obtain it. So I determined-”

“-I would have had to die in the new universe to save it.” Nat stated flatly, clearly understanding as she completed the thought herself. “And what about Phillipa?”

Marinette looked down at the little girl who was in Nat’s arms. Her sister was staring at her intently.

“If I didn’t exist… then your ability to have children would never have been restored.” Marinette said with a frown. “And from my research, It’s highly likely that our universe is the only place she has ever existed.”

“But I saw her.” Nat said shaking her head. “In the dream from that day at Stark’s wedding. The one that showed me another reality.”

Marinette tilted her head. Perhaps there were indeed universes she hadn’t accounted for, but it didn’t matter now.

“Whatever the case, that plan is no longer possible.” Marinette said shaking her head. “The energy to rebuild is gone. And with it, all hope to restore anything.”

“Hey, is anyone else seeing this?” Lang asked, drawing everyone’s attention.

All present glanced out at the hair-strings of light in the far distance, and watched as a large number of them started to disappear at great speed, much faster than they had been a moment before. Marinette wondered what it meant. Perhaps those universes were experiencing a second Thanos snap just as theirs had, quickly being erased.

Then, there was a tiny flash of light nearby in the emptiness, leaving behind a tiny pinprick of something there just out of sight. After a few more seconds, more flashes, and more tiny specks.

As they all watched in wonder, some of the specks grew larger, and it was clear that they were all people.

Marinette’s eyes went wide as she started to see who exactly these newcomers were.

Hundreds, no, thousands of Marinette’s.

“Wow, Dreamer.” Someone said from behind her. She turned to see that there was actually a Marinette standing there dressed in a dark clothes. “I gotta say, thing’s are looking pretty bleak here.”

“What in the world is happening?” Rocket asked looking around at all the woman appearing out of thin air.

The Marinette that had just spoken smiled.

“We are here to fulfill the decree of the council of Ladybugs.” she said and held up her hand, a tiny speck of light floating above it. “Dreamer. Your universe was decided to be the one that is to be saved.”

Marinette shook her head slightly, flabbergasted at what she had just heard.

“But… why?” Marinette asked, truly confused. “You all made it seem like I was a lost cause. That my plan was selfish.”

The dark dressed Marinette smiled and then glanced to her side as an eight year old Marinette walked into sight.

“Hello, Dreamer.” the young girl said. "I've missed you."

Marinette rushed forward and scooped up the young girl, hugging her with all of her might. She had not imagined that she would see her again after having left Purgatory, but here she was. She placed the girl back on the ground and then knelt in front of her.

“Wait, are you the one that convinced them?” Marinette asked.

The young Marinette nodded.

“I was with you the entire time you were in Purgatory, and not once did you falter, not once did you stop looking for a way to save us all.” she replied. “Once the others heard this, coupled with the fact that you had actually been the one to meet with the Living Tribunal and be given the ultimatum in the first place, we decided that our choice was clear.”

Marinette stood up and looked around to see many more Marinette’s walking up, all smiling at her and nodding. Each held a small speck of light.

“Hopefully enough of us were in a position to save some of our universes energy.” Young Marinette said holding up her hand to offer her speck of light. “Here.”

Marinette felt like she was about to cry. She had not expected this at all, and even now she wondered what could possibly have been seen in her that made her so special amid all of these other versions of herself. So many who were appearing there now were likely just as worthy, and she contemplated telling them she shouldn’t be the one to be chosen. Or, perhaps they could all come together and use the energy they were offering to save more than just one universe? There were clearly a lot of them, each holding a speck, and she had already calculated in the back of her mind that there was way more than enough energy now than was needed to save a single universe.

“I know that look.” A Marinette wearing an eye patch said stepping in front of her. “You are still trying to find a way to save more of us. And that is why we chose you.”

Marinette glanced around at her friends who were all silently watching the spectacle around them. When her eyes fell on Adrien, she couldn’t help but notice that he was smiling at her knowingly as if he was not surprised at the council’s decision.

“Take this gift.” Young Marinette said as her body began to fade away, still clearly somehow tied to her disappearing universe. “And live on. As your survival will be our survival.”

Marinette quickly knelt and hugged the girl once more. And as her arms went slack, the eight year old she had been holding now fully gone to oblivion, she began to cry. This was all too much to bear. She was both happy and sad at the same time, and it was tearing at her very soul. She looked up as more Marinette’s held out their hands and released their own energy into a now growing ball of light before them. And then each began to fade away as well.

“Peace out, Dreamer.” The dark clothed Marinette said as she slapped Adrien’s backside causing him to yelp. “Take care of this one. He’s a keeper.”

“Goodbye, Shadow.” Marinette replied with a weak smile as she watched the woman vanish, knowing now full well which one of her variants she had been.

Over the next few minutes, one after the next, more of her walked forward and smiled at her as if she was the one doing them a favor and not the other way around. Each faded away after depositing their energy into the collection, and soon they were all gone.

Overcome by emotion, Marinette dropped to her knees in front of the large glowing orb and began to weep. She knew that an incalculable, near infinite number of lives had been lost to this disaster of multiversal proportions. And yet she, her friends, her family, her entire timeline, they were going to live because the others had all sacrificed literally everything for her.

“So, does that mean we are actually going to make it?” she heard Lang whisper to the person next to him.

She looked up, and wiped her tears when she saw that everyone was looking at her expectantly. She slapped her cheeks and tried to clear her mind of all of the survivors guilt she was feeling, but it was a lot, so most of it remained regardless.

When she was finally able to force herself to stand, she turned to address everyone.

“Adrien and I…” she began and then looked to her love as she contemplated what was about to happen. “We will make sure your consciousnesses are integrated into the new universe. So this version of you will survive and not be replaced or lost.”

“Will we remember?” Thor asked stepping forward.

Marinette pursed her lips and scanned all of the faces before her. They all seemed to be hanging on her every word.

“I’m afraid not.” she finally answered. “To you, the new history will be your only history.”

She saw Bruce glance to Nat and they shared a moment, and then Nat kissed Phillipa on the head before she looked to meet Marinette’s gaze. The look on her adoptive mothers face said it all. She was okay with her fate in the new timeline.

“What about you two?” Alya asked stepping forward. “Are you just going to stay here forever?”

Marinette glanced over to Adrien and he nodded back to her.

“We will be just fine.” she replied. “Don’t worry about us.”

Alya ran forward and hugged Marinette, followed by the rest of the Miraculous holders who all joined in on the hug.

“I don’t want to forget you.” Alya said to her as the group hug ended. “You are my bestie, my sister. It won’t be the same.”

Marinette took Alya’s face in her hands and leaned up to kiss her best friends forehead.

“There will be moments when you look up at the sky on a summer day and smile at how beautiful life is.” Marinette said. “Even if you don’t remember who I am. I will always be smiling back down on you.”

Alya hugged her again and then the Miraculous group moved off, allowing others a chance to say their goodbyes.

“Miss Miraculous!” Thor said lifting her off the ground. “Songs and tales will be written that tell of the creator of the universe, but little will they know that she also makes the grandest treats, cakes almost as sweet as you.”

Marinette giggled and hugged the Asgardian, her feet dangling off the ground as he held her in place with his embrace.

“I’ll miss you.” She told Thor as he placed her back on the ground.

“I bet you’ll miss me more.” Rocket said looking up at the two of them. This of course garnered a smile from both Marinette and Thor who both began to laugh.

“You stay out of trouble, you hear?” Marinette said and then scratched behind rockets ear the same way she always did when she wanted to disarm his loner attitude.

“Well, Kid.” Rogers said as he stepped beside her with a stern look, then dropping it to smile as he gave her a hug. “You did good.”

When Nat, Phillipa and Bruce approached to make their farewells, Marinette felt her insides twist. Adrien seemed to be struggling with the idea of saying goodbye to their family as well.

Bruce and Adrien began to hug as Nat faced Marinette and gave her an appraising look.

“I guess I can’t call you Little One anymore…” Nat said with a frown. “Seeing that you are going out and creating a new universe and all.”

Actually, I wouldn't have it any other way. Mom.” Marinette said with a sly smile.

Nat smiled and hugged Marinette with all of her might.

Then Marinette felt tiny arms grab hers and she glanced down to see Phillipa was hugging her arm so she knelt down to talk to her.

“Hey there.” Marinette said with a smile. “I know that I was gone off on some other planet for half of your life, but I want you to know, that you are the best little sister anyone could ask for.”

Phillipa smiled a tiny smile and then leaned into Nat’s leg to hide her face.

“Look, now that I know that I can restore the universe…” Marinette began to say to Nat and then leaned in close to whisper to her. “I’ll make sure she is there, somewhere, somehow. She’ll exist.”

Nat seemed to want to cry, but since circumstances prevented her from doing so she simply hugged Marinette again instead.

“Thank you.” Nat said. “Thank you so much.”

Then Rhodes, Nebula and Gamora all said fairly short, pointed goodbyes. But then came Scott Lang.

“Well, you know I gotta say. When I first met you, I thought you were kinda weird with all of your mystical powers and such...” Lang said with a grin. “But now, I really just wanna learn some magic. Any chance you can like, toss some magical voodoo into my DNA or what-not when you rebuild everything?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Marinette said with a smile and gave the man a wink.

She then exchanged a glance with Adrien who smiled and shook his head as Lang walked away.

Next up to say goodbye was Clint who gave both her and Adrien a pointed look. Then he focused on Marinette.

“You saved my life on Vormir, and now you are technically going to save it again.” he said flatly. “So, I owe you two. I know you are basically a god now or whatever, but if you ever need anything… I got you.”

He then continued on before she could respond.

Lastly came Stark.

“Well, I guess this is it Little Wizard.” Stark said moving his chin around as he pretended to be casual about it all. “Look, I know you told me that I am going to be your proxy in the new world and all… but…”

Stark hesitated and he looked as if he was going to choke up. Something she hadn’t seen him do often at all, if ever.

“… There is no reality where I would ever match up to you.” he finally said.

Marinette straightened up and took a step forward to stand in front of Stark who turned to face her, dropping his casual pretenses.

“You are a good man, Stark.” she said taking his hand in her own. “And one day the entire world, no, the entire universe, they will all know just how good of a man you are.”

Tony tried to play off what she said with a dramatic scoff, but then looked at her again and hugged her for real.

When all the goodbyes were finally done, everyone moved off to the side to watch as Adrien and Marinette each took up position on either side of the energy orb the other Marinette’s had all created.

They each raised their hands to place them on the orb as if reading a crystal ball.

“I’ll lead, just follow me.” Marinette said to Adrien as calculations and sheets of information started to appear in front of her vision. “Can you see it?”

Adrien looked up at where the information was being displayed and nodded.

Marinette took one last look at the group of heroes to her left and smiled at them all.

“Goodbye.” she said, and then began to manipulate the energy orb.

It took a while to get things started, but a large streak of light appeared alongside the giant rock on which they now stood. The light began to stretch and grow larger, and then started to loop around them at a great distance and formed the shape of a mobius strip.

When the loop was finished, she raised her hand up and Adrien took it in his, energy flowing between them now as if they were conductors.

In that moment, Marinette smiled. She and Adrien were as one. The Ultimate wish was made.

She opened her eyes and glanced toward the others who were all beginning to fade away, moving off into the new universe to take their place in history.

Then she saw something she hadn’t expected.

The Living Tribunal had come into view from below the edge of the rock and reached out his hand toward them and touched the orb they were manipulating.

The Calculations in front of Marinette's vision began to change, alterations to her carefully set plan falling into place against her will. She could not stop him, not even with the power she held inside her. She watched as a second much smaller universe began to form alongside the one they were creating. And certain things began to shift into it. Alya? Nino? Why was this happening?

Then words she didn't recognize, names, places, events. They all began to form after the moment she considered present day in the timeline they had all come from.

“What are you doing?” She cried out trying to pull away from the orb to stop the process, but she was held in place by the sheer amount of energies at play.

“Your universe has been judged worthy.” the The Living Tribunal replied in a booming voice. "But as for you... That is still to be seen."

She looked to Adrien who was fully concentrating on his task, his eyes closed, unaware of what was happening.

“Adrien!” she called out as everything went white.

Marinette woke suddenly in familiar surroundings. She frantically looked around and found that she was back in Paris, at home in her bedroom, laying in her loft bed.

She squinted at everything and found herself having trouble remembering what had just been happening to her. She knew that she had been somewhere else. Yes, the rock at the end of time.

“The… rock? Where?” she said to herself as the memory faded and she became confused.

Her eyes went wide. No! She still remembered some of it, but it was fading quickly. Fearful that she would lose it all, she scrambled out of her bed and down the steps to the main part of her room to grab her diary.

She had no idea why the Living Tribunal had done what he had, or what it was that he had manipulated from her plan... but whatever it had been, it seemed to include placing her here, and erasing her memory of it all.

She quickly took a pen and scrawled out the whatever words came to her mind as quickly as she could.

Avengers

Living Tribunal

Natasha Romanoff

Multiverse

Thanos

Collector

Infinity… Gems?

Vor… max?

Kang...aroo?

Miss Dead?

Adrien is Ch-

Adrien is... he was… damn it! What was he? She shook her head. It was all gone.

She sat and stared at the words scrawled in front of her for the next ten minutes.

Soon she was wondering why had she had just written these things.

Her cell phone rang and she reached over to look at the screen and found that it was Adrien calling her. She froze, her face becoming flush. Why was he calling her? The last time he had seen her was at the picnic. He had said all of those nice things to her before leaving and she had kissed him on the cheek as a thank you.

She quickly stood and started to pace back and forth. What if he was calling to tell her he liked her, or maybe he was calling to tell her the kiss had made him uncomfortable?

“Aren’t you going to answer it?” Tikki asked floating beside her.

Marinette glanced up at her kwami partner and all but leapt toward her to grab her from the air and hug her against her cheek. For some reason she was beyond ecstatic to see the little red ladybug, and she had no idea why.

“Marinette!” Tikki laughed. “You are acting like you haven’t seen me in ages.”

Her phone stopped ringing and she stopped hugging Tikki to glance down at it and then frowned, She hadn’t had the courage to answer. Then as a voicemail notification popped up she became nervous again.

She hesitantly pressed the button to listen to it, curious as to what Adrien would have had to say to her.

She slowly held the phone up to her ear and listened intently.

“Marinette, I need to tell you, before I forget everything that happened that I Lo-.. I… wait… what was it?... I’m sorry, I forgot what I wanted to tell you. Uh, If I remember I’ll give you a call back. See you later!”

Marinette pulled the phone back from her head and frowned. That was weird.

“Marinette!” her mom called up to her from downstairs. “Alya is here!”

Marinette smiled and stood to open her trap door to let Alya in and Tikki quickly flew off to hide.

When Alya climbed up into her room, she looked at Marinette curiously.

“Marinette, why are you crying?” her friend asked.

Marinette raised and eyebrow and touched her face to find that it was indeed wet.

“I … I don’t know.” she said, puzzled. “But honestly, that’s really not the only weird thing that's happened to me today.”

She held up her journal and showed Alya the page of words.

“Have you ever written something, and not known why?” she asked Alya and then looked at the words again herself. “I don’t recognize any of this, or know why I wrote it. But I definitely remember doing it.”

Alya shook her head and smiled.

“I mean, you should at least recognize Natasha Romanoff.” Alya offered. “That’s the name of the new Language teacher at school, remember?”

Marinette raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, right…” she said and shook her head, feeling silly. “I completely forgot.”

Perhaps she was just having an off day. Whatever the case, she would need to get her act together in case Hawk Moth attacked again. Paris’ Heroes Day celebration had almost been ruined by the villain, and whatever or whoever it was that had summoned that giant purple moth to aid him in battle was clearly a threat to not be taken lightly.

Whatever the case, she knew that with Alya, Nino, Chat Noir and the other Miraculous holders fighting beside her, they couldn't lose.

A smile spread across her face as she thought about her friends, all rising up to be heroes without question, none knowing that she was in fact the one who had recruited them.

She hoped that some day, she could tell them the truth, and they could finally know her full identity.

That she was The Miraculous Ladybug...

“...Savior of the Universe.” Eternity said to complete the thought, unheard and unseen, a smile spreading across his mirrored face. "Rest up. Your work is not done yet."

Thus Ends ‘The Broken Now’ Arc of the “Miss Miraculous” Series.

The next chapter is the epilogue which sets up the next story. Enjoy!

Chapter Text

Tony watched in awe as Marinette and Adrien manipulated the orb of energy between them, and then felt a tug on his mind, pulling him backward. It was likely that he was about to be sent into the energy of the new timeline, one that Ladybug and Chat Noir would no longer exist in.

But regardless of their absence there, he knew that when the timeline reached the point where he would be born, and eventually became Iron Man, that he would be able to fulfill the destiny Marinette had bestowed upon him, allowing them to leave a mark on the universe after all.

He would be Ladybug’s replacement, her proxy, to guide events subconsciously and lead the Avengers to a victory against that new timelines Thanos, all the while not knowing that there had been a hand guiding him the entire time.

Yet, even though Stark knew that he would not remember Marinette or Adrien, in this moment now, he was glad to have known them. So he smiled, wished them well, and then gave himself in to fade into the blueprint they were creating, stored away for the right time and place.

13 Billion, 770 Million Years Later, Give or Take.

Tony felt pain mixed with power surging through his body as the Infinity Stones moved into place on his nano-suit’s gauntlet. He locked eyes with Thanos who had just realized that the stones were no longer in his own possession.

“And I… Am… Iron Man.” Tony said countering Thanos claim a moment before that he was ‘inevitable’.

Then with a snap of his fingers, Stark found himself somewhere else.

The orange and red hued sky in the place he now found himself seemed to go one forever, meeting at the horizon with the smooth reflective surface of water that covered the ground.

“Hello, Tony.” he heard a woman say from behind him.

Turning around he found that there were various bits of furniture from the Avenger’s compound’s lounge set in place like a wall-less tableau, much as it had been before it had all been destroyed.

The woman who had greeted him was standing among the furniture, a smile on her face. She was young, maybe in her twenties if he had to guess, had long flowing black hair, blue eyes and a love for the color pink if her outfit was any indication. Yet as far as he could tell, he had no idea who she was.

“I’m sure you are wondering who I am.” She said stepping forward.

“Yeah, actually.” Stark said looking around once more. “I was just thinking exactly that.”

He watched as she tilted her head and then stepped even closer to him to produce a hand for him to shake.

“I’m Marinette.” She introduced herself.

He hesitantly took her hand to shake it, and when he did he found himself overtaken by memories that were his own, but ones that he had never had before. She held onto his hand as he fell to his knees, overwhelmed by the flow of images and emotions.

When the flow of new memories ceased, he looked up at her again and recognized her immediately.

“Little Wizard?” he asked as he searched his memory. “But… you don’t exist here. How…”

She helped him to his feet again and shook her head to let him know she understood his confusion.

“I am merely a remnant of myself, a recording I am placing in the blueprint for the new universe, to be loaded at the moment you use the stones to stop Thanos.” She explained.

Her image flickered temporarily and her expression became dour, causing him to raise an eyebrow. She then looked him in the eyes and he could see fear there.

“To be honest with you, I am having to do this in bit of a rush…” she said. “The Living Tribunal is hijacking my blueprint as I am making this recording. And I am only just barely able to hold onto some control enough to do this.”

Stark felt a pit form in his stomach. In his new life he had forgotten all about the being that had judged the last universe he had existed in, only now remembering because of Marinette’s memory download a moment ago.

“What is he doing?” he asked, concern in his voice.

“I am not sure, all I know is that he is adding a new universe alongside ours, almost like a dimension just out of phase with the main one. He’s placed all of my friends there… as if to cordon them off like some kind of disease.”

Stark squinted. A new dimension? Whatever the Living Tribunal had in mind, Stark wondered if it was best to meddle. The being was supposedly the biggest power there was, ruling over all universes. So what good would it be to fight against a being who controlled fate itself? But perhaps something Marinette knew that she wasn’t telling him had given her reason enough to try.

“He is also planning to erase my memory, I can see the calculations and code being put in place to do it already…” she said with a frown. “But I had an idea, one I hope he isn’t going to notice.”

“You’re going to try and sneak one past the big guy?” Stark asked incredulously. “Do you think that’s even possible?”

“I have to try.” she said shaking her head. “He’s already passed over your blueprint and moved on to others, so I figured if I add something there now to use later, he won’t notice.”

Stark held up his hands.

“Whoa, what are you changing exactly?” Stark asked, not keen on hearing he was being used as a glorified time capsule.

Marinette smiled at him.

“It’s the memory of me.” she said. “So you will remember who I am when we meet again, because I won’t remember and I’ll need you to remind me.”

Stark frowned.

“I’m pretty sure I’m about to die.” he offered, remembering the sheer power that had just coarsed through is body. “I don’t think remembering who you are is going to help anyone. Besides, you don’t even exist in my universe so how am I going to tell you anything?”

Marinette nodded and then held up her arms at the empty void around them.

“That’s why I’ve altered where you are going for your afterlife.” she said. “Lady Death’s gonna be pissed, for sure.”

Tony’s eye’s went wide as the world around him began to fade away. He was about to complain about her taking control over his afterlife, but then remembered that she had been the one to even give him a second chance at life in the first place. So he decided that he would give her this.

“When you get there...” her voice trailed. “Find me.”

Then the pain from his use of the stones returned, and he found himself back on the battlefield, where he silently watched Thanos and his army fading to dust.

He had done it.

He had saved his universe, and if he was being honest with himself, it was not a bad way to go out.

So there, leaning against a bit of rubble, after his friend Rhodey, his pupil Peter, and his wife Pepper all said goodbye to him, Tony Stark silently passed away.

But only for a moment.

Authors Notes

Hello all, and thank you so much for reading my story!

I truly hope you enjoyed it.

For the most part, I wrote this as a fever dream... lol. Well, not really, but it seemed like it sometimes.
There were days I would wake up at 4am and just need to write the next chapter, knowing full well already what it would be.
And so I wrote 140k words in 78ish days... a surprise to even myself as I hadn't really written anything in yeeeeaaars.

In the end, I am happy with how it all turned out, and I am looking forward to continuing on with the characters and world I have established in this story, hence the sequel being in the works. However, I will say now that I wont be updating daily like I did with this one. XD I may take my time a bit more with it, so please bear with me as I try and curb my obsession with this tale, and it's characters... a bit. Only a bit though. I love them all. XD
Also that does not mean this story is going to be left behind, unchanged or forgotten. I plan to go back and add details, new conversations, new scenes. Nothing that changes the overall story arc, but things that will better flesh out what is already there, re-enforce the continuity, and of course fix grammar and spelling mistakes.
So if you decide to reread this a year from now you may find yourself enjoying it more with the new stuff.
Also of course, as many of you already know, I am have an artist friend make me a comic frame at the end of every chapter. This will take a while, though. So check back often and see the new pretty scenes!
I've wonder if how I pictured the scenes, and with how they were worded, if you pictured it the same way I did... so the comic frames will go a long way to seeing if it was. So let me know!

I really appreciated all of the comments I received, and enjoyed thoroughly seeing the notes on the bookmarks indicating peoples places in the journey through this adventure so I could experience it with them, again and again.

If anyone wants to post a spoiler free review of the story, please feel free to post them on the prologue 'chapter' so people can find them and get an idea before they start of what they are in for. I would really appreciate it.


Finally, if anyone wishes to discuss the story with me, I frequent the Miraculous Fanworks discord channel. https://discord.gg/mlfanworks
My user name there is usually a variation of "Blue | [something]" and will always have Blue as the first part so Ill be easy to find. Come and chat, and also share your stories and art as well!

See you guys in the Multiverse!
- Blue