Archive of Our Own

People say those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear.

Unfortunately, Marinette has an entire twenty-three years’ worth of memories and one whole secret identity to hide.

Marinette is sitting on her balcony when it happens.

There are a pair of knitting needles in her hands, and a plate of cinnamon cookies on the table next to her. Tikki is happily eating her dinner, but doesn’t mind when Marinette occasionally steals the treats.

This late at night, Marinette’s neighborhood is quiet. She can barely make out a few cars driving on the streets below. The family across the street are watching a movie with the window open, and Marinette finds herself keeping half an ear on the dialogue.

Almost absentmindedly, her hands move to direct the needles across the yarn. Izuku’s physical therapist suggested this activity to rehabilitate his hands years ago, and even though Izuku enjoyed the hobby, he never continued knitting past the UA-mandated physical therapy sessions.

As Marinette, though, she has been spending a lot of evenings knitting and enjoying the night view, especially since she got Izuku’s memories back all those months ago.  

She’s been trying to merge Master Fu’s meditation practices with knitting, and—well, it isn’t not working. Her nightmares have definitely lessened since.

(Not tonight.)

The wind hums gently, not quite a whistle like Marinette is used to when she does hero work, the awning shading her from the worst of the wind.  

“Marinette?” Tikki says. Marinette looks up, a smile on her face, and—

A jolt of danger leave hide slams into her mind—

Her smile—

Freezes.

—muffled.

—silence.

—nothing.

There is nothing.

The night air holds its breath. The noise of the car engines fall away, the sounds drifting out of the window grow silent, and a single half-eaten cookie lies on the table.

Tikki is gone.

“Tikki…?” Marinette whispers, silently setting down her knitting needles. She shifts, ready to leap at an invisible enemy or retreat into her bedroom, and—

The spell shatters—

In all the wrong ways.

The hum of energy that always rumbles in her chest falls away. The vibrations in her bones silence. Marinette Izuku feels cold. His body is too quiet. There is no thrum of electricity running beneath his skin. His mind is blissfully, terrifyingly silent. Where did that sense of danger—of urgency—go?

He tries calling One For All’s strength to the surface, then Float, then Black Whip, and every other quirk in succession.

“Toshinori? Nana-san? First?” He calls into his mind.

…nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

He’s powerless again.

It feels like there’s an empty pit in his chest; a black hole, maybe. It sucks his warmth, his happiness, his strength.

Quirkless.  

Phantom laughs echo in his ears, cruel and careless. It sounds like—

(Kacchan, why—)

Wait.

What?

No, that doesn’t make sense.

Kacchan isn’t here.

(Cold, amber eyes, a bullet, a drug, a something targeted at a lone little boy, and he moves—)

(He moves too slow—)

No, that isn’t—

(He’s falling apart, even without One For All stretching his body to its limits—)

(Not enough, not even after everything—)

(How disappointing—)

(Amber eyes glint in the blue flames, and—)

(Cold fire, lightning—)

(Izuku doesn’t want to die.)

He She gasps as she awakens.

The floor—why is he she lying there—is cold and unforgiving. His Her head pounds—did he she fall asleep—his her shoulder is bruised—did he she fall onto the floor—and he she feels so empty.

Why?

What happened?

A buzz pierces through his her head. He she blanches. Wha…

His her phone.

Akuma alert.

He she picks up the phone, lying on a table next to a half-eaten cookie. A shaky video plays on the screen, showing a boy with indigo skin and golden freckles. He floats on a pillow, sprinkling sand of all colors of the rainbow over the city.

The Ladyblog calls him Sandboy, an akuma that—

Oh.

(Danger Sense tried to warn—)

Memories rush back into her head, in bits and pieces.

Her name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She is Ladybug, one of the two superheroes in this universe, and quirks don’t exist in this world.

Her chest is empty, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. One For All awakened months ago, but before that, she and everyone else in her life were quirkless.

She—

She—

(Cruel, amber eyes—)

No.

Almost instinctively, Marinette pastes her smile on her face. Fear and pain war in her eyes. Faint tremors from broken bones long past wrack her arms.

This is fine. She has been quirkless for most of her two lifetimes, she can make do for just a few hours more. Alya—the Ladyblog said the akuma causes people’s nightmares to come true, so all she’ll have to do is defeat that akuma.

And she isn’t powerless, she still has Tikki—

Tikki.

Marinette’s breath hitches. The half-eaten cookie—Tikki—the kwami called out to her moments before—

Her hands do not shake as she turns on the selfie function on her phone, but only from years of practice.

She’s out of practice.

The phone slips out of her hands and clatters onto the floor. It would’ve broken if she wasn’t already sitting on the floor.

Marinette’s earrings are red, with five black dots evenly spaced on each jewelry.

She isn’t transformed.

“Tikki!” Marinette calls out again. Then adds, hesitantly, “spots on.”

Nothing happens.

Tikki is gone.

She swallows.

Once again, Izuku Marinette is—

No.

She still—

She isn’t—

She isn’t powerless. She still has her mind, her instincts, her memories and years of experience. That is what makes a hero; not a quirk, not a miraculous.

If she dares think otherwise, she wouldn’t put it past Aizawa-sensei to cross an entire universe to beat some sense into her.

Marinette takes a deep breath. She exhales, and stands up.

She needs something to cover her face, and clothes she normally wouldn’t wear. Without Tikki’s purification ritual, Chat Noir will have to destroy the akuma. She can still perform the miraculous cure when Tikki returns.

Maman has a helmet that she used when making deliveries on her motorbike, though she doesn’t do that anymore. She’s been thinking of throwing it out for months, but it’s still here and Marinette’s certain she won’t miss it. Papa bought her a Majesta hoodie for her last birthday—she’s always liked that superhero character, mainly because Majesta reminds Marinette of All Might; the hoodie is a bit small, but it won’t impede her movement and it’ll be hard for anyone to link it back to her. She still has the gloves and pants from her failed Batman cosplay, so no one can link Ladybug’s fingerprints back to her. Her running shoes are from an average brand; they won’t give her away, and a weapon—

Yes; Marinette can do this. She won’t fail.

(Not again—)

Armed with a rolling pin and a bottle of pepper spray she liberated from Maman’s purse, Ladybug makes for the rendezvous point.

She meets Chat Noir there whenever they go on patrol, or when they fight akumas like this one—the akumas that move fast and have non-lethal abilities. Meeting up and thinking of a battle plan before chasing after fast-moving akumas is far more efficient, and there is no pressure to be on the scene ASAP to stop people from turning into dust or mist or whatever not-quite-death the akuma has in store that day.

The rendezvous point is on a rooftop a few blocks away from her home, and normally, Ladybug can swing her way there half-asleep.

Not today, though.

Today, she runs through the streets.

The streets are filled with people, scrambling away from each other. More than a few of them are crawling on the floor, irises constricted eerily and ear-splitting smiles on their faces.

Are they actual people affected by Sandboy, or the constructs meant to terrorize people that Alya mentioned?

It doesn’t matter, though, when one of those people stands up, pressing her hands to a man’s shoulders. The man, who was slowly edging away from the advancing woman, freezes.

“I hate you.” The woman smiles, wide and cruel, and pushes him—

Into the path of an oncoming truck.

Behind her helmet, Ladybug narrows her eyes. She lungs forward—

The man’s scream cuts off as the truck rushes past him, displaced air ruffling his hair.

“What are you doing?” The not-quite woman demands shrilly, but Ladybug ignores her.

“Are you okay?” She murmurs to the man, pressed onto the floor. She couldn’t scoop him into her arms and carry him away like she’d usually do, and there was no way she could stop the truck in time. So, she tackled him out of the path of the truck—unfortunately painfully.

The man blinks, shocked. “…um. Thanks…?”

Ladybug smiles at him, though he can’t see it behind her mask. “Stay safe, sir. You might want to return home until the akuma’s defeated. I have to go now. Bug out!”

As she darts off, she hears the man whisper, “…Ladybug?”

Ladybug’s muscles burn.

She should’ve worked out more, damnit. She had a habit of jogging since she was seven, and she started going to the gym when she became Ladybug, but between her schoolwork, her hero duties, working on her personal projects and studying with Master Fu, she didn’t do it as much as she liked, and—damnit, this is pathetic.

It isn’t that far from her home to the rendezvous point. Izuku used to jog further than this on his daily runs before work.  

But now—she barely sprinted over a few blocks—albeit at full speed—and she’s already out of breath.

She tackled that man out of the way of the truck, and her muscles are already paying for it. The man’s muscles too, probably.

Kami. Hopefully the man won’t bruise too badly after her stunt.

Finally, Ladybug reaches the building their rendezvous point is on. Thank Tikki for the fire escape mounted on the side of the building.

Ladybug takes a running leap at the raised ladder of the fire escape. She kicks off the brick wall of the building as she jumps, and—

Her fingers barely brush the cool metal of the ladder before she falls, landing back on the ground.

…great.

It takes another two tries for her to grab onto the ladder. Sighing in relief, she pulls the ladder down and begins make the trek up the ten-storey building.

Kami. Aizawa-sensei would be so disappointed.

“Hey, my Lady,” Chat Noir says when he hears someone step onto the roof, panting. The bars the akuma created in his room were quite unnerving, but with Plagg there, they haven’t deterred him for long. He made it to the rendezvous point much sooner than Ladybug, and spent the time studying Sandboy through the Ladyblog. “Cat broke your—?”

He turns, and freezes.

“You’re not Ladybug,” he hisses.

There’s a girl standing opposite to him, with a Majesta hoodie and a wooden rolling pin tugged into her belt. Gloves protect her hands, and a shaded helmet hides her face.

She’s shorter than him, but something about the girl tells him to be on guard. Even though she’s bracing herself on her knees and gasping for breath, something about her body language says she is a fighter.

“So…sorry.” The girl gasps, and…he can recognize that voice anywhere. “The akuma shorted out my powers. I had to find a disguise and then I hurried here as fast as I could. Kwamis, I never should’ve skipped leg day…”

…but that can’t be.

…Ladybug is powerless?

Chat narrows his eyes, “Last week, you gave me a present. What is it?”

“A Chat Noir sweater. You mentioned your friend’s holding a gift exchange at their birthday party, and then told me you’ve never done that before, so we exchanged presents. I made the sweater myself. You got me a necklace.”

So it isn’t a trick…?

Wait. Does this mean Ladybug is a fan of Majesta? That is awesome, they can bond over—

No. He has to focus.

With the helmet on, he can’t see Ladybug’s bright bluebell eyes, or her kind smile. She’s panting, clearly out of breath from her trek here, and that’s so un-Ladybug that it’s unnerving. And yet—the girl in front of him is undoubtedly Ladybug. Chat is suddenly reminded of Schrodinger’s cat—Schrodinger’s Ladybug, maybe?

He doesn’t say any of that out loud, of course. Instead, he smiles.

“Wow, my Lady,” he quips, hoping his smile doesn’t betray his worry. “Cat got your breath?”

Ladybug groans, “I need to work out more. Anyway, did you see what Sandboy’s powers are?” She waits for Chat Noir’s nod to continue. “Good. Here’s the plan…”

“Okay, so. Purifying the akuma isn’t the only way to remove Hawkmoth’s influence. When you break the akumatized object, you have to use Cataclysm on the akuma before it flies away and multiplies.”

“Me?” Chat laughed nervously. “Don’t you mean you?”

“No.” Ladybug replied firmly. “You’re going to lead the charge today, Chat Noir.”

“But—are you sure—I mean, I’ve never led offence before! I know you lost your powers, but surely—”

“Chaton, you can do it. I trust you; all you have to do is trust yourself, okay?”

He can almost hear the smile in Ladybug’s voice, warm and reassuring. Warmth and guilt war in his chest, over this trust that he doesn’t quite deserve.

She continues. “Today, I will be on evacuation duty. You will fight the akuma. I’m in disguise, so Sandboy probably won’t notice me immediately. Let’s try to keep it that way. If you can get the akumatized object quickly, that’s great, but if not—I’ll attack Sandboy from behind.”

“But you—” Chat Noir hesitates. She doesn’t have her powers—any of them. Isn’t that—no; he shouldn’t doubt her—

“Don’t worry.” Ladybug pats the rolling pin tucked into her belt, and a suspicious bulge in the pocket of her hoodie. “I came prepared.”

Ah. Of course she’s planning to use a rolling pin as a makeshift bat. “So that’s what the rolling pin is for.”

“Yeah. So—you ready?”

“Born ready.” He grins, and tries to ignore the frantic beating of his heart.

He cannot fail.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy, which is to say Ladybug’s plan did a pretty good job of holding itself together for the first few moments of the fight.

Chat Noir carries Ladybug to where Sandboy is wreaking havoc, setting her down out of the akuma’s sight. This time, Ladybug helps evacuate the area while Chat Noir distracts Sandboy.

It is a not-quite familiar dance, dodging around the akuma’s attacks while Ladybug evacuates the citizens—a role he understands well but has never had much practice in playing.

Chat extends his baton and vaults over Sandboy, ignoring the akuma’s singsong “the Sandboy just checked in, now nightmares can begin!”

Sandboy turns around, towards Chat Noir and away from Ladybug. He shoots another jet of rainbow sparks at Chat, who dodges deftly out of the way.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Ladybug bludgeon a giant tarantula in the head with her rolling pin. It stumbles back, dazed, and she uses the opportunity to help a boy—wait, is that Nino—to his feet. “Go now!” She hisses. Nino nods, muttering his thanks, and runs off in the opposite direction.

Good—the area is basically free of people, and nightmares. Now, they can—

“Where’s Ladybug?” Sandboy demands as he shoots another jet of colored sand, forcing Chat to duck. There is a purple butterfly outline over his face. “You promised she’ll be here to play!”

“What?” Chat huffs, pointedly not looking in Ladybug’s direction. “I’m not good enough for you?”

The akuma stamps his foot on his floating pillow. “You promised!” He shrieks, and sends out an entire cloud of rainbow dust.

Chat curses under his breath. He spins his baton like a shield, fanning the sand away. “Whoa, hey—”

“I’m right here!”

Like she has practiced this move thousands of times, Ladybug lungs upwards. She wraps her arms around Sandboy’s torso, who shouts in alarm, and swings herself onto the akuma’s levitating pillow.

And then, she pulls out a bottle of pepper spray and sprays the akuma in the eyes.

The scene looks like something straight out of an anime. Chat Noir stares, amazed by the girl who managed to defeat the akuma with her powers sealed away, and barely remembers to dodge the unfocused spray of rainbow dust Sandboy instinctively shoots.

Sandboy shrieks as he rears back, the butterfly mask on his face shattering into nothing. “You—”

In his moment of distraction, Ladybug reaches down to tear the fluff out of the pillow.

But then—

The pillow buckles forward. Ladybug gasps in surprise, and reaches out to grab onto the pillow.

She’s too slow.

Ladybug falls onto the cold hard pavement.

She sits up, rubbing her head through her helmet. If the helmet wasn’t hiding her face, Chat imagines she would be grimacing.

Move!

“Why did you do that, you jerk?” Sandboy screams. He shoots rainbow sand at Ladybug, who is too dazed to dodge, and—

He has to move!

And—and—

Ladybug crumbles onto the floor.

Ladybug, ethereal, infallible, more than—

—lies, silent and unmoving and impossibly small, on the cold concrete ground.

Sandboy crows in victory, and immediately dives after his Lady’s prone form.

He should’ve—

Why didn’t he—

But Ladybug is infallible—

No!

Stop it!

He has to move!

Above all the terror, the what if and that should’ve been me and why didn’t I move faster, Chat Noir feels…

Angry.

He snarls, “No you don’t.”

Chat springs forward, intent on defeating the akuma and destroying that little purple butterfly, just like Ladybug instructed.

And for once, he doesn’t get hit by the akuma at all.

The world shudders. The ground trembles as the sky screams, and she can almost feel blood staining the rivers as the world cracks—

Marinette opens her eyes.

She shouldn’t recognize the place she is in, but she does, in the same instinctive way she knows how to breathe.

The sky is gray and streaked in red. The grass below her is dark and crumbling to dust. In the distance, the once-clear streams are drowning in blood. And in front of her stands a giant metal vault, cracking—

This is the vestiges’ dreamscape.

Marinette swallows as she stands up. Her head pounds, and something clenches in her chest at the sight of that vault. Something like

A sad quirkless boy whose father abandoned him

A scared teenager facing down a not-human-anymore intent on hurting him and his classmates

A not-even-official pro hero tasked with protecting the city, because if he does nothing they will all die and their blood will stain his hands

“Izuku, I am your

“Marinette!”

Warm and sturdy arms scoop her into a bridal carry. Marinette blinks, and glances up.

Toshinori smiles at her, but it’s his hero smile, not his genuine one, and his bright blue eyes are filled with worry.

He carries her away from the vault, but the taunt pressure in the air doesn’t seem to ease no matter how far they travel from the vault.

“It’s not safe here, my girl. You have to leave now.”

Marinette opens her mouth. She doesn’t even remember getting here—

Wait.

Sandboy.

The akuma threw her off his perch, and she hit her head when she landed on the pavement. The helmet protected her, but—

She was too stunned to dodge the faceful of rainbow sand.

And Sandboy’s power is—

Fear.

Marinette swallows. Her heart pounds in tandem to the stabbing pain in her head. It shouldn’t be possible—this isn’t her physical body—and yet—

“I don’t think I can leave.” She tells Toshinori. “The akuma I was fighting—it makes people’s nightmares come true, and…”

Another shudder races through the air, accompanied by the sound of something breaking. Marinette glances up, and finds the Vault—not just any vault—once again in front of them. A second crack races through its white metal walls, gaping and wide.

The sight of the gaping cracks sends another jolt of fear racing through her chest. Marinette swallows.

The vestiges had locked something in that Vault, she remembers. She can’t quite recall what, but knows with undying certainty that if that something gets out, it may mean the end of all of them.

“Ah.” Toshinori nods. “I was afraid something like that might have happened.”

“Toshi?” Nana glances up, and—oh, since when did the other vestiges get here? Or have they always been here? She can’t quite seem to think—

“What are you doing here?” Second demands. “You’re supposed to get Ninth out of here.”

“We can’t. The akuma she was fighting makes people’s nightmares come true, and—” He glances pointedly at the Vault.

Marinette almost wishes this doesn’t make so much sense. He is not only Marinette’s nightmare, but every other vestiges’ as well—

Wait.

He?

Marinette shakes her head. Focus.

Second scowls. “Explains why that damn asshole got a power boost. C’mon.” He looks at Marinette. “If you’re staying, you gotta help us fix this.”

Marinette nods. No matter what, she knows this is important—

The world screams

Marinette screams with it

Her head pounds with the weight of a hundred unwanted memories

She collapses

And

The Vault

Shatters.

“Izuku, I am your father.”

All For One.

Marinette’s eyes flies open.

She is

In a blank white vault stained with blood

Hovering over a broken city, dust and smoke clogging her lungs, facing Shigiraki All For One in a battle over the fate of Japan

Screaming screaming screaming

“Are you done yet?”

She looks up. A man smiles at her, with blood red eyes and bone white hair.

“You.” Marinette growls. “What did you do?”

All For One tilts his head, and looks at her with a lazy smile. “That’s no way to greet your father, Izuku.”

She very much prefers his potato face.

“Marinette.” She hisses. “And you’re not my father.”

“Ah, yes. I heard you got a new father, hm? Tom Dupain, a baker. Though I suppose it’s better than your insistence on calling that yellow skeleton your father.”

Marinette rolls her eyes.

She turns away from All For One. It isn’t like he can hurt her here, in this not-world where everything and nothing is real.

The landscape has changed. Gone are the dying grass and bleeding rivers, replaced by a blank white space that stretches into infinity. No matter how she looks, she cannot find the vestiges’ circle of thrones, or the remains of the Vault.

Where are the others?

“Izuku.”

Marinette ignores him. She turns her attention within, tugging at the nook where One For All should be.

There. Her connection to the vestiges and Izuku, nine faint but present threads—

“Deku!” A girl with light brown hair screams. Her right hand is mangled beyond repair and her left hand is

“Deku.” A boy with spikey blond hair tries to say. A muzzle is wrapped tight around his face, but that is wrong they all know he is terrified of suffocating

“Izuku.” A boy pleads on the ground. There is nothing where his legs should be and no he has to run

“Izuku!” Steel grey and turquoise blue eyes find his face. His eyes are wide in uncharacteristic fear, and something is very very  

“Izu—”

She is on the ground, clutching at her chest. Her heart pounds as her head throbs, and something that is not Danger Sense keeps screaming—

Maybe it’s her last shred of common sense, screaming at her to run. Not that she can even if she wants to.

“Izuku.” All For One chides. “We’re having a conversation. Don’t ignore me.”

Marinette, she thinks venomously, Marinette, not Izuku.

She opens her mouth to speak, but no sound comes out.

Growling in silent frustration, she tugs the threads buried deep within her, where her connection with the vestiges should be hidden.

But—

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

There is nothing in his chest

The threads vaporize into dust, leaving Marinette to grasp at empty air.

“Izuku.” All For One sighs again. He kneels next to her, and—damnit, why can’t she move?

In that moment, she wishes for nothing more than to tear that man’s throat out with her bare teeth.

“Why must you be so difficult, Izuku?” He shakes his head in disappointment, and raises a hand. She doesn’t flinch back, mostly because she can’t move.

Stop calling me Izuku. She thinks, hating the sound her old name forms on his tongue, filling her ears like curdled milk. She tries to speak again, but once more—

Nothing

All For One’s hand reaches for her. She tries to tense, but—

The hand only lands in her hair. Gentle fingers tug her hairbands off, scattering her chest-length hair all over her shoulders. Those fingers card through her hair, painfully gentle, and Marinette desperately wants to tear that man’s hand off her—

“Where.” She finally manages to force past her lips. “Where are they? What did you do?”

All For One tsks. “Shh, my baby.” He murmurs, Kaasan’s nickname for her sounding putrid in his mouth. Fingers trail over her lips, and—

No no no

He observes his handiwork with a neutral expression, his face not betraying for a second he just took her mouth away. “Why do you always force my hand, Izuku?” All For One says again, as if savoring the sound of that name on his tongue. “We’re trying to have a conversation here. And—I know your little hero heart won’t focus until I tell you—my brother and his successors are safe. I won’t harm them, but I can’t let them get in the way of our conversation. They won’t mind taking my place for as long as I need them to.”

Did he…of course he did.

Toshinori and the others must be in the Vault—but at least they’re unharmed, or as unharmed as they can be right now.

“Now, I heard you’ve been busy since the last time we talked, hm? You have a crush—finally realized you’re too good for that ice-and-fire boy? Ah—he isn’t a hero this time—at least you’ve aquired some taste since the last time we met. And—really? You still became a hero in a world without quirks—” He sniffs, “—but—that’s interesting. Your partner feels inferior to you, but he also has a crush on you—”

Marinette almost scoffs. Since when does Chat have a crush on—

…wait.

Not now.

She can deal with that later, if when she gets out of here.

“You don’t trust him,” All For One’s lips curl upwards, amused, “He thinks you must’ve trained for your role from birth, but he’s just some alley cat you picked up on the street.” Marinette blanches at those words—she remembers that fight as clear as day, the time Chloe was akumatized into Friendship Breaker and Chat Noir spat those exact accusations at her. Is All For One going through her memories? “You never told him the truth—he thinks he’s crushing on a teenager, when in fact you’re cumulatively thirty-seven. And you are in love with a teenager.” He tilts his head, blood-red eyes glittering in amusement. “How villainous.”

Marinette rolls her eyes. Did All For One break out of the Vault just to comment on her life? And does he really think she never debated about the whole thing with Adrien and how dating works with reincarnation? She has thirty-seven years’ worth of memories, but she still feels and looks fourteen.

Besides, he has no room to judge. Marinette isn’t the two-hundred-year-old semi-immortal who fell in love with a twenty-seven-year-old woman.

“Ah,” All For One sighs, “well—I won’t judge you, Izuku. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy, baby.”

Yeah, right.

“Although…do you really believe you can keep that boy you love safe? Since you so eagerly threw yourself back into hero work, even after dying from being a hero…really, I thought you were smarter than that. Why are you so certain your enemies won’t come after that boy this time? Ice and fire was…bad for you, but at least he could defend himself. But a defenseless civilian boy…I didn’t know you had it in you to be so selfish, Izuku.” He smiles, death-white teeth glimmering, and reaches out a hand to brush the hair that was falling into her eye back. “Really, I’m proud of you. You deserve what you want.”

What I want is for you to disappear and never return. Marinette thinks viciously.

All For One frowns. “Don’t think about your father that way, Izuku.”

Kami. Since when can he read her mind?

“You think I don’t know what my baby son is thinking?” All For One shakes her head, and sighs. “I thought you’d know better. I excused those thoughts about you tearing my throat out, but every parent has to have a limit, Izuku.”

You know what? Fuck you. I hope you die again and again and again and

All For One looks at her, a look of unspeakable disappointment on her face. If Marinette had her mouth back, she would’ve bared her teeth in victory. He presses his hand to Izuku’s head again, and

Even before it happens, she can feel the air shift

She is seventeen and dust and debris rain down from the sky. She is trying to hold up the sky so the civilians can escape Atlas in miniature but it’s too much and her stomach rebels against her that is when he approaches and cuts her left arm clean off she can’t use her quirk anymore

He is trapped with his estranged brother on one side and him on the other and the ice to stabilize the buildings he spent so much energy on drip drip drip they melt and the ground shudders as the concrete comes falling down he looks for Izuku and screams

He is running running his fuel ran out a long time ago but that is when the spires jut out of the ground and he trips metal grinds against stone as the spires impale his engines and then he appears reaching out a hand to take his quirk

No! That isn’t how it happened.

Ochako, Shoto, Tenya, everyone—they’re all alive and well. None of them lost any limbs or died or got their quirks stolen in the fight against All For One. No matter what fake scenarios he conjures up, they’re just that—false nightmares—

“Just false nightmares, hm? How about this?”

Chat Noir he is just fourteen not even a hero-in-training but there he is impaled on a spike eyes wide and unseeing but she can still hear his voice

Ladybug help why why why is he here what curse did you bring over from your past life why did you never tell me why don’t you trust me I have always laid down my life for you I need you but you’re so willing to throw me away Ladybug please

Marinette comes back to herself screaming.

The world shudders—

All For One looks shocked. He looks around, at the death-white space twisting and collapsing on himself, at Marinette with her mouth back. A tremble runs through the not-quite dimension, forcing All For One to stumble back.

Marinette blinks, and Yoichi is suddenly in front of her.

“That’s enough, dear brother.” He spits, and presses his palm to All For One’s face before the villain can react.

Another blood-curdling screech echoes through the infinite space. A bolt of green lightning flies from nowhere, striking All For One in the back and filling her vision with green. Marinette blanches.

When she reopens her eyes, that man is nowhere to be seen. First offers a hand to her, and Marinette gratefully accepts his assistance to stand up.

“Where…” She winces, swallowing. Her throat is raw and dry. How long has she been screaming?

Yoichi smiles at her, gentle and kind, so unlike his brother. “He’s gone now, Marinette. And you should be waking up soon as well, if Izuku’s calculations are corr—”

Her vision goes blank.

Izuku Marinette Ladybug wakes up to a boy in a leather catsuit and a kwami peering anxiously at her.

“Chat? Tikki?” Ladybug props herself up on her elbows, and immediately winces. She feels like she spent the entire afternoon holding up a skyscraper—something she has unfortunate and literal experience in. “What…”

The past night’s memories slam into her mind like a freight train.

The akuma sealing up her powers. Aching muscles. Her plan to have Chat cataclysm the akuma. Being hit with that nightmare sand a second time. Waking up in One For All’s mindscape, and—

Him.

She swallows. Her throat still feels so raw, but—

Her Chaton, alive and smiling, eyes warm and brimming with life unlike that not-quite nightmare—

 Relief floods her veins at the sight of Chat Noir, alive and unharmed. If it wasn’t for his concerned frown, she would’ve burst into tears right there and then.

But also—

“Guys?” She thinks frantically, then nearly facepalms. The vestiges are gone now; she won’t be able to contact them any time soon—

She receives the impression of a thumbs-up in return.

…what?

“Don’t worry about us. The mindscape’s a little battered, but we’ll survive.” First assures her. “All For One’s back in the Vault now, but I’m afraid we can’t do anything about your memories. Though—it seems whatever the akuma did has destroyed the barrier between us permanently.”

Huh.

That’s…fine. She should’ve known locking up those memories wouldn’t have worked in the long run anyway.

Ladybug takes a deep breath, and shoves all those emotions to the side for now.

She opens her mouth, intent on reassuring her partner and kwami that she is fine, that Chat is fine, but what comes out is—

“Ow.”

Chat Noir immediately tenses. “You—where are you hurt? Your head? Your back? Do you need an icepack—”

Ladybug grimaces. “I’ll be fine, Chat.” She lies, but her voice is low and scratchy. She doesn’t sound fine. “Once I use Miraculous Ladybug—wait. The akuma?”

It is only then that she realizes the street is quiet, with no terrified screams or tarantulas running around. She thinks her inattentiveness can be excused, just this once, considering…everything.

Chat, bless his heart, doesn’t comment on her voice. Instead, he beams. “I defeated Sandboy and cataclysmed the butterfly, my Lady! That little boy’s mother came to get him as soon as he was deakumatized—apparently she was there when he got akumatized and followed him across the city. All that’s left to do is to restore the damage the akuma caused.”

Ladybug smiles. She reaches out to scratch Chat under his chin, who purrs in delight. “I knew you could do it!”

Then—she wraps her arms around Chat’s shoulders, pulling him towards her.

Chat stiffens. “Wha—oh.” Hesitantly, he relaxes into the hug.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Chaton.” Ladybug whispers, her voice soft enough to hopefully hide the tremble of her voice.

“…I’m glad you’re okay too, my Lady.” Chat murmurs. “I was so worried when you collapsed.”

Ladybug smiles. He’s always so thoughtful, her Chaton.

Reluctantly, she lets go of Chat, and turns to Tikki. “You’re okay too, right?”

Tikki smiles, but her antennae are drooping, almost as if she’s exhausted. “Don’t worry about me, Ladybug. It was like being sealed within my miraculous without a holder. The akuma didn’t hurt me.”

“Still—do you need to recharge? I don’t have any cookies with me, but we can run home to recharge before casting Miraculous Ladybug—”

“No, Ladybug.” Tikki presses her forehead to the shaded visor of Ladybug’s helmet. “I was worried for you, but I’m not hurt. Just do what you have to do now.”

“If you’re sure, then.” Ladybug takes a deep breath. “Tikki, spots on.”

When she finally returns to her balcony, Marinette barely has the strength to utter the words “spots off” before collapsing onto her lawn chair.

Tikki goes straight towards the abandoned plate of cookies on the table. After shoving a few of them into her mouth, she turns and drags a disproportionately large cup of water to Marinette.

Marinette accepts the cup gratefully. The cold liquid rushes down her parched throat, cool and soothing. She sighs in relief, and places the mug back on the table.

Her phone beeps—a message from Alya about Ladybug’s ‘new appearance’. Marinette grimaces and leaves the message on read for now. She can deal with that tomorrow.

Her eyes catch on the time displayed on the screen—one thirty-five.

Has it only been an hour…?

“Marinette?” Tikki lands on her knee gently. “Are you really okay?”

Marinette slips her hero smile onto her face, practiced and not at all forced. “Why won’t I be?”

Tikki doesn’t bother dignifying that with a response. Instead, she just looks sad. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Of course, Tikki.” Marinette replies—lies—and tries not to think of a pair of green, unseeing eyes.

Hawkmoth is having the best day—night—of his life.

He didn’t expect much when he akumatized Sandboy. The little boy was only such—a child waking up from a nightmare. At best, he expected the akuma to weaken Ladybug and her cat so they will be sleep-deprived enough to make mistakes when he inevitably sends out akumas the next day. At worst, this fight would’ve been a waste of his own time and energy.

But.

Tonight’s battle has exceeded his wildest expectations!

Not only did Ladybug lose her powers, she was also incapacitated, for the first time in…forever.

Ladybug is both the offence and defence of the heroes. Everyone knows Chat Noir is only there for moral support; without Ladybug, that dumb cat would’ve crumbled like a house of cards.

Oh, if only his little akuma pushed further! If not for Chat Noir’s fluke at the end…he always gets hit by the akumas, except this single time Ladybug goes down…damnit! If it wasn’t for that fluke, he would already be Wishing for Emilie to be healed!

…wait. He planned on sending out another akuma the first thing in the morning…but what if he doesn’t wait?

He should press his advantage now, strike while Ladybug and Chat Noir still haven’t regathered their wits.

Who knows when he will next have this advantage?

Chuckling, he gathers energy into his palm and awaits his next victim.

He doesn’t have to wait for long.

Pain fear why why he doesn’t deserve it

A flash of something—black clothes and green eyes—accompanied by the most delicious miasma of terror.

Almost giddy with excitement, Hawkmoth releases the butterfly in his palms. He exclaims, “Fly, my little akuma, and evilise that suffering soul!”

The mind his akuma links to is…familiar, somehow. It is a teenage girl, hurting, and there is a thick mist draped over her mind.

After…after last time, Hawkmoth swore to himself that he will never akumatize another person with a mind like that, but…this girl had such sheer potential! Pain, and fear of a man—fear for someone…yes. He can almost picture the girl’s akuma form—a figure in a mourning dress, tears flowing from brilliant blue eyes, strips of green layering her skin…

Ladybug won’t stand a chance.

“Hello,” he says, and instantly feels a powerful, brilliant wave of hatred and fear wash over him. He smiles, the rush of emotions sending power surging into his veins. “De—”

Wait.

Oh.

Oh.

Shit.

‘Deku.’

This is that girl—the girl who nearly defeated him, the one with the terrifying brain monsters, who nearly broke his mind—

He cuts his losses and flees, but not before hands rise from that unyielding blanket of mist and brush against his mind and there is that horrific tugging sensation and he—

He—

He can’t—

He just can’t—

No one else gets akumatized that night.

“Thanks,” Marinette thinks, as the vestiges tugs at Hawkmoth’s mental connection and terrifies him into fleeing.

“Don’t mention it, kid.” Fifth replies, before giving her the distinct impression that he’s ruffling her hair.

The sensation is almost distracting enough to bring a smile to her lips.

For some reason, the image of Izuku classmates’ broken bodies hurt a lot less than Chat Noir’s.

Maybe it has something to do with how much worse Marinette has seen Izuku’s friends. They fought in a war together, after all, and she long since lost count of how many times one of them was rushed to the ER, and not even with the most advanced healing quirks in Japan could they be assured to survive. Maybe it’s because she has seen Ochako and Tenya and Shoto and everyone else hurt like that—almost dying—but despite Chat’s eagerness to jump in front of akuma attacks, there has never been blood, and what will she do when if that day finally comes?

Or maybe it has something to do with how alone Chat Noir is, compared to the heroes in Izuku’s life. He has Master Fu, and her, but he keeps thinking he’s worth so much less than either of them—so much more dispensable—and she knows that sort of thinking will get him permanently killed one day. And when if Marinette dies again, Chat will be all alone, unlike Shoto. Master Fu might be getting better at teaching, but he still can’t offer emotional support of any kind.

Marinette doesn’t sleep a wink that night. She just lies on her balcony and stares at the black sky, willing the darkness to drown out the imprint of blood behind her eyelids.

She’ll have to replace the rolling pin and pepper spray before her parents wake up, but that’s a problem for 4am Marinette. Right now, nothing short of a catastrophe will make her move.

(When morning comes, she will regret not doing her stretches when her muscles cramp like nothing she’s ever experienced in this life. She will look so terrible that Maman will insist she take the day off. That is another problem for future Marinette.)

My Lady why don’t you trust me I have always laid down my life for you I need you but you’re so willing to throw me away Ladybug please

Marinette presses her palms to her eyes and groans.

“Marinette,” Tikki gives her another look of concern. “Maybe you should go down—”

“Later.” She mutters. She doesn’t think she has the energy to do anything now.

Why don’t you trust me

Why did you never tell me

Why why why

“…do you think I should do it?” Marinette thinks abruptly.

She can feel the consciousness of the vestiges, who had been keeping their distance at her request, draw to the front of her mind. It’s both a familiar and foreign sensation.

“Do what?” Toshinori asks.

Marinette swallows. Now that she thought of it out loud, it doesn’t seem like a good idea.

But—

Ladybug please

It isn’t like Master Fu would object even if he knew—he only forbid Ladybug from sharing the personal details that can be traced back to Marinette with Chat Noir.

The vestiges’ attention are all on her, eagerly awaiting whatever she’s about to say. They won’t root through her thoughts without reason like him.

“…tell Chat Noir about Izuku.” She finally says. “Do you think I should do it?”

Surprise, hesitance, and shockingly excitement wash over her thoughts.

“Yeah! Go for it!” Izuku replies.

Nana-san tells her. “They’re your memories, kid. You can do whatever you want with them.”

“That’s gonna be a fun conversation. I can’t wait.” Third adds. Marinette can never tell if he’s being sarcastic or not.

“Eh.” Fifth gives the mental impression of shrugging. “This isn’t a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision, but if you sure…’s not like we can stop you.”

…she expected them to say no, to help her dismiss this idea as a foolish thought borne of sleep deprivation, not…this.

“…but what if he doesn’t believe me?”

“Why won’t he believe you, idiot?” Second scoffs. “We’ve all seen the look in his eyes; if you ask him to jump onto a grenade for you, he will. He has.”

“But…”

“Ninth,” Nana-san interrupts before Second can continue. “What do your instincts tell you?”

“…to tell Chat Noir as much as I can that doesn’t compromise our identities. He deserves that much.”

“Then go for it!” Nana-san tells her. “Trust yourself and trust your partner.”

Marinette takes a deep breath. “…okay.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir meet up for patrol at their rendezvous point the following night.

Ladybug isn’t feeling much better. Even after resting for an entire day and slathering extra-strength tiger balm all over her body, she still feels like someone threw a building at her. She can’t shift without her muscles screeching in protest. Still, it isn’t the worst pain she’s been through.

“Hello, my Lady!” Chat beams, bright and innocent and alive. He performs a flip as he jumps down from the chimney, landing deftly in front of Ladybug, and bows. “You look radiant tonight!”

Ladybug doubts that. She-as-Marinette looked terrible, but maybe Tikki was nice enough to hide her plus ultra-sized eyebags when she transformed. Or maybe Chat’s just biased.

She tries not to think about his comment about Chat’s crush.

“Why, thank you, Sir Kitten.” She smiles, and is rewarded by the pleased grin he sends her way.

“So, what’s on the menu tonight, my Lady? Are we sparring again?”

“Actually…” Ladybug hesitates. Maybe this isn’t—no. She will see this through. “I have something I need to tell you.”

Chat stiffens, ever so slightly. Ladybug wouldn’t be able to tell if she wasn’t watching him so closely. “Oh?”

Ladybug walks to the edge of the roof and sits down, dangling her feet over the edge. There’s something exhilarating about sitting so close to the edge, where one wrong move will have her careering to the ground.

Chat sits down next to her, and tilts his head. His brows furrow slightly, and his grip on the edge of the roof is just too tight to be normal.

It’s now or never.

Ladybug takes a deep breath.

“Chaton, do you believe in reincarnation?”