It had been a few days since they'd defeated Hawk Moth. A few days. A few years, a few lifetimes... it was so much to take in. Adrien had felt stuck in a sort of limbo. His father was Hawk Moth. His father had been terrorizing Paris. Adrien had been fighting his father. Adrien had put his father in jail. Adrien had put Hawk Moth in jail.

How was he supposed to come to terms with all of this?

He'd already had several photo shoots canceled. One month ago, he would have been ecstatic. Now, he kind of wished for the normalcy of it all. He had yet to return to school, although Nino had insisted he come over. He'd even stayed with Adrien the night after the arrest, just sat there and played video games all night to try and help him out. He'd crashed on the couch and Adrien had found himself waking up the next morning on the floor in front of the television.

Nathalie hadn't even minded. Well, she hadn't seemed to. She'd just had breakfast (alright, lunch) for both of them taken to his room.

The rest of the day had passed by in a sort of blur. Nino had gone home sometime that afternoon, saying his mom wouldn't let him miss another day of school, and it was only Thursday. Adrien had still appreciated it and was planning on doing something to let Nino know just how much.

He'd gotten all sorts of texts and voice mails from different people. Not all of them were the nicest, but everyone from class had texted him to let him know about their support and how they knew he couldn't possibly be involved in anything Hawk Moth had done.

Now if only they could convince the police. The only reason he was home and not stuck in juvie or something was because Nathalie was kind of terrifying when she wanted to be. He was actually very grateful for that.

Despite it all, he'd managed to get himself together enough to actually head out to meet his lady (after turning the lights off for a while to throw off anyone staking out his room) for their evening patrol. Even if he didn't think they'd actually go on patrol. There wasn't really a point. Still, they need to talk. He was going to insist that they reveal their identities now. He needed his Lady in his life and he was pretty sure that she needed him. Even without all the... crap that had been going on with him, she'd have to make adjustments.

So he bounded over the rooftops of Paris heading towards their usual meeting spot, hoping she would show up because, in all honesty, they didn't really need to, and in all honesty, he wasn't sure he'd be able to again if she didn't come tonight because transforming reminded him of what had happened and of... him and the whole convoluted mess and...

He nearly missed a step he was so relieved to see a figure sitting on their roof, curled up. Even through the green tinge, he could tell that she was wearing red and those pigtails and a cute little hat and...

Wait, what?

He landed as silently as he could on the roof, wondering who had come to this place above an abandoned building in the middle of Paris.

Then he realized that her shoulders shook and what was that little, red thing floating beside her... trying to comfort her? She was crying. Whoever this girl was...

He cleared his throat and both the girl and the little, red creature (a Kwami, he realized belatedly) turned to look at him.

His eyes widened when he realized who was sitting there. Marinette Dupain-Chang. She also had one of the most adorable pink, red and white outfits he'd ever seen. Oh, and there were polka-dots on some of the red...

Wait a second.

"A-are you alright?" he found himself asking, even as his mind struggled to put everything together. It felt like he was trying to think through a fog of some kind.

She sniffed and shook her head. Then she spoke and his mind cleared.

"Oh, Chat..." she said in a shaky voice, "I've done something terrible..."

His breath caught in his throat (probably the lump that had formed there) and his stomach seemed to have turned into a ball of ice, but that didn't stop him from speaking.

"M... My Lady?"

She sniffed and nodded.

So he did the only thing he could really think to do at that point.

"Plagg, claws in."

xXx

Apparently, they both needed a few minutes after the reveal for him to come to terms with it all, so they just sort of sat there, staring at each other. Adrien didn't know whether he was shocked, worried or incredibly happy. Marinette had been his Lady? The whole time? One of his best friends and really he should have seen it. Sure, Marinette had been so shy and stuttering around him to begin with, but he could easily recall times when she'd stood up to Chloe or protected others or had evacuated the classroom during an akuma attack. She always seemed to take charge.

Except... something didn't seem to add up. She wasn't normally one to dress up, was she? And while it wasn't a mind-boggling change, it was different enough that it made him edgy.

"So," he finally said, noting how she seemed to be coming to terms with her own shock, "why were you crying? And what have you done that's so terrible?" Because it couldn't be that bad, could it? After all, this was Ladybug.

To his utter horror, her eyes began to water up again.

"It's okay, Marinette," the red kwami said soothingly.

"No, it's really not," Plagg interrupted. Adrien blinked and looked over at his kwami. He'd never heard that kind of hard tone from the little cat before.

"Plagg!" Adrien and the red kwami said at the same time.

"Sorry, Marinette. This is my kwami, Plagg. Ignore him."

"N-no, he's right," she said, obviously trying to hold herself together. "It's... it's really not okay."

He couldn't help it. He'd never seen Marinette (let alone Ladybug) look that utterly despondant before. And he hated seeing her like that now. So he did the only thing he could do. He walked over, sat down by her and carefully – because if she pushed him away he would back off – put his arms around her. To his relief, she sagged into him.

"What happened?" he asked.

She began her story. She told him how originally, they hadn't defeated Hawk Moth. How he'd managed to get her earrings, and discover her identity, but not get his ring. How she'd been threatened (as well as her family and friends) into doing nothing to aid him or anyone else when akuma attacked. How she'd felt so useless and worthless and like such a failure and she'd missed Tikki (who then introduced herself to Adrien very quickly, and he immediately decided he liked her) and it had been at this point that she'd been approached by something called a Kyubey. She later found out that was short for 'Incubator'.

Kyubey had offered to give her powers in exchange for a wish. She'd been leery, but had ultimately accepted its offer, at which point she wished that she and Adrien had defeated Hawk Moth instead of him defeating her.

She'd regained her miraculous and gained powers and the world had changed into what Adrien now remembered (which he was grateful for; as bad as it was now, being on the run from his super-powered father without a partner to watch his back was not an idea he relished).

Then she told of how Tikki had known immediately what had happened.

"That was the first time I think I've ever seen Tikki truly angry," Marinette said softly. Her sobs had calmed, leaving a sort of fragile tranquility in its wake.

"How did you know?" Adrien asked Tikki, because he still wasn't seeing a huge problem to all of this.

"Well," the kwami replied, "first of all, the earrings don't work for her anymore."

Adrien felt his eyes widen in surprise. "What?!"

"It's enough to allow me to manifest, but not enough to actually transform."

"Why not?" the blond asked trying not to let his heart sink. No more Ladybug? He didn't want to think about that at all.

Tikki looked hesitant and glanced at Marinette. He felt her nod against him and braced himself for the worst.

He didn't brace himself nearly enough.

"Her body no longer holds her soul."

Adrien's stomach dropped and he felt sick. "W-what?!" he almost shouted.

Marinette flinched, but he held her tighter. Then, to his surprise, a pink and red light washed over her, leaving Marinette in her regular attire. She held out her hand and a small, red jewel fell into it.

"Th-this... this is my soul," she said, almost too softly for Adrien to hear.

Adrien had to admit, it was a beautiful jewel, an egg-like gem with a color not quite red but not quite pink either. It glowed and shone... but how could that be his Lady's soul?

"To give humans powers, Incubators have to tie their souls to this plane of existence more thoroughly," Tikki said, her voice almost as soft as Marinette's.

"Essentially, they crystallize it," Plagg growled.

"Also, the aura of magic around her had changed," Tikki went on. Then she sighed. "I've seen it before. I knew what had happened immediately."

"Wait," Adrien said, still trying to wrap his head around all of this. "You two knew about this? And you never told us?"

"Incubators aren't stupid enough to come near us," Plagg nearly growled. "If you ever see one, kid, cataclysm it."

"Um..." was all Adrien could say, unnerved at Plagg's unusual attitude.

"We didn't want to worry you," Tikki said, placatingly. "You two had already had so many problems with Akuma that we didn't want to make it worse."

"We were instructed to ease you into everything," Plagg agreed. "Besides, we didn't think the Incubators would come to Paris with all of the miraculous activity. None of the kwami would stand for letting it live."

Both of the children blinked at that, taken back.

"Even you, Tikki?" Marinette asked.

Tikki looked grim. "Even me, Marinette. Not after what they've done in the past.

"Anyway," she continued, "that's not the end of it, Adrien. That's only scratching the surface."

Adrien felt his heart sink. This was starting to look really bad.

"Relationships have become infinitely more difficult," Tikki said, suddenly looking so old.

Adrien just stared at her in horror. "What?"

"She'll never age now, kid." He felt Marinette flinch in his arms, but she said nothing.

Tikki nodded. "Indeed, her body will remain the way it is. She'll never age."

"And if her little gem there gets taken away from her body, it will stop working. It will collapse and look dead until reunited with the gem."

The blond just held her tighter. So she'd never age and her body was... a puppet now? So what. He still loved her. He'd still be with her.

"And that's if she doesn't ever use her powers," Plagg went on.

"What's the price for using her powers?" Adrien asked hesitantly, unsure if he really should. He didn't think he wanted to know the answer. He would, though, for his Lady. Anything to help her.

"The more I use my power, the more clouded my gem gets," Marinette said, holding the little egg-like jewel I her hands almost reverently.

Adrien swallowed. "What happens if it gets too clouded?"

Marinette's hand closed around the gem, holding it tightly. "The Incubator asked me if I honestly thought Hawk Moth was the only magical danger to humans. It was one reason I decided to take it up on its offer. It told me about these beings called witches."

"Witches?"

Tikki nodded grimly. "Witches are beings that create pocket dimensions connected to this world. They rule over those pocket dimensions and fill them with their madness. Most witches create labyrinths to hide in and then send minions and familiars after people outside their dimensions."

"They spread their insanity and feed off of other's misfortune," Plagg said, sounding disgusted. Adrien sensed a story there, but filed that thought away for later.

"The Incubator said they could cause accidents on a terrifying scale and can push people to suicide," Marinette muttered.

"Well at least it didn't lie to you there," Plagg said, half to himself.

"At the heart of each witch lies what is called a grief seed. It's the only thing that can be used to cleanse the cloudiness of magical girl's stones," Tikki said. "They're small, round and egg-like."

"Like the soul gem?" Adrien asked.

The other three flinched.

"Witches used to be magical girls, Adrien," Marinette whispered. "That's what they turn into when their gem gets too clouded."

Adrien couldn't help it. He stared at the kwamis in horror.

"S-so if you don't find other girls like you who couldn't find a grief seed fast enough to cleanse your own stone..."

"Now you're getting it, kid," Plagg said.

"B-but that's pointless! There's no way to win in that cycle! How did this all come to be? And who made it happen? The Incubators?"

"Yes," Plagg said simply.

Tikki sighed. "Incubators are an alien race. They don't believe in emotion. Any of their race caught with emotion are put to death before their 'disease' can spread." Just when Adrien thought it couldn't get worse.

"That's sick."

"It gets worse," Plagg piped up.

"How?!"

"According to them," Tikki explained, her tone derisive, "the universe is in entropy. The races of the universe use more energy than they create. They waste energy. It's just how physics works. According to their calculations, if they don't find a way to create energy on a large scale, the universe will collapse in on itself and destroy everything."

"Is that true?"

Tikki and Plagg exchanged glances. "There is evidence to support their conclusion," Tikki said slowly.

"But they didn't know about us at the time," Plagg cut in angrily.

"They still insist we aren't enough to balance the whole universe," the red kwami replied.

"Wait, do you guys mean that you kwamis can stop this?"

Tikki sighed. "Emotions can create and feed magical energy. The Incubators are convinced that miraculous not used as often as we need to out of sheer necessity, will not be enough to balance out the energy being used and wasted by the universe."

"I... guess that makes sense," Adrien conceded reluctantly.

"So they approach young, naive, human girls and enter them into a contract," Tikki practically spat.

"Because apparently, they show the most promise," Plagg added on in a similar voice.

"Why is this so personal to you?" Marinette asked suddenly, surprising her companions. "You sound as if it's all a personal insult."

Again, the kwami looked at each other. After a moment, they seemed to come to a conclusion and turned back to their chosen. "Initially they approached us for help and we agreed," Tikki said.

"They outright lied to us and tricked us into helping them find girls to bind."

"They caused us to hurt humans," Tikki seethed. "It goes against our very nature."

"They can't be trusted," Plagg growled. "We tried to get them to leave, but while I can destroy any particular one, they're a part of this creepy hive-mind thing."

"It's not quite like that," Tikki muttered, but she didn't sound too convincing.

"So what do we do?" Adrien asked.

At that, Plagg almost looked as if he wilted. "We can't drive them off. We've tried."

"So we just try and prevent what we can," Tikki finished.

Again, the blond found himself staring at the two kwami, both of which couldn't seem to meet his eyes.

"B-but what about Marinette?"

"That's just it, kitty," Marinette spoke up softly. "There isn't anything we can do about it."

He blinked at them, and then shook his head.

"No, I refuse to just accept this!"

"Look, kid, there aren't many ways to undo her wish," Plagg said.

"But there are some ways," Adrien argued. "Right?"

The kwamis fell into silence again.

"Right?!"

Finally, Plagg answered. "Look, kid, I think it's time for us to go and talk to Master Fu. If there's any chance, he'll be able to tell you."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Marinette asked, sitting up. Adrien didn't like how cold his side felt without her.

Then he frowned and spoke aloud. "Wait, who's Master Fu?"

xXx

AN: SO this is a continuation of a drabble I had in chapter 2 of my story Alphabet Soup (V, if you want to check it out) where Marinette is approached by Kyubey after she loses her miraculous. I plan on having this be a few chapters long, probably not more than 5 or 6 (famous last words). Anyway, let me know what you think!