Have you seen what they said on the news today
Have you heard what they said about us all
Do you know what is happening to just every one of us
Have you heard, have you heard?
There will be a catastrophe the like we've never seen
There will be something that will light the sky
That the world as we know it, it will never be the same
Did you know, did you know?
Where the Wild Wind Blows (Iron Maiden)
Paris was burning as Marinette looked down upon it from her old place on the Eiffel Tower. She'd not been here since that last time with Adrien.
She hadn't known he was Adrien back then. She hadn't known at all, not until he'd tried to take her Miraculous. Plagg had warned her and she had stopped him. Taken his Miraculous. Left Adrien there, desperate to use the power of a wish to bring his mother back.
She hadn't let him. It wasn't right—not to exchange another life for his mother's, another family sacrificed no matter how much she wanted to end his own pain. So she had turned her back on him, Plagg by her side and left him on the Paris roof, unaware of what would happen.
What had happened.
She looked down over the neighborhoods, some shrouded in smoke, some afire. Her home, the school, both gone, burning away, smoke and ash rising on the morning air. Her parents were gone to ash, along with her home. The roads where she'd walked, crowded with angry mobs, burning cars, shouts rising into the air. She looked up as a formation of jets rocketed overhead, maybe heading to the borders.
All because of us. She whispered, "Spots off" and then was revealed. Just Marinette. If someone saw her, saw her transform they would…
Not have enough time to stop her. She reached up and took her earrings off. She'd forbidden Tikki from speaking. Not because she didn't want to say goodbye, but because she was afraid that the kwami might dissuade her. Her other hand held a black ring.
Plagg hadn't spoken for days. Hadn't spoken very much since that terrible night. He'd been angry—and heartbroken, and it had only gotten worse, as they realized how very far Adrien had fallen.
If only…
The thought vanished on the ashy wind. Useless.
Just one thing to do now. Marinette held up the two miraculouses, and started to say the words that could command their power, that would make a wish.
Her throat hurt as she said the words. It wasn't just an old language, it was the First language, Tikki had told her. Older than the kwami, who after all were only as old as the universe. This language had been the one used to speak the universe into being.
She spoke the words. Once, twice, three times. Three times to let the Powers know that she was serious. Three times, each time harder than the last, the universe asking her if she was sure. If she was very sure.
Blood burst from her mouth, even as the sounds of the world around her faded away. Her form started to blaze with…
Calling it light was inadequate. The blaze seemed to cut through everything else, more real than mere matter and energy. And contrasting with the light, Marinette's shadow fell behind her, great and terrible. She held up her hands, and then saw the Powers that now regarded her.
Marinette wanted to die, to crawl away, to close her eyes against the regard of those beings. Not evil. Evil would have been less terrifying than the virtue and glory that looked down upon her.
But she had to say her last request, and so, desperately, thinking of her friends, Alya (poor Alya, she had never deserved what had happened to her), all the terror, all the people, good and evil, and yes, even Adrien, even if she couldn't grant him absolution. That was one thing she knew looking upon the power before her. One thing it could not change was a man's choice and Adrien had made his.
She gasped out her request for pardon and redemption for man and felt it take her. But there was one last thing to do. The price.
Let it fall upon me. Let it only fall upon me… she thought, and then a great wind took her and whirled her away.
And simultaneously, the world changed. Or rather, the world had always been as Marinette's wish made it.
But not only as her wish had made it…