Prologue

Marinette POV

"It's over, Chat," I said. "We got Hawkmoth. It's over."

Chat clenched his jaw and nodded stiffly. "What do we do now that the danger is passed?" he asked me. I looked down at the Butterfly Brooch in my hand. Nooroo had practically been in tears when we released him from the tyrant who had kept him captive for five years. "I guess it's time..." I trailed off, and reached for my miraculous. "What are you doing?!" Chat reached for my hands that were going up to my ears. I gave him a sad look. "There's no more danger. It's passed. It's time to give up the miraculous."

"Like, stop being heroes?" he asked. I nodded. "But Master Fu died last year! What are we going to do with them? What are we going to tell the public if we suddenly disappear?" "He gave me the Miracle Box, telling me that I was the new Guardian before he died. I have it in a secret compartment in my room. As for the public, we don't need to stop robberies or fires, we have the police and fire department for that. We'll just tell them that It's time for Ladybug and Chat Noir to move on. We've done our job, now it's time to live a normal life. I, for one will miss my kwami terribly, but it's time to let them go. I also want to make it to class on time for once."

Chat nodded. "so I guess this is it, M'Lady," he said with a bow.

I closed my eyes. "Spots off." Chat followed my example and said, "Claws in." We both looked up at each other. "Somehow, I'm not surprised," said Adrian. A tear slipped out from my eye. I hugged Tikki and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Bye Tikki. I'm going to miss you." She gave me a sympathetic pat on my cheek. "It'll be okay, Marinette. I'll always remember you. You were one of my bravest Ladybugs." I started crying more openly. "Good bye, Tikki!" I took off my earrings and with a flash, she was gone.

Adrian was having a similar good bye with his kwami. "I guess this is it," he told me when he gave up his ring. I nodded and he slipped my hand in his. I tucked both miraculous in my purse and followed Adrian down the Eiffel Tower.

Later

The miraculous remained untouched in the hidden compartment of Marinette's vanity for fifty years. Marinette and Adrian lead a happy life together, but they were old and the time had come for Marinette to move on. Adrian ad died previously, but as soon as she knew she was dying, she called for her daughter. "Emma," she rasped. "If you go in the hidden compartment of my vanity, there is a secret. Say hello to Tikki for me." That was all she managed to get out before she died. Emma tried to open the hidden compartment her mother had told her about, but she never managed to get it open. Eventually, Emma got tired of it, and when she moved her family to America, she sold the vanity to a family and lived her life without ever knowing who her mother had been. And thus the miraculous remained untouched for another ten years.

In the Kwami World in the Miracle Box...

The kwamis were getting restless. Their perception of time may have been different in the Miracle Box, but they knew that it was too long from the reign of Ladybug and Chat Noir to the present time. None of the miraculous had been used in a long time. There were no more Guardians, no more catastrophes, no more evil miraculous bearers. The only thing that had happened to the kwamis that were considered "interesting" was trying to help Nooroo get over being enslaved. There was no news of the outside world, and those who had been brave enough to venture outside the Miracle Box had quickly come inside saying that they were still safe inside the former Ladybug's hidden compartment. There was no reason to have anymore heroes, they realized, or a new hero would have emerged. So they waited. One day, they figured, Marinette would take the miraculous out of the compartment and they would be used. But they didn't know that Marinette was dead.