AN: WARNING: depictions of violence (in only two sentences nearly at the beginning, in case of what if, but still the warning)
Not even two minutes after the explosion students and teachers started rushing back inside, still not believing what was happening.
Alya was almost the first to fly inside the classroom, holding her phone up mostly out of habit than on her own will.
The view presented to her was almost the last thing she wanted to see.
Chat Noir sat on the floor with a mix of horror and fury on his face. If that expression wasn't scary enough, then the fact that he was clutching Ladybug's earrings, her EARRINGS, without the owner herself, was too much to handle.
"They... are lifeless," Chat whispered in horror. "Lifeless! That means..." His breath hitched in the throat, and it was visible that he was forcing himself to speak. "Means... That... Ladybug is ABSOLUTELY d-dead."
Those two words were met with complete silence. One could sense the fear of the whole crowd caused by implications of that fact.
Ladybug was gone. Only Chat Noir could protect them now. And he was in no condition to do that.
Hawkmoth was presented a brilliant opportunity to attack now.
Alya was sure that if Chat was able to see Ladybug's dead body, he would have screamed and tried to bring her back to life. But he had nothing. Apparently, miraculous cure decided to take her body away.
Maybe it was a good thing. Alya wasn't sure that anyone could deal with... Well, her very injured body.
Or parts of it.
"It's even worse than it seems," Chat whispered on the edge of tears. "Not only the girl behind Ladybug mask died, but her..." He almost said 'kwami'. Too much information! "The source of her power is also dead."
Beep-beep. One pad left on the ring. Chat turned to face the students.
"I..." His voice betrayed him, so the boy simply turned to the window and vaulted himself away.
Alya pressed stop on the record button.
"Oh my..." She sobbed. "A... A minute of silence for our hero's remembrance..."
Surprisingly, her voice was heard, even if it was unsteady and quiet. People lowered their heads in appreciation, each digesting the fact that one half of Paris's lucky duo was gone forever.
By the end of the minute, tears were on everyone's faces, some silent, some sobbing quietly, the others so eaten by grief that they visibly trembled from the unstopping flood of tears. Unable to handle more, students and teachers began slowly leaving the classroom. In several minutes, there were only Alya and Chloé left inside.
Marinette slowly approached her crying friend from behind.
"Hey, Alya," She whispered softly. "Maybe things are better than they seem..."
"Marinette, it's the end of the world."
It was like a kick in the stomach to hear those words. Not true, not true, not true, chanted Marinette in her head.
"Alya, it's not. We're still alive and we're gonna be fine. Sure, it's a great tragedy, but we will get over it. We all just need some time."
"Girl, but... What about Hawkmoth?" The journalist managed to choke out between loud sobs.
"He's gonna stop once he realizes that his goal is unattainable," Marinette told her softly.
Alya sobbed once more, then lifted her head and looked at her friend, really looked at her as if she was seeing the girl for the first time after some big revelation.
"Marinette... Do you think that Ladybug sacrificed herself to stop Hawkmoth?"
That was close to the truth.
"Yes," She said firmly. "Come on, she could just toss her Lucky Charm in the air right after cleansing the akuma and fix everything, but instead she jumped into the fire! There has to be some logic in her actions!"
"All that just to save me."
Chloé was looking at Alya and Marinette, speaking for the first time in the last half an hour.
And boy, was she completely horrified.
The blonde inhaled deeply before speaking once again.
"They will all hate me once they realize it's all MY fault. That I'M the one responsible for HER death."
Never in her life had Marinette seen Chloé so utterly miserable. She hated to admit it, but it was partly her fault for putting her in this state.
The state wasn't much better than Chat Noir was in.
"Chloé, everyone could be in your place. It's not your fault here. Ladybug decided for some reason that jumping into the fire would be more appropriate than just cleansing the side effects, and you had almost nothing to do with that."
Was she really comforting her worst rival after Hawkmoth?
Yes. She was.
Alya and Chloé apparently seemed to decide that universe was turned upside down, looking at her in complete disbelief. Nevertheless, Chloé answered.
"Key word is 'almost', Marinette."
Gabriel Agreste was sitting in his office, deep in thought.
"Tell me, Nooroo," He finally sighed. "Why did Ladybug happen to be so stupid not only to aimlessly kill herself, but take the source of her power with her?"
"I have no idea, Master," replied his kwami solemnly. "Maybe she sacrificed herself to stop you, because Chat Noir's miraculous on its own has a very limited power. Or she was just being careless."
"To stop me?" Gabriel hummed in thought. "All I want is my wife back. I miss Emma dearly. And Adrien misses her, too. We need Emma back, because without her we're nothing. Life is not exactly worth living, you know? We're like Chat Noir now without Ladybug. Completely alone."
"You have each other though, master. You know," carefully said Nooroo, "you could always just ask them instead of trying to take their jewelry away. Miraculous which are gathered against someone's will have much less power."
Gabriel sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Anyway, there's no point in that now. Ladybug is dead, and there's nothing we can do. Only wait, and pray that her kwami survived it."
Nooroo subtly exhaled in relief. At least it was some progress. At least he was not going to send another akuma at poor Ladybug's partner.
Adrien detransformed behind the nearest corner.
"Plagg..."
He couldn't take it anymore, he broke down in tears, sliding down the wall and hugging his knees. Plagg floated near his chosen silently, knowing perfectly well that the boy just needed to cry out all his tears.
"We need to get home," The kwami reminded him an hour later. "I know it feels like the end of the world, and in some sense it is. Time doesn't heal all wounds, kid, so I won't make any promises to you, but at least it'll get better eventually. Now, stand up. We need to get home," He repeated.
"I can't believe she's DEAD," breathed out Adrien. "Plagg, she was so young... Why did I let her go in that fire? Why didn't I stop her? I was supposed to protect my lady, not... be part of the reason of her death. It would have been better...better if I'd died. There's no point in life without her anyway."
"Cliché," Plagg winced. How do you subtly tell the kid that his lady is probably not as dead as she wants to show? "You're needed to protect Paris. Besides, there's always a possibility of her being alive, don't you dare ever forget that one."
Adrien clenched his teeth.
"Now you're giving me the false hope. That's cruel."
Plagg rolled his eyes.
"I'm literally an ancient demigod with the power of destruction. Creation is my other half, and she has a name. Tikki. And more important, she has a life. Which can't be taken away. Demigods are not that easy to kill, you know."
"So you're telling me that Ladybug's kwami is alive?" The mere thought was like a ray of sunshine through the clouds to Adrien. If it was true, there was a slim chance to at least know the name of the girl he was fighting alongside with against Hawkmoth. And maybe there was a way to bring her back to life...
"She can't be dead, so yeah."
"Then..." The boy frowned, looking at the earrings in his palm, "Why isn't she with her miraculous now?"
"She is," shrugged Plagg.
"Then why can't I see her? Ladybug didn't take off the miraculous willingly, so Tikki shouldn't have disappeared. Right?"
"You're right on that one, Adrien. Tikki IS with her earrings now. Which are not here. What you're holding in your hands is nothing more than a high-quality copy of her jewelry."
Plagg watched as the new information sank in his boy's mind.
"But... Where are the real ones?"