Why every single wall was purple was a mystery to Marinette, who was rapidly growing tired of seeing the same color. Sure, she was no interior decorator, but she figured the Ruins could've been painted a lot differently.

The next room Marinette had walked into after her first fight was just another corridor, but it was different in the sense that gravel was replaced by dark purple sand and there were two holes in the wall on either side of the sand. Having gone through some of the many puzzles of the Ruins, Marinette probably should've been more cautious before walking directly into the sand, but it seemed she still had many things to learn.

The sand gave way to a hole perfectly sized for Marinette, and she fell. Her stomach felt like it had been left somewhere in the sand, and she landed feet first on a bed of leaves.

There were two doors on either side of the leaves, and they looked as if they lead nowhere, the doorways clouded in shadow.

Figuring that her best bet at this point was to continue forward – forward being the direction she'd originally been going in before she fell – she chose the door to the right.

An odd sensation made her stomach clench and her hair blow back from her face, and she emerged on the other side of the sand pit she'd originally fallen through. The hole she'd fallen through had closed up.

This wasn't exactly unsettling, but it still made Marinette swallow hard, rubbing the palms of her hands on her shorts.

She walked to the next room, and her Miraculous Object made an annoying beeping sound. Taking it out of her pocket, she saw one of the spots blinking with the phone icon, and Marinette tapped it lightly, answering the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Marinette," she heard Tikki's high pitched and sweet voice say. "For no reason in particular, which do you prefer: cinnamon or butterscotch?"

Marinette had to think for a moment. She loved both flavors, having them both at her disposal when she was a little kid. But she knew which one she wanted to taste once more. "Butterscotch," she said, her voice sure.

Tikki seemed to not know what to make of her answer. It was a moment before she spoke again. "I see. But if, say, you were to receive something with cinnamon, would you turn your nose up at it?"

"Of course not," Marinette answered, trying to sound reassuring.

"Wonderful! I'll be done soon, child, so just wait a little longer!" And with that, Tikki hung up.

Marinette smiled to herself, stuffing the Miraculous Object in her pocket, and looked up at the room she'd walked into. She almost rolled her eyes at the sight of more spikes. They were blocking the exit, and it looked like all she had to do was push a rock onto a weighted platform, and so that's what she did.

The spikes retracted with a clanking sound, and Marinette leaped over the metal plates the spikes came from, not trusting them enough to step on them.

The next room revealed more sand, and Marinette felt her stomach do an uncomfortable flip. She'd only experienced the sand one time before, but it was already her least favorite puzzle.

She took a tentative step onto the sand, and immediately fell through. This time, she didn't land on her feet. The fall had made her head spin, and it took her a moment to get back up.

There was a path on the ground outlined with red leaves, and then at the end of the room, there was another pitch black doorway. Marinette committed the path to memory, hoping that it was like that puzzle Tikki had lead her through before.

When she walked through the doorway, her hair blowing back and her eyes squinting, she was back at the beginning of the room with all the sand.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, conjuring up the path outlined in red leaves, and stepped on the sand hesitantly. The sand held her weight, and she breathed out a sight of relief, following the path in her mind's eye and walking very slowly to check for particularly loose sand.

She reached the end of the room without further incident, and she leaped the last couple of feet to the exit, all too anxious to get off the sand.

There were more rocks and spikes in the next room, and she pushed the first two rocks onto their designated platform without anything special happening because what could possible be special about a normal gray rock?

Marinette started to push the third rock, but it made a noise of disapproval. Marinette glanced around in confusion, starting to push the rock again, when it made a groan of obvious displeasure. Marinette made a small squeak and jumped away from the rock.

"Honestly," the rock said in a gravelly voice. "You can't expect me to just be pushed around by you, can I? I'm not like other rocks," he said, and Marinette almost rolled her eyes, but she managed to control herself.

"I just want to get to the next room," Marinette replied, trying her best not to sound like she had better things to do than talk with a rock.

"And what am I supposed to do about that?" the rock demanded, and this time Marinette did roll her eyes.

"There are platforms that need to be pushed so that the spikes blocking the exit go away," she explained, gesturing to the spikes and the rocks sitting peacefully on their platforms. She wondered if they could talk, too.

"Well, you could've just asked," the rock said, the tone of it's voice changing dramatically to something almost friendly. "So you want me to move?"

"Yes, please," Marinette said.

The rock promptly moved. In the wrong direction.

"I didn't mean that way," Marinette said, trying her hardest to sound polite.

"Oh, you want me to move in the other direction?" the rock asked, still keeping up it's friendly tone. Marinette wondered if it was being insufferable on purpose.

"Please."

The rock moved again. In the right direction.

"I would like you to go more that a foot," Marinette said after the rock looked like it had no intention of moving further.

"Oh, okay," the rock said, and it moved to rest on the platform, and the spikes blocking the exit retracted into their metal plates. Marinette smiled at the rock, trying to hide her irritation behind her lips.

"Thank you." She started to walk toward the exit, but as soon as she was about to put her foot on the metal plates, the spikes sprang up. She screamed, jumping away from the spikes and whipping around to the rock, who looked as if it was faking innocence, despite having no facial expression. It was quite clearly not on the platform that Marinette had asked oh so politely for it to be.

"What the hell?" Marinette demanded, her breathing fast. "My foot could've gotten impaled!"

"Oh… You wanted me to stay there?" the rock asked, and Marinette wanted to scream. But she managed to get her breathing under control as she forced her voice to be polite.

"Yes, that would be great," she said through clenched teeth.

The rock gave an innocent gravelly laugh, and Marinette wanted to kick it. "Well, you should've said so." It moved back onto the platform, and Marinette said a forced thank you as she hurried over the metal plates to the exit.

Sure, the sand was Marinette's least favorite puzzle, but the rock was her least favorite akuma she's come across. She even preferred Froggit, who had tried attacking her.

There was another save point, but this time, there were no red leaves in sight. Just a tiny table with old cheese stuck to it. She approached the cheese first. It looked so old that it had started to stick to the table. Marinette had a strange impulse to touch it, but then decided it'd be too disgusting.

Before she walked back to the save point, she noticed a tiny hole in the wall, quite like a mouse hole. She started to walk closer, but then a small squeak emitted from the hole, and Marinette decided not to.

When she touched the save point and the world turned black and white, the message read as follows:

The thought that someday the mouse might get the cheese fills you with determination.

Would you like to save?

Marinette smiled softly to herself, pressing 'yes' and taking one last glance at the mouse hole before moving on.

In the next room, the walls seemed to narrow at one particular spot, the ground there covered in red leaves. As Marinette walked closer, she saw that a transparent boy was laying on top of the leaves, his eyes squinted just the tiniest bit open and watching her closely.

Once the transparent boy saw that Marinette was looking at him, he quickly closed his eyes and pretended to snore. "Zzzzzz… Is she gone yet? Zzzzzz…"

Marinette resisted the urge to laugh as she walked closer. What a silly little akuma, she thought to herself as the boy's eyes opened once more before squeezing them shut again.

"Oh, she's not gone… Zzzzz…"

"Hi there," Marinette greeted, and the boy shuttered.

"Oh, no… She's trying to talk to me… Or is she?" The boy's eyes opened again and flitted around, as if to check if there was anyone else in the room, and then squeezed shut again. "She really is trying to talk to me," the boy muttered, "hopefully she just goes away." And then he started to fake snore again.

"I'm not going away," Marinette said, laughing a little.

The boy seemed to panic a little, the intensity of his fake snoring increasing.

"I want to get across to the next part of the room, but you're blocking the way. Do you mind moving?" Marinette asked politely, brushing the tips of her fingers on the boy's transparent body.

As soon as she did so, the red heart from when she saw Froggit seeped out of her, and the boy stood almost begrudgingly. Surprised, Marinette looked down at the heart, which seemed to glow happily at her.

She looked back up at the boy, and she saw that he was pointedly not looking her in the eye, his hands clasped behind his back, and his floppy hair covering one eye. His feet floated a few inches off the leaves, and suddenly his transparent appearance made sense. He was a ghost.

The white name 'Nathanael' was floating above his head, and Marinette looked down at the heart once more, but it was already zooming closer to Nathanael.

Not knowing what else to do, Marinette decided to compliment him, like she did with Froggit. "I really like your outfit, Nathanael," Marinette said, truly meaning it.

"Oh…" Nathanael's cheeks seemed to grow more opaque, which seemed to be a sign that he was blushing.

White tears flowed from Nathanael's eyes, going directly for the heart, but they were going slow, and Marinette was relieved to see the heart could easily dodge them.

"Why are you crying?" Marinette asked, and Nathanael shrugged, the white tears gathering together to form the words 'Really not feeling this right now, sorry.' The heart darted through the words, seemingly in confusion.

There was an annoying beeping sound, and Marinette immediately took out the Miraculous Object. Nathanael's eyes drifted up for the first time, his eyes focusing on the Object.

It was distributing a slip of paper, and Marinette gestured for the heart to come over to her so that they could read it together. Just as before, the paper had a concise message printed on it, this time the words reading 'cheer on.' Marinette looked down at the heart, and the heart made a shrugging gesture.

"You're really no help with these things, are you?" she muttered to it quietly, and in response, the heart floated over to Nathanael and glowed brightly. "Alright, alright, whatever," Marinette said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, Nathanael," Marinette called, and he looked at her for the first time. "You can do it!" He looked utterly surprised by her words, and white tears started to flow from his eyes again.

"Oh…"

"I mean it, Nathanael, you can do it," Marinette said, her voice more sure. The tears stopped and dissipated. The heart floated back to Marinette merrily, stopping right in front of her and turning to face Nathanael again.

"Can I show you something?" Nathanael asked, his cheeks growing opaque again.

"Of course you can," Marinette replied, smiling sweetly at him.

White tears started to flow once more from his eyes, but, instead of aiming at the heart, they went up, making a white baret that rested comfortably on his transparent head. "Do you like it?" Nathanael asked, his cheeks growing more and more opaque.

"Yeah, I love it," Marinette said, grinning at him, and Nathanael's lips turned up in a smile as he looked down at the red leaves beneath him.

The red heart floated back to Marinette and pushed itself back into her, a warm feeling blossoming through her body. She looked back up at Nathanael, who had taken off his baret and was twisting it in his transparent hands.

"You know, no one's ever really been nice to me before," he said, looking up at Marinette.

"Nathanael," Marinette started, taking a step closer. But she didn't know what else to say, so she stopped, holding out a hand to him.

He looked at it curiously, and then touched the tips of his fingers to hers. His touch felt like wind on her skin. "It's because no one really noticed me. I am a ghost, after all." He didn't sound sad, but Marinette still felt like giving him a hug.

He was still staring at her hand with that curious look, and then he laced his fingers together with hers. It felt as if a warm summer wind was blowing over her fingers.

And then he pulled away, his cheeks getting extremely opaque. "I'm probably bothering you a lot-"

"Not at all-"

"I'm sorry," he continued as if Marinette hadn't spoken, "so I'll just go. But just so you know, you cheering me on really, you know, cheered me up. It meant a lot." He paused, and Marinette started to protest again, but he cut her off. "Well, see you around."

And then he waved goodbye, fading away before Marinette could say anything else.

"What…" Her voice trailed off as she stared at the place Nathanael had been. She couldn't believe she had made her first friend aside from Tikki in this place, and he had assumed that she didn't want him around. Nathanael had seemed sweet. She really hoped she would be able to see him around again.

On the other side of the leaves, there were two exits, and Marinette chose the one that followed the light purple trail because it looked infinitely less ominous than the other, where the opening was clouded with shadow. It reminded her too much of the sand puzzles, and she'd rather not go through that again.

The light purple trail lead to a tiny room with a small wooden sign and a couple of spider webs. The sign was written in neat cursive writing that looped quite aesthetically.

Spider Bake Sale

All proceeds go to real spiders.

Marinette looked around the sign at the spider webs on the wall. There were things in the spider webs, and they had small tags by them that were written in the same cursive script.

She stuffed her hands in her pockets, searching for spare money she didn't have. All she found was lint balls, her Miraculous Object, and one small gold coin she had no idea she had. When she leaned closer, she saw that the tags had prices on them, and one gold coin was not nearly enough to buy even the cheapest item, which was a Spider Donut.

Dejected, Marinette went back to the room before this one, not seeing any other exit in the spider room. She had no other choice but to walk through the ominous door.

It took her a while to work up the courage to go through the door, even though there was no way for sure it was like the doors with the sand puzzles, but she didn't like the idea of going through it any less. Here, it seemed, darkness was associated with bad things. And Marinette didn't want to get hurt again.

After a couple of minutes psyching herself up, she ran through the door, hoping that going fast would lessen any side effects of going in. But it seemed that all running did was make her look like an idiot because the next room was exactly like all the others.

There was a row of Froggits in the room, but they didn't seem keen to attack her, instead staring at her with curiosity.

The first Froggit looked at Marinette, and Marinette blushed, embarrassed that they all saw her stupid display of not needed fear.

"Are you being chased?" asked the first Froggit, and Marinette shook her head, her face burning. "Then why did you run?"

"I was scared of the dark entry way," Marinette said, her voice small and embarrassed. "I mean, it's just that-"

"It's okay, kid," the frog akuma said, and Marinette stopped, relieved by the reassurance in it's voice. "Dark places are okay to be scared of." Marinette gave a weak smile to the Froggit, and it seemed to return it. "Oh, kid, did you see the Spider Bake Sale back there? The spiders want to make sure everyone hears about it."

"Oh, yes," Marinette replied, happy that the subject changed. "Only, I couldn't buy anything. I'm not really sure how to get money to buy stuff," Marinette admitted, clasping her hands behind her back and looking down at the ground.

"It's alright, kid. Most of the time, humans that fall here aren't sure about a lot of stuff." Marinette was momentarily distracted by the way the Froggit had said 'humans.' As in, plural. Did that mean other humans have fallen before Marinette? "Money in the Ruins is fairly easy to gain," the Froggit continued, and Marinette started paying attention again.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Us akumas are pretty forgetful, so when you encounter us when we're trying to fight you and you defeat us, we might leave some of our money behind when we leave."

Marinette looked around at the other Froggits, who were nodding in agreement. "But shouldn't I just try and give it back to you?"

The Froggits laughed. "Nah, kid, if we dropped it, it's fair game for anyone who happens across it. And besides, most of the time, when we drop money, it usually means we're carrying too much. It keeps us grounded, you know?"

No, Marinette did not know. Where she came from, money was valuable and people got angry when someone took money that wasn't theirs. But she still nodded knowingly at the Froggit, thanking him for the information.

"Here, just to start you out so you can buy some spider stuff, I'll give you thirty gold."

"What?" Marinette asked, completely dumbstruck. "No, no, that's alright. I'll go back when I have enough."

"No, I insist," the Froggit said, shaking it's head. "The spiders get pretty angry when they think you're too selfish to donate to their cause. And besides, I had too much on me anyway."

"But still…" Marinette shook her head at the handful of coins the Froggit was offering her. "It seems like a lot to give away. And I feel bad taking something when I could just earn it myself."

"Trust me, I won't miss it."

Marinette begrudgingly took the coins, opening up the Miraculous Object and depositing the coins there, where they fit perfectly, even though they looked like they couldn't fit. "Thank you," Marinette said, and the Froggit shrugged with indifference.

"Now go back to the bake sale before you forget," the Froggit said, and Marinette nodded, going back the way she came.

In the bake sale room, she walked around the wooden signs and looked at the contents of the spider web. It seemed as though the spiders had only two items to offer, a spider donut and spider cider, priced seven gold and eighteen gold respectively.

Marinette pulled out her Miraculous Object, and opened the slot where she'd put the gold. Now that the generous Froggit had given her some gold, she could buy both products.

There was no salesperson in sight, so Marinette placed seven gold by the donut and eighteen gold by the cider, not knowing what else to do.

As soon as the gold touched the web, several tiny spiders came out from openings in the wall, taking the gold and crawling back into the openings. Other spiders crawled out of the openings and lifted both the cider and donut, offering them to Marinette.

"Thank you," Marinette said, taking the cider and donut with a slight bow.

The spiders waved her goodbye as she walked out of the room.

Now that she knew what was on the other side of the ominous looking door, she wasn't afraid at all, and she walked through it calmly, her head held high.

She nodded to the Froggit who had given her money, and the Froggit smiled at her. She walked to the next Froggit, who looked kind of sad.

"What's wrong?" Marinette asked, and the Froggit sighed deeply.

"My friends always ignore me…" The Froggit continued sighing dramatically, and Marinette felt bad even just being in the Froggit's presence.

"That's… unfortunate," Marinette said, not knowing what else to say. The Froggit sighed even more dramatically, and Marinette had a feeling it wasn't really up for talking at the moment.

She took a step to the next Froggit, but as soon as she did so, the sighing Froggit wailed dramatically. "See! Even you do it!"

"I-I'm sorry," Marinette apologized, and the next Froggit rolled it's eyes.

"Don't pay attention to him. He'll get over it sooner or later; he always does."

"But-"

"When he gets in moods like this, there's no comforting him. Don't feel bad about it, kid."

"Oh, ok," Marinette said, reluctantly walking away from the sighing Froggit.

"So, kid," the Froggit started, leaning closer, "how do you feel about yellow names?"

"W-what?" Marinette asked, slightly intimidated by the way the Froggit was raising it's eyebrows at her, like it was trying to make her accept a deal.

The Froggit seemed to sense her discomfort and leaned back. "I mean when you encounter akumas. When they're ready to be spared, their name turns yellow. Do you like yellow, kid?"

"It's okay, I guess," she responded, shrugging her shoulders. "Why?"

"Well, I have this friend," the Froggit said, gesturing to a tiny Froggit by the back wall. It waved at Marinette. "He can call his friend, and, long story short, we can change the yellow names to a different color."

Marinette looked away from the tiny Froggit, waving her hand to dismiss the idea. "No, no, you don't have to go through that much trouble."

"You sure, kid? You seem like one of those humans who are too nice to accept offers. You sure you like yellow?"

She blushed, nodding her head. "Really, yellow is fine."

The Froggit shrugged. "If you say so, kid. But remember, the offer still stands."

"Thank you," Marinette said, still waving her hand, "but it's alright." The Froggit shrugged again and hopped over to the tiny Froggit and started talking to it, and, seeing that the conversation was over, Marinette walking to the next room, waving good bye to all the Froggits.

The first thing she saw were the multiple pits of sand. She felt her stomach churn.

Of course, it just had to be sand.