AmyNChan: Okay, so there are going to be a few differences between this and the actual show starting here (mainly with origins and with a few episodes that came out after I started this idea), but I'm going to be tipping my hat to some of the episodes while I can, even if they're not a part of this universe. XD

Marinette: That makes no sense.

AmyNChan: Ehe… ^^;

Marinette: You're hopeless.

AmyNChan: I know… I don't own Miraculous Ladybug! *^_^*

Marinette awoke the next day with questions buzzing about in her mind, yet she decided to push them back. Today was Sunday and she was going to enjoy it if she could. She called Alya up once she was sure the girl would be awake. There had been one time she had called at nine twenty in the morning. Not a good day. Too early.

The phone buzzed while Marinette thought, refusing to let old problems bother her now. Chat would tell her if something were wrong, he promised. He would tell Ladybug if the Agrestes were a problem, so she now had to trust him and ignore her confusion for now.

But how was he so uncomfortable talking about them to Ladybug and so relaxed in passing a message from Adrien to Marinette? That cat was so confusing! How could she not think about it?

"Hey, girl," Alya said from the other side of the screen. Marinette instantly let a grin spread over her face when she heard her best friend's voice. "What's up?"

"Just wondering if you wanted to hang out today," Marinette said. "You have your homework done yet?"

"Pssh," Alya returned with a smirk. "Nino and I have to fix a couple of things on the report, but we should be done by two or so. Meet up with you then?"

Marinette rolled her eyes, but gave a small grin. "Sure, whatever you say, Alya."

"Girl…"

"Oh, I think maman is calling me from downstairs."

"Marin—"

"I'll see you at two, then!" Marinette cheerfully hung up the phone, pleased to have turned the tables on her friend. Alya always seemed to have the upper hand in their conversations and it was good to change that for once. Tikki sat on the desk with that same worried expression she had from last night. Marinette attempted to comfort the kwami with a smile, reaching out her fingers in order to give her friend a small hug. "Tikki, I'm fine."

"I know you are, Marinette. You're very strong when you need to be," the ladybug deity of power replied with a kind smile as she gave Marinette's fingers a gentle squeeze. "You're much more Ladybug than you know."

Marinette smiled at her small friend. Tikki seemed to know when things did not add up for her charge and was usually very good with her words. A chat with Tikki almost always made the girl feel more at ease, even when she thought there was nothing to fix.

"Thanks, Tikki," the young girl responded. "Hey, since we won't meet up with Alya until two, maybe we can—"

But whatever Marinette had planned would have to wait. Her phone vibrated against the desk, demanding her attention. Curiously, she held the phone up to see that Alya was calling her back. Marinette felt her eyebrow furrow in confusion.

"If she were going to call me back after I hung up on her, she would have done it immediately, wouldn't she?" Marinette asked aloud. Tikki shrugged.

"I don't know, but maybe you should answer it," she said. "If nothing else, you can work out what you girls will be doing at two or where you should meet up. You didn't exactly make any plans when you hung up on her."

"You're right," Marinette smiled. She answered the call with audio only instead of the usual face-to-face chat they usually used. She had to hide Tikki somehow, did she not? "Hey, Al—"

"Marinette, forget the project. You need to come over right now."

"Huh?" Marinette asked. The tone in Alya's voice was that no-nonsense reporter tone that she almost always took on when she talked about akuma fights she had yet to post on the Ladyblog. Regardless, Marinette began to gather her belongings and reached for her jacket. "What's going on? You sound—"

"Please, Marinette. I can't talk over the phone, but get over to my place pronto. I'll explain when you get here," Alya said.

"Okay, but—"

"Thanks!"

Marinette was left on the stairs of her home and a dial tone in her ear. She turned to Tikki, who was perched on her shoulder. "What do you think that was about, Tikki?"

The red being shrugged, her eyes trained on the phone. "I don't know, but it really sounded like she was worried. Maybe you should hurry."

"Yeah," Marinette agreed before making it downstairs. "Maybe I should."


"…n't tell her!"

"I have to! I can't let her figure this out by herself! She's my best friend and I absolutely refuse to let her find out about this on the blog when she's alone and susceptible and—"

"And it'll be over! Ladybug and Chat Noir can fix this, but you don't have to do to her what's going on. She'll—"

Rather than continue to eavesdrop on a conversation—argument, really—that she ought not to be hearing, Marinette pushed down her own curiosity and knocked on Alya's bedroom door. As she expected, the two voices hushed at once. A series of thuds she could only assume were rapid footsteps sounded before Alya pushed the door open.

"Inside. Now."

Even though Marinette would have obeyed that tone of voice without prompting, Alya grabbed the girl's arm and jerked her into the room. The bluenette easily lost her balance, but had no time to fall as Alya promptly dragged her over to her a chair.

"Alya, stop, you're hurting my arm," Marinette said, a squeak of pain escaping as she spoke. As if realizing what she was doing, Alya let go, her eyes wide and apologetic.

"Oh my gosh, girl. I'm sorry," Alya apologized. "It's just… I don't know where to start…"

"Then don't," Nino interjected from his place sitting on Alya's bed. The boy had his arms folded and an unusual scowl on his face, which concerned Marinette greatly. "She doesn't have to get involved in this. She can go home right now and not—"

"And what? Figure it out if he's not back by Monday? Learn about it when it's all over the news? All over the Ladyblog? She's going to find out somehow, someway—probably before all of this is over—and I'm not going to hold it back from her and I'm really not gonna let her hear about it when she's alone and susceptible to his tricks. She's my best friend and I'm going to tell her!"

Were they even aware she was in the room anymore?

"Whatever, but once you tell her she gonna want to do something about it," Nino warned.

"I kept you here, didn't I? I'll keep her in here, too."

Nino evidently had nothing to say to that. Nothing, at least, that Alya would have acknowledged. Instead, he yanked his hat off his head and rubbed the stubble of hair across his scalp. Marinette watched as he huffed a breath of air out of his lungs and she completely expected him to continue the argument with Alya. It seemed as though even Alya expected him to continue the fight as well, but she was nice enough to wait for him to make the first move.

No such thing happened. Nino kept quiet and only cast Alya a final warning glare before turning away. It seemed as though he had quite finished attempting to change her mind.

"Did…I miss something?" Marinette finally asked. The tension was so palpable that she could have cut it with a knife. Yet so much seemed to be riding on said tension that she was afraid what would happen if it suddenly snapped. Alya turned to her friend and gave her a sad look.

"Marinette… I got a video this morning. One of the Ladyblog followers sent it in to be put up on the site. Usually they're like music videos that fans splice together using pictures and video feed of Ladybug and Chat Noir that I get from their fights or interviews or whatever," Alya explained. "Every once in a while, I put one up on the Ladyblog as a shout out to the fans."

"I…didn't know that," Marinette admitted. She loved her friend and supported her blog, but that did not mean that she combed the website for everything it featured. To her, that would be just too weird. Especially now that she knew there were fan videos. How embarrassing…

Nino muttered something but Alya ignored it. Marinette followed suit, but wondered what it was that could have had the normally so laid back boy so stressed out.

"This morning I got a video. A threat addressed to Ladybug and Chat Noir," she explained. Marinette's eyes narrowed instantly.

"A threat? Don't akumas just usually go on a rampage through the streets and hope Ladybug and Chat Noir just show up so they can take their…whatever they're called?" she asked, attempting to sound as innocent as possible. Alya nodded.

"Miraculouses. And yeah, they usually do. But this one's smarter and more dangerous," she warned. "It's obvious that this one plans rather than attacking indiscriminately. He sent me the video from a cloaked IP address and told me to have it up by noon today so Ladybug and Chat Noir can see it, but I watched it myself and, well… I needed to make sure you two didn't see it without someone there for you."

At this, Alya turned to Nino. Marinette could feel the empathy radiating off her friend in waves. Nino refused to look at either of them, choosing to instead focus on a screen that had long since fallen asleep. Alya sighed and dragged Marinette to the computer, sitting her down in the chair.

Without another word of explanation, Alya woke the screen and pressed the small 'play' button on her media player. The video took only a moment or so to buffer, but that moment stretched for an eternity to Marinette. A video threat from an akuma was new and yeah, it meant they were getting smarter which was definitely a problem for the superheroes, but why would Alya call Marinette over to show her the video instead of immediately post it to the blog for Ladybug and Chat Noir to see?

"Hello, Ladybug. Chat Noir. I see that you have found my message."

His face was almost completely obscured by a mask. It was grey and covered eighty-five percent of his entire head. Blue eyes flickered in cold victory, a diabolical smirk on his sharp features.

"The demand is very simple. Hand over your miraculouses by the Fontaine du Palmier."

His suit was sharp and clean. The camera only showed as far as his butterfly pin, but Marinette suspected there was something else that she was not seeing yet.

"You have until three. If not, the boy will suffer."

Boy? What bo—

Marinette watched as the video panned out dramatically. In any other situation she might have cringed at the theatrics. How the pixilated image took its time to reveal who exactly the helpless victim was that had been taken.

But there was no way she could concentrate on all of that now.

"Marinette? Girl, talk to me."

Not now.

"I told you she shouldn't have seen!"

She had to breathe.

"Nino, check the windows. We can't let any of those little black bugs in here, okay?"

She had to plan.

"How long does it take for them to come?"

She had to think.

"I don't know, I don't remember. Not that long. She needs to calm down and then she'll be clear."

She had to be calm.

"I'll keep a lookout for that akuma thing, but you need to post that now. Ladybug and Chat Noir have to know as soon as possible to save him, right?"

She had to be Ladybug. Not for her own sake.

"You're right. Keep an eye on her, Nino."

But for his.

"Hey, Marinette. Are you okay? Breathe."

Fiercely determined blue eyes met the concerned gaze of chocolate. The boy blinked in surprise, but Marinette could not be bothered by that. She had a lot of work cut out for her.

"I'm fine."

She needed to rescue Adrien.


"I'll just be down the hall," Marinette assured her best friend, wiggling for extra emphasis on the fabricated reason as to why she had to leave the room right that very moment. Five minutes ago, actually. "Besides, you're up on the third floor. Do you really think I'll be able to go anywhere?"

Alya gave her very best friend in the whole wide world the most deadpan look. "Girl, you seriously think I'm buying that?"

Marinette could have groaned aloud. Alya just had to know her nervous tics and when she was lying precisely when she did not want her to, didn't she?

"Alya, please!"

"You're not leaving this room."

"But I have to pee!"

"N—"

"Why don't you just guard the door?" Nino asked from his spot on the bed. Both girls turned towards the teen. He seemed as unhappy to be there as Marinette was, but as far as she knew he did not have a deadline that was rapidly approaching. T minus two hours and counting, to be precise. "Then you know she won't run off."

"Yeah, but then you will. You can be just as impulsive as she can be," Alya shot at him. Marinette could easily see the fear behind her best friend's eyes as they flickered between her best friend and her boyfriend. "Neither of you were akumatised after the video, but there's no way I'm taking the chance of letting either of you do something stupid."

"You'll miss Ladybug footage if you're keeping us in here instead of being out there," Marinette pointed out, hopping on a foot for emphasis. How on earth did people manage all that movement when they had to pee, anyways? It was tiring.

"Some things are more important than the biggest scoop," Alya said flatly. Any other time and Marinette would have been touched. Really. She would have been over the moon and perhaps hopeful that maybe she could have let Alya in on the fact that she herself was Ladybug. However, there was the fact that Alya probably would either fangirl or yell if she knew the truth right at that very moment and the fact was that Marinette did not have time for a thirty-minute tirade.

There was no way she was transforming in front of her, not even after that. Not right now, at least.

"She'll pee on your carpet."

Alya scrunched her nose. "Don't care."

"We'll all have to smell it."

"I've changed dirty diapers before. I can live with it."

"Well, I haven't and I don't think I should have to smell Marinette's pee," Nino frowned. Before Alya could retort, he stood from his place on the bed. Marinette watched as he stretched his arms, but his eyes remained hard and angry at the situation. Obviously the thought of his girlfriend's best friend peeing in a small confined place they would clearly share for the next few hours (though not if she could help it!) was one final thing he would not tolerate. "We'll all go down to the bathroom and you and I stand guard while Marinette does her thing."

"But—"

"That's a good idea, Nino," Marinette interjected, hoping this was a sign of her changing luck. She would have to find a way to apologize and thank Nino somehow in the future. "Besides, like I said, we're on the third floor. Unless I'm superwoman—" or Ladybug "—I won't be going anywhere."

The gears in Alya's head turned and Marinette could track the exact moment when the girl had given in. She had looked at Nino, then Marinette, then Nino, then had stared at Marinette for three seconds before she caved. Silently, Marinette thanked Tikki for her indirect bringing of good fortune.

"Fine," she said. She finally stepped away from the door and allowed her two hostages to follow her out. "Just know that there are at least five other human beings in this house who are all aware of the fact that you're under house arrest, so keep that in mind if you try to make a break for it."

"Yes, ma'am," Nino said. Marinette nodded along to keep suspicion away before they made the short five step trip to the bathroom. The bluenette girl quickly made her way inside and locked the door with probably more force than necessary.

"Are you sure about this?" Tikki murmured quietly, glancing from her chosen charge to the bathroom window. Whatever may be said about The Grand Paris, the living quarters for staff were very extravagant. Unlike the other rooms, the Cesaire residence faced the Siene and had a lot more space than other guests would have. This included a moderate window even in the bathroom. Though why any sane person would want to view the river while taking a shower was anyone's guess. Still, it suited her purposes now.

"I'm sure. Even if Alya or Nino notice the transformation, they won't be able to stop me in time. Tikki, transform moi," Marinette whispered. The uniform she knew flew over her skin and became her shield. The mask she assumed became her persona. She was Ladybug and she was on a mission. She opened the window as softly as she could and easily fit through.

"Sorry Alya, I know you mean well."

She allowed herself that small goodbye before she took to the air on her yoyo. She had a job to do and she knew she would need her partner for it. He was sure to have seen the video in the hour it had been posted and was most likely transformed, waiting somewhere to meet up and devise a plan. He was most likely at the Eiffel Tower, the one place that rested high above the rest of the city.

She found the iron bar to be cold and lonely despite the rapidly warming day.

"Come on, kitty," she muttered as she opened her yoyo and heard the dial tone. "Answer..."

This made no sense. Why would he target Adrien, of all people? There was no way he could have known the difficulties that Ladybug and Chat Noir had had over him. There was no way he could have known the fact that they had been asked specifically to look after him. There was no way this could be anything other than a coincidence.

"Chat, answer your baton," she hissed into the yoyo, which only continued to buzz uselessly. "Chat..."

Why Adrien? Why now? Why, why, why?

Bells sounded from behind her, from the Notre Dame. It was two o'clock.

"Chat..."

"He can't answer you right now."

The new voice startled Ladybug more than she would have liked to admit. It was a small voice which somehow managed to seem ancient and childlike all at once. She cast her gaze all around but was unable to—

Wait a minute.

Wait one...

"You look like a mouseroach," she stated. The little creature huffed in annoyance.

"How rude," it stated as it zoomed right in Ladybug's face. She did not back away from the strange creature, knowing it would not harm her. It was, after all, a part of her trusted partner. "I always thought Tikki chose the polite ones."

"Where's Chat Noir?" she asked, brushing aside his light scolding. "And why aren't you with him? He needs you to—"

"He couldn't transform even if I was there, Ladybug," the creature responded. Despite the simplicity of his statement, his green eyes were narrowed in frustration. "He's been captured."

Ladybug allowed the words to wash over her, their meaning taking root far more quickly than one would assume. Chat Noir, her trusted partner and ally, was captured. His kwami was the one to deliver the news.

"He's a civilian right now," she muttered. "Why couldn't he transform, er…?"

"Plagg," the being said swiftly. "And he was taken while he was sleeping. By the time he figured out what was going on, he couldn't transform without giving himself away to HawkMoth. He sent me here to wait for you."

"So you know where he is, then," she said, her eyes lighting with hope. Chat, you clever, clever kitty.

"Yup, but you're not gonna like it. Heck, A—Chat doesn't like it. I don't like it either, if you were wondering."

"He knows where he is? I thought HawkMoth would hide them somewhere dark, cold, and hidden. That's what it looked like in the video, at least," Ladybug mused aloud. The small kwami—Plagg—shot her a look that did not sit well with her. As though he were honestly measuring her intelligence by that statement alone.

"What?"

"I take it back. You're both stupid."

"Excuse—"

"Come on," Plagg said, cutting her off and zipping away from the Eiffel Tower. "The sooner we rescue Chat the sooner this will all be over."

Ladybug had no choice but to follow. While rude, the kwami did have a point. She could not go into this battle without her partner by her side.


"…too far."

"You know it's too late. They're on their way."

Three beings in the room. Two conscious.

"Do it."

A silence.

"Do it now."

"Possa… transform moi."

A shower of purple. The last figure conscious.

AmyNChan: If you can guess from which language "Possa" is derived, I will draw you an art. XD As a hint, it's pronounced "Poe-sah". XD

Marinette: Adrien and Chat are in danger!

AmyNChan and Plagg: *exchange knowing looks*

Marinette: *worrying*

Plagg: Hey, if any of you readers have cheese—

AmyNChan: He means reviews. We would appreciate those. *^_^*

Plagg: No, I mean cheese.

AmyNChan: Too bad.

Plagg: ):[