She wasn't there after lunch. No one saw her for the rest of the day. When school was out, the rumors finally reached me.
"Once a fan, always a fan. Clearly, Marinette couldn't handle that her sweet Adrien got a girlfriend." Someone rolled her eyes. Chloe was in tears in front of a group of girls.
"I-I can't believe he would- would date her. She's s- so foreign and-" she started sobbing again.
I was so confused. Adrien was dating someone? That makes no sense. I have all classes with him and nothing different happened.
"Hey, do you know why everyone is so wired?" Adrien asked, looking worriedly at Chloe. "Marinette's not here and everyone's looking at us."
"I think they think you're dating someone." I moved away from him to a short girl decked in pink with a blond pixie cut.
"Hey, what's going on?" I asked since she seemed to be the most approachable.
"Oh, shouldn't you know? You caused it." I was wrong. She was extremely hostile.
"Rose. Calm down." An emo in black and purple put a hand on her shoulder.
"Marinette no showed because she saw that Adrien was- well- dating you." She shrugged.
"Um, no. We're not dating. I'm just staying at his house because his father volunteered to take me."
"Oh. So, nothing's happened? You didn't kiss under the staircase this morning?" Rose looked at me with new eyes.
"Swear I didn't. And what about Marinette?"
"Um- she's had a huge crush on Adrien for almost two years. By huge I mean huge huge. And, I guess she kind of-"
"Popped? Broke? Exploded?" I finished.
Rose nodded. "All in one."
Dread filled my stomach. She' s gone. Marinette's set up for getting akumatized again. But, maybe I could get to Hawkmoth before that happens.
I walked back to Adrien, knowing I probably look really pale.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked.
"Nothing" I lied. But, I can't really lie about this. He could tell I was lying.
"Did they say something to you?" It sounded a little bit sour.
"It doesn't involve them. It's nothing." I tried to push past him, but he caught my arm.
"Ren, stop pushing me away. I can help you. You don't have to walk this alone, whatever it is."
"The thing is, I have to. Now, I need to set things straight."
Adrien slid his hand down to mine.
"I'm here."
"I know." And I pulled away from his touch.
I started sprinting away, trying to find an alley. Finally, I found one. Pulling a piece of paper from my satchel, I slapped it against the wall. The kwamis and Blaise floated out of my jacket.
"What are you doing? Aren't you fighting Hawkmoth?" Tiki asked.
"Yeah, but I'm doing this first." I took a pencil and started scribbling in my English and Korean mixed shorthand.
"Marinette's half akumatized." I said aloud as I wrote.
"Lost Miraculous. Dying. Need Adrien. Marinette in danger of akuma."
Then I made a separate column.
"Ladybug: Marinette. No kwami. Chat Noir: Adrien. Cat kwami. Dragonist: Ren. Fox, lungana, Ladybug kwami. Hawkmoth: n/a. Butterfly kwami."
"So, what would be our plan to fix the top problems?"
"Go to Hawkmoth and take his Miraculous." Trixx giggled. "Isn't that the number one priority?"
"But, that leaves Marinette permanently half akumatized." Tikki pointed out.
"Well, a small feat for stopping hundred of thousand other victims." Blaise countered.
"No. I owe it to her to fix her." I groaned. "But where is the akuma hiding? Tikki, it's your guess."
"Well, I think the akuma is inside her. So, the only way to fix that is to use Talons on her."
"What? To kill her? That's an awful idea." Blaise's tail flicked angrily.
"No. She'll be okay, but Ren would then have to shape Marinette in her image."
"How does that even make sense?" I fumed. "Fine. I regenerate her. So, she's completely herself. I shape her as her real self."
"So 1: stop Hawkmoth. Splice Marinette. Shape her." I wrote.
"Then step 2 is getting Tikki back to her. I'll stop playing superhero and-"
"You can't just disappear, Ren." Blaise sniffed. "Maybe we should return Trixx and Tiki, but tell Master Fu that he can't return Tikki."
"That's not fair. Marinette will probably not remember anything about these few months. Maybe Ren could make her not Ladybug." Tikki fought.
"Why can't Marinette just be Ladybug? Is that not on the table?" I snapped. There was a hesitation from the creatures.
"Ren, do you know what the Cat and Ladybug Miraculous stand for?" Trixx said slowly.
"No, but Tikki needs to get back to Marinette. She's hers, not mine."
"The cat stands for darkness and the ladybug stands for light." Tikki carried on. "The only things before that… was the God. We don't know for sure who or what it was, but it created light and darkness. From there, it created every other kwami. But, of course, it had its own creature, which was the lungana. The lungana finishes the kwami pyramid. So, you must understand that you can't disappear. You could control the light, but you also have the darkness."
"And I can't and I won't. If I was saying that for selfish reasons, I just basically committed suicide. Marinette will be Ladybug."
"Ren, listen to me. You are light, but also darkness. You are in an all of the perspectives, and you will keep Tikki and return Trixx after you defeat Hawkmoth." Blaise ordered. "That is the decision the kwamis. There is no other way."
"Fine. If three kwamis who have been alive since the beginning of time say that there is only one way, I'll do it." I gave up.
"Now that we have that out of the way, what about me?"
"You need to have a very serious talk with with Chat Noir. And not bail out of it."
"I don't want to put him under that mental strain." My brow furrowed.
"Just write it down."
I suppressed a sigh in my throat and wrote it down.
"Who wants to be the honorary kwami or lungana who guards the paper of information from falling into the wrong hands of humiliation?" I asked.
"I will take the burden." Tikki volunteered with a straight face. "But jeez is your handwriting awful."
"Shorthand between Korean and English. No one has ever been able to decode it yet." I handed it over and the paper went into some imaginary kwami pocket.
"And this means you can't use me unless you want your powers to be weakened considerably." Tiki warned.
"Fine with that." I shrugged. "Trixx, let's pounce."
A tingling feeling spread over my body and I was in a fox-like suit. I wiggled the ears on my head.
"Oh, that's cute." Tikki gushed.
"To Hawkmoth." I smiled as Tikki and Blaise hung onto my belt.
I pulled out my staff and looked at the tracker. It was blinking really slowly, so I had only a matter of minutes. But, it was close. It was… at Agreste Manor?
I jumped onto my roof and opened the window to my room. I pressed my ear against the wall. Good. Adrien isn't in his room. I followed my tracker and ended up in Gabriel Agreste's work room. The signal went dead.
"I sense two kwamis." Blaise whispered.
"Two? Is Adrien here?"
"No. One's in the air… and the other is in there."
He flew to a painting of a woman on the wall. Then, he disappeared through it. There were a few clicks and the picture swung open. He grabbed a peacock brooch and brought it to me.
"A miraculous." I breathed. It was split down the middle with a huge crack.
"The missing peacock miraculous!" Tikki squeaked.
"Shh!" I held a claw to her lips.
"Go to my room and stay there. Even if I'm in trouble, don't come. You're too precious."
She opened her mouth to hesitate, but thought better. I waited until she was gone.
"I think it's these seven buttons." Blaise circled around a group of squares and rectangles on the painting.
I rested my finger on them.
"Well, Blaise. This is it. Trixx, pounce out. Blaise, wings unfold."
I waited as the transformation took place.
"Trixx, it was an honor working with you. We come out victorious or not at all. You ready for this?"
Trixx nodded and returned to her miraculous.
I pressed the buttons, and I descended down into the floor.