Marinette groaned as she awoke, acutely aware of a throbbing pain bouncing around the inside of her skull and an aching soreness coming from within her abdomen, like she had been punched in the gut while she was out. When she finally dared to open her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of a strange yet exquisite room, lushly furnished with velvet armchairs, lacquered black mahogany surfaces, and brushed gold accents. Marinette herself was tucked into a plush, King–sized bed that definitely wasn't her own. She looked towards the window, but the heavy fabric curtains were drawn, obstructing the view. She had no idea where she was or even the time of day.
She worriedly palmed her belly as her other hand felt her ears; she still had her Miraculous jewels, so whoever had captured her hadn't taken them. The last thing she remembered was being in her own bedroom, after inadvertently making love to Cat Noir under false pretenses, when the walls and ceiling had suddenly caved in around them with a deafening crash, as if due to an explosion. Then, the Apprehender had appeared, and carried her away to… wherever here was.
What a mess I've gotten myself into.
"Tikki?" Marinette whispered helplessly as she glanced around. "Tikki, are you here?"
No answer. She was alone. But not for long.
As if on cue, the door at the far end of the room cracked open; a familiar ginger head poked into the room, eyeing Marinette with fearful teal eyes from behind comically large designer spectacles.
The pregnant woman sat up straight in the bed, gasping when a pain shot up through her stomach and arrowed to her lower spine. "Sabrina? Is that you?"
Sabrina made a sound that could only be described as a "meep" before momentarily retracting back behind the door; she reappeared a second later.
"I–I'm sorry, Marinette. Did I wake you?"
Marinette shook her head, regretting the painful action immediately. "Not at all, I was already awake. Where am I?"
"You're at Le Grand Paris Hotel."
Sabrina mustered the courage to step into the room, carrying a tray of food, decorated with a bud vase containing a single yellow rose. She tentatively made her way over to the bed and sat down on top of the blood–red comforter, beside Marinette; she set the tray down and held out a glass goblet of sparkling water to the dark–haired woman, who cautiously took it from her outstretched hand. Marinette noticed the way her classmate's fingers trembled, as though she was afraid of something… or someone.
Marinette blinked, confused, and eyed the glass warily.
"Oh, it's not poisoned or anything," Sabrina assured her with a smile.
What an odd thing to say. Then again, Sabrina was always a bit of an odd duck.
Marinette took a tepid sip of the water, soothing her parched and dust–coated throat; she hadn't been to the Grand Paris since high school. As far as she knew, she had no good reason to be there, and had no recollection as to how she had even gotten there in the first place.
"What am I doing here?"
"We found you. Outside, in the street. You looked all beat up. We didn't know what to do, so we brought you here."
"Okay, and who is 'we?'"
Sabrina gulped. "Me and Chloe. I mean, Chloe and I. This is her suite."
A nauseous wave washed over Marinette; her stomach churned even worse than it already had been. Tikki had warned her mistress that she had suspicions about Chloe being the current holder of the Butterfly Miraculous, and then just a few short hours later she was kidnapped by the Apprehender– an akumatized villain– and brought to Chloe's place? It couldn't be a coincidence.
"We have to get out of here," Marinette started, throwing back the covers and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, clutching her swollen belly as she did so. "Chloe isn't who you think she is. We're in danger if we stay here."
Sabrina's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
"Sabrina, listen to me." Marinette reached for the other woman's hand in what she hoped would be interpreted as a sincere gesture. "I know Chloe is your best friend, and I know that you love her, but she isn't just mean anymore– she's dangerous. I wasn't brought here by accident; one of Hawk Moth's akumatized villains took me and brought me here, and I'm pretty sure it's because Chloe is the new Hawk Moth. I don't know what her intentions are, but they can't be good. We have to go. We can go somewhere safe, maybe Alya's or your dad's place for now until we can figure something out. But we have to go right this second."
After a beat of contemplation, Sabrina's usual deer–in–the–headlights demeanor melted to reveal an uncharacteristically sinister sneer.
"How do you know for sure that it's Chloe who has the Butterfly Miraculous?"
Before Marinette could react, Sabrina grabbed the bud vase from the tray and struck the dark–haired woman aside the head with it, knocking her to the floor. Marinette gasped for air as an intense pain unlike any other shot through her midsection from her contact with the hard, cold marble. Her immediate thoughts were consumed with worry for her baby.
"I mean, anyone could have a Miraculous, right?" Sabrina continued as she rose to stand.
With a vindictiveness that was unbecoming of the timid policeman's daughter, Sabrina stamped a foot atop Marinette's outstretched hand, causing the downed woman to yelp in pain.
"S–Sabrina… what..."
The ginger–haired woman crouched to sit on top of Marinette's swollen stomach as she struggled to get away, which only intensified the pain within her pregnant belly. Sabrina leaned forward to grip each of Marinette's wrists in her hands. The pinned woman tried to grapple back, but it was no use; each movement only caused a sharp stabbing like a knife to ricochet throughout Marinette's womb. Fear trickled like ice through her veins, prickling the back of her neck as her instincts shifted to protect her baby. She was losing oxygen, struggling to breathe, and her vision began to blur as she became dizzy from the blow to the head she had received. Her senses were leaving her, her eyesight fading fast.
"Just like I know that you have the Ladybug Miraculous."
Marinette had only a second to process Sabrina's words before everything went black.
–
"Plagg– tell me again why we're going to Nino and Alya's place?" Adrien managed to ask between labored breaths as he ran towards the Lahiffes' apartment in the fifteenth arrondissement, which was the arrondissement opposite of the Dupain–Chengs' bakery; his own home would've been a much closer hike, and was in the same part of the city that they had just left, but at Plagg's insistence they were gunning for his best friend's place on foot instead. At least Adrien considered himself lucky that he had worn trainers that day.
"You said that whoever has the Butterfly Miraculous knows where you live, right? So, we don't know if it's safe to go there."
Plagg held on tighter to the hood of Adrien's pullover as he rounded a corner; Tikki, still weakened by her brush with death, was tucked away into the front pocket for safekeeping, like a baby kangaroo. He had layered a denim jacket over his hoodie in anticipation of a chilly night, but now, sprinting full speed in so many layers, Adrien felt as though he were boiling up from the inside out.
"Are you going to tell me who this kwami is, and why she was at Marinette's apartment?"
"When we get there," Plagg reaffirmed.
Once Nino and Alya's apartment building was in Adrien's line of sight, he beelined for the front door and flew inside of it, taking the stairs two at a time to their floor. By the time he reached the door to their apartment, he was a sweaty, ragged mess. He doubled over only briefly to catch his breath, before opening the door without knocking; the young couple were used to Adrien coming over at random times, so this particular time wouldn't be much different.
Except for the fact that he barged into the doorway like a bat out of hell, startling Alya where she was sitting at their kitchen table, working on her laptop.
"Adrien?" She placed a hand over her chest. "You scared the crap out of me. What's going on?"
"There's no time," Adrien huffed, staggering to the fridge. He opened it, allowing Plagg to fly inside and immediately begin digging for his sustenance of choice, concealed by the open refrigerator door.
Adrien grabbed a bottle of water for himself and chugged it as he glanced at the clock above the stove; the digital display read 11:34.
Plagg had better eat fast.
With determination, Alya closed her laptop and stomped over to the intruder standing in her kitchen; she yanked the water bottle from him, mid–sip, and placed it loudly on the counter beside her. Adrien managed to close the door to the fridge just in time to hide Plagg from her view.
"What the fuck is going on, Agreste? Where did you run off to tonight after the concert? After that stunt you pulled, trying to fight Luka– and why do you look like you just ran a marathon?"
Adrien sighed. "Look, it's hard to explain, and I don't have a lot of time, so–"
"Babe?" Nino entered the kitchen, drying his damp hair with a towel as if he had just gotten out of the shower; his face lit up as soon as he saw his best friend. "Dude! What are you doing here?"
"Marinette's gone," Adrien blurted, exasperated as he found himself ambushed on all sides by the Lahiffes. "She was taken."
Alya's irritated expression shifted to one of worry. "Taken by who? Luka?"
"No, not Luka. She was taken by whoever has the Butterfly Miraculous… the new Hawk Moth."
Alya gasped. "How do you know?"
"Because I was there. I was with her when it happened." Adrien ran a shaky hand through his windswept hair. "It's my fault. I couldn't protect her. So, I have to go after her. But I'm losing time. I have to get there by midnight, or else–"
"Whoa, Adrien, wait a second, bro." Nino held both hands up in front of himself in a "stopping" gesture. "You can't just go after Hawk Moth. Are you insane? You gotta let Ladybug and Cat Noir take care of it. After all, they're back now, protecting Paris."
Adrien sighed again in frustration. He had to show them; they had to know the truth about his identity. It would be the fastest way; to show rather than tell. Besides, the clock was counting down to his confrontation with Chloe and Plagg still owed him an explanation before then.
Inhaling a deep breath to steel his will, Adrien set his face in a stony expression, turned and gripped the handle to the refrigerator door, and pulled it open completely.
All three of them peered inside to find… a normal fridge, devoid of any sign of life.
Nino scratched his head. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"Plagg, come out. It's alright."
A box of brie in the corner of the fridge seemed to come alive of its own accord; it shifted slightly before the lid popped off, landing upside down on the shelf. The black cat kwami lounging inside rubbed his belly as he let out a contented sigh. "It may not be Camembert, but it still hit the spot."
Alya and Nina exchanged nervous glances.
"This is Plagg," Adrien started. "He's the kwami of the Cat Miraculous. Which I currently possess."
He raised his hand in front of his face, showing off his Miraculous ring for emphasis. "I am Cat Noir. Always have been."
"Pleasure to meet you," Plagg greeted as he flew out of the fridge, giving a tiny bow to be polite. The folding of his full belly caused a microscopic burp to escape from his mouth.
"The pleasure is... all ours," Alya replied with difficulty. "That– I mean… err, this explains… a lot. Like, a lot, a lot.
Nino only nodded dumbly in agreement as he stared, mouth agape, at the tiny kwami.
"And then, in my pocket here…"
Adrien scooped a hand into his pocket and carefully extradited the red creature inside. He placed her gently on the counter, where she plopped down on her rump while staring up at the humans around her with bleary eyes.
"This is, um, Tikka."
"Tikki," she corrected dazedly.
"You have two kwamis?" Nino asked, incredulous. "I thought each Miraculous only had one kwami."
His wife elbowed him in the side; Adrien cocked his head at the pair. Something was off about their respective reactions to Adrien's grand reveal. They seemed startled by his secret superhero identity, but not entirely surprised.
Adrien's emerald eyes narrowed, his pupils shifting focus from one Lahiffe to the other. "Is there something you guys aren't telling me?"
Alya and Nino exchanged looks once again, before Alya threw her hands up in the air in an "I give up" gesture.
"Trixx, you might as well come out now."
"You too, Wayzz."
Adrien watched, dumbfounded, as a tiny fox and equally tiny turtle emerged together from their hiding spot behind a ceramic jar on the counter, looking sheepish as they waved to the group.
"Hey, Plagg."
"Hi, Tikki."
Adrien's eyes widened. "More kwamis?"
"It's a long story, but the short version is that I'm Rena Rouge, and Nino is Carapace," Alya stated as succinctly as possible, holding her hands up like a magician who had just completed a magic trick.
Nino tipped his fingers off of his forehead in a salute. "Yo."
It took Adrien a minute to process everything that he was hearing and seeing for the first time; the discovery of his best friends' secret superhero identities was a shock to the system, and yet a part of Adrien found that he wasn't really shocked at all. He couldn't think of two other people better suited for the job.
"I just… wow." Adrien let out the breath he was holding in a whoosh of air. "And you both knew about it? About each other?"
"We kind of figured it out."
"For how long?"
"High school," they answered in unison.
"Well, we started in high school," Alya explained. "But we gave our Miraculouses back and didn't have them for years, and then suddenly they reappeared not too long ago. Right around the time of our high school reunion, actually."
"Yeah, same here." Adrien shook his head. "Let me get this straight: I have the Cat Miraculous, and you both have the Fox and Turtle Miraculouses, respectively. Chloe has the Butterfly Miraculous–"
"Chloe Bourgeois?" Alya near–screamed.
"Yes, or at least, I think so, but that's not important right now. What I'm trying to figure out is, if we all have our Miraculouses and kwamis, then who does Tikki belong to?"
They all looked down at the spotted kwami sitting on the countertop. In return, Tikki gave the group a sad smile. "I promised my mistress that I'd never tell. But, considering the circumstances…"
She gave a small cough to clear her throat before continuing: "My name is Tikki, and I am the kwami of the Ladybug Miraculous, which is currently being held by…"
Tikki looked to Plagg and nodded her approval; since she couldn't say her mistress's name herself, she had to rely on her eternal kwami partner to finish the sentence for her.
Plagg sighed, his voice heavy with the burden of what he was about to reveal, as he purposely avoided his master's gaze: "The holder of the Ladybug Miraculous, the superheroine known as Ladybug, is Marinette Dupain–Cheng of Paris."
The world around Adrien seemed to stop entirely. It was as if time had frozen on the command of the miniature, bug–eyed god in front of him.
Ladybug Miraculous. Marinette Dupain–Cheng. Adrien had to remember to breathe.
"You were at Marinette's apartment… because Marinette is Ladybug?"
Tikki's face was solemn when she answered him: "Yes."
Was somebody screaming, or was that the rush of Adrien's blood as it raced past his eardrums?
He swallowed hard; he felt the panic, the heat of betrayal, rising in his voice. "Plagg, you knew? And you never told me?"
Plagg shied from the question. "It wasn't my secret to tell."
"How long?" His entire body shook with anger, his fists barely contained at his sides as the furious tears pricked at his lashes. "How long did you know?"
"For a while," Plagg twisted his paws in front of himself. "Almost since the beginning. Tikki and I… we both knew."
"All those times that I suspected that she was Ladybug... and yet you always told me that it was wishful thinking, that I was making connections where there were none, making me think I was crazy…" Adrien's voice trembled as she struggled to maintain his composure, overcome by the dangerous cocktail of emotions that washed over him at the revelation. "You watched me suffer, for so long… all you had to do was tell me and my suffering would have ended. I could have been happy. All this time…"
Adrien slammed a fist onto the countertop. "Damn it, how could you?"
With a newfound fury and an aggressive urge to defend himself, Plagg flew directly in front of Adrien's face and sized him up. "Adrien, need I remind you that at one point you did discover Ladybug's true identity, and your love for Marinette caused the total death and destruction of all of Paris, and nearly decimated the entire world as we know it?"
Adrien blinked back red–hot tears. "I don't remember that."
"Exactly! Because luckily, Ladybug was able to save your ass and fix everything back to the way it was. The way it's supposed to be, and always should have been: with both of you in the dark about each other's true identities. They're secret for a reason."
"So, why tell me now, then?" He tried not to sound bitter, but he did.
Plagg groaned and threw his paws into the air in frustration. "Because the love of your life and mother of your unborn child is in terrible peril, and it's going to take all of us to save her!"
Adrien inhaled sharply and took a step back, leaning against the refrigerator to keep himself upright. "That's right. If Marinette is Ladybug, if they're the same person, then that means that she's the mother of my child. She has been this whole time. Marinette is pregnant… with my baby."
His eyes darted back and forth, focusing on nothing, as he processed the information, before flicking his gaze to Alya. "Does Marinette know?"
Alya shook her head. "Not as far as I know."
"That would make sense." He remembered all of their interactions as Ladybug and Cat Noir from the past half–year; nothing she had said or done indicated any sort of knowledge of his secret identity.
Antsy, Plagg zipped about their heads, bristling with energy. "Can we deal with all of this melodrama later? It's already a quarter to midnight and we don't have anything even close to resembling a plan."
"Plagg's right. Alya, Nino– I need your help. I can't do this alone." His eyes were pleading. "Will you help me save Marinette?"
Alya looked at him meaningfully, her eyes scanning his face, watching for any sign of insincerity or deceit. "You really love her?"
Adrien nodded. "With everything that I am."
"Then I forgive you, for breaking my best friend's heart on more than one occasion. But you owe me– and Marinette– an explanation for that later."
"I promise you that I'll explain everything as soon as this is finished."
Alya gave him a slightly more than playful punch on the arm before smirking at her husband, who took her hand in his own. "We're both with you, Agreste. Until the end."
Adrien grinned, clenching a fist in front of himself, his silver ring gleaming in the low light of the kitchen.
"For all the times that she's saved us, now it's our turn; let's go save our Ladybug."
–
AN: It's so hard to work on this story now that I'm all caught up on episodes LOL! So many new details, so much new lore and canon… I'm trying hard to not get caught up in the small stuff, but it's hard. I really want this story to be accurate. The good news is, I think we only have two more chapters to go from here! Thank you all for reading and sticking with me despite my incredibly slow update schedule. Reviews appreciated, they really keep me motivated!