Warm. I feel warm again. Marinette opened her eyes, the blankets still wrapped tightly around her nude form. She'd been so cold. She didn't…
"You're awake!" Tikki said. She nuzzled Marinette's cheek. "I'm so happy. I…"
"Thanks, Tikki." Marinette said. She sat up, holding the covers to her chest. "Where am I?"
"In Taylor Herbert's apartment," the kwami said. "She is the new holder of the butterfly."
"Skitter?"
"She revealed her identity… As did everyone else."
"That's—" Marinette shook her head. "That's risky."
"But you no longer have to worry about Hawkmoth." Tikki smiled. "And Taylor Hebert helped you when she didn't have to. I think she will be a good holder of her miraculous. She let Nooroo talk to us! For the first time in years!"
"That's wonderful," Marinette said. She paused. "A good holder. Brave, strong,and gentle?"
"Er… the first two, certainly." Tikki paused.
Marinette shook her head. After all, she strongly doubted that Joan of Arc or Hippolyta would have been considered gentle by her standards, and they had been holders of the miraculous she now bore.
And she was naked under her covers. Who…
"Kagami undressed you." Tikki said. "Then she tucked you in."
"I sort of remember that, but I can't…" Marinette stared at the clothes at the end of the bed.
They were… clothes. Yes. They were. The ragged Levi's skirt was an item of clothing. Then there were the shirts. Marinette stared at one, and shook her head immediately. She was not going to wear a "Miss Militia Does It With All the Guns" T-shirt. Then she looked over to where all her clothes were sitting in a hamper and blushed. No, she was definitely missing some needed accessories for a T-shirt. She grabbed an overlarge gray sweater and pulled it on. "I could…"
"No transforming, not for a while, Marinette," Tikki said. "At least a day."
"I—okay." Marinette paused. There was only one miraculous holder who she didn't know the identity of. Chat Noir.
He'd seen her as Marinette… But what would that do when he realized she was Ladybug? Would he be angry? What if he was someone she didn't know, someone who actually—
"Marinette. Calm down," Tikki said. "It will be all right."
Marinette nodded, took deep breaths. Tried to imagine herself as she was when she was Ladybug. Walked to the door, and opened it.
And heard Alya's voice, raised.
"So, just to get this straight. After you killed off or drove out all the opposition, you and your teenaged friends have now divvied up the city into territories, and are running the criminal underground."
"More or less."
"And we're in your apartment. What are the cops going to do?"
Marinette paused at the hallway, just before the others could see her. Well, other than Skitter.
"Not much," Taylor said. "They don't know that my power to open portals was temporary. Right now, they're thinking things over, and the regular police are outgunned in this part of town anyway."
"Oh, that makes it so much better. We're too dangerous to arrest."
"Alya…" Nino sounded nervous.
"We have not committed any crimes," that was Kagami.
"No, and I'm not going to ask you to. This is free."
Marinette decided she had to move in now. She walked into the room, waited for Alya's eyes to grow huge, nodded at Kagami, nodded at Adrien.
Nodded at Adrien?
Chat Noir was Adrien?
"I know," Chloe said. "I was shocked as well. At least you won't have to be turning into a puddle when you try to talk to him."
"Ah, uh, Adrien, you, Chat…"
"What did you say?" Plagg said. "Looks like you were wrong," The kwami started howling in laughter.
"Hi." Adrien said.
Marinette wanted to say a million things. Starting with 'how can you be so different' and ending with 'eeeEEEEE!'
She didn't. She took a deep, calming breath.
"I guess we have a lot to talk about, later," Adrien said.
"Yeah," Marinette said. I finally found out who Chat was, and now I know Adrien loves me and all it took was being exiled to a planet full of monsters.
"Taylor Hebert," Skitter said. Marinette looked at her.
"I didn't expect you to wear glasses," was the first thing to come out of her mouth.
Good going Marinette.
"I never had the money for contact lenses or surgery," Taylor said. "I got used to them."
"Um, yeah, yes, I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng, thank you for the room!"
"It's the least I could do," Taylor said. "But I understand why you might not want to stay here." She reached down and opened up a drawer from a wall cabinet. "These are preloaded cards. About 40,000 dollars. I can get more, if you need it."
Marinette's brain went into reset for a moment. She had preloaded cards with forty thousand dollars just sitting in a drawer?
"And how much trouble would we get in for using that?" Chat asked. "Dad"—he winced—"kept me involved with the financial side of things. That's…"
"It's been handled by the Number Man. Everyone uses him, including the government, you don't have to worry about it." Taylor tossed the cards to Marinette who caught them out of reflex.
All the revelations were hitting her at once, but she fought it down. It wasn't time to be Marinette, it was time to be Ladybug.
"If we stay here, will people think we're working for you?"
"Some." Taylor didn't say anything else.
"Okay," Marinette said. "I don't… What other options are there?"
Taylor sat down, and Marinette joined everyone else, ignoring a "we are going to have a talk" whisper from Alya. She really tried not to look at Ch—at Adrien. She needed to focus. To be the leader. They didn't have their homes, there was no little bakery for Marinette to run home to.
And that hurt.
Really hurt.
"If you're talking about options, you can try to stay independent. It's risky though. The Protectorate might take you, but you're minors."
Marinette looked around, and nodded. Even if they came from another world, none of them honestly looked old enough to pass that off.
"Which would mean…"
"The Wards," Taylor said. "And foster fam—"
"No." Marinette said. "That's not going to happen. That would put us under observation at all times, us and our kwamis."
"We could try to become emancipated," Adrien said. "It's happened a few times in the fashion field."
"Lisa could help, but you'd need a lawyer."
"And we'd all have to get it," Nino said.
"Or we could just stay the way we are…"
"Until a police officer stops us," Alya said. "I mean, we've all got accents, no papers, no ID—"
"Will the city police stop us on the street?" Adrien (eeeee!) asked.
"No. Probably not," Taylor frowned. "The city services are having enough of a problem getting young kids into care. I'm caring for the orphans in my territory, but nobody official has checked up on them."
"That's… Horrible," Marinette said.
"Between Leviathan and the Slaughterhouse, lots of people died," Taylor quietly said. "And people who survive slaughterhouse attacks are always seen…" She shook her head. "Bonesaw has implanted traps in them before. They took the people who lived around Dolltown and surgically modified them to look like members of the S9."
She's caring. Not the city. Caring for her people. Taylor didn't have… a really expressive voice, but even so, Marinette could here the determination in it. She was caring for her people.
Marinette sat back and looked around. Everyone else was looking at her, and she didn't know what to do. This wasn't Paris and they weren't the Heroes of Paris. If they stayed with Taylor, they might end up wanted. If they went to the Protectorate, they'd no doubt demand to know how their powers worked… How long could they…
The doorbell rang. Everyone started. Except for Taylor. Right. Bugs.
That means that it's probably not an attack. Not unless they're very polite. Given the lunatics Marinette had already read about, she wouldn't rule that possibility out.
"Skitter!" a cheerful voice said. "Everyone decent?"
"Tattletale," Skitter said. "You all need to costume up."
"You won't tell her?" Nino asked.
"No. She'll probably figure it out, but Tattletale is good with secrets."
"Okay," Marinette said, then blinked as a glaring Tikki floated in front of her face. "But I can't." Moments later, Taylor tossed a facemask to her.
How will this… Marinette shook her head. She bet it wouldn't, but Taylor seemed confident that Tattletale would figure things out anyway. But it was a sign that she wasn't revealing her identity. She put it on, the fabric cool against her skin.
And again, it's not like we have a choice. We have to have someone to help us, and Taylor is the only person we know well enough to trust.
"Okay," Marinette said. "We're ready."