Everyone was shocked for a moment at the newcomer's words, but Plagg apparently understood exactly what she was saying, and he nodded as he took her by the arms.

"How long ago?"

"I don't know!" she wailed. "I saw her last night, and I waited for her to come back to me, but she's gone now! I don't know where she is, she ran away and left me a note - Plagg, we have to find her, she could be anywhere! I can't lose her!"

Madame Rossi was now standing and staring at the woman in front of her with undisguised anger.

"What are you doing back in my house?" she hissed. "I thought I told you never to enter my door again!"

The stranger rounded on her once more and returned the glare with interest.

"Oh, you… This is not your house, and you don't have any right to it or Marinette, you awful, despicable woman. I don't know what you did to her last night, but congratulations! You managed to destroy the spirit of that girl, and I intend to make you pay, you lying, manipulative-"

"Woah, woah! Easy, Tikki." Plagg said, grabbing her arm as she lunged toward the older woman. Adrien was standing by now as well and the name clicked in his mind. Tikki, Marinette's old nurse. The only friend she'd had until Chat Noir entered her life.

Adrien suddenly noticed that Alya and Nino had followed her in through the door and were standing just inside the room, clearly uncomfortable with the scene being played out. He saw Nino's look of confusion, but was more interested in Alya's expression of incredulous horror, as if she was just seeing something go terribly wrong.

Madame Rossi was also clearly emotional, but even as Adrien watched, her smile came back in full force. Adrien suddenly understood why Marinette was so afraid of her - the smile was sickeningly sweet, but the look in her eyes meant murder.

"I can assure you, there's nothing wrong with Marinette, and she's certainly not gone. She's just a bit sick after all the rush of the festival. In fact, I'll take you up to her myself." She turned to Adrien, flashing her smile even brighter than before. "I'm sure she wouldn't want you to see her like that, your highness, but if you will come with me, Miss…"

She was just about to take a step toward Tikki when Adrien intercepted her, finally allowing his carefully controlled anger to show itself.

"If you don't mind my saying so, Madame Rossi, I'm more inclined to take this woman's word than yours, and I think I'd like to speak to your stepdaughter myself. From what I've seen of you, you seem to be quite determined to keep tight control of this situation, which leads me to believe that you know more than you let on. Not only that, but I've spoken with several people about you since beginning my search, and I have been informed by reliable sources that you treat this stepdaughter of yours as an unpaid servant, if not worse."

"Oh, it's much worse." Tikki said through clenched teeth. "This liar has been making Marinette's life a living nightmare for two years. Behind all those fake smiles is a lying, vindictive, evil woman who forced an innocent girl to give up life to serve her, and not only that, but she guilted Marinette into thinking it was her own fault!"

Madame Rossi managed a laugh at this, the high sound grating on Adrien's ears.

"What on earth do you mean? I would never! Marinette's such a sweet girl, she was happy to stay with us after her father died."

"Her father!" Tikki screamed at her. "Her father was a good man, and I don't know what you did to him to convince him to marry you. He was dead within the year, and while I might have my thoughts about that, there's not a thing in the world that could convince me he left Marinette to you the way she said. He would never give you so much control over her! He loved her more than anything in the world, least of all you, and to say it's her duty to him in order to get what you want from her is utterly despicable. I don't know how, I don't know how to prove it, but I know you have something to do with it, and I will not sit back and allow you to sabotage that girl any more!"

"Sabotage? Whatever do you mean?"

Tikki wrenched her arm out of Plagg's and stepped toward the widow threateningly.

"Why doesn't Marinette let anyone touch her? Why is she always afraid of being away for too long, and why is she always alone? Why is it she's stayed in this house with three women who treat her like she's no better than the dirt under their feet? It's because you have lied, and manipulated, and broken her until she believes your lies. I took an oath never to harm a person, but I'd be willing to pay the price for you!"

This time Plagg had to physically hold her back as she lunged for Madame Rossi. Everyone else had been standing frozen during this scene, and Adrien felt as if he'd never be able to move again. Then, surprisingly, it was Sabrina who made the first move. She collapsed into her chair once again with a shaking breath and said quietly,

"Mother? Is that true?"

"Of course not! I would never hurt poor, sweet Marinette." Madame Rossi said, but everyone could see she was grasping at straws. Sabrina's expression turned to one of shock and horror.

"You told me she'd planned to use me to get close to the prince. You destroyed her dress and said it was all for me. You used me to hurt Marinette!"

She ended in tears, burying her head in her hands and sobbing. Alya looked like she was about ready to follow Tikki's lead and lunge for Madame Rossi, and only Nino's hand on her arm was holding her back. Her expression was one of outrage and remorse, his of sorrow. Nathalie was looking at Madame Rossi in distaste - the most extreme expression she ever used - and Chloé…

Chloé was looking almost like the cat who had gotten the cream. Her face was neutral, but her eyes were glowing with pleasure and her entire stature screamed satisfaction. Adrien met her eyes and something in them gave him pause. Then she kept their eye contact as she said, as casually as possible,

"I wish someone would just go and talk to Marinette and be done with all of this. Ugh, her bedroom is in that dusty tower behind the kitchen, just go already!"

Madame Rossi rounded on her daughter, saying as calmly as she could,

"Chloé, darling, do you really think it's a good idea to have our guests wandering around the servant quarters?"

"So you admit she's a servant?" Alya screamed from the doorway. Chloé ignored her and responded to her mother, her expression once more petulant and irritated.

"I don't see how we're going to settle this without Marinette, so why doesn't someone just go find her already?"

Adrien was halfway to the door before anyone knew what he was doing, Plagg and Tikki right behind him. Madame Rossi's excuses faded behind them as Nathalie stepped out to block her from following them. Adrien barely noticed the pounding of feet behind him over the pounding of his own heart. Marinette wouldn't be there, he was sure of it, but he was terrified of what he might find instead. He raced down the hall and to the kitchen, then wrenched open the door to the staircase and began to climb, thanking his lucky stars that he remembered the direction and didn't have to go through the window.

The door to her bedroom was shut, and Adrien froze as he reached for the handle. The last time he'd been in this bedroom hadn't ended well for either of them, and he wasn't anxious to relive the memories, but he forced himself to open the door and step in.

In the daylight, the room seemed even smaller than when lit by a candle. The bed was covered with a quilt, which in turn was covered in mud stains, and obviously hadn't been slept in or had been made remarkably well for someone trying to get away in a hurry. Her box of sewing things was open on the floor, her black apron crumpled in a heap next to it. Adrien was still standing there in the middle of the room as Plagg and Tikki entered and passed him. Tikki immediately went to the dresser and opened the drawers.

"It's all gone. She's not coming back, Plagg!"

Then she grabbed a little piece of paper which had fallen to the floor and read the name, groaning as she did so.

"Marinette, why would you leave a note for him!"

Adrien suddenly snapped back to reality and looked at the note. The name on the front, in pretty script, read "C.N.". Adrien reached for it, but Tikki pulled it away with an affronted exclamation.

"I don't care if you are the prince! I don't know why you're here or what you think you're going to do with Marinette, but I-"

"It's for him, Tikki." Plagg said quietly from behind. Tikki looked at him, then at Adrien. Then her eyes widened and she glared back at his tutor.

"Oh, is it, now? A fine mess you've made of this, Plagg! You knew her name, all you had to do was tell him! And now look what you did! At least I didn't know that it was yours who went around in a black cape and mask, flirting with girls and then breaking their hearts!"

Plagg, surprisingly, was looking back at her not angrily, but reproachfully.

"You know the rules, Tik. And I never saw her - it might have been anyone, how could I have known?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe contact me and ask?!" Tikki shouted at him, her face almost as red as her hair now. "Now we've got this mess on our hands, and she's gone!"

Adrien finally interrupted.

"What the heck are you talking about! How do you two know each other, and what's all this about Marinette and I?"

Plagg sighed deeply and ignored Tikki's pointed glare.

"We technically can't say… but I can tell you that your initial thought about the girl you met at the festival was right."

"What? My first thought was that… it… was…"

Adrien trailed off and his eyes widened. He stumbled to the bed and sat down hard, trying to wrap his head around it.

He'd been right. He'd been right all along. The girl he had been in love with as a child had come back into his life and he'd fallen in love with her all over again. He'd turned her down for herself! He suddenly remembered talking to her in this room for the first time.

"What's the story behind the rosebush?"

"What? Oh! The rosebush by my parents. It's from a friend I made when I was really young. We haven't seen each other in years, but we were really close when I was little. It's a silly thing, but I like to imagine that someday he'll come back and I'll be able to say 'look, it's the roses you gave me when we were kids, I never forgot about you because I had it.'"

He also suddenly remembered a small incident from his childhood. Just another day, but suddenly so impactful.

"Ladybug! I was talking to the gardener, and he let me plant some flowers for Mama, and he said I could keep the rest of the seeds and plant them somewhere!"

"That's so cool! Can I have some? I love flowers."

"Of course! You're my friend, aren't you? And friends share everything. Now come on! Where should I plant them?"

Adrien reached out for the piece of paper still in Tikki's hand, cutting off their continued bickering.

"May I have the note, please?"

Tikki broke off in the middle of a sentence and looked at him more gently.

"Don't judge her too harshly, whatever it says, okay? She… I don't know what all to tell you, but she was devastated that she felt like she'd lost you. The other you, I mean."

She handed the note to him and Adrien quickly opened it up, reading it as fast as he could.

Chat Noir,

I wish our last meeting had ended better, but it pushed me to do this. I'm not coming back. You were right, I can't live like this anymore. No matter what my father put in his will, Lila won't be able to control me anymore. Please don't worry about me. I'm telling the only two people who care about me, but no one else will know what I've done.

You should know, Lila knows about your visits. She wants to blackmail you or make you do something else to keep her quiet about it. I didn't tell her anything, but please be careful. Don't let her do to you what she did to me.

Thank you for everything.

Love, Marinette

And thus we end this chapter!

I know it's shorter, but through story elements and pacing, it made sense for it to end here and let the next chapter stand alone - and it's a doozy!

I love Plagg and Tikki's relationship in the show, and I tried to bring in some part of it here, but more than anything they're their own characters and react as such. And now that we've gotten a little more of them together, you might be able to place a few easter eggs I've added in the rest of the story - nothing major or plot related, just interesting little tidbits.

As always, I hope you're having a beautiful day, and even if you're not, I hope I might have helped just a little bit. Stay safe, and I'll see you all next week!