Thanks to ArtEngine for betaing!

A couple days later

Alya slid behind her desk with uncertainty. After she'd showed Ladybug and Chat Noir Gabriel's frozen form, the superheroes left to contact the proper authorities, as well as take the Grimoire to someone who might be able to translate it - something that'd been news to Chat, but Ladybug had just told him to come with, and that she'd explain along the way.

Which left her to explore the empty mansion by herself… including investigating the second secret chamber Nooroo told her about. And subsequently seeing a comatose lady kept in a life support pod, who was apparently Gabriel's thought-to-be-dead wife.

Hopefully Chat had been right about Adrien having support besides his father, because he was gonna need one hell of a support system to deal with the tenets underpinning his life being ripped up within a matter of hours.

Breaking away from her reverie, Alya smiled and waved as Nino slid into the desk ahead of her. "So, how was your reunion with your family?"

Nino hummed. "They were pretty nervous at first, especially Chris." His expression darkened. "Apparently Hawkmoth had made me send Mom and Dad into orbit a few times, and he didn't believe I wasn't going to do it again."

Alya grimaced. "I was more fortunate. My powers are more one-on-one, and there wasn't much reason to send me after my family. They mostly just saw me on the news." Ella and Etta had squealed and thrown themselves at her, hugging her and asking for more bedtime stories, saying that no one could tell them like she had. Nora'd given her a thumbs up. She hadn't even seemed surprised that Alya had been the one to, ultimately, defeat Hawkmoth - she almost seemed to have expected it. Considering how she'd cheered for Alya to kick his ass all those months ago, before there'd even been any evidence that akumas could rebel… well, she knew her sister, and that no matter what some supervillain did to her, she'd never be kept down for long.

Her mom had had some more difficulty adjusting. She and Dad (her Dad! Who had been with her for months!) had both returned, but her father hadn't been as fortunate as she had been. Alya'd been changed by the experience, but not as much as he had. Her Mom had confessed to her last night that sleeping next to her husband again still felt strange, especially since he slept differently than he used to.

The rest of the class slowly filed in. Mylene and Ivan had some trouble with their desks, but after a bit of experimenting, managed to find a position that worked. They'd probably have to find a different seating arrangement for those two by tomorrow, one that was more comfortable.

Marinette slid into the seat next to Alya, smiling. "How does it feel to be one of the Heroes of Paris?" she teased.

Alya laughed. "I think that title still belongs to Ladybug and Chat Noir more than to mine, Nino's, and Dad's rebellion. They've been the ones defending Paris all this time. Still… I'm glad we were able to help. And maybe we really can earn that title, eventually." They'd terrorized Paris for months. It was none of their faults, and no one blamed them, but… she still wants to make up for it somehow. Become someone that Parisians would cheer at seeing, rather than flinch instinctively before relaxing.

"You've done plenty," Marinette assured her. She frowned. "I just wish that more could've been done to reverse Hawkmoth's actions. Or- or that I could've done more to help before all this."

Alya placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder. "Hey, you did plenty. Your family were the ones who donated bread for us to eat, right? I thought it tasted familiar at the time, it was comforting. I may not have consciously remembered visiting at your house and eating at your family's bakery at the time, but my subconscious remembered. Getting the daily bread shipment was one of the highlights of my day!"

Marinette smiled. "I'm glad I was able to give you that at least, even if I wasn't able to do much else." She hesitated. "Do- do you think they'll be able to reverse Hawkmoth's ritual? Ladybug and Chat Noir I mean?"

Alya nodded confidently. "It might take some time, but Ladybug and Chat Noir won't rest until they can undo the akumatizations. I'm just glad that the mind control and amnesia aspects were easier to remove. Those would've been more of a pain. Being trapped in a body that's been altered against your will can be unpleasant, but it's better than having your mind altered against your will."

She was one of the fortunate ones. As Lady Wifi, she barely looked different from her regular self. Her father's had a tougher time. Getting to turn into a bunch of different animals - especially his beloved black panther - was cool, but it lost a lot of its appeal when you couldn't go back to your regular human form.

A thought occurred to her. "Have you seen Adrien lately? I can't even imagine what he's going through." With the restoration of her memory, had come the remembrance of who Adrien was and how she knew him. They hadn't known each other super well - it was more of a friend-of-a-friend situation than anything - but she'd seen enough of him that she felt bad for the poor kid.

"He's… well, he's dealing. He's staying over at my house right now, until the court system figures out what to do with him."

Alya quirked up an eyebrow. "You know, I remembered all sorts of things about you and Adrien after that part of Hawkmoth's ritual was undone. I still remember the two of you running away, holding hands. Sooo…?"

Marinette blushed. "Alyaaaaa," she whined, but smiled. "Look, we've talked a lot these past few months, and- yeah, I still like him. A lot. And he likes me. But we're dealing with so much and I just- I want to hold off on officially dating until we both have our feet more firmly on the ground. Especially with how vulnerable Adrien is after all this."

"But…?" she said knowingly.

"But I think I'll have a date to the end-of-year dance," Marinette said, almost seeming to glow.

Alya playfully elbowed her. "Knew you could do it, girl!"

"That makes one of us," Marinette said wryly, and the two of them laughed together.

Shortly after, their teacher– the lovely Ms. Bustier, whose presence had a way of easing the nerves of whomever she was with, fortunately for her class– entered the room and called for her students' attention. Alya faced the front of the room eagerly, ready for whatever this new chapter of her life would bring.