Four years. Four years of fighting. Four years of resisting. Four years of seemingly endless battles and stress, now over.
Marinette thought this day would be a relief. She thought she would be older. She thought the day she would hang up her title as Ladybug would be the day she could look upon the city of Paris and see peace.
Instead, she saw destruction. She saw buildings toppled over onto one another like dominos, miles of damage to remind her of her failure.
This was not the end she wanted.
"Ladybug, I...what do we do?" Cat Noir asked from behind her as she fell to the cracked sidewalk, the rough cement hard at her knees.
"Nothing," she said as the sun set over the city. "We can do nothing."
"No," Cat bit, unable to accept the facts. "There has to be something. This can't just be over. There's always another way."
Marinette supposed she should be angry. She supposed she should be yelling. But she couldn't. She could only stare off at the pills of concrete and defeat.
"Then what do you suppose we do, Cat? Hawk Moth has won. I'll admit, creating an akuma that could spread his mind control to multiple people at once was clever. We didn't stand a chance," she replied calmly, recounting the contagious evil that spread over the people of Paris. After a two week long battle to stop the spread, the entirety of Paris had been infected.
Soon the whole world would be Hawk Moth's army.
"But...how? We always win. We always solve the problem. We always stop Hawk Moth," Cat Noir announced, pleading.
"Yes, you have always defeated me. Until now," a cool voice sounded from behind the heroes.
Marinette didn't even bother to turn around.
"How nice of you to join us, Hawk Moth. You've destroyed Paris. You could give us a break before you took what was left."
A laugh erupted from the villain, dark and low. "And give you more time to ponder your failure? Consider this a mercy, Ladybug. Now, let's make this easy. Hand over your Miraculouses."
"No! You have taken a lot from us today. Our families, our friends- but not this! We would give up our lives before we gave you even more power," Cat Noir spat, his blood turning hot.
Another laugh sounded. "I know you would, Kitty. And that is why I've come prepared," Hawk Moth replied as he motioned behind him, revealing Sabine Cheng.
Marinette's mother.
No words could describe the horror Marinette felt as she saw her mother with those glazed eyes and blank expression. The pain seared straight to her heart.
"Mom," Marinette croaked.
Cat Noir's eyes widened at Ladybug's comment, a sudden realization hitting him. Mom. Sabine Cheng is Ladybug's mom.
"How did you...how did you know? You know who I am?"
"You silly girl. I've known who you were for a little while now. When you transformed from Ladybug to Marinette Dupen-cheng three months ago after defeating my akuma for the nine-hundred and seventy-eighth time, I was there. For the first time, I had gained power. Ruining your life from that point onwards was easy. Believe it or not, I know you in our lives as ordinary people. You're a friend of my son. It wasn't a challenge to discover your schedule and learn more about you. For the last three months, there has always been someone watching over your shoulder, reporting back to me. Every time you talked to your little Kwami vermin. Every time you talked to your friends at school. Every time you discussed your plans on how to defeat me, a little bird was there with the information to relay to yours truly."
"You...stalked me. You knew every move we were about to make. That's how you did it," Marinette's eyes widened in realization. "That's how you were one step ahead of us."
"Marinette," Cat Noir suddenly spoke from beside her, his green eyes burning.
Marinette looked back in confusion. "You know me too?"
Cat didn't have time to answer before reaching his hand towards the sky. "Cataclysm!" he shouted, reaching for the building beside them. Within seconds, the remainder of the building fell over them, about to crush the group like ants.
Before the building made contact with the heroes, however, Marinette felt a hand reach around her waist and pull, dragging her to safety.
The iron grip around her didn't let loose until they were miles away, with Cat's speed making the journey short.
Under the wreckage of what was once their school, they sat in silence before Marinette panicked.
"My mom- she was under that building. What if you hurt her?"
Cat shook his head. "Hawk Moth can't let her get hurt. She is his only leverage on you aside from your father."
Marinette tried to let that information calm her, but it didn't. As she pondered the thought of her father also being used as blackmail, she also dawned another thought.
"So you do know me."
Cat looked away from her, towards a broken window. "Yes."
"Do I know you?" she asked.
"Yes."
Marinette paused before asking again. "Who...who are you?"
Cat Noir turned around slowly before closing his eyes with a deep breath. "Plagg...claws in."
Marinette watched in shock as a green light flared from his body, temporarily blinding. As the light simmered down, a familiar face was left.
Marinette gasped. "Adrien?"
Adrien looked up and nodded.
"It's been you? The whole time? It was you?"
He nodded again.
"This whole time, I-" she started before thinking better of it. Now, in the middle of the end of the world, was not the time to confess her love.
"You what?" he questioned.
"Nothing," she answered, sitting down on a piece of concrete nearby.
"So what do we do?" Adrien asked once again.
Marinette shrugged. "I wasn't joking before. We can't do anything. There's no way to tell who the first akumatized citizen was. Without the source, we can't stop the spread. It could've been anybody."
"We hid the rest of the Miraculouses right? When Master Fu was akumatized?"
"Yes. I hid them when I realized he'd been infected. They're safe."
"Hid them where?"
"I-I can't tell you that."
Adrien looked up in confusion. "What? Why?"
"We could be next, Adrien. We could be the next infected. It's bound to happen at some point. It's better if only one of us knows where the rest of the Miraculous is so there's less of a chance of revealing it to Hawk Moth."
Adrien nodded, agreeing with her logic. "That's true. What's our next step, then? Do we turn ourselves over?"
"We have to," Marinette spoke, almost too soft to hear. "He has my mom. He'll hurt her if we don't."
Adrien thought for a moment before his eyes lit up with an answer. "What if we find leverage on him? What if we find out who Hawk Moth really is?"
Marinette shook her head. "How are we supposed to do that? He can't detransform from Hawk Moth or he'll lose his army."
"We'll take a page from his book. We'll spy on him. He has a home to return to, somewhere. If we find his home, we find his identity."
Marinette thought for a moment. "You think that'll work?"
Adrien looked up with an intense gaze. "What other option do we have?"
Marinette followed Adrien through the streets of Paris, matching is cat-like stealth.
"How are we supposed to find him?" Marinette asked, referring to the vast size of the city.
"Finding him isn't what I'm worried about. It should be relatively easy to follow the path with the most destruction. I'm worried he'll find us first." Adrien replied. Marinette soaked in Adrien's words, like honey for her ears. Even though he was wearing his Cat Noir suit again, she couldn't separate him and Adrien. Not ever again. Suddenly, the haze of disguise was washed away from the Cat. Every word he spoke was completely and utterly Adrien Agreste.
"Wait," he spoke again, stopping dead in his tracks. "I hear steps."
Marinette stopped with him and listened, waiting for the so-called footsteps. After a couple seconds, she heard them too. They were down the block, heading in their direction. A voice followed with the steps, dark and cold.
Hawk Moth.
"Let's go," Marinette ordered, the two running off to hide in rubble as the steps passed.
The footsteps got louder as they hid, Hawk Moth drawing nearer. "Those imbeciles. Throwing a building on top of the person who has enslaved your mother is hardly the way to make peace," Hawk Moth muttered to himself as he walked onwards towards a house that was remarkably in shape.
"Wait...he's heading to the Agreste- I mean, your house. Why is he going there?" Marinette whispered.
"Maybe because my house seems to be the only one that's in one piece. Maybe he's trying to find a place to rest," Adrien answered.
Marinette nodded as they followed the villain to the Agreste mansion.
"Let's go through the window. He won't see us that way," Adrien recommended, motioning towards the window to his bedroom.
Marinette shook her head in agreement as he lifted them up to his room, pushing the window open as softly as possible. When their feet hit the floor without a sound, they each took a sigh of relief.
"Alright. Let's keep moving."
They left Adrien's room and moved down the hall, heading towards the main staircase. At the bottom stood Hawk Moth, making his way to Adrien's father's office. The two heroes followed, hiding at the doorway.
Hawk Moth faced a picture of Adrien's late mother as he spoke, "Emilie...I'm so close. You'll be here again. You'll be here for me, and for Adrien. You'll be here for our family. I don't know where Adrien is, but I'll find him. He's in Paris somewhere. He has to be. Once I get those Miraculouses, we can all be together. You, me, and Adrien. Mother, father, and son."
Adrien's breath left his body.
Father.
Son.
Adrien almost fainted as he backed away from the doorway, running for an open window. Marinette followed him out, concerned.
"Adrien?" she asked.
Adrien gasped, his air still failing him.
"Hawk Moth...he's my... my father."
Marinette took a second to let the words sink in.
"Hawk Moth? Your father?"
Adrien only stared at the ground, a robot malfunctioning.
A sound came from the mansion, causing Marinette to jump to attention.
"Let's go, Adrien. We found out what we needed to know. We need to get out of here," she said from beside him, but her words didn't register. With a sigh, she grabbed Adrien by the arm and used her yo-yo to lift them away.
When they landed back at the school, Adrien had only barely gotten a better grip over himself.
"This whole time, I was living under the same roof as my enemy. How could I have been so blind?" he asked himself.
"I'm sure he'd be thinking the same thing if he knew who you truly were," Marinette spoke, trying to be sympathetic.
Before Marinette could contemplate the impact of what she had said, however, Adrien got quiet.
Marinette looked up in confusion at the sudden silence, quickly noting the thoughtful look on his face.
"What?" Marinette questioned.
Adrien met her eyes only for a second before turning away. "I have an idea. But I'm betting it's not one you're going to like."
"What is it?" Marinette asked, apprehensive.
Adrien turned away from her and walked towards a desk that hadn't been destroyed. After taking a seat, he breathed in heavily before exhaling.
"What you said about Hawk Moth not knowing who I am...that might be useful. I was wondering if I could reveal to him my actual identity and make him stop this evil, but I realized that wouldn't be enough. He doesn't care about what I think about him. If he did, he wouldn't have treated me the way he has for the past however many years. But, there's an alternative."
Marinette raised an eyebrow in anticipation, not knowing where he was headed.
"He may not be afraid to lose his relationship with me. But I think he would be afraid to lose me entirely."
A pause of silence ensued as Marinette tried to put together the pieces. "What do you mean...entirely?"
Adrien grimaced, almost as if he couldn't say his thoughts out loud. "What if I...revealed who I was. And then I gave him an option. He could hand over his miraculous and let Paris go… or I'll use my cataclysm…on myself."
Marinette's eyes widened, unsure of what she just heard. "No. That is not happening. How could you even say that?" she exclaimed, walking through the rubble away from him.
Adrien got up from the desk and followed, pleading. "You heard what he said in the office. He wants me to be a part of his family when he gets my mom back, if he does. He must care about me somehow. He'll hand over the miraculous."
Marinette turned around, anger seeping through her blue eyes. "And if he doesn't? You're gonna die if he decides his power is more important?"
Adrien couldn't get another word out before she went at him again.
"It's. Not. Happening. There has to be other ideas. That's so horrible, Adrien. How could you do that to Nino? To Natalie? To your father? To...me?"
Adrien looked straight into Marinette's eyes, a similar burn matching hers. "You said it yourself earlier, Marinette. We don't have a lot of options. This could save Paris. This could save the world."
Something in Marinette snapped- a chord she didn't know was strained.
"NO! You're so selfish, Adrien! Did you never even bother to think of the people that you'd leave behind? I've spent so many years loving you, admiring you… even as Cat Noir. I loved you both. And now that I've put you together, you want to risk leaving?" she spat, shoving Adrien a couple inches back.
"I've loved you for so long. Since the day we met, I've been in love. I loved your kindness, your bravery, your selflessness. And I love you still. I love you even more knowing that along with being the man I love, you're my best friend. I cannot take the chance of losing you. I don't care if the world burns away. I'm not going to support it."
Adrien gazed into the crystal blue orbs that bore into him, wearing an expression Marinette couldn't place through her anger.
Without another word, Adrien lunged for her, an arm wrapping tightly around her waist while the other hand tangled in her hair.
Marinette swallowed her fear as their lips connected, desperate. The rubble around them melted away as they kissed, her head becoming lighter and lighter while Adrien deepened their embrace, his hand bracing the back of her neck, forcing them closer.
Marinette's hands wrapped around Adrien's neck as the immediate surprise turned into need, and she pulled herself to him as close as possible. After a couple more seconds of their connection, Marinette felt herself being raised into the air as Adrien picked her up, straddling her legs around his hips as he walked.
He set her down on a smooth piece of concrete, kissing her one last time before backing his head away and moving it to her shoulder.
"I knew it was you. The whole time. A part of me always knew. I knew I loved you as Ladybug, but I also knew there was the same love for when I saw you as Marinette. I knew that love was too passionate to be split between two different people, and because of that, some part of me knew who you were. I just hadn't fully realized it."
Marinette continued to gasp for air as Adrien ran a hand up her thigh, resting on her hip. "I loved you too, Marinette. I knew it when you did. And when Hawk Moth revealed your identity by showing your mom, that was really only a confirmation of my thoughts. Once I knew it for sure, I couldn't let him hurt you. I panicked and got us out of there. Something...changed. Something felt different, finally knowing the truth. Some part of me is connected to you, and the clarity I felt when I realized the two women I loved where one in the same was unreal. You became my first priority. I love you, Marinette."
A sob fell from Marinette's throat as she begged, "Then don't do it. Promise me you'll put me first. We'll find another way to outsmart Hawk Moth. We've barely even thought about it."
Adrien raised his head and put a hand under her chin, lifting her eyes to his. "I am putting you first. I will always put you first. I made that plan with the intention of keeping you and the rest of Paris safe. I can't just wait for Hawk Moth to finally hurt us. Most importantly, you."
Marinette shrugged at his words, feeling hopeless as a tear fell down her cheek. "I-can't."
Without another second, Adrien grasped Marinette and forced her into a hug, comforting her to the best of his ability. "I'm sorry, Marinette. I'm sorry."
"Don't go. Promise me you won't go. I know what you'll do, Cat. You'll sneak off and do it without me. Don't go. I won't sleep. I'll watch you for days if that's what it takes. Don't do it."
"Shh, shh," Adrien whispered into her ear as he ran a hand through her hair, breathing comforting words as his hand continued working. He waited a moment for her breathing to return before he picked her up and carried her to the remains of the nurses office, where a futon was stationed in the back. After opening it to the full size bed, he laid her down and sat beside her.
"Sleep, Marinette. We've been awake for hours. We need to rest. We'll talk about this."
Marinette stared into his green eyes as he talked, but a part of her knew the truth. They wouldn't talk about it.
Despite this, she let her hopes lead her into a desperately needed sleep, wrapped in Adrien's arms.
The next morning, Marinette woke up in the futon. She felt beside her for a trace of the cat, but found none. A sudden pang of fear ripped through her core as her eyes tore open, and she realized she was alone.
"Cat!" she shouted, rising from the futon. "Adrien!" she shouted again. After a couple seconds of no answer, she transformed.
"Tikki! Spots out!"
Marinette desperately tore through the streets of Paris, searching for any sign of Adrien. She shouted his name many times as she looked through street by street, never hearing a response.
Not until she heard Hawk Moth scream.
After hearing the low cadence of her enemy, she followed the sound until she located the Cat. When she arrived at the scene, she saw his clawed hand above his heart, glowing with the unreleased power of his cataclysm.
"Hand over your miraculous, or I die. Now!" Adrien yelled, anger searing through his blood.
"Adrien, stop this madness! I'm doing this for a greater purpose! Join me, Adrien. Fight by my side!" Hawk Moth replied, reaching for his son.
"NO! This time, you do what I say. I'm not going to let you poison the world just so you can get mom back. Hand me the pin, or say goodbye to your son."
"Adrien!" Marinette shouted as she reached her partner, diving for him. "Stop!"
"No, Marinette. I have to do this. I'm sorry it had to be this way," Adrien answered before turning back to his father. "I warned you that I would give my life before giving up. Feel free to call my bluff. I know what I'm capable of. I'm going to count down from five, and if I hit one and your miraculous is not on the ground in front of me, then you can deal with the consequence. Five!" Adrien started, causing Marinette to panic.
"Adrien, why? Just stop! I thought you understood!" Marinette exclaimed, afraid to touch him and cause him to accidentally cataclysm himself prematurely.
"I'm sorry, Marinette. Three," he counted, staring her in the eyes.
"Two," Marinette held her breath as she felt her legs move, unaware of her own actions. She didn't even think as she lunged, reaching for his arm. Right as the word 'one' fell from Adrien's lips, a bright purple light flashed from beside them.
They froze, gazing at the detransformation from Hawk Moth into Gabriel Agreste. Marinette observed the look of defeat on Gabriel's face as he held his miraculous in his hand before dropping it at Adrien's feet.
Neither Adrien or his father said a word. They simply stared at each other with an emotion neither of them could describe, yet they both understood.
Not wasting another second, Marinette picked up the miraculous from the ground and held onto it, watching the father and son. Slowly, the city around them healed into the beauty it was before, buildings coming back to life and people returning to their homes, one by one.
"We did it," Marinette gasped as she looked to Adrien. He met her gaze and smiled before turning back to his father, only to realize he was gone. The smile fell from Adrien's face, leaving only furrowed brow.
Noticing this, Marinette lifted a hand to Adrien's shoulder before pulling him into a hug. She felt him freeze as she held him, only then remembering his cataclysm still waiting to be used.
"Oh, uh, here," she said as she handed him a rock. "Use this."
Adrien did as told and disintegrated the rock, the atoms of it dissipating.
"He'll be back, you know. Just give him time," Marinette said as the sun rose.
Adrien nodded, looking at the ghost of where his father stood. "I know."
Marinette was about to speak before Adrien did first.
"I love you, Marinette."
Marinette smiled before transforming back into her true identity, causing Adrien to do the same.
Once they were both themselves again, she lifted a hand to his cheek and replied, "I love you too, Adrien."
And together, they watched the sun lift over Paris.