AN: There are two chapters left after this one, followed by an Epilogue. The day after "Running out of Time" is completely published (next Wednesday), I will start publishing a One-Shot anthology series set in the regular universe after the events of "Running out of Time," the first chapter of which will pick up a couple hours after the Epilogue. Those won't publish regularly (though I will start with a few days in a row); they will be more of a break between the longer stories. One of those is already finished; the two after that are partially-written.
To GuenZhenXuan2020: That's more or less correct. I created the Dinosaur and Eagle Miraculous (along with all the other original ones mentioned back in chapter 8). Others may have had similar ideas, but this is my version of those miraculous. The holders of the Eagle and Dinosaur are both original characters (not that there was much to them, really). I had an idea at one point for Lila to be the Peacock Miraculous holder and make her more of a double/triple agent working for/again both Cat Bug Noir and Chloe, but that never panned out.
To The Keeper of Worlds: Speaking of the razor's edge…
"Marinette!" Cat Noir screamed, desperately digging his claws into the trapdoor through which she had fallen. The echoes of her last scream reverberated through his mind as he fought to pry the planks apart and follow. Around him he was only dimly aware of Queen Bee and Carasus starting to rouse themselves on the far side of the room, trapped as they were under debris, of Miracle Girl whimpering against the far wall. And then Ladybug's scream was no longer an echo; it was real. He could hear his Lady screaming her lungs out through the floorboards.
"Hang on, I'm coming, Milady!" he shouted, tearing a strip away from one of the boards. The screaming intensified, and Cat Noir realized he couldn't tear through the trapdoor fast enough.
"Cataclysm!" he shouted, slamming his hand to the floor directly onto the trapdoor.
"Wait! Adrien!" cried Queen Bee, holding a hand out to him as the trapdoor disintegrated under him. "We need a plan!"
Cat Noir was past planning at this point. His Lady was in danger, and she needed him. He folded his arms against his chest and closed his eyes as he hurtled feet-first down the chute, toward the screaming below him.
Cat Noir shot out into the brilliant light of his father's former lair, landed on the ground and rolled to his feet. He had no time to marvel at the changes that had been wrought to the lair which they had transformed in the Heroes' headquarters; his eyes were drawn instantly to the opposite side of the room, where Cat Bug Noir held Marinette by the neck with one hand, while the other hand was placing the second of Marinette's earrings into his own ears. Tikki appeared out of the miraculous momentarily – just long enough for Cat Noir's enhanced sight to make out the look of terror and revulsion on her face – before Cat Bug Noir looked at her and said, "Unify," and she was sucked back into the miraculous.
Cat Bug Noir roared and held his arms out wide as the additional power surged through him. Cat Noir ignored him, however, his eyes were transfixed on Marinette, who was still struggling limply in Cat Bug Noir's tightening grip.
"Let her go!" Cat Noir called, holding his staff in front of himself, squeezing tight enough to break it in half. "I won't let you hurt Milady! Now. Let. Her. Go."
"It's adorable that you think you have any control here, little Kitten," Cat Bug Noir mocked. "But it's time for you to face facts. You lost. I won. I allowed Chloe to steal my miraculous and the Book, knowing she would bring you to me. I allowed you into my house so I could take your miraculous and combine two sets of ladybug and cat miraculous. With double the power, I will restore my Marinette! The universe cannot refuse me! Not when I offer your universe in trade!"
"Not gonna happen, Old Man," Cat Noir retorted, tightening his grip on the staff. "Let her go!"
"You are in no position to make demands, kid!" Cat Bug Noir shouted. "I have the miraculous. I have your Marinette's miraculous. I even hold your Marinette's life in my hands!" He shook Marinette by the neck. "Now I will make this simple for you, child: give me your ring, and I will return your Marinette to you unharmed. If you don't?" He placed his right hand on Marinette's face, pressing his ring into her cheek so hard she whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut. "If you don't give me your ring, I will give her back to you in a vial!"
"No!" Cat Noir shouted. "You wouldn't dare! Not to Marinette!"
"There is nothing I wouldn't dare for Marinette! Everything I have done has been for Marinette! I slaughtered our false so-called friends for Marinette! I collected almost all the miraculous on the planet for Marinette! I moved heaven and earth, just to get to this moment, when I can restore my Marinette to me!" Marinette whimpered as Cat Bug Noir tightened his grip on her neck. "Now, are you going to make me destroy your Marinette to restore my own, or are you going to give me that ring?"
"Plagg, Claws in," Cat Noir muttered, a moment before he was engulfed in light. Adrien looked down at the ring on his finger, avoiding the confused eyes of the Kwami hovering next to his shoulder, who silently dropped into Adrien's shirt pocket to find a piece of cheese. Such a small thing, to be worth so much. The miraculous had given him so much: freedom, an opportunity to do good, friends. Without the miraculous, he may never have truly met the wonderful girl to whom he had given his heart, who had given him her own heart in return. And now the very object which had given him the life he now enjoyed was the price to maintain that life. How could he hold onto the ring when it would mean Marinette's life?
And yet, as he looked up at Cat Bug Noir, he saw the terror and sadness in Marinette's eyes which were fixated on his own. Giving up his miraculous would throw this universe so far out of balance that nothing could restore it again. Giving up his miraculous would mean the cosmic destruction of their own universe. If they did not restore Tikki and Plagg to their universe to maintain the cosmic balance, everything they knew and loved would be destroyed. – even if Cat Bug Noir didn't try to trade the destruction of their entire universe for the restoration of his wife.
But what was that next to Marinette's life? Adrien had been faced with that same choice before – Marinette's life or altering the balance of the universe to wake his mother – and he had not chosen to maintain balance; he had chosen Marinette. She was more important to him than his family – she was his family. Surely he couldn't abandon Marinette now, even with the fate of two universes hanging in the balance? Would he really want to return to the life he once knew, if that were even possible, knowing that Marinette was not in it?
And yet, would Marinette want him to sacrifice two universes just to save her life? The Marinette in this universe had been killed because she chose to save her husband. His own Marinette had been captured because she chose to push him out of the way and fallen into the trapdoor herself. She had made her choice. Marinette – both as herself and as Ladybug – always put the needs of others ahead of her own. She would never sacrifice someone else, even if it meant saving her own life. And she would always sacrifice her own life to save that of another.
Though it would tear him apart, Adrien knew what he had to do.
"I'm-I'm sorry, Milady," he said to Marinette. He saw a flash of despair in her eyes before turning on Cat Bug Noir. "I will not give you my miraculous," he shouted. "Do your worst to us, but you will never win!"
Adrien's eyes found Marinette's, willing himself to drink in the sight, if it was to be the last time he ever saw his Lady. Her eyes shifted from despair to acceptance, and just as quickly to resolve.
"So be it, mangy Cat," Cat Bug Noir sneered. "Catacl-argh!"
Adrien jumped at the sound. He had been so focused on Marinette's eyes that he had not been watching her hand. The moment Cat Bug Noir had started speaking, she had mustered all her strength, reached up, and wrenched the ring from his finger. In the same motion, she lobbed it across the room toward him in a high arc.
Cat Bug Noir roared in rage as the black disappeared from his suit. He swung Marinette by the neck, throwing her across the room. She slammed into the wall and landed in a crumpled heap, motionless.
Adrien's eye caught the glint of the ring as it sailed through the air. He reached out and snatched it before it flew past him. "Plagg?" Adrien whispered, as the duplicate miraculous in his hand activated and an all-too-familiar Kwami burst out of it.
"The one and only!" Plagg called cheekily, spreading his arms and bowing in midair in front of Adrien.
"'Only'?" retorted Adrien's Plagg, phasing through Adrien's shirt and floating up to hover in front of the new Plagg.
"Great: now there's two of them…" Adrien muttered to himself as the two Kwamis started eyeing each other suspiciously.
"You destroyed the world!" Adrien's Plagg said accusingly, poking the new one in the chest.
"Oh, please," the new one replied, crossing his arms. "We've done so much worse. Remember Atlantis? The dinosaurs?"
"Don't remind me. Longg and Rexx still haven't forgiven me for the dinosaurs!"
"Plaggs, Plaggs, calm down," Adrien called, grabbing one in each hand. "We can worry about this later. In the meantime, what do we do about that!?" He pointed the Plaggs' faces at Old Adrien, who, in the absence of his cat miraculous had transformed into Double Bug Man.
"Your boy really made a mess of things, didn't he?" Adrien's Plagg observed conversationally.
"Considering that he lost his Pigtails and their kitten, I think he was a little bit justified, don't you?" Old Plagg replied, shrugging. "Besides, did we really need Portugal?"
"Some of my favorite cheese came from Portugal!"
Old Plagg arched an eyebrow at him. "What, that queijo de Serra da Estrela you tried last century? I mean, it was good, but it's still no camembert."
"Guys, you're missing the point," Adrien told them, shaking them for emphasis. "What do I do now? I'm just Cat Noir. I'm supposed to protect my Ladybug at all costs. But I didn't," he pointed Old Plagg at the far wall where Marinette lay, unmoving, "and now he's got two Ladybug miraculous! I'm just Cat Noir! I can't stop him."
"Why not?" answered Old Plagg, fixing him with a calm look.
"'The duty of the Cat Noir is to protect his Ladybug,'" Adrien quoted. "That's what Master Fu told me over the summer."
"Kid," Adrien's Plagg said, phasing through his hand and putting a hand on Adrien's cheek, "Fu told you everything he knew about the role of the Cat Noir. We just never told the Guardians – and they never asked – everything there is to know about the Cat Miraculous. And they only scratched the surface of the true power of the Kwami of Destruction."
Old Plagg phased through Adrien's other hand and hovered in front of his face. "That's only part of Cat Noir's role – protecting Tikki's user when he or she is preserving the balance of the universe."
"But when Tikki is being abused like this," Adrien's Plagg's eyes hardened as he glared across the room, "Cat Noir, the Avatar of Destruction, must balance her out, rescue her from the abuser, and restore the balance of the universe himself."
"What does that mean?" Adrien asked, looking between the two Plaggs.
"Let me make this simple for you," Old Plagg said, as both Plaggs turned to face Double Bug Man, hovered a half-meter in front of Adrien, and crossed their arms. "Kick his ass, kid."
"So what are you going to do, kiddo?" Double Bug Man demanded. "Your girl may have taken my ring, but it's only delayed the inevitable. I'll take those rings off your cold, dead body. Then I'll Cataclysm your Marinette for good measure. And then I'll use all four miraculous to restore my own Marinette!"
Adrien jammed the second ring onto his left hand, opposite his own miraculous. "You got one thing right," Adrien told him, clenching both fists and dropping into a crouch, a feral look in his eyes, "If you take these rings it will be off my cold, dead fingers! Plaggs… CLAWS OUT!"
AN: Rexx is the Dinosaur Kwami. And yes, dragons in this universe aren't "mythical" creatures but actually existed and went extinct with the dinosaurs.
Queijo de Serra da Estrela is a Portuguese cheese I found on a list of Portuguese cheeses. If you have a better delicacy Portuguese cheese for Plagg to miss after destroying Portugal, let me know.