AN: After this chapter, all that's left is the Epilogue. Wednesday I'll publish the first One-Shot in what I'm calling "An Adrienette Anthology" (the only thing the one-shots really have in common is that they focus on Adrien and Marinette, hence that's the only name that could really fit), which picks up a few hours after the Epilogue.
To anonymousfriend27: Yeah… I started seeing "Double" about halfway through from all the "Double Bug Mans" and "Double Cat Noirs"!
To Speckleflower: Glad the climax lived up to the hype!
To Rose Tiger: Several of the One-Shots in the anthology will be continuing the story from "Running out of Time." The next multi-chapter story I publish (starting Friday) will actually be (in part) a follow-up to "Running out of Time." It was supposed to be a fun One-Shot for Valentine's Day, but needed more than just 1 chapter.
To The Keeper of Worlds: Thank you! It felt right for Adrien to confront and overcome Old-Adrien, the worst-possible version of what he could potentially be. And there really wasn't anything more to be said by either of them after Adrien's last line (other than "Cataclysm," that is!).
Marinette groaned. Her whole body ached. She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids were heavy as lead. She could feel something on top of her, but when she tried to move her right hand to feel what it was, she cried out in pain.
"Don't move, Milady," a voice whispered, centimeters from her ear. She heard something rustling and creaking, and then an enormous grunt that was immediately drowned out by a cacophony of noise all around her.
"A-Adrien?" Marinette called, as loud as she could. Her voice came out barely above a whisper. She tried to suck in a breath, but her chest was wracked with pain and she let out a quiet sob.
"I'm sorry, Milady," Adrien's voice whispered. "Don't-don't try to move. Just let me get us out of here."
"O-Okay," Marinette whispered. "I trust you."
Marinette kept her eyes closed and instead focused on assessing her injuries. She could move the fingers on her left hand; that entire hand and arm felt intact. With a supreme effort she could force the fingers on her right hand to respond, but she bit her lip to keep from screaming at the stabs of pain shooting up that arm. When she tried to swallow, she nearly gagged on her tongue. She couldn't turn her neck more than a few degrees without feeling excruciating pain. After a few shallow breaths, Marinette tried to expand her lungs further, only to feel a stabbing pain all down the right side of her ribcage. She couldn't feel her legs at all below her hips.
"A-Adrien?"
"I'm here," Adrien grunted. Marinette forced herself to open her eyes and saw Cat Noir standing over her, using his staff to lever a rock twice his own size out of the way. The rock was propped up by an identical staff, extended far enough to reach the cavern wall on the far side of the cave. But above Cat Noir, Marinette saw nothing but clear blue sky.
"I don't know what's wrong," she finally whispered. "I can't feel my legs. I-I think I broke my back."
Cat Noir cursed under his breath. "Hang on, Milady," he said, reaching down and almost throwing the rock out of the way. He vaulted over the pile of rubble surrounding them, and Marinette heard him throwing things around several meters away. With an exclamation, he leapt back into view and landed on his hands and knees, straddling Marinette's chest. She had a brief glimpse of something red before she felt him affixing her earrings back in place in her ears. An instant later, two beams of light shot out of her earrings and merged into Tikki, who hovered right in front of her face.
"Oh, Marinette!" Tikki cried, dropping down to hug Marinette's cheek. "It's been far too long! Oh, how I've missed you!"
"Wait… are you the Tikki whose Marinette was killed?" Cat Noir asked, de-transforming. Two Plaggs appeared from the two rings he was wearing.
"Plagg!" Tikki shouted, grabbing the Plagg who had come out of the ring on Adrien's left hand. "You did it! You saved me!"
"Of course, Sugarcube," Plagg replied, squirming against her embrace. "I couldn't let my partner be used like that forever."
"I'm sorry about Adrien," she told him, squeezing him tighter.
Plagg wrapped his arms around her reluctantly. "Yeah, he was a good one… until he lost your girl," Plagg said, his voice quivering. "I'll always miss the boy he once was. But as for the monster he became… The Maw can take him," he spat.
"Guys, guys," Adrien said, his hand on Marinette's cheek. "As touching as this reunion is, can you do something for my Marinette?"
Tikki looked closer at Marinette and gasped. "What happened to her?"
"Take a wild guess, Sugarcube," Plagg retorted bitterly. "My boy happened to her."
"Right, well… let's get to work." With that, Tikki grabbed Plagg by the hand and dropped into Marinette's chest. She felt sudden warmth blossoming from her ribcage and spreading out from there to encompass her entire body. She sucked in a breath, and was relieved to feel the shards of bone that had lodged themselves in her lungs disappear. Her neck gave a tremendous crack and her head twisted back into proper alignment.
As this was happening, over the sound of blood rushing through her ears, Marinette heard Adrien and the other Plagg having a quiet conversation above her.
"I need to find our Tikki and Ladybug Miraculous, but we need to get all of this out of the way if we're going to get Marinette out of here," Adrien was saying. "And I can't do it all alone."
"Kid, when you've got me, you're not alone," Plagg answered, patting his cheek. "Leave Pigtails to me. You go find my partner."
Adrien climbed out of the pit Marinette could finally see that he had hollowed out around her, and Plagg drifted over to one side of it. "You'd better close your eyes," he told her, concentrating on the rubble surrounding them.
Marinette obeyed and squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could. There was a whooshing sound, and she opened her eyes again. A section of the debris pile had disappeared, leaving nothing but fine dust that caught in the breeze and swirled away. Plagg shook in midair, blowing off the dust that had settled on him, before starting to lick his paws.
"Well fine, maybe I should have let you do all the work, then," Adrien commented, climbing through the gap that Plagg had created.
"You realize there's a chance that I could make a volcano erupt right under our feet if you let me handle it all, don't you, kid?" Plagg retorted.
"You mean there's something worse than a double Cataclysm? Alright, alright, let's not destroy this world any worse than we already have," Adrien joked. He knelt next to Marinette and dropped a pair of earrings in her hand, whereupon the miraculous activated and Tikki appeared. She dropped into Marinette's palm next to the earrings, curled into a ball, and started shivering. Marinette gave Plagg a look, and he dropped next to Tikki and put his paw on her head.
"Tikki takes this kind of abuse a lot harder than most other Kwamis," Plagg explained sadly. He wrapped his arms around Tikki protectively. "Normally if one of us is used for evil, it's my miraculous, and she and her chosen have to save me. This is the first time in a millennium our roles have been reversed."
Marinette winced as she sat up. Her legs still refused to cooperate. Adrien guided her to rest her back against a piece of wall that had fallen from the upper stories of the mansion. Marinette cupped her hands around the two Kwamis as Adrien slid down to sit next to her and wrapped both his arms around her protectively. "Is there anything I can do for her?" Marinette asked Plagg.
"She'll be okay in time," he replied, rubbing Tikki's back gently. "She was only used by that monster for a few minutes before we saved her. It will be harder on the other Tikki: experiencing the death of a chosen, only to immediately be put to evil use for over a decade? It will take a long time to recover from that."
Marinette suddenly felt her legs, and pulled her knees up to her chest. A moment later the other Tikki and Plagg appeared from her hips and flew up to hover in front of their faces. "We repaired everything we could," Tikki squeaked, "but we couldn't give you any more energy since ours is so low."
The two Kwamis collapsed into Marinette's lap as Adrien shifted to kneel next to her and, with one arm still around her shoulders, slipped the other arm under her knees and lifted her up. Marinette cradled the four Kwamis in her hand, alongside her earrings, and wrapped her other arm around Adrien's neck, resting her head on his chest and sighing in contentment.
"I'm sorry," Adrien whispered, so softly Marinette nearly missed his words.
"Why are you sorry, Kitty?"
"I thought I'd failed you," he answered, his lip quivering. "I could have saved you. I almost did hand over my ring to save you. But I didn't. And you nearly died."
Marinette shifted her hand onto Adrien's cheek and turned his face to look at her. "You have nothing to apologize for," she told him. "Cat Bug Noir gave you the same choice he had faced – throw the universe out of balance to save the girl you love – and you made the other choice. You could have become him, you could have become your father, but instead you stayed yourself. You remained the boy I love. If anything, I should be apologizing to you. I've been feeling guilty for what you might do, and I've been pushing you away."
"You're not mad at me? I thought–"
"I was afraid you were going to hand over your miraculous to save me," she told him. "I thought you might do all of this, and it would be my fault. I'm glad you didn't. I-I'm sorry for ever doubting you."
"You don't have to put it all on yourself, Milady."
She looked up into his eyes and was surprised to see tears forming in the corners of his eyes. Then he shifted her in his arms and lifted her head to rest on his shoulder. Marinette moved her hand to the back of his head and drew his face down to her own. Their lips met and she kissed him as deeply as she could.
When they broke apart, Marinette looked into Adrien's eyes and said, "I love you, my Prince."
"I love you, too, Princess."
"And I love both of you!" Chloe called out, picking her way through the rubble toward them, guiding Ana with an arm around her shoulder. Ana still cradled her wrist. Looking past them, Marinette saw a small crowd clustered near the far wall.
"King Monkey," Chloe explained, seeing where she was looking. Ana's breathing hitched, and Chloe squeezed her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," Marinette said as Adrien set her on her feet.
"He knew the risks," Chloe replied. "You gave Kim a purpose once again. If he had to die, he would agree: better to die fighting than live hiding.
"Thank you," she went on. "We owe you a debt we can never repay. But it's time for you to return to your own time."
"Hang on," Marinette told her, shaking her head. "There are still a couple things we need to do first." She reached up and removed the earrings she was wearing, switching them out with those in her hand. Then she turned to Ana. "Ana Lahiffe, daughter of Carapace and Rena Rouge, adopted daughter of Queen Bee, and goddaughter of Ladybug and Cat Noir, will you accept the Ladybug Miraculous and swear to use it only for good, to preserve the balance of your universe?"
"M-me?" Ana asked, staring wide-eyed at the earrings Marinette held out to her. Behind her, Marinette saw a look of pride mingled with sadness flit across Chloe's face.
"You," Marinette confirmed. "I can think of no one better than you."
"I accept." Ana took the earrings and immediately replaced her homemade ones.
Marinette nodded to Adrien, who immediately reached to remove the ring from his left hand. Before he did so, however, Old Plagg drifted over to Old Tikki and told her, "Well, I'll see you soon enough, I suppose."
Old Tikki giggled. "You're not getting away from me that easily, you stinky cat!"
Old Plagg was sucked back into the ring as Adrien placed it in a box that Chloe held out to him. "Thanks, buddy," Adrien whispered, so quietly that only Marinette could hear.
"The two of you will need to choose a new Cat Noir sooner than later," Marinette told Chloe and Ana. "You will need your partner by your side if you're going to restore balance to your universe." She leaned into Adrien. "Make sure you choose carefully; you'll be stuck with him!
"Now there's one last thing to do: Tikki, Spots on!" Marinette called. Ana transformed simultaneously in front of her. Ladybug grinned at seeing her doppelganger; their suits were very similar, though Ana's hair remained in a single ponytail. She nodded to Ana-Ladybug, and they both threw their yo-yos in the air at the same time, shouting "Miraculous Ladybug!"
A swirl of magic emerged from the two yo-yos and merged together into a massive red cloud which spread out in all directions above the destroyed mansion. However, its effects were quickly hidden from their view as the mansion repaired itself. The debris strewn around the cavern reformed into the original furniture and walls, which returned to their original positions as the floors were repaired. Ladybug and her companions were left standing in the cavern that had once been the Heroes' headquarters beneath the repaired Agreste Mansion. A small cloud of magic drifted down and wrapped around Ana-Ladybug's wrist before dissipating.
Carasus separated from the crowd around the now-visible body of King Monkey and ran over to them. "Wayzz, Kaalki, Divide," he said. "Kaalki, Dismount." Max held up the Turtle Miraculous bracelet on his wrist. "Look!" He grinned. "The damage has been repaired! I had estimated only a 17% probability of the damaged miraculous being restored by a double-Miraculous Ladybug. Since this one has been, however, I estimate a 94% probability of all the miraculous being repaired!"
"They might not all be completely fixed," Ladybug told them. "I have no idea what using two Miraculous Ladybugs at once did. But hopefully the damage to your world is at least reduced, even if everything isn't fully restored. But you're going to have your work cut out for you," Ladybug continued, looking at Chloe. "The Kwamis whose miraculous were destroyed aren't gone. They can't interact with the world until you create new miraculous for them, but I know you can do that – with some help from your new Ladybug!"
"Don't worry, sweetie," Chloe informed her, wrapping her arm around Ana-Ladybug affectionately. "I'll be by her side every step of the way. We'll find a way to replace the destroyed miraculous, and we'll rebuild the Orders of the Guardians."
"I never would have thought I'd say this," Ladybug grinned, hugging Chloe tightly, "but I can't think of anyone better to be the new Guardian! But now, it's time for us to return home."