Chapter Three:

Marinette woke to the ridiculously annoying sound of her alarm. She groaned and attempted to pull the covers over her face, only to have them pulled way by Tikki.

"Five more minutes…" she begged.

"Kid, this is your third alarm. I'm on verge of breaking your phone in two if I have to hear that stupid ringtone any longer." Tikki replied, clearly annoyed.

"Third… oh god Tikki, I've got to get ready!" Marinette realized, rushing out of bed and trying to pull her hair back into her typical ponytails as fast as possible. A whole fifteen minutes had been thrown off her usual schedule, meaning she had less then ten minutes to be at school.

She had finished styling her left ponytail when she halfheartedly glanced in the mirror. She gasped.

Her normally blue eyes had turned purple, and she appeared to have a some kind of white flower tucked in her hair. She tried to touch it, but her hand passed straight through.

"Weird," she muttered.

"Everything okay, kid?" Tikki asked, fluttering over.

"Yep!" she replied.

Tikki gave her a curious look but didn't press.

However strange it may be, she had more important problems.

She threw on one of her plain shirts and a pair of jeans, not caring that she'd totally deterred from her usual style, and rushed downstairs.

Thankfully, her bad luck seemed to have relaxed for a bit, as she made it downstairs in record time. She grabbed a pastry or two, gulped down a glass of water, and rushed out the door after saying goodbye to her parents.

She was halfway down the street when a certain red kwami finally caught up to her.

"MARINETTE!" Tikki yelled as loud as she could get away with. "I think you're forgetting a little something!"

"Sorry Tikki!" Marinette apologized.

"Well, so long as you got me something to eat as well, I can probably forgive you." Tikki replied, sighing.

Marinette gave Tikki one of of the croissants she'd taken on her way out, and opened up her purse for Tikki to hide in. Tikki looked at her strangely before carefully fluttering in.

Not noticing the look because of the adrenaline rush, Marinette took off again.

She made it into class only two minutes late, accompanied by an impromptu excuse the teacher clearly didn't believe in the slightest, and prepared to sit where she normally did… only to find that Alya was sitting in the front row.

She sat down there instead, somewhat disoriented, and muttered something about being too tired to function properly in hopes to keep Alya from getting suspicious.

Mlle. Bustier launched into an explanation about a new formula in Math, and Marinette tried her best to concentrate.

"... which means that 76 is the dividend of the problem, leading the final answer to be 23," Kim finished.

"Excellent job, Monsieur Lê Chiến! And if the variable was negative?"

"Then…" Kim proceeded to go into a lengthy train of formulas and methods Marinette understood absolutely nothing about. She could already tell this was going to be a long day.

Luckily, after a couple more hours of Math and History, both of which seemed to blend into each other to become one confusing mess in Marinette's memory, it was time for lunch.

This time, to make sure that she didn't mess up the seating, she followed Alya a couple steps behind. They reached a table, and Alya got out her lunch, causing Marinette to realize she'd forgotten back hers.

Marinette ended up nibbling on a couple of Tikki's chocolate chip cookies, which, as turned out, Tikki still liked quite a bit. Meanwhile, Alya launched into her typical chat about her favorite superheroes.

"Can you believe it, Marinette? She got up after that fall and didn't make a single cheesy pickup line! This from, Ladybug, the literal queen of puns and shameless flirting!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, how weird!" Marinette replied, pushing as much surprise as she could into her voice. Acting like Other Her would be even harder with Alya constantly on her back.

"And then, get this, she LEFT! She just swung away without even doing her signature high five with Chat! How crazy is that?"

"Really, really crazy! I can't believe it!" Marinette made a mental note to add that to the ever-growing list of things she needed to remember.

"I can't either! It's not like Ladybug at all…" Alya murmured, and Marinette mentally panicked when Alya's Theory Mode face appeared.

"Yeah, that fall must've been pretty far!" she quickly added.

"Oh- speaking of which! I originally thought that too, so I went ahead and calculated the distance, and that fall should've only left a light bruise.

"Ladybug's taken heavier blows and still been her punning self to Chat, so it makes no sense that brain damage could have occurred. I even went so far as to calculate the speed she was falling out, and it still didn't add up!"

"Wow, Alya, I didn't know you were so interested in Physics!"

"Eh, whatever. I just need to get the best content for Noir News!" Alya said, shrugging

"Of course." Marinette responded, not able to hold back her smile at how dedicated her friend was.

"I even drew up an article on it! I'll have it published by tonight, so make sure to check it out, Marinette!" Alya replied.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to read it- as soon as I'm finished with homework!" Marinette promised.

"Can I be sure that you won-"

A loud crash from a collapsing wall interrupted their conversation. A voice echoed throughout the building.

"I AM TRAIN WRECK! BRING SABRINA TO ME AND I MIGHT LET YOU LIVE!" it commanded.

Sabrina? Why would he want Sabrina? Marinette thought, puzzled. She quickly told Alya to get to safer ground, knowing full well she'd stay in the chaos to get a video for Noir News but deciding to try anyways, and bolted to the nearest bathroom.

She opened up her purse.

"Okay, Tikki, Spots-" she started, but Tikki interrupted her.

"Not happening, kid. You didn't even bother to save me a cookie!" she scolded, clearly hangry and annoyed.

"Sorry, sorry! I promise you, I'll get you some as soon as I can," Marinette pleaded, having forgotten about Tikki's new personality in the rush.

"And some apple danishes?"

"Yes, sure! Now, please!"

"Alright, fine." Tikki lamented.

"Spots On!" Marinette yelled.

Meanwhile, somewhere over the rainbow…

"How could you?" Tikki yelled.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Tikki." Plagg replied, shrugging.

"We've lost our only source of information! That is NOT something you can just-"

"Alright, Tikki. I get it, I messed up. However, we can't exactly fix that, and we need to get the necklace back to Fu," Plagg interrupted. "Since we can't exactly wake up Sleeping Beauty over there with some True Love's Kiss - Adrien don't you even try! - we'll just have to leave her here."

"No way! I'm staying with Ladybug!" Adrien insisted. "She could wake up at any moment!"

"Plagg's right, Adrien, we can't wake her, and I doubt she'll wake up in the hour or two we'll be gone… from what Trixx told us, she'll be out for a while."

Adrien still looked doubtful, and Plagg cut in.

"Kid! Stop acting like a lovesick kitten, it's not going to help the situation at all."

"You're right," Adrien sighed, "I… I'll just have to stop worrying some much." Despite his words, his expression hadn't changed at all.

"Adrien, she'll be fine. Ladybug is a strong girl, she'll wake up." Tikki said, fluttering over to land on his shoulder. Adrien smiled at her halfheartedly.

"Can we go now?" Plagg asked. "I've already been cheated out of visiting Fu once!"

"Yeah, yeah." Adrien replied, letting both Tikki and Plagg fly into his coat.

However, unable to leave just yet, he walked closer to Ladybug, deciding to lean down on his knee and carefully placing her hand in his.

"Wake up soon, m'lady," he whispered, gently kissing it before walking away.

Inside his coat, Plagg shook his head. "Kid's too infatuated for his own good," he mumbled.

Tikki glanced up at him. "I only wish Marinette would realize," she replied, sighing.

"Yeah, they're both really oblivious." Plagg agreed.

A little while later…

Adrien opened up the door to the "massage parlor."

"Chat Noir, back already?" Master Fu asked, greeting him. "I certainly hope Trixx was able to give you some more knowledge about the situation at hand."

"Yeah, we learned a lot," Adrien responded, deciding not to disclose Plagg's outburst as he opened up his jacket to let Tikki and him out.

"Yet I don't see Trixx herself?" Master Fu inquired.

"Ah, she… decided to go back to sleep." Adrien fibbed.

"Plagg got on her nerves then?" Catching Adrien's surprised look, Fu added, "Adrien, I've dealt with these kwamis for well over a century; I've seen plenty of Trixx and Plagg's quarrels."

Plagg grumbled, avoiding Fu's gaze as he and Tikki carried the fox miraculous back to him.

"Here you go!" Tikki chirped, leaving it in Master Fu's palm.

"Thank you Tikki," Fu replied, poking the lock combination into the gramophone and placing the miraculous in its designated spot once it opened up.

"You'll meet your cub in due time, Trixx," he murmured before closing the gramophone again.

"Now, Plagg. Would you like to join me for some tea?" he asked patiently, gesturing to Tikki and Adrien to show the invite was extended to them.

Tikki looked at Plagg and shrugged, ignoring Adrien's worried glances and heading after Master Fu.

Plagg turned around to Adrien, and assured him that his girlfriend wouldn't be going anywhere.

Adrien blushed a deep red at the comment and hurried after.

After some time…

When the tea was poured and everyone was seated, Plagg surprisingly compliant without cheese, Master Fu started talking.

"I must offer my apologies to Plagg for not coming along with Adrien when he went back with Trixx's necklace. I felt that accompanying him would seem more suspicious then Adrien just going on his own."

"Whatever," Plagg replied, shrugging.

"Now, what did you learn from Trixx?" he inquired.

"Well-" Tikki started, only to be cut off by Plagg.

"She's under some sort of spell that keeps her in some Sleeping Beauty state except no one can wake her up but herself," he summarized.

Tikki glared at him before filling Fu in on the rest. "The spell also conjures specific flowers to any sort of crime or injustice that she'd usually be there to solve."

Plagg scoffed. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"The whole point is that Trixx saw it, Plagg," Tikki retorted, sighing.

"Do you know anything about this spell, Master Fu?" Adrien asked.

"Wayzz?" Master Fu asked.

"Considering Trixx seems to be the only kwami to have ever experienced it, I doubt there's much information recorded outside of what she told you," Wayzz commented, looking up from his tea. "I could probably look in the Olden Records if you needed me to."

Adrien slumped. "There's nothing about some flower curse?"

At the choice of words, Wayzz perked up. "Not a curse, per say, but there is one about a blessing."

He flew out of the room and returned later with a book, yellowed with time. For its apparent age, it was surprisingly dust-free. When Wayzz placed it down, they were able to see an ornate design on the cover, rainbow colored lines interlocking and separating into some sort of web.

"This is the very first Scroll of the Miraculous, from back when the First Guardian was assigned to the kwamis. He recorded all sorts of information he learnt about regarding any sort of magic."

Wayzz slid the book over to Fu, who began gingerly flipping its pages. Plagg put down his teacup and started to fly over, but was caught by Adrien.

"Plagg, you can see it perfectly fine from over here. Don't forget, curiosity killed the cat and all."

"Why does no one remember the line about satisfaction!?" Plagg exclaimed, clearly annoyed at the topic.

"The first line's more rhythmic? I don't know," Adrien said, shrugging.

Master Fu flipped another page and Wayzz flew over, pointing to the symbol of the Lotus flower on it.

"Master Fu, that's it!" he exclaimed.

"Ah, The Blessing of the Flowers," Fu remarked. "I wonder why I've never heard of it before."

"Perhaps, Master, because it's only happened once before?"

"Ah, yes, that'd make sense."

Back to the other clinghanger the author left you on…

Ladybug was dodging a boulder that Train Wreck had thrown when Chat Noir yelled "Cat's collar!"

She watched in wonder as his bell rolled into his hand and spun into a golden cloud. It was one thing to read about it and another entirely to see it.

Was this what happened when she yelled Lucky Charm?

The cloud parted to reveal an object that she couldn't see due to the distance between them. She ventured to walk closer.

"Ladybug, watch out!" Chat called, and she was hit with déjà vu, hesitating before flipping out of harm's way.

"Don't bee worrying 'bout me, m'lord, I'm far too graceful to be crushed by mere steel," she replied, winking and flexing her arm… before realizing she'd punned without trying.

She really hoped this wouldn't bee a habit.

When Chat Noir rolled his eyes Ladybug was hit with an out-of-body experience. It was just so weird.

"Alright bug, just be more careful next time," he reprimanded, dodging a blow while making sure to keep the item clutched in his hand.

"Anything for you, m'lord."

Chat sighed. "Any clue where the akuma might be?"

Ladybug glanced at Train Wreck. "His earring looks pretty suspicious," she offered, noting the eerily glowing piece of jewelry on Train Wreck's left ear.

Chat took another look before nodding, "Yeah, that's our best bet."

"Can you just save me already?" Sabrina yelled from inside the impromptu cage Train Wreck had created, clearly annoyed. "My manicure will get ruined!"

Chat shook his head at Sabrina and started surveying the area with the same look Ladybug was used to using herself, trying to figure out what he could use his Collar Charm for.

However, determined to ruin their plans, a boulder crashed in front of them, causing them to be trapped in their own makeshift cage.

"I'm thinking I mite want to use Haemolymph…" Ladybug implied.

When Chat nodded, she momentarily panicked.

She knew she had to yell the phrase, but what did she usually do along with it? There was usually some sort of move that the superpower was accompanied by…

She finally decided to copy Chat and throw her yo-yo in the air, yelling "Haemolymph!" before internally groaning when this Chat looked at her strangely.

"Wasp's the point of being a superhero if you don't change things up from time to time?" she quickly remarked. "No fun in being a drone!"

"That last pun was horrible," Chat said, shaking his head.

"You offend me, m'lord," she retorted, looping her newly colored yo-yo around the boulder and watching it disintegrate.

Finally!" Sabrina exclaimed, having watched the scene from where she was. "Took you long enough, Ladybug."

Ladybug sighed and dismissed the comment.

Chat Noir jumped into action, throwing the item, which turned out to be a metal hoop, at an angle. The hoop bounced back and forth from wall to wall until it ended around Train's hands, preventing him from creating anymore possibly dangerous objects to throw.

She watched as Chat did a series of flips until he reached Train Wreck, undoing the earring while saying, "I'll be taking this!"

He threw it on the floor, stepped on it, and purified the akuma once it was released by spinning his staff around it. Once the butterfly started to flutter away, Chat spun his Collar Charm and yelled, "Miraculous allay!"

Cat paws glowed green all throughout the building, eventually disappearing as the cafeteria was turned back to its normal state.

Ladybug ran up to Chat, about to close her hand in a fist to "Pound it!" when she remembered she was supposed to high five him instead. She was, by some miraculous feat, able to smoothly turn the fist pump into a high five.

"Victorious again!" Chat exclaimed, smiling as their hands collided.

"Victorious again!" Ladybug chorused, grinning as well.

"I'd better be on my way, m'lord, catch you later!" she said, bowing before leaving the scene.

"Chat, CHAT!" Sabrina yelled, running up to him. "That was so cool! Can I get a selfie?"

Ladybug chuckled, watching this world's version of Chloé squish next to Chat Noir and bombard him with her phone's camera mode. She could be quite the fangirl.

Ladybug ran into a janitor's closet and whispered, "Spots Off, Tikki," before her miraculous could finish beeping.

"School's probably been cancelled because of the akuma, so I can head home and you can get those pastries," Marinette told Tikki, oblivious to the kwami's stare.

She opened up her purse before glancing up at Tikki.

"You okay, Tikki?" she asked, a little worried. The typically adventurous bug hadn't moved since Marinette had detransformed.

Tikki moved closer to Marinette.

"Who are you, and what did you do with Marinette?" she said, eyes a stony glare.