"Are you Alice?"
She spins around. "Who's there? Who said that?"
"I did." The voice is soft, and for a moment, she sees a flicker of an image… a boy, with gold hair and eyes that she can't see. "Are you Alice?"
"I… no, I'm Marinette…"
"I have to find Alice. I have to take her."
"Take…?"
"Can't you be Alice?" the boy pleads, still flickering in and out, like a mirage or a hologram. "Please, Marinette, say you're Alice?"
She looks around, desperately. It's the biggest city in France, surely someone else is one the street, seeing this… but she's alone with the boy who seems less and less human, whose outline she can barely make out now, even under the bright streetlights. "If I say that, will you leave me alone?"
He nods. "If you say it, and it's not the truth, then you really aren't her, and I don't need you."
She has no idea what that means, but she's pretty sure her name isn't Alice, so… "Fine, then I'm Alice, now go away!"
She can see his eyes now. They're wide, and green… a pretty green. He's about her age, and smiling, although the smile looks incredibly false with the tears in his eyes. "You're Alice."
"Yes, I'm Alice." She starts walking, and he grabs her arm. "You said you'd let me go!"
"I said I'd leave you alone if you said it and it wasn't true," he corrects her. "But it is. I can tell. You're Alice. I thought, as soon as you heard me, but then you said it… and it's true."
What the shit. He's deranged.
Then again, he's also still flickering in and out of existence… only that false smile is consistent.
"I have pepper spray," she tells him, reaching into her purse.
"That's great!" he begins pulling her arm.
She yanks away. "Where are you trying to take me?"
He stares for a minute, and then that smile widens. "Why, Wonderland, of course!" For a moment he's solid, and she sees his face.
"Adrien…?"
Then, everything fades to black.
…
She wakes up in a forest, held in his arms. "Oh, Alice, you're awake!"
"My name isn't Alice…" she murmurs, slowly attaining lucidity. "It's Marinette. Where are we?"
"I told you, Wonderland…" as his voice trails off, she looks up. He's wearing a black mask, and… cat ears? Cat eyes too, and leather. If she hadn't seen his face for that moment earlier, she'd never have known who he was.
As it is, she wraps her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. "Adrien, where have you been? Why are you calling me Alice? Don't you remember who I am?"
He's quiet for a moment, and she looks up. The smile is too wide, and it looks like it's hurting him. He looks twisted, broken… Nothing like the Adrien she loved, last year. The Adrien who disappeared, the day after he kissed her. The calm self-confidence, the subtle grin, and even the clarity in his green eyes… all gone, replaced with insanity, that broken smile, and the eyes of a cat. She doesn't want to see him like this.
"I… I'm not Adrien. Not anymore," he sighs. "My name's Chat. Cheshire Chat Noir."
"What are you talking about?" she wriggles in his arms, and he sets her down. "Adrien, please. Tell me what's going on."
"Wonderland needs us to be Alice and Chat," he tells her softly. "Marinette, please… we need to do this. Can't you do this? For me?"
"Is this what you've been doing for the last year?" she demands, eyes flashing with hurt and anger. "Being a cat for Wonderland? What Wonderland needs, did you ever think about what Paris needs? We needed you, Adrien."
"No you didn't-"
"I NEEDED YOU!" she shoves him away, tears in her eyes. "You can't just show up and kidnap me and expect me to go along with this."
He cringes away, still with that smile. "The people here are in trouble. Marinette, I'm sorry I left you, I never meant to, but…"
"Stop smiling like that," she crosses her arms. "This isn't a game."
"I… I can't…"
"You've lost your mind, Adrien!"
"I know. But Marinette, we have to stop him!"
"Stop who?"
"The Butterfly King."
She falters. He takes her hand. "Please, Marinette. Do this with me, and I'll come home with you, I purr-omise."
"You swear?"
"Claw-se my heart."
She sighs. "Fine. I'll be Alice, and we'll play out this fantasy. And then we'll go back home."
His eyes light up, and for a moment, the smile looks real as he hugs her. "Thank you, Alice. My little Ladybug girl." She laughs slightly… she has to admit, being back in Adrien's arms is wonderful. Even if it's really Chat right now.
…
They've been walking for about an hour, and Marinette's feeling very, very conflicted.
First off, Adrien's alive, which is great and everything she's been desperately hoping for a year.
However, second, he's completely delusional and thinks they're in Wonderland and are going to take down the Butterfly King.
Third, she can't escape because they're in the middle of the woods somewhere.
And fourth, she's completely exhausted and they don't seem to be coming to any real place any time soon…
Until suddenly, there's a table. With… cookies and soda.
"Um, Adr- Chat? What the hell is that?"
"Who knows? I do, but I shouldn't say, it breaks the rules, the rules are all that give me the paw-wer we'll need to fight, fight him, save them…"
He was so much more lucid an hour ago. She sighs, and inspects the table. The cookies have a tag saying "eat me." The soda says "drink me." She looks up at Adrien. "Is this poisoned?"
"No…" he starts, and she takes a sip of the soda, "and yes." She spits it out, eyes going huge.
"What the hell, Adrien?" Why does her voice sound higher? What on Earth is this? "Adrien, why is everything getting bigger… oh my god, oh my god, I'm shrinking, oh my god!" She looks up at him, way up, she can't be much bigger than a doll now… He lifts her up, and she gives him a terrified look. "Adrien, I'm scared, what just happened?"
"I can't tell you. You've accepted the role of the Ladybug girl Alice," he hugs her very gently, and she tries to hug him back, but he's so huge…
"Why are we doing this? Who are we doing this for?" It's real, she knows that now… or she's on acid, but she's pretty sure even acid doesn't work quite that instantly…
"The Butterfly King is a tyrant. Wonderland is full of magic… but he wants it all for himself. He extracts it from the people…" Adrien hugs her tighter. "He must be stopped."
"Why do we have to be the ones to do it?"
"Because if we don't, who will?"
"I… I don't know…" she grabs his shirt, holding him to herself as best she can.
He sighs, and lifts one of the cookies, handing it to her. "I can't tell you what it does, or what to do."
She looks up at him, and takes a tiny bite- not that she really could take any other kind- and feels something warm slip through her, as she shoots up, her feet hitting the ground and her head resting on his shoulder, tears pricking her eyes. "Thank you, Adrien. I… I…" she can't hold back the tears, and he holds her tightly as the terror crashes through her, and she cries into his shoulder.