Like many, many, many fans of Miraculous Ladybug, I think that it had a lot of wasted potential in general. I… am not going to try and fix the show. I don't believe in "fixing" art unless it's a bug in a video game that detracts from the experience. If someone has an artistic vision, who am I to judge their art as broken and needing to be fixed? Instead, I want to look at the series through a new lens. But to do that, I need to start with some of the old. So here's a major disclaimer: This Fanfiction takes place in an alternate timeline after the events of Season 3 Episode 22, Chat Blanc, where instead of Marinette getting rid of the new timeline by changing the past, she instead fixes this future, accepting it as her destiny, and helps the future Ladybug and Chat Noir defeat the future Hawkmoth once and for all, and then we will continue in this timeline so that we can have a fresh new start on the Miraculous Ladybug world without having to reintroduce everyone and restart their character arcs (not like there were that many, to begin with). Anyway, yeah, sorry for the long intro. Enjoy the fanfic and I hope I can satisfy anyone who may have been disappointed by the story.
"CATACLYSM!"
This scream echoed throughout the flooded, post-apocalyptic city of London. Once bustling with life, love, and blossoming dreams, was now a watery grave built from the madness of a broken boy once known as both Adrian Agreste and Chat Noir, degraded into a pale force of infinite destruction: Chat Blanc.
Upon screaming his words of power, a pale blue orb formed between his ring finger and his thumb. He stretched out his hand in the direction of a girl in a red superhero suit with black polka dots, who went under the name of Ladybug, even if Chat Blanc already knew the true identity of his one true love, as well as what he assumed to be a soulless copycat. Chat Blanc flicked the orb at her, and it expanded to nearly her height and equal width. Ladybug quickly bent down backward, her legs split apart and her back on the ground as the blue ball of concentrated destruction hurled towards her faster than the speed of sound.
Ladybug puffed and panted before leaning back up. She was caught off guard however when she received a swift kick to the jaw courtesy of the corrupted version of her partner from a future that she was determined to mend. She was launched off of the bus the two were fighting on top of and into the water below. Having no other options, she quickly relinquished her powers, and her quami, Tikki, flew out of her earrings. Ladybug, now simply Marinette, fiddled with her purse before handing Tikki a tiny, green macaroon, causing her to gain flippers while also rejuvenating her suddenly.
She then transformed again, now taking on a new form with aquatic features and the ability to breathe underwater, and began to swim about, assuming that she was out of Chat Blanc's reach. Unfortunately for our red and black heroine, Chat Blanc began firing cataclysm orbs into the water. Marinette narrowly avoided them but watched in horror as they instantly obliterated old, abandoned buildings, and so she started swimming away, along the way, passing by people who were standing in place, stuck in the pose they were in during their final moments on Earth. Then, while swimming further and further away to avoid Chat Blanc's line of sight, she stumbled upon something that made her blood run cold.
As she swam down to where the Eiffel Tower used to be, she saw a pair of very distinctive figures. One was her arch-rival Hawkmoth, and the other made the water around her feel like it had turned to ice.
"N-no…" Marinette murmured. "Th-that's not possible…"
But indeed it was. What Marinette saw before her was the lifeless pile of dust that was once herself, held together only by the pressure of the water around her. Marinette carefully placed a finger on the cheek of this fragile statue, but even this was too much for its weak fortitude to handle, and the dust that composed it scattered into the worldwide ocean. This sight shook the young heroine to her very core, but not as much as the equally striking realization. All of these bodies. All of this destruction. No one could survive. Not even someone as powerful as Hawkmoth. So that can only mean one thing.
"Adrien…" Marinette drifted to the bottom, falling to her knees as tears escaped her eyes and intermingled with the water around her. "No… no no no no… Adrien… mom… dad…"
"MARINETTE!" A scream could be heard, breaking the deafening silence of the world around them. "I NEED YOUR MIRACULOUS! GIVE THEM TO ME!" Several cataclysm balls rained down into the water, creating a whirlpool that threatened to drag Marinette into the abyss. But Marinette was not scared. Now, Marinette, on behalf of everyone, especially Adrien, whose lives were lost to this… monster… was angry.
Marinette screamed as she swam upwards against the downward current, before erupting out of the water and lunging towards Chat Blanc while screaming furiously. The white maniac, undaunted by her rage, responded in kind with a leap and an ear-splitting cackle. The two clashed in mid-air and were launched toward the downed Eiffel Tower, trading blows with each other all the while. Marinette brutally beat on her former partner, his white suit looking as bright a shade of red to her as the rest of the world around her, while Chat Blanc desperately grasped at his enemy's miraculous in a vain attempt to right all his wrongs with just one wish.
The two soon slammed into an uprooted leg of the Eiffel Tower. Normally, Chat Noir would have some witty remark over this landing, and Ladybug would simply roll her eyes. But in this dead world, in the middle of such a heated, emotional battle, there were only screams, cackles, and attacks.
Marinette clenched her fist around the Yo-Yo string and twirled it above her head, and with tears streaming down her face, and with one mighty, agonizing howl, she cried out, "LUCKY CHARM!"
However, at that moment, her insurmountable rage corrupted her power, and what dropped was not an everyday item to be used creatively, but a massive, disgustingly overdesigned sword which she dragged behind her before lunging forwards and swinging the blade over and over with tears in her eyes. Chat Blanc effortlessly dodged out of the way but was blindsided by a smack from the blade's flat side which launched him across the toppled tower. Blanc coughed up a torrent of blood, before letting out another cackle.
"NYEHAHAHAHAHAHA! My my, m'lady! I know how much you want to go swimming with your favorite kitty~ But let's save it for after you give me your earrings~" Marinette leaped down to him in response, slamming the blade down and slicing through the tower.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Every laugh only heightened Marinette's hatred as she swung both her sword and magical yoyo mindlessly. However, this would not go on for much longer, as Blanc soon grew bored of this little charade and released a weakened Cataclysm into her gut. Not enough to be fatal, but enough to cause her to collapse to the ground in pain as she felt as though her insides were burning. Blanc tried to take advantage of this and swipe her earrings, but Ladybug swatted at his hand furiously.
"M'lady-"
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" She screamed.
"Fine then, Marinette~," Blanc said teasingly while snickering to himself. "Why do you insist on resisting me?"
"WHY WOULDN'T I!? YOU KILLED EVERYONE! MY FRIENDS! My parents! Adrien…"
"Adrien? Silly bugaboo~ I did no such thing~"
"W-what? THEN WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!?"
A grin then stretched across his face once more as he removed the ring on his finger. His white costume rapidly disappeared, save for the white bell which now clung to a white shirt worn beneath a black jacket. His blue eyes and white hair also remained, but there was no mistaking who it was that Marinette was looking at. Instantly, all the hatred she felt gave way to shock and confusion.
"WHY DON'T YOU ASK HIM YOURSELF!?" Akumadrian said.
"Adrian?" Marinette asked. "W-wha- you- I- What have you-"
"I knew it…" Akumadrian said, no longer smiling or laughing. "I knew you wouldn't love me. Not like this… and if you don't, lord knows what she'd think of me. What I've done to her, and to this planet…"
"Oh Adrien, I didn't mean it like that."
"WELL THEN WHAT'S THE POINT IN BRINGING HER BACK!?" He screamed as he slipped his ring back on, transforming back into Cat Blanc. "SHE'D NEVER LOVE ME AGAIN AFTER WHAT I'VE DONE, SO I MIGHT AS WELL FINISH THE JOB!"
"W-what are you doing, Adrien?"
Blanc raised his claw into the air. "I'M GONNA DESTROY THIS CRUEL, UNFORGIVING UNIVERSE THAT TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME TURNED ME AND MY FATHER INTO MONSTERS!" A cataclysm orb began to expand in his claw, but this orb wouldn't be contained within the battlefield, the flooded city of London, the Earth's atmosphere, the solar system, or the Milky Way galaxy. The neigh endless expansion wouldn't stop until it enveloped hundreds of thousands of galaxies, with enough power nested within it to destroy everything in the observable universe and beyond. "THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THIS ROTTEN UNIVERSE! THIS IS ARMAGEDDON!" Blanc then let out a crazed laugh mixed with a sob of pain and grief.
"STOP IT ADRIEN! PLEASE! I… I LOVE YOU! I'VE LOVED YOU SINCE THE DAY WE FIRST MET! PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS!" Marinette screamed with tears streaming down her cheeks and staining her collar. And these words were enough to stop Chat Blanc from initiating the absolute destruction of everything. The orb dissipated and Chat Blanc looked down at Marinette.
"M-m'lady?"
Marinette slowly walked up to Chat Blanc, having a limited amount of time before her miraculous would run out of power. She eventually stood before Blanc, her hand gripping her arm as she looked away from him awkwardly before she slowly looked up into his sapphire blue eyes, which somberly and apologetically looked down into hers. She then sighed as she placed a hand on his chest. She had planned to sneakily grab and smash the bell on his neck, but then Blanc grabbed her arm and placed her hand on the bell himself.
"Do it." He said. "I can't live like this anymore…"
"B-but-" A finger was then placed against her lips.
"Please…"
Marinette nodded and plucked the bell off of his chest and smashed it beneath her foot. A black butterfly flew out, which she quickly caught and purified with her magical yoyo, thus turning Chat Blanc back into the much more friendly and familiar Chat Noir, who, upon opening his eyes, looked upon the apocalyptic scene before him in shock and horror. Especially when he looked up into the sky and saw that the moon had been split in two, a detail that Marinette had not noticed while she was being attacked by Blanc.
"M-MARINETTE, WHAT HAPPENED!?" Cat Noir shouted.
"So, you still know my name…" Marinette said worriedly.
"Wha-of course I know! Why would I not know my girlfriend's name?"
"And… I know your name now, Adrian."
"Yeah…?"
Marinette sighed. She looked behind her and saw a portal open, revealing a time-traveling superhero in a rabbit costume, Time Hopper.
"Mini bug! Come with me! I know how we can stop this from happening now!"
"I can't, Time Hopper."
"Do we know her?" Adrian asked.
"W-WHAT!? How could you say that, Minibug?" Time Hopper asked. "There's no reason to keep this future intact! We can stop it before it even happens!"
"I know Cat Noir is Adrian now!"
"Okay, just ignore me then…"
"Regardless of whether or not I go back now, nothing will ever be the same again!" She then looked back at her knight in black leather and smiled. "It's better that we save the future than dwell in the past." Marinette then lifted the beast of a sword she created. "If I use my Miraculous Ladybug power to fix everything, I can save this world!"
"But two ladybugs can't exist at the same time! The only reason you're here is that his ladybug is dead!"
"MY BUGABOO IS DEAD!?"
"If you use your power to fix this universe… then you'll be deleted from existence so that the modern Ladybug can exist."
"That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, Time Hopper. This world needs me," she placed her yoyo in Cat Noir's hands. "Take this. You'll be needing it a lot more than I will."
Cat Noir gripped it in his hands and smiled at her. "I- no, we'll take good care of it, m'lady." Ladybug smiled and stood on her tiptoes to kiss Adrian, for her, for the first and last time, but for him, neither of the above. "This was a nice-"
"Blast from the past?" Marinette said with a smirk. "You need to do better than that if you want to make her laugh." She then lifted the sword into her arms, and with tears in her eyes, she shouted "LUCKY CHARM!" and tossed it into the air. The blade then exploded into a swarm of magical red and black particles that went all across the universe to fix all the damage that Cat Blanc had caused.
Eventually, Chat Noir and Ladybug, now standing on the roof of the once again standing Eiffel Tower, held each other's hands as the particles swirled around Marinette. The two gave a tearful goodbye to each other as the miraculous Ladybug of the past disappeared.
However, there was no time to mourn, as Chat Noir had a mission that was now back in effect: Stop Hawkmoth once and for all.
Chat Noir looked down from the top of the Eiffel Tower and saw the polka dot-clad love of his life spinning her magical yoyo to form a shield to defend herself from the far stronger and more experienced Hawkmoth, unable to use her lucky charm without leaving herself open.
"Nrrg! You won't win Hawkmoth! Kya! Chat Noir- Guh! Is gonna come to help me soon! Nng! You can count on it!"
"Hmhmhm. And what can that useless excuse of a son do for you when he is nothing more than my Akumatized slave, 'Ladybug'?" Suddenly, however, Hawkmoth was cut off by a rod extending from the tip of the Eiffel Tower that had landed right against his jaw, causing him to tumble about and into a parked car. The staff then connected with the ground and Cat Noir rode it down till he was right in front of his Ladybugfriend.
"Have no fear, m'lady," He bowed before Ladybug. "I'm here to protect you!"
"Tehehehe~ Why thank you, my prince," Ladybug replied. The two then saw Hawkmoth throw the car off of him, destroying a nearby fountain.
"I GROW WEARY OF YOU CHILDREN ALWAYS RUINING MY PLANS!" He said with gritted teeth. He then summoned an Akuma and tossed it into the air. "TO ME, MY AKUMA!" He absorbed it into his own miraculous and suddenly began to transform into an akumatized individual unlike any other. He grew a pair of moth wings on his back, sharp talons on his feet, a beak, bug eyes, a mane of white feathers all around his neck, additional purple feathers all over his body, and a long, prehensile tongue. His muscles began to swell and bulge and he doubled in height before flying just a few feet above the ground while admiring his new form.
"MUHAHAHAHA! Behold Ladybug and Cat Noir, the true power of the now INVINCIBLE HAWKMOTH! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Ladybug and Chat Noir got into a combative stance and held each other's hands as they stared up at the purple monster that Hawkmoth had turned into, Chat Noir unable to comprehend the fact that this beast was once a man, let alone his father.
"This is bad!" Ladybug said. "We might not be able to beat him on our own! I'll go get help from Master Fu. You buy us some time."
"Okay. But before you go, take this with you." Chat Noir then handed Ladybug a second yoyo.
"Hugh? Where did you get this?"
"Let's just say an old friend gave it to me." He winked at her while she took the yoyo into her hands. "Now go! I'll hold him off!" Ladybug nodded and swung away.
"You are a fool to let her leave son!" Hawkmoth growled before grabbing him by his throat. "Allow me to demonstrate to you why!" He then spun around before throwing Chat Noir over the Eiffel Tower and through the roof of the gift shop behind it.
"Nrrg! Okay… point taken…" He slowly hoisted himself to his feet but winced and gritted his teeth when he felt a sharp pain in his ribs. After trying and failing to sit up once more, it became apparent to Adrien that his ribs were broken.
He then saw his father lift the Eiffel Tower out of the ground and throw it at him. His eyes widened and he held out his hand while shouting "CATACLYSM!" and suddenly a black aura formed in his hand. Before the massive building could crush him, Cat Noir's cataclysm crumble into an orange cloud of rust. He then hid in the rust cloud as it enveloped the area around him.
Hawkmoth's beating wings easily dispelled the cloud, but he let out a growl of frustration when he saw that his son had disappeared. He charged through wall after wall, searching furiously for his traitorous son. Meanwhile, Adrian limped into a broom closet and released his superhero form. His Quami, Plagg, checked outside and saw Hawkmoth stomping down a hall until he was no longer in sight.
"Okay, he's gone, Adrian," Plagg said.
Adrian carefully left the broom closet and dragged himself to the exit. As he helplessly limped, he tried his hardest to hold back his yelps of pain as his ribs throbbed and ached, begging for mercy as he hobbled towards the exit. Upon making his way out, he collapsed at the front door, where he noticed a large, vast shadow looming over him. Plagg started stuttering and letting out a prolonged gasp as the shadow rose and spread its wings.
Hawkmoth leaped down from the roof and landed in front of his son. He grabbed him by the head before effortlessly plucking his miraculous off of his finger, which sucked Plagg into the black ring. He let out a low, mirthful chuckle and clenched it tightly in his fist before looking his son in the eyes.
"F-father, please… I-i'm your son."
"I know." Hawkmoth then lifted Adrian higher, about to slam him down into the concrete when two red yoyos wrapped around him and plucked him out of his hand. Hawkmoth looked behind him and was met with the oncoming boot of a kid in a turtle hoodie.
"Yo, nice to beat you, Hawkmoth! Name's Carapace and I gotta say, picking on a defenseless kid is straight-up uncool, brah! WOAH!" Suddenly, Carapace was grabbed by the arm and slammed into the ground.
"Curb your tongue, 'brah'. I have a son to punish!" Carapace then donkey kicked him in the stomach to get him to let go and did a backflip to get back on his feet.
"Yo, that's your kid? Even more uncool brah!"
"Tch, let's just get this over with already!" A hoity young lady dressed in a bee-themed suit said in an irritated tone. "I had to cancel my spa appointment with Sabrina to fight this freak!" Hawkmoth slammed his fist down between the two, and they jumped out of the way while the bee girl continued to complain. "Like, honestly, you could have at least waited for me to at least get my nails before you make me go Queen Bee on your gross bird bug-looking butt! Oh, and don't even get me started on my brows!" She swung a dreidel tied to a string at him, which was coiled around his wrist. She then dragged him down onto his back by the arm and pressed her heel onto his forehead. "All I'm gonna say is that these puppies aren't gonna pluck themselves, and I'm not doing it myself after-"
"BE QUIET!" Hawkmoth screamed as he flipped around and socked her in the gut, causing her to slam into Carapace and knock them both out of the battle.
"Mari-Er, Ladybug! That monster is too powerful for you all to face one on one!" Adrian said with a raspy voice.
"Hold that thought." She said. She lifted him into her arms and then ran and hid with him while a fox hero, as well as a returning Carapace and Queen Bee, came to help, though Queen Bee was still recovering from his punch.
Ladybug laid Adrian down and placed an arm over his chest. "Are you okay, Adrian?"
"No…" Adrian said before coughing a few times. "Ow… I think one or two ribs are broken."
"Oh, poor kitty…" Ladybug held Adrian's hand. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you."
"Don't be. You did the right thing, Marinette. We wouldn't have been able to beat him on our own." They then heard loud crashes from Hawkmoth slamming his fists onto the ground, sending rocks flying everywhere.
"What can we do to stop him though?" She asked while holding his hand.
"Gang up on him, and use your speed to your advantage! He's so big and clunky that he can only attack one person at a time, and can't keep up with all of us at once."
"Are you sure about that?"
"See for yourself."
Marinette looked out and sure enough, the combined force of Queen Bee, Carapace, and Rina Rouge was giving him a great deal of trouble. They were all too fast for him to land a single hit on any of them, and his hunchback build made it impossible for him to pin them all down at once.
"Alright. I have a plan. Can you transform?"
"No, I can't."
"Okay. I'll see if I can get Plagg some cheese. If I can't, he'll have to settle for the brownie I was gonna give you later."
"N-no. Firstly, I'd like that brownie, and second, it's not because Plagg is tired. It's because Hawkmoth has my miraculous!" Ladybug gasped and Adrian pointed at Hawkmoth. "You see that hand that he never opens? That's where you'll find my Miraculous." Ladybug nodded.
"Then it's settled. I'll grab your miraculous, then we'll go back and destroy his!"
"How are you gonna do that?"
"Watch this!" She pulled out the second yoyo that Adrian gave her, then spun them both. "DOUBLE LUCKY CHARM!" suddenly, two items with ladybug patterns landed in her hands: a camera and a flashlight.
"Okay, so what now?" Adrien asked.
"Any ideas, pretty kitty?" Ladybug asked flirtatiously.
"Sorry. I can't think of anything. Still a bit shaken up over everything that's happened today. But I'm sure you'll figure something out like you always do, bugaboo."
Ladybug flicked on the flashlight and reeled back when she realized how bright it was. Then, she came up with an idea.
"Wait here, Adrien." And with that, Ladybug swung back into battle, all the while repeating the plan in her head.
'Okay, so I need to flash the camera in his eyes while also shining the flashlight to blind him. Then, after that, I'll grab the miraculous and return it to Adrien, while Alya creates a bunch of illusions to confuse him. Then Chloe and I will tie him down while Nino gets the Miraculous and gives it to Adrian, who will then destroy it with his cataclysm.'
Queen Bee and Rina Rouge both kicked Hawkmoth in the face, which was immediately followed up by Carapace shield bashing him in the gut. However, this proved ineffective in toppling the immovable object, who grabbed at Carapace again but was stopped by Rina, who delivered a kick right into the elbow which was painful enough to get him to pay attention to her. He backhanded her hard enough to launch her through the building behind them, causing Carapace to panic and run in after her.
"NO, YOU MORON!" Queen Bee shouted. "GET BACK HERE AND HELP ME BEAT THIS CLOWN!"
"And then there were two…" Hawkmoth said.
"Tch. Whatever. You're so lame, I could probably beat you with one leg tied behind my back." She then attempted to roundhouse kick him, but the kick was blocked with one hand.
"Care to test that theory?"
Suddenly, he was hit in the face by two yoyos courtesy of Ladybug, who landed in front of Queen Bee with a confident smirk. Queen Bee feigned being unimpressed.
"You know, I could have taken him all alone if you hadn't barged in!"
"I'm sure you would have."
Queen Bee then looked back at Adrian, who was watching the battle from afar. "Hey, thank you for saving him, Ladybug. That kid is my childhood best friend. If he got hurt then… Well, I'm glad we were here to save him."
Ladybug smiled. "Any time, Chloe."
The two girls then jumped out of the way of a ground pound. Hawkmoth flew after Queen Bee, and Marinette took the opportunity to grab him by the legs with her yoyos. Unfortunately for her, Hawkmoth had wisened up to the limitations of this new form.
Hawkmoth swung his legs forwards, launching Ladybug into Queen Bee, slamming the girls into each other. They recovered, however, Ladybug was then hit by a strike to the gut that immobilized her, knocking her out of the fight completely and causing her to drop the camera and flashlight. Queen Bee hastily picked them up and tried her best to play keep away while Adrian ran over to Ladybug as quickly as he could.
"MARI! Are you gonna be okay?"
Marinette coughed. "Don't worry about me, Adrian... As long as Chloe finds out what to do, we'll be fine…"
"We're doomed." They both said.
Queen Bee ducked and weaved, narrowly avoiding Hawkmoth's bone-obliterating strikes, before eventually socking him in the face with the flashlight. Then she had an idea of her own. A far more viscous and unorthodox idea. Queen Bee tossed the camera aside while slamming the flashlight into both of his eyes, permanently blinding him. He covered his eyes on impulse, and she saw him drop the miraculous. Immediately, she grabbed it and ran over to Ladybug.
"Ladybug! You will NOT believe what I just found!"
Both Ladybug and Adrian were at a loss for words. But at least it worked. Ladybug thanked Queen Bee before hiding with Adrian while Queen Bee went to deal with the now-blinded Hawkmoth.
Adrian managed to transform into Cat Noir, but just after transforming, Carapace arrived with Rina in his arms.
"This is looking bad, dudes." He said as he laid her down in front of them. "Rina's alive, but she's unconscious, and her left arm is completely twisted!"
"Don't worry, Carapace! Cat Noir and I can fix this. But first, you need to go help Queen Bee get Hawkmoth's Miraculous!"
Carapace gave Ladybug a thumbs up and hopped up onto the roof, then threw his shield down at Hawkmoth while Queen Bee activated her stinger. This however did nothing other than put Hawkmoth on high alert. He immediately tried taking to the skies, only to be stopped by Queen Bee, who wrapped her dreidel around his legs, allowing her to hold him in place. However, she did need the help of Carapace to keep her in place, not that she would admit it to anyone.
With the two working together, they were able to drag Hawkmoth back down to the ground, where Cat Noir was able to carry Ladybug over, have her entangle Hawkmoth, and then Queen Bee stung him, paralyzing him, allowing Cat Noir to take and destroy Hawkmoth's miraculous and Ladybug to catch the Akuma. She then threw the Camera and flashlight into the air, and everything was mended, including all the physical damage that the group had taken. However, despite this, Ladybug still chose to stay in Cat Noir's arms.
The Authorities soon arrived and took Gabriel Agreste into custody, his identity now exposed by the news media showing off the reveal of Hawkmoth's identity. Perfect timing as well as everyone's timers began to go off.
"Up! Looks like it's time to send our miraculi back to Master Fu." Rina said.
"Okay, everyone go hide. Cat Noir, you head to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I'll come to see you later."
"Will do, bugaboo~" Cat Noir then climbed up to the top of the tower while everyone went into the building, and into separate bathrooms to take off their miraculi and leave one at a time.
Later that evening…
Adrian stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower, smiling as he overlooked London from the highest peak of all. A smile was plastered on his face as he overlooked the beautiful city with the red and orange sky overlooking all of them. As he overlooked the city, Plagg flew out of his ring, bored out of his mind and hungry for some old, delicious cheese.
"Adrien, we've been up here for hours!" Plagg whined. "Can't we just go home already? I'm wasting away here!"
"Come on Plagg, you know we can't do that to Marinette. She asked us to stay here."
"She could have just stood you up, you know."
"Don't think like that!" He then heard the ding of an elevator behind him. "See? That must be her right now." Adrien turned around, expecting to see the cheerful, loving Marinette rushing out to wrap him in a warm embrace, and preemptively opened his arms. However, he was instead greeted by the stoic face of his father's assistant, Nathalie.
"Hello, Adrian." She said, trying her best not to sound emotional. "I… I've just been informed that your father has-"
"I know," Adrian said bluntly, before looking up at her with a scowl. "How long have you known?"
"I-I don't-"
"Don't play dumb! You know exactly what I'm talking about, so how long did you know?"
She swallowed a lump in her throat before uttering only four words. "Since the first day."
Adrien's fist started shaking with bottled-up fury. "Did you even try to stop him?"
She said nothing.
"DID YOU!?"
She solemnly shook her head in response.
Adrien gritted his teeth, ready to explode at Nathalie. He was on the verge of revealing his secret identity to her just so he could give her a proper piece of his mind. However, he stopped himself when he heard a familiar cheery voice.
"How's my little kitty cat doing~?" The voice called as a beautiful girl clad in red swung up to the top of the tower before landing right next to him.
Ladybug stood up and was about to shout "Spots off!" When she noticed Nathelie standing on the platform as well and yelped in surprise. Nathalie's eyes widened as she remembered something and a sinister grin slowly stretched across her face.
"I know something else, Adrien." She said in a more threatening tone. "I know that you are Cat Noir. So I am not someone to be trifled with."
"WHAT!?" He and Marinette shouted.
"Indeed. In fact, I watched you transform before my very eyes the night you saved Marinette from one of your father's Akuma. Although, even if I didn't see that, I did just overhear Ladybug here calling you her 'little kitty.'"
Ladybug's heart sank as she realized the situation that she accidentally put Adrian in.
"However I am not a monster, so I am willing to make a deal with you. As long as my secret is safe with you, your secret is safe with me," She said with a smug smirk, which soon turned into a sour grimace. "However, if anyone discovers that I was duplicitous in your father's actions, you can kiss your secret identities goodbye." She then walked back into the elevator. As the doors closed behind her, she looked back at the two of them. "Goodbye."
"So… what do we do now?" Marinette asked as she leaned against the guard railing.
"I don't know. I think maybe we should just go home for now."
"That's a good idea." She held out her hand to Adrien. "Here, I'll give you a lift."
Adrien smirked and declined the offer, before transforming. "How about a race there instead? I have been wanting to stretch my legs a bit after the fight."
Marinette smirked and placed her hands on his cheeks before smooching him, making his face turn beat red.
"Head start!" She teased, and then she swung away. After shaking off the shock, Adrien soon gave chase, using his extendable staff to pole vault after her as the two raced back to Marinette's house.