This story is mostly canon to Seasons 1 – 5 of Miraculous Ladybug and is also a part of the "Infinity Crisis" series. A massive thank you to Michael Weyer for allowing me to write in this incredible world he has created. :)

This one-shot is intended to flesh out the world of "Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir" in the Infinity Crisis multiverse and follows elements introduced in "Infinity Crisis: Cult of the Daleks" by Movie-Brat.

Miraculous: Aftermath

One snap. A snap of a gauntlet adorned with stones bristling with primordial power. A snap that was more powerful than even the caster could conceive. A snap that tore through dimensional barriers, and wiped away half of all life across every planet in every universe. Everywhere chaos unfurled, millions watching horrified as people, animals and even trees in front of them wither away, leaving nothing but piles of ashes. No realm in any plane of reality in the multiverse was able to escaped unscathed, all except one city in one universe, which was long ignored by cosmic beings before.

The city of Paris on Earth-101915.

A city that was not that special. True, it had costumed superheroes as it's guardians, but so did million other worlds in the multiverse, and they were all affected by the snap. In every other universe, all cities, towns, villages were affected by the Snap.

However, the Paris of this world was the only city that escaped the disastrous effects of the Snap with no casualties, though rest of the planet was not that lucky. Every other place in that universe, like all others lost half of their residents, even if it was for a few days, all except Paris.

In all the chaos, no one noticed much, with the Parisian Heroes promptly joining their global allies – the United Heroez of America, half of whom were lost in the Snap, and Lady Dragon of Shanghai in helping maintain peace across the planet, not only rescue people who were trapped under crashed planes or vehicles but also stop the criminals who tried to advantage of the world's plight.

Later, when everyone returned, people started asking why Paris was the only city who escaped the chaos. There was no scientific explanation to this, let alone any of the strange incidents surrounding it, both the dusting and the return of those affected, yet it did not take a genius to guess that it was probably due to the magical effects of the powerful Miraculouses, ancient jewelry which empowered the city's heroes- Ladybug, Chat Noir, and their occasional allies as well as their enemy- Shadowmoth.

With Shadowmoth still active, further investigation into the matter was not exacerbated by anyone, and people of the world thanked the heroes of Paris for their help in an impossible time.

While the matter might be forgotten by most of humanity, it wasn't by the illustrious Guardians of the Miraculous, an ancient order of monks dedicated to protecting the Miraculouses, as well as training it's wielders in the proper use of their powers to be heroes. The Miraculouses contained the power of God like celestial beings called kwamis, and though they appeared to be tiny fluffy adorable creatures mimicking the characteristics and appearances of animals, their true power was limitless.

Their temple, hidden amongst the snowy mountains in Tibet, had multitude of boxes, each housing significantly more Miraculouses than the nineteen Miraculouses active in Paris and despite the hundreds of Miraculouses in their custody, they were just as affected by the Snap, meaning Paris wasn't protected because of the many miraculous wielders active in the city, but due to the two most powerful Miraculouses being used – the Ladybug earrings and the Black Cat ring.

The phenomenon did not go unnoticed by Shadowmoth either, and it made him even more desperate to acquire the two most powerful talismans in existence.

However, none of them realized how powerful the Miraculouses truly were, for they were still unaware that the Miraculouses were the only artefacts in the entire Multiverse, which were able to successfully resist the effects of the Snap, something that made their power comparable to the Infinity Stones themselves…

And for that very fact, their reality became the center of attention for many cosmic beings and other individuals capable of traversing the multiverse, all of them vying for the power of the Miraculouses.


4 months after the Snap…

A week after Shadowmoth's defeat…

After many months, Marinette felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. Shadowmoth had been defeated and though she was unable to retrieve the butterfly miraculous, the other Miraculouses were now back where they belonged, with her team.

Though Paris and the world celebrated the defeat of Shadowmoth, she knew that the victory was nothing but pyrrhic. Gabriel Agreste, who she still found it hard to believe was the same villain who terrorized her city for a year, did manage to take advantage of her naivety and get his hands on the cat and ladybug Miraculouses, using them to call upon Gimmi, the kwami of reality and cast his wish, and though reality was not rewritten like she had feared, she was not foolish enough to believe it was not without consequences.

In the end, Gabriel despite all his faults, had done the honorable thing. Instead of using the wish to revive his wife, at the cost of making another person suffer in her stead, he had used it to transfer Nathalie's sickness into himself, which when added to his own decaying body resulted in his immediate death but saving the other woman from the same fate.

Her only regret was not getting to him before. For if she had, none of this may have happened and Adrien would have still had his father with him.

And to think, she had suspected Gabriel before, only for the fashion mogul to misdirect her time and time again.

Plagg disagreed with her decision to not tell Adrien the truth, but how could she, when in the end, she had seen Gabriel do a selfless thing?

If he had wanted, he could have used the wish to save himself, Nathalie, and his wife, dooming three innocent lives in their place. Heck, he could have used it to kill her as one of the sacrifices, as he had threatened her moments before, even after he got to know her civilian identity as his son's girlfriend and a teenager.

However, he had not, when he had every chance to.

In the end, her kindness had got to him and he had relented for his past.

Marinette was not a fool. None of it made up for all the evil he did and all the lives he terrorized in the past year, but it proved that he was redeemable and if she had only caught up to him before things became so dire, maybe she could have saved him.

Alya had scoffed that it was not fair that a villain like him was paraded as a hero and had a memorial statue built in his honor, but honoring his last wish was the least she could do for him.

Gabriel had been a tortured soul, torn asunder by the loss of his wife. He had been evil, feeding on the insecurities of vulnerable innocents and akumatizing them into ruthless villains, breaking into the homes of teenagers and even hijacking missiles and threatening to fire them on major cities across the globe unless he got the Miraculouses…

Still, somewhere under all that darkness, he still had good inside of him.

Besides, Adrien was dealing with a lot, even with Nathalie helping him and his aunt and cousin moving to Paris to be with him. It was best to let him think of his father as a hero, instead of learning that he was the villain.

She shook her head. She turned to see Tikki sitting on a plate of cookies, happily munching on one. She looked back at the empty page of her sketchbook, the pen in her hand and tried to focus on trying to draw, yet she could not let go of the anxiety that something was not right.

Shadowmoth was gone but in the back of her mind, she still felt at unease.

It was not just that the butterfly miraculous was lost. It was the other things as well.

Chloé Bourgeois and her mother had left for New York shortly before Shadowmoth's final attack and with the chaos of everyone in the planet suffering from the Nightmare visions and being turned into mindless minions by their Alliance rings, they hadn't got the news till several days later.

When the flight landed on New York, they had found Audrey Bourgeois' dead body and no trace of Chloé on the plane. While the general populace and major news network blamed the incident on Shadowmoth and considered the two to be Shadowmoth's last victims before his takedown, the superhero detective Knightowl had herself taken charge of the investigation and while it was still unclear where Chloé was or even if she was still alive, he had contacted her and Chat Noir to inform them that her devices picked up on strange energy signatures, which seemed to be alien in origin, just like the residual traces of the Snap.

Knightowl had told them the two energies were different, but both were unlike anything she had seen before and even Majestia was unable to identify them even with technology from her home planet.

It did not sit right with her.

Gebriel had no motif to go after Audrey or Chloé.

Audrey had been a terrible mother and much of Chloé's problematic behavior stemmed from a desire to emulate her, she had been a global fashion icon, much more famous than Gabriel and one of Marinette's inspirations while growing up. Marinette remembered the time Audrey had offered to give her a chance of a lifetime to study under her in New York and become the next big designer. Marinette never regretted turning her down though. After knowing that she was just an adult version of the bully who had plagued her childhood, Marinette wanted nothing to do with her. Still, she did not deserve to die.

Chloé, despite all her faults, had once been a part of her team. They had never been friends but she had tried to change herself and be a better person, even if it was for a short while, before she went back to her old habits.

However, if someone like Shadowmoth had redeemed himself, there was no reason why Chloé could not do the same and become a better person eventually.

While none of her friends were particularly fond of Chloé, they still mourned her, especially Zoé and Sabrina. She had been one of their own, and Marinette felt helpless that she was not able to save Chloé and Audrey from whatever had attacked them.

None of her Lucky Charms gave any clue to her location and even the United Heroez' highly advanced surveillance systems could not find any trace of Chloé. She had asked for the help of the Guardians and even with their magic rituals, they could not find her. It was as if she had disappeared from Earth altogether.

Still Chloé's body not being inside the plane as well as Bunnyx's cryptic answers to her queries gave her hope that maybe there was still a chance she was still alive.

"You will find out soon what happened to her."

Sometimes, she hated time travelers.

However, she had hope. She could not save Gabriel or Audrey, but there might still be a chance for her to save her former teammate. Despite how much she abhorred her, Marinette vowed to not forget about Chloé.


Author's Notes:

Hope you guys enjoyed this short story and please review.

I have some other plans for Miraculous heroes in the IC multiverse but I am waiting till the new TV special "Miraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir" releases next month, because that will be the first time, we see alternate worlds and the multiverse in Miraculous and I want to incorporate that somehow.

So, I wanted to make this universe a little different from the other universes and show the power of the Miraculouses and the kwamis, which is possible of somewhat resisting even the Infinity Stones. Think of the Kwamis, especially Gimmi as equivalent to the Celestials from Marvel or Celestialsapiens (Alien X) from Ben 10.

While I usually try to have Chloe redeem herself in my fics, I decided to lean in on the established canon. Events in Miraculous happened the same way it did in the show, especially because the characters were unaffected by the Snap.

Also, while it is unclear whether we saw Emilie or Amelie in the season 5 finale, I went with the headcanon that Gabriel did not revive her and joined her in the afterlife because as explained in the story, if he had revived her, it meant he sacrificed an innocent life in her place, plus if it was Adrien's mother, it would have deserved at least a mention in the show. Adding to that is the fact we have always seen Amelie wear black and Emelie wear white in the show.

Anyway, writing this one-shot was fun and it enabled me to explore Marinette's thoughts post the Season 5 finale as well, which I had wanted to do for a while now.