"Marinette?" Tikki squinted against the light pouring in from below, getting up from her chosen's pillow to find it empty.
Peeking over the side of the loft, she found the girl sitting at her desk, notebook before her, papers scattering the surface. Her phone sat open in her lap, and though her earbuds were in, she could faintly hear an interview playing. The lamp made it impossible to go back to sleep.
The Ladybug avatar groaned. She was at it again.
Shaking away the last of her exhaustion, she got up from the bed and made her way down, hovering silently over the girl's shoulder. Marinette was hard at work, dead to the world as she focused on her notes. Instead of schoolwork, this was a map - a printed black-and-white map of the entire city, bright red dots spread across its streets in irregular patterns. Quite a few of them covered Dupont, to the point where the school could barely be seen.
In numerical order, Marinette had written down every single akuma from September to December, where they were fought, and at what times. Naturally, Alya's own work documenting the attacks was helping, whether or not the girl knew the full extent of the research. In fact, she was watching one of Alya's livestreams right now, the latest one captured earlier in the week - a mall Santa had gone on a rampage, giving the children of Paris coal instead of toys. She recalled how Alya's little sisters had cried and cried, and how Marinette had distracted the akuma from turning Cat's staff to coal long enough for the boy to land the finishing blow.
A mirthless smile spread across her face. How long had it been since this all started? How many times did their kids have to go through it all? How many wishes had been wasted in the end? She swore Marinette got smarter and smarter every time they met - perhaps this would be the final blow. Perhaps this would finally be the time Hawkmoth would be defeated for good.
"Let's see... again..." Marinette murmured under her breath, narrowing her eyes against the glare of the lamplight. The dark circles under her eyes had grown. She knew she had to stop the kid from burning herself out, but...
"And here... and... hm..."
Tikki watched her write something more. Her thumb absently swiped at the livestream, switching it to the next. This one was a post-battle interview, the latest of a few she had granted the overzealous girl. This one was at the park, where a failed date had led to a scorned woman chasing her boyfriend with an acid gun. That had been a bad one, she had to admit. Sometimes Marinette still rubbed the spot on the back of her arm where the gun had shot her, a phantom memory of pain.
Once her Holder yawned, she figured she needed to speak up. "Marinette."
Tapping the girl gently on the shoulder got her to react - and she startled, letting out a noise as she whirled around, wide-eyed, to see the Kwami looking patiently back at her.
Marinette let out a heaving sigh and took out her earbuds. "Tikki, what are you doing up? You should be back in bed."
"That's my line," she answered. "C'mon, sweetheart, you need your rest. You have the rest of your break to work on this little project."
"But... but I'm so close, Tikki. I'm so close this time." Her pleading eyes turned on the ladybug.
"I'm so close, Tikki - this time..."
A memory resurfaced, unbidden, and the ancient being blinked in surprise. Which one had that been, again...?
"... Tikki?" Marinette tried, unsure.
"Ah... sorry, I was just remembering something." Reassuring the teenager with a gentle smile, she patted her cheek. "C'mon, to bed with you. You're still growing. You can't rely on all-nighters yet."
The girl looked as if she was going to resist, but at the last moment, she sighed and nodded her head. "Yeah... okay, fine, I'll go back to sleep."
"We meet again, Cat." The avatar of the Ladybug stared him in the face with all of her ancient divinity, eyes like that of the cosmos itself stripping his soul bare.
The holder of the Cat suddenly felt himself kneel, body completely paralyzed under her scrutiny. He clenched his eyes shut tightly as if it would protect him from the immensity of her presence.
"It's good to see that you've been holding up your end of the bargain thus far. But be warned..." he could feel her eyes flash, despite not looking at her. The crushing hold of doom in his chest seemed to double. "... if you dare go back on your word, not even Plagg will be able to save you from my wrath."
"I- I understand," he rasped, the pressure in his chest building until it all but strangled his very voice from his throat. Plagg. Where was Plagg?!
"Good."
All at once, the weight on his body lifted, and he collapsed to the ground clutching his chest and gasping for breath. Sobbing rang loud in his ears, painful and dizzying and familiar.
"I'm... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... it's all my fault..."
The Ladybug regarded him coolly before turning away. "Do not fail us this time... Felix."
Felix startled awake in a mess of blankets on the floor, hair sticking to his face and neck from the cold sweat dampening his skin.
"P- Plagg," he wheezed, head whirling around until he caught sight of the little Cat curled up on his dresser. "Plagg...!"
The Kwami grumbled lowly in his chest before peeking over the side. "What?" He groused.
As he took in the sight of his holder's distress, he hesitated - and then he sighed, hovering down until he sat on his chest.
"Another nightmare?" He questioned, maw stretching into a wide yawn.
"I... I keep seeing her," he answered shakily, yanking a hand free of his blanket to run fingers through his hair, slicking it back from his forehead. "This never happened with Adrien, did it? Tell me you didn't!"
"No, 'cause Tikki likes Adrien." Plagg sniffled a little, regarding him with a deadpanned, "I wonder why that might be."
Felix scowled at the Kwami, sitting up and causing him to tumble down his chest with a tiny yelp.
"Look, kid, it's not that she wants to keep hurting you. I know her like I know the back of my paws, and while she has it in her to be petty now and then, she doesn't keep a grudge longer than necessary." The Cat poked him in the nose with one paw, making him blink and move back a bit. "And that depends on you and me. I'd like to think I'm keepin' a pretty good eye on ya, but I'm the one who's gonna have to answer to her if you end up causing her Ladybug to get hurt. And based on how big an impression she left on you if you're still seein' her... it's safe to say you aren't gonna do that, right?"
The boy shuddered, shaking his head. "If I'm going to save Aunt Emilie, it's no use betraying Ladybug's trust. We still don't know what caused her coma, correct?"
Plagg shook his head. "If anyone would know, Duusuu would - but, obviously, we can't ask him, or Nooroo. Whatever happened to the Peacock... I have the feeling she or Hawkmoth was involved."
"We can't keep wasting time." Felix looked up at the clock, only to groan in despair at the numbers glaring back: 3:06 in the morning.
"Rome wasn't built in a day, kid."
"No, but builders laid bricks every hour." Scrubbing at his eyes, the boy got up and set the Kwami back on the dresser. Making his way to the closet in the back of the room, he gripped his phone and opened the doors, revealing part of a stringboard before they gently shut again.
Plagg watched his holder go with a fretful grumble. "You're gonna crash and burn at this rate, Felix. And then who will clean this whole mess up? 'Cause it ain't gonna be me this time. You got us into this, and you're getting us out of it."
A/N: Ta-daaaaaa~! A few of you guessed correctly when you figured that Felix was the Cat this time around. But why does he have the Miraculous? What happened to Emilie? And what's with Adrien? Only time will tell...