Outside Marinette's house...

Ladybug flew across the night sky, feeling that amazing breeze from the flight. She felt the need to call Alya, but then remembered that she was in their Japan. She couldn't stay over her house at the moment. Ladybug felt like she needed a friend in that moment, but knew that she was busy over there. If anything, she was proud of her for going over to U.A.

Soon enough, she spotted her house up ahead. She hoped that this wasn't that late to eat dinner with all of them. Ember was probably waiting for her, and their food was getting cold. She felt bad considering she's been hiding these secrets from her. She had to make it up to her soon somehow.

Ladybug quickly landed on the rooftop and detransformed into Marinette. Tikki floated by her side, giving her a look. Marinette already knew what her Kwami was thinking.

"Marinette?" Tikki said to her.

"I know, I know. I shouldn't have left like that," Marinette said back, "I needed to go see Gabriel. Whatever's going on with these gauntlets, I thought that... maybe he was up to something. You can't blame me for thinking that he made them. I mean, he is a fashion designer after all."

"Yeah, but Ember has been waiting for you this entire time," Tikki explained to her, "You really need to be careful around her Marinette. She's going to find out that you're Ladybug."

Marinette thought about it some more and realized that things weren't going according to plan. She needed to start planning on sending Ember home. She didn't how or when, but she needed to do it soon. Marinette hesitated however, not knowing if she could fully trust Ember yet. After what happened with Lila, she couldn't take that chance.

"Tikki. What if she's like Lila?" Marinette asked her, "I just... I can't tell if she's someone that I can fully trust. I mean, yeah she's stuck here and all, but I don't know her. I don't know what she was like back in their Japan. After what happened with the machine and all of that information, I'm worried that she might be up to something. I can't send her back, not sure if she's up to something or not."

"Yeah, but if you don't send her back soon, she'll figure things out sooner or later," Tikki told her, "Ember seems nice. Maybe she's just shy and doesn't know how to make friends."

Marinette understood how that felt, but she still felt a little hesitant. She did enjoy hanging out with her, but she still felt off about something. Marinette couldn't tell what it was, but she worried that there was something else going on. She tried to shake it off, wondering if maybe it was just because of the gauntlet situation. It might not have anything to do with her.

"Alright Tikki. I will get around to contacting Melissa, but right now I need to focus on whatever's going on with these gauntlets first," Marinette explained to her, "I can't let that one go just yet."

Marinette headed down into her room as Tikki followed her. Once her Kwami entered her purse, Marinette got ready to head downstairs. She soon entered the kitchen, noticing everyone clearing the kitchen table. They had already eaten their dinner, which made feel awful for leaving so suddenly. Sabine and Tom were cleaning up with no Ember in sight.

"There you are sweetie," Tom said to her with a smile.

"We've been worried about you," Sabine said back, "Is everything okay with your friend?"

Marinette knew that her mom was covering for her, which she appreciated. She looked around, but still didn't see Ember anywhere.

"Y-Yeah. Everything's okay," Marinette explained to them, "I just needed to help out something important for school. I'm really sorry about missing dinner. I know that it was really important to eat together as a family."

"No worries Marinette. School comes first after all," Tom said back.

Marinette smiled back, feeling so glad to have them be okay with this.

"Umm... Where's Ember?" Marinette asked them, "I hope that she isn't mad at me."

Tom and Sabine shared a look, which made Marinette worry even more. Marinette joined in to help clean up, but Sabine stopped her from doing so.

"Don't worry about the dishes sweetie," Sabine said to her, "You should go talk to Ember. She was a little upset that you didn't eat with us."

"She's in the guest room if you want to talk to her," Tom said to Marinette.

Marinette gave them a smile, but was still upset that she couldn't make it to dinner on time. She gave them all a kiss on the cheek and headed out of the kitchen. Marinette felt bad as she headed over to the guest room. She realized that Ember hasn't even stayed in the guest room this whole time. Ember has always been staying in her room, which made her feel worse than before.

"Tikki, I think I really messed up this time around," Marinette said to her Kwami through her purse.

"Then talk to her. I'm sure she'll understand," Tikki said back, "She might surprise you."

Marinette soon came across the guest room, ready to talk to her. She took a deep breath in and out and knocked on the door.

No one answered.

"Ember," Marinette said through the door, "Look, I'm sorry for ditching you during dinner. I know that it meant a lot to you to have dinner together. After all, you did work really hard on it. Why don't we go to my room and watch a movie or something?"

Marinette noticed that Ember hadn't said anything or opened the door. She was confused and decided to open it. Luckily, it wasn't locked from the inside. Once Marinette opened the door, she noticed that no one was in here.

The guest room was empty.

Marinette walked into the guest room, worried that she might've run off. She looked around for any sign of her, but she wasn't there.

"Tikki. Ember's not here," Marinette told her, "She ran off. Where could she have gone?"

"I don't know," Tikki said back, "Maybe she just went to get some air."

Marinette almost agreed with her when she noticed something on the bed. She looked closer and found what looked like a small diary. It was so small that you could easily bring it anywhere that you wanted. Marinette was tempted to open it and soon held it in her hands. It looked like it could've easily been a sketchbook, but had a lot things written inside of it like any regular diary.

"Marinette. You shouldn't look inside of Ember's diary," Tikki said to her, "What if someone looked into your diary?"

"I agree Tikki, but look at this," Marinette told her.

She noticed that she drew some doodles that were too good to even be simple ones. Marinette was surprised to see the Ladybug Miraculous drawn in her diary. Something about it gave her chills. There was even some information and doodles about Cat Noir. She noticed a doodle about Adrien, which worried her that Ember was getting close to figuring out what's going on. Marinette looked through it, reading paragraphs out loud.

"It's been only a few days since I've been stuck here, and still no luck finding Ladybug. I thought that she was suppose to be a hero. She seems popular around here and easy to find and yet nothing. Even this other hero, Cat Noir is no where to be found. I thought maybe she'd be someone that I could rely on. Maybe tomorrow I can finally figure out what's going on around here..."

Marinette was surprised to be reading Ember's diary. Something about it felt weird to be going through it, but she knew that something was going on with her. She flipped through a couple of pages, realizing that she had almost filled it up completely. She landed on a page that had a doodle of what looked like her version of HawkMoth on it.

"I've been trying to figure out what's going on around here. Apparently there was villain around here a long time ago by the name of HawkMoth. He akumatized others into being a villain and giving them powers. I had never heard of anyone like that before even back in Japan. Whoever he was, he's not around anymore. Ladybug and Cat Noir took care of him along with some others from Japan. Maybe they could help me..."

Marinette bit her lip, feeling bad for Ember that she couldn't reach out to anyone. She realized that Ember knew about quite a bit. At least more than she expected considering she wasn't from here. She flipped through a couple of other pages, finding one about the machine in Chrysalis's old lair.

"I finally found information about these so called heroes from Japan. I found this abandoned warehouse that had some information about these heroes. Apparently they all have powers called quirks which means that they are from my Japan. That means that I can finally find a way back home. However they got here, it must've been the same way that I got here. They already left Paris, but that doesn't mean that I can't find my way back home..."

Marinette was starting to understand her a bit more and soon found herself sitting the guest room. She flipped through the pages, realizing that Ember just wanted to find a way back home. At least that's what she had hoped for. Soon enough, she found a page about Ladybug.

"I finally talked to Ladybug. After six months, I finally met her face to face. You'd think a hero like her would be easy to meet up with. She seemed a lot nicer than I expected, which was a relief. I really hope that she can find a way for me to get back home. I have a feeling that she was able to help her other friends get back home. She's my only chance of getting home. I still wonder though... Where did Cat Noir and Queen Bee disappear to? Even Adrien Agreste, a very popular fashion designer, is no where to be seen. I wonder if there's any connection to this..."

Marinette was surprised and kind of impressed that she wrote down all of this in the past six months. She didn't understand how she never noticed Ember and helped her earlier. She clearly needed help and yet she never found her. Things were different now that HawkMoth and Chrysalis were not around anymore. It's been quiet, so she might've missed her a few times.

Marinette tried to find a specific page on Adrien and wound finding something else that she wasn't expecting.

"Gabriel Agreste is HawkMoth. It took me a bit to figure things out, but Adrien's father is HawkMoth. This is much more complicated than I thought it would be. I didn't think that I would get involved with any of these people and yet I've done something I now regret. I don't know if I should tell Marinette or Ladybug. One of them has got to understand why I would do this..."

Marinette was shocked to see her write something like this down. There were no doodles and anything like that on this page. Something about it felt like she wanted to write this fast and never look at it again. Just to get it out of the way. Marinette felt bad, but hoped that maybe this was something that she should know about.

Marinette looked up to notice that Ember still hadn't shown up yet. She worried that she might get caught, so she put it down where she found it.

"We should go find her Tikki--"

Marinette didn't even notice that the window was open, causing wind to pick up in the guest room. The wind made the pages in the diary flip open. Marinette went over to close it, making it pretty quiet in the room. Then when she turned around to see the diary open, her eyes widened in shock. There was a doodle of Adrien and Cat Noir as if she knew who he was. This caught her attention, and she ran over to the diary.

"Marinette told me that her boyfriend is Adrien Agreste. He's going to school overseas. It can't be a concoinsedence that Adrien and Cat Noir both left at the same time. Also, he left six months ago right around the time that I showed up in Paris. Wherever he is, I wonder if there's a connection. Adrien might've left with the other heroes, maybe even Queen Bee. They've gotta be back in their Japan. My Japan. First Gabriel and now Adrien?? I feel like there's more going on than I thought at first. Ladybug is hopefully trying to find a way for me to go home. Why would she keep this from me?? Then again, I'm no better than her. Marinette seems to be the only one that I can trust around here though..."

Marinette felt her heart drop, seeing Ember's most recent page on here. After that, there wasn't anything else written here. Marinette let out a deep breath that she'd been holding onto this whole time. Holding onto the diary, she felt like Ember had been looking for answers for so long.

But never got anywhere until recently.

Marinette then felt something off about the diary and looked behind it. There was a slight burn mark on the back of it from holding onto it for so long. Marinette felt a chill go up her back, remembering the feeling of that strong heatwave around her.

"Tikki. She really does trusts me," Marinette told her, "How can I tell her that I'm Ladybug now? Not only that, but she knows about Adrien and Cat Noir possibly being the same person."

"Wow. Ember's a lot smarter than I thought," Tikki commented, "Maybe you should just talk to her. I'm sure that you can work things out. Besides, she's probably wondering what's going on with Ladybug."

Marinette hesitated, but knew that Ember had to know what was going on at some point. She just needed to get to know her better before sending her back home. She wanted to make sure Ember wasn't another Lila or Chloe. It turned out that all she wanted was to go back home.

Marinette's eyes widened, realizing that Ember was still gone. She never came back home.

Marinette looked out the window and couldn't find her anywhere. She took off, ready to transform.

"Tikki, if anything happens to her--"

"Relax Marinette. Just go find her," Tikki interrupted her.

Marinette nodded, and soon she transformed into Ladybug. Before she knew it, she was launching across the night sky. Ladybug looked all around her house, but couldn't find her. Ember had to have been around her house somewhere. Ladybug launched over to the park, but it was almost empty. Her heart was racing, hoping that Ember was okay.

Ladybug quickly opened her yo-yo and was almost going to call Rena Rouge. She forgot that she wasn't here. Neither was Cat Noir or Queen Bee. She had to get help from someone and quickly called Mariposa.

No one answered.

She left a very quick message and went to the next holder. No one was answering, realizing that it was late at night. No one was around as their hero forms because there was no akumas or anything like that. She tried to call Carapace, but he too wasn't answering. At that point, she didn't know who else to call.

"Carapace. I need you," Ladybug said through her yo-yo, "I can't find Ember. She left and now I can't find her. I'm worried about her. Ladybug was suppose to help her find a way back home, and now..."

Ladybug trailed off, wondering if she ran away from her. She left her diary, so Ladybug hoped that she'd come back for it.

"Just... please come help me if you can."

Ladybug closed her yo-yo, ready to find her friend. Soon she flew across the city of Paris, looking everywhere for Ember. She couldn't find her anywhere, not even in the most obvious places. She wasn't even in the school or the Mayor's hotel. She thought that maybe Ember wanted to get away from her house for the night. Ladybug worried even more that she couldn't find her anywhere.

After she left the hotel, Ladybug wondered if she should call someone else again. The only one that she could think about that might be up late at night was Max. He was always building, gaming and upgrading Markov. Ladybug smiled, hoping that he would answer. Her yo-yo was ringing, which was a good sign.

"Ladybug? Why are you calling so late at night?" Pegasus asked over her yo-yo.

"Ma-- I mean Pegasus, thank goodness you're still awake," Ladybug said back, "I need your help. Ember is missing, and I can't get a hold of anyone."

"You've got it Ladybug, but I'm going to need to talk to you about those gauntlets after this. I may have found something else that might help us figure out what's going on with them," Pegasus told her through her yo-yo.

Ladybug's eyes widened in shock, but tried to focus on finding Ember.

"That's great Pegasus. We'll go over that after we find Ember," Ladybug said back, "Meet me around the Effiel Tower. She should be around here somewhere."

Ladybug soon hung up Pegasus and swung her way over to the Effiel Tower.

Wherever Ember was, Ladybug just hoped that she was okay.

Another amazing chapter!

I like where this is going for Ember and Marinette! I love that I finally have a story unfolding for them. Ember has been interesting to write, but I'll admit it's been tough figuring this story out more than Skylar. Skylar's story I knew right away what I wanted to do. This one took a bit more to figure out, but I think I got it! I thought it would be cool to bring in Gabriel, but in a different way! We'll see how it goes! Also, I really liked the idea of Ember having a diary. I just thought it would add more to her character carrying it around all time without anyone knowing. I don't want to spoil the next few chapters, but I have a good feeling about them!

What's going to happen next??

More to come soon!