Maribat March 2021

What if...

For Maribat March: Day 22 Theme: What if...

Side Effects of Miraculous Universe

Major Character Death Warning!

Mild cursing

What if Marinette Dupain-Cheng didn't take up the Miraculous last year? How would the world change? Where would everyone be now? Would Bruce Wayne know about his daughter? Would Jason be bringing someone to the league in order to beg them to bring them back to life? Would Adrien be distant from everyone who tries to help him? Would the bakery be closed? Well, the answer to all those questions would be no. But that's in another universe. In this one everything is true and that's the reality they have to deal with.

...

A week ago Marinette Dupain-Cheng aka Ladybug died and everything changed. The Dupain-Cheng bakery hadn't been open for the last two weeks. The Wayne's hadn't left Paris. Adrien hadn't returned to school. And hawkmoth hadn't attacked.

Well, Jason and Damian left Paris, but they were going to pay Damian's mother a visit and beg her to allow them to use the Lazarus Pits to bring their sister back. To their surprise, everyone agreed to the plan. They just wanted Marinette back.

In Paris, everything had been strange since Jason and Damian left. A new Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up while Adrien pulled strings from behind the scene, but when not doing that he sat on Marinette's balcony staring at nothing. Even though Jason and Damian said they could bring her back, in Adrien's mind she was dead. And without her, he was a lost kitten.

This was in stark contrast to Sabine and Tom. The two smiled through the pain. They were confident in Jason and Damian and needed to believe they could get their daughter back. The two cared for Adrien and would make food for the Wayne's when they dropped by. The only real change in their life was the hostility to Marinette's classmates and the bakery being closed.

Speaking of the Akuma class, they had a sudden change of heart about Marinette wasn't a bully. Then Lila tried to cover her ass by saying, "Marinette and I had to pretend to hate each other to protect her secret identity."

The one day Adrien actually showed up to class after Marinette's death was definitely strange. Right outside the school, he was flocked by classmates who wanted to comfort him. No one mentioned how poorly they treated Marinette.

So Adrien did, "Why are you all comforting me? It's not like any of you cared about Marinette when she was alive. You guys bullied her."

"We didn't bully Ladybug," Alya said.

"Marinette. Her name is Marinette. Marinette is the person who died. Ladybug is the legacy she carried that still lives on. So say her name. Go ahead and tell me you didn't bully Marinette. Oh, wait you can't, because that's exactly what you did."

Alya was about to speak up, but Lila cut her off, "It's okay Alya, he doesn't know. He has the right to be angry right now. Adrien, Marinette and I needed to pretend to hate each other, or else her secret identity would have been easily figured out. And between me and everyone in this room, Marinette isn't dead, she just had to go into hiding."

The class let out a gasp.

Adrien was mad, "She seemed pretty damn dead when she died in my arms. Marinette didn't fake her death. And she didn't tell you her identity. No one knew her identity. Not even Chat Noir."

"Why would she let you in when she died? Why should we believe you?" Alya questioned.

"You're going to outcast me over a liar, just like you did to Marinette? Go ahead. I'll take it."

"You're just some pathetic model who is mad Ladybug didn't love him, so now you're living in some type of delusion. Pretending you care. You constantly rejected Marinette."

"And I will live with the fact I rejected Marinette for the rest of my life. For the rest of my life, I will pay the consequences of not being there for her. But you do not get to sit on a fake high horse and pretend I didn't love her."

Then Adrien lunged. Someone grabbed him from behind to hold him back. Alya jumped back. Adrien turned to check who was holding him back.

"Tim, let me go!"

Adrien was pissed. He was struggling to get out of Tim's grip. But Tim was holding him back pulling him into a hug.

"Let's go back to the bakery," Tim said to Adrien.

"Did you hear what they were saying?" Adrien yelled.

"Yes, but hitting them isn't going to do anything, we can sue them or something, I'll talk to my father," then Tim turned to the class, "If any of you speak of my sister or my would have been brother in law like that ever again I will not hesitate to actually let him hit you."

Adrien didn't return to school later in the week.

Instead, he stayed with the Dupain-Cheng's. He was mostly left alone other than mealtime. They took good care of him for the time being. Tim would actually talk to him. Sometimes the two played chess. Steph looked through Marinette's sketchbook with him. Cass watched old akuma battles.

His father stopped calling as often after a long conversation with Sabine. Adrien was lost, but he wasn't ready to hope that Mari could come back. At least not in the ways the others could.

It was a tough week and a half before Jason and Damian returned. They returned with Marinette. They returned with Marinette still dead. Tom and Sabine finally let their own dams break. And they sobbed. Adrien dissociated. Everyone else was just lost.

They just wanted to know what would happen if Marinette Dupain-Cheng was still alive. There were so many what if's but there was only one real thing, Marinette is dead and there was nothing that could be done.

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