Demigods: In Paris (a Miraculous Ladybug and Percy Jackson crossover)

The End... or is it?

Marinette had finally gotten an uninterrupted night of sleep, but she was still processing everything that had happened in the past couple of days. It felt like so long since she'd gotten that panicked text from Chat Noir telling her he knew Hawkmoth's identity, and so much had happened since then.

First and foremost, Hawkmoth was gone forever. Gabriel and Nathalie had realised their love for each other, and whilst it was a little weird for Adrien, he knew that he was just happy to have a family again. No-one knew what had happened to make Gabriel move on with such little warning, but nobody was complaining. In fact, there were rumours of a wedding later in the year, and to her infinite delight Marinette had been asked to help design their outfits. 

That was another thing that was different - Marinette had made a choice that day that she'd never be able to take back. Adrien had been stood by the coffin, mourning his mother, and she'd been about to go comfort him when her earrings had begun to beep. In that split second, she'd realised she was sick of having to hide, and she stood by her partner as her transformation wore off. They were still yet to have a proper conversation about it, but Marinette had a feeling that everything would turn out well. In fact, Marinette had barely seen Adrien in the past couple of days, not since they'd both retransformed and gone to work out what to do with Gabriel, only to find him hand in hand with Nathalie.

As for Percy and Annabeth, they'd left the same day that everything had happened. Marinette wasn't entirely sure when exactly they'd left, but when she'd finally had time to go looking for them, she found their hotel room empty, their luggage gone but the receptionist denied all knowledge of them ever checking out (they had paid in advance). She hadn't even had a chance to say thank you. 

With all the chaos receding, Marinette had time to wonder about what her kwami had sensed in them. They obviously weren't normal, and they didn't even try to deny it. At the time she'd just been grateful that her lucky charms had been magical, but now she wanted to know why, and Tikki was refusing to say a word. As for the whole ordeal with Percy becoming Hawkmoth and Annabeth's powers not stopping when he retransformed, Marinette had no idea what was going on, and either Master Fu didn't know anything too, or he was a master actor. 

Marinette had been with Master Fu when Nooroo had returned himself and the butterfly miraculous. She'd been relieved that she hadn't been responsible for losing a miraculous, but was surprised to hear what the kwami had to say to the guardian. Apparently the miraculous was bonded to Percy, and would remain dormant unless used by him until he died. He and Annabeth had decided to send the miraculous back for safekeeping, afraid that somebody might try to kill Percy if they knew what power only he was able to wield. Master Fu seemed as shocked as Marinette at this revelation, but Nooroo refused to explain why this had happened.

Marinette had returned to school that morning to be accosted by Alya. She'd almost forgotten that her best friend had worked out her secret, so she was surprised when Alya began firing questions at her at a mile a minute. She'd answered as many as she could on their walk to school, and Alya had reassured her that she wouldn't post a peep about this on her Ladybug, other than to tell he citizens that Hawkmoth had finally been defeated. She even offered to cover for her any time she had to be Ladybug from now on.

Marinette's first glimpse of Adrien since she'd left to look for Percy and Annabeth had been that morning, his perfect blonde hair in the same place as always in front of her, as if both of their worlds hadn't just been tipped upside-down. 

Alya poked her, hard.

"-arinette!" The teacher was frowning at her, and Marinette sat up quickly. 

"What was the question, miss?"

"Who was the greek goddess of craft and wisdom?"

"Uh..." Marinette wracked her brain for the answer, but this was a new topic and she had next to no prior knowledge to call on. "Aphrodite?"

"Athena." Marinette gave a sigh as the teacher moved on with the lesson. "The goddess appears in several of the more well-known myths, including that of Medusa, the creation of olives and the founding of Athens. Her symbol was the owl, and in most myths she was sworn off men and had frequent disputes with the sea god, Poseidon, although in some of the more obscure myths the two are portrayed as lovers."

The teacher kept talking , but Marinette had frozen. She'd heard the name Athena before... where was it?

'Athena always has a plan.' Those were the words Annabeth had said to her. 

"In several of the myths, gods were said to sometimes come down to earth and live in disguise among the mortals."

Suddenly it all made sense. The way they were so special. The way that Tikki had been so shocked that their 'kind' were still around. All the strange lucky charms - medusa's head, a greek coin that turned into a sword... And the hydra they'd fought, it must have been real. It explained why they hadn't seemed surprised at all the crazy going on. How Percy had control over water. Their mystery disappearance. All their weird nicknames - wise girl, seaweed brain, owl face, kelp head... 

Percy and Annabeth were Poseidon and Athena. There was no other explanation.