Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Second Moonlark (a KOTLC/MLB crossover)

Chapter Four: Marinette

Cat Noir still wasn't anywhere to be found. It had been half an hour since they were supposed to start their nightly patrol.

Marinette sighed, wishing she could detransform and vent to Tikki about it. However, there was still the chance of Cat Noir coming in at the wrong time and discovering that Marinette and Ladybug were, in fact, the same exact person. Which would be terrible, because then Cat Noir would know her identity and then she would need either Viperion or Bunnix to fix it.

Man, she really needed to get a stress-reliever or something.

That's when Marinette saw the glimmer out of the corner in her eye. She turned to find a small pile of glittering objects far in the distance, like someone had left them there in a hurry. She readied her yo-yo to swing over there...

"Something wrong, milady?"

Marinette jumped, turning to face Cat Noir, clad in his leather cat costume, only his emerald-peridot green eyes seemed more tired than usual. Actually, they had looked kinda tired for a couple of days now. Marinette couldn't help remembering the akuma from yesterday, where the poor thing was a little slower than usual.

"I think the better question is if something's wrong with you," Marinette said, walking closer. "You haven't been the same lately."

"No, it's nothing," Cat Noir said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. Marinette put the back of her hand against his cheeks. He wasn't getting sick or anything, so that seemed like a good sign.

"It's like you haven't been sleeping lately," she said, and thought she saw him jump a little.

"It's nothing, okay?" he crossed his arms. "I don't wanna drag you into my problems. Besides, it's not like you'd understand."

Marinette took a step back. Her kitty wasn't usually this serious about something like this.

Something definitely was going on.

But she would need to get him comfortable before getting him to confess.

"How about we start patrol?" she suggested.

"Gladly," Cat Noir said, but Marinette swore she saw him feel a tiny bit scared as he headed off with his baton.

Quickly, Marinette headed over to the pile of objects, picking up a silver choker, a necklace with a single crystal facet, a cobalt blue crystal wand with an adjustable crystal at the end, and a pin with two silver hands around a silver candle and green flame, against a orange background, framed by silver.

That's when a beam of moonlight reflected off the wand, and created what looked like a light path.

"Gah!" she cried, dropping the items, but the beam stayed in place. She could feel her breath beginning to slow down after a couple moments.

Curious, she went closer to the light, feeling the particles of the beam moving quickly in a path. Every cell in ber body began to beg to ride the light with her, telling her that freedom, light, and peace came from the light, her cells seemed to grow alive.

So, she wiggled her fingers into the beam, then quickly pulled it out. Only her fingers were pale and colorless. She panicked for a second before her fingers returned to normal.

Huh, she thought. That's interesting. But why would anyone want to ride a beam of light? In fact, this is breaking all known laws of science and relativity!

Still curious, though, she stuck her entire hand in, and when she pulled it back out, like with her fingers, it was colorless and pale for a second before fading back to normal. She stuck it up to her elbow (wondering how it was disappearing into the light), and while it took a tiny bit longer, she got the same ending.

She could feel herself drawn to the light, as if it was a magnet. What would happen if she put herself into the beam? Would she come out with the same result? Or would something bad happen? What if she stretched out into a noodle, like they say would happen in black holes?

There was only one way to find out.

"Don't!"

A pair of arms thrust her back as the beam finally snuffed out. She looked behind herself to see Cat Noir holding her protectively.

"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to break free from his grip.

"You do realize what you were about to do, right?" he asked, finally letting her go.

"No, but do you?" she crossed her arms.

Cat Noir took a step back.

"Well... I... uh..." he stammered a little, refusing to look at her before his voice hardened again. "I just think it's a bad idea, okay? I don't know why, but I have this feeling that you'd lose your life if you tried whatever that was!"

Marinette backed up and collided with the wall behind her. She'd never seen him this scared, worried, or angry before.

"And how would you know?" she asked.

"It's not like I have all the answers!" he argued. "I just..."

Neither of them could say anything.

"Like I said before, I don't wanna drag you into my problems," he muttered. "Maybe if you just left me alone and stopped messing with that stuff, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Marinette bit her lip, hearing the familiar beeping that meant that one of them was gonna detransform soon.

"I gotta go," Cat Noir sighed. "Just don't worry about me."

When Marinette finally got into her room and transformed, even Tikki was getting concerned about him.

"He's never been that protective before," Tikki said. "It's like he knew something you didn't, but doesn't seem to know either."

"I know, it's strange," Marinette said, pacing back and forth. "Something's going wrong with him, and I'm determined to figure out what it is."