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

Chapter Sixteen: Marinette

Marinette couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't breathe.

As with everyone else, she darted her eyes between Sophie (who was just coming to after passing out), Mr. Forkle, Master Fu, each other, and Adrien.

Adrien.

The poor guy was paper-white, sweating, and panting, like he was about to throw up. He kept shaking his head, like he was trying to shake away the news.

"Are you okay?" she finally squeaked out.

Adrien shook his head and ran out of the room, letting silence fill where he'd been standing.

But Marinette didn't wait too long until poking her head through the doorway to see Adrien curled in a ball against the wall, rocking back and forth, hyperventilating.

"Look, I know this is hard to take in right now," she said, sitting down next to him.

"You don't know the half of it," Adrien mumbled, his voice shaky. "Do you realize what that means?"

Marinette didn't respond.

"It means I'm not... I'm not..." Adrien grit his teeth together, clearly trying to fight back tears, but it failed, and he started sobbing.

All she really felt she could do was rub his back.

Both of them just sat like that, with Adrien crying and Marinette half-heartedly trying to comfort him. It felt strange, like she wasn't supposed to see him as a human anymore.

After all, if Adrien really was this "second moonlark," then it only made sense that Adrien was an elf too.

He'd been living a lie his entire life.

Marinette had been protecting Paris with a boy she thought she knew.

A boy who didn't even know himself anymore.

An entire identity stripped off, revealing the scared boy underneath.

Marinette had never really seen this side of Adrien, with or without the mask. Even as Adrien, he always seemed to cover things up with a soft smile and shake away his own personal problems.

But now he couldn't hide it anymore.

He wasn't even naturally born.

That Black Swan group had genetically altered him.

Well, Marinette wasn't having it.

"That's it, we're talking to this Mr. Forkle," she said, standing up.

"What do you mean?" Adrien asked, wiping tears from his eyes.

"I'm not letting him just make you take in this information right now," Marinette said, feeling tears burn her face, only they were from anger. "We're going right back in there and making him explain everything. You don't deserve to sit here crying and freaking out because you just discovered that you've been living a lie your whole life. He's gonna tell everything he knows, and we're not leaving him alone until he does."

Adrien seemed a little worried for a second, but he eventually let Marinette pick him up.

She could feel her cheeks heat up with rage as she swung open the door.

But it was clear Sophie was upset as well.

"Start talking," Marinette hissed.

Her friends and Chloe turned to her in surprise. They hadn't seen this side of Marinette either.