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

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Keefe

Keefe watched in horror as a purple and black mist surrounded Marinette, inverting her Ladybug costume so it was black where the red would be and vice versa.

But as those eyes glared back at the group, Keefe could see that they had tinged grey a little.

The Marinette they all knew and loved had just died in front of them, replaced by whatever this monster was.

"This is your only warning," Fintan sneered. "We'll be out there, destroying the world piece by piece, with the help of our two new weapons—" he gestured to Marinette and Isabela—"And we won't stop until you either surrender or the moonlarks are killed. And considering all that's happened... we may be nearly halfway to accomplishing the latter."

And with that, the Neverseen disappeared, along with their two new members.

Adrien fled the moment the group went away.

"Adrien, you can't stay in there forever," Keefe said through the locked door. "It's been three days now."

"I'm not moving," Adrien's voice mumbled. "I can't leave. Not after we lost Marinette after we finally had a real kiss."

Keefe paused.

"You kissed her?!" he gasped. "I've been waiting for you two to do it now!"

"Yeah, well, she's gone," Adrien said, his voice angrier. "And I'm not leaving."

"Then I'm coming in myself," Keefe declared, picking at the lock with a hairpin Biana had lent him as he swung open the door, noticing Adrien curled up against the corner.

"He hasn't moved since they left," Plagg said sadly, munching on a piece of mallowmelt. "He's... what do kids say these days... a 'depressed bean.'"

Keefe wrinkled his nose in confusion. He'd never heard that phrase before.

Maybe it was a human thing?

"Yeah well newsflash, Tikki's gone too," Adrien said.

Plagg's eyes widened.

"Not Tikki!" he wailed.

Keefe and Adrien shared a look.

"I never thought this would happen," Adrien said.

"What?" Keefe asked.

"Plagg worried about something other than food," Adrien shrugged.

But Keefe could see that literally nothing would cheer up this poor kid.

"Want me to try?"

Keefe turned to see Mirabel at the doorway. She clearly seemed to be taking losing her sister a lot better than he expected.

But the rage in her dark eyes were imminent.

"It appears we've had one of the worst setbacks in this war," Mr. Forkle said.

"You think?" Chloe butted in. "I may be mean, but not Lila level mean. That girl is so going down."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, Miss Bourgeois, but she is not the only obstacle we face," Mr. Forkle said. "Miss Foster is now out for the count, and we're trying to get the antidote as fast as we can. We just lost two valuable members of the Black Swan, as they were practically forced to join the Neverseen. It's not looking good for us."

"Then we need to instill hope back in our people."

Everyone turned around to see Oralie and Bronte standing in front of the group.

"Keep in mind that the Lost Cities are in a panic now, since there's a chance the Neverseen could destroy us if they wanted, plus the moonlark we've grown with is gone," Bronte said, but Keefe couldn't help noticing that there was something... off-putting, with Oralie and Adrien standing together...