Into Another World (kotlc/mlb au)

Chapter 17

Keefe was the first to react. "I can't believe this."

"I don't believe this," Sophie agreed. "You... you were Marinette this entire time? You made us all think you disappeared and died?"

Ladybug-Marinette-Adrien had no clue what to call her, pursed her lips but nodded. "It was the only way."

"I don't know how I feel about this," Keefe tore a hand through his hair.

Ladybug buried her head between her knees. "I'm sorry."

Adrien's hand moved on instinct, gently rubbing across her back. "It's not your fault. You were scared. She was trying to exploit you and you chose what you could do in that moment."

She still didn't say anything.

"Maybe you two should..." Sophie suggested.

"Yeah," Adrien agreed. Both he and Sophie could tell Ladybug and Keefe needed some distance for a little while. He took Ladybug's hand and they went past a line of bushes.

"I just... I knew he'd hate me for it," she said, blinking back tears. "He'd hate himself for not realizing it."

"But it's his mom's fault you're here in the first place."

"But I know Keefe. We'd been friends since... since my parents died. He'll never stop wondering what he could've done to protect me from her."

Adrien sucked in a breath. "Marinette..."

"Please, don't call me that. Marinette died five years ago."

"Okay, then, Ladybug. Whatever happens, Keefe couldn't control it either. None of this was his fault. And none of it was yours."

Ladybug heaved a breath, wiping tears from her eyes. "You don't understand. He was one of the only people who knew how my parents died. He was the only one who understood me. He'll never forgive himself for it."

"What do you mean, how your parents died?"

Ladybug fell to her knees, crying harder. "I... I..."

She was shaking all over. "He knows what killed them. He knows who killed them. I'm scared he'll never forgive me, never forgive himself."

"Who killed them?"

Adrien knelt down and gripped her clammy palm.

Ladybug coughed out a sob. "It was me. I did it."

Adrien felt his stomach drop. "What?"

"I killed them! With my own powers!" she confessed. "I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"

He didn't know what to say as she kept hunching over her knees, a crying mess. "I'm sorry. I know you hate me now because I'm a murderer."

"What? No!" he shook his head violently. "Ladybug, what happened in the past had to have been an accident."

But it also explained so much.

Why she couldn't love.

Why she was trying to get rid of her abilities.

"I just want them back," she whispered. "I want them back. None of this would have happened if they were still here."

Adrien's thumb began making soft circles against the back of her hand, his mouth unsure what to say, his body doing the talking for him. He gently pulled her in close, letting her tears soak his tunic, blinking back his own as well. There was no way this girl had gone through so much trauma and guilt and grief and still managed to be like she was. A stubborn headstrong fugitive that was caring deep inside.