An entire year had passed since her whole life had been transformed thanks to Chat Noir’s betrayal and Hawk Moth’s wish, it had taken quite a while but she managed to get used to her new life. She was able to keep her friendships from her old life (except for of course Adrien) though with different details.
Like for example it had occurred to her if Chloe wasn’t in her class when Alya joined then how did they start their friendship? It turned out she was class representative and she was asked to show her around the school and they clicked after that. Plus while it was shocking to see that her family were wealthy and she was in a relationship with Luka, she dealt with the first detail alright and she was perfectly happy with Luka.
Of course there was a new Butterfly user called Papillion in this reality and some of the Miraculous got into evil hands, but as Lady Catbug she was able to deal with them and it helped that Papillion was not as creative as Hawk Moth as had been.
Today she was at a party that Mayor Raincomprix was hosting and she was there with her friends; Kitty Section was one of the musical entertainment groups and her family’s catering company was of course catering it.
She was shocked to see that among the special guests, coming from London was the Graham De Vanilys with Adrien’s mother Emilie there of course having never suffered whatever happened to her, she was there with her sister and she saw Felix and Adrien of course looking like they were twins.
She shook her head as she looked away, there was no use trying to judge them or hold anything against them for what happened in another timeline. She looked at Kitty Section rocking out with Clara Nightingale and Jagged Stone with a smile.
After a few minutes she saw Adrien spotting her and walking closer to her and she nervously tried to lose through the door. She didn’t notice the door opening as she said out loud “I can’t do this, he is trying to get near me for some reason....... Wait, what if he remembers the old timeline......”
“You do remember Marinette, the Miraculous!” Adrien said making her jump and he checked her hand to see that it had the Ring and she was wearing the Earrings. He became excited as Marinette grew worried and she said “You remember what happened before the wish, how we were friends and we didn’t know that we were partners.........”
“Yes, I remember that you didn’t take our battles seriously enough and kept flirting at in appropriate times which I was willing to overlook but then you took what friendship and partnership that we had and stabbed me in the back....” Marinette hissed in response making him step back with an apologetic glance.
Marinette hadn’t felt this angry in a long time.
“I am sorry Marinette but I had to, my father revealed to me why he was doing everything. It was all to fix our broken family, to get my mom back.......” Adrien told her and Marinette interrupted.
“Well, you have her back and so I hope that it was all worth it.” Marinette replied and Adrien didn’t respond. “Why didn’t you come to me, was our partnership not enough that you didn’t come to me for help or that we could deal with it together? Or was it because you knew I wouldn’t entertain trusting Hawk Moth or that I would have warned you that the wish would have a strong price to pay. I know about what happened to your dad in this timeline, I am sorry about it but he paid the price for his wish.” Marinette told him with a dark look in her eyes.
“I haven’t been able to see him since just before the wish, I was told that he would never be able to get out of his cell because of how much of a criminal he had become. But he wasn’t the only one who paid the price, we went to America earlier in the year and I got to visit Chloe in the juvenile hall she is in....... She remembers what used to be......” Adrien told her softly and Marinette blinked as she never thought that would be a possibility.
Still she had to admit that she had a bit of vindictive pleasure of what she had put her through for years, now that she had no power and remembers the old life when she was able to push people around. It felt cathartic even though she had previously wished that being Queen Bee would help her be better.
“But you have both Miraculous, we could make another wish to fix all this..... We make it so that our lives were as they were before but just with my Mum alright. Or we can do it so that Mum woke up healed when we both go to my mansion.....” Adrien told her reaching for her hand with the Miraculous but Marinette snatched it away angrily.
Was he serious? After betraying her, he wants to mess with reality again?
“Are you kidding, you would think that I would allow you to do this regardless of the price the Wish makes or who pays it? Are you just going to keep wishing until your life is exactly as you want it? You and your dad wanted your Mum so live with it.” Marinette told him and Adrien grew angry.
“My dad is suffering in jail and so is Chloe and who knows what Lila is going through, stop being selfish Marinette. You have our friends, your family is living the high life and you now have our mansion! I only have my cousin, my aunt and my Mum!” Adrien retorted and Marinette couldn’t deny he had a point about how her life is now.
Then suddenly Plagg and Tikki came out and glared at Adrien, “I will never let you hurt Marinette ever again! We both made sure you four would remember jsut so you can suffer with the knowledge!” Plagg told him to both of their shock.
Marinette was definitely having a word with her Kwamis later about this.
Adrien looked to Plagg hoping to have him on his side but Plagg gave a sideway glance and told him “I tried to talk you out of this; I warned you there would be no going back if you went down this road. Sorry Adrien but listening to your Supervillain father was not going to turn out well.”
Adrien looked hurt by the words and the Kwamis disappeared as they noticed someone coming through the door, Adrien didn’t and reached out to try and take the Miraculous by force when he was stopped by Malcolm the chauffeur and bodyguard of Marinette.
Marinette smiled at Malcolm who got in front of Marinette protectively, Adrien was stunned and hurt by being treated as a hostile stranger by someone he knew in his old life.
Malcolm escorted Adrien back through the door and to face his mother and Aunt who didn’t look happy to hear that he was apparently harassing Marinette. Sabine and Tom glared at Adrien and so did Marinette’s friends when they heard.
They each went to Marinette bombarding her with questions if the London stranger was bothering her and Adrien watched as Luka got off the stage and went to Marinette. He put the arm around her shoulder as they stared at eachother lovingly.
So much for getting to start a relationship with his Lady after the wish has been made......
