Miracle Box - an MLB rewrite

Book 3 - Regathering

A/N

Letting you know here that this chapter is meant to set up stuff for the rest of the fic so it's not like my usual complete mini story or half a story, if that makes sense. Idek if yall notice I do that.

"What do I do now, Plagg?" Adrien asked. He stood before the grand glass windows of his bedroom, looking over the garden below. Plagg stood just behind him. He'd been silent this whole time. Adrien even took off the ring so Plagg would feel more human, in a sense, like that would get him to open up. But he still remained quiet.

Adrien turned to look up at his kwami companion. His eyes were unfamiliar to him now. They were darker, exhausted from living for millions of years. He looked aged now too, if possible. Kwamis aren't meant to show signs of age, yet somehow, there were bags under Plagg's eyes. There were frown lines around the corners of his lips. And his hair seemed to be going grey around the roots. He would not look at Adrien. As if he were a statue, Plagg stood, gaze fixated on nothing that lay before him, completely unmoving.

"I can stop him, right? I know he's here. And Ladybug does too. She'll be here any minute, I'm sure. I don't know why she hasn't come on her own already. But she will come."

Still, Plagg said nothing. Adrien continued.

"She's bound to figure out my identity. This will all be easier to explain to her if she does. She'll have to come though. She's coming..."

He kept pausing to leave an opening for Plagg to talk but still, his kwami companion was distant and cold.

"Unless Tikki already knows the situation. But still, why wouldn't she come yet? Can I face Hawkmoth on my own? Can I–"

"You're useless," said Plagg.

Adrien stiffened and jerked his gaze away. Plagg's voice was deep and sudden. He was so unfamiliar now, Adrien was not sure it was even him.

"I feel that way," he said quietly in defeat.

"Tikki was right," said Plagg, "I shouldn't have picked you so randomly. I swear there was a connection between us but now I realize it was all false."

Adrien was taken aback. "If it was false then your ring would have killed me when I put it on."

"Not if you're a sentimonster," said Plagg, "there was never a real connection between us. I felt compatibility because you, a sentimonster, cannot die by the jewels of our box. You're not human."

Adrien frowned. "So I'm compatible with any miraculous? I can use them without consequence. That's great then!"

"No," Plagg shook his head, "you being a sentimonster ruins everything."

Adrien's frown deepened and he felt a rage boil within him. "Well that's not my fault, okay?! I didn't ask to be made! I never wanted to be born! But if Dusuu really did create me to be identical to a human, even with emotion, then I have the compassion and ambition needed to be a hero! Please Plagg, tell me how I can stop Hawkmoth!"

"If you actually wanted to, he'd be dead by your hand already. You have the power," Plagg said darkly, "use cataclysm on his throat. Let him die before he can transform. Steal back Nooroo already. Or, continue to wait for Ladybug. Let him akumatize another victim. Let the cycle continue."

"What is with you?" Adrien wrinkled his nose with agitation. He regarded Plagg with a heavy gaze. "Do you hate me now?"

"Of course not. I'm just confused," Plagg said, now turning his back on Adrien. He walked and flew up to the bookshelves which hung over near the tall ceiling of Adrien's bedroom. He acted as if he were sifting through book titles in search of something, but Adrien knew he just needed an excuse to step away.