Miraculous Team ✔️

32

The look on Marianne's face when she came back was frantic.

"So?" Master Fu asked, his eyes trying to focus on her in the dim light under the trees.

"Hawkmoth took Adrien's Miraculous." Marianne replied, "I saw him holding it as he was carried away by those butterflies of his."

Master Fu's jaw dropped. "I- what?"

She nodded sadly.

"This is bad. This is very very bad." Master Fu stood, the Miraculous box under his arm, "We should go back."

"Are you sure? What if Hawkmoth comes back for the box?"

"He has what he wants now. There's no need for him to come back for the other Miraculouses."

They hurried back in the direction they came in. The ground was unsteady and Master Fu had to look at where he was putting his feet or else he'd trip. When they arrived back at the house, Marianne pounded at the door. She didn't have the keys. The sound spooked the two teens inside, until they heard her voice.

"It's Marianne and Master Fu! Is anyone in there?"

"Yes! Yes!" Marinette called back, almost flying down the stairs to open the door, Adrien close behind, "I'm so glad you guys came back."

"Is everyone okay? What happened after Hawkmoth left?" Master Fu asked.

"The others went after him." Adrien answered.

"Did anything else happen?"

Marinette blushed a deep red. Adrien smirked at her and put his arm around her shoulder casually.

"Oh, nothing else happened." Adrien said airily, earning himself a playful smack on the arm from Marinette, who was getting redder by the second.

"That's not true." Marinette argued, thrusting a piece of paper in front of Master Fu, "This paper is from Ming's notebook."

"There are characters on it." Adrien added, before rushing upstairs and back down, holding a pile of Christmas lights, "I hope you don't mind me going through your stuff, Marianne. But the characters are only legible under red light."

He quickly proceeded to plug it into a nearby socket. Marinette shined the parts with red light on the unfolded paper. Marianne, Marinette and Adrien held their breath as the characters appeared and Master Fu leaned closer to get a better look.

Master Fu squinted his eyes. "It's some kind of... magic word, I suppose?"

"I guess that's what the transformation was missing." Adrien said.

"I hate to be the negative one here but Hawkmoth is gone with both Miraculouses in his clutches." Marianne pointed out, "Aren't we too late?"

"You're wrong."

The four spun around to see who spoke. Her figure stood at the door, posture set in steel.

Adrien turned to Marianne and raised an eyebrow. "You really need a more secure door."

"Ladybug?" Marinette questioned. It was strange for her alter ego's name to roll down her tongue.

The tension was so thick, a knife could cut through it. Ladybug approached, then thought better of it when she saw the angry looks on their faces. At a distance, she raised her hands cautiously.

"I'm not here because of Hawkmoth." She assured them, "I came on my own."

The four watched breathlessly as Ladybug opened her mouth and asked to detransform.

Adrien gasped when the mask disappeared. "Nathalie?"

"I'm terribly sorry." Nathalie said, "It was wrong of me."

Tikki flew straight into Marinette's chest. "Marinette! Marinette!"

Marinette was speechless for a second, then she hugged her kwami tight, happy tears threatening to spill.

"I don't understand." Master Fu said.

"I... I thought I didn't have a choice." Nathalie said, clearly ashamed of herself, "But Tikki helped me realize that I do have a choice, to do the right thing." She turned to Marinette and handed her the Ladybug miraculous. "You're the rightful owner. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You did the right thing." Marinette smiled warmly.

Adrien, however, had no smile plastered on his face. His eyebrows were twisted together in a mixture of disbelief, anger and confusion. "I can't believe you..."

"Adrien, I-"

"You." Adrien's hands were burning hot. "You locked my classmates up, almost killed me and my friends. And you knew you were hurting me."

Adrien was shaking so much that Marinette had to grab his shoulder and calm him down, running her fingers through his hair.

Master Fu turned to Nathalie. "Who's Hawkmoth?"

Nathalie froze. She had came to them to return the Miraculous. But she wasn't prepared to tell Adrien that all this time-

"Gabriel Agreste."

The words tumbled out of her mouth almost too quickly. Again she was devoured in an endless cycle of shame. Tikki nodded slowly, afraid of how the news would affect Adrien.

Adrien went slack in Marinette's arms.