"Future Rewoven" Book 3 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy |COMPLETED|

Chpt 27: Marinette's Disturbing Discovery.

Marinette was enjoying the music, especially since she remembered to bring ear plugs this time, when she suddenly felt like she was missing something. She looked around her and spotted her purse sitting on top of her jacket. Marinette hurried over to the chair, picked up her purse, placed it over her head to hang across her body, and then went back to her seat. She could hardly believe that she actually set it down somewhere! That was a mistake she had almost never made! While she was thinking about it, she thought she'd check her phone for any messages. It was hard to hear anything when Kitty Section was playing and she didn't want to miss anything from Adrien- she hoped he would still be able to come tonight, though he was at that photo shoot- or any alerts of villain trouble. Marinette opened her purse and took out her phone. She was halfway through a message from her mom when she realized something that made her stomach drop and her heart race.  Tikki wasn't in the purse! Marinette shot up out of her chair, getting startled expressions from a number of her friends, and raced into the boat so she could find a quiet place to search through her purse for clues to what had happened.

Marinette wound her way down to her friend Juleka's room and was about to sit down to examine her purse when she heard a whispered "Marinette!"

Marinette turned her head in the direction of the familiar voice. "Tikki?" Her eyes darted around the room, but she didn't see her, so she started walking toward where she thought she'd heard the voice when her little red kwami zoomed up to her.

"Thank goodness! I was hoping you'd come looking for me! I was trying to decide how best to find you, but with so many people on the boat, I couldn't quite figure out what to do! Quick! Let me back in your purse!" Tikki flew in as soon as Marinette opened it, feeling much better now that she was hidden and where she belonged.

"What happened?" Marinette asked her kwami.

"Someone took your purse, but I escaped before they opened it. I think whoever it was went through your stuff, though. I couldn't risk potentially revealing myself and my hiding place, so unfortunately I have no idea who it was!" said Tikki apologetically.

"Someone stole my purse and went through it?!" said Marinette, alarmed as to what might now be missing or what the person could have seen if Tikki hadn't flown away. She opened the purse and took an inventory of all of her things. Nothing was missing. Not even her cash. Something then occurred to her. "And . . . they brought it back, too? What do you think they wanted as it obviously wasn't what a normal thief wants?" she said.

"I don't know, but it's probably not good," said Tikki quietly. "And, it's probably Maya. Who else is here that you don't know?"

Marinette thought about it. Tikki was right. It must be Maya! None of her friends would do this. She was about to agree with Tikki when Adrien's voice popped into her head reminding her not to jump to conclusions or she might miss something else important. She sighed at the voice. She would follow the advice, even though it seemed unlikely some other stranger was wandering around unnoticed on the boat, found and took her purse, and then didn't even steal anything before putting it back.

"While I think you're right, Tikki, I want to make sure I don't overlook anything else important. Let's think about it from a more general starting point," said Marinette. Tikki was surprised that Marinette didn't outright accuse Maya and Marinette's thoughts sounded sensible, so she just nodded at Marinette to keep talking.

"Do you think this has something to do with the attempt to hurt me? Does someone think I have something they want?" Marinette tried to put all of the disparate pieces together into some logical conclusion. She gasped and Tikki flew out of the purse toward her face, suddenly greatly worried. "Do you think that someone knows I'm Ladybug and they're trying to harm me to get my Miraculous?" Marinette felt sick when she saw Tikki's expression of thoughtful consideration of Marinette's conclusion. Tikki nodded in agreement.

"You're right, Marinette. That would make sense! Someone thinks that you have the Miraculous on you somewhere!" Then, Tikki reconsidered. "But, yet, how would harming you get them what they want? Wouldn't it be better to . . . hmm. . . kidnap you and force you to give it to them?" Tikki gasped when she realized what she said and saw Marinette's fearful expression. "Sorry, Marinette!"

"Yes!  Right!" said Marinette. "Harming me wouldn't make sense as having me hit by a car would make it much more difficult to get something from me unless I ended up in the hospital and then they snuck into my room and tried to smother me with a pillow and—" 

Marinette was starting to sound a bit hysterical so Tikki interrupted her.  "Marinette!  You've been watching too many of those detective murder shows. You are not going to be smothered in a hospital room!" said the kwami, trying to snap her girl out of the disturbing line of thought.

"I . . . I know. Of course I know that." Marinette now felt embarrassed by her overly dramatic hospital story and took a calming breath. "And I know I shouldn't watch those shows, but Adrien really loves them," she said in a quiet voice, trying to recover from her horrible imaginings.

"I think we can suspect that these two occurrences may be related. We should talk to Adrien and Plagg tonight and see what they say, okay? But, maybe see if Alya and Nino can walk you home. Just to be safe?" said Tikki, returning herself to the purse in expectation of going back in public.

"Okay, I'll . . ." Marinette stopped talking and Tikki noticed she was staring off into space.

"What is it?" Tikki asked after giving Marinette a moment with her thoughts.

"What? Oh, it just occurred to me that if this is all Maya, maybe she doesn't think she can fight Ladybug and Cat in this time with the current technology so she is going after non-superhero me to get my Miraculous. But, if that's the case, how did she even discover who I really was?" said Marinette, trying to figure out how that could have happened.

"Hmm. I don't know, maybe—" said Tikki before being interrupted by the sound of voices. Tikki ducked farther into the purse and Marinette closed it up.

Marinette headed towards voices that she could now tell were Rose and Juleka's.

"Oh, hi, Marinette! What are you doing down here?" asked Rose, a concerned expression on her face. Juleka looked at Marinette curiously.

"I just had to use the restroom and then I took a small break to let my ears recover. While the ear plugs definitely help with the loud volume, wearing them always makes my ears hurt," said Marinette, surprising herself with a reasonable and well-executed lie. She didn't even stammer!

Her friends accepted her excuse with a nod.

"I'm not complaining about your music!" she said quickly, when she misinterpreted their nods and then realized how her excuse might have sounded. "Of c. . . course I love your music or I wouldn't be at your rehearsals or help you with your costumes or give you song suggestions when you ask for them or . . ." said Marinette, trying to stop herself from talking. And, I'm back to normal, she thought as she frowned.

Rose smiled kindly and put one hand on Marinette's arm to stop the flow of words. "We would never think that you didn't like our group! We do know that not everyone's ears can handle the volume." Juleka took out her ear plugs to show Marinette. "See, Juleka agrees with you!" said Rose.

Marinette was relieved she hadn't offended them. "Are you done with rehearsal then?"

Rose and Juleka nodded.

"I'm sorry I missed the end of it," said Marinette.

"It's okay. There will be more.  Maybe even a music video soon.  And, you didn't miss the food!  We ordered pizza and it just arrived.  We are going to change clothes into something cooler and then try to rush back before the boys eat everything!  See you up there, Marinette?" said Rose.

"Sounds good," she replied and she walked back up on deck. She passed by Maya on her way to the pizza and looked at her, wondering just what she was up to. Maya noticed Marinette's regard and gave her a friendly smile, which Marinette returned, before rejoining her conversation with Ivan and Mylène. Marinette hoped the smile she gave Maya seemed genuine so as not to let the woman realize that she was onto her. It had to have been her who took her purse. But, why?