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From Beginning Till the End

Marinette was standing on top of a twenty storey building. 

But this time, she wasn't whistling. Nor was she there because she couldn't sleep.

She knew Chat was on patrol, and she wasn't worried about the city. It was him she was worried about. 

She pressed herself on the cold, metal railing of the terrace, shivering. 

The tears that welled up in her eyes needed no permission to break free, as they rolled down her cheeks.

"Everything's done for." She suddenly exhaled.

"What's wrong, Marinette?" She'd forgotten the presence of her kwami until she flew in her face, concern laced on her own.

That's right, if anyone might have had any idea on how to fix this, it could be Tikki.

"Tikki, do you remember everything?"

"Of course I do," replied the kwami with a puzzling voice, "But why are you suddenly crying? You were fine literally just a second ago?"

"Do you remember falling from here? China? The wedding? Do you remember the time you got my memories back?" Desperation didn't even begin to nick the surface of what she was feeling. She wanted Tikki to remember everything.

She needed  Tikki to remember everything. 

She didn't want to go through everything again. She didn't want to leave Paris forever, she didn't want to abandon Adrien and the others, she didn't want to be presumed dead. 

Her life wasn't perfect before, she shaped it into one. 

Why did this have to happen to her now?

"Marinette, I think we've been out in the open too long. the cold's getting to you, and you might need to sleep." Tikki tried to sound as nice as she could, clearly feeling Marinette was going crazy.

Well, Marinette was.

"Tikki, please, I'm begging you, don't let this hap-"

Her breath hitching in her throat, she gulped painfully, letting the tears flow.

This was useless.

They didn't remember.

She was back where she was that day.

That day everything turned for the worse.

She choked on her tears, all her memories with her friends hitting her like a truck, hurting all the right places. She hated it. She hated it so much.

Her legs gave in, as she felt herself being drowned.

Slamming a fist on the cold, hard concrete, she yelled out painfully, pressing her forehead to the ground, seeking any and all forms of comfort.

She remembered Adrien taking her hand in his own, sliding a ring in, leaning in to kiss her. She saw her and Adrien planning to adopt a hamster after they got married. She thought of the time they both laughed, cried, and smiled together. 

The times she might never get to live through again because she'll either die today or run away from all of this.

The thought pissed her off.

She inhaled, trembling down to the back of her throat.

Marinette was not a quitter. She was not pathetic. She didn't cry in times of crisis, and she always won. Sitting here, crying on the ground was going to get her nowhere.

If she had the time to feel like shit, then she definitely had the time to think of a way out of this.

Reverting back to her own timeline was impossible. These were no small and temporary akuma attacks. This was the entire universe at play. She couldn't defy those gods or spirits or whatever. She had to live her life all over again.