All The Way

Déjà Vu, Security Footage and A Sprinkle of Dust

Ladybug thought that she was going to have another panic attack. This couldn't possibly be happening. The Butterfly Miraculous was safely hidden away. She had just seen it a few days prior. This had to be a dream... no actually, it had to be a nightmare. Yes, that was it. Just another nightmare. She would wake up any moment in her bed next to Adrien.

Suddenly she was knocked over to her side to the ground. Too preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn't even realize that Victorlution had grabbed one of the gears from his coat, magically enlarged it to the size of a tire, and hurled it over. Chat Noir pushed her out of the way just in time, landing on top of her. They stared at each other for a split second before he spoke. "I'm so sorry, M'lady. I don't know why they're doing this again."

"No," she argued, tears starting to well up. "Don't be sorry."

As he looked down at her, he wanted to lean in and kiss her. He wanted to let her know that everything would be okay. But he knew that he couldn't. Undoubtedly someone was recording the whole thing, and they couldn't let on that they were a couple.

So instead Chat Noir nodded and then stood up, pulling Ladybug to her feet. "Let's take care of this, then we'll go deal with the real problem," he said, his voice full of contempt.

She nodded. "Lucky charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo up into the air.

A red and black spotted toothbrush fell into her hands.

************************************

The akuma was in Victorlution's top hat. It took a few tries, and a few cataclysms, but they finally found it. Now that they were both over eighteen years old, Ladybug and Chat Noir had unlimited access to their powers. They didn't need to detransform and recharge anymore, which was exceedingly helpful.

Ladybug had mixed emotions when she saw the akuma flutter into the air. She wasn't sure if she wanted to cry from sadness or scream from anger. Maybe both.

She caught it with her yo-yo and purified it back into a regular white butterfly.

Chat Noir rushed up to her. "We need to go see them," he said, not bothering with their traditional fist bump.

"No," she replied. "I need to check on the Miracle Box."

He nodded. "Okay, meet me at home afterwards." Grabbing the baton from his lower back, he took off.

Ladybug tossed the toothbrush in the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

When everything had returned to normal, she quickly left the scene. She went straight to the metro station. Landing in an alleyway nearby, she detransformed into Marinette and ran into the building. "Please be there, please be there, please be there..." she kept repeating to herself as she made her way to the lockers.

She dug her hand around in her purse and grabbed her keys. Almost dropping them from nerves, she finally found the right one and inserted it into the lock. The door opened and her heart sank. Then she slowly lowered herself down to her knees. Tears came to her eyes as she looked at the empty locker.

She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. The Miracle Box was gone. And the kwamis were gone with it. They were her responsibility, and she had failed them.

After a minute of complete despair, Marinette picked herself up and wiped her face. She closed the locker door and left the building. Then she went back to the alleyway, transformed into Ladybug again and returned to the station.

Everyone there was shocked to see the superhero walk through the door. The closest officer widened his eyes as she approached him. "I need to speak with the person in charge of security here," she told him.