All The Way

A Nightmare and A Surprising Ally

Once he arrived home Chat Noir detransformed and waited for Marinette. He paced back and forth, his mind racing.

"I swear, if I find out that your father had anything to do with this, I'm going to destroy him," Plagg said angrily as they waited. "Nooroo has been through enough already."

"I know you're upset Plagg, but we'll handle this," Adrien assured him before going back to his pacing.

His heart skipped a beat when he heard Ladybug land on the balcony. Coming inside, she immediately detransformed and hugged Adrien.

Tikki flew up to Plagg and they embraced as well.

"They're all gone," Marinette choked out after a moment.

Adrien held her tighter. "I'm so sorry Princess. I promise you, we're going to get them back. They'll be okay."

Marinette nodded into his chest. A minute passed by before she pulled away to look at him. "What happened?"

Adrien wrinkled his nose, like he smelled something rotten. "He said that it wasn't them. That they had nothing to do with it."

The girl looked down in thought. "Do you believe him?" she asked, meeting his gaze again.

"No," he replied quietly.

"I don't know. Maybe they didn't have anything to do with it. Victorlution said that a woman's voice spoke to him.

"So he just had Nathalie do it," Adrien argued.

Marinette shook her head. "I don't think she would agree to help him. She's not like that anymore. I mean, she's been nothing but supportive and nice to us these past five years. I understand your suspicion about your father, but why would he do this? Your m..." she trailed off as she didn't want to continue the sentence. "He um... doesn't have a reason anymore," she continued gently.

Adrien caressed her cheek with his thumb. "It's okay, you can say it. My mom is dead. But maybe there's some other reason. He wants to get back at us about the wedding or something."

"Someone else has to be involved," she argued. "I saw the security footage from the station. The person who took the Miracle Box was completely covered up, but they weren't tall enough to be your father or Nathalie. They were about my height, so it was probably a woman."

"So it was her voice that Victorlution heard."

Marinette nodded. "But I just don't understand how this happened," she whispered. "This person knew exactly where to look and exactly what she'd find at the metro station. But I've only ever been there as Marinette. If she knew that I was Ladybug, why wouldn't she come directly after me? Defeating Marinette would be ten times easier than defeating Ladybug."

"Maybe she does know who you are, but she doesn't know who I am," Adrien surmised. "No one knows that Ladybug and Chat Noir are dating, so she doesn't realize that it's me. And she needs both of our Miraculouses to make a wish."

With a sniffle Marinette tucked her head under his chin. He moved his hand up and stroked her hair. After a minute he stopped. "She got all of the Miraculouses except ours?" he asked gently.

"All except ours and the Rabbit Miraculous. Alix still has it." Then her eyes widened as she remembered something. A half smile appeared on her lips as she pulled back and looked at him. "Oh my gosh, I almost forgot!"

"What?"

"I took three other ones out on Wednesday when I returned the Horse Miraculous. I have them in my yo-yo."

"Which ones did you take out?" he asked quickly.

"The Fox, the Turtle and the Bee. I was hoping that we could all get together soon. You know, to have like a mini reunion." Marinette hugged Adrien again. "Oh thank goodness I grabbed them. At least we'll have some help."