One Way or Another

Worsening Symptoms and A Doll

Marinette stirred in bed. Grabbing the covers, she pulled them closer. A minute later she tucked her knees up towards her stomach. But she had to straighten her legs again as it was too painful to lay in that position.

She desperately tried to get warmer, but she was absolutely freezing. No matter how tightly she held the blanket around her, it wasn't keeping her warm. Overtaken by the cold, she started shivering.

Finally it was too much. She turned to her other side. "Adrien," she whispered, reaching out toward him.

But her hand only found emptiness.

Propping herself up a little, she looked around. Adrien wasn't in bed with her.

For a moment she was confused. Then she remembered what happened the night before.

After giving her statement to Officer Roger, he escorted her to the main gate of the park.

And what a circus it was there. It seemed like every news outlet in the country had sent a team of reporters to cover the story of Hawk Moth's reappearance.

Some of the stations were lucky enough to get footage of Lila Rossi as she was brought out of the park by police and put into a transportation van.

Then, after interviewing some of the eyewitnesses to the attack, they discovered that Marinette Agreste was the akumatized villain.

So as she got near the gate, reporters noticed her and started shouting out questions. Ignoring them, and with Officer Roger keeping them at bay, she went straight over to where Adrien and the others were waiting for her.

After exchanging hugs, they went back to the car to go home. During the drive, however, Marinette received two phone calls. The first was from her mother.

"Oh my goodness sweetie, are you alright?" Sabine asked frantically. "Did you really get akumatized by Lila?"

"It's okay, I'm fine now. Ladybug and Chat Noir saved me."

"Oh, I'm so relieved! I couldn't believe it when I saw the report."

"I know Maman, it was crazy. But everyone is safe and the police arrested Lila, so we don't have to worry about anyone else getting akumatized ever again. How are you doing? How's Annabelle?"

You could almost hear her smile through the phone. "Absolutely wonderful. She's so precious. But the poor thing was exhausted so I put her to bed early. And she's been sleeping like an angel ever since."

"Well thanks for watching her on such short notice," Marinette replied.

"It was my pleasure, sweetie. Are you all coming back to the mansion now?"

"Yeah, we should be there in about fifteen minutes."

"There's no rush," Sabine insisted. "We're fine here. Plus, it's good for me to get used to being around little kids again. You know, for when I get to watch my grandbaby."

And Marinette put her hand to her side. "Right," she forced out. "Well, we uh... we'll be there soon."

"Alright sweetie," Sabine replied before they ended the call.

Not even a minute later, Marinette's phone rang again.

"Are you kidding me?" Alya demanded through the phone when Marinette answered. "I need to take a two hour flight, and you pick that exact time to get akumatized?"

"Well, I wasn't really akumatized..."

"I know you weren't really akumatized!" she interrupted. "There's no way that Ladybug could have saved an akumatized Marinette. I know that it must have been some big plan to get rid of Lila, am I right?"