Between Generations

Chapter 15

"We are kwamis. We give the Miraculous Holders their powers. And the Miraculouses in your time have been stolen from their owners."

"How can I go home?"

"If you go home now, you won't exist anymore, and the world as you know it wouldn't be the same. You want things to be the same when you go back, don't you?"

"Yeah..."

"Then that means that you can't say anything to Ladybug or Chat Noir about their upcoming disappearance. And your existence depends on Adrien and Marinette reuniting."

Lise frowned, trying to process. "Wait...you said that I would cease to exist? But my parents seem to be good friends. They hung out with the same group...wouldn't they just start to be interested in one another eventually?"

Tikki and Plagg exchanged glances, both sharing a moment of hesitation, as if realizing that they'd revealed too much.

Lise blinked. "What?"

Plagg started to say something, but Tikki stopped him. "We realize that we're making you more and more confused—"

"That's an understatement," Lise snapped. "I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

The kwamis were silent, looking guilty. Shaking her head with exhaustion, Lise found a fire escape to go down the side of the building back down to the streets. She kept walking, lost in thought as she processed what she had just heard from the kwamis.

Suddenly she stopped, realizing where her feet had taken her.

Marinette's bakery.

The bakery was dark, but a few lights were on in the apartments upstairs. Video game noises could be heard faintly from one of the cracked open windows. Is Marinette home again?

Lise knocked on the glass door, trying to memorize the bakery in all its full glory. It's so nice to see the bakery in its prime...instead of the sad wasteland it had become in my time.

Lights came on in the hallways in the back of the bakery. A large man in a white shirt and cargo blue pants came into the bakery. He smiled widely when he saw her. He opened the door, causing a small bell to go off.

His mustache curled up at the ends in his smile. "Hello there! Lise, isn't it?"

"Yes." Lise stepped inside.

"Marinette should be back shortly from the concert. Do you need anything?"

"Um...I don't have a place to stay." Lise bowed her head in embarrassment.

She could sense an uncontrollable wave of sadness radiating from Marinette's father. "Of course you can stay here," he said. His voice was dense with kindness and compassion. Lise's heart went out to him. "You could come play video games with us, grab something to eat."

Lise followed Marinette's father up the stairs and sat down with him and his wife on the couch. She watched them play video games, and saw that they were very evenly matched.

"Want to play, Lise?" Sabine asked. She held out a controller.

Lise took it silently. She stared at the controller. In her time, controllers were considered ancient since people just used tablets connected to the TV to control the characters on screen. Controllers were a thing of the 2010s.

Lise met the couple's kind gazes. Suddenly, for a moment she wished that she lived in 2016, not 2047.

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