The pink light was blinding. With the random splash of blue surrounding her, she wondered where everyone had gone.
Looking down, she noticed she was laying on a random blue platform. Where in the world was she? The first thing that caught her attention was the slightly longer pigtails that fell upon her shoulders, curling into themselves toward the ends.
It wasn't red and black anymore, but it was back to the dark, natural color she once had it. It wasn't held in place with the red ribbons she normally used, but was instead tied with her own strands of hair.
Her hands, they were bare and pale. The clothes she wore fell comfortably warm around her body.
"Hello?" She called out, hearing her voice echo into the emptiness.
"You're her daughter, aren't you?" A random male voice came from behind.
She let out a surprised yelp, nearly falling off the little surface. Marinette jumped to her feet, then spun around to face a man.
"Who are you talking about?"
He had black hair, many faint streaks of green highlighting. His eyes were a bold green, and he wore a look of surprise.
"Who are you? Where am I?" Marinette demanded, looking around. Other than the small surface she sat upon, there seemed to be nothing else.
He turned away from her, and said, "I was a Chat Noir, but my name is Felix. I'm not exactly sure where we are."
"You're... Felix? Oh my goodness. I'm dead. I'm definitely dead," she mumbled to herself in disbelief. Nathalie's long lost love was stuck in the afterlife, and there she was, stuck too, she thought.
"You're not dead," he chuckled, "There's a different place for that. Who are you? I'm guessing a Ladybug."
Marinette wore a look of utter shock that he guessed so quickly. "How did you know?"
"I guessed that it was a holding place for all the Ladybug and Chat Noir souls that were detached from their kwamis, and I recall that most Ladybug holders were female. Speaking of Ladybugs, are you the daughter of Nathalie Sancoeur?" Felix asked, turning back around to face her.
"No, I'm not, but I know her. And what do you mean I'm detached?! Why can't we go back? I thought we were already separated from our kwami before we transformed," Marinette replied with confusion, glancing toward him. She looked below the small surface of hers, and didn't see anything other than the colors of everywhere else. How Felix wasn't falling was beyond her, but she was too nervous to step off the platform. Her gloveless fingers gripped the edges tightly.
"It has to do with the development, which took me forever to figure out. I can explain it to you now that we have time, but first I'd like to ask, how is Nathalie?" He requested, a sad smile taking place on his face.
He noticed how tightly she was gripping the platform, and remembered his own similar experience. The only difference was that there was no one to greet him, and he had accidentally fallen from the small surface, screaming as he doomingly expected that he'd fall eternally.
"She's... cool? Nathalie misses you a lot, but she's good. I didn't really get to know her until I found out she was Lady Luck, and she was helping me."
Felix felt his heart tighten at the idea of his "Princess Spots" missing him. He wanted to know so much more about her, like what kind of person did she turn out to be? What kind of job did she work? Did she ever reach her dream of making clothes for people who couldn't afford it? Of designing?
"This is going to be a bit silly to ask, but do you mind... catching me up on how Paris is? Who Nathalie has become? I just... I'm so out of touch with reality, yet it feels like I just got here yesterday. I've had way too much time to think, and no one to talk to. Man, it's boring!"
Marinette took another look around at the random colors around her, almost like how it was when she saw herself in her dream, meeting her subconscious, only it had been a pink tinted world, rather than the blue one they were in now. Why blue? She wasn't sure. This was her new reality, and she was officially unattached from the world she once knew.
* * *
Adrien opened his mouth to tell her, but then something completely different spilled out, "Ladybug is finally out of her costume!"
What in the world did he just say? Why did he just lie? Well it wasn't a complete lie anyways. She did go somewhere, only it was probably the afterlife, he thought sadly.
"Oh, wow! That's good. At least she got out of that costume," Chloe cheered, then gave him a hug, "I'm glad this whole mess is over."
This wasn't like him at all, and Ladybug would've kicked his butt off the Eiffel Tower if she heard that he didn't tell the whole truth. He missed Ladybug, he missed Marinette.
Yes, she was out of her costume, but she wasn't there anymore. The costume was there, but not Marinette.
"So, did you talk to the girl under the mask?" Chloe winked exaggeratedly, smiling as she knew that everyone was finally going to be so happy that she was back.
"Marinette, yeah," he mumbled sadly, tears beginning to brim, but he pushed them away. Lying felt horrible, yet it provided a false sense of security that she wasn't being mourned as dead. It was such a dumb thing to do, and he knew he had to come clean.
"You found out!!! You finally know who your partner is! Isn't that amazing? When I accidentally found out, I told her she should've told you, but she was all, 'It's unsafe! Blah, blah, blah!'" Chloe giggled, but stopped when she noticed the grim expression on Adrien.
A few seconds of awkward silence followed, and Chloe grew worried. "Why aren't you happy? Did you not want a reveal?"
Ladybug was way too nervous to confess her identity to him. She was scared he would not be happy with who she was, yet she finally did it. Adrien finally knew, but Chloe wasn't sure why he was so upset. If anything, she thought he would be really excited to find out that his classmate was his partner.
Adrien immediately put his foot down at the idea that he could ever be disappointed in Marinette as Ladybug. "No! No, I'm so so happy that she is Ladybug. Trust me!" The blonde brought forward the only natural smile he could muster at the time, using every source of happiness that Marinette ever left him during that moment.
"So why are you so quiet?" The girl pushed, now growing a bit impatient with his weird behavior. What in the world was this boy's problem? Why couldn't he just act like a normal person and just be excited?
"She went away," Adrien said, pulling his hair over his eyes, turning away from her. So much shame filled his voice, and it was burning through his chest to admit the truth, yet it hurt with a flaming ache to accept something he thought could never occur to someone as strong as Marinette, caring as Ladybug, a combination of both.
"...What do you mean away?" Chloe asked, her voice quieter. What was he talking about? Where did she go?
This was the time for Adrien to clarify the truth... and break everyone's hearts.
This was the time to officially say what he's been trying his hardest not to think about.
This was the time to come clean.
"On a secret mission as a civilian."
And yet he didn't.