Yet again, I made my way to the library and slipped down into the basement.

“Hey, Grandpa? I was wondering if we could work on reincarnation.” I called to the empty basement. I shifted my feet waiting for an answer.

“Yes?” he finally showed.

“I was wondering if you could explain reincarnation to me.”

“You have the book, didn’t you read it?

"Yeah, but I was hoping you could explain it since I can’t read it that well.”

“Well, it’s sort of like reanimating corpses, you draw the rune and place the body in the center. This time however, you need the soul to possess their body as you perform the spell.”

“Anything else?” I pushed. “Like, could it work for people who aren't fully dead?”

He shot me an odd look. “I’ve never tried so I’m not quite sure. Is there a reason?”

“No.”

“Okay, well, you will also need them to have a piece of that flower.” he pointed to the flowers surrounding Emily's body. “on them at all times, they might be back from the dead but they will still need time to heal and that will keep them from decaying as their connection secures.” I nodded along.

“Okay, cool, now what am I learning today?” I asked, trying to take away any suspicion.

“Your lesson is to study the book.”

“Pardon?”

“I can feel your energy, I can tell you’re advancing outside any lesson I can teach you so you should just study the book.”

“Is there nothing you can teach?”

“I can tell you about death.”

“I know what death is.”

“No, I ment like, death in their physical form.” I sat up straighter, intrigued. “I thought my last pupil was going to be the new death, I told her and she was consumed by the thought of power. She worked day and night, studying to fulfill her role. You see, I had a vision that the new embodiment of death would be of my blood line but I was mistaken as to who it was supposed to be.

“I thought my daughter to be the next death and all the magic quite literally went straight to her head. She became blind to anything but magic and ghosts. I taught my son, trying to gain his help to save her from this madness but it was too late. She was so desperate to be the next death that she took her friend’s life.” he looked sadly at Emily’s corpse. I covered my mouth to keep from screaming in fear.

“She disappeared after that, and maybe it’s for the best. I can feel your energy and I do believe that you might be able to take up the role she was unable to.”

“I don’t think I can be though, I’m just a teenager. And, if I may ask, is it my mom you're talking about?”

“Tomoe, last I heard of her, she married into the Tsuruig family and had a daughter. Your mother never believed me and this work.”

“So my aunt murdered Emily?” I yelled in panic.

“It seems to be.”

“O-oh, look at the time, I best be studying now, I greatly regret this.” I cracked open the book and forced myself to read it. My grandpa dropped the subject. I stared at the page while my mind ran wild.

‘If I have similar energy to both my aunt and Scarlet Moth, could it be possible that they are the same person?’ I thought. After everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t put aside that theory.

“I’ll come back, one second.” I put away my book and ascended to the library.

I glanced around, looking for Emily, I found her and ran up to where she was.

“Marinette!” She seemed surprised. “You're early, shouldn’t class just be getting out for you? How did you get here so fast?”

“Um, early release day?” I shrugged. “Nevermind that. I wanted to ask you about Tomoe and the day you died.” I paused thinking about how insensitive I sounded, but I need to know.

A sorrowful look came to rest on her face.

“I want to make it clear that she’s a good person. I remember she was always nice to me and something we always did together was read. One day, she seem, upset, I could tell she had just gotten bad news but wouldn’t tell me. So I just pulled out a book and started to read. Soon, she got really mad.

“I’m not sure what I said but all I saw was black before passing out and waking up as a ghost. I saw her walking out the door, seeming proud. I tried to follow her but couldn’t. She was the last person I saw before I died.”

She had a distant look in her eyes for a moment before she snapped back to reality and looked at me. “How do you know of her?”

I opened my mouth to say something when I heard Nino call me coming over. Adrien went straight to his mother to hug her and catch up. I met Nino.

“So what was your note about, and where were you all day?”

“I’ll explain, but first, you need to come with me.”

We snuck away into the staff only room.

“What are we doing dude?” I shushed him as I opened the trap door. He’s eyes widened in surprise.

“You go first, I’ll shut it behind us. Be careful on the rungs.” he glanced at me hesitantly before doing as I said. I waited for him to get further down before following and locking the door behind.

We made it to the floor and once I stepped off the ladder he turned to me.

“Why did we have to come down here?” He studied the room as I went over to the desk. I jumped a bit when I heard him scream.

“Isn't that the lady I just saw upstairs?! Did you kill her?! Am I your next victim?!” he backed towards the ladder.

I had a sad look gracing my face. “Yeah, her name’s Emily, I would never even think of harming her, she’s more of a mother to me than my own. And to answer your ast question, no, I can’t have a ‘next victim’ if I didn’t even have a first one.” I looked back to the book.

“I brought you here because I need to tell you something I don’t want overheard and I refuse to bring Adrien down here because of, well, you know.” I explained to him the plan I came up with, he had a similar reaction as Alyas when I mentioned that they would be patrolling together.

“So what do you think?” I asked, assessing his reaction, feeling fairly confident in his answer but wanted clarification.

“Yeah, I’ll be glad to help.” I grinned, happy at his answer. “So when are we telling Adrien?” he asked the question that I wanted to put off.

“Um, I’ll tell him right now.” I laughed nervously. We climbed back up, since Nino went first, he almost fell off the ladder taking me with him trying to unlock the door. It was an old lock so it stuck a bit. I was, deep down, grateful for that so I could wait longer before I explained everything yet again.

“You got it?” I asked. He did a final pull and it unlocked.

“Yep.” we continued up and I saw Nino readjusting to the light at the top.

“So, do you mind helping me explain it to him? I’ve said it enough times that I’d just need help filling in the blanks of what I skip over while summarizing.” I also was dreading being the one to tell him because I might accidentally let it slip that I found his mom’s corpse but I didn’t want to tell Nino that.

“Yeah, sure dudette.” we made our way back into the library and were immediately confronted by Adrien.

“Hey! Where did you two run off to?”

“Nowhere really, just walked around.” he seemed to buy it. “Um, but we have something to tell you.” I looked at my shoes.

“Is everything alright? Did something bad happen?”

“No, but it’s complicated to explain.” I proceeded to tell him the plan I told Nino with Nino jumping in when I missed a piece.

“Well, that doesn't sound too bad, why do you look upset?”

“Uh,” I thought of a reason before one slammed right into my head. “Right! I’m late to get home, I was supposed to go right home after school and I didn’t.”

“We’ll walk you then, if they ask, you were tutoring me.” I waved goodbye to Emily and left escorted by Adrien and Nino.

“So, Adrien, do you want to chill with me until we go revive Alya?” Nino asked as we made our way to the bus stop. Adrien looked at me.

“What are you looking to me for, you do whatever you want, besides, I’m just going to study while I wait.”

“Then, sure!” Adrien answered Nino. We stood awkwardly waiting for the bus to come, it was even more awkward to sit through the ride home, talking a bit.

We got off at my stop. “Are you sure it’s okay? If my house is a ways from your’s I’d hate to trouble you.”

“Not at all, my house is just a few blocks away.” I nodded, still not reassured but I’ll take it. We entered and a small bell chimed. My mom looked up, she was dealing with a customer at the moment so she had to look happy but I could see annoyance in her eyes. They paid and I slipped up to her with Adrien and Nino in tow.

“Marinette, your late home.”

“I know mom, I’m sorry, Nino asked me to tutor him a bit.” I spewed the lie easily after going over it with Nino and Adrien on the bus.

“Of course, and what subject was it on?” She asked sweetly yet with doubt.

“Maths!” Nino jumped in. “You see, we had a test recently, Marinette got 95%, the highest score in the class and I got a 70%. I asked her if she could help me so I could do better next time.”

“Good job Marinette, okay, go do whatever you need to do, I have customers to tend to.” she waved us away and we disappeared into my house, closing the door behind us.

“Wait, really?” I questioned in a hushed whisper.

“Yeah, she graded them already.” He shrugged. “I really do need help so I’m going to study while you perform the spell.”

“Oh, okay then, I could actually help you right now if you need.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” he brushed off the offer. “Besides, it’s my turn to hang out with Adrien and I don’t want maths interfering with it.” I nodded understanding. I walked them to the door and disappeared into my room and flipped through the book.

I had a nice dinner with my parents, waiting patiently for the clock to strike nine. I was in my room when I checked my phone, it was nearly time to go. I glanced around my room for an escape route as I changed into comforter clothes. I ran down stairs in my pajamas to bid my parents good night so they wouldn’t bother my empty room while I was away.

 Back in my room, it was now 9:00, time to leave.

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Okay, yay! Two chapters! And because it's nearing the end, I'm writing a lot and have already written chapters 11 and 12 and have started 13. I promise to put up 11 and 12 before Friday, I just want to read through it first and make sure that it runs smoothly.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed these new chapters and have an amazing week!