The wind stirred our blue locks ever so slightly. Amber brown against blue bells, I felt a shiver creep through me. Everything was so eerily similar, not just the hair colors but also the color of our respective suit, and the posture we adopted to face the other.

I wanted to ask who she was, this strong girl, woman even, in front of me, but held myself back thinking it would be a weird thing to ask as Ladybug, seeing as she was supposed to be the guardian of the miraculouses. Any holder she had no idea about only had to be Monarch, but now, it was cleared.

So who was this girl?

As if answering my silent doubts, she flicked her head back and supplied in a deep tone. "You must be wondering who I am, because you obviously aren't the real Ladybug."

My heart skipped a beat, but I didn't let it show, instead opting to narrow my eyes at the accusation. A day ago, I had been pointing fingers at Gabriel Agreste. Oh, karma doesn't let anyone go, it seemed. "What makes you think that?" I asked in a foreign courage I didn't possess.

The girl crossed her arms in front of her chest, her already narrowed eyes almost closing with the glare she was throwing my way. "What is my name, Colette Renée Blanchard?"

This time, my blood-pumping organ threw itself at its enclosure. My breath hitched as I tried to come up with where I had gone wrong. So far, it had only been Chat and Alya who knew this deep secret. Did it mean that I was betrayed?

I gulped, not willing to ponder further on the topic. "Now, you've got me invested. Mind revealing yourself?"

"This body belongs to Ryouko, her civilian self being Kagami Tsurugi." Then it clicked. Tomoe Tsurugi's, the first akumatized victim according to me, daughter. Hold on. . .

"This body?"

The girl nodded mysteriously. "Now, this is the soul of the body you're in. Yes, I am Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and I, being the true guardian of the Parisian Miraculous, wish to revoke your rights as Lady—"

"Marinette!"

We flinched, and I noted a spark of annoyance flit across her features before Chat came into view and her expression blossomed into an absent-minded stare.

Her lips trembled, before she reached for him. He didn't step away, as I had wanted him to, and let himself be embraced by the other girl.

It was like the soft sounds of the piano. Each instrument had a set of black ones, like Chat, and one of white, like Marinette. But there could only be one set of white.

So long, I had been the white of my own instrument. Now that she was there, it felt like time was motioning for me to step aside and let this old musical instrument take rest.

I gulped with a sinking realisation when they broke the embrace and exchanged a few quick words, all coated with concern and worry for each other.

A sad hum filled within me. This had been the feeling all along. I was destined to return to my life at this point of time. Reason: there could only be one set of white keys to compliment the black ones. Marinette was here, and needed her shell back to be those and produce a charming melody.

"H-how—" I paused, despising how weak I sounded, clearing my throat. "How did you get into Kagami's body? Where's the real Kagami?"

Marinette looked down almost instantaneously. "It seems that Longg, the dragon kwami of the elements, sensed something off in you, and one night, unbeknownst to you or Monarch, slipped out and confronted the real Kagami about a swap having taken place.

"This happened the very same night you guys visited Anncey. With all the portals opening and closing, and my wish to get back, I was forced into Kagami's body. My assumption is that she is in yours, right now, as we speak."

Things began falling to place, but at the same time, breaking my heart into a billion tiny sequin stars. Oh, I had made countless innocent people suffer with that wish.

"Did you wish upon a shooting star, too?" I questioned. Marinette looked confused, while Chat stared at me as if I had sprouted two heads. "That's how I got here," I explained, and he looked away. At Marinette.

"No, I was talking to my dogs, Sapphire and Evergreen, when this happened. I have a nabbing feeling that . . ."

"That?" Chat and I pressed. Marinette looked a bit uncomfortable, but eased considerably when the boy gripped her shoulders.

"That they are the reincarnations of Tikki and Plagg. All Colette did was ask for the Wish, and they granted it. Even though she didn't mean for any of this to happen, the way I didn't mean to get into Kagami's body either. They just happened."

"What?" I blurted out in disbelief. My babies, kwamis? That was something to be laughed at! "Are you insane?"

"No!" Marinette shot back. "Did you notice the color of their eyes? Don't you think it's weird for two fully-grown dogs to have green and blue eyes? Or better put, were they with you when you wished to come here?"

Realisation crashed down like a tidal wave against a sunny shore. "Yes," I breathed, remembering the day my real crush betrayed me, how I wanted to know someone like Chat Noir, my fictional crush, even shedding a few tears at my own misery as I sat under the skies with my fur babies. "Yes."

Marinette's look softened, before she reached out and engulfed me in a hug, whispering sweet nothings into my ear. "I know how hard your life is back there, but trust me, it's better there than here. That's where you belong, and you'll understand why I'm saying this."

"Why?" I choked out against her shoulders.

"Because she retired, and he has been punished for all the trash he threw around."

A vague semblance of hope shone down on me, and I hurried to ask. "How do I get b-back?"

The girl's eye twitched, before I heard a familiar voice in my head. When I turned to look at her, she was wearing the same expression, as if she had heard it as well. "Step away from the kwamis of creation and destruction?" I blurted out, and Marinette nodded.

"I heard the same!"

Taking in a deep breath, I looked at Chat, admiring him for one last time. The vibes of sunshine that he gave off, his goofy, lopsided and amused grins, that perfect jawline, his cheery pers—I mean—pawsonality, and of course, his puns. Him.

"Yes," I affirmed, my voice cracking. "Tikki, spots off."