"Marinette! Marinette! Marinette wake up!" Someone jostled Marinette awake. Marinette could barely even open her eyes. She was back home, rather than having stayed the night at Chloe's. She couldn't even remember the car ride home. Last night had been such a rollercoaster. "Marinette!!" It was Tikki, barely the size of Marinette's palm yet strong enough to shake Marinette around and throw her out of bed.

"Tikki... is there an emergency?"

"No, but you're going to be late for school! I could hardly get you to wake up! It was like you were dead!" Tikki said with impatience.

"I was dreaming..."

"Yeah yeah whatever, now get ready to go to school before you get in trouble with your parents!"

"It was Nooroo..." Marinette said. Tikki, who had been flying around with a huffy attitude, stopped dead in her tracks.

"S-say what now?" Tikki was barely able to move.

"Nooroo... and I were sharing a dream-" And suddenly, Tikki was directly in front of Marinette, eye to eye, not even an inch apart.

"WHAT DID HE SAY, WHO IS HAWKMOTH, WHERE IS NOOROO, IS DUSUU OK, DID HE SAY ANYTHING ABOUT-"

"Woah Tikki, calm down!" Marinette flinched away, "No, he didn't say anything. He can't, Hawkmoth won't let him."

"This can't be true," Tikki's face turned red with anger, "WHY WOULD HE SHARE A DREAM WITH YOU IF NOT TO GIVE INFORMATION!"

"Hey, I'm not lying!" Marinette exclaimed. She looked at her clock and indeed, she was going to be late for school if she didn't move quickly. "I'll tell you about it on the way to school, just hold on."

And so she did. She went into the best detail she could manage, despite all of Tikki's frustrations. But both were latched onto Nooroo's final statement to Marinette, which was "Hawkmoth's child now knows of the existence of kwamis."

"I mean, why would he say that unless it meant something to you?" Tikki murmured as Marinette walked up the steps of her school that November morning.

"Well... hmm..." Marinette furrowed her brows. "Well, I have patrol with Chat Noir later tonight, maybe he and I can figure it out?"

"Oh that idiot couldn't solve a baby's puzzle."

"Huh?!"

"Unless he's not like Plagg. The only times I've interacted with Chat Noir, I've found him to be rather strange." Tikki said with a pouted lip.

"Oh whatever, now hide in my purse before someone sees you."

***

"Looks like everyone is here today!" Mrs. Bustier chimed. "Now, before I leave you to your own catchup work, I have an announcement. It's a bit sudden, but the school is hosting a gaming tournament this year! Each class gets two candidates to compete in the overall tournament against the other classes here in the school, and the class who wins the tournament gets to compete in a finale against the other schools of Paris! Now, not to drag your hopes down, but our school has never won the tournament against the city, but we've gotten close! And I believe with how smart you all are, we really have a chance of winning this year!"

There were some murmurs exchanged about the classroom.

"Now, anyone who wants to sign up for being a class candidate, we will be meeting in the library during PE to decide who can compete."

Again, more murmurs. Marinette looked to the empty seat next to her where Adrien was supposed to be. He was absent. Probably because his dad died. She wondered how many people knew.

"Sorry I'm late." Marinette was mistaken. Adrien had just walked through the door.

"Quite alright Adrien, we were just talking about the upcoming gaming tournament, I'm sure Marinette can fill you in." Mrs. Bustier smiled at him. Adrien took his seat next to Marinette who was absolutely dumbfounded by the fact he was there.

"You doing ok?" she mustered up the courage to say.

"Yeah, why?" Adrien asked then turned bright red, "Wait- did I say something last night!? I wasn't myself-"

"What? No, you're dad... You know..."

"What's up with my dad? He did get publicly humiliated on live television I guess, is that what you mean?"

"Uhh... no... didn't he die?"

"No???"

"He didn't die?!"

"Why would he be dead?!"

"Cause-" Marinette shut her mouth. She'd see Mr. Agreste jump out a window... but she was Ladybug. Marinette wasn't supposed to know that. "I guess I assumed with.. The akuma and all that."

"Oh, he's perfectly fine." Adrien smiled awkwardly, confused by Marinette's oddness.

"Oh- sorry-" Marinette staggered, "wait- like- not that I'm sorry he DIDN'T die but-"

"You're alright!" Adrien chuckled.

"Hahah... yeah..." She cleared her throat. "So uh, why were you late?"

Adrien's awkward smile got even more awkward. "Uh- Well- I've kinda got bad luck."

"What happened?"

"My... makeup... concealer... the container broke and it got everywhere," Adrien admitted. Marinette was about to comment on him wearing makeup but chose not to. He was a model after all. "And then I jammed my thumb in the door of my bathroom..." he raised his thumb that had a little bandaid wrapped around it, "and it started bleeding so..." he chuckled nervously.

"Ah, jesus..."

"Oh, it doesn't end there. I broke a few plates after eating breakfast... and then on the way to the car I accidentally shoved my assistant, Natalie, into the gate... somehow... and she's been cranky these past few days so she kinda like... blew up at me..."

"Oh..."

"My bad luck seems to be getting worse..." Adrien sighed.

"Well, I'm not exactly the opposite of clumsy myself," Marinette giggled. "Be careful, ok?"

"Yeah, I'll try."

The entire class was in the library for the gaming tryouts. Max was absolutely enthralled over it, boasting about his skill and practically buzzing with excitement. Everyone knew Max was the smartest in the class, and definitely the best gamer. So really, they were competing to see who would be his partner in the tournament. Really, there was no way anyone could beat Max.

Adrien was looking forward to the tournament. He wanted to participate, since Plagg was making him play video games more for the kwami's own pleasure lately. Adrien had developed a lot more skill these past few months.

But there were quite a few kids in the class eager to participate. Max's talent had practically made a prophecy of winning, but also laid claim that only one position would be open, since there was no way anyone was beating Max.

"Alright, who wants to compete against me first?!" said Max with pride.

"Oh you're going down!" Alix immediately took to the challenge. She picked up a console, as did Max, and they sat down in front of the screen set up in the library. They were playing a game similar to smash bros, except with different characters and with every win, the winner would take xp from the loser and level up their character to be stronger with each round. Max had a very mechanical looking character, while Alix played as a female ninja looking thing. The brawl began, but immediately, Alix was floored. The class watched in horror and she was annihilated by Max.

And that's how it went. Everyone who competed with Max lost. Even Adrien couldn't beat him. Max had the hierarchy. Adrien won against enough of his classmates to make him one of the candidates for the tournament. But Max was getting cocky.

"Any of you can take my place if you bat me in just ONE round." He grinned.

"One round? Really?" Alix rose a brow.

"Yep!"

"No one can do that," Alix stated.

"It's too easy though," Marinette cocked her head to the side.

"Too easy, huh?" Max smirked. "Why don't you give it a try then?"

"... Ok...?" Marinette picked up the console and sat down next to him.

"DESTROY HIM MARINETTE!" Alya screamed. And the battle began. Marinette had a mechanical looking character too, but it ironically had the wings of a ladybug. Little did Max know, Marinette played this game with her dad every Friday on their family game night. Well... not too often recently with her being Ladybug and all that... But still. She had some skill to back herself up.

"Hey wait-" Max started moving faster, as Marinette had quickly drained his character of a lot of energy. He started corning Marinette, bringing down her health.

"I rarely play with this character damn it-" Marinette clicked something at random and it opened a giant energy blast from her character's chest that immediately put Max on the brink of death. Suddenly, everyone was cheering for her, and Max was looking terrified for his life.

"You can do this Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed.

"YEAH!" Nino said.

"SHH I'M FOCUSED!" Marinette leaned forward, slamming the joystick forward and finally, delivering one last attack that eliminated Max.

"WHAT!? NO!" Max flew to his feet, panic forming across his face. "HOW?!"

"That's right! I won!" Marinette boasted.

"How is this possible?!" Max tugged under his eyes.

"You can still participate in the tournament," Marinette said, "I just wanted to give it a try."

"No, no, you won fair and square." Max shook his head.

"You sure? I know you really wanted to do this..."

"Nah, you're better than me anyways."

"I'm not sure about that... But... yeah! Thanks!" Marinette smiled.

"Yeah... no problem..." Max chuckled nervously to mask disappointment.

"You two need to practice before the tournament starts next week!" Alix urged Adrien and Marinette.

"You think?" Marinette asked.

"Yeah!" Alix exclaimed.

"I have a set up at my house if... you want..." Adrien's face flushed a light pink.

"Oh- Sure?"

And the next thing they knew, Marinette and Adrien were at Adrien's house, in his room, sitting on his couch. Marinette had never been to a boy's house before, she didn't know quite what she was supposed to do.

"Do you think they'll figure it out?" Plagg whispered to Tikki. The two were up in the loft where Adrien kept all his books.

"That they're Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Tikki asked, "No, that would be impossible unless they saw the other transform or they were directly told. The magic prevents it."

"Pretty funny though, huh? What do you think they'd do if an akuma showed up right now?" Plagg asked. He cleared his throat and changed it to mimic a girly voice, "oh no Adrien~ an akuma! I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but I have to go because I'm Ladybug and Paris needs me!"

"She'd never do that," Tikki scowled. "Though, I would like to use this time here to do some research.

"Research?" Plagg asked.

"We know Dusuu is around here somewhere. Marinette had a dream last night that she shared with Nooroo, and we gained intel on some clues. They're not all that helpful though."

"Nooroo?! Do we know where he is?!" Plagg asked urgently.

"No. Just that Hawkmoth has a child, and as of recent, the kid knows about Kwamis. Meaning, they must have seen Nooroo or Dusuu."

"How is that helpful to us? Nooroo would be living in the same house! It doesn't give us anything!"

"I know, but he wouldn't have said it unless it meant something to Marinette or I," Tikki informed.

"So?"

"Maybe he meant the child received a miraculous," Tikki said.

"Wait- so like- Adrien's dad is Hawkmoth?!"

"No! Well, maybe, but who knows." Tikki shrugged. "I doubt it's Mr. Agreste, seeing as he's a very busy man. Marinette's parents are also in the clear. Though I'll be keeping an eye on Mr. Dupan from now on."

"So..."

"Carapace or Rena Rouge, I suspect," Tikki explained.

"Oh... hmmm."

"If Hawkmoth has ties with his child through some emotional link that I assume Nooroo gave him, then it would explain why he can easily tap in to the students in the school. Rena- Alya, and Carapace, Nino, go there, so it wouldn't be a stretch." Tikki muttered. She looked at Plagg who was incredibly distraught. "Plagg? Are you alright?"

"Yes- no..." He put his little hands on his face. "I'm just thinking about Adrien... He's going through a lot right now... If his dad were Hawkmoth-"

"Which he isn't, probably," Tikki said.

"-it would destroy Adrien. And it would also mean... Nooroo and Dusuu have been under my nose this whole time and I've failed as their friend... I've failed them..."

"That's not true, Plagg."

"That dream Ladybug had about Dusuu, it basically gave us a clue that Dusuu was somewhere near me. I mean, if Hawkmoth were here, why haven't I seen him?"

"Well, I'd imagine he'd still be hiding. His identity is all he has to protect him."

"So he could be here," Plagg looked horrified.

"I didn't say that-"

"Please Tikki, don't just say stuff like that to make me feel better. We don't know who he is. Maybe Nooroo's hint meant that Dusuu's miraculous was now in the hands of some fucking kid! Maybe, it wasn't a hint, but a warning!"

"That's not possible. The kid would be dead."

"We don't know that! Dusuu has never given his miraculous to ANYBODY since he fell ill! We don't know what it could do to a human yet!"

"Plagg, calm down." Tikki put her little hand on his head. "It's ok, alright? I doubt Dusuu is even awake yet."

"Really? How would either of us know Dusuu is awake?!"

"Nooroo would have told Marinette. That would be important information for us after all."

"What if Nooroo betrayed us?! What if he ran away willingly!"

"He.. did..."

"WHAT?!" Plagg's aura turned violently dark.

"Listen, Plagg. Marinette explained her dream to me this morning," Tikki sighed, "Nooroo left because... Hawkmoth was going to heal Dusuu. And they've been trying to heal Dusu for years. The reason he hasn't returned is because Dusuu is still sick, and Hawkmoth has his miraculous."

"I... That can't be true..." Plagg slumped in defeat.

"Though, he did take his true form the other day with Simon Says."

"He what?! WHY DIDN'T HE RETURN?!"

"I don't know Plagg. Now quiet down before Marinette and Adrien hear us." At this moment, Tikki realized Plagg was actually on the brink of tears. "Plagg?"

"I hate this...stupid game." Plagg said stiffly, a tear falling from his face. Unlike Dusuu, he didn't cry tears of glass. However, kwamis had unusual tears. Some were to believed to carry healing properties, others could be used as potent poisons. Plagg's were black, and carried misfortune wherever they fell.

"Plagg! No, no, no! Don't cry!" Tikki grabbed his shoulders, "It'll be ok! That's what we're here for, isn't it? We're going to save them!"

"I... I miss Dusuu so much... I feel like he's been gone for centuries..."

"Plagg..."

"I just... wish this would all just hurry up and be over."

"I know, Plagg. I do too," Tikki said, and pulled Plagg into a hug. "I'm sorry if I'm ever too harsh on you."

A/N Yes I didn't post on friday oopsies oh no I was busy... Anyways... Plot is moving forward and theories are being made as to who Hawkmoth really is >:)