Hi everyone!!  SylveonKwami here.

Sorry for not being able to update last weekend, I got really busy and there was some problems with my WiFi.  Anyway, I'm here now, and after what happened last chapter, you'll probably want to see what happens to Marinette!!

Slight swear-word warning in this chapter again.  It's censored like last time, but still.

Let's start.  I hope you enjoy :D

Marinette

"Chat, wait!" she called out, but it was no use.  Her partner had disappeared.  I have to go and check on him...!

"L-Ladybug," Queen Bee said calling her name, and when Marinette turned to her, she saw a crowd of people behind them holding their smartphones out.  They probably filmed the whole thing, she thought bitterly.

"We have to get the Butterfly Miraculous back to Master Fu," Ladybug said without addressing the viewers.  "But first, I need your Miraculous back."  She held out her hand to the heroine, who promptly removed her hair-clip.  There was a flash of light, and Chloe was back to her regular self.  

"Thank you for trusting me," Chloe whispered, handing back her Miraculous.  "I hope we can begin to make up someday."

Ladybug's smile was curt.  "Maybe.  But first, we need to get to Adrien and make sure he doesn't do anything... irrational."

Chloe nodded, and then Ladybug left the scene swinging her yo-yo.  Once she was far enough from the scene, she landed on the ground, fumbling a bit as her leg let out a shockwave of pain.  She snuck into an alley-way and detransformed, shutting her eyes tight as the blinding light appeared.  When she opened them again, Tikki was hovering in front of her, looking worried.

"We should get you home," she said with a concerned tone.

Marinette shook her head.  "I have to return these Miraculouses to Master Fu first."

Tikki silently nodded, flying into her holder's purse.  Marinette took a couple steps out of the alley-way, stopping almost immediately from pain.  Her leg hurt like hell, and she could feel trickles of blood running down her face.  She was angry, hurt, and afraid; her emotions were all over the place.  Yet, she knew she had to continue forward and complete the last part of the mission that had taken them over a year and had cost them so, so much time.

Have... have to keep going.  No matter what.

Persevering, Marinette finally made her way to Master Fu's place.  Without knocking, she made her way inside to the room where the Miraculous Box was.  She opened the door, peaking a little, and saw Master Fu sitting with Alya and Nino.  He seemed to notice her, and quickly invited her in.

"Marinette, you're hurt...!" Alya came running to her, but Marinette pushed her away- she had more important matters to attend to right now.

"HawkMoth is defeated," she stated plainly, holding out the Miraculouses.  "Here is his Miraculous and Chloe's."

Everyone in the room gaped at her in shock.  "You mean, it's over!?" Nino demanded.

Marinette nodded curtly, thrusting the Miraculouses towards Master Fu.  "Please take them," she said, trying to keep it together.  

Master Fu carefully took both of the magic jewelry pieces from her, holding them in his hands.  "You're hurt," he said with concern.  "I can help, if you would like me to."

Because she was so exhausted, she nodded and sat down as Master Fu instructed her to.  He told Nino to go get a first-aid kit, which was in another room.  That just left the three of them.

"So... where's HawkMoth?  Is Adrien with him?  Who is he?" Alya asked curiously, firing the questions at her.  Soon after he asked, Nino returned with the medical supplied, and she gratefully let Master Fu bandage her up.  It wasn't like she had any major injuries, aside from her leg.  Just a lot of blood, but shallow wounds.

"HawkMoth is dead," Marinette said without emotion.

Master Fu stopped what he was doing and stared at her, shocked.  "What!?  You... you killed him!?"

Marinette shook her head.  "Not me."

Alya's voice wavered as she spoke.  "Then... who?  And where's Adrien?"

Even Marinette could hear the stutter in her voice as she spoke.  "Adrien killed him.  By accident.  HawkMoth is Gabriel Agreste.  Adrien killed his own father." The words all came out in a flash, before she could even control what she was saying.  Nino's eyes looked dead and Alya was in tears.

"What... what will Adrien do?  Where is he?" her voice was urgent.  "We have to go see him."

"I-I d-don't know," Marinette stuttered, her voice full of emotion.  She looked down at her bag, and saw Tikki's face full of anguish, both for her and Adrien.  Marinette stood up, knowing she was about to lose it.  "I... I have to go.  It's late.  My parents will be worried sick about me."  It IS Thursday after all, they would've come back by now.  It's hard to believe that we were out for basically the entire day too.

"But Marinette, I haven't finished-"

Marinette interrupted the wise old man.  "Thank you, Master.  B-But I really must be going."  Without another word, she left, well aware that both Nino and Alya were calling after her, but both of them were too weak to chase her down.

"Tikki, what time do you think it is?" Marinette asked quickly.  The streets were pretty much deserted, so she could talk out loud to her kwami.

"Seeing as the sun is already down, I'd say at least ten o'clock."

Marinette's heart beat faster.  "Tikki, please let me transform to get home quicker.  I promise I will get you a whole boat load of cookies when we get there."

Tikki nodded vigorously.  "This time it's special," she said, hovering up to meet Marinette's gaze.

Marinette's expression was tired as she gratefully smiled at her kwami.  "Thanks, Tikki.  Spots On."  As quick as she left Master Fu's place, she was Ladybug again.  Swinging her magic yo-yo, she quickly swung home to the bakery.  Just as she'd feared, the bakery lights were on; her parents were most definitely home again.  

She quietly landed on her balcony and detransformed, motioning for Tikki to be quiet.  Her kwami nodded as she descended into her room, wincing as her bed made a creaking noise. Remembering that she'd left some cookies on her balcony, she crawled back up, happy that she didn't have to risk more noise by entering her room.  She retrieved at least five for Tikki, who gobbled them up happily.  Marinette took a deep breath, thinking she could finally let out all of the emotions that had been eating her up tonight.

That's when she heard the door open from behind her.  Thankfully, Tikki was quick enough and hid within a few seconds.

"Ms. Dupain-Cheng!" her mother yelled angrily.  Nervous, Marinette turned to see both of her parents entering onto her balcony not looking amused.  This is the last thing I need right now...

"H-How was your trip, Maman?" she asked, trying to play innocent for as long as she could.  She was well aware that tears were threatening to spill at any second, and she didn't need her parents to see that.  Especially because they were caused by Ladybug, not Marinette.

"We come home at two o'clock in the afternoon.  The bakery is empty.  'Oh, she's at school!' we thought.  Oh wait- you skipped school today." Marinette winced as her father started lecturing her.  "So we wait until you're supposed to be home, but you don't come home at all!  We call, text, even send you emails but no, you don't respond to any of them.  We go thinking you're dead in a ditch somewhere and suddenly you show up on your balcony!?  How did you even get up here without us noticing!?"

"And you're covered in blood!" Sabine said gasping.  "You had to be stupid enough to get yourself hurt, young lady!"

Instead of seeing that I am actually injured and covered in bandages with a limp, you lecture me.  I see.  I see how this works.

"Needless to say, we'll be grounding you," Tom said.  "Clearly, we shouldn't have trusted you this past week-"

"SHUT UP!"

Everyone went silent, and Marinette's heart stopped.  The thing she feared happening was happening.

"You can't just say those things!" Marinette's anger was spiking.

"And just why not?" Sabine demanded.

"I come home f***ing injured, covered in blood, and I'm limping.  And you're lecturing me?  Did it even occur to you why I was out so late with these injuries in the first place!?" Marinette was fuming.

Her parents were silent.  Not even a word about language?  Huh.

"I fell in love this week," she began.  "I bet the boy of my dreams and we started a relationship.  Yesterday, I got assaulted by my entire class.  He helps me.  Today, I skipped school because I didn't want it to happen again.  One thing leads to another, and suddenly me and my partner are face to face with HawkMoth."

"Marinette, are you-"

She held up a hand, stopping her mother's plea.  "We fight him with all we had.  At some point, HawkMoth is reaching for me, and my partner tries to stop him.  HawkMoth almost breaks my freaking leg but one thing led to another and we've defeated him.  He was Gabriel.  Gabriel Agreste.  My partner, he was... he was so, so angry, and out of his anger, Mr. Agreste died.  I-" Marinette's voice faltered.  "I had to watch him destroy the o-one person he had left.  And then he left without saying anything to me."

Marinette's parents were speechless, tears at the edges of their eyes.

"I had to clean up the mess, dispatch crowds, all while my eyes had watched a murder.  A horrible, horrible death.  And you want to lecture me about curfew!?"

"Marinette, from what we knew-"

Marinette took a couple steps backward, placing her hand over her chest.  Tears were mixing with patches of dried blood on her face, but she didn't care.  Nothing mattered anymore.  "That's right.  From what you knew.  You know n-nothing!"  That's it.  I don't care if they see.  I have to get out of here.  "Tikki!"

"Marinette, you're clearly upset, let's get you inside," Sabine said, approaching her, halting when she saw the kwami fly to Marinette.

"Wh-What is that thing!?" Tom demanded, horrified.  

"Tikki, have you eaten?" she asked.  Her kwami nodded.  I'm sorry, Tikki.  "Spots On."

Lights flashed, and if she were to say her parents were shocked, it would be an understatement.  She swung her yo-yo, and took one last tear-filled look at her parents.

"You will never understand the sacrifices I've made and what I've had to do."

With that, she got the hell out of there.  She wanted Adrien, she wanted him so badly it hurt even more than her leg did.  She knew that he needed her too, didn't he...?

She knew the way, so naturally it didn't take her long to reach Adrien's mansion.  She landed on a building next to his room, trying to spot him in all the darkness.  There.

There he was, at his desk, staring at his computer monitors.  He wasn't doing anything, just staring at the background... a picture of him and his mother.  Tears running down her face again, she knocked hard on the glass, knowing he would hear her.

Adrien turned to her, got out of his chair, and walked towards the window.  His eyes were closed as he said one thing.

"Leave."

He opened his eyes- they were cold, dark, like two dead stars.  Slowly, he walked out of his room and shut the door closed behind him.

Ladybug didn't understand why he would do that.  A-Adrien.. can't you see that I need you!?  I was a-always there... please...

Plagg flew through the window and gave her a sympathetic look, eyeing her tears.  "I'm sorry, Marinette," he whispered, then flew back into the mansion after his holder.  

Ladybug stood there for a couple minutes, silently letting out all of her tears.  She thought about going to the Eiffel Tower by herself, but she knew that was not what she wanted.

She wanted home.

So, that's where she went.

And when she got there...

The arms of her parents were open, waiting for her.

Detransforming, she let herself be held by them.

And... it did help her feel better.

Just a little bit.

Very emotional chapter, I know.  Be honest- did you expect that her parents would find out Marinette is Ladybug??  I'll tell the truth, I didn't originally plan to add that bit- I only added it in later lol.

But yeah, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.  I will most likely not be updating this weekend, as I have lots of exams next week, but there will definitely be an update next Wednesday (when my exams finish!).  After then, updates will be MUCH more frequent.

Stay tuned for more, everyone!!