Cataclysm

In a haze

Marinette was finally aware of why sometimes when a victim after an Akuma atack wouldn't react to her and Chat's comforting words, or respond basic questions from anyone that wanted to help them. Things like 'are you ok?' and 'Any injuries?' that were usually answered with a 'I'm fine' because her Miraculous cure took care of the physical ailments. Now she knew that her cure didn't work on what happened to your head after something terrible. Because she realized, half an hour later, that she had been in a daze that whole time, that Adrien had tried talking to her at first to no avail, and that by when her brain started working again they had already decided to leave her alone.

And by they, she meant Adrien, Master Fu and... Chloe.

Marinette blinked a couple times, realizing she had been holding a cup of tea that was half on its way to going cold, and that Chloe was talking.

''It's not smoke, not really.. it's heavy and she controls it with her eye. wherever she looked at with her monocle open, the... fog or whatever, would go, and break things'' The blonde's voice sounded dull and sad, and she had a tear trail on both her cheeks. Instead of holding a cup of tea like Marinette was, Chloe was holding a yellow blob that Marinette quickly recognized.

''Pollen'' She whispered, prompting all three heads of her companions to turn to look at her, as if her presence was finally real.

''Mari! Are you ok? Wait of course you're not ok, sorry, but it's gonna be! Chloe here was explaining what she learned about-'' Adrien's word vomit was stopped by Fu's hand raising on front of his face.

''Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I'll ask this just once and will never do it again, no matter your answer'' Said the man, solemnly. Marinette wondered briefly if something else happened because the pain on the elder man's face didn't match with the situation, no matter how painful it was for HER. ''Are you still our Ladybug?''

Before the heroine could even open her mouth to answer, Adrien got up from his spot on the floor and started yelling at the old guardian, until Chloe stood up too and smacked his head with a fist.

''Adrien Agreste! SHUT-the hell-UP!'' The former Queen Bee yelled, and silence reigned in the room once again.

Master Fu was ignoring both blondes, looking intently at Marinette, still waiting for an answer.

''I'm not sure about the implications of what you're asking me Master... but I am Ladybug'' She paused a moment because just thinking about it made her eyes well up, then continued. ''I'm in pain, we all are... but that only gives me more energy to fight and fix things''

Fu seemed to deflate and relax with her answer, so she assumed it what he wanted to hear. And then she realized there was one other person that would usually be there, but wasn't.

''Where's Luka?'' She asked then, and now Chloe's face crumbled under painful thoughts, her head turning away so no one would see her eyes get wet.

-*-

Outside the tiny room where Ladybug and the rest were having their little sad meeting, Antoine stopped listening in, already knowing they would repeat a conversation they had while Marinette wasn't paying attention. The man started to walk away towards the window, which was closed of course, since the cold outside was, as usual now, stupid levels of cruel.

Nooro watched as his master looked out with an expression he never wore in front of the others. For a man that became so good so quickly at understanding emotions, he sure was also pretty good at hiding them from everyone else. But Nooro had seen his sadness before, and now that there was a reason for it to be even worse, the little kwami knew there weren't any words invented by the humans yet that would make his charge feel a little better.