Imperfect Future [ON HOLD]

chapter three | what happened?

Marinette shifted in her spot again, getting even more uncomfortable now with four pairs of eyes staring back at her. She wanted to say something, yet at the same time, she wanted them to speak first, afraid of saying the wrong thing. Things were now happening way too fast, from her being told about the machine by a bunch of kwamis, her going into the future with the help of the machine, with the mission to find a girl, who was supposedly supposed to be her enemies. And now, she was sitting here on this couch with her future self and future kids looking back at her. It all felt so unreal, like she was in some kind of a dream. She wasn't even sure if she considered this a dream or a nightmare. One thing for sure: she wasn't taking the situation in very well, especially with the fact that in the next ten years, she supposedly had three kids.

"M-Marinette?" The older version of her finally spoke, her face still in shock.

Finally not taking it anymore, Marinette stood up from the couch, throwing her arms up in the air. "Listen, I'm just as confused as you are. Even if I was told to find this girl, I still have no idea why I'm here, or how I even got here. I can't wrap my head around what's going on, but I have to find this girl, who's apparently going to cause so much trouble if I don't find her. I don't have answers, so please save your questions. If you can help me, that will be great. The more closer I am to finding this girl, the sooner I'm getting out of here."

She still looked confused, and the more Marinette stood there, the more she got stared at. Marinette looked down at the floor, not knowing what to say next, but then, a sudden reminder got to her. She remembered seeing that sign with the pictures of the five heroes on it, apparently known as The Miraculous Team. "You. . .You still have your kwamis." Her eyes widened as she looked back up at the older version of her. "My kwami may not have been able to make it here with me, but you still have your very own Tikki too. With her help and Ladybug's, I'm sure it'd be much more faster and easier to find this brunette girl I'm looking for."

"The thing is," 27-year-old Marinette spoke, "Tikki is a bit sick right now, which is why I wasn't able to get help from her when looking for my kids." She still couldn't wrap her head around what was going on, but decided to push her questions aside now. The young version of her seemed to need help badly, so she was going to do all she could to help her out. "Defeating the biggest villain was quite hard, and well. . .he did something to her. She's healed now, but is still resting and isn't supposed to be used until she's all better. But—" She raised her finger with a smirk. "I can just call my team. I'm sure they'd help you out. They'd be freaked out at first, but don't worry. Us five have stuck together for years, and we always help each other out. We. . .even know each other's identities now."

Marinette sat back down on the couch, interested already with those words. "Can you tell me more?" She realized. . .this wasn't at all a bad thing. This was actually one way, and the best way to defeating Hawk Moth back at her time, and this time, even sooner. She just had to ask her older-version of herself how Hawk Moth was defeated. She could even. . .find out Hawk Moth's identity. "Please tell me everything you know about Hawk Moth, how you defeated him. You don't have to say anything about your team. I'm not supposed to know their identities anyway."

"I can tell you, but girl," 27-year old Marinette chuckled bitterly. "Hawk Moth isn't who you'd be worrying about. Hawk Moth 2.0 will be your biggest enemy."

"Hawk Moth 2.0?"

"We didn't actually defeat the first Hawk Moth. . .or at least, we weren't the ones to find him. He surrendered, and he did it in his civilian form. Gabriel Agreste. He came to us, saying he quit, and surrendered, and at first we didn't believe him, but he actually allowed us to arrest him and put him away. The thing was, he didn't have the Moth miraculous with him, saying he lost it. But he never told us about Hawk Moth 2.0. We had to find out ourselves."

"G-Gabriel. . .Agreste?" Marinette asked in a soft, shaky voice, being even more shocked than she had ever been before. With a heavy feeling in her stomach, she felt her skin tingling while she was sitting in a stiff posture. "Gabriel Agreste?" She repeated, much louder this time.

The older Marinette continued. "Trust me, I was just as shocked as you when I found out, while Adrien on the other hand. He was much more devastated than any one of us, and even though we tried, he didn't allow us in to talk or anything. He even found the place where his mother was being kept all along. Nathalie explained to us that Emilie wasn't dead, but she didn't have long and needed the help from three miraculous: The Ladybug, Cat and Moth Miraculous. We needed those three jewels in order to get her back up on her feet. We went to Gabriel again and asked him to return the Moth miraculous, and yet again, he told us he didn't have it, so we began the hunt for the Moth Miraculous, trying to find out where it was being hidden.

"That's when Hawk Moth 2.0 showed up. Gabriel didn't lose the miraculous, but got it stolen away from the new villain. Apparently, the new villain had found out about Hawk Moth's identity first and attacked him, taking the miraculous from him and threatening him. He told Gabriel that if he didn't tell everyone about his identity first thing tomorrow, he would never get the miraculous back, and Gabriel believed him, only to be fooled. This all happened in 2020. So, we restarted back again, from the very beginning: it was all the same thing all over again. Defeating the villains the new Hawk Moth made while trying to keep a double life, and also trying to figure out who the new Hawk Moth was. We got tired; the villains he created were much more stronger than the ones we had to deal with before. I finally made Rena Rouge and Carapace permanent superheroes, to make things easier. I still didn't trust Chloe as Queen Bee, but yet at the same time, couldn't find anyone else who could take on the job.

"We were finally able to figure out the identity of the new Hawk Moth in 2025; a man we absolutely didn't even know at all. Lots of events happened between 2020 and 2025, including finally accepting Chloe back as Queen Bee because she had changed, and revealing ourselves to each other, forming a team and calling it The Miraculous Team. We promised not to tell anyone else of our identities, and because everyone had already seen Chloe as Queen Bee, we kept lying to everyone that Queen Bee was someone different, but I'm not sure they believed it. So, we finally got a master plan, getting Rena Rouge to create an illusion of Queen Bee and Chloe standing together at the same spot. It worked, and everyone let Chloe off.

"Like I said, we finally figured out the new Hawk Moth's identity in 2025, but he kept hiding from us, so when a huge fight broke down between us, it was December, 2029. Hawk Moth vs. The Miraculous Team. A. . .lot of things went wrong during that fight," her face suddenly fell sad as she looked down at the floor. "But we managed to take him down. Hawk Moth 2.0 had done something wrong to Tikki during the fight, it was this thing he created, which got Tikki to go incredibly sick. We finally managed to find a cure last month, and she's been doing better ever since."

Marinette gulped while hearing the story, still not believing that this was how it was going to go down. The older Marinette stood up, calling her team over, leaving Marinette to think about what she'd just heard. Gabriel Agreste. So, he'd been the villain all along. It didn't really make sense to her, but now she could really imagine it. She could already imagine how devastated Adrien was going to get when hearing that his own father was Hawk Moth.

And Hawk Moth 2.0? What the heck?

In a few minutes, the door opened and Marinette gasped a little to see three superheroes come in: Queen Bee, Carapace and Rena Rouge. Once the door was locked shut, they instantly took off their transformation. Marinette frowned, her heart pounding faster than she could imagine. In front of her were Chloe Bourgeois, Nino Lahiffe, and. . .a girl she didn't know off. Their faces looked shocked to see her, but Marinette didn't care at that point. She immediately turned around to look at the older version of herself again. "What the heck? Where's Alya? She's supposed to be Rena Rouge!"

The older Marinette sighed, placing a hand on Marinette's shoulder. "I told you a lot of things went wrong during that fight with Hawk Moth 2.0, Marinette. . .Alya. . .

"Alya died during that fight. . .!"