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"Not that bad? Then at some level it is bad."

Marinette shook her head and waved her hands frantically.

"No no no no! What I mean is that to...um...I'm not sure if I want to talk about it or if I should..."

"Marinette, after all this time....no matter what happened....I was there. I am still there, for you. I will always be there for you. Please, if you can't tell me when it's important and I know it's important, then who do you trust? Who can you tell? I love you, Marinette. You are an amazing Ladybug and you are like a daughter to me (Actual you are my daughter, technically, but I'm not going to tell you that.) and I want you to be happy and feel loved like you should be."

Marinette looked at her and searched her face while thinking and finally she slowly nodded. Plagg stayed quiet as he sat on a smooth boulder in the cave and ate the cheese left on a plate from last time. The cheese was cold but he managed.

"The Divinities....they told me that in order to stick to the new universe and not be rejected and pushed out I have to have a strong enough connection that it has no choice but to let me stay."

Tikki nodded her head at this and was about to speak.

"Hold on.", Marinette said as she felt something.

Tikki closed her mouth and watched Marinette be summoned by the Divinities. Marinette begins to Meditate and the two Kwami's watch her.

She hears something yet nothing is being said all the while something clings to her. She wanted to scream but she was unable to. As it clung to her being, she waved her arms in panic before it registered to her that is was a soul. 

The Divinities get louder and suddenly there is a flash. She sees strange people and they speak a language she doesn't know but feels familiar. Then she is fighting them, it hurts. They yell at her in the language she doesn't know. When the adults walk a way so she can pick herself up, she sees her reflection. It's not her reflection but that of a young boy. She got closer to it and then it spoke. Suddenly she was somewhere else and she's herself again, but younger.

"Who are you?"

They stare without word. No hint of emotion, only coldness. Her eyes bright and his dull.

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He wore an armored uniform in black color. His expression was serious despite having chubby cheeks with baby fat still there. Her body is smaller than his and she wore a dress segmented with soft pink at the top and white at the bottom. A light yellow ribbon in the middle tying into a bow at the back. She also had a light yellow choker a round her neck. Her sleeves had soft pink near the shoulders that had a defined cut into white with two light yellow stitches on the line between.

She realized she needed to speak after a moment but being in a younger body had her feel like a scared child all over again and her stutter came back when she worked so hard to get rid of it.

"I-I....am...I-I'm....uh...um....H-Hel-l-lo, m-m-my n-name....i-is...."

"Stop, your stutter annoys me."

She frowned and felt the tears pricking her eyes as she tried to grasp some sense of her older self to stop it from going down, but she has the body of a child and can only react in that way. She was embarrassed.

"I-I'm S-S-Sorry-y! I-I w-w-w-ill g-go!"

She started to turn and made it a few steps before he called out to her.

"Wait! Where are we!"

She stopped at looked back at him with tears still in her eyes as her frown lessened. They were slightly older now. Back to when she first became Ladybug. Her dress changed and he no longer wore the armored uniform.

"The astral-plane, a space made to speak with the Divinities, Existence it self. They seemed to want us to speak to each other and called us both.", said softly.

The rush of emotions that she continued to hold back no matter the fact that didn't need to anymore made it hard for her to calmly explain. Before he could ask further, she collapse into a weeping fit. Unable to hold back her feelings, the Divinities and they young man watches her lose composure.

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"S-sorry again, I'm u-usually better than t-this!", she managed after a long period of time.

He does not speak instead he slowly walks closer before kneeling in front of her and moved some hair from her face. He could clearly see she wore no makeup and freckles dusted her cheeks. 

"Can you tell me....why did these....Divinities....want us to speak? I've seen a brief moment of your memories, if that what it was....you must have seen mine as well...is that why your crying? I do not like to mention my childhood, I apologize for scaring you."

She smiled at him and shook her head. She placed her hand on his, keeping it where it was.

"N-no no, I am crying because when I was a hero as you've probably seen, we weren't allowed to feel properly. Happiness is more draining when you aren't truly happy."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, before realizing he isn't being cautious of her. Even though she was in fact a hero from wherever she's from, certainly not his France, she was an unknown. Even with this revelation, he did not tense up. The Divinities probably did something to prevent that.

"Could you....tell me more?"

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Bye~