Guess this intro thing is permanent for the time being, huh? Well, in that case, might as well get used to it. Hi, my name is Chat Noir, but you can call me the a-meow-zing hero of Paris. My partner, Ladybug, just called a meeting between me, Rena, Carapace, Bee, and herself. And while she seems confused, the rest of us are completely lost.

We eventually let her go, allowing Ladybug some space. She wiped her eyes and looked straight at me.

"Can you all please help me? It might sound crazy, what I just said, but I reall-"

"-Its okay. We will, promise." Rena confirmed.

"Don't worry Ladybug. We'll find out what is making your memories all different." Carapace agreed. I just watched her. Something about the way she moved or spoke was different. I just didn't know what yet.

"Thanks guys. I really appreciate it. I've already talked to Fu, but he didn't know. So our best bet is just waiting." Said Ladybug.

Queen Bee tightened her ponytail. "Great. Carapace, Rena, come with me. I'm sure Daddy can ask the police if they've seen anything. We'll put a note containing the info we've gotten in the medicine cabinet in my room." She leaped onto a light pole. "Let's get going. Ladybug needs our help."

She and the two heroes mentioned left, heading towards the Mayor's hotel. It was now just Ladybug and me, alone. Many thoughts of what to say and do flooded my head. Should I pun? Should I take her somewhere else? Get on one knee and propose?

Probably not the last one. But the first two sounded good.

"Are you hungry? I know a great place. It's a clawsic." I smiled at the cheesy joke.

Ladybug was silent, which was unlike her. I started to worry that maybe I'd went a bit too far when I heard a laugh. I looked and saw that Ladybug was laughing.

"Did you just pun? I can't buglieve you did that."

My smile returned immediately. "Let the pun meowster do his job. Do you want to go get food with me or not?"

She checked the clock in her yo-yo and groaned. "No, I can't. Curfew is always at 9.

My ears went straight up. "That early?"

"Just on sch...weekdays. I need to take care of civilian things too."

"But Ladybug..." I pleaded.

The look she gave me stopped me midway. She was tired, hungry, confused, and annoyed. The events of the past few days probably hadn't been great for her. I backed off respectfully. Later. She hadn't directly said no.

"Of course, m'lady. Bonne nuit mon amour." I kissed her hand. She flushed beneath the mask and jumped into the night without saying anything back. I watched her vanish, and under my breath, all I could do was say,

"I love you."

I could sense Plagg gagging. I rolled my eyes and bounded towards my home, the image of her vanishing into the night replaying in my mind. As soon as I slipped through my window, I whispered, "Plagg, Claws In."

I felt the suffocating air of imprisonment enter my lungs as my ears and tail vanished. Plagg floated right up to my face.

"You love her~" He taunted.

"Yeah...I really do. She's amazing. Have you seen her? She was the one to defeat Cheriecheur and so many others. Without her, I doubt Paris would look like this." I sighed, taking off my shirt.

Plagg groaned. "Kid, trust me. You're better off not falling for her. Things always end badly."

I looked at him while I slipped on my pajama pants. "What do you mean by that?"

He was about to say something but decided against it. "Just trust me."

Adrien laughed. "Okay, whatever you say," heading towards the bathroom to wash his hair. Plagg looked out the window and at the night sky.

"If you only I could tell you..."

-o-

Hi. Some of you may want to impulsively refer to me as Chat Noir, but don't. I'm Felix Agreste. Simple. As you may have guessed, I've been forced to do this ridiculous intro. Anyways, I just met someone who looked like a classmate. An impostor of Bridgette Cheng.

Claude rolled his eyes. "Stop being so negative. Just because she's not wearing her own bathing suit doesn't mean she's not Bri. I mean, dude, how many other half-Chinese girls with pigtails do we know?"

The imposter walked up to me and stared me in the eyes. She was very close to Bridgette, no doubt, but definitely different. Her eyes were rounder, her hair darker, and she face rounder. I knew this from how many Snapchats she'd sent of herself before I'd blocked her.

The imposter spoke. "Felix, right? Do you mind if I talk to you privately?"

That comment alone secured my idea of her being an imposter. "Fine." I groused. Allegra, Claude, Lucas, and Elias shot me a look of shock as I pulled the Imposter to a wall hidden from the others. The Imposter spoke first.

"Oh thank god. I thought I was crazy." She breathed.

"What?"

"Sorry Felix. I should explain. See, I'm not Bridgette Cheng. I don't know an Allegra, or a Claude, or even a Lucas! It feels like...either my memories are scrambled or this isn't my world, which is crazy, but-"

"You're rambling." I interrupted. "Get to the point."

She nodded. "Right. Anyways, you making that comment finally made me think that I wasn't crazy for not remembering these things. I'm Marinette Dupein-Cheng. My friends look like Lucas and Elias, but Lucas is named Nino and Elias is a girl named Alya. Even you look like one of my...friends. His name is Adrien Agreste. And Allegra? She doesn't exist in my world. Only Chloe." She made a gagging gesture after saying Chloe's name.

I was taken aback. The Impostor-Marinette-thought everything she was saying was true? But...it made sense, in a strange nonsensical way. Heck, if curses really existed, maybe so did alternate universes. "Marinette, tell me more about what you remember." I recited very carefully, keeping my tone intentionally flat.

"Well, Claude doesn't exist either in my world, or maybe e does, but I don't know him. Last time I remember being in my world, Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee were fighting an akuma called Cheriecheur. I happened to be nearby, and when Ladybug launched her final attack towards Cheriecheur, I was hit with a beam of light. When I woke up, I was in Bridgette's room.

So Ladybug and Chat Noir existed in her world as well. And seeing how she said her universe's version of him was named Adrien, Felix was willing to bet that this "Adrien" was the Chat Noir of that world.

"Anything else?" I asked, trying to see if there was anything else I could work with. I wished I had a notepad with me.

"Oh yeah. I saw on the news here that Ladybug didn't do her Miraculous Ladybug. Is she okay? She's never not done a Miraculous Ladybug."

"What is Miraculous Ladybug?" I could only feel confused. Was it a catch-phrase her Ladybug had? Why was it so important to her?

Apparently it was important, because she gaped. "You...don't know? Miraculous Ladybug is what Ladybug does after she captures the Akuma and purifies it. She throws her Lucky Charm item in the air and the power of creation fixes the city to how it was before the Akuma was."

That whole sentence was mind-boggling. She used the terminology so casually, like it was as normal for her to say "Miraculous Ladybug" just as much as "Good morning."

"Hey! Are you guys okay?" Allegra called. I scowled.

"I'll talk to you later Marinette. I'll meet you at the library at 4 pm. Don't be late." And with that, I slunk out of the shadows and into the blinding sunlight.

What was she?

For the first time in forever, I felt compelled to learn about someone else. And what scared me was that I didn't know why.

-o-

It was 3:55 pm when she arrived. Marinette sat parallel to me at one of the tables at the library.

"So, uh, why are we meeting?" She asked.

"I want you to explain the 'Miraculous Ladybug' thing again."

She raised an eyebrow. "It's not really that important. It doesn't even have anything to do with me."

"Just explain it again."

She backed off. "Fine. Ladybug has the power of Creation, which I bet you already knew. Anyways, she has the power of "Lucky Charm", which basically allows her to create any one item that'll help in a fight. After she wins the fight, she captures the Akuma in her yo-yo and purifies it. Once that's done, she throws her Lucky Charm item in the air and it dissolves, restoring the city to how it was before." She seemed surprised to see me writing it all down. "Why is this so interesting?"

"Marinette, if your theory about alternate universes is true, and that's a big if, then our Ladybug and your Ladybug don't have the same powers."

She laughed. "That's..." Her laughter stopped when she saw my face. Dead serious as always. "What's different then?"

I rolled my eyes. I knew it was coming, but it was still tedious to explain.

"Ladybug has the power of Good Luck here. Her special power is "Good Luck!" which allows her or any one person to have impossibly good luck for a minute. After that minute's up, well, that's it. Back to normal. We have to kill the Akuma before it can multiply. And the damage stays. People remain injured. Missing people are usually found dead, trapped under rubble." Saying the last part was painful.

Marinette looked shocked. "That's impossible! Ladybug and Chat Noir are supposed to protect Paris!"

"They do, or at least, the best they can. The police help a lot. And the victims...they remember everything. A lot of them go insane, or have years of therapy. Its rare for them to ever be close to how they were before."

Her eyes welled with tears. "So...people have...died?"

I nodded.

"Then how come Ladybug and Chat Noir haven't given up?!" She demanded. "If I were Ladybug...and I had to watch people...die, then I would've quit."

I resisted the urge to laugh. "Chat Noir is cursed. He can't give up. He can't even take off his Miraculous, well, not until he gets a kiss from Ladybug. As for Ladybug, she's too determined to save people to let it weigh her down. She understands that if she were to give up, then even more would perish."

Marinette looked traumatized. Quietly, she whispered something to herself. She stood, turning away her face. "Thanks Felix. I'll see you at school tomorrow." Her voice broke, and she ran out of the library.

I watched her go. Marinette wasn't Bridgette at all.