Marinette POV
The first thing I was aware of after everything went black was the overwhelming pain. It felt like I had fallen down three sets of stairs or something. I groaned and heard scrabbling near me. I tried to open my eyes and felt simultaneously relieved and depressed at what I saw. A blonde boy was kneeling next to me, he had the greenest eyes I'd ever seen and from what I could tell everything about him was perfect. He whispered something I couldn't understand but I wasn't really listening, all I could think was: Well at least I know I ended up in the good place..... I looked up at the boy, who I was completely certain was an angel and murmured,
"Oh great...... I'm dead......." He stiffened and started muttering,
"Oh no, oh no no no no no! Please don't be dead! If you're dead we're all doomed, please don't be dying....." I tried to sit up but quickly realized it was a bad idea.
"AH!!! Oh god, why am I still feeling pain?! Isn't suffering supposed to end once you get to heaven? Unless... wait.... it was middle of the afternoon when I found that weird note-scroll-thingy why is it nighttime? Is the afterlife a different timezone?!" I gasped,
"Did I go to hell?! Why? I haven't fought with Chloe and Lila for years and I've never cheated on Luka! Oh shit! It was probably from that one time in eighth grade when I proved that Lila had been lying! Nooooo!" I started sobbing until the boy-angel-demonmaybe guy gingerly placed his hand on my shoulder and said,
"You, my lady are very much alive, it would seem I have a lot of explaining to do. I guess expecting Ladybug to know everything that's happening in Miraculous after being banished for the past few hundred years was admittedly a little unrealistic." I looked at him confusedly.
"'Miraculous', 'Ladybug', 'BANISHED', what are you talking about?! My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng I'm a high schooler from Paris and the only 'Ladybug' I know is a weird looking beetle thing that constantly ends up in my house during the winter!" I ranted suddenly feeling very scared and confused. He looked at me with equal confusion and asked,
"You've never heard of Ladybug? Not Miraculous either? Why- how do you not know about your ancestors or heritage, also what note? I don't understand anything you're saying right now....." I pulled at my hair and said,
"That makes two of us!" I brandished the scroll in his face and yelled,
"All I did was go into the storeroom in the back to get some flour for my dad when I found this weird thing, which for some inexplicable reason I opened, then next thing I know a gust of wind hits me and I black out, and then I'm wherever this is in an incredible amount of pain, lying on my back!" At this point I was visibly hysterical and the boy began running his free hand through his hair before gingerly taking the note. As he started reading it his eyes widened dramatically but just as he was about to say something two guys in suits of armor came rushing in.
"Prince Noir! The king demands your presence immediately- i-is that a girl? Wh-how-?!" One of them, a guy with red hair, started to stutter. Wait 'prince'?! There are princes now?! No wait Marinette worry about that later, focus on the task at hand-. My thoughts were rudely interrupted by the blonde boy-er prince, who placed a hand on my shoulder and said,
"I found her unconscious here, please get her to the court physician while I meet with my father." The guys nodded and gestured for me to follow them but the second I started to stand my clumsiness, paired with the lingering pain, caused me to come crashing down onto my face. Or least it would have if it weren't for Prince Noir who caught me the second I started to tilt.
"Are you ok my lady?" He asked me with a concerned look that made me almost feel guilty for falling.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, I'm just a little clumsy." I said feeling a blush dust across my cheeks. He helped me over to the knights or guards or whatever they were and we all made our way out of the room. We stopped in the hallway outside and the prince looked at the guard guys and told them,
"If anyone asks about her we found her while on patrol, understand?" They nodded nervously and he smiled at me and said,
"I'll come check on you when my father and I are finished speaking my lady." Then he turned and left without another word. The guys and I started walking and I decided that if someone didn't say something soon the three of us might lose it.
"Um... sorry for the trouble, I'm Marinette." I introduced myself hoping to at least start a conversation with them.
"It's no problem miss, we're just doing our jobs, I'm Mark and this is Nathanael." Said the black haired guy next on my right as he gestured to the red headed guy on my left. Nathanael looked nervous but he waved and said hi all the same.
"So... where are we? I th
think I must have hit my head or something....." I tried hoping to get a little information about where I ended up. They looked at me weirdly before Nathanael responded,
"You're in the Papillon kingdom of Miraculous, it's the largest kingdom in the land as of yet..." I nodded trying to sort through this bizarre bit of information. Ok so.... I'm in a kingdom, in a country apparently called Miraculous, I just randomly ended up here at night even though I apparently left right after getting back from school..... and I got found by a really hot guy who turned out to be the prince..... ok that's a lot to process.... I got knocked out of my reverie when I found myself slamming into a suit of armor.
"Ow..... really?! Can't I just not walk into something or fall over for once in my life?" I groaned as I picked myself up and dusted myself off. Mark grabbed my shoulder and yanked me backwards so that I was partially behind him while Nathanael exclaimed,
"C-c-captain Legorille! We are so sorry, we found this girl lying unconscious out by the gate. We were just bringing her to the court physician on his orders- the prince's I mean." I stared up at the gorilla of a man standing in front of us, he was wearing gray leather armor and chain mail on his hulking frame and a drapery of cloth in the front with a butterfly symbol on it. Thinking about it I realized I'd seen the symbol everywhere since I arrived. I stepped out from behind Mark, despite his ample protests, and stood directly in front of the Captain.
"I'm so sorry for bumping into you, I was distracted and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings I take full responsibility." The Captain gave me a surprised look and pointed to me before asking,
"You found 'er unconscious? She seems pretty damn fine ta me." The three of us laughed nervously and he chuckled before brushing past us. He hadn't made it more than a couple steps however before he stopped square in the middle of the hall and turned to face us.
"Wait... weren't you two on chapel duty? I thought you weren't ta leave your posts." Nathanael gulped and Mark immediately stepped in and countered,
"I thought the prince told you to put Max and Ivan on chapel duty while we went on patrol with him, he said it was important for new recruits like us to get the lay of the land." Captain Legorille started to look nervous and stiffly replied,
"Right, of course just testing you, carry on...." then he turned on his heel and hurried away. Nathanael heaved a sigh of relief and I giggled at his nervousness. As we started walking again I couldn't help but wonder about how things were back home, were my parents worried? Had they even noticed that I was gone? Would Lila and Chloe miss me or would they just assume that I was fine? The more I thought about it the more panicked I started to become.
"Hey.... do.... do you guys think I'd be able to get home the same way that I came?" I asked with a slight quiver to my voice. Nathanael shook his head and Mark replied,
"We're not even sure how you got here, maybe try asking the prince. He may know how this happened." I nodded and looked down at my feet until suddenly the two of them stopped dead their tracks. I looked at them and noticed the faint outline of a butterfly surrounding their eyes. They stood statue still for a moment and I almost got scared when both of them suddenly chorused,
"Yes your majesty." The outline faded and I backed up slightly when they looked over at me. Mark smiled and said
"Sorry to frighten you, the king was just giving us new orders. We're to bring you to the throne room, don't be afraid his majesty just wants to talk." I nodded nervously and followed them to a huge set of double doors.
"Sorry we couldn't bring you to the physician Marinette, we'll get you there after all this is over." Nathanael said with a guilty smile. I nodded understandingly and pushed open the doors.