"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?!" Plagg screamed as soon as I detransformed. I frowned, "What was what?"

"What was what," Plagg imitated, mocking me, "THE WHAT IS THAT YOU JUST KISSED SCARLET LADY! THE SAME SCARLET LADY WHO IS CHLOE!"

"Chloe... oh, right," I said, sighing, "She really shouldn't have done that."

Plagg sat in silence.

Then, "What. On. Earth IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Plagg screamed.

I raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"What do you... what do you... WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?!" Plagg screamed again.

My kwami was so weird...

"Just this morning, you couldn't stop blabbing about Marigold, and all the sudden your in love with Chloe?" Plagg asked.

I frowned, "Oh ya... Marigold... I'll have to explain this to her."

"Explain this to her? EXPLAIN THIS TO !" Plagg screamed once again, "YOU CAN'T JUST SQUASH MY ULTIMATE SHIP AND EXPECT ME TO BE OKAY WITH IT! ESPECIALLY WITHOUT A PROPER EXPLANATION!"

I frowned, "I don't owe you an explanation. Or Marigold. I'm my own person. I can do what I want."

"You don't owe me... your don't owe her... YOU JUST CHEATED ON YOUR GIRLFRIEND YOU SELF ABSORBED CODFISH!"

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever Plagg."

"W-w-w-w-w-w-whatever. Whatever? WHATEVER!!!!!!!" Plagg screamed. Then, as if he couldn't stand to be in my presence anymore, he quickly flew out my window.

I sighed. I knew he'd be back in an hour or so... he was just having a little temper tantrum.

...2 weeks later...

I flipped another pancake onto Pandora's plate as she continued explaining her plan, "So, Thalia almost always has some relation to Ladybug, er, you. So she has to be someone you know... or knew... so, the name Thalia ring any bells?" Pandora asked as she drowned her pancake in syrup.

I frowned and shook my head, "Not that I remember... but maybe when I was really young?"

Pandora frowned as she took another bite of pancake, "Well we have to do the extraction soon. It's only a matter of time before HawkMoth strikes."

I poured some more batter onto the pan, "Pandora, I have a question. How do you not know who HawkMoth is? I mean, if the holders, er we, are reincarnated over and over with the same names..."

Pandora nodded, "HawkMoth is the name of the true moth miraculous superhero. The HawkMoth who is our enemy stole that name. No, the real HawkMoth's name is Nate. The evil Hawkmoth, he's a mystery to me."

I nodded, a little disappointed.

Suddenly, Micah walked in, "PPAAAANNNNCCCAAKKKKEEESSSS!!!" He exclaimed.

I laughed and flipped my pancake.

"So, what's the plan?" Micah asked.

Pandora finished her pancake, "We're going to a hospital... I have a guess as to where Thalia would spend her Saturdays."

Micah raised an eyebrow, "This wouldn't happen to be like the time where you 'thought' Thalia would spend her Fridays, is it?"

I shuddered at the thought of that day. We'd taken some pretty extreme measures in a desperate attempt to locate Thalia. These last two weeks had been chaotic.

Thankfully, Pandora shook her head, "No. This time it'll only be kind of illegal!"

Micah and I groaned together.

...

"I hate you so much right now Pandora, you don't even know," Micah muttered.

I barely contained a giggle. We were walking down the halls of the hospital in nurse outfits... and for Micah, a bit more.

Pandora had somehow managed to get us nurse passes. But all the badges had pictures of women on them. It was easy enough to replicate the looks... but for Micah, it meant taking it a step more than just putting on a white coat.

Our heels clicked -except for Micah's, who CLOMPED- on the hardwood floors going down the halls.

"Stop scratching your eyes! Your mascara is gonna get all mushy," Pandora scolded.

"I feel like a birthday clown! And my eyelashes itch! Do you hear that? THEY ITCH! Eyelashes do NOT do that!" Micah complained.

"Oh, don't be such a baby," Pandora chided.

Micah, though still murmuring is complaints, eventually stopped touching his eyelashes, and went to his hair, "I'm pretty sure this wig has lice in it."

I smiled evilly, "You mean had."

Micah scowled, "I hate you too, Marinette."

I did outright laugh this time, "I'll believe that the day you get a man-bun!"

Micah pointed to the wig on his head that was done in a messy high bun, "I'm pretty sure that's what this is!"

"Hush Micah! We're passing some nurses," Pandora suddenly whispered.

A group of five nurses passed by us, thankfully not giving us a second glance.

That is, until Micah tripped on his own heels, and came crashing to the floor, "OOHHHH!!" he exclaimed as he fell.

His wig went rolling off his head.

All the nurses suddenly turned our way.

"Are you okay?" One of them asked, walking forward.

"He's fine!" Pandora and I said at the same time.

"He?" The nurse asked, coming even closer, "Wait... you aren't nurses... what is going on?"

Pandora looked to me and Micah. Then, "RUN!"

Micah practically leaped to his feet and the three of us ran down the halls as the nurses behind us yelled for us to stop.

Micah started hopping on one foot as we ran, pulling off his heels. He then proceeded to throw them at the nurses, "REBELLIIIIONNNN!!!!! Stand against cruelties to the feet of women! REBELLION!!!!!"

Needless to say, the wig came off next, landing perfectly on one of the male nurse's heads.

"This way, quick!" Pandora suddenly ordered, grabbing my hand and pulling me into a hallway, Micah right behind us.

All the nurses ran past us, not seeing our hiding spot.

When they were gone, we all took a deep breath, "That was close," I said, panting.

"Come on," Pandora ordered. We followed her down the hall and finally came to a room.

"Arcaa, will you open the door please?" Pandora asked.

Suddenly, a purple kwami appeared. It was a rich purple color with yellow, green, blue, pink, white, red, orange, and black accents. It has a beautiful parrot tail with the colored feathers cascaded down. It had a black curved beak, with large, dark green eyes.

"You have a kwami... you have a miraculous!?!" Micah exclaimed.

Pandora nodded, "Marinette, Micah, meet Arcaa. He's my life-long companion and kwami. Why do you think I can switch my age, appearance, and do all the other cool stuff I can do? It's all because of him and my miraculous."

"Miraculous?" I asked.

Pandora nodded, and pointed to her back of her head, "I had a purple pearl implanted into the place where my spine and my skull meet. It means Arcaa can never be taken from me."

We nodded, and Arcaa smiled, "Hello, Ladybug. Hello, Mongrel."

Micah frowned, "Mongrel?"

Pandora smiled, "It was the superhero name you used last time Arcaa spoke with you... about a thousand years or so ago."

My eyes widened, "Wait... you're saying Micah is..."

But the door suddenly swung open, Arcaa behind it, "Come in."

We walked into a room with many cabinets and computers.

"Split up. We're looking for a file under the name Thalia. Everything should be alphabeticalized... and while you two do that, Arcaa and I are gonna have a look around on the hospital's digital database," Pandora explained.

Micah and I nodded, then got to work.

...3 hours later...

"No offense to whoever, but I officially hate the name Thalia," Micah groaned as we looked up yet another Thalia.

It'd been easy enough to find the name Thalia... but what we didn't expect was for there to be three hundred fifty-two Thalias. Apparently, the records in this hospital linked to a bunch of other hospitals all around France. Good news is, we just narrowed down a ton of hospitals... bad news, we had to find ONE Thalia out of three hundred fifty-two Thalias.

This was how our process went.

Find a girl named Thalia born between the age of twelve to twenty-one.

Look her up on social media. If found, show a picture of her to Pandora. If not found, write down her address and phone number like the true creeps we were.

Finally, I came to a name, "Thalia Dagger BowHeart," I read out loud the unusual name.

Pandora's head snapped up, "What'd you just say?"

I repeated the name, and Pandora had us look her up. Her Instagram account was thankfully public, so we easily found her pictures.

She looked to be about eighteen with beautiful brown curls. Her eyes were bright blue, and her skin was perfectly tanned. She smiled gently and had a warm blue light shining down on her. I then realized she was underwater.

Pandora smiled, "We've got her."

Micah was looking at the girl, frowning, "Are you sure... because the report here, it says she's crippled."

Pandora nodded, "I'm surer than ever."

I then remembered how Thalia had once been a kwami who'd switched places with her owner, and how every time she was reborn she was weak. Sometimes to a deadly state.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get out of here!" Micah exclaimed.

Pandora smiled, "Tomorrow after you two finish school, we'll find Thalia. But tonight, how about some ice cream?"

...

I sat quietly at lunch, deep in thought.

Around me, Alya and Nino bantered back and forth, Max was talking with Kim about swimming, Alix was teasing Nathaniel, and Adrien... was strangely quiet.

"Are you okay Adrien?" I asked, pulling myself from my thoughts.

He sighed, looking upset and defeated, "I don't know, Marinette. I thought I was happy... then, I thought I was happier... now I'm confused. I feel like I'm split in half, you know? Like part of me wants one thing, and tells me I'm happy... and it feels so right... but it feels so wrong," Adrien suddenly blushed, "Sorry, I'm not making any sense."

I smiled, taking his hand from across the table, "You make perfect sense to me, Adrien. Don't ever be embarrassed about being confused! Emotions are such a delicate thing... giving someone the power to make you feel happy and sad... it's dangerous. Sometimes we trust the right people... but other times, we don't. And those people hurt us. We feel confused... maybe even ask ourselves, 'what went wrong? What did I do?'. Anyhow, what I'm trying to get at is feeling confused is okay."

Adrien nodded. Then suddenly asked, "Marinette, what do you think of the whole thing with Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady?"

My mood immediately darkened, "I... I think a lot of things about that."

"Will you tell me?"

"I... ya. Ya I will," I was suddenly getting angry, "I think Chat Noir is a shameless flirt who doesn't understand that he can't just make a girl fall in love with him, show feelings for her, Kiss Her, TELL her he LOVES her, then turn around and do the exact same thing with another girl! He literally kissed Scar-er, Scarlet Lady, without any context! Has he tried talking to Marigold? Doesn't he think Marigold is hurting?! Has he even stopped to think that he's making the BIGGEST MISTAKE OF HIS LIFE!?!" I suddenly yelled. And I didn't stop there, "Maybe it's Marigold who lays in bed at night, crying, trying to figure things out. Maybe she looks in the mirror now, and whispers, 'what's wrong with me?' as she tries to super glue back the pieces of her life together! Maybe she's trying to be strong! Fighting akumas, defeating HawkMoth, trying to stay strong for the people of Paris, and trying not to let her emotions get overwhelmed! BECAUSE if they DO, she'll get akumatized. So she can't even be properly upset without fear of becoming the enemy!" By now, the entire cafeteria was silent, looking at me, "And maybe, she's finally figuring out her mistake. Love. Stupid love! She knew better! A superhero leads with her head, NOT HER HEART! AND this is why! Because she's made a mistake! And you know what her mistake was? Chat Noir! CHAT NOIR WAS HER BIGGEST, STUPIDEST, MOST DISASTROUS MISTAKE!" I screamed.

I suddenly realized I was standing on my chair. My face lit up red, I jumped off my chair. Adrien looked like I'd punched him in the gut... I immediately felt guilty. I shouldn't have taken all my emotions out on poor Adrien... but I knew I couldn't properly apologize right then. I felt the tears coming.

"I... I'm so sorry Adrien!" Then I bolted from the cafeteria.

But because I ran so fast, I didn't hear Adrien whisper, "No... I'm sorry. Oh Marigold, what have I done?"