Cat Noir gasped violently and tried to move out of the way as icy water splashed on him from above, effectively ripping him from unconsciousness. The cold pierced through his clothes to his skin, feeling sharp as knives as he struggled to orient himself. His breath came out in rapid pants, small white puffs of it visible in the air. He moved to get out of the freezing puddle of water he sat in, but found himself rendered immobile.
He looked down and jerked back in surprise at what he saw, immediately renewing his efforts to move. Grunting, he strained against the thick leather straps that held his limbs bound painfully tight to the arms and legs of a heavy metal chair, but he couldn't budge an inch. He couldn't even risk using cataclysm if he wanted to. His hands were locked in place and even if he could move enough to try it, he might just wind up using it on himself by mistake. Where was he? How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was fighting a powerful akuma-corrupted woman with...
"Ladybug?" He called out, barely repressing the panic in his voice and blinking the water out of his eyes, but his question only echoed off hard walls of a large empty space. Cat Noir shook in the cold.
There was a sudden jarring clatter of hollow plastic on cement and he jerked toward the sound in surprise. There, in the too-dim light for the wide space they were in, a woman was standing next to an empty bucket that had been dropped carelessly on its side. "I'm sorry," she said, sauntering slowly closer to Cat Noir so that her features gradually became more visible. She cut a sharp, imposing silhouette through the weak light. "Did I wake you?" She stopped mere inches from him and looked down so that the light now illuminated pale green eyes behind an elegant sapphire-colored mask.
Cat Noir flinched involuntarily in recognition and his eyes widened. Images from before he'd gone unconscious, of Ladybug fallen and beaten at the woman's feet, rushed unbidden to the forefront of his mind. It was suddenly difficult to breath. His hands clenched the arms of his chair so tightly he could feel the rough texture of the metal through his gloves. "YOU," he hissed, his teeth chattering. "What did you do to Ladybug?"
"Oh! How precious!" The masked woman gushed, green eyes glittering behind her sapphire-colored mask, surprising Cat Noir, "You really care about that little partner of yours, don't you?"
Cat Noir felt his hackles rise at that and his eyes narrowed into slits. He didn't say anything, only glared back, silently fuming and straining against his bonds. It felt like someone had carved out his insides and replaced them with an ever growing dread. His reaction only seemed to amuse his captor, "My, my, aren't we excitable!" She clapped her hands delightedly, as if he had performed some great trick.
"I'll show you just how excitable I can be if you don't tell me where Ladybug is." Cat Noir told her, trying to hide just how fast his heart was racing.
The woman's eyes, which had been alight with delight before, seemed to crystallize into cold emeralds at his words. Cat Noir shivered, and it wasn't just because he was still drenched in cold water. "You're in no position to be making threats." She paused, then her smile reached her eyes again, "Remember, little kitten, curiosity killed the cat."
Cat Noir was seriously reconsidering the benefits of using cataclysm when she paused and put a hand to her ear, and just then Cat Noir noticed the ear bud in her ear. She nodded, then turned to Cat Noir, letting out a self-suffering sigh, "Don't worry. The little insect is alive. You really should be more worried about yourself, you know."
At her words, Cat Noir sagged limply in his bonds and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. The looming threat barely registered through the relief he felt. "ALIVE." He whispered. A reassurance. He hadn't been willing to admit it to himself, but he'd feared the worst.
His relief was cut short when a flash of pain erupted in his shoulder, making him hiss before he could stop himself. Cat Noir glared up at the masked woman who now held a short knife in her hand. Its tip was bright with his blood. "What was that for?" He asked, his shoulder stinging, small warm droplets of blood mingling with the cold dampness of his suit. She only stared coolly back at him and raised an eyebrow.
"I did say you should be more worried about yourself, did I not?" She casually shifted the knife to her other hand, looking a little rueful, "I apologize for the lack of warning, but I am on a schedule, and my boss is growing impatient. I brought you here for a reason, you know."
"Awe." Cat Noir feigned a hurt expression. "And here I was thinking you just wanted to spend some time with little old me."
The woman gave him a humoring smile. Right before she reached forward and wrenched his ring off. It happened too fast for him to react. Not that he could've done anything to stop her anyway, bound as he moment she had been standing there, arms folded, the next, she was wrenching the ring from his finger with cruel force. Immediately, he felt his transformation leaving him like blood leaving his body. He always felt weaker, less capable when he changed back to his civilian self, but now it felt like the effect was magnified tenfold. He felt naked and exposed without his mask to protect him now when he needed it most.
Adrien fought against his bonds with renewed energy born from desperation, the thick leather cutting into his skin without his suit. "That's not yours! Give it back!" he yelled. It had sounded much more threatening in his head.
Plagg appeared next to the woman, a fierce expression on his face, and dove at her hand holding the ring. The woman barely batted an eyelash though, and with a wave of her hand, something like a burst of white electricity struck Plagg in mid-air, sending him flying out of Adrien's line of sight. "Plagg!" Adrien shouted, trying to wrench himself free, but only succeeding in rubbing his skin raw where he was bound to the chair. "Plagg!" Adrien shouted again, but heard no response from his Kwami.
"Relax." the woman said, her voice infuriatingly calm. "He'll be fine. Those creatures are very resilient. They'd have to be. Although, they're not very strong separated from their miraculous holder, I'll admit. He'll be out cold for awhile."
Adrien wasn't listening. He was still shifting and straining to free himself. "That ring isn't yours." Adrien repeated, heart hammering loudly in his skull, "You can't do anything with it." He didn't know that, of course, but his mind was reeling and his thoughts had stopped making any sense. He'd say anything at this point.
The masked woman laughed, "That's cute, but don't worry, that's not why you're here today. I need the you without the mask for our special performance today. You see, we have an audience." As if to demonstrate, she put a hand to her ear and nodded. Adrien hadn't noticed the bud in her ear until just then. The masked woman smiled, apparently satisfied. Adrien only stared in fearful confusion. Putting away her phone, she raised her voice, as if projecting for a packed theater, "I see you've decided to join us, Hawkmoth. You'll want to pay attention to what happens next, because we'll be continuing in this vein until you give us what we want."
She turned to Adrien and smiled. Right before she gripped the handle of her knife like it was a stake and brought it straight down through his thigh. Adrien screamed, though it immediately grew strangled as he struggled to smother it. He couldn't help it. It felt like someone had driven a searing hot poker straight through his flesh. Burning pain radiated from the single spot through the rest of his body like heat from a furnace.
He sucked in unsteady gulps of air, trying to rein in his control. The masked woman slowly pulled her hand away from the blade, leaving it buried deep under his skin. "That…" Adrien hissed as a throb of pain interrupted him, "That was a little extreme. I mean…" Another steadying intake of air, "You haven't even told me what...what you want."
The masked woman sighed and gave him a sympathetic look. It made him sick to his stomach. "Oh, my sweet, unfortunately, you can't give us what we want. At least not directly. You're just a very useful playing piece."
Adrien felt more scared than he'd ever been in his life, but he managed to find his voice. "What...what do you mean?" It was getting more pointless to hide his fear, as he was sure it was obvious by now, but he tried anyway.
"Oh yes, did I forget to mention?" She asked flippantly, though it was clear from her expression she found this part enjoyable. She stepped around the chair so that she now stood behind Adrien and leaned forward so her face hovered just behind his shoulder. His skin crawled as she grabbed his head with both hands and turned it so that he faced his right. His eyes widened when he finally noticed a glowing red light in the darkness. "See little kitten. You're doing what you do best. Looking good for the camera."
Before he could think better of it, Adrien wrenched his head from her grasp, and slammed it back and toward his shoulder. He felt a small glimmer of satisfaction as the back of his head connected with what must've been her her face. He heard a muffled yelp and a curse from behind him. He then tried to throw himself and the chair sideways, but the pain in his leg took his breath away and he had to stop and it was all he could do to simply concentrate on breathing. He hadn't really had time to think this through. He'd just seized the moment. Faster than he was prepared to react, the masked woman sidestepped around the chair and backhanded him so powerfully his whole body rocked with the force of it. If he hadn't been tied to a chair, he would've been knocked out flat.
Adrien blinked furiously through the stars that suddenly clouded his vision. On the bright side, the pain in his head momentarily distracted him from his wounded leg. He kept his head still as possible, feeling like it might fall off his shoulders if he jostled it much effort turned out to be pointless, though, as the masked woman backhanded him again, this time in the other direction. "I didn't have to make this so easy on you, little kitten." the masked woman told him, her voice laced with a sinuous anger. "I've been very kind, all things considered."
Adrien swallowed, trying to focus through his dizziness. "Well, I'd hate to see what you'd call unkind…"
"Oh, but you will. Unfortunately for you." the masked woman replied in syrupy tones. She gestured in the direction of the camera, "You see, before you so rudely interrupted, I was about to explain to our Mr. Hawkmoth what's at stake here." Adrien grimaced at the thought of someone bearing witness to this. He was glad Ladybug wasn't watching; though Hawkmoth was far from his first choice. The only thing that could've made this all worse was to know he was being used as leverage against her.
"I hate to break it to you, Lady, but Hawkmoth isn't exactly my biggest fan," Adrien said, grateful as the room began to stop spinning so much. He just needed to keep her talking. It seemed like she was less likely to stick something sharp in him while she was doing so, "You're wasting your time. You might as well let me go now."
"Poor kitten, always trying to act so brave. And so very ignorant. It'd almost be cute if it weren't so sad." Adrien tried to shrink away as the masked woman leaned in close, but of course he couldn't go anywhere. Adrien watched in horrified fascination as she gripped the hilt of the knife still in his leg. The area of his pants around the wound was stained with blood. It was a stupid thought. Adrien was vaguely grateful for the fact that the knife was still in there to stem the flow of blood, although every inch of him wished he could pull it out so it was stop feeling like his leg was splitting in two. Adrien couldn't help but think his dad would be furious if he could see what he'd let happen to the one of a kind piece of clothing. It was a strangely mundane thought for the dire situation he was in.
A small smile was all the warning Adrien got before the woman placed a single finger on the knife in Adrien's leg. The gesture was almost delicate.
It was pathetic, but that was all it took to send a firebolt of pain straight through Adrien. He let out a choked moan, but managed to keep his lips sealed shut this time. "My message is this, Hawkmoth," the masked woman said, looking straight into the camera now, "Come as instructed and give us what we want. Every second you waste will be spent teaching your boy here new meanings of the word pain."
As she spoke the last word, Adrien's whole world became sheer agony as she injected her strange electricity straight into him through the knife in her hand. His body seized like it had become one giant tightly clenched muscle. He couldn't think, couldn't hear, couldn't see. He could only ride out the massive wave of tortuous energy until finally, mercifully, it stopped.
Adrien heaved in shaking breaths, sweat leaving cool tracks down his face. Despite his release from pain, he felt anything but relieved. His whole body was tense and ready for another explosion of pain. He was ready to be sick all over his shirtfront as he sagged limply in his chair. He hadn't meant to look, but when he saw the wound on his leg he couldn't help but stare in horrified fascination. It looked as though whatever magical energy she'd sent through the blade, it had singed his pants and cauterized the wound around the blade. Well, at least he wouldn't bleed to death. Adrien wasn't so sure that wouldn't be the better option though.
"I'm very sorry you have to go through this," the woman said, the smile in her eyes belying her words. "But I must say you are the most useful hostage I've ever had the pleasure of using." Then she reached forward to brush Adrien's bedraggled hair out of his face.
He jerked away from her touch with a glare, meaning it as an act of defiance, but he was afraid it looked more like he was scared of her. It didn't help that that wasn't very far from the truth. "Then let me go," Adrien said, his voice raw and ragged, "I told you, you're wasting your time. I don't know why you think Hawk Moth would care what happens to me, but you're dead wrong. He's probably writing you a thank you letter as we speak."
She sighed pityingly like he was the idiot or something and shook her head, "Oh, sweet child, if only you knew." She paused, "Although, I'm certain you will soon enough. For now, I think we're due for another lesson." She smiled cheerfully, then sent another wave of electric energy through the knife, and all Adrien knew was pain.