Marinette arranged the bit of fabric over her shoulder. Her dress was simple and red, it had small bits of lace around the bottom of the skirt and the neck. It was made of a simple silk with a ribbon around the waist. Her hair hung loose around her shoulders giving a good contrast to the light shade of her dress.

Tikki scurried up to her. She was holding a pair of shoes.

Marinette smiled and accepted the shoes from her small stagehand. They were friends, though Tikki spoke more Chinese than Marinette. Marinette spoke mostly french, despite her lineage. In almost every way, Tikki was a smaller version of Marinette. Her black hair was shorter and came to only her jaw. Her blue eyes were large in proportion to her face, which made her look as if she was full of wonder constantly. Her skin was pale and without flaws or freckles as Marinette's was.

The shoes were simple and black with red stitching. They were not beautiful, but were comfortable and easy to walk around the stage in. Tikki also assisted Marinette with the long ribbons that would swoop behind her as she tiptoed around behind the lead singer.

Marinette stood next to the opening in the curtain and was followed by a small trail of others in the same costume. Their hair in the same fashion and with similar ribbons.

When the music gave the cue, Marinette led the trail of girls onto the stage and began the rehearsed routine. Feeling slightly foolish as she pranced about on stage in such a simple garb behind the ornately dressed lead singer. The vocal talent to be lead singer was one that is not common among those who would be interested.

Marinette, who had the song memorized, hummed along as she swirled her ribbons and led the other three girls into the positions that had been assigned to them. The routine had been drilled into them, but had kept the heart that was given it when created. The dancers could feel it as they swirled around in unison and created something beautiful.

As the end of the song grew closer, Marinette drew the row of dancers to the side of the stage to prepare to exit the stage. As the singer began the final note that held for an intensely long time, a large beam fell from the ceiling and missed the singer by inches, landing on the skirt of her ornate dress and scared her enough to make her fall over and tore the skirt almost off. Her tall shoes that she insisted on wearing on the stage tripped her further and caused more damage to her dress which was beyond repair already.

There were screams from both the crowd and the stage crew, which were drowned out by the frantic screams of the singer herself. The amazing vocal talents she had developed over the years were now being put to use as the banshee like screams followed her to the backstage area. The three girls that had been behind Marinette had run screaming behind the curtain when the whole ordeal had begun. Marinette had stood, transfixed by the sight of the fallen beam as chaos ensued around her.

Though the beam had been nearly perfectly solid when it had fallen, it was now splintering and rotting before her eyes. It seemed to disintegrate instantly and fell in splinters to the stage floor.

Marinette's eyes moved slowly upward to where the beam must have fallen from and she saw a figure.
They were standing in the rafters and was mostly invisible in the dark space where they hid. Their green eyes seemed to glow almost.

There was a quick movement as the figure disappeared in the flow of a black cape.

Tikki ran up to Marinette and spoke in rapid snippets of Chinese. Marinette didn't recognize most of the words, but she understood that Tikki wanted her to follow her.

Marinette dazedly allowed Tikki to lead her to the backstage area. Her mind would not leave the thoughts of the shadowy figure that had so nimbly traveled around at that perilous height. When Tikki finally brought them to a stop, Marinette recognized where they were. They had traveled all the way to an underground room where Marinette had played as a child.