Unsung
achieving elysium
part i. liar, liar
chapter two
Adrien had seen a lot of things. He'd watched as classmate after classmate was turned by Papillon, watched the villain feed on their darkest fears and negative emotions. He'd watched the destruction they'd caused. He'd watched as people screamed and the city of Paris itself cry and crumble under the darkness.
He'd never seen Marinette look like she did as Max and Kim wrenched her backwards, Mme Bustier a human shield between her and Chloé. Adrien liked Marinette. Sure, she was a little quiet – and around him, nervous, even – but she was kind, too, and there always seemed to be a smile on her face.
"Marinette," he called desperately, right on the heels of Alya. Her best friend ran straight for the double door entrance, breaking through at a speed Adrien wasn't sure he'd have been able to keep up with if not for his nighttime rendezvous.
"Marinette," Alya yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice. There was no sight of their friend, though.
"Alya, wait," Adrien said, grabbing her arm, and Alya turned on him, looking like the world had ended. He understood – the raw pain on Marinette's face was something he never wanted to see again.
Alya rounded on him, eyes blown in anger. "What?"
Adrien shrunk back at her loud voice, holding his hands up in a placating gesture though all he wanted to do was run and find Marinette. He cringed. "Um, we… we should split up," he suggested, and when Alya made no move, he hastily added: "to– to find Marinette so…"
So we can get to her before Papillon can.
Alya studied him for a moment before turning on her heel, yanking her arm out of his grip, and darting down the street in the direction of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. The pounding footsteps behind him suggested that his classmates, too, were joining the two of them.
He turned the other way and began his own desperate search, though as Chat Noir appeared on the rooftops, he wasn't sure they'd make it in time.
Adrien leapt from building to building, ignoring the way people glanced at him. He could feel their eyes following his movements, and his heightened senses – particularly his hearing – told him that they were more than curious as to why he was around or why Ladybug wasn't with him.
He paused for a moment. Ladybug. If she wasn't a student at the College Francois-Dupont, there was a good chance she didn't know about a possible akuma on the horizon. Adrien pressed the green paw-print on his baton and waited anxiously as the call rang.
Once. Twice. Three times. There was no answer, and Adrien cursed. He'd forgotten the other handy detail about their situation; if she wasn't transformed, there was no way he could contact her.
"Oh, my Lady," Adrien groaned as he scanned the crowds again, looking for Marinette's dark head or her telltale pigtails. She wasn't there. "Please show up soon."
"Chat Noir, over here!" Even from this height, the yell was loud and clear. Adrien dropped to the ground, eyes widening when he realized it was both Alya and Nino, standing together.
"Please, Chat Noir–" Alya pleaded the moment his feet touched ground. She looked close to tears, and Adrien swallowed back against the sour taste in his mouth. "my friend, Marinette– we– my friend Adrien and I… you have to help."
Nino butted in. "Dude, look, you gotta help us. If she's not found–"
He didn't want to hear it.
"I know," he said, ignoring their looks of surprise. "I ran into, uh, Adrien earlier – he told me what was going on."
They talked for another moment, but Adrien's heart wasn't into it. His senses tingled. Something wasn't right – on the contrary, something was very, very wrong.
"Shh," he said, putting a finger over his mouth. The crowd around them had no such qualms, though.
Adrien cupped his hands over his mouth like Alya had earlier. "Hey!" he yelled at the gathering of Parisians. "Everyone please stay calm and quiet!"
Their words died down to low murmurs, and Adrien's heart sank in his chest as his instincts reacted, screaming at him to move, get away as far from here as possible.
"What is it?" Alya asked, and the crowd hushed to hear his answer. Adrien's gaze flicked in the direction of the Seine and the busy roads beside it, always filled with people no matter the time of day. He could feel the cat ears on his head perk and turn in the same way.
"Do you hear that?" he asked in a low voice, worry gnawing at his insides.
Nino's brow furrowed; he tugged at his headphones, a nervous habit he'd picked up lately. "Man, I dunno what you're getting at, I don't hear anything–"
Adrien looked him in the eye, his friend confirming what he knew. In a part of the city usually bustling with life, there was only silence. "Exactly."
Nino struggled to process this. Adrien turned the day's events over in his head, trying to figure out what exactly Papillon had preyed on – what would cause this.
There was no time. Adrien leapt up to the roof, and his heart sunk even lower when he could see what exactly was happening. Far, far away, to his left, he could just barely make out a lone figure in bright red – but it wasn't Ladybug.
"MOVE!" he roared suddenly, surprised at the volume of his own voice, and the crowd scampered. "GET OUT OF HERE, RUN!"
He didn't stop to watch as they did; Adrien turned towards the writhing mass to the east and ran towards it. He'd hold her off – try to talk sense into her – until Ladybug could come.
The figure he knew was Marinette floated through the streets. He still wasn't close enough to make out what exactly was surrounding her, and his stomach turned as he advanced, creeping in the shadows.
He knew if Ladybug was here, she'd be teasing him – or maybe it would've been the other way around – but she wasn't; the silence was chilling. He swallowed hard. What if Marinette had gotten to his Lady?
"Where are you?" he breathed, searching the rooftops, but there was no sign of the girl he loved. He called her again – surely she'd heard about Marinette by now – but there was no answer. There was something very, very wrong, and worry ate at his insides.
He hid, suit blending in perfectly with the shadows the tall buildings cut from the brilliant sunlight. Adrien wanted to rush in, to face Marinette and to stop her – for all of their sakes – but he couldn't, not really. Not without Ladybug here, certainly, and not until he knew more.
So Adrien crept along. He managed to pass Marinette; observing from behind a chimney, he realized the red cloud around her was actually made from threads. Red string darted everywhere like snakes, though he could tell they were all controlled by the girl in the center. He pushed down the urge to get to her first and instead dropped to where she'd caught someone.
Her victim – the one in front of him – was wrapped in the thread, bound from her mouth down. With a sickening start, Adrien realized he recognized the woman. Her dark eyes widened when she saw him.
"Shh," he whispered, a claw at his lips. "Try not to make any noise or struggle. She might hear us."
Sabine Dupain-Cheng shook her head, though she did stop fighting. Carefully – akuma or not, he was sure Marinette would have his head if he so much scratched her mom – he cut away at her bindings, catching her when she pitched forward.
"Madame–" he said, cutting himself off abruptly when he realized he wasn't supposed to know her name. "are you alright?"
He knew from the look in her eyes that she knew it was her daughter out there, her own daughter that had trapped her.
"Thanks to you, Chat Noir," she said. Her voice was strong when she looked at him. Adrien wasn't sure how she hadn't broken down yet; if it had been him, he would've been a wreck. "but my daughter…"
"We'll save her," he reassured Mme. Dupain-Cheng. "I'm sorry that you had to– that she–" The words died in his throat, but she understood.
"It's okay," she said, even though it really wasn't. "and it's not your fault – the only one at fault here is Papillon." There was an angry tone to her voice now, her eyes flashing dangerously; she looked a lot like Marinette, he realized, with the way her jaw was set the same when her daughter was determined or standing up for someone else.
He swallowed. "What do the… threads do?"
She paused at that. "I think– I think they absorb sound."
It was a little disheartening, Adrien decided, talking to Marinette's mom about her akumatized daughter. More than a little. And he hated doing this, hated having to ask her what had happened to the girl, but it was necessary.
The gears in his head whirred. Adrien had to focus, had to think. The threads absorbed sound – but since he was talking to Marinette's mom, that meant they would only work through contact. He thought back to the multitudes of anime he'd watched, wondering if anything fictional could apply in real life.
Sound absorption. There was the possibility Marinette could use the sound she took; for what, Adrien had no idea, but it wasn't a pleasant thought. There were so many possibilities, so many ideas and limitations. It was a little scary.
"Stay here," he finally said, putting a hand on Mme Dupain-Cheng's shoulder, hoping that the gesture would come across as reassuring. He flashed her a quick smile. "Don't worry, Madame. We'll save her."
Except Ladybug wasn't here– Ladybug wasn't here, and Adrien's frustration and desperation nearly tore him apart. He was lost without her here. They were a team, the two of them, partners that needed and balanced each other. And she wasn't here.
Panic bubbled in Adrien's stomach; he forced himself to take deep, even breaths even as he extended his baton so he could continue tracking Marinette. The uneasy feeling stayed, though, a mix of fear, disappointment, and lungs that couldn't quite fill all the way.
"Chat Noir," said Mme Dupain. She looked at him with bright eyes. "I know you will."
He left feeling heavy, the weight of an entire city's fate wrapped around his shoulders.
It didn't take long to find Marinette again. How ironic, Adrien figured – instead of following the sound of panicked screams, he now raced in the opposite direction.
He bounded on the roofs, each leap getting him closer and closer to his akumatized classmate. Every step he took was carefully measured; one sound, and he'd be caught dead. With his luck, it was bad enough already – Adrien had no intention of adding to it.
Down below, on the streets, sound was cut off harshly, so abrupt it made his ears ring. Peoples' screams were swallowed whole. He licked his lips nervously, wanting to interfere but not knowing what exactly he could do. Adrien pressed the call button again desperately – no answer.
"Help! Someone, anyone, please!"
"No one is here to help you," a voice crooned, and Adrien's heart hammered in his chest as he peered over the edge of a flower shop. Marinette stalked forward, both feet on the ground as she cornered a young girl no older than twelve or thirteen.
"Please," spilled from the girl's lips. A red string darted forward threateningly, hovering a few feet away from Marinette's next victim. Marinette tilted her head, looking curious. He moved quietly, dropping down floor by floor as to not draw attention.
"Who are you asking?" Marinette asked, cocking her head even more to the side. She really was curious – why, he wasn't sure. "Why do you think anyone is here to save you?"
The girl pressed her back to a glass window filled with colorful bouquets and glared at Marinette. There were tears running down her face; she cowered back as Marinette took another step, but there was something else there, too. Determination, maybe.
"You'll see," she declared confidently. "Ladybug and Chat Noir will come. They always do." She lifted her chin solemnly, a challenge. The makings of a hero, maybe, even in a girl as young as her.
"Such faith," Marinette said, and her blue eyes turned to pools of sadness. She reached forward and stroked the girl's cheek. Adrien's hand tightened around his baton; he gauged the distance between them. "I'm sorry I have to do this. They're liars, all of them."
One of her threads raised up, a snake poised to strike–
Adrien moved, twisting in midair as he brought his weapon up–
–the thread caught around his baton, and Adrien wasted no time freeing it, spinning it quickly between his hands to act as a shield – for him, of course, but more importantly the girl he could feel at his back.
"Are you alright?" he asked, not daring to look away from Marinette. Another thread darted forward, followed by two more, and he blocked each one, reacting with the speed and agility of his namesake.
"Chat Noir," a voice breathed at his back. He recognized the emotion behind it. Hope. "I knew you'd come."
"When I tell you to," he said lowly, extending his baton so it caught Marinette around the middle, tossing her back several yards. He winced and reminded himself that she wasn't a normal civilian anymore, that she'd been granted strength and powers from Papillon, and that even though she looked scarily like Marinette, they weren't really the same person. Sort of.
It didn't help the guilt that clawed at his insides as she clambered up, face twisting in anger. Six threads aimed for him, and he turned, grabbing the girl without a second thought and leaping aside, landing in a crouch as hands clutched tightly at the fabric of his suit.
"Run now," he said, looking away from Marinette for one moment and meeting the eyes of a would-be victim. "Hide somewhere and do not make a sound, you understand?"
A nod. She trembled in his arms. Adrien gave her a soft smile, hoping to ease her fear, and set her down gently. "You were very brave."
Another moment, and she was running away, her footsteps pounding as quickly as his heart. He turned back to his fight, baton at the ready, to find that Marinette had taken not taken his momentary distraction. Instead, she stood, a strange expression on her face.
"Why did you save her?" she demanded, and the words sounded so wrong coming from Marinette's lips. She looked frustrated now, angry. "Why did you save her?"
"Comes with the job description, Princess," he said, wary of any new attacks but letting his guard down momentarily. There was something off about Marinette, an odd feeling – instinct, probably – that told him she was different. He shot her a smile, trying to cover the dark thoughts that flitted across his mind. "It's the right thing to do."
She shrieked. Apparently, he'd answered incorrectly. But still Marinette made no move to attack.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Cat got your tongue?"
"Shut up, shut up," Marinette shrieked, and her threads writhed around her. She clamped her hands over her ears and curled in towards herself, her strings wrapped around her in a protective cocoon as if she were a butterfly. A petit papillon. The thought made him sick.
Adrien knew he should take advantage of her weakness – whatever was happening at the moment. He knew he should take this chance to figure out where the akuma was and to somehow free it.
He didn't.
"Princess?" he said, and she reacted visibly to the name, her threads rippling violently. A half-baked plan formed in his head. "Marinette."
A stray thread moved for him; he leapt to the side and tried again. "Marinette!"
The threads dispersed. "That's not my name," she hissed, eyes darkening in anger. Adrien wondered if he could've stopped this, could've prevented Marinette from being akumatized if he'd just said something or if he'd been a second faster. "I'm Fabricator!"
Marinette– no, Fabricator, looked shaken. Something he'd done – something he'd said – had had an effect on her, whether he'd intentionally done it or not.
"You're all liars," she cried, and he was barely able to keep up as she advanced, the threads coming from all sides, each one aiming for a different part of him to render him helpless. He gritted his teeth and held fast, though he was already tiring from keeping up. He had to escape to recharge, needed a moment to figure out what exactly was going on.
"I'd never lie to you," he said.
"No," she growled back. "Where were you, then?"
He hesitated, and Fabricator's threads slipped underneath his defense, wrapping around his arms and legs and tightening, pulling Adrien taught against a nearby street lamp. Fabricator snarled.
Where were you, then?
He struggled against his bonds. The moment they'd touched his skin, something had happened. She'd taken his sound; there was only silence as he kicked out, only silence when he opened his mouth to say something. It felt a little like getting the breath knocked out of his lungs after a hard fall, like when he landed wrong or on the days D'Argencourt was particularly ruthless, only it was his sound being taken away.
"Poor chaton," she said, and something crossed her face before disappearing. The instinct that had flared earlier spiked again, everything inside of him screaming wrong, wrong, wrong. "You don't understand, do you, kitty?"
He struggled even more. Only Ladybug called him that–
Ladybug.
What did you do to her? he mouthed angrily, straining to free himself as anger overtook his veins.
Yes, Marinette was kind and sweet and caring. Yes, Adrien cared about her a great deal, even if she was a little awkward and klutzy. Yes, she was his friend.
Friend or not, if she had so much touched his Lady–
"Oh, your little bug isn't coming," Fabricator said, her eyes clouding over. There was no conviction behind her words, a shaky foundation that would quickly crumble. Fingers grabbed at his chin; their eyes met as she leaned closer, warm breath brushing across his face. He was hyperaware of how close they were, and he jerked, trying to move backwards.
"What–" Adrien coughed, realizing he could suddenly speak.
"Where were you?" Fabricator asked, and her threads drew back. A butterfly mask appeared over her face, but she snarled; the light faded. He coughed again, throat dry.
"I don't–"
Her eyes flashed. "Think about that answer, Chat Noir," she said dangerously. She turned and left, walking away slowly, a pair of dark-colored heels clicking across the street. She stepped over trussed-up bodies of terrified Parisians, his heart clenching as he watched her walk away.
Fabricator looked over her shoulder. "After all, I don't like liars."
What an ending, am I right?
I hope you all like Fabricator. Poor Adrien... Haha, just you wait for the next few chapters of part i. It gets a lot worse, I promise. On another note, I wrote ten thousand words of this story yesterday, bringing the current version up to 25k.
Feel free - in fact, please do - to leave a message, or come chat with me on my tumblr (achievingelysium)!
achieving elysium
