Part 1
'The arrival'
Hawk Moth's 'super villain' label wouldn't do justice to what the Dreamcatcher was. She would probably settle for 'hyper villain', although one could argue whether this was even a half-adequate description of the sorcerer that one day wandered seemingly out of the blue into the streets of Paris.
Adrien was sure he would remember that day till the end of his life. Chat Noir and Ladybug were in the middle of a fight against a fierce Akuma, when they were startled by a wave of silence rolling through the city. Everyone and everything stopped in astonishment, as a wave of tinkling susurration followed the first one. And then they came – all sorts of ghosts, monsters, dragons, demons, you name it. An army of them. All seemed like shadows, transparent, grey phantoms. Flowing, crawling, flying, stepping on the city grounds. All wearing the look of pure malice on their faces, or those bits of them that served as faces. All purposefully, hungrily glaring at silent crowds in the streets.
Behind that army, treading lightly on thin air just few inches from the ground, came the Dreamcatcher. She had no apparent age, her face resembling a statue, pale and smooth as marble. Her features profoundly beautiful, carved against the stone of her cheeks. Her long white hair seemed to have a life of its own, giving her the look of someone caught in a slow motion gale. A silver dress entwined her statuesque figure, layers and layers of delicate fabric, looking very much like dreamcatchers, if you could weave those out of mirror thread. If it wasn't for the clouds, she would probably shine like a diamond. Wrapped around her neck a few times and unwinding to her hands and waist was the longest string of pearls Chat had seen in his entire life. The pearls were breathtakingly magnificent like the sorcerers whole demeanor, yet there was something unnerving about them as they sparkled and seemingly changed their shade without any apparent reason. But perhaps the most terrifying sight of all were her eyes – piercing, ice cold, light blue irises with pupils as hollow as the void. Two black holes suddenly unfolding in the blue skies.
Finally she came to a stop at the sight of the two super heroes. She parted her beautifully carved lips and shrieked, releasing shockwaves of sounds so high pitched, they were on the verge of hearing rage. They spread through city like wildfire through dried grass.
Everybody sensed it, Chat could see that for himself. As soon as the waves reached him, he felt being sucked into his appalling dream. It took all of his superhero force to snap out of it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ladybug staggering at the hit of another wave. He could tell that she was also fighting that sensation. She looked utterly terrified for a moment, but then shook her head and returned to reality just in time to notice...
…that the Akuma de-transformed! The victim looked around in fear trying to comprehend the situation.
All around them people were snapping out of their nightmares, more conscious and scared than ever. And then the Dreamcatcher spoke.
'I'm glad to have your attention,' she murmured in a low voice, that sent shivers down Chat's spine. It seemed most silent, yet she could be heard everywhere at once. 'The name's Dreamcatcher. And yes, I can do what it says, and way way more…' that last syllables only a whisper in the wind, but somehow it managed to make everyone shudder. Her features decomposed into a mischievous grin, almost out of place on that strikingly beautiful face.
'I'm here for good,' a little chuckle escaped her lips, 'or for bad. Not that it matters. Soon I will make a claim on this city. For now I'll just hang around to let you know me better, while I'll be…' she gave another chuckle, amused with herself '… house-haunting.' She spat those last couple of words, glaring directly at Chat and he felt them stinging his brain. He wondered if she was having the same effect on everybody.
Now she turned her eyes to Ladybug. She gave her a puzzled look, and then as if recognizing the heroine, raised her brow and exclaimed 'Well, well! Look what the cat dragged in?'
Chat gulped and glimpsed at his Lady, but she seemed motionless, pinned by Dreamcatcher's cold stare. Ladybug returned her gaze with the most fiery look of her own, and the two just stood there for a while, locked eye to eye in silent competition. Chat was vaguely aware there was something going on between them, something he couldn't quite perceive. Dreamcatcher was the first one to take her eyes off Ladybug, as she released a soft laugh. 'Rest assured, we'll meet again, girl,' she whispered as if ending a conversation obscured to anyone but the two of them.
Then she clicked her fingers and disappeared in a whirlwind that also took all of her minions away.
'That… that was…' Chat was the first to regain his voice, though apparently not enough of coherent thought. Ladybug recovered faster.
'Weird, to say the least. Did you see what happened to that Akuma?' Her voice was calm, but her eyes were two dark lakes of worry. Chat wondered, what happened during the stare contest, because she was clearly shaken to the bone. Well, he wasn't really feeling any better, especially with the reminder of his dream.
'Yes, he de-transformed under that shockwave. I've never seen anything like that before.' The boy was glad that his voice didn't tremble. For a moment he considered whether he should tell his partner about his dream, but decided against it. 'I have a feeling that this is important, but what could that mean?'
Ladybug seemed to contemplate his words. 'Hmmm, I have a few hypotheses but I don't like any of them. Do you think our kwamis could provide us with the answer to that question?'
Chat thought it was worth a shot, although Plagg wasn't exactly his idea of helpfulness and wisdom. 'I hope so. Either way I have no doubt that there's a new villain in the neighborhood. We should prepare ourselves for that, although I'll be damned if I know how or for what exactly.'
'Same here.' The heroine looked clueless for the first time since their first encounter. She fell silent for a moment before asking 'Chat, are you all right? You don't look good if you don't mind me saying that. I know there's a lot going on, but you look just… extremely tired.' She raised her brow and continued hesitantly. 'And… I've noticed… it's been a few days since your last lame joke. You didn't even pick up on Dreamcatcher's pun...' There was sincere concern in her voice, but Chat stuck with his resolve not to share his problems, especially with someone who hitherto didn't appreciate his pawsome puns. The truth was, she didn't look much better than him, what with all that fighting that'd been going on lately.
'It's nothing that my Lady should worry about,' he said instead. 'Let's see how things are going to work out, and meet in a few days in the usual place to compare notes after our talks with kwamis, shall we?'
'Sounds like a good plan. We'll be in touch. Bug out!' she called throwing her yoyo and leaping to a distant rooftop. As he watched her leaving he couldn't shake of the feeling, that there was a look of disappointment in her bluebell eyes.
Author's Note:
Trivia. Dreamcatcher's string of pearls was inspired by a real one – a necklace of pearls owned by Daisy, Princess of Pless. It was 6,7 meters long. Legend says that those pearls were cursed by a pearl diver who died while collecting them. He claimed that the owner of those pearls would never be happy and indeed the Princess didn't get much luck in future years blaming the cursed necklace.
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