Chapter 14

*Ladybug POV*

My heartbeat marks the milliseconds.

Ba-dum.

I watch as Hawkmoth brings down his sword, and scream.

Ba-dum.

It's inches from Chat's chest.

Ba-dum.

NO!

Ba-dum.

A clang of solid on metal reverberates through the room, and my eyes snap open and follow a brown object flying through the air, landing into the hands of someone standing in the entrance.

The sword that was slicing through the air had brushed against Chat's chest, but the object had sent it flying across the room.

Hawkmoth whips his head up, and sees the smirk on Master Fu's face as, at his side, an assassin with brown hair and a green-ish suit catches the boomerang whipping back to him.

My heart was beating so fast I assumed the entire room echoed its panic.

"Lady Wifi, get Ladybug." Master says. In an instant she's standing over me, lifting my smaller body easily into her arms, carrying me away from Chat.

I try to resist, but her soothing voice almost puts me to sleep with the added blood loss.

"Hawkmoth." Master Fu says. I can barely hear him from the rushing sound in my ears.

My heartbeat is slowing.

"Coward." Hawkmoth regards him, "What are you doing here? I didn't forget some dinner plans or anything, did I?" He smiles through his slightly veiled rage.

"Let Chat go." Master says, and the others from Miraculous pour through the doorway, fanning out to either side of him. "Let him go." He repeats.

God, I can't even see properly.

Chat is still bound, gasping through the gag, with his eyes splayed wide. He hadn't moved since Master had appeared.

But he's alive.

He's freaking alive.

Hawkmoth studies him for a moment, then shrugs. "Okay." He lifts his boot, and draws his leg back, kicking Chat in the stomach, sending his body rolling away a few metres.

Chat groans, and I start to move against Lady Wifi's grip, but she doesn't let up.

"Shall we?" Hawkmoth says, and makes a hand gesture. His men come down from the ceiling, and form a thick semi-circle behind him.

Master Fu widens his stance, and hefts a dagger. "Let's."

*Chat POV*

Their battle commences quickly, and the moment their weapons clash the men around them herd towards the group of Miraculous Assassins, completely sure their Master would prevail.

No. How wrong they are. Master Fu is superior, there is no point worrying for him.

As Lady Wifi takes Ladybug away, the assassin with the boomerang comes and takes me out of my binds.

"Thanks." I splutter, the moment the gag is removed.

"Hey, no problem." He smiles, and I look onto his face. Something is really familiar about it…

No time. I chide myself mentally, and quickly hop to my feet and turn towards the action.

Assassins were swiping backwards and forwards, and it was clear the enemy assassins were far inferior to us in skill. But they outnumbered us five to one.

As each assassin took on about four to six at once, they were almost immediately overwhelmed, but nonetheless they held their ground.

What tenacious weirdos.

Taking out my baton (my favourite weapon, even if Ladybug teases me about it frequently) I leapt into action, and quickly shoved my concerns for her out of the way.

She's fine.

It's hard to convince myself with her screaming in pain in the background through the muffled sounds of people stabbing each other to death.

"You must focus on the task more demanding."

Master Fu's words from when he was first training us come back to me as I glance back in her direction, but shake my head slightly.

"No matter the situation, you must choose to save your own life over anyone else's."

His voice reigns over all the other things I'm feeling. Turning completely away from her now, I sprint and attack someone from behind, killing him with one blow.

I also remember what I said earlier. I said I would rather die than live in a world without her. But I can't focus on her right now. My other friends, my other comrades, they're waiting for me to help them.

Time to focus. I'm sorry Ladybug. Right now, I'm going to leave you behind.

Don't worry, though.

You'll catch up.

*Ladybug POV*

From my spot on the floor, I had the best view of all the fighting going on throughout the cavernous room.

Each spar and block echoed, each scream ricocheted, each yell reverberated, and the sound of a body falling to the floor resounded vividly in my ears.

One. Two. Three…

People were falling everywhere, yet every Miraculous member was still standing.

Six. Seven…

I watched as a person I didn't know, with an expression of utter confusion fell to the ground, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to exist anymore.

They were finished.

They were over.

They no longer 'were' anything, for they simply ceased to exist by the hand of another.

Taking life was an art, especially when the one taking the life had merits as to why the other deserved to die.

But this? Us?

We never killed for a reason other than we were either payed to, or told to by someone in charge.

We killed mercilessly.

Without reason other than to defeat an enemy that was of no threat to anyone but ourselves, and the only reason they were a threat to us was because we attacked first.

Does that make us selfish for wanting to save our lives rather than sacrifice it so many others may live? Or does it simply make us humans? For is it not human intuition that drives us to save ourselves over someone else?

Would it have been better, would the world have many more people in it, if I hadn't been born in the first place?

Who knows.

Someone yelled out in pain, and it was a voice I recognised.

Chat.

Finding where he was, I nearly fainted. He was kneeling, about four men surrounding him in order to hold him down.

Looking at him now, I felt something strange tug at my stomach. It was a demanding sensation, unrelenting and insanely powerful. It made me want to move. It made me want to scream.

I also felt something else. Looking at him now, it almost felt like he was leaving me behind. It wasn't like he was abandoning me, no. It was more like he was teasing me. Taunting me to catch up to him.

Like I'm gonna let you leave me behind.

But right now, he was being overwhelmed.

"Chat…" I had intended to yell to him, but it became the sound of a raspy plea. "Chat, no…"

"Ladybug, stay here." Lady Wifi tells me, after setting me up on the furthest away support structure.

"No, I can't, I need…" My words faded as my vision did, and I watched Chat spring into action, easily escaping their grasp again.

Oh, he's okay…

"Chat is fine." Lady Wifi said, noticing my line of sight. "So stay here, Nate is grabbing some medical stuff, he's coming over here right now."

"Ah, cool." I muttered, slumping down.

"I have to go." She said, and I noticed her staring after the boy that had come in with the boomerang earlier. He had a dark-ish complexion, and relatively short brown hair, as well as glasses.

How does he keep them on…? I wonder deliriously, and shudder as Lady Wifi lets me go and sprints in his direction.

A little later, maybe thirty seconds, someone comes bursting in, and I'm the only one not too far into action to notice.

It's Nathanael. I instantly relax, remembering Lady Wifi's words. He's here to heal me up.

I look at him until he notices me, and his eyes scan me before widening, shock and horror blanketing his features, as he starts sprinting towards me.

"Ladybug, w-what happened–"

"It's okay, just patch me up."

And he does. In one second, he has me with only a light shirt on, with bandages wrapping my wound with gauze and some type of paste, meanwhile people were still falling and fighting. Nate does it so quickly that I barely register it, but he won't let me stand.

"No, Ladybug. You have to rest." He says, calmly. In fact, far too calmly. The kind of calm one thinks looks normal to other people when barely containing some form of rage. I pretend I don't notice, simply out of reflex.

"Nate, really, I have to–"

"Ladybug, honestly you're not in shape to–"

"No, Nate, I really need–"

"Fine!" He snaps, but he yanks me back down as he does so anyway.

That was too easy. That was way too easy.

"At least drink this." He pulls something out of the little satchel he has with him, and beside us Lady Wifi screams when someone hits her in the shin.

I wince, but Nathanael doesn't waver, he simply continues to hold out the thing he wanted me to drink with unblinking eyes.

The vial he holds is half-full with a roiling black liquid, and it moves in such a way it makes it look almost alive. With a start, I realise it's exactly like the stuff in the science lab behind the blackboard upstairs.

Oh God, no.

I panic slightly.

"Look, Nathanael, I don't have time–"

He responds by shoving the rim against my lips, and tipping my head backwards to slide it down my throat.

What?

"I'm sorry Ladybug." He sounded like he was sad, but I didn't get a chance to look, I was too busy sputtering and gasping with every full breath of air that mixed with the liquid.

Some of it slid down my throat. I felt it sticking there, clogging and reshaping inside of me.

Oh Gods.

The rest I managed to catch before it went down fully, by coming to my senses and punching Nate in the stomach so he would let go.

He gasps and moans before curling into a foetal position on the floor, clutching his middle with both arms.

I am on my hands and knees, coughing and gagging up the stuff he tried to get me to swallow. It was slightly sticky, and only now do I realise where I remember it from originally.

"They know it was some kind of poisoning, though." Tikki says.

"How so?"

"Each victim had some weird black-ish liquid in the backs of their throats."

"Jesus…"

The Miraculous Assassins victimised to Hawkmoth had the same stuff inside of them.

Nate was trying to poison me?

Nate, sweet, blushing, and always reliable, was the person responsible for killing all the Miraculous Assassins.

I only am still here because I just vomited it all up.

I turn to him, and he seems to realise what I know.

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"I just… I…"

I narrow my eyes, and stand tall, so I'm over him. "Why?" I repeat, wanting him to know just how superior I am to him. He gulps.

"I sympathised with Hawkmoth."

I widen my eyes. "What?"

"His story," Nate explains, "I understood it very well. He loved someone, and he lost that someone because of someone else. I just… I understood that. He wanted revenge for it." His eyes darken slightly. "I understand that too."

I am slightly heartbroken at the sight before me. He looked so feeble, so afraid. Like a cornered animal he cowered underneath me, as if he was scared I might hurt him. But at the same time he was unrelenting.

Complete determination was on his face, but his eyes were terrified.

He truly believed he was doing what was right.

Would I be able to do the same? I killed without meaning. I destroyed without a cause.

Maybe I don't deserve to live.

"Nate, leave." I spit.

He turns to me. "Really?"

"Just get out. I'll give you one minute," I said that because I knew he was still in pain, "before I kill you if you aren't out of this room."

His eyes widen, and he scrambles to his feet, whirling back towards the door. Then, he turns back to me, hesitating, before striding over to whisper to me. I don't have the strength to start away.

"Volpina isn't a Miraculous Assassin." His words hiss in my ear.

"What?" I shriek, jumping backwards. I don't get shocked easily.

He looks around as if someone would have heard us through all the noise. "I said she's not an assassin. Well, she is, but she works for Hawkmoth."

"Like you?" I bite.

Meowch. Inside my head, Chat speaks.

Not now, Chat, shut up.

He winces. "Ladybug please, I'm trying to help you."

I look into his eyes, and he's pleading me. I decide in a split second. "Fine, is there anyone else?"

"No, it was just us."

"Okay. Thank you, Nate."

"No problem."

"Now get the fuck out."

Joining back into the fight was a terrible, terrible idea. I managed to throw one knife before blood loss made me fall over, and Chat had to carry me to the side.

"What the heck were you doing?"

"Helping?" I try.

"Then don't, you're making it harder for me."

I glare at him, then do a double take when I realise there are two 'him's. "Woah, you have a twin." I laugh, then realise I sound insane.

He puts me on the floor on a faraway support pillar, and then looks me in the eye. "Stay here, you hear me?"

I nod, weakly. "Yeah."

He nods back, grinning. "Gotta blast."

Everyone was fighting.

Lady Wifi, that boomerang dude, that guy, that… I'm pretty sure I know… Man, I can't think right now. I wonder how much blood people need in order to function properly?

I look to Hawkmoth and Master Fu's battle, and I can hear the words they're saying to each other over the noise, just barely.

I seem to have missed the start of their conversation.

"You were always an annoyance, Fu." He readies his cane-sword, and lunges at Master Fu, but Fu deflects it or dodges it, and I'm too bleary-eyed to figure out which.

Stay awake.

"I don't think that's what you always believed, Hawk." Master responds.

"Oh? How so?" He sounds teasing, but pissed as well.

"I was your best man at your wedding." He states.

I'm going to be a bridesmaid. I think, cheerfully.

"I graduated with you and your would-be wife." He continues, "I watched you become one of the best assassins in the world, all the while standing by your side."

Hawkmoth grits his teeth, and swipes at him with his sword again.

Oh? He must have picked it up again.

"So what? I always hated you." Hawkmoth continues.

"No, you didn't."

"You were an insignificant fool." Hawkmoth draw his face closer to Fu's, and only now do I notice Fu had no weapon. He was fighting in full green-ish light-weight body armour, and yet, he was without a blade, or weapon of any kind.

He can't fight properly without a weapon.

"You were so… inferior. And yet, you climbed the ranks faster than I did. I hated you for it."

"But, after that, you took over." Master says, gasping for breath. They must have been fighting for a while. The two of them were standing apart from the fray of the others, circling.

"Yes, that is true. But." He says, and stabs the sword through Masters thigh.

No.

How could that have happened so easily? I don't understand! Master!

I scramble to my knees, and start trying to yell, but everyone else's attention was on something or someone else.

No.

Master yells in pain, and at that, Hawkmoth twists the blade now severing his muscles, skin and veins.

Master is too far away. God, no.

It's happening too fast.

Stop.

"Plead." Hawkmoth says, through a maniac grin.

That bastard.

I try to stand. I fall. I don't have time.

Master, you need a weapon! Fight back, please!

"What?" Master gasps, through his agony. Master!

"I said, plead." Hawkmoth repeats, as Master Fu falls to his knees, in front of the overbearing man, the blade still protruding through his thigh, blood now spreading morbidly down his clothes.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I have… done nothing…" Master wheezes. "that allows me… able to beg… for my life."

No! Fu, stop!

"What?" Hawkmoth stiffens, but twists the blade again.

"Well," Master begins, but shudders as Hawkmoth removes the blade, sliding it out of his wound disgustingly slowly. Hawkmoth then draws it back, ready to stab it in again.

Master Fu continues speaking. "Maybe I don't deserve to live."

I scream, and this time it works. All the Miraculous assassins turn their heads slightly at me, and then turn to the Master when they see where I'm looking.

They stop.

Then, each one, starts to run.

Every single one of them leaves themselves wide open, to run to him.

They forget whoever they were fighting, for that person no longer matters.

They are sprinting, gasping, leaping to get to him, trying to save him.

Please. Save him…

I watch as Hawkmoth stabs his blade forward, and I almost expect a boomerang to whip it out of the air again.

But, it doesn't.

Stop.

Time. I don't have any time. I can't do anything. Help, someone. Please.

The blade slips through the crack in his armour.

A sickening sound reaches my ears, and Master Fu coughs. He coughs up red. Deep crimson.

Master Fu falls.

He doesn't get back up.