CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
DESPERATE RESCUE
She chased Alya through the streets with her basket of bread.
She lifted the black box off the stone pedestal.
She kissed Cat Noir in the light of the setting sun.
She stared at her new reflection as Tikki transformed her into a princess.
She looked up into Volpina's hateful green eyes as the enchantress lifted the crooked dagger above her head.
Then, in a flash of lightning, Volpina changed into Lila. But those eyes – enamouring and filled with a lust for power – remained the same.
Marinette gasped awake when she started falling through the air.
Waves of dark blue came rushing up to meet her. The scent of salt and seaweed clogged her nose when Marinette inhaled sharply. She heard Alya screaming beside her. And Nino too.
Then they hit water.
The sudden, hard cold almost made Marinette scream in agony. But then her face submerged, and she struggled to contain whatever breath she had left beneath her gag. Something heavy dragged her and her friends down, down, down – deep into the quiet, shivering darkness.
Marinette squirmed in her shackles and looked up to see the flat surface shrinking further and further away. Her lungs began to itch.
Then the fall was over, and Marinette grunted as her feet touched soft sand. She tried to turn around, but Alya and Nino moved whenever she did. That's when Marinette realized more chains were wrapped around the three of them, securing them back-to-back.
Her lungs were burning now, but Marinette thought more about Alya and Nino. Her two friends struggled to break free, but the blunette could tell their strength was quickly leaving them. Soon, they all wouldn't be able to hold back the ocean pressing against them any longer. They would drown, alone and unseen in the dark. No one would know where they had gone. No one would find them in time.
No, Marinette thought, squeezing her eyes shut and pulling harder on her chains. Her heart pounded. Her oxygen was depleting. This can't be happening! She had to get back to the palace. To warn Adrien. To stop Lila.
No – to stop Volpina.
It all came clear now. That's how Lila was able to get Roger and the guards to do her bidding so easily. And by robbing Lila of the Miraculous, Marinette had unwittingly forced her to play a deadlier hand.
Her eyes snapped open. The Miraculous!
Marinette rubbed her earrings against her shoulder. Tikki, she begged as spots danced around in her vision. Help us! Save us!
Nothing happened.
The kwami's words echoed in Marinette's mind: I can't help you unless you make a wish, remember?
Marinette felt Nino sagging against her, his cold fingers brushing against hers. She felt Alya reaching for them. One found Nino's hand. The other found Marinette's. Alya squeezed them both tightly.
Marinette knew what she had to do.
Her lungs burst, water flooded in, and Marinette thought with all her remaining strength: Tikki, I wish for you to save us!
She felt a thousand hot needles in her chest, stabbing her so fast Marinette begged for anything to make it stop.
Then the pain ebbed off, and an eerie sort of calm settled over her. Tiny bubbles streamed out from the corners of her gag. Her mind went blank. The seafloor seemed to be reaching out to her.
And Marinette closed her eyes.
Alya had awoken earlier than her friend.
The guards had just finished strapping a large iron ball to the centre of a chain – one that joined the thief's shackles together with Nino's. And Marinette's.
There was absolutely nothing Alya could do as she was heaved over the edge of the small cliff. She screamed through the bitter rag in her mouth and a surge of wind screamed past her.
Alya barely had time to take a breath before they collided with the water below. The numbing cold did some part to ease the hard sting of the crash, but it did nothing to ease the terror in Alya's heart.
When they landed on the seafloor, Alya tugged against her bonds. Nino and Marinette must've woken up sometime during the fall because they were squirming behind her now.
This wasn't supposed to happen. Alya had just been talking with Nino in the gardens – explaining to him who she really was, how she had met Marinette, and how she was helping her to win the heart of the prince. To her surprise, the tanned-skinned boy never gave any indications he was disgusted or hysterical. In fact, Nino had listened intently, like it meant something to him.
And when Alya had finished, Nino merely nodded in response and said, "I guess 'Ladybug' isn't the only one who got lucky, huh?" The way he had said that, and the sincere look he gave her afterwards, made Alya's heart flutter.
No, she'd thought, maybe she wasn't the only lucky one after all.
And now, as the weight of the sea began to crush her, Alya wondered if she had been cursed with bad luck from the very beginning.
That witch Lila had followed them and used her amulet to subdue the pair long enough for her cronies to tie them up. It was the very same pendant Alya remembered Volpina using against her once before.
And now Nino was going to die... because Alya dragged him into this.
Just then, the thief felt large fingers caressing her own. They came from the person to her right – Nino.
If one could shed tears underwater, Alya would have done so. But all she could do was reach behind her and grasp that boy's hand. Her other one found Marinette's.
During her days of scavenging for food in the streets of Agreste, Alya always thought she would die alone, with no one and nothing to mourn her or remember her. Now, for a brief moment, Alya felt a strange sense of solace inside her.
But then she felt Marinette's grip loosen, her fingers going limp.
The pain in Alya's heart returned...
...just as a bright red light appeared in front of her!
"Brrrrrrr!" Tikki shivered as bubbles exploded around her. "This is no good time for a swim, that's for sure!"
If Alya hadn't been holding her breath, she would have shouted the kwami's name.
"Don't worry!" Tikki said as she began to glow. "I'll get you all out of here!"
A strange, horn-like sound emitted from the kwami, and she transformed into a massive German U-boat.
Alya felt herself being scooped up. Then a great rush of water and wind filled her ears.
Like a spinning twister, they flew out of the sea and landed safely back on the cliff.
Alya fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Her chains were already gone.
Nino sputtered and spat out water, lifting himself up. Alya smiled through her coughing, thrilled to see him alive.
But then her face paled at seeing Marinette sprawled beside her, frighteningly motionless. "Marinette!" Alya cried, crawling over and rolling her best friend onto her back.
The girl's face looked so peaceful, so serene, she could be sleeping. But her skin bore the shade of a white corpse, and no sound or breath left her blue-tinged lips.
Alya gripped her by the shoulders and shook her hard. "Wake up!" Her voice was strained from her earlier coughing fit. "Damn it, you stupid bug – WAKE UP!"
"Alya, move over!"
The thief barely had time to register Nino's shout before she was thrown off Marinette. Alya scrambled back to her knees, ready to give the manservant a good punch to the jaw...
...until she saw Nino kissing Marinette.
That's what it looked like at first, until Tikki blurted out fearfully, "Chest compressions, now!"
Nino overlapped his hands over Marinette's heart. He pressed down quickly and drew back. He did the same thing again. And again. And again.
Alya watched aghast as Nino made her friend's chest rise and fall using nothing but sheer man-power, occasionally giving the girl a breath of air to fill her lungs.
Finally, water blew out of Marinette's mouth, and her bluebell eyes snapped open.
Alya let out a shaky gasp as her friend rolled over and heaved the ocean out of her lungs. She prepared to pounce on Marinette and embrace her until the next sunrise...
"Give her a minute," Nino urged, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Let her breathe."
Alya stared absent-mindedly at him, tears finally flowing down her cheeks. "How did you do that?" she uttered.
"Just because I'm a palace servant, doesn't mean I don't know how to save a life," Nino remarked proudly. "Adrien and I practically took a whole house safety lesson together. It was the longest day of my life, but it paid off in the end, didn't it?"
Marinette's coughing was the only answer he received. Well, that and a whopping kiss from Alya on the mouth.
Nino's brown sugar cheeks turned a shade of dusty rose.
Marinette finally wiped her mouth and stared at her best friend with a lazy eyebrow. "Stupid bug?" she croaked.
This time, nothing could stop Alya from pulling the blunette into a fierce, sisterly hug. "Don't you scare me like that!" she whimpered, her face wet with fresh tears.
Marinette melted into her arms and hugged her back, her breaths coming out easier with each new one.
Tikki thrummed next to the two girls just as they pulled apart. "You were scared?" she said to Alya exasperatedly. "How would you feel if your master suddenly makes a wish and then you appear only to find her half-drowned on the bottom of the ocean?!" The kwami flew right up to Marinette and cupped her chin. "I don't know what I would have done if... if you hadn't... if I hadn't...!"
Alya blinked, looking between the little red bug and her little red princess. "You... used your second wish?"
Marinette nodded with a small smile. "Well... technically... I thought it," she panted, "but I knew... Tikki would hear." She tapped her magic miracle earrings. "Besides, I couldn't just... let us all drown." She glanced back at Tikki and smiled. "Tikki... thank you."
The kwami beamed and snuggled up against Marinette's cheek – a notion Alya guessed was the kwami equivalent of a hug.
"Aw, Marinette," Tikki sighed. "You truly are the Chosen One."
"Chosen what?" Nino asked out of the blue. He turned to Alya. "Wait, is she talking about the Miracle... whatever-it-was?"
Alya winced when she saw Marinette's mouth fall open and her eyes dilate at her. Busted, Alya thought with a nervous chuckle. "He knows," she admitted.
"Hey, listen," Nino quickly said to the baffled blunette. "For what it's worth, I don't care if you're a princess or a baker or an actual ladybug. I've seen how Adrien acts around you, and..." He shrugged with a sheepish grin. "I've honestly never seen him happier before you came along. So, as long as you love him back... well, I wouldn't want to ruin his happiness or anything just because of some silly old law, you know?"
Alya rolled her eyes and spoke, "What Nino is trying to say is that your secret – our secret, I should say," she caught Tikki's raised eyebrows, "is safe with him."
Nino nodded enthusiastically. "Cross my heart!"
Tikki gave him a perky grin. "Sounds all right to me. The way I see it, Marinette, you owe him that much for helping to save your life."
Alya caught Marinette smiling thoughtfully at that.
"Helping?" Nino blurted out with wounded pride. "All you did, Bugzy, was heave us out of the water! If it weren't for me, she'd –!"
"Will you come off it already?" Alya groaned. "In case it slipped your mind, we've got a bigger problem on our hands."
Marinette nodded and stood up, her eyes narrowed. "She's right. Adrien and the king are in danger."
Nino stiffened upon hearing those words... and then he leapt up and put on a serious stank face. "If Lila thinks I'm going let her mess with my man," he grumbled, "then she doesn't know this "annoying errand boy"."
Alya grinned. "Then let's go clip that fox's tail off!" She announced with a clenched fist.
Tikki nodded. "I can get us back there in no time," she said as she waved her tiny arms.
Alya winced as she was lifted off the ground once more. But as they zipped through the air like little red comets, she felt Nino's hand grasp hers.
"You know something?" he called to her over the roar of the wind, "You've kind of grown on me, Lady Wifi." He then paused and muttered, "Not that I want to pick out curtains or anything."
Alya could scarcely contain her laughter.