Pavona watched as Destruction saved her from Creations wrath. As the darkness took over Chat Noirs figure, she felt her fear return. Why was she so terrified of him? She urged her legs to move as a black smoke came out of the hugging gods in front of her, and a moment later an unconscious Marinette- With her mask still on- was being carefully held by the monster.
Then those toxic green eyes looked at her, and her body finally reacted to her commands. She started running towards her golem, the sentimonster was made to defeat her fear, right? He would protect her!
She hadn't given it any new order since she left it pounding on Carapaces shield distracted by the other events, and she noticed how she had been fooled this whole time. The two heroes and their protections were all an illusion. Where were the real ones? She briefly wondered, looking around as she climbed to her sentimonsters shoulder.
Destruction hadn't moved from his spot at the side of the unconscious heroine, and Pavona saw why. Dragon and moth were both watching, ready to take the earrings from the girl as soon as she was left alone. The villainess recovered her wits as she realized the god would not pursue her, at least not yet. But she was trapped here just like everyone else, the tornado still surrounding the area.
''You can't escape, child. Get those jewels'' Pavona heard the ghost voice say, jumping a little in surprise at her sudden presence.
She didn't need another reminder that her time was limited. She crossed a line with her abuse of the peacock miraculous, and she was going to pay the price as soon as she detransformed. She could feel it. But how was she going to win this on her own? Those two had proven themselves useless already.
''We will protect her'' Said Carapace as he and Rena approached the unconscious girl in the floor and the god that loomed over her in silence.
Nino was not sure until now if Adrien was in control or not, but when Destruction nodded and turned to face Pavona and her golem, he knew that he was. He couldn't decide what was the saddest option, his bro losing control because he got overwhelmed by this disaster, or him making the choice of transforming again, knowing full well the consequences could ruin his life forever. Then again, Adrien's life was never gonna be the same anyways after tonight, thought the turtle remembering that his best friend's identity was not a secret anymore.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Rena at his side call for help. The dragon and the moth were both about to attack them to take the earrings, and they had no time to mourn this terrible night yet.
Destruction started chasing Pavona around the room, the girl just using her golems incredible speed to stay way ahead of his range. He had no intention of really hurting her, but it was time she faced the consequences of her actions.
Soon after he left Carapace and Rena protecting his lady, the wind wall dropped, indicating that they probably defeated the dragon wielder already. In hindsight, it was obvious it would be easier as the adult had used two of the three powers already, and the moth had no more Akumas to make.
Pavona saw this as her chance to run away from the venue, but he predicted her intentions and blocked her exit. On the corner of his vision he saw that all the people that before were hiding under tables and hugging each other in fear in the corners were now trying to get out. They took the chance to run for the door as soon as Destruction stopped blocking it to keep chasing Pavona.
Eventually he caught one of the golems legs, and though it did not vanish as almost everything else he touched did, it did made the monster trip, sending the girl in his shoulders flying out towards the floor. She landed hard but lifted herself up soon enough. She looked around in desperation and her eyes widened bigger as she saw that neither of her allies were in sight anymore.
Destruction ignored the golem and walked towards the blue girl, who started hyperventilating. But then he stopped in his tracks as he saw someone else besides her.
A woman dressed in what looked like an old mongolian war attire, decorated with peacock feathers. She was smiling at Pavona as she talked to her.
''Do the trick I taught you the other day'' Said the woman, and her voice was ethereal and echoing around.
Destruction decided to ignore the apparition and walk towards Pavona again, who nodded nervously as the voice spoke to her, then the girl started crying. The piece of wood she had been holding this whole time shone a deep blue, and the god heard a furious growl behind him. He looked back, and noticed that the golem was twice the size it was before and the flame that enveloped his shape was emitting a hot blast of pure energy that even Destruction had a hard time not recoiling to.
''Oh no'' Muttered Carapace at her side as Rena Rouge was trying to wake Marinette up.
They let the dragon and the moth escape after the two of them probably realized they were not winning this time. Both of them had used almost all their powers, and after the dragon attempted a water attack and they repelled it successfully, they ran away. Rena didn't want to let them go, but they couldn't just leave Marinette alone like this.
The fox heroine lifted her vision to see the golem that was not as intimidating as she thought it should be before, transforming into what looked like a leveled up version of itself. How was that possible? She thought as the glanced at Pavona, who was clutching a piece of wood as she cried on the floor, trembling pathetically.
She knew Destruction was extremely powerful, but she also knew that this monster was made specifically to fight him. And if somehow Pavona's increased fear made it more powerful...
''He needs our help'' Said the turtle hero and she had to agree after a couple of seconds of watching Destruction not do any damage to the golem.
The wind suddenly stopped blowing and blocking their path, Viperion immediately took this chance to finally get inside the room. He called for his power as soon as he was at a decent distance from the action.
He used his first second chance to just watch and try to understand what happened.
Marinette was unconscious on the floor but her identity was still safe, apparently. Rena Rouge and Carapace were trying to wake her up and protecting her. There was no sight of the adult miraculous users, which kind of made sense since the tornado stopped to let him in, and the guests and media people were trying to escape now that they could.
The elephant of the room, however, was the enormous golem that was fighting against a dark figure. He recognized the sentimonster, though it seemed to be bigger and scarier than before. It took him awhile but he finally located Pavona cowering on the floor, holding her Amok object with both her hands and trembling violently.
''What are you waiting for? We need to do something!'' Said Chloe by his side.
''I'm doing something'' He said as he ran towards the fox and the turtle first. Their jewels were beeping loudly, their time before transforming back shorter and shorter. Even after all their training, they probably had less than five minutes.
They were surprised to see him, like they forgot he was supposed to be there too. It kind of hurt, but he didn't blame them after they told him what occurred as he was unable to help or watch. He asked as many details as he could, and the four of them started formulating a plan to end this once and for all.
It only took two second chances to defeat Pavona's golem.
The sentimonster was powerful, but once he recalled time with all the information he needed, distracting it while Destruction went after Pavona again was almost too easy to be true. The monster's strength and speed were formidable, but they only needed to distract him long enough for the god to destroy the object Pavona held. The five minutes almost passed completely when the golem finally vanished, and the heroes were about to transform back, exhausted. Thankfully everyone else in the room evacuated already, and no one dared to enter yet as Alya, Nino and Viperion laid on the floor, sweating and panting. Ok, it was not easy, but compared to the other fifteen thousand fights he previously failed to win against the creature, this was a welcomed surprise. Then again, those other times the numbers were a bit more even.
But the job was not done yet, there was one more thing left to do. Pavona.
He looked around to see where the girl and the god were, but he didn't need to search for long as he saw her running past all of them towards the door, crying for her life. She was still transformed, so the snake hero guessed she just dropped the object for Destruction to, well, destroy it, and ran away. As predicted, the still transformed force of nature chased after her, only to finally catch her right after she opened the doors.
As that was happening, Viperion heard a groan coming from the other side of the room: Marinette was waking up.
Adrien's conscience was getting annoyed at chasing Pavona so much. Destruction was powerful, but he had the same speed of any other transformed miraculous wielder, so the girl kept being able to escape him. He finally grabbed her arm after she had to stop to open the doors, revealing a bunch of officers and cameras waiting outside.
He didn't have any more time to waste, so he did what he had to do so long ago. His right dark claw approached the girls forehead while she sobbed in fear. Silly Lila, he thought, he wasn't going to kill her. Just delete her memories, her connection to the peacock miraculous and her curse. As he was about to do it, he heard a loud scream resonating around him.
The same woman dressed in an old mongolian attire appeared next to them, and started talking to him.
''If you keep doing that, I'll make sure you regret it!'' She threatened, but for the way she waved her hands and circled around him like a vulture, he knew that she really couldn't do anything. She was just a ghost.
He ignored her and finished the job, and Pavona's transformation dropped while he held her in his arms, limp.
''She was perfect!'' Said the ghost one more time before Destructions form finally dropped. He had been holding it for so long, longer than ever before. An exhaustion wave overcame his body and he kneeled, not being able to hold Lila's unmoving body any longer.
People around him gasped, and he knew he had cameras pointing at him, but at this point it didn't even matter, did it? The damage was already done. He started to stand up, his legs shaking as he did, leaving the girl in the floor as tenderly as he could. The first person to move was a paramedic, who immediately checked Lila's vitals.
Adrien's heart sank when he saw the man shake his head, and even before he announced that the girl was dead, more horrified gasps coming from the crowd. The boy turned around to look at the door as he recognized one of them.
Marinette, still dressed up and mask covering her face, stood at the top of the stairs next to the giant doors. She was holding both hands close to where her mouth was as she stared at the scene.
''He killed her…'' Someone whispered, and then others joined.
He looked at Marinette one more time, and saw that there were tears coming down from behind her mask. It was such a weird thing, knowing she was crying behind that petrified smile. He realized as he had that thought that he was in shock again. People were starting to get closer to him after they got over whatever apprehensions they had. He glanced at a couple officers, ready with handcuffs.
''Kid, move!'' Adrien heard Plagg say to his ear, and at the same time he noticed Marinette was trying to get closer too. No, Paris still needed Ladybug, he thought.
His body finally responded, and he gestured for her to stop moving before he darted away from the place. The men in charge of arresting him probably were not expecting Adrien Agreste, sunshine boy and model, to run away from the law like that, so it took them a while to start chasing him. But it was too late, as the advantage he already had was enough for him to vanish into the night.
Marinette could barely see as the tears covered the mask. But she couldn't take it off, she couldn't follow Adrien, she couldn't stop being Ladybug. No matter how much she wanted to, his hand signaling for her to stop before he ran away was enough to remind her that one of them being a public enemy was enough.
She sniffed, then quickly went back inside to get her friends out of there before anyone else's life got ruined.
They were all standing up and waiting for her and Chat Noir to return, and as they realized he was not coming their shoulders dropped. The first one to react was Nino.
''Where is Adrien?'' The Dj asked, and Marinette ignored him, knowing that if she tried to answer their questions right now the tears wouldn't stop.
The only thing she could manage to say was a constricted ´´Let's get out of here´´ before she continued to walk, searching for the backdoor of the place. The others followed her after some hesitation, and she would always be grateful for their blind faith in her. That's what she asked of the city less than an hour ago, wasn't it? She thought bitterly. Faith and trust. And the first thing she did as the fight got difficult was lose control. And now her partner paid the price. She felt the tears starting to resurface against her will.
She decided to stop thinking until she was safe, not sure if she wanted to ever think of anything ever again.