Whose Side Are You On?

Marinette tried to scramble to her feet, but it was as if Carmine's presence was a giant weight keeping her crushed to the ground. She couldn't move. Panic clawed at her chest and squeezed her lungs. Even with the tree gone, the steady thump, thump continued to pulse through her body, reverberating through her bones.

Carmine's smile widened. "I have waited a long time for this." She approached like a stiff wind-up toy, her movements a bit slow at first but quickly getting smoother. "Time to fulfil your destiny, child."

Marinette squeezed her eyes shut. "Cat!"

It was a desperate plea. He still wanted to protect her. He still had to be in there somewhere.

There was a thunk of boots hitting the ground close to her and then arms scooped her up, holding her against a firm chest. She opened her eyes and met frozen blue. For once, the colour didn't bother her.

"Go ahead!" Blanc hissed at Carmine, adjusting his grip on Marinette so he could free up one hand. A blue sphere swelled from his palm, crackling with destructive magic. "Try and touch her!"

Carmine paused and tilted her head. "You're the god of destruction …" Creases formed on her brow. "No, something is off about you. I sense an akuma's taint."

An akuma? Was that the butterfly that had gone into his robe?

"Well, no matter," Carmine said, narrowing her eyes. "Anyone who gets in my way is my enemy."

Blanc fuelled more magic into the sphere.

"No, son!" Hawkmoth cried. "You mustn't hurt Carmine! She's linked to your wife now! They have to—"

Mayura swung viciously at Hawkmoth's face with her fans. "Enough of this. Sentimonster, just kill them both! Hurry!"

The sentimonster blasted away the rubble under which he had got trapped and aimed his own destructive sphere at Marinette and Blanc. Marinette's heart lurched. Blanc growled and swung around to face him. Then all she could see was dazzling white—twin lightning flashes of ice that collided with sickening force. The castle trembled. The ground shook and heaved up stones in fractured pieces. When the dust cleared, a blackened hole was left in the middle of the courtyard. Even Carmine had been forced to the side to avoid getting caught in the blast.

"What are you doing, sister?" Carmine snarled.

Mayura laughed. "Getting my revenge."

The sentimonster got a smaller sphere ready.

"Hold on," Blanc muttered.

Marinette did her best to hook her legs tight around him—the pulsing beat still threatened to crush her—and found herself staring over his shoulder at the fight between Mayura and Hawkmoth. Blanc leapt onto a partially shattered wall, jumping from stone to stone as he dodged the sentimonster's attacks. A trail of rubble rained behind them with every missed shot.

"Call that sentimonster off!" Carmine ordered. "You're going to mess up everything!"

"That's the point!" Mayura said with another laugh.

"I thought you were on my side!"

"Your side? Why?" Mayura blocked a low thrust from Hawkmoth's sword. "Maybe once I was a fool enough to think you deserved my help, but that was before I realised how much you'd ruined me."

"I brought you back to life!"

"You broke me!" Another deflected blow. "Blue skin! Tainted feathers! Even my magic isn't the same! You ruined me and left me stuck in this half-life!" Suddenly, she trapped Hawkmoth's sword between her fans, twisting it in a fluid motion to wrench it out of his grip and fling it away. "And you, Papillon, you dared to pretend you care!"

Hawkmoth backed away as he held his hands up in an appeasing gesture. "Now, Mayura, let's not be hasty. I know I was not entirely honest with you in the past, but—"

"Silence!" She pointed the blade of her fan at him. "I didn't come here to listen to your lies!"

Marinette's eyes widened. "Your father, he's …"

Going to die.

Carmine certainly wasn't going to help him. She stood off to the side, a little smile playing on her lips.

Marinette twisted to face the front, not wanting to watch what was likely to be an execution. Not that the new view was much better. Blanc charged for the sentimonster with ruthless focus, weaving around bolts of destruction until he jumped off the wall and slammed his hand into the sentimonster's chest. Icy light spilled out from his palm. So destructive. So beautiful. The sentimonster's cold eyes widened and then his body crumbled to dust. Only a black feather remained.

"Gone," she whispered.

But Hawkmoth was not. He knelt before Mayura and clutched his injured chest, his expression a mixture of shock and pure, searing rage. Her fans glinted with blood.

"Yes!" Mayura said in satisfaction. "That's the face I wanted to see. The face of a fool who thinks he's won, only to have it snatched from him."

Blanc set Marinette down and gathered his power, aiming it at Mayura. "Stop!"

Her gaze flickered to him. "Don't be stupid, boy. We both know you're not going to fire. You'll end up killing your father as well, and you can't afford to do that, can you? Not if you want to keep your precious wife safe."

He gritted his teeth.

Marinette swallowed and stuck close to him. The pulsing, crushing call still tugged at her, but Carmine had not moved from the far left. Maybe there was no need to worry about fighting her. Maybe Carmine just wasn't as powerful as they'd thought. No one else was affected by her, after all.

Mayura smiled and pressed the sharp edge of her fan to Hawkmoth's throat. "You know, Papillon, I hadn't planned on killing you today. I'd hoped to make you live and suffer more, but I guess this will do." Her smile widened, splintered with hate and years of bitterness. She raised the fan.

"No!" Blanc cried, rushing forward.

That was all it took.

A rope latched around Marinette's waist, dragging her off to the left like a ruthless hand. She gasped, winded. Everything throbbed and pulled and pulsed, or maybe that was just because Carmine gripped her arm. Being this close to her was like trying to resist a black hole.

"Thank you, sister," Carmine said in her honey-sweet voice. "You made this so much easier."

"Marinette!" Blanc yelled.

Carmine laughed and shoved her fist into Marinette's heart—or at least that was what it felt like. Pain and invasion. Blood-red light flared around the two of them, creating a shield that wouldn't let anyone in and also blocked out all view of the courtyard. The pulsing beat throbbed in Marinette's ears, her bones, tearing apart the stitching of her soul. She didn't know how to keep herself together. She didn't know how to make it stop.

"I told you," Carmine said softly. "There can only be one goddess of creation. Now accept your fate. Let yourself become a part of me."

No!

Marinette struggled against the invasive grip on her soul. It felt like drowning. It felt like she was being dragged down, down, down to the darkest depths of the ocean, and the weight of it all was going to crush her at any moment. But something in her refused to succumb. Even if it seemed futile. Even if everything had gone wrong. She still had promises to keep. Memories to make.

She hadn't given up on hope yet.

Power stirred within her, brewing like a storm. Not the castle's magic. This was something else. Something deeper. It forced its way through her veins, building and building until her entire body hummed with the rippling, warm energy.

"You can't have me!" she screamed.

Carmine was thrown back, slamming into the shield so hard that for a moment she could only groan on the ground. Marinette now held a weapon similar to Carmine's—a metal ball attached to the end of a rope. She spun it round and round with familiar ease. This was natural. This was right.

"You say there can only be one of us?" Marinette said. "Fine. I'll show you who deserves to be the true wielder of creation."