Chapter Twelve
A/N: This- this is what kickstarts the beginning of the end. I lied, it's not chapter 13, although that chapter should be fun too. I kinda cut the kwami aspect out of it, just a bit. Meh. It's fine. You guys are getting a sleepover. Be happy. Also: not sure if I said this in earlier chapters but there will be no season three episodes! Except for chat blanc. Heroes' day will not be the end, but all other episodes after will be originals. See you on the other side.
Sandboy
Percy sits nervously on his spinning chair, shaking his leg anxiously. Apollo watches him with a raised eyebrow.
"Chill, dude," he says cooly. Percy shoots out of his chair, running his hands through his hair.
"Chill? CHILL? Apollo, this is-this is-"
"A hang out with friends that happens to go overnight? Honestly, be lucky that Annabeth got to come at all. Helen almost didn't let her. " Percy points at him with a wild look in his eyes.
"Yes! Exactly! But a couple of these friends are-hold on, who's Helen?" he pauses. Apollo rolls his eyes.
"Helen's Annabeth's says she's a regular witch. Got her akumatized. Were you about to say girls? Nice of you to realize," he says sarcastically. Percy narrows his eyes at Apollo. "What do you think is going to happen? It's not gonna be like in those cringey fanfics where 'oh no there's only ONE bed'. You'll be fine. Besides, these girls are cool. You know them. It's not female Luke or Kelli or something," he says.
"That's true. Thalia and Annabeth get the bed, you get the couch, and I get the floor." Apollo fake-pouts.
"Oh, they get the bed just 'cause they're girls?"
"No, they get the bed because they could whip both our asses and I sure as hell am not sharing a bed with you," Percy retorts. "And how do you know about those fanfics anyways?" Apollo pales and starts to stutter. Luckily for him, their guests are here.
"APOLLO! PERCY!" Sally shouts. Apollo scrambles out of his bed and rushes to the trapdoor. Percy tries to follow, falling out of his chair. He picks himself up and carefully goes down the ladder, turning around to see Annabeth standing nervously in his living room, clutching a duffel bag. Thalia lounges on the couch behind her, saluting him with a smirk. Apollo begins walking over to her and Sally whips an arm out.
"Ah-ah-ah. First: rules. No kissing in the bedroom, looking at you guys," she says, staring pointedly at Thalia and Apollo. "Second: if you want food, get bakery leftovers. Percy, you know where they're kept. And third- no remakes of Ratatouille of any sort." Apollo and Percy flush, remembering a memorable study session turned film production. She smiles brightly. 'That's it. Have fun, guys!" She walks back downstairs, leaving the four teens looking at each other awkwardly. Apollo waits until the door swings shut behind Sally and immediately goes for Thalia. Percy rolls his eyes while Annabeth turns a brilliant shade of red.
"Honestly, guys, have some decency," he groans. Everyone laughs and heads upstairs. It's going to be a long night.
Apollo grins and holds up his phone. Percy scowls at him.
"No."
"Don't you want to commemorate this? Use it for blackmail?" Percy shakes his head, slowly.
"No. Shut up and keep watching." Everyone had started slowing down at around midnight, so they went for a snack run and settled down to watch Annabeth's favorite movie, Roman Holiday. Thalia had dozed off around a quarter of the way through, slumping into Apollo's lap. Annabeth had held out longer, but finally rested on Percy's shoulder, snoring slightly. It was adorable-no! Get a grip! A trashcan clatters loudly outside and Thalia jerks up with a start. Apollo pauses the movie, which's almost finished anyways, and looks at her softly.
"Hey, Thals." She stretches slightly.
"What time is it?" she mumbles.
"About 2 in the morning," Percy supplies helpfully. She shakes herself a bit and winks at Apollo.
"I think I forgot something downstairs. Wanna come with?" Apollo brightens up and nods.
"Yep." They both uncurl, standing and hurrying down the stairs. Percy shakes his head but pauses when he feels Annabeth shifting. He turns his head slightly to look at her and her eyes are open, staring at him. Her pupils are huge, setting her grey irises off. She blinks slowly, sitting up and leaning slightly away.
"What time is SHIT!" she shrieks, caught by voice is slightly muffled and Percy is extremely confused. And cold. Why is he so cold? He looks around and realizes that he's not quite on land anymore. He's in a glass cage, one that's slowly filling with water. He thuds against the other wall in panic, looking around for a way out. There is none. It has to be akuma, no way it's anything but, so why does this feel so real? The water's at his feet now and he starts pounding on the glass. Annabeth is flicking the lights on, rifling through her duffle bag. She comes back with a...pipe? She gets closer, and he realizes that no, it's not a pipe, but a knife. He barely has time to register that before she shouts at him.
"Stand back and cover your face!" she screams. He ducks down and feels the glass shatter over him. He stands up cautiously, stepping out only to be trapped in another cage. Annabeth begins swinging again.
"No!" he yells. He's notices something new. A hole in the very top corner. "I'll be fine. But who the hell is that?" She whips around, leaving him standing in water. It's fine, he's fine, a least that's what he tells himself. It's at his waist and he tears his eyes away from it to watch Annabeth. Screams are already echoing around him but she's not making a noise. The woman has brown hair, flowing loosely around her face. In her hand she carries a belt, coiled and thumping idly against her leg.
"Back off," Annabeth says, reaching for her knife. The belt comes down swiftly, slapping her hand. She cries out and cradles it to her chest. Annabeth begins backing up, her back hitting the glass. He looks down and realizes that the water is at his neck. His feet are slowly leaving the ground, his head bobbing against the sealing. terror fills him, sharp and deadly. The hole is just low enough that his nose pokes out of the water, but he's trapped. No matter how hard he tries, he can't swim up. He's stuck, not drowning but not breathing comfortably either. Annabeth's scream makes him snap his eyes forward. The woman is talking now, but's it's slightly garbled. All he understands is that Annabeth's pressed against the glass in terror, the woman whipping a belt back and forth towards her. He pounds a fist against the glass angrily. Both women turn quickly. The woman grins and says something to Annabeth. Annabeth shouts something and shakes her head frantically. The woman's belt turns into a gleaming piece of metal. She lifts it, aiming at him, and he realizes that it's a gun. He shoots to the bottom of the cage, hitting his head slightly. The water is pressing down on him and he's beginning to panic, but the glass shatters abruptly as a bullet shoots above his and Annabeth's head. The water pours out of the crack, him along with it, and for some reason it doesn't reform. Maybe only these strange nightmares can destroy each other?
"Helen, stop!" Annabeth shouts. He springs up from where he's slumped against the floor and rushes to cover Annabeth. She sees him coming, and pushes him out of the way as Helen's belt-turned-gun-turned belt cracks down. Squarely on Annabeth's back. She's huddled on the floor, some animal instinct taking over through her obvious fear. Percy looks from her to the woman(Helen?) raising the belt again and rushes at her, tackling her to the ground and punching her in the face. She looks extremely confused, like 'someone dares to fight me?'. Although he'd like to punch her again, he tugs Annabeth up off the floor, rushing her past Helen and down the ladder. He almost runs into a pillar of rock rising right out of his living room. Thalia and Apollo are perched high at the top, the latter blindfolded and being forced to sit down by Thalia, who doesn't look to good. He knows that this must be hell for Apollo, being blindfolded. He hates darkness but Percy can't stop to help right now. He hustles Annabeth into the bathroom, locking the door and sitting her down. She looks close to hyperventilating, squeezing her eyes shut and breathing quickly.
"You're safe," he says, looking her over. It looks like her shirt absorbed most of the blow, avoiding a cut, but he'd bet money that there's one hell of a bruise on her back. She shakes her head and starts crying. He's not sure what to do, not being experienced in dealing with this sort of thing. He looks at her and just decides to go with it. Kneeling down, he hugs her slowly. He expects her to shove him away for something similar, but she doesn't. She keeps crying, getting his arms wet, but he honestly doesn't care. He's already soaked. Eventually, she stops shaking and her breathes slow. She pulls away form him, wiping a few tears away. "Who was that?" he asks softly. She shakes her head, refusing to answer, but something Apollo said earlier is clicking in. "Was that your step-mom?" he blurts out. Annabeth's eyes widen and she grabs his shirt.
"You can't say anything," she pleads. Percy looks down at her, more pieces falling into place.
"Annabeth, be honest. Is she hitting you? Please tell me that bitch isn't hitting you," he gets out angrily. Tears start to come out of her eyes again.
"You can't say anything! She's not, I swear-Percy!" she shrieks. He's lifted the back of her shirt, just up to mid-back, but enough to confirm. Scars criss-cross across her back. All the breath leaves him in a rush and he stares at her, running his hands through his hair.
"Annabeth, you can't-this is- God, Annabeth. Why haven't you said anything? I don't care whatever she said, it's not your fault- don't leave! Annabeth!" he cries out. She's standing, storming out of the bathroom. He stares after her, a bit shaky. This is not good.
Annabeth rushes into an alcove of the bakery, Plagg flying out of her pocket.
"Say the word and I'll kill either one of them," he says quickly. She wipes her nose with the edge of her shirt, sniffing but smiling at him.
"No, thanks, I can deal with this myself. Plagg, claws out!" she says. The security of her suit surrounds her and she runs out of the bakery, her back only aching slightly. She begins prowling the streets, looking for Luckybug and the cause of all this fear and hurt. A red-suited figure drops down next to her smoothly, making her jump and punch him in the arm. He laughs.
"Hey, m'lady. Spotted the akuma yet?" She shakes her head.
"Not yet. Hopefully with you being an akuma magnet, we'll spot them- I don't believe this," she says. Luckybug looks at her oddly.
"What?"
"Look." She points to a figure on a slowly moving pillow-shaped cloud. "Bet that's him. Aim for the pillow?" Luckybug mutters curse under his breath but nods.
"Let's get the little-gah!" The akuma, noticing them, had begun to drift over to them quickly, sprinkling sand over Luckybug. Lady Jinx flips out of the way quickly, trying to whack the pillow with her staff. He shakes the sand out of his hair.
"The Sandboy is here, let nightmares appear!" he cackles gleefully, circling around them loosely.
"Huh. Didn't seem to do much." Before Lady Jinx could get in a quip about famous last words, a copy of her appears on a roof near them, looking down at them both haughtily.
"Luckybug. Pathetic. As if I'd ever love you," she says coldly. Jinx growls and tries to lunge at her but Luckybug catches her, zipping them both up to the roof quickly.
"Cool your jets," he says, clearly trying to keep his tone even. It isn't working out well. Sandboy takes their momentary distraction to swoop in and nab Jinx as well. She splutters, coughing up sand. A Luckybug materializes next to Nightmare-Jinx.
"Ugh. You're useless. All you ever do is screw up. Half my job is fixing what you destroy!" Jinx glares at him and so does the real Luckybug.
"That is not true," he says. Jinx tugs on his arm, causing him to look over to where she's pointing.
"He's getting away!" she says. He nods.
"Take you, and I'll take me." He unhooks his yoyo, lunging at the other Luckybug. Jinx nods and goes for Jinx, pulling both her staffs.
"Bring it," she snarls. The other Jinx smirks and attacks. Staff meets staff, blow for blow. The other is almost an exact replica of her.
"Cataclysm!" she calls. Jinx backpedals, trying to avoid the hand swinging at her. Fake-Jinx throws a punch and Jinx instinctually blocks it with both her staffs. Fake jInx smirks, stopping her hand just before it hits and grabs where the two staffs intersect, disintegrating them both.
"Luckybug!" she calls, running away-away!- from herself. Luckybug glances over, hitting Fakebug in the face quickly.
"Lucky charm!" he calls. A red and black baton falls into his hands and he tosses it over to her.
"This'll have to do for now," he says apologetically. Fakebug laughs.
"See? You even have to waste your Lucky Charm on her!" he cackles. Jinx growls and shoves Luckybug out of the way.
"It's time to fight our own demons," she hisses. Fakebug raises an eyebrow.
"Fine by me. Lucky charm!" A huge sword-knife-extremely lethal weapon falls into his hands. He charges at her and she takes a few steps, then runs at him as well, somersaulting. As she flips over him, she brings her weapon down on the top of the sword, breaking the tip off of it. She lands behind him.
"Cataclysm!" she calls. The power surrounds her and she runs at his back, stopping just before she hits him. "I matter here," she tells him, and presses her hand to his back before he can react. He crumbles into ash and, surprisingly, the knife stays. She sneaks up behind Not-Jinx, still grappling with Luckybug. She grabs her staffs just as she almost hits Luckybug with them and pulls them out of her hands. Not-Jinx turns around, surprised, and Lady Jinx punches her in the face. She swipes her feet out from under her and Not-Jinx crashes to the ground. "Get on my back. "When I say jump, jump, and slash the pillow with this." She hands him the shard and he nods, clambering awkwardly up. She drops the lucky charm baton and grasps both staffs, taking off into a run and extending them just as they hit the edge of the roof. "Jump!" she shouts. He leaps off of her, momentum carrying him just under the pillow. He knifes it smoothly and the akuma flutters out. He lands in a roll on an opposite rooftop and shoots his yoyo out almost before he stands up.
"Time to de-evilize. Bye bye, little butterfly," he mutters under his breath, her hearing picking it up. He releases the purified akuma and she tosses him the baton. He catches it and throws it into the air. 'Miraculous ladybug!" he shouts and the magic ladybugs swarm over the city. She jumps across the roof to join him, catching the victim as she does so. It's a little kid and she sets him down, crouching as she does so.
"Hey, little dude. Why'd Kronas come after you?" she asks gently. He sniffles, rubbing at his eyes slightly.
"I was having a really bad nightmare and it made me scared," he admits. She nods.
"Well, if you tell me your address, I'll make sure you get home," she says. He nods and she scoops him up, glancing back at Luckybug.
"I got this. And that Jinx? Don't believe anything she said." Luckybug nods and she takes off, the kid squealing in glee. Luckybug watches her go, bigger things on his mind. Namely, Annabeth.
She's not answering the phone. He knows that, ok, lifting the shirt was really disrespectful, and he plans to apologize first thing, but Annabeth's just living in a home with that witch? No. Not okay. This is serious, and he doesn't know why she hasn't called CPS yet. he's going to find out, sooner or later, since she can't just stop going to school, but in the mean time, he's going to call her again.
Percy walks into to school Monday morning, early for once. He barely made it into the classroom before Thalia grabbed his sleeve, dragging him out of the classroom and pushing him against the wall.
"What're you playing at?" she snarls. He looks around for any help.
"Um. Nothing? What are you talking about?" She snorts, like he should know exactly what she's talking about.
"You know. Annabeth told me all about how you were getting handsy with her last night while Apollo and I were undergoing mental torture." He pales, although not for the reason she thinks. Regardless of intent, he really shouldn't have lifted her shirt last night.
"Handsy?! I didn't-ok, fine, I did lift her shirt a bit, but handsy-" she cuts him off before he could finish. If looks could kill, he might not be dead but he would be in a lot of pain.
"Shut the hell up. Don't touch her. Don't look at her. Don't speak to her. Is that clear?!" she hisses. He nods quickly.
"Can I apologize to her?" he asks. She mulls it over. They hear footsteps approaching and she gets away from him quickly, both glancing to the newcomer. It's Annabeth. He strides towards her, ignoring Thalia.
"Percy?!" she says, surprised. She really shouldn't be. They are in the same class after all.
"Annabeth, I'm really sorry for lifting your shirt last night. That was wrong. But please, come to my place after school, anytime you like. You need to talk to someone, Annabeth-Thalia, stop- Annabeth!" Thalia's dragging him away as Annabeth hurries past him, entering the classroom.
"That's it. No more. Remember," she mutters, looking around and giving him a final shove as she follows Annabeth in. Percy leans against the wall. He doesn't know what he'll do if she doesn't come, but she's probably not safe where she is. He just needs more time, needs to figure it out. Maybe she doesn't want to see Percy, but Luckybug is another matter…
Luke bounces his foot nervously as he sits on a park bench, waiting for Kronas to arrive. She said today, right? He has the right time? He double checks and yes, he does. He scans the park again and spots a tall woman in gold and black approaching. He stands as she comes near. She smirks, eyes hidden by large black shades, and gestured for him to sit down. She ists next to him.
"Luke Castellan," she muses, tapping her fingers. He swallows and nods. "Life is so unfair, isn't it? The girl you love, loving another, your parents taking you for granted-where is your dear mother?"
"Gone," he mutters. "She left." He doesn't elaborate and she doesn't ask. Instead, she leans forward.
"What if I told you that I have a way to make all your wildest dreams come true? Annabeth's love, your parent's admiration, your mother returned." His eyes widen.
"Do you?" She opens her palm, revealing a broken brooch.
"A Miraculous, like the ones that give Luckybug and Lady Jinx their powers. Like mine. I'm sure you've guessed that I am Kronas. Everyone misunderstands me-I want only to make the world a better place. Will you help me, Kalapin?" He nods, breathless.
"Yes. Who are you, Kronas?" She smiles and pulls her shades down, revealing dark brown eyes.
"I think you know." He scoots backwards.
"Mrs. Chase? Annabeth's mom? Does she know?"
"Step-mother, and no. I can hand her to you, wrapped even. I have that power. And blackmail. Even hint to anyone that's it me and…" she trails off delicately. They understand each other very well and he nods.
"When the akuma alert goes off, I'll be with you." She nods, standing and replacing her shades.
"Not before, and not after. Goodbye, Kalapin."
"Goodbye, Kronas." He watches her retreat and stares at the brooch in his hand. Power, and it's his for the taking. All his.
A/N: The other side is dead and cold and devoid of sanity. Noididn'tjustfinishbloodforbloodwhatareyoutalkingabouti'mnotcryingyou'recrying. I'm very sorry for the shorter chapter, but hey it's still within average chapter length. Thanks for reading!