Flutter

Chapter 11

Nightmare

The nightmares started that night. She's had nightmares before, sure, but nothing like this. This was something completely different. This was unmanageable.

The first one began with Marinette standing on top of water, in the middle of an ocean that seemed to stretch on forever. The aching pain was gone from her body, but it had been replaced by excruciating grief.

"Tikki! Tikki, where are you?!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, breath coming in strangled gasps. "Please, I can't be Ladybug without you!"

As soon as she said the last word, the tension underneath her ceased, dropping her into the dark blue waters. She tried to swim up, but she was being pulled, dragged towards the bottom of this infinite body of water. Just as the air in her lungs turned completely stale, she broke through another wave of tension, falling through air and landing painfully at the bottom of a cave. The air above her was held in by a massive bubble, the water swirling darkly against the barrier. The cave was dimly lit with light blue crystals, the walls and floors all a cold dark grey color.

"Hello?" Marinette asked, finally making her way to her feet. The pain receded as soon as it had appeared, leaving her once again with that sinking feeling of dread. "Where am I?"

"You're in my dream, Ladybug." It was Hawkmoth's voice — deep and growling and bitter. Marinette turned around, though she couldn't find him. It was if the sound had come from the walls.

"What do you want?" she hissed, taking up a fighting stance and readying herself for yet another battle. Instead, the crystals glowed brighter, illuminating the faint drawing carved into the cave walls. Letting herself relax a bit, she edged towards the nearest one, gasping upon realizing it was an image of her. The artwork was immaculate, each stroke purposeful and intricately intertwined with the others. "What is this?"

"It's you."

"No duh. Why?" Marinette retorted shortly, foot tapping quickly. She was growing impatient with every growing moment, the dread in the pit of her stomach slowly being replaced by anger.

"A prophecy. I stumbled upon it a few days ago. I never realized I was fighting a child," Hawkmoth's tone was a strange mix of frustration, pity, and guilt. "I would have never hurt you if I'd known."

"Ok, so then make it stop!" Marinette yelled at the ceiling, wincing when the crystals flickered brighter for half a second.

"I'm not the one poisoning you, Marinette."

She stumbled back at that, holding a cold hand to her forehead. She had been right. It wasn't really Hawkmoth. "How am I supposed to trust that you're telling the truth?" she asked, despite knowing that he wasn't lying.

"I know you've already figured out that it isn't me. I felt your anger shift away from me," Hawkmoth's voice explained, the frustration falling away.

"Wait a second, felt it? What do you mean?"

"You haven't realized it yet," Hawkmoth sighed the words, as if disappointed in her. "I suppose you don't have as much life experience as myself, but I still thought you'd put the pieces together. We're bonded, Ladybug — every time you purify an Akuma, it strengthens that bond. We're completely intertwined, now."

Again, Marinette stumbled back, this time catching a rock with her foot and falling on her butt. "That's impossible."

"Look deeply within yourself, Marinette." His words turned almost comforting. It almost reminded her of her father for a moment.

Marinette did as she was told, stiffening upon realizing he was right. She could feel his presence within her — the same presence she felt when he spoke through his Akumas. He was telling the truth. He had to be. There was no other explanation.

"If you're not poisoning me…you must be affected, too," Marinette gasped the words, the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks.

"Not nearly as much as you, no. But I can feel it. It's been weakening me."

Marinette shuddered, placing a hand on her racing heart, still sitting on the ground. "What's going on, then? What's happening to me? To…to us?"

Hawkmoth paused for a few moments, contemplating his next sentence. "I don't quite know. It could be a number of things, or beings. I've been trying to narrow it down since I found out who you are."

Marinette opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a tugging sensation wrenched in her gut, pulling her towards the ground. A strangled scream escaped her lips, Hawkmoth trying to speak to her, but falling deaf on her panicked ears. After a few moments, she fell through the cave floor, being pulled into complete darkness. All around her, she could feel the anger and rage writing around. It reminded her painfully of the poison.

"My dear girl," the voice that spoke was quiet and modulated to be deeper than humanly possible. The tone resembled that of a broken lawnmower. "You're getting close to the truth, aren't you?"

"Who are you?" Marinette took a deep breath in, still engulfed in the darkness. "What are you?"

"I'm your worst nightmare, my dear. No worries, all will be revealed soon enough," she could hear the smile in its voice.

"What? No!" Marinette sat up in bed, the darkness melting away and leaving her back in reality, chest heaving and hair wet with cold sweat.

Marinette stayed home from school that day. It wasn't hard to fake an illness — she was already severely ill due to whatever poison was coursing through her. She tried for hours to figure out what to do, how to become Ladybug without Tikki, who Hawkmoth was. More than anything, she worked hard to figure out who — or what — was poisoning her. She didn't have a clue. It was supposed to be Hawkmoth. For so long, she was convinced it had to be Hawkmoth.

"Tikki," Marinette stared at the ceiling around 5pm, eyes stinging wildly as she caught black tears with a wad of tissue, "what do I do? Where did you go?"

Again, there was no response. She wasn't really expecting one, at that point. Before she could continue, her phone went off, causing the bluenette to wince upon realizing it was Chloe's number.

"What?" her tone was sharper then she'd meant for it to be.

"Jeez, chill, Mari. I'm just downstairs in the bakery. Can you tell your parents to let me up? They don't believe we're on good terms," Chloe explained, Marinette's parents talking audibly in the background.

"Give one of them the phone," Marinette sighed, leaning back and letting her head rest on the stack of pillows behind her. There was a series of shuffling sounds, and then the phone was in her mother's hands.

"Marinette? Chloe says she has your assignments. Do you really want to see her?"

"Yes, mama. We…we're friends now. You can let her up."

Her mother didn't sound convinced, but agreed anyways, Marinette hanging up the phone before Chloe could be put back on. A few moments later, Chloe was walking up to her bed, a stack of papers tucked under her right arm.

"Let me guess," Marinette smirked the words, "you didn't just come here to give me the assignments?"

"You look like hell," Chloe hissed, setting the papers down and running to Marinette's bathroom, returning shortly with a wet, cold cloth.

"Thanks, I just got back."

"Ok, Veronica Sawyer, cut the crap. Why did you skip today?" Chloe's voice was tight, but also…something else. If Marinette didn't know better, she'd guess the heiress was concerned about her. Huh.

Marinette reluctantly explained her dream from the night before, going on to elaborate on her fruitless search for Hawkmoth and the strange entity during the day.

"Shit, this isn't good. You can't become Ladybug?" Chloe asked, responding to the part about Tikki disappearing first.

"No, I don't know how to do it without her. I've been trying all day."

"Fuck, Marinette, what are we going to do?"

"We?" confusion painted her tone, brows furrowing. "You don't have to do a thing. This is my problem."

"Jeez, you're so stubborn!" Chloe's hands flew up as she spoke, frustration and concern carrying the edge in her voice. "This is our problem now, ok? Nino would be here, but he's keeping an eye on Alya. She's a wreck. Still, it's us three against the world, ok?"

Marinette started to tear up against her will, wiping away (thankfully) clear tears. "Why would you say that?"

"Because it's true."

At that point, the tears began to fall faster, thick streams of hot, salty liquid dripping down to the corner of her lips and her chin. Chloe was in bed with her in a moment, hugging her tightly and pulling her head into her shoulder. Before she could argue, Marinette was sobbing into the blonde's figure, shaking all the while.

"I can't do this. Not without Tikki. Not without Chat. Not without Alya. Fuck fuck fuck, Chloe how am I supposed to do this?"

"Nino and I are with you. And you can still talk to Chat," Chloe cooed into Marinette's rat's-nest hair. "You can make a mask. Or I can buy one. Meet him where you normally do, and explain everything that's happened."

"I thought you didn't trust him," Marinette sobbed, causing Chloe to tense up against her.

"I've had a change of heart. You two are heroes. If it was him…if it was him who had found me last night…I know he would've saved me, too. I understand now."

Marinette pulled away, pursing her lips upon realizing that Chloe was crying now, too. "I'm so sorry he did that," Marinette growled. "That piece of shit human would be dead if I wasn't so fucked up right now."

Chloe let out a low, bitter laugh. "I think it's because you're so fucked up you're even thinking like that. You're no killer, Marinette."

Right then was when it hit her — Chloe hadn't called her Ladybug at all since she'd arrived. A small smile graced her lips, Chloe returning it quickly. "You're right. We're not killers. Oh boy, do I really need to talk to Chat."

"Ok," Chloe stood up, holding out a hand to help Marinette out of bed. "Let's get you ready, then."

Without any reluctance this time, Marinette took her hand, letting her help her out of bed.

Hey all! What do you think?

I know, I know, Hawkmoth is a little out of character here, but in my mind, he really does care about Adrien on a deeper level. Knowing that Ladybug is his age...that gets to him.

Also, thank thank thank you to everyone for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing! It means the world to me, thank you 3

Until Tuesday,

~Ashtyn