Just a little LadyNoir to end the week smoothly.
BÊTAS : JuliaFC, Etoile-Lead-Sama and Genxha.
Have a good reading,
"Destroy me, use me, I still can hold it. And that's priceless. Take my heart, keep it, my heart, I still can hold it. And that's priceless. If you fall, I fall, I can take it. I still can hold it. If you fall, I fall, nothing has changed. I love you, so what? Destroy me, use me, I still can hold it. And that's priceless."
The akuma victim was fast, agile and totally unpredictable. Indeed, Hawkmoth's victim had transformed Paris into Toontown, the city of the famous Toons. His power was rather random, sometimes he transformed the civilians into Toons, sometimes an anvil or dynamite stick suddenly fell from the sky. So, as ridiculous as this super-villain was, it was actually complicated to anticipate his attacks and to devise a strategy to trap him.
Ladybug took a quick look at Alya and Nino. Unfortunately, they had been touched by the powers of the Akuma, and now they had the appearance of Jessica and Roger Rabbit. At the same time, an anvil materialized several meters above the heroine's head and quickly fell on to her. Distracted by her concern for her friends, she didn't acknowledge the threatening object that was in free fall. She was safe and sound only thanks to the extraordinary reflexes of her partner, who threw himself on her to push her out of the path of the anvil.
"M'Lady, I know I'm a greedy cat and I really love pancakes. But I prefer you still in one piece, rather than turn into a Pancake Ladybug," joked Chat Noir, while stretching a hand out to his partner to help her get up.
While Ladybug was getting up, the akuma victim, who looked like a giant Bugs Bunny, took advantage of the distraction of both heroes to use his power. The next moment, a piano materialized above their heads. Instinctively, the feline hero pushed his partner as far as possible and the gigantic instrument crashed on him.
In the space of a few seconds, which seemed to be an eternity for Ladybug, the feline stood still and unconscious, crushed under the piano. He finally regained consciousness, though somewhat dizzy, and emerged out of it.
During the fight, Chat Noir threw himself an innumerable number of times on his partner to push her out of the super-villain's shooting range. Unknowingly to him, this caused many palpitations and cold sweats to the young heroine, who helplessly looked at him as he changed into Sylvester the cat, or sometimes was crushed by a giant anvil or by any other strange and heavy object.
Finally, after thirty minutes of torture, Ladybug succeeded in purifying the Akuma and putting things right, transforming Toontown and its Toons back into a perfectly normal looking Paris.
For the second time this year, Ladybug and Chat Noir faced Chronogirl, the akumatized form of Alix. The redhead was made an easy target for Hawkmoth because of Lila's cheating during a competition in physical education class.
Almost all the students of the school had been touched by her power and had disappeared under the helpless gaze of the two heroes.
"We have to slow her down, she's too fast!" exclaimed Ladybug.
As Chronogirl sped towards the two heroes, Ladybug threw her yo-yo towards her skates to make her trip, but the skater jumped up and avoided her trap. Then Ladybug fell, unbalanced by her yo-yo that had ended up against a wall, almost five meters away. After that fall, everything happened very quickly. Too quickly. It was a really scary déjà vu. Chronogirl was facing Ladybug, kneeling on the ground and really close to her hand, ready to use her power over the heroine. However, the risks were too big to take; Chat Noir threw himself again between his partner and the akuma victim. Once again, they found themselves in this situation and the sadness, anger and powerlessness that Ladybug felt this time was just as excruciating as it had been the first time, if not more painful.
Chat Noir was motionless in her arms and began to disappear quickly. She embraced the feline one last time, whispering to his ear that she was going to fix everything and bring him back. She then chased away the tears that were forming in her eyes, stood up and screamed in rage while throwing herself at Chronogirl.
Ladybug summoned her Lucky Charm and guided by the strength of her anger, she used it to defeat her enemy in less time than it took to say Miraculous. A few minutes later, the magic ladybugs wrapped her feline partner and brought him back to her.
It was inescapable, unreal, an awful nightmare. For the third time this week, Ladybug was utterly powerless in the face of her partner sacrificing himself again, for her.
The akumatised victim, Medusa, had the confusing and frightening ability to change anything, or anyone, in stone.
As in the legend, her hair was made from a multitude of ugly and vicious snakes. They could shoot rays of light with their eyes, transforming, in a long and also probably painful process, any individual into a rocky statue made of granite.
This is exactly what was happening to Chat Noir right now. The feline had thrown himself on Ladybug, hugging her tight in his arms and rotating them 180 degrees to swap positions. Seconds later, a white ray of light had hit him starkly between the ribs.
She immediately tightened her embrace on him and threw her yo-yo into a far away chimney to keep them both, but mostly him, far from the fight.
When they were finally covered for a few minutes, she realized that the transformation that spread from bottom to top had already reached her partner's thighs.
"Have you gone nuts!? You could have shouted to warn me, or thrown me to the ground. Why did you swap our positions to take the hit!?" she scolded him, visibly upset.
"Warning you would have taken too long and... and if I had thrown you to the ground, the snakes would have caught both of us even… Even before we had the time to get up, or realise what... What had happened," he argued back, his voice abnormally hoarse and shaking.
It was so painful to feel his limbs turning into stone; he winced and tightened his teeth as he held his breath. His body was now petrified up to half of his chest.
"Go take care of the Akuma, I'll be okay," whispered Chat Noir while stifling a moan.
"I can't leave you here like that, Chaton, you're suffering,'' sobbed suddenly Ladybug, unable to contain the tears that were running along her mask.
"It's a bit painful... but I can take it. Don't worry about me, and go! I know you'll bring me back!" He breathed heavily, his expression becoming more and more grim as solidification reached his face.
She didn't know why she did it, she just acted without thinking: she leaned over to lay a tender kiss on his forehead.
"I'm going to save you, I promise," she whispered before she turned away and went back to fight.
Ironically, her Lucky Charm happened to be a shield, like in the authentic myth of the Gargon. In the story, Perseus used the shield to avoid looking at Medusa directly in the eye, but see where she was through the reflection and cut her head off. Ladybug instead used the shield to reflect the light back to the akumatised victim. Once her enemy was changed to stone, the heroine pushed the statue and caused it to break to the ground, releasing the purple butterfly. Soon, she purified it and her partner reappeared alongside her, in total confusion.
Ladybug didn't know what that strange and frightening ball of white light was, but one thing was certain, it didn't bode well.
The light sphere grew at a blazing speed, threatening to engulf the passers-by as well as the whole of Paris. Soon, she and Chat Noir had to separate. Ladybug threw her yo-yo onto her left, clinging to a tree to get away, while her partner extended his stick and perched on top.
She quickly summoned her Lucky Charm, but when she looked up to analyze the surroundings and find a solution, the scene in front of her eyes froze her blood. Her feline partner unexpectedly dropped the grip he had on his stick, falling into the center of the gigantic bright orb.
"Chat Noir! Noooooo!" she screamed.
Once again - once too many - he sacrificed himself.
The white halo instantly disappeared, leaving no trace of her partner. Her throat tied, and her chest tightened painfully, preventing her from breathing normally. Face to her, the akuma victim grinned and let an evil cackle escape her mouth.
You shall pay for it!
"Ladybug, I'll help you join your alley cat, and once you are both stuck into nothingness, I will deliver you to Hawkmoth," said the akumatised girl while creating a new light orb.
"NEVER!" protested the heroine, her eyes shining with fury.
Never, because less than five minutes later, victory was hers. She threw her Lucky Charm, which had proven to be totally useless after her partner had disappeared - she needed Chat Noir to use it -.
Immediately, the familiar figure of her feline partner materialized before her. His eyes opened suddenly, their vibrant green staring at her intensely. His lips curled into a smirk, ready to dish out a witty remark. She quickly approached him and gave him a glare that could have killed him on the spot - pun intended of course -. She looked utterly furious and the feline immediately lost his cocky expression.
"Uh, M'Lady, is there a problem?" asked the feline; he gulped loudly, looking confused and worried.
She didn't answer, but grabbed him by the waist and, with the help of her yo-yo, flew off from the scene of the fight, landing immediately after on a rooftop, out of sight.
She turned to him and struck a menacing finger against his chest.
"You've done it four times this week! I can't keep looking at you killing yourself for me, Chat Noir!" she screamed, her finger pounding his torso, causing the feline to retreat dangerously close to the edge of the roof.
"It's my duty, m'Lady, I can take it. If I must fall so that you may stand and purify the Akumas, I will do it. A hundred times, even a thousand times, if I need to," he replied, in a calm and soft voice, which he hoped would also calm down his partner.
"If you fall, I fall, Chaton!" she cried, tears pricking out of her eyes, as agitated as an ocean caught in a storm. As soon as loud sobs began shaking his partner's frame, Chat Noir didn't hesitate, he drew her into his arms in a comforting embrace and gently caressed her back soothingly. Soon enough, the young heroine relaxed into his touch.
"I don't understand why you're reacting like this, Bugaboo. We've always worked this way, you and I," he whispered softly in her ear.
"I know that's the dynamics of our duo... But this time, I thought I'd never see you again… I can't bear the thought of losing you, Chaton," she shouted, strangling a sob.
Slowly, she moved away from him. She wiped her wet face with the back of her hand and then rose herself on tiptoe. "I thought I would never have the opportunity to do this..."
She approached his face with hers, her lips almost touching those of her partner. She glanced at him one last time to make sure he wanted it too, and before she even managed to lean in to fill the last distance, Chat Noir bent his head and slowly captured her lips.
It started as barely a kiss; the touch of his lips was as light as a feather. Then she buried her fingers into his hair and drew him closer. She needed this, she needed to pour all her love, all the worry and relief into that kiss. She needed to let him know how much it meant to her. And from the way he kissed her, more and more passionately with every second, she knew that he felt the same.
"I love you," he whispered against her lips when they finally managed to separate.
The feline's voice was so hoarse and intense; she knew that his words were truly liberatory for him. He was breathing quickly and heavily, waiting for her reaction. She knew they would need to have a talk about it, there was no turning back. But, surprisingly, she didn't care. As long as he was there with her, she could handle anything. It was 'me and you against the world' after all. As it had always been.
"I love you too," she replied, resting her forehead against his.
She knew she would have to face her worst nightmare again and see him sacrifice himself for her. It was inevitable. But what she also knew was that she would always fight with all her strength, determination and love to bring him back. Now more than ever...
End
Ps: this one was inspired by a French song ; De L'or - Vitaa ft. Slimane. It's a beautiful song which is stuck in my head since almost two weeks. And everytime I heard it. I just think about Chat Noir and how he sacrificed himself for his beloved Lady. So I couldn't help myself but write this.
Ps 2: Yes, I used one of the season 4's spoiler. The scary white ball of light that makes everyone have cold sweats since a few days.
Feel free to leave me a review, if you've enjoyed the story. I'll be glad to read your opinions.
Miraculous kisses to all.