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Archiveofourown/users/RavenLynthorn/works
Paris, France
September 25th
1345
Ladybug felt the exhaustion deeply as she exhaled a sigh. It had been the seventh false sighting of the day, and it was becoming an alarmingly common theme. Ladybug typed a quick comment to the Ladyalert stating the alert was a false alarm before she released her transformation.
Marinette's legs collapsed from beneath her when she dropped to her bed from her balcony with a thud.
"Are you okay, Marinette," Tikki asked sweetly, crumbs falling from her mouth as she devoured the cookie she took from her stash.
"I'm just so tired… I wish there were a hundred of me around the city checking for Crainte."
Tikki hummed her acknowledgment, finishing the last of her cookie before laying on her holder's pillow. "I wish that too," the ladybug kwami said.
Marinette smiled at her friend before the exhaustion caught up with her.
Her sleep was blissfully ordinary before the nightmare began…
"My Lady," he whispered.
She stared into his gleaming green eyes as she waited for him to speak. Resignation and uncertainty danced across his features. Ladybug was acutely aware that she was dreaming but couldn't escape the memory. They were in the warehouse and Chat had his arms loosely wrapped around her. She wishes she could cherish the moment.
Slowly, he leaned his face closer to her, only stopping a few centimeters before his lips could touch hers. He remained silent and still as he waited for her permission to continue his descent. Her mind cried for her to act, but her body remained unmoving as her breaths quickened. She knows the regret she will feel, and the cost of her indecision on her fragile heart. Yet, she remained unmoving, her fear in that moment too prominent and real.
Chat's breaths quickened as he trembled. Closing his eyes, Chat pulled his face away from hers, tears glistening on the surface, broadcasting his pain.
"Wait, no, Chat, I'm sorry," Ladybug pleaded to him, regret churning in her stomach. She reached slowly to his face and touched the soft skin of his jaw and cheek.
"I'm so sorry. I'm… afraid of losing you." Ladybug felt tears welling up in her eyes as the words fell from her mouth, her memory scripting each line and motion. These are not the words she would say now. But, it was as if she were consciously re-living a painful memory with no control or say in her actions.
When Chat's eyes met hers, the tears glistened in the firelight from the wooden stove. Ladybug felt herself whimper but no sound escaped her lips
With eyes hollow, he said the words that haunted her daily.
"How would you lose me?"
How, indeed.
"Unless the fear you feel stems more out of a lack of feeling for me…"
Her voice finally ripped itself from her throat in a yell, "No!"
Chat remained unaffected by her outburst, continuing as though she hadn't spoken.
"Fear is a terrible foe that all of us have to face…"
'I know, Kitty, I know! I'm facing it daily!" Chat stared blankety at her.
"My Lady, you will need to decide…"
"I have, Chat, and I choose you! And, I will keep choosing you! You're my partner and best friend! I want to come home to you, share in your burdens, have children with you, and grow with you in this life. I love you, Chat," her voice was strained, her tongue thick and unyielding.
Chat's face remained neutral before it warped slightly as the scenery around them changed. Suddenly, they were no longer in the warehouse, but atop the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug wanted to scream because she knew what came next.
His body became dust… and she was alone.
...
Marinette tore through her room in a vengeance. There was too much clutter. She has no room to think! She must be able to think if they were to get anywhere with this akuma.
Tearing the last picture from her wall, Marinette found relief as the wall was left bare. She had moved most of her random storage along with her designing tools to the guest room so there was more space to move freely. Now, her room was a hollow shell of what it used to be. Marinette preferred it. Now, she can work.
Marinette and Tikki, with the help of the other kwami's, began covering her bare walls with every detail they had regarding the akuma. Between the time spent following the Ladyalert site and watching for Crainte, Ladybug had made a point of being involved in the ongoing police investigation. It took some time and convincing, but she was eventually granted security clearance, making her privy to information she would have had a hard time finding on her own. The names, dates, witnesses, and profiles related to the La Crainte Case helped provide her a foundation to work from. It was with this information that Marinette began building her make-shift evidence wall.
"It's not enough," Marinette said a few hours later to Tikki as they finished pinning up the last of the data to her wall.
"We will get more information. I think this is a good start," Tikki said with optimism.
"I agree! This is a very good beginning," Wayzz said encouragingly. The rest of the kwami's seemed to buzz in agreement.
Marinette only hummed a response as she glanced over each section.
It was still too bare in her opinion. They needed more.
Glancing over the list of missing people, a name stood out to her.
Max Kanté
He had been taken during the Second Wave. While Marinette felt a note of sadness at the loss of her old classmate, a memory came to mind that pushed aside those emotions.
Glancing at the kwamis, Marinette said with an excited smile, "I have an idea!"
...
"Ladybug!"
Markov's robotic voice startled Ladybug, her heart racing after sneaking into her old classmate's apartment. She found the robot in the living room area leaning on the couch. Markov's structure had not changed but it was clear that Max had done some upgrades with the bot. His metal was shiny and his voice was more human.
"Hello Markov. It is good to see you."
"The pleasure is mine, Ladybug! What can I help you with," The robot brightly asked.
"I was wondering if you could run some numbers for me. I am trying to accumulate data regarding this last akuma attack-" Ladybug was cut off by Markov's passionate words.
"I would love to help you, Ladybug! Anything to get my best friend, Max, back!"
Ladybug smiled softly at the bot. She appreciated his enthusiasm.
Glancing up at a few photos lining the walls, she noticed Markov and Max in a majority of them.
"You must miss him…"
Markov said as he looked at the framed photos, "I do."
On impulse, Ladybug said, "Would you like to stay with me until this is all over? I mean, I might have to blindfold you and have you turn off your tracking software but… I can imagine it's lonely here."
The robot spoke after a few heartbeats, "Thank you for your kind offer, Ladybug. I will store it in my memory so I can always have evidence of your kindness. I would like to stay here if that's alright with you. I want to be here when Max comes home. He was here when he disappeared..."
Ladybug nodded in understanding. They were silent in their remembrance before Ladybug pulled a large map of Paris and a notebook out of her compact. Making herself comfortable on the floor in the living room beside the robot, they got to work.
Several hours passed as they ran through the numbers and evidence. Markov did a great job at producing data that naturally went over Ladybug's head. After they had listed the—according to Markov—obvious things, they made the connection between the akuma's location, the length of each wave, and the people affected.
After discovering this, they drew circles and marked specified landmarks on the map to help visualize the events. It was by this that they could pinpoint the akuma's location during each wave.
"This is amazing! I can't believe you figured this out using math!"
Markov scoffed as well as a robot could before saying, "Math is a part of everything! It is statistically improbable to live in this world without math."
It was Ladybug's turn to snort as she eyed the robot. Still, she couldn't argue with the results. They had used the radius of each wave to pinpoint the estimated location of the source. Now, she had a lead.
"Hm"
Markov's hum brought Ladybug's eyes to his robotic body. He had his robot tail on his hypothetical chin as he stared down at the map and their markings.
"I'm seeing a picture."
Ladybug looked down at the map and then up at the robot in confusion. All she saw were the stars they had placed on La Crainte's estimated locations and the circles making up the distance of each wave. The drawn circles were highlighted in yellow, green, blue, and pink to illustrate the effect area of each of the waves touched, and what areas overlapped.
"I don't see anything," Ladybug said feeling dumb.
"Do you have a piece of string," Markov asked.
Ladybug first glanced at her yo-yo before looking back at the robot. He shook his head at her before zipping away. He entered a room across from them, presumably Max's, and made a ruckus of sounds. Before long, he flew back toward Ladybug with a long red string in his robotic tail.
He dropped the string on her lap before saying, "Connect each of the locations using the string."
A little confused, Ladybug took the end of the string and placed it on a random star on the map. Markov put the weight of his tail over it before nodding for her to continue. Ladybug slowly let the string fall as it touched each star. Before long, the string created an oddly shaped oval as it connected each location. Markov slowly took his tail off of the edge of the string and allowed gravity to hold it in place.
At first, Ladybug didn't understand what she was supposed to be seeing. Marcoff must have understood her dilemma and took pity on her. Taking a sharpie pen, Marcoff drew circles around the landmarks within the red yarn. Ladybug continued to stare at the map until understanding hit her with a chill.
Ladybug had tried not to see it, but it was too obvious to ignore once it had been seen. A ladybug covered the map. Marcoff had allowed the landmarks to look as though they were placed as the spots on the ladybug shell. She felt her stomach roll.
It was at that moment that Ladybug felt like an actual bug on display. He was playing with her, messing with her mind.
"How likely is it that Crainte is messing with me," Ladybug said out loud.
Marcoff responded with a high statistic. She didn't have the heart to tell the robot that the question had been rhetorical.
...
A few days after going through the numbers with Markov, Marinette compiled the data they had gathered and placed it on her evidence wall. She had taped the string to the map before pinning it to her wall in hopes that staring at it would give her more information. She had yet to receive her epiphany.
In a moment when the Ladyalert was silent, Marinette found herself staring at the wall with the kwamis bustling about in the background.
The kwamis were incredibly helpful in pointing out things that weren't immediately obvious to her, and they were wonderful company…but sometimes they are a handful.
"Pollen," Tikki shouted. "That's mine! I was planning to eat that!"
"I thought we all agreed that ice cream was my treat and cookies were yours," Polled piped up.
"Those are cookies," Tikki shrilled.
"No, this is ice cream that happens to have some cookies in it!"
"Same thing!"
"Tikki," Marinette said.
The red kwami looked at her with indignation, her eyes wide with upset.
"What happened to the cookies I put in the jar for you," Marinette questioned. There was a silence as the red kwami looked down sheepishly.
"She ate them all," Trixx sassily said.
"You helped her," said Longg.
"I can neither confirm nor deny," Trixx said.
"See! You had your treats! Let me have mine," Pollen said.
"But-"
Tikki's cries of indignation were cut off by Marinette's loud sigh. The kwamis grew quiet as they watched their guardian fight her weariness.
"Marinette, are you okay," Wayzz asked.
Marinette debated her answer. They each knew the truth, but they were doing their best to stay positive. After another deep breath, Marinette turned to the green kwami and nodded slowly.
Seeing Pollen holding her pint of cookie dough ice cream with honey drizzled on top to her chest put Marinette in motion again. Going to one of her stash drawers, she took out a box of cookies before looking at her sweet kwami.
Tikki's eyes were wide and glossy as she stared at the treasure in Marinette's hands.
"We only have one box left. Do you hear me? One box. We need to make this last. I'm not sure when the stores will be in stock again. And, we need to preserve the eggs we have for meals. Baking supplies are more limited than pre-made cookies. We must make this last."
Like every other business, the grocery stores suffered from the lack of staff. Without the delivery drivers and employees to work the inventory, products are not accessible to the store. A few days ago, the stores began rationing their products to help spread the supply with the demand. Besides missing their loved ones, it was one of Paris's biggest complaints. The concern was—if the akuma was not defeated soon—the food supply would run out. Unfortunately, outside help was limited. No one wanted to enter Paris. The fear of Crainte's power had spread globally, leaving people in fear of the city. Maybe Ladybug could make her way out of the city in order to grab supplies…
That thought was quickly cut off by the overwhelming task of finding the akuma as being first priority. She wasn't sure what was best anymore.
The room was quiet once more except for the soft chattering. The cookie crisis averted, Marinette turned from her kwami and looked back to her wall, skimming its contents.
A picture stood out to Marinette immediately on inspection. Slowly walking closer to the picture, Marinette touched a finger to the smooth paper. First, she traced her finger over his cat ears before sliding down his cheek, brushing his lips, then landing on his chin. They had taken the photo during a quiet patrol. He was smiling gleefully into the camera, his green eyes shining. Marinette felt herself get lost in the memory of his laughter and joy before Tikki gently brought her back to reality by a paw to her cheek.
She glanced at the subdued kwami before smiling brokenly at her.
Tikki nuzzled her head to Marinette's neck in response, and Marinette was grateful for her friend, crumbs and all.
Marinette made an effort to rip her eyes away from Chat's picture and focus on the facts before her. A rectangle drawn with a marker surrounds each wave and it's specified data. Included in the data were names and pictures of people who disappeared during that wave. Marinette did not have every name or face, but she made a point to pin up the people she knew as a way to remember what she was fighting for.
The First Wave: 09-13, 09:14
500,000 presumed loss
Akuma's location: Père Lachaise Cemetery
Wave radius: 15 square miles with a circle perimeter of 706.9.
Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Rose Lavillant
Aurore Beauréal
Ivan Bruel
Jagged Stone
The Second Wave: 09-14, 04:53
550.000 presumed loss
Akuma's location: Sacré-Cœur
Wave radius: 15 square miles with a circle perimeter of 706.9.
Juleka Couffaine
Nadja Chamack
Max Kanté
Nino Lahiffe
Tom and Sabine Dupain-Cheng
Marinette's fingers brushed over the picture of her parents she had placed beside their names. After a moment, she continued her examination.
The Third Wave: 09-14, 18:42
800,000 presumed loss
Akuma's location: Parc Monceau
Wave radius: 20 square miles with a circle perimeter of 1256.6
Mireille Caquet
Kagami Tsurugi
Alix Kubdel
Alya Césaire
Chloé Bourgeois
The Fourth Wave: 09-15, 08:06
1,000,000 presumed loss
Akuma's location: Montparnasse Cemetery
Wave radius: 24 square miles with a circle perimeter of 1809.6
Kim Chiến Lê
Caline Bustier
Clara Nightingale
Jalil Kubdel
Marc Anciel
Chat Noir
Once more, Marinette's eyes focused on Chat as she looked over the people taken during the Fourth Wave. She fought not to trace her finger over his outline again and moved her eyes to the longest list on her wall: the Unknown.
Unknown: 09-13 - 09-15
200,000 unaccounted for/missing
Adrien Agreste
Alec Cataldi
Bob Roth
Fred Haprèle
Gabriel Agreste
Jean Duparc
Lila Rossi
Nathalie Sancoeur
Nora Césaire
Mylène Haprèle
Adrien's picture stood out among the others. She looked at his features with a familiarity only possible from her teen infatuation. Marinette sighed again, numb by her grief and exhaustion.
Tracing her steps, Marinette glanced over her notes outlined for each wave. Below her notes was the map of Paris
Marinette jumped slightly as Trixx's voice appeared close to her neck.
"It's not even a good looking Ladybug. The akuma should have done a better job."
"I agree. It looks like a child's drawing," Daizzi jumped in.
"What a disgrace of an akuma," said Orikko.
"Such a joke," Barkk chimed in.
Marinette felt bewilderment at the kwamis as they each chimed in their dislike of the "drawing." Except, it wasn't a drawing. This akuma had strategically placed himself at key locations to allow his waves to spread at a certain distance. The entire placement was brilliant in Marinette's opinion. He even managed to incorporate landmarks as spots… that took a lot of forethought and planning. Papillion must have calculated it exactly to make it look as it did.
Or it was all just a coincidence. Marinette though it unlikely.
The rumble of kwami voices broke Marinette from her thoughts. They were having a good time trying to one up each other on possible insults for the akumas artistic endeavors. Marinette couldn't help the small smile that slid on her lips at their excitement. They each were struggling but there was solalice in each other's company.
"Can't I have a small bite of ice cream," Tikki's voice rang in the background.
"No! The guardian just gave you cookies," Pollen yelled in indignation.
Marinette shook her head as she remembered all the times Tikki would complain about Plagg and his obsession with cheese. Though Tikki would deny it with passion, she was just as bad, if not worse than Plagg at times.
"That's the last time I'm buying any cookie-related ice cream," Marinette mumbled to herself.
Wayzz smiled at her knowing as he came to rest on her shoulder.
"Agreed," he said.
...
Paris was in a state of bewilderment. Two terrible weeks had passed with no improvement. One thing all of Paris could agree on: Crainte was a master at espionage. Even with all eyes watching, the akuma remained hidden.
Gabriel Agress grinned as he read news articles questioning Ladybug's competence as a hero.
"Heroine Losing Her Edge?"
"An Endless Nightmare: Can Ladybug Save Us?"
Gabriel felt an eerie grumble of laughter leave his lips as he read article after article. Paris could only be patient with their hero for so long.
A smirk grew on his lips while his eyes sparkled with glee.
"Master," Nooroo shakily said.
Snapping his head to the kwami, Gabriel replies, "What?"
"The imbalance is becoming stronger. I can feel it."
Gabriel hummed his acknowledgment as he continued strolling through his tablet.
Nooroo continued, "If this continues, we will soon begin to feel the effects."
This caught Gabriels attention.
"What effects? I thought we had six months?"
Nooroo looked nervous as he said, "Yes, Master, we technically have six months until it really becomes serious. What you need to understand is that the unbalance will gradually build to that level over time. In other words, we will feel some of the effects now, and they will only get worse if the balance is not set right."
Gabriel processed the information before asking, "What should we expect?"
Nooroo trembled. "Little events such as harsh weather or limited food supply. Eventually, it will create a discord between nature and humans. Natural disasters will become more prominent, and human selfishness will heighten to its peak. It is the combination of these that will lead to humanity's doom."
Gabriel felt unaffected by this information. He knew his plan would succeed. He had time.
"These events are unfixable. Ladybug cannot make them right."
This news caught Gabriels attention. A seed of doubt sprouted briefly before he smothered it. No, he would succeed.
"Very well. This will give Ladybug more incentive to submit to me," Gabriel replied with ridged finality.
Scrolling again through his tablet, Gabriel barely noticed his kwami move silently into his desk drawer.
...
Nooroo felt his fear consume him as he watched his master's indifference to discord and chaos. Feeling a tremble run through his purple body, he hoped Ladybug would find a way to defeat the akuma. The world depended on it.
Fun fact: I'm still avoiding studying.