Oh, hold on just one more day
Hold on, you know you'll find a way
Hold on, you've got stars in your eyes
so let's paint the sky.

- Extreme Music, Hold On

There's this old saying that says "un jour d'allégresse, et dix de tristesse" which could be translated to "one day of happiness and ten days of sadness". As far as we know, it means that for every day of pure joy, ten days of misery will follow. Some would say that it might be a bit on the pessimist side. Is life really this hard, this miserable? Would an amazing day be worth the following ten days of pain?

At this particular moment, Marinette would say that no, it is not.

Let us explain.

Only a few weeks before, her whole life went downhill. Becoming the Guardian had been hard, but she thought - no, she knew - she was gonna pull through. She just had to adjust. She needed time. But then, the whole Lila thing had happened and it was just too much. Her words had run on repeat in her head like a cursed melody. Thankfully, she didn't remember much of her akumatization. Only the seconds before and the minutes after were crystal clear. She remembers waking up in her bed, freaked out, next to her crying parents who didn't know that their daughter was in so much pain. What had happened?

(Turns out, nothing much. At least, that's what she thought.)

Unfortunately for her, Marinette didn't even have that much time to get over her emotions and her akumatization before duty called her. She didn't know why Hawkmoth had become so intense in the following days. Her whole body was aching, begging for some well-earned relaxation. The only thing she was sure of is that she wouldn't have been able to go through it all without him. Without Chat Noir.

He had been her lifeline. Holding her over the water so she wouldn't drown.

Unknowingly, she was doing the same for him.

Adrien had been sure that he could've collapsed from exhaustion. As if being a superhero wasn't enough, he had his dad who, for some reason, absolutely loathed it when his son had free time. But hanging out with Marinette, who he knew was his Lady… Well, it helped him breathe. As he said to Plagg one night, she was the most precious thing in his whole world. And that's why when Lila transformed after accepting her deal with Hawkmoth, Adrien's first reaction was to jump in front of Marinette to protect her from danger. Of course, they rapidly jumped apart, Marinette struggling to find an excuse.

"I need to use the bathroom, I promised my parents… Wait, no, that's not… What I mean is that my parents need me to use the bathroom at my house, WAIT, NO, ARGH."

Adrien almost laughed at that but somehow maintained a cool face (probably thanks to those many years of modelling). "Yeah, we should all run home, right?"

"Absolutely, yes, that's exactly what I meant of course."

He seriously wondered what he would do without her.

When Chat Noir appeared on the battlefield, almost the whole school had been evacuated, with only a few students like Alya (who Nino desperately tried to protect) staying to watch.

"Please, let's go! Alya, c'mon!"

"No way, I need to film this! You go!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Well then, that sounds like a you problem."

"Dammit, Alya…"

Tuning out his friend's conversation, Chat Noir scanned the scene in front of him. As soon as he had landed on the ground, Volpina had jumped far away from him. She was now smiling at him and waving.

"Hello, Chat Noir. How are you on this fine evening?"

"Oh, I'm feline pretty good," he answered, leaning against his baton. "Although I had better things to do than this, but I'm trying really hard to stay pawsitive."

"Better things, huh?'

"Yep. But I'm not too worried, I should be able to get back to them in a meow-ment."

"Really? We shall see."

He was only half-listening. Where was Ladybug? Where was Marinette? But he didn't have the time to think about it more, because Volpina was attacking him with a new power. Some kind of gold light that made everything it touched disappear. Chat jumped and twirled, trying to protect both himself and the civilians, praying that Ladybug was gonna be here soon with a Lucky Charm.

At some point, he realized how strange it was that the light had never touched him. Granted he was cautious, maybe even a bit more than usual since his Lady was nowhere to be found (what was Marinette doing?!), but still. Strangely, he seemed to be able to avoid the light every single time, even when it definitely should've hit him.

And suddenly, the world stopped as realization came crashing down on him.

He stopped moving, purposely letting Volpina's next attack hit him. He closed his eyes, just in case he was wrong… But no. It went right through him, exactly like… like a mirage.
It was all just a distraction.

Where was Marinette?

She was about to open her purse when Volpina appeared in front of her. But it didn't make any sense? While running, she had seen Chat Noir jumping from the roof and landing near Volpina…

An illusion. Of course.

"Hello, Marinette. Wanna play a game?"

She tried to run, but it was useless. Without her powers and tired like she was from all the recent fighting, she simply didn't have the strength.

She barely had time to register the pain before everything went dark.

So, as we were saying, there's an old saying that says that a day of joy will create ten days of pain. Once upon a time, Marinette would've said that her life was mostly great. Nowadays, her days were filled with pain, even though some rays of light sometimes flickered through. Were the almost forgotten happy days worth everything that was happening right now? Maybe. Probably. In a few years, an older Marinette will say that yes, they were. She will say that every drop of rain is worth a moment in the sun. But as teenage Marinette woke up in a dark and unknown room, the answer was without a doubt no.

She had no idea where she was, or how much time had passed. All she knew was that her arms and legs were tied to a wooden chair and that the pain in her head was almost unbearable.

"Hello, miss Dupain-Cheng."

Her heart was pounding in her chest. She knew this voice. Just like Chat Blanc, it haunted her darkest nightmares.

"Hawkmoth," she said in a breathe, looking for him in the darkness.

"I'm sorry for your head," he said, walking into view. "Volpina was more than happy to help me."

"It's true. I might have gotten a little carried away."

Marinette turned her head to glance at Volpina, trying hard (and failing) not to swear under the dull ache. Black spots appeared in her vision. What the hell had Lila done? Marinette was pretty sure that she had at least a concussion. The room was spinning and she had trouble keeping her eyes open. This couldn't be good.

"What do you want?" she asked, refocusing on Hawkmoth and trying to forget the nausea.

Please, please, tell me he doesn't know…

"I'm testing a theory."

"A theory," she repeated.

"Yes. You see, after your akumatization, I was… confused. Do you know how you managed to escape my control?"

"Chat Noir said that I fought it off by myself."

"That's true. Partially. He said something to you that day. Do you remember what it is?"

"No," she whispered, looking as he paced around the room.

"Your whole conversation was interesting, to say the least. He refused to fight you, even after you claimed to have defeated Ladybug, who never showed up, by the way."

She was about 98% sure she was gonna puke soon. Her whole body felt oddly cold as she listened to him talk.

"He even said," Hawkmoth continued, "that he would never fight against you. Isn't that cute? But I can't help but wonder why that is?"

Make it 99,9%.

"I have two theories. Wanna hear them?"

"I do!" Volpina said, smiling. "This is getting more and more interesting by the second."

"You see, I've been observing you, miss Dupain-Cheng. You have a lot of friends, that's for sure. But one of them was particularly interesting for a while. You are familiar with Luka Couffaine, I imagine?"

Marinette's heart skipped a beat. What did Luka have to do with all of this? She eyed the room, looking for her ex-boyfriend and praying that he wasn't there.

"What have you done to him?"

Hawkmoth put his hand on his heart, pretending to be hurt. "Nothing. I was just observing him. Actually, for a while, I thought he might be Chat Noir himself. After all, it makes sense that your ex-boyfriend wouldn't want to hurt you, isn't it? But Mayura was carefully watching him last week when Ladybug herself went to him. Turns out that he's Viperion. I imagine this is quite a surprise to you, isn't it?"

"Obviously," she lied.

"But then, why are you so important to Chat Noir, miss Dupain-Cheng? I figured you would lead him to us. And with him, our dear Ladybug. Unless…"

She held her breath.

"Unless Ladybug is you."

She heard Volpina gasping but her eyes were fixed on Hawkmoth as he continued: "And even if you're just an ordinary girl who somehow managed to win over that mangy cat, it doesn't matter. No matter what, Chat Noir will come to save you and I will get his miraculous."

"You have a lot of faith for someone who lost countless times."

"Hmm, it's true. I've been particularly unlucky, haven't I? But I have a plan, miss Dupain-Cheng. I've been sending akuma after akuma these past few days, haven't you noticed? Paris superheroes are drained."

"And yet you'll still lose."

"Will I? Two exhausted superheroes against Mayura, who, don't worry, isn't far, Volpina and myself… Doesn't sound like much of a challenge, don't you think?"

Marinette stayed silent. She could only hope that Chat Noir wouldn't come. She had to do this by herself. Screw it if she had to reveal herself - Hawkmoth already knew. But she couldn't risk Chat...

"Chat Noir should be here soon, now."

She barely contained her gasp. "What?"

"Oh, right, you've been unconscious for a while. While you were so gracefully sleeping, courtesy of Volpina here, I sent a message to that cat. He should be here any minute now."

Well, there goes her last hope.

"Chat Noir is so tired from all the fighting, defeating him will be child-play. Same thing if Ladybug does show up. And if she doesn't… Well, let's just say that you have particularly nice earrings. Mind if I have a look?"

He came closer, a knowing smirk on his lips. Marinette closed her eyes as his fingers brushed against her ear…

"Don't you dare touch her."

She opened her eyes just in time to see Chat's baton hit Hawkmoth's arm, who stumbled backward. He seemed angry at the interruption, yet still pleased to see that his plan was working. Although he had been wrong on one point, apparently.

Because Ladybug was standing right next to Chat Noir.