Marinette slammed into the wall with the force of a train, and the bricks cracked and gave beneath the impact.
Gasping in a breath to re-expand her lungs, she peeled her face out of the crater and rolled to the side in time to avoid Rat King's next strike, pushing away from the bricks and launching herself into open air an instant before the wall was reduced to rubble and mice.
"Mr. Dupain! Run!" Marinette screamed at her father⏤
Her yoyo was gone, she wouldn't be able to reach him in time to pull him away from the wreckage of the Bakery⏤
Landing on all fours on the side of the McKenzie's house, Marinette bounced off her neighbor's demolished second floor and leapt straight for her father's figure, where he was crouched and bloody, desperately digging through the rubble, despite his left arm hanging uselessly from his shoulder. "No, no, no,no, no,no,no…" her father was gasping out as he dug, heedless of the rampaging akuma, "Sabine, Marinette, I'm coming, please hold on!"
But Rat King was too quick.
A flick of his tail, and Marinette's father flew across the square to slam into Lorenzo's apartment complex. He hit the brick wall with a sharp CRACK! And fell to the ground limp, his head at an odd angle.
"NO!" Marinette shrieked as she tumbled to the ground where her father had been just seconds before, but already Rat King was turning his attention back on her, and she was forced to tear her gaze away from her father's body and focus on the fight.
Rat King swiped at her with his black rapier, and Marinette dodged out of the way, leaping backward, forced onto the precarious rubble of her home as the akuma advanced on her menacingly. His sword glanced off the chunk of wall her father had been trying to move, and the stone dissolved into a horde of brown mice in miniature suits of armor.
The Mice Knights surged towards Rat King and flowed up his shoulders to join the linked mice that formed his cape, twisting their tails together until they made a chain of armor plates flowing from Rat King's shoulders. As the last Mice Knight joined the chain, Rat King glowed green and grew in stature.
Rat King guffawed, throwing his head back as he laughed evilly as his power grew. "MUAHAHAHAH! SOON, LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR, I SHALL HAVE YOUR MIRACULOUSES, AND ALL OF PARIS WILL LEARN TO RESPECT THOSE THEY CALL 'VERMIN'!" He bellowed, raising his hands in the air as he spun on the spot, his black armor gleaming, gesturing around to the ruined city, now teeming with Mice Knights and Vole Voulges.
While the akuma was distracted by his own theatrics, Marinette launched herself up the rubble of her home, leaping from destroyed wall to support beam to roof tile to what was left of her bed to the remains of her balcony, flashing forward as fast as she could, leaping her way up to the skyline once more, having to rely only on what her hands could grab hold of and what her feet could push off of⏤
If only she had her yoyo!
Marinette finally reached the skyline and hauled herself over the edge of the closest edge of Lorenzo's apartment building, doing her best to keep her gaze averted from her father's body where it was sprawled three stories down and five doors away.
She would bring him back, he would be fine, he would be alive, her mother would be alive, everyone would be fine. She just had to defeat this supervillain and put everything to right with her Miraculous Cure…
She just had to keep on telling herself that.
But even if she was able to defeat the akuma, could she even cast the cure without her yoyo?
Would she even be able to catch and purify the akuma without her yoyo?
But she already knew the answer to that; Rat King had taunted her enough about it. She needed her Miraculous Weapon to use her powers, and without it, she couldn't risk defeating the akuma and cause him to split and multiply into an army of hundreds instead of one.
Scrambling to her feet, Marinette took off running across the rooftop, keeping her attention split between Rat King who was still monologuing away on the street below, jumping over the thankfully mindless Vole Voulges, plotting a path to the Eiffel Tower, and keeping an eye out for civilians.
Reaching the edge of the roof, Marinette launched herself into the air, knowing she would land in the middle of the next building, with just enough space she could take a few running steps before making her next jump, building momentum and speed as she leapt from building to building, until she could reach the Eiffel Tower at a dead run, fast enough she would be able to race straight up the sides of the Tower⏤
Marinette reached the zenith of her leap.
She passed the point of no return.
She began to fall instead of rise.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, Marinette saw a movement in black.
But she was already too far into her leap⏤
She was already falling too fast⏤
There was nothing she could do to twist away, nothing she could do to stop it⏤
No way to escape⏤
The arms clad in black armor constricted around her like steel as the momentum of her fall rocked her captor backwards on his heels. Marinette struggled in his hold, straining to get even an inch of space between her and her attacker, ramming her elbow into his armored stomach, stomping on his steel-toed feet, and then thrusting her knee upward to hit below the belt, anything to get away.
But Chat Noir just laughed at her efforts. "What's wrong, M'Lady?" He purred down at her. He leaned down towards her, lips puckered, and Marinette snarled in wordless warning, the familiar fear and terror stealing her breath away at his proximity.
Chat Noir ignored her rage and refusal and leaned down to plant a kiss on her forehead⏤ the only thing his lips could reach as Marinette frantically ducked her head to stop him from kissing her on the lips again.
His lips burned like a brand against her skin, and she hoped that the fear-sweat that had broken out on her skin tasted disgusting.
Between one heartbeat and the next, between Chat Noir's lips pressing against her skin and lifting away, Marinette registered that the booming, regal voice of Rat King had finally gone silent as the akuma finally noticed that his audience was missing his monologue.
"Blegh!" Chat Noir exclaimed, finally releasing his steel-strong hold on her⏤ Marinette shoved away from him, clearing a distance of ten feet in a single bound, every inch of her that had been in contact with him burning with disgust and terror that made her want to turn away and run as far away from him as she could.
But she couldn't.
Because Chat Noir had taken her yoyo.
And with the noise Chat Noir was making, Rat King was going to be on top of them in seconds.
"M'Lady, I love you and all of your flaws, but man do you need to take a bath, Bugaboo." Chat Noir exclaimed in disgust, scrubbing his tongue and lips across the back of his glove. Marinette glared at him, some small part of her darkly satisfied at his disgust.
"Give me back my yoyo, Chat Noir!" Marinette commanded, "Enough fun and games, people are dying! I need my yoyo back, and we need to defeat this akuma before more people get hurt!"
Rolling his eyes and straightening up, Chat Noir glared at her with burning intensity as he said "Or, you could lighten up a little and learn to have fun for once, Bugaboo. People are 'dying'? So what? They'll come back in the end. How about this, I'll give you your yoyo back on one condition: you have to admit your true feelings for me." Chat Noir said, cocking his head to the side and reaching out so he could crook one finger in her direction, gesturing her in close with a cocky smirk on his lips, which were redder than usual from when he had rubbed at them.
With his other hand, Chat Noir removed his baton from its holster and casually spun it around, as though he were merely bored with waiting, instead of holding all of Paris at gunpoint.
Marinette locked her gaze on the baton, and clenched her fists, knowing she needed to get it away from him so she could retrieve her yoyo from the magical compartment within.
"You already know my feelings, Chat Noir!" Marinette snarled, "I've told you countless times! How long does this have to go on for? What's it going to take to get you to stop!?"
"Oh, Bugaboo, you wound me with how little you know me." Chat Noir drawled, flicking his tail behind him as he began to saunter forward, Marinette matching him step for step as she edged to the side until they were slowly circling each other, Chat Noir as casual as could be as he grinned at her with a Cheshire smile, amused at her actions.
He knew she couldn't leave him, not now, she needed her yoyo back before she could do anything to defeat the akuma.
Chat Noir reached the point he had originally caught her on and stopped walking, throwing his hands up in the air to gesture expansively, his baton dangling from the tips of his claws as he pointed it in her direction.
Around them, the Vole Voulges all straightened to attention, but Chat Noir only had eyes for Marinette.
"I love you, M'Lady!" Chat Noir decreed. Behind him, a dark figure rose over the edge of the building as Chat Noir continued with his speech: "Thats why you should know: I will never, ever stop. I can't! My love for you is so great, only death could keep me from your arms!"
And like a reaper summoned, Rat King descended from the heavens upon Chat Noir with a single downward strike to the head.
Marinette knew all too well that Rat King's sword was capable of hurting a Miraculous wielder; most physical damage was easily shrugged off by their suits, but if that damage came from the akuma's magical weapon... That was another story entirely.
It was only by the last shred of protection in Chat Noir's suit that stopped his skull from caving in when Rat King's sword pommel slammed into the back of his head.
Chat Noir didn't stand a chance.
Eyes rolling up into his skull, Chat Noir fell bonelessly to the ground as Rat King smirked in victory.
Chat Noir's baton bounced across the rooftop in Marinette's direction, clacking hollowly against the concrete, but the akuma paid the weapon no mind, too busy reaching down to haul the unconscious and limp Chat Noir up by the arm, leaning down to peer at the green and black Miraculous on his limp finger, reaching down with his free hand to touch the Miraculous' green pawprint symbol.
"HAH!" Rat King proclaimed, "It seems that rat was the victor of our little game of cat and mouse! Now, to rid the city of the rest of you filthy, overhunting cats!"
Marinette, breath held, every nerve strung tight like a violin string, slowly edged forward, towards the baton, knowing she had once chance while the akuma was distracted.
The purple Butterfly mask appeared over Rat King's aristocratic face, temporarily hiding his crimson eyes from view as he cocked his head to listen to Hawkmoth's instructions.
The purple light of the mask reflected hollowly in the red eyes of the rat-faced pauldrons on his shoulders and the pointed faces on his elbows, their teeth stained crimson where they jutted from the armor.
For just a moment, as Rat King's living cape rustled and creaked ominously in the wind, as the smoke from the Bakery drifted over the roof, as sirens wailed in the distance, it seemed like the entire world was waiting, poised on the edge of a precipice.
Then, all at once, the stillness was shattered as everything moved at once.
The Butterfly mask winked out of existence.
Marinette launched herself toward Chat Noir's weapon.
Rat King yanked Chat Noir's Miraculous off.
Marinette's hands grasped hold of the baton.
There was a flash of green light that hid Chat Noir from view.
Marinette snatched her yoyo out of the baton's compartment.
Twisting the string securely around her wrist so it could not be taken again, Marinette raised her gaze towards Rat King, prepared to fight⏤
And felt the world freeze as her mind struggled to understand what had happened.
Because Rat King was holding her unconscious boyfriend up by one awkwardly-twisted arm.
"Adrien!?" Marinette gasped out, her voice a croak, her lungs seizing in her chest and strangling her. Where had he come from? How did he get here without her noticing? Did he see the destruction of her home and rush here to try to save her and her mother, like her poor dead dad?
But where was Chat Noir, and why did Rat King have the purple Butterfly mask over his face again, looking confused and slowly growing more indignant?
"That is NOT MY CONCERN!" Rat King suddenly burst out, dropping the unconscious Adrien to the ground, holding the Black Cat Miraculous in the palm of his hand. "If you are incapable of controlling the subjects of your own household, then that is YOUR failing as a ruler⏤ your son will be much more obedient and loyal as part of my brigade of Mice Knights!"
Marinette stared at the fallen Adrien, the pieces slowly slotting into place as she was frozen in shock. Horror was creeping through her veins, turning every nerve to ice.
Image after image, memory after memory, humiliation after shame after disgust filled her mind as, in a split second, Marinette relived all of her past interactions with Adrien, with Chat Noir, and reconciled them as being horrifying mirrors of each other.
Two sides of the same coin... a coin that seemed so innocent and easy to reach, up until you found yourself drowning in a dark ocean with the surface out of sight.
But now Marinette was turning, and clawing her way back towards the surface with grim determination.
"Now, lets get this over-" Rat King began to say, raising his rapier so he could drive the blade into Adrien's body⏤
Then Rat King jerked, letting out a strangled cry as the Butterfly mask over his face glowed blindingly bright, arcs of dark purple electricity dancing over Rat King's black armor as he screamed, voice distorted with the shrieks of a hundred mutated minions.
And Marinette came back to life, gasping in a breath as the ice in her veins was replaced with fiery, burning rage.
Pushing off from the roof on all fours, Marinette launched herself at Rat King, lashing out with her yoyo to knock the sword out of his hand before it could transform Adrien into more Mice Knights, drawing it back again with a twip so that it smacked into the palm her her hand as she bodily tackled Rat King to the ground.
Reaching past his thrashing limbs, Marinette snatched the golden, jewel-studded crown off of his head, the only spot of color in the akuma's entire attire.
Rolling to a stop only a few feet away from the jerking akuma, Marinette prayed she was right, then crumpled the metal crown in her fist, the soft gold giving way like puddy beneath her super strength.
The crown hissed and boiled with black smoke as she destroyed it, and out flew the corrupted Butterfly, flapping desperately as it sought to escape her, wings shivering with effort as the metal crown dissolved into a crumpled paper burger-king crown.
Marinette caught the Butterfly with one sweep of her yoyo, catching it inside the purifying chamber, then stared down at the full yoyo.
She thought of her father, his back broken, and she thought of her mother, buried in the rubble of the Bakery, dead or nearly there.
She thought of the first day that Adrien had told her he loved her, when she had made him the beret. She thought of him leading her straight to his bedroom, his every intention clear.
She thought of every lecherous gaze Chat Noir had directed at her, every kiss he had forced on her, every touch, every unwanted advance.
And Marinette turned and walked over to the dazed Mr. Ramier, who was slowly pushing himself up into a sitting position, "Where am I?" Mr. Ramier croaked, then, "Oh god, what have I done?"
"Close your eyes, Mr. Ramier." Marinette whispered, fighting to keep her voice kind. Her anger was not directed at him. "You don't need to see this. I just need you to give me Chat Noir's Miraculous before I cast the Cure."
Mr. Raimier looked at her confused, and then glanced down at his hand, unclenching his fingers to reveal a blue titanium ring sitting so innocently on his palm.
He flinched at the sight of it, nearly dropping it, and Marinette carefully retrieved it from his shaking hands. "Thank you." Marinette said, slipping the Ring onto her finger.
A chill went down her spine immediately as it reacted with her earrings, but Marinette shoved the feeling to the side, ignoring the weight that suddenly seemed to press down on her shoulders, as if the atmosphere itself were suddenly denser and closer, looming.
As if she was holding up the sky.
As if, with a simple shrug of her shoulders, she could send the entire world toppling, and rebuild it to her own whim.
Marinette looked at the inactive Miraculous on her finger, now transformed to an innocent, rose-gold color.
Too bad her rose-tinted glasses had shattered beyond repair.
Throwing her head back, Marinette launched her weapon into the air and cast the Miraculous Cure, watching as the glowing ladybugs descended on the city, spreading out in a star pattern as they began to fix the damage, repair the wounded, and bring those lost back from the other side.
Physically, everyone would be unscathed from the attack.
But mentally, the scars would never fade.
The Miraculous Ladybugs streamed over their section of the rooftop even as Marinette's home rebuilt itself from the ground up on the street below them, until once again her balcony was above them, her bedroom pristine, even her potted plants sitting on the balcony once more.
Mr. Ramier's crumpled paper crown straighted out and the glossy paper regained its colors, but the man wasn't paying any attention to his akumatized object, instead he was looking in concern at Adrien, who had woken up and was looking around frantically.
Marinette put her fist on her hip, carefully keeping the ring out of sight as she observed Adrien with a carefully neutral expression.
Down below them, in the streets, Marinette could hear her mother and father searching frantically for her, calling her name, "Marinette! Marinette!", fully audible as the acoustics of the street bounced their voices up to their perch.
Mr. Ramier clapped his hands over his mouth in worry as he immediately scrambled to the edge of the building, clutching the edge of the roof as he peered down below at the street. "Oh no," He whimpered, voice cracking, "What did I do, what have I done, that poor girl, did I do something to her?"
But Adrien simply ignored her parent's calling her name and instead was frantically turning out his pockets, casting his gaze around the rooftop, searching.
"Are you okay?" Marinette asked, keeping her voice steady, "I know you're worried about your girlfriend, you're dating this Marinette girl, aren't you? You came here to try to help her family when their house fell down, right?."
But Adrien didn't even twitch as Marinette's mother's voice floated over the rooftop, shrieking "Tom! Where is she! Where is our daughter!"
Instead, Adrien waved her words away with a flap of his hand, "I dropped something!" He said urgently, then seemed to realize the flaw in his plan. "But I can find it myself! Uh, is Chat Noir okay? I saw him uh. He fell off the roof, right before I got here!" Adrien insisted, "He looked like he was hurt pretty badly, you should check to make sure he's alright!"
Mr. Ramier gaped at Adrien, astonished. Mr. Ramier's gaze flicked from Marinette's hand to Adrien and back.
"He was still transformed though, right?" Marinette asked, fighting to keep her composure as Adrien blindly ignored her parent's screams, every second solidifying the truth in her bones.
She wanted so desperately to believe that something of their relationship had been real, even if it was in the worst way possible.
"Yeah, of course he was!" Adrien said blithely, not even looking in her or the akuma victim's direction as he ran to the other side of the roof, peering into corners.
Adrien didn't see Mr. Ramier open his mouth to speak, and he didn't see Marinette silence the man with a sharp gesture of her ringed-hand, placing her finger on her lips.
Mr. Ramier's eyes widened further as he realized the implications.
He knows Adrien is lying, he knows Adrien is Chat Noir now.
Mr. Ramier snapped his jaw closed with a click and mimed zipping his mouth shut.
All of Paris knew that Chat Noir's behavior over the last few months had gone from excusable to downright horrendous.
The public's perception of Chat Noir had gone from 'incompetent sidekick' to 'literal supervillain' very quick once he had started to get cockier about his unwanted advances on her, and his blatant disregard for public safety.
He had willfully endangered people in the past, but never in front of so many witnesses, and after his stunt with Pilot Light went viral and tarnished his reputation beyond repair, he had become more and more brazen with endangering civilians, no longer worried about keeping in the public's good graces.
Before Pilot Light, Chat Noir had at least pretended to show up to akuma battles to help out, but after his plan to guilt trip her ended in televised disaster, he had thrown that act to the wind and didn't even try to save people or help her defeat the villain.
His attempts to sabotage her were now clearly deliberate instead of being excused as him being 'careless but trying his best'.
Hawkmoth had been absolutely delighted at the fissure between Ladybug and the new villain Chat Noir, but many akuma also expressed his frustration, knowing that they had to wait for Marinette to appear in a battle before they would have a chance to take the Black Cat Miraculous, because Chat Noir was just as likely to not show up for an akuma as he was to toy with it if Marinette wasn't already on the scene.
All of it had finally culminated in today's attack: stealing Marinette's weapon and holding the city at gunpoint until she professed her love to him.
"How about I get you down from here, Mr. Ramier?" Marinette offered, walking over and kneeling next to the man.
"Marinette! Where are you! Please, say something!"
Mr. Ramier flinched at her father's voice.
Marinette leaned in close and said, "Don't worry, she's safe. Don't let him know, though." She whispered, jerking her head in Adrien's direction, who had finally stopped searching the roof and was on his cellphone, listening with a wince as someone screamed at him in a tinny voice through the phone, not letting him get a word in edgewise.
Mr. Ramier nodded resolutely, sending a narrow-eyed look in Adrien's direction.
Adrien and Mr. Ramier might not remember the argument that Rat King and Hawkmoth had had, but Marinette remembered it all too clearly.
Now, the important part was making Hawkmoth believe she had forgotten the events of the fight, like the battles against Oblivio, Rebooter, and Loop Garou.
The combination of the Ladybug and the Black Cat Miraculous was making her head swim, the knowledge that she could erase everything that Adrien had done to her and the world from existence testing her restraint.
But she had bigger fish to fry than "just" Adrien Agreste.
"I hope you find what you're looking for," Marinette called over her shoulder to Adrien, "If you see Chat Noir, stay away from him. He's dangerous."
Then Marinette descended from the rooftop with Mr. Ramier, who was shaping up to be an unexpected ally.
He knew the truth of Chat Noir's identity, and if he were intelligent, it wouldn't take him long to deduce Hawkmoth' identity, and he had most likely had already figured out her own.
But Mr. Ramier was not a bad man, and other than her parents, he might be one of the most unexpectedly trustworthy people to learn her identity; he was compassionate to a fault, and always tried to defend those he saw being treated unfairly⏤ there was a reason he was targeted by Hawkmoth so often, and it was because he simply cared⏤
Cared too much in a world where supervillains corrupted your every negative emotion and twisted it into something violent, no matter how pure a place the original emotion came from.
Xavier Ramier was a good man.
As they alighted on the ground in front of the Bakery, Marinette glanced down at the rose-gold ring on her finger, then contemplated the man in front of her, who was already looking from her to her parents, who had the Mckenzies gathered around them, organizing a search party for Marinette.
They had not noticed Ladybug's arrival yet.
Mr. Ramier looked at Marinette, then at her worried parents, then back to Marinette again, clearly pained by her parents' obvious distress.
"Do you need me to distract them?" He whispered. He looked uncertain, clearly wondering if he had read between the lines correctly, "Do you want me to lead them anywhere?"
He was giving her an easy out: she could either tell him the truth, or leave him to his unconfirmed suspicions, nothing but hearsay and a misunderstanding, easily forgotten.
And Marinette decided to trust him.
"I was on my balcony when the akuma alert went out." Marinette whispered, "There wouldn't have been any time I could have snuck out past them before the Bakery got destroyed. As far as they're aware, I was killed in the attack and I haven't reappeared with the Cure." Marinette supplied, testing the waters.
Mr. Ramier flinched at her words, but quickly composed himself. He was silent for a second before venturing, "Did anyone see you⏤ Ladybug you, i mean⏤ at the Bakery before the attack? Could you have… rescued yourself, and left her somewhere safe, so now you just have to go and get her?"
Marinette had already come to that conclusion, but she wanted to see how quickly Mr. Ramier could think on his feet when it came to identities.
"Yes, that should work perfect, thank you. Could you go tell my parents that Ladybug rescued Marinette, and just left to bring her home? And that she's sorry she didn't get a chance to rescue them both, she only had enough time to save one person, and she knows they would have wanted it to be her."
The words burned her mouth as she spoke them, but Marinette knew it was true, and knew it was a truth that Ladybug would respect, no matter how much it broke her heart to see them in danger.
The parents of Paris had spoken, over and over, every attack, and it was always the same: they wanted their children safe, even if it meant leaving the parents behind: Protect the children, we'll hold the akuma off as long as we can, just get them out of here!
Mr. Ramier nodded, expression twisting in sorrow and compassion, and Marinette knew she had made the right choice.
Unspooling her yoyo, Marinette grasped Mr. Ramier's hand as he began to walk towards the Bakery. "Can you meet me at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, at ten, tonight? I'm need your help with something, but we can't talk here. It's too important."
Mr. Ramier hesitated, then visibly steeled his nerve. "Of course, Ladybug. You've saved me so many times, you've saved the world so many times, it's the least I can do." He whispered, "I will do everything in my power to help you protect this city, just say the word."
Marinette squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Thank you. I'll see you later." Then she cast out her yoyo before she could regret it and launched herself in a high arc over the rooftops, making herself visible to everyone as she headed away from the Bakery.
As she flashed by, she saw Adrien Agreste still stuck on the roof of Lorenzo's apartment complex, but pretended she didn't see him. He could stay stuck for a few miserable hours, as the least of what he deserved.
As she flew through the air, Marinette knew she would have to stop somewhere for cheese, because poor Plagg was going to be famished. She needed to have a long talk with the kwami of destruction, not least to get his side of the story, but also, depending on what he said of his time with Adrien, she would have to ask him a favor: would he consider a new, temporary wielder, so they could take Hawkmoth down once and for all?
Because Marinette had the perfect candidate in mind.
I will do everything in my power to help you protect this city, just say the word.
"That's what I'm counting on," Marinette whispered to herself, "You'll be the one saying them."
Tonight, if all went well, Hawkmoth wouldn't know what hit him.
Gabriel Agreste's reign of terror over Paris was about to come to an abrupt end, and Adrien Agreste would fall from power and grace, right alongside his father.