Sorry this is a little late. I was in London all day (like a true Briton) and didn't have time to write until this evening. Also apologies for any mistakes; I'll try to fix them tomorrow!
Thanks for all of your support.
Day Seventeen: Protection
"Stay close, Marinette," Luka whispered, his hand tightening around hers as they edged around the Southern side of Notre Dame. Darkness swirled around like swaths of black velvet, curling around their feet, around their necks. Silence soaked the air. Each breath was a viola's sigh, each heartbeat a staccato cello, each footstep a metronome's click.
They hadn't seen the akuma, not yet. Just heard the screams inside the Cathedral, seen the black mist. But they knew it was nearby, knew it was here. They could feel it in the air, in the pricking of hair on their arms, in the ice in their veins. And, whispered on the breeze, a voice, ragged and broken.
"I'll make you afraid, I'll make you scream for the light, I'll make you pay."
Luka stopped, stepped in front of Marinette, passing her hand between his and grasping the other. She stood squarely behind him, his body a shield to whatever he'd seen, and tried to peek over his shoulder.
"Luka?"
"Stay behind me," he murmured. "I think it's here."
A chill ran up her spin, prickling the back of her neck. Marinette highered herself to the tips of her toes, but there was nothing in front of Luka. Just grass, swirling darkness, Notre Dame's decaying walls. And yet, there was something. Something unseen, just before them. She could almost see it smirking.
"Let's see what you're afraid of…".
The darkness thickened, grew. Tendrils snaked into Marinette's eyes, staining the world black. Luka's hands felt sweaty around her own, and slipped across her fingers when he tried to hold her tighter.
"Don't let go," he whispered. "I'll protect you. Just don't let go."
But already, Marinette could feel Tikki desperately pawing at her leg, and something cold seeping into her skin, into her mind, as though the mist itself had invaded her being. Emptying her…
Except not emptying her, filling her with something else. Something like...dread. Shame. A sort of hopelessness, like she'd just flunked an important test, or missed the last train home, or forgotten to complete a commission for someone, or had been unable to keep a promise, or failed to save someone, failed to save an akuma victim, failed, failed….
"Marinette!" Tikki hissed. "You have to go!"
Marinette blinked rapidly, but still she could only see impermeable darkness. She breathed. Once, twice. She hadn't failed. Not yet. No tests, no trains, no commissions. No promises…
"Don't let go," she remembered him saying. "I'll protect you. Don't let go."
But she had let go, had broken the promise. Her hands were empty, cold, clutched nothing. And Luka...
"I can't!" Marinette gasped. "Luka, he…"
"You need to transform, Marinette," said Tikki sadly. "He'll be okay, but Paris won't be if you don't become Ladybug."
"Marinette!"
It was Luka. His voice cracked.
"Marinette! I'm sorry. Please come back…please. I won't do it again, I promise. Just please...please come back…"
She had to bite her lips together to stop from calling back, stop from running out with her arms wide to find him. To brush aside the tears she could hear in his cries.
But Tikki was nudging her leg again. She had no choice but to run blindly the other way, eyes squeezed shut around her own tears, her lips echoing his apologies.
"Will it get easier?" She choked on the words. "Like it got lying to Alya? And maman and papa?"
Tikki's silence said enough.
She ran until she felt Tikki's body press into her stomach. "Now, Marinette," she said.
Marinette nodded. She turned her face back to where she knew she'd left Luka, still stumbling, still calling, and sighed. "I'll protect you, Luka," she said. "Spots On."
Tikki's magic had always felt like a relief when she wore it. Like another layer of skin, strong and intuitive and alive. The relief it brought now was greater. With a flash of pink, the blackness melted away and revealed the world. She was still by the Cathedral, in a little spot between a few trees. The black mist was weaker her, like strands of night, woven too early into the sky.
Ladybug cast her mind back to her encounter with the akuma, but she hadn't seen it. Only heard it, felt it. But not see. Did it have a corporeal form? If not, that would make defeating it very difficult. Impossible, perhaps.
And what exactly were its powers? Taking away one's sights seemed a little...strange. "Let's see what you're afraid of," the akuma had said. But not everyone was afraid of the dark.
"Good afternoon, Milady. I didn't miss anything, did I?"
Chat Noir. He was above her, sitting in a tree, smirking as usual. However, the smirk quickly slipped from his face as he dropped down beside her.
"Is something wrong?"
"No," she said. "Just...this akuma. It's...it's going to be trouble."
"How so?" he asked. "Strong?"
"I don't know. But it's slippery." She waved a hand through a tendril of black mist, watched it waft like an upset cloud. "It doesn't seem to have a body. And it uses this stuff to blind you."
"What's the plan then?"
Ladybug shook her head. "I don't have one. I don't know what we're going to do."
"Lucky Charm and hope for a vacuum cleaner?"
She managed a short, humorless laugh. "That's not how it works."
"Yeah, I know." Chat Noir swiped at the mist then, after watching it roll around like wind and smoke, he leant forward as though sniffing it. "Where even is the akuma? Haven't seen it at all yet."
"Neither have I. Let's go and find it."
"Lead on, Ladybug."
Ladybug hurried back to where she'd left Luka, down one side of the Cathedral. But no one was there. No Luka, no akuma, nothing. Just thick fog and a strange feeling of despair. She waited a few seconds for the voice to speak. But it didn't. Nothing. It was gone.
"If it doesn't have a body is, how will we find it?" Chat Noir asked. "We can't fight something we can't find."
"You're right," she said. "We're going to need help...Lucky Charm!"
A jar fell into her hands.
"You gonna catch the akuma in that?" Chat Noir quipped, peering at the glass.
"Hmmm…" Frowning, Ladybug glanced around the area, but nothing sprang to mind. "Let's go inside," she said. "I think that's where the akuma is hiding."
The nearest door was locked, so they had to run around the Cathedral until they found a working entrance. Unsurprisingly, it was black inside. But, Ladybug was pleased to see when she waved her hands in front of her face, not as dark as it had been. She could still see; the darkness hadn't filled her eyes again.
"We must be getting close," she said, wishing she could see just a little more, if not for anything than to find inspiration for her Lucky Charm. As much as she hated to admit it, she was struggling to come up with another use for the jar than a glorified shadow-snatcher.
But that wasn't right. She knew it deep within. That wasn't right.
"There you are. Ladybug, Chat Noir…" said the akuma. Its voice floated and echored around her head. "I'm afraid I'm going to need something of yours. Your earrings and ring."
"Not a chance," said Chat Noir. She could hear the swish of a baton being swung. "What's your deal then? Monsieur Shadow."
"My name is Mind Recesses," the akuma hissed. "Now give me your Miraculous! Or live through your own nightmare."
"Hawkmoth is running out of new villains," Chat Noir commented, chuckling. "This one's basically Sandboy all over again. What were you afraid of? The dark?"
Ladybug frowned. Nightmare? Afraid? Sandboy had created a physical fear, by taking away her powers, by forming a Ladybug that hated Chat Noir, by conjuring an Adrien crooning his love for Chloe. But Mind Recesses hadn't done that. He'd taken away their vision, cut them off from the physical world. A different sort of fear, then. One in the mind.
She remembered the feeling of failure, the feeling of shame, and it all clicked. He didn't show them their nightmare, give them something to run away from. He changed their minds, trapped them with their emotional fears, psychological nightmares. More complicated than Sandboy's, more devastating.
"Marinette! I'm sorry. please come back."
Those had been his words. Is that what he was truly afraid of? Losing her?
Ladybug felt her heart convulse with a nauseating shame. He was afraid of her leaving him…
And that's exactly what she'd done.
Ladybug rubbed her thumb across the lip of the jar. Just what was she supposed to do with it? Especially when she couldn't see anything in the Cathedral. Just black, black, black, hazy purple, black…
Her eyes jolted up to a paler patch, back to the jar, then to Chat Noir. She grinned.
"I've got an idea, Chat," she murmured. "Wait for my signal."
"How will I see it?"
"Oh, you'll see it." She nudged him with her elbow then sprang away towards the pale patch. She could hear Chat Noir speaking again, no doubt taunting the akuma by way of distraction whilst Ladybug struggled her way to the top of the room.
She couldn't see where she was aiming her yo-yo, or if there was even anything to loop the string around, but luck was on her side and she soon made it to the magnificent, stained-glass window that had become famous around the world. It was dark, obscured by the velvety mist, but some light was filtering through. She just needed a little more…
Silently apologising Paris, Ladybug punched the window. Glass tinkled down, and a shaft of golden light struggled into the dark Cathedral. She held the jar up to the hole, catching the light which was magnified by the glass. A stronger beam shot into the room, cutting easily through the murk.
Finally, with the beam caught a hazy figure. He'd always been there, a cloaked figure, completely black, blending in with the shadows. Not that finding the akuma meant they'd found the object, but with Mind Recesses powers so long-range, and his costume so impractical, Ladybug figured he wasn't up to hand-to-hand combat.
She swung the jar a little to one side to find Chat Noir's face, waited for him to flinch and look at her, then returned the beam to the akuma. Moments later, to her relief, the figure crumbled, and a little purple butterfly flapped furiously in the hazy sunlight. Ladybug quickly snatched it up in her yo-yo, and released it—purified—through the hole in the window. Then she threw her jar into the air and called for the Miraculous Cure.
Immediately, the darkness in the room vanished, the window repaired, the hooded figure dissolved into a frail young man. Ladybug swung back down to join him and Chat Noir.
"Nice signal, Milady," Chat Noir said. "Dazzling, just like you."
"Oh, har har." She rolled her eyes then held up her fist.
He smiled, brought his fist up to meet hers. "Pound it!"
"Now, for you…" Ladybug turned to the frail young man, clad in an oversized hoodie and dark jeans. He flinched.
"I'm sorry, Ladybug," he mumbled. "I just... These guys I know, and I just—"
"It's okay: I don't blame you. Here, I want you to take this." Ladybug extracted from her yo-yo a small business card and handed it to the young man. "Please, talk to her. I hope she can help you."
The man took the card with slightly quivering fingers. "I—thank you, Ladybug, Chat Noir."
Ladybug smiled. "I have to go," she said. "There's something I have to do...Chat Noir, can you make sure he gets home okay?"
"Of course, Milady." Chat Noir swept an invisible hat from his head and bowed deeply. "See you next time."
"See you next time."
The Miraculous Cure came and went, taking with it the debilitating darkness, and the voices in his head, and the bruises on his knuckles, but Luka didn't look up. He didn't uncurl his arms around his knees, didn't lift his head, didn't open his eyes.
Because the voices never really stopped, and he could still feel blood under his nails and the screams hoarse in his throat.
It was a silly notion, trying to protect Marinette. Brave, strong, determined Marinette who didn't need protecting. Silly notion thinking she'd need him. Thinking she'd even want to need him. Fiery, head-strong, stubborn Marinette who never wanted to stay with him during an akuma attack, who didn't trust him to help her, or didn't want him to.
Marinette, who was afraid to be with him when emotions ran high?
Marinette who flinched when he yelled, nearly cried when she apologised, tried to placate him afterwards.
"Luka! Luka!"
He imagined her sprinting around the side of the Cathedral, voice cracked with desperation. With a thump, she fell to her knees next to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pressing her head next to his.
"Are you okay?" she whispered. "Luka? Please, tell me you're okay."
He couldn't, he didn't. He inclined his head closer to hers until her cheek was pressed against hers. His hands were fisted beneath his bent knees, palms sweaty, nails aching.
The darkness had gone, but it lingered in his mind.
