Written by: Rosehealer02
Betas: Mystic_Raven20
Cover art credit: (me) Rosehealer02 on Deviantart. Rose-Minou on Tumblr.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended
46 B.C…
A few days after descending from the Temple, Adrien and Marinette debated purchasing a horse.
"We can't stay in our suits forever. We need to disguise ourselves from any form of threat. Especially the Romans," Marinette explained.
Adrien couldn't argue, knowing full well that she was right. He used the golds they had retrieved back in Egypt to purchase the percheron horse, it was a very dark brown so much so that it was very close to black. They decided to name her Noire for sake of inside jokes and nostalgia.
They travelled for days on Noire's back, until one day, Marinette had been so quiet and down, Adrien embraced her from behind hoping she'd open up to him.
"Bugaboo, what's wrong?"
Marinette sighed, "Oh it's nothing."
Adrien kissed her on the crook of her neck, "It is not nothing if you're feeling down, please tell me?"
Marinette had mixed feelings, and the fact he could figure her out so easily annoyed her a little as well as warmed her inside.
"It's stupid," her small voice said.
"Humor me," He whispered into her ear, making her shiver.
'Damn him for having such effects on me,' she thought, finally giving in and confining in her partner.
"I just miss my parents, I have never been away from them this long before," She started, letting all her emotions out of the bottle, and now that she'd started, it seemed she couldn't stop. "I'm afraid that I will never see them again. I want my maman, and papa." she said, as her voice cracked and tears fell from her eyes.
Adrien's widened, not believing how much she'd held in as she tried to remain strong. He couldn't allow that to happen any longer. He wanted to step up, to be her strength no matter what. He wasn't familiar with homesickness, he was used to solitary, however Marinette was the opposite of him.
"Shh," he soothed, "we will see them again. I know so." He tightened the embrace squeezing her into his body. "I am here with you for as long as you need me."
Marinette finally broke down and cried. She welcomed his warmth, feeling comfort and security in his arms.
In little over a week they finally reached the edge of the Parthian Empire. They'd travelled down the worn path through the forest, when suddenly a feeling of uneasiness crept into their guts. They felt as though they were being watched.
"I don't think we are alone." Adrien whispered, causing Marinette's eyes to dart around the surrounding area.
"Yeah, there are people hiding in the forest." she whispered in response, mirroring the level of his own voice.
Adrien noticed the shadowed movements among the trees, gripping on a spear that was gifted from Oringo, as he whispered, "How many do you think there are?"
"Hard to say, but from what I could catch, minimum 6."
Adrien narrowed his eyes when he saw someone on the worn road ahead, "I think we are about to find out."
Noire came to a halt before the person, and only then did Marinette realise they were surrounded., "This can't be good."
The man in front began to speak emotively in a language neither understood.
Adrien narrowed his eyes, "Sorry Sir, we cannot understand you."
The man clearly understood that neither party could understand each other, but that didn't stop him from smiling a sickly grin displaying all of his yellow teeth. A disturbing feeling twisted through Marinette and Adrien's guts. He made a quick gesture signalling his men, each drawing a sword.
Adrien scowled, "They must be bandits, and he must be their leader."
Marinette nodded in agreement, "Looks like we will have to fight our way through." She mentally counted the number of men; it turned out to be ten.
One of the men approached and attempted to grab one of them. Marinette quickly kicked him in the face and jumped off Noire. Noire ran off as Adrien jumped off and joined his lady, back to back with her. "Just like an akuma?"
Marinette smirked at his words, then frowned when saw the bandits closing in on them and attacking the teenagers. On reflex, Marinette and Adrien fought back. As the fight went on, both teenagers tried so hard not to kill.
The bandit leader saw this, and used it to his advantage thinking that they were both too soft. He stepped in to join the fight, his target firmly placed on the girl. He was relatively larger in body than standard, meaning he was able to bash Adrien away with a sharp backhand.
"Adrien!" Marinette shouted when she saw he had been sent flying a few feet away. She began to move to Adrien's side only for the leader to grab her before she could get to Adrien, holding her firmly by both of her wrists. "Let me go, you bastard!" She spat, but it only served to make the leader laugh cruelly.
Adrien shook his head to shake off the daze, only to see the leader holding tightly onto Marinette.
"Marinette!" Quickly standing up, Adrien was hit by force as four men advanced to hold him down.
"Connard!" To his horror he saw the leader taking pleasure in Marinette's struggle, behaving as though this was the response he wanted from women. "LET HER GO!" Adrien shouted, only for one of the men to point the end of his sword at Adrien's neck.
Marinette refused to stay still, continuing to struggle to free herself from his strong grips. "That hurts, let me go!" The leader laughed and with his free hand began touching her inappropriately, his mouth connecting onto her neck. She flinched when he licked her, "GET OFF ME, YOU BASTARD!" She spat with disgust.
Adrien saw red, and roared without care about the consequences, "PLAGG! CLAWS OUT!" He transformed into a giant black leopard, freeing himself from the men's hold.
A few men had already freaked out by the changing human, fleeing the area and disappearing into the woods. Those that stayed quaked in fear, legs shaking and bodies trembling. The leader was startled, loosening his hold on Marinette's wrists and allowing her to break free. She hit him hard in the abs winding him. "No one touches me, except my minou!"
The leader held his stomach and growled angrily, drawing out his own sword and intended to harm the bluenette. He shouted commands, the men finally coming back to their senses and following the orders; each advanced onto Chat Noir.
Chat Noir snarled, angrily slashing at some of the men; trying to get them out of the way, so he could get back to his lady's side. Marinette defended herself by dodging and fighting back with fists and legs, until the leader swung his sword at her.
In the blur of the moment, Marinette managed to knock his sword out of his hand disarming him. Moving quickly, she grabbed hold of the sword and stabbed him with it before she could stop herself. This shocked the leader, his eyes glazing over as he swayed backward and fell to the ground — dead.
The other men were completely shocked that their own leader had just been killed, by a youth as well. They began to all flee at last, leaving behind a dead leader and a couple of dead men, killed by Chat Noir's deep mauls.
Chat Noir watched them flee, his adrenaline rush calming and the realization hitting him like bricks, he had actually killed two men. 'Merde, what have I done…' He gasped as he stared at the two corpses in front of him. He was completely rooted to the spot in utter shock. He had lost his temper and in the process, he had killed them. 'I'm a murderer!'
He barely could register his brain when he heard his lady had screamed out, falling into an intense panic attack. He turned his head and saw Marinette had already dropped to her knees, covered in blood which had been splattered over her body by the dead leader. She screamed, tears streaming down from her eyes, "I killed him! I killed him!" He saw Tikki hovering in front of her holder, trying to calm her.
"You did it in defense, if you didn't, he would have killed you." Tikki told her holder.
Chat Noir swallowed hard, 'Can we really call ourselves heroes if we took lives?' He hoarsely whispered "Claws In." Transforming back to Adrien, and unable to move from the spot.
Plagg was released from the Miraculous ring, and took a look at the situation, widening his eyes in acknowledgement. He turned to Adrien and saw that he was already looking horribly sickened. "Kid…"
Adrien looked at Plagg, "Plagg… I… we… we killed them…" He whimpered, completely paled.
Plagg knew Adrien needed him the most right now, and needed his wisdom and comfort even if it was not his forte. "There is a fine line between murder and defense. Do not think of yourself as a murderer, this is not it."
Adrien slowly shook his head with great deal of doubt, "I.. I lost my temper… They… they were trying to hurt my Lady…"
Plagg lips curl downward with sadness, "Kid, you did what you had to, to protect the one you love. That is not evil, your heart is still good and true. You did not kill in cold blood."
Adrien looked at Plagg with hope, "You think?"
Plagg flew to his chest and patted on it, "I know so. Right now, your partner needs you, and you need her."
Adrien nodded slowly, dragging his feet toward where Marinette sat collapsed on the ground. He noticed that she had vomited from the panic attack and shock. He knew he was not alone in this, they could comfort each other, for only they understood. He dropped to his knees next to her and embraced her, Marinette crying and sobbing in his arms.
Plagg joined Tikki's side, preaching his wisdom to the teenagers, "Listen, this age is absolutely nothing like your time. This is an age filled with wars, destruction and deaths. All are very common. I don't know how long we will be stuck in this timeline, but we will see a lot more of those."
Tikki gently told them, "Please do not be hard on yourselves. You both did what you had to do to survive."
Both kwamis tried their best to comfort their holders, both growing up in a much more peaceful age in comparison to this era. After several minutes, Marinette had passed out from the overwhelming feeling of the situation and stress from her panic attack.
Adrien was not completely better, however after seeing what had become of Marinette he pushed his wills to be strong for both of their sakes, especially for hers. He moved her to rest under the shade of a tree as he went to collect the stuff on the corpses, such as coins, foods and supplies. He would not let those things go to waste, regardless of how he felt doing it. When he finished looting the corpses, he transformed into Chat Noir to use his strong claws to dig the graves for the men they'd killed. At least he could do this for them regardless of their crimes.
After burying the three men in their graves, he de-transformed back into Adrien to carry Marinette, along with tugging Noire's rein along to the nearest creek he could find. When he found the creek, he put Marinette down on soft grass and tied Noire's reins to one of the tree branches. He washed himself to get rid of the blood and dirt, although he felt like no matter how much he washed, the blood wouldn't go away in his mind. Completely cleaned, yet he stared at his hands as if still saw the blood on them. His mind began to race as he understood the mental breakdown of Lady Macbeth, the symbolisation of guilt over death "Out, damned spot!".
Plagg watched his holder, worrying for him because he loved his kitten. "They are too pure for this era."
Tikki nodded sadly, "After this, they will not be the same again. Not now they have experienced the first hand of warring age."
Plagg grunted, "Let's hope they won't get involved in one of the wars. It could break them. Bandits are one thing, but soldiers on the other hand…" he trailed off.
Tikki sighed, looking at her holder sadly. "Yeah. We can only try our best to guide them and be there for them."
Plagg growled, completely frustrated with the law of universe balance and magic, "Only if we didn't have our memories all muddled and messed up, we'd have already found the Guardian and got them home by now. Instead of having them go through this."
Tikki watched Adrien use wet ragged cloth to wash Marinette, focusing mainly on the blood and the dirt. "We will just have to do our best with what we have."
Adrien saw bruises forming on Marinette's wrists, he kissed each of them, wishing them away. He couldn't bear to see his love hurt like this.
After cleaning Marinette, Adrien lifted her onto Noire and mounted himself behind. They began to travel again, Adrien holding an unconscious Marinette gently, preventing her from falling off. They had to get far away just in case the bandits decided to come back for revenge.
At sun set, they found a good spot to set up a camp. Adrien felt like he'd been dragging himself around like a heavy lead but he knew they had to keep surviving. He built a quick makeshift tent and placed Marinette in there. As soon as he put her down, she stirred.
"Marinette?"
Marinette woke up, saw Adrien. "A-adrien?"
Adrien hugged her in a tight embrace, Marinette knew in an instant that what was happening was not a dream and whimpered. That night they comforted each other, though neither could sleep, their minds filled with too many haunting memories.
They continued to travel despite the haunted memories of their first kills. It was about three weeks before they had their first encounter with roman soldiers since Egypt. Julius Caesar was not with them, but they checked every traveler that passed them just in case. Soon as Adrien and Marinette came to halt before them, the soldiers spoke in old latin.
Adrien saw their gesture was pointed at Marinette as if pointing at her scars. They were able to catch a couple words that sound like they were looking for both teenagers and he got a bad feeling about this; wishing he had some sort of understanding of the old latin language. However his breath hitched when saw them draw their swords. It was clear that they intended to kill both teenagers, "My Lady?"
Marinette scowled, not wanting to deal with this, "Damn it, we better transform. Tikki! Spots On!" She transformed into a red clad warrior princess, and both quickly dismounted from Noire.
"Plagg! Claws out!" Adrien transformed into the black leopard.
The Roman soldiers needed no permission to attack, a dozen men advancing as soon as they saw the transformation.
The teenagers once again tried not to kill, but with so many men with swords at their throats, options were wearing thin.
"What should we do? I don't want to kill them." Chat Noir said.
Ladybug began to shed tears, "but we can't die here… Why… Why does this have to happen to us?" She spun her yoyo as a shield, blocking the attacks the best that she could.
Chat Noir grunted, "Damn it. There is no way we could get out of here alive without killing." He roared and attacked the roman soldiers.
"There are too many of them, it was clear they came to kill us specifically." Ladybug told her partner.
Chat Noir bit and snapped one of the soldier's neck, "It could only mean one thing…"
Ladybug flinched at the sound of a neck snapped, finishing his sentence, "Caesar wanted us dead."
The soldiers showed no hesitation in their relentless attacking, Ladybug and Chat Noir hearts clenching every time they did a kill blow against the roman soldiers. It seemed like forever before they finally finished, the last soldier going down hours after the battle began.
"Did we get them all?" Chat Noir croaked with heartache. 'I've killed too much today.'
Ladybug shook her head, her voice shook, "No, a couple got away a while ago. I won't be surprised if they might have gone back to report to Caesar himself."
They both had no choice but to come to terms with killing, even though it was against everything they believed in. They would do everything they could to avoid killing anymore, grateful to have Plagg and Tikki there for them and helping them.
When they were sure no more roman soldiers were about to attack, Ladybug suddenly felt relieved but at the same time nauseated, the stomach churning causing her to vomit. Chat Noir rushed to her side, he too felt sick with the fact that they took lives, again. "M'lady?"
Ladybug wiped her mouth as tears fell from her eyes, "We've killed too many… I will never be able to get used to this."
Chat Noir understood too well, nuzzling his muzzle against her cheek. "We are in this together."
Ladybug sighed and nodded. She sniffled, "Let's bury them." They worked together to make many graves and bury each of the soldiers. As well as makeshift crosses with marks of who is beneath them per grave. It was late at night when they finally finished.
They set up camp a bit further away from the battlefield and de-transformed. Marinette noticed some wounds across Adrien's body, and even though she knew she had some, she insisted on treating his wounds first.
"Sit down Chaton. Let me do yours first."
Adrien argued, "I will be fine, yours are more important!"
Marinette gave him a stern glare, "Sit down, now!"
Adrien grumbled, and sat down, stripping off his tunic for her to take care of his wounds. Marinette used herbs she learned from her beloved friend Shani of Maasai Tribe to treat him. She could see several cuts and scratches, and nothing too deep to her relief. When she finished bandaging him up, she whispered softly, "It will get worse from here on out, the closer we are to Rome, I am sure we will run into more of those soldiers."
Adrien turned to her, "You and me against the world, M'Lady?"
Marinette smiled a small smile, "Always."
He picked up the herbs and medicine, and whispered "your turn." He watched her take off her tunic. He could hear her wince and frowned when he saw several cuts and scratches. 'Why did I let her treat me first instead of me treating her?' He began to apply herbs on her wounds and bandaged her wounds.
Author's Note: I apologized for the slow update, despite some chapters having already been beta read. I am too lazy. Big thanks to Mystic_Raven20 again for beta.