Summary:
Fear, is not a virtue.
But courage is.
And it takes true courage for someone to face who they've become when gripped by fear.
Chapter: Virtues Of The (Un)Yielding P.4
Gabriel tapped a shoe against the floor, he was anxious, nervous even, he wanted this to be over already, he didn't know what it was, but it was frustrating him to not be able to figure it out. "We're so close.", he breathes, all the muscles in his body tightening at once. Was this what triumph felt like? What winning felt like? "Just a little more, she's caught The Guardian.", he announces suddenly.
"Looks like today is certainly the day, Sir.", Nathalie sighs softly, she too felt anxious, she didn't expect this outcome, hearing from Gabriel that Marinette was indeed stripping miraculouses. It was certainly a surprise to see an Akuma making actual progress.
"This is the closest we've come.", The man clenches his jaw tightly. "All we need is the Ladybug Earrings and Black Cat Ring, that's all.", he grins his cane tightly.
They were so close.
"Master!", Kagami wheezes out as she barely gets to her feet from being slammed against a brick wall, her eyes widen as Fu is taken down and quickly stripped of his miraculous. "No!", she yells as she kicks a knight away from her and tries to run to where Fu is, but King Monkey stops her, grabbing her by her arm.
"Marinette you mustn't!", Wayzz cries out beside Longg, whom too, was pleading.
"Quiet!", Princess Virtue forces her will upon both kwamis, silencing them. She bares her teeth to the two Kwamis threateningly.
Fu groans as he lays on his side, he turns to Kagami, he looks between her and Chloé, "The rest is up to you both.", he says weakly before finally and inevitably being turned to stone.
Kagami reached out, eyes wide and lips parted, Chloé and The Fox both ran towards their Ladybug, grabbing Kagami by her shoulders, urging her to retreat with them while she still could.
Kim by this point, impatiently scooped their Ladybug up and put her over his shoulder, "Let's go!", he yells out as he runs with the girl over his shoulder.
Noir grimaces, she turns to The Fox and wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her against her body, she extends her staff and both follow after the boy and their Ladybug. Momentarily escaping.
"They'll be back.", Princess Virtue says before she could hear Hawk Moth protest. "They have yet to use Ladybug's lucky charm.", she smirks darkly.
It took mere minutes to overwhelm the heroes, it was easy.
Marinette couldn't help but feel just a little proud of herself.
"Fuck!", Noir curses out, she plops down onto the clay tiles of the roof she landed on.
The Fox sucks in a deep breath, arms crossing over her chest. "We're fucked aren't we?", she begins to pace back and fourth. "God, I...I'm sorry but I didn't think it'd be this difficult, I didn't think this throughly, I...I just...I want to go back home and be with my girlfriend.", She mumbles as she walks to a brick chimney and leans against it. She was scared, she'd never felt so much fear like in that moment when Marinette nearly turned her to stone. Maybe she wasn't suited for this after all.
Noir hums, she lifts her head up and turns her gaze to the blonde, "You're girlfriend?"
"Is that all you got from what I said?", The Fox asks as she meets the teen's gaze. She wasn't ashamed to be blunt about her preferences, especially now. She wanted to go home and just curl up in her bed with her significant other, and she wasn't afraid to voice it.
"Wh- No just-", Noir began to stutter out a response but King Monkey and Ladybug both showing up cut her off. She closed her mouth upon seeing the look on Kagami's face.
"What now?", King Monkey asked, his shoulders caved as he walked behind their Ladybug.
Kagami whom was looking rather disappointed, silently walked to where Noir was, she slowly sat down beside her, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Not saying a single word.
Chloé sighed softly, seeing Kagami look so defeated wasn't the greatest confidence booster. "We're down two and if we go back, they'll take the rest of us.", she admits. Her gaze returned to her boots. "We're too outnumbered."
"Yeah, we definitely are.", The Fox says. "And the more time we waste, the more time Marinette has to turn others into more knights."
Kagami brings a hand up to her hair, she runs her fingers through it and closes her eyes, thinking. This amount of pressure was something Marinette carried and has carried for quite a long time, for the majority of the time she should have been able to be carefree. She understood where Marinette was coming from, she knew how bottled up everything Marinette felt was, how much Marinette was forced to hold back. It's understandable. Marinette had been dealing with and solving difficult situations for years. She always put others needs before her own.
"What about the Lucky charm?", Noir suddenly asks, lifting her gaze to turn to her partner, to Kagami. "We still have that.", she says, the slightest bit of hope in her voice.
Kagami swallows thickly and nods her head, "Yes we do but…", she begins hesitantly, still hugging her knees to her chest.
"But?", King Monkey butts in, walking to where both girls sat.
Kagami sighs deeply and turns to the boy behind her and Chloé. "Once I use it, I'll have minutes before I lose my transformation. I...I don't know if using it at this point is the best option."
The heroes all fall silent for a moment.
It seems they've hit a deadend and no one knows this more than Kagami and Chloé.
"There's got to be something, guys.", The Fox grunts, looking down to her boots, arms hang stiffly by her sides now, "Ladybug always finds a way.", she mutters.
Kagami winces and so does Chloé. Both feel the pressure mounting more and more, the odds continuing to stack against them. Neither wanting to admit defeat, but both feeling it was somehow inevitable. Both girls were not faring well.
"We can't leave things like this. We...we have to do something!", Panic was clear in the boy's tone, he was freaking out, has been since the beginning. He just wanted things to go back to normal.
Noir growls under her breath after a moment, she gets up suddenly, practically jumping to her feet, "We're going to use the Lucky Charm, Ladybug, it's the only option we have left.", she turns to Kagami, looking down at her, she grips her staff tightly with a hand, she reaches her other hand out to Kagami, she comes to a conclusion, they had to use the Lucky Charm and hope it gave them something useful. "C'mon, we're going back.", she breathes out.
"Noir-", Kagami begins, but the blonde cuts her off.
"We're saving Marinette and this city no matter what. How? I don't fucking know, but somehow, we'll get the job done.", The blonde's lips pressed into a tightly line once she finished speaking, her hand still reached out to Kagami.
Kagami's eyes search Chloé's expression, she sees determination and sincerity, she sees that Chloé has made up her mind. She reaches her hand up and takes Chloé's hand into her own. Chloé pulls her up to her feet.
Chloé was prepared for the worst somehow, and she decided to go down with the city should they fail. What good was she if she couldn't even save Marinette? What good was she if she just allowed everything to continue to fall apart? Someone had to try to put everything back together. Someone had to try to hold everything together. Ladybug- no, Marinette, always found a way.
The Fox and The Monkey turn to each other. Fear evident in their gazes.
Kagami tries to calm herself, she feels her hand shaking in Chloé's own, she feels her chest tighten. She didn't know where all these mixed emotions and hesitation came from. She'd never felt these things before. Was it because Marinette was involved? She cared for her, of course she did, she grew to love her like a sister and this entire situation was devastating. She was hesitating and holding back because she was afraid, she didn't want to mess up, she didn't want to fail Marinette.
"You two can run away if you want. But me and Ladybug are seeing this through to the end.", Noir spoke firmly, she turned to the scared duo, facing them, her hand giving Kagami's hand a small squeeze. "After all, our families live here too.", Noir continued. "If this city falls, if Hawk Moth wins, we'll lose so much more than you can imagine.", Sapphire eyes search the eyes of the two heroes before her. "You can go down fighting, trying, or you can just sit and wait for defeat to come for you. You choose."
With Noir's words hanging heavy in the air, Noir turns around and releases Kagami's hand, she turns to Kagami and gives her a nod to which the Tsurugi returns. Noir extends her staff and leaves, Ladybug throws her yoyo and follows after Noir. Both teens are gone, going in the direction they last faced off against Marinette. Leaving both of the hesitant heroes behind.
There's no blindfold anymore, she faces the world head on, an added sense of clarity looming over her as she stood in place, waiting for the heroes to come back. She knew they'd come back. Because she always did. She purposely left herself open for an attack, her knights were scattered about, walking around, or merely searching for people to use to bait the heroes out of hiding faster. Marinette couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed in herself, but the feeling is greatly kept at bay by her feeling disappointed in how the events in her life have transpired. She was wronged, despite all the good she's done, despite everything she's done for others. She just couldn't catch a break.
"Marinette!"
Two voices echoed in the air in sync.
Sapphire eyes immediately look up, "Back already?", she glances around, but only sees the two heroes out of the four that left. She frowns. "Where're the other two? Sneaking around?", she asks before smirking darkly, "or did they run away?"
Noir and Ladybug both turn to each other and give each other one last nod.
"Lucky Charm!", Ladybug suddenly calls out as she throws the yoyo up. She reaches up to catch whatever saving grace she's just been dealt.
And both Noir and Ladybug are immediately struck with confusion.
Marinette bursts out laughing as she sees a small key falling into Ladybug's hand and the confused expressions both teens wore. "Amazing!", she says sarcastically. She couldn't help but think about how much she hated it whenever her Lucky Charm gave her something vague.
"A fucking key?", Noir growls through her teeth lowly, she was trying so hard not to give into the urge to simply snatch the key from Kagami's hand and just chuck it.
Ladybug frowned heavily, she felt her heart begin to race once she heard the first 'beep' of her earrings start her timer. She gulped and began to look around, looking everywhere but failing to see what she had to do next.
"This Ladybug doesn't seem to know exactly what to do.", Gabriel shakes his head. "Pathetic."
Nathalie sighs deeply, she can't help but notice that this is the longest time Gabriel has had someone akumatized for. "Ladybug failing means their absolute downfall."
"Exactly. If she fails, they all do.", he smiles to himself, it's bittersweet really. Today was certainly filled with a mixture of emotions. "At this rate, we simply have to wait them out."
Kagami is running and running, she's on the verge of a breakdown. She's sweating bullets, running around as fast as she can, trying desperately to find the clue that indicates what she has to do with the damn key. Noir was fending off a handful of knights at a time. Trying to buy her time and space from having to fight any enemies. Noir was even beginning to even clash with Marinette directly.
"Ladybug, hurry up!", Noir yelled as she avoided the sword Marinette was swinging around with a few stunts and acrobatics.
Kagami ran and ran, huffing and puffing, looking around at anything that may need her specific key, until finally she sees it, but at this point, she had a mere minute or even a few seconds, she had to make every single second count and so, she ran desperately to the door of some kind of shop, she sprinted until she reached it, she fumbled for a second before getting the key in and finally turned the key, opening the door, she rushed in and clumsily stumbled and smashed into a rack of…
"Mirrors?", Kagami breaths, sweat running down the side of her face. She looks around and sees another clue, she scrambles to her feet and snatches a small handheld mirror from an open glass display case, she sneered slightly at her reflection. She clenched her jaw and turned around, running back out the door and quickly began to look around just as the fight Noir and Marinette were having was spilling into the street she was on, which fortunately gives her the last clue, she glances at the mirror and then back to Marinette's form. Marinette was the finale thing she needed? "T-That's it?", Kagami whispers to herself before suddenly the most unfortunate thing happens. She loses her transformation suddenly. The kwami nearly falling to the ground, causing Kagami to hastily reach a hand out.
Noir is pushed back by Marinette's brutal sword swings, she gets in front of Kagami defensively, "Shit!", she curses loudly, frustration clear in her shaky voice. She huffs and puffs trying to catch her breath, her gaze flickering between Marinette's face and the ground, she was trying not to stare for too long.
"Kagami?", Tikki whimpered as she fell into Kagami's free hand.
Kagami grimaced, she stared sadly at the small kwami.
"Kagami?", Gabriel practically exclaimed, surprise clear in his tone, his mouth agape as he saw the girl lose her transformation.
"Tsurugi?", Nathalie asked, surprised.
"Y-Yes...her. But how? How did she get a hold or those earrings!?", Gabriel growls, he's suddenly caught in a predicament, the last thing he wanted to do was harm the girl, after all, he knew her mother. But the earrings...Kagami was all that was truly standing between him and those earrings. Noir was there too, but the girl could be taken care of by the knights.
Nathalie fell silent, she stood quiet, merely witnessing Gabriel's inner tug of war.
"Princess Virtue, separate Noir from Kagami, then take those earrings from her, but do not harm her.", Gabriel sighs heavily and deeply.
"Yes, Hawk Moth.", Marinette responds, monotone.
Noir grips her staff tightly, she looks at the knights spilling onto the street, slowly marching behind Marinette, closing in. "Marinette, listen to me. You need to snap out of it, please.", she breathes. "Please.", she starts to plead with the girl, hoping desperately that she can reach her somehow. "I know it's been so hard for you, I know things have been terrible and life has been so shitty for you lately. But god, this...this isn't you.", Noir closes her eyes as she lifts her gaze to face the girl that once had everything, or at least, the girl she believed had everything.
Marinette stilled for a moment, a frown tugging her lips into a tight line.
Kagami kept her gaze down, she stared at the sad kwami. "I'm so sorry, Tikki.", she apologizes, feeling that this was her fault, feeling that she failed the kwami and everyone else.
"No, no...this isn't your fault, Kagami. This is my fault, I should have tried harder, I should have done something different for her.", The kwami whimpers, crying softly.
Noir hears the conversation behind her, it breaks her heart, the kwami was suffering just as much as Marinette was. She needed to salvage things. She sighed deeply, she sucked a deep breath in and exhaled through her nose, she relaxed, her grip on her staff loosened, she suddenly releases her staff, dropping it and begins to walk to the Dupain-Cheng.
Kagami's head shoots up immediately, her eyes go wide, "Noir!?", her voice cracks, she steps forward but stops herself from following her and begins to step back instead.
Tikki goes wide eyed as well, wondering what exactly was going through Chloé's mind.
Marinette sneers slightly, her eyebrows furrow in confusion, she clenches her jaw for a moment, "What, ready to turn your ring over?", she says, trying to keep her composure, trying to appear unfazed by the fact that Noir was walking towards her, unarmed.
Noir remains silent, eyes closed, she stepped at a steady pace until she nearly closed the large gap between herself and Marinette, she stops just an arms reach away from her and suddenly opens her eyes. "I love you.", her lips parted to let those words out.
And Marinette suddenly goes stiff in place. Eyes locking with Chloé's own, her lips part and close multiple times, she was suddenly unable to speak. Her composure was suddenly shattered, the walls she put up as Princess Virtue were suddenly crumbling. She was visibly taken aback.
Kagami and Tikki's mouths fall open. Both Wayzz and Longg can only look on in mere silence, both internally hoping that the blonde can redeem Tikki's true master.
Noir keeps her gaze on Marinette's face, determined, unyielding. "It sucks, how everyone around you failed you. How everyone hurt you. How you've done nothing but sacrifice yourself everyday, putting everyone before yourself. How no one sees the things you do.", Noir sighs softly, "You're strong and too good, Marinette, you always have been. Don't let Hawk Moth get away with this."
Marinette's lips twitched, she made to speak, but suddenly couldn't. A mix of emotions a little too much to bare began to poor in, it was slowly becoming overwhelming. She frowned sadly and impulsively moved, lifting her arm with the sword, or at least attempted to, a hand firmly caught her wrist.
Noir caught Marinette's wrist, her gaze remained on Marinette's face despite the fact that she was starting to fall under her control. "There's always another way.", she whispers softly.
Kagami looked at Noir's back, wondering how the hell the girl was able to keep her gaze fixed upon Marinette for this long without falling under her influence. Sheer will power?, Kagami quickly chalks it up to. She sucks in a breath and looks at Tikki, she then turns her gaze to the hand held mirror in her other hand and slowly begins to step towards both girls, Tikki and the mirror in her hands.
"Princess Virtue, why are you hesitating!? Noir is right in front of you! Grab her!?", Hawk Moth's voice booms.
Marinette too wonders, why was she hesitating? Why was she still holding back?
Noir felt herself growing more and more weaker, her gaze begins to become more and more unfocused and her thoughts begin to get muddled. "Marinette, you aren't alone anymore.", the blonde's grip over the Dupain-Cheng's wrist loosened. "I'm here, I promise."
For a moment, Marinette's head tilts down, her gaze on the floor, she thinks over the blonde's words. Taking them in and taking them apart. She wants to believe her, she does, but everyone so far has let her down , it's just how people were. They were liars, or people who's word held no value. She's been hurt and disappointed enough.
And Marinette once again reverts back to her angered state, she snaps, lifting her head up to meet Noir's gaze, she narrows her eyes and suddenly yanks her hand out from her grip and she steps forwards only to reach her free hand out and grab the back of the Blonde's neck to deliver a powerful knee to Noir's stomach. She winds the unsuspecting girl, a cold distant expression takes over her facial features.
"Ungh!", Noir grunts as she's bent into Marinette's knee.
"Noir!", Both Kagami and Tikki both call out. Kagami stops in her steps. Horror floods in as Marinette finally pushes Noir away only to deliver a brutal front kick into the blonde's stomach, sending the blonde flying backwards, her body sliding all the way to her feet. Kagami and Tikki were afraid. "Oh sh-", her words are cut off by Tikki warning her to run away, warning her that the knights that had been still, were now drawing in.
Noir on the other hand groans, she gets to her hands and knees and shakily stays in place. Her jaw clenches, her teeth gritting. She wanted to be enough. She wanted Marinette back.
"I'm sorry. But I just find it hard to believe in anyone anymore.", Marinette speaks and this time it appears as though…Marinette was in control. "Everyone's always said the same thing, Alya, the girls...they all 'had my back', and yet…", Marinette grimaced, she falls silent for a moment, her gaze not leaving Noir's back. "People are just disappointments.", she mutters to herself. "However, If you really mean your words, you can give me your ring.", she sighs, reaching out a hand to Noir.
Chloé turns to Marinette, "No, I meant what I said, but I won't give you my ring.", the blonde grunts as she gets to her feet, her arm holding her stomach, she lifts her head to face the teen again, she wore a determined expression.
Marinette shrugs, she sighs once more, she closes her eyes for a moment. "If you won't give it to me, than I'll just take it, simple.", her eyes open once more, but as she did so, the look in her eyes changed drastically.
Chills ran down Chloé's spine, she froze in place, she couldn't understand what suddenly came over her. She couldn't move no matter how much she tried to command her body to do so.
Tikki frowns sadly, she could only see the scene unfolding before her, she could do nothing. She wasn't even recharged yet, she couldn't help in any other way. "Marinette.", Tikki whimpered out.
Marinette turned her attention to the kwami, her expression remained stony. She clicks her tongue and reaches out, "Be a good kwami and turn the earrings over to me.", she commands coldly.
Tikki recoiled, she turned away from Marinette's cold gaze, not being able to bare the sight before her, she cowers in Kagami's grasp. She couldn't bare to see her master stare at her so coldly. All the love Marinette once had, was gone.
Kagami's eyebrows furrowed, she swallowed thickly, Noir was all that stood between her and Marinette. If Marinette got to her, she knew she wouldn't be able to do much against her. She would surely lose the earrings and Hawk Moth would be so much closer to doing whatever it is he wants to do. Her and Chloé were on their own.
Or, it appeared that way.
Marinette frowns heavily, she took her hand back and began to step towards the two girls and the kwami, she managed to get a few steps in before she's stopped however. From the corner of her eye, she sees a familiar miraculous holder suddenly coming at her, she turns and swings her sword, but as she does and it seemingly cuts through him, the boy suddenly disappears, vanishing before her eyes and it's right then and there that Marinette quickly pieces together what just happened, she realizes that she was wide open for an attack, she spins around on her heel, but she's just slow enough to get tackled by King Monkey, she's nearly knocked off her feet.
Both Kagami and Chloé are immediately relieved.
"Knights!", Marinette yells out for assistance. When the boy encircled his arms around her.
And the knights spring into action, all charging in at once.
Chloé finally moves and turns to Kagami and runs to her, she bends down for a second to grab her baton as she passes the spot where she dropped it, she takes it and nearly reaches her, but before she gets to her, King Monkey is suddenly slammed into her, knocking her off her feet and winding her.
Kagami yelps and turns to her left to run, but as she does, she sees knights coming from the direction she planned to run towards, she panics and turns to her right to see if she could run, but the direction was also filled with knights. She looks all around them and she realizes they've been circled in, the circle was slowly growing smaller, Marinette was slowly drawing in.
Tikki looks up at Kagami. "The Lucky Charm...Kagami, what were you dealt?", she asks hastily.
Kagami gasps, she lifts the mirror in her other hand, "This.", she breathes and shows Tikki the mirror.
Tikki looks at the mirror, her reflection staring back, she narrows her eyes. She knew the purpose of the Lucky Charm, she knew that it had yet to fail them, to fail her masters, Marinette and all her Ladybugs before. There was a purpose for the item Kagami had. "Did you get the last clue?", she asks.
Kagami nods. "Yes I did, but I don't quite understand it, I...I need Marinette for it to work, but I didn't have time to risk getting too close to truly figure out how Marinette and the mirror work together."
Tikki grimaces and begins to think, she gives herself one last look in the mirror, eyes narrowing, she then turns to see Chloé and King Monkey stumbling up to their feet, her gaze then shifts over to her corrupted master slowly drawing closer.
And Tikki thinks she's figured it out.
"Marinette...this isn't Marinette.", Tikki breathes and quickly looks at Kagami, "Words will not work. We cannot make Marinette see with our words.", Tikki concludes and begins to explain. "You must show Marinette what she has become. You must make her face herself."
Kagami is stupefied, she was too panicked to piece things together, it was a simple task...or well, seemed simple. She had to get close to Marinette, very close.
"Kagami!", A voice takes Kagami out from her racing thoughts.
Kagami turns to look over her shoulder, "A-Aurore, I think we figured out what we finally have to do.", she says the Fox holders name loud enough for only herself, the kwami and Aurore to hear it, her eyes starting to water up with slight relief.
The Fox holder comes to a halt just an arms reach away, she stares at her skeptically, unsure.
Tikki can sense the uncertainty of the girl before them and while she was not entirely sure she and Kagami were on to something, she needed to encourage the blonde, "The mirror, Marinette must look into it.", she says urgently.
The blonde sighs, looking between the kwami and her friend, a friend that chose her for this fight. "Okay, I think I can get you close, but we'll only have this one chance to get Marinette to look into that thing."
Kagami nods her head.
The blonde sucks in a shaky breath and closes her eyes, she stands still and straightens her posture, her expression turns into a thoughtful one, she holds her flute close to her chest.
"Guys!", King Monkey yelps out, noticing how the two girls were merely standing by.
Noir is also looking over her shoulder to the blonde and the ravenette, wondering what was going on.
Kagami merely remains quiet, she waits despite their time ticking away and hopes Aurore knows what she's doing.
And in moments, blue eyes open, the blonde grips her flute and brings it up to her lips and charges the magic within it and says that magic word, "Mirage!", she swings her flute up and sends the charge above them, a shower of glimmering light rains down upon them all and in the blink of an eye, there is two dozen Noirs and Monkey Kings.
Tikki gasps, she turns to Kagami, "Go!", she yells and jumps out from Kagami's grasp and floats away. She knew that the Mirage would certainly throw Marinette off seeing as she would have to protect herself against Noir and King Monkey.
Kagami nods and breaks into a full run towards the group.
Aurore follows Kagami closely and she makes the Mirage advance against a surprised Marinette who quickly and blindly began to swing her sword around.
Noir and King Monkey quickly sprint in to attack and subdue Marinette while the Knights confusingly dealt with the fake duplicates of themselves.
It takes them moments to finally make direct contact with Marinette.
King Monkey jumps over Marinette, causing Marinette to attempt to turn back to engage him, but Noir cuts her off mid sword swing.
"Cataclysm!", Chloé shouts, calling upon the power of destruction as she charges a distracted Marinette, she slams into her and reaches for the sword, successfully grabbing it and destroying it.
Kim feels grateful when dust slices through the air instead of metal, he catches Marinette's wrist, but as he does, a knight comes up from behind him and he finds his oxygen suddenly being cut when the knights lance is horizontally used to restrain and choke him, he gasps for air and gags, unfortunately releasing Marinette's wrist.
Chloé hears her ring chime, she feels her heart thumping hard and fast against her chest, she knows that whatever Kagami and The Fox came up with, must be worth it, they would succeed, they had to. So, she decides to stay and risk losing her identity as Noir. She grits her teeth as she grabs the wrist King Monkey released, she shoulder charges Marinette and gets her off her feet for a moment before a knight tackles her and Marinette to the ground, two more knights jump in to pile onto them.
Marinette feels herself losing control of the situation a lot faster than she thought she would, she no longer finds herself thinking appropriately, she merely acts.
And desperately Marinette grabs one of the knight's lances off the ground as she rolls out from between her knights and Noir, she stumbles to her feet and without thinking, she turns and swings the lance to the figure that appeared in her peripheral vision, the side of the metal lance slams into the blonde's side, delivering a crushing blow to her ribs, causing the blonde to scream out in agony. Marinette feels no sympathy whatsoever, she sneers when the Fox is crumbled to the floor, holding her side, agonizing. She's distracted by the sight for a moment, until she hears the sound of hasty footsteps draw so close and without thought, on impulse, she grips the lance, turning her body, she thrusts with the sharpened end and...hits someone.
Sapphire eyes meet Chocolate brown eyes.
Time seems to still and suddenly everything just fades away, the muffled screams the heroes and kwamis gave out melted into the background suddenly and quickly.
A shaky hand suddenly places itself onto her shoulder, a pained expression floods the girl's face. Marinette finds reasoning returning, realization slowly washes in, brutally. The shaky hand grips her shoulder tightly, chocolate brown eyes begin to shine with unshed tears. Slowly Marinette breaks her gaze from Kagami's own, her gaze drifting down to her hands, feeling wet warmth suddenly coating them.
"NO!", Gabriel yells out.
Nathalie's shoulders twitched as she jumped back from being startled. "What happened!?", she asked.
"She...impaled Kagami.", Gabriel says, shock clear in his tone. He falls to a knee, unsure of what to do next, surely, he could fix this.
Kagami trembles, her knees shaking, she feels a warm numbness starting to come over her, she nearly loses the grip of the mirror in her other hand, but she stands her ground, clinging to the hope that the mirror would fix everything more than ever, knowing that she certainly had no more chances at this point. She steadied herself with the hand she placed over Marinette's tensing shoulder and slowly raises the mirror.
Marinette feels a final wave of emotional distress slam into her, everything dawns upon her at once, she releases a soft whimper, slowly she brings a shaky hand to Kagami's shoulder, her gaze lifting up, only to be met by her own reflection.
"Marinette.", Kagami says shakily and slightly hoarse. The mirror just in front of her, between her and Marinette's gaze. She would not see the Marinette's expression.
It lasts for a few moments, Marinette sees the face that looks back at her, dirt, sweat, strands of hair out of place and a horrified expression painting her face. She sees someone...someone she doesn't recognize. A stranger looks back at her.
Marinette's lips part slowly, eyes widened, and just as this happened, everything moved again, time that appeared to stop, moved, sounds that seemed to be muffled out, became clear, and everything she felt all at once, disappeared.
Kagami pales as she sees nothing changing, Marinette is still akumatized, the knights are still holding the others down, nothing is changing. She loses hope and all her strength disappears. Her knees buck, giving out from under her, she feels the sick sensation of the lance that pierced her, slipping out of her as she fell backwards, the mirror slipping from her grasp and shattering on the floor. Natural human instincts kick in, she places her hands against her bloody gaping wound and she lays there on the cold hard ground, she feels wetness surrounding her. Her vision blurs and Chloé's cries become muffled as she finally loses focus, the last thing she hears is her heart thumping in her ears.
The bloody lance falls from Marinette's bloody grasp. She slowly looks down to her hands, she sees crimson coating them, it's everywhere, on her nails, under them, between her fingers. Marinette feels an odd sensation replacing everything else, she cannot describe it and for some reason, she does not want to.
Gabriel is frozen on his knee, speechless, unsure of how to move forward from here. He brings a hand up to his mouth.
An ominous silence reigns heavily in the spacious room.
Nathalie can see how distressed the man is, she knows the situation has suddenly taken a turn for the unexpected.
Gabriel battles with his choices internally, he takes a moment to think about his next course of action, the earrings were right there, the ring was right there too, both within his grasp, he could get them both, undo everything while fulfilling his own wish. It's possible, he's sure. So he begins to speak, ready to deliver his last command to his champion. But just as he does, he's suddenly shut out, disconnected from Marinette. He felt the odd sensation of being severed and taken out of control.
It's over, he thinks to himself, for some reason, he isn't so surprised.
Marinette blinks for a moment, she feels something snap inside of her, it's much different from anything she's felt so far, it's deeper somehow. She feels a part of her suddenly disappearing, a feeling of...nothingness fills the void of the piece of herself she felt leaving.
Tikki whimpers, she floats closer, Wayzz and Longg both wear horrified expressions at what had just transpired. They surround Kagami.
"No. It wasn't supposed to be this way.", Tikki sobs as she floats to the unconscious Tsurugi. She presses her paw against the teen's cheek, she sits beside her.
Marinette sighs softly, her gaze lifts from her hands, to the ground, crimson running through the cracks between the concrete tiles. She knows something is wrong, but for some reason, she cannot remember how to properly register what it is.
Tikki looks up to her still master, looking coldly and distantly at them, more tears well up in her eyes.
"Kagami!", Chloé's voice cracks and breaks as she yells out desperately for a response. "Kagami!", she moves, shuffling and kicking, but she cannot get out from under the eerily frozen knights.
And neither can the other teens move, they're stuck in whatever position the knights had them in. Both Aurore and Kim knew something bad happened, but neither could see for themselves. Kim was being forced down, Aurore was agonizing over what she knew were broken ribs.
Marinette slowly begins to step to the kwamis and the Tsurugi. Slowly but surely, the darkness that had turned her into Princess Virtue, melts away as she falls to her knees beside the kwamis and Kagami, her gaze fixated on the crimson running through the cracks, she blinks a few times.
"Marinette.", Tikki whispers brokenly, she sees the akuma oddly floating above, flapping its wings, it remains in place, suspended in the air above Marinette.
Chloé sucks in a breath at the sight of Marinette, clad in dirty clothing and the akuma merely flying in place.
Marinette clenches her jaw for a moment, she swallows thickly and lifts her gaze to the teary eyed kwami, only to be met with fear, wide eyes and recoil.
Tikki's eyes widened, something was not right with Marinette, her eyes, were not her own, they were no longer that lovely sapphire blue. "Are you...Marinette?", Tikki asks shakily.
Marinette's lips were pressed into a tight line as she thought for a moment, slightly confused by the question, after a brief moment of silence she speaks, "Who else would I be?", she says quietly before reaching forwards with her bloody hands, she slowly and cautiously removes the earrings from Kagami's ears, no one but Marinette speaks further. "Spots on.", she mutters and in a flash of light, Ladybug is kneeling where Marinette was, she stands up slowly and turns, yoyo in hand, the Akuma still in place, flapping about. Marinette captures it, but does not purify it right there and then, she begins to back away, leaving the sight.
"Wait, where are you going?", Chloé asks, her voice hoarse as she stares at Marinette's back.
Marinette sighs, ignoring the blonde, she throws her yoyo up and leaves, Wayzz and Longg both follow after her.
They don't know what it is.
Marinette had fixed everything, undoing the extensive damage that was done. But for some reason, something was still amiss, something was still not quite right.
"Marinette, are you feeling alright?", Wayzz begins to ask questions first. He floats closely to the teen, staring deeply into her newly acquired grey eyes, eyes that held an eerie detached look to them. Eyes that unsettled him.
Longg silently looks on, observing the girl, trying to figure out what was wrong. The miraculous ladybugs should have fixed everything and yet, Marinette was somehow not the same and something told him, it wasn't just a physical aspect of the human that had changed.
"I feel fine.", Marinette answers dismissively as she leans her back against a brick chimney. She takes note of the sun beginning to take it's dip behind the kwamis that were worriedly observing her.
Marinette had changed after being akumatized and it appeared that only Tikki noticed that, this new physical change was not due to the akuma, it was something else...it was their connection, something had happened, Tikki knew great strain of their bond would cause issues, but this...was something else, she knew their bond was struggling, but she did not feel it strain any more than it had when Marinette was struggling with Adrien. There was a different cause to...whatever this was, but she knew their bond played a role somewhere.
"Marinette, we must get you back home.", Tikki suddenly suggests. She waits for her master to look at her.
Marinette turns her gaze to the kwami, she nods.
Tikki continues to search the Dupain-Cheng's face, wishing to see a glimpse of her lively master, but she gets nothing. As much as she wants to get to the bottom of this, she couldn't bare to receive that cold blank gaze anymore for today. Tomorrow would be another day, tomorrow they would see Fu and see how exactly they'd get past this whole thing.
Welp here's another update. If anyone's interested im also on AO3, I will soon be updating there too.
Sorry about any typos. Feel free to drop comments ect.