Summary:

It's heavy, smothering and just so...dark; Just when things between the heroes seem to reach a sort of balance, everything falls apart and falls onto a fragile Ladybug's shoulders.

Chapter: Dents In Steel P.2

Emerald eyes narrow, eyebrows furrow.

Where did Ladybug go? Was she stripped too? And who were the two new Ladybug and Black Cat? So many questions had been filling his head these past few weeks. He had a plan, but his plan was meaningless if the original Ladybug was no longer playing a role in Hawk Moth's capture and defeat.

He's had this bitter taste in his mouth, ever since that day...the day he woke up, propped up against a cold brick wall, his ring, gone. He felt a whole new filter set itself over his field of vision, the world wasn't as bright as it once was. So much has happened, too many things changed, while not at once, but over time, the results were still catastrophic. Lila's presence was the catalyst to his school life suddenly going to shit. Ladybug's betrayal was the catalyst to the other aspects of his life also going to shit. He was no longer free.

He couldn't grasp it, grasp why Ladybug would betray him like she did. He loved her, he wanted nothing more than to be with her, why couldn't she just give in, why couldn't she just love him back-

"-Adrien!"

Emerald eyes blinked, slowly they flickered to sapphire eyes. "What?", he snaps, his voice thick with annoyance.

"Don't snap at me.", Chloé scoffs and snaps back. She rolls her eyes and figures that Adrien was merely having another bad day. She clicks her tongue and merely leaves his side, walking back to where Sabrina sat so that she could sit with her.

Adrien sighs deeply. His gaze following Chloé's form to her seat when an idea suddenly comes to fruition in his head, blooming, blossoming. Chloé was the only person he could trust, she was the only person who may be able to understand him and help him.

Surely, Chloé's unconditional love for him would benefit him.

Classes are a blur, it's fortunately one of those days for her. If there's one thing Chloé absolutely hates, it's when days go by slow.

"I thought you disliked her.", Sabrina's voice is soft. It takes her out from her thoughts.

"Did...but I've gotten to know her, she's actually...good company.", Chloé replies to Sabrina. She had filled the girl in on her growing friendship with the Tsurugi girl. "She's nice."

Sabrina smiles, "I'm glad.", she says, she's happy for Chloé, happy to see that the girl had opened up to more people.

Chloé smiles, her cheeks burn slightly, she turns to Sabrina, holding her bag's strap just a little tighter, "Maybe we could all go out some time?", she says.

Sabrina nods her head enthusiastically. "That sounds awesome, I'd love to."

The heiress flashes her pearly white teeth through her lips for just a moment, "Great, I'll set something up.", she says happily.

Chloé will definitely set something, her and Kagami were meeting up later, she would bring it up then, she felt giddy, excited even, eager to have Sabrina in the mix among them.

"Urgh, this sucks.", Aurore, The Fox holder groans in annoyance as she leans against the tiled brick chimney, crouching, her gaze narrowed as she saw someone get akumatized. She wasn't one to act alone, but when she saw the akuma appear, she simply followed after it, she knew fighting on her own would be useless, so she opted to simply at least get a location and some information on who would be their next foe.

She de-transforms, "Think you can find Ladybug and the others, Trixx?", she asks as she remains crouched.

"Yes.", Trixx replies immediately.

Aurore sucks in a breath, "Go do your thing, I'll wait here."

The Kwame nods his head and turns, quickly leaving.

The blonde exhales deeply, crossing her arms over her chest, she waits, falling into thought. These past few weeks have been quite hectic for her. Exhausting even. She was now a miraculous holder, master to Trixx, the Kwami of illusions and tricks. Why Kagami had chosen her, was way beyond her and as much as she was a bit of a coward, she would stick around, see where this goes, but only because Kagami had saw something in her worthy enough to bet a magical jewel on.

Trixx was hard to get along with, they just didn't click, she'd heard the other miraculous holders discussing their Kwamis, each had spoken about their Kwamis with fondness, King Monkey and his kwami shared the same taste in food and love for exercise apparently, Ladybug knew her Kwamis favorite foods, The Dragon Holder remarked on how organized and thoughtful her Kwami was, even the brooding Noir shared a little something about 'Plagg', no doubt that was her Kwamis name.

She was the odd one out. Trixx and her couldn't hold even the most simplest of conversations and when they tried, Trixx became a jerk, criticizing her, judging her.

Apparently she was nothing but a 'self centered, entitled child'.

While maybe she came off like that at first, Trixx didn't know her, he didn't have the right to judge her, to scrutinize her. She didn't get it, she's tried to find some sort of middle ground with Trixx, but he just didn't want to cooperate with her. So here they were, only managing to share three words or less on a day to day basis. They don't even stick together most of the time, Trixx only comes to school with her, from there, he stays in her room under her bed in a shoe box he claimed as his own.

Aurore was willing to give it time, but she feared that Trixx wouldn't budge on his view of her.

"How are you holding up?", Kagami asks softly. She wears a look of sympathy, she knows what happened between Chloé and Marinette, she knows how hurt Chloé was and is, it's all still fresh for the heiress despite the weeks calmly rolling by.

"I'm okay, just...still a little bit hurt, you know.", Chloé sighs softly, she hugs her knees to her chest, she sat across from Kagami, both girls had gotten together to simply catch up with one another and keep track of what was going on in each other's lives. It's been a whole month, a whole month of Paris covering the adventures of the 'new heroes', a whole month of Marinette being distant and cold, a whole month since Kagami finally put her foot down and finally spoke against her mother's wishes. A lot of things changed and were continuing to do so.

There were more miraculouses in circulation, The Fox and The Monkey were doing well and were easy to work with. Kagami once again took the Dragon miraculous and this time worked closely with Marinette and Chloé. They were a team...for the most part.

"Marinette's always going solo you know. She doesn't let us know what she's doing or planning, she just...acts on her own.", Chloé rolls her eyes slightly. "She's always acting alone and...she just-"

Kagami nods her head, she leans forwards and rests her arms on the table between herself and Chloé. "-Doesn't communicate. I know, believe me, I do. Plagg has also been awfully quiet himself."

Just as Kagami mentioned Plagg, Longg and Tikki both flew in through Chloé's open sliding door with Trixx in tow.

"Sorry to cut in, but there is an active akuma attack.", Longg spoke first as he floated closer to Kagami.

"Of course.", Chloé tries hard not to sulk or complain.

Kagami sighs lightly, "Well, Chloé, looks like we should catch up with Marinette, no doubt she's already facing off against the akuma."

Chloé nods her head, of course, it would be in Marinette's character to already be facing down the akuma without them.

King Monkey and Noir are both quite beaten and battered by the time they get there. Both had retreated to a roof top.

Marinette's huffing and puffing, her shoulders are slightly caved, she holds her side, her hand's holding the area where her ribs were quite painfully. Her hair was even more disheveled than usual and she now sported a busted lip.

King Monkey was doing no better.

"Nice of...you two to finally show up.", King Monkey huffs a bit out of breath, wincing as he took a few steps towards them, limping just a bit. "This guy's a real...pain in the ass.", he swallows thickly, huffing between words.

Marinette grunted slightly, she leaned against her extended baton for support. "He absorbed King Monkey's special attack and tried to use it against us. So be wary about using your abilities too close to him.", she warns the duo, not bothering to look at them directly.

"He took away his attack?", Chloé asks, wanting to get more information about their foe.

"Yeah, I mean, you can only use your special once before your timer starts right? So for now, as far as I know, I can't use my special.", the boy shrugs his shoulders.

"That's true.", Kagami speaks now, she hums, raising her hand to her chin, she looks between the trio and realizes something, "Where's-", just as she makes to ask, the blonde haired Fox holder lands behind them.

"Sorry, I was waiting on Trixx to come back to me. We need a better way to communicate with each other when in civilian form, having Trixx leave me while an active akuma attack is happening isn't exactly a great idea.", Aurore says as she begins to step to the four others. "So, what's the game plan, cause from what I've seen so far, we're going to need to work this together if we're gonna stan a chance.", she adds, getting to the point.

"Ladybug's gonna have to sit back on this one, wait for an opportunity to strike, should she lose her ability, than we'll be in even bigger trouble.", Marinette says, cutting in.

"That's true.", Kagami agrees, they need to keep Chloé at a safe distance.

Chloé merely huffs, "But-", just as she starts, Marinette cuts her off.

"-Nothing, you'll stay back and wait.", Marinette says firmly, cutting off whatever Chloé was going to say.

Everyone looks at each other, each feeling a tad awkward, Kagami shoots Chloé a sympathetic look and a nod, hoping that Chloé complies.

Chloé huffs slightly, crossing her arms over her chest, while Marinette's attitude bothered her, her love for Marinette remained, not a day went by when she doesn't think about her, but these past few weeks have been the hardest with Marinette making harder, she wasn't sure what it was, if maybe Marinette held some type of anger towards her due to her confession. It hurt, it hurts. It reminds her of how her mother has treated her over the years, of how she just wanted to impress her, to prove herself worthy, to make her proud. It was like she was reliving the disappointment all over again, except this time isn't wasn't her mother who treated her as though she did nothing right.

It's a punch to the gut, a stab to the heart.

The heiress bites her bottom lip, chews on it, holding back the words of rebellion that tried to work its way out of her mouth. "Okay.", she submits to Marinette's words, surrendering under her authoritive gaze, she lowers her own head, avoiding her cold stormy gaze and not wanting to meet the gazes of the others.

While Fu had told her that Marinette and her were meant to be equal, she couldn't help but feel as though that weren't true. The power between all of them was overwhelmingly obvious, everyone even Kagami followed Marinette's lead, heeded her words and did as she told. Chloé has gotten herself a front row seat to viewing this whole other side to Marinette, but while she sits, following and waiting, a part of her begs to differ, a little voice in the back of her mind gnawed at her, whispering to her that maybe this wasn't a part of Marinette she had not seen, that this wasn't a part of her at all.

Marinette had become cold, brooding and cruel towards them, towards her and even everyone around herself at school, Kagami had mentioned it, but paid no mind to it, Kagami merely did what she could to ground Marinette, forcing the girl to hang out with her, forcing her to talk when it was just them, Chloé knows, knows about how Kagami keeps Marinette from getting to far out of reach. She wishes she could do that too, wishes she could have the strength to suck it up and make Marinette treat her like an equal. But she doesn't. Can't. Won't.

For now.

"Good, You, me and King Monkey are going to go on the offensive, we jump him.", Marinette points to Kagami and Kim, she then turns her attention to Aurore, "And you, you'll be our Trump card, create and illusion of Ladybug, make it seem as real as possible."

"Will do.", Aurore says with acknowledgment of what her role here was.

The group then makes to get into position. Splitting up.

Chloé sighs deeply, she turns and begins to wake off, she would keep her distance, she'd wait on the sidelines.

"If you want, you can come with me.", Aurore said before Chloé took off. "Grumpy didn't say we couldn't stick together.", she chuckled dryly, her hands on her hips.

Chloé hums softly before nodding, she turns back and walks towards the fox.

It seemed like Marinette had a solid plan, surely nothing would go wrong.

"Splitting off, leaving their Ladybug open and defenseless.", eyes narrow as they follow both blondes to the roof they positioned themselves at.

"Should we strike now?"

"Not yet, let the children play with our toy, just when they think they've got an advantage, we'll take Ladybug and The Fox down.", the man snickers darkly. This would be child's play, it's been a solid month, a solid month of him observing how these new heroes worked, a solid month of him also noticing the obvious cracks in their group.

How easy it was for them to turn on each other.

The way this Ladybug and Noir functioned, was oh so painfully dysfunctional. Noir stepped all over her, commanding the group and when Noir wasn't with them, she always acted brash and alone.

Hawkmoth was able to realize the best way to go about getting the miraculouses. "Divide and Conquer.", he sighs, "Let's follow the girls, from there, you'll do what we planned."

"Of course.", the woman nods her head.

They move, keeping their distance, they watched the duo jumping from roof to roof, getting closer and closer to where the others were fighting one of the akumas, which the heroes were unaware of more than one.

"Lila is already in place, sir."

"Good, good, this is working out even better, Nathalie. Soon I'm going to be having what I've worked so hard to get. Everything will have been worth it."

Kim is punched hard across the jaw, he's knocked back and his body is thrown back into Kagami, both teens are sent back into a car, glass shattered and littered the ground.

"Oh fuck.", Chloé and Aurore both grit their teeth as they saw the scene unfold.

"What the hell is this guy made of?", Aurore grunted, she kept her concentration, maneuvering the illusion of Ladybug she created. She had to make sure her illusion wasn't touched or else the akuma would know that it was a fake.

Chloé balled her hands up, seeing how Marinette could barely move fast enough to keep dodging the guy's attack. She found it strange that the akuma barely paid any attention to the Fox's illusion. It was weird. She narrows her eyes, concentrating on the fight, she almost misses the quick movement in the corner of her eye. She turns quickly just as a hand is suddenly slapped over her face, she loses her balance and immediately feels anything and everything solid disappear out from under her, only the air is beneath her as she's pushed off the building.

The Fox releases a shriek but just as quickly as it escapes her throat, she's suddenly silenced.

Chloé panics, she grabs the arm of the hand that was still latched on her face and lifts a leg, she delivers a strong kick to whoever owned the hand, she hears a heavily pained grunt from whom was no doubt a man, he releases her and she quickly throws her yoyo out to a light pole and safely manages to avoid hitting the ground, she then swings off the pole and propels herself up to return to the Fox, to help her.

Marinette and the two others immediately felt something wrong with the situation when Aurore's illusion so abruptly dissolved away.

They all broke away from the akuma and turned their attention to their Ladybug falling off a building with Hawkmoth's grasp on her.

"Shit!", Kim curses, going wide eyed, he springs away with the help of his staff.

"I'll take care of the akuma, you get to her!", Kagami yells out to Marinette.

Marinette nods and extends her baton.

The Fox is out cold, her necklace beeping every few moments, signaling that she was about to lose her transformation.

"What a loser.", Lila snickers darkly as she places the bottom of her shoe over Aurore's head, lightly stepping on it. She smirks maliciously, she lightly taps her shoe over the blonde's head.

"Get away from her!", Ladybug appears, furious, blood escaping a nostril.

Lila turns to the hero, takes in her form and laughs, "Where's the real Ladybug? You clearly don't know what you're doing. Not even Ladybug and Chat Noir were this bad.", Lila chuckles, "You guys are a mess. A joke."

Chloé growls, she grins her yoyo tightly. "Shut up.", she growls out.

"It's true, we've been watching you lot. I mean, look at you, you're a total rip off, Ladybug was never this bad and the same for that street cat you picked up, she has an ugly attitude and hardly makes anyone feel protected.", Lila taps her fingers against her hip, she steps off of the blonde's head and begins to step towards the Ladybug. "Why don't you do us all a favor, you wannabe, and just hand over the earrings.".

Chloé swallows thickly, a bitter taste settling in her mouth, "Fuck you.", she grunts aggressively.

The girl merely smirks again and gets into a battle stance of sorts.

Chloé gets ready to fight, but once again, doesn't get the chance to when she's jumped from behind, a foot meets her back so hard she's sent flying into the masked villain in front of her, the girl laughs and Chloé feels the air knocked out of her further when the girl's arm meets her throat causing her to be slammed down into the cement tiles. Chloé releases a gasp for air.

"I could've taken her.", Chloé hears the girl say to whoever it was that kicked her.

"Hawkmoth is fighting the Monkey holder and Noir, we need to strip Ladybug and the fox immediately.", the woman says.

Chloé opens her eyes, blinking and sees the Peacock holder staring at her with pity. She coughs between gasps for air, she turns her head to the side and sees that Aurore is still unconscious. The girl stepping towards her, no doubt to strip her of the miraculous. Chloé reaches out weakly, but just as she does the Peacock steps on her arm, pinning it against the tile. It hurts. Chloé grunts and grits her teeth, she turns her head to look up, she meets the Peacock's gaze.

"It's nothing personal.", the woman says.

Chloé grunts again, she opens her mouth to speak, but just as she does, she hears the unmistakable sound of blades cutting air, she breaks her gaze off from the woman and turns her head to the other side, she sees helicopters coming their way, two. Both were news.

"-This just in, Paris is under another akuma attack, it seems as though the heroes are struggling against Hawkmoth himself. We advise that everyone remain indoors-"

"Ugh, this city is getting worse and worse. I hope Marinetta is safe somewhere.", An older woman sighs deeply, setting down her cup of tea.

"She hasn't returned any of my texts, but im sure she's okay, she's probably at a friend's house following the coverage.", Sabine says as she sits between her mother in law and husband, the trio were watching a program before it was interrupted by an emergency alert broadcast.

"She's probably distracted by the coverage, she'll get back to us.", Tom says lightly, wanting to ease any concerns the women had.

Marinette was smart, she'd been very quiet lately, changed a bit even, but she was still cautious. She'd be fine.

Surely.

"Ungh!", Marinette takes a swing from Hawkmoth's cane, she takes the hit to her already injured ribs. She falls to her knees, holding her side agonizingly.

Kim charges in and begins to fend off the man, using his staff to block any and all of his cane attacks.

Marinette grits her teeth, clenching her jaw tightly, she looks up and only sees the Peacock holder's back, she doesn't see Chloé or Aurore, she feels a sick feeling settling in her stomach, she then takes a quick glance back and sees Kagami get slammed onto the floor multiple times, it's brutal, she clicks her tongue and screws her eyes shut, turning away from the sight, she decides quickly that Kim can keep Hawkmoth distracted long enough for her to at least save Chloé. She opens her eyes with determination and she extends her baton, propelling herself up and straight into the Peacock, she headbutts the unsuspecting woman's back. Both fall to the ground.

Marinette grunts and rolls over, extending her baton again and straight into who she knew was Lila, sending her away from Aurore's body and into a brick wall. She retracts her baton and grips it tightly, she gets beside Chloé, "Run! Get as far away from here as you can!", Marinette says as she kneels beside the blonde, she grabs her arm and pulls it.

Chloé groans and rolls to her side, she gets to her knees. "I-"

and then it happens, time seems to slow down, but as slow as it may have appeared, neither was able to move any faster.

Both Marinette and Chloé saw the Akuma that had originally caught their attention, coming their way, they moved, separating, with Marinette shoving Chloé away for the most part. Marinette called out her cataclysm, ready to cataclysm the roof they were on in hopes of making things more complicated for everyone, but she wasn't quick enough to press her hand against the tiled roof, she's tackled by the akuma, her hand that wielded the power of destruction was suddenly in the akumas grasp.

Chloé fell onto her rear with a pained grunt. She screws her eyes shut for only a moment, she opens them only to see what unfolds next. She feels her heart drop to her stomach, hears her heart thumping hard and fast in her ears. The world seems to stop moving around them, she sees it happen so clearly. She sees the akuma take Marinette's cataclysm and use it against her, sees his fist that held the power of destruction make direct contact with Marinette's chest as he swung her onto her knees. Chloé sees the way Marinette's practically blasted off the building, sent plummeting down.

The sound it makes, the sound when Marinette's hit with the cataclysm is deafening, it was something akin to a thunder clap, it's loud, so loud Chloé's ears pop.

She hears nothing for a moment, she doesn't hear the crushing and bending of metal, the shattering of glass and the shrieks of civilian screams that soon flood the streets.

Chloé only hears silence accompanied by the sound of her thumping heart.

The akuma freezes in place, the Peacock holder with a look of horror gets to her knees, she shifts and gets to the edge of the roof and peers down, her eyes go wide, she says nothing, her lips part.

Chloé feels sick suddenly, she turns slowly, she feels her eyes burning, feels the familiar sensation of tears rolling down her cheeks, she shifts, stumbling, she gets up on her wobbly legs and slowly makes her way to the edge of the roof, slowly, she looks down once she reaches it. Her mouth falls open, her lips begin to quiver, she loses her balance and falls to her knees.

Noir was gone, in her place, was Marinette, laying on the crushed car that she'd fallen onto, she was still, unmoving.

"Oh God.", The Peacock breathes shakily.

Chloé feels her ears pop again, this time, she hears the outside world, hears the screams below, the sounds of shoes running about, civilians all scattering.

"Marinette.", Chloé breathes out softly. Her chest feels tight, a knot settles in her throat.

It's heavy, smothering and just so...dark.

She feels like she's floating, but also submerged in water, it's strange. She isn't drowning, but she also doesn't feel air around her. She slowly opens her eyes, she finds herself staring directly at a bright white light, but only for a moment, slowly the bright light begins to fade, slowly darkness begins to wash in.

She wants to move, but finds that she can't.

Slowly and ever so slightly, the darkness was swallowing up the light.

She lets out a soft sigh and begins to slowly close her eyes, she begins to let go.

"This is your fault, you know.", a voice says.

Eyes snap open immediately, and suddenly, she's somewhere else.

"If only you had just trusted your Ladybug, none of this would have happened.", the voice speaks again, its soft, but there's something oddly eerie about it.

She looks around, finding herself in a wheat field of sorts, she doesn't know what it is, but something in her feels the need to snap back at the owner of that voice. "I do trust her.", she replies back, looking around frantically, trying to locate the owner of that voice.

"Really? I don't buy it.", The voice speaks again, this time, a bit coyly.

She feels agitation suddenly coming over her, she growls and begins to walk through the tall wheat, pushing and parting to make way through it. She presses her lips together, "I do!", she yells, stomping a foot on the ground, she stops walking for a moment and looks around again, searching through the tall golden wheat.

"How could you trust her-", the voice speaks again, this time, closer, so close that it sounded like the owner of that voice was standing just behind her. She turns around quickly, she nearly trips over her feet, but she sees no one, she suddenly hears her heart beating in her ears, she swallows thickly and turns back around and as she does, she's startled, she yelps, jumping back she loses her balance when she sees someone standing in front of her, she falls onto her rear, screwing her eyes shut for a moment before finally opening, lifting her gaze to see-

"-when you couldn't even trust me."

Lips part, much like a fish. It's...it's Ladybug, her...it's-

"It hurts so much, you can't fix everything by just throwing me away.", Ladybug says, she wore a pained expression. "Now everything's worse and now...it's…it's too late."

"I...I wasn't- I didn't...I-", Marinette sucked in a deep breath, she remained sitting on the ground, looking up to Ladybug, to her.

Ladybug moves her head, "But you did, you did and you kept trying to bury me. You...you wanted to protect yourself, with little regard about those around you-"

"No one cares about me!", She blurts out, tears gathering in her eyes, her chest beginning to ache. "So why should I care about anyone else?", her voice drops a bit.

Ladybug sighs, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know very well that, that isn't true.", Ladybug sighs again and kneels, slowly, she's now directly in front of her, "You're just afraid."

Silver meets deep Sapphire.

She finds herself at a loss for words, she feels strange, an odd sensation begins to come over her. She snaps her mouth shut, unable to find any words after all. She merely looks away and looks down to her lap, she places her hands over the soft soil by her sides and gently digs her fingers into it.

She feels Ladybug's gaze remain on her, she feels the girl waiting for her to say something.

She swallows thickly one more time and slowly raises her gaze to once again meet hers.

"What now?", she says softly.

"I don't know."