Chapter Six: Like cat and dog.

"Who the hell are you?"

A loud snicker suddenly echoes all around the room—one that sends cold shivers running down Chat Noir's spine. It almost gnaws him at the bone. It produces the same effect on him as when his cousin would mock him when they were kids because Félix always had been half an inch taller than him. It has the same creepy effect which absolutely doesn't feel like a coincidence…

"Hello, dear cousin," none other than Félix cackles with pride.

Indeed—not a coincidence. Hence the feeling of freaky déjà vu. This jerk was once again getting on the wrong side. Going against Adrien.

"Hi Sweetheart, or should I say, my future wife."

"That's a hell of a no Félix! She won't stoop to marry a moron like you!" Chat echoes Marinette's earlier objections.

"Fine! I will do it!"

"No!" Adrien vehemently objects, bringing about the opposite situation to the one which had preceded when Marinette refused the same conditions coming from Lila.

"Don't be silly. You'll both have to come to an agreement because her life and your freedom depend on those conditions, Adrien."

"Why?! Why would you want to marry her? You barely know her! Leave her out of it!"

"Oh, but I do know her better than you think. She's the girl who's had a crush on you since collège," Félix states—not that it's a secret; Marinette already admitted this earlier. "I must admit that the video you made for Adrien was pretty pathetic, Marinette. Deleting it was the least I could do to help you not embarrass yourself. The confession you made here was much more dramatic and enjoyable; worthy of Roméo and Juliet," he chuckles.

"You're a jerk, Félix," Marinette spits out.

"I love you too, Sweetheart."

"Don't you dare call her that again or say that you love her! She loves me and I'm in love with her. You're not part of the equation, Félix! You never will!"

His declaration tears a gasp from Marinette. Looking to the side, he sees her blink at him. Well, both their confessions are worthy of a Shakespeare drama now. They'll have a lot to sort out once they get out of there, that's for sure.

"What a pity. I wouldn't have said no to a threesome experience. Besides, it does things inside my pants to see you being jealous of me."

"You're disgusting!"

"Ah, c'mon, cousin, don't be so possessive. You have to learn to share because she'll soon be mine."

"Are your ears clogged or what? I told you to forget about her. If you have a problem with me, then deal with me. She has nothing to do with your selfish-child crisis."

"Oh, but she has everything to do with it. I want to take away everything that makes your life perfect. I'm going to take her away from you. You're going to fall, Adrien, and you'll never be able to get back on your feet ever again, and I'm going to enjoy every single bit of it while banging the love of your life six ways to Sunday," Félix cackles with pride.

Chat Noir is close to peeling the skin of his hands through the suit with his claws, his fists clenching so tightly that he's about to break every damn bone inside.

"Enough talking! Back to business," Lila cuts them off. "You better make a choice pretty quickly. She doesn't have that much time ahead of her. Tick tock," she sneers, once more giving Adrien goosebumps with the madness imbuing her laughter.

He doesn't know how the hell they always happen to put themselves in such situations even when they're not Ladybug and Chat Noir. It's like his bad luck is always taking the lead over them no matter what.

"And one last thing: you need to give up your Miraculous, Adrien," Félix cackles.

"Kiss my ass, Félix."

"How rude of you."

"I'm sure getting my Miraculous wasn't part of the initial plan," the hero hisses through gritted teeth.

"It wasn't, but since I'm Atlas, it is now. And if you prefer to fight against my akumatized villain, you can still try, stray cat," Lila, or should he say Atlas, warns him. "My dear Narciso* will be happy to show you the power I have endowed him with; he's the one controlling the whole Labyrinth."

Fight? Of course he will fight for Marinette before surrendering. To the end of the world and beyond.

If it had just been about him. It wouldn't matter. He would accept anything to save Marinette. Absolutely anything. But there's definitely no way Félix would ever get his dirty hands on his partner. Never.

"C'mon. Give me everything you got. I'm not afraid of you, Félix."

"It's Narciso now, and you know I never back down from a challenge, right?"

"Me neither," Chat Noir grunts through bared fangs, his cataclysm already sizzling in the palm of his gloved hand.

The next moment, new mirrors fall from the ceiling like a tetris game until the space left forces Marinette and Chat Noir glued to one another. Though it doesn't impress the feline hero. He swiftly puts the tip of his claw against a part of the glass and skillfully cataclysms three mirrors in a row.

"That's all you've got, dickhead?"

"Suck it!" Narciso barks out.

"You'd have to dare to show up for that, coward!" Chat Noir (just like Adrien) isn't usually rude, but pushed over the limit, he loses it.

Between the two cousins the tension rises. Unspoken resentment ends up bursting to the surface and heightening the already unsustainable atmosphere.

"What are you waiting for, huh? A dirty pig like you will never fly." The cat hero provoked his cousin once again.

"No, but it can still come to you, fleabag." Narciso suddenly showed up through a mirror, Félix's akumatized form emerging from a mirror as if from behind a waterfall.

Some kind of mercury waterfall, by the look of it. The mirror has somehow melted and a thick, silvery, reflective substance flows all around him and over his body until it gives way to a mirror soldier. His whole figure is covered with a thick mirrorlike armor, only his piercing green eyes remaining apparent in the vast quicksilver expanse covering him from the tip of his hair down his toes.

"Now we're on even ground." Chat Noir smirks satisfyingly before pouncing on his cousin without forward warning.

Chat is easily taking the upper hand, destabilizing his opponent until he loses his balance and stumbles backward. In a blink of an eye, the feline hero finds himself straddling Narciso's lap, his hand holding his head still against the concrete. A head which suddenly reflects another face; the one standing above it—Chat Noir. Though he stays impassive, not even flinching a bit.

"Show me your face!" Chat Noir hissed. "Coward!"

Chat Noir's image starts to get all blurry over the villain armor, a new face slowly taking shape—that of Adrien.

"I said your face, Félix!" Chat commands as he firmly shakes his cousin's head.

"Wrong name."

"Show me your face, you bastard." Chat Noir's arm arches back, a fierce punch soon meeting his cousin's jaw.

"Adrien, please stop!" Marinette's voice suddenly echoes around the two.

"She's always been smarter than you, scaredy cat," Narciso chimes in with a mocking tone. "She's so much better than you'll ever be. She deserves better than a coward who never dared to confess his feelings. You've been pining over her for months."

Chat Noir glares at his cousin, leaning in closer as he groans in his quicksilver ear, "Maybe I'm a coward, but I will never be more of a coward than you."

"If I were you, I wouldn't be so sure about that. With your family background, you know. Genes die hard," he states as the reflection of Adrien slowly shapes into a new familiar face—Gabriel Agreste's face, now mocking that of Chat Noir. "Your cowardly father, or shall I say Monarch, failed to take good care of his son as he wasted his time actually fighting him." As he said that Gabriel's features merged into Monarch, then back into the first man.

Another strong punch meets the face of Félix's akumatized form as Chat Noir shouts vehemently.

"Liar!"

"Adrien, please!" Marinette's voice gets lost amidst his inside turmoil.

Atlas's pawn cackles, his laugh a shrill noise piercing Chat's sensitive hearing as he takes him in stride. "How do you think I easily got the Peacock Miraculous, huh?" Confronting his cousin with the facts, Narciso's reflective face allows the hero to see the truth: the day his father became Monarch.

If this is an attempt to provoke Chat Noir, it happens to be utterly effective. It lights a fire in his eyes which reflects in the cold gaze of whoever his cousin takes the face of. At least that's what he thinks, his fist hitting punch after punch of his opponent's jaw, until it takes the features of a soft face he knows all too well.

Marinette.

Chat Noir's fist stills in its impetum, the hero's whole body stiffening.

"You're not a coward, are you sure? Look at her. Look at the sadness in her eyes." Narciso's two bright emeralds turn into empty saphirs devoid of life. "It's your fault. Everything that happens today is your fault."

"Don't listen to him. It's not your fault," Marinette whispers, her voice faltering as she coughs.

"See, Adrien. She's in this state because of you. You can't protect her. You can't be good for her. You don't deserve her," his cousin spurts his venom. "Even Ladybug isn't coming to save your scaredy cat ass. As if she needed a partner like you. You're an Agreste, a coward, and you'll always be."

As he prepares to show Félix, Narciso, or whatever the bastard wants to be called (once a bastard, always a bastard in Chat's opinion) who will be in a worse state pretty soon, it turns out that Marinette's is getting worse. He hears her calling his name with a gag, and when he turns around, the sight of her lying on the floor in such bad condition makes his heart skip a beat.

"Marinette!" Strangely, her name echoes twice and he realizes that his cousin screamed with him in the same voice.

In a split second, both men move and hurry to stand up, running to her sides. Chat Noir grabs one of her hands, the other one sliding under the back of her head to keep it safe from the cold, hard ground.

Glancing sideways, Chat hisses at Lila's pawn trying to reach out for Marinette's hair.

"Back off from her or I swear I'll reduce you to ashes!" He points his sharp claws at him, moving his fingers in a serious threat.

"You need to help her lay on her side."

"I know what I need to do!" Chat Noir grunts as he does so, grabbing Marinette's left shoulder and knee as he pivots her body.

"Lift her chin so she doesn't choke and—Lila for fuck's sake will you shut up for a minute!"

Looking to the side, Chat sees his cousin cradling both sides of his head, obviously trying to keep a semblance of control over his own mind. Though Narciso seems to surrender as he casts one last glance toward them before being sucked in a quicksilver-like waterfall by one of the mirrors.

He can now focus on Marinette. She tries to open her eyes, her eyelids slightly fluttering, but he doesn't see the bright blue he loves so much.

"Marinette…" He racks a hand through her hair, his fingers combing into it. As he does, he catches a glimpse of red, and praying her hair away from her neck, his eyes meet her kwami's.

Tikki is looking at him with a helpless gaze, worry written all over her features.

"I'm so sorry," Chat Noir whispers, looking away from the little ladybug. It only reminds him how much he has failed. He has failed Marinette. He has failed Ladybug.

"Not your fault." Marinette's voice has him turning his head at neck breaking speed.

There's a vast ocean of blue on display before him. A vast ocean, sparkling, full of life, and hope. She blinks to chase away the sudden onslaught of light, a weak smile stretching her lips.

"How are you feeling, princess?"

"A bit better now that I can get this out." She makes a face as she glares at the damp, repellent spot near her mouth. She props herself up on the palm of her hands and he helps her steady herself in a sitting position.

She may be feeling a little better, but he knows it's only a matter of time before her condition deteriorates further, and he doesn't like that. There must be something that can help. Anything to do…

Maybe…

"Do you think that your luck can give her a little more time?" Chat Noir asks Tikki in a low voice. His brows cease, apprehension creeping all over his face as he waits for the kwami's answer.

"Yes, but…"

"But it's not a good idea to let them know… I know…" Chat sighs. "What else can I do? We can't accept Lila's and Félix's conditions, and even if we do…"

"Even if we do, we can't trust them," Marinette whispers weakly. "Lila wants me dead, and we both know she'll get what she wants at all costs."

Her words are hard, and not reassuring at all, but he knows she's right; Lila's a psycho.

"So?" He looks at Marinette, then at Tikki, before looking back at Marinette.

"So…"

*Narciso is equal to Narcissus in Italian. My choice comes from the Narcissus myth (reflection —aka mirrors and his power to reflect things—, fixation with oneself…)