"I would never organize my house the way you've set it up," Sabine's mother-in-law nagged over the phone. "It's just begging for a bug infestation. I remember last time I visited how many spiders I had to fight off-dreadful! Sabine, you really ought to work harder at keeping your house up to the standards of a baker!"
"Yes, Nonna," Sabine rolled her eyes, struggling to keep the irritation out of her voice. "I do try my best." Tom puttered about in the living room, straightening up and being absolutely no help where it really counted.
"Well, that's all I can hope for, I suppose," Nonna sniffed. Sabine's eye twitched. Nonna was a sweet woman, but unbearably conservative. It had taken almost a year for her to even accept that her precious son would be marrying a Chinese woman, or that that woman wasn't much of a traditional house wife. Deep down, Sabine wondered if Nonna was so hard on her because she still hadn't accepted her. At least she loved Marinette whole-heartedly.
Nonna moved on to the subject of cooking. Sabine listened dutifully. Yes, Nonna, she would start making pasta from scratch. Yes, Nonna, she would cook less Chinese food and more Italian food. Yes, Nonna, Marinette still planned to be a fashion designer when she grew up.
Impatience churned through Sabine with every word her mother-in-law spoke. Nonna had made it clear that she never thought Sabine was good enough, and that Sabine should listen to every thing that came out of her mouth and act on it accordingly. Sabine had never been raised to follow orders. She'd been groomed from a young age to take control of dozens hardened gang members, sometimes decades older than herself. She'd been taught to assert herself above everyone-especially those who thought they knew better than her.
Politely listening along and agreeing with Nonna felt like a betrayal to her mother's memory, and like a lie to herself. She'd have given Marinette an hour-long lecture if she'd caught her doing what she was doing right now. Self-disgust rolled through her stomach as she continued to semi-pleasantly hum along with Nonna's admonishments and complaints.
Tom, that wonderful man, eventually took the phone from Sabine and dragged his mother into conversation about his dad. Had she heard from him? No. Did she know where he was? No. Was she coming to Paris again soon? Thank every merciful being in all the heavens: no.
Sabine walked out of the room, frustration still buzzing under her skin. If Nonna hadn't been Tom's family, she wasn't sure what she'd have done or said to the woman by now. She made her way through her house, down to the kitchen. It was her night to clean the dishes, and she attacked them with all the pent up frustration she'd gathered from her conversation with Nonna.
The front door opened, and Sabine whipped her head towards the noise. The clock read ten thirty pm. That had better be a thief and not a moody teenager that had just opened that door.
No such thing. Her daughter walked into the kitchen, casually making her way to the fridge. Sabine tensed in anger.
"Where exactly have you been?" Sabine snapped. "We've been worried sick about you." Well, not exactly, but what would have been mild irritation before Nonna's call was now a volcano of untapped fury. Sabine turned and crossed her arms, staring at her daughter.
"With the gang," Marinette raised an eyebrow at her, gesturing to the brass knuckles on her hands and the steel-toe boots she wore. "Uncle Jiang and Uncle Delun found out about a rival gang trying to sell drugs near the south end of the city so we all went out to teach them a lesson." She pulled out some leftovers from the previous night and turned the stove on.
"You went to a gang fight?" Sabine clenched her teeth. Marinette paused in her preparation of her dinner and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yeah. So?"
"It's Wednesday!" Sabine exclaimed. "You have school tomorrow!"
"I'm almost an adult, you can't give me an eight o'clock curfew anymore! I know how much sleep I can function on, and you can't keep bossing me around!"
"How else are we supposed to make sure you're at school on time?" Sabine snapped. "You almost failed because of how many absences you had last year!"
"Well, this year my teacher's later than I am almost every day!" Marinette shot back, putting the amount of food she wanted in a saucepan. "Now could you leave me alone-I did a good thing today; why are you yelling?"
"I'm not yelling!"
"What's going on here?" Tom stepped into the kitchen to put the home phone back on its charger. His conversation with Nonna was apparently over. Just the presence of that cursed phone but Sabine back on edge. Tom glanced at Marinette's dirty clothes, wincing at the bloodstains he saw. He glanced towards the door to the living room. "Is this a...Cheng family thing?"
"No," Sabine answered before Marinette had the chance. "We're talking about the fact that your daughter decided to join Delun and Jiang in a gang fight without telling us."
"I like not being told," Tom said, giving Marinette a thankful look. Sabine glared at him.
"You do like being told! We're her parents, Tom. We set the boundaries-Jiang and Delun know not to have raids on week nights-Marinette has school, she needs her sleep!"
"I know what I'm doing," Marinette snapped, removing the food from the stove and pouring it onto a plate. "I'm not a child, I don't need naps or set sleep times. You can't keep bossing me around and telling me what I can and can't do!"
"I'm your mother-I'll always boss you around and tell you what you can and can't do." Marinette scowled at her. Sabine turned to Tom, irritation pouring out around her. He took a minuscule step away and out of the kitchen. "Not another step!" He froze.
"Why are you bitching this much?" Marinette grabbed a plate and utensils, slamming them on the table. "It's not even that big of a deal!"
"Tom! You're just going to stand there and leave me to deal with this all by myself?" Sabine's ire only grew as her husband started inching towards the kitchen door.
"Sorry, Dear." He stopped moving, glancing between her and Marinette. Marinette placed herself between Sabine and Tom.
"Stop yelling at Dad!"
Sabine threw her hands in the air. "I'm losing complete control of this household!"
"Yes, Dear."
"No, you're just acting like a control freak!"
"Quiet, Marinette," Sabine tried to stare her daughter down, but Marinette was too old for that. She just glared back.
"Don't tell me what to do!"
"I am your mother, and I always will be-I will always tell you what to do."
"You're literally insane," Marinette fumed. "And I'm way too tired to deal with it tonight."
"This is all Jiang and Delun's doing," she decided. "She never had this attitude before, and I won't put up with it!" Tom nodded along tiredly.
"Yes, Dear."
Sabine had clearly told them how to run that gang before she left, and now they were running it into the ground. She told them about the limitations around Marinette's involvement with the gang, and they quite clearly disregarded that, as well. They didn't listen to her, so why would Marinette? She paced around the kitchen.
"I've told them before-she can't go out on school nights. Do they listen? Of course not-why wouldn't they act like every single other person in this family?"
Marinette scoffed and plopped in her chair, starting to eat her food.
"Don't you start with that attitude with me, young lady," Sabine warned. "Tom, this is completely unacceptable!"
Tom was almost completely out of the kitchen.
"It seems I need to go and teach them a lesson."
"Yes, D-"
"Don't you 'yes, Dear' me again!"
"Alright, Honey."
Sabine whirled out of the kitchen and towards the hall closet. She muttered to herself as she got ready to leave.
"I can't believe this is happening to me. How many years did I lead them, and now they're showing this insubordination? Completely unacceptable." She tugged on her jacket and her shoes before storming out of the house. She felt surrounded, compressed on all sides. It had all started with her cursed mother-in-law's call. She'd felt so suffocated, forced to play nice and agree with everything the woman said. She didn't even feel that tired after a full day of working the front of the bakery, and that was twelve hours of customer service.
But, no. Nonna wasn't who she was after right now. She was going after her brothers.
Her brows furrowed and she couldn't keep the scowl off her face as she reminded herself of instance after instance that her younger brothers totally disregarded her wishes or orders. This was after she'd been kind and given equal control of the gang to each of them! She could have easily given one brother total control. In fact, it would have been easier to choose just one. But no, she'd listened to their concerns and fought to have control split in half for them.
She stomped through the streets. She knew where they'd be-she always knew. They would regret taking Marinette out on a school night and not telling her.
Marinette huffed as she continued attacking the food in front of her. Her fingers ached, her cheek throbbed, and her hip was bruised from where a rival gang-member kicked her. She was exhausted and the lure of her queen sized, memory foam mattress with a down duvet sounded like heaven. Her eyes were already getting harder and harder to keep open, and she was just eating.
Tom dropped into the chair next to her, sighing. She knew that posture. He wanted her to go after her mom and make sure she stayed safe. Marinette groaned, dropping the fork on her plate.
"No!"
"Please, Marinette," Tom pleaded. "She didn't mean anything earlier, she was just frustrated. Nonna called."
Marinette pursed her lips. She loved Nonna, but she wasn't blind. She knew how irritating she was to Sabine. She picked up her fork again, and her muscles felt like honey-completely liquid and so slow to move. Marinette sighed. "But I'm tired."
"Did you know you were a week overdue?" Tom said conversationally. Marinette dropped her head on the table in front of her. Most mothers used the birth story as a guilt trip to get their kid to do anything they wanted. She'd seen Nonna use the technique on her dad countless times. That didn't happen in Marinette's family. For whatever reason, Tom was the one to use her birth as a way to cajole her into doing things she didn't want to. "She was in labor with you for over twenty hours. We also got to the hospital late. They couldn't-"
"Give her an epidural," Marinette completed, grumbling. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'll go check on her after I'm done eating."
"Thank you!" Tom beamed. Marinette smiled back at him through her exhaustion. It was impossible to stay irritated after her dad smiled. He was so contagiously happy, it was cute.
He waited with her until she was done, washing the dishes for her as she went to follow her mom. Marinette couldn't help but grumble as she grabbed a jacket and hat. Wasn't it Mom's night to do the dishes?
Sabine broke down the door to the rundown restaurant that the gang was meeting in tonight. It had once been her favorite hideout. The restaurant had gone out of business years before even Sabine had taken over, and the gang had already claimed it as theirs. Everything reminded her of the sixties, from the checkered floor to the old-fashioned bar to the broken neon sign on the wall. It was cute, and now it was the only hideaway which hadn't been affected by an Akuma or Makara.
Everyone inside jumped to their feet, tensed and ready for a fight. Fifty well-trained fighters all alert and willing to attack her, but Sabine wasn't worried. She looked past everyone, searching for her brothers. The gang saw who it was, and the irate look on her face. Those that recognized her face sat warily, while those who didn't know her personally but must have heard stories about her stayed standing. Everyone looked towards the doors which led to the kitchen. So, that's where Jiang and Delun were?
She stormed through the restaurant, shoving past her niece and some new recruit she'd never seen before, mind solely fixed on giving her brothers a severe wake up call.
"What exactly do you idiots think you're doing?" Sabine demanded as soon as she pushed the double doors open and let herself into the kitchen. The kitchen had been completely renovated. It was outfitted with a gas stove, two working ovens, a refrigerator, and a deep freezer. There was a center aisle with stacks of cooking utensils, and along the side was a cupboard full of cutlery and plates. Delun and Jiang were seated at the center aisle, opposite to each other. They seemed to be in deep conversation, but Sabine didn't care.
She stepped up to them, the doors flapping dramatically behind her, and poked her finger in Jiang's chest. "Marinette came home half an hour ago-ten thirty? You know she has a curfew, and boundaries! No gang fights on weeknights. How dare you ignore my rules?"
Jiang pushed her finger off of him, and Delun narrowed his eyes at her. "Well in case you forgot, Miss Old and Naggy, you're not in the gang anymore! We don't have to listen to anything you say!"
Sabine narrowed her eyes at him. She'd been watching out for these brats their entire lives and this is what they had to say to her? "Well in case you forgot, Mister Stupid Face, I am in the gang, I'm just not active. And, in case you forgot, I was a full leader before you took over half of it. I was more a part of the gang than you ever were or ever will be!"
"Well, it's not like I asked you to give me half!"
"Does your brain do anything but collect dust? If I gave the whole thing to Jiang, you'd be a laughingstock, and you'd end up hating him and me. I thought about you twenty years ago, and you can't even do me the decency of telling my daughter to go home when you know she has a curfew?"
"Marinette is an adult," Jiang reasoned. "She can make her own decisions."
"Don't you dare!" Sabine snapped. "You don't know her as well as I do. She can't be like us, she needs to graduate high school, at least!"
There was a pause, and her younger brothers exchanged glances. Delun frowned down at her. "This is all from Tom, isn't it?" He crossed his arms.
Irritation crossed Jiang's face. "That does sound like something he'd say, doesn't it?" Both brothers nodded in agreement with each other.
"This has nothing to do with him," Sabine said. "He didn't even care-why do you think he's not here with me?"
"He's not allowed here, and you know that," Delun said with false pity. She glared at him, but he didn't seem to care. That was one downside of having grown up with them. None of her threatening looks worked on them; they'd seen them too many times for the looks to be effective anymore.
"It seems just like him to send you here to fight his battles for him," Jiang agreed. "That's just what a coward would do."
"He's a good man," Sabine defended. "And we're not talking about him-we're talking about the two of you not listening to me!"
"No, you're ashamed that you got caught acting like someone's guard dog, and you're trying to divert our attention," Jiang said.
"I can't believe you married that idiot."
"He's not an idiot!" Sabine said vehemently. "He's smarter than the two of you put together. He's run his own business for years, and he takes care of us-all of us!"
There was a slight change in the air, and the siblings all paused for a second, right before the sirens started blaring in the streets.
(It was later posted on the increasingly-popular Ladyblog that someone had seen a Makara being created. The guest left a shaky video along with the following description of what they witnessed:
(I was just out on a walk because I have insomnia and sometimes walking around helps tire me out. I'd just left my apartment and turned the corner, on my way to my local grocery store, when the air started to shimmer. I know, it sounds crazy, but it's true! Then, the air suddenly became so humid it was like I was physically in a bath or something. I saw a purple circle with a bunch of weird symbols inside-you can see it really clearly in the video. There was also a noise in the air, like a woman was talking. She only spoke for a few seconds, but I definitely heard the word 'destroy.' I tell you, if I slept, I'd be getting nightmares about it. Totally terrifying.
(As it had been confirmed by multiple people that Akuma were always made after the appearance of a Makara, and from a few questioned victims that they heard a male voice, it soon became common knowledge that whoever made the Makara was not the one in charge of the Akuma. As the Makara all exuded a rotting fish smell, the creator was furthermore referred to as Pisces.)
None of the triplets moved, daring the others to move first. A young man barged through the doors to the kitchen.
"The Makara is a few streets down from the Seine," he reported. Delun waved him away and Jiang nodded thanks. Sabine forced herself to forget about her pride. Knowing Tom, he'd have sent Marinette after her to make sure she stayed safe. Marinette was fine on her own and would get to a bunker. Tom was alone at home, though. Without either her or Marinette to protect, he'd allow himself to be pushed and shoved to the back of the mob, if he bothered leaving at all. She needed to go home, to get him to safety. She moved towards the faded blue double door.
"And where are you going?" Jiang called after her. She heard him get off the chair and move towards her. "You come all the way here, barge into our meeting, kind of yell at us a little, and you don't even stay for ten whole minutes?"
"You heard Yuanjun," Delun added, moving to stand next to Jiang. "The Makara is all the way by the Seine." They were so utterly infuriating Sabine couldn't handle it sometimes.
"That's near my house!" Sabine snarled. "I need to go home, to-"
"Ohh," Delun smirked, elbowing Jiang in humor. "I get it. She's going to check on her useless husband."
Jiang scoffed. "Sabine? You're so worried about that wimp you can't even trust him to handle himself in a Makara attack?"
"He's not used to scares like we are! He's a sweet and gentle man-"
"Those are just other words for 'he's a pansy.'" Delun noted. The sirens kept blaring outside, but Sabine's fatal pride got to her. She turned back to them, all the anger and stress of the night gathering inside of her until she couldn't hold it in.
"He's not a pansy!" Sabine exploded. "He's not a coward, he's not a weakling, he's not any of those names you like to call him-he's just good!" Her brothers just looked at her in amusement.
"Sureeee he's not," Jiang agreed sarcastically.
"Except, you're wrong," Delun said immediately.
"Think about it, Sabine," Sabine hated it when Jiang used that calm voice he used when he thought he was dealing with someone less intelligent than himself. "He's never been in a fight, he cries when Marinette gets hurt, and he thinks we're a bad influence on her!" He looked genuinely put out by the last point. Sabine would have felt more sympathy for him on any other day, but at the moment, she was too pissed off.
"No, I think you're a bad influence on her."
Completely ignoring her, Delun added: "Also, have you heard his last name?" Sabine rolled her eyes. Not this again.
"Dupain?" Jiang acted confused.
"More like Du-pansy!"
"We've been married for twenty years! When are you going to get over yourselves-and quit it with that stupid nickname! It wasn't funny at our wedding, and it certainly isn't funny two decades later!" Sabine's head spun with pure rage, and both her brothers stepped back from her. Jiang pointed behind her, eyes wide and mouth dropped open. Delun reached towards her, but she jerked back. She came here to teach them a lesson, and by God, they would listen to her! "He's my husband-he's your family-can't you try to be nicer? Is there any point in making fun of his name if that has nothing to do with the person inside?"
A cold feeling spread through her shoulder.
"Sabine!" her brothers shouted in alarm. Almost everyone from the front of the restaurant pushed their way into the kitchen at the sound of a potential threat. They all paused as they saw Sabine. She wasn't sure what they saw that would make them react in such a way.
"Would you like to help me protect Paris?" a soothing male voice asked.
Oh, so that's what they saw. She'd read the Labyblog, like almost everyone in Paris. She knew who this was. And she knew she absolutely couldn't accept whatever he offered.
"No!" she said firmly, clenching her hands. Something tried to wrap around her, like spiderwebs. It wasn't physical, but it was like a feeling between her skull and her brain. It itched, and it was uncomfortable, but she could also see how it would be soothing to some people. She shook her head, and the strands backed off.
"I can give you something in return," the voice offered. "I am Hawkmoth. I always keep my promises." Sabine's eyes dropped as he spoke, but she snapped them open. She wasn't some teenager-she was almost fifty years old; she wouldn't be coerced into becoming some monster because of a pretty voice.
"I don't want anything. Leave me alone!" The silk strings hugged her again, now covering more than just her head. They slipped down her neck, to the top of her shoulders. This time it was harder to fight them off. She started to sweat, and she had to close her eyes to keep from falling on her face.
"Everyone wants something," Hawkmoth chuckled. The strings came up around her once again, starting at her head and making it down to her hips. Sabine found it almost impossible to push them off her, but she eventually managed. She panted, vaguely hearing distressed and cautious voices around her. Someone was taking photos, and someone else argued about recording what was happening. Hawkmoth continued to speak. "I can guess what you want. You're feeling unheard-you want others to listen to you, to believe you. I can do that." He sounded so earnest, so trustworthy, like he could and would do as he promised. But Sabine knew better than to trust people who promised the impossible. She opened her mouth to argue, to say she would never consent to make a deal with the idiot who made Akuma.
"N-n-n-" she couldn't say the word. It just couldn't come out of her mouth. She tried harder, but it felt like her head was going to explode. The spider silk spiraled around her one final time, quickly spinning from her head down her neck, under her skin. She felt it slithering through her, down her stomach to her hips, her calves, and finally her feet. The strands tightened until she couldn't breath or fully control her body anymore. .
"Just accept," the voice sighed, and Sabine shivered. "It'll be easier for you."
"N-n-" The strings in her jaw kept her from moving her lips. She couldn't say it. Her head pounded and her vision swam. Hawkmoth continued to urge her, and the strings constricted around her, tighter and tighter. Before she knew it, just to get rid of the pain, she was gasping: "Anything for you, Hawkmoth."
"Excellent."
Sabine wanted to punch the stupid moron in the face.
Marinette wanted so badly to go to bed. She knew she was off her game: her hands, her face, her legs-everything hurt. She'd already been so tired from the gang fight that just going check on her mom had been tiring. Fighting a Makara exhausted her more than it ever had before, and she was ashamed that she'd had to rely on Cat Noir as much as she had.
A police pegasus landed next to her. It had freaked her out the first few times she'd seen them. The police had taken all the flying horses from the Akuma attack which made animals grow wings and trained them into working animals. Now, the police were equipped with both walking and flying dogs and horses, and Marinette was totally used to seeing them fly around the city.
"What is it now?" she snapped at the cop. Officer Madeline frowned at her.
"Akuma sighting. It's on its way and it doesn't look like it's in too much control of itself. It keeps crashing into buildings."
"Akuma aren't usually destructive like that," Marinette frowned. Officer Madeline looked down at her,
"Well, this one is. I'm not lying or anything."
"I didn't say you were, I was just making an observation!"
The Makara continued trying to move. Marinette's Lucky Charm rope was still wrapped tightly around its bony wrists. Its eyeless body and skull thrashed against the street, breaking through to the sewage pipes below. Brown water and some questionable other particles gushed from the pipes to surround the Makara and any police officers too close for their own good. There were multiple cries of surprise or disgust, but the officers kept firing at the Makara. Its crab-like shell continued to deflect all attempts to defeat it.
Cat Noir stood on one of the jagged edges of the shell to look for a weakness of any sort. The Makara's tail rose to squish him. Acting on instinct, Marinette threw out her yo-yo, grabbed him from around the abdomen, and pulled him back to her.
"Thanks," he sounded shaken. She didn't blame him. If she hadn't pulled him away, there was no knowing if he could have jumped away in time. He might have been killed by the Makara.
"There's an Akuma on its way," she reported. "Can you handle it?" Normally she would be the one to go after the Akuma, but with how tired she was, she didn't even want to think of chasing down an incompetent flying monster. She would much rather deal with the tied down crab.
"Sure." He sounded almost relieved. He planted one end of his baton on the street and extended it, riding on top of it to get to the Akuma.
Marinette took a deep breath, searching for her second wind. Now that she'd sent Cat Noir away, she had no backup. She was now the only one who could keep all the officers safe.
She ran at the Makara, imagining something to create. She could try a bat, like she'd done with the first anger-inducing Makara, but something told her it would take too long. She would have to use something different this time, something better equipped for the Makara in front of them now.
(If anyone had been looking at Cat Noir at that moment, they would have seen him studying the perplexing form of the Akuma. It continued to yell at the one controlling her, telling him to leave her alone and to go to hell. They would have seen the Akuma clenching her fists until blood dripped from her palms. Cat Noir hesitated before striking the Akuma, a flash of recognition in his eyes. The red around the Akuma's eyes glowed brighter. It struggled to disobey the order, but the Akuma wobbily flew into Cat Noir, throwing him back a dozen meters.)
"Lucky Charm," she mumbled, and her fingers heated with magic, and a giant axe appeared in her arms. It was lighter than anyone would expect, and it would be able to grow or shrink as she needed it to. She kept running, almost stumbling on a loose rock. The world around her dimmed into shades of gray, until the only color she could see were the creature's legs.
She wasn't surprised that was where the magic wanted her to go. The entire Makara was armored. From head to tail, it was covered in jagged, spiked orange armor, like a crab. The Makara had a tail and no visible eyes, though it clearly had no difficulty sensing where everyone was. It had been exceedingly difficult to get close enough to wrap its legs with a magic rope created through Lucky Charm. Now, with the Makara stuck on the ground, it was still near impossible to get near because of the spiked tail.
(Cat Noir was struggling to contain the Akuma, for whatever reason. Any spectator might have attributed his lack of attention to his near death a few minutes earlier, but Cat Noir would later neither confirm nor deny. The Akuma went through phases of clumsy rebellion and precise movement. The juxtaposed personalities seemed to throw Cat Noir off. He would stand back and watch the Akuma as she crashed into everything around her, but as the red around her face glowed brighter, she would turn on him with a fierce determination. Analysts would later note that the way Cat Noir held his baton was reminiscent of a fencer holding a saber. Unfortunately, a saber did little to no good against an apparent professional martial artist.)
Marinette rushed forward, holding the axe at the ready. Just as she got close enough to swing it across the Makara's legs, its tail knocked into her from the side. She didn't see it coming at all, despite how vigilant she'd been, and her exhaustion kept her from keeping a grip on the axe. It sailed through the air and landed on the rope she'd created earlier.
The Makara screeched in triumph. Its tail swept forward again, but Marinette pulled herself away with her yo-yo before it had a chance to hit her. It was just as much of a battle to keep her eyes open as it was to face the Makara, but she couldn't slack off now. She'd already sent Cat Noir off to deal with the Akuma; she couldn't expect him to take down the Makara, too.
The Makara stood up wobbly on legs which were as tall as any previous Makara. Sharp points at the end of each of its six legs stabbed holes in the street. Its short cylindrical body looked comically disproportionate perched on top of those legs. The tail thrashed around perilously, knocking into buildings and one unsuspecting and unfortunate police pegasi. A unit of police went after the downed officer and animal.
(The Akuma eventually lost hold of herself completely. Cat Noir scrambled to catch up to her, but she flew too fast for him to overtake her. The Akuma flew over a few cops checking on downed officers. From later testimonies from the affected policemen, it was like they lost their sense of self. They listened for one voice, and they would go to any length to obey what she commanded; she ordered them to incapacitate Cat Noir.)
The Makara threw off the last of the restraints and shook itself off, like a wet dog. It spun in a quick circle, then set off again. Marinette almost heaved in despair. It had spun around and was now on a direct path to her house.
Marinette threw her yo-yo after the Makara and maneuvered herself around it as her earrings beeped in her ears. She had sixteen minutes before she transformed back, and she had no snacks on hand to recharge Tikki. Sixteen minutes to take down the Makara.
She tried to swing behind the Makara, coming at it from all different angles, doing her best to find its blind spot. Nothing worked. She tried from the front, but that was even worse. It seemed for all that it didn't have eyes, this one was the most aware of all the Makara they'd faced yet. She was getting desperate; with every passing second, they were getting closer and closer to her bakery, her home.
(The affected officers turned their tasers to Cat Noir. From every available footage, it seemed that he was unaware the officers had been touched or affected at all. Cat Noir leaped to the Akuma, extending his staff, like he was going to swat her to the side, and possibly attempt to immobilize her off the main road. The woman underneath the magic didn't seem to have any control left, and there were no more moments of stumbling resistance. Cat Noir, too, had lost his hesitation when facing her. The officer closest to him shot his taser at him, but Cat Noir saw it before it could hit him. He twisted to the side, landing on the ground. Before he could get his bearings, the Akuma flew on top of him and reached towards him.
(He grabbed her wrists, dropping his baton in the process. Though none of the cameras on the street had audio, witnesses would say that the Akuma distinctly growled before pulling Cat Noir up and away from the street.)
Marinette landed on the ground and just went running towards it. Nothing else had worked. She needed to try something-fast. She pushed magic into her legs, groaning at the physical toll of using so much of Tikki's magic so close to the end of her transformation.
She sped up, rushing underneath the Makara's tail and under its belly. She had to keep running to keep up with it as it scuttled about. Debris fell around her in a constant shower, and she could hear horses running to keep up with them.
She'd lost the axe back where the Makara had freed itself, so all she had were fifteen minutes and a magic yo-yo. She threw it up and around the Makara's legs again. Unfortunately, it had gotten smarter since it had last been trapped. It immediately sent its tail underneath its belly and pulled at the string, loosening the ties before Marinette could pull it to the ground. All she could do was tighten it around the tail and get yanked up to the Makara's back.
Maybe if she tightened the yo-yo around the Makara's tail and pulled, it would break. Then Cat Noir and the police would have an easier time getting to the Makara and taking it down. Then she could go home and sleep.
Her yo-yo constricted around the tail, and Marinette planted her feet against an edge of its shell. She used it as leverage, but she could feel the ends of it digging into the bottoms of her feet. It wouldn't cut, but it might bruise. A familiar building, a familiar rooftop, a familiar balcony became clear. She grit her teeth, pulling harder; she could see her bakery now, it was less than half a mile away. She couldn't let the Makara go there. She called again on more magic from Tikki.
"This is going to be worse than last time," Tikki warned. "You've used up all your reserves. Are you sure?"
She couldn't afford not to. That was her home, her family's business. If it got destroyed, her family would have nowhere to live, and no way to make enough money to rent anywhere. She had to do whatever it took to save that building.
Marinette was about to call on the magic again, to tell Tikki to just do it, when something flew by her face. It was so quick, she'd only had a second to see it, but she had no doubt about what she'd just seen.
It was the Akuma. Like all others, it had the wings, the glowing face, the fur all over its body. And it had been holding her partner. She hadn't been able to see more. What the hell had happened?
The Makara continued its trajectory towards her bakery. The tail jerked away from her, but she readjusted her feet and pulled harder.
"Ladybug!" Cat Noir screamed. His voice was already fading as the Akuma dragged him away. "Help!"
"Well, this doesn't look good," Tikki noted, also reminding Marinette than she now had ten minutes left as Ladybug before she transformed back. "What are you going to do?"
