Author's Note: This chapter really is the start of the entire plot I have going on here, so I hope you guys enjoy! Thanks for the reviews, and thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or elements relating to Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
Miraculous: Borderline
Chapter 5: Playing With Fire
"Marinette—" Cat Noir started to say from where he clung to one of the Eiffel Tower's steel beams.
Wrath's expression stopped him dead.
Her face was hard to look at—a mixture of pure hatred and disgust. Cat Noir couldn't look into her eyes without feeling immensely guilty. It felt as if Marinette's akumatization had all been his fault.
And he couldn't stand her looking at him like he was dirt on the bottom of her shoes.
"It's Wrath now, cat boy," Wrath said slowly.
She slowly started moving forward on the steel beam, step by step, and Cat Noir swallowed and backed up, feeling panicky and nervous.
He'd never felt this way before fighting a villain. Maybe it was because this was Marinette he was facing, a girl who had always been sweet and caring towards him. Or maybe because Ladybug wasn't here, and her strength had always lent him confidence.
"Marinette, please," Cat Noir said.
He couldn't stand waiting any longer. In one smooth move, Cat Noir released his staff and swung it straight at Wrath's head. Wrath caught his staff in one hand and for a moment, Cat Noir froze, his eyes locked on Wrath's.
Wrath incinerated the staff and it crumbled into ashes.
Cat Noir only had a second to stare in shock at what he'd thought was an unbreakable weapon before Wrath spun and kicked him reeling into a steel beam. Winds of fiery hot air beat at him until he fell to his knees. Wrath sent waves of flames running down the steel beams to trap him a cage of brilliant fire.
Cat Noir choked as the air around him turned searing hot and made his throat tighten up. He tried to call out "cataclysm" but his lungs were spasming. He wouldn't last much longer.
Wrath stared at him mercilessly for a few moments, her eyes cold and calculating.
"Now, for Ladybug," Wrath finally growled, her eyes flashing a simmering orange. "She's easily accounted for, actually…"
Wrath suddenly threw her head back and laughed, and watching her hopelessly, Cat Noir felt a wave of disappointment.
Disappointment at himself for not having been able to prevent this disaster.
And disappointment at the rest of the world for being able to bring out the worst in a person. The worst in Marinette, the best person he thought he'd ever met besides Ladybug. And if his suspicions were correct...there were no distinctions between the two.
"Lucky charm!" somebody suddenly cried, and Cat Noir stared in shock as Tikki appeared in front of him.
Her tiny kwami hands held out a blanket to him. "Hurry!" she urged, and Cat Noir sprang into action, wrapping the fireproof material around himself and diving through the gaps between the bars of flame.
Wrath burst into brilliant flames and sent waves of stinging fire bolts at him, searing his arms and legs.
Tikki and Cat Noir dove behind a steel beam, which was absolutely no protection for an akumatized villain like Wrath.
"Where?" Cat Noir gasped, still choking on the smoke and heat from the flames.
Tikki glanced around the beam for a moment and said, "Her earrings."
Cat Noir was surprised, even though in hindsight, he shouldn't have been. "Earrings?"
Tikki gave him a solemn look. "Trust me, it's her earrings. And you'll have to use your power. So hurry!"
Cat Noir took a deep breath. "Alright—"
The steel support suddenly cracked and exploded. Metal pieces blew apart from the fissure and Cat Noir barely managed to dodge a piece of shrapnel the size of a dinner plate.
A glance behind him confirmed his suspicions. Wrath was charging herself up for a final round...in which he wouldn't survive much longer.
"Cataclysm!" Cat Noir yelled out, and he dove forward, Tikki's miraculous fire blanket still wrapped tightly around him.
Wrath grasped his arm, and he cried out in pain as her powerful energy seared right through his costume and into his skin. With a near-superhuman effort, Cat Noir wrenched a hand free and grasped her earring, praying that the right one was the akumatized one.
For a moment, nothing happened as the destroyed earring crumbled into ash.
Wrath spat at him. "You fool," she started to say, but suddenly, her face changed from anger into shock.
"What—" Wrath began, and suddenly crumbled to her knees as the black-purple akuma fluttered out from behind her hair.
Wrath's costume vanished in a cloud of obscure smoke, revealing an exhausted Marinette Dupain-Cheng kneeling down on the steel surface of the Eiffel Tower.
Cat Noir stumbled back in relief, cradling his injured arm. He stared in disbelief and exhaustion as Marinette raised her bluebell eyes to look at him. He could tell from her face that she wasn't clueless about what had happened.
Marinette knew what she had almost done.
A small voice broke the silence behind him. "Miraculous Ladybug," the voice whispered.
Cat Noir turned in time to see Tikki fall to the ground in a shower of pink sparks as a wave of miraculous ladybugs swept the city, restoring peace and order. But whatever objects it could fix, it could never heal a living being.
Like Tikki.
End of Chapter 5: Playing With Fire
Author's Note: Soooo, did I deliver on the "action"? What'd you think about Tikki? Let me know, and thanks for reading!