Chat covered his head protectively once more and continued to walk with the sudden flow of people toward the main stage.
The woman with mahogany hair was center stage spinning on pirouette. The ribbons and skirt of her dress flowed like a dark blue and white river about her. She stopped suddenly a large cloud of smoke consumed her, in her place was a flash of bright red. The girl that Chat recognized from the tent danced about the stage with a large grin on her face.
She lowered herself into a split and made eye contact with Chat. She offered him a wink and a smirk before leaping off the stage toward Judge Papillion. She sat on his lap and wrapped her scarf around his neck. She motioned to kiss him before pulling his hat over his face and running away, laughing.
Papillion lifted the hat back off his brow to reveal a furious expression, which caused the crowd to laugh uproariously. His face grew red in both embarrassment and anger as he sat back in his seat.
A grinning man with bright red hair and a brightly colored outfit addressed the crowd, "Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for!"
The crowd began to elbow one another excitedly as people began to force their way up to the front of the stage area.
"The time has come for us to crown the King of Fools!" he shouted as the dancers began to usher the people in front of the stage onto the stage in a line. Chat had been pushed so far forward, his nose was practically level with the floor of the stage.
"You remember last year's King?" the man motioned to a large and disgusting man being paraded toward the stage. He happily waved to the cheering crowd, reveling in the attention that he did not receive any other day of the year. Chat almost felt sorry for the man, but his musings were interrupted by his arms being lifted up on their own as he was pulled onto the stage by the woman from the tent and the mahogany haired dancer.
"Make a face for the crowd that is truly ugly and frightening! We shall see who will become our new King of Fools!" the man cheered as he signaled for the two dancers to begin presenting the possible candidates.
One by one, their masks and hoods were pulled from their faces as they presented their best features for the crowd. One by one, the crowd booed their attempts and they were knocked off the stage in a humorous fashion.
Chat watched as the women come closer and closer to him. He would have climbed off the stage and hidden in the crowd, but the crowd was so wild that every time he tried, they pushed him back up onto the stage. His tail had been stepped on multiple times as well.
Finally, the woman in red stood before Chat, she reached out and pulled the cloak off of his neck, revealing him to the entire world… and Judge Papillion.
There he stood as the crowd grew silent. His black ears flattened against his head as he felt himself shrink before their gaze. His tail wrapped around his ankles nervously.
"What is it?" a woman called out, clearly frightened.
"Is it a demon?" another voice called.
"Is that not the bell ringer who is hidden in Notre Dame?!" Chat flinched as his identity was revealed. He turned to look toward Judge Papillion, but instead he saw those bluebell eyes.
She stared at him in a way that made his stomach ache. Pity. He knew that was a look of pity. SHe looked at him like he was some pathetic stray who had just been found by a group of school boys, and that hurt him. But the gaze that made him slink back in fear was that of Papillion. His gaze was not pity, it was not even the look he gave Chat when he was disappointed in him.
This was a look of pure rage. Chat had gone against his master's wishes. His heart began to beat so hard he could not hear the sound of the man who had been leading the whole show.
"Do not panic!" he said as he held out his hands to calm the crowd, "we asked for the most hideous and frightful face, and we have received it! Behold! Our new King! The Bell Ringer of Notre Dame! What is your name?"
Chat focused on the face now directly in front of him, "Ch-Chat Noir?"
"King Chat Noir!" he shouted as a crown was placed over his ears. Chat felt numb as his body was lifted and presented to the world. He was paraded down the streets as the people cheered. As he went the flashes of colors and faces overwhelmed him. He lost himself to the energy and emotions of the people and began to wave and smile dumbly as people shook his hand or kissed his head. Finally, he was brought back to the town square where he was placed on the stockade. People threw flowers and streamers in the air as Chat raised his hands triumphantly.
Nino clapped for the creature being paraded about the city, but stopped when he saw the judge's face. One of the guards was summoned to the judge's side for a moment before he and another guard approached the creature.
Nino watched in horror as a flash of red flew into Chat Noir's face. The rotten fruit exploded on impact and left its juiced to flow down his face and beneath his shirt. Chat held his hand to his face and looked up in horror as the crowd's cheers shifted quickly to mockery. A few other guards began to loot the garbage and shops in order to throw rotten food and other bits of garbage at the man they had just praised. Chat winced as the food hit him again and again.
Marinette and Alya looked at one another in an unspoken question as to what was going on outside their tent. Marinette jumped to her feet when she heard an agonized cry of pain from the stockade and ran to the front of the tent. She looked out to see the man she revealed to the whole town being pelted with food and rocks. He was hunched over, protecting his face. Someone reached up to him and grabbed his tail, forcing him to fall on his face.
She did not think it possible, but matters only got much worse from there.
Chat shouted at the people around them when he was pulled down, lifting himself to stand on his feet once more. His gloves dropped to the ground as he swiped viciously at the people who mocked him. The guards took that as their chance to begin throwing ropes over him. Chat fought back, but was overpowered by the cruel men. His hands and feet were bound to a spinning wheel and spun around, watching the faces of the crowd blur into one single mocking face.
"Master!" he called out as the flash of dark purple entered his sight for a moment. "Master, please!" If anyone would save him, it would be the same person who saved him when he was so young. "Help me!"
Judge Papillion laced his fingers, refusing to make eye-contact. He would not be tied to this monster. He refused.
"Sir," Nino said as he stared helplessly at the man tied down, "permission to end this cruelty?"
Papillion curled his lip in disgust, "No, Captain. A lesson needs to be learned here."
Nino was about to argue the command when the sounds of the crowd died almost immediately.
Marinette had walked slowly through the crowd, eyes forever fixed on the blonde man before her. She ascended the steps carefully as the spindle came to a stop. She knelt down beside the man and placed a gentle hand on his back. She felt his body tense to the contact and retreated her hand for a moment.
"I'm so sorry," Marinette whispered as she took her sash from her waist and began to wipe his face clean. "None of this was supposed to happen."
Chat held in his sobs as she wiped his face clean.
"You there," Papillion's wicked voice called out in the silence of the crowd, "get away at ONCE."
"Yes, your Honor," Marinette conceded, "just as soon as I free this man."
Papillion's eyes were alight with an immensely hot fire, "Get down this instant!"
Marinette glared defiantly at the man as she pulled a knife from a pouch on her leg and cut the ropes as fast as she could, allowing Chat to stand once more. She held her knife tight in her fist as she returned her gaze to Papillion.
"You insolent little-" Papillion hissed as he stood from his seat.
"You treat this man the EXACT same way to treat my people!" Marinette shouted angrily.
"What?" Papillion questioned.
"You talk about making the world pure again and bringing God back to this dark time, but you IGNORE those who come to you for help!" Marinette shouted, motioning to the crowd as she spoke.
"Sinners such as you-" Papillion started.
"Deserve to have a second chance! Is that not what YOUR GOD teaches you? Does He not say you are to care for the poor, the widowed, and the FATHERLESS?!" Marinette pointed an accusing finger at Papillion.
Papillion stepped back defensively. He had had enough. "Seize her!" he shouted angrily to his guards.
Nino bit his lips before signaling for the troops to advance toward the single woman on the stockade.
Marinette's eyes seemed to glow a wild sky-blue as she counted the guards around her. "So there is ten of you and only one of me…" she pulled some beads from a pocket and held out her hand, "I guess the only thing I have left to do is…" she glanced at Chat and winked mischievously. She dropped the beads and disappeared into a puff of smoke.
The guards arrived just in time to see the smoke clear, only Chat remained to greet them.
"Hello, boys," Marinette greeted as she sat fiddling with a puppet from the puppeteer's booth. The puppeteer smirked at the guards as they came toward her, knocking the overhanging tarp down just as Marinette snuck out the back, capturing five of the men inside the tarp. Marinette took the chance to run around the tent with her dog, Tikki while trailing a rope behind them, tying them up. The other five guards approached just as Marinette finished. She ran into the large crowd and into a group of dancers who used their scarves and sashes to cover the men's eyes. Marinette took the hand of one of the men on stilts and climbed on top of the large stage. She untied one of the main poles as she was surrounded and fell with it in front of the judge. She bowed low, causing Nino to chuckle, and then dropped another bead, creating a large cloud of smoke. All that remained was little Tikki, who barked happily as the guards jumped onto the platform and efficiently knocked Papillion over. Tikki took her chance to exit and run off into the crowd.
Marinette and her cohorts were nowhere to be found.
Papillion pulled himself from the pile of men and looked around him. The people were laughing hysterically. He turned his gaze to Chat Noir, who was laughing to himself at the whole ordeal. He stopped when he saw his master's face.
Quickly, he grabbed his gloves from the ground and and slunk back into the darkness. The clouds grew darker than usual and light water droplets fell to the ground. Chat pulled the large doors of his sanctuary open and snuck inside, the sound of the crowd dying out as he rushed inside the stone walls.
Archdeacon Fu confronted Chat at the stairs leading toward the belltower.
"What happened?" he asked as he observed the stains on his clothes and the tears in his eyes.
"Master was right," Chat hiccuped, "the world is a dark and cruel place, and I never want to go back."
Fu moved aside as the poor creature ascended his stairs and into his quiet oasis once more. He sighed and rubbed his head as the sound of the door closing him in forever echoed through Notre Dame.
"If only," Fu prayed as he walked toward the large foyer, "if only You could send him an angel to protect him from the cruelty that is the world we live in."