Marinette felt, deep in her heart, that she'd figured out his identity. Regardless, though, she didnt have any proof. She knew she didn't need proof, but this wouldn't be the first time she suspected Gabriel, so she wanted to have as much reasoning as possible. As she sat there, though, trying to come up with any proof, she felt something change.
She looked around, but didn't immediately see anything that was particularly different than usual. At least, she didn't see anything until she took a bit of a closer look at her hand. She hadn't noticed at first because it was the same color as Tikki, and about the same width as her antennae, but there was a string attached to her finger.
It was attached to her pinkie and reminded her of a story that her maman had told her when she was a child. Sabine had described it as the 'red string of fate,' a string that was meant to connect soulmates to help them find each other in the world. It always sounded like it was just a story when Sabine talked about it.
So, this felt suspicious . Marinette got out of her bed and climbed through the trapdoor to her balcony. She didn't want to know who her 'soulmate' was, at least not like that. There were red strings spread across the city. Many were connecting different buildings, but she suspected most of them lead between people sharing a bed or at least an apartment.
She didn't mean to let her eyes wander through the city, but she couldn't stop them when she moved her hand. Her eyes were captivated by any movement and before she even realized what happened, she followed the other end of her red string into the window of the Agreste mansion.
She knew that didn't necessarily mean anything for his identity, but she decided that if nothing else, finding out she was soulmates with Adrien was interesting. She decided to transform before she took off, trying to find the akuma that was causing people to find their soulmates.
Marinette knew, all things considered, that finding out your soulmate was far from the worst thing an akuma had ever done, but she was thankful that Soulmark had become akumatized in the middle of the night, so that the soulmate strings wouldn't negatively impact people who were in happy, healthy relationships, even if it wasn't with the person they'd been 'destined' for.
Ladybug zipped across the city, watching as new red strings appeared in front of her. The path of red strings helped lead her to Soulmark. Soulmark had no red string coming from her, which Ladybug didn't originally understand, until she took a closer look at the akuma and recognized that she was wearing a small black mourning veil.
Soulmark lost their soulmate and that broke Ladybug's heart. It took about 3 minutes of Ladybug fighting the villain before Cat Walker showed up to join the fray. She couldn't help but notice when her string connected her hand to his. He looked sad, and she wondered if he had been able to see their string like she could.
He moved to attack Ladybug, trying to ignore the string attached to his finger. If Ladybug was meant to be his soulmate, he found himself thinking that he'd had more regrets than he'd originally anticipated. He'd hoped his soulmate was going to be Marinette. Even if she was mad at him then, he was hopeful that she might still accept him as Adrien.
Ladybug felt her heart pound in her chest and couldn't help the anxiety she'd been feeling. She did her best not to think too hard about his identity during the battle, but the more she looked at him, the more she was able to see the similarities between Adrien and Cat Walker.
Cat Walker… She knew there were more important things to focus on, but she couldn't help herself. His villain name was a pun . He was a model, someone who regularly walked the catwalk. The knowledge made her smile, no matter how much she knew she shouldn't be focused on that.
She decided she couldn't give him too much attention if she didn't want to be too far distracted from Soulmark. Ladybug called for her lucky charm and a pen fell from the sky. She knew what Tikki was trying to tell her, even though the pen itself wasn't going to help her with the akumatized person.
Beyond being able to show people their soulmates, Soulmark didn't have a very significant power set. She'd had the normal strength and stamina that being one of Monarch's champions afforded her, but there wasn't a lot beyond that. Ladybug used the string of her yo-yo to tie up the akuma, thankful she wouldn't be able to cataclysm it like Chat Noir Adrien Cat Walker had done.
Ladybug collected up the piece of paper that had been in Soulmark's pocket and felt her stomach churn. The akumatized object was a funeral pamphlet, of someone who's wake had been the day before. She knew she had to break it, but she could barely bring herself to do that. She tore it in half and wondered if breaking akumatized objects ever made him feel as bad as that made her.
She called for her cure and gave the now-repaired pamphlet back to the civilian. She was on her knees hunched over, continuing to sob over the loss of her Soulmate. Ladybug knelt over and offered to take the civilian home. Sara took Ladybug up on the offer while Cat Walker prepared himself to go home to deal with the revelation about his soulmate.
He felt like he was going to be sick when he saw the akumatized object. He'd had to break something that was meaningful to him before, when Gorille was akumatized with the lucky charm from Marinette, but he'd never had to break something as meaningful to someone as information about their deceased loved one.
He knew he needed to talk to Gabriel. After all of the mourning Adrien went through to cope with what he thought was the loss of his mother, Gabriel wasn't allowed to do that. He wasn't allowed to take advantage of the sorrow of others grieving, while he himself was going through so much to bring his own loved one back.
Adrien missed Émilie, but he knew it wasn't fair. It didn't make any sense that his father should prey on the vulnerability of others when he'd been working so hard to get out of feeling as vulnerable as the people of Paris.
Cat Walker made his way back home, needing to pass by the Dupain-Cheng apartment to get back. The lights to Marinette's room were off and the trapdoor was closed, neither piece of information he should be surprised about. It was getting closer to winter with each passing day and he knew she got cold easily.
He didn't know why his father sent him out to deal with an akuma in the middle of the night, but he decided that wasn't something he necessarily cared enough about to figure out the answer. Adrien was exhausted after being woken up in the middle of the night and fell asleep once again as his head hit the pillow.
