Adrien didn't know whether it was his boyfriend sense or his Chat Noir sense that was going off, but he knew something was wrong. He'd been waiting by the entrance for half an hour for Marinette and she hadn't shown yet. He knew it didn't take thirty minutes to wipe off glitter, especially with the good cleaning wipes the makeup team had. Not to mention every call he made rang for minutes before ending in her cheery voice mail.
"Father, Nathalie, have you seen Marinette?" he asked as the two approached him.
"No, I haven't," Nathalie answered while Gabriel shook his head. Adrien's stomach knotted on itself. "She must have left already."
"No, I invited her over for dinner. I told her to wait here for me," he said.
"She might still be in the trailer. Jean and Emcé are still in there," Gabriel said. Adrien took off running to the trailer, his heart pounding in his ears. Where is she, he wondered. Why is she taking so long? He wanted to horrible feeling in his gut to subside. I have no proof she's hurt. I shouldn't panic until I have proof. His father was right. Jean and Marie-Christine were in the trailer, amicably chatting.
"Have you seen Marinette?" Adrien demanded.
"No, I haven't. I thought she must've gone home already," Marie-Christine said with a shrug.
"No, she can't have left yet. She hasn't changed or gotten her purse back from me yet," Jean said, lifting the familiar pink bag up off the ground.
"She left her purse?" Nausea was beating against Adrien's stomach violently. She was forgetful, but there was no way she'd leave her purse and she'd blow him off. Something was wrong. Something was horribly, horribly wrong.
"I assumed she was still with you," Jean said. "I have to head home. Can you give Marinette her purse when you see her?"
"Of course," Adrien replied, taking the purse from him.
"Good. I'll see you tomorrow, then," Jean said with a wave as he went to leave the trailer.
"But we don't have a shoot tomorrow," Adrien replied.
"Nicole's funeral service is in the morning, remember?" Emcé reminded him. Nicole? Who's -
The pieces fell into place in Adrien's mind. Missing Agreste models turning up dead. Marinette's disappearance. Bile rose in his throat as he ran out of the trailer, quickly dialling Alya's phone.
"Hey, Adrien! What's -"
"Marinette's in trouble! We need to find her!"
Gradually, Marinette's senses came back to her and she opened her eyes. A sharp throbbing beat against her head. A hard plastic ball was shoved into her mouth and leather straps cut into her cheeks to keep it in place. Thick rope ran across her wrists and pulled her naked body taut. She was tied to the cool wood floor. My Miraculous! she realized, head snapping in all directions as she looked for her purse. Where are my earrings?! Where's Tikki?!
"So you've come to." Jérémy's cold voice made her shudder. "It's about time. I thought I'd have to wait until tomorrow for the shoot." He was sitting not too far from her, cleaning a camera lens. Behind him, Marinette could see the photographs of several people, mostly women. All we naked and tied to the floor, trapped in the same spot and position as she was. The realization of where Marinette was and who she was in the room with sunk into her body and slowly crushed the air out of her. She was in the room with the very serial killer she'd been tracking for almost a week.
"This is all your fault, you know," Jérémy told her, giving her a toxic glare. "It's your fault Agreste hired another photographer and cut my pay in half. I wanted to take Marie-Christine at first. Seemed fitting I put a slut like her in the grave. But then you had to go and tempt me. You deserve it a lot more than she does." He put his cleaning rag down and pulled out a cheap, old-looking cell phone. "Right now, I think it's time for a little photoshoot, don't you think?"
"I can't track Marinette's phone if it's not with her," Alya groaned from behind Adrien's desk. The two were in his closet, in his base of operations. He sat beside her, trying to keep himself from hyperventilating. Time was ticking by and if they didn't find Marinette in time . . . well, he didn't want to think about it.
"There has to be another way to find her!" Adrien cried.
"If no one saw her when she was taken, we don't have any leads." Alya's fingers were running through her hair frantically. "We should just call the police and have them do it. We don't have the resources to find her."
"We can't give up! If we do she's as good as dead!" Adrien pointed out angrily.
"I'm not giving up! I just think we need professional help!" Alya retorted. Adrien groaned and leaned back dangerously in his chair. An ache was crawling up his throat and tears were starting to build in his eyes. This couldn't be happening. This had to be a nightmare.
His phone beeped with an incoming message and quicker than lightning his hands shot out for the phone and opened the message. As fast as he opened the text he dropped the phone, vomit burning his throat. Photos of Marinette had been sent to him. Horrible, degrading, utterly humiliating photos of her tied to a floor and gagged, naked and being groped and angry sobs were pouring out of Adrien. Angry at himself for failing to protect her, enraged that someone would do this to her. When I find that bastard, I'm going to kill him, he thought as Alya grabbed the phone. I'm going to save Marinette and kill him.
"Jesus Christ," she murmured, tears prickling her own eyes. "How could someone do this?"
"I don't know," he replied quietly. Alya's fingers flew across the computer keyboard, glancing at Adrien's screen every so often.
"Do you recognize the number?" she asked. He shook his head. "I'm going to try and see what cell tower the text went through. From there, maybe we can get an estimation of where she is," she continued on.
"Wait a minute! If she was taken from the set, maybe one of the workers took her!" Adrien was at his laptop, slipping into his father's contact database.
"I got a hit! The message went through a tower in La Courneuve! She must be somewhere nearby!" Alya announced. Adrien quickly searched his father's contacts for anyone in that area. Only one name came up.
Jérémy Dupont.
God, how could I have been so stupid?! Adrien asked himself, standing up from the desk. The man had basically been harassing Marinette whenever she was on set and he never thought that maybe that man was the one who took her? Adrien prayed it wasn't too late for his girlfriend. If she could hold out a few more minutes, he could reach her and save her.
"Alya, call the police. Tell them everything and have them go to Jérémy's apartment. I'm going to save Marinette."
Another primal sob escaped Marinette's throat as Jérémy finished, cum spewing onto her lower lips.
"Cry all you want, but no one's going to hear you. This apartment is soundproof," he said as he grabbed his camera. "Let's get some good photos of you before you join the others." Her sobs got heavier, tears burning her eyes. She couldn't do this. Not again. She just wanted it to be over. Being dead was a million times better than this.
With a boom the door violently swung open, a tall, black figure in the doorway.
"Get away from her and maybe I'll let you die painlessly," a familiar voice seethed. Chat? Marinette thought, watching as her partner stormed forward, baton out and a demonic look on his face. This wasn't the fun, goofy Chat she saved Paris with. This Chat Noir was a man straight from hell with revenge burning in his eyes. Jérémy smirked and gave Chat a patronizing look. He opened his mouth to talk but in one clean swing, Chat's baton slammed into Jérémy's neck with a sickening crunch. The man was thrown across the room, hitting the wall so hard the photos of past victims fell to the ground.
Chat ripped the ball gag out of her mouth and kissed her, hands cradling her face. Marinette was stunned, staring up at his teary green eyes in shock.
"I'm so sorry, Marinette, I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. I'm going to make it up to you, I promise, my love," he said, kissing her forehead. He unzipped a pocket and pulled out a large T-shirt. "You can wear this once I get you free." Love? Didn't protect me? What's he talking about, Marinette wondered. Chat cut the bonds on her ankles before moving to her wrists. He managed to free one when a flash of motion caught her eye.
"Chat, watch out!" she warned him. Jérémy tackled Chat Noir to the ground, grubby fingers snatching the baton and throwing it across the room. Chat growled and lifted his hand into the air.
"Cataclysm!" he shouted and dug his nails into Jérémy's thigh. The man screamed in agony as the smell of rotting, burning flesh filled the small space. Blood was seeping onto the ground and Chat Noir clawed at Jérémy's leg, tearing it off and reaching grabbing the bloody stump to make flesh and exposed muscles and tissue rot. A flash of green light burst around Chat Noir and Marinette watched in shock as he transformed from his superhero form into Adrien. Her Adrien.
"Plagg, what the hell?!" Adrien yelled.
"I'm not going to let you abuse your power like this," the small black kwami said in an angry voice. Wait, WHAT?! Adrien?! Chat Noir?! No, no, I have to be seeing things, they can't be the same person! I would have figured it out by now if they were! Her head was spinning and the few coherent thoughts she had were screaming at her to get more answers.
"Fine! I don't need you!" Adrien shouted at the kwami. His hand quickly dove into his pockets and pulled out a wickedly sharp knife. Marinette's fingers tugged on the rope around her right wrist, desperate to get free and help Chat. No, Adrien. Jérémy groaned as Adrien's foot collided with his ribcage and kicked him towards a desk. Adrien scrambled over to Marinette. She noticed the blood staining the knife.
"Adrien, you're Chat Noir?" she asked as he cut her final bond.
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you. It's supposed to be a secret," he said, dropping the knife and leaning back in for another peck. His hands cupped her face and his thumb soothingly rubbed her cheek. "Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here and to a hospital. Alya called the police and they're on their way. They should be here any moment." Another kiss. "I'm sorry I didn't protect you. I should have known something was wrong with him and stayed close to you at all time. I'm the worst boyfriend ever. But I'll make it up to you, Marinette, I promise. I love you so mu -"
Bang.
Adrien slumped forward over Marinette, his weight crushing her torso. A scream ripped itself from her throat at the red mass growing on his back. His body was shuddering and his breath was shaky as he labored for breath.
"No! No no no, Adrien, Adrien, stay with me!" she screamed, hands reaching out for his face. His kwami flew over to them, surveying the damage. She could faintly hear Jérémy curse and turn back to his desk, rifling through a drawer. He did this. He shot him. He shot Adrien.
Mmm whatcha say~
Well, writing this chapter turned out to be a lot quicker than I thought it'd be, especially considering the subject matter and the whole climax part of the story. We got one more chapter to go and I'm hoping to finish this series by Sunday, but since I'm wrapped up in Marichat Week who knows if that'll happen. Not to mention I have a lot of threads to clean up at the end of this fic.
But yeah! Thank you guys so much for your support! Every time I hear back from you or see a follow or favorite it makes my day! I hope you keep loving the story and I hope you guys stick around for the very end of this! uwu