A/N: So here we get to see a lot more of Shadowspell, her powers, and her motivations. Cool, right? Hawk Moth is hard to write since we see him mainly shouting pun-filled vows of vengeance at his fancy retractable shade skylight, but I hope I did him justice. Um, there are some descriptions of pain that might sound a little scary but other than that I can't think of anything to warn you about. Superfluous disclaimer: I still don't own ML or its characters, but I do own Shadowspell. Onwards and upwards!
Chapter 4: I'm Not KittenWith You
Shadowspell saw the purple outline of a butterfly appear around her face seconds before her benefactor's voice rang through her head.
My dear Shadowspell, you haven't forgotten your end of the agreement, have you?
"No, Hawk Moth. I have a plan, my lord. I have Chat's attention. I need to save a few more people and my followers will aid me in my fight. There will be nowhere left in Paris to run for him. But first, I will need him to find something for me. Ladybug's miraculous is separate from her, but I don't know where. Her kwami will reach out to Chat for aid, and I will only have to follow them to her earrings," she explained quickly.
She was terrified of displeasing Hawk Moth. She owed him everything. He was the only one who cared about her at all. She wanted to make him happy. She felt bad for keeping the secret of her double identity from him, but he wouldn't love her anymore if he knew she used to be Ladybug, his nemesis. She couldn't tell him.
Hawk Moth, for his part, was astounded and impressed. His akumas were usually near-mindless, stupid puppets shooting aimlessly at everything to cause general chaos and attract the heroes. They retained few aspects of themselves once he took over. But Marinette, Shadowspell, was utterly unique. She not only gave into the irresistible pull of darkness, but welcomed it, much like the false Volpina, but far more powerful. She not only obeyed him out of fear or a sense of debt, but nearly worshipped him. It was a nice change, he thought.
Well thought, my dear girl. You are perhaps my best and most devoted follower yet. I am pleased with you. You take initiative, gather information before rushing in headlong. You're focused on the goal. Shadowspell, you are quite possibly my favorite akuma.
He felt her swell of pride. She truly was eager to please him. He grinned at the realization that whereas all of his other akumas had been pawns, she was a queen. Where they had been reluctant indentured servants, she gladly threw herself into the role of acolyte. He was right to have taken a special interest in this one. She didn't chafe at his orders, but rushed to obey them. She respected him.
"Thank you, my lord. I won't disappoint you. It's only a matter of time before the miraculouses are yours, and then all of Paris. I am your faithful servant," she intoned.
Shadowspell, you are far more than that. I'll leave you to perform your tasks. We shall speak again soon.
Shadowspell moved to comply the second the purple light faded from her vision. She hovered over the Champs Elysees, scanning the milling crowds for an opening. She spotted a cluster of people who were talking animatedly. Perfect. They would never notice her approach.
She faded into her smoky shadow form, slipping through the shade in the alcoves and arches of the nearby buildings. She drew close enough to the group's shadow to reach out and wrap her near-shapeless hand around the tail end of it. She could feel the twenty-three individual shadows in her iron fist, like stems in a bouquet. She wrapped some slack around her wrist and tugged the shadows quickly behind her as she streaked along the ground towards the nearest blank wall, her silhouette not unlike the murky shape of a shark shooting along under the water. The people fell down as one, making that awful screaming, skidding on their backs along the pavement as though dragged by the ankles.
Shadowspell reached the base of her chosen wall and swept up into its surface from the ground, taking the people's shadows with her. She rose all the way up to the eaves of the roof. Once their feet touched the wall, they melted into a two-dimensional version of themselves and continued up the inside of the wall with her. One by one, they went silent as they were converted to art. They then faded into an indistinct color chalk drawing, firming up into clear black and white pencil-like sketches of themselves. At first, they continued contorting their faces in screams though they made no sound. But once she came out of the wall and solidified, smiling warmly at her children, they calmed down. They mouthed their thanks and she heard it whispered at the back of her mind, a feather-light touch of gratitude. The contented voices joined the rest. They smiled, joy overtaking their features, and began to frolic in their new home, safe and happy.
Shadowspell turned to the confused people lingering on the street. They were eyeing her cautiously, warily. That would soon change. They too would love her. She would save them.
"Hello!" she called cheerfully. "I am Shadowspell, servant to the great and powerful Hawk Moth. I have come to free you from sorrow, from disappointment, from pain. You too will join your new friends in a world devoid of suffering. I'm here to help you," she announced.
Some people looked afraid, others tempted. She took the skittish ones first since they seemed like they would be difficult. She grasped the shadows of a three or four at a time in each hand. She pulled them into their new home, made sure that they were content, then swooped back to gather more poor souls to rescue. The volunteers gathered together in a huddle, standing still very cooperatively. Some of the runners escaped, but that was fine. She would catch all the naughty children later. Once she had emptied out the entire street, she surveyed the landscape for a building that would be worthy of those who saw the light on their own and came willingly. Those were fewer in number than she would have liked. Her eyes lit on the Arc de Triomphe. Of course. What a fitting tribute to the precious few.
She melted into the ground and extended her hands. The clever dears caught on quickly maneuvered their hands' shadows to clasp her arms and hands. She took off at high speeds, the volunteers skimming scant inches above the pavement so they wouldn't be hurt. She guided her charges onto the surface of the great monument and glided off the stone surface. She did a loop through the arch for fun and inspected her work. There was none of the temporary panic of her other children. The smiles broke out almost instantly and the thanks washed over her more thickly than before. It felt more genuine, more enthusiastic. She beamed back at them, indulging in a few minutes playing with them in the stone. But she had work to do. She detached from the wall and wrapped herself in a protective coating of darkness as she swooped for the surrounding blocks to collect the stragglers.
Soon everyone in Paris would be safe.
Chat Noir couldn't believe what he was seeing. He choked on emotion when he first saw a grinning Shadowspell drag groups of people into the walls. It was even more terrifying to see how eerily quickly the panicking people-turned-drawings calmed down as she cooed at them. He had tried to engage her a few times, but she always flew off. Typically, akumas were belligerent and eager to engage in conflict with the Lucky duo, but Shadowspell was odd, biding her time and more interested in converting people into drawings than in fighting Chat Noir.
Now he was trying to pick apart her strategy and he honestly couldn't see a pattern. Instead of taking a part of the city, then moving on to an adjacent part, or starting with all of the most crowded places, she picked a few random spots in the city center then began to focus on the outskirts. It was only when he saw the people running away from her approach and noticed that they were running back towards a part of the city that she had already conquered that he realized what she was doing. It made him sick.
She was herding them, like animals, pushing them inward from the edges to corrall them. She was manipulating them into fleeing into what was already her territory. He was scared. No akuma had ever done this before, behaved so... deliberately. What had gotten into Marinette? Where was Ladybug? He'd been fighting Shadowspell, or trying to, for hours. He had detransformed and hidden until Plagg recharged about four times now. He was exhausted. Where was his partner? Had she been turned into a drawing already? Did Hawk Moth have her miraculous?
He couldn't wait around for Ladybug while the city crumbled. When Shadowspell made for the Dupain-Cheng bakery, he vaulted in to protect his girlfriend's parents... from his girlfriend. How did things get so messed up? He landed in the doorway to see Tom and Sabine holding each other, cowering before the creature that used to be their daughter. Shadowspell had her back to him.
"I just want to make you safe. Why won't you listen? You never listen," she was saying.
"Marinette, sweetie, we don't want to be wall drawings. Won't you let those people go?" Tom asked.
"That's not my name!" she barked, then calmed down with a deep breath. "I'm Shadowspell. And they aren't prisoners. I'm protecting them. In their new home, nobody can ever hurt them. They're happy, Papa. You can be happy, too. Maman, you understand, don't you?"
"Mari- Shadowspell, what if this isn't the best thing for these people? What if they want to go home to their families?" Sabine asked gently.
"It is what's best. They're not sad anymore. They are home, and their families will join them soon. They love me. Don't you want me to be loved?" she asked, wounded.
Meanwhile, Chat had been creeping up behind Shadowspell, making to grab the comb. It was the only object on her that could be holding the akuma. He was inches away when he saw that terrible purple butterfly outline flicker into existence around her eyes. She turned to him with a cold glare. Hawk Moth must have warned her he was coming, but it was too late. She tried to dodge him, but he snatched the comb from her hair, causing it to tumble in loose curls to the tops of her shoulders. He snapped the butterfly comb in half, expecting a black and purple butterfly to emerge, but nothing happened. The comb stayed still and unchanged. Shadowspell was laughing at him.
"You thought that was my object? Would I have ever made it so easy?" she giggled, brushing her hair out of her eyes.
She huffed in annoyance. With a sweep of her hand, she summoned some of those creepy squirming shadows. Tendrils of darkness swept the longer front pieces back from her face and twined them with the rest, making a warrior-like braid and tying it off with a ribbon of shadow. She dismissed the dark helpers back to the shadowy corners of the darkened bakery.
"That's better. Now, kitty, I know you want to play, but I have some business to take care of first. It won't take but a second," she assured him with a smile.
Shadowspell lifted her hands up to shoulder level and clenched them into fists. The shadows grew tentacles that shot out and devoured the Dupain-Chengs, sucking them into the wall. Chat shouted protest that mingled with the noise of their cries of panic. When the black cloud cleared, they were drawings like everyone else, vacantly happy stares going out to Shadowspell. She smiled and put a hand up to the wall to meet theirs. She placed a tender kiss on her mother's forehead and brushed a hand against her father's cheek. She sighed in satisfaction.
"Why did you do that?"
"It feels better when people come willingly, but I can be pushy when I need to," she answered simply.
"People have willingly been turned into doodles? Who volunteers for that?" he spluttered incredulously.
"First of all, my drawings are no mere doodles," she snapped. "There's a piece of me in all of them. Second, people who see the world for what it is: dark and selfish and cruel and all too ready to kick you when you're down. They were nothing short of enthusiastic about leaving such a world behind, even though their new one has one fewer dimension."
"You're crazy."
"No, I am not. Enough flirting. I'm ready to play, aren't you?" she challenged.
"I've been ready. Bring it on, butterfly!"
They come together in a violent clash. He swung his baton and she manipulated the shadows to jab at him. But she was also really good at hand to hand. Where had Marinette learned that? Shadowspell slammed her fist into his stomach with devastating force and kicked his legs out from under him. She pinned him on his back with her body. If Shadowspell hadn't been so like Marinette, he would have snarled, but instead he blushed, making her giggle and blow a kiss at him. She reached down for his miraculous without any prompting from Hawk Moth. He bucked her off, but she landed on her feet. They exchanged punches, kicks, blocks, and swings and thrusts of weaponry. Chat hated to admit it, but he was getting his butt handed to him. He looked around for a solution. What would Ladybug do? She'd fight smarter, not harder.
He noticed that some of her shadows were dedicated to blocking the windows and did not move no matter what. He figured out why when one of them strayed across a beam of sunlight, stronger now that the earlier cloud cover had burned off. It drew back from the light, quivering and smoking like it had been burned. Of course! Light conquered shadows! That was why she hadn't wanted to be directly in his flashlight beam when they first met. Chat dodged a blow from her and led her outside. She hissed in aggravation and followed him.
She couldn't attack him as much as before because she had to dedicate the majority of her shadow resources to staying in the dark. He seemed like he was fleeing, but he was drawing her to the stadium. He slid out of sight and left her hovering bewildered in the middle of the field, whipping her gaze back and forth to search for him. He made his way to the control box.
"Here, kitty, kitty! Come out, come out wherever you are," she tried to sing-song, but ended up snarling in frustration.
"Did you call for me, Princess?" he shouted from the booth.
Her head snapped towards him and she saw him there, gears turning in her head. He saw the idea click into place. She had figured out what he was doing, but too late. The floodlights came on at blinding levels of brightness and there was nowhere to run. A scream of agony tore from Shadowspell's throat. It hurt him how much that sound reminded him of Marinette's terrified cry on the night he'd saved her from that creep. He had to remind himself that he was saving her now, too. It was hard to remember that when looking at her, though.
All of her shadow umbrella evaporated and left her exposed to the blinding light. Her eyes screwed shut and her hands desperately tried to block her face. It was no use because her gloves started to fade into smoke, too. Her wings were the worst, though. They started to blacken and curl at the edges like burnt paper. She dropped out of the sky and crumpled to the ground. He would have worried about the height of the fall, but she started to writhe in pain the second she hit the grass. Shadowspell convulsed over and over, clothing smoking and skin starting to go gray. She wailed non-stop for about three minutes, barely pausing to breathe. The sound shredded his heart into tiny pieces and he was thankful that she wouldn't have to remember this once he freed her. When she was only twitching occasionally, Chat Noir turned off the lights and sprang to her side.
She was keening quietly, tears running down her face. She had curled into a tight ball and her muscles shook from how tensely she held herself. Parts of her gloves and leggings had burned away and her skirt was shorter in the back. Her wrap had vaporized entirely and her wings were completely ruined. He felt his heart stop when he saw little rivulets of dark purple blood streaming from the ragged edges of the appendages. He hadn't realized that they were a part of her, that she could feel them. He had thought of them as another shadow construct.
As he drew closer, he looked her over, wondering what her akuma could be. Her clothes had been damaged by the light, so it wasn't them, but there was nothing else. He brushed her wild hair back to check for earrings. Nothing. His eyes went to her clenched fists and spotted the ring he'd given her. It was the only possible solution. He crouched and tried to take it away, but she whimpered at his touch and flinched away. Had he really hurt her that badly? Where on earth was Ladybug? Even if he destroyed the akumatized object, there would be no healing light to fix Marinette. Now that he was near her head, he could hear her repeating something under her breath like a prayer.
"Hawk Moth, please. Help me. I'm hurt. Please, my lord, help me. I need you," she was begging.
A cold shudder shot up his spine and resonated in his gut. Shadowspell's voice, though strained with pain and exhaustion, held real hope. She truly believed that the villain who had made her into this would come to her aid if she would only say the mantra over and over. She trusted that monster to save her.
"Princess," he sighed. "Hawk Moth only cares about himself. He- he's not coming. Just tell me where your akuma is so I can help you. I can set you free."
"No," she hiccupped. "My lord is coming. He said I was special, that I was his favorite. He didn't like the others, but he loves me. He will come for me. He will," she insisted.
His stomach turned at her words. Hawk Moth was never flattering to any of the akumas beyond the initial temptation to mischief. Why the special interest in Marinette? And where was the stupid evil butterfly hiding? For a moment, he almost thought he'd freed it by accident when he heard a fluttering of papery wings. Then he looked up and a swarm of white butterflies descended from the skies, pushing him back harshly from the girl on the ground. They lifted her up tenderly. She moaned weakly in gratitude when their wings blocked some of the light. Chat Noir was floored. Hawk Moth never came to rescue one of his akumas when they were losing. But he heard the smooth, deep voice speaking through the cloud of insects.
"My dear Shadowspell. What has he done to you? You see that I was right about him. He doesn't care about you like I do. I'm here. I'll bring you home. I'll make you well again," the author behind this whole nightmare promised.
Chat Noir could only watch as she was carried away by the butterflies. His ears perked to catch her mumble, "I knew you would come for me. Thank you, my lord. Thank you."
He ran his claws through his hair as he stalked out of the stadium. He'd bought Paris a few hours for Shadowspell to recover, but he hadn't stopped anything. How could he, when Hawk Moth had such a personal stake in this one? When he was willing to get directly involved? He was distracted from his thoughts when a little red blur crashed into his face. He instinctively caught it in his hands. The little creature moaned and sat up, rubbing its head. He sucked in a breath. It looked like a ladybug version of Plagg, with big blue eyes and tiny wings. It had to be Ladybug's kwami.
"Chat Noir! Thank goodness. I've been searching for you everywhere!"
"Are you alright? Who are you? Where's Ladybug?" he questioned frantically.
"I'm fine. My name is Tikki. And Ladybug is gone."
"Gone? Gone how? Like, in a drawing on the wall? Like in another city?"
"I can't say. All I can tell you is that she can't help. She's trapped right now, but she took off her miraculous before she was taken. She saw this coming and asked me to hide it, even from her. You can either pick a new Ladybug to work beside you this time or put on both miraculouses at once and do both jobs yourself," Tikki explained.
"I won't replace Ladybug, but isn't having both powers at once what Hawk Moth wants? I don't want to be like him," Chat protested.
"You don't have to keep the earrings. I'll give them back to my Chosen after she's free. Please, we have to do something."
"Alright. Show me where," he agreed. "Let's end this."
Meanwhile, Shadowspell was carried into a dimly lit room through a skylight and gently lain upon the floor. She groaned weakly. The shades over the skylight constricted, shutting out the brightness, for which she was grateful. The cool darkness felt soothing on her wounds. She felt a man kneel beside her and place a gloved hand to her hot, ashen forehead. He clucked his tongue in disapproval. Her bleary eyes saw that it was a shape she would know anywhere, the shape of her lord. The mask over his kind gray eyes had the comforting butterfly shape she'd grown to like. She saw the disappointment and condemnation in his face and she looked away in shame.
"I've failed you, my lord," she murmured. "I'm so sorry. I know I don't deserve a second chance," she acknowledged, voice cracking. "But I swear to serve you faithfully. I promise. I'll do better."
"Shhh, my dear girl," he rumbled. It was the first time she'd ever heard his voice in person instead of her head. "I'm going to help you, like I said I would. I'm a man of my word. You will rise again, Shadowspell. Better than before. This I swear."
She blinked tears out of her eyes and gazed up at the man she adored, gasping in shock. "You... you're giving me another chance?"
"Of course. I told you, you're different than the others, more valuable. You are too precious to waste over one mistake. We'll bring Chat Noir to us and you can destroy him for how he hurt you. He can't aim those nasty lights at you here. How would you like to help me plan out how to get his miraculous and find Ladybug's?" Hawk Moth offered.
"I would like that very much. Once we take care of Chat Noir, we can simply take the rest of Paris and make them into my children. They can help us search the city for Ladybug's miraculous," she suggested eagerly.
"Brilliant, my dear."
Chat Noir was sprinting through Paris, desperately running for Marinette's home, where Tikki said that she'd hidden Ladybug's miraculous because it would be the last place Shadowspell would think to look. As they passed all of the buildings that had Shadowspell's living drawings on them, Chat shivered. The happy smiles had been replaced with looks of dead-eyed menace. Their charcoal gazes seemed to follow him wherever he went. No longer were the shadow people roaming across their walls, but standing perfectly still, staring out at him with unveiled hatred. He supposed it made sense. Shadowspell's powers made the living drawings love her, and he had burned her with giant spotlights.
The three-dimensional people who remained were wandering from wall to wall, looking for their loved ones in lines of ink. He spotted Alya by the school, looking brokenly at the wall by the door. His heart kicked against his ribcage when he saw that she was staring at Nino, who was one of the few shadow people still smiling. He was beckoning to Alya with an easy grin that looked so familiar and yet had an unsettling edge to it. He pointedly did not look at the corruption of his best friend. At least it wasn't as bad as when he was Bubbler.
"Alya!" he called.
She turned to him with tears in her eyes. "Chat Noir? Did you find Marinette? Is she the akuma?"
He rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. "Yes. She's calling herself Shadowspell. She thinks she's helping people by putting them somewhere they can never get hurt again. She- she dragged her parents into a wall by wrapping shadow tentacles around them."
Alya covered her mouth in horror. "That's awful! Poor Mari. But why is she doing this? And how? An akuma attack has never lasted this long before. Why haven't you and Ladybug saved her yet?"
"I'm trying, but I'm on my own. Ladybug got nabbed almost first thing. As for why, we had a fight and then a bunch of stuff happened this week to pile up and make her feel unloved and invisible. I feel like it's all my fault," he sighed.
"Hey, it's not your fault, Chat. People get turned for all kinds of reasons. And I know for a fact that Marinette is crazy about you. She never takes off the ring you gave her. Hey, could that be the object you need to break?" Alya suggested.
"I don't know. I broke her comb and that didn't work, and she wouldn't let me get close when I went for the ring. Then Hawk Moth abducted her. I have no idea how to do this by myself," he growled, dragging his hands through his hair angrily.
"If she won't let you touch it, then there's a good chance that that's where the akuma is hiding. I'd start there the next time you can pin her down. And what do you mean, Hawk Moth abducted her?"
"I mean that she called out to him and he sent a big cloud of butterflies to scoop her up and carry her off to parts unknown," he grumbled.
"That's crazy. He never shows up, not even as a bunch of butterflies. What do you think is going on?"
"I don't know," Chat groaned. "All of this is unprecedented. It seems like Hawk Moth has taken a shine to Marinette for some reason."
"Do you think you can get all of the people out of the walls without Ladybug?" Alya asked quietly.
"Not unless Shadowspell has a change of heart. I'm the destruction one, not the healing one. My skill set does not include the red light that fixes everything. But I'll find Ladybug, and she'll save them. I promise."
"I believe you," she whispered. "I just wish things would hurry up and get back to normal."
She sighed and leaned against the wall out of habit. A second too late, Chat realized that this was a bad idea and reached out to pull her away. Nino's creepy grin turned feral and his shadowy arms shot out and wrapped around Alya's waist. Chat screamed her name as she was yanked back into the wall. She morphed into a drawing, but she panicked for a much longer time than the rest of Shadowspell's victims ever had. Eventually, a calm settled over her features and a soft smile spread across her face. He thought he saw her mouth the word "mother."
Chat Noir backed away from the wall warily. So this was why Shadowspell had been herding the citizens of Paris back towards her conquered spots like prey. The people she had already turned could pull people into the walls, too. He shouted at all of the nearby civilians not to get too close to the shadow people and to spread the word as he ran the rest of the way to the bakery. He shivered as he passed the drawings of the Dupain-Chengs. They were still smiling placidly.
Tikki led him up to Marinette's room. He felt the ache of being back in a place where he had so many good memories and one very bad one like a kick to the stomach. Tikki floated over to Marinette's dresser and he followed. He spotted the blindfold discarded on the top and fingered the material with a smile. He had been Adrien Agreste for part of the time he'd been kissing her and had felt the thrill of it like fire in his veins.
It had all gone sour, of course, but he wouldn't let the good times be tainted by their fight over his stupid slip-up. She had just smelled so much like Ladybug that his brain had been confused for a second. And it was at least partially because of that moment of unfocused mumbling that half the city's population was two-dimensional at the moment. That moment was part of the reason that Marinette, his Princess, was in the clutches of Hawk Moth.
"Here they are!" Tikki squeaked.
She flew out holding a hexagonal box that looked familiar. He opened it to see Ladybug's earrings resting on soft fabric. His hand hesitated over them. What if he screwed this up, too?
"You have to put them on, Chat. It's the only way to save the city. To save Marinette."
"My ears aren't even pierced," he protested weakly.
"If Plagg were here, he'd tell you to man up."
He laughed at the accuracy of that statement and picked up the miraculous. Tikki helped guide the posts through his ears as he shoved them in. There were flecks of blood on his claws and shoulders when he finished the painful task with a grimace.
"So, what do I say to activate them? I somehow doubt it's 'claws out!'" he snorted.
"You say 'Spots on!'" Tikki explained.
"Alright. Here goes everything. Tikki, spots-!"
He was interrupted by a huge shadowy hand leaping from the wall to grab at his ear. He dodged to the side only thanks to the speed of his cat-like reflexes. It was the drawing of Tom, looking furious. A pair of hands grabbed him around the ankles and yanked him off his feet. He didn't have to look down to confirm that it was Sabine, slithering across the floor.
Great! She can control them from a distance, he thought bitterly. And they can move across any connected flat surface.
Sabine reached down from the ceiling and snatched at his ear- actually pulled it pretty hard.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" he yelped, wrenching away only to stumble over a lump that lurched up from a rug as Tom's big fist shot up from the ground.
Paintings were knocked off walls and light fixtures swung crazily as Tom and Sabine continued to haphazardly try to grab the miraculous right out of his ears. The Dupain-Chengs hounded him all the way out the door, but couldn't seem to leave the building.
He rushed from the house and found that every shadow person in Paris was nipping at his heels, trying to grab his miraculouses. It was like an infestation. There were so many! Some of the ones that had been pulled into exterior walls could sweep along the roads beneath his feet, so he pole-vaulted a lot of the way to minimize contact with the ground..
Tikki tucked herself in his pocket and rode along as he fled. After awhile, he noticed that he was being shepherded somewhere. A darkened, dome-shaped glass structure seemed to be the destination. A handful of white butterflies slipping in through the skylight was all the assurance he needed that this was Hawk Moth's lair.
He dove through the first door he saw and slammed it behind him. The shadows at the entrance made no sound, but all the light from outside disappeared as they slammed into the door, making it shudder against the impact. Since they didn't seem to be able to get in, he turned to survey the room behind him. His heart stopped.
Standing not twenty feet away was his arch nemesis. He was clad in a dark purple suit not unlike theirs, with a purple brooch at the collar. His miraculous. His mask covered everything but his mouth. He leaned on an elegant-looking cane. His cold gray eyes looked him over in a way that screamed "unimpressed." There was something familiar about that icy gaze.
"Ah, Chat Noir. So nice of you to join us. Do you have what I want?" he inquired in the voice that disturbed his sleep on dark nights.
"That depends. Do you have Marinette?" Chat growled.
"If you mean Shadowspell, then yes. I do. Would you like to see her?"
He stepped aside, revealing a tall pod made of pale gray silken threads. A cocoon. Marinette was in there?
"What is she doing in that thing?" Chat hissed.
"Healing the damage that you did to her. She needed to regain her strength."
"Can I ask why you're taking such an interest? Typically, akumatized people are disposable to you," he spat.
"Your Princess is unique among my creations. All of the others were mere minions, pawns. Completely expendable. Shadowspell is... a devoted acolyte. A queen. You see, most akuma have to be erased down to a single moment of negative emotion. For this reason, they are unaware of their actions once you 'cure' them and typically act only in interest to their single-minded goal. They have to be coerced, forced, bribed, threatened, in order to get them to comply. They obey out of a sense of debt or pure fear," he scoffed. "Shadowspell, however- she wanted this. She's awake in there. She thinks for herself, plans out your demise, is adaptable to my commands. She listens to me because she wants to please me. She genuinely wants to follow me. I haven't had to remind her about the miraculouses once."
He spoke with a gentle warmth about her that made Chat shiver. Hawk Moth wasn't going to let someone like Marinette go easily. Then again, neither was he.
"So, she actually likes you? I cannot imagine why," he snarked.
"She does more than that. She worships me. She only wants to be loved and appreciated, and for someone who does what I ask so easily, it isn't hard to grant her that wish. She's perfect," he sighed.
"Um, you do know she's like less than half your age, right? That's creepy, even for you."
"Foolish feline," the villain laughed. "That is not the sort of love I mean. Mentorship. Protection. This is the affection I bestow. However, I am aware that my son likes her other persona rather a lot. Perhaps she will make a good gift to him. He deserves only the best, after all."
"Okay, first of all, people aren't gifts. They aren't property to be exchanged. Second, who put up with you long enough to give you a kid?"
Suddenly, the cocoon began to tremble, a large split beginning near the top of the bundle.
"Ah, it looks like my butterfly is going to emerge soon. Care to see how she turned out?"
Chat watched the chrysalis with building dread.
Would whatever came out of that thing still be Marinette? Or had he lost her for good?