"Our spirits, are like ting and yang. Light and dark. My earrings, Tikki, has the power to save a life with hope left. Plagg, in your ring, has the power to end the suffering of a life without hope. It only happens once per holder, but it is not a conscious decision of the spirits. To resurrect your mother would be to reverse and discard Plagg's power. The two are connected. If Plagg's power is reversed, so is Tikki's. If I let you save your mother, it will kill me. Don't cal, me selfish for wanting to live, but Plagg can only end indefinite suffering. I'm afraid your mother would not have lived, even if Plagg's energy had never intervened..." Marinette began to sob gently.
"I want to help you, I really do. But,I don't want to die..."
He released his grip on her wrists and turned, without a word, down the corridor.
She collapsed to the floor and curled into a ball, recoiling as if the situation they were in was a physical entity, grasping at her ankles, breathing down her neck.
In truth, she loved him.
She loved the prince. She loved her partner. She loved them both.
That's why it stung every time he apologised for asking her to marry him. Every time he showed her that it was just for the sake of it, using her to save his skin. She had been shocked when he proposed the scheme (see what I did there) but secretly happy that her partner was safe and still loved her.
But the apologised. He said you don't have to if you don't feel like it. It broke her heart, every wavering word he spoke. But she still believed she had a chance. Until now. Now she'd told him that the only thing between him and resurrecting his mother, who's death was half her fault anyway, was Marinette's life. He was going to hate her. She knew he was too kind to try and kill her, but he could never see her the same.
Her footsteps echoed as she climbed the great stone stairs of the South tower, her hair, her tears flying like a flag as she sprinted. Up and up and up and up some more, until the scarlet star blazed and boiled the cobbled floors of the platform that lay seemingly a mile above the all too content earth. She stood, a silhouette upon the stone wall that was as much use as a trip wire at stopping your fall. It was easy to climb over, to slip on the Moss, it was almost as if it was not worth being built in the first place. The wind threatened to push her over the edge, screaming louder still, attempting to disturb the great stone fortress, attempting to draw her attention from the glowing orb in the sky that was gazing pitifully upon her.
The ground beckoned her. The very world seemed to shake in a blur. A messy blur, with silver tears plummeting a scary distance, part of a group, yet solitary souls on a journey to the grave.
The fragile girl leaned back and fourth, staring longingly at death, but keeping her feet planted firmly on the damp, ever so slippery moss.
She did not know how long she stood there. Watching the sky fade from a blood stained glare to an inky, infinite, swirling canvas dotted with light and hope. Hours maybe. Years, centuries?
The biting cold did not touch her, for even he had better sense than to freeze the tears that rolled like little drops of molten glass, only to shatter in the abyss of black stone that lay on the path of their their gravitational pilgrimage.
Her limbs were heavy as drowning weights. She wasn't ready to plunge. But she was so, so, tired. The moss under her sodden boots whispered darkly, comforting words to ease the pain. You know what would ease the pain?
The wind had lost interest over time, but had seen a new reason for existence and picked itself up off of the floor to nag the poor girl again. Poor girl.
But the she heard footsteps. Fast ones. Snapping back into reality, she turned sharply, ready to defend herself if need be. Oh. The moss. In an ugly yet graceful twisting dance, Mari was sent plunging into the the darkness. She didn't even scream. She couldn't form the sound.
It was like slow motion, her hair whipping past her ears, her pupils spinning and shrinking in dread. Her arm reaching out to grasp at the air.
But she didn't catch the air.
She could barely see in the darkness, but she could just make out a large figure move above her. She heard a faint, blurry yell and her arm was painfully grasped and clung to as if her life depended on it. The girl could feel herself being pulled up and over the edge, back where it was safe.
The next thing she knew she was sat on the surprisingly warm floor. Except it took her a minute, after she'd recovered, to realise that she was not sat on the floor. She could feel two strong arms keeping her in, protecting her from the fear she'd just experienced. For someone who nearly just plummeted to their death a few minutes ago, she'd never felt safer.
She heard this person speak, and recognised him immediately.
"What are you doing, Mari? Why were you standing up there...? Don't do that. It's scary"
He said quietly. She'd only just begun to realise quite how cold it truly was, and snuggled herself further back into his lap to keep warm.
"You shouldn't do dangerous things like that. You might get hurt..."
"A-Aren't you a-angry?" She asked, muffled by her tears combined with the softly wailing wind.
"I was angry. But it's not your fault. I knew she was going to die... I couldn't accept it as a kid but I realise now that there was no hope for her."
She felt him shaking, trembling in fear.
"God, please don't do stupid things like that... If I lost you too, I don't even know... I don't know if I could carry on... I love you, you know that? And I don't even care if you hate me, that won't stop me from chasing you. I realise that now. Plagg's curse allowed Tikki to use her power, so I guess her death had some meaning."
The trembling increased. And it was tearing her apart.
"You r-really mean that? And you're not going to apologise or say you don't mind either way? Because it breaks my heart over and over every time you say you're sorry and you don't mind. All I want is for you to genuinely want to marry me, not just to protect you from Chloe... Because I also love you, stupid cat!"
Mari choked through her tears, enveloping the prince's shaky hands and calming him.
"You do?"
"I do."