"Well," Plagg said from inside Adrien's jacket, "this little park visit was your idea."
"Yeah, I figured the sunset would look great," Adrien grumbled.
If he fought here though, things would be destroyed. But if he allowed the akumatized victim to go near the park without fighting them, the commemorative statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir—of their younger selves—that sat proudly at the center could be gone in a snap. A snap. And he'd become quite a sentimental soul over time. This lifelike statue was the closest thing he had left to being able to touch Ladybug, even if the feeling of cold, lifeless metal was all he would get in return. Nothing at all like her soft, human warmth. Like the sensation of leaning against her chest and listening to her heart beat rhythmically. Like looking into eyes reflecting a clear summer sky and finding out at night that they reflect the stars too. Like watching her smile a little when she blushed and looked away because by pure luck he managed to say just the right thing. Like seeing her bat her eyelashes for the sole purpose of teasing him right before she ran off to revert to her civilian persona. Like hearing her laugh because he did something stupid.
Nothing about this manmade imperfection, both staining and blessing the world with its existence, could replicate any of that. But it had to stay.
"It's pretty ridiculous to want to protect a hunk of metal, huh…?" he murmured to Plagg.
"Again with that stupid statue!" complained the kwami. "It's worthless!"
Adrien took a deep breath and made sure nobody was watching him. As people were running around in a panic, he could assure himself that nobody was watching and probably didn't even notice how he was the only one not fleeing the opposite direction.
He rounded a building and hid himself in a narrow alleyway.
"Plagg, claws out!" he said.
An electrifying power coursed through his body. He felt all the familiar changes he would undergo to become Chat Noir. His clothes, his strength, his claws, even a heightened sense of confidence within himself. He only ever seemed to become absolutely sure of his power and capabilities when he transformed. Maybe because Paris relied on him. All the people running, screaming, needed a protector and he was called to be such.
He managed to pick apart some phrases among the frantic shouting and incoherent screeches. The most unsettling was that he most often heard people cry out for other people by name—they were losing their friends in the chaos. He'd heard this kind of thing before but…why was it so upsetting to him now? There didn't seem to be more people calling out than usual… And he didn't hear any famous names within the scattered crowd…
He extended his baton and slammed one end on the asphalt of the road, rising quickly to the nearest rooftop to analyze the situation at hand. It was by chance—he knew it was only by chance—that he spotted Alya huddled against the locked doors of a restaurant, staying quietly behind a row of tables outside each window. Not far from her was Nino. The moment Chat realized that Nino was calling out for someone too, that specific voice became louder and more prominent to him than the rest.
Seeing Alya's terrified look as she refused to budge from her spot while her husband had obviously lost someone was concern enough for him to redirect himself from the akuma victim to Nino and Alya.
He extended his baton again, this time jumping off the roof at an angle that would be a geometric nightmare for anyone unaccustomed to doing this, and landed perfectly in front of Alya. He hadn't seen it from above but Alya was holding her youngest—her one-year-old daughter named Nicolette—and hovering right above her oldest, her six-year-old daughter named Raiss. But her son wasn't with her, and he immediately realized who Nino was trying to find.
"Chat Noir!" Alya exclaimed as she brought her head up from consoling her oldest. "My son is missing!"
Another rumble, far sharper and louder than the first, sounded like it rose from the ground and somehow struck the sky. An uneasy feeling rose when dark clouds immediately shot across the sky, covering what he could see above the city in seconds.
"Where did you last see him?" he asked.
"He got scared, he ran off the other way!"
She pointed directly opposite of herself, in the same general direction Nino was yelling.
Marcel was only four, fast enough to run off and small enough to not be seen. With dark clouds came rain and with an akuma came a maelstrom. A four-year-old couldn't be stuck out there under these conditions, even if aforementioned akuma was far away—which it obviously was not, making things a little worse for everyone.
"Don't worry, I'll find him," Chat assured her.
He looked at the restaurant as winds began to stir. The doors were still locked but… Alya couldn't move with two little ones in tow, at least not in time to avoid what was coming, and Nino was all but useless unless he completely abandoned Alya…and he couldn't abandon her, she wouldn't be enough to protect two young children if something were to happen. She needed her husband and Nino knew it.
Chat raised his foot and kicked the doors as hard as he could, the lock breaking, forcing them to slam open and provide this family with shelter.
"Thank you!"
He nodded his welcomes.
Alya ushered Raiss inside and brought both her daughters behind a desk.
The winds grew even stronger, this time colder as well, and he found himself wishing the lock on the door hadn't broken with the force of his kick. That place would be pretty cold soon and even though Alya could provide body heat for the kids, he didn't like the idea of them being too cold, and her warmth eventually petering out.
He ran to get Nino next but, unlike Alya, was more reluctant to move. His main case was that he didn't want to be any farther from his son than he had to. Understandable but…he had two other kids and a wife who needed him with her. And eventually, after elaborating the logic behind Nino "running away" and Chat finding Marcel was the best way to go rather than them working together to find the boy, Nino relented and ran to his family inside the restaurant.
By the time he had managed to get Nino to safety, the winds were angrily howling—this was, most likely, the real reason Nino obeyed him.
But now came the daunting task of finding a tiny child in weather that was making his eyes water and his limbs freeze, who had a thousand places he could've crawled into. Even worse than Marcel going unseen was him being so young. He would know to hide by instinct but at the same time he was used to the protection and watchfulness of his parents, which meant that hiding was merely an option and there was just as much chance he could be wandering around right now looking for Alya and Nino. Chat Noir always appeared on TV so maybe Marcel would know to come to him…even though when the weather was so dark his black outfit only made him better camouflaged. Perfect for akumas but absolutely horrible when trying to be a beacon for someone to find. And with strong winds he wasn't sure how well anyone would be able to hear him anymore, let alone a kid just barely past toddlerhood.
"MARCEL!" he screamed as he leapt from roof to roof scanning all space between buildings.
Maybe it was totally useless to call for him but there was a small chance that Marcel could hear him if they were in close enough proximity to each other.
Rain could fall any minute. It would freeze the boy even more. He couldn't deal with the akuma—he couldn't stop this weather—until Marcel was found. The longer the search took the worse the situation would be, especially considering he hadn't even seen the akuma yet. He didn't know its weakness. He didn't know how to stop it. He hardly had a choice though. An adult would probably be able to shrug this off with time but a little boy could fall gravely ill. Akuma or not…civilians' lives were his first priority.
"MARCEL!"
The next rumble was actually in the sky and more distinctly identified as thunder, which was always accompanied with lightning somewhere. If he was lucky, this would end up being a thunderstorm with no rain. But, unfortunately, Adrien—never Chat Noir—knew how terrified Marcel was of loud sounds.
Or…actually, maybe this was a good thing. Maybe instead of running and cowering quietly, he would start crying. It was possible to track sound with the enhanced hearing of Chat Noir. Right? Just because the winds were so loud didn't necessarily mean he couldn't hear Marcel, even if Marcel couldn't hear him.
"MARCEL!" Still worth a shot if he could grab the boy's attention from wherever he was at.
He saw a moving cardboard box up against the side of another building and at first it was a huge relief…until he lifted it up. A stray cat—a black cat, go figure—hissed at him and darted away. It…It probably wouldn't have fit a kid anyway. Maybe.
He sighed.
"MARCEL!"
It felt like hours of searching before the heavens opened up. Sprinkles of water lasted only seconds before the real storm hit. The force of nature amplified tenfold on his face and even through an extraordinarily durable suit, he felt the cold sting of each insanely sharp drop. As if that wasn't enough, his vision was even worse. He was fine seeing in the dark, that wasn't much of a problem, but now there were physical substances obscuring his field of vision. He would have to be right on top of Marcel to see him at this rate.
He gave up on shouting now that a torrent had come—even he could barely hear anything—and settled himself on the ground. The people that had once flooded this place were gone, leaving these dreary roads empty and barren…not a bad thing when trying to find a single individual.
He proceeded on his own to check each alley, each space, and move towards each darker spot he could make out in the distance, beyond a clear view of what it really was. Each empty place became more and more disheartening. He was beginning to think the boy wasn't here after all, and had run off somewhere else. Perhaps someone else had found him and decided to get him away since he was so young.
What if such a thing happened? What if someone had been that kind? What if he was wasting his time looking for someone who had already escaped? He could spend all night letting an akuma roam free looking for Marcel, all without knowing that he wasn't even here anymore. There was no way a boy that young could've gotten too far on his own…right?
He put a hand over his eyes and looked around, turning in circles to increase the scope of his vision. No Marcel. Not even the vague outline of a human being of any size or age.
A huge light flashed from above, the crack of thunder following a fraction of a second later.
But that lightning was the very break he needed. It was just one flash but he managed to see a small person curled into a ball in what he assumed to be terror. Marcel.
He ran almost blindly in that direction and retracted his baton, securing it in his belt.
The little person was in fact Marcel and the boy was freezing. Chat was probably just as icy…he wouldn't be able to provide any warmth whatsoever as he took Marcel back to Alya and Nino, who were probably worried out of their minds and slowly losing faith in his promise.
He was glad he himself hadn't lost faith… If he'd chosen to stop looking for Marcel on the weak assumption, supported by no evidence at all, that the boy was already safe, Marcel wouldn't have gotten out of this thing unscathed.
Chat picked him up and carried him all the way back to the restaurant, feeling him shiver so violently in Chat's arms that it nearly terrified him. If he let this kid die—whether from later infection or hypothermia—it would kill him too. He'd already failed to save one close person and she was right there the whole time giving him however many opportunities, he wasn't going to fail anyone else if there was even the slightest chance he could help them, whatever cost may be.
He reached the doors of the restaurant and slowed to a steady walk, the child on the verge of convulsing from his touch.
"I found him!" he announced.
Both parents immediately rushed to him and, for a moment, looked horrified at Marcel's condition. Nino took the boy from Chat's arms and pressed his son instinctively against his body to warm Marcel up.
"He's ice cold!" Alya panicked as she put a hand on Marcel.
Chat wiped his face off and shook his head to get some of the water out.
"Keep him warm," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't bring him back sooner."
Nino and Alya exchanged a quick glance.
"Don't…don't worry about it," Alya said. "He's safe now."
"If I had the turtle miraculous this wouldn't have happened…" Nino muttered.
"Don't blame yourself," Chat said. "The important thing is, Marcel's safe with his parents. And now it's time for everyone else to be safe too."
He didn't wait for a reply and headed back into the storm—if it could even qualify as just a storm by now—and took to the rooftops again to locate the akuma.
While the akuma was his primary focus, something else caught his eye, something that he actually had to process.
Another large, obnoxious flash of lightning. In front of it, silhouetted by the blinding light, a figure had jumped up to a height no regular human being could ever reach. He swore…he swore he saw red, the barest glimpse of red on the otherwise pitch black figure.
Ladybug.
A/N
Is she Marinette Ladybug or did Marinette give her miraculous up, and if so why? If it's Marinette why did she wait so long to be Ladybug again? If it's not Marinette who is this?
It's nice to read about all your ideas and theories! I didn't mean to make any baby implications though... Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter!
I'll be busy for the next few days and won't have much time for this story, so the next update may come next week when I have time again. I hope you understand and I'm so sorry for any inconveniences, I really am. :(