A Snap in Time

Chapter 20 (Marinette)

"Let's take her vantage point away from her! We're gonna need your Cataclysm! Our team would be lost without him!"

"At your service, M'Lady."

Ladybug's attention fumbled as a thought? Memory? Played through her head. She stopped on the spot grasping at her hair and trying to stop herself from spiralling and losing control. The second her attention was taken from the fight was a second too long. Before she could comprehend what was happening, her back hit the brick casing of the chimney and she felt nothing but bone crushing pain.

"Second chance."

"Let's take her vantage point away from her! We're gonna need your Cataclysm! Our team would be lost without him!"

"At your service, M'Lady."

Ladybug's attention fumbled as a thought? Memory? Played through her head. She stopped on the spot grasping at her hair and trying to stop herself from spiralling and losing control. The split second her attention was taken from the fight was a second too long. Before she could comprehend what was happening, her back hit the brick casing of the chimney and she felt nothing but bone crushing pain.

"Second chance."

Luka began to stalk around the sewers muttering to himself. What was going wrong? How many attempts were they on? Marinette watched as Luka stalked and turned, stalked and turned. She'd never seen him pace before.

"Luka?" She asked, her voice soft and worried. She was frazzled beyond anything she had ever seen and something in her gut twisted. What was happening? "Luka?" She called again, this time moving forward and placing her hand on his shoulders.

He turned quickly and embraced her into a hug. "I keep losing you! I can't do it again! We need to find another way."

She slowly moved herself out of his grasp and held onto his hands tightly. His eyes were sparkling with unshed tears and her heart clenched. It wasn't like Luka had never shown emotion before, it was just he'd never shown it like this. She was usually the emotional mess, he sorted her out, not the other way around.

"How about I try my -"

"Don't say it! We need to save it until after we've defeated the akuma to clear Paris."

"But what if we need it? What if it's important like it was -"

"Enough!" He didn't shout, but his voice was stern enough to stop her in her tracks. "You know if we use it and we can't figure it out after five minutes we're at a loss. Remember what happened with Stone Heart?"

Marinette dropped her hands from his. How could he bring that up? How can he even mention that day? He knew she had trouble forgetting it, that it lived on her conscious twenty-four seven, that because she didn't follow the correct steps he had to step in and do it himself.

He moved forward attempting to take her hands back into his, but she didn't want the contact right now. It wasn't going to help her. "I can't lose you Marinette, you're all I have."

Her heart fluttered at his words, he might be close to his maman and his sister, but she knew the pain of his father abandoning him played heavily in his heart. His wonderful heart, broken by the man who called himself his father. She hated to think someone could just up and abandon their son like that. The only thing worse would be if his father had treated him badly. She didn't care how famous Jagged Stone was, she'd string him from the top of the Eiffel Tower. She embraced him one more time, before stepping back and trying to think of any weakness they'd noticed.

"How many resets?" she asked curiously.

"You don't want to know." He returned to his stalking and mumbling.