Faceless

Chapter 8 - The Feather of Ma'at

"Are you sure you're going to be safe, girl?" asked Scarabella when she landed in a hidden spot of the courtyard and allowed Marinette to get out of her grip.

Marinette smiled at her. "Mon Chaton won't hurt me."

"But Viperion said that he tried to strangle you!"

"Don't worry." She patted her friend on the shoulder. "He's resentful towards Ladybug, not Marinette. Please stay out of the way. Worst case scenario, the Miraculous Scarabella will bring me back, if he hits me." She waited for Scarabella to nod, her gaze locked into the one of the polka-dotted superheroine.

"Okay. Let's give it a go."

It started well. Again, Faceless was shocked to see Marinette and she proceeded to tell him that she loved him. Viperion was keeping an eye in the background, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Until Papillombre's mask appeared on Faceless' face and the boy started squirming.

"Leave me alone, father!" he shouted and started throwing his whip around. When the whip accidentally hit Marinette, Luka had to facepalm in the hiding spot he was following the fight in, as Scarabella ignored everything that Marinette had said and hastily joined in.

"What's going on? Where's Ladybug?" asked Faceless, his body suddenly moving into a defensive pose.

Scarabella was also ready for the fight. "She's...unavailable." But she couldn't avoid glancing at Marinette on the ground, which caused Faceless to look in her direction too. When he saw that she had changed into the image of himself, he went berserk.

"You're all LIARS! Ladybug is a liar! You, Scarabella, are also a liar. And Marinette too. You're all liars!" shouted the akuma.

"What do you mean? We haven't lied to you, Faceless!" retorted Scarabella, as she put herself between the akuma and her friend's defenceless human body.

"I'm not lying, Adrien, I love you! You can see that yourself, why don't you believe me?"

Faceless stiffened, but almost immediately he jumped and got ready to throw his whip again at Marinette. "You're not in love with me, Marinette, but with my picture perfect mask. My Agreste brand mask. You don't love me. You don't know me, because I've never let you. Nobody knows me! Not even I know myself!" But as he raised his left hand again and threw the whip to hit Scarabella, something black and metallic moved in between, causing the whip to wrap all around it.

"That's too much melodrama," hissed Nekonome, nearly snapping the whip from Faceless's hand with her baton. "Get a grip, Adrien. If you want people to know you for who you really are, you should show your real face and not hide behind a mask!"

The cat superheroine threw herself at the akuma and they started sparring in mid air, him hitting with his whip and her covering herself with her baton. Until she saw an opening and smirked.

"CATACLYSM!" she screamed and, with a firm gesture, she grabbed his faceless mask with her charged hand. The mask disappeared into tiny pieces, and Adrien lost his balance and fell on his back. Nekonome was on him in an instant, her foot pressing down the hand that held the lucky charm, her pose fierce, her gaze locked into that of the akuma, who was using the other hand to cover his maskless face.

With a fast and well placed kick, Faceless freed his hand from under her foot, causing the girl to lose her balance and fall to the ground, as she didn't expect it. It only took an instant and the whip wrapped around the black cat superheroine, turning her into a salt statue.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Marinette as the whip fell on Scarabella too and changed her into the image of Nino. From his hiding spot, Viperion sighed and twisted his bracelet.