Nightmares (A Ladybug and Chat Noir Fanfic)

Chapter 18

Adrien looked at the door Marinette ran out of, stunned. He was furious with Chloe but he was more angry at himself, he had been selfish to not intervene sooner. He wanted to know if it was true, if Marinette loved Chat Noir then it meant she loved him. The thought made him feel light headed, but she had been embarrassed in front of the entire class. He looked at Chloe his eyebrows furrowed wishing he could yell at her but he needed to make sure Marinette was okay first. He turned away from the class and hurried to see where Marinette had gone, Alya was close behind him. He spotted the door to the locker room swinging closed and rushed down the stairs towards it. They made it into the locker room but she was no where in sight.

"You look in here I'll check the bathroom," Alya said already jogging to the bathroom. Adrien nodded and started checking all the corners of the large locker room.

"You sure seem really worried about a girl who is just a friend," Plagg said floating along with Adrien.

"She is my friend, so I have to make sure she's okay, and stop being so loud Plagg," he said scowling at the small Kwami. A muffled yell came from the bathroom, Adrien turned and ran throwing the bathroom door open. Inside he saw Alya facing an unfamiliar figure. She wore a dark purple, practically black, dress that was tight at the top with sleeves loosely hanging off her shoulders. The dress  puffed out at the bottom ending above her knees. A dark red ribbon was tied at her waist with a large bow at the back. A small white round purse, with light blue butterflies decorating it, sat at her hip with its strap looped over her shoulder. She had tall heels that matched her dress in colour and white tights ending just above her knees. Black veins spread across her skin, coalescing on her biceps becoming long black sleeves until her forearm where white took over creating white clawed gloves over her fingers. Adrien's gaze moved up to her face, a dark purple mask that covered her eyes and came to sharp points below her eyes. Her lips were painted a deep red in sharp contrast to the rest of her outfit. Her hair was a familiar dark blue with two pigtails, both sides of the mask had pointed butterfly wing shapes sticking out covering the view of her ears. He gasped as he realized what had happened.

"Marinette?" he said softly, her eyes snapped open revealing the almost white pale blue irises that had replaced her normal bluebell eyes.

"Marinette this isn't you! You can fight him girl, please fight him!" Alya cried, heartbroken to see her friend like this. Marinette's eyes snapped over to Alya not bothering to move her head. She smiled smugly before letting her head fall to one side and bring her hand up to her face to cover a hollow laugh.

"Oh Alya, you think you're always right don't you," the akumatized Marinette said slowly before taking a step to get closer to Alya. With a quick motion she grabbed Alya by the chin with one hand. "I'm not Marinette," she whispered, "I'm Lady Pain now." Lady Pain scratched her nails along one side of Alya's cheek before letting go. A red bead of blood dripped down Alya's face as she hissed in pain, the wound turned black spreading under her skin. Lady Pain laughed as Alya felt pain course through her face struggling to stay standing.

"Marinette, it's going to be okay, let us help," Adrien said, he was choking back emotion seeing Marinette akumatized. How had he missed how much pain she was in? She was the most cheerful person he knew, she had never given into negative emotion like this before. Lady Pains white eyes looked into Adrien's and for a moment he saw her falter, she blinked confused and he swore he saw her normal blue eyes for a moment. She then looked distracted, as if listening to someone.

"Of course Hawkmoth," she said flatly before walking towards the door determined, Adrien stepped in her way, arms out.

"Marinette fight him!" he yelled desperation clawing at his voice. She moved quicker than he could react without his cat reflexes, her hand planted on his chest shoving him against the doorframe. He grunted in pain as his back hit the wall, it hurt a lot more without his suit. Her hand firmly against his chest kept him from moving as she leaned in, her lips mere millimeters from his ear.

"Stay away from me," she said slowly in a cold voice.

"Marinette I-"

"Please," her voice cracked in emotion for just a moment. His eyes widened as he realized it was Marinette speaking, not the akuma. He felt her ragged breath on his neck and realized the claws on her finger tips were carefully kept just barely away from his skin. As suddenly as it happened she left taking long steps out of the school. Adrien collapsed to the ground trying to keep his head clear. He heard a whimper and remembered Alya was still there. He looked up as she was carefully touching her face around the wound. The blood dripping from it was an unnatural black that was spreading through her veins.

"Are you okay Alya?" He asked rushing to help her.

"Ye-yes I'm fine, go tell everyone to hide I'll be okay in here," she said gritting her teeth through the pain. Adrien nodded glad to have an excuse to transform so he could go help Scarabella remove the akuma from Marinette as quickly as possible. He dashed out of the bathroom and ducked to the side behind the lockers.

"Plagg, claws out!" he said letting the green flash change him into Chat Noir. He took off to the courtyard, jumping to the roof and scanning the area for Lady Pain. He saw nothing obvious and was about to start patrolling when his baton buzzed with an incoming call.

"Chat, a girl at Françoise Dupont Middle School has been akumatized, I think she is going after Chloe Bourgeois," Scarabella said into the phone. Chat face palmed at his own stupidity and turned back around seeing Scarabella run out of the locker room with her yo-yo opened as a phone. Chat jumped down landing beside her startling her momentarily. "Geez you scared me, how'd you get here so quickly!"

"I was patrolling in the area of course..." the words died on his tongue as he looked at Scarabella's face. A black wound was on her cheek.