A Snap in Time

Chapter 31 (Kagami)

She'd been there with them through it all. Holding Adrien's hand when he needed it, and supporting Marinette by supplying her with additional courage. Kagami was a proud girl, a girl caring in her own special way. She hadn't had friends, or a team but now she stood amongst the tightest bond she could ever imagine. The bond of people who have survived, and those that had fallen; of victory and defeat and all of that was thanks to the two people who needed her most.

To Adrien and Marinette.

She watched as Marinette once again grabbed hold of Adrien, shouting and screaming at him for leaving her, Kagami feeling the intensity of the heart break just from watching. No one should feel pain like this.

"You're not being a martyr, Kagami, this isn't the way to do it." Luka walked over to his fellow hero and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You feel the same way I do," she looked up at him, "you know the same as I do, they belong together and we were inserted into their story to make it happen. I have nothing left here, but they do. They deserve a life together. They've done so much for me; for all of us."

Luka nodded and Kagami could see the understanding take over him, an understanding which seemed to switch to anger and then something else. Something she had to admit was quite endearing.

She watched as he turned away and stalked back to Marinette, their leader sitting back and looking into the distance transfixed on nothingness, the way she was most certainly feeling inside.

An hour ago Kagami was fighting alongside her friends in the search for freedom, for the Butterfly Miraculous and against her friend's father. Now, her life had been ripped apart and rebuilt in a different way. She was a senti-monster, as was Adrien, Chloé and Félix, each of them a product of the Peacock Miraculous, the one now in Marinette's possession. Nothing would ever be the same again, and she was struggling. The information was unexpected and unbelievable, a kick in the gut at best.

Marinette refused to call them by their name, reminding them they were not monsters but humans built from human desperation to have children.

"Kagami?" She looked over towards a soft voice, the voice of their saviour and the voice of their leader. The voice of a heartbroken girl in need of her partner returned to her.

"Marinette, don't try and talk me out of it, it's not going to happen. I've made my decision and I'm sticking with it."

"No." Marinette's voice was suddenly full of strength. A strength they hadn't seen from the hero since her partner had fallen in battle. His soul was removed by means of a white feather, but for some reason, Adrien's body had remained. The release from existence only taking his soul, not his body. The kwamis believe he'd been taken into an in between. A purgatory between life and death; a place she was ready to travel to.

"I am not losing you too." Her words were quiet, yet pronounced, filled with emotion and strained from the screaming.

Kagami looked from Marinette to the others, each one standing and coming towards her. She'd never had this kind of love; the love that only came from a part of being a team.

"Tikki," Kagami said, walking towards Ladybug, her face fierce with the need to protect, to save and bring back Adrien.

"What about Tikki?" she asked.

"Tikki can create? So get her to create something that will get my heart rate low enough to be taken to the darkness. Get her to make something that will get me there."

Ladybug searched her face, but Kagami had no idea what she was looking for.

"Spots off." Closing her eyes from the bright flash of Ladybug's transformation, Kagami reopened them to come face to face with Tikki.

"So here's my plan..."