A Burning Desire

25- Butterfly Effect

Marinette's POV

I held eye contact with Hawkmoth as he advanced towards me, stepping on the shards of glass like they were nothing.

"So what will it be?" He spoke, His deep voice sending chills down my spine. "You can hand me your miraculous now and we can forget this ever happened, or we can do it the hard way."

"You're crazy, Hawkmoth. I'm not handing over my miraculous." I tried to sound as strong and brave as I possibly could, but I was frightened. I knew how powerful he was.

I looked over at Adrien, who was slumped against the wall with blood smeared across the wall behind him.

In this moment, every feeling of hatred and anger I felt towards him was gone. Seeing him like this made me want to cry.

"I see that look on your face."

I turned my attention back to Hawkmoth to see he was right in my face. "You feel bad for him. You want this to be over, right?"

"Just give me your earrings, and this will all be over." He said, raising his hand out.

I almost wanted to give in, seeing Adrien like that. But I knew what Hawkmoth was doing. He was just manipulating me.

"I said no, are you deaf?" I scoffed. "I'm not giving them to you!"

I made a split second decision and shoved past him  and ran for Adrien. I was so close, he was literally within arm's reach, when I was suddenly pushed to the ground.

"You're giving me no choice, Ladybug. If you won't give me them yourself, I'll just have to take them."

I tried to get back up, but he knocked me right back down onto the floor. This time, I fell right on my face.

"Just give up, Ladybug." He spoke. "I won."

He crouched down to my level, and I shivered when his cold hands touched the back of my ear. He slowly pulled the earring backs out and I knew there was nothing I could do. He restrained both my hands with just one hand, and I was completely defenseless.

I took a deep breath, and before I knew it, it was over. He had his earrings in my hand and I detransformed. I was on my stomach, and tried so hard to hide my face but he was too strong. He turned me over, and my identity was revealed to him.

A look of shock swept across his face, but was quickly replaced by a sinister smile. "Dupen-Cheng." He said quietly to himself. "This whole time I've been chasing after a baker girl"

"Am I really surprised? You fell right into a trap I didn't even set.  Pathetic." He laughed as he got back up.

I knew he had my miraculous, and I knew realistically it was over. He had both of our miraculous. But I couldn't go out like this. I didn't want to give up this easily.

With all the strength I had, I crawled over to him just as he turned his back to me. I grabbed onto his leg right as he started walking away and pulled it as hard as I possibly could.

It was enough to make him stumble over and drop the miraculous. I took the opportunity and rushed over to my earrings, but I was too slow. He'd taken them again.

But that's when I noticed Chat Noir's ring was was gone, and no where to be seen. I looked over at Hawkmoth, and he didn't have it either.