Duty to protect

Attempts

Bruce continued to try and get close to Marinette during her class' time Gotham but every time she would be surrounded by her teammates who wouldn't budge.

Marinette would barely talk to anyone.

With the occasional akumas turning up,  Marinette and Adrien would go to Paris, Marinette would utterly destroy the akuma in combat and leave Adrien to repair the damage before returning to her class trip in Gotham.

Normally she'd hold back as not to reveal to many of her cards to Hawkmoth, or to make sure she didn't seem like a monster or simply just to stay out of the spotlight.

But she had given up hiding. She wanted people to know that she had nothing left to lose.

"What do we do?" Adrien sighed. "She's falling apart and forcing herself back together. This could end really badly... If Slade comes back I don't know if we can stop her from killing him."

"Slade's in custody for now... Hopefully we're safe on that front but about Marinette... I don't know what we can do. I think... For now, she's processing her ability to disobey. She's not snapping or anything. But she's altering her outlook." Luka hummed.

Chloe and Alix were with Marinette but she wasn't responding much.

She wouldn't even look at any of her family.

But there was one bat she was still willing to talk to.
...

Well...

Cat.

Marinette dove into Selina as soon as she saw her, hugging her tight.

"Hey kitten, what's going on?"

They weren't planning on bumping into her but it was good that they did. They were walking to the museum and she was on her way to go 'shopping' with Bruce's black card.

Marinette didn't say anything for a moment, just hugging tighter. Selina was the grey. She was the in-between of causing chaos but stopping ruin. To Marinette anyway...

"I don't know what to do..." She said softly.

Adrien urged the rest of the class to continue to the museum. Luka and Kagami stayed behind with Marinette. Because they weren't part of the trip, they didn't have to go.

"Shh it's okay I've got you kitten... Why don't you tell me what's wrong hm?" She said softly.

Marinette looked back at her but no words would come out, she looked to her teammates.

"She's... Conflicted about her loyalties. For the first time she said no to an order. She made a compromise. I think it's a shock to her." Kagami stated bluntly.

Selina smiled softly at Marinette. "Orders only mean something if the person who is being ordered, is willing to do it. You're your own person now. You aren't property or an object... If you make a mistake, there will be people everywhere to pick you up."

Marinette blinked up at her and smiled slightly. "Thank you..."

"Mari honey I know you won't want to hear this... But you need to talk to your family..."

Marinette stiffened slightly, and hugged her tighter. Her remaining teammates took the opportunity to leave, not wanting to intrude on the moment.

"At least talk to your siblings kitten... They were distraught when they couldn't talk to you... " Selina gently played with her hair.

Marinette always felt secure with Selina.  

She didn't treat her as damaged or fake or dangerous... She accepted her without forcing anything.