Even in the most dire of circumstances, waking up from the depths of unconsciousness was a slow process. Chat Noir groggily blinked open his eyes, hazy with fog, as he grappled to make sense of why exactly he'd been unconscious in the first place.
Falling. He'd been falling from the Eiffel Tower.
He couldn't remember colliding with the water below. But he could certainly feel the aftermath enough to know it had happened.
His limbs throbbed like he'd been hit by fifty different trucks, his lungs burned as if they'd been crumpled up and then yanked taut again, and the concave of his ribs felt out of place; bones and ligaments scratching against things they shouldn't be. Fire blazed through his chest every time he took a breath.
But he had yet to be melted by the lava. In fact, he wasn't even in the Seine anymore.
Ladybug. She'd pulled him out. Held him close. Whispered reassurances in his ear.
Or had she? His memories had been wrung out and distorted, leaving him in a dreamlike mangle of fantasy and reality. Unable to tell what was real and what was not.
Ladybug wasn't here anymore. That much he was sure of. Her arms had been his sanctum, warm and safe. But now he was alone, lying on the divots of rubble and dust.
Well, maybe not entirely alone. Haziness fading away, his slitted eyes focused on the purple butterflies surrounding him, screeching with ire. Not attacking him, but seemingly preserving him. They swarmed by the hundreds, flying around his vicinity in some sort of circular pattern, and conjuring up just enough of a gale-force to ruffle his hair.
The insects provided too limited of a view for him to figure out where he was. All he could see was the derelict pavement.
And the one other person inside the circle with him.
Their violet-clad physique blended in so well with the butterflies, Chat almost missed them completely. But the figure was fast approaching, scepter clunking across the floor along with their footsteps.
The villain from the Tower, he noted uneasily. The one who'd completely trounced him in a matter of seconds.
The man crouched down by his side and Chat clammed up, heart thudding painfully against the cavity of his chest. If he pretended to still be unconscious, maybe he'd survive whatever happened next.
"I'm sorry," the man said softly, reaching for Chat's hand. The one with the ring. "I need your miraculous. I need this Wish."
Hawk Moth.
The realization struck him so abruptly, he almost drowned all over again.
No wonder he hadn't stood a chance. No wonder Ladybug had tried to stop him from engaging. He was an idiot, and soon to be a failure. Ladybug deserved better than him, and Plagg-
Oh god.
If Hawk Moth stole the ring, the kwami would be dragged along with it, and Chat would never see him again. He couldn't allow that, he couldn't lose Plagg, he couldn't afford for his heart to take any more punctures-
He felt the smooth metal sliding up his finger. The magic coursing through his suit briefly flickered, threatening to break away, and panic spiked through him. His wrist twitched, itching to throw out its final bout of defiance.
Just as the ring reached his knuckle, Chat wrenched himself away from Hawk Moth's grasp. "Cataclysm!" he barked, a heavy voltage sparking through his hand. And with his remaining strength he swiped at the man's cheekbone, right below the eye.
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Candle In The Wind - Miraculous Ladybug Movie Rewrite
FanfictionSomeone was screaming. A horrific, guttural sound that infected the entire night with sorrow. He wondered if it was the ghosts of the people he'd just killed. He wondered if they'd come back to haunt him, to follow his every waking move, to never le...
