Guess Who [A Miraculous FanFiction]

Chapter Five: Rescue

Marinette awakens to the horrible smell of fire and smoke. Blinking and wide awake, she sits up. Her room is lit up despite the absence of the sun. The night is bright with the colors of flames and her room is full of smoke that blinds her.

"Tikki?" Marinette begins coughing violently as she stands up and her voice is quieter than a whisper. "Tikki?" She calls again, trying to be louder. She stumbles towards the steps that leads to her balcony. She climbs them, still coughing and calling for Tikki. Her kwami doesn't respond and if she could get enough oxygen to her brain, she would be freaking out about it. As of the moment though, her only thought process is focused on getting into the fresh air.

When Marinette reaches the balcony, she glances around. The sight that meets her eyes stuns and terrifies her. An apartment complex really close to her house is on fire. Several houses and buildings next to it have also caught fire and the firemen are desperately trying to put the flames out. The wind is blowing in exactly the right direction to waft the smoke directly at her. She starts coughing again.

The sight of the buildings on fire send any sleepiness, that she might have still had, away. She turns back towards her room and covers her mouth and nose with her silky sleep-shirt. Then she plunges back down into her bedroom. She races immediately towards her bed and (despite the pain of the smoke in her eyes) finds her phone. She clicks on the screen until the flashlight pops on. Then she begins a desperate search for her beloved kwami.

"Tikki!" Marinette's voice screeches and then begins to cough violently. She uses the flashlight to finally find her kwami. Tikki is under Mari's pillow, coughing badly. Having found her precious friend, Mari grabs her and stuffs her down inside her shirt. Tikki grabs onto the fabric of Marinette's bra and holds on for dear life as Mari slams open the trapdoor and half-runs, half-falls down the ladder.

"Maman! Papa!" Marinette calls as she runs to their room. She slams open the door and finds them coughing on the floor. She races over to her father but is unable to pull him up; he's too heavy for her. She tries calling his name again, but both her parents are unconscious from the smoke.

Panic fills Marinette's brain and she deliberates on what to do. Then an idea occurs to her: while Marinette Dupain-Cheng may be too weak to lift a grown man from the ground, Ladybug is not. She hesitates a long moment, worrying about her kwami's health and the possibility that she may be too sick to help. Then she pulls her friend out from under her shirt.

"Tikki! Can we help my parents?" Marinette asks quickly, bringing Tikki up to face level. Tikki, though coughing too much to reply, nods without hesitation. Marinette nods and then yells: "Tikki, spots on!"

The transformation, though just as fast as any other one in the last two years, feels too slow to Marinette. Within seconds however, red and black spandex covers her from head to toe and the power of her kwami surges through her. Her coughing slows though does not stop.

Ladybug grabs Tom Dupain around the waist and lifts him with a grunt of effort. She then grabs Sabine Cheng (who is light as a feather comparatively) and is running towards the door. With her parents in her arms, Ladybug is down the second set of stairs and out the front door of the bakery just as something explodes to her right.

Ladybug spots several SAMU men in the midst of a large crowd near the burning buildings. She rushes over to them and says quickly, "Sabine and Tom Dupain-Cheng. They live at the Bakery over there," she points behind her. "Their daughter, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is safe as well. Help them!" The men in hospital garb nod furiously and then Ladybug is gone. She is heading towards one of the burning buildings when she hears a partial sentence.

"-Chat Noir is still in there!"

Ladybug turns on her heels and looks desperately for the person who spoke. She goes into the crowd before she finds the speaker. A dark-haired Parisian woman, clutching a small girl of about six, is sobbing to one of the firemen.

"Chat Noir is still in there! He went in for Maia and then she came out, but he didn't!" The woman points to the main burning building, which looks on the edge of collapse. Ladybug doesn't wait to hear anything else. She sprints towards the building, using her yo-yo to propel her forward faster.

"Chat!" She calls as she enters the building, fighting the urge to cough. In response to her loud call, she hears nothing. She quickly skates through the top floors, always calling his name. Always receiving no answer.

She begins to get desperate as she reaches the fourth floor down. She hasn't found any civilians but she also hasn't found Chat. Her coughing begins to intensify and she narrowly avoids the flames that roar around her. Ladybug searches every floor of the building, moving as fast as she can while still checking every crevice.

As she reaches the bottom-most floor, she calls his name again.

"Chat?" In the distance, she thinks she hears a whimper. She runs towards it.

"Chat?!" She calls again, looking around for him. The smoke is stinging her eyes horrible now. She can barely see but still she is looking,

"Chat where are you?" She calls, still moving towards where she heard the whimper. As she reaches a half-collapsed set of stairs, she hears another whimper.

"Chat!" Ladybug exclaims as she sees movement under a large pile of collapsed rubble. She begins to tear at it, but it is collapsed in exactly the wrong way. Even with her strength, she can't get it off of him.

"Use Cataclysm!" She calls loudly to him over the sound of the fire, hoping he can hear her. If he can, she can't tell. She waits, then calls again. "Cataclysm, Chat Noir!"

This time he hears her. Ladybug can't hear his words, but sees a flash of light under the rubble and suddenly, it's gone. Destroyed. Where it was, however, is a very beaten-up Chat Noir.

Ladybug gasps, seeing the burns on his suit that show bits of red skin and the dust that covers him head to toe. She leans down and carefully pulls him up.

Chat Noir is half conscious. He is alert enough to smile grimly at her, but when she tries to move him towards the door, he yelps in pain.

"We have to get out, Chat." She says, vividly aware of the flames that lick around them, greedy and ready to eat them up.

"Hmm." He says, and his eyes roll back into his head, frightening his partner. Despite her fears of hurting him more, she pulls him onto her back and wraps his long arms around her neck. Then she makes her way over to the front door, fighting her way through the flames and coughing all the while.

They finally make it outside and just in time too. Ladybug carefully removes Chat from her back and then collapses onto her back on the sidewalk. At the same moment, the building several yards in front of her explodes. Everyone around her screams and she feels the sting of something very hot on her face. She reaches up to touch her cheek with her gloved hand. When she brings it away, a red-hot piece of debris is in her hand. She gasps as it burns her and drops it. Next to her, Chat groans and coughs up something red that oozes onto the sidewalk beneath him.