Composure (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction)

🕙 Can't Convince Her 🕙

Chaotic conjurings of miscellaneous materials and objects littered the pavement, stretching as far as the eye could see in either direction. Buildings stood like bystanders on either side, as if they stared down at her with discerning facades and faces configured in distant indifference to her troubles. They were shunning her. They were shunning her because she was a failure. A failure at this one, seemingly simple task.

And the world seemed to shut down all around her as she realized once again that her time was running out. She stood in the street, midnight hair reflecting strands of light, the brightness emanating from the sun above her in rays. It was crisp, the air was, but it was the truth that it had taken too much time again which was clear. Too much time she had taken to defeat the akumatisee. Too much time to defeat The Star, akumatized Chloé, to be quite exact.

The blonde called herself 'the star of the show', and she was adorned with a yellow shimmering dress and a pair of matching heels, her hair fluffed out in platinum curls and ringlets. She snapped, conjuring up a cage prop around the spotted superheroine. It had tubes for fire to escape from and drown the image of the person inside so that they were able to disappear without any possible audience viewing that hidden part of the spectacle. Usually the hinged door in the back was open for the actor to leave before the fire could burn them alive, but—

Clang!

Chloé—no, The Star—shut her only way out, giggling maliciously.

"No!" Chat Noir exclaimed for the hundredth time from the cage just a few meters away. "We can find a way out of this, I promise! It's gonna get better, Ladybug."

All she could do was stare at him. No words tumbled out of her mouth—only a shaky sigh.

Ba-dump, ba-dump.

She knew what was coming next.

Ba-dump, ba-dump.

Her heart raced.

Chloé clicked her fingers again, whipping a remote control out of thin air. There was a single button on it, and it was very clear as to what it controlled.

Ladybug's chest tightened, and her eyes wandered frantically about every corner, flickering back and forth, up and down, measuring and remeasuring the space between the bars. She'd tried so many times to squeeze through those bars, only to no avail. No weaknesses came to fruition, no matter how much she had hoped, no matter how many times she had prayed.

This was her tenth time restarting the day.

The Star snapped, and a cold weight enveloped Marinette's gloved wrists. Chains. She let her arms give in, already giving up. There's not much more I can do, especially because in three...

Ba-dump, ba-dump.

Two.

Gulp.

One—

The last dot on her earrings beeped out.

This happens.

A deep breath of air invaded her lungs, and as a pink light filled the cage, the akumatisee gasped, surprised, and pressed the button in a sudden panic.

She squeezed her eyes shut and the flames engulfed her in a white-hot death-trap.

"Ladybug!"

The chains could be heard thrashing for a short time from outside before they came to a sudden, fateful stop. But the fire continued to pour out of their tubes, filling the cage and wisping off into the air in eerily-beautiful billows of red.