Heartbreak, Hero Style (Complete)

Thorns

Their voices caught in their throats. They tried to say something as her eyes rose up, glimmering a bloody red in her irises, but nothing came to mind for any of the four. Their eyes burnt, but nothing outside their hearts fell.

Rosalie was the first to recover, but there wasn't much to recover from. She lunged to Chat's hand, which he luckily pulled out of her reach before her gloved fingers could brush against the gleaming green pawprint.

Chat, of course, was the next to come to his senses. "M-Marinette, please, you're not like this-"

She squinted at him, no humor in her expression. "Who's Marinette? I'm Rosalie."

Ladybird's blood ran cold. She opened her dry mouth and asked wearily, ".. And who is Rosalie?

She scowled. "You know, it's annoying when you act like I'm not here."

"Then.. Who are you? Are you.. A hero?"

She scoffed. Everyone else flinched at the sound. "What do you think?" She held her hand out to her side, and no one else moved as vines sprouted from her wrist. It coiled into her palm, and her fingers closed around it as it lengthened out, sharp and deadly at the tip.

"Neither, you idiots. I'm just revealing the truth about this despicable world. I'm letting everyone feel what the world holds. And that's pain."

Ladybird swallowed dryly. Her best friend, her role model, her idol, would never act like this. This wasn't the girl she helped dance with her crush. Not the girl who saved her life, and many others' lives, countless times. This was an empty copy.

She may sound like her, but this was not her hero, as Ladybug or as Marinette.

With tears in her eyes and a tighter grip on her yoyo string, she lunged forward, vision and mind set on getting that cursed, dark flower in her hair.

---

She smirked viciously when Ladybird started running at her, and used her anger to launch forward herself, though got irritated when Chat Noir grabbed onto her arm. She threw her arm around and aimed for his face, proud of herself when she left a deep gash on his right cheek, oozing a red darker than her eyes. After, he fell to his knees, clutching to his cheek with teary eyes.

She reached for his ring again, only to have someone else grab her arm. Really, this was getting old. She turned her head just enough to look at whoever reached out to her, and found a small Chinese woman desprately clinging to her glove, eyes glossed over with angry tears.

"Well then? You're not a miraculous weilder, how well did you plan this out?" she snipped at the woman.

"I-I.." she started, but bit her lip and looked down, shaking. Rosalie stared down at her, waiting to see if she really had anything to say.

"Y-you... Really don't remember anything? Nothing at all?"

She looked at her a moment more, then yanked her arm from the woman's grasp. "What is there to remember?"

With that, she turned her back on the woman, and didn't see when she looked back up, heartbreak and betrayal obvious in her eyes. Nor did she see the man farther behind her break down in the same manner.

She instead locked her eyes back on her prey, Ladybird and Chat Noir. She wouldn't let them beat her. Not like the other akumas before her.

---

While watching the encounter between Sabine and Rosalie, Chat cupped his cheek, desperately willing himself not to cry. She wouldn't see that as something to comfort, like his lady would. She would see it as a weakness. An opportunity to attack.