"MARINETTE!!! Your ladybug Marinette's my ladybug!" Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The sweet, caring girl from school, the girl with determination like no other. The girl who stumbled on her words when he was near... was his beloved Ladybug.
"M-Marinette..." he choked out, holding her. "Open your eyes, please...Wake up..."
He caused this. He hurt his classmate. His friend. His partner. His partner.
This is my fault... This is my fault...
"C-chat noir" a small voice said.
Did Marinette just...?
Chat Noir... here... "
He looked around her head and he saw her. A small, red creature slumped on the ground, looking so weak and beat-up that she was barely able to turn her head up to look at Chat.
He reached down with a hand, gently taking the little Kwami in his hands and lifting her up. She was in really bad shape.
"Y-You're..."
"Tikki..." the Kwami said, leaning against his fingers with trembling paws, "I'm Ladybug's Kwami..."
"Ladybug's Kwami..." he repeated, as if in a trance.
"Chat, she needs help... " Tikki said between exhausted breaths, her tone urgent, desperate. "She is hurt really bad. Please..."
"Don't let them take her Miraculous..." Tikki said, "Please, save her ..."
"What can I do?" Chat asked desperately.
Tikki's eyelids were slowly drooping. "Outside...go..." But as soon as she said that collapsed on his palm.
Of course. There were ambulances outside. He could pass her as an injured civilian. He could save her yet.
He slid a hand underneath Marinette's knees, the other one around her back, and hauled her up with him.
"Hang in there, Marinette. ..." He squeezed her to him briefly, and then broke into a run.
You're going to be okay. he chanted in his head, You're going to be okay...
"P-please, save her ..." he heard himself repeat over and over, telling the men in black and orange her name, where she lived, what was happening to her. They seemed taken aback by Chat Noir's desperation, but they acknowledged his urgency and took Marinette from him, easing her broken body on a stretcher, as another paramedic tried to stem the flow of blood from her head.
And then Chat couldn't stand being there any longer. He extended his baton a ran home with droplets of water running down his face, the tears finally came mixing with the droplets of rain that where running down his face.
Eventually he made it home and de-transformed and Tikki fell from the place he put her to be safe. Tikki!" Adrien cradled the unconscious Kwami in his hands, pulling himself up and stumbling to his bed. He laid her carefully on his pillow, stroking her tiny head with a trembling finger. "Tikki?"
"Move over!" came Plagg's sudden screech as he zoomed past Adrien to land on Tikki's side, moving Adrien's hand away. "Tikki! Tikki, talk to me!"
Chat Noir was..... Akuma... buildings... in its radius....Ladybug...."
The reporter was giving a summary of the events of that day, pointing out the destructive power of the Akuma and urging people to remain vigilant and vacate the premises if he was spotted.
They were behind the turret, talking. Ladybug had raised her arm to conjure Lucky Charm, and then Demoman hit. Even though the video was at normal speed, Adrien's mind played it in painful slow motion: The moment he pushed her out of the way and leapt back. The moment she stumbled in an attempt to catch the Lucky Charm. The moment she realized she wasn't fast enough, her eyes wide. The moment the wrecking ball slammed into her and smashed her through the roof. The moment her body disappeared under the rubble in a cloud of dust. The moment the ball retracted and she didn't come back up...
