Keep the Mask, It Goes With Your Costume

~Chapter Sixteen: The Trade~ (Part 2/2)

Cat Noir held the poor unconscious Ladybug in his arm and dropped the empty syringe on to the ground. He felt his heart drop for a moment as he put his hand on her face and felt her beautiful but now lifeless skin, and stroke his fingers through her soft, dark hair. He took a deep breath in to dry the water forming in his eyes. He wrapped his other arm around her legs and lifted them up, holding her bridal style, and pulling her heartbeat close to his. But he wasn't gonna get all lovey-dovey mushy now, he had a job to do, a trade to make, and a helpless girl to save.

"Mayura!" He called out, knowing she was nearby. He didn't even care if any pedestrians around heard him.

But Mayura didn't make herself immediately visible. Obviously, this villain didn't actually have the payment they promised Cat Noir, and she knew Cat Noir would not give the heroine up until he saw Marinette, so she would have to steal Ladybug from him. But it wouldn't be very difficult, since he'd already done the hard part. Mayura had been watching a entire thing from the roof above, and had just finished plotting the next action.

"Mayura!" Cat Noir called out once again, thinking maybe she hadn't heard, and looked around to see if she was near.

She jumped down from the roof in the blink of an eye and grabbed Ladybug in a moment right out of his arms. Cat Noir didn't react at first, thinking it wasn't suspicious since he was going to give her Ladybug anyway, but he still stood firm.

"Alright, I gave your the girl, now where's Marinette?" He said with squinted angry eyes.

But Mayura just smiled at him, then spat out an evil, maniacal laugh. As she laughed at him in a berserk manner, he knew in that moment he made a mistake.

"You really thought we had Marinette?!" she said, practically bursting tears through her laughter "we were never going to-"

Cat Noir had heard enough, he was completely enraged realizing what he'd just done "CATACLYSM!" He screamed as loud as he could, and hovered his hand right above the ground as to threaten to destroy the floor beneath them, sending them both into the sewers below.

Mayura gasped, if he destroyed the ground, that would be it. So she pulled out a large knife and held up Ladybug' s chin with one hand, putting the knife nearly on her throat with the other. "If you do that, she's gone." She threatened back.

Cat Noir felt more helpless than ever as he starred at the hero he just knocked out, and into the arms of the enemy. The only reason he even considered this was because the thought of seeing Marinette again was too tempting. But now both her, and Ladybug would be gone! And both of them were his fault! This had to be the biggest screw up in history, not to mention by a superhero.

He knew he couldn't let Ladybug get hurt anymore, so he slowly lifted his hand up from the ground, but Mayura didn't lower her knife.

"If you try to follow us, or in any way attempt to save her..." she said, inching the knife even closer to the point where it so gently pressed against her throat "Ladybug will get it." And without a moment more she jumped high and away, carrying the lackluster hero compressed in her arms.

Cat Noir was frozen, he didn't dare watch her leave, out of fear she might hurt his lady. So he just stood there, blankly, saying not a word or taking a breath.

"Claws in" he said finally, and immediately collapsed his knees and fell to the ground sobbing, then sniveled thinking of both the women he lost, regretting every decision he'd made in the past 24 hours.

Plagg wanted to say something, he wanted desperately to convince Adrien to get up and do something to save her, but he still couldn't speak. Adrien seemed to know what Plagg was thinking. He stood up, wiped away his tears, and spoke.

"Come on Plagg, we're gonna make a plan, and we're gonna save her." He said, firm in his voice. But Plagg didn't reply, he flew in front of Adrien hoping he would notice his force sealed mouth.

"What happened to you?!" Adrien said, upon noticing his Kwami's predicament. Plagg said nothing, obviously, but snapped his fingers to motion what Adrien needed to do. Adrien, clearly confused, made a face at Plagg, but then snapped his fingers, which immediately opened the Kwami's mouth, and Plagg took a huge gasp. Adrien was perplexed, but Plagg didn't feel like explaining, and wanted to address the problem at hand.

"Kid," he said "you've made a big mistake."

Adrien nodded his head laboriously,

"Yeah. I know. But I'm going to fix it."