Chapter Text
The school year had been rough. She felt like she could say that thousands of thousand times and still it wouldn’t explain exactly how tired she felt after dealing with her classmates for two entire semesters. Lila had built an empire of lies around her, dragging whoever wanted to hear her into the maze, so Marinette was alone now most of the time. She still had a few friends from outside of class such as Kagami, Luka, and Aurore, however, she couldn’t find it in herself to trust them with everything. She had already been betrayed enough times for her own liking. So, although not bad exactly, Marinette had made an art of spending her time alone and thriving on her new sparetime, she was still tired.
By that point she only wanted to lay in bed during the entire summer and sleep the tiredness off.
Sadly, Marinette had already promised Jagged and Penny that she was going to accompany them in Jagged’s tour through the U.S. The two had adopted her as a sort of niece for the last 4 years since they had met her. So off she went with them, with her parents blessing, to help with the musician’s wardrobe and styling problems. At least it served for her resume. She could say that she had had an internship for The Jagged Stone. (it’s not like her own fashion brand, MDC, wasn’t working. There were already several finished commissions that she had to send before the day was done).
Though, Ladybug still had to do a final patrol. She had already warned Chat Noir that she was going on vacation, so that she would only be present for battles, using Kalki to teleport back and forth. It was a good plan, but it still made her uncomfortable to be away for so long, even more so now that she and the cat had decided not to use temporary holders. Hawkmoth and Mayura had a nasty habit of learning their identities.
Her relationship with the destruction holder was also not great, to say the least. She knew he was constantly busy, but still his constant missing of battles and disregard for the danger of akumas was making her weary. She almost felt like she was the sole upholder of balance in the city, while everyone else just held no regards for any consequences or troubles whatsoever.
But she took herself out of her musings, she still had things to do before dealing with all of that. She stood up in the middle of her own room, grabbing the already made packets with all her commissions, and headed out to go to the mail. With quick words to her parents she headed out of the bakery through the side door, making her way through the city with her arms full of packets. Thankfully, the post office was almost empty, so she did all her errands swiftly and was free for the day. She decided to stop for a coffee on her way home, just to give herself a treat for finishing the school year and having everything ready for an exciting vacation overseas.
Marinette ordered a Latte and two brownies, storing one in her pocket as soon as it was given to her. “For later” she answered the unspoken question of the barista, smile on her face as she let herself out of the coffeeshop. She walked at a leisured pace beside the Seine, smiling at Tikki as each one munched on her respective brownie. Once home, she let herself in and shouted a greeting to her parents who were closing the shop down before dinner. On her way to her room, she threw the now empty cup of coffee in the trash making a basketball throw and smiling at her luck when it fell in.
She spent the rest of the afternoon finishing her luggage and cleaning her room, while simultaneously talking to the small kwami and passing the time relaxing. Dinner was a happy affair as her parents had prepared her favourite meal as both a end of the school year celebration and a last meal as a family until she came back from the tour.
That night she transformed and went to patrol with a smile on her face. She tried to memorize the view from her favourite spots around the twenty arrondissements of the city, making a note to draw them later as she was sure she would miss the freedom that patrolling provided. She only had to stop a few altercations and a bar fight. But the crisp air of a summer night and the feeling of parkouring and free falling made her night a pleasant one.
The next day, she was up and ready early in the morning. her parents more glad than anything to see her leave Paris, seeing how much of a toll everything had taken on their lovely daughter. They drove her to the airport were Penny and Jagged were waiting next to the international flight’s entrance. After greeting the two of them, Mari turns around and says goodbye to her parents promising to call and giving them a last hug each.
As they leave, Mari can’t help but to turn to give a final wave to her parents knowing that she will miss them but hoping that she would have a good summer vacation. Toma and Sabine wave back to her, before turning to leave, hoping that this experience will help their daughter. They had noticed how alone she had seemed lately and how she has been lacking her usual exuberance. They have only been able to watch and stand by as she slowly wilts under all of Paris’ pressures.
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In the darkness of a cave, a woman plotted. A few men loyal to her waited at her back and a dead man was lying on the ground in front of her hidden by a shroud fitted for a king. They were scarcely illuminated, a few torches hanging from the rocky walls, emitting strange shadows throughout the protuberances of the rock, and the faces of the ones in attendance.
The woman was seated on the cold stone in the middle of the room near a pit with murky waters. There was a book at her side and a handheld mortar her hands, various flasks and and stems of dubious origins surrounded her, all empty of their content. Her hands moved with efficiency and precision grinding the stone against the different plants and ingredients until she had an homogeneous concoction of a muted brown colour. Grabbing some of the paste with her fingers she took a final look at the page of the opened book and started to draw on the skin of the corpse. Her mouth moved making almost inaudible sounds as she smeared the same runes written on the book into the black and gold fabric.
With a sudden gust of wind, the flames started to flicker causing the shadows to dance over every surface available. This movement, however, continued even after the wind had stopped causing the men guarding the entrance to look around in wonder and fear. They didn’t notice the intrusion.
A new shadow solidified from the darkness on the other end of the cavern. Another woman, this one dressed in purple and silver, came to seat next to the first one.
“I thought you weren’t coming, sister” the one whose fingers were covered in brown paste said once every rune had been drawn.
“Although I don’t approve, I will help you” was the other one’s only response.
Giving a decisive nod both women, one in red the other in purple, sat side by side reciting the final words for the ceremony. Waiting with bated breath, both stared at the shroud until the ancient runes started to become more defined, gaining more colour and turning from a dirty brown into a blood red. Each ancient letter seemed then to radiate power and a malignant energy born from blood and war.
Around them, the lights that had been flickering dimmed and the cave was covered in even more darkness. From the pit came now a noticeable radiance, glowing in a sickly green colour that seemed to call to the redness of the shroud. Everything stopped, tension running through every person that was present. The sudden silence was deafening, the stillness of the air making the feeling of wrongness and tension more apparent. However, the two women didn’t stop to contemplate the sudden chill that run through their backs and the coldness of the stone that seemed to anchor them to the rock. With a final prayer, both women stood up and, ignoring every instinct in their body, rolled the body into the pit letting it splash against its cloudy waters.
“I hope he is still himself” said the eldest, looking with an impassive face the unbreached surface of the pit while the green glow reflected in the silver of her armour.
The warrior dressed in red and black answered:
“He will be, he’s always been”
Out of the water bursted suddenly the figure of a man, ageless and turbulent as the water surrounding him.
“Father” she greeted while the green light source reflected in her teeth as she smiled, “You have been missed”.