Chapter Text
My name’s Chloe Bourgeois. And this is the story of how I died.
“Chat! Stop fooling around!” yelled a girl in a red polka-dotted costume as she was once again saving her partner from getting hit.
This akuma was supposed to be a simple job but became one hell of an impossible task. And it almost certainly had something to do with a certain cat-themed superhero.
The victim of the akuma was apparently some amateur sportsman. Something pissed him off. Someone . He called himself ‘Slugger’ and looked like a ten foot pile of muscles, and, obviously, was extremely fond of throwing everything around.
Their battle took place near Charles de Gaulle Square. Fortunately, most civilians successfully fled the square so the heroes didn’t have to worry about casualties. Unfortunately, however, the akuma had more than enough cars, buses, and overwhelming large objects to use as projectiles to throw at them.
Although the villain was slow and clumsy, the heroes still couldn’t find their way to him. And this time it wasn’t only Chat’s absent-mindedness and determination to make puns to blame, because on that day, at that very moment, out of all the people in Paris, it was Chloe who became their burden in the akuma attack. And as if that wasn’t enough, she had to protect her after what Chloe had gone and done to her that day.
But there it was, a chance opening. Between his throws, Slugger had to renew his arsenal; Ladybug decided that it was her chance to make a move. With a quick nod to her partner, she readied herself to throw her yo-yo at the akuma but was stopped in her tracks when somebody placed a hand on her shoulder. Marinette instantly knew who that somebody was, as Chloe, in a high-pitched voice, reminded the superheroine about her presence.
“I, for one, don’t want to waste my time like this, Ladybug,” Chloe said blankly. “At this rate, I’ll be late basically everywhere. Could you speed this battle-thingy up?”
And, quite possibly with Chloe being Chloe, that particular day was the major reason why everything went from bad to worse in the span of a nanosecond.
“Chloe!” Ladybug shouted angrily. “Goddamn it! All you have to do is sit still and try not to—”
A sharp pain put an abrupt halt to the Parisian superheroine’s cautionary speech because all at once, everything became a blur. Apparently, while she was distracted, Slugger had managed to renew his “ammunition” and socked her with a fire hydrant. As her consciousness threatened to fade, Ladybug debated whether or not to scream that it hurt like a bitch. Even though she’d taken worse hits, even though it was just a fire hydrant, it still hurt.
And that minor water accident could have easily been avoided had Chat been close enough to help her out. But alas he had already bolted towards the akuma and could not have noticed that his Lady got distracted. Or had Chloe not acted like her usual self.
Why is everything always like that? Marinette thought, feeling raging fire starting inside as she was shaking her head. She could barely see anything in front of her, every sound suddenly became muffled as if she were wearing headphones of some sort and her attempts to bring herself up were futile.
Marinette found herself helplessly splattered on the cold asphalt. She slowly raised her head and saw the unconcerned gaze of the blonde with just a grain of empathy hidden somewhere deep in her big blue eyes. Chloe regarded Ladybug for a solid few seconds as that was all she needed to get the confirmation that the heroine was alright. Ladybug vaguely heard her saying something along the lines of “...I really can’t stay here, this battle is getting ridiculous,” and started her sudden, triumphant, and all the more stupid escape from the akuma battlefield. Marinette couldn’t quite catch what Chloe said, but she definitely understood that the blonde was about to do something completely idiotic.
Through swirling pain in her head, Ladybug struggled to stand on her legs and unsuccessfully tried to catch Chloe’s hand. But it was an attempt which the blonde didn’t care enough about.
And that wouldn’t last long. The last thing Chloe heard was someone’s, Chat’s probably, terrified scream. In the blink of an eye, something hit her from behind, dropping her to the ground. Next came the close acquaintance with asphalt and terrible and sudden pain. Before she knew it, she lost consciousness, mostly because of shock, rather than pain.