Chapter Text
Something about this akumatized villain seem so much more sinister than the rest. Ladybug and Chat Noir have been fighting tooth and nail with this one but their focus had to keep switching from fending off the blast and capturing the akuma to saving the civilians shot by his powers.
From what the two superheroes gathered, this villain, also known as Fright Flyer, had been your average Paris tourist who was roped into doing something crazy with friends that he didn't want to do: go skydiving.
He mentioned as he was fighting the pair Miraculous holders that once they reached the altitude in the plane, he changed his mind and decided not to jump out of fear. However, one of his friends decided to push him out of the plane instead, despite his wishes. He plummeted towards the ground and embarrassingly wet himself due to fear. Luckily, he pulled his parachute and was able to make a somewhat safe landing, but that did not stop his explosion of rage he had on his so-called "friend".
"What the fuck, man! I said I didn't want to jump anymore, and you fucking pushed me!"
"Oh lighten up, dude. You had fun didn't you?"
"No, actually! I thought I was going to die and panicked, almost forgetting to pull my chute! You didn't even book us a good enough excursion that we had trained personnel to jump with us!"
"Oh shit, dude. Did you- did you piss yourself? HA! Guys look! Scaredy pants over hear wet his trousers cuz he was afraid! Hold on, let me take a picture of this, I wanna remember this moment!"
Before his friend could do so, he stomped off: crying due to embarrassment and because he was so angry at his friends. Apparently, his emotions were so strong, what with the residual adrenaline in his system amplifying it all, that Hawk Moth couldn't resist sending an akuma his way.
That's how Ladybug and Chat Noir ended up here, fighting this akumatized villain whose power transported people thousands of feet into the air to plummet down to the ground and feel the same fear he did. It luckily seemed, however, that the Fright Flyer's main goal was to exact revenge on his friends and not the people of Paris, so the only civilians who were targeted by his powers were either caught in the crossfire or the so-called friends.
"M'lady! This is starting to get really difficult to catch some of these people before they hit the ground! Maybe now is a good time to use that Lucky Charm of yours to get us a giant net or mattress or something?" Chat Noir yelled as he successfully brought a frazzled woman down safely after having caught her midair and slowed down the fall by catapulting them and landing in a body of water nearby. "And I don't know if everyone we save also knows how to swim!"
This one was really difficult. How on Earth were they supposed to catch everyone that was falling from thousands of feet in the air but capture the akuma at the same time when there were only two of them? It was as Ladybug was mulling this over in her head that she saw Fright Flyer hit another victim with his power, teleporting them into the sky, that she finally called out her Lucky Charm. What she wasn't expecting was to be met with a small throw pillow.
"What? How on EARTH am I going to use this to stop Fright Flyer? I can't use this pillow sized cushion to 'cushion' anyone's landing from the height they're falling!"
Quickly, she looked around, assessing her surroundings and the akumatized villain in front of her. Then, it all pieced together as she saw what she had to do in flashes of realization. Moving swiftly, Ladybug called for Chat Noir who understood what they had to do and he launched himself towards her. The two moved in sync as they attempted to use the pillow and Chat's belt to immobilize the villain and cover the pull cord on the parachute he was wearing that acted as the trigger to his power.
They cheered as they were successful, and the Fright Flyer was now on the ground and unable to reach the cord. Ladybug was about to make her way back towards him and rip the parachute, which she assumed is where the akuma was located, until she heard a loud scream of an onlooker nearby. Her heart sank and the world seemed to stop as she almost immediately knew why: there was still one last person that had been hit with the villain's power and falling from the sky.
She quickly jumped into action and ran towards where the civilian was headed, but where she was located on the ground, she wouldn't be able to successfully catch them in time. Regardless, she used her yo-yo and launched herself towards the person who was quickly getting closer to the ground; but she wasn't quick enough.
A large thud sounded, and even more screams erupted from the nearby crowd that had been gathering. Ladybug didn't make it in time. She hadn't saved them.
Blood began to pool around the motionless body of the person who had hit the concrete and she knew they were already gone.
She just watched someone die because she wasn't fast enough.
Panicking, she fell to her knees, and she began to heave. Her entire world is caving in. Someone was dead. She had never seen someone actually die before and definitely not someone she could've saved.
Ears ringing, the entire world seemed to stop, and she retched her stomach contents onto the pavement. How could this have happened? Why hadn't her Lucky Charm produced something that would have prevented this?
She was only somewhat snapped out of her panic when she heard a distant voice calling for her.
"-dybug! Ladybug!! Come on, we can fix this! We just have to release and purify the akuma then you can use your Miraculous Ladybug cure and everything will be as it was. Come on, you have to get up!"
Chat was yelling for her, but she couldn't move. Then she felt his hands on her shoulders, and he hoisted her up.
"M’lady, please. It will be okay, I promise. We can save them, we just need to finish what we started," he said with a pleading voice as he looked deeply into her eyes.
She still struggled to move but nodded in agreement with him as she urged her limbs to carry her back towards the villain who was still on the ground. He looked up at her with a smirk which sparked a fire in her to tear him apart. He had just killed someone, and he didn't show any remorse!
In a blind rage, she picked him up by his collar and looked him dead in the eye as she grit her teeth, but she resisted hurting him because she quickly remembered it wasn't his fault that the civilian had just died: he was under Hawk Moth's control. He was also a victim.
She instead moved to remove his parachute attached to his back so she could destroy it and release the akuma, but she hadn't realized that in her anger and lifting him up to be eye level with her that she loosened the restraint holding his arms in place. Before she even had time to process it, he reached up and pulled his cord, hitting her dead on with his power, teleporting her thousands of feet into the sky where she would fall just like all the other victims.
"NO!"
Chat Noir quickly pinned Fright Flyer back down and ripped the parachute clean off of him. He was so blinded by rage that when the akuma was released, he didn't even wait for his Ladybug to purify it. He called his Cataclysm and destroyed it. Watching as the once living insect crumbled into dust as the villain changed back into a confused civilian.
"Wha- What happened? Where am I?" He asked looking up at Chat Noir.
"Don't worry, you're safe now. You were under the control of Paris's number one enemy and supervillain: Hawk Moth. And now while I would love to chat, my partner is currently still falling from the sky, and I have to go save her so we can return everything to normal."
He starts running and scales one of the nearby buildings in an attempt to recreate what he did earlier with the other victims who were transported into the sky to fall to their deaths by catapulting himself off the building and catching his lady midair then landing in the body of water. He'd successfully done it twice already and knew it would work again, especially because this was his lady. What he didn't expect, however, was that she would also try to save herself as the ground grew closer and closer.
Ladybug, amidst her panic and fogginess that took over her brain due to the events of this fight, thought it best to launch her yo-yo towards one of the taller trees and swing via one of the branches to catch her before she falls. She knew it was risky since she wouldn't have much time as she would be very close to the ground and needed to time it just right, but she couldn't think of anything else to do as they weren't in the heart of Paris right now littered with tall buildings she could use.
As soon as she is just about close enough, she throws her yo-yo, and it wraps around a branch on the tallest tree. At the same time, Chat launched himself off one of the buildings but only after he is midair does he realize she was already trying to save herself. It is the split second though that the thick branch her yo-yo had wrapped itself around broke under the force and velocity of Ladybug's fall that she panicked. Chat was still supposed to be able to catch her and carry out his plan of saving her, but due to the way she was falling now, her course shifted ever so slightly, and he just barely missed her.
Chat's eyes widened and the world seemed to move in slow motion. He kept falling in the opposite direction of his lady towards the water while she continuously made her way towards the ground. Still not having slowed down.
Before he landed in the water, a sound that he had heard earlier that will forever haunt his dreams echoed through his ears. Then he was submerged under water, not knowing whether or not what just happened actually took place. Had he- had his lady just?
Oh god.
Resurfacing and swimming as fast as he could back towards the embankment, there on the ground, lying unnervingly still, was Ladybug.
She had hit the ground. She wasn't moving.
Chat had never moved so fast in his entire life. He sped over to where she was laying, panicking all the while.
"Oh god, no no no no no NO! M'lady, please wake up. Please be okay. Ladybug???"
He was breathing heavily as he scanned over her limp form as she laid motionless. Through the hot tears that were welling up in his eyes, he noticed the slight rise and fall of her chest and felt her neck for a pulse. He knew that whenever they adorned their suits and were in possession of the power of their miraculous, they were virtually indestructible. But virtually doesn't mean it's a 100% guarantee and especially not from 7,000 feet in the air.
"Ladybug please, you have to wake up. I can't- I need you. You have to call your Miraculous Ladybug cure, then you will be all better. Come on! You have to wake up!"
Chat was begging at this point. If she didn't wake up before her transformation countdown ran out, the Lucky Charm would disappear, and they wouldn't be able to fix what happened. They wouldn't be able to bring back the civilian they lost earlier. They wouldn't be able to heal his lady.
He was interrupted by the beeping of her earrings and panicked even more because her time was almost up, and her transformation was about to wash over her but she was still unconscious. And they were out in broad daylight where many people would definitely see. He couldn't risk the whole of Paris knowing Ladybug's identity, not without her consent.
So he quickly scooped her limp body up and rushed to a secluded spot away from prying eyes. As soon as he landed in a dark, closed off alleyway, he watched in horror as the final beeps of her earrings rang through his ears and her transformation washed over her.
What met his eyes broke him all the more as he now stared down at an unconscious Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
"M-Marinette?? Marinette!! Oh god, Mari no, please!"
Chat began to cry even harder now as he begged for his friend and partner to wake up.
Marinette was Ladybug.
Ladybug was Marinette.