Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marinette had no idea where she was.

She just knew that she was in a town she had never seen before and, without warning, a nearby school exploded into flames!

Not thinking twice, Marinette ran into a nearby alley and said:

“Tikki spots on!”

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Carrie, still covered in blood, landed outside the burning gymnasium. She looked back at the building, knowing that so many of her tormenters had already met their ends inside, and found that she didn’t really care.

“Hey!”

Carrie faced forwards and saw Ladybug standing on top of a car.

“I don’t know what happened in there, so you got some explaining to do!”

Carrie just stared at Ladybug blankly, before she turned and walked away.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” Ladybug jumped off the car and followed Carrie, “Don’t you know it’s rude to ignore someone who’s talking to you!”

Carrie just kept walking, not even glancing back.

“Alright, if that’s how you want to play it.” Ladybug gritted her teeth and grabbed Carrie’s shoulder, making her stop, “I’m not letting you just walk away from this!”

Carrie turned her head and stared at Ladybug blankly, she glanced at the hand on her should, looked back up, then she raised her hand and held it in front of Ladybug’s face.

The next thing Ladybug was aware of was that she was thrown into a brick wall with tremendous force.

“Ok… ow…”

Ladybug groaned as she pulled herself out of the wall, then she heard a noise and looked up…

Only to see Carrie levitating a number of objects. Rocks, fallen branches, planks of wood (some burning), even two cars!

Carrie’s expression was still blank, but her eyes were burning.

“Alright then…” Ladybug said slowly, before getting into a fighting stance, “Looks like I’ll need to knock some normal back into you!”

FIGHT!

That had been the wrong thing to say, as Carrie sent everything in her telekinetic hold towards the spotted heroine.

Ladybug jumped, ducked, and dodged out of the way of everything, then she wrapped her yoyo around one of the burning pieces of wood and flung it back at Carrie. The girl caught the burning wood, only for Ladybug to kick it into her stomach sending her flying, out of the school parking lot, landing on her stomach in the street.

Ladybug backed off, hoping that had knocked the strawberry blond out. It hadn’t.

Carrie had taken worse beatings from her mother, so she was able to get back on her feet. She brushed some dirt off her front, noting that she hadn’t been burned, and returned her attention to her opponent.

Carrie raised her hand, and Ladybug heard the sound of moving objects behind her but didn’t have time to turn around as what felt like the hood of a car slammed into her back, sending her towards Carrie.

Ladybug was caught midair by the other girl’s telekinesis and felt an invisible hand wrap around her throat. Struggling to breath, Ladybug clawed at her throat to remove the hand, but nothing was there to remove.

Keeping one hand on her throat, Ladybug reached for her yoyo with the other. With her face turning blue, she was barely able to grab her weapon and blindly threw it at Carrie, it wrapped around her making her lose focus and Ladybug was released.

The spotted heroine fell to the ground, gasping for breath. She looked up and saw Carrie focused on trying to free herself from the yoyo’s string, a vain attempt as it was magically unbreakable.

Ladybug grabbed the end of the string, stood up, and with one tug, pulled Carrie towards her, spun her around and threw her across the street and into a tree, which she collapsed to the foot of.

“Ok…” Ladybug panted, “You’re tougher than I thought.” Ladybug briefly got lost in her thoughts.

As she had been spinning Carrie around her, the two had locked eyes for a second, and she saw something in the other girl’s eyes that she just couldn’t quite place.

Just then the sound of splintering wood snapped the heroin back to reality. Her jaw dropped when she saw Carrie had torn the tree out of the ground and was launching it at her!

Not knowing what else to do, Ladybug dove out of the way and the tree crashed down with so much force, the ground trembled.

“Hey! That’s dangerous!”

Her opponent either didn’t hear or didn’t care as she kept throwing other objects like fallen branches and rocks at the red and black heroine, who did everything she could to avoid getting hit.

Ladybug ended up running down the street, hoping Carrie would follow. It worked and Carrie levitated herself after the heroine, continuing to throw objects at her.

Carrie even levitated another car and threw it at Ladybug! It hit the ground behind her and the shockwave made Ladybug stumble and almost fall over, but she was able to stay up and keep running.

(‘I need to get out of her sight, just for a few seconds!’) Ladybug thought in desperation. She noticed an alleyway and ran down it, dodging a thrown bin as she did.

Carrie dropped everything she had been holding with a crash and set herself on the ground and walked into the alleyway, looking around for Ladybug.

Said heroine had just managed to jump onto a roof on one side of the alleyway before Carrie had walked in. The way the blond was looking around while covered in blood made Ladybug’s skin crawl.

(‘This girl is crazy!’) she thought to herself as she made sure to stay out of sight, (‘But at least I have an understanding of her powers now, so…’)

She moved away from the edge, got on her knees, held her yoyo in her palms and whispered:

“Lucky Charm!”

With her back to the edge, Ladybug didn’t notice Carrie levitating herself up, hair flowing in a non-existent wind. Ladybug could only look at what her lucky charm had given her.

“A crucifix?” she looked over the Christian symbol in her hands, “How’s this supposed to help?”

Ladybug was quite literally knocked out of her thoughts when an invisible force slammed into her back sending her flying off the roof. Carrie silently landed on the roof and stared after her.

Ladybug’s momentum only stopped when she crashed into something metal. She had somehow managed to hold onto the crucifix despite the surprise attack.

“That hurt…” she moaned as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees.

When she looked up, Ladybug saw that she had landed at a petrol station, which was thankfully empty. Then she noticed Carrie levitating herself towards her in the reflection of the window.

That’s when all the pieces came together.

A rubber hose on the bent pump she had crashed into, a dumpster across the street, the sign above the station, Carrie herself, the crucifix in her hand.

(‘Now I’ve got it!’) she thought with a smirk as she grabbed the hose.

Carrie landed on the other side of the street and began slowly walking towards Ladybug, while being confused as to what the heroine was up to.

When she was a step away from the sidewalk, she was caught off guard when Ladybug came running at her, holding a crucifix towards her.

The sight of her religion’s symbol made Carrie freeze. This was all Ladybug needed to thrust the crucifix into the girl’s chest and began to wrap the hose around her.

After the hose was tied into a knot, Ladybug took hold of the nozzle and jumped to the sign above the station, pulling Carrie with her.

She could hear the hoses other end straining from the force, but Ladybug hooked her feet into the holes in the sign while Carrie regained her wits and the two were locked in a staring match.

When the sound of the hose breaking away from the pump was heard, Ladybug smirked at Carrie’s face.

The force behind the pull resulted in Carrie being slingshot over the building, only for Ladybug to hold onto the hose, pulling it tort and, with a big tug, Carrie was launched towards the dumpster across the street.

The resulting crash was heard from streets away. Before the sound fully faded, the lid slammed shut, trapping Carrie inside.

“Ha! How do you like that!” Ladybug cheered before jumping back to street level. “Sorry for going so hard, but you didn’t leave me a choice.”

At that point, Ladybug heard her earrings start to beep.

(‘Ok…’) Ladybug thought as she made her way to the dumpster, (‘Just need to get my Lucky Charm back, fix the damage, then give Carrie to the authorities and…’) she stopped in her tracks when she realized something, (‘… How do I know her name?’)

Then… Ladybug was hit by memories that didn’t belong to her. Memories so horrible, she grabbed her head and cried out.

A mother who cared more about her twisted religious beliefs then her own daughter.

Classmates who treat her badly just because of who her mother is, not even bothering to get to know her.

Even kids passing on the street were cruel to her.

When having her first period, everyone laughed and mocked her.

The closet door slamming shut and locking her in the unforgiving darkness.

Finally, the one good thing to happen to her was ruined when a bucket of blood was dumped on her and everyone was laughing again.

The noise was becoming too much. Her hands shook, her breathing became rapid, then… she saw red.

Ladybug was brought back to the present when there was a loud crash!

Blinking her eyes, she was shocked to see the lid of the dumpster had been blasted off and had slammed into the pavement a few feet away.

Carrie was also levitating herself out of the dumpster. She was even messier than before, with rubbish sticking to her already blood-soaked skin and clothes, some stuff was even in her hair.

And she looked furious!

Her face still didn’t give any emotion, but her eyes were now flashing red, and she also had the crucifix lucky charm in her left hand.

Then Ladybug heard a voice in her head.

(“You’re just like all the others.”)

Ladybug was then grabbed by a telekinetic grip and held in front of Carrie.

(“Judging me before you even try to get to know me.”)

“You’re… you’re in my head…” the red and black heroine gasped out, realising too late that her opponent also had telepathy.

The beeping from the Miraculous was becoming louder and more persistent.

(“That’s getting annoying.”)

The crucifix floated out of her hand and Carrie reached for the earrings. Ladybug tried to move away, but the telekinesis was too strong. Carrie grabbed the earrings and pulled them off.

“No!” Marinette screamed as her costume vanished.

Carrie looked over the jewels in her blood-covered fingers, she didn’t even notice when the crucifix vanished.

The earrings then levitated to an inch away and Carrie made finger guns. Marinette’s eyes widened when she realized what the other girl was doing.

“No wait! Don’t do that!”

Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

The two earrings were sent flying off in different directions and they vanished from sight.

“Sorry.” Carrie finally spoke in an unfeeling voice, “Those were important, weren’t they?”

Marinette couldn’t answer as she felt too heartbroken to speak as tears ran down her cheeks.

(“You think that hurts?”) Carrie asked through her telepathy, forcing Marinette to look at her, (“You think what you’re feeling right now is the worst thing ever? Well, you’re wrong. Want to know why?”)

She then reached for Marinette’s cheek with her bloody hand and brushed the tear away, leaving a blood stain in its place. Then Carrie leaned close and whispered…

“I’ve felt worse.”

Marinette was then thrown back towards the station with a crash!

The girl groaned as she opened her eyes, only for them to trail down, and widen in horror.

She had crashed into the pump she had pulled the hose off of earlier and had ended up impaled on a pipe that had jutted out and was now leaking petrol on her and the ground.

Only then did Marinette notice how much her body hurt.

Aside from the piece of metal shoved through her body, her clothes had been torn in places and she now had a number of cuts in several places, nearly all of them were bleeding. She also couldn’t move or feel her arms or legs.

She then heard footsteps and looked up.

Marinette’s vision was blurring, but she could still make out Carrie walking towards her.

Carrie only stared Marinette in the eyes, the burning hatred still in her eyes.

Marinette couldn’t speak, the only sound that she was able to make were pained breaths.

Carrie then turned and began walking away down the street, Marinette could only watch in silence.

When she was level with a utility pole, she raised her arm and swiped it, cutting one of the cables, with fell to the ground sparking.

Marinette gasped in horror when the sparks came dangerously close to the petrol spilling on the ground. She tried to speak, only to cough out some blood.

Then a single spark landed on the puddle of flammable liquid and a fire quickly formed and began spreading to the source, which Marinette was currently impaled on.

Seconds before the flames reached her, Marinette screamed:

“CARRIE!”

KA-BOOM!!!

The explosion was heard across the whole town!

Carrie slowly turned back to the destroyed station.

There was no sign of Marinette anywhere.

Carrie’s face remained blank as the dancing flames were reflected in her eyes.

KO!

Chapter Text

Epilogue:

The adrenaline was starting to wear off and Carrie was starting to come back to herself and began calming down.

She gasped and fell to her knees. Tears began falling from her eyes as she looked at her blood-stained hands in horror. Her breathing became rapid.

Carrie’s body was on autopilot as she raised an arm and bent her fingers inward.

The Ladybug Miraculous returned and, with her hands shaking, Carrie put the earrings on.

Tikki appeared in a small pink light, and she was horrified when she saw what happened to her user.

“Marinette!” she screamed, only to be grabbed by a blood-stained hand.

The Kwami stared at Carrie in fear as her hair covered her face. The girl’s other hand came to hold the tiny being in a tighter grip.

“You…” Carrie choked out, “You…”

“Wh-What do you want?” Tikki squeaked in fear, only to then notice that the hands holding her were trembling.

“You…” Carrie then moved her head so that her hair moved to reveal her face, full of despair, “Can you please… help me?”

“… What?” Tikki questioned as the hands let her go as they fell into the girl’s lap.

“I never wanted… I never ment too…” Carrie sobbed as the tears washed the blood off her face, her gaze moving from her stained hands to the raging flames.

She then looked at Tikki and the Kwami’s mind was then filled with images from the girl’s life, especially the events that led up to now.

While Tikki was horrified by what had happened to Marinette, what she had seen from Carrie’s life was almost as bad.

“Oh, Carrie…” the Kwami whispered.

“Why…?” Carrie choked, “Why does everyone hate me?!” she then buried her face in her hands.

Tikki could only float over to the girl’s shoulder and put a paw on it.

The End…