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“Miraculous Ladybug!” she shouted, hefting the lucky charm of the day into the air. The world around her slowly righted itself in the wake of millions of tiny ladybugs, leaving everything as pristine as before their fight.
“Pound it,” she grinned as she held her hand out to her partner.
He did not take the gesture. He only stood there, staring at her with an open mouth. His nose was wrinkled and he looked puzzled.
“What’s wrong, kitty?” she asked, lowing her hand. She took a step towards him.
He took a step away.
“How could you?”
She was confused. What had she done. She checked him over visually. He did not appear injured. What was the fight they had just gone through? Had they hit him in the head?
“Chaton, what—?”
“How could you?” he hissed. She immediately flinched back. Even when he was mad at her, she had never heard him like this. She had heard him concerned, angry (not at her), and scared, but never this.
He sounded hurt.
“How could I what?” she asked. She wanted to know what was wrong. She wanted to fix it. She wanted—
Her partner lifted one hand, pointing directly at her. Confused, she looked down at her costume…
Only to find it was no longer there. She wore her white shirt and accompanying grey blazer. Her pink capris, while always cute, burned against her retinas. One hand flew to her face to confirm what she already knew.
She was unmasked. And Chat Noir had seen her.
“Chaton, I—”
“Don’t call me that,” the boy seethed. His eyes were narrow slits of anger and she could feel herself shrink before them. “I trusted you! As Ladybug! As Marinette! I can’t believe you would play me for a fool!”
“Chat, I never wanted—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” he seethed. Angry tears filled his eyes and the girl could feel herself react the same way. Her heart was thundering, her head hurt, and all she could see before her was the pained boy before her. “I don’t want to hear what you wanted, because you used me and you tricked me! Whatever happened to hating liars? Whatever happened to the partner I could trust and the friend I thought I could turn to when I couldn’t talk to even her?!”
“Chat, please—”
“No!” the boy shouted. And then, she saw it.
A purple butterfly.
Right on Chat’s ring.
“No, please!” she sobbed. But it was too late. The glow appeared over Chat’s mask, his features still twisted in hurt and anger. She tried to push herself forward, but her limbs became heavy and the distance stretched into eternity.
She could not reach him.
“Please!” she begged.
“Yes, Hawkmoth,” he stated aloud, a cruel grin cutting into her very soul. As a dark purple cloud transformed his suit from pitch black too blinding white, she heard one sentence that shook her to her core.
“Fortunately for you, I know exactly where Ladybug’s miraculous are.”
“No!” Marinette Dupain Cheng yelled into the night, sweat slicked to her forehead and tears pouring from her tired eyes. She looked around for a sliver of white or even blonde, but found nothing.
Okay, untrue. She found a movie on her bed, still in its blu-ray packaging. With trembling fingers, she picked it up and held it close to her.
While Chat had not been akumatized, there had been a grain of truth to its terrifying depth. She had been tricking him, lying to him when she was Ladybug and Marinette separately. They talked about things as Ladybug and Chat Noir that he would never divulge to Marinette. And they also spoke about things as Marinette and Chat Noir that he would never divulge to Ladybug. Yet she knew it all.
And she supposed that was the most terrifying thing about this nightmare: the grains of truth hidden among the terror.