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The moment when Marigold's body, thrown back by a powerful blow from akuma, flew into rebar sticking out from the side of construction site and got impaled on it, slowed down time and literally divided life into "before" and "after". Scarlet Lady tossed her head and dusted herself off, since akuma threw her away as well, and called Marigold to order her to attempt next attack, and then came across her body - hanging limply on the rebar, just like a butterfly pinned with a pin.
Not the butterfly that deserved to be in this place.
Scream stuck in Scarlet Lady's throat, belatedly making its way through her mouth in a few seconds. And Cht Noir, on the contrary, was stunned for a few seconds before howling deafingly and rushing to Marigold in a desperate attempt to save her. But it was too late and in vain; she managed only to squeeze out a weak smile and then choked on her blood, slowly closing her eyes and going limp on the rebar.
This was the first time that Chat Noir killed akuma.
Scarlet Lady did not expect such an attack from him, crushed by the emptiness of loss ringing in her whole body. After many battles she and Marigold became sort of partners, and the death that happened so quickly could not settle in her head, so Scarlet did not pay attention to how Chat Noir rose from the ground and, keeping his head down, shakily moved towards akuma, who did not bother to calm down and show respect for someone else's grief. In a matter of seconds a lightning movement happened. Akuma was knocked to the ground and Chat Noir was sitting on his chest, plunging his pole into it all the way to asphalt, pinning akuma just like what happened to Marigold.
It was a terrible sight, and Scarlet Lady knew that she had to call out Chat Noir, belatedly demand him to stop and get off the akuma as soon as possible, try to save him, but she could not; too many shocks for her in one day.
* * *
Scarlet Lady convinced herself that Chat Noir acted under a surge of strong emotions when he killed akuma - after all, his beloved one had been killed. Everyone had right to make a mistake and had right to be imperfect - Scarlet Lady knew it very well.
But this did not become a one-time event.
In the next battle Chat Noir attacked akuma over and over again, not flinching and not retreating to dodge akuma's retaliatory blows. He fought as if he was alone, paying no attention to Scarlet Lady and her attempts to call him and involve him in drawing up a plan to lure out dark butterfly.
Instead Chat cornered akuma and without the slightest hesitation began to strike him blow after blow - mercilessly lashing, sweeping, tearing the air first, and then bloody squishiness, until Scarlet Lady wrapped him with yo-yo, dragging him away. But it was too late: after approaching akuma she found glazed dead eyes and not a single sign of life.
* * *
"You're completely out of your mind! We should save citizens, not kill them! Do you remember that akuma is a person who can be one of our friends or relatives? That they are simply influenced by the dark butterfly?" Scarlet Lady shouted, pacing back and forth in front of Chat Noir, who was sitting on the curb of the sidewalk and wiping his pole from blood an absent expression on his face; his frenzied attack on akuma was so swift that miraculous barely spend any energy.
"Are you listening to me?!" Her voice broke into a squeal; Scarlet stopped in front of Chat and pushed him in the chest, attracting attention to herself. He looked up with a pause, first making sure that he had completely cleared pole, and then Scarlet Lady immediately regretted that she had achieved this because Chat Noir's eyes were empty and cold.
"Marigold died because we were always too soft on them. If we had acted tougher and more resolutely, she would not have been hurt," he spoke in the same indifferent even tone as he gazed - steadily and without blinking. Under such gaze Scarlet Lady felt desire to hug herself by the shoulders and shift from one foot to the other, just like a guilty schoolgirl summoned to the principal's office.
"You don't believe it yourself," her own cheeks felt rubbery when the corners of Scarlet's lips twitched in a faint semblance of a smile.
"It's a pity that I didn't believe it earlier," throwing the pole over his shoulder, Chat stood up and shrugged his shoulders, abruptly throwing before disappearing from sight: "Bye."
* * *
Chat Noir ceased to be a helpful teammate and ceased to be a hero in the eyes of Parisians, because he did not even try to hide the fact that he began to deal with akumas cruelly and mercilessly, as if after the death of Marigold his internal fuse was blown off, and every akuma in his eyes began to look like the one who murdered his beloved one. Scarlet Lady had to work much harder than ever before in order to have time to get to akumas before Chat Noir did it.
It was very difficult to fight and implement plans alone to the point of total exhaustion for someone who never bothered to be a proper superhero, but Scarlet Lady kept doing it, so that Parisians would remember that they had not lost their heroes, and that they were still under protection. It was the least she could do to compensate years of being fake hero and dead weight, since death of Marigold made her realize awful her behavior had been. Scarlet would never forgive herself if she stopped doing her best to help people. Thats what Marigold would want her to do.
And yet it wasn't always possible to win. At the evenings Chloe, who didn't even have enough strength left to go to the shower after another fight always gazed into news release and listened anxiously to announcer telling how akuma attack ended this time. At good days they talked only about Scarlet Lady and her successful rescue of citizens - then Chloe closed her eyes and exhaled, literally feeling the tension drop from her shoulders. At bad days with they reported a stutter and nervous tugging of tie about new murder of akuma who posthumously returned to his/her human form - then Chloe`s heart shrank, she herself fell on the bed and buried her face in the pillow with a feeling of total helpless emptiness inside.
The responsibility assigned to her by the received miraculous has grown in a matter of days to an all-consuming and unaffordable weight.
* * *
Killing did not bring any relief or satisfaction to Chat Noir. Each subsequent murder only multiplied pain and rage that had firmly settled in him, because akumas were mere tools in hands of Hawkmoth, and soon he became the main target of Chat - the main culprit of Marigold's death, because but for with his obsession with capturing miraculouses, there would be no akumas and there would be no constant risk during the fights which ultimately led to death of Marigold.
Plagg tried to appeal to Adrien every day, tried to stir up his memories of his oath to protect the city and be a real hero, to use power of his miraculous exclusively for the good, and even shamelessly and rather riskily reminded of Marinette - Marigold - and her total devotion to principles of superheroism which Adrien as Chat Noir was now monstrously violating.
But not a single word of Plagg broke through the thick shell of grief and desire for revenge: now every appearance of akuma became not just an act of murder but also a manifestation of extreme cruelty because Chat Noir beat every enemy to the point of impossibility to move, tied them up and then, keeping dealing on new blows and even torture, tried to extract from them information about location of Hawkmoth. Several times the Scarlet Lady managed to stop it. At first she did not dare to openly rush at Chat Noir and pull him away from akuma, but when no talks, persuasions and appeals to conscience and common sense worked, she dared to openly grab Chat by the shoulder and jerk him away from akuma who was on his last breath.
"You must be really crazy to do this!.." Scarlet Lady blurted out, spinning her yo-yo in a warning wat, not realizing the fact that she began to be afraid of the one she considered her teammate and on whom she used to rely completely.
"I want Hawkmoth to pay for what he did!" Chat Noir barked back. Blonde was speechless for a moment because this was the first time in a long time that Chat seemed alive and sparkling, not just desolately cold and thriving for destruction only.
"Marigold would never support that!"
Out of desperation and inability to express in any way the pain that had been nesting in Scarlet Lady herself all these days she stamped her foot and shook her head, looking quite childishly, even foolishly.
Chat was not impressed. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned away and moved away, instantly losing interest in akuma whom he had tortured before.
"But I need it," he said indifferently before leaving.
* * *
When Chat Noir killed Hawkmoth, Scarlet Lady again froze with horror, just like at the day of Marigold's death, and could not force herself to move. She arrived late on the battlefield and only managed to see the decisive blow. Then tried to squeeze out of herself at least some sound to console sobbing Adrien, whose miraculous activation time has expired and who has ceased to hide under the mask. Her brain with its deeply rooted habit of looking for a sound explanation and justification for everything in order to avoid a psychological trauma tried to slip the idea that everything was for the best: they got rid of their main enemy and main villain of Paris. Yet Chloe did not feel any satisfaction and reassurance.
Scarlet Lady did not dare to approach Adrien, reasoning that no matter what she said, she would not be able to understand his grief to support him properly. So she threw away the yo-yo and left, leaving him to mourn his loss.
The problem was that Adrien didn't need it: he was left alone with himself all over the world, having lost his beloved Marigold who died in one of the battles, and now having lost his father - his last family member. And at this moment of absolute defenselessness and crushing loneness he was vulnerable to any, even the most crazy thoughts.
Which came soon.
* * *
After the death of Marigold Adrien had her miraculous. Scarlet Lady did not demand to give it away, reasoning that he had the right to keep the most precious thing that reminds of his beloved one, and had been totally confident that Chat Noir was faithful to their mission to help the city and its inhabitants and protect them. At first it really looked like that: Adrien only held miraculous in his palm every night before going to bed, stroking it with such tenderness as if it were Marinette herself, and then fell asleep, putting it under his pillow and warming himself with the thought that at least she was there. However after Chat Noir killed Hawkmoth in a fit of rage, everything changed: now every time his eyes clung to Bee miraculous, Hawkmoth's voice floated up in his head, telling about the power of the combined miraculouses. Besides, after his death, Adrien also got butterfly miraculous in his hands as a physical embodiment of temptation.
If Adrien-Chat Noir had been the same as before, he would never have succumbed to this thought, however everything inside him gurt, and pain did not decrease by a fraction no matter how many days passed. And butterfly miraculous kept catching his eye, tempting. Plagg, who was sensitive to the owner's moods, tried to drag it away and hide it but did not have time; Adrien pushed kwami away with a loud protesting cry, clutching miraculous in his fist and pressing it to his chest, as if it was the most valuable thing in his life.
The last hope to get everything back.
And from that moment the countdown to the fatal decision began.
* * *
When background TV program was interrupted by an emergency news release with report of appearance of akuma in the city, Chloe was taking lunch out of the microwave oven. The ceramic edge of the plate was already so hot that it hurt to hold it, but as soon as she heard the news, it slipped out of her fingers altogether. The plate shattered into small fragments with a loud crack. Chloe didn't even flinch or turn her head: her gaze was firmly glued to TV screen, transmitting footage from the scene.
For a brief moment Chloe thought it was a ridiculous April Fool's joke, although she clearly remembered that April was not even close. It was just a more pleasant thought than that Hawkmoth has somehow survived.
And much more pleasant thought than that Chat Noir took his place.
Scarlet Lady drove this thought suggested by her consciousness as far as possible, while she hurried to the place where akuma was smashing buildings and attacking people. The fact that Chat Noir did not come to fight him only fueled suspicions, and yet she drove them away, already used to coping with akuma alone and cleaning escaped butterfly with the help of yo-yo. Scarlet heroine told herself that he was probably lying low at home, immersed in grief, but even Tikki despite her optimism did not believe it.
After all, they made a mistake indeed when they left Adrien alone with his grief and did not approach to take take Hawkmoth miraculous and return it to Master Fu.
* * *
In the role of the villain Chat Noir turned out to be unexpectedly more thoughtful than Hawkmoth. No matter how much he despised himself for behaving like person he hated, he created akumas one after another in order not to give Scarlet Lady a break, because no matter how much she improved and became better and stronger as the heroine, coping with several akumas was beyond her strength and endurance, especially since Chat Noir did not disdain to accompany akuma himself and personally participate in the battles, so several times Scarlet Lady found herself in a situation of catastrophic proximity to losing miraculous, just barely surviving thanks to sheer lick. This is what pushed Chat to create more and more akumas, calming himself with the thought that the sooner Scarlet runs out of steam and gives up - or will not be able to fight back anymore and protect miraculous, the sooner he will be able to get out of the role of Hawkmoth.
The catch of this plan was that Scarlet managed to grow up and was no longer naive and stupid as Chat used to think of her. With advice of Tikki, who noticed how her holder was strugglong and losing ground more and more, she asked Master Fu to give her other miraculouses and create more heroes. She immediately invited Alya and Nino as she had already turned to them for help and trusted them, which turned out to be the right decision, because Chat Noir - again, unlike Hawkmoth - behaved smarter and followed Scarlet Lady, attacking them personally right in the house of Master Fu. He burst in as soon as the door closed behind Scarlet Lady. Thanks to miracle of dexterity and reaction speed Alya and Nino managed to grab their miraculouses, use their power and fight off Chat. However none of them had seen before what kind of person he had turned into, so at first they were confused in misunderstanding that they would have to attack really ruthlessly to manage to push him back into the street and not let him harm Master Fu.
"You've gone too far," Scarlet Lady gasped, barely managing to snatch Master Fu away from almost treacherous attack from behind.
"Nothing will be too far when we are talking about getting my father and Marigold back," — Chat Noir retorted, dodging a retaliatory blow, and jumped back to the next building, looking around with a skeptical look at the protective field erected by Carapace. "Give me miraculous without fightway, Scarlet Lady. You know I only want my loved ones back - nothing more. Don't you understand this pain?" Chat Noir's lips curved in a venomous grin, and Scarlet Lady caught her breath after these words.
"You know as well as I do that miraculous cannot be combined because of catastrophic consequences," she stood her ground, managing to ignore sarcastic words.
"I have a good goal!" Chat Noir snorted, baring his teeth like a real cat, and disappeared, wisely retreating.
He wasn't going to stop, it was clear enough now.
* * *
Realization of the fact that Chat Noir is obsessed with the goal of resurrecting his father and Marigold and will not stop on the way to his goal no matter what, did not deprive Scarlet Lady of hope that she could influence him - either by force or by choosing the right words. However this did not happen, no matter how many times they clashed in battle: reluctantly Chat Noir created more and more akumas, sending them to attack superheroes in an effort to get miraculouses, especially the one belonging to Scarlet Lady, but each time these attacks ended in nothing. It was much more difficult to fight three superheroes than one.
And yet this could not last forever.
Scarlet Lady has discussed this for a long time with Rena Rouge and Carapace, and no matter how much they all wanted to avoid a direct fight with Chat, day by day it became more and more necessary, because his desire to take miraculouses was even stronger and knows no boundaries than that of Hawkmoth.
* * *
According to the law of the genre, it was raining that day: continuous and continuous, blurring the eyes and pretty much preventing both Chat Noir and superheroes from seeing anything. Before facing each other personally Scarlet Lady and her partners got rid of another akuma.
"You have one last chance to give me miraculous without getting hurt," Chat Noir drawled, lazily swinging his pole in the palm of his hand.
Everyone knew that this time he had brought Butterfly and Bee miraculous with him, which inevitably meant a hard fight, from which only one of the sides would emerge victorious.
"Please, you know you're doing the wrong thing," Scarlet made a last attempt to resolve everything peacefully. There have already been too many of these attempts to seriously believe that the next one will change something, and what was said really didn't change anything: Chat just laughed, shaking his head:
"Still the same stupid bug."
And the next second he darted towards her, swinging the pole. Blonde was saved by the fact that she was waiting for this and jumped back with lightning speed, almost loosening the asphalt under her. Looking around, she exchanged meaningful glances with Rena Rouge and Carapace. They nodded, silently agreeing. Needless to say, they had a plan for this case. It's another thing that they didn't want to start but duty came first.
Carapace gave himself up and imposed a protective field on the entire territory where they were, at the same time sheltering from an attack from outside and making it impossible to escape. As expected, this only provoked Chat more: his blows became more sweeping and sharp, openly aggressive, as it was before with the akumas whom he mercilessly beat and killed. Then he jumped far back in order not to get surrounded, activated his remaining two miraculouses, fusing and adding them to his own power.
And Scarlet Lady and her partners were ready for this.
Throwing yo-yo from Scarlet to Rena Rouge and Carapace, they spread out around Chat and began to move rapidly, not allowing him to cling and strike precisely. He literally had to act blindly and throw powerful attacks as quickly as he could. Keen to knock opponents off their feet to get the opportunity to rip off their miraculouses, Chat did not notice how yo-yo thread began to tighten around him until it wrapped around him, tying his hands and feet and squeezing the blood flow.
"It's over. Give back miraculouses and let's go back to what was before," Scarlet Lady breathed out, really happy that she managed to avoid major harm. Betting on the emotionality of the Cat Noir gripped by her goal turned out to be a good idea.
"Oh no, it will all be over when I get Marigold and father back!" Chat Noir growled, rushing towards Scarlet Lady with Cataclysm. Yo-yo thread crackled, and Rena Rouge and Carapace hastily intercepted it tighter and pulled in an attempt to hold Chat Noir, but he was fueled by the power of activated additional miraculouses, and therefore was stronger and more resilient than before. Even though it made sense, no one expected it, and Scarlet backed away, opening her eyes in a daze.
None of them planned to fight Chat to the death, but he did.
Therefore blonde did not find anything better than to jerk to the side when yo-yo thread could not stand and burst under the pressure of Chat Noir stubbornly moving in her direction. He failed to keep his balance, abruptly losing support in the form of these threads, and reflexively took the remaining steps, then swayed on the very edge of the roof the buildings where they were and collapsed down.
There was utter silence.
Scarlet Lady thought that her heart stopped, really stopped beating. They waited a second or two. Approaching Rena Rouge timidly touched the Scarlet Lady by the hand, thereby causing her to shudder and wake up from her stupor.
Every step towards the edge from where Chat fell remained an echo in the whole body of Scarlet Lady. Licking her dry lips at once, she stretched out her neck, looking out, and immediately recoiled, pressing her palm to her eyes, as if this could erase the image of a body impaled on a rebar sticking out of the ground that had already been imprinted on herthe retina.
Just like it happened with Marigold.
* * *
"We did everything we could, but he probably wouldn't have been able to live without Marinette, so everything that happened is only for the best, no matter how horrible it sounds," Alya muttered, putting her hand on Chloe's shoulder and squeezing reassuringly. Chloe did not react in any way - just barely shook her head, still frowning. With her fingertips she kept touching the snow-white lilies placed on the tombstone, as if this might delay the burden of realization of the finality of what had happened.
"Nothing like this will ever happen again," Chloe said firmly, and Nino, who carefully arranged each flower in his bouquet, nodded in agreement, putting his hand on her other shoulder.
"No way. We won't allow it anymore," he confirmed and looked at each other behind Alya's back. Then they pulled their hands away and retreated because Chloe, sighing heavily, finally straightened up and looked at two graves with "Marinette Dupain-Cheng" and "Adrien Agreste" carved on them. Nino and Alya stepped back to her, hugging her sides.
None of them wanted to become a real, responsible and mature hero through losses.