44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

"Are you ready?" Marinette asked Adrien and Nino. She could barely wait to get Master Fu back. Who knew what Hawk Moth had put him through.

"Ready," Nino answered, bouncing on his toes.

Adrien nodded once, firmly rooted to the spot.

Marinette looked at him. "Call me as soon as you get the gramophone and free Master Fu."

"I will. But if the plan doesn't work, run."

"Not until you've completed your part."

His jaw ticked.

They'd gone over the plan a billion times and argued this point a billion more times. She wouldn't lose him to Hawk Moth again. But he didn't want her to have another bruise on her body. Which was ridiculous. She was a superhero. She fought villains. That was her job and she was bound to end up with a bruise or two.

Adrien held her gaze until Nino stepped between them.

"It's going to work," their friend said. "So let's kick some butt and save Paris."

In two seconds, they'd transformed and were out the window, moving in opposite directions. She glanced back at Chat, just as he did the same to her. A look of longing and worry crossed his face.

Carapace's voice registered in her ear. "I'm in position. Evil Dude is in sight."

"Almost there." She focused on where she was going and picked up her pace, ignoring the dull ache in her side. After landing opposite of the grey cloud creeping through Paris, she alerted him that it was time.

He hooted and surfed on the shell-like shield down to the street. "Yo!"

The dark cloud stopped its search of victims. Mostly no one went out at night anymore. Not after several more people were hospitalized.

The mist coalesced into an imposing man. "You again?"

"Not just me."

Ladybug jumped down to them and stood straight with her yo-yo in hand. "You look surprised."

"He said…" Shadow Heart shook his hood-covered head. "It doesn't matter if there's ten of you. No one can stop me." He returned to his incorporeal form.

The cloud shot to Ladybug, and Carapace was suddenly in front of her, shielding her. She twirled her yo-yo dispersing Shadow Heart's presence before his ethereal touch turned them to apathetic husks.

The akumatized man's thin lips spread wide, as if the development pleased him. "Finally. A challenge."

"One that'll be your end," Carapace said as he ran to fight him.

Two against one made it harder for him to stay in his corporeal form. It was the edge she'd been hoping for. Unfortunately, he learned how to overcome the shortcomings faster than she'd thought he would.

Shadow Heart came at Carapace with a flurry of attacks that seemed a blur to even her. Carapace blocked the first, missed the second and third and fourth and… Ladybug rushed to help him and ended up gasping in pain from the hit to her stab wound.

She narrowed her eyes and redoubled her efforts. More times than not, her yo-yo and strikes were just a waste of energy though. He changed forms so quickly, she wanted to scream in frustration. The urge was so strong, she had to clamp her jaw shut to not give Hawk Moth the satisfaction of seeing her at a loss.

Worse yet, she and Carapace kept bumping into each other. Half of the hits she took were friendly fire. Her molars were going to crack if she bit down any harder.

Ladybug stepped back.

Carapace glanced at her, eyes narrowing in confusion behind his goggles, but she just looked at him, trying not to give away their real intention.

"Done already?" Shadow Heart asked Ladybug while fighting Carapace. "You're upsetting your partner."

Ladybug covered her surprise at how well Nino was pulling off his part of the plan. She disappeared behind a row of cars and came at him from another angle. Carapace purposefully didn't look at her.

"Abandonment really is a delectable emotion."

He drew in a deep breath as if to inhale more of the emotion's scent, and Ladybug came at him from behind, landing a blow that knocked him forward.

He caught himself and...laughed, a belly-busting guffaw that reverberated off the nearby buildings.

Carapace looked at her in question, still panting from the fight. She just shrugged, while ignoring the pain in her side.

"You tricked me," Shadow Heart said while wiping at his eyes. "I haven't had this much fun in ages. I'll be sad when I bring your heads back to Hawk Moth."

A chill raced down her spine. "He's only using you. Without him, you're just another run-of-the-mill criminal."

Shadow Heart circled them. "I won't always need his power."

She tensed. "What do you mean?"

Casting his voice low, as if telling a secret, he said, "He's giving me my own Miraculous."

Damn it, they were right. Her heart pounded faster. "He could be lying. Why don't you just take one of ours? Better yet, take mine, then Chat's and claim the wish for yourself?"

Shadow Heart went completely still, his face a blank canvass. "You cannot turn my own creation against me," Hawk Moth said through the akumatized man.

"Creeeepyyyy," Carapace drawled under his breath.

She bit back a sigh of relief. They finally had Hawk Moth's full attention.

oOoOo

Chat slinked toward his childhood home, careful of his father's spies positioned around the city and the cameras around the property. All the while his thoughts were on Marinette.

He had to make everything right. He hated what he'd done, who he'd become. Just thinking about it all made him nauseous and angry.

Landing inside a large supply room, he crept toward his father's office. The sloth-like pace made his muscles twitch. The longer the mission took, the more likely Marinette would get injured. But if he rushed and ended up risking everything, she'd kick his ass. One of his lips quirked upward. She was such a badass.

Hour-long minutes passed and he let out a breath he'd been holding when he finally made it to the office. He eased the door shut and turned around only to come to an abrupt halt. His heart shot to his throat.

Guarding the safe hidden behind his mom's painting stood the Gorilla, nearly seven feet of thick, corded muscles. His stance suggested readiness. His wide face was grim, dark eyes focused on him.

Neither spoke, nor moved.

Chat could barely breathe. He didn't want to hurt his long time guardian.

The seconds ticked by in his head. Seconds that could leave Ladybug worse off. His fingers itched to grab the baton at his lower back.

"Your dad sent me here in case you showed up."

"I have to stop him." The Gorilla's silence made Chat inwardly plead for him to step aside. "I should have stopped him a long time ago."

Did he care more about his job or the boy he'd protected the last ten years?

Still, the hulking man didn't budge.

Chat's insides turned to icy lumps. It nearly made his teeth chatter. "Help me."

The Gorilla's heavy brows drew together, either in indecision or anger.

"Please," Chat whispered.

Exhaling hard, his guardian's imposing frame deflated and he stepped aside.

Chat ran to him and gave him a hug that contained all the years he'd wanted to do just that. His father had always said the help was the help and nothing more. They weren't family and they weren't their equals. "Thank you."

The Gorilla grunted in that way of his.

Flipping open the painting, he quickly entered the passcode.

And it was the wrong one.

Chat grumbled his frustration. He should've known his father would've changed it.

The Gorilla muttered something under his breath, his eyes flickering wide.

"What?" Chat asked.

"Natalie. She repeated some numbers every time she saw me. I thought she'd lost it."

Gabriel's assistant was helping Chat again. Weren't family his big toe. He felt closer to them than he ever did with his father. "What is it?"

"593…" He scratched his head. "Um...593170."

Chat swung around and entered the code. The safe's light flashed green and unlocked with a snap, revealing the gramophone.

Just as he snatched it out of the safe, the alarms blared.

Chat cringed and spun to face the Gorilla. "What happened?"

"I don't know, but more security will be sent here now." He ran to to the door where he stood as a sentry. "I'll only be able to hold them off for a couple minutes."

oOoOo

Shadow Heart suddenly shuttered. Going completely still, his chin dropped to his chest.

Something was happening with Hawk Moth. Chat must have retrieved the gramophone!

Fatigue forgotten, she whooped in delight along with Carapace. They weakly high fived each other, not even caring that it was pathetic.

"Neither of you will survive this night." Shadow Heart glared at them.

"Neither will you, buddy," Carapace retorted.

Ladybug shook her head.

"Wait. That didn't come out right." He glanced at her. "I'm not used to this kind of banter yet." He looked back at the villain. "Let me try again."

Shadow Heart turned to mist, and, instead of attacking them, he zipped away, flying down a side street.

Whatever he was up to had her stomach churning.

"What do we do now?" Carapace asked her.

"Run after him." She forced her jelly legs into a sprint.

Carapace heaved a sigh.

oOoOo

"Is he keeping Master Fu in the same place?" Chat yelled over the alarms at the Gorilla.

Eyes focused on the office's door, he said, "He moved him yesterday."

"Do you know where?"

The Gorilla gave a pointed look at the part of the floor, that once unlocked, lead to Hawk Moth's lair.

Great. Just great.

He reluctantly turned to the painting that held the lair's access code. Partly because his father had probably changed it, but mostly because his father was up there. And he'd have to fight him.

If you're not ready to face your father, come back for Master Fu later, Plagg finally spoke up.

"If I do that, he'll be a goner."

But—

"The only reason he's been kept alive is for the gramophone's code. I take that and leave him…"

He's a goner.

"Yeah."

But are you ready to take on your father?

"It doesn't matter. I'm not leaving without Master Fu."

The door burst open, knocking the lock out and busting apart the frame.

As men tried to pile in, the Gorilla grabbed a guy dressed similarly to Hawk Moth and threw him into another guy dressed in the same purple suit. "Go. I don't know how long I can keep them back."

Chat's heart pounded so hard, his ribs would surely be bruised tomorrow.

It's now or never, kid.

Chat closed the distance to the painting and pressed the familiar set of hidden buttons.

Nothing.

Look for other buttons.

"They could be anywhere!" He ran his hands over the floor to ceiling painting, testing for spots of hardness.

But it was all soft canvass and lumpy paint.

Chat cursed under his breath.

A grunt pulled his gaze to the Gorilla as a man shoved him out of the doorway, deeper into the room. Another ran at him with a knife.

Chat extended his baton and rammed the second guy into the wall hard enough for bones to crack. The anonymous man slumped to the floor in a crumpled heap.

The Gorilla charged more henchmen coming through the doorway. They heaved against him as if he were a great boulder, trying to push him back. "Hurry."

Chat swung back to the painting. "Where could the buttons be, Plagg?"

He's your father. Think like him.

He stared at the painting, ignoring the grunts and thumps of the fighting behind him, then lifted his hands and touched the random geometric shapes.

Nope.

Furrowing his brows, he tried again and again and again. He would get Master Fu. He would right his wrongs.

Without pause, he went in for another attempt and found several hard spots. He pressed them and the painting clicked.

You did it!

He blinked, then scrambled to stand on the spot that would take him to Hawk Moth's lair and checked to make certain the gramophone strapped to his back was secure. Nausea had him nearly doubled over, but he forced his back to straighten.

Face his father. Get Master Fu. Get out.

Simple.

He really needed to stop lying to himself.

oOoOo

Shadow Heart swept toward a group of laughing girls coming out of a movie theater, completely unaware of the danger they were in.

Ladybug wanted to yell at them for coming out after dark. It wasn't safe with the new villain. Didn't they know that? "Carapace!"

Her friend glanced at her as they ran after the akumatized man.

"Get those girls out of the way."

He tipped his head then picked up his pace. She knew he'd been holding back to stay with her. Not for the hundredth time, she cursed her wound. Each footfall was like being stabbed all over again. But she had to hold it together. Chat needed her.

As Carapace leapt onto his shield and surfed past the speeding black cloud, he whooped in delight and disappeared in front of it.

Ladybug's side burned. Her lungs burned. Her legs burned. And spots were not only on her suit but in her vision. She stopped, planting her hands on her knees and gasped for a breath that didn't sting.

"You are weakened," Shadow Heart said in his corporeal form. He walked to her with certain steps, his concealed eyes on her like two embers singeing her skin. "And now you're alone."

Her gaze bounced around the street and found his words to be true. She pressed down her rising fear with sheer will. She didn't have to win the fight with him. She just had to stall for Chat. Lifting her chin, she said, "And you're still going to lose. You hear that Hawk Moth? You're going to lose."

Shadow Heart snarled and lunged at her.

She blocked and dodged, staying carefully away from his grabby hands. Even just being this close to him felt like he was sucking the fight out of her. Part of her just wanted to sit and stare into nothing.

Shaking her head, she grit her teeth and spun her yo-yo faster, not just trying to strike him, but to keep him away from her.

He went in left, then changed course and went right, lashing out with a fist that struck her wound like a battering ram.

Her breath rushed out and she fell to a knee, crumbling over her injured side.

He laughed.

She saw stars as her head was suddenly whipped back from a massive hit. She landed hard on her back that sent a jolt of pain through her as if she'd been electrocuted.

Two Shadow Hearts appeared over her, a wicked grin stretching their lips as they spun around.

oOoOo

Chat Noir found his father as soon as the lift brought him above the floor. The gloating, reverberating off the steel walls made his knees quake.

"Finish her," Hawk Moth said, huddled over his cane like a raving lunatic.

Marinette!

He coiled, ready to pounce.

Ladybug's probably just trying to keep him distracted. You need to focus on Master Fu.

Plagg was right. Still, his muscles refused to uncoil. They wanted to run and hit, kick and destroy...protect what he loved.

Focus.

Plagg's sharp tone snapped him out of the red haze clouding his judgement. He grit his teeth and turned, gaze sweeping the room for the old man.

A lump in the far corner caught his eye.

Sliding his boots along the smooth floor, he eased closer to the cloth-covered lump and checked to make certain it was really Master Fu. A bruised face greeted him, ghastly enough to make his hand jerk back in surprise.

All this time, he'd thought their prisoner was being taken care of. Just another lie.

He narrowed his eyes on his father's back.

Chat, Plagg warned.

"I know," he whispered around gritted teeth, then turned back to Master Fu.

The elderly man didn't stir as he slipped his arms under him and lifted him up. It was like cradling a child. Fu seemed so much smaller than when Chat had brought him to the mansion.

He crept back to the section of the floor that would take him away from the monster that was his father and stepped on the spot. It didn't budge. He gently tapped, then stomped on it.

His father spun around to face him. The gray mask made his face look like a grim skull, especially with his cold, detached eyes staring straight at Chat.

oOoOo

Ladybug took hit after hit. She felt like meat being tenderized by an overzealous chef.

Where was Carapace?

Pain filled her from head to toe. She was a ball of red, throbbing string, wound so tightly, she couldn't breathe.

"You leave Ladybug alone right this instant," a familiar insolent voice shouted.

The pummeling halted long enough for Ladybug to put a face to the voice. Chloe. What was she doing here?

oOoOo

"You think I wouldn't have planned for this?" Hawk Moth lifted his chin. "You think I don't know my own son?"

Fear doused Chat's limbs in icy water. He nearly dropped Master Fu. "You knew I'd come?"

"Of course, you ignorant boy." He looked away as if something else had pulled at his attention. "Ignore the girl. Focus on Ladybug."

Chat just stood stunned, engulfed by shame and mortification.

"And now that I have you back, I can relieve you of your Miraculous."

Do something, Plagg said.

"But you changed the codes. You had extra security installed—"

"And I even fed the safe's new password to Natalie. She always had a soft spot for you." His face twisted as if he thought the sentiment was revolting. "I had to lure you here where you'd be effectively trapped."

Chat glanced at the circular window.

"Yes, well that can be rectified as well," Hawk Moth said.

Thick metal plates slid toward the center of the window, slowly shutting out the night sky.

And Chat ran toward the narrowing gap.

oOoOo

"You have fire in your veins," Shadow Heart said, his gaze fixed on Chloe. Hunger transformed his features into something akin to envy.

Ladybug tried to move, but he planted a boot on her stomach and pinned her to the floor. Which certainly hadn't required much effort from him. She'd gone from tenderized meat to pâté.

"Thanks. But creepy much?" Chloe planted her hands on her hips. "Now, back away from Ladybug before I—"

"Before you what? Annoy me to death with your incessant prattling?"

"Excuse you?"

Ladybug groaned. "Just go, Chloe." She didn't need her quasi friend's death on her conscience too.

"As your number one fan and the mayor's daughter, it is my duty to…"

The boot lifted off Ladybug's stomach, allowing her to take a deep breath that felt like another punch to her ribs.

"What are you doing?" Chloe's voice trembled slightly.

"I'm moving away from Ladybug."

"But now you're coming toward me." Her heels clicked on the floor as she skittered backwards.

"I want the fire in your veins."

Ladybug felt around for her yo-yo, but found nothing. Unable to think of anything else, she settled on calling for her Lucky Charm and prayed Chat had completed his mission.

Shadow Heart paused his advance and looked back at her.

I don't have enough energy left, Tikki said. I barely have enough to keep the suit powered. I'm sorry.

When nothing happened Shadow Heart continued stalking toward Chloe.

"I command you to leave me alone."

The akumatized man laughed, then snapped his mouth shut as a rock hit him in the head.

"Come at me, bro," Carapace said as he surfed behind Chloe, peppering Shadow Heart with more rocks.

The dark villain snarled and turned to mist, flying after Carapace.

Ladybug dropped back to the street not even caring if it would hurt.

Heels clicking against the ground grew louder until they stopped by her ear.

"Ugh." Chloe bent over her. "You're going to get blood all over my new blouse."

Surprisingly strong hands grabbed her arm and lifted her up to a seated position.

"You have to help me help you stand."

Ladybug curled her legs in and planted her feet. Her noodle legs gave out on her halfway up.

Chloe grunted in a very non-ladylike manner. Ladybug would've snorted if she could spare the energy.

"Look." Chloe knelt to gaze at her in the eyes. "You're tired...and gross. I get it. But you need to get off your superhero butt right now. Do you hear me?"

Ladybug gripped the blonde's shoulders.

"Finally." Chloe held her gaze and nodded in encouragement.

Then Ladybug willed her body to stand. She'd expected trumpets and fireworks. Instead, she got more pain. The street had been more comfortable. Right now, a bed of nails would be preferable to moving.

"All right." Chloe looked around them. "Where to?"

I can't hold your transformation much longer. You need to get back to Master Fu's place.

Ladybug grunted an acknowledgment, then gestured to the side. Chloe held onto her tight and got them moving.

oOoOo

"No!" Hawk Moth shouted. "Get her Miraculous. Stop. You fool!"

Chat Noir couldn't spare a glance back at his father. The metal plates were inching closer together, slowly shutting out his only escape.

"Get back to Ladybug!" Hawk Moth hollered.

At least she was safe.

Chat shifted Master Fu and eyed the window. He'd made this jump before several times. Granted, he didn't have an old man in his arms and a clunky gramophone on his back.

Now!

Chat jumped and sailed through the air as the open gap narrowed each second. Tucking himself into a ball around Master Fu, he slipped through. The fresh air slapped him in the face and he smiled in delight.

He finally did something right.

AN - i love who Chloe is turning into: MOre mature, still has attitude but she's more self-aware, a touch softer or something. Can't put my finger on it exactly, but I always enjoy it when she pops in.

And things are finally looking up for our heroes. Woot!

Guys and gals, this is chapter 44. There's only five more left. I'm crying.

Thank you so much for reading, favoriting, following, and commenting! If I can't respond to you because you're a guest or your messaging is turned off, just know that I'm sending you lots of gratitude and love.

You've heard of my beta, right? That she's my sister? And that she's pretty cool? Thought so. Lol