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The acrid scent of blood, smoke, and rotting flesh clogs the air. The burning smell of failure. Pegabug can't stand it. She can't stand either, to be fair. Collapsed on her hands and knees, trembling in agony, as every muscle protests even the slightest movement. Breathing hurts. Crying hurts.
Losing hurts.
And that's what's happening. They're losing. Every single member of their team but her and Chat, have been defeated. Either shortly before, during the preceding akuma attack, or once the final battle had begun. But… both her and Chat are flagging. Badly.
Her ladybug suit chimes once, twice, thrice. And then Tikki is besides her ear, whispering tearful apologies. She's down to Kaalki's power alone now. It has to be enough.
Chat Noir's scream echoes throughout Hawkmoth's lair. She can only watch as he's flung into one of the metal wall, the impact bending the metal around him into a rupturing concave. The damage is too much, his suit flashes once. Twice. Thrice. It shatters into green and black fractals. He cries out, slipping from the impact zone and onto the bridged catwalk below. Plagg swanning down after his holder.
It's down to just her now. It has to be enough.
Hawkmoth hesitates. His expression shuttering between confusion and dismay. “Adrien?
Adrien coughs up blood, craning his bloody face up to glare at their arch-enemy. “You know me.”
It's not a question, it's an executioner's blade. Not pointed at their enemy but his own heart.
Hawkmoth nods, scoffing slightly. “Of course I do. It's disappointing that you lack the awareness to recognise who I am though. But it's not too late, you can still join me, son.”
Adrien freezes.
Plagg hisses furiously from the crook of Adrien's shoulder, grasping at the collar of his shirt. “We'll never join you!”
Hawkmoth takes a step forward. “I wasn't speaking to you, Kwami, you should know your place. Adrien, command your Kwami to be silent, now.”
“Never!” Adrien screams, voice raw with a wretched mix of grief, disbelief, and fury. “I'll never join you! Not after everything you've done! After how you've treated me since mother's death! How could you! We were never on the same side, and never will be!”
Hawkmoth's expression drops. A glean of a swiftly growing icy ire flashes in his eyes. “I would've burned the world for you, son. Just like I'm doing for my wife. And you dare disobey me? Betray all that I have done for our family?”
“My mother is dead!” Adrien hisses, tears spilling down his face, leaving streaks of red and pink across his cheeks. “And I wish you were too! We haven't been a family since her death!”
Hawkmoth snarls, waving his staff towards Adrien and releasing an akuma straight towards him.
Plagg tries and fails to cataclysm the butterfly but he's too slow.
Adrien screams again. Writhing in a meagre attempt to resist.
This is it.
This is the end.
Isn't it?
A sob catches in Lady Pegasus' throat.
It's like her worst nightmares, and worst memory, have come to life.
Through the blur of her tears, she sees him.
Chat blanc. In all his drowning rage.
She closes her eyes, and whispers futile prayers of survival, to win this battle and for things to not result in how the other timelines have all ended.
She can barely breathe, not with Adrien's screams still echoing in her head.
A bright flash of white pierces through her self imposed darkness. Then pierces through her heart. The taste of blood, ashes, and bile are the last things she can sense. Before the darkness becomes permanent, and Hawkmoth's subterranean lair becomes their grave.
Marinette awakens to bright blue skies overhead. A gentle spring breeze, and soft green grass brushing against her. It's peaceful.
‘I died… so this must be the after life?’ She thinks to herself, relishing in the peacefulness, closing her eyes again. She can't help but swallow thickly despite how lovely this place is. It feels like a betrayal to everything she had lived—died for. Because it means she's left Paris, vulnerable at Hawkmoth's mercy, with unrestricted access to the the two miraculous he needed to make his doomed wish. That's if Chat N—Blanc didn't kill Hawkmoth again…
“Hey!” A voice cuts through the encroaching despair.
Marinette can't help but flinch—ears twitching—eyes flying open as she forcibly throws herself up into a half-sitting half-crouched position. Boots flat to the ground, knees bent, and one hand splayed out on the grass; ready to shove herself up into a more defensible position at the drop of a pin. She feels the drag of hair against her shins, and—huh, that's strange, since when did her hair get so long?—she shakes her head to refocus on the approaching person.
It's a older teen boy, probably only a year older at her best guess. Tousled black hair with a white stripe in it, bright teal eyes, a cheeky grin, and striking red jacket, are the first things she takes in of his appearance. Then she spots the golden horseshoe badge and name tag to clipped to one side of his jacket.
Which leads to her first, unbidden thought being: ‘Ah, a horse girl.’
“Horse trainer, actually. You still half asleep, huh?” The guy retorts with a good-natured huffed laugh.
Marinette flushes bright red, slapping her hands to her face, a squeak escaping her. “Sorry! I didn't mean to imply—”
“Hey, it's fine, alright!” He cuts her off. “I'm Jason, and you're the new transfer, Lady Pegabug, right?”
She blinks. Once. Twice. Thrice. Swallows thickly again. She can feel her mask on her face, along with two other strange feelings. “Uh, yeah? That's me…?”
“Great! B sent a bunch of us to find you. Something about how bad PR would be for Gotham academy to lose you on your first day here, when you're France's most famous Ponidol racer.” Jason shrugs. “Not that I care about any of that,” he quickly adds, “but I remember how awful it was getting lost on my first day here as a trainer. It'd suck if you had to go through that too when you're not even in a familiar country.” He extends a hand towards her.
Mari—Lady Pegabug nods, taking his hand only long enough to help pull herself up fully. “I would appreciate that, thank you. I—uh, I'm not familiar with how this all works…” She hesitates, clearing her throat for a moment, “over in here in Gotham…?”
Jason's eyes widen in understanding. “Ah, right! So over here we call our horse racing idols, Ponidols. Portmanteau of ponies and idols. I'm guessing it's something different in french?”
Lady Pegabug stares at him, a sinking feeling of panic and despair rising in her chest, coiling around her lungs and heart ready to inflict the killing blow once again. She wasn't human anymore… Was she? Those strange feelings… Her ears twitching, the long hair… She had horse ears and a tail now. Mon Dieu, ‘I've become part horse!’ Is all she can think.
Jason stares at her expectantly as the seconds pass.
Thankfully, she manages to force out an answer. “Uh yeah, you could say that.”
He raises an eye at her. “Riiight... Well, daily assembly starts in a couple of mins, I'll lead you there and then afterwards, I can help give a tour around the academy and show you to where all your lessons will be, and then the dorm you'll be staying in. Though, since you're a late transfer, you won't be actually attending any lessons today since you're still settling in.”
Lady Pegabug nods again, shoving the panic down, at least she'll have time to start getting used to the new changes. “That's not too different to what new school transfers do on their first day back home in France.”
Jason shrugs, starting to turn away and walk off in the direction of where assembly would be held. “It's school.”
“And after I settle in, what will be expected of me?” She asks, voice quivering slightly as she starts after him. The feeling of the wing tugging at her new horse ears, and her tail was discomforting despite how perfectly natural they felt, to be attached to her body.
Jason pauses, spinning around in his heel to gaze at her with an odd look in his eye. “After?Aside from the obvious being attend classes and do homework and all that shit, it's up to you to find yourself the right trainer so you can start training for your first debut race here in America.”
Lady Pegabug swallows thickly for the umpteenth time, ignoring the way her heart pounds in her chest like a death knell. “Right, if course.” Dangerously, she continues, “that's the same as how things are done back home in France…”
It's not a lie, she tells herself in her mind, it's an educated guess. She can't afford to be hurt or worse, be accused of being an imposter until she better understands the situation at hand, for acting like the norm of whatever this timeline's world isn't normal. She needs time to find a this timeline's guardian or rabbit miraculous holder, and see if they can help her get home to her timeline.
She smiles gingerly at Jason. “Sorry, the nerves are getting to me. You know how it is…”
He stares at her for a moment longer, his expression carefully blank. “Yeah, I do.”
“So, uh, you said you'd take me to assembly, right?” Lady Pegabug fidgets, smile shrinking under his dissecting stare.
Jason nods, not really snapping out of whatever weird state he had just been in. “Yeah, we should hurry, it'd be a shame for you to be late on your first day.”
Despite the odd tone of his voice, he turns back around begins casually strolling in the same direction again.
Unfortunately for Lady Pegabug, his stride is far longer than hers and his leisurely stroll, is nearer to her light jog pace. Hopefully she hasn't already failed and made herself seem suspicious after her first interaction here but only time will tell. With that, Lady Pegabug rushes after Jason.