Chapter Text
It was 9:00 PM again. It was time for patrol.
Again.
Marinette lifted herself from her bed, the covers falling off as she imagined struggling against muscles that aren’t tired. She called out for her transformation, the typical rush of adrenaline of returning to her battle-ready body absent. It had been absent for a while.
She looked at her sketchbook longingly. She wished she had a normal life, free from the oppressive presence of the rift. Free from her duties as protector of Paris. She could breathe… mostly freely then, but now everything was so much stricter, with her schedules, her sleep, nearly her entire life. She could barely hang out with her friends as much as she liked. She really didn’t get a lot of downtime.
And that was before the rift.
It clung to her, no, everyone like a plague. A slow working one. Everyone’s mood has been dampened. The few designs that were unfinished when the rift showed up were suddenly horrible. She tore them out of the book without much of a second thought.
With everyone less happy, people weren’t hanging out as much. Marinette guessed it was somewhat of a redeeming quality – she could finally relax. Given, this relaxation was always depressingly still and cold, but it at least provided her mind time to unravel the events of a day.
Climbing out onto her balcony, she leapt off into the night, under the gaze of the rift.
She bounded off roofs, lunged and soared across the Paris buildings, shaking the shingles and even cracking some with the force of which she jumped. She sprinted and skipped across the gaps in the streets, the streetlights staying on while everyone else was going to sleep.
She reached the base of the Eiffel tower and ascended it, springing up from each beam. Arriving at the top, she looked down at the city below. Gazing down at the park, she found all manner of citizens praying to the flowers.
A humourless chuckle slipped out of her mouth – but then again, what else could they do? Nothing better than that, that’s for sure.
The sound of boots on metal reminded her of why she was there.
“Quite the night. Right, Bug?” Chat Noir’s familiar voice echoed from behind her.
“Well, it’s the same as all the rest. Not sure whether that’s comforting or not.”
They had had this conversation many times now – probably couldn’t even be called a conversation. Just a relaying of statements. Meaningless and without fruits.
“Well, I suppose that we still need to get things done. Let’s go, Chat.” Ladybug said as she walked to the edge facing where the patrol would start going.
Chat Noir didn’t move.
“Chat?”
She turned to look at him. His eyes were tracking something in the sky. It wasn’t the rift, because it was behind him. She turned to look and could only quite notice it when she focused. It was an unnatural glimmer, a glow slightly brighter than the stars… and it was moving. It was heading straight for them, and fast!
“M’lady, look out!”
Ladybug did as she was told, dashing to the side. The starry light struck a few meters away from where she stood, rending through quite a few of the iron beams, significantly bending the ones that weren’t melted or torn apart. Gazing at the remaining stardust and the fiery-coloured metal, Chat straightened and circled the damaged supports, seeking to find the culprit.
But when he saw what was stuck in the iron lattice work, he very quickly stopped in place.
A pale or grey skinned, blonde-haired person, quietly whimpering among the superheated metal. They didn’t look human. Well, not entirely. If you made their skin the average of every other human skin colour, they’d fit in just fine. Maybe not, considering their clothes were most unusual. The robes were crimson, and they had a star like collection of hair, hanging down across their face as they silently wallowed in whatever sorrows they were facing.
Chat just stood on the steadiest beam of metal in the entrance of the melted alcove. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say – partly in due to the sullen mood from the looming rift ahead, and from his many sleepless nights staring at his ceiling. His face was stuck in that same expression of restrained worry that it usually was when Ladybug didn’t show up for prolonged periods of time. His fingers twitched as he hesitantly lifted his arm but decided against reaching out to make the person aware of his presence.
Ladybug joined him. She, too, did not speak. Her face was similarly laced with worry, but it was not prominent enough to warrant a reaction.
They just waited.
The person slowly stopped shaking – the only remaining sounds being the creaking of metal and the wind whipping through the latticework of the Eiffel Tower. It was then that they decided to announce their presence, but they were cut off immediately.
“I… I know you’re both behind me.” The person didn’t look at them, just slightly turned their head.
Ladybug was the first to respond. “Wh- Are… Are you alright?”
“I… I suppose so?”
Chat spoke up this time. “Who are you?”
“… I’m Solyn.”
“I… Sorry, I… I can’t think straight just now. We can talk later, I... Right now … I need some time.”
Ladybug’s eyes didn’t disclose much of her mood, but she still spoke, “We’ll give you some space.”
Chat looked at her, expression unreadable in the darkness. Then, he stepped away.
“Thanks.”
And they left the strange person, in the darkness of the nights, as per their wishes.