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Breath. What is breath? His lungs weren’t working; his numbed legs burned from the anticipation of wanting to walk, to run. His green eyes were glued to the corner of the large, open room. Butterflies clouded his vision, and he sweated with cold terror.
The sun peaked through what was left of the akuma-styled stained glass window. Shards rested all over the floor, but most are in the skin of the people whose bodies lined the floor.
”Adrien?” a quiet voice asked. Alya, he registered.
He doesn’t answer.
“Marinette,” he whispers into the pale light. “Can you hear me?”
”Of course I hear you, kitty!” She smiles, her pearly teeth on full display. She’s radiant, and his heart aches.
”Where are you?”
She chuckles, a breath and airy laugh.
Adrien winces as he wakes up. The room isn’t his own – it’s pink and fabric is thrown everywhere.
“Adrien?” Sabine Cheng asks when she peeps in the room. “Breakfast is ready.”
The room will never be his own, not when she’s gone.
Gabriel Agreste still missing; son also nowhere in sight.
He balled the newspaper up after reading the headline and threw it in the trash.
”Adrien, we can’t keep you hidden forever,” Chloé said, breaking the timid silence of the hotel room. Nino rubbed his neck from his seat beside her, and Alya held all of their Kwamis in her lap.
Adrien scoffed. “You think I don’t know that? All of Paris is looking for me! He ratted me out as Chat Noir before the battle!”
”I think you should go with Marinette’s parents,” Alya replied, not even flinching at any of her own words.
He stared at the olive-skinned girl and sighed. “You’re right. That’s the safest place in Paris.”
”Do you see her?” Hawkmoth pointed to the body of his fiancée, her spotted suit torn and bloody. “That’s all your fault! You killed her!”
“Stop!” Chat Noir screeched, his voice breaking as he covers his ears.
This is your fault.
You killed her.
What would Marinette think of you now?
The superhero kept screaming, his body rattling with anger and terror. “I hate you!” he growled at his father.
”What would Ladybug say about that?” Hawkmoth said, smirking at the superhero cowering before him.
Chat Noir blinked once. Twice. Then, he raised his hand and screamed out a word that had Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, and Carapace limping to stop him.
”Cataclysm!”
The world mourns.
“Marinette Agreste?” Alya says, looking at the man beside her in a simple suit.
”It’s what she wanted her name to be when we married each other,” Adrien replied.
The two hug as they murmur loving goodbyes. A grave sits peacefully with a spotted superhero in it.
The world moves on.