Restarting from the middle

Chat Blanc

Marinette felt more like a watcher rather than a participant when her hand touched the dark figure that looked scarily similar to the memory of herself.
The statue dissolved under the touch of her fingers and the dust faded away in the water.
Next to her, there was another figure, this one still intact. It looked like a grown man.
Marinette looked around.
She recognized it as being her city. Paris.
But the houses, the buildings, they're all under water.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Tikki
Marinette woke up covered in sweat.
Her breathing was fast-paced and uneven. Her heart was threatening to jump out of her chest from how hard it was beating.
It took her a few minutes to calm down and realize that she didn't know who or what «Tikki» was. Then why did she call for it?
Her bedroom was quiet.
Her clock told her - not literally, more in figurative kind of way, obviously (clocks don't talk) - that she had only slept 3 hours. Even less than the couple of nights before, where she woke up with a similar nightmare.
She turned to the side and tried to fall asleep again.

- ‘Morning, dudette. You look like you are gonna fall asleep any moment. - Nino joked - What happened?
-I haven't been sleeping very well. - They cross the classroom door. - But I think it's your girlfriend that you should be worried about.
Alya was asleep in her seat.
She had her head in her book. Literally.
Marinette sat next to her.
-Alya? - the girl poked her friend’s shoulder.
-Hã? - Alya looked startled for half a second. - Oh. Hi, Marinette.
-Are you ok?- The girl with pigtails asked gently, she was worried for her friend.
-Yes, yes. - Alya rushed to say. - I am fine.
-Really?- Nino asked from the front row.
-Really. - She repeated. - Don't worry about me.
-Did you see the news? Chat Noir and Scarabella fought another Akuma last night. -Nino changed the conversation
- I wonder where Ladybug is. She hasn't showed up in a while.
Adrien and Alya tried to not let the others know that this was a sensitive topic for them.
-Maybe she is out of the country. - suggested Marinette.
She had never seen the superhero Nino mentioned in action (or at least that she remembered) but that didn't stop her from trying to guess.
Little did she know (unlike Alya and partly Adrien) that she was the reason there wasn't a Ladybug anymore.
The class started and they shifted their focus to the teacher.

Marinette opened the water tap and washed her hands.
-Hi Marinette. - The redhead that everyone (except Marinette for obvious reasons) remembers, leaned against the frame of the girl’s bathroom door.
-Hi… Lila, right?
-That’s my name, yes. -Lila paused. - I heard about what happened. Do you really don't remember anything from this past year?
Marinette shook her head. The expression of empathy and pity that Lila made fooled the clueless dark-haired girl.
-I am sorry I didn't come to speak to you sooner but I’ve been really busy with a charity project I’ve been working on and it had me really worried for a few days.
-Don’t worry. - the other girl said.
Lila was feeling somewhat jaunty that Marinette seemed to believe her lies.
-I am glad you understand. And I am glad I could check on you now. If you need anything, any help, you can always ask me. That’s what friends do, right?
-Yeah… - Even if she couldn’t remember, apparently she was friends with Lila girl.  And Marinette, even didn’t want to keep talking with her, she also didn’t want to be rude. - I’ll remember that. Thank you. See you in class.
Lila waved at her while she left the bathroom.
-I am glad to see you finally get along with Lila.- Alya commented.
-What do you mean “finally”?
-You had a crush on Adrien so, when she first came to school and flirted with him, you took it as a personal offense. And, until… well… recently, you had been holding a grudge.
Oh
-Oh - Marinette kept her response that simple. -Just because of that?
That didn’t sound like her.
-Yep. At least, there wasn’t any other motive that I could think of.
Marinette couldn’t help to think that Alya was holding back something. But that could just be her being paranoid.

During lunch break, Marinette decided that she wanted some peace and quiet.
After getting an apple from the cafeteria, she said to Alya that she wasn’t feeling very hungry and wanted to study a bit.
Her best friend nodded and said she’d see her later.
Marinette went to the art classroom.
She picked an A3 sheet and a pencil and she started to unwind her mind.
-Marinette?- after a while in absolute silence, her classmate jump-scared her.
-Nathaniel. Hi.
-Why are you here?
Marinette frowned a little bit.
-Can’t I be here?
-You can… - Nathaniel seemed a little jumbled with his words. - I just meant: What are you doing here? You’re usually with Alya at this time.
-Oh. I… I just came here to draw for a bit.
The redhead walked over to her and took a peek at her drawing.
-Is that Chat Noir?- he asked.
Was that Chat Noir? Now that Marinette looked at the full picture, it did look like the superhero.
-I… suppose so.
-You suppose so?- the boy encouraged.
Marintte tried to think of an answer for that question even if not for her classmate but for herself.
-I’ve been having these nightmares… I thought that, if I draw them, I would…
She stopped. She would what?
Her eyes were on the paper. She would what?
The girl shook her head and pointed at the pile of drawings turned upside down.
Nathaniel picked them up and perused them.
-These are great. - He complimented before looking back at her. - I knew you liked fashion but I didn’t know you liked to draw stories.
-I don’t. - Marinete said almost immediately. - I…
What? Stories?
She got up from the chair so abruptly that the chair fell back. She didn’t care.
She took the drawings from his hand and looked at them herself.
Marinette quivered. She felt a cold thrill slithering in her spine when she saw the first image.
On the speech balloon of the Chat Noir in a white suit.
«Little kitty on a roof…»
-Chat… Noir?- she whispered the line spoken by the crayon drawing of Ladybug
«... all alone without his lady.»
Every letter she read seemed to increase the pain on her head. But she kept reading.
«M’lady? I thought I’d lost you. Oh, I was feline so sad that you were gone.»
Marinette held her forehead, trying to fight the heat with her cold hand.
She skipped head, aware that, for whatever reason it was, she might not be able to keep reading it for long.
«My poor kitty... tell me,» Ladybug holds Chat Blanc's bell. «do you remember where the Akuma went?» Ladybug looks at his belt.
Chat Blanc grabs her hand and puts it on his chest. «Here!» he says «But it's already broken!»
Her hands started to tremble and Marinette drops the papers. They fall on the table or fly and fall on the ground.
Everything around her starts to seem unfocused and faded.
-Are you ok, Marinette?- the voice of her friends snaps her out of it. Of whatever it was.
-I… I am not feeling well. - she tried to say with a steady voice.
-I am gonna get the nurse.
Nathaniel left the arts classroom and, with it, Marinette.
The girl was left alone.
Surrounded by the drawings she didn't remember drawing.
Surrounded by the papers whose words made her feel like she could pass out at any moment.
Left with a name.
Chat Blanc.