Secrets and Betrayals

Chapter 34: The Miraculous Team

A/N: Hey guys, Lily and Sayuri here! So, I have reached another crossroad in my fic, so I need your help again. Leave a review telling me what you want to happen, please! Every suggestion helps, and I want to write something that hopefully all of you will enjoy in some way. I have a few ideas, but most of them are just rash and random plot twists. You'll see the biggest one in the middle of this chapter. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 34: The Miraculous Team

     "Do you think it was a mistake to send those two off on their own?" Ladybug asked Peacock nervously as she swung across the rooftops. He made a muffled thinking noise. When he responded, his words nearly got blown away by the wind.      "I guess we'll find out. I know Chloe was a good person once. Although honestly, I'm having trouble forgiving her for everything she's done. So will everyone else. And she won't forgive herself easily, I know that. This isn't going to be some super speedy 'I'm a good guy now' moment. Old habits are hard to break," Peacock said wisely, before sneezing for the sixth hundredth time.      Ladybug didn't respond. She was focusing too much on the fact that her city was being completely destroyed and burned to the ground. The sound of warning bells and fire alarms, along with emergency response vehicles, filled the normally quiet night. How would she ever be able to fix all of this? How could she have let it get so out of hand?      "Where are we going?" Peacock asked suddenly, realizing that she wasn't stopping by civilians or heading the way that was originally agreed upon. He winced as her arm tightened a little too much around the lower section of his stomach, putting pressure on his biggest injury.      "Sorry," Ladybug murmured. "We're going to the source of the problem!"      "My father?" Peacock asked, cringing and fighting back the urge to either scream or cry. Ladybug nodded mutely. "But why? You can't face him alone! I'm in no shape to fight! He has the cat miraculous, your other half! He can balance you out!" Peacock again wanted to wince as he thought of his father using Plagg. "What about the others?"      "They're all new to this. I've been a superhero for years. I know all of the rules, I know my limits, and I know how to work my powers. Remember how clumsy we were at the beginning? That's what they're going to be like. All four of them! I can't babysit them and fight at the same time!" Ladybug said. She was afraid for her friends' lives. It was much safer this way. Peacock disagreed.      "That may be true, but you can't fight him alone! It's impossible! He isn't just another akuma!" he argued. She kept going resolutely, ignoring the sneezing blonde boy. He frowned. "I don't want to see you get hurt, my lady."      That was what did it. The nickname. Recently used (about a week and a half ago) in the midst of friendly banter and the daily akuma attack. He said it lovingly. She thought he said it jokingly. That was before. Before all of this happened. Before Adrien got hurt, before their identities were revealed. Ladybug faltered.      "I don't want to see the rest of them get hurt," she answered. "You're right, this isn't just another akuma. It is one of the two most powerful miraculous. We had a hard enough time with the akuma, can you imagine new super heroes fighting... him? If anyone goes down, it should be me. I know what I got myself into when I accepted this miraculous."      "So did they, Ladybug. So did they," Peacock said simply. "I know I can't stop you. I know I can't help you. But remember, you're all I have left now. You can't die on me. Please. I'm begging you!" He sounded so heartbroken that Ladybug considered turning around, maybe calling Alya and asking the team to regroup. But another scream echoed across the streets of Paris and she continued on.      "I know, chaton. I won't leave you. I could never leave you. But I have to try. I won't do it if it looks too risky, and I'll back out if it gets too rough."      "Oh look, a few dozen undead minions. Looks too risky already," Peacock deadpanned, pointing at the swarm. Ladybug huffed.      "I know," she admitted. For once, you're absolutely right."      "You mean paw-sitively right."      For once, Ladybug bit her tongue before she joked about dropping him. Because she couldn't even joke about something anymore, especially something like that. Peacock seemed uncomfortable too, because he shifted against her side. Maybe he was just trying to find the least painful way to travel.          "We're getting close," she muttered, observing how more and more undead seemed to be clustered around the area, watching and waiting. Peacock bristled beside her.      Using all of the stealth and the Ladybug luck she could muster, Ladybug crept along in the shadows. Her red suit wasn't the best camouflage, but she had long since learned to work with it. Finally she stopped and peered into the park. She gasped in absolute horror to see her beloved bakery home. Now, it was just a pile of rubble and some jagged pieces of wood. Paris looked like it had been bombed.      The park had been stripped of trees, but the fence around it was still standing. Hundreds of undead people stood inside of the park, silent. Standing in the center of the park, on top of the podium that used to bear the Ladybug and Chat Noir statue, stood a larger, and admittedly more fearsome, version of Chat Noir.      Ladybug found a building along the edge of the park that was only half demolished, and had somewhat stable places to hide on the roof. She immediately set Peacock down. The boy curled up against a broken chimney missing half of its bricks, clutching both hands to his sides.      "AH-AH-AH..." Ladybug quickly shoved a finger under Peacock's nose to silence the sneeze.      "I'm going to go in there," she told him. He nearly fell off of the roof.      "What?" he hissed. "Are you crazy? That park is full to the brim of indestructible soldiers. You would be outnumbered like 453 to 1!"      "If I can use the element of surprise and attack him directly instead of having to stroll through his little army, then I won't have to deal with it."       "And after he notices you?"       "I'll wing it from there."      There was a moment of silence.      "Ladybug, Marinette, please don't!" He looked up at her with big, pleading green eyes. They were slowly filling with tears. "I get that you feel like this is your fault, and I know that you feel like you have to fix it immediately. But you have no plan, no backup, no partner, and no hope. If you have to die to fix this..." Adrien took in a deep, shuddering breath and let it out again. "Then die a hero, not a martyr."      "I'm sorry, Adrien. I have to try." She leaned down and kissed him softly, ruffling his hair. "I'll be right back."      She looked back at him one last time before pulling her yoyo off of her hip and swinging down to attack Gabriel. She left a weary, tear-soaked, and terrified boy in her wake. "Please Ladybug, please come back safely," he whispered into the night air. "What would Paris do without you? What would the rest of the team do without you?" He paused for a minute, staring at the moon through the thick smoke. "What would I do without you?"