Keep the Mask, It Goes With Your Costume

~Chapter Twelve: The Betrayal~

Upon reading the notification, Marinette bolted out of her mother's arms and up to her room.

There was no way this is real, she thought to herself, it must be fake, or edited, or just a prank video.

But as she opened it and began to watch, she realized it was far from fake.

Sabine almost ran up the stairs after her, knowing she would need consoling, but Tom stopped her. They both knew this was superhero stuff that she would need to work out on her own.

Ladybug couldn't stand what she was watching, as Cat Noir continued on and on about horrible things she 'had done', which they both knew weren't even true!

She couldn't believe it, no. Maybe Alya bribed him into saying it so she could get more views for the Ladybug. But Cat Noir couldn't have just done it for no reason like that, he just wouldn't. Either way, if Ladybug didn't get it taken down quick, it wouldn't be long before all of Paris became her enemy. It had only been up for a mere 7 minutes and was already at nearly 4,000 views! She knew she had to act fast. As soon as she finished watching it she jumped out of her room.

LB: You. Me. Eiffel Tower. 2 minutes.

She texted Cat Noir immediately from her bug phone. She figured if she acted just slightly intimidating, Cat Noir would be nervous and want to please her, so he would easily get the video taken down. Which is why she sent a sorta strict sounding message. And she wasn't super mad at him, she just figured there was some ulterior reason to him doing that for the video, and of course he didn't actually hate her! Right......? Right!??????

•

"She's seen it" Cat Noir told Alya under his breath open reading Ladybug's message, with malice in the tone of his voice.

Alya was suddenly hesitant, feeling her heart drop, she knew they may have gone too far, and felt horrible for what they were doing to Ladybug.

"D-do you think she's mad at you?" Alya asked, specifying " you" to hopefully bring herself out of drama and just make it something between him and Ladybug. Of course, Cat Noir didn't mind, and wasn't even flustered with this statement.

"Oh, I hope so." He replied, with almost an evil smile. It was then that Alya realized Cat Noir wasn't even consciously aware of what he was saying, and he had fully convinced himself Ladybug was the enemy. She had to bring him back to his senses before he physically hurt someone.

"Cat Noir, you know Ladybug didn't actually do anything wrong, right? I mean, she just kind of wanted to stop searching for Marinette, but it wasn't for bad reasons. And we just made up that other stuff so she would fess up about Marinette. But, do you think maybe we went to far? Like, we didn't actually want her to get super mad at us, did we?" She told him, in attempt to hopefully change his perspective a little bit on the situation. But he wasn't swayed, in fact it made him angrier. He stepped up really close in front of her, almost offended that Alya wanted to back down now, when it was her idea in the first place.

"Hey" he began "this is how we get Marinette back. I don't care if you suddenly don't want to anymore, I'll just add you to the list with the rest of Parisians that don't care, but I'm not giving up, and I'm going to do what I have to do." At this point he was so up close to her face she was scared to say anything else, for the possibility he could hurt her. But before she even had a chance to, he looked at his baton and it had been two minutes, he jumped out her window and toward the Eiffel tower to meet up with Ladybug.

•

By the time he got there, Ladybug was already standing under the Eiffel Tower, waiting. She was facing the opposite direction, and didn't notice him land a few yards behind her. He saw this as the perfect opportunity to sneak up on her without her suspecting it. While she was still looking into the distance, he slowly crept up from behind, and put his arms over her mouth. Her eyes widened and she began mumbling loudly in attempt to speak, thinking it was a supervillain since she couldn't see behind herself. Since Cat Noir was noticeably taller than Ladybug, he bent his head forward and cowered over her. When she looked up, Ladybug was shocked to see the iconic green eyes she's always trusted.

"Looking for me, Bugaboo?" He said with the most maniacal grin on his face. She mumbled even louder, tears filling her eyes, even kicking to try and break free, but from her height and position, despite her strength, it was to no avail. Still covering her mouth, Cat Noir stepped in front of her and swept her up from her legs, holding her bridal style as he jumped to the highest peak of the Eiffel Tower. And as he carefully set her down, (putting her down lightly and with care to make it ironic, because he was practically preparing to torture her while pretending he still cared) he grabbed her yoyo from her waist so it would be difficult for her to get down, and briskly uncovered her mouth then stepped a few feet away, holding her yoyo high so she couldn't reach it.

As soon as he let go of her, Ladybug took breath and practically fell to her knees coughing from her struggle to breathe. Although it only took her a few moments to recollect herself and stand up, she realized her yoyo was in his hand, and she was not getting down from here without him letting her.

Initially, Ladybug's plan was to politely but firmly convince Cat Noir to have the video taken down, but now she was just mad. She realized it was never Alya, or anyone else, it was simply Cat Noir taking an evil path and choosing against his own side, even if he didn't realize it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" she screamed as loudly as she could despite her loss of breath.

He chuckled as if un-intimidated by her anger. He walked up just in front of her and lifted her chin up to look at his face, tears filling up in her eyes. The way he was touching her face made her too scared to make any move. "What do you mean my dear, beautiful lady?" He said to her, trying again be ironic. "Do you think there's something going on? Between us? Oh but I would never want to hurt you bugaboo." He said, with his own expression becoming angrier, his hand slowly sliding down from a grip on her chin to a grip on her neck, and his other hand still holding her yoyo high in the air. She began crying even harder and grabbing his wrist with both her arms, trying to pull it away from her neck to keep herself from choking.

Ladybug knew Cat Noir didn't even care about her much anymore, but she still had one advantage in this situation, his feelings for her. Something like that can't just disappear because of one incident, she had to try. While he was still holding her neck, Ladybug switched her hands from his wrist to his waist. Pulling herself toward him, and standing up on her tippy toes, Ladybug kissed him right on the lips while holding him in a tight embrace. Obviously, since Cat Noir was still unfortunately in love with her, he was caught by surprise and let go of his grip on her neck, while also lowering the arm holding onto her yoyo. Ladybug took advantage of his shock and grabbed her yoyo. After forcefully pushing away his embrace, she threw her yoyo and was gone in a blink.

He hated himself not only falling for that, but for still having romantic feelings for such a horrible person. And he watched her swing away, both of them knowing this wasn't over.