#adrinettemonthday9

The scene replays over and over and over again in her mind, deluging her every thought until the numbness turns to anguish and back again. It had been just like any other battle. Chat had activated cataclysm like he had done hundreds of times before. Except this time, the akuma villain had caught his wrist before Chat could discharge his power to an object. And then the villain had twisted Chat Noir’s wrist and turned his own claws on himself. Ladybug had never screamed so loud, had never defeated an akuma villain so quickly. As soon as she’d cried the command words and hurled the spotted lucky charm into the sky, she’d detransformed and rushed to her partner’s side. He was already gone.

A morbid part of Marinette has always wondered if cataclysm is stronger than the protective suits she and Chat Noir wear. If cataclysm can be used on a person at all, or if, as a force of good, there are limits to the power. She wishes she had never found out just how limitless the power is.

Beepbeepbeep. The familiar sound emanating from Chat’s ring breaks the roaring silence in her ears. Marinette swallows as arcs of electricity flicker over her partner’s form, replacing a fallen superhero with a teenage boy lying in a spreading puddle of his own blood.

“No.” The red is a stark contrast against Adrien’s white jacket and soaks into his hair. “No, I can’t—this can’t—”

“Kid. It happened.” Plagg’s head is bowed and he rests on the ground, seemingly too dejected to float. Tikki flies down to join him, murmuring something Marinette doesn’t catch.

A sob tears through her throat as she glimpses something glittering in Adrien’s still-warm hands. She lifts it, the object unmistakable even as her vision blurs, eyes stinging. Eight beads on a string. The bracelet she’d given him nearly three years ago. It was supposed to be a good luck charm, but clearly all the luck in the world hadn’t been enough to save Chat Noir from his own cataclysm.

Her fingers close around the small token and she presses her fist to her chest as if she can drive it through and halt the grief twisting her heart. “You can’t leave me,” Marinette chokes, voice breaking.

Tikki cries out a warning. Marinette glances down and is unsurprised to see a flutter of black wings disappearing between her fingers and into her bracelet, to find a purple glow flooding her vision and a silken voice slithering into her ear.

"Lady Lazarus.” The greeting is almost dripping with triumph. “You know who I am. It’s over. You’ve lost the love of your life. But I can give you the power to bring him back. All that I require are yours and Chat Noir’s miraculouses. You don’t have use for them anymore. Wouldn't you rather have him back and safe than continue this pointless vigilantism that took his life? "

She doesn’t hesitate. "Do it, Hawkmoth."

As a wave of magic bubbles over her, the crushing weight making her curl in on herself fades. She straightens, a cold determination to bring Adrien back shoving away the pain. And why should she stop there? Death has hurt so many people in this city, in the world, and she has the power to reverse it. A smirk spreads slowly across her face. Lady Lazarus lifts her arms over Adrien’s corpse.

He levitates off of the ground. Bandages shoot out of Lady Lazarus’ sleeves and wrap around his body, turning the corpse into a mummified cocoon. The bandages glow with a red as deep as the blood spilled on the street.

“Rise,” Lady Lazarus commands, letting out a long exhale. The earth trembles beneath her and the bandages fall away, forming a pile of ragged cloth. Adrien drops to the ground on his hands and knees. He lets out a gasp, chest heaving as if he can’t get enough air into his lungs. Lady Lazarus waits patiently until the world stills. Adrien takes another shuddering breath, then sits back on his heels. His eyes open. They widen.

“Marinette…”

It's as though someone has splashed cold water into her face. Hawkmoth may have akumatized her, but her head begins to clear at the sound of her name, the way Adrien’s voice wraps around those three syllables in familiar tenderness. She is suddenly engulfed with memories of him whispering that name under the sheets in blissful nights, groaning it in despair when she beats him at Ultimate Mecha Strike III five times in a row, accidentally gasping it out between bursts of laughter on patrols, murmuring it in understanding during her lowest moments, saying it with a smile and eyes so soft and so full of love...

“Adrien? Oh god, Adrien, you’re really…” She swallows, her right hand drifting towards his face, so full of life though it had been a marble mask of death just moments ago. He’s safe, and he’s alive, and he’s here. It’s enough to quell the fury coursing through her veins. Adrien’s hand drifts upwards as well, and he takes her hand in his, moving it to rest on his cheek.

“It’s good to see you, Bugaboo. But what’s up with the bandages?”

Marinette drops her hand, glancing down at her Hawkmoth-issued outfit. She’s wearing a long sleeved, form-fitting crop top and a long, flowing skirt, both swirling with red and black—colors of the underworld rather than ones representing the luck of a ladybug. Bandages are wrapped around her torso, her upper arms, and trail out of her sleeves. There’s a slight pressure around her eyes as well, and she can imagine a butterfly mask made of that same white cloth is there. “I needed to see you,” she whispers, flitting her gaze back up to meet Adrien’s. He sighs.

“I would never want you to be akumatized for me, Marinette.” He pauses. They’re both searching for words that will never capture the gravity of their thoughts.

"How are you feeling?" Marinette says instead of the thousands of things she feels she needs to express in one breath.

"Well, I feel a little dead on my feet, but otherwise, I'm good."

Something between a laugh and a sob escapes Marinette. She pitches forward, falling into Adrien's ready embrace. He holds her close to him. She can't tell if she’s the one shaking or if they both are.

"Mari, you know this can't last."

"Why not?" She can hear the petulance in her own voice and knows it's the akuma speaking. "We've never had a world without death before; you don't know that it wouldn't be right. Maybe this is what I'm meant to do. I can stay Lady Lazarus, and you can help me, and—"

“And you’d spend the rest of your life as Hawkmoth’s puppet? You wouldn’t be able to return to your family, Marinette. And we can’t just hand over our miraculouses to a terrorist so that you can keep me here. You still have to fight,” he says quietly. “I wish I could fight with you.” His voice, so firm and reassuring before, is barely audible in its moment of weakness.

“You’re right. I know,” she relents. She sits back, bracing herself for the end. A world of terrible understanding passes between them. There’s nothing they can do to fix this.

“Adrien.” Plagg’s voice cracks. Adrien cups his hands, and the kwami floats up to rest in them.

“Plagg… Thank you. Thank you for everything.” Adrien looks up, meeting Marinette’s eyes. “Tell them, okay? Nino, Chloe, Alya, my father… everyone.” She nods, throat constricting. He takes a deep breath. "Okay. Give me the bracelet, Mari," he says gently. Hot tears escape and streak down her face. Her hand shakes violently as she slips the akumatized object off of her wrist and slowly, agonizingly, gives it up to Adrien. For once she knows exactly how hard it is for an akuma villain to give up their object of power; she feels utterly vulnerable. But despite every fiber of her being screaming at her to snatch the bracelet back, she keeps her eyes on Adrien and resists the urge. Adrien holds the bracelet and nods to something beside her. Someone. Tikki. The kwami floats up to hover by his side and faces Marinette.

“Whenever you’re ready."

“Can I even become Ladybug while akumatized?” Tikki’s only answer is a listless shrug. Marinette takes a deep breath with a nod.

“Tikki, transform me.”

As her transformation washes over her, Marinette can feel the wrongness of her power combining with the akuma’s in a visceral way. It feels as if Tikki will break away from her any second, but she holds onto the transformation and the last time she will be Ladybug with her Chat Noir.

Adrien rips the string in two, beads clattering to the ground. A black akuma slinks out of one of the beads, and Marinette catches it in her yoyo methodically. With a tap, the surface of her yoyo snaps open, releasing a purified butterfly. Marinette knows what she needs to do next will rip Adrien from her forever.

"I don't want to," she gasps.

"You have to.” Adrien looks as helpless as she feels.

Marinette leans forward, and Adrien brushes her lips with his in a soft final kiss. As she forces herself to pull away, he takes her hands, giving her the strength to do the impossible. To let him go. 

"Miraculous Ladybug." No lucky charm had been used, so she tosses her yoyo into the air and it explodes in a shower of light. For a moment, Marinette can almost pretend the two of them are sitting together beneath a breathtaking fireworks show, can almost imagine the tightness in her chest is from excitement rather than heartbreak. But it isn't. And there will never be a fireworks show. She will never again spend a moment with her partner. Her best friend. The boy she loves.

Marinette was worried out of her mind. It had taken her too long to use her lucky charm and Cat Noir had gotten caught in the crossfire. Normally he got back to her soon once he was restored to normal, but that Akuma was way more violent than their other ones had been. Cat had been seriously hurt, and Ladybug sent him off to take care of himself.

She couldn’t get the color of his blood out of her mind. 

If she didn’t find him soon, make sure he was okay, she didn’t know what she would do, but she couldn’t find him as Marinette. 

“Don’t worry, Marinette,” Tikki said, trying to soothe her, “I’m sure Cat Noir is alright. Your Miraculous Ladybug should have healed him.”

“I’ve never seen him that hurt before, Tikki. What if he couldn’t get to safety? What if he’s still bleeding?” Marinette started to crumble in on herself. “It’s not supposed to be like this, Tikki. Hawkmoth’s akumas aren’t normally like this. What if I couldn’t heal him? What if he’s not okay? It’s all my fault!”

Marinette fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around herself as sobs ripped through her. The long buried worries that she wasn’t good enough began to rise in her again. If she couldn’t keep her partner safe while Hawkmoth became more powerful,  how could she ever hope to keep Paris safe?

Tikki tried her best to comfort Marinette, but to no avail.

Neither of them noticed a small, black butterfly flutter up to the ribbons in Marinette’s hair.

Adrien made his way back to the scene of the attack as quickly as he could, but there was no sign of Ladybug anywhere. 

He cursed under his breath. “I’m going to have to call her, Plagg. Let me find you some cheese so that I can trans–”

His thought was cut off by an ear piercing wail a couple of blocks away. Adrien cursed again. Did Hawkmoth not know how to give it a rest? 

Or maybe that was one of his new strategies. Hit them with as many akuma as possible until Ladybug and Cat Noir couldn’t fight it anymore and just gave up. It wasn’t going to happen today, though. 

Adrien ran towards the noise, looking for any shop that might be selling cheese. What he saw when he rounded the corner stopped him dead in his tracks. 

“Marinette?”

Before him, hovering about ten feet off the ground was an akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Her skin was pale pink, and her short pigtails had grown about twenty inches longer and were an exaggerated, royal blue, held back by even longer pink ribbons. She wore a pink and red high-low dress that looked as though it was made out of rice paper, and would fall apart at the most gentle touch. Her feet were bare, and her lips were bright, cherry red. What had Adrien worried the most was her “mask”. Most akumatized victims wore an actual mask, but Marinette’s looked like a smudge of black makeup, as if she had been crying while wearing black eye makeup. It was smeared across both of her eyes, and the bridge of her nose. It dripped down her cheeks in heavy streams. 

Adrien had seen Marinette upset before, but she had never been upset enough to be akumatized. She was always so upbeat and optimistic. What could have possibly happened to upset her this much?

Adrien had to work quickly. Ladybug probably had gotten wind of the new akuma by then, and was probably recharging her kwami. If Adrien could hold Marinette off for just a few minutes, Ladybug could come take over, and he could find a way to transform himself. 

“Plagg, do you think you can get your own cheese this time?”

“Kid, what do you think you’re about to do,” Plagg’s voice was guarded with concern. 

“I think there’s a cheese store over there. The owners should have evacuated by now. Just leave this money on the counter and recharge. Be back here in ten minutes. That should be plenty of time for LB to get here and take over.”

Plagg gave him a suspicious look before nodding and flitting off in the direction Adrien indicated. 

Adrien returned his focus to Marinette. 

She was using bolts of long, silken fabric to upend buildings, almost like she was looking for something.

“Marinette!” Adrien called, running towards her.

Her head whipped around, eyes wide. When they fell on him, though, her expression fell. Her face went from disappointment to anger in only a matter of seconds. “I’m not Marinette, anymore. I’m Seamstress, and I need to find him. Don’t get in my way.”

Marinette shot her hand out, and several strands of thread unraveled from the tips of her fingers, brushing Adrien out of the way. She pressed forward, using her ribbons to uproot trees and tip cars. When she didn’t find what she was looking for, she let out another wail. 

The cry rattled windows, and shook the earth below Adrien’s feet. He didn’t know who she’d lost or why she was so upset, but he had to do something. Seamstress was going to turn the entirety of Paris upside down. 

“Seamstress, come talk to me, please!” Adrien chased after her. “Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help.”

Seamstress whipped around to face him, her mask running further with tears. "You think you can help? I couldn’t even help! I was supposed to look after him! I was supposed to make sure he came out of everything safe and sound. That’s my job! To set things right! And I failed! So how do you think you could possibly help?“

Adrien winced at the piercing sound of her cries. "I don’t know what happened, Seamstress, but if we can find who you’re looking for, maybe we can make everything right together.”

“No. I have to do this myself.” The ribbons in her hair whipped around her body, then lengthened to wrap around Adrien and lift him from the ground. He wriggled around a bit, trying to break loose, but to no avail. “He was my best friend, and I let him down.”

Adrien scrambled for an idea, then remembered something Ladybug had told him the first time Cat Noir had worked with Marinette. “What if we wait for Ladybug? You’re friends with her, right? Maybe when Ladybug gets here, she can help you find him!”

Seamstress started laughing, but it wasn’t Marinette’s melodic, bell like laugh that Adrien had grown so fond of. This laughter was bitter, humorless. “Ladybug won’t be coming today.”

Adrien’s heart dropped, and he prayed for Plagg to hurry up. “What do you mean?”

“Ladybug can’t help me or you. She can’t help anyone.”

“Mari–Seamstress, what do you mean, she can’t help anyone?” The sinking feeling in Adrien’s stomach increased. Had Seamstress done the impossible and taken Ladybug’s Miraculous? Or worse? 

Seamstress laughed humorlessly once again, tears still streaming down her face. “Don’t you get it? She won’t be coming because she’s already here."Seamstress used both hands to push her fringe behind her ears, revealing a pair of familiar earrings, and a very frightened kwami on her shoulder. "Ladybug won’t be coming because I am Ladybug!”

Adrien’s whole world came crashing down around him. Marinette was Ladybug. That should have been a bigger surprise to him than it was, but it made sense. Marinette was one of the kindest, bravest people he had ever met, so why shouldn’t she be Paris’s heroine? What surprised and terrified him was that Ladybug/Marinette had somehow fallen into Hawkmoth’s grasp and become akumatized. 

“Marinette, no,” The little red kwami exclaimed, trying to hide herself from view. “Please, snap out of it, Marinette!”

It was Ladybug’s kwami, no doubt horrified that her chosen wasn’t in control of herself, and had just revealed herself to a civilian. Adrien had to put the Kwami at ease. There was no one else in the near vicinity, so likely no one else had heard the declamation. He was sure Ladybug had told him the name of her kwami before, now if only he could remember it……"Tikki!“

The kwami’s eyes grew wide, and met his. She hesitantly came out from behind Seamstress’s neck. He had to be quick. Seamstress was busy upending a small building.

"Tikki, please, you have to help me!”

The little red kwami took the opportunity and fluttered over to Adrien. “Cat Noir? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“So you are okay, then!” The tiny being sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. Where is Plagg?”

“He should be back soon. I didn’t want to leave Marinette.” Adrien struggled against the ribbons once again. “How did this happen?”

“After Cat Noir got hurt and disappeared, Ladybug looked for him, because he usually checked in after the cure. She couldn’t find him. She was really worried, and she thought you were still badly hurt. Hawkmoth took advantage of that and akumatized her.”

“She was that upset,” Adrien muttered. He knew Ladybug cared about Cat Noir, but for her to get this upset over his disappearance… He didn’t even know what to think. 

Adrien drew his eyes away from Seamstress if only for a moment. He scanned his surroundings, looking for a way out of his predicament. His eyes finally landed by a little black spot fluttering about below him. Finally, he thought. 

“Plagg!” He shouted. Normally he looked for a private place to do this, but he wasn’t going to let Marinette stay akumatized. Besides, it wasn’t fair for him to know who she was but not the other way around. Plagg’s eyes met Adrien’s, and he hoped that this would work from such a distance. “Transform me!”

The tiny black kwami shot up, into Adrien’s ring. Adrien grinned as the transformation washed over him, dispite the fact that he was still restrained by Seamstress’s ribbons. 

Unfortunately, Seamstress could not stay distracted forever. His transformation caught her attention, and Tikki hid behind the freshly transformed Cat Noir. Seamstress’s hand came open, dropping Cat Noir to the ground like a hot potato. Seamstress let out another shriek, this time of panic, and she attempted to catch him. When he slipped through her fingers, he landed on his feet on the street below. 

“A-A-Adrien!” Seamstress’s voice took on a very Marinette-like quality as she stuttered out his civilian name. The tiny girl fluttered down closer to the ground,  her eyes blown wide. “C-cat Noir is…Adrien is…You-you’re not hurt?!”

“I’m fine, Seamstress.” Cat Noir spoke calmly and quietly. He could see that the key to getting this akuma out of Marinette was to reassure her that he was alright. “After Ladybug took care of the last akuma, her Miraculous Cure took care of my injuries.” He raised both of his arms and turned around. “See, no more injuries. Not even a little bruise.”

Seamstress floated a bit closer to the ground at his words.

“The akuma is in her hair ribbons,” Tikki whispered from Cat Noir’s collar.

Cat Noir gave a slight nod.

“Why did you disappear?” Seamstress’s electric blue eyes watered once again, “I couldn’t find you, and I was afraid.”

“I know,” he said quietly. He held one gloved hand out to her. “But I’m here now.”

Seamstress tentatively placed her hand in his, and her feet finally hit the ground. 

Cat Noir attempted to touch her hair ribbons, but a violet butterfly appeared, highlighting her eyes. As she listened to Hawkmoth in her head, the tears ran in her eyes once more. She began to shake her head. “I can’t do that.”

She winced for a moment, then suddenly doubled over in pain. She let out her loudest shriek yet as Hawkmoth manipulated her mind. 

Cat Noir had to work quickly. He couldn’t let Marinette be in pain, especially not when this was all his fault to begin with. Seamstress lifted her head slightly and met Cat Noir’s eyes. Her own were bloodshot. Her mask smeared even further from the tears. Her face was red not with a blush but with the strain. He could see Marinette in there, begging for help.

“Cat Noir, you have to do something,” Tikki shouted at him. “Hawkmoth is hurting her, and she can’t get away from him!”

Cat Noir did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed both ribbons, ripped them out of her hair, and tore them to pieces using his claws. The shredded ribbon fell to the ground. As soon as the shreds hit the street below, Seamstress’s shriek came to a stop as Hawkmoth’s control loosened. She fell fully to her knees. A tiny black and violet butterfly escaped from the ribbon pieces. Cat Noir snagged it’s wings between his fingers. As Hawkmoth’s control fell away completely, Seamstress’s costume faded away in a cloud of black, leaving Marinette in her place. 

She was confused, of course. Her hair fell loosely around her face, and her big, bluebell eyes stared up at him with more questions than he thought he had answers to. Part of Adrien wished that akuma victims didn’t lose their memories as much as they did. It would make explaining things to Marinette easier. Another part of him was relieved. Marinette–Ladybug–they both had such a big heart, and he would hate for them–her to fully remember what it was like to fall under Hawkmoth’s control. 

“Cat Noir,” Marinette’s voice came out smaller than he was used to hearing from her. “You’re okay.”

Cat Noir came to his knees beside her. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me anymore. How are you feeling?”

“I’m alright I guess.” She averted her eyes. “What did I do? Is anyone hurt?”

“No, everyone was already evacuated from the last akuma. But I need to talk to you about some things, My Lady.”

Marinette’s hands came to cover her mouth. “Oh no. Did I–”

Cat Noir nodded. “I’m afraid so. And right now, as much as I’d like to sit and talk about it, I’m afraid I need some help from the other side of you to take care of a small complication.” He gave a weary half-smile and held up the butterfly that was trying to escape his grasp.

Marinette nodded, her eyes taking on a serious light. Tikki popped up from behind Cat’s collar, and fluttered over to Marinette’s side. “We should get somewhere a little bit more private.”

Cat Noir lifted Marinette into his arms, princess style (pun entirely intended), and jumped into the air. He carried her over a few buildings until they reached a small rooftop garden where they couldn’t be spotted by any curious glances. He watched in awe as her transformation overtook her. He thought that Ladybug in the light of the Eiffel Tower at dusk was the most beautiful sight in the world, but he had been mistaken. It was Marinette, wrapped in the magical light of her kwami as she put her duty to Paris over her own confusion. 

Once it was Ladybug standing before him, Cat Noir released the akuma. She used her yoyo to purify the creature, then set the Miraculous Cure about the city. Once things were returned to normal, Cat Noir could finally breathe. 

He collapsed to his knees in the middle of the garden, his leather ears lying flat on the top of his head. “Oh my God.”

He heard Ladybug collapse across from him, falling onto her bottom, legs splayed out. It was probably one of the least graceful things he’d seen from her since they first learned how to use their abilities. It brought a fond smile to his face. 

“So, I guess we have some things to talk about,” he said. 

“Yeah, I think that would be good,” Ladybug pushed her still loose locks back over her shoulder. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No, you barely touched me. You were doing a lot of property damage, but nothing to be too worried about.”

“Where did you come from? I don’t even remember you showing up. I vaguely remember seeing someone…I think…Adrien was there? W-what happened to Adrien?”

“Well, that’s actually part of what we need to talk about.”

“Oh my God, I didn’t hurt Adrien did I?!”

“No, no. He’s fine. Actually,” he took a deep breath, “he’s right here.”

“What do you mean?”

Cat Noir sighed. “I was there, but I couldn’t find anything for my kwami to eat. I needed to keep an eye on you, so I sent Plagg to find something for himself as quickly as possible. When you told me you were Ladybug, I knew I had to work as quickly as possible. By the time Plagg got back, there wasn’t even time to hide before I transformed. So basically,” Cat Noir released his transformation, and then it was Adrien sitting in front of her. “here I am.”

Ladybug’s mouth was drawn in a hard line. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack, and Adrien began to wonder if he’d actually done the right thing. “Okay. I don't…I don’t actually know how to process this right now. This is…wow, a lot to take in. But, the first thing we need to deal with is the obvious: Hawkmoth now knows both of our secret identities. This is going to put both of us into a pretty bad place, so we’re going to have to be on guard twenty four seven.”

“You’re right. I knew revealing myself may not have been the smartest thing I’ve ever done, LB, but I’m not letting you deal with this on your own.” He put his hand on her arm. “When we got into this, we did it together. We’re a team. Things might be a bit…weird right now, but we’re in this together.”

Ladybug’s hard eyes softened a little bit, and she seemed to relax marginally. “You’re right,” she nodded. “Together.” She finally smiled. It was tense, and her eyes were filled with fear and discomfort, but she was smiling. Finally, she broke the tension and threw her arms around him. “We’re in this together,” she murmured into his shoulder. 

...

They sit in the alley, detransformed, and she shivers in his arms. "P-please, Adrien... Chloé saw me transform, I'm so, so scared..."

He tenses, the memory of his childhood friend flashing through his mind, the girl who became the classmate who loved to cause pain. "Chloé?"

"If it gets out who I am, you know they'll give me the death penalty..."

"I'll die first. I swear to that," he tells her instantly. He knows, though, that's not what she's asking him to do. She's asking him to destroy the other girl... the girl who was once his best friend... "I'll protect you. I'm happy to become evil for you."

...

White claws and fangs died red. Tears streaking down his face. Messy blonde curls, and blue eyes looking up at him in shock, as he drops the transformation...

"I knew it," she whispers up at him. "I knew you'd kill me for her."

The lights fade out of her eyes, and he can't stop crying over her body. Why can't he stop crying? He's killed before...

But not someone he once loved as a sister.

Still, it's for Marinette. His Lady... his Fortune. She needs him to be evil, to protect her. So he will.

...

He holds her in his arms, in her room. He knows she can't see the stains on his costume. That's his reminder alone. "You killed her."

"For you, yes. I would do anything for you."

"You became what you hated for me," she murmurs in his arms. He laughs slightly, sadly. She wraps her arms around him, and buries her face in his chest, against the blood Chloé left, the blood only he can see.

"I became evil for you. I'm going to be here for you, no matter what..."

...

They're surrounded. There is no way out of the manor in time...

"What are we going to do?" she looks up at him with those wide eyes. "They know... they know who you are, how do we-?"

"Detransform," he orders her.

"Adrien...?"

"I have a plan. Detransform."

Shaking, she releases her transformation. "What do you want to do?"

He closes his eyes, terror seizing him. What he's about to do it insane... "You know I will always love you."

"I know..."

He grabs her roughly, and takes her to the roof, holding her over the edge of the roof in front of the mob. "I have a hostage!" he cries out, shaking her. "If you burn the place down, you are responsible for her death!"

She looks to him, and looks up... toward the line of gunmen. The line he sees, and pulls her back from the edge, holding her to his chest... a shield to those on the ground, but to the two of them, it's holding her one last time...