#exicted

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Faaaaantastic. This was great! Awesome even!

Chat Noir dodged another hit and laughed to himself, n e r v o u s l y. For the past half an hour or so, he had been doing his best to keep the akuma at bay, masterfully cracking jokes along the way as he scurried for dear life over rooftops.

But this particular piece of WORK Hawkmoth sent this time had little floating snow minions that spat ice rays?????? And it froze e v e r y t h i n g hoHO, hilarious, really, good job Hawky.

Best part yet? He haven’t even found the akumatized victim yet! These annoying deadly monsters hit him once and he was toast. Ironic, given the temperature. Chat Noir gripped his baton once more, chest heaving up and down after sprinting, from his hiding spot behind a chimney in frustration and difficulty keeping calm. Just wait till Ladybug gets here. Just wait, it’ll all be over soon like always.

The cat-themed superhero inhaled and exhaled, focusing on steeling his nerves. In through the nose and out through the mouth Adrien! He could do this. He could prove that he could hold his ground for those who trusted him as long as he was needed to do so.

And so he peered over his shoulder, carefully past the chimney with a shakily held breath, a small foggy cloud forming where his lips were in the cold. Nothing in sight! The coast was clear.

Chat let his breath go and turned his head back.

And then screamed.

“AAAAAAAAUUUUuuuuuuh–”

Two pairs of blue eyes pierced straight through his own, two blue eyes that were not of his lady’s. The gaze was sharp yet... lifeless, and it bore straight into him. Textbook definition of unsettling, don’t you guys think? As soon as he recovered from his initial shock, Chat Noir readied his baton with a battle stance.

“How nice of you to drop by! Reeeeally like what you’ve done with the place.” His head jerked towards the frozen city with a grin to make more obvious what he was referring to but his eyes remained trained on the newly appeared supervillain puppet.

It was an expressionless girl who seemed to be around his age maybe? Her long, cascading hair was now a very pale blue as it was with the rest of her color scheme and she was floating off the ground, a strong chill radiating off her that made any living thing she passed by tremble. She made no move to attack yet, thankfully.

“Are you...”

Is he what?? “The one who took down forty!! of your monsters??? Y e s that was me.” Was it okay for him to say that? What if the akuma figured out that Ladybug hadn’t shown up yet? What if–

“Alone?”

Oh no.

Chat Noir could only think to distract the akuma then. “Focus froyo! Or you’re in it for a major cool down!”

“Of course you aren’t. You have Ladybug.”

"Huh? Hold oN-" And just as easily the akuma had spooked him, he was blasted away by a magically charged gust of winter wind, sending him flying miles past buildings and billboards.

The wind was knocked out of him and Chat Noir grunted as he skidded to a stop on all fours, shuddering when he stood up to shake some snow off his head. "Can you chill???" A rhetorical question but it couldn't hurt to ask, right? These puns weren't rolling off his tongue like they usually did, it was so cold he could barely move sometimes. Only the sheer will of not getting killed was what kept Chat light on his toes.

Quickly, he extended his baton and hit three of the flying snow minions away from him. He had to find her and fast. "Where'd she go?”

A chill then went up his spine.

When trying to move forward, he found that his left foot attached firmly to the ground. No no no– The ice ray barely got him but barely was enough to pin him down, now stuck in the middle of a crossroads. This place looked familiar too... There was the school and then the bakery next to it and–

The Dupain-Chengs!

Chat Noir could feel the approaching frigid aura, urging him to chip away at the ice faster. He didn’t have a plan that involved his Cataclysm yet with Ladybug currently absent. But if he didn’t work fast enough–

“Chat Noir!”

“M-Madame??” The superhero waved frantically at the woman who was running over to him with a kitchen blowtorch, hoping she would go back into hiding. “Madame please! It’s really, really not safe out here right now!” He was ignored and Sabine begin to work on his foot.

“It won’t take long, I rest assure you. Cover for me if something happens; you are the most important person to save right now.” She continued to thaw the ice, breathing a sigh of relief when the blowtorch showed signs of being effective on the magically created substance.

“Thank you, I do appreciate it a lot but–” Chat Noir’s faux ears twitched. She was here. “Hide! Please!” He lifted the woman by the arm and with the ice thawed enough, he extended his baton with rapid speed and broke the rest of it away. “You have to go.” Chat Noir shuddered. First from the cold, but then a second time from fear.

“Are you... alone?”

Two empty eyes fixed on Sabine who stood her ground, a somber look on her face as she rose to full height. “No, I am not.” The woman took one more good look at the akuma then her brows knitted sorrowfully in question. “Are you?”

Chat Noir watched as the slightest look of hurt flashed across the akuma’s face, as if her heart ached painfully inside. “Madame–”

Little do they know that ice was growing not only over the city, but in the akuma's chest as well.

“I... I always have been... alone.” The last word was said with so much bitterness, it made both Parisians take a pause to ponder the reason behind this person’s akumatization. After all, behind every akuma was a person. The realization made Chat Noir all the more determined to put a stop to this, all of this.

“Mamaaan! Maman, no!”

Shoot.

“Marinette?! Don’t come here!” The mother took a step towards her daughter, realizing too late what was swirling around her feet

She felt a chill.