Chapter Six: Beautiful

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, spinning gradually amidst the dying ocean of leaves. His mind frayed around the delicate edges, and no matter how often he endeavored to pull it back from the precipice threatening his waning sanity, he always seemed closer to toppling rather than finding salvation.

"Why are we here, kitten?" Plagg's firm voice drew his thoughts back down to the woods they were surrounded in.

The model's brows furrowed as he took a few more steps towards the epicenter of the decaying nature. "It feels off," he grunted, throwing his hands forward with splayed fingers. "It makes the back of my mind itch, and my tail bristle," he commented. "Don't you feel it?"

The kwami swayed in the air, his vibrant emerald eyes sliding closed as he rotated listlessly through the air, an odd mewling noise the bordered on a growl vibrating deep in his chest. "Y-Yeah, you're right," he snarled. "It's thick with energy."

Adrien took another foothold further, but his body faltered, screaming for him to turn back. His mind fogged over, making it laden with sorrow and confusion, his throat clutching without permission.

"P-Plagg," he rasped desperately, his emerald eyes going wide as he fell forward onto his hands and knees, struggling to usher oxygen into his lungs. The burning sensation leaked heavily through his lungs, cascading into his chest until it erupted into his shoulders.

"Kid!" His kwami touched his burning cheek with soft paws, but the agony pulsated down his arms, and he fell sideways into the brittle foliage, convulsing as the excruciation of his sins splashed angrily through his skull, yanking his violently under into his vivid nightmares.

***Shifting***

He scraped his claws angrily over the barren ground, manifesting deep grooves in the dirt as he screeched his fury. Everything had been torn from him, and his soul splintered with every single breath he took. His heart shattered with every beat it managed to pulse under the guise of his living. Life taunted his very existence, leaving him hollow inside.

I always knew you would let me down.

Her melancholy voice drew his wary gaze, and Chat panted wildly with the weight of his guilt. Just her outline glimmered among the wreckage he had created in his grief, but it was enough to draw him to his feet, urging him forward.

"I tried," he groaned, eager to earn her forgiveness. "You have to believe me," he pleaded, salty tears touching his lips, coating them.

I can't forgive a traitor.

"M-M'lady you told me t-to let you go," he whispered frantically, clutching at his increasingly aching chest.

You still should have chosen me.

The feline slipped to his knees in front of her, peering up into her singular functional bluebell orb. He didn't recognize the hatred staring back at him. Ladybug had never loved him, not the way he loved her, anyway, but this look of pure contempt was unfamiliar on her beautiful face, even in its misshapen appearance.

Seven digits encircled his throat, and he didn't fight her as the unnaturally strong grasp squeezed hard enough to cut the air to his body. He instinctively gripped her wrists, but he didn't try to dissuade or dislodge her, staring up into that beautiful eye with all the love he could muster.

I love you. He mouthed at her, but her face remained contorted into harsh lines of cold malice, until the black spots danced along his vision, threatening to tug him under for eternity…where he would, hopefully, find some peace.

K-Kitten! Plagg's voice brushed against his mind like silk enveloping barbed wire. It was soft, but beneath, he felt a level of scathing fury threatening to unleash a damn of destructive energy. Don't you dare leave me!

It's okay, he thought with a mental sigh, his head starting to lull backwards as his Lady continued to rob him of life. It will all be okay…because now I can…rest…

I th-think I found Marinette!

Chat Noir frowned because the name sparked a warmth in his soul that shouldn't have been possible with all the chaos and sorrow swirling in a cacophonous storm inside his heart and mind.

"M-Mar.." he croaked through the tight grasp, claws digging into crimson spandex as the strength returned to his legs. "M-Ma—"

Don't say her name aloud, Adrien. I think…something is wrong. I think…there's a reason nobody else remembers. I don't think….even you're supposed to remember. Come back to me!

His green eyes burst open, fire igniting inside of his body for the first time in, what felt like, an eternity along the hands of the cruel fates. He crossed his wrists as he slammed his palms into her forearms, forcing the muscles to comply. Her fingers twitched from the chain reaction, releasing his throat, and he sprung backwards to his feet.

It isn't real. Plagg's voice guided his courage, emboldening his mind.

"It isn't real," he spat. "You're not real," he declared firmly, even as the tears spilled freely down his face. "You're dead," he snarled, lunging.

***Shifting***

Adrien's orbs flew open as he scrambled amidst the impossible fountain of leaves, spewing his breath hurriedly. His lungs seethed, and he flipped over onto his side, retching before a mouthful of bile left his cracked lips to splatter the colorful death that enveloped his form.

"Breathe," Plagg insisted, his voice desperate.

"W-wish I had thought of that," he spat back, his throat gravelly and raw under the assault of his stomach acid. The man rolled onto his stomach as the agony cascaded through his form before it rapidly began dissipating once he stilled himself long enough to draw in a deep inhale of oxygen.

The acrid aftertaste of his puke made him cringe, and he closed his aching orbs as the quaking in his body subsided with the urgency to flail in a blind panic. Adrien released the lungful of retrieved gas, and he sighed, contently, all of his ails seemingly gone.

"Better?" Plagg floated to the ground in the crunch of deadened plant life, petting his sweat coated jaw with a cool, night comforting hand. "You don't seem to be on the verge of another seizure or delusion," he whispered, concerned.

"Y-You said you found M—her?"

"Keep your cool," the kwami warned sternly as the hero pulled himself up to his knees, fighting back a minor spell of nausea. "However, is that by chance, the girl you're looking for?" He nodded his oversized head towards the distance.

Adrien's emerald orbs skimmed across the leaf laden ground, but it quickly shifted into a lush green lawn, with a large building set on a large flourishing grounds. It was accompanied with a beautiful stone fountain and vibrant flowers, encompassing the perfect picture of a brochure for some…rest home or something similar.

He frowned, as the shift in aesthetics didn't add up his mind, but what caught his attention was a woman, up in a window on the second floor, sitting on a sill, sketchpad on her bent knees. Her dirty blue locks were tangled and knotted, and he saw bruises licking along her exposed calves, but when she turned towards the glass to peer over the grounds, he recognized her beautiful face immediately.

"Th-That's her," he whispered, lurching forward, but Plagg tripped him, crashing them both to the ground.

"This is way more complicated than you think, kid," he growled.

"She's right there, Plagg. Stop it!"

"ADRIEN!" His voice held a deadly edge as they both scurried to their 'feet' (Plagg floated upwards) "This place only appeared as you came back around from your mental breakdown," he hissed. "Before that, I couldn't even see it!"

The blonde frowned, staring into his kwami's searching eyes, and he licked his lips. "Wh-what's happening?"

"Look, she's real. I'm not debating that, I'm just saying there's a lot more going on here than we can discern, so we have to be careful. Don't say her name, to anyone, and don't mention personal details if we manage to get inside, okay?"

The model crossed his arms, hugging himself slowly. "You know something else, don't you? Something you're not telling me."

The obsidian cat hesitated, just for a second, but cringed, nodding. "I have a hunch," he admitted. "I will share if it becomes obvious," he said firmly. "I'm keeping it to myself until then."

As much as the feline hero wanted the argue, he swallowed around his questions, nodding. "D-Do we try to see her?"

"No," he said sharply. "We visit the grounds, and we see how it goes."

He didn't care for that plan as much, but he was going to trust the ancient. Anything to be close to the beautiful hearted woman of his 'imagination.' She was the only thing left for his fractured mind to cling to for…some semblance of hope. Some…modicum of redemption in his vast wasteland of sin.

***POV Change***

Ladybug chewed on the end of her pencil worriedly, her mind dwindling away with each passing moment. Her body felt frail, and her brain wasn't far behind. She smudged a little more charcoal with her fingers along the outside of the green on her page, smiling softly.

"C'mon, one-oh-seven, it's feeding time." Someone's voice said gruffly, and she set the sketches down on the wide windowsill she sat on when…when she wasn't being tortured. The sun was kind today, warming her face through the clear pane, and she sighed, hating to leave the feeling behind, but her stomach twisted violently, black spots dancing along her scope.

The bluenette wasn't sure when the last time she ate was, but her body felt….empty of fuel. She cast a glance at her darkened sheet of paper, the one she'd been working on, and shivered. Almost the entire page was an onyx scribble. In the very center were two glowing emeralds, and just above that, was a halo, made of the purest gold shade she could muster. A streak of silver blurred through the middle of the portrait, but it didn't interrupt the other colors.

"Beautiful," she murmured, a small smile touching her lips before she exited her unlocked door. Her slender fingers touched the placard beside the barrier. 107. She'd been resorted to a number, since, nobody but him called her Ladybug. Everyone else seemed to know her as Jane, or one-oh-seven, her room number.

"Get moving," someone demanded, and she squeaked, staring down at her charcoal covered fingers.

"M-My hands are a mess," she protested, but he shoved a hand into her hip.

"Not my problem," he snarled, and she staggered, trudging down the wide corridor towards the cafeteria. Plenty of people kept their eyes on her, so the woman shifted her gaze to the floor, willing her existence into oblivion. Nobody would notice if she disappeared. She didn't really…belong here.

Halfway to the food chamber, someone bumped into her side, and she fell off balance in her fumbling. Strong arms encircled her upper back, poising her in a dipped position, and her blue eyes blinked up into startled green orbs.

"S-Sorry," he whispered softly, offering half of a smile, but even the small gesture broke away several fractions of darkness gripping her heart.

Her trembling fingers reached up, touching his cheek, and the bluenette was surprised when he didn't recoil under her caress. As she moved her digits, gray smeared along his pretty skin…and she frowned, pulling it across his flesh.

"Wh-what…?" His voice sounded a little hitched, and she whimpered.

"Need to see," she said desperately, drawing her digits more urgently around his eyes and over the bridge of his nose, covering him in a light film of grey, but his bright green orbs blinked worlds at her. "Y-You're beautiful," she murmured, awestruck, voice catching in her tight throat. Chaton? No. it couldn't be here Chat…he…wouldn't be able to find her.

His face turned a bright shade of crimson. "A-Are you okay?"

"Y-You're beautiful," she repeated weakly. She tried to offer a grin, but her head dropped back as the fatigue and starvation carried her under.

Author Notes:

Trying414, I'm glad you're still interested ^_^ hope you keep coming back! I've never seen PLL myself, but I've heard some things about it! Thanks for being here.