The Algorithm

Chapter twenty-four - Cold Truths

The stale air of the bomb shelter.

"Where's Plagg?"

After it was over they couldn't stay at GUARD anymore. Everyone left alive was either re-stationed, discharged, or staying with the hundred or so soldiers regrouping at a decommissioned air hanger. Marinette missed GUARD and the meadow that was now a ravine of rubble, but the hanger was safe. She didn't know anyone well though. Trixx was re-stationed and was currently in Alaska. Longg and Kaalki were discharged and in France. Duusu is working on rehabilitating those injured in the bombing and raid. And Tikki was barely on base anymore, too much fallout was left to her after everything was over. Nooroo was still dealing with the backlash of the mission Tikki refused to let Marinette go on. No one came back alive after a gas attack was triggered and he was left to take the heat. As for Plagg... Marinette didn't want to think about it.

The ground shaking.

Fire.

Quiet.

Still quiet.

Too quiet.

Akuma was inside GUARD.

She drove to a military base about two hours away that was holding the Akuma soldiers that were once held at GUARD before its destruction.

They allowed her in and within minutes Marinette was waiting in the interrogation room.

She crossed another prisoner off her list. Inmate #5295 knew nothing, either he didn't know or refused to tell. What was the point?

"Inmate #5296 ma'am." An armed man said while dragging a prisoner in by the arm. She was tall, thin, pale, and was named Nathalie. Marinette didn't see her name in a file or arrest the woman herself, but she remembered her. She was one of the surgeons who split her open and stitched her back together. Nathalie. A man had called her Nathalie while a blade cut through 13-year-old Marinette's skin.

Rage bubbled up inside Marinette. The want, the need, to watch the life leak from Nathalie's eyes was overpowering. A hand to the throat, that all it would take.

No.

She cut off the thought and stared down at the list of inmates she would be trying to pry information out of today. But it was too late. Nathalie had noticed her moment of vulnerability.

"You want something from me." She stated.

"Yes." The blue-eyed girl replied.

"And what would it be exactly?"

Marinette looked at her records. Nathalie had been arrested three months ago.

"I want Adrien Noir."

Soldiers with butterflies on their shoulders knocking down the bomb shelter door.

Fighting for her life.

A pain in her skull.

Falling to the floor.

Black.

Waking up on a gurney completely alone.

Slipping away to go above ground.

No one was there.

The graveyard was gone.

All that was left of the guardians was gone.