Between the Heavens and the Embers

Chapter I

Hi everyone, I'm back!

I'm so happy to share with you my new story, Between the Heavens and the Embers. I've been working on this fanfiction for a while now and I've managed to make myself laugh, cry, hate, and love along the way. I hope this story is gonna make you feel something, too.

Before you start reading, please remember two things:

1. TRIGGER WARNINGS. This story is heavy on the angst and will touch on some hard subjects such as death, depression, alcoholism, suicide, etc.

2. English is NOT my first language, so you might find some errors here and there. Antidote is helpful, but can miss a few things. Please, try and keep this in mind. 🤍

Alright, that's it ! Enjoy !

CHAPTER I

Paris was going up in flames.

The City of Light was brighter than ever before. Fires everywhere were burning houses and stores down to the ground. Hundreds of people were running in the streets, seeking refuge or trying to help the unfortunate ones. Sirens could be heard from everywhere over the sound of the screams, tears, and prayers.

Only a week ago, Hawkmoth had promised chaos. "Ladybug and Chat Noir," he had said, "if you don't give up immediately, I will bring Hell here and the only thing left will be the ashes of those you failed to protect."

They all took it as an empty threat. The words of a desperate man. After all, Hawkmoth was well known for his dramatics.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been exaggerating this time.

This akuma was the strongest one he'd ever sent. It called itself The Angel of Darkness. Standing at almost nine feet tall, he was clad in all black, from his boot to his cape and feather wings. The only color came from the flaming halo over his head.

In mere minutes, Paris had been turned into Pandemonium. The smoke in the air was so dense that breathing was near impossible and even though it was the middle of January, the fires made it feel like a hot night of July. But worse than all, the red sky that seemed to be bleeding alongside the victims who were dying left and right in the streets.

The whole team had been called to help. They had put up a good battle, but it hasn't been enough. After almost four hours, the only ones still standing were Ladybug, Chat Noir, Carapace, and Rena Rouge. The others were either hurt or their kwamis were too exhausted to fight.

They meticulously moved the combat into a street that had been completely evacuated. They could see that The Angel of Darkness was growing tired, or at least bored with the confrontation. But instead of getting weaker, he was more aggressive. He wanted it all to be over and didn't even care about the miraculous anymore. In a fit of rage, he threw a ball of fire directly at Chat Noir.

"Chat Noir!" Ladybug screamed when he disappeared behind some debris.

She was pretty certain that her heart had stopped beating.

No, no, no, no...

"I'm fine!" he yelled back a second later and she breathed again. "It didn't touch me!"

She glanced at him, making sure that he was indeed fine, then at Rena and Carapace. Her best friends. She was worried. Their attacks were getting progressively weaker and their reactions, slower. They wouldn't be able to fight like this for much longer. She already had to run away and detransformed four times to feed Tikki and none of her lucky charms had worked. Same with Chat. No matter what he cataclysm, nothing happened. They were running in circles.