never let go | miraculous ladybug

an alternate ending

Alternate Ending: What if Gabriel didn't barge into the warehouse in time?

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"SEEMS like you're going first," Shadow Moth smirked. She hit him again and again, the cuts getting deeper and deeper with every slash.

"Stop!" Ladybug screamed from the pole, but Shadow Moth ignored her pleads and continued.

Chat felt weak. He felt like he wasn't going to survive. He felt like he couldn't go on. He wanted to tell Marinette about the secret reveal. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her. He wanted to spill every little detail that he loved about her to her at that very moment. But he just couldn't. The words wouldn't come out. He felt numb. His body, more specifically, felt numb. He couldn't move. He couldn't fight back.

He felt like a small, skinny, cat.

The striking from Shadow Moth continued, repeating over and over again. She thought it would do it with one more strike, but Chat was trying to hold up and stay. Though his eyes were fluttering, closing and opening as he gasped for breaths.

"Lucky charm!" Ladybug yelled, hoping that something useful would drop out of the sky. To her advantage, scissors came out, but they fell to the wrong place—at the foot of Ladybug. She squirmed as she was tied up, trying to shift her feet in a way to somehow push the scissors to fly into her hands. It was a struggle for sure, and it was taking way too long. A little bit of Chat Noir was leaving by the second, and Ladybug had no time to lose. She had to keep on trying. She had to.

"Please, Abrielle, don't do this.." Chat pleaded with whatever air he had left. Shadow Moth just continued, not flinching at his words in the slightest.

"Fuck—" Ladybug winced as the scissors fell onto her foot, feeling the pain. She paused for a second, just taking in the discomfort and continuing. After all, what Chat was going through was worse. Eventually she managed to get a hold of the scissors, and she swiftly cut her yoyo to allow herself to be freed. Realizing that she had no weapon, Ladybug felt hesitant to make any sort of move but knew that she had to. For Chat. For Adrien.

Of course, if she hadn't been panicking right now, she would have thought of the idea to use her miraculous ladybug to repair her yoyo. But with everything going on at the moment, that idea had never reached her brain.

Ladybug ran forward with no regrets, striking down Shadow Moth with nothing but her fist. Shadow Moth fell back, but was able to strike Ladybug hard—right in the chest, before she fell back down. Ladybug felt significantly weaker now, but took this moment to hold Chat Noir in her arms.

Shadow Moth emerged from the ground, "Don't run away from this, Ladybug. Your fate is inevitable." Shadow Moth leaned in, nearing the supheroines.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Ladybug yelled, feeling too weak to stand and was just sitting on the floor. She had nowhere to go, and nothing to do. All she had were her hands, and they were slowly losing their strength.

"Marinette.." Chat muttered as his eyes were still fluttering, now at a faster pace. Ladybug's attention shifted from Shadow Moth to Chat Noir now, and her eyes filled with tears.

"You knew?" She asked, questioning.

"I found out at movie night." Chat answered, "I love you so much, with—" He paused for a second, choking on his own saliva, "With or without the mask, and I want you to know that. Since things don't look so good right now."

A tear from Ladybug fell onto Chat's cheek, "No, no, don't say that, don't say that, you will not go first, I forbid that to happen." She found the strength to lift up her hand and touch Chat's cheek, caressing it as she sobbed.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, cut the sappy shit." Shadow Moth said, rolling her eyes as she took her hand out of her pocket, lifting a gun and pulling the trigger. A bullet came flying out of the weapon and directly into Marinette's heart, next to where she had been stabbed lightly with the staff earlier. The supheroine fell back, letting go of her partner subconsciously.

"Mari?" Chat tried to lift his head to look at her, but couldn't, "MARI!" He struggled for a bit but moved his hand, trying to find Ladybug's. Once he did, he gripped her hand tightly, not wanting to let her go.

There was no response, but Ladybug was still there. She lightly squeezed Chat's hand back, trying to hold on to him. For a bit, it felt like she was going to stay forever. It felt like this had all just been a fluke and no one was going to die. But as Ladybug's grip on Chat's hand loosened, Chat took a sharp breath in and cried quietly to himself.

"Mari.." Chat's breath got quick, him breathing in and out at lightning speed. Shadow Moth took a step forward closer to him, and looked down at the cat.

"It's hard being without your lady, huh?" She teased, grinning down at him. She continued to look at him struggling for a while, enjoying it.

But then she saw Chat take a deep breath—one that would be his last. Chat's eyes stayed open, no longer fluttering as his transformation wore off to reveal the man behind the mask. Shadow Moth looked shocked, and her eyes.. somehow welled up into tears. She felt like she was reliving a moment in her life that she didn't ever want to go through again. She had thought of Adrien like a son, and having a son die in front of her was not something she was up to witnessing again.

Shadow Moth crumbled at Adrien's body and kneeled down, breaking down into tears. It's like Julien was there in front of her again, after being hit by that truck all those years ago.

"Ju.." She mumbled.

Just then, she heard a voice behind her, "Sorry I'm late, Abrielle. It was difficult finding this place. You know this place is sort of in the middle of nowhe—" Gabriel dropped his keys at the sight of a villain crying in front of a body. A body that belonged to his son.

"Abrielle, what have you done?" Gabriel rushed to the group of three, or more like the group of one, and just sat there alongside Shadow Moth and looked at the mess upon them. 

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i like to make u guys cry. also just to make things clear, this is an alternate ending, so it's not canon to the story! i just thought it'd be fun to show what would happen if uh they died, yk? but dont worry, the story is not over yet! there will be another chapter, just one more, and that one does follow the events after "hello, dad", NOT this alternate chapter.