Marinette awoke to the sound of the rhythmic beeping from the heart monitor. She slowly opened her eyes to see her surroundings. She was in a private room, lying in bed. Everything in the room was clean and smelled of chemicals and antiseptics. The walls were a pale beige and the floor a white tile. She tried to pull herself up, but there was something tugging on her arm. She glanced over to see plastic tubes, strung to her arm, filled with liquid dripping into her bloodstream. As Marinette's senses came back, she felt something on her face and removed a clear pipe that was wrapped around her ears and feeding her oxygen through her nose.
A short Asian woman with dark eyes walked up to her and asked her how she was feeling. Marinette recognized the woman as Dr. Duusu by her blue and purple striped hair that was kept neatly in a bun. "I feel fine," Marinette said while sitting up straight. "What happened?" Duusu explained that she was shot multiple times by the sedatives and overdosed. That explained the badges wrapped around her arm, shoulder, and legs. Marinette's foggy memory was starting to clear and she remembered the plane, the herd of ATVs chasing them, the makeshift torch, blondie. Blondie!
"Where's Adrien? Is he alright?" She questioned a sense of urgency in her words.
"He's fine," Duusu reassured her. "A doctor examined him and he only had a few mild cuts, bruises, was a little dehydrated, and hungry." Marinette felt a heavyweight life off of her shoulders and she sighed in relief.
"Can I see him?" Duusu nodded with a smile. She held the commlink wrapped around her wrist to her mouth and asked Trixx to bring Adrien, Tikki, Plagg, and Nooroo to the med bay urgently.
Adrien followed close behind the girl with the messy orange hair that almost resembled the tongue of flame that had saved him in the desert plains. As they came closer to her hospital room, he saw himself picking up the pace of his strides. By the time Trixx opened the door for him, he was sprinting to her bedside. He wrapped his arms around her so tightly, he worried she might break. "Good to see you too, blondie." He heard her whisper faintly. Behind him followed Tikki, Plagg, Nooroo, and Trixx.
Once Adrien pulled away, Marinette was greeted by friendly smiles, but Tikki seemed focused on business more than anything. "We need to do an assessment of your powers once you're fully recovered." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Marinette retorted with a hint of bitterness towards Tikki's indifference. Plagg sensed the growing tension and knew all too well that any small amber of a disagreement between the two of them would erupt into a bonfire if not extinguished.
"We're glad to see you awake Mari." He said, using his pet name for her hoping it would calm her temper. He placed a hand on Tikki's shoulder as a way of saying they could talk about the matter of Marinette's power at a later time but Tikki didn't seem to understand the gesture.
"Can you use your telekinesis or not?" She asked, her voice filled with heat and impatience. Plagg felt that a flame of disagreement was already catching.
Without responding to Tikki's question, Marinette stretched her hand towards a glass of water sitting on an end table near her bed and made it hover a few inches in the air. Then Marinette slowly moved her hand and the glass started flying higher over the heads of the crowd like a bird. First, it passed over Adrien, then Nooroo, then Trixx, until finally, it stopped, suspended over Tikki. Without warning the glass turned upside down and the water spilled out onto her red hair and to the floor, leaving her dripping wet.
"Whoops," Marinette said, but it was evident by her smirk that the stunt was intentional. A stunned expression was still plastered on Tikki's face as Marinette returned the glass to its home on the side table. A giggle started to rise up Adrien's throat which he hastily choked down, knowing it wasn't an appropriate time for a shared laugh.
Tikki's tongue formed a string of insults to hurl at the girl, but she had gotten used to taking the high road ever since she and Marinette had their falling out so she swallowed the harsh words and responded in a calm and diplomatic tone. "Perhaps it would be best if I got back to work." She said before leaving the room to go dry off. Trixx and Nooroo had followed Tikki out the door. Both felt extremely uncomfortable, as did Adrien and Duusu.
"That was uncalled for." Plagg scolded as soon as the door had closed behind Nooroo. Marinette held her hands up in surrender which was a mistake because it tugged on the tubes strung to her and Duusu had to come and make sure they were still in place.
"It was an accident." She said, trying to play innocent but the small mischievous twinkle in her eye revealed that she felt no remorse for her actions. "Just been a while since I've had my powers is all." Plagg shook his head in disapproval, he clearly was not buying her excuses.
"We will discuss it later." He said firmly. "But for now you need to rest, let's go kid." The grim figure gestured for him and Adrien to leave. Adrien decided then that it would be best not to agitate the tall, grim figure. The blonde gave Marinette one more hug before leaving and promised to bring her lunch later in the day.
Marinette spent the next few days being picked, pocked, and prodded by doctors. She had said she felt fine a thousand times but no one seemed to believe her, which was probably justified considering how many times Marinette had claimed to feel fine while still being badly injured. Sometimes Plagg could check on her and bring her a get-well message from Tikki, or Nooroo would bring her flowers. Beautiful black dahlias, which were more of a burgundy color, with tear-shaped petals that formed little spheres around their stems like fluffy dandelions. The purple-eyed man claimed the flowers to be his favorite and Marinette could see why.
But in between chats with Plagg and talking about foliage with Nooroo, it was boring and the hours seemed to pass at half the usual rate. But Adrien started to visit more and more which was kind of him and made the long days more enjoyable. He would sneak her bread rolls or small positions of steak or pasta since she was only allowed Jell-O, oatmeal, and other soft foods during her recovery. It was during one of these visits that Adrien plucked up the courage to ask a question that had been gnawing at his mind since the plane ride.
"Marinette?" She simply looked up at him, unable to answer because of the crumbs from a graham cracker that Adrien had smuggled her falling from her lips. She had to stuff the entire thing in her mouth when a nurse walked by to write something on her chart. "Are we friends?" It seemed like a stupid question but all she had ever referred to him as was 'target' or 'my mission'.
As Marinette tried to swallow the dry cracker she pondered the question. Her only true friend was Plagg. Tikki and her didn't get along and she wouldn't call Nooroo a friend, just a coworker, they would talk and knew each other semi-well but their relationship never left GUARD. Plagg and Marinette would sometimes go for walks in the meadow above the underground stronghold or play pool in the wreck room, even though Plagg was much better than her and she never won. Everyone else she considered a friend was in a casket.
Adrien was smart, kind, and fun to mess with. He was also one of the few people she trusted which was shocking because trusting every new person she met wasn't something Marinette made a habit of. From what she had heard, Adrien didn't leave her behind when the dart hit her in the desert which branded him as loyal. She decided that having a friend at GUARD, especially one who isn't as busy as Plagg, wouldn't hurt.
"Of course we are friends." She stated. "If I didn't have you, who would bring me bread pudding?" Adrien chuckled and was relieved that his title was no longer 'target'. Friend was still a ways away from where he wanted to be but it was a good start and he was content with the relationship being strictly platonic.
After four days she was cleared from the med bay and was ready to start Adrien's training.
The first day was the most difficult, in Adrien's opinion. Marinette woke him up at sunrise and forced him to run alongside her as she sprinted around an indoor track. Marinette had a lot more experience and stamina than Adrien and was hardly breaking a sweat while the blonde was panting like a dog. Her time in the med bay had affected her strength and her running time was slower than usual but she knew with her exercise routine back on track, her running time would be back to normal soon.
"So what do you think of training so far?" Marinette asked while wiping sweat from her brow.
"I think you're trying to kill me." Adrien joked between breathless intakes of air.
The running was followed by more exercise. Jumping, climbing, swimming, weight lifting, and to end the day, more running. By the time Marinette released him from this hell, he was drenched in sweat. He took a shower and flopped onto his bed. Every muscle in his body ached, muscles he didn't even know existed were sore.
The following day wasn't nearly as bad. A light jog on the track was all they did and Marinette said she was going to give his body time to rest from their previous days' work.
"If we're not going to exercise then what are we going to do all day?" Adrien asked, grateful for the break as were his muscles. Marinette gestured for him to follow her as she left the gym area and brought him to a new room, one that had been left out during Pollen's tour, as was a lot of the facility considering its enormous size and the amount of tunnel it had.
Marinette had taken him to the lifts and they fell deeper underground and headed towards the shooting range. They entered a long room that had open stalls and each stall was facing the open concrete walls and floor. The back wall slanted down and up until it met and made a point like an arrowhead, Adrien didn't know at the time but this was to keep bullets from ricocheting off the concrete. In front of each stall was a thick paper sheet with the outline of a man with a bullseye on it.
Marinette handed Adrien a pair of safety glasses and brought him into the center stall. The space was narrow and Marinette had to stand behind him. The blonde didn't understand what they were doing in here until Marinette pulled out a small black case made of hard plastic. She lifted the lid and inside was a dark pistol. Marinette instructed him on how to handle it, taught him how to unload and reload quickly as well as clean it. But Adrien wasn't entirely comfortable with the weapon.
"I don't want to kill anyone." He said, remembering how she had 431 kills to her name.
"Relax," She explained. "It's an air pistol, there is no gunpower involved and you will be firing tranq darts, we can't give a civilian a deadly weapon so this is just a precaution in case Akuma comes after you." Adrien felt better knowing that whoever was on the receiving end of his pistol would not receive a lethal blow. But it still weighed heavy on his conscience that Marinette had the blood of hundreds on her hands. An accident maybe, but no one accidentally kills four hundred people. Self-defense? Possibly, she is a spy and in a dangerous line of work. But Adrien had seen her full rage while she attacked the glass barrier while they were being taken to Akuma after the soldiers had taunted her about a dead lover. It didn't hurt the first time this other guy had been mentioned, he was dead after all, but he suddenly felt jealous. If Marinette had gotten that angry it meant she still cared.
All humanity seems to drain from her and a blind furry took control of her judgment. He worried that maybe the murders were intentional, that she had taken their lives in cold blood, and that he might be falling for a merciless killer.
"Marinette?" He asked, afraid of her answer. "Nooroo showed me your file and it said you had 431 confirmed kills, was that a typo or...?" He trailed off waiting for her to answer. Marinette looked to her feet, utterly ashamed. After the death of her close friends she lost it for a while, she was irritable and impatient. On missions, she killed hundreds of Akuma soldiers, thinking it was some kind of payment for what they took from her. Believing that if she killed enough of them, their ransom would give her back Alya, Chloe, and Luka. But she was wrong. She had broken her vow to them and the shame of that, the pain of the loss of her friends, the death of the boy she loved, and the guilt of taking hundreds of lives still weighed down on her to this day.
After a few months of the senseless killing, Marinette found herself in a room full of bodies sprawled out on the floor. Puddles of blood surrounded her like rain after a storm that children in yellow boots would jump in. The room had no doors, just concrete walls surrounded her like a cage. How did she get here? She wasn't sure, all she knew was that she killed the people in front of her, she could tell by the hot, crimson blood dripping from her fingertips. Marinette looked out at the sea of the dead, their bodies were clothed in the black Akuma uniforms, and their faces were covered by the masked helmets.
Something in the distance caught her attention, an instinct told her to move forward and without thinking, she followed her intuition. She stepped over the bodies, heading in an unknown direction. She stopped suddenly and glanced down at the body in front of her. Laying on its stomach, its limbs sprawled out. Marinette dropped to her knees and pushed the still figure over. She wasn't sure what her reasoning behind moving the body was but she did it without hesitation. It was heavy and limp but she managed to flip it onto its back. She glanced down at the dark mask it was wearing and she screamed.
Marinette jolted up from her dream and tried to erase the image of the cracked helmet and Alya looked at her through the broken mask. "I killed her," Marinette whispered to herself as she rocked back and forth. "I killed her." Frantic and hysterical, Marinette stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom to the right of her dorm. She splashed her face in cold water and reminded herself it was just a nightmare. She hadn't killed Alya, she couldn't have killed her, Alya was already dead. Marinette remembered the image of her fingers dripping blood and she turned the faucet on and scrubbed her arms raw. Of course, there was no blood on her hands, it was only a dream, but in a way, there was blood on her hands. The blood of 431 people she killed without a second thought.
After seeing Alya in the uniform, the helmet cracked and her face showing, right after Marinette had killed her, she never took a life again. She couldn't, every time she had the impulse to snap an Akuma soldier's neck she saw Alya behind the helmet and released the soldier from her grip. It didn't matter though, the damage was done. No matter how hard she scrubbed her hands, they would never be clean again. They were stained red with the blood of the 431 people.
Adrien watched Marinette's eyes grow distant and hollow as they did when she was reliving something painful. What she was thinking about, Adrien could only guess but he waited patiently for his answer despite the growing anxiousness in his gut. He needed to know but was afraid of what would come from knowing.
"It's not a typo," She stated in such a low voice it was almost a whisper. "Listen blondie, I've made some mistakes. I was in a dark place and wanted compensation for all they had taken from me and I thought that killing off Akuma soldiers would somehow make me feel better but it only made it worse. I regret it, I really do. But there is nothing I can do to change it now except promise myself I won't break my vow again."
"Vow?" Adrien asked. "What vow?"
"When I first joined GUARD I swore an oath to never kill, to be better than the people who gave me my powers. But I broke it and now I have to live knowing I've taken other people's lives. I'm sorry, please don't think less of me." Her head dropped in shame. Adrien had to admit it was off-putting to know she had taken lives but she seemed genuinely remorseful.
"I'm not going to think less of you." He said truthfully. "The fact that you saw what you were doing was wrong and stopped doing it just shows that you learned from your mistakes. I'm not going to look at you differently because of it." Marinette felt tears prick her eyes but she blinked them away. She didn't want him to see her cry.
"Thank you." She muttered before changing the subject. "Now let's see what that air pistol of yours can do." She flipped a switch that was connected to a controller dangling from the ceiling and the outline of a man with a target painted on his chest was pulled farther away. "That's a 100-meter target. Let's see if you can hit it."
Adrien adjusted his safety glasses and brought the barrel up, holding the grip in his right hand and supporting his wrist with the left hand. He focused on the center ring of the bulls-eye and while exhaling, began to apply pressure to the trigger. Slowly, his finger curled around it and the dart went flying with a bang. Adrien flinched slightly at the sound and jolt in his wrist but a sense of adrenaline and excitement filled his veins. Marinette flipped another switch on the hanging controller and the target returned to them. Adrien was able to see the hole where the dart ripped through the thick paper ring. He aimed at the bulls-eye but the tranq had hit a few centimeters to the upper right.
Marinette helped him adjust his aim until he was able to hit at least three centimeters within the center ring. In between gunshots and reloading the pistol's magazine with tranquilizer darts, Marinette questioned him on his hobbies, family, friend, school, modeling, basic information any two friends would know about each other. Eventually, they got to the subject of relationships.
"So you do have a significant other?" Marinette questioned as he popped off another gunshot.
"What?" He asked, his ears were still getting used to the light booming of the compressed air pistol. It was hardly anything compared to the snipers that threatened them in the park but the sound still had some power to it.
"Do you have a significant other?" She repeated louder.
"No, well, yeah. I'm not sure." He seemed genuinely confused as to his relationship status.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Marinette remarked, finding a new sense of interest at the new turn of events.
"Well I was seeing this girl, Kagami, but it was never anything serious." He explained. "We would fight over little things then break up then get back together. She and I recently split and I expect us to just go back to normal but then you came along and brought me here so I don't think I'll ever go back to her. Which is probably for the best, she's a bit of the jealous type."
"Well when you're dating someone as attractive as you I would see where her jealousy is coming from," Marinette said and instantly regretted it. "I just mean with you being a model and everything, I'm sure a lot of girls would be interested." She awkwardly stated, trying to retract what she said as politely as possible. Her cheek flushed which only added to her embarrassment. Adrien's face also flooded red but not from embarrassment but flattered at her calling him attractive.
As Marinette was searching for a way out of the uncomfortable space she had created, Trixx's voice sounded over her commlink, saving her from further embarrassment. "Siren, you are needed in the mission repost room urgently."
"I'm on my way," Marinette responded, her blush beginning to fade. "Come on blondie. We have an assignment."
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Word count- 3,586 (not counting this)
I'm sorry I said the f-word (friend), but at least these two are finally getting somewhere
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