"We are meant to love people and use things. But our society has got it twisted. We now use people to get the things we 'think' we love."

— Forbidden Love

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

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It was the first time in his life where Chat Noir felt complete peace. The world around him was silent, almost like he'd been trapped inside a void with no beginning or end, and his vision was colored white. At first, his last recollected memory had been the sight of Marinette's worried, tear-stained expression, silently begging him to keep his eyes open for her. And he tried. He really did try. But the temptation to fall asleep overtook him ever so quickly.

The peace, however, was short lived. He suddenly began to see images of his past memories—more or so of when he was a child, and when he once had a mother to hold him. Those were the days when the young prince had no worries. Chat Noir would never forget his mother's soft smile, and the way it lit up any room she walked into, or her gentle touch and understanding nature. When the memories flashed before his eyes, Chat Noir smiled, because these were the times when he was the happiest. When his mother was still in his life.

And then another memory flashed before him, reminding him of the painful truth...

That she was truly gone.

"Adrien."

He turned his head, expecting to see his mother seated in her rocking chair, knitting another quilt like she did every winter. But instead, a young Chat Noir found his mother nestled under the furs of their nest, wrapped in blankets on their bed. She was still shivering. And Chat Noir, at the age of seven, knew it wasn't from the winter air.

Slowly, Chat Noir approached her bedside; a vivid memory of the toy carving he played with every evening tightly grasped in between his fingertips. He may have been only seven back then, but the young boy knew a lot more than his parents wished for him to believe.

He knew his mother was sick. And he knew it had to do with the creatures that dwelled on the other side of the wall.

He watched carefully as his mother reached out to him, caressing his cheek softly. "It is way past your bedtime, young man."

The boy anxiously fiddled with the toy in his hand. "I could not sleep."

That night, the young boy had known that something would be different. And he knew that when he woke up the next morning, things would never be the same.

"What is keeping you up, my love?"

Chat pulled the toy up closer to his chest. "I can feel that something is not right, mother." he said, and with hesitancy, looked up to meet his mother's tired eyes. "Tell me please, is your sickness deathly?"

Once his words had been spoken, Chat Noir knew they were bound to be true. Immediately, his mother looked away to only confirm his worst suspicions. He had only been seven years of age back then, and he had never been so afraid before in his life. "So, it is true," he muttered underneath his breath. "You are going to die."

His mother's hand found one of his in an instant, holding it tightly. "No, my son. Do not proclaim such things aloud..."

"Who has done this to you?" The little boy had once whimpered in response. Chat Noir remembered so vividly at how his bottom lip quivered as a child, and how he desperately stared into his mother's eyes, his own tears spilling over his bottom lids. "Why would anyone wish to cause you harm?"

"Because they do not understand, my child." His mother had peacefully insisted. "They do not realize the incredible similarities we share. They fear the things that are different from them and assume that what is different is their enemy. They are lost."

"If we are so similar, why do we have a wall to separate us?" The memory of a younger version of himself once asking his mother this brought tears to Chat Noir eyes. He didn't even know if it was possible to cry in his current state of mind, but he did not try to stop it.

"Because a mistake was made that spilt our worlds, long, long ago." His mother replied.

But her response never did satisfy his curiosity. Chat Noir's young mind once yearned for more answer, more explanations. As a child, he had heard many stories of the creatures that lived beyond the other side of the stone wall. Creatures that built cottages up to ten stories tall, and who would rather use animals as transportation than their own two feet. They had no remorse for the smaller creatures, like the squirrels or even the trees which provided them oxygen. They polluted their air with smoke and their streets with garbage. They destroyed any green thing that stood in their way to replace with their own creations. They built through nature instead of around it. They used everything mother nature provided for them for their own benefits, instead of appreciating the beauty around them. Anything beautiful, they disregarded, and anything fragile, they destroyed.

As a young child, Chat Noir never understood why the creatures were so cruel.

But eventually, he learned to understand that they had no love to give...

...because they had no love for each other.

"Is there no way to fix that mistake?" He had once asked.

Weakly, his mother had shaken her head. "No child. The deed has been done, and now, we must forever live with the consequences. Until the people learn to love, hatred will remain. You must remember my son, that everyone will make a mistake in his lifetime, and we must learn to forgive the ones who have hurt us."

Chat Noir had quirked a brow to that. "Why would you ever forgive one of those hateful creatures?"

His mother had smiled knowingly at him, and with a tender caress to his cheek, she had answered him with a quote he would never forget. "Because I've learned to love them, Adrien."

And that (as far as Chat Noir's memory could recollect), was the last thing he remembered his mother telling him before she passed on. He never could understand why his mother loved such a race of creatures, and as Chat Noir grew, he looked up to his father for guidance. But his father's guidance had led him to hate the human race for what they had done to his mother. Neither Forgiveness nor love had ever been on Chat Noir's agenda.

Until, he had met Marinette.

When Chat Noir first met Marinette, he found that not all humans tended to have a hateful nature. Marinette may have hated her family, but deep inside, the woman held a deeper love for the unknown than anyone else he had ever met. Marinette was willing to discover knew things; to accept that magical things really did exist, and to focus more on their similarities instead of their differences. She had the same love for the unknown that his mother did. Maybe, that was why Chat Noir was so fond of her since the beginning.

As his heart-wrenching flashback vanished into thin air, Chat Noir suddenly realized that his surroundings were no longer as silent as they once were before. He could distantly make out voices shouting at one another, as if in a heated discussion or argument, and despite how hard he tried to listen, he could not seem to make out anything they were saying.

But one thing was for certain, his damn neck was hurting like hell.

In fact, his whole entire body seemed to be aching.

And then he remembered... he remembered crossing over to the other side of the wall, despite that it would cost him his life. But none of that mattered at the time. His only concern had been for Marinette's sake, and the rational side of his brain refused to listen when he took that daring leap. Chat's memories expanded as he remembered crashing through those chapel doors, Marinette running to his aid, and most importantly, the massive blow Chat Noir gave to his beloved rival, Nathaniel. And then it dawned on him.

Marinette's attempts to keep him awake.

"Will you be able to help him?"

Chat Noir raised a brow, greatly confused.

He swore that was Marinette's voice he just heard.

There was a sigh; a long... somewhat irritating sigh, before what he assumed was his father's voice, said, "Let us pray that we are not too late."

And then he sprung awake.

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