Chapter Twenty-Four:

The smell of bread wafted out of the bakery, tingling Marinette's nose. She took a long sniff, then sighed. It was so nice to be home. She was lounging on the couch in the front room, a game controller in her hands. In the kitchen, she could hear her mother preparing dinner while her dad finished up with the customers downstairs. Smiling to herself, Marinette let out a relaxed sigh and melted into the couch. It was smooth, almost like leather...

She blinked. Hold on, her couch wasn't made of leather. It was made of a thick, coarse fabric. And why was she slightly swaying back and forth?

"Mama?" she called. Usually, her mother would have responded almost immediately, but she didn't. Marinette looked over her shoulder into the kitchen only to find that her mother wasn't actually there. But, for some odd reason, the dishes and ingredients were flying through the air as if someone was lifting them. She watched in shock as the eggs cracked themselves into a bowl and the flour measured itself out.

Marinette closed her eyes tightly and shook her head, squeezing her hands against the side of her head. "Snap out of it, Mari. This isn't real."

She opened her eyes, but she was still in her front room. Except this time, the ingredients were gone and everything had turned an ashen gray color. Trembling, Marinette pulled her legs into her chest and pressed herself against the couch cushions. They seemed to be the only thing that was keeping her warm at the moment. The air turned chilly, cold enough that her breath turned into steam.

"It's not real, it's not real, it's not real!" she told herself over and over again, shrinking into herself. The gray cupboards, TV, game controller, carpet, and every other thing in the room slowly morphed into black. The smell of bread disappeared, replaced with the scent of something... different. Was that cologne?

Marinette began to shiver uncontrollably. All the light in the room began to slowly fade, leaving her in absolute darkness.

"Mama! Papa!" she shouted, her voice tight with fear. No one answered. She tried to call out for help again. "Fox?!"

The darkness started to seep into her chest. It was as if the blackness were weighing her down. Her ears filled with muffled noises - the sound of leaves crunching and tree branches snapping. Her head throbbed and her chest felt like it was under the weight of a truck. She felt like she was a piece of lead slowly sinking in the bottom of the ocean.

In a final urge of desperation, Marinette screamed, "CHAT?!"

The next thing she knew, her eyes flew open and she gasped for air. As she did so, she began to cough and hack, her chest pulling into itself.

"Is she awake?" a voice asked, but to Marinette, it sounded like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel.

"Yes," another voice responded. This one made Marinette's throat close up. Could it be...?

She didn't realize until then that someone was holding her in their arms. The texture of the cloth that rubbed against her arms was the exact same thing she had felt in her dream. Leather. Gazing up with tired eyes, she saw green eyes smiling down at her.

"Morning, My Lady. I hope you enjoyed your cat nap," Chat said with a cheeky grin.

"C-chat..." Ladybug choked out before going into another coughing fit. As she coughed, Chat pulled her closer to his chest. His warm was soothing against her freezing skin. It didn't help that the cold wind was turning her sweat into icicles. He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"Shh... don't push yourself too much. You're fever still hasn't broken."

Eventually, she was able to stop coughing, but she still trembled like a leaf. "I-is Fox here?"

Chat nodded. "Yes, he's just a few feet away." He gestured with his eyes over Marinette's head. She cautiously turned and was able to make out Nathanael's worried stance in the dark.

"Are you okay..?" she asked him.

She heard him snort. "Am I okay? You're the one who was out cold for three hours."

"T-three hours?"

Chat nodded and shifted her in his arms. "Yes, you passed out just minutes before I arrived."

She let out a frustrated sigh. "Of course I missed your arrival..."

He smirked. "It's alright, LB. Besides, now that you're awake, I can finally tell you guys what's been going on." His expression shifted from carefree to serious in less than a second. He swept his gaze around the forest, and when he decided that it was safe, he carefully lowered Marinette to the ground. He rested her against the back of the tree, taking off her jacket in the process. She grabbed for it, but he snatched it away.

"I know it's cold, but you need to break this fever as soon as possible if we're going to get out of here." He waved his hand to Fox and the two of them took a seat on the ground next to Ladybug.

Sighing, Chat lowered Marinette's jacket and crossed his legs as he sat. "Alright, it's time to tell you guys what's been going on outside this arena. The whole country is freaking out about it and it's time that you guys know as well." He paused, glancing at Ladybug and Fox before finally spitting out, "Adrien Agreste has run away."

Marinette gasped, her eyes as wide as saucers. "What? Why?"

Chat spread his hands. "I heard he was being put under lockdown by his father. He must have made him upset or something."

"Oh no..." Marinette bit the bottom of her lip. If Adrien was gone, how would that affect the rest of the Charms in the arena?

Fox seemed to be on the same wavelength as her. "How many charms are left that we need to take out?"

Chat shook his head. "I can't give you a sure answer, but I think maybe four, including you two."

"That's only two other opponents. We could win this," Fox stated.

"Who are they?" Marinette muttered, coughing into her fist.

"I think the only two that are left are Panther and Queen Bee."

Ladybug stopped, then gave Chat a questioning glare. "How is it even possible for Bee to still be in the running? I thought she would have been taken out ages ago."

"Well, she's done a pretty good job of laying low," Chat answered. "But I have to agree with you, I'm surprised she's made it this far as well without outside help."

Marinette sighed and rubbed her forehead. It was warm compared to the rest of her body which was shivering. "The games can't be far from over, especially since the days are getting shorter." She gestured above her, and as if to prove her point, the sun was starting to come up on the horizon.

"Don't you need to leave, Chat?" Fox asked pointedly.

Ladybug shot him a glare, wanting to smack him for reminding Chat.

Surprisingly, Chat shook his head. "No, I'm staying in here until I can get both of you guys out of here."

"Great," Nathanael muttered.

"Can we please focus...?" Marinette questioned, "Because if we're going to find a way to break out of here, we need to come up with a plan."

"I already know where we can find an escape route," Chat answered, leaning a back on his hands. "It's been how I've been getting in and out of the arena without alerting the Game Master."

Nathanael held up a hand. "Hold on, wait a second. We're just going to leave, just like that?"

Chat gave him a single nod. "This place is going to become dangerous, more deadly than it has ever been before. We need to leave before the Game Master starts closing us in."

"C-closing us in?" Marinette asked.

"Every year the Miraculous Games happen, they need to find a way to pull all of the existing Charms together without intervening. So, what they came up with was to make the arena smaller. The less room there is between Charms, the more likely they'll run into each other and fight."

"And they're going to start doing that soon?" Fox asked.

Chat shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. I haven't had connections for the past few days, so I'm just as clueless as you two are to what the Game Master has planned."

Marinette groaned as she shifted her position. "Wait, Chat, have you tracked down the Game Master?"

The kitty blinked, then tilted his head. "Uh, yeah? Why?"

She smirked. "Then we can bring the fight to his front door."

"Do you really thing that would be a smart idea?" Fox intervened. "Such a plan could go horribly wrong in so many places."

"But it would free everyone, not just us. I would rather have someone else be saved and have a great life than being selfish and only protecting myself," Ladybug insisted. Then, she held up a finger. "And, we also need to find Adrien. He's..." she trailed off, then sneezed violently. Both Chat and Fox leaned away from her. She sniffled and wiped her nose. "S-sorry..." she apologized, then looked at Chat. "He ran away, right?"

"Yes, and he's not going back anytime soon."

"Then we need to find him," Marinette insisted. "He'll be an important piece to the puzzle if we want to take this fight to the Capitol."

"Uh, well..." Chat rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I don't think we should."

She blinked. "W-what? Why not?"

"Because... uh... I just think he'll find his way eventually. Who knows, he might come looking for you."

As he said that, Ladybug's cheeks flushed a slight pink. "What do you mean? Why would he try to find me? I'm just a sick girl trapped in a deadly arena."

Marinette noticed that, under his mask, Chat was blushing too.

"Rumors say that he's been rooting for you all along."

That was it. That was the line she had been sent to this Earth to hear. Marinette's face went fiercely pink and she quickly averted her gaze to the ground as she coughed. As much as she hoped Chat or Nathanael didn't notice, there was no way they could have missed it.

Swallowing her coughs as much as possible, she stuttered, "U-u-uh... A-Adrien rooting f-for m-m-me? That's c-c-crazy."

"But it's only a rumor, right?" Fox clarified, giving Chat a firm glare.

The silly cat rubbed the back of his neck, the tips of his ears a bright red. "Sure, yeah. Sure... Just a rumor."

"Either way, if he's going to find his way back or not, we need to get our resources together," Marinette said, trying to pull herself back together. "Besides, even if I die during this, it won't be for nothing."

The boys were silent for a good stretch of time, just staring at her as if she had teleported from the moon. Was she really that willing to die? Chat was the first one who came back into reality.

"Okay, so if we are going to attack him at his front door, what should we do?"

Ladybug pulled herself up onto her knees, coughing into her elbow as she did so, then cleared her throat before she continued. "Here was what I was thinking, and I have a feeling this might work out better than anyone will believe."

She grabbed a stick and began to draw in the dirt. She explained her plan in detail to the two boys, the two of them listening intently and taking notes in her mind.

As she discussed her plan, Marinette couldn't help but feel like she was doing something right. Something that was going to change the world as they knew it.

* * *

The Game Master tapped his chin as he watched the footage of three teenagers hunched over a dirt diagram. With one eyebrow raised, he tried to zoom in on their plans. He could hear them discussing options, but for some reason, he couldn't get the microphones - all four of them - to tune into their conversation. Something was stopping them from coming through correctly.

Scowling, the Game Master leaned away from the holographic map of the arena. Whoever this 'Chat Noir' was, the Game Master didn't like him. He was always messing up his plans in some way or another. He had all kinds of booby traps set up to kill Ladybug, but for some reason, none of them had worked. The Game Master had a sneaking suspicion that Chat Noir had deactivated all of them.

It didn't make any sense. How did this kid, no older than a teenager, know what he was going to do next? None of the dots connected, and it was starting to frustrate the Game Master to the brink of insanity. He had to end these games, the quicker the better.

Maybe then, it would bring home his boy...

Why did he have to be so much like his mother?

* * *

"What do you think they're doing?" Alec asked, leaning in toward the feed that was in front of the two Miraculous Games hosts.

"I'm not sure," Nadja replied honestly. "It's like the feed is being interrupted."

"Is that even something that could happen?"

She shrugged. "Who knows? Everything in these games is always a mystery. It might be part of something President Agreste told the Game Master to do."

"Whatever it is, it's making me curious as Ladybug's cat protector," Alec said. He ran his thumbs through his papers anxiously, staring at the feed for anything out of the ordinary. "It's so odd... It's like someone is interrupting the feed."

"Oh, Alec, you have such a creative mind," Nadja said, brushing aside his comment. "There is no way anyone would be able to hack into the cameras anyway. It's not like-"

Before she could finish, the feed disappeared. Alec jumped back.

"What happened?" he asked.

Mrs. Chamach shook her head, clueless. "I have no idea."

The hosts fiddled with their screens, hoping to find a way to turn it back on. Behind the camera, the crew broadcasting the show were shouting at one another, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. After a few minutes, Alec forced a laugh and looked into the camera.

"W-well then," he stuttered as he stretched a seriously-fake smile across his face, "looks like we lost the feed from inside the arena. Don't worry, though, that just means we'll have to catch you guys up when everything turns back on, which shouldn't be too hard. This is Alec and Nadja signing off from the Miraculous Games report studio. Have a miraculous day!"

---

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(By: lpsdiamond135)

(This is a really good chapter! I am really inspired by the theme to draw and write stories! >-<)

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