Shoddy chapter today, which I hope I'll remember to go back and rewrite it, but currently I have a migraine and am running on 45 minutes of sleep altogether from the past 3 nights, so it is a bit rushed but I wanted to get this out for you guys! I'm sorry this chapter is so bad!

"Plagg!" Marinette dashed forward toward the cat kwami, taking him into her hands and bringing him close in the best hug that she could give him.

Adrien, on the other hand, was stock still as he stared at the older woman behind her. His mouth parted to say words, but nothing came out. After a few seconds of gaping at the sight, words seemed to finally come to him.

"M-Mom?" The tension in the room grew thick as Adrien took an accusing step forward, before deciding to stand beside Marinette and Plagg.

"Adrien..." Marinette glanced to her right where Adrien stood solemnly before glancing back at the woman underneath the doorframe. She had golden curls identical to Adrien's, with summer grass colored eyes to match. She was taller than Marinette herself, but still shorter than Adrien who was now slowly walking towards the beautiful blonde.

"Mom..." The tension was cut through with a sense of relief as the young model flung himself at his mother, wrapping her in his arms and holding her close to him as his cheeks turned a rosy color from the unshed tears of joy he was holding back behind his closed lids.

Marinette awkwardly stood in front of them, looking away from the intimate scene as she stared down at the unconscious body of Marc, barely noticing the blob of red in the older woman's hand. The mother and son didn't pull away from each other until Plagg coughed loudly after catching on to Marinette's embarrassment.

"Yeah, that's great and everything, but we should save the hugging for after we escape, kid. Plus, I need more chee- Tikki?" Marinette's head snapped towards Plagg before zeroing in on where he was looking at.

In Marie's hand, laid an unconscious Tikki with horrid black burns scarring over her small and fragile body. Marinette lunged forward unwittingly and forcefully took her close friend away, pulling her closer to her chest as she inspected the damage.

"Tikki? Tikki, are you okay? Please, wake up!" It didn't take much for anyone in that room to figure out who she was after those words left her lips. Her bluebell eyes watered as she gently shook her hands in an attempt to wake the kwami. Lilac eyes peeked through in effort of seeing her master.

"Tikki!" Marinette and Plagg cried out as the other kwami flew to his other half. He held her small arm the best he could as his green eyes did a once over on her burns.

"They burned you with the iron, didn't they?" Tikki didn't answer him, instead opting to close her eyes and fall back asleep. "We need to get her to Master Fu. Now."

No one dared to defy the powerful god, as Adrien stared at Marinette with wide eyes.

Wordlessly, they moved out of the room, Marinette clutching Tikki close to her heart.

"Wait!" The trio stopped and stared back at Marinette, who was shoving Tikki back into Marie's hand, pulling out her earrings. "I need you to give those to Master Fu. I think he can save her if he used the power of the Miraculous."

"Marinette, you have to go too-"

"No!" Marinette cut Adrien off as she took some steps back. She shook her head in defiance. "I can't leave him. Not once I finally got him."

Plagg's eyes widened in realization as the blue haired girl took off away from them in hopes of finding him.

"Marinette!"

~~~~~

Erich watched on the monitor from the main operative room. He wasn't surprised Marc was taken down so easily, in fact he was expecting it to happen sooner than it did.

Though he did have to say, he wasn't expecting the girl to be clueless and gullible enough to abandon her friends and Miraculous in hope of searching for the boy that was in front of her the whole time.

God, it was annoying how frustratingly oblivious people were.

"Erich, what do we do now? Marc is down, and you're the next in charge!" One of the minions Marc always had surround him cried out as he turned his attention to the more dominant man.

"Leave the older woman. The boy's going to go off after the girl, so that's when we attack. Marie doesn't know where our hideout is located, and even if she did, she can't get help because she doesn't know Italian. The boy on the other hand, is still going to have his Miraculous and Kwami, which we can get by using that brat of a girl as bait." Erich answered as he glared at Marinette as she ran down a barren hallway, desperately searching every room and corridor for her dear Chat Noir.

"And when we get the Miraculous, kill the boy and bring the bitch to me."

Sorry, sorry, sorry! Not good today, but I promise I will rewrite it for next week and maybe even get around to posting the next chapter next week as well!

Until next time, peace!