One By One
- A Catalyst Interlude
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CATALYST!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THAT EPISODE!!
One By One
One by one, he’d watched them all. He had been there. He’d seen the transformations; the rage on his classmates’ faces twisting into something terrifying as they were swallowed by dark magic. The callous disregard as they attacked friends.
Family.
Innocent strangers on the street.
It kept him awake at night. Remembering each monster. How easy it was for someone to be turned into the stuff of nightmares.
His own guilt, knowing that he had been the cause of a few of them, despite his efforts to be good.
Each time he remembered, he had to force himself to breathe. Each time, he could remind himself that it was done now. He and Ladybug had saved the day.
The monster was gone.
Purified.
In its place was a scared, confused person, still panting from a battle they couldn’t even remember. It hurt to see the look on their face when they realized what happened. It was why he tried to make sure that either he or Ladybug was able to talk to them afterwards. To remind them that it was okay now.
It was okay now…
But he still remembered. Most of the time. And what he couldn’t remember, well, there was always the Ladyblog.
He couldn’t help it. He couldn’t help tensing up when he saw a former enemy, remembering what had been done. But then, he had to admit, he relaxed a little too.
It was over. Their nightmare had already been revealed. Surely Hawkmoth wouldn’t come after them again. He knew what to expect from their monster. He could defend against it. He and Ladybug had already defeated them once.
But before that…
One by one.
They’d fallen.
He’d wondered many times, as he looked around his class, what they would all turn into. How bad it would be.
It didn’t escape his notice that the strongest akumas came from some of his most-stubborn classmates.
Mylene could’ve easily become a much more-dangerous monster. Vanisher could’ve done much worse than simply torment Chloe. Bubbler—well, he didn’t even want to think of what would’ve happened if Nino had decided to simply let all those bubbles suddenly pop…
Some people just didn’t think like that.
Others did.
Alix’s Timebreaker still gave him nightmares. Ladybug had refused to tell him the whole story, but he’d gotten the gist of it. Evillustrator had nearly drowned Marinette and tried to chop Chloe up with saw blades! And Chloe, well, her Antibug had overpowered him and tied him to his own baton in minutes.
And of all these people, the quiet ones became the scariest. The strongest became the most-powerful. The sweetest snapped.
And Marinette…
She was the only one left. (Besides him, but he would die before he willingly raised a claw to his lady.)
And that was terrifying.
He guessed he could call it a fear of the unknown. But really? He didn’t want to fight her.
She was so sweet. So passionate about what she believed in. ‘An example for all,’ Ms. Bustier had called her. And he could tell, from her occasional shyness, that there were even more emotions bubbling under the surface.
It made his heart stop, wondering what form Hawkmoth would twist her into; discolored and full of rage. He wanted to beg her to promise to never—to never, ever be akumatized—no, please no—but he couldn’t put that on her shoulders. Hawkmoth came for whoever he wanted, and he’d already targeted Marinette once (and geez, hadn’t Zombizou been a wild ride from his normally-unflappable teacher? How much power had that little butterfly had?).
Marinette had escaped Hawkmoth once. It made Adrien’s gut churn to think the madman might come after her again.
And the villain wouldn’t be taking ‘no’ for an answer this time.
So, when Adrien had seen the friggin’ swarm of butterflies heading straight for them, she’d been the first thing on his mind.
Oh God, no, please, don’t let her turn—I don’t wanna fight her, I don’t know how to fight her—no, please, not her—OMG they’re turning EVERYONE
He’d dove to shield her—because so help him, he would turn himself over before he let another friend down—and glared in rage, as once again, his classmates fell before his eyes.
One by one....
