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Redemption	By : Cat_Eyes Category: +M through R > Miraculous LadyBug Views: 2815 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug. Miraculous Ladybug is the intellectual property of Thomas Astruc and released by Zag studios. No profit was made writing this story.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
After what felt like an eternity, the van stopped. Chloe had regained her senses, and huddled beside Marinette in a corner farthest away from the doors. Marinette wrapped an arm around her shoulders, holding her tight as they waited.
The nondescript van's windows had been painted over, turning them the same shade as the rest of the vehicle. It also completely blocked their view of the outside world, turning the interior gloomy and malodorous. The smell of paint and motor oil was making Marinette's head spin.
Wherever they were, it was quiet; none of the ambient noises of the city reached them. Marinette didn't think they had driven long enough to leave the city limits, though, even with her warped perception of time.
'Where are we?' Chloe whimpered.
Marinette shook her head. 'No idea, but I think we may be underground.'
Chloe gasped, then reached for her purse. She yanked out her phone, before moaning quietly at the screen. 'No bars.'
Marinette reached for her own phone with her free hand. 'No service,' she read. Still, she tried to contact her parents, but the call couldn't get through. 'Damn,' she muttered.
The doors opened to allow Nathalie to climb in. Chloe flinched, curling into a protective ball, while Marinette wrapped both arms around her, glaring defiantly up at Nathalie.
Nathalie sighed and rolled her eyes. Wordlessly, she reached down to snatch their phones and purses, before throwing them to Gorilla, who waited just beyond the doors.
'Get up and follow me,' she instructed, crisply.
Chloe didn't move, save for her trembling. Marinette just kept glaring.
Huffing in annoyance, Nathalie grabbed them by the backs of their collars, and forcibly hauled them to their feet. Chloe wailed as she was propelled forward, nearly falling from the back of the van.
'Hey, be careful,' Marinette snapped. She tugged her clothes free of Nathalie's grasp, and walked from the van by herself, to join Chloe on the dusty, concrete ground.
Chloe shrank into her side as they both looked around. The place was large, with pillars placed at strategic locations. It looked like an abandoned underground parking lot.
Nathalie pushed them toward a tiny cubicle with tall windows set before a boom gate, where a security guard would have once sat. Nathalie shoved them into the booth, then blocked the door from the outside. Chloe crawled into a corner and sat, with her knees pulled up to her chest.
As Nathalie and Gorilla walked away, Marinette carefully inspected the inside of the booth. It was completely gutted, anything that may have been of use long gone. She tested the windows, but her tapping on the panes sounded more like they were made of Perspex than glass. They would be impossible for her to break, unassisted.
'What are we going to do?' Chloe moaned, despairingly.
Marinette huffed, still staring at the windows. 'There's not much we can do, but wait.'
After a short while, Gorilla came back with a bucket of paint and a large brush. Marinette and Chloe looked on, apprehensively, as he painted the windows of the booth, blocking their view of the garage.
'What the heck is he doing that for?' Chloe demanded. 'What are you doing?' she shrieked, banging the window Gorilla currently worked on.
He refrained from answering, completing his job in silence.

There was no way to tell the passage of time in the dim light of the underground garage. The overbearing silence was broken only by their breathing, Chloe's occasional sobs, and an unidentifiable clunking noise just outside the booth.
Marinette guessed night had arrived when the gloom deepened to an impenetrable black, and her belly began to growl. It also grew colder. She huddled next to Chloe when their teeth started to chatter. At least, the unnerving clunking had ceased.
'Why hasn't Daddy come for me yet?' Chloe whispered.
It seemed like a rhetorical question, but Marinette answered, anyway. 'They probably haven't sent a ransom yet. Your dad can't do anything until Nathalie makes her demands.'
'Well, they should hurry up, already. I'm cold, hungry, and I want to go home.'
Marinette hummed in agreement, as a tiny smile tugged at her lips. Now that the initial shock and fear had worn off, Chloe was back to her usual self.
Chloe's hair rustled against her shoulders as she turned toward Marinette. 'How come you've managed to stay calm throughout all of this?'
Marinette shrugged. 'I'm good in a crisis, I guess.'
Huffing through her nose, Chloe rested her chin atop her hands where they sat on her upraised knees. 'So it would seem. Thank you, by the way, for trying to save me.'
Marinette did smile, then. 'You're welcome. We will get out of here, I swear. We just need an opportunity.'
'You're optimistic. What makes you think they won't kill us?'
'Well, because you're useless to them dead. I can only think they wanted you because your dad's rich, and can pay whatever unreasonable sum they want.'
Chloe stilled. 'What about you?'
Marinette drew in a deep breath. 'I was a mistake. They only took me 'cause I wouldn't let go of you. I would've slowed them down too much, so they saved time by just tossing me in with you.'
'Yeah, I figured that much, but you'll be ok too, right?'
Marinette rested her chin on her knees as she hugged her legs. 'As far as they're concerned, I'm inconsequential. I have no idea what they'll do with me.'
Chloe hesitated. 'You sound rather calm about it.'
'Well, neither of them have a history of violence. Nor does Papillon, for that matter. I think we'll be ok.'
Chloe shifted, pulling her arms close to her body. 'What if it had been Papillon keeping those two in check that whole time? Without him to stop them, they could do anything to us.'
Marinette shook her head. 'Adrien said Nathalie was intelligent. Hurting either one of us would not be a smart move.'
'How do you figure?'
'In the event they get caught, additional charges of bodily harm, or murder, would increase the length of their sentence.'
'You're banking an awful lot on what ifs.'
'I know that's what it seems like, but it makes sense if you think about it.'
Chloe hummed dubiously in response.
Marinette rested her cheek on her knees. 'We should try to get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a long day, I can feel it.'
Mumbling an agreement, Chloe leaned into her for warmth. Marinette wrapped an arm around her shoulders once more, as she closed her eyes.

She barely slept. The floor was cold and hard, the air frigid, her belly ached, and her head hurt. She also needed to use the bathroom. Judging by how much Chloe squirmed, she wasn't faring any better.
Marinette slipped in and out of a fitful doze, but proper sleep eluded her. Finally, she gave up and just sat, her chin resting on her knees as she waited. Chloe slept, though it was unsettled. Grumbling incoherently, she wriggled down until her head was in Marinette's lap. Marinette lowered a leg for her to use as a pillow, absently petting her hair until she calmed. She didn't think Chloe's new position would help, as the floor was as uncomfortable to lay on as it was to sit on.
Incrementally, the darkness faded, the gloom lifting to that grey no-light from before. Chloe sat up and rubbed her eyes. With her hair hopelessly mussed, and her make-up smudged, she looked frightful, though Marinette figured she couldn't look any better.
Voice hoarse, Chloe asked, 'did you sleep at all?'
Marinette shook her head. 'I never could sleep sitting on a cold floor.'
Chloe's answering chuckle turned into a cough. 'If I get sick, I'm going to be furious.'
'It's probably the dust,' Marinette reasoned.
'Why is it so cold in here?' Chloe groused, looking around as she rubbed her arms.
Marinette stood up with a groan. 'Because of all the concrete, I'd wager. This place is like a cave.'
'Even a cave would be warmer than this.'
Marinette hummed a disagreement. 'A deep enough cave system maintains the same temperature all year round. I'd guess it's about twelve degrees down here.'
Chloe rolled her eyes. 'You talk to Max too much.'
They fell silent as Marinette examined their prison, once more. As she had previously noted, there were no tools, or gaps a determined girl could wriggle through. She kicked the door, but whatever held it shut didn't budge, even after Chloe came to help.
Marinette kicked the windows next, cringing with each impact. She wrapped her jacket around her leg, but the height of the windows made it impossible for her to get a decent angle. Her kicks were awkward and weak as a result.
'That was a complete waste of effort,' Chloe observed.
'Yeah,' Marinette agreed, panting. 'But at least I'm warm, now.'
She kept moving, trying to take her mind off of her many discomforts. While she was warmer, her head, though, had begun to pound, furiously.
Eventually, the door rattled, then opened. Nathalie stood in the doorway, dressed in a plain, black suit. 'Come with me, Mademoiselle Bourgeois.'
Chloe stood, and marched after Nathalie with her head held high. Nathalie slammed the door shut after her.
Marinette waited, tense and alert. It wasn't long before Chloe returned, Nathalie then gesturing to Marinette. As she followed Nathalie, she saw that the door of the booth was held shut with a simple plank of wood leant against it. As her eyes wandered, she also noticed that the main entrance to the garage had been bricked up.
That explains the mysterious clunking noise, she thought, swallowing a lump in her throat.
'Come on,' Nathalie urged, before leading her to the other end of the carpark.
In the far wall was a doorway, which opened on to a room with benches around the walls, cupboards, a sink, and a large gap where something big was supposed to be. It was a kitchenette, she realised as Nathalie guided her inside, a break room for whomever was on guard duty.
Through another door in the wall to the left was a grimy restroom. Nathalie pushed her inside, and closed the door. Marinette took a moment to let her eyes adjust. To the right sat the toilet, which no longer functioned, and a roll of aged toilet paper, still hanging from the holder. Directly before her was a filthy sink, topped by a spotted, and fractured, mirror. Marinette took advantage of the dubious courtesy, and managed to wash her hands, and scrub her face in the meagre trickle from the faucet when she turned the tap. She straightened her hair as best she could, then stepped out, to see Nathalie leaning against the wall as she waited.
'How long do you intend to keep us here?' Marinette demanded, as Nathalie led her back to the old booth.
Nathalie didn't answer. She set aside the plank of wood, and thrust Marinette back inside. She staggered, but kept her balance when she caught herself on the opposite wall.
'Can we at east get something to eat?' Chloe asked, acerbically. 'We're going to die down here.'
'Don't be so dramatic,' Nathalie told her, just as she slammed the door shut.
Marinette heard her drag the plank back into place.
'Bitch,' Chloe snarled.
Later, Nathalie returned with a large bottle of water, and a plastic bag filled with stale sandwiches, a couple of wizened apples, and two muesli bars. 'Make it last,' she told them, before leaving them alone, once more.
Chloe hefted the water bottle, eyeing it critically. 'Do you think it's poisoned?'
Marinette set the bag of rations aside. 'There'd be no point. You're more valuable alive, remember?'
Chloe shrugged, and twisted off the cap. 'Ugh, I hate tepid water.'
Marinette shrugged. 'At least you won't drink it all at once. Who knows when they'll remember to feed us again.'
Chloe slumped to the floor beside Marinette, wordlessly handing the bottle over.
Marinette accepted it, to take a slow mouthful. It was hard to not guzzle down the whole thing. She recapped the bottle, then dug out the pre-packaged sandwiches, handing one to Chloe. 'Eat slowly,' she advised.
They both made a face as they bit down.
'How can bread be stale and soggy?' asked Chloe.
'It's the tomato,' Marinette sighed.
Despite their disgust, they ate the sandwiches.
They didn't see Nathalie again, that day.
As the gloom intensified, Marinette nudged Chloe with her elbow.
'What?' she asked, tiredly.
Marinette nodded toward the door. 'Did you notice it's only barred by a plank of wood?'
'Yeah. What of it?'
'Not exactly secure, is it? I bet if we kick it enough, the plank will dislodge.'
Chloe raised a sceptical eyebrow. 'Do you really think Nathalie would be so careless? Even if we do get out, what then?'
'Nathalie and Gorilla have been coming in and out somehow. There must be another door, like, to a stairwell, or something.'
Chloe regarded her carefully for a long moment. 'Ok, let's try it.'
Together, they kicked the door, rammed it with their shoulders, and kicked it again. Their activities were loud, so Chloe would often pause to listen for a minute, but no one came.
Marinette redoubled her efforts, throwing herself against the door again and again.
Finally, it gave way, sending Marinette sprawling across the ground. The door swung back on its hinges, nearly hitting Chloe in the face.
'Oh, my God, you did it,' she exclaimed, one hand holding the door away from her.
Marinette grunted as she pushed herself to her feet. 'A few bruises notwithstanding.' She grinned at Chloe, then pointed to the walls of the garage. 'Move along the walls. Use your hands when it gets too dark. Shout if you feel an irregularity.'
Marinette placed her hand on the concrete and moved right, while Chloe did the same on the left. She had only gone a couple of metres when Chloe called out.
Marinette raced over in the near darkness to see Chloe pushing gingerly at the bricks laid across the old garage door.
'What is it?' she asked, breathless in her excitement.
'Look at this,' Chloe instructed. She placed both hands on the wall and pushed. The whole thing wobbled, precariously.
Marinette's eyes widened. 'The bricks are loose. There's no mortar. Chloe, you did it.'
'Let's not get too excited,' Chloe cautioned. 'I'd prefer to find the door Nathalie uses, rather than break my hands shifting all this glorified rock. We'll keep this as a last resort, ok?'
Marinette was impressed. 'That's actually very sensible. If Nathalie locks the door she uses, we still have this to fall back on. Good job.'
Chloe drew herself up, preening. 'I am pretty great, aren't I?'
'Undoubtedly,' Marinette laughed. 'All right, let's keep going, there might be something else useful laying around.'
They continued searching along the walls. Marinette found the door Nathalie and Gorilla used, but as they had feared, it was locked.
'Typical,' Chloe muttered.
Marinette sighed. 'Well, it's getting late, anyway. We'll try again tomorrow.'
They returned to their booth, Marinette balancing the plank through a narrow gap in the doorway with one hand, so it would fall into place once she closed it.
- 17
- 18
- 19
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Redemption