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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
- 18
- 19
- 20
Marinette was drawn from a restless sleep when the door was yanked open. She sat up straight as Gorilla lumbered inside, nudging Chloe awake with her foot. To her credit, Chloe shifted upright silently, as she watched Gorilla with wary eyes.
He motioned for them to follow him, leading them to the old restroom, and pushing them in, one at a time, so they could take care of themselves.
Holding them firmly by their upper arms, Gorilla then led them to the door he and Nathalie used to come in and out. He was forced to let go of Chloe to retrieve his key and unlock the heavy door, but once the task was completed, he had her in his grip once more.
As Marinette had suspected, the door opened on to a stairwell. Gorilla pulled them up several flights of stairs, before he exited into a nondescript hallway. Here, the floor was bare timber, and dusty from disuse. There were four more doors, two on each side of the hallway, with a significant amount of space between each of them.
An old apartment block, Marinette realised.
Gorilla took them to the second door on the right. They entered the old living room, which would have been nice, back in its day. Now, the carpet had been ripped up, the doors removed from the cupboards, graffiti decorated the walls, and newspapers had been taped over the windows.
Nathalie sat on a plain chair behind a collapsible table, tapping away on an old laptop. To her right were two more chairs, and a length of rope. Gorilla forced Marinette and Chloe into the spare seats, sitting back to back, before he wound he rope around them, securing it with a series of complicated knots.
'Ouch,' Chloe complained. 'This thing is going to take my skin off.'
'Be quiet, or more of it will go over your mouth,' Nathalie threatened.
Chloe subsided with a huff.
Gorilla stepped aside as Nathalie returned to the laptop. It chimed as a connection was established.
'Good morning, Mayor Bourgeois,' Nathalie greeted, coolly.
Marinette heard Chloe gasp.
'You,' André Bourgeois exclaimed. 'What have you done with my little girl?' he demanded, his voice thin and tinny through the laptop's speakers.
'She's here,' Nathalie replied, her expression neutral.
'I want to see her, immediately.'
Nathalie turned the computer around so the camera pointed at Chloe and Marinette. 'As you can see, she is here, and safe enough.' She turned the laptop back to herself.
André got straight to the point. 'What do you want?'
Without blinking, Nathalie replied, 'five million Euro.'
A lengthy silence followed.
'Daddy,' Chloe shrieked in outrage.
André cleared his throat. 'Not even I have that amount of money just laying about.'
'Not my problem,' Nathalie told him.
There was another moment of silence.
'Can I speak to my daughter, at least?' André finally asked.
Nathalie bobbed her head once, then turned the computer back toward Chloe. André's pale, sweaty face filled the screen.
'Oh, my dear Chloe. Are you all right?'
Chloe sniffled. 'Daddy, it's awful. It's cold, dark, and they don't give us enough to eat.'
'Don't worry, Pumpkin. I'll make everything better, I swear.'
Marinette leaned back to look into the camera. 'Don't worry, Mayor Bourgeois. We're ok,' she assured him.
Nathalie spun the screen back, with a scowl at Marinette. 'Five million Euro into the back account mentioned in the email I sent you earlier. I want it done by this time tomorrow, understand?'
'I understand,' André replied, tremulously.
'One other thing, Mayor Bourgeois. This building is scheduled for demolition. If the money isn't where it's supposed to be, your daughter will be buried alive. I suggest you get moving.' Nathalie closed the laptop with a snap.
Marinette and Chloe froze. Gorilla untied them, then heaved them out of their seats, and led them back to their prison. Marinette moved automatically, barely feeling her feet hit the floor as she walked.
She sat heavily on the cold floor, only snapping out of her daze when Gorilla slammed the door behind them. Chloe was hyperventilating, doubled over with her hands braced on her knees, sweat trickling down her temples.
'I thought you said I was too valuable to kill,' she snarled.
Marinette held her hands up. 'She's bluffing, to get your dad to cooperate.'
'What if she isn't?'
'We still have our plan B, remember? Once it gets dark, we kick down the door and start toppling bricks. We will get out of this, I promise.' She stood up to place her hands on Chloe's shoulders, and looked her in the eye.
Chloe nodded, blinking back tears.
'Someone will probably come with food and water soon,' Marinette mused. 'Chloe, can you sit down and look like you're having some sort ofl crisis?'
Chloe placed her hands on her hips. 'Who do you think you're talking to?'
'Good. I'll keep an ear out, and let you know when to begin.'
Some hours later, Gorilla returned with another bottle of water, some greasy takeaway of dubious origin, and a couple of chocolate bars.
Chloe pretended to sob hysterically in a corner, while Marinette scowled fiercely at him until he left. She watched, and waited, for the sound of the other door to close, the clang echoing throughout the garage.
'Ok, that's probably the last we'll see of them, today,' Marinette muttered.
Chloe unfurled herself to inspect the bag of rations. 'Not even any cutlery. Those heathens.'
Marinette crouched across from her. 'What is that?' she asked, poking at the two plastic containers.
Chloe peeled back the lid of one of them, recoiling as the odour hit her. Congealed sauce stuck to the lid, to fall back into the mass with a wet splat. 'I'm not sure. Chinese?'
Marinette curled her lip. 'Please, don't insult half of my heritage like that.'
'Then, what do you think it is?' Chloe challenged.
Marinette stuck the tip of her pinkie finger into the gravy, and gingerly tasted it. Chloe made an exclamation of disgust.
'I think it's the unholy union of Indian and Mexican,' Marinette decided. 'Made by complete amateurs who knew nothing of how to cook, or anything about the cuisines and their cultures.'
'So, it's not ok for me to disrespect your Chinese heritage, but it's fine for you to insult two more in one breath? Isn't that hypocritical?'
Marinette chuckled. 'Ok, you're right. We'll just have to classify it as unidentifiable.'
Chloe smirked in response. 'I do think you were on to something when you said it was made by amateurs ignorant in the ways of cooking and culture, though.'
'Well, half right isn't too bad,' Marinette laughed.
They ate the rest of their provisions as they waited for nightfall, amusing themselves by guessing what the mess in the containers was supposed to be.

Once the gloom became more pronounced, they began their assault on the door. It gave way much easier than the last time, but Marinette and Chloe didn't stop to celebrate. They made their way to the brick wall and prodded it, carefully.
'So, how do we do this without the whole thing collapsing on top of us?' Chloe queried.
Marinette leaned in, pushing tentatively at a few bricks. 'Well, we don't start at the bottom.'
'Duh, but how do we reach the ones at the top?'
Marinette hummed, thoughtfully, stretching up on her toes as high as she could. Like that, she could still only reach about two thirds of the way up. 'If I give you a boost, you could get the highest bricks down.'
Chloe regarded her, sceptically. 'Could you even support my weight for that long?'
Marinette nodded. 'If you sit on my shoulders, I can. But, you'll still have to move quickly.'
'Well, since there's no other choice,' Chloe conceded.
Marinette knelt to allow Chloe to climb on her back, placing her hands on the concrete wall to steady herself as she rose. Marinette then inched over to the bricks, and Chloe got to work, passing them to her one at a time. Marinette then dropped them at her feet to minimise noise.
It was tiring, but eventually, Chloe had cleared enough bricks for Marinette to reach on her own. They worked faster together, and soon enough, they had removed a large wedge from one side of the doorway.
'Look,' Marinette said, pointing at the floor. 'There's a gap between the bricks and the garage door.'
Chloe eyed the spot. 'Not enough of one. We need to make the hole wider.'
They removed enough bricks to allow them to stand side by side in front of the garage door. It was a basic roller door, locked down with a rusted chain and padlock.
'Now what?' Chloe demanded, gesturing at the chain in exasperation.
Marinette picked up a discarded brick, and motioned for Chloe to stand back. Once she was clear, Marinette brought the brick down with all of her strength. After three strikes, the hook of the padlock shattered, allowing Marinette to feed the chain through, and heave the door up. The door mechanisms had also rusted with age, and screeched as they were forced to move.
Chloe stared at her with wide eyes. 'You are freakishly strong.'
Marinette chuckled breathlessly in response. She pulled the door up enough for them to wriggle under on their bellies. They slithered out, and ran up the driveway ramp to see the first light of dawn.
'Yes,' Marinette hissed, gleefully, while Chloe indulged in a happy dance.
'All right, we still have to get out of here,' Marinette observed, pointing at a tall fence surrounding them. 'If what Nathalie said was true, about this building being due for demolition, we're still in the blast zone.'
Chloe nodded. 'Right.'
They found enough scrap material to assemble a makeshift ramp, then scampered up, and jumped down the other side. Once they were both on the ground, they picked a direction, and ran.
- 18
- 19
- 20
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Redemption