BANG! BANG! BANG!

  Marinette had suddenly awaken to the sounds of violent banging on her door. Her heart racing, she wrapped the thin blue blanket she was sleeping with around her shaking body and hurried to answer the door. Before she opened it, however, a group of unfamiliar men dressed in elaborate black and red armor barged in, lead by Commander Plagg...and the man who had grabbed Chat Noir's arm the night before in the dining area. 

Marinette jumped in surprise and backed as far away from them as possible...her face pale. "Who...who are you? And what right do you have to barge into my room like this?" she asked them, wishing she had spoken with more courage.

Plagg and his men paid no attention to her, as they were more focused on furiously looking around the area, tossing around what little furniture the room contained and stomping on the mattress as if trying to feel something amidst the cotton and fabric. 

"What are you doing?" Marinette yelled. 

Once the palace guards had finished rummaging around her room in vain, Plagg turned to the mysterious man and said in an overly frustrated tone, "He's not here, Kim! You told us that he was here with a girl, but my men have searched every nook and cranny of this place and not even a single hair of this thief has been found!"

Kim lightly kicked a small pile of Marinette's overflowing hair from his shoe and replied, "I'm not a liar, sir, and for clarity, you should ask the girl yourself."

With a huff, Commander Plagg advanced toward Marinette until he had her backed up against a wall. Keeping a considerable distance between them, he said to Marinette, "Alright, child, listen. I don't have all night and I have more important things to deal with right now, so just answer my questions nice and simple so we can get this over with, 'kay?"

 Marinette raised her chin stubbornly. "If you expect me to tell you where Chat Noir is, then forget it. I need him."

"Need him?" Plagg scoffed. "For what?"

"To escort me to witness the Miraculous Flight."

Plagg stared at Marinette in disbelief, then asked, "Sweetheart, you do realize that you have a dangerous criminal and potential murderer as your so-called 'escort', don't you?"

Rolling her eyes, Marinette replied, "Of course I do, but I don't have any other candidates at the moment, so making him take me is my only option."

Commander Plagg shook his head in bewilderment; he could hardly believe what he was hearing.  

"Hey guys, miss me?"

Everyone in the room immediately turned and discovered Chat Noir casually leaning against the door's entrance with folded arms and his famous smirk on his face. 

"So, we have finally found you at last, Chat Noir!" Plagg exclaimed. His men pulled their swords from their sheaths and prepared to strike. 

Chat shrugged. "Technically, I'm the one who found you guys. And by the way, don't you know it's bad manners to force your way into a lady's room?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," replied Plagg bluntly. "But it doesn't matter, because we're finally being rewarded for all of our sleepless nights and restless days of hunting you down, and we now have you in our grasp at last."

"Do you really though?"

   Instead of replying to Chat Noir's snide remark, Plagg ordered his men to immediately detain the masked young man. They charged at once, but Chat successively avoided their attacks and was able to fight back despite not having a weapon. When a soldier attempted to strike, Chat Noir cleverly swiped his foot to the man's legs, knocking him flat on his back and taking his sword when the soldier was caught off guard. 

Marinette anxiously watched the skirmish, desperately wondering what the outcome would be. She wanted to do something, but at the same time she was terrified a guard would strike her with his sword. 

Plus, she was too busy trying to gather her crazy long hair off the floor in an attempt to try and keep everyone from stepping on it. 

Suddenly, a blast was heard from the bottom floor. The woman who had been tending to the downstairs bar unexpectedly rushed into the room. 

"FIRE!" she yelled, gasping for air. 

Everyone immediately ran for the door yelling and shouting at each other while trying to squeeze through the doorway, the ground coincidentally shaking under their feet. Marinette, however, was still trying to gather her hair. 

"Chat Noir! Help me!" she shouted above the noise. 

Chat Noir turned and saw Marinette struggling to get her hair in order, desperately collecting all of it in her arms. He slung the last few feet of it around his neck and over his shoulder before grabbing her hand. 

"Let's go! The whole floor is about to come down if we don't move!" he yelled to her. 

  They both sped down the stairs and found the entire first floor engulfed in flames. People were rushing back and forth trying to collect personal items while at the same time trying to dose the fire with water from the small lake outside. Chat Noir and Marinette tried to maneuver through the commotion and fire, but the path leading to the door was crowded as people tried in total desperation to exit the burning building. Wood and debris began to fall all around them, and once Marinette had to shove Chat Noir aside before a falling beam almost killed him. Their lungs and eyes began to suffocate from the smoke as the fire viciously continued to grow. 

Despite his eyes stinging like crazy, Chat searched frantically around seeking refuge...any refuge. At last, his eyes settled on an old storage closet that was near the bar. Throwing an arm around his mouth while still trying his best to keep Marinette's hair off the floor, he lead her to the closet and shoved her and her hair inside before going in himself and slamming the door-- with total darkness surrounding the both if them.

"You idiot!" gasped Marinette, her lungs struggling for air. "How is this supposed to save us?"

Chat coughed long and hard before take a deep breath to compose himself. Then he said, "I was only trying to help us catch our breath. Anyway, when we're ready, we're going to count to 3 and run for our lives out of this house and bolt for the woods before Commander Bozo and his men catch us."

"Well, better now than never," Marinette retorted. 

"Whatever. Just try not to trip on your hair."

They both grabbed the closet door handle and tried to bust out of the closet once Chat had counted to three. But to their complete dismay, the handle was jammed. 

They were trapped. 

Both Marinette and Chat Noir tried their hardest to repeatedly slam themselves against the door in attempt to get it open, but their efforts seemed pointless. 

Marinette gave the door one final slam before banging on it rapidly with her fists like a madwoman. 

"Cut it out! It won't work," Chat shouted. 

"Shut up!" Marinette shrieked, continuously banging on the door in fury, though twice she had to wipe escaping tears from her stinging eyes. "You're the one who got us in here in the first place!" she screamed. "You're the one who was stupid enough to lock us in here so we could die!"

In anger, Chat Noir grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away from the door. "Do you actually think I did that on purpose?" he hissed. "Do you really think I want to die?"

His icy tone broke Marinette from her wild state, and the realization of her approaching death finally snapped into her mind.

This is really it, she thought helplessly. This is how I'm going to die. 

She slowly sank to the floor, feeling terribly disappointed and frustrated with herself as despair and hopelessness began to take over her mind. She felt more tears slip down her flushed cheeks, and instead of trying to hold them back she finally let loose and cried. 

"This is all my fault," she sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "I should've just stayed in my stupid tower and obeyed my mother, but instead I had to be a complete fool and get myself in trouble..." 

Marinette paused to catch a shaky breath before crying, "I'm so sorry, Chat Noir."

  Though the darkness made it impossible for him to see Marinette's face, the sound of her cries were almost unbearable to him. Guilt began to wash over him like a wave, and he suddenly started to feel remorseful. 

She was right, this was all his fault. He shouldn't have acted so impulsively. Instead, he should've searched his surroundings in it's entirety until he found another way out. Chat's throat began to choke up as he realized this was his last few minutes of being alive, but what made him feel more guilty was that he realized his actions had endangered Marinette's life as well. 

He was never a one to take pity on others...he was always looking out for number one, and his gang members were the only exception. But deep down he always believed that everyone should have freedom; freedom of choice, freedom of speech, freedom of just being free.

Marinette never had that luxury. And the little she had only lasted for a day. 

"Adrien Agreste."

Marinette stopped crying when she heard him speak again. "What?" she asked, confused. 

Chat Noir knelt before her and said quietly, "My real name is Adrien Agreste. I...never actually told anyone that, but I guess someone might as well know."

"My hair can actually heal people and glows when I sing," Marinette smiled in spite of herself. 

"What?"

"Wait..." an idea began to form in Marinette's mind. "I can give us light!" she exclaimed. "I'll sing, and when my hair glows, you look around here to see if there's another way out!"

Before Chat Noir could respond, Marinette filled her lungs and sang as hard as she could, every curl, strand, and lock of her hair shining like never before. Chat froze in complete bewilderment, but Marinette gestured with her hands to hurry. 

Chat Noir began to rummage around the closet's shelves and supplies, until he realized there was a trap door with a functioning handle right under his feet. He tried to lift the door, but for some reason it wouldn't budge. Marinette dug into her purse, pulled out her spoon, and gave it to Chat Noir, who used it to pry open the trap door to reveal a long set of stairs leading deep below the ground. 

Without hesitation, the pair immediately went down hoping they would soon find an easy escape from the darkness.