Chapter Text
Time and space never really mattered to Marinette. At such a young age she didn’t even understand why she couldn’t stay longer in the park, or why her parents yelled at her when she left to play with kids without telling them. She didn’t understand why she could only see her grandma twice a year, if she loved her, she should have been able to get to her anytime she wanted, no matter where she was. Wasn’t that how the world worked? Love could cure everything, and the good always won in the battle against the bad!
But this, this could never be cured. Why had everyone lied to her? Did they not love her, did no one love her?
Marinette was three years old when she was kidnapped. She will later on forget her time before that, but she will never forget how scared and alone she felt. She can swear on everything dear to her( not that there are many things) that she was happy that day, even carefree if though she can’t really imagine herself being carefree. Her best friends, Chloe, Nino and Kim were with her. She was having so much fun, their parents took them to the beach and throughout the whole day, the only thing that could be heard were their childish laughs. She even remembers wearing a new swimsuit, a ladybug themed one. They played tag, swam and made sand castles, they even played the adult game, pretending to be adults. But they were after all kids, and the adults should not have drunk and should not have been distracted, because all it takes for chaos to spread is one mistake, one moment one weakness.
It started with Chloe, no one would deny that Chloe was a spoiled child, so she always had to be the center of attention. Marinette never minded, she loved her best friend and she had to admit it was funny to watch her come up with new ways to entertain the boys. This time, she decided to start a war, a water one at that, but a war nonetheless. She used her water gun on Nino first, and then on Kim, and before long, she was being chased by the two boys. Water hit everyone, and the screams could be heard from miles away, it really was so much fun, but before Marinette could join in, she noticed her friend(babysitter), Fu-Fu, standing not too far away from them. Being the friendly kid she was, she ran to him and asked him to join in on the fun. He of course accepted, because who could resist her charming smile and puppy eyes, but he asked her to come with him to the car to get a new water gun first. You have to understand that she knew him, he wasn’t a stranger, so her parents didn’t warn her not to go alone with him. Before the adults could register her absence, she was long gone.
That was the day Marinette Dupain-Cheng died. For months on end she cried and asked to see her family and friends. She begged to be let free, to play, to eat, to understand what was happening. Her young mind could still not process why her parents suddenly didn’t answer her calls, why she had been isolated.
For one whole year, she was alone, with only her sad thoughts to keep her busy. Every day, a really mean man would come into her room to ask her what her name was. Every time she answered truthfully, and said her name was Marinette, that man would slap her, punch her, kick her, anything and everything to inflec her pain, he would not stop until she lost consciousness. The little girl could not understand why she was being punished, her mama always told her to be honest. Was everything her parents taught her a lie?
Finally, she stopped answering the question, but the man continued to beat her. By now, she had stopped wishing it would all go away, she learnt the hard way that all her begging would lead to nothing. She stopped being carefree, stopped being happy, she even stopped smiling her bright smile. She evetualy stopped crying, because, as hard as it was to believe, the pain became bearable, so she would just wait for it to be over so she could be left alone.
And just like that, one ordinary day, a woman came in her room instead of the man she grew to hate. She presented herself as Talia al Ghul and finally gave her some answers. From that day forward, her name was Marie Fu and she was to be married to someone named Damian. She would always be in danger, and she would have to prove herself every day.