Fic: Marrow
Aug. 30th, 2019 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetFandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Summary: When Hawkmoth finally gets his hands on the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, the cost of his wish is Adrien's life. Marinette has to take a page from Greek mythology to get her partner back.
AO3 link: Find the podfic over here!
Wordcount: 4106
Ships: Love Square (pre-relationship)
Notes: First, Bearded vulture reference. Second, enormous thanks to Yvi_Sama, AKA![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
podfic-chicklet, who originally signed up for Pod Together with me but was unable to do the full recording due to illness. She was such an enormous help in whipping this fic into shape that I can honestly say it would not be half as good without her input, and was so instrumental to the final product that I officially consider her a co-author of this work. I ♥ u, hon!
Fic: Marrow
Lost even to the Guardians of the Miraculous is a tale of a strange realm, which overlaps with ours in certain times and places. There is a path in that place that wriggles and twists through a strange forest of dark trees, whose nearly bare limbs have dry, cracked leaves clinging next to tiny green buds. The fog that shrouds the ground there seems to reach all the way to dense gray clouds in the sky. Mushrooms grow thick on the forest floor to either side of the path and up the sides of the trees, in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and colors found nowhere else.
Those who follow the path to its end have a chance to win an incredible boon, unreachable by any other means. In return, they cannot look behind them until they have reached their home again, or the prize they sought will join the mists of that other place forever.
She has made it this far. She has bargained for her prize. All she has to do is not look back until it's in her hands, and then...
Well. It won't be over then, not by a long shot. But she'll have fixed the most important thing, and that is enough to start with.
-----
The best word Ladybug had for Vineglory, the akuma that had appeared that afternoon, was "strange". It had shown up near Collège Françoise Dupont, a giant spider-like plant creature walking on limbs of ivy; a large flower in the pot that was its body seemed to be the akuma's face. Other than that, it had no recognizable features. It spoke in broken sentences in third person, mainly about how Ladybug and Cat Noir kept getting in its way.
Ladybug wasn't entirely sure what this meant. Was the akumatized person a child, too young to know many words? Were they sick or feverish? Or perhaps they were a foreigner, who had been somehow compelled to use only the little French they knew?
Whatever the case, she and her partner eventually managed to corner Vineglory in a building not far off from where it first appeared. It was an industrial thing with an artsy circular window set in one side, clashing with the rest of the building's design. There, Ladybug managed to distract the akuma with the rubber ball her Lucky Charm had provided, while Cat Noir's Cataclysm collapsed part of the roof onto it, pinning its vines to the floor. Ladybug started to approach it, but Cat threw a hand out to stop her.
"Remember how it wrapped up all of those people?" he said. "I've got this, my Lady." He extended his baton to pull apart the ribbon tied around the akuma's body-pot.
"Good thinking, Cat," Ladybug said, readying her yoyo. She caught the butterfly in one swoop and released it quickly, turning to share her customary fist-bump with Cat Noir. "Pound it!" they said in unison.
The freshly purified butterfly flapped between them, and Ladybug felt her face go slack with shock as she watched it fly further into the building instead of out the window. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cat Noir tense up abruptly before he knocked her to the floor. "Ladybug, look out!"
"What—?" Ladybug rolled to her feet and watched in horror as a long tendril of ribbon wrapped around Cat Noir's ankle and lifted him in the air. Behind him, the akuma's form was dissolving in a wave of dark, bubbling magic, revealing a second monster underneath: Another spider-like creature, this one made from a spool of ribbon, and currently generating extra limbs to shove aside the broken metal that had it pinned.
Ladybug spun her yoyo in front of herself as a shield, wincing when her Miraculous beeped in her ears. What was going on here? She glanced at Cat Noir and swallowed a cry of alarm; still dangling from one foot, he swung his baton wildly to bat away encroaching ribbons. A flicker at the corner of Ladybug's eye warned her just in time to dodge a dark blue ribbon of her own, only for her to land in a web the creature had set up behind her. "No!" she yelled, the ribbons wrapping her up from toes to shoulders. A desperate look in Cat Noir's direction revealed that he was in much the same predicament, his cat ears drooping and his right hand conspicuously free of confinement. He caught her eye and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of someone clapping. As one, Ladybug and Cat Noir turned to the source of the noise.
On the other side of the room, his cane tucked under one arm and a triumphant smile on his face, stood Hawkmoth. "Well done," he announced. "You fell into my trap quite neatly. But then, I expected nothing else once I realized I could akumatize a sentimonster. After that, it was only a matter of choosing the best emotion to send after you; it seems that my frustration with the two of you continuing to get in my way was a good choice. Now all that remains is for me to collect your Miraculouses and make my wish."
Ladybug struggled against her bonds. "You can't do this, Hawkmoth! Don't you know that the cost of your wish will be astronomical?"
Hawkmoth reached his hands up to remove first one earring, then the other, following her head effortlessly as she craned it away from him. "I am well aware of that, Ladybug," he responded, slipping the earrings into a pocket. His eyes narrowed as her costume melted away. "Or rather, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, isn't it? I've considered you as a target before; no wonder you never accepted my offers. It's a shame that someone with your considerable talents ended up opposing me."
"As if I would do anything else!" Marinette snapped. She hated this!
Hawkmoth smirked. "Well, perhaps not. We'll never know now, though, will we?" Marinette watched in silent fury as Hawkmoth turned his attentions to her partner.
Cat Noir bared his teeth and hissed at Hawkmoth, his ears pinned flat against his skull. He began to growl as the man stepped closer, clenching his right hand into a fist to protect his Miraculous. His struggle was heartbreakingly short, his growl turning into a pained yelp when Hawkmoth managed to force his fingers open and take the ring.
The guilt and frustration twisting in Marinette's stomach were joined by shock as her partner's costume dissolved, revealing Adrien Agreste. He glared daggers at the man in front of him. "I don't know what you think could possibly be worth terrorizing the citizens of Paris for this long, but whatever it is, it's not enough."
Hawkmoth's reaction surprised Marinette: His eyes, which had gone wide with surprise when Adrien's mask fell away, narrowed in a more contemplative expression. "I disagree. Moreover, when you find out why I've been doing this, I believe you will even thank me for what I've done."
Adrien seethed visibly. "Like hell I would ever thank you for anything!"
Hawkmoth pulled back, depositing Cat Noir's ring into the same pocket as he'd put Ladybug's earrings. "We shall see." He turned away and began walking towards the back of the room again. "Ribbonizer," he said, not bothering to look back; the sentimonster's spool body turned slightly in his direction. "Guard the elevator." A moment later, the elevator door closed behind him and he was gone.
The ribbons holding Marinette loosened, and she dropped to the floor as the sentimonster went to stand in front of the elevator; a thud to her right told her that Adrien had also been released, but she didn't bother to look up and see. Instead, she curled up into a ball, hiding her face in her knees.
Why couldn't this have happened another way? she asked the world silently, fighting back tears. Why couldn't learning each other's identities be the only thing we had to worry about right now? That would be hard enough to deal with, even if we hadn't turned out to know each other in day-to-day life, and with my feelings for Adrien and Cat Noir's feelings for Ladybug making this into an even more tangled mess. Even Hawkmoth learning who we are wouldn't have been this bad on its own!
Instead, after all the times they'd managed to beat him and his akumas back, Hawkmoth had stolen the Black Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses. Soon he would be making his wish, and there would be no telling what the consequences would be.
Marinette heard soft footsteps approaching, and the rustle of ribbons behind her; the ribbons quieted when Adrien put a hand on her shoulder. "Ladybug?" he asked, hesitantly. Then, "Marinette?"
"It's too late," Marinette said, voice muffled by her knees. "Hawkmoth's won, and there's nothing we can do. I may as well just sit here."
Adrien became a warm presence at her side as he knelt, leaning against her. "Don't say that, Marinette. As long as he hasn't made his wish yet, there's still time. Besides," he said, smiling softly when she looked up at him, "it's not like you to give up so easily. With or without the mask."
Marinette looked up into her partner's eyes, a green that she had come to know and trust twice over. He was right; they couldn't give up yet. She began to look around the room. Her Lucky Charm was gone, vanished when Hawkmoth took her earrings, but there still might be something they could use. Slowly, a smile began to form on her lips. "Okay, Cat—Adrien," she corrected herself; he smiled at her. "Here's the plan."
-----
Two minutes later, Ribbonizer was tangled up in its own ribbons, the tying ends pinned into the floor with shards of metal, and Marinette and Adrien had broken into Hawkmoth's elevator.
-----
Luckily, even Hawkmoth's elevator—"Evil elevator," Adrien said. "An evilevator, if you will!" To which Marinette responded, "I will not,"—had the safety escape hatch in the roof, so they didn't have to fight their way through metal. They were unprepared for what they found on the other side of the elevator's doors, however.
The room that opened up before them was an old church converted into an indoor garden, a large, circular light shining onto the plants from the curved ceiling. In a place of honor, almost ceremonial in its position under a round window—useless underground, Marinette thought—was a cylinder of metal and glass; inside was a familiar looking woman with light skin and long blond hair, lost in sleep.
Adrien stumbled to a halt, his face going pale. Marinette stopped beside him, a worried frown on her face. "Adrien? What's wrong?"
He stared at the woman in the glass coffin. "Mom...?" he whispered.
Marinette whipped her head back around to stare at the inert woman. Yes, she certainly looked like Emilie Agreste, but wasn't Adrien's mom supposed to be dead?
Hawkmoth stepped up on the platform and ran a gloved hand reverently along the glass. "Soon, my love," he said, and pulled something away from his chest. His transformation fell away as he dropped the Butterfly Miraculous at his side; a purple butterfly kwami appear beside him, panting in exhaustion. Marinette and Adrien stared in shock, recognizing Gabriel Agreste as he slid the Black Cat Miraculous onto the ring finger of his right hand and punched the Ladybug Miraculous through his earlobes.
A vortex of power formed around Adrien's father, swirling red and white and black and green. Voices echoed out from it in unison, Tikki's and Plagg's among them: "We are the powers of the Miraculous, bound and unbound. With the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses to summon us, we have the power to grant any wish. What do you ask of us?"
"Return my wife to the way she was before the Peacock Miraculous was broken," Gabriel ordered.
The vortex dwindled until it was no more than a spot of swirling color; a magic rift formed from that spot, and a kwami emerged from it. Brilliant red feathers crowned it and cloaked the front of its body, encasing its legs; its face and eyes were white with red sclera, black, tear-like markings tracking down its cheeks. Black feathers flowed over its arms, ending in tiny flight feathers, and down its back into a short tail. Its beak and talons were gray. "I am Marrow, the unbound kwami of life and death," it said. "I can grant your wish, but there will be a price."
Marinette's mind raced; surely there was still something they could do? She looked to Adrien for ideas, but his face was awash with hurt and confusion.
Her train of thought was interrupted by Gabriel. "Anything," he promised, not looking away from his wife.
Marrow's eyes became grim slits. "Very well." A scythe appeared in one tiny, winglike hand, and the kwami raised the weapon with a cry: "Lifeline!"
Marinette watched in horror as threads of light materialized in the kwami's hand, leading out in all directions, several of them connected to the people in the underground room. One by one the threads faded out of sight, Marinette's one of the last to leave, until there were only three left: Two strong, healthy threads leading to Gabriel and Adrien, and one thin, frayed thread leading to Emilie.
Marrow examined the threads in its hand carefully, then looked up at Gabriel and Adrien. At last, it selected one of the two stronger threads and, dropping the other, pulled its scythe through both it and the frayed thread leading to Emilie. Letting the stray end of the frayed thread fall, it tied the end still connected to Emilie to the one that had, until seconds before, been tethered to Adrien. Emilie opened her eyes and gasped.
In her peripheral vision, Marinette saw Gabriel stumble forward and pull Emilie's glass coffin open, taking the confused woman in his arms. Adrien was completely taken in by their reunion, not even noticing when he began to sway. Marinette, whose attention was entirely on her partner, lurched forward to steady him. Instead, she caught him as his legs folded underneath him, and she struggled to lower him safely to the ground. Frantically, she felt for his pulse, and swallowed hard at its slowing beat. "Adrien, no," she begged, horse voice barely above a whisper. "Stay with me, please!" Clasping his right hand, she drew it up to her chest with her own and brushed his bangs away from his face with her left. His eyes, still focused on his parents, were growing dim. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over as the remains of his life thread finally vanished, Adrien going still in her arms, his hand limp in hers.
Marinette looked back to the Agreste reunion and, beyond the two adults, saw Marrow disappear through the magic rift it had appeared from. Suddenly she was overflowing with determination. She would not let this happen! Setting Adrien's body gently on the floor, Marinette lurched to her feet, raced past Gabriel and Emilie, and dove through the rapidly sealing portal.
-----
Marinette landed with a small "Oof!" on flat earth. Ignoring the scrapes—she was used to them—she peered at the place she'd arrived in; the place Marrow had come from. Fog was rising up from the ground around her, the sky overcast beyond strange trees. Mushrooms clustered everywhere on the ground and up tree trunks—everywhere except a dirt path leading through the forest, with a single, glowing thread leading down it. With no other clues, Marinette got to her feet and began following the thread to its source.
Without the sun to guide her, Marinette couldn't be sure how much time passed as she walked. She tried checking her phone a few times, but the numbers on the clock never changed, no matter how long she went between checks. Still, she was certain it couldn't have been much more than an hour when she finally found the thread's source: A glowing white ball in a small clearing in the forest, Marrow floating over it. "Marrow!" she called out.
The unbound kwami opened its eyes slowly, then turned lazily to face her. "What is it, Ladybug wielder?"
Marinette straightened, filled anew with righteous indignation. "Why did you take Adrien?" she demanded. "Why was it my partner who had to give his life up? Why wasn't it Hawkmoth? Adrien has protected Paris with me for years, while his father terrorized it! I'm pretty sure Gabriel killed people over the years, and even though my Miraculous Cure brought them back, that's still not okay! Why was it Adrien and not Gabriel? Why was it the person who strove so hard to save lives and protect them, rather than the one who would throw lives away for someone who may as well have already been dead?"
Marrow regarded her coolly as she panted, her cheeks red from exertion. It sighed. "Ladybug wielder, do you think it was my choice to help that despicable man? As the kwami of life and death, I know well the crimes he has committed in my domain. I also know how poorly he has treated Nooroo; I could sense how sick at heart my bound sibling was the moment I entered your realm, as well as the bond that caused him such pain. I would not have helped that man at all if it had been in my power.
"Unfortunately, when summoned the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, I was bound to Gabriel's will," the kwami continued. "Gabriel was more prepared to sacrifice his son's life than his own. Once he realized what his father's wish was, so was Adrien; I could feel his willingness to give up his own life for his mother's. Gabriel's will and the nature of his wish left me with no other choice."
"Then choose now!" Marinette pleaded. "Adrien has always been willing to give up more than his father has, to give up everything for his father, but that doesn't mean he should have to! Gabriel deserves to be here, not Adrien. Adrien..." She bit her lip. "Adrien deserves a chance to be happy, and Gabriel stole that from him time and time again. Now Adrien will never even get another chance. I might have a chance to help Nooroo when I get back; I won't get a chance to help Adrien, unless you can change who Gabriel's sacrifice is."
Marrow was silent for a moment; then a slow, enigmatic smile formed on its face. "Tikki chose well with you," it informed her. "Very well; I will help you. However, I am still bound by certain rules, even here. I must subject you to the same conditions as any other mortal.
"First, you will turn around and walk back to the realm of the living; I will hold the portal so it does not close before you leave. Adrien will follow behind you. When you return to the realm of the living, indicate to me which person I should have taken, and I will re-tie the lifelines so they will be sacrificed instead, and Adrien will stay with you. However, if you look back even once before I have restored Adrien's life and taken the one you indicate, you will lose any chance of bringing your partner back. Do you understand?"
Marinette swallowed hard. "I do," she said.
"Then go," Marrow told her.
Marinette turned and began her trek back home. Soft sounds came from behind her, nothing like the tread of a young man but sometimes like the sound of one falling, and she had to clamp down on the impulse to check behind her. Adrien will be fine, she assured herself. All I have to do is keep moving forward.
At last she made it back to the portal. Swallowing, praying to every kwami who might be listening that Marrow was telling the truth, Marinette stepped back through the rift and into her own world.
-----
On the other side of the portal, Marinette was surprised to find Gabriel and Emilie in the same position she had left them in. Is it really the same time as when I left? she wondered. I'd have sworn that took at least two hours. She shook her head, dismissing the time discrepancy; she had more important things to do.
"Hawkmoth," she called, standing firm and determined.
Gabriel turned from his wife, arms not leaving Emilie, and looked disdainfully at Marinette. "Whatever you have to say can wait," he informed her.
Ice cold fury washed over Marinette. "No, it can't," she informed him. "You sacrificed Paris over and over to bring your wife back." Emilie looked up at Gabriel, startled; Gabriel continued staring at Marinette. "You used the power of the Butterfly Miraculous to take advantage of people's emotions and set them against each other, risking the live of thousands in the process. You targeted the young and the old alike, even possessing infants to fulfill your goal. When you finally got the power you wanted, after going so far as to beat and steal it from the children who stood up to you, you sacrificed your only son rather than give up your own life to fulfill your wish."
Emilie stared up at her husband; with each crime Marinette had listed her expression became more and more horrified, reaching its peak when she saw how calm her husband was in the face of Marinette's accusations. "Gabriel, is this true?"
Angry tears pricked at Marinette's eyes, but she fought them back. She could cry later, when everything was fixed. "Look to your left," Marinette told her; she pointed to where Adrien had fallen, not daring to look herself in case it broke her bargain with Marrow. "You'll see how true it is."
Emilie turned to where Marinette pointed and choked on a sob. "Adrien, no!" Shoving out of Gabriel's hold, she made her way to where Marinette had been forced to leave her partner's body, stumbling once or twice on her way over. Marinette didn't see Emilie reach her son, but heard soft thuds and the rustle of cloth and concluded that Emilie must have taken Adrien in her arms. "You did this?" Emilie asked her husband. "You killed our son to bring me back?"
Gabriel too was watching Emilie; his face had gone pale when he looked over to where she'd stopped. Still, he composed himself and turned a glare on Marinette. "I did what had to be done," he replied, his voice almost even. "Rest assured, I will correct what went wrong."
A red feathered cowl and bodysuit wrapped around Marinette, a long black coat with draping sleeves enclosing over it; a mask of dark, tear-like marks traced around her eyes and down her cheeks, and her sclera turned dark red. "No, you didn't," she said to him, Marrow's power settling over her. "You did what you wanted to, and damn whoever else got in your way. I won't let you have the chance to ruin anyone else's life. I refuse!" Marinette raised her hands above her head; a scythe formed in them, which she swept down in front of her. "Lifeline!" she cried out.
Marrow's power flowed through Marinette. All around her she could see threads of life, anchoring souls to bodies. With one swift movement, Marinette sliced through two of them and fused what had been Gabriel's to Emilie's, leaving the broken end of Hawkmoth's to drift in the wind. Marinette watched Gabriel fall to the ground as Marrow's power left her; in the last seconds she still held it, she felt a flare of heat behind her that she somehow knew was Marrow reconnecting Adrien's severed life thread. Still, she continued to stare straight ahead, even as she heard Emilie let out a joyous cry and begin to sob in earnest, the woman's broken voice joined by a familiar tenor.
Eventually their conversation stopped, and she heard soft footfalls behind her. Still she kept staring ahead, until two strong arms wrapped around her from behind, holding on tight and perfect; they were accompanied by the feel of someone burying their face in her hair, and her partner's voice soft in her ear, "I can't believe you never looked back."
Marinette finally wrenched around in his grasp, clutching at Adrien in turn, marveling at how solid he was in her arms. "Silly kitty," she said, tears of relief and exhaustion stinging her eyes. "I didn't have to; I know you'll always follow me."
—fin—
Summary: When Hawkmoth finally gets his hands on the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, the cost of his wish is Adrien's life. Marinette has to take a page from Greek mythology to get her partner back.
AO3 link: Find the podfic over here!
Wordcount: 4106
Ships: Love Square (pre-relationship)
Notes: First, Bearded vulture reference. Second, enormous thanks to Yvi_Sama, AKA
Fic: Marrow
Lost even to the Guardians of the Miraculous is a tale of a strange realm, which overlaps with ours in certain times and places. There is a path in that place that wriggles and twists through a strange forest of dark trees, whose nearly bare limbs have dry, cracked leaves clinging next to tiny green buds. The fog that shrouds the ground there seems to reach all the way to dense gray clouds in the sky. Mushrooms grow thick on the forest floor to either side of the path and up the sides of the trees, in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and colors found nowhere else.
Those who follow the path to its end have a chance to win an incredible boon, unreachable by any other means. In return, they cannot look behind them until they have reached their home again, or the prize they sought will join the mists of that other place forever.
She has made it this far. She has bargained for her prize. All she has to do is not look back until it's in her hands, and then...
Well. It won't be over then, not by a long shot. But she'll have fixed the most important thing, and that is enough to start with.
-----
The best word Ladybug had for Vineglory, the akuma that had appeared that afternoon, was "strange". It had shown up near Collège Françoise Dupont, a giant spider-like plant creature walking on limbs of ivy; a large flower in the pot that was its body seemed to be the akuma's face. Other than that, it had no recognizable features. It spoke in broken sentences in third person, mainly about how Ladybug and Cat Noir kept getting in its way.
Ladybug wasn't entirely sure what this meant. Was the akumatized person a child, too young to know many words? Were they sick or feverish? Or perhaps they were a foreigner, who had been somehow compelled to use only the little French they knew?
Whatever the case, she and her partner eventually managed to corner Vineglory in a building not far off from where it first appeared. It was an industrial thing with an artsy circular window set in one side, clashing with the rest of the building's design. There, Ladybug managed to distract the akuma with the rubber ball her Lucky Charm had provided, while Cat Noir's Cataclysm collapsed part of the roof onto it, pinning its vines to the floor. Ladybug started to approach it, but Cat threw a hand out to stop her.
"Remember how it wrapped up all of those people?" he said. "I've got this, my Lady." He extended his baton to pull apart the ribbon tied around the akuma's body-pot.
"Good thinking, Cat," Ladybug said, readying her yoyo. She caught the butterfly in one swoop and released it quickly, turning to share her customary fist-bump with Cat Noir. "Pound it!" they said in unison.
The freshly purified butterfly flapped between them, and Ladybug felt her face go slack with shock as she watched it fly further into the building instead of out the window. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cat Noir tense up abruptly before he knocked her to the floor. "Ladybug, look out!"
"What—?" Ladybug rolled to her feet and watched in horror as a long tendril of ribbon wrapped around Cat Noir's ankle and lifted him in the air. Behind him, the akuma's form was dissolving in a wave of dark, bubbling magic, revealing a second monster underneath: Another spider-like creature, this one made from a spool of ribbon, and currently generating extra limbs to shove aside the broken metal that had it pinned.
Ladybug spun her yoyo in front of herself as a shield, wincing when her Miraculous beeped in her ears. What was going on here? She glanced at Cat Noir and swallowed a cry of alarm; still dangling from one foot, he swung his baton wildly to bat away encroaching ribbons. A flicker at the corner of Ladybug's eye warned her just in time to dodge a dark blue ribbon of her own, only for her to land in a web the creature had set up behind her. "No!" she yelled, the ribbons wrapping her up from toes to shoulders. A desperate look in Cat Noir's direction revealed that he was in much the same predicament, his cat ears drooping and his right hand conspicuously free of confinement. He caught her eye and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of someone clapping. As one, Ladybug and Cat Noir turned to the source of the noise.
On the other side of the room, his cane tucked under one arm and a triumphant smile on his face, stood Hawkmoth. "Well done," he announced. "You fell into my trap quite neatly. But then, I expected nothing else once I realized I could akumatize a sentimonster. After that, it was only a matter of choosing the best emotion to send after you; it seems that my frustration with the two of you continuing to get in my way was a good choice. Now all that remains is for me to collect your Miraculouses and make my wish."
Ladybug struggled against her bonds. "You can't do this, Hawkmoth! Don't you know that the cost of your wish will be astronomical?"
Hawkmoth reached his hands up to remove first one earring, then the other, following her head effortlessly as she craned it away from him. "I am well aware of that, Ladybug," he responded, slipping the earrings into a pocket. His eyes narrowed as her costume melted away. "Or rather, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, isn't it? I've considered you as a target before; no wonder you never accepted my offers. It's a shame that someone with your considerable talents ended up opposing me."
"As if I would do anything else!" Marinette snapped. She hated this!
Hawkmoth smirked. "Well, perhaps not. We'll never know now, though, will we?" Marinette watched in silent fury as Hawkmoth turned his attentions to her partner.
Cat Noir bared his teeth and hissed at Hawkmoth, his ears pinned flat against his skull. He began to growl as the man stepped closer, clenching his right hand into a fist to protect his Miraculous. His struggle was heartbreakingly short, his growl turning into a pained yelp when Hawkmoth managed to force his fingers open and take the ring.
The guilt and frustration twisting in Marinette's stomach were joined by shock as her partner's costume dissolved, revealing Adrien Agreste. He glared daggers at the man in front of him. "I don't know what you think could possibly be worth terrorizing the citizens of Paris for this long, but whatever it is, it's not enough."
Hawkmoth's reaction surprised Marinette: His eyes, which had gone wide with surprise when Adrien's mask fell away, narrowed in a more contemplative expression. "I disagree. Moreover, when you find out why I've been doing this, I believe you will even thank me for what I've done."
Adrien seethed visibly. "Like hell I would ever thank you for anything!"
Hawkmoth pulled back, depositing Cat Noir's ring into the same pocket as he'd put Ladybug's earrings. "We shall see." He turned away and began walking towards the back of the room again. "Ribbonizer," he said, not bothering to look back; the sentimonster's spool body turned slightly in his direction. "Guard the elevator." A moment later, the elevator door closed behind him and he was gone.
The ribbons holding Marinette loosened, and she dropped to the floor as the sentimonster went to stand in front of the elevator; a thud to her right told her that Adrien had also been released, but she didn't bother to look up and see. Instead, she curled up into a ball, hiding her face in her knees.
Why couldn't this have happened another way? she asked the world silently, fighting back tears. Why couldn't learning each other's identities be the only thing we had to worry about right now? That would be hard enough to deal with, even if we hadn't turned out to know each other in day-to-day life, and with my feelings for Adrien and Cat Noir's feelings for Ladybug making this into an even more tangled mess. Even Hawkmoth learning who we are wouldn't have been this bad on its own!
Instead, after all the times they'd managed to beat him and his akumas back, Hawkmoth had stolen the Black Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses. Soon he would be making his wish, and there would be no telling what the consequences would be.
Marinette heard soft footsteps approaching, and the rustle of ribbons behind her; the ribbons quieted when Adrien put a hand on her shoulder. "Ladybug?" he asked, hesitantly. Then, "Marinette?"
"It's too late," Marinette said, voice muffled by her knees. "Hawkmoth's won, and there's nothing we can do. I may as well just sit here."
Adrien became a warm presence at her side as he knelt, leaning against her. "Don't say that, Marinette. As long as he hasn't made his wish yet, there's still time. Besides," he said, smiling softly when she looked up at him, "it's not like you to give up so easily. With or without the mask."
Marinette looked up into her partner's eyes, a green that she had come to know and trust twice over. He was right; they couldn't give up yet. She began to look around the room. Her Lucky Charm was gone, vanished when Hawkmoth took her earrings, but there still might be something they could use. Slowly, a smile began to form on her lips. "Okay, Cat—Adrien," she corrected herself; he smiled at her. "Here's the plan."
-----
Two minutes later, Ribbonizer was tangled up in its own ribbons, the tying ends pinned into the floor with shards of metal, and Marinette and Adrien had broken into Hawkmoth's elevator.
-----
Luckily, even Hawkmoth's elevator—"Evil elevator," Adrien said. "An evilevator, if you will!" To which Marinette responded, "I will not,"—had the safety escape hatch in the roof, so they didn't have to fight their way through metal. They were unprepared for what they found on the other side of the elevator's doors, however.
The room that opened up before them was an old church converted into an indoor garden, a large, circular light shining onto the plants from the curved ceiling. In a place of honor, almost ceremonial in its position under a round window—useless underground, Marinette thought—was a cylinder of metal and glass; inside was a familiar looking woman with light skin and long blond hair, lost in sleep.
Adrien stumbled to a halt, his face going pale. Marinette stopped beside him, a worried frown on her face. "Adrien? What's wrong?"
He stared at the woman in the glass coffin. "Mom...?" he whispered.
Marinette whipped her head back around to stare at the inert woman. Yes, she certainly looked like Emilie Agreste, but wasn't Adrien's mom supposed to be dead?
Hawkmoth stepped up on the platform and ran a gloved hand reverently along the glass. "Soon, my love," he said, and pulled something away from his chest. His transformation fell away as he dropped the Butterfly Miraculous at his side; a purple butterfly kwami appear beside him, panting in exhaustion. Marinette and Adrien stared in shock, recognizing Gabriel Agreste as he slid the Black Cat Miraculous onto the ring finger of his right hand and punched the Ladybug Miraculous through his earlobes.
A vortex of power formed around Adrien's father, swirling red and white and black and green. Voices echoed out from it in unison, Tikki's and Plagg's among them: "We are the powers of the Miraculous, bound and unbound. With the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses to summon us, we have the power to grant any wish. What do you ask of us?"
"Return my wife to the way she was before the Peacock Miraculous was broken," Gabriel ordered.
The vortex dwindled until it was no more than a spot of swirling color; a magic rift formed from that spot, and a kwami emerged from it. Brilliant red feathers crowned it and cloaked the front of its body, encasing its legs; its face and eyes were white with red sclera, black, tear-like markings tracking down its cheeks. Black feathers flowed over its arms, ending in tiny flight feathers, and down its back into a short tail. Its beak and talons were gray. "I am Marrow, the unbound kwami of life and death," it said. "I can grant your wish, but there will be a price."
Marinette's mind raced; surely there was still something they could do? She looked to Adrien for ideas, but his face was awash with hurt and confusion.
Her train of thought was interrupted by Gabriel. "Anything," he promised, not looking away from his wife.
Marrow's eyes became grim slits. "Very well." A scythe appeared in one tiny, winglike hand, and the kwami raised the weapon with a cry: "Lifeline!"
Marinette watched in horror as threads of light materialized in the kwami's hand, leading out in all directions, several of them connected to the people in the underground room. One by one the threads faded out of sight, Marinette's one of the last to leave, until there were only three left: Two strong, healthy threads leading to Gabriel and Adrien, and one thin, frayed thread leading to Emilie.
Marrow examined the threads in its hand carefully, then looked up at Gabriel and Adrien. At last, it selected one of the two stronger threads and, dropping the other, pulled its scythe through both it and the frayed thread leading to Emilie. Letting the stray end of the frayed thread fall, it tied the end still connected to Emilie to the one that had, until seconds before, been tethered to Adrien. Emilie opened her eyes and gasped.
In her peripheral vision, Marinette saw Gabriel stumble forward and pull Emilie's glass coffin open, taking the confused woman in his arms. Adrien was completely taken in by their reunion, not even noticing when he began to sway. Marinette, whose attention was entirely on her partner, lurched forward to steady him. Instead, she caught him as his legs folded underneath him, and she struggled to lower him safely to the ground. Frantically, she felt for his pulse, and swallowed hard at its slowing beat. "Adrien, no," she begged, horse voice barely above a whisper. "Stay with me, please!" Clasping his right hand, she drew it up to her chest with her own and brushed his bangs away from his face with her left. His eyes, still focused on his parents, were growing dim. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over as the remains of his life thread finally vanished, Adrien going still in her arms, his hand limp in hers.
Marinette looked back to the Agreste reunion and, beyond the two adults, saw Marrow disappear through the magic rift it had appeared from. Suddenly she was overflowing with determination. She would not let this happen! Setting Adrien's body gently on the floor, Marinette lurched to her feet, raced past Gabriel and Emilie, and dove through the rapidly sealing portal.
-----
Marinette landed with a small "Oof!" on flat earth. Ignoring the scrapes—she was used to them—she peered at the place she'd arrived in; the place Marrow had come from. Fog was rising up from the ground around her, the sky overcast beyond strange trees. Mushrooms clustered everywhere on the ground and up tree trunks—everywhere except a dirt path leading through the forest, with a single, glowing thread leading down it. With no other clues, Marinette got to her feet and began following the thread to its source.
Without the sun to guide her, Marinette couldn't be sure how much time passed as she walked. She tried checking her phone a few times, but the numbers on the clock never changed, no matter how long she went between checks. Still, she was certain it couldn't have been much more than an hour when she finally found the thread's source: A glowing white ball in a small clearing in the forest, Marrow floating over it. "Marrow!" she called out.
The unbound kwami opened its eyes slowly, then turned lazily to face her. "What is it, Ladybug wielder?"
Marinette straightened, filled anew with righteous indignation. "Why did you take Adrien?" she demanded. "Why was it my partner who had to give his life up? Why wasn't it Hawkmoth? Adrien has protected Paris with me for years, while his father terrorized it! I'm pretty sure Gabriel killed people over the years, and even though my Miraculous Cure brought them back, that's still not okay! Why was it Adrien and not Gabriel? Why was it the person who strove so hard to save lives and protect them, rather than the one who would throw lives away for someone who may as well have already been dead?"
Marrow regarded her coolly as she panted, her cheeks red from exertion. It sighed. "Ladybug wielder, do you think it was my choice to help that despicable man? As the kwami of life and death, I know well the crimes he has committed in my domain. I also know how poorly he has treated Nooroo; I could sense how sick at heart my bound sibling was the moment I entered your realm, as well as the bond that caused him such pain. I would not have helped that man at all if it had been in my power.
"Unfortunately, when summoned the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, I was bound to Gabriel's will," the kwami continued. "Gabriel was more prepared to sacrifice his son's life than his own. Once he realized what his father's wish was, so was Adrien; I could feel his willingness to give up his own life for his mother's. Gabriel's will and the nature of his wish left me with no other choice."
"Then choose now!" Marinette pleaded. "Adrien has always been willing to give up more than his father has, to give up everything for his father, but that doesn't mean he should have to! Gabriel deserves to be here, not Adrien. Adrien..." She bit her lip. "Adrien deserves a chance to be happy, and Gabriel stole that from him time and time again. Now Adrien will never even get another chance. I might have a chance to help Nooroo when I get back; I won't get a chance to help Adrien, unless you can change who Gabriel's sacrifice is."
Marrow was silent for a moment; then a slow, enigmatic smile formed on its face. "Tikki chose well with you," it informed her. "Very well; I will help you. However, I am still bound by certain rules, even here. I must subject you to the same conditions as any other mortal.
"First, you will turn around and walk back to the realm of the living; I will hold the portal so it does not close before you leave. Adrien will follow behind you. When you return to the realm of the living, indicate to me which person I should have taken, and I will re-tie the lifelines so they will be sacrificed instead, and Adrien will stay with you. However, if you look back even once before I have restored Adrien's life and taken the one you indicate, you will lose any chance of bringing your partner back. Do you understand?"
Marinette swallowed hard. "I do," she said.
"Then go," Marrow told her.
Marinette turned and began her trek back home. Soft sounds came from behind her, nothing like the tread of a young man but sometimes like the sound of one falling, and she had to clamp down on the impulse to check behind her. Adrien will be fine, she assured herself. All I have to do is keep moving forward.
At last she made it back to the portal. Swallowing, praying to every kwami who might be listening that Marrow was telling the truth, Marinette stepped back through the rift and into her own world.
-----
On the other side of the portal, Marinette was surprised to find Gabriel and Emilie in the same position she had left them in. Is it really the same time as when I left? she wondered. I'd have sworn that took at least two hours. She shook her head, dismissing the time discrepancy; she had more important things to do.
"Hawkmoth," she called, standing firm and determined.
Gabriel turned from his wife, arms not leaving Emilie, and looked disdainfully at Marinette. "Whatever you have to say can wait," he informed her.
Ice cold fury washed over Marinette. "No, it can't," she informed him. "You sacrificed Paris over and over to bring your wife back." Emilie looked up at Gabriel, startled; Gabriel continued staring at Marinette. "You used the power of the Butterfly Miraculous to take advantage of people's emotions and set them against each other, risking the live of thousands in the process. You targeted the young and the old alike, even possessing infants to fulfill your goal. When you finally got the power you wanted, after going so far as to beat and steal it from the children who stood up to you, you sacrificed your only son rather than give up your own life to fulfill your wish."
Emilie stared up at her husband; with each crime Marinette had listed her expression became more and more horrified, reaching its peak when she saw how calm her husband was in the face of Marinette's accusations. "Gabriel, is this true?"
Angry tears pricked at Marinette's eyes, but she fought them back. She could cry later, when everything was fixed. "Look to your left," Marinette told her; she pointed to where Adrien had fallen, not daring to look herself in case it broke her bargain with Marrow. "You'll see how true it is."
Emilie turned to where Marinette pointed and choked on a sob. "Adrien, no!" Shoving out of Gabriel's hold, she made her way to where Marinette had been forced to leave her partner's body, stumbling once or twice on her way over. Marinette didn't see Emilie reach her son, but heard soft thuds and the rustle of cloth and concluded that Emilie must have taken Adrien in her arms. "You did this?" Emilie asked her husband. "You killed our son to bring me back?"
Gabriel too was watching Emilie; his face had gone pale when he looked over to where she'd stopped. Still, he composed himself and turned a glare on Marinette. "I did what had to be done," he replied, his voice almost even. "Rest assured, I will correct what went wrong."
A red feathered cowl and bodysuit wrapped around Marinette, a long black coat with draping sleeves enclosing over it; a mask of dark, tear-like marks traced around her eyes and down her cheeks, and her sclera turned dark red. "No, you didn't," she said to him, Marrow's power settling over her. "You did what you wanted to, and damn whoever else got in your way. I won't let you have the chance to ruin anyone else's life. I refuse!" Marinette raised her hands above her head; a scythe formed in them, which she swept down in front of her. "Lifeline!" she cried out.
Marrow's power flowed through Marinette. All around her she could see threads of life, anchoring souls to bodies. With one swift movement, Marinette sliced through two of them and fused what had been Gabriel's to Emilie's, leaving the broken end of Hawkmoth's to drift in the wind. Marinette watched Gabriel fall to the ground as Marrow's power left her; in the last seconds she still held it, she felt a flare of heat behind her that she somehow knew was Marrow reconnecting Adrien's severed life thread. Still, she continued to stare straight ahead, even as she heard Emilie let out a joyous cry and begin to sob in earnest, the woman's broken voice joined by a familiar tenor.
Eventually their conversation stopped, and she heard soft footfalls behind her. Still she kept staring ahead, until two strong arms wrapped around her from behind, holding on tight and perfect; they were accompanied by the feel of someone burying their face in her hair, and her partner's voice soft in her ear, "I can't believe you never looked back."
Marinette finally wrenched around in his grasp, clutching at Adrien in turn, marveling at how solid he was in her arms. "Silly kitty," she said, tears of relief and exhaustion stinging her eyes. "I didn't have to; I know you'll always follow me."
—fin—
