Jo watched from the edge of the park, knowing they needed to get out, but slowed by Mathys' limp form and her desire to make sure Nino was okay. She was peering through the trees when the light suddenly became blinding, illuminating the sky like a misplaced sun. Jo closed her eyes, not able to stand the brightness any longer, when a piercing pain shot through her chest and she dropped to the ground, Mathys crumbling in a heap next to her. The pain started to radiate through her bones, and her jaw clamped shut, gritting against the sensation as she dared not even scream for fear that it might make it worse. She felt Mathys move next to her and heard him murmuring in a mixture of French and English, clearly concerned but at just as much of a loss as she was for what the hell was going on.

"Mademoiselle! Miss!" He kept calling to her, his gaunt face worried and hands hovering over her in uncertainty, but not daring to touch her.

"Jo," she introduced herself and then blacked out.


Nino woke up with a tree wedged between his neck and his shoulder. His first thought was how much that was going to hurt when he decided to move. The second was why wasn't he still Honu? He looked down, and somehow whatever blast had broken their circle had been so strong that it propelled him back against this tree and blew his transformation right off him. He started to sit up, grimacing in pain as he moved his left shoulder-there was definitely something wrong there-and tried to stand. His vision swam, but he managed to hold himself upright as he began to survey the scene.

It was a disaster he doubted even Ladybug had the power to fix. The small plaza had been reduced to rubble, broken pieces of pavement pointing upwards in shards from where they had been standing, as if a meteor had impacted that very spot. Trees were snapped and charred and water was pouring from a nearby pipe that had burst. He stood immobile, taking in everything but feeling nothing register as reality quite yet. They'd caused this?

He heard a small gasp next to him and saw Wayzz, lying dazed in a patch of grass not far from him. Rushing and ignoring his throbbing shoulder, he cradled his friend against his chest, making sure he was okay before letting him go and burrow into Nino's interior pocket.

When he looked up again, it was just in time to catch a stumbling girl who collapsed in his arms, gripping his waist tightly. The arm attached to his injured shoulder hung useless at his side, but he held her with his right arm as tightly as humanly possible.

"You're okay. You're okay," Alya murmured, her grip not letting up on his waist and he allowed his nose to bury into her hair for a stolen moment before she pulled away. She took a deep breath before turning to face the destruction. Grabbing his hand, as unwilling as he was to let go, she searched for the others.

"Alya!" Chloé's voice called, and they rushed towards her, finding her trapped between a dislodged piece of pavement. She gritted her teeth as they hefted it enough so she could slip out and Alya helped her limp to a standing position.

"Mari? The Agrestes?" Chloé looked between the two of them for answers, but it instead came in the form of a strangled scream from behind them. They turned, fear etched in their expressions as they looked towards where they had been standing in a circle not moments ago. Already stumbling on their way there were Gabriel and Adela, but Nino couldn't take his eyes from the source of the sound of pure agony. In the center was Marinete. Blood flowed freely down her face from a gash on her forehead, but her distress was from another source.

"No," he choked, and disentangled himself from Alya to run towards them.

Because in her arms lying motionless was Adrien, his face pale and and his body unresponsive.


Later, the rest of them would say it was a blur. That they saw a flash of light and then everything went black.

That's not what happened.

Marinette didn't know if it was her connection to Chat emotionally or if it was because they were physically connected by her yo-yo, but she saw everything that happened in vivid color. In agonizing slow motion.

"It's not-I-more," Chat gritted out, falling to his knees before her, his hand still within the swirling inky blackness. She watched as his face turned ashen, as he gave every remaining shred of his energy to destroy the stone and anger coursed through her. No one was taking her kitty. Her hum turned into a guttural scream as she gave him everything she had. She heard the others do the same, but her eyes were on him. Only on him. Always on him.

When the light flared around them and the dark smoke was incinerated, the others described it as a brief flash, but for her, time stood still. She watched as Chat became Adrien, the explosion of power releasing his transformation as Plagg had no energy left to give. She watched as a wave coursed through his body, his face wrinkling in agony, before he opened his eyes and looked at her.

I love you, his lips moved, but she heard nothing apart from her own sobs wracking through her body as his eyes slid shut.

Her own transformation was released but didn't she fly far, her yo-yo holding her close through the initial shock wave of the explosion. As soon as the light died down, she was on her feet, ignoring the sharp pain in her ribs and the fierce pounding of her head. She gingerly collected Tikki and Plagg, who both laid unconscious near her, before springing to Adrien's side. Falling to her knees, she placed their kwamis on his chest and cradled his head, gently tapping his cheek and begging him to open his eyes. A part of her registered when Tikki awoke. She breathed a little easier as she saw her fuss over Plagg, but it really only freed up more of Marinette's mind to worry about Adrien. She knew her kwami would feel the same; the two had tunnel vision when it came to their partners.

"Adrien? Adrien! Please, no. No, no, no, no, no…" she sobbed, trying to find a pulse and leaning down in desperation to hear a breath. "No, Adrien, you can't do this to me. Please. Adrien. Please…"

Her tears were falling, creating haunting patterns on his dirt stained face as she pleaded with the universe to not take him from her. She saw the others start to stir in her peripheral vision, but her eyes never left his face, as if the sheer intensity of her gaze could somehow save what seemed lost.

Then his chest moved and at the same time both he and Plagg took a shuddering breath. The primal cry that sounded from her throat seemed out of place on the metropolitan streets of Paris, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. He was alive. He was alive and Plagg was alive. The Agrestes and their friends reached them then, and they were alive too.

Marinette's tears doubled as she leaned down and rested her forehead against Adrien's.

"We're okay. We're all okay. It's going to be okay."

Hours later at the hospital, she was beginning to doubt her own assessment. They'd been found quickly by police and paramedics-the whole of Paris having heard the explosion-and were ushered immediately to the hospital. They all claimed that they were on a walk when it happened. It was just a case of the wrong place at the wrong time. No one questioned it and the authorities were chalking up the explosion to a gas leak. Go figure.

They'd all been tended to, bones set and wounds stitched. Mathys' dehydration had been a bit harder to explain, but luckily the nurse had accepted his excuse of 'overworked university student'.

The true anomalies were Jo and Adrien. Both had slipped into a coma, and while Adrien's trauma at the epicenter of the event made sense, Mathys claimed that Jo just collapsed to the ground and passed out without warning. Marinette was concerned, but left it to the others. Apparently, Alya and Nino weren't leaving her side and Marinette was grateful to her team, because right now, Adrien was her focus. His parents were in an out of the room, consulting doctors and calling experts, but Marinette knew there was nothing anyone could do. The doctors could find no medical reason for his coma, claiming it must be the shock of the trauma and all they could do was wait.

So she waited.