When Magic Fails

Written by: JuliaFC

Betas: KhanOfAllOrcs, Agrestebug, Etoile-Lead-Sama, Speckleflower, AmberLambda, Anonymousfriend27 and MiniNoire

Big thanks to: Momo|MarinetteAgresteBrand and Genxha

Cover art and chapter art credit: Rosehealer02 on Deviantart.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc; TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Answer to reviews:

Agiani: LOL. Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment! Thank you for your comment, hope you'll like this chapter!

browneyedgirl41: He's in pretty critical conditions. You will find out even more in this chapter and the next. Poor Adrien :( Thank you for your comment!

mirami03: Keep following and you will know :) thanks for reading and reviewing!

Tearrer: Yes, she really was. Poor Marinette. It gets even worse here. Keep following, can't say no more ;) thank you for reading and for your comment!

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Chapter 3 - Secrets in the open

"What a powerful emotion!" Gabriel smirked as he let the strong sensation flow all over his senses. There was fear. Sheer fear. Love. And desperation—no, anguish. Such deep anguish. And guilt. He licked his lips in anticipation, dropping the tablet he'd been watching the news on at his desk and moving hastily towards Emilie's portrait. "This may become my most powerful akuma yet. Nathalie, follow me!" As he placed his hands in the right spots of the portrait, he felt that Nathalie had approached him and was standing next to him as they moved to the downstairs lair, and then to the next lift to the butterfly window.

"We still haven't found out what happened to Chat Noir," mused Nathalie. "You may not be able to get your hands on both Miraculouses, if he's in hospital and unable to fight."

Gabriel smirked. "But I will have an advantage against that other nuisance, Ladybug. And when I have her Miraculous, getting the black cat will be like drinking a cup of tea."

"Only if she hasn't taken the cat's Miraculous back," stated Nathalie coldly. "We hit the boy twice with the butterfly poison. For all we know, he could be dead."

Gabriel's smirk widened. "That's exactly what I mean, Nathalie. A very inexperienced Black Cat will be a joy to defeat. And will slow down Ladybug, who will become easy prey for my akuma. Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise!"

As the kaleidoscope of butterflies surrounded him, he saw Nathalie smile a hard smile and call her own transformation. "Duusu, spread my fe—" He didn't get a chance to cup his hands on a butterfly and fill it with dark magic. As soon as she called her transformation, he saw his assistant crouch on the floor, her whole body quivering from a terrible cough.

"Nathalie! What's wrong?" He ran to her side, catching her and preventing her from falling. "Duusu, what's going on? I thought we'd repaired your Miraculous!"

"You have, Gabriel," said Duusu as tears ran down his cheeks. "Poor Nathalie, she's really weak after having worn the broken Miraculous for so long. She can't transform twice in such a short period of time. Her magical wound is still fresh; it will take a long time to heal completely!"

Nathalie pushed Gabriel's hands away and tried to stand up, but she was visibly shaking. "I'm okay, sir," she whispered. "Don't worry about me. Send the Akuma out!"

"No, Nathalie, I can't focus on the akuma while you're here suffering. I won't let you end up like Emilie." Gabriel sighed. "I need to call the doctor. Dark Wings fall." He let the transformation fall and as Nooroo appeared next to him and exchanged worried glances with Duusu, he picked up Nathalie bridal style and walked hastily towards the lift.

oOo

"Adrien, isn't it?" One of the nurses had leaned on the unconscious blond boy on the bed. "My daughter has a life-size poster of you in her room, there's no chance of getting mistaken here, Adrien Agreste. We need to get these clothes off you, my boy."

Marinette watched in horror as the nurse picked up a pair of scissors and started cutting Adrien's black t-shirt. She gasped so loudly that all her friends turned towards the bed at the same time. Kagami closed her eyes and cupped her hands on her face. Marinette felt a burst of empathy towards the Japanese girl - after all, she also cared for Adrien. She may have broken up with him recently, but... Marinette knew first hand how hard it was to let go of the blond model. She put a hand on Kagami's shoulder; amber eyes met her bluebell ones, as they both wrapped each other in a tight hug.

"I can't watch," Kagami whispered, as Marinette heard Luka's voice coming from near the bed. She released Kagami from the hug and looked around. Luka had approached the bed and was talking to the nurse busy working on Adrien's clothes.

"Do you need any help? I'm a friend of his, I can undress him if you need me to."

The nurse frowned at him. "Thank you for asking, sweetheart, but we can't afford to move him. We just need to cut the clothes off. The most important thing is stopping the bleeding." Marinette realised that Adrien's shirt and top were soaked in his blood. New tears streamed from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. He was so pale that you could think he was dead if it wasn't for the rhythmic beeps coming from the machines that surrounded him.

The nurse focused once more on Adrien, as Luka walked back towards his friends. "Now I will cut the sleeves of your shirt, Adrien, and then we will have a look at your shoulder and back."

"I feel so powerless," Luka growled, his fists clenched, his hands shaking.

Alya hugged him tight and buried her face in his chest. "At least you weren't there, Luka. You didn't watch him getting hit. I was there. I should have helped. I should have supported him like Ryūko did. Instead I stayed near Ladybug, waiting for her to wake! I'm so sorry… it's all my fault…" Luka hugged her tight, but it didn't stop the loud sobs shaking her frame.

"We will need to put stitches on this cut at the side of his head," one of the doctors said.

Stitches? Marinette's eyes filled with tears again. "No, Rena! It's all my fault!" she hissed. New sobs rocked her chest and she cupped her hands on her face, as she carried on spewing her words. "I wasn't paying attention, I should have realised that Hawkmoth and Mayura were attacking! Instead I let him take the hit again, as he always does! Stupid, stupid Chaton! How many times have I told him to not take the hit for me? But no, he won't listen!"

"Stop it!" Suddenly, someone held her firmly at the shoulders and shook her, stopping her from rambling. Then, a pair of hands grabbed hers and forced her to look up. Kagami looked at her, determination clearly visible in her amber eyes, still wet with tears. "You're Ladybug! If he hadn't taken the hit, now it would be you on that bed. Without you, who's going to purify the akumas? Don't discard his sacrifice as him being stupid." Marinette's heart stopped listening to Kagami's words.

"And it's not your fault. He's done his job. His job is to take the hit for you, so you survive!" Hot tears fell off her eyes down her cheeks. She glanced quickly at the hospital bed and sobbed before continuing, "I broke up with him a while back."

Marinette knew, but she couldn't stop the gasp escaping her mouth as she heard Kagami say, "I broke up because he was lying to me. I didn't understand why." Marinette's gaze darted around the room. She saw Luka lowering his gaze and nodding slightly and her heart cringed even more.

"Now it all makes sense," continued the Japanese girl. "All of it. The lies, the absences, even the one that caused our break up." As she said that, her lips curled up in a small smile and she chuckled. "Even his silly attempts at pretending to be a clown once, when I asked him to show me his true self." Her gaze softened at the memory, but then it hardened again as Kagami looked at Marinette once more. "As much as I hate finding out that it's him, and I hate that he's on that hospital bed risking death, it was his choice. I understand it so much better now that I know who he is. He took on this responsibility when he first put that ring on his finger. He has the right to choose how to live his own life!" Kagami's voice cracked and she wrapped Marinette in a tight hug. It took a moment for Marinette to process what she had said, and to reciprocate the hug. She was right, and Marinette knew it. But it still hurt like hell.

Marinette turned towards the blond boy on the bed, only to close her eyes, clench her fists and grimace in pain at the sight of the doctors stitching the side of Adrien's face. The nurse had completely stripped the top part of his body and another doctor was examining his torso and his back, pressing some material on his wound to stop the bleeding.

One of the doctors approached Marinette. "We need to take him away to perform further checks," he said. "His trunk is very bruised and he could have some broken ribs, we will need to perform an X-ray to make sure. We have also stitched the side of his face, and this should prevent bad scarring. But the wound on his back worries me. It looks as if a blade went through him. We have him under a non-rebreather mask, and we're working on getting him stable, but he can't stay on it for long and there are strong possibilities that he has a punctured lung. We need authorisation from his guardian to admit him. Do you have Mr. Agreste's phone number, Mlle. Ladybug?"

"You can't take him away…" started Marinette. No, they couldn't take him away. The only thing that was keeping her sane was the sound of the regular beeps from the machines, signalling that he was still alive. They couldn't take him away. No!

"This may be a problem," said Kagami, interrupting her. "I can certainly give you M. Agreste's phone number, but I don't know if it's a good idea to tell him what's going on."

"I'm sorry, but we need the authorisation of a guardian. It's the hospital's policy," was the doctor's firm reply.

Kagami's frown became stern. "You don't understand. I followed Hawkmoth and Mayura after the battle at the Eiffel Tower. They retreated to the Agreste Mansion. I have strong suspicions that Gabriel Agreste may be Hawkmoth."

"What?" Marinette's heart stopped. "I-I know that M. Agreste is a cold-hearted controlling freak, but he's been akumatised. How… I can't believe…"

The doctor sighed deeply. "We will admit him with your authorisation then, Mlle. Ladybug. His file is marked as Chat Noir and not Adrien Agreste. We may be able to bend the policies temporarily. We need to call the police."

Marinette felt as if something heavy and hard had hit her in the stomach. Her throat closed up. She couldn't breathe. Blood drained completely from her face as she walked backwards until her legs hit the metal of a chair in the other side of the corridor. She sat down and started rocking backwards and forwards, hugging her own shoulders and arms, her eyes as big as saucers. The doctor followed her and sat next to her, probably wanting to say something more. Alya and Kagami sat on the two chairs next to Marinette, and Luka stood near them, resting his back against the wall, his arms crossed on his chest.

Marinette couldn't even start processing the gravity of what Kagami had just revealed, because Tikki suddenly flew in front of her face, carrying a limp Plagg in her paws.

"I'm sorry to add fuel to the fire, Ma-Mistress." Her gaze darted around the corridor and her frown showed to Marinette that she was probably frustrated from the lack of privacy. "We have a big problem, bigger than I would ever have foreseen. Chat Noir hasn't just been injured. He's been poisoned. And it's not just an average poison. It's extremely dangerous."

Marinette paled further. "What do you mean, Tikki? What happened to Plagg?" she asked, as the doctor next to her said at the same time, "What is this? A giant bug? How does it speak?"

Tikki smiled softly and looked at the doctor with her bright blue eyes. "Hello, doctor, my name is Tikki, and I'm the kwami of Creation." She smiled, as Marinette could clearly see how confused the doctor was. He was frowning and giving her a look halfway between doubtful and shocked. "I give Ladybug her powers. This is Plagg." She looked down at the black cat laying in her paws. "He's the kwami of Destruction and gives the powers to Chat Noir. It's not important for you to know what we are, but you must understand that we have lived billions of years, and we've been looking after holders of Miraculouses, or superheroes as you call them, for thousands of years. And unfortunately, it's the first time in my life that I have seen Plagg in this state."

"Does it… he… need medical help?" the doctor inquired, but Tikki shook her head.

"No, he will recover by himself. He's pure Destruction, he cannot be killed." She gave a quick glance towards Adrien and frowned. "Chat Noir, on the contrary, is very much human. Plagg did his best to protect him through the suit, and that's why he's in this state. He told me that he absorbed as much poison as he could, trying to help Chat, but you are correct. A blade went through his body and that blade was poisoned. Plagg is certain that the poison went through his system and into his lung."

"Nurse, order a blood test for a toxicology screen and put him in the queue for an EC—" the doctor paused when Tikki put Plagg down in Marinette's hands and flew to the middle of his face, resting a paw on his nose.

"No need for all these tests, doctor. This is a magical poison. Your human medicine can't fix it."

"And with all due respect, should I take the word of a giant bug for granted?" the doctor said.

Marinette could feel the frustration and the disappointment exuding from Tikki's gaze. "You should, doctor. Tikki has been here longer than anything else on this planet," she said bluntly.

The doctor gave her a stern look. "We need to find an antidote, Mlle. Ladybug."

"There's no antidote, doctor! It's magical poison. You won't even record it with your human instruments." Tikki sighed. "I don't know how long we have, I suspect not too long because his condition is critical and he's very weak. You can do your tests if you want, but if he gets worse, please come back to me. I'm the only one who can help!"

The doctor nodded to her and excused himself, walking back to the nurses station to grab some paperwork and then out of the ward.

"What do you mean, Tikki?" Marinette gave her a questioning look.

Tikki sighed. "You remember when Adrien was turned into a gold statue by Style Queen?" Marinette nodded slightly. "Plagg had to help you without a holder. It's the same principle here, only that with a holder, I'm not strong enough to purify the poison. So I need to do it myself."

"If you could purify the akumas yourself, why did you even need me in the first place?" Marinette felt hurt. She frowned at Tikki and looked at her in utter disbelief. If Tikki was much more powerful than Ladybug, why would she want to merge with a holder? Was she only slowing Tikki down?

"Ma-Mistress," Tikki started.

Marinette interrupted her. "Why are you calling me that?"

"We're in public, Mistress. I know you have no mask on, but unlike Adrien, most people wouldn't know who you are and I would rather it staying this way." Marinette nodded. It made sense. If Fu was 'master', it was only understandable that the kwamis would call her 'mistress'. It was just hard to get used to being called that.

"Carry on," Marinette whispered.

"You may remember what Master Fu said when Plagg had to be used without a holder. It's very dangerous to use our powers without a holder. Our powers are too strong on their own and can cause more damage than they can fix. In Plagg's case, his loose power has caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and the fall of Atlantis…"

"Wow," gasped Alya. "That's a story I would love listening to…"

Tikki smiled at her. "Maybe another time, Rena. I'm sure Plagg will love to boast about how he sank a whole continent with his index finger, when he feels better. Just give him some Camembert and he will melt in a puddle of goo at your feet, tell you the story and purr until the end of time." Alya laughed. The red kwami turned her head again towards Marinette. "I don't know what consequences the use of my power by itself would have. I don't even know if I'm doing the right thing in purifying the poison in Adrien's body, but I know that if I don't do it, he will die. So I'm ready to take the risk."

"I've never heard of this poison before," mused Marinette.

"Hawkmoth must have read Master Fu's translation of the grimoire. We've had to use this poison many times in the course of the millennia, and I'm not particularly proud of the way we used it."

Marinette was even more confused now. "What do you mean?"

"Mistress, the Miraculous magic should be used to help humanity and save lives. It shouldn't be used to kill, that's a very improper use of our powers. However..." She sighed and looked down. "However sometimes in history there have been people who caused more harm than good in their lives, and for the sake of the masses, the Butterfly holder had been summoned. The Butterfly poison is impossible to detect by human means. Many… horrible figures in human history were dealt with using this poison."

Alya interrupted Tikki again. "Like?"

"I know it's interesting for you to inquire about it, Rena, but this isn't the place and time to discuss details like these. I will give you a couple of heads on though. Think of Alexander the Great. Cleopatra…"

"She was killed by a snake," retorted Alya.

Tikki smiled. "Yes... That was Sass, the kwami of the Snake Miraculous." Luka gave a quick glance at Tikki, so she added quickly, "He didn't kill her. Sass just gave her a bite to divert suspicion from Ahmes, the Butterfly holder. We didn't want him condemned to death for treason.

The last person that the butterfly poison killed was Napoleon," continued Tikki. "Our holders at the time had a big role in his defeat. When rumors of a plot to free him from his prison in St Helena came out, the Butterfly holder was asked to intervene."

"If you were working with the authorities and you were asked to intervene, why are you saying that you're not proud of the way the Miraculous was used?" Alya raised an eyebrow in a gesture that Marinette knew meant that she was trying very hard to understand.

"As I said, Miraculouses should be used to save lives, not to kill." Tikki crossed her paws on her chest. "I know that killing those people meant saving millions of lives, but still… taking a life should never be the solution."

"What happened then? How come Napoleon was the last person the poison was used for?" asked Luka.

"Every time that the poison was used to take a life, the order of the Guardians would hide the Miracle Box away in Tibet for a few centuries, hoping that history would be forgotten and the Miraculous not used again for ill purposes. However… twenty one years after Napoleon's death, Master Fu destroyed the temple of the Guardians and lost the Butterfly and the Peacock Miraculouses."

Alya's eyes became as big as saucers. "Hang on a second… Master Fu was the old Chinese man that passed on the Miracle Box to Ladybug, making her the new Guardian, right?" Tikki nodded. "Napoleon died in 1821. If Fu lost the Miraculouses 21 years later… oh my God, that man lived over a century! A century and a half even! How is that possible?"

"Rena…" Marinette looked at her with a soft smile. "You jump from the ground to a rooftop, and from rooftop to rooftop, without any help. You create illusions using your flute. How is that possible?"

Alya lowered her gaze. "Okay, touché. This magic business is crazy. That man must be nearly 200 years old!"

"186 actually. 188 now. But that's not important at the moment." Marinette had hardly seen Tikki more frustrated. She nearly shouted the last sentence, with a high pitched tone of voice. Then she continued more calmly, "What does matter is that the poison is extremely lethal to ordinary human beings. But in the case of a holder, the poison only resets the magic of the suit. That's why Chat Noir is so badly injured. Normally his suit would protect him from any fall or hit, but because the poison had invalidated the power of the suit, his body took the damage. Plagg tried to protect him as much as he could."

Marinette found herself stroking Plagg on the back and rubbing behind his ears. She could feel something vibrating in her hands, and only when she paid attention did she realise that Plagg was purring. Probably to soothe himself more than anybody else. But she could only smile briefly at the discovery, because suddenly, one of the machines linked to Adrien's body started beeping furiously, immediately followed by another, and then another.

A nurse jumped out of her seat at the nurses station and rushed over, pushing a button near the bed. A horde of doctors and nurses came back. Marinette jumped up almost at the same time as the nurse and tried to approach the bed, only to be pushed backwards again by Luka, Alya and Kagami's strong hold. Tikki grabbed Plagg back from Marinette's hands, probably worried that she would drop him from the shock.

"Let me go! I need to be there!"

"You'll get in the staff's way, Ladybug, let them do their job!"

Marinette gave another quick look at Adrien's body on the bed. He was stripped up to the waist, a big bandage on his shoulder was covered in blood stains. A little transparent plastic tube had taken the place of the plastic mask to help him breathe. He was shaking badly and arching his back. The doctors and nurses worked on him for what felt like an eternity to Marinette, but eventually, the machines calmed down, although their beeping was far from regular.

"We need to transfer him to a different unit to perform further assessments and diagnostics on him." The doctor who spoke to Tikki said, as he pulled a lever near the bed and released it from the wall, starting to move it towards a corridor on the right, labelled SUSI.

She paled. "NO! You can't take him away! Please! Please don't take mon Chaton away, please! PLEASE!"

She wriggled away from the hold of her friends and made her way towards the bed in a mad frenzy. Alya, Kagami and Luka grabbed her again, but she kept on fighting them and screamed so loud that many patients in other cubicles started moaning in protest. Her heart was racing in her chest, her eyes as wide as saucers, she kicked, and bit, and punched trying to break free from their hold. She felt lightheaded and sweaty, her heart racing in her chest. The world started spinning around and her vision blurred as she kept wriggling and fighting to free herself from their hold. Her knees felt suddenly very weak, as the world around her faded into darkness.

oOo

Luka watched as Marinette went limp into his arms. He gave her a stronger hug, trying to make her feel better, to transmit her his strength. He picked her up and carried her bridal style, looking around and wondering what to do.

"Don't worry, I'm on it," said Alya putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'll look for a nurse."

She went to the nurses' stand and Luka saw her talking to one of the nurses and pointing at him. The nurse approached him and told him to put Marinette on one of the beds, in a cubicle. "I think she had a panic attack and the stress caused her to faint. But there could be something more there. Bear with me, I'll be right back."

The nurse went away for a brief moment and came back with a folder and a pen in hand. "I spoke to Dr. Richter. He wants to admit her. Fainting isn't uncommon for a person who went through what Mlle. Ladybug did, but there could be other underlying conditions that may have caused it. Better to keep an eye on her for a few hours and see what happens. She must be under an incredible amount of stress." The blonde nurse gave him a meaningful look. "Now… I need some information for her file. Her parents' phone number, to get consent for admission. And her name."

Luka wrote something down on a piece of paper and said in a barely audible whisper, "That's her mother's number. Her name is Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

Author's Note:

Hi! *Keeps hiding*

Things are getting even worse, now even Marinette is out and Chat Noir's been poisoned… the doctors are being stubborn…

I'll cut the fluff and get straight to the point. In the next instalment of "When Magic fails", "Worries":

— "I was in the room when her transformation fell. She's only a child… I felt so sorry for her. And for Chat Noir."

— "Yes, Sabine Cheng speaking."

— "We've performed a few checks on him. There's some good news and some bad news."

I know, I'm cruel. If you want to kill m—, I mean, if you read this and you're not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). See you there soon, and see you soon here with the next chapters of this story. Won't be too long. Promise!