Chapter 23: Exchange

"Plagg, Tikki- transform me!"

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Ladybug's muffled cries sounded beside him, an indication she wasn't able to free herself either. Try as he did, even Chat hadn't managed to escape. And now, without Plagg's help, Adrien knew he couldn't free himself from Mayura's hold. It didn't stop him from trying though. He pulled again unsuccessfully against the thick, rope-like vines that choked his wrists while writhing against the uncomfortably heavy, but otherwise harmless mass that sandwiched his body against the metal floor of the Eiffel Tower. It was futile. Frustrated tears crept over his lids to offer a cool relief to his burning cheeks as he continued to grind his teeth into the vine that spiraled around his head and between his lips. Through a small gap in the monster's hold could Adrien view the bright light that enveloped the man he knew as Hawkmoth. Ladybug and Chat Noir had failed.

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"At last, after all this time. we'll be reunited soon, my dear Emilie."

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The already intense light seemed to grow even brighter as the teen's dread mounted. What would become of Ladybug? Hawkmoth had succeeded. They no longer had their miraculous and the villain was unlikely to turn over such power even after his wish was obtained. Without the miraculous' power there was little they could do to defy the man in the hopes of getting their kwamis back, especially now that he held the most powerful of the jewels. Wet eyes glanced sidelong when the man's voice rang out. Adrien strained his ears for what came next. What would he wish for? Surely nothing good could come from the desires of a man so bent on obtaining power that'd he risk the lives of so many. But as Hawkmoth spoke, his voice was drowned into incoherency as a massive wind suddenly formed about them. Slamming his eyes shut, Adrien braced himself as the gale swept over him.

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In behalf of the life you seek, another will be taken in exchange.

"If that's the cost, so be it. I accept."

As you wish.

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The wind died as quickly as it had started. Hawkmoth seemed to be speaking to someone remotely as Adrien felt a shift in the binding vines. He didn't dare move and the blonde could only wonder what fate awaited him and his lady. If he was lucky- and assuming the worst, he hoped he could at least catch a glance of Ladybug before the end. His heart hurt at that. If only he could have known her identity before this happened. But with his failure to stop Hawkmoth, Adrien felt he couldn't blame her if she now hated him. His breath hitched as his chest tightened at the thought. Dull aches rapidly blossoming into the most exquisite pain, like nothing he had ever felt before, as though his chest was going to outright explode. He wanted to apologize, desperately cry out for forgiveness. But even if Mayura were to release him, his breath was still caught like an over inflated balloon in his lungs about to blow him to pieces. He seized violently against the vines as his eyes blew wide and he ground his white knuckles raw against the metal beneath them. His heart felt as though it was clenched in a vice, a vice being tightened beyond the strength of the metal that formed it. It was about to burst.

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"Detransformation."

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It burst.

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"Mayura, what do we do with the heroes of Paris now?"

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Relief came suddenly. Immense pressure released all at once with a gurgle and a small popping sensation. An abbreviated breath escaped him with a whimper and warmth poured along his face, down his neck as it flowed toward his arms. Sucking in a wet breath, the soothing invisible fibers continued to extend over him, warming more of his body as they trickled down his limbs and torso. Without warning, the vines recoiled in an instant as if terror stricken, and although he had no idea why they chose now to release him, Adrien jerked with a start when he thought he heard them scream. Rolling onto his side he let out a cough, pulling his hand back to reveal the cause of such alarm. Fingers absolutely drenched with a brilliant red greeted the hero's watery gaze and Adrien thought curiously on its implications as he watched his hand drop in slow motion back onto the floor, being overrun with the black dots that crowded his vision.

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"Impossible!"

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Pounding footsteps raced over to him, but the voices that accompanied them were indiscernible from the visceral pumping that pulsed progressively more slowly against his eardrums.

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"This wasn't what I wished for!"

It is what you agreed to.

"I did not agree to sacrifice his life!"

The consequences of the choice were predetermined by the laws that govern.

"I demand that you put a stop this, immediately!"

It is now complete.

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Someone leaned overhead, shaking him urgently and turning his head to face them, but Adrien only managed to blink dully in response. Everything was all but black now and he was far too tired to even want to see past the fog. Was it Ladybug? More tears rolled down along the saturated numbness that had overtaken him as he hoped his heroine had forgiven him. Adrien smiled, or at least he thought he did. He wasn't quite sure now where the line lay between dream and reality.

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"No! . . . I refuse to accept this!"

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Adrien's scarlet splattered frame drooped listlessly in a pair of arms, his head rolling side to side as dictated by the supporting limbs' movements. His breath was nearly spent as was his life giving fluid and he lay unaware, clutched tightly against the smallest trembling form. A tender kiss which he had ever yearned for brushed against his forehead before he was showered by tears. Words that came too late filled the air with the accompanying chorus of distant sirens, but they did not reach his ears. Not but a few feet away fell a thud followed by a gut wrenching howl. Sobbing, then weeping, then sobbing again. Clenched fists beating repeatedly against metal. Adrien heard none of it.

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"But. . . I did it. . . all. For. . ."

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"Him."

A/N: Were you to ask me what I predict will happen if (when) Emilie is revived, I would say Adrien will be traded, even temporarily. Canonically the exchange of life won't be nearly as graphic as this scenario, for obvious reasons, but I feel like a lot of things have alluded to such an event being possible. There's a good chance I'm terribly wrong, but that's my theory.