Warning: Chapters 23, 24, and 25 all involve a mysterious SARS-like virus that spreads at a rapid rate, though contained within Paris. There are descriptions of both symptoms and a few medical procedures done to save the victims, none of which are presumed to be medically accurate. I wrote this storyline nearly a year ago, well before covid 19 was even a thing, and there are too many necessary plot points I hit with it to rewrite or scrap it. Please be advised when reading the next few updates. Thank you.

Some MacGyver Nonsense

Chat Noir could not believe what had just happened. Hawkmoth- his dad- knew how to do… that. The second Officer Raincomprix was in the ambulance, he took to the roofs, searching for his father.

"Are you okay?"

Chat gasped and turned to see Hawkmoth step out from his hiding spot behind a chimney.

"I'm sorry I had to do that to you, but the EMTs weren't going to take another step forward with me in sight."

"How did you do that?" Chat Noir asked. "That was, like, some MacGyver nonsense right there."

Hawkmoth glanced down at his hands, covered in blood, and took a deep breath. "Let's go home," he sighed. "I'll tell you about it later."

"Were you going to be a doctor?" Chat Noir asked.

A beat passed, then Hawkmoth nodded. "Yes," he confirmed. "I went to medical school and everything, and I hated it. It was what my parents wanted for me, not what I wanted for me."

"What made you change to fashion?" Chat asked. "That's… a pretty big jump."

"Your mother," Hawkmoth replied, a small smile on his face. "Now really, let's get you home so you can sleep. You saw things you shouldn't have had to today."

A scream pierced the air, and they both winced. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Chat sighed, turning towards the source.

Hawkmoth followed his gaze, a frown on his face. "I'm gonna let that one slide, but only because it's been such a hectic day."

"The Sandboy just checked in; now nightmares can begin."

Chat's blood ran cold at the sound. Just the other day, he'd told Gabriel about his nightmare, and as much as he hated to say it, he didn't think it had changed one bit. The last thing he wanted to face was another cage.

"Are you okay?"

Chat jerked out of his reverie to look at his father. "Yeah," he breathed. "Let's get this one. Maybe fourth time's the charm and Ladybug will actually be able to undo the damage this time."

Hawkmoth nodded. "If you're sure. Attack him on both sides?"

Chat Noir gave him a small smile. "Yeah," he agreed. "I'll go left, you go right." He leaped away, trying to sneak up on Sandboy, but almost like he had someone keeping an eye out for him, he turned and hit him with a cloud of dust.

Chat fell back to the ground, coughing and sputtering. He stood up, only to run right into a set of prison bars. No. Nonononononono-

"Look what we've got here…"

Chat's breath caught in his chest. He took a shaky breath and closed his eyes, refusing to look at the fake Hawkmoth he knew was circling his cage. "No," he whimpered. "You're fake; you're not really here."

A sob escaped him before he could stop it.

"Oh, is the little boy going to run crying to his mommy?" Not-Hawkmoth taunted. "I never cared about you. Everything I did was for her. You were an afterthought."

"You're lying."

"You have Duusu's power within you… why wasn't that enough to break through the apathy spell? It's because you're weak, that's why. And because I never loved you."

"You're lying!" Chat couldn't help it. He opened his eyes and immediately wished he didn't; watching his father stand in front of him, even a fake version, broke his heart. He fell to his knees, another sob coming from him.

He could practically hear Hawkmoth's smirk. "Now be a good boy and give me the ring…"

Chat looked down at his hand, watched as his fingers went to remove the black ring. He just barely touched it when-

"Get away from my son!"

Chat jerked his head up to watch Hawkmoth jump down and slash his sword through the nightmare version, turning it to dust. Then, without hesitating, he dropped to his knees to join Chat. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I should have thought this out better, but I am going to get you out of here. I love you, son, so much. More than you could ever know. Now scoot back, okay?"

Chat Noir nodded, following Hawkmoth's instructions and backing up against the opposite wall. Hawkmoth raised his sword and brought it across the bars with a shout, tearing through them and making them easy to yank out.

The two worked together doing just that before turning their attention back to Sandboy. As they did, a yo-yo string wrapped around the pillow and yanked it out of the sky. Ladybug tore it in two, then walked over. "What did I miss?" she asked.

"A lot," Chat Noir and Hawkmoth replied in unison.

Ladybug looked the two of them over but didn't say anything, instead turning her attention to the victim. Sure enough, he had a rash up his neck and was coughing up blood.

Chat looked to Hawkmoth and put a hand on his arm. "Thank you, for saving me."

"Of course," Hawkmoth replied, voice soft and full of concern. "I will always do everything in my power to save you."

A small smile worked its way onto his face. "I know you will." He looked back to the boy, then to Hawkmoth again. "I'm gonna go with Ladybug and get the kid to the hospital," he said. "Keep me updated if there's another attack?

Hawkmoth nodded, and Chat Noir was off.

Chat landed in front of the Emergency Room, the child unconscious in his arms. He ran inside, following Ladybug as she cleared a path for him.

"Another akuma victim?" a doctor asked as a gurney was rolled up for him.

Chat laid the boy down and stepped back, giving the doctors room to work. "He's got a fever," he declared.

"Well you two are the only ones getting in and out of here; we're under quarantine," the doctor declared. "Your suits must make you immune. Almost everyone else who's come into direct contact with a victim has contracted the disease, too."

Ladybug and Chat Noir followed the doctor to the front desk. "How many have there been so far?" Ladybug asked. "Every akuma victim has been brought straight here." She looked inside the isolation room, and the two of them realized at the same moment that it was packed to capacity with over a dozen people inside.

The doctor looked back and forth between Ladybug and Chat Noir, then lowered her voice. "It's like SARS and the pneumatic plague had a baby," she whispered. "I've never seen this before. We had three people come in before we realized it and you all brought in four more, plus the ones who have been brought in between then and now. Whatever it is… it's bad. The original three are in the morgue."

"The morgue?" Chat whispered back. "They died?" He glanced at Ladybug for a second, her eyes focused on the patients through the quarantine, before he turned back to the doctor.

"It's progressing faster than it should," the doctor continued, turning around to pick up and look over some papers.

"Any idea what's causing it? Any… patient zero tidbits we should know? It's not Hawkmoth doing this; he's actually trying to help us stop it."

The doctor sighed, seeming to disregard his comment about Hawkmoth. "We don't even have any evidence of who patient zero could be. None of these people have been outside the country, eaten anything out of the ordinary… nothing." The doctor turned back around, and her face dropped. "What is she doing?"

Chat Noir spun around to see Ladybug walking into the anteroom, then the isolation room. Chat ran up, slamming his hand on the open button, but the doors didn't budge.

"The doors won't open until the isolation room is closed; it's a safety precaution," the doctor declared.

Chat ignored her, continuing to press the button until the isolation room doors closed so he could get in. "Ladybug, what are you doing?"

Ladybug took in a shaky breath and shook her head. "I'm sorry, kitty; you're gonna have to figure this one out on your own." She pulled the collar of her suit down, revealing the rest of the rash that was starting to peek out from under it.

Chat's blood ran cold. "No," he breathed. "No, Bugaboo, you can't-"

"I'm sorry, kitty," she repeated. Tears shone in her eyes, and she took a deep breath. "Get your dad, work with him on this, okay? Find out who's doing this and stop them, before anyone else gets sick."

Reluctantly, Chat nodded his head. "I will," he promised, voice cracking. "And you're gonna be okay, and we're gonna laugh about it, right?"

Ladybug nodded, but her smile did nothing to assure him. "Right," she agreed.

Chat Noir pulled back, walking out of the room and back into the ER. He took a shaky breath as his back hit the wall, and he slid down it. A trembling hand pulled his baton, and he pressed the butterfly button on the screen.

Ri-

"Chat Noir, are you okay?"

He sniffed, tears forming in his eyes. "I can't do this," he breathed. "There are three people dead and Ladybug, she's- she's-"

"I'll be right there," Hawkmoth promised. "Just hold on, okay? You can do this, I believe in you."

The screen went dark, and Chat dropped his baton. He sat there for a minute, numb, before he pulled himself back up and walked over to the window of the isolation room annex.

Crash.

Chat Noir watched, horrified and helpless, as Ladybug went from listening to one of the still-awake patients to laid out on the floor, unmoving.

"No," he breathed. "No, Ladybug!" He slammed his hand on the window, watching as a team of doctors ran into the annex to put on HAZMAT gear before moving into the isolation room. "Ladybug!" he yelled.

A pair of hands yanked him away from the window and turned him around, and without thinking, he lashed out, pushing his assailant away. Much to his shock, the man didn't move, and only then did he realize it was Hawkmoth.

"It's okay," Hawkmoth declared. "It's okay, everything's going to be okay."

Chat Noir just shook his head, unable to stop the hiccuping sobs that fell from him. "I can't do this," he cried. "I can't do this, she's gonna die and I couldn't protect her-"

Hawkmoth pulled him in closer, hugging him, and Chat Noir let himself fall apart, collapsing in his father's arms. Hawkmoth slowly lowered them to sit down and rocked Chat back and forth, petting his hair.

"I can't do this without her," Chat continued to whimper, even as he slowly calmed down.

Hawkmoth took in a shaky breath, and Adrien was certain he heard his voice crack at least once when he said, "I know it's scary. I know how hard it is to work without your partner. I know how much she means to you. But right now, what do you think she would want you to do, huh? She would want you out there, kicking ass until you stop whoever's doing this. She believes in you, Chat Noir. Prove her right."

Chat Noir nodded, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to stop the tears. He took in a shaky breath and pushed off from Hawkmoth, sitting up on his own before getting to his feet. He walked back over to the annex and saw there was only one doctor in the isolation room now, and Ladybug was hooked up to a dozen machines like all the other patients.

He pressed the button and went inside, then paused, reaching for a HAZMAT suit.

His hand stopped just short of grabbing it. Why wasn't he sick? Why wasn't Hawkmoth sick? All three of them had come into contact with almost all the akumatized victims, and both he and Hawkmoth had been straight-up covered in Officer Raincomprix's blood, so why was she the sick one?

"She contracted it out of the suit," he whispered to himself. Ladybug was patient zero, or at least one of them, and the suit just slowed the virus's progression. That's why he and Hawkmoth were fine; they hadn't been exposed until after they were suited up.

And… he was half kwami- a demigod. Did that make him immune to human ailments? He'd never been sick as a child aside from his pigeon feather allergy and that one time after Christmas, which could have easily been a stress reaction, and he'd always attributed his health to his parents' isolationist way of raising him, but maybe it wasn't.

Slowly, Chat Noir drew his hand back and pressed the button to enter the isolation room. He looked at the wide-eyed doctor and said, "I need you to turn around. Just for a minute. Please."

After a moment's hesitation, the doctor nodded and complied, and Chat Noir walked up to Ladybug. "Hey…" he cooed, taking her hand in his own. "Bugaboo?"

She gasped as she woke up, looking around the room. "Chat," she breathed. "I'm so sorry I can't help."

"I know you are, but this isn't your fault," Chat Noir replied. "I think I do know one thing I need to even try to fix this. We need to swap miraculous."

Ladybug pushed herself up on her elbows, even that a clear strain. "What?" she whispered. "Why…"

Chat Noir took a deep breath. "I need the ladybug miraculous to undo the damage once I get to the bottom of this, and you need a miraculous to stop the disease from speeding up and killing you," he explained.

"You don't have pierced ears…" Ladybug muttered, drifting back towards unconsciousness.

"Ladybug!" he shouted, jerking her awake again. "I'll handle that. Are you okay with switching?"

Ladybug nodded slowly, then raised her fingers to her ears. Slowly, she removed one, then the other, leaving Marinette Dupain-Cheng behind.

"Ma-" he caught himself- "My lady, I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise." He slid his ring off his finger and onto hers, giving her hand a squeeze. She stared at him in awe, and before he could think about it, he leaned down to give her a soft kiss.

Marinette lifted her hand, cupping his cheek, before she pulled back. "You say 'Tikki, spots on.' What do I say?"

"'Plagg, claws out,'" he instructed her.

She nodded. "Plagg, claws out." One again, Marinette was gone, replaced by a girl in a black catsuit, her hair in a braid. She laid back, her breath evening out as she fell asleep once more.

Adrien took a shaky breath and walked over to the doctor. "Don't turn around; do you have a needle and a mirror around here?"

"Just syringe needles," the doctor replied. "There are empty ones in the cupboard, and there's a mirror in the drawer."

"Thanks," Adrien replied, walking over and pulling out a syringe. He opened the drawer below it and pulled out the mirror inside, holding it up as he used his other hand to guide the needle into his ear. He cringed at the pain it caused, but pushed the earring into the poorly-made hole nonetheless. After repeating the process with the other ear, a little red kwami appeared in front of him.

"Oh you don't look good."

Adrien let out a breathy laugh. "Thank you, for the honesty."

Tikki gave him a small, not-entirely-reassuring smile. "Sorry, you just surprised me, that's all. I'm ready when you are."

He nodded. "Tikki, spots on!" The second he was transformed, he said to the doctor, "You can turn around now."

The doctor turned back and eyed the boy. After a moment's silence, he gave him a nod. "Go get 'em."

"Thanks."

It took Ladybug and Hawkmoth all of two minutes to find another akuma victim- two, actually. The Magician of Misfortune and the Pharaoh. Both were at the Louvre, so theoretically, they shouldn't have been that hard to stop.

Well, at least the Magician of Misfortune wasn't. All it took to stop him was a yo-yo around his hat, and it was practically over for him. Hawkmoth caught the boy as he transformed back, and Ladybug turned his attention to the Pharaoh across the courtyard.

"Hey! Chat Noir- er, Ladybug!"

Ladybug jerked his head to see Alya and Alix standing off to the side, alternating between waving their hands around wildly and pointing at the man between them- to Jalil Kubdel.

Ladybug swallowed hard and looked back to the Pharaoh. This wasn't an akuma; it couldn't be. Last he checked, Jalil was the only ancient Egyptian-themed akuma, so who the hell was the Pharaoh?

The Pharaoh turned his hand over, gathering a ball of black energy. He lifted his hand and swiped it across the glass wall of the Louvre, causing it to disintegrate. Ladybug's jaw dropped.

Nooroo had told Gabriel that he wasn't the worst chosen a kwami's ever had. A power-hungry pharaoh seeking complete control over humanity would definitely fit the description of 'worse.' Not to mention Ladybug had never seen what happened when cataclysm came into contact with another person, just Volpina's interpretation of it on Heroes' Day. It was entirely possible it could cause a plague.

"Hey!" he finally called out. "If you think you're hurting one more person today, you've got another thing coming! Lucky charm!"

He threw the yo-yo up in the air, and to his shock, a pamphlet for victims of domestic abuse fell into his hands. He looked it over for a moment, trying to connect the dots.

The Pharaoh started walking over, more than willing to monologue as he went. "My wife died, and a Ladybug stopped me from bringing her back," he growled. "I will kill every last one of you if I have to; I will have her back!"

He lunged, but Ladybug jumped out of the way and opened the pamphlet, looking for any indication about what he was supposed to do. The game of cat-and-mouse went on for a few minutes, Ladybug jumping out of the way and reading a few lines just in time for the pharaoh to recover and attack again, repeating the cycle until Ladybug flipped to the back.

Fight like Ladybug! Self defense classes for victims of domestic violence!

A cartoonish image of the real Ladybug was featured, but it was enough to spark a flash of the past in his mind. He turned to the pharaoh, holding up the pamphlet. "Your wife didn't die!" he shouted. "She faked it to get away from you! And when you started hurting people, she did everything in her power to stop you!" He let out a dry, taunting laugh. "The Ladybug who stopped you is the same woman who left you! She will never accept you back!"

The pharaoh looked him over, and Ladybug knew he'd shaken him. "Lies!" the man shouted. This time when he lunged, he dropped his baton, and Ladybug leaped over his head, picking up the fallen weapon.

With his usual weapon, Ladybug felt far more confident, slamming it against the pharaoh's face and knocking him off balance. Ladybug followed, stepping on his wrist and leaning down, plucking the ring off his finger. Both the pharaoh and the ring turned to dust, and Ladybug took a deep breath. "Please work," he whispered.

He threw the pamphlet into the air and shouted, "Miraculous ladybug!"

The pamphlet formed into a swarm of ladybugs that flew around the pyramid, repairing it, before darting off across the city- most notably in the direction of the hospital.

Ladybug let out a sigh of relief and walked over to Hawkmoth, who was still holding onto Jean, the civilian form of the Magician of Misfortune.

Slowly, he looked up, eyes sunken and sad. He shook his head, then turned back to the body in his arms.