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 this update in particular, as it also includes a minor character death. Thank you.

I Could Really Use an Ice Pack

Cough- cough- "I want my mom."

Hawkmoth nodded, trying to hide the fear in his voice as he replied. "I know," he said. "And you're gonna see her real soon, I promise. We're gonna get you to the hospital, and everything's gonna be okay."

The boy shook his head. "I don't think I can make it that far," he whimpered. "I'm so tired…" His head rolled to the side, and Hawkmoth put two fingers to his neck. No pulse.

Hawkmoth laid the boy down on the ground and began compressions, desperately trying to revive him. Every two minutes, he'd pause to check for a pulse but always found none. He wasn't even choking; his heart had just… given out.

By the time the fight was over, Hawkmoth sat there, the boy's dead body in his arms.

He hadn't gone home after Ladybug called out the miraculous cure. He assumed that Adrien had returned the earrings to the real Ladybug and she the ring to him, but they were all shaken. Hawkmoth had barely had time to check with Adrien before he returned to the hospital.

Most notably, according to the news sites, was the fact that those who died from disease didn't return. Ten funerals were being scheduled now, and Gabriel couldn't help but feel it was his fault. Each of the victims had been an akuma or came into contact with one, and if he hadn't akumatized them in the first place…

Gabriel stopped himself, taking a deep breath. He knew what Nooroo would say, what Adrien would say. It was the Guardians; they were the reason Gabriel started akumatizing people in the first place. But it sure as hell didn't feel like it wasn't his fault when that boy died in his arms. Worst of all, there wasn't even anything he could have done, or so Nooroo kept telling him.

"You need sleep," Nooroo declared. "Would you let Adrien stay up this late after all he's been through today?"

He didn't have a response to that; he hadn't really had much of a response to anything Nooroo had said since he detransformed after Ladybug defeated the pharaoh.

"Gabriel, you fought three akumas and a former black cat," Nooroo reminded him. "You need to take a break, give yourself time to recover and heal-"

A crash and a grunt caught his attention, and he looked down an alleyway he was about to pass. There was definitely a fight going on in it, two against one. "Nooroo, wings rise."

He took off running down the alley, sending a flying punch at one of the two aggressors. Stunned, the man backed up, allowing Hawkmoth to throw another punch at the other man, keeping them both away from the girl lying prone on the ground.

The two men looked him over and, realizing what they were up against, took off running back the way he came in.

Hawkmoth scooped the girl up in his arms and carried her out the other end of the alley, walking over to the nearest cafe with its lights on. He pushed the door open with his foot and walked inside, careful not to hit the girl's head on the door frame.

The cafe workers immediately went tense at the sight. He couldn't exactly blame them; it certainly didn't look good when an ex-supervillain came in carrying an unconscious teenage girl.

"Call 1-1-2," he ordered. "She's been attacked." He moved to a booth and laid her down, brushing her hair away from her eyes. A clear bruise was forming, going back past her hairline and doing god-knows-what-else damage. Two fingers to her neck indicated that she did in fact have a pulse, and she was definitely breathing.

His hand shook as he pulled back, a flash in his mind of the same action with a different result earlier that day.

The girl's eyes flitted open, and Hawkmoth finally recognized her as the one who'd threatened him over his treatment of Adrien- Chat Noir- the other night.

"Hi," he said, as gently as possible. "You were attacked in the alley by two men. Do you remember anything?"

The girl nodded a bit, then stopped, a hand going to her head.

"Don't try to move too much; you have a concussion," Hawkmoth told her. "If you really want, we can try sitting you up, but I don't think it's a good idea."

She ignored him, naturally, and sat up far faster and more abruptly than she should have, resulting in her bracing her head in her hands and her elbows on the table.

He glanced up at the waiter. "Could you please get her a glass of water and some bread, too? I need to know if she can hold it down."

The waiter nodded mutely and ran off into the kitchen, returning moments later with a glass of water and a basket of bread. His hands shook violently, and Hawkmoth could feel the fear radiating off of him.

"I'm not going to akumatize anyone," he promised. "I just want to get this girl to the hospital."

Again, the response was a silent nod from the waiter before he ran off to the other corner of the room.

"You're not a doctor," was the first thing out of Marinette's mouth.

"No, I'm not," he confirmed. "I'm a business owner here in Paris."

Marinette scoffed. "I know," she replied bitterly. "And no, Adrien didn't tell me."

For once, Hawkmoth was at a loss for words.

Marinette stared down at her water, zoned out and barely keeping it together. "Any idea when they're gonna be here?" Slowly, she looked up to Hawkmoth. "Cause I could really use an ice pack right about now."

"Not sure," Hawkmoth muttered. "Soon, hopefully. Chat Noir is going to be furious he wasn't here to protect you."

A long moment passed and Marinette looked back down at her glass before she said, "He's happier now. Even when he's sad and scared and confused, he's happier. Just having you- the real you- back in his life has done that. I understand it." A beat passed, and she looked up again. "But if you ever hurt him like that again, I absolutely meant it when I said I'd kill you."

She lifted her glass to her lips and finished it off in one go, then turned to the waiter keeping as far away from them as possible. "May I please have some more water?"

Hawkmoth kept his eyes on her, admittedly a little astonished that she had the gall to threaten him to his face when he was in this form. No wonder Adrien was friends with her. The fact that she was clearly a Ladybug fan surely didn't hurt either, if the earring was any indicator.

Marinette turned her head the other way to look out the window, and Hawkmoth's perception shifted instantaneously.

"You're only wearing one earring," he said, and his suspicion was confirmed. Marinette's eyes went wide and one hand jerked to her bare ear, and Hawkmoth knew. "It must have fallen off in the fight."

Marinette tried to get up, but it was made clear before she was a foot off the seat that she wouldn't be able to make it out the door, much less back to the alley.

"I'll get it," he promised. Before he could turn away, Marinette grabbed his wrist.

"If you don't return it to me, I'm telling your son."

Hawkmoth nodded mutely and turned, leaving the cafe to go back to the alley. He looked around, but saw nothing at first. Then-

"Psst!"

Hawkmoth jerked his head to the left, his eyes landing on a spot of red amongst the gray. He knelt down, and the blob came into focus as distinctly kwami-shaped. "Do you have it?"

The kwami nodded. "I'm Tikki; it's a pleasure to meet you."

"And you," Hawkmoth replied. "You obviously don't hold your chosen's contempt for me."

Tikki shook her head. "You weren't a villain by choice," she declared. "I've had chosens who definitely wanted to do as much harm as possible. I admire those who seek to undo the damage they've caused, especially when it's not as easy as shouting 'miraculous ladybug.'"

A small smile worked its way onto Hawkmoth's face. "Thank you, Tikki. Now let's get you back where you belong, with Miss Dupain-Cheng." He pulled his lapel open, and Tikki flew in, hiding close to his body.

He turned back around and started walking to the cafe, but something immediately struck him as odd. The lights were off, and some sort of scuffle appeared to be going on, only shadows visible.

Hawkmoth took off running back towards the cafe and leaped through the window without a second thought. He tackled someone as he landed, and he was easily able to discern their body type was that of someone who spent hours working out each day building muscle, not that of a waiter or a teenager.

He pulled his fist back and punched, delivering the full power of his miraculous-enhanced strength behind it. The man was instantly knocked out, if not put into a coma, but there was at least one more person involved in the attack.

Operating on instinct and his other senses, Hawkmoth jumped on another body who seemed to be an aggressor. The man let out a strangled cry and turned around, and a glint of metal caught his eye in the dark. Hawkmoth withdrew his own sword and held it to the man's throat before he could even think to lift his hand.

"Who sent you?" Hawkmoth demanded. "What do you want with a teenage girl? She's a kid; she didn't even see you. It's not like she can identify you to the police."

There was a brief pause, and Hawkmoth pressed his sword in a bit closer, putting pressure on the man's throat.

"We never got a name!" Hawkmoth lessened the pressure. "She just said to take the girl's earrings, and if we got 'em to her, we'd get the rest of our payout."

The lights came on again, but Hawkmoth didn't look away. He stared at the man, memorizing every detail. In his peripheral vision, he could see Marinette as she sat up on the floor, bracing herself on the booth she's been sitting in earlier. The waiter was nowhere to be found, but he suspected he was the one in the back getting the lights to come back on.

"Her?" Hawkmoth asked.

He saw the outline of the other man nodding. "Yeah," he confirmed. "Blonde lady, late thirties, early forties, like 160 centimeters-ish. She had on this super nice blue dress, if that helps anything."

Hawkmoth was certain his heart skipped a beat. His eyes turned to Marinette, and it was clear she'd made the same connection as he had. He jerked back to the man. "Take your friend and get out of here. Never speak to that woman again." He lowered his sword, and the man darted out, abandoning his friend- no honor among thieves, he supposed.

Marinette took a shaky breath, trembling with fear.

Hawkmoth walked over, and as he pulled the second earring out of his jacket, Tikki came along with it, darting to Marinette's side.

"I'm so sorry," Marinette breathed.

Hawkmoth nodded slowly. "Me, too. I'll have to inform Chat Noir his mother is the one who caused the plague."

Uh... so sorry. Not really. Anyone catch some of the hints I've left sprinkled throughout this arc and the last that Madelaine was the bad guy?