A/N: Tensions are really rising in this chapter. Honestly, I kind of forgot how much actually happens in the last few chapters - especially because I chose to just dump everything here. Like younger me really thought that was a good idea :)

Anyway, again, this chapter was pre-written a week in advance. It seems to be the only way I can maintain a steady update stream unfortunately. So a lot of my on time updates are actually chapters I've written in like... a burst of 2 - 3 chapters at a time. Sorry folks.

Anyway, I'll cut it short. Till next time,

Drama :)

Chapter Twenty Four: Sitting Ducks

Vixen

Things were growing too complicated. Even Vixen could sense it, carried through the hospital halls like the stench of iodine and other surgical spirits. Too many eyes were fixed to this place; too many variables were coming into play. Like a stage, this place was lit up with spotlights and floodlights, waiting for the action to unfold upon its wooden floor. Everyone was waiting. Almost everyone was watching. What happened next was her call.

Frowning, Vixen tried to focus as she rifled through the boxes of medical supplies. Getting Marinette into a transportable state was her first priority - killing her left the table as soon as Hawkmoth expressed his mutual agreement to her plan. Trading Marinette for his dead wife? That was a deal that he couldn't refuse. Who could Marinette possibly be? That simple baker's girl who wanted to be a designer? God she could be replaced easily. Effortlessly. That had been the easy part.

But now, placed on a time limit and feeling Chloe Bourgeois' piercing glare burning at the back of her neck, Vixen could feel her agitation rising. Today was too risky. Today would get her caught. Yet today was the day because Hawkmoth had said so. Her time was running out - even right now - and she knew that Hawkmoth had never been a patient man. Patience was a virtue that he unfortunately lacked whenever it came to Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"You should stay focused," Hawkmoth. Abrupt, the familiar silhouette of a moth's pair of wings flashed before her eyes. "Ladybug and Chat Noir still have the miraculous that you need to secure."

"I'm aware of that," Vixen responded, tone terse as her jaw as she set down the latest failed box. Trying to reign in her frustration, she exhaled sharply, "I'm just getting something that would make it easier for us to secure her earrings."

"Is that so?" Hawkmoth quizzed, awfully amused despite the ominous warning laced into his tone. "And how exactly will any of this help?"

"Don't worry about the details," Vixen immediately dismissed his questions because he couldn't know the truth. Hawkmoth knowing who Ladybug was - who Chat Noir was - would crumble all of her plans. There would be no need for her. Their deal would be broken, void due to the fact that she no longer held insider information. That couldn't happen; Vixen needed Hawkmoth's cooperation. "Just know that I will deliver my end of the bargain by tonight. You will have your miraculous."

Hawkmoth was never one for delivering acknowledgement. Instead he disappeared, his telepathic link now reduced to thin air. Left behind was a conflicted Vixen, now holding the sealing syringe within her hand as she glanced between Chloe and the object within her grasp.

Taking this step between hero and villain had never been so difficult before. In the past, being an akuma had never carried so much weight on her shoulders. Sure, Lila had always wanted to defeat Ladybug. Part of Lila had always detested that bug for publicly embarrassing her after the Volpina incident. But, it had never been this personal. Lila had never forged her own deal that would end with Ladybug dying; Lila wouldn't be the sealing factor in Ladybug's fate.

In the past, Hawkmoth was always the blame. Pain, envy and jealousy were what fueled Lila in the past, made her an angry girl that just wanted to lash out at someone. Ladybug had been the target. Ladybug always was the target - it was easy to blame the one person who had managed to outsmart you. It was easy for Lila to see just how horrible Ladybug could be, especially after Volpina.

But now...

"You'll regret this," Chloe spat out from her corner, hatred burning within her ice-blue eyes. Sniffing, she glared at the syringe in Lila's hands. "Killing Ladybug - or whatever the hell you're planning to do - won't fix anything."

"How would you know?" Instantly, Vixen whipped around to scrutinize Chloe. For once the blonde didn't shrink beneath her glower, instead sitting up even straighter as her arms strained against the restraints fixed to shelving unit.

"I don't," Chloe responded, an honest answer. Surprising. Very surprising. "But," Chloe paused, sighing as she shook her head, "I do know that you're just doing this because you think it will make you happy. I'll tell you now, Lila the liar, working with Hawkmoth never makes anyone happy."

No. Working with Hawkmoth never had. But, then again, Hawkmoth had never been so close to winning, to gaining the very things he had been trying to obtain for years on end. That wish - the sole wish - would be what fixed everything wrong with this world. That was the promise that had forged through the akuma; that was the term of the contract keeping Vixen bound to her decision to trade Marinette off.

One wish could change everything.

"You don't know anything," Vixen hissed, sharply turning on her heel and marching toward the closet door. "This will make me happy."

Pulling the door open, Vixen slipped through its crack before sealing it shut once more. Behind the door, she could already hear Chloe's cries for help. Once again, Vixen ignored them, tuning them out as she used her power to make the closet door melt away, fading into the plain white wall of the hospital's corridor. Just like any other. Just like every other. Until Vixen had won this game of 3D chess, no-one would find Chloe Bourgeois.

That final thought in her mind, Vixen pressed onward, entirely ignoring the doubt niggling at her mind as she smiled at a passing nurse. Getting to Marinette would get her closer to happiness. Getting Hawkmoth the miraculous would get her closer to a better reality. That was all that mattered; that was all that she needed to care about. Everything else was simply background noise, tiny traces of a reality that soon wouldn't exist.

Soon, everything would be just as she wanted it to be. And Hawkmoth wouldn't even see it coming.

Nino

Wandering around the hospital had been an unsurprisingly mundane routine for the morning and lunch hour. Even with whispers about the strange nurse - which many of the staff shrugged off as a possible transfer - things had been awfully boring. Contrary to popular belief, hospitals didn't really have much action occurring within their halls. Many of the wards were quiet places, filled with the sound of trilling desk phones and computer mouse clicks.

After wandering around the entire grounds for a while, Nino decided to regroup with Alya and Adrien. If Vixen wasn't lingering around the outskirts, then she was definitely close to the ICU. All signs seemed to point to that being the truth. Panicked and antsy, multiple staff members had started rushing toward that area, one seeming to pull out their phone to contact someone. Such a sight wasn't comforting. Nor was it assuring.

"Chloe's been kidnapped."

Now pushing open the double doors leading to the ICU, Nino saw that his suspicions were confirmed. Sabrina, a complete mess of hysteria and tears, was being comforted Rose. Other members of their class were scattered about, some talking in small groups and others explaining details to the first responding officers. Multiple phones were ringing, a few classmates had red-rimmed eyes and every staff member present in the ward seemed to be on edge.

"What do you mean 'Chloe's been kidnapped'?" Nino frowned, hand tight around his freshly bought lunch. Turning to Alya, the first person to notice his arrival to the hectic ward, Nino couldn't help but voice his confusion. "I thought you and Adrien had things covered here."

"We did. But it went wrong," Alya responded, sighing as she guided Nino away from the many eyes and ears lingering about the ward. Leading him toward Marinette's room, unquestioned by the staff as they were regular visitors, she made sure that no-one followed. This needed to be discussed in private - away from all of the possible listening ears and as close as possible to Marinette.

Already, Adrien was there. Just like the rest of the ward, he seemed on edge, restless as he attempted to mindlessly scroll his racing thoughts away. But, of course, it was doing nothing to remedy his worries. Mindless scrolling never was the solution to humanity's bigger problems - even if it could be a good distraction most of the time. That proved to be the case as he immediately perked up as Alya entered the room, looking as if he had a million questions to ask.

"Please tell me you've seen her, Nino," Adrien didn't miss a beat. At all. Even one second in and Nino could tell that he was burning to know what had happened. What he had found while wandering around the hospital.

Still confused as ever, Nino frowned as he took one of the empty seats and pulled out his well-deserved sandwich, "Seen who?" Taking a bite from his lunch, soothing the dull ache of hunger, he raised a brow, "Vixen?"

Nodding, both Alya and Adrien confirmed the source to their anxieties: Vixen. Clearly, while Nino was wandering about the place following a wild goose chase of clues and leads, Vixen had been carrying out her own agenda. From the abrupt change in the staff's mood to the tangible restlessness that floated in the air, Nino could tell that something had gone down in the ICU. Chloe had been caught in the crossfire. Vixen had managed to get away with it. That wasn't good. At all.

"No I haven't seen her," Nino sighed, swallowing his bite of sandwich. Shaking his head, he turned to his two dejected teammates. "It's like she's vanished into thin air. Everyone else has seen her but every time I get close to her last known location, she's gone. It's like she knows exactly where I am."

"It wouldn't be surprising if she did know," Alya scoffed, folding her arms across her chest as she stood sentry at the room's door. Nodding toward Adrien, she added rather bitterly, "Even with me and Adrien here, she knew how to prevent us from helping Chloe."

"She's always two steps ahead," Adrien agreed, seeming just as annoyed with the current situation. Even in the past, when he had been separated from Ladybug, things had never been like this. There was usually something he could do. Usually, he wouldn't feel like such a headless chicken, running around with no sense of direction at all, "It's like she knows exactly what we're doing and how we're going to do it. We're literally sitting ducks right now."

They were. Sitting in Marinette's room, trying to form a plan that could counter Vixen's imminent attack, they were simply sitting ducks. They had no true advantage; Vixen knew more or less everything about them, from their powers to their habits to their very identities. Right now, there was no doubt that Vixen had the upper hand. What happened all those days ago, fracturing the team and putting Ladybug out of commission, had set them back.

Ladybug was like glue: she held everything together. Without Ladybug, everyone else was lost, scattered, knowing what they could do but being unable to actually make it effective. None of them ever thought about what they would do without her.

"We do have one advantage," Alya pursed her lips, breaking the brief silence as she glanced toward Marinette. Peaceful Marinette, still sleeping Marinette, unaware to the chaos sprouting around her like flowers in a bush. "We know that Vixen's going to come here and we know that she wants Marinette - for whatever reason she has. We can use that against her."

Instantly, Adrien shook his head, "We're not using Marinette as bait, Alya."

"Yeah that doesn't seem like the right way to go," Nino agreed, dusting off the bread crumbs from his hands.

"I never said that we were doing that," Alya huffed, rather offended that they would both assume that was her plan. With the huge target painted on Marinette's back, the last thing they wanted to do was risk her safety. Marinette was the thing that Vixen wanted; Getting to Marinette would be the sign of Vixen's victory. "What I am saying, though, is that the hospital is on lockdown mode because of Chloe. Vixen has a limited time frame to get in and out undetected. That means we know she's desperate."

Understanding what she meant, Nino hummed a little. However, a question still played on his mind - especially since he had some of his own concerns about all of this.

"So what are you suggesting Alya?" Nino asked, opening a pack of crisps with a small pop. Crinkling the package as he took a handful, he couldn't help but look skeptical as he raised a brow. "We wait it out?"

"Exactly," Alya smiled, clicking her fingers in triumph. "That's what will give us the best chance."

Chewing pensively, Nino considered Alya's offer. Waiting for Vixen to come to them definitely would be a new approach to their current situation. So far they had been chasing after her, following her shadows all across Paris in the hopes of stopping her. Even now, in this room, Nino was thinking about how he should be out there, checking every possible nook and cranny for even the smallest trace of the fox-themed akuma.

Chasing Vixen had always been their approach. Vixen always expected them to chase after her, running on a wild goose chase that would ultimately lead to failure. Staying stationary, waiting it out, would be unexpected. Vixen wouldn't expect them all to be here. That moment of surprise could be what gave them victory.

"But what if Vixen wants us to all be here?" Adrien, always being opposed to simply doing nothing, frowned. Staying here, for him, would feel like doing nothing; waiting it out, when he could do so much more, would definitely be a struggle. "That could be her plan."

"Why would she want that?" Now frowning himself, Nino couldn't help but question Adrien's thinking. Vixen seemed to have a pretty straight-forward motive. That motive involved getting Marinette and escaping as easily as possible. Why would she want them together in one place when her goal was to separate them? "Doesn't that make her plan more difficult?"

"No, it wouldn't," Alya, surprisingly, disagreed. One hand resting on her hip, she pursed her lips as she let out a sigh, "If anything, she would want that."

"All of us in one place at one time," Adrien nodded, now slipping half into thought. One hand rested under his chin as his green eyes narrowed with concentration, consumed within his own complex web of thoughts and theories. "That way she can handle everything quietly."

"Yeah, that does sound like Lila," Alya hummed, seeming to finish off his thoughts. Now she was pacing in front of the door, arms folded across her chest as she delivered her own conclusions. "She doesn't like the whole world seeing her true actions," Stopping abruptly, she turned to both Nino and Adrien, grimacing as she asked the dealing question, "But what can we really do to stop her? Splitting up hasn't worked."

"Plus we'll need to be here to protect Marinette," Nino added, now finished with his bag of crisps and wondering how, just how, they were going to tackle this latest issue. They couldn't split up because that would leave Marinette vulnerable. They couldn't stay here because Vixen could flip that situation, deal with them quietly, and then take both the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous for Hawkmoth to gleefully collect.

Every option led to a dead end. Every possible escape route was just a further trap. There wasn't much they could do. There wasn't an option without a large risk. In all situations, Marinette was put right in danger's way.

"You two need to be here," Adrien broke the silence, determined and decided as he stood up from his seat. Slipping his phone into his pocket, he spoke with the precision and calmness of a soldier marching themselves down to the front line. "I'll be the bait."

"Adrien- "

Suddenly, the room to the door swung open, making Alya sharply jump out of the way. Pushing in a metal trolley, a nurse with dark brown hair, speckled with streaks of grey, walked into the room. Glinting in the light, the plastic of her ID badge showed off her picture and her name. Immediately, Nino recognised her: she was Marinette's assigned nurse, the one who often came along with a doctor to check up on Marinette and deliver her medication.

Glancing toward Alya and Adrien, Nino spotted the concern sitting on their faces. Skeptical, both of them eyed the metal trolley, one of them making a beeline to talk to the nurse and the other heading to Nino. Clearly, neither of them trusted the nurse.

"Doesn't she usually come with the doctor?" That was the first question to leave Nino's system as Alya sat beside him.

Nodding, Alya took his hand in hers as she leaned her head on his shoulder - a move to cover up her whispering, "Yeah. She normally does."

For too long Adrien spoke with the nurse, all of them watching as she grabbed Marinette's medication and prepared it with saline for the IV drip. Everything seemed normal; everything felt abnormal. Even as the nurse smiled at them, placing a hand on Adrien's shoulder as she ended their conversation, it was all normal. But it didn't feel normal. With everything going on, the chaos swarming around them, it just couldn't feel normal.

"It's the usual nurse," Adrien came up to them, a relived smile on his face as he let out a sigh. "Due to the chaos out on the ward, most of the doctors are spread thin handling it. But after her, there shouldn't be anyone for the next hour."

"Alright, got it," Nino nodded, seeming to share Adrien's smile as he squeezed Alya's hand in his own. He knew that she wanted to object, to offer to go solo. But he also knew that voicing that would do more harm than good. "We've got it covered! No-one in or out unless it's the actual nurse."

For a brief moment, they all shared a bout of laughter. Almost, just almost, it was like the old days - before Vixen, before what happened on the Eiffel Tower, before identities were revealed. Just a group of friends laughing with each other, saying something silly and feeling happy about it. There wasn't any tension. There wasn't the feeling that soon, oh so soon, the entire world could be flipped on its head and everything could go wrong.

But only briefly. Really briefly. Because reality loved to dawn when it was least convenient, bringing an end to laughter and smiles and making room for severity and solemnity.

"If you guys need me to come back just call," Adrien spoke, patting the pocket that held his phone. "I'll come back as fast I can."

"Adrien," Alya began, pursing her lips as she glanced at the blonde. "You- "

"Should be careful," Nino finished, deciding not to let Alya finished. Right now, Adrien didn't need to think about anything else. Right now he should be focused, on track. Arguing about who should be the bait would be a waste of time that they really didn't have. "Just focus on coming back in one piece and we'll keep things handled back here."

Genuine, grateful, a smile flashed on Adrien's features. Even without words, Nino knew what it meant: thank you. Because, even if there were so many reasons why Adrien shouldn't be the one to go, he was the one who deserved to go the most. Being stationary was never his style; sitting there, like a sitting duck, doing nothing but waiting, was never his calling. If he felt helpless, Adrien had to act. In some way, shape or form, he always had to act.

"I'll be back."