Chapter Text
When Marinette had thought vomiting could be a distraction, it was heavily influenced by the fact that she had not been feeling well. As soon as the ‘pig’ had entered the auditorium she had been fighting off nausea as her anxiety blossomed from her inability to assist. A part of her knew that vomiting as a distraction would be successful enough for some of the Bats to get out, but it had been more successful than she could have hoped. Lila, whom she did not intend to make the unfortunate victim of her misplaced vomiting, had caused such a ruckus that both had been escorted to the front beside the pig man. She could have kicked herself for her unfortunate victory as she had put herself in an awkward and compromising position. Made worse when a factor she had not been counting on entered the arena.
The masked man who currently held two of the miraculous, was the last person she wanted to see in her current state. And the one person she definitely did not want to be held hostage by.
At some point during the time that it took for her to be escorted from the auditorium to wherever she currently was, she had passed out, most likely from her still lingering fatigue. When she finally came around, she tried her hardest not to alert her captor that she was awake, so far he had left her to her own devices and unbothered.
Transforming was the best chance that she had to get out, but she didn’t know if she or Tikki were well enough to hold the transformation for any length of time. Or if he already knew her identity. One could argue that it would be the reason he was at the closing ceremony, not the bull he was trying to pass off about wanting to help. Yet, as far as she could tell her earrings were still in her ears and Tikki in her pocket.
By becoming Ladybug in his presence, she would give away her identity if he didn’t already know it. Seeing that his aim to some degree was to possess more miraculous, she couldn’t offer him that morsel of information.
All of that was only secondary of course to the question of why he wanted the miraculous in the first place. His weapon was impressive, but seeing it in action it was rather tame for the abilities that she knew the miraculous were capable of.
Perhaps the biggest question she should be asking is how he got the Peacock Miraculous away from Natalie? Should she expect for Natalie to make her presence known soon? Perhaps the reason she was currently being held had nothing to do with her miraculous, but rather Natalie made her a target due to her close association to Adrien.
Before she had time to stop and adjust accordingly, a wave of nausea hit causing some bile to enter her throat. Luck was on her side as she was able to starve off the worst of it, preventing her from decorating the floor but unfortunately enough went into her throat causing her to cough, albeit quietly.
It was enough to draw the attention of her capture. He obviously had no intention of allowing her to go free as he no longer had his mask on. Amateur mistake, but not one she was going to correct for him. Taking in his appearance, she was confident that she had seen him before, but she was having a hard time placing him. It only gave credence to her idea that he might know exactly who he had abducted.
Not good news for her.
Marinette racked her brain as she studied her surroundings and tried to remember just who the masked man was. She was in a lab, but having no real interest in science in any of her lives, she couldn’t tell more than that. He did not have her tied up, so he likely believed himself to be the superior fighter, or at least have an advantage that she was not aware of. Well, rather his advantage was obvious as he was still holding his gun, so perhaps that was the advantage he intended on using.
“What do you want?” she croaked; her voice still sore from her mishap with Lila.
“Nothing, just wanted to make sure you are feeling better now that you are awake.” He looked at her without a single hint of deception, which was unsettling.
She didn’t answer as she refused to give him any indication of just how she was feeling. Still ill if she was going to be honest, not in a position to help herself in any form.
“Well, are you feeling better?” He tried to place the back of his hand to her forehead, but she flinched away from his contact.
“I’m fine,” she hissed through gritted teeth.
“I don’t believe you. Your lack of color suggest that you are still feeling ill. I should have chosen the other girl as my hostage, but I’ll be honest she smelled so bad I was sure I was going to be sick as well.”
Marinette breathed a sigh of relief, his words at least suggested that she was not the target and only an easy grab. But she remained vigilant as it was still likely to be nothing more than an act.
“You passed out shortly after we left. I would have left you as I promised to, but Gotham is not a good place, and I could never leave a defenseless person alone. Dropping you off at the hospital was obviously not an option considering the Bats would then find my trail…So here we are.” He stood up from his crouched position but did not take his eyes off her. “Can I get you anything for your stomach? Crackers, soda, a cold compress? Do you know what’s wrong?”
Marinette tilted her head in confusion. This man was clearly insane. He possessed a weapon that could cause a lot of damage, yet here he was trying and successfully making her feel like he cared about her wellbeing.
“What are you going to do with me? Use that weapon?”
“Oh no. I would never use this on an innocent person.” She begged to differ. “I admit I have used it once on someone that didn’t deserve it, but at that point I didn’t know what it was truly capable of. I still don’t really.”
Against what should have been her better judgement, she temporarily forgot about her need to figure out how to get out of her predicament and instead focused on figuring him out. “Why would you create and use something that you don’t understand?”
“I did not create this to hurt people or anything like that. I intend on using it to transform energy from one source to create a pure energy into another form.”
Why did that sound so familiar, she went through her many interactions lately to figure out where she had heard that exact phrasing before.
“I just needed a conduit, which was when this fell into my hands. He pulled off the Peacock Miraculous from the hilt of the gun. “I just wasn’t aware of the amount of energy it could create. Then when I found out that there were more of these and in Gotham no less…”
He turned away from Marinette to grab something on top of the desk close to her. She instantly recognized the object as the Fox Miraculous. “It might be wrong of me. No, I know it is. But I knew I had to get ahold of it for the greater good of the world. With my technology powered by objects such as these, waste will cease to exist as I am able to transform it into energy that could power the world. That poor boy was simply a casualty to the betterment of the world.”
“You sound like Dr. Freeze. You may be acting in a way that you hope will have a result that you think is better for the world, but your still doing great harm in the meantime. Especially with objects that you have little knowledge about.”
“Oh,” he turned to look back at her, both miraculous in his hand and no longer in the gun, “and you know more than me about them?”
The desire to strike and remove the miraculous from his possession was overwhelming, but she knew that her weakened body stood little chance against him. “I’m from Paris, of course I do.”
“Hmm,” he placed the Fox Miraculous in the chamber of his gun, removing Marinette’s shot to retrieve them. “If that’s the case perhaps I should ask Adrien more about these.”
Adrien? Why would he mention Adrien? As if it had been on the tip of her tongue all along, she was able to recognize the man and his ramblings.
Dr. Kellan, Adrien’s advisor.
This was both good and bad news. As far as she could put together it was safe to say that the man was not a combat operative, which meant that if the Bats came to rescue her, if they could dodge the gun, it would be easy. Bad news though, because why would they ever suspect him and know where to find her?
As if to answer her own question, a shadow in the distance just over Dr. Kellan’s shoulder moved slightly, capturing her attention and luckily not Kellan’s. At first glance she would have had no idea who was stalking her, if not for her being guilty of having heavily observed the shadow for the past three weeks. Surprisingly he was still adorning his Robin persona and not his new Black Cat. Somehow, he managed to find her and was likely waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Dr. Kellan finally stepped away from her to place down the Peacock Miraculous where he had previously had the Fox, as he had placed the Fox in the gun and an fearful Trixx now hovered in the gun’s glass chamber.
Robin moved out of the shadow, as if to reassure her with his presence. Dr. Kellan’s back was still turned from him and so his movement into the room went without notice. It was all the more obvious that Dr. Kellan was no criminal mastermind, he didn’t even think about the likely hood that someone could infiltrate his ‘hiding place,’ so he was not paying his surroundings any attention.
Robin crept slowly and quietly over towards Marinette and her captor. His attention focused on her, while maintaining his vigilance. Unfortunately, he did not account for Dr. Kellan having rigged his office with some kind of security measures as Robin tripped an alarm causing Dr. Kellan to turn his attention from Marinette.
Marinette would give it to the man he was quick on the uptake, as there was no hesitation in pointing the gun towards her. She was the closer target, the likelihood of missing her low, especially considering that it was pointed very closely to her face. The action caused Robin to freeze, showing his hand to Dr. Kellan.
He might not have been a criminal mastermind, but Dr. Kellan was a very smart man. The hesitation made by the hero gave away the fact that threatening to do harm to Marinette was enough to stop him.
“I warned the Bats that I would hurt anyone that would follow. Are you stupid?”
“No,” Robin snarled.
“Then explain why you are here.”
“Her.”
“Are you only capable of one-word answers?” Dr. Kellan goaded Robin.
Robin smirked, knowing that he was getting on Dr. Kellan’s nerves. His threat was mostly empty, shooting the gun in such a tight space threatened the death of everyone in this room not just Robin’s. Surely, Dr. Kellan was smart enough to know that.
“No.”
“Well then I guess I am going to have to take care of you now and then her.” Dr. Kellan turned the gun from Marinette and took aim at Robin.
There was no fear from Robin as the gun was now pointed at his chest. As if in slow motion, Marinette saw Dr. Kellan’s finger begin to pull the gun’s trigger. Robin moved swiftly to get out of the trajectory of the gun, and quickly in front of Marinette. Only the beam of energy that was supposed to come from the gun was not emitted.
Instead, the cylinder, which housed the trash that Dr. Kellan stole the energy from to create his weaponized beam, began to swirl and a table behind where Robin once stood turned to ash. Before anyone had time to process what was happening the glass shattered and the energy pulsated before releasing into the room, knocking out Dr. Kellan as he crashed into a nearby filing cabinet.
Robin dashed to cover Marinette with his body before she was touched by the energy.