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Chat Noir stood on the rooftop barely abe to think due to the multiple shocks he’d had that day. First, he had managed to grab Mayura’s miraculous, revealing her to be none other than his father’s assistant, Nathalie Sancoeur. Then Ladybug had managed to grab Hawkmoth’s miraculous. He had watched in horror as Hawkmoths blade had pierced his Lady’s heart just as her fingers had closed around the pin and his horror had only grown as not only was Hawkmoth revealed to be his father but as the blade had vanished from Ladybug’s chest leaving the wound free to bleed. He knew from the first aid lectures that took place at school that a stab wound type injury should have the ‘weapon’ left in the wound. He knew that the blade vanishing was the worst thing that could happen.
He moved quickly to tie up his father as a precaution. He then received his third shock in the form of an unknown teen appearing out of thin air holding Ladybug and even more so when her transformation dropped revealing his quiet classmate Marinette. Chat heard his father’s quick intake of breath at that revelation but ignored it in favour of glaring at the teen. His glare intensified as a light engulfed Marinette and the teen had the audacity to laugh!
“ Who, who are you? And how can you laugh when she just died in front of you?” Chat demanded of the unknown teen . The teen slowly stood up and turned to face him. He walked forward slowly without reaching for his staff to show he wasn't a threat.
“I am Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter and Guardian of Fun. I can laugh because although my Marinette is dead to you and all the others of this world, the powers that be have made her into the Spirit of Spring, thus she is as immortal as I am.” Having said this he held out his hand to hand Chat the earrings and broach. “I believe these need to be returned to the Guardian of the Miraculous. I will take my leave with her now as she will be highly disorientated when she wakes up and I'd rather have her safely away from here to avoid her panicking.”
Chat studied him for a second then nodded.
“Take care of her?”
“Always.” He replied with a smile. “After all, I have forever to do so.”
The teen had grabbed his staff then gently picked up Marinette and seemed to vanish into thin air again, leaving Chat to deal with the mess that was left after his battle. He sighed then turned to his father.
“Thanks for leaving me with your mess to clean up,” Chat grumbled.
“My mess! If you and Ladybug had handed over you miraculi the world wouldn't have lost such a promising designer! My son would have his mother back and...” Chat cut him off suddenly.
“What your son wanted was his father to be there for him! He wanted to be able to know that his father loved him! He doesn’t need his mother back!”
“How would you know?”
“Because I’m him and your actions have just left me an orphan! Before you try to convince me to unite the two miraculi let me ask you this: do you even know the cost of uniting them to bring someone else back from the dead is to sacrifice the life of another?” Chat closed his eyes seeing the answer written on his father's face and shook his head.
Turning around he sighed and phone the police to come and collect Hawkmoth and Mayura’s civilian forms. He was unsure about how he trials would go and if he was honest with himself he no longer cared. The woman he had loved for years had been in his class and he’d never noticed her. Not that it mattered, she had repeatedly said she loved someone else and he had just witnessed just how much she loved him. He was also uncertain of what would happen to him now that he would be revealing his civilian identity to the police and handing all the miraculi currently in his possession into the guardian. He was worried about how to tell Marinette’s parents that she had been Ladybug and that she was, for all intents and purposes, dead. All he knew was that the next few days if not months were going to be difficult and he wasn’t sure how he was going to cope with it all.
Having said all he was going to say, he picked up his staff then he walked over to the still unconscious Marinette, gathered her into his arms and used the wind to take them to Tooth's Palace. He wanted to make sure she had access to her memories if she woke up without them like he had.
To say that Tooth had been surprised to see Jack arriving at her palace so soon after being made a guardian was an understatement. That surprise turned into outright shocked understanding when she saw the reason for the visit lying as if asleep in Jack’s arms. She quickly sent off a fairy to fetch Marinette’s baby teeth in case they were needed. She then led Jack into one of the only rooms in the palace that had a bed in it so that Jack put the girl in his arms down and get some rest himself. Her next task was to send a message to North, Bunny and Sandy asking them to come to her palace as soon as they could, after all, she could feel the magic pouring off the girl in waves.
North was the first to arrive followed quickly by Bunny and Sandy.
“What’s with the urgent call Tooth, we left barely 3 hours ago?” North asked while Sandy used some of his dream sand to make a question mark above his head.
“Follow me and you will see why I called you here.” Tooth said softly, then turned and led them to the room that she had left Jack and his friend in. Jack had moved so that he was sitting next to her on the bed, holding her hand and was watching her nervously.
“Jack, who is she?” Bunny asked his voice barely above a whisper.
“Do you remember the girl dressed like a ladybug who helped us with Pitch?” Jack replied without looking away from the girls face.
“Yeah, you said you would explain later but just when we were about to sit down you grabbed your shoulder and said you needed to go?”
“This is her.” Jack still didn’t look at them.
“But Jack, she is human, and the one that helped us was dressed in a skin-tight suit that was red with black dots and she isn’t so why bring her here?”
“She’s not human anymore. The pain in my shoulder was because she was battling Hawkmoth but she was running out of energy. She had woken up extremely early because of our battle with Pitch and she hadn’t gone back to sleep when she got home. She promised me years ago that if she got a solid lead on who Hawkmoth is she would contact me so that she had backup, but it looks like she didn’t have the time to do so as she went straight from fighting an Akuma to fighting Hawkmoth. She managed to get his Miraculous which forced him back into his civilian form but he had already stabbed her through the heart. She died in my arms but it looks like Manny stepped in with her much like he did with me. This dress is not something she would ever have worn. It shows that she is now the spirit of spring.” As he said the last sentence, he looked up at them, his eyes shimmering slightly.
The other guardians exchanged looks before Bunny spoke, “Mate, how do you know her?”
“She is the first one to be able to see me. We met when she was only 6-years-old and we kept talking. I don’t know how or when it happened but we eventually realised that we had fallen in love but we knew that nothing would ever happen between us as I am a spirit and she was a human. Marinette was the one to suggest that we give each other tattoos on our shoulders after she took up the mantle of Ladybug. We didn’t choose what they would look like we just let our magic take the form it wanted to. When she died the magic had to go somewhere and Manny chose to make her a spirit.”
It was at that moment that Marinette started to stir. Her eyelids fluttered slightly and she gripped Jacks hand.
“Mari?” Jack whispered hardly believing what he was seeing.
“Jack?” Her voice was slightly hoarse but he didn’t care, he was just so happy that she recognised him.
“Mari, how much do you remember?”
“Everything, my mom and dad and them falling for Lila’s lies. My class and how they treated me. All our conversations. Everything. Even the fight with Hawkmoth. Why do you ask?”
Jack just smiled and hugged her, his relief was almost palpable.
“When I first woke up I didn’t remember anything, I didn’t want that to happen to you.”
“Oh! I wonder why I didn’t lose my memories too then? In fact, I seem to have memories that aren’t my own too. I certainly didn’t know so many languages when I was growing up! I also don’t think I could make flowers grow before either. If it wasn’t for the fact that I wasn’t wearing this dress earlier, as well as the fact that I can’t sense Tikki I would think that the making flowers grow was apart of the Ladybug powers.”
The current guardians all smiled at that news. “You mean she is to be your companion while you travel?” Asked North.
“Well, probably more than just my companion,” Jack said with a knowing smile as he exchanged looks with Marinette.
“Oh?”
“We were already in love before I died but we knew nothing could happen between us. That’s no longer a barrier thanks to Hawkmoth...” Marinette explained. “To be honest I’m not worried about whether or not people can see me as long as I have Jack. As there has never been a Spirit of Spring I’m completely unknown so I don’t expect people to know who I am.”
Jack nodded then said thoughtfully, “My human name was Jackson Overland which got changed to Jack Frost on gaining my abilities. Did Manny say if your name had changed at all?”
“He did. Apparently, my new name is Mari as the flower is said to represent passion and creativity, which Manny said fits me. He said I could choose if I wanted a second name or not. He also said I could still respond to Marinette if I want to but I don’t think I will as in recent years I’ve come to hate my name due to being bullied.” She closed her eyes. “To be honest I think I just want to take some time and adjust to everything. Maybe travel with Jack for a bit before deciding anything as I want to learn how my full powers work. I’d also like to say goodbye to the only person who stayed my friend, Tikki. I’ll need to do that soon or we won’t be able to track her as I get the feeling that Master Fu will move soon.”
It took a while but eventually, it was agreed that Mari would be allowed to visit Master Fu and the Kwami's the next day. They doubted that anyone but the Kwami's would see her but she felt she had to try anyway. Jack would be going with her as he refused to let her out of his sight just yet.
Thanks to one of North's snowglobes the trip back to Paris was over in the blink of an eye. As they knew no-one would see them anyway, Mari had set the destination to right outside Fu's massage parlour. She still looked around carefully as they stepped out, something that had become a habit for her when she was Ladybug. Tikki and the other Kwami's had obviously sensed her arrival because by the time the two spirits walked into the building all the Kwami's had left the miracle box and Master Fu was looking at them in confusion as was Chat Noir who had come to visit. Wayzz was the one to clue them into the fact that they had company.
As soon as Wayzz described them, Chat called out Jack's name and Marinette's old one. As Marinette was no longer connected to her old name she remained invisible, however, it was clear that Chat had remembered Jack from the rooftop and had started to believe in him. Even though it wasn't true belief it was enough to make him visible to Chat, who instantly started to bombard Jack with questions.
“Is Marinette ok? Has she woken up from whatever happened? Is she here too? Why can't I see her?”
“Try believing in the Spirit of Spring, her name is Mari.” Was Jack's only answer as he casually created an ice chair and sat down.
Vines had appeared around the legs of the chair and a soft leaf had covered the seat as the chair had appeared which made it easier for Chat to believe that Mari was there too. It took a few moments but eventually, like a picture slowly coming into focus, Chat was able to see Mari.
Chat had to smile as he saw her. She had draped herself over Jack's lap, clearly drawing comfort from him. As though being able to see her was a cue for the Kwami's they seemed to swarm her, sitting on her where ever they could, though Tikki had managed to gain the prized spot of Mari's shoulder.
“Mari...” Chat breathed out.
“Hi, Chat.” She replied with a small wave of her hand. She had to concentrate on her powers slightly so that she didn't cover him in flowers and for the most part it worked. He still ended up wearing a flower crown though. On seeing the flower crown all the Kwami's started begging her for one too so she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, released it and drew a circle with her right index finger. As soon as she did each of the Kwamis had a miniature crown of their own that they could take with them into the miracle box is they wanted to.
“My Lady,” Chat started then he paused, “I can't really call you that anymore can I? Anyway, how are you? Are you happy? I'm so sorry for not being faster! I'm so, so, so sorry for what happened.”
Mari slowly got up, giving the Kwamis time to move and walked over to where Chat sat on the floor and knelt next to him, cupping his face in her hand gently. “It's alright mon chaton, I think this was something that was destined to happen at some stage anyway. All that Hawkmoth killing me did was make sure I'm the same age as Jack forever. I don't blame him nor do I blame you. In a way, I'm grateful, as I've never felt like I truly fitted in anywhere but now I have a place that will accept me no matter what.” She got back up and curled into Jack's lap again. “Now I get to be with the one I have loved for most of my life. What more could I ever ask for?”
Chat looked at Mari as she smiled lovingly at Jack and couldn't help but smile as well. Fu who had stayed silent the whole time, knowing that she was saying her goodbyes smiled at the scene in front of him. He had seen a lot of things in his life but he couldn't help but think that this was one of the most magical scenes one could witness. Fu's only regret was that he now had to find someone else to train as a guardian of the Miraculous as he had been hoping to train Ladybug. With her being a spirit that couldn't happen anymore, though that didn't stop him from wishing that it could. Mari, Jack, Chat and the Kwami's noticed that he seemed distracted but they didn't ask him about it. The air around him said that he didn't wish to be disturbed.
As darkness fell over Paris Jack turned to Mari. “Do you want to see your parents before we go?” He asked gently.
“No,” Mari replied softly. “I'm sure Chat told them I died if they saw me flying past they would never let themselves move on.”
Chat nodded in agreement. “I'll miss you, M'lady.”
“I'm sure we'll see you occasionally. After all, the seasons come and go and where they are, we are too!”