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"STOP!" A tall boy shouted at a girl who was running away.
"No, catch me if you can!" The small girl stuck her tongue out at the older boy, who was chasing after her from a mile away.
He groaned in exasperation as she kept getting further, "It was because you cheated!"
She just winked at him while his anger rose. He was now even more motivated to catch her, slowly by surely, his distanced narrowed from her.
She noticed and was looking around for things to stop the boy from capturing her, as a result, she wasn't focus on the road and she crashed into something.
"Oof" As she landed on her bottom.
"Tt. That wasn't hard was it?" She looked up to see another boy rolling his eyes at her.
As the older boy finally catched up with her, clutching his knees as he halted to a stop from her, "Finally!" He cheered.
"You're captured now Marinette, give up." The younger boy who she had crashed into stated and crossed his arms, indignantly.
She rolled her eyes, "Oh please! You purposely crashed into me, Damian!"
Damian narrowed his eyes, but before he could speak up, the once exhausted boy spoke up first and pointed at her, "You cheated first!"
"No, I used the situation to my advantage, Jason!" She argued, as she furrowed her brows at Jason, who had finally regained enough energy to argue with her.
Jason shook his head, helpless at the girl's determination, "Sigh, we couldn't win against you huh, cupcake?"
"Of course!" She harumphed, crossing her arms proudly.
Even Damian, who would usually keep bickering with her, looked at her warily. He also knew he couldn't emerge victorious with her. She was as equally, if not, more hardheaded than he was.
"It's dinner time" Alfred suddenly spoke up, surprising all the kids.
They all walked into the manor, as the trio chattered on the way to the dinning room.
The previous argument long forgotten as their voiced filled with joy and laughter.
"Dinner is served." Alfred stated as the table was filled with dishes.
"How was your day?" A masculine voice asked to the other occupants in the table.
"It was fun, my friend showed me a new trick." The eldest boy, who was seated on his right replied.
"That's what you say almost every other day, Dick." Another boy, the second oldest, who was seated right next to Dick, rolled his eyes.
"Hey! I bet you would've been amazed too, Jason!" Dick retorted at the boys sarcasm.
The man who first asked the question just shook his head at the beginning of the argument and turned his head towards his left side, "How about you all?"
The boy, third oldest, who was seated to the left of him spoke up, "I studied some interesting cases."
Before the man could reply, Jason cut him off, "Again, that's what you do everyday, Tim!"
Tim narrowed his eyes at Jason's retort, "Well, it's definitely more productive than what you do. Please enlighten us, what did you do today, Jason?"
Jason smiled, happy, "Played with Damian and Marinette. It was definitely wayy more fun than what you did AND it was more healthy!"
The people who was mentioned by Jason just nodded along silently.
"Oh, did you have fun then? Damian, Marinette?" The man turned to the pair, the youngest boy, who was seated next to Tim, and the girl, who was seated next to his youngest son.
"I had fun, thank you for having me, Mr Wayne." Marinette replied, smilling happily.
"That's good to hear. I'm glad to hear you didn't have any difficulties with the boys. And please, just call me Bruce or Mr Bruce, that'll suffice." The man, who was the father of all the boys in the table, answered.
"Hey! We treat her well, she's our good friend!" Jason retorted at his father.
"Well, you have pulled a lot of troubles..." Bruce trailed off. He could think a lot of instances that had happened, in fact, there was so much, he had lost count at how much troubles the boys had caused.
"Yes, the boys are good friends with me, Mr Bruce." Marinette added.
Marinette and the boys had been friend for sometime, due to her parents being friends with Mr Bruce.
Mr Bruce had one day offered her to come to the Manor and meet his sons.
Initially, it didn't go that good, as some of the boys had clashed with her, ahem, Jason and Damian, ahem. While she bonded well with Dick and Tim. But as time passed, Marinette eventually grew on both Damian and Jason.
The boys eventually grew close with Marinette. You can see her almost every other day in the Wayne Manor.
The door opened as a pair of people appeared.
"Tom, Sabine? What brought you here? You both are welcomed nevertheless. It's odd that you decided to join us because you would usually take care of the bakery.." Bruce trailedd off, as his eyes widened in surprise.
The pair came and settled on the seats beside Marinette.
"No, we understand that it's odd. Just that...We have some news to tell." Sabine started.
"I...Well, we.." Tom trailed off, not knowing how to tell them.
"We're moving to Paris." Sabine stated.
All hell broke loose.
Suffice to say that the boys were all complaining and causing chaos. They all didn't want Marinette to leave Gotham and wanted her to remain by their side.
Yet, with heavy heart, her parents had decided to move to Paris and take care of her grandfather, who is getting older and sickly.
It was a very tearful goodbyes.
Marinette was crying, the boys had a mixed feelings. Dick was full on crying, Jason was complaining, Tim was saddened and Damian was frustrated.
It was hard for both the boys and Marinette to adapt to a new life without each other.
Eventually, they got used to their new lives. Yes, they still missed each other but it grew lesser as years passed, they wrre busy with their lives.
Until one day the peace that Marinette had build broke..
Lila Rossi.
She was the bane of Marinette's existence. Lila was the villain in her life, desperately seeked to cause her misfortune and pain in every turn.
She succeeded, quite swift, the friends she had made, turn on her. Lila Rossi spread lies about her, that she was hurting her and said nasty thing about her friends. They took Lila Rossi's side. Despite her telling the truth, nobody believed her. They all picked Lila over her.
In fact, they started to bully her at one point. It wasn't that bad initially, only isolated her but then it got verbal, eventually it got physical. In the beggining, she tried to hide it from her parents, she didn't want them to worry. But then, Lila's influence effected her parents bakery. Lila harrased and spread lies and rumors about the bakery. Eventually, causing problems for their business and her parents finally found out about the physical abuse Marinette suffered by chance.
They were horrified when they saw the scars and bruises that littered Marinette's body.
Her parents soon decided to move back to Gotham.
She was quite relieved to have a change of pace. The only reason why she had endured all those hard times was because she had a duty to uphold. But coincidentally, after her duty had ended, her parents had chosen to move back to Gotham and she couldn't be more ecstatic.
As soon as the family settled back at their old place. Bruce had sent a car for them.
Marinette was excited to see the boys that she knows as her good friends.
Once she laid eyes on them, she was shocked. The boys she had once knew had changed rather drastically.
It was to be expected but, seeing with her own eyes, it was quite surprising.
Every boy had change physically, especially they had grown in size and height.
It seems she was the short one now, where once, she was quite tall among them..Their new height towered over her.
The boys aura had also changed. The most notable one was Jason and Damian.
She sensed something quite off putting about it.
While the other two seemed to retain some of their old personalities.
Dick welcomed her with a classic octupus hug while Tim greeted her with a warm smile. Though Tim seemed to be more exhausted than ever and look 10x worse than he was a kid, he seemed like a walking zombie at this rate.
Jason and Damian on the other hand felt a bit more distant. Jason greeted her with a small smile. While Damian only nodded his head in acknowledgement.
It was quite saddening to see the wall they had built towards her but she understood them and didn't push.
They had a nice dinner, consiting of chatter and a few laughters, mainly from Dick and Marinette while Tim gave a few chuckles here and there. Bruce, Tom and Sabine had a good chat catching up.
Slowly but surely, Marinette and the boys got closer once more as they spent more times together. Alongside reminiscing of their past history, even Marinette grew on Jason and Damian. They could see that Marinette was as sweet and kind as she used to, a ball of sunshine. They couldn't help but to be good friends once more.
Especially Damian.
He didn't know when it started. But now whenever Marinette's around, he would feel a lot happier. He would occasionally wore a smile unconsciously. Or he would feel rather embarrassed when Marinette teased him. His heart also started to beat faster when she smile and he realized how pretty she looked.
He didn't know what the feeling was...Until Dick and Jason, even Tim pointed it out as love. In the beggining he didn't want to believe it, but eventually he realize that it was only the truth.
He was falling for Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
And he doesn't seem to hate it.
In fact, he seems to be content with it. He couldn't ask for someone better than Marinette. She was the best.
~
On the other hand, Marinette noticed the changes of Damian around her. Initially she thought that Damian had changed for the better but then she saw how he had treated his brother, which seemed to be unchanged. He was still frustrated at them.
While she was treated nicely by him and he was rather considerate towards her. Which wasn't something bad but is odd when Damian does it. Usually, he treats people rather blunt but to her, he was rather friendly and nice. She also noticed the smile he wore around her and embarrassment when she teased him, which was unbecoming of him. He would usually retort with sarcasm but with her, he would only flush in embarrassment and remain quiet.
Nevertheless, she loved the new version of him. She found it quite endearing and grew to like it. Without knowing, she also fell for him. Her heart thumped and butterflies filled her stomach when she sees his rare smiles which are enchanting to her. Or when he was nice to her, she couldn't help but swoon.
She admits, she fell for him.
But she didn't think that he liked her back, only that he favored her and she was content with it. She didn't think that Damian was a person who would fall in love with her.
Oh...How wrong she was.
Damian acrually eventually confessed to her after a lot of persuasion from his other siblings.
Marinette was ecstatic at the confession and accepted it happily. Damian gave a very rare bright smile and they kissed.
They became a couple.
They even shared their secrets. Damian revealed that he was the current Robin. She was surprised.
Marinette also revealed that she was once a superhero called Ladybug back in Paris. She had retired from the superhero life and remain a normal citizen now. Damian was shocked to say the least. Though happy on hearing the news.
But then Marinette faced a dilemma.
She had always found it odd that both Damian and Jason had a dark aura emanating from them.
It was very unusual that any living being emanates such dark auras. It wasn't possible unless something happened to them.
She tried asking but she didn't want to press them for answers.
Yet, the boys had willingly told them their tale.
That both Jason and Damian actually have been revived from the dead. They were resurrected from the Lazarus Pit.
That was something very taboo, life and death. They exist to maintain the stability of the universe. If one were to tamper with it, that would cause unbalance.
Which is why she had felt off once she arrived at Gotham and when she faced both siblings. The Lazarus pit had caused contamination and the revivals had caused a ripple of effect towards the balance. Causing the darkness (death) to spread and be more prominent in the city and in them, which was why they were quite unstable when it comes to their minds.
She didn't dare revealed that she was in Gotham with a task in mind.
As the guardian of the miracle box and Ladybug, she held the task of maintaining the balance of the universe.
She was able to purify and needs to restore the balance.
She had to purify and cleanse the Lazarus Pit. She had to stop people from meddling in the affairs of Life and Death.
By doing so, the connection between the Lazarus Pit and the people being revived by the pit would naturally be cut off, including Damian and Jason.
As she needs to straighten life and death.
Both Damian and Jason, who are also anomalies that shouldn't have been in the moment at the first place. The pair of siblings shouldn't be alive and well now, they were meant to be long dead.
It was their fate as they had died and revived.
They should have stayed dead as they had died.
They and the others need to die...They HAD TO REMAIN DEAD to maintain the balance. To put back the inbalance their revival had cause the universe. So that the peace prevailed, including reverting Gotham into a better place.
But Marinette hesitated. She knew that her task was important. The well-being of the universe is in her hands.
Yet...She couldn't bear the thought of the not seeing any of them.
Especially Damian.
He was her beloved. She loved him with her with her very being.
Even then, both Damian and Jason didn't deserve death.
It was out of their hands that they were killed. The situation caused then to die.
In fact, they had prove that they had fought to live and earnt it. Nobody is more warranted life than they are.
But Marinette knew that it was their fate.
With that in mind and her choice at hand. Whether she take their lives and made them remain dead OR keep them alive and try to find another solution, which was unlikely she gets any...
She didn't know what to do...
She was bearing the universe at her shoulders yet...She loved him, he was her world, she couldn't bear to live without him.
She truly was in a dilemma with no right or wrong answer.