Chapter Text
Marinette sat in an uncomfortable, hard plastic chair in a hospital room in Paris. The discomfort from sitting in the hard plastic chair for hours on end went unnoticed by the teen girl. Her entire focus was on her sketch pad in her lap, or more specifically, on the silver ring on her ring finger on her right hand, which held a pencil that hadn’t made an actual mark on the paper since she took out the sketch pad hours ago.
Her focus was the silver ring because it was actually the cat miraculous. She had received it from Adrien three months ago, shortly after the defeat of Shadow Moth, his father, Gabriel Agreste. The revelation that his father was Shadow Moth had been devastating for the blonde teen, and the public backlash hadn’t helped any. While his father and Nathalie had been adamant that they hide anything Shadow Moth-related from Adrien, only some of the public seemed to believe them. The rest of the public followed the “like father, like son” and “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” logic, and simply did not believe that there was any way that Adrien couldn’t have noticed that his father was Shadow Moth since they lived together.
Marinette, as Ladybug, also backed that Adrien did not know about his father’s dealings as Shadow Moth, which helped quell the public’s negativity towards Adrien. Still, it wasn’t enough to eliminate it. In the end, the public backlash, combined with his not having relatives in Paris, led Adrien to move to England to live with his Aunt Amélie and Cousin Félix.
Before leaving, he gave the cat miraculous back to Marinette, despite her insistence that he could, and should, hold on to it. However, Adrien still refused. While he admitted that he would really miss Plagg, after the revelation that his father was Shadow Moth and that his father wanted his and Marinette’s miraculouses to use them to make a wish to revive his dead mother, Adrien stated he needed some space from anything miraculous-related.
Marinette understood his need for space and reluctantly accepted the cat miraculous. Adrien did promise that even if he never permanently picked up the cat miraculous again, he would visit before too long to see Plagg again.
Now, Marinette wished she had forced Adrien to take the cat miraculous with him to England. The cat miraculous felt like a lead weight around her finger. Similarly, the ladybug miraculous earrings that she had grown so used to wearing, she often forgot they were there, had become a weight in her ears she was constantly aware of.
The reason for the change in the “weight” of the miraculouses was a few feet away from her in a hospital bed. Her mother, Harley Moreau, or as she was more infamously known, Harley Quinn. Not that anyone in Paris knew that fact besides Marinette. Just two weeks after the defeat of Shadow Moth, Harley was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
It was like a bad cosmic joke. Marinette had beaten Shadow Moth, who was trying to get her ladybug and cat miraculouses to make a wish to revive his dead wife, and now her mother was dying from cancer, and she had both miraculouses needed to make a wish. However, Harley didn’t want her daughter to use the wish to cure her cancer because of the balance involved with making the wish. If Marinette used the wish to save her mother’s life, that could mean that someone else would lose theirs, with no guarantee that that someone wouldn’t be Marinette herself—a risk her mother wouldn’t even consider entertaining for a second.
For the past three months, she had to watch as her mother slowly died from the cancer, while having the power to save her but unable to do so because her mother didn’t want to be saved. Nothing was stopping her from using the miraculous wish to save her mother other than her mother telling her not to.
At the beginning of her mother’s diagnosis, before Harley’s condition worsened, Marinette was able to follow her mother’s desire not to use the wish. She managed it since the diagnosis didn’t seem real then. Now that her mother was on her deathbed with only days left, Marinette found not making the wish a nigh-impossible task. She had only managed not to make the wish yet due to the guilt associated with disobeying her mother’s dying wish, and the hope that Harley would change her mind about the wish. However, she knew that her mother wouldn’t change her mind. Harley had already made peace with her death, claiming it was all the awful things she did as Harley Quinn finally catching up to her.
So, Marinette did the only thing she could do. She stared at the cat miraculous on her finger with her dying mother just feet from her as a constant reminder of what she shouldn’t do, knowing that if she weren’t by her mother’s side, the temptation to save her mother would be too great. The consequences of the wish keeping balance being damned.
“Marinette,” called a weak voice that immediately pulled the teen girl from her thoughts.
“Maman.”
Marinette jumped up from her seat, tossed her sketch pad into the chair next to her, and ran over to her mother’s side.
“How are you doing, pumpkin?” Harley asked, turning her palm up for her daughter to grab.
“I’m doing fine, Maman,” Marinette replied, grabbing her mother’s hand while fighting back tears. “How are you doing?”
“Fine, just tired is all,” Harley smiled weakly. “When was the last time you ate?”
“A couple of hours ago,” Marinette lied.
She hadn’t actually eaten anything all day. She hadn’t been all that hungry recently. However, her stomach decided to out Marinette as a liar that day and growled.
“Heh, you never could lie to me,” Harley smiled a little wider, and Marinette blushed. “Go to the cafeteria and get yourself something to eat.”
“I don’t feel hungry right now,” Marinette replied, despite her stomach having just growled.
“Whether you feel hungry right now or not, you still need to eat, pumpkin. So, go get something to eat at the cafeteria,” Harley said, and seeing the great reluctance in her daughter’s face, she added, “And don’t worry, I’ll still be here when you get back. I promise. I’m not going to leave you just yet.”
Marinette frowned, still not wanting to leave her mother, but she also had a hard time saying no to her. Another growl from Marinette’s stomach finally got her to cave.
“Fine,” Marinette sighed, “But I’m bringing the food back here.”
“That’s fine, so long as you eat, pumpkin,” Harley replied.
Marinette let go of her mother’s hand and started to leave the room. She paused at the doorway, giving her mother one last worried look before leaving for the cafeteria.
After her daughter left the room, Harley opened the hand that Marinette was holding to reveal the cat miraculous ring in her palm.
“Plagg,” Harley said.
Plagg came out of his miraculous with a nervous expression. He didn’t know why Harley stole his ring off her daughter’s finger instead of asking for it, but he did know that it likely meant he was about to be asked to do something that Marinette, the current Guardian of the Miraculouses, wasn’t going to like.
“Listen carefully, we don’t have much time. I need you to take your miraculous, go to Gotham in America, and find Batman. He is Bruce Wayne. You can find him at Wayne Manor. Tell him whatever you need to get him here to look after Marinette,” Harley said sternly, with the most strength Plagg had heard in the past week.
“But,” Plagg started, but Harley cut him off with a sharp glare.
“Plagg, this isn’t a request.”
Plagg flinched.
Harley couldn’t actually force him to go to Gotham. Despite stealing his miraculous off Marinette’s finger, she had yet to actually claim it, and even if she did, sending him away with it was effectively renouncing her ownership of it. So, she couldn’t enforce the order to go to Gotham after he left. However, Plagg was aware that Marinette was close to the breaking point and was going to use the power of Tikki’s and his miraculouses to make the wish to save Harley despite Harley’s own wishes. He was also sure that Harley knew her daughter was close to the breaking point, and she was trying to stop her from making the wish by sending him away to someone who could keep him safe and out of the hands of her daughter.
Plagg was torn.
He knew if he followed through with Harley’s order, then Marinette would very likely never forgive him. On the other hand, he could sense just how close Harley was to the end and knew this was her dying wish. If he left for Gotham, that would be the last time he would see Harley alive.
“How would I even get to Gotham? Do you expect me to fly all the way over the Atlantic? I can, but it’ll take days,” Plagg asked, trying to poke a hole in her plan.
“Catch a ride on a plane. Several head to America every day; then you can catch another plane to Gotham. I’m sure you can handle the rest from there. Now go,” Harley replied.
Plagg bit his bottom lip and glanced at the door. He knew it wouldn’t take long for Marinette to realize his miraculous was missing, and if he could hold out for a little longer, then she could burst through that door, and he wouldn’t have to make a decision.
“Please, Plagg,” Harley pleaded softly, letting her face show just how tired she actually was.
That was enough to break the last of Plagg’s resistance. With a frustrated groan, Plagg grabbed his miraculous and flew through an air vent.
Right after Plagg flew into the air vent, the door to Harley’s hospital room flew open, and Marinette stormed into the room.
“Where is it? Where is the ring?” Marinette asked, approaching her mother’s hospital bed.
“It’s safe.”
Harley said the words while looking her daughter directly in the eyes with a resolve that stopped Marinette from asking where the cat miraculous was a third time. Instead, Marinette lowered her head, her bangs covering her eyes, and she whispered.
“Why?”
Marinette grabbed the railing of her mother’s bed with white knuckles.
“Why won’t you let me save you? I don’t want you to die, maman.”
Tears rolled down Marinette’s cheeks. Harley reached up and gently cupped her daughter’s cheek with one hand. She wiped away her daughter’s tears with her thumb.
“I don’t want to die and leave you either, Marinette. But we both know that if you make that wish, it would have to keep balance by putting someone else in my situation. That would be the same as killing them, and I know you can’t handle that on your conscience. You’re far too kind a girl for that, which is something I’m so proud of you for being. I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself for me either. I’m your mother. My job is to protect you, not the other way around, and no parent wants to have to bury their child. Plus, you are the one good thing I did in this world. I want you to live a full life; explore the world, become a famous fashion designer, get married, have kids, and live a life without the same mistakes your mother made.”
Harley looked at her daughter with all the love in the world a mother could have for her daughter, even while tears spilled from her eyes.
“Maman,” Marinette whimpered, tears flowing freely.
Marinette buried her face into her mother’s stomach and sobbed. Harley soothingly rubbed her daughter’s hair.
Later that night in Gotham, Plagg arrived at the gates of Wayne Manor. A bit of his counterpart’s luck must have rubbed off on him, since he was able to find a flight to America that left shortly after he got to the airport, and he managed to sneak onto the plane with ease. He then found another flight with a layover in Gotham, allowing him to make it there in record time. Still, by the time he managed to find where Wayne Manor was and get there, it was past midnight. However, Plagg wasn’t that worried about waking anyone at the manor, considering what he knew about Batman and his team.
With his miraculous in hand, Plagg flew over the gate and to the front door of the manor. He rang the doorbell.
Inside the manor, everyone froze. The only ones inside the manor were Alfred, Tim, and Duke. Everyone else was out on patrol. Alfred stepped out of the kitchen into the parlor. Duke made an appearance at the top of the parlor stairs shortly after.
“Are you expecting company, Master Duke?” Alfred asked.
“No,” Duke shook his head.
Plagg rang the doorbell again.
Tim came up from the Batcave with the tablet in hand. He took one look at Alfred’s and Duke’s expressions and said, “So, I’m guessing you guys aren’t expecting company, either.”
“That is correct, Master Tim,” Alfred replied.
The Wayne Manor had many layers of security. So, a person reaching the front door of the manor without triggering any of the security alarms was highly concerning.
“The cameras don’t show anyone there,” Tim said. “Wait.”
Tim looked closer at his tablet and zoomed in one of the camera’s feeds. “I think I see a ring floating in the air.”
“Is it green?” Duke asked.
“Black,” Tim answered, paling.
Duke flinched back, while Alfred immediately turned to retrieve one of the many guns he had hidden throughout the manor.
Duke then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He opened them a moment later. Using his photokinesis ability, he looked through the front door of Wayne Manor. He saw a small black mass that looked somewhat like a chibi cat surrounded by swirling black and pale green energy. The energy wasn’t the same as that of any of the Lantern Corps, but it still put him on edge.
Plagg flew up to the transom window above the front door to look inside the manor. He saw Duke, Tim, and Alfred, who returned with a double-barreled shotgun, in the parlor.
“Hey, I see you. Open the door. I need to talk to Bruce Wayne. I know he’s Batman,” Plagg shouted and banged his miraculous against the window.
Tim, Duke, and Alfred looked at each other in bewilderment.
“You guys see the chibi black cat, too, right?” Tim asked.
“Yeah,” Duke replied.
“Good, good. Just making sure I’m not hallucinating from sleep deprivation,” Tim said.
Not having much patience after flying across an ocean on basically no notice, Plagg placed his miraculous down on the small ledge, made by the transom window and the door frame, and phased through the window.
Tim and Duke got into a fighting stance while Alfred raised his shotgun at the Kwami.
“Who and/or what are you?” Tim asked.
“I’m Plagg, the kwami of destruction, and inhabit the cat miraculous,” Plagg replied.
“Kwami of destruction? Sounds friendly,” Duke replied sarcastically, his muscles tensing, readying for action.
“Wait, I think that sounds familiar,” Tim said, holding up a hand in a “wait” motion.
“Yeah, Paris, Ladybug and Chat Noir, Shadow Moth’s defeat,” Plagg supplied.
“That’s right,” Tim slammed his fist into his palm in realization. “Paris was being terrorized by a man going by the name Shadow Moth. The heroes who beat him were called Ladybug and Chat Noir. They got their powers from magical jewelry called miraculouses, powered by Kwamis. It was all over the news a few months ago, remember? B was pissed about it because it was going on for years in Paris, and the JL didn’t know about it.”
“Yeah, I remember now. Ladybug and Chat Noir dropped off the map afterward, and the Parisian government didn’t share a lot of information about them either,” Duke said.
“If that’s the case, then why is Mister Plagg here?” Alfred asked.
“I told you I need to talk to Bruce Wayne!” Plagg shouted in annoyance, both at being ignored and at how long it was taking to talk to Bruce.
“We heard you before, but what makes you think Bruce Wayne is Batman?” Tim asked.
“Harley Quinn told me. Now let me talk to Bruce Wayne before I sink Gotham into the ocean just like I did with Atlantis!” Plagg’s voice rose into a shout as he spoke, and he let a bit of his destructive energy surround him.
The Bat Family trio flinched back. There was a lot of information to unpack in those two sentences. The first was the name of a person who vanished 16 years ago, but a name that never quite left the local zeitgeist of Gotham. Plenty of people theorized what happened to Harley Quinn, Joker’s former partner. Some thought Joker had killed her and hidden her body somewhere no one would ever find it; others thought they broke up and she left Gotham; a few thought she flipped on Joker and was in witness protection, or Batman's equivalent of it. The second thing was that apparently the little black flying cat was responsible for the sinking of Atlantis and was threatening to do the same to Gotham. With how little the Bat Family knew about miraculouses and the Kwamis, they weren’t sure if he was bluffing or not.
Duke, Tim, and Alfred all looked at each other, silently discussing how they wanted to proceed.
Finally, after a couple of moments, Alfred lowered his shotgun and said, “Master Bruce isn’t currently here. He is out doing his usual nighttime activities.”
“Then call him and get him here. I need to talk to him, and I’ve wasted enough time already,” Plagg replied.
“Why? What’s going on that Harley Quinn would send you to B? How does Harley even know you?” Tim asked.
“Harley is Ladybug’s mother, and she is dying,” Plagg explained.
The trio’s eyes widened at the revelation that Harley Quinn was the mother of one of the heroes of Paris.
“Is Harley or Ladybug the one dying?” Tim asked for clarification, since Plagg’s wording was a bit ambiguous.
Plagg paused for a fraction of a second, about to say “Harley” before stopping himself. He knew the history between Harley and the Bat Family was hostile. He was worried they might not be willing to help if it was for Harley, even with his threat to destroy Gotham, which was a bluff. However, Ladybug, while Harley’s daughter, was one of the heroes who saved Paris and hasn’t had any interactions with the Bat Family. So, the Bat Family might be more willing to help her instead of her mother.
“Ladybug is dying,” Plagg lied.
Tim sighed exhaustedly, not from lack of sleep for once. “I’ll call B.”
He then turned and went down to the Batcave.
“Can I get you something to eat or drink while we wait for Master Bruce’s arrival?” Alfred asked.
Twenty minutes later, Plagg was at one end of the table in the dining room of Wayne Manor. He was sitting on the table with his ring and a plate of assorted cheeses; they didn’t have camembert. Surrounding him were Bruce, Selina, Damian, Cassandra, and Stephanie in their hero outfits, with their respective cowls down, and Tim, Duke, and Alfred in their civilian attire. Dick and Barbara weren’t in attendance since they were in Blüdhaven, and Jason was excluded from the gathering since Harley Quinn was involved and the rest of the family wasn’t sure how he would react.
“I’m here. You said you needed to talk to me because you were sent by Harley Quinn, who is the mother of Ladybug, one of the heroes of Paris who defeated Shadow Moth about three months ago. Also, Ladybug is dying,” Bruce summarized. “That’s not a lot of details, so why don’t you give me the full picture?”
Plagg ate a piece of cheese to calm his nerves before speaking. “Shortly after, Ladybug and Chat Noir beat Shadow Moth, Harley was diagnosed with terminal cancer.”
Selina gasped softly. Out of everyone in the Bat Family, Selina was the only one who was on good terms with Harley before her disappearance. She still considered Harley a friend even after all these years. To have the first time in a decade and a half of hearing anything about her friend be that she is dying from cancer was quite a shock.
“She was only given a few months, but that was a few months ago. She didn’t have much time left, so she sent me here to get you. She wants you to look after her daughter,” Plagg explained.
The entire Bat Family stared at Plagg as he had suddenly grown a second head. Harley Quinn, the ex-partner of Bruce’s archnemesis and dropped off the face of the earth 16 years ago, suddenly surfaced again because she was dying and sent a god of destruction to ask him to look after her daughter.
To Bruce’s credit, he was the first to recover, and did so after only a second.
“Okay,” Bruce slowly said, giving himself extra time to gather his thoughts. “You told Tim, Duke, and Alfred that her daughter, Ladybug, was the one dying, not Harley.”
“I lied,” Plagg admitted guiltily. “I was worried that they wouldn’t let me talk to you if they thought Harley was the one dying. I know her history with you and your family isn’t great.”
“That’s an understatement,” Tim muttered.
“You threatened to sink Gotham into the ocean,” Bruce retorted with an unamused look.
“Like I said, I needed to talk to you. I wasn’t actually going to do it,” Plagg replied.
“How can we trust you? You already lied to us,” Bruce asked.
Plagg grabbed his miraculous and tossed it across the table. It bounced a couple of times and rolled a bit before coming to a stop in front of Bruce.
“That’s my miraculous. If you put it on, I’ll have to follow all your commands. That includes not being able to lie to you,” Plagg said.
Bruce looked down at the cat miraculous in distaste. It wasn’t a secret that Batman wasn’t a particular fan of magic, and the thought of putting on a magic ring that gave him control of the conceptual god of destruction wasn’t a pleasant idea to him, even if he knew that simply wearing the miraculous for a few minutes wouldn’t have any negative effects.
After Bruce spent a couple of seconds just looking at the ring, Selina rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll put it on you, scaredy-bat.”
She snatched the cat miraculous off the table, and before anyone could protest, she slipped it onto her right ring finger. The cat miraculous transformed into a simple black ring with a neon-green line running along the center.
“Not bad,” Selina said, examining the cat miraculous in its camouflaged mode. “So, you can’t lie to us now, right?”
“So long as you give the order,” Plagg replied.
“Okay, no more lying to us, and that’s an order,” Selina said casually.
“Done.”
Selina gestured for Bruce to continue his line of questions.
“Where is Harley now?” Bruce asked.
“Hospital Paris Saint-Joseph in Paris, France, room 324,” Plagg answered.
“I assume that she isn’t fit for travel since you are here instead of her,” Bruce asked, to which Plagg nodded.
“How is Harley doing? Er, how much time does she have left?” Selina asked tentatively.
“A day. If she’s not already…” Plagg trailed off somberly.
A heavy silence blanketed the room. Harley may not have been a friend to most of the people in the room, but she was still a friend to one of them, as well as being a mother about to leave behind a likely orphaned daughter.
“What’s her daughter’s name?” Selina asked, breaking the silence.
“I can’t tell you that,” Plagg replied, then quickly added, “It’s part of the magic of the miraculous. We, Kwami, are physically not able to share the name of miraculous holders with other holders if they don’t already know the identity of the other holder. If I try to say–”
Plagg hiccuped some pink bubbles out of his mouth.
“‘s name, that happens.”
“Well, can you tell us the alias Harley is using? I doubt she is using Harley Quinn or Harleen Quinzel, but we should be able to find her daughter’s name through government records,” Tim asked.
“Harley Moreau,” Plagg answered.
Tim pulled out a laptop and started typing.
“Question,” Damian said, drawing everyone's attention, “If Quinn was so determined to get Father to look after her daughter, why did she not simply tell her daughter to show up here after her death rather than send you? It would be harder for Father to say no if her daughter were already physically here, especially with his proclivity to adopt orphans.”
“I think it was to get me away from her daughter, and into trusted hands that could keep me away from her,” Plagg answered.
Plagg’s answer raised more than a few eyebrows for the Bat Family.
“Why would Harley want to keep you away from her daughter?” Bruce asked.
“I don’t know how much you know about the miraculous, but when someone has both my miraculous and the ladybug miraculous, they can make any wish their heart desires. However, balance must be maintained in the universe. If Ladybug made the wish to save her mother, then someone else would have to take her place, likely Ladybug herself. So, Harley sent me here to stop her daughter from making the wish and to get you to look after her daughter,” Plagg answered.
“Wait, how did Ladybug get your miraculous? Chat Noir is your holder, isn’t he?” Bruce asked.
“After the defeat of Shadow Moth, my previous holder needed a break, so he gave my miraculous to Ladybug, who is also the current Guardian of the Miraculous box that houses the miraculouses not in use,” Plagg explained.
“Okay, so your previous holder took a break, but couldn’t he still look after his Ladybug? She was his partner, right? Or is he a minor like her, assuming her daughter was born after or around the time Harley left Gotham?” Duke asked.
“I don’t want to go into detail because I do want to protect my previous holder’s identity as much as possible, but he cannot look after Harley’s daughter. He also doesn’t know Ladybug’s real identity. They kept their real identities secret from one another in case something went wrong while fighting Shadow Moth. He did reveal his identity to her when he gave her my miraculous, but she didn’t reveal hers for safety reasons since she is the Guardian now,” Plagg replied.
“Alright, but isn’t there anyone else who could look after Harley’s daughter?” Bruce asked.
Plagg shrugged. “I was told to get you; no one else was mentioned.”
Bruce scowled. It felt like he was being manipulated into looking after Harley’s daughter. Selina put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a silent pleading look. Bruce sighed.
“Fine, I won’t make any promises on looking after Harley’s daughter, but I should at least go check to make sure it really is Harley Quinn that you are talking about, and if her daughter really is Ladybug and the Guardian of the Miraculouses. Then that is a teenage girl with the powers of conceptual gods in an emotionally distressed state. She should at least be checked in on.”
“Are you sure, Father? This could all be an elaborate trap,” Damian said.
“It’s not a trap,” Plagg snapped.
“Regardless of whether it’s a trap or not, I should still go for all the reasons I just said. Besides, I could use more information on what exactly happened in Paris and on miraculouses since the Parisian government wasn’t very forthcoming before,” Bruce replied.
Bruce looked around the room for anyone else wanting to object. After a few seconds of no one objecting, he continued.
“Alright, Selina and I will go to Paris. Tim, you find me everything you can about Harley’s time in Paris. Cass, Damian, and Steph, you three will go back out on patrol tonight. Duke and Alfred will provide technical support. Plagg, we’re going to leave you and your miraculous here. Harley sent you here to keep you away from her daughter for the time being, and taking you back with us will be counterproductive to that.”
“Okay,” Plagg deflated, not liking being left behind in Gotham, but understanding why and not really being able to argue against it.
“What about Dick, Babs, and Jason? Should we let them know what’s going on?” Steph asked.
“Not yet. Let’s get things more sorted out before we involve them. There’s not much for them to do at the moment anyway,” Bruce replied.
“Alright, but when Jason finds out about this, if he explodes. I’m not taking any blame,” Steph replied, holding her hands up in an “I’m not involved” manner.
“Fine, whatever,” Bruce said, standing. He looked at his wife. “We’ll take the Batjet.”
Selina nodded and slipped the cat miraculous off her finger. She slid it across the table back to Plagg. “Here’s your ring back, kitten.”
“Thanks,” Plagg replied.
Everyone but Alfred, Tim, and Plagg headed down to the Batcave to get ready for their respective tasks. Alfred went into the kitchen to make everyone a quick snack before they left, and Tim stayed at the dining table researching Harley’s time in Paris while Plagg watched.