She took a shaky breath, almost gasping. It wasn’t until she finally started that she realized she hadn’t dared to breathe.
“It’s okay, Marinette. He’s gone.” Tikki soothed her.
For now. Only for now, but she was okay.
The cat kwami simply watched after the direction where his chosen left.
“Something’s off.” Plagg whispered. He turned to the other two, looking serious. “Did you notice?”
“Notice?” Marinette asked.
“Adrien still has the ring. If this was Hawk Moth’s doing, he’d already be halfway to his goal. But the ring was still there. And not once did Adrien try calling me into it.”
“They’re being cautious as well. ” Marinette noted, now that she had a free moment to focus without fear of getting caught. “Akumas are usually flashy in some way. They want attention—causing chaos and destruction to draw us out. But this time, they don’t seem to care about Ladybug or Chat Noir at all.”
Tikki nodded solemnly. “They’ve only been focused on collecting the rest of the class. If not for you catching on, we never would have known.”
Marinette sighed. “That was…a lucky break. Real lucky.”
Although, she realized as she looked to Plagg, it may not have been entirely luck.
“So…what now?” She asked.
The kwamis looked to each other fretfully. Whatever was going on, it certainly was outside of the norm.
But of the two, Plagg at least seemed to have a bit more awareness.
She hadn’t had time to question him earlier. Things had devolved rather quickly after that. And not even because of Marinette and Plagg.
She had noticed him flying around and once he caught sight of her, he zoomed right for her with nary a care for getting caught and only concerned with his warning—
He had at least given her the warning to prepare, and none too soon as chaos erupted shortly after.
Nino had woken up and was shrugging off all concern about his sudden illness, much to Alya’s irritation as he refused to go back to the Nurse’s office to lie down.
After hearing about Nino, Lila had tried making up some ailment to get attention and served as some distraction.
Alix and Nathaniel had been discovered unconscious in the Art Room.
Mylene was having a panic attack.
Max and Juleka were trying to check on the two.
And then Markov—poor innocent naive Markov had to go and point out an “anomaly” in the status of the two unconscious classmates…
…and anomaly that matched the condition of three others already among them.
After that, absolute silence…
(How disappointing. He had hoped to make this an easy transition for them all.
…that….that wasn’t Adrien’s smile.
Adrien never smiled like that.
Not with teeth that sharp.
“You’re my friends. Won’t you join us?”
She shuddered at the memory.
She clenched her eyes shut, remembering another boy who had seemed so different and so terrifying...
Chat Blanc had nothing on this...
She forced herself to breathe.
“Plagg, you said you’ve seen this before.”
“Once.” He admitted. “There’s a reason we’ve been trying so hard to get Nooroo back, and it’s not just because Hawk Moth is an asshole. It’s because regardless of how long he’s had the Miraculous, he doesn’t know what he’s doing or all the risks...”
That was new. She’d known of the Wish that the Black Cat and Ladybug could create, and how it required a balance. But the way Plagg said it made it sound like there was something else. And what she had just witnessed from Adrien and the others only cemented that.
“The Miraculous have vulnerabilities.” Tikki explained. “Much like the animals they resemble. And for butterflies…”
She hesitated, sending a glance to Plagg before looking back up at Marinette.
“Hawk Moth has to cultivate the butterflies himself to turn them into akumas as often as he has. But until he selects one and imbues it with power, they’re all just essentially regular butterflies. With all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities that entails. And butterflies...are particularly at risk when they’re in their cocoon state. It’s why they require constant care and supervision while in the pupa stage. To protect them.”
Plagg nodded. “The only reason the akuma would be like this...Hawk Moth must have finally used a corrupted butterfly.”
“But isn’t he corrupting them himself?” Marinette asked.
Then finally, Plagg sighed.
“The best way I can explain it is through comparison. In Earth’s ecology, there is a species of wasp that lays its eggs in a butterfly’s cocoon. When the cocoon eventually hatches, it’s to reveal newborn wasps rather than a butterfly.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t happen often, but there’s always at least one sooner or later. And it’s no different with magic.”
“Hawk Moth finally got a wasp.” Tikki answered.
