Chapter Text
A few months later, Kon was at a Justice League meeting when his phone went off. It was from a weird number, to his personal number. He hesitated to answer it, but decided after a moment that the meeting was boring enough that he could use it as an excuse to get out of there.
“Hello?” he answered as he headed for the door.
“Superboy, we need help. Now.”
“Chat Noir?” He had to catch himself from saying Adrien.
“Please. AAAH.” There was static and a few crashing sounds and a grunt of pain. He could hear the faint yell of “Trigon!” as if Chat was no longer near his phone – his weapon.
“CHAT!” he yelled into the phone, but there was no further reply.
“Did he just say ‘Trigon’?” Superman questioned.
Kon’s eyes searched for the one person they needed. “Raven – Your father is attacking in Paris. Right now.”
“What would he want in Paris?” Raven mused as she got up to join him on his now brisk walk to the zeta tubes.
“Likely the miraculous,” Red Robin responded for him.
“We’re coming too.”
Kon looked at the mass of heroes that were following him and Raven. All of Young Justice was filing out. Bart blurred ahead of him to start up the zeta tube commands. Beast Boy followed behind his girlfriend Raven. Wonder Woman joined her protégé. Jessica Cruz activated her Green Lantern power. Jon jumped up but Clark shoved him back into his chair.
“You stay.”
Instead, Clark joined the throng of heroes coming to Chat’s call. “We’ll keep them safe.” He reassured him. He put a hand on Kon’s shoulder.
He never looked back again to see who else followed. His mind was entirely on his family.
It wasn’t hard to find the battle. Areas of the city were demolished. He flew as fast as he dared, knowing he was leading the charge. He paused as he saw an orange and white body leaning up against the remains of a wall.
“Rena!” he flew down to her.
“I’ll- be fine.” She was clutching her side, clearly bleeding out. “Ladybug needs you more. Go.” Her head fell back to rest against the wall. He couldn’t help her… but Ladybug’s powers could.
He left her, feeling guilty for leaving one of his friends to die alone.
“You’re not getting our powers!” Chat’s voice echoed out.
Kon flew up to see Chat Noir braced protectively in front of Ladybug, who was lying on the ground. His staff was whizzing around in a circle to create a shield, blocking a blast of power from the demon Trigon.
From behind him, he heard Raven call out for and focus her powers, “Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”
“Rachel!” Trigon called out to his daughter.
Kon couldn’t have been less interested in the fight. Chat had dropped to his knees at the appearance of the help.
“Get her out of here,” Chat Noir ordered. “He can’t get the earrings.” He looked down to the lucky charm lying on the ground. It was a Super symbol. It was fading. “And get a new lucky charm! We need it. Now!”
Chat stumbled back to his feet and called on the power of a cataclysm and shot it at Trigon with a flick of his fingers. It didn’t hit, but it did force him to dodge, and went straight into the path of a Green Lantern giant mallet, which whacked him straight to Superman, who punched him as hard as he could. Raven followed it up with one of her astral attacks.
Kon took the chance to take Ladybug out of the way. He saw Impulse zipping around, clearing civilians. Red Robin was perched on a broken wall, examining the fight, clearly looking for any chance to give them an opening. Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl were trying to wrangle him with their lassos.
Kon found a secluded area far enough away that they wouldn’t be caught up in any stray attacks.
He laid her down, not understanding what Chat had ordered him to do. How was he supposed to get a new lucky charm? He was far better being the muscle.
He was stopped from trying to figure out what to do when Tikki suddenly appeared and Marinette transformed back into herself - her very broken self.
She kissed Marinette’s head. Tikki was crying. He didn’t think the little bug could. She was always so chipper.
“Conner, you need to help.”
He was trying to! “What can I do?” he asked.
“Take the earrings,” Tikki ordered. She dove into Marinette’s purse and grabbed a cookie, shoving it into her mouth whole. The second she had finished swallowing, she continued, “Transform, call on Lucky Charm and take it to Chat. When the fight is over, you will call out for the ‘miraculous ladybug’ cure. It will bring her back.”
Kon looked down at Marinette. He’d been so stressed he… he hadn’t paid attention. Marinette’s shallow breaths had stopped.
She was… gone. No. That wasn’t right.
“Focus, Conner.”
He heard the bug, but it didn’t register.
He stared at her in horror before tears streamed down his cheeks and he screamed in anguish, dropping to his knees. He grabbed her still body and searched for any hope that Tikki was wrong. There was nothing.
No. She wasn’t gone. He could bring her back, just the way Ladybug brought Chat Noir back dozens of times before.
Tim was screaming in his ear that they needed him. Tikki was screaming at him to move. Screams from in the field echoed in the destruction.
He was pretty sure he was still screaming too.
Tikki finally smacked him across the face, and he was shocked that he could be hurt by the little thing. It did snap him out of it enough to realise – he had a job to do. He pulled out the earrings he had in already - he couldn’t pierce his ears without a special needle, one that he didn’t have here now – and put them in his pocket, slipping the Ladybug earrings in instead.
“Tikki, spots on.” His normal outfit had opposing colours of spots on it. He didn’t bother to look beyond that.
He flew up and back to Chat Noir.
“She’s-“ Chat tried to confirm.
Kon shook his head no. “Didn’t make it.”
“Right. Do it, BugBoy.”
“Lucky Charm!” He threw his hand up to receive a gigantic spotted pen.
Red Robin jumped down from his perch and grabbed it from him. “Perfect! This is exactly what we needed!” He dismantled the pen as he ran, tossing the casing aside and just taking the ink cartridge the size of Tim’s bo staff.
He ran off before Chat or BugBoy could make sense of it. Chat shrugged. “Ladybug always said I was ‘simple’ because of my lucky charms. Join the club!”
Red Robin ran right through the battle and launched himself up in the air, breaking the ink cartridge right in Trigon’s face, blinding him. “Now!” he yelled out, and rolled out of the way.
Raven opened up a portal and Superman and Green Lantern punched him through it. She slammed the portal closed the second he was through.
Chat collapsed to the ground in pain. “So uh, you need all the pieces to use the spell.” He coughed roughly and winced. “You may want to get on that.”
Kon snapped out of it, and went to fetch the pieces Tim had discarded across the field. When he had all five, he threw them up in the air and called out, “Miraculous BugBoy!”
As the ladybug spell flittered around fixing everything, Kon dropped to his knees. He could feel the drain on his powers with every person revived and house repaired.
Chat was laughing at him. “Sucks, doesn’t it? I don’t know how she does it. I’d rather send out a hundred cata-oops.” He stopped before he said the spell that would have caused the roof where his hand was sitting to disintegrate.
When the last bug disappeared, the drain stopped, but Conner felt wiped. He would need several hours in the sun before he started to feel like himself again.
“She should be awake now. Go get your girl.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. He flew off to where he left her.
When he saw her, he slammed into the ground and clung to her, crying into her hair.
~~~~
Marinette getting injured (he refused to think of her as dead – his mind shied away from the thought) had been one of the scariest moments of his life. It had made him acutely aware of the fact that he couldn’t lose her, but he could and he had. He had so much he wanted to do with her before they died. Marinette was so strong all the time, it was hard sometimes for Kon to remember that she was still a fragile human – well, half-human, half-godly power.
He had held her tight that night, not willing to let go. His vision swam with images of her injured and broken. If it wasn’t for the miraculous magic, she would be dead.
“I’m heading out on patrol,” she told him the following night.
“Wait- Marinette.” He pulled her to him, “Before you go, I- I need to…”
He pulled out a box that he had gotten out of his drawer when he had woken up that morning. He dropped to one knee.
“I thought we had all the time in the world. After yesterday, I realised that… we don’t. I could lose you at any moment. I can’t go through that again. But it also made me realise that, while my life is amazing, that I really want to be with you. Please, be with me forever.”
He was never very good with words, but when he dared to look at her eyes, they were filled with tears, and she was nodding repeatedly – already answering the question he hadn’t actually asked yet.
“Marry me?”
“Yes!” She kissed him, and it was salty from her tears, but it was perfect.
He joined her on patrol that night. She showed her parents the ring when they dropped Emma off with them while they went out.
“It’s about time, my boy! You asked us ages ago!”
“You did?” Marinette asked at her father’s words.
“Heh, yeah.”
They pulled Marinette and Kon into a family hug.
“It’s gorgeous, sweetie. Conner, you clearly have good taste.”
Tom initiated another round of hugs.
“We are very happy for you both. Now, be safe out there,” Sabine took Emma from him.
“Cake when you get back! We are celebrating! Sabine, where did we put the champagne?” Tom began flitting around the kitchen as the two left to keep the city safe.