Chapter Text
They were relaxing, watching a movie while Emma was spending the day with her grandparents – a rare chance for them to just be alone together unrelated to hero duties – when a portal opened up in their living room to reveal Bunnyx.
“It’s time, Marinette. Destiny calls.”
Marinette looked confused for one whole heartbeat before her look turned serious. “Time already? Which one.”
Conner was completely lost. “What’s going on?”
He wasn’t sure if the bunny girl was answering his question or Marinette’s. Probably Marinette’s.
“The twin queens from the Inner Dimension, Pain and Tears, entered our dimension this morning. They are already taking over the planet of Porzul. If they reach Earth, it will be destroyed in the resistance.”
Marinette jumped up. “Whole team?” she asked.
“Yes – everyone Earth can spare.”
“I’ll make a call,” Conner offered.
Conner went to get changed. There was no way he was letting Marinette and her team were go in alone. Before they left, they went to see her parents and kiss Emma goodbye. It would be several days before they could return.
In the end, the United Heroez and Justice League sent around half of their members, and Miraculous Team went in with almost all of their holders. Ryuuko was absent, which everyone was thankful for, but Chat Noir had her miraculous fused with his own.
It took them two days to get there by ship. It was a restless period, but was good for strategizing and getting to know all of the new dynamics.
Bunnyx had made one thing very clear to them all on the way: Ladybug was in charge of this fight. Everyone was to defer to her. A couple of members had looked put out by this suggestion. Bunnyx had whispered in their ears as Kon tried very hard to ignore the omens of deaths of beloved family members, destruction of their home planets, and severe loss of friends in the fight if they didn’t listen.
Porzul was a desolate wasteland when they arrived. Crystals of ice rose from the ground like spikes – some with bodies of the unfortunate still speared on them. There was an incessant heat about the place, and it was painfully bright considering how far away the sun was. Despite this, the crystals never melted.
It was completely silent with the only exceptions being the breathing and heartbeats of the team. It unnerved everyone, but those with super hearing most of all. No planet should be this quiet.
There was almost no warning when the attacks began. More crystals shot up from the ground, and impaled one of the United Heroez. Everyone else managed to dodge, but there were injuries as they were battered around. They were just beginning to get their feet under them again when a ray of pure sunlight and heat swept through the field and sliced everything in it’s path – crystals and people alike.
Superboy had dodged, pushing Ladybug down with him.
The twins appeared, both a sickly grey pallor. One had a ball of bright yellow energy, the other a ball of icy blue. Ladybug started barking orders without even waiting for them to do some speech about why they were doing all of this. They were demons, like Trigon, and Superboy knew instantly that they were in for a rough fight.
He blocked a piece of ice that was shooting up, aiming for Ladybug, before surging forward with the others to engage in combat. The sunbeams weren’t the worst thing that he had encountered. Unlike everyone else, he was moderately immune to them. They stung, leaving welts and burning his jacket off, but he was able to continue on despite the burns. It was clearly solar based, but not the kind of solar energy that he really needed. It was a bit too much.
He blocked an attack for Chat Noir, who was trading blows with Tears and her ice magic with one of the three Green Lanterns who had come trying to sneak in attacks when they could. Carapace had set up shields around the magic users that needed to concentrate, and he was happy to see that Ladybug was in that bubble. She usually was a lot more hands on. Their comms buzzed with her orders and reports back, particularly when some of the shards began to take a humanoid form and started to fight back as well. It became mayhem.
Conner saw an opening with Pain. He was the best one to take her on with his partial immunity to her powers, so he surged forward with a burst of speed and landed a punch on her, sending her backwards. Her eyes burned red, flames actually coming out of them as she rose into the air. She let out a scream, like she was in pain, and a giant jet of red solar energy blasted from her mouth. He braced himself for the impact, knowing that this one would definitely sting.
Instead, it ripped through his arm and his stomach, and sent him flying into a mountain of crystals. Before he passed out, he could hear Marinette screaming at him, but he couldn’t quite make out the words.
The last thing he saw before he passed out, was Ladybug hovering over him, trying to save his life. It was useless. He had a giant hole in him.
He had been so stupid.
He couldn’t even tell her he loved her before it all went black.
Or was it pink? Red? There was a lot of red.
He opened his eyes. It wasn’t nearly as bright as a few moments ago, and the world around him was… different.
Buildings were everywhere. He was clearly in some sort of town. The buildings were round, like bubbles, and strange beings – like the ones he had seen impaled – were looking around, just as confused as he was.
At least, he was. Until he saw Ladybug hovering over him, her eyes flaming with anger.
He got up, surprised he even could. His arm was whole again, as was his stomach.
Miraculous cure.
She had won.
“You. STUPID. FOOL!” she screamed at him, pounding on his chest with every word. Tears were streaming down her face. The rest of the heroes were looking at him with a mixture of pity and understanding.
She’d lost him and she was scared. He only winced a couple of times as she hit his chest, the tears blinding her. “How could you DO that to me? To Emma?!”
To be honest, he hadn’t thought about much at all. He had thought himself invincible for so long. It was so rare that he was injured at all, that he just naturally assumed that he would be fine this time too. It was reckless. He hadn’t thought about additional attacks. He hadn’t thought about what would happen to Marinette or Emma if he had lost – just that he protect them.
“Sorry, Marinette. I thought I could handle it.” He wrapped his arms around her and she collapsed into them, but still pitifully hit his chest. The power behind it was gone and he hugged her a bit tighter. “No more stupid risks. Okay? I promise.”
“You do and I’ll kill you myself,” she wailed.
He knew that no matter what he promised, that he would do it again for her if it meant that she went home to Emma. Unfortunately, he said that out loud.
Marinette was mad at him for a week.
~~~~
Marinette still couldn’t believe this was happening. Two years ago, she would have told you that you were insane if you said she would have gone on a hunt for her baby daddy across the world and would be marrying him.
But as she walked down the aisle, dressed in her mother’s old red qipao that she had modified and embellished to make it more her own, and all eyes were on her, her eyes were solely on the man at the end of the aisle. He had a dazed smile on his face.
Tim was beside Conner, smirking at his friend. Her father was on her left side, her mother on the right, leading her down to her future.
Emma had thrown petals across the aisle for her, with the help of Alya to keep her on task. They were already there, waiting for her too, and as adorable as Emma looked, right now, her eyes could only focus on one person.
She reached the end and kissed each of her parents as they handed her off to Conner. Tim nudged Conner to take her hand, and Conner snapped out of it, to the laughter of many in attendance.
Years later, she would never remember the words she said, or most of the night, really. What she did remember, was staring at Conner and thinking that she was the luckiest woman in the world – and maybe she was that night.
~~~~
Marinette had been home with Emma all week. She had brought home some flu bug home from her playdate with some of the kids in her play group. Like everything else, Emma loved to share, and she shared this bug with Marinette.
“Do you want me to get Kelex to see if it can get you a vaccination?” Kon fussed over them.
“It’s just a little flu. Maybe after this one we can see if it can come up with a vaccine for it too?” Marinette was sweaty and pale. Emma had puked several times and had seemed to be feeling a bit better. She was resting now.
“What about a treatment?”
“If I don’t feel better by tomorrow, sure.”
Kon didn’t appear particularly appeased with her answer, but relented.
She stumbled to the cabinet to get an ibuprofen for her headache.
“I can get that for you,” he insisted, but she ignored him. She was right there. She could do it herself. “Fine, I’ll get you some water.”
It was on the top shelf, which Marinette couldn’t reach easily. She went up on her toes and grabbed it as he filled the glass, then sat down on the counter.
Kon’s grip on the glass of water slipped and the glass shattered on the floor.
“Conner!” Marinette whipped around. “Are you okay?”
“Mar-Marinette- You’re floating.” He was pointing at her feet in shock.
“So?” She looked down. She was indeed, hovering five feet off the ground without activating her miraculous powers. She was sitting on air, far above what her own powers currently gave her. Her hover ability was only good for a couple of feet, and she hadn’t needed to use it lately.
No wonder getting the pills had been so easy.
She looked at the bottle. Her mind snapped to information long forgotten.
You shouldn’t take pain killers while pregnant unless you absolutely had to, and even then, ibuprofen was not one of them. She put the bottle down. But that- It wasn’t- It was totally possible.
“Oh my kwami. I’m pregnant.”
“I’m going to be a father?!”
“You’re already a father, silly.”
“Again!”
This time, they would do it all – together.