One Way or Another

A Ruthless Enemy, Emotional Pain and A Backup

Saturday.

Like they typically are, Saturday turned out to be a busy day.

Both Marinette and Adrien woke up bright and early. Marinette woke up early because she had to go into her boutique. Ever since she debuted her collection at Fashion Week, her store had been inundated with orders. And they were already struggling to meet the new demand.

Adrien woke up early because he had to go to his photoshoot. He hated that Marinette couldn't go with him, but she promised to meet him there after she was done at the store.

And Marinette hated that she couldn't warn Adrien about Lila being at the shoot too. But just in case she had the Butterfly Miraculous on her, they needed Adrien's reaction to be genuine.

So they went their separate ways.

When Marinette got to the store she went straight to her office, letting Sophie and Dominique run the front.

And there was so much to do. It took an hour just for her to go through and organize the paperwork for the pending orders. Already overwhelmed, she didn't even want to think about the next part; completing them.

She had to take a break. But when standing up, she felt more pain on her abdomen.

Work was good, because it distracted her. Figuring out plans was good, because it distracted her. Trying to solve riddles was good, because it distracted her.

But sometimes there weren't enough distractions.

Those were the times that Marinette hated the most. Times of silence and stillness. Times where the reality of the situation overpowered any positivity and hope that she was clinging on to.

The fact of the matter was that they were running out of time.

Well actually, she was running out of time.

Eventually they would figure out the formula. That was a given. But whether they figured it out soon enough was the unknown variable.

An enchanted sleep. That was one thing.

Even if Emilie and Annabelle fell back asleep, they could always be woken up again.

But what she was facing? That was another thing altogether.

If Marinette died, there was no going back. There was no Miraculous in the whole world that could bring people back from the dead.

There was the Rabbit Miraculous, of course, with its power of Time.

But Marinette understood.

And Bunnix understood.

The Chat Blanc situation was an exception. They had to do what they had to do, because billions of lives were on the line.

But saving just one person? Not worth the potential risks.

One person.

But no, it wasn't just one person. There were two people. Well, one and a half. There was Marinette, and there was the baby. A little boy. A little boy who had no name yet because they couldn't think of one.

Hardly one to wallow in self-pity, Marinette couldn't help but scrunch her eyes shut and cry as she started to think about him.

It wasn't fair.

There wasn't enough time. Her skin was almost completely burned through. And once that was gone, there would be an open wound left behind. Even before the cataclysm had the chance to burn through the other layers, she could die from an infection. Her skin was the only thing keeping the germs outside of her body, but once that was gone, she would have no protection.