Hide And Seek

Chapter 12

Marie’s phone dinged, and she nearly swallowed one of the pins in her mouth. Readjusting it she called out to Tikki. “Hey, Tikki could you read that for me?”

“Okay!” She chirped, coming over to knock her screen, Plagg lazily floating behind her to follow his pillow. He had taken to napping with Tikki at Marie’s apartment occasionally. Since Jason didn’t need the rig in Gotham, it made sense, and nobody wanted to keep them apart really.

“It’s from Diana, she sent you the spell for Jason.”

Marie coughed, spitting the pins onto the floor to be stepped on later. She felt her hands shake a bit with nerves, she could heal him. The spell existed and she could help him feel like he could always be himself again. “C-can,” She swallowed, wiping her palms on her jeans. “Could you reef- READ it?”

That drew a high-pitched laugh from Plagg and a little giggle from Tikki. “Watch it or I’ll get the squirt bottle,” She threatened him, turning back to Tikki as he hissed at her.

“A tear from a fox, the tooth of a monkey, hair of a bee,” Tikki read aloud as Plagg curled around her to glance at her screen.

“That's pretty easy,” Marie mused, already planning how to gain the required ingredients.

Plagg cut her off, sounding oddly upset. “That's not everything.”

Marie turned back to them, noticing how Tikki had paled a bit. “Eye of a butterfly, Blood of a Ladybug.”

Marie winced because of course there was something like that. She did not feel like gouging someone's eye out, even if Hawkmoth kinda deserved it. Though, she may be able to use the cure. “Would the cure heal Gabriel if I gouged out his eye?”

Tikki nodded from where she sat with Plagg. “Yes, the cure should heal Gabriel, but-“ She paused, clearly unsure how to break some sort of news. “For the spell to work, it’s recommended to use about one and a half liters of blood.”

“Okay,” Marie replied, trying to understand what Tikki might be getting at.

“You could end up with Class III Hemorrhage, which would require a blood transfusion afterward,” Plagg explained. “If you tried to hook up the transfusion while you were collecting the blood you could contaminate it, and the spell wouldn’t work. It’s risky Bug, if you’re not careful you could die.”

“Oh,” Marie muttered, sitting down to collect her thoughts. There was no way in hell that Jason would let her go through with this, her brothers wouldn’t either. Dick and Damian might, but Dick would absolutely tell Jason, and Damian might tell Bruce. She wasn’t sure Bruce would let her, and she knew Tim wouldn’t. Damian was her best bet, but she’d rather not take that risk

“I can’t tell anyone then,” She decided, standing to pace the room. She couldn’t help but shake her hands as she walked like if she was still she might pass out like the blood was draining through her body already. “You know the others wouldn’t let me. Will you guys not tell the others about the blood? Just tell them that as the Guardian I alone can brew the potion and cast the spell over it. The instructions are fairly simple, I’ll cut my arm and measure the blood. And I’ll immediately stitch myself up, it’ll work.”

Plagg looked at her, trying to decide, Tikki nodded, understanding the risk. “My kid would be devastated if he thought for one second you could have died,” Plagg stated simply. “If I think for a minute you might pass out, I reserve the right to get you help. Understood?”

Marie smiled, moving forward to scratch under his chin. “Yeah, that makes sense. The spell will work, we’ll tell the other’s about the harmless ingredients, and the eye one.”