(A/N: Woah... Chapter 30...

Some sort of milestone? YAY! AND 15k! Thanks. So much. I mean it. 

Goal: to make everyone cry by the end of the chapter- except -Art3mis because Jellyfish is gonna be all bada** and say that it didn't make her cry.

Marinette's POV

I'd never been claustrophobic, but I'd suddenly gained a while new respect for those who were. It's a terrible feeling- the environment closing in around you, feeling trapped, suffocated.

Slowly but surely, the walls were closing in.

"Uh... anyone figured that riddle out yet?"

"No Bridge, not since the last time you asked 5 seconds ago!"

"C'mon, you're smart, you should've solved it by now!"

"Well, I'm sorry if being in this suffocating room- which, might I add, is bringing us to our impending deaths- is making it a bit hard to think!"

"Guys!" I intervened, stepping in between them. "Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere!"

They sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry Bridgette, I'm just stressed." Felix apologized.

My sister sighed. "No, it's my fault, sorry for being pushy."

"No, it's my fault really!"

"No, it's mine!"

"Fine, it's both of our faults, how does that sound?"

"Better than you pinning the blame on yourself."

They smiled at each other.

I cleared my throat, and they snapped back to attention (do I even have to say it? They were both red as a tomato). "Now that we've cleared that up, how about we actually get to trying to get out of this place? How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a great way to not die."

We all gathered around the paper again.

Just as we were really, really, not getting anywhere, a sudden jolt in the walls made us look up. I almost screamed at what had happened.

The wall had suddenly lurched towards us in one massive leap, and was now closing in again, this time a whole lot faster. As in, we had about-

"Thirty seconds." Felix breathed. Then louder: "We have thirty seconds to figure out this thing before we all die!"

"Okay ummm..." Bridgette looked around desperately. "Square! Rectangle? Triangle. Star. A line...?"

Felix and I stared.

"What?" She shrugged. "It was worth a shot!"

"Twenty seconds, guys!"

I looked around desperately as the walls pushed at us. By this point, we were all huddled against the one wall from which the spikes did not appear from, flattening our bodies in a frail attempt to buy a couple of precious seconds.

Bridgette continued to call out random shapes. Felix continued to think carefully about the riddle. Something inside me- a gut feeling, you could call it (A/N: No, I'm not calling it Spidey-sense) – was telling me that the answer was far simpler than we'd first thought.

"Ten seconds..."

I absentmindedly stretched my hand out, as if the answer would appear right in front of me. However, I withdrew it quickly when I pricked myself on one of the spikes.

I ripped off my glove and looked at my hand. The veins inside were slowly turning black- oh dang, that wasn't poison, was it? Seemed to be slow acting, as I felt fine despite the clear damage done to my hand. But I had more pressing matters than some slow poison. I quickly slipped on my glove before my friends could see. I stared at a black polka dot on my leg. The last thing I wanted to see before I was gone was something familiar, not some spikes or a blank wall.

"Five... four... three... two...-"

The tips of the spikes were only a few centimetres away from us.

(A/N: Small description of blood, I'm so sorry if I hurt anyone. Read at your comfort.)

An idea formed in my head as one of the spikes (which seemed to have elongated more than the others, but that was impossible. They'd all been the same size when we'd first seen them) punctured my skin. As small as the distance the spike had travelled into my arm was, the pain was unbearable, and I began to scream. I'm not proud of it, but I sobbed so hard.

"Marinette!" Bridgette screamed. "Marinette!"

"Just breathe Marinette, I think I've almost got the answer!" Felix yelled, though I could make out from the frustration in his tone that he hadn't.

I was so panicky, losing blood fast, I was hardly able to get the answer to the riddle out of my mouth, which was now clear and set in my mind. I had to try, though.

"Circle..." I coughed weakly. "Felix, the answer's circle."

Realisation dawned on him, but it quickly turned into anguish as the spike was driven further into my arm. I felt a bone crack and screamed, though I wasn't even sure it was a scream. I wasn't sure of anything anymore. All I knew was pain.

(A/N: My brother made me watch the Teen Titans on Netflix, though I much rather prefer the original. Anyone got the reference?)

(A/N: End of blood. I'm so sorry if I upset anyone.)

I felt my vision darkening, the world slipping around me. I heard Felix slam the parchment into the wall and scribble something. I was vaguely aware of the spikes retreating and the walls returning to their normal place. I felt Bridgette lift me from my slouched position on the wall and carry me to the centre of the room. She laid me on the floor, and cried. Cried. Openly. If I wasn't in so much pain , I'd actually have been shocked.

She gently pressed her trembling fingers to my neck, feeling the weakening pulse and coming to the same conclusion as I had done the moment the spike pierced me.

"No, Marinette, you can't leave me!"

I brushed the side of her face with my thumb. "Hey, hey! No need to cry... I'll be fine." I smiled weakly at Felix, who was also crying hard as he came rushing over, reaching into the bottom of his quiver and grabbing a first-aid kit we'd packed at the treehouse.

Bridgette stared at the first-aid kit. "I-I forgot we even had that at the treehouse. No one had ever attacked us with poison... or we'd managed to avoid it. The stuff in there..." she trailed off.

"It's p-powerful. It'll cure y-your injury, Mari. But-"

"But nothing! Use it t-to save h-her!" Bridgette cried.

"N-no.. wait," I coughed. "I want to know, what is it Felix?"

"We,,, o-only have one d-dose of it."

Bridgette closed her eyes, tears seeping out of them. I think she already knew what I was thinking.

I came to the conclusion. "Leave me."

Bridgette's eyes remained closed, tears now dripping fast and steady down her cheeks.

Felix looked astounded. "I'm sorry, what?!"

"Leave me." I whispered. "Even if you could cure me, I'd be in no condition to help, and having to carry me around is going to..." I coughed again.

My sister's eyes flew open, as if she had only just registered what I was saying. "No, we're not going to do that! Mari, save your energy, you're gonna need it. The medicine will sap your strength, so-" 

"Bridge." I paused. "Felix, can you give us a minute?"

"Of course." He walked over to the end of the room and busied himself with his arrows.

"Bridge, look at me."

She cried. The tears were now falling thick and fast onto my suit.

"You have to let me go."

"No! I refuse to!"

"Sis, you're going to need it later. We discussed the protections around the book, remember? There's going to be far more dangerous obstacles than the ones we faced. Believe me, this is the right thing to do."

Bridgette wept. "For the mission," She choked, "or for you?"

"It's best for everyone."

"But I can't just let you go! You're like the sister I never had-"

"I am your sister."

"I know! But we," she broke down again.

I shakily lifted up my hand and brushed away her tears. "We never got to spend any real time together, I know. But you need to be strong. Get the book. Take down Hawkmoth. You need to be strong, Bridgette, stronger than I ever was."

"I don't know how..."

"You'll know when you need to." I didn't hesitate to add "I love you."

She grinned. "I love you too, big sis."

I beckoned to Felix. "Can you call him over?"

She stood, wiping her tears and beckoned him to come over. She whispered to me: "Do you need a minute with him too?"

"Yes please." I rasped.

Bridgette took Felix's place with the arrows and it was now Felix who crouched beside me with tears in his eyes.

"Hey, you okay?" Then he facepalmed. "Stupid question, of course you're not. You're bleeding out to- I'm going to stop talking now. Right now. In 3..2..1. stop."

I smiled at his antics. "Hey, I have to know. You love Bridgette, don't you?"

"What?! Psh, no, why'd you even say that?"

He crumbled at my knowing look.

"Okay, fine, I do."

"First off- called it! Second- I approve. And I ship it. Oh wow, I ship you two so hard."

"Really?" He grinned.

"Really. But make a move soon, okay? If you keep saying no, it won't be long before someone else says yes."

"But I'm not saying no-"

"TV show line. Stole it while I could."

We laughed at that, though my laugh turned back into a choking-coughing kind of sound.

"Ah." I wheezed. "Don't let me do that again. I mean, I doubt I'll get another chance to, but..."

The atmosphere shifted back into serious.

Wow. I'm a real kill-joy. Went from laughing to morbid. Wonderful.

"Anyway, can you do me a favour?" I asked him.

"Yeah, of course, anything."

"When you see Adrien again... can you tell him I'm sorry? And that..."

"You love him?"

"...Yeah. Tell him I love him, please. And tell Alya, and Nino and-"

"Don't worry, I got it. Ask Bridgette out, tell Adrien you're sorry and you love him, and tell the others you love them too."

"Cool. Thank you so much. And by the way?" I paused dramatically. "Break my sister's heart and I'll break you. By haunting you to your dying day. Which may or may not involve me."

He gulped. "Of course."

I smiled then, and he relaxed.

Then he asked: "Could you do me a favour too?

"Anything. I mean- you know, my condition has limits."

Tears sprung to his eyes again.

Crud, I made him sad.

He quickly wiped them away and continued. "If you see my aunt- Adrien's mother, can you say hi to her from me? And Adrien? And Gabriel?"

"Of course I will. She's probably going to give me 'the talk' about Adrien anyway..."

"Oh yeah! She definitely will, trust me."

"Well, that's something to look forward to. Call Bridge back. Please. Quick."

He didn't need to though, as another killer jolt of pain swept over me and I cried out in agony.

(A/N:I GUESS SPOILERS AHEAD FOR JATP-
Guess who's obsessed with Julie and the Phantoms? The killer jolts were sad. And they looked painful, Very painful. Oh and Unsaid Emily. FREAKING UNSAID EMILY. I CRIED. HARDER THAN I HAVE EVER DONE AT MY TV. EVERY TIME I HEAR THAT SONG I CRY. IT'S SO HEARTBREAKING. AND APPARENTLY THEY'RE PLANNING ON DOING AN UNSAID EMILY SCENE FOR REGGIE AND ALEX AND I AM DEFINITELY UNPREPEARED I BARELY HANDED UNSAID EMILY THE FIRST TIME BUT OH GOSH IT'S GOING TO BE SO TRAUMATIC... OH AND THE JATP BOOK IS COMING OUT IN 5 DAYS BUT I CAN'T WAIT I NEED IT NOWWWWW. OH MY GODS I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SAY BUT I CAN'T THIS IS MIRACULOUS NOT JATP. SO. IF YOU WANNA RANT WITH ME ON THIS INCREDIBLE SHOW THEN LET'S TALK ON MY MESSAGE BOARD OR PM OR SOMETINHG BUT FOR NOW, BACK TO THE FUTUREEE *cough* STORY. I MEAN STORY. I'm done now. I think... for now...)

Bridgette looked up, a look of agony plastered on her face and ran over to me, crouching beside Felix.

"I love you guys..." I said, beginning to cry myself.

"We love you too, Marinette." They cried, bringing it in for a hug.

I screamed again as another wave of pain shocked me, abruptly breaking the hug as I thrashed around.

"Go!" I managed to get out. "Go! You're on a time limit as it is!"

Bridgette howled as she ran out of the room, covering her ears, tears streaking her face.

Felix gently lifted me into the corner of the room as I slowly fell into unconsciousness, before running after Bridge.

The last thing I remember seeing was a figure clothed in black leather sprinting after my sister and Felix minutes after they'd disappeared. 

Adrien?

A/N: I wrote this all in one day! I'm really pleased with myself!

Though I have to say, I'm fearing for my life after writing this. I'm probably gonna have nightmares of you guys hacking through my laptop, locating me, and coming to throw me to Jupiter and take over the multiverse.

I'm a killjoy. Where do you think I get my inspiration for dark scenes like these?

Merry early Christmas! I'll see you guys tomorrow! By that I mean I'm probably just going to come online and wish you guys a good Christmas and a great end to the year! Via my message board!

I gotta go figure out how to stop listening to the Julie and the Phantoms album... BUT I'M NOT GONNA TRY REALLY HARD TO STOP-

Bye!

Word Count: 2173 words- wow I'm really getting back into writing long chapters, aren't I?

-MyCrazyFandoms