A/N: yes, I skipped day 24. It's the only one I skip, don't worry. Also, this prompt is kinda weird and I don't really know what I was doing? But meh.
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"I'm being sent out for another mission." Jason tells her, and Marinette gives him a reassuring smile.
"That's alright. You have your duties to our kingdom. I have faith in you, Jason. You always come back." She presses a light kiss to the prince's cheek.
Jason leaves the day after with the rest of his squad, off to stop the Joker, the dictator of the neighboring kingdom, from terrorizing one of the border villages. Marinette gives him one last goodbye kiss before he swims off.
The next week passes by without much fanfare. Even though she is now engaged to the second prince, Marinette still insists on working with the other seamstresses, like she did before she met Jason. They still treat her like a fellow worker, not the royalty everyone else sees her as.
Eight days after they leave, Marinette starts to worry. Jason said that the mission would take a week at most, but there has been no word from him, or the troops.
Nine days after they leave, the King starts to get worried too. The crown prince, Richard, though he insists they call him Dick, is also visibly agitated. Marinette just prays to Poseidon that he will come back in one piece.
No such luck, obviously. On the tenth day, Jason's troops return, battered and bloody, but he is nowhere in sight.
"Where is the Prince?" The King demands. "Where is Jason?"
General Diana Prince's face is solemn. "I am sorry, my King. Prince Jason was captured by the Joker himself. There was an explosion. He did not make it."
I have faith in you, Jason. You always come back.
Why didn't you come back?
She does the one thing most mers would never dare to do: visit the sea witch.
Hawkmoth grins sinisterly as she enters his lair. "A soul, so weighed down by loss. How can I help you, my dear?"
Marinette stands tall under his piercing gaze. "I want my lover back."
The sea witch's eyes roam over her, until they rest on her ears. Hawkmoth clicks his tongue. "I can make that happen. I just need your earrings in payment."
The earrings? They were family heirlooms. Her mother told them to never take them off, but they were plain black and did not match with anything she was expected to wear as a princess. Getting rid of them would make everything easier. "You have a deal."
Hawkmoth hands her a silver ring, which she slips onto her finger, and she immediately feels the power of ancient magic flow through her veins. "This grants you one wish, little one. Use it wisely."
Marinette exhales slowly. "I wish to restore Prince Jason to full health and bring him back from the dead."
Your wish has been granted. A voice, no wait, two voices whisper in her mind. However, every wish has a consequence. You will see the consequence in due time.
How bad could the consequence be? Jason should be alive again. Whatever the consequence is, Marinette can deal with it. She takes off the ring and removes her earrings as well, handing them both to Hawkmoth.
"Thank you. I will be leaving now." Marinette turns tail and swims for the palace as fast as her fins will let her.
When she gets back, the royal family is crowded around a familiar merman with dark, unruly hair, though the white streak is new.
"Jason!" Marinette cries joyfully, and launches herself into his arms. He chuckles warmly and kisses her head.
"Hey, pixie. It's good to be back."
Suddenly, an explosion rocks the courtyard, and two mers appear from the flames. One has piercing blue eyes, hair the color of blood, and a red and black tail. The other has green eyes, midnight hair, and a tail the same shade as his hair. They speak in unison, and with a start, Marinette realizes that they are the voices she heard while wearing the ring.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng." They say monotonously. "You have abused the power of the miraculous to make a wish to restore Prince Jason Todd to life. The universe demands balance, and so Creation and Destruction will take the soul you love most in return."
The black-haired mer raises his hand, a sword pulsing with dark magic in his grasp, and he stabs Jason through the heart before any of them can react. Jason sinks to the bottom of the courtyard, instantly dead, and Marinette watches with horror etched onto every feature.
Prince Richard snarls, launching himself at the merman, but the two mers disappear before he can lay a finger on them.
Jason's corpse is staining the seawater red, and she can already see the sharks closing in, even as the King and Crown Prince mourn the loss of their son and brother. Again. All her doing.
