*Chat's POV*
All I can see is red. The red of her suit in my mind, the red of passing buildings, the red of blood trailing behind me. The red invading my vision, taking over common sense.
I wonder if she thought differently of me now. I finally got the courage to tell her I love her, and she shot me down. No, I mustn't think of Ladybug as 'her' only the enemy. Ladybug is my enemy, and I know this because that's what he told me. Hawkmoth would always have my back. I just had to get him Ladybug's Miraculous.
Then he would let me learn her identity, for her sake I would give her mine to convince her of Hawkmoth's cause. He knows the right words to get her on his- our side. Yes, she would be mine, without using Cataclysm. She would be all mine, Hawkmoth couldn't control me otherwise. No, he wasn't controlling me, just giving me orders I planned for him to give me.
My Lady would soon be under our influence.
*LB's POV*
I waited for Chat that day, early for once. I had something I wanted to tell him. That I needed to know who he really is, and he can know who I truly am. I just can't do the flirting with him unless he knows who I am and who I'm in love with.
"Bugaboo, you're already here. Great! I have something to tell you," Chat called out as he rushed toward me. He caught his breath, and I could tell he was hurried today. "Ladybug, My Lady, Bugaboo, I…" He faltered, and I cocked my head. "I love you."
I looked at his eyes, wondering if he was setting up a pun or play on words, but he was dead serious. My resolve cracked a little at a time, my heart with it. "Chaton, I'm so sorry. I was going to ask for your identity so I could not break someone underneath the mask."
His chipper face dimmed into something of despair as I continued. "Chat, I love someone and I cannot flirt with you. It feels like betrayal to him, even if he doesn't know I love him." Chat looked bleak and hopeless.
"No, it's fine," He choked out. "I never actually felt anything. Just a game," His voice was so very tight that I barely heard the end.
Abruptly, he turned and headed for the end of the building. Flying into the night away from me, the exact way he came. I watched the spot where he disappeared into the distance a long time after he was gone.
It might have been too long, now that I think about it. Long enough for him to be akumatized. Long enough for Chat Noir to become someone else, something else.
"My Lady…" Chat's voice rang out eerily behind me. I swung around and say his eyes, black as his suit. "My Lady, a nice man and I need those earrings, or at least he does. All I want is you."
I ran as fast as I could, hearing the thud-thud thud-thud of his boots, closing in on me. I threw myself off the building and swung away from Chat and into the shadows of the night. Throwing myself into the shadows of an alley, I heard Chat's voice ring out a second time, calling me.
"Bugaboo… I won't hurt you. I will hurt you, if you want to." He dragged his feet ever so slightly, giving me a place to aim.
I flung my yoyo at his legs, and he fell snarling. "So that's how you want to play it? Fine. Here I come." I got up and began to flee, leaving my yoyo behind for Chat to struggle in. Probably not my best decision.
My luck to fall when he was catching up to me. Although, I believe he threw something at my legs to stop me. I heard him whisper 'Cataclysm' and I backed up, fully knowing what that was capable of.
*Chat's POV*
As I walked into Hawkmoth's lair, I knew I had screwed up. "How dare you return without her miraculous!" Hawkmoth was screaming, but I heard nothing. No, I was in control. I would never use Cataclysm on her.
"You can have my miraculous when I get back. Maybe my true self will get to her better." I left before letting my transformation go. I started walk to where I believe Ladybug lived.
I walked up to the bakery, looking at my bleeding arm. I ripped the shirt open a bit to make it look like Chat had ripped my shirt. If only Marinette won't realize it's where she tore my arm open.
I knocked on the door to her house. Footsteps shuffled towards the door, and Marinette opened the door, looking winded for having at least ten minutes to calm down. She was also covered in flour.
"Adrien! I was expecting Alya, but would you like to come in? We are making cookies, so you're welcome to join," she motioned me in and headed back to pouring flour and other ingredients into a large mixer. "Alya should be here any minute, do you want to see if Nino is interested?"
I shook my head and looked around. Her parents weren't in sight, and Alya hadn't arrived. The perfect timing for telling Ladybug my secrets. "No, Nino has been taking dance classes- to impress Alya. He has some tonight." She murmured something about how sweet it was and I walked up behind her.
"Adrien, what are you doing? Oh my gosh, your pupils are so dark. Are you okay?" Her voice was laced with panic as buttons and levers whirred throughout her mind. Marinette began to back away, just enough for it to be effective to an untrained eye. "Your arm is covered in something too… Is that blood?" She questioned me with more fear than panic in her beautiful voice.
"Mari, I am fine. The real question is are you okay, Bugaboo?" I drawled on and she rolled onto the island counter behind her, reaching for a knife. I caught her hand in my grip and pulled her off the counter.
"Ladybug, I require your earrings. If you reject me again, I'll be forced to use Cataclysm. And I really would hate that." She slammed her forehead into my own, and regretted it. I dragged her across the room, towards the door.
"If only you had told me who you were, this would never have happened," she whispered as I threw her into the hallway. "Adrien Agreste, he's who I loved more than Chat Noir."
*LB's POV*
I scurried away from Chat as he stared me down with Cataclysm in his hand a breath away. I trembled in fear, the last time I did this was when Adrien dangled from the Eiffel Tower. Although that was a perfect illusion, the fear of a life, a soul, leaving was too much to bear.
"Chaton…" I wavered. He was looking confused, like he didn't want to kill me. His eyebrows knitted together, and he struck a garbage can in the alley. I released a breath, and he lunged at me.
"I need you, My Lady. Please just- Hawkmoth is right. Hatred fuels the soul. Why save people who hate you unless they know you are Ladybug? You don't have to hurt them, but you don't have to protect them either." I knew that was wrong. Not why he said it, that was the akuma in him, the words themselves physically hurt me.
"Chat Noir, get out of your funk. There is an akuma in you." I dodged a punch toward my gut, "What if I went out with you on a date? As ourselves, our real world personalities," I yelped as he landed a blow with his staff.
"No, my 'real world' is my persona. Chat Noir is my life, and all it ever led up to was this!" He screamed as I hooked my yoyo around his arm and ripped his sleeve open. Rushing forward, I slashed his arm with a nearby piece of metal.
He ran, realizing I would hurt him even if he didn't want to hurt me. I collected the band that kept my hair up. It had fallen off somewhere in the process of attacking my partner. I slipped into my room and detransformed.
Calling Alya, I grabbed a cookie for Tikki. She was laying on my bed, beat from what had happened. Luckily, my parents went on a date night tonight. That was one of the main reasons I was going to reveal myself to Chat tonight.
"Alya here, what's your need, Marinette? Boy troubles?" I was shuffling through my kitchen, grabbing ingredients for my homemade cookies.
"Alya, do you wanna stay the night and make cookies? I have had a rough day," I chuckled at the words. It was a lot more than rough. Hell, my partner was akumatized and keeps trying to attack me.
"Sure thing, I'll be over in about half an hour." She hung up and I got everything ready, spilling flour on myself. I forgot the bag opened easily.
Fifteen minutes later I heard a knock on the door. I was surprised because it took over twenty minutes to get to my house.
*Adrien's POV*
I dragged her down the hallway, her kicking against my hold and screaming against my hand. Plagg flew out from my jacket urging me to stop, mentioning how Adrien was the one she rejected me for.
"Plagg, don't you understand? She is the reason all of this is happening! I don't care if that is why she won't- wouldn't-love me. Adrien is my fake persona, Chat Noir is my real life," I shouted at him before I did the last thing he wanted. "Claws out."
Grabbing Marinette with my newly donned claws, I finished dragging her down the hallway. We hit the stairs to ground level, and I saw Alya staring at us in horror.
"Alya, run! Chat Noir is an akuma, please!" I recovered her mouth, watching Alya decide to help Marinette or follow her advice. Marinette bit my arm and screamed at her, "Please! I'm Ladybug! I can handle it!"
She screamed desperately and I started charging at Alya with Mari dragging behind me. She made the right decision and ran into the street and looked back as I expanded my staff and disappeared into the night.
I muffled Marinette's sounds in the night, and we found ourselves at Hawkmoth's lair. She had stopped struggling, knowing it was pointless. That surprised me, knowing Ladybug would never give up.
As we walked through the door, she just had to start struggling again. She was really pesky, and I knew she probably wouldn't be part of our cause. But, I promised Hawkmoth that I would get her here, so I did.
"I advise you to give up before this becomes a problem," Hawkmoth said calmly, walking toward us. "My dear Chat doesn't want you dead, but I assure you that I have no problems with that."
My skin went cold. No, I am in control. No, she won't die. She is mine, and he told me that. Hawkmoth wouldn't lie, would he? Then again, he was the person who set akumas out for something he wanted all the time. What did he want again? He did something to my memory, all of my time with Bugaboo, why did I call her that? All the memories are blurry.
I started to gradually loosen my grip on Marinette. Not enough to notice from afar, but enough so she could escape. She looked up at me during our struggle, and gave me a knowing look. I glared down at her and loosened it a bit more. Understanding, she weakly kicked me in the knee.
"Hawkmoth, I think Ladybug will fit right into our cause. She just needs some persuasion. If I may have her for an hour separately, I believe she will move right over."
"Fine, but hurry. My schedule will be tough to work with that hour missing. I have things to do," he said with a sharp, cutting tone. He walked off and I found a room. For effect, I threw her in.
Closing the door, I asked the questions I needed. "Is Hawkmoth bad? Why did I call you those nicknames? Did I love you? I can't remember…" She nodded silently for a minute, before giving me the answers.
"Yes, Hawkmoth is bad. He uses akumas to give innocents superpowers and use them for bad things. Yes, you loved me. That's why you had those nicknames. I rejected you for Adrien Agreste and you ran off without telling me your identity. Which caused you to be akumatized by Hawkmoth,' She was so calm in the setting, despite having been thrown around by me five minutes ago.
"Thank you. Now I have a request. To play Hawkmoth, I need you to join the cause. If we're lucky, he won't take your miraculous," The memories were coming back after her refresher. "Then, we can pretend until the right moment, and take him down."
"As a team," She confirmed. "Shit, I don't have Tikki. Do you think that if I called it from here, that it would work? No other time to try. Tikki, spots on!"
Somewhere on the way from the bakery to Hawkmoth's lair, Tikki woke up phasing through buildings and flying through the city. She knew exactly what Marinette did, but never thought she would have to.
She phased through the wall and hit Marinette in the back. Moaning, she transformed Marinette.
*LB's POV*
I looked at Chat once more, to make sure he wouldn't attack me again. He nodded grimly, and we walked out of the room. He knew the way enough to get us to Hawkmoth's… office. He sat there, with his kwami snacking next to him.
"Father?" Chat said weakly, staring at Gabriel Agreste in his work office. "But this leads directly to, oh." His kwami stared at us bleakly, seeming doomed.
"What do you mean, Chat Noir? I am your father? Impossible. My son, Adrien, is quiet and nothing like you," he scoffed at Adrien under the mask.
"Chaton, don't do anything rash. Please, just tell him what I decided," I urged him not to make his father regret everything, let alone him. We couldn't take down his father. Don't they love each other?
"No, you don't understand. He made my life a living hell. Keeping me on such a strict diet, working out every day, learning at least three different languages by the time I was ten, then learning more, shutting me out the second after my mom disappeared. Anything he did, was in his best interest was in my worst. Make my son a model for more money, I bet he'll love it so much. At least you aren't forced to cook and sign everything you make," Chat's voice was bitter. Too bitter for him to ever have to feel.
"Okay, but think. Let's go home, Chat. We can do this later." I assured him, and led toward the way we left.
"Miss Marinette, you forget I know your name, and I assume Adrien is hiding under that mask. I can and will find you when I'm ready," Gabriel spoke up, then he stood up, collected his things, and left us in his office.
I walked numbly toward from where we came, and Adrien followed me with Plagg in his arms. I let Tikki out and carried her out. Adrien and I stood in front of the bakery soon after. I stared at the dark, looming door.
The light was on in all the rooms of our apartment. I assumed Alya waited for my parents to get home and told them everything. Which was unfortunate, since she probably told them my biggest secret.
"I think our friends and family needs our other halves in the picture now," I spoke quietly, going up the stairs and knocking on the door. All Adrien did was nod.
The door opened, filling the hall with light. My mom squeaked my name and enveloped me in a giant hug, dad joining at some point. I shuffled in and I motioned for Adrien to sit on the couch with me.
Alya was there, hugging me during the journey to the middle of the couch. Weakly, my voice started telling the incident of finding the earrings in my bag to today, vaguely sweeping all the battles into one big battle. Adrien helped me give the events of today, and told everyone how he was Chat and how the akuma of rejection took over him.
Adrien slept on the couch, and I slept on the reclining chair next to him. After all this, we needed each other.
And it wasn't even over yet.