A/N: This is absolutely NOT what I'm supposed to be working on AT ALL, but what ya gonna do...*shrugs*

I actually really don't like Chloe (as a person; as a character she's really very well-written and I love her, lol), and I really don't want her to get a redemption for reasons, but for the sake of this lil story, she obviously does get her redemption, lol.

Based on a writing prompt I found Pintrest (same as summary), and inspired by the song No More Heroes by the Aviators. (Recently discovered them on YouTube, and they have some really fantastic stuff.)

Standard Disclaimer applies. :P

Enjoy!

No More Heroes

It all started with one wish.

And now the city lay in ruins.

Love, Chloe conceded, was a powerful motivator, but at what cost to the rest of the world? Was one person worth the price of humanity? Hawkmoth had apparently thought so.

And, had he stopped after one wish, perhaps it would have been all right.

But he didn't.

And it wasn't.

Hidden away in his lair, he hadn't seen the results of that first wish to have his wife returned to him. He hadn't seen the life that was stolen in return. Because he hadn't witnessed the consequences, he wrongly assumed that the Theory of Equal Exchange was false and that he could do so much good if he kept making more wishes.

At first, the changes he made were small, and he seemed to have only the best intentions. The suicide rate plummeted to non-existent, but fatal car accidents increased. Car accidents mysteriously dropped in number, with no fatalities, but suddenly hospitals were overwhelmed with illnesses that wouldn't respond to treatment. Illnesses decreased, and natural disasters started occurring with unheard of frequency.

With each wish, the consequences that followed made the world worse instead of better. To counter the consequences of the previous wish, the following wishes steadily grew larger and more severe. But, then, so did the resulting consequences to match the wish.

And so the world steadily fell apart as it tried to keep itself in balance.

She had known instantly what was going on, of course, but she couldn't stop it all the same.

No one could.

Most thought Hawkmoth was behind it all, but there was no proof. And, people would say, if he was behind it, why was he not taking credit for it? The Hawkmoth they knew definitely would have, they were sure. But, even if he was, they said, only Ladybug and Chat Noir could hope to stop him, and no one knew where the superheroes had gone.

After a year, these strange and sudden changes stopped, and the world looked on, pondering what it had witnessed. The media speculated, but the only thing anyone knew for certain was that they would never know what had been the cause of these events or why they had mysteriously stopped. Most would still say that Hawkmoth had caused it, but if he had, why had he stopped? No one could answer that.

Chloe knew. She could figure that out for herself, just like she had figured out what was happening in the first place. Hawkmoth had finally realized he couldn't fix the problems he had created by simply making more wishes. Hawkmoth himself, as far as she could tell, had simply disappeared after coming to that realization, becoming one more point of speculation for the general public.

And now, fifteen years later, they still hadn't recovered.

Fifteen years later and the world still wondered where Ladybug and Chat Noir had gone. One day they had been spotted above the streets of Paris, and the next, when everything started falling apart, they were nowhere to be found. Had they deserted Paris and thus the world? Had they been corrupted by an akuma themselves? Perhaps they had even willingly joined Hawkmoth? The public still loved to speculate.

But none of them had it right.

No one in Paris knew what had happened that night.

"They weren't like that, you know," Chloe interrupted softly, and her companion instantly fell silent.

"You knew them? Personally? Because you would've had to in order to make that assumption."

"I knew them," she murmured, staring out over the Seine. "At least, I thought I did once. A long time ago."

"What were they like?" All theories forgotten, her friend sounded curious now.

Some crumpled copy of a smile crossed her face as she recalled the day she truly met them for the first time - the day she rightfully became Queen Bee and finally saw the world as they did. "They were going to change the world." But around them, the world had burned.

Her hand instinctively clenched around the comb in her jacket pocket. Why she still carried it with her not even she understood - perhaps as a reminder of her own guilt and failure. Could she have done something more that day to change the outcome? She still wondered, and she knew she would never have her answer. And yet… if she had been stronger, faster, smarter, braver…

Maybe they would still be alive.

Nino and Alya and Adrien.

And Marinette. What a shock that had been to find out her biggest enemy had also been her biggest hero.

But she hadn't done enough, and now they were gone, and she alone was left behind.

She didn't understand why Hawkmoth had left her alive and why he hadn't taken her Miraculous. Maybe he hadn't realized? Maybe he didn't care. Maybe he'd thought she wasn't enough of a threat on her own; he would have been right, after all. Maybe he'd wanted the world to know what would happen to anyone who tried to stop him. If that was the case, at least she hadn't given him that satisfaction. She'd never told a soul - not even Sabrina.

"So what do you think happened then, Chloe? Since you're so sure they all had hearts of gold."

Chloe jerked back to the present and, without turning her gaze from the river, gave a humorless chuckle. "I don't think; I know."

"What?" She could hear the surprise in the other girl's voice. "How?"

She sighed. Did it really matter anymore? She had long-since renounced her powers, and chances were good no one would believe her anyway. Not meeting her friend's gaze, she whispered, "Because I was there. I was there when everything fell apart. I was there, and I couldn't do anything to stop Hawkmoth."

The sound of the river running slowly by was the only thing to be heard now. Chloe could only imagine the expression on the other girl's face. She pressed on anyway.

"I am - was - the holder of the Bee. The five of us planned for weeks, but in the end it didn't matter. We were out-matched from the start. One by one, they fell. I was knocked unconscious, and when I came around, there they were, without their transformations, their Miraculous taken away. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I could have done something to save them."

"Then… Hawkmoth…"

"Yes. Hawkmoth killed them." She swallowed around the lump in her throat, barely keeping her tears in check. "The heroes of Paris are gone, and they won't ever be coming back. This is the world we allowed to be created."

"But surely… I mean, you were a hero, too. You could - ."

"No," Chloe interrupted, shaking her head. "I don't deserve to be called that. There's nothing I can do alone, and, as far as I know, the Bee is the only Miraculous Hawkmoth doesn't have. There were many others, but the Guardian, too, is dead, and his box is gone; I'm sure that was Hawkmoth's doing as well. Without the others, there's nothing anyone can do against him. Even if we had the rest, I don't think we could win. And, even if we did somehow manage to win, there's still no way to fix the damage." She stood from the bank and turned back to the crumbling city. "It's over."

"So you're just giving up? When you could still make a difference?"

She didn't turn around. "I can't make a difference. Not alone. Not when I couldn't do anything even with the others beside me. Like I said, the heroes are no more."

"But they aren't gone! Not all of them! You are still here!"

Chloe shook her head, a joyless smile on her lips. "You're wrong. Queen Bee died the same day as Rena Rouge and Carapace and Chat Noir and Ladybug. She's not here anymore. All that's left is an empty shell of what used to be, and an empty shell isn't worth much." She turned her head slightly to meet her friend's gaze. She had known the heroes once, it was true; but she didn't know them anymore. "This is the world now. This is all there is.

"And no one is coming to save us."