The day started out like any other: The birds were singing, the sun was shining, Chloe Bourgeois was ordering some pastries from the Dupain-Chengs.
Wait a second… Chloe Bourgeois was in the Dupain-Chengs' bakery of her own free will?
Something smelled fishy (And it wasn't any of the pastries).
Marinette went downstairs and saw her dad, Tom, exchanging compliments with Chloe, a bag of pastries in her hand and a smile on both of their faces.
"Dad? Chloe? What's going on?" Marinette asked Tom.
"Good morning, Marinette!" he replied cheerfully. "I was just talking with Chloe, and she told me that I make the best pastries in the city!"
"Really?" Marinette asked, confused.
Chloe then said, "Yeah! I would've said country, except I've never actually tasted anything from outside the city. I should give some to my daddy; I bet he'd love one of your delicious Canelés! Ooh, then I'll give some to Adri-kins! Ciao!" She shook Tom's hand, then left the building.
Marinette was stunned. An actual compliment? From Chloe?!
Something was definitely wrong.
Marinette ran back upstairs to her room, where Tikki was enjoying a chocolate ball. "Tikki, something's wrong. I just saw Chloe Bourgeois downstairs, and she actually complimented my dad's baking!"
Tikki gasped, then quickly finished her treat. "Well, then, there's no time to waste! We need to figure out what's going on!"
Marinette shouted, "Tikki! Spots on!", and after a transformation sequence, she was Ladybug. She took her yo-yo and used it to swing onto a building, then ran along the roof in hot pursuit of Chloe.
Chloe got into her limo and was driven to City Hall, where Ladybug reasoned she was bringing the pastries to her dad like she'd said.
Ladybug tried to use her yo-yo to call Cat Noir, but there was no answer. "C'mon, kitty, pick up!" She mumbled to herself.
"I'm right here."
Ladybug jumped at the sound of Cat Noir right up in her ear. "Don't scare me like that!"
"What? You afraid I'm gonna pounce?"
Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Settle down, kitty."
"So, what's the synch?"
"Chloe Bourgeois is acting nice!"
Cat Noir gestured with his hand for her to keep going.
"That's it."
He did a double take. "Really? That's it?"
"I know it doesn't seem like much, but trust me. If you've known Chloe for more than a second, you'd know that this isn't what she's usually like."
"Well, you do have a fair point. But how do you know that this is something evil?"
"I can just feel it."
Cat Noir looked at her, scepticism glowing in his green eyes. He then shrugged.
Ladybug pointed at the entrance to City Hall, where Chloe was now heading towards her limo. They got up and started following it as it drove down a side road, and stopped in front of the Agreste mansion.
"You know what?" Cat Noir said rather suddenly, "I bet you're right, and just in case, I'm gonna check up on the person who lives here, in case she suddenly snaps."
Ladybug was confused, but allowed it regardless. He leapt to the window of Adrien Agreste's room, going in through an open window.
Chloe rang the doorbell, and few moments later, Adrien answered the door, much to Chloe's enthusiasm. Ladybug leapt down and hid in a tree to hear what they were saying.
"Adri-kins! So glad to see you!" She hugged Adrien, much to his apparent displeasure. Even though Ladybug saw that he was uncomfortable, she still couldn't help but feel jealous.
"Oh, hey, Chloe. What's up?"
"Oh, you know, the same old stuff."
'Lies!' Ladybug thought.
"Well, why are you here?"
"What? Can't I ever come and see my favorite fashionista?" Chloe put her arms around him.
Ladybug screamed internally.
"I just wanted to hang out and share some of these delicious pastries with you!"
" 'Tom and Sabine's Boulangerie Patisserie'? Isn't that Marinette's parents' shop? I thought you hated their foods!"
"I know, I used to, but ever since yesterday, when I was hit with that strange purple glow, I've felt a lot better!"
Ladybug gasped. This sounded like the start of a lead!
"I think I also remember you getting hit with that, too! Don't you remember?"
"I… That's strange: I can't remember anything about yesterday!"
"Really? Oh, that's too bad."
Ladybug then thought for a moment. She couldn't remember yesterday, either!
Adrien then seemed to realize that they were still standing in the entrance, with the door wide open on a hot summer's day. "Wait a second, I just realized that we're still standing in the entrance, with the door wide open on a hot summer's day. All the cold air inside is gonna escape. Please, come in."
Chloe went inside. Adrien hung back for a moment to glance down the street as though looking for someone, before he joined her inside.
"What was that about?" Ladybug asked herself. "And where's Cat Noir?"
Ladybug swung from her yo-yo, landing on the window to Adrien's room. She snuck inside and called in a hushed voice, "Cat Noir? Here, kitty, kitty!"
Suddenly, she realized that the room seemed different. Were the walls always green? And when did Adrien get that fish tank?
She then heard him outside the door saying, "Hold on, Chloe; I just need to do something in my room quick. You should talk to my dad in the meantime."
Ladybug gasped, not wanting to be seen in Adrien's room for no apparent reason. She quickly looked around, finding a hiding spot behind the fish tank.
Adrien came into the room and closed the door behind him. A voice that Ladybug had never heard before then said, "Something really is going on!"
"I know," replied Adrien. "Let's get back to Ladybug."
'What is he-?' Ladybug started to think, but was cut off when Adrien reached his fist out and shouted:
"Plagg, claws out!"
Ladybug saw a small black blur go into his ring, and suddenly realized what was going on.
In an instant, Adrien had transformed into Cat Noir.
And Ladybug had accidentally seen the whole thing.
She could barely keep from screaming as he leapt out the window and out of sight.
"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed when she was sure he was out of earshot. "I can't believe I just saw that!"
She gasped. "I really shouldn't have seen that!"
She gasped again. "He's gonna wonder where I am!"
With that, she leapt out the window and swung onto the roof. Cat Noir soon joined her, saying "There you are! Why're you up here?"
"Oh! I, uh, wanted to get a better view of what was happening inside, but I didn't see where you went," she lied, then coyly added, "Where did you go?"
"Well, I, uhm… I overheard them talking about a weird glow that hit them yesterday, so I came to tell you."
Now, Ladybug suddenly understood all those times he'd stumbled over his words and dodged questions while talking about Adrien.
"I heard that, too. But the strange thing is: I don't remember anything about yesterday."
"Me neither!"
"You don't think that light erased our memories, do you?"
"Maybe. Chloe could still remember it, but it made her much nicer. Why did it have a different effect on her?"
"Maybe whatever — or whoever — made the light didn't want to erase her memories. Maybe they just wanted to change her!"
"But then who did it? I'm pretty sure half of Paris would love it for Chloe to have an attitude change."
"Hmm…." Ladybug snapped her fingers. "I think I have a suspect!"
"Okay, but first, I have something I need to do."
"Okay, make it quick."
Cat Noir leapt off the roof, and Ladybug looked down at the front door, where sure enough, Adrien and Chloe appeared. Adrien sent her off in her limo, then hurried back inside. A moment later, Cat Noir came back.
"I-i just needed —" he began.
"No need to explain. Now, let's ask around."
—
"Alya? I haven't seen her since yesterday." said Nadja Chumak when they asked her. "Isn't she friends with Marinette? Or maybe that Max kid."
—
"I've been searching for her since yesterday!" exclaimed Max. "This is just awful!"
"Have you tried looking at her house?" asked Markov from inside Max's bag.
"Why didn't we think of that first?" Ladybug asked herself.
—
Alya's twin sisters didn't know where she was, and neither did Anansi.
—
"It all adds up: Alya is one of the biggest Chloe haters I know of!" Ladybug started to explain, "If Chloe did anything to make her mad, then Hawk Moth no doubt would've akumatized her! She must've changed Chloe's attitude, then erased the memories of any witnesses!"
"Well, that's a good explanation. But where is she now?"
Ladybug gasped again. "At the place where most of the other villains end up!"
—
"The Eiffel Tower!" Ladybug exclaimed as they landed at the base of the landmark.
"Why did you wait to say that until now?" Cat Noir asked her.
"Well, A —" Ladybug caught herself before she said 'Adrien'. "— 'aay, Kitty, that's a good question! And the answer is: I don't really know."
"Thought so." Cat Noir shook his head and chuckled, using his staff to help him leap up the side of the Tower.
Ladybug took a breath. 'That was really close!' she thought to herself, 'I really need to be more careful with that!'
"Hey, Bugaboo."
Ladybug jumped at the realization that he was suddenly next to her.
"You coming or what?"
"Yeah, yeah, just thinking…"
"Gotcha." He pointed at her, as though he actually understood what she meant by that. They then both climbed up the Tower.
When they got to the second viewing platform, Ladybug was surprised to see that the floor was carpeted.
"That's the second thing that's seemed off today!"
"What was the first?" Cat Noir asked.
"When we were back at Adrien's house, I swung past his window, and thought it seemed greener than usual."
"The window, or the room?"
"I initially thought it was the window playing tricks on my mind. But now, I'm having second thoughts."
Ladybug stepped onto the platform and felt the carpet. It reminded her of a rug in Master Fu's place.
Her thought was interrupted by a woman's cackling. Ladybug looked up to see Alya standing on a girder above her. She was wearing a very ornate purple dress with large shoulders and a brain emblazoned on the front; purple gloves to match; a staff topped with a blue orb with a swirl inside; and decorative gray boots that went knee-high.
She chuckled, "Well, well, well. It appears you've found my secret lair."
"Alya! I knew it!"
"Don't call me Alya! I'm Mind Rewrite!"
" 'Mind Rewrite'? Seems like Hawk Moth is running out of good names!" Ladybug teased. Then she realized, "Wait, weren't you akumatized before?"
Mind Rewrite seemed to be taken aback. "Really?"
"Yeah," Cat Noir commented, "Lady Wifi, if I recall correctly."
"W-well, nobody ever said I couldn't be akumatized twice!"
"That's a really flimsy excuse…" Ladybug trailed off.
"Regardless," Mind Rewrite said, holding her staff out and attempting to catch Ladybug in its beam. Ladybug dodged and jumped onto the rail. "Now that you know of me, I'll have to erase your minds! And who knows? Maybe I'll rewrite a bit more, too!"
'That's odd,' Ladybug observed, 'It doesn't seem like she wants the Miraculouses… Well, I can't focus on that too much right now.'
"The akuma is probably in that staff," she said to Cat Noir, who nodded.
He called out "Cataclysm!", and used his power to break a support beam, causing Mind Rewrite to fall, and giving Ladybug enough time to use her power.
She called out, "Lucky Charm!" causing the yo-yo to create —
"A mirror!" Ladybug knew exactly what to do.
Mind Rewrite tried to zap her, but Ladybug reflected the light back towards her. She had no time to dodge it, and was caught in the beam. She sat there numbly as Ladybug walked up to her and took the staff, snapping it in two. The akuma fluttered out, and Ladybug caught it with her yo-yo, turning it good and releasing it with her signature comment of "Bye-bye, little butterfly." She then called out her name and threw the mirror into the sky, triggering her yo-yo to return everything back to normal.
Alya rubbed her head. "What happened?" she asked, dazed. She looked down, realizing that they were still on one of the girders of the Tower, and leapt into Ladybug's arms. "How did I get all the way up here?!"
Ladybug giggled, leaping down from the tower and setting her down by Avenue Gustave Eiffel, where a crowd was gathering.
Chloe pushed her way through the crowd. "Alya! I remember now! You were the one who made me nice! Well, be thankful that you didn't do any permanent damage, or I'd get my daddy to sue you right now!"
"Yep, everything's back to normal..." Ladybug remarked, fully knowing it not to be the case.
