Hi guys! This is a new story that I've been working on, which you can also find on tumblr madisoninthemargin. Reviews are greatly appreciated! Enjoy!

"Cataclysm!" Marinette groaned. The middle of an akuma attack and she couldn't get away. Adrien, no Chat, advanced on her, his hand glowing in a wicked sort of way.

"Perfect Marinette. Everyone's friend. But not mine. You were always too good for me, weren't you?"

"Adrien, please, don't do this." She begged as she backed away, trying to keep him at bay and looking for a way to escape so she could transform. "You're better than this." She implored when her back hit the wall. She was thankful that they were in an empty classroom, the door locked so at least only she knew the truth of his identity.

"Better? I'm not the hero everyone thinks. I'm destruction." He growled. His body was barely an inch away and through the hate filled haze, she could see the hurt in his eyes. "I was made for evil. Like father, like son." He whispered. He brought his hand closer and closer to her heart, still glowing the sinister green. "Where is your precious Ladybug to save you now?"

"Please, don't make me do this." She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to keep the tears from falling and from any part of herself from touching Adrien's hand.

"Tikki, spots on." she whispered, and the magic blew Chat away, giving her her escape route.

"You," Chat growled, having regained his feet. He was advancing on her again. "I should have known that perfect Marinette was the perfect Ladybug. It's all too good to be true."

"Adrien, Chat, please, tell me what I did to make you do angry." She implored.

"You're trying to buy time. Fight me!" He leapt at her with a speed that didn't seem real. The akuma had gone into his ring, she knew that much. It must have harnessed his kwami magic and made him stronger than ever.

She dodged and tossed her yoyo in the air, not wasting time, and called her lucky charm into existence.

A comb.

Not spotted, like all of her previous charms. It was green and blue and purple, and looked a lot like peacock feathers.

It felt different too. It had a weight, a substance, that her other charms didn't have. This was real.

She looked at Chat, his ring flashing. And she knew.

"Hawkmoth," she shouted. Adrien's face contorted into a grimace as Hawkmoth took real and proper control of Adrien.

"Are you missing something? Let Adrien go, and it's all yours. This ends."

Silence. She couldn't hear the things Hawkmoth was saying to Adrien, but suddenly his transformation wore off and a dark akuma flew from his ring.

Marinette cleansed it, and sent the comb off, letting the magic take it back to where ever it had come from.

"Ladybug?" Adrien called. "What happened." He rubbed his head and looked as sweet as he ever did.

"You tell me." Her voice came out harsher than she expected. "You were akumatized. And you came after me. So what did happen, Chat Noir?" She released her transformation and let him gape.

"Check your Kwami. We'll talk about this later."

"Plagg," Adrien called. He felt weak. Not like after an akuma battle. This was a different tired. This was a full body, disorienting kind of tired. "Plagg, where are you?"

"Adrien," he heard Plagg call. He stood on shaking legs and looked around the room for his kwami. There, on a desk. Adrien prayed that maybe his mistake hadn't harmed Plagg. That maybe his stupidity wouldn't be the end of everything.

"T-take me to M-master F-f-fu." Plagg stuttered and turned onto his side.

"Plagg how to I find him?" Adrien wasn't sure who this Master Fu was, but if he could save Plagg, Adrien would find him. Plagg didn't answer, only groaned a pitiful little squeak. Adrien picked him up carefully and cradled him against his chest.

"I'm so sorry. I'll fix it, I promise."

There was a knock at the door, and a moment later Marinette heard her mother call for her. She wiped away her tears and checked her phone. Maybe she'd missed a text from Alya, but there wasn't a single notification on her phone.

"Who is it?" She called out to her mom as she descended the stairs.

"Marinette!" That voice.

"What are you doing here?"

"Can we talk in private?" Adrien asked, casting a careful glance towards her mother, who had retreated into the kitchen. Adrien could all but see the wheels turning in Marinette's head, trying to decide why exactly he was there.

"Mom, I'm going for a walk." She finally called out, not taking her eyes off of Adrien.

"Stay here." She told him. He stood impatiently at the door while she went back upstairs and came down with her purse. Her kwami was probably in there, he realized.

"Alright dear." Her mother called back. Marinette stepped outside the door and lead Adrien out onto the street.

"Talk."

"Um, private?" He prodded.

"The most private place is right here in public. No one is going to pay attention to two teenagers on a walk. Talk," she commanded again.

"My kwami is sick. He said that I needed to take him to someone named Fu." Adrien rushed. "I know you're mad and that you have every reason to be, but please." He reached inside his shirt where he had set Plagg and pulled him out, shielding him from anyone around them.

Marinette placed a gentle finger on the small black kwami, so similar to her own. He shivered, but didn't open his eyes.

"Okay," She agreed. "Come on." She looked around herself before grabbing Plagg out of Adrien's hand and setting him in her purse. Adrien thought he heard a small voice come from inside of it.

Marinette lead him through the streets of Paris, quickly and silently. He tried to think of what to say to her, something to begin to make amends for what he'd done, but nothing came to mind.

Marinette prayed that Adrien wouldn't say anything to her. She hadn't had the time to come to terms with the fact that the boy she'd been in love with forever, and was finally starting to get over, was actually the same boy who she was falling for - Chat Noir, hero of Paris.

Luckily, they arrived quickly and they arrived without a word between them.

"Master Fu?" Marinette called into a small room. There was a mat on the floor and an old record player on a bamboo shelf.

"Yes, how can I help you?" A small Chinese man came hobbling out of the back room. Adrien thought that he was familiar, but he couldn't place the man's face with a reason that he would know him.

"Do you remember me? You healed my cat a while ago." She said. He nodded and looked at Adrien. "My friend's cat is sick now, and you're the first person I thought of." She pulled Plagg from her purse and passed him to the man.

"I'll help you." He says and hobbles away from the pair, Plagg in hand.

The pair sat on a small bench that faced the door he had just disappeared through.

"Marinette, we should talk about what happened."