Chloé sat at her desk in utter boredom. Ms. Bustier was being especially talkative today. She looked around. The other students seemed to be silent... too much so. None of the usual whispers or tapping of phones from beneath desks, just dead silence. Even Sabrina was totally mute. It was so quiet that it was driving her crazy.
"Chloé Bourgeois," the teacher suddenly declared. "Could you come up to the board, please?" Chloé nodded and got up. "Solve the problem." Ms. Bustier demanded as she handed Chloé some chalk. The blonde looked up at the complex math problem and gulped.
"Attention all students and faculty! Incoming Akuma! They're not here for the lunch menu, unless they're one of the students, in which case I can't blame them for attacking."
With all the Akuma that attacked Collège François Dupont on a regular basis, it got to the point where the school started introducing a new safety drill for when they occured. The drill was simple: keep calm, lock the rooms, and take cover. Ladybug usually never took very long to show up, so it was all a matter of waiting until the all-clear was sounded. The automated window-blinds rolled down and the lights went off in an effort to fool the Akuma into thinking there was nobody inside. All it did was cloak the entire room in total darkness.
Chloé felt a shiver run down her spine. The room wasn't supposed to be this dark, even in lockdown. "Ms. Bustier?" she called out. No response. "Hello?"
The emergency lights came on, and the sound of wicked, mocking laughter echoed from the desks. Chloé turned to see the source of the noise and gasped. Instead of normal teenagers, she saw masked-and-costumed Akuma in all shapes and sizes. All of them she recognized as the transformed students of Ms. Bustier's class, and many of them indirectly created by Chloé's own arrogance and selfishness. Only Marinette and Adrien were still normal, but they seemed completely oblivious to everything. In fact, they were frozen in place with Lady Wi-Fi's phone-pauses.
"You know, Chloé, we've got you to thank for all of this," Timebreaker began as she rollerbladed up and down the aisle. "If it weren't for you, many of us wouldn't have gotten a chance to be so much better than we were."
"You thank me for turning you into monsters?!" Chloé spat back.
Gamer sat on top of his pyramid-robot as it hovered near the ceiling. "It takes a monster like you to make one, and you've made many monsters."
Dark Cupid flew up to meet him. "You're one to talk. Marinette created you, not Chloé."
"We're still comrades-in-arms, bound together by common enemies," Bubbler intervened as he and the bubble he sat on lazily drifted by. "So what as to who made who?"
"At least we're not hiding who we really are anymore, unlike you, Chloé," Reflekta spat as she and Princess Fragrance sat intimately close to each other. They looked like they would make out right then and there with how touchy-feely they were getting.
"Love conquers all," Fragrance added, "except in your case. Little miss self-denial, unable to see that NOBODY loves you and wishes you would just drop dead."
Not able to take it anymore, Chloé ran for the door, but locks and chains suddenly appeared on it to prevent her from leaving. Nearby, Evillustrator shot her a cold glare as he continued doodling on his tablet. Before she knew it, Chloé felt herself getting picked up by... nothing? No, not nothing. "Sabrina! You too?!" she cried at her invisible attacker, yet Vanisher remained silent as she threw Chloé to the ground.
"You can't escape what you created..." came a frighteningly-familiar voice from above Chloé. She pushed herself back up and nearly choked as she saw not Ms. Bustier but herself staring back, now wearing a distinctive black suit and mask with red spots all over it. "Not even me."
Chloé put on her best arrogant scowl upon seeing her own inner Akuma taunting her. "I am not you!"
"There you go again, denying the truth," Antibug arrogantly shot back, her own scowl quickly making Chloé's vanish with a whimper. "You think just because you're a Miracle now, they're all going to love you like they do Ladybug? HAH! Utterly ridiculous! You're a third-rate knockoff of her and everybody knows it."
"So what does that make you?"
"A vision of what you could be. Not just equal to Ladybug, but superior. If anything, you should be the one wearing the spots, not that little twerp." Like a circling shark, Antibug paced around Chloé as she prattled on. "Just let me come back and together, we'll squash that goody-good beetle. And then you can take those earrings and be the one true Miraculous Ladybug. Hawk Moth doesn't deserve them."
"I... I can't..." shakily replied Chloé. "I don't want to... kill her. She's my idol, my inspiration... my fr... fri..."
"She's holding you back. Making you weak. Ladybug, Chat Noir, Hawk Moth, all of them. The real Chloé Bourgeois would never let herself be treated like this." The doppelganger leaned in close to whisper. "You could take all their powers. You could become even more powerful than a goddess. Everybody would have no choice but to love you. Everybody here would have no choice but to obey you."
"But it... it's not..." Chloé had a hard time saying what she intended to say, as deep down, she knew Antibug was right. She was all of Chloé's trademark vices manifested as an Akuma: her wrath, her envy, her pride. Why wouldn't she be right? "It's not what I want," she emptily spoke.
"Grab her." Stoneheart and Horrificator grabbed Chloé by her limbs to restrain her as Antibug raised her hand. "Anti-Charm!" With a burst of magic, a giant sword appeared in her hand. "You know this is what you really want, and the more you keep denying it, the more you hurt yourself. Like right now, for example." She raised the sword high above Chloé's head as the other Akuma cheered and hooted, eager to watch the impending execution of the one person they both loved and hated most. As the sword fell, Chloé screamed...
Chloé screamed as she rolled right out of her bed and onto the floor. With a moan, she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the small yellow bee-like creature staring back with deep black-and-blue eyes. "Chloé, are you okay?" it asked.
The blonde girl moaned. She was in her personal suite at the Grand Paris, not the classroom. There were no Akuma here, and especially no Antibug, just Pollen whom Chloé was watching over for the night after an Akuma battle that ran too late. With a deep breath, Chloé answered, "I had... a bad dream..."
"Again? The same one?" Chloé nodded. "You... want to describe it, perhaps?"
Chloé crossed her arms in her trademark defiance. "It's none of your business. Now leave me alone," she griped. "I still need to take you back to Ladybug in the morning."
"If you wish," the Kwami replied, "but if I may speak my mind, the more you hold your emotions in, the more they're going to hurt you." Submissively loyal as she was to her master, Pollen still tried to show wisdom where she could.
But Hawk Moth can't get me again if I don't show emotion, she told herself. And I don't ever want... HER to come back. Ladybug would never forgive me if I did. With a snort, Chloé pulled the covers over her and tried to go back to sleep, but found herself unable to drift off again. "Pollen..." she meekly whimpered. The tiny Kwami paused. Chloé never usually sounded this vulnerable, so it was very serious whenever she did. "Could you let me... cuddle you?"
Pollen smiled. "I would like that, my queen."
A few minutes later, the two of them were asleep in the bed, with Chloé's arm around Pollen like it was her teddy bear. It brought a warm, content feeling to Chloé, and she liked this feeling. It was the kind of contentment she couldn't get from buying or bullying. The rest of her night went without any dreams, but the nightmare would linger on.
And until Chloé Bourgeois confronted the darkness in her own heart, it would only fester like an open wound until it consumed her.
Something that I personally hope gets touched on in later seasons is Chloé's Antibug persona compared to Queen Bee and how she sees both of them, and so this came about.
Miraculous (C) ZAG