Not beta read

Hawkmoth, in all actuality, had very few super powers. The only thing he could really do was grant other people power, depending greatly on their own natural talent and their emotional state. The more his Akuma fed on emotion, the more power they could bestow. But...that was it. That, and a very limited empathy/telepathy bond that formed when an Akuma gave their power. He got the gist of their emotion, why they were good candidates for his choosing, and then he could speak directly to them. He could see what they saw, but he could not, however, read their minds. Not directly. If they spoke, he could hear them, but their thoughts remained their own.

He found this limitation beyond frustrating, but seeing as the Kwamii, Nooroo, didn't speak to him unless Hawkmoth forced him to or backed him into a corner, he had little choice. The moth-fairy never volunteered information, undoubtedly in protest to Hawkmoth's choice of how to use the power.

Hawkmoth had never been able to figure out a way around this problem, and so he dealt with it as best he could. He desperately wished that he could have found a way around it now because he knew who he'd caught in his trap this time. Only one female in Paris, right now, could be upset about being a super heroine.

Excitement built in him, but he reigned it in. He had to be careful here. Very careful. Until the potential Akuma actually accepted his proposal, the bond was weak and brittle. This one, he feared, would remain so even if she did accept because someone (her own Kwamii?) had been shielding her and he'd had to reach beyond that. Actually, he was surprised he'd been able to pick up on her emotions at all. Either her Kwamii wasn't with her or she must be having a really bad day. Or both.

His grin widened.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" he couldn't help but ask. "A little bug?"

He remembered earlier that day and how Adrien had come home complaining about a presentation that had landed the entire class in detention. How it had dealt with a Ladybug's natural predator. He'd been quite upset.

"An Assassin Bug?"

He felt her start to pull away, so quickly made his offer.

"Do you want to stop the Akuma attacks?"

She hesitated. "Yes," she finally said.

"Get rid of the need for super heroes so you can live your life?"

Again, she paused. "Yes."

"I can give you the power to do that."

"But," she said, still hesitant.

"Just a certain pair of earrings and a ring," Hawkmoth continued. "Is that really too much to ask for the safety of Paris?"

She didn't answer, so he decided to sweeten the deal.

"You have my word that I will never attack Paris again. You could go on with your life and everyone would be safe."

"You...promise?"

His grin turned into a full-blown laugh at that because he new he had her. "Yes, My Lady," he said smoothly. "I promise."

"Yes, let me make Paris safe again," she replied.

"As you wish, Assassin Bug."

xXx

Charlotte was already on her way up the stairs to break up an all-too-loud fight that had broken out between her two daughters (again) when she heard a scream. Her anger turned to worry and she rushed up the stairs in time to see Jeanne, dressed in a strange, black suit, jump out the window with her older sister, Alanis, tied up and thrown over her shoulder.

This, naturally, caused Charlotte to scream herself and rush over to the window. Thankfully, she got there just in time to watch her daughter somehow use a strange rope (that wasn't connected to anything) to land safely.

"Jeanne!" she yelled worriedly, trying to calm her racing heart. "What are you doing?" The two of them got into fights all the time, like most sisters their age that Charlotte knew. What had changed about this one? Was this some sort of Akuma attack?

"I'm taking her in, mom," 8-year-old Jeanne called back. "I'm making Paris safe."

"Jeanne, you come back here right now, or so help me I will ground you for the rest of the year!" but the girl didn't listen. Instead, she took off at a substantially faster pace than she otherwise would have been able to pull off with anything slung over her shoulder.

Trying to suppress her fear, Charlotte rushed down the stairs, grabbing her keys and coat on the way out to follow her daughter as best she could.

xXx

Lucienne mentally kicked herself for the umpteenth time for being out so late. She'd meant to go home earlier, but then she'd decided to do one more thing at work...and then another, and another...and she really needed to work on that because now she didn't have anyone to walk with to the nearest bus stop, and she didn't want to pay for a taxi and—

A sudden noise behind her had her jumping and whirling around. She didn't see anything behind her, or anyone for that matter. That...actually made her more uneasy. And why had she insisted on taking a job in the part of Paris that would be empty at this time of night? Well, emptier. She'd seen a few people here and there, and she'd get to a more main street in a minute...

Taking a deep breath, she turned to head back down the street again, but froze at the sight of two very large silhouettes blocking her path. This was why she needed to go home on time. Stupid work-a-holic tendencies.

"Um," she started, hoping she sounded calmer than she felt, "I need to get by."

"Well, you see, that's going to cost you," one of the men said with a sickeningly sweet tone. She gulped and took a step back.

"Your purse," the second (much gruffer) voice said.

"And maybe more," the first continued.

Her heart beat in her chest and her mind had frozen and so she did the first thing that came to mind. Turning, she ran. She wasn't fast enough as someone grabbed her braid and yanked her back.

She screamed and a hand clamped over her mouth.

"You see, now we have to take more because you had to go and do that instead of just giving it up quietly."

She struggled desperately, clawing and scratching, but it didn't stop them from ripping her purse from her.

Then, before she knew what had happened, the arm holding her went slack. She gasped and broke away, rushing down the street in a blind panic.

"Pierre! Why you..." the second voice growled. Right abut then, Lucienne noticed a smaller figure in front of her and paused in her running.

"L-ladybug?" she asked. She'd never heard of the super hero getting involved in something that wasn't magical.

It took her a moment to realize that the girl, while resembling Ladybug, was not actually the super heroine. At least she didn't think so. This girl wore a black suit and mask, except for a few red accents on each side.

"Paris will be safe," she said, reaching out to Lucienne. Something wasn't right here, she wanted to shrink back.

"I'll kill you!" The guy behind her screeched. She jumped and turned to look at him out of reflex just as the girl touched her arm.

Lucienne saw one guy on the ground where he'd fallen and the second jumping towards her as if in slow motion. In contrast to just a few moments before, she no longer felt the blinding fear and panic, but a cold fury. Instead of running away, she found herself rushing forward. Her hands moved as if by their own will, hitting pressure points she would have never known about otherwise. The guy's eyes went wide and she felt a shot of pride as he fell, groaning, in the alley behind her.

Then Not-Ladybug shot past her towards the first man who had apparently been knocked down before. She grabbed him with strength belying her slight frame and threw him to where the other man lay before tying them up with what looked like a black yo-yo.

Definitely Ladybug.

Not that it really mattered.

The girl stood over them, looking down with a blank face. Then she looked over at Lucienne.

"Help me keep Paris safe."

Lucienne nodded, not even noting her own black outfit that hadn't been there before. She stuck out her hand, and a rope appeared for her to grab. She stepped over and tied the two up so Ladybug could unwind her yo-yo. Then Lucienne turned and began to drag the men down the street. She would drop these off at the police station and then continue her mission to help Not-Ladybug keep Paris safe.

xXx

Alya stared blankly at the Ladyblog's home page. She didn't really want to have anything to do with it at the moment, but somehow she could only sit there and watch it dejectedly. Marinette was Ladybug. Marinette had been lying to her the whole time. Marinette didn't trust her.

But then, had she ever really given Marinette a reason to trust her? With how she'd obsessed over super heroes and super villains...no wonder Marinette hadn't told her. No wonder her best friend was afraid of her.

Alya groaned and closed her eyes, letting her head flop back so she could stare at the ceiling. The person she was really mad at, right now, wasn't Marinette. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't still a little upset with the super hero, but that paled in comparison to what she felt towards herself. Yes, the lying hurt, but really, Alya couldn't really blame her friend. Actually, the budding journalist should have seen it forever ago. It was so obvious now that she knew.

What kind of journalist was she? Apparently not a very good one. Besides if being in Journalism meant that she'd have to oust her best friend like that, then maybe it wasn't for her after all. She really didn't want to think about that because she loved reporting...but as of right now, she wasn't sure it was worth it. Besides, she hadn't handled today very well. Should have waited until she felt better because she'd just left her best friend standing there probably thinking Alya hated her. Alya knew she'd have to try to apologize to Marinette tomorrow. Or maybe she'd text her later tonight...or call her. That was something she should probably say face to face.

She really wasn't looking forward to it, though.

Sighing (and trying to suppress a cough...unsuccessfully), she forced herself to sit up and looked around for her phone. It sat on the desk a few feet away. She glanced at the time and groaned. Had it really been five hours since she'd gotten home? Maybe she'd fallen asleep at some point. Stupid cold.

Before she could so much as unlock her phone, though, an alert popped up. She'd gotten an app that could search any new news articles or reports for certain words. "Ladybug", "Chat Noir", "Akuma", "Hawkmoth", etc. Frowning, she clicked on the alert and scanned the article.

A new person, suspected to be an Akuma, was running around Paris and turning would-be victims into dark-clothed persons with pretty amazing fighting skills. Thing was, said 'crime fighters' didn't seem inclined stop, no matter the state of their health. And their definition of a crime varied from siblings younger than 10 arguing to outright muggings from what witnesses were saying.

They also had a picture of the girl they suspected was behind everything. That's when Alya's face went from a honey brown to almost white.

"No..." she whispered. "Marinette."

The girl in the picture had Marinette's pigtails and her frame and...somehow Alya just knew. Apparently being an Akuma didn't do nearly as much for hiding one's identity as being Ladybug did. For a moment, she wondered why it was easier to remember the Akuma than the heroes, but quickly brushed that thought aside and finished reading the article.

When she finished, she sat back in a sort of daze. That's when it occurred to her that if the new Akuma was Marinette...how would Ladybug save the day?

Had Hawkmoth just won? What would that do for Paris?

And...had this been her fault? Had she been what had driven Marinette to agree to become an Akuma? She hadn't meant to...she'd just been so sick and so upset and hadn't been able to think and...oh, man, this was her fault.

Which meant that, sick or not, she had to do something. Gulping, she pulled up her contacts. Two minutes later, she suppressed the urge to gulp again as the line (thankfully) picked up.

"Hey, Alya."

"Hi, Adrien," she said, hoping she didn't sound as sick as she felt.

"What's up?"

"Just calling around to make sure everyone has seen the new Akuma."

She really hoped she was right about all of this.

xXx

Adrien didn't know what to think. Ladybug liked him! Ladybug liked him! But no, she liked Adrien. She liked the him that he'd fabricated to put before his father and the cameras...

If Ladybug liked Adrien, but not Chat, then she didn't really like him at all. He really didn't want to think about how much that hurt.

After speaking with her, he'd finished patrol (no Akuma in sight) and headed home, not really sure what to think about everything.

Yet he still felt for her. He of all people knew how bad luck felt. It sucked. Big time. And now she had to deal with luck worse than his. He hadn't really helped in that sense either, he knew, but the blow she'd landed—both emotionally and mentally—hadn't exactly left him in his right mind. He'd make it up to her, but first he had to figure out how to deal with all of this because it was messing with his head. Badly.

He landed inside his darkened room, pausing for a moment to make sure no one was there (no one ever was) before sighing.

"Plagg, claws in."

The green magic washed over his body, leaving his normal clothes and the floating black cat that had become one of his closest friends.

That probably said a lot about his friendships.

"Alright, I don't get it," Plagg said almost immediately. Adrien sighed and headed towards the bathroom. "She likes you. I thought you'd be happy."

Adrien shook his head. "She doesn't like me at all. Not the real me. She only likes what I show the world. Just like everyone else." Part of him felt relieved that he'd finally found a flaw in her. It didn't make her seem quite so far out of reach. The rest of him, though, stung with diappointment.

"Not that I really care or anything, but you should give her the chance," the Kwamii said nonchalantly. "Where's my cheese?"

"She doesn't want to know about me or who I am. I'm not going to betray that," Adrien mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

"Well, she doesn't have to tell you if she doesn't want to, but you can tell her."

This time, Adrien put a hand to the bridge of his nose. "Look, I really don't want to talk about this."

As usual, it wasn't difficult to get him to change the subject, as he shrugged. "Whatever. Cheese?"

The blond sighed. He'd actually already called ahead and asked for cheese to be brought up, so any second now...

As if the thought had summoned them, he heard a knock on his door. It didn't surprise him that when he opened the door, he didn't know the man standing there with a covered tray. His dad liked hiring and firing people. Adrien never knew why, but with the exception of Natalie, the Gorilla, and a few of the chefs, the staff changed almost weekly.

"Your cheese, sir," the man said with a completely straight face. Adrien forced a nod and a smile.

"Thanks," he said, and took the tray, wondering where his dad found these people with steel emotions on such a regular basis. He nodded brightly and then shut the door. Only then did he let his smile die. Ugh. Thank goodness this wasn't a shoot or something. Today was not a good day.

"Woohoo!" Plagg said as he dived through the silver plate cover. Despite himself, Adrien smiled and shook his head. At least one of them was happy. He lifted the cover off the plate and set the whole thing on the coffee table in front of the television.

He'd just reached for the remote to catch the late night news when his phone went off. Blinking, he walked over to where he'd left the device, wondering what Nino wanted...because who else would call at this time of night?

His eyes widened in surprise when he saw it was Alya of all people. He frowned for a minute, but decided to answer. His classmate wouldn't call if it weren't important. Maybe it had something to do with Nino.

"Hey, Alya," he said.

"Hi, Adrien," she replied in a very rough voice. Only then did Adrien remember that he hadn't seen Alya all day. Hadn't Nino said something about her being sick? Yeah, that sounded familiar.

"What's up?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound as concerned as he thought he might, because Alya really should be asleep if she were sick right now. Still, she rarely called him at all, and he had to admit that he was curious, so he'd humor her for now.

"Just calling around to see if everyone knew about the new Akuma."

Several things went through his head at that. Firstly, if there was an Akuma, how difficult would this be without Ladybug? He'd have to try and call...who was it? Fu? Yeah, Master Fu. Secondly, why on Earth was Alya calling him for something like this?

"No, I haven't heard anything," he muttered, walking quickly back over to the remote and flicking the television on to the right channel. Plagg stopped for a moment and looked up at him with a frown before shrugging and going back to his feast. Adrien ignored him, focusing on the television.

"There's nothing on the news," he said.

"It's a breaking story on—" before she could finish, the news station cut through their current story.

"This just in. It seems a new Akuma has begun to wreak havoc on Paris. This Akuma seems to be a young teenager who targets victims of potential crimes and forcibly turns them against their attackers. This case has already been labeled unique for the simple reason that those she turns seem to still have some form of free will, but no desire to stop their vigilante actions. Already multiple people have been taken to the local police, but the 'attackers' these victims are saved from have been reported as anyone from true criminals to the instigators and defenders of childish arguments." They went to the police station where someone had managed to stop a police officer.

"This isn't justice," he said angrily, "this is madness. Our cells are overflowing and we have no way to tell who really is a criminal and who isn't. A lot of the people who come in need medical attention. It's particularly frustrating to see the children—both the ones who've been turned and are bringing people in, and the kids that are the victims here. I don't know whether this Akuma is different or not, but she's not any better."

"Yeah," Adrien muttered, "that's...well, terrible, but why did you want me to know?" By now Plagg had stopped eating and was staring at the screen too, his face looking more serious than Adrien had ever seen before. That didn't bode well.

"Well," Alya said, sounding slightly nervous, "the more people that know, the fewer that will get caught up in this...and besides, have they shown a picture of the Akuma yet?"

"Yeah," Adrien nodded. Actually, they'd put up several pictures, most of them blurry and obviously taken hurriedly by a lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be) person who happened to have their cell phone out.

Then they put up a clearer one, and Adrien's frown deepened. She looked familiar, in a black suit with red, horizontal stripes on each side, and a black mask. She also seemed to have...

"Wait, is that a yo-yo?" he asked worriedly, jumping to his feet.

"Yeah," Alya said softly. "I...I think that might be Ladybug."

"Adrien, we need to go," Plagg said firmly.

That was so out of character that Adrien just stared at him for several seconds.

"Adrien?" Alya asked worriedly.

The blond shook his head. Focus on the task at hand. "Hey, thanks for the warning, Alya. I'll see what I can do about spreading the word, K? But I have to go right now."

"Yeah. Thanks," she said, sounding relieved. "See you tomorrow, right?"

"If you're feeling better," he returned.

She chuckled, although it sounded rather forced.

"Hey, you're not going to put this on your blog, are you?" He voiced the thought before he really knew what he was doing, but he didn't regret it. The last thing Ladybug needed right now was everyone to turn against her.

Alya hesitated for a moment. "No. Not yet. I might have to at least put the theory, but I'm waiting for more facts before I do more than report the Akuma."

"Thanks, Alya. Ladybug needs our help right now, not our scrutiny."

"Right. Good luck," she whispered.

He froze. "Good luck with what?"

"Oh, uh, just getting the word out. Night!"

Before he could respond, she hung up and he frowned down at his still lit phone. That...sounded more like something Marinette would say. Something itched at the back of his mind, if only he could figure it out...

"Adrien!"

Plagg's voice snapped him out of his reverie. He blinked at the little Kwamii.

"Right," he said with a determined nod. If Plagg was actually pushing him into this, then even he understood how bad this could be (and Adrien decided to ignore how much that scared him). "Plagg, Claws Out!"

The transformation washed over him and he opened his (now far superior) eyes, hopping onto the window's ledge, taking out his rod and opening the phone-like function.

"I need to call Master Fu," he said into the rod as he swung onto the nearest building he could without his rod. Immediately it started to ring. Unfortunately, it kept ringing.

"Come on, answer," he hissed and jumped onto another building. If the guy didn't answer soon...well, he didn't even know exactly where he was going, but the general direction of the school seemed like a safe bet. Most of the Akuma had something to do with the school...and why did that niggle the back of his mind too?

Finally, he heard a click. "Ah, you must be Chat Noir. Nice to meet you. It seems Ladybug passed on my message."

The voice on the other end sounded old, but amused and Adrien liked this 'Master Fu' immediately. Of course, that might also have been him realizing that he may not have to go up against an Akumatized Ladybug all by himself.

"Yeah, she did," Chat Noir replied. "But that was before she got Akumatized."

The pause on the other end almost made Chat double check to see if he'd dropped the call. Could that happen with magic phones?

"Are you sure?"

The super hero put the phone back to his ear. "No, but...the new Akuma is a younger teenage girl with a yo-yo. It looks just like her...I think."

"I was afraid of something like this. Meet me at your school. I have to get out of here before she comes back. She'll be after your ring too. Be careful."

"Right," Chat said firmly as the call cut off, happy he'd been going in the right direction.

"Please, don't be Ladybug," he muttered under his breath. Because if she was, somehow, he felt this was all his fault...and he had no idea how to fix it.