"She told me to take care of her son. And I kept that promise, I helped her son become one of the bravest men I've ever known."

The room was completely still, everyone waiting for the drop of the hammer. No-one noticed Chat standing stiff as a board, no-one. Except me. I watched him in the silence, not exactly out of curiosity.

No.

Out of fear.

Throughout the story he had gained such an immense sense of bloodlust I barely knew if anyone would be able to stop him if he unleashed it soon.

Maybe not all of us combined.

"Hawkmoth blamed you, didn't he?" I suddenly ask, trying to change my line of concentration, and hopefully his too, "Reinforcements." I clarify. "You called for them, but all the re-enforcements, including Hawmoth, were too late to save her. He blamed you for her death, and…" I wasn't sure where I was going.

"And forgot about his son." Chat suddenly spoke, his eyes were completely emotionless, something I'd never seen before. All his bloodlust was dissipated into something much more frightening.

A cold, hard, emotionless stare.

"He forgot about his son, and became hell-bent on revenge. He neglected everyone around him, and decided to start The Akumas." Chat was speaking directly to him, as if he had some reason for Master Fu to hide something. "Then you trained his and Peacocks son to be an assassin." He concluded.

Master Fu looked at Chat in the eye, and they seemed to share a look with some hidden meaning.

What's going on?

"Yes, that is what happened."

"Then this is his revenge?" someone pipes up, "This is his way of getting back at you, of destroying Miraculous by killing the members one by one."

I understand. "He wasn't able to save the person he cared most for." I begin, glancing back to Master Fu, "Now you aren't able to save the ones most important to you."

Master grits his teeth, and his eyes glaze over.

"Yes." He spits.

"Then this is your fault?" Chat whispers, dangerously. He said 'your fault' like he meant more than just the deaths of our members, of our friends. He meant something more. "It's your fault." He said, staring directly at him.

Master Fu winces, but holds his gaze. "Yes, Chat." He says, "It's my fault."

Chat suddenly started moving, and before we knew it he was making his way out the door, closing it behind him. After he left, Fu leaned back into his chair, rubbing his face.

It was silent, until he finally said, "We need to take the fight to them."

Fu assigned me to trace The Akumas and where their main HQ was, speaking only to me after sending everyone out of the room with separate missions.

He then told me to find the base alone. And my priority is killing their leader. Now known as Hawkmoth.

Alone. Without a partner, he expects me to do this.

At first, I was honoured, then I realised just how much he was screwing me over. Alone, I was worthless. I needed my partner back, but just then, he was partners with another. And I wasn't allowed to fight for him.

He has a partner.

I guess I'll have to go it alone.

What could happen.

*Chat POV*

I walked directly to the roof. I wasn't sure why the roof had always been my first place to go after finding out something horrible.

Actually, it was exactly what I did when the news of my mother's death first reached me.

"I'm… I'm so sorry."

"Who are you?" I asked, retreating a few steps. A man had walked into the house on the afternoon my mother was supposed to come home early for Christmas, so she could prepare the food.

I had waited three hours at the front door, waiting for her to come home, sitting alone in the rain.

"Who are you?!" I scream, not knowing what else to say. "Where's my mum!?"

"I'm a police officer." He strained. "She's… She's dead, kid."

I shook my head. This wasn't happening. It can't have been. "She isn't dead! How would you know, anyway?"

"It… It was a car accident. She was driving home when another car came from the intersection–"

"No! You're lying!"

"Listen, kid, I'm sorry, it's true–"

"No!" I yelled, sprinting away. I ran up the steps to the second floor. Then the third floor, then the fourth, until I reached the roof.

The run left my muscles burning, my lungs pounding. As I stepped out, I saw it was still raining. The platform up here wasn't really designed to be walked on, but after a long fight between my parents and I, they had agreed to make a safe spot for me to walk around on up there.

It was a large rectangle, with fences around the edges and cold concrete as a floor. It was grey, dull, and just an empty space, but to me, it was an escape.

I always used to come here to play, or to hide when I would fight with my mother or father.

As I set foot outside, the torrential rain soaked my clothes in an instant, sliding down my pale skin and sending me into a fit of shivering.

As I walked further out, tears started mixing with the drops running down my cheeks. I screamed. I screamed with such emotion that looking back I was surprised the world didn't scream with me.

Then I kept screaming.

When I stopped, I somehow ended up kneeling in the water collecting there. I was bent at the knees, my hands splayed out against the ground, my reflection staring up at me.

I watched my vision cloud through my tears, then focus again as the tears fell to the ground, and rippled my image in the water.

Suddenly, the rain stopped falling on me, and something touched my shoulder. Too tired to be shocked, I simply looked up at the man now standing behind me with a large, black umbrella shielding the both of us.

I didn't have to look that far up, he was pretty short, and about my dad's age, maybe older.

"You'll catch a cold out here, little one." He said with a wrinkled smile. Okay, older.

"Who are you?" I sniffed.

"I was your mothers friend."

"You're lying."

"How so?"

"If you were her friend, you would have saved her!"

"I knew you'd be up here." Master Fu's voice comes from behind. I turn my head slightly, not quite turning around.

It's almost night time, and the building our headquarters were located under had a pretty good view of the city at night.

The Eiffel Tower was glistening, a gigantic beacon of pride for all the occupants of the city. Now, it represented someone who I cared for far too deeply, and our meeting at its peak.

"Leave me, Master. I can't see you right now."

"Why is that?"

"If I do, I'll probably kill you."

"Fair enough, too." He responds casually.

This time, I do turn around, and I understand from the look on his face everything he's trying to do and say.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. His eyes emanate the words.

"I'm sorry." He says, finally.

"You bloody well should be."

"I know."

We stand in silence for a little while, simply looking at each other. Master looks tired. Overwhelmingly tired.

"Master, why are you standing here with me?"

"Because you just found out. And the only other person here that could possibly comfort you is on her mission already."

I snap my head up. "Ladybug is on a mission? Alone? What for?"

He lowers his eyes, not caring I knew that she was the one he was talking about. "I put her onto finding the location of The Akumas."

"WHAT?" I explode, "Are you insane? You're making her find them by herself? What's wrong with you?! She'll be killed!"

"She's the best here, Chat, and you and I both know that she can barely work with anyone aside from you–"

"Exactly! Put us back together!"

"It's not that easy, Chat–"

"Like hell it isn't! You're making her do something impossible all on her own! All because of me, isn't it?"

"What? Chat, I never put her on this case because of you–"

"I'll rephrase it for you." I clench my teeth. "Ladybug was benched because of a failed assignment that I caused. She was put off duty, our number one, and replaced by that annoying bitch, because I failed to show. After that, this all happened, and you get scared shit-less and put her back out, realising her partner is partnered up with someone else."

He narrows his eyes, and fists his hands.

"Chat. No, Adrien." I wince at his words, but he continues, "I trained you both together. I picked you because you were wise, and capable."

"Wise and capable my ass. You trained me because you were a coward running away from your mistakes, trying to cover up the guilt you felt for letting my mother SACRIFICE HERSELF FOR YOUR MISERABLE LIFE!" I'm screaming now, and my arms, my legs, all the muscles in my body were wanting to rip out this man's throat.

"Yes, Chat. I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. Because I killed her. I was the reason she died."

We fall silent.

We stare.

I simmer with rage, bursting at the seams.

He shrinks with the pain of remembering, but regains some courage before he says, "You love her, don't you? Ladybug, I mean."

"What does that have to do with anything."

"It's a simple question."

"Is it a necessary one?"

"For the question I'm going to ask after that, yes. Depending on your response."

I hesitate, but reply. "Yes. I am."

"Then would you die for her?" He immediately says.

I reel away, and suddenly I have no idea where he's going with this. "What?" I breathe.

"Answer the question." He is very stern.

I stop, and think. I try to imagine a situation in which my life doesn't involve her. I try to imagine a possible future, whether it be far or soon, with her not somewhere there. It isn't there. She's always in there, somewhere.

A normal life. Without killing? She's my best friend.

Retiring after working to the point of physical exhaustion? She's retiring with me.

Completing our next assignment, arguing with Master Fu, taking on anything larger than ourselves, she's there, she's there, she's there.

No matter if the future is tomorrow or far into years beyond, she's there.

Living with me? Falling for me? Those were simply fantasies.

But staying with me?

That was always planned.

Then, I imagine letting her live after my death. She never reciprocated my feelings, or at least, not in the same way. I imagine giving up my entire existence to save hers, and I have my answer.

It's so simple.

It's so true, I had just never considered it before. A life where she wasn't in it wasn't a possibility for me.

"Yes."

"Excuse me?" He seems shocked, or at least, disappointed.

"I said, yes. I would die if it meant that she lived." It's a complete certainty.

He pauses, then says, "Then, you are not allowed to be her partner. Not now, never again."

My eyes widen, my fists clench, my teeth grind together. "Why?" I blurt.

"I swore to protect you, Adrien. I swore it as I watched your mother die in my arms. You are not allowed to throw your life away the same way she did." He straightens. "To protect someone."

"This wouldn't be the same way." I realise.

"And why is that?"

"Because I love her romantically. My mother never loved you like that."

Master stares at me in shock, and stumbles over his next words.

"That's–"

"True." I continue, "That's true, isn't it? She didn't love you the same way you loved her."

We have another ridiculously meaningful silence to share, and the tension becomes thick. I start to walk away, and brush past his shoulder, not making eye contact with the older man.

Before anything else is said.

He doesn't attempt to stop me, either, until I get to the doorway, and he calls out to me.

"Can I ask you one more thing?"

"No."

"Chat, please."

"No."

"Adrien."

I halt. "What." I spit.

"What part of her did you fall in love with first?" He asks. Of course, with my mind in the gutter, it immediately goes to that.

"Eh? What, that's a bit gross, even for you old geeser–"

He chuckles dryly, cutting me off. "No, I didn't mean it that way."

"Then how?" I wonder, still not understanding which direction he wanted this to go.

"I meant, what is it that she possessed, whether it be a trait, or a physical characteristic in a non-explicit way, that first drew you in?"

I think hard, and decide.

"Her eyes."

He raises an eyebrow, and his lips raise slightly on the corners. "Why is that?"

"She looks like she's hiding something."

"You like her because you think she looks like she's lying?"

"No, no, not hiding something like that." I shake my head, "I meant it in another way."

"How?"

"I mean, we've done… things. Horrible things, all the time. And she stores it all in her eyes."

"Stores it?"

"Yes. All her regretted actions. She has this beautiful wall of iridescent blue, and throws all these terrible secrets behind them. Her eyes… they sparkle when she's excited, they dull when she kills, they glow when she's terrified. They reflect everything that she is, including all her awful parts. Actually, she doesn't seem to try and… hide them, per say." I rephrase my original statement, shaking my head, "She simply carries them in a way that makes me realise she knows she has no other choice but to carry them, and reveals them only when necessary. Its… awe inspiring. But at the same time, it's a challenge. It's a dare, like she wants someone to break down that wall. I'm not going to stop to find out."

He seems to relax. His shoulders lose tension, his face slackens into a lazy and half-arsed grin, his thumbs hook into his belt loops.

"I fell in love with her eyes, first." I conclude, slightly bashful at my rant, but not in any way showing it.

"Okay." He says, and turns away from me. As if I passed some kind of test.

As I walk away, I realise something.

"I'm not going to stop to find out."? Isn't that exactly what I thought when I went on that date…?

With Marinette…?

Isn't that exactly the same thing I thought...?

When I looked into her blindingly iridescent blue eyes?

A/N: Okay this is another chapter now, to make up for being douches before. Next chapter is also probably going to be published pretty soon, we're on a roll.

Please give us some more suggestions! We're also dying to hear what you guys think of the story, so give us a comment about what you like and don't like, we'll try and fix it!

'Til next time~