Wow, an update in only three days? New record for me for this story. Guess all I had to do was stop overthinking things and get it done. If I can take advantage of all this downtime we're having due to COVID-19, I might be able to get through this next arc pretty quickly.

Uh-oh! This is trouble! The girls are trying to figure out what the hell's gotten into Nathaniel, and they're all but certain that it's got something to do with the akumas!

But that isn't the only problem. After the Evillustrator survives a fight with the Love Angels, Volpina realizes that the love waves have affected him and she decides to "resolve the issue." What's going to be the outcome of this one?!


Nathaniel was once again sitting in his room in the dark. He had a lamp on and was looking through his sketchbook again.

The pictures he had side-by-side were professional-level portraits of Marinette and Ladybug. Marinette was on one side, and Ladybug was on the other.

"Marinette is Ladybug..." Nathaniel muttered as he turned the page to reveal that he had drawn up another comic page. It was two panels. The top panel had Marinette designing clothes while the bottom panel was her as Ladybug, with Rena Rouge and Queen Bee.

He groaned and put his hands to his face, mentally exhausted. He moaned, "I don't believe this..."

A portal opened up in his bedroom. Nathaniel quickly slammed the book shut and threw it under his bed as the Evillustrator came back out.

"What were you doing?" He asked the redhead.

"Oh, um... Just working on some action profile poses for another comic... Homework assignment for drawing class." Nathaniel spoke.

Evillustrator just gave a "hm," and looked around a bit.

To distract the akuma, Nathaniel ran to the window and pulled the curtains back. He said, "Isn't the moon beautiful tonight?"

Evillustrator came to the window and looked at the full moon, just as some clouds were slowly passing it.

"I should probably take a picture and use it as a reference for a nighttime scene for one of my comics!" Nathaniel spoke, taking his phone out and snapping a photo of the moon. He then put it away.

The akuma and human stood in silence for a few seconds. Nathaniel took a deep breath.

"Listen... I don't want to get caught in the crossfires of this angel-akuma war, fight, whatever it is," Nathaniel confessed, before turning to the Evillustrator. His eyes wavering in pleading, he presented the hand with the thumb ring. "So, I'm begging you, PLEASE let me out of this contract! Take away this thumb ring!"

Evillustrator looked at Nathaniel, sighed, and said, "Nate, listen to me. Before I came along, what did you have?"

Nathaniel paused and his eyes went askance.

"You're no athlete, and your strengths don't lie in STEM or academics," Evillustrator continued. "But then I come into your life, and now look at you - you're the star of your school!"

Evillustrator then turned into akuma energy and blasted himself into Nathaniel's body. The latter was screaming in pain.

As the clouds covered the moon, Evillustrator said, "I'm the LAST akuma you want to breach a contract with!"

In gym class at school the next day, Nathaniel was doing spins and stunts on the horizontal bar at gym class. When he dismounted, he did a quadruple somersault before sticking the landing.

Everyone was applauding and cheering for Nathaniel... But it all sounded hollow to him.

'Doesn't this make you happy, having everyone stare at you with awe and amazement?' Evillustrator asked happily.

"Yeah. Staring," Nathaniel began. "Stop making me do quadruple air flips, please."

'Nate, I can make you the most powerful man on the entire planet!' Evillustrator stated.

"I-" Nathaniel began to protest.

'Just find the Love Angels, don't think of breaking the contract, and everything will be fine!' Evillustrator said, trying to reassure Nathaniel.

But Nate wasn't having it. On the inside, he was beating himself up.

The girls were on the sidelines, looking at Nathaniel in suspicion.

"Nathaniel's an athlete, huh..." Marinette began, crossing her arms in confusion.

"There's no way in hell this is for real," Chloé stated, shaking her head. "We all know Nathaniel's anything but cocky. For him to be so athletic, confident, and smart out of nowhere like this is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!"

"Chloé's right," Alya agreed. "This is just too weird, and I can't help but be suspicious of these events! So, I say we investigate after school You girls in?!"

Marinette and Chloé nodded in agreement.

Later on, Evillustrator was standing with Volpina atop the Montparnasse Tower. She'd called him to talk to him face-to-face.

"Sorry to drag you out here, Evey-Honey." Volpina said.

"What's up?" Evillustrator asked.

"You've been weird lately." Volpina stated, looking at Evillustrator.

"Weird? Me? No, that's you, Volpina." Evillustrator responded with a chuckle.

"Listen, Evey-Honey, I've always been a fan of how harsh and cruel you were. An akuma the realm could be proud of. But you've gotten soft." Volpina admitted.

"Soft? Me?" Evillustrator questioned, crossing his arms and quirking a brow.

"All you've been doing lately is hanging around that Donnie-Downer Nathaniel! Talking art with him, possessing his body! It's pathetic." Volpina stated.

"Keep that fox snout of yours out of my business, vixen!" Evillustrator spat, still using vixen as an insult.

"Hey, don't get mad at me!" Volpina pleaded, tears pricking her eyes.

Evillustrator recoiled a bit.

But Volpina then giggled before getting closer to the artist and telling him, "Sorry to be true to my tricky fox nature, pulling the wool over your eyes like this."

"Excuse me?" Evillustrator asked, his voice dropping an octave.

"Well, I thought I'd send one of the other water akumas, Pump, after your friend Nathaniel." Volpina said with a smirk.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Evillustrator shouted.

Later on with Nathaniel, he was walking home with school, his mind muddled with the guilt of his actions and situation. He was walking by one of the parks.

Some ways behind him, the girls had put on disguises and were tailing him. The kwamis were out, too.

"This is really worrying me." Marinette began.

The others turned to her.

"Ever since Nathaniel was a little boy, I would always catch him here at this park every now and again." Marinette admitted.

"Oh, right," Alya said as she and the others looked at the park. "I forgot that you grew up with most of our classmates."

"Yeah," Marinette began as she and the others were watching a few boys playing in the park. One boy with glasses was chasing another one, with a paper airplane in hand. "He wasn't one to stick up for himself that much. One of Chloé's many targets in the past."

"Don't remind me." Chloé moaned.

"And look at him now," Alya commented. "He's not like that anymore."

"Now he's a lot more courageous," Chloé pointed out. "And he's a bigger showoff."

The girls remembered some of Nathaniel's recent accomplishments, like his first horizontal bar flip, his decorations for the campus festival, and how much more pushy he'd become.

They then tailed Nathaniel again, hiding behind a lamppost.

"This is really weird," Chloé agreed. "He's been totally OOC for a while!"

"I suspect that it's akumas." Trixx spoke.

"That's my first guess. What do you all think?" Tikki asked the others.

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Otherwise, Nathaniel's sudden transformation is totally strange." Marinette agreed.

"You three are the strange ones." A voice said.

The kwamis hid, and girls squawked before whirling around to see Adrien and Nino, carrying their fencing duffle bags, looking at the girls like they were nuts.

"Oh, um, Adrien! Hi there!" Marinette spluttered. The girls stood up.

They started laughing nervously.

Tikki peeked out of hiding and pointed out to the other kwamis that Nathaniel was getting away.

"What's with the spy clothes, Mariboo? New fashion look?" Adrien questioned.

"Keep it down, Adrien!" Marinette hushed, anxious.

"Why?" Adrien asked. "Why do I need to whisper? Is it something bad?"

"Well, um, I can explain..." Marinette began.

"No time for that!" Chloé hissed, pulling Marinette away. "We're in a rush! Come on!"

The girls dashed after Nathaniel, leaving Nino and Adrien confused.

As Nathaniel walked along the Seine, a giant water droplet appeared from the river and then it turned into anthropomorphic water pump of some type, including the fact that it was a biped like a human and it had a face.

"Wha?!" Nathaniel spoke as he was confronted with the akuma.

"Hello, human! I'm Volpina's servant, Pump! Now, prepare as I fill you with evil energy!" Pump screamed as Nathaniel stepped back.

He pulled out a one-handled pump (a yellow version of one of those stereotypical TNT push-handles that someone would press down on), and said, "Now let your hatred rise to draw out the Love Angels!"

He started pumping up and down rapidly, and akuma water blasted out from the hose he had, blasting Nathaniel. He was screaming at getting soaked.

Above the scene, the Evillustrator had arrived on his jetpack. And he wasn't happy at seeing Nathaniel being attacked.

The girls had run under the bridge, following Nate, but they immediately fell back when they saw the scene.

"No! Nate!" Marinette shouted as she let Nooroo and Tikki out. Trixx and Pollen came out, too. "Nooroo, who is that?"

Nooroo went to look at the scene, and then said, "Oh no! Lady Marinette, that's the akuma pet known as Pump! Like a water pump!"

"Lucky Wedding Flower!" "Cunning Wedding Flower!" "Growing Wedding Flower!"

But they weren't aware that the Evillustrator was watching them from behind, his eyes widened in angered shock.

"Bridal Change Go! Wedding Dress Transform!" "Angel Creation Ladybug!" "Angel Illusion Rena Rouge!" "Angel Subjection Queen Bee!"

'THESE girls are the Love Angels?!' Evillustrator thought, both angry and shocked.

"Rena, go!" Ladybug directed.

Rena Rouge summoned up the Miraculous Something Borrowed and activated.

"Love's Tribute Candle! Miraculous Fantasies!" Rena Rouge called as she fired her wand's magic at Pump. His water blast was stopped and he was enduring the pain of the power.

Once he stopped, all three angels jumped in front of Nathaniel, and they held their weapons at the ready.

Pump started pumping water at the angels, unaware that the Evillustrator had drawn up a magical flamethrower on his tablet and was about to blast a fireball at them.

The water shot at the girls, who dodged and/or blocked, and the water collided with the fireball the Evillustrator created, putting the flames out.

"Hey! Pump, quit it! You're getting in my way!" Evillustrator shouted as he fired the flamethrower at Pump.

"HOT! HOT HOT HOT HOT!" Pump screamed, as he was literally on fire and running away to cool off.

"Um... He could've just jumped in the river..." Ladybug pointed out. But then the angels turned around to the Evillustrator. "And who are you?!"

"I'm the Evillustrator of the art akumas, and Angels, I've seen who you really are." Evillustrator said with a smirk while holding up his pen.

The girls flinched.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng; Alya Césaire; Chloé Bourgeois." Evillustrator said, listing the names off, causing each girl to recoil or blanche.

"How'd you-?!" Rena began.

"Give me the Miraculous Something Four!" He hollered as he fired the flamethrower again.

The angels were now standing back to back to each other, surrounded by a ring of fire. Nathaniel was on the sidelines, watching in horror.

Ladybug was looking around for an opening to fight, but the heat from the fire was messing with her senses and her airways.

"Now, I'll take those Miraculous Something Four from you." The Evillustrator stated as he held up his pen to draw something to steal the jewelry pieces.

"We're not giving you a thing, dude!" A familiar voice shouted from above.

"Carapace!" The angels sang, delighted at their turtle ally's arrival.

"You again?!" Evillustrator shouted as he started conjuring up more fireballs with his flamethrower to fire at Carapace.

With each ball that was fired at the turtle, Carapace blocked with his shield, confidence in his smile.

"If you calm down an angry heart, then even the fire that burns within will cool off, dude!" Carapace stated.

"Right!" Ladybug shouted as she broke free from the fire, rammed the Evillustrator in the back, and knocked him away.

She used her yo-yo to get the pen away from him so he couldn't draw anything, either. The pen was wrapped in the string, and then Ladybug threw it a fair distance behind her.

"You little...!" Evillustrator shouted as he started radiating angry akuma energy. He then grew to the size of Godzilla (like in a cliché Power Rangers episode where the monster was beaten and then it grew into a giant, prompting the Mega Zord).

All of the angels were freaking out at the sight of this.

Evillustrator then summoned up another pen, and he drew up a huge fireball, firing it at Ladybug. She tried to block with her yo-yo, but the flames surrounded her again.

"NO!" Nathaniel screamed.

"Love... WILL... WIN!" Ladybug shouted before activating the Miraculous Something Old. "Lady's Crystal!"

She grabbed the crystal and started sucking up all of the fire. The fire that was surrounding her, and the stuff the Evillustrator was blasting at her. It was more hatred than she was used to, but she powered through and kept sucking it up until it was all gone.

"Engagement Present! Lady's Crystal! L'amour Pour Vous!" Ladybug shouted, firing a giant blast of love waves.

Not only did the waves hit their target, but instead of exploding into sparkles like usual, the Evillustrator just shrunk back down to normal size and gently floated down, sparkles surrounding him. He was on his knees.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Ladybug shouted as magical ladybugs flew all over the city, fixing the damage.

"Yes!" Queen Bee cheered, while Nathaniel, still watching, was in shock.

Ladybug walked over to the akuma.

"J... Just kill me," Evillustrator said, serious. He turned to Ladybug and scowled. "KILL ME!"

"No." Ladybug said simply with a smile.

Evillustrator's eyes popped open at that refusal.

"Is hating each other really necessary? The only solution?" Ladybug gently questioned as she knelt down to get to eye level with him. "Nothing good comes from hatred. Only more pain and suffering. And then the cycle just repeats over and over again and everyone gets hurt. That's not healthy."

Evillustrator scoffed, saying, "You're such a fool."

He flew off, and vowed to the angels, "You'll regret this one day! You should've just taken me out when you had the chance!"

He then disappeared, with the group looking on.


Night fell, and the Evillustrator was standing on a roof that towered over the city. He was looking up into the sky, questioning the events.

'Why'd they spare me?' Evillustrator thought.

In his mind, Ladybug was talking to him.

"Is hating each other really necessary? The only solution? Nothing good comes from hatred. Only more pain and suffering. And then the cycle just repeats over and over again and everyone gets hurt. That's not healthy."

Evillustrator sighed.

"No..." Volpina said from behind. He turned around and saw the vixen akuma approach, tears in her eyes. "Evey-Honey, you're pitiful..."

"Volpina." Evillustrator greeted.

"Evey-Honey, those damned love waves showered you, and now you can't tell which way is up, or what you're doing!" Volpina declared, clearly distraught.

Evillustrator was silent at her statement.

"Get ahold of yourself, Evey! Go back to being the amazing, cruel, ruthless Evey you were before!" Volpina pleaded.

Evillustrator didn't answer, his eyes going askance.

"No... No, you're not a cruel Evey, you're a cowardly Evey... AND I HATE YOU!" Volpina shouted as she charged forward.

Evillustrator grunted and his eyes widened, feeling something hit him. Volpina was crying as she was close to his body... revealing that she'd changed her flute into a sword and stabbed him in the chest, going completely through him.

"W... Why?!" Evillustrator groaned.

"Evey-Honey..." Volpina wept, before going into a crying fit. "Oh, Evey-Honey, you're no akuma anymore! Those Love Angels stole your soul away! It... It's breaking my heart!"

She pulled away from him, and he fell to his knees.

"I've always respected your cruelty, but look at you NOW!" Volpina cried as she fell to her own knees, then turned away from him. "I don't recognize you! You're not the akuma I've always known... Hell, I don't know you AT ALL! SO LEAVE ME ALONE!"

She flew off, leaving the Evillustrator, but she was crying the whole time.

Evillustrator was grunting in pain. He stood up, and then stumbled a bit.

Back with Nathaniel, he was aimlessly walking around, miserable and wondering what to do.

"Nathaniel..." A weak voice said from behind him. Nathaniel turned around and saw Evillustrator floating down, kneeling and holding his wound.

"What happened to you?!" Nathaniel asked, then gasped. "This wasn't the Love Angels' doing, was it?"

"No... Nathaniel..." Evillustrator groaned. "I've been wanting to tell you that... I've tried possessing many a human, but nobody seemed to work... Until you. You've always been the right fit."

Nathaniel dropped his bag, and rushed over to the Evillustrator, saying, "Don't talk! Just relax!"

He put his hand on the akuma's shoulder.

"I... *Wheeze* It's weird. I've always felt so comfortable in your body... *Cough* You could say you're one of the akumas' chosen people." Evillustrator stated weakly, between gasps for air.

"This isn't the time to be talking about that!" Nathaniel said, his face twisted with worry. "Tell me how we can help you!"

"No... I'm afraid that's impossible," Evillustrator admitted before choking. "So... I think it's time I let you go from the contract, Nathaniel."

Evillustrator took Nathaniel's thumb ring, radiated akuma energy, and then the ring fell off and bounced a few feet away.

Nathaniel looked at it and back to his hand... He felt like he could breathe again. Like all of the burdens, fears, and guilt just evaporated into a puff of smoke.

"Y... You came for me just for that?" Nathaniel questioned, before whirling around to the akuma, fear in his face and tears in his eyes. "Evillustrator, please! Tell me what I can do! there's got to be way to heal you!"

"D... Don't worry about me... I'm beyond saving at this point. There's nothing that can help me now." Evillustrator moaned.

"NO!" Nathaniel screamed.

"It's ironic... I've always had restful sleep, felt so welcome, so at home... Comfy... *URGHH* In... In your body..." Evillustrator spoke. He then turned to Nathaniel and gave him a smile. "The reason I possessed you in the first place was because I could relate to you... I understood the shyness and the pain you were feeling, and... *Cough* You... *GASP* Over time, you... *COUGH*... You became my friend."

"Evillustrator..." Nathaniel wept, tears all but ready to drop. But then something clicked in his mind. "The Love Angels! That's it! They could help!"

He stood up, wiped his tears away, and said, "Evillustrator, just sit tight! I'll be back with help!"

Nathaniel then took off running. Evillustrator looked on after him, and as the redheaded human disappeared into the shadows, the akuma looked up at the full moon.

He saw the cragged textures on the surface of the satellite, and how they were softened by the bright, but gentle light that it radiated. The caress of the moonbeams highlighted the sparkle of the nearby stars, and for an instance, the Evillustrator wanted to get out his sketchpad to capture the beauty.

"The human realm moon really is beautiful... Pretty enough to draw." Evillustrator commented, but then gasped at what he said.

'What the hell am I saying?! These aren't my words at all!' Evillustrator thought. 'Enough of this nonsense!'

He stood up, and declared, "I am the Evillustrator of the art akumas!"

Lavender-colored lights shot out from his body, and he turned into lavender sparkles, before falling onto the thumb ring. His remains, in the form of the sparkles, lingered...

In the akuma realm...

"Lord Evillustrator was awful!" Volpina reported, stammering on her words and tears. "He was showered in those love waves, and he was about to turn on us... So I... I..."

She covered her face with her hands and started bawling.

"We all know that turncoats are to be executed," Mayura stated coldly. "So don't cry, Volpina. Turn your grief into hatred. Be hateful to all of the love in this world. And turn those tears of sorrow that burst forth from your eyes into droplets of unadulterated hatred."

"I will," Volpina said, before taking a deep breath. She wiped her tears away and smiled wickedly. "Now to business: one of my tools is this stupid human named Nathaniel. A-N-D, I've come up with this clever plan to defeat the Love Angels!"

"Oh?" Mayura questioned.

"Yes. If I send a familiar akuma pet after Nathaniel," Volpina began, before giggling and giving another cruel smile. "Things might get interesting."


With Nathaniel...

"SAY WHAT?!" Chloé screamed.

Nathaniel had ran to Le Grand Paris, only because it was the closest to him. He demanded to see Chloé, saying it was an emergency, and confessed everything to her.

"You mean to tell me that this whole time, an akuma's been possessing your body, Nathaniel?!" Chloé screeched. Pollen was looking at Nathaniel scoldingly, too.

"Y-Yeah..." Nathaniel said, about to start crying again.

"Are you insane?!" Chloé griped, stomping her foot. "Why didn't you fess up about this sooner?! We could've helped you get out of that contract a long time ago!"

"Quite right!" Pollen agreed.

Nathaniel sniffled, his eyes still wet and about to shed, and he said, "You and the others can chew me out later! Right now, I need you to call Alya and Marinette and come with me! And save Evillustrator!"

"Why?! And what are you...?!" Chloé began, only for Nathaniel to fall to his knees, clutch his hands in his hair, and continue sobbing.

"E... Ev... The Evillustrator is gonna DIE!" He wailed.

Chloé looked at him in worry, before scoffing and saying, "Fine, just stop your bawling."

She looked at Pollen.

Once the others were filled in, Nathaniel lead them to where he last left the Evillustrator. But he was gone, save for the sparkling thumb ring.

The girls and kwamis were looking around for the akuma.

"Where'd he go?" Tikki asked.

"Didn't you say here was here, Nathaniel?" Marinette questioned.

"I wonder where he went." Alya asked.

But Nathaniel was kneeling in front of the ring. Seeing it all alone, but no Evillustrator... He knew.

"Evillustrator is... Evillustrator is..." Nathaniel choked, before he went back to crying. Tears were rushing down his face like river rapids, he leaned forward in front of the ring, and sobbed into his crossed arms.

Everyone was looking at him sadly, but Chloé was looking the least upset over the situation.

"Evillustrator was... Evillustrator was an akuma, I get that, but..." Nathaniel wept. "But he gave me, a timid guy with no talent in sports or academics... He gave me power. He showed me how to dream! He was my friend!"

"Nathaniel, I can't believe you're grieving over an akuma! One that was possessing you against your will, at that!" Chloé scolded, earning an angry gasp from the others. "He only gave you phony dreams! Dreams that weren't even meant for you!"

"Chloé!" Marinette scolded. She, Alya, and the kwamis were looking at Chloé, upset with her, cuing her to stop. Even Pollen was looking at her owner in distaste.

"Don't you think I know that now?!" The redhead roared as he rounded on Chloé, his face red as his hair, his cheeks soaked, his breathing rapid and shallow. She flinched.

The kwamis came closer to him to comfort him, Nooroo especially.

"But I've learned this: if there's something I want in life, I can't just sit around and let it come to me! I have to be the one to make the effort to achieve those goals! And HE'S the one who gave me that lesson! Evillustrator was the one who taught me how to live life!" Nathaniel declared, the dams in his tear ducts having fully broken.

Chloé's look softened, and her scowl turned into a sad frown, and her muscles relaxed as the ice in her eyes began to melt.

"AND THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL YOU COULD EVER UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL, CHLOÉ!" Nathaniel hollered, more tears drenching his face.

But then Pump emerged from the streets again, shouting. Nate was snapped out of his anger for a second as everyone gasped at the sight of the familiar akuma.

"Well, Nathaniel, let's turn your anger into power!" Pump shouted as he phased into akuma energy and flew into his body. The redhead screamed while the girls gasped.

Red marks appeared on his face and his eyes turned completely white.

"Since you can't understand how I'm feeling, let's see you feel THIS!" He shouted as he took the water hose and rounded on the girls. He started pumping water in large amounts to spray them.

Chloé got doused and the water was basically surrounding her body Like she was underwater while standing on the ground. And then he fired at the others. Marinette jumped away, and Alya wound up suffering the same soaking as Chloé.

"Nathaniel, cut it out!" Marinette hollered.

But Nathaniel once again tried to douse water on Marinette, but again, she ducked. She tumbled and rolled before standing back up.

"Marinette, we need to stop this!" Tikki shouted.

"Right!" Marinette agreed.

The possessed Nathaniel was laughing maniacally, but then he was blinded by pink light. In the next instance, Ladybug in her suit emerged.

Nathaniel blasted water again, but Ladybug jumped and dodged it. She took out her yo-yo and started spinning it, radiating rainbow-colored love waves.

Nathaniel started groaning and he dropped the water hose. He fell to his knees.

"Nathaniel! Remember your childhood! With us! Remember how your drawing and your artwork was something you love!" Ladybug begged.

Nathaniel's face relaxed as his memories flew back.

~Flashback~

Nathaniel was still a little boy. He at the playground, trying to do a flip on the horizontal bar. He was struggling to lift himself up and do a trick, but his hands slipped and he landed on his tush on the ground.

All of the boys were laughing at him for his inability, and Nathaniel was just sitting there, about to cry.

"ENOUGH!" Someone shouted. Everyone turned and saw one rather short girl with pink hair, blue eyes, and was wearing sports gear. She came over to them, and she said, "Stop laughing at him! You're being bullies!"

"You gotta a problem with this, Alix?" One boy said.

"Yes!" She said.

Nathaniel watched as Alix started beating up the boys in a fight.

Later on, Nathaniel was sitting on a bench, drawing something.

"Hey, Nathaniel!" A familiar voice said.

He turned around and saw Marinette and Alix.

"Oh, hi..." He said.

The girls sat on the bench, flanking him.

"Whatcha' drawing?" Marinette asked.

She then looked at Nate's sketchbook to see some rudimentary-skill-level superhero drawings.

"Just some superhero drawings... Sometimes I like to dream that I'm a superhero who uses creativity and art to defeat the bad guys instead of brawn." Nathaniel admitted.

"That's an amazing idea!" Marinette said in delight.

"Wow! These are amazing drawings! If you keep at it, I'm sure you'll become a professional comic artist!" Alix agreed.

"Forget about sports!" Marinette encouraged.

Nathaniel smiled as he felt so much better at the girls' encouragement.

~End of Flashback~

"Yeah... Yeah, there always have been people looking out for me! Alix, Marinette... my family... Yes!" Nathaniel said, beginning to regain control of himself.

Inside his body, Pump was groaning in pain from the Love Waves and he shouted, "OOWW! THIS HURTS!"

He left Nathaniel's body. The redhead collapsed on the ground, the markings on his face turned back to normal.

"Alright, time to get this evil out of here," Ladybug said as she started spinning her yo-yo. "Ladybug Bridal Blast!"

She blasted white love waves at Pump, and his face turned from angry to peaceful. He laughed before flying into the night sky, singing, "Love gets me pumping with joy!"

Ladybug sighed before looking at everyone else on the ground.

"Is everyone okay?" Ladybug shouted as she ran over to help Alya sit up.

Nathaniel sat up, saw the girls, and said, "Everyone alright?"

He watched Chloé sit up, and he asked, "Chloé, you okay?"

"I'm fine," She reported as she sat up. "But my clothes and hair... UGH, they're ruined!"

Nathaniel chuckled, saying, "Yeah, you're fine."

Ladybug was looking at her friends, satisfied, and she changed back.

She and Alya stood up and said, "Let's head home for the night, okay?"

She winked at Alya. She nodded, and said, "Yeah, good idea."

Alya quickly typed something up on her phone and sent it. Chloé's phone went off, and then she picked it up and read the message.

"Marinette and I are going to go on ahead. You need to apologize to Nathaniel. What you said to him while he was crying earlier was very insensitive!" The message said.

She read it over a few times, thought it over, then crossed her arms and said to Nate, "Okay, let's talk."

Nathaniel looked at her questioningly as Marinette and Alya left.

The two girls were sitting on a bench with a napkin filled with cookies between them. The kwamis were out, and they were munching on the cookies.

"So, you think Chloé's actually going to apologize to Nathaniel?" Alya asked as she ate a cookie.

"I'm sure she will," Marinette said as she gave Tikki some juice to drink. "She can use this as another lesson to learn."

"Everyone makes mistakes," Tikki said as she drank her juice. "Nathaniel made the mistake of making a deal with an akuma, for one."

"Yeah..." Trixx agreed.

"Hey, you girls had some balls, leaving me alone that way." Chloé said as she and Pollen found the girls.

"Chloé," Marinette said. "Where's Nathaniel?"

"He went home. Said he had some sketches to get done for class," Chloé confirmed as she sat down on the bench with her friends. "Told me that tonight inspired him to draw something relevant to what happened."

"Well, that's good." Alya spoke.

"But he did inquire something," Pollen began. "He asked my queen if there's anything he could do to help."

Alya and Marinette blinked in surprise.

"He asked me if there was anything he could do to help the Love Angels. Said it was the least he could do after all the trouble he caused." Chloé explained.

"That's very sweet of him to offer," Marinette said. "So, what did you answer?"

"I told him that the best way for him to help is to stay out of it altogether," Chloé confirmed. "He's been in the crossfires enough, and if he got involved, he'd only be in even more danger. Isn't that why we're not telling our families anything that's going on?"

"Good call," Marinette agreed. "The fewer non-angels that get involved, the better."

"But I did give him consent to use Queen Bee as inspiration for a new girls' superhero comic series on the grounds he doesn't use the kwamis or file it under non-fiction," Chloé said with a smile. "Just told him to make sure to ask you two before he used Rena Rouge or Ladybug, too."

The girls laughed at this new information.


Poor Nathaniel... He lost a friend. That's pretty sad, isn't it? Akuma or no akuma, I know there are plenty of people who can relate to this kind of thing. Right? But I wonder if the akumas mistook Nathaniel's anger stage in the grieving process for hate? Anger in the grieving stage isn't the same as hate.

Seeing Volpina genuinely grieving over something is, yes, OOC for her, but like I said in the last chapter, I'm trying to make her more annoying and humanize her characteristics a bit... granted, I guess killing WOULD be IC for her, but work with me.

And don't worry about Nathaniel, he'll be back in this story, but not as a love interest for Chloé.

Anyway, enough of the sadness. Coming up, Volpina disguises herself as a human girl and infiltrates the girls' school as a new student named Lila Rossi. But immediately, she rubs the angels the wrong way not only by attracting most of the boys' attention at school, but also by getting close to Adrien, much to Marinette's discomfort! But they have more important things to worry about, including akumas at the hands of Volpina's machinations!

I'm sure this the part that you guys (and me by extension) are dreading. But much like this COVID-19 pandemic, we'll get through this.