Butterfly Effect Elsewhere

by StellarStylus

AU: Chloé Bourgeois is a good person and friends with Marinette and Adrien, but because it's really someone else in her body who got a second chance at life. Events veer off in a different direction: new villains and plot twists, among other things. Insert & Isekai story; based on the plot bunny "Roar Like a Bear, Sting Like a Bee". NEW CHAPTER: "Stoneheart, Part 3"

7. Stoneheart, Part 3

CHAPTER DISCLAIMER: Bits and pieces from The Ellimist Chronicles and #54 The Beginning are cobbled together to show more of Rachel's original fate (SPOILER ALERT!), as well as a significant quote from #27 The Exposed and a scary flashback from #1 The Invasion.
TRIGGER WARNING (albeit more for Miraculous fans than Animorphs fans): Considerable violence and some bloody details, but seeing as it was Rachel's final battle, that should be no surprise.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I am SO SORRY it took this long to update. I was having problems with making this story work, and I was also dealing with a lot of crap in Real Life too. I promise it won't be months and months until the next update!
IMPORTANT NOTICE: So I had some fan art for this chapter commissioned (a certain "group photo") but it won't be done for a while, and I have a few other illustrations for this story in the works, so please be sure to check this story on AO3 often. I'll let you know when new illustrations are included!

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CHAPTER 7: Stoneheart, Part 3

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She must have been dreaming and remembering again…

The war was almost over, and this would be her final mission.

The other Animorphs were taking the Pool ship, and on it, their nemesis Visser One (formerly Visser Three; his promotion had marked the beginning of the end for them).

But Rachel was infiltrating the deadly Blade ship, carrying out her grim final mission.

On it were dozens of Controllers, and virtually all of them morph-capable, thanks to the Andalite morphing technology which they'd finally managed to steal for themselves. These Yeerks could tell that their Empire was finished and would fully collapse any day now, and so they hoped to escape and carve out a new place for themselves somewhere in the galaxy.

And leading this little faction was Visser Seventeen, who up until this point was Visser One's head of security.

And this Yeerk's host was someone who Rachel knew too well, someone she would have dearly loved to save but now couldn't save, because the Yeerk in his head had to die.

(Never mind the fact that she'd also been assigned to do this in order to kill this same involuntary host, to put him out of his misery before he was lost to them forever. Did that technically make it a mercy killing, as opposed to just a murder?)

She knew she wouldn't be coming back from this alive, but as long as she managed to eliminate her sole target and get the job done, then she would go to her death without complaint.

It was her final battle, and so Rachel decided to enjoy every moment of it. Becoming her beloved grizzly bear one last time, she engaged them all in combat, repaying each crippling blow to her with a killing blow to them. A polar bear, a cape buffalo, a pair of lionesses… she wasn't intimidated by any of them. She didn't let little problems like mangled limbs or ruined eyes stop her from fighting with all her strength, and within moments, the ship's deck displayed her violent handiwork. The deck was soon littered with the bodies of her fallen foes and slick with their blood, and various consoles and equipment were damaged in the savage battle.

Rachel dimly registered the console for the ship's Z-space drive getting damaged in the struggle as her window of opportunity opened up. Maybe now they wouldn't be able to flee the solar system, and someone else could catch them? But now she could barely see anything now from all the damage she'd sustained…

Fortunately, her teammates were watching from the now-captured Pool ship, and they assisted her through the Yeerk ships' communication systems. Now she knew when and where to strike…!

And just like that, the horrible deed was done. Thanks to a grizzly bear's powerful jaws, the cobra — or rather, the Controller in cobra morph — was dead.

And now she was dead too, for there was no getting out of this alive…

She demorphed one last time, if only so she could die as a human being and give one last message to her friends and teammates as they watched from the other ship...

And here came another Controller, this one in polar bear morph, raising his massive paw high…

Her enemy delivered the killing blow—

But then the memory vanished in a flash, and Rachel was standing all alone in the darkness.

"What?" she exclaimed. "Where am I!?"

She looked around wildly, ready to call out for help, when she heard a new voice…

"Ah, Rachel, my favorite Animorph," a familiar voice sneered. "So, have you heard back from the Ellimist yet? Any clue as to whether he had anything to do with you being here, in this alternate universe? Maybe just to spite my boss Crayak?"

And then it appeared.

A bipedal creature approached her, its body held forward and balanced by a stubby tail and walking like a bird or a small dinosaur. Its multiply jointed hands were these weak, flimsy things which must have been designed for very light work for very low gravity. Its head was vaguely human in shape, with a narrow lower jaw and wide-set, intelligent, laughing eyes. Its dark flesh was almost black and very wrinkled, while its eyes and mouth were rimmed in green.

Of course Rachel knew who it was; how could she forget a creature as vile as this one?

"Drode," she snarled.

Crayak's lackey — this alien calling himself the Drode — stood before her, grinning his sick grin.

"Hello again, Rachel," he said jovially, as if he were greeting an old friend. "Still my favorite Animorph… well, even if you're not technically an Animorph anymore. So, how are you doing these days?"

She glowered at him.

"What, you don't like revisiting your Greatest Hits?" he grinned. "Especially not your swan song, it seems. What a pity, given the extravagance of your farewell tour…"

"Knock if off with all the music metaphors," she growled, trying not to think about all the sheer carnage and destruction she'd left in her wake. "Just get to the point."

"Oh, no point really, just stopping in to say hello and see how you were doing," Drode laughed, slowly walking around her. "And sure enough, you were revisiting your final battle. It always comes back to that, doesn't it? Obvious, really… so inevitable."

"Congratulations, you know how 'chronological order' works," she snarked. "Give yourself a gold star."

"Oh no, it's not that," the Drode sneered. "It's just fun for me, watching you revisit your worst memories, beating yourself up over it. How ironic, really… the last person you ultimately killed was one of the last people you ever wanted to kill. After all, he was your brave leader Jake's main reason for fighting, wasn't he?"

Rachel held her tongue, not wanting to think about her own personal connections here. Guilt and shame clawed at her insides, ripping to tear her apart from the inside out…

"Still," the Drode said with a shrug, looking almost sympathetic, "can't really blame you there. The Yeerk in his head, Istudd Five-Zero-One, he was a really crazy little slug… and even by the standards of the ambitious and hypocritical Yeerk Empire, that's saying something."

"Hmph," she grunted, not wanting to think anymore about that particular Yeerk. Or any of the Yeerks, for that matter.

But before she could say anything else, the Drode suddenly interjected with something else:

"Besides, we got you to kill your cousin, didn't we? Just like I said we would?"

Those words shocked her to the core.

She remembered, all those years ago and in another universe, when the Drode first tormented her, tempted her with a metaphorical "Deal with the Devil"…

"If you ever find yourself desperate, Rachel. At the end. In need. Remember this: your cousin's life is your passport to salvation in the arms of Crayak."

All that time, Rachel thought he'd been talking about getting her to kill her cousin Jake, the leader of the Animorphs. But no, perhaps he'd been slyly hinting at something else instead…

Were they actually trying to get her to kill Tom all along?

"Deep down you knew, didn't you?" Drode cackled.

Tom's fate flashed through her mind again, with the Yeerk controlling him — Istudd 501 — begging for mercy with Tom's voice…

‹Jake, stop her!›

‹I'm sorry, Tom.›

Rachel cringed, trying not to remember it, with her grizzly bear jaws against his cobra body—

Clutching her head, she screamed.

"I HAD NO CHOICE!"

"Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that," the Drode cackled. "You could have let him get away, be forever lost somewhere else in the galaxy… not the most ideal choice, but technically still a choice."

"Don't you dare play jailhouse lawyer with me," she snarled as she glared at him.

"Well, one thing's for sure, I wouldn't want to be your lawyer representing you," the Drode cackled some more. "Think about it! Suppose you did survive all that in the end; what would people have thought of you then ? Would you and your merry little band of morph-capable rebels have been hailed as heroes, or tried as war criminals?"

As Rachel balked at him, he just grinned at her and continued: "Come on, now, you remember all those details from that final battle, don't you? Like how you overheard that report of the Pool ship flushing all that defenseless Yeerks into space? You just know that Jake did that for your sake. What a hero, that sainted Jake Berenson! The leader of the Animorphs giving the order to flush more than seventeen thousand Yeerks — more than seventeen thousand defenseless prisoners of war — into the freezing void of outer space… as a distraction all so you can kill just one measly target. And even then, it was personal rather than strategic."

Rachel couldn't move, couldn't even breathe; she couldn't deny the horrible logic behind the Drode's words…

"Hm, maybe that's why you volunteered for that suicide mission without much hesitation?" the Drode smoothly continued. "Because you didn't want to live the consequences of all the things you did, individually or as a whole with the rest of the team?"

Taking advantage of Rachel's continued stunned silence, the Drode laughed, "Heck, just think about it! Jake could be rotting in a jail cell even as we speak in the other universe! Maybe the rest of them too! Tobias, Cassie, Marco, anyone else lucky enough to survive… and don't think your alien friend Aximili would get off easy with his people either! Knowing those hypocritical sanctimonious Andalites, they probably would have treated him just as badly as Alloran after the Quantum Virus debacle way back when!"

Rachel didn't want to hear it anymore, and she definitely didn't want to imagine any of the others suffering like that. No way they could have been tried for war crimes; it was all self-defense! They were all heroes! She was the one who did the dirty work so they could keep their hands clean!

She didn't have to take it from this monster pretending to be a sentient being. "Just get lost, Drode!"

"You know what?" Drode grinned. "I just can't help but keep thinking: It would be interesting, to see what your fellow Animorphs might say if they could think of you now…"

"Shut up."

"Living it up in Paris as a rich girl in a completely different universe, while they spend the rest of their lives cleaning up your mess back home…"

"Shut up!"

"I guess murdering your kin really has its rewards, huh?"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

But Drode just cackled. "So easy to get a rise out of you. But then again, you were always the most violent and most reckless out of any of them, so that's to be expected."

Rachel fell silent but glowered at him.

"So," Drode leered as he clapped his hands together, "what fun will we have this time? Quite a life you got for yourself this time around. Those two new friends of yours, Adrien and Marinette, they both seem pretty nice… maybe we'll get you to kill them instead." He said this with a disgustingly cheerful tone, as if killing one's best friends was a perfectly normal and wholesome activity.

"DON'T YOU DARE!" Rachel roared.

"Or," Drode leered even more, "maybe I should tell them your big dark secret. Let them get acquainted with Rachel the Animorph. Let them know all the terrible things you've done in the name of a just cause. Let them see you at your most vicious and most savage. Then we can see how much they like you after that."

Rachel growled and glared at the Drode, not trusting herself to say anything. If looks could kill, then he would have been reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.

"Oh, heck, why not do both? First expose your deep dark secret just for the shock value, then get you to kill them," the Drode said cheerfully.

"GET OUT!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going," the Drode said, holding up his hands as if in surrender. But then, with a flick of his wrist like a magician with his playing cards, that picture of Chloé at her twelfth birthday party with Marinette and Adrien by her side appeared in his hand. And in the next instant, it burst into flame.

Rachel screamed in outrage, while the Drode chuckled as he leapt backwards, dropping the burning photograph which was ashes by the time it hit the ground.

"Come now, you didn't really think you could escape the consequences of your old life forever, could you?" the Drode cackled. "Because I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer this time around."

And with that, he was gone in an instant.

And she just stood there, seething…

The Drode was gone… but Rachel still wasn't alone.

The scene around her, the very air itself, flashed blood-red…

Swallowing, Rachel looked up.

Looming over her was a towering bio-mechanical monstrosity, atop which sat a big red eye.

And it was looking directly at her!

Crayak — the same godlike being whom only the Ellimist could oppose, the master whom the Drode served — swiveled that big red eye directly at her, its gaze burning into her, an evil sun.

And then it laughed at her.

With a flash of bright and fiery red light, Crayak's booming laughter resonated through everything, through her body, through her very soul, threatening to rip her apart to the most basic atoms…

---

She woke up screaming and gasping for air.

She felt horrible. Once again, not enough sleep.

After a few moments and realizing it was just a dream, she simply lay there in her bed fit for a princess, trying to wring as much rest out of it as she could.

Rachel knew it had to be a dream. After all, why would the Drode or his master Crayak appear to her in her sleep if either of them could just as easily do it in waking life by freezing time itself, just like the Ellimist could? But it still disturbed her.

It was one of her most shameful moments, arguably her worst memory of all: Being forced to kill Tom, her own cousin and Jake's older brother, in order to kill the Yeerk in Tom's head and "free" him.

It was the last thing Rachel did before she died, so naturally it all came back to that in the end.

She rolled over in bed and lay face down, pressing her face into the pillow as she tried to suppress her emotions and muffle any kinds of sounds she might make…

I'm sorry, Tom, she thought to herself as she pressed her face into her pillow as far as she could.

She had already killed so many Controllers aboard this ship, but there was only one Yeerk who she needed to kill: Visser One's chief of security, named Istudd 501. (Well, now former chief of security, as he had turned traitor on Visser One himself.)

A Yeerk whose involuntary host just happened to be Rachel's cousin and Jake's older brother Tom.

And Tom's unfortunate plight as an involuntary host, as a slave to the Yeerk in his head, had been Jake's whole reason for fighting and for being their leader.

Jake had sent her to kill his own older brother. At least that way, Tom would be free in death and not a slave for the rest of his life, lost to them deep in space wherever the Blade ship was headed.

…Well, assuming that the Blade ship managed to escape from Earth at all; during her final fight on the Blade ship, the console for the ship's Z-space engine had been severely damaged. So maybe the rest of her side got lucky and they'd been able to stop those renegade Yeerks from escaping to parts unknown?

It didn't look like she would ever know for certain.

And she would need to live with that.

Except now it was spilling into this new life of hers.

Funny, Rachel thought to herself; she used to be afraid of whatever alien threats this new universe contained, but now she was also afraid of infecting everyone else here with her own kind of insanity.

And, as usual, all she could do was to keep it all secret and act normal. And that meant keeping her inner demons at bay.

Rachel lifted and turned her head to glance at both her bedside clock and the big window, and she could see that it was still too early.

And then she'd noticed that her face was wet, and the spot on the pillow previously occupied by her face was also damp.

She burned with shame. Thinking about her cousin Tom like that again must have hit harder than she thought it would.

Even after three years or so since she remembered everything, she still got upset enough, thinking about it and what she'd done. And she couldn't tell anyone about it.

As she wiped her face, Rachel took a moment to gaze out the window at the rosy dawn. She tried to set her mind at ease, and she went about getting ready for the next day.

After calling downstairs for breakfast, she turned her attention to her wardrobe. Part of her wanted to wear the same outfit as yesterday, as she didn't get to wear it for an entire school day, but she decided against it. Instead, she went with one of her more "casual" ensembles: A yellow T-shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt, a pair of black jeans, and blue sneakers.

She was done getting dressed just as the food arrived. "Good morning, Chloé," her butler greeted her as he wheeled in her breakfast.

"Good morning, Jean."

"I also come bearing a message from your father," Jean said dutifully. "He apologizes for not having seen you all day yesterday, and he hopes that you can understand how busy he is during this crisis."

Clearly, Jean was worried that Chloé would be upset by not having spent any time with her father for more than a day, but she just waved it aside.

"It's perfectly fine, Jean," she reassured him. "Like you said, it's a crisis. I can wait until he has spare time again."

Not that she didn't want to see her father, but truthfully, she was fine with not seeing him this morning, if only so he wouldn't see her like this.

"Actually," Jean added, peering over her shoulder, "we still need to do something about that ."

She turned to see what he was looking at, and realized it was her punching bag, still lying on the ground from when it fell yesterday.

"Right, I didn't forget," Rachel said, turning back to Jean. "I suppose you could get someone to fix that while I'm at school today."

"Of course. I was just about to ask you, is there any special message you would like for me to pass along to your father?"

"Yeah… just let him know that I'm alright and I love him."

"That I shall. If there is nothing else, Mademoiselle."

"Nah, I'm good, Jean. Have a great day."

After he departed, Rachel ate her breakfast in peace. She felt better once she'd had enough to eat, and she got her things together to go to school.

As she passed the mirror, she stopped and took a good look at herself. She'd long since gotten used to seeing Chloé's face look back at her instead of Rachel's face, but a small part of her still mentally protested, insisting that it was wrong.

That, and she could see how tired and unhappy she looked.

But she refused to wallow in self-pity. Every time she got knocked down, she got back up. Alright, so you had a bad day yesterday, she thought to herself. A supervillain ran amok and you got into an argument with your best friend. But it's not the end of the world. You've dealt with so much worse than this; this is nothing compared to all that other stuff. You can — you will — get through this too.

Rachel struck a confident pose in the mirror, complete with her backpack sitting by her feet. Yep, I look good to go.

And with that, she was gone, on her way to school again.

At least she didn't run into that other rich girl from yesterday in the lobby again. Thank goodness for small miracles, she thought.

However, she could see the shift in tone and mood among the hotel's guests, compared to yesterday. It was the nervous feeling about whether or not they should check out and leave the city while all this was going on.

She didn't see anyone swarming the front counter, demanding to be checked out as soon as possible, but she could hear the various guests muttering things among themselves…

"I heard there's still a big gaping hole in the school where that rock monster first appeared…"

"What's the deal with that high-rise building that got knocked down? Was there anybody inside?"

"No, thankfully no one was actually inside the building when it collapsed — it was empty because they were renovating it or something — but I heard lots of people around had to be rushed into the hospital for inhaling dust and stuff…"

"What about that boy who got turned into the rock monster in the first place?"

"What about all those other clones of the thing scattered around the city?"

"What about those two superheroes?"

Rachel grimaced as she recalled her telephone conversation with Marinette, and how she got her "best friend" upset by criticizing Ladybug and Cat Noir in that offhand way. She still needed to fix that.

Rachel got into the car, and she allowed herself to rest a little. Hopefully, she could catch five minutes' worth of sleep, maybe even ten minutes' worth if she was lucky.

"I know I'm really early again this morning, but no rush," she told the driver. "Please, take your time."

He nodded, and she leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes and letting her mind drift away…

Rachel was back on the Blade ship, standing in the middle of her grisly handiwork.

Her final mission was completed.

And now she was destined to die alone.

But she had one last message for her fellow Animorphs, especially for her boyfriend Tobias:

"I love you."

She strayed strong; she had to stay strong, even as the rest of them turned away so they wouldn't see what would happen next…

A Controller in polar bear morph approached her and said to her, ‹You fight well, human.›

And then he killed her with a single blow.

…

Time stopped.

The Ellimist came to her.

"You," Rachel said accusingly.

"Yes."

"Who are you?" she demanded. "Who are you to play games with us? You appear, you disappear, you use us, who are you, what are you? I deserve an answer."

"Yes," he said. "You do. To this question I will give all the answer I know. And when you know me, you will ask another question. And I will answer that question too. And then…"

So he told his story to her. It spanned many millions of years, and the most important parts happened well before the dinosaurs themselves went extinct.

That was how ancient he was. That was how far-reaching this whole drama was.

And as he told his tale, she followed along the best she could, trying to understand…

Finally, he was done telling his tale.

"Now you know who I am. What I am."

"Yeah. You were a kid. Like me in some ways, a kid who got in way too deep and couldn't get back out."

"A kid."

"You were trapped. You still are. I've been trapped."

"Yes."

"Was I one of your game pieces? Were all six of us just game pieces?"

"I did not cause you to be one of the six. You are… you were… a happy accident. An unwitting contribution from the human race to its own survival."

"You said I could ask one more question."

"Yes."

"I can't ask if we win, I can't ask if it will all turn out okay."

"I don't know those answers."

"Okay, then answer this, Ellimist: Did I… did I make a difference? My life, and my… my death… was I worth it? Did my life really matter?"

"Yes. You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered."

"Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then."

Rachel wondered if—

She jolted back awake with a start. It took her a moment to realize that it was her driver tapping the interior of the car, the window which separated the front from the back.

"We're here, Chloé," the driver told her. "I even went around the block a few times for you. You looked pretty out of it."

"Thanks," Rachel said a little weakly. Stifling a yawn, she said, "I needed to catch a few winks."

"Have a great day, Chloé!"

"Thanks, you too."

As she got out of the car and walked up the steps into the courtyard, she thought back to that last conversation with the Ellimist.

"A happy accident" — that was what he had called her. That was what she'd been in her previous life, when she was still truly Rachel.

But then… what she was doing here, in this life and in this world? What was all this — another happy accident?

Her merely being here certainly felt like an accident, but she didn't see anything "happy" about it.

If anything, she just felt "trapped" all over again.

And she couldn't stop thinking about it…

Was she still brave? Was she still strong? Was she still good? Did she still matter?

She had a feeling that if she were to wait for anyone to come along and answer those questions for her, then she'd be waiting a very long time.

She had just about given up on any higher power like the Ellimist appearing before her now to shed some light on the situation. After all, it wasn't as if that nigh-immortal, time-stopping meddler couldn't find the time just to talk to her for a few minutes.

Rachel collected herself. It was time to stop thinking about alien invasions and godlike higher powers and start worrying about school and homework again.

Her train of thought was derailed when she walked into the courtyard and noticed a large cluster of students in a distant corner. It was just about everyone in her class! And they were all gathered around Ivan, who looked like he just wanted to disappear into a hole in the ground.

"Hey, what's going on?" she muttered to Sabrina as she walked up to them.

"It's about Ivan," Sabrina said worriedly in a hushed tone, standing on the edge of the group. "He was Stoneheart."

"Yeah, I saw that video too," Rachel muttered to her.

"And he doesn't remember anything," Sabrina added, "but that doesn't seem to stop most people from asking about it anyway."

Then something else occurred to Rachel. "Wait, I saw your dad get injured," she realized. "How's he doing?"

Sabrina grimaced a little. "He's doing alright, but his arm will be in that sling for a while."

The rest of their classmates were clustered around, asking Ivan what it was like, and the boy was becoming increasingly agitated.

Rachel sighed. She really felt bad for Ivan.

She couldn't help but wonder how much it was like being an involuntary host, a slave to a Yeerk in one's own head…

She thought back to that one time, relatively early on in their war, when Jake had accidentally fallen into a tub of dying Yeerks and had been infested by one of them. They'd figured it out almost right away when he snapped at Ax, calling him " Andalite filth!" So they'd kept Jake tied up in an abandoned old shack in the woods and kept a watch on him. Meanwhile Ax himself morphed Jake and pretended to be him for three consecutive days as they starved the Yeerk to death, fooling the rest of Jake's family.

Even now, Rachel remembered how deeply affected Jake had been by that whole experience, once he was free and in control of his own body again.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Rachel decided to see what she could do for her friends here and now, in this life. She turned her attention back to Ivan who was being bombarded with questions from their classmates…

"So you really don't remember anything?" Alix asked Ivan.

"You were totally going ballistic. It was so cool!" Juleka exclaimed, with what Rachel personally felt was too much enthusiasm for a situation like this.

And sure enough, Kim was still being his usual self, even after what had happened with Ivan.

"Dude, you almost killed me!" Kim exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I wasn't myself…" Ivan muttered.

"Oh, give him a break, Kim," Rachel interjected, walking up to them. "Either way, you shouldn't have been egging him on in the first place."

Everyone else turned to look at her. Kim reared back as if she'd slapped him. "Well, how was I supposed to know he would get all angry and turn into a monster on me?"

Now Ivan looked furious at being called a "monster."

"Don't listen to him, Ivan," Rachel said. "You're not a monster."

He seemed to calm down a little, and looked a little grateful to her too. "Thank you, Chloé," he mumbled.

"Anytime, Ivan."

And for a moment, there was blissful silence, as everyone tried to figure out what to discuss next…

But then someone else strode up to their group to cause trouble.

"Wait, I know you," a female voice with an Eastern European accent said.

Rachel turned around, and who should it be but that other girl from the hotel. She was wearing the same outfit again today, as well as a lot of make-up which (in Rachel's honest opinion) made her look more ridiculous than attractive.

So much for small miracles, she thought to herself as she resisted the urge to curse out loud. Now she had to play it cool.

Rachel also took into account the large boy standing behind her, a boy just as tall as Kim but also quite fat. In fact, he was so fat that he looked like he should be forced to skip some meals, especially with those multiple chins. His short, straw-color hair seemed pasted onto his scalp, and his hazel eyes looked like little rocks in their sockets. He was wearing a flannel shirt as well as suspenders which seemed to be at their limit.

"We meet again," Rachel said diplomatically, turning her attention back to the girl. "So that was you who checked into my family's hotel yesterday? I hope you're enjoying your accommodations. I'm—"

"Chloé Bourgeois," the other girl interrupted her, almost sneering the words as if they were something nasty. "Yes, I know who you are. But do you know who I am?" Putting her hand to her chest, the other girl declared, "I am Irina Afanasyeva, daughter of Nikolai Afanasyev the Russian energy mogul!"

"Right, I've heard of you," Rachel replied. "Welcome to our fair and beautiful city of Paris."

"And you'd better welcome me!" Irina scoffed. "My father is currently in talks with yours to include Paris and the rest of France with his trans-continental pipeline for oil and natural gas! How else do you expect to keep the lights on in the City of Lights? Without us, you'd burn out in no time!" And then she chuckled at her own joke as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

Rachel merely raised an eyebrow, even as she fought to keep her irritation at bay. She knew this type of girl too well; lots of rich girls acted like this one, more or less.

It was also much like the type of girl she used to be as Chloé, before her "Rachel memories" came bubbling up to the surface, bit by bit.

"Oh, and this is Dieter Stern, my best friend," Irina added, as if it were a mere afterthought. "Our fathers are friends, so I guess that makes us friends too."

Rachel couldn't help but cringe at what Irina was saying and just how she was saying it. Honestly, this girl was the living embodiment of the spoiled rich girl!

" Ja , nice to meet you," Dieter spoke up, with a noticeable German accent. "You should all be pleased to meet Irina Afanasyeva, she's the best girl I know!"

He looked like he wanted to say more than that, but Irina swiftly cut him off. "Hush, Dieter, let the important kids talk," Irina snapped, her voice like a cracking whip.

Dieter instantly shut up, although he did look rather disappointed at not being allowed to talk.

"So, Irina," Rachel began, "if you don't mind my asking, what are you doing here at this school?"

"Oh, well, since I'll have to be here for a while, Daddy thinks I should go to school here — honestly, like I can't just use all my tutors!" She scoffed. "But Daddy thinks it will be good for me, so I guess I can make him happy."

Something about the way she said that made Rachel wonder about Irina's maturity and mental age. But it also did nothing to quell the growing irritation she felt at having to listen to this other girl…

"Anyway," Irina continued babbling, "I heard such good things about this school, and I figured that it must be good, because Daddy mentioned it and the mayor sends his own daughter to this place! But looking around…" (here, she made a dramatic display of looking around the courtyard, but especially focusing on Rachel's classmates) "…I'm shocked, just shocked I tell you, by certain elements around here!"

Rachel could hear them muttering angrily behind her, and could even feel them bristling behind her. Her protective side came out, the one which was always ready to defend her friends…

"Please, Irina, define 'certain elements' for us," Rachel ground out, really starting to lose her patience.

"Oh, you know," she whispered conspiratorially, "commoners." Then raising her voice back up to normal levels, she declared, "Girls like you and I really shouldn't associate with such common people. I keep hearing about how people call you 'the Princess of Paris,' but I don't see anything special or noble about you, Chloé Bourgeois."

"If you knew anything about me, then you'd know why the people like me so much," Rachel hissed. "And it's not because of my family or its wealth and power."

While Rachel wasn't that big a fan of the "Princess of Paris" moniker, even if it was meant as an affectionate nickname, she could see why the people of Paris did that; she had a reputation as someone who genuinely cared about other people. Whenever she did something like a fundraising campaign for disease research or visiting sick children in the hospital for Christmas, people noticed and could see the sincerity in her actions and her words. A few people here and there had accused the Bourgeois heiress of only doing it to make herself look good or bolster her father's political image, but they were drowned out by the majority of people who could tell that she meant it.

(What nobody knew was that Chloé Bourgeois — Rachel — also did it out of a sense of guilt for her past sins, and because it helped keep her mind busy so she wouldn't think too much about her bloody past. Maybe that made her good deeds just a tad selfish, but she had to cope somehow.)

"For goodness' sake, you're even dressing like them today!" Irina exclaimed, gesticulating wildly at Rachel's apparel for the day. "What happened to that outfit from yesterday? That looked so much better than what you're wearing right now!"

"Gee, I didn't know I needed to consult you," Rachel retorted with a hard roll of her eyes. "I've got fashion sense to spare, thank you very much.

"And for that matter," Rachel added, before Irina could speak up again, "watch what you say about my friends and classmates. I don't need to hear this kind of crap from you or anyone else. Let me put this into terms I think you might understand: If they're 'commoners' then they're my 'commoners.' You got that?"

Irina just balked and stared at Rachel as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "We'll talk more later, just try not to offend everyone here at Francois Dupont before the day is out," Rachel said, turning away to rejoin her classmates.

But then Irina's voice said something which made Rachel freeze in her tracks: "Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!"

Rachel jolted, in spite of herself. Did this other girl really just quote her mother, Audrey Bourgeois herself, the self-anointed "Style Queen" of the fashion world?

Rachel turned around to look at Irina again, and the Russian girl was grinning nastily at her. "Isn't that the Style Queen's catchphrase? Papa was just finishing up some business deals in New York City about a year ago, and I got to meet Audrey Bourgeois herself! Truly a bold and fearless woman, knows what she's doing! Although…" (and here Irina tapped her finger to her chin, as if pondering something which she already knew the answer to) "… she never said anything about her daughter and only child." Dropping her hand from her face, Irina then leaned in and said with a nasty grin: "Almost as if she didn't even have one! "

Rachel might have had thick skin, but she also had a no-nonsense attitude which could be dangerous when combined with her hostility, and right now Irina was really getting under her skin.

But try as she might, Rachel couldn't help but think of all the younger years in this life when she was a spoiled brat, acting like Audrey just because Audrey herself couldn't be bothered to be there. It all went back to that "business trip" which Audrey never really came back from, except for the occasional visit to Paris for Fashion Week over the years, and with little Chloé Bourgeois wondering why won't Mommy come back home and be with me again…

And since then, she had truly come to loathe the Style Queen's infamous catchphrase: "Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" In fact, Rachel now loathed it so much that she absolutely refused to say it, and wouldn't even use the words "utterly" and "ridiculous" in the same sentence if she could help it.

And as much as Rachel missed her original mother and father from her previous life, she dearly wished she could have at least had a stable loving family this time around. With all due respect to André and Audrey Bourgeois, they'd made it so easy in the past for her to miss and long for Dan and Naomi Berenson instead. (Even if, to be fair, André Bourgeois had come a long way as a father since then…)

Between missing everything she'd had as Rachel Berenson and rueing her messed-up childhood as Chloé Bourgeois, it really rankled at her.

And she could just feel herself getting so angry…

Irina was still shooting her mouth off, saying something nasty, but whatever it was, Rachel couldn't hear it, because now she felt her blood pressure rising as she glared at the newcomer…

Whatever Irina was going to say next died on her lips, and she finally noticed the furious look etched on Chloé Bourgeois' face. Suddenly, the Russian girl didn't look so confident anymore. No, now she looked more afraid than anything. And out of the corner of her eye, Rachel could see Irina's lackey Dieter starting to look scared, his eyes comically wide.

And by now, the rest of the class had noticed, too…

"Uh-oh," Nino muttered behind her. "Now you've done it, new girl."

"Everybody, back away slowly," Kim declared in hushed but dramatic tones.

"Chloé, please don't do anything stupid," Sabrina whispered to her.

Rose made some fearful whimpering sounds and Juleka tried to comfort her.

"Well, this oughta be good," Alix drawled. She may have sounded more eager than scared, but Rachel could detect a note of worry in the tomboy's voice.

Rachel couldn't blame them. By this point, the now-infamous "Chloé Bourgeois Death Glare" had that effect on people. And now, it was Irina Afanasyeva who was transfixed by a glare which could have melted steel.

Rachel supposed that she should have been flattered that her own classmates thought she was formidable, but for now, all she could focus on was this newcomer Irina and putting the Fear of God into the other girl.

"Hey, come now," Irina said nervously, "no need for that. We were just having a friendly chat, that's all." She tried to laugh it off, but it came out strained and died in her throat.

No one else knew precisely how the young Bourgeois heiress managed to look so terrifying, but Rachel knew it had to be something to do with her leftover anger and fury from her previous life. It was somewhere between "Don't mess with me or my friends" and "Don't mess with me, because I used to kill aliens FOR FUN!"

"Well then," Rachel said smoothly, taking a step towards Irina and causing the other girl to stumble back and making Dieter catch her. "Why don't we cease with the hostilities and resume this conversation some other time… friend? " (But the way she said it made it clear to everyone present just what Chloé Bourgeois thought of Irina Afanasyeva, and it wasn't as a friend.)

It was at times like these that Rachel almost — almost — wished that she could let others know just who and what she really was, if only to see their reactions. If only you knew what I could do, she would think to herself. If only you knew just how awesome and terrifying I used to be…

With her back now pressed against Dieter's large gut, Irina could only look up in fear as the "Princess of Paris" stared her down. Despite the two girls being the same height, somehow the Bourgeois heiress managed to loom over the Afanasyev heiress.

With a growl worthy of her old grizzly bear morph, Rachel growled, "Back off."

"Alright, alright, just back off yourself!" Irina squealed, almost shrieking the words. Forcing herself to calm down, Rachel acquiesced and backed off.

"Weirdo," Irina muttered, trying to regain her composure and making it look as if nothing had happened to scare her, but failing in that regard. And then Irina flinched again when Rachel shot her a fresh new glare, as if to say, "I heard that!"

"Come, Dieter, let's get out of here," Irina declared, as if she hadn't just been scared senseless from picking a fight with the wrong girl.

Rachel watched the pair of them go, eyeing them like a cat eyeing its prey and ultimately deciding to let it go. Once Irina and Dieter were gone from sight, she noticed that she'd gotten some curious spectators scattered around the courtyard. She coolly glanced at all of them as if to say, "What are you all looking at?" Taking the hint, they continued to go about their business as if nothing had happened.

As she closed her eyes and tried to make herself calm down, she heard someone else from behind her. "Uh, Chloé?" Alix spoke up. "You alright there, girl?"

Breathing deeply and her eyes still closed, Rachel muttered just loud enough for them all to hear: "What a bitch."

That got several gasps and a few giggles as well.

"And just in case there was any doubt, no, I don't agree with a single word she said," Rachel added, opening her eyes again and turning around to face them.

"We know, Chloé," Nathaniel spoke up, smiling shyly at her. Rachel felt the corners of her lips twitch upwards.

"We honestly thought you were going to hurt her," Mylène said in hushed tones. "Especially after what you did to that one jerk last time…"

There were only a handful of times when Rachel (as Chloé) had chosen to resort to physical violence in order to protect herself and others, but each time was unforgettable in its own right.

That aforementioned last time, some random jerk on the street had tried getting a little too close and handsy with her. One moment, his hand was grazing her hip, and the next moment, she was breaking his arm.

"That was because that jerk was trying to get fresh with me, and you all know that," Rachel replied, not missing a beat. "Come on, it was self-defense."

"Self-defense," Alix repeated. "Right…"

But then she noticed that one of their group was missing. "Wait, where did Ivan go?" she asked her classmates.

"He left, but we don't know where he went," Nathaniel mumbled.

"I think Marinette was heading in that direction too," Rose piped up. "Maybe she can help him? She's good at helping other people with their feelings."

"I reckon that the odds of that are extremely high, somewhere near ninety percent," Max added. "Perhaps Marinette can help Ivan with what's bothering him."

"Wait, what?" Rachel said. "Marinette was here?"

"We saw her passing by with Alya while you were glaring down that other girl," Juleka explained. And then she added, with a little too much enthusiasm: "Chloé, you gotta teach me how to glare like that!"

Rachel wasn't sure quite how to respond to that, but luckily, Rose spared her from having to give a response.

"No, Juleka!" Rose protested. "There's enough hostility in the world as it is, you don't need to add to it!"

Rachel chuckled softly. Rose might have been the same age as the rest of them, but between the other girl's short stature, bright blue eyes, pixie cut and constantly upbeat attitude, it was kind of hard for Rachel not to think of Rose as being like the "little sister" of the group.

Just then Max noticed the time. "Actually, everyone, we should get to class…"

"You guys go ahead, I want to wait for Adrien, see if he shows up today," Rachel said.

"You really think he'll show up today?" Mylène spoke up.

"Couldn't hurt to find out," the blonde replied with a shrug.

The rest of her classmates walked off to their homeroom… but someone stayed behind.

"What is it, Sabrina?" Rachel said, when she noticed the bespectacled ginger staying put and watching her with a concerned expression.

"You really didn't like dealing with her, did you?" Sabrina asked in a hushed tone. "Did it dredge up too many bad memories?"

Neither girl said it aloud in case anyone could hear them, but they both knew what Sabrina was referring to: That brief period, many years ago, when Chloé Bourgeois and Sabrina Raincomprix were supposedly best friends. (Emphasis on the word "supposedly," because neither the bossy brat Chloé nor the subservient pleaser Sabrina really knew what true friendship was back then.)

Once again, Rachel sighed and closed her eyes, trying not to cringe at the memories of some of the things she did back then as spoiled little Chloé Bourgeois. "It was like looking into some kind of creepy funhouse mirror," she muttered to Sabrina, eyes still scrunched shut.

Rachel tried not to flinch when she felt Sabrina take her hand in her own. Opening her eyes, she looked down at Sabrina, who looked back up at her with a comforting expression.

"It's ancient history, Chloé," Sabrina said reassuringly. "You know that, I know that, and I'm sure they all know that too."

"Thanks, Sabrina," Rachel said, clasping her hand with Sabrina's hand in a small but meaningful gesture of respect and friendship.

"So… I take it you're still waiting for Adrien?" Sabrina said as they separated.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll be there before the bell rings," Rachel claimed.

Sabrina nodded and hurried off to their homeroom.

And as Rachel stood around waiting for Adrien, she remembered what she'd been thinking about earlier when she first walked into the school building this morning.

Should she tell Marinette her big secret or not?

She didn't have that much time remaining, so she made every second count as she thought hard about it. Her own footsteps echoed in her ears, like a clock counting down…

Rachel needed to make a decision by the time she reached the classroom…

---

Adrien rushed as he outran Nathalie and the Gorilla to get to school before they could stop him again.

Yesterday had been a bust, but today he was absolutely determined to go to school, no matter what.

If anything, today was progress for him; not only had he managed to get there on time even with Plagg pestering him every step of the way, but this time, he even got as far as the front steps before Nathalie and the Gorilla caught up with him.

And just like that, he was inside the building before they could stop him.

Maybe later, he would feel really guilty for disobeying them like that… but for now, he basked in his success. He'd finally made it to school!

And now to find my friends, he thought, his heart bursting with happiness.

He quickly scanned the courtyard, looking for any sign of Chloé or Marinette… and sure enough, he found his oldest friend.

"Chloé?" he shouted aloud, trying to call out to her. "Hey, Chloé!"

Her head whipped around, and she smiled brightly. Adrien always admired her for how brave and fearless she was. "There you are!"

Chloé immediately grabbed her book bag and made her way towards him. "Well, good to see you finally made it!" she remarked as they approached each other. Embracing her like a sister, he kissed and hugged her. "Welcome back, Adrien!"

And just then everyone noticed that it was Adrien Agreste among them, and sure enough, some people asked for autographs.

Uncertain, he turned to Chloé for advice. "Do you think I should…?"

"Whatever you want, Adrien," she replied confidently, stepping back to give him some space and let him deal with his fans. That was another good thing about Chloé, Adrien mused: As protective as she was of her friends, she knew when to step back and let others handle things on their own.

To his relief, most of these kids — his fellow students! he realized with a jolt of excitement — were cool about it, just happy to say hello and shake his hand and get his autograph. And since this school and its student population weren't too large, it didn't take too long to get through the crowd as they walked along with them.

"Well, that was fun, and they all seem nice," Adrien commented with a smile. "Now I can't wait to see Marinette and the others, and — Chloé, what's wrong?"

Once the last of them had gone on their merry way, Chloé's smile faded and she began to look serious again. Adrien had known her for long enough to know that something was really bothering her.

"What is it, Chlo?" he asked her quietly.

"Adrien," she began, "do you remember yesterday when I called? I said that the last person I spoke to wasn't happy to hear what I had to say about those new superheroes?"

Of course Adrien remembered; he remembered the sting of Chloé's blunt but innocent criticism of both Ladybug and Cat Noir. And, of course, he also had to remember that Chloé had no way of knowing that he was really Cat Noir.

Adrien nodded, and so she continued: "Well, that person was Marinette."

Grimacing a little, Chloé explained, "Just before you called me, I was talking to her on the phone, and she got upset at something I said. All I did was comment on how Ladybug and Cat Noir did for their debut appearance — not bad, but could have been better — and then she flipped out. She even hung up on me."

Adrien blinked, trying to visualize Marinette Dupain-Cheng doing that, even merely sounding like that over the phone. She was such a sweet girl who rarely if ever got angry; he couldn't even remember the last time she'd lost her temper with anybody or anything.

"She got mad because you criticized Ladybug and Cat Noir?" Adrien asked, repeating the words just to make sure he followed.

"Yeah… I don't get it," Chloé said with a sigh. "I mean, I wasn't trashing them or anything, more like just thinking out loud."

"Well," Adrien said, thinking it over, "maybe she got upset because she thought you meant that you thought we were doomed? You know, just because those two superheroes didn't do a perfect job the first time?"

Chloé looked down, thinking it over. "Maybe," she said at last. "Not at all how I meant it, but I suppose she could have taken it that way." Looking back up at Adrien, she added, "So yeah, she and I still need to talk when we get the chance."

"That's it?" Adrien asked. "She was so upset with you that she hung up on you and hasn't talked to you since?"

"Well," Chloé said slowly, looking sideways, "we might have also argued a bit about something else between me and her. Just a little tiff between us girls, nothing for you to worry about." Suddenly shaking her head and waving her hands in front of her, she added, "Look, just don't bring it up, alright? Just act normal when we both see her again."

Adrien couldn't help but wonder just what had transpired between the girls, but he knew better than to pry. Whenever something like "girl stuff" was invoked as a reason, it was a big sign for him to back off and not get involved.

"Sure thing, Chloé," he reassured her.

She relaxed and smiled at him. "Thanks, Adrien."

And as they walked towards the classroom, Adrien noticed two other girls, one of whom he recognized right away.

"Marinette! Is that you?"

---

Marinette had woken up feeling lousy that morning, especially as she recalled the previous day's events. Between seeing one of her classmates transform into a supervillain, her botched job as a superhero meant to combat that, and then the way her best friend Chloé had been acting all the while.

Groaning, she got out of bed and got ready for the new day.

Her parents had noticed her sadness, and had tried to comfort her. She grinned just a little at her father joking about being a hero named "Super Baker" and coming to the rescue, but it was gone just as quickly.

"It's not just the superheroes and supervillains, Dad," she said at last.

"Then what is it?" Mr. Dupain gently asked.

Marinette began to speak, wanted to tell them about what happened with Chloé yesterday, from the other girl's reaction to the supervillain to the phone call between them which had gone badly… but ultimately said nothing.

It would have felt too much like talking about Chloé behind her back, and Marinette didn't want to do that. No, she would leave her parents out of this, and only turn to them if things really got worse between herself and Chloé.

"Marinette?" she heard her father's voice saying, as it cut through her thoughts.

"Hm? Oh. It's nothing, Dad, really. Just school stuff, not really related to this."

"Well, supervillains aside, is everything alright at school?" Mrs. Cheng asked gently. "That is, are you getting along well with the other students?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," she said, making herself smile a little. "Everyone's fine. We even got one or two new students, and they're really nice."

"Good to know that something good came out of yesterday," her mother replied with a reassuring smile.

"See?" her father said. "Not everything is horrible. You might have even made a new friend yesterday. Speaking of which, don't forget to get ready for school today!"

As she finished her breakfast, Marinette marveled at how optimistic her parents were. Even in a situation like this, with supervillains running around Paris, they still knew how to make their daughter feel better.

"Thanks, Super Dad!" she said. "You too, Super Mom!"

Pleased, her parents gave her a nice big group hug, and she got her things together to go to school.

Marinette winced when she recalled the Ladybug Miraculous — and Tikki herself — being stored away in that small container. Grimacing and resisting the urge to break down again, she retrieved the small container and stashed it in her purse with certainty and resolve.

Hopefully, she could find someone more worthy of it than she.

Her relatively good mood lasted the entire walk there, and she was glad to not have to rescue any old folks from oncoming cars again, but then she bumped into Alya as the other girl was securing her bicycle to the rack.

And the other girl just wouldn't stop going on about the new superheroes…

How would she react if she knew that I'm Ladybug? Marinette thought to herself. Or rather, that I was Ladybug, but not anymore?

Marinette had walked with Alya, waiting for the opportunity to pass off the Ladybug Miraculous to somebody she hoped would be a more worthy wielder.

Marinette had already been thinking back and forth as to whether to bequeath the Ladybug Miraculous to Chloé or Alya. On the one hand, Chloé was a tough girl, and she'd gotten tougher over the last few years… but on the other hand, Marinette thought back to the other girl's dark period, and she wasn't sure she could put Chloé through more hell like that again. Especially considering what happened yesterday…

And in a case of pure serendipity, there was Chloé staring down some other girl while most of their classmates watched with apprehension. Marinette's gut instantly pooled with dread; even from here, she could just feel the anger radiating off the blonde…

As she was trying to figure out what was going on, Marinette noticed Ivan stalking off in a huff.

And so Marinette had graciously parted ways with Alya just to find Ivan and try to figure out what was wrong.

And that was how Marinette ended up sitting next to Ivan, hearing what the problem was.

"Chloé didn't do anything wrong," Ivan told her. "This other girl, this rich new girl, Irina… she was giving me grief because of what happened yesterday…" (And here he grimaced, clearly not wanting to think about that.)

"Wait, so Chloé was sticking up for you back there?" Marinette asked for clarification.

"Yeah."

Yup, Marinette thought to herself, that sounded just like Chloé. The blonde girl was no bully; on the contrary, she was like an "anti-bully," if such a thing existed.

But at the same time, there were occasions when Chloé could take things a bit too far in her defense of others. Case in point: Marinette still remembered that one time, about a year or so ago, when some jerk on the street had called her a nasty anti-Asian slur after she'd accidentally bumped into the stranger. While Marinette was still trying to process what had just happened, Chloé was on the other person in a heartbeat. She was slamming her knee into his gut and then strangling him with her bare hands, as well as threatening to rip his tongue out ("…and make a bow tie out of it!" she'd threatened him) if he didn't apologize right away to Marinette for such disgusting language.

True, Marinette had been a little flattered that her best friend Chloé would go to such lengths for her, and she was secretly glad that she'd gotten an apology… but even after that jerk had choked out that apology and had promptly scampered off, Marinette was still a little rattled from seeing Chloé act like that. It was a little unnerving to her to see Chloé go from "well-behaved young lady" to "violent brawler" — and back again — with the flip of a switch.

Bringing her attention back to the present as well as Ivan's current predicament, Marinette offered what she'd hoped was sound advice for helping him reach out to Mylène. As Ivan got up to go, Marinette felt a little pleased with herself, hoping she'd done the right thing.

After Ivan had hurried off to try and win over Mylène, Marinette met up with Alya again to get to Ms. Bustier's classroom. And in doing so, Marinette was brought back to the real pressing issue at hand: Should she give the Ladybug Miraculous to Chloé or to Alya?

On the one hand, Marinette had only just met Alya, while she'd known Chloé for years… but on the other hand, she was all too familiar with how temperamental and terrifying Chloé could be if provoked, and she didn't sense that kind of problem with Alya…

Besides, Alya was right here, and Marinette didn't know where Chloé was at the moment.

She might not get the opportunity like this again…

But then Marinette saw something else right in front of them, catching her by surprise.

It was Adrien!

He was talking to Chloé (and Marinette felt a small pang of sadness as she recalled yesterday's argument), and both of them were also talking to other students who were greeting Adrien and asking for his autograph which he happily provided for them.

"…Marinette? Marinette!" a voice was urgently whispering to her. She jolted and turned to see Alya peering at her. "Are you alright, girl?"

"Yeah, um, uh," she stuttered. "Adrien…"

"Yeah, I know, it's Adrien Agreste," Alya said matter-of-factly, although Marinette could detect a hint of eagerness in her voice.

"Yeah, I know it's him!" Marinette protested a little defensively. "I've known him just about as long as I've known Chloé!"

"Great, now you can introduce me!" Alya said optimistically. "Because here he comes!"

Marinette felt a sudden urge to panic and run away, but before she could do anything, she heard his voice calling out to her: "Marinette! Is that you?"

Swallowing hard, Marinette gathered whatever courage she could and greeted him in return: "H-h-hi, Adrien, good to see you again! You're looking well."

She hadn't seen him for months, and he'd definitely grown a little since then. His blond hair and green eyes were as bright as she'd ever seen them, and he still had his boyish good looks…

He was also getting his first good look at her in that same length of time, his eyes taking her in. "You look great too, Marinette," she said in that calm, easy way which she found endearing. "So, how is it here at this school?"

"Great, but even better now that you're here!" she heard herself blurting out, and then she noticed Adrien bearing a slightly confused expression… before breaking out into an even bigger smile which made most girls go weak in the knees.

Oh dear Lord, what was wrong with her?

And off to the side, she saw both Chloé and Alya watching this back-and-forth exchange, with what looked like a little too much interest.

And then Marinette heard Alya clearing her throat. "Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners," Marinette stammered, secretly grateful for the distraction. "This is Alya Césaire, she's new here too."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mademoiselle Césaire," Adrien said with a flourish as he took her hand.

"You too," Alya replied, taking it in stride. "And aren't you quite a charmer."

"Nah, I'm just a gentleman," Adrien replied, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

While Alya and Adrien were making small talk to get to know each other a little better, Marinette made eye contact with Chloé. The blonde looked uneasy and somewhat contrite, and couldn't quite meet Marinette's eyes.

The chatter between Alya and Adrien seemed to fade into background noise as Marinette tried and failed to say something. Between her mistakes as Ladybug, Chloé's criticisms of Ladybug when she had no way of knowing that it was really Marinette, and Marinette herself losing it and flying off the handle like that… there was so much to get sorted out.

Marinette wanted to fix everything and get her best friend back, but where to begin?

The aspiring designer was thrown off that train of thought when Alya suddenly exclaimed something.

"Hey, how about we take a picture?" Alya suggested excitedly, grinning brightly as she whipped out her smartphone. "You know, to celebrate Adrien finally coming here? Come on, Sunshine Boy, front and center! Marinette, Chloé, on either side of him…"

Adrien responded almost automatically (he was so used to this as a model), but as he thought about it, he finally said, "Great idea, Alya. I'd love that."

So both other girls fell in next to him, with Chloé on his left and Marinette on his right.

Adrien put his arms around both of them, and Marinette put her left arm around his shoulders too… but even as she posed for the picture, she kept feeling kind of funny…

"…And DONE!" Alya declared, snapping a couple of pictures.

The trio of friends disentangled and approached Alya to see the picture, and they were pleased with the results. "Wow, it looks really good, Alya!" Marinette complimented her.

"Send it to me, and I'll share it with the rest of the class… discreetly, of course," Chloé suggested.

"Yeah, make sure Father doesn't see," Adrien added. "I don't think he'd be happy with anyone taking pictures of me without his permission."

Alya's enthusiasm looked a little dampened by that, and Marinette could just see Alya's thumb hovering over the "send" button to send it to the rest of the class, but she understood. "Don't worry, sure thing!" she reassured them. "Just give me a moment here… alright, done!"

And with that, Chloé's phone pinged, and she smiled as she saw how it came out. With just a few commands, she sent the picture to Marinette and Adrien as well, and that was that.

Chloé strode over to the classroom door to open it, and smiling at Adrien, she said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Class starts in a few minutes."

Looking delighted, Adrien nodded to her in gratitude and entered, with the girls following right behind him.

As Adrien walked into the classroom, there was a sudden hush… followed by a happy uproar.

"Wow, it really is Adrien!"

"Who'd have thought he'd be in our class this year?"

"Glad to see you finally showed up, man!"

"Hi everyone," Adrien said with a bright smile, not one of those smiles for the camera in countless Gabriel advertisements but a genuine smile.

"Dude, good to see you again!" Nino said, giving him a high-five.

"You too, Nino!" Adrien replied. "I still have that song list you put together for my last birthday! I listen to it all the time!"

Nino looked shocked, and then ecstatic. Not knowing what else to get the rich young model for his previous birthday, the aspiring DJ put together a humble little "mixtape" on a burned CD, and to hear that Adrien Agreste was still listening to it all the time a year later…

"Thanks Adrien, I really appreciate it!" Nino exclaimed.

Marinette watched it unfold with a smile on her face, feeling strangely happy. The whole class was welcoming him like some great returning hero, and Adrien humbly accepted their well-wishes in his usual modest way.

He's really something else, she thought to herself, turning pink and feeling all fuzzy inside.

And then Marinette saw Chloé sitting there at their shared desk, calmly observing the rest of the class welcoming Adrien. However, when Chloé's gaze slid over to her, Marinette could see her expression becoming just a bit more guarded.

Marinette's fuzzy feelings for Adrien faded away as she looked back at Chloé. The blonde looked a little guilty too.

Not saying anything, Marinette walked over and sat down at her seat.

"Hi, Marinette," her best friend said politely.

"Hi, Chloé."

After a beat, Chloé said, "Look, Marinette, I'm sorry about last night…"

"It's fine, Chloé…"

"No, it's not," Chloé retorted, but not harshly. Composing herself, the blonde said, "I wasn't trying to be a hypocrite. I don't know what happened with you on your end, but I felt really bad for you. You know, for whatever it was."

"Thanks, I guess," Marinette mumbled, thinking about Tikki and the Miraculous even as she tried to shove it out of her mind. Then she grimaced a little when she thought back to Chloé criticizing Ladybug, unaware that it was really Marinette she was criticizing. "And for what it's worth… I'm sorry I lost my temper at you, I didn't mean to do that. I honestly don't know why I did that."

"Thanks," Chloé mumbled. "Don't worry about it."

A moment of awkward silence passed between them, until Chloé cleared her throat.

"Look, Marinette," Chloé said slowly, "if it's really that important to you, if you really need to know what's bothering me… then I guess I can tell you what it is."

Marinette looked up and turned her head so fast that she felt her own neck cricking and almost got whiplash. "What!?" she blurted. "Really!?"

"Keep it down," Chloé muttered fiercely, glancing around at the rest of the class. Marinette flushed a little and had the good grace to look a little embarrassed, but Chloé smoothly continued, "Can we talk about it after school? By ourselves, when no one else is around?"

Marinette was honestly surprised. Whatever she'd been expecting when she walked into school this morning, it hadn't been this. She didn't feel the need to pry Chloé's deep dark secret out of her, she didn't even want to do that all that badly… but she hadn't expected Chloé to simply offer it like this either, and so soon.

"Uh, sure, Chloé," Marinette said, playing it cool. "You can come over after school, we can talk then."

"Thank you, Marinette," Chloé said, although she didn't sound all that relieved to Marinette. "Friends?"

"Friends."

Chloé looked a little relieved as she nodded at that.

It wasn't a full reconciliation, but at least it was a step in the right direction.

Feeling a little better, she went through her bag to retrieve her notes for class — and tried not to feel too bad when her hand brushed against the small box containing the Ladybug earrings and Tikki within it…

She pushed those thoughts aside and tried to focus on the new day at school instead.

---

The one calling himself Hawk Moth had been eager to continue his work this morning. There was that one little matter about his only child being a rebellious youth again, but he would worry more about it later.

For now, he had much bigger concerns to take care of.

He was particularly keen to akumatize that one teenage boy again — Ivan Bruel, who became Stoneheart — so he focused on the school in question.

He thought he'd sensed something in the vicinity, something along the lines of righteous anger at insufferable people ( Probably just more adolescent melodrama, he thought dismissively), and he wondered if it was the same kind of burning anger he'd felt yesterday… but before he could really focus on it, it was gone.

He couldn't stop wondering just who this particularly angry individual could be…

Still, there was no use in lamenting missed opportunities. For his first foray as Hawk Moth, he was actually doing quite well.

And sure enough, there it was: The opportunity to akumatize this young man into Stoneheart once again. There had been a brief panic when he was losing his lock on the young man's negative emotions, but luckily for Hawk Moth, something must have happened to make him angry again.

"Yes," he grinned. "This is what I've been waiting for. You know the way, my little akuma. Fly away and empower him!"

Soon enough, the akuma merged with Ivan's wadded-up song lyrics clutched in his hand.

Once again, Ivan heard Hawk Moth in his head: "This is your second chance, Stoneheart, and this time you'll have extra help. No one will stop you from capturing the love of your life. Just remember, I'll need something in return."

His passions inflamed once again, Ivan didn't resist and instead silently consented to Hawk Moth's offer.

And once he was transformed into Stoneheart again, he opened his eyes and all the other stone beings across Paris started waking up…

---

As she watched Adrien finish saying hello to everyone and then take his seat next to Nino, Rachel hoped that she'd made the right decision, in resolving to tell Marinette her secret later.

She'd thought it over, mentally mapping out every possibility…

First, it would hinge on whether or not Marinette would believe her. Rachel had no real evidence, other than that drawing from when she was five years old and the fact that she was so incredibly fluent in English, as well as so intimately familiar with American culture compared to most French teenagers.

As for the issue of her own wartime experiences… Rachel had decided that she would only paint in broad strokes first, and only provide more details about her experiences if Marinette asked about them.

And there were only two possible distinct outcomes which Rachel could see, assuming that Marinette ultimately believed her. Either Marinette would eventually come to terms with it, and hopefully they could continue to be friends… or Marinette would be horrified and terrified by these revelations and cut Rachel — Chloé — out of her life and that would be the end of it.

And if Marinette didn't believe her… oh well, then. But even if Marinette ran around Paris claiming that the mayor's daughter was a lunatic who thought she was a reborn warrior from another universe, then who would believe her?

Rachel didn't want to see her friendship with Marinette end, but this strain couldn't go on either. It wasn't fair to either of them.

And then there was the issue of how that would affect Adrien, which was another can of worms in itself…

She pushed those thoughts out of her head when Ms. Bustier called for class to be quiet for roll call.

"Adrien Agreste?" Ms. Bustier called aloud.

Adrien didn't respond right away, and Nino had to nudge him.

"Uh, present?" he stuttered. The rest of the class laughed a little, but quickly composed themselves.

"Chloé Bourgeois?"

"Present," she chimed.

"Ivan Bruel?"

"PRESENT!" a deep voice boomed.

Stoneheart stood on the threshold, having busted the door down. And then without missing a beat, it turned to face a certain girl in the back of the room, bellowing her name: "MYLÈNE!"

"Oh hell, not again," Rachel muttered as she grabbed Marinette and ducked behind the desks, against the wall.

Not wasting any time, she quickly pulled out her cell phone and texted her father: STONEHEART BACK AGAIN, PLEASE HELP!

Rachel's blood ran cold as she heard Mylène screaming as she begged Ivan — no, Stoneheart — to let her go.

She might have been shaking, but she couldn't tell; she was too busy trying to keep herself calm and not get Marinette any more freaked out than the other girl already was.

She was also trying to keep the flashbacks and bad memories at bay — not just that one time she'd had to flee from Visser Three as he pursued her in that "rock monster" morph, but just about every memory involving the visser and his many deadly and monstrous morphs.

Rachel could also feel the fear taking over, paralyzing her body and locking up her mind. It was one thing yesterday, when Stoneheart had been on the opposite side of the building from them when he first appeared, but now it felt all too real when she was trapped in the same room as him. She forced herself to stay brave, but the fear and the terror overwhelmed her. She also felt herself flashing back to that night when it all began…

No, don't even think about it! she told herself, but it was too late, because now her memory was dragging her mind back to that. Even with her eyes scrunched shut, she could see her memories playing in front of her, a scary film being projected onto the screens of the insides of her eyelids…

She was no longer hiding behind a desk in a school, but now she was back in that abandoned construction site, hiding with the others behind that brick wall, watching as Visser Three morphed into that giant monstrosity, and then snatched Elfangor up off the ground, holding Elfangor high up in the air, ready to eliminate him in such a horrible and uncivilized way, and she and her friends had to stop Jake from doing something crazy and suicidal which would have doomed them all—

And then, just like that, she was snapped out of her memories and brought back to the present by a voice in this very room:

"Hey, knock it off, you overgrown rock!" Rachel heard another girl's voice shout.

"Alya…?" Rachel muttered, daring to peek her head up from behind the desk.

"And what do you want, new girl?" Stoneheart sneered at Alya.

"I want you to stop, duh!" Alya retorted, hands on her hips and not looking the least bit worried about the big rocky supervillain looming over her.

"You're pretty brave with no superheroes around," Stoneheart spat.

"No, but I'm sure they'll be soon!" Alya retorted confidently, whipping out her smartphone and focusing it on Stoneheart. "Smile, you're on camera! Just you watch, Ladybug and Cat Noir will be here any minute now!"

Rachel heard Marinette make some kind of strange whimpering sound, as if Marinette couldn't believe that Alya had just said that. That made Rachel flinch even as she held Marinette tight, trying not to think too much to their argument from yesterday.

"And if they don't?" Stoneheart sneered.

"Well, who knows, maybe Majestia will fly over for a little visit!" Alya boldly retorted, not budging an inch as she kept her smartphone focused on Stoneheart. "Just like she says, 'Evil triumphs when good people do nothing!'"

"Alya, no, please stop," Marinette whimpered, and Rachel immediately clapped her hand over Marinette's mouth, hoping that Stoneheart wouldn't hear them.

"Ugh, enough with the fangirl stuff already!" Stoneheart spat. "And stop recording me!"

"Let Mylène go, and I'll stop recording you," Alya countered, sounding totally confident. "And I promise I won't upload all this to my blog! How do you like that, big guy!?"

And here I thought Jake was crazy for wanting to rush in and attack them all with that rusted pipe, Rachel thought to herself. Even I was never this crazy!

"Um, Alya, maybe you shouldn't do this…" Sabrina began to say from her own hiding spot, but Stoneheart cut her off.

"So, you want an inside scoop, huh?" Stoneheart spat. "I can work with that!"

And just like that, Stoneheart reached out to Alya, scooping him up in his other giant hand. The rest of the class screamed or gasped as they realized what was happening.

As for Rachel, she continued huddling with Marinette as Stoneheart trudged back down the classroom steps. She could feel her own teeth rattling from the force of his gigantic footfalls.

Rachel clapped her other hand over her mouth, because now she didn't trust herself not to make any sounds or stupid comments. But she definitely didn't expect what Alya would say next: "WOOHOO! Check it out, folks! I've been abducted by a supervillain! This is so going onto my blog as soon as I get rescued!"

And just as Rachel was marveling at how crazy Alya seemed to be, Stoneheart kicked a large hole in the wall to escape from the building. Even as Stoneheart jumped out and stomped away, they could still hear Mylène screaming in fear and Alya bombarding Stoneheart with all kinds of questions.

One by one, the rest of the class slowly emerged from their hiding spots, but Rachel just stayed put. None of them said a word; they were all too busy trying to process what had just happened in their midst. Even as she let go of Marinette and continued huddling under the desk, she still didn't move.

"Chloé?" Marinette asked softly, trying to stay calm herself. "Are you alright?"

But the blonde was still shaking. Except it wasn't from fear anymore… no, now it was something else. Now she was shaking from anger.

As her fear gave way to anger, Rachel reflected on everything which had transpired within the past twenty-four hours. She was angry, all right… angry at this new situation with these new supervillains marauding around town, angry at what she and her friends had to put up with, angry yet again at how she'd been dumped in this crazy universe with no explanation whatsoever and no way of defending herself or fighting back against evil threats…

She didn't even resist as she let her anger take control, falling back into her old habits of acting first and asking questions later. She surrendered her body to her old instincts, and she could feel herself moving as if on autopilot while her mind tried to devise a strategy on the fly.

To hell with not fighting back because I don't have any special powers! I can't just stay here and do nothing!

One thing was for sure: She would never abandon her friends. No matter what her name was, no matter what world she lived in, she would always do what she could to protect those around her.

"Chloé, where are you going!?" Marinette exclaimed.

"I'm gonna stop him," Rachel growled.

"And how the heck are you gonna do that!?"

"I dunno, but I'll figure it out!"

And before Marinette could stop her, Rachel was gone.

Let's do it! she thought to herself as she raced out of the classroom.

---

A/N: Like I said, sorry for the long wait. But here, have an extra-long chapter! The next chapter shouldn't take as long, and I can't wait to complete the "Origins" redux so we can plow ahead to what comes after. After that comes my first OC villain, and THEN comes Stormy Weather…

We never got the name of the second and last Yeerk to infest Jake's brother Tom (the first one being Temrash 114 from #6 The Capture), the same one who Rachel killed in the end. So I tried to come up with a good Yeerk-sounding name, and I put my knowledge of Latin to good use. There's the Latin words for "this" (hic/haec/hoc) and for "that" (ille/illa/illud), but then there's another way to say "that" in Latin (iste/ista/istud), which is used with a very forceful and negative and even hateful way (i.e. "I hate that man over there"). So I basically tweaked the Latin word istud to give this unnamed Yeerk a name which basically means "that thing" with very unflattering connotations. Then I just gave it the number "501" as a nod to the date May 2001 (05/01) when the final Animorphs book was released, in which Rachel killed said Yeerk. (Apologies to the 501st Legion from the Star Wars universe for the unfortunate coincidence.)

Also, what do you all think of my nasty new OC "Irina Afanasyeva"? She's basically the fill-in for canon!Chloé, and maybe also canon!Lila. And yes, her sidekick Dieter plays canon!Sabrina to Irina's canon!Chloé. And a BIG shout-out goes to the wonderfully talented aileri for illustrating Irina for me; you can find this marvelous artist on DeviantArt!

Oh, and I know I said I wouldn't be putting unnecessary comments in the Author's Notes anymore, but I have one BIG thing to ask you, Dear Readers… How badly do you want to see Evillustrator in this story? I wasn't originally planning on including him in this story (because this version of Chloé wouldn't do that to Nathaniel), but now I'm having second thoughts, and ideas on how to twist the circumstances to make that happen…