To Butterfly: Anne is pretty awesome!

To Lyger 0: Perhaps…

To armadas: I'm glad you're a survivor! And Anne doesn't have a brain tumour. Just to throw that out there.

To yellow 14: There certainly could be…

To StarDaPanda225: We shall see…

To atchleykera031: Thanks!

Tuesday afternoon, Felix rolled his neck and suppressed a groan. European History was easily his least favourite class this year, and there was no second. He enjoyed history, of course – in theory. But for as interesting as history could be, Westman had a way of making it about as exciting as watching paint dry. And it was the last class of the day, which certainly didn't help matters. He stepped out of the musty building and into the crisp fall air.

"Yo, you okay, Graham?" Charlie jumped down the steps to catch up to him, clapping him hard on the back. "You were so close to nodding off there that we had a pool going in the back on when you would actually fall asleep – extra points for guessing right if there would be any snoring!"

Felix raised an eyebrow and put his hand over his breast pocket, silencing Barkk's quiet growls. "So who put money on me not actually falling asleep but wishing a meteor would demolish the building just for a change of pace?"

"Actually…" Charlie thought for a minute and chuckled. "I don't think anyone bet on that particular outcome!" He stopped and gave Felix a suspicious look. "So what has had you so out of it lately? You've been awfully quiet the last few nights…"

The reason he'd been so "quiet" since the weekend was because he had snuck out through the portal ring to patrol the streets of London every night since Iron Maiden's attack – not that he could tell Charlie that. "Oh, just had a lot on my mind lately," he replied evasively. "Have you been following the news recently?"

"Yeah, Chelsea looks to be making a run at it this season!" Charlie enthused, pumping his fist. "That new forward, Docherty, is a real gem – he could take them all the way!"

Felix scoffed and gave him a deadpan look. "Not the Premier League, dumbass," he told him, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "I mean the news."

Charlie furrowed his brows. "What, d'you mean the Stripper Ripper?"

Felix facepalmed and shook his head. "No, I mean the other serial killer on the loose in London and preying on innocent women – of course I mean the Ripper!" He sighed heavily. "The monster's killing as many women in a given fortnight as the original killed in a little over two months."

"Yeah… I saw that," Charlie frowned. "Bad luck, don't you think?"

"'Bad luck'?" Felix stopped midstride and stared at him incredulously. "Have you seen what he does to his victims? He absolutely brutalizes them!" And Felix should know; not only had he gotten a firsthand look at the Ripper's handiwork when he had bandaged up Iron Maiden's injuries, but they'd also stored photos of them on the computer in their Hero Study just in case they were necessary – and she was one of the lucky ones! The women who weren't so lucky, the ones he murdered, were invariably in far worse shape once the Ripper had finished with them. Last night, Felix had found the latest victim too late, her stomach ripped open and ribcage utterly savaged.

"No, of course I haven't seen it," retorted Charlie, giving Felix a confused look. "Have you? The Yard has hardly released any crime scene photos lately!"

"The descriptions the papers print are more than enough to get the mind going," Felix responded by way of reply, shuddering. They climbed the stairs to their house.

Charlie shrugged. "That's why I stick to the sports. Just as violent, but the violence is a little more civilized."

"You don't care about the Ripper and his victims?" Felix asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I feel bad, sure," answered Charlie, nodding. "Awful what he does. Prayers to the families and all that. And I'm glad I don't have family or friends living anywhere near London at the moment."

Felix frowned and pushed his dorm room door open. "Yeah, well, some of us aren't so lucky."

"What, your mum?"

Felix shook his head. "Mother has too much sense to be out late in London – rapist on the loose or no. And all his targets have been no more than five years older than us."

"So... what? Thinking about that college girl you met at the pub the other week?" Charlie asked, passing him to go to his own room. "She was a cute thing, sure, but the odds of you ever seeing her again are pretty low. As are the odds of her being one of his victims."

Felix rolled his eyes. If only… "You realize two of his last ten victims – another two over the summer and one last spring – were all King's College students, right?"

Charlie started, staring at Felix, halfway into his room. "Why on earth would you keep track of that?"

Iron Maiden had asked about that as a pattern after the one three weeks ago but they had ultimately dismissed it. "I pay attention." Felix's dorm door swung open a little further, and his eyes shot wide open in shock on catching sight of the blonde lounging on his bed.

"Aren't you going to come in, Felikins?" Chloe asked, lifting her eyes from the phone in her hand and arching an eyebrow at him languidly.

Mutely he obeyed, shutting the door behind him before Charlie or another of his housemates could see that he had company. He cocked his head at her suspiciously. "Okay… What the bloody hell are you doing here, Bourgeois?" he demanded. Barkk poked her head out of his coat pocket, and her eyes widened on seeing Chloe. The Kwami flew over to her, tail wagging eagerly, and nuzzled her cheek.

"Chloe!" squealed Barkk, her tail batting against Chloe's cheek in her excitement. "Did you bring your Bee?"

Chloe rubbed Barkk's head with a finger but shook her head without taking her eyes off of Felix. "Bee is back at the Mansion for the moment; Sabrina's watching her. But I'll be sure to bring her next time." She cleared her throat and examined Felix closely. "It's good to see you, too, Graham de Vanily," she replied, smirking at him.

He coughed. "It's not that I'm not glad to see you, Chloe," he admitted. He wagged his eyebrows. "You know, there was a time I would have given anything to get you into my bed!"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I remember," she told him. "And if you even think it, I will kick your ass all the way from here to Scotland and back, miraculous or no!"

He held up his hands in a sign of peace. "I wouldn't dream of it," he assured her. She merely raised an eyebrow. He grinned sheepishly. "Okay, maybe I would dream of it… but I wouldn't actually do it." He paused to examine her more closely. "So why are you here, Chlo?"

"Tante Emilie," she replied, setting her phone aside and sitting up. Barkk dropped onto the nightstand and tore open a package of beef jerky, her eyes darting back and forth between Felix and Chloe. "She told me what happened – seemed to think I should come and see what's up with you and this Femme de Fer of yours." She steepled her fingers and stared up at him with an interested look in her eyes. "So… what's the deal?"

Felix dropped his bag on the floor and let out a breath before sinking down onto the bed next to her. A part of him wanted to keep it to himself – it was his mess to deal with, not something for Chloe to stick her nose into. And this was Chloe Bourgeois, the girl who had pushed him down the Agreste Mansion stairs the first time they met when they were five – admittedly he had tried to kiss her – and who hadn't failed to remind him of that incident at every opportunity for the next ten years. Knowing her, it was just as likely that she had come to mock him for his failure as that she had actually come out of any desire to help. He was just about to tell her where to go when he looked over at her.

All the accustomed arrogance was missing from her face. Instead, she was staring at him with a look of concern, a trace of long-buried pain in her eyes. Felix caved.

"It's my fault," he finally admitted, staring down at his hands. "It's my fault that the Ripper is loose. It's my fault that another twenty women are dead – it's my fault that my partner was nearly one of them!" He was almost shouting by the end. Barkk settled onto his shoulder, nuzzling up against his neck. He clenched his fists, took a measured breath, and whispered. "I had him in my grasp–I could have just hit him a little harder and he would have been a bloody smear on the bricks. I could have just squeezed his stupid throat until his legs stopped kicking. I could have torn off his stupid head with my bare hands! But I didn't. And now all that blood he's shed is on my hands."

Chloe covered one of his fists with her hand. "What, you mean you finally realized you're not perfect, Felikins?" She scoffed. "I could have told you that!"

He glared at her half-heartedly. "Not helping, Bourgeois."

"Look," she told him firmly. "So you had the opportunity to stop the rapist but you neglected to actually do it. I can't exactly say as how that's something I've ever done before, but we've all made our share of mistakes. I allowed my miraculous to be stolen. Alya almost caused an alien invasion. Adrien invited Ladybug into a trap that would have gotten her killed–not that he knew it at the time, but still. Miss Pinky accidentally created a super-villain. The point is, we all make mistakes. We're heroes, but we're also human. And the fact that we're heroes means that our mistakes can have even worse consequences than if we were just regular people. That's just the way things are. But now the question you have to deal with is what you're going to do about your mistake."

He sighed heavily. "I don't know," he confessed. "I've been going out to search for him every night… and he still managed to kill again last night. I was too late for yet another woman. No matter what I do, it isn't enough. And no matter what I do moving forward, it doesn't change that my partner got hurt because of me."

Chloe nodded. "Sometimes your best isn't enough," she acknowledged sympathetically. "You still do it."

"I'm not going to stop," Felix retorted heatedly. "I can't. Not while he's still out there."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I'm not talking about just the Ripper," she told him. "What about your partner?"

He shrugged. "I mean, she's made it pretty clear she's not happy and doesn't want anything to do with me ever again. Not that I can really blame her for that."

"Big surprise: she's lashing out at people around her after a traumatic experience. Have I told you about how I almost ripped Sabrina's head off last spring?" asked Chloe.

"She does still need you," Barkk added, flitting around to look him in the eye. "Even if she isn't really saying it."

Felix sighed, looking between the two. "So what do I do?"

"Look, I don't know this girl, but I can tell you based on my own experience that she probably needs time and space to recover, so don't bother her," Chloe replied slowly. "But even if she isn't ready to admit it yet, she also still needs you to be her friend and be supportive. So don't just cut her out and ditch her."

Felix stared at her dumbfounded. "So give her space, but don't leave her alone? How the bloody hell am I supposed to do that!?"

Chloe hummed in amusement, glanced down at her watch, and stood up. Barkk gave Chloe a surprised look, and Chloe rubbed the Kwami's head gently. Finally Chloe strode over to his closet, pushed his clothes aside, and pressed her palm against the portal set against the back wall. "Yes, I suppose that is a bit of a conundrum… but I'm sure you'll figure it out. You can't expect me to give you all the answers, Felikins. Well, byeee!" she called, hopping through the portal.

Felix stared after her as Barkk dropped to sit on his shoulder. "That was… crystal unclear," he grumbled.