Guest Reviews!

Dark; XD I don't know if I've said this before, but most of this was written several months ago. So…honestly? I have no idea. In the current chapter I'm writing it's brought up, but I do not remember if it's been mentioned before.

Okay, so, at long last, this chapter is told from someone else's point of view! The next few chapters will be from other people's point of view; not just Marinette's. I know for a fact one of you asked for a chapter from someone else's pov, so here you go?

And then there was another person who preferred it the show to just be from Marinette's…

I guess we can't have it all, huh?

(:)

Boy in A Bubble

-Alec Benjamin

~This is a flashback chapter~

Two days before, on Monday morning, Adrien had exiting his car, greeting Nino with a cheerful wave.

Nino waved back, obviously less excited then Adrien. In fact, he looked downright upset about something. "Hey, dude. Did Chat Noir do anything to your family?"

That was blunt. And straight to the point. "Don't you mean Chat Blanc? And, nooo…he didn't. Why?"

"Chat Noir…Chat Blanc… Chat anything! He's the exact same, dude!" Nino waved his arms in annoyance, growling. "He killed thousands of families! A survey was done, and it was discovered he was responsible for over one million deaths. In just a few hours! Adrien, he murdered about half the city! He's a traitor!"

Lies.

Nino was the true traitor here.

Let it not be said that Chat Noir was an idiot, a fool. The opposite, in fact. He thought about things, considered things. At this point, he was pretty sure he knew who Ladybug was, though he forcefully told himself not to dwell on it. Ladybug would kill him if she ever learned he had guessed, and with Timebreaker, he saw both Marinette – the suspect - and Ladybug in the same place! Note; Chat Noir even knew that observation was false, seeing as how the Ladybug he saw was from the future and Marinette was from the past. The two Ladybugs were also from different timelines, one from his and the other from the future. However, Ladybug didn't want him to know her identity, so he would pretend as if he didn't.

He hated pretending he was a total fool, but he didn't want Ladybug to hate him. He just wanted her to love him.

As well as the obvious, Chat Noir had figured out that Rena Rouge was Alya. After all, he had spent the entire fight with the Sapotis listening to Rena Rouge talking, worrying, teasing, and just being herself. Later that night, after bringing Etta and Ella home, he greeted Alya and talked to her for a bit, mostly as an interview, but also so they could talk about what would be the best course of action for the twins, while the teenager waited for Marinette to return. Before the bluenette could arrive, Chat Noir had to retreat due to the ring, so he couldn't say hi to his kind classmate.

The talk with Alya was fun, and Chat was able to compare their two voices; realizing just who the other was.

A month later, Carapace made his debut, and once more Chat Noir proved he was no fool. It didn't take a fool to recognize his best friend, besides, Chat had realized the DJ was Bubbler months beforehand, though the akuma and Nino shared no facial features. In fact, the only similarity was their love for parties, music, and their voices. But, as Chat was a master at voices, he easily recognized his loyal companion.

And Carapace shared all details of face with Nino. Chat Noir had seen Nino and his superhero personas fighting styles not even five minutes apart; he had easily figured it out.

Obviously, he also did not miss how Lady Wi-Fi and Bubbler failed to show up for Scarlet Moth's akuma army, but Rena Rouge and Carapace did appear, even flirting, their playful arguing the same style as Nino and Alya's.

So, knowing who Carapace was, and having fought side-by-side with him in harmony, it was an understatement to say Adrien was disappointed by Nino's lack in faith.

No, he felt downright betrayed. His best friend, his partner during that one moment at the Hero's Day battle, his "Padawan", if you will, instantly pushed away Chat Noir as an evil advisory.

It was wrong, cruel, heinous.

…if Carapace believed it to be so, perhaps Ladybug did as well. Maybe the entire city wished for his demise.

As tradition goes, Nino was still grumbling about Chat Noir/Blanc when Adrien finally tuned in from his thought process.

"—nd if the dude's not akumatized, he's controlled by an akuma or getting in Ladybug's way with his stupid jokes and stupid attitude! He's horrific, dude, horrific. He's a one-cat army and he's coming in for the kill."

At this point in the conversation, Nino and Adrien had entered the classroom, where Alya and Marinette sat, the former obviously deeply upset, as tears were gathering at the edges of her eyes. By looking more closely, Adrien was sure he could see the smoke rising from Marinette's ears as she listening to her troubled best friend. Whatever was making Alya sad was making Marinette furious. At least, that's way it looked like.

"It's not his fault!" Adrien complained, shaking his head angrily. "He simply got upset; like anyone would be, didn't notice one little butterfly, and now he's suddenly the city's biggest enemy."

"Actually," Nino argued, "since he didn't break the law or do anything 'arrest worthy', the police aren't allowed to arrest the stupid dude. But, who's going to stop them from allowing others to do as they please to him? If someone beats up Chat Noir, they're within their rights, because, number one, no matter where he is, he's on someone's property. And if you're not invited to be on their property and they've harmed you – which he did – or stolen from you, you're within your rights to do whatever you please to them. Secondly, even if it's on the streets, or at a monument, the mayor gave his permission for anyone to take drastic measures to, quote-unquote 'teach him a lesson'. The dude—uh, Mayor, is so sour because Chat Blanc killed Chloe and her mom. Third, number one only has one exception, and that's if the victim is a minor. Then you can't beat them. But Chat Noir has no proof he's not a forty-year-old man, so we need proof to see he's a minor. Since that's impossible…we can take care of it."

Tough beans, Agreste. Tough beans. You could be beaten by the mobs, and literally nobody would stop you as long as the people of Paris are within their rights. Adrien shuddered at the thought, turning to Nino with a question on his lips. "So, you mean to stay I – uh, I mean Chat Noir could be beaten to death at any point?"

Nino either didn't hear him or ignored him, turning around to face the two girls – now in a heated argument – behind them. "Are you guys talking about…Chat Blanc?"

Though he hid where his attention lay well, Adrien noticed Marinette's interesting wardrobe change at that second. His heart filled with joy and relief, Adrien listened to the conversation at hand, relieved beyond measure.

At least one person still believed.

As the day progressed, Adrien began to realize something. Perhaps Marinette was not Ladybug, and all his secret assumptions were proven untrue. Perhaps Ladybug was against him, perhaps she hated Chat Noir along with the rest of the city.

Perhaps…

Nino had listed out the reasons with ease. Obviously he had thought long and hard about it, and if he, a simple high schooler thought of those examples and remembered those laws, surely an adult, who Adrien had been taught were better and more knowledgeable then mere children, had thought of it long ago along with the proper methods to deal with Chat Noir. Most adults – if not all – believed Chat was in the wrong, and all the mobs consisted of adults and older teenagers who snuck from home to join in with the hype.

Hint; reason why Kim was missing. He was off participating in a mob or two, eagerly campaigning against Chat Noir. Miss. Bustier said it like it was something to be proud of, being against the 'cat-villain' as she called it.

Adrien and Marinette had shared a look and rolled their eyes.

But Adrien got to thinking, despite all his pro-Chat actions.

What if they were right? Chat Noir was wrong. He was vermin in the town.

Adults were usually right, even when they were wrong, weren't they?

Honestly, Chat Noir was good at avoiding people. He did it every night, climbing out of his house and enjoying the air. He could avoid everything if he wanted. His suit was dark, so he could hide in the shadows of buildings.

But this time, hiding was out the window.

He had decided by lunch; that he was going to give himself in. Maybe if he dealt with the consequences now, he wouldn't have to in the future.

Immediately after school, he allowed Gorilla to drive him home, but silently plotted in his backseat spot.

Interesting tidbit about the Gorilla; the bodyguard knew who he was. Who Chat Noir was.

Adrien wasn't supposed to find out, but, when your bodyguard is constantly sneaking your loud-mouth, hungry, not-at-all-sneaky kwami cheese, you tend to realize what was going on. It was a silent agreement; Adrien would contact the secretly gentle man before he left as Chat Noir to let him know not to worry too much and to keep people from his room. And the Gorilla would obey, provided he could check on Adrien whenever he came home to make sure he wasn't injured.

This was the one time when Adrien wouldn't tell the Gorilla he was going, because he didn't need the man's mother hen nature. Not this time.

Adrien hated the plan, the idea, but, at the same time, enjoyed it. Maybe if he got all the pain out of the way today, there'd be no pain tomorrow.

He hated pain. Emotional was the worst, mental was the middle ground, and physical was the least, but it was still pretty bad. Physical tended to only hurt for a little while, but it made that "little while" agony. But, if that "little while"'s agony was increased tenfold, it might never need to happen again in the foreseeable future.

So, Adrien chose to aim for a rather abundant in quantity mob of adults who would either judge wrath, or, more preferably but less likely, mercy. But Chat Noir would let them do either, much as it made him wince.

After only a few minutes of searching around monument, he found a large mob at the Louvre, mostly consisting of adults, if there were any teenagers at all.

Chat Noir braced himself, then gracefully landed in their midst.

Only a few noticed him, taking a few minutes to register what he was doing here.

Finally, somebody classically shouted out Chat's location, and the rest of the mob seemed to turn as one to face him, blazing with fury.

Chat Noir got one good thought in before he was swept off his feet which was; this was a mistake. Abort, Huston! Abort, abort, abortabrotabortabort!

Honestly, if he was being completely fair, he had been expecting a few kicks, maybe a tomato or two, perhaps, if he was super lucky, a trial in the court of law.

He was not anticipating the onslaught of blows, tomatoes, curses, and rocks hurled his way. At one point, Chat Noir tried to roll onto his knees so he could crouch in the futile position, but somebody shoved him onto his back once more, shouting out a loud curse at him.

But he accepted it. Adults were always right, right? He had to obey them, because they knew best. They always did.

…at least, that's what he was raised to believe.

Somehow, Chat Noir managed to roll onto his knees, lowering himself into a crouch, hands curling into angry fists.

He blamed himself, he blamed himself so much.

Nino wasn't a traitor.

Alya wasn't a traitor.

He was the traitor.

He was a huge traitor.