Wha-?

What-?

What am I?

You're here to help, something whispered inside her. To be the missing linchpin your creator so desperately craves. To allow him to regain what he has lost.

Snippets of memories played.

Her creator laughing, joking with a girl in a red-and-black-spotted suit.

Them fighting side by side, again and again and again.

A curious cat - the same girl, though she wasn't sure how she knew that - purring, comforting her creator.

Her creator facing off against his father.

The cat - the girl - saving him.

And being twisted, tainted, turned into something she was not.

Her being shuddered.

She could feel it.

Her creator's happiness, his contentment, his peace around the girl - around Ladybug.

His betrayal, his fear, his anger towards his father, the man who he and Ladybug had been fighting for so long.

And his fear tinged with despair as Ladycat was akumatized.

She had to help him.

She was created to help him.

And… and she wanted to help.

She wanted to see him smile.

Something changed.

A heaviness spread through her, making her feel solid.

Real.

Part of the world.

She opened her eyes.


"Dude, did you mean to do that?"

Adrien shook his head, eyes still locked on… on…

"I- I guess when I was asking for someone to help us, someone that could fill the gaping hole in our team from Ladybug's absence, the Miraculous took it literally."

In front of him stood a girl in a red suit with black spots, sporting two black pigtails.

She looked exactly like Ladybug.

The girl opened her eyes, looking at them.

A beat passed.

Then another.

Until a full minute had passed.

Alya broke the awkward silence. "Um… hi?"

The girl looked over at her. Her brow - or rather, her mask - furrowed. "You - I don't know you but… I feel like I should…?" She seemed to mutter that last bit to herself.

Alya glanced at Adrien. He shrugged.

Alya frowned. "Well… you SHOULDN'T know any of us, I mean, you didn't even exist before this - wait."

Looking quickly at her friends, her mind churned. "Am I the only one you don't know?"

The girl shook her head. "I don't know the boy in the baseball cap either."

"But you DO know who Adrien is," Alya stated.

The girl tilted her head to one side. "My creator?"

"Errrrrr…" Adrien said.

"Wait… you're this girl's creator…" Alya mused. "So that means… Adrien, I think you just became a father."

"I'm… a father…?" Adrien muttered to himself. He stared into the distance, as if trying to solve a complicated algebra problem in his head, one that had a lot of different parts that he needed to keep track of.

"He's not like him!" the girl snapped.

Huh?

"Adrien's not like who?" Alya asked.

"He's not like his father!" the girl hissed.

Alya shivered. She hadn't seen that kind of anger on Ladybug's face since - well, since the last time Chat Noir was seriously hurt in battle.

"That… that man… he HURT my creator. Adrien. He- he hurt the girl my creator loves. He does NOT deserve to be compared to his father."

"How do you know all that?" Alya asked, even more confused.

"It's why I was created. It's what I'm here for," the girl said, standing up straight, exuding authority in a way that eerily reminded Alya of the actual Ladybug. "To help my creator against the fight with his father, to help save the girl he loves."


Adrien stared at the sentimonster he created.

At the girl he made.

At his…

He- he was way too young to be a father!

And she looked the same age as him. Hell, she looked like the love of his life!

He'd assumed that he'd create some sort of monster to help him, like that moth sentimonster from Heroes Day. Like a pokemon maybe?

But… but this wasn't some creature. Certainly not one like the moth, which only seemed to exist to blow them away, which didn't appear to have much in the way of intelligence or will of its own

This was - okay maybe not a human, but close enough at least.

This sentimonster was a person.

"To help my creator against the fight with his father, to help save the girl he loves."

What?

Mentally Adrien reviewed the past minute, what she'd said.

That she'd been created to help him.

That it was why she was there.

It was true. That was why she'd been created. He'd made sure of that.

But he hadn't expected an actual person.

He glanced down at the amok - at Marinette's Lucky Charm.

He could command her to go into battle with them. She already seemed willing to at any rate - no surprise there, he'd created her for that purpose. It would be the safer option, especially after the "hypothetical" scenario Fu had laid out of what could happen if a sentimonster went rogue.

But would that make him that much better than Hawkmoth?

Than his father?

Hawkmoth took advantage of people's weaknesses, of their desires in order to make them fight for him. It wasn't usually explicitly against their will - they still had to agree to it - but as the Butterfly wielder, he could put enough pressure on them, speak enough honey into their ears that they'd go along with it. So far only Ms. Bustier had been able to resist him, and not for very long.

This sentimonster - this person - on the surface wanted to help him.

But did she have any more choice in the matter than Hawkmoth's akumas?

They were willing to help him too.

But they were vulnerable when he akumatized them. It was difficult to fight him off.

He may not have experienced it himself (and now he had an idea of why that was), but he'd heard from others what it was like. How Hawkmoth pressed into their heads, twisting their desires so that it seemed like him 'helping' them was the only solution to their problems, the trouble with remembering why they SHOULD refuse Hawkmoth.

Amoks were used to control sentimonsters.

With how similar the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses were, he had a sinking feeling on *how* that control was enacted.

The sentimonster - the girl - whatever she was called (they'd have to figure out a proper name for her) had said that he wasn't like his father.

She was right.

He held out the amok in front of him. "You know what this is, right?" he asked her.

She nodded, looking a little confused. "It's the thing that lets me exist, right? I- I might be over here, but…" She seemed transfixed by the bracelet, her eyes unable to leave its beads. "I can feel myself in there as well. Like… like this is my body, but that- that's where *I* really am? Somehow?" She seemed to mutter that last bit to herself.

Good. So she knew how important it was, how vital.

Walking up to her, he gently placed it in her hand, closing her fingers over the charm. She looked up at him, amazed and slightly confused, a smile dawning on her face as she hugged it to herself, holding it where her heart would be.

"I don't want to control you or decide things for you," Adrien told her. "Even accidentally. I'd love your help, but only if you choose to help - not because you're forced to or feel obligated to. You exist now, and what you do with your existence is up to you."


Up to her?

Well… she did still want to help Adrien. The pressure on her being, on her… on her soul, a pressure she hadn't even known was there, lifted as soon as his fingers withdrew from her amok. So she didn't feel compelled the way she was before.

But what she'd seen and felt while she was being created? Still held true.

And Adrien handing her the amok just made her want to help him more.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on the charm, on the magic inside, the magic that allowed her to exist.

He'd handed her soul to her, to ensure that others couldn't force her to do anything - even if that someone was himself.

She made her decision. The first major one of her life.

"Thank you, Adrien. I will help you."


"WHAT?!"

Panther looked up, startled.

Hawkmoth glared at a nearby TV.

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news!" the lady on the TV said. "I know we've all been worried with Hawkmoth running loose and Ladybug going missing, but it seems that our worries are at an end!"

The camera panned to several colorful moving dots, zooming in and-

Wait-

One of those was Her Boy.

Another was the girl she'd seen before in Hawkmoth's cavern, the one she'd ignored because…

...why DID she ignore her before anyway? It'd seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but why…?

She shook her head. Something told her that she shouldn't dwell too hard on the matter.

There was another boy she vaguely recognized dressed as a turtle, and lastly-!

That… that fourth figure…

The pit dropped out of her stomach.

That was her.

Her as she used to be at least, before.

He replaced me. He doesn't need me.

Of course, why WOULD he want her?

Her tail curled around her body as she retreated into herself.

She- she'd FAILED him.

She meant to protect him, to make him feel happy again! That's why she'd fought against him, so that she could take his Miraculous and let Hawkmoth restore Her Boy's mother, restore his happiness.

Her eyes narrowed at the replacement.

The interloper.

That- that copy was fooling him, wasn't she?! Was taking on her form so she could take him for herself.

She was NOT going to let that stand.

She'd protect Her Boy, no matter what.

Someone stroked her head.

Her ears flattened instinctively as she looked up at Hawkmoth.

"Don't worry, my pet," he told her.

For some reason she couldn't fathom, she suddenly wanted to bite his hand off.

"They're out in the open now. And if they really HAVE managed to get a version of you - somehow - that just gives me another chance to get the Ladybug Miraculous and fulfill my wish - and with it, yours as well."

She yowled in agreement. If Hawkmoth noticed that Panther used the opportunity to shy away from him, he didn't say anything.