Thanks to ArtEngine for Betaing!

This is based off of just_an_ordinary_fan's Permanent Akuma AU fic "disconnected" on AO3. I really liked the concept of "disconnected", with akumas being permanent and basically held captive, but not really knowing it (or at least not totally) because their memories were muddled and Hawkmoth could push them to do what he wanted. So I decided to expand on the idea!

Lady Wifi blinked, looking around the room. Not that there was much to see. Gray walls, low levels of light, and sparse furnishings ensured that.

"So he made yet another akuma," a girl's voice said. "How many more does he think he needs?"

Akumas… what were those?

Something lit up in her mind, a purple glowing mask forming in front of her face. "You are an akuma, my dear," a deep male voice said. "One of many, I suspect - unless you manage to acquire what I desire."

"Ladybug's and Chat Noir's Miraculous," she said automatically, then frowned. How did she know that?

The voice chuckled. "Good. You're quicker on the uptake than most."

Ladybug and Chat Noir…

Ladybug…

Her head pounded. A scene formed in her head - a memory? - of herself tugging at the mask of a girl in a red-and-black spotted costume. "Why doesn't it come off?"

The scene vanished as quickly as it had appeared, taking the ache with it. She shook her head, trying to clear it. "Ladybug… did I meet her before?"

An exasperated sigh went through her head. "You just finished fighting her a few minutes ago. And losing," the voice added disapprovingly. "You will have to do better in the future, if you want to attain your goal."

Her goal? What goal?

What did she want?

She cast her mind back, trying to dredge up the memory.

She found very little.

A snippet of her holding up her phone, chasing after that girl - Ladybug - and a feeling of righteous indignation at not knowing something, of needing to spread the truth.

Something slotted into place. Yes. That was one of her core principles: that knowledge should be pursued and spread to the masses. That people have the Right To Know, and not have information constrained to the privileged.

But right now, she doesn't know much.

"Who are you? Where am I? Why can't I remember-"

A sharp pain cut through her brain. She cradled her head, groaning. "You are here, you are an akuma, and you will fight when I call upon you. That is all you need to know," the voice growled.

She grit her teeth. She hated this guy already.

The connection abruptly broke, taking the pain with it. Startled, she collapsed to the cold hard floor.

Why couldn't it have been carpet? It would have been much more pleasant.

Wait, how did she know what carpet felt like?

Her head gave a small pulse of pain. Maybe it was best to stop thinking too hard about this. For now, at least. Until she got her bearings more.

"So he's done?" The girl from before asked.

She looked up, examining her more closely. Purple-and-black hair, an umbrella slung lazily over her shoulder, a nice dark purple mini-dress with tights - she looked like she could've stepped off a runway. Was this purple mask guy abducting models? Was SHE a model?

"Do you have a mirror?" she asked.

The girl shook her head. "We don't have a ton of creature comforts here." She eyed her hands enviously. "Consider yourself fortunate that you're allowed to keep that. All I got was my umbrella. Not very useful when we aren't allowed outside. I'm Stormy Weather, by the way."

Stormy Weather? What kind of name was that? And what was she looking at?

Glancing down, she finally noticed she was holding something - a smartphone.

No wonder the girl was jealous. She barely remembered what this thing did, and she still knew that she'd lucked out.

The girl frowned, her eyes narrowing for a second as she took in her expression. "All of us have names like that. Well, all of us so far, at any rate. You should as well - I'm surprised it hasn't come back to you already."

Frowning, she concentrated for a moment. A name bubbled up from the depths of her consciousness, something ingrained and fundamental - though something about it felt wrong at the same time. Tainted. "Lady Wifi. I'm Lady Wifi."

Wait. Wifi. Urgently, she turned on her phone.

Her heart sank. No bars. She wouldn't be able to do much with her phone if she didn't have a signal.

Stormy Weather leaned over, attempting to peer over her shoulder. "Hey, would you be up for sharing with m- Oh," she said, disappointed. "Guess you didn't luck out as much as I thought."

Lady Wifi winced. Seeing her reaction, Stormy forced a smile. "Even if you don't have internet, maybe you've got stuff downloaded on it? I had a few hundred songs downloaded on my phone-" She stutters slightly, her gaze growing distant and uncertain. "At- at least, I think I did?"

Some music… yeah, that sounded nice right now. With renewed hope, she opened her phone, hoping to find something left in it.

Her hopes were dashed. No music, no apps - she'd say that it looked like it came straight out of the factory, but even brand-new phones had stuff pre-loaded on them. Here? There was nothing.

Disgusted, she fought the urge to throw the phone at the wall. Of course it didn't have anything on it. Naturally. That would be too convenient, wouldn't it?

Stormy Weather caught her grimace. "No luck, huh? Too bad. I was looking forward to some music around here. There's not a lot to do."

Trying to distract herself from the disappointment over her phone situation, Lady Wifi thought back over their conversation. "You said something about how we can't even go outside, right? What's that about?"

The other girl made a face. "There's a door, so you'd think we'd be able to leave any time we wanted, but in practice… come on, I'll show you."

A few minutes later, they stood in front of a small, nondescript door. She still couldn't believe how long it'd taken to walk from one end of the warehouse to another, the place was MASSIVE. Unfortunately, it was also massively empty.

At least the lights were on? She wasn't sure whether she had night vision, and she really didn't want to be forced to check.

Stormy Weather gestured to the door. "Well, here it is. If you'd like to try getting out of here, there's the exit."

Lady Wifi eyed the door warily. "What happens to me if I try?"

"Nothing too bad," Stormy assured her. "But you might have a headache for a few minutes afterwards."

Somehow, she doubted that this warehouse had Ibuprofen or Tylenol on hand to help. But the knowledge that potential freedom was so close by… she didn't fully understand, but with such a possibility, she had to investigate it, whatever came.

She opened the door.

Stay put.

She took a step.

Go back inside.

And another.

GO BACK INSIDE.

And another.

GO. BACK. INSIDE. NOW.

She tried to bring her foot forwards once again. It wouldn't budge. After wavering on one foot for several seconds, the pounding of the voice growing in volume, she took a step back.

Immediately, she felt relief. There was still this pressure, this desire to go back, but it'd died down. Still, with every second she stayed where she was, it grew louder in volume again. Not wanting it to reach the same level of pressure as it had before, she acquiesced to the voice, and went back.

Stormy Weather arched an eyebrow at her. "Impressive."

Lady Wifi tried to give the girl a smile, but it came out more like a grimace. "Really?"

"I only got two steps in before I gave up," Stormy shrugged, as if it didn't bother her, but Lady Wifi couldn't be sure. "You must have a pretty steel trap." Stormy knocked twice against the side of her own head.

As if on cue, pain cut across Lady Wifi's temples; the voice might be gone, but an ache remained. "Thanks," she replied, wincing, "I think. I'm gonna go lie down now." She glanced around the warehouse. "...Somewhere, I guess."

"I wouldn't worry too much. You should have some sort of bedding delivered soon," Stormy assured her. "Until then, we have sleeping bags."

Something itched in her brain. "We get deliveries?"

Stormy shrugged. "Yeah. Not totally sure how or why, either. Just a few basics, like food, water, and like I mentioned, bedding. I don't think we actually need to eat or drink, but I'm not going to tell whoever's delivering the food that."

"Do we have any pastries?" she asked wistfully. Something about the idea of a croissant gave her this wistful feeling.

Stormy just laughed.