Chloé was pissed.

"Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me? I spent months, MONTHS, working on this wedding!" Chloé's feet pounded down the hall as she looked for a safe place to transform, Sabrina on her heels.

"Look! It's Queenie Beanie!" A rough voice teased as they came around a corner.

"Excuse me?" Chloé seethed, finding the owner of the voice to be one of Lila's Anti-Bug goons. "What are you doing here? Guests only, idiot."

Two other men approached behind the first and the man sneered.

"Got a problem, Queenie?"

"Yeah! I do. You're ruining my friend's wedding. Now get out of here so Ladybug and her new team can defeat the akuma without having to worry about saving your measly life. You have no business here." Chloé waved a hand at the man defiantly and he laughed in response.

"That akuma," The man rolled his eyes. "Is one of us. We ain't going nowhere, Queenie." The man stepped closer and Chloé dropped into a defensive position.

"Try me."

"Challenge accepted." The man stepped to the left but threw a punch to the right. Chloé dodged expertly and whipped around to meet his jaw with her fist, ignoring the pain in her hand when it connected. The man's friends began to approach and Chloé glanced to Sabrina, only to find the girl backing away.

"Sabrina!" Chloé scolded, brain trying to comprehend what she was seeing. Immediately, Sabrina turned and ran, disappearing down the hall.

"Awww, Queenie. Looks like you're all alone." The man threw another punch and Chloé ducked, catching his fist in her hand and using his momentum to flip him over her shoulder.

"Fine with me." Chloé turned on the other two men and quickly took each of them down, wiping her hands clean of them as she stepped over one of their unconscious bodies to continue down the hallway.

———

Marc and Nathaniel tore down a set of stairs, hands clasped together despite the affect it had on their speed.

"You aren't going to believe this." Chloé's voice came over their earpieces. "Ran into three of Lila's lackeys. The akuma is one of them. Again."

"What's the chance that's a coincidence?" Marc asked as they skid down one of the adjacent hallways.

"Not impossible but also not likely." Pegasus answered in their ears.

"Then what's going on here?" Kagami's voice was strained, as if she was out of breath.

"Are they being akumatized on purpose?" Luka asked at the same time Pegasus questioned, "Kagami? You alright?"

"Made a wrong turn, got way too close to that akuma without my suit. I haven't been able to transform."

"Is this another riot? Has anyone verified?" Marinette's voice was quieter than the rest, as if she was trying to stay hidden. "I'm…unable to check."

"M'lady?" Adrien's worried question shot back. There was a long moment of silence as Marc and Nathaniel managed to find an empty closet to transform in. As they called their transformations, Marinette answered back sharply.

"They're gone. I'm fine. Forgot how many dead ends are in this stupid house."

"There's no riot outside, just the akuma's damage." Alya finally informed.

"There is currently an empty room on the second floor, third door on the left. We should meet to discuss our plan." Pegasus added, checking the security cameras as he ran.

Marc and Nathaniel peered out of the closet they had transformed in and began running towards the stairs, stopping abruptly when a large group of Lila's group members turned the corner.

They had no time to stop. No time to turn around. No time to prepare. No way to stop what happened next.

"Code Black! Code Black!" Marc's voice came through the com unit a moment later, the rest of the team immediately cursing.

"You or Nath?"

"Both!"

"Don't worry. I'll come find you." Pegasus took a moment to examine the security cameras, nodding in determination when he spotted Marc and Nathaniel, now untransformed and defenseless, fleeing from a group of Lila's goons. "Voyage!" Pegasus called, opening a portal in front of his friends and allowing them to jump through before following after them, the three of them landing in Max's apartment.

"God, Marinette. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't, we couldn't-"

"Don't, Nath." Marinette's quick answer crackled through the ear piece. "We'll get them back. We've done it before."

"What can we do to help? Without our miraculous…" Marc whimpered in defeat. "How did Lila's goons know what our miraculous were? They were so fast.."

"We'll discuss it at headquarters after the akuma is taken care of." Adrien answered. "Stay safe. Away from the battle."

Marc and Nathaniel sat together, grieving their lost kwamis, until the battle was won. With the help of another one of Pegasus's voyages, they arrived at headquarters just as the other team members began to show.

"Where's Sabrina?" Marinette asked, peering at the seat the girl usually occupied.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Chloe shrugged. "She totally ditched me in the middle of the battle. Just up and ran away when three of Lila's men came at me. Luckily, I'm a badass, so.." Chloe rolled her eyes, leaning back into her seat as Marinette frowned and turned to Max.

"Do we have any confirmation that Sabrina made it out okay?"

"Security cameras show her leaving the building seven minutes after the first screams. She looks just fine." Max pulled the security camera footage up for them all to see and sure enough, Sabrina had left them to fight without her.

"Max, can you disconnect Sabrina's com from ours?" Marinette requested, beginning to pace wildly. "Change all of our passwords and locks. For now, Sabrina is no longer a trusted ally."

"Marinette." Alya intervened. "Don't you think that's a bit harsh? We don't know why-"

"No. She abandoned us during a battle. And not just during a battle, but during a fight where Chloe could have been seriously injured. If she needed to leave, she could do so after helping Chloe. We're a team. If she can't act like it, I can't trust her."

"Marinette," Myléne tried to reason with her friend. "If this is stemming from your need for heightened security in order to feel safe-"

"No! This is stemming from my desire to protect our team. Sabrina abandoned us without a word. I can't- we can't-"

"I agree with Marinette." Adrien stated, stepping forward and, before he could talk himself out of doing so, grabbing her hand. "Better safe than sorry when it comes to our identities and our safe spaces. It can always be undone should Sabrina come back with an explanation."

Marinette looked up to examine her partner's face as she felt his strong hand in hers.

"A vote." Marinette proposed. "All in favor?"

The majority agreed and Max set to work as Luka brought up their next talking point.

"How are we going to approach the possibility that the last two akumas have been willingly akumatized?"

"What reason would they even have to do so? Besides hatred for Ladybug? Do you think that's it? That they just want to fight?" Juleka proposed, a hand gently petting her kwami.

"Could be." Ivan agreed. "But then how do we stop them? They have no special motive, no special item. Their intentions are vague. The last akuma we were able to guess that it was the sign that held the akuma, but the one today.."

Marinette thought back to the battle with a small cringe. It had been hard.

The akuma hadn't carried any special items, he'd had no special theme or powers, nothing besides his giant size, his proportional amount of anger and the same "no Ladybug" symbol on his clothing. It had taken multiple rounds of trial and error to realize the akuma was hiding in his glasses and even once she had found the corrupt butterfly, Marinette had wondered exactly what emotion had caused the akumatization. Monarch's goals and akumas had been clear cut, obvious from the beginning if you took even a second to think about it…but this new butterfly…what could they possibly want from all of this?

———

"Ah, Sabrina. So nice to see you could join us. Your help has been…instrumental lately." Lila's head tilted to the side as she spoke, her sickly sweet tone sending shivers down Sabrina's spine.

"I couldn't turn down the invitation." Sabrina gulped, crossing closer to Lila and her followers.

"Yes well, now that you've brought me these.." Lila motioned to the Bug Bot and the goat and rooster miraculous that lay on the worn out table in front of her.

"Hey! We got the miraculous! She just got the bot with her stupid fetchy thing."

"Shut up, Adam." Lila rolled her eyes at her head lackey, turning back to Sabrina. "I have another task for you. You up for the challenge?"

"Yes, Empress." Sabrina bowed, hair falling around her face as she did so.

"Good. I have an ally I need to reintroduce to battle. He's currently…tied up. But you can fix that for me, can't you Sabrina?"

"Tell me where he is. I'll do anything."

———

Gabriel Agreste sat in his prison cell, eyes closed but mind awake.

Years. He'd been here years.

Trying to avoid grinding his teeth, Gabriel thought back to that moment.

That terror of a girl..

Adrien had allowed himself to be ensnared by her. Had stood by idly while she wrecked his chances of bringing Emelie back to life. Had allowed her to taint his mind and cause him to testify against his own father in court! Not that any civilian was aware of that since it had been Chat Noir who took the stand.

But Gabriel knew. His lawyer had advised him not to reveal the young "heroes" identities, advised him it would be a bad move.

But he had wanted to.

Only the promise of a shorter sentence kept his mouth closed. His mind caught up in the possibility of escape, of freedom..of returning to his cause.

He would never give up.

Not until Emelie's eyes opened.

And not until Marinette Dupain-Cheng's closed for good.