"I'm glad I decided to take a walk and get a snack," Sabrina commented into her purse, taking a bite of her egg-filled croissant. Picking a couple of melon cubes out of her fruit cup, she dropped them into the purse for Nooroo. "I don't think I could have made it to lunch without something to eat."

Nooroo hummed, his head just barely visible peeking out of the purse. "I find that food normally helps."

She shrugged. "I don't know what it was, but I just… I wasn't hungry when I woke up this morning, but then while I was meeting with Morgane… suddenly it all hit me at once." She grimaced. Probably all the coffee."

He nodded in acknowledgment. "It may be wise to reduce your caffeine intake, Mistress," he suggested.

"Maybe…" Sabrina's stomach churned, and she frowned, looking down at her half-eaten sandwich and then at the trashcan they were passing.

Nooroo sighed sympathetically. "If you feel unwell, remember you can call in sick."

Sabrina nodded. "I know. But I really don't want to disappoint anyone; I'm just lucky I don't have any clients scheduled right away!" Nooroo frowned, munching on one corner of a melon cube. Sabrina let out a breath, taking another bite of the croissant without any egg. "After what I did…" she began softly, "I can't let Marinette down, especially when she trusted me again."

Nooroo nodded sympathetically. "However, it will do no one any good if you work yourself until you truly make yourself sick," he pointed out. "Marinette will understand if you need a sick day."

Sabrina sighed heavily, glancing up and down the street as the rehab center came into view. She was just about to cross the street when, like a clarion call, she felt a jolt of panic and fear that latched onto her chest and refused to let go. Her eyes shot wide open, and she scanned the crowded street more closely, searching for somewhere she could hide. Halfway down the street there was an alley between two tall buildings; she rushed in that direction as quickly as she could, while simultaneously tracing the panic back to its source. Ducking into the alley, she leaned against one wall and closed her eyes, exhaling her own emotions and dropping into the emotions of a woman who was being overwhelmed by panic and terror, mingled with pain, grief, even guilt. Sabrina opened her eyes and ducked down lower before whispering, "Nooroo, Bright wings rise!" A butterfly flew into her hand, and she released it almost instantly.

She only had a minute to wait before the Akuma reached the woman, who was hiding behind a car, no more than three blocks from Impératrice Pourpre's location. The Akuma sunk into the woman's tennis bracelet, and the telepathic connection opened. "Madame," Impératrice Pourpre began urgently, "I can see that you are in–"

"No!" the woman whimpered, clenching her eyes shut and fighting against the Akuma. "Please–please don't!"

Impératrice Pourpre cocked her head. "I'm sorry?"

"You–you're going to try to use me, aren't you!?" the woman grunted, gritting her teeth and starting to pull off the tennis bracelet. As she unclasped it, Impératrice Pourpre withdrew the Akuma from the bracelet and looked through its eyes, scanning the area around the woman.

A larger man with thick arms stalked past the car behind which the woman was hiding, his mouth set in a deep frown and his eyes narrowed in rage, hands clenched in bloody-knuckled fists. The woman froze, her breath catching in her throat, as the man paused a couple meters away. "Alright, where did you go, you useless bitch!?" he shouted, turning his surly gaze back the way he had come. "I'm going to find you, so you might as well just come back here."

Impératrice Pourpre grimaced as the man looked directly at her Akuma, his eyebrows furrowing suspiciously. The street seemed largely deserted, with only a handful of other people on the sidewalk, all of whom were keeping their distance from the man. She clenched her jaw. Based on the woman's reaction, she didn't want help… but if Impératrice Pourpre just ignored this, then what would happen to the woman? She couldn't just abandon this woman! Finally, sighing heavily, she sent her Akuma back down to where the woman was hiding. The Akuma melted into the woman's engagement ring.

The woman let out a strangled gasp. "Please–please leave me alone!" As she did so, the man's head poked over the top of the car, and she pulled her legs up to her chest. He frowned, not quite able to see her.

"I will if that's what you want," Impératrice Pourpre told her. "But," she added quickly, before the woman could say anything, "if I do that, I'm afraid that your fiancé is going to hurt you! I can't just sit by and watch him kill you. Now, do you want my help or not?"

The woman's emotions shifted to confusion, and she cocked her head slightly to the side. "You're not–but I thought–" She swallowed hard. "You're not going to force me to do terrible things?"

Impératrice Pourpre furrowed her brows in confusion. "Why would I do that?"

"It's just… I was in the refugee camp in Angola…"

"Oh." Impératrice Pourpre's shoulders slumped, and she leaned back against the wall behind her. "I understand."

"Sorry."

"No; don't be," Impératrice Pourpre told her. "It's not your fault; it's mine. I was the one who betrayed my friends and the people of my city there; I can absolutely understand your reluctance to trust me. To be honest, I haven't really felt like I could trust myself since then – I've only used my power a couple of times since then, and only at Ladybug's command." She let out a breath. "Listen: if you don't want me to help you, then I won't. I will report it to the police and see when they can get there, and I'll let the rest of the Heroes of Paris know; one of them might be close by. But I don't know how long either of those options will take… and it looks like you need the help now, not 'in a few minutes.' So…"

The woman frowned. "I will be in control?"

"Yes," Impératrice Pourpre assured her. "Within reason, at least. I'm not going to let you kill him – even if you think he might deserve it. I will keep watching you to make sure you don't abuse the power that I am offering you. But you are going to be in control of your own actions."

At that moment the man walked out in front of the car and caught sight of the woman. His eyes flashed dangerously. "Whore!" The woman let out a stifled scream, her eyes widening in panic. He clasped his fists above his head and brought them down.

Acting quickly, Impératrice Pourpre reached out and shifted the Akuma's power slightly before activating it. A shimmering beam shot out of the diamond in the woman's ring, reached a point just above her head, and separated into a transparent dome than covered her entirely, moments before the man's fists came down on it and sent him bouncing away. He let out a growl and charged it again, but again he bounced off. Impératrice Pourpre returned her attention to the woman. "So… what is your decision?"

The woman's panic subsided slightly. "You're going to help me?" she asked, hope invading her emotions.

"That's what I'm here for," Impératrice Pourpre assured her.

"Even if it's my fault?"

Impératrice Pourpre cocked her head, taking a sip of her now-lukewarm tea, the sandwich and fruit forgotten on the ground. "What do you mean? Why might this be your fault?"

The woman swallowed, the guilt returning as her fiancé shouted above her, the sound of his fists bouncing off of the protective dome reverberating in the air around her. "I… cheated on him," she whispered, sniffling. "It was an old lycée crush, while we were in Angola. Jean didn't make it there – I didn't even know if he was alive, not for sure, at least. But Louis was. He was lonely and scared; I was lonely and scared. It only happened once, the first night we were there. I know it was a terrible mistake; I regretted it as soon as it happened. But I did it. And this morning, Jean saw a text from Louis and put the pieces together."

Impératrice Pourpre hummed softly.

"Does that make me a bad person?" She sniffled.

"I'm the last person to be judging another for something she did in the heat of the moment after before forced to flee her home while thinking her loved one was dead," Impératrice Pourpre pointed out, chuckling gently. "I can tell that you feel guilt over what happened. I can tell that you wish you hadn't done it. If you could take it back, I think you would."

"Absolutely!" The woman furrowed her brows in confusion as her fiancé huffed, raging at the protective bubble. "Are you giving me that power?" she asked, a hint of hope entering her emotions.

Impératrice Pourpre's eyes shot wide open. "Um… no. Sorry," she apologized. "That would be overkill, I think. And it would potentially involve messing with powers far too great for either of us to be messing with." The woman's shoulders slumped. Impératrice Pourpre sighed heavily. "I'm sorry if I got your hopes up. But making it like it never happened wouldn't actually solve the problem – not long term. This event happened. It's going to affect you – all three of you, really – no matter what you do right now. So if you are going to move forward, you can only do so by acknowledging what happened and learning from it. And that's the case whether you do so with your fiancé or without him."

The woman's breathing hitched. "You think I should break up with him? But–I love him! We're starting a life together; a family!"

Impératrice Pourpre raised an eyebrow meaningfully. "Considering that this was his immediate reaction to finding out about your infidelity, I'd say that you need serious relationship counseling at best, and a split at worst – maybe just brief, but maybe even longer. If you want to make it work, then that's absolutely up to you. But if that's going to happen, you will need a lot of willingness on his part – and for him to stop trying to break through the impenetrable barrier I placed around you!" She paused while the woman's fiancé continued shouting before finally kicking the shield with no effect. "If you want to try, then I can recommend a few counselors who may be able to assist, but only if your fiancé is willing to forgive. Do you think that's going to be the case?"

The woman pursed her lips in thought. "No… I don't think so," she admitted, sniffling. "I–I ruined any chances of that."

"I know it feels like it must all be your fault under the circumstances," Impératrice Pourpre allowed, "but it really takes two to ruin a relationship like this. You did cheat, but his reaction is what makes it difficult for there to be any forgiveness. Maybe he will forgive you eventually, but for now I really don't think it's going to happen."

The woman sighed heavily. "I wish I hadn't done it," she whispered. "I wish I hadn't ruined everything."

"I know." Impératrice Pourpre smiled sympathetically. "But you didn't ruin everything – or you didn't do it all on your own. His attitude bears some of the blame, also."

The woman gave a jerky nod. "Ok – so what do I do now?"

Impératrice Pourpre hummed, glancing down at her watch. "You have a lot of options available to you. In the long term you can move out and find somewhere else to live; you can look for a counselor to help you with the emotional trauma from today. Immediately, I will give you some leeway. You can escape from him entirely, you can stop him for the cops to pick him up on their rounds. Or you can come with another solution."

The woman frowned. "I mean, I don't really want him arrested," she admitted. "But I also don't want to be anywhere near him if he's going to be like this."

Impératrice Pourpre nodded. "Very well. I will give you the ability to hover outside of his reach, in addition to the shimmering sphere to protect you. You can use either ability as you will. Okay?"

The woman sighed. "Okay," she agreed, as lavender smoke covered her body.

The fight itself took almost no time at all before the woman, "Sauve-moi," had subdued her fiancé and dropped him along the side of the road. The man groaned, senseless, blinking his eyes dumbly. Sauve-moi stood over the man, barely moving, watching him like a hawk as he continued to lie unconscious. Finally, the woman let out a breath, watching as two police officers pulled up and started loading the man into the back of their cruiser. Only after the man was safely locked up did the transformation finally dissipate.

The woman dropped to sit on the curb, head in her hands, and sniffled. "Thank you," she whispered as the Akuma started to emerge from her ring. "At least he won't be able to bother me for a few days… while I figure out what to do next."

Impératrice Pourpre smiled. "I'm always happy to help."