Adrien's POV

It wasn't the wind that had plastered the worried look on my face. It wasn't the fact that the streets were utterly deserted either, though that did concern me as well. No, it was the silence.

I knew by now of course that Marinette was the akuma mentioned in all of the news feeds, the ones warning people to stay away from where I was headed. I was concerned because when there was an akuma, chaos followed. Screams, shouts and the pounding of trampling feet the along footpath. Not silence. Never silence.

So when I found a conveniently dark and dead ended alley way, I quickly called for my transformation.

"Plagg, Claws Out!" and when a few moments later, Chat Noir could be seen hurtling across the Paris skyline towards the Akuma, no one was any the wiser, and that was the way I liked it.

When I spotted her, (Pun not intended but greatly appreciated none the less) I had to do a double take. She was standing there looking up at me with a cold smirk alighting her features. It was a smirk devoid of any warmth or humor, and it looked plain wrong on the face of someone I had seen smiling at everyone that passed her.

She was clad in yellow spandex that faded into orange just before the black combat boots that adorned her dainty feet started. She was spotted all over with black dots, even on the small mask that covered her features.

She looked eerily similar to Ladybug, especially with the addition of a yellow yo-yo strung around her waist, and the hair pulled back into twin ponytails, her raven black hair held with yellow ribbon.

It hurt to see her like this, it hurt even more to know that it was my fault. The least pessimistic person in the whole class had been turned into an akuma because of me and my stupid thoughtless words.

It was with startling clarity that her words burst through his reverie.

"What, no pitiful meowing? Does the cat have your tongue?" she looked entirely too pleased with herself at this remark, her icy blue crystal eyes glimmering with a dark mirth.

I plastered a fake smile onto my face.

"It seems someone's jealous of the cat's meow." I tightened my clawed grasp upon my baton, the tension in the air thickening. She laughed at my comment. A faint tinkling sound, but it was fake.

"No it just seems that Ladybug is no where to be found. Looks like your puns have finally scared her off." She stalked towards me, grabbing the yo-yo off her waist and swinging it at an leisurely pace beside her.

I took a step backwards in the face of her advancement. She was right, Ladybug was no where to be seen, and that did not bode well. Without her, I couldn't defeat the akuma. The only thing I could do was play for time.

So with a smirk in the direction of akumatized Marinette, that was exactly what I did.

Alya's POV

The question that I was often asked by people who didn't know me was did I read the news feeds. Yes, I read the news feeds, how else was i going to be able to find where the akuma was at? Did I ignore the important message to stay away from the akuams however? The answer was yes. Yes I did.

I was told by one of the doctors who came to talk to me and the rest of my family after we had decided to turn off my sister's life support, that they encouraged us all to get back to our lives. At the time I had wanted to throw it all back in his pitying face. How was I supposed to go back to my normal way of life when the person that I had taken for a given was no longer there.

Now as I stared at the battle raging on in front of me, I realised the wisdom of his words.

Maybe if I had gotten back to life sooner I could've stopped Marinette from getting to this stage. Sure, I was really pissed at her, but I understood it wasn't her fault. I just needed to lash out with my anger at someone, and Marinette had provided the perfect opportunity.

It wasn't fair, I knew it was, but that logic didn't work on me when I had just had one of my little sisters taken from me, because that wasn't fair either. Especially since I couldn't blame the driver, he was only trying to avoid hitting another little girl, an my sister had just happend to be in the way.

Try how I might however, I couldn't just sit back and watch Chloe bad mouth her. Not my style. No one got to bad mouth Marinette. Even after that though, i couldn't bring my self to ask forgiveness from her, I knew she would understand, Mari always understood, and that somehow only made it worse. She was far to forgiving, far to kind and upbeat. I never thought she could be akumatized, never gave a second thought about it when she ran out of the class in tears.

And now here I was. Recording my own friend attacking one of Paris' heroes.

It hurt. Seeing Chat Noir jumping around her yelling insults that seemed to lack there usual luster. He was playing for time, anyone could tell that. He was fighting more strategically than usually as well, trying to keep the akuma, who had decided to rename herself Adalia, (which a quick google search would tell you was a type of ladybug) in the one place, presumably so that Ladybug could find them easier.

The cat was tiring quickly though, doing flips and somersaults in an atttempt to aviod Adalia's fast spinning and hard hitting yo-yo was quickly wearing him out. After a while though, it became evident even to Chat Noir that Ladybug wasn't going to show, he stopped fighting so intensely, and seemingly the fight paused for a moment.

He then clipped his baton onto the back of his belt and raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"Marinette, I know it's you in there, can we talk?"

And I watched dumbfounded as Marinette hesitantly placed her yo-yo back on her waist and grimaced taking a step forward.

Marinette's POV

"Sure." I heard the word come out of my mouth as if from a distance. I could hear my head ringing with Hawk Moth's insistent whispering.

Chat's expression was no less surprised than mine. His eyes lighting up in hope and suspicion while he cautiously took a step towards me.

"Marinette, listen, I know what people have been saying is wrong. You don't need Hawk Moth's help to prove that. You prove them wrong everyday by just being you. So what? People have been taken you for granted, I have been taking you for granted, but you can prove them wrong without hawk moth."

I stood still, just standing there, my mind and heart at war with each other. My heart was hurting. I had been taken for granted for too long, Ladybug always got the spotlight, while Marinette did just as much but nobody saw it, and nobody appreciated it. However my brain saw through Hawk Moth's lies. What could Hawk Moth give me? He didn't know me. He only saw that I was vulnerable and hurting and was exploiting those feelings for his own gains. But for once I wanted to lash out, to hurt everybody as I had been hurt, to do something selfish for me and not have to worry about the repercussions. I wanted to show them that it was Marinette that was capable of doing this. Marinette, not Ladybug. But then again, was it worth it?

Then Hawk Moth whispered, and all thoughts of struggling flew from my head.

That's not what he was saying a while ago, was it. He thinks you are no where near as good as Ladybug, he doesn't appreciate you, he doesn't know you. He confesses his dying love to you in your mask and then scorns you out of it. Don't let yourself be deluded by his lies.

So I grabbed my yo-yo, and in a detached sort of way threw it at him. He was only just able to dodge it, flipping over it and yelling out to me as he ran along the walls of the building that a second ago was behind him.

"Don't listen to him Marinette, he's a liar."

I felt the tears begin to brim my eyes as I flicked my wrist and sent my yo-yo flying towards him again.

"So what," I heard myself say, the hurt, frustration and anger clear in my voice, "he's not the only one."

He seemed to get that this comment was aimed at him. Confusion and hurt flashed in his slitted emerald eyes. Of course, he was too stupid to put two and two together. Ladybug was missing and Marinette was akuamtized, but maybe he just couldn't understand how someone like me, could be someone like her. It made me angrier.

I flung my yo-yo towards him harder and harder, with new found vigor, fueled by my anger and self deprecation. Finally, I caught him, he no longer had the energy to avoid my attacks. I had caught him.

I reeled him in towards me, dragging him across the ground like a sack of potatoes. He looked up at me, his eyes unfathomable and his nose scrunched up in pain.

His miraculous Hawk Moth whispered in my ear.

I know. I thought back, a cruel smile twisting my features, as I reached my hand slowly towards his ring.