The Forget-Me-Not Chapter 7: Princess Chloe

Everyone, are you in good spirits? It's a lovely day! Do you know about Princess Chloe?

Don't be shy, prostrate yourself before Princess Chloe!

The sun that rises when waking up in the morning, that's Princess Chloe!

The beautiful moon that glows when night falls, that's Princess Chloe!

The people of the world envy her, and the flowers of the world are jealous of her.

She's this castle's princess, Princess Chloe!

Marinette sighed from within her room, rolling up the large cloth that contained her diagram of the girls' dorm.

She'd been unsure of what to do after the situation with Nino, Felix, and Nathanael… But decided to break into all the circled rooms on her diagram, anyway.

Even after checking them all, there was still not a single clue about Mylene.

Marinette could only hope that a clue had been in one of those boxes that Felix had taken from room 15.

She knew that he'd taken them to the mess hall, but they really could've been in any of the offices in there, and Marinette wasn't sure how she could go about looking through there. The patients and prefects who worked there wouldn't just let Marinette go snooping around without an explanation.

…and she definitely couldn't just tell them that she was looking for Mylene. Really, any explanation would've been too suspicious.

Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't worth it…

But, she still had to know what this Mylene thing was all about. Even if she wasn't real, she still needed to find out the truth somehow.

She'd find another way.

Marinette picked up the rolled up sheet of cloth and stowed it away under her bed. She then sighed and then stood up. Picking up her keys from her desk, Marinette put on her rain jacket and rain boots, which she'd customized to be red with black spots instead of just black.

Marinette left her room, shutting the door behind her, and walked down the hallway to begin her descent down the stairs.

It'd only been a few hours since Alix, Kim, and Max had dragged Alya away to that martial arts thing, maybe they were still there? Marinette needed something to do now, and she wasn't all that bad at fighting.

Marinette exited the stairwell and walked through the hallway and into the lobby, where she was surprised to see Felix, napping on one of the armchairs in the lounge. Nathanael and the boxes nowhere in sight.

She turned to see another akuma sitting on the other side of the lounge reading a book. Marinette called over to her, "Why's Felix in here? This is the girls' dorm." She didn't mention how Felix had been there earlier, and seemingly haven't left.

The green-haired bookworm shrugged, not looking up from her book, "Chloe and Sabrina caught him while he was walking back to the boys' dorm with Nathanael. She forced him to do something for her, but I didn't catch what their conversation was about. He crashed when she left, I don't blame him."

Marinette nodded in agreement, "Me either." When it came to Chloe, anyone could be in the line of fire., dealing with her was exhausting. Though she had no qualms about bothering the prefects, she at least had the sense to not pick fights with them.

While Felix did have to deal with Chloe, it still made Marinette uncomfortable that he was sleeping in the girls' dorm. She moved to shake his shoulder and wake him up. He stirred and mumbled incoherently, but did not wake. His head flopped back down on the armrest like a brick.

Marinette sighed. Whatever, it couldn't be helped. If Felix was going to sleep, let him sleep. Marinette continued walking out of the girls' dorm, and hadn't even taken two steps outside before she heard a shout.

Kim was practically dragging Alix away from the recreation center with Max and Alya following behind them. Alix was furious, violently trying to wrench her arms away from Kim as she shouted, "Let me go! I can't just let her fucking say that to me! She's going to regret it!"

Alya sighed and said, "You can't just fight her in the middle of the asylum, the prefects are going to be mad."

Kim adjusted his grip on Alix so she was better restrained as he added, "It's not worth it."

Marinette, having a suspicion that Chloe had something to do with this, approached them and asked cautiously, "What's going on?"

Alix stopped struggling, and simply wrenched herself from Kim's grip and stood there as she spat venomously, "Chloe, that fucking bitch."

Max turned to Marinette and translated, "Chloe arrived at the martial arts event, and someone got into an argument with her. She then switched her attention and started provoking Alix instead, as usual."

Alix growled, her fists clenched as she said, "the only person Chloe rips on more than me is that fucking half-breed, and that's only because everyone rips on the damn tomato-head. God, I fucking hate her!"

Marinette sighed and asked wearily, "What did she say this time?"

Alya began counting off on her fingers as she listed, "Well, she said that Alix was too scrawny for martial arts. She also made fun of her pink hair for being…" Alya trailed off, wincing, but then continued, "uh, yeah… she called her a lot of things, including a slut for always hanging out with Kim and Max."

Alix angrily added, "And she said that I fucking smelled like a trash compactor! Do you know what could be in a fucking trash compactor? Rotten food, poop, vomit, dead bodies. I don't fucking smell like a trash compactor. There's a line, and she fucking crossed it!"

Alix, in her fury, then turned around, fully prepared to go back to the recreation center to give Chloe a piece of her mind. Before she could, Kim's lightning fast reflexes grabbed her arm and held her back. Alix wrenched her arm from Kim's grip, but remained standing there as she said quickly, "Don't touch me."

And then, one of the last voices that any of them wanted to hear pierced the air with a, "Oh? And why's that? Are you trying to hide the fact that you eat dead bodies for a snack like a vulture?" It was Sabrina, not Chloe, who was approaching them. Underneath her raincoat, she wore the sweater vest made by Gerald.

The group watched Sabrina warily as she moved to stand beside them, a perfect replica of Chloe's smug smirk decorating her face. She made a show of sniffing the air and holding her nose as she said, "Ugh, gross. Princess Chloe was right, you, Alix, definitely smell like a graveyard."

If looks could kill, Sabrina would've died three times over with the glare that Alix was throwing her way. The pink haired girl threatened in a low tone, "You. Take. That. Back."

Sabrina scoffed, "Oh, please, we all know it's true." Sabrina turned her attention to the others and asked, "Don't you think so?"

Marinette sniffed the air, but couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary, just the smell of the rain. Though, she could feel that Alix, as a person, was more prone to getting angry. It wasn't because the pink haired girl had been so mad, but it was more like an aura that wafted off of Alix.

But, Marinette couldn't smell anything strange, so she shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Max, however, blinked in surprise, and looked over at Alix as he said slowly, "I-I smell it." Alix glared at him and he smiled sheepishly, and discreetly took a step back and waved his hand in front of his face as he added, "I hadn't noticed before now, but it is quite repulsive."

Marinette was taken aback, "Really? I don't smell anything."

Alya added plainly, "Neither do I."

On the other hand, Kim took a single step back away from Alix and nervously began, "Uh, well…"

Alix whirled around to glare at Kim as she warned in a low tone, "Don't. You. Dare."

Kim held his arms up in surrender with a guilty smile on his face as he said anyway, "You do smell a little weird, it's like…" He trailed off, his hands falling back to his sides as he thought for a moment before finally saying, "You know, I can't describe it."

And then the atmosphere made a change for the worse as a haughty voice called out, "Well, I can, and it smells exactly like misery and hopelessness. Ugh, it's worse than a trash compactor."

Chloe moved to stand beside Sabrina, and Alix immediately moved towards her to give the blonde a piece of mind, but Alya held her back. Alix responded by shoving her away, but Kim held back Alix back instead, and Alya backed off, letting Kim handle Alix as usual.

Alix growled, standing tensely in Kim's arms, but no longer struggling as she hissed at Chloe, "I fucking hate you."

Sabrina then arrogantly retorted, hands on her hips, "Well, it doesn't matter, because Princess Chloe doesn't need people like you in her kingdom."

Alya raised an eyebrow and deadpanned, "Princess Chloe?"

Marinette crossed her arms and asked skeptically, "Kingdom?"

Chloe flipped her ponytail over her shoulder, "It's an inside joke, you wouldn't understand." She put her hands on her hips and added with a smirk, looking at Alix, "Peasants like you just don't get the proper etiquette of bowing before your princess."

The comment only got the group of five to exchange a skeptical look. Did Chloe seriously think she was princess-status?

But then, Chloe continued, throwing more insults at Alix, "Oh, wait, with that smell of yours, you're even less than a peasant. You're more like those untouchables, so worthless that even the peasants wouldn't dare touch you."

That comment was the last straw. Untouchable? Others not daring to touch her? Those words in particular affected Alix, and she was furious. That word, untouchable, was not just crossing the line, it was eagerly trampling it and running to the forbidden side as fast as possible.

Alix yanked herself out of Kim's grip, and stalked angrily over to Chloe. Alya and Marinette, alarmed, tried to block Alix, but the skater pushed past them, not letting anyone in her way.

Alix had personal anxieties and reasons for not letting anyone touch her (besides Kim... sometimes). Not mention the fact that Rose and Juleka had taught them about the Indian caste system, and how its untouchables weren't even worthy enough to be included in the system like the servants.

Chloe's comment brought back unwanted nightmares.

As Alix approached Chloe, the blonde was forced to back up, alarmed as the pink-haired girl seethed, "Untouchable? UNTOUCHABLE? How dare you. What do you know about me, huh? What do you know?" Alix had to use all her willpower to not clobber Chloe, clenching her fists as she stood there, shaking in fury.

The skater looked ready to punch or tackle Chloe, and so Max then nervously interjected, "Uh, Alix?"

Chloe said nothing in response, and Alix then continued with a venomous, "That's right, NOTHING. You don't know shit about me, so why don't you take your untouchable princess ass over to the kitchen and sit yourself down in the trashcan where you actually belong."

Chloe then had the gall to sneer, "If I'm a trashcan, then you're a radioactive landfill."

Alix growled and moved to attack Chloe, but then she was frozen in her tracks when a distinctly tired yet smooth and commanding voice resonated through the air, and shouted, "That's enough!"

The ones not facing Felix, save Alix, turned to see the blonde prefect approach, eyes still sleepy, having just been awoken. He, as a prefect, still found a way to be stern and responsible as he said, "You both should know by now that violence out of hate is not tolerated at this asylum."

Max lightly tugged on the sleeve of Alix's rain jacket, too worried to do much else, and Alix grudgingly took a step back from Chloe and turned. She wordlessly held out her wrist to Kim, and the athlete grasped it and tugged the skater to stand beside him instead of in front of Chloe. He let go of Alix's wrist afterwards, but Alix remained standing beside him.

She didn't trust herself to look back at Chloe and not beat her up.

Felix breathed a sigh of relief seeing that Alix had backed off, and sent a pointed look over to Chloe. She simply scoffed and crossed her arms as she said, "Whatever, old man."

Felix's eye twitched as he glowered at Chloe, very clearly looking just as young as any other fifteen year old. He repeated slowly in a low tone, "old… man?" Chloe wasn't deterred at all, even as Felix walked over to her and asked with a false and tense smile on his face, "What did you say?"

Marinette, Alya, and Sabrina looked horrified that Chloe would insult one of the prefects, and Max cringed at the scene. Chloe clicked her tongue, her face one of complete indifference as she drawled, "You smell just as bad as Alix. You guys should join Nathanael and the other half-breeds and form an 'untouchables' club."

Marinette was appalled as she asked, "did she just…?"

Max took a step back away from Chloe as he replied, "she certainly did."

Alya just asked incredulously, "Chloe, what's with you and how people smell?"

Chloe's smirk grew more mischievous, as she taunted, "Wouldn't you like to know?" She put her hands on her hips and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder in a show of superiority as she added, "If only you all had a royal sense of smell like mine, then you'd be able to pick out the miserable rats from the rest of us normal mice."

Marinette crossed her arms and glared at Chloe as she said, "You're bluffing. You're just picking on people you don't like."

Chloe shot Marinette a smug look that was surprisingly laced with a hidden knowledge as she replied, "Oh, trust me, if I were doing that, then you'd smell like misery instead of cake."

Marinette didn't get it, but a look at the tense Felix and Alix told her that they did. She could also see an epiphany hit Kim, Max, and Sabrina, as if they only just understood the implications of that sentence. Marinette looked over at Alya, and saw that even her best friend seemed to be suspicious.

What was it that she didn't seem to be getting?

Sabrina, having been loyally following Chloe without questioning her, asked hesitantly, pointing at Alix and Felix, "Wait, are they really-"

Felix cut her off when he reached out, put a hand on Chloe's shoulder, and turned her in the direction of the girls' dorm and said, "That's enough. This fight ends here. I'm not one for punishments, but know that if Rose and Juleka were also here, then this would be ending differently."

Chloe clicked her tongue before saying ominously to Felix, "You and I both know that you're a liar." before walking away with a flip of her hair, Sabrina following after her.

Meanwhile, Sabrina's question brought Marinette's attention over to Felix and Alix, and she was reminded of Nathanael. Chloe always made a point to point out how bad he and all the other akumatized half-breeds smelled. Marinette's eyes widened with realization and she exchanged an incredulous look with Alya, who was almost as surprised as she was.

As Felix walked back over to the boys' dorm after sending a scowl at Chloe's back, Kim and Max led Alix to sit in the lobby of the recreation center.

Marinette wasn't sure where to go.

How Chloe could pick out akumatized half-breeds just from her sense of smell?

Marinette watched as Chloe and Sabrina entered the girls' dorm. Recalling how Chloe had acted as if she had the secret to life, Marinette could only wonder...

What else was it that Chloe understood?

Surrounded by the tall, green, lush, and plentiful trees of the forest was a small, run down building. It was too small to be a cabin, yet too big to be a mere shed. There was only one window, and it was sealed shut with age.

Inside, the wooden walls were riddled with dust. The ceiling above was home to cobwebs and various insects. While the corners were dirty, the rest of the floor was marginally cleaner than the rest of the shack.

The little cabin had no furnishing at all save for a large, round, old, royal purple rug left in a pile on the floor beside a little trap door. A lock for the trap door lay off to the side, an unlit lantern sat beside the locked front door.

Then, a sound came from beyond the trap door, as if someone were fiddling with a lock from the inside. The trap door opened with a loud creak, revealing Rose to be the person that was fiddling with it. A faint light came from the room beneath the trap door in the floor.

Rose stepped off the rather steep steps leading up to the trap door from within, propping her hands on the floor so she could sit beside the trap door. Then, there was another sound, as if someone's hand was groping the underside of the floor for something. With the flick of a switch, the light below from beyond the trap door was shut off. The large shed was plunged back into darkness.

Juleka's head popped up from the opening in the floor left by the trap door as Rose grabbed the lantern by the door, not getting up off the floor, and grabbed some matches from inside her raincoat pocket. The light from the lantern dimly lit up the room, and Juleka climbed out of the hidden room and into the little cabin.

Juleka closed the trap door once more, this time grabbing the combination lock and using it to lock the trap door in place. She made sure to mix the numbers up from what they were previously, 9376.

Juleka then scooched away from the trap door so that she was instead sitting by the front door. Rose then grabbed the large rug and spread it out over the trap door, successfully covering it and the grand majority of the floor up.

Rose then crawled over to Juleka, who had her eyes closed as she leaned her head back against the wall. Rose placed a gentle hand on her lover's knee and said softly, "We should be getting back."

Juleka let out a shaky breath and brought her hands up to her closed eyes, her head drooped as she said, as if on the verge of tears, "Just a little longer..."

The rain was coming down hard, the shack plunged into a silence that was constantly interrupted by the sound of raindrops hitting the little cabin.

Rose smiled tenderly, looking almost sad or melancholy as she moved to sit beside her girlfriend. The short haired girl asked softly, "What about the director?"

Those were not the words Juleka wanted to hear, and a slightly muffled gasp escaped her as she began to cry. Her hands moved away from her eyes, instead reaching out to pull Rose into a hug as silently sobbed.

Rose was downcast, yet a strength inside her allowed her to maintain her composure unlike her girlfriend, who rarely ever cried anymore. Juleka also rarely initiated hugs, but, ever since recent events, it seemed as though crying and hugging were happening more and more often.

Rose returned Juleka's hug, patting her girlfriend's back to soothe her as the long-haired girl asked Rose, her voice quiet and raspy, "Why does she remember? How? Mylene-" Juleka cut herself off, no longer sobbing, but silent tears still ran down her cheeks.

Rose bit her lip before closing her eyes and gently tightening her embrace as she whispered, "It'll be ok. It has to be."

Juleka murmured in doubt, her voice shaky, "It's impossible. Marinette shouldn't…"

Rose patted Juleka's head and hushed her gently, "It's ok…"

Rose opened her eyes, gazing out the only window of the shack as she said firmly, "No one will disturb our eternal chrysalis."