"A moment M'Lady."

Ladybug paused and tensed. She'd left Cat Noir at the end of their patrol, halfway across Paris. Now she stood on the roof of her parent's bakery, the only way he could be here is if he had deliberately shadowed her the whole way. The Cat Noir she knew wouldn't do that, would he? The last few months had settled things somewhat, but there were still too many uncomfortable questions.

"Cat Noir?" She decided to play along, peering into the shadows.

One detached itself, resolving into a familiar silhouette. No, there were differences. As he moved into the light this figure's suit was made to mimic Cat Noir's, but looked to be a different, almost metallic material. Those same glowing green eyes opened to catch the light, but the mask was instead a full face helmet, sculpted to mimic the real Cat Noir.

Ladybug's tension rose. No, not this again. She didn't think she could take this again. "You're not Cat Noir."

"Not exactly." The Noir jumped easily onto the rail, perching there in an all too familiar way. His faceplate cracked and folded back along invisible lines, receding, allowing a blond tumble of hair free and a friendly smile on a face she had long ago memorized.

"Adrien?" Ladybug's voice rose to breaking. Too many possibilities, with recent events too much she couldn't count on. Even the most obvious explanations were suspect now.

"Again, not exactly." His voice was pitch perfect. That fumbling apologetic smile and the way he raised a hand to rub the back of his head made her heart flutter. His answer gave her head the horrifying truth, but the rest of her still needed convincing.

"A sentimonster." she accused, and wished her voice held more anger and less disappointment.

"That's such an unhappy word. Am I really a monster M'Lady?" the senti-adrien shifted from his crouch to sitting on the railing, kicking his feet in a way so simply Cat Noir, but still smiling at her hopefully from Adrien's face.

Ladybug finally unstuck herself, turning to face him,"What would you have me call you then?" her mind was tumbling back to another senti-Noir, her partner, even for only a week. He had been so real.

He leaned back slightly, testing his balance against the five story drop below,"Choe's taken to calling me Adrikat, if that helps?" He just slightly overbalanced and did a quick panic-flail to bring himself back upright.

Ladybug lunged then looked down at her own hand, frozen in the middle of reaching out to help him. She closed it and rubbed her fingers together,"This is another trick?" She fought down her instincts, pushing suspicion to the front.

"This in particular? No. Not unless it is on me too. I snuck away to give you a heads up, and maybe have a talk for old times sake. It's been months, M'Lady.". His hopeful smile was Cat, but those eyes were Adriens.

Ladybug clenched her fists and advanced in frustration,"Stop it! Who are you supposed to be? Adrien or Cat Noir?"

Adrikat hopped off the rail and met her halfway,"You're asking the wrong me that question. I could give you an answer, but you wouldn't believe me." He extended his arm and opened his hand palm up, a coin sat in it,"What I can do is show you just how sincere we both are in a very real way I never could."

Ladybug's head was spinning. She knew in that twisted monologue there was a deep revelation but she stuffed it away. She couldn't let him throw her off balance. "Is that your amok?"

Adrikat, Adrien, looked hurt,"It's my heart Ladybug. It's always been yours, only now I can give it to you just as I've always wanted to."

Ladybug was reaching for the coin, capturing an amok was always smart, when the weight of all hisi words finally hit her. All the coincidences, all the happenstance, all the reasons it just couldn't be true fell apart and the quantum masking broke. "Adrien!" she stared at the Sentimonster, but saw someone else. "He's, Adrien!" she felt weak.

Adrikat caught her and eased her down to the ground. She sat stunned. With the veil pierced it all fell into place. 'It's not possible' became 'It's so obvious' for a year-and-more's worth of interactions in the space of a heartbeat.

"Not exactly M'Lady." Adrikat smiled gently at the repetition,"Mostly, but there's still some things up here that aren't quite right." he tapped his temple,"For both of us. His puzzle still needs some work. I've put mine together but am missing a few pieces." he shrugged good naturedly.

Ladybug was concentrating on breathing. It seemed her body had decided to forget how. All her pursuit of Adrien, and Cat pursuing her. Her pushing away the one thing she wanted. Their need for secrecy. The recent separation. Her efforts to help him now as Marinette. Frustration and sadness at the insanity of it all welled up, but tears didn't come. "Wait." her hand went to her mask and her eyes to Adrikat,"Does that mean you know-?"

"He doesn't, but he wishes," Adrikat leaned in. He took her other hand in both of his,"I didn't. Until you asked that now, here, on this roof." Those gentle green eyes held Ladybug's as he leaned in closer, Adrien's voice whispered,"Hello, Marinette."

"Kitty." The word slipped out from her lips unbidden. Ladybug heard her own emotions, bottled up and shaken, slipping free. She reached for him and for the briefest moment pure joy shone back in those emerald eyes. Then she paused, this wasn't really him.

Those eyes closed, when they reopened the joy was gone, a sad smile that tore at her heart replaced it,"You can't entirely blame me for trying can you?" He whispered, but he shifted back, letting her hand go.

Ladybug tried to order her thoughts. Chloé's sentimonsters attacked in ways Hawkmoth could only dream of. She couldn't push Adrien from her mind, but she needed to be here now for this...Adrien. Once more, Being Ladybug was taking a piece out of Marinette. Just as she opened her mouth Adrikat flicked his thumb, an arc of silver crossed between them and Ladybug caught it reflexively.

"That is still yours, no matter who or what you think of me. It always has been."

Ladybug looked down at the coin in her palm. There was a warmth to it. She could focus on that, on the mechanics of this new crisis and save herself for a moment,"Is this really…?"

Adrikat flashed her a classic grin, Noir once more,"Try it. I've never known another, but it's never been used either."

Ladybug looked down at the coin again. The amok gave the holder control, and the ability to know what the sentimonster did, if she would just concentrate.

Ladybug very nearly ended right then and there. Knowing what the sentimonster knew, the way Hawkmoth and so many others before him used it, was to dip your toes in a tiny pool of knowledge. Chloé hadn't made an Adrien look-a-like though, she had made Adrien, from intent and emotion the magic filled in the gaps. Trying to see through his eyes meant being herself and Adrien, two whole people in one mind.

Luckily the shock made her drop the amok. Both of them collapsed, staggering only slowly upright. Ladybug's head was spinning with countless fleeting impressions her brain was rejecting for its own safety. Adrikat found his words first,"Well, that was awful. You are always on my mind M'Lady, but maybe literally is a bit too much."

Ladybug's mouth tasted of metal. She worked her jaw and winced at her bitten tongue. An attack? No, now was the time to ambush her if it was. It had been a long time since the real risks of using the miraculous without knowledge had bitten her that hard,"You're not like other sentimonsters."

"Why thank you M'Lady, I'll take that as a compliment." He leaned back on his hands, still seated after their mutual collapse.

The lingering pain helped her focus, helped her look past Adrien's eyes and Cat Noir's smile. She picked the amok back up and stood,"And Control? Stand up." She ordered.

Instantly life left his gaze. A doll stood and stayed perfectly still, devoid of whatever life had been inside. Ladybug felt the connection trying to close, drawing on her focus and attention to maintain it. Ladybug released it and immediately Adrikat sagged, eyes becoming his own once more but with a haunted look about them.

"Can we maybe never do that again?" he asked in a tiny voice.

Ladybug squeezed the amok in her hand and nodded,"Never." Ripping Adrien's self away, she was already sorry for having done it once, she knew she couldn't do it again.

Adrikat straightened up, spread his arms, and restored his smile,"So then purrincess, tell me: am I a real boy or a monster?"

"Cat, you can't ask me that." Ladybug's eyes widened at the slip. She growled in frustration, hands to her head,"You're not Cat Noir, and you're not Adrien!"

Adrikat lowered his arms,"I'm both, but neither, much like him. The question I asked though, is 'am I real?'"

He wasn't the same Cat Noir she'd been a partner to for the last year, nor was he the same as the one she'd lost, but when Ladybug raised her eyes to his, the answer was the same. It didn't matter if they were different, she was the same,"Yes."

Relief, happiness, validation, it wasn't the joy from before but so much bloomed in Adrikat's gaze from that one word Ladybug cringed inwardly at holding that much power over another… person. "Thank you M'Lady." he murmured,"It helps to know that you of all people see me that way."

Ladybug squeezed the amok, then held it out "You should keep this. It's another responsibility I don't want."

The smile turned into a grin. Adrikat backed up one step at a time toward the rail again,"No, I think you do. Even far away I can be close to you M'Lady, and you never know when you might need to use it; remember the crowd this cat runs with."

Ladybug tilted her head,"Chloé, you said a warning." It had fled her thoughts among everything else,"She's coming back to Paris isn't she?"

Adrikat tapped a finger to the side of his nose,"Got it in one. There's a bee in her bonnet, and she's feeling waspish." Adrikat folded his arms and tilted his head one way then the other in thought. "You may want to let the confrontation happen, but then again you may not. Collateral will rise over time, but I can't say just how big a chunk she wants out of her replacement. I thought you'd have a plan given a little time.". He raised his eyes to Ladybug,"After all you always know the right thing to do at the right time." With that he hopped up onto the railing,"And now M'Lady I must bid you Bonne nuit."

"Stay!" Ladybug spoke from instinct. Instinct was all she had at this moment. She reached out to Adrikat,"There's no reason to go back, stay." She approached him, hand still outstretched,"You don't need to be a tool. We'll keep your amok safe until we get the peacock back, and then you can be free," she could help this one.

"Always the right thing." Adrikat's voice was wistful,"But I've made a promise M'Lady, one I won't break.". His smile grew more sincere before his mask covered it again,"We'll talk again at the end, that is, if this cat can land on his feet."

With that he fell backwards off the rail and roof. Ladybug rushed to the edge, yo-yo ready for a save, but impossibly he was gone.