Get ready for some angst guys. Also, I have tennis elbow for whatever reason. Maybe typing? Anyways, I'm probably going to be updating less frequently to rest my arm. I'm going to work on not getting too behind, though.

TW: *Brief mention of drugs*

Day 9 – Alternate Timeline

Adrien opened his eyes to a world bathed in blue. He sat up as he tried to gain his bearings. He felt a haze in his head as he surveyed his surroundings. He must've fallen asleep on top of a building though he couldn't figure out where. The world around him looked vastly different than his city he was used to. If it wasn't for a toppled billboard with one of his old perfume ads, he wouldn't have known he was still in Paris.

He stands up and starts to explore, his mind still hazy. There's something lingering in his head that's causing this strange, disorienting feeling running through his whole body. He can't seem to understand what that something is, but he can tell it's strong. Maybe he was drugged?

He looks down at his gloved hands. That was odd. They were white. He brushed that off to the purveying cloud controlling his mind. Regardless, he couldn't have been drugged if he was Chat N-Blanc. Chat N-Blanc.

"Chat N-Blanc," He tried to say his name out loud, but found it difficult. He shrugged. He guessed he had a new name. Maybe it had to do something with the color of his suit like it had last time.

He tried thinking back on the day he first became the black suited superhero, but he found those memories fuzzy. In fact, everything he tried to remember was fuzzy. The only clear thing he saw in his minds eye was his Princess, his Lady.

He smiled to himself as he thought of her. He remembered their first kiss in the Trocadero and the many kisses that followed. He remembered their many movie nights cuddled on his couch and on her chaise. He remembered their many Akuma battles and the few that occurred after they had both found each other out.

The battles in the last few months had been much more difficult than any they had faced before, but they had each other this time. And after each battle, they had run off together in abandoned alley ways, fire escapes, rooftops out of view of the public, anywhere they could be alone and together and completely and fully themselves, with and without masks.

He remembered the feel of holding her as she detransformed the first time. He could feel the tingle of her transformation and although it was sharp and electric, he wasn't able to pull away. The sting of her detransformation was overshadowed entirely by her. He was holding his Princess, his Lady in his arms and they were one in the same and she knew about both sides of him and she still loved him.

He had watched as her spotted mask was replaced with the spotted freckles on her nose which he was never able to count. Every time he had tried to count them, she would catch him and punish him with distracting kisses and light scratches to his head and snuggles.

In the back of his mind, Adrien knew that these were not his memories. But the fog in his head grew stronger and he shrugged off that thought.

He finally came to sit on the edge of the building, legs dangling carelessly off the side. It wouldn't matter if he fell. Not really. He knew she was never coming back. He couldn't exactly remember why, but he knew it for certain. She was never coming back to save him. All he could do was wait.

"Little kitty on a roof, all alone without his lady…" He sang the lullaby from his childhood. He wondered idly if his mother somehow knew what he would become, what he would do, and how badly he would destroy everything.

"Chat Noir?"

He turned towards the voice. It had been too long since he had seen another person. Maybe his subconscious had created another illusion. He'd hallucinated about her before. But this one was different. He could smell her.

"My Lady? Oh I thought I'd lost you!"

He couldn't seem to understand why she was backing away from him. She should want to help him. She loved him. And now she was back.

"What happened to you?" She shook her head. "No, don't tell me. We're going to fix everything."

His heart leapt for the first time in months. "Of course we are!" He circled his prey. She was going to help him. "Now that you've come back to me and now that you're going to give me your Miraculous!" He reaches up to grab the earrings from her ears.

"No!" He heard her shout, but she felt far away now. "You have to wake up," Her distant shout fading into the background. He was losing her again.

"No," He groaned. "No, I won't."

"It's time to wake up," He opened his eyes to see Natalie standing above his bed. "You have a photoshoot in Versailles in 2 hours. I expect you to be ready to leave in 20 minutes." And with that, she left him to it.

Adrien sat up and rubbed his eyes surprised to find he'd been crying. He shook his head before getting up to take a shower trying his best to put this weird dream out of his head.

He could see the look on Ladybug's face when he walked towards her. She was terrified of him. Even in the face of daily Akuma's he had never seen that look on her features before. It didn't fit on her features.

He felt the water rush down his features as he willed himself to forget. He hated the thought of Ladybug being afraid of him and what he could do.

And the thoughts of Marinette? He couldn't make sense of them. In his dream, he was able to recall a true relationship with her. He somehow knew that she was his girlfriend and they were in love. He had held her as she transformed. He saw her face as she kissed him and he could see her telling him about her day, something so mundane and domestic he couldn't help but sigh.

He turned off the faucet and went to get dressed. He didn't even respond when Plagg tried to make a joke. He couldn't pay attention to anything, the fog he felt in his nightmare carrying over into the day.

He had to say, out of all his dreams about Marinette being Ladybug, this one was by far the most dramatic and confusing. Why his horrible imagination would go to such lengths to torment him, he wasn't sure.

He glanced over at the striped beret sitting on his shelf. 'A gift from his fans in Brazil,' Ladybug had said when she delivered it.

At the time, he wasn't sure why he had kept it. He usually passed those off to Natalie and she would do whatever she does with them. Probably the garbage.

For some reason, the beret stood out to him now. He found himself walking towards to it without thinking. He picked it up and eyed the heart embroidery. The stitching was well done all over the whole thing. He'd never seen another one made. He found it hard to believe that random people in Brazil would take such special care to create such a unique accessory.

And why did he care so much about the hats origin all of the sudden? It felt important, though. Somehow it was starting to feel familiar, like he should know something that he didn't, something he couldn't. For a moment, he thought the hat carried Marinette's familiar scent, but Ladybug and Marinette smelled remarkably similar. It must've been because Ladybug was the one who delivered it.

Knock, knock, knock. "Adrien, we're waiting on you."

"Coming," He called back to Natalie. He considered the beret for a moment before setting it back on his shelf.

"You ok, kid?" Plagg asked uneasily.

Adrien shook his head and steeled his features. "Yeah, just a weird dream is all."

Please leave a comment if you enjoyed! It helps inspire me to crank out chapters faster.