To Speckleflower: Thanks! Personally, I prefer writing action sequences most of the time. That one took some thought because I wasn't sure how much to show and how much to leave to the imagination.

To The Keeper of Worlds: That's pretty much what I'm going with as far as injuries to the miraculous holders go. In part this is my explanation for why none of the Akumas were shown to have injured the heroes (their power isn't actually a miraculous weapon). Part of the holdup with this story was getting the flow right between present and future. I hope it works!

To Toshiro of the Eternal Dream: Hopefully this chapter will resolve some of your questions. One thing to remember is what she found on waking up: it wasn't Adrien panicking over her; it was Adrien beating a man to death. That is the driving factor behind her reaction. Your second set of questions is ultimately the theme of this story: dealing with grief and loss. I originally wasn't going to include this chapter with Nino and Adrien talking as it seemed redundant, but I reconsidered after reading your review. Marinette got her moment of a friend saying she isn't in the wrong with Alya; Adrien needs the same.

Keep the reviews coming; they can actually make a difference!

Note: Unless otherwise specified, the timeline of the current chapter is the same as the previous chapter. So this is still present day.

Adrien stumbled into class nearly 30 minutes late, mumbling a half-hearted apology as he found his seat. The rest of the morning passed by in a fog. He couldn't pay attention to any of his classes. The teacher called his name about ten times before he responded to a question; Plagg finally pinched him to get his attention. Twice he wandered into the wrong classroom by mistake. After the second time, Nino took pity on him and escorted him between classes for the rest of the day.

At lunchtime, Adrien for once found himself feeling grateful for the Ladyblog and its small army of followers who would upload reports on the heroes in real-time. Although the news of that morning's fight was sketchy at best – many of the details were missing, and they couldn't agree on the number of gunshots – it at least kept Nino and Alya from probing him for information he wasn't yet ready to share. Alya did open her mouth to ask him what had happened, but Nino elbowed her in the ribs and shook his head. Adrien gave Nino a grateful smile. He had just finished his lunch when he received a text from Marinette: "I'm OK, but my ribs are still sore. I'm sorry for yelling, but I'm still angry and I'm not ready to see you yet, so please leave me alone for now."

"What's up, dude?" Nino asked.

Adrien silently passed his phone across the table. Nino and Alya read the text quickly. Nino's brow was furrowed throughout, but Alya's eyebrows shot up the moment she started reading.

Alya jumped to her feet. "Sorry, I need to make a phone call."

"What's up with her?" Nino wondered, watching her leave.

Adrien shrugged and grabbed his bag to leave for their next class. Nino grabbed his arm and turned him around toward the stairway to the correct classroom.

After school ended, Alya gave Nino a quick kiss before disappearing out of the classroom. Nino meanwhile grabbed Adrien's arm and directed him through the hallways and down the front steps before steering him to the skate park down the street from the school. Nino found a secluded park bench, pushed Adrien down, and sat next to him before fixing him with a concerned look and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Okay, dude, you were late this morning. Marinette wasn't at school today and is mad at you for some reason. On top of that, you've been completely out of it all day. Now spill. I'm your friend; let me help you."

Adrien kicked at a tuft of grass on the ground in front of the bench. He didn't want to tell Nino what had happened – what he'd thought, what he'd done because of it. At the same time, Nino was his best friend. And he was a fellow hero. And Nino's girlfriend was also a superhero. They'd been heroes together longer than Adrien and Marinette had been dating. If anyone would know what Adrien experienced, it would have to be Nino. One look at Nino's expression, and the words started spilling out. "Have you ever failed Alya? Ever thought she was hurt and it was your fault?"

"Of course, dude," Nino answered. He let out a rueful laugh. "Remember Heroes' Day? Alya got Akumatized and I couldn't protect her. Can you believe it? I hold the Miraculous of Protection, and I couldn't protect the one person who matters the most to me! When we arrested your father, I swore that I would keep her safe that time, and I could hardly do anything to protect her then! I was on the opposite side of the cave for most of the fight."

"What would you have done if she'd gotten hurt?"

Nino let out a heavy breath. He was quiet for a moment. "I don't know," he finally admitted. "I'd probably be beside myself with guilt. On Heroes' Day, remember, I got Akumatized the moment Alya was – seeing her Akumatized made me so upset I couldn't fight it. When Zombizou was turning everyone into love-zombies and she was infected, I couldn't leave her. I let her kiss me instead of trying to get away from her. When we were Akumatized into Oblivio together, it was because I couldn't protect her from people mocking us. And all of that was – relatively-speaking, at least – not a big deal because you and Marinette fixed it all. If I thought she was actually hurt… I couldn't even imagine…"

"Well, that's what happened this morning," Adrien told him, burying his face in his hands. "We got an alert that that jewelry store crew was hitting a store down the street, so we went in to stop them. Only problem was, they were armed. I was on the other side of the store when one of them shot Marinette."

Nino's jaw dropped. "That's what the ribs thing meant? He shot her?"

Adrien nodded dumbly. "I lost it. In that moment I saw black. My only thought was to make them pay." He stared intently at his hands, remembering the blood, the feel of their faces as he beat them senseless. "Marinette didn't see it that way. She-she was angry at me for what I'd done. Doesn't she realize that I thought she was dead?"

Nino put his hand on Adrien's shoulder and pulled him in close. "I'm glad she wasn't dead, bro."

Adrien took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Some of the tension that he'd been carrying around all day leaked out of him with the breath. "Me too. The suit protected her."

Nino sighed. "I can't imagine what that was like, dude. Everyone knows how much you care for her, how much she means to you – no one more so than Marinette herself. She'll come around. Probably she just needs some time."

"But how could she yell at me like that? How could she just leave me there like that?" Adrien demanded, tears finally starting to fall freely.

"My guess, she saw what you can really do, and she was frightened." Nino shrugged. "Destruction is a powerful thing. Plagg's told stories about what happens when he's off the leash. You've only really unleashed your full potential once before now, fighting your father that first time this summer, and that nearly destroyed your house. And today was even bigger than that: the pictures online made it look like a bomb had gone off downtown before Marinette repaired it all."

"Does she think I would hurt her?" Adrien asked in bewilderment.

"No, I don't think she's afraid of what you could do to her," Nino answered slowly, shaking his head. "I think she's more afraid of what you could do for her. Can you honestly say there's anything you wouldn't do for Marinette?"

"There's nothing I wouldn't do for her. I would do anything to keep her safe."

"We already know you would have jumped in front of that bullet, suit or no suit. We know you would die for her. That's not in question. But would you kill for her?"

Adrien was silent. I guess, after today, the answer to that is "absolutely."

When Adrien didn't say anything, Nino continued, "Now that she knows what you would do for her, maybe she's scared by what she sees."

"Do you think I did the wrong thing?" Adrien fixed Nino with a penetrating stare.

Nino raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, I don't think it's my place to tell you whether you were right or wrong to do what you did. You've seen Ladybug take hits before, but you've never seen your girlfriend get hurt like this before. Take it from me: it's something else entirely when it's the girl you love. You were faced with a terrible situation and you reacted on instinct. What you did definitely kept them from doing anything else, so you did at least keep her as safe as you could after she was shot. I can't say I would have done the same thing if it had been me and Alya, but my thing is Protection, not Destruction. But whatever else we can say, at least no one died and Marinette's suit saved her life."

Adrien sighed. "Thanks. But what do I do now? I mean, I don't want to lose her, you know?"

Nino put an arm around his shoulders. "Maybe she just needs time. She'll come around eventually."

Adrien nodded, though without much conviction. "Yeah, maybe you're right."

"'Maybe'? Of course I'm right, dude! And until that happens, you've got your buddies to hang with. You're my bro, and I'm here for you no matter what. Now why don't we do some skateboarding, get your mind on something else for a bit?"