A/N: Things will get a little hard to understand from now on, but trust me when I say that most of your doubts will be cleared up in a couple of chapters.

So please enjoy reading and don't stress too much if you don't understand something, everything will be explained eventually :D

Marinette dodged a silver blade with a jump to the side, and then another one soon after.

The merciless swords came at her at incredible speed with only one intention: killing her. This, however, did not seem to be an important enough reason for her muscles to react properly, as they seemed to ache at each dodge. She was pretty sure that she would have had the chance to show off a brand new haircut if she managed to come out of that place alive.
Her blue eyes could hardly keep up with everything that was happening in front of her, especially because of the silver surface of the weapons which were sending her flashes of the light they reflected, and managed to detect that the swords were coming all from one direction: Adrien.

Another Adrien. Yes, there were two Adriens in the room, her brain was still trying to process that bizarre information. But then again, when akumas were involved, anything was possible and it was not the right time for her to make assumptions; she kind of had to focus on staying alive.
She looked over at the akuma who was tied to a chair, the one that Hawkmoth had proudly showed off in his video, and the other who was currently busy killing her. His red eyes pierced her skull, an anger that she didn't think Adrien was capable of feeling showing through them, and his mouth stretched wildly as he sent more swords flying towards her without a single gesture. The weapons circled behind him in a fast pace, trembling just like the akuma's body did each time they missed their target.

Ladybug was anxious. His attacks were fast and he was unpredictable, she had realised that sooner or later she would have had to retreat. The power of this akuma was strong and unknown to her, it was dangerous to battle him directly without having observed him first. Plus, she didn't really feel like luck was on her side today. Keeping a safe distance was necessary and preferred, if possible.

Marinette, on the other side, was ecstatic and couldn't stop her inner voice from telling herself how wrong all of this was. Adrien, or the Adriens, were okay, and it didn't seem like they had been severely injured. This only pleased her, and she would have smiled if she hadn't been terrified that one of the boy's blades could pierce her skin at any moment. The fact that he had been trying to stab her for the past 5 minutes did also have its effect on her, and Marinette really felt like crying.
Such anger didn't suit Adrien: he could not wear such a face, dress that way, with his torso completely bandaged and his bare chest covered by a pierced cloak, and be comfortable with it.

Those red eyes weren't his.

The last sword fell to the ground, missing again its target. Marinette saw that as an opportunity to catch her breath, putting a halt to her wild dance as she watched Adrien snort at her.

She had to talk to him. He was still Adrien, there was still a chance that he would listen to her and stop fighting. After all, the boy had always been so kind and calm, that sort of anger couldn't come from someone like him. If it hadn't been for the akuma, he probably wouldn't have been capable of even raising a sword at someone. No matter how she looked at the situation, Adrien was innocent to her eyes: every blade he had thrown at her, every hateful glare… those weren't his. It was all Hawkmoth's fault, and Marinette would make him pay for how he had turned Adrien, her sweet, cheerful Adrien into that sort of monster.

She gripped tightly yoyo, silently praying for Tikki to give her the strength she so desperately needed.

"Adrien," she called.

A growl was all she received in response. The boy was still looking at the ground, observing the blades that had fallen behind her with disappointed written all over his face.

Marinette breathed in, speaking louder this time. "Adrien!"

In an instant, the blonde's head snapped in her direction, his fist closed as he brought them up to slam them down in the air. "Don't you dare call me that!"

The violence in his voice almost made the hero stumble back, but she managed to stay in her place. There was nothing she could do if not use the usual initial akuma protocol, which usually wasn't really a success but was still worth trying, with her friend as well. She bit her lower lip as she spoke. "Please stay calm. I am here to help you."

"The only way you could help me would be giving up those sweet earrings of yours, lady."

His words run through her slowly, sharp and painfully hurting her as she realised what they truly meant. Sure, she had heard similar versions of the same phrase hundreds of times, but seeing it coming from Adrien was something that she never had the displeasure of experience and something she was not ready to accept.

This isn't him, she reminded herself.

He, however, seemed to interpret her silence differently. It was weird to watch his face contort in a fake smile, anger and anticipation vibrating through every inch of his skull.

"You don't disappoint me, Ladybug. You are fierce and strong-headed as always, just how I like it." he crossed his arms over his chest, revealing a whole set of what seemed to be black spades traveling down his arms. "You are going to make me chop you to pieces before you give them up, aren't you?" he took a step forward, his feet leaving a trail of blood behind them. Marinette gasped at it, wondering whose blood that was. "Well… it's not like I mind."

A hiss resonated through the air and in a matter of seconds the symbols on his arms seemed to get larger as a dozen of silver blades made their way through them, taking their shape just in front of the weird-looking tattoos and resting afterwards floating in the air beside him.

"I was actually looking forward to that."

And with that, the blades started their deadly dance again.

A/N: Sooooo long story short, this is not how long I wanted this chapter to be, but because of school and general lack of willing to live I'm just leaving it as it is. I really wanted to update and I don't know when I'll be able to write again, so this was necessary in my opinion as so many people were confused about what had happened to Adrien in the previous chapter.

It is possible that in the future I could decide to delete this entire chapter and re-post it with its actual lenght + new parts, but I'm really not sure about that for now. What do you guys think about that? Is it really necessary or should I just leave it as it is?

Sorry people, I promise I will do better next time, but for now just have a little patience, okay?

Thank you as always for putting up with my weird updates and grammatical mistakes ! Hugs to everyone who's been encouraging me with my English and with this project in general, I'll say it again, you are all angels.