A snap of Adrien's fingers was all it took for the blades to start their wild dance again, and Ladybug was forced to join in as well, afraid for her own life. She almost tripped on one of the many swords that were on the ground, her mind too busy searching for a strategy.
Dodging was her only option at the moment, as blocking the swords was risky: sure, she could have always tried to deflect them with her yoyo, but there was no guarantee that that would work. Ladybug had never encountered an akuma with such a power before and didn't know how to fight him without injuring herself as well. What she knew, however, was that her yoyo could break and give her a really, really hard time; that was why she decided to use it as her last resource, continuing as long as her legs didn't give up.

Her eyes couldn't help sending worried glances at the ground as she jumped all over the worn floor. The swords that were at her feet were rapidly accumulating, and there was no guarantee that they were going to stay where they were for the rest of the fight.

Step after step, she soon felt her feet stumble upon a wall behind her. She gritted her teeth, aware of the fact that being cornered was what could be her end, and rolled sideways. She needed space to dodge those blades if she wanted, well, to actually dodge them and not die.
Her eyes darted to the standing figure now far away from her, who was currently grinning. He hadn't moved of an inch from the beginning of the fight, thing that she was really grateful for, as that meant that she actually didn't have to think about where he was at while fighting for her life, and he didn't seem to be too pleased about the ongoing battle. His smile was nowhere near calm, his eyes squirting with every sharp noise of a blade piercing the air, and a loud hiss would escape his lips whenever said swords would touch the ground.

He really couldn't wait to hit her.

She couldn't accept this: Adrien, the sweet and innocent boy that she so much loved could not be feeling something like bloodlust. Marinette couldn't allow the strong sentiment that was guiding him to transform him in such a way, and she couldn't allow herself to connect that menacing figure with the soft, warm smile that always managed to make her heart melt. Those two faces, even if they belonged to the same person, were very different.

Ladybug took in as much air as she could, attacking with the only thing she had left: words.

"Adrien! Stop this!"

She heard the akuma mock her with a short laugh. There was something cruel hidden behind that irritated smile of his. "Come on, don't you dare give up on me now, my Lady. We've just started dancing."

The world stopped for Ladybug. Her legs locked themselves onto the ground, her arms dropping to the sides, heavy and tired. The fact that she was still alive and not chopped to pieces surprised her, but she glared up, meeting those unfamiliar red eyes. Between the many swords that were circling her now, she could see him: he clicked his tongue, waiting for her to understand his words.

My Lady.

My Lady.

"...Chat?" the name left her lips involuntarily as her heart started racing.

Chat. She had forgotten about her partner, the one who she had seen tied up on a chair alongside Adrien. She hadn't eveng questioned where he could have been while entering the building: she had gone straight for Adrien. How could she have done that? Where was he? Was he injured? Was he scared?

A loud tap on the ground caused her head to snap up, ready to face the still distant akuma. A silver blade was pointed towards the ground, his hands resting on it as he spoke.

"You are a horrible person." there was a tremor in his voice. Whether that was caused by his sick sense of humor or anger, Marinette didn't know. The only thing she knew was that she agreed with him.

"Stubborn. Selfish. Presumptuous. And yet, he still loves and cares so much for you." his grip tightened, the sword now shaking underneath his force. The deadly tip was now unsteady, scratching the floor and creating what she found an eerie sound. "Was it too much… Was it too much for you to do the same?!"

Marinette caught at the corner of her vision the swords approaching her one by one, closing her in what should have been a deadly trap, but none of the swords ever touched her. With a swift motion, she got out her yoyo, swinging it around herself.
The noise of the cold metal touching the ground suddenly became a sweet music to her ears. Luck was blessing her yet again.

"You are so cruel," Adrien was shouting at her, more swords gathering behind him. "How can you still call yourself a hero after what you have caused?"

Marinette didn't understand. Her heart was shattering underneath all those heavy words, words that she didn't comprehend. She skipped a breath when she saw the shiny metal move rapidly towards her along with its owner, who was now armed. She gulped, gripping tightly her yoyo.

"Don't you know…"

A lunge. A desperate dodge.

"...that he's suffering because of you?!"

Silver clashed against the texture of the magical weapon, sending the akuma's weapon out of his hands. He showed his teeth, growling as he called for another sword to come to him.

"Don't you know that it would have been better for him to never meet you?!"

Hit after hit, Marinette's feet met again the so hated wall. Her blue eyes narrowed at the realisation of her imminent doom, her hands busy gripping the yoyo that shielded her from the violent akuma's assaults. Her sides were unprotected, and the blades were already positioning themselves to strike her from there.

"Don't you know that it would be better for you to just disappear?!"

She was going to die.

She opened her mouth, ready to shout to the boy she what were her last words. She would tell him that she loved him, and that she was sorry. She would tell him that she loved him, and that even though she didn't understand him, she forgave him. She would tell him that she loved him, and that she wished there could have been more for her to say.

But a voice that was louder than hers, a frantic cry, started first and interrupted her.

"Spades!"

From the opposite side of the room, someone was moving underneath that blood red cloak, messy hair moving as his head was shaken from side to side. The other Adrien had waken up, and was trying with all his might to free himself from the tight rope that bound him to the chair by trying to move his hands, tied up behind his back. He was using his own weight as well to swing from right to left on the chair, possibly trying to make it fall to the ground.

Black eyes were contorted in sadness and frenesy, the portrait of someone who was seeing his worst nightmare becoming reality appearing not far from the two. "Spades! Please, stop!"

The named akuma was paralysed, evidently taken by surprise by the event. "You are awake?!"

Ladybug took this distraction as her chance. She stopped her yoyo, kicking the so named 'Spades' in the stomach. She then swung her yoyo high, attaching it to one of the many metal railings that cornered each upper floor. She didn't look at where exactly she was headed, as her eyes only wanted to meet the two black orbs, the ones that were so familiar to her.

Those were Adrien's eyes. Human, fragile, and soft. Something so mundane had never been so sweet to her.

She grabbed the railing that had saved her life, ignoring the angry growls that were coming from behind her, and jumped over it, stationing herself on what seemed to be the second floor. Marinette allowed herself to breathe: it would take time for Spades to reach her, admitting that he could in the first place. She hadn't seen, in fact, neither stairs or an elevator that could link the higher floors to the main ones. She gasped at the sight of some swords flying towards her, and raced to an old desk that was just next to a dirty window. She turned it to the side and used it as a temporary shield as she faced the dirty ground. The blades hit the hard wood with a loud thump.

"You want me to come to you, Ladybug?" she heard the akuma shout. "Fine! I'll come to you."

The heroine lifted herself up, sticking her head out of her safe place just enough to see what Spades was doing. Swords were forming a path in front of him, a sort of stair that would guide him to her. All of them were disposed vertically, with their sharp edges facing the ceiling.

"And this time, I won't let you get away."

Spades put his feet, one by one, on each sword, the sharp silver cutting the soles of his feet. Drops of blood dropped down on each sword, the crimson colour contrasting with the immaculate metal.
Marinette gaped, horrified and confused: the boy didn't seem to mind the pain in his feet, and kept going, steadily glancing towards her direction. Her eyes, however, caught a glimpse of what was happening behind him. The many fallen swords that were covering the ground had now disappeared, leaving behind only the scratches that they had caused. That was an important piece of information, as she obtained a great clue about the akuma's powers: his swords had only temporary power.
Now, how these swords lost their efficiency was not yet completely clear to her, but it had to do with them interacting with other objects and people that weren't the akuma himself. That would have explained why the swords that touched her yoyo string while she was protecting herself had fallen to the ground and never moved again, while the swords that Spades was using to get to her were now moving by his side even though he had stepped over them.

So, in brief: touch them before they touch you and you'll be fine.

"Spades! Stop!" the other version of Adrien was still screaming at the top of his lungs. He was now on the ground, still tied to the chair, moving his hands and kicking frantically. "It's not her fault, leave her alone!"

Spades snarled at him, stopping in his way to meet his other half's eyes. "Not her fault?!" the blades around him tensed up, turning their edges towards the other teen. "It's entirely her fault if we are in this situation! She deserves to suffer just like we did!"

Marinette observed this from behind her desk with caution. What the two were saying was complete nonsense to her, but she knew that it had to have some importance if the argument had managed to get Spades' attention. She knew she couldn't simply stay there, she needed to act quickly in order to change the situation. She thought about hitting the sword that Spades was currently on with her yoyo to make him fall to the ground, but wasn't sure that that was a good idea. She didn't know if that that kind of fall would be enough to knock him out, and leaving him with the other Adrien was dangerous since he didn't seem to be on good terms with him.

"We can't blame her for this," she heard him continue. "Not when it's only our fault."

"What the hell are you saying?!" Spades sounded confused, oddly enough. That was a change, Marinette had thought that anger was his only default emotion. "Which side are you even on?"

"I'm not on anyone's side." black eyes locked on with red, determination appearing on the akuma's face. "I only do what I think is right."

This seemed to startle Spades, who was left looking at his other half with wide eyes. "Uh…" he put his hands on his hips, looking now curiously at the other boy. "I wonder… does that make you my enemy?"

"Wh-what? I'm not your-" there was a hint of panic in his voice. Marinette didn't like that.

"If you are not on my side, then you are an enemy." Spades explained. The swords started dancing around him again.

She gripped her yoyo, ready to act.

"And if you are my enemy…" the akuma's red eyes sharpened, anger reappearing in his voice. "...then it's your fault as well."

Ladybug's yoyo left her grasp too late. The silver blade was already making its way to the other Adrien, who could not do anything if not stop breathing at the sight of the sharp sword approaching him. Marinette felt air leaving her lungs, a scream echoing throughout the core of the empty building.

What happens to akumas if they die?

Her yoyo impacted with the sword Spades was standing on, immediately forcing it to drop to the ground. She watched as he fell backwards, his hands grasping thin air in a desperate attempt to save himself. His body impacting with the floor made the most horrible sound that one could imagine.
She rushed to the metal railing at the border of the floor, her hands slamming on it as she leaned her body forward. Her mouth stretched, her eyes already filling themselves with tears.

But she never got to see the gruesome scene that she was expecting. Adrien, the one who had Adrien's eyes, was still on the floor, petrified. His black pupils were as thin as a needle, and his breath was struggling to come out in short, heavy pants. He was looking to his left side, where the swords that should have killed him was resting. Next to it, a pair of headphones lay.

"Did you just use my headphones to deflect a frigging sword?!"

The voice, coming from the opposite end of the room from Adrien, was high-pitched and hysteric. Ladybug's mouth dropped as she saw who it belonged to. A rather terrified Nino was holding his head in his hands as he looked at his companion with incredulous eyes. Alya was perfectly still, her arm still stretched out from the moment she had thrown Nino's dearest possession at the sword.

"I… did?" she didn't sound too convinced.

"That wasn't a question, Alya!" the boy continued, now moving his hands in an intricate pattern. "What… How did you even do that?! No, actually- why did you do that?!"

Marinette didn't know what to say. It was not like she thought that she could actually make a complete sentence in her current state, her brain had stopped functioning. How the heck were Alya and Nino here? How did they even manage to surpass the police? She knew that Alya had many amazing abilities, but she never thought that she could actually fool an entire police unit, as she never would have imagined that she could drag Nino into such a mess. Knowing the boy, she probably had to physically drag him there. Her intervention had been spectacular, she had to give her that, but that didn't take away any of the craziness of her actions.
She didn't know whether she had to bow to her and thank her for all eternity or strangle her.

"Listen," the brown-haired girl started. "I just… did it, okay? Let's just leave it at that. More importantly, I think I kinda saved Adrien's life there."

"I frigging know you did!" Nino was shouting now, jumping on the spot. Marinette couldn't tell if he was happy or just extremely angry. He was most likely just hysteric. "I wouldn't be reacting like this if you hadn't!"

Ok, that's it. She had to talk now, there was no time for children's arguments. Last time she had checked, Spades was still on the ground, and she had yet to check if he was even alive.
She jumped over the railing, using her weapon to aid her descend to the bottom floor. She welcomed with relief Spade's soft breaths, feeling her heart slowing down its furious dance.

She turned towards the two teens. They were looking at her, a pair of eyes shining with admiration and another begging for someone to stop the nonsense they just had witnessed.

"Ladybug, I-" the young reported started, only to be interrupted by the heroine.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" anger resonated through her voice. The two teens shivered, looking at each other for support. They couldn't know that said anger was caused by extreme worry.

"We.. came here to help," they both said in unison.

"Help? You could have gotten yourselves killed!"

"But so could you," Nino mumbled, his gaze not meeting the heroine's. He closed his hand into a fist and glared up again. His eyes were clear, sincere. "Adrien is our friend. We wanted to help. You don't even know him like we do, and you are risking your own life to save him. We had to do something, too."

Ladybug didn't answer him. Instead, she just turned on her heels, walking straight towards the conscious Adrien. She couldn't help it, Nino's words had completely erased any anger in her. She loved her friends too much to not melt when they talked with their hearts on their sleeves, just as they had done now. Still, she couldn't just make it seem like what they had done was okay, she needed to be harsh. "Please, never do something like this again and go home. I don't need you to get into any more trouble."

She looked at the akuma with tender eyes: his gaze was still fixed on the silver sword that was not so far from him, his breath still struggling to come back to normal. Marinette noticed that he was shaking.

She slowly put a hand on his shoulder, caressing him gently.

"Are you alright?"

The black orbs narrowed a little as he gulped down in an attempt to get a hold of himself. "M-my whole life just passed in front of me," he attempted to chuckle, but a weird cry was all he managed to produce. "It wasn't pretty."

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "Now you are safe. I'll free you."
She unbuttoned his red cloak to be able to get to the rope behind his back with more ease, tossing it to the side, and noticed that he was wearing an uniform of some sort. The collar was tight around his neck, a single red, heart-shaped button holding it closed, and white lace could be seen escaping from its grasp. The black uniform seemed to be tight around his torso, hard edges sticking out at the height of his shoulders. Golden decorations travelled down the leather-like material on both of its sides, and the upper shirt disappeared the underneath the high-waisted black pants. His boots, weirdly resembling solid hiking shoes, had red soles. What caught her attention, however, were the many rings that were positioned at each of his fingers: all in what seemed to be in pure gold, they followed the structure of the fingers to create a sort of claw. It was possibly the only intimidating thing on his outfit, and it almost seemed to clash with the somewhat soft appearance of it all.

She had decided to help this akuma. Hawkmoth himself had said that he was 'useless and not willing to fight,' and he even seemed to disagree with Spades, so it was clear to her that he would not cause any imminent threat. Plus, she actually needed an akuma to tell her where Chat was, and having one that was willing to cooperate could only be an advantage to her.

After all, he still needed to be saved.
The ropes, however, were quite tight and it was hard for her to untie them.

She almost jumped when two figures sat next to her, searching for a way to help her.

"I thought I had told you to go home."

"We are not going home." Alya said, gesturing at the two akumas. "Not until they can come back with us."

Nino offered her the nearby sword, smiling.

She sighed. "I guess there's no way I can send you home, is there?" she poked Adrien in the cheek, grinning as well. "You are very lucky, you know? Not everyone risks their life for their friend."

Adrien smiled, his cheeks slowly reddening. Marinette watched as his eyes softened in the expression she knew so well.

"I know."

"Speaking of your friends," she started cutting the rope that was tying his hands with the swords. "I really want to know how they got here without getting caught by any of the 40 policemen who are outside."

"Oh, that's simple." Alya answered, showing her best grin. "We just made a run for it."

Marinette stopped what she was doing, looking at the girl with incredulous eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, it's true! We knew that the area was secured, so finding a safe way to get in was impossible. We just ran as fast as we could, and we eventually lost them."

"I'm pretty sure they are still searching for us out there…" Nino commented.

"Yeah, that's definitely a possibility." she adjusted her glasses, her teeth still showing through that cute smile of hers. "Oh, by the way, can I film this?"

Ladybug almost laughed. Her friends were reckless, stupid, and extremely ingenious at the same time. She loved them.

"I still can't believe that you guys did that… and the answer is no."

She almost swore out loud when the weapon disappeared from her grasp, silver sparkles left in its place, possibly since it had reached its limit. She had freed Adrien's hands, but his feet were still tied to the chair and tied together as well.

The akuma, however, seemed to be already really grateful for her help, and squirted with delight at the fact that he was actually able to move his hands. He opened and closed his palms repeatedly, and gave the group a warm smile.

Marinette felt her heart melt underneath her superhero suit.

A moan caused her to flinch, however, and she turned towards the only possible source of the sound. Spades was waking up and struggling to get on his feet.
The hero heard her companions gasp, and she stood up in front of them, ready to protect them. She looked at Alya and Adrien, and then back to Nino.

"Get them out of here," she told him. She knew that she was setting a difficult task for him to fulfill, but she needed him to do everything he could while she bought time for them.
Silver swords appeared again in the air, this time circling their owner in an uneven pattern.

"Damn you…" he commented as he finally got up. Spades showed them his teeth, red eyes sparkling with hatred. "Damn you all!"

Marinette couldn't wait anymore: she threw her yoyo high up into the air, praying for her to get something that could help her protect her friends. Everyone's lives were on the line now, there was no time to lose.

"Lucky charm!"

She welcomed the small gift she received with disappointment, staring in disbelief at the smoke bomb that was resting in her palms. Luck had different ways of talking to her, and she thought of the objects she received while she called for her own power as the most direct form of communication that her and her own luck had. This time, for her joy, the message was pretty clear.

Get the hell out of there.

A/N: Yes. I am alive. Shocking, right?

Not much to say for this chapter apart from the fact that I haven't even proofread it (I really wanted to publish it) and that it was mostly written while listening to the song "Come" by Jaine.

I hope the length is alright for now, I promised myself that I wouldn't publish this chapter unless it had a decent length. Soooo yeah, I am quite happy that I actually managed to do that, even though I kinda rushed the end :3

As usual, please forgive my bad English and my grammar mistakes, and thank all of you for your amazing support. You guys make me really happy :)

Until next time!