A/N: So, since I've been asked this a lot, I'll do some clarification.

Yes, there are two Adriens in the room. There is no Chat. Marinette still thinks he's tied up somewhere else, possibly another building.

The only people in the building are Spades (akumatised!Adrien who is trying to kill Ladybug), an unnamed akumatised!Adrien (the one who was tied to a chair), Nino, Alya, and Ladybug.

I'm sorry if I didn't make this clear enough. If I will ever edit this story in the future I'll make sure to address this problem to make your life (and mine) easier.

Again, I'm so sorry!

Please don't hesitate to ask me anything regarding the story, but also remember that many things that will happen will diverge from canon! So yeah, don't expect them to make sense immediately.

See you at the end of the chapter!

Alya's scream resonated through the air as silver swords approached her.

Marinette started to spin her yoyo at high speed again, holding the smoke bomb in her free hand. Blocking the blades did not prove itself to be a hard task, as they were all heading towards one direction: the friends that she was so desperately trying to protect.

"Nino!" she called for the boy, still deflecting the last couple of swords. "Hurry up!"

She didn't have time to look at him, but she imagined him nodding and rushing over to Adrien's side to try to free his friend from the tight rope.

"This is so wrong…" she heard Alya mutter at his arrival. "There are two Adrien in the room, both of them are akumatised and one is trying to kill us and himself. And if that wasn't messed up enough, Chat Noir is probably still tied up somewhere and Ladybug is struggling. And you know what the worst of this whole mess is?"

"Uhhhh, I'm not sure I wanna know," the boy answered, hands frantically grasping at rope.

"I can't film any of this! I can't hold my phone and help Adrien at the same time!"

Nino watched as his hands dropped to the ground. He felt really stupid, as if he had forgotten who he was talking to for a minute.

"Dude," he started. "If we get out of here alive I'm gonna have a serious talk with you about you and your frigging sanity because I swear to god you are-"

A sword landed not too far away from her, causing the brown-haired girl to squeal. She glanced up at the hero that had been protecting them, her mouth opening and closing in what could have been read as a curse.

"Ah, sorry!" Ladybug apologised. She had to be more careful: only because she could block the blades, that didn't mean that they couldn't hurt her friends as they were deflected. She had to find another strategy to keep them safe, and she had to do it fast.

"That's karma talking to you," Nino continued, the subtle hint of histeria never disappearing from his voice. "If you complain about useless crap then someone is gonna give us a real reason to complain."

Adrien chuckled. Alya frowned, but decided to not complain for the moment; scolding Nino could wait for after they managed to get somewhere less dangerous than where they were.

Another sword fell, this time only slightly dodging the top of Nino's hat. He yelped, now holding said hat and checking if it had been hit.

"What the hell, man?!" he shouted. "I care about this thing!"

"You should care more about your head, you idiot." Alya spat. Revenge was satisfying to her beyond limits, especially if it was towards Nino. She loved the way he would look at her, utterly defeated and tired.

Adrien's black eyes traveled from one rescuer to the other, his hands supporting his own weight as he tried to pull himself up from the ground even if restrained. "I'm… I'm so sorry," his voice was shaky, engulfed by an emotion that the two couldn't really distinguish.

He looked so frail.

"I am useless. I can't stop him." He glanced up. "He will never stop, not until he is satisfied."

Alya swallowed. She was ready to bet that said 'satisfaction' meant their funeral.

"I know you don't want to, but you have to leave me here. He will kill you."

For the first time in her whole life, she hated being right.

"I might be spared if I try to talk to him, but you… He won't hold back with you." Adrien closed his eyes, reaching with his free hands for Nino's shirt. "So please, run. Get away from this place. I'll distract him."

"What?!" Nino exploded. Alya joined him.

"No way!"

"Nononono, you don't understand," Nino continued. "I am not getting out of here without you, dude."

"But-"

"No. I escaped four angry policemen to get here, I almost got killed. Plus, my headphones were destroyed and someone attempted to take my hat's life. I am not leaving unless you are coming with me." He put a hand on the blond's shoulder. "I am not leaving the best friend I ever had behind."

Adrien bit his lip. Alya watched as his eyes got puffy and his cheeks red, the few lights that illuminated the building reflecting in the now watery black irises. She didn't waste a second: she pulled the akuma back, separating him from his friend. Adrien gasped, confused as he fell backwards, his back meeting again with the so familiar ground.
In a way, she understood his urge to cry, as he probably had been under a lot of stress. His capture had shaken him and, while he had been holding up quite well during the past minutes, Nino's words must have made him reach his limit. She didn't want to imagine what his past hours had been like.

But that didn't matter, because Adrien was not crying. Not under her watch.

"Look, I mean all he said - minus the bromance of course." She heard a confused 'Bro-what?!' echo in the distance. She ignored it. "But we don't have time for this. So please tell me, is there any way we can reason with… well, you?"

He cleaned his eyes with his hands, his golden claws getting too close to his eyelids for her comfort. She wondered how sharp those things actually were, since he had not even considered using them to free himself.

"No. He won't listen, no matter what you tell him. He's too angry."

"Okay," the girl started to work again on the rope, this time a little more exasperated than before. "Then, why is he mad?"

Adrien blinked at that, confused. "Why would you want to know that?"

"If we know why he's mad then maybe we can do something about it."

The akuma didn't answer immediately. His gaze lowered, a serious expression now appearing on his face. "Being mad is his default state of being. There is nothing else he can feel."

Alya frowned: that didn't exactly answer her question. Of course, he might have still said the truth, but that didn't change the fact that she didn't like that. Not one bit.

"And by that you mean?" Nino asked, now joining the conversation.

"I mean what I said," Adrien stated. "Anger and hatred are the only thing Spades can feel."

They were dealing with a killing machine, then. Just what they needed.

A sword landed again next to the akumatised boy, metal clashing against the cold floor. The three turned around, fear printed on their faces, only to meet an exhausted Ladybug, currently spinning her yoyo in front of them.

Her forehead was dripping with sweat, just as her hands were. Holding the string of her weapon was becoming harder and harder, as it would slip away from her grasp every now and then. She had given up on her legs, and decided to accept the stinging pain as a way to deduce that she was still alive.
Her blue eyes watched with concern as the akuma in front of her jumped, more lively than ever. Silver swords were thrown as he traveled with each step, forcing her to run after him.

She swallowed, sealing her mouth shut. Her throat ached, but she did her very best to keep breathing normally.

"Is that all you've got?!"

The akuma's mocking wasn't welcomed by her ears, but she didn't have the heart to disagree with him. She was really giving everything she had, and she only had 3 minutes before her transformation wore off.

She wasn't going to last long.

"This is bad…" Nino commented, hands now holding his head. "This is really, really bad!"

Alya ignored him as she grabbed for the sword that had fallen by Adrien's side. She liked Nino, she wasn't ashamed of admitting it, but he was useless when it came to situations like this one. While he was quite brave, he needed more time to process what was happening around him in order to overcome the initial shock.

She, on the other side, stopped caring altogether when her brain panicked.

The rope of the remaining restrained foot was cut, freeing it from the chair; the only thing left to cut was now the rope that linked the two feet together, leaving Adrien only able to take small steps without tripping over his own feet.
The logical consequential action would have been to not waste any time and cut it apart, making it possible for the group to make a quick escape. Unfortunately for Adrien, there was no way Alya was going to do that.

The akuma watched her in horror as she threw the sword away, the silver sparkles that signaled its disappearance enlightening for a brief moment the cold floor.

"Why... didn't you free me?"

"Yeah Alya," Nino joined him. She was getting tired of his hysteric tone. "Why the hell didn't you free him?"

"That's because he lied to me. Or better, he hasn't been fully honest."

She turned to the akuma, who seemed to be confused.

She wasn't buying that.

"Did you think I would not notice that? When I asked you why Spades would be mad you avoided answering my question." She got to his level, kneeling down to him. "As far as I am concerned, you are hiding something from us, and last time I've checked, you are also an akuma. That makes you an akuma who is deliberately withholding information from us and, therefore, a possible threat."

Brown eyes stared at pitch black. Alya was good at this, and she knew it.

"There's no way I'm trusting you."

She expected a frown, maybe anger to appear on the blond's face. She never could have anticipated an apology. Adrien's shoulder instead raised, his head sinking between them while he directed his gaze towards the ground.

"I'm sorry."

He hadn't faltered, there was no uncertainty behind his words. What he was offering them was a simple, honest-sounding apology.

"I understand what you mean, and I'm so, so sorry if I lied to you, but I don't have time to justify myself here. There's more important things that we need to do." His glance now travelled behind them, where Ladybug was still fighting. "I won't complain and I promise that I won't give you any trouble, so please… let's just get out of here. I'll explain what I can later on."

Nino studied his friend, then asked for his partner's opinion.

"Should we trust him?"

"No," Alya sighed, massaging her temples. "we shouldn't and we won't for as long as he doesn't decide to be completely honest with us."

Adrien didn't comment at that: he had accepted the fact that he was not to be trusted and, while it was obvious that he didn't like that, he was willing to put that aside for another time. After all, a lie was a lie, and their lack of faith in him was more than justified.

"But we can't leave him here, either." The girl continued, hands resting on her hips. "So go ahead, Nino. Pick him up."

This caused the named boy to blink at her and point at his own self, extremely confused.

"Pick him up? Me?"

"Yes, you." Alya gestured his tied ankles, somewhat surprised. "Does it look like he would be fast enough to actually escape? Someone's going to have to carry him, and that's not going to be me."

"But he's too heavy! And also tall! How am I supposed to do that?"

"He's a model. He's lighter than he looks."

"Actually…" Adrien added. "That's not true for ever-"

"Shut up." the brown-haired girl interrupted. "Heavy or not, you have to do it, Nino."

"But…!"

Nino hated her. And loved her. But right now, he definitely hated her. Seeing her boss him around with that cheerful tone of hers was something he was never going to get used to.

He almost screamed when she turned around, hands at the edges of her mouth.

"LADYBUUUG!" She shouted. "WE ARE READY!"

The heroine turned slightly towards them, muttering something that had to be a word of agreement. She seemed relieved, happy that she could finally get away from the endless fight with Spades.

Nino was complaining in the background, mildly insulting Adrien regarding something she didn't know, and the latter was showering him with loud apologies. Ladybug got a glimpse of Alya, standing next to the boy with her arms crossed as he carried the akuma on his shoulders.

She faced her opponent again just as her earrings beeped for the third time.

Only two minutes left.

Ladybug diversified her strategy: from a defensive stand, she charged. She waited for Spades to run out of blades to approach him at high speed, holding her yoyo in her free hand to prepare for an attack.

"Changing approach?" He questioned, evidently amused. His smirk didn't suit his face. "I like this!"

The akuma prepared himself, extracting another silver sword from his left palm. He grabbed it, giving out a battle cry as he jumped on Ladybug, ready to hit her.

But she never gave him the chance. Her leg raised as her yoyo disarmed him, and she sent him flying to to the floor. She ignored his strained cough and she pressed the tiny button on the spotted smoke bomb, making a little ball fall from the bottom of the object.

Spades cursed at its sight, still on the ground. She knew that she wasn't supposed to, but Ladybug pitied him as she threw herself out of the first window she could see, shattering it in thousands of glass shards. After all, she had just thrown a smoke ball right at Adrien's face, she couldn't expect to forgive herself so easily for that.

She threw the now empty spotted container to the sky, watching as pink butterflies entered the building to repair the damage of the fight. Behind her, a wall of smoke was slowly making its way up to the already grey sky.

"Here!" She heard Alya shout from not too far away. She was standing next to Nino, who had dropped Adrien to the ground. "We are here!"

She rushed to them, gritting her teeth. She picked up Adrien from the ground with no effort and settled him on her shoulder as she ran towards a side road, a poorly lighted alley not too distant. Nino frowned at that.

Ladybug heard the two follow behind her, panting. They were decently close to her considering that her legs barely touched the ground for how fast they were moving. She never thanked Tikki enough for her enhanced abilities.

She came to a halt when she thought she was far enough, a high-pitched beep reminding her of her urgency.

One minute.

"Alya," she said, still panting. "My transformation is about to wear off, I have to leave. I want you to take Nino and Adrien away from here. Don't stop. Keep going as fast as you can, turn at random. Make it hard for him to find you."

She carefully dropped the akuma to the ground, watching as he slowly stood up. Her head then moved who Alya, who seemed to have doubts.

"Wait… how will we contact you? We can't just deal with Adrien without your help!"

"Contact Marinette." She blurted out before she could even think about something else to say. "She will explain everything."

The hero left a rather confused Alya behind, racing for another distant alley. She almost tripped over her own feet when Tikki finally gave out, releasing her from her transformation.

The little kwami groaned, exhausted.

"M-marinette…"

"I know Tikki." She held the small deity in her hands, keeping her close to her chest. "I'll bring you home now."

Yes, that was the only place she could bring her to: home. The pale sun hidden by the clouds was setting, no shop would be open now, and the kwami needed to rest. Marinette wished she could catch a breath too, but realised that she didn't have that luxury; she still had three friends to save.

'Contact Marinette,' she had said. 'She will explain.' Well, that had been a great way of getting Alya off her back just a minute ago, but she now realised that she didn't know what to exactly explain. The only solution that could come to her mind at the moment was to make up yet another lie, something that she did not like but recognised as necessary.

As she rushed into the early train in the subway, her mind traveled back to the events that had just occurred.

Spades' smile haunted her.

Marinette wished she could say that she was stronger than that, but she couldn't help but feel horrified at what Hawkmoth had turned the usually loving and sweet boy she held so dear into. Such hatred and violence was something that could not belong to Adrien, and yet she had just witnessed him being one of the most dangerous akumas she had ever faced. There had to be a reason for him to have been like that, and Marinette wasn't sure she wanted to know it.

And, just to make things worse, Chat Noir was still nowhere to be found.

In other words, she was worried sick.

She rushed over to one of the many empty seats, settling down with ease. Resting her legs, even if only for a couple of minutes, felt nice. Her eyes scanned the wagon, and she smiled at the realisation that she was alone. She opened her purse, lying Tikki gently on its bottom, and left it open. The kwami was exhausted, she was aware of that, but she still had some questions for her and, while she wasn't brave enough to let her rest in the open air, she figured that she would only look like she was talking to her purse if someone entered from another van.

"Tikki…" she called for her, gently. Guilt ran over her as she saw the small being open her eyes with fatigue. "I know you are tired, but there is something I really don't understand and I need your help."

"It's about Adrien...isn't it?" Her voice was faint, but still maintained her normal sweetness.

Marinette nodded.

"I just don't understand… there were two versions of him there. Is that even possible?"

"Technically, it is, but I don't know enough about his power to understand how he got split into two. Akumas work in very different ways from our Miraculous, Marinette. Sometimes it's hard also for beings like us to understand what we don't fully know."

"The fact that they have different abilities is what scares me the most." The girl held her purse tighter, concern showing through her eyes. "If it was just two versions of a similar akuma I'd assume that he had the ability of making copies of himself, but they are completely different one to the other. What if he was like Alix? What if the two versions of himself came from two different futures?"

"If one of them came from the future then they'd be identical." Tikki tried to stand up, but failed. Even if her energy had been completely drained by the last battle, this matter concerned her enough to try to take it seriously. "It has to be something else… but I don't know what."

Marinette glanced away, nervous; she was not sure she could help Adrien if she didn't know how it worked first. She had a special power, and she didn't know how to use it.

She was useless once again.

Her stop arrived soon enough and Marinette found herself out in the street. The street lights were now brightening the moonless night, and she almost didn't recognise her house because of the many thoughts that were bombarding her head, distracting her.

She sneaked inside, heading for the kitchen, and grabbed as many cookies as she could. She sincerely hoped she hadn't accidentally crushed her kwami underneath them.

It was only then that she noticed that her phone was ringing. She wasn't surprised when she was greeted by an angry Alya.

"MARINETTE, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?"

"A-Alya?!" Her phone almost fell out of her hands. "Are you okay?! Where are you?"

"I am, surprisingly. Mari, you'll never guess what happened."

"I… I already know, Alya."

"You do?" Her friend almost screamed in the receiver. "How?!"

Marinette breathed in, preparing herself.

Time to lie.

"Ladybug told me. You know how you left me alone after I started crying? Well, after that I may or may not have tried to join you in your rescue for Adrien, but Ladybug caught me." Little by little, she felt herself dying inside. This was not going to work; Alya was smart, she was never going to believe that. "She told me to go home, and I did."

Silence was everything she could hear coming from the other side. She took it as a hint to keep going.

"And after that… she came to me again. I was watching the news, worried sick about you guys, and then she came. It wasn't that so long ago. I don't know, ten minutes, maybe? Anyways, she told me everything and asked me to help you."

The fact that Alya wasn't answering her was genuinely scaring her now.

She knew she wouldn't have buyed it.

"Alya?" She called for her again.

She heard a long sigh from the other side. Marinette didn't know why, but it sounded… happy.

"Did you record her?" The question was flat.

"N-no! I didn't think about it!"

She was about to stop breathing.

"Damn. Shame. You'll have to tell me everything she said, okay?"

Marinette couldn't believe it. It had worked. She, the most terrible actress on the entire planet, had managed to spit out a lie that had fooled one of the smartest person she knew. She didn't know if she was supposed to feel proud about that.

"Of course."

"So, can you come get us?" Alya asked.

"Ehmm, if you mean by foot, then sure. Where are you anyway?"

"I'll send you the address via text, but could you please bring us a coat or something? Mr Akuma's uniform and black eyeliner-eyeshadow thingy do not go unnoticed. I don't want anyone to see us."

There was some sort of complaint coming from the other side, but it wasn't loud enough for her to understand it.

"We'll hide him at my place. The other guy, Spades, was it? He's still searching for him, but he doesn't know I'm involved in this."

More noise could be heard in the background, this time louder and insistent.

"He'll take baby steps, okay? I don't care!" The journalist snapped. "Anyways, that sounds great. We are hiding behind a trash bin and - Nino, shut up and stop complaining! - it looks like it's about to rain and honestly, I'm just really… really tired. Please come soon."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." She chuckled. "Tell Nino to hold on for a little longer, okay?"

"Great. And Mari… thank you." Her friend breathed in, seeming more relaxed now. "You are saving us."

No, she thought. You are saving me.

"Don't mention it. See you in a bit!"

Marinette sank into her kitchen chair as she put her phone down. Her parents were downstairs, working until late to finish a last minute order, and hopefully hadn't heard anything she had just said. As far as they knew, she was going to have friends coming over tonight.

"That went well!" Tikki said, emerging from her purse.

She smiled. She walked over her dad's closet, grabbing a long raincoat. Nothing she owned could fit someone as tall as Adrien, and her father's raincoat would be perfect to hide the boy's features.

"Yeah," she replied. She headed for the door, grabbing a couple of umbrellas on her way.

"It did."

For Alya's joy, it started to rain. It wasn't heavy yet, but that didn't mean that it couldn't destroy what was left of her good mood.

Technically, she should have been the happiest person alive: she had managed to fight alongside Ladybug, her beloved hero. Too bad that she couldn't feel her legs for how much she had run.

Nino groaned, looking at the sky in frustration. He was walking up and now the dark alley, obviously still terrified by the possibility of being found out at any moment.

"When will she be here?!" He asked. "How long has it been? 20 minutes?"

"Maybe she's lost…" Adrien mumbled.

The akuma was sitting on the ground just next to her, legs stretched on the asphalt. Alya didn't know if akumas could get tired, but she certainly wasn't imagining the dark shadows underneath his eyes.

"Everything would have been easier if someone" Nino's head hinted at her direction, "had decided to free Adrien. But noooooo, we had to keep him tied and have him take 'baby steps' instead!"

She didn't even bother answering him. An annoyed glance was all he deserved, and therefore it was all he received. She was not going to free Adrien. Not until she was sure that he wasn't a threat.

Nino seemed to read her mind.

"He's not going to do anything. His hands have been free for the past hour and he hasn't attacked us. Plus, he needs us. I don't think he wants to end up tied up again."

Alya gave him again the silent treatment.

"Alya," he kneeled in front of her. "I know you want to protect us, but please. It's still Adrien we are talking about. I trust him."

"Do you trust him as much as the one who almost decapitated you?" She grimaced. "Because if so, please go ahead and untie him."

The DJ raised his eyebrows.

"Are you really comparing him to that Spades guy? Alya, they are totally different!"

"He's an akuma who's been lying to us!"

"He's also our friend!"

"GUYS!" Adrien broke in. His knees were now held close to his chest and he seemed to be shaking a little. "Please… please don't argue because of me."

Both of his friends shushed at that. They observed him, noticing how pained his expression was and got concerned over his trembling.

Nino approached him, kneeling now in front of him.

"Are you cold?"

The teen bit his lip as a response.

"Don't worry buddy," the other boy reassured him, patting him on his shoulders. "Soon enough we'll get you somewhere warm with something to eat."

"That sounds so nice right now…!" Alya commented.

"You guys…" Adrien snuffled. "You are so nice."

Was he crying?

No, not yet, but he was about to. Nino didn't like that, but didn't interfere. He imagined Adrien had been through a lot today, and understood if he had the need to cry. After all, they knew so little about the situation that they only thing they could do was support him.

"I love you guys so much," he continued, getting a little hold of himself. "I'm so sorry…"

Nino didn't even have the time to smile at that. Before he knew it, he was grabbed by the neck.

A/N: Alya and Nino argue like a married couple.

They don't, but I like to pretend that they do.

Just saying, Adrien is going to be a little OOC here. I'll explain why next chapter, don't want to give out too much info to you guys ( ù . ù )

It's 3am. Again.

...I have to stop doing this to myself.

This came out decently long, which makes me happy, but more words means more possible mistakes, so please endure them for me.

Thank you again for supporting this project! Any feedback makes me so happy that it makes me smile like an idiot for a good 10 minutes ahahaha

Thank you again !

Nami