So... Thank you for your patience. I've been meaning to upload this for a while but I couldn't get into the account that the document has been typed up on.

I would just like to say that I have not been too well for a while but I'm finally at a place where I'm getting back to normal. Hope everyone is doing okay and I look forward to reading your feedback on the chapter.

Take it easy!

Lady Rhi X

"I can promise you, that is not me. I swear to you Marinette, It's-"

"I know."

"You do?" Adrien gaped incredulously, "then what-"

"I think your father's Shadow Moth."

Marinette finally turned to face the astonished blonde who was barely believing his ears. Her eyes connected with his, but they lacked their usual brightness; her gaze was sympathetic but her posture indicated that the ravenette was closing herself off from him a little. She turned back to the screen.

"At first I thought it was Felix," she said in an expressionless tone, as Plagg settled tentatively on his holder's shoulder, "but then I checked his Instagram. Your cousin posted a picture from the Emirates Stadium earlier… some private meet and greet training session thing."

Adrien stayed silent, words that wanted to come out were caught in his throat as a few puzzle pieces attempted to fit together in his mind.

"Part of me did think that the meeting may have been with you both," Marinette took a steadying breath while absentmindedly dragging her finger along the edge of her keyboard softly, "but I quickly dismissed that." Slowly turning and resting back on her desk, Marinette crossed her arms under her chest. "I know that you could not be talked into kissing her for a shoot, let alone having a heart to heart while walking down the Seine just the two of you."

Adrien abruptly took steps towards her and immediately leaned his hands on Marinette's desk and stared at the Instagram feed of one Lila Rossi. He examined the picture that Marinette had shown him first: his mirror image standing with his arms draped around Lila while leaning into her temple. The Italian was smiling up at the camera as she took the selfie, and the caption made it seem all the more real:

Finally made up with this one! Looking forward to our shoot tomorrow for the next ad campaign :x ;p

Adrien clicked on the one posted before it. There was a picture of Lila biting her lip coyly with his mirror image buying ice cream next to the Seine. The caption that accompanied it stated:

Had a great meeting… just taking a stroll by the Seine to get some much needed fresh air :)

Adrien shook his head, "I-"

"When we were at the restaurant before," Marinette spoke quietly with a blank look on her face, "your father gave me a look which made me really uneasy when he said he needed to rethink his plan…"

The blonde straightened up. "I don't understand, why would you think he's Shadow Moth?" He gestured to the screen. "Who is that?"

Marinette looked Adrien straight in the eye, "I think it's a sentimonster." She rolled her lips and looked away from him briefly, "I thought your father was Hawk Moth a while back, do you remember?"

"No!" As far as Adrien knew, Marinette had never voiced her thoughts on who was Paris' most wanted villain. Ever. "And I think that would be something I-"

"Do you remember when he became Akumatised?" Adrien remained silent, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to click: he did not like where this was going. Marinette bit her lip and let out a breath, "I said to you then, but because he was Akumatised, he was no longer a suspect." Her blue eyes gazed up at him sadly while her fingers fidgeted with the hem of her top. "When I found out you were you, I wasn't ready," she shook her head as tears began to form, "this was not how I wanted to tell you."

Taking a few steps away from him, Marinette rubbed her face and stood awkwardly in the middle of her room while Adrien just stared at her. He had no idea what to say, no idea what to do… her comment about everything being her fault made a hell of a lot of sense now, but Adrien still did not want to believe it. The hero decided to ask about his father again to avoid talking about who Marinette was.

"Wh-why do you think he's," Adrien cleared his throat and remained as calm as possible when saying the name of their arch nemesis, "Shadow Moth, then?"

"Where does he think you are right now? Where were you after school?" The ravenette began holding her hands out pleadingly, "why do you really think he wanted me to come to your shoots? How the hell did Lila get into that first one when it was a closed set?" The teen began pacing, "it was only because the photographer had heard about what she was like, that she didn't get away with blaming me for being there!" Marinette stopped, "she even apologised, which your father knew about."

Marinette deflated and her arms slumped to her sides when she finally gazed up at the blonde with great sadness emanating from her features. "There's no obvious carnage going on, and as far as he knows, you're at home… it's too calm for it to not be premeditated, I think this was all planned."

Marinette balled up her fists and Adrien really wanted to reach out and comfort the teen, his partner, his princess, his lady; but refrained from doing so as he was just not ready to come to terms with the fact that everything she said made sense.

Marinette gulped and tried to steady her breathing before a fresh wave of tears threatened to cascade out of her blue orbs. "You haven't been tagged in the posts, but I think that was only so you wouldn't be notified immediately… Alya's already been texting saying how it makes no sense and is looking for answers." The young woman clutched her hands together and began wringing her fingers, "Lila told Alix and Kim today that I put a stop to the shoot this evening… and I think you're being used to get to me… I've never been Akumatised, and he wouldn't- oh my god…"

Marinette stopped as she realised that Shadow Moth had indeed Akumatised Adrien in the alternative timeline. The whole situation was making sense to her, the evidence was lining up, but Marinette could tell she was not doing a very good job of explaining it to the blonde. Marinette took a deep breath as Adrien watched wordlessly.

"The book that you got from your father, the one I returned, the Guardian thought that it must have belonged to the person who also held the two missing Miraculous."

"Marinette sto-"

"Your father barely leaves his home, he has an assistant who could have been Mayura before he became Shadow Moth… he has some sort of relationship thing going on with Lila, or he wouldn't keep her around you, and Shadow Moth has akumatised her quite a few times now." She bit her lip nervously while searching his orbs, "I even think he has a motive." Marinette went back to the computer and clicked on a tab to bring up another page.

"The attacks correlate to just after your maman's disappearance, if I'm right, he's doing this to possibly bring her back."

—

This. Was. Too. Much.

The blonde was barely keeping it together, and all the information that Marinette had laid on him was not making sense. Or it was making sense, in a way, but that fact alone did not make sense.

First the teen he thought he could trust, the person he had been able to turn to, was none other than the heroine he felt had pushed him away; then said person was accusing his father of being Shadow Moth!

And to get his mother back no less!

Sure, Gabriel Agreste was not the perfect person, but he had a very stressful job and had been through a lot. Would the man have time to be Paris' most wanted villain?

Something in the back of Adrien's mind screamed 'yes'.

Marinette reached out to him, but Adrien pulled away harshly and refused to look at her while Plagg hovered between them waiting for him to say something. The young man glared at his Kwami, and Plagg's glowing green eyes shone back with sympathy and apprehension.

"I need air."

"Kid," Plagg spoke with a reasoning tone and blocked the blonde's path, "I know this is a lot to take in, and you can't blame the Guardian for not telling you… me and Tikki thought-"

Adrien shook his head and scrunched up his face, "of course you kept me in the dark too." The blonde could feel the anger building inside his chest and gripped the sides of his head; shaking himself, so the voices of those around him could be possibly drowned out. It was only when Marinette's panicked face came into view, and she gripped his face, that he realised what his emotions were attracting.

The purple butterfly loomed just behind Marinette's head as a tainted feather made contact with Adrien's ring; the butterfly landed less than a second later.

"Adrien," Marinette's voice overpowered the one of the man in his head, and Adrien clung to her sound to keep from being taken over by Shadow Moth. "Please, listen to me, you don't have to listen to him, you don't have to become what he wants."

Adrien relaxed and a tear fell down his cheek.

His own thoughts were becoming jumbled with the invasion of Shadow Moth in his mind and he was barely holding on.

"…worked before…"

"…not the right…"

"…all they've ever done is lie to you…"

"…need to do it…"

"…in the dark, while…"

"…it before we lose…"

"…rien, please, I'm…"

"…they don't care about…"

"…MARINETTE! NOW!"

All of the voices and thoughts crowding Adrien's senses were quickly muffled as lips crashed onto his. The sheer surprise of the action caused his mind to go blank. All he could recognise in that moment was the soft lips on his, and the desperate fingers reaching into his hair to find his. Adrien decided to go with it. However unorthodox Marinette's methods were, they were working, and Adrien allowed his body to take over while his mind remained a blank void.

The anger in his chest, which almost boiled over, began to simmer down and another emotion replaced it. The warm sensation that began to blossom as soon as her mouth met his, bloomed until that was all that consumed his being. Adrien finally began kissing her back and wrapped his arms around the ravenette pulling her closer.

The teen was intoxicating. Marinette consumed all his senses, and what had begun as an act of desperation, slowly transpired into something much more tender. The fingers in his hair began tugging gently as Marinette's hands made their way to rest lazily on the blonde's nape, and Adrien hummed with pleasure while tilting his head and deepening the kiss.

"What is the meaning of this?! Enough! Seeker, I give you-"

"No."

—-

Marinette felt Adrien murmur against her lips and was brought out of her surprisingly intense euphoria when he pulled away to rest his forehead on hers. She panicked once more, as the purple mask remained over Adrien's face while he kept his eyes closed and Marinette cupped his cheeks. Words of encouragement were on the tip of her tongue but the ravenette was unable to formulate them before the blonde spoke again.

"I will not do your bidding Shadow Moth… I will not bring you the Miraculous…" Adrien's eyes opened and he stared deeply into Marinette's soul. The ravenette felt as if Shadow Moth was staring straight at her using Adrien as a vessel, and then the blonde's hands gripped her hips hard, the only thing seemingly keeping him of sound mind. "Take off my ring."

Marinette wasted no time in reaching for Adrien's right hand and removed the tainted jewellery before placing it on the desk immediately. The two infected vessels left the ring, causing it to return back to its usual silver and Marinette instantly transformed to snare them in her yo-yo. Watching Adrien's green eyes examine her entire self, the heroine let the feather and butterfly go, and Ladybug felt her cheeks warm when the blonde's eyes widened at being caught staring somewhere that he should not have.

Adrien blushed and reached for his nape as he remembered to avert his gaze from her shapely curves.

The heroine wanted to tease him, but knew that the moment was not right, so instead opted for transforming back to her regular self as the blonde busied himself by putting his ring back on. An awkward silence descended between them once more, and the two kwami hovered uncomfortably in the heavy atmosphere.

"Plagg," Tikki began, "maybe we should-"

"Yep."

They disappeared into Marinette's sewing box, leaving the teens in a nervous state. The ravenette desperately wanted to say something, anything, but came up blank and just gazed up at him pleadingly, silently begging for his forgiveness until Adrien took a few steps and slumped on her chaise.

"Can I stay here tonight please?" He muttered and Marinette frowned with slight confusion.

She took a step towards him and stopped when Adrien's watery green looked up at hers. "Adrien, you're always welcome here, but-"

"I know we need to talk, I have a lot of questions that I need answers to but-" He dropped his face into his hands causing his voice to come out muffled which also stifled his cracking voice. "-you were right about my father, and he knows I'm not there… He's heard my thoughts…"

Marinette grimaced and bit her lip while putting her head backwards and letting out a pained sigh. "So there's a chance he might have worked it out after being in your mind."

Adrien nodded, rubbed his eyes and then looked up at Marinette hopelessly, "it's not safe for me to go back," he sighed and stood up. While placing his hands on the ravenette's shoulders, he stared into her eyes with a somber yet serious intensity. "I don't think it's safe for either of us to be here in Paris now if I'm honest."