It gets darker before it gets lighter. Sry.

"We were there, Plagg. I was there! I knew something smelled weird! That smell! That- that metallic smell was… was…"

Plagg's ears drooped as he watched Adrien's mind work all the pieces together.

"That smell, Plagg…" His voice dropped into a whisper. "It was…"

The cat Kwami took a look at his cheese, placed it back on the plate he had snatched it from, and floated to his human's side. He curled up on Adrien's shoulder and nuzzled his head into the side of the boy's face. "It's not your fault Adrien. You didn't know."

Adrien dropped onto his bed, suddenly very sure he would throw up. "I smelled blood. I… Someone was murdered and I was there and…"

"Adrien."

"And I just left, Plagg. I just left."

Plagg floated in the air and watched as Adrien lay back on his bed. The color had drained from his face. He stared at the ceiling almost as though he were willing it to crash down on him.

Plagg came to rest on his chest. He listened to the rapid pounding of his human's heart. For the first time in forever, he really wasn't hungry. "It wasn't your fault, Adrien," he whispered.

The boy broke.

Tikki watched in desperation as Marinette cried into her pillow. She had been trying all morning to comfort the girl. Poor Marinette had never faced a loss like this before. When fighting Akumas, her powers could undo all the damage done. But not even Ladybug could undo death.

Tikki had been around for a very long time. This wasn't the first time she had had to watch a Ladybug go through the struggle of missing that one clue or being a minute too late, but it never ever got easier to watch.

"Marinette, please…" Tikki whispered. "I know it hurts, but you just can't blame yourself. Unfortunately… these things happen." She lighted beside Marinette's head, stroking her hair. "Sometime you just can't save everyone."

"But I was there, Tikki!" Marinette gasped. "I was there and I knew I shouldn't have left, but I did. What if I could have stopped it? What if I could have found who or whatever did it? What if–"

Tikki could only watch as Marinette was overcome with another wave of emotions. She knew that the girl would blame herself for this. She knew that this instant would haunt her forever.

She also knew that Marinette and Chat Noir had now been given the opportunity to take this moment and grow from it, or allow it to tear them apart.

Tikki wondered what they would choose.

Benjamin raked his hands through his thick, brown hair, leaving it a fluffy mess atop his head. He studied the images on the screen so closely his eyes were beginning to burn.

To any normal person, the explanation was clear: A savage animal of some sort had come across two innocent passersby and had ruthlessly murdered them. To any normal person, that was as unusual as the explanation should get.

Benjamin, however, had seen his fare share of horrors straight from the nightmares of the most twisted minds. When he looked at the bloody heaps of flesh in the photos, he couldn't see a freak accident. He couldn't see a random attack.

No. What Benjamin saw disturbed him in ways no one else could understand.

Benjamin saw a calling card. A taunting message.

I'm back, Benny boy. Come and find. Stop me if you can.

Benjamin wanted to scream. He wanted to throw his laptop through the window, overturn the tables, and splash his piping hot coffee on the first person who looked at him the wrong way.

"Those are some pretty gruesome pictures you're looking at."

Benjamin looked over his glasses at the thin, aqua haired girl. Her long, brightly colored locks were half tied up in two messy buns on either side of her head while the other half danced wildly over her shoulders and down her back. Her long, side swept bangs covered half of her left eye and wrapped its way around her short face. Her right ear was adorned with a line of studs on the outer edge and one purple feather attached to her earlobe.

The girl wore ripped, neon yellow tights and an off the shoulder, grey shirt under black, distressed, short overalls. Spiked combat boots adorned her feet; her icing on the cake.

Compared to Benjamin's simple, denim shirt, maroon slacks, and loafers, the girl looked a hot mess. Still, he attempted to tame his bushy hair and smiled at her.

"Good morning, Eryn," he said, standing and extending his hand to her.

Eryn smiled and shook it. "Wow, Ben, you never call, you never write. I was beginning to think you had given up on your weird, subconscious need to be surrounded by criminals."

Benjamin pulled a chair out for her and reclaimed his seat. "Last I checked, you weren't technically a criminal. Didn't the mayor hire you to hack into some whatchamacallit to get a lead on some stolen thingamabob?"

Eryn took a swig of coffee. "Yeah. That's exactly how it happened. You've always been so good with words."

Benjamin passed his laptop across the table. "You've seen this." It wasn't a question.

Eryn nodded solemnly. "I know they don't have any positive IDs yet, but…" she pointed to the victim on the right. "I knew that guy. I swear I knew him. Jean Luc. We saw a movie together. He wasn't my type, but… He was nice."

Benjamin frowned. "Sorry." He opened another tab on his computer, opening a saved link. "What can you tell me about this?"

Eryn's smile returned. "The Ladyblog? Some highschool kid with the hopes of becoming a freakin' sweet journalist has made it her mission in life to learn everything about Paris' own super heroes. Why?"

"You know how to find the girl?"

Eryn tossed her bright hair out of her eye, drumming her fingers across the table. "You've been gone for five years, Ben. You ask me to help you cyberstalk some psycho murderer and then you up and disappear. You finally come back and all you want is to know if I happen to know the girl who blogs about her geek dreams come to life?"

Benjamin blinked. "Do you?"

"Duh! I wouldn't be me if I didn't."

Alya hugged her friend tightly, promising everything would be all right. Ladybug would find whoever or whatever had murdered those people and she would make sure it would never happen again. There was no need for Marinette to be scared. No need for her to cry.

Ladybug and Chat Noir had this.

Marinette had managed to gain control of her emotions by the time class was starting. Her eyes were still puffy, but Alya had helped her with her makeup to cover most of the redness.

The class gathered slowly and quietly that morning. All the students shared the same somberness behind their plastered smiles and cheap words. All but Chloe, of course. But no one really felt it necessary to pay her any mind at all.

The teachers taught halfheartedly. The students listened eagerly, in hopes that their lessons could distract them from the horrors of the morning.

Lunch hour came and no one moved. They picked at their food, but didn't feel like eating.

Alya watched Marinette carefully. The poor girl looked like she was fighting through some horrifying inner monologue.

"Marinette?" The dark haired girl looked at her. "It's okay. Don't be scared. Ladybug and Chat Noir will fix this."

"What… What if they can't, Alya?" Marinette burst. "You're always so sure of Ladybug and Chat Noir, but what if you're wrong this time, Alya? They failed last night! They had their chance to keep people from dying and they failed! Who's to say they won't fail again? How can you even trust them anymore?"

Marinette turned away from the shocked look on her friend's face, only to meet the grievous, green eyes of Adrien. Grievous. Broken. Guilty?

She blinked, feeling warm tears begin to swell and sting her eyes. "I… I think I need to go home." And with that, she gathered her things and bolted out the door.

The rain had stopped and the fog left, but the sky was still a lifeless grey and the air moist and sticky. Marinette fought the tears back as she ran from the school courtyard. She didn't notice the puddle at the corner of the street. All she knew was that her foot flew out from under her and her head was going to crash into the pavement below.

It would be painful, but maybe she deserved it.

Only her head didn't crash. Her body was caught in a pair of strong arms. She was gently lifted and set back on her feet. Hands moved to her shoulders, steadying her trembling frame and she looked into the kind, brown eyes of the young man who caught her. His dark, chocolaty pompadour was a bit disheveled as though he had been raking his hands over it time and again. A pair of square, black-rimmed glasses sat on his nose. The light from the lenses reflected onto his lightly tanned cheeks, almost distracting her from the stubble making its home on his face.

She briefly wondered whether he was growing a beard or had simply forgotten to shave.

"Hello?" he said. "Can you hear me? I asked if you were okay."

Marinette broke her gaze away from him, wiping the fresh tears from her face. "I'm just not feeling good, so I'm on my way home."

The man smiled kindly. "Maybe don't run so fast then. The streets are still pretty slippery, as I'm sure you've figured out."

Marinette gave a little laugh. It was then that she noticed the girl with bright, blue hair standing behind him. "Hey, you're Eryn, right? You come to my parent's bakery a lot. You're one of my mom's favorite customers."

Eryn grinned. "Cool! So you're the Dupain-Cheng kid. Aw, Ben, you've got to try some of her dad's goods. It'll give you a whole new outlook on life!" She gestured her arms wildly as she spoke.

The man removed his hands from the girl's shoulders. "I'll have to come by some time."

Eryn bounced to Marinette's side and threw an arm around her shoulder. "The kid's upset, Ben. She almost smashed her skull into the ground. We have to walk her home, it's the only right thing to do."

Ben smiled, though Marinette was sure she saw a fire of annoyance in his eyes. "Okay," he said slowly. "We'll make sure she gets home safe, grab some lunch, and get back to work."

Eryn beamed, beginning a never-ending chatter about the fantastical foods she would have her friend try. Marinette giggled at her, but frowned when she saw how stiff the young man had become as they walked to the bakery.

Alya watched the door, hoping beyond hope that Marinette would walk back through. She worried about how seriously broken her friend was over last night's incident.

"I don't think she's coming back, Alya," Nino said quietly. "Maybe it's better for her to take the day off like she said. She was pretty upset."

Alya hugged her bag to herself and sighed. "Yeah. But… She knows Ladybug and Chat Noir can handle this, right? You guys know that. You know our heroes will protect us."

"Yeah, because they sure did a good job of it last night," Adrien mumbled. He felt his bag fall against his leg and looked down to see two, green eyes staring up at him sadly. He gently pushed Plagg back into his bag, offering a reassuring stroke to the Kwami's head.

"You're right, Alya," Adrien said, turning to face her. "Maybe Ladybug and Chat Noir missed something last night, but now they'll be double–No!–triple careful the next time they're out on patrol. They'll make sure nothing like this ever happens again."

Alya beamed at him. "Wow, Adrien. Maybe you should go talk to Marinette about that. Your positivity might just rub off of her and get her out of this funk she's in."

"Maybe I will go talk to her," the blonde said, turning back to the front of the class as the teacher began her lesson.

At 3:17pm, Paris was hit by another wave of panic as two more bodies were discovered. A man and a woman. Their faces torn to shreds. Their bodies dumped in an alley.

No one had seen anything. No one heard anything.

An elderly man was out walking his dog when his nostrils were filled with the stench of raw meat left out in the sun. His dog barked and whined and pulled him into the alley where his eyes met the horrific reality of death.

Exactly one hour later, another body was found. This one was a boy of about thirteen years old. He was alive when discovered, though he slipped away on the journey to the hospital.

With his dying breath, he uttered a single word: "Huntsman."

Still working on that setup. It'll happen. Just wait.