Marinette was about to lose it. She never thought she could hate someone more than Hawkmoth - heck, more than Lila - but Paon was really starting to get on her nerves.
Akumas still appeared, although they were rarer than the sentimonsters. Now that Ladybug was able to protect akumatized victims with a charm, Hawkmoth was far more precise when choosing his villains. Paon never seemed to run out of ideas, emotion, or power for his sentimonsters, and despite hours upon hours of brainstorming with Alya, Marinette hadn't come up with anything to defend against them.
And Paon always seemed to show up at the worst times. Marinette knew, logically, that he wasn't doing it on purpose but it still irritated her nonetheless.
Oh, that one time Adrien is free to go to coffee with her, Alya, and Nino? Paon shows up and she has to cancel.
The day the class gets to take a trip to England and she's seated next to her dreamy crush? A sentimonster shows up on the train.
Even the night before their final exams a "teacher" sentimonster, whose gaze would drain you of your knowledge and leave you without any answers, appeared. It was at this point that Marinette started to fear Paon knew her true identity and was just toying with her.
More concerningly, his sentimonsters had gotten better and better. That final exam one was his first human one, and while it was devoid of emotion, was a heart-stoppingly accurate clone of Madame Mendeleev. She would have guessed it was just an akuma if she hadn't seen the real teacher crying over her failure to recite the first few elements of the periodic table.
Unlike Hawkmoth, Paon always showed up with each sentimonster, usually standing off in the distance. Ladybug always imagined she was laughing as she tried to fight the increasingly stronger competition and save civilians at the same time.
Plus, without Chat Noir to cataclysm sentimonsters, she always had to face off against him in the end to get the amok. And he wouldn't stop talking.
"Hey, Ladybug," he smiled, almost flirtatiously, as he dangled his legs off the lower level of the Eiffel Tower. She growled, already struggling with the weight of Examinator, who swung tied up below her. Not like she could open her eyes to check though. She thrust a hand out blindly in hopes to grab his miraculous while he was off guard but just felt air.
"Give me your miraculous, mini-moth."
"Woah, now who's sounding like Hawkmoth? I'm really happy to give you the amok and my miraculous, if you can just hear me out." He stood up, shouting about how he aimed to unite the miraculous to bring back loved ones and solve major issues in Paris, like pollution. Something about how "one wish can unite the people."
She didn't really care. It was her job to protect the miraculous and the people of Paris, and Hawkmoth and Paon could not be trusted to do that.
"La, la, la!" Ladybug yelled back in return, using her spare hand to plug her ears and, unbeknownst to Paon, pull out her lucky charm. Midway through his speech, she sensed his foot and tripped him off the tower, using the red and black spotted magnet to steal the metal pen with the amok. A satisfying clink of metal confirmed her plan had worked, and she snapped the pen on the tower to release the amok. Opening her eyes, she used her now-free yo-yo to de-evilize it before bounding down to where Paon lay, groaning in pain.
"I've also got an interview online," he struggled out between breaths, "if that's more your thing."
She bent down to grab his miraculous right off him, but he grabbed her wrist right in time.
"Okay, I guess we'll continue this another time, m'lady."
"You don't get to call me that," she snapped, holding back more tears for Chat Noir. Her partner was either dead, or he would be once she saw him again. He hadn't even bothered to call her when a new supervillain showed up, when her life as the Guardian had become even more complicated.
Paon stiffened, before throwing her to the side and jumping away. Right before taking off though, he paused and turned to look at her, sadness and regret filling his eyes.
"Just please, give me a chance," he begged her. Ladybug wouldn't let herself be manipulated though, and remained cold.
"Never."