A month has passed since Marinette's disappearance. No one really knows what happened to her. The days before her disappearance she was acting unusually: keeping her distance from her friends, well everyone in general.

Adrien sat at his school desk looking at his phone for any news. Marinette is one of his dearest friends, of course, he was worried about her. At first, the class thought she was sick and couldn't attend school, but then one day after that, Mme. Bustier approached the class followed by M. Damocles and…Marinettes parents?

"Everyone, attention please," the teacher said.

"As you can see, Marinette isn't here today, same as yesterday." While she said this, Tom held his wife's hand tightly.

"Yeah, we thought she was sick or something," someone said.

"The Dupain-Chengs are here to ask you about it," M. Damocles says, giving them the next word.

"Have any of you seen Marinette or know where she is?" Tom asks everyone in the room.

Everybody gave them a confused expression.

"What do you mean?" Nino asked.

"We haven't seen her since she went to school yesterday. We tried to call her to see if she was with one of her friends, but her phone went directly to voice mail," Sabine said.

"If any of you have a clue about her, please contact us or the police," Tom said to everyone. After that, the couple exited the classroom with the principal.

Some went directly to their phones to try and reach Marinette, but there was nothing. Everyone went directly to voice mail. Others chatted about where she could be or what happened to her.

Adrien knew he couldn't do much as himself; so as early as he could that day, he went out as Chat Noir to search for her. He left a message to Ladybug, so she could help him with the search. His search took almost all night, but in the end, he found nothing. He hoped the next day there would be better luck.

He wasn't the black cat for nothing when his bad luck shined again and an akuma attack happened. Lately, the akumas have been stronger than before. Ladybug and he wondered if Hawkmoth had unlocked some kind of new power or something thanks to the grimoire of Master Fu.

Ladybug had been trying to research a way to give them more power, so they could still be up to the strength of the new akumas. Until one day, while Chat was distracting an akuma that almost had the upper hand in the battle, Ladybug appeared in a red blur. Chat couldn't follow her with his eyes while she battled the akuma before summoning her lucky charm.

After defeating the akuma and their usual "pound it!"; Chat noticed that Ladybug was…glowing?

"Um, LB, is it just me or are you glowing?" he asked her.

"Come on, Chat, at least be original with the flirts," she teased him

"No, really, you ARE glowing," he insisted.

"Yeah, sure an-." She cut herself off, finally noticing the glow of her suit. "What?"

"Is this an effect of the power-up or something?" Chat asked while looking at her, her whole body having a pinkish glow.

"I don't know. Probably? I will have to ask Tikki," she said before taking her yo-yo and throwing it.

"See you later, bug out."

And with that, she was gone until the next patrol or akuma. In their next patrol, she explained that Tikki told her that the glowing was just part of the power-up she gave to herself. He, of course, asked her if he could have a power-up, too. She told him that she wanted it to be tested well before the two of them have it. It's also something different for each kwami, so he will have to ask Plagg for it when the moment came. He nodded at that with a groan, knowing that Plagg will ask for a box of cheese wheels for it. Ladybug giggled at her partner.

Thanks to her new power-up, he and Ladybug were dealing with the akumas a bit more easily. She even tried to not use it all the time. After a while, though, she started to act strangely, dealing with the akumas faster and leaving as fast as she can, not even having time for the "Pound it!", ignoring the media, and leaving them to Chat to take care of, as if she wanted to avoid being seen by everyone, even her partner.

All the recent shots of her in the Ladyblog were just red blurs. One could barely distinguish her in the pictures. They don't patrol together anymore; she still goes out, but just the nights when he isn't out.

This time wasn't different from the others. While the akuma was distracted by him, a red blur appeared and defeated the akuma in the blink of an eye with a lucky charm.

After the purification, Ladybug left with a "Bug out!"

"Ladybug! Wait!" Chat yelled but it was too late. She was already gone.

Chat could only frown while helping the akuma victim. "What's happening with Ladybug? Did I do something wrong?" he asked himself. For now, he decided it was better to focus on finding Marinette first; he can talk to Ladybug later.

Day after day he went out looking for her, returning to his room with nothing. Most of the class doesn't worry and left it to the police to find her, while others, specifically Nino, Kim, Nathaniel, and Alix go out in search of her like him.

It looked like the others didn't care for her, most likely because they were fed lies and rumors by the class liar.

"It's weird that after a month the police haven't found her."

"Maybe she doesn't want to be found," Lila says innocently.

"What do you mean Lila?" Alya asks.

"Well, she was acting really weird the days before she disappeared."

"That's true, she was even weirder than usual."

"There are also the rumors and…"

"What? What rumors?"

"Well, I heard that she was seeing an older student from another school," Lila says.

All those fake rumors made his blood boil, well, not only his. Those lies divided the class, some believing them, others not, and some remaining neutral.

Adrien couldn't think of a reason why Marinette wanted not to be found. She had a lovely family with caring parents and friends that also care for her, well, most of them at least. There's no reason, right?

He needed help; Ladybug helped. He decided enough was enough. After the next akuma, he would follow her. Not to know her identity, but to talk to her and see what was going on. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he didn't have to wait too long.

As if right on cue, an akuma attacked the following night. Chat was doing his best to keep up with the akuma, but it was hard. Still, he needed to keep going until Ladybug appeared.

Chat didn't know how much energy it would take to be able to follow Ladybug powered up, but he would try with everything he had; not for him, but for Marinette.

When the red blur that was Ladybug appeared, his eyes focused on her. The rest of the fight was short once she appeared.

''Bug out," she said.

''M'Lady!" Chat tried to call her, but she already jumped.

Chat frowned before starting to follow her, far enough to not be seen in the dark of the night, but not enough to lose her.

The sky is covered with gray clouds and the air is filled with the smell of rain, which is yet to fall. Thanks to that there's barely moonlight, so Chat can hide easily in the shadows while following Ladybug.

While jumping, he noticed that they were getting farther and farther away from the center of Paris. They were close to the part of the city where most of the old warehouses were.

'Why would Ladybug come here after the akuma attack? Does she live near here or something?" he asked himself while trying to not lose her from his sight.

She finally landed in an old, abandoned building, entering through a window. Chat saw her entering, confused at to why she would go there.

"Wait. she lives here?" Chat ask himself confused.

That didn't fit. If he remembered correctly the vague answers about her civilian life, she had a home, a loving family, and caring friends, plus she went to school. Were those lies to protect her identity? Would she go that far? Did it have to do with the fact that she was probably homeless?

There was only one way to find out. He carefully followed her inside avoiding detection.

For the most part, the inside of the building was intact. It looked like it used to be an office building of some kind, or it was used just for storage. The place was dirty; it was probably a long time ago when someone last cleaned the floors. The ceiling was stained yellow in different parts of it; water leaks were the most likely explanation.

Chat watched her enter one of the many doors in the hallway. She walked to the window in the office, watching the night sky.

"Is she going to detransform?"

He noticed while standing behind the door frame, that there was a makeshift camp in the office. Some pillows, a blanket, a little cooler (probably food for her and Tikki), a single electric stove (the building probably still had electricity), and a travel bag.

A familiar-looking travel bag, one with a very familiar symbol.

"Is that? No, it can't be. Unless…." Chat thought before swallowing hard and entering the office.

"Marinette," he said.

Watching her back tense, he noticed that she looked different. Starting from her legs, they were fully covered in black, they looked like she was wearing armor on her legs. She is wearing a short red skirt with black spots. The area that wasn't covered by a short cape, looked to be the same type of armor her legs were covered. The short cape was just like the skirt, red with black spots. Part of her neck was also covered in armor.

Her hair was cut short and gone were the pigtails. The cut looked a bit similar to Kagamis, but it wasn't combed. It's in a wilder style. From her head a pair of things stuck out. They looked like…antennae?

Finally, she slowly turned to see him face to face.

Chat's eyes grew wider, finally looking at her after a long time.

Part of her face was dark as if her skin was changing color. There was a line that went from the middle of her lower lip to her chin. Her eyes: the sclera looked like his when he was transformed, but instead of green, they were a tone of baby blue. Her ocean blue irises had duplicated in her eyes, now with two instead of one in each eye.

She just stared back at him before saying.

"….Surprise?"