A/N: Welcome to my sequel to Dawning Light! This fic is completed and will be updated weekly. I did just post an epilogue over there that shows the scene where these two first met, back in Chapter 11 in DL, so check that out first! There's some cover art I posted over on the AO3 version of this pic as well.

I highly recommend taking a listen to the song 'The Darkness' by John Michael Howell, because it really embodies not only Marinette and Claw Noir, but also Shadybug and Adrien from the first fic.

Prologue - End of Dawning Light Chapter 11

A crack sounded from the living room and a woman's voice called out. "Claw, it's time."

"Damn it." Eyes narrowing, Claw looked Adrien Agreste up and down. With a sneer, he said, "Can't believe I have to rely on you for this, but you're my last resort at the moment. You need to convince her to stay here." He looked back down at Shay, detransformed in the bed and looking like hell, and his eyes tightened before he turned back to leave the room.

Adrien followed him to the doorway, where Claw caught sight of the portal that had opened up in the middle of the room.

Before he stepped through, Claw turned his head one more time. "Don't fuck this up, Adrien. She needs you."

Adrien's response was firm. "I won't."

The portal vanished.

Bunnilark, holder of the Rabbit and Rooster Miraculous, disappeared almost immediately after Claw Noir returned to his own world.

Claw stood still on the rooftop, his hands clenched as his own parting words ran through his head.

"Don't fuck this up, Adrien. She needs you."

But not him.

What a fucking surprise that he'd failed at getting through to Shay. He never had been able to in the past.

It wasn't Claw Noir she needed; it was the more put-together version of Adrien Agreste that had somehow managed to do what he'd thought was impossible.

His lip curled into a sneer at the thought of the younger version of himself.

He'd actually become a model in that universe. Probably still had his mom, and a whole happy little family helping him be so good. No wonder Shay had been drawn to him.

After all, Claw had been nothing but a broken mess after his mom had died.

He remembered belatedly that Shay had told him the other Adrien's father was a piece of shit.

Well, maybe they had that much in common, at least.

Though Claw thought maybe his own version of Gabriel Agreste was less terrible and more...missing altogether.

His father had been almost nonexistent in his life after his mom had passed a handful of years back, so focused on his own grief that Adrien had been left to the wayside. He had practically kicked Adrien out of the house soon after she died, under the guise of encouraging him to get more involved at University. Adrien had seen through the terrible excuse; the man obviously blamed Adrien, couldn't handle his own grief, and had pushed away the reminder of his wife.

And so Adrien had been forced to handle everything on his own. Well, if you called pulling away from everything 'handling it.'

Even when he'd been given his Miraculous, Adrien had wanted nothing to do with it—had wanted nothing to do with anything. It had been Shadybug who had ripped him out of his funk.

Like a desperate fool, he'd latched onto her, quickly developing feelings for his new partner. She had made it clear early on, however, that she had zero desire even for friendship.

Unsurprising. It was better that he didn't have friends, anyway.

While it had been enough to squash his stupid crush, it hadn't kept him from caring about her.

Not that it had proven helpful at all, as she was apparently close to giving up on everything, and his attempt at convincing her otherwise had turned out to be fruitless.

Claw rolled his shoulders, shaking off the memories and the slowly creeping dark thoughts that had once consumed him.

He had something to focus on. He needed to keep the Supreme from realizing that Shadybug had gone to another universe.

Maybe he could be useful as a distraction.

For a little while, at least.

A/N: After working on this on and off for eight months, I'm so excited to finally have this finished and ready to start posting!

Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading!