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“Please! Just let him go!”
I heard someone shouting that in the distance.
I couldn’t tell who it was. But they sounded familiar.
“Please! Please.”
It was a girl.
She had started crying.
I still didn’t know who she was.
I was lost. Confused. I wasn’t sure what was happening.
Then I heard a whisper.
“Take me instead…”
I realized that I was the one speaking.
I still wasn’t sure what was happening, but I wanted to help them.
Then I realized, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know who I was.
I was in a dark room.
Then I heard a scream. A cry of pain.
Then a word.
“Please.”
Someone was crying. You could hear it in their voice.
I felt my face get wet.
Tears.
I wondered what had happened to the other person.
Then my arm exploded in pain.
There was a knife lodged in my shoulder and I was chained to a wall.
Then I saw him standing in front of me.
Adrien.
The person who betrayed me. And my best friend.
A memory returned.
I was five years old.
Adrien and I were running around in a field.
I think we were holding hands.
We stopped and just collapsed on the grass after a little.
“Best friends forever, right?” he asked.
“‘Course dummy.”
Now Adrien was aiming a knife at my arm.
“Best friends…right?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
I wanted to scream at him.
Then I realized something.
“It’s not Adrien... Is it?” I asked myself.
No… It wasn’t Adrien. It was someone that looked like him. It was Misfortune. It couldn’t be him.
They had taken someone, turned them into a brainwashed soldier and made them shoot me.
And they did it to my best friend.
He aimed the knife at my leg.
I realized that he was trying to keep me from escaping or trying to fight my way out.
Smart. He was probably one of their strongest soldiers and when we trained he hardly ever beat me.
I wondered why they didn’t want me to escape.
For the first time in my life I was scared.
I was always moving so I never had time to be scared or think of what might happen in the future.
I never had time to over analyse a plan or an idea.
I was always just forging ahead.
I never thought about the consequences and just dealt with them.
But, I never thought that it would lead to this.
If I had ever thought that my best friend would end up as a blank-faced soldier I would have never run off and left him behind.
I knew that he could take care of himself so I never imagined that he would be overpowered so easily.
We were the top fighters at our training camp.
Us, my sister, Bridgette, and his brother, Felix.
Then I heard a whisper.
“Marinette… please… don’t give up. Not now.”
Someone with a low voice was talking to me. But who?
“Please, don’t give up.”
Plagg.
I was surprised.
I thought he would have left by now.
The pain in my arm was less intense now.
I could feel the ring on my hand.
I looked at Adrien and realized that he was still wearing his earrings.
Even after everything that had happened, I wasn’t surprised.
He had a fierce loyalty to our home.
“Marinette. You have to help him.”
This voice was higher.
It was Tikki, Adrien’s kwami.
I looked at Adrien again and realized that he was crying.
“Stupid cat,” I heard him mumble.
I realized how much pain he was in.
He was fighting the akuma that was controlling him.
He had been able to regain control just long enough for me to notice that he was still in there.
That Misfortune wasn't in complete control yet.
I wanted to help him.
“Plagg… claws out,” I whispered.
I felt the cool leather wrap itself around me and used cataclysm to break the chains.
I dropped to the floor silently but didn’t attack right away.
I didn’t want to fight him, but I knew that it was the only way to help.
That was when I noticed that he had a picture clutched in his hand.
It was the picture we took a year ago with Alya and Nino.
That was probably where the akuma was.
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fix anything without Ladybug.
I would just have to find a way to get the akuma out and trap it.
Alya, Nino, Chloe, and Juleka were still back in Paris, so they wouldn’t be able to help.
I was hoping that we would get the moth miraculous back from Hawkmoth sooner.
I always thought that Rose would be great for it.
I had never suggested it to Adrien though.
Like I had never told him that I didn't think Hawkmoth was alone anymore.
I had a feeling someone was helping him in the shadows, but I could never bring myself to tell him.
I mean he never listened to me much anyways.
At least when I was Chat Noir.
It makes sense.
The one time we use my ideas and look at what happens.
I get kidnapped right before I detransform and Adrien gets akumatized.
In the past Chat Noir was always the one to have a crush on Ladybug.
This time the roles were reversed.
It was probably why it killed him to figure it out.
The girl he had the biggest crush on and had been looking for, for the longest time was the girl sitting in front of him in class.
I just had one question.
“Why a knife?” I wondered.
Adrien had always used the yoyo and he hated it when I used one of my backup knives.
So… why?
It didn’t make any sense.
“Emotions control their appearances” I thought.
He was mad that I hadn’t told him when he was Ladybug, but when he was Adrien.
So he wanted to hurt me with my own weapon.
“My weapon.”
The thought echoed in my head.
Did I still have them?
The belt with my knives wasn’t part of my costume, just something I wore on top.
So what if they were still there?
I could disguise them in with my costume to make it look more natural.
But what if they took them?
I could tell that he had taken my staff before I detransformed.
It was sitting on the table beside him.
All this thinking was gonna make my head hurt.
He was always the one that came up with the plans.
I would modify them a little, but he always made the base layer, which was how we were gonna get the akuma.
I had to work on my own this time though.
Then the truth hit me like a pile of bricks.
I wasn’t alone.
I had Plagg and Tikki.
And Adrien was helping me by fighting the akuma controlling him as well.
I ran towards Adrien and he stood with his guard up as if expecting a fight.
So it was obvious that he wasn’t expecting me to kiss him.
He fell to the floor in shock and ended up pulling me down with him.
After I got up I noticed a tiny white butterfly flying out the nearest window.
I looked down and saw Adrien.
But was he my Adrien?
He stood up as I tried to process what had just happened.
The he came up and hugged me.
“I love you,” he whispered.