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The fight was over, and Adrien Agreste stood in front of him, a key part in defeating Chloe's akuma. There was only one problem.
"Pound it!" Ladybug initiated. It was half-hearted on his end as he was still fixated on seeing his own self in front of him. In the heat of the fight he hadn't had the chance to question it.
"Chat Noir?" she asked, seeing his distanced gaze.
"That's not the real Adrien." It slipped out as he realized exactly how there would be a fake Adrien.
That caught her off guard. "Y-yes he is."
"No. It can't be."
She hesitated to respond before settling on, "how do you know?"
He couldn't actually explain that, so instead he extended his staff to pierce through the illusion, and Adrien faded to dust.
"NO!" She had reached out as if to stop him from revealing it.
"You knew," he realized. "Didn't you."
"What?"
He chuckled, but there was no joy in it. "So where's Rena hiding then?"
Recognition flashed in her eyes at that. "I don't know what you're talking about."
As he stared into her eyes, not sure what he was looking to find in them, the one thing he didn't expect to see was fear.
He sighed. "Even now you're still lying to me. Someone made that illusion and it wasn't you or me. And clearly you don't want me to know about it ... You don't trust me."
Her eyes grew wide at that. "No, Chat I do—"
"Did you ever trust me?" he asked, turned away to conceal the tears forming.
"Chat please, let me explain!" She grabbed his arm; he shrugged her off.
"How can I know that you'll actually tell me the truth if you don't trust me, Ladybug?" He surprised himself with how coldly he asked it. He never got angry like this with her before.
"I-I-" Her miraculous beeped, a cruel reminder of yet another thing she would never trust with him.
"Our time will be up soon. Wouldn't want to reveal our identities, now would we?" With that he left, forcing himself not to look back as Ladybug called out to him.