Chapter Text
Part 1. The Great Escape
Adrien woke up with a start, his by now familiar nightmare still fresh in his mind. The white walls around him bore at the same time a stark contrast and a frightening similarity to the desolate scenery in his dream. The room was white and empty. Well, not exactly empty – there was a lonely foosball table in the middle – but it added to the feeling of emptiness and made him feel claustrophobic. Claws-trophobic, his mind supplied helpfully. But in his current state, Adrien found himself unable to enjoy the pun.
He ran to the panel that he knew served as a door, though there were no handles on this side, and started banging on it with his fists.
“Open the door now! Let me out!”
Please, he added silently. I can’t bear to be here anymore.
The door didn’t open.
Instead, after a few minutes of his banging, another panel opened next to it and let in an already familiar Tsurugi robot. Its storage tray opened to present an Alliance ring.
Why would he need an Alliance ring now?
He gingerly picked up the ring and switched it on.
Up came the images of him and Kagami.
“We all have nightmares. We all have fears. Unfortunately, sometimes negative emotions can lead to the worst outcome.”
The two images fell silent, and a narrator’s voice continued.
“After months of research, Tsurugi Labs have found an antidote to this. The Perfect Alliance app will help you find your inner peace, thanks to relaxing activities proposed by Kagami and Adrien.”
The two images he’d grown to hate droned in chorus,
“Whatever your level of anxiety, you will find serenity again with us”
And then, of course, the narrator got to the point of the ad.
“To download this free app, simply say ‘Perfect Alliance’”
Would this app help him in his current state? Before he knew it, Adrien found himself almost putting the ring on his finger. As soon as he realized it, he shook himself out of the half-trance, and in a bout of rebelliousness, threw the ring into the dull white wall.
“That’s right, that’s where this ring belongs,” said a grumpy black kwami floating behind his ear.
The kwami who didn’t like being stuck within the white walls either.
“Come on, Adrien! What are you waiting for? Let’s get out of here! We aren’t likely to find any cheese in this place.”
Adrien looked at his friend in panic.
“Hide, Plagg! There are cameras everywhere in here!”
This didn’t deter the little black kwami in the least.
“Relax! May I remind you that kwamis can’t be filmed, and their voices can’t be recorded.” He flew up to the camera in the corner and started making demonstratively silly faces and poking tongue at it. “See?”
Not for the first time, Adrien felt a sharp ping of envy towards his free-spirited companion. Oh Plagg, I wish I could! All he could afford to mutter out loud was “But my father could hear or see if I transform into you-know-who.”
Instead of looking dejected like Adrien thought he wood, Plagg flew to the camera, phased through it, and came back, looking smug.
“There you are! No camera, no problem! Shall we?”
Would it be this easy to escape Father’s omnipresent eye?
The robot moved again and a camera activated just over the front tray. No, not so easy, as it turns out.
I will not give up this easily! Adrien took the ring off the tray, switched the advert to repeat mode and put it in front of the robot’s camera. Take that, Father! You will not look at me or listen in when I don’t want you to!
Except of course another robot rolled in through the panel, Alliance ring and camera on the ready.
No, it seemed there was no escape. Adrien sighed and reached for his miraculous.
“What are you doing?” Plagg held his Miraculous ring finger away from his hand. He sounded slightly panicked now.
Adrien held his head in another fit of nightmares.
“I’m not in my right mind,” he explained. “I’m too angry at myself for failing Marinette’s love, and at my father for sending me to London. And this stupid app, and these rings that use my image. It makes me sick. This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that if I transform, I’ll get akumatized and destroy everything with my cataclysm. Marinette. Ladybug...”
But that didn’t stop Plagg from insisting.
"Come on! You want to help Ladybug, don’t you?”
“I don’t think I can, Plagg. Ladybug has managed without me before, she’ll manage in the future. I don’t think there’s any akuma she would find impossible to defeat.”
Plagg was silent for a bit. Then he flew in front of Adrien’s face, looking hesitant.
“Even if it’s Marinette who’s akumatized?”
Matinette. His girlfriend, the person he loved more than anyone else, who he had to say goodbye to quite abruptly just over 24 hours ago. Adrien’s heart clenched in his chest.
“Do you think she could succumb to an akuma?”
Plagg looked at him defiantly.
“Well did you leave her happy and smelling flowers?”
“No… Oh no, she totally could! She’s so brilliant, she’d make a formidable villain!”
The little black kwami looked pleased with the issue he’d brought up, and evidently decided to drive it home.
“Last time she was about to become akumatized, it took you to stop her. You are indispensable if the situation repeats itself! Now come on, let’s go!”
Despite his resolve to stay away from potentially hurting others, Adrien felt it waiver. He knew Ladybug was capable of dealing with akumas. He also knew it would be better if he stayed away. But he couldn’t let Monarch take advantage of Marinette!
If he were to get out of here, he’d need to think strategically, though. Think like Ladybug, Adrien, he urged himself. What would she do?
He looked around himself stealthily, peeking through his eyelashes. So there was the robot with the camera and the ring, and once the camera was disabled, another one would come in. It would, however, give him a short unsupervised period in which he could make a move.
Jaw set, he turned to the second robot and blocked the camera. Once he was sure Father couldn’t see him, he dashed to the other panel, and as soon as the third robot rolled in, he dove through the opening before it closed and into an empty corridor, white and desolate just like his room.
He rushed down the corridor, eager to get out as soon as possible, his shirt pocket filling with the familiar fluffy ball he came to know as Plagg, a sound of something rolling trailing after him. When he dared a look behind him, he saw another robot rolling in pursuit.
The corridor turned out to be a maze, always white-tiled and the same, with no windows to give him the sense of direction. And to make the matters worse, more and more robots joined the chase, making him make unexpected turns, giving him the feeling they were herding him. Most doors he passed turned out to be locked, and there was no exit in sight.
When another robot appeared on the other end of the corridor he was running along, Adrien felt despair wash over him. He was definitely going to get repercussions for his escape. Should he have stayed where he was in the first place?
While he was busy regretting his every decision in life, there was a sliding sound above him, and two strong hands in purple gloves grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him up into the air vent.