Chaos backpedalled as the room became filled with a bright green light. I squeezed my eyes shut against the harsh glare. I didn't want to open my eyes when the light faded away, when my father's laughter echoed throughout the room. But I did anyway, and when I saw him, saw the suit that was meant to be mine on him instead...

A feeling of unshakeable defeat gripped me, and I felt my body finally went completely limp.

You disobey me every time like the useless idiot you are!

He was right. I was useless. Pathetic.

Every single bad decision I had made had led up to this moment, starting from the night I threw myself off the Eiffel Tower. I had done this. I had sealed our fates the moment I thought of offing myself.

It was never anyone's fault but mine.

My vision blurred, and I felt the tears roll down my cheeks. The hurt I felt now was new; inexplicable, worse than anything I had ever felt in my life. Worse than getting beaten with a belt buckle or cutting my wrists. Worse than watching my partner die.

It was all the hurt I deserved.

"NO!" Chaos screamed. I saw him lunge for the demon, reaching to swipe the earrings from his hands.

"Chaos..." I whispered. I knew he could hear me, but he didn't stop. "Chaos...enough..."

"Hell no!" He pounced on Gabriel, and they tumbled to the floor, wrestling over the miraculous in Gabriel's clenched fist.

My gaze shifted to Other-Chat. At the creatures surrounding him. At the blood running from his mouth and nose. Still, he kept fighting. They kept fighting. Why were they still fighting? It was futile—my father was winning. He had already won. The fact that they were still trying was so appalling that I almost began to laugh.

"Stop," I whimpered. "Stop it... Just stop..."

"Little one," came a voice from beside me, and I watched as the pale bare feet of the Banshee moved until they were right by my head. I expected her to kick me—almost wanted her to—but then she knelt down, and then I was staring into her soulless black eyes. "You have finally realized that you have been beaten."

"Adrien, no!" Chaos shouted, and then cut off with a grunt as Gabriel punched him square in the face. He soared backward, landing with a heavy thud and a groan.

My gaze returned to the Banshee; her eyes bored into mine but, like always, I didn't feel anything. My misery had surpassed all that she could give. "Yes," I acknowledged, and a small, genuine smile broke out across her face. She caressed my cheek, and I leaned into her touch. It provided a sense of comfort that I hadn't felt for a long time.

"It is alright," she whispered to me. "Come. Let go of everything, and you will be at peace. You will gain your sanity once again."

"S..." I tried to say the word, but couldn't, so I reached out for her. She took my hand and pulled me up. The voidness of her eyes seemed to intensify. And then she pulled me into an embrace, her hair wrapping around me, pulling away at the last shreds of strength I had left.

"Sanity," she repeated.

I almost gave in. I almost closed my eyes to the world, happy that I would never open them again. But then I remembered my resolve. My determination.

The glass shard that was clutched in my hand.

"Sike."

It was the last thing I could think of, though it was in plain sight. All the akumas Ladybug and I had defeated all had something that could be destroyed. It gave us a one-sided look at how to defeat them. It had almost led to my downfall.

The Banshee's hair had been far too long to be natural.

The glass sliced cleanly through the thick hair, cutting away so much that all that was left barely went down to her shoulders. She screamed and recoiled, her black hair turning brown. I watched as the severed locks withered into dust and a little black butterfly fluttered into the air. The Banshee collapsed, unconscious, to the floor, and I slumped onto my hands and knees. My eyes widened.

Shit. I was supposed to purify it, but I didn't know how. Frantically, I searched in my mind for Tikki. There was nothing - my mind was completely void of any additional presences. I could only watch as the akuma perched on the floor and began to multiply. As the replicas touched the creatures that the Banshee had summoned, they sizzled and began to grow. I recoiled at the putrid smell.

"Boss!" Chaos called. "Look out!"

I turned just in time to see a creature reaching a rancid hand toward me. I tried to backpedal, but my limbs refused to budge. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the pain of the attack.

There was a screech and a thud. My eyes flew open. The creature was now a bubbling puddle on the floor, and in front of me was Other-Chat, breathing hard and trying his best to stay upright.

"Can you move?" he asked, not turning to look at me.

"...No," I told him, and he nodded slowly.

"Good. Better an immobilized burden than a moving one."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Shut up! You know I'm right!" With a roar, he chucked his staff at a pair of particularly ugly-looking blobs of blackness. It struck them with such force that they dissipated instantly and the staff lodged itself in the body of a third creature on the other side of the room.

He looked back at me, and at the crazed look in his eye I gave a sign of surrender.

Suddenly Chaos came flying in our direction. Other-Chat had to duck, and Chaos slammed violently into the wall with a grunt before collapsing in a heap on the floor. When he looked up, his expression was extremely unamused.

"I hate to interrupt your little therapy session," he snapped. "But I'm getting my ass handed to me over here!" He annoyedly tossed a small earring at my face; it landed in my lap, and my hand closed around it. "I could only get one out of him," Chaos said.

I looked up at the steadily approaching form of Gabriel. He looked extremely battered, with his broken nose and bloodied suit. Still, his face was set in a mask of complete calm, and gaze was trained directly on me.

"You cannot hide behind your helpers forever, Adrien," he said, his hands clenched into fists. "And if you refuse to fight on your own...I will simply have to eliminate the obstacles."

Suddenly a deafening screech echoed throughout the room, sending the three of us to the ground instantly. The floor vibrated so hard that my bones knocked against each other. My entire body protested, each tremor sending wave after wave of agonizing heat through me.

It took all of my strength to look up, and when I did, my pupils shrank to blots.

"What the hell...?" Other-Chat said in confused terror.

"Crap," Chaos added.

The creatures surrounding us let out shrill screams, their cries forming the blood-curdling shriek that threatened to make my ears give up forever. And they were screaming because they had all started to fuse - their bodies rippled and shifted and shuddered as they welded together, forming one gigantic writhing mass in the middle of the huge room—around my father.

Two huge yellow eyes appeared somewhere in the middle of the enormous creature, staring down at the three of us. The black mass closed around Gabriel with a disturbing crack, enveloping him completely.
And then a gaping hole burst out from the giant creature, and a cacophony of monstrous screams pierced the air, forming a mangled version of my father's voice.

"Adrien, I will only say this once," it hissed.

Despite myself, I retorted, "Then you'd better hope I listen."

The mass looked down at me with pure malevolence. "You will give me the Miraculous, or you will pay the consequence."

My gaze hardened. "I guess you didn't hear me before, then," I said, a lopsided grin working its way onto my face. "I have a thing for disobeying orders."

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Word Count: 1403.

I feel the ending creeping down my back, whispering to be let out. Just a few more chapters left.

Seeya in a few weeks.