"You're-M-"

"You're this girl? Colette?"

"Am I right then, Marinette?"

The girl sitting up on my bed, with all sleep-deprived eyes and messy hair, looked like she was on the verge of tears. My own vision blurred.

"Marinette?" Chat questioned, looking at me. He then promptly turned to her. "M'lady?"

"You are. . ." The girl stammered, biting her lip as she got out of the bed. Something in me burned when they stared each other down.

"Chat Noir. I am-am Chat Noir."

"Kitty?"

It only worsened when she took him in her arms. They were the thickest of friends, or perhaps even more as he had mentioned. I, on the other hand, had nothing worth loving.

All of a sudden, I felt somebody clawing at my sides. I looked down to see Sapphire and Evergreen rubbing their fur at the leather of my - no, Marinette's - suit. I bent down to stroke their fur; anything to avert my eyes from him.

An hour - or so it felt - later, Marinette called me out. "Hey, do you know how this. . .bizarre thing happened?" Her tone combined with my voice could be the strangest combination ever heard. It sounded like the happy cheer of jingle bells, something in stark contrast to the melancholic note of my violin.

Sapphire's deep eyes bore into mine, and a strange feeling settled in my chest. Evergreen, on the other hand, put his paw on my lap: a gesture he did to affirm an action. Their body language gave me a tiny spurt of courage to answer back. "I have no idea."

"That's okay, but I wanna revert back, and I-"

"I'm not coming back." They were staring hard at me, lending me the voice I kept denying, in me. "I'm no longer Colette Blanchard. I have a new identity, and that will be to vanquish Monarch." They filled me up, and it was time for me to show, just how much I want to witness the fall of evil. "Not only Monarch, but all those ignorant parents who just don't care about their child.

"I wish to teach them all a lesson, and that is only possible with this suit and my partner." I looked at Chat, expecting him to have a proud glint in those emerald orbs; only there wasn't any. If at all, I found disappointment and bitter resentment hidden behind the mask.

The pair of eyes which had given me the strength to face battles, now looked on with utter melancholy. At once, I felt all the built up courage fade away like memories.

"Hey," Marinette started, softly. "I'm sorry. I understand what's going on here, in your true life. I cannot begin to imagine how you traverse such a path-"

"You'll never understand how tired I feel!" I yelled through the weird constriction in my throat. "I am sick and so done with being a nonsense girl who can be trash-talked by everyone!"

"That'll not happen anymore, Colette-"

I looked up at her with disbelieving eyes. What on hell is she on about? "If that's the case, why don't you lead my life?"

Marinette was taken aback by the question. I could tell with the way her eyes widened and she gasped for air.

"Because everybody has their own lives to lead. . ." It was not Marinette who uttered those words, and that broke away the confidence I had. Maybe, I was in the wrong as always. If anyone was pretending to be Ladybug when I was present, I would see red.

Why wasn't I empathetic?

"Rawr! Grr. . ." Evergreen's roar snapped me out of my thoughts, just in time to hear the ring of Chat's baton-phone. He hurried to attend the call, while I got back to the matter at hand.

"Marinette, I-" I started, only to realize that she was already on the bed, asleep or in a dead faint, I did not know. Before I could approach her, Chat intervened.

"There's no time to dabble around!" Chat spoke, alarmed. "Claw Noir was on line. Said the portal is gonna close!"

It was the same situation as that when we arrived here. Spontaneous, blind running to get to the portal on the outskirts of the town. People were beginning to rise, making it difficult to hide whilst hurrying back.

It was dizzying, for some reason. I felt all the tiredness seep in at once, especially when he mentioned the word 'portal'. Chat's grip on my forearm was the only thing holding up the thin line between the conscious world and the senseless abyss.

There had been no time to say goodbye to my babies. Chat had only managed to tuck Marinette into the bed whilst I made sure everything looked the way it did before our arrival.

"There! Shadybug's holding up poorly! Just a bit more, Ladybug." His voice was so low, as if he were speaking from deep within the ocean. Or perhaps, I was the one drowning?

The next thing I knew, I hit something hard, and was being sucked into a warm embrace. I saw deep green before everything darkened.