Volpina awoke to screams. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up quickly.

Volpina looked around wildly, and saw several disconcerting things. One, that she was sitting within the borders of a red pentagram, at the foot of a wooden cross, with broken chains lying next to her. Two, that Chat Noir was standing in this pentagram as well, helping Ladybug get untangled from her own chains. Three, Vixen was there. Four, whoever had been screaming hadn't stopped, and their heartbroken cries made Volpina very concerned about what could have happened.

"Hey! Can you stand?" A voice spoke from behind her.

Volpina glanced behind her, and saw a hooded green figure with a mask and a shield.

"W-who are you?" Volpina breathed.

"Uuhh, I'm a new Miraculous holder, Jade Turtle!" He stammered awkwardly, before his seriousness returned. "We actually really have to go, so can you stand?"

Volpina felt blood rush to her cheeks. "Um, I think so." She scrambled to her feet, but ended up standing up too fast. Volpina groaned as black spots danced across her eyes.

Jade Turtle took her arm and slung it over his shoulder. "Come on, I'll help you."

Jade and Volpina ran over to where Chat Noir and Ladybug were standing, behind a chunk of debris outside of the pentagram.

Chat Noir gave a brief sigh of relief. "Thank god you're okay, V."

Volpina rubbed the back of her head. "It's good to be back."

"Uh, who's this?" Ladybug pointed at Jade Turtle, confused. "And who's screaming back there? Is someone in trouble?"

"New Miraculous holder. I'm Jade Turtle." Jade spoke quickly. "And there might be two people in trouble. We kind of have a big problem here, you see, I came here with Queen Bee, and she went to go save Steel Peacock because she thought that SP was the strongest here and would be able to help, but I haven't seen either of them since we split up."

Volpina suddenly felt a deep pit of dread arise inside her. Steel Peacock was a double agent, and Queen Bee must've known that. It could have been Steel Peacock's arrows that freed her, Chat, and Ladybug from the crosses, but the last time she'd seen Steel Peacock was as Vixen's puppet. Volpina scrambled to her feet again, to look over the debris chunk. She had to know what was happening.

She finally realized who had been screaming.

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All Queen Bee could do was scream. And cry.

She could still feel Sabrina's blood splattered all over her, still soaked in her hair. Couldn't hear anything, couldn't feel anything but blood drying in her hair and tears pooling in her eyes and gushing down her face, couldn't smell anything but the coppery scent of blood, and couldn't taste anything but leftover vomit in her mouth and her own blood from biting her tongue so hard.

She clutched Sabrina's unmoving form desperately, trying to shake her back to wakefulness, begging anyone for this to just be a dream.

"No, no, no, no, nononononono, NO! You have to wake up, you can't leave me! Don't go!!"

Queen Bee showered her with thousands of kisses, wishing any of them would stir her.

"I love you, I love you, I love you so much!! You can't leave me all alone! Please, I love you! Don't just leave me!"

Queen Bee wailed in pain, and clutched her chest.

"I need you! I need- I need you so much! I love you, please!"

Vixen stood, completely frozen. "What was I...?" She looked around. "Where am I?" Her hand rushed up to the pentagram charm on her choker. It was warm.

"Oh god, what did you just make me do??" She demanded, hoping her demon would answer. Of course he didn't.

"You promised me no one else would die!! This isn't what I wanted-"

"Oh, Lila, but isn't it?"

Vixen froze as the demon spoke in her head. "If you were already willing to sacrifice those three to bring back your sister, what should it matter if a few others get scratched off?"

"It's different! Those three killed my sister!"

"Damn. And here I thought you'd have the backbone to see this through to the end. It seems you're every bit and more the coward I thought you'd be."

Vixen trembled in fear. She had just realized that she had, in fact, made the biggest mistake of her life.

"The deal's off, Anguis!" Lila ripped the choker off of her neck and threw it on the ground.

Suddenly, from behind her, someone tackled her to the ground. Vixen didn't bother struggling, and simply sighed deeply and rested her head on the road. She looked up and saw, from the corner of her eye, Ladybug destroying the pentagram charm and purifying the akuma inside of it. Lila felt her costume melt away, revealing her civilian attire.

Whoever had pinned her down stood up, but Lila remained still, besides her silent shivering.

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Jade Turtle glanced worriedly in the direction of the mournful, desperate cries. He knew that voice.

"Let's go!" Chat motioned for them to follow him to Queen Bee quickly. Ladybug nodded quickly, and the two broke into sprints.

"Volpina, we're going!" Jade Turtle called to her.

She shook her head mutely. "I'll catch up. Go ahead." She started walking away, towards where the Akuma victim lay.

Jade Turtle was too anxious to argue with her, and instead ran after Ladybug and Chat Noir.

He finally caught up, and saw Chat Noir and Ladybug standing above Queen Bee, who was crying unendingly, clutching Steel Peacock's bloody armored corpse like it was everything in the world to her. And hearing her sobs, Jade Turtle had no doubt that it was.

Chat Noir crouched down next to Queen Bee and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "Bee, you have to let go."

Queen Bee fought against his grip. "I can't! I won't! Stop-"

Ladybug sighed. "Queen Bee, she tried to kill you... Why are you...?" Her confused voice trailed off.

Queen Bee sniffled. "Chat Noir, imagine you were in my place and Ladybug was in Peacock's." Chat Noir visibly stiffened.

"She was a double agent- She was working with me against Hawkmoth." Queen Bee burst into tears again. "I loved her so much, s-she can't be gone! She c-can't be gone..."

Ladybug turned to Jade Turtle. "We need to get somewhere safe..." She whispered. "Chat and I can coax Queen Bee, but we can't just leave Steel Peacock here..."

Jade Turtle realized what she was asking of him, and nodded firmly. "I'll do it."

Ladybug and Chat Noir lightly helped Queen Bee to her feet, and convinced her to look away from Steel Peacock.

Jade Turtle bent down and carefully picked up Steel Peacock's limp, motionless form, and ran to catch up with the others.

Jade Turtle tried so hard not to remind himself that the broken form he was carrying was, in fact, a corpse. But he found he couldn't stop glancing at Steel Peacock's white face, chapped lips splattered with drying blood, and her glazed, wide, expressionless eyes.