Emma threw herself aroundin her bed as her dreams turned dark once again. Amara stirred besideher as she felt the girl's terror. It didn't take either of them longto wake up. Amara was looking at Emma with worry in her eyes. Emmawas sweating more than usual and she felt like her heart was about toexplode.

Checking the time she letout a heavy sigh. She fell back on her bed and let her blanket falloff of her. Staring at the ceiling calmed her nerves better thananything else. And she didn't want to wake her parents up. They wentto bed as late if not later than she did and she now knew that.

Amara's presence was lowbut it was calming. Emma could feel the kwami's worry and stress overthe inability to help.

Slowly, as she listened tothe melody of kwamis in the back of her head she slipped back tosleep. She calmed down enough to feel comfortable again and it wasonly four in the morning. Amara stayed awake a while longer beforeshe could finally fall back asleep.

The next time both of themwoke was to a knock on the door. Amara quickly hid under the sheetsas the door creaked open letting light into the dimly lit room. Emmaopened her eyes groggily although she was more awake than the daybefore.

"Breakfast is readyKiddo," Adrien said walking in to see Emma in her bed.

"Yeah, coming," Emmasaid after she saw that Amara was nowhere to be found. Her head wasbuzzing with the sound of the black cat kwami as her father left.

Amara flew out from underthe blankets to the relief and surprise of Emma. The kwami didn't sayanything just chuckled a little as Emma started getting dressed. Sheput on jeans-shorts and a black t-shirt. She looked at herself in hermirror and cringed a little.

"This does not fit myoutfit," she said lifting the feather still hanging on her neck.

"Well, you can take itoff and put it in a pocket or something" Amara replied looking Emmaup and down. The silver necklace was not the girl's style.Even though it adjusted to her when she put it on it still stood outon Emma.

"Nah, I'd just lose itthat way, and where would we be then?" she said hiding the pendantbehind her T-shirt. "And besides, I can always claim it was a giftfrom a friend" she walked up to the door before realizing thatAmara couldn't hide anywhere on her.

"I'll stay here. We canfigure something out after breakfast" Amara said as she flew toEmma's desk.

Emma nodded absently andwent out to the dining room. Her parents were already waiting forher. Marinette smiled at her and hugged her as a good morning. Emmawas still a little sleepy, but the soft "melody" as she nowcalled it did not slip her attention.

They ate breakfast talkingabout everyday things like what they were doing that day or theiropinions on different subjects. Despite her best efforts though,Emma's attention always fell back to the soothing almost tiringmelody in the background. Nox's presence. She knew she should letTikki talk to her mom about Nox but she couldn't let it go. She knewNox had chosen a holder. She saw it in the kwami's eyes.

After breakfast sheexcused herself and went up to her room, saying she had to dohomework. She wasn't entirely lying, as she did still have somehomework for Monday. She sat down and tried to do it but she couldn'tget her mind away from the events of the previous night and thepresence of the raven kwami. It felt wrong.

"You okay?" a high-pitched voice asked. Emma jumped at the unknown sound but quicklygathered herself as she looked around the room. She could feelTikki's presence so she had a good idea of who spoke to her.

"You looked reallydistant at breakfast" the little red and black kwami said when Emmalocked eyes with her.

"What the..." Emmatried to look surprised. "What are..."

"She knows," Amara saidcutting Emma off "you contacted her telepathically last night andyour mother might not have realized it but Tikki did." Emma lookedshocked but not entirely surprised by this.

"To answer yourquestion, no, I'm not fine," Emma said after a minute of staring."Nox is here and that isn't right. He chose his holder already sohe should be allowed to find them." the anger Emma felt the nightbefore started to surface once again, although it was morecontrollable this time.

"That's why I'm hereEmma" Tikki admitted looking at the floor. "Let me talk toMarinette first. Maybe I can convince her to let Nox go." Tikkiseemed to be asking her as if she was some kind of authority figure

"I guess I could dothat" Emma said scratching the back of her neck. "I was going towait a little anyway. I need some rest"

"Yeah..." Tikki saidnot sounding convinced about Emma's confession. Even Emma wasn'tconvinced and both of the kwami's saw it on her face. "And Amara,please don't do anything rash" this earned an angry growl from thephoenix kwami and an odd look from Emma. The girl looked between thetwo kwamis trying to figure out what she had missed.

"I have to go beforeMarinette becomes suspicious of me missing," Tikki said flyingtowards the door.

"Oh, you better go. I'mnot entirely calm yet" Amara said with a hiss although she didn'tmove. Emma still looked stunned at her kwami. She knew she could getunrealistically angry but her kwami seemed too collected for that.She didn't know her for that long though and she knew there would besurprises down the road as she got to know all sides of Amara.

"Come to think of itI hated Nicole at first," she thought as she focused herattention away from the still somewhat agitated kwami and onto a moreserious problem. How to have Amara always with her and yet seemnatural.

As she was sitting therethinking Amara calmed down a bit and joined the brainstorming. Theywent over different bags and anything big enough for a kwaminot knowing how to effectively hide the creature.

"I could wear a west orsomething," Emma said. "One that has a pocket either inside or onit big enough for you."

"That can work in winterbut what about summer?" Amara remarked, pointing out the weaknessof the plan.

"I need a bag don't I?"Emma closed her eyes with a groan. "But they are so uncomfortableto deal with" she whined opening her eyes partially.

"What about a backpack?"Amara asked, clearly amused at Emma's words. Before Emma could answerthough the door opened and Adrien appeared with Nicole by his side.

"Hey Emma," Nicole saidsheepishly.

"Hey Nick, come on in,"Emma said furrowing her eyebrows although she didn't give any otherindication that she was surprised.

"Have fun kids. Nicole,you can stay as long as you'd like. We can even offer some food ifyou'd like." Adrien said smiling at the girl.

"Thanks, mister Agreste"Nicole said before turning to Emma. Adrien left and closed the doorbehind himself, leaving the two girls alone.

For a long minute, theystared at each other, not knowing what to say. Emma was trying not tomention seeing Nicole the night before and she was also trying tofigure out what was going on in her friend's head. They agreed tomeet on Monday because Nicole had some family things to attend to on theweekend.

As Nicole looked up Emmasaw that her eyes were distant and restless. Nicole might have beenlooking right at her, but her mind was somewhere else entirely. Emmasaw this absent expression on her friend's face a few times beforebut this time it felt different.

"You okay Nick?" sheasked standing up from her desk.

"Yeah I think so"Nicole answered not sounding convinced herself.

"What happened?" Emmaasked picking up on the fact that something was bothering Nicole. Andit was bothering her a lot.

Nicole looked away beforesaying anything. "I- I don't really know," she said. "I mean Iknow what happened it's just weird and you'll probably think I'mcrazy" she quickly corrected herself before Emma could even speak.

"Nicole, you know youcan tell me anything," Emma said sitting down on her bed. "Iwon't judge. Promise" she said petting the bed beside her,signaling for Nicole to sit down.

"I- uh..." Nicole wasfidgeting with her hands. "I went towards a fight last night."Emma didn't say anything. She was afraid that her voice would betrayher and Nicole would realize that she was also there. "I didn'tmean to at first," Nicole said as if trying to excuse herself. "ButI had a weird dream and... And I felt pulled to the scene" Emmaraised an eyebrow not understanding exactly what Nicole meant.

"How do you mean? LikeJulia most of the time?" she asked trying to ease the tension.

"No, it was... As ifsomething called my name." Nicole answered seriously. "I- uh...actually came here because of the same reason."

"Okay" Emma wascompletely lost though she wanted to help Nicole. "To my room or the house?" she asked.

"To the house" Nicolelooked towards the door and Emma saw a glimpse of longing on Nicole'sface. "I think I actually saw what was pulling me to the fightscene last night" she suddenly turned back to Emma, finally beingmore herself. "I saw this... creature" Emma's eyes went wide asshe realized that Nicole was talking about Nox. "The pull evenbecame stronger after the fight and I could barely go home after."

"But it doesn't matter now. He's gone and I'm here, so how about we do something?"Emma was speechless. She knew Nicole was pushing down her feeling andshe understood why. It had to be hard being pulled by some invisibleforce and never finding what drew you to certain places.

"How about we get icecream?" Nicole said standing up and holding a hand out to pull Emmaup. Emma accepted although she could feel there was something morebehind Nicole's interest in ice cream.

"Sure but..." shedidn't know how to put her observations into words. "You sureyou're okay?" As Nicole nodded the same absent look crossed hereyes that Emma saw before but only for a second.

"Let's go" Nicolegrabbed Emma's hand and basically dragged the girl out of the house.Emma's parents didn't budge at the sight as it wasn't unusualbut Emma knew something was up.

They ran all the way tothe ice cream cart of André, and Nicole almost continued but Emmagrabbed her hand and stopped her. When the over-excited brunettelooked back at her with confusion written all over her face Emma justrolled her eyes and pointed at the stall.

"Oh, right," Emma saidas if waking up from a trance. "Ice-cream"

"Hello there youngladies, what will it be today?" André asked when the two girlswalked up to his cart. "Are you here as friends, or is this adate?" his usual mysterious demeanor and unwavering happinesscould be heard in his voice as he took out a cone.

"André, not today,"Emma said cringing, feeling uncomfortable. "It's just friends"she quickly added.

"Hurry up please,"Nicole said now clearly more aware of what she wanted to do. Emmapaid for their ice cream and pulled Nicole to a bench.

"Emma, can you hearme?" the voice of Amara appearing in her mind made Emma jump upfrom her seat. "Good," Amara said with a mental chuckle.

"What is it, Amara?"Emma asked more grumpy than she intended. "Sorry. I just satdown and you scared me"

"I'm sorry."Amara's mental words were flooded with the apology. "In normalcircumstances, I would have done this when you were alone and I waswith you but we have a problem" she quickly said. Emma lookedat Nicole as they ate their ice cream but the girl seemed to be moreinterested in their surroundings than talking.

"What's up?"Emma asked noting that something was definitely up with Nicole.

"I just talked toNox. Ladybug did let him go but..." Emma didn't hear the lasthalf as Nicole finally spoke up.

"I still feel the pull"she looked at Emma. "It's getting stronger every minute. Can youhelp me find the source?"

"Sure," Emma saidstanding up. "Lead the way" they started walking and Emma finallyreached out to her kwami again.

"Sorry didn't hearthe last part." she focused on the telepathic conversation onceagain.

"You can't let Nicolefind him. Not yet" Amara said with worry and urgency ringing through her sentence.

"What? But..."Nicole couldn't finish the thought as Amara instantly startedexplaining.

"The restorationpower. It caused the bond to be formed and made it ten timesstronger. If she transforms she'll never let go of the power and willnot be able to control herself. She could cause a catastrophe"

"But how didrestoration make the bond stronger?" Emma ran to catch up toNicole while trying to maintain her focus to hear Amara's answer.

"It restored all hisbonds that have ever occurred and since the people of those bondsaren't alive anymore it caused Nicole to get well, overexcited"Amara explained.

"We need to stop Nicole,"Emma said finally catching up to her friend and grabbing her hand.

"We need to find itfirst and try using another restoration to severe the bonds. Thoughif my suspicion is correct we will have to break the bracelet and wecan't do that without Chat Noir's power" Emma could see Nicoletalking but she couldn't make out the girl's words as she stillfocused on her mental conversation with her kwami.

"Wait for a second Nicoleplease," she said closing her eyes to regain the control she lost.

"where is Nox now?"she asked Amara.

"Trying to get as faraway as possible from Nicole" the kwami replied swiftly.

"Well, tell him tokeep it up. I lost Nicole" Emma said opening up her eyes. Shecould slightly feel the force Nicole used to get her hand free butdidn't realize it worked until she opened her eyes.

"Come home. We shouldlook for Nox too but you have a better chance at finding him asFlair" Nicole frowned. Hearing someone else say the name madeit sound worse than it was when she had said it.

"That is a terriblename I need to change it," she said while already runningtowards her home. The conversation dropped as Emma focused herattention on the road and sped up as much as she dared. She alreadyhated herself for doing so as she wasn't exactly the person forrunning but she had to get home fast.

A/N

Hi there! I'm late again and I'm sorry. I have two reasons this time, one being the fact that yesterday I was kinda focused on 'Evolution' (which if you haven't seen yet you should) and that I need to tweak the lore of this story a little.

For that reason (and being a little overwhelmed with tasks at the moment) I will go on an indefinite hiatus with this story. I will try to be back with a new part (which is actually written I just need to check it for errors but that takes time too) by the 27th but I won't make any promises.