A mysterious figure draped in layers of translucent, shimmering fabric appeared through a thick fog of the darkness that started to blanket the entire school. The akuma emerged through the shadows like a ghoul, a specter draped in a flowing, toga-like dress with silver accents, darkness and proximity obscuring her face.

(From her physique, she could tell that the akuma was lithe, likely a student- No. Not even Akumas. Nobody, not even villains deserved that treatment. )

Anyway, nothing stood out to her enough for her to think it was the akumatized object. Nothing about what she was wearing, nothing she was holding—at least from her proximity. If she got closer then maybe she could eye the akumatized object.

"I am Reverie!" The akuma, Reverie, somehow bellowed with a voice more akin to a whisper than a scream. It reverberated through the school halls, reaching Ladybug sprinting into the scene, Chat Noir eventually entered from a different hallway.

"Hey there, purr -fect! D'You come here often?"

"Chaton," Ladybug rolled her eyes. "We have an Akuma to defeat."

"Now wait just a meow-ment , M'lady. You might just be purr -right!" Chat smirked.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes again.

An unwitting chill ran down her spine. She was about to chastise him when the darkness spread over to them.

"You have mocked me," Reverie said, making a grand gesture, facing the wider crowd of cowering students. "You have ridiculed me, you have endlessly teased me for the fact that I cannot see the world as you do!"

She and Chat watched as a pillar of inky shadows shot out of the akuma's back, as student's screams bounced off of the walls, creating a massive hole through the cafeteria roof. The shadowy appendages flared into a tangible darkness that spread into the clear Parisian sky, spreading dark all throughout Paris.

"Do you have a plan, Bugaboo?"

"Not yet, but I will. Get the students to safety," she commanded as she eyed a few of her schoolmates frantically running through the halls.

Chat nodded as she swung up from a nearby beam, rolling her yoyo on her palm in the meanwhile.

"Now, all of you will see as I do!" The akuma swerved to face a general direction outside of school. "I just need to deal with the both of you first."

"Ah, Kwami!" Ladybug cursed as several tendrils shot out of Reverie's back, nearly swiping her clean off the beam.

She landed with a purposeful thud. It was almost second nature by now anyways.

Ladybug was a hero, not an assassin, she reminded herself. Her early training has been undoubtedly helpful, but she wasn't an assassin , okay? She wasn't a killer.

(At least not anymore.)

She barely had time to breathe as another tendril shot out toward her, and then another, and one after the other came more of the speedy attacks. Reverie was gazing disinterestedly at the ground, her head tilted right, and three quarters of her back facing the superheroine.

A dark aura surrounded the akuma, but she contrasted the darkness with the all-white get up. If Laybug squinted, she could see a light glow coming off her.

Hawkmoth demonstrates once again just why he was the worst. He was taking advantage of what she was pretty sure was a teenager—a child —, warping it, twisting it into what's akin to a monster.

(She hated how close it hit to home.)

Ladybug sprung into action.

She catapulted herself up with her yoyo as she made the move to have it wrap around Reverie's leg. Her yoyo thwipped and her feet sounded to leap as she aimed with pin-point accuracy ( not deadly accuracy), when one of the tendrils swatted her away, surprising even her.

She braced against impact as her eyes followed Chat, abandoning a different girl at the mouth of the cafeteria, going in for the attack with as much success. He flew into the wall beside her as she got up to dodge a long swipe of black appendages.

"Me- ouch! Sorry, I haven't quite mastered the art of purr -cision landing yet. Cat -ch me next time, will you, Bugaboo?"

"Chaton, this is no time for jokes."

"Aw, M'lady, you're breaking my heart," Chat said with maybe an ounce of sincerity.

"Chat! The girl!"

Chat was hit by the incoming tendril landing him further from the epicenter of the fight. From the corner of her eye, she watched him resume evacuating the girl out with a breath.

She sprinted back to the akuma and swung her yoyo in a rapid circle, recovering from the previous attack. She let out a battle cry when suddenly a tendril wrapped around her yoyo string, entangling the string.

She tried to kick herself free as she was roughly dragged on the floor, inching rapidly towards Reverie. As a cold sort of appendage made contact with her skin, she finally untangled herself before a new horde of them could come and wrap around her tightly.

Ladybug leapt out of their hold and onto a nearby table, unintentionally landing in killer silence. She cringed, but otherwise couldn't do anything to take it back. The room was now devoid of the last of the civilians, she observed, as she let out relieved breaths.

The attacks on her stopped entirely. She looked at Reverie quizzically, as she watched Chat evading the attacks on him. She hesitant raised her arms to clap.

Suddenly several tendrils floating listlessly around her curled in interest, shooting over to her with direct jabs. She dodged them with her eyes wide open with new knowledge.

"Chat!" She watched as he glanced over to her where he was fending off a myriad of the appendages coming his way. "Stay silent ."

She bit her lip. Now better than never.

"Lucky Charm! " She yelled as a... paper clip appeared in her hand.

Reverie was weak to sound. The thought came to her in time with the adrenaline pumping in her system.

Her vision went spotted. Her eyes scanned over the entire cafeteria in the span of less than half of a second and her eyes shot over to the kitchen, the school PA system, the fire alarm, and the wires .

She noticed surge protectors being used behind the large refrigerators and under the counter where multiple kitchen appliances are plugged in. Observed a high-capacity surge protector used for several industrial mixers in the preparation area.

She knew what to do.

She sprinted over to the far end of the cafeteria letting her feel fall against the black and white tiles as she dodged the oncoming attacks. She reached for the unassuming box attached to the wall, opening it with nimble fingers.

She frantically grabbed an unassuming tool laid out on the counter, tampering with the inner components. She plugged in multiple of the high-power devices she found.

Ladybug jammed the little metal paperclip into the wires, letting go before she got zapped. The surge protector short circuits, and she almost celebrates in triumph.

She accomplished the feat in less than two minutes. It triggers the fire alarm. It makes the speakers in the cafeteria go wild.

The tendrils wilted, went soft. Reverie turned in every direction, frazzled, frantically looking for the source of the sounds as she raised both arms to cover her ears.

The heroine finally saw her face, revealing eyes draped with the same translucent fabric the rest of her costume was made out of. A blindfold. Her eyes appeared distinctly silver, even underneath the layers; menacing but blank.

The akuma was blind.

She seized the opportunity to swing herself into Reverie as the akuma was distracted. She audibly gasped as she got closer, spotting a plain white choker with a silver pendant hanging on Reverie's neck. That must be it!

She launched herself with one of the beams and into the Akuma, stretching her arm to quickly grab it-

From this close, she could simply put a knife to her throat, sever the necklace, sever her jugular.

She physically recoiled.

Ladybug would not put a knife to anyone's throat.

Ladybug is not an assassin.

Ladybug is NOT an assassin. Ladybug is a HERO.

Unfortunately, this sudden thought distracted her long enough for Reverie to recover, sending a series of quick attacks her way when the speaker and the fire alarm stopped.

"Hey, Slender-ie! Creepypasta just called! They want their powers back!" Chat taunted as he actively struggled to fend off the oncoming jabs at him with his baton. They were all focused at him now that he called her.

He yelped as the number of tendrils that were coming for her swiveled to him. They wrapped around his body as his guard finally went down. He screamed with the force of the squeeze.

"Give me your Miraculous!"

"Never!" He yelled.

"I repeat, give me your Miraculous. I don't care about you ."

Chat rapidly shook his head as Ladybug watched listlessly, hearing her earrings beep for the third time. It sounded more like ringing to her ears.

She could have won it. She could have grabbed the necklace. She could have not fucked up. She could have-

She could have not been born a fucking assassin.

The akuma scoffed. "Then I'll bring you with me!" Reverie declared as her seemingly unending tendrils diverted out of the school, scouting the area in every which way. She swiveled away and out of the room, narrowly avoiding the shattered glass, Chat in hand, and into the self-made darkness.

"Now, what's this?!" Alya said to her live from the top of a tall building a very short distance from the cafeteria. "Reverie just left, Ladybug is leaving, and God! It took me so long to get here, they're already- yup. There Ladybug goes, and there goes the action, away- away from here."

Alya sighed, out of breath. "Now, nobody freak out. I'm going to be jumping from rooftop to rooftop to get closer. I probably won't die. If I do, we all know it won't be permanent. So don't worry, I'll be totally fine."

Alya remembers just a month or two ago when she would be out there with them, Ladybug and Chat Noir, a part of the action. It was cruel of her, Ladybug, to give her a Miraculous and then take it away.

All because she made the mistake to give one to Chloe.

Or maybe it was her, them.

Her mind flashes back to a time when she worked alongside them and a few of the other heroes that Ladybug recruited that were all gone now as well. Carapace, Viperion, Ryuko, god-damned Queen Bee.

They weren't perfect, nothing at all like perfect. But they were a team, and they had each other's backs.

Then her mind flashes back to what Ladybug said to her that fateful night she took Trixx away.

"I'm sorry, Alya. I'm taking the Fox Miraculous. You did well in your time as a hero. But I'm afraid I see now that- it was a mistake. You could get hurt, and you could hurt other people."

"Not good enough? Of course not! You were-"

"What? When have I ever said I wanted you all to be..."

It reminded her of Marinette sometimes, the way that Ladybug was secretly a perfectionist, which was an odd comparison to make because those two couldn't be more different.

They never outright said it, but she could tell sometimes, the way they acted. By the way they delivered their lines. At least from Marinette; they were best friends. She knew these things.

Sometimes, they really were lines. Brilliant acting. If she hadn't known her so well she wouldn't be able to tell at all.

Sometimes... she made these aborted little movements where she does one thing and then stops it to her own detriment. Both of them. She didn't know why, she was just aware of it.

Ladybug did those too, she thought, as she made another perilous jump over to a rooftop only halfway close to clear coverage.

It was odd.