The bodies piled up on the floor, raining down from the rafter's above. Ladybug was terrified, fearing they'd all died. But she was wrong. They'd been hiding. This was the reason the hotel seemed to be empty. Princess Fragrance had summoned everyone into the ceiling ports, keeping them concealed. This was exactly what she wanted.

"You two should really work on your communication skills," Princess Fragrance giggled, still suspended in the air. The bodies which now littered the floor began to mindlessly climb to their feet. "Everyone, I would like you to get rid of these two self proclaimed heroes," she said sweetly, cowercing the mindlessly controlled people to do as she said.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Ladybug demanded, spinning her yoyo at her side once again.

"Don't you see? I've already won! I've got my prince, he now belongs to me." She giggled. "And now I'm fulfilling the wishes of Hawkmoth; to retrieve the two miraculous you both wield."

"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into!" Ladybug exclaimed.

"I don't care. He wants the miraculous, he will get them. He made me a promise that I would make Chloe Bourgeois pay for her selfishness, and that I would have my dearest Prince Ali to myself. Now I'm fulfilling my end of the bargain, and I'm not going to fail him."

"Seriously Ro- Princess Fragrance," Chat Noir said, swinging his baton at his side to try and keep the haunting people at bay as they approached ever so slowly. The people seemed to be waiting for Princess Fragrance to finish the conversation before they made a full pursuit.

"You don't have to-"

"Attack," Princess Fragrance interrupted, a scowl adorning her lips. Instantly, the surrounding hundreds of humans made a full charge towards them, filling up the halls and climbing over one another with blood thirst in their eyes.

"Shit!" Ladybug shoved as many of them as she could away from her. But there were too many, and she collapsed underneath them. "We can't hurt them! They're civilians!"

"The miraculous ladybugs will heal them, right?"

"To what extent?!" Ladybug argued, "We can' risk it. Besides, I don't have my charm right now!" She got muffled by the hands of the people. They grabbed at her ears as if to rip them from her head. She kicked and squirmed, barely able to move as they piled up on her. It was too tight, she had hardly any breathing room.

Meanwhile Chat Noir was dealing with the same problem. He kept his ring hand closed tight in a fist, so that no matter how much they pried, they couldn't get his fingers open. That is, until someone bit him. And they bit him hard.

"Jesus christ!" Chat Noir opened up his hand, closing it immediately in pain. He could feel the blood seeping into his glove. As if inspired by the first one, the others around him began to bite him, drawing blood from his neck and arms. He began to scream in pain, fidgeting around, desperately trying to get them off. "Screw it!" he said, using his super strength to power kick them all off of him. The people went flying into the opposite wall. Without a second to waste, another swarm came in on him to which he threw off as well. After rounds of this repeating, he finally was able to get to his feet.

He used his baton to push and stab, keeping them as far from him as he could, which wasn't a lot. He backed over to where Ladybug was now buried by people, flailing and kicking relentlessly in desperation. Princess Fragrance was gone, she'd disappeared while he'd been covered by human bodies.

"Ladybug!" he struck his baton through the pile of people. He felt her–or at least he hoped it was her–grab onto it, and he pulled her out. She was beaten and bruised, blood dripping from her lips.

"Come on." She groaned, taking him by the hand and breaking through the closest window. She jumped out, pulling Chat with her. They made their way to the roof of the hotel, finally alone with a chance to breathe.

"And I thought I had it bad when they started biting me, are you ok?" Chat asked. Ladybug had her hands on her knees, leaned over and panting heavily. Blood drizzled from her lips and onto the roof.

"I think they punctured one of my lungs..." she said, breathing raspily.

"We'll get you to a hospital as soon as this is over," Chat Noir promised.

"You're about to transform back, remember?"

"It doesn't matter. I'll help you with or without my superpowers."

"We can't know each other's identities, it's too dangerous." Ladybug continued to try and catch her breath.

"But why?!"

"Because if Hawkmoth akumatizes one of us somehow, we're both completely screwed! He can't know either of our identities, you'll know he'll attack us as often as he can while we're unmasked! It's too risky."

"Alright, alright." Chat Noir sighed. "I'll go back to the hotel and get Plagg more energy or something. I think I have food with me..."

"Then hurry and go, we don't know how much time we have!" Ladybug said. He gave her an affirmative nod before disappearing into the roof exit, shutting the door behind him.

As he rushed down the flight of stairs, his transformation wore off and he was back to being Adrien.

"I'm guessing you need to become Chat Noir again, don't you?" Plagg said the second he came back into the real world.

"Yeah, and fast!"

"Alright, but give me something to eat so it doesn't hurt you or something. Hold on, are you alright?" Plagg asked, taking notice of the injuries Adrien had acquired. His makeup had been rubbed off quite a bit, revealing the burn scars from Evillustrator. He looked like a total mess.

"I'm fine, here," he handed a cheese stick he'd packed into his backpack to Plagg. Plagg took it and ate it as fast as possible, and when he was done, he gave Adrein the approval to transform once again. As soon as he'd transformed, he raced back up the stairs and onto the roof.

It was a mess. An absolutely horrific mess. Human hands clutched onto the rim of the outer roof, faces popping over the edge. Ladybug was gone, yet the people still climbed over the edge to pursue Chat Noir.

"Ladybug?! Ladybug?!" Chat Noir had a dreadful feeling that she had somehow fallen, so he ran to the edge of the roof just to make sure. Hands grabbed for his ankles which he danced around to avoid. As he peeked over the edge of the roof he saw her, unconscious and hanging upside down from her yoyo which was being held by several of the mindless people. They'd formed a human pile which emerged from the window Chat and Ladybug had previously escaped from, stacking on top of one another to get to the roof. Some of them must have fallen, for their dead bodies sprinkled the streets below.

Chat leapt off the roof, using his baton to stick himself as far away from the mind controlled people as he could. He called for Ladybug, but she gave no answer. Blood had rushed to her head, her eyes glued shut and her mouth hanging open loosely, dripping blood up her cheeks and into her hair.

"Ladybug, hold on!" Chat Noir grabbed her by the waist and desperately tried loosening the yoyo which was in a knot around her ankle. He felt the people tugging on the string, now trying to pull both the heroes up to their greedy, murderous hands. It had locked to her ankle pretty tight, he wouldn't be surprised if it had cut off circulation, but nonetheless, he was able to get it off and pull her to the safety of another building rooftop.

He lay her gently on the ground, scanning her body to make sure she hadn't received any other wounds. He found himself trembling, scared she'd never wake up. People from the hotel began falling off the wall in abundance, trying to figure out how they could reach the opposite building he'd placed himself upon. It was a massacre, he had no idea how to stop it.

He noticed that Ladybug had her hand squeezed tight in a fist, and out of curiosity, he forced it open, revealing a key within her hand. She had used her Lucky Charm.

"Ladybug?!" he exclaimed as her breathing shifted. She let out a few coughs before her eyes opened back up, gazing up at him with exhaustion.

"I have... a really bad headache," was all she said.

"That's a shame," came the voice of Princess Fragrance. Chat Noir jerked his head around to find her standing upon a banister.

"What have you done?!" Chat exclaimed, "You're killing people over there!" He pointed to the hotel where the pile of people were now gathering up on the roof.

"They did that on their own, I didn't ask them to." Princess Fragrance frowned. She leapt down onto the roof, a few yards away from Chat Noir and Ladybug.

"Chat," Ladybug croaked. She pointed to a doorway which led to a stairwell, much like the one at the hotel. "The key..." She handed the key to him. He took it, standing up to face Princess Fragrance who stood between him and the door.

He charged her, his baton in one hand and the key in the other. He leapt into the air, kicking her across the head as he did so and landed at the front of the door. He frantically jammed the key inside the keyhole, and to his surprise, it actually fit. He turned the key, throwing open the door, only to find that there was no stairwell. It was a pigeon coop.

He opened the door of the cage, just as Princess Fragrance was about to make her attack on him. The pigeons immediately flew out in his direction, their abundance and fright causing them to scatter. Princess Fragrence ducked, putting her hands over her head protectively as the pigeons flew over her and Chat Noir. While she was like this, Ladybug had managed to crawl over, raising a fist over the glass perfume bottle that was attached to the tube on Princess Fragrance's head. She smashed it, glass shattering in all directions and splintering into Ladybug's gloved hands.

Rose lifted her head in shock as she transformed back into her usual, smaller self. Ladybug weakly captured the akuma moth in her yoyo, quickly purifying it and releasing it once again. Chat quickly handed her the key, hoping that by some miracle, her magic of repair could bring back the dead bodies which littered the ground.

She tossed the key into the air, releasing the magical ladybugs which swarmed around them and the hotel, repairing and fixing everything as it was. The pile of humans on the opposite roof were now gone, hopefully back in their proper rooms. But who knew what could be said for the ones who'd fallen to their death.

"Wh-what happened?" Rose squeaked. Her airy pink sleeves and outfit made her look almost like a fairy.

"You were akumatized," Ladybug said, getting up and patting herself. Her punctured lung must have been healed cause she didn't appear to be in all too much pain. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine? I'm just... confused..." Rose said with worry in her eyes.

"It'll all be alright," Ladybug said. "Chat? Can you take her home? I'll transform back soon."

"Sure," Chat nodded. "But what do we do about... you know..?" Ladybug walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down to the streets below.

"Don't let her see it." Ladybug said, giving Chat the answer he'd been looking for. Ladybug could not revive the dead.

"See what?" Rose asked, standing up.

"It's nothing, just some... damage..." Chat said.

"Was I a monster?!"

"Sort of... you were akumatized, as we said. You became a supervillain," Ladybug said.

"Did I hurt anybody?!" Rose said, tears in her eyes.

"Lets just get you home," Chat said, picking her up bridal style.

"Did I hurt someone?!" Rose demanded. Chat didn't answer.

"Where do you live? Your parents are probably worried."

***

The sun had begun to set, though it was much too cloudy outside for it to be seen. The clouds made the whole of the city rather dark, illuminated only by the lights from windows and traffic. The sky made it look as though it were going to rain again, as it had been raining a lot in the past few days. The rumble of thunder could be heard, a gentle, soft hum of drums playing in the far distance. It was sweet, almost even calm.

Chat Noir was headed to the Parc de Monceau, a beautiful park with a vintage feel to it. In one section of it, there was a colorful small carousel for kids to play in which stood near a gazebo. But quite possibly its most well known spot was the Naumachie, an arrangement of greek looking columns that caressed a pond of murky water. Trees flourished here, though they had begun to fade, their leaves turning lovely shades of bright orange and yellow, as fall had quickly crept into September.

Ladybug had requested to meet up with him here around this time. She had seemed worried when asking him to do this, so he didn't try to worm his way out of it. His schedule had been thwarted by the akuma attack earlier that day, which meant he was running a little late. She was already there, sitting upon the Naumachie with her legs dangling over the side. When she spotted him, her face lit up for a mere moment. But her faint smile quickly disappeared, and she looked to her feet, hiding an emotion he couldn't quite unmask.

"Hey Ladybug, you wanted to talk?" Chat said as he alighted himself upon the flat stone supported by the semi circle of columns.

"Yeah..." Her voice faded.

"Are you ok?" he asked, cocking his head to the side. "How are your injuries?"

"They're fine," she mumbled, "My ribs healed up just fine, and it doesn't hurt to breathe so I guess I'm pretty much good as new. But what about you?"

"Oh, I didn't get hurt that bad. I mean, some of those people were biting me and ripping flesh but that didn't even leave a scar," he assured.

"I'm talking about your face."

"Well, there's no need to be rude. I think I'm quite handsome," Chat said coyly.

"No, the burns. They didn't go away, I thought they would."

"Oh... from Evillustrator... yeah they're fine."

"They left a scar though," she said as he sat down as well.

"It's not too bad."

"I can hide the scar on my chest with clothes. How do you expect to hide a scar on your face?"

"Makeup," he answered, "It's been working these past couple of days. I'm even wearing it now!" He smiled, pointing at his cheeks foolishly. The scars were completely masked.

"So there's no problem then?"

"Well, there's a tiny problem, but I can't really get into it without... revealing things about my civilian life," Chat said, thinking about his modeling career.

"Alright then." Ladybug sighed. Rain had started to gently sprinkle down over them. "Here, let's get out of the rain so we don't get sick," Ladybug said, using her yoyo to swing down underneath the Naumachie. Chat Noir followed her without hesitation.

"I'm guessing you wanted to talk about more than the injuries though, right?"

"Yeah..." she rubbed her eyes, still exhausted from the fight that day. "Ugh, what are we supposed to do? The last three akumas before Princess Fragrance didn't hurt too many people, but Rose... that was so much damage! What do we do about the deaths?!"

"We can't... really do anything..."

"Only a few people know it was that girl who got akumatized, what if they want to punish her?"

"Well... what she did killed about twenty three people. She's got blood on her hands." Chat shrugged.

"Are you saying we punish her?"

"She killed people, she kidnapped Prince Ali, she's got a criminal record now."

"We can't do that though," Ladybug said, fidgeting with her fingers. The rain started to get heavier, the droplets causing bigger ripples in the pond water than before. "That was Hawkmoth's doing, you know that. That was a version of Rose that never should have been able to come out. She was under his illusion, he had control over her mind!"

"But can we tell that to the people and expect them to believe that?" Chat asked. "Especially the families of those who died."

"I don't know what to do, that's why I wanted to talk to you," Ladybug admitted. "I feel so lost. I talked about it with Tikki for hours, and we don't have a solution!"

"Well, maybe we need to focus on the akuma victims. If we can convince the world that this really is Hawkmoth's doing, we'll have the help of thousands in rooting him out from wherever he's hiding. He'll surely go to jail once we catch him."

"Then we better catch him fast, huh?" Ladybug said, "Before he gets the chance to make an innocent girl kill anyone else."

"Have you noticed that all four victims so far have been teenagers?" Chat Noir asked. The water rippling in the pond seemed to grow louder, soothing, calming both he and Ladybug down. It was a peaceful environment, he wasn't surprised that Ladybug had asked to meet there.

"You're right, but I think I have an answer to that," Ladybug said, "Tikki said that Nooroo has the ability to transmit a power of any kind to anyone, but it reflects a current situation of emotion they're feeling. He's not like Duusu, whose powers reflect only emotion. But if you think about it, with Hawkmoth's abilities to sense emotions, strong emotions that is, he can use them as a vessel. He's using teens who believe there is no way to get out of whatever corner they feel backed into. Teens are super emotional, they don't have the life experience that adults should have to get them out of a mess they find themselves in."

"So Ivan was having a hard time dealing with his bullies, so Hawkmoth took that to make him into a stone monster?" Chat said, thinking out loud.

"Exactly. Aurore, the girl who was Stormy Weather, was publicly humiliated on a kids game show by the show host. Hawkmoth used that embarrassment to turn her into Stormy Weather." Ladybug nodded.

"And Evillustator was embarrassed because of a crush on that Marinette girl?"

"Uh- no." Ladybug shook her head.

"But that's what that Lila girl said?" Chat said, raising a brow.

"Yeah... It's not my place to really say it, but let's just put it as, Hawkmoth saw his distress and fear of a secret coming out, and used that to transmit his power."

"So... what about Princess Fragrance."

"I don't really have the whole story, but I believe she was being teased and trampled upon by some of her peers. She had a crush on that prince guy, and... yeah."

"Ah ok, so it's not just anger then? Hawkmoth can also possess people who get upset in any way, can't he?" Chat said.

"Which means we're not out of the woods yet. There's millions of people in this city, we could be getting attacked everyday." Ladybug sighed.

"Yeah but he also only seems to target people in a certain area. Maybe his powers have a limited radius?" Chat Noir pointed out.

"That's... actually not a bad thought," Ladybug's eyes widened excitedly, "If this pattern continues, we can safely say that he's got to be near here... somewhere. And that narrows down looking through the entire city to... well... still a lot of city, but a lot less."

"For each person he attacks from now on, we should pinpoint it on a map. And if it becomes a cluster in one specific area... well, then we know."

"You think he has a lair?"

"Oh, he definitely has a lair." Chat Noir grinned widely.

"Alright, that's a good place to start then," Ladybug agreed.

"I can see why we were both chosen to be heroes."

"Woah there, don't get too ahead of yourself there chaton," Ladybug teased.

"Too bad we can't know each other in real life though. I think we work pretty well together," Chat said with confidence.

"We've fought together only four times," Ladybug deadpanned.

"That's like, four more than what I've ever fought as a superhero," Chat said, causing a small giggle to bubble up out of Ladybug.

"Right, right," she said. Chat Noir suddenly felt an urge to tell her about the curse being placed upon him, the one Plagg had told him about. But he bit his tongue, deciding against the idea. Her kwami had likely told her about it, right? And besides, it wasn't too important anyways.

It was only the fact that her little giggle made his heart flutter.

Chat Noir shook the thought from his head. He'd only known her for a week, he was already getting ahead of himself. He had too much to focus on, and he never felt anything like that before. He'd never had a friend. In fact, he felt he could possibly hope to be her friend. She'd be his first at that. The thought made him happy, excited even. He could find friendship in his partner. He could feel less lonely in his everyday life under constant supervision.

Which reminded him that he had to go home. He'd managed to worm his way out of his father's mansion, but why would that last? He feared being punished if he got caught sneaking out this late in the night.

"Ladybug, I should get going. It's pretty late, and my father will get upset if he notices I'm gone," he said, backing away sheepishly.

"That's alright," she gave him a smile, "thanks for coming out this late anyways. I gotta get home too, I have homework."

"See you later then?"

"Hopefully not any time soon," she said, tossing her yoyo out into the air and hooking it on a building edge. "As in- like- because of an akuma."

"Yeah, yeah, got it."

"Alright then, bye," she said awkwardly before spinning off into the sky.

***

Adrien took a shower, further inspecting himself for any more injuries or scars. He was perfectly unscathed, with the exception of the burn marks on his face from Evillustrator. But they weren't too hard to keep covered up.

Once he was done rinsing off, he got into some pajamas and covered up the scars again. He couldn't be too sure that Natalie wouldn't barge into his room to wake him up at six in the morning. The precaution felt necessary. He then noticed he didn't have his ring on. Plagg. The nasty little bugger had a way of slipping the ring off of Adrien without him noticing.

He found Plagg in his full size up on the second level of his bedroom, looking through his bookshelves with curiosity. Adrien frowned. "You know, if someone comes in and sees you..."

"They won't, I'll be fine," Plagg said, not even bothering to look down at Adrien.

"Just give me the ring back."

"Aw, but it's much easier to read when books aren't ten times your size," Plagg said, shutting the book he held in one hand and putting it back on the shelf. He read a few more titles on the spines of the books and pulled out another, "You know, French is so hard to read for me. Like, why don't any of the vowels just consistently make the same sound?"

"Plagg, please, get down."

"I'm not done yet!" Plagg whined.

"Please, I have questions for you anyways."

"Questions?! You have more?! Oh, must you torture me in this way?!" Plagg said dramatically.

"Plagg! This is still new to me and after you told me about the curse-"

"We're not talking about the curse," Plagg said with a short glare. "'I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles upon the leather.' Well that sounds interesting."

"Are you reading out loud?" Adrien said, looking at the book in his hands. It was the Mockingjay.

"Yes."

"That's the third book in the series, why are you reading it?"

"Don't question me!" Plagg said, scrambling to put it back on the shelf.

"I'm not- ok, whatever, Please, I must know, is there a way I can like... remove the curse? Lift it somehow?" Adrien asked.

"Ooh, this is a pretty cover," Plagg said, dodging the question as he picked up John Green's "Paper Towns".

"Plagg!" Adrien groaned.

"What?"

"Is there a way to lift the curse?!"

"Oh..." Plagg kept the book in his hands, floating away from the balcony area and ascending down near the couch to sit. "Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"You won't like it," Plagg said, brushing his hands fondly over the book.

"Just tell me!"

"Ok... well... back when the curse was first created... by accident... I asked for help to get rid of it from the other kwamis. Duusu agreed to help, but you should know, he has drastic mood swings all the time. The mood swings can affect his personality and... yeah. He was in a joking mood that day and decided it would be hilarious to make the cure to the curse almost unachievable. He had a good laugh over it," Plagg looked at the ground sadly as if the memory were sparking a negative feeling in his heart. Perhaps it was the loss of Duusu that was hurting him.

"So what did he do?"

"He made it so that the only way to fix the curse was for me to get a kiss from Tikki," Plagg finally admitted, "with the guidelines being that she could not be aware that it was the cure, and she had to do it willingly."

"So does like... Tikki have to kiss me?"

"Eh, probably not. Since you have the curse through the miraculous, I'm sure it's Ladybug you'll have to face instead." Plagg shrugged, "I know, not really convenient. Especially when the curse makes it so no one can reciprocate feelings for you. Duusu... son of a bitch."

"If I got her to kiss my cheek-"

"Nope, it's gotta be the lips. Sorry kid. Duusu was really impulsive that day. He thinks he's hilarious. He's not. But... It's still nice having memories of him like that. Most of the time his other emotions overwhelm him to a point where he can't function properly. Poor guy..."

"How am I supposed to get Ladybug to kiss me?!"

"I dunno, but again, it's gotta be willingly so don't just grab her face and give her a smack on the lips. Ya nasty," Plagg teased.

"Then how?!"

"You are asking the wrong guy," Plagg said with a goofy smile.

"I've only known her for like- a week!" Adrien exclaimed.

"And I guess it sucks to be you," Plagg said. "Now, don't you have homework to get started on?"

"Crap!"