Adrien's PoV

"You touch a single hair on her head, and I swear to God, that I will kill you." Chat Noir seethed. With his silver staff in hand pushing back the make shift shadow weapon, he stood in front of Marinette protectively. His feet were spread so they were on either side of her thighs as he kept a strong hold on the weapon. He felt stronger than he did before, for some unknown reason, as he stood his ground against his most hated enemy.

His heart was racing in rage and some sort of, euphoria? He couldn't tell what he was feeling. All he knew was that he wanted to destroy Sandman, and destroy him bad. He wanted to make him regret everything he ever did or ever thought of doing to Marinette. He wanted to turn him to ash. Even more so when the villain cocked his head back and began to laugh at the feral Chat Noir.

"You think you can defeat me? No, because I have a secret weapon. I have someone who hates your girlfriend behind you, more than I do. And she almost hates you as much as I do!" The coward, (Was it really fair to call him that?) cackled at him once more. His anger began to boil even more than before. Just when he was going to snap and break the bigot's neck in two, a soft voice stopped him from doing so.

"Is he talking about Hawkmoth?" Marinette piped up from behind him. His heart stopped as he realized Marinette, his Marinette was alive behind him. Marinette.

Images of her cold, wet, body lying in his arm began to flash behind his eyes. Red, the color of the blood that was leaking from the back of her head. Blue, the color of her freezing dead lips. White, the color of her porcelain skin as her life drained out of her. Gray, the color of her eyes as they lost their spark. He can't go through that again. He can't lose her again, not when he just got her back!

"Marinette, I need to get you out of here." His strong arms wrapped around her slim waist before he immediately leapt off towards the opposite direction of Sandman.

The rest was blur for him. As soon as he set her down, it was as if everything had flown out of his head. All he could remember of his fight with Sandman was the pure feeling of hatred, and his intention to kill his threat. Kill. Him, a hero, killing a villain. And he would have, had it not been for Ladybug shouting his name just as he was about to call out Cataclysm for his right hand.

His spotted partner was staring at him in what looked like horror as she held a ladybug themed fire extinguisher in her hand. He looked down at his left hand which held a broken chain and towards his other that was wrapped around a scared, familiar looking, civilian's throat. He immediately dropped them both as Ladybug spoke to him. "Chat, what's wrong?"

"I-I need to go see someone." It was a short and clipped reply before he suddenly darted off to the direction he had last left Marinette. The building blurred past him as he pushed off the ground with his staff, trying to get to her as fast as he could. She's okay. She has to be. She needs to be.

His staff took him to one familiar place that he called home. Marinette's room. Frantically, he searched her pink room for the bluenette, nearly jumping out of his skin as she popped out of the trapdoor below him.

"Kitty, what's wrong-" He cut her off as he tugged her into a bone crushing hug, burying his face into her tangled blue hair that had long since been pulled out of their twin pigtails. A familiar smell of vanilla and bread filled his senses as he tightened his hold on her. His eyes stung with unshed tears and his body shuddered from unspoken sobs.

"K-Kitty? What happened?" Her slender arms were around him in an instant pulling him closer to her small frame as he held onto her like he might lose her forever.

"I thought- It doesn't matter Marinette. I'm just so glad you're okay. I thought I was gonna lose you." Again. Adrien thought to himself. The last thing he needed to do was to drag her into his problems. She didn't need to know that he saw her die. She didn't know that just 30 minutes prior, she didn't have any memory of him. She didn't need to know the nightmare Sandman had given him that felt so god damn real. And most of all, she didn't need to know that after all the torture Sandman had put him through set him on edge and affected him so much, that he just knew he would never be the same again.

After all, he did have the unquenchable craving to kill anyone or anything that dared to harm Marinette, his dear and precious Princess. And he was certain to never let her get hurt.

Oh no. Did Sandman affect Chat mentally? Or was Chat always like this? Is this just a nightmare as well? What do you think?

Until next time, peace!