I'm so excited to share my first multi-chapter story with you all. I got this idea from some Danny Phantom fanfics on this site, which are pretty awesome and a great read, but, apparently, no one's done it for the Miraculous fandom. So my brain would not let me sleep until I wrote this out. Just warning you all, I don't really have a writing schedule, and my life is pretty hectic right now, so I won't always get chapters out at the same time each week, but I will try to write and publish a chapter at least twice a week. I hope you enjoy!

~ Galaxy

For once in her post-Miraculous academic career, Marinette regretted being early to class. The day had begun so well, too. She had completed all her homework the day before and gotten a good night's rest. She and Alya had walked to school together, discussing her recent videos on the Ladyblog and exciting topics to upload between Akuma attacks. She barely took notice of the odd mechanical device set upon Miss Bustier's desk. It was only when Chloé Bourgeois entered dramatically, poor Sabrina stumbling in after her, that Marinette looked away from Alya's intriguing new background designs. The self-proclaimed "Queen of Collège Françoise Dupont" immediately stalked over to the strange device, prodding at it with her finger. She jumped back as it sparked, prompting the class to laugh.

"Ugh! How dare you laugh at me! It's not my fault the stupid thing's broken. Sabrina — call Daddy and tell him to buy a new one!" Sabrina nodded, about to dial the Mayor's number on Chloé's overly expensive phone of the week before she was interrupted by their teacher entering the classroom.

"Chloé, please sit down. I'll explain in a minute, but the bell—" Miss Bustier glanced over at the clock. "It seems my watch is running a bit late today. Please sit down, everyone. We have a special lesson planned for today."

Marinette glanced down to see Adrien, her long-time crush and not-so-long-time friend, waving off concerns from his best friend, Nino. When she saw Adrien's face, she thought Nino had a right to be concerned. Adrien was scowling, an abnormal occurrence for one of the class' perpetual "nice kids."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Marinette asked softly, wondering what was on his mind — if only mind reading was one of her Miraculous abilities. She was proud of herself for having gotten past being a stuttering mess in his presence. Now they were actual friends instead of acquaintances with not-quite-but-totally-dating best friends, and she could ask him things like this without it being weird. Although Marinette seemed to have a habit of making things awkward, she admitted to herself.

Adrien nodded, a smile briefly breaking through the angry expression on his face.

"Thanks, Mari, but I'm fine." Alya, Nino, and Marinette exchanged glances, willing to let the odd behavior slide for now, if only because the class was starting. He kept glaring at the strange machine on Miss Bustier's desk. Marinette couldn't think of any reason why.

Miss Bustier clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention. "Alright, settle down class. I have a special treat for you all. Today's lesson ties into our class unit — emotions, and how they can affect the hero in a story. Now, can anyone tell me what emotions are?"

She pointed at Rose, who had her hand up and was waving it excitedly. "Oh, oh! Emotions are our feelings, like anger and joy and love." The whole class laughed, though this time good-naturedly. Everyone knew Rose was a fan of romance and firmly believed in True Love.

"Good examples, Rose." Miss Bustier nodded. "Emotions are instincts, which can be affected by certain circumstances, your mood, or even your relationships with others. It can be hard to define. Feelings are mental, whereas emotions are a bit more physical. Even so, we barely scratch the surface in understanding how they work."

Chloé scoffed. "I don't see the point to learning all this. Who cares about understanding them; all that matters is that we have them."

Miss Bustier replied, "Well, not everyone feels that way, Chloé. I'm sure that even you will be interested in this," she paused, motioning towards the machine. "I bet you're all wondering what this is. Well, thanks to Gabriel Agreste, we have the opportunity to access more knowledge about how emotions affect us."

Marinette winced, understanding why Adrien was so uncomfortable today. She knew that he had been hoping for, if not expecting due to his celebrity status, a somewhat regular education. His father was interfering with that by sponsoring school contests and dedicating some of the Agreste family wealth to educational research like this device. Whatever it did.

"Um, what exactly does it do?" Mylène voiced Marinette's thoughts.

"I'm glad you asked, Mylène." Miss Bustier seemed a bit excited. "This device allows us to view inside the mind of someone, and to discover what emotions they have!"

The room immediately descended into chaos. Several people began shouting out their opinions. Some were excited, while others were concerned with what the device would show inside their minds. Marinette sat in shock as she processed her teacher's words. She found it a little odd that someone would give a class full of rowdy and irresponsible teenagers an expensive, scientifically advanced piece of technology.

"Oh my gosh, imagine the possibilities! I need to do a segment on this for my Ladyblog! Ooh, what if we could see into Ladybug's head!" Alya's words snapped Marinette back into reality. She had to do something fast before this got out of hand.

"Miss Bustier," Marinette pitched her voice so it would carry over her classmates'. Everyone paused. People were climbing over desks; some were crowding in small groups to discuss. But as soon as their Class Representative glared at them, they returned to their seats, thoroughly chastised. "I have to ask. Isn't this a little invasive?"

Miss Bustier looked surprised. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Well, I think everyone should be entitled to their privacy. What if we see thoughts or memories that the person would prefer to keep hidden? Everyone has secrets, and I don't think it's fair to force them out in the open like this." Marinette hoped they would get the message behind the words and not focus on the part where she implied herself as a part of everyone.

The class mumbled their agreement.

"I can see why you'd think that, Marinette," Miss Bustier began, "but don't worry. The way the device works, it personifies the emotions of the person. Anything the person would be uncomfortable with sharing would be kept hidden by those emotions. Unless, of course, you were forced to travel throughout the entire mind due to unforeseen consequences, but this is state-of-the-art technology, and so it's quite safe. And anyone uncomfortable with it doesn't have to have us look inside their mind. It's entirely optional."

Marinette sat back down, relieved. As long as her emotions kept quiet about being Ladybug, she'd have no problem if she were to agree to use the device on herself. Although she doubted she would, in the case of love being one of her emotions. That would be a little awkward to explain to Adrien.

Of course, at that moment, an Akuma crashed through their window. Marinette almost growled. Why couldn't Hawk Moth ever take a break? She glanced at the shattered pieces of broken glass on the floor. Ah, she'd fix it with her Lucky Charm. The good news was if the Akuma was in their class, it was after someone or something inside of it, and there wouldn't be much collateral damage to the rest of Paris.

As the rest of the class dove under their desks, Marinette and Adrien raced outside. Neither took notice of the other. Marinette ran towards the janitorial closet she always used during class time, closing it behind her before transforming. The iconic red-and-black-spotted outfit that gave hope to Paris formed over her clothes. As soon as it finished, Marinette quickly headed back to the classroom, running into Cat Noir on the way. Literally.

"Ouch, Bugaboo," He grinned, rubbing a spot on his forehead. Marinette rolled her eyes playfully but pulled him along. "Know anything about the Akuma?"

She realized with a bit of embarrassment she didn't even know the Akuma's name. She shouldn't have gotten out of there so fast. At the very least, she should have done her duty as the Class Representative and helped her classmates. "Uh, no. So stay alert and try not to get hit or touched."

"Anything for you, Bugaboo."

They entered the room, yo-yo swinging and baton held out threateningly. The students cheered, hiding at the back of the room or behind the desks. The Akuma turned to face them. It was then that Marinette got a good look at the outfit. He was wearing a lab coat, but entirely black with odd symbols scattered randomly across it. He was holding the machine they had been discussing in class earlier.

"Please, put the device down," Marinette ordered. The Akuma just smirked, playing with the dials and pressing random buttons. "You don't know what it does."

But that had been the wrong thing to say. "I know what it does! I built it! But my ex-best friend thought he could get away with telling everyone it was his idea, his machine!"

Marinette felt sympathetic. It must have been heartbreaking for his best friend to do something like that to him. She'd hoped that by now, Parisians would be better at keeping their emotions under control and learning how doing things as awful as this could negatively affect the people around them. But Hawk Moth kept finding himself new victims, although several of them have been tourists or new to the city.

Cat Noir stepped forward. "Listen, we can help. But you have to—"

Marinette saw the Akuma's hand raise, glowing with energy. Time seemed to slow. All she could see was Cat Noir directly in the path of the Akuma. Forgetting about her powers, about the device and her classmates, about anything except the fact that her partner was going to get hit, Marinette pushed Cat Noir out of the way and faced the blast.

Whew, chapter one finished and published! I'm so proud of myself—you would not believe the amount of rewrites this thing underwent (unless you're a fellow author and know exactly what I'm talking about lol). Next chapter, unfortunately, will not feature the class inside her head just yet. But don't worry, it's coming soon. But until that chapter is ready, I have a question to ask of you all: which emotions would you like the group to meet? Of course, I already have a few planned out, but I would appreciate your opinions and ideas! Comment any questions or suggestions you might have, and I'll try to answer.

~ Galaxy