Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. If I did, it'd still be Miraculous LadyBug. The new title is a mouthful. Also, I will continue calling him by his French name. It does not sound "too girly", as Nickelodeon puts it.

On the other hand, I'm not going to include the accent on Chloe's name. (Chloe was the name of Marinette's rival, so I'm going to assume that she's the bee girl from a piece of promo art and the blond girl who pushed Marinette in the promotional video.)

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I glanced at the hypodermic needle containing the akuma for what must have been the fiftieth time, and then picked up the picture frame that stood upon my nightstand. It showed Pierre Belrose, his at-the-time four-year-old twin son and daughter, and their belle-mère Bernadea on Pierre's and Bernadea's wedding day. All four of those people were gone. Pierre, Bernadea, and the boy had died in an accident - their car had fallen off a cliff and their bodies were never found. The girl, well, I had taken my mother's maiden name, my grandfather's last name, when he adopted me. Chloe Belrose simply didn't exist anymore. Chloe Belrose had died with the rest of her family. There was only Chloe Germain now, a girl who stopped being a kid when her family died and was currently taking an awful long time in actually injecting herself.

"I'm doing this for you," I whispered, mostly talking to my memories of my brother. He was on my mind constantly now, probably because one of my classmates was so much like him. Same skin tone, same hair color, same eye color, and the same first name. They also acted in a way that was slightly similar. Hmph. Probably just my imagination or something. Hopefully these thoughts would go away when I merged with the akuma. Which I had been postponing for the past ten minutes. It would most definitely leave a scar, and until I could proudly say that I had helped to bring about the new world order, I didn't want people to see it. Goodbye, spaghetti straps, I thought to myself as I stood up and took my shirt off. I then jabbed the needle into my spine, where the symbol that would appear would be safely covered by a racerback sports bra. It was only after I took the needle out that I felt the pain.

I screamed as I felt my back burn as a symbol appeared upon it. I wanted to fall to my knees or double over due to the pain, but rather I was lifted off my feet and into the air by an invisible force that straightened out my body. I just barely saw a cocoon made of honeycombs surround me as I squeezed my eyes against the tears. I would not cry. I had to be strong. My hair came out of its ponytail and lengthened until it reached past my waist. My clothing changed into armor and what felt like an angora sweater. A strange tingling sensation emerged from my head along with pain and a beret. As a mask laid itself upon my face, I heard a voice.

"My name's Erda," said what I assumed to be the voice of the akuma that I had merged with. As I felt like my back may as well have blown up, they - they, for akuma don't have a concept of genders - continued to speak. "Don't worry, it won't be as painful next time. I think." I didn't want to think of next time. The magic let me go, and I sunk to my knees, holding my body. As the throbbing numbed down, I gained the strength to open my eyes. As I did so, I glanced towards the mirror to look at my new reflection, one that I didn't recognize. My hair had been taken out of its ponytail and lengthened to reach my waist. How could that ever be practical in battle? My outfit was completely in yellow and black, resembling a bumblebee. I couldn't help but realize that I looked like a more-stylish rival to Ladybug. Come on, I already have to deal with that weird Marinette girl at school. Well, more stylish and more mutated. I had antennae, and as I stood and turned so I could see my back in the mirror, I realized that I had wings, one on either side of my grandfather's insignia.

"I'm pretty sure they work," Erda said helpfully. "Shall we test them?"

"Later, I have homework. Can I change back?" I asked, worried that I had changed my life more drastically than I had intended. As soon as I said the words, I knew what to do. I focused upon my normal self, and I was back to normal, aside from the insignia on my back. There was no getting rid of that, not that I wanted to. There would be no way I could ever regret this. Well, unless the insignia would look really gross when I was in my eighties or so. But that was a long ways away, and by then there would be a way to keep my skin from getting all wrinkly.

"Do you think it worked?" Erda asked me as we walked to the area where an... experiment had taken place.

"We'll just have to find out," I replied back. In the months since we had merged together, I had taken to replying in a way that was basically telepathically. It kept me from looking crazy at school. As it was, the sleepless nights were starting to show. At least my eyes didn't have as large of bags under them as Marinette's and Adrien's did. Each of them were a mystery in and of his-or-herself. What did the each of them do at night to make them so tired? Surely nothing as dramatic as I.

"What if he tries to claw our eyes out? Or what if it created him without clothes?" I pushed the image of a shirtless Chat Noir out of my head before my mind could wander downwards from his face and shoulders. Strangely, he still wore his mask in my hijacked thoughts.

"Shall I mention to your grandfather that you were imagining him without-" she teased before I cut her off.

"You can't without unmerging with me, which is nigh impossible to do without you getting yourself killed since it'd probably require seeking out the luck-wielders," I said as blood rushed towards my cheeks. I reached the door and regained my composure before opening it. Behind it stood someone who both was and wasn't Chat Noir (fully clothed, thankfully). Well, more like cockily leaned against a wall than stood, a malicious grin forming upon his masked face as I walked into the room. Inwardly, I groaned. He was even more annoying than the real one, and I had only known him for two seconds. Why Ladyslug put up with her version, I didn't know. While the real version had never flirted with me, it was common knowledge that he was, for one reason or another, desperate for Ladybrat to get in a relationship with him.

I cut him off before he could let a single word spill from his fanged mouth. "You know why you were created, right?"

Annoyance at having to follow my orders flashed across my eyes. Even without a crown, they know I'm the queen. "Yes." For half a second, he looked like he was about to puke, and like he was realizing something. He stood up straight.

"How about you tell me, then."

"To take the place of that idiot whose hair I was created from, and to get his ring. Worst comes to worst, my ring," he held up his right hand " can be used to mimic his power. Not that that'll ever happen, Chlo."

My eyes narrowed. No one had called me that since... no. Could the real Chat Noir have? "Don't call me 'Chlo"! Only..." I paused, swallowing a lump in my throat. A very dark possibility began to form in my mind. I had only been six years old, and a very tired six year old at that. I didn't notice everything "How do you know my nickname?"

He flashed me another cocky grin. "That's for me to know, and you to find out."

"Chloe, are you okay?" Erda asked me.

"I don't know," I replied.

I checked my arsenal before flying across the city, looking for Ladybug and Chat Noir. Lily pollen, check. Lily pollen antidote, check.

"Remind me why we're bringing an antidote?" Erda asked me for what must have been the seventeenth time in the past hour. And so I told her for what must have been the seventeenth time in the past hour.

"I'm not a killer."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Well, I'll give him a chance to live."

"If your grandfather finds out about this-"

"Then he'll probably congratulate me for doing what no one else has done - bargain with the luck-wielders."

"I thought we didn't negotiate with terrorists." They probably think the same thing about us as we do of them. It was kinda sad, actually. I was just a kid when I was thrust into this, and they're probably just teenagers. Who knows, under different circumstances, if they hadn't more-than-likely been assassins since they were children and I hadn't been training to take over the world since I was a child, we may have been the best of friends. I didn't tell this to Erda, however.

"I didn't say negotiate, I said bargain. And besides, I won't tell if you won't."

"You know I can't. As it is, we weren't exactly instructed to go and fight the luck-wielders on our own. I thought we were supposed to follow orders. Then again, you may end up taking over for him. But anyway, aren't we considering the possibility that Chat Noir killed-"

"Yeah, well, I don't care how many people he's killed!" I cared deeply. "I'm not going to kill any more people than I have to!" If he had killed my family rather than an icy road and a wild animal that we had swerved to avoid, then I was planning on tearing him apart limb by limb.

"True, but are we considering the luck-wielders as people? They did merge with kwami." I didn't get a chance to form a reply, because I spotted them. If he did what I think he did - well, I'll deal with that later. I aimed and threw; a cloud of yellow dust surrounded the luck-wielders. Before it could clear, I began to speak. Timing was everything.

"That's magically-enhanced lily pollen," I shouted above the hacking and coughing that was already beginning. "Chat Noir, you'll be dead in twenty minutes if you go without the treatment, which I am in possession of the only copy." If it even worked.

"Oh, are you scared, Queen Bee?" Ladybug asked me, swinging her... whatever her weapon was. Calling it a yo-yo would make this seem like it's a CGI kid's show rather than real life. "Come out and fight fair!"

"Shut it, Bug," I replied. "Every second is going to count. Now, give me the ring."

"Sorry," Chat Noir hacked. I decided not to say anything about coughing up a hairball. "I can't take the ring off, so," he continued, a cruel smile on his lips along with some of his own blood. He made some sort of movement with his right hand. "Tough luck." With that, the duo attempted to attack me, as if my threat was an empty one. Tch. Like I made empty threats. They were useless, and would make people think you were someone crying wolf.

"The phrase 'tough luck' coupled with that gesture may be a form of a codename for an attack," Erda told me as I began to fly away from the two of them, watching the scene play out below me. I could for the most part predict what was going to happen to him, but Ladybug... she was more of a wildcard. Not to mention her weapon was ranged.

The boy stumbled and would have fallen to the ground below if it weren't for the girl catching him. Her eyes were wide, and grew wider as she noticed the blood that I had noticed earlier. She began to frantically whisper, and I decided not to listen in on their conversation. "You're just going to kill yourself faster if you do that," I said. "But anyways, as much as I'd like to get your ring, I'll settle for the one belonging to the copy-Chat."

"How can I be sure you'll keep your word?" Ladybug asked me, not taking her eyes off of her partner. I'd be offended at the fact that she wasn't giving me eye contact when she didn't seem to have an aversion to it if it weren't for the fact that he was dying. It must be nice, I thought, to actually see the dead body rather than only having the fact that the car fell of a cliff to go off of.

"Chloe, are you alright?" Erda asked me.

"Fine," I told her even though I wasn't. I cocked my head to one side before answering my opponent.

"You don't. For all you know this will put your cat to sleep rather than cure him. But I'm the one with time to wait for you to make up your mind. At this rate, he has, oh, fifteen minutes to live."

A pained expression crossed his face, and he mouthed something to her. She shook her head. "Not gonna happen, Chat. I can't think of anything that is worth trading your life for, even if it does benefit them," she said to him. He gasped slightly, and I doubted that it was due to pain. Not with the astonished look in his eyes. I bet she doesn't know what you did, well, may have done. I don't have proof that you did it. Not yet, I thought. Then again, perhaps it take a monster to love one.

She reached out, and her hand disappeared into space. It came out gripping something. "You'd better not be lying," she said as she looked up from his pained (and... loving?) face. She tossed something to me. I caught it; one of the corners of my mouth made the slightest of movements upward.

"We don't have to do this," Erda told me.

"Hope you know how to use a hypodermic needle," I told the girl on the roof. "Catch." I threw the cased needle to her, and flew away before I could see whether he lived or died. He had better hope that he wasn't allergic to any of the ingredients.

"I know," I told her. "It's just, if I'm going to have revenge, then I want proof first," I told Erda once my back was turned.

"And you think the ring will have proof?"

"The clone seemed to recognize me. Not like he knew who I am in the plan, but actually knew me. For all I know Chat Noir had been sent to kill my family because the kwami could see that there's... something about me that scared them. And he failed. What if the real one is now fearing punishment that he failed to take me out?"

From the safety of my room, I stared at the ring. "You ready, Erda?"

"No," she told me. "But go ahead anyway. I'm going to bleach my mind of the exchange that went on between the luck-wielders. I swear, it was worse than those romance novels you read." Ignoring her comment on my choice of literature, I placed the ring on my finger, and channeled some of my power into it.

"Are you still there?" I asked the ring.

A faint voice came from the ring. It was an exact copy of Chat Noir's. It sounded much like his had last I saw him. "Perhaps I am. Perhaps I'm dead and you're clinging to ghosts, Chlo."

"I don't cling."

"Of course you don't, Chlo."

"Don't call me - you know what, nevermind. Do you think we'll be able to rebuild your body?" The next time he spoke, he was completely serious.

"Chlo, I'm dying. I was dying before you gave me a chance at taking over someone else's life. I'm once again dying. I don't have that long, and rebuilding his body - it was never my body to begin with - will take too much energy." I bit my lip. Why was I feeling sorry for the copy when I had just tried to barter with the life of the original?

"Oh, don't worry," he said, as if reading my thoughts. "Its just your conscience speaking - that, and how you're clinging to someone who died with the rest of his family."

"Exactly. That's what I've been wanting to ask you about." I paused. "I mean, if you're feeling up to it."

"Ask away."

"How does Chat Noir -the real one - know me?"

He laughed bitterly. "So you haven't figured it out yet. I don't think he has, either. I think rather than tell you, I'll show you."

I was walking through my school. It was the start of the school year - I could tell because I kept on glancing at a map of the school.

"What's going on?" I attempted to ask, but my voice sounded like it was a mile away. It turns that the akuma still heard me, though.

"You're seeing his memories," he told me. "I've filtered them so you'll only see the truly relevant ones. You'll also hear his thoughts."

I - I mean he then saw me. Wait, is that? Chat Noir thought. No, she's dead.

The scene changed.

He was sitting in the classroom. Monsieur Martin had sorted them into groups, and Chat Noir had been paired up with me.

Her name is Chloe. Just like - no, stop it, he thought to himself.

So he thought the same or similar of me as I did of him. But it was way too much of a coincidence. Perhaps I could use this in a fight or something. After all, he couldn't possibly be my brother. My brother was too good to ever team up with a kwami. I mean, I'm not as innocent as I was when my family died, but weren't the kwami creatures that killed for fun and - he interrupted me.

"You still don't see it," said the clone. "I didn't want to use this memory, but I'm afraid I'll have to. It's where Chat Noir pretty much stopped being a kid, where the child he was died, where in some ways an entire family died."

No. Why was he in the car?

"Are we there yet?" memory-me asked my parents.

"We'll get there when we get there, Chlo," Papa told me.

"Why don't you be like your brother and look out the window?" Belle-mère told me. I could feel tears coming to my eyes from far away. It had been so long since I had heard their voices. But, unless this was a different night, he couldn't have been in the car with us last night. He had been outside the car, using his bad luck on us, wasn't he?

From his vantage point, I saw a flash of movement. "Papa, there's a deer!" he said. The real me was biting my lip to keep from screaming at Papa to just hit the deer, to let it die and save his family. But, but if it was a deer like I had remembered, then how could Chat Noir have killed them? Pierre swerved, and the car careened towards a cliff. It flipped, and from Chat's point of view, I saw my father hit his head on the steering wheel. We had been in a car crash two years prior, and hadn't replaced the airbags. The car landed in a position where it was teetering dangerously on the edge; the back window had broken from the impact.

"Chloe, Adrien, I need the two of you to very carefully unbuckle and then climb through the window," Bernadea told us. And like idiots who didn't realize what was about to happen once they exited the car, we did so. Adrien got out first, and the car began to tip.

"I'm slipping!" his memory of me cried out. Bernadea began to push me out, despite her having an arm that was bent in a way it shouldn't. Adrien began to pull on me, and got me out of the car right before it fell. Three screams rang through the air. And then the horrible scene froze.

"What are you doing to her, traitor?" Erda told him.

"Showing her the truth, and trying to stop this war! Besides, why are you calling me a traitor?" he replied.

"Because you're hurting her!" Their argument continued, and while I was stuck in his memories, mine began to resurface. Memories I had convinced myself that they had been dreams seemed to be true.

Adrien hugged me, scared. It had often been a joke that I often acted like I was the older twin when I was five minutes younger than him. "Chlo, what's gonna happen? Papa and Belle-mère, they were in the car."

"We're, we, we're going to be okay, Dren," I had lied, more-or-less without trying, in my memories. And then I had been lied to. I had been told that he had fallen with my parents. That he was dead. But he hadn't died, unless Ladybug didn't manage to administer the antidote. Or if he had been allergic to the ingredients of it, or if I hadn't created it properly. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I attempted to come to terms with the fact that I had been about to murder someone I was trying to make a better world for in the name of.