Ladybug stirred slowly to wakefulness, her head feeling like someone had bashed it in with something a lot less merciful than a sledgehammer. Her thoughts were thick and sluggish, like one of her father's caramel recipes, and any attempt to stir them into something coherent only served to make her feel dizzy with the effort.

She groaned quietly as a wave of nausea overtook her and she spent a few horrible moments focusing on keeping the contents of her stomach from evacuating through her mouth. Careful not to move, she focused on breathing until finally, bit by bit, she started to feel a little better. Once she felt comfortable that she wouldn't hurl everywhere just by moving, she cracked her eyes open hesitantly.

Even the small light that greeted her was enough to send a stab of pain through her skull and she shut them immediately. Okay, that hadn't been a very great idea. Seeing as she didn't feel up to opening her eyes just yet, she focused again on trying to pull her thoughts together, however overwhelming the idea felt. She recalled hazily that she'd teased Cat Noir once about how much it must've hurt for him to think. She was sure she'd been joking then - although, it was hard to be sure, muddied as her brain was - but now she wished she could take it back, because she felt like she was being punished tenfold for making a crack like that.

She didn't realize it could actually literally hurt to think until now.

Speaking of Cat Noir...her thoughts finally caught up with her. Had she seen him before she'd passed out? It was hard to remember anything specific. She pushed herself to try to remember what had happened to her to make her feel like she'd been on the losing side of a overzealous bar fight. Not that she'd ever been in a bar fight before to know what that felt like.

A fight! That was right. She'd been in a fight. With a woman in a blue mask that had called herself….'Pound?' 'Pain?' No, that wasn't right. 'Paon.' That's what she'd called herself. Ladybug had been the first on the scene. Thing's hadn't been very dire in the beginning. In fact, despite Cat Noir's absence, it had seemed like she might be able to wrap up this particular problem on her own. She'd been handling herself just fine against this new akuma-controlled woman until…? What had happened? She ground her teeth in frustration as her head throbbed.

Paon had attacked her out of nowhere with some horrible magical electricity or something. She hadn't used it at all against Ladybug until that moment, surprising her with its strength and ferocity. Ladybug had gone slack almost instantly and lost her grip on her Yo Yo string. She'd fallen then, Tikki screaming her name in her ear the whole way down.

She remembered barely feeling it when she hit the ground, even though the small remaining breath Paon's attack left in her lungs wooshed out of her. Luckily, the fall hadn't been very far, but Ladybug still hadn't been able to move, her body still in shock after the hit she'd taken. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she remembered hearing Cat Noir's worried voice calling out from somewhere far off.

Tikki's words in the next moment came back to Ladybug with sudden, horrifying clarity. "Ladybug! Ladybug! You need to get up! It's a trap! Oh god I'm so sorry! I should've seen this coming! Ladybug, please!" She barely had time to see a stilettoed foot swung right at her face before everything had gone dark.

Suddenly Ladybug heard a door open and close in front of her and opened her eyes without thinking. She regretted it immediately as she was hit by another stab of pain, but this time it was more bearable, and she kept her eyes open. She was sitting, strapped tightly to a large metal chair in a bare brick room with a single darkened window and a door. She couldn't see or feel her yo-yo anywhere. And she hadn't heard Tikki in her ear since she'd woken up. Despite her new company, Ladybug felt suddenly very alone. For the first time since she'd woken, Ladybug started to feel real panic, but the fear helped corral her thoughts at least.

An old, white-haired man had entered the room, dressed in a black designer suit and tie. He looked every inch like one of the crisp Wall Street businessmen Marinette had only seen in Hollywood films. "You're finally awake, I see." He said, his tone matching his outfit. He had a faint American accent to go with his Wall Street appearance.

"Who are you?" Ladybug asked, testing the leather straps that held her down. They were stronger than she thought she could break with brute force alone. "Where am I?

The man gave her a white-toothed, car salesman smile, "I'm your new boss. Or at least I will be shortly. And you're at our headquarters here in Paris"

"My...boss?" Ladybug echoed, still trying to reconcile her situation with the man's casual tone. This man had somehow managed to answer her questions and yet only made things more confusing. Her head gave a particularly painful throb.

"Your boss," he repeated, matter-of-factly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "Don't worry, though, I'm easy to get along with as long as you a have the right attitude."

Ladybug couldn't be sure, but she felt there was some dark threat behind those words in the way his voice grew low at the end. His face remained friendly though, and that in itself made her more nervous. "The right...attitude?" She was almost afraid to ask.

"That's an excellent question, Miss Ladybug," his eyes brightened, "One I'm happy to answer for you."

He pressed a button on a panel Ladybug hadn't noticed fixed on the gray brick wall, "Paon, we're ready for you." The name made Ladybugs blood run cold. She hadn't been certain what to expect when the man had greeted her in so friendly a way, but anything this Paon person was involved in couldn't be good.

"Oh! Yes sir!" Paon's cheerful reply came from an overhead speaker, startling Ladybug, "Am I coming through okay?"

"You certainly are." Mr. Wall Street replied. Then he pressed another button on the wall and a light must've come on on the other side because suddenly Ladybug could see through the window that had been dark before. What she saw made her heart stop.

Cat Noir was sitting slumped over and apparently passed out in a metal chair, restrained as she was. The chair had been placed in the middle of a large space on the hard cement, directly under a dull yellow light bulb. Like a prop on a stage under a spotlight. And like a proper audience member, her eyes were riveted to the spot. But instead of waiting in excited anticipation, Ladybug was willing the scene in front of her to disappear, hoping her eyes were deceiving her somehow.

"W-why is he here?" She asked in a breathless whisper. It felt like someone had her by the throat, her voice didn't want to work and it was hard to breath. Her stomach was twisted into painfully tight knots, making her dizzy and nauseous again.

"For your benefit of course," Mr. Wall Street said, still with that unnervingly pleasant expression, "You have a very close bond with him, I can tell. And that's always the best way to make this work."

"Make what work?" Ladybug asked, not wanting to know the answer. Her mind was racing. She knew whatever his answer was, though, she didn't want to stick around to find out first hand. She had to somehow escape, get Cat Noir, and make it out of here. But how? Before Mr. Wall Street answered her, Ladybug saw Paon toss a full bucket of water over Cat Noir making him jerk and sputter awake, a fearful, confused look on his face.

She could hear Cat Noir's heavy breathes through the overhead speaker and see the way it misted around him. Ladybug could tell by the way he shivered and the way his breath shook that it was cold on the other side of the window. She watched as he struggled against his own bonds the way she had, then stop suddenly as something seemed to occur to him.

"Ladybug?" His voice sounded so scared and small through the speaker it made her chest contract painfully. She'd never heard him sound so vulnerable before.

"I'm right here, Chat!" Ladybug shouted loudly so that her voice would be picked up through whatever microphone Mr. Wall Street was using to communicate with Paon.

Mr. Wall Street smiled down at her patronizingly, "That's very sweet, Miss Ladybug, but I'm afraid only Paon can hear us through her earpiece. Soundproof walls and all. Wouldn't want to ruin the magic for your lover boy here."

Ladybug barely registered the 'lover boy' comment, her fear only mounting for her companion on the other side of the glass, her attention fixed on the predatory way Paon was looking at Cat Noir as she approached him.

"You," Cat Noir hissed, his voice suddenly sounding cold and alien even as Ladybug heard the tremor in it, "What did you do to Ladybug?" It felt like someone had Ladybug's insides in a vise. What was he doing? Stupid Chat was asking about her when he should be worried about himself. It was getting harder to breathe. "What do you want?" Ladybug asked voicelessly, unable to take her eyes off the horrible scene in front of her.

Instead of answering, Mr. Wall Street calmly reached other to turn off the audio and asked her a question. "Miss Ladybug, do you know why you were chosen to hold your Miraculous?" Ladybug's eyes furrowed in confusion and she turned briefly to glance at the man, taken off guard by the subject that had seemingly come out of left field.

She turned back to the glass and didn't answer. She'd never really been clear on that when she'd talked to Tikki. She knew they had a purpose - to fight and purify the akuma and protect innocent people - but she'd never really understood why. Even if she had known, she didn't feel like sharing with the creep who now held her and Cat Noir prisoner.

"It's okay if you don't know," Mr. Wall Street said, like a reassuring teacher to a struggling student, "Many of you don't. It's fairly normal. You see, it's something in who you are that the Kwami seek out. Your fortitude. Like a natural resistance to akuma, and the Kwami only help fortify that. It's quite fascinating really."

Ladybug was having trouble paying attention, still distracted as she was, but she caught the gist of what the man was saying. It still didn't do anything to make her less confused though. At the mention of Kawmi, though, Ladybug realized she hadn't heard a word from Tikki this whole time. She'd been so scared about everything else, she hadn't had time to worry about it, but now it unsettled her. She refused to let it show, though. Ladybug had no idea what the two on the other side of the glass were saying, but she didn't like the way the woman smiled down at Chat.

"There is of course more to it than that, but you get the idea." Mr. Wall Street continued, apparently unconcerned that Ladybug was only devoting a fraction of her attention to his words. "Luckily for me, no pun intended, I have a very special weapon against that internal resistance, and a gift for finding out just how to weaken it." He raised a leather-gloved hand that was glowing darkly with power and gave Ladybug a smile, "Tell me, Ladybug, have you ever wondered what happens when a miraculous gets corrupted?"

That got her full attention, and she turned away from the glass just in time for Mr. Wall Street to reach over and place his hand on her head. Immediately, her body went rigid as icy tendrils of power flowed down though his hand and down through her neck to her toes. Mr. Wall Street turned her head back to the window to her friend and pulled his hand away. There was still a small tendril of the dark, sickly power leading from his hand back to her head. If she wasn't sick before, she was now. "Paon," he said after giving Ladybug a satisfied smile, "Please begin."

Ladybug watched petrified as Paon stopped whatever it was she had been doing and placed a hand to her ear. She said something to Chat that made him sag in his chair, looking like he'd just been told the world wasn't ending after all. Ladybug had a feeling she knew why he looked like that. Stupid Chat. She wanted to reach forward and touch him. Shake him. Tell him to start thinking about his own safety for once, but she found she couldn't even strain against her bonds anymore. Whatever Mr. Wall Street's power was, she couldn't move a muscle because of it.

Mr. Wall Street reached forward to turn the audio back on just before Paon pulled a knife an swiped down at Cat Noir. "Chat!" Ladybug shrieked, trying to free herself from the power that held her trapped, but she didn't know how to begin to fight it. She saw Cat Noir's blood dripping down his shoulder and her stomach did somersaults. Her vision darkened around the edges, tunneling until all she could see was Cat Noir. All she could hear was the rapid beating of her heart in her ears, all other noise drowned out by the sound. He was trapped and alone and she couldn't do anything to help him. He was right in front of her and all she could do was watch as these monsters did whatever they wanted.

She was entirely unprepared for what she saw next.

"Don't!" she screamed when Paon grabbed Cat Noir's ring. In a flash of green light, that spread up from his feet to his face, Cat Noir changed. His sturdy suit replaced by achingly familiar blue pants. With horror, she realized she recognized that button up shirt taking place of his suit. When his face was revealed, his hair settling into a shape she knew all too well, his green eyes flashing with a fear she would pay with her life never to see, she felt something in her come unhinged. Time stopped.

It couldn't be. There was no way.

"No…" Ladybug gasped.

Adrien.

Reality came crashing back into focus around her, and Ladybug fought harder than ever against her bonds, corporeal and incorporeal. She slammed every ounce of inner strength she had into it, drawing focus and determination she'd never been capable of before. She felt something loosening and her right hand started to tremble. She thought she heard a familiar voice calling her name, but she was to focused on compounding her victory and working her way out of her bonds that she didn't have the time to focus on it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the thin tendril of power leading from her to Mr. Wall Street waning, and she redoubled her efforts.

Mr. Wall Street's unflappable attitude was gone, replaced by a look of shock. Ladybug managed to turn her head enough to look at him and smile. Then she leaned further against her bonds.

Unfortunately, Mr. Wall Street's shock was short lived, and his features contorted with anger and indignation. He clenched his hand into a fist and sent a bolt of his arctic dark power straight through the fraying thread of power and into Ladybug. She could only gasp and struggle to breath as any semblance of control she'd gained was ripped away from her. No! She felt suddenly drained and weak, her vision blurry. The entire struggle couldn't have taken more than a few seconds, but it felt like she'd been doing backbreaking work for days in the hot son.

Mr. Wall Street turned Ladybug's head back to the glass roughly, though she felt that his hands shook slightly. He pulled a phone from his hand, typing something furiously, and Ladybug watched, still trying to take in air as Paon pulled out her own phone to read whatever he'd sent.

"Now watch closely, little bug," Mr. Wall Street said in her ear, his pleasant tone replaced by a cold, goading one.

Ladybug couldn't struggle any longer as she watched Paon take her knife again and bring it crashing down toward an equally helpless Adrien. "Adrien!" Ladybug screamed, long past caring that she was revealing her weakness to her captor. Adrien's scream churned her insides. She couldn't hold back her nausea anymore and heaved, Mr. Wall Street turning her head again and holding her hair so she didn't throw up all over herself. It made her even more sick and she heaved again, gagging pathetically.

"Please," she begged, her voice hoarse and tears falling treacherously from her eyes, "Please just tell me what you want and I'll give it to you. Take my miraculous. Anything you want. Please. Just stop hurting him."

Mr. Wall Street's smile did return then, and he gave Ladybug a commiserating pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Miss Ladybug," he told her, "You're already well on your way to giving us exactly what we want."

AN:Hello! First of all thank you so so much to anyone whose read this, and thank you for the favorites/follows, they mean the world to me. And ESPECIALLY thank you for all your lovely reviews, they absolutely are the best thing in the world and I really appreciate it that you took the time to leave your kind words.

I'm sorry this took so long, I was hoping to update this more regularly, but have been getting distracted. Also, had to rewrite a lot of parts to this and I'm still not sure I'm happy with how it came out, but I think if I keep trying to fix things, I'm not sure I'd finish before we all died of old age.

(also if anyone has any constructive critiques or anything I'm all ears. Like I said this is pretty much plotted out already, but any writing style/grammar/characterization/etc critiques would be happily accepted. Ladybug is so difficult for me to write for some reason.)