"Adrien! We went upstairs just to make sure he was okay! We weren't going to wake him up or anything. But when we got there, he was gone!"

Marinette's brain exploded.

"WHAT?" she screeched into the phone. Alya whipped her head up from the brooch she was examining and Nooroo stopped doing cartwheels in the air. Master Fu looked at her, extremely concerned. "What do you mean GONE? Are you sure he isn't in the bathroom or something?"

She bit her lip so hard it started to bleed. "Oh my goodness. Hawkmoth has him! I never should have left him! I did and now he'll be killed and it'll be all my fault and I'll never be able to forgive myself! I should've given up my Ladybug powers before this could have happened! I should have taken him with us! I should have-"

"I'm positive he's not here!" her mother's frantic voice from the other side of the phone snapped her thoughts back into reality. "We checked everywhere! He's gone!"

"No no no no no! He's going to die! He's probably already dead! I can't lose him! No no no no no no no no NO NO NO!" Marinette nearly started convulsing.

Alya snatched the phone out of her best friend's hand. "Mrs. Dupain-Cheng? Yeah, I gathered that. Marinette and I will be right over! Were you downstairs the entire time? Right, right. Well, figure out how he got past you. He couldn't have transformed, he doesn't have his miraculous. His ring. No, I don't have time to explain. Just try to figure out how he was kidnapped. Thanks!" Alya hung up and turned to her friend. Marinette seemed to be glued to the floor, her blue eyes fixated on the wall. Her breathing was uneven.

"Mari, he'll be alright," Alya offered, smiling timidly at her friend and rubbing Marinette's back with her hand. Marinette let out a shuddering breath. She spun around.

"No he won't! Can't you see! I LEFT HIM AGAIN! I should have stayed with him! He needed me! WHY DIDN'T I STAY?"

"You needed to be here! You left him there so that he wouldn't get any more hurt!" Alya shook Marinette gently. "Besides, maybe he wasn't kidnapped! He was acting strangely... Maybe he went somewhere in purpose!"

"Yeah right! Where would he go?" Marinette asked. "And why?"

######################################################################################################################################################################

Adrien hadn't been as asleep as the girls had believed him to be. He did sleep through Hawkmoth stealing his Miraculous. He incredibly angry about that. Part of him wanted to blame Marinette. Wasn't she expecting the attack? Couldn't she have done more to stop Hawkmoth?

The other half of him knew he wasn't being fair. Both girls were exhausted from taking care of him in the middle of the night. Not to mention that Marinette had probably been worrying about him and losing sleep for the four days that Hawkmoth had him. Right?

She kept mentioning that everything was her fault. He tried to comprehend why, but his mind was a mess. Words jumbled themselves together. He kept seeing things out of the corners of his eye. And the memories assaulted him. He was unable to get any relief from them. The knife... the blood... Hawkmoth's cruel laugh...

Adrien had found comfort in sleep. Sleep was were the monsters of the daytime couldn't get to him. It was relaxing and comforting. It also offered relief from the horrible pain that he felt every waking moment. But after that nightmare...

He had faked falling asleep in Ladybug's arms. He just closed his eyes and let himself relax and cherish the fact that his previous dreams had come true. At least in a way. He knew Ladybug's secret identity. He might have a chance to be loved by her. She was hugging him tightly and messing with his hair.

After Marinette's mother had told her it was time to go and she left him, Adrien sat staring at the ceiling for quite a while. He was worried about Plagg. Really worried. Was Hawkmoth giving him enough Camembert? He still wasn't really sure if the cat was actually a glutton like he believed or if Plagg just really did need a lot of food to keep Adrien's transformations active.

His hand felt naked without his ring. In a way, he felt naked. Stripped of his powers, his freedom, and the only way he could provide help to anyone. He kept clenching and unclenching his fist, partly to keep him sane and partly because maybe, just maybe, when he clenched his fingers down he would feel the cool sensation of his ring.

But Adrien eventually snapped himself out of his stupor. This was no time to sit around! Adrien Agreste wouldn't have complained about being left out of the action. Adrien Agreste would have done everything someone else told him to do. Adrien Agreste would would have sat on his butt and done nothing. But he was sick of Adrien Agreste. But what could he do without his miraculous?

Adrien began to ponder his options, and everything that had happened over the last few months. He remembered the book he had taken from his father's safe. It showed several more miraculous, ones that he didn't even know existed. He strained his memory. There was a fox of course... and a butterfly... and a peacock...

Peacock? Adrien's head snapped up as he remembered something. There was a pin in his father's safe as well. It had looked like a spread out peacock tail. He sucked in a breath. Could it be... a miraculous? He thought about it giddily. If he could somehow get inside of his father's house and take it, he could use it to help get back his own cat miraculous and defeat Hawkmoth! Why his father even had a miraculous or such a book in his safe was a question that Adrien had been puzzling over for a while. He shook the thought from his mind.

The most important question was how he was going to sneak inside of his father's mansion? Surely the press and the police would be keeping a close eye on the place. If he was spotted... His father would surely lock him inside his room with a heavy bodyguard, and the lack of his miraculous (and the large amounts of reporters surely waiting outside to hear the story) would prevent him from leaving.

He needed someone else to go in for him. Somebody who could still get away if he was caught... The problem was, he couldn't think of anyone at first. If he contacted any of the assistants and employees of his father, they would immediately report him. Then his face lit up. He knew exactly who to ask!

Adrien made his way to the door. He heard the muffled voices of Mrs. Cesaire and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng downstairs, talking about how dangerous it was to be a superhero these days. He looked at the window down the hallway. Crossing his fingers for luck (Hey, without Plagg he might actually have some, which made him smile slightly and sobered his mood at the same time) he peeked out the window. There was a rickety fire escape. A way out!

He used his good arm to open the window, since his other arm was wrapped up and continued to throb no matter what he did. He looked down the fire escape. Climbing down that thing looked extremely stupid, especially with how tender his stomach wound still was. He took a deep breath and slung his leg over the window sill.

To tell the dramatic story of how he ever managed to get to the bottom of that fire escape would take way too long. It involved a lot of grunting and groaning. He had to stop every few feet, panting with exhaustion. Adrien knew he was over exerting himself. It took everything he had to keep from screaming in pain or collapsing in exhaustion.

When he finally reached the ground, he was sure he couldn't go any further. He kept his good arm wrapped tightly around his stomach, to stop the blood he knew had sneaked through his bandages. He limped along, as his left leg was killing him.

Adrien felt a twinge of guilt when he thought about the panic that he had was probably causing Marinette, Alya, and the adults. But if he told them what his plan was, they would either tell him that there was no possible way for his father to have the real peacock miraculous, or they would go get it and leave him at Alya's house to sit there and do nothing.

It took a miserable half hour for him to limp all the way to the park, keeping his face covered with his bandaged hand. Thankfully, most people were in school or at work. He finally found who he was looking for.

Nino was slumped on a park bench, clearly on lunch recess, eating a sandwich. He looked really upset. His foot was tapping along to the music that was blasting from his orange headphones. Adrien snuck up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. Nino jumped a foot in the air and spun around, nearly dropping his sandwich.

"ADRIEN?" the boy shouted. Adrien shook his head furiously and ducked behind a tree as a few little kids looked over at Nino. Nino followed Adrien behind the tree. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" Nino whisper-shouted.

"Nino, it's a really long story," Adrien gasped. "I can't explain, but I need your help. You can't tell anyone about me!"

Nino finally noticed how pale his best friend looked, and the fact that Adrien was shaking and looked like he was about to collapse. He quickly slung an arm around Adrien to help him stand. Then he noticed the blood seeping through the blonde's jacket.

"What happened to you?" Nino hissed.

"Long story," Adrien groaned.

"What now?" Nino asked. Adrien thought for a second.

"Marinette's house," he answered.

"What?"

"Marinette's house. It's only a few minutes away. Let's go there," Adrien explained. Nino nodded, leaning so that he was carrying most of Adrien's weight, which wasn't easy because he was taller than Adrien and not nearly as muscular.

When the two reached Marinette's house, Adrien pulled a safety pin out of his pocket (thank you modeling) and picked the lock on the door quickly (thank you random how-to-pick-a-lock YouTube videos). They went inside.

After helping Adrien sit down on Marinette's couch, Nino dug around in the bathroom and found a minor first aid kit. He wound another layer of gauze around Adrien's stomach. Then he sat down opposite the blonde haired boy, tossing his headphones onto the coffee table. "Explain," Nino demanded.

######################################################################################################################################################################

"Yeah right! Where would he go?" Marinette asked. "And why?" Alya thought about that for a minute.

"Nino," she decided.

"What?" Marinette said, confused. "Why would he go to Nino? Nino has nothing to do with this!"

"Think about it," Alya instructed. "You're confused. You wake up alone and you freak out. Marinette isn't there. You get scared and panic. You manage to sneak away from the adults. Who would you go to?"

"If I was Adrien, then I would go to Nino," Marinette answered, nodding slowly. "Let's call him." Alya pulled out her phone and speed dialed him. After a few rings, Nino picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Nino, what's up?" Alya asked casually.

"Um, nothing much," Nino replied, clearly struggling to sound casual.

"Really? How are you holding up without Adrien to take notes for you?" Alya asked smirking. She listened closely and heard a muffled noise in the background, and then some faint whispering. Nino's voice came back on the phone.

"I...um, I'm totally fine! Listen Al, I gotta go. Bye!" Nino abruptly hung up. Alya shoved her phone into her pocket and looked at Marinette.

"He's totally lying and hiding something," she said. "He didn't ask why you and I haven't been in school for two days."

"But why wouldn't Adrien want to talk to us?" Marinette asked. Alya shrugged.

"Why don't we find Nino and figure it out?" she asked smirking. Marinette knew what she was thinking.

"Fine," she sighed. Alya's face lit up. "Tikki, spots on!"

"YAY!" Alya squealed. She turned to Nooroo. "What's my cool thing I get to say?"

"Wings out," Nooroo told her, looking excited as well.

"Nooroo, WINGS OUT!" Alya shouted a little over-enthusiastically. Nooroo zipped into Alya's brooch and the transformation began. Once the flash of purple light faded, Papillon stood proudly in front of Ladybug and Master Fu.

She looked very different from Hawkmoth. She was wearing a light purple blouse and pants (which seemed to connect at the waist into one solid kind-of jumpsuit instead of two separate pieces of fabric. Her glasses turned purple and became shaped like Hawkmoth's signature mask. She didn't have a hood over her head.

She also wore darker purple knee-high boots and elbow-length gloves. A brown cane was attached to a dark purple belt around her waist. Flowing out from behind her was a shimmering clear piece of fabric that was split into two pieces. Papillon found, to her delight, that they were wings! "I HAVE WINGS!"

"Well how else were you supposed to be able to keep up with Ladybug while crossing the rooftops?" Master Fu asked, chuckling. "You know what I find fascinating?"

"What?" Ladybug and Papillon asked at the same time.

"The miraculous suits are altered by whoever wears them into the best possible suit for that particular wielder. For instance, don't you think that if Ladybug and Chat Noir as you appear today were seen in Ancient Rome, people would be suspicious? Each suit adjusts to the time period and the person," Master Fu explained.

"So every user gets a different look?" Papillon asked. "Cool!"

"Yes," Wayzz nodded. "If Ladybug was a boy, then the suit would have been altered to fit him and suit a more masculine body shape. The same would happen if Chat Noir were a girl."

"Huh," Ladybug said, pondering that for a few minutes. "I never really thought about it. Anyway, let's go!"

The two super heroines dashed out the door and bounded away across the rooftops. Papillon looked a bit clumsy at first, but once she spread her wings and got used to using them, she took off with a loud whoop, yelling "THIS IS SO AWESOME!"

Master Fu chuckled, not noticing the dark shadow lurking above him, poised and ready to strike.