[800 reads wtf? And yes, late update I know]

Something was terribly wrong.

Ladybug knew this for a fact, well, since Chat wasn't acting at all like himself. She hadn't even heard one pun since he had arrived at patrol, and her knuckle almost felt as if it was numb since no flirty kiss had been planted on it for what seemed like a matter of days.

And she had to admit, it scared her. Maybe there was something wrong with him, and she should talk to him about it? I was a dull thought indeed; but still entirely possible.

"Chat?" Ladybug bounded onto the rooftop beside him, doing a brisk backflip in the midst of her leap, a simple force of habit. Why not be as graceful as possible as Ladybug while it lasted, before she resorted back to crumby old clumsy Marinette? "You've been acting a little weird. And your techniques are a little off, too. Not to be rude."

And she observed Chat Noir, her lifelong partner as his eyes sparkled in the moonlight, his arms folded carefully behind his back, standing motionless.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, a little louder and more urgently this time, strapping her yo-yo to her side.

"No," he answered simply, but it seemed almost as if the voice didn't belong with his body, it was deeper- more mature. And it was familiar; awfully familiar, almost like a spur of deja vù for Ladybug.

"Hey, Chat," Ladybug figured maybe this had something to do with her, "you can tell me anything, you know that right?"

And Chat Noir- rather Felix Agreste who was around two days of being Paris's "substitute' superhero, turned to look at Ladybug, and that's when the realization hit her.

Those eyes don't belong to Chat Noir.

They were blue- not like the ocean, but rather the soft shade of a creamy, cloudless sky. And they didn't pierce through hers with some comforting sense like Chat's distinct green ones. But she kept her mouth shut and bade no sound more, maybe he got colored contacts? I mean, every other feature about him seemed fine. Well, now that she really thought about it his hair looked a bit combed over, and he suddenly seemed a lot more built in the arm area...

Chat was about to say something, but Ladybug interrupted him with a quick, "I-I have to go." Before she flung herself off into the Parisian night, the stars shining brightly in the background like flashing police sirens as she maneuvered around the sky.

                                     ~✯~

"This isn't happening," Marinette collapsed on her bed with her head buried in her hands, Tikki quickly flying to her side.

"I'm sure there's some reasonable explanation for this Marinette. I mean there's no way Chat's holder could have changed, I would have felt him perish, or be revoked of the Miraculous or something!" Tikki attempted to reassure the young girl that there was nothing to worry about, but was quickly countered.

"No," Marinette groaned at the thought of her partner dead or anything of the sort, "it's not that Tikki, I'm just... thinking a lot."

"About what?" This time the kwami was curious. Sometimes it was extremely difficult to understand her holder.

"I just- I don't want a different Chat Noir."

                                    ~✯~

Adrien awoke in a cold sweat for what seemed like the millionth time, his chest rising and falling at an alarming rate of speed. The curtains allowed no light, for it was eerily darkened outside. He checked the time on his alarm clock and sure enough it was around one in the morning to his utter remorse, and he sighed deeply as he slumped back in his bed, his mind refusing to let him fall asleep again.

He hated not being able to remember.

And these dreams haunted him most, almost as if his mind was fighting with whatever had happened to him in a ruthless duel with no end in sight. Small little fragments of his memory surfaced during them- he knew this for a fact- but the problem was, by the time his eyes peeled open it almost seemed to disappear in thin air. He utterly despised that.

Well, to be fair, most were starting to return to him, but in contrast the only way to retrieve them was to endure what seemed like a pain-jolting headache almost every night. Plus the fact the doctor had promised his recovery soon enough and that hadn't seemed the case.

Although, this time his nightmare, dream or whatever it was seemed a bit different. He could remember it in small chunks, but it seemed surreal and a bit far-fetched.

He had a vision of himself working aside Paris's superhero, Ladybug.

And there was a lot of puns.

And flirting. Adrien would never normally be like this, it baffled him really, but for some reason he seemed very attracted to the superhero. To look further into this he searched up "Ladybug's superhero partner," and the result was none other than Chat Noir.

He'd seen him on posters and even better footage from an attack last night, so he found it very odd that he had seen himself in the place of the superhero sidekick. Pfft, what a joke, him as a superhero? Up to this point his state could be considered partly-disabled, he sometimes even forgot where he was. How would that be useful in any type of crime-fighting situation?

Nevertheless, after such a peculiar dream he saw more into it. He did some research in his free time every now and then until a certain headline caught his eye.

TRENDING NOW: New Chat Noir? Is it possible our cat superhero has been replaced with another?

His fingers darted across the keyboard, his eyes narrowing at the sight of such a suspicious headline. It was almost as if it had read his mind. Then without hesitation he clicked on it, and it took him to the full article.

IT SEEMS PARIS'S BELOVED SUPERHERO, CHAT NOIR, HAS BEEN UNDERGOING MANY DIFFERENCES FROM HIS USUAL PLAYFUL, PUNNY SELF.

Punny? Adrien's eyes widened and he as continued to read, his fingers tapped the front of the mouse in anticipation and impatience. It had to be a coincidence, right?

LADYBUG HERSELF TOLD REPORTERS, "I.. don't know. He just seems so.. different." SO, WHO IS THIS REPLACEMENT? AND WILL HE WORK TO PROTECT PARIS AS EFFICIENTLY AS OUR FORMER CHAT NOIR? MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHERE HAS THE ORIGINAL GONE?

Adrien clicked out the bold headline, unable to read a line further, for his head had suddenly began to pound. Was it because he was frustrated? No, it's just that the memory of his dream kept replaying itself, and he couldn't take the pain.

All of the commotion he was creating with this caused Nathalie to yank his room door open to check on him.

"Adrien? What's wrong?!? Adrien?" Nathalie was shaking him as he continued to clutch his hair tightly, his eyes squeezed shut in remorse. He wanted to say something, to say he was alright and that this was normal, but the words never came. So without a proper response she picked him up bridal style, and quickly decided to carry him to the island-house medic as fast as she possibly could.

She burst through the door, panting in exhaustion from climbing so many flights of stairs with the boy in her arms.

"Something's wrong with him." She set him down on the observation table, and the nurse ran over quickly to check his state.

The feedback was immediate. "He's alright. He's suffering from a very painful flashback, in simpler words," she set her palm atop the boy's forehead. "Not necessarily one that he despises, rather his mind is desperately trying to bring it back to his memories."

Nathalie nodded in some sort of understanding, and in that very moment Adrien's trauma seemed to have ceased. He was hyperventilating when the nurse helped him up, before he looked Nathalie in the eye and said, "Can I- talk to you?"

And she nodded before thanking the nurse and dragging Adrien out of the room without another word more. Once Adrien was sure they were alone, he spoke.

"I- I've been having these weird dreams," he was panting from exhaustion, leaning over with his hands on his knees. "About myself."

And suddenly Nathalie knew that he had figured it out- somehow, but that didn't matter because she wasn't sure how he would take it if he figured out he was sort of- replaced in a way. And yes, he could return to his normal superhero business, but the media was already all over it so it would definitely be a slow alteration.

"How much do you know about Chat Noir?"

And Nathalie froze for a second even though she had already anticipated it, how was she to tell him? She wasn't sure, but maybe Felix could be some sort of help.

"Let me get your brother," she said before rushing up to Felix's room, and for a moment she hesitated at his doorknob, now learning a lesson from her last encounter with the boy even if it was her own home. Then she knocked on the door wisely, and a sound of footsteps soon followed when the door opened.

"What's up?" He asked, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. He guessed what she was going on about based on her expression. "Adrien, isn't it?"

She nodded and he quickly followed her down the staircase with Adrien there waiting on them.

"What do you two know about Chat Noir?" Adrien repeated, this time the silence around them grew further through the dark, echoing halls.

"He's.. he's a superhero," Nathalie piped in, her eyes darting over to Felix for a split second pleading for some type of support here. He sighed and nodded.

"Look, Adrien," Felix was reaching out his hand, but Adrien quickly grabbed it to examine the black ring on his finger. He easily put two and two together, only rising for a split second to look at his brother.

"You're him. You're Chat Noir." He was surprisingly calm almost as if he had expected this, "But.. what about the headlines? The rumors?"

And that's when they exchanged glances while Felix cleared his throat. "Adrien, you don't get it. The thing is- well, you're actually Chat Noir, except-"

"Well then, that's just terrific," Adrien interrupted, groaning and throwing his hands up in the air in anger and sarcasm suddenly lacing his voice."Thanks a lot for telling me! You know, I may be all messed up now, but I'm not stupid so you can at least give me that. Do you realize how much it writhes, how much it hurts?" He looked as if he was about to storm off, but he instead stood his ground.

"Wait, Adrien, you didn't let me finish-" Felix attempted to protest, but no luck.

"No, just stop it." His voice was low and intimidating, "You're not the only one who is allowed to get mad around here. You don't get how it feels, to have it all hidden away from you, and when that happens all I get in return is nightmares and pain, oh so much pain. Did you ever give a second thought to that?"

And then the room fell silent once more, the boy almost cutting holes into their eyes with his intense gaze.

And Felix eyed him curiously, wanting nothing more to say: "No! I do understand, probably more then anyone else in that matter!"  But instead he kept his mouth shut, a sudden anger bubbling inside himself for reasons unknown.

"When you're ready to talk about it, everything about it, just come see me." Adrien hissed, before trudging off upstairs without another thought.