Chapter Text
"Where am I?" asked Marinette as she glanced around the strange room she found herself in. 'it's my room, but upside down.' the blunette thought as she stared up at her bed. There were other differences, but she focused on her pictures of Adrien. Unlike the originals, which had the boy happily smiling, these looked sad.
"Hello, Marinette," said a voice behind her. Quickly turning around, she was surprised to see Ladybug.
'no, that's not Ladybug,' thought Marinette as she studied the stranger. She had Ladybug's outfit, but there were some key differences. First was the mask covering the bottom half of her face. It had a smile filled with fangs and two cartoony blush marks.
"A hero always smiles," said the stranger.
'she must have noticed me staring at the mask,' thought Marinette as she continued to study the copycat. 'Chat would probably call her a Copybug or something like that.'
"I don't think he'll waste the chance to make a cat pun," said the impostor, surprising Marinette.
'Did she just read my mind?' thought Marinette as she noticed that the girl's hands were exposed. She could see several loose threads poking out of the cuff, almost as the fabric covering her hands was ripped off.
"They weren't, but that wasn't a bad guess," said the stranger. "It's nowhere close to the truth, but it's a good guess given what you know."
'So her gloves weren't ripped off,' thought Marinette as she caught a bit of movement from behind the copycat.
"That is my cape," said the ladybug wannabe before Marinette could even think about it. "It's one of my newer additions. I can use it to glide." Marinette nodded as she noticed the design on the impostor's fingernails. They were painted black with a white butterfly as detail.
"A reminder of my origins," said the stranger as they stared at their hand with a sad smile.
"Your origins?" repeated Marinette before she figured it out. "You're an akuma!" Her eyes snapped up to the revealed akuma's face. She was focused on the mask before, so she didn't notice the akuma's eyes. The akuma's eyes had black sclera, and her irises were a piercing white.
"I was one," said the akuma. "You purified me by accident."
"I don't understand," said Marinette as she warily watched the akuma that claimed to be purified.
"I was an experiment," said the akuma. "Hawkmoth wanted to see if he could set up akumas for future use. Kinda like sleeper agents."
"Can he really do that?" said a worried Marinette. It was hard enough to react to an akuma when she could see the butterfly.
"He stopped trying after I failed," said the akuma. "I was sent to you when you gave up on being Ladybug." Marinette stared in surprise at that.
"I don't remember anything," said Marinette as she wondered just what the akumatized item was.
"I was patiently waiting for Hawkmoth to give me the order to transform you," said the akuma. Marinette noticed a brief flash of fear on the akuma's face as she thought about what the akumatized item could be. "But then you transformed, and the magic used for the transformation purified me."
"If you're purified, then why are you here, and where is here?" asked Marinette.
"This is a dream or, more accurately, your subconscious," answered the akuma. "After being purified, I was still stuck in the item I chose. Unsure of what to do, I began to watch the world through your eyes."
"Through my eyes?" repeated Marinette as she gently touched the bottom of her right eyelid.
"I already looked similar to Ladybug, but when I noticed how happy you were around Adrien, who always makes you blush," Marinette turned red as she thought about her crush. "I made this mask. I'll explain the threads later, as it might take a while. I added the cape after feeling your fear when you fell during your fight with the Bubbler."
"But I wasn't scared," argued Marinette as she remembered the fall.
"Part of you was," said the akuma.
"Did Hawkmoth even name you?" asked Marinette as she was tired of just calling this thing akuma.
"Rude, I am not a thing," said the akuma with a pout. "And no, he didn't."
"Great, I'm going to name an akuma," said Marinette with a sigh. The akuma said nothing, but Marinette could tell from its eyes that it was eager to hear what she thought up. "How about Bridgette?"