"Please Plagg, I am just so worried for Mari. If only I was there for her at that time this wouldn't have happened." Tikki frantically floats around Adrien's room as the boy sleeps peacefully on his bed. While Plagg is sitting on the window looking at the beautiful Paris night scenery.

"Tone down Tikki! You might wake Adrien up. We wouldn't want him to actually know that Ladybug's alter ego is actually kidnapped. The boy will go nuts."

Tikki floats towards Plagg and sits beside him. She sighed and leaned back on the window railings. "What should I do Plagg? I can't actually do anything right now to help Mari. I'm such a useless kwami."

The jet black kwami smirked. "That's a first. You don't know what to do. You usually know what to do." His expression quickly changed when Tikki gave him a deadly look. "But seriously though, don't be too hard on yourself, I'm sure it's not your fault. We will find her eventually, besides she is Ladybug, who kicks ass on a daily basis, she'll be fine."

"I hope she is Plagg. I hope she is."

Usual morning. Eating breakfast at a huge table all by myself. I take a bite of my sandwich as I scroll through my schedule today. School. Lunch, School Photoshoot, Fencing lessons, Photoshoot again then go home. This only makes me sigh.

I wonder when I'll have to conveniently turn into Chat Noir and see My Ladybug. That is only one of the few things that makes my life worthwhile. It made me smile involuntarily. Why did I have to be such a sucker for Ladybug?

I finished my meal and went out of the house to go to school. Of course Gorilla is already waiting for me.

I smiled at him and greeted. "Good morning dude!"

He just looked at me with that expressionless face of his and I think he grunted or something. He opened the door for me and I entered the car. He closed it and went to the driver's seat and started our usual quiet journey to school.

When I got to school there was my bestfriend Nino waiting for me at the doors of our school, He got this serious look on his face as he read something on his phone. It made me feel uneasy. Very uneasy.

"Hey. What's up? Everything fine?" I asked as I approached Nino.

"Oh hey! Yeah… I think…. Alya haven't texted me all morning nor called me. Which is weird because she always texts me 'Good Morning' every single day since we dated."

I tried to contain my laugh, but for some reason the uneasy feeling still haven't left me. "Dude! You sound so clingy! Can you even hear what you are saying?"

Nino tried to laugh it off, but the worry is still obvious on his face. "Come on man! Don't be like that!"

"I was just teasing! Maybe Alya just found something about Ladybug that made her busy this morning. Don't worry yourself too much."

"Y-yeah maybe you're right." The bell rang and we both headed to our classroom.

The worry on Nino's face deepened when he saw that Alya was still not on her seat. Alya was not the type to be late at class. We could've ask Marinette but, she is also still not around, well in her case she was usually late an awful lot of times.

Nino was about to take his phone out of his pockets and I immediately stopped him. "Chill Nino! For all we know, she'll be bursting in on that door any minute now."

Nino took a deep breath and nodded. I looked back at Alya's seat but for some reason I also looked at Marinette's seat.

Suddenly an EDM blasted inside our classroom, my head snapped at Nino because it was his ringtone and he panicked as he took the call giving the room an apologetic and embarrassed look, as snickers and giggles was heard all over the place.

"Alya! Where are you! ...What? ...What? ...Why? ….Oh my god! We'll be right there! Of course…. I love you too! "And Nino dropped the call with a more worried look on his face. Oh no something bad must've happened.

"W-what did she say?" I asked nervously.

"We need to go to the Dupain-Cheng's place." He said solemnly.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Marinette…. She's….."

Marinette? "She's what?"

"She's….. missing."

I didn't know what to say but one thought came to me and I couldn't possibly tell Nino about it. That it's all my fault.

I told Nino to go ahead first without me. Making up a silly excuse, like I'll have to notify the principal or something, I always feel bad when I say things like this to Nino, which happens a lot when I have to excuse myself what I have been doing when I had to turn into Chat Noir mode.

I went into the men's comfort room and made sure that nobody is inside as I entered one of the cubicle and opened my bag with Plagg inside it and swooped out of it floating in front of me.

"Hey? What's the hold up?" For once Plagg didn't look mischievous like he usually did.

"Uhhm,,, you know Marinette?" I asked as I held on to the walls.

"M-Marinette? Thegamergirlwholivesinabakery?" Plagg talked so fast that he sounded kind of suspicious, but I chose to ignore since the mere fact that he wasn't asking for some camembert was already suspicious on its own.

"Yeah… yeah…. That's her… apparently she is missing. I don't know if she is kidnapped or she just ran away, I-If she is really in danger, I can never forgive myself. It's all because of me Plagg. Mari is in danger because of me." Now telling Plagg all about it made me even weaker on my knees.

"No, that's impossible Adrien. Don't go blaming yourself."

"It's the truth Plagg. Everyone knows that I have been seeing Mari a lot. We have been seen together a lot. Most especially we are seen when I am being Chat Noir. What if Hawk Moth kidnapped her to lure me in? Knowing that I have this one friend that could be my only weakness."

"Isn't Ladybug your weakness?"

"Huh? Yeah she is... but in a different way. Mari is a precious reliable friend. Even though Mari is really courageous and brave she is unlike Ladybug. Ladybug's a superhero unlike Mari, who is just a normal girl. A vulnerable target."

"Okay… so what are you going to do now?" Plagg asked as he looked down. His seriousness was really uncomfortable for me. Usually he is not the kind to care this much. "Do you want to transform?"

"No… I still need to go to Mari's place. Alya and Nino are expecting me there." I opened my bag and Plagg quickly went inside without another word.

I left the school, looking out for Gorilla, because he might be just somewhere. He does that sometimes. Fortunately he wasn't around the place to see me sneaking out of school. When I got to the Dupain-Cheng's place, the bakery was closed, it made me even feel guilty than ever knowing that Mari's parents are this devastated.

I went to the back door of their house and rang the doorbell. Nino answered the door for me.

"Hey dude…" He just said. He looked so sad, knowing that Nino was somehow close to Marinette, and he even had a little crush towards her before.

"So any news?" I asked carefully.

Nino stopped but didn't looked at me. "Adrien… Mari was kidnapped"

"What?!" I said baffled. My fears is now coming true. How can I do this to Marinette? What kind of friend am I? "H-How did it happen?"

"T-there was a note…" Nino was still looking down and obviously saddened by the events. "Let's go upstairs now, they are waiting for us."

We went upstairs and as we entered the living room I felt even guiltier seeing Alya and Sabine, with their bloodshot eyes, obvious from recent crying.

"Adrien!" Tom approached me and grabbed both of my hands with his big baker hands. "Mari- Mari…" He was almost on the verge of crying but he is trying his best not to cry.

"I-it's going to be fine. We will get Mari back." He kind of needed that reassurance, not just for both of Marinette's parents but also for him.

"Thank you Adrien. We just don't know what to do anymore than wait. We called the police and they are doing their best to find our princess. I hope she's okay." Sabine said as her hands are being held by Alya, also on the verge of crying.

When Tom let go of me I approached Alya.

"Nino told me about a note?" I asked her.

She nodded and fetched a piece of crumpled paper It says:

"Tell him I will only return his "Princess" in exchange of something I want."

Princess… I wanted to shout. My hands are trembling with frustration.

"We don't know who this is pertained to. Maybe to Tom? But he said he don't know what this someone could want from him."

I turned the paper backside to see what's on the back, and his mind went blank.

There was a drawing of a black cat's bell.