Need Some Help

Spying With Doubts

It was several days later before Chloe got her first mission. She couldn't stop thinking about it. Who was Shadowmoth? How were Lila and Felix going to steal his miraculous from him? What would they do once they got their hands on them?

Chloe's first mission was to keep an eye on Adrien. She had no idea why. What did Adrien have to do with any of this? He was the last person in the world she would suspect of being Shadowmoth. He was simply too innocent for that.

Adrien didn't do much out of character. He went to school, modeled, and did whatever else his father asked him to. One day though, Adrien caught Chloe in the act of spying on him.

"Hey Chloe," he said, without any sort of emotion at all in his voice.
"Adrien," she greeted in the same manner. What would he think of her spying on him?

"How are you?" Adrien asked.

"Fine." Chloe retorted. She was about to walk away when Adrien grabbed her hand.

"Chloe, I don't want to be enemies anymore. But, I don't know if I can be friends if you're going to keep acting so mean. Please, won't you consider, just trying to be nice?"

Chloe glared at him. She forcefully yanked her hand out of his grasp. "Keep your hands to yourself, Agreste! I'll act however I want to!"

"Chloe I didn't mean-" but she was already gone before Adrien had a chance to say anything else. His heart ached to see Chloe this way. Would she ever be able to save herself?

Overall, Adrien didn't do anything weird at all. But there were several occasions when he would just disappear into thin air. Chloe would spend up to several hours looking for him, but she couldn't figure out where he went. Strange.

"Hmm, interesting," Felix said once Chloe reported her findings.

"What do you want with your cousin, Felix? There's no way he's Shadowmoth."

"Agreed. Adrien's too innocent for that, isn't he?" Why was Felix smirking for?

"He's not going to get hurt, is he?" Chloe couldn't help but ask. As angry as she was at Adrien...she didn't want to see him get tangled up in the wrong kind of mess.

"I thought you didn't care about him," Felix said.

Chloe bit her tongue. "I don't."

"Then you have nothing to worry about." With that, Felix turned around and left. Chloe let out a huff of breath. What was going on?

Felix turned on his phone and contacted Lila. "What did she find out?" Lila asked.

"Nothing more than you suspected. If Adrien knew who his father was, he would be more aware. He's in random places when akuma attacks happens," Felix reported.

"So he's not involved," Lila said, mildly disappointed.

Felix smirked. "I wouldn't say that. Chloe said he's been disappearing, without a trace. She's tried to track him, but she hasn't been able to figure out where he goes. Looks like our sunshine boy has some kind of secret he doesn't want anyone knowing about."

"Hmm," Lila said as thought about it. "I guess we haven't been able to prove anything. But as long as Adrien doesn't stand in the way of our plans, we'll deal with him later."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Felix said.

***

Chloe's next job was to keep track of how many acuma attacks happened in the two weeks that followed. It was boring, and at one point she wanted to quit because it was peasants' work. Why should she have to do this? But then her longing to once again get the Bee Miraculous, to be happy again, got the best of her. She had to have it. There was nothing else worth wasting her time for.

If Chloe had any doubts about teaming up with Lila and Felix, she never showed it. But at times, she contemplated it. By now, she'd been forced to accept the fact that Zoe wasn't going back to New York any time soon. And as much as she wanted to disagree, Zoe was starting to grow on her. She was always polite, and she never made fun of Chloe. In fact, she was always there for her. It was weird. Didn't she know by now that she could put down the act of being nice?

If Chloe went along with Felix and Lila's plan, it would mean betraying Zoe. And Luka too. It wasn't like she really knew them or anything. They were just people. The only two, who actually didn't hate her. Or, the ones who pretended they didn't. What would they think of Chloe when she backstabbed them and helped Lila and Felix in whatever their goal happened to be? Chloe didn't like to think about it, so she didn't. She would have the Bee miraculous again, and that was all that mattered.

It was close to a month later when Felix and Lila contacted her again. "Are you ready to play your part in our plan?" Lila asked.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "I've been ready to play it for over a month now. What do you want me to do?"

Felix and Lila smiled evilly at each other. Why did they have to do that all the time? What were they really planning?

"Tomorrow, make as many people as you can angry. No- better than that, make them furious. Make them hate the world. That's what you do best after all, isn't it Chloe?" Lila asked.

Make people hate the world. Hate themselves. Was that really all Chloe could do? One of her conversations with Luka came flashing back. He said she could be more than a hero. More than Queen Bee. What had he meant?

"Why, so you can unleash a hundred akumas at once? Might I remind you Hawkmoth did that once, and failed," Chloe said with contempt.

"It's only a distraction," Felix replied. "We can't have Ladybug and Cat Noir getting in our way."

Chloe shook her head. "So, you really think you can steal the miraculous right from Shadowmoth? Sounds crazy, if you ask me."

Lila smiled evilly. "On the contrary. He'll never see this kind of betrayal coming..."

Betrayal...who could possibly trust Lila? Who could Shadowmoth be? It caused Chloe's head to spin. "Say I do this for you two. I want to know one thing. Who is he? Who is Shadowmoth?"

Felix shook his head. "Oh Chloe...that wasn't part of the deal. You help us, you get the Bee miraculous. Too late to change things up." Felix stood up from the park bench they were sitting on.

"Tomorrow, at noon," Lila said as the two of them left.

"What to do about Miss Bourgeois," Felix said once they were far out of earshot.

"We just need someone to blame when Paris falls. As long as we get our hands on Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous, everything will be fine," Lila told him.

"But first we have to get two other miraculous," Felix reminded her.

"Of course. And don't forget, you get the Peacock. I want to be the next Hawkmoth. The one to truly do some damage..."

***

Chloe couldn't sleep that night. Who could, when the very fate of Paris, Ladybug, Cat Noir, and even Shadowmoth was on the line? What was everyone going to think about her? Was she the villain now? It didn't matter. As long as she got the Bee miraculous.

Chloe drifted to sleep daydreaming about it. She was there, on her throne as Miracle Queen, taking each and everyone's miraculous. She had it all. She was the queen. She had unlimited power. She had defeated Ladybug.

But Chloe wasn't happy. She wasn't satisfied. Despite having everything, she felt empty inside. Why? She had it all, and she wasn't happy? It didn't make sense, Chloe thought to herself once she awoke. In her dream, everything was just as she wanted it to be. But she wasn't happy. She hadn't felt any better. Why?

She would though. It was just a dream. She would have everything after today, and she would feel complete. Happy, for the first time in a long while.