Bug Bites

Chapter | Twenty

Warning, this chapter does contain some dark themes that can be triggering for some. Please proceed with caution.

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"You know this isn't really who you are right?"

Marinette looked up at herself sitting across from her, tilting her head ever so slightly. The version of her that sat across the way was dressed in dark colors. The pink pants , blazer and white shirt were replaced with a dark turtle neck and black and white plad skirt. Her long hair was tied up in a high pony tail and her eyelashes were long with a a few coats of mascara to make them look even longer.

"You aren't me either."

She looked up amused, "No, but I am a part of you that you've kept buried deep down. The sadness you refused to feel for years. The sadness that eventually tired into a fire of anger you fought so hard to keep control of and now you've lost it. Yet this version of you, the one I see is one that was created. That isn't you, Anya."

She threw the name at her mockingly and for as long as she could remember Anya was her name. Yet now there was this hesitation she didn't have before, that maybe that was not her. A frown was on her lips now that the other Marinette seemed to take notice of as a smile grew on her own red painted lips.

"I'm the you that you fear someone finding out about, the one you never wanted to ruin your little miss perfect image. Yet now you don't really have the choice, you're going to have to accept everything you are and make the choice to get out of here Marinette."

"Get out of my head." Marinette seethed at her doppelgänger. 

She smirked, "Can't accept the truth? Or is it messing with your head a little bit more? That maybe it was because of us and who we are that the people we care about die around us.  Our parents, Tikki. Who next Marinette? Chloe? Adrien? Peter? Or do you not remember them either? What about Lucas, the one who caused all of this-"

"I said. Get. Out. Of . My. Head!"

She shook her head, "The chaos will consume you."

Marinette woke up screaming in her hotel bed, neck on fire as she grabbed at her neck. She felt something shock her, and then Lucas was right next to her. His dark head of hair was the first thing of him she noticed and then his presence she felt herself naturally calm down despite the pressure in the back of her head telling her something was wrong. What could be wrong, well Marinette wasn't really sure now. 

"Anya, you were having a nightmare. Are you okay?" Lucas asks, the concern in his voice caused a small smile to form on Marinette's lips.

"I can't remember what it was about now." She tells him softly, sitting up in the hotel bed and sighing softly. "Did I really need to come with you for this meeting? What's the point of me even being here Lucas?"

He chuckled, hand cupping her cheek. "Because you have a way with people and charming them. You also have ways of somehow always getting what you want, it always worked with dad."

"Well yeah, I was his favorite child." Marinette teased, getting up from her bed and pushing back whatever headache was forming in her head by tossing back some pills that Lucas had ready for her. It was a normal reoccurrence  that she just couldn't seem to shake, not with all the youtube videos of how to control dreams or just not have any.

"Yeah well I can't really argue with that." Lucas says, standing near the doorway and pointing towards the wall clock in the room. "Please be ready to go to the meeting in an hour."