You Will Never be a God

Chloe breaks some dude's face with a computer

TW: This chapter contains mention of school shootings, violence, and character death. Please read with this in mind.

Adrien was beginning to lose track of time. Everything was so blurred together now that he wasn't sure if he'd been remembering to to take care of himself or not. When was the last time he ate? He couldn't even remember if he'd slept at all the past few days.

His body was on autopilot and his mind constantly somewhere else so much so that he wasn't even sure what was real or not anymore. Ladybug kept fighting with him and he was losing sleep over stress. Perhaps he was being hard on her, but Adrien could hardly stand stand Ladybug any longer. He was done with all the things she'd done to wrong him.

It was the last week of school before the break and Adrien wasn't sure if he had the energy to survive the day. Yet somehow he managed to groggily get himself dressed and ready to make it through the day. The last thing he needed was an attack from Hawkmoth any time soon.

He was sitting in his first period class, waiting for the day to start. Marinette was late, as usual, but this time it was only by five minutes rather than fifteen. From then on throughout the morning, he could practically feel her eyes on him.

"Yo Adrien, you alive bro?" Nino asked, nudging his friend with his elbow from where he sat. Nino was Adrien's best friend, he hated keeping his world of secrets from him. Nino didn't have a great home life like Adrien, but in an entirely different way. His parents were very overwhelming and it caused Nino a great amount of stress, which was why Adrien couldn't remember a time where the boy ever took him to his own house to hang out. They also avoided Adrien's dad like the plague of they could, but sometimes that was harder than it sounded. But in the end, Nino was his friend and always would be.

"I'm... what did you say?"

"You alive?"

"Seems like I am. What do you think?" Adrien asked.

"Kinda dead, not sure though. You look pretty dead but you see, you got the breathing thing telling me otherwise. Let's see, is your heart still beating?" Nino said and placed his hand over Adrien's heart. "Hmmmm I don't know if I feel one." He said, acting as if he were now searching for a pulse which most certainly was there.

"I assure you I have a heart Nino-"

"Well maybe you're a robot, hm? Did your dad buy a robot Adrien to pose as you at school?! Is that why you're able to do so much shit in one day?! You have robot clones?!"

"I do not have robot clones." Adrien chuckled.

"That sounds like something a robot Adrien spy would say."

"Adrien, Nino, quiet down." Mrs. Bustier snapped. She'd been getting to become a cranky teacher lately but Adrien assumed it was because of her pregnancy. She was a few months along, and very, very irritable all the time.

"Sorry ma'am." Nino said and snorted.

"Alright, is everyone here?" Mrs. Bustier asked and started taking attendance. Suddenly her radio started blaring from her him.

"Lock down. Lock down. We are in lock down." The radio said. A lock down? What for? He was pretty sure they weren't supposed to have a practice drill today, but he had been forgetting a lot of things lately. It was just a drill. Right?

The look on Mrs. Bustier's face said otherwise. She stood there, frozen for a moment, before taking action.

"You know what to do, everyone get under your desks." She commanded. The students did as they were told, hiding themselves under the large desks that shielded them from the door. Adrien's mind searched for an explanation, trying to remember if this was planned or not, just a practice, a test. But something inside him told him it wasn't. Something horrible was about to happen.