Chapter 3

"Nino!" Alya said when she saw her boyfriend Monday morning.

Nino looked up to see his girlfriend running towards him. She was out of breath by the time she reached him. Alya put her hands on Nino's shoulders as she tried to catch her breath.

"You will not believe what I found out!" she said in between breaths.

"What'd you find?"

"There's a new exhibit about to open up at the British Museum," Alya began. "It has artifacts from a dig sight in Kazakhstan and I went through some of the pieces they're going to display."

"And?" Nino urged her.

"They found several tablets with images of a spotted superhero who looks exactly like Ladybug!" Alya said in a high pitched squeal. "She even has the yoyo!"

Nino's eyes went wide with this new information. "You're kidding!" he exclaimed. "And you're sure it's Ladybug?"

Alya nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah! Definitely! There's even a cat-like superhero with her in some of the tablets. This is huge! I posted it on the Ladyblog right before I left!"

"Posted what?" Adrien asked when he walked up to them. They were both surprised to see that Marinette wasn't with him. Usually they met up at the bakery then walked to class together. He was holding a pastry bag from the store though.

"New information about Ladybug and Cat Noir," Alya said excitedly. "You have to read the article it is so cool!"

Adrien raised his eyebrows at Alya. "What'd you find?" he asked as he pulled out a couple of croissants and handed them to his friends.

They thanked him quickly.

"You'll have to read the article!" Alya told him, waving her croissant in the air proudly. "Where's Marinette by the way?"

"I'm here!" Marinette said running up behind her boyfriend. "I forgot my text book. I had to run back to get it."

"Marinette," Adrien said, "Alya posted an update on the Ladyblog."

"What about?" Marinette asked. She pulled out her phone and immediately went to Alya's blog. Adrien leaned over so he could read along with her. At almost the same time their eyes went wide as they read what Alya wrote.

"It's amazing isn't it?" Alya asked them misinterpreting their surprise as admiration and not slight horror. "They're mentioned not just in Egypt but in Kazakhstan! This is so huge! It makes me wonder where else they've been mentioned."

"Yeah. It makes you wonder," Marinette said with a slight daze in her voice. She was still staring at her phone incredulously, but only Adrien seemed to notice.

Marinette's boyfriend gently nudged her to get her to focus. "We should get to class," he said when she looked up.

"Right," she said. She still had her thoughts on the information in Alya's article. She glanced over at Adrien and wondered why he wasn't freaking out about it. It was too big of a coincidence for it to be just that, but as she stared at him longer she realized that he was freaking out as well. He was just doing a better job of hiding it.

All during class Marinette was itching to leave and talk about what Alya had found. What were the odds that Alya's surfing around on the web would turn up a lead similar to one they were following that upcoming weekend? Marinette knew that the student had taken a job at the British Museum, but she didn't remember what she got hired to do. The information on the blog said she was working on an exhibit that featured artifacts from that town in Kazakhstan. Marinette glanced down the row in front of her and saw Adrien on his tablet. He wasn't taking notes. Instead he was on the Internet. She recognized the red and black spotted background of Alya's blog. Looked like he was just as curious as her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Alya asked when lunch time rolled around. "Still feeling a little sick from the flu?"

"Huh?" Marinette muttered. She glanced at her best friend as she began to pack up her bag. "Oh, no. I'm just distracted."

"About what?"

Marinette shrugged. "Nothing."

"Oh, come on, Marinette! I know that look," said Alya. "You used to get it when you were daydreaming about Adrien."

"You used to daydream about me?" Adrien asked with an eyebrow raise and sly grin.

Alya pursed her lips as she remembered that Adrien was still in the room. Marinette ducked her head to hide her blush, but she wasn't sure why. He was well aware of her crush on him, but any mention of it still caused Marinette embarrassment.

"So what got you distracted this time?" Alya asked.

"I was thinking about the trip this weekend with Adrien and his aunt," Marinette answered truthfully. She wasn't exactly lying to Alya. That was what she was thinking about, but Marinette didn't mention what brought on that train of thought.

"Oh, right! I forgot. You two have a romantic weekend planned," Alya said with a glint in her eye.

"It's not going to be that romantic," Marinette argued.

"Well I don't know about that," Adrien said with a smile all too familiar to Marinette. "We'll be in London, second only to Paris when it comes to romance."

"I thought that was Rome," Marinette told him.

"Okay fine, third in the romance department," he corrected. Marinette giggled. "Anyway, we'll be in the heart of London. We can walk along the Thames, stroll through Hyde Park, and go up in the London Eye. I'd say that's fairly romantic."

Marinette knew he was only joking; their real reason for going to London was less than romantic, but the way he spoke made her wish they were going just for fun. She knew that Paris was at the top of the list for creating an atmosphere of romance, but she and Adrien both grew up there. They had acquired a sort of immunity to it. Going to another city and exploring it together sent her heart flying. Maybe once they made their inquiries they could do a couple of the things Adrien had mentioned. She didn't want to leave London without at least making one romantic memory.

That night Marinette resumed her duties as Ladybug since the flu had entirely left her system. She was glad she was finally able to go out and do something productive after almost a week of being stuck in her bedroom doing nothing besides catching up on homework. She wished she had Adrien with her as she watched out over Paris, but he had been doing her patrol while she had been sick and deserved a good night's rest.

The patrol was an uneventful one, as were the patrols the next two nights. She and Adrien mostly spent the entire time talking as they swung through Paris. He would annoy her with puns and she would refrain from tying him up to keep him from making puns, then of course he would just make a pun about her tying him up. There was no winning with him when it came to bad jokes and puns.

When she arrived back home that third night and took away the transformation she was disappointed by the lack of excitement. After Adrien's patrol the previous weekend she had hoped that they might've run into someone she could fight. At that moment she felt like she was fighting an idea. At least when Hawk Moth was around they had someone to fight. Granted it was always some poor victim of his, but still. They knew what to expect.

Marinette shook her head as she sighed. Was she actually missing Hawk Moth? She couldn't believe what she was thinking. Was she going crazy? Did that high fever from the flu turn her brain to mush? It was a possibility, but an unlikely one. Marinette flopped into her desk chair and stared at her computer screen. It was turned off at the moment, and she could see her reflection in it. Her skin was a bit paler than normal, but she hadn't been outside in almost a week. Other than that she looked like she usually did. Her hair was a bit mussed from being out for several hours. She took out her pigtails and brushed through them untangling the knots that had formed there.

She suddenly wondered what would happen if she transformed without her pigtails. Would they still be there, or would her hair stay loose? She knew the transformation did more than just make a magical suit appear. For Adrien several aspects changed. His hair and eyes changed and, whether it was on purpose or not, he did get more animalistic. He preferred to crouch or perch up on railings or lampposts. He tended to run on all fours than on two legs. She had asked him several times why he did it, and he had told her every time that it was surprisingly natural to do it. He never felt the need to do it as Adrien so they both assumed they were qualities that Plagg granted him when transformed.

Marinette jumped when her phone started buzzing. It was a text from Alya; a bit late for chitchat. She had sent her a link to a live stream of some breaking news story. There was another robbery all the way across town. A private collector had a priceless object stolen, but the police weren't releasing what the object actually was. They might tell a certain spotted superhero and her black clad partner though.

She transformed and made it to the scene of the crime within just a few minutes. It was thriving with police officers and news reporters. At the arrival of Ladybug they all swarmed trying to get an interview. She rushed to behind the police line to avoid speaking to the reporters. There was nothing she could tell them that would be helpful at all.

"Ladybug!" she heard Cat Noir call from behind her.

She turned and saw him jump down from a nearby building.

"I knew I'd find you here," he said with a wink. "It's good to see you, my lady."

He went in for a kiss but she lifted up her hand placed her index finger on his nose and pushed him back.

"Slow your roll, minou. We have more important things to worry about," she said with a smile. She lowered her arms and crossed them over her chest, just like old times.

Cat Noir just grinned at her. "Oh, I don't know. A public display of our undying love seems pretty important to me," he said with a flirty smile, slipping back into his old ways.

"Cat Noir, you never change," Ladybug said. "Let's just head inside and see what was stolen."

"After you, my lady," he said with a bow.

Together they walked up to the house. Once they were inside a familiar officer appeared with a smile. Lieutenant Roger pulled them aside so they could talk privately.

"Ladybug, Cat Noir, so good of you to come," he said.

"As soon as we heard about it we rushed over," Ladybug told him.

"And we thank you for coming. This one might be a little over our heads," the lieutenant said.

"Do you believe this robbery is connected to the one at the Louvre?" Cat Noir asked.

"That's the prevailing theory, yes."

Lieutenant Roger walked them through the house until they reached the scene. In the center of the room there was a wooden pedestal with an empty glass case. The other officers were still dusting for fingerprints and such. It looked like they had just started examining the scene.

"What was stolen, exactly?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer. If it was what she and Cat Noir believed it to be then it couldn't be good.

"The owner has a picture. Here it is." Lieutenant Roger reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the photo. In the photo there was a curved, flat piece of metal with symbols carved into it. It was gold, just like the piece of the decoder. It had to be a piece of the sextant. Ladybug and Cat Noir shared a solemn look as they came to the same conclusion.

Cat Noir gently grabbed Ladybug's arm and together they walked to a quiet area of the room.

"This had to be Lillian," Cat Noir whispered.

"She's one step closer to getting the jewel," Ladybug said. "I wonder how many more pieces are left."

"Hopefully enough to give us some more time. Tikki did say there were dozens of pieces," Cat Noir said hopefully. "We just need enough time to talk to that graduate student."

Their trip was only a couple days away. Tikki said Lillian only had a few pieces, and there were dozens of them scattered around the world. Not to mention Lillian still needed the map. Without the map, she couldn't find the jewel. Ladybug and Cat Noir agreed to keep to their original plan to find the map before Lillian could. They could destroy it once it was in their hands.

"We still don't know if it is Lillian though," Ladybug said. "This could be just a run-of-the-mill robbery."

"Yeah, well, a place like this should have security cameras," Cat Noir said, glancing around. "If my house is anything to go by."

"Lieutenant Roger, are there cameras in here?" Ladybug asked, calling the officer over to them.

"Oui. They're accessed just right through here," he said, leading them to a room no bigger than a broom closet. Inside there were some small computer monitors showing paused black and white videos. Lieutenant Roger left the room at their request.

Ladybug was about to sit down at the desk when Cat Noir put a hand on her arm to stop her. "I got this, LB. This system is just like the one back at my house," he said with a smile.

She shrugged. It was hard to argue with that, especially since she had no idea what she was going to do. She was just going to wing it. Ladybug watched silently and curiously as Cat Noir typed on the keyboard in front of him. She thought he would have trouble typing with the claws, but he was coping fairly well. A few seconds later a new window popped up on the monitor closest to them. It was showing what Ladybug assumed was the recording of the robbery.

"Alright. Here we go," he said.

He grabbed the mouse and clicked play. He fast forwarded through the first few hours, showing nothing but the room and the artifact. Suddenly there were masked robbers inside. He slowed it down to real time and together they watched intently as the robbers moved with clockwork like precision as they received the artifact. Once it was out of the glass case a woman appeared on screen.

"That's her. That's Lillian," Cat Noir informed his partner.

Ladybug didn't notice anything off putting about her, but it was hard to tell on just a black and white video. She was tall, and looked like she worked in a corporate office or something similar. She looked unassuming, until she looked up at the camera. Even with the black and white video, Ladybug knew her eyes were unnatural. They glowed with power. Anyone else would assume a camera flare, but she knew better. Lillian waved her hand and the screen turned to static.

"I guess that answers that," Ladybug muttered to herself.

"We should get going. There's nothing else for us to do here," Cat Noir said.

He was right, but she didn't like it. She hated not being able to help in some way, but she knew that what they were planning would help greatly. It was just a matter of waiting. They left the mansion to let the police do their job. They were about to head back when Alya ran up to the police with her phone trained on them.

"Ladybug! Cat Noir! Is it true that this robbery is connected to the one at the Louvre and all the others in France?" Alya asked them. "That the artifacts stolen are connected in some way?"

The superheroes shared a quick glance. They both knew Alya would find out one way or another. She was very clever in that sense.

Ladybug stepped up to Alya, ignoring the other reporters looking for an interview. Ladybug always gave Alya special treatment. She knew it was the least she could do considering she wasn't allowed to tell her best friend the truth.

"Yes, we believe them to be connected," Ladybug told her.

"Do you know who's stealing them and why? Could these robberies mean there's another new super-villain in Paris?" Alya asked excitedly.

Ladybug and Cat Noir knew who exactly was stealing them, and they knew why, but they couldn't tell her. Ladybug felt horrible for lying to her best friend. It never got easier, and she hoped it never would.

"We know at the very least that it's the same person," Cat Noir said, taking over for Ladybug. "Sadly, we do not why. We are looking for any connection between the artifacts to hopefully shed some light on the situation."

Ladybug gave her partner a look at another one of his stupid puns, then jumped into the conversation before he could make another.

"As far as we know, this is not a new super-villain," she said. "Paris can rest easy for now."

Knowing she couldn't say anything more, Ladybug hooked up her yoyo onto a nearby rooftop and swung out of sight of the reporters. She wasn't expecting Alya to show up, though she shouldn't be surprised. It was Alya who sent her the link in the first place. If Alya dug any deeper then she could find out about the Jewel of Rubati.

"Well, this has been an interesting night," Cat Noir said when he caught up to his girlfriend.

"Lillian's getting closer," Ladybug stated as she started pacing. "Is this the first piece she's gotten since last weekend, or has she been all over the world?"

"My question is how does she even know where they are?" Cat Noir asked. "It's not like they have tracking devices in them."

"She does have magic. Maybe she casts a spell that reveals their location?" she wondered with a sigh. "This is starting to feel like we're in way over our heads."

"Let's just take this one step at a time," Cat Noir suggested. "We still have the trip with my aunt coming up. Once we talk to the graduate student we'll know more."

Ladybug nodded. "You're right, and there's nothing else we can do tonight. Let's just get some sleep. I'm sure Alya will want to rave about her interview with Ladybug and Cat Noir."

He smiled at the mention of Alya. Marinette's phone was going to be exploding with texts and missed calls when she gets home. Marinette always tried to make up for not being able to tell Alya the truth.

Together they headed back to the city. The superheroes parted ways once they reached the Eiffel Tower. Once Marinette was back home and back to normal, she checked her phone. Sure enough, there were about twenty texts all from Alya and in all caps.

"With every new interview you do with her she just gets more excited," Tikki said with a smile.

Marinette chuckled. "That's because I keep choosing her over the other reporters." She sighed as her happiness for her friend faded. "She's getting closer to the truth, Tikki. If she finds out what's going on, then she will be in incredible danger."

"She doesn't know everything, Marinette," Tikki said reassuringly. "She's only looking for information on Ladybug, not about Lillian or the Set or the jewel."

"But they're all connected to me. What do I do if she finds out?"

"I really don't know," Tikki sighed. "Marinette you're going to make yourself sick worrying. Once you get some sleep you'll be less stressed."

Marinette grimaced, but then started yawning. She didn't even brush her teeth before climbing into bed. Marinette was out within seconds.

Alya woke up early, too excited to sleep for too long. She immediately went onto her computer and checked the news sites for anything more about the robbery the night before. As she scrolled through the new articles, she kept thinking about how she got chosen over the other more professional reporters once again. Ladybug always seemed to make her a priority if Alya was around. After a few minutes, an update caught her eye. She watched the video with wide eyes. Alya grabbed her phone and bag then ran down to Marinette's house. Her parents waved to her as she ran up the stairs to her best friend's room. Marinette was just starting to put her things into her custom pink and white book bag. She smiled when Alya came in.

"Hey! Did you catch the video last night?" Alya asked as soon as she was in the room.

Marinette smiled and nodded. "Like I would miss out on that? It's amazing that Ladybug chose you," she said encouragingly. "Have you noticed that she does that a lot?" Alya didn't notice the sly gleam in her best friend's eye as she asked that last question. Alya was too busy on her phone looking at the views her video had gotten. It had gotten a few thousand that night, and was up to a hundred thousand that morning. Her blog was becoming exceedingly popular lately, as it should be. Alya probably knew the most about Ladybug than anyone else in the entire city, not counting the superhero herself.

"Did you happen to see what was stolen?" Alya asked, referencing the video she had watched just before she came to Marinette's.

She shook her head. "No. Why do you ask?"

"Well, they said that it's possibly part of a larger set."

Marinette froze at Alya's words. Her hands stopped midway through packing up one of her books. When she came back to her senses, Alya had continued on with her story, not noticing Marinette's slight distress.

"Yeah. They did a story early this morning about the other pieces stolen, and apparently they seem to be all connected in some way. They all come from the same area and have the same writing on them. The funny thing is, no one has noticed it before! These items were all found at different times. One of them was found ten years ago, and another was found back in the mid-eighteen hundreds. It took these robberies for people to find out."

"Wow," Marinette said, trying her best to sound excited for Alya. On the inside though she was freaking out. "That's pretty cool."

"I know!" Alya exclaimed, not noticing the strain in Marinette's voice.

"You said they all came from the same area? Where exactly?" Marinette hoped she didn't sound too curious, or like she was hiding something.

"Well, they all weren't found in the same area," Alya told her. "Like I said, found at different times and they all came from different parts of the world, but they share the same writing from other objects found in this one dig site in Kazakhstan."

Marinette hoped that she was keeping her face as stoic as possible. She hoped her acting abilities would be good enough to not tip Alya off.

"It's actually the same site that some of those Ladybug artifacts came from!" Alya continued excitedly.

"No kidding," Marinette said, her hands shaking.

"Hey, you and Adrien are going to the British Museum right? Do you mind checking out the exhibit and taking a few pictures for me? I'd love to get some personal pictures for the Ladyblog."

Marinette was lost in her mind when Alya asked the question, so it took Marinette a moment to figure what her best friend had said. When she did she nodded.

"Yeah. Sure, but only if you credit me as the photographer," Marinette said, trying to make a joke.

"It's a deal."

The two girls shook on it then started giggling. Marinette's sounded a bit forced, but Alya didn't seem to notice, for which Marinette was glad. It was going to be only a matter of time until Alya learned about what the pieces were actually for, and then she would find out about Lillian. Marinette walked behind Alya as they left the bakery. Tikki perked up out of Marinette's bag and the two of them shared a very worried glance.

Adrien and Nino were already at the school. Once they were in sight Alya broke into a run and almost ran into the boys. She gripped Nino's arms tightly as she started to tell him what she had just told Marinette a moment ago. Adrien listened on with casual interest until Alya got to the real gist of the story. He straightened up and his green eyes went wide. Nine gave him a glance, but quickly shook it off. Nino was used to Adrien acting oddly. It was one of their quirks to their friendship. He never questioned Adrien's odd behavior.

Marinette went up to Adrien and quickly slipped her hand in his. "If you two will excuse me I need to talk to my boyfriend for a moment," she said. Neither Alya nor Nino argued. Marinette gripped his hand tighter then pulled him away to behind a tree so they wouldn't be overheard.

"Was she really telling the truth?" Adrien asked. "Does she know that those items are connected?"

Marinette nodded. "She knows more than that. She knows that they're from the same sight as those Ladybug artifacts in the British Museum. In fact she wants us to take pictures for her when we go to London."

"Are you going to?"

"Of course I'm going to! She's my best friend," Marinette said obviously. "I just wish she would stop investigating. Anymore digging and she's going to get herself into danger."

"Sounds like you need to plant some false evidence," Plagg said, flying out of Adrien's shirt.

"No, Plagg! That is exactly what they don't need to do," Tikki said, appearing in front of the black cat Kwami. "What if Alya were to find out? Then she'd be mad at the two of them, but then she'd also double her efforts to find out the truth."

"Tikki's right," Marinette said. "Leaving her a false trail would only make things worse. We shouldn't worry about her."

"Easier said than done, isn't it, Princess?" Adrien asked with an upraised brow. He had a strong feeling that she had been worrying about since she came to the crime scene the night before. Adrien always had a sense when she was worried about something. He just wished there was something he could do.

"Let's just go to class, kitty," Marinette said. "School's about to start in a couple minutes."

When they walked into class, Marinette and Adrien tried their best to not show their fear and worry to their best friends. If either of them found anything off about the young superheroes' expressions then there would be a million questions and neither would know how to answer them.