In the blue light of early morning, Alya studied the mansion blueprint, eyes red behind her glasses. Snow had fallen heavily overnight, and now, the view out of her window showed a Paris blanketed in a uniform covering of icy white. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a day off from school, and she would have been sleeping in. Instead, she sipped at her fourth cup of coffee, typing furiously into the machine at her desk.

Adrien, laying fully clothed on the top of her bed, started awake suddenly. Bleary, he rubbed at his eyes, looking around. It still was weird to him, waking up in an actual building again. "Nng… Sorry. I passed out again, huh?"

"It's fine," Alya said, not looking up from the windows flickering past on her monitors. "Go back to sleep. You've more than earned it."

"No," Adrien said, pushing himself up. His body ached from straining himself so hard the night before, and the soft give of the mattress tried to pull him back down, into the warm softness of the sheets. "I was supposed to help you plan. You've been working all night on it. If you can stay awake, then…" He yawned, hair tousled from the pillow. "…So can I."

She glanced away for a split second, smiling at him. "So stubborn lately. What happened to pushover Adrien?"

"He started hanging around stubborn reporters," he said, fighting slow blinks.

"Heh. Fair enough. Coffee's in the kitchen."

"Thank you," Adrien said, wobbling to his feet. "Big day today, right? Just give me five minutes, and then I'll be back here to help."

"It's probably for the best," Alya said, returning to her computer. "You weren't sleeping very well, last night. I think you were having nightmares about her."

Adrien paused. "Really?"

"Yeah." Alya hesitated. "She doesn't hate you, Adrien. You know that, right? If you only knew the way she talked about you… She loved you, so much."

Adrien was quiet. He glanced at her other wall, the pictures of Ladybug pinned up everywhere. He had barely managed to fend off an akuma for even an hour without Plagg's help. If Tikki was right, and she was still fighting hers almost a month later… She was utterly incredible. He had always known she was.

"She barely knew me," he said. "And I thought I knew her, but… It doesn't matter. I got her hurt." He shook his head suddenly. "Look at me, being melodramatic. That's why we're doing this, right? We've just got to get her out of there, that's all there is to it."

"Adrien."

She had swiveled around in her chair. She was giving him that look, over the top of her glasses, cutting through any nonsense. "She loves you. And you need to accept that, okay? It doesn't do you—or her—any good for you to sit there and crucify yourself. Understand?"

He blinked, hard, not looking at Alya. He had been loved once. But then Mom had disappeared, and his father had become so distant. He had yearned for affection, of any kind, but especially Ladybug's. It had meant the world to him, to think it might be returned, something more precious than any possession. But at the same time, he didn't know how to deal with it, didn't know how to process being loved by someone else, open to hurting and being hurt by them.

"Do you love her?" Alya pressed.

"Of course," he whispered, full of conviction. Both sides of her, even if he hadn't known it at the time.

"Then that's all that matters," Alya said firmly. "She would have been so happy to know that. Believe me, she talked my ear off about it for months." She rolled her eyes in fond exasperation at Adrien. "And she'll be even happier, today, to see you. Trust me on that. Okay?"

"Okay," he said, voice thick.

"Good." She swiveled back to her computer, fingers already finding the keyboard. "Now go get some coffee before you fall over."

.:|:.

"Still meditating?" Master Fu asked, passing by the living room. "You were at it late into the night. And here you are, early in the morning, back at it again. You aren't sleeping sitting up, are you?"

Nino, sitting on the living room floor, opened his eyes. "Thank you, for showing it to me," he said, shifting position slightly. "It really helps, even more than the music does."

"Ah, well, when the mind is clear, negative energy can find nothing to latch onto," Fu said. "Keep at it! You may need that clarity, for today." He turned, heading for the kitchen.

"So it was mostly the breathing exercises," Tikki was saying. The kwamis were gathered on the kitchen table, eating breakfast. Tikki was telling them about the past few weeks, in detail, in between bites of a piece of melon. "But, yeah… When it got really bad, I siphoned off some of the dark energy for her."

"Tikki!" Wayzz said, scandalized. "You know better than that! What if you hadn't been able to get rid of it, if some of it had started to change you?"

"Well, I couldn't help it!" Tikki said, antennae standing on end. "It's easy for you, Wayzz! Your partner is like a kajillion years old now! I've never had a partner last that long, for as far back as I remember! They keep dying in battle, and I am so, so tired of it!" She looked down at her melon, tearing up. "It happens every time. I grow to love them, and then…"

Master Fu opened a cabinet, looking up at the Cesaire's plates, so high above. This was going to be difficult. "Tikki has always been one of the hardest workers among the kwamis, Wayzz," he said gently. "Maybe we should go easy on her. The other kwamis could stand to learn from her work ethic. Right, Plagg?"

Plagg looked up from his cheese, frowning. "Really, old man? I'm the kwami connected to the power of destruction. Death, disease, rot, decay… Everything that humans fear and loathe. Does anyone really want to see what happens when I try hard? Haven't you considered, for just a moment, that maybe I'm lazy not because it's easier, but because things get horrible very, very quickly when I assert myself?"

Tikki shivered. "Well, I guess—"

"Besides," Plagg said, suddenly cheerful again. "If I do less work, someone else will come along and do it for me, and I'll have more time to eat!" He tossed the last bit of cheese up in the air, catching it in his mouth with a satisfied gulp.

Tikki and Wayzz looked at each other. Tikki exhaled, shaking her head. "Like I said, I couldn't let Marinette be hurt. I just couldn't! Even if I had to risk a little to help her. I know she would risk herself for me, too! I love her, Wayzz, just like the other girls!"

"Yes, but, Tikki…" Wayzz sighed, a patient look on his face. "You must learn to look at the long-term consequences! Absorbing dark energy like that… What would have happened if it had changed you, and you forgot? If you had reverted? What would have happened to this Marinette girl then?"

"Reverted?"

They all looked up. Adrien was standing at the entrance to the kitchen, watching them. "What does reverted mean?" he asked.

"Do you remember what I told you last night?" Fu asked, straining to reach the cabinet above. "If kwamis are bonded to an evil host who isn't careful, and they absorb too much dark energy, the seal between them and their miraculous can come undone. And then they revert, back to how they were before, giant beings made of pure energy, with destructive, world-destroying capabilities."

"Yikes," Adrien said, reaching up to get a plate down for the old man. "That's scary. So, Plagg, is that why you were worried about me with the pickle jar? Because if I kept getting depressed—"

"No, no," Fu said, smiling and waving his hand. "It takes a lot of energy for them to get to that point. It can't really happen by accident. One has to want to force dark energy through their miraculous, and it's a very unpleasant experience for the kwami! There's a reason it's only happened eight times in the planet's history."

"Eight times?!"

Fu took the plate from Adrien with a little bow, walking toward the counter. Reaching up, he began to load the plate with the food spread out, piling it with bagels, fruits, yogurt, eggs, and a little of everything else that Mme. Cesaire had left before heading out that morning. "Well. When you consider how many humans, by now, have held a miraculous at one point or another, I really consider that a good track record! The vast majority of humans are really just trying to get through their lives and be good people, in the end. I believe that. Now."

Fu turned toward Adrien, holding out the plate with a smile. "The polite thing to do would be to carry this up to the roof, wouldn't it? That young lady has been waiting very patiently, out there in the cold."

Adrien looked up at the ceiling above him, frowning.

.:|:.

Volpina sat cross-legged on the roof, wrapped in a thick blanket. The air was frosty on her face, and she knew that if she looked out, everywhere in every direction, there would be pure white, beautiful and so far undisturbed. But she couldn't let herself see it. She had blindfolded herself, so that, if Papillon suddenly checked in, she wouldn't give away their position. And she had refused to come inside, on the off-chance that something overheard or otherwise sensed would do the same thing. It had just been her, all night, feeling the snow fall on her shoulders in total darkness, alone with her thoughts.

Something rustled to the side. One ear swiveled toward it, and, under the blanket, she grabbed at her staff. "Who's there?" she asked sharply.

"Easy there," a familiar voice called. "It's just me. Hungry?"

She could smell it, now, the food he was carrying. "Thanks. But you should eat it yourself, Chat Noir. You're so skinny that a five-year-old could knock you over."

He laughed quietly, feet crunching on the ice as he walked toward her. "Don't be like that. Just eat it! It's okay to take gifts from others, you know."

Volpina sighed, as the plate was put into her lap. Slowly, she reached out from under the blanket, and began fumbling, feeling over the objects on the plate, trying to guess which ones might be meat.

Creaking, as he took a seat beside her on the snow. "Ready? We've got a long day ahead of us."

"Yeah," she said, fingers closing around something that she was pretty sure might be bacon. "A long, complicated, pain-filled day. Still, you must be excited, Boy Scout. If you win, Papillon will fall, and this will all be over."

"I don't know if 'excited' is the right word," he said. Silence, and she knew that he was thinking about his father. "But yes. It will be nice to have things back to normal again. Things have been so messed up for so long…"

"Normal. Right. Great." She shredded the bacon with her teeth, swallowing. "Everyone goes home and gets a happy ending. Hooray."

"You're a supervillain," he said, amusement in his voice. "I should have known that would have bothered you a little."

"Not for much longer," she said. "If you win today, and there's no more Papillon, I go back to being boring old Lila, I think." She was quiet for a moment, staring at the inside of her blindfold. "…Chat Noir. You don't like Adrien very much, do you?"

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"Just a feeling." She tossed her head, frustrated at not being able to see his face, to judge his reactions. "I was wondering how you coped with it, at the end of the day. Changing back into him, being suddenly powerless. Having to live like that, knowing you're less interesting and less capable than you were a second ago, than everyone expects you to be."

"Volpina…" He touched her arm. She stiffened, not expecting it, then let herself relax. "I know you don't think much of Lila," he said. "But I thought she was great, the little bit that she let me see! I wanted to be her friend. Remember?"

"That doesn't count," she said, irritated. "You want to be everyone's friend." She scoffed. "Besides. It wasn't just me. Even Lila hated Lila. Hates. Will hate. It was a nightmare to her, to have to be herself. Why do you think she lied about being someone else all the time?"

She poked at her plate, ignoring everything else in the hunt for more bacon. "Don't get me wrong. Papillon needs to go down, and I'm still going to help you with that. But what happens after that… It's bittersweet, you know? A little like dying. I'm going to miss this. All of this."

He was being quiet. She didn't like that he was being quiet. She couldn't see, had no idea how he was reacting to what she had just said!

"Don't you?" she asked, turning her head toward him. "Adrien is cute, but he's nowhere near as cool as Chat Noir. If you lost your miraculous, wouldn't you feel the same way? No more rooftops, no more superpowers, no more adventure at all. You couldn't even make it up here to do something as simple as have this rooftop conversation with me!"

She flinched as hands touched her face. Made herself not fight as he grabbed onto her blindfold, and pulled at it. The rising sun was bright, reflecting off of white surfaces, and for a moment she just blinked, trying to adjust to the sudden onslaught of color and light.

Adrien smiled down at her. She had assumed he had transformed into Chat Noir, but he had been Adrien all along, and she hadn't been able to tell the difference. "It's harder, definitely," he admitted, unafraid to be totally honest, as always. "And there are days that I don't like my real self as much. You're right. But even without superpowers, Adrien can still do some cool things, I think. And so can you, Lila."

He stood, and turned, walking carefully toward the edge of the roof again. She watched, unsure of what to say, as he bent down, leaned over, then slid himself down to the fire escape despite the danger of slipping.

She looked down. He knew her pretty well, it seemed, better than anyone she could think of. Her plate was piled high with nothing but bacon.

.:|:.

They set off through the cold and the quiet, just two hours later, footsteps leaving deep tracks in the snow drifts. There were no street cleaners at work, given the circumstances, and their progress was slow. By the time they reached the fence marking the boundary of Papillon's ever-growing territory, it was almost noon. Adrien could have transformed into Chat Noir and been there much more quickly. But the others couldn't keep up, and for what they were planning, everyone was critical.

"Alright," Alya said, when the fence was only a block away. Akumas were everywhere, and even the pigeons might by watching, spying for Papillon. They had to make this quick. "Everyone know what they're doing? Everyone test their communicators to make sure they're working?"

A chorus of nods and people tapping the electronic devices clipped around their ears. Adrien turned his on for a moment, making sure he could hear their voices coming through the microphones, then switched it back off. "How about you?" he asked. "Are you sure you've got enough cameras?"

"They'll have to be enough," she said, glancing at the backpack on her shoulders. "That's all the parts I had left. Nino, I'm taking a tablet, but you take the spare laptop, okay? Just in case. Still remember all the accesses?"

"I think so," he said, taking the computer from her with an uncertain look. She could have at least made them shorter and easier to remember. Oh well, it wouldn't matter. He would be sticking close to her for most of it anyways, and he wasn't going to let anything happen to her.

"Good," Alya said. She tapped on her tablet, quickly bringing up a picture of their corrected blueprint of the mansion, and showing it to all of them one more time. "So, we're aiming at thirty minutes, forty-five, tops. Yeah? Nino with me, Adrien going for the skylight with Tikki. Volpina—"

"Yeah, yeah," Volpina said, shrugging and finally shedding her blindfold. "I'm scouting ahead. See you later, losers." She bounded, and was gone, scrambling up to a roof before jumping ahead for the top of the wall.

"Winning personality," Alya commented. "And Master Fu—"

"Will be heading home, to put on some tea, for when you all return," the old man said, smiling kindly. "There's no need to give me busy work. We all know I'm too old for this sort of thing."

"Okay," Adrien said. "Be careful, getting back. Thank you for everything."

"You be careful as well, young man. I expect you to bring all of these ones home, too, at the end, understand?" Fu reached up, taking Adrien's right hand. He covered it in his own. "I wish you good luck! And I leave you with this parting gift."

Adrien looked down, confused, as his ring began to vibrate on his hand. The gray turned black, even without him transforming, until the green paw symbol lit up, very bright. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Two hours, as much Cataclysm as you need," Fu said, before releasing his hand. "Within reasonable limits, of course. Don't get used to this! This is only for emergencies, and I can't do it every time."

Adrien lifted his hand, inspecting the ring, then nodded. "Thank you, shifu. That's going to help a lot."

"It had better," Fu said, turning away. "Now go! Daylight's burning."

"Right," Alya said, opening her pack. She pulled out a drone, and opened up a particular program on her tablet. Slowly, carefully, she began piloting the little helicopter-like device, sending it away from her, toward the wall.

When it was right up against the brick, she tapped a button. The home-made explosives attached to the drone detonated, forcefully, blowing a large hole in the wall.

Immediately, they took off, running for the gap, knowing they would soon be swarmed in akumas. Adrien glanced to make sure that Tikki and Plagg were still following along behind him, then lifted his ring, beginning the transformation.

.:|:.

Red light played over the room, as a couple of akumatized guards stood over the device that had been installed in its center. This had once been a spare dining room. Now, with the windows blacked out and the machine turned on, it was something much more useful.

Papillon watched as one of the guards carefully picked up the Soh Tahn jewel with a pair of tongs, then lowered it down into the machine's crosshairs. The second guard aimed the machine and pushed a button, and another red laser pulsed out, striking the red rock. Slowly, the ancient gem began to glow bright reddish-white, shifting, loosening. The machine worked around it, aiming the laser in strategic spots, sculpting the rare artifact into something new.

The antique phone on the wall began to ring. The two guards stopped their work, and Papillon curled his lip in irritation, turning toward it. He snatched the phone off of its receiver, holding it to his ear. "This had better be important, Nathalie."

He listened as the creature's atrocious voice rattled harshly in his ears, updating him. Then, "No matter. Let them come. I already know exactly what they're after. Execute home defensive measure nine, then wait for my further instructions."

He placed the phone back where it belonged, then turned toward his two followers, who were watching him. "Well?" he said, folding his hands behind his back. "Do you understand that this is top priority, right now? You had best continue."

The guards turned back toward their work. The red laser returned, attacking the jewel.

.:|:.

Chat Noir leaped ahead, taking down one of Papillon's goons with a single strike of his baton. He landed, and looked back, making sure Alya and Nino were still behind him. In school, Nino at least could lap him in any race. It was bizarre to have to be the one slowing down so they could catch up, for once. "Come on!" he yelled. "It's just around this corner!"

Akumas flooded the streets, drawn to them in anger. Nino was fine, able to push through them as well as any human would be able to push through a crowded flock of normal butterflies. But Alya, still vulnerable, was having trouble. "Happy thoughts, happy thoughts!" she said to herself, her face anything but happy as she swung her bag at the butterflies flying at her from every direction. She was panicked, starting to slow down behind them.

Chat Noir started to run toward her, then suddenly slid on ice. Bad luck! Starting to learn from the past, he relaxed and rolled with it, letting the frictionless ground carry him toward her. He extended his pole, and began rotating it in a fast, tight circle, driving the akumas back.

"Keep running," he called. "I've got you!"

Still nervous, but trusting him, she nodded and moved forward, trying catching up with Nino.

The mansion was ahead, security shutters now permanently closed over every window and entrance. This was the part where their plan would fall apart. Chat Noir's house key would surely no longer work, nor would his personal security accesses. He would have been locked out, long ago, and it would have taken an entire army to slowly force their way in. No matter how Alya had pored over the layout the night before, they hadn't been able to find a weakness. This was where they would be captured.

If not, that was, for Volpina. As they approached, the panel by the front door suddenly flashed green, and the door swung open by itself, as though opened by a ghost. Together, they ran up the steps and darted inside. Nino barely slammed the door shut in time to keep the akumatized goons in the street from chasing them, turning the lock.

They paused for a moment, out of breath, looking around the empty entry hallway of the grand manor.

"Okay," Chat Noir said, reaching up to turn his communicator on. "You remember where to go first, right?"

"Mhm," Alya said, clicking hers on as well. "I was at this all night. I probably know this house better than my own, at this point."

"Good," Chat Noir said, eyes already turning toward a hallway off to the side, his next target. "Good luck, you two. Stay safe."

"We will," Nino said, taking Alya's arm, turning the other way. "See you in thirty minutes!"

They ran their separate ways, taking advantage of the slight lull before whatever was inside the dark mansion began chasing them as well.

.:|:.

Volpina edged the door open, listening for a moment to make sure there was no one inside before letting herself in. She flipped on the light in the spare bedroom, just for a moment, to double-check. Then it was off again, and she was moving in the darkness, toward the bathroom at the back.

She shut the door behind her, and turned the lock. She reached into the shower, and pulled the faucet, turning the water pressure on as high as it would go. She had thought this was a dumb idea, but she saw Adrien's point now. The Agrestes had high-powered shower heads, in bathrooms that were especially echoey. She lifted her flute, blowing a test note. Sure even, she was the one playing it, and even she could barely hear it.

She took a seat on the counter, settling in for the long haul. This particular song wasn't one she had ever played before. She could feel the combination of notes that would be needed, just by thinking about them. But such an intricate, multi-faceted illusion was going to take every ounce of skill, and a very particular, difficult combination of notes, that would require at least twenty minutes to play all the way through. She needed twenty minutes in here, uninterrupted. And then she would be ready for a grand finale, her best trick yet.

She took a breath, and pressed her lips to the instrument, beginning the lilting, ominous song.

.:|:.

The flash drive plugged into the USB port of the Agreste mansion's security system blinked slowly as the program held upon it whirred through its cycles. Nino tapped his fingers on the desk, antsy. This was right at the heart of Papillon's whole area, right? So why hadn't they run into any bad guys yet?

On the screen, a green check mark flashed suddenly, followed by an unlocking click. "Finally," Alya said, leaning forward. "Billion-Euro security system, meet Open Source! The internet wins again."

"You're such a nerd," Nino said, amused.

"A nerd who has access to this whole mansion!" Alya said, leaning forward and typing a command. A window popped up, showing a security feed of a real-life window at the end of a hallway, in a totally different wing of the building. Chat Noir stood in front of the security shutters, patiently waiting, on guard.

Alya clicked, and on the video feed, the window shutter opened. Chat Noir stepped forward, sliding out of it into the fresh air beyond.

"Okay," she said, reaching down for the flash drive. "Camera time."

"Wait," Nino said, looking over the security hub. "You just said you have access to the whole mansion right here, right? All of the security features, waiting to do whatever you want. You're just going to shut that all down?"

"What else can I do?" Alya asked, reaching into her bag, and pulling out a small round camera. "We've got to plant these, before we're spotted! I can't stay here to man the hub and run around the mansion sticking these things everywhere."

"Hold on a second." Nino stepped closer, looking over the various screens and controls. It was all incredibly complicated, and he was no Alya. Still… He held his hands over the main keyboard experimentally. Mentally overlaid a DJ table over the controls, looked up at the screen.

"I've got this," he said suddenly, reaching for his headphones.

"Really?" Alya asked. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," he said, grinning. "You go put up the cameras. I'll stay here and watch over you."

"Okay," Alya said, trusting him. She leaned forward, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Be careful, honey."

Then she was running, headed for the first hallway on her list. Nino planted the laptop on top of the hub, bringing up the screens that would soon show feed from the cameras in Alya's bag. He turned up the music and got to work.

.:|:.

Chat Noir clung to the side of the building, bracing himself as the swarm of akumas wheeled back around again. In a rush, they all flew at him, beating him up against the wall, trying to knock him off. His claws dug deep into the stone. He knew if he fell, from this height, he probably wouldn't be getting up again.

They drew back again, beginning to circle around the building, to build up speed and momentum before crashing into him again. Taking advantage of the short respite, he flung himself up, trying to gain as much height as possible before he was forced to hold on again.

Tikki was somewhere in the air ahead of him, keeping watch over his progress, occasionally shouting down encouraging things. He could see her, if he looked, a dot of red, all nervous tension as she watched him climb, unable to help with this part.

He lifted his head, eyes fixated on the area above, where he knew there was a skylight. There were three rooms that he knew of, in the entire building, with a skylight installed. But only one of them held plants, the flowers and herbs that his mother had loved so much, tended for years after her disappearance by the maids.

The sound of flapping wings approaching. He pressed himself against a window, claws digging into the brick of the window sill. And then they were beating against him again, driving him hard into the steel shutter with the sheer force of their combined weight. They were getting smarter, too, aiming for weak points, like his eyes. He yelled as they stung at his face, shaking his head to try to throw them off. Vision blurred, he risked freeing a claw to swipe at them.

Then they were peeling away. He blinked hard against the pain, gritted his teeth, and pulled him up, eyes returning to the skylight above.

.:|:.

Nino's hands flew over the controls, eyes peeled to the cameras, both the pre-existing ones on the Agreste hub, and the ones starting to pop into view on Alya's laptop. In one ear, upbeat music boomed, keeping time with the movement of his fingers across different keyboards and controls. In the other, he heard Chat Noir suddenly yell in pain. Well. That wasn't good. But there weren't any cameras or controls for the outside of the mansion, so he had to turn his focus elsewhere.

He flipped a switch, and on one of the screens, a group of villains looked at each other in confusion as the door they were pulling on refused to open, trapping them in the cellars of the house. More buttons, and the room he was in reinforced itself, sealing everyone out.

He glanced to the side, checking on Alya. A new window flickered open on her laptop screen, and he saw her face, looking intently into the camera as she attached it to somewhere out of the way where it likely wouldn't be noticed. Behind her, movement.

As a record scratched in his left ear, he reached up, grabbing the communicator on his right. "Alya! Behind you!"

.:|:.

Alya turned, barely ducking in time before a giant, spindly leg stabbed where she had been standing just moments before. She gasped and slid to the side, as Nathalie's spider face roared into hers, teeth pointed like little knives, all eight eyes narrowed in anger.

Alya snatched a can of mace out of her pocket, spraying it directly at the abomination in front of her. Nathalie shrieked, clawing at her face with two of her legs. Heart pounding, Alya crouched and ran, throwing the can behind her for good measure. Well. There went her only can of mace! She ran down the hallway, praying to all that was holy that Nathalie wasn't very fast.

.:|:.

"Hook a left!" Nino yelled, fingers pounding on keys. "Then down the stairs, and close the door. I can lock it from here!"

Pounding, behind him. He glanced down at the Agreste hub, pulling up a screen. Outside one of the doors he had sealed around this room, the Gorilla stood, in all of his armor and hulking muscles. He pulled both fists back, and pounded on the door, making it shake.

Nino bit his lip, pulling up the options bar and running through it quickly. It was a very, very good security system, but it was designed to keep humans out, not giants with arms the size of tree trunks!

Having a sudden idea, he searched the controls for a particular shutter, on one side of the house, and opened it. Alya's camera, which had just been looking down a hallway, could now see outside the building a little. He watched, from directly above the skylight, as Chat Noir pulled himself up on top of the building.

.:|:.

Chat Noir shuddered on all fours at the roof's edge, breathing hard. The akumas would be back soon, he knew it. He only had a few moments to get a grip, before they returned to try to knock him off again. He ran the back of his hand over his eyes, trying to get them to stop watering so badly.

Quiet, no beating wings. Surely they hadn't just given up. Blinking fast, he looked up.

The skylight was ahead, just a few yards ahead of him. Unfortunately, so was she.

The Ladybug akunette spun her yoyo in slow, lazy circles, watching him. Her foot rested on the top of the skylight, and a challenge was in her eyes. He started toward her, then hesitated, senses picking up others.

They stepped out, slowly, eyeing him. The umbrella akunette, from behind a chimney. The sewing akunette, scaling up the wall from below him. The gift box akunette, appearing when he looked away for a second, huddled in a corner. And a new one! The gaming akunette wasn't one he had seen before, holding a video game controller with a cord that seemed to be plugged into her own suit. He was starting to be sure of it—the longer Marinette was left alone with her akuma, the more varieties there would be.

Good thing Marinette wouldn't be left alone much longer, then.

"Chat Noir!" Tikki zoomed down, hovering above his shoulder. She looked out at the unfriendly Marinette faces all around, frowning.

"Tell me one thing," he said, extending his baton with a flick of his wrist. He turned around and around, taking them in, as they moved in to surround him. "These ones. None of them are the real Marinette, right? One-hundred-percent sure?"

"Yes," Tikki said. "I'm sure."

"Alright then." Chat Noir twirled his baton, then jumped into action as they all attacked him at once. He rushed the Ladybug one—the nearest one—determined not to stop until he saw purple ashes.