XXVIII. Getting Ready.

Everyone headed towards the Arc de Triumph to plan what they would do to fight Hawk Moth if he decided he would appear. When they arrived there, they saw Master Fu was already there.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Ladybug?" asked Master Fu when they landed. "You have already lost your miraculous to him once, it could be risky."

"Yes, I am," she responded as her transformation ended and gave Tikki a cookie. "I know what happened then, but now we have time to plan ahead. We are more now and we can count with the help of the kwamis."

Cat, Fox, Queen and Majestic feather ended their own transformation and gathered around to come up with a plan.

"Any ideas?" asked Marinette.

"I have one," said Adrien. "What if I show him I'm Cat Noir? He would surrender immediately, he wouldn't want me hurt."

"Could that really work?" asked Plagg.

"Yeah, I'm with him," said Alya. "I have heard you many times complaining about him not paying much attention to you."

"I'm confident it'll work," he answered.

"That will work," said Master Fu. "But, I don't think you should do it, not at first."

"Why not?" asked Adrien.

"Because Hawk Moth needs to learn, and it'd be best for that if you used it as a last resort."

"Well, then," said Adrien unsure if it was a good idea at all. "Any other idea?"

"How about we ambush him!" suggested Chloé.

"I think Hawk Moth could be waiting for something like that," said Marinette.

"But what if we don't really ambush him," said Nathanaël. "I could create illusions of us towards him..."

"I don't think you should do it, Nathanaël," interrupted Ammal. "It might be too much for you. When you created multiple illusions those were mostly inanimate objects, but with illusions of things that move on their own it's more complicated. You could do it, but I think it's not worth the risk of you failing."

"What if I freeze him?" asked Alya. "He wouldn't be able to move and anyone could take his miraculous!"

"It won't work," said Kaalo. "The Time Freeze would only slow him down, but very little. Other kwamis can resist it, and it just wouldn't have any effect on Tikki or Plagg."

"I thought of this," said Marinette, "Cat Noir and I will fight him one-on-two. If we can't deal with him on our own, then you come is as our back-up."

"It doesn't sound bad," said Tikki.

"First could come Alya, she could attack him from the back!"

"Sounds good," Alya responded.

"Then we could come in," intervened Ranii. "Chloé, you could use the bow of yours to distract him!"

"I'd be glad to help," Chloé said.

"How about me?" replied Nathanaël.

"Well, you can create any illusion, right?" said Alya. "That makes you the most unpredictable. I think you should create them when you see us in trouble or shoot something at him at random to throw him off."

"It's not a bad idea at all."

"Is everyone ok with that plan?" asked Fu.

"Yes," the teens and the kwamis all responded almost at the same time, except for Adrien. This made everyone turn to him.

"Adrik-" Chloé started to speak, but rectified herself. "I mean Adrien, are you ok?"

"Oh, yes," he responded somewhat distracted. "I... I agree." He took a moment of silence before speaking again. "Ex... Excuse me." He turned around, leaned on the tower and contemplated at his ring thoughtful.

No-one was sure on what he thought, but everybody came to the conclusion that he'd be better if left alone for a while. Alya started to move and pulled Marinette to the opposite side Adrien was.

"Girl, Adrien is Cat Noir, he is standing right there and you haven't gone crazy about him. Are you ok?" said Alya when they stopped.

"Yes, I'm fine," she responded.

Alya wasn't so convinced by her friend's answer though.

"It's ok, you can tell me anything; after all I'm your BFF, ain't I?"

"Well... The thing is I don't know. Yes, I love Adrien; but when he is Cat Noir, he changes and tries to flirt with me when I am Ladybug. That annoys me. He tends to call me Bug-a-boo, which I dislike... or disliked. I'm not sure anymore..."

Alya let go of a small giggle.

"You talk about him changing after he transforms, haha. You change as much as he does when you transform!"

"What do you mean?"

"After you transformed in front of us, you didn't seem like Marinette at all! You acted with more confidence than the usual clumsy Marinette."

This made Marinette a little upset.

"NO! I mean, not even I knew you could be like that. It was good to see you are that person behind that shy girl I know. You're different on a good way!"

This cheered her up a little bit.

"Still, I don't know what I feel about him..."

They girls turned around to see Master Fu had walked closer to Adrien, leaving Chloé and Nathanaël alone. Apparently they were talking.

"So, Chloé..." said Nathanaël; unsure of what to say, he talked to her. After all, she was the meanest person he knew. "You are friends with Sabrina, right?"

"I don't know." Nathan looked at her baffled for her answer. She decided to continue. "After everything that happened today, I have been questioning who my friend is in the first place."

"But, did you ever talk to her about who she likes?"

"Not really."

"Why do you not know that?"

"We never talked about her..."

"Then, why was she your friend? What did you do for her?"

"I talked to her when she was new. I gave her a brooch and she'd never question what I told to her."

"Is that it?"

"Well, yes. Is there something else to be a friend?"

"Ah... for starters you should know more about her. Did you know she likes me?"

"She likes you?" she asked followed by a big laugh that startled everyone, but Nathanaël seemed bothered by that. Chloé looked at Nathanaël and immediately ended her laughter.

"I get it. You don't care about her the way she cares about you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I see her always do whatever you order her and not complaining, and yet you treat her badly…"

Chloé didn't want to hear that anymore, so she just walked away into loneliness.

Meanwhile, Fu approached Adrien and looked at him, seeming to understand what he might be feeling about what had just happened in the past few hours.

Adrien realized Master Fu was near him, he turned his head towards him and nodded understanding the silence between the two.

They all spent the remainder of the hour mostly in silence or talking to their respective kwamis, except for Fu who checked on everyone every once in a while.

The clock was nearing 00:05 and Hawk Moth could appear at almost literally any second. After they realized they started to transform and wait for their opponent. Everyone got into place to wait for him. The clock struck 00:07 and the hour was up. Hawk Moth made his presence too.