Nathalie sighed in relief when they didn't lock her apart from Gabriel right away, for whatever reason. She looked over to the man she had risked her career, life and heart for, pondered for a second if it was all worth it, then decided that it was. She had that same debacle within herself everyday she had been locked up, and each time the cheesy, lovesick and stubborn part of her won over the cold, calculating career woman she showed to the world. She knew what she got into the moment she saw Emily Agreste create a fairy to entertain her son, all those years ago...and she knew she wouldn't get out of it the moment her heart started to ache for the man who lost his dearest, who showed her what real passion looked like.

Nathalie was sure that she could never reveal to anybody that she was not ashamed of admiring Hawkmoth like she once did, at least not without receiving scorn and disgust in return. Adrien specially should never learn that, while she did care for him very much, she chose Hawkmoth over his safety and happiness over and over again. She even chose Hawkmoth over her own safety and happiness. This was not different, she hadn't changed at all, not even when the man she now waited patiently to answer her questions had changed sides completely.

''I didn't know Gianna would do that, it was completely unexpected'' He finally replied to her unspoken question, the one she communicated to him with just a look while the new miraculous user revealed herself in TV in the repetition of the afternoon.

Nathalie surprised herself by feeling relieved at that, another tiny drop added to the vase of trust Gabriel was earning not just with the heroes and his son, but with her as well. She would follow him everywhere, yes, but she wanted to be on the secrets too, all the way.

Gabriel looked very thoughtful as he held a tiny piece of paper in his hands.

''What is that?'' She asked, as he was probably waiting for her to do.

''The man that now wears the butterfly miraculous gave it to me…'' He said, his tone showing a degree of confusion Nathalie expected would be explained soon enough. ''He did it while we were in that dark room after the trial…''

''Like… how you did with Ladybug? You gave her a piece of paper too, to have that meeting'' Nathalie's eyes were wide open now. Gabriel nodded.

''Except I don't know who this man is, just that Ladybug and my son trust him enough to have him there… he might even know the rest of the heroes identities, and he knows our plans too'' Gabriel said, almost as if he was thinking out loud. Nathalie was grateful for the privacy they had for the moment, though she wasn't sure how long it would last. ''But… something is strange about him I- well, I can still feel others emotions even after so long of not wearing the butterfly miraculous, I still have that power, even if its fainter than before''

Nathalie knew that much, at least. She didn't retain anything from being Mayura, probably because she never wore the miraculous all that long, acting more as a secret weapon.

''He is using the same powers as I held for so long, he can feel emotions too, and when I was in the same room as him we kind of… resonated? I don't know how to explain it, but it was almost like reading his mind- Just not exactly…'' He sounded so confused, but Nathalie just nodded, prompting him to continue anyways. But Gabriel didn't, just shook his head and looked at the paper in his hands once more.

''Is that a number?'' She asked when she got close enough to inspect the paper. It looked like a phone number, though it was foreign.

''I haven't called yet'' The implication was clear: He wanted Nathalie to know all this and approve before going further. Whatever it meant.

And so Nathalie nodded, staring at the man's eyes, letting him know that she would, indeed, follow him with this, wherever it lead.

A guard opened the door of their shared temporary imprisonment.

Chloe liked their little meetings, usually. She would never admit this outloud, but she loved the camaraderie and the plotting and the interactions between the people she now could call friends, though, again, not out loud. Usually.

But this one was particularly tense, more so than when they lost battles that only her boyfriend knew about, or Adrien stopped sending letters, or even the one after the gala. All of those were crises, and in all of those people were sad, angry, frustrated or all of that together. But they also did their best to lift each other up, to offer hope, to keep going.

''The government men told me after they listened to our conversation that Gianna is no longer in her home. She must have known somehow that we would recognize her'' Said Marinette, her tone flat.

''I could go out and try tracking her, but…'' Adrikins sentence was left unfinished, the implication clear to everyone listening: He was still too hurt to go out prowling.

''It's so cold outside too'' Commented Alya for the third time that hour, and not even Chloe could get annoyed at the obvious statement anymore. The cold was THAT amazingly bad, it still awed them every time they went outside, suit or no suit.

There was a collective sigh.

It took awhile for Chloe to put a finger on what bothered her so much about this one meeting, but it was now clear: This was the first time they all acted as if they were losing.

It wasn't really a surprise, they had been 'losing' for a while now, a year almost. The Gala didn't feel like a win, even though their enemy ended up dead. The balance or whatever it was that caused winter to become the worst Paris has had in centuries was getting worse by the day. Ladybug had.. performance issues, Adrikins was hurt and basically homeless, she had no miraculous to help anybody and now Gabriel was on his way of taking Chloe's place as the spokesperson for the team. The blond looked over her shoulder, to her boyfriends face, and sighed again. Luka had been really quiet and angry-looking since the meeting with the government men that no one invited her to. It seemed to have only gotten worse after the attack on the judge.

''We need to talk about that miraculous Gianna Rossi was wearing'' Said Master Fu after sending a compliant gaze towards Luka, who nodded. His voice was ominous, like someone who is about to deliver really bad news.

''She has the box, obviously'' Said Alya.

''She wasn't wearing any of the miraculous from the box'' Said Marinette, softly. ''I wore all of them once, there wasn't anything like that in there''

''And we recognized her immediately, though no one else did until we opened our mouths at the meeting with the government men'' Carapace commented, catching on the weight of the mystery they had at hands.

''I didn't recognize her at all, and I had plenty of interactions with that woman before…'' Added Chloe, crossing her arms.

''Only people bonded with a miraculous can look past the glamour of a cursed jewel'' Said Luka with the same tone Fu used earlier.

''All right, enough shadiness, explain'' Alya was getting as frustrated as Chloe usually felt when she didn't get straight away the answers she wanted. The blonde frowned, realizing that she had been part of the derrotist mood in the room as well. Enough of that.

''Agreed, Luka, love, what is this about that has you all edgy and emo and broody?'' Chloe smiled once she saw her boyfriends face become red as he turned his head to stare at her, eyes wide.

There was a round of chuckling and the blonde felt satisfied, at least he was not wearing that awful expression anymore. The air felt lighter already.

''Ehem.. well, um. Master?'' Chloe's comment must have really shaken him, she smirked, thinking of the irony of someone that looked like him getting all self conscious about being called ''edgelord'' .

Master Fu closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and said. ''I need the permission of the kwamis to talk about this freely''

Tikki and Plagg, as if on cue, floated to the center of the room, where the table laid full of food, the Dupain-Cheng's pastries rejected for the moment by most of them. The other kwamis remained close to their charges, in different positions, the most attention grabbing one being Nooro lying on top of Antoine's head. The man was the only one that hadn't said a word, and also the only one that was currently eating the delicacies Sabine and Tom left for them.

''As you all know, it is the duty of the guardians to hold and explain when it's needed the knowledge of the miraculous history and the secrets it hides'' Tikki started explaining, her cute little voice in dissonance with the heavy words she was about to speak. ''This topic is no different, except-''

''Except the guardians don't have the right, without our permission, to say anything to humans'' It was obvious, even to Chloe, that Plagg was doing his best to appear serious, but he had cheese crumbs on a cheek. Not even that made the rest of the people in the room less worried at his words, however.

Everyone in the group had a frown in their faces, but Marinette had a canyon in there. ''We know you like to keep some stuff to yourselves, Tikki, but you end up revealing things when we need them anyways… why the fuss now?''

''Because this has to do with the reason the miraculous exist in the first place'' Said Master Fu.

''And if the wrong humans knew about what we are about to tell you, balance would be even more compromised than it is now'' Said Tikki, a little reassuring smile back on her face as she offered a look towards Marinette that Chloe interpreted as 'Don't worry, you are not the wrong kind of human'

''People would die'' Said Plagg, in his own flavor of 'I like to make people think I don't care but I do, a lot'.

''You mean, people would die even more?'' Antoine spoke for the first time, his usual humor absent. ''Because this cold is not exactly safe, not to mention we are not even that far up north''

Chloe glanced over at everyone, her eyes full of worry just like everyone else's as they all thought the same thing: We don't need a reminder of this, we already knew.

''Plagg never mentions death'' Said Adrikins, all of a sudden, ending the charged silence. ''Even when he talks about past disasters...So I'm officially terrified of this, are you sure we should hear about it?'' He finished speaking as he switched between looking at his own kwami and Tikki.

''As the chosen heroes of this generation, yes, it is time you learn of this in order to solve this new problem'' Said Master Fu, then his voice softened. ''The mere fact that you are worried if you should or not learn about this is a good sign'' The kwamis all agreed in different ways after Fu said this.

''Well, explain then'' Said Chloe.

''I'm sure every one of you has heard of the seven sins, at least once'' Luka said, making Chloe realize for the first time that he probably knew what this was all about… which explained his mood and his silence for the past day.

There was a collective round of ''yeah's'' and ''aha's'' and nods, then the guitarist inhaled, exhaled, and continued explaining:

''The kwamis are all power born from human concepts and ideas, everything from the very base of reality, such as Creation and Destruction, to things like Time, Emotions, Protection, Truth and Lies, etc. All of those ideas are neutral by nature: Depending on who uses the powers the kwamis offer, they could be used for evil or for good or a mix between both. Balance is maintained in the world by having a constant clash of good and evil, everywhere: In the Universe as a whole, country to country, person to person, and even within one single human: Everything is different degrees of gray, and if you somehow were able to sum the whole of sentience, you would get the most neutral of grays a a result. The middle where everything meets, those are the kwamis, the gods that grant power to humans.

But, long ago, when humanity was still young, the kwamis realized, along with the people that would be the very first heroes and guardians, that there was a tendency for evil to grow a lot faster, to manifest a lot easier, than good. So they created the order of the guardians, and made a pact: The miraculous, the jewels we wear now, would be created and assigned not just to people that were compatible with the power, but also people who wanted to help more than to harm, who were more selfless than selfish, people who, ultimately, cared. It was never about skill, or knowing the truth about everything, or obeying any kind of law made by humans; It was always about caring about one another. That is the criteria the guardian's have been trying to stick to for millenia.

That pact has been broken a few times, but there were always other miraculous users, other heroes, to help balance everything back. When Hawkmoth started using the butterfly miraculous for his own selfish purposes, Master Fu had to choose the next generation of heroes to stop him. This has happened over and over, with different miraculous, and it will keep happening, as long as we remain grey. It's in human nature. The sins, as human named them with good reason, are part of everyone, too, they are the black in everyone. We all get bouts of wraith, we can be lazy, we can be greedy. But when a sin becomes pure, a pure concept accumulated in one single place, that sin can be reborn as a new miraculous… though I don't think they deserve that name. A new jewel can be created, and can be used only by humans that have a great concentration of the sin in them. And when using it, that human becomes more and more tainted, the gray turns into black, and balance is compromised.

A miraculous user with the power to express that sin, to share it with the world, had almost no limitations: It's pure evil, and it needs to be fought with the force of most if not all of the other jewels, or it will contaminate all of sentience. It has a few flaws, however, as it is a jewel forged after the pact with the guardians, where magic was used to protect and regulate the humans that would be using them. Things like the glamour, the need to be an adult to fully use the powers, the time limits, the ability to manipulate the appearance of the jewel in camouflage mode and our suits, all of that and more was part of the pact with the first guardians. Any human bonded with a kwami would be able to tell who is behind the mask of a cursed miraculous if they know them and a cursed miraculous true appearance would not be hidden to us, but that is all. They don't have limits to their powers, only whatever the human using it wants to apply, for whatever reason… It varies between the sins, Sloth tends to go really slow when corrupting the world, as you would imagine. It doesn't make it any less dangerous, though''

The questions in everyone's head as Luka spoke grew and grew, until this little pause in his speech allowed them to let them out: Everyone in the room spoke at the same time, except for the Kwamis and Master Fu. The volume and messiness of the questions amplified until the chaos in the room was too much, so Chloe decided to let her question be one of the last if only to stop adding noise. Apparently, she wasn't the only with that same idea, because soon enough, the voices all quieted and there was an awkward moment where everyone looked at each other, waiting for someone to DARE ask their question first.

''This is silly'' Said Marinette, her mood sour. Then Ladybug spoke: ''Luka, are you saying that anyone that knows about this could… potentially create a new miraculous out of thin air?''

The question and the Ladybug-esque tone of voice were enough to keep everyone satisfied and in silence as Luka pondered the answer. But it was Master Fu who took the metaphorical microphone next.

''No, not out of thin air, and please don't underestimate the amount of sin needed for this to happen. It has only happened three times before, in all of human history… all of them a different sin too, which made some guardians fear, reasonably so, that it would happen again until all the sins existed as a jewel''

''What happened to the other ones?'' ''Are they in some kind of vault where you can grab and use them!?'' ''What sins? which one is this one?!'' ''What else is needed in order to create one of these?'' ''How did the old heroes defeat it?''

And many more questions exploded at the same time.

Master Fu lifted his hands in defeat, quieting everyone once again.

''Luka?'' He said, once order was recovered. The boy in question looked mortified, probably ashamed because he paused and didn't finish explaining in the first place, Chloe realized, thinking at the same time that he was being silly. The room would have exploded anyways, with this kind of revelation.

''Ehem… thank you, Master'' Said the snake hero. ''The cursed kwamis and their jewels can only be created by a huge, and I mean HUGE, amount of sin accumulated in a place. It has to be tied to a single place, and it usually takes a long, long time for the location to become cursed. The, um, energy or magic, I suppose we can call it either, necessary for this to happen is so much that the last time this happened, it took centuries, and the human that started the cycle weren't even alive by the time the cursed jewel was ready. I think the most known example of this happening was Atlantis, right Plagg?'' The guitarist waited for the Kwami to realize that he was giving him the chance to explain that one, but the cat took a while, as he was too busy munching on the cheese at the center of the table to notice.

This cat I swear, thought Chloe rolling her eyes, How can he be so nonchalant when we are talking of such heavy things? Tikki seemed to share her sentiment, because the little red goddess was also rolling her eyes.

''Oh um, well, that one! a good story yeah…'' He finished gulping his camembert before continuing with a word vomit the old Marinette would have been proud of: ''The old man wanted to expand his city or whatever, but that meant making the fish people leave their territory around the island, you see? And so he made it a rule that all the generations of kings and queens had to go to war with the fishies. After a couple centuries, the place was so full of Greed it stank more than the dead fishy and non-fishy people after the wars. And that was when she was born, and she made a crown, because -of course-, and gave it to the other old man, who was the gran gran son of the first old man.''

The look of confusion on everyone's faces was comical, Chloe knew that she wore that same raised eyebrow and cringing mouth herself, though.

''And then he -the old man, the last king of Atlantis- used the power to finally take over the sea around the city, but by then the order knew of his affairs and sent Tikki and I to solve the problem. We chose a couple of fishies, part of the survivors, and well, by the end of it the only solution was to sink the whole thing, you know? So Tikki let us do it, me and the kitten. So we did it! we cataclysmed the whole thing down and, I think the fishies now live there?'' He looked over to Tikki for reassurance, who just nodded after rolling her eyes for the tenth time during Plagg's story. ''And since then the fishies don't like sharing at all, I think they learnt a bit too much from the old man and his greed, if you ask me''

The story was so ridiculous it had to be true, Chloe thought.

''What were the powers of the Greed miraculous?'' Asked Marinette, always with the good questions.

''He could transform the ocean into land, but it was dead land, only taking from the merpeople and only gaining space for his slaves to build more of Atlantis'' Tikki answered that one, thank the kwamis. Wait, merpeople? That's what Plagg meant by 'fishies'? ''It he continued, Earth would have been left without its oceans, you can imagine how bad that would have been''

''Mermaids exist!?'' Nino and Alya asked at the same time, with different degrees of excitement. Nino seemed terrified, his girlfriend, on the other hand, was fascinated.

''There are many creations humans don't know about'' Said Tikki with a tiny cheeky smile, acting all mysterious ''But we are getting off topic''

''How does Gianna Rossi have a cursed miraculous, I think, is the most important question'' Said Adrikins, fingers on his chin as he thought. He didn't look at all impressed by the idea of mermaids existing, probably already knew about it, Chloe realized.

''No'' Said Marinette, standing up. ''How to defeat it, THAT is the most important question'' She said, and the blonde couldn't help but nod along the rest.

So they had an enemy that once upon a time required a whole city to be sunk down the seas to be defeated… Chloe wondered, not for the first time that evening, what would be necessary in order to avoid disaster this time?

Gabriel Agreste, as soon as he got separated from Nathalie, called for the guard outside his room and asked for his one call allowed for the week. He never used it before, and the guard was fast to point that out and call him a very cold father, asking what made him change his mind, questions the man ignored easily as he walked towards the phone.

He didn't doubt that his conversation wouldn't be very private, but he was too curious to wait any longer. He clutched the paper the new Moth user gave him as he walked, then looked it up as he dialed the number in it once he reached the phone.

''Hello?'' He asked, monotone and not impressed by the fast response on the other side of the line. The call didn't even beep once.

''Gabriel Agreste! I've been waiting for your call'' Said a happy voice.

''Who is this?''

''You can call me Mister M., Gabriel''