"Guys," Carapace said. "They're getting ready to move in tanks!"
"They must have noted that the conflict seems to have paused." Chevalier said. "And they're afraid we've invade—"
"We have invaded," Clockblocker said from where another figure in power armor was supporting him. He gestured around at the ruined buildings. "Sort of hard to argue anything else."
"If they engage, some of parahumans will fight," Alexandria said as she landed, ignoring the glares and muttered curses. "We have to get back through the border."
"I—" Marinette looked down at the tiny model of a city she'd never seen and nodded. "We do."
"Wait, we?" Rena had landed, Queen Bee and Ryuko behind her. Carapace had gone over to Chat.
"C'mon, buddy, let's get up. We can work this out."
Chat wasn't saying anything.
Marinette wanted to be there. But she couldn't.
"I—my lucky charm," she held out the model to Rena and the others. "You know how it works. It shows me what we need to do to resolve the issue."
"And it's showing you where we don't want to go!" Queen Bee said.
"No. It's showing me where I have to go," Marinette said. "The lucky charm always points the way. To the solution for the problem. And this…"
"Is the bay." Tattletale winced. "Your powers, they're… She winced again. "I don't know, when I look directly at them…" She shook her head. "But I can think around it. If you close the wall from this side, you're here, and we're there. But the problem can only be solved from our side, so you have to come here." She paused and smirked. "Though if I stuck around, the only thinker 7 on the planet—"
"No." Alexandria cut her off. "We're all going back." The sun started shining, and the heroes looked up. The swarm was pouring back through the portals.
"If I leave them all here when we leave, they'll go uncontrolled," Skitter said. "That'd be a disaster. I'm sending them back where I got them from."
"Oh." Ladybug looked up, to where she could see the glints off of aircraft. Fighters. Bombers.
"We need to go now," Chevalier said, and the parahumans were already heading back to the gate, leaving the corpses of the clones behind, the air full of smoke and ash. "Some of our tinkers have picked up radio signals—France has activated Article 5, and other nations have also joined in—Russia, China.
"You can't go—there!" Rena said. "You read what it's like."
"I have to," Marinette replied. "Tattletale is right—something on the other side, needs me there."
"Or us," Chat said. "You need protection, you need a team."
"What?" Marinette shook her head. "No!"
"This power, is it always right?" Alexandria asked.
"Yes."
"Like a path?"
Marinette blinked, then nodded. "It's not always obvious but… Yes, and we've got to do it, and we've got to do it now."
"You're right," Rena said. "And we are coming with you."
"Hawkmoth is no longer an issue," Skitter said. "He surrendered his power to… help me."
"Who was he?" Chat said, on his feet but looking like he might fall over, leaning on Carapace.
"I… Didn't recognize him. At least, not for certain."
"But-why?" Marinette asked as she moved towards the gateway, surrounded by heroes who were doing the same. "It's safe here."
"And you won't be safe over there," Rena said.
"The Protectorat—"
"Bullshit," Queen Bee cut Alexandria off. "I noticed that you're not telling us how nothing crazy clone man said is wrong. Half the people here look like they want to take a shot at you, and most importantly, I don't trust you. We'll watch Ladybug."
"Right." Chat seemed to come back to himself.
"But you might not get back!"
"Bug-queen there can open a gate back for us," Rena said. "And if there aren't any Akumas here, we need to be on that side."
"If we don't go with you, for all we know you fail and the next thing we see is a gate opening and Leviathan showing up in downtown. We don't want that," Ryuko said.
"No, you don't…" Clockblocker agreed.
Marinette closed her eyes, feeling tears squeezing out. She didn't want them to come. Not to this horrible world full of monsters. But they weren't giving her the option, and she couldn't… She'd been so terrified. But she looked up at them.
"I'm going to give you a phone number to call. We'll only have a few minutes. Leave your message, tell what you're doing and the letters I had you write will go to your families to explain the rest."
"Tell—"
Marinette cut Ryuko off. "We don't know when we're coming back. Do you want them to think we died in the fighting? Do it. Now. There is no time!" It wouldn't be long before the army started moving int…
The portal was before them.
"Skitter, you can close this, right?" that was the flying man, Legend, Marinette thought.
"I think so," Skitter said, then turned as Tattletale started whispering urgently into her ear. Marinette looked around, opened her communicator. She got the recording service. They were probably in a shelter or had lost their phones.
"Maman, Papa," she said, and suddenly realized her voice was getting choked. "I can't talk long. But yes, I'm Ladybug, and I won't be able to come home for a while, the man who will give you your letters can explain everything. We're all okay, but we have to go through the gate to protect Paris. I'll…" She swallowed. I don't know if we will… "We'll come back as soon as we can. I—" Her voice broke. "I love you both. I'm sorry, but we have to do this."
She heard the others. She heard Chat.
"Father… Mother's alive! I don't know how, but Hawkmoth must have taken her from m—from us! He doesn't have his miraculous, but I don't know who he is. I have to go protect Ladybug, but find her, please find her, and everything… Everything can be right again."
And then they were at the gate, the ash-filled air of Paris mixed with the late evening, salt-sea scented air of Brockton Bay.
Marinette couldn't repress a shudder when she walked right up to the edge.
"Everyone back?" Chevalier called.
"Mostly," a voice responded from his armband. "Only a few are missing, none of them Masters, Tinkers, or Thinkers. It might be that their armbands were destroyed."
"No time to search," he muttered. Marinette looked up. There were trucks, armed men on them, turning the corner, teams of soldiers moving down the street, staying under cover. "Ladybug, if you're going to do it…"
"I know."
Let this work. Marinette had used her Miraculous Cure on damage that wasn't from an Akuma, and it was always a little harder. It also got harder the longer the damage was left. According to Tikki, it was because the longer you left something, the stronger was the universe's "feeling" that was the way things were supposed to be. That was why the damage of an Akuma was easier to fix than normal damage. Marinette had joked that it was a good thing, or every time they'd used the cure, they would have resurrected every mummy in the museum.
It wasn't funny now. There had to be hundreds of dead surrounding them. Thousands. Eidolon, Alexandira, and Chevalier stood next to her, Marinette assumed to protect her if the soldiers started shooting. Or maybe for some other reason.
"Miraculous Ladybug!"
The swarm of scarlet exploded from her, and Marinette pushed, sending into Paris. The soldiers looked up, even as the cure passed over them, resetting things. Shattered cars were restored, burning buildings… Dead people. But she pushed.
It was harder than undoing the work of an Akuma. Marinette felt pain lancing through her body. She pushed. She was no stranger to pain, even if the cure had erased the signs from her own body. All of them had been beaten, burned, cut…
But this was worse, feeling like a fire climbing over her skin. Marinette growled as she threw herself into it. Paris was her city and its people would not pay for her failings…
And then, she was done, the soldiers standing, staring at the portal from a pristine street. Marinette staggered back through the portal, feeling the change as she entered Brockton Bay.
"Holy Shit. That's… That's bullshit!" Clockblocker said.
"Very good bullshit," Chevalier said, staring at the street, up at the air with no sign of ash in it. "We could use some of that bullshit," he continued, in the voice of a man trying to come to terms with what he'd just seen. He looked down at his armor, no longer scarred by battle.
"I—" Marinette swallowed. "I need… Need to…" She staggered down to her hands and knees and vomited.
"Ladybug?" Rena bent down. "What's wrong!"
"Don't… harder. About to turn back," Marinette told her friend. "Not here, not with all these people!"
"Go," Skitter ordered and suddenly there was a portal in front of them. "It's to an apartment I use. Don't bother the big bug on the balcony. I'll be there soon."
"Of course you have a giant bug at home," Queen Bee said, but she was moving, grabbing Chat by one arm while Carapace had the other. Rena and Ryuko had helped Marinette up.
"H-hurry!" Marinette said. She retched again, bringing up nothing but bile.
"Now it's time to fix this portal," she heard Tattletale say. "And I have something special for you all."
Alexandria had faced many disasters over her lifetime. Hero, the rise of the Endbringers… But this. This was…
"You lied," Legend said.
"Yes. We needed a member of the Triumvirate who could continue to operate, in the worst case."
"So it was all true?"
"Most of it. Shaded in the worst possible way, but true."
"Christ." They were both floating, Eidolon next to them.
"We have other concerns. Skitter is now a Class S threat. Who not only can open portals, but who, at the request of Tattletale, shifted a portal to Earth Gimel and sealed the portal to Paris." Eidolon shook his head. "That kind of power in the hands of an angry child…"
"Who saved the day," Legend said. "And who has likely been permanently turned against the Protectorate because of our numerous actions. Not hers, ours."
"And she had the ear of the superheroes of… Earth…" Eidolon paused.
"Tav. We'll designate it as Earth Tav," Alexandria said.
"I've never seen a shaker effect like that," Legend said. "If we could convince her to work on damaged cit—"
"It has some limitations," Alexandria said. "Her friends clearly didn't expect her reaction."
"Even so…" Legend fell silent.
"She has other abilities. Her decision to come here. I think she has a path making power." Legend didn't know the full extent of Contessa's powers, but Eidolon did. He stared at her, eyes widening behind his cowl.
Yes. She has a path to victory. If it doesn't have the same blind spots Contessa's does…
"We have another gift to thank them for," Eidolon said.
"What?" Legend asked.
"Watch," Eidolon held out his hand, a glowing orb forming over it. Seconds later, exploded from his hand, forming into a knight made out of energy, growing until it was nearly twenty feet tall.
Alexandria stared. "I haven't seen that…"
"Not for years," Eidolon said, exultation in his voice. "Do you know what this means? I can bring my full power against the endbringers, against the threats we face. I can finally be the man we need again."