To Anon: Oh, at least some of the Lynchpin-ions are as likely to stab in the back as to fight alongside of.

To Lyger 0: He's not exactly in a good head-space at the moment…

To Rose Tiger: Villains teaming with Heroes… there are so many ways that can happen!

The mood in the Heroes' Conference Room was unusually subdued when Max arrived, hand-in-hand with Sabrina. The Raincomprixes had invited him over for dinner that night, and afterward he and Sabrina had retired to her bedroom to work on homework. With half their class out because of the illness, last week the school had finally decided to cancel entirely until the illness was under control. And yet, the teachers were still sending them homework to complete on their own. Normally, Max didn't mind homework – most of the time he enjoyed it when it was a challenge… but most of the time he wasn't simultaneously attempting to resolve the very illness that had forced schools throughout the city to shut down. His jaw clenched. No matter how much time he spent on it, he never seemed to make any progress. Sabrina had been lying on her bed, reading, only to fall into a fitful doze just before midnight. Max had sat at Sabrina's desk, jumping back and forth between reading through test results and staring at his last calculus problem, until he was almost ready to bash his head against the desk in frustration.

But with as confused as his sleep schedule had gotten after his two days in Australia, sleep eluded him. He had still been sitting at Sabrina's desk when both their phones had rung with a message from Marinette, calling an emergency meeting.

Sabrina, her eyes still half-closed from sleep, had gasped when they stepped off the elevator plate at Headquarters thirty minutes later, her grip on Max's hand tightening involuntarily. He had given her a concerned look, and she had only told him, "They are really struggling tonight…"

Max had raised an eyebrow humorlessly. "After yesterday, who could blame them?"

Sabrina had leaned closer to him, putting her free hand on his arm. "I…" Her voice trailed off. "I don't know if I can do this…"

"You are not alone," he had promised her, nodding to Nooroo and squeezing her hand.

All five of the others had already been there when Max and Sabrina took their seats. As he made himself comfortable in his accustomed chair next to Sabrina, Max looked around the room at the others. Alya and Nino looked as exhausted as Sabrina had been on the way over, with Nino hiding a yawn behind his hand. Alya was leaning heavily against Nino, her gaze turned down at the table. Chloe was the only other one who looked fully awake – Max supposed that she also was caught between time zones – but she wore an expression of confusion and disappointment on her face, staring at Marinette in frustration. As for Marinette and Adrien, they looked like hell.

"I just… I can't believe he's gone…" Marinette whispered as Adrien held her close. "And both of them at the same time. They were always there for us… I–I don't know what to do…"

Adrien nodded heavily. "I'm sorry he's gone." His mouth twisted around bitterly. "Even though I never really felt like he liked me…"

"Master cared for you," Wayzz insisted from his position nestled against Nino's shoulder. "He did not demonstrate it well, but he trusted you all the same. He would not have given you the Cat Miraculous otherwise."

Adrien frowned, a troubled look in his eyes.

Curled up on one of Adrien's hands, Plagg folded his arms. "Well, he wasn't exactly great at showing that he trusted my kid," he argued. His fur bristled.

Wayzz huffed, rising to hover above the table. "Wang made mistakes, but he always did what he thought was right."

Plagg scoffed and opened his mouth to argue further, but Adrien grabbed him, cupping him in his hand. Marinette sniffled, burying her face in Adrien's shoulder, and Plagg stilled.

"I didn't really know Master Fu that well," Nino admitted, "but he always seemed like a fair dude." He chuckled wanly and stroked Wayzz's head. "I can't complain too much; after all, he trusted me with his miraculous."

Alya put an arm around Nino's shoulders and sighed heavily. "So what happens now? Did he have family?"

Marinette shook her head, her shoulders racked with sobs. "Only Marianne, and she's–she's–"

Sabrina shuddered, clenching Max's hand under the table. Even without looking, he could feel the blood flow to his fingers cut off from the tightness of her grip. She squeezed her eyes shut. He could see deep creases in her forehead from tension – more tension than he had witnessed from her at any time since they had rescued Chloe from the Lynchpin a year ago. Nooroo slowly, gently rubbed Sabrina's free palm, and Sabrina started, her eyes shooting up to stare at the ceiling. Slowly she drew in a ragged breath, held it, and released it. Her death-grip on Max's hand eased slightly, and he wiggled his fingers. She leaned toward Max. "At least Emilie is feeling marginally better," she whispered, quietly so only he could hear it.

Not quietly enough.

"How do you know, though? What if she isn't feeling better?" wondered Marinette, turning on Sabrina with tears in her eyes. "What if she–if–if she–?"

Adrien's shoulders slumped and he hunched over the table. "I only just got Mom back… I can't lose her again. Losing her now would – it would be worse than the first time."

Sabrina inhaled deeper and exhaled again. "Mar," she told her, more confidence in her voice with every word she spoke. "It's okay to be worried about Emilie. I'm worried, too! I know it's not the same for me as for you or Adrien or Chloe, but I can't imagine losing her, either! But we can't dwell on that – she doesn't want us to. Our worry isn't going to solve anything. All it will accomplish if we act solely from emotion is for us to get more people hurt. We have a responsibility–"

"That's the thing, isn't it?" Marinette asked rhetorically, cutting her off abruptly. "All of this responsibility – all of it – is on us. Is on me." Her shoulders sagged, and she fell forward, putting her head on the table. Alya leaned forward and took one of Marinette's hands. Marinette squeezed back weakly.

"It's not all on you, Mar," Chloe told her, a bite to her voice. Marinette didn't respond. "I know you probably don't want to hear it right now, but you need to hear it anyways. You don't have to shoulder all of this on your own. There's a reason you dragged all of us here in the middle of the night: we're your friends, and we're here to help you. So let us help." She cleared her throat. "So let's talk. What's going on?"

Marinette didn't respond, so Max cleared his throat, drawing every eye in the room to himself. He shrugged. "The illness has continued to spread around Paris without abating."

Chloe arched an eyebrow. "So what can we do about it?"

"Nothing we have tried has accomplished anything significant," he replied, frowning. "Sixty percent of businesses have reduced their staffing and hours. At last count half of all schools in Paris had implemented some form of quarantine procedures."

"That hasn't exactly done any good so far, though," Adrien pointed out.

"The more people get together, the more people get sick," Alya observed.

Nino scoffed humorlessly. "Too bad it seems to just be spread in the air. How are we supposed to fight something like that?"

Sabrina shrugged. "If no one leaves their homes, then maybe they won't be exposed."

Max hummed thoughtfully. "Perhaps that can work," he mused. "Instead of focusing on those already exposed, we have everyone stay home for now, and hope we find a better solution to eliminate the illness entirely. For now, we can have Turing or the drones transport necessities for people. Artificial beings like Turing and Markov cannot get sick, so they can go outside in this."

"Do we have enough drones?" asked Adrien.

"It would require tasking a percentage of the pollution control drones to transportation, but it is possible," Max assured him.

Marinette lifted her head off the table and frowned. "We can suggest it, but at this point I think it's too little, too late."

"Well, we should at least try it," Chloe pointed out. "The illness is probably just going to get worse, right? Since it seems to be connected to these Beasts, and they're all headed in our direction?"

Max raised an eyebrow in acknowledgement. "That does appear to be the case, given all the information at hand."

"Just what we need: five enormous Monsters," muttered Nino, frowning.

"Then what's the plan with that?" Chloe wondered, turning to face Marinette. "I assume we have a plan, right?"

Marinette's mouth set in a thin line. "We fight them and we stop them."

Nino let out a heavy sigh. "You've actually seen one of these things in action; I haven't. But all the same, do you really think we can do it?"

Adrien nodded firmly. "Definitely we can do it." He squeezed Marinette's shoulder. "Nothing can stop us!" Marinette turned to him, staring into his eyes, and her mouth turned up in a small smile.

Chloe cleared her throat, and they separated in embarrassment. "For as much as I'm sure the two of you would like to try taking these things on by yourselves, there's no way that ends well for you. We're going to need help with this…" she told them with a scoff.

"We have friends all around the world," Alya pointed out. "We can ask them for help."

"Not in Australia," Chloe noted, her mouth setting in a thin line. "Not anymore, at least." She frowned at Marinette. "We had just managed to get everything smoothed over with them when you come barging in and start lashing out. What the hell were you thinking?"

Marinette folded her arms, glaring back at Chloe. "Like I told you: I don't like liars. They lied to us. We told them everything, and they lied."

"They didn't tell us everything," Chloe retorted, giving Marinette a deadpan look. "That hardly merited you yelling at them the way you did. They even admitted they were in the wrong for not telling us about the Pliosaur Miraculous, right before you showed up! We were making progress – progress that you destroyed!"

"Are you telling me that you would really trust them when they held back a miraculous from us?" demanded Marinette. "That you would trust them when they were basically spying on Ronin?"

"You trusted me!" Chloe practically shouted, her eyes wide. "After everything I did to you in school, you actually trusted me with a miraculous!"

"That's different! You're my–"

"Your what? Your friend?" Chloe interjected. "So were they! And they were much better friends to us before this happened than I was to you before Pollen!"

"They were getting in our way!" Marinette shot back. "If they hadn't shown up, we could have pushed the Turtle back into its hole. But because we were so busy all trying to do the same thing, they got in our way, and the Turtle got away. And we didn't manage to come up with any treatment for Master Fu, or for Marianne, or for–for–"

Sabrina drew in a slow breath and choked. Max rubbed her back in concern, and she gave him a grateful half-smile. "Emilie is feeling better, Mar," she said. "She's going to pull through."

"Do you know that?" Marinette demanded.

"I sense her emotions," Sabrina replied calmly. "That is what she feels."

Chloe groaned. "Talking about the illnesses isn't going to solve our bigger problem. What are we going to do about these Beasts coming straight for us?"

"It sounds like Australia is out," Nino pointed out slowly. Chloe scoffed darkly.

"We have our friends around Europe," Alya noted. "We can ask them for help."

"Having studied the Beasts, it is a 94% likelihood that we will require their assistance," Max commented. "Their strength has been increasing as they have remained active, and if we are facing all five simultaneously, then we will be overmatched."

"Even that might not be enough," Chloe warned.

"We do have another option," Adrien began, giving Marinette a meaningful look.

Marinette sighed heavily. "Night Bat spoke to us tonight," she explained. "That's why we called this meeting. He said that Lynchpin wants to offer his assistance against the beasts. Apparently he doesn't want to see the city destroyed by these Monsters–"

"Oh, no," Alya interrupted with a derisive snort. "Not by Monsters, just by drugs and rogue miraculous!"

Adrien hummed darkly in agreement.

Max frowned. "Remember, it was one of the Lynchpin-ions – Mecha-Man – who first warned us of the danger to Paris," he pointed out. "Perhaps they are willing to set aside differences for the greater good."

"Yeah, but from what you said, it sounded like they were going behind the boss's back to do it," Alya interjected, her brows furrowed in thought.

"All the same, that shows that some of them may indeed be willing to help us," replied Max.

"Maybe," Marinette allowed dubiously. "But I don't know if we can really trust them…"

"How many other options do we have?" wondered Nino.

Marinette let out a breath and turned to Chloe. "I'd rather stick with the people we know and trust. Contact Julia and Pablo, and contact Mihaela and Yousef. And call everyone – everyone we know – to be ready. If the Beasts are coming to Paris, we need to be prepared for them."