To Anon: There were several chapters during "Tragedy" that were especially difficult to write, and that was definitely one of them. But Max was a true hero; without him, so many more would have died.

"Max!"

He was gone. He had been by her side through the whole ordeal of the Tarasque battle, from her first moment of panic when she felt the overwhelming terror of an entire city confronted by a Beast of mythological horror until she had felt the fear and pain of her father and his officers when the Tarasque bowled straight through their line without stopping. He had shielded her from the collapse of the Sorbonne student center with his own body, and she had felt every stab of pain as the bricks cascaded down on his back. He had pulled her into a final kiss. Then he had detransformed in a flash of light, pressing his miraculous into her hands as the portal collapsed between them. The portal had closed, but not before he had pushed her through. Impératrice Pourpre's last glimpse of him had been as the Tarasque's foot came down on top of him, sending the rubble of the destroyed student center flying in all directions. Their eyes had met, and she had felt his guilt, his grief, his fear, but also… relief?

And then nothing.

"No…" Impératrice Pourpre collapsed to her knees, staring at the spot in the thin scrub grass where the portal had closed moments before, willing it to reopen, for Pegasus to step back through it, pull her to her feet, and kiss her again. She brushed her lips with one finger, feeling the tingle from their last kiss. Her stomach clenched: that really was their last kiss, wasn't it? After a year together, after everything they had gone through and done together… there would never be another, would there?

But how? How could he be gone? He had been there for her, had supported her when Chloe was taken and she had pushed herself to the breaking point. He had comforted and encouraged her whenever the emotions she felt became overwhelming. When she had spent almost an entire week with a constant migraine, he had consoled her and put up with her lashing out. When she unified with the then-broken Peacock, he had stayed with her while she recovered. He was her first boyfriend – the first boy to really show any interest in her, to be honest. She had lived in Chloe's shadow for so many years, and no one had noticed her as more than Chloe's friend. Even after becoming a hero herself, she had stayed in the background while Chloe stood in the spotlight. In that way, she and Max had been so alike: both of them hiding in the shadow of their friends, both of them preferring to take on a support role for the Heroes of Paris. And in so doing, he been the one to draw her out. They had only been together for a year… but it had in many ways been the best year of her life. They had shared so much. Even when he was working on a project she couldn't hope to understand, he had taken the time to explain it to her. She had known and understood his feelings on a level that she could only match with Chloe or Emilie. Neither of them had ever said anything about the future, but she had been excited to see where it would lead them. But now…

Now she was alone, kneeling in the scrub grass of an unfamiliar continent. She had lost her home, lost her father, lost Max, lost Emilie… Impératrice Pourpre swallowed, clenching her eyes shut, hardly able even to breathe.

She didn't feel the hands placed on her shoulders. She didn't react when two people dropped to their knees next to her. She didn't resist when the hands gently but firmly pulled her into an embrace. Impératrice Pourpre couldn't focus on anything. The hands tried to lift her to her feet, but finally gave up. Two warm bodies pressed themselves against Impératrice Pourpre's sides.

A red-gloved hand in her peripheral vision was the first thing Impératrice Pourpre noticed. "I'm–I'm–" Ladybug choked back a sob. "I just– oh, god…"

Sent-Bee scoffed, moving around to kneel in front of Impératrice Pourpre and wrapping her arms around both her and Ladybug, pulling them into a tight hug. Impératrice Pourpre finally rested her forehead on Sent-Bee's shoulder, her own shoulders tense to the point of rigidity. She clenched her hands into tight fists, squeezing her cane in one hand and something oddly-shaped in the other. Opening her hand, she looked down to see a pair of grey wire-rimmed glasses highlighted with lavender. She blinked, the vision of Max pushing his miraculous into her hands and shoving her backward resurfacing in her mind's eye. He had given his miraculous to her – because he knew that he was going to… She couldn't finish the thought. Something grey and white flashed in her peripheral vision as she focused on the miraculous in her hand. Her eyes widened as she finally focused on Kaalki, hovering next to the miraculous and looking up at her with big, glassy eyes.

"P–Pegasus…" squeaked the Kwami in a tremulous voice. Her eyes drifted from Impératrice Pourpre to the miraculous and then back at the spot where the portal had closed. "I–I just–" Her lower lip trembled. "He was the greatest one yet," she murmured, so softly that Impératrice Pourpre almost missed it. "But I never told him."

"We–we have to go back…" Impératrice Pourpre whispered. Kaalki's gaze snapped back to Impératrice Pourpre, and her eyes widened; Impératrice Pourpre caught a hint of anxiety from the Kwami.

Kaalki gave her a troubled look, her lower lip trembling, and started running her paws through her mane in agitation. She glanced at Ladybug, worry in her eyes. "I will serve you, Miss Sabrina…" she began slowly.

Impératrice Pourpre turned to Ladybug. "We–we have to go back and get him! He–he needs us!" She swallowed. "He needs me…"

"We will go back," Ladybug promised, squeezing Impératrice Pourpre's shoulder. "We aren't going to just leave Paris to its–to its…" Her voice trailed off and she swallowed hard, squeezing her eyes shut, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Oh, god… So many people… Mom, Papa, Mama…" Her shoulders shook.

Sent-Bee looked at them, a stunned expression on her face. "I don't–I'm–" She sniffled, chewing on her bottom lip anxiously.

Impératrice Pourpre could feel guilt and shame pouring off of both Ladybug and Sent-Bee in waves. Denial, grief, anger – directed at themselves and at everyone else, if Impératrice Pourpre read them correctly – all vied for attention within their emotional makeup. Her jaw clenched. All of those resonated far too well with her own emotions. They felt guilty because they had thought that they could fight the Tarasque, and now Max was gone! Maybe their guilt and shame were well placed! They grieved losses during the fight and subsequent retreat, but did any of them compare to her loss? Impératrice Pourpre felt herself beginning to sink and get lost within just the emotions of those closest to her, even before she became aware of the emotions of at least two million people crammed into an area of no more than maybe a dozen square kilometers.

Closer to herself, just beyond Sent-Bee and Ladybug, huddled a group of the heroes whom she could recognize by their emotions. All confused, all in shock, all ashamed, she could vaguely hear them whispering together in hushed tones. A few civilians were nearby – fear, shock, anger. Lupa Gris' emotions rang out like a clarion from almost a kilometer away, so overpowering was her grief and despair. Expanding her senses to their limit, Impératrice Pourpre could feel pain, grief, anger, shock, confusion, despair, depression… Two million-plus people, all feeling a mixture of the same emotions, all of those emotions resonating with and feeding off of the emotions of those around them. In her year and a half as a miraculous holder, Impératrice Pourpre could not recall feeling such an outpouring of negative emotions before – certainly not all at the same time. And all of those emotions fed into her own grief and shock and pain and–

It was honestly overwhelming.

Impératrice Pourpre forced herself to breathe slowly and deeply, to push aside all of the emotions which she was feeling and to focus in on herself. Emilie and Nooroo had trained her to "ride the wave" of the emotions she felt, to avoid becoming swamped and to keep herself afloat. But every time before that this had happened, she had only felt the emotions of a single person or a small group of people. Comparatively, it was easy to "ride the wave" then. But when the emotions were being felt by millions of people, all at once? Every fresh wave threatened to drown her.

In the past when she had been overwhelmed by the emotions she felt, the three people she had relied on the most to help her process them had been Chloe, Max, and Emilie. Impératrice Pourpre's stomach twisted around in a tight knot. Emilie had remained behind in Paris – and who knew what had happened to her, or to any of the others who had been left, for that matter? Without returning to Paris, Emilie was absolutely gone. And Max was– Impératrice Pourpre choked back a sob that wracked her whole body. All that left was Chloe. But sensing the shock and anguish pouring off of Sent-Bee in waves as she knelt beside her… could she really put even more of her own trauma on Chloe right now? Impératrice Pourpre buried her face in Sent-Bee's shoulder, hardly noticing the hands running up and down her back soothingly.

A jolt of resolve from Ladybug drew Impératrice Pourpre's attention, and she pulled away from Sent-Bee to find Ladybug. "We are going back," Ladybug decided, her chin jutting out firmly. "We can't leave everyone there."

Impératrice Pourpre felt a little of the tightness in her chest release at the prospect. They were going to return to Paris. She would find Max, and he would be okay. They would have a laugh about this on their next date. Maybe they would go for a walk together in the Trocadéro, and Max would regale her with trivia about the varieties of flowers planted in the gardens. There was no way he could be… could be…

"Is that really the best decision?" asked Sent-Bee, doubt in her voice.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Ladybug demanded, rising to her feet and folding her arms. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

Sent-Bee arched an eyebrow meaningfully. "The Tarasque?"

Ladybug frowned, doubt creeping into her emotions. "Well…"

"It must be gone by now, though," Inpératrice Pourpre argued.

"And where is it going now?" wondered Sent-Bee. "Why destroy Paris the way that it did?"

"Does that matter?"

Sent-Bee gave her a deadpan look. "Only if you want to stop the poison-spewing, fire-eyed death monster that tore through our city!"

"We can still check back on Paris, though," Ladybug began hesitantly.

Sent-Bee arched an eyebrow. "And what? Open a portal there?"

"Why not?" Impératrice Pourpre demanded, her eyes narrowing. She held up the Horse Miraculous for proof and jerked her hand at Kaalki, who was hovering beside Impératrice Pourpre's shoulder. "Kaalki can bring us back!"

Sent-Bee nodded to the ground. "Then what about the poison air?"

Impératrice Pourpre furrowed her brows in confusion but followed where Sent-Bee was looking. Wisps of green smoke trailed across the ground, grass withering as the green poison passed it. As she watched, the poison air grew fainter until it finally dissipated, too diluted to pick out with the naked eye. But still the brown patches of grass slowly expanded, interspersed with grasses too hardy to be killed so quickly. Impératrice Pourpre scoffed. "What does that matter?"

"We can't just go back without thinking about this," Sent-Bee pointed out, sadness in her voice. "And we don't know what's going on there. It's just too dangerous."

"But – but Max needs me," pleaded Impératrice Pourpre.

Ladybug blinked, shaking her head groggily, and looked between Sent-Bee and Impératrice Pourpre. Finally her shoulders slumped. "We… can't," she admitted bitterly. "Not yet."

Impératrice Pourpre's heart sunk. She knelt, leaning forward and hugging her stomach. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall, staring up at Ladybug in confusion. "Wh–what?"

"I'm–I'm sorry."

Then the tears came.