To Lyger 0: It's nice to see Francisco actually happy with his little family.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"

"Absolutely. With a consistent means to travel between the base and the spaceports, we have less need for long-term stores on the moon base, leaving space available for additional systems for resource conversion."

"That does sound somewhat dangerous. I know we have ways to get there, but how long of a trip would it be without the portals?"

"Approximately three days, depending on the moon's location in its orbit. If necessary, an unmanned vehicle could arrive in half the time."

"You know, one of NASA's axioms since Apollo 13 is to have contingencies in place in case of failure. If you don't have sufficient storage, then what will happen in that worst-case scenario, if the portal system fails?"

Hearing the three voices coming from the lab as she stepped through the portal into the Heroes of Paris Headquarters, Chloe immediately froze, glancing back at Zoe nervously. Zoe, still only partway through the portal, leaned back through and called something to Marina, not quite visible back in Spain. The two of them had spent the last four hours in Avilés, and only for part of it had Chloe met with Francisco, discussing his plans for cooperation between the Euzkadi, Spanish, and Portuguese heroes. While Chloe had admired his eagerness, she had put her foot down when he suggested going with her that afternoon to talk to Euskaldun: with a one-day-old baby at home, now was not the time to take on a project like this!

Instead, Chloe and Zoe had spent the rest of the afternoon in the nursery with him, Marina, and Jose Maria. The baby had woken up after only an hour of napping, but he had remained fairly quiet as Marina fed him and rocked him. As he had started dozing back off, she had passed him first to Chloe and then to Zoe. Chloe had found herself smiling in spite of herself. In only a few more months, she would be holding her new godchild – Max and Sabrina's baby.

But hearing the voices in the lab, Chloe's heart dropped into her shoes. She had been so careful to hide as much as she could from Zoe, to keep her from learning too much about any of the other Heroes of Paris. But now, there was no way for her to prevent Zoe from finding out. What was Sabrina doing in the lab!?

Stepping fully through the portal, which shut behind her with a whoosh, Zoe cocked her head, listening intently to the three voices. Her mouth started to come open in a question, and her eyebrows furrowed suspiciously. Glancing up at Chloe, she asked, "Hang on… is that Sabrina?" Her eyes widened in surprise.

Chloe sighed, as the voices in the lab cut out abruptly. "I guess we may as well go and see what they're doing in there."

"You – you mean that is Sabrina?" Zoe gasped. "I met one of the Heroes of Paris?"

Chloe gave her a deadpan look. "Considering that you've been living with a member of the Heroes of Paris for a week, I'd say that, yes, you have in fact met one of the Heroes of Paris!"

Zoe flushed. "I mean – I knew you were a hero. And I've seen Ladybug and Cat Noir and the rest around – Sabrina isn't… Ladybug, is she?"

"Um… no."

Zoe's shoulders slumped. "Have I met Ladybug before?"

Chloe quirked an eyebrow at her. "I could tell you, but I might have to kill you." Zoe gulped. Chloe stifled a laugh. "It's not my decision whether you can find out who Ladybug is, or Cat Noir, or any hero other than Queen Bee. Although, considering that everyone knows who I am…" Zoe gave her a dubious look. "Anyways," Chloe continued, clearing her throat. "Regardless. I can't tell you who Ladybug is, or which hero Sabrina is – if she really is a hero – or any of that. That's the rule with the Heroes of Paris: it's up to the individual who they tell, if anyone. Although we do recommend not waving your miraculous around, showing off your Kwami, transforming in public, and revealing your identity to the whole world…"

"Like you did?" Zoe finished.

Chloe nodded, clenching her jaw, and stepped away from the portals, following the well-worn path running from the break area, past the lab, toward the elevator. "Yeah. Like I did. Because if you do that, then the bad guys can ambush you and take your miraculous… like they did to me."

Zoe hummed, looking down. "I'm sorry for asking," she apologized. Her shoulders slumped. "I know I'm an outsider here – you have your friends already, and I'm just… tagging along. I–I don't want to cause trouble for you."

Before Chloe could respond, Sabrina popped her head out through the lab door and smiled brightly on seeing Chloe and Zoe. "How was Spain?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Chloe shook her head ruefully. "Well, Marina had the baby yesterday – and Francisco didn't bother to tell us until after we arrived."

Sabrina's eyes widened, her lips spreading in an excited smile. "Wait, really? Already? I didn't think she was due yet."

"He, um, he came a little early," Zoe explained hesitantly. "Jose Maria, they named him."

"Healthy?"

"'Absolutely perfect', according to Francisco," Chloe replied, raising an eyebrow and stifling a laugh. "He seemed over the moon about it!"

Sabrina hummed. "I knew he would come around eventually. His feelings toward Marina are absolutely genuine – as are hers toward him. I'm glad to hear there weren't any complications; Doctor Ouazani warned that if the baby comes prematurely, there could be problems."

"They just kept Jose overnight," Chloe replied.

Zoe smiled. "Marina said she wasn't too upset – she was more than ready to meet him."

Patting her own belly, Sabrina sighed. "Believe me; I know the feeling." Zoe blinked, opened her mouth, but shut it again. Glancing at her in amusement, Sabrina told her, "It's okay: you can ask."

Zoe started. "Um, I just… I was going to ask… you're part of the Heroes of Paris? And you're pregnant?"

Sabrina rolled her eyes. "Why is that always the first question?" she wondered rhetorically. "But yes, I'm still a hero, even though I'm pregnant – the fact that I'm actively creating a human being doesn't stop me from being able to do all the things I could do before." A throat cleared behind her, and she grimaced. "Or at least most of them. I just might need to take things a little more slowly at some point when we get closer to meeting our little bundle of joy!"

Zoe straightened her back awkwardly. "Er, right. I just…"

"No, I'm not putting the baby in danger," Sabrina told her. "I don't normally go out there; I'm normally staying back here and helping to coordinate things."

Zoe nodded, her brows furrowed.

"Sabrina is Impératrice Pourpre," Chloe explained, sighing. "That means she almost never goes out on patrol or actually has to fight the bad guys; she helps other people to do that. Although that hasn't stopped her from getting hurt before…"

Sabrina giggled. "Only when I'm out with you, Chlo."

Zoe furrowed her brows in confusion, looking back and forth between them.

Chloe cleared her throat. "Okay, just because you know Sabrina's identity doesn't mean you can tell anyone," she warned Zoe, her mouth setting into a thin line. "When heroes' identities are known, people can get hurt. That's what happened to me; I'm not about to let it happen to Sabrina."

Zoe started, spinning to look at Chloe in surprise. "Of–of course, I won't tell anyone!" she insisted, a hurt look on her face. "I do know how to keep a secret, you know." She folded her arms, raising an eyebrow at her. "I didn't tell anyone who my father was after finding out – at least, not until…" Looking away, she swallowed, blinking.

Chloe's stomach twisted around, and she looked away. "I'm…"

Sabrina gave Chloe a sympathetic look. "It's okay," she told her. "I'm not upset for your sister to know our identities." Placing a hand on Zoe's shoulder, she smiled warmly at her. "I trust her."

As she was speaking, Max and Claudie stepped out of the lab, Max wrapping an arm around Sabrina and stopping next to her. "Very well, we will increase the storage at the base," he agreed, glancing back at Claudie. "A minimum of two weeks of supplies. The underground storage can double as shelters in the event of solar radiation or decompression."

"That makes the most sense to me," Claudie agreed, nodding. "And we can pile the excavated soil around the base as an additional layer of radiation shielding." Turning to face Chloe and Zoe, she started. "Oh. Hello. Max and I were just…" She cocked her head in confusion. "I don't think I recognize you."

"This is my little sister," Chloe explained, sighing. "Zoe. This is Max's mother; Sabrina's future mother-in-law."

Claudie blinked. "Oh, um, it's nice to meet you."

"Uh… likewise," Zoe agreed quickly.

"How have you enjoyed experiencing what Chloe does on a regular basis?" Max asked Zoe wryly.

Chloe's jaw clenched.

"It's been really interesting," Zoe answered, grinning enthusiastically. "I knew there were a lot of superheroes in the world, but I had no idea just how many. Or that you were all working together so much! It's… amazing to think that the Heroes of Paris are at the center of all of this!"

"That's all thanks to your sister," Sabrina told her, giving Chloe a fond look. "Ladybug and Cat Noir have made a lot of connections – especially with the other groups of miraculous guardians, but Chloe's the one that they lean on to go and visit them and set up the ways that we can cooperate and help each other out when we need help." She stifled a laugh, raising an eyebrow at Chloe. "To be honest, I had no idea she had that level of tact in her, three years ago!"

Chloe felt heat rising in her cheeks. "Well, I suppose growing up around politics had to be good for something, right?"

Zoe's eyes widened. "You just… know how to do that? Because of, um, Father?"

"A little bit," Chloe answered, suppressing a wince. "I've never told one of our friends a lie or manipulated them under false pretenses to get them to do what I want – Daddy does that a lot. But thinking back on the ways that Daddy formed a coalition in the city, the ways that he could encourage people to work with him… that actually did help. At least some." She glanced sidelong at Zoe. "Just… don't tell him that."

Zoe hummed.

"Well, I'm glad to see you enjoying this," Sabrina told Zoe, smiling. "Not many people can say they got an inside look at how the Heroes of Paris operate!"

"There is one thing I haven't experienced yet," Zoe mused, looking over at Chloe. "I haven't gone on patrol with you yet!"

The smile froze on Chloe's face. Patrol? With Zoe? Visiting the other heroes was one thing. Seeing the miraculous temples was okay. But to go one patrol, where she could actually get hurt? The image of Zoe being swept away by a wave when they were in Greece popped into her mind unbidden. Her stomach clenched. "That… might be where we draw the line."

Zoe's shoulders slumped. "Fine," she grumbled.

Ten minutes later, after Max and Claudie had gone back to work in the lab and Sabrina had gone to meditate in the grotto, Chloe and Zoe stood side-by-side at the edge of the butterfly garden, close to the elevator pad. A weight on her stomach, Chloe looked over at Zoe and frowned. "I'm… sorry," she told her. "For pushing you so much before."

Zoe's eyes widened in surprise. "It's okay; I'm not made, or upset."

"But there's something you need to know," Chloe continued. "I do trust you – I wouldn't have brought you to Athens, and Peru, and Lisbon, and Avilés with me if I didn't trust you. But there are some things… Ladybug trusted me with the miraculous – three times – and she's trusted me with her identity. And after everything that happened between us, she is one of my closest friends; before you came into my life, there were only two people on the planet whom I could really call my 'sister': Sabrina, and Ladybug. That's why this is so important to me. I need to know that you will not tell anyone about anyone you see here. Or the identities of any of the Heroes of Paris. People's safety could be at stake."

Zoe's eyes widened. "I'm glad that you trust me," she answered immediately. "And I promise, I would never tell anyone or let you down."

Chloe let out a breath in relief. "I know," she told her, putting her hand on Zoe's shoulder. "I know you wouldn't. But still." She gave Zoe a worried look. "These aren't just my friends; this is my family. And I will protect my family." Zoe's eyes widened, and Chloe gave her a small smile. "And now, that includes you."