Marinette followed Luka into their small hotel room. There were no words spoken, and she could feel the tension between them. Luka went straight to the window and Marinette watched him carefully, but he didn't notice her. She placed her coat on the chair, and then followed her husband to the window to look out with him. The street was empty, but there was a familiar looking car parked just a few meters down the block.

"Our faithful friend is still there," Luka commented sarcastically.

"Luka," Marinette started, "please don't go to the underground meeting tonight."

"I must," Luka replied with sober resolve. "And besides, it isn't often that I get the chance to display heroics before my wife."

He smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder in teasing comfort.

"Don't joke." Marinette pulled away. "After Kagami's warning tonight — I'm scared."

Luka didn't look upset. Instead he gave her his quiet and soft smile. He understood her, but Marinette already knew he wasn't going to listen.

"To tell you the truth, I'm frightened too," Luka admitted. "Should I remain hiding here in a hotel room, or should I carry on the best I can?"

"Whatever I say, you'd carry on." Marinette stated matter-of-factly. "Why don't you tell me about your conversation with Adrien? What did you find out?"

Luka pursed his lips.

"Apparently he has the files..."

Marinette turned away to conceal her emotion. She moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Luka followed her with his eyes, steady and thoughtful, in no way antagonistically. Never antagonistically. But he didn't move to comfort her again.

"… but no intention of selling the information. I would have thought if sentiment wouldn't persuade him, money would."

"Did he give any reason?" Marinette asked, still not making eye contact and trying to keep her voice steady.

"He suggested I ask you."

"Ask me?"

Luka stepped away from the window to stand next to her at the bed.

"He said, 'ask your wife'. I don't know why he said that."

Marinette found it impossible to look at Luka. She stayed sitting, staring at the floor. Luka moved to turn off the light switch, leaving only a dim light coming from the windows.

"Well, our friend outside will think we have retired now. I'll go in a few minutes," Luka finally spoke.

Marinette had no response.

Luka returned to the bed again, this time sitting down beside her. The silence grew between them. A strained silence. Quietly, Luka finally spoke.

"Marinette, I—"

He paused.

"Marinette — when I was gone, after the accident — were you lonely in Paris?"

Marinette turned slightly to look at him, but his face was not visible in the dark.

"Yes, I was," she answered.

"I know how it is to be lonely," Luka said, his voice filled with genuine sympathy. "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Marinette's lip started to tremble, but she controlled herself. She wanted to tell him. She should tell him.

"No, Luka. There isn't," Marinette answered in a low voice.

The silence fell again.

"I love you very much," Luka said when he broke it.

"Yes, I know."

Marinette swallowed her emotion, willing herself not to cry. Luka needed her support, not her baggage.

"Luka," she continued. "Whatever I do, will you believe that I, that I—"

"You don't even have to say it," he interrupted. "I'll believe."

Her eyes finally met his. There was only understanding and love in them. She didn't deserve this. He had every right to be angry, to be shouting, and demanding answers. Because of her, they had lost their shot at getting the information for which Max had died trying to get to them. It was all a waste now, and it was all her fault.

After a long moment of silence, Luka stood up. He bent down and kissed Marinette lightly on the cheek.

"Good night, love."

"Good night."

Luka exited the hotel room. Marinette watched him go, and listened to his footsteps fall farther and farther down the hall.

A sudden sense of urgency came over her. She jumped up and threw open the door, calling down the hallway as loud as she dared.

"Luka! —"

He stopped at the end of the hall and turned to see her standing on the threshold to the room.

"Yes dear?" he asked as he walked back towards her.

She hesitated, and in an instant, lost her nerve.

"Be careful," was all she said once Luka had reached her side again.

"Of course I'll be careful," Luka smiled

He kissed her on the forehead goodbye, and then turned again to leave. Marinette stood there for a few seconds, watching him until he got to the stairs, and listening for as long as she could hear his steps. She closed the room's door and crossed to look out of the same window as before. The car down the street had gone.

Marinette took a deep breath as she worked up the nerve to do what she knew must be done now. She put on her jacket, and headed out the door.


Adrien stood at the bar with Alya, hunched over a budget sheet as she checked his math.

"Well Adrien, you're actually in pretty good shape," Alya said with satisfaction.

"How long can I afford to stay closed?" he asked.

"I'd say two weeks, maybe three."

"Maybe I won't have to," he replied. "A bribe has worked before. In the meantime, everyone stays on salary."

"Zoe will be happy to hear it," Alya smiled "I owe her money."

"Can you finish locking up?" Adrien asked.

"I will. Then I am going to a meeting for—"

"Don't tell me where you're going," Adrien cut her off. He had suspicions about what his staff got up to in their free time. He didn't want confirmation of it.

"I won't," Alya said with a smile and a wink.

"Good night," Adrien told her.

"Good night, boss."

Adrien slowly made his way upstairs to his office. He had a nice bottle of liquor he had been gifted, and if Alya and Nino were busy tonight, that left him free to drink himself into unconsciousness without interruption.

He flicked on the office light, and was startled to see he was not alone.

Standing in front of his desk was the last person he wanted to see right now. Marinette.

"How did you get in?" he asked. His voice only cracked slightly.

"The stairs from the street," she answered softly.

"I told you this morning you'd come around," he admitted, "but this is a little ahead of schedule."

Marinette said nothing. She looked at him with a hardened gaze.

"Why don't you sit down?" he offered, gesturing to the tired couch that sat opposite the desk. Nino had begged him for months now to replace it, and suddenly he wished he had listened.

"Adrien, I had to see you." Marinette stated.

"You did see me."

"Please…"

Adrien let out a tired sigh and absentmindedly reached in his pocket for a cigarette. Marinette gave him a pointed look, but he ignored her and lit it anyway. He needed something to get himself through the conversation that was coming.

"Is your unexpected visit connected, by any chance, with the stolen Tsurugi dossier?" he asked.

Marinette was silent.

"It seems while I have that file, I'll never be lonely," he commented.

"Adrien, you can ask any price you want," she finally replied. "But you must give me that file."

"I went through this with your husband already. It's no deal."

"I know how you feel about me," Marinette said with a slight tremor in her voice. "But I'm asking you to put your feelings aside for something more important."

Adrien breathed in the cigarette and looked away. Something more important. Maybe his father was right. Ladybug had her own agenda, she would never lower herself to care about something as insignificant as him.

"Do I have to hear again what a great man your husband is?" Adrien asked, his emotion rising in his voice. "What an important Cause he's fighting for?"

"It was your cause too, in your own way." Marinette argued back. "By helping me you were fighting for the same thing."

"I was never fighting for Ladybug's cause," Adrien quickly shot back. Anger was rising in his chest. "Besides, I'm not fighting for anything anymore — except myself. I'm the only cause I'm interested in."

"Adrien, we loved each other once. If those days meant anything at all to you—"

"I wouldn't bring up that summer if I were you," he interrupted harshly. "It's poor salesmanship."

"Please. Please listen to me," she begged. "If you knew what really happened. If you only knew the truth —"

"I wouldn't believe you, no matter what you told me!" he interrupted again. "You'll say anything now, to get what you want. You never trusted me with the truth before, why would you now?"

Marinette's eyes flashed with anger, and for a moment Adrien felt the spike of adrenaline he used to get when Cat Noir faced his enemies.

"You want to feel sorry for yourself, don't you?" Marinette shouted, her temper flaring. "With so much at stake, all you can think of is your own feelings. One woman has hurt you, and you take your revenge on the rest of the world. You're a coward, and a weakling."

Those last words hit Adrien with such force, it felt like he had physically been struck. He must have looked it, too, because before he could respond, regret passed across Marinette's face and she immediately began to backtrack.

"No. Oh Adrien, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "But you are our last hope. If you don't help us… we can't win this war. We have nowhere else to turn."

"Perhaps this isn't a war you can win," Adrien replied softly.

He extinguished the unfinished cigarette in the dish on his desk and turned back to face her again. "Now if you —

Adrien stopped in his tracks. Marinette was standing now, and in her hand was a small revolver, pointed directly at him.

"All right, I tried to reason with you," Marinette spoke. Her eyes were serious and her expression hardened. "I tried everything. Now I want that file."

Adrien paused, stunned by the turn of events. Unable to help himself, he cracked an admiring smile. He never wanted to admit it to himself, but on occasion he had missed this. Cat Noir versus Ladybug. Their fights had been brutal, but sometimes he missed the ballet.

"Get it for me," Marinette ordered.

"I don't have to, I have it right here."

He reached into his inner pocket and pulled out the envelope he had tucked there.

"Put it on the table," she barked.

He smiled wider. "No."

"For the last time, put them on the table," she commanded. Her confidence was apparent. There was no more hint of a tremor in her voice.

"If Luka and the Cause mean so much to you, you won't stop at anything," Adrien replied as he took a step toward her, leaving only a few inches between the barrel of the gun and his chest. "All right, I'll make it easier for you. Go ahead, shoot. You'll be doing me a favor."

Marinette's finger rested on the trigger. It seemed like she was summoning the nerve to press it. Adrien looked directly into her eyes, and knew she could do it. Then, suddenly, her hand flinched and the pistol dropped to the floor. Her expression broke, and she covered her face with her hands. Instinctually, Adrien moved closer, and quite suddenly, she flung herself into his arms.

"Adrien, I tried to stay away. I thought I would never see you again," she sobbed. "I thought you were out of my life. The day I left Paris, if you knew what I went though! If you knew how much I loved you. How much I still love you–"

Her words were smothered as he pressed her tight to him in his embrace.

Caught up in the moment, Marinette moved her lips to his, and Adrien surrendered to his desires, passionately getting lost in her kiss.

Marinette and Adrien sat on the couch, a bottle of champagne open on the table.

Marinette was talking, and Adrien was listening intently as he refilled their glasses.

"We were just kids, when it all started, you know. And we worked so closely together, were there for every obstacle, on and off the battlefield. How could we not end up together?

"We never knew what fight was going to be our last, so when we turned eighteen, he proposed, and we got married in secret. No one knew except our parents and his sister. I didn't even tell Alya.

"When Cat Noir struck him with his Cataclysm, I—"

Marinette paused and looked down into her drink. Adrien was grateful as it enabled him to compose himself to hide his own emotion remembering the event.

"I thought Luka was dead, after the Cataclysm. I was there, I saw the ash. I saw his face– when it happened."

Adrien had seen his face too. That day, and every night aftward for months on end, haunting his nightmares.

"I think Cat Noir was shocked by it." Marinette continued. "He always seemed to treat the akuma battles like a big joke. But suddenly, it wasn't funny anymore.

"I was in a really dark place after that. I was lonely, I had nothing. Not even hope. I dropped out of school, pushed everyone away. I only kept a friendship with Alya and Nino because they refused to leave me alone, but even they didn't know what I was really going through."

Adrien rubbed his eyes and took another sip of his drink before replying.

"I understand why you never told me about… about Ladybug," he said, "but why not be honest with me about Luka? Why keep your civilian relationship a secret?"

Marinette gave him a sad smile, and reached over to squeeze his hand.

"Well, when we started out fighting Hawkmoth, we didn't even know each other's identities," she answered. "And by the time we did know each other's civilian selves, the press already knew Ladybug and Viperion were together. It was too risky to date openly as Marinette and Luka. If one of us were revealed… it would expose us both."

Very smartly reasoned, Adrien agreed. He knew Hawkmoth had made several attempts to discover the hero's identities without much luck. Adrien had never been involved much with that strategy, his father preferring to use Chat Noir primarily as a combative.

"After I thought Luka died, I was lonely." Marinette continued. "I had nothing. Not even hope. Then I met you."

Adrien remembered their reconnection at her parent's bakery. They had helped each other out of their own depressions, without even knowing it was from the same event.

"When did you first find out he was alive?" Adrien asked, not sure if he really wanted the answer.

"The day I left… you went out to get potion ingredients… I called Juleka to pick up the extra miraculous, and she had just gotten the news. He was sick, I was hurt. He needed me, and I needed him…"

Marinette didn't explain how Viperion had supposedly returned from the dead, months after definitely dissolving into ash. A part of Adrien wanted to ask, but a larger part didn't want to relive that day again.

"I wanted to tell you, but I didn't dare." Marinette continued. "I knew you would have gotten caught up in this miraculous mess, and I never wanted that for you. Every person I've dragged into this war has been hurt by it, and I couldn't bear seeing you join them. So I – well, you know the rest."

Adrien took another sip of his drink, finishing it off. He stayed silent. Marinette had no idea how much he was involved with this 'miraculous mess,' quite literally his entire life. These past two years, since he lost the black cat ring and his father had shunned him, were probably the furthest he'd ever been from the fight for control of the jewels, but even now he could feel the power of his amok preventing him from telling Marinette what she needed to know. That he was the villain, that everything she told him would probably get back to Hawkmoth, eventually. But there was nothing he could do.

"It was a risk, anyway, staying in Paris with the Ladybug Miraculous," Marinette continued. "Without Viperion's Second Chance, all it would take is one mistake and Hawkmoth could take my earrings. He almost got them, on that last day.

"We had hoped, if I disappeared, Hawkmoth would give up the chase, after a time. But he just got worse."

"Is that why you came back?" Adrien asked flatly. He knew he wasn't prepared for that. Even without his old miraculous, if Ladybug and Viperion returned to fight akumas, his father could always make him take a new miraculous and continue the fight. He might even add Felix to the team too this time, something his cousin would never forgive him for.

And he wouldn't be fighting the façade of an unjust and entitled Ladybug that his father had painted for him. It was Marinette. And he knew he would rather cataclysm himself than ever hurt her again.

"We're almost recovered now, and Luka desperately wanted to come back, to take up the fight again, but I couldn't let us make the same mistakes as before." Marinette explained. "Akumas, we could handle. But Mayura's sentimonsters were only getting stronger, and more difficult to purify as she got better at hiding their amoks. I tried to adapt my powers, create a draining spell with my yo-yo, but in the end that backfired too."

Marinetted rubbed her sternum, as if remembering the burn she suffered in that last fight. Adrien remembered the draining spell with horrifying clarity. From the first time she had used it, it had scared him. Every fight, he was waiting for the day Ladybug might try to use it on him.

He steadied his breath as memories of his father's words infiltrated his mind. Ladybug destroys sentimonsters, and she'll try to destroy you. We must defeat her before she tears our family even further apart.

Adrien felt his chest tighten and his hands go cold. He never had a chance with Marinette, not really. He never had a real chance with anyone, because he wasn't even real himself. He tried to even his breaths, but his heart was already racing and his lungs were gasping to catch up. At the end of the day, he was the monster, and Ladybug was the knight in shining armor who would slay him.

He felt the room start to spin, but he was suddenly centered by a pressure in his palm. Marinette was squeezing his hand, her eyes brimming with concern as she took in his deteriorating psyche.

"It's ok Adrien, I know this stuff is scary," Marinette comforted. She didn't even know what she was really comforting him for.

"But don't worry, we're not coming back to the fight in Paris yet," she continued. "As long as we keep a low profile, I don't think Hawkmoth will start regularly releasing akumas again. When we come back to fight, it will be with an advantage, and we'll be able to defeat Hawkmoth quickly, once and for all."

"The black cat miraculous," Adrien muttered under his breath. That was the advantage they were after.

"Well, not exactly…" Marinette trailed off.

"We came back to Paris to get some new information Max had acquired, and get a visa to China so we could investigate."

So the entertainment visa wasn't a total ruse, Adrien thought. But had Plagg really flown halfway around the world with the ring? He smiled slightly, despite himself, thinking about how much cheese that journey must have required for the little Kwami.

"Finding the information on the black cat miraculous was lucky," Marinette continued. "If we manage to secure it, it will change the tide of the war. We still thought Hawkmoth had the ring, and chose not to use it, and the fact that it's out of his hands is a huge advantage. But the information we were after, the information Max went looking for, was about sentimonsters."

Adrien's pulse was ringing in his ears. He hadn't investigated the file Max gave him at all, out of fear that it did have Plagg's location. Maybe he should have been a bit more curious.

"The Tsurugis had information on their servers about how to destroy sentimonsters?" he asked, his mouth dry and voice rough.

"Not exactly…" Marinette answered. "They had case studies… and some information about a specific case in Shanghai. There were rumors amongst the monks there, former Guardians of the miraculous, that there was a spell that could unbind a sentimonster from its amok, make it no longer bound to the command's of its master."

"Why would you want to do that?" Adrien butted in, not even attempting to hide the emotion in his voice. "Sentimonsters can't make decisions on their own, they would just go wild, and cause destruction."

Marinette rolled her lips into a tight frown, clearly hesitant to give him more information based on his last reaction.

"I thought the same thing too, for a long time." Marinette finally said. "But our research doesn't support it. It may sound crazy to you, but I promise sentimonsters aren't only like the ones you see on the news. They are sentient, living beings, just as real as you and me. The amok the peacock holder uses is a chain, but if the amok is returned to the sentibeing, they could make their own choices, they could choose to be good."

"Until someone else gets the amok again, and uses the monsters for their own gain." Adrien shot back.

"That's why we're searching for this spell," Marinette replied softly. "It would allow us to permanently unlink a sentibeing from their amok. Not only would it free them from Mayura's control, but it could even prevent her from creating new beings, if we do it right. According to the ancient texts, the peacock miraculous was only meant to be used once by a holder in their lifetime, not to create and destroy life endlessly like Mayura useses it."

Adrien wasn't sure what to believe. None of this made sense from what his father had told him about his own nature. But what motivation would Marinette have to lie to him now?

"So you don't want to use the draining spell anymore?" he tentatively asked.

"I hated using it," Marinette insisted. "I hated so many of the decisions I had to make in this war. I don't like who it made me. I just want the fight to be over."

"So what now?" Adrien asked, finally making eye contact with Marinette again. Her blue irises didn't give a hint that she was deceiving him.

"Now?" she asked, "I don't know. I know that I'll never have the strength to go away from you again."

"And Luka?"

Marinette let out a defeated sigh.

"You'll help me now, Adrien, won't you?"

Adrien nodded silently, his eyes darting to the envelope on the table.

"Luka can take the file and find the spell and the ring." Marinette continued. "Then he'll have his work – all that he's been living for."

There was an awkward pause, as the implication set in.

"All except one." Adrien spoke. "He won't have you."

Marinette buried her face into his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him.

"I can't fight it any more," she admitted, her voice rasping as she fought back tears again. "I ran away from you once. I can't do it again. I don't know what's right any longer. You'll have to think for both of us, for all of us."

"All right, I will."

"I wish I didn't love you so much," she whispered.

She tilted her head up to him, and like a moth to flame his lips naturally drifted towards hers.

But they never met. A loud noise downstairs echoed up to the office, causing Marinette to jump and pull away.

Adrien stood up quickly, rushing to the door to see what could have caused the disturbance.


Alya and Luka made their way through the darkness toward Chez Adrien. The headlights of a speeding car swept toward them, and they flattened themselves against a wall to avoid detection. The lights moved past them and they continued down the alley.

"I think we lost them," Alya whispered

"Yes. I'm afraid they caught some of the others," Luka replied darkly.

They reached the staff door at the back of the club. Alya's hands were shaking, and between her nerves and the dark alleyway she could barely unlock the door with her key.

"Come inside. Come," Alya waved Luka in.

They slipped inside, and Alya quietly led them out of the kitchen to the bar, the only sound was their heavy breaths as they recovered from the chase.

"I'll get some water," Alya told Luka.

She reached under the counter to get a glass, accidentally knocking a metal shaker, which hit the floor with a loud clatter that echoed through the empty club.

"Alya, what happened?" Adrien's voice came down from the stairs above to his office. What was he still doing here? Nino was right, they needed to intervene with him.

"Sorry boss," Alya apologized as a smile involuntarily spread across her face from the excitement of the evening. "The police broke up our meeting! We escaped at the last moment."

She held up her thumb and pointer finger barely a centimeter apart to illustrate the close call. She knew Adrien didn't like to talk about the resistance, but honestly he had to know that half the staff participated at this point. If anything, he was only keeping up appearances.

She started filling her and Luka's glasses from the tap. Maybe she could convince Adrien to stop drinking for the night and rehydrate with them.

"Come up here a minute," Adrien called.

Alya stopped the tap, a little surprised at how sober Adrien sounded. She slid the filled glass to Luka and looked up at her boss.

"I want you to put out the light at the rear entrance. It might attract the police," Adrien explained.

"But Zoe always puts out the light before she leaves," Alya reminded him.

"Tonight she forgot," Adrien informed her.

"Yeah ok, I'll do it," Alya agreed, giving Adrien a concerned look. She made her way up the stairs to the office where the power box was.

As she reached the top, Adrien cracked the door ever so slightly, and Alya's eyes widened as she saw the real reason he called her up there.

Marinette's pale face, frozen in shock, stared back at her. Adrien looked pointedly at Alya, and she returned a nod of understanding, slipping into the office as Adrien headed downstairs.

"Marinette, what the fuck are you doing here?" Alya demanded in a forceful whisper.

"I could ask you the same thing, Alya!"

"Luka and I came here to wait out the taskforce, after our meeting got broken up."

"The taskforce found you?"

"Most of us are fine."

"Most?"

Alya was unphased by Marinette's look of concern.

"Marinette, look I know you don't want anything to do with the resistance," Alya sighed, "and I don't blame you given how screwed we are right now, but… what on earth are you doing?"

"I just came by to speak to Adrien," Marinette asserted.

"Oh, just to chat?" Alya asked with as much sarcasm she could muster in a whisper. "Is that why Adrien wants me to sneak you out the back when your boyfriend walked in downstairs?"

"Alya, I can explain–"

"No I don't want an excuse," Alya cut her off. "I looked the other way when you ditched Adrien out of the blue two years ago. And that hurt him a lot. Nino and I had to pick up the pieces of your mess."

"Alya, I'm sorry, I–"

"I don't know what you thought you were getting into with this new relationship with Luka," Alya interrupted again. "If you believed the playboy rumors or whatever, I don't care, but I promise you, Luka cares a lot about you. He deserves better than you sneaking around behind his back. And Adrien deserves better than you playing with his feelings again."

"Alya, I promise I wasn't," Marinette pleaded. "I just came to explain things, about how we ended things. Everything I'm doing is for Luka. I may not be 'in the resistance' but just like you I care about Luka's safety and the Cause."

Marinette was clearly shaken, and Alya couldn't stay mad at her best friend.

"I'm sorry girl," she apologized, "I'm just on edge tonight."

"It's understandable," Marinette agreed.

Marinette moved toward Alya with a light step, and pulled her into a hug.

"I never wanted this war to ruin our friendship," Alya breathed out.

"I can't agree more," Marinette replied. "But you're going to win, I know it."

Alya pulled out of the hug and smiled at her friend, squeezing her hands reassuringly.

"Come on, let's go out the back," Alya told her "I'll call you a cab."


Luka wrapped a bar towel around a cut on his wrist as Adrien came down the stairs. When he approached, Adrien looked questioningly at the injured hand.

"It's nothing, just a little cut. We had to get through a window," Luka explained.

He took a sip of his water, and watched as Adrien reached behind the counter to pour himself a whiskey. He offered Luka a glass as well, but Luka politely waved him off.

"Had a close one, huh?" Adrien asked after taking a sip of his drink.

"Yes, rather close." Luka agreed.

"Don't you sometimes wonder if it's worth all this?" Adrien asked.

Unsure what Adrien meant, Luka looked back at him puzzled.

"I mean what you're fighting for?" Adrien clarified.

"We might as well question why we breathe." Luka replied. "If we stop breathing, we die. If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die."

"What of it? Then it'll be out of its misery," Adrien grumbled.

"Do you know how you sound, Adrien?" Luka challenged. "Like a man trying to convince himself of something that in his heart he doesn't believe. Each of us has a destiny. For good or for evil."

Adrien rolled his eyes. "Yes. I get the point."

"I wonder if you do. I wonder if you know that the melody you're trying to play is dissonant with the one destiny has written, and you'll never succeed."

Adrien gave Luka a thoughtful look before sitting down at the table with him and refilling his already depleted glass.

"You seem to know all about my destiny," Adrien mocked.

"I know a good deal more about you than you suspect," Luka replied, keeping his tone even. "I know, for instance, that you are in love with a woman."

Adrien put down his half-lifted drink and stared at Luka.

Luka smiled slightly, darkly amused by the irony of the situation.

"It is perhaps a strange circumstance that we should be in love with the same woman," Luka continued.

Adrien straightened up in his chair and watched Luka closely, but said nothing to dispute the claim.

"I knew there was something between you and Marinette the first evening I came in this place," Luka admitted. "Since no one is to blame, I demand no explanations. I ask only one thing."

Luka held Adrien's gaze from across the table, and continued.

"You won't give me the dossier. The Tsurugis will not be giving me a visa. And after tonight's events… it is becoming increasingly likely I may not ever leave Paris. All right. But I want my wife to be safe. I ask you as a favor, to use your influence to take her away from Paris, if something is to happen to me. She won't want to leave, but if you insist, I know you can convince her to go."

Adrien looked at Luka incredulously.

"You love her that much?" he asked Luka.

"Apparently you think of me only as the leader of a Cause. Well, I am also a human being…" Luka looked away for a moment, then quietly continued. "Yes, I love her that much."

They were interrupted by a sharp knock on the front door of the club, followed by it immediately being forced open. Several Special Task Force agents entered the room, and Adrien and Luka both rose to their feet as an officer Luka had not seen before walked up to address him.

"Mr. Luka Couffaine?" the officer asked.

"Yes," Luka stubbornly confirmed.

"You will come with us. We have a warrant for your arrest," the officer barked.

"On what charge?" Luka asked, maintaining a calm and steady demeanor.

"Captain Tsurugi will discuss that with you later," the officer dismissed the question.

Luka looked back at Adrien who smiled back ironically.

"It seems destiny has taken a hand," Adrien muttered.

In dignified silence, Luka walked with the agents to the door. Adrien's eyes followed them, but his expression revealed nothing of his feelings.