To Lyger 0: The cavalry has arrived!
Cavalière Lavande knelt in the debris and mud of the Tarasque's nest, waiting for the inevitable. She had tried her best – she had done her part. Had Killer Bee done what she was supposed to do, maybe things would have ended differently. But she had stopped the mad Bee; now it was up to Chloe and Marinette and the others to finish it. She had fought for so long. But now she was spent. She could almost feel Max's hand in hers, leading her into whatever must come next.
Then the hand squeezed her wrist insistently.
Her eyes went wide in shock. The grip on her wrist was not a figment of her imagination. It was real! The hand tugged on her and she resisted, trying to free herself from its hold but the hand held firm. The bottom of the Tarasque's paw brushed against the top of her hair, only to pause as something exploded, so close it sent Cavalière Lavande reeling. Suddenly, the grip on her wrist tightened to the point of pain and she fell forward, dragged by the wrist out from beneath the Tarasque's paw.
"What–?" Cavalière Lavande pitched forward into the wreckage. Behind her, the Tarasque's paw came down with a crash, sending a plume of dust and shrapnel flying away in all direction, including above Cavalière Lavande. She tried to throw her arms over her head for protection, but the one arm was stuck out in front of her, still caught in the iron grip that had dragged her out from beneath the Tarasque. As the dust in the air settled around her, she coughed, the dust and ash of Tarascon invading her mouth and forming a paste with her saliva. She buckled over, wheezing and gasping and spitting up. Finally, she could bring herself to look at her rescuer, only to find a dark hand holding her wrist firmly. Behind the hand, which on closer inspection she realized was covered by a black leather glove, trailed a long silvery cable that extended high into the air above her. Everything happening around her – the Heroes of Paris still throwing attack after attack at the Tarasque, Iron Maiden flying overhead with Sent-Bee cradled in her arms, the Bearator and Capricorn climbing up one of the Tarasque's legs, even the Tarasque itself – all faded into the background as she traced the hand back to its source. The cable reached far up above Cavalière Lavande, leading her gaze up to a sight she had never expected to see again.
Max's flying car screamed toward them from the north, following the course of the river, at least 25 meters above the ground. Three figures flew in formation around the car, only one of whom she could recognize at this distance.
"Turing?"
Behind Cavalière Lavande, the Tarasque bellowed in a rage, its tail lashing out over its head repeatedly at the crowd of American heroes standing in front of it. The first strike hit Alpac-Man square in the chest, knocking him backward into K-Man and sending both of them tumbling to the ground. Ayilon narrowly avoided the second strike, though she tripped over K-Man's leg and fell across him, bumping her head on a concrete slab. As the tail lashed forward again, Waktiman jumped in front of the others as his bracer lengthened to cover his entire body, and he was nearly launched into Dan, who only just managed to dive out of the way. The Tarasque snorted out a wave of poison gas as the clear air surrounding the heroes began to fade. But Cavalière Lavande could only halfway pay attention to what was going on around her, so wrapped up was she in the sudden appearances of Turing and Max's car.
The ground around her shook as the Tarasque stomped forward and the American miraculous team scattered. Dan grabbed Ayilon under the shoulders, desperately trying to drag her out of the Tarasque's path.
Suddenly, a swarm of drones emerged from the back of the flying car and rose up to encircle it, swirling around vertically it in concentric rings. Another three figures, one of whom seemed to be attached to the hand which had grabbed Cavalière Lavande, jumped out of the car, activating jetpacks as they fell. Another of those pressed a button on his wrist, and the flying car's headlights rorated upward to reveal the barrels of two energy cannons. The barrels glowed a bright white as all the drones unveiled their own energy weapons. Forty energy beams lanced out from the drones, all targeting the same spot – the base of the Tarasque's tail – and merged with beams from the car's headlights as someone emerged through the car's sunroof and fired a massive energy blast through the others at the Tarasque.
No sooner had the energy beams connected with the Tarasque's tail than the Tarasque itself turned around, callously knocking a dozen heroes to the side and unleashed its fire vision directly at the flying car. With moments to spare, the three figures flying around the car dove below the fire vision to avoid it, rolling around and reactivating their jetpacks halfway down. However, the car continued flying straight, making no move to avoid the fire. Cavalière Lavande gasped, her eyes wide. Then, five meters in front of the car, the fire expanded out to encircle and engulf the car in a massive ball which fully enveloped the car and drones, swirling around in a gyroscopic pattern. More and more fire pumped into the fireball, which grew larger and larger. A too-familiar golden mace hurtled in from Cavalière Lavande's left and smacked the Tarasque in the head, drawing its attention so it cut off the fire vision. The mace ricocheted off of the Tarasque and directly back toward its source, a winged man with a helmet that met at a point in front of his face. The man held out a slingshot over his head just as the mace reached him, catching the mace's ball in the slingshot's pocket. Holding it steady, he allowed the mace's momentum to pull it back as far as it could, continuing to fly forward all the while. Catching sight of the man, the Tarasque's eyes burned red and unleashed twin blasts of fire directly at him. Finally, just before the fire vision reached him, the mace lost its forward momentum and the man swung his slingshot back forward, wheeling about in midair and sending the mace straight back into the face of the Tarasque's fire vision. The fire dispersed in all directions as the mace caught it, and the man dove out of the way, flaring his wings and catching a sharp gust that sent him around the Tarasque to the south.
A bolt of lightning crackled in the air and struck the Tarasque from the opposite direction, just as the Tarasque caught the mace in its mouth. Growling in rage, the Tarasque turned around and spat the mace toward the source of the lightning. Above the Tarasque, the ball of fire that had been the flying car continued toward the Tarasque without slowing, only for the fireball pull together into a single massive conflagration in front and reveal the flying car, having remained unharmed in the center of the fireball. The fire whorled around and arced downward, straight back at the Tarasque, just as another blast of fire shot at the Tarasque from the far side where the lightning had come from. A spot of red flew over the Tarasque, exhaling a gust of freezing breath that crystallized the air around the Tarasque's head and legs. Knightowl and Spider Monkey sprinted up the ice wall and swung onto the Tarasque's back, just before it pulled its legs free of the ice, which shattered across the ground.
Cavalière Lavande, however, couldn't pay any attention to the Tarasque or the heroes fighting it. She continued to watch, transfixed, as the three figures from the flying car all landed directly in front of her. She recognized Lieutenant Ramus and Officer Luron immediately, but couldn't believe her eyes on catching sight of the third figure standing between them.
"What do we do now, Chrysaor?" Ramus demanded, his prosthetic whirring as it shifted from one setting to another.
"Hold it in place!" Chrysaor ordered, pointing up at the Tarasque.
Cavalière Lavande gasped, hardly believing her ears.
Ramus fired at the Tarasque with his prosthetic, drawing the Tarasque's attention in their direction. Ray detached his hand from Cavalière Lavande's wrist and clenched his fist, deploying a small energy pistol and firing up into the Tarasque's eye as Ramus shot a pair of taser leads which stuck to the Tarasque's closest leg. At the same moment, the newcomer with the Eagle Miraculous swooped down to land directly beneath the Tarasque's head and hurled his mace up at its chin. The Tarasque turned down toward him, its fire breath already raking the ground all around him, but the Eagle rolled forward, placing himself below the Tarasque's torso and out of its fire vision's range. An arrow struck the Tarasque in its mane, catching in the fur just behind its jawbone, and it shook its head in irritation, as a lightning bolt struck the arrow and drove it in deeper.
The Tarasque bellowed, shook its head, and turned in that direction, snorting out poison as it did so.
Taking in the situation in a quick glance, Chrysaor looked past Cavalière Lavande and waved his hand before lifting a meter off the ground on his jetpack. "Jackson!" he shouted, pulling something on a lanyard out of one of his pockets and waving it. "Catch!"
Dan's eyes widened as he snagged the miraculous out of the air with one hand. The green-and-brown Kwami emerged from the miraculous and looked at Dan in excitement. "Oh, yeah!" Dan exulted, pumping his fist. "Rexx, Rumble the ground!" Even before his transformation had completed, Dino Dan's lasso darted out and looped around the Tarasque's head, yanking it away from Waktiman and Ayilon. Velocimonio and el Bandido let out a tired cheer.
Cavalière Lavande's breath caught in her throat, staring at Chrysaor in shock. Mouth dry, she opened and closed it dumbly, her eyes bugging out, unable to turn away from the sight. It couldn't possibly be true – yet if it turned out to be false, how could she possibly bear the disappointment? Slowly, hardly daring to hope, she reached out with her empathy to sense his emotions. Hesitant at first, but digging in deeper, more eagerly, as she went. The surface-level emotions were so different from the last time she had felt them… but still she recognized them, so achingly familiar.
Chrysaor dropped back to the ground in front of her. "Imp–" He yelped in surprise as she grabbed onto his hands, squeezing them tightly and staring deeply into his eyes, past the visor hiding the top of his face. He winced, letting out a hiss of pain. "Ow – n–not so tight!"
"I–I thought you were dead!" Cavalière Lavande shrieked, gripping his hands tighter and pulling him closer, unable to look away from his face.
Chrysaor started, cocking his head in confusion. "What!?"
"The–the Tarasque – it stepped on you!" She grabbed his face between her hands, pulling him close and poring over his features, studying them for any difference – anything that might give away the lie. It felt too good to be true. Was she dreaming? And yet, here he was, standing in front of her, real to the touch, completely open for her to sense his emotions! "How–how are you still alive!?"
"I surv–"
Cavalière Lavande crashed her lips into his, pulling him into a tight hug which he returned fiercely. The ground shook behind them. The Tarasque continued to lumber about in a rage, harrier from above by the space-planes and flying car, and from below by the Heroes of Paris. But Cavalière Lavande couldn't worry about that – not now. How much she had missed this sensation over the last six weeks! It was everything she had longed for, and more. Desperately she pressed their bodies together, sighing in relief and deepening the kiss. Only when the need to breathe became too much to bear did she reluctantly pull away, gasping for air, to stare into his face once more. Beneath his helmet's tinted visor, several still-healing scars remained visible across his face, but it was still the same face she remembered and love so much. The same face she had longed to see just one more time. Without hesitating, she pulled the Horse Miraculous off of her own face and pushed it into his hands.
As her transformation shifted, the brown tint disappearing with the removal of the Horse Miraculous, Kaalki appeared out of the glasses in a flash of light and stared up at Chrysaor. Her eyes bugging out, her jaw hanging open in shock, the Kwami blinked rapidly. "I–I don't believe it!"
Chrysaor grinned, sliding the miraculous onto his nose in front of his own glasses. "Kaalki, Full gallop!"
Pegasus was back!