Aurore pulled her cap down lower to hide her distinctive blonde hair, sinking down into the bench under the bus stop across the street from the clinic. A bus pulled up to the curb and stopped, and a half-dozen people stepped off, dispersing in both directions down the sidewalk. The elderly woman who had been sitting on the other end of the bench tottered to her feet and slowly climbed onto the bus, followed by a trio of teenage boys and a businesswoman in a pencil skirt. Finally, Aurore was the only one left at the bus stop.

Looking down at her, the driver waved. "Come on," he called. "I have a pretty strict schedule to follow…"

Swallowing, Aurore looked up and shook her head. "No. I–I'll wait for the next one."

He raised an eyebrow. "Won't be for another 20 minutes, you know."

She nodded. "I know. I–" She coughed. "I'm waiting for my friend. She isn't back yet."

"Fine." Shaking his head, the driver closed the doors and pulled away from the curb, into the early afternoon traffic.

As the bus drove away, Aurore glanced across the street, searching the sidewalk for anyone she recognized. Her skin crawled, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up on end, and she forced herself to suppress the shiver that ran up her spine. Surreptitiously, she turned her head, scanning the sidewalk behind her before turning her eyes up to the skyline directly above her, waiting for something to move. Who would it be? Would it be Ladybug and Cat Noir, come to stop her from telling their secrets to the wrong people? Or would it be Killer Bee and Cerna, looking to abduct her and force her to tell them all the Heroes of Paris' secrets? Her jaw clenched.

At the moment, she wasn't sure which option she would prefer

"Are you ready to go?"

Aurore nearly screamed, spinning around with her eyes wide to find Valèrie standing in front of the bench and staring down at her expectantly. Valèrie started, hopping back away from Aurore with a gasp, and her heels slipped off the curb. Aurore's breathing hitched, and she lunged forward, grabbing Valèrie's hand and pulling her back onto the sidewalk. "Damn it!" Aurore swore. "Why did you have to startle me like that!?"

Valèrie glared down at her with a huff. "I assumed you were paying attention!" she retorted heatedly. "After all–" her voice dropped down to a whisper "–you're the superhero here. Shouldn't you be, I don't know, alert?"

Aurore frowned, looking down at the ground. "Sorry," she muttered, clenching and unclenching her hands. "I just…" She groaned. "I've been so… tense lately.

Valèrie collapsed onto the bench next to her. "No; I'm sorry," she apologized. "I suppose I've been pretty anxious this week, too." She looked up and down the street out of the corner of her eye, hugging her stomach nervously. Finally, she sighed. "Are you ready to go?"

Aurore nodded. "We can leave – assuming that you're finished there, that is."

Pursing her lips, Valèrie stood up, stretching her arms and back as she did so. "Yep," she confirmed. "The doctor said everything is fine – no problems."

"I still don't see why I had to come with you," Aurore grumbled, as they started down the sidewalk away from the clinic, moving roughly in the direction of Valèrie's apartment.

"Well, considering that I couldn't bring Jean while you were staying with me, this is your penance!" Valèrie teased, grinning. Aurore smiled wanly, and Valèrie furrowed her brows, examining her face carefully. "I'm sorry," she apologized quickly. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad."

Aurore shook her head. "No; I brought it all on myself, after all." She frowned. "If I had been paying better attention, maybe I would have realized that something was wrong."

"From everything you said, it sounds like you were excited about being a hero, and these people took advantage of that," Valèrie pointed out. She glanced down the next side street as they waited at the corner for the sign to change. "I don't exactly know the Heroes of Paris as well as you do–" Aurore snorted humorlessly "–but I can't imagine Ladybug really being angry at you for all of this. Why don't you try talking to her?"

Aurore's stomach clenched, and she turned away from Valèrie to scan the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, alert for anyone who might be paying them undue attention. Going to Marinette now… It seemed too good to be true, to imagine the Heroes of Paris taking her back and accepting her, even after everything that had happened last week. She had lied. Maybe she hadn't lied intentionally. Maybe she hadn't betrayed them knowingly. But she had deceived them. She had been used. And as long as M. Loubet was free… Her mouth set in a thin line. "You know what I have to do," she told Valèrie curtly. "And you know why I have to do it."

Valèrie sighed, nodding in concession. "I know." She frowned. "But if you're still living with me in a few months, then you'll be accompanying me to a lot more doctor's visits…"

Aurore cocked her head to one side, confused. "I didn't ask before…" she began slowly. "And, really, it isn't my business… But… what's going on? Is–is everything okay?" She furrowed her brows. "Does this have something to do with this morning?"

Grimacing, Valèrie looked away from Aurore, glancing down the road behind them. At that same moment, the signal changed, and Valèrie rushed across the street, with Aurore chasing after her. Reaching the other side, Aurore placed a hand on Valèrie's shoulder, and they stopped on the sidewalk, just off the road. Still, Valèrie looked in every direction except directly at Aurore until finally, after a long minute of delay, she turned toward Aurore and met her eye. Letting out a breath, Valèrie nodded slowly, her shoulders tense. "You see, I'm–"

Aurore gasped in shock, glancing past Valèrie and catching sight of a too-familiar profile, the perfectly combed blond hair the first thing to catch her eye. Quickly, she ducked behind Valèrie, pulling her hat down further and trying to make herself as inconspicuous as she could. Freezing midsentence, Valèrie looked down at Aurore in confusion as a small group of professionals brushed past them.

"Are–are you okay?" wondered Valèrie, turning to look behind her.

Aurore grabbed for Valèrie's hand, tugging her back around. "No!" she hissed. "You'll call attention to me!"

"Whose attention?" Valèrie demanded.

"Behind you!"

Valèrie cocked her head. "You mean that poster?"

Aurore's stomach dropped and she straightened up, staring over Valèrie's shoulder at the life-sized picture of Adrien Agreste wearing the latest shirt and shorts from Marinette's summer line. She blinked dumbly, unable to turn away from the advertisement. The sign above the building's door caught her eye, and she nearly facepalmed. The new Agreste Fashion House outlet that Marinette had opened two weeks ago. Slowly, she forced herself to breathe again, slowly and deeply. Finally, her heartrate began to settle. "Sorry," she apologized, grimacing. "I guess I'm just a little jumpy."

Valèrie stared at her blankly. "Are–are you sure you're okay? You jumped like you'd seen a ghost."

"Of course!" Aurore nodded firmly. "Nothing's wrong – or any more wrong, at least." She groaned. "Hopefully we'll get this figured out soon…"

Valèrie frowned. "Fine. So where should we look?"

"'We'?"

Valèrie nodded, raising an eyebrow at her. "I said I would help you out, didn't I? Plus, you came with me today; I suppose I owe you."

Aurore smiled, some of the anxiety in her stomach fading away. "Thank you." She let out a breath. "But I still don't have any ideas of where to look."

"What do you know about him?"

Aurore shrugged helplessly. "That's the thing. I don't know if I can trust anything he's said. He must've known this was a possibility, so would you have told me anything I could use against you?"

"Probably not." Valèrie groaned. "Shoot."

"I mean… he said that he had a car manufacturing company, that he lived just south of the city, that Paris Saint – Germain was his favorite football team… When I asked him about the lance, he said it came from a 'business partner who had found it years ago." Aurore shook her head. "Would you believe any of that?"

"I guess I wouldn't," Valèrie admitted.

Aurore pursed her lips and shook her head in frustration. "How could I have been so stupid?" she groaned. "I believed all those lies that he was telling me! I wanted to feel special and important and powerful. But instead I let myself get takin in again…" She sniffed, blinking away tears of shame, and Valèrie quickly put an arm around her shoulders.

"You didn't know," Valèrie insisted. "You couldn't have known. We can look back with hindsight and see all the problems, but you couldn't see it in the moment." Aurore sniffled, nodding slowly. Sighing, Valèrie continued, "We can find him. We will find him, and we will put a stop to him once and for all. So… is there anything you can remember? Anything at all? It could be something small, like his favorite donut. Maybe the car he drove?"

Aurore hummed, furrowing her brows in thought. "I never saw his car," she began. "He must have parked a block or two away whenever he came to meet me. And he didn't wear anything unique or distinguishing." She frowned, pausing for a long moment. Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open. "His coffee!" she half-shouted, looking at Valèrie intently. "He always got his coffee from Camille's Café in the 16th Arrondissement. I remember because there were a few times that he brought tea for me, too, and I commented that it was a little out of the way. But he said that their mocha sauce was the best he'd found in Paris, and that was the only café he ever visited."

Valèrie hummed slowly, nodding to herself. "Do you think he might live in the 16th arrondissement?" she suggested. "Or maybe he has some other connected to them."

Aurore shrugged. "Maybe," she agreed. "But it could be nothing."

"Or it could be a lead," she pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "And at this point, we could use all the leads we can get.

Sighing heavily, Aurore nodded in agreement

"So, is that where we're going?" Valèrie asked.

Aurore nodded slowly, turning in the direction of the 16th Arrondissement, scanning the area around her intently for any indication of M. Loubet. At the same time, Valèrie started doing the same, both of them turning their heads in all directions to search for M. Loubet and his men. Steadily, they made their way north, moving as quickly as they could without drawing undue attention to themselves. The composition of the crowd around them changed several times, until finally they found themselves looking down the street at a sign outside a small café which showed a coffee cup with two prominent Cs as handles. Aurore turned to Valèrie and opened her mouth, only to freeze on hearing a familiar voice at the far end of the block.

"No, you tell those Japanese thugs that if they don't like the arrangement, they can come here and discuss it personally!"

"Loubet!" Aurore hissed, her eyes widening in recognition. Valèrie jumped, her grip on Aurore's arm tightening. Quickly, Aurore scanned the faces in front of her, trying to filter out the conversations around her, listening intently for that familiar voice. Several people around them were talking on phones; more were hustling along with their heads down. Aurore glanced inside the bookstore she was passing, hoping for a glimpse of the long, sallow face of M. Loubet. But he was nowhere to be seen. She frowned. "Did I imagine that I heard him?" she muttered. But then the crowd in front of her parted just the slightest bit.

There he was.

A car had parked next to the Camille's Café sign, and M. Loubet stood partway between the car and the building, his cell phone in his hand. The car pulled away from the curb and drove two blocks before turning. Several other people were also entering the café at the same time, most in the garb of businessmen and other professionals. The man standing behind M. Loubet, however, a tall, heavyset man with a rounded face, looked up and down the street suspiciously. Despite the warmth of the air, he wore a long coat. A shorter woman leaned against the front of the building, her pose far too relaxed to be natural. Aurore's eyes at first passed over them, but after a moment she turned her focus back, studying their faces carefully. She furrowed her brows, focusing her attention on the woman. While she was certain that she had never seen the man before; the woman's face seemed vaguely familiar.

"Is that him?" muttered Valèrie into her ear. Mutely, Aurore nodded. Valèrie gritted her teeth. "Okay… so what do we do now?"

Aurore's eyes widened, and she looked at Valèrie in shock. "We can't let him see you with me!" she gasped. "That would put you in danger!"

Valèrie cocked her head. "But… what should I do?"

Aurore's mouth set in a thin line. "Stay here – stay if you must," she told her. "But make sure that he doesn't see you close to me. Maybe – maybe you can go inside the café to wait. Or you can go down the street a little way. Just – stay away from him. Pretend you don't know me."

Valèrie sighed, nodding. "Fine; I'll stay out of the way. Just… I really hope we're doing the right thing here."

"You and me both," Aurore agreed, not taking her eyes off of M. Loubet.

M. Loubet stepped into the café, and almost immediately left with a cup in his hands. As he turned down the street away from Aurore, his two bodyguards moved to flank him. Pulling her hat down to hide her eyes, Aurore quickly hurried after them.