To Lyger 0: Be patient. This thing is 25 chapters! And there are another 3 Beasts on the way…

To Guest: It's not called "Tragedy" for nothing…

"On your right! No – the other way!"

Pablo draped his arm over Julia's shoulders, watching their newest group of recruits train with their miraculous. Coquette slid across the floor of the training arena in the temple basement, narrowly evading a swipe from Velocimonio's usaga as he sprinted past her. Her slide took her through his path, and he jumped over her, his feet brushing her leg as he avoided the trip. Coquette sprang back to her feet as Velocimonio reached the training area wall, raced partway up it, and leapt off, twisting around in midair to take another stab at her with his usaga. Coquette held up her masquerade mask as a shield, blocking Velocimonio's attack and deflecting it to the side. Behind Coquette, Fin hurled his snorkel like a boomerang, aiming for the space just in front of Velocimonio, and Velocimonio contorted in midair to avoid it. The snorkel hit the wall behind him and deflected down, catching Coquette in the thigh.

"Oh, come on!" groaned Fin, throwing his head back in frustration and jogging toward them. "That seriously should have hit."

Coquette arched an eyebrow at him as she retrieved the snorkel and tossed it back to him. "It did hit: me."

He caught the snorkel out of midair without taking his eyes off of Coquette's face. "You know," he told her with a smirk, wagging his eyebrows, "I prefer hitting on pretty girls to just hitting them…"

"Oh, yeah?" she purred, batting her eyelashes.

Julia cupped her hands around her mouth. "Focus!" she yelled harshly, and the two heroes jumped apart. Coquette flushed deep red. Fin's face turned white as a sheet. Velocimonio stopped directly between them, knocked the masquerade mask out of Couquette's hands, and held his usaga to her throat, raising an eyebrow at them. Julia clapped her hands to hold their attention. "There's a time and place for that, and this is not it!"

Pablo squeezed Julia's shoulder and pressed a kiss to the side of her head while Velocimonio sprinted away from them, running sideways along the wall. "You can cut them a little slack," he whispered. "Don't you remember those days?"

Julia glared at him half-heartedly, still watching the sparring out of the corner of her eye. "Yes, I remember," she acknowledged with a nod. "I also remember Nitemare nearly cutting your arm off when you tried something like that…"

Pablo grimaced at the memory. "Yeah… he did get a little intense," he noted. Julia arched an eyebrow. "… And I may have had it coming, considering that my distraction almost got you thrown across the room by Paresseuse!"

"As long as you can acknowledge that," she responded, refocusing on the training session, her arms folded above her enlarged belly. Velocimonio had run down off the wall and made a long, wide loop to bring himself back around for a second attack against them. Coquette had timed Velocimonio's run and thrown her mask at the spot where she thought he would be, catching him in the arm. He slowed down marginally, shaking his hand. Pablo watched him carefully. After all this time, he could see that Velocimonio was acting. Coquette, however, pumped her fist in excitement.

"Lethargy!" shouted Perez-Oso, standing near the center of the living room, as Velocimonio paused in the space between himself and Hedor. Quickly, he swung his spring around like a lariat and tossed it to loop around Velocimonio's waist. Velocimonio, however, smirked and took off across the room, just as Hedor went to compress his bellows. The spring caught around Hedor's arms, squeezing the bellows and sending a cloud of Malodor into Perez-Oso's face. Perez-Oso gagged, his eyes watering, and pulled on the spring. Hedor stumbled in slow motion and dropped to one knee.

While the two of them untangled themselves, Fin held his hands together and nodded to Coquette, who jumped onto his hands and sprang off, the momentum of their combined efforts sending her right after Velocimonio, parallel to the ground. Coquette slashed at Velocimonio's back with her mask as she reached the opposite side of the room, but stumbled on landing. Velocimonio pirouetted out of her way, and Coquette nearly fell into Coyotemaria, who sidestepped, narrowly avoiding Coquette and ducking a wide sweep from Sunnguvuk before reaching into her pouch and extracting her favored mallet. She swung the mallet at Coquette, but Sunnguvuk interposed her shield, deflecting the mallet away from Coquette. The follow through of the mallet strike, however, placed it in Fin's path as he reached them, tripping him up.

Finally pulling the spring off of himself, still under the effects of Lethargy, Hedor lumbered across the room after Velocimonio. Perez-Oso followed after him, waving his hand in front of his face because of the smell. He only made it halfway, however, before he doubled over, retching.

Pablo's nose turned up also as the Malodor spread throughout the training arena. Coughing and blinking away tears, he called out, "You can end your own abilities!"

Perez-Oso looked at Hedor and grimaced. "Oh, um, sorry, dude." Suddenly Hedor pitched forward, stumbling a bit and nearly losing his balance as the effects of Lethargy abruptly went away. The rancid smell of Malodor lingered in the air, though the intensity lessened a moment later as Hedor released it. Hedor spun around and hurled his bellows at Coyotemaria, catching her in the back of the head while Sunnguvuk and Coquette dueled her. Coyotemaria started, rubbing her head where it had hit, and Sunnguvuk shoved her shield into Coyotemaria's chest, knocking her back toward Hedor.

Julia frowned, her brows furrowed in concentration. "They are learning," she allowed, "but I worry they aren't learning fast enough."

Pablo pursed his lips. "Are we expecting too much of them?"

"You have faced one of these Monsters before," she pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "Do you think they will be ready?"

Pablo hummed. "Truthfully, I don't know," he admitted. "Nothing we ever did to them seemed to have any effect whatsoever. The first time it appeared, Paola said they managed to force it back, but not the second time. The Lion just kept coming, no matter what – it was all we could do just to keep the civilians out of harm's way."

Julia let out a breath, looking down at the floor and hugging her chest tightly. "I wish Garcelle and Geoff had agreed to continue through this crisis before retiring," she admitted. "Do you realize how much of our team is in their first three years as miraculous heroes now?"

Pablo pulled her in close, one of his hands resting on her stomach. "There are a lot of new holders, but we still have some veterans to help them – Luis, Maria, Krista…"

"Will they be enough, though?"

Atsaa scoffed. "We have used greener holders than these in the past," he pointed out. "The American Miraculous Team has never backed down. They are miraculous holders. They are heroes. They can handle it."

Mettli, who had been sitting on Julia's belly, turned around to look up at her and nodded. "As long as we have our team together, I agree. This may be a difficult fight, but your team is competent." Her shoulders sagged. "I only wish we had our full team together…"

"Rexx and Ursaa will probably be around," Atsaa pointed out sourly, raising an eyebrow.

"If I get my paws on the assholes who took them–" Mettli bared her teeth in a snarl.

Julia patted Mettli's head consolingly. "I know – I swear we'll get them back."

"It's not your fault," Mettli answered, leaning into Julia's hand. She glanced back at the training area and hummed, pointing across the room to where Coquette and Perez-Oso had finally pinned Velocimonio against the wall. "They learn fast."

Julia frowned, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "I hope so."

Pablo shrugged, rubbing her shoulder. "I'm worried about it, too," he agreed. "But I think I would be even more worried if we were bringing miraculous users into this fight who did not have the stamina and reflexes to keep up with something like the Lion."

The door behind them opened, and Pablo turned to look as Paola entered the room, a tablet in her hand and Balamm perched on her shoulder. She took in the training arena in a single glance and nodded judiciously before spotting Pablo and Julia. Mouth set in a thin line, she folded her arms and glared at Pablo. "Has your pregnant wife been standing up this whole time?" she demanded, grabbing a chair and dragging it behind her.

Pablo quirked an eyebrow at Paola, who pushed the chair under Julia's legs, knocking her backward into it. "She has," he replied, "and I challenge you to convince her to actually sit down and relax for once!"

Julia gave them a deadpan look. "I have done this before, you know… I'm pregnant, I'm not broken!"

Paola frowned, fixing her eyes on Julia. "You're going to have to take it easy, chica," she told her sternly, putting a hand on her shoulder to hold her down in the chair. "It's less than three months before this one comes, so I don't want you pushing yourself so much!"

Julia rolled her eyes. "Yes, doctora. Now what do you have for us?"

Paola glanced down at her tablet. "Pegasus reports that the two Beasts in Paris have remained motionless since their arrival," she informed them. "The other three are still a day or two away. Ladybug wants as many heroes in Paris as possible before they arrive. I've contacted Os Guardas, Los Héroes de Panamá, and Las Heroínas de la Ciudad de Mexico, and they are all waiting on us."

"Are they going to come here first?" asked Pablo dubiously.

Paola shook her head. "Pegasus can portal them directly to Paris, and that way we don't have to give them access to the Temple."

Julia nodded, sighing in relief. "Good. And the United Heroez?"

Paola pursed her lips. "I saw Dan on the way down, and he said he still hasn't heard back from them."

"I thought Majestia said we could count on her," Pablo interjected, furrowing his brows.

Paola raised an eyebrow. "She did. Doesn't mean we can, though. Just ask Caridad."

Pablo shook his head ruefully, rubbing his forehead. "That they would arrest a nun…"

Julia cleared her throat. "So when do we leave?"

Pablo cocked his head, and Paola frowned. "We aren't leaving," he told her, indicating the three of them. "We–" he continued, pointing to himself and Paola "–are going to go and fight these Beasts with the rest of the team. You are going to stay here where it's safe."

Julia's eyes flashed dangerously. "Like hell I am!"

Paola's eyes widened and she placed a hand on Julia's shoulder. "Is it really wise for you to come to Paris, the one place where we know there will be a fight? You're six months pregnant! What about the ba–?"

"I'm pregnant, Paola," Julia interrupted her heatedly. "I'm not a cripple! We're going to have miraculous users from practically every miraculous set there, fighting what's possibly the five most dangerous enemies we've ever faced. This is literally what my miraculous is designed for! I can't sit this out!"

Pablo knelt in front of Julia and took her hand in his own, finding her ring with his thumb, and placed their joined hands on her belly. "It won't be safe, mi amor," he whispered earnestly. "I don't want to see anything happen to you – and especially to our little hijo. What if I were to bring Mettli and unify?" he suggested.

Mettli and Atsaa shared a worried look, and Mettli raised an eyebrow. "You know it is inadvisable to unify our miraculous," she warned Pablo. "Paired miraculous – especially primary pairs – can overload their holder."

Julia squeezed Pablo's hand and pressed a kiss to his lips. "I promise I will be careful," she assured him. Her gaze hardened. "But I am going. We can't let our friends down."