"Gustav," Nathalie said to the massive, heavy-browed man commonly nicknamed "Gorilla," "I need to ask something of you. Something that will greatly aid M. Agreste." The large man made an interrogative sound, and she began to explain.

.oO()Oo.

Several days passed until the needed circumstances came together. With Gabriel in the shower, Nathalie retrieved the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous from the safe. "Duusu," she said as she rode the elevator to the butterfly chamber, "spread my feathers." A moment later, "Duusu, Nooroo, unify." Now in the form of Power Moth, she could perceive the emotional flux of the city, seeking just the sort she needed, hoping that this was the day. There! Perfect! A sad, desperate young paramedic, in a hopeless struggle to save a collision victim, and nearby as well. She cupped a butterfly between her hands. "Fly away, my little teishi, and ennoble him." Then a soft breath. "Become his assistant." Glowing brilliant white, the empowered insect fluttered away.

The paramedic did all he could, but knew it was in vain. The woman was dying fast, and he could not change that. He didn't even notice when the glowing butterfly entered his AED. Then a voice spoke in his head.

"Panacea, I am Power Moth. You have the power of healing, but in exchange…"

He cut her off. "You want Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous. Forget it, lady."

"No, I want you to heal one person. Stabilize your patient, and your sentimonster will take you to that person. Then you will have twelve hours to use your powers as you see fit," the voice said, and he accepted the bargain. A touch, a moment's effort, and the dying woman wasn't just stable, or even healed, but cured of even her most minor ailments, even her teeth now perfect, no fillings, no gaps. He barely had time to stand before a glowing white butterfly woman wrapped herself around him from behind, her arms under his, legs around his, hands over his eyes.

As she fluttered her wings, she spoke in a warm, intimate voice. "Power Moth's location must remain secret," she said as she sped them across the city. He heard a large door open, and felt himself set down on a hard floor that suddenly sank.

The next thing he saw was a vast, windowless room, filled with greenery and reminiscent of a cathedral, with his patient blatantly obvious: the blonde woman resting within what he presumed to be an ornate suspension pod or similar. The woman in the purple suit and skull-like mask, eyes hidden behind dark glasses, pressed controls and the cover opened, rising slightly and sliding up and out of the way. He didn't need to be told the obvious, and laid his hands on her forehead and over her heart. Oh, mon Dieu, he thought. What happened to this woman? Every single system and organ was damaged. Lesions in the brain, breaks in the spinal cord, microfractures in every bone, burst blood vessels, liver damage, ulcers, emphysema, there wasn't a single part of the woman that actually worked. She wasn't dead, but she was as close to dead as a living thing could be. He poured healing energy into her, repairing everything slowly, starting with her CNS, then her heart and lungs, then diaphragm. With those done, he concentrated his power into restarting the areas already healed. The woman's eyes flickered open, and she started to moan. He continued, healing her digestive system, then working outward as she moaned in pain and pleasure, and even then there was more, a kind of non-material miasma, something that jammed her life process, something against which he again directed his power, dissolving it slowly; by the time he was done, she was panting, and he stood up and helped her to rise. "You're fine now, Mademoiselle. And I must go, I have duties to attend to."

The man in what looked like a skin-tight version of a paramedic's oxblood uniform, with a face concealing silver helmet, held out a hand; she accepted the hand, and stood up. Not wobbling, not weak, only a bit tired. "Thank you," she said, then the man swept away; she finally noticed the butterfly woman, a sentimonster she guessed, as the being wrapped her four arms about him before they rode a platform away. Emilie turned to Power Moth. "And thank you, Nathalie."

Power Moth shook her head. "I am Power Moth. You understand, do you not?"

The actress smiled. "I certainly do. Now, where's Gabriel?"

.oO()Oo.

Marinette was busy with her sketchbook when Alya's call came in.

"Girl, you have got to see this, go to the news and back up about ten minutes. You are not going to believe it." But she wouldn't say more, and so Marinette did as told.

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news," said Nadja Chemack, "There's a new superhero pair in town, Panacea and his apparently mute companion," as stills and brief, clearly amateur, footage of the empowered paramedic and his milk-white butterfly-like apparently female companion. "This new duo has been busy, flying all over the city, healing the injured and curing the sick; so far, we've been unable to reach him to talk, so aerial footage and interviews with those he's helped are the best we can do."

With that, they cut to a beaming woman in her 30s, reasonably attractive apart from her apparent inability to straighten out her right arm, standing beside a wheelchair, the sort used by people confined to one long-term. "There's not much I can tell you, really. He just… showed up, touched me, and suddenly, I could feel and move again, like I'd never been in that accident. He said he couldn't do anything for my arm; I'm not really surprised," she said with a sigh. "I was just… born wrong. But who knows? Maybe there's a new technique that can help."

"And that's a pattern," she said. "Panacea can heal injuries and illnesses, but birth defects are beyond him." She paused and pressed her earpiece. "We have a new report. Panacea's been spotted at the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu, so we're on the way!"

Marinette picked up her phone. "Thanks, Alya! This is amazing, a new superhero!"

"And I'm on my way to the hospital, I've got to try for an interview, or at least some footage. Gotta go!" and she hung up.

Marinette looked to Tikki. "I need to go to the hospital. Tikki, spots on!"

.oO()Oo.

Power Moth hurried Emelie up to the master suite. "As you can hear, your husband is enjoying a shower, so you'll need to wait a few minute for the reunion."

Emelie licked her lips. "No I won't," she said as she shed her white jacket. Power Moth took the hint and departed, while Emelie walked toward the bathroom.

Gabriel heard the door open; he was a very tall man, but not tall enough to see over the frosted glass of the shower door. The figure looked feminine, blonde, but that was all he could tell. Had the Gorilla perhaps hired a prostitute in some misguided attempt at easing his heartache? "I don't know how you got in here, but I suggest you leave immediately." The figure kept walking.

"Oh, I don't think so," she said in a familiar voice. By now, Gabriel was baffled; Amelie would never do such a thing, but a prostitute couldn't sound that right. The figure opened the door on the large stall, stepped in, and gave him a long, deep kiss. Their reunion was lengthy, energetic, and exceedingly enjoyable.

.oO()Oo.

"Why doesn't he pick up!?" Ladybug fumed as she leapt across the roofs of the city, over two of the city's hospitals, she noticed as she made best speed toward and over l'Īle Saint-Louis and l'Īle de la Cité, touching down and striding unopposed into the main entry. She made her way to the critical care ward, where the stink of disinfectant, blood, and other scents she didn't want to identify very nearly drove her to the bathroom to lose her last meals. Yes, she was a superhero, yes, she was a combat veteran, yes, she was familiar with small cuts and minor burns from the bakery, but akuma battles were surprisingly bloodless, especially with Miraculous Ladybug, and this was a scene entirely outside her experience. Once she managed to gather herself the shaken girl tried again to find the new hero.

"Hello Ladybug," the man said. "I can't stop to talk, I only have a few hours to do all I can," he told her. "And once I'm done here, I'm going to go to as many other critical wards as I can reach."

"Wait, a few hours? Why?" Ladybug asked, and he told her about the bargain, leaving her to make her slow way down to the lobby, then hurry home, transform back, and settle into her chair just in time for her father to come up.

"Marinette, I brought you up a few cookies," he said, and set the plate on her desk, glancing at her desk. Math homework, good. "I'll leave you to your homework," and he went back down.

Too close, she thought. Way too close. But her mind very soon turned back to Panacea, and his story. Power Moth was obviously using the Butterfly and Peacock, but how? Could Power Moth be Mayura? She'd have access to both jewels. But why would she just, make a hero? "Any thoughts, Tikki?"

"I don't know, but I'm glad to see Nooroo and Dusuu's powers being put to good use," the little god said, leaving Marinette to ponder.

.oO()Oo.

"Adrien," he heard from his room's door. "Come to the foyer." His father's voice, but not his normal tone, somehow warmer.

Adrien sighed. "Yes, father." He paused his game, and went down to the foyer. At the top of the lower stairs, he paused. "Aunt Amelie?"

The woman smiled. "No, Adrian. It's me, your mother. Panacea woke me, healed me. I'm back."

"Panacea?" he asked, and his mother directed him to the news on his phone. "Oh. But… where were you, what happened?"

"I'll show you," his father told him, and rose. Upstairs, near his atelier, he pressed a decorative detail, and the panel slid back and away; the three entered the room revealed, and rode the elevator to the greenery-filled sub-level.

The sight of the enormous chamber, the size of a cathedral's nave, and of similar feel, took Adrien's breath away. He barely suppressed the questions that sprang to mind, then when the three exited, and after a long-seeming walk, his mother lay a hand upon what looked like a large catafalque. "Here I lay, this… how long?"

"Nearly two years now," Adrien said, softly, his voice trembling.

"Two years, in the sleep of living death, sent there by the foolish misuse of… do you know what a miraculous is?"

Adrien smiled a little. It was nice, being the one not in the dark. He took out his phone, opened his browser, then a bookmark, then passed it to his mother. "Go to the earliest post," he said, and Emelie did as asked.

Her eyes narrowed, and her voice hardened. "Gabriel. We need to talk. Adrien, I suggest very strongly that you find something to do for the next while. Elsewhere." He took his phone, and quickly withdrew. This was likely to get loud.

.oO()Oo.

He decided to send his friends a text to meet him at the Place des Vosges; this news was too good to sit on. He hurried to the front door, only to be blocked by his bodyguard. But that wasn't going to stop him. "It's all right, I'm just going to the Place des Vosges. Drive me if you want." The huge man nodded, and soon they pulled up at the curb.

Marinette, Alya, Ivan, Nino, all of them, even Chloé, were there, or arrived soon. He refused to say what the news was until everyone was there, and once everyone was, "So spill already," Alya insisted.

"Yeah, dude! How'd you get Daddy Downer to say yes?" Nino all but demanded.

And Adrien grinned ear to ear. "He didn't: my mom did." And his friends exploded into questions and congratulations; once they ran down, he answered what he could. "She said it was that new superhero, Panacea. Can you believe it, my father was keeping her under the house this whole time and didn't tell me?" he almost roared. "She called it 'the sleep of living death.' And it had something to do with a Miraculous." And that set off another firestorm.

Marinette didn't join the babbling; she was thinking hard. His mother, a Miraculous, her previous suspicions about Gabriel Agreste, it was starting to come together into an ugly suspicion. "Adrien, have you seen your dad's assistant recently?"

"Uh… no, why?" he asked, clearly baffled at the seeming non-sequitur.

"Yeah, girl, what's brewing in that brain of yours?" Alya added.

"Nothing definite… yet," she said. "I need to get home, I need things I don't have here. Alya, I want you there too," and she rose to go back across the street. "Sorry to cut out like this, but I have to work on this while it's still fresh."

.oO()Oo.

With Alya and Adrien and Nino in her room, Marinette pulled up images of Hawkmoth first, then of the battle at the Trocadéro, searching the footage for… "Yes! Dragonbug! I thought I saw that on the news!" Then she went back to Hawkmoth. "Adrien, if I'm right, you won't like this."

He was starting to suspect where this was going. "You're right. But don't let that stop you."

Marinette copied a Hawkmoth image to her graphics program. "Now, I sample the skin tone from his chin, and use that to fill the sections of his mask. That material can't be more than a tenth of a millimetre," she said, and carefully adjusted the fill tolerance parameters.

Alya gasped at the result. "No way…" and looked to Adrien.

He immediately shook his head. "Can't be. Can it?"

Marinette sighed heavily. He's going to hate me for this. "I… think it can. Panacea said he got his powers and his companion from a woman called Power Moth."

"I see where you're taking this," Alya said. "You're thinking Power Moth is Mayura and Hawkmoth in one."

"Right. It fits: super-powers, a companion, like Hawkmoth and Mayura can grant. And Adrien's mom being in that state because of a Miraculous. Adrien, anything I'm missing?"

Adrien was starting to weep, his voice and face drained of emotion. "She read some of the Ladyblog, and got really mad at my dad."

"Right," Marinette said."So, let's try it this way: Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth, Nathalie is Mayura. He wants to bring your mom back, and thinks he needs Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous, for whatever reason. Anyway, Nathalie gets hold of the two Miraculous, and combines them to become Power Moth. And we know the rest."

Adrien wanted to deny it, but one thing stopped him: how else could Panacea have reached his mother? It made too much sense. And it explained her turning so hard and cold when she read the Ladyblog. He sat down hard on her chaise. "I… I don't know. How can… I mean… "

"Chill out, my dude," Nino said as he sat beside his friend. "Worst case, you need to take some time away from the mausoleum." He winced a bit. "Sorry, bad word choice."

Adrien chuckled. "Nah, it's more… yeah, that's about right. But… yeah, I guess I could stay at a hotel - not the Grand Paris. If your parents can't or won't take me, or just don't feel right about it."

All three said, nearly in unison, "No you won't!" then laughed. "Seriously, you really think we'd force you into a hotel?" Alya said. "That's not happening."

Adrien, for some reason, developed an amazingly guilty look. "But… what if I want to? I mean… I'm not exactly used to being a room-mate."

Nino answered, "That's cool, just don't think you have to. You can stay at my place, I'm sure my dad'll be cool with that."

"Or mine," Alya said. She could imagine the conversation with her father. "Alya, what are you thinking, inviting a boy to stay here? What if he tries something? I remember being his age." "First, I'm with Nino, his best friend, and second, have you actually met my sisters?" "But not Marinette's, she wouldn't get a wink of sleep. That, or she'd spend all her time walking into walls."

Marinette blushed furiously at that. "I would not!"

"Not get sleep or not walk into walls?" Alya teased lightly.

At that, Marinette developed a deer-in-headlights look, and tried to explain herself, in a language known to none, including her.

Alya stood up, "Let's get back to the park, let Marinette get back to Earth." The others agreed, they owed the rest at least some explanation.

.oO()Oo.

With the others gone, Marinette called for Tikki. "So… what now? I really don't want to go after Power Moth right, she might pull Panacea's power. And I don't even know for sure Nathalie is Power Moth. But as Ladybug and the Guardian of the Miraculous…"

The little god spoke slowly. "You have a duty to try to recover the Miraculous, but you don't have to go after them right now. You can do it any way you think best. You are the Guardian."

"Great," she groaned as she pushed away from her desk then flopped onto her chaise.

.oO()Oo.

"Gabriel, you need to explain this 'Ladyblog' immediately. And don't you dare try to lie to me, I have as much Internet access as anyone." Emilie spoke with an utterly flat voice, her eyes narrow and mouth pursed.

He sighed heavily. "Let's take this upstairs. This," and he gestured to the room as a whole, "seems a rather… morbid location."

"No. Now, Gabriel. Why exactly did you think that terrorizing the city was an effective way to do anything? What could you possibly hope to accomplish with such a plan that you couldn't do with the Moth alone? The Miraculous are fantastically powerful, I know from experience. So why do all this?"

He stiffened in reaction. "I had to bring you back, had to fix…"

"No!" she interrupted. "You only needed to empower a healer! You never needed other Miraculous, so why were you after them?"

"I… I wanted the wish. For…"

She cut him off again. "No! You're already rich, you're already famous, respected and influential. You don't need a wish!" She sighed heavily. "Face it: we should never have had the Miraculous at all. We should give them up, focus on the business and on Adrien."

"But I… but we…"

"I know. It must hurt so much, knowing that it was all pointless. That everything you did, all the suffering, all of that, could have been avoided so easily. But Gabriel, you have to. You have to face up to it. I don't know how, meditation and contemplation, confession and penance, I can't tell you the truth of your soul."

"Even if I agree, we could only give them to the Guardian, and we don't know who that is. So how we get them to her?"

Emelie considered the question. "Let's take this to the study."