To anonymousfriend27: We shall see…

To The Keeper of Worlds: Oh, this story is going to have plenty of scale! The lynchpin first appeared at the end of "Tit for Tat."

When Nino knocked on the door to the Césaires' hotel suite the next morning before school, he wasn't sure what to expect. However, it certainly was not that Alya would open the door for him and usher him over to where Sabrina and Chloe were sitting on the floor and playing superheroes with the twins.

After they had arrived at the hotel the previous night, Alya's parents had insisted on giving him bone-crushing hugs and thanking him profusely for keeping the girls safe. He had at last said his goodbyes to them when he'd noticed Chloe lounging in the far corner of the lobby, pretending to be engrossed in her phone. Then he'd stepped outside and glanced up at Ladybug and Ryoku, who had been watching from a rooftop across the street. Marinette had sounded close to panic when he called her before getting in the car; she had insisted on coming personally to make sure everyone was safe, even after he'd assured her he had it under control. Only then had he been able to go home and try to sleep off some of the anxiety and adrenaline from the night.

Nino wrapped his arms around Alya tightly and felt her melt into the embrace. "How did you sleep last night?" he whispered.

"I didn't," she admitted. "It was late when I got here, and when I finally got in bed I just kept thinking about what could have happened. I keep replaying it in my mind, trying to figure out if maybe there was something I could have done differently or better."

"Shh," he soothed. "You're safe. The twins are safe. Everyone is safe – though you might need to rescue Sabrina!"

Alya smiled down at the floor where Etta had a Rena Rouge action figure stuck in Sabrina's hair. Sabrina was calmly untangling the hair from around Rena Rouge's tail, while Etta pretended to make flute sounds. Alya looked back at him and asked, "Have you asked yourself why yet? Why us?"

Nino furrowed his brow. He hadn't even considered whether there was a reason behind the robbery. He sat down on the couch and pulled her down to sit next to him. "No, I just figured it was something random. The dude was obviously high on something, and wound up in your apartment building. Not normal, but not completely outlandish. Why? You think there was a reason?"

"I'm waiting for a text."

"From?" he prompted.

"The vigilante," Alya answered. She groaned in frustration. "She said she would go crack some skulls last night and get us some answers. But she still hasn't texted me back yet!"

"Maybe she flaked off," Nino suggested. "I mean, you only met her last night. Why would she help Rena Rouge with something like this?"

"She's not like that," Alya insisted. "She knows how important this is! She wouldn't just leave me hanging like–" Alya cut off as her phone vibrated. "Yes?" she demanded, the moment she had answered the call.

"Okay. And you're sure? No connection whatsoever? Thanks a million, A." Alya hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. "They weren't targeting me," she told Nino. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chloe lean in slightly from the other side of the room to listen. "It had something to do with Daddy and the zoo. My identity's safe."

Chloe set Ella on the floor next to Sabrina, pushed herself up, and came over to sit on the couch next to them. "That's a relief," she told them, letting out a breath. "As fun as it is to let your sisters pull my hair, it's nice to know we don't have to keep playing guard duty. Your family is welcome to stay at the hotel as long as you like, of course."

"Thanks. But I still wish I had some idea why." Alya frowned.

"All you have to go on is the zoo?" Nino asked.

"That's all the vigilante said. She was going to go back tonight to find the person who ordered it, but that's what she got from the drug dealer who helped set it up."

"So maybe we can find something at the zoo after school today," Nino suggested.

"Chloe, could you and Sabrina–?"

"Babysit your sisters?"

"I'd ask Marinette, but she has her internship, and…"

Chloe threw her hands in the air. "Ugh, fine, but you owe me big time for this!"

After school, Nino and Alya went over to the zoo, where Alya immediately dragged Nino to the office to find her father. Unfortunately, he was busy and they couldn't talk to him at that moment.

"Of course, it's not like he isn't usually busy here," Alya grumbled as she led Nino deeper into the zoo, past the exhibits for large predators.

Nino tugged on her hand to stop her in front of the aviary. "Relax, babe," he told her, pulling her down to sit next to him on a park bench. "You're an investigative reporter, right? So let's investigate. Your witness isn't available, so what other clues do you have?"

Alya pulled out a notepad and pen and started writing. "Daddy usually works with the bigger animals, though he has worked with all of them. We should probably start with the bigger ones. He mentioned the gorillas yesterday; let's go there first."

"Awesome!" Nino grinned. "That's my favorite exhibit here!"

Alya rolled her eyes and smiled affectionately. "You're a goof, you know that?"

"Maybe," he replied, throwing an arm over her shoulders. "But I'm your goof!"

When they arrived, Nino looked up at the gorilla exhibit to see the gorilla staring back down at him a few meters from the cage bars. There was a small group of young families standing against the railing while their children stared up at the gorilla. Off to the side an older couple walked past the exhibit without sparing it more than a passing glance. Alya slid Nino's arm off her shoulder and walked closer, while Nino leaned against the fence opposite the cage. He watched Alya walk up to the railing and read the signs before looking down at the ground underneath the railings. She leaned over the railing as far as she could to examine more of the cage interior; Nino leaned forward on seeing that.

As he waited, Nino idly wondered what Alya saw in the cage that piqued her interest so much. As far as he could tell, the cage looked no different than it had when Ladybug – Marinette! – had locked them inside it while she and Cat Noir – Adrien! – sorted out Alya's Akumatized father. But Alya was poring over every inch of the cage and its surroundings as though it might contain the ultimate secrets of the universe.

Suddenly Alya slapped herself on the forehead, pulled out her phone, and ran over to him. "How could I have forgotten?" she panted when she reached him, bending over with her hands on her knees and gasping for breath while searching on her phone.

Nino put a hand on her back. "What did you forget?"

"The necklace."

"Necklace?"

"The one Daddy brought home from the zoo so I could help him put a photo on the zoo website," she explained, straightening up, pushing her hair back from her eyes, and striding toward the exit sign. "He said the animals all started acting strange whenever he went near them with it. And one of the things that guy grabbed was that necklace! We need to go."

Nino jogged to keep up with Alya, who was already making a phone call. "Hey, it's me. Can you ask your father to let me take a look at the evidence from last night? … I know it's unusual, but I've got a lead and I need to check it out… Listen, I.P., I could get Pegasus to call in a favor, but I'd rather keep the Hero connection to last night quiet… Thanks a million, text me as soon as you can."

"Sabrina?" Nino asked as soon as she'd disconnected the call. "Did you really have to tell her you know she's Impératrice Pourpre? She could figure us out from that."

"I had to," Alya told him heatedly. "This is my family we're talking about here. They could have hurt my sisters last night! Just because they don't know who I am doesn't mean they're going to leave us alone. And if that necklace is what I think it is, they could try again!"

"Care to let me in on the secret? What do you think it is?"

Alya held her phone up to his nose, so close he had to lean back to read it clearly. He saw that she had pulled up a website called "Myths, Mystics, and Magic." The bookmarks on the sidebar showed dozens of categories of mythical artifacts from all across the globe. "What are you doing looking at a crackpot conspiracy site like this?" he asked her incredulously.

"It has a whole section full of speculation about Miraculous. I found it after Ladybug first showed up when I was trying to learn everything I could about her, even the wildly insane theories. Just read it," she urged him, grabbing his other hand and dragging him toward the exit.

The page she had pulled up showed a silver paw print hanging from a leather strap. Looking at the title of the page, he read, "Mkufu wa Wanyama: The Necklace of Animals." Nino looked up at Alya in confusion. "What is this?"

"The best I can tell," Alya replied, "it's a necklace that can give the wearer the ability to communicate with animals."

"That sounds a lot like a miraculous. Do you mean to say we had a miraculous sitting on the table and someone tried to steal it from us and we didn't know it?" Nino demanded.

"No." Alya shook her head. "It's not a miraculous. Not all magic – if it exists, that is – comes directly from Kwamis. This necklace, supposedly, was blessed by some ancient African shaman. 'MMM' never confirmed its existence, but look at this." She switched windows and showed him the zoo lost and found page. "See? It's the exact same necklace."

"It looks like the same necklace," Nino objected. "We don't know for sure that it really is."

"Considering how the animals reacted, though, there's got to be some truth to this, right?"

"Maybe," he conceded, "but what are we going to do about it?"

Alya led the way out of the park and turned toward the police station. "That's where Sabrina comes in," she called behind her. "We need to take a look at the necklace, and it's in a police evidence locker right now. Hopefully her father can let us take a look at it."

Alya's phone vibrated with a text just as they were climbing the stairs to the police station. She nodded and typed a quick reply before grabbing Nino's hand and pushing the door open.

Lieutenant Raincomprix met them in the entryway and gestured for them to follow him down the hallway. "How are you kids doing after last night?" he asked, fixing them with an evaluating stare. "I'm sorry I don't have anything more to tell you today. The perp hasn't said a word since he woke up."

"We're doing a lot better now than we were last night," Alya told him. "We're actually not here for information on the break-in, though. Did Sabrina explain why we came?"

"All she said was that you want to look at some of the evidence we collected from your house," he replied, giving them a look. "I hope you understand just how irregular this is," he added, removing his hat and rubbing the back of his head. "I could lose my job if anyone finds out I let a couple of kids handle the evidence."

"I understand," Alya answered. "We don't want to remove anything, and you will be there the whole time. And if I'm right, we'll know why your perp broke in."

Lieutenant Raincomprix ushered them into his office. "I wouldn't have told Sabrina it was okay if I wasn't going to let you see it," he assured them, shutting the door. He gestured to the box sitting on his desk. "Which piece of evidence is it?"

Without answering him, Alya started rummaging through the box, and Nino went over to help. A moment later, Alya let out a triumphant yell and pulled out a bag holding a silver necklace. She held it tightly in her hand and shut her eyes, furrowing her brow. Nino could hardly breathe as he watched her concentrate on the necklace. When he couldn't stand the tension anymore, he nudged her and asked, "Anything?"

"Nothing," she said, with a frustrated groan.

"Could your, um, necklace be interfering with it?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

Nino took the necklace from her and held it up to his eyes. It certainly looked the same as the one in the picture, but – "Can I see your phone again?" he asked.

Alya opened her phone to the picture of the necklace. "Why? What do you see?"

"Something looks different, but I can't put my finger on it," Nino muttered, looking back and forth from the picture to the necklace in his hand.

Alya suddenly gasped, snatched the necklace and phone out of his hands, and took a picture of the necklace. "It's the strap," she told him, holding the phone up and flipping between the two photos. "The leather is a slightly different color. I thought it was the lighting at first, but it definitely isn't. You can tell from the pictures. Someone must have swapped the real one out for a fake."

"Wait, are you saying that someone replaced the evidence with a forgery?" Lieutenant Raincomprix asked, eyes widening in shock. "But this box has been in the evidence lock-up since it arrived last night. I was the first one to sign it out!"

"So it must have been switched out before it arrived at the station," Alya said. "Unless someone in Evidence switched it out today without anyone noticing."

"But if that's the case," Nino objected, "that would mean–"

Alya finished the sentence for him. "They have someone in the police."

"Mkufu wa Wanyama" is Swahili for "Animal Necklace" or "Necklace of Animals." Or at least that's what Google Translate says… If that's a poor translation, let me know.