It was around 2am when Marinette climbed onto her balcony and transformed into her other self. She tossed her yoyo and swung through the night air, determination fueling her every movement. She soon found herself under a streetlight, inspecting the crime scene from earlier. She could only imagine how scared the man must have been when he was attacked and dragged from his car by the monster calling himself Huntsman.

"I thought I'd find you here," a voice purred behind her.

Ladybug turned to her partner with a frown. "We've got to find him tonight, Chat Noir. We shouldn't have waited so long to go after him. If we hadn't of listened to Taipan–"

"Taipan isn't that bad," Chat interrupted. "I was talking to him earlier today and he actually seems like a nice guy when he's not being all intense."

Ladybug's jaw dropped. "Are you insane?" she shouted. "You talked to him? Chat Noir, we don't know that we can trust him!"

Chat frowned. "Sure we can. He knows our secrets and he's not telling anyone, so–"

"He knows our secrets?! You told him who you were?"

"He figured it out. He knows who you are too, but he didn't tell me, so don't worry about it."

"How can I possibly not worry? For all we know he's working for the Huntsman!" She couldn't believe her partner could be so foolish. "He's the one who told us not to go after this guy! He's probably been setting us up the whole time for this moment. People could die because of us, Chat!"

Chat Noir stepped in front of her, a stern look on his face. "This isn't your fault, Ladybug."

She stilled.

"I get it. We're the heroes of Paris and we're supposed to stop the bad guys and save the day, but we failed to do that. I let the Huntsman get away the first time so if you're going to blame someone, blame me, but none of this was your fault." He rested a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe you're right about Taipan. Maybe we shouldn't trust him. But I do and I hope you can trust me."

Her mind reeled. Of course she trusted Chat. He was her partner! But she didn't trust anything about this situation. What if Chat was being manipulated? He had never let her down before, but he could so easily be wrong. So could she.

She doubted it.

Ladybug looked into Chat Noir's eyes. He was very close to her. She stepped away. "I do trust you, Chat. But… what if–"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important," a voice said, shattering the moment. He stepped out of the shadows, adjusted his glasses, and stood directly under the streetlight. "Ladybug and Chat Noir. I was hoping to run into you. Name's Benjamin. I'm a private investigator working on the Huntsman case."

Ladybug frowned. Wasn't this the same guy who caught her nearly a week ago when she slipped on the street? The same guy who claiming to be a journalist and blogger that Alya couldn't stop talking about? Had he been waiting in the dark all this time, hoping for them to show up?

His smile made her uncomfortable.

"A private investigator?" she asked. "Really?"

Benjamin watched her coolly. "That's what I said, Ladybug."

Chat Noir looked between the two of them. "Do you know this guy, M'lady?"

She forced herself to relax. "I've seen him around. I even overheard him telling someone he was a blogger."

"A farce, of course," Benjamin offered. "I was gathering intel."

"On us?"

His smile didn't waiver. "Perhaps we could discuss this back at my place. Talking to a teenage girl in the middle of the street, in the dead of night doesn't exactly look good on my part."

Chat grinned. "And inviting that same person back to your home does?" He stepped in front of his partner, silently challenging the other.

At this point Benjamin did lose his smile, replacing it with a mixture of horror and embarrassment. "I didn't mean it like that," he hissed. "I just wanted your help—both of you—on the case!"

His cheeks heated up and he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, yeah, this whole meeting is a little on the creepy side, right? So let me start over."

They watched him carefully.

"My name is Benjamin Dubois. I've been on the trail of a serial killer calling himself the Huntsman for about seven years now. I recently followed his trail back to Paris and am now working, by order of the mayor, with the police on tracking this mad man down.

"Yes, I have been posing as a journalist for the sake of gathering information on the two of you, but that was because," he paused to look up and down the street. "The information gets sensitive at this point, so I'd prefer to discuss who I am, what I'm doing, and how you're both involved in a more secure location." He gestured back the way he came. "You have no reason to trust me, but I do need your help."

Ladybug and Chat Noir glanced at each other.

Benjamin sighed. "I can also give you some information on Taipan."

Ladybug was overwhelmed looking around the cluttered room. She still wasn't sure who exactly Benjamin was, but he looked more like a conspirator than anything else with all the theories, maps, photos, and notes scattered from floor to ceiling on every wall.

"Does all of this have to do with Huntsman?" she asked.

Benjamin looked up from the file folder he had been flipping through and nodded. "Most of it, anyway. Some had to do with the two of you."

Chat Noir scoffed. "What for? We're heroes, not bad guys."

The man busied himself with his work, offering a halfhearted, "You can never be too sure."

The masked bluenette stepped to the nearest wall and studied the hundreds of pages pinned to it. Chat Noir stayed close to her, watching their host from the corner of his eyes. She rolled her eyes at his possessive behavior.

"So, Benjamin, first thing's first." She turned to face him. "Tell us what you know about Taipan."

At this, Benjamin put his files down. He removed his glasses from his face and cleaned them with the tail of his shirt. His eyes fixated on the ceiling as if he were lost to his own thoughts. After a few seconds, he placed his glasses back on his nose and offered the teenagers his full attention.

"Taipan…" he paused. "Well, he's a jerk."

"Noted," Ladybug said coldly.

Ben smiled. "He's a jerk. He's tactless. He has little patience. He's a vigilante, so he could almost be considered a criminal, but… but you can trust him."

Chat Noir laughed in triumph. Finally, someone agreed with him.

"I mean, I don't know the guy that well, but I know he's as determined as anyone to bring the Huntsman down. I know that he's saved my neck a couple times over the last few years. I know that any time I lose track of Huntsman, within days, Taipan has dropped a trail of breadcrumbs at my doorstep." He looked out the window. "I overheard you saying he's spoken with you. If that's true, he must see something in you that he thinks could aid in bringing Huntsman down. And now that Huntsman has targeted you," he turned back to them. "I guess it's safe to say he was right."

Ladybug nodded. Chat beamed.

The sky was beautiful at night. It soothed him to see all the tiny dots of light littering the atmosphere. Tiny explosions throughout the cosmos brought a smile to his face.

"Little friend," he crooned. "You speak of monsters and mayhem yet I see only the usual wretches in this world. Where are the demons you've promised me?"

He was laid out on his back in the grass with his legs propped up against a wall. The Akuma landed on his left foot, its voice filling his mind again.

"Ah, Huntsman, all you must do is open your mind to me and I will gladly make you the monster you could only dream of."

Running a hand over his face, he groaned. "There are enough voices in my mind. Too many at times, but they keep me company when there are no screams to be heard." He ripped some hair out of his head and threw it in the air, giggling as he did so. "But you, my precious terror, you can do more than simply make me your puppet." His voice calmed and his eyes focuses. "And if you try to control me, I'll kill more than just your winged pet, my friend."

Hawk Moth frowned at that. Didn't this man think he was talking to the Akuma? Was he, perhaps, more aware than he'd previously thought?

"But, moth man," the killer continues, his voice far from insanity and unnervingly calm. "I've done some reading while you weren't watching. I've got you figured out." He sat up suddenly, catching the insect in his hand. "Your gift is special. You wish to utilize my talents, yes? But I too have plans for you. So let's make a game of it, shall we?" He plucked a wing of the bug. "I plowed the fields in preparation for your harvest. The hearts of the people are full of fear and frustration. Bring me my demons and you'll have your trinkets. Or perhaps there's something precious I could take from you." He tore the other wing.

Hawk Moth sneered. "You dare use petty threats as a means of manipulating me?"

Huntsman stroked the head of the Akuma. "Is that not how the game works? You've been trying to make me a puppet for well over a week now, but you've failed at every turn. Instead, you took me for an imbecile and made me promises in order to make me do your work. Well, dear Hawk Moth, the tables have turned. I've issued a challenge to your Miraculous wearers—something I've never done before—so you had better pray they show up tomorrow night."

He began to laugh. Not the senseless giggling that came to him in fits, but a deep and sinister laugh bubbled from deep in his chest. "Your family is so small, Hawk Moth. How would it be if the Huntsman came for a visit some time?"

Silence.

"I thought so." He popped the Akuma's head off.

After a good half hour of overviewing and breaking down as much information as he could, Benjamin sat back and watched as Ladybug and Chat Noir immersed themselves in learning all they might about their culprit. They started out asking question after question, but ended up falling into their own conversations, theorizing in hushed tones, shouting in exclamation at their 'aha' moments, and concocting plans on how they could track and trap the serial killer without anyone else getting hurt.

Benjamin watched them curiously, his face stoic and void of emotion. This was what he did. He asked hundreds of questions, categorized those questions according to which were most relevant to the current situation, and discovered the answers to those questions by any means necessary.

Whether that meant posing as a journalist, a blogger, a federal agent, a concerned citizen, a politician, or even, on occasion, a fanboy. Sometimes he joined crime circles. Sometimes he worked with the police. He did what was needed to get the answers he required.

Watch over Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Help Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Teach Ladybug and Chat Noir.

But why? What was the purpose of this request? Why was he so essential to the master? What was the old man really planning?

And how was it that the Huntsman happened to show up in Paris only days after he arrived?

He watched the kids work. They learned fast. They figured things out. The did everything with fervent passion, striving for their goal, allowing nothing to get in the way of them protecting their city and the people within it.

They fought not only for the population as a whole, but for the individual as well. They were… intriguing.

But why was he needed?

Huntsman had broken pattern by outright challenging them on local news. Normally when a serial killer broke pattern, it meant he was about to go on a spree, get sloppy, leave trails. People would get hurt, but the killer would be less difficult to catch. This, however, seemed different.

Benjamin asked questions. He found answers. He had studied human behavior for years.

Nothing about this seemed right. So he kept his mouth shut. He observed. He took mental notes. He picked apart details. He asked silent questions.

He looked at his watch. "You kids are in school, right?"

The heroes looked back at him.

"It's already almost 5 AM and I'm guessing you have face to keep in your other lives." He didn't wait for an answer. "How about you two head out, get some sleep, and come back if you decide you need to."

Suddenly feeling very sleep deprived, the teenagers agreed. They took their leave, each jumping out the window and swinging or vaulting off in different directions.

Benjamin crossed the room to study their work. They had pulled pages and pictures from the walls and strewn them across the floor. He found the pattern in the details they had picked up on and smiled. They were amateurs of course, but they learned fast.

They were creating a plan and working out how they might set the stage for what was to come in the near future.

Benjamin looked out his window and froze when, atop a building across the street, he noticed a dark figure looking back at him.

They stared at each other for several seconds before the figure turned and disappeared into the darkness.

Benjamin locked the window and closed the curtains.