It wasn't an easy thing to sleep that night but somehow Adrien managed to get a few hours in before he decided to simply wait as Chat Noir at Marinette's house. Or, to be more accurate, a slight distance away. He didn't want to cause too many issues for her, since he was this big celebrity and she was just a girl he wasn't supposed to know personally…let alone visit on multiple occasions. He hid in the shade of the roof the next house over, keeping an eye out for his cue to come. He didn't know what exactly that cue was but surely he could figure out a good time…? She had told him to come at night but he couldn't get whatever would happen today out of his head.

It was hours longer before he finally heard a vehicle roll into the street and stop. He peered over the rooftop of the house he was hiding behind and saw a sleek black truck pulled up to the curb in front of Marinette's house.

Marinette herself walked out of the front door just in time for a little boy with blue hair to throw himself out of the vehicle and run straight into her arms.

He assumed this was Erek.

For a minute, nothing else happened. Marinette had this motherly smile and was saying something to her son and Erek seemed to be excited to tell her about something else—he honestly couldn't hear any of it too well from his position. But what if it was important? Sure, it didn't look all that important, but what if… Well, what if nothing. It wasn't any of his business what Marinette and Erek were talking about. Besides, unless this was about her medical issues or him, it probably wasn't anything of interest.

The driver door opened up and a man stepped out of the truck. Surely this was Erek's father. He didn't look all that intimidating as he approached Marinette, who stood to greet him. In fact, both of them seemed perfectly calm in the company of the other. Perfectly content. Happy, even. But how? Didn't he abuse her? Didn't Marinette have any resentment towards this man?

The question answered itself when Erek gave his father one last hug before running inside to…do kid things…or…something.

As soon as Erek was out of sight, Marinette and her ex glared at each other and started talking, their facial expressions clearly suggesting some harsh language was involved. Alarms started going off in his head and he sneaked closer the moment the man's nostrils flared. He didn't want to intrude on their privacy but if things escalated to a physical level, he wanted to intervene as quickly as possible.

As far he could tell, Marinette hadn't been threatened, or at least she didn't act like it, but her voice didn't sound like it normally did. It was weaker, somewhat softer.

"He is my son," the man growled. "He needs his father."

So, the discussion was probably about Erek's custody. This was all a legal situation.

Marinette rolled her eyes.

"I'm not changing my mind," she said.

"He's a child, it isn't his job to take care of you. You need to take care of him."

"I never ask him to take care of me!" Marinette retorted. "He has a big heart, he chooses to take care of me! That's more than I can say for some people."

"Hey, I did not run off on you!"

"Maybe you should've!"

"I'm not that kind of man."

"You're not a man at all, okay, a man doesn't leave his pregnant girlfriend for a bar at a strip club," she hissed back. "You will not set that example for my son."

"I made one mistake—"

"A mistake that lasted for years. We had a good thing and you ruined that! We had a good relationship, we were a team, you were so excited about a baby, you let me believe things would work out for us. We were going to get married and give Erek a sibling and we were going to get a new house and better jobs. We talked about that all the time, what happened to that person? That is the kind of man I want Erek to be raised by."

"What happened was that you kept getting sicker and sicker and you wouldn't see a doctor until it was too late and worse, you didn't tell me until much later that this all started way before Erek was born. I was worried, I was stressed, I was frustrated, and I had a moment of weakness. That moment has passed and I am a better man now. All I want is my son."

"So if I look in the truck right now I won't see any more weakness?"

"It…look, the bottle's not even open."

"And yet you drove a child all the way here with beer in your vehicle? And you still think you're fit to be a father?"

"You didn't even tell me you were sick until you were halfway through your pregnancy! Have—" The man took a deep breath and shook his head. "Have you even told Erek about any of this yet?"

"No…not yet but I will."

"Sure, sure, and you wanna tell me how you'll explain to a little boy that you're tearing him away from his father while his mother is dying? I mean you might as well kill two birds with one stone, right? Go ahead and tell him he's about to lose his whole family, I'm sure he'll take it well."

"Erek will have a new family, I will tell him what's going on, and he'll be happier in the long run."

"He'll be hurting in the long run," the man corrected her. "Believe it or not, he'll keep memories of us. He's not a toddler."

Marinette opened her mouth to speak but was abruptly cut off.

"The doctors aren't giving you much more time. Erek deserves to stay with his family; he deserves to be raised by his real father, not a replacement you found last minute."

"Erek deserves to be raised in a good, stable home with parents who can be good role models. You can't provide any of that."

"I've changed, Marinette!" he yelled. "You can't take Erek away from me using the past as an excuse!"

"You sure you don't want to scream it louder so he can hear?"

It honestly did feel like a huge invasion of privacy, listening to a highly personal conversation between two parents regarding the custody of their child. The man didn't seem to be physical, at least, and because spying wasn't ever his intention, he felt too uncomfortable to stay so close.

Chat quietly moved back to his original position. Now he couldn't hear anything but he could see just in case.

Without being able to hear the conversation, it felt like forever before the little boy came out. In an instant, his parents became calm and happy again. A classic front to fool a child into thinking his world was fine.

Something was said between the three and the man knelt down to give Erek a farewell hug. It wasn't really Chat Noir's or Adrien's decision to keep Erek's father in or out of Erek's life. Definitely something he would need to discuss with Marinette before he left with her kid.

Marinette gave the man a hug next, he was sure just to keep up appearances for Erek. The father seemed happy as well but there was no way either of them could be comfortable right now.

Marinette stood outside her door as the man turned around and left for his truck. Erek went back inside after that and she followed.

He didn't fail to notice a hand outside the truck's window flipping her the bird immediately after the door shut. Even as he watched it drive off, it was hard to fault him for being so furious at Marinette. He could be completely wrong but from what he overheard, this man was trying to build a relationship with his son and she was intentionally preventing him from doing that. Truthfully…he'd probably be angry about it too, if such a thing were ever to happen to him.

He imagined Marinette would want to settle back down for a while and he wanted to let Erek settle down with her. Give them both some down time before coming over to stir up excitement and…to take a child away from his mother. He didn't actually want to do this, he didn't want to separate mother and child. Maybe that was the real reason he kept stalling…

"I don't want to hear anything about her personal life, Plagg," he said to his suit, knowing Plagg was listening through the charged miraculous.

That little kwami would probably still bring it up later, when the coast was clear. But for now he could just leave, maybe come back later if and when he was ready.

He could've spent days longer walking away, procrastinating as long as possible, but after a while, he felt moisture in a steadily growing breeze. Up above him, the blue sky was slowly turning dull gray. A storm was coming. Great…

He sighed and grabbed his staff, ready to extend it and get back home more quickly and flop on the couch and be done. Done with today, done with Chat Noir, done with Adrien, and done with whatever else he couldn't think of at the moment. Anything to just unwind. He didn't really like Erek's father, from what he'd seen so far, but the man wasn't necessarily wrong… Erek wouldn't react well to losing both his parents. If Marinette decided to tell her son tonight, he would be the one having to deal with it.

He extended the staff and mashed one end into the ground. He was only about two, maybe three leaps away from his apartment by now. But a rumble in the ever darkening sky made him think twice about lifting himself that high up on a metal pole.

It was also a little strange. The weather had been completely fine earlier… What happened? Maybe just a sudden onset of bad weather? Could be, he supposed.

He put his staff away and continue to walk instead. He didn't actually need to get home at the speed of light but with with the threat of electrocution in the air he would just have to be caught in the rain. Just something else Plagg could complain about before trying again to dissuade him from transporting Erek to Adrien.

Although, even he had to admit that Plagg had a good point. Playing daddy to someone else's child would put more strain on being Chat Noir and the primary model for the entire Agreste brand. Marinette could be a parent and designer but she didn't have to deal with akumas.

Although…she did have her own battles. Probably battles far harder than his. What if raising a kid was too stressful with all her other issues? What if having help raising her son was exactly what she needed?

Plagg couldn't argue against that one. She could get more rest. Maybe even stay out of the hospital. Maybe…prolong her life. Even a little bit.

He stopped when he noticed the sky darken even more. And the clouds were beginning to take shape. Almost like a spiral… A moving spiral…

He gasped.

The clouds were moving but still spreading. If this kind of weather kept worsening…if the storm kept spreading…he would run into more devastation. And if it was spiraling, it had a source.

As if on cue, he heard a loud CRACK! directly behind him, followed by the echo of a building crumbling somewhere.

He whipped his head around to find a scaly head halfway hidden behind the skyline, and his eyes widened when he realized who it was and what it meant.

He pulled out his staff again and launched himself into the air, ignoring the risks of becoming a literal lightning rod. He wouldn't make the same mistake again…

Not that he was particularly far away in the first place, but somehow the snake became elusive as its head dipped and the storm continued to grow stronger. He assumed the snake was maneuvering around buildings, but without the luxury of a roar or a loud hiss or whatever else, he couldn't easily locate this thing.

He could very clearly hear a widening collection of terrified screams as Parisians began pouring out of buildings just in time for the rain to pour out of the clouds.

Why couldn't they just stay inside? He could not afford a repeat of little Marcel. And yet as he continued to look for the snake, the rain became heavier, the winds became more severe, and the temperature was plummeting.

He stood upon the rooftop of a high tower, trying to find the snake with minimal light, stinging winds, and a wall of rain that felt closer to hail attempting to blind him.

All he could see was streams of people scattering every which way to either find shelter or get away from the snake. It was madness down below, the citizens obviously remembering the first time this happened. He briefly wondered how many people here today were hospitalized last time.

Thankfully he knew Marinette and Erek were safe, having seen them go inside Marinette's house not long ago, but what about Nino's family? Alya and the kids? Could they be here? Would he find Nino calling for his young son while Alya did what she could to console their daughters?

No, no, surely the odds of that happening again were crazy low.

For now he had to focus on getting the akuma though. He'd taken way too long last time. If he couldn't take care of this soon, there would be many more Marcels and Marinettes falling victim to his incompetence. Selfishly speaking, the weight of that guilt was the last thing he needed.

By a stroke of luck, he saw the barest movement of what appeared to be a tail slither behind a building less than a few blocks away.

He didn't hesitate to go after it.

He once again ignored the lightning as he approached his target. If this was the same snake—and he was betting everything that it was—then the akuma would more than likely be in the glass eye. All he had to do was cataclysm that eye the moment he got to the snake, using the element of surprise, and use a second cataclysm to take care of the akuma. Hopefully the damage would be kept to a minimum this way. No Marcels. No Marinettes.

He landed on the roof of the building nearest to the snake and raised one hand.

"Catacl—"

"NO!"

He didn't even have time to register the fact that someone had spoken before an object slammed into him, knocking him off the building entirely.

He was quick to use his staff to help slow himself down during the fall, but still stumbled and fell upon reaching the ground.

Was that the snake? Did it already know he was coming from behind? Maybe it slapped its tail from an angle he didn't see?

He shook his head and stood up, preparing to fight.

Instead of the anticipated snake head, he was met with a woman just getting up onto all fours, looking up at him with a terrified and pleading expression. A woman with a red suit and mask with black polka dots. A matching yo-yo strapped around her waist. Her hair and clothing absolutely drenched from the downpour.

"Ladybug…" he breathed.

A/N

She back! And so is scaly! COINCIDENCE?! Like I said last chapter, this will be split into parts. It's a long one. Anyway, read, review, all that good stuff!