I swear this chapter was supposed to be a lot shorter but I added like 1500 words while I was editing. Oopsies.

Thank you so much for all of the reviews, I'm so happy you guys are so excited for this! I know I am.

Enjoy ;)

Marinette was frozen in place as she remembered last night, remembered that it most certainly was not a dream and she had individually met the revolutionary leader.

She was having a slight panic attack seeing him again now that she wasn't sleep-deprived. She didn't know what to think, how to feel, and she wasn't alone. Most of the troop looked like they didn't know what to do with themselves. Some stood awestruck, others shifted nervously, some looked downright terrified.

Chat looked around at them. "What's wrong? Did we not get a good night's sleep?" he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

Everyone looked at each other. A good night's sleep? That's what he was worried about? Didn't he know who he was? That they were in shock at seeing him here?

If he did, he sure didn't act like it. He glanced down and sighed. "Well, that's a bummer." He looked back at them and gave an encouraging smile. "Just do your best, and we'll go from there, okay?"

Everyone continued to stand and stare, some still gaping at Chat. There's no way this guy was the scary revolutionary leader they heard about, right? Rhino cleared his throat and stepped forward. "I'm well-rested, sir. I'll give it my all. I'm sure you'll be impressed by the progress I've made in only a few short weeks." He smiled smugly.

Marinette noticed Chat's eyebrows furrow for a split second before he broke out into another grin. "That's the spirit!" he said cheerfully. He turned back to everyone else. "Alright, let's get started then."

He led them to the training grounds. Word had spread fast that Chat Noir was visiting the South Training Grounds, so everyone they passed craned their necks to catch a glimpse of him. Rhino noticed and sped up to walk right next to Chat. He started rambling to him about God knows what and frequently looked around at anyone nearby, as if silently boasting that he was on speaking terms with Chat Noir. Chat simply listened politely with his hands clasped behind his back.

They walked to one of the far corners of the field where Chat spun around to face them with a huge grin on his face. Everyone braced themselves. This was it, this was where they'd see the revolutionary in him: in his training.

"Now, I want you guys to run one lap around the training ground."

Everyone was startled. They were expecting him to be tough, ready to give them the hardest workout of their lives, but only one lap? They were used to running four or five, and Nino had even said he might start bumping those up. Marinette was slightly suspicious. Was this a test or something?

"Alright, everyone line up." They all hesitantly complied, and as Marinette walked to get in line, she made eye contact with Chat. He smiled at her and winked.

Once they were all in place, Chat waved his arm to signal their start, and the troop took off.

Everyone seemed to have the same idea: this was a test for speed. They weren't complaining; most of them struggled with endurance, so they were relieved they could maybe show off a bit to Chat Noir. Unsurprisingly, Rhino was leading the group. The farther around the perimeter they got, the more spread out the troop became. Those who were too confident in the beginning were losing their speed and falling behind, and those who were conserving their energy pulled ahead.

About halfway around the grounds, Marinette lifted her mask to get some air. She was surprised by how well she was doing; she wasn't one of the stragglers today. She was definitely pushing herself more than usual, and maybe knowing that she only had to run one lap helped her keep her pace.

They rounded the last corner so it was a straight run down the length of the field to where Chat Noir was waiting. When Marinette was about halfway across, she heard a cry of pain and a thud behind her. Instinctively she stopped running and turned around. One of her troop members had fallen and was laying on the ground clutching his ankle. She ignored everyone passing her and ran back to where he was, falling to her knees beside him. She vaguely registered Rhino whooping in the distance, most likely having just completed the run first as always. Marinette ignored him.

The boy—Pegasus, was it?— hissed through his teeth. Marinette winced at the swelling ankle. "Can you stand?" she asked him in a hopefully convincing guy voice.

His face was twisted up in pain. "I don't know, maybe," he grit out.

Marinette wrapped his arm around her shoulder and slowly lifted them into a standing position. He found his balance and gave her the nod that he was okay to start walking. Marinette did her best to act as a crutch for him, trying to take as much of his weight as she could.

She saw him watching the rest of the stragglers passing them with a hopeless expression. Marinette knew he was probably feeling dejected that he screwed up in such an easy run, and in front of the revolutionary leader nonetheless. She did her best to stay positive for the both of them. "Don't pay attention to them. All that matters is we finish it, right?"

He sighed heavily and gave a small nod.

By the time they reached the corner again, everybody was waiting for them. Rhino was standing next to Chat Noir again, chuckling. Chat was watching them with an unreadable expression.

As Marinette helped the soldier settle down on the grass, Rhino spoke up. "That was pretty stupid, runt. You should've just left him."

Chat turned his head to Rhino, still with that blank expression. "And why's that?"

Rhino seemed to puff up now that Chat Noir was paying him attention. "It's practically suicide in battle. If this were the real thing, he basically just killed himself too."

Chat's face seemed to light up, but Marinette immediately picked up on something off about his expression. "Oh, so you viewed this as a simulation?"

Rhino nodded, encouraged. "Yes, sir. I consider everything we do here as if we're on the battlefield," he boasted.

Chat grinned, and still, there was something off about him. "Perfect!" He turned his whole body to face Rhino. "In that case..." He stepped towards him, and as he did, his entire aura changed. The friendly and personable man she met last night was gone, replaced by someone else. Marinette wasn't the only one who sensed the change; the rest of her troop members did too, and they shifted uncomfortably. Chat was still smiling, and it only made Marinette feel more uneasy.

"You finished first, correct?" he asked innocently.

Rhino nodded proudly, completely oblivious. "Way ahead of everyone else. Always been the top in my village-"

"Great!" Chat interrupted. "Say we're on a mission then. You finished the run first, so that means you just ran into enemy territory, alone, out of breath, unarmed, with no plan and the rest of your team falling behind you. Ten soldiers appear and start to attack. What do you do?"

Rhino blinked, taken aback. "What?"

Chat tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed in mock confusion. "What do you mean, what? I thought you viewed every day as if you're on the battlefield? You were so eager to finish first, so obviously you're beyond needing help from any of us." Chat motioned to the troop standing silently around them, watching the interaction apprehensively. "So, I'll repeat myself, you're faced with the enemy. What's your plan?"

Rhino stood shocked. He spluttered for an answer but couldn't seem to find one.

Chat quirked an eyebrow. "Hmm? Nothing? Great," he smiled around at the troop, "we're doing nothing. Well then," he clapped his hands together, "congratulations. You'll be slaughtered on sight and all of your training will have been for nothing. But hey," Chat reached out and slapped Rhino's shoulder, "at least you got there first, right?"

Rhino was stunned into silence, which was probably a first for him. Chat turned to address the rest of them, his smile fading away and his expression turning serious. "Bear this in mind, this isn't a competition. The people around you are your allies. You are not here to prove how awesome you are," his eyes flickered over to Rhino, "because frankly I don't care."

His voice remained firm as he continued. "You are a unit. It doesn't matter if you're the strongest or the fastest among your troop if you all can't function as a team. From now on, when you do your runs," he pointed at the field, "you need to travel as a group, not individually."

"From now on, you work together. Everyone here is on the same side." He made eye contact with Marinette, and she felt a wave of goosebumps wash over her under his stare. "And that means no man is left behind."

He held her gaze for a few moments before he looked away, up to the sky. The sun had just appeared from behind a cloud, and it shined warm light down on them. Chat took a deep breath, and as he exhaled, his heavy aura dissipated. He smiled cheerfully. "It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" he mused.

The troop looked at each other uneasily. Marinette was slightly stunned. She had found it hard to believe that Chat was only smiles and funny jokes, but actually seeing his serious side was a bit jarring, especially since he switched to and from it so seamlessly. Marinette wasn't sure what to think about him. It was probably a good thing that he didn't take war lightly, but this made her even more unsure of his personality. Is he admirable for caring about his troops? Or should she be wary of him now that she knew he could flip his mood instantaneously?

Chat clicked his tongue and looked around the field. "Let's see, how about you guys take a break. I'll take this young man to the infirmary, and then we can continue."

The troop hesitantly dispersed in the corner of the field. Chat walked over to where Marinette was still kneeling next to Pegasus.

He crouched down next to them and motioned for the swollen ankle, which Pegasus slowly held out. As Chat looked it over, he made small talk. "What's your name?" he asked gently, a stark difference from his firm voice earlier.

Pegasus cleared his throat. "Um- Ma- I mean, Pegasus."

Chat's eyebrows shot up. "Ooo! That's creative. Very unique." He gently cradled the ankle and continued asking questions. "So what made you want to join the revolution?"

Pegasus seemed distracted by Chat with his ankle.

Chat looked up at him. "Don't pay attention to what I'm doing. Just focus on answering."

Pegasus looked unsure, but did as he was told. "Um, for my family I guess." Chat lightly squeezed the ankle bone, watching to see if Pegasus had any reaction. He didn't. "I wanted to protect them from the guard, so I went looking for the revolution." Chat moved his fingers to a softer part of the ankle. "It took a while to find, but when I did, I brought them here-" Pegasus shouted in pain and clutched his leg.

Chat let go of where he squeezed the ankle. "No broken bones from what I can tell, but I'm pretty sure you've got a sprain. We better get you to the infirmary." Chat's expression softened. "And that's very noble of you, wanting to protect your family like that. You probably won't be walking for a bit, so why don't you stay with them while you're healing? I'm sure they've been worried about you." He offered a kind smile.

Pegasus seemed at a loss for words. He opened and closed his mouth before settling for a nod.

Chat looked to Marinette, who was watching him curiously. "Let's get him up, shall we?"

They each grabbed an arm and carefully raised Pegasus to his feet. As they made their way across the field towards the tents, Chat continued making small talk. Marinette stayed quiet, simply listening.

Chat's mannerisms were reminding her of the man she met last night again. Polite, easygoing; he seemed to make those he spoke with feel comfortable. She'd never seen Pegasus talk to anyone else, he seemed rather shy, but after a minute or so of prompting from Chat, he was starting to open up in the conversation.

Apparently, he was really interested in engineering and was raving on about it. Chat listened with rapt attention.

"You know, if you're really passionate about it, why not become one of our engineers in the Central Compound?" Chat offered.

Pegasus lit up before he hesitated. "But what about being a soldier?"

Chat shrugged. "Do you want to be a soldier? Is it a good fit for you? Be honest."

Pegasus paused, then shook his head.

"Okay, then don't be a soldier. Become an engineer."

Pegasus looked conflicted. "But… I need to do something to protect my family…"

Chat stopped them in their tracks and turned to face Pegasus. "Look at me." Pegasus glanced up. "You will be protecting your family. Everyone in that compound," Chat motioned in its direction with his finger, "they're doing their part to make all of this work. Without them, there would be nothing. You don't have to be a soldier to be important. Everybody has their place here, and it's totally fine that fighting just isn't for you." Chat's voice was gentle, but his expression was earnest, like it was vital Pegasus understood this.

The boy was momentarily taken aback by Chat's words before a smile spread across his face. "Okay. Then I'll do it."

They walked Pegasus the rest of the way to the infirmary tent, and on the way back, Marinette was lost in her thoughts. Nothing about Chat was adding up to the picture she tried to paint of him. Sure, the confrontation with Rhino was slightly concerning, but after what she just heard, she was confused again. Had she been wrong about him?

"Why did you do that?" she asked suddenly. At Chat's questioning look, she elaborated. "For Pegasus. You let him leave the troop."

Chat seemed confused. "Why wouldn't I?"

Marinette shrugged. "You just lost a soldier."

"No, I just gained an engineer," he said contentedly. "Most people assume that to be in the army they have to be a soldier, but that's not entirely true." Chat looked around at the troops they were passing as they walked. "That's why I like to come out here and sub occasionally. I can get to know my troops, see how everyone is doing, maybe rearrange people if they might fit in somewhere else."

"You come out here so you can meet the soldiers?" She was surprised. "Don't you have, I don't know, more important things to be doing? Like running the revolution?" She had figured Chat spent his time holed up somewhere, especially since there hadn't been any trace of him for the last few weeks.

Chat considered this for a moment. "How am I supposed to run the revolution if I don't know what's going on? If I don't know the people who make it up?" He nodded at a group doing push ups nearby. "They're the ones going into battle, not just me."

Marinette looked to the group thoughtfully.

He continued. "So, if I can spare some time to encourage them whenever I can, I'm gonna do it."

Marinette looked back at Chat. "What about Rhino?"

Chat stared at her, not seeming to know who she was talking about, until his expression grew slightly irritated. "I think he's got enough encouragement. Maybe too much."

Marinette laughed. "I'll say. I hope you humbled him a bit."

Chat sighed exasperatedly. "I doubt it. Probably just surprised him is all. We get people like him every now and then."

They walked for a bit, and as they were passing a boisterous wrestling match going on in the center of the field, Marinette turned to look at his profile. He was smiling softly at the gathering crowd of people, their hoots and hollers drawing attention from the surrounding soldiers.

He seems so sincere.

At that moment, Marinette knew one thing: Chat wasn't the selfish, power-hungry man she made him out to be. No matter how much she tried to apply her previous impression of him onto the man here, it would never work because that's not who he is.

Marinette smiled to herself, and Chat looked over. "What?"

Marinette faced forward again. "You're just a lot different than I thought you'd be, that's all."

Chat chuckled. "What, did you think I'd just come in here and start barking orders at everyone?" His arms motioned to the posts they were approaching.

The pun dawned on her and she rolled her eyes.

Chat let out a laugh. "Someone's sassy."

They got back to the troop and Chat had them try the posts. When she went to follow everyone else, he grabbed her arm.

"You can sit this one out. We don't want you giving out any spoilers, do we?"

Rhino noticed and looked like he wanted to protest, but Chat caught his eye and raised his eyebrows at him, almost daring him to say something. Rhino simply muttered to himself and walked to his post.

Afterwards, Chat had them do their warmups, or at least, some variation of their warmups. He completely ditched their usual routine and had them play a game of tag. He sectioned off a corner of the field with some rope and explained the rules to them.

"So, I'm going to pick five people to be 'it', and each of them will hold one of these." He held up five different colored flags. "Each color represents a workout. For instance," he held up the blue one, "burpees. If you are tagged by the person with the blue flag, you're 'it', but before you can go and try to tag someone else, you have to do ten burpees. Simple enough?"

The troop collectively nodded, and they started the game.

Marinette couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun. Sure, her legs were burning, but she didn't care. She had spent so much of her time buried in her head that she had forgotten how thrilling it was to simply run. No soldiers to escape, no destination in mind. She dodged an attempt to tag her and barely suppressed a girlish giggle from leaving her mouth. She felt like a little kid again, her heart pounding and adrenaline coursing through her veins. She felt alive.

Chat played with them, and it wasn't until well into the game that Marinette and her troop noticed he hadn't been tagged once. Gradually, they all started targeting Chat, everyone silently making it their mission to get him tagged. They started trying to cut him off and corner him, even if they didn't have a flag.

Marinette had to be honest, he was fast. He had many close calls, but he always managed to slip out of them with ease.

Marinette finished up her squats and looked around, trying to come up with a plan. At this point it looked like there was a mob chasing Chat; everyone was traveling in a group behind him.

They need to split up. Maybe then they could corner him.

Marinette waved her arms and grabbed the attention of a few troop members. She pointed at the corner of the field and motioned a half-circle with her hands, indicating that they should get him in the corner and surround him. The troop members nodded and passed the message on.

A few of them spread out along the perimeter of the area and slowly started closing in. More and more people dropped out of the chase after Chat, instead joining the barricade forming. Soon, Chat stood with his back to the corner, a half circle formed around him, trapping him. He looked around for an opening to escape from, but there wasn't one.

Rhino lunged forward, and Chat quickly dodged him, jumping to the side and crouching low in the grass. Nearly everyone dove down at him, but Chat leapt backward. The soldiers fell on top of each other, and Chat ran forward and jumped, clearing the pile of bodies and making a break for the open grass. Marinette, who was still standing, turned and lunged with her arm out. She caught Chat's front and he stumbled. They both fell to the ground.

All of the air was knocked from her lungs as she landed on her back. She lay dazed for a moment before she looked over. Chat was laying on his stomach next to her. He was panting still, but he had a huge grin on his face. "Damn! You got me."

Marinette threw the flag she had at him. "Have fun with your squats, kitty cat." Marinette didn't know what compelled her to add the nickname, and if she were in her right mind she wouldn't dare, but the adrenaline still coursing through her veins was making her bold.

Chat didn't seem to mind though, he just barked out a laugh and rolled onto his back. The rest of the troop got up and saw them laying there, saw Chat with a flag in his hand. They whooped and high-fived each other, a few yelling "Nice one, Ladybug!"

Chat spread his arms out on the grass and stared up at the clouds. "Did you all see that?" He raised his head and looked at the troop, then at Marinette next to him. "You guys worked together."

The troop looked at each other proudly.

Chat lowered his head onto the ground again and closed his eyes. He exhaled loudly. He was still breathing hard. "Let's take a break, huh? Ten minutes?"

Once everybody had the chance to catch their breath, Chat took them farther into the middle of the field. The combat lessons were relatively the same as they were with Nino, except Chat cracked jokes as often as he breathed. They mainly focused on hand-to-hand combat, and he paired them off to help them get some practice. They were short one person, so Chat purposefully paired himself with Rhino, which was probably the best decision since Rhino tended to get carried away.

Chat disappeared during lunchtime. With him gone, though, Marinette was able to sit under her tree and observe her troop members. They looked a lot more alive today; there were many smiles all around her.

"I swear, he does this every time."

Marinette looked up and saw Nino standing next to her, also looking at her troop.

He looked down at her. "He's been playing games with you guys, right?"

Marinette nodded. "It's been a lot of fun, actually. You should switch up your regime."

"It's not my regime. It's Chat's," he pointed out. "He says he does all the games so people look forward to his visits. Like he isn't already famous…" Nino shook his head good-naturedly.

Marinette smiled a little at that before turning back to her troop. Everyone here was smiling because of Chat, herself included.

From what she could tell, Chat wasn't a bad person. Sure, she still didn't know his plans for the revolution going forward, but he seemed like the kind of guy who would listen to her if she had something important to say about it. Maybe when the time was right, she could explain what she knew, and hopefully they could go from there. She felt a lot less apprehensive about him now, but there was still a small part of her that would remain cautious.

She may be more comfortable with him now, but she couldn't make any assumptions just yet, good or bad. From now on, she wouldn't let her previous thoughts affect her opinions anymore. From now on, she would judge him based on what she saw with her own eyes.

Marinette scowled at the straw-filled dummy in front of her and raised her sword again. She raised it over her shoulder and quickly swung downward. The weight of the sword pulled the blade sideways and twisted her wrists. She stumbled and the swing faltered, the sword lightly hitting the dummy. She exhaled heavily through her nose.

Chat peeked his head around the dummy. "How are we doing?"

Marinette frowned.

Chat walked around the dummy and looked at it. The burlap of the other soldiers' dummies were in shreds, while Marinette's only had a few cuts in it.

Marinette avoided looking at him. "Look, I know I'm falling behind-"

"If you think I'm disappointed, I'm not," he interrupted. "Everybody learns at a different pace. I'm not blaming you for that."

Marinette continued to stare down at her sword.

"I think it's good that you're training after hours-"

Marinette cringed. Of course he knew. It was probably so obvious now.

"-but I think your main issue is that you don't know what you're doing wrong or what you can do to improve." Chat looked out over the rest of the troop. "And you don't want to ask for help because you don't want others to think lowly of you." Chat's gaze landed on Rhino, who was annihilating his dummy.

Marinette hated that he was right.

He turned to her again. "Don't be afraid to ask for help, even if it's after hours or in the morning before training." Chat put a hand on her shoulder. "I don't want you losing your confidence over this, okay?"

Marinette blew out a puff of air and looked up at him. "Okay, I'll try."

Chat bid them farewell at the end of the day, and most of the troop was genuinely sad to see him go. Marinette thought about what he said, and even though she knew she needed extra help, she felt guilty asking someone else to sacrifice their sleep to train her. For a brief moment she thought about Pegasus and considered maybe looking for a different job in the Central Compound, but she quickly stopped.

For some reason, she felt like she needed to be here. When she imagined herself participating in the revolution, it was always as a soldier. It didn't feel right to be anywhere else. She was supposed to be here.

Marinette had started to feel a passion for it, despite her struggles. She wanted so desperately to succeed and become the best fighter she could. It wasn't so she could fit in with everyone else anymore, it was for herself.

She decided she would give it another week, and if she was still falling behind, she would talk to Nino about getting extra help. For now, she would leave things as they are and continue on with her training as usual.

She would be just fine.

A week passed without much excitement. Chat was absent again, and from what she gathered from other troops, no one had seen him all week. Around lunchtime one day, Marinette was sitting under her tree when she overheard two soldiers talking.

"Squad D? What's that?" one of them asked.

"Apparently it's a special ops group." Marinette's head shot up, and she listened attentively to the conversation. "I heard Chat Noir has been training them in the North Grounds for some secret mission. They're leaving tonight."

"Wow. Is Chat Noir going too?"

"I don't think so."

Marinette processed this new information. Chat had mentioned being busy before, was this why? He was training some elite troop for a secret mission? That explained why he had been MIA her first few weeks here and why he was taking his walks at night. What kind of mission were they going on? People like Alya left the grounds all the time, but Chat had to specially train these guys for something. But what?

Marinette tried to nap before she went out to the training field, but her mind was crowded with thoughts about Squad D. She eventually gave up and got to her feet.

She walked to the field, and as she approached the edge, she noticed a figure leaning on one of the posts.

"Oh! Look who it is!" Chat exclaimed.

Marinette closed the distance between them. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm taking my walk. What are you doing here?"

Marinette eyed him suspiciously. "Training."

Chat feigned surprise. "Really? What a coincidence. Need any help?"

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest. "What about your walk?"

Chat pretended to consider it for a moment. He gave a curt nod before standing up straight. "Well, if you insist, then let's go for a stroll. Find somewhere a little brighter. We've gotta go get a dummy anyway if we're doing swords." He walked over to the sword laying by a nearby post and picked it up. He turned to her and beamed.

Marinette stared at him. He was such an odd guy. It was nighttime, and he'd probably had a long day with everything going on with Squad D, yet he seemed to be brimming with energy.

Despite not wanting to inconvenience him, Marinette didn't protest. He was already here, and he seemed so enthusiastic; she would feel worse if she rejected him. She also wasn't sure he would've taken no for an answer anyways.

Chat headed back towards the tents with Marinette in tow. They reached a large shed near the pathway that held a vast array of equipment. Chat rummaged around in it until he emerged with a slightly beat up dummy.

He handed her the sword and they walked along the path until they reached the Center Compound. As they went through the village, Marinette felt slightly reminiscent. A lot had happened since she was last here. She remembered how overwhelmed and nervous she was and felt a bit proud of how far she'd come in the past few weeks, both physically and mentally.

Marinette looked at the bakery look-alike building as they passed, and she felt a sudden pang in her chest. She hadn't thought of her parents in a while. She really missed them.

As they walked past Alya's house, the door flung open.

Alya stood there with a huge grin on her face. "What, were you just gonna pass through without saying hi?"

Marinette's heart soared at the sight of her friend, and she met Alya halfway for a hug. When they pulled apart, Alya looked over Marinette's shoulder curiously. She looked back and forth between Marinette and Chat.

"What are you two doing together?" she asked, bemused.

Chat approached them, still with the dummy over his shoulder. "Hello to you too, Rena Rouge."

"I'm not in costume. You know you can call me Alya."

Chat opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off by two twin shrieks, and then a pair of pajama clad girls crashed into him. He stumbled and fell onto his back, the dummy flying across the path. Ella and Etta pushed and shoved each other, both trying to get Chat's attention.

Chat grunted. "My God, you guys are getting heavy."

Both girls chattered away, talking way too fast to be understandable even if they weren't overlapping each other.

Alya rolled her eyes, and Marinette found it hilarious how unconcerned she was, like this happened often. "Alright," she snapped her fingers and whistled, "down girls. Let the man breathe."

They slid off Chat, but once he sat up, they both started trying to climb onto his shoulders. Alya put a hand to her forehead and sighed. She turned to Marinette. "You know, they were both dead asleep before you guys showed up. I swear, they can sense him."

Marinette turned back to Chat and suppressed a laugh. He had finally stood up, but Ella and Etta had managed to perch themselves on each of his shoulders. They were clinging to his hair to keep their balance, making it stand up and appear even messier than it was before. He looked surprisingly unbothered.

"Okay you two, it's late. Your bedtime was a while ago, so let's get you back inside," Alya told them firmly.

Ella and Etta both cried out in protest.

Chat looked up at them. "How about I tuck you guys in? Hm? Then will you go back to sleep?"

They eagerly nodded, so Chat carried them towards the door.

"I won't be gone long," he told Marinette as he passed.

Once he was inside, Alya asked her question again. "So what are you two doing together? I have to say, I was kind of surprised. It's after dark and you're walking around with Chat Noir of all people."

Marinette sighed. "Yeah, he's training me."

Alya cocked her head. "Why? Isn't Nino your troop leader?"

"Yeah, but I'm falling behind. I need some extra help, and I wasn't asking because I didn't want to inconvenience anyone. Chat noticed and showed up."

Alya nodded and gave a sympathetic look. "Well, I'm sorry you're struggling. But hey, Chat's a good teacher, so you're definitely in good hands. Everyone here has had him at some point." At Marinette's shocked look, Alya elaborated. "All of the soldiers have had him, not so much the Compound people."

Marinette was still shocked. "Really?"

Alya nodded.

Marinette remembered Squad D. "Did you have to be trained? In order to go outside and recruit?"

Alya nodded again. "Mainly just informational stuff, but I learned a bit of combat too. Nino trained me for the most part, but Chat came by a couple of times. It wasn't out on the field though, it was here, back when there was some grass there." She motioned with her hand in the direction of a nearby crop field.

Marinette thought about this. If Chat had to train Squad D for weeks, then it definitely must be for something more serious than recruiting. One of the guys she overheard mentioned that Chat trained the squad in the North Training Grounds, so they must have already been experienced soldiers, right?

"Speaking of going out and recruiting," Alya said, "I'm leaving tomorrow for a few weeks again. You gonna be okay here?"

Marinette smiled. "I've been alright so far, I'll be fine for a little while longer."

Chat slipped out of the house, closing the door behind him softly. Marinette and Alya both looked up at him. "Ready to go?" he asked.

They said their goodbyes to Alya and retrieved the dummy before setting off down the road again. It wasn't until they reached the tree line that Marinette realized the direction they were headed. She stopped.

"Wait, are you taking me to the North Training Grounds?" she asked with wide eyes.

Chat stopped too and blinked. "Is that alright with you?"

Marinette was a bit apprehensive. "Well, aren't there, like, really experienced soldiers there?"

Chat nodded like it was no big deal. "Yeah, but most of them are asleep. Besides," he gave her a reassuring smile, "the grounds are set up a bit differently. If you're worried about being judged, don't be. Nobody will see you."

He was right. When they came out of the trees, it wasn't to an open area. In fact, Marinette wasn't sure exactly when they left the trees and entered the Training Grounds. The thickness of the forest on either side of the path gradually lessened until there was enough space for tents to be set up between the trees. Some of the tents were clumped into groups, while some were spread far away from the others.

The openness of the South Training Grounds allowed Marinette to see exactly where the field started and stopped, but here, she couldn't. She could only see up to a certain point before the trees were blocking her view, so she had no idea exactly how wide the area was.

She and Chat walked along the path for a few more minutes until the tents disappeared and the forest began thickening again. A short time later the forest opened up into a large field about the size of the South Training Grounds, although it appeared larger since there weren't any tents here.

There were a few sheds spotting the perimeter that probably held equipment, and there was a line of posts similar to the South's on the left end of the field. What was different was the right; there were tall dirt mounds and dugouts forming a wave pattern along the far edge. In front of it were various wooden obstacle courses. There were tall wooden planks standing up like walls with ropes hanging from them, there were logs propped up horizontally for soldiers to jump over, there were makeshift ziplines set at different angles, there was practically everything. Marinette was overwhelmed by it all, even slightly intimidated. She couldn't imagine trying to attempt any of these on their own, let alone one after the other.

Chat veered off to the left and led her to the edge. She expected them to stop at the posts, but she was surprised when he passed them. He walked along the tree line until he found another path and followed it into the forest. Not a minute later they reached a small clearing. It was maybe twenty feet across, and there were torches set up along the perimeter. Chat dropped the dummy and moved to light them. Soon it was bright, and he turned to face her again.

"Tada!" He spread his arms wide. "There are a bunch of these spaces around here, very nice if you want some privacy."

"Wow…" Marinette looked around the area, still awestruck by everything she had just seen.

She was so enraptured by the sight of the South Training Grounds and the Central Compound that she had forgotten there were still three more areas she had yet to see, and the North surely didn't disappoint. How long had it taken for them to get to this point? The revolution was so developed, so prepared, yet nobody even knew they were here.

"This place is... incredible," she said sincerely.

Chat preened a little at the compliment. He approached the dummy with a small pep in his step, standing it up straight before resting his arm on top of it. He beamed at her. "Let's get started."