"Trixx said what?!"

"That Monarch's home is Chat Noir's home," Max patiently reiterated.

"It's- it's got to be some kind of riddle, or you misheard, or something. That can't mean what it sounds like it means." There were only three people in his household: Gorilla, Nathalie, and his fa- dad. He was okay with being called 'Dad' now.

Max adjusted his glasses. "Are you certain no one in your household could be Monarch?"

"I– yes! All of them have been akumatized before!"

"Doesn't Monarch have an accomplice? Mayura? How does that disprove anything?" Max countered.

Oh. Right. Last time when Ladybug had suspected Gabriel, they hadn't known of Mayura's existence. But still…!"

"I- I would have noticed. Right?" He looked over at Ladybug, begging her with his eyes. "There's no way I wouldn't have noticed?"

She bit her lip. "I don't know, kitty. My family hasn't noticed that I'm a superhero, and I'm guessing your's hasn't either. If both of us can keep that secret, then I guess it's not that unbelievable that someone one of us lives with could hide that they're a supervillain."

He backed away, shaking his head. "He's– he's been doing better. He's been trying. He's even been cooking for me! He's making an effort!"

But he still tried to take you out of school and bar you from seeing your friends as soon as he got upset, a part of him whispered. His spending time with you is conditional on the digital version of you taking over the duties he forced on you.

"He's– he's even letting me call him Dad!" he protested. "He's trying! He has to be trying! He can't be evil!"

"You think it's your father then?" Ladybug asked softly.

"I– No– Well–" he stammered. Did he? Did he really?

He was actually considering this, wasn't he?

Why? Why couldn't he drive this suspicion out of his head?

He screwed his eyes shut. Took a deep breath inwards, then outwards. And opened his eyes. "Fine. We can search through my house. Prove that what Trixx said was wrong, or that we're interpreting it wrong, or whatever the truth is."

Ladybug frowned. "I can't search with you. I'd learn your secret identity!"

"Aren't we past that?!" he raised his voice until it was nearly a yell. "Alya's dead! We're stronger together than apart. And– " his voice cracked. "And if somehow Monarch is– if he really is…– I don't want to find out alone."

Her eyes widened. She took a step towards him, and–

Oh.

He wrapped his arms around her, returning her hug.

They'd both needed this, especially after Alya–

No. He couldn't think about that. Not yet.

Not until Monarch was in his sights. Not until he could make him pay.

Yet part of him was hoping that that wouldn't be too soon. Because if Trixx was right, if his gut was right…

He just really hoped his father wasn't the murderer.

After a long minute, they broke apart. "Let's go," he murmured in Ladybug's ear. "Just follow me."

"Wait!" Max called out as they prepared to leave. "Is there any way I could be of assistance?"

Ladybug looked thoughtful. "Not much right now, but… maybe soon. Put the rest of the Resistance on standby, just in case."

Max nodded. "Good luck."

And with that, they were off.

"So this is it," he said unenthusiastically, sweeping one of his arms towards the mansion. "Home sweet home."

Ladybug turned back to him, shocked. "No. Not possible. There's- there's no way–"

"My Lady," he cut her off, a hard edge to his voice. "Alya's dead. Monarch has apparently been right under my nose. I am having a horrible day today, so please, just trust me."

She closed her eyes, breathing in and out a few times. After she'd collected herself, she opened them again. "Right. You're right. I'm sorry, Chaton, I didn't mean to accuse you of lying. It's just… a lot."

He knew what she meant. Who'd have thought that Adrien Agreste, gracer of billboards, star of stupidly corny commercials, and helpful virtual assistant, regularly ran around Paris dressed as a cat?

"Oh! I thought Gabriel might have been Hawk Moth before! That's what you meant!" Ladybug suddenly realized.

He nodded. "What led you to that conclusion, anyway? You never told me your full reasoning." He really hoped she wasn't going to tell him it still had to remain a secret, not at this point.

She played with one of her pigtails nervously. "Well, I spotted Adrien with this book–" Her eyes widened. "Wait, that was you!"

He blinked. "You mean the one with all the Miraculous Holders in it? The one I got in trouble for losing?"

She nodded. "Tikki recognized it. The Miraculous Grimoire was lost at the same time as the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses, so she thought that the same person might have all three of them. She took me to Master Fu as soon as I got my hands on it."

"Who you hadn't told me about yet, which was why you couldn't tell me everything," he concluded. "So if Plagg had actually realized what it was, I could have been brought into the loop earlier?"

"Most likely. You might have become Guardian instead of me."

He wasn't sure how to feel about that. He didn't mind Ladybug being in charge, he just didn't like being shoved aside.

"So, how do you want to do this?" he asked, changing the subject. "We could just detransform and go inside, but I don't know where we'd look, since I haven't noticed anything up 'til now. In his office, maybe? I guess the kwamis could be hidden in a secret compartment somewhere, like how the Grimoire was hidden behind a painting."

Would Monarch even need to have anything supervillain related except for the Miraculouses he stole? He'd always pictured him standing in some evil lair somewhere, cackling as he searched for more victims to akumatize, but he didn't actually require that much space or that many tools to be Monarch, did he? He might have been akumatizing people while hiding on a toilet half of the time, for all he knew.

"I don't have any better idea," she admitted. "Tikki and Plagg can help us look at least. They can get to stuff we can't access."

Without Plagg, he'd never have found the Grimoire in the first place. "That's the plan then. Hopefully Da-Father's out of his office." Unlikely, given how often that room was locked, but you never know.

Part of him hoped that he was just holed up in his office. That they wouldn't have to investigate it.

He was afraid of what they might find.

Ladybug gently took his hand. "The two of us against the world," she told him softly, looking him in the eyes.

He felt his expression soften. "Always."

Even if things went as badly as he feared, at least they'd have–

BONK*

He gave what he was sure was a very dignified-sounding yelp, before looking around wildly, trying to determine what hit him.

"Down here!" a voice called.

He looked down, seeing a small, fox-like creature inside of a transparent sphere.

"Trixx?!" Ladybug gasped, looking at the fox kwami.

Ah, that was his name. He wasn't sure he'd even ever met Alya's kwami before. Maybe during the fight with Kwamibuster? There were a lot of kwamis flying around back then. He was pretty confident he'd never actually spoken to Trixx at least.

"Where did you come from? Is- Is Alya–" Ladybug stammered out.

"Alya's fine!" Trixx shouted fiercely. "Or she will be, if you get to her fast enough! She's fending off Monarch as best she can, but without a Miraculous…"

He blinked. "Oh, so Alya dying before must've been an illusion!" Not really that surprising, Monarch had pulled a similar trick during Heroes Day.

"Yes, he used me, for that, that–" Trixx used a word that he'd never heard before, he was fairly certain wasn't French, but was one hundred percent certain was very rude, "he didn't even feed me afterwards!" Trixx finished.

Ladybug hastily pulled a cookie out of her yo-yo, before realizing a certain issue. "How do I feed you while you're in that thing? Can you get out?"

"No, and there's no time!" Trixx shouted. "I'll survive for a few minutes, somehow," she muttered more quietly. "Alya and Monarch are in some huge room with a big window that can open and close at will. Something circular. It's a hidden room, somewhere that you can't access from the rest of the mansion.

Right. It having a window limited the options for its location at least, it HAD to have at least one wall that faced the outside. He looked at the mansion, trying to map its outside dimensions to what he remembered the blueprint being on the inside.

The only place it could be was– "There!" he shouted, pointing at a window he didn't remember being there.

"That's facing the wrong direction, Chaton," Ladybug said. "It's all the way on the side of the house, Trixx couldn't have fallen from there."

"Doesn't matter, Kaalki's involved, go!" Trixx shouted.

He nodded, using his baton to catapult himself towards the window as Ladybug used her yo-yo to do the same, only pausing a moment to glance back at Trixx– wait was that a squished Megakuma beneath him?

That was how he became distracted enough to overshoot the ledge and crash straight into, and through, the window.