Chapter 11

A brand new dawn was peaking above the rocky mountains surrounding the city of Lhasa. Waves of gold gradually brushed through the valley, glinting off the many windows and giving the buildings a shimmering quality. As the sun slowly rose, it was not long before the light found its way to the far outskirts of the populace and into the windows of the Hostel Padme.

Adrien's eyes opened slowly, blearily taking in the small room. Tiny dust particles sparkled through the air above him, swirling lazily as the sun slipped through the gaps between the curtains and inched imperceptibly across the intricate woven tapestries along the walls.

It took him a moment to fully understand where he was, his mind feeling sluggish from exhaustion. With a weary sigh, he brought his arm up and laid it across his face, blocking out the light that felt a bit too harsh for his sore eyes.

The little sleep he had gotten had been restless, his mother's voice drifting in and out of his subconscious, never truly letting him sleep as she begged him to save her. Although he had to admit, it had been the first night in ages that his nightmares had not griped his heart in terror. Or at the very least, he had not awoken screaming. He supposed he must attribute this small breakthrough to Marinette.

'Marinette…'

Moving his arm to uncover his face again, he turned to look upon her sleeping form. She had her head resting on his shoulder, her usually silky hair a tangled mess as it fanned across their shared pillow. One of her arms was wrapped gently around him, the other tucked tightly beneath her. The bed was so tiny that she had become wedged snuggly between himself and the wall, their legs tangled beneath the warm blankets. Soft, thin rays of sunlight fell upon her pale skin.

Like waves cresting over a sandy shore, the previous night came rolling into the forefront of his thoughts. A warm glow swelled in his chest. He could not even begin to put into words how utterly grateful he was for her. His fears were still present, but with her nearby, their usually piercing stabs were dulled somewhat. He had been so wrapped up in trying to keep his burdens off her shoulders in the recent weeks that he had truly forgotten the comforting, peaceful effect she had over him.

Her arm moved against him, brushing across his chest as she tucked it closer to herself, her hand curling delicately under her chin.

Adrien caught the silver flash of his ring on her thumb, and his brow creased.

As they had traveled halfway across the world in the last day, they had spent more uninterrupted time together than they had since school had started. The difference it made on his mind was astounding. Being in her presence, he felt that he was able to think objectively for the first time in weeks, fears caused by residual dark magic be damned. Could he actually take his Miraculous back?

Should he?

Nearly every fiber of his being screamed a resounding yes. After all, Marinette and the Kwamis had made convincing arguments in favor of his re-donning the mantle of Chat Noir. It was as much sealed into his identity as any other part of himself. Had it not been he that Master Fu chose all those years ago? He who had dedicated so much of his life to using that power for good? Had he not saved countless lives with the help of Plagg and that Miraculous?

And had Plagg himself not resolutely supported him, spending those long years by his side?

But of course, there was still that part of him—gently silenced in Marinette's calming presence, but still there all the same—that could not stop replaying what he had done to that little boy.

Marinette had successfully convinced him that he was not a danger to those around him. Or rather, she had shown him that as Adrien he would not hurt anyone. But what about Chat Noir? Was there not still a chance that Chat Noir could bring harm to innocent people because of his hallucinations?

Adrien spent a while deliberating, taking advantage of his finally clear head to look at the matter from every angle, and after a while his thoughts turned to the journey they still had ahead of them. None of them knew what answers—if any—lay at the end of it. He still could not bring himself to fully consider the idea of his father working with their sworn enemy. Sure, he was cold and distant; they had grown further and further apart ever since his mother disappeared. But… a villain?

'No,' he thought vehemently, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. There had to be some other explanation, some other reason as to why the Peafowl Miraculous was in his father's safe.

He opened his eyes again, sighing.

It was decided, then. He would resolutely not decide anything around taking his Miraculous back until they had had the opportunity to speak with this mysterious Kunchen. If anyone had the answers, it had to be her.

For another few minutes, Adrien gazed at Marinette thoughtfully, watching her shoulders slowly rise and fall with each breath. Her dark lashes fanned across her soft, pink cheeks, and he reached a hand out to gently run his thumb over her velvet lips.

Cupping his hand gently around the back of her neck, he leaned forward and carefully placed his lips against hers.

Marinette let out a gentle hum, and her ocean eyes opened to meet his as he pulled away. She offered him a small smile, which he returned after a moment.

"How did you sleep?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

He shrugged.

"Same as usual."

"So… hardly at all?"

"I think I got a few hours in, then dozed on and off for a while," he sighed, combing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "It's fine, I'm used to it."

"You can't keep going on like this," Marinette frowned, but there was a helplessness behind her expression.

"I know…" he murmured, unable to think of anything else to say.

Marinette blinked slowly up at him as he continued to run his fingers through her hair.

In that moment, Adrien honestly wanted nothing more than to stay curled up with her, forgetting the world and leaving its troubles outside. But they did not have that luxury.

With a grimace of resignation, he finally pulled away from her and sat up. Climbing out of the small bed, he shivered. The air beyond the warmth of the covers was chilly, and involuntary goosebumps rose across his exposed skin. He dressed quickly, donning his clothes from the previous day, before opening the door and crossing the hall to retrieve Marinette's pack.

The Kwamis were sitting on top of Marinette's unused bed. They had clearly gone searching through the backpack's pockets for food, because both were munching on a small breakfast of cheese cubes and mini cookies.

When Adrien stepped into the room, they looked soberly up at him. Tikki offered a soft "Good morning, Adrien," but Plagg's eyes were drawn to Adrien's hand, where there was an obvious lack of ring. His ears drooped a little.

"Good morning," Adrien said, guilt flooding through him. "We should be going soon."

They floated after him, still nibbling on their food, as he carried the pack across the hall and into the other room.

Marinette was sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She had cocooned the blankets into a pile around herself.

"It's so cold here," she grumbled. "I feel like my nose is about to fall off."

"Did you pack warmly?" Adrien asked, putting her stuff beside his own.

"She did, we made sure of it!" Tikki said with a smile, alighting on top of one of the bed posts and downing the remainder of her cookie.

Leaning forward, Adrien gave Marinette's nose a kiss. It did feel rather icy against his lips.

"Oohh do that again, you're warm."

She leaned forward eagerly.

He let out a soft laugh. "You'll get more kisses when you get dressed. C'mon, I'm sure Rabten will be waiting for us."

Marinette bobbed her head in agreement before moving off the bed to retrieve her clothes. She pulled the blankets with her, keeping them tented over her shoulders in a futile attempt to maintain some of the warmth as she got dressed.

Adrien couldn't help but smile at her. It felt strange to smile now when, just yesterday, he had felt like his world was imploding into darkness around him. But Marinette always had a positive effect on him, and he wasn't about to reject any amount of newly-regained joy.

As he wrapped his old blue scarf around his neck, Marinette finally turned to look at him, removing the blankets to reveal that she too had dressed in her previous day's clothes. Of course, she had also added a couple new layers of socks.

"Did you two sleep alright?" she asked the Kwamis as she sat back down on the bed again to lace up her boots.

"Mhmm," Tikki nodded. "Well enough."

"It's a little too cold here for my liking," Plagg said, wrapping his tail tightly around himself to prove his point.

"Maybe being out in the sun today will help warm things up," Adrien offered.

Plagg shrugged. "Doubtful. I'll be lucky to have my ears at the end of this trip if they haven't frozen off."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Marinette said, standing again to tuck her hair into a messy bun and pulling a warm knit beanie over it.

Tikki flew over and nuzzled into the hat to sit on top of Marinette's head.

Adrien turned away to make sure that his bag was properly closed up, trying to ignore the hurt that filled his chest. He knew that Plagg was going to join Tikki and stay close to Marinette. After all, it was the most practical thing to do while she held the ring. And it wasn't like he expected Plagg to forgive him anytime soon. Somehow, he was just going to have to get used to—

Something small thumped into his shoulder, making Adrien jump. Looking down, he was shocked to see Plagg burrowing himself into the folds of his scarf.

"You could've chosen something softer," he complained. "This one's all old and itchy!"

Adrien stared at him, floored.

Plagg looked back at him before offering a small smile.

Adrien—trying to get control of the overwhelming waves of affection now flooding through him—smiled back.

"Well, you were the one who was complaining about how cold your ears were just now," he said as Plagg disappeared into the folds of fabric. "And this is the warmest I had."

"Sounds like that's a perfect excuse to get someone to make you a new scarf," Plagg's muffled voice came from the left side of his neck.

Looking up, he caught Marinette's eye as she grinned understandingly from the door.

Gathering their bags, they left the room. The winding narrow halls were noisier than the previous night, as fellow travelers were beginning to wake up.

Rabten was lounging behind the counter with his feet stretched out on a chair, chatting animatedly with a young woman. They looked around when they heard Adrien and Marinette approaching.

"Good morning, heroes!" he said cheerily. "I am surprised you are up this early. I was expecting you to be another hour or two, at least."

Adrien shrugged. "As nice as that would have been, I think it's best that we keep moving towards what we came here for."

Rabten nodded.

"Is there any chance we can pick up some food on our way?" Marinette inquired. "It's been a while since either of us ate, and I doubt we could get very far today on an empty stomach."

Grinning, Rabten lifted a sack that had been sitting at his feet.

"I have everything you might need here," he said. "You can have your breakfast on our drive, and there will be plenty for lunch and snacks on the way. I'm sure I'll be able to bully Kunchen into making some of her famous momo for you tonight."

"So we'll be at her place within the day?" Marinette raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Adrien imagined she hadn't been entirely sure what to expect on this journey; everything had happened so fast.

"Certainly!" Rabten nodded. "Though there will be quite a bit of on-foot travel involved. Kunchen likes to stay fairly remote, so we can only drive so far before vehicles can't traverse the paths." He paused thoughtfully, then smiled again. "But I'm sure the two of you are strong enough to handle it!"

Adrien exchanged a shrug with Marinette. After having spent most of their free time parkouring through their city and fighting monsters since the age of fourteen, they were likely in the best shape of anyone they knew.

Rabten gestured for them to go and wait for him outside.

"I'll be along in a moment! I just want to be sure everything is squared away here."

The two of them made their way through the hostel's front door and saw the city of Lhasa in the shining light of dawn for the first time.

Adrien stopped short on the front step, his breath catching in his chest.

The sky had never felt so incredibly, inconceivably vast. Towering clouds divided the deep blue expanse, scattering the shafts of bright light that spilled between distant patches of rain showers. The horizon stretched out before them, rolling in great earthen waves before the jagged teeth of mountains broke through the smooth hills, their rough peaks disappearing into the heavens.

Lhasa glimmered in the golden light, with countless houses and buildings stacking up atop each other throughout the valley. Distant sounds of people and traffic echoed as the city awoke.

"Beautiful, is it not?" Rabten's voice came from behind them.

Adrien turned around to see him grinning from the doorway, a second pack of his own slung across one shoulder.

"I was blessed to visit many different places in my years," he continued. "But nowhere calls to me as much as my hometown."

Adrien looked at Marinette and saw her smiling up at him from beside the truck. His throat constricted for the briefest of moments before he cleared it and nodded.

"I think I know just what you mean," he said to Rabten, before ducking his head. He strode forward to place his bag in the truck's bed. Wordlessly, he took Marinette's from her shoulders and secured it as well.

The grin she gave him in thanks made his heart beat a little faster.

Rabten drove them back through the city, which looked entirely different in the light of day. While they munched on dried mutton and wheat cakes with yak butter, he continued his informal tour from the night before.

There was a whole new life to the city that had not been apparent in the cover of darkness. Now, people were emerging from all over the place to start their day. For as many cars as there were, they saw easily twice as many people on bikes. Breathtaking architecture lay around every corner, so very different from anything Adrien was used to seeing. While Paris had its own history, there was an ancient and monumental quality within these surroundings which he could not put into words.

It took some time for them to reach the other side of the city. As the buildings fell behind them, they found their surroundings opening to vast countryside, broken up by the rolling hills that grew in every direction.

"We will drive as far as we can," said Rabten, twiddling the steering wheel to pass around a slower car headed in the same direction. "But we'll still have several miles of hiking to do once we reach the more mountainous terrain. Have either of you done much?"

Adrien shrugged.

"I've done a bit. I was in America for a while a few months ago and we summited a few fourteeners for an ad campaign. But no, we're not usually in places to go hiking."

"I'm sure you both will do just fine," Rabten said confidently.

Adrien caught an uncomfortable look on Marinette's face, and was forcibly reminded of how much she'd tried to work through her dislike of roughing it when they had gone backpacking with Alya and Nino.

He reached over to take her hand, and she shot him a timid smile.

"Yeah," she murmured, looking back out the window to the road and mountains before them. "Yeah, we'll be fine."

Carapace took one last running leap between buildings before coming to a stop to survey the city sprawled out before him. It had been a long time since he'd been able to see this view while enjoying the incredible feeling that came from wielding his Miraculous.

Rena Rouge halted beside him, perching gracefully on the narrow ledge of a high chimney.

He glanced at her, his grin broadening as he caught her expression. Her eyes were bright, and the smile that played on her face was exuberant. He knew that she had missed this even more than he had.

"You know," she said, coming over beside him and taking a seat with her legs hanging over the building's edge, "I know we're all worried about our friends and whatever dangerous things they're probably going through, but I'm finding it really hard to not be pumped about being out here again like this."

Carapace shifted closer to her, taking a seat as well.

"You've been wanting this for a really long time, you're allowed to feel happy that it finally happened again."

Rena Rouge shot a smile up at him before letting it fall a little. Turning back to gaze out across the rooftops, she leaned forward and propped an elbow on her knee, her chin resting atop her fist.

"I still can't believe they never told us the truth," she said quietly.

He could hear the hurt in her voice that she tried to mask.

"You know they had good reasons for what they did or didn't do."

"I know, but it's us!" she exclaimed, her tone slipping into a whine. "We're their best friends, how could they not have told us?"

"Well," Carapace said cautiously, "you are the single most invested reporter when it comes to everything to do with Ladybug and Chat Noir… you spent years working to dig up all the information you could on them and their Miraculous, and certainly spent no small amount of time trying to figure out who they were."

Rena Rouge straightened up to glower at him.

"Excuse me?" she growled, her hands balling into fists. "Are you saying that they didn't tell us because they couldn't trust me?"

"No," he responded firmly. "I'm not saying you're untrustworthy. I am saying that they have been in a complicated situation for years now, and that their decisions were based out of a desire to keep us all as safe as possible. I'm saying that when you look at the timeline, they got the weight of the world placed on their shoulders when we were all way too young. And be realistic, if your best friend told you that she was Ladybug, wouldn't it have been crushing to have to keep that from your hundreds of thousands of readers?"

Rena Rouge stared at him as he spoke, her mouth gaping like a fish out of water before she finally spluttered, "I would never have breathed a word! I can't believe that you're saying this, you think I would have put the curiosity of thousands of strangers over the safety and privacy of two of the most important people in the world to me?!"

"Put yourself in their shoes!" Carapace replied, exasperated. "You know every choice, every secret at that age, feels a thousand times bigger than it actually is. Now imagine you are put in the same position, as a child, where reveling your deepest secret could put you, your partner, your family, everyone you loved, in jeopardy. Would you have told us who you were?"

"YES!" Rena cried, jumping to her feet, the anger rolling off her in waves.

"Would you?!" Carapace demanded, rising as well.

Rena Rouge opened her mouth to retort, but said nothing, her breath coming out in angry huffs. Her eyes shone bright with unshed tears. Finally, she crossed her arms and growled, "I… I would have told you… eventually."

Carapace's expression softened.

"You and I are two of the very few people who could possibly have even the slightest idea of what they've been through. But I think we both know that we really can't even begin to comprehend the isolating sacrifices that both Marinette and Adrien have had to deal with all these years. And if they decided that the best thing to do for themselves and the rest of us was to keep us in the dark, then we need to respect that. Plus, getting angry about it now doesn't mean that all those years didn't happen."

Jaw set defiantly, Rena Rouge looked up at him.

"It still hurts, though," she said after a long moment.

"I know," he said, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug, despite her continued rigid stance. "And you're allowed to be upset, but you'll need to find a way to be ok with it somehow."

Slowly, Rena Rouge loosened her shoulders and leaned her head into his chest.

A slow, condescending clap echoed from one of the rooftop's alcoves several yards away.

"Well, well, well. Isn't this touching," came a mocking voice.

Pulling away from Rena Rouge, Carapace whipped out his shield and brandished it in the direction he thought the voice had come from, his stance widening defensively to cover his partner.

Behind him, Rena stiffened into a half crouch, her flute held at the ready and her teeth bared.

"So, the city's beloved super-brats decided they need a helping hand, huh? And here I was, all excited over nothing when I saw two masked vigilantes hopping around town."

Carapace turned, trying to pinpoint the voice's location. It echoed strangely around them, seeming to come from one place, then another and another until he felt like it was closing in from all directions.

"So sorry to hear you think we're not up to your superhero standards," he said, forcing his own voice to remain steady.

"Oh please, Donatello, you weren't cool in the 90's and you're not cool now."

The voice let out a laugh that raised the hairs on the back of Carapace's neck.

He'd heard that laugh before.

"And who are you, exactly?" Rena Rouge called, her tone laced with venom as she turned to press her back against her partner's, also trying to pinpoint their invisible adversary. "Some nameless villain who's too scared to show his face?"

"You're not as sly as you think, little foxy. No one needs the nonsense of a B-grade hero and her knock-off ninja turtle."

"If we're such throwaway competition," said Carapace, slowly rotating both himself and Rena Rouge in a circle to get a full view of the area, "why not come and deal with us yourself? Get us out of the way so you don't have to worry about us messing things up for you with our incompetence."

"Well, when you put it that way…"

The voice finally centered on a spot just to Carapace's right. Without even taking the time to think, he spun. The shield on his arm activated just in time to block the glowing metallic strings from latching themselves to his partner.

"Oh-ho! Little turtle knows how to play!" the Puppet Master cackled gleefully, retracting his marionette strings to pool at his feet.

Carapace had been expecting it, but seeing the Akuma that had nearly killed one of his best friends still made his blood run cold.

"You!" Rena Rouge gasped, the horror in her voice mirroring Carapace's own.

"ME!" Puppet Master's gleeful cackle echoed around the rooftop, as though twenty of him were laughing at once. His face was shiny and distorted, like a sadistic doll come to life. Grotesquely dilated pupils glittered maliciously out of his eyes, which were rounded like coins, and his smile was stretched stiff, with lines running down his chin to mimic a ventriloquist dummy.

The Akuma's outfit was much the same as it had had been the first night he'd appeared at Marinette's Gala, but with a few alterations; instead of the violet paisley shirt and brown slacks with suspenders, he now wore blacks and smokey greys. A cape—embroidered with intricate patterns that glowed like embers—was slung off one shoulder, and the bowtie at his neck smoldered to match. The marionette strings, which hung from the control paddles in each of his hands, now burned red hot instead of electric blue.

"You'll pay for what you did, you monster!" Rena Rouge shrieked, and Carapace moved to make sure she was still fully covered by his shield.

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're on about," the Puppet Master said, raising his eyebrows innocently. "I'm sure I've never done anything to warrant such hostility. Aren't Akumas the victims these days?"

"Have you forgotten that girl you put in the hospital?!" Rena Rouge demanded. "The girl who you almost murdered? She nearly died because of you, Mathis!"

"Ah yes, Marinette," the Puppet Master rolled his unsettling eyes, all trace of his virtuous act disappearing in an instant. "I'm still upset about that. I can't believe she recovered after all the effort I put into that attack. Although I must say, I was really looking forward to finding an opportunity to throw her under the bus this semester."

Carapace glared through the shimmering green barrier between them.

"You were planning to go after her again?! Man, what's wrong with you? Why do you get so much pleasure from going after Marinette like that?"

"She's talented," the Akuma shrugged, casually starting to stroll to the right, circling them in a wide arc. "She caught the eyes of too many important people. And while I admit that in the beginning it was just fun to knock her off her little pedestal from time to time, she crossed a line when she stole that win from me at last year's Gala."

"You've got to be kidding me," Rena Rouge scoffed. "Marinette put that collection together in two weeks! If your collection lost then that's on you, not her. Jeez, I knew you were a prick but who knew you'd be such a sore looser that you'd try to take vengeance on her after all this time."

"Mm, victim blaming," the Puppet Master sighed melodramatically, observing his nailbeds without much interest as he continued to slowly circle them. "Not a good look for superhero. Remember, I'm the one who was hurt so bad that night that my emotions got taken advantage of! Isn't that just so sad?"

He flashed them a tragic look, his lower lip pouting sardonically.

"Well if you're still so torn up about it, why don't we talk it out?" Carapace suggested without much conviction. "Clearly if you were Akumatized all over again you need to vent your feelings, right? How about instead of going on a vengeful tirade, you ditch the Akuma and we have a nice little heart to heart, huh?"

"Oh! You think this is all pent-up emotion?" the Puppet Master laughed, throwing his head back. "No, no, this time was all me! I really got a good taste of power when Hawkmoth reached out to me last time, so imagine how pleased I was to see another little black butterfly come to pay me a second visit!"

"You… wanted to be Akumatized?" Carapace asked, trying to wrap his mind around that.

"Yup, 'fraid so! Now, enough chit chat about the then, let's talk about the now! As in where is Marinette? I'd have thought Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes would have shown up with her mangy stray by now. Superheroes are always gnawing at the bit to come take out the bad guys, right?"

It took a moment for the Puppet Master's words to fully sink in. Carapace frowned as they played through his mind again.

"Wait!" he called, unease twisting his stomach. "Are we still talking about Marinette? Because it sounds like you've switched to Ladybug."

"HA! She'd love to have everyone believe they're two different people, wouldn't she?" The Puppet Master began skipping around them, and Carapace side-stepped with him, never letting down his guard nor allowing the monster a clear shot. "She's obviously done well to hide it for so long, I'll give her that. But nobody's perfect, especially not her, and everyone is bound to slip up when they're… upset."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Rena Rouge snapped, tightening the grip on her flute, which she was brandishing like a baseball bat.

"Oh c'mon, you're not telling me she's too busy, or something? I'm not a big fan of being made to wait, you know! Where is everyone's favorite little designer, hm? I think it's time she and I had a little tête-à-tête," the Puppet Master's voice lost some of its mocking sing-song and turned into a menacing growl as he stopped skipping. "Where's Paris' Lady Dumb-Luck? The Coccinelle of Cockiness? The oh-so loved Vigilante of Lame? Where is Marinette Dupain-Cheng and her… well I don't really care who the hell that cat is, but I'll still enjoy kicking his ass in Round Two."

Carapace felt the knot of horror growing in the pit of his stomach as he came to terms with what the Akuma was going on about.

'He knows Marinette is Ladybug,' his mind screamed.

And if the Akuma knew, then Hawkmoth most certainly knew as well, and that meant no one in Marinette's life would ever be safe again.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but Ladybug won't be joining us this evening," Rena Rouge spat. "She and Chat Noir have better things to do than mop the floor with your disgusting doll face."

In spite of her menacing tone, Carapace heard the note of fear in her words. He knew she'd come to the same realizations he had.

"Guess you're just going to have to settle for being beaten by us 'B-grade superheroes,' huh?" he said, retightening his grip on the shield.

Behind him, he felt Rena Rouge shift her stance, ready to charge.

"You're right, that is disappointing," the Puppet Master sighed, looking down at his hands. He twiddled the control paddles thoughtfully between his fingers. "But I suppose this will at least make things more… interesting."

The lethal looking marionette strings glowed from burning red to white hot as he looked back up at them, his smile growing even wider.

"Alrighty, little heroes! Let's play."

The gravel crunched loudly underneath Adrien's boots as he labored to placed one foot in front of the other. A biting wind whistled through the valley, whipping his hair into his eyes and causing his ears to ache. His breathing was shallow, each intake bringing a sharp pang from the stitch in his side.

They had been traveling on foot for the entire afternoon, having left the truck a bit before midday. They'd experienced first-hand what true off-roading really was when Rabten had picked his way over terrain that Adrien was still convinced no vehicle was meant to traverse. Eventually, the jagged rocks and steep grade had become too much for even his trusty little truck to handle, and they had been forced to leave it in a clearing several miles back.

Now, the sun's unusually bright light had begun to shift the shadows of the rocks and small brush trees that they wove between, picking their way over the fourth mountainous ridge of the day. The path they walked was hardly discernable. Adrien was certain that if it were up to him and Marinette to find their own way, they would have gotten lost a long time ago.

Rabten was several yards ahead of him, traversing his way along the narrow rocky path to the summit of a low peak.

"Not much farther!" he called, glancing over his shoulder with a toothy grin, as if amused that the two youngest and fittest people of their trio couldn't keep up with him.

The hiking was unlike anything Adrien had ever done before. He had thought climbing the fourteeners in Colorado had been an impressive feat, but that was nothing to the altitude they were experiencing now. Each lungful was a struggle, and never truly satisfying. His movements were slow, and he had to forcibly remind himself of his hope for answers at the end of this path in order to keep going. He had realized an hour or two earlier that were it not for the heightened strength and stamina granted by holding a Miraculous for so long, he very well might not have been able to make this journey without spending weeks acclimating beforehand.

At a bend in the path, he paused to look back down the steep slope to where Marinette was bringing up the rear.

Her eyes were glazed, and her cheeks were deeply flushed as she trudged forward. She had pulled her hat low over her ears and wrapped a spare shirt around her neck as a makeshift scarf, covering her nose against the harsh winds. Even above the air's hollow moans, he could hear her wheezing with each step.

Adrien knew that she was well out of her element. If camping that summer hadn't been enough of an example, he had been convinced that the grueling trek through these mountains would certainly have proven that point by now. But as exhausted as he knew she was, Marinette had not uttered a single word of complaint. Even as she slowly came level with the rock he had paused on, she focused her gaze on him and raised her hands in a weak double-thumbs up before bringing them to her knees as she doubled over with a wet sounding cough.

"You okay?" he asked, frowning and putting a hand on her back.

She nodded, straightening up and uncovering her mouth to drag in a lungful of air.

"Doin' great," she said hollowly, gasping in deep breaths. "Just enjoying the view."

"We can rest again if you need—"

"No," Marinette cut him off. "We're not stopping on my account. I just—just needed to catch my breath for a sec."

"Mar…" Adrien began again, his frown deepening. "I don't want you pushing yourself to breaking—"

"I'm fine," she insisted, one side of her mouth quirking into a wan smile. "I'm more worried about you than about me. How are you holding up?"

Adrien shrugged, too drained to refute her subject change.

"I'm surviving."

"We'll hopefully you can keep surviving just a bit longer," came Rabten's voice from above them. They looked up to see the old man's cheerful face peeking out from over the top of the ridge. He gave them an encouraging wave. "C'mon, now! I wasn't lying when I said we don't have much farther to go—our destination is near!"

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a silent look before nodding briefly and turning back to the path.

Marinette took the lead this time, reaching out to give his hand a quick squeeze of encouragement as she passed.

Adrien smiled, grateful that her bullheadedness had brought her on this journey with him.

Slowly, they crested the summit to stand beside Rabten, who stood with his hands on his hips and a crooked smile on his face as he surveyed the view before them.

Marinette clumsily sat upon a large rock, fishing a water out of her pack as Tikki peaked out of the cozy perch under her hat.

Adrien crouched beside her, using one of her knees as support. His heart was pounding in his ears, and a low headache was pulsing through his temples.

"You both must drink more water," Rabten said, watching him. "It does not matter how strong you are, altitude is something no one can conquer by sheer will. Water will help, though. And we do not have far to go, look!"

He pointed to the far end of the valley that lay below. A flat plateau was nestled between the foothills of two steep peaks.

Adrien followed his gesture and squinted, trying to get his eyes to focus. There seemed to be a strange smudge on the land before them. Even with his heightened vision, he couldn't quite make out what he was looking at. It seemed to be a kaleidoscopic swirl of colors, as if a giant had dropped an entire paint palette on the floor of the world.

He squeezed his eyes shut, convinced that this must be some kind of weird hallucination brought on by lack of oxygen.

"How much farther?" Marinette asked, taking hold of Adrien's hand and gently pressing her water bottle into it.

He opened one eye and shot her a grateful nod before tilting his head back to take a long gulp.

"We should be there within the hour," Rabten said. "I'm estimating that our pace will bring us to Kunchen's doorstep just before nightfall."

"Well," Marinette sighed, her breathing still labored, "no use sitting around here, then." She stood, and locked her hands around Adrien's wrists, pulling him to his feet as well. "C'mon. Last one to the Sifu's house is… well, still someone who hiked a whole lot with impossibly low oxygen, so that's something I guess."

Adrien snorted, shooting her a look.

Marinette smirked before pulling her shirt-scarf back up over her nose and following Rabten down the hillside, the dirt and gravel sliding beneath her boots.

They moved on, Adrien's footfalls creating a slow rhythmic pulse in his own head. It was as if so much of his energy was being generated towards taking one step after another that even the rhythm of his thoughts were aligning themselves with the motion.

As they grew closer to the smudge Rabten had pointed out to them, Adrien thought something must be wrong with his eyes—his vision must surely be going funny, for the plateau was still practically glowing with vivid color. He blinked hard, trying to figure out just what he was looking at, when suddenly it clicked.

Flowers.

Thousands upon thousands of flowers covered every square foot of the valley before them. Flowers in rainbow hues of every color imaginable, with large bursts of bright green foliage springing up every so often.

The wind still clawed at them as they traversed the last few hillocks, but as they came to the outer edge where the tiniest of flora grew, the air stilled to a whispering breeze. A tingle washed over Adrien's skin as humid air enveloped them; it was like they had crossed through some invisible barrier that kept the cold at bay.

Beside him, Marinette removed the cloths covering her ears and mouth. They both breathed in great lungfuls of air, feeling as if they were back near sea-level again.

Plagg and Tikki emerged from their shelters to float up into the air, taking everything in.

Rabten led them a short way around the edge of the flower field before coming upon a small but well-kept path made up of small white stones, each looking smooth enough to have come from the sea. Most of the plants growing on either side of the path were some variety of wildflower, but every so often they would pass something that looked much more exotic, like it belonged in a tropical jungle rather than in the mountains of Tibet.

Adrien's mouth hung open as he took it all in. There was no possible way that this valley existed without some support from something magical. The air was too comfortable compared to the bitter cold they had been trekking through. Too many of the plants surrounding them absolutely should not have been able to grow in this climate, and the vastness of the valley certainly could not have been tended by one person alone without the influence of something beyond normal human abilities.

A small movement out of the corner of Adrien's eye caught his attention. Looking around, he saw a pair of pale white butterflies rise up from the foliage several yards away. They spun and twirled around each other as they floated through the air, keeping a few feet of distance between themselves and the valley's invisible barrier.

"This is incredible," Marinette finally said as they continued along the stone path, turning her head to watch as a plump little honeybee hummed from flower to flower. "How can all of this thrive so well here?"

"Sifu Kunchen has always had a knack for growing things," Rabten said, shooting her a smile over his shoulder. "She's been cultivating her garden for quite some time, now."

"There's so much life here," Marinette said, watching in wonder as an entire swarm of butterflies lifted up into the air before them, the evening sun shimmering off their delicate wings.

Tikki soared forward to examine some of the flowers up close, playfully bouncing on a few large blossoms and releasing little clouds of pollen into the air as she went.

Plagg gave a great yawn and settled onto Adrien's shoulder.

"It's alright I suppose," he said casually, "but it's no artisan cheese spread."

The stone path curved gently over a low hillock. As they traversed around to the other side, a small cottage came into view just below them.

The house was nestled against an outcropping of tall boulders that created a natural wall against the hillock. Fluffy pine trees stood proud and protective around the vine-strewn fence that circled the property. To the house's east was an enclosed garden overflowing with vegetables. Bordering the garden's fence was a brightly painted chicken coop, and a dozen raised apiaries were silhouetted in the distance. A small brown goat stood beside the gate that ran across the stone path. It eyed the three of them indifferently before simply turning to chomp up another large mouthful of sweetgrass. Several plump hens pecked their way along the path which led right to the house's blue front door.

The house itself crouched low amidst the boulders and trees, its light grey stone sidings punctuated by flashes of bright yellow window shutters. Strings of prayer flags were hung from the rafters of the overhanging roof, where a little stone chimney was puffing out a stream of smoke. Each of the windows shone with warm lantern light, making the whole scene look very welcoming indeed.

That was, until the front door opened to reveal a tiny old woman with flyaway grey hair and wearing a markedly un-welcoming expression.

Adrien and Marinette both stopped short as the woman stormed out towards them, scattering the chickens in the wake of her furious footsteps.

The Kwamis rose curiously into the air as she approached.

"Sifu Kunchen!" Rabten said, giving the woman a cheery wave and grinning as if nothing about her angry demeanor was the least bit strange. "I hope you've got some food on, I'm starving—"

"And you'll stay hungry, Rabten you rat!" Kunchen barked, her voice gravelly. She marched right up to him until they were practically nose to nose, and placed her hands—one of them clutching a woven dishtowel—firmly on her hips. "You've been in contact with Wang Fu again, haven't you?!"

Rabten straightened up, a smile still playing on his face. "Well, 'again' would imply that I ever stopped being in contact with him, and that wouldn't really fit well with our third-Wednesday-of-the-month video tea time."

With an enraged shriek, Kunchen went off on a tirade, slipping back into her native language as Rabten benignly stood by, as if waiting for her to run out of steam.

Marinette looked up at Adrien with shock, and he realized with a pang of guilt that Master Fu must not have warned her of his rocky relationship with this woman.

"Apparently," he said, ducking his head low to murmur in her ear, "Sifu Kunchen was one of the Guardians even before Master Fu took on the mantle, and she's never forgiven him for what he did to bring about their fall."

"AND YOU!" Kunchen roared suddenly in words they could understand, turning to point an accusatory finger directly at Adrien. "How dare you show your face here, you son of a thieving cowardice marmot?!"

Adrien stumbled back in alarm as the small, dragoness woman pushed passed Rabten and advanced on him.

"Hey!" Marinette cried, her Ladybug authority kicking into gear as she tried to stand in Kunchen's way. "What in the world are you talking about?! Adrien has never done anything of th—"

In a move so swift Adrien could hardly make it out, Kunchen spun Marinette off balance, sending her stumbling off the path.

Tikki fluttered after her worriedly.

"HEY!" Marinette called again, but she was too late.

Plagg leaped into the air with an indignant shout as Kunchen pounced on Adrien, snatching at his scarf and yanking his face down to her level.

Adrien froze, his hands raised meekly above his head in surrender as Kunchen gazed intensely at him with her stormy grey eyes. The dark skin of her face was etched with wrinkles, and age spots were scattered across her cheeks and arms. The seconds crawled by as the two of them stood there, forehead to forehead, his heart racing as Kunchen's stare seemed to penetrate his very soul.

Fear gripped him, his mind flashing back to what happened to that little boy.

'Can she know what I've done? Is she angry because of the mistakes I've made?'

Finally, after a small eternity where Adrien didn't dare to breath, Kunchen's boney grip on his scarf loosened. Her face relaxed into something closer to a calm sternness instead of the deep seeded fury it had reflected moments before.

"Interesting," she said, her voice now level. She released him and took a step back.

Adrien slowly allowed himself to straighten back up, frightened that she would attack him again if he moved too fast for her liking.

"Excuse me," Marinette said from his elbow, her voice dripping with fury. "Would you care to tell us what the hell that was about?"

Kunchen shifted her gaze to look searchingly at Marinette, one of her eyebrows rising curiously.

"You," she said, pointing a finger at Marinette's chest. "I like you. You've got a fiery spirit that makes you a good Ladybug."

"Not to be rude, but I don't really care what you think of me right now," Marinette growled, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"I'm with pigtails on this one," Plagg huffed, and Tikki nodded vigorously beside him. "What gives you the right, huh lady?"

"Why did you just attack Adrien like that?" Marinette pressed on. "What has he ever done that would warrant such treatment?"

"So that settles it," Kunchen said, unrepentant. "Neither of you know the truth, then?"

"The truth about what, exactly?" Adrien asked cautiously, finally daring to speak.

Unexpectedly, the look Kunchen wore as she turned back to him had become one of pity. She didn't say anything for a long minute.

"A man came to me years ago, looking for answers just as you are now," Kunchen said finally, her intense eyes never leaving Adrien. "He seemed to know a lot more about the Miraculous than anyone who wasn't actually a wielder ever should. But I let him stay for a night or two. I answered his questions as best I could without giving the secrets that have been held by the Guardian Order for centuries. I gave him food, a warm place to sleep, and what I hoped was some guidance regarding what he sought. But then, on the third morning, I awoke to find that my evening tea had been drugged with herbs from my own garden. And Nooroo was gone."

"Nooroo?" Tikki gasped. "He was here with you all this time?"

Kunchen finally looked away from Adrien to glance up at the Kwami, her gaze softening slightly.

"Wait," Marinette said slowly, looking from Tikki to Adrien. "Nooroo is the name of the Butterfly Miraculous' Kwami, right? You're telling us that you had Hawkmoth's Miraculous?!"

"Does it really count as his Miraculous when he stole it to warp and abuse Nooroo's power?"

Adrien was reeling with this sudden and unexpected flood of information.

"But then…" he said slowly, "that means that the man who stole the Miraculous might actually be Hawkmoth, right?"

"I am not just telling you this because you are the current wielders of the Creation and Destruction Miraculous," Kunchen said, her frown deepening as she regarded him. "I am telling you this because the name of that man was Gabriel Agreste."

Look at that, you guys! Two whole chapters in the span of one week? INCONCEIVABLE! Don't get too spoiled, now, because at the rate I've been going with this fic I probably won't finish Chapter 12 for another 6 to 8 business months lol (hopefully not that long, but you know what I mean!)

Thank you everyone who left such wonderful reviews on this since last time. I know it doesn't seem like much, but those comments really encourage me to keep going with this. Your excitement makes me excited to share this with you, so THANK YOU! I hope you are all staying safe and taking care of yourselves! 3

PS: My usual editing process involved actually printing out each chapter and make changes by hand, since a different medium helps me catch errors better. Obviously I can't really go to Office Depot and get this one printed out, so there might be more mistakes than usual on this chapter. Sorry!