AN: This is the sequel to my first Miraculous fan fiction, "Milady." I would strongly encourage you to read that story first, though you can get a general idea of its plot from this chapter.

To The Keeper of Worlds: All I can say is, you have no idea how messy it's going to get!

Adrien knelt on the hard wooden floor of the dojo, Master Fu mirroring his position opposite him. Aside from the rug on which they knelt, the room was sparsely furnished, with little more than a couple sleeping bags rolled up in one corner. There was a simple wooden side table against the far wall, on which stood the ornate phonograph that housed the Box of the Miraculous. Plagg lounged on the table, staring appraisingly at a piece of cheese. Marinette sat next to the table leaning against the wall, Tikki curled up on her shoulder. The only concessions to modern technology visible in the room were the phone Marinette held and the tablet which rested on the floor in front of Adrien.

Adrien looked back down at the tablet, on which he had been reading the Book of the Miraculous. He remembered how furious his father had become when Adrien discovered the book in his office and took it to school so he could look through it – the day Lila was first Akumatized into Volpina. When Adrien lost the book, his father had threatened to withdraw him from school and cut him off from all of his friends, until Marinette returned the book and confessed. And apparently the reason she had taken the book was because she was Ladybug, and this book contained all the secrets of the miraculous.

After the years of remaining in the dark, of not having the full story even about his own miraculous, Adrien was still overwhelmed sometimes by the events of the last several weeks. When he had invited Ladybug over for dinner at his mansion on the last day of school, he'd had no idea what would result. That he would discover Ladybug's true identity and that he would reveal his own identity to her – although he had secretly hoped for both of those events to happen one day. But he had not counted on his father's revelation that he had used Adrien's feelings for Ladybug to manipulate him into luring Ladybug into a trap. Or that his father was really Hawk Moth.

And now that he was living at Master Fu's dojo until they could defeat his father, it seemed that the revelations were coming nonstop, as Master Fu taught Marinette and himself all that he knew about the miraculous, the Kwamis, and the Order of the Guardians into which Master Fu eventually wished to induct Marinette.

"Master Fu?" Adrien asked, having finished reading the section about the cat miraculous. "Something strange happened while I was fighting against Hawk Moth and Mayura. I used Cataclysm while holding my staff, and it was actually channeled through the staff. The Cataclysm was released out of both ends of the staff at once when they touched the mansion walls. And then there was some residual energy in the staff a couple minutes later and I was able to use another mini-Cataclysm. What do you think it means?"

Master Fu stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment before answering. "I do not know for certain, child. I do not recall reading about anything like this happening for a previous cat miraculous holder. However, I can take a guess. Both the staff and the Cataclysm are generated by Plagg's power, channeled through the cat miraculous. Do you see?"

Adrien nodded. "So maybe the one can't harm the other?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps instead of destroying the staff, the power behind the Cataclysm recognized the power within the staff as being its own power, and the Cataclysm resonated with it."

"Then does that mean that the staff can channel and amplify my Cataclysm?"

"That is certainly possible," Master Fu agreed.

"Does that explain why the Cataclysm was so much stronger than it's ever been before?"

"Maybe. There is another explanation for the force of the Cataclysm, however. The power of the miraculous is connected to the emotional state of the miraculous holder. When Alya watched her friends falling to their deaths in what she thought was reality, that acted as a catalyst and unlocked the fox miraculous' true power over illusion, burning away the falsehood and granting clear sight of reality – at least temporarily. I believe the same held true for you at the mansion. Tell me, have you ever felt that much rage and anger before as Cat Noir?"

Adrien was silent for a moment as he thought. There had been difficult moments before – Heroes' Day was positively terrifying! But never had he been in such a difficult, hopeless situation before. Finally he shook his head. "I've never felt that way as Cat Noir before. There have been rough moments, but I've never felt so close to dying, felt such despair and hopelessness, before… When I used my Cataclysm I believed I had betrayed my Ladybug, that she was going to be hurt or killed, and that it was all my fault. Then there was even a moment near the end that I really thought I would die, that my father was going to kill me, and I was actually okay with that! Does that make sense?"

Master Fu smiled. "It makes perfect sense," he replied. "Your emotional state amplified the power of your Cataclysm. And," he went on, "your resolution in the face of certain death shows, I think, that you have fully embraced your mission as Cat Noir. Have you ever wondered why I chose you? Why I lent out two miraculous to stop Hawk Moth, when the butterfly and peafowl miraculous were both missing and in evil hands?"

Adrien shrugged. "I just figured that both Ladybug and Cat Noir were necessary to stop Hawk Moth and save the world."

"Both are necessary," Master Fu said, "but Cat Noir is not necessary to save the world. He – you – are necessary to save Ladybug. Ladybug's power of creation enables her to purify akumas, to undo the destruction and harm caused by evil. Cat Noir's power, however, balances out her power of creation through destruction. So the cat miraculous' power is far more akin to the evil. Cat Noir's power of destruction causes harm more often than it heals the harm; Plagg's impact on history should be example enough of that! This is not ordinarily the ability of one who is to save the world. But it is the perfect ability for the Ladybug's guardian to have, is it not?"

"Wait, so my role all this time has been to keep Ladybug safe?"

"That is one way of looking at it. The other miraculous all give their users abilities helpful for assisting the Ladybug in her mission. But only you have the precise ability necessary to keep her safe while she completes that mission."

Adrien furrowed his brow in confusion. "So does that make me the expendable one?"

Master Fu shook his head. "That means no more or less than that your mission is the one you have set yourself for the last two years, ever since you first met your Ladybug. The mission you chose before ever learning what the Cat Noir's role has traditionally been. The mission you accomplished three weeks ago when you fought your father: to keep your Ladybug safe. Is that such a bad mission?"

Adrien looked over at Marinette, who was still reading the Book of the Miraculous on her phone, her eyes scrunched up and tongue sticking out slightly in concentration. He smiled at her and looked back at Master Fu. "No, I guess it isn't such a bad mission."

"And tell me, even if you did not know that this was Cat Noir's mission, would you wish to do anything else, especially now that your Lady's feelings toward you have become so clear?"

"Well, no. If anything, now I want to protect her even more."

"So has learning this changed anything for you?"

"I guess not."

Master Fu smiled broadly. "You see, while this may be your mission, it is you who has chosen to accept the mission, and it is you who will choose how to fulfill it."

Adrien turned back to the tablet as Master Fu stood up, stretched his arms and legs, and walked into the kitchen. The runes on the page were still as indecipherable as ever, and he was tired of struggling through Master Fu's rough translation. With a sigh, Adrien followed suit, standing up and stretching his neck to work out the kinks. He walked over to sit down next to Marinette. She looked up from reading the Miraculous Book on her phone, smiled at him, and laid her head on his shoulder once he was seated. Adrien wrapped an arm around her and squeezed gently.

"How did I get so lucky, Bugaboo?" Adrien asked her. To her questioning look he explained, "I spent 2 years trying to find my Ladybug, the girl of my dreams, even though she wasn't interested in me. And you were right here the whole time. When I needed you the most, you were there for me. After that fight, you brought me to safety, battered, bruised, and bleeding. You stitched me up and healed me. And then you told me who you were, that you were in love with me as Adrien, just as I was in love with you as Ladybug. And suddenly, this. How did I deserve this?"

Marinette smiled. "I could say the same, Kitty. After all, it was my fault you were all bruised and battered and bleeding in the first place. If I hadn't frozen, I could have rescued myself without you having to reveal yourself. Keeping you safe and patching you up was just trying to make up for my mistake. If anything, I didn't deserve your loyalty and protection that night."

Adrien laughed. "Making up for my mistake was all I was doing, too. I was the one who invited you to that deathtrap of a dinner, so I was just trying to get you out of it. I couldn't have done anything other than what I did. I could never watch anyone hurt you."

Marinette blushed and leaned in to kiss him.

"So how is it going, reading that book?" Adrien asked her when she pulled back. "Are you understanding the code any better now than last week?"

"It's slow going," she answered, "but parts are becoming clearer. Take the combination of miraculous, for example. We can combine the powers of the main 7 miraculous with any of the Zodiac miraculous to merge their abilities together in different ways. The cat and horse together would allow you to use Cataclysm at great distances, for example. The ox and fox together can create a solid illusion that you can interact with."

"What about the main 7? What would happen if we combined our miraculous?"

"I haven't been able to decipher that one yet," Marinette admitted. "I asked Master Fu a while back, and he said that the ladybug and cat are the yin and yang which preserve balance in the universe. So combining them would grant the user one wish, enabling him to manipulate the balance of the universe in any way he wants. The universe would grant that wish, but it would balance the wish out in some way. So if we wished for an end to world hunger the price might be all the water on the planet. If we wished for world peace, it could come at the expense of free will."

"Wow," Adrien said, leaning his head back on the wall and closing his eyes pensively. "Total power over the universe – but with a massive catch. No wonder my father wants the ladybug and cat miraculous so badly. But what wish could he possibly want to make that could be worth those consequences?"

"I don't know." Marinette shrugged. "You know him better than I do."

"I thought I did."

Marinette hugged him in sympathy. "Whatever wish he wants to make it would not end the way he wants it to. That's why we can't let him get our miraculous."

"No, we can't," Adrien agreed. He squeezed her tight and rested his cheek on the top of her head. "And he will never get another chance to hurt you, Milady. I'll always protect you."

"I know."

The front door of the dojo opened at that moment, and Adrien glanced up to see Alya and Chloe entering. Chloe flared her nostrils at the sight of them, but Alya held up her phone and took a picture of them, grinning widely.

"You realize if you show that to anyone I will have to kill you, right?" Marinette said without looking up.

"Don't worry, girl," Alya teased. "I'll wait until after we've got your boyfriend's crazy father locked up to put these all over the Ladyblog!"

"A true friend," Adrien observed with a chuckle.

"So, anything new to report today?" Marinette asked, sitting up straight. Alya and Chloe moved to kneel across from them as Master Fu brought in a tray with teacups, a kettle, and a couple dishes of cookies. He put a small plate of cookies on the table beside the phonograph, and all the Kwamis flew over to help themselves. Then Master Fu placed the tray between the kids, knelt beside it, and began pouring the tea.

Chloe shook her head. "It's all been quiet at the mansion. Your father did another round of interviews for his social media person today, but that's it. We didn't see any Akumas or Amoks leaving, so still no idea which part of the house they are coming from or if your father even has a lair at the mansion."

Alya added, "There was a work crew there looking at the hole you left in the wall, but they didn't start repairing it yet."

"I'm kind of glad Miraculous Ladybug didn't fix that," Adrien observed. "My father deserved so much worse than that!"

"Do you think they saw you?" Marinette asked.

Alya shook her head. "We stayed in the bushes and watched from a distance. I used Mirage to get us in and out. I don't think anyone saw us."

"Does anyone else find it concerning that Hawk Moth hasn't sent out a single Akuma since our fight at the Eiffel Tower?" Marinette asked, looking around at the others. "Has he ever gone this long before?"

Adrien shrugged. "Maybe my father doesn't know what to do now that he's been exposed. Or maybe he's decided to go straight. Or maybe he's biding his time, waiting for us to make the next move."

Chloe arched an eyebrow. "Do you really think your father decided to just give this up? Whatever 'this' is? He's never struck me as the 'giving up' type."

Master Fu interrupted them. "Whether he is still planning to use the miraculous or not, we must retrieve them from him. We cannot allow the butterfly and peafowl miraculous to remain in the wrong hands!"

"Until we know where they are, though, there's not much we can do," Adrien responded.

"How is Nino's part of the plan going?" Marinette asked.

Alya giggled. "Well, some of his recruits are a little more… enthusiastic… than the others, but he says they are all improving. When we need them, he says they will be ready."