Chapter Eleven

Schoolmistress stalked through the upper level of the library. A shaft of light from the windows above fell upon her, accentuating the papery-white of her skin; showing the ink-black of her painted mouth in even starker relief.

She looked up and scowled, forehead crinkling like a crumpled page. With no visible effort on her part, her surroundings were instantly thrown into a murky twilight. There were sounds of stenorous creaks as shelves slid across the floor, aligning themselves according to her unspoken instructions. Somewhere overhead, heavy drapes rustled and chains clanked.

With a satisfied nod, she continued along the mezzanine. A purple glow suddenly illuminated the corridor in front of her; violet light blazed at the edges of her vision, as a butterfly-shaped visor flared around her eyes.

Schoolmistress, I applaud your dedication, but I would urge you to act with greater expediency. Though you may be dealing with underage opponents, it is hardly necessary for you to cater to them with such childish games.

Schoolmistress pouted, an expression that itself seemed to verge on an immature tantrum. "You know my methods, Papillion. Ignorance comes of complacency; even in this, I am making the most of an opportunity to impart something to the next generation. Though they may seem superfluous to you, you cannot claim that my preparations lack academic merit. My curriculum is set, and every unit of it shall be instructive. It would do you well to learn some patience."

She felt his anger seep into her mind; though he made no blatant outburst when he spoke, his irritation was tangible. I have patience. Indeed, my dear, I could give you many lessons in patience. I could also offer you a refresher course in obedience. Do not forget who made you capable of all these feats. If I so choose, I could drop you back several grades - so do not force me to teach you some manners.

She felt her powers slip, start to ebb away. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, as if literally holding on would somehow keep it from receding. When she reopened eyes that she had shut tight in concentration, her manner was far more subservient.

"I... appreciate the reminder," she said, in a voice that was careful, cautious of causing any further offence. "It is not knowledge that I am likely to take for granted again, so please be at ease. Things are progressing just as I have planned. Ladybug and Chat Noir will soon be here. By the time they are through with the studies I have allocated them, they will be mentally and physically fatigued, just in time for my last test." Her lips quirked up, in a return of their self-assured leer. "When they inevitably fail, I will confiscate their Miraculous. With this final assessment complete, I shall graduate from victim to victorious, and you shall have the accreditation that you have sought for so long."

He allowed himself a smile that she felt in his next words, though they were tempered with a warning. I look forward to it, Schoolmistress. Just see that you occasionally take your eyes off the books, in order to keep them firmly on the prize.

As if in answer to his command, a sound came from the floor below: the slight squeak of a metal grille swinging open.

Schoolmistress' smirk broadened. Her class had arrived.

The air duct came out in the central atrium of the library, just inside the main doors. They would have liked to emerge in a less-conspicuous place; but since the vents narrowed beyond this point, they had little choice but to disembark here.

They cautiously climbed out of the vent, casting wary eyes over their surroundings. After little more than a glance, they came to a standstill upon the threshold, surveying what lay before them.

In a voice that was barely above a whisper, Chat Noir said: "I think she's been expecting us." Ladybug only nodded in reply.

The lower level of the library had been transformed into a literal maze. The bookcases had been moved out of their neat rows to form a labyrinthine arrangement, all hard angles and abrupt corners. Books were stacked in haphazard piles upon the topmost shelves, creating fortifications that reached almost to the ceiling; these seemed designed to prevent any intrepid maze-runners from taking shortcuts by leaping over the walls.

Chat Noir folded his arms, wearing something akin to a pout. "How dare she! As if cancelling recess wasn't bad enough - now she's treating us like lab-rats!"

Ladybug couldn't help but giggle at his over-the-top petulance, though she was also less than impressed with Schoolmistress' redecorating. "Looks like payback to me; you shouldn't have made that fish joke earlier."

Completely disregarding her criticism of his humour like he always did, he grimaced at the library's new floor plan. "We shouldn't even enter this set-up. I'll eat my own ears if it doesn't lead us straight into a trap."

Though she was tempted to ask which set of ears he meant, she refrained, giving a shrug of slim red-clad shoulders. "It doesn't look like we have much choice. At least we know we're on the right trail."

"A trail of destruction," he muttered darkly.

"Then it's a good thing you're with me, Mister Cataclysm," she teased. "Is this grumpy-cat no good at puzzles?"

Her words drew him a little way out of his grump. He knew it was mostly frustration, mixed with a good dose of over-protectiveness. He didn't like the idea of Marinette - or himself, for that manner - taking a path that was probably littered with perils, only to arrive at a deranged mono-maniac at the other end. He reminded himself that this was by no means the worst danger they had ever faced; they had gone on similarly treacherous treasure-hunts before. It was amazing, what a change of perspective could do. An hour ago, if he'd been asked if he thought Marinette should be allowed to face down a supervillain, she would have topped his list of 'people to hide on rooftops for their own safekeeping'. Ladybug would have been at the opposite end of that same list. Was it any wonder that his current regard for her swung uncertainly between these two extremes?

He struck an attitude which, he hoped, came across as noble and intelligent; admittedly, he had a plentiful cat-alogue of poses to fall back on. "This cat is an ace at all kinds of riddles. You should see how quickly I can do a crossword!"

She chuckled at his unashamed show of bravado - how typical! "I would've thought such brain-teasers would leave you cross-eyed, or just plain cross." Examining what lay ahead of them with a critical gaze, she added: "We'll likely be walking directly into the cross-hairs, but what choice do we have? The students are waiting for us to free them, and the quickest way to Schoolmistress is the direct route."

He glanced sideways at her. Though her expression was self-assured and focused, she must be just as worried about their classmates as he was - for more reasons than one. "They're safe for now," he pointed out, "and we'll get them out of their locked rooms very soon. As for us playing it safe - well, it would be un-feline of this cat to baulk at walking straight into the lion's den."

She smiled at the cat-reference, though it wasn't a very funny one. "So the bug shouldn't fear kicking the hornet's nest?" she suggested, coming up with an equivalent metaphor.

He gave a pronounced shudder. "Everyone should stay away from hornet's nests - wasps are terrifying!" Glad to see that this managed to make her laugh, he piled on the bug jokes while the going was good. "Let's go find her, before she unleashes a swarm of spelling-bees on us!"

Smiling the lame pun aside, she moved towards the entrance of the maze.

He fell into step beside her, quickening his pace a little to keep from falling behind. She really shouldn't have mentioned 'the view' earlier. Though it had been meant as a deterrent from looking, the suggestion was proving far too tempting not to follow! He was seeing Marinette in a whole new light - and, captivating as it was, it was more than just 'the view' that was making his pulse quicken.

As they rounded the first corner of the labyrinth, a new - well, not-so-new - thought doused his ardour with cold water. He had been so caught up in wondering what he thought of Ladybug being Marinette, he had stopped asking the question that so often preoccupied him: what did she think of him?

An attack of doubts descended upon him, cutting at his confidence as keenly as any of Schoolmistress' cards. He had never been sure of exactly how Ladybug regarded Chat Noir; having to consider how Adrien got along with Marinette just made things even worse. All his misgivings about their attempts at friendship came rushing back. Could their first encounter - not their first first encounter, actually their second encounter, the first time they had met each other as themselves - could it have gone any more badly than it did? Sure, he and Marinette got along a bit better now, but... he was still a far cry from impressing her, which was what he desperately wanted.

Speaking of attempts to impress her, what did she really think of his humour? He always assumed that best case scenario, Ladybug pretended to scoff at his jokes, too focused on their mission to show how funny she really thought they were; worst case scenario, at least the constant stream of quips made her pay attention to him. Had he only succeeded in annoying her? After all, when Marinette wasn't acting as class president or putting Chloe in her place, she was pretty quiet. Until recently, she had let Alya do most of the talking when they hung out together.

Maybe she just found him irritating? Maybe he had already ruined any chance he might have had with her? Maybe it was better if he didn't sully his relationship with Marinette by telling her who Chat Noir was? Maybe... maybe he should lay off the puns?

He had to suddenly leap sideways to avoid running into a wall, realizing where he was at the very last second. Hastily reminding himself of the situation at hand, he glanced sideways, watching Ladybug sprint alongside him with all her usual grace. Well, it was too late to undo all that he had already done. The best thing to do was to continue on as usual, so that she wouldn't notice the change between them.

He would preserve this - this special, precious, unspoken closeness they shared - right down to the very last second.

"I don't think we should stay in this place for too long," he said, without breaking his stride. "It appears to be all booked out!"

Marinette let out a huff, rolling her eyes at her partner's attempt at a witticism. She turned aside slightly, on the pretense of scouting out the next corner, so that he wouldn't see the hint of a smile that she hastily bit back.

She would miss this. Much as his terrible puns often exasperated, she... kind of liked them. She doubted she could have faced down so many perilous situations without him there to trivialize the danger; to make her forget how high the stakes were, enough for her to keep from being paralyzed by the constant pressure of having to save the day. It meant something, that he made that much effort for her; that he didn't hold back, didn't think twice about saying such stupid things in her presence (and some of them were very stupid). He could crack a groan-inducing quip, knowing that her only response would be to roll her eyes and try her best not to smile. Likewise, she could neatly skewer him with the kind of pointed teasing she didn't normally say out loud, even in front of Alya; she knew he wouldn't take offence, coming back undeterred with just as many un-laughable lines as ever. There was nothing self-conscious about him when he was with her, and vice versa.

But when he discovered who she was... that would change, wouldn't it? It actually made it worse that she was someone he had met before. It was bad enough that she might have gone from being any-girl-in-a-mask to a very specific stranger; but she was someone he actually knew - he even had a nickname for her! How would he react, when he found out his 'Lady' was also his 'Princess'? Would it destroy all his trust in her? Would he resent it, the fact she had met him out of costume and never mentioned it, toyed with him and manipulated him without his knowing? Would he lose confidence in her? He should, considering how hopelessly clumsy she was when her powers didn't allow her to do triple backward somersaults.

What would he think of her? Surely he would be disappointed that she was just her. She pictured his look of shock, face falling in disappointment, lip curling back in a sneer of disdain and disgust-

They rounded yet another corner, coming onto a fairly long straight. "I think we've got a pretty good read on the situation," he declared.

She shook her head, smothering the laughter in her throat. Whatever was to come, she would savour this experience, this moment, this comradery and partnership between them. It might be the last of its kind.

"It's not so hard to read between the lines," she answered, gesturing at the rows of shelves on either side of them. "Still, let's stay on the alert, in case there are traps or ambushes ahead. As we've already learned, Schoolmistress might not do everything by the book."

The low chuckle he gave filled her with an indescribable warmth. "Understood," he said in assent.

They continued to run the maze together, side by side, in step with one another, as much in harmony as they had ever been.

Who knew how much longer it would last?

"Hey, Alya...?"

She had been sitting at her desk, staring numbly into space. At the sound of her own name she turned, wondering if this was the first time it had been called. She had been lost deep in her own thoughts, none of which had been very comforting; she was glad to have them interrupted.

Mylene was speaking. She was standing in the central aisle, half-leaning on Ivan's bent knee as he sat on the step above her. Rose and Juleka had taken over his usual seat; while Nathanael was perched on the edge of his own desk, every so often glancing absently at the tablet that Max held beside him.

"Alya, you..." Mylene was haltingly trying to ask her something. She could already guess the kind of question it would be. "You run the Ladyblog, and... y-you're Marinette's best friend, right? You know both her and Ladybug better than anyone, so, um... did you have any clue she was-"

"I didn't know her at all," Alya snapped. She knew she shouldn't take it out on Mylene - Ivan loomed over her slightly, unimpressed by her harsh tone - but she couldn't help it. She was angry at herself more than anyone, for never noticing, not either of them. Maybe she was mad at Marinette, which was probably unfair, but... what about any of this was fair? Her best friend had been her favourite superhero all along, and she'd had no idea damn it!

"She... hid it from you?" Mylene ventured to ask, proceeding even more cautiously, but pushing ahead nonetheless. Rose and Juleka gave her the barest of encouraging nods, suggesting that they had collectively been working up to asking her this. "I mean, now I think back over it all, it kind of makes sense... b-but I thought, since you... uh, you know... maybe you understood it... better than the rest of us?"

She stopped abruptly, since Alya wasn't saying anything.

Much as she would love to wallow alone in her sense of betrayal - confused as she was as to who had done the actual betraying - Mylene's words started a whole new train of thought that was no more welcome than the previous one had been. Had she suspected? Sure, she had accepted from the moment they met that Marinette was a bit of a space-cadet - and had loved her all the more for it - but... how much of it could be explained away by her best friend's need to keep a double life? She found herself reassessing everything she knew about Marinette. All of a sudden, even the slightest action or word took on the possibility of some greater significance. Every excuse she'd ever had for being late; every request for help with incomplete homework; every time she claimed to be tired from staying up working on a design; every complaint she'd made about being held captive by the latest akuma - they were all now parts of a greater puzzle. Fragments of a picture that she had been too distracted, too unsuspecting, too stupid to notice before, but which was now coming into painfully-sharp focus.

"The history book." These few words confused everyone around her; they looked at her as if she had flipped her lid - which, perhaps, she had. She went on, speaking more to herself than anyone else. "She dropped her history book. Her school text-book. As Ladybug. She was swinging by the cafe I was staking out, and she just plonked her damn book down in the middle of the street. She couldn't have done better if she wanted me to find it. It was the same sort our school has. I even did the research and found out we're the only school in Paris that uses that book - it's a brand new edition that our college received before all others. I was so thrilled with myself for narrowing my search down to just the girls of Francoise-Dupont. I thought I was being so clever! I even joked that she wasn't above suspicion, since she had just recently 'lost' her copy. Of course she had lost it - she'd just dropped it in the street, where I picked it up!"

Throughout this solitary tirade, she alternated between making outraged gestures in the air, and running her hands exasperatedly through her hair; as her movements became gradually more irate, everyone around her watched her a little more nervously. "I should have realized it when she invited me to the museum straight after. Now I realize she was luring me there with promises of some 'revelation' about Ladybug in an ancient scroll, just so she could take her book back when I wasn't looking!"

"Was that the same day as the Pharaoh?" Nathanael asked, breaking in on her monologue. When everyone - even Alya - turned to look at him in amazement, he flushed nearly as red as his hair, but held their gaze. "What? I follow the Ladyblog, I saw your livestream from the museum and I-"

"Yeah, that was the same day," Alya admitted, smiling wryly at the memory. "What did I say to the camera - 'I'm on the scene before even Ladybug'? Ha, if I'd only known! The only reason I was there first was because she was probably waiting until I was out of sight before she went into action!" She smiled unseeingly at the pink polka-dot bag on the desk in front of her, replaying the incident in her mind. All those things Ladybug had said to stop Pharaoh from sacrificing her... when Mari got back, she would have more than one bone to pick with her!

"She gave you an interview, didn't she?" Rose asked, breaking in on her thoughts again. "The one-on-one interview, where she answered all your questions? I was so impressed that you got her to sit down and talk with you like that! She-"

"No other fansite could compete," Max interrupted, statics from his tablet's screen reflected in the lenses of his glasses. "Your traffic went up by 127% after that video was posted."

"Tch." Alya managed a hollow chuckle. "I never questioned how she managed to set up that exclusive interview for me; I was too busy fan-girling all over her, in more ways than one. If I'd only thought to ask her how she managed to get in contact with Ladybug..."

"She knew." Everyone now turned their attention on Ivan, who glanced stolidly around at his audience. "She knew that... that I liked Mylene," he explained, with only a slight hint of a blush on his broad face; his girlfriend patted his knee, in both encouragement and reciprocation. "Marinette mentioned it in the locker room before school, said that I should... I should tell her how I felt. Barely anyone else knew back then, but Ladybug... she already knew my name, when she saved me the first time... and she had seen the note, the one that Kim wrote..."

The boy in question, who had been gaping at the opposite wall for the better part of the past hour, finally stirred at the sound of his own name. His eyes remained glazed, his mind obviously struggling to catch up with the implications of what he had learned; then he laughed wryly to himself. "Man, to think Marinette is the one who saved my ass so many times!"

Alix, having long-since recovered from her own shock, was lounging on the bench beside him, leaning against his shoulder with her hands propped behind her head, as if he were her personal pillow. Now she reached back and prodded her cushion, elbowing him sharply in the ribs. "Don't go challenging her to a race - she'll whip the ass she saved, and slap you silly with her yoyo for good measure!"

Alya groaned at her words. "Can you blame me for not figuring it out? Have you seen that girl in gym class? I swear she's fallen off a balance-beam a foot high and somehow still ended up on her face; she couldn't bounce once on a trampoline and manage to land on the broad side of a crash-mat!"

No one contradicted her. Though the description was perhaps a little harsh, it was more-or-less accurate.

"Those earrings must be very powerful!" Juleka said, her voice filled with awe.

"They're Miraculous," Kim quipped, causing Alix to punch him in the arm.

"Don't try to act like Chat Noir!" she crowed at him.

"Who is Chat Noir?" Rose wanted to know, a glimmer of potential-romance already twinkling in her large blue eyes. "Surely Marinette must know, right? I'd love to meet him! He's an amazing hero, and he has the most adorable costume, those little ears are just-"

"At least we know he's not any of us," Nathanael interrupted; like the other boys in the room, he didn't particularly want to hear the only male member of the heroic duo being emasculated by their cute-loving classmate. "I mean, he and Mar- er, Ladybug are out there now, and we're all here, so..."

"He's not in our class," Ivan rumbled.

Rose giggled at the thought. "That would be too much!" she said, though Juleka looked rather wistful.

"It's more than any of you sissy blokes could manage, even with twinkly jewellery!" Alix declared, blithely ignoring the four sets of eyes that trained disgruntled looks at her.

"Popular opinion seems to think that he is about our age," Max pointed out, a defensive edge to his voice. "Polls indicate that most Parisians believe both heroes are somewhere in the 13 to 18 year old bracket-"

"Mari turns 15 next month," Alya said quietly.

Mylene shook her head, making her dreadlocks sway from side to side. "She's as young as us, yet she's been out there saving us all this time... whenever there was an akuma - including one of us - she jumped straight in and saved us..."

They were all silent for a moment, letting it sink in. Marinette - awkward, clumsy, their-own-age, in-their-class Marinette - was a superhero. Though they had all seen proof enough of it to know that it was true, they still found it rather hard to believe.

Juleka had gone to the window, leaning so that the bang of purple-streaked hair over her eye swung aside enough for her to peer through the glass. "Are we, like, going to get out of here sometime?" she wondered out loud. "It's been a while, and nothing is happening..."

"Quite enough has happened already," Alya said stiffly. They had heard clanging metal, loud thuds, breaking glass, and frantic shrieks coming from the roof a few minutes ago. Though it had sounded like the akuma had been the one screaming - causing Alix to whoop and jeer, while Rose and Mylene dove under their desks with their hands over their ears - the white cloud that had surrounded the school soon after was hardly reassuring. They had tested the door when things had quietened down and found it still locked, so they knew the battle was still going on.

"They'll win," Rose said, indomitable optimism ringing in her voice. "They always win."

"They have a 99.6% success rate," Max announced. When Nathanael questioned the 0.3%, he explained that those were the times Chat Noir had gotten possessed by the akuma. Rose emitted a guilt-stricken noise halfway between a gasp and a gulp, prompting Juleka to put a comforting arm around her. Kim tried to casually clear his throat, pointedly ignoring the way Alix thumped him repeatedly on the arm.

"They'd better win," Alya muttered, clenching the edge of the book-bag in a fiercely-protective grip. "If that mangy cat lets anything happen to her, I'll personally put him in a bag and throw him off the Pont Neuf."

Rose squeaked at the mere suggestion of such cruelty towards a kitten; everyone else simply shared uncertain glances. They were all worried , though none of them dared say so - especially not in front of Alya. Even if Ladybug was a superhero, Marinette was Marinette, and this latest akuma... despite the fact that she was actually their mild-mannered school librarian, she had looked pretty gnarly.

It wasn't like there was anything they could do about it. Besides the fact that Schoolmistress had locked them in, they were all just civilians, whereas Ladybug was-

Marinette. Their class president Marinette was a superhero.

They couldn't really blame Alya for not figuring it out. None of them could quite believe it either.

No one asked Chloe, who had grown quiet by now but still had her head down on her desk, whether or not she believed it. Given her behaviour of the past hour, she most certainly could not.

Sabrina was seated on the windowsill, staring straight in front of her. Though she must have been listening to the conversation, she was keeping her thoughts to herself.

As for Nino, he was still off in a world of his own, though the stunned look on his face very clearly said 'non-believer'.

For the first few twists of the maze, they didn't encounter anything out of the ordinary.

They saw nothing but one bookshelf after another, flashing by on either side as they ran between them. They passed one that Adrien was sure he had been browsing when he had overheard Marinette standing up to Chloe for Sabrina's sake - right before they had taken on a giant hairdryer. Amazing, to think that it had happened right here, and it had been her all along, though he had been oblivious at the time; she must have transformed just a few rows away from him.

Seriously, how had he not noticed so many tell-tale magical glows?!

There weren't any lurking monsters in this maze, no minotaurs, no trip-wires or traps, and very few branching corridors. The fact that the labyrinth wasn't trying to get them lost only reinforced their suspicion that it led them right where Schoolmistress wanted them. Still, the way forward was clear, and they were moving pretty quickly. If they kept on at this rate, they w-

They turned a blind corner, only to find a dead end. As they skidded to a halt, the whole room shook.

They had been keeping an eye on the mezzanine that ran around the upper level, using it as a means of navigation; they were able to orientate themselves by calculating their position relative to staircase in the back corner. The path they had taken led right to the foot of these stairs, and it was from here that the ominous rumblings seemed to emanate.

Looking up, they were astounded - and more than a little alarmed - to see a huge boulder, more than five feet across and perfect spherical, tumbling towards them, bouncing higher with each step it struck. They were directly in its path, and there was no getting away from it, save by going back the way they had come - and that wasn't an option.

Despite his determination to forge ahead, Chat Noir took an involuntary step back. Physics might be Adrien's best subject, but he didn't need any calculations to work out that the giant mass would easily squash them flat. Despite the danger, the situation was almost comical; it reminded him of one of his favourite movies. "Call me Doctor Jones, but I think we just entered the Temple of Doom!" he wise-cracked.

Ladybug apparently grasped the film reference, though she didn't appreciate the joke any more than usual. "You may want to play at being Indie, but we are no 'raiders of the lost ark' - and a bull-whip won't be enough to stop that thing, let alone a yoyo."

Chat Noir brandished his staff, though he still stood poised to run if the need arose - and the need was rolling rapidly closer. "Should I try my best snooker shot? Though I don't see a pocket big enough to sink it in..."

Ladybug quickly glanced about her. She hadn't used her Lucky Charm - didn't want to until she absolutely had to, preferably when they were facing down Schoolmistress herself, the same went for her partner's Cataclysm - but if she looked around, maybe she would spot something that could help her. There wasn't much here, just endless shelves crammed with text books, teaching aids, other classroom paraphernalia-

A strange object on a nearby shelf caught her eye. It looked like a misshapen candelabra, its arms bent at odd angles - no, not bent, they were curved... almost like it was made for a-

She looked carefully at the giant sphere that was hurtling towards them, its distance rapidly diminishing. Its surface wasn't blank and featureless, like she had initially thought: there were lines traced on it, their pattern more exact and intricate than mere cracks or fissures in stone would be. They looked like faint outlines, though their various shapes were irregular, and all completely different...

She glimpsed a very familiar silhouette during the sphere's rotation, and her theory was instantly confirmed; she realized what it really was.

"Maybe you can try your skills as a pool-shark after all," she told Chat Noir, pulling him closer so he could see the same perspective as her. She pointed to the sphere, which was still rolling steadily down the stairs at them, gathering speed as its descent gained momentum. "See that slightly darker splotch? There, it just turned this way; I think it's darker because it's raised and casts a shadow..."

"Yeah, I see it," Chat Noir said, though he didn't really see what it had to do with anything. So the boulder that would squash them flat had a mole near its belly-button, bully for it. Though at least it was an interesting shape; it almost looked like-

He blinked, wondering if he could trust his eyes. Adrien's third-best subject (after physics and history) was geography, and he could swear that mark was the same shape as-

"You see?" Ladybug asked; judging by his reaction, she was pretty sure he did. "How's your national spirit?"

Now fully grasping what she meant, he straightened to attention, giving her a smart salute. "If you like, I can whistle the Marseilles while I-"

"I've heard it before," Ladybug interjected; it had been accompanied by dance-moves that were bad enough to shame the country. "Just concentrate on your aim."

By this time, the boulder was ten steps from the ground floor - given it was almost as many steps in diameter, that was far too close. Ladybug threw her yoyo, but didn't strike the sphere directly; the weighted end caught on the banister, stretching the line across the stairwell. Giving it plenty of slack, she paused as the huge sphere bounded closer, waited until it hit the string - then pulled. Despite its size, it shot straight up into the air, like an oversized pebble fired from a slingshot. It must have very nearly grazed the ceiling, turning rapidly as it arced upward. Then gravity overtook it, and it plummeted back down again.

Chat Noir instantly darted forward, positioning himself directly beneath it, with no signs of hesitation. He watched it carefully as it rotated menacingly over his head, waiting for a glimpse of that dark patch, working out his timing. At the precise moment, he lengthened his staff; it shot upward and struck the sphere on the exact spot.

There was an audible 'click', like a switch being pressed. A split-second later, the giant mass shrank down, becoming the same size as an average basketball.

Ladybug ran under it, catching it neatly in her outstretched arms. Turning it over, she held it up so Chat Noir could see the spot he had struck: an outline the exact same shape as the map of France. The rest of the world's countries were also traced on the curved surface. She carried it over to the strange object she had noticed before and slotted the globe back into its frame, where it spun idly.

They took a moment to stare at it, innocuously turning on its axis, having just threatened to crush them both. Then Chat Noir asked, "What was that all about?"

"I think," Ladybug said after a moment, "that was a lesson."

"A lesson in Newton's Law?" Chat Noir suggested. "That thing was a bit bigger than an apple, and my head is far smaller by comparison."

"I could argue that your head is even bigger - your ego is the size of the planet," Ladybug retorted. More seriously, she added: "Schoolmistress prides herself on her ability as a teacher. Though she wants to defeat us and take our Miraculous, I think she also wants to teach us a lesson, literally." She tilted her head back, gazing at the top of the stairwell, and the distant ceiling beyond that. "If she really wanted to stop us at any cost, she could have dropped that giant globe on us without any warning. Instead, she gave us enough time to figure it out."

"Not that we needed much time," Chat boasted.

Ladybug wondered if he remembered just who had first noticed what the globe was, and drawn his attention to it. "I think it was a test," she went on, "to see if we are worthy of completing her final 'exam'."

"Huh." Chat Noir eyed the globe thoughtfully. "Just as well I spent last night brushing up on whack-a-globe. Who knew that the subject had such practical applications!"

Ladybug smiled. "Hitting things seems to be your best subject. Just as well I'm a bit more studiously-minded! Come on, let's see what topic Schoolmistress wants us to study next."

Adrien fleetingly recalled that though he had topped the class in their last batch of physics and history tests, Marinette had been ahead of him in literature. Though he could probably blame photo shoots, clothes fittings, after-school tutoring, and foiling the odd burglary for not having studied properly, he was more than prepared to let her have that one. "Well," he said, "if we want better grades, the only way from here is up!"

Stepping aside, he politely gestured for her to take the staircase before him.

Alix was eying Max thoughtfully from across the room, a malicious smile that never boded well for anyone hovering about her lips.

"Hey Game-boy, didn't you go after Marinette herself?" she asked, answering her own rhetoric before he had time to respond. "She whipped you at your own game, both in and out of costume - it's a wonder there was anything left once she was done with you!"

She cackled delightedly. Kim abruptly slid up the seat away from her, dumping her off the arm she had been leaning on; she didn't appear to notice or care.

Max raised his tablet until it nearly hid his face. "Nathanael went after Marinette too," he pointed out. The boy next to him suddenly became very interested in his sketchbook; his face was so red, his hair looked almost orange by comparison.

Alya groaned loudly. "How do you think I feel? I'm supposed to be both her best friend and her number-one fan, yet I attacked her! I don't remember it, but apparently I trapped her in the kitchen of the Paris Grand and nearly peeled her mask off and locked Chat Noir in a freezer-"

"Shame it didn't make him cool it with the jokes," Alix interposed, chortling some more. Kim grumpily muttered that she should stop trying to imitate Chat Noir herself, earning another poke in the ribs.

Alya dropped her head into her hands, kneading her forehead in a paroxysm of guilt. The sight of the pink polka-dot bag beneath her elbows only made her feel worse. "I was coming at her, trying to hurt her - I didn't remember any of it, but I'm sure she did! How could she ever look me in the eye again, after something like that?"

Rose leaned over the desk between them, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, I'm sure she forgives you - not that there's anything to forgive," she added, with typical kindness. "She knows better than anyone that it was the akuma, not you."

"That's right." Ivan loomed again, though his attitude now was far friendlier. "If anyone was going to get blamed, it'd be me. I was the first to get turned into an akuma. She could've easily thought I meant to do all that, climbing the Eiffel Tower and stuff, before she really knew what was going on. But she didn't hold what I did against me, not for a second." Mylene reached out and took his hand, worry in her eyes; he squeezed it reassuringly, letting her know that past things didn't bother him. More than one pair of eyes was drawn to Chloe, who, if memory served, had called Ivan a 'monster' and sparked Stoneheart's encore appearance. The girl didn't appear to notice the scrutiny directed at her; she was too busy getting a close-up view of the desk beneath her forehead.

"She's helped everyone out," Mylene said, perching on the bench beside Alya. "She stopped me from sliming the school, repaired my dad's hat, found out his colleague was stealing his job, ended his rampage when he was an akuma..."

Several people shuddered; they vividly remembered the Eiffel Tower being cut in half. Even if the monument had been in lock-down and emptied of people at the time, it hadn't made the spectacle any less unnerving.

"She got the photographer to re-take my photo and stopped me from turning everyone into clones," Juleka pointed out, Rose nodding vehemently in agreement. Several of the boys shuffled uncomfortably at the memory. That akuma's power had been downright humiliating.

"She made me an awesome banner and helped me fix my watch," Alix piped up.

Kim grumbled that he had been on the banner too. Before Alix could mention Dark Cupid - several people darted looks at Chloe again - Mylene added: "She took charge when the Dark Knight laid siege at Town Hall. She was always an excellent class president."

She fell silent. The past-tense verb she had used seemed to hang heavy in the air - was. What would happen now? Would them knowing make any difference? Would she stop being Ladybug now? Surely not - she was the only one who could purify Papillion's akuma!

"We can't tell anybody," Mylene said, somehow seeming to take charge of the situation. "We have to keep who she is a secret. She's done so much to protect all of us; now it's up to us to protect her."

Everyone made affirmative noises, nodding in agreement. Alix shouted 'here, here!', while Kim made a point of smugly raising his hand higher than she could reach. Max did a quick calculation, working out that if their class were the only ones who knew, approximately 0.0000049% of Paris' population was in on the secret.

Alya watched and listened to all this with a lump in her throat. Though Marinette had always gotten along fairly well with everyone in their class - aside from the obvious exception - Alya had often taken it upon herself to be her personal advocate. She had tried hard to build up her talented, pretty, smart, sassy best friend's self-confidence as much as she could. She had talked Marinette through her doubts, lent her unwavering support. She couldn't help but feel a little possessive when the rest of her classmates proposed to muscle in on what had long been her sole territory; yet it was incredibly touching to see them all rise up as one for her sake. This was far bigger than just being 'best friends'; that girl fully deserved to have everyone in her corner. She was Ladybug, she was class president, and - most importantly - she was Marinette. The soft-hearted little dork who constantly risked being a doormat, yet could turn into an outright dragon if someone she knew was being threatened. Who brought macaroons and croissants in for the entire class on a whim; who listened to Alya prattle on about the intricacies of Majestia's superpowers without complaint. Who had saved her from being crushed by cars and sacrificed by demi-gods, and let her copy her homework when she had been up all night finishing her latest blog post, despite having herself taken time out for the actual fight.

Alya absently traced shapes between the dots on her best friend's book-bag, wondering for the hundredth time where she was and if she was alright. Though she had often felt anxious for Ladybug during akuma battles, that was nothing compared to this.

This wasn't Ladybug, the invincible hero - this was Marinette, the very fallible girl who just happened to have superpowers.

Right now, Alya was more scared than she had ever been in her entire life. She was so proud of her best friend; she just hoped that she would be back soon, whole and unharmed, to hear how much they all admired her.

The mezzanine was usually open and airy. With bookshelves lining only its outside walls, the light that filtered in through the windows above made the space bright and welcoming. Now that Schoolmistress had 'renovated' it, it felt dark and oppressive. A single narrow passage led between towering bookshelves on either side; the skylights appeared to have been covered with thick drapes.

"Does she think we're afraid of the dark?" Chat wanted to know. The low volume he spoke at contradicted the carelessness of his words; still, he couldn't resist indulging in pop-culture references once again. "If she thinks it takes as little as that to stop our 'raid', she might as well give us our own Arc de Triomphe!"

Before Ladybug could respond, a muffled clanking sound came from somewhere nearby. Chat Noir adjusted his grip on his baton; Ladybug loosened another loop of her yoyo string, prepared to strike at the slightest provocation. "Don't count your arks before they're built," she said, in the barest whisper she could manage while still hearing her own words; she knew his super-hearing would easily pick it up. "We haven't seen the last of this crusade yet."

They instinctively slowed, proceeding down the cramped corridor with caution. Chat tapped his partner's shoulder and gestured at himself; with a brisk nod, she let him take the lead, deferring to his night-vision in the dim half-light.

They went only a few steps further when the loud clanking came from above them again, followed by a cacophonous rattle.

Ladybug stepped back and Chat Noir sprang forward, just as something heavy swooped, cleaving the air between them. Chat had to dodge again as a similar assailant came at him from behind; he only narrowly avoided it, giving an involuntary yelp as a single severed blonde hair fluttered from his head. He caught a quick glance of Ladybug's startled expression, before the first object passed between them again. They realized it was a heavy book suspended on a chain, swinging back and forth across the corridor like the blade of an axe.

"Forget 'Temple of Doom'," Ladybug said, using a quip to hide how unnerved she was, "this looks far more like a dungeon."

Chat Noir rubbed his head ruefully. Sure, it was just one hair, and better a hair than any other part of him; but it was still one hair too many - that had been a close shave! "No, not a dungeon," he corrected, "it's a pit - and those are the pendulums!" He gestured, not too expansively, at the passage behind him. Several more heavy blades creaked backwards and forwards in the gloom.

"The Pit and the Pendulum," Ladybug repeated. Given that the setting was a library, such a literary reference was more than appropriate!

"I know Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a 'black cat', but I don't want to be in it!" Chat complained.

Ladybug fingered the string of her yoyo thoughtfully, the volume of Poe's tales that she had read last semester running through her mind; a bit too macabre for her taste, but the illustrations had been sublime. "Don't worry," she told her partner, "Poe also wrote 'The Gold Bug', and that had a happy ending."

Chat Noir gazed at her inquiringly. Unbeknownst to her, he was remembering how they had both been assigned a book of Poe's tales as required reading one term ago; Plagg had been scandalized by 'The Black Cat'.

"But you're not gold, Bug," he pointed out.

She struck a confident pose, head tilted back and chin lifted in impudence. "I should be gold - I'm worth my weight in it!"

He chuckled, conceding the point. "You are - and then some!"

"Speaking of weight," she added, giving the swinging blade between them a speculative glance, "do we dodge these things, or try to stop them?"

"Both are good options." Watching the blade ahead of him reach the pinnacle of its swing, Chat timed it carefully, took a deep breath, then sidled past it when it was furthest away from him. The air-current as it whooshed behind him swept his hair all to one side; it passed dangerously close to his tail.

"Careful," Ladybug warned, "there's not much space between them, and they go pretty fast." She slipped past the first book, pausing a few steps behind him; the second blade passed in and out of their vision as they gazed warily at one another.

"I think I'd rather stop it in its tracks," Chat Noir declared. Sizing up the book that swung between them, he weighed his staff in his hands, made a few quick estimates - physics was useful for so many things - then stepped into the path of the blade and struck. It swung on its chain, like an over-sized piñata. Its momentum carried it to the side wall, where it slotted neatly into a gap in the shelf.

"Nice one!" Ladybug complimented, making him preen. After a pause to make sure the book was staying put, she stepped up to join him, eying the next obstacle in their path. "Let me try."

A well-placed yoyo-strike shelved the next book - for little more than a second. With a loud clank, both it and its neighbour hurled back out of their resting-places, forcing them to dodge either side once again.

"Why didn't it work?" Ladybug wondered out loud, her tone slightly peevish.

Chat Noir resisted the urge to show off the fact he had been better than her at something for once. "Maybe you need to properly show them who's boss, like you did those ones in the classroom," he suggested.

She turned on him, fixing him with a disapproving stare as soon as the blade between them had cleared out of the way. "Oh, you saw that, did you? Where were you all that time? Watching the entertainment from the window, or perhaps from the air vent?"

He shrank back a bit - not enough to step in the path of the book at his back - grinning sheepishly at her. Sprung! "Far be it for me to cramp your style," he said, trying to placate her. "I couldn't resist waiting until after the show was done before making my presence known. It's not like you needed my help anyway, you handled it purr-fectly on your own!"

"Hmph." Turning away from him dismissively - she would file that mark against him for later, perhaps - she surveyed the corridor around them, filled with the lethal-sounding swish of swinging books. As the nearest one rushed past her, she made out the name of the author on its cover. "What a misuse of a perfectly good read! This one is a Jane Austen."

Chat wrinkled his nose in distaste. "I prefer mine thanks, it's 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.'"

Ladybug regarded him thoughtfully. "Conan-Doyle, right?"

He grinned happily, recalling the blissful, photoshoot-free afternoon during which he had devoured an entire treasury of detective stories from cover to cover. "Have you read them? They're brilliant - a bit dated, of course, but they provided the archetype for practically all mystery-fiction that followed, even now they're still really clever in th-"

"Hold the book-review for a moment," she interrupted. "Conan-Doyle and Austen... that's the order we tried to shelve them in, right? Do you think, perhaps, if we try it alphabetically..."

"Seriously?" he asked; he was starting to feel that Scholmistress was under-estimating them. "Great big, razor-edged books are swinging back and forth with enough force to make chopped-liver out of us, and we just have to put them back in alphabetical order?"

"It's worth a try," she answered, a little testily. It wasn't like she had devised this trap, at least she had tried to make a constructive suggestion...

He shrugged, and smacked 'Pride and Prejudice' back into its place, with enough force to let it know how tedious he had found having to read it. She knocked Sherlock onto its shelf with no such pettiness... and waited. Both books both stayed put.

"You read that well," Chat said, by way of apology. She simple rolled her eyes at him.

"Scout ahead and check out who those are by," she instructed them. "I'll wait here, in case 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' needs to go back next."

"Hugo, huh?" he said, darting past the tome in question, imagining Quasimodo swinging from a bell as he did so - every time he passed the cathedral these days, he had to resist the urge to transform and try it out for himself. "Good idea, I think it could be up soon. I see 'David Copperfield' over there, that should go first..."

They systematically worked their way along the shelves, hitting books as they went, taking care to get them in the right order. It was a strange task, compared to some of the other situations they had faced together - for the simple fact that it was not really all that bizarre. Once they realized what they had to do and set about it, the scenario took on an unlikely ordinariness and calm. Perhaps the location helped; dangers aside, all they were really doing was browsing through some books together.

"I've got Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' here," she called to him at one point.

"Hold on a moment," he replied, "I'm pretty sure I spy 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' beyond that - looks like I was right about where she got her idea!"

At last, Ladybug slotted Voltaire's 'Candide' onto its shelf. The place was suddenly very quiet, no longer filled with the sound of books trying to slice them in half.

"I'm glad that's done with," Chat Noir said, stretching his arms and rotating his wrists, giving his baton a relaxed swipe in the process. "Much as I like a book on a rainy day, right now I'd prefer a light read!"

"And here I thought you only read joke-books," Ladybug dead-panned.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "I don't need to - mine are all my own work! Hey, what do you call a walrus that runs into a-"

"I call it a need to brush up on your reading," Ladybug interrupted him. "Hopefully, the only joke will be on Schoolmistress - we must be getting close to her hiding place by now!"

Given the slightly pensive look on her face, Adrien knew that she was fully aware of what he himself also realized: the meeting room where they had held their class conference the previous day was just ahead of them.

Moving as one, they dashed along the rest of the corridor, easing to a stop outside a door marked 'Discussion Room'. They gazed grimly at the sign, glanced at each other; then, on an unspoken signal, they simultaneously rushed forward, bursting the door open.

Author's note: This ended up being such a long one, even for me! Just when I thought it was ready to go, I would think of something else to add, it kept on growing and growing.

Thanks to LovePuppy25 for asking in a review how the rest of the class would be reacting, that suggestion really helped flesh out this chapter. Otherwise it would have just been filler-ish content of Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting their way towards Schoolmistress. To be fair, it is fairly necessary filler; I didn't want them to just go 'oh, she's a librarian, she'll be hiding in the library' and walk straight in for the final confrontation, it had to be more of a challenge than that.

I might have taken a few liberties with the library's layout to make these scenes work. I'm not much of an Edgar Allen Poe buff, but I have a beautiful copy of Mysteries and Imagination, illustrated by Harry Clarke. For anyone wondering, the 'whistling' mention during the scene with the globe was a reference to Chat's dance in the 'Mister Pigeon' episode; for Indiana Jones fans, there were also references to the first three films. I'm kind of proud of how I had Adrien act like an ordinary red-blooded teen for a few seconds there; and I have to say, out of everyone, Alix is becoming the most fun character to write, that girl doesn't have a filter on her mouth!

I had a question from FangirlplusMax2.0, who wanted to know if I would include spoilers in future chapters that are published after season 2 airs. I can assure readers that I won't, for a few reasons. Firstly, I'm terrible at keeping up with my viewing schedule, with other shows and movies, and even with Miraculous - I still haven't watched the Christmas special yet! - so you'll probably see the new episodes long before me. As such, please be mindful of me and other readers, keep your reviews spoiler-free.

Secondly, this story was well and truly plotted out from start to finish (though I improvise a bit here and there) from the time the first chapter was posted. I'm not going to veer away from the plot developments I had already planned, I have no room to alter the course now that I've come this far, so the events of season 2 won't affect this story at all. Even if happenings in the official show contradict what I plan to write, I'll go ahead anyway - the whole point of fanfiction is to play with an alternate canon!

As a little treat, here's some bonus dialogue that I couldn't manage to shoe-horn into that last scene with the books

Chat: Well, at least she didn't attack us with 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.

Ladybug: Please tell me you haven't read that!

Chat: What can I say, all cats are 'Grey' in the dark!

Ladybug: *facepalm*

Thanks for reading! Life has been busier than ever lately, and will likely stay busy for a while to come, but I'll try to update as soon as I can - I know you're all probably losing patience with my cliff-hangers (though I rather enjoy them ;)

~ W. J.