The trip back was torture. Gabriel knew, rationally, that it had only taken Ladybug a few moments to toss the coffin skyward and for the swarms of ladybugs to deposit Adrien's bodyguard back on the ground, and that once he had done so it took only a few minutes to get back to his house.

He knew all that, but it didn't feel true. Every second seemed to drag on into eternity. Visions of Natalie lying sprawled on the floor of the lair played out in front of his mind, intermixed with suddenly-fresh memories of that day.

And then, for a change, he would take a moment to recriminate himself for his poor performance as Menelaus. After all the times he'd ranted internally and externally at his akumas for becoming sidetracked by their own various agendas, it was humbling to realize how thoroughly anger and the intoxicating rush of the akumatization had warped his own priorities.

To refuse to take shots at Ladybug because I believed that the quills were too good for her? What was I thinking? And using the photo as my talisman? If Cat Noir had caught one good look at it, he might well have realized that it was a photo of Mayura, that I knew a Bearer. Thank God that he dropped it when Natalie's second akuma showed up, and that I remembered to grab it.

Finally, they reached the manor. Gabriel managed to keep his mask up, saying something (he had no idea what) to the bodyguard and walking slowly and calmly towards his office until the bodyguard was finally out of sight. Only then did he let himself break into a run.

His hands were shaking so badly it took him what felt like forever to depress all the buttons to activate the hidden passage, but then finally he came up through the floor of his lair. Natalie was sitting slumped against one wall, reverted to her civilian attire. She was breathing slowly and shakily, and she looked terribly pale in the dim light, but at least her eyes were open and tracking.

As she saw Gabriel, she tried to struggle to her feet.

"No, stay seated," Gabriel said quickly, running to her side and dropping to his knees.

"Natalie, what were you thinking?" he hissed from between clenched teeth. "You know what the Peacock did to Emilie. It's broken, warped, far too dangerous to use. And for what? I was never in any danger. That was the point of the whole dance, to set things up so I could take my shot at Ladybug without the risk of getting exposed. So why use the Peacock for what was nothing more than a feint?"

"Truth be told," Natalie said weakly, "I wasn't thinking, not really...I had an idea, and there was no time to think about it. It seemed so clever…"

She was cut off as a racking series of coughs bent her almost double.

"I didn't think it would be this bad," she said when she could talk again. "Emilie… as long as she could recall the spirits, she was mostly ok. It wasn't until she lost that one that she got in trouble."

"Emilie had a stronger spirit than the both of us together," Gabriel said, lips twisting in a bitter smile.

"True," Natalie said, then winced slightly. "Anyway, I'll be fine. Just need to recover my strength for the next transformation."

"Next transformation?" Gabriel hissed.

"Not Duusuu," Natalie said quickly. "Nooroo. I'll need to retrieve your akuma once it finishes multiplying. Doubt Nooroo's going to make it easy on me, but I'll manage."

"You, on the other hand, need to get back into the house," she said, voice a little firmer. "Any minute now, Adrien's going to get the word that the battle's over, and he'll come running back here to see you. Probably going to bring Miss Dupain-Cheng with him too."

"Of course," replied Gabriel. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Thank you for what you did, Natalie," he said, eyes still closed. "You didn't need to do it, and I wish you hadn't, but I do appreciate that you were willing to do this to yourself for me."

He turned and opened his eyes, heading quickly for the exit before Natalie could respond.

"Shàng dì bǎo yòu nǐ, gěi nǐ tā de hé píng," Fu sang in a low voice, almost a hum, as his fingers carefully stroked the young woman's shoulders and back. Her chi was a tangled mess beneath his hands, crackly with tension, but the soft waves of his own chi washed down his fingers in time with the slow beat of his song, steadily combing the strands of her spirit into order.

"Shàng dì bǎo yòu nǐ, gěi-"

"Master Fu!"

Fu started and felt the woman jerk under his hands as Ladybug and Cat Noir came hurrying into the room. They pulled up as they saw the woman lying on her stomach, identical expressions of dismay on their faces.

"Ladybug, Cat Noir, is there a problem?" Fu asked, mind racing.

"Sorry, but yes," Ladybug said. "Look, Mrs, I'm sorry to interrupt your session, but there's been a complication regarding the latest akuma, and Fu here is tangentially involved. Can we talk to him in private? We should only be a few minutes."

"Of course," the woman said, climbing to her feet. "I'll just wait out front?"

"Thank you," said Ladybug politely.

The woman left the room, and Ladybug shot Cat Noir a glance. His false ears swiveled atop his head.

"We're clear so long as we don't raise our voices," he said. "Plagg, claws in."

"Tikki, spots off," Ladybug echoed.

As the two heroes were revealed, Fu drew in his breath, though he had no idea what he was going to say. But Marinette's upraised hand cut him off.

"Master Fu," she said, speaking quickly and in a low voice, "this isn't what we needed to tell you, not the main thing. There was another akuma attack just minutes ago…" She trailed off, blushing.

"My father again," Adrien said quietly, expression neutral. "He… that's not important right now. What matters is that we were able to defeat him, but we weren't able to capture the akuma. Hawkmoth must have an ally, one with access to the Peacock Miraculous. The moment the akuma was released, Hawkmoth's ally conjured some kind of creature right behind Ladybug. It attacked her, and by the time we were able to get rid of it, the akuma was gone."

Fu froze in horror. "The akuma escaped?"

"Yes," Marinette whispered, closing her eyes and bowing her head.

"Is there any way to cleanse the secondary akumas, besides finding and capturing the original?" Adrien asked quickly.

"I am not certain," Fu said. "The multiplication of the akumas is one of the Moth Brooch's more esoteric powers, and not one Nooroo commonly grants. There is little about its precise limits in the spellbook."

"Moreover," he smiled slightly, despite his horror, "the Miraculouses were not created to battle each other, so there are no specific instructions on how to use the Ladybug or the Cat to counter the Moth. I suppose we ought to be thankful that the Ladybug's 'recreation' power can be used to cleanse akumas."

Adrien shook his head. "I was afraid of that. And… I guess I do need to explain this. My father knows that Marinette and Adrien are dating, and last night, he caught Ladybug kissing Adrien. By what he said today, that's what set him off. Which means that there is a very real chance that just seeing Marinette and Adrien interacting will bring the matter up in his mind again, and quite possibly cause him to be akumatized again."

Fu caught Marinette giving Adrien an odd look, and found he sympathized. He understood what Adrien was trying to say, but that didn't make it any less odd to hear the boy referring to himself in the third person.

"I hate to say it," Marinette interjected, looking down at her hands, "but I almost think we should deliberately play that up, possibly have me bring Adrien home as Ladybug and say something provocative. We can't save the secondary victims until Gabriel becomes reakumatized, or at least until his akuma shows up. If we can arrange for Gabriel to be vulnerable while I'm there transformed, I might be able to catch and purify the akuma while it's inbound. And even if I miss that shot, we'll have the initiative and Menelaus won't have as much time to collect servants."

Fu glanced at Adrien, whose expression had dropped into the practiced blankness Fu recognized from the boy's modeling posters. "That plan might have merit," he said, "but from my researches, I do not believe the primary akuma will be able to possess Gabriel again until it has finished multiplying. For now, I suggest you both return to a place where your civilian identities may be found. Your friends will be looking for you."

Alya suddenly found her face jammed into Ivan Bruel's armpit. While she'd never before had occasion to examine Ivan's armpit from this precise angle, his sheer bulk made it quite unmistakable. She could feel a thick arm wrapped around her neck, and just in front of her she could see Max frantically typing on her phone.

The last thing I remember is that quill flying at my face… Oh God, mind control. What did I do?

"Uh," she said out loud, trying to sound casual. "Why am I in a headlock? And where are Ladybug an-"

"Got it!" Max said, ceasing his frantic typing. Alya heard a vast sigh of relief from where she was pressed up against Ivan's chest.

"Uh, Alix," Alya heard Nino say from somewhere behind her. "I'm sure there's some really good reason for this, but I do already have a girlfriend. Could you please get off me? Or at least scooch a bit?"

"It's ok," Alya heard Rose say. "The ladybugs came in, I'm sure Alya and Nino are fine now."

"Yeah," Alya heard Ivan grunt, and he released her, letting her drop to her hands and knees.

Alya took a moment for a breath before getting to her feet and looking around. "Hey, where'd Marinette and Adrien get to?" she asked. "Are they ok… wait, stupid question. If Ladybug's set off her miracle then of course they're ok. So where'd they get to?"

"The akuma let them go," Rose chirped. "Adrien said something about his father having promised not to tell Marinette about… uh…" She trailed off, blushing.

Alya sighed. "Ok, guys, I know what having a big blank spot in my memory means by now. What did I do?"

There was a brief exchange of awkward glances before Max spoke up. "As you seem to have guessed, the akuma exhibited a form of mind-control power. Those hit by the quills it threw seemed to instantly become loyal to it."

"Thus the headlock, I'm guessing," Alya said.

"Yes…" Max said. "Now, after the akuma had mind-controlled you, it stated that it wished to make a 'public service announcement'. At this point, Adrien spoke up, stating that this was in regard to some event which had happened the previous night, and which Gabriel Agreste had promised not to share with Marinette. Mr. Agreste acknowledged this point, and permitted Adrien and Marinette to depart under the escort of Adrien's chauffer."

"With you so far," Alya said. "So what was this 'public service announcement'"?

"The akuma claimed", Max said, putting a heavy emphasis on the last word, "that he had discovered Ladybug sexually assaulting Adrien the previous night."

Alya blinked. "What."

"I know, right?" Alix said. "Ridiculous! Unfortunately, Adrien was already gone, so we didn't exactly get a chance to find out the real story. I mean, something's got to have happened to get Mr. Agreste akumatized, but I'm sure it was a misunderstanding or something."

"So… hang on," Alya said, horror slowly welling up in her. "If the akuma had to mind-control me before it could make this 'public service announcement…"

"Yeah," Alix said, wincing. "It had you livestreaming to the Ladyblog. We grabbed the phone as soon as the akuma was gone, and Max… you did get the video down, right?" she said, turning to Max.

"Yes," Max replied. "I was able to take the video down almost immediately, and it seems that no other sites had time to copy it, but a considerable number of people have seen the story." He offered Alya her phone back. "Social media has been going wild."

Alya stared distantly at the screaming headlines popping up on her phone's feed. She started as an arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"I know what you're thinking, babe," Nino said quietly. "But this is not your fault. Like I've told you and you've told me and we've all told each other, you cannot be held responsible for what you do under mind control. This is Hawkmoth's fault for sending that akuma, and nobody else's."

Alya took a shaky breath, closing her eyes and focusing on the warmth of Nino's body pressed up against hers.

"You okay, babe?" Nino asked quietly after a moment.

"For now," Alya said. "I just hope Ladybug is as generous as you are."

Perched atop a building, Ladybug stared in horror at the headlines popping up on Paris's news sites.

"Well..." Adrien said, then paused for a moment, visibly looking for words. "This is bad," he eventually said.

"Very bad," Marinette responded.