#griffe

“Lead the way,” Renard said with a nod, and quickly fell into step behind her. She led the way back to a sheltered park. By that point, Renard’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness and he easily made out two figures sitting on a bench. His heart twisted when he saw all of the rose bushes, but he tried to ignore them.

“Griffe?” Lacorne said.

One of the figures jumped up. Renard swallowed a surprised gasp when he realized that it was another Chat Noir. It was surreal to see someone else who wasn’t him or Marinette wearing the Black Cat miraculous, and he wondered if this was how Lacorne had felt when she first met Coccinelle.

“Marinette, you’re back!” Griffe exclaimed, looking confused. “What happened? Did you forget something?”

Lacorne smiled. “No. I was able to do what I needed to. Thank you.” She held out her hand. The Ladybug miraculous was sitting in her palm.

The other figure stood up, and their hood fell back as they did. Renard wasn’t able to hide his gasp that time because it was indeed Chloé. Though she looked a little different from the Chloé that Renard knew, it was unmistakably her. She stepped closer and plucked the miraculous out of Lacorne’s hand, whisking it beneath the folds of her robe in the blink of an eye.

“I’m glad you kept your promise,” Chloé said primly. “I would have hated to have to go into the future just to kick your ass.”

“We all would have hated that,” Lacorne assured her. “Thank you for trusting me. My partner and I –” She indicated Renard. “We thank you both.”

“So the future is safe now?” Griffe asked, looking at Renard with just as much curiosity as Renard was looking at him with.

“Yes. Everything is under control,” Lacorne said softly. “But I’m afraid I wasn’t quite honest. I’m not from the future. I’m from another world. An alternate universe.”

“What?” Griffe exclaimed.

But it was Chloé who said, “I know.”

“Wait, what?” Griffe said again. “You knew?!”

Chloé sighed. “She had the Rabbit miraculous, Griffe. And the Horse miraculous. There is only one reason to use those two miraculous in conjunction.”

“If you knew, why didn’t you say something?” Lacorne said, looking shocked. “Why did you trust me? I lied to you!”

“You needed my help. As a guardian, I am bound to help those who need me,” Chloé said, folding her arms over her chest. “Besides that, I could tell that you were sincere. You asked for help instead of trying to force our hand. That alone makes a big difference.”

Griffe just stood there, staring at her. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

“I just did,” Chloé pointed out.

“I meant before she went off with the Ladybug miraculous!” Griffe said.

“What good would it have done? You would’ve given her the miraculous anyway,” said Chloé.

Griffe opened his mouth, clearly ready to protest – and then paused. He closed his mouth and frowned.

“That’s what I thought,” Chloé said.

“Well, uh, thank you very much,” Lacorne said awkwardly. “There’s just one more thing…”

“You’re not getting any more miraculous,” Chloé told her.

Lacorne smiled a little. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just wanted to know… are you Adrien Agreste?” She looked over at Griffe.

“Adrien?” Griffe repeated. He looked over at Chloé, who shrugged.

“Tell them if you want to. We’ll probably never see them again after this, so it doesn’t really matter,” she said.