Adrien felt hollow, doing his best to pull himself together but he had no idea what to do. He didn't have Plagg... he had no idea where he was or how he could possibly find him. Even if the plan was just to give up and hand over the miraculous they couldn't, not without Plagg. It was just a ring without him, so now even their bargaining chips were useless.

"Adrien," he heard a soft voice speak, and he turned to face the doorway of Nino's room, Ladybug entering with something in her hand.

"Is that it?" Adrien asked, walking towards her and ignoring the questioning police staring on from the other room. He didn't care how it looked.

"The ransom," Ladybug answered, "yeah. You should take a look at it, we don't have a lot of time."

Adrien reached out and took the thick stationary in hand, surprised by the expensive weight of it but then again it wasn't unreasonable to assume Hawkmoth had a flair for the dramatic. It was hardly befitting of a supervillain to make out ransoms on receipt paper.

Adrien's useless train of thought halted as he looked over the sharp clear typed out letters.

[He will be returned, as long as the price is paid. Ladybug and Cat Noir must hand over their Miraculous, mid-day inside the Notre Dame. Any heroics and it is the boy who will suffer the consequence.]

"Mid-day?" Adrien said aloud, unable to keep the shock from his voice as he looked up to meet Ladybug's statue like gaze. "Noon? You can't be serious we only have three hours?"

Adrien looked down at Nino's bedroom clock, fallen from its side table and strewn across the floor but still confidently displaying 8:53 AM on its face.

"Looks that way," Ladybug said in a quiet voice, the tone so distant and robotic that he fought off a shiver as he looked up again at her now stoic expression. "Three hours to think of something... Police set up a perimeter around the Notre Dame as soon as the note was discovered, they've searched everything as far as I know. Nino's not there, Hawkmoth is holding him somewhere else and is most likely going to either move him to the meetup or hold him somewhere else while he collects the Miraculous. So an early rescue isn't an option unless we can figure out where Hawkmoth has him."

Ladybug paused, looking over her shoulder at the police men who quickly looked away but she bit her lip regardless. She stepped closer and spoke softly then.

"We don't have any clues we don't even know where to start, but if we run out of time I don't have a choice. I've got to go to the meet up and try and bargain for Nino with what I have."

"What does that mean?" he shot back immediately, struggling to lower his voice when he spoke again. "Why are you saying that like you're going alone?"

Her blank expression wavered slightly and he could see fear in her eyes before she masked it again. "You don't have your kwami, you can't transform there isn't an option here. Hawkmoth is our biggest enemy you can't go into a fight like this without your powers."

"And you can't go in alone!"

"Adrien," she cut him off, the name shaking as she said it. "You can't just reveal yourself to him, if you do even if we get away with Nino he would just come after you, he would destroy you entire life. If you don't have your kwami I have to go alone."

"NO," he nearly shouted again and she closed her eyes as he did his best to conceal his words. "You're just going to run in there and give up your Miraculous? Because that's the only play you have! If you go in without backup he'll hold Nino over you and force you to hand over your earrings! There has to be a way to get Nino to safety and where we don't lose to that monster."

Ladybug was quiet, momentarily dropping her head into her hands before she straightened up again, trying to plan.

"The best we can hope for is that your kwami escaped and is looking for you. You can't run around the city with me it will raise too many questions, for now you need to go home, see if he somehow managed to make it back there on his own. Check any place he might go, your priority is finding your kwami. In the meantime I'll travel the city, try and find some kind of clue as to where Nino is being held."

Adrien held her gaze for a moment before taking a deep breath, nodding once. "Okay... we've got three hours to find an advantage. Stay in contact with me okay?"

"I will," she answered, taking a step away and heading towards the open space in the wall where Nino had been taken. Ladybug looked outside, her attention directed momentarily towards the sky. "Be careful," she said in a subdued voice, the stress of the situation starting to wear on her, "it looks like rain."

She only took one more second to gather herself before she bounded away, her yo-yo vaulting her across the street and over the buildings in a blink of an eye. Adrien followed after her as much he could, stepping to the hole in the wall himself and looking up, seeing the encroaching storm clouds Ladybug must have seen in the distance, past the looming visage of the Eiffel tower.

"I hope that's not an omen..." he said to himself, dreading his bad luck as he headed back through the apartment, handing over the ransom and leaving as quickly as he could. Adrien took to the streets, barreling past every reporter looking for insight and just ran for home, desperately hoping that Plagg would be waiting for him when he got there.

'Hold on Nino," he thought to himself, fighting off another onslaught of complicated fused emotions as he ran. 'We're coming, I swear.'

Plagg flew through the shadows of an alleyway, whining in frustration as he looked out on another tiny street he didn't recognize. He never looked around while he was with Adrien he just rode in his pocket, he could be a block away from the mansion and have no idea. He groaned, rubbing at his eyes as if to purge them for the thousands of identical looking streets and corners and all the useless signs that meant nothing to him since he had no clue as to how the streets related. Store fronts he didn't know, people he had never seen before, hundreds of cars and pedestrians clogging any scent he might have used. He knew some roads, some places but nothing looked right. And the entire time he couldn't get the image of Nino out of his mind, tied up and terrified as he tried to tell him to leave him behind.

"Have to find my boy..." he said to himself, darting up and over the rooftops as fast as he could, clinging to any ledge that might conceal him but also being reckless. As far as he was concerned yes his existence was secret and the branching consequences for being spotted would be massive, but... a small talking cat just might make the news, and he'd find Adrien that much faster.

"Last option," he decided, flying as fast as he could but forced to drop lower then he would have liked to avoid being seen. He didn't have the energy to fly so high that he'd be just a black dot, his hunger gnawing at him. The one thing that held hope for him was the distant image of the Eiffel tower. He knew that, but if he couldn't make a bee line then all the turns and side streets were just confusing him and slowing him down. Adrien lived near the tower, he knew that. He just had to hope that if he could at least get close Adrien would find him first.

Step

Step click

Step

Step click

Nino sat up straight, eyes zeroing in on the black nothingness that seemed to hold the sound, distant... but growing nearer.

He had been alone in the strange room for so long now, lost in the darkness and crouching in what light the window provided like it could provide warmth and he was cold. It was light where there wasn't any, it felt safer somehow. However as Nino waited in agony and the sound of footsteps approached the light did nothing to comfort him.

Step

Step click

Step

Step click

Nino hated that he trembled, it made him angry. He had always liked to believe that if something like this happened he would be strong, full of snarky one liners and a spit to the face. However now as a door he couldn't see was cast open he didn't feel any of that. He felt helpless and trapped. He supposed that was the point.

The footsteps halted, the figured they belonged to just out of sight. The butterflies drifted towards him, twisting in and out of the shadows while their master remained concealed.

Nino flinched when the man laughed, his voice low and... cruel.

Nino knew who it was.

"Hello young man," the deep voice addressed him, sounding almost amused. "It is an honor to have you with me today."

Nino bit his tongue, shifting on the floor but staying in the circle of light the window provided. He didn't want to hide in the shadows like he did.

"Will you not even speak?" the voice questioned him, a cane and the man's outline visible as he strode forward somewhat. "There is no cause to be rude. We can help each other after all."

"I don't want anything from you," Nino blurted out, the sentence rushed and harsh. His heart rate sped up as he straightened his back, something in the back of his mind screaming at him to be quiet as he said, "And I'm not helping you with crap."

The man hesitated at the edge of the light, the clicking of the cane as he tapped it absent mindedly on the floor filling the space for a time, before Nino could hear a slow chuckle start to build.

"You're brave," he remarked, slowly stepping forward so he could watch Nino cringe at the sight of him, "or at the very least, you like to pretend you are."

Nino looked up at Hawkmoth as he loomed over him, a smile on his masked face as he looked down on him. Nino felt so small in that moment, his throat instantly feeling dry and his breath harder to catch.

Hawkmoth took another step forward, Nino trying to scoot away but froze in fear when the man lifted his cane, aiming it forward so that the end was poised right in the center of his chest.

"Now now Nino," he said with another slow grin, "Don't crawl. I have no intentions of hurting you if I get what I want."

"And when you don't?" Nino said thoughtlessly, screaming at himself internally, wondering how the hell he even had the nerve to speak.

"You seem so sure they won't come for you," Hawkmoth said curiously, digging the cane a little into Nino so that he was forced to lean back slightly, closer to cowering on the ground. "That is rather strange... they are your friends after all, of course they'll come."

"What makes you think I know them at all?" Nino asked, his voice wavering slightly. Nino was unable to hide the small gasp of fear and shock that escaped him when Hawkmoth suddenly tilted the end of the cane so that it dug underneath his chin, lifting his head.

"Don't. Play. Dumb," Hawkmoth said slowly, each word punctuated and showing for the first time how easily anger could surface. When he spoke again his tone was calmer, aloof as it had been before. "You matter to them. How someone as insignificant as you could ever gain their favor is beyond me, but the details of your relationship with them is, for now, meaningless. All that matters is I have you, and if they want you back they have to comply."

Nino didn't say anything at first, pulling his chin away from the cane and looking away, trying to maintain some semblance of dignity even when he was a captive.

Hawkmoth chuckled to himself, finding entertainment in all this somehow, but as he turned to saunter away Nino couldn't help but speak.

"You seriously think you're gonna win?"

Hawkmoth stopped, and when Nino looked up the man was very still. So Nino spoke again, swallowing down his fear.

"You really think you've got anything on them? You hide behind your villains, the only reason you've got me is because you could never take them down any other way. But guess what? Not even something as low as this is gonna beat them. They are going to show up and they will take you-"

Nino's speech faltered in a scream as Hawkmoth suddenly whirled around, eyes enraged and cane lifted high. Nino cringed and tensed up, shaking in fear as he felt the chain very gently tap against the side of his neck.

"Do not disrespect me young man," he said quietly, anger brewing behind the words but Nino was too shaken to look up. What he would have seen on his face he could only guess.

Nino didn't look up again, barely breathing as the cane was pulled away and he heard again the sound of footsteps and the occasional clicking of the cane.

"Do not underestimate what you do not understand," he was saying as he walked away, his voice cast back into the room behind him. "I am a very motivated man. What I am capable of you can not even imagine."

Nino waited as he heard the door open again, and he was sure he would be alone again in that room but he swallowed once, finding the nerve to speak once more.

"What are you going to do with me?"

There was a pause, Nino still too afraid to lift his gaze. Then,

"Move you, when the time comes. For now, you will wait. And when the exchange takes place I will come for you again."

And the door swung shut, leaving Nino with his single circle of light and the fluttering of a hundred butterfly wings.

Many people looked up to see Ladybug flying overhead as the kidnapping dragged on, no updates or new information available to the public. However the main reason for that was that there was no new information to share.

Ladybug stopped on the roof of a random storefront, drawing her yo-yo back in so she could look at the time once again.

"10:15... you've got to be kidding me," she groaned to herself, one hand rubbing at her eyes as if to ward off her stress induced weariness. One hour and forty-five minutes remaining... and she had nothing.

'Marinette' Tikki spoke to her quietly from her earrings, 'you've got to stay calm, we're going to find him.'

"How!?" she exclaimed suddenly, her outburst betraying just how frazzled she really was. "We don't know where to look this is exactly what Hawkmoth wants, we don't have a choice but to meet him on his terms, and with Cat out like this..."

She stopped, her voice trailing off as she looked at an unread message from Adrien. From Cat...

'Not yet,' she reminded herself, dragging in a shallow breath as she read something else she had been dreading.

'A- No luck at the school, gym, or studio either. I don't know where else he would know to go to, I'm going to try landmarks next.'

"Great..." Ladybug whispered to herself. "I- I have to keep looking but, I've got nothing to go on Tikki. I can't do this by myself..."

"Then perhaps I can lend a hand."

Ladybug jolted, whipping around with her yo-yo poised to throw as she realized she wasn't alone on that rooftop like she had assumed, her entire body tensed and ready to respond.

What she saw when she turned however caught her off guard, the figure so entirely unexpected that she didn't know how to react.

"I am not your enemy," the stranger spoke, holding up his hands. "Don't let an old man frighten you."

He was old, that was clear, but something about him still looked powerful. He had calm, knowing eyes, but it was his outfit that drew the most attention. The old man had a dark green hood pulled up over aged white hair, a dark green mask concealing most of his face. She could see even from the distance the almost unnoticeable shell like pattern across it as well, the hood spilling down with loose fabric over his shoulder. The hood tied into something almost like a cloak or robe, not going down his arms like sleeves but rather left uncovered to shove layered armor like protection over his skin, his hands sporting almost black fingerless gloves. The outfit as a whole was various shades of dark green and muddled, swampy brown in some places, his boots the darkest thing to him. What stood out was the large, shell like shield resting on his back, and the smile on his face.

Ladybug took a step back, thrown off by his sudden appearance but not ready to back off just because he claimed he meant no harm.

"Who are you?" she demanded, still prepared to defend herself when suddenly it was Tikki that confronted her.

'Wait don't! I know who that is he isn't an enemy I promise!'

"What?" Ladybug questioned aloud, looking at the old man again more curiously now.

"Was that Tikki sticking up for a friend?" he asked, shocking her as he chuckled to himself. "I appreciate it dear."

"You can hear her?" Ladybug questioned in disbelief, eyes widening as he laughed again.

"No, but I know her well, it's easy to guess. I promise you Ladybug, I am an ally. I've come to help."

Ladybug stared at him in confusion, reluctantly doing away with her defensive position only when Tikki assured her again that he was alright.

"Who are you?" Ladybug asked again, watching closely as he reached up to stroke at his white and gray mustache.

"I suppose," he said slowly, a grin on his features, "I am Jade Turtle. Have been for a long time, though not for much longer. I'm a hero like yourself, and it's come to my attention that something rather serious has come up."

"Y-you're a miraculous wielder?!" Ladybug blurted out, mouth dropping open and Tikki giggling at her.

Jade Turtle nodded, gesturing to something green and, unsurprisingly, made of jade on his wrist.

"I am, though an old one," he joked, taking a few steps closer to her now that the situation was diffused somewhat. "You and Cat Noir are something to be marveled at, you are everything heroes are meant to be. I have not transformed in many, many years, but I feared that in such a dire time you might appreciate any aide I could give you."

"I-" Ladybug stammered, heart hammering as she tried to take it in. "Yes! This is good, this is really good. Maybe with your help..." she trailed off, fear settling into her chest again.

'Everything heroes are meant to be...' she thought to herself, 'what hero would allow this to happen?'

She looked at the old man, still somewhat apprehensive, but still... it was sudden but Tikki was vouching for him... and she really did need a win right then. She couldn't afford to turn down his help.

"Cat Noir is not with you," Jade commented, looking more serious as he said it.

"Yeah," she answered him slowly, "He... his kwami is missing. He can't transform and I haven't found anything to go off of. At this rate I'll be forced to face him on my own."

"No," he cut in, his voice firm. "You won't be alone, and you never will be. The Ladybug and Cat Noir miraculous are not parted so easily, don't doubt your partner. Plus," he said with a slightly mirthful change in tone, "I'm here too young lady."

Ladybug was still, staring at him for a second before laughing a little breathlessly. "Right..." she replied eventually, "I know that." She was quiet a moment more before she took a deep breath and shook her head to clear her mind. "Right. Hawkmoth isn't expecting you, we have an advantage now."

Ladybug nodded, calming herself and just trying to take the blessing as it came, thanking her good luck.

"I need to tell Cat."

Ladybug made the call, watching the old man stare out over the city as she did, her breath still catching a little when Adrien answered.

"Whats up? Any luck?"