Chapter 22

Ever since the incident with Connor-dile, Miguel never took one moment with Angela for granted. Whether when they were living their normal lives, or doing their duties as Ladybug and Cat Negro. This afternoon, they were sitting out by the Firelight Fountain, enjoying some frozen yogurt. One this day, Miguel was considering telling Angela that he knew about her being Ladybug and about he was Cat Negro.

"Miguel, I need to tell you something." Angela said looking at him, her words carrying an edge in her voice.

"I need to tell you something too." Miguel said looking at her. "But you go first."

"Okay, if I do, you have to promise that you won't think less of me." Angela pleaded.

"I don't think there's any way that I could." Miguel answered taking her hand stroking it.

Angela took another deep breath. "You remember the day after Ms. Roland died, and I was upset and crying? Jezebel attacked me and mentioned my Dad."

"Yeah, I asked Martin about what Jezebel was talking about. Said there was a rumor going around that he was a dealer, and not the poker kind."

"Well, that is what I wanted to tell you. The rumors are true. My dad's a dealer and the leader of the Angeles Diablos. He used to have me participate in the drop offs."

"Dios mío." Miguel sighed.

"Miguel, I need you to understand, I didn't want to, but my Dad, he changed after we lost Mom and Valentina. He started drinking and he fell apart, started doing drugs just to cope. He started cooking and dealing. He promised it was just to cope, but soon he started having me and Josh drop for him. I was ten when he started having me do it."

"Why haven't you gone to the police?" Miguel asked.

"I've wanted to, but my dad and my brother are the only family I have left. But that doesn't mean I didn't try to help them when I could. With each drop I was sent on, I would pass the information to Derek and he would give the information to the police. The police got the guys who were buying, and I was trying to buy my dad time to hopefully come to his senses. But he stopped having me do drops weeks ago. And I'll be honest, I don't think he's going to stop. At this point, he's so far in, I don't think he knows how to stop or get out." Angela's was becoming heavy with sobs and her eyes water. "He's my father, Miguel, I can't lose him or my brother." She cried.

"Angela, I understand. But you also have to understand, you were giving information to the police, but the longer you put off turning your dad in, the worse it looks for you when, eventually, they catch him."

Angela sobbed. "I'm scared, Miguel. I don't want to lose my family, but I can't keep living like this. I watch the news, I know what happens in big drug rings when tempers flare."

"You don't have to. I know I haven't known you for very long, Angela, but I know you well enough to know that you know what you have to do. I know you're scared, but you're also the bravest girl I have ever met. You don't have to do this alone." Miguel said pulling her into a hug. "We can go to the police right now. My dad's the sheriff, we can talk to him. You'll be protected and your dad and your brother won't even know it was you."

"But what will I do after? My dad's the one who pays for me to attend college. If he goes to prison, I won't even be able to stay in my own house."

"We'll find a way, but you need to do the right thing."

Angela cried into Miguel's shoulder. "I know. I just scared of losing my family and my home. If I do, I have nowhere else to go."

"We'll make sure you do, I promise." Miguel answered rubbing her back. "I'll be with you the whole time."

Angela cried a little longer into his shoulder. After she was done, she looked at Miguel and nodded. Miguel kept his arm around her shoulder the whole way to the station. When they reached the front desk, Miguel asked to speak to his dad. When Sheriff Willis arrived, Miguel started with a few pleasantries, and asked if they could talk somewhere private. Sheriff Willis directed them to his office.

"What's going on?" He asked as he took his seat.

Miguel could see Angela start to shiver. He took her hand and gently squeezed it. Angela looked at him and he nodded, letting her know he was there for her.

"I have some information for the NYPD that I think you will want to hear from me." Angela answered.

"What kind of information?" Sheriff Willis asked looking interested.

"I can give you the leader of the Angeles Diablos." Angela answered squeezing Miguel's hand back.

"Who is he? How do you know him?"

Angela took a deep breath. "He's my father, Issac Martinez. I can give the names of everyone who works for him, including me. I did drops for him, but I was also the one who gave the drop information to your informant, Derek. I will tell you anything you want to know, but please, please understand, my dad's not a monster. Ever since my mom and little sister were killed, he changed. I was only trying to buy him time to come to his senses."

"Alright, Ms. Martinez,"

"Please, call me Angela."

"Alright, Angela, I need you to give a statement and everything you know to our investigators on the case." Sheriff Willis said getting up.

"Dad,"

"Son, I know she's your girlfriend, but now she's a person of interest in a massive drug investigation."

"All I was going to ask, Dad, was that I be with her. This is a really, really, really hard time for her." Miguel said stroking her hand.

"Of course, I understand." Sheriff Willis said gesturing for a cop to come in. "Officer Dellington will take your statement, and you will be placed in protective custody."

Angela could only nod as Miguel led her to follow Officer Dellington. All the time she was giving her statement and protection detail was set up, Miguel could see how shaken Angela was. The only thing that seemed to help her get through it was the fact that he was there with her. By the end of the day, police were on their way to her house to arrest her family and her father's workers.

As they watched the raid from a distance, Miguel got a call from his father.

"Okay, Dad. Thanks," Miguel answered, get off his phone. "So, my Dad has arranged for you to stay with an undercover officer for the time being. You will still be able to attend classes like usual, so police protection shouldn't interfere with your day to day life. It just looks like we'll have put up with being followed for a while until this thing is brought to a close."

"Thanks for helping me through all of this." Angela said as she hugged him. "I could never have asked for a better boyfriend." She finished kissing him.

"And I don't think I would ever finder a braver girlfriend." Miguel answered kissing her back.

After arriving at the safe house, he and Angela shared a sweet good night, Miguel was brought to his own house and he got himself ready for bed.

"So, what happened to telling her that you know she's Ladybug and that you're Cat Negro?" Plagg asked as he finished brushing his teeth.

"Angela's been through enough today." Miguel answered drying his mouth. "I'll just wait until this is over and she's had time to heal."

"Why?"

"Because patience is a virtue," Miguel answered. "All good things to those who wait."

"You are a strange boy," Plagg answered.

The next morning, Miguel met up with Derek and Abby and told them about what had happened.

"Oh, the poor girl." Abby answered straightening her glasses. "Is she doing okay?"

"She's holding on, but from what she told me, this is going to be even harder for her than losing Ms. Roland." Miguel answered.

"But she'll come out of this stronger than ever." Derek answered. "That's what she does, she'll take the hits, and come back swinging."

"That may be true, but she's going to need our help if she's going to make through this okay."

No sooner had he said that, the bus that Angela was taking arrived and she climbed off. Abbey raced forward to meet her.

"Glad to see you made it today." Abbey said hugging her best friend.

"Yeah bra, when Miguel told us that you had finally gone to the cops about your old man, we thought that you'd be too upset to make it today." Derek said putting his hand on Angela's shoulder.

"I can't let my family's mistakes affect my life forever." Angela said hugging her friends.

"Now that sounds like the Angela I know." Miguel said giving Angela a kiss on the forehead. "Venga, we're going to be late for class if we don't hurry." Miguel said leading the group to class.

"Today is a new day." He heard Angela whisper to herself.

After classes were over, Angela and Miguel returned to the safe house where the officers in charge of protecting Angela were waiting for Angela to offer more information. Angela sat down with Miguel next to her and told them about the security detail regarding her family's house, and who was who. She made a point of telling them about Brock and how he was more likely to cooperate with the authorities once confronted. Once the officers let her go, she and Miguel got started on their homework.

Once they finished, Miguel told Angela good night and left her alone with her protection detail. Once he made it home, he went up to his room and turned on the tv to the news.

"We are taking you to a live view of the sheer chaos that has erupted down town," the reporters called out above the noise of the city. "Creatures, machines, storms everything has seemed to come out of nowhere and the danger just keeps on coming with the appearance of a new villain that seems to be bringing to life the fears of every citizen in New York. The only questions this reporter can ask is, where are Ladybug and Cat Negro, and what will become of our beloved city?"

"Duty calls." Miguel breathed.

"Let's get this over with." Plagg groaned.

"Plagg, Claws Out!" Miguel summoned.

Once he changed into Cat Negro, he began his trip for downtown. Once there, he saw that the reporters were not exaggerating, he saw things happening in the city that shouldn't have even been in the city to begin with and everything was falling apart. Finally, he spotted Ladybug and raced to catch up with her.

"I know this city has a way of bringing out people's secrets, but this is ridiculous." He joked from behind her.

"Not just their secrets, their deepest fears." Ladybug answered. "The only way this will stop is if we find the akuma and stop him."

"Like finding a needle in a haystack." Cat Negro commented as they looked at all the people and creatures that were running through the streets and buildings all around them.

"Ladybug, Cat Negro, let's see what fears lie behind those masks!" they heard from behind them.

They barely managed to dodge a large pillow that came close to slamming into both of them. After recomposing themselves, they finally saw who had tried to hit them, and they were stunned to see that the villain they had to stop was just a kid.

"Lucky dodge, but your luck will run out soon." The kid yelled from on top of his flying pillow. "I am Sandrew, and I won't stop until everyone has to face their fears."

"I was afraid of that." Ladybug said with an edge in her voice.

"I'm betting the akuma's in his pillow." Cat Negro said as they dodged pillow after that seemed to be shot from the end of Sandrew's.

"That's a wager I'm pretty sure you'd win." Ladybug answered.

Too little too late, Ladybug tried to dodge a shot from behind, but was struck by a pillow. As she was hit, the pillow burst into a lavender colored dust. She did her best not to breathe it in, but apparently, breathing it in wasn't how the dust affected her. All it had to do was touch her and it could affect her. She tried to grapple her yo-yo around Sandrew, but she missed and instead managed to pull a brick chimney stack loose which then began to fall toward the people below.

"No!" Ladybug cried as she ran to get them out of the way.

Barely, just barely, she got them to safety in the nick of time. Cat Negro joined her on the ground as she was trying to catch her breath.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Ladybug answered out of breath. "That's what I've always been afraid of, that even when I'm trying to do good, all I'll do is end up hurting innocent people."

"But you didn't, you have saved more lives than anyone can imagine, and no matter what happens, you always find a way to make things right." Cat Negro answered rubbing her back.

"But how am I going to fix this if I can't touch him?" she asked.

"Maybe what we need is to get lucky." Cat Negro said winking at her.

"Lo tengo." Ladybug smiled. "Lucky Charm." She summoned. What appeared was a quart of milk. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Looking around, she saw a cup from a street vendor, and a heating unit from a hot dog cart.

"I got it." She said. "Think you can keep the kid occupied?"

"Are you kidding, kids love me." Cat Negro winked going after Sandrew.

Ladybug grabbed the cup, poured the milk and stuck the cup in the heating unit. After a couple of minutes, poured the milk in the quart and caught up with Cat Negro as he was facing an evil version of her, listening to all the horrible things she was saying to him. Not far off, she caught sight of Sandrew and knew what she had to do. She grabbed Cat Negro and pulled him up on the light post to meet her.

"I need you to hold Sandrew still so he can drink this." She said once he was free from her yo-yo.

"How's that going to help?"

"Warm milk, a lot of kids fall back to sleep after they have warm milk."

"Lo tengo." Cat Negro answered. "You distract him, I'll grab him."

Ladybug caught up with Sandrew and did her best to keep his eyes on her. Thankfully, it worked long enough for Cat Negro to get close enough to get his arms around the little kid.

"Don't worry, this'll help you sleep." She said gently as she got close enough to feed the warm milk to the kid.

After Sandrew swallowed the last bit, he began to yawn and slowly fell asleep. Ladybug was then able to take his pillow and tear in two as the akuma fluttered out.

"No more terrorizing for you moth." She said readying her yo-yo for the capture. "Time to be purified." With the akuma captured, she released the butterfly. "Miraculous Ladybug!" she called tossed the carton and everything was returned to normal.

Sandrew was reverted back to his normal form and his mother came running forward for him. And Ladybug made a quick and sweet goodbye to Cat Negro before swinging off before she changed back. Cat Negro smiled and made his way back to his house. After changing back to Miguel, he gave Plagg his cheese and laid down on the bed.

"If it's in the cards, I think we could all use some peace and quiet tomorrow." Miguel yanwed.

"I wouldn't hold my breath." Plagg laughed.