WARNING: This chapter does contain minor spoilers for the season 3 finale. If you haven't seen it yet, don't continue reading. But seriously, what are you waiting for? (Epcot97, I'm looking at you.)

This is the final chapter of this arc. There will be more stories in this series, but this arc is the one that is Viperion (Luka)-centric, and really gets Ladybug (Marinette) thinking about how it would be nice for all of the heroes to be able to have someone who understands the crazy lives they lead.

The next arc will be focused on the group as a whole, and how their different powers effect how they're feeling.

Yes! Several of you recognized Halt from John Flanagan's The Ranger's Apprentice series as Arreter. Unfortunately, I don't own any of the rights to his works, either, although I do have a signed copy of the Ruins of Gorlan, so that's not nothing!

Luka slowly wandered through the streets of Paris alternately thinking hard and trying to clear his head. He knew that he needed to talk to Marinette, and tell her that he knew her identity, but he wanted to do it in a way that she didn't freak out. An hour of meandering didn't get him any closer to an answer, but he did find himself across the street from the bakery.

Sighing deeply, Luka knew what he needed to do, to say to Marinette, but he still had no idea how he was going to do it. The minor chords in his belly started up. He refused to think of his nerves as butterflies any longer, not after what Hawkmoth had done to the city. He pushed open the door to the bakery before he could change his mind.

Sabine called out a greeting to him, letting him know that Marinette was decorating petit fours with her father, and if he wanted to, he should just go on back. He loved the easy camaraderie of the Dupain-Cheng household, the welcoming vibe that was so much like his own home, where anyone who needed a space was welcome.

He headed towards the back room, where both the baker and his daughter had their backs to the door, so he just leaned against the jam, watching as they chatted and joked, while focusing on the task at hand.

As Marinette piped the icing out off her bag, her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth, and she frowned in concentration. The similarity of her expression (minus the tongue) to that of Ladybug was so striking, it hit him like a physical blow. If there had been any doubts lingering in his mind, there weren't anymore.

Tom was concentrating, but still managed to crack jokes alongside the eggs. "What do you get when you eat unsalted butter, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, raw eggs, vanilla extract and whole milk?"

When Marinette made a questioning noise, he replied, a huge grin stealing across his face, "A stomach cake!"

Marinette groaned out a "Da-ad!" then whipped around to locate the source of the appreciative chuckle she heard behind her. Her face lit up. "Luka! Come grab a seat. I'm almost done. Am I late? Were we supposed to meet?"

Still chuckling from her dad's joke, Luka shook his head, and perched on a stool at the end of the counter the father-daughter team was working on. "No. I just had to go for a walk and clear my mind after that last akuma attack. People fading away. Pretty scary stuff."

Marinette flinched, but caught herself quickly. Luka was looking for it, so he caught it, but Tom was cheerfully oblivious. "Oh no, son, did you get caught up in the attack?"

Laughing ruefully, Luka answered with the truth. "I've seen more fallout from akumas than I ever wanted to, although any is too much." He looked down at his fingers as they twisted together in his lap. "I've even been one before."

Tom clapped him on the shoulder, leaving a smear of green icing. "Me too son. Defending Marinette here. Not my proudest moment, but I would do it to defend her again in a heartbeat." Luka channelled his sister as he mumbled, "same here."

Turning a delicate shade of pink, Marinette sought to change the subject. "So, Luka, what brings you by the bakery?"

"Oh, I, uh, wanted to talk to you about something. It's fairly important, but if you're busy, I can come back another time."

Mustache practically quivering with excitement, Tom informed him that Marinette was free after she finished the tray she was working on. He grinned at his daughter, only to be met by a flat stare that warned him against any matchmaking plans.

Quickly finishing up the petit fours, Marinette lead Luka up to her room, blushing prettily as her dad called after them to behave. Marinette left her trapdoor open, but Luka went over and closed it. At her look of confusion, he hastily explained. "I need to talk to you about the akuma attack this afternoon, and I'm pretty sure you don't want your parents to overhear."

Mariette paled, but said, "My parents aren't overly worried about akuma attacks, they know the Miraculous Team will take care of it."

"That's not what I'm talking about. I want to talk to you about what I saw."

She paled even further, her freckles standing out starkly on white skin. "Oh? You were close enough to see it?"

Understanding her need to hide her identity, but also becoming frustrated by what he obviously knew, Luka leveled her with a deadpan look. "How else would I have been able to tell you that Arreter's arrows reverted a miraculous wielder back into their civilian form?"

She sighed. "I was hit?"

"No, Chat was."

Marinette gasped. "But how did you know…?"

"I've suspected for a long time."

When she just looked at him with eyebrows raised, he elaborated.

"Probably since the first day I met you."

When her eyebrows completely disappeared into her hair and her expression took on a disbelieving quality, he grinned and continued.

"After you broke us out of the chains, and we were hiding from my mom, you disappeared from the boat. Ladybug appeared around the time we realized you were missing, saying that you had alerted her. I wondered then how you had dived out of the porthole of a swiftly moving boat, swum ashore, and alerted Ladybug in a matter of a few minutes. That would have been amazing, even for you!"

"Oh no!" She dropped her head into her hands. "Do you think anyone else suspects?"

"I doubt it. Nobody else saw how quickly the boat was moving. I've noticed lots of little things, when I thought to look for them, including things that nobody else remember, like what cemented it for me. I saw Ladybug's reaction when she learned Chat Noir's identity. And before you ask, I'm not going to tell you who he is."

"I-I know Chat Noir?"

"I never said you did… I just said I saw your reaction. And no, I'm not going to tell you what your reaction was either. I just came here to tell you that I know who you are. And it just makes you that much more impressive. Please know that I'm always here for you. As Luka or Viperion. You can tell me everything. Or… nothing, if you prefer. You can be yourself with me."

Marinette sighed and started to pace, mumbling to herself, trying to work something out. Luka watched her for a few moments, and then settled himself cross legged on her chaise, closing his eyes, and pulling out a guitar pick to worry between his fingers, as he waited for Marinette to work through whatever she needed to work through. Taking a deep breath, he settled his wrists on his knees, palms up, inhaling and exhaling in a slow and steady rhythm, trying to calm his fraying nerves for whatever came next.

As a child, Luka had always had very strong emotions, and with volatile parents, he never learned how to control them. As he got older, and his hotheadedness got him into trouble more often than it helped, Luka had started researching ways to calm himself when he started getting angry or nervous. Often, he could channel that energy that energy into his music, but sometimes it was best for him to just sit back, and let the everyday sounds wash over him in their own symphony.

It was at times like this, when he felt the strong feelings bleed out into the fabric of the world, and his body calmed, that he was most receptive to the music that hummed in the hearts of those around him. Using music as an outlet for his own emotions helped him think of emotions as melodies, and could evoke those feelings in people, by playing those emotions to them. Afraid of saying the wrong thing, he often let his guitar do the talking for him, which sometimes gave people the impression that he could read 'heartsongs' when he was simply playing the emotions he read coming off of people.

He was jolted out of his meditation, when Marinette stepped very close in front of him, his seated position putting their heads at almost the same height. As soon as Luka opened his eyes, he found Marinette's arms wrapping around his neck in a tight hug. Once he got past the surprise, he brought his arms up around her waist and held her until she took a step back.

Taking a deep breath to compose herself, Marinette stepped over to a large basket filled with balls of yarn. She tugged the ends of 3 loose strings: a brief tug on the red, two sharp tugs on the black and another on the green. Much to Luka's shock the balls all rolled to the edge of the basket, a red and black spotted ovoid slowly spun its way to the top, like a pedestal rising. When Marinette ran her hand over the top, it opened as if on a hinge, and a larger version of the hexagonal box he was offered whenever Ladybug brought him the Snake Miraculous appeared.

Lifting the box, Marinette set it on her desk and opened it, retrieving a bracelet and holding it out to him. "Luka Couffaine. This is the miraculous of the snake, that gives the power of Second Chance. You will use it for the greater good. If you accept, you will become a permanent miraculous holder for your protection, and the protection of those whose identities you have become aware of."

Luka stared at her in shock, desperately trying to absorb the news, looking at Marinette, her basket of yarn-that-wasn't, and down at the miraculous he was, even now, slipping onto his wrist. "How…"

"Oh. Yeah. In addition to being Ladybug, I am the Guardian of the Miracle Box. After the last battle with Chloe as Queen Wasp, the only way to protect Chat Noir and I's identities was for the old guardian to transfer the guardianship to me. He lost all memories of the Miraculous, and anyone associated with them. He's now being cared for by… an old friend of his."

Reaching out, Marinette covered Luka's calloused hand in her smaller one. "Thank you for accepting this responsibility. Please know that I, too, will always be here for you, both as Marinette and Ladybug. You can tell me everything… or nothing. Please don't be afraid to come to me."

He smiled at her, and dropped his feet to the floor, letting Marinette pull him into a standing position. She hugged him again, burying her face into his chest. He rested his cheek against the top of her head and inhaled deeply, holding it for a few seconds before exhaling slowly and pulling back.

Marinette looked up at him with a question shining in her blue eyes, but then she nodded. "I need to tell Chat that you've been made a permanent member of the team. He deserves to know that. Did you tell him who you are?"

"He knows my identity, yes."

"Alright. I'll see you soon?"

"Anytime. But Marinette?" Luka paused and took a deep breath. "Give Chat Noir a chance."

"W-what do you mean?"

"I think you know. I think the two of you could be happy together." Luka's eyes looked anywhere but directly at Marinette. "Give him a chance."

Marinette looked at Luka, looking a little hurt by his suggestion. "I'll think about it, alright?"

"I just want you to be happy."

Luka was heading out of the bakery when he saw a flash of pink light at the very corner of his vision, and a few moments later he saw a blur of red, heading in the direction of one of the team's favorite rooftop hangouts, yo-yo pressed to her ear. He smiled sadly to himself as he headed back to his family's houseboat, feeling both lighter and heavier at the same time.