Plagg blinked his eyes open as he became aware of them existing again, and glanced around the room he found himself in as his Miraculous activated, giving him corporeal form and waking him from his nice, long nap…

...Where was his wielder? Only someone opening his Box would activate him⏤ oh, wait, there they were! Gee, this sure was a big room! Most of his wielders lived in little huts or houses, but this? This place must be another temple! The smooth marble walls and columns painted such pure white could mean nothing else⏤ this place was even fancier than the Tibetan Temple he had fallen asleep in!

Seeing as the only human in the room wasn't paying any particular attention to him at the moment, Plagg took a moment to stretch as far as he could, fangs bared as he yawned.

While he appreciated sleep as much as the next kwami, that 'nap' of his had lasted longer than usual, so instead of feeling refreshed, he just felt kind of sluggish.

Stomach grumbling, Plagg finished his stretch and shook out his whiskers, wondering when the monk would greet him and feed him, before telling him the enemy they were being paired to face.

Looking over the large, ornate desk covered in magical instruments and bright illusions of text he was too tired to translate, Plagg saw that the little monk was absorbed in scrawling something onto the wall with a small, broken wax stick, leaving bright, colorful scriptures in its wake, complete with illustrations of various, vaguely-recognizable shapes and figures.

At the monk's feet, a haphazard pile of discarded wax sticks lay abandoned, like a bright, colorful rainbow brought down to earth and shattered on the ground; Plagg was able to resist temptation for only a moment before he was flying forward, wanting to see if the sticks were edible.

If the monk was going to ignore him and not bring him food, Plagg was going to just have to help himself!

Hovering over the array of wax sticks, Plagg inhaled deeply, trying to catch a scent⏤ what he smelled was unfamiliar, but he was starting to get hungry, and he'd had raw honeycomb more times than he could count⏤ surely the monks wouldn't mind missing a few sticks? Especially since this monk was just leaving them on the ground to go to waste…

Selecting a bright green beeswax stick that matched his eyes, Plagg sniffed again, trying to see what it was colored with, but couldn't smell anything familiar. Shrugging, Plagg bit into the stick, then made a face when the bland, waxy flavor met his tongue⏤ it didn't even taste like honey!

"EW!" Plagg exclaimed in disgust, spitting the hunk of wax out of his mouth, which collided satisfyingly against the back of the small monk's head, "Where's the honey?! Hey, monk, where's my food? I'm hungry and you're just ignoring me!"

The little monk jumped and whirled around, mouth agape as they stared at Plagg with green eyes almost as nice as Plagg's own. The red wax stick in their hands clattered to the floor as they stared at Plagg, who huffed impatiently, crossing his arms and also dropping the rest of his green stick in disgust.

"C'mon, I'm hungry! Where's the food?" Plagg asked finally, after a few awkward seconds had passed. The monk's eyes widened more before blinking, raising the hand with the Miraculous on it, and pointing at Plagg, a big smile forming on their face.

"Kitty!" The monk exclaimed in delight, and Plagg rolled his eyes.

Oh great, a newbie.

Looking around the room once more, Plagg spotted a large door leading off into the rest of the temple, but could only assume that, from the silence, the temple was empty, or abandoned.

Was this little monk the last survivor of some kind of attack, or were they just the unlucky one to stay behind on a mission, in charge of cleaning the temple, and the place was now under attack?

Plagg sighed.

Either way, this monk had been chosen as his new wielder; he was stuck with him.

"Okay, monk, how much do you know? You do know what a kwami is, right?" Plagg asked, flitting a little closer; the monk held up a hand, and Plagg obligingly landed on the monk's palm, which was barely bigger than Plagg himself.

Wow this monk was tiny! But Plagg wasn't judging; he knew humans came in all shapes and sizes, and the familiarity of such a tiny wielder brought an unconscious smile to his face⏤ one of his favorite wielders in the past had been this small, too.

"Kwami!" The monk repeated, using their other hand to reach out and gently poke Plagg's forehead, turning the boop into a stroke, which Plagg leaned into with a purr.

He loved how affectionate humans were, and it was easy for him to reciprocate it. They loved how soft his fur was, and he loved how warm their hands were. It was a nice trade off.

"Okay, okay, monk, so you know I'm a kwami⏤ good. Do you know who our enemy is? Did someone steal another Miraculous? Or is it those guys from the gamma quadrant again?" Plagg asked, knowing the monks wouldn't bring him out unless it was necessary⏤ they didn't really trust him to be out unsupervised ever since he told them about the dinosaurs.

"Gamma?" The monk asked, smiling quizzically at him as they continued to pet his fur, their warm hands fighting off the chill of the large room nicely.

Plagg nodded, reaching up and stilling the nice hand as it tried to continue grooming him, knowing things were serious, and this monk being a newbie made it even more serious. "Yeah, they've been to this planet a few times, they're obsessed with salt, apparently it's a precious resource on their world. They've tried to annihilate humanity a few times so they can keep it to themselves." Plagg supplied, knowing his words probably wouldn't mean much to the monk.

Surprisingly, the monk's eyes widened in recognition. "Aliens!?"

Plagg blinked, then nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess they are aliens too, huh? Weird thought."

"Aliens! We fight aliens!" The monk exclaimed, demeanor shifting from confusion to enthusiasm as they struck a dramatic pose. "Pew pew!" They exclaimed, making odd noises with their mouth Plagg could only assume were wordless war cries.

Snorting in amusement, Plagg shook his head and flitted forward so he was in the little monk's field of view again.

"Okay, okay, Monk. So, first thing's first, the activation phrase is 'Plagg, Claws out.' Say that, and you'll transform into the Hēi Māo, or whatever you want to call yourself, but that's what everyone else has called themselves from, well, not this temple, since it's different, but from my other temple. They usually called themselves that." Plagg shrugged, and realized he was rambling.

"Plagg?" The monk repeated, before squinting their eyes in concentration. "Claws?"

Plagg nodded in affirmation. "Okay, yeah, anyways, 'Plagg, Claws Out' makes you transform and your one-time power is cata⏤"

"Plagg!" The monk interrupted, looking delighted, "Claws Out!"

Pure exasperation filled Plagg, and he was filled with annoyance. "Seriously, kid? I wasn't even fiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiishhed!"

Plagg wasn't even able to complete his complaint before the Miraculous activated, pulling him in, dissolving his corporeal form, pulling his awareness towards that of the monk: their minds collided, melded, and merged until Plagg was aware of every move the human made, every breath they took, and every thought they had.

The suit formed around them, plainer than usual⏤ Plagg hadn't had time to plan out the looks for it, so it reverted to its most basic shape, forming a second, reinforced, leather-thick skin against the human's own.

Black ears formed higher on the human's head, claws sprouted at the end of their fingernails, and a long, whip-like tail sprouted from the small of their back; the monk was delighted at the change.

And also, as Plagg was becoming more and more aware of with increasing horror every second, not a monk from the sacred order of the guardians of the miraculous!

"Wooo!" The not-monk cheered, hopping up and down in place before running around the room, literally bouncing off the walls in excitement, dangerously rustling the tapestries along the one wall. "We fight aliens! Pew pew pew!"

Oh my cataclysm, this is a kid! Not a monk! NOT A MONK! Oh no! Nonononono, TIKKI'S GOING TO KILL ME! Plagg screeched, trying and failing, as he always did, to flail about or send any kind of message to his chosen: his thoughts were his own, completely separate from the kid's. Plagg could see the kid's thoughts, but the kid wouldn't be able to hear him.

Crap. crap. Crap. crap.

Please let there be some kind of Guardian around.

How else would this kid get a hold of my Miraculous!?

Wincing as the kid leapt on top of the large, heaven wooden desk and nearly fell right back off, Plagg did his best to concentrate and comb through the kid's mind, a hard task on a regular day, let alone when Plagg was panicking because a tiny little baby human just transformed with his Miraculous!

Okay, okay, so this isn't a temple, it's just a reallllly really big house. Is this kid royalty? Is he a prince of some kind? No, apparently his dad's just rich. Okay. Something about fancy clothes his dad makes. Okay, but does that help me with this situation? NO IT DOES NOT!CRAP! How can I get this kid to detransform!?

"I jump high!" The kid enthused, leaping up from the desk until he smacked the ceiling with the palm of his hand. Giggling, the kid wobbled a bit on the landing, but managed to land on the desk again, nearly toppling off when a piece of paper flew out from under his foot.

The kid fell over backwards onto their rear on the center of the desk and flopped onto their back, knocking one of the magical displays off the desk⏤ when the kid's panicked thoughts raced through his head, Plagg learned it was a 'computer'⏤ something the kid's dad said was very 'delicate' and that 'Adrien' wasn't allowed to touch until he was older.

The computer went down to the floor with a shattering CRASH! That seemed to shake the room; bits of metal, glass, and 'plastic' went flying about as the display screen followed the tower, yanked down by a cable connecting the two.

Adrien, his Wielder, jumped at the loud noise and rolled over to survey the destruction scattered across the floor.

"Uh oh."

"Adrien?"A voice, distant, sounded out from beyond the huge door leading into the room, and Plagg recognized the voice through the filter of Adrien's mind: it was the boy's father!

Yes! Please come in please come in, Plagg prayed inside the kid's mind, even as the kid had the opposite thoughts racing inside his mind.

Oh no oh no Daddie's going to be mad at me! The boy thought, images of an impossibly tall blonde man talking sternly to him drifted through Adrien's mind, and Plagg latched onto the image, trying to see if the face looked familiar at all⏤ but he didn't.

Did Adrien's father get a hold of my Miraculous somehow? How else would I be here? I hope he knows to take the ring of! It hasn't had time to bond properly yet, he can still do it, even if he doesn't have a Miraculous...

But Adrien had other ideas than letting himself be caught red-handed.

He's going to yell at me for climbing on the desk!

Looking frantically around the room, Plagg watched through his Wielder's eyes as the boy scanned the area for a good hiding place, barely catching a brief glimpse of a small shelf behind a painting and 'was that Nooroo's Miraculous?' Had barely crossed Plagg's mind when the kid took one look at the tapestries lining the one wall and launched himself at them, intent on hiding behind them.

Unfortunately, the kid, in his haste, put far too much energy behind his leap.

Instead of landing lightly on the tapestries to cling onto them with his claws, the kid crashed into them with the full force of his enhanced agility.

Something beneath the thick fabric shattered as they hit the tapestry, their momentum carrying them forward, beyond the confines of the walls. The rungs above them holding the tapestry in place were ripped from their holdings with the force, and as they sailed into bright, blinding daylight, Plagg realized this isn't a tapestry!

It was a curtain!

They were falling out the window!

The boy screamed as they fell, glass and fabric raining down as their momentum carried them much farther than any normal human leap could have achieved.

Below them, neatly trimmed grass was showered with glass and metal rings as they flew over the yard, the curtain falling to land in a heap below the windowsill.

They reached the zenith of their leap at the perfect height for Plagg to see the tall wall they were falling towards⏤ and how they were going to sail right over it, into a street populated by giant, racing death machines!

"Adrien!?"A voice bellowed behind them, and Plagg could hear with his enhanced senses how the kid's father was sprinting through the room to follow his son's terrified screams.

"DADDY!" Adrien screamed, twisting around in the air to reach back towards his house, and as they fell over the wall, clipping it with the kid's back so they bounced off the stone, knocking their baton loose and sending them into a tumble, Plagg caught a glimpse of blonde hair and hands slamming down on the window sill to look frantically downwards, heedless of the broken glass slicing into the man's palms as blood pooled beneath his hands.

"ADRIEN!" The man screamed, voice embodying pure terror, but now the wall was blocking their view as they fell into the road and⏤

HONK!

BEEP!

"GET OUT OF THE ROAD YOU MANGY CAT!"

Huge, hulking metal machines were rushing by them at incredible speed, filling Adrien's world with a rush of panic, noise and disorientating sound. The machines⏤ cars⏤ were swerving erratically around where Adrien had landed in the road, but all of the humans piloting them were going to fast to get a clear glimpse of Plagg and his Wielder⏤ with his small size, they thought he was a normal cat.

The sun, overhead, that had blinded them so greatly when they crashed through the window (Plagg could, distantly, over the roar of the cars, hear Adrien's father's screams fading) was now casting them in deep shadow, having reached it's falling height at an angle to make that damned wall plunge this section of road into darkness as the sun set.

MOVE! C'mon, kid, MOVE! Plagg screamed in his head, because the poor kid was stuck on the ground, frozen in terror on his hands and knees as he flinched away from the cars racing within inches of him.

"Get out of the road you stupid animal!" was screamed at them by a particularly irate man as his vehicle thundered past, and the words seemed to shock the kid out of his frozen state⏤ Adrenaline was pouring into the kid's system, and with the Miraculous to guide his instincts, the kid bolted at the first break in traffic.

No, nononononono!

Unfortunately for the paniking kid, the first break in traffic happened to be in the opposite direction of his house.

Sprinting across the road on all fours, tail lashing erratically behind them as the kid was consumed by the Miraculous' instincts, Plagg despaired as they reached the mouth of an alley and darted into it⏤ the kid having no thought in his mind except to get away from the scary cars and people and find his mom and dad.

Except Adrien had never been on this side of the wall before; he had never seen his house from this angle⏤ the kid was completely and utterly lost, and his house was only a street away.

No, no, no, kid, please, no, just turn around! Turn around! Plagg screamed, he waved his imaginary hands, he kicked and clawed with feet and claws that did not exist, he did everything he could to get his Wielder's attention, anything to break through to the kid's mind⏤ but nothing worked; it was futile.

They needed to be bonded, properly, for the kid to ever hear his words, and it had been centuries since anyone had wielded Plagg's Miraculous long enough to do so. This world was foreign, alien, to Plagg; things were too different, too strange, too much of it looking like it had been stolen from those Gamma Quadrant guys⏤ how long had he been asleep inside his Miraculous?

How had humanity advanced so far, so fast?

The last time Plagg was awake, humans still used horses and carriages to travel!

Please kid, just turn around! Your home is right there! Your parents are there! Just turn around! It's just around that wall!

But Plagg's cries were for naught; this was a one way street; he could hear Adrien in a whisper, but Adrien would never even hear Plagg screaming.

Unless the kid removed the ring himself, or managed to use his Cataclysm without knowing the command, they would be stuck.

After 24 hours, only another Miraculous wielder would be able to remove the Ring, and Plagg doubted anyone in the Sacred Order was around, otherwise, this never would have happened.

Please, just turn around, kid… Plagg whispered again, tiring, despair overtaking him, fueled by the kid's frantic terror.

Because unless the kid used a power, there would be no time limit on this transformation.

They were going to be stuck like this, forever.

Please, please let there be a Guardian nearby, searching for me, Plagg pleaded, Please, I don't know how long this kid's going to last out here…

And so, as Adrien Agreste ran away from his home, from his family, into the darkening, wild back streets of Paris, Plagg despaired.

Behind the wall separating his property from the busy main road, Gabriel Agreste burst out of his front door and ran, full-tilt towards the base of the broken window, feeling his world falling around his ears as his heart pounded in his chest, a desperate, desperate terror consuming his very soul.

Adrien Adrien Adrien Adrien Adrien! His mind chanted, for his breath was stolen from his lungs from his frantic running, and he had already screamed his throat raw in panic when he saw the broken window⏤ No! Adrien! Please no, not Adrien! ⏤ and the curtain so far below, covered in glass and concealing a small form beneath it⏤ No! No! Don't think about it! He's okay, he has to be!

The world seemed to be tilting around him dangerous, his knees barely able to support him, yet adrenalin coursed through his veins, making him move so quickly the world was but a blur.

All he could see was that curtain

Adrien!

All he could see was the broken glass, shattered everywhere

My son! My child!

All he could see was the shape under the curtain, shaped like a small body⏤

"ADRIEN!"

He could taste blood on his tongue, hot, like iron.

Falling to his knees and uncaring at the glass that tore at his hands and legs, Gabriel lunged at the purple fabric and ripped it up into the air, sending glass shards flying every which way, bits of metal glass slicing sharp lines across Gabriel's face, drawing blood in jagged little lines,

Why oh why did I leave my office door open?

Underneath the purple curtain was⏤

Why did I tell him we could use the whole house for hide and seek?

Under neath the curtain was⏤

Nothing.

What?

A bush, mishaped from the heavy fabric rustled gratingly as he frantically jerked the curtain up and all the way over his shoulder, not caring that more glass was raining down on him as he dove at the mangled hedgerow, shoving at the dirt and branches, desperate to find Adrien entangled in its limbs or perhaps fallen underneath⏤ but there was no Adrien, only glass and the blood now welling up from his own hands.

But I heard him! He called for me!

Leaping from the ground and whirling around, Gabriel raced further away from the window, straight away from it, turning and backpedalling, hoping to see Adrien somehow back inside his office, unharmed and somehow missed in his initial flight out the door, or even to see him clinging to some window ledge, able to be rescued and brought back inside, a little shaken, but no worse for wear but⏤

Something hard and round appeared underneath Gabriel's heel as he raced backwards, and with a heart-sickening lurch of horror, Gabriel went flying, trying to direct his fall in the scant few seconds he was airborne, a horrible, horrible image transposing itself into his mind⏤

Adrien, my son, broken on the ground, silent, and I just stepped on his arm⏤

But as Gabriel managed to⏤ barely ⏤ catch himself on one arm and throw himself to the side slightly, frantically turning his head to see what he had slipped on, but utterly terrified to know⏤

He saw not his son's dead body thank the gods thank the gods where is he WHERE IS ADRIEN? But instead a thin, silver and black cylinder lay innocently in the grass.

Desperate for a clue and ready to die from the terror eating his soul, Gabriel pounced on the strange object, snatching it up and examining it every which way, his frazzled mind trying to piece how this item was connected with the broken window and his son's anguished cries⏤ no you can't cry yOU CAN'T CRY DON'T CRY WE NEED TO FIND HIM FIRST ADRIEN TAKES PRIORITY DON'T CRY YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO CRY!

Then Gabriel saw the green pawprint in the center of the baton⏤ no, the weapon⏤

Because he recognized it.

This… this was the weapon of the infamed Hēi Māo.

This was the weapon of the Black Cat.

Their local guide in Tibet, when he and Emilie first found the ancient book, had regaled them with tales of the ancient demigods who once presided over the mountain, protecting it and the nearby populations from all manner of monsters and disasters⏤

But when Gabriel first unearthed the amethyst pin, and then the black and green ring, carefully cradled in protective gloves, their guide's eyes had grown wide, and they had been very carefully warned them of the Hēi Māo, and how they were the most volatile of the demigods, causing destruction on a whim and taking vengeance on a populace for any sacrilege they dared to commit.

The Hēi Māo was dangerous, and if they took that ring home with them, they would be inviting the demigod's spirit to take vengeance on them, in the most cruel, unexpected way possible. Emilie and Gabriel had weighed the guide's advice carefully, but in the end, they took the ring and the pin home with them to france, intent on studying them further.

Adrien hadn't even been a dream, then.

Gabriel stared down at the silver weapon in his hands⏤ was it dropped out of carelessness, or was it a message, a taunt?

And knew: the Hēi Māo, Black Cat, had taken his son.

And Gabriel would stop at absolutely nothing to get him back.