The Akuma teleported back to Paris a few hours ago but had no memory whatsoever of being an Akuma. Gabriel remembers but cannot see the savage masked boy again since he is too cunning and fast to disrupt his Akuma victim. Once he rejected the Akuma, it was revealed to be Lila.

"This savage boy is too predictable to see my akumas actions," Gabriel said.

But he saw that the Jaguar woman was aiding him in training him to be a hunter or helping him out through survival techniques.

"Unless Panthera has been helping him," He said.

"Sir, it could be Adrien you saw. Judging by how getting lost in the jungle can change a person's behavior into a survivalist as I have experienced years ago" Nathalie said.

"We need to be sure it's him," Gabriel said.

"The footages show the feral boy's body shape matches Adrien's but more muscular after those months" He reviewed some pictures some mercenaries sent to him before getting killed.

"He has a native mask on. It could be any teenage boy" Nathalie said.

"It's no use to send mercs after him. He slaughters them like nothing" Gabriel said.

"You're foolishly repeating the same thing you send out just like you do the same with Mr. Pigeon 72 times" Nathalie glared.

"We'll need to observe the two, Lila proved useful in this" Gabriel ignored the statement.

-

Marinette was now in a much brighter mood knowing Adrien lived and Panthera promised to help him regain his civil life. The only problem is how long will Adrien trust Panthera until he decides he's ready enough to return to civilization. Even if it scares him to see the city nothing like the jungle, he could definitely go mentally insane from fear and anger. Which is why Blu Tembo is the only hope in restoring Adrien's memories of who he is and what Paris was to him.

"Oh Adrien, I miss you very much," Marinette thought.

Everyone loved him all over on the commercial ads, billboards, and photoshoots at parks. The problem is that he's getting replaced by a certain Italian liar. Hell, yesterday she bumped into his cousin Felix since he also misses his cousin too which seemed out of his element to worry about anyone.

(Flashback)

Marinette thought she recognized Adrien at the park but instead, it was simply the mischief brat Felix who is the opposite of Adrien.

"Oh, it's you. The fake Adrien. The one who nearly endangered the real Adrien that day by impersonating him" Marinette glared at him.

"I know, and yet my uncle doesn't force me to disguise as him and instead chooses Lila. As Ladybug said to me, Adrien's never pushy" Felix said.

"What the hell are you doing here? Trying to ruin my friends, cause trouble by impersonating the real missing Adrien, or are you looking for an ass-whooping from Ladybug?" Marinette warned him to not get on anyone's bad side, even hers.

"No, I'm merely here for that memorial statue of his. Also, it would be disgraceful disguising as someone dead" Felix said.

"How dare you?!" Marinette was about to slap him but he caught her wrist in a reflex.

"Jeez, what did I say?" Felix asked before removing her wrist.

"He's not dead! I don't believe he's dead for real! How can you believe he's dead if his body was never found?!" Marinette yelled at him.

"Easy now! Or at least part of me thinks he is. But I doubt it too. Besides, have you heard of mysterious deaths in the jungle? Some explorers found dead bodies of poachers" Felix tries to calm her down.

"Poachers?" Marinette asked.

"See here. The explorers found out that each poacher was killed by arrows and poison" Felix showed an article on his phone.

"No way. It could have been the apex predators that did this. Maybe a venomous snake or the natives" Marinette refused to believe that but she was aware that Adrien did this to survive since poachers and bad adults don't show mercy on children.

"My cousin is far too nice for my taste as I remembered when we were kids. He's never faced bad things all his life. But if he has learned new things in the jungle, he would have no choice but to live by killing anything in his way or face death" Felix said, making Marinette very nervous, "Unless the new superheroine is out there trying to find him"

"You mean that jaguar girl?" Marinette guessed.

"Yes, Panthera" Felix replied.

"Everyone also calls her the Jungle Queen because she knows her ways of fighting through the jungles. She's no killer and she never kills bad guys. Are you sure she killed the poachers?" Marinette did not like how he believed it was her.

"No, there's no proof it was her," Felix said.

"And how do I know you miss Adrien so much? Last time, you really almost ruined his reputation with his friends" Marinette asked.

"I may have done that horrible act but he's still family," Felix said.

"And how will I know you're nothing like....her?" Marinette gestured to that billboard of Lila.

"Because I can be honest, she's not," Felix said.

"You weren't honest with yourself before" Marinette scoffed in disbelief.

"I know. But I do miss Adrien. Well, I have to go now, Marinette, take care" Felix said.

(End of flashback)

Marinette doesn't trust Felix that much. As always, she despises liars and bullies who would do anything to get away with it. Chloe has done a lot of torment long enough to get Socqueline suspended by threatening Mr. Damocles to do it or get fired from the mayor.

"This day can't get any worse" She walks past the Lila billboard.

She soon stopped at a Café to have a moment to herself. Of course, she sees a certain Italian liar there but Marinette will not let her get into her head again, no matter how much it becomes for her to nearly lash out at her.

So she tries to ignore her, "Just a latte, please," Marinette said to the waiter.

"Coming up," The waiter said as Marinette sat down and sketched a design based on Cat Noir and Lady Noire.

"Always the same as ever, Marinette. Maybe Adrien probably did wanna disappear, away from you" Lila tormented her with lies but Marinette didn't reply back.

"Ah, a silent one. There's a reason why there's no place for a baker girl like you to model with Adrien" Lila said.

"And there's no place for a liar like you to be something you're not. You're nothing like me, Lila. What I have is something you'll never have" Marinette corrected Lila's facts.

"What's that?" Lila asked.

"I am not telling you" Marinette glared.

"Fine then, but don't forget. I will make sure you lose more friends and you'll be all alone with no one" Lila threatened her and left Marinette on her own, making her sigh in relief.

-

Back in the jungle, Panthera was looking away since Adrien needed to clean himself in the lake since he was sweating more than her.

"I don't believe in monster stories but what I do believe is that Shadowmoth is the real monster," Panthera said.

"Yes, but I hope he'll fall one day," Adrien said while scrubbing his arm.

"And you haven't done detective work to unmask the terrorist yet?" Panthera said.

"No, he even once akumatized my father," Adrien said.

"Sometimes I think Shadowmoth could be your dad because both like to ruin lives and like to be in hiding. Your father barely leaves the mansion at all. Fashion designers have to make public appearances when it comes to fashion shows" Panthera said.

"Tell me about it. At the mansion, he always breaks every promise to me and changes my schedule and his own. Instead of treating me as a son, he treats me like a puppet for everything he tells me to do. I can go against those who hurt me and my friends but never against my father" Adrien rinsing his hair with shampoo.

"That means he is hiding something" Panthera guessed.

"He was never the same ever since my mother was presumed dead. It's like he hasn't moved on yet" Adrien gets out of the lake and dries himself with a towel.

"Grief can be cruel but he can't let grief get the better of him. Which is important to embrace and move on from the past. But sometimes grief can change a nice person to a mean person especially for our kwamis too when moving on to new holders" Panthera said.

"It's true, lady. My previous kittens were the best and when they get older, they pass their miraculous to another after another" Plagg said.

"Really? And yet you still remember them for over a thousand years? Especially the destruction of Atlantis you mentioned about?" Panthera asked.

"I had too much cheese, that's all," Plagg said.

"Still irresponsible of you. And how many times has the Eiffel Tower been destroyed or fallen until Miraculous Ladybug repairs again?" Panthera said.

"A lot" Plagg replied.

"Not a single damage on Notre Dame," Panthera said.

"Because it's a holy place," Adrien said.

"Are you dressed yet? And please wear your shirt this time" Panthera asked.

"And done" Adrien was all dressed up.

"You are definitely going from scrawny to a big boy. I told you that eating other food is a way to live right rather than starve yourself from listening to your father telling you what and what not to eat" Plagg said.

"Yeah, even a better physique than before" Adrien flexed.

The jaguar heroine rolled her eyes at that, "You need to try other food than eating the same ones. Anorexic is extremely unhealthy" Panthera said before handing him a banana.

"Thanks" Adrien peeled it and ate it.

"Fruits and vegetables are a healthy diet for the body, you know," Panthera said.

"Like this banana is a great source of potassium," Adrien said.

Once eaten it, they resumed walking through the jungle.

"You know what's very weird? Animals pee and poop everywhere in the wilderness. Which is why animals don't care where they do it. Although I did smell a little urine on you which was smart to repel mosquitoes and mostly predators" Panthera said.

"Some animals are important since their feces help the jungle grow," Adrien said.

"Circle of life, gatito. But yes, it does. Ooh, a cockroach" Panthera spots a cockroach and grabs it, "I'm sure you ate these things, have you?"

"No way" Adrien shook his head.

"That's another survival thing for a person to do. Did you know that cockroaches have very rich protein?" Panthera said.

"Nope," Adrien replied and grabbed it.

"Try it. It's like eating something to refresh your energy. Unless of course, you think it twitches so much to look alive and scare you to death" Panthera testing him.

Adrien hesitated but then bit the roach in two. It tasted gross but more than that until he ate the whole thing. He almost felt sick to it before swallowing it so hard.

Panthera rolled her eyes at this boy, "Sissy boy"

"I am not a sissy boy. I just ate a live cockroach but at least I didn't vomit. And you haven't eaten cockroaches?" Adrien crossed his arms.

"I have, like 5 five times before learning to survive in the rainforests in Central America," Panthera said.

"What?!" Adrien exclaimed in shock.

"Yup, when you're a big boy, you would know. Just like how I passed at being a big girl" Panthera snickered at his reaction before coming to the Amazon River.

"Okay, we need to make it across the river" Adrien looks at both ways.

Panthera dips her hand in the river to test its flow current. Calculating the sun's position between sunrise and sunset, the direction should be where the flow goes that leads from the icy mountains to melt and the flow to end in the ocean.

"Okay, the river is flowing that way. Rivers have thousands of canals to flow in other directions" Panthera said.

"What do you mean?" Adrien asked.

Panthera uses her spear to draw on the ground to show him, "The start of a river is called its source or headwaters. The source is where the river's water begins to flow"

"Okay then" Adrien nodded.

"Rivers can have multiple sources, and they are also fed by other streams called tributaries. Rivers start at high points, such as mountains, hills, or other elevated areas. As the water flows downhill, it erodes the ground, creating valleys and shaping the landscape" Panthera explained by drawing the line from where it starts at high mountains and then down to where it ends up in oceans.

"I see" Adrien observes what she drew.

"The point is that the river is flowing that way. We need to follow the other way where it will lead to the source" Panthera said.

"Got it. Let's move" Adrien said.

"Stay close to me. Falling in there is like a struggle. If the mercenaries are out there, I'm hoping they have a motorboat of some kind" Panthera said, walking carefully away from the edge of the river.

Adrien followed her with Plagg as they walked near the river.

"You do know that the more you lie to your lady, the more it leads to consequences. I get how much you want to enjoy being the young new Tarzan boy in the jungle. Maybe then, you can prove to your strict father that he was wrong about you" Panthera said.

"How can I when those mercenaries work for him?" Adrien asked.

"Good point. Sometimes good or bad people don't know how to express themselves. Like your lady, she has more responsibility in capturing akumas and repairing the damage at the end. The only question is what does Cat Noir do?" Panthera asked, jumping over the rock.

"He takes a lot of hits and sacrifices to save his lady" Adrien jumped over it.

"Exactly, so would my partner too," Panthera said, narrowly avoiding a sleeping anaconda.

"Don't......make.....vibrations on the ground" Panthera said slowly since snakes are deaf but can feel vibrations and sense body heat.

Adrien slowly steps over the anaconda without waking it up. They successfully got away from the anaconda and continued their walk.