Chapter Text
Out of breath, Ladybug wilted to the ground to her knees, watching her catty companion vaulting out of sight. Chasing after her partner-in-crime had certainly tested her limits on building jumping. Judging by how fast and quickly Chat Noir was able to outrun her in a short amount of time, it was obvious that being ‘part-cat’ had it’s advantages. This was added the fact that they’d just defeated an akuma, how could Chat still have so much energy?
With one slender hand, she held her forehead, gritting her teeth in frustration; mostly on herself. How could she take out her anger on Chat Noir? It wasn’t any of his faults that she’s been so stress over her school work and her father getting a fever and going to the hospital. He was just trying to be helpful and kind, albeit in a rather annoying way.
“How could I be so stupid?” She muttered to herself, pulling herself back onto her tired legs. She had to apologize to Chat, it was the right thing to do. “Chat! Chat! Wait!” She called out, hoping that his cat-like hearing could pick up her voice.
Ladybug doubted that he heard it from this distance. It seemed like he had covered a lot of ground in a short span of time; it was amazing really. Even if Chat did manage to pick up her shouting, judging by the hurt look on his face when she shouted at him, he wouldn’t come back. Sighing, she started running again, chasing after her missing partner across the buildings of Paris. She had jumped a few blocks ahead when she decided that she couldn’t trace where he went. Usually, when chasing a criminal or akuma, Chat was the one who knew where to go. He had cat-smell and cat-hearing that can make baddie tracking very easy. For once, Ladybug wished that she had a smell or hearing as strong as his; it would making tracking him down much easier.
“Chat! Where are you?” She called out again. “You need to come out! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to yell at you!” The spotted heroine clenched her hand in a fist. “I shouldn’t have taken out my anger at you, Chat, it’s not you I’m angry at!”
Her cries went unheard and the only response was the whizzing of cars driving by and the howling of the angry winds. She looked up to the sky, only to notice that it had grown unusually dark. Ladybug thought it was funny, that the weather knew what mood she was feeling right now and had changed to fit the overall theme. How quaint. She spent a few more minutes searching when she just about gave up. Just as she was going to return to the direction of home in hopes of waiting another day to solve their hero predicament, there were loud shouts of help in the distance.
With a roll of her eyes, Ladybug quickly hurried over to the sounds of help. She pulled out her communicator, planning to call Chat in hopes that he would come over if he knew that she needed help for a mission, but all she got from her communicator was static. How strange, usually Miracle Stone holders had no problems communicating with each other; they used some sort of magic signal with each other. This was the first time something like this happened, but Ladybug just brushed it off and concluded that Chat must’ve reverted back to being a civilian somewhere and was ignoring her. At least, that’s what she hoped.
Following the distant shouting, found herself in a rather large parking lot. It was mostly empty, considering how late it was, but there were a few cars stationed in the parking spaces. However, they weren’t exactly ‘parked’. One car was flipped on it’s side, having been knocked roughly on it’s side. Ladybug quickly inspected the wrecked vehicles to see if anyone was inside, but thankfully, there was no one. They must’ve ran away already; which was probably what all the screaming was about. One thing that the vehicles had in common was that they had large claw marks; sometimes ending in rust. One car had it’s tires completely exploded. A few trees in the parking lot were knocked over, vacant of all their leaves.
“How weird...” Ladybug murmured to herself as she studied the situation. “I wonder if the culprit is still here.”
A nearby shriek pulled Ladybug out of her thoughts. A young woman, looking to be around her early thirties was running towards her, clutching a small child in her arms, who was currently crying his eyes out. Upon approaching the spotted heroine, she grabbed Ladybug by the arm and gripped it tightly in her own.
The woman’s voice was shaking in panic and fear. “Please you have to help us, there’s a best on the loose and-“
“Woah, calm down, m’am.” Ladybug said, prying off the woman’s hand and lightly taking it with her own gentle grasp. “What beast are you talking about?”
Before the woman could answer, a sharp growl from somewhere in the distance caught Ladybug’s attention. Upon hearing the growl, the woman quickly jumped behind Ladybug. Taking a defensive stance in front of the woman and her child, Ladybug took out her yo-yo, ready for any sort of movement.
A figure jumped off the building of the supermarket the parking lot was a part of. It landed on all fours, twisting it’s tail angrily at her. Soon, Ladybug realized that this ‘beast’ that the woman was talking about was a person. Judging by the moth-like symbol on the person’s face, Ladybug realized that this person had been smittened by an akuma. The akuma lashed his barbed tail back and forth, growling menacingly with sharp red eyes. The person’s fingers had a large animalistic claw protruding from the tip. One of his hands had dark red energy radiating off it. Squinting closer, Ladybug realized that the ground was cracking. When the smoke cleared she blinked dumbfounded.
“Chat?” She asked, quietly, lowering her defense.
‘Chat’ suddenly twitched his ear before standing up on two legs, staring at her with the indifferent crimson eyes. His hair had become jet black and instead of the welcoming dark suit, it was blinding white which was somewhat eerie. His mask extended, curling into what looked like a moth. Feeling suddenly intimidated, Ladybug took a step back. Chat- Chat’s been taken over by an akuma!?
“Chat Noir! It’s me! Ladybug!” She called out to white cat. “What happened to you?”
With a pained growl, ‘Chat’ brought one of his clawed hands to his black hair, looking a bit confused. “Who are you talking about? I’m....Chat....Chat Blanc....right?”
“No! No you aren’t!” Ladybug said, taking a more offensive stance. Where was the akuma hiding? She had to find it! “Your name is Chat Noir! You’re...You’re my partner in crime!”
The red matter on his right hand dissipated and he brought two of his hands to his head, squinting and seeming to be in pain. Ladybug took a cautious step closer, trying to see if she could do anything, but before she could say anything, the confused white cat snapped his head back up at her.
“You, you have it don’t you?” He asked angrily, he pointed one claw accusingly at her. “The Miraculous, you have it right?”
Ladybug bit her lip, unsure what to say. She decided it would be best to remain quiet.
“Give it to me!” He shouted, twisting his tail irritably. He put a hand on one of his eyes, clenching his teeth. Ladybug blinked. Was he crying? “Give it to me! Now! It’s the only way-right!? Tell me!”
“Chat, no.” She said coaxingly, suddenly taking a few steps back seeing how unstable it is. “This isn’t you. You’re not Chat Blanc or anyone else. You are Chat Noir. My friend.”
Upon hearing that name, he raised his hand accusingly at her, the red matter encasing his hand. “Stop it!” He screamed hoarsely at her.
“You’re making me confused!” he screamed again, running towards her, claws outstretched. Ladybug swiftly jumped back, out of the way of the white cat’s reach. “Why don’t you just die?”
He rushed at her again, swiping his claws again and again, trying to catch the spotted heroine off guard. Ladybug was quick to dance out of his grasp and swung to the top of a nearby tree. He leaped at her, touching the tree. As soon as his claws touched the tree, the branch Ladybug was standing on crumbled away and she watched in horror when the tree rapidly increased in age before falling over and becoming rotten wood. She leaped onto a nearby streetlamp, as she felt the wood rot away.
“Chat stop!” She cried out from her perch on the street light. “This isn’t you!”
“Stop!” He screamed again. He made a jump for the street lamp, but as soon as he got there, Ladybug had jumped away. The streetlamp made a painful scree-ing sound as it short-circuited and fell over from being rusted.
“Tikki, how do I free him?” Ladybug asked the kwami in her head.
“His ring! An akuma must have possessed his kwami!” Tikki said hurriedly. Chat was turning his head towards her, although he looked daze and seemed to look past her. “You have to break his ring. Just a little dent would do the trick!”
Chat headed in her direction, eyes flashing wildly as he ran closer. Swallowing nervously, Ladybug threw her Yoyo in the air.
“Lucky charm!”
Unfortunately, just as she tossed her yoyo in the air, Chat had made a staggering leap towards her, claws outstretch. She quickly jumped back, but she realized that she was too close. However, from the stroke of luck, a bowling ball came crashing down right in front of Chat Blanc, causing him to skid into a stop. Flattening his ears he took a few steps back, a little baffled.
“A bowling ball?” She exclaimed as she rubbed her hands from how close she could’ve gotten crushed.
Using the window of opportunity, Ladybug snatched up bowling ball, staggering in it’s weight, before running off into an alleyway. Clutching the bowling ball close to her, she ran up the emergency fire stairs before pressing herself into the shadows.
She had to find a way to dent ring. Wait a minute...
Although this idea just felt wrong in her head, she couldn’t think of a better way to go about it. Not to mention that a certain slinky white Chat just entered the alleyway, looking down. She closed her eyes, trying to pretend that the akuma’fied person this time wasn’t her good friend.
“Tikki, is there no other way?” She whispered quietly, hoping that Chat’s sensitive ears won’t detect them.
Tikki was silent. Marinette wondered if she refused to tell her the answer or whether or not she didn’t know the answer. Either way, Tikki’s sudden silence was unsettling, and suddenly Ladybug truly did feel alone. No Chat flirting or making cheesy puns, no supportive Tikki telling her what to do, not even a pedestrians screaming in terror.
Just an utterly eerie silence.
Swallowing her emotions, she put her plan to her action. Balancing the bowling ball carefully on the railing. Then with a grunt, she jumped off the fire escape, clinging onto a window on the opposite side of the alley, twirling her battle yoyo around. Chat immediately snapped his head up to look at her.
With a yell, she threw yoyo down so it would wrap around one of chat’s torso and arm. He angry whipped out his free arm, ready to used his demented Cataclysm on the string. She let go of the window, putting all force into her legs as she landed on his back pinning him to the ground. Before he could swipe at her with those ghastly claws, she stepped on his wrist.
Her gaze fell on the small piece of chipped off concrete and she picked it up. For a moment, she stared at the small piece of rock and up at the bowling ball, which sat precariously over them. Chat Blanc to squirm, lashing his tail about, but after a while he stopped move. Ladybug looked down at him and saw him looking back at her, this time which much more tired eyes.
He was accepting his fate.
“Chat?” She asked quietly, wavering a bit.
He didn’t respond, but he closed his eyes.
Clenching her eyes in pain, Ladybug took the small chip of concrete and threw it at the bowling ball. The chip bounced off the railing, causing it to vibrate. The bowling ball teetered towards them. Ladybug looked away.
-~*~-
Ladybug watched the white butterfly fly away, out into the sky. She quickly ran over to Chat Noir, who was back to normal, clutching his right hand, shivering. It wasn’t cold, so Ladybug knew he was shivering from pain.
“Chat! Chat, I’m sorry!” She said, approaching him hesitantly. Although his suit wasn’t blinding white and he was no longer radiating in dark energy, she was still wary. She stood a few feet away. “I didn’t mean to break your hand!”
Although Ladybug wasn’t looking at the time, as soon as she heard a pain crunch and a voice all out in pain, she knew that the bowling ball had crushed his hand. Thankfully, the akuma flew out of the ring, and she quickly cleansed it and sent her clean-up crew to clean up everything else. She hadn’t properly looked at Chat’s hand, but as soon as she saw the mangled appendages, Ladybug knew that it was very broken.
“It’s okay...” Chat wheezed, clutching his crushed hand close to him. It was twitching in pain. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” He repeated again. Chat Noir began curling in himself. “It’s okay...it’s my fault.”
Seeing how broken he was, Ladybug ran over to him, gently grabbing his shoulder and pulling him closer to her.
“No no, it’s not your fault.” She assured, trying to look at his face and not his crumpled hand. “I snapped at you, I shouldn’t have done that. I was just...a bit stressed from things.”
“But I-Did you see? I almost...” He didn’t want to look at her face. Chat turned his head towards his injured hand.
“It’s okay, Chat.” She said hugging him supportively. Ladybug patted his head. “It’s okay now.”
Suddenly, as if a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, he curled against her. He leaned against Ladybug, holding his fractured hand as he put his head on Ladybug’s lap to be used as a pillow. His hand was still occasionally twitching in pain and it seemed like he didn’t want to move anytime soon.
Ladybug, unsure what to do, just petting Chat, repeating soft words to assure him that everything was alright, just like a mother would to his terrified son. After a while, there was the familiar BEEP of a meter going down. Although Ladybug wanted to not look at this mangled hand, she realized that he was going to de-transform any second. She glanced at the hand, trying to avoid the misshapen fingers and the horrifying mess.
The meter had only one paw print left.
“Chat!” She warned, trying to wake her friend up from this daze he was having. “You have to go! Your ring-“
“It’s okay....” he replied sleepily.
Ladybug was sure that Chat was going into shock, but she didn’t know what to do with it. Calling the hospital was a big no-no because they needed to protect their identities. She put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently.
“Chat, you’re going to de-transform.” She said hurriedly, the tears suddenly starting to peck her eyes. “Come on, Chat! No one can find out who you are! Chat!”
Instead of looking worried, the tired feline, whose eyes were wet with tears, opened one eye and looked at her tiredly.
“It’s okay.” He closed his eyes again, snuggling against Ladybug. It was starting to get a little cold for his taste. “It’s okay if you go. I’ll wait here.” His words were slurred and he looked like he was having trouble speaking.
She wiped the tears with the back of her hand, begging Chat to get up and find some place to hide, or at least de-transform at the back of the hospital so he could at least get medical help, but they were nowhere near any clinic or hospital. The spotted heroine couldn’t just leave him in the alleyway. There was nothing she could do.
“No, Chat.” She said firmly, petting the distressed cat. “I’ll wait here.”
Ladybug was nervous about finding out who was laying down on her lap. After all that trouble making sure that no one found out about their identities, it will all down to this. Chat simply had no energy to find a place to detransform and Ladybug didn’t have the heart to leave him alone in the alley to shrivel in pain. After he de-transformed, she would definitely take him to the hospital.
So she waited, silently crying to herself as she tried her best to comfort the exhausted feline in pain.
The ring beeped one final time.
“....Adrien?”