"....Chat Noir?..."

Five

Chat was bleeding.

Blood seeped from large gashes in his arms and torso from where glass had sliced and pierced his skin. The thick leather of his suit took the brunt of a lot of damage, an apparent magical layer saving him from many fatal blows, but a direct hit was just that.

Ladybug screamed for him every time he got hurt. Chat didn't care. Nothing could change the fact that he was hurt.

And why?

Because Marinette just couldn't listen.

Ladybug stayed and tried to help, despite the fact that this fight was what Chat considered way out of her league. Ladybug could jump out of the way, and get a few weak hits in, but that was it. She couldn't do this one.

And somehow Chat knew.

He knew that Ladybug couldn't help much. He knew this akuma was spawned from his luck. He knew he had to do this one.

Seriously, the villains LB was used to fighting were ones that he could make no sense of, yet somehow she could understand how to save them. Come on, cell phones, bubbles? Perfume? Just her luck.

Psychopathic sculptors with a passion for really still life's? Just his luck.

But he knew, as some unlucky turn of fate had LB trapped under a thick dome of black glass, he knew. This one was his.

This akuma belonged to him. This overly dark nature could only be attuned to him, from his moment of weakness. It was supposed to be him, and an innocent had gotten caught by an akuma aiming for the worst possible target.

He had to redeem himself. Solve the problem. Fix it.

As his body was pierced and slashed, he could only talk. To the akuma, and to its victim.

But mostly to himself.

"You have no reason to hurt others because of your problems! All that has happened is not because of them!" He yelled.

A blade of glass met his upper arm.

As it continued, the victim's glee turned to confusion as he took blow after blow.

"What has been taken from you can be found, but not with the way you are doing things!"

He barely dodged the flying shard meant to pierce his abdomen. Only dodging and getting closer, dodging, moving nearer, getting hurt, moving nearer...

The Jeweler's confusion transformed into panic, then desperation as he threw blade after blade.

Chat barely felt it as the glass dug into his stomach, only watching as cold glass like eyes widened in horror. Chat stood barely two feet in front of him, not even slightly worried as blood slowly dripped onto the concrete below.

"You're only hurting yourself more... by hurting others..." Chat said.

"I..." The Jeweler breathed, eyes unseeing as the teen bled inches away from him. Chat spoke softly, pained green eyes never wavering.

"Stop it. Let me help you."

The Jeweler was at a loss of words, seeing what damages he had caused to the boy.

"I..." he said. "She... She took my gem. My beautiful Ruby. All she ever wanted was things of valuable non-value. Nothing of true worth." He stated dully, robotically, glass eyes locked with green.

"I couldn't give them to her. So she took my Ruby."

Chat only watched with blank eyes.

The Jeweler's mask crumbled away like dust, revealing a pale face painted with pain.