A Hero's Strength Is Measured By His Heart

Til' Death.

Tears fell from the eyes of a broken girl. She felt as if she had completely failed both Adrien and her Chat Noir. For when he pushed her down, she had considered not even getting back up. But to Marinette he was the world. And when the world breaks you do everything you can to piece it back together.

It wasn't hard to find him. Ladybug simply followed the screams. The public was heartbroken to witness that their beloved leather clad hero had succumbed to the evil of an akuma. But their shock was short-lived due the powerful affects of Paris' newest akuma victim.

The chaotic streets were infested with pain and consumed by a dark evil. Any poor soul that crossed a beam of the noir villain's light instantly turned into an akuma. Servants to their malicious maker himself.

One by one Ladybug watched in horror as these victims were crushed within the palm of her former partner. His entire body seemed to be surging with power. Anyone brave enough to glance into his eyes could unmistakably claim that he was not the once loving, light-hearted hero. In fact, it was almost as if he had become one with the cold and the dark.

Ladybug was meticulous in her movements and cautious with her thoughts. She needed to get close to him without letting her mind or her heart distract her from reaching him. However, she had begun to realize just how extremely difficult that was to achieve. Although Chat was currently focused on literally akumatizing his victims, Ladybug was still convinced that she needed to be careful not to draw attention to herself. After all, Chat's ears were highly trained before the akuma. There was no telling how his powers may have been affected after the fact.

Slowly, she began to swing toward the epicenter of all the destruction. Ladybug hated to admit it, but the streets of Paris resembled a massacre. She only wished that she would have been able to save her partner from himself before the battle ever came this far.

Hawkmoth had taken his game to an insurmountable level. Ladybug was appalled to the idea that the supervillain was knowingly displacing such cruelty on the already battered spirit of the boy who was no older than her.

All of a sudden, a whisper of black and wind swept by Ladybug. She cursed herself for letting her thoughts cloud her judgment. She had let her guard down.

Instantaneously, Ladybug was met with the grinning shell of the boy she had fallen in love with. Standing behind her, his mouth was dangerously close to her neck. Her entire body went rigid to the coolness of his breath. The moments in which Ladybug was becoming genuinely afraid of him were building in number.

"I can help you." She tried to sound strong. "Just let me in. Please."

"The last time I let you in I ended up here." His voice was a silent whisper in the corners of her mind.

Ladybug had a feeling that she was not the one Chat was speaking to. But, rather the insidious and threatening power that now consumed him.

She yearned to understand what was happening inside that once beautiful mind of his. She felt so distant, so incapable of reaching him. And it felt wrong.

"I know you're still in there Chaton."

"You're wrong." He almost spat. "This is who I am. It always has been. Don't blame me for being too stupid to see it."

Escaping her notice, the villain's clawed grip had encircled her arm, digging deep into the spandex until it reached skin. Ladybug let out a whimper that only seemed to spur him on. His touch felt nothing like it once had. All of the warmth he had long ago possessed had been replaced with a sinister, dark feel.

"I have a thousand souls dancing at my finger tips. And here in my palm I hold the most worthless one, ready to add it to my collection."

Ladybug's blood chilled at the pure scorn and hate of his words. Slowly, she could feel her heart begin to break under the weight of the fear that her partner could really be gone. Or, that if he was still in there, he was losing the fight.