Red light blazed just as Marinette turned the corner into the alley.

"That was close," she huffed, leaning back against the grime smeared wall as Tikki fluttered wearily down onto her shoulder.

Straightening up, she delved a hand into her purse searching for a cookie... Nothing.

Crap.

She never forgot. Never. Every day she would grab a cookie or five from the bakers to stash in her purse, you never know when an Akuma will attack after all. Apparently never just became once... Now shed have to go find a bakery to get some. God, she hoped chat would be OK long enough for her to get back. This was a bad one even for the two of them, let alone on his own.

"Damn it Tikki," she said straightening up, "looks like chat will just have to manage without us for a while."

The Kwami gave her a week smile as she was stowed safely in Marinettes purse and pushed of the wall to begin running towards the nearest patisserie.

Chat stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding the akumas talons as they swiped past, no more than an inch from his nose.

Gods, where was ladybug...

He was holding his own alone but he could only last so long... The akumas attacks were getting closer.

Using his staff, he levered himself up onto a nearby building, hoping for a brief respite from the continual attacks. He leased a sigh of relief as he landed, bracing himself in a crouch. Just a few minutes then h-

He clamped his hands over his ears as the akumas shriek pierces the air, stabbing relentlessly at his eardrums. He turned toward the edge of a roof in a panicked spin, atumbling back as the akuma landed with disconcerting grace on the ledge.

Well crap.

He should have seen that one coming...

The Akuma straightened and looked towards him, pinning him with eyes invisible beneath the hood. He wondered briefly what had happened to this person to cause them to become this... The thought was interrupted by the Akuma beginning a stalking, predatory advance towards him. He stumbled once, struggling to keep his distance from the figure without looking away from it.

He was still of balance when, lethal talons reflecting the harsh Parisian sunlight, the Akuma made another swipe at him, motions fast and precise like a venomous snake. Maybe that was why, when he stepped back to avoid it, he felt himself falling backwards. And backwards. Apparently he was closer to the edge than he had thought.

Panic flared through him as fast as he fell and he scrambled desperately at his belt for his staff. Finally pulling it from its holster, he released it wildly. By some miracle of fate (or perhaps luck), the staff caught the ground below him.

The staff slowed his fall, but sent him flying to the side, skidding across cobbles until he felt the jolting impact and heard the sickening crack of his head against brick. Pain radiated trough his skull like flames. Even when he opened his eyes, the world remained unclear. Mocking lights danced across his blurred vision and he could feel a hot dampness spreading on the back of his head.

He painfully levered himself into a seated position with a shaking arm, just in time to see the Akuma now stalking purposefully towards him.

Crap.

The site that met Marinettes eyes as she rounded the corner made her blood freeze with fear in her veins. There was Chat, struggling desperately to gain his feet. And there, there was the looming, dark shrouded Akuma. It was stalking slowly but pointedly towards Chat, as though it new its prey was down, and it had all the time in the world.

As her brain registered the sight more fully, her fingers clenched into tight fists and her frozen blood boiled with rage.

How dare it! How dare he hurt Chat. How dare he hurt her kitty. She would die before she let it touch him again.

She was running before she even knew it, feet pounding out a desperate rhythm on the stone ground. The Akumas eyes were so fixed on their target she didn't even saw her.

It raised its clawed hand. She was so close she could almost-

She loosed a furious cry as she barrelled into the akumas side. Knocking it of balance so that it twisted, lashing out wildly with its claws and-

Burning pained slashed across Marinettes abdomen and another cry escaped her, this time of agony. The harsh impact of her knees on the street barely registered as her already blood soaked hands clutched at her side. God there was so much blood, she felt week from the loss of it. But the world was fading now. She could hear someone calling her name but it felt very distant and far away... almost unreal. Her last thought was to wonder whose voice it was... Maybe it w-