It was after midnight, that much she could tell. Red already felt like she had searched the whole forest over, and nothing. She had a sinking feeling that Noir was avoiding her, but her gut also told her that she had to act quickly. Whatever was happening to Noir was quickly becoming worse, and she knew that she had to reaffirm her suspicions if she wanted to help him, if she wanted to help the town. She had to look at that marking again.

The sky looked hazy purple, as if it was nearing morning, and it made Red feel nauseous. Time was moving too quickly. Two nights without sleep, and she should be exhausted. And even though she felt incredibly alert, she was worried that any moment she would lose the necessary adrenaline that was pumping through her veins, and collapse from her sleep-deprived schedule. That was not an option. But the possibility of it happening was steadily increasing.

In the distance, she heard a noise. Quickly, Red turned her head in that direction, and slung her bow off her shoulder, fitting it with an arrow, and crouching down. She watched the snow and the trees, still rather unnervingly easy to see in the frail moonlight. The snow glowed, and the trees stood out, looking blacker than the nighttime sky itself. Another crack startled her, sounding from a few paces further, and quickly, quietly, she set off. She saw nothing, maybe a flash of purple smoke, but of all her time spent in these woods, she had learned that there were very few sounds when Noir was around, unless it was the wolf himself.

The snow was soft and dusty under her feet, and as always, she was surprised she did not sink straight through to Plagg's underground kingdom. Ahead of her, a shape as dark as the trees was moving along, with wisps of purple trailing after it. She increased her pace, and surprisingly, the wolf did not. Could he be leading her some place?

"Noir! I can see you; stop running! I want to help, and I won't give up on you!" Red cried out desperately, and for a moment, the shape in front of her slowed down. A head turned, and spots of green flashed with human emotion. His eyes were filled with anguish, indecision. Then, he turned again and began to gallop away. "Wait! Kitty!"

Red slung her bow over her shoulder as she ran, still gripping one of her arrows in her palm. Her feet pounded across the forest floor, and when she slipped on snow, she barely noticed. There was no thought in her head besides the fact that she had to reach him. And he was still not running his fastest. He was not tearing through this forest like the devil was on his tail. She had to catch him. And she would.

All of a sudden, they came to the ridge overlooking the rest of the forest, where the King's castle was in the distance. The wolf slowed for a moment to look at the castle off in the distance, the tiny bit of moonlight reflecting off it's shining surfaces. It was all Red needed.

She collided into the wolf, tackling him over the steep hill that was on the opposite side of the ridge as the castle. They both slid down the snowy side, and landed at the bottom, in the sort of 'bowl' that the forest formed here, surrounded by trees and rocks and steeps slopes all around. Red had not even noticed that she was heaving until this moment. She did not let it stop her, and rolled to her knees to crawl over to where the wolf had landed, looking quite stunned.

"That certainly… was not easy. You… are not easy to catch," she smiled slightly at the wolf, and noticed that he looked back at her with worried and hesitant eyes. Red smiled again. She did not care. His eyes were bright green, and full of emotion. It made no difference if he had attacked her last night.

Noir was laying on the ground, front legs stretched out in front of him, as if he had been relaxing in the snow, even though he had just tumbled down a hill. The mark on his chest was only half visible. She prodded him carefully. "Please Kitty, I want to help. I just need to see your markings. Please."

The wolf looked curiously at Red, as if he did not understand what she was saying. Then, slowly, he got up so that he was sitting on his hind legs. Red inched closer and observed the butterfly pattern on his chest and the ring around his paw. Just as she wondered, they looked less broken up than when she met him in the morning. Carefully, she laid her hand over the butterfly mark. Like the last night, she felt woozy like someone had shoved an ice pick through her brain, and then began to burn her hand with fire. But Noir did nothing. Red removed her hand quickly and looked into the wolf's eyes. Startling green and not wolf-like at all.

"I think I'm right," Red muttered under her breath. "It is a curse, is it not?"

Then Noir's head twitched.

Hesitantly, Red looked on. His ears twitched again, and he shook his head fully, like a faerie was bothering him. Red inched backwards. "Noir…"

The shaking did not stop. His spasms only got worse, shaking throughout his whole body, as purple smoke shed off of him in layers. Red stood up and took her bow from over her shoulder. She touched her forehead, lightly, where he had scratched her before. And then he looked at her, without feeling. His eyes glazed over, like the last night, and Red stumbled back in horror. But as she watched, the wolf stood his ground and continued to shake his head back and forth vigorously. Then, he stopped, looked straight at her again, and growled. His eyes clouded even further, until they looked like they had been filled up with black ink, even darker than the wolf's fur, or the trees around them. And bright, fuchsia-purple light gathered around Noir's eyes, lighting up the wolf's next snarl with more ferociousness than a pink color would normally offer. The light formed a jagged zig-zag by each eye, and when she concentrated, she realized that together, the light looked like a butterfly pattern.

"I was right, I was right, I was right," Red whispered to herself as she backed further away. "Kitty, I don't want to hurt you. I don't." She readied her bow anyways. And he approached. It approached.

The wolf leapt at her, like before. Red dodged, sliding to her right in the snow, and drawing her arrow back to her cheek. She let it fly, grazing past the wolf's side and nicking it. It was meant as a warning shot, which might have been a bad idea, since the wolf snarled louder and charged at her again.

Red scrambled backwards, half up one of the dusted slopes, sinking in the snow. Now is not the time for this snow to behave normally. She tried to draw another arrow from her quiver, but the wolf bounded towards her, jaws open and claws out, and she had to dive to the side, half rolling, half skidding across the snow. A few of her arrows fell out of her quiver, and she grabbed one, kneeling on the ground, and aiming to fire at the wolf again. It was too close to her position though, and came leaping and snarling at her again. Red tried to duck, to slip out of the way, but the wolf was still too close, and she was batted to the side with one of its paws. She never realized Noir's strength until now, as she skidded across the snowy ground again.

She hissed in pain, feeling sharp jabs in her skin on her side. Apparently her jacket and cloak were not enough armor. There were new shreds in her cloak. She did not care. Realizing her hands were half empty, Red searched for her bow, but it was lying a foot away, snapped in half. She scrambled to her feet and pulled a small, thin dagger out of a pocket in her cloak, holding the arrow she still had as a knife in her other hand. The wolf came closer, growling still, eyes deeper than the night, and thin streaks of light floating around them.

Red crouched low, and as the wolf bounded at her again, she dodged forward, and sliced across its two right legs with her arrowhead. The wolf half howled, half hissed in pain, and turned on her, even more angry. Red stumbled backwards slightly, over some of her spilled arrows, and as she did, she hurled the arrow she held at the wolf's side, and picked up another one from behind her. The arrow she threw hit Noir and caused the wolf to bleed, but it did not stick in its hide.

Red tried to scramble to her feet again, but the wolf leapt at her, and pinned her down, a few of the arrows in her quiver snapping beneath her. She hissed at his claws digging into her right arm and legs. But before Noir could scratch her face again, or sink its teeth into her skin, she had her unpinned arm with the dagger in her hand to the wolf's throat. Purple smoke breathed out of his mouth, and the lights fluttering around his eyes diminished. Red watched him, and then lowered her dagger.

"I've killed before. Noir, I cannot do it again," she whispered and let her arm fall to her side.

The wolf did not move. His claws still dug into her legs and arm. And then, suddenly, the ink drained from his eyes, and then they lost their glazed look. Quickly, the wolf leaped off her, complete and utter horror reflected in his face, twisting it in ways only a human face could twist.

Red gasped from the pain, but kept her eyes trained on the wolf. She felt her body failing, she felt like passing out in the snow. But she could not. She took a heavy breath. "Noir… Noir…"

The wolf backed away and went charging up the slope. He ran without purpose. No, no, no, no.

Red tried to roll up onto her feet again, to follow him. She only got on half her side. Desperate, she cried out. "Adrien! Wait!"

It did nothing, except cause her to fall to the ground again, unconscious.

A/N: Well. That was fun (and a bit long, ooh-la-la!). Another chapter to be uploaded on the weekend, and sorry this one wasn't uploaded yesterday, like I said it would be. Fight scenes take a bit more out of me, though I think this one was pretty great. Hope you liked it too; tell me your thoughts!

And just a friendly reminder before I go, if you want to take my poll to help decide what the plot of my next ML fanfic should be, I'm going to stop taking responses on Saturday. Here's the link; it's also on my profile page: forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd87Hl_re7yooQ4Sacj1bnpztRzX0c4oJIybw6wwv29V0E4ng/viewform

But that's all for now folks, and I'll see you soon!