It wasn't often that an akuma stressed Chat out. Often, she always had Ladybug to count on, knowing it was in his power to fix every bit of damage caused by an akuma. He may be a goof time to time, but Ladybug could be trusted to do good work. He's never failed Chat. She doubts he ever will.
Despite this, there were a small few that came close to being really stressful to Chat.
Lady Wifi. She was fast, and could freeze them in place. They had to be fast, had to best guess where to go. She was one of their first as the toughest akuma. There was a surge of panic of her getting shoved in a freezer and lost her ring in there, but she thankfully got it just in time for Ladybug to open the freezer.
Dark Cupid kinda, it wasn't fun having the akuma and Ladybug coming after her. And that kiss. Chat still kinda flipped out about it time to time, even dreamed about it (something she'd never admit to Plagg or Ladybug, especially the latter since he didn't remember).
Timebreaker, she kinda remembered being touched by the akuma, but she wasn't sure if that happened or not.
And Mime, Puppeteer, Pharaoh especially were stressful.
There were a good few that stressed her out. Not too many in the grand scheme. But definitely a good few.
But this, this akuma had to stress her out the most so far.
Pixelator.
Whatever this akuma shot at disappeared into pixels.
Now, that this wouldn't be too bad, it was just like Lady Wifi, she just had to be quick, had to be aware of him. Really had too. She had gotten hit once, and now her right hand were pixels. More of an annoyance than something stressful. Especially since she kept forgetting that detail.
But what was stressful was that there was no Ladybug. No Ladybug at all.
She called him, she waited, she looked.
No Ladybug.
When she hid Jagged away, she detransformed, asking Plagg what to do.
What he told her was frightful.
"I can't sense Tikki."
"What?!" she whispered scream.
Plagg floated calmly before Marinette, simply tugging a whisker as he considered this situation. "She's not dead," Plagg said, "but she's definitely not in this world. I would guess Pixelator got Ladybug."
"Great," she muttered, moving to lean her pixelated hand to her face, only to jerk when it phased through her head. Right. Her dominant hand was gone. Another great thing about this akuma.
No Ladybug.
No dominant hand.
And she was the destroyer of this half.
She couldn't fix anything.
She, she didn't-
"Breath."
She looked up, meeting Plagg calm gaze as he peered at her. "You panicking isn't going to help. If Ladybug got zapped, then do what you can."
"What can I do?" she snapped, running her left hand through her hair, starting to pace. "Can I even cleanse the akuma?"
Plagg didn't answer, but a frown crossed his expression.
She took that as a no and resumed her pacing, muttering to herself as she struggled to figure out what to do.
Plagg watched her, struggling to stay calm himself. Black Cat can cleanse if one had too, but with this... that wouldn't fix anything, and those pixelated could be lost forever through Black Cat's cleansing. If Tikki had gotten hit like he suspected...
He could not afford to have his other half lost.
The world couldn't.
But what else could they do...
"I got it."
Plagg looked up, blinking at Marinette's shift of determination. Holding up her left hand that held the silver ring, she ordered, "Claws out."
It was safe to say that Adrien and Tikki were panicking.
Both trapped in this vast white world, with a Chloe shadowing them, and a crocodile trailing after them.
There was no way out.
No way for Ladybug to get out.
And Chat was on her own.
With no way to solve this issue.
"I'm not even sure a Lucky Charm could even get us out," Tikki told him, bordering a slight panic from his jacket collar. Adrien doesn't doubt that if Chloe wasn't here, Tikki would be zipping about in a nervous pace.
They had no way to get out.
And couldn't contact Chat without Chloe discovering he was Ladybug.
That is, if they even could contact Chat.
They were... like in a different universe here.
Who's to say they even can connect to Chat from here.
Stressed, Adrien ran a hand through his hair, grimacing. Glancing back to see how far Chloe was, he whispered to the kwami, "There really isn't anything Chat can do?"
"Chat can't reverse anything," Tikki whispered back, buzzing with anxiety. "If Chat tries to cleanse this akuma, we may be lost forever."
Great...
He gulped down the frightening thought.
So all they could do right now was wait-
There was a sound that ripped through the still air, a sound that sounded like a tear.
With a squeal, Chloe raced to him, grabbing Adrien's arm and looking around wildly. Adrien searched with her, alarmed. Then he saw it. Large black tears ripped through the world in a rapid place, tearing it apart. Adrien and Chloe held each other tight, watching with frightened eyes as those tears slashed past them.
And then for a few seconds, the world was still and quiet once more.
Only to jerk and shake, the colors of this world and the tears inversed. The world went black as the tears flared white, with bright bubbled festering out of them like it was a river of lava, ready to explode.
That light grew brighter and brighter, and in a blink, Adrien and Chloe found themselves back in the hotel lobby.
Adrien glanced down at Tikki, meeting her relieved gaze.
Chat.
She came through.
With a grin, he pushed away from Chloe and tore off someplace secluded to transform.
It was time for Ladybug to come play, especially since his kitten only had five minutes to spare.
I really doubt Ladybug is the ONLY way of cleansing akumas, it's just Ladybug is the best way too, fixing everything and healing. Fu seemed up to going at HM, so maybe the turtle can cleanse akumas too. Likely all miraculouses are capable of countering each other if being misused, though some are better suited than others.
In that sense, Chat may have some cleansing properties too, just Plagg hasn't revealed them, maybe due to a cost that comes with it. Cost being for sure, not able to fix akuma damage, and maybe the butterfly gets killed, or Chat soaks up that negativity and for a day, feels what the victims feels. Maybe? Just speculating.