Adrien's POV

Ladybug and Volpina have a long, deadly staring contest, like if I stood between them, I would be cut into little pieces with the hundreds of invisible daggers they were throwing at each other. Our time with Volpina is not a good memory, especially for Ladybug. When I first met her, she lied to me and made me think that she was a Miraculous holder, and that kind of ticked Ladybug off. She was also the only Akuma that was super close into getting Ladybug's Miraculous.

I watch the two girls silently fight, Volpina's tail swishing side to side, and Ladybug who, at some point got out her yo-yo and is now spinning it at her side. I let them go at it for a while, somewhat amused.

"You both know how much I like a cat fight, but can we get this over with?" I say. The look at me with the same stares they were giving each other. Ladybug's look was one I have never seen before. Anger? Determination? Annoyance? It was a mix of all of them. Obviously they still have some buff from before.

"Chat, would it be okay if I take her on first?" Ladybug asks. Before I could reply, Volpina speaks up.

"Oh, don't worry Ladybug. I've been planning this for a while now, and I don't want to hurt my little pet." She winks at me, "Chat, just sit down and watch the show." She brings up her flute and plays a few notes. Suddenly, a large medal cage appeared around me. I roll my eyes. Her illusions have no figure; it'll just disappear when I touch it.

I have a running start and kick the bars. I can feel my whole body vibrate as my foot actually hit medal and right following my foot was my face. There was a large bang and I fall onto the ground. I groan and rub my head.

"Hey! What the heck is this?" I shout.

"Oh, the illusions? Well, Hawk Moth gave me a little bit more power than before. My illusions are real, and you can't escape." She hisses.

"Oh really?" I say. I raise my hand in front of me. "Cataclys-"

"No Chat! If you use that now, you'll just detransform in a few seconds, revealing your identity to Hawk Moth. This is just the first fight. Save it for later and just sit there. I'll take care of this." Volpina bursts out laughing.

"Do you really think that you could defeat me? Did you learn anything from back then?" Ladybug just rolls her eyes.

"Let's just get this over with."

After that, everything was a blur of orange and red. Neither used their weapons at first, just their fists and legs (I never could've guessed how hard two girls could hit each other, like this looked like a deadly prison fight). Ladybug knocked Volpina to the ground with a grunt. She immediately went for the flute, but before Ladybug could get any closer Volpina quickly made a copy of herself by playing small, pleasant toon. Now, two against one, Ladybug was overwhelmed. I have to get out of this cage.

I focus at my task in hand. I look for loos screws, a latch, a bendable bar, nothing. I consider using Cataclysm like before, but like as ladybug said, I would give up my identity. I franticly think. What can I do? Suddenly I remember something that Fu taught me. I mentally kick myself in the face. Of course, I totally forgot about that!

I kneel on the ground and outstretch my hands. "Cat Claw" I say, not too loudly so the girls could hear me. Suddenly, I could feel the claws on my hands grow longer, thicker, sharper, stronger. In about five seconds, my claws have grown twice its size. I remember Fu's words in the back of my head, Cat Claw is a protective maneuver used to get you out of tight spots. With these, you can dig through almost anything. It doesn't take very much energy at all and you won't detransform but you can only use it once at a time. It lasts only one hour and can be used about every thirty minutes, but be warned, don't use it more than three times or else you will have some… side effects. The way he said side effects made my skin crawl. I wonder what would happen, but I don't want to find out.

I try my new claws on the bars, but the noise it made when I hit it was loud. Volpina laughed at me while continuing to fight Ladybug. They're both starting to look tired. Better make this quick. I go to the farthest side of the cage, away from the two girls (luckily they moved a bit away) and started to dig the ground. With my claws, I was able to dig the ground like it was dry sand. Even when I hit rock I sliced through it like it was nothing.

I look up the small hole that I've made and see I'm well under five feet below the surface. With that I start going horizontally, and in about 5 minutes I'm positive that I've made it past the bars and start digging upward. When I break the surface I look franticly look around for my lady. I hear someone grunt from up above me and I see that they were on top of huge orange and black pillars that must have appeared while I was digging. There is only one on one again, and neither of them have noticed me yet, so what do I do now?

I get an idea and jump back down into my hole. I calibrate the distance between me and where Volpina's pillar is. I dig as franticly as possible, at some point it got so dark that my night vision kicked in. Within 10 minutes I break a small surface opening to see where I am. To my luck (or ladybugs luck) I was at the base of Volpina's pillar. I jump up and hid into the pillar's shadow. I overhear Volpina above me.

"Ladybug, you cannot even think about getting me. I am way more powerful than you." I hear a thud from Ladybug's pillar and see her get knocked onto the ground painfully. I'm so confused, she looks like she's getting beat up from a ghost. The realization hit me and I get angrier with Volpina. She's totally cheating, keeping me out of the way and calling on an invisible monster to do her dirty work. I sneer. "I want to hear you plead. Plead for Chat Noir like a dog. Call for him. Beg to me for the release of you partner, and I may give you your wish."

"N-never." I hear ladybug growl, then gets hit from another blow from the invisible beast. I can't handle this anymore and I start climbing up the pillar. My first idea was to just cut down the pillar, but my blind rage is taking over. I'm near the top when I over hear Volpina again.

"Oh, fine. I'm just going to turn him into my puppet then." I watch her focus change from ladybug to my little cage. I watch her make it disappear and she gasps looking at the hole at the far end of the cage. "What? Impossible!"

While I still had the element of surprise on my side, I sneak up behind her and grab her flute. She turns around and glares at me. She attacks me, but without her flute she was weak, and I just pushed her out of the way.

"No! Give that back!" She shouts, but she was too late. I crushed the flute in my bare hands, snapping it in half. Suddenly, a huge black and purple butterfly appeared out of the flute (it was the size of my normal hand). I watched as it started to flutter its wings, but I was able to catch it just as it was about to leave. By accident, my claws put holes in the poor bug's wings. It was unable to fly after that. I look at Volpina who's looking in the distance, not looking at anything in particular, fear spread across her face. Suddenly she screams.

She starts to pull at her face and her skin shouting "No! Don't leave me!" over and over again. The scene was horrifying. I then see a figure disconnect from her person, a dark purplish black being, like a shadow with an actual form disconnect from her. It looked as if someone was pulling a string and was taking her spirit away. It seemed painful in a way, and her ear-piercing scream wasn't helping. Her body moved with the shadow as it was being detached, and after a part of it was removed from a certain part of the body, that piece of skin would glow. As soon as the entire being was removed from Volpina, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapses. She transforms back to Lila, but the weird shadow of Volpina remained. She didn't have a face, nor a solid body, just a basic outline of her shape, making her look 2D. I don't know how I can tell, but I sense that she's staring straight at me. I don't know what to do and I was about to go to it, but it bowed to me before I could move. I could almost not hear it, it could have been mistaken as the wind, but I swear the shadow said thank you, then it disappeared.

I don't realize I'm breathing heavily through this whole presentation. I look down at the lifeless body of Lila, and quickly run up to her. I check for a pulse. I wait for 1,2,3 and heave a sigh when I feel her pulse. I look over to the other pillar towards Ladybug who's sitting down taking a breather, worry on her face. I shout to her that she's alright, but suddenly the pillars start to shake. They were collapsing and we were about 50 feet up. I grab Lila and pounce down and I land with a grunt. I look up and see that Ladybug hasn't followed me and is still sitting on the tower. I realize she can't get up.

I gently put down Lila and as fast as I could I jump up to Ladybug. I scoop her up over my shoulder, and right as the formation started to collapse under my feet, I jumped off and grabbed onto the ladder that was so conveniently close by. I'm heaving heavily, completely out of breath.

"Are you alright Princess?" I ask.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Just a little scratched up." She says. I can't see her face, but I can tell that she's smiling, "Thanks Chat. Don't ever let me do something like that without you again." I smile at her words.

"My lady, even if they bound me with chains and thrust me into the ocean, I will always be there to protect you." I say and climb down the stairs. Although I'm pretty sure she didn't want me to hear it, I heard her say under her breath, I know.

When I reach the bottom, I lay her down and check out her wounds. Nothing too horrible, a few scratches here and there, and I can see what's starting to look like a bruise on the bottom of her chin. Upset at his, my instinct was to lean in and check it out. I lift her chin up and tilt it to get a better look at it. I touch the skin around the bruise, but touch the injury.

"Um, Chat?" Ladybug rumbles. I look at her. I realize her discomfort at our proximity. I was leaning over her body, one of my hands on the wall for balance. Our noses were practically touching and I could feel her breath tickling against my skin. We stare into each other's eyes for a bit, my thumb genially caressing her injury. I make a forbidden move and take a quick glance of her full, pink lips. I wonder what they must feel like I say to myself. I look back at Ladybug. She's so beautiful. I wish I could just take her now, get her out of this place, keep her safe forever. We forget about the world around us, everything becoming a blur. I can feel us getting closer, then the loud, annoying screech entered into the arena, snapping us out of our daze.

"Ah, ah, ah. You two aren't done yet. Here we go ladies and gentlemen, round two." And with that, the speaker shut off. I stand up and look down at Ladybug.

"Can you get up?" I ask and extend my hand.

"Uh, yeah." She says, not making eye contact. She takes my hand and I heave her up. I turn around and shout out to Hawk Moth.

"Hey Hawk Moth! Where is round two?" I shout. I turn around with a childish smile and Ladybug just shakes her head. We hear the wall entrance open again, but in the mist were three people. When they step into the light, I recognize them instantly. Timebreaker, Horrificator and stoneheart. I sigh in relief when I see that they look fine, but realizing that I'll have to fight them tings my heart, especially with the knowledge that whatever happened to Lila might happen to them too.

"Let's just get this done quickly." Timebreaker says.

"No sweat, we'll hit 'em hard." Stoneheart says. Horrificator just roars. I hear ladybug from behind me.

"Chat, there are three of them, so here is what we're going to do. Since I got Timebreaker I will take care of her. You take care of Horrificator, then when they're down, we'll both get Stoneheart." I nod at her plan.

"Be safe, Timebreaker is probably a lot faster." I say.

"And I'm going to guess Horrificator is a lot stronger too."

"What if Stoneheart tries to attack us while we fight? What if they stick together?" I ask.

"Then make them separate, and with Stoneheart, just try to ignore him. He's big and probably the strongest of the three, but he's slow. That's why we'll do it together." She says. I nod.

"Yap, yap, yap. Is that all you guys do? Come on, lets speed this up already." Timebreaker says.

"I have to agree with you." I say, "Hey Ladybug, it's about time we show Hawk Moth what we're really made of."

"Don't go all wild cat on me Chat. We probably have a lot more after this."

I tighten my hands into fist and realize that my claws are still on Cat Claws mode. I probably have only about 15 to 30 minutes left. I don't want to hurt them, but I bet they're really good for blocking.

"Can do m'lady." I say. That's when the trio runs up and the next fight begins.