Forty: Chains Broken

Author's Note: Chat takes his new powers for a test drive, trying to free Nino and Alya from their cursed bracelets.


Plagg floated above the bathroom counter, a smug expression on his tiny face. "I figured you were close," he said as he popped another slice of Camembert into his mouth.

"You could have warned me," I said as I toweled my hair. Marinette had rightly recommended a cold shower to chase the final effects of the pheromones away; my head felt clear for the first time in hours. The brief interlude had also allowed me a few moments with Plagg to discuss my new reality.

He smirked a bit. "Are you honestly going to tell me you hadn't noticed the changes?"

Hanging the towel on the rack, I finger styled my hair and pondered whether it was worth gelling it. "What changes?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the kwami roll his eyes. "Please. Leaping higher? Running longer? The lag between using your Cataclysm and the first pad winking out on the ring?"

I'd grabbed the bottle of gel but paused mid-squeeze of the viscous material. It had occurred to me the five-minute timer that had ruled my world since becoming Chat Noir seemed to be more on the order of six or seven minutes; such a subtle shift, though, hadn't meant much. Combine that, though, with the upgraded physicality, and I knew the tiny God of Destruction was right.

As I stared at my reflection in the mirror, it dawned on me I'd felt a wave of such changes once before. My version of puberty, though, had come with some distinctly feline traits that had been rather difficult to control. A slight smile appeared on my doppelgänger as I recalled one particular afternoon where I'd nearly gone feline-a-mano with Luka Couffaine over the love of Marinette.

Maybe it had been a result of those challenging times that had caused me to ignore the most recent changes. I'd made it through the teenage version, so perhaps my fear of this adult version was misplaced. Then again, while I had long wielded a terrible power for the good of society, deep down in my soul I realized I was now many magnitudes more powerful than even I had ever imagined. Holding my ring hand up, I decided that fear was well founded.

"Holy kwami," I breathed before shifting my gaze to Plagg. "What else can I do?"

"Plenty of things," he said as he unwrapped another slice from the small wheel I'd carried in for him. "Once you're done blasting this other holder out of the water, we'll talk."

I started to run the gel through my hair, creating the look that graced hundreds of billboards across Paris. "So it is a holder, then?"

"Yeah. Based on how you've described it, Sugar Cube and I think it might be from another Miracle Box. It's definitely not a kwami from our group."

My hand stopped midway through the air. "Wait. What? Another Miracle Box?"

"Master Fu can explain everything when you see him," Plagg said. "But yes, there are lots of other boxes out there. At least, there used to be – until today, I would have told you all of them had been lost, save for the one the Guardian has."

I turned toward him. "And you're telling me this only now because...?"

Plagg gobbled another piece of cheese and looked as contrite as was possible for him. "They've been missing for centuries," he said after swallowing. "And it's not my story to tell."

"Indeed," I frowned as I finished up and washed the excess gel off my hands. "We'll have a nice, long chat about being forthright with your holder when this is all over."

Plagg simply nodded and allowed me to transform back to Chat Noir; a few minutes later, I joined Ladybug in the skies of Paris, working our way toward Nino's hideout. "Did you get through to Alya?"

"Yes," Ladybug replied as we ran side-by-side along the spine of a building. "The pheromones let her sleep more than she's gotten in a few weeks – and she's not been summoned yet."

"Good," I nodded as I leapt over an alleyway, tail snapping as I soared into the space. "That gives us a bit more time."

"Yes," she agreed. "And a slight advantage. She's transformed to Rena and will be waiting on the rooftop."

"Will that be far enough away?" I asked as I vaulted into a tuck over a chimney. We'd decided that based on what little we knew about the bracelets, removing one would likely notify our nemesis of our actions; worse, it was likely it would ratchet the pain up to new levels on the remaining bracelet in retribution. Our plan was to try and remove them one after the other – if that was possible.

"That's the hope," she said.

"Do you really think this will work?" I asked. "I've done targeted Cataclysm's before, but never on an item that is, essentially, embedded on someone."

"I do," she said as she tossed a smile at me. "Mostly because I have unwavering confidence in the cool cat who will be wielding it."

"I'm going to need it," I laughed as we leapt in tandem one last time, landing on a balcony I'd not been on for some time. The space beyond the French doors was dark, so my night vision kicked in and allowed me to see the figure of my friend curled into a fetal position on the small couch.

The door was unlocked, and I pulled it open; I slipped into the room with Ladybug right behind me, both of us on edge. My feline senses told me Nino was alone, but in truth we had no real idea of the breadth and depth of powers this holder might possess. Dropping down to the side of the couch, I placed a paw on Nino's arm.

He rolled toward me, and looked terrible. Nino hadn't shaved in days, and my feline nose wrinkled in confirmation that it had been at least that long since he'd graced a shower. His clothes were wrinkled and rumpled, food stained and slept in. "Chat..." he said, his voice hoarse.

"Hey," I said. "We're here."

"Alya?" he croaked. At the mere mention of his fiancé, a glow from beneath the arm of his shirt appeared, and his brow furrowed.

My masked eyes widened and then narrowed as I turned toward Ladybug. "When I get my claws on-" I growled.

"Down, kitty," Ladybug said, but I could hear her anger clearly. Using love as a weapon was a first, and possibly the cruelest thing I'd ever seen.

She shifted to slide next to me and rolled the cuff up to expose the glowing outline of the bracelet. "As much as I hate to say this, it might be easier for you to do your thing while it's visible."

I swallowed. "Right," I said as I held up my ring hang. Taking a deep breath, I said, softly: "Cataclysm."

The power of destruction flowed into my hand and paused for a moment. I shifted my masked eyes to Ladybug again, hesitant for the first time in years.

"Go ahead," she said softly. "This will work."

I took another deep breath, and then very carefully tapped a claw against the rapidly fading bracelet. Like water wicking into a dry piece of cloth, the band encircling Nino's wrist quickly shifted colors and became a robust rusty brown. To my surprise, that's as far as it went. As it started to shift back to the white-hot glow, I realized what I needed to do.

"Cataclysm!" I cried and tapped it again with a claw. Then again. And again.

Each touch of my claw to the bracelet seemed to hurt Nino; my feline ears went flat, but I pressed onward, trying to ignore his struggles to get away from me. At one point, Ladybug had to hold him in a massive hug, gently stroking his sweat-matted hair in an effort to comfort him.

Again, and again, and again I tapped at his bracelet, trying unsuccessfully to close my emotions down.

I lost track of how many times I had to call on my superpower, but when the bracelet finally shifted one last time and fluttered away as traces of ash, I felt as spent as I'd ever been. Crumpling to the carpet below the couch, I was breathing hard and wanted nothing more than to curl up into a tiny ball and sleep for a month.

Ladybug moved above me and then I felt her next to me.

"How is he?" I asked.

"Sleeping peacefully," she said. "That took more than I expected."

"It did," I replied as I opened my masked eyes. Holding up my ring hand, I could see I'd lost a paw print. "Plagg is gonna want a full buffet, I think."

"No kidding."

The howl of intense pain filtered down from the roof, and we knew in an instant we had been correct. "Will he be okay?" I asked as I laboriously pulled myself up from the carpet. "Can we safely leave him for a few minutes?"

Cries of anguish cut Ladybug's response short. "We don't have a choice," she said as she went for the door. "Come on!"

I felt sluggish as I vaulted through the door and clawed up the side of the building before leaping over the edge of the roof. Rena was curled into a tiny ball, just as Nino had been, howling in pain much as her namesake animal might have done if caught in a hunter's snare. Quickly dropping to her side, I prayed I still had enough left in the tank. "Cataclysm!" I cried as Ladybug quickly held out Rena's arm.

The power flowed into my hand once more, and I gently tapped my claw tip to the white glow visible through her costume. Much as with Nino, it took multiple hits to get it to change color; hearing Rena scream and feeling her struggles against me were no easier to handle than they had been with Nino, but at that point I could only, grimly, press on.

This time, though, every four Cataclysms resulted in another pad winking out on my ring. I began to despair that I might be putting Rena through this excruciating action only to not be able to finish the job. By the time it finally shifted to ash, I was down to my final pad on the ring, which was chirping at me furiously.

For my own part, I felt like I had just run two marathons, back to back. In some ways I probably had. Collapsing against the cold tile of the roof, I knew I only had seconds before I lost my transformation – and exposed another secret. "Ladybug, I've got to recharge," I said.

"I've got her," Ladybug said. "She's passed out, anyway."

I nodded, unable to really do more, then painfully managed to pull myself up and crawl around behind the skylight we'd braced Rena against. I'd barely leaned against it myself when my transformation sizzled away and an exhausted Plagg fell into my hands. "I didn't expect you to try it out quite that fast," he wheezed. "Cheese..."

Fumbling through my shirt, I came up with several slices that he downed in rapid succession. I was reaching into my pants for the emergency slice when Ladybug called out. "Chat?"

"Recovering," I said. "I'll be around in a moment."

"Good," she said, though I caught something in her voice.

"What?" I asked pointedly.

"Rena received her next assignment just before we removed Nino's bracelet; she left her text messages open for us in case she passed out."

"Lovely. What is it?"

"The place is probably more significant," she said. "She's supposed to lure us to the Grevin."

I blinked. "The Grevin," I said slowly, nodding as I did. "That explains everything."

"It does," Ladybug replied and I knew from her tone she'd figured it out too.

"Well, let me finish plying my kwami with food. We wouldn't want to be late for our own funeral, now would we?"

"Indeed not," she chuckled.