A direct continuation of the Bleached White parts 1, 2, and 3 chapters. This takes place near the start of the Blanc storyline.

The wash of pink light felt welcoming on her skin, bubbling like a fizzy drink but warm like stepping into a sunbeam. Black and scarlet crawled over her skin in its wake, replacing muddied clothes with a durable magical bodysuit. When the transformation ended, Marinette was Ladybug once more.

Her familiar red suit had changed over the years. A pattern of black running up her legs now, to resemble thigh-high boots, and the same black pattern covered her arms all the way up to her biceps to resemble gloves. They were small changes, but lent an amount of style and maturity to her super-suit that her adolescent suit had lacked.

Chat had approved of the changes once upon a time. Eyeing her with transparent appreciation and showering her with incessant and flowery compliments. She never thought the day would come when she missed that.

Ladybug moved from her hiding place, stalking to the edge of the roof, prepared to face her former partner and perhaps cleanse him from this white hell.

Now, Chat only regarded her with a flash of hatred and disgust. Those mad eyes blowing wide momentarily when he caught sight of her, before pupils shrank down into menacing slivers again. The fur around his ears and tail rising on end.

Ladybug pulled the yo-yo from her hip and gave it an preemptive twirl.

His eyes followed the motion. His lips peeled back, revealing those devastating fangs again, and he released a feral hiss.

She felt rather than saw Carapace take up her flank, readying his shield. His special power was spent, but years of training had lent him the stamina to keep his transformation up significantly longer. A flash of orange in her peripheral informed her that Rena was also present and awaiting instruction. The illusory sea of Marinettes from before all but gone. Some of them had escaped, but most of them rendered to wisps of orange dust by Chat's deadly claws.

A gruesome reminder that that could have been her. That her trusted partner was reduced to this murderous monster.

And the monster watched her, muscles flexing, preparing for the hunt.

"What's the plan, LB?" Carapace asked, bringing the spotted heroine back to the moment.

"You two will buy me time to summon a lucky charm. Chat appears to have multiple akumas, and it's going to take some finesse to separate them."

"LB is calling for a tag-team, babe!" Carapace called to the Fox who was perched a rooftop away. "You ready?"

"Two-hand touch, or no contact sport?" she quipped back, but there was a nervous quiver that betrayed her cool.

Carapace readied himself to launch into the alley, testing the grips of his shield. "If at all possible, no contact," he tossed back with just as much apprehension.

A nod from Ladybug and the blurs of greens and oranges dropped into the alley below where the bleached cat awaited. The resulting yowl of anger from Chat echoed out across the city, and suddenly chaos erupted, boxes, dumpsters, and bits of junk sent flying.

Ladybug stepped back to focus. Calling forth her lucky charm, and puzzling when a giant bottle of industrial strength glue fell into her hands.

A white mass launched from the alley, startling her and causing her to stumble back as she fought to retain her balance.

Wicked claws hooked the gutter lining of the building she perched upon. Ladybug watched those hands crush the metal like it was a pool noodle. Demonic eyes fixated on her for half a second before Carapace let out a whoop, and Chat was dragged back into the shadowed alley.

"Dude!" Carapace hauled Chat by his ankle and blocked a couple swipes with his shield. "I don't think so Captain Fuzzy Britches! You come back down and play with the B team."

"Don't you dare call us the 'B team!'" snapped Rena Rouge; she provoked the feline, prodding him with her flute and narrowly dodging a lunge from Chat's teeth. She took a swing and cracked it across his face, sending him recoiling. "We ain't no second best."

Chat recovered in seconds, pushing off the side of an upturned dumpster, and barreling straight for Rena. Carapace intercepted, smashing the shield into his side, and redirecting him towards the mouth of the alley.

Ladybug cracked half a smile at their banter and cast a look at her surroundings, searching for something that would prove useful with the glue. Crates? No. Potted plants? No. Loose bricks? The temptation to hurl them at Chat was hastily quashed.

A loose tarp swished in the wind from a few roofs over. Someone had been using it to redirect rainwater.

Perfect.

Below, the fox and turtle struggled to keep up with the white cat. He was relentless, and it was only a matter of time before one of them slipped up and took a blow from Chat's claws or teeth.

Ladybug took off, wasting no time hopping from one roof to another, and yanked the tarp from its fastenings. This caused a cascade of water to splash her, rain collected from the earlier storm. She forced soggy bangs from her eyes, and hoped that the glue wouldn't be adversely affected by the dampness of the tarp.

She took off again, feet striking the roofing tiles, up and over the buildings, until she reached the alley where she'd left Carapace and Rena.

By now their battle had spilled into the street, giving Ladybug an opportunity to drop into the alley and lay out the tarp. She moved crates, tires, and a dumpster to weigh down the edges, and proceeded to dump the glue over the tarp, careful to make sure it covered most of the available surface.

She had half a second to admire her handiwork, before a commotion at the mouth of the alley drew her attention. And she locked eyes with a disheveled and wild looking Chat.

His chest was heaving from exertion and strange, purple-tinted, glowing saliva bubbled from the corners of his mouth and down his chin, reminiscent of a rabid dog.

Ladybug dove over the tarp to the opposite side. The sudden movement incited Chat to surge forward, barreling after her on all fours with a breathless screech.

Carapace and Rena started into the alley as well to stop him, but Ladybug threw up her hands, a silent bid for them to back off.

The two heroes halted.

Death came within inches of her.

Chat's left hand was the first thing to make contact with the tarp, then one of his feet. His other hand came around to swipe at Ladybug, but it fell short when none of his limbs lifted away from the tarp and she stepped back just as a precaution.

She watched as he lost balance and fell to a knee, that too sticking into the glue.

Angrily the feline began shredding at the tarp, flailing and thrashing, but only managing to stick more of his body until he looked like a mouse caught in a glue trap.

Minutes passed, filled with howling and struggling. The three heroes simply standing around Chat watching him in morose silence.

Ladybug noted a wetness at the corners of Chat's eyes, tears beginning to well up. Was it frustration or humiliation? Or maybe those tears came from the black cat still trapped inside.

When his hair became caught in the glue, he screamed. His hair was longer, and more unkempt than it had been before he'd gone missing. She could hear the pain in his screams, and her heart wrenched. But she managed to hold firm. He would do far worse to them than a simple hair pulling.

Eventually the feral cat wore himself out and slumped to the ground. The screaming tapered off to heaving for breath and tears rolled down his cheeks; iridescent saliva frothed from the corner of his mouth.

Ladybug knelt down beside him, fighting back the urge to stroke her former partner's forehead. She looked up at Carapace instead. "How do we get the akumas from him if he's eaten them?"

Carapace shot her a wide-eyed stare. "He's what now?!"

I wanted to continue the Akumatized Marinette bit, but Im having trouble writing it. i might write a sequel to that chapter later.