The defeat of Diamont Solitaire did not come easy, but all the same, Ladybug was startled by how seamlessly Shadowcat responded during the attack. It was like he could intuitively read her plan of attack, and could instinctively react at the perfect moment. His fighting style was sharp, direct, and efficient. Ladybug had to admit, she had never seen anyone so effortlessly take to weilding miraculous quite like this before!

While Shadowcat strategically countered attacks, and skillfully displayed mastery of fighting techniques, Ladybug was the one distracted. She had always prided herself in being able to read people, but Shadowcat was an absolute mystery.

He turned back to her, catching her gaping awkwardly at him. Her look confused him, and he shook his head. Throwing himself back into the fight was better than dwelling on what the blush under her mask after catching her staring could possibly mean.

Suddenly the hardened Diamont thundered a unnerving bellow, frustrated by his difficult targets. "Just give me your miraculous' already Ladybug and Chat Noi...no...Cat-man!" He glared at Shadowcat for a moment, more perturbed that this version of Chat Noir seemed no easier to pin down than the one he had seen before on the news. "

"Don't let Hawkmoth use you! Maybe we can help you, if you would just..." Ladybug tried in vain to speak reason to the akuma victim. He tried to grab hold of her midsentence, with a scoffing, bitter laugh.

"What can you do?!" Diamont narrowed his eyes at them, perusing them further down the street. "In a single night my dreams were shattered...but now Hawkmoth has made me stronger! Invincible! Now this 'City of Love' with be shattered," he spat angerly. "But I...I can't be broken! I am has hard as diamond...and my heart is cold as stone. The pain can't reach me now...Hawkmoth will never let me feel that pain again, as long has I hand him your miraculous' tonight!"

He flung his hands out from his chest, and piercing shards of diamonds shot forward at them. Instantly they ducked for cover near a park bench, and dove underneath. Ladybug peaked over the bench, while Shadowcat stared face to face with a empty navy velveteen ring box that lay empty on the ground. He reached forward, took it in his hands thoughtfully, and then looked up towards Diamont.

"Just calm down!" Ladybug called out. "If you're not so angry we can figure things out!"

"I'll never kneel before anyone again! I should have known I could never be enough!"

Something in Diamont's words caught Shadowcat's attention, and he looked up to Ladybug. "He's not really angry...he's heartbroken!" Shadow cat held the small ring box in his had toward Ladybug. "Ladybug! It's the ring..."

"Ahhh...what are you doing with that?" Ladybug stiffened, looking panicked from the ring box to Shadowcat, who at this very moment, knelt down at the park bench holding out a ring box to her. "You're not really..."

Shadowcat looked confused, and then looked at the ring box, and suddenly became aware of his 'proposal-like-stance.' Flustered, he stood up abruptly, shoving the empty ring box into one of his zippered pockets. "No, no...I wasn't...as if I would..." Shadowcat huffed (making Ladybug frown at the insinuation that she would be undesirable as the recipient of his proposal...which Shadowcat completely missed. Ladybug swiftly replaced her expression to one of indifference). Shadowcat straightened his back with a deep breath, as if collecting his cool again. Then he waved his hand and moved on quickly to his point, "He calls himself Diamont Solitare, right?"

"Yeah...so?" Ladybug quirked an eyebrow, and put her hand on her hip, " are you going to say he's probably just a diamond in the rough, and we shouldn't be so hard on him?...or were you going to comment on those diamond abs of his, that her looks really 'cut?"

Shadowcat stared back at her stone-faced. His eye twitched, and he turned back to Diamont, "Ahh, yeah, sure...but I actually meant that his name might be a hint about what caused his akumatization in the first place. A solitaire diamond is usually used for an engagement ring isn't it? Maybe the akuma is in the diamond ring at his heart."

"Umm...oh...yeah...of course, that makes sense," Ladybug rushed, feeling foolish for throwing in a barrage of puns, and getting no reaction. Chat Noir would have loved them, and here she had gone and wasted them on stone-cold Shadowcat!

Chat Noir had always been able to lighten the mood in the heat of battle. He made it fun, and their banter (she hated to admit it) brought out the competitive side in her. It sure was an asset when the chips were down. Sure, frequently distracting and infuriating...but maybe she had felt the need to fill the silence between herself and Shadowcat with a pun or two because deep down she missed it...missed Him.

"Well?" Shadowcat inquired with an edge of impatience.

"So... we go for his heart," Ladybug snapped herself back to attention. "But it is going to be hard to get at, he is guarding it too much."

"Sounds familiar," Shadowcat mumbled incoherently.

"What was that?" Ladybug narrowed her eyes at Shadowcat, not hearing anything but a sarcastic tone resonate from his underhanded grumble.

"Nothing...just sounds like a familiar challenge. There always seems to be something getting in the way," Shadowcat brushed it off with a hard glance at Ladybug.

"Yeah, well nobody said that being a hero was easy," Ladybug shot back, unsure how this stranger seemed to have some underlying issue simmering under the surface... she just couldn't pin down what exactly he had gotten defensive about. She decided to ignore Shadowcat's attitude and just capture this akuma already. "Really, there is just one thing that can break a diamond..."

"...another diamond," Shadowcat finished her sentence.

"Well...yes," Ladybug said in surprise. Once more she was thrown off by the way Shadowcat seemed to be on the same page as her in strategy, but at the same time, evasive whenever they got too close. "So I guess I'll need another "Lucky Charm!"

The diamond chisel once more fell into her hand, and she handed it to Shadowcat. "Strike him first with this to crack the surface, then you'll be able to drive it home with a cataclysm," Ladybug said with more confidence than she felt.

"And you?" Shadowcat asked.

"And I'll be the distraction this time," Ladybug wound up her yoyo.

"Huh..." Shadowcat seemed surprised. "Okay then...let's do this."

Shadowcat watched as Ladybug swooped onto the scene and criss-crossed just out of reach of Diamont's swinging arms trying to grab hold of her. She always was one step ahead of him. He didn't realize, but Shadowcat certainly noticed the web that she was weaving with her yoyo string, that was closing in closer and closer around his arms and chest. Usually being the one doing the distracting, it was refreshing to see Ladybug take on this roll. Quickly the pressure was on though, and it was his turn to step in. Diamont lunged forward as Ladybug bounded over his shoulders with a flip, and pulled all her stings taunt. This yanked Diamont's arms backward, exposing the diamond on his chest plate.

Shadowcat used his baton to leap forward and drive the chisel into the target, and then called out "Cataclysm!" making the dark cracks of destructive energy surge though the diamond giant. He collapsed to his knees, and his glittering shell fell away. The purple butterfly had no sooner emerged, than Ladybug had caught it and purified it. The lucky charm too, was tossed into the air, and the Ladybugs returned everything to the way it had been. Even Ladybug's other allies materialized again, further down the street where they had been fighting earlier.

The akuma victim shriveled into a thin young man, in a suit with cool blue eyes and a grey suit which was wrinkled at the knees. He dropped down before them, and his shoulders drooped. So often Ladybug had witnessed the relief on the faces of akuma victims that had been purified, but this man looked as if the world had just caved in on him as soon has his consciousness returned.

"It'll be okay sir!" Ladybug encouraged him. "Hawkmoth took advantage of your emotions, but we were able to set everything right again!"

"She was right to say 'no...' the man whispered despondently.

"Ummm...well, maybe if you give it another try. Maybe she just wasn't ready," Ladybug urged. "Maybe we can help you!"

"I don't think we'll be able to help with this," Shadowcat stepped in front of Ladybug, and presented the empty ring box to the man gently.

The man took the velveteen box tenderly, and reached into his breast pocket over his heart. He drew out a solitaire diamond engagement ring, and slipped it into the little box, closing the lid slowly. "He's right," the man gestured to Shadowcat. "There is nothing anyone can do. I couldn't win her over no matter how hard I tried. What did I expect?!"

"Maybe there is still a chance..." Ladybug offered hopefully.

The man cut her off with the shake of his head. "I'm truly sorry that I put others at risk just because I was overwhelmed with heartbreak. I should have known. I should have noticed the signs."

"The signs of what?" Ladybug asked quietly.

"Unrequited love," he signed, and walked away from them, hunched over with the weight of his loss.

Ladybug went to go after him, but Shadowcat held her back. "Not everything can be fixed with Ladybugs. Hearts don't heal that way," he said, as they watched the man round the next corner alone. "Some things are just never meant to be," Shadowcat glanced at Ladybug, and used his baton to launch himself away.

"Wait! Cha...Sha...Shadowcat!" Ladybug yelled after him. "You didn't tell me what happened to Chat Noir! Get back here! Where is Chat Noir?!" Mad at the replacement cat weilder taking off on her before she could get more information out of him, she took her yoyo and swung it after him. She was only prevented from chasing him down by her flashing Ladybug spots that warned that her time was up. With a sigh of frustration she resigned herself to head home instead, and try to figure out more later.

Maybe this would be the last she would see of 'Shadowcat," and Chat Noir would be back again the next time the akuma alert sounded. Surly this was just a temporary situation...Chat Noir couldn't be gone for long... Her heart clenched in her chest, and her throat tightened. She wondered if this was how Chat Noir had felt when Scarabella had dropped into his life without warning. Hot tears threatened to escape at the thought, but she forced them back. The clawing thoughts in her mind were harder to push back. What if Chat Noir was truly gone and she'd never have him in her life again? She'd never be able to find him! She'd never know who he had been. This revelation dropped to the pit of her stomach.

In a flurry of Ladybugs her transformation fell away as she reached her balcony. She felt...heartbroken...How could her heart be broken if she hadn't love him? Had she loved him?