If Kitty Noire had thought that just being in the suit felt amazing, she had no words for what moving in the suit felt like. She jumped between rooftops and glided through the air as if she was made of nothing, as if she was lighter than a piece of paper, and yet the force she felt in her muscles was stronger than iron. Kitty Noire imagined what the most aerodynamic jet plane in the world was like, and concluded that she was better.

As her thoughts spun around her and she awed over the feeling of the wind offering her no resistance, of slicing through the air, as agile as her miracle stone's namesake, Kitty Noire abruptly noticed that she was not alone in her excursion over the top of Paris.

A few yards ahead of her, a figure hopped between buildings, heading straight for the monster, just as she was. It was too far away for her to make out precisely what he looked like, but he seemed to be clad similarly to her, in a full bodysuit, red with black spots.

Was he friend or foe? Kitty's nerves jittered. She mentally prepared herself for two adversaries, but she wasn't sure she could actually handle that when it came down to it. It was her first battle, after all.

She stopped on the roof a building down from the monster. The bearlike creature was still clumsily trekking down the Champs-Elysées, crying out in a… well, a metallic screech, was the only way Kitty could describe it.

She hesitated. Why would a bear creature make a noise like that? Unless…?

"Ah! There you are! I was wondering whether or not I'd have to solo this one!"

Kitty Noire abruptly turned to her right, and there he stood, the man in the spotted suit, from earlier. How had he snuck up on her? She could have sworn he hadn't been there a moment before.

"What do you mean?" She narrowed her eyes, inspecting him. He was about half a head taller than her, with locks of golden blond hair splayed messily about his face, which was mostly hidden behind a red and black domino mask. His suit mimicked the pattern of a ladybug, she realized, tracing the spots adorning his chest plate and trailing down his legs. His sides and upper arms were just black, and he had emphasized shoulder pads, like a football player, making him look much more muscular than he probably was in reality. Around his waist was tied a gentle string, connected to a yo-yo resting on his hip. Kitty assumed it was his weapon.

But he just cocked his head in confusion, his eyes blank. "I mean just that — I wasn't sure if you were going to show or not."

"Sure, but how did you know to expect me? I have absolutely no idea who you are," Kitty Noire crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh! Did your kwami not tell you? We're partners!" He grinned widely and stuck his hand out in greeting. "I'm Coccinello!"

All of Kitty's wariness vanished. So he was another miracle stone wielder, like herself. Why hadn't Plagg told her she wouldn't be fighting alone? She made a mental note to interrogate him about that later.

She shook his offered hand. "Coccinello? Is that Spanish?"

He reddened slightly. "Um, no, at least not intentionally. I wanted to pick a superhero name that was related to ladybugs but also masculine." He dropped Kitty's hand and his own flew to the back of his neck, eyes sheepish.

She backpedaled. Her partner was harmless, and she should go easy on him. No making fun of superhero names, at least not yet. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Kitty Noire."

"The pleasure is all mine," he replied, looking into her face with big, open eyes, the kinds that revealed all their secrets to the world; revealed that they had none. It disarmed her, and it made her nervous.

She shook her head to clear it and focused back on the monster. Due to its clumsiness, it hadn't made much headway during their conversation.

Coccinello noticed her shift in attention and crouched beside her, his gaze intent on the monster. "My kwami told me that we each have a unique special power. So we should see if that's the key to defeating the monster."

But Kitty Noire's mind was racing. Why, exactly, did the creature seem to lumber so awkwardly? Its gait wasn't natural at all. "Not so fast. First we need to figure out our enemy's weakness. And I think I have a hypothesis. How to test it is the question…"

Kitty casted about, eyes scouring the surface of the creature. Where was a good weak point?

The creature bellowed again, raising its arms, and as they came up — there! Kitty Noire pulled her baton out of her belt and elongated it, shoving it up into the beast's shoulder joint. As she had suspected, it buried itself into the fur, or rather, the synthetic covering. Kitty wiggled the baton. It was clearly wedged in the mechanics of this machine.

She pressed the paw symbol and the baton returned to size in her hand. "It's no animal. That thing is a robot."

Coccinello inhaled sharply. "You mean to say, someone built that monstrosity?"

"I'm afraid so. What we need to do is figure out how to power it down."

Coccinello brightened. "Hm. Maybe I can summon something to help us!" and as Kitty watched from her crouch, he straightened up, cleared his throat, and called out, "Lucky charm!" while throwing his yo-yo up into the air.

It spun above his head, glowing brightly, and Kitty had to shield her eyes from the pinkish light. When she looked again, Coccinello held a banana, and he seemed disappointed about it.

"Not what I would have summoned. Needed a snack?" she joked.

His shoulders fell. "I can't control what I summon; it's whatever Tikki thinks will help me. She has a funny idea of being helpful, though."

Kitty's glance lingered on the banana a little longer. She began to feel a creeping worry. Did Coccinello know what he was doing? Would he just get in her way?

Of course, she had to remind herself to get off her high horse. She didn't know what she was doing either.

She clenched her fists determinedly. "It's time for action. We can figure out what that banana can do for us as we go along. Maybe we can eat it as a celebratory snack for defeating our first monster!" and with that, Kitty extended her baton, allowing it to lift her off the rooftop and propel her towards the beast.

Coccinello followed suit, throwing his yo-yo to catch onto a lamppost and using it as a grappling hook, pulling himself forward, landing on a rooftop in front of the beast to get a good look at its head while Kitty Noire inspected the back.

She landed gently on the ground beneath the monster, sheathing her baton and climbing up the monster's back. Even through her gloves, she could feel that the beast's pelt was synthetic.

The monster cried out in protest, trying to turn to swat Kitty away.

"I've got it!" Coccinello cried over the clamor. "Use your baton to trip it!"

"On it!" she called back, extending her baton and throwing it forward, catching it against two lampposts.

Coccinello splatted the banana into the monster's face, and spun out of its reach with his yo-yo as it clawed into the air blindly. It moved its paws to wipe the banana out of its eyes, and so didn't see the obstacle that Kitty had created.

One leg caught, then the other, and Coccinello wrapped his yo-yo around the monster's limbs as it flailed, trying to regain its balance. Down, down, it crashed, and Kitty had to refrain from yelling "timber!"

Both heroes hopped onto the machine's back as it fell, and Coccinello reached a hand into the crevice at the back of its neck, pulling away the faux fur. Underneath it laid a battery, with tiny wires burying themselves inside the machine.

Kitty Noire knew what she had to do. "Cataclysm!" she cried, and her whole body trembled with the power coursing through her veins, manifesting itself in her right palm, the ring there glowing almost yellow. She pressed her hand onto the battery, and the contact it made was like a conduit. She immediately felt the energy release, and the battery crumpled into dust beneath her palm.

The monster suddenly stopped thrashing, stopped crying out. It went completely still.

"We did it!" Kitty could hardly believe it. They stopped the monster! They really were heroes.

But she may have spoken too soon, because just as the monster stopped moving, the machine began to tremble beneath them. On reflex, both heroes hopped off of its back, just as the entire thing disintegrated before their eyes.

And in its wake — in the dust that remained — laid a body. A woman's body.

Kitty Noire couldn't contain her gasp. Coccinello just stood there, frozen.

Before she could think twice, Kitty was running to the woman, with Coccinello hot on her heels, her mind working double speed. Was that the person behind this? The one who was controlling the machine?

"Hey, wait a minute. Isn't that Mme. Renault? The woman who went missing?" Coccinello asked from over her shoulder.

Kitty Noire knelt next to the body, cautiously touched the woman's shoulder with a gloved hand. She didn't stir.

Kitty's eyes narrowed in fear, and she gently rolled the woman over onto her back, hoping against hope that she wouldn't find what she knew she would find.

"Oh, no…" she breathed. The woman's entire chest was cut, the wound gouged deep, her blood already soaking the Parisian street. Her eyes were half-closed, lips slightly parted, but no air passed between them.

Kitty's mind went into overdrive. "Oh no, oh no, oh no…!" she cried out, her voice trembling and increasing in volume without her control. "You're going to be okay, we saved you, you're going to be okay!" She said it like a demand, pressing her hand to the woman's ruined chest, trying desperately to stop her from bleeding out.

Coccinello leaned over, put a hand on her shoulder, called, "Kitty?" But it was if he was calling her from miles away.

"You're okay, you're going to be okay, you've just got to be!" She was yelling it now, hot tears running down her magical domino mask. She cradled the dead woman to her chest, held her lifeless body against her own as if that could revive her, but nothing was working, why was nothing working?

Her frustration grew into desperation. "Cocci!" she shrieked. "You've got to help me save her!" She turned to look up at the young man standing above her, whose eyes were shining with an emotion he couldn't bring himself to voice — the truth that Kitty knew inside herself. The fear that there was nothing anyone could do.

Suddenly Coccinello stiffened, turning to examine the wide street behind them. He began to hear the faint whine of sirens; he looked up to see an approaching helicopter. He knew their time was running short, and if the authorities arrived now, their career as Paris' magical heroes could end before it started. "Kitty, we've gotta go," he said, his voice distracted, but she didn't hear him at all, just held Mme. Renault to herself, even tighter now than before, and she spoke lowly yet fiercely, as if uttering a chant.

"It's okay, it's okay, you're safe now here, I've got you, I've got you," her voice breaking with tears as she continued to speak. Because Kitty Noire wouldn't accept failure — there was no way that they could have failed.

Coccinello's emotions warred with each other. He didn't want to have to rip Kitty so cruelly from the woman she killed, and yet what else was there to do?

The police began to close in. Coccinello couldn't wait any longer. "I'm sorry, Kitty," he told her, but he knew she wasn't listening to him. He grasped her upper arm, and pulled her away from the limp body of Mme. Renault, who flopped onto the pavement without Kitty's arms to support her.

"No! Let me go!" she screamed, clawing at his grip, reaching desperately out to the dead woman.

Coccinello hesitated a moment, giving the body a last look, before yo-yo-ing into the distance before the police arrived on the scene.

The still-crying Kitty Noire held onto his shoulders as he flew through the night, stopping on a rooftop far from the scene of the crime. A deserted manufacturing building.

He let her go as his feet touched the sturdy roof, pulling his yo-yo back and securing it in place around his waist. Kitty just sank onto her knees, holding herself and crying softly, nothing like the hysterical wailing from earlier.

Kitty suddenly felt so small. How could she have felt so invincible, so strong, only an hour before? She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold herself together.

Even Coccinello was doing nothing but standing there, looking down at her. Was he as ashamed of her as she was of herself? Because Mme. Renault was dead. And there was no one to point to but her.

Coccinello finally sat beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, she guessed in comfort, although she was sure she didn't deserve it.

"Coccinello," she breathed.

"Yes…?" He answered, with a croak in his voice.

She hesitated. "I just murdered someone."

"No you didn't," he told her, but she knew it was a lie.

"Yes, I did. I just murdered someone." She covered her bright green cat eyes with her bloody hands. "We're supposed to be heroes, Coccinello. We're supposed to save people, not kill them."

"I know."

Kitty Noire buried her face even further into her hands. Like maybe if she pushed her palms into her eyes hard enough, it would undo everything that had happened. Coccinello just tightened his grip on her shoulder, maybe trying to lessen her distress.

That was so kind of him. She felt like an idiot for doubting him before. After all, if she hadn't been there today, if Coccinello had fought the mecha bear alone, Mme. Renault would probably still be alive. She was the one who should be doubted. Maybe she shouldn't be Kitty Noire, maybe she should stop now, before she hurt more people… "I'm not fit to be a hero," she concluded, and intended it to come out strong, but the words got choked in her throat.

Coccinello sat up straighter, pulled Kitty away from his core so he could get a better look at her. "That's nonsense." He reached for her blood-smeared hand, clasped it in his own. "You didn't kill that woman, Kitty, and you can argue with me until the sun comes up," he told her, interrupting her protest, "but that's the fact. It was an unfortunate coincidence, that's all. You're a hero now, you can't let a death shake you," he exhaled, his countenance darkening, "because if you do, you'll never be able to stand back up again."

Kitty Noire focused on the strength of Coccinello's hand wrapped around hers, trying to find something constant to ground her back in reality. Someone had died tonight, and it was her fault. But maybe Coccinello was right. It was an accident.

She slowly nodded, wiping away her tears, streaking blood onto her mask. "Thank you," she breathed quietly.

Coccinello stood up, pulling her along with him. Kitty didn't think she had the energy to stand on her own, and was grateful. She looked up into his open blue eyes, the ones that had disarmed her earlier, and searched for a place of comfort in there. He gave her a shaky smile, said, "You look terrible. There's blood everywhere."

She chuckled once, but it had more sadness than humor in it. "You don't look so good either," she smiled, examining his dirt-matted hair and scraped-up suit.

He squeezed her shoulders, making her eyes jump back to meet his. The normally clear blue was suddenly troubled, and Kitty's heart faltered. What was he going to say? Did he change his mind, realize that she wasn't fit to be a hero after all?

He took a breath, and then said, "I don't know you very well, Kitty Noire. But I think you're so brave. What happened back there was horrifying, but you handled it with more compassion than anyone in the world could have done." He looked away, into the moonlight, still holding her shoulders. "You care about innocent people. You're the perfect person to be a hero," he said after a moment.

She didn't know what to say to that. Was that all it took? Kitty Noire's gaze fell to their feet, his red and spotted, and hers dainty with green soles. They seemed to compliment one another.

"Have a good night, Kitty Noire. Take care of yourself," it came out heavy, and Kitty searched Coccinello's eyes one last time, but this time she wasn't sure what she was searching for. Before she could find it, he gave her a dubious smile, dropped his hands from her shoulders, and casted his yo-yo into the night, flying off into the distance, back to wherever he came from.

Kitty Noire noticed that everything was suddenly colder without him, and the dim lamplight was nothing in comparison to the smile he had given her. Without his arms lending her strength, she sank back down onto the rooftop, and bawled quietly into her hands once again. She had murdered someone. How had Coccinello enabled her to forget it?

"Detransformation," she mumbled into her palms, where her tears now mixed with the blood still stained there.

In a flash, she was Marinette again, just a defenseless girl, cold and miserable on a rooftop. "Oh, Plagg."

His face turned into one of horror, his small gasp drowned by her cries. "Marinette, you were astounding for your first fight." He floated close to her, tried to comfort her by rubbing his small kwami paws on her hair.

"But, Plagg, I didn't save her. Did I use cataclysm wrong?" Marinette looked up at her kwami with tearstained eyes, her desperation almost tangible.

Plagg shook his head. "I'm so sorry, Marinette. I don't know what the trick to defeating this enemy is."

She clenched her fists in frustration. "But we can't use trial and error to find out! I can't kill more people, Plagg, I can't," and her voice cracked on the final words, her eyes filled again and she buried her face into her arms.

Plagg hesitated, still petting her hairline. He hated to see Marinette like this. Plagg had never had a female wielder before, and he found himself so protective of her, as if she was a daughter to him. It made his need to come up with something to help her even more acute. "Maybe we should visit the professor," he suggested after a few unbearable moments.

Marinette's mind whirled into action. The professor! How had she forgotten about him? If anyone could tell her what to do, it was him. She lifted her head back up and nodded, drying her tears for the last time, her determination in their new plan giving her the strength to pick herself up. "Okay, let's do that."

Marinette didn't see Plagg's smile of relief as she stood up, looking out into the night, already calculating the fastest route to Nino's.

"Thank you, by the way," she breathed out to him, and he just nodded at her, his steady neon eyes a beacon in the darkness. Marinette reminded herself that she's never alone, now. She reached into her purse and fished out a few crackers, letting her kwami recharge. When he had finished, she took a deep breath. "Plagg, transform me!"

Kitty Noire looked down at her hands and was pleased to find no traces of blood on her suit. Everything was as pristine as it had been before the fight. She hopped onto a neighboring rooftop and raced back to the party, hoping no one was too worried about her in her absence.

Marinette arrived back at Nino's at a little before 22:00. She tentatively knocked on the door, hoping Alya would be the one to answer. Nino's face, illustrated with concern, met her in the threshold instead.

"Where were you? Alya called you about a hundred times!"

Marinette squirmed. She hadn't even bothered to check her phone on the rooftop. "I was with Adrien. And after the monster vanished I went for a walk. To get my emotions straight," she fibbed, "and my phone was on silent, because I was really stressed and I didn't want to be distracted by it…"

Nino's eyes narrowed but he said nothing, opening the door and letting her back in. Marinette noticed everyone was still there, sitting around the TV, except for Adrien.

Marinette approached behind Alya and began to apologize, but Alya wasn't paying attention, her eyes fixed to the screen. Marinette moved her gaze up to follow what had her friend so engrossed, and her skin crawled when she saw just what the news was reporting on.

Clara Contard stood next to the remains of the metal suit, relating the revelations about the true nature of the monster, and speculating how it was destroyed. She mentioned some experts, which were currently analyzing the metal the cyborg was made out of, believed that the cyborg had "self-destructed accidentally, killing the person controlling it from the inside."

Nadja Chamack, at her side, announced, "Mme. Marily Renault was finally located and pronounced to have died around 21:00." Alya gasped and Marinette could hardly keep the tears from escaping again. "We are currently unsure whether she was the one behind this attack, or if her kidnapper had placed her inside the robot to control it against her will."

Nadja continued, "As the police approached the crime scene, two mysterious people were briefly seen leaving it," and a recording of Marinette's superhero self and Coccinello flying away played as Nadja voiced over.

"Oh my God," Alya breathed in disbelief. "Who are they? Their costumes are so cool!" Her voice rose in volume and she might as well have had stars in her eyes.

"The authorities are investigating who these masked people might be. Are they the ones behind the attacks? Or were they trying to help stop the monster?"

A stone settled itself inside Marinette's stomach as Nadja spoke. Friend or foe, indeed.