Chat Noir moved forward, looking from person to another to decide who was trying to stop him leaving. He settled on the Gorilla, and charged the large man. With a jab of his baton pole, he tossed the Gorilla against the wall and knocked him out.
"Get Marinette next," ordered Félix. "She knows too much."
Marinette expected Chat to resist that order, but the damage from losing one half of his amok seemed to have weakened his willpower. He turned and walked toward her, hesitating a little but not enough to stop.
Marinette didn't want to reveal her identity, but it seemed like the situation had gotten so far out of hand that there was no choice.
"Tikki, spots on!"
"You're Ladybug? More and more interesting," said Félix. "Chat Noir, destroy Ladybug but leave the earrings!"
Ladybug spun her yo-yo with her right hand. With her left she picked up a chair. Chat was in a dazed state and his reactions were off. If she could get him to touch the chair and waste his Cataclysm...
"Chat Noir, don't touch the chair!" Félix ordered.
Ladybug thought it might be better to take out the one giving orders. If she could get his ring into the possession of Chat, then he would be free and the fight would be over.
She sent her yo-yo to grab Félix, but he dodged easily.
"I faced off with three akumas at once, each as good a fighter as you, and they never touched me," sneered Félix.
"There's more magic in the Graham de Vanily family than just the rings," said Amelie. "I can do a bit myself."
Amelie made a gesture, and a stream of blue light was cast toward Ladybug.
Ladybug jumped back out of the way and hid behind a sofa in the room, as the blue light hit the wall and exploded, making a small hole.
"Hiding?" asked Félix. "Pathetic if you ask me."
Three against one. She needed an edge. She had noticed that Chat Noir was weak, starting to sway on his feet. If she could just buy some time...
"Lucky Charm," Ladybug called in a whisper, tossing her yo-yo up only a little way.
A spotted jewelry box landed in her hand. She opened it and found a plain silver ring.
The ring, Chat, and the Graham de Vanilys lit up with spots in her imagination.
She hid the box in her yo-yo portal and leaped out from behind the sofa just as a blast of blue magic blew it apart.
Chat Noir slashed his hand at Ladybug, and she dodged.
"Look," said Ladybug, holding up the ring. "I took this off Shadow Moth's body today."
"The other twin ring!" said Amelie. "Give it to us!"
"Chat Noir, stand down," said Félix. "We can't risk damaging it."
Chat stopped.
"I can't believe he was foolish enough to wear it into battle," said Félix. "I slipped his ring off his hand. I thought he would keep the other one safe, wherever he was hiding the body of his wife."
"Oh, he would be foolish enough," said Amelie. "He's always been an overconfident fool. He must have taken the other ring to control his son, and not bothered to take it off when he transformed."
"I can make it useless to you," said Ladybug. "I'm strong enough to crack it and I can put it into my yo-yo to purify the amok."
"You wouldn't dare!" said Félix. "It would half kill your friend if didn't kill him outright."
"Let's make a deal," said Ladybug. "Leave us alone and you can have it."
"How do we know the ring is real?" asked Amelie.
"You don't," said Ladybug, "But why would I just happen to have an identical ring on hand?"
"Let me see it," demanded Amelie.
"No, I don't trust you not to take it," said Ladybug.
"I can see one of the dots of your earring flashing," said Félix. "If you made it with a Lucky Charm, all we have to do is wait for you to time out."
"Chat Noir will time out first," said Ladybug. "And I don't mean from his Cataclysm."
At that moment, Chat Noir staggered. He put his right hand on a chair to steady himself, disintegrating it. He fell to the floor.
"What happened to him?" asked Félix. "Chat Noir, get up!"
Chat tried, but he was too weak.
"I'll tell you what happened," said Ladybug. "You're right, this ring is a fake, created by my charm. The real ring was destroyed with Shadow Moth. I saw the amok feather drifting up, and I purified it."
"You've doomed your friend," said Félix. "And ruined our plans."
"We wanted the heir to the Agreste fortune under our control, and maybe claiming the Prodigious for us," said Amelie. "I'm sure that's why Gabriel had him learn all that Mandarin Chinese, to communicate with those Renling creatures."
"We'll leave you to care for my half-alive clone," said Félix. "We have no use for him."
Félix drew something from his pocket and threw it to the ground. Ladybug thought it was stage magic, but it filled the room with purple smoke with a "FOOF!"
When the smoke cleared, they were gone. Ladybug didn't bother to chase them because it all had to be undone anyway.
Adrien had suffered irreversible harm with the loss of half of his amok, Alya was in critical condition from her sword wound, and the Graham de Vanilys had learned her secret identity.
Marinette felt she had to take one more chance with time travel. This time, she would make sure to tell the kwamis to wake her up right away to read the new note. There was a lot of preparation to do.
