Chat Noir leapt into the air, dodging the lollipop's arm that came swinging towards him again. Its bright blue "hand" flew through the air, slowing to a stop by its opposite shoulder. He was pleased to see that his choice of maneuvering was going as he intended. He'd been choosing his positions carefully so that when the lollipop aimed for him, it wouldn't hit anything but air when it missed, causing no serious damage, save for a dented lamp post. If he could just keep this up until Ladybug got here.

"Hey, Mayura?" he called to the creature, sprinting between its legs to appear on the other side as it recovered from its failed hit. "I know you can hear me." He held onto his baton, raising himself to the level of its head where its face should've been. It slowly turned towards him again. At this point, maybe he could just make it dizzy. "You know, everyone's getting sick of seeing this same sentimonster time and time again. It's just getting a bit old, you know? Maybe you should switch it up a little." It prepared another punch. Chat slid back down to the ground in an instant to avoid it.

"I mean, maybe you could conjure up something cool, like…" He paused, retracting his weapon. "Actually, nah, that idea is too good. I'm saving that one for myself."

A kick this time. He jerked, backflipping away a few yards. He lifted himself onto the building next to him, stepping onto the very edge and walking along it casually.

"Or, you could make a handsome Chat Noir sentimonster. It would go perfectly with the Ladybug sentimonster you completely erased from existence. Remember that?" he added bitterly.

He dodged the next hit with a front flip, proud of himself when he was able to land onto the building across the street without using his baton. He crossed his arms as the sentimonster looked around for him, having not seen where he'd gone.

"Don't worry, though, I get it," Chat continued, the sarcasm in his voice so strong that it almost sounded genuine. "People thinking for themselves? Not wanting to be used as a slave for someone else's violent and evil needs? Really pulls at my whiskers."

Another punch came his way, but this time it came hurdling straight forward rather than horizontally. The hair's on Chat's neck instantly bristled, as he realized it would hit the building he was on if he dodged. But he had no choice. He hopped to the side, bracing for the moment its arm came bursting through the top of the roof.

But, when the dust cleared from the impact, he realized with shock that the only thing that appeared to be destroyed was the monster's lollipop hand itself. At once it had been covered in white cracks, and little chips of blue hard candy went flying everywhere.

"Whoa, what?" Chat Noir muttered to himself, eyes glued to the damaged hand.

The lollipop monster slowly lifted it off the roof, somehow looking pained, even with no face to express itself. It brought its crumbling hand to its face, looking at it and going still for a moment.

"Well, isn't that interesting," Chat remarked, flipping his baton in his hand and examining the roof where the monster had hit it. "You couldn't even make a mark. On the building, that is." He looked up at the sentimonster. "How's your hand?"

It began shaking with rage again. It lifted its undamaged arm high above its head, this time readying a vertical hit, straight down at Chat Noir. Already knowing what to do, he acted fast, bringing his weapon in front of him and extending it until the top of it towered several feet above his head. The lollipop monster brought his arm down towards Chat Noir, but not quick enough to notice the baton and hit it instead. It easily broke through the lollipop's hand as it collided with it, this time shattering it into many jagged pieces that scattered across the street.

Chat brushed a few shards off his shoulders as his weapon shrunk to its smallest size, gazing back up at the monster. It didn't hesitate to hurl its other already destroyed arm towards him, and Chat simply leapt out of the way again as it followed suit and broke apart.

"Looks like you've got no hands now, silly. What are you doing to attack me with now?" he prodded, kicking at a chunk of blue candy by his feet.

The monster stood still, seemingly at a loss.

"Oh, I know." Chat Noir hopped to the ground, rushing over to stand right In front of it, holding his arms out invitingly. "Your feet, of course. Come on, get me! I'm right here."

The lollipop monster instantly swung another kick at Chat Noir, which he avoided easily. He approached the monster closer, running circles around its lollipop feet.

"Yoo hoo! Down here!" he called, craning his neck to look up and it and cupping his hands around his mouth. "I'm just a little ant!"

It looked down at him, located him, and lifted its knee to its chest. Perfect. As he'd intended, it brought its leg straight down to stomp on Chat. Chat moved out of the way, causing its foot to explode against the hard asphalt. He brought his arm over his face to protect himself from the flying chunks of candy.

The sentimonster began scrambling, unable to keep his balance with only one foot to support itself. It finally toppled over and fell straight backwards, landing with a loud clunk on its back, that also shattered on impact, along with its head. And just like that, the lollipop monster was nothing but a mess of jagged pieces of candy.

Chat stared in bewilderment at what remained of the lollipop sentimonster. He had done that, not only without Ladybug, but without even using his cataclysm. The past few times they had battled this thing, its attacks were well strong enough to destroy anything it touched. Now, Chat Noir had hardly done anything, and it had completely destroyed itself. Were Hawk Moth and Mayura…weakening? Is that why they hadn't seen any sign of them in so long?

Something dark purple came rolling towards him from the corner of his eye. He looked down as a pacifier stopped just before his feet. He looked up, giving Ladybug one last chance to appear before he finished the job himself. He sighed, pained by the absence of his partner. She was known to be late from time to time, but she hadn't shown up to their last patrol either. She unfortunately had stopped appearing at his roof, too. Just how busy was she in her personal life lately to leave him hanging this often?

He pulled up the screen on his baton and dialed Ladybug again. He let it immediately go to voicemail, as he knew it would, before bringing it to his mouth.

"Hey, Ladybug. So, scratch that last message," he began, eyeing what was left of the lollipop monster. "Turns out, handling this one myself was…alarmingly easy. It kind of took care of itself, really. Uh, call me when you get this, would you? Something doesn't feel right."

He hung up, eyes falling back to baby August's pacifier on the ground.

"Cataclysm." He summoned his power, more unenthusiastically than usual, forming a claw in his right hand. Doing the honors, he stomped on it, crushing it under his feet. The little black feather emerged from it, swaying around in the air in front of him. He poked it lazily, watching it crumble into dust. Within seconds, the pile of broken lollipops evaporated and disappeared.

Without Ladybug, there was nothing to reverse the damage done by the sentimonster. But judging by this fight, he doubted it had even hurt a fly before he got to it. He'd been lucky this time around. But hopefully next time, he wouldn't have to be, and Ladybug would be by his side again.

Marinette had turned her entire room upside down in desperate search for her earrings. And as predicted, she'd found nothing. Once she couldn't think of any more places in her room to tear apart, she was lying on her back in the middle of her completely trashed room, surrounded by clothes she'd thrown out of her dresser and books she'd carelessly dumped onto the floor. She covered her face in her hands, finally allowing herself to cry. She never realized how dependent she'd grown on Tikki until that moment. She'd never felt so alone or so helpless in her life. She couldn't believe she was leaving Chat Noir to fight all by himself.

"The lollipop monster has officially been destroyed."

Marinette opened her eyes, just now realizing that in her desperateness, she had tuned her mind off the news still being played on her phone. She scrambled to her feet, half-tripping over a stack of books as she made her way to her desk where her phone was propped.

"We've got Clara at the scene," Nadja informed, as the screen switched from the news station to another reporter on the street where the monster had just been, accompanied by a smug Chat Noir.

"Thanks, Nadja," Clara began. "I'm here with Chat Noir, who just single-handedly took on the lollipop monster, without the help of his superhero partner. Tell us, Chat Noir, how did you do it?"

"Oh, it was no big deal," Chat replied, folding his hands behind his head. "I can manage without Ladybug sometimes, you know."

Marinette scoffed.

"Well, aren't you two a team?" Clara questioned. "It's certainly unusual to see one without the other."

"Yeah, of course we are." Chat Noir dropped his joking tone. "I just...beat her to it, that's all. Luckily, no damage was caused to Paris on this day. Just, uh, don't look at that lamp post…"

Naturally, the reporters eyes, as well as the camera, each instantly panned to the said lamp post, which was bent slightly from a very noticeable dent in the center.

"Anyways, uh…oh no, I'm bout to transform back. Gee…," Chat said off-screen. "Gotta go." The camera turned back to him, but only caught his form disappearing as he launched himself away, shrinking into the distance.

Marinette slumped back, not bothering to keep her phone on to listen to Clara and Nadja wrap up the report.

That was too close. She didn't know how her partner had defeated a sentimonster all by himself in such a short time, but if he hadn't managed, things could have been bad.

She had to go to Master Fu's now. She was going to go after school, but she couldn't wait. She was just gonna have to think of something to tell Alya after ditching her. And it had to be something good this time. Her last-minute stories weren't going to keep Alya's suspicions at bay forever.

She trudged through her room, hoping her parents wouldn't notice the mess she'd made while she was gone.

"Hello, Marinette."

Master Fu eyes seemed to have found Marinette before she'd even entered his house. He sat comfortably in his armchair, a cross expression on his face that his turtle-kwami, Wayzz, seemed to mirror as he hovered by his master's shoulder. They had surely known she was coming. And they knew something was wrong. She thought maybe he'd seen the TV report, but denied it right after. Fu just seemed to know these things.

"Master Fu…," Marinette began, closing the door behind her. Her words froze in her throat. How was she supposed to tell him?

Fu's eyes wandered around her surroundings before giving her a knowing look. "So, Tikki…" he murmured, the mention of her kwami's name sending a nervous wrenching in her stomach. "She's not with you."

Marinette couldn't hold it back and longer. Her face twisting, she dropped her head into her hands and broke down weeping.

"I lost her, Master Fu," she cried. "I lost Tikki and the miraculous…"

"Calm down, Marinette." Within a moment, Fu had made his way over to consult her, his hands holding her arms as her sobs shook her shoulders. "Come inside," he beckoned, gently pulling her further into his home.

Marinette watched the tiny green and black specks float around in her cup of tea instead of drinking it. Fu had insisted on making it for her, as if it would magically solve all of her problems. They sat opposite each other on his low table.

"I felt that something was off," Master Fu said. He was nearly done with his cup already. "And you say you have no memory of what happened to them."

She shook her head. "Every time I try to remember, I get this pain in my head," she told him, resting her hand against her head.

Fu thought for a moment.

Marinette sighed deeply. "I'm so sorry, Master Fu," she whimpered. "I can't believe I let this happen. Surely no other Ladybug has messed up this badly."

"Marinette," Fu began, setting his tea down. "You're one of the best Ladybugs the world has seen. Tikki said so herself," he reminded her. "This was not your fault."

"But, how am I supposed to know?" Marinette sputtered. "I don't remember anything that happened!"

"You must remain calm. For Tikki's sake." Fu stood up from his seat. "It's very strange, though. Typically Tikki should be able to go anywhere of her own free will, despite the current holder of the earrings."

"If Hawk Moth has her, could he be doing the same to her as he does with his kwami?" Marinette wondered aloud. "Doesn't he have this way of keeping them from leaving somehow?"

"Yes, I think it's safe to assume that Hawk Moth has gotten ahold of your miraculous," Fu confirmed. "But don't give up hope just yet. His potential is still limited without the black cat miraculous. We just need to hope the same thing doesn't happen to Chat Noir."

"Chat Noir, he…he had to take on the sentimonster by himself." Marinette hugged herself. "He won't be able keep that up forever."

"Yes, I noticed." Master Fu's eyes fell to the television in the corner of the room that Marinette had never even noticed he owned. It was turned off and barely larger than a toaster. "I also noticed that the sentimonster was abnormally weak. Something is definitely wrong."

He looked down for a moment, deep in thought. Then turned to Marinette, eyes focused into hers.

"I will be looking into this and figuring out what I can. In the meantime, you must go home and stay out of danger. Without your memories, there is nothing you can do at this point besides contacting me with any information you find."

"What? But…" Marinette stood up in protest, abandoning her untouched tea. "There has to be something I can do, Master. I can't just stand by while all of this happens!"

"It's too risky, Marinette." Fu shook his head. "Without Ladybug to protect your identity, you'd be putting yourself and your loved ones in danger. I'm sorry." The old man's eyes looked truly sad and sympathetic for her disappointment.

Marinette couldn't argue. But even though she knew it he was right, it didn't stop the frustration from balling her hands into tense fists. She felt so helpless.

"Just try to relax, Ladybug," he said, taking each of her hands and clasping them together in his with a comforting smile. "I can tell this has had a big effect on you. I'll update you with anything I find, but until then you should get some rest."

How could I possibly relax at a time like this? She wondered as she looked down discouragedly at Fu's small hands. Did he expect her to just pop an umbrella in her drink with sunglasses on and pretend that one of the worst possible scenarios wasn't current reality?

"I'll…try," she muttered, unconfident. "It's just...so hard without Tikki here."

"She will be fine. I promise." He gave her hands one final squeeze before releasing them. "We will fix this."

Marinette exhaled slowly, feeling her eyes tickle with unsurfaced tears at the thought of her missing kwami.

That's when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out, wondering how much time had passed as she turned it on and saw she'd gotten several texts from Alya.

Hey girl. You good? Why'd you disappear from class? Are you still coming to my house to help with the speech?
Sent by Alya Césaire at 3:41PM

Marinette, text me. Just wanna make sure everything's all good.
Sent by Alya Césaire at 6:13PM

Marinette slapped her forehead, realizing she'd forgotten all about going to Alya's house. They had already agreed to get it done that night after school, and Marinette seethed with regret. She hadn't even texted her about leaving school early either.

"Is everything alright?" Fu asked, confused at her sudden reaction.

"Oh, yes, everything's fine." She shoved her phone back into her pocket. "I have to get going before my parents start wondering where I am."

"Of course." He turned to get the door for her.

"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Master Fu," she said, stopping in front of him before the door and bowing, as he typically did. "And…I'm sorry, again."

"Do not apologize, Marinette," he said. "Just try to remain as calm as you can. Tikki is depending on your composure."

Marinette nodded, though her spirits were low. She finally passed him out of the apartment.

"We'll be in touch," Fu promised, before closing the door.

She whipped her phone back out as she made her way back home. She couldn't make it to Alya's tonight. It was getting late and her brain was still in a tornado. There was no way she'd be able to help write a speech when she could barely pull her own thoughts together.

Sorry, I fell asleep as soon as I got home. My parents are working late and have asked me to help them with a big order for tomorrow. I promise I'll help with your speech tomorrow
Sent by Marinette Dupain-Cheng at 6:16PM

So much for "no more last-minute excuses."