"Chat!" Her scream was lost to the wind, and everything around her seemed to fade to black and white except for the pinprick of activity she was so focused on.

No, no no this wasn't happening! Marinette had nearly fallen off the Tower as she pitched forward in a foolish attempt to catch the black speck that had gone flying from the rooftop of one building and into the side of another.

"Tikki, we have to go!" Marinette cried, already trying to clamber her way down as gingerly as possible from her vantage point.

"Marinette, I don't have enough power, you can't-"

"Tikki we have to go!" Marinette said again, more shrilly this time. "Spots on!"

Unlike usual, the transformation left her dizzy, disoriented, but that didn't matter. Marinette didn't care, so long as she could get to Chat. She didn't see him get up from where he'd landed, and she was already fearing the worst.

The Akuma was taking his time, at least, laughing triumphantly while an apparently irate Hawkmoth spoke to him through their connection. Good, Marinette thought venomously, let your hubris be the end of you.

"Come out wherever you are, little bug!" The Akuma called, his voice booming in the clearing that his and Chat's fight had created. "I'll squash you just like I did your kitty cat!"

Ladybug landed on the other side of the building Chat had hit and came through it, finding him amongst a pile of rubble. She choked back a soft sob and began moving the debris as carefully as possible, only to very nearly give her position away with a scream when his ears twitched.

"M'lady?" He slurred, green eyes opening heavily to look at her with a dazed expression.

"Oh, Chat… I'll get you out of there, it'll be alright!"

"It's… It's his helmet," Chat managed, squirming and then hissing in pain. Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from moving, looking at him in quizzical concern. "The Akuma," Chat clarified, realizing she'd clearly not understood.

"Chat, don't tell me you took a hit just to figure that out!" Ladybug returned to digging him out, her focus solely on the fragile rise and fall of his chest. Chat managed to chuckle, bringing a freed hand up to her cheek.

"No... I was trying to find you. To see if you were safe." Chat looked down at his midsection, grimacing. "I'll be okay, Princess. The… The suit took most of it." Something about the way he said it, or maybe the way he didn't meet her eyes, made Ladybug try digging him out a little faster.

Then Chat's ears twitched again, and his arm was around her, hauling her with some unknown well of strength out of the way as a blade came down where she'd stood moments before. He was up, barely, and that show of strength had obviously drained him, because he was now leaning on her half as much as he was in front of her, blocking her body with his as the Akuma laughed maniacally.

"Ohh, I see how it is!" He crowed, a wicked gleam in his power-bright eyes. "You think you're protecting her? Fat lot of good you're doing!" The Akuma rushed them, his sword held aloft, but this time Ladybug was ready. With one arm around Chat, she used her yo-yo to vault them both to higher ground.

"M'lady, he-" Chat began, ears twitching again and green eyes narrowing as he heard something she couldn't. With a grunt of effort, he pushed her out of the way yet again, landing above her and pinning her before she could leap up and go after the Akuma again. "Ladybug, listen to me!"

Startled, Ladybug lay beneath him, eyes wide. He'd never looked angry before, not at her, not really. He only released her when she nodded, sitting up with their borrowed time. Chat's ears flicked every which way, oddly much more realistically than usual, and he winced and held his side while he spoke.

"He can teleport," Chat said in a brisk tone, keeping his eyes on the terrain. Ladybug kept her eyes on him, surveying the damage now that she could see it better. His suit hadn't torn, they never did, but he definitely looked worse for wear, and she only hoped that her Miraculous Ladybugs would help heal him. "He makes a sound before he reappears like he's cutting in and out of signal… But when he's doing his flickering and glitching, the only thing that doesn't is his helmet… That just disappears and reappears."

"...Okay Chaton," Ladybug nodded, then bit her lip in worry. He was so injured, but she was sure they'd need his Cataclysm before this fight was over. "I'll keep an ear out… But you need to rest while I try to deal with him, okay?" She pressed her forehead against Chat's and ignored the way both of their faces flamed brighter than her suit. "Try to regain some strength, and don't detransform. I don't know how bad your injury will be if you do."

"...Alright Princess," Chat replied after a breathless moment, though she wasn't sure if it was from their proximity or his injury. "I'll be ready when you need me. Just… Please, be careful. I don't want to lose you."

"That's supposed to be my line, Chaton," Ladybug replied, trying to keep her emotions in check long enough to get the job done.

Oh, yes.

This was personal now.

The thing about using a glitch hack, Ladybug mused as she swung around the battleground, is that your opponent needs to be predictable enough for you to know where to go.

Unfortunately, Chat needed to land; he didn't have the option of changing direction mid-air like she did. So when the Akuma thought he knew where she was going and fizzled out of existence to beat her to the mark, Ladybug simply changed direction, leaving the knight nonplussed and raging even more than he had been since the last time she'd done it.

"Hold still you stupid bug!" He fumed, swinging his sword at her in a futile attempt to reach her. "Or are you up there because you're too weak to fight me, just like your pussycat?" He jeered, setting Ladybug's teeth on edge.

"Be careful what you wish for," She called back, landing on the ground in a ready position and glowering at his looming figure with an icy gaze.

The Akuma charged her, sword held over his shoulder in a preemptive overhand swing once more. She was ready, though, for his flickering, fizzling, disappearing act this time, and leapt up into a backflip that catapulted her over his re-materializing head.

Her yo-yo shot out with a flick of her wrist, wrapping around the buster sword. With a yell of her own, she wrenched it from his grasp and sent the blade flying out of his reach, stunning the Akuma so badly that he cried out in shock.

"Y-you! You're not supposed to do that! I had that equipped!" He complained as Ladybug landed a few feet from him, still poised to fight.

"Life's not a videogame," Ladybug replied, then grinned as she stood up more fully. "But videogame or not, you lose, Glitch."

"Cataclysm!"

The Akuma whirled around just in time for Chat to leap onto his head and slam his hand down onto the dome of his helmet. The Akuma's shriek matched Hawkmoth's through their connection, and Chat leapt off to stagger into Ladybug's arms leaning on her heavily.

"I've got you, Chaton," Ladybug crooned, bringing her yo-yo around to purify the Akuma that had begun fluttering frantically from the remains of the destroyed helmet. "No more evil-doing for you little Akuma…" After an impatient few moments, a white butterfly emerged, and Ladybug sighed in relief. "Bye-bye little butterfly."

Finally, Ladybug could turn her attention to her partner. She knew that Glitch was harmless now, and she took the time she could to ease Chat down onto the ground.

"Almost done, Chaton," She reassured, ignoring her swimming vision. "You'll be fine in no time." Taking up her yo-yo once more, Ladybug released it into the air, calling her familiar tagline "Lucky Charm!"

Down dropped a… Blanket? Ladybug looked a little perturbed. It seemed slightly excessive for something that she was just going to Miraculous Ladybug away right away, but… Shrugging, Ladybug tossed the blanket into the air, calling out to the magic that never failed her before, "Miraculous Ladybug!"

The familiar woosh of hundreds of tiny red ladybugs cascaded around them, returning the streets of Paris back to their usual glory. Ladybug waited with bated breath for them to return to perform similar miracles on the boy before her, but…

Only a few returned, spiralling around him with a half-hearted glimmer enshrouding him in a pale pink glow.

The two superheroes looked at one another in confusion, even as the rest of Paris cheered.

And that was all Ladybug remembered before darkness engulfed her vision entirely.

"M- Lady!"