Ladybug was able to defeat M. Pigeon with relative ease. The most complicated part of the situation was the fact that once in a while, if she was a certain distance from M. Pigeon, Cat Walker would show up. Apparently, being a pawn for Monarch didn't come with any allergy medicine, so he stayed out of the main fray.
With a lucky charm of a scarf that she could temporarily use to cover M. Pigeon's eyes so that she could get to his birdcall, she was able to release the Akuma. She was able to distract herself from the conversation that she'd had with Cat Walker while she fought M. Pigeon, but now that the battle was done, he took over her focus.
She turned around after checking in with M. Ramier and Cat Walker was standing there, staring at her. His face was carefully neutral, but she could see the pain just behind his eyes. The loss of control that he was trying to not show to the people of Paris, and the heartbreaking feeling that threatened to overwhelm him.
He ran at her and she was immediately reminded of the battle she'd had with Chat Blanc in the flooded city years ago. She managed to zip away on her yo-yo, but that didn't make him stop coming after her. She leaped over the streets of the city and he was following just after her, not that she had the time to look around and see if he was still on her tail.
"I just want to fix everything," he yelled after her. The words distorted in her brain as she couldn't help but think about Chat Blanc wanting her Miraculous to accomplish the same goal. "Please, Buginette, trust me." Her heart wretched in her chest as she heard the pleading in his voice, but she knew that she couldn't.
She couldn't trust him unless she knew what was going on with him. She needed to find out if he was an amok, or if there were multiple akumas out. She knew that he knew all of their best hideouts, but she was hopeful that she could get him somewhere she'd have an advantage over him.
After a short while of consideration, she led him to the courtyard of Collège François Dupont, hopeful that the summer would lead to the school being mostly abandoned. When he followed her, she managed to get him into the locker area to get him into a confined location. As he entered, she managed to wrap him in her yo-yo.
She had the upper hand, he was trapped, at least to a point. From there she looked him over, desperately seeking out the location where an akuma or amok could've gone. She started with his baton, but it refused to break and that made her feel sick. She couldn't fathom why he was stronger now than Chat Blanc was.
She didn't see many other similarities between Chat Noir and Cat Walker, so she didn't see what could've been a stand-in for his bell. He watched as her eyes roamed over his throat several times and a smirk grew on his lips. "What, little bug? Do you miss the bell I used to have?"
He Cataclysmed the string of the yo-yo. "Well, that's too bad for you, isn't it?" He was free and took a step toward her, causing her to back up. With every half step she took backward, he took a full step in her direction, until he had her against the wall. "You really think I'm akumatized?"
She swallowed and involuntarily nodded. "I know you are. You have to be. My chaton wouldn't do something like this." Again, he felt the surge of warmth in his chest at the idea of being her chaton. He looked around the area, surveying any information he could about their surroundings. There was no way to see into the building.
He was confident that Gabriel couldn't know what was going on in his head. If he did, Gabriel would've known that he was Chat Noir from the beginning. "I'm sorry, little bug," he whispered. The only word she could think to encapsulate how his voice sounded was 'defeated,' like he had been kicked while he was already down.
He hit his baton into the wall next to her, then used the 'expand' button to fling himself away from the wall and back into the courtyard. She was stupefied by the fact that he just made it seem like she won in hand-to-hand combat after he had temporarily destroyed her primary weapon.
She called for her Miraculous Cure and the Ladybugs washed over the city, undoing any damage that was done by M. Pigeon and the fight between her and Cat Walker. It repaired the string of her yo-yo, but she was confident that it wouldn't repair whatever had happened to her partner.
She looked around the locker area, trying to understand the action he had just taken, but it didn't make any sense to her. He had a chance to at least try to get her Miraculous, but he just left. If he had a goal, why wouldn't he try to accomplish it at every possible opportunity? She took a deep breath and decided to think about it more when she got home.
She took a roundabout way home, being very careful about where she transformed back into a civilian. She knew she was probably just being paranoid, but she didn't want to risk… whatever was happening to Chat happening to her, too. She couldn't fathom what caused him to switch to being a villain, but she figured that wasn't her concern.
Her concern was to stop him. Her concern was to help her partner. Her concern was to make sure he didn't have any chances to succeed and get her Miraculous. When she finally got up to her room, she moved her 'Monarch Identity Evidence' board over to make room for her brand new 'What happened to Chat?' board.
She saw him yesterday. He was her partner yesterday. 26 hours isn't usually enough to have a 180-degree change of self. She tried to theorize reasons why he would want her Miraculous, and as much as she didn't want to think so, she had to consider the real possibility that he chose to be on Monarch's side now.
She thought she was going to be sick when she considered the change. If he wasn't akumatized, that meant that he was choosing to be her enemy, no matter how much that broke her heart. That wouldn't make sense, though. Why would he have left then if he had chosen to work with Monarch?
