A/N: Thanks to everyone who took the time to review! I can't say how much I appreciate it.

When Adrien returned, he immediately spotted Blademaster with one foot wedged in the remains of the floor, futilely trying to pull free, and he smirked. Madame Neumann was right; Philippe did need to watch his footing. Trust Ladybug to turn what had nearly been a cat-astrophe on his part into a cat-astrophic success. He alighted gently on a piece of broken concrete jutting out from the centre of the ruin and looked at Blademaster. "Well, aren't you a paw-tiful sight?"

Blademaster growled and swiped at him with his sword, but he only held one now. Adrien spotted the other less than halfway across the remainder of the court and leapt over to it. Ladybug was nowhere in sight. Perhaps she'd needed five minutes after using her Lucky Charm? It must have been quite a fight before that if she hadn't had enough time to cleanse the akuma before leaving.

Adrien waited—Blademaster wasn't going anywhere—and eventually decided it was better to be safe than sorry and used his staff to disarm Blademaster once and for all. It wasn't a fair fight when his opponent couldn't move too far, but accepting Hawk Moth's help negated the need for fair fighting in Adrien's book. Adrien managed to snap the sword so Blademaster wouldn't be able to control it again and then looked around for Ladybug.

She still hadn't returned.

Blademaster must have known what he was thinking because he sneered, "Ladybug is gone!"

"I can see that," Adrien muttered as he activated the video chat option on his staff. Ladybug didn't answer; perhaps he really hadn't given her and her kwami enough time to reenergize?

More waiting proved fruitless, and Chat Noir couldn't just stand there forever.

"Come on, my lady," Adrien called, hoping she was within earshot, "you know I cannot cleanse the akuma myself!"

Nothing.

It wasn't safe to leave Blademaster as he was if it could be helped—not for everyone else, anyway—and it could be helped, at least slightly. Adrien picked up an abandoned mask and then strode over to the akuma-containing sword. He snapped it and waited for the black butterfly to make its escape. He was not Ladybug; he could not reverse the damage that had been done, the evil and all its havoc, but freeing the akuma would still free Philippe from his contract with Hawk Moth. It would not necessarily be the end of Blademaster—Adrien had only ever seen Hawk Moth's victims come back to themselves after Ladybug's cleansing—but he would no longer by guided through the poisoned touch of the akuma.

Adrien easily caught the butterfly in the mask and held it closed. The akumas sent out by Hawk Moth were specific to their hosts and—often—made to prey upon the host in a particular time of weakness. This akuma would not be able to merge with someone else and begin a new contract for Hawk Moth, and Philippe….

Adrien glanced back. Hawk Moth's magic had not yet retreated from Philippe, but if it did, he only needed to prevent Philippe from feeling as he had when Hawk Moth had created this akuma to ensure that he would not be able to host the same one.

There was still no sign of Ladybug.

Blademaster snarled at him. He might not be able to control broken swords, but Adrien had no wish to let him free to find others—or to see how well his power transferred to knives.

Usually, by this point, the damage had been repaired, he and Ladybug had acknowledged their accomplished mission, and they were due to both run off before their transformations ran out. This time….

This time, Ladybug was gone and the mission wasn't accomplished. Adrien needed to find a way to secure Blademaster considerably better than he was now or none of the fencers would be safe, himself included once the transformation wore off—and that wasn't even considering what Blademaster might do to any civilians who got in his way.

Adrien glanced around, wishing he had Ladybug's analytical mind to put together a feasible plan in a hurry. He saw nothing that looked remotely useful. He couldn't very well pin Blademaster down with the broken swords, and short of managing to knock him out….

The groan of twisting metal and the grind of shifting concrete was the only warning Adrien had that Blademaster was pulling free. He set the trapped akuma on the floor, split his staff into two, and spun into action, taking advantage of the fact that Blademaster still had limited mobility.

Akuma victims were resilient, typically managing to stand up to any beating Adrien could give them even without Hawk Moth whispering in their minds, but if Ladybug were here, she would have had no trouble tying up Blademaster with her yo-yo now.

Unfortunately, she still didn't show up.

Adrien retreated long enough to assure himself that the akuma was still trapped and to pick up the remains of Madame Neumann's torn jacket. He tackled Blademaster and managed to tie his arms, but this was one cat fight Adrien couldn't finish by himself. He needed Ladybug. At the very least, he needed some assurance that someone else would be able to hold Blademaster until the akuma could be cleansed.

His Miraculous beeped in warning.

Adrien kept dancing and attacking, keeping one eye on the akuma—it had managed to shift the mask by an inch, perhaps, but not wriggle free of it—and the other on Blademaster, who was favouring the leg he'd managed to free. Adrien took advantage of the weakness and by some stroke of luck managed to shift the rubble enough to trap Blademaster again, pinning the uninjured foot underneath a concrete slab once it was tangled in a piece of rebar. As he bent to tighten his makeshift rope on Blademaster's wrists, he noticed something clenched in the man's fingers.

Another beep. A glance at his ring told Adrien he didn't have long, but after securing the knot he managed to pry open Blademaster's fist and take the prize for himself.

It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at, but he soon recognized it as Ladybug's earrings. Her Miraculous. Which meant….

"She's gone," Adrien said dumbly, repeating what Blademaster had told him earlier. He sprang back, snatching up the mask with the trapped akuma and clutching it like a lifeline. He took a moment to study the rubble again—Blademaster wasn't going anywhere now, despite his wriggling—and spotted a fork that must have been Ladybug's Lucky Charm. At least that hadn't disappeared with her, since they'd need it later, but what he needed was….

There. Adrien's eyes were drawn to a flicker of movement in the rubble. He carefully reached down to shift a small slab of concrete and found himself staring at something not at all unlike Plagg.

It was Ladybug's kwami.

Marinette stared down at the sink and focused on trying to breathe and regain her composure. She'd found the women's washroom (thankfully empty) and had cleaned up as best she could. The cut into her right earlobe made her realize just how lucky she was that Blademaster had not been aiming elsewhere; it was clean and sharp, nearly enough the carve the Miraculous from her ear, but although her earring was gone—although both earrings were gone—her earlobe was still mostly intact. It would heal, given time.

Marinette still had a wad of tissues pressed to her ear, but she thought it had stopped bleeding now; the bleeding had never been as bad as she'd imagined it might be in the first place. That didn't make the throbbing pain any less, though, or make questions any easier to answer.

Chat Noir would be expecting Ladybug's return; he didn't know what had happened to her. She couldn't waltz back out there to find Tikki and retrieve the Miraculous when he was there, and she certainly wasn't in any shape to return as herself if Blademaster was still there.

She should have waited. She should have been more careful. She should have done something differently so that she wasn't in this situation.

But there was no use crying over spilled milk—Chat Noir was rubbing off on her!—so Marinette squared her shoulders and examined her face in the mirror. She had no way to secure a makeshift bandage to her ear, so she carefully peeled off what she could of the wad, wincing as it tugged a bit too hard on the tender skin and sent out a spike of pain. She pulled her hair out of its pigtails and carefully arranged it over her ears. Hopefully, unless she ran into someone nosy like Chloé or curious like Alya, no one would question the change—assuming she actually ran into anyone she knew.

Of course, the only real danger she was facing was running into Adrien—she didn't know anyone else who practiced here at this time—but with any luck he was well away with the rest of them. She had enough trouble trying to talk to him without the distraction of a throbbing wound, and she didn't want to invite any questions she couldn't answer.

Marinette moved slowly, listening and trying to figure out whether or not Chat Noir was gone. She couldn't hear him, but that kitty cat could be as quiet as a mouse if he tried to be. Of course, he usually wasn't, and it was with that certainty in mind that she peeked out of the doors and into the practice area.

Chat Noir was nowhere in sight. Blademaster was there, which thankfully meant he hadn't escaped. He was tied up now and his sword broken, so he would no longer be under Hawk Moth's control, but since she hadn't been there to cleanse the akuma….

Since she hadn't been there, the damage remained. Marinette bit her lip and crept out toward the place where Blademaster had first been caught, giving him a wide berth as she did so and trying to ignore his growls and taunts. If she could just get Tikki and the Miraculous, then Ladybug could find Chat Noir and she could cleanse the akuma and erase the evil it had caused—at least, she hoped there was still a way to do that. For all she knew, her Lucky Charm had vanished when she'd lost the transformation, and the akuma could be anywhere by now.

"Tikki?" Marinette called softly as she knelt at the edge of the destruction. "Tikki, where are you?"

Knowing she had to be quick didn't make matters any easier for Marinette. Tikki didn't respond, and Marinette couldn't see her—or the Miraculous or the Lucky Charm—anywhere, despite sifting through the rubble. She edged as near to Blademaster as she dared, wary of him even though he was bound, but she could still see nothing. She kept telling herself that the earrings were small and would be easy to miss and the fork had probably already disappeared, but Tikki?

Tikki should have come to her, would have come to her, if she'd been able.

There was nothing for it; Marinette would need to find Chat Noir and get his help. He certainly had better eyes than she did, and perhaps he could see something she couldn't. At the very least, he might know if there had been another akuma victim who might have been able to retrieve her Miraculous and be heading to Hawk Moth in Blademaster's stead. (She hoped that notion as ridiculous, since Blademaster very clearly wasn't freed, but if another victim didn't benefit from any havoc Blademaster might wreak….) Still, Hawk Moth surely knew one of their Miraculous was nearly in his grasp even if his connection with Blademaster had since been broken. And if Tikki and the Miraculous really were on their way to Hawk Moth, then she would have to tell Chat Noir the truth, because if Hawk Moth finally got his hands on….

No. That didn't bear thinking about.

Marinette heard voices before she saw anyone, and that gave her enough time to get out of the rubble and run for cover. She stopped as soon as she could, her suddenly-pounding heart doing nothing for the pain in her head. She'd have to look after it properly once she got home, and at the rate she was moving…. She'd have to do that before she went looking for Chat Noir.

It was unlikely she'd find him now anyway—chances were very good that his transformation had worn off again if he wasn't already long gone in the first place—so waiting to look for him didn't necessarily mean the trail would get any colder, but if Blademaster managed to get free….

Marinette took a deep breath. No. She had to trust that Chat Noir had the situation in hand. With any luck, he'd called for assistance to get Blademaster escorted somewhere where there wasn't anything sharp, somewhere he could wait it out until they could fix this. And they would, somehow. She could get through this. She just needed to take things one step at a time. She needed to treat her injury, and while she was doing that….

Marinette pulled out her phone and dialled Alya's number. If anyone knew where Chat Noir had last been seen, it would be Alya, and she might have info about any recent akuma victims, too. Every sighting went up on Alya's Ladyblog, by others if not herself, and Marinette had never been more thankful to have her best friend looking into any and all things surrounding Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Fortunately for Marinette, her parents were busy with the shop when she got home, so she had no trouble sneaking upstairs. She'd spent less than five minutes in the washroom trying to tend to her ear, however, before Alya phoned her back.

"Marinette? Did you take a look around before you left?"

Marinette's heart jumped into her throat. Had Alya found something? In her haste, had she left some clue about her identity? "Take a look at what?" She'd said little during her previous call, mostly just informing Alya of the fight and asking if she knew anything else about it. Since she hadn't, Marinette had put to rest her fears about another akuma victim. Alya surely would have heard if Chat Noir was chasing one through the city. But if no one was on the way to Hawk Moth with Tikki and her Miraculous, where were they?

"The court is half destroyed," Alya said, "and people are saying that the villain—Blademaster—is locked in a room in one of the wings they blocked off. Sounds like a closet, really, from what I can gather. I had to bring Manon with me, but I needed to see it for myself. Can you believe Blademaster wasn't restored to his previous state? That all this damage is still here? This is huge. It's the first time I know of that Ladybug and Chat Noir haven't been able to fix everything."

Marinette bit her lip, but this wasn't going to be the first time she'd lied to her friend. "I ran before they showed up," she admitted. "I was worried about Adrien—" that part was true, at least "—but I knew I couldn't do anything to help. I didn't want to call you until I knew I was safe. Besides, I knew you were babysitting Manon." Marinette should have been the one babysitting her, in truth, but Alya had volunteered to step in—after checking with Manon's parents, of course—to give Marinette time to talk to Adrien.

She wasn't sure what would have happened if she had been babysitting. How long would it have taken before she realized she needed to go? How long would it have taken to convince Manon to let Alya fill in for her? She wasn't sure what excuse she would have given Alya, but she was sure Alya would have been willing. She might have had a few questions about Marinette's eagerness to go once she'd returned, though.

"You couldn't have known this time would be different. Are you at home? I've posted a few pictures of battle site on my blog, but it's really something you need to see in person to appreciate."

"I doubt they want a lot of people there gawking," Marinette pointed out, trying to bide her time. She'd put Alya on speaker by now. She'd already finished bandaging her ear as best she could, but hiding the wound with her hair was proving to be another problem. Maybe she should just shift her pigtails forward so they covered her ears? It didn't suit her, but how else was she to explain what she'd done to her ear? Marinette frowned and left her hair hanging loose. Perhaps she should tell Alya a portion of the truth—that her earring had been ripped out—and see if she had any ideas.

"Most people can't get close," Alya acknowledged, "but some of the people here follow my blog and let me in to get a closer look, as long as I'm accompanied by someone else. Nino came here when he heard—he was looking for Adrien—and he watched Manon for me. I was only gone about five minutes but I think she likes him better. Apparently he promised to buy her ice cream if she kept quiet, so we'll be doing that before I take her home again." Marinette could practically see Alya rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I'm back out now, so if you can make it here, I'll pull a few strings and get you in with me."

Marinette hadn't expected that, despite having witnessed Alya record as many sightings of Ladybug and Chat Noir as possible. "Has anyone found anything?" she asked carefully. "I mean, since the damage is still there, something might be different. Is there anything that you've seen? Maybe…maybe something left behind?"

"Nothing yet, but there's a lot to go through. A clue might still be uncovered. Come on, Marinette. Unless you're going to be so bold as to go to Adrien's house alone and ask to see him, you should meet me. This isn't something we get to see every day."

Marinette laughed nervously, since both she and Alya knew quite well she wouldn't be able to summon the courage to ask to be let in to the Agreste residence. "All right," she said. "Just give me a couple of minutes. I was fiddling with my earring when the attack began and I…kinda ripped it out of my ear by mistake. I had to bandage it, and it looks silly."

"Just think of it as a badge of courage and don't worry about it. People probably won't even notice. You were there when the fight began, that's all."

That was more true than Alya knew, but…. Marinette hesitated, then pulled her hair back into her usual hairstyle. The one lock of hair that fell in front of her ear covered some of the bandage, and Blademaster would remember nothing once he was returned to normal. No one would know what her injury meant even if they did notice it. No one else knew Ladybug's transformation depended on her earrings. Well, Chat Noir, but unless he knew what had happened to her….

Marinette dropped her hands and looked in the mirror. He was going to find out anyway. She'd need his help to get Tikki and the Miraculous back from wherever they had ended up. He'd once told her that he'd keep her secret if she told him who she was, and she'd believed him, she had, but….

She'd thought the masks made things easier for them. Secrets were easier to keep when you were the only one who knew it. But knowing, just the two of them, would be easier in its own way, she supposed. They needn't fear being unmasked if it was just the two of them, far from prying eyes or cameras, and if a situation like this ever arose again, it would be easy for them to contact each other.

But knowing led to complacency. A simple slip of the tongue, perhaps, or making the assumption that something was fine just because it was every other time it had been checked—only for something to go wrong that one time. She knew it could happen. Her father had failed to surprise her mother more than once because of something like that.

In truth, though, that had never been her greatest fear, not when they would do their best to keep the secret between them. It should be, she knew. Hawk Moth would no doubt find some way to discover the truth, and he already knew what their Miraculous were. Knowing who they were would make it easier for him to obtain them. As much as Marinette hoped that never happened, hoped he'd never learn the truth, she wasn't naïve enough to believe it wouldn't, someday. Quite frankly, she was lucky Blademaster wasn't free to report back to Hawk Moth.

But with this, between her and Chat Noir? It wasn't the same as the fear she'd felt when Alya—Lady WiFi—had tried to unmask her. Not entirely, anyway. She didn't fear the broader consequences of the truth coming out when it was just the two of them. No, with him, she feared judgement. She worried about what Chat Noir would think of Marinette. Ladybug…. She felt like someone else, someone who wasn't much more than a mask Marinette wore. Tikki had said that Ladybug's courage still came from within her, and perhaps she was right, but Marinette could never seem to find that courage when she wasn't Ladybug. The responsibility, the thrill, the anonymity…. Being Ladybug gave Marinette the opportunity to be more, demanded she be more, and she rose to meet that challenge because she'd been chosen.

She wasn't sure if she'd be able to maintain that when she was alone with Chat Noir once he knew the truth. The mask was simple, but it offered protection. She was Ladybug. It didn't need to be more complicated than that. Ladybug was a heroine; she didn't need to be Marinette, the ninth grader who worried about school, giggled with friends, sometimes shirked her duties at the shop, and all too often daydreamed about one of the boys in her class. Ladybug was confident, smart, and skilled. She didn't need to be the same girl who stuttered when she tried to speak to Adrien, could hardly find the time to do her assignments, and tripped in class.

Marinette sighed. Ordinary Marinette seemed so different from Ladybug, even if they weren't. Ladybug was friends with Chat Noir. She trusted him, teased him, had an easy relationship with him. But what if he didn't like Marinette? What if he didn't like the girl beneath the mask?

"I can't worry about that now," Marinette told herself. "I'll meet Alya and then…." And then what? Without knowing who Chat Noir truly was, she had no way to contact him. "I'll figure out something," she muttered. She had to.

"It's camembert," Plagg said as he did something Adrien had never thought he'd willingly do: offer to part with his emergency cheese supply. "It's good. You should have some."

Ladybug's kwami had exhausted herself from both the transformation and trying to wriggle out from beneath the rubble, and she'd made no protest when Adrien had scooped her up. Even though he suspected Ladybug would try to come back, he hadn't dared leave Tikki or the Miraculous behind where just anyone might find them any more than he did Ladybug's Lucky Charm. Plagg had still had enough energy to maintain the transformation, but Adrien had changed back anyway and left both kwami, the Lucky Charm, and the trapped akuma in the bottom of his bag until he got home, with the earrings stashed safely in his pocket. Despite his father's fame and his own small modelling career, it was still much easier to blend in as Adrien Agreste than as Chat Noir, and he'd thought it best to hang around just long enough to assure himself that someone was able to wrestle Blademaster into a locked room until Ladybug could be found.

He'd already secured the akuma in a glass jar he'd swiped from the kitchen; as far as anyone else knew, he needed the jam jar for a class project. Now he'd locked himself in his room and was watching the two kwami interact. Tikki muttered something unintelligible, at least to Adrien's ears, but Plagg stuffed the chunk of cheese into his mouth.

"Plagg!"

"She doesn't like it," Plagg said around his full mouth. He swallowed and added, "She can't appreciate the fine taste."

"How much do you even taste? Sometimes you swallow it whole!"

Plagg burped but reached for more cheese. "She'll have a cookie," he said instead.

Adrien frowned but went to fetch some from the secret stash one of the cooks had put away for him for when he 'needed something sweet'; they needed to get Tikki back on her feet if they were to return her to Ladybug. The prospect put a smile on his face. He'd finally know the identity of the lady beneath the mask! He was sure she wasn't really five thousand years old—he rather suspected she had been chosen like he had been—but she was just so…. Words didn't do her justice. She took his breath away, every time. And soon he'd know who she was!

Adrien approached his room with a full tin of cookies sneaked from the kitchen, but his steps slowed as a terrible thought struck him. He desperately wanted to know Ladybug's identity, but she wanted anonymity. He knew that. She'd made that all too clear after the fight with Lady WiFi. She thought they should keep their identities secret, even between themselves.

This was the perfect time to find out the truth, but he couldn't bear the thought of her being angry that he'd taken advantage of the situation to do just that.

Not that he thought she'd be angry right away, of course—he hoped she'd be relieved and thankful that Tikki and the Miraculous were safe—but if she didn't trust him as much as she once had, or if she feared knowing might affect their judgement and work in the field even if he assured her again he wouldn't tell anyone….

He didn't want to destroy the relationship they already had.

He wanted to know the truth, but he wanted her to be the one to choose—or at least agree—to tell him. He didn't want to force her into it. He didn't want to give her any reasons to regret telling each other their secrets.

Adrien entered his room again with a heavy heart, securing the door and placing the tin of cookies on the desk next to Ladybug's kwami. He picked out a chocolate chip cookie and offered it to Tikki, who blinked wearily at it for a moment before taking it and eating.

The effect was immediately noticeable. Tikki perked up, eyes opening wider and antennae quivering. She propelled herself over to the tin and grabbed another cookie and was half through it when she turned around to get her first good look at him.

Adrien brushed the cookie crumbs she'd spewed at him off his shirt. "Feeling better?"

Tikki nodded shyly, saying a quiet, "Yes, thank you," before stuffing the rest of the cookie into her mouth. Adrien glanced at Plagg, who was halfway through the cheese wheel and showing no signs of slowing down. He sighed; one advantage of having a father who did not pay too much attention to him was that he never asked why Adrien bought so much cheese.

Adrien would rather have had to scramble for excuses.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Adrien asked, looking at Tikki. "Is Ladybug all right?"

"What he means is," Plagg said from his place on the dwindling remains of the cheese wheel, "who is she? He wants to know because he's in lo—"

"Plagg!"

The kwami shot Adrien what was probably supposed to be an innocent look. "What? It's true. She's the girl of your dr—"

"That's not important right now," Adrien insisted, but he felt his cheeks warming. Tikki made a choked sound again, and Adrien flushed a deeper red because he knew she'd noticed and…. He needed to focus. "Tikki, do you know if she's okay?"

"I think so," Tikki answered slowly. "Blademaster tore away her Miraculous and I was thrown into the rubble. It shifted and trapped me before I could escape. I-I thought I heard her calling me, but…." The kwami glanced away. "I didn't have the energy to shout back."

Adrien swallowed, remembering the scream he'd heard while in the locker room. He'd attributed it to someone walking in on Ladybug's fight with Blademaster before making a hasty retreat and had clearly been a fool to do so. He remembered how Blademaster had fought and he knew what Tikki did not say. Ladybug might still be on her feet, but wherever she was, she was injured. Perhaps it wasn't as bad as he feared—she had still managed to separate Blademaster from the sword containing the akuma, and he had not seen a trail of blood—but they'd been lucky enough in the past to escape anything more than bumps, bruises, and scrapes.

At least, that was true as far as he knew. He did wonder if that was truly the case, as when they'd fought Timebreaker the future Ladybug had been quite adamant in her warnings and given him more than one worrying look when she thought he wasn't looking, but he'd thought it best not to ask. As far as he'd been able to tell, when they fought together, they were able to guard each other's backs.

Except this time, he hadn't been there for her when she'd needed him.

"It's not your fault," he told Tikki. "It's mine." Plagg snorted, and Adrien ignored him except to take the cheese away from him. His rounded belly told Adrien he'd had more than enough anyway, and Plagg's yawn undermined all his protests to the contrary. "I'm going to get you back to her," Adrien promised.

"That'll be easy," Plagg pointed out. "Tikki knows who she is."

"I know," Adrien said before Tikki had a chance to respond, "but Ladybug wants her secret kept, and I have to respect her wishes. She should tell me who she is because she wants to tell me."

Plagg muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "You're still not thinking clearly." Adrien decided to ignore him; if he didn't, he might change his mind.

"But if I don't tell you who she is," Tikki began slowly, "how will you get me back to her?"

"She has to know you're safe first," Adrien said as he turned on the computer. "If she's anything like me, she's keeping tabs on the people who are keeping tabs on her, so there's one sure way to let her know you're okay." Plagg was half asleep by now, but Tikki still gave Adrien a questioning look. Adrien opened up the web browser and went to the page that was first in his bookmarks: the Ladyblog.