One: This Wasn't how it was Supposed to End

Chat Noir groaned loudly as his back made impact with the brick wall he had just been thrown in by his arm by the latest akuma victim. A few stray pieces of cobble fell off his body as he staggered back to his feet. This villain was incredibly strong; a bodybuilder upset that he had lost a competition to someone smaller than him. His muscled, grotesque arms were throwing vehicles and other large objects around like they were nothing but rag dolls or toys. Chat Noir was extremely worried for his lady's safety, especially now when he was simply sitting around in some sort of alley and not even making an attempt to walk. Pain shot through every muscle in his body as he moved and with a horrid realization he noticed he couldn't move his left arm at all. Thankfully, his ring was on his right hand, so whatever problem was ailing his left arm wouldn't stop him from using cataclysm.

He hobbled out of the alley, wondering silently to himself why his entire sense of balance was thrown off. His left side felt incredibly light in comparison to his right. He looked up just as a blur of red flew down and grabbed him by the waist, the telltale sound of a zipping string reaching his ringing ears and suddenly his feet weren't on the ground any longer. His lidded eyes looked up at his lady, wanting to question why Ladybug wasn't looking back down at him.

The entire flight to a nearby building, she was silent. No berating, no obvious worry laced in her voice (although he could see it in her eyes); all there was was her labored breathing loud in his ear over the crashing created by the akuma she had left behind. "It's still out there," Chat Noir rasped out once she set him down, feeling a sudden lightheadedness wash over him like a tidal wave. "We have to go back and get the akuma." He blinked a few times to clear the spots in his vision.

"You're not going anywhere," Ladybug replied, sitting him down, one hand on his waist, the other on his shoulder. "You're in no condition to go anywhere." She still didn't meet his eyes.

"I just hit my back," Chat Noir hissed. "And maybe my head. And I can't move my left arm. I only need my right for cataclysm, anyway."

Ladybug's eyes widened as she finally turned to look at him. He watched her scared blue eyes drift to his left arm before coming back up to his face. "Did...did you not look at yourself? Or see the trophy The Builder is waving around?"

"Trophy?"

"I call it a trophy...but..." She bit her lip and turned away from him, and Chat Noir finally decided to look down at his left arm.

...Or, rather, the space where his left arm would normally be. His shoulder was still there, but past that his arm was missing, the stump bloody and the bone sticking out from between lumps of muscle and ripped flesh. He blinked a few times at the empty sight, before raising his gaze to where the akuma was running in the streets, the black cat's severed arm waving around in his grasp. "Chat...you're freaking out."

"What?" he asked breathlessly, his right hand coming up to cradle his shoulder as he curled in on himself. This would explain his dizziness—blood loss—his loss of balance—he was missing one limb—and the reason he couldn't move his left arm—it just didn't exist.

"I'm going to fix this," Ladybug said, lifting his head by the chin, blue eyes staring into green meadows. "I'm going to fix this, and then my cure is going to put you back together. I promise." Before hearing his response, but waiting at least long enough to press her lips to his forehead, she leaped back toward The Builder.

Chat Noir tried to control his breathing, but it was proving to be a harder task the longer the shock started to set in. But the back of his mind rationalized that the longer he sat there, curled into fetal position and trying to not scream his head off, the longer Ladybug was out there, fending off that wretched akuma all on her own.

That thought alone was enough to send Chat Noir to his feet in an unbalanced frenzy, hand reaching behind him to grip his baton tightly. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he extended it and began his trek to where he heard The Builder and Ladybug dueling. He could hear Plagg's voice in the back of his throbbing head telling him to sit back down and rest, but he was having none of it.

Thankfully, Ladybug seemed to be fairing well against the akuma and barely had a scratch on her, and Chat Noir knew it was most likely thanks to the lucky kwami that she hadn't gotten seriously injured.

She turned to him and her lips opened in a scream. What was she saying?

"Chat!"

He barely had enough time to register his name before a pressure in his gut sent him flying back, against something solid as screams reached his ears before everything went blank.

Ladybug watched in horror as her partner was punched in the stomach and sent into the wall of the city hall, landing limp and unmoving, his bloody stump dripping a puddle underneath him. Suddenly, Ladybug felt a wave of uneasiness wash over her as she jumped away from The Builder's oncoming attack, landing on her bottom instead of her feet. Her sense of equilibrium was off as she stood back up, yo-yo clenched in her fist as she stared up at her opponent. "You're going to pay for that," she managed out through her dizziness. She eyed the severed arm in the akuma's grasp. "And while I'm at it, I'll be taking back what doesn't belong to you. Lucky charm!"

She threw her compact into the air and in a burst of red and black popped out a baseball bat, which she hauled over her shoulder. With her other hand, she beckoned her foe near.

Her body went on autopilot as The Builder charged for her and she dodged with ease, turning on her heel and swinging the bat against the back of his head. Had this been any other occasion, she would refrain from being this aggressive towards an akuma victim.

But this was personal. This was for her partner.

He cried out in agony and spun around, Chat Noir's arm still limp in his grasp. Ladybug grit her teeth as the black leather slowly morphed into skin and the remains of a white shirt sleeve, meaning that his transformation had just run out.

A black blur jumped in front of her and kicked the akuma down more, before vanishing altogether. Ladybug shook her head, wondering what in the world had just… attempted to save her? even if it did so after the akuma was already pretty nicely hit.

"Ladybug!"

She glanced down at the street where dozens upon dozens of Parisians watched the fight in horror. She could pick out Alya without difficulty, but the blogger wasn't looking at her, but at another rooftop. The spotted heroine followed her gaze and felt her breath hitch in her throat.

Chat Noir stood behind The Builder, baton in hand, ready to strike.

More importantly, baton in his left hand, which should have still been in The Builder's grasp.

Which still was in The Builder's grasp.

author's notes:
this is based loosely off of the concept from the series 'ajin'. it's an addiction that plagues me
i'm so not sorry about this
especially since it's got over 50 chapters planned so far
oops?
prepare for lotsa angst with lotsa fluff and losta sadrien