Gabriel Agreste smiled in delight as he finished writing the important note. This was amazing! There was no way that this offer could be refused! His plans for victory were finally coming together! And after all this time, too.

"Mr. Agreste?" the voice of Natalie came from the other side of his office door. She sounded slightly tentative. He cursed quietly and shoved the note into his desk drawer. Then he straightened up and picked up the latest of his fashion magazines and pretended to be studying it intently.

"Yes Natalie?" he said. "Don't just stand there, come in!" Natalie scurried into the office, looking upset and slightly fearful. He set down his magazine and cleared his throat. "Well, what is it? Has Adrien done something else rash? That boy..."

"Um, that's the problem sir," Natalie squeaked. "I don't exactly know where he is."

"You WHAT?" Mr. Agreste roared, standing up furiously. "You lost track of MY SON? Have you called that abomination of a school he was so desperate to attend?"

"Yes. His teacher hasn't seen him since he was sent home Monday, and none of his classmates have seen him or heard from him either." Natalie shuffled her feet. "I left him alone most of yesterday because he needed to sleep, and when I went to wake him up for school today, he wasn't there."

Gabriel swore loudly, making his assistant cringe. Why must this happen to him on the luckiest day of his life? Where could his son possibly be? He only wanted the best for his precious boy. Adrien was all that Gabriel had left of his wife. If he lost Adrien as well...

"FIND HIM!" he shouted! "CALL THE POLICE! ALERT THE MAYOR! I WANT EVERYONE IN THIS CITY ON HIGH ALERT!" He swiped his hand across his desktop in a blind rage, knocking everything off violently. An expensive vase shattered on the floor.

"Yes sir! I shall call the police this very instant!" Natalie assured him. She rushed out of the room and down to her office. At least she hadn't lost her job! Sure, she did care very much about the boy's well being, but she also really needed the money this job gave her.

Natalie grabbed her phone off of her desk and immediately dialed 911. "Yes, this is Natalie, Mr. Agreste's personal assistant. Adrien Agreste is missing! I want the entire police force on high alert immediately!"

After Natalie left, Mr. Agreste straightened. In the midst of this chaos would be the perfect time to plant the note. He looked down at his watch, secretly also a communication device. "It's time. You know what to do!" he whispered. Then he went out front to meet the head of police and make sure that the best measures possible were taken to find his beloved son.

############################################################################################################################################################

Marinette groaned and reached for her cell phone as it rang. Pressing the send button, she held the phone up to her ear. "Hey Alya."

"MARINETTE! HAVE YOU HEARD?" Alya practically screeched into her ear. She winced and held the phone a couple inches away from it.

"Hear what? Did Ladybug make an appearance?" she asked, knowing full well that she hadn't.

"No, its not that! Ugh, I hate to be the bearer of the bad news, but turn on your TV!" Alya insisted. Marinette groaned and walked down to the TV. Plopping herself down on the couch, she grabbed the remote and turned it on.

"The authorities are baffled as to the reason of the disappearance," the news lady was saying. "Could they be holding young Agreste for ransom? According to Mr. Agreste's personal assistant, Natalie, the household has received no notes demanding money or anything else. What else could be the reason of this famous model's disappearance?"

Marinette felt her heart tighten in her chest as a picture of Adrien flashed across the screen. She gasped. She knew that picture well, because it was on her wall. It was one of her favorites.

"Meanwhile, if anyone sees or hears anything about this, please call this special toll free hot line! We have assistants standing by to receive your calls. The family and friends of this young boy are desperate."

The live video shot to a picture right outside of the Agreste mansion. Mr. Agreste was angrily waving off reporters. Marinette scowled to see Chloe Bourgeois sobbing dramatically in her father's arms.

"Marinette? Marinette!" Alya called through the phone.

"This is horrible! I told you something terrible must have happened!" Marinette said crossly, visibly freaking out. "What if he's hurt! Oh my poor Adrien!"

"I hope they find something soon!" Alya said. "Anyway, I'm sure Ladybug and Chat Noir will show up soon! I mean, they don't only battle akuma, right? Gotta go!" she said. She hung up the phone.

"Will they show up?" she asked herself. "More accurately, will I show up? There is no Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore." Her mind flew back to her earlier conversation with Tikki. Ladybug and Chat Noir. Ladybug and Chat Noir. Chat Noir!

Her hand flew to her mouth as she gasped in surprise. She bolted upstairs. Once safely out of her parents' hearing range, Tikki jumped out of her hiding place.

"I hope Adrien is okay!" she squeaked.

"Tikki," Marinette said. "Remember when we were talking about Chat a couple of hours ago, and you said that he had nothing to do with Adrien's absence at school? I think you might be wrong."

"Do you really think Chat Noir would kidnap Adrien out of jealousy?" Tikki asked. Marinette paced back and forth, yanking at her hair in frustration.

"I don't know what to think!" she yelled. "I mean, I'm still so mad at him! That fight wasn't something that could be gotten over easily! If I deal with anger by getting in a bad mood and lashing out at everyone. I have NO IDEA how he deals with it!"

"You weren't even the one who had your heart crushed," Tikki muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Marinette let it go, sinking down onto her bed. She held Tikki in her hands. "What if he got so mad he kidnapped Adrien? Or what if he was akumatised? Can superheroes even get akumatised?"

"I don't know. Its never happened before," Tikki confessed. Marinette stood. "What are you doing?"

"I need to go back and check on that rooftop some more! Something happened up there that I feel is somehow connected to this! And then I'll swing by the Agreste mansion and let them know I'll be keeping an eye out for Adrien," she explained. "Tikki, spots on!"

She transformed and leapt across the rooftops, running over tiles and jumping over obstacles. She made her way back to the rooftop under investigation in record time, under five minutes. She put her yoyo away on her hip.

There, sitting on the strangely dented air vent, was a white envelope with 'Ladybug' scrawled across it in elegant, careful handwriting. There was no way this had been here when she had come before school this morning.

She glanced back and forth nervously. This could be simply a ransom note, or it could be a trap. She thought about her options. Eventually, she snapped a small piece of a broken roof gable off of the side of the rooftop. She used it to nudge the envelope from where it sat. It fell over the side of the roof and fluttered to the ground.

Ladybug jumped down to the ground and picked it up before the wind could steal it. She looked back and forth before stuffing it into her pocket. Then she retreated hastily from the scene.

Flying across the rooftops, she reached the Agreste mansion. Mrs. Agreste had gone back inside, much to the annoyance of the dozens of reporters swarming around the front gates. The Gorilla stood in front of the house, keeping a wary eye on them. Ladybug hopped down and landed in front of him.

"Ladybug!"

"Ladybug, was this the work of the akuma?"

"Ladybug, what is your opinion on this strange disappearance?"

"Ladybug, where was Chat Noir during that last battle?"

"Ladybug!"

"LADYBUG!"

The reporters swarmed around her. She pushed her way through until she found who she was looking for. Alya could be an excessive fangirl sometimes, but she knew her bestie would be very straightforward. Besides, everyone in Paris knew about the Ladyblog and trusted it more than the news cast for the latest Ladybug updates.

"Hello Ladyblog followers!" Ladybug said straight into Alya's phone camera. The girl looked like she was about to faint. "I would like you to know that I am aware of the situation here, and although I do not know what's going on right now, I have been following several leads and I will do everything in my power to return Adri-uh, this boy, back to his family safe and sound."

Then she tossed her yoyo into the air and disappeared. Alya squealed excitedly. "Did you see that, Ladyblog viewers? LADYBUG herself just came up to me! Stay tuned for updates on this situation!" she then ended the live stream and switched her phone to record instead. She would filter through the video later and find any important parts.

"Wait till Marinette sees this!" she thought. She dashed back down the street away from the crowd.

############################################################################################################################################################

Marinette sat in her desk chair, staring at the envelope. She sighed as she reached forward with trembling fingers, hesitating as they brushed against the flap.

"Marinette, you do realize you have to open that eventually," Tikki said, popping up out of nowhere, suddenly recharged.

"I know, I know. I'm just so scared! What could this mean?" she wondered out loud.

"I don't know Marinette, why don't you open the envelope and we can find out?" Tikki suggested, bumping Marinette's hand against the envelope.

"Fine," Marinette sighed. She narrowed her eyes in determination and slowly opened the flap of the envelope. She reached inside with a shaking hand and pulled out a piece of paper. She unfolded it slowly. Staring at the top half, she read the words written in the same delicate hand that had written her name on the front.

"If you want to see him alive again, come to the abandoned apartment complex over near the South side of the Louvre. Come alone. Bring any police or help of any kind whatsoever and he will meet a rather un-fur-tunate end."

Her eyes widened as she read the letter. She gasped as she read the cat pun. No...

Almost afraid to do it, she closed her eyes halfway as she reached out and unfolded the piece of paper all the way. She immediately squealed and dropped the piece of paper. It slowly drifted to the ground and lay on her carpet.

There, in the center of the paper, was Chat Noir's signature paw print. In red. Marinette started to shake.

"Please tell me that's red ink! Please tell me that's red ink!" she repeated over and over in her mind. She had a clumsy moment and fell out of her desk chair. Scrambling to her knees, she crawled over to the piece of paper. Tikki followed her, mouth open in shock.

Marinette slowly and carefully picked the piece of paper up and held it up to the light. She nearly blanched. That did NOT look like red ink. She sniffed it. It didn't smell like ink either. Hesitantly, she ran her hand over it. She knew what it was.

Blood. It was blood. She didn't know whose blood it was, but did it matter? Somebody had been put through a lot of pain and had lost a lot of blood in order to make this possible. And she had a very good idea who.

"Tikki, Chat Noir. This... this has to be him," Marinette whispered, feeling sick. "No one else could replicate that signature down to sheer perfection. I'm the only one who's ever seen it."

She scrambled to her feet and dropped the piece of paper on her desk. Then she opened the bottom drawer of her desk and dug deep down until she found what she was looking for. She pulled the green piece of paper out and stared at it.

Once, they had been fighting an akuma that could ruin electronics. Chat's baton and her yoyo couldn't communicate. At one point, Chat had to leave the fight to re-energize and didn't know how to let Ladybug know (because they had split up earlier in an attempt to stop the akuma) so he had left her a note.

Marinette stared at the black paw print and then compared it to the red one. Identical. Exactly the same in every single way. Every single curve of the glove and every single stitch in the leather was a perfect match.

"He hurt Adrien," Marinette whispered, letting the note flutter down to the desk and join its companion. "Chat Noir is angry with me and he HURT ADRIEN!"

"Marinette, you shouldn't immediately jump to conclusions!" Tikki advised, flying closer to examine the paw prints.

"Tikki, they're identical. What am I supposed to think? That Chat Noir cut himself to do that? Don't be ridiculous Tikki! I know you don't want it to be true, but we have all of the facts! All of the evidence! Chat Noir has Adrien and I'm going to save him, even if I have to get Chat out of the way to do it!"