"Help, please!" Screamed the voice again, the sobbing growing clearer in Chat's ears as he and Ladybug drew closer.

A dark, rectangular shape loomed up in front of them, and he could just make out the name of the pizzeria emblazoned on the side of the building.

Ladybug looked around the store-front frantically, the smoke getting into her eyes and making them water.

"Where are you?" She cried hoarsely, and the voice came back a moment later.

"Down here, please hurry! I-I'm by the wall."

The two heroes ran closer, until a slowly stirring figure was visible. A woman could be seen through the smoke, her back pinned against the side of the pizzeria. Her tousled blonde hair was streaked with a damp redness, and her legs and the bottom half of her torso was trapped by a huge chunk of brick and cement, presumably from the explosion. She spotted the heroes, the agony on her face dissipating slightly in shock.

"L-Ladybug?" She breathed, her voice choked from pain and smoke. "Chat Noir?"

"It's us." Chat told her softly, kneeling next to her.

"We're going to get you out of here," Ladybug promised from the other side of the woman. She grasped the woman's hand. "What's your name?"

"Cynthia." Gasped the woman, tear tracks glinting against the smudges of dust and ash on her cheeks.

"Okay, Cynthia, you're gonna be fine." Chat told her soothingly as he and Ladybug surveyed the rock that trapped her. "Uh, is there anything you can tell us about what happened?"

"It was the bank," Cynthia whimpered, the bellow of the flames making her nearly inaudible. Her face was hard to make out through the ever-deepening smoke. "I was just coming out of the building n-next to it when it just exploded. I guess I got thrown away by the explosion, and I think I b-blacked out. Then I woke up and I was just lying here. I- I can't feel my legs, and my son- my son was with me, I can't see him, I can't move, I- please, help me!" Cynthia dissolved into sobs and Ladybug cast Chat a dark look.

"Is there any way to lever this thing off of her?" She whispered hopefully. Chat frowned and shook his head. He was uncomfortably hot, the inferno growing. He saw a bead of sweat drop down Ladybug's face and knew they were running out of time.

"I don't know what to do," he told her unhappily. "Do you think we're strong enough to just lift it off her?"

Ladybug analysed it critically. The boulder was enormous, both she and Chat could have lain side by side on top of it.

"I don't think so."

Cynthia's sobs had been loud enough to stop the conversation from reaching the terrified woman's ears, so her hopeful expression broke Chat's heart when he lay a hand on her shoulder.

"Cynthia, I don't think we're strong enough to lift it off you ourselves." He looked at the ground in defeat.

"No, no- please there has to be a way for you to help me!" The woman begged, tears spurting down her dirtied cheeks.

"Chat, the fire's getting closer," Ladybug murmured warningly, panic crossing what little of her face Chat could see behind the mask and through the smoke. They were nearly out of time, and he was out of ideas.

He felt utterly useless. What good were his powers if they couldn't save one innocent woman?

Wait- his powers.

Chat started, his ring glinting in the orange glow of the encroaching blaze.

"Why don't I Cataclysm it?"

Ladybug's mouth popped open.

"Is- is it powerful enough? Could your Cataclysm destroy something this big?" She asked hopefully, Cynthia's ragged breathing also slowing in optimism. Chat looked at the boulder again.

"It's all one thing, I should be able to get it all. I think this is our only option, and we're running out of time." He moved to stand up, raising his fist to the sky.

"Chat- wait. You realise that if you do this, you'll only have minutes before your transformation wears off." Ladybug warned, standing next to him.

"I know." He muttered.

"But I might see who you are…"

Chat looked at her, placing a soft kiss on her forehead before gently moving her backwards, out of the way of his power.

"Would that be so terrible?" He asked softly, seeing her face light up at his words. He knew she was over the moon at the prospect of seeing who he truly was. Cynthia needed help, and he knew he couldn't keep himself a secret much longer anyway. So it was with no trepidation that he called his power, and thrust the darkness against the boulder.

A few moments later, the dust cleared and Cynthia was lying free amongst the rubble. A gasp sprang from her lips in relief and wonder before Chat scooped her up into his arms.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the woman sobbed as he and Ladybug ran away from the source of the fire. The sound of ambulances and fire engines were growing ever closer, so he deposited her a few metres out of the smoke cloud.

"The ambulances are nearly here," Ladybug told her when the woman was seated against a wall. "They'll take care of you. But for now, we've got other people to help." She gave a smile, and started to turn away when Cynthia reached out to hold her arm.

"My- my son," she gasped, the pain from her crushed legs working it's way into her cracked voice. "My Teddy, I don't know where he is. Can you find him, can you help him?"

"We'll do our best." Chat promised her, and Cynthia let go of Ladybug's hand with a grateful nod. The two ran back towards the smoke cloud, just as Chat's ring gave it's first beep of warning.

A sizzling noise ricocheted off the buildings around them as the fire engines that had arrived began hosing water onto the burning buildings. The smoke began to clear, and a wave of relief began building in Chat's stomach.

The still-sunny light of day managed to pierce it's way through the fading smoke to cast relief on the carnage. Overturned cars and chunks of exploded masonry had caused a huge amount of damage to the nearby buildings. Several people were still staggering around in a daze, while some were lying down, unmoving. A multitude of pained moans were easily audible, the stench of fire and smoke burning his nostrils.

"Jeeze," muttered Ladybug as they made their way to the nearest civilians. "Whoever did this is not going to get away with this." The anger in her vow surprised him, but he couldn't comment on it, as they were now guiding some innocents away from the dying inferno. It was still hot enough to make him sweat under his suit, and his eyes and throat burned in the greying air.

"Akuma?"

She shrugged, handing over her civilian to a paramedic. She waved away the stammers of gratitude with a weak smile before turning back to him.

"I don't know." Ladybug sighed, surveying the carnage with her hands on her hips. "But we haven't got long before you change back- oh!" Suddenly, she darted away, running in the opposite direction from the nearest injured Parisians. Confused, Chat ran after her.

"My Lady, where are you going?" He called, trying to keep up with her.

"There's someone I need to check up on." She shot back, and he suddenly realised where she was going. He caught up with her as she skidded into the alleyway where they'd left Alya and Nino.

Sure enough, the two were still there, curled up together on the grimy floor. Alya let out a cry of shock as her heroine ran up to her. Even without being able to see her face, Chat could sense the fear in Ladybug's stance.

"Where's Ad- the blond boy?" She enquired harshly, apparently her relief at the safeness of her two friends overcome by her fear for the missing Adrien. Alya seemed to be in a state of shock from the events of the day, so Nino spoke for her.

"He went back," he told Ladybug miserably. "We were nearby when the building exploded, and Marinette went back to help, then Adrien followed her." Looking with obviously increasing panic between her two friends, Ladybug swallowed and turned to Chat.

"They're my friends, I was having lunch with them when it happened. I helped them away from the explosion, then I left these two and my friend Adrien here so they'd be safe," she explained quietly to him. "I can't believe Adrien went after me…" Tears pooled in her eyes, and Chat felt guilt rise up inside him.

He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a loud bang echoed from back where the ambulances were. The four jumped, Alya looking fearfully up at her heroine.

"What was that?"

Ladybug looked at Chat in terror.

"It sounded like a gunshot." She whispered, and before he could say anything else, she was sprinting off again. Just as he was about to follow her, Alya caught onto his wrist from where she knelt on the ground.

"Please, Chat Noir." She begged, her expression broken and scared. "Find our friends."

Not trusting himself to say anything, Chat gave her a nod before running off after Ladybug.

"Ladybug, wait!" He called, and this time she slowed. They ran side by side until they reached the still-smoking crater of where the bank had been. A multitude of ambulances and fire engines were parked some distance away, but some were starting to drive off, full to the brim with injured innocents.

It wasn't hard to see where the gunshot had come from. In front of the hole that used to be the bank, five black-clad men stood with revolvers. Black material covered the bottom half of their faces and the remaining civilians were backing away in terror.

"Stay back!" Yelled one of the men, his own revolver pointing into the sky, having just issued a warning shot. No-one seemed inclined to disobey him, the bystanders dashing to duck behind any cover they could find.

"A robbery?" Chat was outraged. "All this just so they could rob the godamn bank?"

Ladybug looked incensed. But then she had to grab Chat's arm to stop him from storming up to the men, and panic took the place of her anger. She dragged him behind an overturned lorry, knowing he had two minutes left before he transformed back and spoke quickly.

"Chat, no. Let the police deal with it. It's not an akuma, this isn't our job." She looked desperate.

He glared at her.

"The police won't be here for ages yet. We can't let them get away with this, god only knows how many people they killed today! The bomb was clearly just to get the building open and all the security staff away, they didn't give a damn who got hurt! They're worse than akumas, Ladybug, there isn't just some ring or bracelet we can break to de-evilise them. They're murderers, okay? We have to stop them."

He pulled his arms out of her grip and dashed back around the lorry. He heard her cry his name, but couldn't stop himself. Three men were still outside the bank, two having clearly gone in to rob the place. They readied their guns when they saw him coming. More sirens sounded in the distance, but by the time the police got here, the men would have disappeared. So he charged.

Dodging the bullets that whizzed towards him with a feline grace and nimbleness, he managed to disarm and floor the first two men with ease before turning to the third. The man's hand shook on his gun, clearly not having been expecting Chat Noir to be the opposition on the heist. Chat's eyes flashed with anger, and he dimly saw Ladybug dashing towards him.

"Put down the gun," he ordered, his voice harsh. The man shook his head, but also didn't pull the trigger. "Don't make me do this the hard way." Chat told him, his tail swishing as he approached. Sweat beaded down the man's forehead, his reluctance to shoot an indication of his fear. Suddenly, there was a whizzing noise, and the man's gun was pulled out of his hands by Ladybug's yo-yo, and cast onto the ground a few feet away. As the man hopped foolishly from foot to foot in frustration at his incompetence, Chat lunged for him, and tackled him. The man's head struck the ground, his eyes rolling back into his head. Breathing hard, Chat stood up to dust himself off. His ring gave him a one-minute warning as he turned to stand face-to-face with an incensed Ladybug.

"What the hell were you thinking?" She hissed, her cheeks blotched with angry redness. "You could have been shot, you moron."

"But I wasn't," countered Chat, walking past her to look into the darkness of the ex-bank. "Come on, there are two more inside."

Ladybug grabbed his arm and yanked him around to face her before he could step into the remains of the building.

"Chat, you're about to de-transform. Just get out of here, okay? I'll deal with this."

Chat drew away, frowning.

"I'm not leaving you alone. I've still got time, I ca-"

His protests were cut off by Ladybug's scream.

"Chat, look out!"

Abruptly, he was pulled aside, and all he saw was a red blur as she rushed to cover his body with her own. She threw her arms out in front of him as a bang echoed through the air, and he dimly saw a figure standing in the remains of the bank, clearly having just fired at the two. Ladybug's yo-yo launched a piece of brick at his head as he fired again, and he crumpled a moment later, his still-smoking gun clattering to the floor.

Feeling no pain, Chat straightened in relief, ready to take on the last man in the bank before he de-transformed. But then Ladybug turned to face him, a slight frown creasing her forehead. She slowly looked up into his eyes, then dragged her gaze downwards to where a dark stain was seeping across her the material covering her gut. Chat watched, unable to move, as she raised a hand to touch the dark splotch of the gunshot wound. Her fingers came away dripping before she looked up at him again.

"Oh." Was all she said before her knees buckled and her eyes closed.