Chat Noir's P.O.V

Cleanser's cronies had destroyed almost everything within their reach. I could see the blue and orange figure, standing on the Eiffel tower chuckling gleefully at his kingdom of rubble.

I took a moment to admire the irony of it. A villain who destroys everything standing on Paris' patriotic landmark famous for Romance. Along with everything else, had he destroyed love as well? He had surely shattered my heart.

I shook my head of these ponderings and mentally told myself,
"I know it hurts but you need to to focus. Defeat Cleanser first. Then everything will be fixed".

Part of me knew I was lying though. I would never forget the torment I endured. I would always wonder if my lady's upmost hatred towards me was how she truly felt for me, or only Cleanser's twisted reality.
My heart ached but I forced myself to deeply inhale and exhale. Peering over the wall, I could see that Cleanser now had a large portion of his army surrounding him, looking outwards. No doubt guarding him.

How cruel people were. To use innocent civilians as a shield. To make someone you love toy with your emotions and shatter your heart...
"Snap out of it!" I angrily growled to myself. Too late, I realised I had spoken aloud. Immediately all eyes turned towards me.
Oh shi-

"Chat Noir. It is an absolutely abhorrent to see you again. I would have thought that my dear slave Ladybug would have turned you to mush by now. You know, since she's under my complete control and bound to my will," Cleanser sneered.

At this mention of M'lady under his control, in such taunting tones, I felt my face flush and fists clench angrily. Cleanser continued to jeer. I bit my cheek and tried to block him out. He was trying to goad me into attacking him. Every part of me was itching to fly at him and scratch his eyes out. But if I were to win this battle I had to have a strategy and clear head, not an blind, angry assault.

I forced myself to take yet another deep breath in and out to cool down. Having steadied myself, I retorted,
"Oh yeah? Guess it's time for me to clean up this situation."

He only sneered in response,
"Get him!"
And just like that, the entire population of Paris began chasing me.

I tightly closed my eyes, visualizing my plan. Then I opened them, a smirk upon my face,
"Let's do this".

It was harder to fight his army because I had to keep in mind that they were innocent civilians who were being controlled by Cleanser to do bad things, so vulnerable that I couldn't injury them too much. The solution? Knock 'em over like bowling pins. I extended my baton as far as it could go, and with one fell swoop in both directions, I knocked their socks off, in some cases literally as I saw shoes fly into the air.

Having parted the sea of Civilians, I immediately strode towards Cleanser, who had watched my unorthodox yet effective way of neutralizing his army with a stupefied expression upon his face.

I saw a flicker of purple on his face. No doubt Hawk Moth communicating with him. I teased,
"Guess I sure swept your slaves off their feet".
Cleanser coolly regarded me, then, with no warning, was immediately upon me with snarl.
I bounced back, dodging his surprisingly fast blows, avoiding both broom and fist.

Although it was only Cleanser fighting me, the battle was a difficult one. He battered and bruised me. I was sore all over. Sweat ran down my brow.
His fist and broom attacks lighting fast, I got more and more exhausted. My reaction time slower. More than a few times his fist had found my face, and I was aching all over. I just had to avoid his broom. I felt my rasping breath and dry throat.

Cleanser, evidently tiring of this fight, connected his fist with my jaw and sent me flying. I felt the crushing impact of a solid surface against my back and all of my breath was forced from me with a painful "whumpf".

I was gasping like a fish out of water. My head throbbed. With great effort, I looked upwards, and through my blurred vision saw an orange and blue blob advancing, broom brandished threateningly, no doubt about to finish me off. I closed my eyes and felt the sting of tears mixing with my blood. If I had breath, I could have sobbed aloud. Utter despair overtook me. I had let everyone down. I had failed.
I was so tired. I just wanted to give in to the tempting, comfortable, warm darkness that ebbed at my consciousness.

I could distantly hear Cleanser speaking in victorious tones, though he felt so far away I couldn't make out his words.
One single syllable drifted around me and evaded my consciousness.
"Ladybug".

M'lady...
Suddenly a flash seared my mind. A mental image of Ladybug laughing, so gentle and caring. Followed by one of her glaring at me with upmost hatred. I had promised her that I would fix this. That promise had to be fulfilled.

Strength immediately filled my fatigued muscles and I leapt up, high into the air. It was as though my senses were reinvigorated. I felt Cleanser's broom whisk past me, heard the villain swear ferociously. Looking down, I saw his broom in the perfect position, horizontally up in the air. I swept down, and landed feet first directly on the middle of the handle. I felt brief resistance, before it gave way before my feet with a satisfying CRACK.

In the back of my mind, I heard Cleanser yelling, as though in slow-motion
"Noooooooooo".

My burning eyes followed the purple Akuma that trailed out of the broom. The realisation struck me that this blasted butterfly had caused all this. Seething hatred towards it overtook me, and I yelled,
"CATACLYSM!" Snatching it up before it could do any more damage.

As it disintegrated between my fingers, I felt an extreme pain overtake my entire being. My body, my mind, my soul all burning yet freezing at the same time. Waves of darkness overtook me, and I felt as though I was unconscious yet at the same time hyper aware of everything around me.
Every breath, every blink made me scream in agony.
I dropped to the ground, grasping at the air for something solid to hold. Anything to ground me from this hell of torment. Nothing.

I lay on the ground, groaning. The cold concrete pressed into me. I was in so much pain that it was beginning to feel that if I were to bash my brains out on its hard surface, compared to this torment, that would be almost a relief.

A sudden realisation struck me and I croaked,
"Ladybug". She would fix everything. I just had to get to her. Attempting to rise, I immediately dropped back down with a pained cry. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself up, one agony-filled action at a time. I kept repeating to myself,
"You can do this. One step at a time. Just get to Ladybug. She will fix everything".

3rd Person P.O.V

The battered tomcat straggled from rooftop to rooftop in the general direction of the warehouse where he had left his lady, every action seeming to cause him immense pain.

Behind him, surrounding the Eiffel tower, were the people of Paris. Now broken from Cleanser's control, they were looking or walking around in a daze, confused and unsure of what had happened.

Cleanser himself had now reverted back to Bernard, who also had a quizzical expression upon his face. He gazed at his broken broom, a furrow on his brow as he tried to piece together what had happened.

Chloe had been rude to him. He had been crying. Then a voice spoke to him, talking of revenge. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember anything else.

Had he been Akumatized? Looking around at all the damage, his heart sank. For he was now sure that he had been the one who had done this. But... if he had been freed from the Akuma, where were Ladybug and Chat Noir?

He looked around for clues, anything to give him an idea of what had happened.

A cold hand gripped his heart as he saw a splash of blood nearby, a trail of bloody flecks leading away from the scene.