#noirbug

“Paris is under attack by an akuma! I repeat, Paris is under attack by an akuma!”

Wang Fu cast a glance at his small TV, then, setting down the tablet he was working on, shuffled over to turn up the volume.

“It appears to be some type of plant akuma...”

That much certainly was obvious. Roots curled up from cracks in the pavement wherever the akuma stepped. The view appeared to be taken from a helicopter - safely out of range of the attack.

Fu made his way back over to his desk, picking up his tablet again. Translating the grimoire took time - but as he liked to keep an eye on the superheroes of Paris, he’d gotten pretty good at multitasking.

“How annoying,” Fu mentioned in a conversational tone to his kwami, Wayzz, who was floating closer to the TV. “I thought I would at least have several hours to work without interruption.”

“Hawkmoth doesn’t usually attack this early in the morning,” Wayzz agreed. “Do you think he might have something bigger planned for today?”

Fu chuckled. “I think that, whoever Hawkmoth is, he just likes to sleep in. But who could stay in bed on a day like this?”

Wayzz chuckled as well, zipping back over to the desk to munch on their shared breakfast - a fruit salad.

Fu got back to work, carefully translating the old text into French. He glanced between the text on the tablet, his paper, and the TV. This akuma was no plain gardener; it seemed to have control over nature itself, employing all four elements. Its very presence made plants grow and water start to rise in the Seine.

“I wonder…” Fu mused out loud, trailing off.

“Master?” Wayzz asked, glancing up, cherry stained across his lips.

Wang Fu shrugged. “Just a passing thought.” He paused, then admitted, “But… I cannot help but be curious as to whether Ladybug will come for a miraculous to assist her and Cat Noir in this fight.” He couldn’t help himself, and smiled. “It would quite interesting to see the dragon miraculous pitted against this akuma; the holder of that one in particular seems to be quite dependable.”

“Master,” Wayzz warned, “your rules…”

“Well, I’m the one who made them, am I not?” Fu shrugged, a little defensively. “I can speculate who I believe the ladybug would choose, seeing as I am the one providing her the miraculouses for the fights.”

Wayzz just shook his head, smiling - though the wisdom hidden behind it was ruined a little by the cherry still smeared across his face.

“Cat Noir is here, on the scene at the Seine!”

Master Fu glanced at the TV. “I think both of us can agree, based on what we’ve seen from the dragon holder in action, that they have a steady dependability that would be quite the asset for this fight.”

“Yes,” Wayzz conceded. “We can agree on that point, at least.”

As Cat Noir took on the akuma with cocky fearlessness and puns, Fu went back to his translations. Wayzz casually floated over. “Are you sure that you should be writing those down on paper, Master? Couldn’t someone steal them?”

“Firstly, Wayzz,” Fu said, “could you please take you and your cherry a little further away? You know you’re not allowed to know these recipes.”

Wayzz sighed, but obeyed.

“Secondly,” Fu continued, “while I agree… it is a danger we must risk. The next guardian will need them.”

“You already know who that is going to be?”

“Yes,” Fu said, not hesitating even a moment. “I know exactly who should be the next guardian. And this…” he tapped his paper, “will help them immensely, especially as it means they will not have to translate it on their own.”

The two old friends fell silent, Wayzz enjoying the food and Master Fu slowly working on the grimoire. There was a peacefulness in the small house, and, paired with the wonderful fresh air that the morning had provided, it was altogether perfect.

Besides that akuma attack, of course.

Fu glanced at the TV again. Cat Noir was holding off the akuma, keeping it occupied while saving civilians. But Ladybug herself had yet to show up.

Slowly, Fu found himself drawn more and more to watching the TV and less and less to actually working on translating the grimoire. The peace he’d enjoyed just minutes before was rapidly dissipating, replaced by a feeling he hadn’t had for many years; it was one that gathered in the pit of his stomach, curling in on itself.

One that said that something was very, very wrong.

“Master?” Wayzz floated over to the TV, joining Fu. “Is something wrong?”

“Hopefully nothing other than an old man’s worries,” Fu murmured - though the feeling in his stomach told him otherwise. “Ladybug may have been deterred in some way in her civilian life.”

The akuma made a vicious shoving motion with its arms, stretching to its very fingertips, and vines covered in thorns burst from the ground. They slammed in Cat Noir, rocketing into him so quickly and driving him back with such force that the camera couldn’t even turn fast enough to keep up with where he landed.

Far off in the distance, Fu could hear the slam of the cat hero hitting something - ground or building, he wasn’t sure.

Fu winced, then, with sudden determination flooding through him, stood. “Ladybug would never let her partner go this long getting injured,” he said decisively. “I must enter the fight myself.”

“But Master,” Wayzz protested, “you may get injured! You can’t risk that happening! You’re the guardian!”

“Cat Noir needs help,” Fu insisted.

“Just wait a little longer,” Wayzz begged, floating straight up into Fu’s face, as if invading his personal space would somehow stop him from leaving. “Ladybug will surely arrive any minute now!”

Fu looked back at the TV. Several seconds stretched out, filled only with the sound of Cat Noir beginning to struggle against the akuma.

Finally, Fu sighed. “All right. Just a few more minutes.”

However, by the time a few more minutes had passed - without Ladybug showing up - Fu had to admit within himself that there wasn’t much he’d even be able to do to help. He was just an old man, after all, and couldn’t be completely sure who Ladybug had chosen as the other holders of the miraculouses.

Fu sat down at his desk again, the remnants of the fruit salad now left untouched by both him and Wayzz.

Surely Ladybug will come.

Cat Noir leapt, narrowly avoiding getting slammed into with a thick vine again.

Surely she wouldn’t leave Cat Noir to this fate.

The camera lost sight of Cat Noir for several tense minutes - but at last found him again, gasping in the Seine as a whirlpool developed around him.

I must hold onto hope.

Yet hope slowly faded away like an evening glow into twilight. Cat Noir was holding his own for now - barely - but was obviously becoming more and more battered.

“I’m sure Ladybug will come,” Wayzz said aloud. “Cat Noir won’t have to fight this one on his own.”

Fu said nothing. He just watched the TV.

The feeling in his stomach whispered that it was right.

And, by the time night fell, Master Fu had to agree.

He had been right.

Because something must be very, very wrong if Ladybug wasn’t showing up.

-

3 Weeks Later

“Parisians are currently being evacuated,” the TV blared.

Fu stared into his cup, watching the way the surface of his tea was rippling, set off by the motion of his shaking hands.

He had stopped to take a short break - or, more accurately, had been ordered by Wayzz to stop and take a short rest. But rest wasn’t possible at this time. Calm wasn’t something he could feel anymore.

Parisians were… scared. Scared for their families, for their futures, and for their lives - to the point that some of them had begun to leave.

The departures had begun as a trickle that slowly strengthened into a roar - and now, Mayor Bourgeois had ordered a full-scale evacuation.

For the past three weeks, Master Fu had scoured Paris ceaselessly for Marinette Dupain-Cheng, searching for her among those departing. If her parents left, would Marinette follow? Fu knew she loved her family beyond words; she’d do anything to protect them.

But she also loved Paris; she would do anything to protect it, too.

Fu’s hands shook slightly as he slowly raised the cup to his lips, attempting to take a sip of the tea. The hot liquid burned the roof of his mouth, however, and he hurriedly put it back down.

Attempting to find Marinette was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. As more people began leaving at the same time, it became even more difficult for him to try and find her among the crowds.

“Master.”

Master Fu looked up. Wayzz was floating in front of him.

“Don’t torture yourself like that,” the green kwami said gently.

“But what if I missed her, Wayzz?” Fu asked - and, despite what the kwami had just said, his voice was tortured. “What if she was behind me, or beside me in a crowd, and I didn’t turn? What if she cannot be found because she’s already gone?”

“You chose her to be Ladybug,” Wayzz reminded him. “You know that she wouldn’t have run from this. She would never leave Cat Noir behind.”

Fu fell silent. All logic pointed toward abandonment by the ladybug hero… but Wayzz was right. Fu had chosen her, and it was for a reason. Deep down, he still trusted her, despite all reason.

But he also had to try and think logically.

Either Marinette had left, was hiding, or was somehow in deep, deep trouble. Perhaps Hawkmoth had discovered her identity and taken her prisoner. Or maybe there had been a different akuma attack that none of them had heard of, and it had kidnapped Ladybug when she took it on. Or maybe she’d been injured in some way and was unable to help… or get help.

Fu sighed; there was just no way to know.

“Quake is currently at the Louvre; Parisians, do not approach the area. All those within, if you can hear me, head to the nearest exit and run.”

The news channels had become less and less formal over the past few weeks; the anchors were more concerned with keeping people safe than actually sounding professional.

Things had only gotten worse since the first akuma attack Ladybug hadn’t come to. That akuma had been, on its own, one of the most powerful Fu had ever seen Hawkmoth create.

But then another akuma had joined it.

And then another.

Now, akumatized civilians were running rampant across Paris. Nowhere was safe.

“I am not doing enough, Wayzz,” Fu murmured, staring in exhaustion at his television.

“You are not in this fight alone, Master,” Wayzz said, drifting closer. “There are other heroes fighting these akumas alongside you - magical and everyday.”

“We need the ladybug, Wayzz,” Fu shook his head. “She is the only one who can heal this mess. Paris can rebuild after the dust has settled, but we need her miraculous cure to purify the akumas first.”

“This is, admittedly, a bleak situation,” Wayzz agreed. “However, you must remember that you are not alone in this. People from very different walks of life have stepped up during this time of crisis.”

“That is true,” Fu admitted.

Seeming to be encouraged by this, Wayzz smiled and continued. “Cat Noir is holding out, for one. He has surely realized by now that Ladybug will not be joining him, yet he continues to fight on his own. You chose a good holder for Plagg.”

Fu couldn’t help but give a faint smile at the thought of Cat Noir. “I will admit, he is one of the best Cat Noirs we have ever had.”

“He even defeated one of the akumatized civilians!”

“Yes, but he had to destroy the akuma to do so.” Fu’s face deepened back into a frown. “Adrien Agreste is a boy with a big heart. He loves life. Even though they are just butterflies, I know he doesn’t want to cataclysm them.”

Wayzz sighed. “You’re right. His hand was forced during that fight; it was a desperate situation. But it’s not worth it for him to continue doing so. It would change him if he did. After all, if it’s all right to take life from butterflies, then what next? Where would the destruction end?”

Fu nodded. “You are correct; destruction needs a firm hand on the reins that won’t ever let up, and Adrien Agreste is one of the few people in all of Paris who understands, and therefore respects the power of destruction and the effects it can have.”

“If only the akuma he’d defeated was one of the bigger ones…”

“You just said that it was a desperate situation.”

“Yes! It was! But, in comparison to some other akumas…”

Fu sighed yet again. “That is true; smaller is only relative in this situation.”

There was silence for a beat. Then, as if trying to lighten the mood, Wayzz added, “At least he’s keeping Parisians safe as they evacuate.”

“Yes,” Fu murmured. “Without him, I’m sure all of Paris would be in dire trouble indeed. The akumas are becoming more and more violent.”

“Which is why you need to rest,” Wayzz added. “Save you strength.”

As if on cue, there was a rumble in the distance, shaking the floor. A crash rang out from the kitchen - likely a teacup dropping due to the quakes.

Both Fu and Wayzz winced. “Quake,” they both chorused.

“Obviously, he isn’t keeping his effects to just the Louvre,” Wayzz noted.

“Think of what it must be doing to it,” Fu shook his head sadly. “The building is made of glass.”

“Cat Noir is on the scene. He is - oh, I’ve lost sight of him. Crap. Oh holy crap. Heavens above, where did he go? Alec, get your eyes on him! If Cat Noir is dead, all of Paris is lost- oh, wait. There he is. Cat Noir is battling it out with Quake at the Louvre, and- and he’s gone again.” Nadja’s voice was strained, cracking, and when her face appeared on screen again, there were deep bags under her eyes. “Apparently, he’s playing a game of cat and mouse with this akuma. I’m not sure - oh! The civilians are escaping. He’s using himself as a distraction.”

“That is very dangerous,” Wayzz observed.

“True,” Fu agreed, then couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Imagine how his father would react to knowing it was his son keeping Paris safe.”

“Probably would use it for media purposes,” Wayzz shrugged his tiny shoulders. “His next fashion line would be inspired by Cat Noir and modeled by him.”

“Is Gabriel Agreste even a fan of the heroes?” Fu pointed out. “I don’t think we’ve ever heard him speak on them.”

Both paused, considering this. Then, together they shrugged. “Na-a-ah. Everyone loves heroes.”

“According to the Ladyblogger, Steam is also on the move. Please stay out of the South side of Paris, citizens.”

Fu glanced toward the tablet with the grimoire on it, still at his desk. He had no phone, but could access internet through the tablet - and the Ladyblog had saved him from wandering into akuma territory during his search for Marinette more than once.

The Ladyblogger was keeping a 24/7 update going on her blog, doing her best to report where akumas were at any given moment. People who spotted any sent in footage to her. A certain DJ was apparently helping her with it. The blog was the only reason civilians were able to avoid akumas even somewhat.

“Wait. It appears that the Couffaines have returned to Paris! Parisians in the immediate area, please go to the Seine now!”

Fu looked back at the TV screen. A certain family who lived on a boat had been offering their services to the city these past weeks, ferrying civilians away from Paris. They’d even been involved in helping people being chased by akuams several times. Their boat had taken some hits thanks to this, but it was holding up surprisingly well.

“Cat Noir is no longer in sight at the Louvre, but Quake is staying there searching for him. Either Cat Noir is hiding - and doing a good job at it - or he has left. Parisians are now streaming out of the area.” There was a beat of silence. “This just in: the next group of evacuees are being chosen. Please, civilians, keep your phones on you at all times. You may be called for next.”

“Chloe has been busy as well,” Wayzz noted.

“She makes a much better everyday hero than a super one,” Fu agreed.

Those who had stepped up to help were intensely varied, yet the most surprising of the bunch was Chloe Bourgeois. She, the source of many akumas herself, was one of the few people who was staying level-headed in the situation. With everything going down around her, Chloe had dropped her own drama and risen up. She was now helping her father make decisions in the best interests of all of Paris - and she was actually surprisingly good at knowing which countries to contact at which times for assistance.

“Just yesterday, the government decided to finally reach out to the kingdom of Achu,” Wayzz nodded. “You were busy searching at the time.”

“That has Chloe’s influence written all over it,” Master Fu noted.

“Evacuees are now being welcomed there,” Wayzz explained. “I suppose London is too close for comfort for some of them.”

“Yes, well, Hawkmoth surely won’t just stop with Paris,” Fu said grimly. “Where to but the next city of consequence?”

It was a closed loop of terror. No one was safe any longer in the world, and it was in desperate need of more heroes.

Which was why Fu had been working so tirelessly - or, at least working while suppressing his exhaustion as best he could. Fu was an old man, secretly the guardian of the miraculouses, and if he perished, all might truly be lost. And yet, he had risked that, walking the streets of the city and searching desperately for the one girl who might be able to save them all.

But to no avail.

“Citizens, I repeat, please keep your phones on you at all times. The Paris police force is sending out alerts to sections of the city with instructions when you are to be evacuated - but only at the moment you are to be. There seems to be a new akuma who can hear phone signals, so the city is attempting to time things as closely as possible to the actual action.”

Fu finally reached for his tea again. Despite Wayzz’s attempts to boost his spirits, now that they had both quieted down, he only felt more nervous. What would happen if any of the everyday heroes were told to evacuate? The Ladyblogger, Chloe, himself - or, worst of all, Adrien? What if Cat Noir was told in his civilian form to leave? What would he do? Would he reveal his identity just so he could stay? Would his father truly make a fashion line based on him?

Slam!

“Master Fu!”

Fu whipped his head around, almost dropping his tea cup.

There, standing in his doorway, was Cat Noir himself.

The cat hero was panting, a bag slung over his shoulder as if he were about to go to school. He was dusted with fine particles of glass, which didn’t bode too well for the Louvre.

And then, as if determined to make this already surprising situation even more so, Cat Noir met his eyes and blurted out, “I know who Ladybug is.”

Fu stared. “Pardon me?”

“I know who Ladybug is,” Cat Noir stressed, shutting the door behind him and hurrying over, kneeling down in front of the old man. “I know her civilian identity.”

“Then please, do enlighten me,” Master Fu said drily, setting down his tea cup and attempting to appear composed. If Cat Noir was wrong, then-

“Her name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She’s the daughter of Tom and Sabine, who run a bakery. They make the best croissants there, and she’s the best person to exist on planet earth - or anywhere, actually. She wants a hamster, loves to design, and-”

“I believe you,” Fu interrupted. The information was too exact to easily dismiss, and after a moment, he sighed. “That is to say… you are correct.” He paused. “How did you find out?”

As if he’d expected this question, Cat Noir pulled his bag forward and, reaching inside, produced a beret. “She gave me this gift. It was signed as being from Marinette, but I walked into my room and saw Ladybug leaving. It was easy to put two and two together after that.” He let out a pent-up breath. “I mean, I’d suspected she might be Ladybug before, like when we fought Kwami-Buster. But Plagg always told me that I was wrong.”

Fu nodded. Cat Noir was no fool; he was much more straightforward than Marinette, making him the perfect candidate to stumble upon their true identities by accident. “I see. However, I must know how you discovered my location.” Fu indicated the room. “It’s supposed to be secret, and we’ve never met here before; how did you know you’d find me here?”

“You run a business,” Cat Noir said bluntly. “It was easy to look you up on the internet, and I knew what I was looking for, seeing as I met you after we defeated Syren.”

“I knew that I shouldn’t have set up that website,” Master Fu grumbled, shooting an accusing look at Wayzz.

“Don’t look at me!” the kwami protested.

“It was your idea to set it up!”

“Master Fu,” Cat Noir cut in. “Please, I don’t have much time. I need to get back out there to help protect the next wave of evacuees from akumas.”

“You’re involved in that?” Fu asked, taken off guard.

“Chloe is helping me plan it. We’ve worked together before, seeing as she was Queen Bee. She knows a lot about government that I don’t.” Cat Noir began twisting his ring about his finger - obviously a nervous habit of his. “She acts like she doesn’t care about anything, but she really is a tough nut to crack. Nothing gets past her. If it weren’t for her, I’m not sure what would’ve happened to Paris by this point.”

“So… if you’re so busy helping Paris, why visit me?” Fu asked, studying the cat hero. “Clearly this is an important matter.”

“I need help,” Cat Noir said miserably. “I’ve tried to find Marinette in her civilian form. The last time I saw her was when she was going out my window. But her parents don’t know where she is, and none of our class knows where she’s gone - not even her best friend, Alya, and she’s the Ladyblogger to boot. I’ve looked everywhere for Marinette! But I can’t cover ground very fast on my own. I need your help to find her. Something must be wrong.”

“The Ladyblogger is Alya?” Fu asked, his attention caught by that detail.

“Yeah, but we need to find Marinette,” Cat Noir said, dismissing the fact.

“Very true,” Fu murmured - but his mind was racing.

He himself, of course, was never told the true identities of the heroes that Ladybug had chosen to give a miraculous - but as soon as he’d heard Cat Noir describe this Alya, he had the sudden feeling that she must have been Rena Rogue.

But he had to be careful with this new information; he might be wrong, for one. For another, if Cat Noir had guessed out Ladybug’s identity even before he was given definite proof, he might be able to figure this one out as well. Fu had to act as if nothing had just happened.

“Can you help me?” Cat Noir asked, misery evident in his voice. “Please?”

Shaking himself, Fu focused on the problem at hand. “I’ve been searching for Ladybug myself. I haven’t found her.”

Cat Noir drooped. “Then there’s nothing we can do?”

“I will continue searching,” Master Fu assured him. “I believe the only thing we can do is continue evacuating citizens and trying to protect them. There are others helping us, such as that family on their ship.”

“The Couffaines?” Cat Noir asked. “Yeah, I know them. Juleka’s in my class. Luka and Marinette are pretty close. Or… were pretty close?” He growled in frustration, digging the heels of his palms in his eyes. “I don’t know anymore.”

“They were close?” Fu repeated. Perhaps this Luka was Viperion or Carapace? Ladybug would only have given a miraculous to those she trusted most.

“Yeah, he’s a musician.”

Perhaps Viperion, then; he’d played the lute very well.

“I should go,” Cat Noir said abruptly, standing. “I need to get to the next evacuation point.”

“One more thing,” Fu said, just as Cat Noir reached the door. “Do you know who it is who is helping the Ladyblogger with her uploads? The DJ.”

“Nino Lahiffe,” Cat Noir replied. “He’s Alya’s boyfriend. They’re taking turns going through footage being sent to Alya while the other rests.”

“Was Marinette close with him as well?”

“They’ve been in class together for years,” Cat Noir recalled, hand hovering over the doorknob. “I think they might have been.”

“He is trustworthy?” Fu checked.

“He’s one of the most trustworthy people you’ll find,” Cat Noir vouched. “He’d do anything to keep others safe; that’s why he’s helping Alya.”

That fit the description of a good turtle hero, then.

“But also maybe because he likes her.”

All these people that loved Marinette, yet no Marinette to be found.

“Master Fu?”

Fu looked up. Cat Noir was still waiting at the door.

“Thank you for coming,” Master Fu inclined his head to him. “I’m not sure if I should say that I’m relieved or not that you knew who our dear Ladybug was.”

Was.

The word hung in the air between them for a few moments, horrible and empty of life.

“She was sitting behind me in class for months,” Cat Noir mumbled, his voice tortured.

Fu tried to think of some reassurance, but all he could come up with was, “We’ll find her.”

Yet the was was still ringing in his ears, and Fu found he couldn’t bring himself to entirely believe it anymore.

Cat Noir studied him for several moments, and as Fu locked eyes with him, he had the feeling that the young hero could see that lack of hope in his eyes.

At last, the black cat simply nodded at him and slipped out the door.

For several minutes, Fu stared at the closed door, sipping his tea. It had grown cold, but the gears in his mind turning too fast for him to pay much heed to that.

“Master?” Wayzz finally asked. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m not quite sure myself,” Master Fu admitted. He glanced over at the green kwami. “I’m starting to doubt that we’ll ever find Ladybug.”

“Don’t give up hope!” Wayzz encouraged.

“I’ll try not to,” Fu sighed, putting his tea down. “I wish that there was at least some guidance that I could be given.”

Whomp!

In the air right in front of Fu, there was a brilliant flash of white light. For a single moment, he thought it was some vehicle passing by outside and reflecting the sun through his window.

Except the light didn’t disappear.

Instead, it became a white circle, hanging suspended midair.

And then, for the second time that day, a hero suddenly burst through a door - except, it was an entirely different kind of door this time.

“Master Fu!” Bunnyx exclaimed.

Master Fu leapt to his feet - no small feat for him at his age - overturning his tea as he did so. “Bunnyx? What are you doing here?”

The bunny hero bowed to him hurriedly. “I need your help.”

“Does this have to do with Ladybug?” Fu said urgently. “She has gone missing.”

“Yes,” Bunnyx said. Her face crumpled. “It… it’s all my fault. I brought her to the future - about three weeks ago from this point in time - to stop a possible future. Cat Noir had found out her civilian identity. They…” She hesitated, as if suddenly remembering how she wasn’t supposed to share the future, even with Master Fu. “How much can I tell you?”

“Everything,” Fu said firmly. “This is an emergency of the highest order. Paris has descended into chaos during the time that Ladybug has been gone. The entire city is being evacuated. Without the cure, there’s no stopping Hawkmoth. There’s even been talk of trying to ask American heroes to come help Paris.” He took a step closer to the blue and white hero. “I think that it’s all or nothing now. We can’t afford to lose.”

“Okay,” Bunnyx said decisively, tapping her umbrella against her hand in a quick rhythm, as if to let out nervous energy. “Okay.” She hesitated for one more second, then blurted out, “They dated as civilians.”

“At last!” Wayzz cried, flipping in the air. “My ship has sailed!”

Fu and Bunnyx stared at him.

Wayzz coughed. “I mean… yes. Very nice. Carry on, Bunnyx.”

“As I was saying,” Bunnyx said, side-eyeing Wayzz, as if daring him to try and interrupt her again, “they were living their best lives until Hawkmoth discovered their identities. Or at least Cat Noir’s. He targeted Cat Noir and akumatized him into a villain called Chat Blanc.”

“So you brought Ladybug to stop him?” Fu’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why could the Ladybug in the future not save him on her own?”

“It’s a possible future,” Bunnyx explained. “I had to try and fix it from the root of the problem by using the Mini-bug that had caused it.” She paused, then quietly admitted, “Also, the Ladybug from that time is… dead.”

Fear dumped over Fu in an icy stream. “Is our Ladybug still there? Right now? Is she still… alive?”

“I… I can’t answer that.” Bunnyx rapped her umbrella against her hand more forcefully. She obviously had been under a lot of stress, and it was taking its toll on her. “Look, in the future, Hawkmoth tried to force Chat Blanc to destroy Ladybug - their Ladybug, I mean. But, rather than her, he destroyed the world - and still killed her in the process.” Bunnyx began to pace, tapping her closed umbrella aggressively against her leg as she did so. “He shot the moon, Fu. He’s more powerful than any akuma that’s outside right now; I don’t have to see them to tell you that.”

“He destroyed the world?” Fu stared at her. “Surely you are exaggerating.”

“Nothing was left,” Bunnyx shook her head. “Just water, ruins, and corpses.”

Fu winced. “So you brought our Ladybug to save him.”

“The plan was for Mini-bug to purify the akuma and come back to the present,” Bunnyx explained. “She’d change how she accidentally revealed her identity to Cat Noir, and that future would never happen.”

“The plan was?” Fu said, noting the way the word had just come back again. “What happened?”

Bunnyx squeezed her eyes shut, as if in pain. After several tense seconds of silence, she whispered, “He won.”

“Who?” Fu demanded. “Hawkmoth?”

“Chat Blanc. He took her earrings. And… that’s all I could see. I don’t know what happened.”

“What do you mean?” Fu asked.

“Come with me into my burrow,” Bunnyx said urgently. “I’ll show you.”

Fu exchanged an uncertain glance with Wayzz.

As if worried that he were considering not coming, Bunnyx took another step closer to him. “Please. The future of the world depends on this. You’re the only one I can trust to know what to do. With Ladybug having been ripped from time and beaten in the future, there’s no older version of her for me to turn to.”

“All right,” Fu said decisively. “Wayzz, shell on!”

There was a flash of green light, and a moment later, Jade Turtle followed Bunnyx into her burrow.

The first thing Jade Turtle noticed was how white it was. Circles speckled the air, playing footage of some kind.

The second thing Jade Turtle noticed was the small clump of circles that only showed white.

“What is this?” he breathed, approaching the cluster. He had never been in the burrow before, but he already could tell that this was an anomaly.

“That’s where the future is supposed to be,” Bunnyx explained, trailing after him. “It’s where I saw what happened to Cat Noir and Marinette: him figuring out her identity, the dating, and then the akumatization. But, after he got the earrings… it turned white.” She gestured to one in the center of the cluster. “That was the original. But, not long after it turned white, the ones around it started to as well.”

“What can that possibly mean?” Jade Turtle frowned.

“I don’t know!” Bunnyx growled in frustration. “I brought you here to see if you’d know.”

“I can’t tell from the outside,” Jade Turtle said decisively. “I need to go in.”

“What?” Bunnyx stared at him. “Are you crazy?”

“That’s the only way to find out,” Jade Turtle insisted. “It’ll just be a reconnaissance mission. I’ll try to locate Ladybug without getting involved with… you said his name was Chat Blanc?”

“Yes,” Bunnyx nodded, worry apparent on her face. “I’m going to be straight with you, Fu: that’s a horrible plan. If it were good, then I would have gone in already myself.”

“You are the only one with access to the future,” Jade Turtle shook his head. “I, on the other hand, know how to blend in and stay hidden in plain sight. I’m the guardian of the miraculous; I’ve kept myself hidden from anyone who might want to use them for years.”

“For the wish?”

“Exactly,” Jade Turtle nodded. “I’m the best option for this. Actually,” he gave a joyless smile, “I’m likely your only option.”

“How will you get back?” Bunnyx asked.

“With Ladybug’s help,” Jade Turtle said simply.

Bunnyx stared at him before giving a bark of laughter. “You mean you’re going in there blind, will maybe find Mini-bug - wherever she might be in whatever that is, if she’s still even alive - and then trust that she will find a way out?”

“Yes,” Jade Turtle said simply.

Bunnyx shook her head. “Maybe an older version of herself could, but Mini-bug…? She’s still crazy about Adrien Agreste right now!”

“Is there ever a time she isn’t?” Jade Turtle pointed out.

“Well, there was this possible future this one time where she fell in love with Cat Noir instead, but then you managed to contact me and insisted that we change it since you like Adrinette better-”

“Bunnyx,” Jade Turtle interrupted, “I know she can do it.”

Bunnyx went quiet, studying him. Finally, she quietly said, “You really have that much faith in Mini-bug?”

“I chose her, didn’t I?”

“Then why hasn’t she come back herself?” Bunnyx challenged.

“There is no way of knowing for sure,” Jade Turtle glanced at the burrow hole. “But the holder of the ladybug miraculous is naturally drawn towards healing and curing situations. She should be able to sense the right way - or at least discover the path. Besides,” he added, “if we stick to the original plan and purify the akuma, then you might be able to get me out yourself.”

“Fair enough,” Bunnyx reluctantly admitted. “But… be careful, Fu; the white is spreading to the past for some reason. I… I don’t know what it is. But I can’t seem to stop it.”

“It’s affecting only the future for now?” Jade Turtle checked. “Not the time period I was just in?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s within a safe limit.”

“For now,” Bunnyx muttered.

“We’ll find her,” Jade Turtle promised.

He’d said the exact same words not ten minutes ago to Chat Noir, but now… he actually believed them.

However, before stepping forward, he paused. “Bunnyx? Do you know the identities of the heroes that Ladybug chose?”

“Their civilian identities? Yes; why?”

“Just wondering,” Jade Turtle shrugged, then, hope rising, stepped into the center white circle.

He was instantly swallowed up by the white. It was blindingly bright, just like when Bunnyx’s burrow first burst forth into existence in his house. Jade Turtle squinted against it.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, a feeling like static electricity suddenly washed over his whole body.

Traveling through a burrow could be disconcerting, though Jade Turtle obviously didn’t have much to compare this to; just the single trip into the burrow he’d gone through just now with Bunnyx.

Yet, despite that, he knew instinctively that it didn’t feel like this. It was like an entire force of energy gathering its strength, a tidal wave about to crash over him - and right now he was only feeling the winds.

Whatever this energy was, it didn’t want him here.

He had to get to the other side before it could stop him.

Jade Turtle pushed back against the energy, gritting his teeth.

The energy seemed to push back against him, trying to stop him.

But he was old, not weak.

For several moments, he struggled, an invisible battle of wills with this pure whiteness. It seemed to whisper about him, static filling his ears, and bright spots of colour bursting and popping before his eyes. His head went dizzy, filled with the static feeling.

For a moment, nothing happened. He hung, suspended.

Trapped.

The wave was about to crash.

Jade Turtle gave one last, desperate push against the energy, and-

Without any warning, he burst out of the burrow, falling to his knees and almost braining himself on a plant pot.

For several moments, all Jade Turtle could do was pant on his hands and knees. Whatever the white was, it had notwanted him to get through.

But… get through to where?

He looked up, and was greeted by…

His house.

“What?” he murmured, straightening. He’d only just left here. How could he possibly be back?

Jade Turtle went to take a step forward, but his foot bumped against something. He glanced down, then paused.

There was an aquarium on the floor.

Filled with turtles.

And, now that he was looking down, he could see that he was no longer in his superhero form of Jade Turtle. Instead, he was in his normal clothes - except for his shirt, which had a turtle pattern playing across it.

“What is this?” Fu murmured, fear beginning to grow within him. He hurried over to the window, peering outside. His body ached with the movement, as if he’d just undergone a strenuous physical activity, but he ignored the pain, trying to get a good look at the outside world.

He was greeted by… Paris.

Except…

It was black and white.

“What?” Fu breathed, confusion flooding through him. “How can this be?”

His house was coloured, and so was he.

So why did the outside world look like this?

Fu’s hands began to shake, and he sat down on the floor. He needed to think.

Bunnyx had described a world destroyed by Chat Blanc, filled with water and ruins. But there was no water in sight, and all the buildings appeared intact.

Fu rubbed his forehead. He had next to nothing to go off to make a guess of any sort; the only thing he could think of that could explain what made the world turn… well, retro, was that it was somehow an effect of Chat Blanc destroying the world.

Yet, at the same time, that made no sense. If Chat Blanc had destroyed the world, wouldn’t nothing be here?

I must investigate further, Fu decided. He went to walk to the door, but was jerked to a halt, as if he was tied to something. Twisting about, Fu’s gaze instantly fell on the aquarium.

It only took a second before the realization hit him.

Turtles.

His shirt.

His miraculous.

For some reason, he couldn’t leave the aquarium behind. Bringing the turtle miraculous with him seemed to have created these turtle-related items, and he couldn’t go anywhere without them.

Or maybe he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without them.

If he had to bring the aquarium with him, then, he wouldn’t be able to cover ground very quickly. He was old and slow as it was, much less while carrying around an aquarium of all things.

Fu hurriedly shuffled about the room. Everything was where he always kept it. He quickly located what he was looking for, and within minutes, he’d constructed some new additions to the aquarium: wheels, and a handle for him to push it about with.

“Time to find Ladybug,” he murmured, straightening and nodding at his handiwork.

This time, while pushing the aquarium, Fu made it to the door and outside.

As soon as he closed it behind him, he noticed the difference:

He was no longer in colour.

Feeling a slightly frazzled, Fu began to push the aquarium down the street, starting his search for Ladybug.

-

Bunnyx paced her burrow, eyes locked on the cluster of white circles.

This place, created by her miraculous, was supposed to be beyond the touch of time. Usually, when she sent a hero into the future or the past, she could view what happened to them.

But this time…

She was blind.

Bunnyx swung her umbrella, popping it open and closed, trying to keep her hands busy. She glanced at the circles again, as if in some half-hearted hope that Fu would already be stepping out with Mini-bug at his side.

Bunnyx liked to think of herself as the protector of time. The burrow was the one place where the bunny miraculous couldn’t be in the same place at the same time. Holders of it over the centuries never entered it at the same time. Maybe because of that, it was actually the only place where time really did have any true meaning. She could be in any place more than once, and could end up with multiple copies of herself running around in any time period - except for the burrow.

Bunnyx raked a hand through her hair, sending her already spiky hair shooting out in all directions. Without her ability to see what was going on, she wasn’t sure what to do.

She glanced at the cluster again - and was just in time to see another circle fizzle, as if being overtaken by static, then blip out into pure white.

Another one gone.

Bunnyx approached one of the few circles close to the white group that still showed images. She set her hand upon it, playing it back.

It didn’t help her. All it revealed was Cat Noir and Ladybug in the middle of fighting an akuma. It was after they’d revealed identities to one another, and the knowledge seemed to have further empowered them, letting them work in a tandem that they’d never before enjoyed until they had this absolute trust in one another.

Out of the corner of her eye, Bunnyx noticed movement. That wasn’t unusual in the burrow, seeing as all around her were circles portraying movement of some kind. But this one was out of the ordinary enough that she turned to look.

Across the burrow, a circle was fizzing, going static-ey - and then turned white.

But it was nowhere near the cluster.

“What? No!” Bunnyx shot to it, slamming her palm against the circle, as if trying to turn it back so she could watch what happened, the way she could with any of the normal circles.

But nothing happened.

That one had nothing to do with the future! Bunnyx thought, backing up, fear roaring in her ears. Why did it go out?

The white was obviously spreading - but the fact that the future affected something so out of the way, something that was so far into the past… it was not just disturbing, but downright terrifying.

Bunnyx stood before the circle, her hand hovering just over it it. What if she tried to step in, the way Master Fu had? What if she touched this circle, not just with the intention of playing it back, but of entering? What if she tried to find out what was beyond this white?

But what if it destroyed her entirely? What if it had already done so to Master Fu, to Mini-bug, and all hope was lost?

Bunnyx let her hand drop. She didn’t dare go in; like Master Fu had said, she was the only one who could access the future. If the white cut her off from the time period she’d picked Fu up from…

Bunnyx actually wasn’t sure what would happen if that occurred, but she knew in her gut that it wouldn’t be good.

“I think that it’s all or nothing now. We can’t afford to lose.”

Fu was the wisest person that Bunnyx knew - and she’d traveled through time and spoken to some of the brightest minds in history. If Master Fu had believed that this situation was truly that dire… then this was a very desperate situation indeed.

“All or nothing,” Bunnyx whispered, trying to rein her fear in.

Her gaze fell on the circle that led back to the past, back to the time period she’d first retrieved Mini-bug from and then Master Fu.

It was still holding steady - for now. But the hand of time was slow slipping its fingers about her burrow, and now, it was starting to squeeze, to choke and kill it. She was inside a time bomb, but she couldn’t see the clock ticking down to the explosion.

She didn’t have a choice.

She couldn’t afford to wait.

With sudden determination, Bunnyx rallied herself and marched over to the hole - and

stepped

through.

It was utter chaos. People were running from something, screaming. The sun went dark, as if something huge was blocking it out, and a dull roar filled her ears.

Bunnyx turned, alarmed - but it was no akuma blocking the sun.

A building was falling, creaking and groaning as it descended straight toward her.

Bunnyx didn’t even have time to gasp before someone jumped in front of her, baton twirling, the speed of it cutting straight through the stone as the building crashed down. The hole created was barely big enough for the two of them to stand in.

Dust exploded all around them, and Bunnyx burst into a fit of coughing, trying to wave it out of her face. “Th-thanks for the save.”

“Bunnyx?”

For the first time, Bunnyx looked down at the person who had saved her.

He was a little taller than the last time she’d visited him in the past, but his green eyes were still as keen as ever.

“Cat Noir,” Bunnyx greeted, then gave a few more final coughs, as if for good measure.

“What are you doing here?” Cat Noir asked, waving dust away. “If you’re going to help me evacuate Parisians, I certainly would appreciate it-”

“No,” Bunnyx interrupted. “You need to come with me.” She grabbed him by the bell, opening up an entrance back to her burrow and dragging him through even as he yelped.

“Bunnyx, what are you doing? Paris needs its heroes-”

“-here,” Bunnyx interrupted. “It needs all its heroes here. Look, I asked Master Fu for help, but he’s gone, and I’ll be cut off soon enough from the past - the place you’re from - so I have to bring you and all your fellow heroes here.”

With that, she turned and re-entered the circle again, willing herself to exit in a different location.

Bunnyx had watched Fu open up the miraculous box many times in alternate futures.

It was a simple enough matter when she walked into his room once again to stride over and pop it open.

Bunnyx glanced over the miraculouses. The turtle one was gone, taken by Master Fu. She didn’t dare waste time trying to locate it in another time; she’d have to find a situation where Mini-bug didn’t need the miraculous, and she couldn’t afford to leisurely flip through past akuma attacks as if she were reading a magazine in a waiting room. The past and future were disappearing for some reason. She had to act, now.

Bunnyx snatched up all the miraculouses she needed, then opened up a way back into her burrow.

“First off, rude,” Cat Noir complained as soon as she re-entered - though she knew that it wouldn’t seem to him like any time had passed. “Second off, what are you even talking about?”

“I’m talking about those,” Bunnyx tossed over her shoulder, inclining her head toward the cluster of white circles. Then, she hopped back out of her burrow.

It took her several precious minutes of going in and out of her burrow to reach each hero, give them their miraculous, and drag them back through. She had to make them transform before going back in, which took time. The kwamis were very talkative. But Master Fu didn’t want any of them knowing each other’s identities, so Bunnyx had to abide by his rules.

“This is ridiculous,” Queen Bee was complaining when Bunnyx finished off by bringing Ryuko through. “We’re leaving Paris completely unguarded! And I don’t even know where we are!”

“We’re going to lose Paris if we don’t save the future,” Bunnyx replied shortly. She got straight to the point. “The future is disappearing - and it’s starting to affect the past. I don’t know why.” She pointed at the cluster of white circles. “Master Fu went in there to try and find Mini-bug.”

“Excuse you, but where are we?!” Queen Bee demanded, stamping her high-heeled foot. “I’m busy right now, so I don’t care about Master Wu or whatever his name was.”

Bunnyx didn’t even try to resist the urge to glare at Queen Bee; Chloe was just as annoying as she remembered. “This is my burrow. I have the miraculous of time. These circles allow me to access time - and some of them are going out.”

“Did you say that Ladybug is in there?” Cat Noir asked, his attention still obviously caught on that point. His entire body seemed to practically be vibrating, as if he’d just downed an entire energy drink.

“Hold your horses,” Bunnyx warned. “We can’t just go jumping in there.”

“Why not?” all the heroes demanded at once.

“Your Master Yu did,” Queen Bee added.

“And look where that got him!” Bunnyx yelled. “He’s not here! I need backup, not to babysit! Quiet down so I can explain!”

“Paris is being left completely unguarded right now!” Queen Bee yelled back. “We need to go back! Without us, everyone is doomed!”

Bunnyx forced herself to draw in a long breath - it was through her teeth, making a hissing noise, but she attempted it anyway. “Look. You don’t need to worry about Paris. I have the ability to let you out at the exact moment you left.” She tried to not think too hard about the fact that the past might just get cut off by the white. “Paris isn’t losing any time by you being in my burrow. Here, though, we are on a time limit.”

“That makes no sense,” Viperion frowned.

“Shouldn’t this be the one place outside of the reach of time?” Ryuko agreed. “If you access time here, that would logically make this the only place time stands still.”

“It should be,” Bunnyx replied shortly. She surveyed the heroes in front of her.

During the time leading up to her becoming the holder of the bunny miraculous, she’d seen many other heroes given a miraculous. She would have loved to grab all of them.  But now that the timeline had been changed, Mini-bug had technically never had a chance to give those people their miraculouses.

Instead, all she had were Cat Noir, Rena Rogue, Carapace, Viperion, Pegasus, King Monkey, and Ryuko.

Not exactly the most inspiring group ever. But at least they had her. She at least was somewhat inspiring.

“So…” Rena Rogue broke the silence. “At the risk of sounding totally dumb… who is Master Fu again?”

“Wu,” Queen Bee corrected.

“Fu,” Bunnyx, Cat Noir, and Rena Rogue all said at once.

“Master Fu,” Bunnyx said, casting a glance at Queen Bee before looking back at Rena, “is the guardian of the miraculous.”

“Wait, I thought Ladybug kept the miraculouses,” Rena Rogue frowned.

“No, she didn’t,” Bunnyx replied. She glanced over at the cluster of circles; they were holding steady, for now, but she hated wasting time that could end in them being cut off from more parts of time. “Under normal circumstances, I would not tell any of you anything about the future. But…” She walked over to the cluster. “This is where the future used to be. Master Fu went in it, but I have no idea if there even is another side that he could exit out of. I usually can see the future, but now…”

“Just white?” Pegasus observed, adjusting a bag he had over his shoulder. There had been no time for him to drop it off when Bunnyx grabbed him, and now Bunnyx had to hope that no one would recognize the bag as belonging to Max Kanté.

Bunnyx nodded, turning back toward the group of heroes staring at her. “It’s spreading. I don’t know what it is, but eventually, it’ll hit your current time period as well.”

“So… the world is ending?” Nino asked.

Bunnyx gave a short nod. “Essentially.”

“Wow,” Viperion blinked.

Rena Rogue gave a small fist pump. “Add that to the list of things we get to defeat!”

“Why is he here?” Queen Bee complained, pointing at Nino.

“Now’s not the time to celebrate, Rena,” Bunnyx said, simultaneously shooting her a withering look and ignoring Queen Bee’s question. She’d been hoping none of the other heroes would notice that Nino was there, which would obviously make him a holder - and, based on the fact that only Carapace was missing, it would be easy to conclude that he was Carapace.

The only reason she’d brought him in - even though he was in his civilian form - was because he was a holder. But as long as Master Fu was in the future, Bunnyx wasn’t going to try diving around in the past to find the turtle miraculous when her burrow could potentially lock her out.

“I brought Mini-bug here,” Bunnyx explained, jerking a thumb at the white circles. “I needed her help to try and save the future, but she wasn’t able to.”

“Wait. You mean she went into the white?” Cat Noir bristled, the hair on his head practically standing on end. “By herself? Why didn’t you grab me?! I’m her partner!”

“Because she was saving the future from you.” Bunnyx folded her arms across her chest. “And it wasn’t even white, yet.”

“Is that supposed to make this better?” Cat Noir glared.

“It was a more stable situation at the time,” Bunnyx snapped. Her nerves were frayed. She’d been trying to save the world from a teenager who had enough power to destroy everyone and mess with her own miraculous’s powers, and she was either alone, worrying about someone else who had stepped up to help, or else babysitting. She was too far gone to let some little version of Cat Noir snap at her without retaliation. “You found out her identity, Cat Noir. That action was the source of a chain reaction that resulted in Hawkmoth discovering your identity because you transformed out in the open to save Mini-bug as a civilian, Hawkmoth akumatizing you…” She glared fiercely at him. “…and you destroying the world.”

All the heroes stared at her, and Bunnyx realized a little too late that she may have come across too strongly on the point that it was somehow all Cat Noir’s fault.

Ugh. She’d leapt before she looked. She did that quite a bit.

“Come again?” Viperion finally said.

“I destroy the world?” Cat Noir whispered, twisting his ring.

“Did they date?” Rena Rogue and Nino chorused.

“That is completely irrelevant,” Bunnyx attempted to wave it off.

“So, yes, then?” Rena Rogue noted hopefully.

“Wait, what?” Cat Noir froze. “I-I mean… she would never… we… there’s someone else… I mean, I d-destroy the world?” He froze, panic, confusion, and a strange balking mixing in his expression. “What?”

“Priorities, Cat Noir,” Bunnyx chided - forcing herself to make her voice a little more gentle this time. She needed to keep this conversation on track, and these teenagers were making that very difficult. “Yes, you destroyed the world. That’s what I was trying to fix when I brought Mini-bug here. It was her fault that you found out her identity.” She shot Cat Noir an apologetic look. “It wasn’t all your fault. But because she was the source of that action, I needed her to fix it. If you stepped in, you might end up remembering it, anyway, and I had to change that.”

“Why is it so important that they do not know one another’s identities?”

Everyone looked up.

Ryuko was standing at one of the still-clear circles, watching the footage play out.

“Hey, that’s the future!” Bunnyx yelped. “You’re not allowed to see that!”

“We’re trying to change this,” Ryuko replied, not even glancing away. “It won’t be here when we’re done.”

“Well… I guess,” Bunnyx grumbled grumpily.

“There is an incredible level of teamwork displayed between Cat Noir and Ladybug here,” Ryuko observed. “Knowing her identity seems to only have made them stronger. If only one having been revealed does that…”

“Well, I mean, he transformed out in the open to save her,” Bunny reminded Ryuko. “She knew his after that.”

“They have skill,” Ryuko insisted. “Knowing their identities only made them stronger - maybe strong enough to defeat HawkMoth. I don’t see how this is a negative thing.”

“It’s Master Fu’s rules,” Cat Noir said quietly. “If anyone knew our identities, that could put them at risk.”

“Aren’t you both already at risk by being heroes?” Viperion pointed out. “Heck, aren’t all of us?”

“Now is not the time for an existential crisis,” Bunnyx shook her head.

“I’m not sure that means what you think it means,” Queen Bee began, but Bunnyx shot her a look.

“Not now, Queenie.”

“Only Cat Noir gets to call me that.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s the only one who doesn’t say it like it’s an insult.”

Bunnyx paused, then let out a huff. “Fair enough. But Cat Noir and Ladybug aren’t allowed to know each other’s identities because, simply put, once they did, the world was destroyed. Which was HawkMoth’s fault, by the way. Not Cat Noir’s.”

“He really destroyed the whole world?” King Monkey shot a look of admiration at Cat Noir, which Bunnyx felt may have been the wrong response to the situation.

“Yeah, he did, and Mini-bug was supposed to purify his akuma,” Bunnyx said. Trying to keep the conversation on track, take two. “You were called Chat Blanc, Cat Noir. But you were incredibly strong - stronger than any of the akumas currently in your time of Paris. She lost to you.”

“Why couldn’t Ladybug have brought one of us with her?” Queen Bee asked, studying her nails. “I mean, obviously we aren’t Cat Noir, so obviously we could have been involved.”

“Yeah, if he wasn’t literally yelling her civilian name during their fight,” Bunnyx rolled her eyes. “Stay focused! Mini-bug tried to fight him, lost, and then…” She rapped the center white circle with her knuckles. It gave where she touched it, but sprung back easily, as if it were a truly physical mass. “The future disappeared.”

“You can’t access it at all?” Pegasus checked.

“I haven’t gone through,” Bunnyx shook her head, “but Master Fu managed to step through earlier. You can at least enter it, if not exit.”

“What do you mean, if not exit?” Cat Noir stared. “Did you send the guardian in to that when we might never get him back?”

“I don’t know!” Bunnyx rubbed her eyes roughly with the heel of her palm. “It was his idea! I don’t know if there’s anything left.  Maybe something. Maybe nothing. Maybe Mini-bug. But I can’t see anything, which is the whole problem!”

“So… we need to find a way through?” Nino surmised.

Bunnyx strode to the other side of her burrow to the white circle that had cropped up earlier. “The fact that the future is no longer accessible is starting to affect the past. It’s disappearing as well, for some reason. Once these go white, I can’t access them. I can’t see through them, and I don’t know if anything is even past them. So, yes, we need to find a way through.” She met the eyes of the heroes. “To save all time.”

“To… save the world?” Rena Rogue casually checked, sounding a little too hopeful on that point.

Bunnyx sighed. “Yes, Rena, to save the world.”

Rena Rogue gave a small celebratory fist pump.

Pegasus raised a hand. “I have an idea.”

“All ideas are welcome,” Bunnyx nodded.

“I have one,” Queen Bee said.

“Except your’s,” Bunnyx amended. “You were saying, Pegasus?”

“I have a robot with me,” Pegasus explained. “I built him myself. If I sent him in, we might be able to see what’s in there through him.”

“That… might work,” Bunnyx said slowly, hope fluttering in her chest. She wouldn’t trust just anyone with a mission of this importance - especially a robot built by a teenager - but Pegasus was Max; that meant he was probably referring to Markov. For a robot, Markov was pretty sentient, proven by the fact that he’d once been akumatized.

Not to mention, Max himself was pretty smart. Not as smart as Bunnyx, of course, but smart.

Bunnyx gave a determined nod. “Pegasus, send him in.”

Pegasus joined her at the circles. “It is the center one, correct? I assume that the white is spreading out in a ripple effect from it, but I want to make sure I’m not sending my friend into the wrong one.”

“Friend?” Queen Bee snorted. “It’s a robot. You sound exactly like one of the idiots I know.”

“How many idiots do you know?” Viperion glanced at her.

“Too many,” Queen Bee sniffed.

“Yes, it’s the center one,” Bunnyx confirmed.

“Why are you carrying a robot around with you, dude?” Nino asked curiously. “Paris has been going crazy; not exactly the best time to be dragging a robot around.”

“I was heading to the next evacuation,” Pegasus said distractedly as he dug into his bag. “I was bringing him with me.”

Queen Bee frowned - and Bunnyx realized a beat too late that Chloe probably had decided who to send out next herself; she might be able to figure out who Pegasus was.

And then Pegasus pulled Markov out of his bag, and Bunnyx realized a beat that was very much too late that the majority of the heroes here were very familiar with Markov.

Everyone stared at the robot as Pegasus whispered instructions to him. Ryuko and Viperion were the only ones who still seemed somewhat calm - they didn’t know Markov, and therefore couldn’t make the connection to Max. Cat Noir also seemed unaffected, seeing as he’d been there when Ladybug gave Max the horse miraculous.

But, as for everyone else…

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Queen Bee muttered.

Ah, yes, Chloe was just as annoying as Bunnyx remembered.

Unaware of how he’d just exposed his secret identity to almost every hero present, Pegasus turned on his phone and began tapping on it quickly, fingers flying across the screen.

“What are you doing?” Cat Noir asked. His voice was weary. Bunnyx felt a small stab of guilt at pegging the problem on his future self so hard; the poor guy had been singlehandedly attempting to take on all the akumas in Paris by himself.

“When I made Ma- erm, my robot, that is, I also created an app where I can link up to him. If I turn it on and send him through, we should be able to see what is going on inside, hypothetically speaking.” Pegasus punched a few commands into his phone, quietly gave several more instructions to Markov, then stepped back.

The little robot flew straight into the white circle, disappearing.

Pegasus sucked in a sharp breath.

“What is it?” Bunnyx demanded, by his side in an instant, peering at his phone. “Where’s the feed? It’s just white.”

“I’ve… I’ve lost all connection with him,” Pegasus said, his voice faltering.

The heroes fell silent.

Bunnyx began tapping her umbrella against her thigh again. Pegasus - Max - wouldn’t take this loss lightly, but she couldn’t help but be more worried about Master Fu than Markov.

What did it all mean? Was the white just interfering with the connection? Or was there no other side for Markov to even get through?

If the was the case…

That meant Bunnyx really had sent the guardian of the miraculous to his doom.

That meant they’d never get Mini-bug back.

And that meant they’d never be able to fix this.

“That’s not good,” Bunnyx finally rasped, the silence too oppressing.

“What can we do if we can’t retrieve any intel?” Rena Rogue asked, rolling her flute between her hands nervously. “We need to know the facts before we can draw any conclusions.”

“There has to be some way we can check on this dude - uh, Master Fu, I mean,” Nino said.

“For goodness sake, why is he here?” Queen Bee demanded to know yet again.

“It’s not important-” Bunnyx tried to glaze over Nino’s presence once again, but Pegasus was already talking.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Pegasus said distractedly, fingers flying across his phone as he attempted to re-establish a connection with Markov. “He’s the hero Carapace. Master Fu must have taken the turtle miraculous with him, or else Bunnyx would have given it to Nino.”

“Pegasus!” Bunnyx hissed, resisting the sudden and strong urge to smack him upside the head with her umbrella. “Identities are supposed to remain a secret!”

Pegasus paused only long enough to glance up, a look only slightly guilty playing across his face. “Oh. Sorry. I thought that it was so obvious that everyone else knew as well.”

“No need to insult their intelligence,” Bunnyx reprimanded, though she couldn’t bring herself to be too mad about the jab. These mini versions of the heroes were pretty slow on the uptake, sometimes. And she couldn’t really blame Max for it; she herself had already done more than her fair share of jabs. Nerves were frayed, and everyone was on edge.

“Should we send someone in?” King Monkey asked, scratching his head. “I mean, that Food guy-“

“Fu,” Bunnyx corrected.

“Fu,” King Monkey continued, “is in there. But we can’t see him. If one of us could reach him, then we’d be able to help him find Ladybug faster so we can fix this whole mess.”

“We don’t even know if he got through,” Viperion shook his head, folding his arms across his chest. “For all we know he might be…” He paused, glancing somewhat guiltily over at Bunnyx.

Bunnyx’s chest tightened. She knew exactly where Viperion had been going with that.

For a moment, they were all silent.

Then, from behind Bunnyx, someone said, “I’ll go.”

-

Everything about this was ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

Chloe had only just begun initiating another group of evacuations when this bunny hero had burst out of a glowing white hole in the middle of the air, shoved the bee miraculous at her, and ordered her to follow.

Chloe had done so. She was Queen Bee, after all, a hero. She’d done her best for the past 3 weeks, despite not having a miraculous, settling for trying to help her utterly helpless father. He wasn’t good at dealing with a crisis.

They’d been in the middle of a particularly tense evacuation - a building had literally just fallen over, and no one had eyes on Cat Noir - but Chloe had followed the bunny hero into the glowing hole anyway. She’d been hoping they would be getting Ladybug from wherever she was, and that she’d be able to fix everything.

But here, no one seemed to have a plan! It was chaos, utter chaos. Even Chloe had been able to develop one in an unprecedented crisis, okay? It wasn’t that hard. Unless you were an idiot. In which case, it might be somewhat challenging.

“Should we send someone in?” the monkey hero was asking.

Queen Bee pursed her lips. She’d already tried to give them a plan to work with, but Bunnyx had rejected her idea before she’d even heard it.

Rude.

But…

These fools need a lot of help, Queen Bee observed, and a queen must step up.

It had become her mantra during the past couple of weeks. Because of it, she’d found that she made a great leader under pressure, and that she was clearly the only one in Paris that had any sense whatsoever. Besides Cat Noir, of course. He was the reason anything had even gone through; he’d backed her up when she’d tried to help at first, and apparently the word of a superhero carried a lot of weight.

But, besides him, no one else in this… whatever it was called… burrow? Tunnel? Yeah, whatever. Close enough. Everyone else in this tunnel was stupid. First off, that Pegasus guy was obviously Max, and he’d been dumb enough to reveal very incriminating evidence about his identity to all of them. She’d recognize that robot anywhere; it was so annoying. And Nino? He’d always been such a pain; she couldn’t imagine him as a hero. The only person Ladybug had chosen that showed she had any good taste was Chloe herself - and Chloe hadn’t been exactly chosen.

“We don’t even know if he got through,” the hot green guy shook his head, folding his arms across his chest. “For all we know he might be…” He paused, glancing somewhat guiltily over at Bunnyx.

Dead, Queen Bee mentally filled in.

For a moment, they were all silent.

Now was a good a time as any to propose her plan without any interruptions; hopefully Cat Noir would be willing to back her up again.

Queen Bee straightened. “I’ll go.”

Everyone turned to stare at her.

“What?” Queen Bee demanded. “I tried to tell you it like, five minutes ago! Someone has to go in, and I’m obviously the best choice.”

“What makes you say that?” Rena Rogue retorted.

“I trust her,” Cat Noir interrupted. “I’ve been working with Chloe for the past couple weeks to help Paris; she’s really good at planning things and acting like she belongs when she doesn’t.”

Queen Bee glared at him; it was exactly the backup she’d been hoping for. “That was both compliment and insult, and I don’t appreciate that.”

“I’d prefer if we could just send you, Cat Noir,” Bunnyx sighed, “seeing as you already know Ladybug’s identity.”

“He WHAT now?” Queen Bee demanded. “Ladybug and I are besties! I should have been the first to know!”

Cat Noir seemed to draw in on himself. “I… only found out on accident,” he mumbled. “She didn’t know that I knew - and then she disappeared.” He glanced up. “Or, I guess she was brought here by Bunnyx, and then got trapped in the future.”

Oh, so he playing the blame-game now, was he? Queen Bee didn’t blame him, though; Bunnyx had been extremely rude earlier to him about it when Bunnyx had been the one to bring Ladybug through.

“If the future still exists through that white,” Bunnyx was saying to Cat Noir, “then your future self will likely still be there. You’re my first choice for who I’d send in, but we can’t risk that; if you ever met your future self, it would be too obvious that you don’t belong there.”

“I’m sure I could blend in,” Queen Bee declared, trying to get the conversation back to the topic of her plan. “Let me go. Besides,” she added, “I’m probably the most expendable, seeing as Hawkmoth already knows my identity.”

Everyone stared at her. “Wow, Chloe,” Rena Rogue finally said. “That was almost selfless.”

“You’re not expendable,” Cat Noir said gently, laying a hand on her shoulder. “And we’re not even up against Hawkmoth, here.”

“If Queen Bee goes, she needs to know what Ladybug’s identity is,” Bunnyx warned.

“I can keep a secret,” Chloe reassured Bunnyx. “You have no idea how many government ones I already know.”

“Before we tell you,” Cat Noir interjected, “you have to promise me that knowing her identity as a civilian won’t compromise your loyalty to her. We have to be 100% committed if we’re going to beat… whatever this is. You can’t do anything to undermine her.”

Queen Bee shot him a quizzical look. “Why would I do that to Lady-bae?”

Bunnyx began tapping her umbrella against her leg - something she seemed to do a lot of. “Because you already know her.”

“Should all of us know it?” Ryuko asked. “We might need that information, but if it’s best to keep her identity a secret…”

“I’ll tell Chloe,” Cat Noir offered quietly. “I’ll just… I don’t know. Tell her on the other side of the burrow.”

“It’s not that wide,” Bunnyx pointed out, seeming agitated.

“Then plug your ears,” Cat Noir said drily, taking Queen Bee by the elbow and leading her away to the other side.

“Okay,” Queen Bee said, turning to face Cat Noir head on as soon as they were as far as they could go, “who is she?”

Cat Noir lowered his voice, saying quietly, “She’s… Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Queen Bee blinked. Then blinked again. “All right.”

“All right?” Cat Noir repeated. “Don’t you two have like, a feud or something?”

“Please,” Queen Bee rolled her eyes, “I may be rude sometimes, but the only reason I targeted Dupain-Cheng was because I had to assert dominance. She’s always been my biggest rival because she posed the biggest threat.” She began to count off on her fingers. “She’s class rep, has designed things that have impressed Gabriel Agreste, and every boy in the school probably has had a crush on her at some point. I suppose it only makes sense that she’s Ladybug.”

A small flicker of amusement went through Cat Noir’s eyes. “Does that still mean that you’ll refer to her as Lady-bae-“

“Don’t push it, kitty cat,” Queen Bee interrupted.

Cat Noir just shrugged. “It’s a valid question.”

“I think you and I have very different ideas of what a valid question is.”

“Are you sure you want to go through?” Cat Noir asked, his smile fading. “We need to find her, but we don’t know what’s beyond that circle.”

The unspoken words of if there’s even anything beyond it hung in the air.

“Enough dramatics,” Queen Bee grumbled, trying to put up her uncaring facade again after having just opened up. She hated feelings. They were so icky and… feely. “Just let me go already.”

Together, they walked over to the others again.

“Ready?” Bunnyx asked, eyeing Queen Bee.

“I always was ready, “ Queen Bee sniffed. “If you had let me talk-”

“Try to find anything you can on Fu,” Bunnyx interrupted. “If he’s in there, we want to know where.”

Queen Bee rolled her eyes, sarcastically saying, “Copy that.”

Without waiting for a reply, Queen Bee strode over to the circles and stepping through the one she’d seen Markov go through.

Everything went white. For a moment, nothing happened.

And then suddenly tingles fizzed all over Queen Bee’s body, as if the white was attempting to push her back.

What was this stuff?

Despite how strange it was, though, Queen Bee wasn’t deterred in the least. She knew that there were only three things that could match her in stubbornness: her mother, Adrikins, and Marinette. This white stuff stood no chance.

Queen Bee pushed back - though pushed back was a strange way to describe it. She couldn’t really see anything. It was like a battle of wills, and they were fencing it out the way Adrikins liked to in competitions.

And, just like her Adrikins, she was going to win.

But for several moments, nothing happened.

An inkling of doubt trickled into Queen Bee’s mind. What if she was wrong? What if it wasn’t a battle of wills? What if she was going to be stuck here forever?

With the sudden strength of desperation behind her, Queen Bee threw her will against the white, grappling with it, and-

Without warning, she stumbled into daylight.

At least, she was pretty sure it was daylight.

Chloe stood there, blinking, trying to get her eyes to adjust. But the sight before her would not go away.

It was… Paris. Sort of. People were walking up and down the sidewalks, paying no attention to her whatsoever. That alone was odd, seeing as she was Chloe Bourgeois, daughter of the mayor.

However, unlike the Paris she had left just minutes before, this one was completely intact. There was no sign of destruction anywhere.

But there was something much, much more wrong with it.

Everything was black and white. And there was an odd net pattern across all of it.

Had the white stuff taken away her ability to see colour?

Buzzzzzzz.

Chloe took a fighting stance instantly, ready to venom her way out of whatever threat there might be.

Yet no threat came into sight.

After a beat, a bee flew in front of her, still buzzing.

But it was yellow.

Colour.

Chloe relaxed her stance only slightly, twisting her head to look about. There were bees, all of them yellow, floating about her head. They were all humming slightly.

What were they doing here?

Chloe made to shoo them off - but upon lifting up her arm, she froze.

“What am I wearing?!” she whisper-shrieked.

Her sleeve alone was hideous. Upon looking down, though, things got even worse: it was a full-body costume! At least, she assumed it was a costume; there was no other explanation for it.

Chloe reached quickly up to her head, trying to check on her hair - and her hands instantly bumped into something.

Was she wearing a helmet?

“Stay calm,” Chloe whispered, trying to not hyperventilate. This trip into the white was already much more panic-inducing than she’d expected. “A queen must step up.”

Right. She was a queen. She wouldn’t let a temporary costume stop her. At least, she hoped it was temporary.

Look on the bright side, she tried to assure herself. At least that explains the net pattern I’m seeing.

Looking on the bright side didn’t come very naturally do her.

But where had this monstrosity even come from? And, more importantly, where had her epic superhero suit gone?

“This is so wrong,” Chloe muttered, crossing her arms. She wanted to pout, to yell and scream at the black and white sky about how ridiculous, utterly ridiculous this was - but she had to find Ladybug. And the You guy.

But where did she even start?

What would Ladybug do? Chloe wondered. Ladybug - ugh, Marinette, too - always seemed to know exactly what to do in every situation. If Chloe had to choose one person to emulate… it might as well be her.

She would take stock of the situation, Chloe decided, then develop a plan of attack.

Chloe was halfway hoping that her plan of attack would somehow have a very necessary step in it of removing her ugly suit, but she started by taking stock of the surrounding area.

Okay. She had made it through the white. Or forced her way past it. Whatever.

She hadn’t seen the Wu guy inside of the white - not that she could even see much in there, it had been so bright - so she could probably assume he’d also made it through. That would mean that both of them were now here to search for Ladybug - Marinette - at the same time.

Right. Searching. She had to search.

So… Chloe would try and find Lady- Marinette. She would try and find Marinette.

Knowing Ladybug’s identity was going to take a little getting used to.

But Paris needed Ladybug back. Chloe was prepared to set aside any bad blood between her and Dupain-Cheng, as well as her intense loathing for her new… outfit in order to find her and set things right.

First things first: where did she even begin? Paris was huge.

Maybe someone has seen her? Chloe wondering, glancing around. Surely they’d remember seeing Ladybug - but that only works if Dupain-Cheng has transformed during her time here to fight akumas.

Ugh. She doubted that Marinette could bring herself to be that helpful.

But if she was also Ladybug, the smartest person Chloe knew, then maybe she could-

Quiet! Chloe ordered herself; she didn’t have time for internal debates. If this is the future, then I could try and find someone that Marinette might be with. Like me; I’m famous. Or Cat Noir. Chat Blanc. Whatever.

But did she dare ask for help to find someone who had destroyed the whole future?

More importantly… did she really want to deign to ask for help?

Ugh. The thought alone was horrid and slimy. Chloe didn’t ask for help; if she needed someone to do something for her, she just ordered them to do it. That’s how friendship worked! And being the daughter of the mayor!

Chloe let out a peeved sigh, then began taking a closer look at passers by; she might as well peg down someone who looked weak.

But the more she looked at them, the more uncomfortable Chloe became. It wasn’t just the fact that she wasn’t sure whether she even wanted to ask someone for help, or that all these people were black-and-white; it was the expressions people were wearing. Everyone looked… happy. Or at least not sad. But also not truly happy. Like they were glad to be there but were dead inside.

It was disconcerting.

Chloe gave up on the idea of asking someone for help; she’d just rely on herself for this job.

It might be a little tricky, though; there weren’t any signs anywhere that could help lead her to where Ladybug might be. There was no destruction, no akumas, and no Chat Blanc. Everything appeared to be, well… perfect.

But there was something very off about this place. No one was noticing her, or freaking out that everything was black and white.

Or over her. She was standing in the middle of the road, surrounded by bees, but no one had given her a second look.

Chloe waved a wayward bee out of her face that was obstructing her view. She cast an annoyed look at them; where had they even come from? And why were they still hanging out around her? She was Queen Bee, but still-

Wait.

Bees.

This place must be affecting my miraculous, she realized, staring at the bees. I hope that’s not Pollen. Changing outfits was bad enough; she couldn’t imagine being split up into multiple tiny hers. Though the rest of the world would probably love having more than one Chloe.

So… essentially, she couldn’t trust anyone because they all seemed to be stupid, she had no idea where Fu was, meaning she was alone, and she didn’t even know where she currently was or where Dupain-Cheng lived in just normal-Paris, much less this one.

Really, she was alone in the big city with no way to know where to go.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Chloe began walking along the streets at a brisk pace. Maybe she’d get lucky and just bump into Dupain-Cheng.

And then she couldn’t help but snort at the thought of considering bumping into Marinette lucky.

Chloe quickly began noticing more differences as she made her way down the streets, choosing her path at random. For one, not only was she dressed differently, but so was everyone else. They were wearing a totally different style entirely, as if they had walked straight out of a 1960s movie. Dupain-Cheng wasn’t the only one who knew fashion; Chloe had grown up around fashion moguls. Her mother had practically invented fashion itself. If Chloe couldn’t tell what time period a piece was from, then someone would have been seriously wrong with her. More than she already was by wearing this horrible outfit, of course.

Chloe went up and down sidewalks, peering into stores and houses, unable to recognize anything she was passing by. At first, it was somewhat interesting.

But after a while, it became stiflingly hot in her suit, and her feet began to ache.

Where was a limousine when you needed one?

The sun reached its peak, hovering in a black and white haze above Chloe. She was sweltering in her suit, but didn’t dare try to take it off; there was something very right about it in a very wrong way, as if she couldn’t remove it even if she tried.

She hated how everything here was right and wrong; it wasn’t… right. Or wrong, either. But certainly not right!

UGH.

Several hours in, Chloe was more lost than ever, her feet were blistering, and the sun was starting to go down. At one point, she thought she heard cheering - something about children? - but ignored it. Marinette wasn’t a child - well, not technically speaking. Emotionally, Chloe had always considered her as vulnerable as a toddler, and even easier to read and manipulate.

Unlike these street signs. Chloe’s eyes hurt from seeing just black and white all day, and with the light lessening, it was becoming even more difficult to read anything.

Grumbling, Chloe took to just walking in the middle of the road so she could check out both sides of the street more easily. It turned out to be a bad idea, however; before long, in the dark, her foot caught on something and sent her crashing to the ground.

“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” Chloe hissed, twisting to see what she’d tripped on. It was just a pot hole covering. She kicked it back into place before standing, brushing herself off.

The sound of a door opening rang out across the street - but Chloe would have ignored it completely and moved on had it not been for a very familiar voice saying, “Be careful.”

Chloe’s pulse instantly kicked up a notch. Was that who she thought it was?

As if feeling her quickening pulse for her, the bees around Chloe began to buzz in earnest, fluttering around her head. “Hush!” Chloe ordered, trying to peer into the darkness toward where the words had come from. She twisted her head from left to right, not wanting to miss anything.

“What’s that?” the same voice gasped - yes, that was definitely Marinette. But… at the same time, Chloe could now also hear how she also was definitely Ladybug. How had she not noticed that before?

Where is she? Chloe thought in frustration, peering into the darkness.

But then, as she twisted her head again, she came to a stop.

There.

Marinette was staring at her, eyes wide. Her hand was clutching the shoulder of the person standing beside her.

And then Chloe noticed who the other person was.

His hair was the same blond that it had been when they were kids, and his physique was unmistakable; even the way he stood at attention. Yet… it seemed almost looser than normal, as if he were more relaxed around Marinette.

Adrien Agreste. Chloe’s childhood best friend.

But what arrested her attention the most were his eyes.

They weren’t green.

Instead, they were a bright, icy blue that showed up like a shock of lightning in the dark.

And he was looking straight. at. her.

“No,” he whispered. The word practically rumbled in the air; there was an innate feeling of power behind it. Chloe had grown up around politicians; she could have recognized it from a mile away, but in this case, it actually was like a physical presence backing it up - as if his word were the wind in front of a tsunami that rose up only a few moments behind it, towering above everything, ready to destroy everything in its path.

Adrien closed his fist, fingers curling in on themselves. There was a distinct clink and then-

-

“Pegasus, status update?” Rena Rogue asked, glancing over at the superhero that was obviously Max Kanté. Bunnyx had asked him to start looking at the holes in her burrow; Bunnyx might be the holder of the miraculous, but Max was still a genius.

“Nothing yet,” Pegasus reported. “If I had Ma- I mean, my robot here, then he might be able to help me…”

Rena winced; Max was not taking the loss of Markov lightly, yet was stoically attempting to not mention the robot too much. He had no idea that she already had figured out his identity.

“Actually…”

Rena looked up along with everyone else.

Pegasus was staring at the white circles, rubbing his chin, deep in thought. “It pushes back when I try to place my hand against it. This circle is unlike the one that I entered by. It’s as if it’s a solid mass.” He reached up, adjusting his sunglasses, the same way Max usually would adjust his glasses while thinking. “Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. But… what if we could somehow bypass the wall that we are acting on?”

“Excuse me?” Bunnyx stared.

But Rena was catching on. “Like… through one of your portals?”

“Precisely,” Pegasus nodded. “However, it would need some way to link up to the circle itself; I doubt I could create a portal through time. My miraculous is not intended to work in such a fashion.”

“Whoah, everyone hold up,” Viperion held up his hands. “I only caught about half of that, but we can’t go in there!”

“Why not?” Pegasus and Rena asked in unison.

“First off, Fu and Chloe both already went in,” Viperion counted off the reasons on his fingers. “They haven’t come back. We have no idea if they even made it through in the first place. And, if they did, they’re undercover. Even if we could find an easier way to get through, by going in, we’d be blowing their cover.”

“By that logic, Chloe going in blew Fu’s,” Rena pointed out, crossing her arms.

“If we could just see what’s going on, that would help everything!” Bunnyx growled in frustration. “We need to know if they made it through or not!”

“And where they are now if they did,” Ryuko murmured in agreement.

Rena looked down at her flute and suddenly smirked. “I have an idea.”

-

“Are you sure about this?” Bunnyx checked one final time. “Giving me your miraculouses will reveal your identity to everyone present. That could endanger those you love if Hawkmoth-”

“Yeah, well, I don’t see Hawkmoth present,” Rena Rogue waved her hand dismissively. “Besides, who cares about him right now? We’re up against Cat Noir - or Chat Blanc - and, honestly, I’d be way more scared of getting in a fight with him than Hawkmoth. Besides,” she added, “all cards on the table, right? We’re your hand, and you’re playing us to your best tactical advantage.”

Bunnyx chewed her lip. Rena was right - she always had been logical that way. “Okay,” she finally relented - though she couldn’t deny a part of her was relieved. Rena’s idea was a good one, and Bunnyx was desperate to try and get eyes on the future. “You may remove your miraculouses.”

There was silence as Pegasus and Rena Rogue faced one another. It felt like a solemn moment; a last second of anonymity before being thrown into the spotlight.

They both took in a deep breath. There was a bright flash of light as both of them detransformed.

And then Alya Cesaire and Max Kanté were standing there instead.

“Wait, Alya?” Cat Noir gaped.

“Do you two know one another?” Max asked, glancing between them.

“Well, I mean,” Cat Noir stumbled over his words, “she’s the Ladyblogger. And I’ve saved her several times.”

Bunnyx could have facepalmed herself at the clumsy save.

“Here you go, Bunnyx,” Alya said as she and Max handed over their miraculouses to her.

Bunnyx slipped the sunglasses and the necklace on. The horse and fox kwamis instantly appeared in front of her. Bunnyx pulled out carrots, quickly feeding the tired kwamis. “You guys up for round two?”

Kaalki looked at her curiously. “Are you glorious and famous?”

Bunnyx gave her a look.

“Glorious,” Kaalki decided, popping the rest of the carrot in her mouth. “I’m ready!”

“Fluff, Kaalki, Trixx, unify!” Bunnyx declared.

It was a risky idea to act on. The more miraculouses a holder wore, the more dangerous it was for them - much less one being the miraculous of time.

But she was strong; Bunnyx didn’t doubt that she could handle it. After all, if Mini-bug could wear all of them, then this should be a cinch.

There was a burst of light, and a moment later, she stood in her new form. A wave of dizziness crashed over her, and for a breathless moment, Bunnyx thought she was about to faint. She stumbled, leaning heavily on Alya and Max for support.

“You good?” Alya grunted.

“Just peachy,” Bunnyx mumbled, the dizziness slowly fading. She took in a deep breath, steadying herself, then pushed up. “All right. Let’s do this.”

“What should we call you now?” Alya asked, trotting beside her as Bunnyx strode over to the white circles, the rest of the heroes tailing them. “If I ever get to talk about this on my blog, I need a name.”

“There’s no time to decide,” Bunnyx replied. “Just continue calling me Bunnyx.” She stopped before the white circles. “I hope your idea works.”

Everyone leaned closer, watching intently.

Bunnyx took her umbrella, sliding the flute along up it and lodging it in place with the horseshoe. Then, slowly, she began sliding it into the white circle.

For several tense seconds, she felt the whiteness push back, as if it were a truly physical force.

Gritting her teeth and sending up a prayer that this would work, Bunnyx said, “Burrow, Voyage, Mirage!”

It was probably the longest shot of shots that she’d ever attempted. Reaching through time, bypassing a force keeping them locked out, and…

The white circle flickered.

Bunnyx caught her breath. Had the mirage really reached through?

The other heroes gathered around, peering at the white, crackling… whatever it was. It honestly reminded Bunnyx a little of an old TV.

And then, the static cleared up, leaving them with a black and white image instead.

{Audience laughs}

Bunnyx jumped at the sound, almost losing her grip on her umbrella. “Holy hopping dust bunnies! What is that?”

“So… because we’re doing this dinner for us… you thought we should make the whole thing?”

“That can’t be right,” Alya squinted, leaning in a little closer. “That’s Adrien Agreste. Chat Blanc is nowhere in sight.”

“Basically.”

“And that’s Marinette,” Max pointed. “What is she doing here?”

“Hands off, dude; I can’t see!” Nino complained.

“Quiet!” Bunnyx ordered, her voice strained. They were finally able to see through, and these teenagers were yelling over it!

“Have you at all considered the fact that you usually bake, and I don’t really cook?”

{Audience laughs}

At the sound of the canned laughter, Bunnyx flinched again. What was this, a movie from the 50’s?

“That’s why we have a recipe, Adrien. It’s the kind of thing people use when they’re cooking.”

{Audience laughs}

“What do you need help with?”

“Could you grab out the knives?”

“Planning a murder, my dear?”

{Audience laughs}

“What…?” Bunnyx breathed.

“What are we looking at?” Viperion asked. “What is this? Where’s it coming from?”

“Out there,” Bunnyx murmured, hoping that the answer would make these kids be quiet already. Her eyes were locked on the… well, for lack of a better word, she had to admit that it now looked almost like a screen.

“Now, we’re going to need some spices…”

“Is it authentic?” Alya frowned. “Is it happening in real time? Is it recorded, fabricated?”

Would these kids just be quiet already?

“I don’t know,” Bunnyx cast a glance at Alya, her voice tense. “We’re reaching through space and time. It could have reached some kind of alternate reality for all we know.”

“So you’re saying that the universe created a sitcom staring… a model and a fashion designer,” Viperion said drily.

“I’m not saying that! I’m just theorizing!” Bunnyx waved him off, trying to pay attention to the feed. Possible alternate reality or not, this was the first time she’d seen something through the circle since she’d sent Mini-bug in there.

The scene played out, Marinette panicking over how much they had left to do - and then suggested they use their miraculouses.

“Their… miraculouses?” King Monkey blinked.

Bunnyx thought fast. “Oh, Marinette once used the mouse miraculous against Kwami Buster, and Ladybug originally gave the snake miraculous to Adrien Agreste; they must be referring to those.”

“She gave it to Adrien first?” Viperion stared.

Cat Noir shifted a couple steps away from Viperion.

“Green is not a good colour on you, Viperion,” Bunnyx said. “I mean… jealousy. You’re already in green.” She let out a tense sigh. “Would you all please be quiet now? I’m trying to hear what’s going on.”

She was desperate to hear what was going on; Minibug would never suggest that they use their miraculouses for personal gain; never.

But, almost more concerning was the fact that she was acting as if Adrien had her miraculous. If Adrien was Cat Noir, and in this world had been akumatized into Chat Blanc, that could only spell trouble.

“What the heck?” Nino yelped in the back of the group as… well, as he walked in through the door. “That’s me!”

“Nino!” Marinette exclaimed, confirming the fact that it really was Nino Lahiffe there for them.

“What’s up?” Nino asked, smiling widely, showing all his teeth. “Do I smell chicken?”

“I don’t actually smile like that, right?” Nino whispered from behind Bunnyx to Alya.

Bunnyx shushed him.

The three did the dishes, and then Nino left - only to be quickly replaced by the Dupain-Chengs, and…

“That’s Emilie Agreste!” Alya gasped.

Cat Noir made a strangled sound in the back of his throat.

Adrien on the screen didn’t appear phased by her appearance, however. Instead, they all ate dinner today, and then Adrien and Emilie left.

And then… credits began rolling.

“Is this a TV show?” Ryuko frowned. “Did you access a channel by accident, Bunnyx?”

“No way,” Bunnyx shook her head desperately. “I… I couldn’t have.” Of course, she’d never tried doing what she’d done before, so she didn’t know that for a fact.

“What would a channel featuring us be named?” King Monkey pondered. “The Family Channel? Gloob? Zag?”

“Stop making stuff up, King Monkey,” Max chided. “Now is not the time.”

Now certainly wasn’t the time for anything these kids were talking about. Bunnyx needed to be able to think. Mini-bug appeared to be fine; it was as if she didn’t know anything was even wrong.

“Marinette seemed a little… off, don’t you think?” Nino frowned. “I’ve never seen her greet me like that before.”

“But she’s dating Adrien,” Alya pointed out. “That’s a pretty good thing, right?”

“Why would she want to date Adrien Agreste?” Cat Noir mumbled. He was standing in the back of the group, his arms folded tightly across his chest, as if distancing himself from the mess that his future self had caused.

“She’s had the biggest crush on him since the first day they met,” Alya shrugged. “After she gave him heck when she thought he’d stuck gum on her seat, of course. But that was just Chloe.”

Cat Noir jerked his head up and stared at her. “She liked… Adrien?”

“Yep,” Alya confirmed.

Cat Noir’s eyes practically dilated, and Bunnyx could just see him connecting the dots in his head. If Marinette is Ladybug… and Ladybug always told me that there was another boy… that other boy was Adrien Agreste… and if Adrien Agreste was me the whole time…

“Enough!” Bunnyx exclaimed. These teens got sidetracked way too easily. Though she was willing to forgive Cat Noir at least a little; this was all probably starting to get a little too overwhelming for him. Just not in entirely all the ways that the others thought.

The credits finished rolling, and Bunnyx stared at the screen for a few moments. That episode hadn’t revealed anything helpful; only more questions… and no sign of Fu.

That couldn’t be it… could it?

“Now what?” Nino finally asked.

As if in response, the screen flickered back to life.

For a moment, Bunnyx thought it was about to replay the same thing they’d just watched, the way her burrows would replay when she touched them.

But then a theme song began blaring.

And it was different.

“Is this a new… episode?” Alya stared.

Bunnyx squinted at it. The theme song was still in black and white, but looked less like it was from the 50’s and more like it was from the 60’s.

The new… well, like Alya had said, episode began to play. It appeared to be the middle of the night, and Emilie was telling Adrien that something was outside.

Bunnyx’s heart leapt; could it possibly be Master Fu?

“Chloe?” Viperion blinked. “That was fast.”

Obviously Bunnyx and Viperion had very different ideas as to who the more capable searcher was in there.

They watched Adrien head towards of the door of the apartment, moving to go check on something. He was doing something with his hands, but the camera angle only showed him from the back.

And then… he switched direction, heading for the window instead.

Bunnyx realized what he was about to do a second too late. “Wait-!”

Before she could order the other heroes to turn around, Adrien whispered, “Plagg, claws out.”

There was a flash of white, and a moment later, Chat Blanc opened up the window began climbing the outside wall.

Everybody froze, staring.

And then slowly turned to look at Cat Noir, who was still standing in the back of the group.

“Adrien?” Ryuko stared, looking the most shocked she had during this whole situation.

“Bro?” Nino gaped.

“You’re Chat Blanc?” Viperion asked.

Cat Noir winced. “Uh… hi?”

“Wait…” Nino clutched at his head. “So all those times you disappeared during attacks…? And wait, during the past 3 weeks, you’ve been fighting akumas on your own?!”

“Maybe?” Cat Noir said it like it was a question, as if there was still some way for him to plausibly deny it.

“Wait!” Alya exclaimed, her fingers twitching, as if she was resisting the strong urge to grab out her phone. “If you, Cat Noir, are Adrien, and that makes you Chat Blanc, and Ladybug is stuck in the future with future you, and this show is featuring Adrien and Marinette…”

The blood slowly drained from Bunnyx’s face as everyone fell silent, the obvious conclusion lying in plain sight. Bunnyx might not agree with Fu’s rules, but if there were two identities she had wanted to keep secret above all others, they were Mini-bug’s and Cat Noir’s.

“Marinette is Ladybug?” Alya choked when nobody contradicted her. “Like… for real?”

“You all weren’t supposed to know,” Bunnyx groaned. “I thought we could keep it secret…”

Tap. Tap. Tap tap tap.

Bunnyx gave the screen a cursory glance, unsure as to where her attention should even be focused any longer. Chat Blanc was still on the wall, and it was now revealed that it had only been a tree branch that had scared Emilie.

Still no sign of Fu, then.

“My best friend has been fighting akumas all school year?!” Alya looked like she was either about to have a panic attack or faint.

Bunnyx rallied herself; she needed to get control of this situation. “Everyone, calm down!”

The heroes instantly quieted down, looking at her with varying degrees of shock and panic displayed on their faces. It wasn’t exactly calm, but at least it was slightly more quiet.

Bunnyx decided to just grab the bull by the horns. “Yes, Cat Noir is Adrien Agreste, and Marinette is Mini-bug. I’m sorry, Cat Noir, I didn’t mean for them all to find out your identity.”

“It’s not your fault,” Cat Noir shook his head wearily.

“So in the future, Marinette is Ladybug… and she’s dating you… who is…” Alya’s brow was scrunched up, trying to put the pieces together in her mind.

“Chat Blanc,” Bunnyx finished, glancing at the screen as Chat Blanc made his way back along the wall to the window. “And Mini-bug seems to know that he is, yet isn’t concerned in the least. Which is extremely puzzling.”

“Is this a love triangle or square?” Alya asked.

“Square,” Nino supplied.

“Marinette would never willingly assist a villain,” Viperion shook his head, then cast an uncomfortable glance at Cat Noir. “No offence.”

“Do you know her?” Alya asked, casting a curious glance at the snake hero.

“And then end with a backflip going into the splits.”

They all turned back to the screen at the sound of Marinette’s voice. Bunnyx drew in a sharp breath, just as Chat Blanc did a backflip going into the splits.

Because Mini-bug was there on screen with him in her own superhero outfit.

“They seem a little tired,” Marinette was saying when Bunnyx finally got her brain to pay attention to what they were actually saying again. “Are you sure we should be using these for our routine?”

“Routine?” Max repeated, confusion obvious in his voce.

“It’s fine,” Adrien replied on screen. “Everyone will just think we’re wearing costumes of their favourite superheroes, Ladybug and Chat Blanc!”

And with that, the pieces finally began to click into place in Bunnyx’s head.

“Superheroes,” she whispered. “Mini-bug thinks that they’re both superheroes, the way she and Cat Noir are! But now…”

“It’s with Chat Blanc,” Cat Noir finished quietly from the back.

“She doesn’t realize that anything’s wrong,” Bunnyx nodded.

Marinette headed on out of the apartment, joining Emilie Agreste. They began heading down the street chatting about some committee meeting and Lila Rossi.

But as the pair of them went around a corner, the camera panned out and around them to get a better view of them from the other side - and that’s when Bunnyx saw him.

She gasped. “Master Fu!”

There he was: he was barely even in the shot, narrowly making it in at this new angle, shuffling along down the sidewalk behind Marinette and Emilie, as if heading in the same direction as them.

But it was him.

“Does he seem okay to you?” Cat Noir, leaning around King Monkey’s shoulder to see better. The monkey superhero leaned a little further to give him a better look; everyone seemed to understand that, while knowing Cat Noir’s identity was huge, they had to wait to truly process it until later.

“He doesn’t appear to be harmed in any way,” Bunny said, relieved, “but that’s definitely not the outfit that he went in there with. And those turtles! What’s up with that?”

“So, what, deep cover?” Alya suggested, her reporter gears clearly already turning. “Fu has to play along?”

“With whom?” Viperion shook his head. “Or else, what?” He frowned, studying the screen even as Marinette and Emilie continued talking. “What are we looking at here? Because things have obviously changed; is it an alternate reality? Just time travel?”

“For all we know, it could be a cockamamie social experiment,” Max pointed out.

“It’s a sitcom,” Bunnyx said. “A 1950s sitcom - or, at least, the first episode was. This one might be in the 60’s.”

“But why?” Viperion insisted.

“Hey, man, we’re working with the same scarcity of intel,” Bunnyx held up her free hand as if to shield herself. She glanced back at the screen. “But I think I’m starting to get an idea for something we can try.”

She finally had seen Fu. Just knowing that he was all right, that he had made it through, made Bunnyx feel as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. New courage flooded through her.

If it was possible to get through the white that was overtaking her burrow, that meant…

They might actually be able to beat it.

The screen changed back to Adrien, who was heading out of the apartment.

“An idea? What is it?” Alya asked excitedly. “A way to break my best friend out from… whatever this is?”

“Not entirely,” Bunnyx shook her head. “More of… a way of possibly contacting Mini-bug and Adrien.”

“Both of them?” Viperion noted.

“Cut it out,” Bunnyx said cuttingly. “She liked Adrien who’s Cat Noir and is now with an akumatized version of him in the future. Get over it. And, yes, both of them. We don’t know exactly what happened, but it was centered on Mini-bug and Chat Blanc. They’re both good options to try and contact.”

“Markov!” Max suddenly yelled, surging forward.

Everybody whipped their heads about to look back again.

On screen, Adrien was holding… something. It was an odd ball of sorts, a bright blue oval decorating the front of it and a cone attached to the bottom sticking out form it. It was the first sign of colour they’d seen so far.

“That looks like a retro version of my robot,” Max said, practically blocking the entire screen with how closely he was leaning in.

“But how did it change, and why?” Ryuko said as Bunnyx pulled Max back.

“Uh… to go with production design?” Nino suggested. He’d directed stuff before, so he would probably knew about those sort of things.

But Bunnyx found she didn’t entirely agree with that theory.

“Or render it useless,” she murmured, watching Adrien study it.

“Why’d you colourize it?” Alya asked. “How did you even do that?”

“I didn’t.” Bunnyx shook her head.

Adrien turned, marching back to the apartment and closing the door behind him. When he emerged again, only moments later, Markov was gone.

“Where did he go?!” Max exclaimed, his voice panicked, and rushed at the screen.

“Don’t touch it!” Bunnyx yelled, letting go of her umbrella to tackle Max. She landed hard, and grunted. “If we interfere with the feed we have coming through, we might never be able to get it again!”

“But Markov…!” Max struggled weakly beneath her strong grip.

“Calm down, Max,” Bunnyx ordered. She began to raise herself off of him, still using her hands to keep him pinned down in case he tried anything again. “Adrien may have just hidden him somewhere; he was colourized, after all. That would have made him stand out.”

“I wouldn’t destroy Markov, if that makes you feel any better,” Cat Noir volunteered.

Max stopped struggling, panting. “Yeah… yeah, that helps.”

Bunnyx let go of Max, glancing over to make sure her umbrella was still good. It was leaning, but its tip was still inside the circle, the handle resting on the base of her burrow. “What did we miss?”

“Marinette is talking with Fu,” Ryuko recounted, the only who had thought to continue watching, “and her kwami fell into his aquarium.”

“Tikki what?” Bunnyx yelped. “That’s bad. If she gets a cold…”

“Master Fu has an aquarium?” Cat Noir asked. “I didn’t see that when I visited him.”

“Well, he certainly didn’t have that shirt when I last saw him either,” Bunnyx grunted, brushing herself off as she stood.

“You’ve visited him before?” King Monkey asked.

“Can Master Fu help if her kwami gets a cold?” Max asked.

“Wait, is he part of the committee now?” Alya stared.

“It appears so,” Ryuko shrugged, even as the screen switched on them again.

“He found her,” Bunnyx realized, barely paying attention to the new environment being panned around on the screen, or anything the heroes were saying, “and now he’s tailing her. Master Fu had nothing but utter faith in Mini-bug; he’s probably waiting to try and help in some way, or maybe is trying to gain her trust!”

“They’re talking!” Nino told her. “Or… that is,  we are.”

Bunnyx looked at the screen, paying attention to the new scene for the first time - and blinked.

It was back to Adrien.

But he was sitting at a table… with most of her old classmates.

“I could help you with some melodies to go along with it, if you want,” Luka Couffaine offered onscreen.

Viperion drew in a breath.

“What?” Alya asked, glancing at him.

But, just then, Bunnyx’s eyes fell on something. “Radio!” she exclaimed.

“What?” Alya yelped the word this time, almost falling over from the force of Bunnyx’s exclamation.

“There was a radio in the kitchen in the first episode,” Bunnyx said, scrambling forward to grip her umbrella, “and now there’s one on that table. We can try and reach you, Adrien!”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Cat Noir asked uncertainly.

Bunnyx paused, glancing over her shoulder at him. Clearly, they were the only two to have developed a new theory about Chat Blanc - one that was likely right.

But when all they did was silently observed each other, Bunnyx knew that Cat Noir was just as interested as she was in sharing it with the others - as in, not at all.

“We have to try,” Bunnyx said instead, finally breaking eye contact and looking back at her umbrella. “If Mini-bug doesn’t know what’s going on, he might. He could help us.” She doubted that, actually, but was still interested in testing out her theory.

Bunnyx twisted her umbrella about, as if tuning it to the perfect signal. She focused, the powers of space and time colliding within her and honing in on their target: the radio.

On screen, the boys were still talking about Ivan’s song for Mylene. Now was as good a time as any to do this - not to mention, Bunnyx didn’t know when the scene might change; for all she knew, she only had a couple of seconds to try this.

“Adrien,” Bunnyx said into the handle of her umbrella, not entirely sure where else to speak.

She stared hard at the Adrien on screen. There didn’t seem to be any reaction from him, so she tried again. “Adrien, can you read me, over?”

“I knew it was bad!” Ivan exclaimed on screen.

Bunnyx tried to focus despite the yelling. “Adrien?”

There was a blip on screen, and beat later, it had cut to Marinette, who was nervously clutching Tikki in her hands.

Everyone stared.

“Well that didn’t work,” Cat Noir finally said.

“Just wait,” Bunnyx said, her voice brittle. “Once it switches back to you, I’ll try again.”

She couldn’t afford for it to not work.

“I might have left the radio behind by then,” Cat Noir pointed out.

“Or maybe not,” Bunnyx countered.

A beat later, it switched back.

Still Adrien. Still at the table.

Still close to the radio.

Instantly, Bunnyx was trying to tune in to the radio again. This time, however, the camera kept switching angles, making it difficult to focus on the radio. She gritted her teeth, sweat dripping down her forehead.

“I need to go,” Adrien said.

Bunnyx focused harder.

Adrien stopped.

Bunnyx’s breath caught; was she getting through?

Just as she went to speak into her umbrella again, however, a jolt went through her body.

“Ack!” she exclaimed, dropping her umbrella.

“What is it?” Cat Noir was by her side in an instant.

Bunnyx shook out her hands, frazzled. “I… I’m not sure. It was like a shock or something.”

“Sit down for a minute,” Ryuko suggested - although it sounded a little bit like an order, coming from her.

Bunnyx sat down obediently. Past or future, one did not simply ignore Ryuko unless they were interested in getting their butt kicked. And her head was kind of dizzy, anyway. Bunnyx focused on breathing, and tried to pay at least some attention to the screen.

The episode played out, Marinette and Adrien doing their act without their miraculouses due to Tikki’s illness. Bunnyx watched with increasing worry over the little pink kwami - until, at last, Fu approached and offered to heal her ‘cat’.

“Is the episode ending?” Viperion asked as Marinette and Adrien headed back to Adrien’s apartment.

“It looks like it,” Bunnyx frowned.

Marinette and Adrien entered the apartment, Marinette talking about a surprise - and food.

There was a sudden blip, and then-

Zwoosh!

Everybody involuntarily screamed, scattering as a body burst out of the burrow hole and slammed into the ground right where they’d been.

The person groaned.

“Chloe!” Cat Noir exclaimed, dropping to his knees beside her.

Chloe - Queen Bee - let out a shallow gasp, as if her lungs were unable to get any air. Her eyes fluttered open - but as soon as they landed upon Cat Noir, they widened, fear obvious in them as she lurched away from him. “N-no…!”

“It’s okay!” Viperion was in front of her in an instant, placing calming hands on her shoulders. “Just breathe, Queen Bee. You’re okay.” He paused. “I mean, I think you are? What happened?”

“Adrien,” Queen Bee gasped out, one of her desperate hands clawing at Viperion’s, her other one wrapping around herself.

“Wait, you saw him?” Bunnyx jumped in, not waiting for Queen Bee to pull herself together. “We didn’t even see you through the feed!”

“See…?” Queen Bee twisted, her other hand still clutching her stomach, only to freeze when she saw the screen. “There- there! Adrien!” Here voice rose to a shriek at the end, and everyone winced.

“What happened, Queenie?” Cat Noir asked, staying several paces back.

Queen Bee stood there, panting, for several moments. Slowly, her shoulders relaxed slightly, and she blinked, as if her mind was just returning to reality. “S… sorry,” Queen Bee muttered, stepping away from Viperion, wrapping both her arms around herself. “You sounded so much like Adrikins for a moment that I panicked. He just… I don’t know, ejected me or something.”

“What are you talking about?” Cat Noir said at the same time that Alya said, “He is Adrien.”

“He’s what?” Queen Bee stared. Then, she stormed over to Cat Noir. “Adrien Agreste, are you telling me you’ve been risking your life these past 3 weeks by yourself?”

“That’s what I said!” Nino exclaimed.

“Everybody, shut up!” Bunnyx yelled. The heroes fell silent, and Bunnyx roughly shoved hair out of her eyes, letting out a pent up breath. “Queen Bee, tell us what happened.”

Queen Bee shot another venomous glare at Cat Noir, as if promising their conversation would continue later. “It was… wrong. Yet right. It was Paris, but in black and white. And I was in a disgusting outfit with bees flying around.” She shuddered.

“Queen Bee, please,” Bunnyx said, desperate for information.

“Fine, okay!” Queen Bee shook her head, as if trying to clear it. She wrapped her arms around herself again. “I saw Adrien - well, Chat Blanc, I suppose.” She shot a glance at Cat Noir. “But… he had blue eyes.”

“Blue?” Bunnyx repeated, simultaneously confused and wondering how this was important.

Queen Bee shuddered. “It was horrible. They were ice. Marinette was there with him. I’d wandered around all day, trying to find her. But then… Adrikins clenched his hand, and…. then I was here.”

“A suit with bees?” Bunnyx repeated, her mind unable to let go of that piece of information. “Wait. Fu has turtles.” She blinked, the pieces clicking together. “This future doesn’t seem to want us to reach it. It has been fighting us since we first began trying to get in. Maybe it’s revealing who we really are!” She began to pace. “And Markov - it must’ve turned him into something to match the time period the show was set in at the time.”

“Show?” Queen Bee repeated weakly, sitting down.

As if on cue, the credits began to roll.

“Wait, was that in colour?” Viperion asked. “I wasn’t even watching.”

“Yes,” Ryuko confirmed simply.

Everyone sat down at once, as if all this was too much to process. Bunnyx stopped her pacing to stare at the screen, hard, as the third episode began.

It was in colour.

Cat Noir drew in a sharp breath at the sight of Adrien on screen - and Bunnyx had to resist doing the same thing herself. Chloe had been right; his eyes were piercing blue.

They silently watched it play out. Marinette was planning a surprise, going around doing errands for it. Adrien disappeared for a short time, heading outside before the screen switched back to Marinette. When it finally showed him again, he was heading back to the apartment.

After the excitement of the last episode, it seemed almost like… a let down. Overall, the whole episode appeared to be harmless enough. There was no new information; Fu was still there, still helping Marinette and gaining her trust. Kim also made an appearance, as did Bunnyx’s old teacher, Ms. Bustier, but nothing truly serious happened.

As the episode wound down, however, Adrien was left alone with Fu in the apartment.

There was a sudden blip on the TV, and-

Adrien was alone.

Bunnyx leapt forward, alarmed. “Fu’s gone!”

As if summoned by her words, a body rocketed out of the burrow, white light flashing brilliantly as they exploded from the burrow. Queen Bee screamed as it narrowly missed slamming into Bunnyx, shooting out past her and flying into their midst.

As soon as it had crashed down, however, they all instantly recognized who it was.

“Master Fu!” Alya exclaimed.

“Are you okay?” Nino’s jaw dropped.

“What happened?” Queen Bee demanded, already seeming to have recovered from her shock, struggling to push herself up.

“Where’s Ladybug?” Cat Noir asked, desperation clear in his tone.

Master Fu slowly opened his eyes, letting out a groan and closing them again.

“Fu,” Bunnyx knelt down beside him, relief at seeing him back and yet fear for the same reason colliding within her. “What happened?”

Slowly, Fu opened his eyes again.

“Fu?” Bunnyx hated to rush him, but her nerves were grating incessantly that the show was still running right now.

Master Fu’s gaze locked on her. With obvious effort, he whispered, “I…”

“Fu?” Bunnyx frowned, worried. There was a pale pallor to the old man that wasn’t normal.

Master Fu closed his eyes, as if pained. “Bunnyx… I don’t know if we can rescue her.”

-

Feet pounded on the stairs, someone obviously taking them two at a time.

Someone burst into the apartment behind Adrien. “Wang Fu!” Marrinette’s voice called. “Your turtles… I’m sorry but they’re…”

She stopped short. Adrien could hear the way her breath was coming in short gasps.

After several tense moments, she finally asked, “Adrien? Where… where’s Wang Fu?”

For a moment, Adrien tried to figure out how to answer that. At last, though, he settled on simply saying, “Oh, he left, Marinette. He had to rush home.”

He turned around-

And gasped.

“What?” Marinette asked, concerned. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Except… she wasn’t Marinette.

Not really.

Not anymore.

Her body was grey, as if she were a statue. Despite not wearing the earrings, she appeared to be in her superhero suit, staring at Adrien with dull, lifeless eyes.

Adrien turned his face away. “I…”

He could hear the way Marinette was taking a few hesitant steps forward. “You’ve always worked so hard for others; maybe we should take a trip out of the city or something.” She was beside him now, slipping her arm through his. “We’re superheroes, kitty. We can go wherever we want, once we put the suits on.”

She was suggesting using the miraculouses for their own gain - out of her own free will.

For him.

Adrien steadied himself with a breath, then looked at her.

Marinette was back to normal.

“No, we can’t,” he finally whispered. “This is our home. Paris is the reason that we donned these suits, so… in Paris we shall remain.”

Marinette’s brow crinkled in concern. “Are you sure?”

Adrien’s face relaxed into a smile at her. It was amazing having her back - but even better to feel her love. He’d missed her so much. “Don’t worry, buginette. I have everything under control.”

-

“Master Fu…” Bunnyx hesitated. “Are you all right?”

What she hoped he was about to say was that he wasn’t, he’d hit his head on the way out, and what he’d just said wasn’t true.

But she knew just from the way he looked at her that her hope was in vain.

Rallying himself once more, Fu locked eyes with her and gasped out, “It’s Adrien. It’s all Adrien.”

-

“I’m back!” Emilie announced.

Marinette twisted about, looking at her. “Oh, so soon?”

“I realized I didn’t need to go out after all,” Emilie replied cheerfully. She came around the couch to them, laying a quick kiss on Adrien’s forehead.

Adrien smiled at them both. “Well, what should we watch tonight?”

“Adrien!”

Adrien awoke with a jolt, his eyes coming open, their icy blue bright even in the darkness.

“Mother?”

“There’s something outside,” Emilie Agreste whispered, her voice tense with fear.

Adrien was swinging his legs out of bed before she had even finished. “Where?”

“Something was tapping against my window,” Emilie explained, holding a robe close against herself as she padded down the hallway back to her own room. “I was too scared to see what it was.”

“I can go outside and check if someone is there,” Adrien offered, one of his hands already fluttering down towards his wrist.

“But what if it’s a burglar? You could get hurt!”

Adrien gave a smile that held no joy and showed all his teeth, barred in a predatorial grin. “Oh, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

Emilie wavered, then relented, giving a single nod.

“Just don’t open your curtains,” Adrien added over his shoulder as he headed for the front door.

As soon as he was out of his mother’s sight, Adrien unbuttoned the cuff on his pyjama shirt, tugging out a bracelet from its hiding spot. Changing direction, he headed instead for their window, undoing the bracelet’s knot with expert fingers. He pulled the silver ring off the string, then tied the knot again, slipping the bracelet on his wrist once more and hiding it beneath the cuff.

Pausing before the window, he slipped his ring on.

Instantly, a small black being emerged. He drooped, and a small part of Adrien’s heart squeezed and twisted on itself, knowing that it was his fault that his friend was in such a state.

But as much as he loved Plagg, if that was the price his kwami had to pay for Adrien and Marinette to be together… he’d gladly pay it.

“Plagg, claws out,” Adrien whispered.

There was a flash of white light, and a moment later, Chat Blanc opened up the window and emerged silently, his claws easily finding chinks in the wall to sink into.

Swarming like a white spider, he made his way to the apartment’s corner, peeking around, his eyes narrowing.

There was nothing along the side of the house other than a tree. The topmost branches were too small for anyone of any real concern to be able to perch upon without breaking.

A small breeze stirred the air, and Chat Blanc leaned into the wall slightly, arching his claws deeper into the chinks in the wall to keep his grip.

Tap. Tap. Tap tap tap.

His eyes snapped into focus instantly, finding the culprit that had scared his mother.

One of the small tree branches, waving back and forth in the wind, was tapping the window pane.

Chat Blanc made his way along the wall quietly, reaching out and easily snapping off the end of the branch. He quickly went back the way he came, branch piece clutched in hand, complicating his journey back somewhat. But there was no more sound from behind him other than the wind.

_

“And then end with a backflip going into the splits.”

Adrien did as instructed, easily landing in the position.

“Nicely done, kitty,” Marinette smiled warmly at him. She gave a quick sprint towards him, did front flip over his head, and he could hear the thump of her landing in a pose behind him. “How’s that?”

“Purrfect, my lady.”

Marinette snorted. “Okay, I think your miraculous is going to your head.”

“Plagg, claws off.”

There was a flash of white, and Adrien detransformed. Once again, Plagg was droopy - and silent.

“They seem a little tired,” Marinette noted as her own pink kwami appeared in the air before pulling her earrings out. “Are you sure we should be using these for our routine?”

“It’s fine,” Adrien waved her concerns away, getting up off the floor. “Everyone will just think we’re wearing costumes of their favourite superheroes: Ladybug and Chat Blanc!”

“But… we aren’t really supposed to be using them for personal gain,” Marinette pointed out, rolling her earrings between her fingers.

“It’s not for personal gain,” Adrien pointed out, accepting the earrings. “We’re doing it for the children, remember.”

Marinette flashed a quick smile. “Right. For the children.”

“Think how happy Manon will be!”

Marinette let out a breath, sending her bangs fluttering away from her forehead. “All right. Fine. But take good care of those, okay?” She tapped Adrien’s hand holding the earrings with one of her fingers.

“When have I ever not?” Adrien smiled easily in return. “Remember, you always entrust them to me.”

Marinette paused a moment, her brow wrinkling.

Adrien’s heart skipped a beat. Had giving Marinette her own mind back been a bad idea? He hadn’t given her back her memories, though, so shouldn’t it be fine?

“Right,” Marinette finally said. “That’s what I always do.” Her face melted back into one of her easy smiles as she turned and headed for the door. “I need to get going to the planning committee with your mother. You’d better get going as well.”

Adrien gave a two-finger salute. “Right-o. I’ll see you at the show!”

Marinette snapped her fingers. “That’s what felt wrong!” She hurried back over to him, tapping his hand again. “You need to let me keep the earrings.”

Adrien’s heart did stop. “What?”

“I won’t be able to wait for you at the show and then just transform in front of everybody! I need to be able to transform in an alley first and then come to join you. It only makes sense.”

Adrien relaxed. Just his lady with her plans. “Right.” He slipped the earrings into her waiting palm. “Be careful with them.”

“Of course,” Marinette flashed one last smile before heading out her front door.

A dopey grin stretched across Adrien’s face. Even in black and white, Marinette’s smile was a glorious thing to behold.

_

“I’m ready!” Marinette announced, joining Emilie Agreste in front of the house.

Emilie smiled at her. “Your first committee meeting! How exciting!”

Marinette linked arms with the woman as they began strolling down the sidewalk together. “Anything I should know?”

“Oh, so much!”

That was… a little worrisome. Marinette glanced up with an uncertain smile at Emilie, trying to see if she was joking - then noticed the bags under her eyes. “Mrs. Agreste, pardon me for asking, but are you getting enough sleep?”

“Remember, dear, you’re supposed to call me Emilie.”

“Emilie,” Marinette repeated. “Right. Sorry.”

“No problem, dear,” Emilie waved it off before considering Marinette’s question. “I’m sleeping all right; it’s just that last night…”

Emilie’s voice trailed off, piquing Marinette’s interest. “What happened last night?”

“There was something tapping on my window. It woke me up. Adrien took care of it, though. He told me it was a tree branch.” Emilie suddenly frowned. “Though, come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure how he got it down. It wasn’t exactly near the ground if it was tapping on my window.”

Marinette had no problem figuring out how Adrien had done it - but their superhero identities were supposed to be a secret, so she steered the conversation back to safer waters. “You have a very good son; but you were saying about all the things I needed to know about the committee?”

“Oh, of course!” Emilie flashed a smile, her mood bouncing back easily. “All the girls on the planning committee are just dears - but there’s one person whose scrutiny it’ll be a little difficult to get past.”

“Who’s that?” Marinette asked - though, seeing as she was Ladybug, she felt pretty confident she could handle whatever these girls threw at her.

“Her name is Lila Rossi,” Emilie explained. “Everyone else looks up to her and wants to be friends with her; she’s essentially the key to everything in Paris. She knows many prestigious people, so she can get you practically anything you want or a meeting with anyone you want.”

“Sounds like someone I’ll want to become close with.” She also sounded like a fat liar to Marinette. “I’m sure I can pass any test she tries to give me.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can as well,” Emilie assured her. “It’s just that… Lila had her eye on my son for quite some time. She’s likely to be… a little grumpy with you at first.”

She’d had her eye on my son for a long time.

“Grumpy Rossi,” Marinette nodded. “Got it.”

As Emilie went on about a list of other things Marinette needed to know - mostly saying to always pay attention to details, as Lila liked things to be perfect - Marinette slowly found her head feeling more and more cluttered with all the information. There was so much for her to remember!

A small part of her, however, couldn’t help but wonder why she hadn’t joined the committee before this. She’d lived in this part of Paris all her life. Why wouldn’t she have done something like this?

In fact… why didn’t she even remember having ever so much as heard of this planning committee until now?

Marinette had been forgetting things a lot recently - like today, she’d forgotten to bring a hiding spot for Tikki. She never brought her kwami with her anywhere, seeing as Adrien held onto the earrings, so it felt stupid that she hadn’t thought to bring a purse or anything with her. Her poor pink kwami was currently squirming beneath the collar of her shirt.

But to forget an entire committee of people?

Marinette screwed up her face in concentration, trying to remember the last time she’d heard of the committee, but just as the wheels in her brain started turning, Emilie’s voice jolted her back to reality. “There she is now!” She waved cheerily. “Lila!”

Marinette paused on the sidewalk beside Emilie, peeking out behind the woman and spotting a girl with dark brown hair eyeing them. “Emilie.”

“Is that a new dress?” Emilie asked breezily, somehow managing to ignore the tension in the air and the lazer beam eyes of death that Lila was shooting at Marinette.

“Yes, it is. Why don’t you join us? The committee is about to begin.” Lila gave a sugary-sweet smile to Emilie, shot one last look at Marinette that promised murder in her near future, then turned and flounced off.

Marinette grunted. “A little grumpy?”

_

Adrien headed out not long after Marinette. He’d taken a minute to pull himself together: keeping straight what everyone else knew versus what he knew to be true was sometimes difficult. His mind had to race to keep up with the web he’d spun - and, of course, there was Marinette.

She was reason he’d done everything he had. She was worth that. But as such an integral piece of this puzzle, so closely connected with him, they’d become even closer due to what he had done. Quite literally. He could constantly feel her presence in the beating of his soul.

Now, however, without the earrings, it had dimmed. Slightly, but enough to put him slightly on edge.

He slipped his ring on - just in case - quickly helping a droopy Plagg into his jacket. He needed to hurry if he was to be on time to his meeting.

But as he went out the gate, something flashed in the corner of his eye.

Something… blue.

Adrien stopped in his tracks.

The blue stayed.

He turned toward it.

Staring where he’d seen it, he saw almost nothing of it at this angle. He was looking straight at the bushes.

But then, as he slowly moved closer, and, he began to make out something beneath the foliage. Something blue.

Adrien’s breath caught.

What was that?

He reached in, ignoring the way the branches scratched at him. He was a cat. He was used to scratching.

Adrien’s hand closed around it, scooping the… thing up.

Holding it between his thumb and forefinger, he scrutinized the object. It was an odd ball of sorts, a bright blue oval decorating the front of it and a cone attached to the bottom sticking out from it.

How did this get here?

It couldn’t have come from here.

Everything was black and white.

Even beautiful Marinette.

“You don’t belong here,” Adrien whispered to the ball, eyes hardening, his whole hand closing down on the cone part of it.

He turned on his heel, marching back to the house. As soon as he was behind the closed door, he whispered, “Plagg, claws out!”

White flashed.

“Mega cataclysm!”

_

“I’m Wang Fu,” the old man smiled warmly at her. “I actually don’t know what I’m doing here.”

Marinette gave a wry chuckle. “I’m starting to feel that way myself.” She held out her hand. “I’m Marinette. And may I say, your turtles are peachy keen!”

“A little less chatter and a little more focus,” Lila said, her gaze as cutting as voice as she stared at them for a moment before returning to talking about chairs and the elementary school. Or something like that. Marinette could already tell she hated the girl, and she was just doing her best to tune her out.

“Thank you,” Wang Fu said, a little more softly this time. “I can’t stand to leave them anywhere.”

Despite the meeting being full of just females, Wang Fu, an old man, seemed cool as a cucumber. But his presence wasn’t even the strangest thing about him; instead, it was the fact that he had a tank on wheels with him, filled with turtles.

Marinette leaned over the tank, peering for a closer look, Lila’s voice droning on about how someone named Rose really should have remembered the seats. Emilie had definitely been right about Lila liking everything being perfect.

No wonder Lila had liked Adrien, Marinette reflected as she leaned a little closer to the aquarium, peering in at the turtles.

And, with no warning, the little pink being of creation tumbled out from beneath the collar of her shirt, falling with a soft plop! into the aquarium.

Marinette and Fu stared at her.

A moment later, Marinette plunged her hand into the tank, swiping up her kwami and rescuing her from the water.

“Marinette!”

Marinette jerked her head up, only to find the whole committee staring at her.

“Please leave the old man’s turtles alone,” Lila told her, the expression on her face clearly saying how she didn’t know how Adrien had chosen her to be his girlfriend.

Marinette flushed, tucking her hands between her legs. She was the only one there wearing pants, but now, she used that to her advantage. There was no way tucking her hands between her legs like that would have helped make her look more normal if she’d worn a dress, after having apparently just tried to snatch an old man’s turtles. Everyone here probably thought she was crazy. But now, she attempted to warm up her kwami that way, keeping her hands closed tightly shut.

Although, what she really wanted to do was transform into Ladybug and punch Lila in the face.

But Adrien would tell her to take the high road, so she refrained.

_

“Mylene likes the songs I’ve been writing,” Ivan said, tapping his pencil against the table, a blank sheet of paper out in front of him. “I keep coming up with new ideas - but, of course, with a muse like her, it’s easy.”

Adrien grinned at his friend. “That’s great, Ivan. You’ll have to share some with us sometime.”

“I could help you with some melodies to go along with it, if you want,” Luka offered, leaning forward and pushing a radio further into the middle of the table so he could rest his elbows on it.

The guys had met up, and though all the girls probably thought they were doing something productive, they were just enjoying each other’s company.

Adrien most of all.

He had missed his friends.

But, as time went on, something began to feel… off. Adrien frowned, his mind drifting away from the conversation as he tried to figure it out.

Was it Marinette?

Partially. But he felt somewhere deep within his soul that, if she were in any real danger, he’d know instantly. This was more of a… deep worry.

“Adrien?”

Adrien jerked his head up, blinking.

The whole table was staring at him.

“What do you think of Ivan’s lyrics?” Nino said, obviously repeating a question.

“I…” Adrien’s mouth opened and closed like a fish, his mind trying to focus.

What lyrics? Had Ivan just read them to him?

And why was the radio getting louder?

“Sorry, Ivan, could you repeat them?” Adrien asked, glancing at Luka. Was he turning up the radio?

Ivan began reading the lyrics again. “Mylene, my oxygen…”

Yes, the radio was definitely getting louder. But, more than that, the static of it was.

“…you, most beautiful of college girls…”

The radio crackled. And then, a vague voice filtered through.

“Adrien.”

“…stronger than oak for others…”

Adrien stared at the radio, the sound of the words pounding seemingly louder and louder in his mind.

It couldn’t be.

Wait.

Someone was trying to get in.

“Adrien, can you read me, over?”

Bang!

“I knew it was bad!” Ivan cried out, his face flushed, fist shaking as his grip tightened on his pencil. “You can’t even find anything to say about it!”

“It’s not that,” Adrien quickly said, even as the radio became louder and louder, drowning out even his own words in his mind. “I’m just speechless from how beautiful it is!”

“Adrien?”

Snap!

R E D.

Instantly, the radio was back to normal.

But Adrien found himself staring in shock at Ivan’s hand.

Ivan had snapped his pencil, and it had slashed a cut into his hand.

From which poured blood.

Red blood.

Adrien’s breath sped up, his heart pounding in his chest.

Colour.

Again.

_

For the rest of the meeting, Marinette stewed, sweat slowly dripping down the back of her neck. She couldn’t bring herself to so much as look at the man beside her. There was no way he could know what the creature even had been, or that it meant she was Ladybug, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to ask her what it had been.

“Achoo!”

“Bless you,” Marinette said automatically before realizing it had come from her hands.

She cracked her fingers open, too concerned with Tikki to even notice the odd looks she was getting now from the rest of the members.

Between her palms, Tikki was shivering. Her eyes drooped halfway closed. Marinette had noticed how tired Tikki looked recently, but this looked a little less tired and a little more sick. She looked nothing like her normal, healthy sel…

Wait.

What did Tikki look like as her normal, healthy self?

Marinette stared at her hands, now not even pretending to be listening to Lila as her heart galloped faster and faster in her chest.

Why couldn’t she remember?

_

Thinking fast, Adrien grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket, reaching over and tying it around Ivan’s hand, hiding the colour. “There, all good.”

But it definitely wasn’t. Everyone at the table was staring at Ivan’s hand, different levels of shock playing out across their faces.

Across the table, Luka leaned back in his chair, eyeing Adrien. “What was that about?”

“Nothing.” A blatant lie.

Luka’s eyes narrowed. “Your melody is discordant. Are you sure about that?”

“Positive,” Adrien said, starting to eye the door while keeping an eye on Ivan. “Ivan, why don’t we go and get your hand checked out before the show, yeah?”

“We’ve heard things about you.”

Adrien froze, then slowly turned back to Luka. “Oh?”

Luka leaned forward. The entire table was silent. He was playing them all better than his guitar. “You and your girlfriend.”

Adrien forced himself to try and calm down. He was in charge here. “Well, I don’t know what you’ve been told, but I assure you I don’t mean anyone any harm.”

Luka’s eyes slowly narrowed at him before he simply said, “I don’t believe you.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Adrien could see red starting to seep through the handkerchief on Ivan’s hand.

“I need to go,” Adrien said abruptly, turning to go, dragging Ivan with him.

Behind him, the radio went static-ey again, and he stopped.

No.

He wouldn’t let anyone get through.

He turned back towards the table, his gaze instantly landing the radio. Adrien let go of Ivan, his hand clamping, clutching the ring close to his hand. He didn’t have both of the miraculouses, but he didn’t need full power. Only half of the source of all of this.

The radio let out a sudden pop, and smoke began to pour out of it.

Everyone jumped at the table.

“Who are you?” Luka asked, eyes widening.

The radio flickered, glitching in and out of focus.

And then, all at once, it stopped.

Quiet music played once again from it.

Everyone at the table relaxed.

“I was thinking that we could change our act,” Nino said, as if nothing had happened. “The detectives really should kiss.”

“In the view of the public eye?” Max asked, scandalized.

Adrien took his cue and went out the door, dragging Ivan behind him.

_

Marinette paced up and down the small space behind the stage, waiting, waiting for Adrien to arrive. She chewed on a fingernail, nerves rocketing through her system, Tikki still clutched in one hand.

The little kwami of creation was shivering.

One job. She’d had one job. To be careful with the earrings.

And she’d dropped the little being of creation into an aquarium with turtles of all things.

“Sorry I’m late!” Chat Blanc dropped down in front of Marinette so suddenly that she almost screamed. “Ivan cut his hand, and I - wait, why aren’t you… you know…“ He gestured at Marinette. “In ‘costume’?”

“Adrien!” Marinette whisper-hissed at him, relief and anxiety colliding within her. “Thank goodness you’re here! It’s Tikki!” She shoved her hands out to him. “You take care of the miraculouses! What should I do?”

“What happened?” Chat Blanc asked, gaping at the kwami.

“She dropped into an aquarium!”

“Into a-?!” Chat Blanc stopped short, shaking his head. “Now’s not the time. Plagg, claws in.” There was a flash of white, and a moment later, Adrien stood before her.

“What are you doing?” Marinette asked, worry tinging her voice as she glanced toward the stage. “We’re going to be called on any minute now!”

“We’ll have to do this the way we were going to be pretending to be,” Adrien shrugged. “In costume, acting like the superheroes of Paris.”

“But… we’re not even dressed like them!”

Adrien was already buttoning up his white jacket, glancing about. “You’re the designer here.”

Marinette cast about wildly for something, anything to use. She looked nothing like Ladybug.

Then again, what did Ladybug even look like?

Black and white, right?

So she could pass off as her no matter what. It would be better to have a skintight suit, but her clothes would do. The mask, on the other hand, was another matter…

Her eyes landed on a spare curtain for the stage, tossed to the side in the bustle of getting ready for the show, and she instantly snatched it up. “Help me rip this up!”

“What?” Adrien stopped his buttoning to stare at her.

“We’ll just rip off two strips, tear some eyeholes into them, and tie them around our heads! Voila! Masks!”

Adrien picked up the sheet, ripping off two strips as instructed. “Do you think anyone will be suspicious? Seeing as we were supposed to have more time to put our act together and all.”

“Nah, not at all. As long as we wear masks, everyone will think we look exactly like Ladybug and Chat Blanc.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Didn’t everyone think that when we dressed up as each other for…” Marinette’s voice trailed off, her brow wrinkling. “I… I mean…”

Adrien glanced up from tearing out eyeholes. “You okay, princess?”

“No,” Marinette shook her head, confused. “I… I mean… I could have sworn that we dressed up as each other. Once. For someone else. All we wore were the masks, and everyone thought we looked just like the superheroes for some reason.” Her brain hurt, as if it almost were fighting against her, trying to stop her from remembering. It was so, so close to finally remembering something…

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Adrien assured her, handing her the makeshift mask.

“Clara!” Marinette suddenly burst out, the name hitting her like lightning. “Her name was Clara Nightingale!”

Adrien froze. “What did you say?”

“Her name was Clara Nightingale,” Marinette repeated, more sure this time. “I don’t know why we were dressed up for her, but that was definitely her name.” She slipped the mask about her head, tying it in a knot above her pigtails. “My normal mask feels a lot better,” she grunted, the subject of Clara Nightingale already leaving her mind. It was unimportant, after all.

…wasn’t it?

But her mind really didn’t want to focus on it. It wanted to move on to other, more important things. Like the show.

“Let’s just do the act the way we practiced,” Marinette decided. “We don’t have time to prepare another. And, it’s still us, right? We should be able to do it.”

Adrien let out a slow breath, his nerves seeming to be rattled. “If you think we can, then I’ll follow you, milady.” He tied his own mask about his head. “Done.”

Marinette smiled, planting a quick kiss on his cheek. “Break a leg, Adrien.”

He flashed her one of his adorable smiles, his face flushing. “You too.”

“Marinette! Adrien!” Alya whispered, peeking her head out between the curtains. “We just called your name! You’re on!”

“Come on!” Marinette said, grabbing Adrien by the hand and racing for the stage.

_

Marinette was wonderful.

She was right that everyone seemed to think they looked just like themselves as superheroes - which was a little odd, once she’d pointed it out. But perhaps the black and white helped fool them.

They executed their routine, which was a mix of different recognizable moves from different akuma attacks. The audience was eating it up, buying the entire act.

On the inside, Adrien felt… normal again. Everything was right again. The strange coloured ball had been taken care of, and so had the blood on Ivan’s hand. He and Marinette were doing their act, and it was everyone’s favourite to an unbelievable amount, as if they were the protagonists in an old movie.

Adrien pulled off the ending of the routine as Marinette had instructed him earlier, doing a backflip going into the splits. Marinette ran at him, front flipped over his head, and Adrien turned his head just to watch her strike a pose at the end.

He almost liked seeing her do it as Marinette better than as Ladybug.

The day he’d discovered her identity had been… horrible. She’d been forced to break up with him by his father.

Not that Marinette remembered that.

To her, she remembered a scene that had never really happened: the way they had dated, then eventually revealed to one another their secret identities, unable to hide such a secret from the the one they loved any longer - except they’d chosen the same night, as they were so in sync.

They’d never spoken about that night again after it. Adrien hadn’t brought it up; he’d never even lived it.

And to Marinette, it just was.

But Adrien knew the truth.

And now, as applause greeted the end of their act, and Alya awarded them the inaugural Superhero Performance of the Year, and everyone cheered how this was for the children…

Adrien felt that he could live with this lie.

_

“That went great!” Marinette enthused as soon as they were backstage again, all alone. Tikki was once again clutched in her hands, but with the show now behind them, she felt ready to tackle the problem of trying to heal her kwami. “I think everyone loved it!”

“Indeed,” a familiar voice agreed behind her.

Marinette froze. Slowly, she turned around, forcing a smile. “Wang Fu! I didn’t realize you’d be here… or backstage”

The old man smiled. “My apologies for the surprise. I was at the committee meeting for the show, and wanted to congratulate you on your performance. You remember me, do you not?”

“Oh, of course!” Marinette said, slapping her forehead - mostly just hoping that her dramatics would be enough to distract him from remembering Tikki falling into his aquarium earlier. She turned to Adrien. “Adrien, this is Wang Fu; we met earlier today.”

Adrien stared at the old man, an odd expression playing across his face as he shook hands with him. “Adrien Agreste. Pleased to meet you, sir.” He glanced at the aquarium. “You bring turtles around with you?”

“Yes,” he smiled easily, then turned his gaze back to Marinette. “I was wondering if you needed help with your cat.”

“My… cat?” Marinette blinked.

“The small one you brought with you today,” he nodded. “I thought it would need some help after it fell into my turtle aquarium.”

Marinette brightened. “You can heal her?”

“Yes,” he nodded.

Marinette glanced at Adrien, excitement flooding her system. Wang Fu was so old, he must’ve not been able to realize what Tikki really was! If he could help, then all her problems were solved.

“So you know about cats and turtles?” Adrien asked, seeming amused. Yet there was something about the way he was showing his teeth in his smile that seemed almost… predatory.

“Yes,” Wang Fu said, totally at ease.

Marinette decided to trust him, opening her hands to reveal Tikki. “Here she is.”

“Place her down in front of me,” Wang Fu instructed.

They sat down on the grass behind the stage together, Marinette gently setting Tikki on the ground.

“What kind of cat is she?” Fu paused to check.

“Um…” Marinette thought fast. Wang Fu was sweet, but obviously easily confused; as long as she was vague enough, he likely wouldn’t ask anything else. And if there was one thing Marinette was good at, it was being vague and confusing. “Right! Rare hairless flying species from kingdom of Achu! I was allowed to have one because I won a zoo tap dancing contest when I was in the kingdom of Achu.”

“Hmmm,” Fu hummed. “Unusual.”

“Yes,” Marinette agreed, nodding vigorously. “Very.”

Digging into his bag, Fu produced a gong, holding it over Tikki. He gave a final encouraging smile to Marinette before saying, “This may take some time.”

_

At last, Wang Fu nodded, putting away the gong. “We are finished; your cat’s health has been restored.”

Adrien looked up. He had been suspicious upon seeing the man, seeing as he looked like Master Fu - a person he hadn’t recreated in Paris.

But, strange turtles aside, he seemed harmless enough. And he was healing Tikki…

“Thank you so much!” Marinette exclaimed, scooping Tikki up. “You’re a real magician, sir!”

Adrien nodded courteously to him, and then took Marinette by the hand, heart warming at the touch. It felt good to be able to hold Marinette’s hand again; he’d missed that for so long… “Let’s go home.”

Marinette chattered the entire way back as the sky slowly darkened: one of her long, rambling kind of talks. Adrien didn’t mind; he adored her for them. She jumped from subject to subject, telling him about Lila, reliving the talent show, and explaining in more detail how she’d met Wang Fu.

What had Fu been doing at that meeting - especially when he wasn’t supposed to even exist?

As they approached the house, Adrien was reminded of the ball from earlier. For a moment, he considered whether he should tell Marinette about it or not.

But she was so happy…

And it wasn’t as if she knew anything.

But a small part of him was still disturbed, recalling the moment Marinette had remembered Clara Nightingale.

“I have a surprise for you,” Marinette announced as they entered the house.

“A surprise?” Adrien cocked an eyebrow. “Does it happen to be food? This cat is starving!”

Marinette giggled. “No! You definitely may not eat it.”

“Before you show me,” Adrien said, taking her hands in his, “could you give me back the earrings? We never ended up using them for the show, so I should probably take them back.”

“Oh! Of course,” Marinette said breezily, smiling up at him. She took the earrings out, handing them over to Adrien. He instantly clutched them in his fist that he had his ring on, the feeling of power flooding over him.

He was back in total control.

Thump.

Marinette stopped. “Did you hear that?”

Adrien turned toward the door. “I swear, if it’s the tree again, I am going to rip it out by the roots!”

“It’s fine,” Marinette assured him, but hurried over to the window nonetheless, peering out. “I can’t see anything. It’s dark out.”

“Let’s go outside,” Adrien said decisively. Not waiting for an answer, he strode to the door, throwing it open and heading outside.

“Be careful,” Marinette warned, only a step behind him.

Adrien peered about the front yard. It was dark, and he wished he’d thought to transform into Chat Blanc again before coming out. He would’ve had night vision if he had.

Buzz.

“What’s that?” Marinette suddenly gasped behind him as they reached the sidewalk. He felt her hand press against his shoulder, and a moment later she was right beside him, pointing down the road, eyes wide.

Adrien followed her finger…

And froze.

Coming down the road was only what could be described as a bee keeper. They didn’t seem to have any particular destination, just wandering about, head turning left and right as if they were looking for something.

But then, the bee keeper stopped.

Adrien couldn’t see their face, as it was covered.

But he could practically feel the way they were looking straight. at. him.

“No,” he whispered. The word was quiet, but had the weight of power to it.

He clutched the miraculouses in his hand, the ring on his finger clinking against the earrings-

Marinette giggled. “No! You definitely may not eat it.”

Adrien blinked. He was right back in the house with her.

Slowly, he smiled. “All right. What is it?”

“I don’t have it yet, silly,” Marinette scolded. “I wanted to put you in suspense for it! Expect it soon, though!”

She smiled lovingly at him, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

…her blue eyes.

Adrien blinked, taking a step closer.

They were blue.

Slowly, as he watched, colour seeped into Marinette’s skin, spreading out across her body and around the room.

“Adrien…” Marinette whispered, her big, blue eyes fluttering in surprise. “Is this really happening?”

“Yes, my love,” Adrien murmured, staring into her eyes. How he’d missed the colour in them… “It’s really happening.”

He took her hands into his, love and satisfaction mingling inside of him. Everything was as it should be.

But…

There was one thing that still bothered him.

Despite being able to feel Marinette’s discomfort, he seemed totally unable to know when someone was trying to get into the paradise he had created until he saw them himself.

Who else was hiding right beneath his nose?

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Adrien asked, tugging on Marinette’s hands and leading her to the kitchen.

“You just want the popcorn,” Marinette teased, grinning at him.

“Can you blame me?” Adrien grinned back, pulling her close for a kiss.

Fade to black.

“Marinette? Who’s doing this to you, Marinette?”

“Marinette?”

“Hmmm… definitely…”

Adrien glanced up from where he sat on the couch. Marinette had wandered into the living room, her sketchbook in hand. She had a pencil in one hand, another tucked in her hair, forgotten, and her nose in her sketchbook.

Adrien couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her - not just because she looked better than ever, now that she was in colour, but also because of how Marinette it was of her to walk in like that.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, setting aside the book he had been reading to give his girlfriend his full and undivided attention.

Marinette looked up. “Oh! I didn’t realize you were in here.” She snapped her sketchbook shut with a final-sounding snap!

“What are you up to?” Adrien grinned. “Let me guess: Chat Blanc and Ladybug doll designs?”

“First off,” Marinette said, plopping down beside him on the couch, “I’ve already made those. Secondly…” She shrugged. “I left my sketchbook here accidentally. I needed to grab it.”

“So… what’s inside it, then?” Adrien asked. He leaned forward, reaching for the sketchbook in a motion that was half-joking, and half-curious for real.

Marinette yanked the sketchbook away from him, holding it up into the air and out of his reach. “Nothing! Just some plans, is all.” Only when Adrien lowered his arm did she set the sketchbook down on the couch again. “What are you reading?”

Adrien gave her a quizzical look. “Since when do you not want to show me what’s in your sketchbook?”

Marinette chuckled. “Since it had to do with your surprise, silly kitty!”

Marinette had been mentioning his surprise a lot. She was planning something… something that she thought he’d really like. Either that, or it was ginormous, and seeing as Marinette was planning it, both were equally plausible guesses.

But it was starting to worry Adrien slightly how she was being so… mysterious about it. Not to mention, as superheroes, they were skilled in the art of hiding things from their loved ones.

“Why can’t you share anything about this with me?” he asked, scooting slightly closer to her on the couch - and to the sketchbook that likely held all the answers he wanted. Not that he would actually take it; he loved Marinette too much to do something like that.

“Because it’s a surprise,” Marinette said, smiling even as exasperation filled her voice. “If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore!”

Adrien rolled his eyes, smiling. “Really? I didn’t realize.”

Marinette swatted at him good-naturedly. “Adrie-e-e-en…”

He laughed. “Okay! I’ll try and stop asking about it until you’re ready, then.”

“It’ll be soon,” Marinette promised. “I just have some things I need to finish getting ready first. And, speaking of which…” She stood up from the couch. “I have something I need to go do for it.”

“Right now?” Adrien asked.

“Right now,” Marinette nodded. “That’s why I came for the sketchbook now. But I’ll see you later!” She smiled brightly at him - gosh, she looked nice in colour - and headed for the door, sketchbook tucked under her arm.

_

Marinette headed outside, proud of herself for having remembered to bring a purse. Not that she needed it for Tikki to hide in this time, of course, seeing as Adrien was watching over the miraculouses - but she did need it for other reasons.

“Hey, Kim!” she called cheerfully to one of the neighbours. Kim lived in the apartment building next to Adrien and Emilie’s, but spent so much time outside, he may as well have not been living in it at all.

“Hey!” Kim called in reply from the other side of the low wall before kicking a soccer ball at a goal he’d set up - missing it completely and sending it flying over the wall instead.

Marinette chuckled, stopping the ball with her foot. “Think you might have sent that a little too far there, old chum.”

“So I have,” Kim admitted, chuckling as she picked up the ball and passed it back over the wall. “Thanks, Marinette.”

“Yeah,” Marinette smiled in return. “Don’t mention it.” She headed past the bushes and out the gate, making her way down the road, heart beating a staccato rhythm of excitement in her chest.

Adrien’s surprise was almost ready. She just had a few final things to do today, and then she would finally be able to show it to him.

Marinette paused on a street corner, waiting to cross. She was pretty young to be walking around by herself, but she’d learned how to navigate Paris years ago on her own - and it had only gotten easier after she’d become Ladybug.

Of course, if she’d had the earrings now, she could have made quicker progress. But she and Adrien weren’t supposed to use their miraculouses for personal gain.

Marinette frowned, pausing at another road as she waited for some cars to pass. There was something… something sort of tickling the back of her mind. More of a feeling than anything, but… one that made her feel like she had recently suggested using their miraculouses for person gain.

But why would she have done that? What would that have even been for?

Marinette crossed the street, hurrying down the sidewalk and casting a quick glance behind her. She loved Adrien, but he could be really curious sometimes - which wasn’t the best trait when she was trying to surprise him. However, no one - white cat hero or otherwise - was following her, so she turned her mind back to the problem at hand.

When had she ever suggested using the earrings for personal gain?

Marinette shifted her grip on her purse. She hadn’t had a purse for Tikki to hide in last time-

An image of Tikki falling into an aquarium flashed through her mind.

But… in black and white.

Marinette stopped where she was, looking down at her hands and blinking in surprise. They were peach, and her charm bracelet - a birthday gift from Adrien - was blue and yellow. Her clothes were coloured. In fact, everything around her was.

So… why was this memory in black and white?

Marinette started walking again, struggled to remember. Her brain felt like it was fighting against her; it would be so much easier, after all, to just stop thinking about it instead…

They had been doing a show. Right. And they’d won an award - the inaugural Superhero Performance of the Year, or something like that.

They had been planning on using their miraculouses for the show.

And, even more bizarrely, everything had been in black and white.

Maybe my memory is just fuzzy? Marinette thought uncertainly, though, deep down, she didn’t believe that even for a second.

But even if they had been planning on doing the show in their superhero forms, it wasn’t as if she herself had suggested doing that. And it wasn’t totally for personal gain, seeing as it was for the children.

So why did she feel like she had once-

Wait. There had been another time.

When she and Adrien were cooking dinner.

She’d suggested it.

But the whole scene was fuzzy in her mind. She could barely remember anything, other than a vague feeling of being out of control.

“What…?” Marinette breathed, her mind aching with the act of trying to remember.

“Hello, Marinette!”

Marinette looked up. She had been so deep in thought, she hadn’t noticed that she’d reached her destination already: the vet.

“Hello, Ms. Bustier,” Marinette greeted, forcing a smile. The thoughts easily faded into the shadows of her mind, slipping away as quickly as they had come. “I’ve come to ask you a few questions, if that’s all right.”

“Of course,” Ms. Bustier said, smiling from the doorway of the vet. “Come right on in.”

_

Adrien stalked about the apartment. Maybe it was just the cat miraculous rubbing off on him, but he couldn’t stay still, wandering about the apartment and swatting at things at random. His mind was busy, the image of Marinette at the forefront.

Marinette, in colour, giving him a mischievous smile as she talked about a surprise.

Marinette, in black and white, telling him about Clara Nightingale.

Marinette, her hair curled, smiling unnaturally as they made dinner.

Adrien forced himself to stop walking, shoving his hands into his pockets and staring out the window, as if he were some moody character from a movie set in the 1970s. 

He loved Marinette. He’d gotten her back, and had no plans of letting her go anywhere without him. But it was his love for her that had made him give her control again, cutting her mental strings that he’d held like control over like Puppeteer.

What if that had been a bad idea?

What if she was remembering things now? Things that had happened?

Things… that no longer existed?

Clara Nightingale.

Adrien remembered that day with Clara. He and Marinette had almost put on masks in front of one another, which surely would have outed their identities then and there as Ladybug and the cat superhero.

That was in another place in another time, Adrien tried to dismiss the thought, and with another cat superhero. I’m not who I was then, and neither is this world. Of course Marinette thinks she’s remembering things. I cut her strings, so her mind is just adjusting, settling into reality; that’s all.

“Adrien?”

Adrien turned in surprise, only to find his mother behind him. “Mother? What are you doing home right now?”

Emilie smiled at him. “I could say the same thing to you. Why don’t you go outside for now? I think I saw Kim out front with a soccer ball.”

Adrien paused. He wanted to be here when Marinette got back, but his mother was right. He was acting like a caged tiger right now. He needed to get out, to move.

But not with Kim.

“Okay,” he relented. “I’ll go.” He headed for the door, then paused, glancing back at his mother.

It was good to have the two most important women in his life back.

“I love you,” he said, then slipped out the door.

He would never let them forget that he did, and would never let anything happen to them. Not again.

Never.

_

“So that’s all I need to know?” Marinette double-checked.

“Yes,” Ms. Bustier nodded. She slid a piece of paper across the counter to Marinette. “These are all the recommendations I’ve made. Try buying them; they’ll work great.”

“Thank you so much!” Marinette smiled, accepting the paper, her eyes skimming over all the items.

“Where are you going to pick… you know, them up from?” Ms. Bustier asked, curiosity tinging her tone.

“I’m going to ask a friend of mine to help,” Marinette replied distractedly. “You said the food for them was available here, right?”

“No, that’s in the store across the street,” Ms. Bustier shook her head. “It was smart of you to come here first to ask me about this. You’ll do a great job with them; I know it.”

“Thank you,” Marinette smiled, blushing slightly at the praise. “It’s a surprise for Adrien.”

Ms. Bustier seemed to pause. “Adrien… Agreste?”

“Yes,” Marinette nodded, popping open her purse. “Do you need me to pay you?”

“Oh, this is just a consultation between friends,” Ms. Bustier quickly shook her head. “No need to pay.”

“That’s so generous of you,” Marinette said gratefully, closing the purse again. “Is that all, then?”

Ms. Bustier nodded, but seemed a little distracted even as she smiled. “Thank you for dropping by. Remember us if you ever need to take them in for check ups.”

“I will,” Marinette promised, standing even as confusion tickled the back of her mind. This was unlike Ms. Bustier. Marinette had known her for years; the woman had always come to her parent’s bakery on the weekend for a cupcake that was as sweet as she was. She was always so kind to children, to the point that Marinette had wished that Ms. Bustier had become a teacher instead of a veterinarian, but…

Marinette paused in the doorway of the vet, scanning the street before locking in on the pet store across the road. She’d pop in there to buy a few things that Ms. Bustier had recommended.

What had she been thinking about again?

Marinette stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, glancing up and down the street for any oncoming traffic before crossing.

Meh. It probably wasn’t all that important if she’d forgotten it so easily.

_

Adrien pressed his back to the wall of a building in an alleyway he’d slipped into.

Kim had, predictably, attempted to rope him into a game of soccer, but Adrien had managed to wriggle his way out of it.

Now, he unbuttoned the cuff on his shirt sleeve, pulling out the charm bracelet Marinette had given him. The bracelet had always been in colour, even when the world around him had been in black and white.

Not that anyone else remembered it being like that, of course.

For its part, the bracelet now blended more easily into the surrounding world, thanks to the fact that it matched it in hue. But Adrien still kept it hidden away, unwilling to risk losing the earrings or ring.

Now, however, he untied the knot in the bracelet, his fingers practiced in the motion by this point. Adrien slipped the ring off the bracelet, retied the knot, and placed it back under his cuff.

Hidden.

Safe.

“Plagg, claws out!”

A moment later, Chat Blanc burst forth onto the rooftops of Paris, riding his baton and shooting out into open air. His feet hit a rooftop, and he was off.

He needed to run off his energy, to get out of his own head, but his thoughts were spinning in circles faster than his feet could keep up with or overrun. His heart ached, but not with the way it was pounding to get oxygen into his lungs.

Marinette was keeping a secret from him. That wasn’t the end of the world.

But he hated it anyway.

What if something happened because of it? What if something went wrong? 

Chat Blanc stumbled, almost missing the edge of a roof. The next moment, he was crouching down in a small ball on the roof, not even sure where he was in Paris anymore, but worry crashing through his system, overriding all sense and thoughts. His hands clutched at his head, fingers tangled up in his hair, the ring and earrings thrumming on his hand even in his superhero form. The power was undeniable, unable to be suppressed even by his costume.

What if everything fell apart, and he was left alone again and everything was as it was before-

Zeep!

Chat Blanc jerked his head up - just in time to watch the lights flicker and go out in the building facing him.

Chat Blanc jerked to his feet, heart pounding in his chest, fear now thrown into the mix with all the other emotions already roaring through him. Was there an akuma in Paris? But, no, that was supposed to be impossible! He’d made sure of that-

It was only then that Chat Blanc noticed the rest of the buildings around him had also gone dark. There were shouts coming from within, confusion obvious in the tones.

An electrical outage.

Not an akuma, then.

Chat Blanc released his hands, which he only now realized had been curled into tight fists. The feeling of power slowly faded away into a haze in the back of his mind again.

Oh.

Definitely not an akuma, then.

It had been him.

_

The lights went out just as Marinette reached the doorway to leave.

“Huh,” the guy behind the cash register said. “That’s weird.”

“I’m sure it’ll come back on again,” Marinette said quickly. “Have a nice day!”

Not waiting for a reply, she rushed out the door, craning her neck instantly and sprinted down the street despite the heavy load she was carrying. Ms. Bustier had given her quite the long list of supplies.

As she raced back toward Adrien’s apartment, she searched Paris for any sign of an akuma. She hadn’t had to fight one in a long time. Hawkmoth seemed to have gone completely silent. If one was attacking, she needed to get her earrings from Adrien - now.

However, by the time she was a block away from the apartment and finally beginning to slow down, she had to admit within herself that the electricity had likely gone out for completely normal reasons.

When even was the last time she’d fought an akuma?

Before Marinette could try to answer that question, she spotted an old man waiting on the corner. She broke into a smile, shifting the heavy bag in her arms, slowing down to a walk as she approached. “Wang Fu! Thank you for coming.”

“Of course,” the old man replied easily, smiling at her. “You appear to have quite the burden. Do you need any assistance with it?”

“No, thank you,” Marinette panted, stopping in front of him. “I have a different favour to ask you, actually.”

“Is that why you asked me to meet you here?” He glanced over his shoulder towards the apartment building. “If that is where your friend lives, wouldn’t that have been where you’d want to meet instead?”

“Nah,” Marinette waved it off. As luck would have it - and, as Ladybug, she seemed to have plenty of that - she’d bumped into the old man earlier that day and asked him to meet her here later. After that, she’d headed to Adrien’s, where she’d picked up the sketchbook she’d accidentally left there. “I want to surprise him. I just was at the vet, and now I have all the information I needed to be able to tell you about it.”

“Well,” Wang Fu smiled, “I’m all ears.”

_

Adrien brought his knees up into his chest, watching as Plagg slowly munched on a piece of camembert cheese. Despite himself, Adrien still carried around his kwami’s favourite kind of cheese. He was pretty sure that, after all he’d done, Plagg would accept any kind that he gave him, but… Plagg had been his friend. He had known things about his home life that no one else had - even before Marinette. Adrien couldn’t help but still be fond of his kwami.

“You’re pushing it pretty far, kid.”

Adrien’s eyes snapped to the black kwami of destruction. He hadn’t heard him speak in so long that he hardly even recognized his voice anymore. “Plagg?” Even as the word flew out of his mouth, Adrien’s mind registered what his kwami had said, and he shifted uneasily. “What are you talking about?”

“I think we both know exactly what I’m talking about,” Plagg replied, his voice weary. “You’re pushing me and Tikki to our limits. Constantly making changes and stuff. And…” he cast one of those dry glances that Adrien used to see him give all the time at the building across from them, “now you’re shutting off people’s electricity.”

“That wasn’t on purpose,” Adrien mumbled. He paused, then asked in a whisper, as if worried someone would hear him even when he was on a roof, “Do you think anyone knows it’s my fault?”

“Why should they?” Plagg shrugged.

“Because…” Adrien swiped angrily at his eyes. “You know why.”

For a few moments, Plagg eyed him silently, slipping easily back into his old role of advisor to his young holder. Finally, he said, “The only one who even has the power to suspect anything is Marinette. The rest of them… they don’t think anything.”

“Am I doing the right thing, Plagg?” Adrien asked quietly, his voice tortured, laying his head on his knees.

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

Adrien said nothing.

Plagg sighed. “If you pay attention to pigtail girl, you’ll notice that she’s starting to think that something is… wrong. Off. She doesn’t know what, but… it’s there, nevertheless.”

“The truth is,” Adrien said quietly, “we are in uncharted waters… and you know what? I’m anxious, too. I’m afraid that her surprise is something that’ll throw everything off.”

“We just don’t know what to expect,” Plagg agreed, chewing his camembert slowly. “Not even Tikki and me.”

Adrien peeked over his knees at the black kwami, a tiny grin crossing his face at the way Plagg completely disregarded correct grammar. “I’ve missed you, Plagg.”

Plagg grunted. “You don’t exactly give me much of a chance to talk with you.”

“I know,” Adrien sighed. “I just… I’m trying to keep the miraculouses safe.”

“From who?” Plagg challenged with sudden fire. “Hawkmoth? Or the one person who has the ability to find out your secret?”

Adrien drew back from his kwami as if he’d been struck. “Marinette would never do that,” he choked. “She… she wouldn’t leave me. Not on purpose.”

“And what about the things that have been happening?” The cheese now gone, Plagg flew right into Adrien’s face, glaring, his beady little eyes that had seen thousands of years of life demanding an answer. “You know that they want her - heck, they probably desperately need her!”

“Well they can’t have her!” Adrien screamed, shooting to his feet, tears springing to his eyes, fury mingling with brokenness and agony in his voice.

Plagg jerked back, narrowly avoiding phasing straight through Adrien’s head. For a few moments, Adrien stood there, panting.

He should find Marinette. Make sure she was fine. Make sure they were fine.

“You’re wrong,” he whispered, raising his eyes to Plagg even as the sight of his kwami went blurry with his tears. “They… they’re fine.”

“You’re still you, kid,” Plagg said quietly. “You have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. You may be the holder of destruction, but you wouldn’t destroy anything if you could avoid it. Not Paris. Not Marinette. Not… everything.” He dared to drift a little closer, and when Adrien didn’t move, whispered, “This isn’t you.”

“What about what I was before this?” Adrien shot back, even though his voice wobbled as he did so. “Was that me?”

When all Plagg did was stare at him sadly, Adrien took a vicious swipe at his eyes, sniffing. “I’m sorry, Plagg. I’m sorry that I’ve done this to you and Tikki. But there’s no going back now.”

No reply.

Adrien took that to mean that the conversation was over.

“Plagg, claws out.”

There was a flash of white light, and Chat Blanc wearily trudged to the edge of the roof, sitting down despite the fact that he’d only just stood up.

“Little kitty on a rooftop,” he whispered, “all alone… without his lady…”

Except… he wasn’t.

Not anymore.

Because now he had Marinette.

_

Marinette shifted her load once again in her arms, only now thinking to wonder as she approached the apartment how she would get the door open.

“Hey, Kim,” she greeted, out of breath, as she passed by.

There was no reply.

Marinette paused at the gate, glancing over at Kim. He was still there, kicking the soccer ball.

But as she watched, he kicked the ball and missed the goal entirely. The ball hit the wall, bouncing back to Kim, where he immediately kicked it again - sending it to the same place on the wall where it bounced off yet again.

Marinette blinked.

What was he doing?

As she watched, he kicked the ball, over and over, mechanically, missing the goal with every attempt.

“What in the world?” Marinette mumbled, confusion flooding through her.

“Marinette?”

Marinette looked up - her thoughts interrupted for the second time that day by a woman standing in a doorway. “Emilie! I have all the stuff.” She lowered her voice, peering uncertainly past Emilie. “Is… Adrien still here?”

“I sent him out, as I said I would,” Emilie assured her. But then, she frowned. “That is… I sent him to play soccer with Kim. But… he’s not here.” Panic began to creep into her voice. “And then there was a power outage! Do you think he’s okay?”

Marinette hustled to the doorway, eager to drop off her stuff in the apartment upstairs. “I’m sure he is.” Whatever happened, she knew her boyfriend could take care of himself. He was the superhero, Chat Blanc, after all. “Is the power back on yet?”

“It’s back,” Emilie assured her, letting out a calming breath before she closed the door behind them. “We can set up the room now.”

_

Chat Blanc dropped into an alley near his apartment, whispering, “Plagg, claws in.”

There was a flash of light, and a moment later, Adrien Agreste casually strolled out from the alley, hands in his pockets. 

No one in Paris was any the wiser to what had just transpired.

“Hey, Kim,” Adrien greeted easily, barely even glancing at his athletic friend as he passed by.

“Hey, Adrien,” Kim replied. There was the smack of the ball hitting the wall.

“You may want to practice your aim,” Adrien advised as he reached the door.

“I have been,” Kim replied. “I’ve always felt like soccer was more than that, though.”

Adrien froze, heart in his throat, the words far to familiar to be mistaken. He glanced nervously back over his shoulder, then down the street, making sure Marinette wasn’t there. She was the only other person likely to remember the words, even if they were now applied to soccer.

No sign of her.

Adrien forced a laugh. “What are you talking about, Kim? Look, just keep practicing; I’m sure you’ll get it.”

Kim perked up. “Yeah, you’re right. Forget I said anything.” He kicked the ball again with gusto - though as Adrien quickly stepped inside, shutting the door behind him, he couldn’t help but notice how Kim missed the goal again.

Hurrying upstairs, Adrien reached his and his mother’s apartment, opening the door.

“How about over here?” Marinette’s voice reached his ears instantly.

She was back, then.

Adrien hurriedly shut the door behind him, heading further into the apartment, looking for Marinette. He stuck his head through a doorway, into the only other room that he and his mother didn’t use.

Sure enough, there were Emilie and Marinette, heads bent close together.

“What are you doing?” Adrien asked.

Both looked up. Marinette leapt to her feet as soon as she saw him. “Adrien! You can’t look! It’s your surprise!” She hustled forward, ready to shoo him out of the room.

Knock knock knock!

Adrien turned. “Who is that?”

Marinette pushed past him. “I’ll get it!”

“What’s going on, Marinette?” Adrien asked, suddenly overwhelmed by the need to know what was going on. “What are you doing?”

Marinette flung open the front door. “Wang Fu! You got them?”

Adrien came to a stop several steps behind Marinette.

It was Fu again.

What was he doing here?

“As promised,” the old man nodded, holding out… was that a carrier he was handing to Marinette?

Marinette turned to Adrien, beaming. “Surprise!”

“What…?” Adrien blinked. Was all this secrecy over a carrier?

Emilie appeared at his side. “It’s inside the carrier,” she whispered to him with a small smile.

Marinette watched as he stepped, an eager smile on her face as he peered inside. “Meet Tommy and Billy,” she announced.

Adrien’s jaw dropped. “Hamsters?”

“Yes!” Marinette squealed happily. “I wanted to get you a nice surprise, and I knew how you wanted a hamster, so…”

Adrien couldn’t reply, too shocked to even think of how to form words.

As if made nervous by his silence, Marinette began to ramble. “Do you want to put them in their cages? Your mother and I worked on setting them up. There’s a spot for them in that room and everything! I had to enlist her help to come home from work today so she could get you out of the house for a bit. I didn’t want you to see us setting up, and I… hey, sorry, did you have something you were going to do today?” She twisted to look over her shoulder at Wang Fu. “I totally forgot to even ask. I can walk you back outside, if you want.” She whipped about to fact Adrien again, not even waiting for an answer, now in total ramble-mode. “Do you like them? I hope so. I mean, I put a lot of thought into the names, but if you don’t like them-”

“No, no!” Adrien said, her attempt to change what was already perfect finally snapping him out of his lack of ability to speak. Warm happiness welled up inside of his chest, bubbling and overflowing, spreading throughout the rest of him. “Thank you, Marinette! This is… I mean… I love it.” He locked eyes with her, a part of him melting just from seeing their bluebell blue. “Thank you.”

Marinette blushed pink, looking pleased with herself. “I’m glad you like it.” She turned back to Fu. “Since Wang Fu knows so much about animals, I thought I’d ask him to choose them out for us.”

Adrien looked at the old man. “Thank you,” he said sincerely - feeling for the first time since he’d seen the old man at the show that he might not actually be the trouble he’d thought he was. “Can you stay for a few minutes? I think we might still have some cookies from a dinner Marinette and I made recently.”

“How could I say no to an offer like that?” the old man smiled. “But… my turtles are outside. I couldn’t bring them up the stairs along with the carrier.”

“I’m heading out,” Emilie offered. “I could watch them for a few minutes.”

“No, that’s fine; I’ll go watch them for you,” Marinette interjected. “You’ve done so much to help me today; it’s the least I can do.”

“Thank you very much,” Wang Fu inclined his head to her, smiling one of those mysterious smiles that used to hold so many secrets.

But he posed no danger.

Which meant he had no secrets to hide from Adrien.

Adrien couldn’t help but grin as Emilie and Marinette headed out the door.

He was glad to be done with other keeping secrets from him.

_

Marinette spotted the aquarium filled with turtles easily enough. It was standing in the yard in front of the apartment.

As she head over to it, though, she noticed Nino strolling into the yard. She waved. “Nino! How are you?”

“Good, good,” Nino said, seeming almost… distracted. He inclined his head to Kim. “Kim. How’s the practice going?”

“Fine,” Kim said. But even as he said so, he missed his shot again. He sighed, then came over to the wall, leaning against it. 

“Is everything all right?” Marinette asked, somewhat bemused by the boys’ behaviour. Were they planning a surprise, now?

Nino glanced up at the apartment, then, lowering his voice, whispered, “What is he doing in there?”

“I don’t know,” Kim said.

“Who?” Marinette blinked in confusion. “Adrien? He lives here, you guys.”

“And the other one,” Nino said, not seeming to have heard.

“He went right in,” Kim said, seeming to be confirming… something.

“Remarkable day we’re having, no?” Marinette interrupted, trying to get a word in edgewise - even though she wasn’t totally sure what it was edgewise against.

“That’s fine,” Nino replied. 

“Did you lose power, too?” Marinette added, trying to keep the conversation away from… whatever this was.

“Oh, sure did,” Nino nodded, finally seeming to notice her. “But Chris looks better in the dark, so I’m not complaining.”

Marinette and Kim chuckled.

Nino let out a small sigh. “Okay.”

Marinette gave him an odd look, then slowly began to draw back. “Well. I’ll get back to Adrien.” She paused, then added jokingly, “Neither of you boys are going to steal these turtles, right?”

“Marinette.” Nino’s eyes went up to the apartment again. “Is Wang Fu inside with Adrien?”

“Ye-e-es,” Marinette said, stretching out the word, now thoroughly weirded out. “Why?”

_

“You and Marinette are very good at baking,” Fu complimented, finishing off a cookie.

“Thank you,” Adrien said, his eyes drifting back down to the hamsters in their carrier. He’d set it on the floor as he got the cookies out for Fu. “Marinette grew up in a bakery, so she’s a whiz at it.”

“Marinette told me that you wanted hamsters for a long time,” the old man said. “I didn’t realize those were the names you two wanted for them.”

“Billy and Tommy?” Adrien chuckled. “I don’t know why. But Marinette already knows what she wants to name her kids in the future, so why not, right?”

“Billy and Tommy each lost their fathers, apparently,” Fu added. “I thought that they needed you and your sweet girlfriend as much as you both need them.”

“I appreciate it,” Adrien murmured, staring at the hamsters.

Silence descended.

“I had a father.”

The words slipped out without his intention. But Adrien was at ease, now that he was sure that Fu posed no threat.

Fu hummed, and Adrien took that as his cue to continue.

“His name was Gabriel.”

The hamsters squeaked, their voices tiny and cute.

“It must be nice to have your mother back,” Fu commented.

Adrien stilled, and, feeling as if ice were slowly spreading out over all his insides, raised his eyes.  “What did you say?”

_

Nino and Kim exchanged a glance, Nino shifting from foot to foot with apparent unease. 

Kim spoke up. “He’s… new to town. Brand new.”

“There’s no family,” Nino added. “No wife.”

Marinette gave her friends a quizzical look, moving to go inside and leave this weirdness behind. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Hmm…” Kim hummed. “No home.”

Marinette stopped. “What?”

_

“What did you say just now?” Adrien repeated.

“I said, I thought that they needed you and your sweet girlfriend as much as you both need them,” Fu repeated. “Should I say it one more time for good measure?” This line was added jokingly, and Adrien would almost have been able to write this all off as his own mishearing if it weren’t for a slight tremor that had entered Fu’s voice.

“No,” Adrien said, eyes narrowing. “What did you say about my mother?”

“Your mother?” Fu repeated. He licked his lips. “I… here, allow me to bring the hamsters to their cage-”

Adrien stood, moving between Fu and the carrier. “No, I think you should leave.”

_

Marinette took a step closer to the boys. “What do you mean, he has no home?”

Kim swallowed. “He came here because… He came here because…”

“He came here because we’re all…” Nino cut in, but then his voice trailed off, ending in a sigh.

“He came here because we’re all what?” Marinette demanded, fear beginning to wriggle in the pit of her stomach. “What’re you trying to tell me?”

_

And that’s when he saw it.

“What is that?” Adrien asked, his gaze locking on Wang Fu’s wrist.

“What?” the old man repeated, confused.

“That.” Adrien pointed straight at the green bracelet about Fu’s wrist. “That bracelet.”

“I, uh… I…” Fu began backing up.

Adrien’s gaze snapped up to the old man’s face again, and his lips curled back involuntarily, revealing his teeth. “That explains the turtles, then.” He began to slowly stalk around the coffee table, quietly demanding, “Who are you?” 

But Fu just shook his head. “I don’t…”

Adrien stopped, towering over the short man threateningly, his hands curling into fists. “Who are you?”

“Adrien,” Fu said, as if trying to calm him.

But they were far beyond that point now.

“I…” Fu reached out behind him, eyes widening, feeling for the couch, trying to make his way around it, as if suddenly realizing that he was in danger. There was fear in his eyes - and he certainly had good reason to fear, now that Adrien knew. “I… Adrien…”

_

Out of the blue, Nino and Kim relaxed. “Well, I better get going,” Nino said. “That music’s not gonna write itself.”

Marinette stared in bewilderment as Nino walked away. She turned her gaze on Kim. “Kim?” she tried, her voice rising to a squeak at the end, desperately searching her long-time friend’s face for answers.

But Kim just gave a chuckle. “Catch you on the flip side, Marinette.”

Marinette stared in shock as he turned, walking away. Where was he even going?? His soccer goal was still set up!

Marinette turned - and froze.

The turtles were gone.

“I… what?” Marinette gaped. For a beat, all was silent besides her sharp, shallow breaths.

And then she burst into action, sprinting for the apartment, taking the stairs up to Adrien’s floor two at a time.

“Wang Fu!” she called out as soon as she burst through the door. “Your turtles… I’m sorry but they’re…”

She stopped.

Adrien was standing in the living room, his back to her.

Alone.

“Adrien?” Marinette asked hesitantly, her breath coming fast. “Where… where’s Wang Fu?”

There was a beat of silence.

Then, Adrien turned about to her, smiling easily in that cheeky way of his that she loved. “Oh, he left, Marinette. He had to rush home.”

_

Zwoosh!

Wang Fu landed on his back - hard. The air went out of his lungs in a single woosh.

“Master Fu!”

“Are you okay?”

“What happened?”

“Where’s Ladybug?”

Master Fu slowly opened his eyes, groaning at the bright white surrounding him.

“Fu,” a firm voice, older than the rest, said. “What happened?”

Fu slowly opened his eyes.

Staring down at him was a group of heroes, their eyes filled with worry to varrying degrees - sharpest of all in a pair of green ones.

“Fu?” It was said a little more insistently this tim.e

Slowly, Master Fu turned his gaze to the hero who was talking. With great effort, he tried to rally himself. “I…”

“Fu?” This time it was worry that tinged the voice.

Master Fu closed his eyes, pained by what he had to tell them, yet knowing there was no avoiding it.

“Bunnyx… I don’t know if we can rescue her.”

When your girlfriend is the daughter of a baker, you tend to get roped into the kitchen.

Adrien knew this.

Yet he still somehow managed to be surprised when he found the task of making an entire dinner before him.

“So… because we’re doing this dinner for us… you thought we should make the whole thing?” he summarized after listening to one of Marinette’s long spiels, full of backtracking, contradictions, and random spasms of laughter.

“Basically,” Marinette shrugged, a light blush dusting her cheeks as she pulled out meat from the fridge.

“Have you at all considered the fact that you usually bake, and I don’t really cook?”

{Audience laughs}

Marinette glanced over at him. “That’s why we have a recipe, Adrien. It’s the kind of thing people use when they’re cooking.”

{Audience laughs}

Adrien gave a shrug, pushing off the counter he had been leaning against. “What do you need help with?”

“Could you grab out the knives?”

“Planning a murder, my dear?”

{Audience laughs}

Marinette laughed, shoving him playfully away. “Oh, stop it. Now, we’re going to need some spices…”

Despite his initial comments on the whole affair, Adrien quickly found himself enjoying making dinner with Marinette. Really, doing anything with her made him happy. He just loved being around her.

“When did you say that our parents were going to be here again?” he asked as they put the chicken in the oven.

“Mmm,” Marinette hummed, wiping her hands on a dishcloth. “At about five.”

Adrien stopped, then whipped about to face the clock. “But that’s in half an hour!”

They both froze, gazing with almost-exaggerated horror at the stacks of dishes covering the counters - a horrendous mess.

{Audience laughs}

“There’s no way we’ll get this all done in time!” Marinette cried. She began to pace, chewing her bottom lip. She came to a sudden stop, then whipped about to face him head on. “I think… we should just use our miraculouses. If I conjured a lucky charm, everything would be fixed in no time!” She began pacing again, her fingers fluttering in the air as if they were already ready to hold a lucky charm.

Adrien stared at her. “But Marinette, we’re not supposed to use our miraculouses for personal gain. You know that.”

Marinette paused, turning a doe-eyed gaze upon him. “But haven’t you already?”

The words were like daggers, aimed with precision and striking him dead center in the heart.

That wasn’t normal.

That wasn’t Marinette.

How could he possibly pretend anything she did to be like her, then?

Swallowing hard, he shook himself. “We’ll just work fast. We make a great team, remember?”

Marinette brightened, smiling easily, as if nothing had just happened. “Of course, dear.”

Since when did they call each other that?

Since now.

Since the colour had faded from her and left her just a marionette on strings.

Knock knock!

Adrien gave a jolt, but Marinette had already crossed the kitchen floor and was opening the door to the house that she lived in with her parents. “Nino!” she exclaimed. “How good to see you!”

“What’s up?” Nino asked, smiling widely, showing all his teeth. “Do I smell chicken?”

Marinette pulled open the oven door, producing a fully cooked chicken. There was no way that that should have been possible, but with no colour, who would really notice?

“That you do,” Adrien nodded, crossing the room to shake hands with his friend. “Good to see you, Nino.”

“Big mess,” Nino noted, glancing about the kitchen. “Do you both want some help cleaning up?”

“What a great idea!” Marinette smiled widely back at him, also showing all her teeth - too much teeth for a normal Marinette smile. The way she used to look when she was all nervous around Adrien. “We’d appreciate all the help we could get!”

“We’re having a dinner with both our families to celebrate us getting together,” Adrien explained, rolling up his sleeves to start on the dishes. “Marinette thought it would be a good idea for us to be the ones to make it.”

“That’s sweet of you guys,” Nino said easily, grabbing a dishtowel to help dry the dishes.

They were done the dishes so fast, it could only have been rivalled by that done by movie magic. Nino left them, apparently having no other reason to be there other than to have helped them with the dishes.

At the exact moment he left, the door swung open again, and the Dupain-Chengs entered the room - followed by Adrien’s parent.

“Mom, Dad!” Marinette cried, rushing over to them in a flurry of skirts and her clicking heels. She grabbed them both in a huge hug, her small arms not fitting all the way around both of them. “You’re just in time! Dinner is ready!”

“How lucky!” Sabine smiled warmly.

The dinner was on the table as the approached - though Adrien didn’t remember being the one to put it there. Nino and Marinette must have done it when he wasn’t looking - keeping everything running perfectly, of course. As was their job.

But as he pulled out a chair for his own parent, he couldn’t help glancing over at Marinette.

Did he really want that to be her job?

He couldn’t capture her… Marinette-ey-ness. But he wanted that.

He wanted her back.

Luckily for his running thoughts, dinner went by quickly. Before he knew it, they had all finished and Marinette’s parents were insisting that they be the ones to do the dishes. So polite. So perfect.

Almost unnatural.

“I’ll get the hang of it,” Adrien murmured under his breath, the words inaudible.

An arm slipped around him, and glancing down, Adrien found Marinette smiling up at him, his coat draped over her other arm. “I think that was a success.”

Adrien mustered a smile for her - an easy enough task, as he was looking right at her. “I think so, too.” He leaned down, kissing her gently on the cheek. “But I suppose I’ll have to be heading home, now.”

“Goodnight, Adrien.”

“Goodnight, Marinette.”

As he moved to close the door behind him, though, he couldn’t help glancing back inside the house.

Marinette was there, staring straight at the door, a smile plastered across her face, waving one hand side to side energetically. Without pause. Without even blinking.

Unnatural.

_

Adrien gazed out his window. He was living in a small apartment now, just big enough to house two people and the feeling of a real home.

But the image of Marinette and Nino grinning at him wouldn’t leave his mind.

Adrien closed his eyes involuntarily, his fingers slipping to the cuff of his shirt sleeve. He unbuttoned the cuff, and slipped a bracelet out from hiding.

Opening his eyes, he was greeted by colour.

Pink and green caught his eye first. The bracelet Marinette had given him had originally been one she’d made for herself, but for some reason, it had kept its colour.

But the truly important charms were nestled side by side in the center of the bracelet. He hadn’t put them there himself; they’d just appeared that way.

Everything had appeared. Perfectly.

Just as he had wanted.

Now, Adrien let his fingers hover above the earrings and ring tied onto the string. He could feel the power pulsating from them.

He didn’t need a full wish.

Just an… adjustment.

Adrien let his fingers stay there, only a hairbreadth away from grazing the pieces of jewellery. Taking a deep breath, letting his fingers steep in the power aura, he made the change.

No more strings.

Not on Marinette.

She had to be free.

Maybe not her memory. But… her. Her thoughts, her attitude, her personality.

Her.

He wanted her back.

Not his cardboard cutout version.

He could feel the shift in the very air around him when it happened. A change had occurred.

Marinette’s strings had been cut.

After several minutes, Adrien realized that he was still holding the bracelet. He quickly shoved it into hiding again, buttoning his cuff up.

And just in time.

There was a knock at his door, and it creaked open.

“Adrien? You’re still awake?”

“Sorry,” Adrien said softly. “Too many thoughts.”

“You might want to get in your pyjamas. Try to sleep, okay?”

Adrien pasted on a smile. “Okay.” He turned around, taking in the sight of his parent. “I love you.”

Emilie Agreste smiled fondly back at him. “I love you too, Adrien.”