Chapter Text
The crowd roared. Out of excitement or fear, Bunnyx couldn’t tell. Maybe both. Either way, they were fucked.
Chat Noir-no, Chat Blanc- was easily the most practiced miraculous holder. With a boost in power from an Akuma, there was no way they could stand up to him, let alone alongside Vesperia and Ryuko.
Maybe they could escape. Maybe.
“Well, time to die,” Chat Blanc announced cheerfully, putting his hands out in front of him. A beam of white light blasted from his palms, blowing a gaping hole in the town hall as Argos and Bunnyx dodged out of the way.
Chat Blanc. Fucking Chat Blanc, Bunnyx thought. Marinette fought so damn hard to avoid this and it happens anyway. Figures.
“Alix, I’m doing the thing we talked about!” Argos cried.
“No, wait-”
“Bring my creation to life!” Argos shouted, throwing a purple feather into the air.
Chat fired another burst at them, but Argos managed to dive to the ground in time to avoid it. Chat prepared another attack, but the Sentimonster had already formed.
It was a girl, seventeen years old, with piercing blue eyes, black pigtails, and light freckles.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng stood on the podium. “ Chaton .”
It was her. It was her. Chat stumbled forward into her arms. “My lady,” he whispered.
“I’ve missed you so much, kitty cat,” Marinette responded. They embraced and his lips met hers.
Their kiss was deep and blissful, but her lips were far too cold. Chat nearly recoiled at first, but he pushed through. The cold grew. No, cold wasn’t the right word. It was the absence of warmth.
“No, no, no,” Chat Blanc muttered. “No, this isn’t right, this isn’t RIGHT! ”
“ Chaton!” the girl cried, but Chat ignored her.
“You aren’t real. I watched you die.” He pushed her away. She stumbled backward, falling toward the crowd.
“Adrien!” she pleaded, running toward him.
“Stay back!” He raised his arm. “Cataclysm!”
A white light covered Marinette, and with her, half the crowd. Screams filled the area as over a hundred people were dusted in an instant. Rage bubbled up in Chat’s stomach. “How dare you make me do this?” he shouted at Argos.
Argos watched in horror as the crowd was vaporized. “Make you do this? You did it yourself when you chose to be akumatized!”
“I’m going to tear you apart!” Chat Blanc launched another blast, but Argos leaped over it. Out of the corner of his eye, Argos could see Vesperia and Ryuko moving to evacuate the crowd while Chloe and Bunnyx prepared to fight once more.
The fight lasted somewhere between three minutes and three years. It felt closer to the latter. Chat launched beam after beam of white light toward his opponents, destroying the streets around them, and flattening city hall.
Chloe, Argos, and Bunnyx could only dodge for so long. Eventually, the three managed to duck behind cover for a moment to speak.
“How do we get out of here?” Argos asked.
“You two, distract Adrien. I have a plan,” Chloe answered.
“Your last plan involved coming here-” Argos began.
“Shut up, Felix, let her do her thing,” Bunnyx cut him off.
Alya’s head swam. The vague feeling of concrete on her knees and tears on her cheeks were all that was keeping her even remotely grounded. Her racing heart and burning lungs tore holes through her mind, overwhelming it with pain, fear, and adrenaline.
Something touched her shoulder.
A hand.
“Alya?”
She looked up. “Chloe?”
“Alya, it’s okay, take a deep breath with me, alright?” She held up her fingers. “In, two, three, out, two, three.”
Alya did as she was told.
“What are you doing?” Alya asked.
“Helping you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my friend,” Chloe explained. “And also possibly because we may need an illusion to get out of here.”
“You’re using me?”
“I don’t have a choice. I’d rather live and make it up to you.”
Alya took a deep breath. “Okay.” She transformed. “Mirage!”
The entire area was covered in a smokescreen, three blocks across.
“Everyone move!” Bunnyx cried. “Chloe, meet me where I told you about my fight with Adrien!”
“Got it!” Chloe answered. “Alya, let’s go!”
Blasts of white light trailed after the escaping heroes, but none managed to find their mark.
The four arrived at the alley Chloe and Alix had talked in. “Where are we going from here?” Bunnyx asked. “Chat called out for Mayura. That means he has Nathalie.”
“I have an idea,” Rena suggested.
“Well this isn’t traumatizing at all,” Chloe commented.
Marinette’s old room was in pristine condition. The bed was made, the desk was tidy, and the floor was clean.
“God, this is so unnatural,” Alya muttered. “It’s normally so much more…”
“Lived-in?” Felix asked.
“Yeah.”
“Let’s settle in,” Alix said. “We should try to get comfortable. Felix, you’re with me, we’re going on a food run. I know a place we can go.”
“Got it,” Felix answered.
“You two try to set up some barricades or alarms inside the bakery if you can.” Alix pulled out her stopwatch. “Clockwise, burrow.” She and Felix disappeared.
Chloe and Alya set to work, mostly silently, occasionally stopping to comment on the placement of a certain item or the positioning of a bell.
After half an hour, Alya finally spoke up. “Why did you come to me?”
“Huh?”
“To make the smokescreen. I was spiraling, I was your enemy, and you still came to me.”
“Alya, I have never been your enemy.”
“Then what do you call the past month?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve never thought of you as an enemy. As an adversary, maybe, but none of you are my enemy. You, Adrien, Kagami, or my sister.”
Alya chuckled. “I’m surprised you trusted me. Especially considering what happened to…” She broke off into a sob. “Oh god. He’s gone.”
Chloe quickly rushed to Alya’s side. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
“You’re a good person,” Alya whispered. “Still, after everything he did, you want to help Adrien?”
“I do.”
“You’re stronger than me. I want to kill him.”
“I would too.” Chloe took Alya’s hands. “I know it’s hard. It’s so damn hard. But we can change things. We can fix this. Adrien deserves to grieve in peace. If we can remove his power from him, we can help him do that.”
“You want to redeem him, huh?” Alya asked. It was barely a question.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” Chloe answered. “And not just him.”
“Redemption. Such a beautiful idea,” Alya muttered. “The thought that anyone can get better is comforting.”
Chloe thought for a moment. “Huh. I like the sound of that.”
“The sound of what?”
“Redemption. It’s got ‘red’ in it. Red-demption. Sounds like a hero’s name.”
Alya smiled. “I think Marinette would approve.”
“I hope so. I hurt her so much during her life.”
Madame Tsurugi listened to the whirring of the machines around her. The shattered pieces of the Snake Miraculous were an incredible power source. With this, she would be able to fix things. Gabriel was always the planner, and she provided resources. As rich as a fashion brand owner was, the head of an international megacorporation was more powerful. This machine, her technicians assured her, would tear a hole open in time, and Gabriel Agreste would return. He would know how to fix this travesty.
“Activate the machine.” The whirring accelerated, as Madame Tsurugi felt a heat coming from where she knew the machine was positioned. A loud buzz emanated from it, before transitioning to a warbled sound of lightning cracking. It was open.
“Madame Tsurugi, something’s wrong,” one of the operators cried.
“Describe it!”
“Our readings aren’t showing a hole in time, but more of a bend- and something is coming through.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that we’re not pulling anything through time- we’re pulling something in from a different timeline!” The operator answered. “I’m trying to shut it down, but- oh my god, what the hell is that?” He let out a cry of anguish as the warbled thunder grew louder, sending shock waves throughout the room. Madame Tsurugi was pushed off her feet, landing hard on the ground.
A booming voice came from the portal. “Who the hell are you?”