Passionfruit (November) Day 24: Fade
Start from the beginning on AO3: Passionfruit
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Focus. She had to focus. That sentence ran repeatedly through Ladybug’s mind as she used her yoyo to get uptown. Her heart thudded in her ears, helping to mitigate the unusual silence filling her mind. She’d never faced an akuma without Chat’s lighthearted puns or kind encouragement bouncing around her head, and it was proving more difficult than she’d expected to concentrate.
Luckily Timebreaker wasn’t difficult to find once Ladybug drew close. The akuma was walking up and down the empty streets, peering into shops to look for unsuspecting victims. Ladybug swallowed as she landed on the street just in time to see a couple of civilians fade away. How many people had Timebreaker killed already?
“Come on, come on! I only need a couple more!” Timebreaker shouted, kicking in the glass window of a store.
Ladybug flinched, clencing her hands into fists. Her immediate instinct was to try to stop Timebreaker, but in order to go back in time she had to let Timebreaker get a couple more victims. It went against everything she stood for as Ladybug... but she didn’t think she could do this alone. The stakes were too high.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Alya, Nino and Chloé approaching. Ladybug waved frantically at them, motioning for them to get out of sight. She didn’t think she could handle seeing anyone else that she cared about die today. Fortunately, her friends took the hint - or at least Nino did. He dragged Alya and Chloé off the street and into an alley.
Someone screamed. Ladybug’s head snapped around as Timebreaker let out a satisfied cry. Two teenagers fell to the ground at Timebreaker’s feet, not that Timebreaker cared. She bent down and looked at the mechanism at her ankle. Even from where she was standing, Ladybug saw that it was now fully lit up.
Now. Her body moved of its own accord, drawing her yoyo and whipping it out. TImebreaker had no idea that Ladybug was there, so she had no chance to dodge. The yoyo wrapped around Timebreaker’s upper body several times just as Timebreaker launched herself forward. Once again, Ladybug was unceremoniously yanked off her feet.
This time, she didn’t even get a chance to yelp. Bright yellow light formed and swallowed her and Timebreaker up. Ladybug had the weird feeling that she was drastically accelerating without moving at the same time, and then the yellow light disappeared and her yoyo was jerked out of her hands; she tripped, hitting the ground with a groan.
“Damn you, Ladybug!” Timebreaker seethed from somewhere up ahead. “I won’t let you interfere with my plans!”
“I’ve had it with your plans,” Ladybug snapped, getting up on her knees. She opened her mouth to say something else and paused when she heard cheering. Above the rest of her classmates, one voice in particular made her heart skip a beat.
Adrien.
She scrambled to the edge of the roof, looking down. There he was, her soulmate and partner, standing beside past-Marinette and cheering as past-Alix and past-Kim began their race. Ladybug stared, feeling like the world was tilting beneath her feet. He was there, but she couldn’t feel him. It was quite possibly the cruelest trick fate could have played.
Soulmate bonds only went two ways, and past-Adrien was already bonded to past-Marinette. There was no room for her here, not unless she could cast a miraculous cure. God she hoped the miraculous cure could fix this. If it couldn’t... Tears welled up in her eyes and she pressed a shaking hand to her mouth to keep herself from sobbing out loud.
“My watch!” Timebreaker shrieked.
All of the students below jumped. The watch in past-Marinette’s hand went flying. It broke upon impact with the ground this time. Through her tears, Ladybug watched as past-Adrien and past-Marinette both looked up. An identical expression of confused amazement flashed across both their faces, and Ladybug choked on a giggly sob.
“Ladybug?” Past-Adrien shouted.
“It’s an akuma!” Past-Alya cried at the same time, whipping out her phone.
“Nooo!” Timebreaker screamed.
“My watch!” Past-Alix howled.
Ladybug had heard that before and knew what came next. She leaped to her feet, looking around for her yoyo, and finally spotted it a few feet away to her right. She scrambled over and grabbed it, looking around frantically for the akuma that was sure to be coming. But she was too late. In the time that it had taken her to get her yoyo, an akuma had landed on past-Alix.
Now there were two Timebreakers and Ladybug honestly felt faint because this was too much.
“Everyone run! Don’t let them touch you!” she yelled, launching herself off the roof. She landed on the ground, her heart racing as she faced off against the two akumas.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw past-Marinette and past-Adrien running away. The two Timebreakers were holding a whispered conversation, and Ladybug knew she should really interrupt - yet she stalled, trying not to look too obviously at the place where her past self and past-Adrien had gone. Relief swept through her when she saw a flash of red light and a burst of green light.
“What on earth is going on?” Past-Chat exclaimed as he bounded over.
“I’m Ladybug from about fifteen minutes from now,” Ladybug said. She hadn’t counted on how badly it would rattle her to see past-Chat and have no connection with him. It didn’t feel like he was really here. She longed to break down in his arms and have him comfort her, but there wasn’t time.
“You’re me?” Past-Ladybug said, sounding bewildered as she joined them. “But -”
“We don’t have time. We have to stop them before they go back in time. But whatever you do, do not let them touch you. Especially you, Chat. Promise me that you won’t let them touch you,” she begged.
Past-Chat blinked, uncertain. “Uh - well -” He glanced over at past-Ladybug.
“Promise me!” Ladybug cried out, her voice too shrill, breath tight.
“I promise,” Past-Chat said immediately, his expression rapidly becoming concerned.
“Good,” Ladybug said, gulping for air. “The akuma - it’s in her rollerblades. Their rollerblades.” She glanced around for Timebreaker and saw them speeding after their classmates. Her stomach churned as Nathaniel was caught again.
“So if we can’t touch them, how do you plan to do this?” Past-Ladybug asked.
“Just one.” Ladybug held up her yoyo and prayed that this time, she would get a relatively simple Lucky Charm. Her brain was so scrambled right now that she didn’t have the energy to come up with an overly convoluted plan.
“A little luck can go a long way,” past-Ladybug said with a grin.
“Lucky Charm!” they shouted together, throwing their yoyos into the air.
Ladybug caught a bicycle lock. Past-Ladybug caught a traffic cone. They both looked down at their Charms, then at each other with equally baffled expressions.
“Huh, well, I’ll try to buy us some time while you two figure it out,” past-Chat said.
Instantly, Ladybug forgot all about her Charm. She watched, terrified, as past-Chat ran towards the two akumas. At any moment, she knew that one of the two Timebreakers could dart towards him and try to steal his energy. One Chat was worth, after all, six of a normal person. That made him a viable target. She held her breath, clutching her Charm with trembling hands.
But past-Chat kept his word and didn’t confront the two akumas directly. Instead, he darted behind a pillar. Moments later, said pillar collapsed and blocked the path. Past-Timebreaker and Timebreaker both banked hard when they saw wreckage, turning around and skating back towards the two Ladybugs.
“I have a plan,” past-Ladybug said, laying her hand on Ladybug’s shoulder.
Tempting though it was to track past-Chat’s every move, Ladybug tried to concentrate. “Okay. Let’s hear it.”
Past-Ladybug frowned, but leaned in and quickly whispered in Ladybug’s ear. Ladybug nodded. As always, the plan was a little ridiculous but it sounded like it would work. She moved forward, directly into the path of the two Timebreakers, knowing she would have to time this perfectly. She had to drag her eyes away from past-Chat.
Three... two... one... she leaped forward, keeping her body low, and snapped the bicycle lock around past-Timebreaker’s and Timebreaker’s ankles. She hit the ground and rolled to a stop, coming up just in time to see the two akumas fully airborne. Ladybug grabbed her yoyo, aimed and threw. It wrapped around Timebreaker’s skate and yanked it off. She caught the skate and, at the same time as past-Ladybug, broke it.
“I free you from evil,” Ladybug said, hearing her words echoed by her past self - though Ladybug sounded noticably shakier. “Bye bye, little butterfly...” She watched the butterfly soar up into the sky, then glanced at past-Ladybug.
“Ready when you are!” past-Ladybug said, holding her Charm up.
Ladybug retrieved her Charm, took a deep breath, and threw it into the sky with a cry of, “Miraculous Ladybug!”
The two Charms burst apart into a stream of red light. Ladybug wrapped her arms around herself as the pillar was restored, their classmates returned, the two Alix’s merged back together... and then the red light came for her, scooping her and past-Ladybug up. Ladybug squeezed her eyes shut, silently pleading to anyone who was listening...
And then the connection slammed back into her as she and past-Ladybug merged. Ladybug sank to her knees, overcome, as two sets of memories bounced around in her head, but even that was nothing compared to the bond - it was everything. Chat’s presence in her mind was both comforting and overwhelming. She put her face in her hands and began to sob.
“My Lady!” Chat exclaimed, rushing over to her. He fell to his knees and pulled her into a hug. “What happened?”
“Chat - oh god, Chat,” she wept, throwing her arms around his neck and clinging to him desperately.
Chat’s confusion rampaged through her mind; he didn’t understand, not fully, and the two sets of memories were confusing him further. But he knew enough to know that both of them were working on limited time. He gathered Ladybug into his arms bridal style and stood up, holding her securely against his chest. All Ladybug could do was cling to him and cry.
“Chat?” Alix asked. She stood nearby, holding her pocket watch. “Is - Is Ladybug okay? Did I -” She looked scared.
“It’s okay,” Chat said, even though it wasn’t. “Everything’s fine. I’m glad you got your watch back, Alix. Be more careful with it next time, okay?”
Alix swallowed, shaken. “I - I will. I shouldn’t have asked anyone else to look after it. It was my responsibility.” She scuffed her skate on the ground. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Chat told her kindly. Then he turned and jumped away, taking his lady with him.