What if Backwarder didn't get caught by Ladybug's trap?

Backwarder Backtracks
Chapter 1: Timing is Off

Ladybug was being pursued by Backwarder around the Place de la Concorde, the largest public park in Paris. She kept dodging the villain's clock-hand wand. If it touched her, she would be compelled to reverse all of her actions that day, leading Backwarder (and Hawk Moth) to Master Fu and the Miracle Box.

Ladybug checked the timer on her yo-yo. Everything was going according to plan.

Chat Noir was headed back to his position with the Lucky Charm pipe under his foot, tied to him with a kite string. Since the pipe was attached when Backwarder struck him, it was also moving in a perfect reversal.

"Ow, my ankle! I think I've sprained it!" said Ladybug, kneeling on the "X" she had drawn in the dirt.

"You're mine!" cried Backwarder, running at her.

Ladybug leaped into the air. At this point, Chat Noir had yanked the pipe off of the X and caught it under his foot.

Now the pipe shot forward onto the X, and Backwarder tripped on it, as Ladybug had expected. Elements of random chance (like the path of a stumble) were supplied by the Lucky Charm. It made even the most improbable plan work flawlessly (as long as it wasn't impossible).

"Cataclysm!" called Chat Noir, the reverse of "Msylcatac" which he he had said before. Black energy gathered around his hand.

It was fortunate that the power still worked when Chat Noir said his magic word without conscious intent. Ladybug was always careful not to say "lucky charm" before she was ready to invoke her power.

Backwarder staggered forward, right up to Chat Noir. If Chat lowered his hand now, he would destroy the akumatized brooch in the transparent chest compartment of her armor.

Why wasn't he lowering his hand?

Ladybug thought back. It had taken about five seconds for her to figure out how to say "Cataclysm" backwards. All that time, Chat had stood with his hand in the air. If only she had worked out the pronunciation ahead of time!

Backwarder recovered her balance and stepped out of the way before Chat finally lowered his hand. He began walking forward, hand in front of him, toward the X.

"Very clever, Ladybug, but not clever enough," said Backwarder, turning and advancing on Ladybug. "Your timing is off, but mine will be deadly accurate."

Ladybug picked up the pipe and gave the kite line a desperate tug. If she could pull Chat off course and make his hand hit Backwarder from behind, she knew she could make him destroy Backwarder's whole armor and the brooch along with it. (Ladybug had overridden the effect of a Cataclysm before when Chat Noir's mind was confused. When Chat was enthralled by Princess Fragrance, Ladybug turned a potentially deadly attack into a firework control panel malfunction.)

Chat Noir was too strong, and too compelled to keep walking forward at the same pace he had walked backward before. The kite string snapped when Ladybug tugged too hard. She staggered back, off-balance.

Backwarder charged and tagged her with tip of the clock hand.

Ladybug didn't have a moment to regret that she had failed and was about to lead Hawk Moth to Master Fu. She was helplessly reliving the last few seconds backwards.


Something had changed. Ladybug's mind was free again, but the world was going nuts. Day and night alternated rapidly, going faster and faster as the sun tracked from west to east.

Chat was also free again. He asked, "What's going on?"

"I've absorbed enough energy so that all the cracks in my clock face are gone," said Backwarder. "I'm the Master of Time. I don't have to follow anyone to Fu. I can rewind the world and undo the biggest mistake of my life!"

Time was spinning back faster and faster. People and cars went by in a backwards blur. It was overwhelming.


Moments later (and decades earlier) the blurring stopped. They were still standing in the Place de la Concorde. The sky was dark.

"What time is it?" asked Ladybug.

"Earlier than you think, m'Lady," said Chat Noir.

He pointed at the Luxor Obelisk in the middle of the square. "There's no pyramid-shaped cap on top of the Obelisk. That was added in 1998. We've gone back in time before that."

"You must have really hit the history books to know something like that," said Ladybug.

Chat Noir said, "I had a rigorous edu-cat-ion."

"What's that huge banner on the Hôtel de Crillon? It has a swastika on it," said Ladybug.

"Oh-oh. We're in Nazi-occupied Paris. It's sometime in the early 1940's," Chat said.

"How can we be here?" asked Ladybug. "The whole world changed, but not us. We're not born yet."

"The power of the Miraculous must be protecting us," said Chat. "The problem is, we've both used our powers. In less than five minutes we'll time out. When that happens we may cease to exist!"

"Maybe going back in time took back the timeout?" asked Ladybug.

Chat looked at his ring. "No... it's still counting down. Time travel didn't magically reset the energy our kwamis used."

"We have to find Backwarder again, defeat her, and do a healing charm to put the world back to normal. All before we time out and maybe cease to exist," said Ladybug.

"I still haven't touched anything with my destructive hand," said Chat. "And you're still holding the Lucky Charm pipe. But where's Backwarder?"

"I have an idea where to look," said Ladybug. "I hope."