In the future…
Gina was normally a good student, but pulling night shifts in the past was beginning to take its toll. Her grades were slipping, she was becoming slightly sleep deprived, and don't even get me started on the fights she was getting into as Faunus while helping out the future heroes. Her life was quickly becoming overloaded, but she was doing her best to hide that fact from her parents for fear of grounding. Marinette however wasn't oblivious to her daughter's activities. She was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and let her try her hand at things, provided Gina came to her and Adrien for help when she needed it. And of course, she never, ever needed it.
Marinette finally put her foot down when Gina came home from the future covered in bruises and with what had obviously been a bloody nose. She had an ice pack held to her quickly-forming black eye, courtesy of past-Sabine.
The ice pack, not the black eye. Seriously, people. You think Sabine would do that to her? Come on. This isn't that kind of story.
"What happened to you?" Marinette asked as she frantically looked her over. "You're bleeding! Adrien! Get the first aid kit!"
"I'm fine, mom. Geez. It's nothing." Gina tried to wave her off, but that just increased the level of mom attention.
Marinette gently touched a purple spot along Gina's chin, which caused the younger woman to flinch. "Did an akuma do this to you?" Marinette asked, her voice dripping with worry.
"No, um, no. It was just a misunderstanding?"
"With what?" Marinette asked, concerned. "A truck?"
"Um, it was with Aunt Sabrina."
Marinette eyed her for a moment as her memory raced. "Son of a bitch," she murmured. She looked Gina in the eye. "You're not to go back there anytime soon, got it?"
"But mom!"
"Don't 'but' me!" Marinette said in her sternest voice. "You got your butt kicked hard, and if I'm remembering the timeline correctly, this is when Chloé took over, so you don't need to keep going back as much, if at all."
Gina shuffled her feet. "But… I dunno. It was nice to be there? And, um, to be near, um…"
"Gina," Marinette said in her best mom voice. "You're not going back."
"Why not?" Gina pouted. "Come on! I've dealt with worse! Give me one good reason I shouldn't go back!"
They were interrupted by a white flash of light. To their surprise, Bunnyx stumbled out of it and grabbed Gina by the shoulders.
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?"
"Well, there's one," Marinette muttered.
Gina recoiled. "What? What are you talking about?"
Bunnyx's eyes were slightly wild. "When you went back. What happened? Tell me! NOW!"
"Hey," Marinette said as she put a hand on Alix's shoulder. "Please don't yell at my daughter."
"Please keep my niece from fucking up time," Alix snapped back.
"Isn't that your job?" Marinette asked, the sarcasm only slightly heavy in her words.
Alix shrugged her off and stared Gina in the eyes. "Please tell me what happened."
Gina was slightly unsettled, but she did her best to focus. "I didn't do anything! I was on patrol, you know, to help out, and I got attacked by Aunt Sabrina. She, um, she kicked the shit out of me."
Marinette frowned. "Language."
"Sorry," Gina said as she ducked a bit with guilt. "Like, no joke. I had no idea she knew how to fight like that."
"She was raised in a police precinct," Marinette said. "She could do advanced self-defense by the time she was eight. You should have seen her at Caline's wedding."
Alix's eyes scrunched shut. "Shit! You two fought? That's not right! That's two years too early! Why did she fight you? Did she say?"
Gina shrugged. "She said I ruined her life? Called me a homewrecker?"
Marinette crossed her arms. Gina saw the action and tensed. "No, mom. I didn't wreck any homes. Geez."
"So, what's going on, Alix?" Marinette asked.
"What's going on is the timeline shifted!" Alix snapped. "Chloé wasn't supposed to propose to Sabrina until a year after graduation, but she did it the night Gina was there."
"What are you talking about?" Marinette asked, confused. "They got engaged when, um, hey. Wait…"
"See?" Alix said. "It's catching up to us already."
Gina's eyes widened. "They got engaged? Like, that night? Dang. I mean, Sabrina looked like she was ready to throw down with Aunt Chloé when I left."
"Sabrina's always been slightly unstable when it comes to Chloé," Marinette said. She looked to Alix. "You're sure things got shifted?"
"Yes, I'm sure! I have records of this timeline! Detailed! Records!" Alix reached into one of her burrow holes that magically appeared beside her and pulled out a tablet. "Hold on… Where was it… Ah. Chapter ten. 'Sabrina would remember this moment again quite out of the blue two years later. It was when Caline hugged her at graduation as she handed her a diploma and kissed her cheek.'"
Alix glanced at the two women. "That's roughly six months from when you were last there. Lessee… Here it is. 'She would unexpectedly remember it again a year later atop the Eiffel Tower. It was when Chloé, furiously blushing and in costume, would scoot their picnic basket off to the side, drop to one knee, and offer her a ring. It was one of the only times she ever heard Chloé stutter.' Okay. So, I guess the change is mostly in line with what happened, but dammit, I'm not sure if that makes this a massively diverged timeline now or just a temporal hiccup."
"What's a temporal hiccup?" Gina asked.
"What are you reading?" Marinette asked.
"Wait, Aunt Chloé stutters?" Gina asked, confused.
"She did when we were little," Marinette said. "Alix, what exactly is that?"
Alix glanced to Marinette. "Nothing," she said as she tossed the pad over her shoulder. It fell into a small white portal that quickly opened and closed.
"A temporal hiccup is a small diversion in the timeline," Alix said to Gina. "Sometimes it's when someone wears a red shirt instead of a blue one. Sometimes it's when something minor shifts positions in the time stream but the events by and large stay the same, like this. Hiccups can normally right themselves, but they're a symptom of a larger problem."
"Which is?" Marinette asked, concerned.
Alix frowned and out her hands on her hips. "The timeline has grown weak from too much interference."
"…You mean me?" Gina asked.
Alix nodded. "Sorry, kiddo. You need to take a break on the hopping."
"But, but I was helping!" Gina stammered. "And you were going back and forth all the time! This is not my fault!"
"I didn't say it was your fault," Alix pointed out. "But you are the cause of it. Your being there accelerated what happened. This all played out pretty close to what I originally remember, but that time, the cause was," Alix glanced to Marinette. "Someone else."
"You travel to that era, too." Gina huffed. "This could be your fault."
Alix waved her off. "I have the time miraculous, so I generally get a pass. That era needs a breather, otherwise big things might start shifting, and I don't want to deal with fixing those. I like this AU. I get to do stuff here."
"Excuse me?" Marinette asked, slightly thrown. "What do you mean, this AU?"
"Stay here for at least a month," Alix said to Gina, completely ignoring Marinette. "Then we can do a test run together, deal?"
Alix nodded. "Yeah, sure. I, um, yeah. If you think it'll help."
Alix ruffled Gina's hair. "Thanks, kiddo. I knew I could count on you." She straightened and turned to Marinette. "We still on for the potluck?"
Marinette nodded. She was used to Alix shifting gears suddenly. "Um, yeah. Of course. I'll see you next Wednesday?"
Alix nodded. "Next Wednesday." She winked at Gina. "Stay out of trouble, time hero. If this timeline goes to shit, you're next in line for Fluff, and that's not a job you want. Trust me."
"Me?" Gina asked, awestruck. "You're going give me your miraculous?"
"Eh?" Alix waved her hand back and forth in a 'kinda' gesture. "If you can call picking it from my charred, bloody corpse during the Void Empress fiasco and vowing vengeance for your slain family as 'giving' it to you, sure. But you're not supposed to, so, you know, try to settle in with Ziggy."
Marinette and Gina both froze, the blood gone from both their faces.
"The what?" Marinette asked in a strained voice.
Alix waved her off. "Like, she only appears in 17% of the possible timelines, and I die in only half of 'em, so no worries! We're cool… Provided someone stays put. Burrow." Alix waved as a white portal opened behind her. "Sorry to worry you, kiddo. Thanks for helping me get a clear bead on this. See you soon!"
"Yeah," Gina said in a small voice. "See you soon?"
Alix disappeared into the portal, which blipped out with a small pop.
Both women remained standing still.
"Some days, Aunt Alix really creeps me out."
"I call those weekdays," Marinette said. "Still, I trust her. I'm worried the job's made her insane, but I trust her. You know she once slept for five thousand years in an obelisk?"
"No wonder she's insane," Gina said.
"It was your dad's fault."
Gina nodded. "I can see that." She looked to Marinette. "Um, sorry I almost broke time?"
Marinette's stern face melted away. She brought Gina in for a hug. "Well, that just confirms you're my daughter. Remind me to tell you about the time your father murdered me, drowned Paris, and broke the moon because I was too horny to use my common sense."
"What?" Gina asked.
Marinette kissed her head. "You are so my daughter. I love you, but yeah. You're grounded from going to the past. Focus on things here for a while, okay? We could use some more time with you. And so could your schoolwork, according to Caline."
Gina cringed. "She texted you?"
"Oh sweetie," Marinette closed her eyes and sighed. "We had lunch."
"Oh," Gina said, shrinking in on herself. "Crap."
Notes:
I can't stress enough how much feedback I got from Kasienda about this arc. They were wonderful in steering me on this one. This arc is mostly done, just a couple chapters to go.
Ailx is so damn fun to write, and I love that she's perfect for breaking the fourth wall. For avid readers, Alix's recounting of things might seem a little familiar. That was to show that yes, I'm well-aware this arc contradicted the timeline I established, but I wanted to do that scene so bad I couldn't help myself.
NEXT TIME!
Gina has faced monsters, villains, and the perils of being in love, but can she withstand... Her Aunts?
See... Gina get fawned on!
See... What has become of Chloe and Sabrina! (The horror!)
See... So much scheming!
Be here for all the awkward attention and planning tomorrow! Same Bug Time...
ANDRE: What's Bug Time?
GINA: No. NO, DON'T ASK THA...
...Same Bug Channel!
