To Rose Tiger: Well, there was an Akuma a couple chapters ago… (chapter 12 technically takes place right after chapter 7)

To Lyger 0: That's the one! Hunda-Beekaa has been bouncing around Africa for a while; there have been hints at him and his "cabal" in the "Patrol Logs."

"You want me to do what?" demanded Alix, staring at Marinette in shock, jaw hanging open.

Marinette quirked an eyebrow, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "It's not so crazy," she huffed. "We just need you to use the Rabbit Miraculous to visit an alternate future where most of us are dead and Chloe's in charge, and ask them really nicely if they know anything about defeating a Taraque."

Alix blinked dumbly. "You keep saying all the same words, but I swear they make less sense every time you say them."

Adrien groaned and pressed the pocket watch into her hands. It glowed powder-blue, and a Kwami with long ears, bright blue eyes, and an overbite burst out of it with a flourish. Alix stared down at the miraculous in shock as the Kwami alit on her hand, stretched its arms, and looked up at her with wide eyes.

"Good morning! Or is it afternoon? What when will it have been?" the Kwami wondered. Alix stared at her nonplussed. She hummed. "It has been far too long since last I ate… do you have any food?"

"Uh…" Alix rifled around in her pockets and pulled out a stick of beef jerky and a bag of carrot sticks. The Kwami stuck her tongue out at the beef but snatched the carrot sticks instantly, stuffing half of them into her mouth at once.

"Look," Adrien told Alix curtly. "All you have to do is concentrate on where you want to go – the same universe Mar and I visited a couple years ago – and Fluff will do the rest. Then you just explain what's going on and ask Chloe – um, old-Chloe, I mean–" he clarified, glancing at Chloe, whose eyes narrowed "–if she has any ideas."

"'Old-Chloe'," Alix deadpanned. "That's really a thing now?"

"Don't rub it in, Kubdel." Chloe glared at her. "One of these days we're going to meet your older self and see what you look like as a decrepit old lady."

"Hah!" Alix scoffed. "I don't plan on ever getting old!"

Marinette snapped her fingers in front of Alix's face. "Can we focus, please? We need you to do this for us sooner rather than later."

Alix rubbed her forehead. "And you can't just do this yourselves why?"

Marinette sighed heavily. "A lot of reasons – not the least of which is because one of our number decided now would be a good time to drop off the face of the earth, at the same time that her miraculous is being used by a super-villain–"

"–who may not actually be her," Chloe interjected, folding her arms.

"–so the rest of us need to stay here and stop the second evil Butterfly Miraculous user of our careers," Marinette continued without pause, "and we need to figure out what we're going to do about the fact that we somehow managed to lose Europe to a mythological monster!"

Alix held up her hand in a placating gesture, backing away from Marinette. "All right, all right; don't have a kitten – or at least not yet," she added, smirking and raising an eyebrow at Adrien. Marinette gave her a deadpan stare. "Fine, I'll do it," Alix agreed, rolling her eyes.

"Thank you," Adrien told her, rubbing Marinette's shoulder with one hand. "It's… going to be a lot different than anything you know here. Something happened there, about 12 years before we visited it, and…"

"… and everything went wrong," Marinette finished, her shoulders slumping.

Alix shrugged. "Can't be any worse than the shit show we left behind in Paris," she pointed out.

"It's… a different kind of shit show," Adrien told her, raising an eyebrow meaningfully.

"Huh." Alix shrugged. "So what do I do?" she asked Fluff.

"Just say 'Fluff, Clockwise'," explained the Kwami. "Then concentrate on the universe you wish to visit and say 'Burrow'. I'll do the rest."

Alix clenched her jaw anxiously but obeyed. "Fluff, Clockwise." Before the blue light had faded for her transformation, Bunnyx concentrated on the idea of the world Adrien and Marinette had visited, on the older version of Chloe, and called, "Burrow!" A shimmery white portal little different from Pegasus' – she swallowed – from Voyage – appeared in the air in front of her. Cautiously, she stepped through it into the bright light beyond.

The sensation was not unlike walking through a waterfall. The world shimmered around her for a brief moment before resolving. As the Burrow-Hole closed behind her, Bunnyx looked around her in interest, taking in the strange new world in which she found herself. The first thing she noticed was that she stood in the all-too-familiar interior courtyard of Collège Françoise Dupont. Her stomach ached. A handful of low bushes grew around the edges of the grass, but the main part had been trampled flat. The stairwell on the far side leading up to the classrooms leaned to one side, pulling away from the wall slightly. Dirt and grime clung to the side of the stairs. Bunnyx let out a breath. So much looked the same, but so much more seemed the slightest bit off from the Françoise Dupont that she knew – or had known.

She couldn't be sure that the collège was even still standing anymore.

But Bunnyx couldn't think about that right now. Ladybug and Cat Noir had sent her here on a mission. And if she could finish that mission, then they might be able to undo everything that the Tarasque had done – maybe including damage to the old collège. And then she could see her Paris again. From above, a door opened, and Bunnyx turned to see who was coming. Her eyes widened in shock.

It was Sabrina.

The older version of Sabrina, her hair cut in a short bob and with a few wrinkles visible around her eyes and mouth, stared down at Bunnyx in surprise, her hand tightening on the railing. Without taking her eyes off of Bunnyx, she called behind her, "Chlo? We have a visitor. And she seems a little tense…"

From the same room several more people appeared: a Ladybug with darker skin and a brown ponytail and a Cat Noir whose broad shoulders and height set him more than a head above his partner. A pair of miraculous users with what must have been the Dragon and Cheetah sprang out of the door, leapt over the railing, and landed on either side of Bunnyx. The Dragon drew his sword but did not attack, following Bunnyx's every move. Bunnyx felt for the umbrella at her side, and the Dragon's grip on his sword tightened. The Cheetah's hands rested on the handles of her sai. Finally, Chloe came down the stairs, followed by older versions of Kagami and–

"Max!" Bunnyx stared at him for a long moment and blinked. Old-Max cocked his head, his brows furrowed. Bunnyx swallowed hard and looked away.

Old-Chloe looked about as Marinette had described her: a couple decades older than her, streaks of grey in her short blonde hair, several scars marring her wrinkled face. She examined Bunnyx carefully, her head cocked to one side. "Alix?" old-Chloe asked, her eyes widening.

"Yes, Ma'am?" responded Cat Noir, stepping forward.

Bunnyx smirked. "I don't think she means you, Cat boy. Hi, Chloe. I guess it's been a few decades, hasn't it?"

"Something like that," old-Chloe agreed, nodding. She held out a hand to Bunnyx, who took it, only for old-Chloe to pull her into a suffocating hug. "But what on earth are you doing here? Did you come from the same universe I visited?"

"I suppose so – or at least my Marinette sent me here because she and Adrien had been here. As for why… that's a bit of a story…" Bunnyx began, grimacing. "Let's just say that it's been a hell of a couple months back home."

Ladybug snorted. "I mean, we kind of figured that much," she pointed out, gesturing toward Bunnyx and arching an eyebrow. "From what Mom says, Burrowing between universes isn't exactly a 'normal Friday night' event."

"'Mom'?" Bunnyx repeated, her eyes darting to Chloe. "You had a child?"

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "She adopted me after my parents were killed. Long story; longer ago. So…"

"Have you ever heard of a Tarasque?"

Max started, staring at her in confusion. "A Tarasque is a mythological hybrid," he answered promptly. "It combines a lion's head, a turtle's shell, a bear's paws–"

"–an ox's body, and a scorpion's tail," Bunnyx finished, her mouth twisting around in distaste. "And it's big as hell."

"Well, according to the myth, at least," Max noted, pursing his lips and eyeing her carefully. "Right?"

Bunnyx shrugged nonchalantly. "Turns out sometimes a myth isn't just a myth."

Sabrina blinked. "You mean…"

"It's real. And it packs one hell of a punch."

Chloe folded her arms, a pensive look in her eyes. "That's why you're here?" Bunnyx nodded, and Chloe let out a breath. "Well, your Adrien and Marinette did me a huge service a few months back. So how can we help?"

"Um… do you know anything about fighting ginormous mythological hybrid monsters that spew poison from their mouths and fire from their eyes?" Bunnyx grinned sheepishly.

Chloe furrowed her brows in thought and glanced across the room at Max and Sabrina.

Max shrugged. "If it is a hybrid, perhaps it is susceptible to separation?"

Bunnyx gave him a deadpan look. "That's what our Max suggested, before–" She swallowed, suddenly nauseous. "We tried that already. We hardly made a dent in it."

Chloe hummed contemplatively. "That could still be the solution," she mused. "But perhaps you didn't do it the right way… or with the right power…" She glanced at Sabrina. "Do you remember that old Atlantean scroll you found in the Egypt Temple back in the day?"

Sabrina cocked her head in confusion. "What, you mean the one with a map of what looked like the North Atlantic, along with the symbol for entropy? Vaguely… But we couldn't understand any of it."

Chloe nodded slowly. "But you know who would know…?" She raised an eyebrow at Ladybug, who promptly de-transformed. Chloe held a bag of cookies out to Tikki, who immediately grabbed three and shoved them into her mouth. "I swear," Chloe grumbled, "if I didn't know any better, I would think Ana starves you!"

"I have no idea where she puts them all," Ana agreed, stifling a giggle.

"After so long with… him…" Tikki began, shuddering. Her antennae drooped.

Chloe hummed and stroked the Kwami's head in understanding. "I'm just teasing, sweetie. So…" Tikki polished off the rest of her cookies and looked up expectantly. Chloe gave her an apologetic smile. "What do you know about… Entropy?"

Tikki's eyes widened. "Is this the Guardian asking?" she asked, swallowing hard.

"It is."

Tikki's eyes darted around the room and settled on Cat Noir. "I should talk to Plagg first," she replied cagily. "We agreed never to speak of it except in the most extreme of circumstances."

"Um… does 'Giant Tarasque rampaging through alt-timeline Paris' qualify?" asked Bunnyx, arching an eyebrow.

Tikki gave her a blank stare. "A Rabbit? Asking about Entropy?"

"This could mean life-or-death for their world," Chloe told Tikki, nodding. "They need to know."

Tikki's antennae drooped. "All the same, it is our most closely-guarded secret," she responded firmly. "I need to speak with Plagg… and I should also speak with your Fluff, Rabbit."

Cat Noir shrugged and de-transformed, as Bunnyx reluctantly did the same. It felt strange for the miraculous suit to vanish into nothingness, leaving her in her old, somewhat torn from the battle, Sk8r Girl suit. As the three Kwamis flittered off into the trees bordering the school's internal courtyard, Alix looked around at the others. The Dragon and Cheetah had both relaxed their stances and retreated closer to old-Kagami. The Cat Noir boy – Alex? – looked over at Ana and old-Chloe, frowning and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Old-Sabrina stepped closer to Alix, whose stomach clenched.

"I sense that you are carrying a lot of anxiety and tension," old-Sabrina told her softly.

Alix scoffed. "I mean, we did fight a mythological beast that could've used the Eiffel Tower as a backscratcher, so…"

Old-Sabrina shook her head. "More than just that. If you're anything like the Alix we knew–"

"'Knew'," interjected Alix, starting.

"–then it would take a serious emotional gut punch for you to feel the way you do," old-Sabrina finished.

"Gods, I've missed these chats with you – or with my you…" Alix let out a heavy breath. "Let's just say that the last few weeks have been hell. We… really need a win right now, you know?" Old-Sabrina put a hand on Alix's shoulder, and some of her anxiety and worry disappeared. "Oh…" Alix groaned. "You have no idea how much I was starting to miss that…"

Old-Sabrina pursed her lips, staring at Alix with concern, but a high-pitched voice cut in before she could say anything.

Tikki flew into the center of the small assembly with Plagg and Fluff in tow. She looked around the assembly solemnly before meeting Alix's gaze. "I'm going to tell you – the three of us agree that this situation warrants the knowledge. But you have to be very careful what you do with it." Alix nodded fervently, and Tikki sighed. "Okay… Long ago, shortly after the Mage created the miraculous, binding us to the material plane, a miraculous user attacked the Great Temple in Atlantis, using the Miraculous of Entropy. After Plagg and I defeated him with our holders, the Atlantean Guardians realized that certain of the miraculous were far too dangerous to be used, so they hid the Miraculous of Entropy away on a distant outpost. Once they had hidden it, they erased the outpost from all memory, leaving Plagg, Webb, and I as the only ones with any knowledge of where it is."

"This thing is that dangerous?" Alix asked, raising an eyebrow dubiously.

Plagg scoffed. "Not any worse than pure Destruction!" he retorted. He paused for a moment. "But Entropy does something to you…"

"How come we never knew about it?" Chloe demanded. "We found that scrap of paper with it–"

"–And if we had told anyone, he might have found it, and then who knows what he would have done!?" Tikki interrupted her. "That he did not know – that no miraculous user or Guardian knew – was Chaas' only protection! But please," she added urgently, "don't prejudge him. Chaas isn't bad or evil. He is only prone to misuse."

"Can he help us rip apart a massive poison-breathing monster?" Alix asked pointedly. Tikki nodded. "Good enough for me. Can you draw me a map?"

Tikki shook her head. "It would be better to ask me in your own universe. The location might be different." Turning to Fluff, she instructed her, "Tell me that the Guardian approved it, and that Eugennia would approve, also."

Fluff dipped her head. Alix nodded, her shoulders slumping in relief. "Thanks."