Chapter 21: Mother Time

This chapter actually begins with a flashback and serves as a replacement for the Backwarder episode. It's World War II in Paris. A much younger Wang Fu is meeting with a much younger Marianne Lenoir at night. The conversation quickly reveals they're in love and part of the French resistance. It's also clear that Fu trusts Marianne deeply as she knows all about the miraculous. In fact, it's implied she's the black cat wielder who fights alongside his superhero alias, the Jade Turtle. They've been working on sabotaging the German occupation, but the Nazis are catching onto them and hot on their trail.

Marianne wants to fight for Paris, but Fu insists his duty as the guardian of the miraculous box is to ensure that the miraculous do not fall into Nazi hands. Marianne agrees with him on this. They hear marching and dogs barking as the soldiers are searching for them. Marianne looks torn as she wants to fight. However, she takes off the black cat ring and hands it to Fu. She tells him that in order to keep both Paris and the miraculous safe, they have to part ways now. But she will always love him.

Fu does not want to leave. He loves her very much. However, the dogs are getting closer. They take a few steps apart. Fu promises he'll return to France (as it's implied he's going to leave continental Europe to get away from the war.) Marianne knows he'll keep his promise and that he'll find her one day, no matter how long it takes. Until then, she's going to continue to live in France and fight alongside the resistance. (Based on history, the resistance was eventually forced south, so at this point, Marianne is likely to imply that she's going to head south herself and do what she can.) Their eyes meet for one eternal, sorrowful moment. And then they both flee. And have not seen each other ever since.

Cue opening credit music (joking).

Cat Noir enters Master Fu's acupuncture clinic to return the turtle bracelet after defeating the most recent akumatized victim. He finds Master Fu watching a newscast on television. It takes Cat Noir a moment, but he recognizes the report as being an old one. Master Fu recorded it. It's Nadja Chamack's broadcast of Fire Defender. Master Fu watches part of it, rewinds it, watches it again, rewinds it. Wayzz emerges and shakes his head. "He's at it again." Wayzz tells Cat Noir that Master Fu has watched this clip over and over and over on other previous days.

Cat Noir clears his throat to let Master Fu know he's entered. Master Fu is surprised, but he pauses the television. He accepts the bracelet back and congratulates Cat Noir on a job well done. The conversation lulls, and it's clear Master Fu is waiting for Cat Noir to leave so he can go back to watching television. Cat Noir asks "do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Master Fu feigns ignores.

"The lovely lady." Cat Noir smiles.

Master Fu stammers. "What lovely lady?"

Cat Noir nods towards the television, which has been paused on Marianne as she stands down Fire Defender. Master Fu initially attempts to stammer a denial, but Cat Noir doesn't believe it. Master Fu sighs, "Do you have time to listen to an old man's tale?" Cat Noir transforms back into Adrien Agreste, feeds Plagg, and listens. Master Fu tells him everything the reader saw in the opening.

Adrien is amazed by the tragic love story and asks Master Fu if he's going to try to talk to Marianne Lenoir. Master Fu basically says he doesn't have the nerves. For years, he took refuge in England, had to fake his own death to create a new identity as Chan, while Marianne endured the German occupation. He lost track of her and had assumed the worst—that she had been killed during the war. Even when he moved back to Paris, he had been unable to track her down. Years passed, and he assumed that if she has survived the war, she would have fallen in love with someone else and gotten married. Then decades passed, and he figured it was hopeless. He'd never see her again, she had died, she loved someone else, she moved out of France…all of these doubts have always played in his head. Even now, he wonders if she's married. Does she even want to see him when he couldn't keep in touch?

Adrien simply says "But you love her."

Master Fu insists that it's not simple. How would Adrien feel if it were Ladybug he had been separated from for over a decade? If she had fallen in love with and married someone else, started a family, had a different life?

Adrien doesn't even hesitate. "I'd still want to talk with her. One more time. More than anything."

Wayzz prods a bit, and Master Fu admits he feels the same way. But how can he arrange a meeting with Marianne after so long? At least he knows she's in Paris—but Paris is huge. Where does he even start?

Adrien offers to help.

Meanwhile, the scene changes to Marianne. She's asking around Paris about Ladybug and Cat Noir, trying to gather information. She's talking to people who were akumatized before, using her sweet old lady personality to draw out information. She talks to Roger the cop and then walks into the Dupin-Cheng bakery at takes to Tom Dupin while buying some macaroons. She takes her snack to the park and sits down next to Xavier Ramier, who is again feeding the pigeons.

Marianne recognizes him as the former akuma victim, Mr. Pigeon, so she begins to ask questions. Xavier, however, says he's seen Marianne around the city many days now. She seems to be working very hard. Is everything okay? She prods a bit about Ladybug and Cat Noir, but he is equally and genuinely and kindly insistent, so Marianne opens up to him.

"Do you have time for an old woman's story?" she asks.

Xavier Ramier says he does, so while he feeds the pigeons, she talks. Marianne explains that she was a young lady during World War II. She fought for the resistance and was madly in love. However, the war drove them apart and out of Paris. She spent her time in south France, running supplies and breaking enemy lines, carrying communication, helping refugees, and even some espionage. The war ended, but there was still so much to do…it took her years to return to Paris. But she was never able to find her true love again.

She had feared he was killed during the war. But she also realized he could have moved on. Maybe he found someone else? Maybe he fell in love, got married, had kids…Maybe he never planned to return to France. Then years became decades. She didn't think he was still alive. However, she's "seen signs of his work" lately. Maybe he finally came back to Paris after all these years. But what if it's not him? What if what she's seeing is all done by his apprentice or successor?

Xavier Ramier asks if the man she loves in an artist because that's how it sounds to him. Marianne says "yes, let's go with that." She says she's been trying to find out information about who's behind the "work" she's "seen around," but no one has any useful information. She wouldn't even know where to find him—assuming it's not his heir, which it likely is.

Mr. Ramier pulls out his smartphone to take pictures of the pigeons as she finishes talking. She wonders aloud if he'd even want to see her now that she's an old lady. Mr. Ramier doesn't hesitate—of course he'd want to see you. You're his first love. Even if he married someone else, he'd want to know you're alive and happy. He doesn't want to give her false hope, but he might even add "and maybe he didn't get married or maybe he did but his wife passed away." Marianne thanks him for his time. She'll keep looking then even without many clues to go by.

He then asks her about the name and birth date of her lost love. She asks why. He tells her he could try a person search using his phone. She didn't know phones could do that (Wang Fu is fairly tech savvy, but Marianne not so much). She tells him Wang Fu's name and birth date, and a bit of information such as where he fled to during World War 2. Mr. Ramier spends some time using Google/white pages/Spokeo/whatever while she takes over feeding the pigeons for her.

Then Mr. Ramier goes sheet white. "I am so, so sorry." He finds the obituary for Wang Fu from decades ago (when he faked his death to become Mr. Chan). He turns his phone to Marianne so she can confirm that the picture in the obituary is, indeed, him. Name, age, birth date, all match. Tears slide down her face as she thanks him so much because at least now she has closure. She wipes her face and walks away, but the tears keep coming.

An akuma flies by. Mr. Ramier notices it and shouts out a warning, but it's too late. Hawk Moth akumatizes Marianne into Mother Time. Because of her regret of time lost with the one she loved, the years that passed that they weren't together, her own old age, and a bit of bitterness over young couples who have their whole futures together, Hawk Moth gives Mother Time the ability to forcefully age or de-age her victims. "If I can't have love, no one will!" Mother Time leaps into the streets and begins to cause chaos. Mr. Ramier fumbles his phone and then sends out the Akuma Alert.

The first couple she encounters are Monique Imhof and Mathieu Anciel, who are skating/skateboarding together. She turns him elderly and her into a baby, leaving him befuddled as he cradles her in his arms, crying, while trying to balance on his skateboard. She then passes baby Auguste and his mother, so she reverses their ages where Auguste is now an adult man and his mother is a toddler. Before she can turn on Mylene Haprele and Ivan Bruel, who are getting ice cream at Andre's, Ladybug and Cat Noir show up.

Ladybug uses her yo-yo to stop Mother Time from harming the two teens. They run off, and Mother Time turns her attention to Ladybug and Cat Noir. Why do they deserve to be happy? Why do they get to fight by each other's sides when she and her love had to split?

Both sides fight, and despite their best efforts, Mother Time manages to strike Cat Noir. She reverses his age until he's about six years old. As a six-year-old, Cat Noir is very hyper with no attention span. Ladybug has to coral her partner while trying to stop Mother Time. Cat Noir does try to help, but it's more along the lines of "look at me, look at what I can do!"

Things progress until Ladybug gets struck, turning her into an elderly lady. Mother Time moves in to take her earrings, but young Cat Noir intercedes to stop her because he still recognizes that Ladybug is someone important to him and that he's a hero and it's the right thing to do. Mother Time is able to kick him aside. He is still a kid, after all, and Mother Time, though elderly, is an empowered akuma victim. Ladybug snaps that that's no way to treat a kid, but she lacks punch due to her slowed movements brought on by old age.

Mother Time goes for Ladybug's earrings again, but child Cat Noir struggles to his feet and insists on defending "his lady" because he's a hero. Mother Time makes a sarcastic comment about him being in love and how foolish that is; sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, you're not meant to be together. Cat Noir, even being a kid, has now pieced together the civilian identity of the akumatized victim. He replies with "but you still love Wang Fu, don't you?" Mother Time stops entirely and gapes. How does Cat Noir know that name? Ladybug, despite having duller reflexes, is able to grapple for the akumatized item and destroys it. (Remember, despite these summaries often times not including Ladybug's Lucky Charm or Cat Noir's Cataclysm, they do use those abilities in every battle—the summaries include noteworthy times.)

The akuma is released. Ladybug purifies it. She then does her "Miraculous Ladybug" and heals all the damage and wrong ages, including her own and Cat Noir's. "Pound it!" Ladybug asks Cat Noir what he meant (about Master Fu), but Cat Noir says that she can ask him (Fu). He then, very chivalrously, offers to help Marianne. Ladybug has to "bug out" because her counter is running down, but Cat Noir still has a minute or two. They part ways.

As Ladybug leaves, Cat Noir calls out to her. "Ladybug? By the way—you make an absolutely beautiful old woman." He clearly implies he wants to grow old together with her. Ladybug is uncertain how to take the comment and then has to run off.

Cat Noir offers to help Marianne to a cafe where she can get something to drink. Marianne, finally having one of the superheroes whom she can ask questions, immediately begins to bombard him, pleading for information about the current guardian of the miraculous. Cat Noir gets an idea. He tells her that he promises he'll tell her everything—but there's simply not enough time. He suggests that she wait for him in the cafe while he runs off, feeds his kwami, and then comes back. Marianne agrees and thanks him, a bit desperate. (Since she's the former black cat, she even knows Plagg's name.)

Cat Noir leaps off and runs as fast as he can to Master Fu's. Master Fu is a bit alarmed (as the news reports were delayed in arriving, so he hasn't seen any footage or heard the exact details of this akuma). He wonders if it's bad and Cat Noir needs an ally. Cat Noir says that's not the case. He insists Master Fu needs to get to a certain cafe immediately. Master Fu wonders why and tells Cat Noir he's busy at his clinic. Cat Noir insists he has to go and that he'll regret it if he doesn't. He practically pushes Master Fu out the door, coat and hat in hand. Master Fu, on his own doorstep, wonders what is so important. However, he knows Cat Noir and he knows Adrien; if he says it's important, then it is.

Master Fu heads to the cafe. Marianne is sitting there, watching the door expectantly. Master Fu stops dead in his tracks when he sees her. Marianne is a bit surprised at the old man who has such a strange reaction who seems to be staring at her. Then she recognizes him. The tears just start falling. "Wang? Wang Fu? Is that you? I thought you were dead…" She can't even speak because she's so choked up at happy. Master Fu just whispers her name as he takes the seat across from her.

They start talking, as awkward as teenagers at times, but still very much in love. Of course it gets revealed pretty early on that neither ever married because both were still too madly in love with each other. It pans to across the street where Adrien is watching from the window. He has a big smile on his face, hoping that one day he and Ladybug can be that old, happy couple together. Perhaps he and Plagg do an extra "Pound It" on behalf of Master Fu and Marianne's reunion.

(Of course, it's worth noting through this whole time, that Hawk Moth does not learn that Marianne knows who the guardian of the miraculous is.)

To be continued in Chapter 22: Startrain…