Chapter 4: A Reveal Too Far

Timeline 4: Ladybug knows Chat's identity, he knows hers, and both know the other knows.
Timeline 5: Nobody knows

All the reveal combinations so far had ended in disaster: Chat knowing who Ladybug was and not vice-versa ended with Paris killed, Ladybug knowing who Chat was and not vice-versa ended with Ladybug's Miraculous destroyed, Ladybug and Chat knowing but not knowing the other knew ended with the death of Shadow Moth. There was just one more thing to try: both knowing and knowing the other knew.

"Chat Noir, I saw both of your childhood dreams," said Ephemeral in Viperion.

"Please tell me mine. I was going let myself get hit just to know what it was," said Chat.

"You may be disappointed. As a child you only wanted to be whatever your parents wanted you to be. You turned into yourself, Adrien Agreste."

"That's a lousy dream."

"I'm sorry, it is what it is. Your parents did a number on you."

"Since you know who I am, I can tell you that I know who you are, Luka Couffaine. Remember, I was the one who recommended you for the Snake Miraculous when it didn't work out for me to use it."

"I also saw Ladybug become the Knitting Fairy. She's Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"What? Really? Wow!" said Chat, looking very happy. "Don't tell her I know, all right? She'll get mad."

"I'm going to tell her you know, and also tell her your identity. It's only fair."

"NO! Ladybug won't want that at all."

Ephemeral was already leaping away as Viperion.

Before taking off the Snake Miraculous, Ephemeral spoke to Ladybug.

"Ladybug, I know you're Marinette. I also know Chat Noir is Adrien Agreste."

"But that's imposs-... that means... oh no!" said Ladybug. "You shouldn't have told me his identity."

"No, he shouldn't, and he shouldn't have told me yours, Marinette," said Chat Noir, who had followed Ephemeral.

Chat grabbed Ephemeral from behind.

"What are you doing, Chat?" asked Ladybug.

"It's out-of-character for Luka to disregard your wishes. I suspect this isn't him."

"How do you know he's Luka?" asked Ladybug. "Oh right, as Adrien."

"Of course I'm me," said Ephemeral. "I'm totally Luka Couffaine. I swear it."

"You're a bad liar," said Ladybug. "You're right, Chat. I see it in his eyes."

"If he's not the real Luka, he must be a sentimonster," said Chat.

"Shadow Moth outplayed us!" said Ladybug. "He created an akuma that would make me want to use Viperion, and replaced Luka with a sentimonster before I got there. I got fooled, just like Rena Rouge was fooled into giving a Miraculous to Senti-Nino."

"Then Shadow Moth knows our identities," said Chat. "We're finished."

"Shadow Moth knows our identities now, doesn't he?" Ladybug asked Ephemeral.

"No he doesn't," said Ephemeral, "I've been resetting the timeline."

"With Second Chance," said Chat. "I see. Shadow Moth has found us out, and then not."

"But Shadow Moth has a mental link," said Ladybug. "He'll tell him the next time he links in."

"Not if I stop him," said Chat.

"How? We're both going to time out," said Ladybug.

"I'll eat an Astrocat power-up," said Chat. "That will let me take him out into space, out of range of Shadow Moth."

"He can't survive in space! That's murder!" said Ladybug.

"It's the only way," said Chat.

"Don't do it!" said Ephemeral. "It's not like that. Let me explain!"

"You're a goner anyway," said Chat. "Shadow Moth will dismiss you from existence as soon as you've told him what he wants to know."

"Rewind!" said Ephemeral.

When Ladybug came to get Luka for help with Wishmaster, Luka showed her a note he had been made to write while lying on the beach next to his crocodile-transformed dad. (Ephemeral had also averted Luka checking on Marinette in the park bathroom stall.)

Dear Ladybug,

My name is Ephemeral. I am an akumatized Luka from the future. When you used Viperion to protect your identities, he learned them both, but he lied to you that he didn't. He was upset by this and wanted to undo his mistake, causing me to be created. I can move back and forth in time. I came back and possessed him to make different choices in what he told you, but each change ended in disaster. I've decided to come back to this point and prevent the whole thing.

This is what you need to do to defeat Wishmaster without using Viperion. First, get Chat Noir out of Wishmaster's way. Chat wants to know his childhood dream badly enough to let himself be hit.

Second, the man in the red beret at the other end of the bridge from Chat is the key to victory. You will get a Dino Huggy as a Lucky Charm if you call for one, and the man will tell you his dream to be one if he sees it, so you can check that I'm telling the truth. Get that man hit by Wishmaster to turn him into a Dino Huggy, then tell him Wishmaster needs a big hug. Wishmaster can't do anything against a person he has already transformed. That will allow you to get his staff away.

I have one more request for myself. I'm pretty sure I'm immune from the grandfather paradox. On some of the timelines I saw you were happy at first, so Luka wouldn't have been akumatized. Even so, I still exist. I've been split off from him somehow. What I request is that when you get back the Butterfly you use it to say, "I dismiss Ephemeral's akuma," and then do a miraculous cure based on my defeat. That should merge me back as part of Luka. I hope.

Until you do, I'll be wandering around the timeline like a ghost. I won't interfere again. I'm sorry.

With love,
Ephemeral