Ch 11 – It will all be fine…

Alix had a system for averting temporal disasters. If she went back in time and somehow triggered a catastrophe in her own time, she went back a SECOND time and left herself a warning.

Now, that might sound simple, but in practice, it wasn't. While multiple versions of Alix could coexist at the same place in time, multiple version of Bunnix could not. Fluff couldn't cross his own timeline that way. It was frustrating, but Alix couldn't just go back and say, "Hey Other Me, this whole fix-the-past plan is gonna blow up in your face," so she had to get creative with her messaging.

Her solution was to leave multi-colored buttons to signal herself. Over the years, Alix had come up with buttons for a bunch of scenarios.

Green said "this won't change anything"

Pink meant "This won't change what you WANT it to change"

Yellow said "this will make things worse," and red specifically told her 'someone will die.'

She even had a purple one to indicate "Global destruction imminent." (Fortunately, she'd never had to use that one.)

For example, once Alix burrowed to prevent Chloe's Mom from moving to New York when Chloe was 16. The separation broke Chloe's heart, and Alix wanted to spare her teammate some of that pain growing up. Sadly, when Alix returned to her native time, she discovered that Mrs. Bourgeois' toxic personality turned Chloe into a full-time supervillain.

Alix raced back and left a yellow button to warn herself "This will end worse than you think," and it worked. Younger Bunnix saw the button and decided to let history play out without interference. Chloe got her act together and became a beloved superhero just like she was always meant to.

To date, the button system hadn't failed her. All Alix had to do was trust her older self. Younger Alix couldn't second-guess a button. And frankly, that was Alix's strength. She trusted herself. Let Marinette overthink and obsess. Alix planned, acted, and if necessary fixed things later (or earlier as was often the case).

Inside the white burrow, Bunnix found a portal to Paris roughly a decade ago. She had to fast forward a bit, skimming through different akuma battles until there was an abrupt change. Chat Noir's blonde hair blinked into a jet black, and his leather suit turned to robes.

Bunnix had gone too far.

She rewound.

When she made it back to the battle against Tangler (the sentimonster of vines), she slowed down. She watched in reverse as New Chat Noir saved Ladybug. Then, Tikki gave Adrien a pep talk, and Adrien walked backward to lay down on the on the pavement in the alley.

Plagg materialized on the boy's chest and fought with Tikki. Then Tikki flew off backward as Plagg fretted over how to save his boy. Plagg went screaming back to the top of the building and a moment later, Adrien's body fell upward until he was hanging from the drainage pipe as old Chat Noir.

Bunnix watched the whirl of Miraculous Ladybugs swarm the city, leaving everything damaged as they raced back to Ladybug, and then, she tapped the portal surface, so it would play normally.

The swarm of Miraculous Ladybugs halted mid-air before switching course. They spirited outward to repair everything they touched…

As Bunnix felt a warm breath on her skin. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Bunnix whirled, certain someone was watching her, but no one was there. As far as she could see, she was alone in her burrow.

She shook her head to clear it and turned back to the portal. As Chat Noir hung from the drainage pipe, she searched for any colored buttons that would indicate this was a bad idea.

There were none.

That means 'all clear.'

Moments before…

…Chat Noir struggled in vain to pull himself up onto the roof as his ring beeped urgently. It was too much, his body was too weak.

But lucky for him, help was on its way.

A swarm of Ladybugs filled the sky undoing all the damage caused by Chat Blanc. In a flurry of wings, Chat's body healed (though he was still hanging from the drainage pipe). He felt a rush of relief as he again tried pulling himself up onto the roof. The drainage pipe wasn't meant to support that much weight, so it tore away from the building a little.

Chat realized that the easiest solution was just to let go and fall harmlessly to the alley below.

But sometimes Chat's timing was as bad as his luck. He'd just released his grip on the pipe when his ring gave out a finally beep, and he de-transformed.

Adrien Agreste fell four stories…

Into Bunnix waiting arms. "Gotcha," she smiled, setting him on his feet.

"Bunnix? What are you…?" Adrien stopped at the sound of a shrill wail coming from up above.

"AAADDRRIIEEEEEEEEEEENN!" In a split second, Plagg blurred to him, checking to see that he was ok.

Bunnix regarded the two with a soft smile. Then, she flipped the pair a two-finger salute and disappeared back into her burrow in a flash of light.

I waited ten years to do that?

Why? With a broad grin, Bunnix strode across her burrow to the portal for her own time…

Until she slammed into something she couldn't see and stumbled backward. In front of her, a mirage evaporated, revealing Alya in full Rena Rouge glory. "What are YOU doing here?" Bunnix demanded.

"I could ask you the same thing," Rena stared her down.

"Did you follow me?" Bunnix got to her feet.

The fox's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Time travel might be your thing, but distinguishing truth from lies is mine." Rena crossed her arms. "When one of my friends interrogates me for details and then runs off as if they've got somewhere to be… I get suspicious. What'cha been up to, Bunnix?"

Alix couldn't meet her gaze at first. "Working." She took a breath and set her shoulders back, before admitting, "I went back to fix something, something I should've fixed a long time ago."

"And what was that?" Rena Rouge probed.

"As if you don't know?" Bunnix muttered. "Weren't you watching? I saved Plagg's life just like Adrien asked me to a million times over. I didn't do anything wrong. You said it yourself: I know time travel. I know what I'm doing." Bunnix sidestepped her teammate, but Rena grabbed her arm and spun her around.

"Do you?! Because from where I stand, changing a moment like this could devastate the future."

"It won't!"

"And how do you know that?!"

Bunnix faltered. Alya probably wouldn't respect her button system. As a reporter, she'd see them as "an unreliable source." But sometimes, seeing is believing. Bunnix gestured to the portal to their native time. "Let me show you. Our future will be fine."

Rena Rouge glowered but let go of Bunnix arm. "You'd better be right, or you can bet I'll take your Miraculous, and on Emil's life, they will Never. Find. Your. Body."

Alix gulped. "Got it." Without looking, she stepped through the portal... and stopped dead in her tracks.

Paris was in ruins.

Bunnix had no way of knowing it, but more was set in motion the day Plagg died than she ever could've imagined.

For example, after Ladybug lost her earring, Hawkmoth and Mayura spent every possible moment searching for it.

If Ladybug didn't lose half her Miraculous, then Paris' supervillains might've gotten involved with other pursuits.

The sorts of things that lead to the end of the world. But since Bunnix knew neither the identity of the first Hawkmoth nor Mayura, she couldn't have dreamed how her interference would affect their choices.

Author's Note: This chapter was originally much longer. But I wanted to publish something, and the rest is still in the editing phase. Hopefully I'll have it up soon.

Please Read and Review. This is my first time travel piece ever, so i can use all the advice I can get.

Many thanks!