Here it is: the penultimate chapter of The Unclocker
Chapter 56: Blasto
On the day of Blasto's attack, Adeline Droz woke up half an hour after she had set her alarm to the sound of explosions.
She wasn't late - in her nervousness, she decided she wanted an extra hour in the morning - but the close call had her even more shaken.
And so did the akuma attack.
It was still a couple of hours before her interview, so she hoped it wouldn't interfere. Employers, even potential employers, were supposed to be lenient when akuma attacks were involved anyways, so she had no reason to be nervous.
Adeline was very, very nervous.
She burnt her breakfast, then her second attempt at breakfast, and had Blasto not been akumatized, she would have been.
Instead, she thumped her head on wall, told herself not to cry, and tried again.
She forgot to iron her interview clothes last night. She dropped her toothbrush into the trash can. She nearly poked an eyeball out while applying mascara, and then almost tripped going down the stairs.
Her interview was in half an hour, she was an emotional mess, running late, and in the distance, the akuma fight was still raging on.
Chat Noir landed beside Ladybug.
"Any sign of her?" He asked.
Ladybug deflected a piece of debris with her yo-yo. "No. Hope I didn't miss her."
Chat Noir stepped forward, deflected the debris. "I'll cover for you."
Ladybug nodded, using her yo-yo to pull herself back to her perch on the roof.
The fight with Blasto was going about as well as it did the first time. Blasto's explosions and missile debris was hard to strategize against, and Ladybug and Chat Noir had been tag-teaming in and out for most of the fight, so one of them could keep a look out for Adeline. Up until Chat Noir was forced to use his cataclysm to keep a building from the crushing them, after which Ladybug had to fend for herself.
Her arms ached, her ankle throbbed, and she was coughing from the all the dust that had been kicked up.
She didn't notice her earrings beeping until she detransformed.
"Tikki?"
"Marinette," Tikki said. "I'm sorry for forcing the transformation, but we have a problem."
"What is it?" Marinette asked.
The detransformation wasn't a big deal, since she'd been hidden anyways, but Tikki had never done this before.
"I've been thinking, you can't keep The Unclocker from being akumatized," Tikki explained. "The more I think about it, the more I realize - once you cast the cure, the timeline will be restored."
"Which means Adeline will still be akumatized," Marinette said.
"Or worse, we could cause a paradox," Tikki replied. "Time travel is tricky, Marinette. We need to be careful."
"Then we need to come up with a different plan," Marinette said. "Well, we know what we do in the past will effect the present - will Adeline remember it if we talk to her?"
"It doesn't look like anyone else remembered," Tikki said. "But-"
"But what?" Marinette asked.
"Maybe they just didn't remember, because they didn't realize anything was different," Tikki said. "If that makes sense."
"So there's a chance Adeline will remember?"
Another explosion echoed, and Chat Noir went flying. He landed on the rooftop next to Marinette.
"Chat! Are you okay?"
Chat Noir pushed himself back up. "Yeah, just checking in." He gave Marinette his flashiest smile. "Don't worry about me."
"I always worry about you, kitty," Marinette replied. "Be careful."
Chat Noir nodded, and Marinette turned back to Tikki.
"If there's any chance of this working, we need to try."
"If you're going to try, there's your chance," Chat Noir said, gesturing to the road below. "Adeline Droz has arrived."
Adeline watched the akuma battle with a growing sense of helplessness.
By now, she had lost any chance of making the interview.
It was devastating. She wasn't at fault for this - the akuma attack had been going on for hours by now! - but she would be blamed. Of course she would.
That was how she lost her last job, after all.
If the heroes could just do their job, it wouldn't be a problem. Or even if they just gave those stupid miraculouses over, or if Hawkmoth would grow up, or, or, or-
"Are you alright?"
Adeline turned, surprised to see Ladybug behind her.
"No," Adeline snapped. "With no thanks to you."
She instantly felt bad. Ladybug looked exhausted and was she limping?
"I know these battles can be annoying," Ladybug said.
She sat down on the curb, and Adeline sat besides her.
"I've missed many important things in my life because my duty as Ladybug comes first," Ladybug admitted. "My relationships have been impacted, my education - it makes me feel powerless, out of control. A lot of people feel that way too."
"I was supposed to be at a job interview an hour ago," Adeline said. "And I know potential employers are supposed to be forgiving, but I lost my last job because of an akuma attack. I can't help but worry that this next job will be like that too."
"That's scary," Ladybug replied.
"And if I don't get this job, I don't know what I'll do," Adeline admitted. "I don't have much savings, and I'm scared if I ask for more help, everyone will accuse me of being a freeloader and I'll lose what little help I have! I could lose my apartment, and then how will I get a job?"
"I wish I could say," Ladybug replied.
"I wish Hawkmoth never existed," Adeline proclaimed, standing up. "Or - or why couldn't you just give him your miraculous?"
Ladybug frowned. "You've seen what Hawkmoth does with the power he has now. He can't be trusted with something as powerful as my miraculous, or Chat's."
Adeline blinked, the picture of Hawkmoth using a cataclysm entering her head.
"Good point," Adeline admitted.
"This is all Hawkmoth's fault," Ladybug stressed. "I know it's easy to get mad at Chat and I, but we're doing our best. And the problem is, Hawkmoth isn't doing any of the work himself. He manipulates others to do it for him, so he himself bears no risk in the end. It's frustrating."
Adeline sat back down next to Ladybug. "How do you cope? With how helpless this all must feel?"
"I - I just avoid thinking about it," Ladybug admitted. "It's probably not healthy, but - well, it works. And I have to hope that one day, we'll find away to stop Hawkmoth permanently."
"And that false positivity never wears on you?" Adeline inquired.
"It does," Ladybug replied. "But that's what Paris needs right now."
"I think what Paris needs right now is someone who's willing to admit this all sucks," Adeline said. "You don't have to have everything together, Ladybug. This false positivity is going to come back and hurt you, and we can't lose you."
Ladybug blinked. "I - um, I was the one doing the comforting here?"
"I'm just saying," Adeline replied. "I've felt everything boiling up for me, because I felt like I couldn't complain. Everyone else is surviving the akuma attacks fine, why should I have the right to complain? You need someone you can complain with."
"I do," Ladybug said. "I have my partner."
At that moment, said partner was launched into the sky and collided with the pavement in front of Ladybug.
"Oof," Ladybug winced. "Are you okay?"
Chat Noir gave a thumbs up.
"I think you have a villain to defeat," Adeline said.
"I think we do," Ladybug agreed.
They didn't get a chance, because right then the winds picked up.
Ladybug and Chat Noir reappeared in the hotel lobby, both caught off-guard by the change in location.
"Wha- we didn't defeat the akuma?" Ladybug questioned. She turned to The Unclocker, looking for answers.
But The Unclocker was in tears.
I did not expect this chapter to go so deep.