Chat Noir was the first one to step through the portal, he looked at the familiar cave, it was almost dark, dimly lit by the morning light that reached from the outside, but with his night vision he was able to see everything. Ladybug followed only a second later and stumbled a little until he caught her hand.
Bunnix passed through and did not look impressed, as rabbits were also able to see in the dark, all she was able to see were stone walls and faint light that passed through a narrow entrance. Peagasus was the last one to go through, he knew although he did not see much, he knew where he was, he led them there.
"What are we going to do Bug? We can't go to the temple transformed." Chat Noir put his hand on the stone by his side and leaned onto it. He smirked at Ladybug. He knew how she always had a plan, but he also knew how Marinette sometimes rushed in.
Ladybug observed her surroundings. There was nothing there, the portal they passed through closed behind them and the miraculous that the horse hero was wearing released its first warning. She expected to find something there, but it was empty, there were no clues.
"I … um … Peagasus will detransform anyway, perhaps the two of you can go outside, feed Kaalki on the path and then M.. um … " She trailed off, she couldn't really say to Chat that Max could easily find the way to the temple.
"Wait!" Both Peagasus and Bunnix shouted at the same time and then looked at each other surprised. Peagasus adjusted his glasses. Then they both looked away, Peagasus clenched his fist nervously, Bunnix rubbed the back of her neck.
"We are at the temple?" Bunnix was the first one to blurt out something as she stared at Ladybug. "That temple that got restored after you defeated that sentimonster … Feast? And it appeared on the place where my f… I mean that famous archaeologist found that piece of stone that was in fact …?"
Ladybug flinched when Bunnix almost referred to her father in front of Peagasus, she intended to keep their identities a secret from each other, unless the monks in the temple decided on the contrary. Besides, it was Alix who needed to learn, why did she suggest for Max to go too?
"And why we can't go to the temple transformed?" Was the next thing Bunnix asked after she cut her own speech not to reveal her identity to Peagasus. "What will happen if we end up there by accident? And how close can we get?"
It was Chat who answered the questions, he saw how Ladybug was rather confused, like when she could not make sense of the lucky charm she got, so he stepped in and explained about the temple of the guardians and how they were not supposed to enter transformed, not really forbidden.
"And how am I to have my training in the temple if I can't go to the temple transformed and how will I keep my identity a secret?" Bunnix put her hands on her hips. Chat Noir was relaxed in his pose while Ladybug was nervously looking around.
Ladybug spiralled. Was this whole thing just a mistake? Did she rush everything? Bunnix did say that she got her miraculous when she was much taller. What was she thinking? She just woke up in the middle of the night and summoned three of her classmates for a little night walk.
"Peagasus, let's go outside and feed your kwami. We should not get closer to the temple while transformed." Chat proposed when the one last warning beep sounded from the glasses Peagasus was wearing.
"As for the identities, the monks here can learn your identities, at least some of them, they knew instantly when Chat and me arrived here as civilians." Ladybug explained. She wanted to warn them how the monks made them reveal their identities to each other.
Peagasus nodded that he understood and walked out together with Chat. He detransformed and Max admired the view. It was really beautiful in the early morning sun that added the orange and yellow shade to everything around, including the snow in the distant mountain tops.
"You're here!" They heard a voice from the side. Max was startled, Kaalki ate his food while Chat grinned at the two people who approached them down the path.
"Pema! Dorje!" Chat greeted. Max recognized the two monks as soon as they got sufficiently close and greeted both of them.
"We brought the wielder of the rabbit miraculous. She calls herself Bunnix." Chat explained. "Ladybug thought it was time to bring her for the training.. The two of them are still in the cave. We used teleportation to get here." He motioned towards Max.
"I'm glad to see you again, Max." Pema smiled brightly. "Why don't you feed your kwami and join Bunnix in the cave, Ladybug and Chat Noir need to detransform to talk to the teacher about your training."
Max smiled and agreed with one firm nod. Soon he was able to transform and return to the cave while Pema and Dorje asked Ladybug to come out where she found Adrien who detransformed the moment Peagasus was back in the cave and Plagg who whined for local cheese.
"Spots off." She whispered and reached for a macaron to feed her kwami. "I was wrong. I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it." She whispered to her kwami. "Why we don't take Alix with us to meet Tenzin?" She asked the two monks.
"Because of your and their identities. The two of them can wait in the cave a little." Pema winked and motioned for the two teenagers to follow. "Come on, the teacher is always happy to see you. We just had breakfast, would you like something?"
"Cheese" Plagg whined although he just ate a piece of Camembert that Adrien brought with him. Adrien's belly growled. Marinette and Tikki laughed.
"You and your kwami are much alike." She teased.
"Well you are much like your kwami." Adrien reached for Tikki and patted her on the head.
"I feel guilty for leaving them alone like this." Marinette stopped for a moment and looked back towards the cave.
"Don't worry, we will return for the two of them as soon as you are in the temple." Pema replied and encouraged her to continue walking along the path.
"They don't know each other's identities." Marinette warned quickly.
"Don't worry, we'll keep that in mind." Pema replied and smiled to herself.
"We should wait … while they um … decide what to do with us?" Peagasus adjusted his glasses and smiled sheepishly. He shrugged and tried not to feel nervous because of the silence in the cave, because he was left alone with a new hero. He always hat Markov to talk to.
"I'm not sure about this. I expected to get this suit much later … when I'm older … and taller! Much taller." Bunnix crossed her arms and looked at the other hero. He wasn't much taller than her, they were both short, and Peagasus was a boy.
"You expected to get a miraculous?" Peagasus frowned and looked at the other hero, then he leaned in and observed her really closely, she frowned back and observed him too as she imitated his movements. They moved in circle around each other.
"Are you Chloe?" He finally asked. That made both of them stop, they stared at each other for a moment and then Bunnix burst into loud unrestrained laughter.
"Chloe?" She screamed between the laughs. "Chloe as in Chloe Bourgeois Chloe?" Bunnix was holding her belly and bent over while she laughed, then she straightened up and stared at the other hero, her eyes were wet with tears of laughter, and then she laughed some more.
"Well, you said you expected to get a miraculous!" Peagasus adjusted his glasses. "I can tell you with certainty that she is at the top of the list of candidates for such a statement." He never expected to get a miraculous, especially not after Hawk Moth was defeated.
"Oh! That? Um … you see … there was an akuma from the future, and I appeared, I mean Bunnix, wait! I'm Bunnix." She pointed to herself. "I mean, the future me appeared, transformed and that is how I knew that I was going to get this miraculous one day."
"So you met … yourself? From the future? As a superhero?" Max adjusted his glasses and crossed his arms. Alix nodded. "And you recognized yourself … somehow? Or you just told yourself that you are you? "
"I did not reveal my identity to me!" Bunnix shifted nervously from one foot to another. "I mean the future me did not reveal and I was me, well the civilian me, so she recognized me and … " She trailed off, there was no way for her to tell him about the watch.
"Oh, so you kept your identity a secret?" Peagasus was positively surprised by the revelation but also deflated guiltily at the same time. "But she recognized you and told you she was you? So she revealed her identity to you!"
"No, you see, I knew she was me when we were looking for her!" Bunnix tapped her foot nervously. "Um, I had to find Ladybug and Chat Noir and lead them to me, because I got this message, a riddle, from myself to find me."
"That doesn't make much sense." Peagasus adjusted his glasses. "How did you know where to find Ladybug and Chat Noir? And how did you get the message … from yourself? And how did you send it to you?" There were so many questions, but then there was time to kill.
"Well you see, I actually got a miraculous … " She did not want to say for her birthday. "Well I had it, but it was dormant, then I got a message through it and knew I had to look for them and you know how Nadia and Alya are reporting on each akuma attack ..."
"Okay, I get it, but if you had a miraculous, how did you have the miraculous?" Peagasus scratched his head. "I mean the future you? If you were transformed ... I mean … that means there were two at the same time?"
"This miraculous enables time travel! And my miraculous was broken, I mean hers. I mean mine. I mean the future me mine. The future me was transformed and buried in a piece of rock but she said her miraculous was damaged with a cataclysm."
"Oh, so you fixed her miraculous then? Or Ladybug fixed it with her miraculous cure? Or? How did you, I mean future you, go back? Did you go back? Are there two of you?" Peagasus was too absorbed in the problem to stop asking questions.
"No, we just switched, she gave me hers and I gave her mine so she was able to transform and continue the battle." Bunnix explained. They both looked at each other and understood, everything was explained, including why Bunnix knew her own identity. How confusing.
"So … you are here for … a training?" Peagasus was confused. He did not get training, save a few instructions in the middle of an akuma battle, and the akuma was his maman, really, that wasn't much of a training, but he was proud to be able to compute the destination point on his own.
"That's what Ladybug said when she burst into my room in the middle of the night." Bunnix shrugged. "I can't tell if any of the other heroes got any training. Perhaps Ladybug and Chat Noir were going here for a training?"
"No … at least it wasn't me who brought them here." Peagasus frowned. That thought, that sentence …. there was some hidden meaning there, but he wasn't able to reach it, he yawned, he did get very little sleep, too little, and his mother always said …
"I did not expect to get it, to get a miraculous, I mean a working miraculous, because I still have that one that did not work, I did not expect to be called after Hawk Moth got defeated." Bunnix admitted.
"Not even after you saw yourself, your future self, wield a miraculous? You still doubted? I mean, I did not expect to be called again after Hawk Moth and Mayura were caught and their miraculous was taken but … you?" Peagasus was surprised.
"Hey, the future isn't set in stone!" Bunnix grinned. "But here I am, already transformed, although the future me told me that I will get a miraculous only when I get to be six feet tall." She looked up approximately to the height where the face of future Bunnix would be.
"Phew." Peagasus wasn't sure what to reply to that. "Whatever we do right now can impact the future, I guess." He looked towards the same spot where Bunnix was looking as if there was something there to see, besides the thin air and the stone behind it.
"I guess we got here early." Bunnix tapped her food nervously. "A few years too early I'd say." She smirked and looked to the side. "It is not like there is a villain to defeat and Ladybug and Chat Noir are probably just bored without all the akuma."
"That is not entirely true … " Peagasus straightened up. Now he had a story to tell. "They are investigating Hawk Moth, and Mayura, but mostly him, and what happened and why he became that way and why his wife got that way."
"Oh, yes, I heard about the investigation, the media is just inventing stories and speculating, there is not much to cover now that there are no akuma attacks any more." Besides it wasn't like she was following that as religiously as Alya did.
"And they are trying to fix her, you know, so that Adrien, you know, the boy who defeated Hawk Moth, his own father, at least gets his maman back." Peagasus added quietly. He was rather proud of himself that he was helping the heroes to bring back maman of his classmate.
"Adrien?" Bunnix was very familiar with that boy and his sufferings, there was no way for her not to know, she was Marinette's friend after all. "Adrien Agreste?" She corrected herself to sound a bit less familiar. "At least he got rid of such a father."
"Yeah, but he has no family now, or maybe very little, some distant relatives of his or something." Peagasus added. "Although I think he is living with his friend now." He trailed off. "I wish I knew what we are expected to do here, I'm kind of sleepy too." He yawned.
"Well, I do have the power of time travel … if only I knew when I needed to go." Bunnix observed her umbrella, she remembered rather vividly when Bunnix, the older version, opened a time portal, but she still did not know how to control it, nor when to go, but she was ready to try.
Marinette stopped before they reached the temple, deep in thoughts, not very clear thoughts, but she was thinking. She was already turning around. Adrien, Pema and Dorje chatted about anything and everything, what was new in the temple and how was life in Paris.
"Hey, Marinette?" Adrien called quietly after he stopped and turned around to see where she was. He saw her face changed several emotions rather quickly, but he clearly recognized concern and panic, he knew there was something going on.
"What was I thinking? We left them there. They can go anywhere and anytime. And it is Alix. She is not going to wait for long. She is going to try out her powers … " Marinette turned towards the monks. "I'm going back. They should be supervised." She started running down the narrow path.
"Me too!" Adrien added after he shrugged. He always followed his lady. The two of them were running for less than half a minute before they realized that they might transform and get there faster. Plagg whined about cheese while he was sucked into the ring.
"I can make a portal, a time travel portal and we can go to any other time." Bunnix grinned. Peagasus wasn't so sure about that. "I saw how Bunnix, well me, the older me did it before. I have food for my kwami. We can always come back to this exact time."
Peagasus finally smiled and nodded. He was all for it. It was supposed to be training, so why wouldn't they try their powers and give it a go. Suddenly he was rather excited, while Bunnix made a circle with her umbrella and a glowing disc formed in the cave.
"Wow!" Peagasus reached with his hand. "When are we going?" He inquired with a wide smile.
"The past." Alix shrugged. "I know a lot about the past. We will find our way there."
Smaller Bunnix and Peagasus both reluctantly passed an orange glowing disk to the other side. But what they found was disappointment, they were in the same cave, they observed it, they touched the walls, they walked around.
"Perhaps my miraculous is still not fully operational." Bunnix slumped her shoulders.
"Time travel is tricky, that is why Ladybug wanted you to have the training first." Peagasus was doing his best to be comforting (and failing).
"Huh." Ladybug huffed as she passed through the disc.
"Just in time." Chat Noir smirked when he passed through.
Ladybug groaned.
"I'm really sorry I used my powers, Ladybug, but it is not working." Bunnix shrugged.
"Oh it is working." Ladybug replied flatly.
"How do you know?" Peagasus looked around and was rather confused.
"When are we, anyway?" Chat leaned towards Bunnix.
"Just in time, just in time." An elderly man spoke as he entered the cave and motioned for Bunnix to follow and for the others to stop and wait a little. They all looked at each other, looked rather confused, shrugged, and did as instructed. There was not much else to do.