Archive of Our Own

“You’re okay dude?” Nino asked to his best friend who was taken by a dizzy spell.

“Yeah don’t worry I’m fine.” He answered. A disc of white light suddenly appeared in front of them as Bunnyx stepped outside of the Burrow into the classroom.

“Adrien Agreste, you need to come with me.” Bunnyx said with a sweet voice and a fake reassuring smile. The model stood up and leisurely walked to the window, opening it while responding to Bunnyx without looking at her. “I don’t want to go with you Bunnyx.”

She walked towards him and put a hand on his shoulder. “I insist. You’re not well. You must follow me.” An edge showing through the fake worry in her voice. The Agreste from the future rapidly turned and grabbed Bunnyx extended arm by the wrist, a white energy suddenly seemed to leave her body by their point of contact and integrating his own.

“You saw how powerful I was as a fire akuma, and yet you dare to come and try to beat me when I akumatized myself? Heh!” Adrain snarled, grabbing her shoulder with his second hand, white energy being drawn from there too. He started stepping forward making the weakening Bunnyx back away.

“Did you really thought that my only power was to take the injuries and disease of others for myself? Well guess what, I can also take the life of others.” Adrain said as he forced her on her knees. She was groaning in pain, struggling to fight back.

“I will drain your life-force until nothing but dust is left of you and your paradoxical miraculous in excess.” He affirmed, letting go of her wrist and placing his hand on her face, increasing the flow of energy even more. Making Bunnyx shriek.

After a moment, Adrain’s shoulder slumped and the anger in his voice was replaced with tiredness. “I akumatized myself to be able to save them, and I choose the ability to drain life-force only to be able to defend myself against you. When I realized I could use this power to heal myself, I decided to do it by feasting on vegetal life. Saving my life by stealing yours wasn’t part of the plan.” Bunnyx’s scream and trashing attempt were dying in intensity like her breath.

“I would have preferred for things to end differently, but of course you couldn’t accept that and came to fight me.” He said sadly, and the white energy stopped flowing from Bunnyx body to his hand. He removed his hands and Bunnyx dried corpse with white hair and dull eyes collapsed to the ground.

“Oh, apparently the miraculous gives you superstrength, super resistance and fills you with energy but it barely affects your life-force.” Adrain commented, inspecting his arms coated in a few millimetres thick white aura, like the rest of his body, then looking at the intact miraculous peeking from Bunnyx pocket. Though, it wasn’t so surprising, despite being immortal, kwamis’ life-force wasn’t incompressibly vast either since they could get sick.

“But it’s still more than what I needed to survive Nathalies illness.” He said while stretching. “I never felt more alive before, I feel like coming back to life.” Adrain mused. Despite knowing that he was physically far weaker than he was with any miraculous, like this, Adrain still felt stronger and better than ever. Being transformed with a miraculous or untransformed as a civilian felt exactly the same, whereas being stronger because of raw life flowing through his veins felt thrilling.

Adrain received a kick to the face and fell to the floor. “Lucky Charm!” When he looked from the ground, Adrain saw a red and black spotted hourglass fell in the hand of a Bunnyx looking in her eighties and unified with the ladybug miraculous. Adrain stood up and redyed himself to pounce on her.

“Miraculous Bugyx!” The old woman shouted, throwing the hourglass in the air. The lucky charm exploded in a swarm of magical ladybugs that flew over the corpse of Bunnyx resurrecting her. When the ladybugs washed over him, Adrain felt weak as all the energy gathered as a result of his recent actions as an akuma disappeared and he fell to the ground taken by a dizzy spell.

“How?” He asked, struggling through his cough as he glanced to the 2 older versions of Alix.

“Ladybug used her miraculous Ladybug to heal me. I just decided to speed things up a little.” Bugyx shrugged with a smirk.

Adrain jumped on his feet despite feeling lightheaded and attacked both of them. “You see, that’s precisely because of that, that I have to kill you. Even if I trapped you into prison and took away your miraculous, it would be useless. ‘Cogito, ergo sum.’ You think that your future self has the power to travel in time, therefore you are able to receive the bunny miraculous from your future self, without which it would be impossible to escape prison, acquire the bunny miraculous and travel to the past to offer it to yourself in the first place.” Adrain ranted.

He wasn’t doing so bad alone against the two, he managed to lend a few hits. Miraculous holders were protected by indestructible suit, and even if the miraculous Bugyx hadn’t took away the superstrength that killing adult Bunnyx had given him, he would have still been physically weaker than a miraculous holder. Though his punches weren’t as strong as the one of a healthy civilian, it didn’t matter since he managed to drain a little life-force from both of them with the hits that landed.

Despite being older, Bugyx clearly had a lot more experience and was proving to be a much more dangerous opponent. Bunnyx opened a portal to the burrow and disappeared in it, as Bugyx attacked him with her yo-yo and umbrella. He dodged the attack thanks to his trained reflexes. A new portal to the burrow opened and Bunnyx stepped out of it, now wearing the nose ring of the ox miraculous.

“Fluff, Stompp, Unify!” She said, and as her costume changed, a hammer appeared on her back. “Resistance.” She called, making herself invulnerable to magic. “What are you going to do, now that as Bunnox, you have no powers against me?” Bunnox taunted.

“I will beat you until your flesh is cooked, through sheer thermal dissipation alone.” Adrain answered to the taunt. “And Nox, seriously?” He raised his eyebrow amused. “Please continue to compare yourself to a bad guy from French animation, who’s ready to sacrifice everything and commit the worst crimes (even genocide) to bend time to his will. Is it a reference or a revealing slip of the tongue?” He asked. “Anyway, it suits you well.” Adrain chuckled with a shit eating grin.

“Wha… Oh shut it Agreste.” Bunnox groaned as she understood the involuntary reference to Wakfu. Now immune to Adrain’s draining ability, Bunnox went to fight head on as Bugyx stepped back and adopted a more distant fighting style. “Lucky Charm.” The grandma called and a crossbow fell in her hand. She grinned and fired at Adrain. He dodged the bolts, continuing to circle the room, still responding to each blow of Bunnox with 4 of his own. (It takes 135000 slaps to cook a chicken, but after 6 months of training in a time loop against a sentimonster who could predict your future movements, Adrain felt like he was able to somewhat do honour to his obviously hyperbolic threat to beat the everlasting crap out of Bunnox.)

“What are you trying to accomplish? Even if you kill me now, it’s too late, things already changed too much, Shadow Moth has already been defeated.” He spat.

“After getting rid of you, we will bring the events back to the way they should rightfully happen, no matter what, even if we have to use the wish to do so.” Bugyx replied, shooting at Adrain. He dodged the bolt, but they heard a cry of pain as the shot hit Nino in the thigh.

“Nino!” Adrain exclaimed as he rushed to his injured friend. “Don’t worry, I will take care of that.” Adrain reassured him as he removed the bolt from the wound. He put his hand on Nino and activated his power. Through the hole in Nino’s clothing, one could see the wound on his thigh close, as the same injury opened on Adrain’s, because of which blood started to strain his jeans. Adrain stood up, wincing in pain and glanced at the 2 adult miraculous holders, not liking the gleam he saw on their faces.

“I know that look in your eyes. Don’t you dare take my classmates hostage and shoot at them to force me to take their injuries.” Adrain growled.

“Then all you have to do is give up. After all, all of this is your fault Adrien.” Bugyx said as she reloaded her lucky charm crossbow. Bunnox swung her hammer at him and he avoided the blow.

“It’s Adrain.” He spat as he caught with his bare hand the bolt Bugyx had aimed at Rose next to Nino behind him.

“You’re being annoyingly difficult to correct.” Bunnox said with a thrust of her umbrella, Adrain deflected the blow with his hand, but saw at the last second a crossbow bolt shot towards Juleka next to Rose. Adrain jumped to protect Juleka, the projectile sinking into his shoulder.

Adrain kneeled on the floor, clutching his now injured shoulder. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make erasing me from existence, so hard for you.” He said dryly, teeth clenched because of the pain.

“Don’t act like this is my fault. You shouldn’t exist in the first place. You’ve upset the rightful flow of time. I know exactly what you did because of Shadow Moth. How are you any better than him? The people you remember are as good as dead, and remade anew. Time is a fragile thing that your actions have put in danger. It’s the very fabric of the world that you’re tearing apart.” Bunnox said, weapons in hands.

“Ohhh no. You don’t get to say that. You two are walking, multilayered, time paradox.” He scoffed. “I would really like someone’s help right now.” Adrain thought.

“And I mean it in the most literal sense. Like, how about the fact that the original timeline is Chat Blanc’s, in which you don’t exist and thus shouldn’t be able to prevent with time travel. This entire situation. The fact that the only reason you have your miraculous in the first place is thanks to writer’s paradoxes and self-fulfilling prophecies spread over several generations. You’re only the person you are now because of the way your father raised you, which is influenced by the letters he received from your time traveling adult self. You’re alive because of events that you literally just replaced. You insist that we can’t intervene to change up the course of history, yet you threw Ladybug in Chat Blanc’s future -which was incredibly dangerous- and useless, since all you had to do was figure what caused the timeline and tell Ladybug how to fix it, only to intentionally give her PTSD. You’re allegedly not supposed to give information about the future to not disturb the flow of time, and yet you tell Ladybug of the future team of superheroes she leads. That’s a pretty big slipup considering how much that influence her decisions. Same thing about putting blame and demeaning someone. You’ve been manipulating people all along, so things go your way. And what about all the people from the past you just go hang out with, or the butterfly effect of playing with dinosaurs before apparition of humans, or bringing back information from the future by taking and sending photos of it. Do I fucking need to elaborate?!” Adrain ranted, his voice turning disgusted or bitter on the word leads, and sarcastic and laced with venom when talking about Bunnyx ‘slipup’ and manipulation.

“You’ve done many wrongs. Because of denial and paranoia, you try to find an enemy to blame so you can avoid facing what you’ve done. If you continue on this way, we will disappear, and no one will be left to undo your mistakes. But it’s not too late. You can make it right.” Bugyx said as she raised her crossbow, aiming at his head.

“I must say. What a brilliant speech you gave.”  Mused in a singsong manner, a black figure who appeared in a warp of space in front of the window Adrain had opened before Bunnyx and him started their altercation.

“You’re two full-grown adults struggling against a starved wounded kid dying from illness. And who are trying to guilt trip a child into dying to clean up your mess while taking his friends hostage.” He scoffed. Concentrating a small ball of cataclysm on a finger, he flicked the ball of black energy at Bugyx’s umbrella, making it crumble to dust. “How the mighty have fallen.” The figure looking like Chat Noir, but with his suit impossibly dark as if it was a hole in people’s vision, laughed. “I expected better of the, oh so great, hero of evolution.” He taunted with a mock bow.

“Chat Noir!?” Bunnox let out in surprise. “Name’s Vanta Noir. Have the decency to listen to people when you stalk them.” Vanta Noir huffed.

“We will come back.” Warned Bugyx. “Burrow!” Bunnox opened a portal at the suggestion of her older self.

“Cataclysm.” Vanta Noir cataclysmed the distance between Bugyx crossbow and his ringed hand. Space warped and the lucky charm teleported in Vanta Noir’s hand. He switched the red and black spotted weapon to his ringless hand and reduced it to ash with a wordless cataclysm. Bunnox had half stepped inside the portal and Bugyx was right behind. “Don’t think you can escape.” Adrain said as he kicked the old woman with his non-injured leg and went after her. Bunnox immediately stepped away from the portal (which closed) and rushed to help her future self. The two women managed to push back Adrain next to Vanta Noir.

“How?” Asked Bunnox who was expecting cataclysm projectiles coming from an akumatized black cat holder, but not teleportation.

“I have the power of absolute destruction. Contrary to Chat Blanc and his infinite destruction, who had the power to destroy everything. I have the power to destroy anything. May it be matter, abstract and metaphysical things, space, thoughts, memories, options on a website, buttons on an app, distance, language, rules, concepts, fate… Anything.” Vanta Noir boasted.

“Looks like we need some back up. Burrow.” Bugyx said, grabbing Bunnox umbrella and using it to open a portal to the burrow beneath her feet. The portal closed right behind her and a new one opened above where she was less than a second ago. And landed from the disc of white light, Bugyx and a young Bunnyx looking the same age as present Alix.

“And here we have the Fates, the young, the adult and the old.” Adrain snarled. “Weaving the fate of others and cutting it as they see fit.” Adrain said shaking his head.

“Now we’re ready to win this fight.” The old smirked all smug.

In that moment, Vanta Noir can feel the universe unravelling at his fingertips. He feels a shit eating grin slide over his face, revealing teeth that are too pointed and sharp. “Bunnyx!” Vanta Noir exclaimed. “I promise, you will lose.” He can feel the bones of the earth, the ribs and the spine under his feet. The strings are slewing through his fingers, ready to be shaped or cut away as he sees fit. He has the power to bend light until it shatters, to snap reality like a bone, to melt time down and remake it like iron. The laws of physics are nothing more than police tape between his hands. He can break all the rules of any miraculous, shatter his own form, crush magic to dust and blow it the way he wants. In that moment, Vanta Noir knows that those three rabbits entered the den of a predator far worse than they can fathom.

“It’s Snakeyx.” The young one said, revealing the bracelet of the snake miraculous around her wrist. “Fluff, Sass, Unify!” She said as she unified both time miraculous.

The 3 bunny users with their 6 miraculous could only ever hope to hold a faint spark to Vanta Noir’s wildfire.

“If you have any regard for your own health, don’t do that!” Adrain warned as Snakeyx’s hand hovered over the snake miraculous. “Second Chance!” She youngest of the trio said.

“You made your worst mistake.” Adrain said, shaking his head. “Might be your last one too.” Vanta Noir butted in. “Because you’ll have run out of sanity to break when you and I are through.” Adrain said staring at Snakeyx.

Snakeyx ripped the snake miraculous from her wrist with a shudder, shaking a little. The miraculous clanged as it fell to the ground. “I don’t need to go a second or third thousands of times at it, to get the message.” Young Bunnyx said with a strained voice, before calling for the burrow and fleeing through it, the portal disappearing behind her.

“She has more self-preservation than me.” Adrain commented.

“Well, for her, leaving here and now means she won’t have to fight and that she accepts to never become them.” Vanta Noir pointed at the two bunny users remaining, as both Adrain and him had a pretty good idea of what they would have told young Alix while fighting during the loops. “So not only is she spared but on top of that we won’t chase after her future self. While for you, giving up meant letting Ladybug alone against an akuma which was a threat to everyone. It doesn’t cost her anything to give up and refuse to risk psychological damage.” Vanta Noir shrugged.

“Doesn’t cost her anything.” Bunnox parroted. “We’re in a fight to the death.” She spat, as Bugyx took the snake miraculous from the floor.

“Having more self-preservation than you isn’t really a challenge. You literally akumatized yourself to gain the power to be a scapegoat for other people’s burden.” Nooroo remarked from his position next to Vanta Noir, while said akuma replied to Bunnox that young Bunnyx wasn’t part of that fight since she won’t become them anymore, and that present Bunnyx probably won’t even become that young Bunnyx if she ever hears of what just happened. And that these 2 causeless paradoxical rabbit wielders were the only one they had a beef with.

“I’m happy to see that you that you feel enough at ease to crack jokes Nooroo, but do they have to be at my expanse.” Adrain groaned.

“Fluff, Tikki, Sass, Unify!” Bugyx said as she unified all three miraculous. “Second Chance!” She said as she activated the power of the snake miraculous.

“Yeah, not a second time.” Vanta Noir said as he raised his hand high in the air, palm upwards as if he was touching something. “Cataclysm.” The black energy of destruction disappeared in a sound of glass shattering as cyan sparks flew from his hand and the snake miraculous.

The old woman flicked the bracelet one then two times without any effects. “What?!” She exclaimed.

“He destroyed the time loop.” Adrain supplied, with a shit eating grin.

“Sass divide.” The oldest miraculous holder said angerly. Cyan light washed over her as she retransformed into Bugyx. The snake kwami flew out of the miraculous, eyed the situation and decided to fly next to Marinette and Alya and continued to hover there to watch the fight little limbs crossed. “Fine, I will bring you back when I’m done with them.” Bugyx informed Sass as she threw the snake miraculous at Alix for safekeeping.

“Burrow!” Bunnox said as she jumped, disappearing in the white portal which closed behind her. A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she backed away and attacked with her umbrella. Vanta Noir parried the second attack with his hand. Meanwhile Bugyx spined her yo-yo in the air and threw it at Adrain. Despite his injuries he dodged the weapon with fast movement and rushed at Bugyx. They exchanged few series of blow like this.

“Cataclysm!” Vanta Noir said, and the room was plonged in perfect darkness as he destroyed light in the classroom. With the magical night vision given by his miraculous, Vanta Noir could still see perfectly in the dark and proceeded to beat the absolute hell out of the blinded adult woman. “What’s happening?” “I can’t see anting?” “Why is everything black?” The voices of their confused classmates could be heard in the darkness.

“Hey, not everyone has eyes with magical vision here.” Adrain thought to his other self.

“Sorry, right. Bugyx is 2 meters on your left, she is turned of 3/4 in relation to you and she’s throwing hazardous punch in front of her.” Vanta Noir answered in thought.

Adrain elbowed the old woman in the back and kicked her in the knee joint before taking the yo-yo from her hips. He discreetly moved to the side and after receiving confirmation from Vanta Noir that she had stood up, he used the ladybug yo-yo to bind Bugyx.

Meanwhile the akumatized black cat brought the ox and rabbit wielder to her knees with a strike of his staff on the back of her knee. He kept the weapon firmly in place with his foot as he grabbed her wrists with one hand to hold them as he used his belt tail to tie them up.

Adrain started to absorb life-force from Bugyx with one hand and as light reappeared, white and red energy was flowing from her to him around his hand. When the light shined again, Marinette wasn’t in the classroom anymore.

Vanta Noir reached his own hand to take the ox nose ring from Bunnox but his hand passed through her as she started to glitch, her body turning intangible and transparent, looking like TV static. Seeing that, Vanta Noir stopped. “Oh!” He let out as Bunnox now intangible hands escaped his grasp, and his staff fell through her legs and roll off on the ground. Adrain also stopped draining Bugyx when he saw this.

“You know, I can use my power of destruction to break what binds you to the precise timeline you come from. So you can finally let us alone without risking to disappear. So, are you interested?” Vanta Noir asked. As Bunnox glitching ended, instead of accepting the offered hand, she suddenly threw her hammer with all her might at Adrain who was still next to Bugyx. Adrain saw at the last moment the spinning hammer directed at him. He tried to dodge but was still hit in the shoulder. He yelped in pain.

Taking the cue, Bugyx escaped from her gliching yo-yo and ran to Bunnox. “Burrow!” The adult called, and they both ran through the portal. “No you don’t!” Vanta Noir growled after them, but the portal closed before he could reach it.

“Cataclysm!” He shouted throwing his hand forward. A shattering sound was heard as white almost glowing cracks formed in the air and spread from his hand. “I can destroy anything even time or the windows of the burrow.” Vanta Noir announced, as he pushed his hand, the perfectly circular cracked space-time continuum transformed in a white portal with the sound of shattering glass. Vanta Noir continued his dash, running through the portal and Adrain broke into the burrow after him. The circle closed like shards mending themselves back together, cracks subsiding until nothing was left.

1 second later air ripped itself in the sound of shattering glass as a horizontal ragged white hole appeared and Bunnox and Bugyx crashed to the ground as if they’ve been swatted with colossal strength. Within the white space of the burrow above their heads, everyone could see Vanta Noir flying by flapping two large vantablack bat wings, Adrain sitting on Vanta Noir’s left arm and his right (less injured) arm put behind his younger self’s shoulder to steady himself. Adrain was glaring proudly at the two women below him, despite his wounds.

The duo flew down a little, entering the classroom again and the rift to the burrow closed behind them.

“You came at me and my brother!” Vanta Noir yelled, his wings flapping and his now real tail flicking angerly in the air. Several gasps, “what?” and exclamations of surprise were heard at the notion that Adrien and Chat Noir were brother.

“Don’t forget! You’re in my world!” Vanta Noir roared. “Contrary to you, I’m in my rightful time. Where half of the universe bow to me.” He proclaimed as he touched the floor. As if to prove his point, shadows were dancing around him as if attracted to a magnet they wanted to draw half of the yin yang around. Adrain stood from his younger self’s hold and stepped closer to the lying rabbit users.

“And the other half hasn’t picked a side yet.” Adrain said thinking of the Tikki from the present and Ladybug who hadn’t appeared yet, as he crouched next to Bugyx. As he did so, she grabbed the yo-yo that had been left on the ground when Bunnox and her fled in the burrow a second and a whole fight ago.

“Lucky Charm!” The old woman called and a red and black spotted raft looking like the one depicted in the famous painting ‘The raft of the Medusa’ fell upside down from the air, forcing Adrain and Vanta Noir to back off to not be hit. Taking advantage of the temporary cover, the adult user, who was lying on the ground like Bugyx and hadn’t needed to dodge called for a burrow portal right below her. As soon as she entered, she closed the portal and put her hand on the window she left to stop time before Vanta Noir had the time to follow her, then flicked her hand to turn back the scene to the moment where she made a dive kick attack from the burrow.

A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she backed away and attacked with her hammer. He dodged the blow by taking a jump back, then he watched around him as if looking for something. “Cataclysm.” He said clenching his fist, and cracks formed on his forearm as the black energy attacked its wielder. The adult opponent took a step back shocked by the display.

“It isn’t very often that I get pissed off. I try to chill the waves, but damn you crossed the line.” Vanta Noir said as he threw his hand at Bunnox. His arm stretching out, each of the shattered pieces floating at the surface of a black goo dark like a moonless night sky, darker yet darker. Vanta Noir’s projected hands grabbed a fistful of Bunnox’s hair.

“I’ve been so gracious, and yet you hurt the twin of mine.” He spat as he dragged her to him with swing of his outstretched arm bending like water. There were exclamations among his classmates as he mentioned being twin with Adrien. Alix more used to the mental gymnastics of time travel let a “No…!” as she understood what her future selves had put themselves against. Vanta Noir threw Bunnox to the ground with another swing of his partially liquid arm before letting go of her hair. And lunching his hand at her arm.

“I’m left without a choice, and without a doubt it’s time for you to go.” He said ominously as he pulled her to his feet.

“You’re the worst kind of good ‘cause you’re not even great.” He hissed as he smashed her into a wall with another swing of his extendable arm. Bugyx was left alone against Adrain, unable to rely on the help of her younger self. With how wounded he was she would have had a chance if it wasn’t for Vanta Noir who thrown his staff at Adrain. Now with his weapon of predilection in hand, scales were tipping in his favour.

“A freak, who reeks of false righteousness, that’s what I hate.” Vanta Noir growled as he slammed her against the floor then ceiling in a single swing. Bugyx tried to defend as best as she could thanks to her experience as the miraculous holder who’s been in activity the longest, but she couldn’t block or dodge everything, getting her vital energy drained by Adrain’s successful punches.

“Cause you fight to ‘save life’, but kill and watch pain for the fun.” Vanta Noir said, retracting his arm to almost normal size to bring her closer to him. She tried to hit his dark oozing arm with her weapon, but he didn’t even flinch at the blow to the goo.

“I mean, you totally could’ve avoided all this, had you just chosen peace. But nooo…” He said with all disdain possible as he punched Bunnox in the face and a gave her a knee strike in the gut, before letting go of her arm. Bugyx had no coloured hair left, she looked more wrinkled than normal and was heaving, as the faintest trace of white and red aura enveloped Adrain.

“You’re far too naïve, mercy has a price, and you can’t pay it. I’ve got no mercy left to give, ‘cause ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves.” Vanta Noir said grabbing Bunnox by the throat, swinging her in the air, crushing her against the floor and the walls and throwing her with all his strength at Bugyx, before resorbing his right arm to his normal (albeit cracked) appearance. Bugyx fell to the floor with the impact, not finding the energy to stand up.

“And now it is finally time to say goodbye. Today you die. Unless, of course, you apologize for your acts and all your crimes.” Adrain said cracking his fingers, as he was joined by Vanta Noir.

Bunnox dropped her hammer as she stood up. She placed her free hand in a placating manner as she slowly started to put her umbrella in her back while speaking. “I’m sorry… that you will never win this game.” She said with a smirk, hand still on the handle of her umbrella. “Burrow!” She quickly said as she let herself fall in the 45° portal that was shot from her weapon.

Bunnox immediately stopped time in the window and flicked her hand to come back to the moment of her dive kick. But as she did so, her heart stopped for moment as when the screen rewind she had just the time to see Vanta Noir’s hand charged with the bubbling black magic of a cataclysm less than an inch away on the other side of the temporal window.

She divided Stompp and unified with him again to recover her hammer, when she heard the sound of cracks forming above her in another area of the burrow. Even if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, it still makes a sound. She wasn’t looking at the moving window, but she wasn’t looking at the stopped version of the scene either. As long as Bunnox hadn’t entered with her dive kick and changed the events, watched or not, this version of time still existed. Gripped by terror, Bunnox realised that since she wasn’t actively pausing it, Vanta Noir would enter. Before he could do so, she jumped through the portal.

A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she backed away assuming a defensive stance with her umbrella and hammer. “Use your lucky charm. As many as needed.” Bunnox told her older self.

“Lucky charm!”  A red and black spotted pirate cannon fell next to Buggyx and she aimed it at Adrain. “Dodge, I dare you.” She said grinning because of the vulnerable classmates in the trajectory behind Adrain, that he couldn’t let get hurt.

She fired the cannon, and the cannonball flew in the air, Vanta Noir extended his hand and a sphere of dark destruction grew insanely fast from it englobing the projectile mid-air and turning it to nothing. The sphere disappeared as fast as it appeared. Adrain ran towards Bugyx and her unloaded cannon right away.

Bunnox tried to take advantage of Vanta Noir’s distraction to attack him but he anticipated this and dodged the blow by doing a backflip. “Cataclysm.” He said clenching his fist, remaining in the air as if gravity meant nothing to him.

“Lucky charm!” Bugyx said, the canon dissolved in magical ladybugs that reformed in a large elephant cage falling around Adrain. The metal cage was far too heavy for Adrain to move with his normal human strength. But confident Adrain didn’t slow down.

Still floating majestically in the air, Vanta Noir’s put his right hand on the left side of his head and a disk of black energy formed in front of his palm. He threw it with a swing of his arm. The deadly disk cut through the bars of the lucky charm cage and continued its course towards Bugyx. Remarking that, she barely had the time to spin her yo-yo in defence.

Adrain jumped through the expanding hole left in the dissolving bars and kicked her in the stomach with his momentum. She staggered back as her yo-yo crumble to ash between her fingers. He gave her an uppercut and elbowed her in the ribs before grabbing her by the throat and starting to drain her life.

Meanwhile Bunnox jumped and swung both weapons at Vanta Noir. Unimpressed he moved in the air and kicked her back to the ground.

Bugyx started to glitch, making Adrain’s hand phase through her. “You seem lucky in your misfortune.” Adrain remarked as she took advantage of the opportunity to escape him.

“Retreat!” Bunnox said gesturing to the window. Bugyx still glitching in and out of existence jumped through the wall, as Bunnox did through the opened window. They both landed to the ground outside of school and the older one stopped to be transparent.

“You can’t escape the inevitable! Cataclysm!” Vanta Noir said throwing his hand after them, the space warped as he teleported in a patch of grass visible by the opened window. Not floating anymore, he turned back to face the two women positioned between him and the school building.

Both time travelers glared at him and ran in opposite direction. “Cataclysm!” Vanta Noir said as he put his hand to the ground. A chasm in the ground opened from his hand and spread snaking towards the running old woman. When the chasm reached her leg, Bugyx cried in pain as the destructive energy propagated itself and snapped her tibia in half.

Bunnox turned at the cry and saw Vanta Noir stand up and disappear as he said cataclysm and teleported right next to her, delivering her a punch to the jaw. “Let see how the old hag escape with a broken leg.” He challenged.

Adrain unable to jump from the window because of his bleeding wound at one leg, had opted to take the stairs. He stepped from the school entrance at this moment, and ran to reach the other fighter.

Adrain saw Bunnox being sent flying by a swing of Vanta Noirs stick. “Burrow!” The adult said creating a portal in the air in front of her, the white disc of light closing right behind her.

Bunnox willed the burrow to act as if its floor was perpendicular to her trajectory and right in front of her to stop her momentum by crashing against it. Obviously it was painful, but she didn’t had the time to lend normally because in that case she would be too slow to reach the disc-like screen she entered from, and the two akumatized forms of Adrien would break in after her. With a scrawl Bunnox put her hand on the screen which was now for all intent in purposes above her and twisted her wrist to roll back to the moment of her surprise attack. She willed the gravity to an angle which would make her jump easier and dived in the portal.  

A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she backed away assuming a defensive stance with her umbrella and hammer. “They’re too strong we can’t beat them in a fight.” Bunnox told her older self.

“If we can’t beat them, then I know what to do.” The old woman said maliciously. “Create me a portal.” The hag said to her younger self, spinning her yo-yo to defend against Adrain’s attack.

“Okay but don’t waste a second. Burrow!” The adult warned as she opened a portal next to Bugyx with her umbrella while struggling in vain against Vanta Noir’s onslaught.

The old woman manged to buy enough time away from Adrain thanks to vicious blow to his bleeding shoulder, to step in the white circle that closed after her.

Another portal opened in another place in the classroom, and Bugyx stepped out of it wearing a broach. “Fluff, Tikki, Duusu, Unify!” At those words blue light washed over Bugyx changing her costume. Vanta Noir dropped Bunnox and looked at the oldest miraculous wielder.

Both akuma approached her. “I release you from existence.” She snaped her finger with a smirk. Nothing happened. “What!?” She said snaping her finger three more times in incomprehension.

“The peacock miraculous won’t have any effect on us.” Adrain informed her with a glare. Even if they hadn’t hidden their amok in an alternative costume outside of reach in the physical world, with his power to break rules, Vanta Noir would have still made them immune to the effects of the peacock miraculous.

“But it seems that some people aren’t too thrilled to play fair.” Vanta Noir growled.

“You should have went for the butterfly miraculous so we could take away their powers.” Bunnox said to her other self.

“I have the butterfly too. Do that and I akumatize Alix into Timefixer with the power to fix everything by erasing you two paradoxes from the timestream. I dare you.” Vanta Noir scoffed.

“You don’t have the maturity to understand right from wrong. You know nothing about time. You can’t just kill important people like us.” Bugyx dismissed.

“I should have challenged them both to an agni kai and thrown all the rules aside.” Adrain thought. “It can be arranged.” Vanta Noir answered in thought as he walked towards his older self.

“Cataclysm.” Vanta Noir said, putting his hand on Adrain shoulder. In a cracking sound, bubbling purplish darkness rippled from the point of contact, over Adrain’s body, revealing a different costume as it vanished.

“Oh, it even brought back the pure world burning unadulterated anger that come with this form.” Grinned Scorned Soul.

“Cataclysm.” Vanta Noir said raising his hand towards the elder woman, destroying the distance between her and him, she was teleported in front of him, he grabbed her by the throat with his other hand and he smashed her on the floor.

“I had forgot the comforting warmth of this raging inferno that kept the pain and depression at bay.” Scorned Soul mused with a predatory grin.

“If… you’re so… mature… now.” Scorned Soul said closing his eyes and reopening them now ablaze. “Then I think it’s time you grow up.” He said turning enflamed eyes to stare directly at Bunnox.

“Admit you did it.” Sorned Soul said as he walked towards her. “We all know you did it.” And everyone could swear they were hearing a music becoming louder as he marched closer.

“And yet you still gaslight me up.” He said as he raised his hand towards Bunnox. And as the tension culminated he added one more word. “Burn.” A torrent of flames surged from his hand and engulfed the bull miraculous wielder.

“Cataclysm.” Vanta Noir whispered, clenching his fist. His shoulders swelled and shook pulsing before they exploded in streams of black goo, and it morphed and solidified into immense vantablack wings with hands like the ones of wyverns. He kicked the fan and yo-yo away and kept the rabbit-ladybug-peacock user pined to the ground with a foot, a hand and his wings.

“Your indestructible body and your magic immunity prevent my fire breath from melting your skin and charring your inside. But you will still die from the toxic fumes or lack of oxygen since you have nothing but fire to breath.” Scorned Soul taunted, as he added his second hand to intensify of the onslaught of flames directed at the adult bunny user. Inside the fire, Bunnox brought her weapon to her lips to use it as an infinite supply of air. “Even with a miraculous weapon to breath, it wont take more than a few minutes for you die of heatstroke or dehydration because of the shear temperature you face.” Scorned Soul snarled clenching his teeth as the torrent of flames turned a bright blue and increased in temperature.

“Burrow!” Bunnox cried, she entered the portal and instantaneously put her palm on the window she entered and flicked her wrist to pause and turn back time before Vanta Noir could chase after her. She took precious seconds to get her bearing and entered back the moment of her dive kick attack.

A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she continued tyring to swing her hammer at him and then kick him in the crotch when he dodged the weapon. “How can you act so differently each time?” Bunnox barked at him.

“Do you know the chaos theory? It’s the field of study of systems so variable that the tiniest modifications of the initial conditions causes vastly different results.” Vanta Noir said attacking her with his staff transformed in nunchakus.

“After 6 months of training to match an opponent seeing the future in a fight, our reaction speed has increased to the point we can see each distinct image of a movie at the cinema breaking the illusion of movement. It’s so high that we’re pretty much incarnations of chaos reacting to the smallest change in your actions.” Adrain completed, grabbing Bugyx yo-yo mid-air and yanking on it.

Vanta Noir threw his staff to Adrain and caught the yo-yo that Adrain threw him, then Vanta Noir teleported next to Bugyx.

Adrain turned the staff from its nunchakus from to its normal form then changed it into a sword mode that Bunnox had never seen before. And he attacked her.

“Snakeyx lost 1000 times. What twisted part of your prideful mind, makes you think you 2 can win where the 3 of you failed?” Adrain asked wickedly.

Adrain was far better at fencing than Bunnox but he was held back by his injuries. She tried to take advantage of a moment he put his hand on the bleeding wound on his thigh, but he saw it coming and blinded her by throwing drops of blood in her eyes.

“I’ve no respect for bullies, those who impose their will.” Vanta Noir tsked as he saw what Bunnox had attempted to do.

“I’ve seen enough to truly understand this kind of filth.” Adrain added dryly. He took advantage of her temporary blindness to trip her to the ground, and struck with the flat of his blade, Bunnox managed to parry with her umbrella thanks to her reflex.

“You see things with the simplicity linked to your age and lack of maturity. I have an understanding and knowledge that you’ll never have the slightest grasp of, Adrien. If you did, you would understand that what I do is right.” Bugyx said, as she managed to take back her yo-yo from Vanta Noir’s hands, trying once more to get the two akuma by manipulation or maybe trying to appeal to the students watching the fight.

“You want to kill me and then destroy the world to remake it in a way that will make people suffer for years if not decades.” Adrain replied without giving her a glance, as her younger self wiped the blood from her eyes.

“And all that for your own selfish gain so you can rise to power. And entertain yourself with time as your plaything.” Vanta Noir finished, giving her kick right in the jaw.

“My happiness was worth less than yours? You can look at me with that superior air. You little hypocrite let Shadow Moth get scot-free after discovering he was your father. Keep your children’s sermons to yourself, Agreste.” Bugyx snarled rubbing her jaw as she threw her yo-yo at Vanta Noir. He activated a cataclysm in his hand, and the black bubbles of destruction spread from his fist covering his entire body in an armour of cataclysm. The yo-yo crumbled to ash as the energy was consumed to destroy it in the fraction of second the weapon collided with him

“One, he won’t get scot-free. He will answer for his crimes. And two…” Vanta Noir said eyes narrowed.

“Are you sure you want to go on the identity territory? Because after that little stunt you pulled, you’ve much more to lose than us. The few secrets we have left are the reasons we hold back.” Both Vanta Noir and Adrain said as one man.

“Knock yourselves out, we will undo all that anyway and we will go back to how the story should happen. The little monster pathetically trying to survive as no say in this.” Bunnox answered as she jumped back to her feet and attacked Adrain.

“I will rather die than let you remake the universe to suit your twisted wishes and break the peace I fought to achieve.” Adrain replied as he struggled to block her hammer and umbrella with his sword, as she continued to apply force on the side of his injured shoulder.

“You always had the tendency to sacrifice your life for the most insignificant things.” Bunnox taunted as she broke the stale mate by kicking him in his wounded thigh.

Adrain grunted with pain. “Duusu, spread my feather!” He hissed with a manic gleam in the eyes. The blue light of Duusu’s miraculous washed over Adrain’s body revealing the form of Argos except for one detail, made obvious as he spread his tail. With the added magic of being an akuma and by pushing to its limit the appearance change ability of the miraculous, each of the purple pink dot on his suit supposed to imitate the spots of a peacock and the eyes of his mythological namesake, now had pupils and were able to move like actual eyes.

Arghaust stood up and rushed at her. Adrain, weaker and injured had hold his ground against Bunnox, but now that they were equal in strength and he had an indestructible suit too, there was no match. He elbowed her in the gut, headbutted her in the forehead with his indestructible beak mask and kicked her in the ankle with the metal spikes of his reinforced boots, making her fall to the ground.

“How does it feel to be helpless?” Arghaust asked has he stomped on her chest. He spread his feather wide, each eye on his tail glaring down at Bunnox, towering her in his majestic uncanniness.

“You…” She started as he brought the edge of his blade to her throat and stomped with his other boot on her arm holding the rabbit’s umbrella.

“How does it feel to know pain?” He asked as he reached his hand to take the ox miraculous that protected her from him.

“Monster!” She screamed.

Adrien’s akumatized forms had each time be careful to not damage the classroom (even Vanta Noir who had subdued Bugyx while Arghaust and Bunnox fought) so they wouldn’t think of doing such thing. Bunnox, from her lying position on the ground, used all her super strength to kick the ground with her heel. The floor crumble under the force of the attack and Bunnox and Arghaust both fell to the floor below. Mid-air she spined and gave him a kick that he saw coming and parried with the fan that he unsheathed after immediately dropping his sword when the ground broke. But that had the intended effect of pushing him upward away from her. “Ayon!” He shouted. “Burrow!” She called opening a portal right under her and crashing on the invisible nothing acting as ground in the burrow.

She immediately stopped the window and returned to the moment of her attack and almost had a heart attack as she saw for a fraction of second on the screen, a steampunk dragon covered with clocks and hourglasses that had half formed out of the shadow Arghaust projected on one of the falling debris to which he had fed an amok.

Seeing how close the shapeshifting sentimonster made dragon with time related powers had been to catch her, Bunnox was even more determined to escape with her older self this time and come back to kill those damn monsters when they would be less powerful.

A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she backed away assuming a defensive stance with her umbrella and hammer. “Devide and retransform to get your umbrella back and we leave.” Bunnox told her older self.

Bugyx did as she was told which infuriated Adrain. “I believe in redemption but for this, there needs to be consequences. But you Bunnyx you will never change. You will never learn from your mistakes because you will always use time travel to escape the consequences that could have let you become a better person.” Adrain ranted as they fought.

“Burrow. We’re above consequences!” Bugyx laughed as she disappeared in her portal.

“Cataclysm!” Vanta Noir said as he punched the air next to him as if it was a wall he was leaning against, and it shattered into a white circle of light leading to the burrow. And he stepped inside it. The rip in the time continuum closing behind him.

Then, Bugyx emerged from a white portal to the burrow. Before she could get too far, a black snake thicker than a leg, with a feline or maybe wolf-like head came from the portal and bit on her shoulder with his maw filled with too long razor-sharp teeth. One after the other a dozen of black arms with clawed hands surged from the portal and griped the old heroine. (Some of those arms had their elbow and/or their wrist bent in the wrong direction. Some arms, instead of being covered in leather were skeletal, or covered in fur, scales or feathers). 3 vantablack tentacles emerged and coiled around the stilled heroine and dragged her back towards the white portal through which nothing could be seen but black with too many green eyes.

“No!” Bugyx gasped afraid, trashing to get free. 

“Y̸͕̔o̶ũ̶̥̩’̸̩͈̈́r̸̺̩̾ē̸͓ ̷͚͂t̶̝́̃h̷̚e̸̢̖͑ ̸̆̈́ ͕o̷̖͆n̴̦̻͐è̴̤̬ ̶͂͌ w̸̠̒h̷o̸͈͙̅ ̸̯̩͘f̷̤͈̽l̸̛̬͂ȩ̷͈̄d̵̞̆͒͜ ̴̡̏̚t̶͇̱͐̚ò̴͔ ̸̡̥͋ţ̸̽h̸̩̃e̵̥̙̍̆ ̷̬̤́͘b̷̢̠̐̎u̶͇̱͛r̵͎̋ŗ̸͖͌ǫ̶̺́̽ẅ̷̰́͆ ̷̛͖̝̅w̴̠͋͛͜h̷̖̠̐̀ë̴̘̠́͛r̵̍e̸̯̦̍͆ ̷͉̔͘Î̶̗ͅ ̸̂ͅẖ̵̭͂a̸̢̰͛̄v̵̤̀ë̴̢̠ ̶͖͓͑ǹ̸͙̌ọ̵͌͘ẗ̶̝̹̈h̷̪̽i̶n̸̮̣̂g̶̼̎ ̶͕̽ť̵̖̻o̸̖̦͂̇ ̵̹̖͋̚d̶̘̪̚ḙ̴̍́͜s̴͈̃t̴̰͚̔͋r̷͉͈͝ǒ̵͈͐ý̵ ͚ ̸̼͌b̷̝͌u̶̇ͅť̶͙̝̒ ̸̤͗̑m̴̰̆y̷̠̌ś̸̹̕e̵l̶̲̋f̸̧̮̈́͘.̷̗̲́̃” A chorus of the same voice thundered.

“Yeah, okay. I can see now, how The Beast came from our emotions.” Adrain commented after the portal to the burrow closed behind the helpless old bunny user.

Taking advantage of Adrain’s inattention Bunnox concentrated to open a passage to a different moment of the burrow’s own internal timeline than the one the two others currently were. “I swear I will ask older me to lucky cham a gun so she can shoot Adrain in the head and then team up on Noir.” She muttered as she entered the portal. It closed and she rewound back to her only point of leverage.

A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she backed away assuming a defensive stance with her umbrella and hammer. “Lucky charm a gun and get rid of the golden anomaly, already.” Bunnox told her older self in frustration.

Suspicious of her younger self’s tone, Bugyx did as she was told, aware of the possibility that Bunnox had already tried this battle multiple times. “Lucky charm!” An ancient looking gun fell in the grandma’s hand. It was a replica of the gun used for the Sarajevo Attack (the murder that triggered World War 1). Bugyx took it in her hand, aimed and shot Adrain square in the head, killing him on the spot.

“No!” Nino, Marinette and some other classmates screamed as Adrain’s lifeless body hit the ground. “Dude!” Nino rushed and kneeled next to Adrain, crying.

“Well, that’s something I will have to fix.” Vanta Noir winced.

“Oh, and how will you do that, Noir?” Asked Bugyx with a smug grin, reloading her outdated gun.

 “What’s wrong with you?” Rose cried in anguish at the 2 adult heroes.

“This had to be done.” Bunnox said sternly.

“You don’t seem to quite understand what is at stake.” Nooroo buzzed in a low voice, reminding everyone of his presence.

“I have all the ways to hunt you, I can take you on alone. Swear it’s nothing personal, it’s necessary evil. But I have all the power to right this wrong, and you can bet I'll do it.” Vanta Noir stated glaring daggers at the two rabbits.

“Hah. Now that the older sentimonster is gone. We can wipe this whole mess clean. What can a mangy stray kitten like you can do about it, Agreste.” Bugyx scoffed not as aware as Bunnox, of the full extent of his capabilities.

“Alix, darling, you have picked the wrong boy to fight, I will protect what I built. Nasty little rabbits that must be smothered, multiplying and hopping back and forth. If following you through time is what I must do. Then darling, I’ll be coming for you.” He warned, the perfect pitch black of the mask surrounding his eyes, making the toxic green of his glare even harder. He ignored the exclamation of surprise that spread along the classmates at the revelations.

“When you’re trying to fix something, you don’t start by breaking more things.” The self-proclaimed expert of time said what her younger self, uses to go on about solving and causing problem.

“Well actually, I’m the holder of destruction. That’s basically my whole thing.” Vanta Noir grinned.

“Or did it slip your mind, that the world needs two things to live, lets see you try when I remove mine.” Vanta Noir said clenching his fist. “When your cells multiply endlessly without ever dying.” He said glaring at Bugyx, promising her a death in a few days from a generalised skin (at bare minimum) cancer.

“When messenger RNA strands stop dissolving after a quarter of hour and makes your cellular machinery continuously produce the same proteins without interruption no matter the need.” Vanta Noir said, clenching his fist harder, promising her a death in few hours. “When enzymes can’t cut molecules anymore. And the bounds in the ATP furnishing energy to your muscles refuse to break.” He said clenching his fist harder, glaring at Bugyx who started to convulse as he held back even more aspects of destructions from reaching her.

Alix had remarked that Vanta Noir could do normal cataclysm without having to speak but had to say ‘cataclysm’ aloud to destroy something that he normally couldn’t destroy without the power up of his akuma. But to the young girl worry, he wasn’t currently doing either and yet, what he was saying seemed to actually apply to Bugyx.

The old hag now on her knees and using one hand to try in vain to keep herself upright raised her gun with shaky hands and shot at Vanta Noir. He merely clenched his hand even harder, and the old woman stopped moving while the bullet froze midair. To Alya, he seemed to be clenching his fist so hard, that the only reason he wasn’t breaking his own bones in the process was because of his indestructible suit.

“What?” Said Bunnox, not understanding this new power of the akumatized black cat.

“Ever heard about entropy dictating the arrow of time? Well I let you guess the link between entropy, decay and destruction.” Vanta Noir smirked, nodding at something in the empty air next to Bugyx. Seeing the confusion in his classmates’ expression, he clarified. “Destruction is the force of end and change. Without destruction, there is no time.”

Marinette, still struggling after watching Adrien’s death (in such a graphic way on top of that) could barely grasp the fact that Vanta Noir didn’t just had strong destructive powers, but commended to the very concept of destruction itself.

Suddenly white and red energy started to pour out of Bugyx paused body rise in the air form the silhouette of a transparent barely visible Adrain, floating in the air like a ghost, both intangible hands plunged inside Bugyx back. “I can’t believe it actually worked!” Adrain’s excited voice was barely louder than a whisper to everyone present.

“What, but you’re dead!” Bunnox screamed in rage and surprise.

“As long as one of us is alive, our soul will continue to live on!” The phantomatic apparition of Adrain exclaimed. By draining more life force, he had become a little less transparent and his voice had become a little louder to the observers' hears.

 “Ghosts aren’t a thing. How can you have powers as a mere mental projection from Chat?” Bunnox demanded answer.

“With a miraculous the powers are stored in the object, so as a ghost kept alive in the others mind thanks to Soul Bound, since you don’t have it, you have no powers. But apparently it’s different for an akuma, since it transforms what you are, so even as a spirit, you still have the powers of your transformed self.” Adrain explained without looking at Bunnox, focussing on his transparent arms gaining in opacity.

Vanta Noir looked away from Bunnox, focusing instead on his undead older self. “I don’t think draining vital energy will be enough to spontaneously generate a physical body, but it sure seems enough to get a tangible impact on the world. Apparently someone who is the result of 2 amoks and an akuma can cheat death.” Vanta Noir chuckled, his fist clenched only imperceptibly less hard than when Bugyx was completely stopped in time.

Bunnox took advantage of the two blonds distraction to call the burrow. Fleeing without looking, she didn’t saw Vanta Noir’s smile who knew that by her next actions she would revive his brother. She was so predictable.

Once in the burrow, Bunnox stopped time and thought of the options she had left. Going in the past or the future to get their amok would be pointless since she couldn’t use it to control them because of the spiritual sentimonster that Adrien created the first day after coming back in the past that made the both immune to all forms of mind control, and destroying the amok would have no effect since it isn’t theirs, the present version of the rings would still sustain Vanta Noir’s existence. She switched the scene to her point of leverage. The only way for her to win was to go search for the rooster miraculous and choose the right power to get rid of the two fast enough.

“I can’t go take it now, because the second I step outside the burrow in a timeline that doesn’t make him stop to exist, Vanta Noir will have an infinite amount of time form his point of view to enter the burrow and track me down. I need to have my older self to occupy them, so I can get the rooster miraculous and come back in an instant.” Bunnox thought as she took a deep breath to prepare herself.

A portal opened next to Vanta Noir, Bunnox emerged from it dive kicking him in the leg. Then she continued tyring to elbow him in the face. He saw the second strike coming and took two steps back away from her.

“Cataclysm!” Vanta Noir said as he raised his hand towards Bunnox. A huge block of ice instantly formed with a high-pitched noise, trapping Bunnox. Vanta Noir removed his hand from the chunk of ice. No, not ice… Humidity close to the frozen block was condensing like it was extremely cold, and the surface of the solid chunk wasn’t visibly melting but vaporizing.

“Do you have any idea of the headache it was giving me to see blurred version of her previous attempts on top of what is currently happening?” Vanta Noir remarked.

“But your power is destruction, how can you produce ice!” Bugyx cursed in frustration.

“I destroyed the energy in the area. Even air get frozen solid at the absolute zero.” Vanta Noir explained. If it wasn’t for the ox miraculous preventing Vanta Noir from affecting her directly, Bunnox body temperature would have been dropped to 0 K too, and she would have died right this instant.

“Cataclysm!” The black energy of destruction showed on his right hand. He swung his arm to the right and Bugyx was thrown against the right wall. He then swung his arm to the left and Bugyx flew to the left wall. He swung his arm up and she hit the ceiling, then his arm down and she crashed to the floor. He continued to swing his arm to the sides as fast as he could, right, left, right, up, left, down, up, down, up, right, down, left, up, right, up, left, right, left, right. Vanta Noir wheezed a little from the exertion but the satisfying thump of the Bunny being smashed against a surface made it worth it. He continued to swing his arm, up, down, up, down, left, right, slowing down as he did.

While Vanta Noir was throwing Bugyx like a ragdoll, Adrain took on himself to explain. “No, he’s not using telekinesis. He’s dissolving the distance between you and the walls” He said smugly. If he had destroyed the distance instead, she would have been teleported instead of being moved.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Vanta Noir glanced at where the north was and projected Bugyx against the western wall of the classroom. The black energy around his right hand dissipated and Bugyx finally fell normally to the ground.

“What were you trying to do brat? Did you think that because I’m old, such merely things could hurt me through my indestructible suit?” The bug and bunny holder scoffed, brushing her jacket off with one hand, the other clenched around her weapon.

“I see you on the brink of death.” Vanta Noir said, eyeing the empty air next to him. “I see you draw your final breath.” He said looking at another empty spot as if there was something to see.

“I see a girl who gets to make it home alive…” Vanta Noir said now eying Alix as he took Adrien’s calculator in a loose grip with two fingers and placed himself to the east of where Bugyx stood.

“… but it’s no longer you.” He said finally looking at Bugyx again and pointing the calculator at her unimpressed. “Cataclysm.” He said with a smile, and the object ripped itself from his fingers, flying straight at Bugyx head at 1100 km/h, the device shattering at the strength of the impact.

The old woman groaned in pain and staggered as she put a hand on her head.

“I destroyed parts of the object’s inertia making it travel at the speed of rotation of the earth on the opposite direction.” He said turning back towards the trapped Bunnox and walking away from Bugyx. Adrain tripped Bugyx’s unsteady legs and in her fall grabbed her by the wrist and neck and slammed her, face down to the floor, draining her of her vital energy all the while. She managed to escape his grasp and tried to hit him, but even with bleeding injuries, he dodged all her attacks with minimal movements and retaliated with his own punch in between, draining a little more life-force at each successful strike.

Meanwhile, without saying a word, Vanta Noir cataclysmed the frozen air trapping Bunnox, without looking at the fight he knew his future self would win. He was better at hand-to-hand combat, she was less hurt than him but she would get weaker and weaker while he would only become stronger and stronger as the fight continue.

The solid air crumbled into black dust swept by the wind, and a shivering Bunnox fell to the ground, teeth chattering uncontrollably. She tried to get on her knee. “Cataclysm.” Vanta Noir said with a leisure flick of his hand and the ox miraculous appeared in his hand in a warp of space.

“Y-You cou-could d-do that fro-from the st-start? H-How? I w-was immu-i-immune to magi-ic.” Bunnyx asked, the voice leaving her blue lips barely understandable because of her chattering teeth, and her gray face distorted by incomprehension and fear.

“You and your miraculous were, but not the distance between the ox nose ring itself and my hand.” Vanta Noir said as he flicked a cataclysm ball with his finger, to her umbrella, cutting Bunnyx’s access to the burrow.

Bunnyx saw behind the akumatized black cat, her future self, looking older than she should, on her knees as she was drained of her vital energy by Adrain behind her. “After everything you've done, how will you sleep at night?” Bugyx whispered with all the venom that her dying breath could muster. “Safe.” Adrain answered flatly. The process ended, and Bunnyx saw him remove his hands from the old woman temples and drop her lifeless corpse to the ground. “I would return you the question, but I already know that you will sleep like the dead.” Vanta Noir wanted to answer but that was Adrain’s moment, so he only made that come back in thought.

Adrain approached Bunnyx, crouched a little and grabbed her by the jaw, his hand coated with few millimetres of a both white and red aura. “You’re deathly cold.” He remarked. “It seems that even with all your protections, 45 seconds in contact with the absolute 0 was almost enough for you to die of hypothermia.” He commented. It was pretty logic since solid air had been way worse than being trapped in a cold storage, buried in carbonic ice or even drenched in liquid nitrogen.

“You were there when I proposed to you to use my power of destruction to break what binds your existence to the suffering of Paris, at the condition that you let us alone. But you refused. This was never about justice or survival. It’s about power and entertainment for you.” Vanta Noir said as he placed his staff under her throat.

“You know… I would have probably done it. If it was just about me, and about your survival, I would have let you kill me. After all it would be pretty hypocrite of me to criticise you for being a murder and then go on and kill you just to save my life. But it’s not just about me, you want to let Shadow Moth continue his reign of terror and then let future Hawkmoth wedge hell on Paris until at least 10 years in the future. You want civilians to suffer under the thumb of super villains for at least a decade, and poor old Nooroo to suffer the abuse of those evil holders for just as long. And I won’t allow it.” Adrain affirmed.

“You’re so distanced from reality that for you, our lives and tragedies are no more than a TV show to enjoy, ink on a page to read and rewrite. You’re so used to erasing people from existence that we aren’t even people for you anymore. We’re just NPCs in videogame for you to play with. For you we aren’t real, just things to torment, watch, laugh at and kill before restarting.” Adrain growled.

“You have no right to do so! If you want to torture characters in story of your own creation for your own enjoyment, write books or fanfic and be my gest. But don’t even try to compare it to what you’re doing when you do it with real people. You’re no god! You’re not a higher dimensional being. You’re not a demiurge who created this world. You come from our plane of reality, and the power of time travel doesn’t make you more real than us. You’re not the omniscient keeper of the clock. You’re nothing, but a 3^rd grade miraculous holder with a god complex!” Adrain spat.

“Kwamis are actual divinities from outer realm, transcendental and as old as the universe for some of them. Such a behaviour could be understandable from them, and yet do you see any of the kwamis act this way? No.” Vanta Noir snarled.

“Who are you, human, to say, that I, kwami of transmission, should suffer and be abused by evil holders for a decade or more? What right do you have to decide that my fate is pain and being used as a tool to inflict pain on other?” Nooroo asked rhetorically to the weaken adult who had tried to break free from the two teens’ grip during the whole time they spoke.

“I believe in second chance, and I thrive for perfection even regarding the way things end. I offered you mercy and you spat at my face.” Adrain said as he started absorbing Bunnyx life-force. “Don’t expect any sympathy, I’m only human after all. And if you ever come back... The next time that you dare, choose not to spare, remember them!” Adrain gestured towards Paris’ scenery visible through the window with his free hand, as white energy flowed around his hand clasped on the lower half of her face, while draining her of her life-force, making her hair turn white. “Remember us!” He gestured towards Vanta Noir, as Bunnyx cold body looked more and more dried up. “Remember me!” Adrien Agreste, who both sentimonster teens were, thanks to time travel, and who they were under all masks.

Energy stopped pouring from Bunnyx body. Adrain now coated in a white aura with red accents, a centimetre thick, unceremoniously dropped her. Sass and Nooroo retrieved one earing from Bugyx corpse each, and Vanta Noir reduced the two dead bunny miraculous holders to nothing with wordless cataclysm.

“I will tell you the precise point in time each miraculous were taken from.” Sass said, giving the ladybug earing to Vanta Noir and taking his own miraculous between his tiny paws.

“Thanks.” Vanta Noir nodded, appreciating the kwami’s cooperation. “I will go bring those miraculous to their rightful time right now.” He said before cataclysming the time continuum and entering the burrow with the different kwamis and miraculous to bring back. The portal closed then another appeared, and Vanta Noir stepped out of it, his mission accomplished.

“Wait, but if Timetager was sent by future Hawkmoth and future Bunnyx already come so he doesn’t win but you prevented future Hawkmoth from happening, there is a paradox.” Alix remarked.

“Cataclysm!” Vanta Noir said, moving his hands in a circle then as if he was compacting a sphere. He grunted with efforts against the invisible thing in his grasp before finally joining his hands, the black energy of destruction disappearing. “It’s okay all the time paradoxes are destroyed now. There is no point in trying to figure out how all this works anymore. Or how it’s even possible from a genetic point of view, for Bunnyx to be the descendent from the incestuous relation between grandma Bunnyx and her own ancestor.” Vanta Noir dismissed. (I read in a Youtube comment that Thomas Astruc had said that on Twitter and it was supposedly cannon. Don’t know if it’s true but I include it here non the less.)

“What!” Alix, Alya and Marinette gasped simultaneously.

“Wait, is that true? I called her a living paradox, but I didn’t think it was that literal and extended to her entire family!” Adrain exclaimed just as surprised.

“Yeah, weird but it doesn’t matter.” Vanta Noir who came back from the burrow where he checked few things just shrugged.

“So, there was previous tries from Bunnox, and you can see them? You will have to tell me all about what happened in those.” Adrain said in thought to his younger self.

“Yeah, when I finish watching them unfold, I will tell you what I saw, through the mind link.” Vanta Noir answered in thought, wondering what happened in the burrow outside of time and his vision during the previous occurrences of the fight.

“Just to be clear, we don’t have anything against present Bunnyx. I’m sure that if we ever need it in the future, she will make a great hero of evolution and will not become like the two you just saw.” Vanta Noir clarified. Alix tensed shoulder relaxed a little.

“I will get my father to pay for therapy for all those who wants it after today.” Adrain said, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously.

“Please, wait for Ladybug’s and my press conference about Shadow Moth’s defeat before asking questions. Oh, and please, Alya, can you tell Ladybug to not go and miraculous Ladybug Bunnyx back to life. I would prefer not to go through that again.” Vanta Noir said. Alya discreetly glanced at Marinette.

“By, cataclysm.” Vanta Noir said with a finger salute before calling his power and throwing his hand in direction of the opened window and disappeared in a warp of space.

“Sorry for your jeans Nino.” Adrain said as he sat back in his seat. “I didn’t want you to be dragged in this fight.” He said apologetically.

“It’s okay dude, you protected the others and healed me.” Nino reassured him.

Mrs Mendeleiev left the intense reflection all the scientific concepts Adrain and Vanta Noir had invoked and played with, had put her into and glanced at the still akumatized (apparently?) student. “Adrain you’re bleeding, you need medical attention now.” She said sternly.

“Don’t worry, I have literally the health of 2.5 normal people on top of the boundless stamina of an akuma. I will survive.” Adrain dismissed with a wave of the hand, coated in a one-centimetre-thick aura of energy.

“Wait 2.5, but you said that a miraculous holder amounted for more than 100% of the energy of a person, just how much were you weakened by Nathalie’s illness?” Max asked, pushing his glasses higher on his nose with a finger.

Before Adrain got the time to answer he was interrupted by Mrs Mendeleiev. “Even if it’s the case and you just want to go back after to continue your school day as if nothing happened, go to the nurse’s office now.” She said sternly. The akuma agreed and left to go see the nurse.

“Is no one going to talk about the ‘starved’ part that Vanta Noir mentioned?” Marinette thought incredulously.

When the time of lunch break came and Adrain went back to the mansion, he had already been patched up. After an awkward drive back home during which Adrain had to reassure his obviously concerned bodyguard. When he arrived home and stepped in the dining room he saw Vanta Noir eating and Nathalie next to him.

“Adrien, what happened to you? After coming back, Noir stayed evasive about what happened except that Bunnyx threat was taken care of.” Nathalie run to Adrain and quickly check him up. He was happy to see her healthy and able to run without robotic assistance again.

“Those are two crossbow bolts wounds. But I’m high on the raw vitality of two miraculous holders, even if it hadn’t been disinfected and bandaged, I would still be fine.” Adrain reassured, taking a seat on the opposite side of Vanta Noir who was lounging in his chair. Nathalie left to bring back his meal.

“Why are you here still transformed?” Adrain asked to his younger counterpart.

“My akuma is in the pocket of your alternative peacock costume. I can’t detransform until you bring back my akumatized object in the same world as me. Just like you can’t be unakumatized until I am and give you the ring so you can get your akumatized object from your Catwalker’s costume.” Vanta Noir reminded his older self with a small smile as he finished his dessert.

“You have the power of absolute destruction. You can do whatever you want no matter those rules.” Adrain answered rolling his eyes. At the same moment, Nathalie entered again with his lunch.

“Well maybe I like to be able to see and hold everything my mind can conceive as well as the very fabric reality and want it to continue a bit longer. And maybe there is a last thing we will have to use this power for.” Vanta Noir said. Nahtalie deposed his food in front of Adrain.

Adrain nodded and looked glumly at his meal. “How are you feeling Adrien?” Nathalie inquired.

“I killed a woman today.” Adrain said bluntly, shuffling aimlessly the food in his plate with his fork. “Three times.” He added in thought. “From your point of view.” Vanta Noir supplied unhelpfully in his mind.

“Adrien…” Nathalie started but Adrain didn’t let her finish.

“If you were going to give me advice to manage my guilt and say something along the line that you can relate because you’ve already killed people before, yourself, just stay quiet.” Adrain said dryly. Nathalie closed her mouth and let the sombre looking boy eat undisturbed.

“Since we have already crossed the line of unhealthy magical coping mechanism… do you want me to cataclysm your guilt?” Vanta Noir proposed.

“I don’t know… I’ll think about it after mom is healed. I just want to wake her up as soon as possible and be done with it.” Adrain answered pensively, forcing himself to eat quickly despite the pit in his stomach.

After finishing his meal, Adrain descended into his father’s lair followed by Vanta Noir and Nathalie.

“You’ve been wounded Adrien.” Gabriel remarked coldly when he saw him.

“What an astute observation father.” Vanta Noir answered dryly.

Adrain and Vanta Noir walked to the glass coffin in which their mother was resting, and opened it. Nathalie and Gabriel stayed respectfully a few meters behind them.

Adrain took the hand of his mom in his own. Just like a lethal cataclysm, the wounds of a miraculous once inherited by its user, were illness that no magic (short of the wish) were powerful enough to heal. But an equivalent exchange demand far less power, and the magic given by the butterfly miraculous was enough for this.

Adrain started to absorb his mother’s illness, healing her from her uncurable condition by slowly taking it onto himself. As he was doing so, the white and red aura surrounding him was resorbing.

A crack in a miraculous is a wound so deep, that once it become someone’s wound, it takes more than the total life force of a human being to fill, that’s why someone who used a broken miraculous is tirelessly drained (more or less quickly depending on how many times it was used) of their vital energy until the last drop.

Adrain could feel himself getting weaker as he could feel the crack forming in his very core grow and the excess of life stolen from the two bunny users, poor in the chasms to fill them. He was checking carefully his aura to make sure it wasn’t his own life he was losing. Despite the risk, Adrain couldn’t help but smile as he could now feel his mother pulse as well as see her breathing calmly as if she was peacefully asleep.

He let go of his mother’s hand when he had less than half a millimetre of aura coating him, and stood up. He could sense that he had almost completely absorbed his mother’s illness. He just needed a little more to be able to safely absorb the last bit of magical wound remaining in her.

Adrain put his hand on the grass and started to drain its life essence, the grass all around him withered and died. Then he circled the platform absorbing the vital energy of each bush before draining the luxuriant vegetation on the butterfly stain glass window of its life force. A thin transparent aura looking like the heat distortion of a desert or a flame formed around Adrain.

With his newfound energy he went back to his mother’s coffin, took her hand and took for himself the last bit of damage inflicted by the peacock miraculous left in her system.

Vanta Noir passed a comforting arm around his older self’s shoulder. They both looked at their mom, Adrain squeezed the hand of the asleep woman and after more than a year, Emilie Agreste opened her eyes again.