"You have to succeed, Ladybug," Bunnyx said anxiously as she raced back to the circle that showed the disastrous future, where Ladybug and Cat Blanc had ended up all the way at the Eiffel Tower. "Capture his akuma; do it now!"

Ladybug jumped into the metal beams, where it would be easier to hide. Cat Blanc followed moments after she'd gone out of sight and crawled in a catlike manner up one of the lopsided beams of metal. He stood up and began walking confidently along a vertical strip, looking around for her. "Things were purrfect until Hawk Moth found out about everything," he snarled, the bitter tone in his voice scaring her. She stood silently behind a large piece on the other end of the tower, listening anxiously and sadly. Cat Blanc went on, "Once the cat is out of the bag, it's only a matter of time 'til everyone knows." She looked out at the broken city as he finished, "It was our love that did this to the world, M'lady."

Ladybug couldn't help feeling depressed at his words. She didn't have romantic feelings for him, but she did love him as a partner and good friend. He'd never tried to hide the fact that he was hopelessly in love with her, but she'd always told him the truth: she was in love with someone else. And if somehow they'd ended up as a couple, and it had done this, then surely they could never be in love, even if she did ever get feelings for him. If this would be the end result, then it would be star-crossed no matter what. Something terrible had happened that resulted in his akumatization, the destruction of Paris, and had driven him insane. The only question was, "How did our love do this?"

In the Burrow, Bunnyx vocalized the same question: "But how did it?"

She again visited a scene in this past, where she finally found something that started an explanation. Marinette was in her family's bakery, making some heart-shaped cookies. Nathalie was standing in front of her, holding a tablet that allowed Gabriel Agreste to speak to her without leaving his house.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel said sternly, "your relationship with my son is detrimental to the Gabriel Agreste brand. I demand that you stop seeing him at once."

Marinette looked saddened and confused. "But . . ." she protested vaguely, "I didn't do anything."

Tom Dupain put his hands defensively on her shoulders. "She loves Adrien and Adrien loves her!" he shouted angrily. "You can't decide—"

"If you refuse," Gabriel interrupted, "I will not hesitate to withdraw Adrien from school, and he will never see his friends again."

The shocked girl dropped the tray of goodies in horror. "Adrien doesn't deserve this!" she cried.

"Then make the right choice," Adrien's father answered coldly.

She buried her face in her hands, unable to stop herself from crying.

Tom looked outraged. "Get out of my bakery!" he yelled. "Now!"

Nathalie calmly turned and walked out the door, leaving the small family in shock and in tears.

Again fastforwarding, Bunnyx came across a dark, stormy day. Marinette was standing at the gate of the Agreste Mansion, her face nearly hidden beneath the black umbrella she held. The gates swung open at her arrival, but only because Gabriel knew what she was doing there. At the door, Adrien poked his head outside, although his bodyguard blocked him from going out. "Marinette?" he called questioningly. "Why won't you come in? What's wrong?"

She couldn't look at him. "Adrien . . . I . . ." Her voice shook. "Forgive me, we're just . . ." The words were the hardest she'd ever had to speak in her life. "We're just not right for each other."

Adrien seemed genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?" he asked, smiling faintly in bewilderment and nerve. "Of course we are, we love each other!"

Marinette forced herself to look up, revealing her tear-stained eyes. "No," she sobbed, "I . . . don't love you . . . anymore!" The moment the words were out, she turned and raced away, crying bitterly.

Realizing what had just happened, Adrien muttered, "No . . ." then reached out after her as if he could stop her from afar. "Marinette!" He looked up desperately at his bodyguard and pleaded, "Please let me through, it can't end like this! It can't end at all! I love her!"

From the above floor, Nathalie was watching the whole thing take place. "Everything is going as planned, sir," she said into the phone, speaking to Gabriel.

Transformed as the widely despised supervillain Hawk Moth, Adrien's father opened his lair's window, commenting with a demented pleasure, "I've never felt such utter despair." He held out his palm, allowing a white butterfly to land on it, which he then infused with his power. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng will be my ultimate masterpiece." He'd been targeting this young lady for months; she was a strong-willed, widely known student, the most popular girl in her school, and was very influential. The newly transformed akuma fluttered off his hand, out the window, and headed for its target. "Fly away, my beautiful akuma," Hawk Moth ordered excitedly, "and evilize this broken heart!"

Marinette reached the stairs to the subway station, and, broken with sadness, collapsed on the top stair beneath her umbrella. At the doors of the mansion, Adrien gazed miserably up at his bodyguard, his face streaked with tears. "I beg you, please!" he whispered hoarsely.

After a hesitation, the bodyguard nodded, and withdrew his arm. Immediately Adrien took off down the stairs, pursuing her in sheer desperation. Suddenly, however, he stumbled to a stop with a horrified gasp upon seeing a black butterfly making its way determinedly towards Marinette. Panic swept through him, and he started running after her again, this time crying out, "Marinette, MOVE!"

She looked up, confused and still teary-eyed, and mumbled, "Adrien?" She turned and looked to see her loved one running for her faster than ever, but what happened next startled her more than anything in her life.

He shouted, "Plagg, claws out!" and within an instant was transformed as her flirty and well-known feline superhero partner: Cat Noir.

In amazement, she inhaled sharply, her eyes round with shock. Right after transforming, he yelled, "Cataclysm!", leapt through the air, and grabbed the winged creature with his right hand a second before it touched her.

Marinette stared, her bluebell eyes huge. "Adrien!" she whispered.

Cat Noir opened his clenched fist, allowing the crumbled remains of the akuma to fall from his grasp. "You were about to be akumatized," he told her quietly. "I didn't have a choice, M'lady."

The familiar nickname she was so used to hearing made her jump in shock. "M'lady?" she echoed, amazed, her emotions all over the place. "But . . . how did you know? I thought our identities were supposed to remain a secret!" Shakily she dropped the umbrella, and fell into his arms.

He looked surprised for a moment, but then put his arms around her comfortingly and smiled. "Everything will be okay," he murmured. "I promise."

From the above floor window, Nathalie stared in blank shock out the window, having witnessed the whole scene. Gabriel's voice sounded impatiently from the phone: "Nathalie? Nathalie!"

Eventually, she lifted the phone back to her ear and ventured hesitantly, "It's Adrien. Your son . . . he's . . . he's Cat Noir."

Within the barely lit lair, Hawk Moth dropped his cane in momentary shock at the news. "Cat Noir, my own son?" he echoed incredulously, and one might think it would've sobered him into stopping his evil deeds. But then he smiled cruelly, and declared, "The miraculous will soon be mine!"