Her Royal Highness Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Princess (for the moment, at least) of Boulangerie, was saying goodbye to the forest behind her parent's castle. For years, this had been a place for her to laugh and play and be a girl, free from the burdens that came with being a Princess. But now it was time to grow up.
I will never walk these forests again, never again see the flowers bloom or dip my feet in the stream. I must go away to my doom, and I will never come home again.
She'd known this day was coming for as long as she could remember. For ten years, the peace her parents' sacrifice had bought had held. Agreste had sent no soldiers west, save for a few guards for the embassy and the merchant caravans that frequently came out of the east. Boulangerie had continued to thrive under her parents' rule, and had even enjoyed a burst of prosperity. But like a stormcloud on the horizon of a sunny day, there had always been the perpetual awareness that Boulangerie still existed only because Gabriel Agreste permitted it to exist. And the time would come when he would demand the promised offering in return for its forbearance.
And now, that day had almost come. In just a few days it would be her thirteenth birthday, and on the day after that she would depart for the Agrestian capital at New Astruc. She wouldn't be required to wed young Agreste for years yet, but old Agreste had insisted that she spend a few years learning the ways of his court before she was given to his son.
Her parents could not defy him now, no more than they could have a decade ago. Indeed, Agreste was far stronger now than he had been when the treaty was signed. He had consolidated his hold over the fractured mess that had once been the kingdoms of Papillion and Pavonia, and they would give him no trouble. Sapotis, across the sea to the South, had fallen years ago, and the last few resistance movements were being crushed. Even Volpinium, which had thought itself safe behind the bulwark of Boulangerie, was under assault. Agreste's fleets had simply sailed past Boulangerie and landed his armies at the southern end of the Volpinian Penninsula, and they had been pushing steadily northward ever since. By the time Marinette came of age, Boulangerie would be flanked on two sides by Agreste's forces, trapped in the jaws of the pincer.
Ahead of her, she saw something that jarred her out of her brooding. A mighty oak, one at least as wide around as she was tall, had stood a short ways ahead for as long as she could remember. But since she had last been this way it had fallen over, cutting a huge gash in the forest canopy in its fall.
Poor tree, she thought, vaulting up atop it. It's almost like a symbol of Boulangerie. For generations it stood here, growing wide and tall under the Sun. And then a storm comes along out of nowhere and tears down in a moment what took generations to grow, just like Agreste's demands did to us. We… wait, what is that?
As she had been thinking, she'd been walking along the trunk of the tree, until she came to the torn mass of roots at the end. And she thought she'd seen something shiny and definitely not natural in the pit where the tree had been.
She jumped down off the trunk and made her way down into the hole. And sure enough, nearly buried at the bottom of the pit was something made of polished black wood, with a bit of red enamel visible.
Marinette quickly dug the object out and brushed it off, revealing it to be a small octagonal box, decorated with complex designs in red enamel. She opened it, and for just a second she saw a pair of simple black earrings inside, resting on a soft red cushion. But then a glowing orb of red light materialized and drifted up out of the box.
"Tikki and Plagg!" yelped Marinette, dropping the box and jumping back.
"Just Tikki, actually," chirped the tiny red-and-black-spotted figure that had materialized from the orb. "Hello, Marinette!"
Weeks later
Adrien Agreste walked in the ruins of a dead city. His father's capital of New Astruc had been built atop the very ruins of Old Astruc, as the capital of the Astrucan Republic was now known. There was little of the old city left above ground. Little had survived Downfall in the first place, and some of the remainder had been leveled by his father to clear space for rebuilding. Moreover, those buildings that had survived intact (or nearly so) had instead been renovated, and were now occupied.
But underground… that was a whole different story. There had been an entire network of catacombs, cellars, sewers, and all manner of underground rooms and passages under Astruc even before Downfall, and his madness had turned it into a deranged maze, alternately boring twisting passages through solid stone with Plagg's power, and then the next moment filling the empty spaces with twisted constructs of Tikki's essence. Altogether, it made the perfect place for a bored young boy to go exploring.
He was fairly certain his father knew he was down here, and was equally certain that he wouldn't care. As long as he kept to the rules and didn't miss his tutoring sessions or his occasional times learning directly from his father, Gabriel didn't seem to care what he did.
Though Adrien couldn't blame his father too much for being preoccupied. Running the Empire took up so much time, and in many ways the Moth Brooch actually made that worse. One of the great advantages the Brooch gave was its ability to let his father receive reports from and issue orders to his generals, governors, and agents instantly and untraceably, without waiting days or even weeks for messages to be passed along through conventional means. But to take full advantage of this capacity, his father had to manage everything directly. And even with the level of delegation his father had been forced to accept, sending and receiving messages through the Brooch took up a huge chunk of his time every day.
I suppose I should be thankful that he makes time to interact with me at all, thought Adrien, even if it is more as a ruler training his heir than as a father spending time with his son. Chloe doesn't even get that much. And to be fair, he does give me credit when I do well in our personal lessons, and I am learning… What have we here?
Ahead of Adrien the passage split in three. To the left a wall of ladystone, blood-red with black spots, blocked the passage completely only a few feet down. To the right it went on straight and smooth as far as the light of Adrien's torch illuminated. But ahead there was a similar wall of ladystone. This one, however, had a door of polished wood in it. The door wasn't completely aligned with the passage, but enough of it was exposed for him to reach the handle.
Adrien shifted the torch to his left hand and tried the handle.
I hope the door isn't locked. And I hope it opens inward. I'd never be able to get the door open if it opens outward, not with half the door covered in earth and stone. And I'd like to see what's on the other side. A door means that this is probably a room from a building in Old Astruc, dropped down here when Downfall tore the ground out from under it. And buildings have things in them. Furniture and trinkets and Tikki alone knows what else.
But the door did open inward, and wasn't locked. It opened with ease, though not without a shriek as long-unused hinges groaned. On the other side of the door was a largish room of ladystone. Once, it might indeed have held furniture, but it was now empty. And the cause of that emptiness was only too obvious.
At first glance, the thing uncurling itself from slumber in the middle of the room might have appeared to be a largish black housecat. But one glance at its eyes would have disproved that. For these eyes were twin pools of solid green fire, without iris or pupil. No creature of flesh and blood had such eyes. This was a Plaggian akuma, a spirit of destruction such as had haunted the ruins of Old Astruc for decades after Downfall. But even akumas died in time, and Adrien had never expected to see one still alive after all these centuries.
"Mrrow?" inquired the akuma as it stretched. Its fiery eyes met Adrien's.
Adrien's first impulse was to turn and run, but something told him that would be the wrong answer. This was a predator, and the last thing he wanted was to look like prey. His second impulse was to try and kill it, but he knew his chances of victory would be poor. Akumas could be killed, but they were a lot stronger and tougher than they looked, and none were more dangerous than Plaggians. And then a third thought floated into his mind.
This may be an akuma, but it's also a cat. Cats like cheese. And I have cheese.
Still holding the akuma's gaze with his own, Adrien reached into his pocket and drew out one of the bite-sized cheese wheels he carried, wrapped in wax, as snacks on these expeditions. He quickly peeled off the wax and then crouched down, setting the cheese wheel on the smooth ladystone floor.
"Here kitty kitty," he said. "Come and get the nice cheese."
The akuma broke eye contact, padded forward, and snapped up the cheese wheel in a couple of quick bites. Then it thrust its head up towards Adrien. Taking a chance, Adrien reached out and began to scratch the akuma between the ears. Its fur was surprisingly soft, like a real cat's.
The akuma began to purr as it rubbed against Adrien's hand, and then it suddenly dissolved into a cloud of blackish smoke. The cloud hovered in the air for a moment before drifting across the room and vanishing into a small octagonal box of black wood, decorated with designs in red enamel, that sat on a shelf.
Well, I wanted interesting, thought Adrien. And this is certainly interesting. A Plaggian akuma could have gotten out of this room easily if it wanted too, but it didn't. So that most likely means it was set to guard this box. But Downfall was the last Cat Noir, if you even count him as a Cat Noir, and only they could create or command Plaggian akumas. So this must have been set here before Downfall. And if the akuma survived all those years, someone must have put a truly impressive amount of power into creating it. So what would a Cat Noir of the Astrucan Republic value so highly that he would set a guard over it powerful enough to endure for centuries?
Let's find out.
Adrien stuck the torch in a holder on the wall to free his hands. Then he carefully lifted the lid of the box, braced for the akuma to come boiling back out. Instead, a green sun erupted from inside the box. Adrien leapt back, one hand falling to the knife at his belt. But the orb of green flame simply faded away to reveal a tiny black shape with the slitted green eyes of a cat.
"Hello, kid," it said with a vast yawn. "Don't suppose you've got any more of that cheese?"
Weeks earlier
"You… you're T-T-Tikki?" said Marinette shakily, staring at the tiny figure hovering in front of her. She had to admit, it did look a lot like the illustrations of the kwami of Creation in the books of legend.
"Yes," replied the tiny form simply, with a small smile.
"Ti-" Marinette began, before cutting off with a sudden burst of embarrassment. "Sorry."
"It's ok," said the ladybug kwami. "I understand what you meant."
"I just... If you're Tikki, then those must be the Earrings of the Ladybug," said Marinette. "People have been searching for those for generations, and all this time they were hidden not ten minute's walk from the city gates. If my parents had found you, they wouldn't have had to sign that accursed… treaty…"
Marinette trailed off. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she felt hope once more. The Earrings of the Ladybug and the Ring of the Black Cat are more powerful than any other Miraculouses. If I, if we, have the Earrings, we can take on Agreste! I don't have to go!
"Marinette, I know what you're thinking," said Tikki, and Marinette's brief flare of hope began to fade at the dejected look on Tikki's face. "But there's something you must understand. I'm not more powerful than Nooroo, not as we both are right now. When a kwami first bonds a human, we're weak in this Realm. Over time, we grow stronger. The bond with a human lets us pull more and more of our… concept, I suppose you could call it… through the barriers and into the Physical. But unless the proper precautions are taken and a new Bearer takes us up almost immediately, we lose all that progress when the bond breaks. The Astrucans knew how to preserve a lot of our strength through a change of Bearers, and they had all kinds of rituals and techniques to speed up the bonding, but even then it took years for the bond to reach full strength. And Gabriel Agreste's bond with Nooroo is at very nearly its full strength already. I will surpass Nooroo in strength eventually, but I won't reach that level overnight."
Marinette slumped to the ground and buried her face in her hands, trying to hold back tears. "So nothing's changed, then," she said. "I might as well just bury the Earrings again. Boulangerie still can't fight Agreste. And if I take the Earrings, he will claim them, and be more unstoppable than ever."
"Not necessarily," said Tikki. "You see…"
Weeks Later
"But if there's a spell on the Miraculouses to keep people from noticing them," asked Adrien, "Why does everyone know that my father has a Miraculous?"
"Because he turned the spell off, genius!" laughed the kwami of Destruction. "He wants people to know what power he has. But if you want to keep me secret, keep your dad from taking me away, I can oblige. As long as you don't do anything stupid like transform right in front of someone, nobody will realize what that shiny new ring really is, or put two and two together and figure out why the new Cat Noir looks kind of like Adrien Agreste and the two never seem to be around at the same time."
"Ok," said Adrien. "So I get a secret identity. What else? I know you said you're not at anything like full power yet, but what do you grant?"
"To start off?" asked Plagg rhetorically. "Supernatural strength, reflexes, and endurance, much stronger than what those Moth Guards of your father's get. Spiffy indestructible magic armor-clothes. A shiny staff with a few tricks. You'll have a cat's eyes and ears, plus the costume includes a tail to help with balance. And you'll inflict mild to moderate bad luck on your enemies. That's all passive stuff. For active powers, you start out with Jinx and Cataclysm."
"And what do those do?" asked Adrien, intrigued.
"Jinx is kind of an amplified version of the passive bad luck aura. Once you tag someone with it, everything that could go wrong for them will go wrong until you detransform, which breaks the Jinx. Cataclysm will destroy the next thing you touch after triggering it. Be careful with those two. You can only use each once per transformation, at least for now, and once you use one of them you'll have only five minutes before you have to detransform."
"Got it," said Adrien, rolling the ring around in his hand. "And you said cheese restores your energies after a transformation."
Plagg nodded. "Mushrooms or alcohol would work too, but cheese is tastier."
"Let's give this a whirl, then," said Adrien, slipping the ring onto his finger. "Plagg, claws out!"
Weeks earlier
"Tikki, spots on!"
As she uttered the trigger phrase, Marinette saw Tikki dissolve into a pinkish blur shooting towards her head. And then the transformation hit. It was clean and cool and refreshing, like a cup of cold water to a parched throat or fresh air after being trapped in a stuffy room. Marinette couldn't help laughing for sheer simple joy at the feeling.
The cloud of pink sparkles that had briefly obscured her vision faded. Glancing down at herself, Marinette blushed. All her previous clothes had vanished, replaced with a seamless garment that, while it covered her from neck to toe, clung as tight as a second skin. Marinette had more than a passing interest in clothing and cloth, but she had never seen anything even remotely like this stuff. The closest comparison she could think of was that it looked a little like she'd been clad in fish's mail, like a mermaid out of some old legend.
Her attention was diverted from her attire by the weight at one hip. She reached down, and found a largish yo-yo attached to an almost invisible loop in the bizarre fabric. She unhooked it, slipped the ring onto one gloved finger, and hefted the weight in her hands.
Marinette had never really played much with yo-yos when she was younger, but the transformation seemed to come with an instinctive feel for this along with everything else. A couple of practice swings gave her the feel of the weapon, and then she tossed it up and looped it around a tree branch. The cord retracted, yanking her up off the ground, and a midair flip somehow managed to unwind the cord and put her atop the branch all in one instinctive movement. Ironically, she nearly fell off from the shock of realizing what she'd just managed to pull off.
She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and then she was off again, leaping from branch to branch like a squirrel or swinging from the branches on her yo-yo cord. She let out another ringing peal of laughter at the exhilaration of soaring through the air, the Ladybug magic running through her veins like light.
Time to try out those other powers Tikki mentioned, she thought with a giggle as she loop-the-looped around a tree trunk and went soaring back the way she'd come. In a moment, she came to the trunk of the fallen tree. A quick glance confirmed that the box in which she'd found the Earrings of the Ladybug was sitting on the ground beside the pit, where she thought she remembered putting it. She didn't want to lose that.
"Miraculous Ladybug!" she shouted, stretching out her right hand. She felt the Ladybug magic surge, pouring through her like cool water and clear light. It shot down her arm, and a stream of what looked like thousands of tiny ladybugs, each trailing rose-pink sparkles like those thrown off by her transformation, erupted from her splayed fingers. They swirled around the fallen tree, and when they dissipated the tree was once again standing upright, roots dug deep into the earth, branches spread wide, and leaves thick and green.
"Tikki, spots off," said Marinette. She felt the energy drain from her, and had to fight the temptation to crumple to the ground with sudden exhaustion. She knew she wasn't actually tired, of course. The sudden reversion to a mere mortal body just made her feel tired by comparison, and that was already fading. Tikki popped into existence in front of her, looking as tired as Marinette felt. Marinette extended her hand, and Tikki happily dropped down and curled up in Marinette's palm. Marinette tucked the tiny god into one of the pockets of her dress, scooped up the box, and began to walk back towards the castle.
"Don't worry, Tikki," she said. "We'll be home soon, and then I'll get you something to eat. You said you liked bread, right?"
"Yes," chirped Tikki, poking her head out of the pocket. "Bread is good." She laughed with a sound like chiming bells. "You know, I haven't had a good piece of bread in about three hundred years," she said.
Marinette smiled. "Fresh bread coming right up," she said. "Now stay hidden. We'll be back in the city in a few minutes. I don't know what my parents would do if they found out you were here, and I'm not sure I want to know. They might try and take you away, and I have no intention of giving you up."
