Warmth and light, like laying in the afternoon sun on a cloudless day, as though darkness did not exist; that is what it felt like. There was a sensation of being gently formed, like clay in the hands of a potter, the simple yet overwhelming knowledge that she was deeply loved by her creator. She was surrounded by light and warmth and happiness.
She blinked once, her eyes fluttering in the brightness around her. It felt as though she were as light as air, floating on the breeze like a tuft of cotton. She turned her head this way and that, there was nothing but eternal light in all directions.
A voice spoke then, tender and familiar, "Make this place your own."
A singular command that needed no explanation; she reached out with her small hands. The power within her heart poured out eager and joyful as she began her creation.
Cold and dark, like being shut away deep within a dungeon, no light, no warmth, forever trapped; that is what it felt like. He had existed for an endless age, alone with his thoughts, without purpose. None did accompany him, none ever had. He could scream into the void and it would not grant him the small solace of even echoing back. Would the darkness around him never cease? Would he ever find a reprieve? Was his very existence a plague upon reality?
He squinted his eyes against the dark, unsure of what to think of his own ubiquity. For what reasons had he been created? Was he simply meant to wallow in sorrow for all of eternity? He let out a breath and closed his eyes, favoring slumber to the endlessness of the dark; to his own endlessness...
The world took shape at her command, forming into something tangible and beautiful. The depth of color within her heart illuminated the world she had called into being. She danced across the surface of the planet, her imagination pulling trees and grass and dirt and waters into permanence. Such beauty there had never been in all the universe.
Her creator smiled down at her and laughed in his joy. He was greatly pleased with her, his creation. She was his happiness.
After a time her dance came to an end. She looked around at what she had made and spun in place, ringing with such pure laughter that it echoed through the universe. The first voice that had ever truly been heard.
Her laughter lessened with the passing of time until she strolled quietly through the perfect gardens.
A sound, unlike anything he had ever heard tinkled like chimes in the nothingness around him, stirring him from his endless slumber. He looked around frantically, unsure of where he was in the vastness of the dark. He had heard a sound, he was sure of it! Never had he heard before, his own voice having always been drowned out by the density of the darkness.
There it was again, this time pulling his thoughts into focus. The brightness and joviality of the sound made him consider crying out in his anguish. He pressed against his dark prison in desperation to find his way to the sound. If he could only find... his way... out...
No, no. He could not. It was his place to remain in the dark. If there truly was something beyond the darkness, it was not meant for him. He had long since accepted that he was not meant to exist beyond the prison that kept his state of pestilence contained.
The hope that had formed in him shattered his fragile heart into pieces. He cried out. Tears fell from his somber eyes. His cries falling mute upon his ears. The one who laughed would never know of the one who despaired.
She heard a sound. Her laughter had echoed through reality, but this was not the sound of laughter. It was something quiet and very very far away, born of something that was not happiness. It confused her.
For the first time since the creation of her world, she turned her gaze beyond the treetops to the light beyond. Where had that sound come from? What kind of sound could it have been?
The tender warmth of the voice that birthed her wrapped its tones around her once again, "What is it that calls you beyond your station?"
"I wish to know..." she whispered so quietly her voice was as the softest breeze. "What is beyond the light?"
"Are you not content with what you know?" the voice sounded curious yet melancholy. "There are things that have been called into being that are not within the light."
"Not within the light?" she breathed in disbelief. Never had the thought ever crossed her mind that there could be a place where the light could not encompass. "What is it called? Am I the only one like me?"
The voice sighed like a mighty gale as her eyes continued to search the sky. The winds blew hard against the trees around her making them sway like grass under the power of the voice. All at once the winds stilled and there at her feet, a lovely pink apple rolled to a stop.
"A single bite of this fruit and you will know some of what I know," the voice's sadness reverberated through her as she picked the apple off the ground and observed it thoughtfully. "Be warned, if you eat of it, you will come to know the truths that are beyond your own nature. But you will then be capable of feeling all that I feel, good and bad."
The imperceptible cry she'd heard before resounded silently once again. It was more as though one were calling to her heart from far away than an audible sound. A deep awareness tugged at her consciousness, telling her that something was missing, something she, herself, could not create.
Her vibrant blue eyes lifted skyward still, she placed the fruit to her lips and bit into its tender flesh; bitter and sweet, crisp and soft, fresh and rotten. The apple opened her eyes to more than she had ever known, filling her with the knowledge of light and darkness.
She stood shocked, clinging tightly to the apple. The cry she continued to hear was now one she could name. It was hopelessness. It was pain. It was loneliness. It was hurt. It was fear. It was sorrow. It was depression. It was despair absolute.
She could not bear the sound of it. Tears formed in her eyes but not of joy as she had known. How naive she had been, spending her endless time dancing and laughing with incomprehensible joy, when there was a visceral darkness just beyond her sight.
She had to find the source of the pain. She had to quiet the fears. She had to end the loneliness and hurt and sorrow and depression. She had to comfort the one despairing. She had to shed light on the darkness.
Jumping from the surface of her world, she ascended into the light intent on breaking through. Higher and higher she flew, reaching for the edge of the light. No matter what, she would reach it.
She found it. The terminus of her known reality spanned out before her. Her reflection drawing closer and closer but she did not slow down. She, in fact, sped faster into the end of the light.
The whiteness around her shattered into oblivion. Countless pieces, fragments of brilliance, flinging themselves to the far reaches of the cosmos, the particles of light illuminated the dark. The constellations fell into place before her very eyes as she beheld the beauty of the universe.
The sound grew louder now that the barrier between their hearts was broken. It was from within a stone sphere that the crying echoed. The light of the stars and sun lit up the globe before her. She circled it in her desperation. She had to find the way inside.
She pushed on the surface, sending the giant orb tumbling freely through the air. Perhaps, if she brought the sphere back to her blue planet, she could ask her creator what is needed to free them. Slowly, carefully she pushed the stone orb until it was captured in the orbit of her planet.
"What are you doing little one?" asked the voice. She sat on the moon as it gently circled the earth. The movement of the moon in orbit had quieted some of the cries within, yet still, they persisted.
"I desire to help the one who despairs," she answered sadly from where she sat. "I do not yet know how."
"Are you certain you wish for him to be released upon the world?" asked the voice whose tone was careful. "If allowed out of his prison, death will eventually come upon all that you have created. Disease and pestilence, destruction and plague will ruin all that has been done."
"Darkness and Light have existed together since the beginning," she said softly, stroking the stone beneath her with a thoughtful gaze. "Though I did not know of him until now; we were always meant to coexist, were we not? Together we create an unshakable balance. We are but the foundation of all that is to come."
"Indeed," the gentleness of the voice encircled her in something reminiscent of a hug. "That is the answer I longed to hear. To free him from his prison, you must only laugh."
A small giggle was all it took. A rumble deep within the moon grew more and more violent causing craters to form on its surface as it compacted inward, breaking the spell that bound the one who despaired.
The sound of the laughter came again but this time it resonated as though it were directly beside him. Suddenly, without warning, his prison quaked around him. He cried out in fear only to feel the walls fall around him, no longer bound to the shadow.
For the first time in his endless age, he beheld more than darkness. The twinkle of lights enamored him, his green eyes growing wide in wonder. He curled in on himself suddenly fearful that it was nothing but lies. It couldn't be happening, it couldn't be real. He was still imprisoned within the dark. He would never be free. His dark hands held his head and he closed his eyes against the light.
She watched him in horror, realizing that she had awoken him to a world that was entirely different to the one he knew. She looked around for the solution. There, next to her on the stone, was the apple. Floating over, she placed the apple in front of him then whispered as quietly and as gently as she could:
"Partake of the apple and you will be afraid no more."
To her surprise, he lunged forward and bit into the fruit. After a moment his quivering hands stilled and his eyes opened once again. The luminescent green of his eyes shined in the dark as he turned his gaze upon her.
She was a vision, unlike anything he had ever dreamed or witnessed within his shadowy place. She glowed in the soft light of the moon and stars, she was more than just a fantasy. With a single look into her brilliant blue eyes, he found his reason for being; she was his purpose.
"What are you called?" she asked him, coming closer. Could it be that she was as taken by him as he was with her? Was it possible that when she looked into his eyes she, too, found her purpose?
"I am called... Plagg... meaning plague." His voice found his ears, causing him to falter in his speech. Was that his voice? "And you... what are you called?"
"I am pleased to meet you, Plagg!" her voice chimed making his head tingle at the sound of his name. "I am called Tikki, meaning happiness!"
"T-Tikki..." he stammered more to himself than anything, memorizing the sound of her name. His eyes following her as she spun happily, circling him. "Whatever it is that we were meant for, I wish to always be with you."
"And I you!" Tikki came up close to him her small hand reaching for his face but shying away slightly at the last second as if to ask permission. Plagg leaned his face into her hand and she stroked his cheek lovingly.
The energy that passed between them bound their souls together, intertwining their paths, their lives and their destinies. Never were they ever meant to be apart and never would they be...
Marinette sat in class watching the back of Adrien's head as he scribbled in his notebook. Little did she know he was thinking of his beloved Ladybug. Plagg peeked out of Adrien's school bag, stealing a glance under Marinette's desk at Tikki, who smiled at him from the girl's purse.
They would be together again soon.