Here is the 25th oneshot in my Miraculous Revelations series. Due to the academic year now starting for me, while I will try to get my oneshots out at the usual time, I will no longer guarantee anything better than over the course of each weekend as some of the longer ones will take more time to write around my studies. This oneshot was suggested by the same follower who has at this point suggested 10 other fantastic oneshots in this series and has provided me with 8 more prompts to work on over the coming weeks so all credit should rightful go to the suggester, I am merely doing my best to turn the prompts I have been given into oneshots. This is the 5th oneshot to be classified as an epic based on its length (currently the second longest in this series), a full list of classifications, including one above epic that only 'Trickster' has been classified as, will be at the end of this oneshot. The reason for the length is because this is my second attempt after 'Memory' of creating a fully detailed akuma and the second appearance of one of my Guardians (one whose element has been mentioned before), along with a more detailed account of Guardian Lore so as to not need it in future oneshots that may or may not contain a Guardian, which as of right now is 2 planned oneshots (26th and 29th oneshots). Anyway that is enough for this note, so sit back and enjoy my latest oneshot in this series, Astral.
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to this show.
Astral - Ladybug and Cat Noir arrive to face the latest, and most nightmarish, akuma to terrorize Paris. During the fight Ladybug is struck by the akuma's unusual power. As a result, Marinette's astral spirit is banished from her body and into the Astral Plain, a plain of existence that allows her to see and hear what is going on but cannot interact with it or be seen by anyone. With Ladybug to purify the akuma, Adrien is forced to detain it as best he can and then get her to safety in his room before her transformation times out and Ladybug's identity is revealed for all to see. What follows is a series of revelations that neither Miraculous Holder could have seen coming and much more than either ever expected.
Astral
Ladybug and Cat Noir ran across the rooftops of Paris, using their weapons when needed for longer gaps, as they headed towards the square in front of the Louvre Museum where reports of the latest akuma to attack Paris had come from. It didn't take long for the superhero pair to reach the square or locate the distinctive akuma in the middle of it based on the screams of the people fleeing from it.
When Marinette saw the akuma for the first time, she had to do a double take at what she saw in front of her as it had not been what she was expecting from the few reports that they had received about Hawk Moth's latest victim. The akuma was floating a few inches off the ground, right at the base of the glass pyramid in the square. Whatever it was, it was a ghoulish, ghostly figure that reminded Marinette of the horror films she couldn't stand. Despite the akuma's distorted figure, Marinette could tell that whatever it was, it was almost certainly female.
The akuma was bent in an S shape wearing a brown, sleeveless, dress like garment the flowed down and covered it all the way past its feet. There was a glowing amulet around her neck that Marinette instantly keyed as the likeliest place to hold the evil butterfly.
The only parts of the akuma that were visible were her long skeletal arms ending in clawed hands tipped with long, vicious looking fingernails, and a gaunt, sunken face that could give the most avid horror fans nightmares, which meant that Marinette was almost certain to have plenty of nightmares about it herself. There was a sinister, evil, smile plastered across the akuma's face as she turned her sunken, hollowed out eyes to the face the heroes of Paris, its teeth a series of pointed fangs. The last thing Marinette noted as she and Cat Noir pulled up near it but outside of melee range was the long black hair that streamed down and over one of its shoulders and flowed all the way down to her ankles.
In terms of nightmarish akumas, this one was right up there with the very worst they had faced. Marinette couldn't suppress an involuntary shudder at the site of Hawk Moth's latest challenge to them. She hoped that whoever this akuma was would be one of the easier ones but somehow Marinette doubted that.
"What or who the fuck are you?" Cat Noir asked as soon as they were face to face with the akuma, asking the same question that Marinette was about to ask it but couldn't due to the fear she felt just looking at the akuma.
"I am Ikiryo, the living spirit here to haunt all those who have wronged and shunned me in Paris." The akuma said is a sinister feminine voice that sounded like nails on a chalk board and sent even more shivers down Marinette's spine. "I am here to take your miraculouses for Hawk Moth and to banish your spirits from this plain of existence to wander aimlessly, unable to interact with this world for all eternity so they can experience my pain of being ignored by all as if I was just a ghost. Vengeance shall be mine, no longer will people not notice who I am."
"Ok in terms of creepy and sinister akumas I think this one takes the cake for the creepiest and weirdest one that we have ever faced." Cat Noir said to her, just as Marinette noticed all the still bodies lying throughout the square.
The bodies looked to be asleep, but given their strange positions, it couldn't be a natural state of unconsciousness. This meant that whatever this akuma's power was, it had the ability to knock a person out without a problem and given a lack of a weapon on the akuma, Marinette had feeling that the akuma's power was touch based. It was something that they would have to figure out during the fight so that the knew how the akuma knocked out her victims and as such could try to stay away from whatever the attack was.
"Agreed." Marinette said to her fellow miraculous holder as she finally managed to suppress the involuntary fear she had had at seeing the akuma for the first time, an odd experience as she usually wasn't scared of Hawk Moth's creations but this one was something different.
"I say we avoid whatever it is that allows her to use her power and destroy the akumatized object, which I am assuming is that amulet that she is wearing." Marinette continued as she stared at the akuma with her usual level of confidence. "She may be freaky, but she's just an akuma. We know how to handle them."
"You read my mind, m'lady." Cat Noir said with an annoying wink that Marinette felt made light of the current situation. "You go high, I go low."
"Naturally." Marinette said with a nod as she began to spin her yo-yo as fast as possible in preparation for the attack.
"Come on then you pathetic wannabe heroes." Ikiryo cackled at them, clearly trying to taunt the pair into making a mistake. "I will easily defeat you and take your miraculouses for Hawk Moth and then I shall be free to wreak my revenge upon the city that ignored me."
Marinette just ignored this as she spun her yo-yo and threw it high into the air. There wasn't much for it to latch onto in the actual square, but the magical string had a large range, one that Marinette had never figured out the actual max distance of, and latched onto something on the roof of the Louvre. Yanking it as hard as she could and jumping as high as possible at the same time Marinette swung into the air and at Ikiryo. As she was doing this, Cat Noir was charging towards where they thought the akuma's feet were, his baton extending into a staff in the process.
Unfortunately, the akuma proved to me more versatile than the pair was expecting. She gracefully floated up and away from Cat Noir's staff while twisting her body out of the way of Marinette's legs just as Marinette tried to kick it. As Marinette passed by, the akuma took a swipe at her with its claws, a strange, ethereal, brown energy emanating from the fingertips as Marinette only just managed to twist and avoid the attack due to her enhance agility.
"What out for her claws Cat Noir!" Marinette shouted to her partners as she gracefully spun and flipped in the air while retracting her yo-yo and landing in a crouch on the other side of the akuma so that Ikiryo was between the pair. "I think her power is concentrated in her fingertips."
"How very observant Ladybug." Ikiryo snarled a sinister smile gracing her ghoulish face. "One scratch from my fingernails and your soul will be ripped from your body and cast into another plain of existence. Alas it is not permanent, you will only remain there as long as I have my power but seeing as I will defeat you two and provide Hawk Moth with your miraculouses, there will be none who can defeat me. That makes your inevitable fate permanent."
"Well my ghoulish opponent, you're not the only one here with claws and let me tell you, this kitty cat knows how to scratch better than you." Cat Noir said as he raised his right hand and activated his power. "Cataclysm!"
"Good idea Cat Noir, let's take this one down now as fast as possible, she's too dangerous otherwise." Marinette said as she threw her yo-yo directly up in the air and yelled her power's activation phrase. "Lucky Charm!"
The power activated and a second later and a pair of pliers in a ladybug print fell into her off hand. As usual Marinette had no idea what to do with her Luck Charm's tool.
"What am I supposed to do with a pair of damn pliers?" Marinette asked the universe as she activated her Lucky Charm vision and scanned the now black and white surroundings to see her best course of action.
This scan distracted Marinette for a split second but that was more than enough time to seal her fate. While Marinette was scanning the square, she didn't notice that the akuma in front of her had taken advantage of her momentary distraction and lunged for Marinette, claws extended and a victorious smile on her twisted face. Marinette only just had time to see the chain that locket was on and then Cat Noir's glowing right-hand light up with a ladybug print before the akuma was on her.
Marinette didn't have time to dodge the attack. As soon as the Ikiryo reached her, the akuma raked the glowing fingernails on her right hand across Marinette's chest. One moment Marinette was standing there a look of shock frozen on her face as the attack connected, the next she felt an incredible and sudden pain as her spirit was torn from her body. Before she could scream her eyes had closed and her body fell limply backwards and crashed onto the ground of the square right in front of Cat Noir and several terrified civilians and cops who had gathered to watch the battle unfold. Everyone had equal looks of shock on their faces at the sight of their fearless heroine being defeated right in front of their eyes.
"LADYBUG!" Adrien yelled as he watched helplessly as the love of his life was struck by the akuma and a second later fell backwards to lie on the ground in an unnatural state of unconsciousness. It was rare that Ladybug was ever struck by an akuma's power but for the fourth time she was on the receiving end of an akuma's power.
"Yes, I can feel your spirit leave your body." Ikiryo cackled with a note of malicious laughter in her voice. "It is a feeling I will always relish. Now I can take your miraculous for Hawk Moth before I take care of your pathetic partner."
"Not if I can help it bitch." Adrien shouted at the akuma as he ran at her. Adrien rarely gave into his emotions but watching Ladybug get defeated so easily put him in a rage that he gave himself to.
Ikiryo didn't even have a chance to grab Ladybug's earrings before Adrien's attack landed. Wielding his staff in his left hand he lashed out at the akuma with all of his enhanced strength. The metal staff easily caught the akuma in her skeletal side. Then he extended the staff even more and used it as a pivot, making sure that it was always in contact with Ikiryo's body, to slam the akuma bodily into the ground and using the staff to pin her there. Adrien's anger gave him the fuel he need to add to his heightened strength and allowing him to keep her pinned with his off hand.
As soon as the akuma was pinned, Adrien dropped to a knee and placed his right hand on the stones of the square. Controlling the destructive force of his cataclysm as best he could, which wasn't much but he could effect the general area of the power, Adrien created a hole large enough to contain the akuma and tight enough to hold her. Then Adrien flipped over the still stunned akuma, never letting up the pressure on her that pinned her to the ground, and rolled her over and into the hole so that she was lying on her hands. Once she was in the hole he stamped hard down on her back counting on her enhanced strength granted to all akumas to prevent her from getting too badly hurt. The stamp worked as it wedged her in the hole preventing any movement though she could still easily breath, proving it by twisting her head around 180 degrees and snarling at him. That sight freaked him out and managed to lessen Adrien's sudden burst of anger at the akuma.
"You may have trapped me in here Cat Noir but there is no way you are freeing your precious Ladybug in time to purify the akuma in my amulet." Ikiryo growled, her voice laced with venom and hatred towards him. "You haven't won, only bought yourself a little time as this hole won't hold me forever. You can't truly defeat me without Ladybug's power of creation and she is no longer on this plain of existence. Regardless of what you do I will either be back if you destroy my amulet or I will break free and hunt you down. You have lost."
"Silence, whatever the fuck are you are." Adrien snapped at the now manically laughing akuma as he used his staff and foot to hold her in place before raising his voice and looking towards the assembled police officers as his anger began to wane. "You haven't won yet. I will find a way to counter whatever you have done to incapacitate Ladybug and we will defeat you, we always do. Lieutenant Raincomprix!"
At Adrien's call, Sabrina's father and the officer in charge of the gathered police officers ran over to him as fast as he could which wasn't that fast given the man's girth. Adrien needed to ensure that the akuma stayed captured while he figured out what to do with Ladybug.
"Cat Noir, how can I help you?" The officer said to Adrien as he arrived and began to catch his breath.
"Lieutenant, I cannot destroy the akuma lest we fail to capture it and it spreads creating an army for this bitch when her emotions get negative again, but nor can I take it with me in case she can track it to my location." Adrien said quickly as he could just as he heard the telltale beep from Ladybug's earrings signaling she had minutes left before her transformation timed out. "I really need to try and help Ladybug, but I promise we will be back and end this akuma as soon as I have figured out how to wake her, you have my word. Can you keep the akuma contained for a while?"
"Of course, we can Cat Noir." The cop said standing to attention and saluting the teen hero before making a motion with his hand to get his fellow officers to come over. "You can trust us to ensure this akuma is contained and not a threat to anyone."
"Good luck trying." Ikiryo threatened. "I will break free in time, you have merely slowed me down. I cannot and will not be stopped."
"Good and make sure her hands are not free as that is where her power comes from." Adrien said ignoring the captured akuma just as he heard his own miraculous beep signaling his own impending transformation back to his civilian self. "I have to go, I promise I will be back with a fully conscious Ladybug."
"I know you will." Lieutenant Roger said with a nod as he took over the job of keeping the akuma restrained using his SWAT team's shields to hold the akuma in place. Adrien hoped that it would be enough.
Adrien didn't bother to reply to the Lieutenant, he just ran over to Ladybug's fallen body and gently picked her up in his arms. Throwing her over his shoulder as gently as possible and grabbing the pliers for good measure, sticking them in his belt, Adrien activated his staff. Using it to vault as fast as possible across Paris, Adrien had no idea what he was going to do with Ladybug, but he had to get her to the one place he knew would be safe; his room.
Going as fast as he dared with his precious cargo, Adrien sped across Paris to his house which was fortunately near enough to make before either of their miraculouses timed out and revealed their identity to anyone who might be looking, though few were looking anywhere but at the akuma during an attack.
Still it was a close call. Adrien just managed to get himself and Ladybug into his room, lay her down on his bed and cover her up before the final beep. The covering was from her feet to her neck as well as her from her eyes up, including her hair, so that he couldn't even figure out who she was from her clothes when the inevitable happened, he had to protect her identity at all costs after all. As Adrien was doing this his own transformation fell but he didn't care, he had preserved his lady's identity and now he had to figure out how to get her back from wherever she had been sent by Ikiryo's attack.
"Where are you m'lady?"
As soon as Ikiryo's claws had struck Marinette she had felt an instantaneous pain unlike any that she had ever felt in her life. It felt as if she was somehow being ripped away from her own body at the point where the akuma's fingertips had made contact. Of course, that was exactly what had happened to her.
On second Marinette had been standing the square trying to figure out what to do with the Lucky Charm item her power had given her, the next she was looking down at her own body, still garbed in her Ladybug outfit, as she floated a few feet off the ground. She could see similar spirit like projections of people who had felt Ikiryo's touch floating near their bodies, but none of them seemed to notice anyone else, they just floated there staring blankly at their bodies.
All this freaked Marinette the fuck out. While Cat Noir was containing the akuma, Marinette was having a minor panic attack as she took stock of her surroundings. She was still there in the square, at least she felt like she was, however instead of standing tall and proud as Ladybug, she was instead hovering in her civilian clothes. When she looked down at her own hands Marinette realized that they were translucent as if she was a ghost or a spirit.
"Cat Noir!" Marinette yelled, her voice tinged with the panic she currently felt, as she saw he partner subdue but not defeat the akuma. "I'm here, destroy it and I should be able to return to my body and purify the akuma in time."
She could hear what Cat Noir was saying to the akuma and what the akuma was gloating in return but as she called to him again Marinette realized that he couldn't hear her. Still at least he had caught the akuma, so he would figure out how to help her while she was trapped in the thralls of Ikiryo's power.
Marinette could do nothing but watch and listen to Cat Noir's exchange with Sabrina's father. Then she heard the telltale beeping of her miraculous and knew that she would transform back to her civilian form right here. Regardless of all the other shit that had happened today, Marinette's secret was about to be revealed in the heart of Paris.
That added another fear to her rapidly growing list of fears, at least until Cat Noir finished his conversation with Lieutenant Roger and after walking through her, picked up her body before he began to traverse Paris with it as fast as possible. What surprised Marinette was that instead of being left in the square, as soon as Cat Noir had picked up her body her spirit self was dragged along with her body as if she couldn't be a certain distance from it. It appeared to her that her body was an anchor of some sort for whatever state she was currently in, which at least showed a limit to Ikiryo's power.
As Cat Noir carried her to wherever he was going, Marinette knew that she had minutes before she transformed back into her civilian self. That was why she was not paying attention to where they were going until Cat Noir had vaulted over the outer wall of the Agreste Mansion and then through Adrien's window.
As Cat Noir gently laid her down on Adrien's bed and covered all of her up from head to toe except for her mouth and nose, clearly an act designed preserve her identity that Marinette appreciated as he could have easily left her and found out who she was, Marinette just stared around in confusion. Why had Cat Noir taken her here?
The answer to that question came seconds after her body was covered and Cat Noir's transformation timed out, sending his kwami shooting off and into the back of his sofa, to reveal Adrien Agreste standing there with a look of worry on his face that she had never seen before. Marinette's mouth fell open at the realization that the love of her life was Cat Noir, she was so shocked that she almost missed what the model said next.
"Where are you m'lady?"
There was nothing but love and concern in Adrien's voice and it was all for her. Marinette knew at once that he loved her as much as she did him, well Adrien at least loved Ladybug as much as she loved him but now that Marinette knew that Adrien was Cat Noir, she knew that it meant that she loved Cat Noir as well. Instantly she reached out to him, her hand passing through his cheek causing no reaction from him and spoke softly back to him.
"I'm still here my love." Marinette said gently and with all the love she had for him.
When Adrien gave no sign of acknowledging her presence, only looking over to her body as her own miraculous timed out, Marinette realized that she really was not able to contact him. She thought earlier that he may have been to distracted by the akuma to listen to her, but it seemed that her situation was much worse than she had initially realized.
Marinette's eyes widened at that realization just as something Ikiryo had said to Cat Noir finally began to resonate with her, overriding what she had just learned about who Cat Noir was and all that it entailed. As the words came unbidden into Marinette's mind, she realized just how fucked she was.
"You can't truly defeat me without Ladybug's power of creation and she is no longer on this plain of existence."
At those words, the truth of Marinette's predicament finally set in. She was on another plain of existence. Given the fact that she was still able to see what was going on, and Hawk Moth's habit of not creating akumas who could actually kill people with a touch, Marinette had a feeling that she was in some sort of limbo between life and death. Her body was still in the realm of the living, just in an unnatural state of unconsciousness, while her spirit or perhaps her soul she wasn't quite sure on that part, was trapped in this strange form. It was as if she was stuck in a halfway like plain of existence where she could see all that was going on and unable to do anything about that. She could watch but she couldn't touch or be heard and that terrified her.
"I'm not connected to the real world anymore am I?" Marinette whispered to herself. "I'm not dead, at least I don't think I am, but I am clearly not able to interact with Adrien. I must be somewhere else but where the fuck am I."
"You are right about where you are Marinette." A soft, male, voice speaking in American accented French said from behind here causing her to somehow jump a foot in the air despite her floating form. "Your spirit and consciousness are no longer in the plain of the living. You have entered what is known as the Astral Plain."
Mere seconds after Adrien was done protecting Ladybug's identity and had let his own transformation fall, the inevitable happened. Ladybug's miraculous timed out and a pink blur shot out of one of the earrings and slammed headfirst into a wall with a distinctive crash and a feminine yelp of pain.
At the sound of the yelp Adrien looked up to see a small, pink, kwami stuck head first into the wall near his bed. Adrien knew at once that the kwami had to be Ladybug's and quickly went over to it to free it, making sure not to give into temptation and remove Ladybug's covering and see who she was. As much as Adrien wanted to know the identity of the girl he loved, she wasn't ready to share it with him and as such he would not go against her wished. However Plagg beat him to the other kwami, zooming over to it as fast as possible from wherever he had ended up when Adrien's transformation had fallen.
"Right now I really wish that kwamis could appear in photos." Plagg said as he burst into laughter at the sight of the stuck kwami. It took him a few seconds bent double laughing before the Black Cat Kwami recovered enough to continue his statement. "But not even the Guardian of Technology has created a camera capable of capturing me in all my glory. This is so priceless. Normally it's me who gets stuck, not you Tikki."
All that came from the other kwami was an annoyed and muffled sound and what Adrien was pretty sure was a string of very impressive swear words. Adrien was pretty sure that it, she if he had to guess the kwami's gender, was colorfully telling Plagg off but he couldn't hear her words because of her predicament. Brushing his still laughing kwami off to the side, Adrien went over to the other kwami and as gently as possible pulled her out of his wall. He would figure out what to do about the hole she had made in his wall later.
"Thank you, Adrien." The kwami said kindly in a female voice confirming Adrien's suspicions. He also wasn't surprised that she knew who he was as she had seen him unmasked during the Dark Owl incident. "As Plagg said, I am Tikki and as you can tell I am Ladybug's kwami." Then she turned to Plagg and narrowed her eyes at the amused kwami before continuing. "Plagg, if you are done with your amusement at what happened to me, we have bigger problems to deal with right now. Mainly what are we going to do about my human and how are we going to get her back."
"I'm sorry, I know your human is in a predicament, it's just hilarious as it's usually my human who gets into problems, not yours." Plagg said with a chuckle that died at the withering look Tikki continued to give him. Adrien would have to figure out how to do that, it seemed an effective way of shutting Plagg up.
"Good." Tikki said once Plagg shut up before turning back to Adrien. "By the way, I appreciate the effort you have made to preserve Ladybug's identity. You probably didn't have to do that given the situation, but I know that if she could see it, she would appreciate it."
"Thanks." Adrien said with a small smile at the compliment before his face went serious. "However, as you pointed out, this is a more pressing problem. So, do you have any idea what has happened to Ladybug and is there anything we can do to wake her up without breaking the akuma's amulet?"
"I don't think that Ladybug is actually asleep." Tikki said after thinking on the questions for a moment. "It would be more accurate to say that she is in a coma or forced unconsciousness as she is not naturally asleep, and I am pretty sure that she isn't actually in her body."
"What do you mean?" Adrien asked confusion at Tikki's answer.
"I'm not sure." Tikki admitted as she scrunched up her face in thought at what had happened to her human. "When that akuma touched Ladybug, I felt her spirit getting ripped from her body. Her soul is still in there and as such she is still tied to the world of the living but her spirit, her consciousness so to speak, is no longer on this plain of existence, or at least if it is, she can't be reached by us. I'm honestly not sure what happened to her."
"Fuck!" Plagg suddenly swore causing both Adrien and Tikki to look at him in confusion.
"What Plagg?" Adrien asked looking at his kwami. "Do you know what has happened to Ladybug?"
"I have a theory about what might have happened, but I need to know something first." Plagg said a concern in his voice that Adrien hadn't heard before. "What was that akuma's name, I don't really pay attention when we are bonded, I just focus on the ass kicking and destruction."
"Ikiryo." Adrien replied, there was no way he was going to forget the name of the akuma who had so easily incapacitated Ladybug.
"Fuck!" Plagg swore again. "That effectively confirms my theory."
"And what theory is that?" Tikki asked, she was clearly trying to get Plagg to spill his theory as soon as possible. "Stop beating about the bush Plagg and explain to us what you mean."
"Ikiryo, if I recall correctly, is a Japanese term for the spirit of a living person who haunts others, sometimes at a great distance." Plagg began. "As my nature and miraculous is that of destruction I am well versed within its realm and that includes death, ghosts, spirits and the underworlds. That being said, I am not very familiar with the living spirits but I know of the principle at least. It would appear that once again Nooroo has forgotten the extent of his own powers and tapped into forces he doesn't fully understand and probably shouldn't grant to mortals."
"Nooroo? That's Hawk Moth's kwami right?" Adrien asked. All this was confusing but if Adrien was understanding his kwami correctly then it meant that Ladybug's predicament was worse than he had expected.
"Correct, though he is more Hawk Moth's slave than anything else." Tikki said with a touch of sadness in her voice at the current situation of one of her fellow kwamis. "His power is that he can grant a specific power to another person and in theory create superheroes loyal to his bonded human with an augmented sense of justice. That is provided that they show strong, noble emotions but as Hawk Moth proved that can work in the inverse as well, hence the evil super villains you keep facing. As a result, Nooroo's power has a wide range of abilities he can create, but when forced to use it he has no control over where he draws abilities from as he must acquiesce to the wishes of his master. Therefore, at times he messes with divine fields of power that he shouldn't and that is potentially very dangerous as they are powers humans should not wield. He did so during the Pharaoh akuma attack and he appears to have done so here as well according to Plagg."
"But what has he done?" Adrien asked confused. He knew little about Hawk Moth's power and this just added confusion to his already limited understanding of their enemy's abilities.
"If my theory is correct then Nooroo has tapped into a power he would never mess with unless he was forced to do so." Plagg said with a sigh. "But based of the akuma's name, the brief glimpse of her appearance I got of her through Adrien's eyes, and the description Tikki gave me is a lot of proof to confirm my theory."
"Plagg, just tell us what that theory is." Tikki said impatiently and Adrien couldn't blame her given the fact that Ladybug's spirit appeared to be on the line.
"If I am right then Nooroo has once again tapped into a divine power but not godly divine, no something even stronger and potentially much more dangerous given who's power he has accessed." Plagg said so seriously that Adrien had to wonder where the real Plagg was. "No, Nooroo has tapped into the power of one of the Guardians of the Elements."
"He wouldn't" Tikki gasped in horror. "Even Nooroo knows that other than the Guardian of Magic who created the miraculouses, we should never interfere with their realm. By invoking the power of a Guardian that would disturb the balance of that particular element. Not even the Guardian's vows of noninterference would prevent that element's Guardian from getting involved."
"True but if forced to do so by someone who doesn't know about the Guardians and not to mess with them, Nooroo would do as commanded by his bonded human." Plagg said unhappily. "Though this only applies for specific abilities protected by the Guardian, the ability to freeze or flood Paris would encroach upon the Ice and Water Guardians respectively but don't count as violations, banishing someone's spirit from their body would however, the line is hard to tell for any who isn't a Guardian."
"How bad is this violation?" Tikki asked with worry in her voice.
"Fortunately not too bad I think." Plagg said as he contemplated Tikki's question. "I am certain I know which Guardian's power has been accessed and he is one of the more measured ones who would investigate before attacking those who violated his element. Also, based on the evidence I am pretty sure I know where Ladybug's spirit is."
"That's good about the Guardian as I know a few of them exhibit the unpredictable nature of their respective elements." Tikki said to Plagg as Adrien just looked on in confusion. Then her voice got heavy with concern as she asked Plagg a question. "Which Guardian are we talking about and where in my human?
"The Guardian who's element Nooroo has probably violated with this latest akuma is the Guardian of Ghosts, one of the underworld Guardians and a casual acquaintance of mine who is amused by my debaucherous nature." Plagg said to which Tikki's eyes widened in recognition. "As for where your human's spirit is, if her soul is still bound to this earth, which I am certain it is, then there is only one logical place for her spirit to be; the Astral Plain."
Marinette slowly turned to see who was speaking to her in this odd world. While she had been panicking about her current predicament, she had still been vaguely paying attention to what Adrien, Tikki, and Plagg had been saying though the speaker had interrupted her as Plagg had been explaining his theory, one that the speaker's statement confirmed.
The man who was slowly walking towards her, despite being a few inches of the ground like she was, struck her as a distinctly average, fair skinned, translucent, man. He looked to be in his late 20s, maybe early 30s, and stood around 6 feet tall. He had close cropped dark brown hair with matching scruff as if he hadn't shaved in a few days and matching eyes that appeared to have seen way too much for a man of his apparent age.
Then Marinette noted his outfit, something her always well-trained fashion eye always evaluated though never in the mean way Chloe would. The man was dressed in a simple pale green t-shirt that seemed to glow with an ethereal light that Marinette usually associated with ghosts, dark blue jeans, and black boots. Strapped to his right thigh was a simple straight dagger with a handle that seemed to be made a green, translucent material. Hanging on the left side of his waist was a strange metallic, cylindrical device that looked vaguely familiar to Marinette, but she couldn't quite place it. Despite the weapons, his hands were raised and empty in a non threatening gesture.
That was when Marinette noticed the strange tattoo on the man's right forearm. It was written in English, but Marinette was at least proficient in the language so she could easily read it and translate it into the French equivalent. The tattoo said PHANTOM 27, written in the same glowing ethereal green light that was on his shirt. In fact, the man seemed to glow slightly with the light, in addition to his translucent appearance, all of which struck Marinette as odd. She had no idea who this man was but she had a gut feeling that he was important somehow.
"The Astral Plain?" Marinette asked confused at the statement. "What's that?"
"That is where you are right now." The man said with a smile, an answer that annoyed Marinette and it showed on her face so the man continued. "But I presume I should explain a little more, shouldn't I Marinette."
"Yeah there is a lot that you are going to have explain, er, Mr. Phantom?" Marinette said taking a stab at the man's name.
"Just Phantom will do." Phantom said as he stopped walking and lowered his hands, all the while staying a few feet from Marinette. "I am not human so there is no need to use a title for me."
"Alright that's another thing to add to the list of things to ask you." Marinette said still confused by whoever this Phantom person was and why he was even here and talking to her. "But let's start with how the hell you know who I am."
"Interesting choice of word." Phantom said with a small chuckle. "Seeing as I technically live in what a mortal would call Hell, though it would be more accurate to call it the afterlife, but I will forgive you the unintended pun."
"Please just stay on topic." Marinette said as a headache began to take hold from what this person was telling her and she was not in any mood to hear about puns.
"I shall try." Phantom said with a kind smile. "I know that this is often a hard thing for mortals to accept but your connection to the Ladybug Miraculous will ensure that you remember this conversation. As to how I know, I am one of the Guardians of the Elements, the same organization who helped create your miraculous and tie the kwamis to the earth in a physical form. I am also immortal being with certain powers that allowed me to find out who wielded your miraculous but that was more due to my association with Plagg than anything else. As such I am fully aware who you are, Marinette, and that you are the current iteration of Ladybug. Do not fear, I am bound to silence by oaths stronger than any you could even begin to comprehend."
"Guardians?" Marinette asked as she tried to understand what was being told to her. "I just heard Plagg, Adrien's kwami though you already seem to know that, mention that term. What are they and more specifically what are you?"
"I was hoping that the Guardians would stay a secret from you and Adrien during your duration as Miraculous holders but alas Nooroo has tapped into my power in a way that I cannot ignore and as such has forced my hand." Phantom said with a sigh. "But I cannot blame him for being forced by the will of his master. Hawk Moth on the other hand, well let's just say that there is a long line of underworld deities who want a crack at him when he dies and I am nowhere near the top of that list. As for who I am, that is a little bit of a story."
"I presume that I have the time to listen." Marinette said still a little confused at what was going on and wanting answers to the situation. "Or is there no time to give me them cos I am a little pressed for time."
At her words Phantom just waved his right hand through the air and Marinette suddenly felt that the air around her thicken. When she looked at the room around her, the kwamis and Adrien were still talking but she realized that while they were still talking and moving, they appeared to be doing so in slow motion. It was an odd sight though the sound of their words was even weirder and she had to tune them out to focus on her own conversation.
"Er, what have you done?" Marinette asked as she started to realize that whoever this person was, he was as he claimed not human given the abilities he had just displayed.
"I may not be the Guardian of Time but so long as we are within a plain of existence that is under my direct control I am able to manipulate time to some extent though nowhere near as well as the Guardian of Time could do so." Phantom said as if it was nothing. "What I have done is sped up time in the Astral Plain so that we can go over all you want to know before I visit Adrien and the kwamis to explain what they need to do to correct Nooroo's abuse of my power. I have a feeling Plagg will try to call me and I do enjoy preempting him whenever I can. However as you are trapped within a plain of existence under my protection and control I believe that you deserve answers as to what is going on and how to rectify it first. So, where do you want me to begin?"
"Why not just start at the beginning with who or what the fuck are the Guardians." Marinette said as she turned her full attention to the being in front of her, the Guardian as he claimed to be. "Then progress until now and whether or not there is a way to help me. We will get distracted, that's just who I am, but so long as we keep it vaguely chronological I should be able to follow along."
"Oh, there is a way to help you, though not one I am particularly happy with existing but there is a way." Phantom said with a slightly annoyed frown. "But we will get to that in time. I agree that it would be best to start at the beginning and work our way through what I deem you need to know until we reach this point. As such, I will give you a very basic overview of my order, though we do not have enough time to go into the full details of our history, as well as my own connections to it as that is prudent to this plain of existence. I only ask that you try to limit your interrupt me so as to minimize tangents. What I am about to tell you are things that you will find hard to believe but are true and your kwami can confirm my words later."
"That's fine, I am pressed for time so I will do my best to just listen and only interrupt when I need clarification on something." Marinette said intrigued at what strange thing she was about to be told.
"That you are for even here I cannot accelerate time for an extended period." Phantom said with a nod. "So, in order to tell you the origins of the Guardians, I must take you back to the creation of the world as you know it. The Guardians of the Elements, or more specifically the Master Guardian, were created moments after the world was created by the entity known as Chaos eons ago. Shortly after Gaia and Ouranos became the earth and the sky, or other deities did depending on the pantheon as they are all basically the same thing to some extent, Chaos created the first Guardian. As mentioned this being is known as the Master Guardian, as well effectively the Guardian of Chaos as it is the only element he will never relinquish but also never uses, was charged with protecting the elements of the new world by Chaos itself. To aid the Master Guardian, Chaos created 4 more Guardians from the first four primordial elements found within the new earth and sky. These four elements, in order they are Light, Fire, Thunder, and Water, make up the original Guardians, along with the Master Guardian. They are the most powerful Guardians and the only ones whose power cannot be stripped from them by the Master Guardian as they are pure representations of their respective element and not someone who has been made an Elemental Guardian."
"Alright one sec." Marinette said as her head began to hurt at what was being told to her. "Stripped? I am assuming by your number that there are more Guardians than the original 5 you have mentioned, but I am a little confused. I will accept what you are saying pending Tikki's confirmation to avoid taking too much time here, but I am getting a little confused."
"I understand, this is a lot to take in in a short amount of time but Tikki will confirm all of this." Phantom said with a sympathetic smile. "I was once in your shoes over 3,400 years ago when I was first introduced to the Guardians by my mother but that was a different time so it was easier for me to accept it. Anyway, when Chaos created the Master Guardian, and effectively Tikki's creator as well as her essence was created at the same time though it would be many millennia before a being had the power to grant her and Plagg a corporeal form, Chaos knew that the world that had been created would inevitably evolve beyond what had been made. As such he granted the Master Guardian the power to confirm upon any being who was not already a God, be that person an illegitimate divine child such as myself, a half-blood child of a god and a mortal, or a regular mortal, the status of Guardianship of an element that did not have a Guardian. Inversely, the Master Guardian can remove a Guardian's power and status should that Guardian betray the order. The Master Guardian has full discretion on what constitutes and element, solidifying the status of an element when it is given a Guardian."
"Wait by God you mean the mythical gods' like Zeus and all those people?" Marinette asked.
"Yes, like those people." Phantom said with an amused smile.
"Oh ok." Marinette said. "I guess if magic is real then they could be as well."
"Oh they are very much real, though many of the more obscure ones have faded as civilization has forgotten them." Phantom said with a nod. "It is good to see that you are not too surprised at this sudden revelation."
"Trust me, after the shit I have seen over the last few years, this seems normal and explains a fair bit, especially regarding what happened during the Pharaoh incident." Marinette said bluntly to which Phantom just chuckled. "But please continue, though I will want to know your parentage at some point as it is interesting if true."
"Ah there is something to be said for being exposed to the miraculouses all that comes with those powerful objects." Phantom said with a smile. "It does help you believe the unbelievable and when it comes to my own story you will learn about my parents. Anyway, as I was saying, Chaos gave the Master Guardian, with the consent of the other original Guardians, the power to grant Guardianship of an element of his choice onto another so long as that element didn't already have a Guardian. The first two new Guardians were Earth and Air following the destruction of Ouranos by Gaia and the rise of the Titans as it was seen that those two elements were now in need of Guardians. From that point on the Guardians have expanded sporadically over the millennia at the whims of the Master Guardian until I ascended then we were forced to become a myth to the world of myths by a prophesy until it was satisfied. That prophecy was satisfied a few years back. Since then we have added 6 new Guardians, the 2 that were prophesied and 4 who had been waiting over 2,000 years to ascend to our ranks as their time was long overdue. In total there are currently 32 Guardians though 33 people have held the title."
"So, the various expansions over time are sort of like how the number of kwamis have grown in number over time as well." Marinette said as she digested Phantom's words and tried to compare them to something she already understood. "Master Fu explained a bit of that too me a while back."
"An apt comparison seeing as the expansion of the kwamis and their miraculouses was modeled after the process of expanding the Guardians." Phantom said clearly pleased that Marinette was understanding what he was telling her. "The miraculouses are creations of the Guardian of Magic when he is harnessing their power, though how I do not know but yes that is a good comparison. Just as with the kwamis, over time when one of the followers of the Guardians, something that would take a little too much time for the current situation to go into, proves that he or she deserves to be elevated to the ranks of the Guardians, and receives at least 75% of current Guardians supporting that elevation, the Master Guardian will grant that person the Guardianship of an element. There is more to the process but that gives you the general overview."
"Alright, I kind of get it but I am sure that Tikki will explain more later." Marinette said thinking about what had been told her. "Now can you explain why there has been 33 Guardians but only 32 current. I presume this has something to do with what you talked about earlier regarding the stripping of someone's Guardianship. Then you can explain more about yourself and how you can help me as I presume that I am within your element or else why would you be here at this moment."
"You are well within the element I and a Guardian of." Phantom said with a nod. "And all of this, the plain you are currently in, the stripping of a Guardians power and my own history, is all connected to each other. This is because the Guardian who was stripped of her power for betraying us was my predecessor, the first Guardian of Ghosts so my own story is somewhat tied to hers as I am her successor to the Guardianship of Ghosts. As such, whether or not you had asked, I would have had to tell you about my half sister and her crimes against the Guardians in order to explain who I am and where you are for she is the creator of the Astral Plain that you find yourself in right now."
"Wait! Before you explain more, how are Ghosts an element?" Marinette asked confused at the element that Phantom was apparently the Guardian of. "I get the original ones as they are natural occurrences and likely there are others that would make sense, but Ghosts just sounds like a strange choice for an element."
"My element is arguably one of the oddest and loosest defined of all of them, I will concede that." Phantom said with a small sigh. "I am used to trying to explain it to people who I meet, even those who know of the Guardians to begin with. The official title of Ghosts is a misnomer I guess as it would be more accurate to say that I am the Guardian of the dead. As the Guardian of Ghosts, all spirits who have passed on from the mortal realm are classified as being under my protection as their Guardian. This is not just the underworlds but other creations such as the Ghost Zone, the Spirit World, the Astral Plain, and ghostly imprints of the dead that still walk this earth though those are limited to certain locations. Basically anything that is inhabited by spirits and other non-living beings falls withing my element. The Master Guardian justified the assignment back when he made the first Guardian of Ghosts by classifying the undead as an element as he believed that they well within purpose of the Guardians."
"Purpose?" Marinette asked. The rest sort of made sense to her even if she wouldn't have classified ghosts or spirits as an element. "You haven't told me that your order has a purpose, just how they were created."
"It harkens back to the reason why Chaos created the original Guardians to begin with." Phantom said with a slightly embarrassed look at leaving the information out from his earlier explanation. "Chaos's intentions for the Guardians, and what the Master Guardian ensures happens, is that we guard the world from excess. We are the last line of defense between anarchy and stability. We keep the balance of the world. Our mission is to always protect the elements of the world and to ensure that none become abused and threaten the safety of humanity by guarding our assigned element with the immense power the Master Guardian has granted us to do so. Within my element, none can challenge me though another Guardian can easily best me in a fight should his or hers element be better suited to the situation. My main role in all of this is to be the line that holds the dead back from invading the realm of the living for there are many more dead than living souls, such being the nature of mortality. Now I am not perfect, none of us are, but I have done pretty well over my life. That is how ghosts have been deemed an element. Of course I have evolved the element in ways only a Guardian can but that is far to complicated to get into right now."
"Alright I think it is best to just go with it at this point." Marinette said deciding to get Tikki's take on it when she had the time.
"A good idea, I have long since stopped questioning the logic of the Master Guardian." Phantom said with a nod of agreement. "Some of his choices, especially the man-made elements like Technology, Glass, Plastic, and Alcohol, along with the more obscure natural ones such as Salt, Acid, and Oil and the more odd, new ones, like Fashion, Culture and Pain make no sense to me either. However he knows what he is doing and has never lead the order wrong in his tenure so it is best to just go with it at times. He's open to having his mind changed and being told he's wrong but when it comes down to his choice of what to make an element by giving it a Guardian we learned a long time ago to just let him decide and see how it plays out. After all, only once has be ever entrusted the power of a Guardian to someone who proved she didn't deserve it."
"Please just get back to your own story and that of your predecessor." Marinette groaned as another headache began to form at the latest development to stem from a tangent.
"That is probably for the best." Phantom agreed with an apologetic look on his face. "Very well, I shall start with my predecessor, the first Guardian of Ghosts. She was born as the illegitimate immortal daughter of Melinoe, the Greek Goddess of Ghosts among other things and Thanatos, the Greek God of Death. Don't ask how or why that happened, no one knows the answer to that. Because she was illegitimate immortal born at a time when most if not everything had a god or goddess of it, she was not allowed to become a Goddess under Zeus's laws, though I think Hera had more to say on that law than Zeus. In order to protect her from Zeus's wrath, she, and all other illegitimate immortals who were born prior to or after her, was handed over to the Guardians to be trained by our order and possibly become one of the select few to achieve the rank of Guardian. This was about 8,000 years or so ago I think but I'm not great with times as the Greek Gods have been around for a long ass time. Anyways, as an illegitimate immortal child, she was acceptance into the followers of the Guardians to be trained by us. At that time there was only 11 Guardians I believe. Over the next 1,000-2,000 years, I'm not sure how long she spent in service to the Guardians prior to ascension, she rose through the ranks and eventual reached the rank just below that of Guardian. By this point 4 more had ascended to the ranks of the Guardians."
"Is there something you have to do to ascend to the rank of the Guardians?" Marinette interrupted, her headache was lessening, replaced by intrigue at the story she was hearing.
"It's complicated to explain but sort of." Phantom answered thinking about the question posed to him. "Ascension usually requires a mixture of things; loyalty to the Guardians and service to us in some capacity, proof of ingenuity and/or bravery during one's life, and often an act that shows a connection to an element that has not been given a Guardian. Sometimes it is different like Time and Wisdom being forced upon us by a prophecy and as such have to prove themselves as Guardians, which they are doing now, while the other 4 new ones more for their long wait for ascension and were pretty much guaranteed it. Honestly after the longest gap in our history between the ascension of Guardians, I expect a rather large increase over the next millennia or so but that is just speculation, though Plagg has a bet on it with some of the other Guardians. Also, there are times when the creation or invention of a material such as plastic, metal, glass, and alcohol for example are so revolutionary that their creators are granted Guardianship over them. Those are the beings who ascended because they were the first mortals to successfully figure out how to create their element. There are things that have been created by mortals over the last 2 and a half millennia that don't have Guardians, their creators were unable to be elevated due to the aforementioned prophecy but their creators have been rewarded in other ways."
"Huh ok that sort of makes sense." Marinette said as she digested the process Phantom described. "Sort of how kwamis are tied to new developments in humanity."
"I guess, I am not well versed in kwami lore as that is within the jurisdiction of the Guardian of Magic." Phantom admitted. "Most of my interactions with them involve watching Plagg doing something unbelievably stupid."
"Oh ok." Marinette said before bringing them back on topic yet again. "So how did your predecessor ascend to the ranks of the Guardians?"
"She created the plain of existence we are in right now, that was why the name she took upon being made a Guardian roughly translates into Astral or Spirit in English from Ancient Greek." Phantom said, smiling at Marinette's open-mouthed expression. "Yes, she managed to create a plain where the spirits of the living, their astral spirit as it has become known as, could go but more on that in a bit when I explain how to leave this charming place of purgatory between life and death."
"I would like to know now but I have a feeling you won't tell me just yet." Marinette said with a hint of annoyance.
"No, I must explain this first so that when this is over you are not so lost as to what has happened." Phantom said. "Best to be informed in case this or something similar happens again."
"Very well, I presume next you will tell me how she lost her Guardianship." Marinette huffed. This was all interesting, but she did have an akuma to defeat.
"Patience, it is a virtue that will serve you well in the battles to come." Phantom said with a slight shake of his head. "Though sometime I forget how little patience mortals have these days. Yes, I shall tell you how she lost her status as a Guardian. As I mentioned earlier, there is only one way for that to happen, betray the Guardians."
"She betrayed you?" Marinette asked surprised, it seemed an odd thing to happen to immortal beings. "How is that even possible for a group sworn to guard their respective elements?"
"She did." Phantom said with a dark look on his face for a moment. "Treason can occur no matter what the group is and the Guardians of the Elements was no less immune to it than anyone else, we found that out the hard way. To date she is the only Guardian to have betrayed her oaths to us and tried to overthrow the Master Guardian. For her crimes she has become known as the Fallen Guardian because she fell from the path that we Guardians must walk and turned to evil. We are neither good nor evil but we are always neutral and she betrayed that neutrality."
"Why did she betray?" Marinette asked interested in the history she was learning despite the time crunch.
"Why indeed." Phantom said with a shake of his head. "We honestly do not know why she betrayed us other than that she did. The prevailing theory is that our enemies, and yes the Guardians do have immortal enemies that have been in hiding for almost 2,000 years, swayed her to their side in an attempt to defeat us from within. However, neither she nor her supporters from within the followers of the Guardians who joined her in her betrayal, have ever said why they all betrayed the Guardians. The only thing she has ever said about her betrayal was why she initiated what is now known as the Guardian Schism. She believed, and still does, that it was time for the Guardians to rule and not observe and guard. She believes we are the ultimate power and should be in charge so that our duties are maximized but the Master Guardian and the other originals know that Chaos never wanted us to mess with the free will of the world."
"She's still alive?" Marinette asked in amazement. "Surely you would have ended her. Isn't that what used to happen in those days."
"I wish but while ascension to Guardianship conveys immortality on those who do not already have it, our followers are also immortal but they can be killed in battle, she was already immortal before her betrayal because of her parents." Phantom said with a sigh. "And the Master Guardian does not have the power to strip a godly child of their immortality, only their Guardianship and the powers associated with it if they are a Guardian. When that happens the powers of that element return to the Master Guardian until they are granted to a new Guardian of the now former element."
"So, what happened?" Marinette asked.
"Her betrayal occurred 3,000 years ago, at a time when there were 24 Guardians, 23 after her betrayal." Phantom said clearly remembering the incident like it was yesterday. "It was a sudden, unprovoked, sneak attack by her and about 40% of our followers while our backs were turned to them. Their plan had been to wipe out our support system in one surprise attack, but it failed though many of my friends and fellow loyal followers died that day. After that they went into hiding north of Greece in what is nowadays Russia and holed up somewhere where the Guardians couldn't find them, not that we tried too hard as we had to recover from that surprise attack."
"What happened after their failed attack?" Marinette asked, now fully gripped by a story that if true existed in no known form.
"For the next 10 years a bloody civil war between us ensued." Phantom said. "The only known full scale war that the Guardians have ever engaged in. During that time, Astral, or Spirit depending on the translation, swelled her numbers with mercenaries, new followers and people we are certain are tied to our other enemies but couldn't prove. Eventually she felt like she had the forced to launch an all-out assault on our sacred place in the northern mountains of Greece. It was the bloody battle of the war. I fought as one of the many loyal followers having joined some 400 years prior though I had yet to reach the rank below Guardian. Our enemies were outmatched by our forces mainly because all the Guardians at the time fought by our side, bringing their incredible power to bear on those who had dared to attack us. However, the assault was a diversion to try and secure the Master Guardian and his item of power, his short sword given to him by Chaos as the vessel of his power and authority. If Astral had managed to grab that then she probably would have won."
"I assume she didn't win but did she confront her former boss?" Marinette asked hooked to the tale despite the time pressure.
"She failed spectacularly." Phantom said with a smirk. "Though she did managed to fight her way to the Master Guardian, well he ordered a clear path between her and him during the battle as he wanted to take her down personally. He had to make an example of the only person to ever betray his trust after all. When she reached him, Astral underestimated to power of the Master Guardian and was handily beaten, stabbed and thrown off a balcony in the brief fight between the pair. As an immortal she couldn't die despite her Guardianship being stripped as soon as she was defeated, but her wounds were severe enough to ensure that she was captured. With her defeat her followers scattered, we caught the last one of them 56 years ago though admittedly we didn't try too hard to capture them."
"And Astral, what became of her?" Marinette asked.
"We have a special prison for those who challenge the Guardians or who are so powerful, evil or tricky that the even the various Pantheons can't detain without aid or the underworlds do not wish to hold so we take their spirits into our prison." Phantom said. "It is located on a plain between dimensions that one of the Guardians created and is completely secure. Following Astral's arrest, the Master Guardian, with the consensus of all the other Guardians, sentenced her to life in solitary confinement within our prison. To this day she is still there. She will never be released from her cell. Occasionally one of us tries to get some info from her but she just hurls abuse and says she will be freed one day. That was 3,000 years ago so at this point I doubt she will ever see the light of day again."
"This is all a lot to take in but given all I have seen it seems like it could be true." Marinette said as she thought about the story. "So where do you come in? You said you were a follower during the battle so I assume your promotion was sometime after given that you are number 27 and there were 23 Guardians after her betrayal. Also seeing as you were given the same element as her I am going to assume that you have some connection to her and the underworlds you have spoken of that I am not sure I believe in just yet."
"You are very astute, I can see why you were chosen to be Ladybug." Phantom said with a note of appreciation in his voice. "I am in deed related to her and the underworld. She is my half-sister and I have as much of a connection to the undead as she does, though she was more tied to the actual ghosts and spirits than me. We have the same father, but my mother is Nyx, the primordial Goddess of Night. My mother is a goddess with a habit of producing illegitimate immortal children with other underworld deities that go on to become Guardians. At last count 5 of us are children of hers and all of us do not get along with her. But I digress. I was born some 500 years prior to the Guardian Schism and given to the Guardians as part of the standard practice of giving illegitimate immortal children to the Guardians. For over 1,000 years I served them faithfully as I rose through the ranks, including with distinction during the Guardian Civil War. I wanted to restore the honor of the underworld that Astral had destroyed with her treason and become the new Guardian of Ghosts. I saw it as my duty to reclaim it and make it into a respected element once more."
"I assume you managed that given the fact that you achieved your goal of becoming the Guardian of Ghosts" Marinette said with a smile.
"Of course." Phantom said with a light chuckle. "Once I reached the rank right below Guardian, I began to work on my greatest creation and what I hoped would ensure my elevation to Guardianship with the assignment of Ghosts as my element. What I planned on creating was a world for Spirits that was not part of our dimension to live in and enjoy, perhaps even to interact with humans at some point down the road. It took me a while, roughly 342 years, as it required powers I had limited access to but through my parents I had just enough to do it so long as I connected it to the underworld I was born it. However, 2,500 years ago I successfully achieved it. One of the results of the world I had created allowed the rest of the Guardians to create a parallel world to our own with more of their own influence in it than the one we currently inhabit but that is not relevant to you and your situation. As I expected, I was rewarded for my achievement by being made a Guardian and the Master Guardian decided based off my creation that it would be best for my element to be that of Ghosts. Unfortunately, due to a prophecy and a divine prophecy cannot be fought or ignored lest terrible shit happens, I was to be the last being to be made a Guardian until the prophecy was fulfilled as the prophesy was triggered by the replacement of the Fallen Guardian. This is all you need to know about us, Tikki and Plagg can explain more about anything else you would like to know regarding the Guardians of the Elements once you and Adrien have defeated the akuma who has access to part of my power."
"Well speaking of said akuma, can you tell me more about where I am now?" Marinette asked. As grateful as she was to learn what she had just learned, she did want to get out of here and back to the action as soon as possible.
"Yes, now that you know the powers at work here, the time is right to explain the Astral Plain to you." Phantom said with a nod. "Though as you have already gathered, this is a plain that is parallel to that of the living but only those who have the power to access it can see it unless one is already in the Astral Plain. As you noted, while you can see and hear what is going on in the realm of the living, you cannot interact with it just as it cannot interact with you while you are an incorporeal astral spirit."
"Why is that?" Marinette asked.
"The Astral Plain is for the spirits of the living." Phantom began as he slowly thought of what to say to her. "As such it is a shadow or lower layer of the living plain. Only the spirits of the living, the various deities of Ghosts, and the Guardians can access it though regular mortals can come here providing that they know how. However because it works with the spirit, an entity that is normally associated to the land of the dead, the living cannot see it. Bit of a juxtaposition but a lot of that sort of stuff happens in the circles I travel in."
"This place can be accessed normally?" Marinette asked with a hint of amazement. "I thought it was someplace that I was forced to be. Why would anyone chose to be here."
"The Astral Plain can be accessed by mortals, but it is not easy." Phantom replied. "Those who do use it for a variety or reasons, often to spy on others but also to come where they cannot be bothered by other people. There are 3 ways mortal can access it without divine intervention or powers; meditation, potion and drugs. The first takes years to master but is the safest path as the practitioner achieves full control of their astral spirit with the ability to return to their bodies at will. The second requires a certain set of skills few possess and those who drink the potion have a time limit in the Astral Plain that is the duration of the effects of the potion. The third is the most dangerous way as it involves a certain hallucinate drug that could kill your body and force your spirit to wander the Astral Plain for eternity as an unbound living spirit unable to crossover to the land of the dead, a living hell so to speak, or the practitioner could become addicted to the drugs that induce the astral projection of one's living spirit. Like with the potion the duration in the Astral Plain lasts only as long as the effects of the drug lasts."
"But I wasn't sent here by any of those methods." Marinette pointed out. "So what way did I get here?"
"Your spirit was, for lack of a better word, forcibly banished here against your will." Phantom said bluntly. "A few beings such as myself, all deities who represent spiritual beings like ghosts, their half-blood children, and apparently Nooroo, though in the kwami's case it is indirect, have this power. Normally those of us who can banish a human's spirit to this plain have full control and can decide when to return it to its living body. Because it is divine power, the restoration method used by the masters of meditation doesn't work and only a divine being with the power to affect the living spirit can restore you to your body."
"So, you can send me back?" Marinette asked hopefully. "You are the Guardian of Ghosts, surely if anyone has the power to return me to my body you do."
"If only it was that simple." Phantom said with a sigh as he shook his head. "Or else I would have done it already without the need for our lovely chat. No, I cannot do that for a few reasons, most importantly is the Guardians' vow on nonintervention unless absolutely necessary. If I break the vow there are unintended and unknown consequences similar to combining the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses and I do not want to challenge fate by breaking my vows."
"Nonintervention?" Marinette asked confused again. "You cannot mess with the real world?"
"No, we cannot." Phantom said. "It was the basis of the Guardian Civil War after all. Humans have free will and we must respect that. As such we are not allowed to intervene unless it is an emergency though the powers that prevent such an intervention are weakening and we should have more of a say going forward to influence events in a direction we want without directly affecting the mortal world. Besides, our power within our respective element that is, is too great and would tip the balance of life should we abuse it and that is against our order. I am sorry, but my oaths are binding, and I cannot directly help you. Of course, I can indirectly help you using a few known loopholes and technicalities, which is why I am here."
"Great so how can I get out of this situation?" Marinette asked as hope began to return to her.
"Because this is the act of an akuma invoking my power and not that of god or me directly there are two ways to escape from the Astral Plain." Phantom said. "The first is similar to how a god with the power to banish a spirit here must be the one to recall you and that can be achieved by defeating the akuma who banished you here."
"But there isn't enough time to purify it should that happen." Marinette pointed out. "And after the Stoneheart attack neither Cat Noir or I want to give Hawk Moth and one of his akumas an army to wield against us."
"True there wouldn't be time to successfully purify the akuma, especially now that you are in civilian form." Phantom agreed. "Which leaves you with the second option and the one I hate exists but due the need for balance in the world I cannot overcome despite my power, cheesy as the method is."
"And that is?" Marinette asked though she had a feeling what that method might be.
"True love's kiss." Phantom said with a distasteful look on his face as he confirmed her theory.
"That is pretty cheesy." Marinette agreed. "How is that even possible?"
"The Astral Plain exists between life and death." Phantom said. "As such certain powerful emotions can affect the spirit within it. You could, if you so choose, pass onto the next life but that is not an option to be taken likely nor one you would take based on what I have seen of you and Cat Noir. Love works in the other direction, that of returning you to the world of the living, because of all the positive, life based, emotion it is by far the strongest. Human love allows for motivation for both greatest good and greatest evil the world has ever known. However, above all else love is considered a fundamental factor of life and creation, an opposite to someone like me who is the Guardian of those who have died. I am considered a being of the underworld, one of 5 Guardians along with Darkness, Bones, Gems, and Pain, who inhabit this aspect of the cycle of life. As such I am a being associated with destruction. To counter me there must be a strong force like love, though love does not have a Guardian due to the Master Guardian's aversion to granting an emotion a Guardian and thus making it an element. It is really cheesy but unfortunately that is how it must work."
"I get it, love was how I cured Cat Noir, Adrien, of Dark Cupid's power." Marinette said with a nod. "I know it is cheesy, but it is also a very powerful emotion."
"Yes, and that only worked because you are both in love with one another." Phantom said, something that surprised Marinette. "Had Cat Noir not been Adrien Agreste then your kiss would not have worked. It only did so because you were in love with the boy behind the mask, regardless of his love for you despite not knowing who is behind your mask."
"Oh, I didn't realize that." Marinette said quietly as she thought of the gamble she had made during that akuma attack.
"It is a limit to the power of love, as all powers should have so that none become too powerful." Phantom said. "Such is the nature of balance. However, the power of love is real and as you are both in love with one another, well that is how you can be returned to your body. Of course, I would have to leave you and explain it to them. This is bordering on intervention but because Nooroo has abused my power at the orders of Hawk Moth I can do this much at least without causing damage to the balance of my element."
"I get that." Marinette said as she looked at the slow-motion Adrien in the living plain with all the love she had for him. She knew that he loved her just as much as she loved him, this was something she could do, and they would deal with the ramifications afterwards. "Very well Phantom, I agree to this. Please let them know and thank you for your aid and the information you have provided me during this challenging time in the Astral Plain. I doubt without your appearance I would have been able to stay sane while here."
"It has been a pleasure, Marinette." Phantom said with a gracious smile. "I rarely get this opportunity to interact with a hero in my official capacity but with certain changes I will get more opportunities. I believe they kwamis are explaining to Adrien how I can be of use to them, so I must go and make my appearance at just the right moment to freak them out, one of my many little pleasure. Until out paths cross again."
Marinette didn't have time to say anything as the Guardian of Ghosts faded into nothing in front of her. As soon as he was gone Marinette felt time slow back to normal, the air around her becoming what she was used too and not the thickness she had felt during the time she had spent in what was effectively super speed. Turning to watch Adrien and the kwamis, Marinette waited until she could return to her body, thinking about all that she had just learned.
"The Astral Plain?" Adrien asked confused. "What is that?"
"It is a shadow realm of existence between this world and the next." Plagg said in a false scholarly tine that did not suit him at all. "And by next, I mean the various lands of the dead. There is a lot more to go into, but I think that that can wait until after you have defeated the akuma. The short explanation of the Astral Plain is that it is where living spirits go, either via banishment as in the case of Ladybug's spirit, or those who know how to project their astral spirit into the Astral Plain."
"Yeah I think this is more pressing but once this is done you and I are going to have a long talk Plagg." Adrien said to which Plagg just nodded. "So, what do you propose we do?"
"This situation is beyond my talents as I deal in destruction not the realm of the ethereal." Plagg admitted. "Though at least I know a little bit about it, Tikki has no idea as she is associated with creation and as such life while I am associated with destruction and as such death. What I can say is that there really is no point in hiding Ladybug's identity. If my theory is correct and the akuma banished her spirit into the Astral Plain, she cannot move far from her unconscious body, so I am pretty sure that she has seen all of this. There is no doubt that she knows who you are now."
"Plagg, are you sure?" Tikki asked with a hint of concern. "She wasn't supposed to find out, though at least this way neither of us divulged the secret."
"I am." Plagg said with a firm nod. "Trust me, this shit is within my forte, I have been banished to the Astral Plain no less than 18 times in my life, most of those times by both iterations of the Guardian of Ghosts but also other deities for various reasons that I have often caused if I am being honest. If one more spiritual deity banishes me I get a free coffee at the underworld Starbucks next time I'm there, though I am running our of deities to banish my spirit to the Astral Plain."
"Ok well ignoring that part, I don't care that Ladybug knows who I am." Adrien said deciding it was best to not question Plagg's apparent experience with the Astral Plain. "I have been willing to tell her who I am for a while now. However I know that she doesn't want me to know until she is ready. Therefore, I will respect her wishes on this front regardless of whether or not she knows who I am."
"Ladybug would appreciate that, especially coming from you." Tikki said kindly. "She will trust you with her own secret when she gets back, of that I am sure. Speaking of getting her back; any ideas Plagg?"
"Only the power of an underworld deity whose jurisdiction falls within the realm of spirits can banish or recall a living spirit from the Astral Plain." Plagg said thoughtfully. "That includes the Guardian of Ghosts and any children of the various spiritual gods with the banishment power. How this works when the being who banished Ladybug's spirit did so because Nooroo tapped into the Guardian's power directly is beyond me however."
"Surely we could try to contact the Guardian of Ghosts and see if he can help us." Tikki suggested. "This does seem like the situation in which he may be able to at least advise us even if he is still bound by his vow of noninterference."
"We could do that." Plagg said with a hint of hesitation. "So far as I know I don't think I owe him anything, he usually comes for the show and not to make stupid bets with me, but I have lost track of all the immortal beings I am in debt with so I usually assume I owe an underworld deity something unless proven wrong. I don't know if he would help us though seeing as the Guardians aren't supposed to intervene in human affairs but it is worth a shot."
"Guardians?" Adrien asked. "You mentioned them earlier, but I have no idea who they are or this Guardian of Ghosts in particular. Who or what is he?"
"He would be standing right behind you." A voice in American accented French said behind Adrien causing him to jump and turn to see a slightly translucent, slightly glowing, man in an ethereal green shirt and jeans standing behind him, his hands raised, palms out in a sign of peace that did not alleviate Adrien's threat assessment of the sudden apparition. "As for what I am, that can be explained by the kwamis later. For now, I am here to pass on the information you need and that is all."
Instantly and much to Adrien's surprise, Plagg and Tikki flew over to the man and bowed respectfully to him while still hovering in mid air. Adrien got the feeling that whoever this person was, he was a being of immense power.
"Phantom, Guardian of Ghosts, you humble us with your appearance." Both kwamis said in unison, their voices heavy with respect, a respect Adrien had never heard in his own kwami's voice before. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence."
"Plagg, Tikki, there is no need for formalities with me." Phantom said with a slight laugh that broke the reverence of the kwamis and the two small creatures visibly relaxed. "You two are both technically divine beings and as such do not need to pay respects to a Guardian unless they are one of the 5 original Guardians. Plus aren't you are both older than me by almost 1,500 years, not including the time you two spend not bound to this earth in a physical form. In my books that gives you two seniority over me."
"True but there has been a Guardian of Ghosts long before the creation of our miraculous." Tikki said as Adrien just followed the exchange in confusion. However, with the sudden appearance of this person he realized that there must be some truth to the kwamis words, even if both had a lot of explaining to do later.
"Yes, but she is a traitor that we seldom speak of." Phantom said with a hint of anger to his voice before he seemed to return to a passive neutral tone. "As for why I am here; you called me. I am here to tell you what you need to do to return Ladybug's spirit to her body as I just spoke with her and she agreed to the method. There is no need to be so nervous Plagg by the way, we can settle our debts later."
"Merde I do owe you don't I." Plagg said with a sigh.
"Plagg, you owe just about every underworld deity who hasn't faded yet." Phantom said. "I know one of them has the full comprehensive list of what you owe but I don't know who has it."
"Er, as interesting as this is, could you explain what I need to do to get Ladybug back?" Adrien said butting into the conversation. "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't know how long that akuma will be held for and I really need Ladybug back to purify the akuma."
"I understand the pressing situation and unlike other divinities I will not smite you for being rude, impatience is a trait that not only humans suffer from." Phantom said, and Adrien hoped he was joking though if he was Adrien couldn't tell. "I know of have a solution, one I can tell you only because Nooroo has tapped into my power to create that akuma. Otherwise you would have been stuck due to my inability to directly influence human affairs."
"I thought that Nooroo had accessed your power." Plagg said with triumph in his voice.
"Yes, he has, and Hawk Moth will pay for forcing Nooroo to do so, once my spot in the long line of beings with a bone to pick with that villain comes up." Phantom said with a slightly unnerving grin. "Anyway, Plagg you are very correct about Ladybug; her spirit is trapped in the Astral Plain and she can see all that is going on right now."
"As usual I am right, I know I am awesome." Plagg gloated causing everyone else to audibly groan at the statement.
"Anyway, there is a solution." Phantom said before turning to look Adrien in the eyes and Adrien could feel the power the Guardian possessed in that moment. "The only way to get Ladybug back from the Astral Plain, short of breaking the akumatized object that is, is true love's kiss. I know it is cheesy and sappy but as the ultimate power of life, love can cure a lot, including restoring a living spirit in astral form to its body."
"But Ladybug doesn't love me." Adrien said with a heavy sigh. "I love her, but I know that she doesn't love me."
"That would be incorrect." Tikki said with a lot of hesitation and worry in her voice. "I, I don't know how much I can divulge as it involves Ladybug's civilian form but I will say this. Adrien, the person who wears the Ladybug Miraculous doesn't love Cat Noir, that is true, but she does love Adrien Agreste. You two are in love with each other, you just don't know it because you don't know the other's secret. Well until now that is, and Ladybug should know yours after today at the very least."
"Oh." Adrien said shocked as he tried to process that statement. "But no one is in love with me, I just have fan girls who crush on me because they see my pictures and the life I have."
"Adrien my boy, there is a lot you have to learn about women." Plagg said as he flew over to his human and perching on his shoulder. "I, being the suave and sophisticated kwami that I am, can teach you a few things about the fairer sex but that can wait. Trust me there is one girl who does love you for who you are and not what you are, and that girl is the who was chosen by Master Fu to be Ladybug. Of course, she's not so subtle about her feelings for you but you wouldn't get the hint even if she kissed you."
"Plagg you are the farthest thing from being a lady's kwami and you wouldn't know sophistication if it punched you in the face." Tikki said shaking her head. "But regarding my human's feeling for Adrien you are right, though as you pointed out you have to be blind to not see her feelings for Adrien. It is how she was able to break the Dark Cupid power when you were struck by it though even she didn't realize the full extent of it at the time. This is just like that. Trust us and trust that the Guardian of Ghosts knows his shit when it comes to the Astral Plain."
"If it gets my lady back then I will try it." Adrien said as he walked over to his bed and sat down next to Ladybug, making sure he didn't disturb the sheets at all before he gently whispered to her. "I am sorry that I am not asking your permission or consent to do this bugaboo, but I really need my love back. I hope to god this works and that you can forgive me for what I have to do."
"Actually, its Gods, and Guardians, but that's just semantics." Plagg said unhelpfully.
"Quiet Plagg." Tikki scolded hitting her fellow kwami on the back of the head. "And Adrien, it's not as if Ladybug asked your consent during the Dark Cupid incident."
Adrien just shrugged at this and looked down and what little of the woman he was in love with was visible. With a deep breath and hating the cheesiness of the moment, Adrien bent down and gentle kissed Ladybug on the lips.
Marinette had been watching the exchange between Phantom, Adrien and the kwamis with intrigue as she waited with baited breath for Adrien to finally kiss her. As soon as she had heard that Adrien would still protect her identity despite her knowing his she felt her heart swell even more for him. Marinette had no more doubts that Adrien was the love of her life.
Then, after Adrien had learned how to break Ikiryo's power over her and accepted the truth that Marinette loved him, he still was hesitant because he didn't have her consent. All this just endeared him even more to her though she would always consent to being kissed by Adrien Agreste. However, at that point Adrien leaned down and kissed her and all thoughts left Marinette's mind and not just because Adrien was finally kissing her.
As soon as his lips touched hers, she felt her spirit being pulled from the Astral Plain and back into her body, a process that drove all thoughts from her mind as her consciousness was returned to her body. Unlike before, the process of returning her spirit to her body wasn't painful at all and in seconds she was back in her own body, Adrien's lips on hers. Instinctively she raised her arms and pulled Adrien deeper into the moment.
Alas the moment had to end, and Adrien slowly broke the kiss and sat up, Marinette raising with him. As she did, the cover over her eyes and hair fell away so that she could reveal herself to him in civilian form for the first time. She couldn't help but smile at the look of utter shock on Adrien's face when he looked into her unmasked one.
"Marinette?" Adrien asked as his voice returned to him, his eyes still wide with shock.
"Shh Adrien, we can discuss everything later." Marinette said gently placing a finger on his lips amazed at how she was able to maintain any composure after Adrien had kissed her. "Just know that I love you."
"I love you too." Adrien whispered before Marinette embraced him again, this time she was the one who instigated the passionate kiss they shared.
The new couple were so locked in the embrace that both had desired for so long but because of their secret lives had not been able to have until this moment that neither notice Tikki looking on, her face full of joy, and Plagg looking on in boredom. They also didn't notice as Phantom faded away, back to the realm of ghosts, a small smile on his face as he left, his work done. With the exposure of the Guardians to the Miraculous Holders that day, more Guardians would interact with the couple in the months and years to come but for now Ladybug and Cat Noir had more important shit to do.
"Let's go defeat that akuma." Marinette said as she reluctantly broke their embrace. "Then we can talk about all of this and much, much, more."
"You had me at akuma." Adrien said with a smile at her. "Shall we transform, bugaboo."
"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette said in response and seconds later she was back to being Ladybug, glad to be in the living plain once more, she never wanted to visit the Astral Plain again.
"Plagg, claws out!" Adrien said seconds later and almost instantly Cat Noir stood there in front of her, holding out a pair of ladybug print pliers. "Shall we go and finally defeat Ikiryo."
"Of course." Marinette said taking the pliers and giving Adrien a chaste kiss on the lips. "Come on kitty, race you there."
With that Marinette leapt onto Adrien's open windowsill and swung her yo-yo into Paris before swinging away, Cat Noir right behind her. Yes, a lot had been revealed today, more than just their secrets and their love for one another, but all that was to come because of those revelations could wait, they had their job to do. Despite all that Ikiryo had put them through Marinette was glad it had happened because without it she wouldn't be with Adrien in the way she had so often dreamed about. Yes, it had been one hell of a day but one that Marinette wouldn't trade for the world.
It's been a month since I wrote a oneshot this long but as with the other epic classed oneshots the length is due to the complexity and need for a good story. Just a note on Ikiryo; the name is, as Plagg explains it, a Japanese term for the spirit of a living person that haunts people and the description of her comes from typing Ikiryo into google images and selecting the image I felt best fit an akuma (plus a little homage to the anime roots of Miraculous Ladybug). As I said at the beginning, after 25 oneshots, I now have a classification system for them based on word length. They classes from shortest to longest are: Basic (less than 4k words so only 'Snacks'), Standard (4-6.5k with some overlap for stories that exceed 6.5k and are under 7k due to author notes), Complex (6.5-10k), Epic (10-20k) and Gargantuan (20k-, of which only 'Trickster' is classified as such). As of right now almost all of my oneshots are either Standard or Complex, the later usually because the oneshot requires an additional scene or background to ensure smoothness. Only 6 are Epic or greater with only 2 more currently expected to achieve Epic status. Anyway, that is all for this long post chapter note. As always please keep your suggestions coming as the more prompts I get, the greater the diversity of oneshots I can try and write in this series. Dp keep letting me know what you think of my work in your reviews. Until next week.
Stringdog