They three of them were seated on the edge of the rooftop. Ladybug was struggling to process what she'd been told and a hundred questions rattled around inside her mind. She felt strangely numb. Was she in shock? She was probably in shock. Seemed like a completely appropriate response, in her opinon.

Beside her, Chat was practically shaking. Without a word, she leaned her head against his shoulder and he immediately rested his head on top of hers.

"I don't know how or why but Papillon has a Miraculous."

Part of her wanted to deny it vehemently. Papillon? A Miraculous wielder? …A Guardian? Former Guardian? How could a Guardian do this? Why?

Yet at the same time…it made sense. His name. His knowledge of their powers and Miraculous. How he was able to replicate the Fox so accurately. Why he never confronted them himself. Except…where was his partner? Shouldn't she be here either at his side or at theirs to stop him?

It had to be true. Why would Lisitsa lie about something like this? It would make her no better than Papillon.

"I swear I know nothing about the circumstances. Firra wouldn't tell me or maybe she doesn't know. If you want answers, you're going to have to get them from your kwami."

"He wants us dead," Chat Noir murmured.

"What?" Lisitsa asked sharply.

"Papillon wants us dead. He killed our predecessors because he wanted their powers and he'll kill us, too, if he can." Ladybug shivered. Chat Noir put his arm around her. "If he's a Guardian…or…whatever, he's had his Miraculous longer than us. How do we stand a chance against him?"

"More importantly: where is his partner?" Ladybug wondered aloud.

"The kwami of chaos died over a hundred years ago," Lisitsa explained. "The kwami can feel when one of their own dies. He's flying solo, just like me. Though from the looks of things, he's not handling it well. I wonder why his kwami is letting him get away with this?"

Pain radiated from the place where Tikki's conscious was nestled in her mind and Ladybug flinched. She was not going to like the answer to that question, she just knew it.

The elder Guardian shook her head. "Regardless, this is not something the two of you can handle alone. Or even the three of us. This…we need everyone."

They both looked at her in surprise.

"E-Everyone?" Chat stammered. "What do you mean?"

"We need all the Guardians. Papillon is one of our own and he's gone rogue. He's already killed two Guardians and will not hesitate to kill more. His kwami is compromised, too. The potential ramifications of this are unprecedented. We need everyone's input. And everyone needs to account for their negligence," she added darkly.

"But…how?" Ladybug asked. "It can't be that easy to contact everyone else or our kwami would've already told us how. And has this ever even happened? I mean, all the Guardians together?"

"Not in my lifetime. Not that I've ever even heard of," she admitted. "But it needs to happen. This has gone on for way too long and it's not right to leave this in your hands. Because the way things look to me, our best case scenario ends with a dead man and a traumatized kwami."

A year, that was all she asked of them. One year to deal with…kill…the black sorcerer she'd been hunting and to track down the other Guardians. One more year on their own against Papillon. Only one more year and then they would have all the help in the world and they could defeat him.

(Kill him, their minds whispered treacherously.)

Tikki settled down on the desk the moment she was free from her earrings and Marinette was at least grateful that the kwami was ready to face the music. She wanted to rant and yell and demand answers but all she did was stare at the tiny creature waiting patiently for her to begin. Tikki was so…tiny, adorable. Her eyes big and blue, her voice high and kind, her laughter so rich and bubbly. She seemed so innocent and young but it was a lie. She was impossibly old and impossibly powerful and it was all hidden beneath a deceptive exterior designed to make her seem trustworthy and companionable.

She wasn't evil. They had spent too long together for Marinette to believe such a thing but Tikki could never truly be good in her eyes ever again. She stood on the side of good but at best she was benevolent. She had an entirely different set of morals and though Marinette didn't agree with them, she respected their existence. Although some background on them would've been nice.

Tikki had a purpose. Tikki had methods to ensure this purpose was carried out. They weren't bad, they weren't intentionally harmful but there were just—just….

They just were.

She had to accept that. This was her life now. She had allowed herself to be lulled by Tikki's charms without a thought for her own future. Tikki insisted that she had never lied and Marinette knew it to be true. Tikki had many answers, she was simply waiting for the questions to be asked.

"I'm not going to ask if you knew," Marinette finally whispered. "Because we both know you did. So just tell me why."

"Of course."

Adrien looked at Plagg the way someone might look at a rotten piece of food. The kwami ignored him and collected a wheel of camembert from the mini fridge hidden in Adrien's closet then returned to the couch to eat it. He continued to ignore him until he had devoured the whole thing and deemed his paws clean and all the while, Adrien grew angrier. The urge to grab the kwami and shake him was quickly rising, to the point where he nearly had to sit on his hands.

"I figured I might as well eat now," Plagg finally told him. "Because you're probably not going to remember to feed me when we're done."

Adrien's nails scraped against the fine material of the couch and he gritted his teeth. "I think you've kept me waiting long enough."

The kwami sighed. "Yeah. Probably."

"Your predecessor's name was Mariquita. She was from Spain. She was the younger one by a good number of years, cleverer than most people she met, and as radiant as the sunset."

"The Guardian before you went by Black Cat. He was English, older than his partner. A lot more selfish than you and a lot less in love with her. But she was all he had."

Their Miraculous tingled, the kwami's words stirring the echoes of the deceased Guardians within them for the hosts to feel. She heard rambunctious shouting, he heard singing. They both smiled… and before the sensations could fade away, their kwami flew up to their foreheads and the world disappeared around them.

Blonde hair with streaks of silver and a fair complexion. Deep amethyst eyes that crinkled when she smiled behind her mask. A suit of scales as black as night that flashed iridescent in the light, a skirt that swished around her knees, and bare palms. She danced through the mayhem and reveled in the discord with laughter like a dozen chimes.

"Libelle..." a man's voice flittered through the air before being snatched away.

A man in a silver cowl that concealed most of his face. Silvery blue eyes lit up with fondness and a crooked smile. A shiny suit made from varying shades of purple and a black cloak that resembled wings hanging from his back. Sleek and dapper. He stood steadfast in the pandemonium and let it pass around him.

"Papillon!" a woman's voice called before disappearing in the same way.

Running through a battle, dark magic swirling in the air, shadowy creatures swarming through a city, a trio of sorcerers shrieking with glee. Glimpsing flashes of an auburn Ladybug and a mousy-haired Chat Noir.

Mariquita. Black Cat.

Papillon going off on his own after one of the sorcerers and the shades he had conjured…

Libelle dancing as she wrought chaos around her to combat against the lone sorceress and her pawns.

Flashes of Mariquita and Black Cat facing the third and final sorcerer…

A woman's scream…Libelle looking at the oncoming spell in horror…a burst of dark magic…an explosion…the overwhelming feeling of imbalance that followed.

Mariquita shrieking…

Papillon's howl of rage…his bitter weeping over the spot where she had fallen… the mangled remnants of a black pendant cradled in his hands….

The screams of the sorcerers as they fled…died…. Blood. Blood everywhere…

Marinette jerked back into awareness with a gasp. Her cheeks where wet with tears and her entire body was shaking. Without a word, she collapsed onto her pillows and sobbed loudly into the fabric.

Adrenaline, the thrill of battle, glee…so much fear…and pain…and grief…. She'd felt Mariquita's emotions as if they'd been her own. That woman, Libelle, she had been obliterated. Alive one second, gone the next, taking her kwami with her, and Papillon he…

He….

Marinette raised her head. "What was that?" she wailed softly.

Tikki bowed her head. "That was the day it all started. Papillon and Libelle; Order and Chaos. They were facing off against two sorcerers, remnants of a mighty cult that took many Guardians many years to dismantle, and when they realized the odds were not necessarily in their favor, they called on us. It was pure chance that we were in the same country at the time but of course we went to help them. They are our twin pair. But we all underestimated the powers of those sorcerers and somehow they had managed to conceal the presence of a third until that very day. The woman."

Her eyes grew distant. "I sensed great power in her. Libelle should not have faced her alone as she did but she…. She was a bit arrogant and reckless. Papillon kept her in check. She marked that sorceress as the biggest threat and wanted to take her on herself. Mariquita and Black Cat did not have time to argue, nor time to help her, as you saw. The third sorcerer engaged us. She was very far away when…it happened. There was nothing we could have done to save her."

Marinette wiped her eyes. "And the explosion destroyed the Miraculous?"

Tikki nodded. "If it had been any less damaged there may have been a chance but not even the kwami of Life can bring one of us back once our conduit is gone."

"So then what happened?" Adrien asked. He had not cried but the vision left him shaken and curious.

Plagg sighed. "He went on a rampage. Killed them all. Didn't even let us help. Then he just left them in the streets. We didn't see him for a few days and when we did he was messed up. Looked like death. None of us had any idea how to help him, either, and I sensed something…off about him. Phillip's sense for destruction was more focused than yours and Papillon gave him bad vibes like—"

"Wait, wait, wait. Phillip?"

"Black Cat," Plagg corrected. "That was his name. He wanted to get away from Papillon. Mariquita thought they should stay and try to do something. He was the leader because he was older and usually she would defer to him but she was…very stubborn. But then Papillon simply vanished and they decided to move on."

"What was off about him?" Adrien asked.

The kwami sighed. "Curse."

"Nurru and his butterflies are resistant to change. It's in their nature, as Order, to prefer the status quo. Each time he lost a host, Nurru would rely on Kaoss—his partner, not the force—and her chameleons to help him through his grief. Adapt to the new order of things and the new host. Without her, Nurru cannot cope. Without Nurru, there was no one to help Papillon cope."

Tikki paused and Marinette was surprised to see tears shining in her eyes. "I wanted to find him. He's our brother, he needed us, but Papillon left. It was like he disappeared into the ether and not even Cat could track him down. We assumed he'd left the city whilst untransformed. There was nothing either of them could do and by the time we thought to call out to Nurru, he was out of range." She sighed again, shoulders, tail, and antenna all drooping. "Maybe if we had acted sooner…if we'd tried a little harder…we could've…. There was nothing we could've done for Libelle and Kaoss but maybe we could've saved Nurru and Papillon. We failed them all."

Without warning, the tears suddenly spilled from the kwami's eyes and she closed them, covering them with her fists. Marinette was angry, hurt, and confused but she was still a kind soul and the sight of her kwami crying tugged at her heart. She reached out and cupped Tikki in her hands, pulling her to her cheek, and nuzzled her.

"I'm sorry," Tikki whispered. "This is only the second time I've told someone about this. It's easier with Plagg."

"It's not easy at all, is it?" Marinette murmured.

Tikki shook her head. "Nurru and Kaoss were there from almost the time we were. We watched one die and the other—" she sniffled, wiping her eye "—hates us."

"He was weak," Plagg explained bitterly. "They both were. Curse feeds on negative emotions and intent and those two were a mess. Order was in chaos! That isn't right." He frowned, frustrated and unable to adequately convey how fundamentally wrong it was. "And there was so much Curse in the air. As near as we can tell, it latched onto their grief and anger. Killing those sorcerers would've only made it worse.

"If we'd figured it out in time, we could've saved them. That's what's so infuriating about this whole thing!" Plagg tugged on his antennae. "If Nurru had just reached out to us! But noo! The idiot had to go and get himself corrupted."

"Corrupted?" Adrien blurted out.

"Yeah. Curse got in their heads…in their souls…maybe even in the Miraculous. They've both gone mad. Tikki called Nurru a demon in a kwami's body and I'm inclined to agree. If you could see what he's become…."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Marinette demanded. "We needed to know this!"

"Because you weren't ready. You're still not ready," Tikki added with a trace of hostility. "There was so much more you needed to know. We've already been setting the stage for this for months. We were going to tell you later this year. The plan was to educate you both more on magic first, specifically Curse, how to tell a black sorcerer from a well-studied mage, corruption, and some of the more delayed effects of being a Miraculous wielder—aaagh!" Tikki let out a shrill shriek and flew out of Marinette's hands. "She messed it all up!"

Marinette was taken aback. Tikki was on an emotional roller coaster tonight, the likes of which she'd never seen, and she wasn't sure what to do.

"I hope Firra is giving her an earful. I respect her motives but she should not have told you!" Tikki declared. "It was our place!"

"Well, I'm glad she did," Marinette snapped. "Because a lot of stuff is starting to make sense. What else are you keeping from us?"

Tikki rose up to her eye-level and frowned at her, tail quivering. The kwami was quiet for a moment then she calmly said, "There's more to the story if you're ready for me to continue."

"We didn't see either of them for nearly ten years. There was nothing for us to do so the four of us decided to settle down for a while. That's what'll happen when you're done with Papillon, assuming you live," Plagg added, earning an annoyed look. "You'll pick a place and you'll live. Or maybe you'll travel. It's up to you. But anyway, Phillip and Ariadna wanted to put their feet up. We lived in Spain. Neither of them wanted to fight in the Great War and the few Guardians who had gotten involved seemed to have things in hand so we let them be. The war ended…and then he found us. Apparently he'd been looking for quite some time."

"Why?" Adrien asked, feeling something heavy settle in his gut. His ring tingled again, the echo of Phillip stirring at such a crucial question.

The little kwami huffed, folding his arms. "Papillon had decided that it was their fault Libelle died. He wanted revenge."

"We tried to reach out to Nurru but he would not respond," Tikki explained. "So many times we called to him but he never once responded. We wondered what Papillon had done to him. Now we know that he shared Papillon's sentiments."

Marinette's breathing hitched.

"At first Papillon came at them head on. In hindsight, Mariquita…Ariadna—" the name caused another tingling to emanate from Marinette's earrings. This time she felt something heavy and bitter before the sensation faded "—was always the primary target. Papillon thought it would be more fair that way. Then they would know exactly how he felt." Tikki's face scrunched up like she'd tasted something sour. "The fighting was devastating for the village, so we fled. It was our turn to disappear. The war was over and it was safe to travel Europe. We went to Germany because it was battered and no one in their right mind was going there."

"But he found you again?" Marinette guessed.

Tikki nodded. "It took seven years but yes. They fought, we ran, and he gave chase. We tried the Americas. A black sorcerer started stirring up trouble in New York City and we were the only ones close enough so we had to respond. That was six years after the last meeting and we figured it would only be a matter of time. And sure enough, he came.

"We hid for a short while and then the world became focused on the second Great War. We went back to New York to finish the job. We were able to get in and out without him finding us. We were safe until after the War, then he found us in Canada. Again and again. We'd fight, we'd run, he'd chase. And endless cycle that kept coming faster and faster as technology evolved. We eventually stopped telling them about places they were needed to fight because it didn't matter anymore. Our lives had become about self-preservation. We ran and ran. Every time there was so much of a whisper or a glimpse of us, he appeared."

"The last time he came at us head on, Phillip nearly succeeded in taking his Miraculous from him." Plagg grinned, puffing up his chest with pride. "It failed, obviously, but it scared the hell out of him. Enough that he was no longer willing to risk himself. That was in…1972, I think."

Adrien blinked in surprise. 1972? If Libelle had died a hundred and eight years ago then… He held up his fingers as he counted.

Plagg, oblivious to his host's train of thought, went on, "The next time he found us was when the akumas began. Took him a while to get to what he's using today. Making people into monsters is apparently an art. Who knew?"

"How old were Black Cat and Mariquita when Libelle died?" Adrien asked suddenly.

His kwami went as still as a statue.

"How long did he chase them?" Marinette murmured. When did they die?

Tikki took a deep breath. "About ninety-eight years."

Marinette pursed her lips and looked up through her skylight. She didn't like this. It didn't add up. "Black Cat didn't look younger than twenty."

"Twenty-two, approximately."

"So you're telling me that they were still fighting Papillon when he was a hundred and twenty years old?" She was calm. Why was she so calm? This was…potentially very big. Huge. She should be freaking out. Screaming. Why wasn't she?

It wasn't because she already knew the answer. It couldn't be. That was impossible…there was no way…

"Actually, he was three hundred and fifty-two when he died," Tikki corrected. "Ariadna was one hundred and ninety-one."

Marinette swallowed, fingers fisting in her bedspread. "How?" she asked without looking down at her kwami.

"Guardians are granted longevity by their Miraculous. It is…one of the most potent effects."

"For how long?"

Kwami always tried to save this secret for last. Ideally they would wait until the initial evil had been defeated and the fledgling had been given time to settle into their role before telling them.

It didn't always work out that way. Sometimes the elder partner was just too old, sometimes they couldn't keep the secret until the kwami deemed the younger was ready. Sometimes circumstances forced them to reveal the truth early like as was the case this time.

Truly, it was out of kindness that they kept it from them because the truth was a heavy burden to bear. Too heavy for most on top of everything else while they were still so young.

It was their greatest secret, known only to the kwami and Guardians.

Kwami were immortal beings of immense power, power which flowed through the bodies of their hosts, more and more with every transformation until it became as integral a part of them as their own blood. It changed them in supernatural ways that no human could ever hope to achieve on their own. Even knowing this, no Guardian ever saw it coming.

For who would expect immortality to come in the form of a piece of jewelry?

Who indeed?

As always, feel free to come chat on tumblr. My url is wintermoth! If you want to, feel free to tag anything about this fic with "ML Guardians AU"