Delicate, Chapter 29

"Do you, uh... wanna explain that?" Plagg asked Marinette, alarm obvious in his voice. "How can you not know what happened to Duusu?"

Marinette described her frantic race back to the Miracle Box, and what she found once she'd arrived there... which did little to calm Plagg down.

"I did everything possible to protect him," she explained. "Wayzz followed the... well... vapor cloud into the Box and told me to get back here immediately... and if I hadn't, I don't want to know what would have happened! I don't think that you can fault me there."

"No... I can't," allowed Plagg, glancing at the revived Adrien. "But what Duusu was like when you left him... that doesn't sound... look, we've got to get over there, now! I need to know what we did to him."

"I do, too, and we'll head over in just a minute," worried Marinette. "But, first... I need to know something."

She walked over to the Agrestes, father and son hovering over Emilie together, each holding one of her hands and speaking softly to her.

"Ahem," she interrupted them, politely. "The emergency that made me dash out so quickly? I need to check on that again. But how are the two of you feeling? Adrien, you were right on the brink there for a few minutes... and, Gabriel, what you did was very risky and dangerous, too. Do we need to get either of you to medical care?"

She motioned to Tikki, silently. Adrien reacted more calmly to a tiny red blur examining all parts of him than Gabriel did.

"I, ah... cannot say that I... well!" stammered Gabriel, somewhat distracted by Tikki's quite thorough investigation. "Shouldn't Emilie be our primary concern right now?"

"She should be, and she is! But you weren't breathing for a little while there," Marinette insisted. "You look okay to me, but I don't like to take chances, and I'm not a doctor."

"I am a bit light-headed, I will grant," Gabriel allowed, "but I feel... functional. My head is clear enough to think logically... and I hope that we are done now with the running and screaming parts of our evening? If it will make - watch it, there, you! If it will make you feel better, I will check in with my regular physician tomorrow."

"And you," she continued, turning to Adrien with a more winsome posture. "I don't really want to leave your side tonight..."

"I'm... I can walk and think, at least," Adrien offered. "I'm feeling a bit better now. I can come with you to check on Duusu, if you want."

"Adrien," smiled Marinette, "your mother is alive and awake in front of you for the first time in years. Do you really think that I would let you leave her side right now, let alone take you away from her?"

"I know... but!"

"...Tikki?" she asked, in part to deflect that line of thinking.

"I'm not finding anything dramatic wrong with either of them," Tikki replied. " Thank goodness for that!"

"And as for Emilie?" Gabriel asked her. "There's nothing else that any of you can do for her at this time?"

Tikki shook her head. "I'm sorry, but... no. There are no magical free rides for this kind of thing; sometimes mind and body simply need time and therapy to heal. I'm a bit amazed that she's this responsive already," she answered, cautiously.

"I see. In that case... Adrien, we will coordinate our stories as necessary, so that we are not inadvertently contradicting each other..." mused Gabriel.

"...What are we going to tell everyone? Our friends, the press, everyone who'll want to know where Mother's been?"

"Let me worry about that," he sighed. "Once we are ready, I will summon a certain neurologist who has examined your mother previously," mused Gabriel. 'I suspect that he can be to this house within the hour... and a parade of other doctors shall follow shortly thereafter. It is... something of a shock to me, just to return to believing that traditional medicine might do her some good."

"Adrien," Marinette continued, "are you all right with leaving things like this... and my leaving you here?"

He nodded.

At Gabriel's raised eyebrow, she turned to him, a weary expression on her face. "Trust is a gradual and fragile thing," Marinette told him. "You've been earning some of it back... but it's going to take a while."

"It certainly is," he agreed. "And you would know all about that... Ladybug... or should I say, Madame Guardian of the Miraculous?"

Marinette allowed herself a small smile.

"Yes... about that," she sighed. "All of the talk about the Miracle Box and the other Kwamis... and my transforming to Ladybug right in front of you... I was kind of hoping that you'd missed that in all the panic."

Gabriel smirked... but not in a mean-spirited way, she sensed. "Did you honestly think that I had not already surmised as such?" he asked.

That got both Marinette and Adrien's attention in full.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel continued, "you are a young woman of many, many talents, but lying is not one of them. On the night that you came here to confront me, you spoke of many things... and I sensed that you were being truthful and remarkably forthright about most of them. But when you showed me how you were no longer Ladybug, and you explained to me how all but the Turtle had been reclaimed or lost... your voice and manner changed noticeably."

"I was a professional at the top of my industry long before I was Hawkmoth," he smiled. "One does not reach those heights without a knack for reading people and sensing their motives."

"...So you did know. Or at least guessed correctly," Marinette nodded. "The Miraculous that you spent years chasing were right there in a tiny apartment. Your bodyguard's visit to my neighborhood, scouting things out... your knowing that Adrien had kept Nooroo... your messages right after the Bliss Wave..."

"Come, now," scoffed Gabriel. "That Wave screamed out 'MIRACULOUS IN USE' in fifty-foot letters of fire for anyone who cared to look and knew the signs."

"Still... all of it. I had wondered how much you'd guessed," pondered Marinette. "And you never acted upon that knowledge... more than simply verifying what you thought that you knew. I... do hope that that continues."

"Marinette..." Gabriel began. His voice was suddenly soft and pleasant, with all hints of bluster and posturing absent.

"Firstly, what was I to do about it? Adrien took one of my Miraculous and destroyed the other. With my full power, I never managed to defeat the two of you. Kicking your door in or engaging in tawdry threats against your family, let us say... would not have gotten me very far empty-handed."

"True."

"And when you came to me that night," he added, "I did study you, most intently. Your compassion, your honesty and your bravery stood out to me far more than your one attempt to deceive. You were there to help me, not to accuse me or to drag me out by my ankles. You chose, instead, to trust me... so I chose to trust you."

"How shall I put this?" Gabriel smiled, enjoying her reaction to that. "When three people have punched each other in the face and endangered each other's lives as often as we have..."

Emilie's eyes snapped towards Gabriel.

"...which is something that deserves a complete explanation, and I promise you, my darling, you shall have that," a wary Gabriel told her before facing Marinette once more, "...there is a certain inevitable honesty between us. Your alter egos were an impassible obstacle, and I cursed your names a thousand times... but I never had a sense that we truly meant each other any lasting harm. And it seems that I read that correctly, as well."

"There was a person behind Hawkmoth's mask. I always knew that," Marinette replied, her smile emerging without much effort. "And I feel like I might be finally getting to meet him properly."

"And for what the two of you have done for us... you have given us our lives back, Marinette," said Gabriel. "A debt that I can never repay, though you may be certain that I shall try repeatedly! You may not be an Agreste quite yet..." he declared, with a small smile aimed at Adrien, "but I would see that you and your family should live like one, by every means within my ability."

Marinette shook her head, negatively. "None of this, nothing that we did was with the intention of a reward," she protested. "I won't accept it."

"I know that. You never have expected a reward for your heroics... all the more reason that it should be a jackpot now," smiled Gabriel. "If you-"

"AHEM!"

A tiny black figure floated up between the two of them.

"It's nice that you're making up with the guy who almost killed you a few times, y'know?" Plagg declared. "But, like, could we get out of here soon and check on the Kwami that I might've doomed? I kinda think that's important."

"I'm sorry, Plagg. You're completely right, and we need to go." Marinette turned to Adrien and asked, "I'm assuming that all the Kwamis want to do this. May I borrow those Miraculous back?"

Adrien slipped the ring off of his finger, handing it and the brooch to Marinette. "They're yours for the asking, as always." He leaned down towards the Kwamis and added, softly, "Plagg, Nooroo... thank you both so much. We couldn't have done this without you... and I know how hard this was on both of you."

"It was... needed. Be safe, Adrien," Nooroo remarked, giving Gabriel a suspicious look before disappearing.

"This whole thing was insane... but you did good, Adrien. You did good," Plagg added, before slipping into Marinette's pocket.

Marinette stepped forward and wrapped Adrien up in her arms. "Give her a hug for me," she whispered.

She heard his voice crack as he replied, in a low voice, "Marinette... you are my m-miracle. You always have been."

"I don't know about a miracle," she smiled, "...but I'm definitely yours."

A rustle from Plagg reminded Marinette once more to get moving. "I'll come and pick you up once I find out what's happening... unless you can get a ride," she told Adrien.

"You have three Miraculous on your person, and you're going to your car?" an amused Gabriel wondered.

"Three exhausted Kwamis who've had a very long day," answered Marinette, as she headed for the elevator.

The ride over to Marinette's apartment was somewhat subdued, both from exhaustion and from apprehension. Tikki perched on the dashboard, not really caring if anyone saw her in passing; relaxing Marinette was more of her priority right now.

"You did everything that you possibly could. And then some," Tikki told her. "And far beyond! I couldn't be happier about how this worked out for Emilie."

"You really think so?" Marinette focused on the road as much as she could focus on anything. "I mean... seeing her eyes open and focusing on things... that made me want to break down and cry! I was just so overwhelmed... that all of this worked, even a little bit!"

"...But?"

"Emilie... is going to get better, right?"

Pausing at a red light, Marinette looked down at Tikki. "She'll be able to communicate soon, in one way or another? To speak, or to write, or maybe type with one finger or one of those little joystick things? I'm just worried that... I don't want her to have just traded one prison for another."

"I'm sure that things will improve quickly," Tikki declared. "For someone who was out of her body for years, she's doing great! Her mind is definitely active. I don't think that it ever stopped."

"Do you have any experience with this kind of thing? Minds hopping in and out of bodies? Existing completely separate from one?"

"I certainly do," Nooroo chimed in from the back seat. "Perhaps not for this long, in recent memory... but lengthy transfers are not unheard of in my world. Disorientation is natural, and so is 'forgetting' motor impulses like that. I saw nothing to be terribly concerned about yet, though time will tell."

"Think of it kind of like that she's recovering from a head injury, brain trauma... but without the actual injury," Tikki described. "Which should make her healing faster and easier. It will take time, but it should come back, a little at a time."

"And I am sure that Gabriel will surround her with the best doctors and caretakers available," Nooroo added. "And Adrien may do more to encourage her regrowth more than all of them combined."

"Nooroo?" Marinette interjected. "I just want to tell you, before I forget... just how proud of you I am! I know how hard it was for you to even enter that house, where you had so many terrible memories, even if you were planning on remaining hidden away. But coming out and confronting Gabriel? Actually joining with him to try and save Adrien and his mother? If I could be hugging you right now, I would."

The light changed, and she looked forward once more, but indicated that she was still listening carefully.

"It was not what I wanted. I can assure you of that," smiled Nooroo, weakly. "My first notion was to touch Adrien before he even went inside, power him up that way, then wait in the car. But something told me... that wasn't right for me to do. I had to be there for him, with him, just in case. I am quite pleased that I could contribute in a way that mattered."

"You saved the day, Nooroo. Don't sell it short," Tikki grinned. "You and Gabriel made the difference back there. Those minutes that you bought everyone were so important."

"...Adrien is as bright a light upon this earth as you are, Marinette," Nooroo replied. "And I owe it to him... to you... to the world to help that light shine. Emilie, I don't know as well... but Adrien's goodness had to come from somewhere, didn't it? And we know from whom it didn't."

"He lost his way," sighed Marinette. "I don't know how else to put it. I think that Adrien will have as much healing to give him as he will to his mother. And I hope that it works... for both of them."

"Plagg... what do you think?" asked Tikki.

Sitting on the other side of the back seat... Plagg remained silent for a moment. When he spoke... he seemed as if he'd barely heard a word that the others had spoken.

"When you said 'vapor...'" he mused. "A bluish vapor. Was it, like... smoke? Or steam? Or something thicker than that?"

"I don't know," Marinette sighed. "I only saw it for about a second or two, before it disappeared."

"Did it go into the Box? Did it look like it wanted to go there, or did it get sucked into it? Or did it just dissolve into the air?"

Another red light let Marinette turn and face him, looking anxious herself.

"Plagg... I'm sorry. I don't know the answers to any of that," she apologized. "I was moving as fast as I've ever moved in my life... trying to save Duusu and Adrien at the same time. I threw everything I had into getting Duusu home quickly; Wayzz didn't seem to know what he was seeing when the yo-yo opened, either, so what chance would I have? And if I'd stayed to find out, Adrien might have died."

"I know," croaked Plagg. "I'm sorry... I know that you don't know. I'm just..."

"You're worried. And so am I."

Marinette leaned in a little closer.

"But you care deeply about both of them. Duusu and Adrien. I know you do, and if I couldn't save either of them... I know how devastated you would be," she reminded him. "And I'm praying that I didn't fail you at that."

"You did all you could. I can't fault you or Adrien," Plagg sighed. "Not at all."

The light changed again, and the car sped on.

As Marinette approached the front door, Nooroo and Plagg stared at the smashed side window of the apartment. "Is... that how you got those little cuts on your face?" wondered Plagg.

"It was. I dove straight through; there wasn't a moment to waste," Marinette confirmed. "That'll be fun to explain to my landlords tomorrow."

The group hurried to Marinette's bedroom, where Audrey sat huddled on the bed, appearing confused and on alert, guarding the premises.

"It's all right, sweetie," Marinette comforted her, leaning down to nuzzle her. "I'm back. I'll clean all this up in a little while, I promise."

Audrey's light purr indicated that her owner's presence and warm tone acted as intended... but her eyes remained focused on the open closet door.

"...Let me know what you three find," Marinette told the Kwamis, trying not to tremble. "I'll be right here."

Tikki, Nooroo and Plagg looked at each other... then dove into the top of the Miracle Box, spinning their way down into the Kwami village.

The first thing they saw was that all of the other Kwamis were out and about, crowding around the center of the village. Plagg made a beeline for the first shade of green he saw, and the others followed.

"Wayzz!" he panted. "What's happened? What do you know?"

Wayzz's expression was hard to place... a bit of shock, a dash of wonder, a cup of thoughtfulness, stirred into a thick batter and poured out evenly.

"Something... remarkable has happened," he declared, flatly. "It's hard for me to describe."

"'Remarkable.' Wayzz, don't do that vague shit with me now!" Plagg shouted. "Good? Bad? Both? What?"

"...See for yourself?"

Wayzz gestured... and Plagg and the others saw a small, whirling blue cloud in the midst of the crowd of Zodiac Kwamis.

It shifted - Is it LOOKING at us? wondered Tikki, briefly - and then a voice manifested in their heads, despite the lack of any visible mouth to generate it.

Oh, HEY! said the voice. There you all are! Come and join the party!

A slack-jawed Plagg tried to process what he thought he had just heard.

"...Duusu?" he managed. "Is that you?"

Well, yeah, the voice replied. Who else could it be? Everyone else is already here! Did you count the heads?

"It's wonderful to... um... see you again!" Tikki called out. "It is you! I can feel it! Your presence... though this is a new look for you."

More like a really OLD look, the cloud laughed. It's been a while for us, huh?

"I... don't know what you mean by that..." she replied. "Nooroo?"

"Me, neither," said Nooroo. "Are you feeling more like yourself again? I know that you'd manifested several times... with Nathalie... but that your Miraculous was damaged, and they'd said that you didn't seem... right to them."

Ah! I do remember that. Kind of; it's a little fuzzy. Like me right now! the voice giggled. Is that lady okay?

"...Mostly?" Tikki replied. "She got hurt a bit when your... Miraculous got... um... okay. Duusu, how much of that night do you remember?"

What night?

"Oh... boy," Plagg muttered. "Let me try and explain something... and then I've got some other questions."

A short while later...

Okay... Huh! That does explain some things.

"Duusu... I am so, so, so sorry. I didn't have any control over what happened," Plagg began his heartfelt apology. "I -"

Oh, pooh! Of course you didn't. That's how having a host works... and that's how I ended up getting to know Emmy so well!

"...Emmy?" wondered Nooroo.

She told me, 'My name is Emilie. My friends used to call me Emmy, when I was young.' I asked if I was her friend, and she said, 'I should rather hope so! You're the only one here with me.' So I was, and I did!

"That's a remarkably positive outlook on that," noted Tikki.

Oh, we had lots and lots of adventures together... until you came and got me today. Took you long enough, too!

"Well... we didn't know where the heck you were, you know?" Plagg lamented. "I was in the same house as you and I didn't know then, and after you... blew up, we had no idea that Gabriel still had Emilie's body stored away... or that you were stuck inside it!"

Couldn't you have asked me for help?

"We... didn't know where you were."

No, the other me. You know, right? The other part of me?

The conversation stopped abruptly, in the way that a train stops when it runs out of track and then a falling meteor smashes into it.

Ah... Is it my turn to explain?

"...Just a bit?" stammered Tikki.

A little while after that...

"We can do... that?" Plagg stumbled.

"We can... do that!" marveled Tikki. "My goodness!"

"...Can we do that?" asked Nooroo. "Keep talking. What you're describing does... kind of ring a bell with me? Somehow?"

Of course we can do that! Haven't you ever?

"...No?" the others answered in unison.

"I... don't think so? I'm not sure," Nooroo wondered.

"If I have... I don't remember it," Plagg added. "At all."

Want a lesson? They're free today!

"Can I ask you a question?" wondered Tikki. "The you that's here... that's all cloudy right now... are you stuck like that, or can you pull yourself together into your old body?"

I think I can. But I might not be... quite the same as you remember? Let's find out!

The cloud pulsed with activity for a moment... and then solidified.

"Don't you laugh, you!" chirped a high-pitched voice. "I'm lucky that I've got this much right now!"

"I'm... not going to laugh. I promise," Tikki grinned, suppressing a giggle. "I can't speak for the others."

"You are a bit easier to talk to like this," Nooroo smiled. "Just for familiarity's sake."

"And my next question. You don't have a Miraculous any more... but we do have the Miracle Box as a focus," pondered Tikki. "Do you think that you're strong enough to pop outside for a few minutes... to tell the Guardian what's transpired? That way you don't have to tell the whole thing twice."

"I don't see why not," Duusu smiled. "Though, from the little glimpse I saw on the way in... this place didn't look a thing like the old monastery. Did they move?"

"You may be solid now..." remarked Nooroo, "but it seems that a few other things are still a little fuzzy for you."

"Come on, everybody!" beckoned Wayzz to the remaining Kwamis. "This is going to be quite a story."

An anxious Marinette sat on her bed, cuddling Audrey, whose level of reassurance had reached the point of flopping onto her side and engaging in little tail-flips while being petted.

A light emerging from the closet changed that, however. Audrey flipped over and reared back, on alert but holding back her full beware-I'm-HUGE! fur-puffing routine for now.

Tikki was the first to emerge. "I hope that you're ready for this," she smiled at Marinette as she joined them on the bed.

"In a good way?" prompted Marinette, crossing her fingers.

"Uh-huh! I definitely think so," Tikki confirmed. "Watch!"

Another Kwami emerged from the Box's portal... then another, and another, and another... until the air was filled with tiny floating animals. As they jockeyed for position, Audrey stared at the spectacle in awe. The decision of which one to pounce, tackle and chew on was too much for her to process, so she laid down again by Marinette's leg, her eyes in constant motion, her tail whipping back and forth.

Marinette watched the cloud of Kwamis, seeing many familiar faces... then gasped when she saw one that wasn't!

A tiny blue peafowl, perhaps one-third the size of the other Kwamis at the most, floated in her direction. "Ahhh... you must be you-know-who!" its voice squeaked. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"...Duusu?" marveled Marinette. "Oh, my... I'm glad to meet you, too... and you are just the cutest little thing I've ever seen!"

That drew a loud snicker from Plagg. "Yeah, here we are... all eighteen-and-a-half of us," he snarked. "Can you believe it?"

"Should I not?" Marinette studied the tiny Kwami, carefully. "I take it that you haven't always been this size?"

"Oh, no. I used to be just like all the others," Duusu grinned. "That was when I was all here. But I'm not... I'm here and I'm there, too. Just like I have been for a while now."

Marinette pondered the proper response to that... and came up empty.

"Duusu... can you tell Marinette what you told us? About what happened to you?" Tikki prompted.

"Here goes..."

A human being, eighteen Kwamis and a fluffy white kitten with a twitching tail granted Duusu their full attention.

"Okay. You know what Kwamis actually are, right, Marinette? Let's start with that," began Duusu.

"I... think so?" Marinette replied. "Master Fu taught me what he knew of that. How Kwamis-"

"Fu? That rascal's still around?" marveled Duusu. "Wow! How old is he now?"

Duusu's face fell as he watched Marinette's mood shift. "Master Fu is... complicated, He is still alive... but when he passed the role of the Guardian to me, it did things to his memory. He doesn't remember anything about Kwamis or the Miraculous now," she explained.

"Oh! That's terrible!" Duusu cried out, visibly upset now. "I wish... that I could do something to help him! It sounds like we have a lot in common."

"You do? What do you mean by that, exactly?" asked Wayzz.

"Well... after the big boom happened when Fu was running away from the temple... he told you about that, right?" Duusu asked, to which Marinette nodded. "My Miraculous was damaged. I think you know about that, too. That was really bad, because when Emmy woke me up again, every time that she used me, I started... leaking."

"...Leaking?"

"Yeah. A cracked Miraculous meant that my spirit was cracked, too. I couldn't hold onto all of it, so... I let that part of me go where it wanted to."

Wayzz turned to Marinette. "Kwamis are pure magical energy... and energy cannot be destroyed; it is merely converted to other forms. Your Isaac Newton got that part right."

Duusu rolled his tiny eyes at that. "Wayzz is always trying to describe things like that. With rules," he laughed. "I like to think of it a different way. I'm here now, but I'm there, too, and we're both me, right? I know we are. I think so, too."

He closed his eyes for a moment. "Hi, Duusu!" he called out. After a moment, he smiled broadly. "Duusu says 'hi,' everybody."

Marinette felt her skin crawl. "Tikki," she asked as a quiet aside, "is this... normal?"

"I'm... not completely sure. But roll with it for now," Tikki replied. "It's about to get very interesting."

"Okay... so, that was a big problem. Emilie was using me, but I was leaking, and she started leaking, too," Duusu lamented, shifting back into sad mode rapidly. "And human energies are kind of... different. It got so bad that she had to go to sleep, and I missed her very much. And then there was Nathalie... and she started leaking, too. I was very scared for her!"

"I've seen her recently. She's recovered very well," Marinette soothed. "Do you remember the night that your Miraculous was destroyed?"

"Only a little. Plagg told me how it happened, and why," Duusu replied, looking calmer than Plagg was at the reminiscence. "And... I need to thank him and his host for that sometime."

"...Thank me?" Plagg blurted out. "You're kidding, right? We nearly blew you off this whole plane."

"Plagg," sighed Duusu, as if reexplaining something to a child. "As long as my Miraculous was damaged like that... I was hurting my hosts. I couldn't fix myself. I couldn't fix them! But you stopped that from happening... and that's good, isn't it?"

"You're not angry at me?" asked Plagg. "Or hurt? Or bitter?"

"I know more about emotions than anyone. I'm made from them," Duusu smiled. "But those aren't the ones that I hang onto. What good would that do?"

As Plagg stared back, slack-jawed, Duusu continued. "So... then I was in a new place. With Emmy again," he smiled. "And this time... we weren't broken! We were just... away from everyone else. It was an amazing place."

"What was it like?" wondered Marinette. "Was it... did it feel like a real place to you?"

"Lots of real places!" beamed Duusu. "It was powered by her imagination, so every day there was a little bit different. Like a dream that kept changing and changing! We had a great time getting to know each other very well... and then you came and got me, Plagg. That was a neat trick you did today! You turned part of me, that wasn't quite me, into something else that felt more like me. And then when that dissolved... it turned back into me-me again, and I could put it back where it belonged."

"...That's what I did?" mumbled Plagg, following along as best he could.

"But only part of me is here, even though I have all of me that's still here now. Does that make sense?" Duusu asked. "That's why I'm so small. Because this me is only part of me now."

"I... think that I get it," Marinette ventured. "The energy that was leaking from you... it went somewhere else. The energy that you lost when your Miraculous was Cataclysmed... that part went there, too? And it's... awake? And you were talking to it in your mind a minute ago?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Duusu, grinning from ear to tiny ear. "I knew you were a smartie as soon as I met you!"

"Keep going, please," Wayzz insisted. "The implications are fascinating."

"That's why I'm so tiny now. Because a big part of me is somewhere else," Duusu explained. "But don't worry! The stronger the emotions are all around me, the faster I'll grow again. And I can smell the most delicious emotions in this place... lots of love! That one's always been my favorite," he grinned. "And compassion, and trust, and excitement... and some spicy emotions, too." He closed his eyes, sensing the environment further, then winked in Marinette's direction. "Ooooh! Frisky!" he giggled.

"So..." asked Marinette, trying not to turn scarlet. "Where is that 'somewhere else,' exactly... where your... um... 'other you' went?"

"Before we were bound to the Miraculous," Duusu continued, "our energies wandered wherever we chose in the universe, following bits and pieces of concepts that called to us. And that's what my other me did! It went exploring, looking for emotions. New emotions are really strong that way, and humans have kind of figured all of theirs out by now, you know? So... I found some new emotions somewhere else."

"And that was..."

"...There's a colony of... well, I don't know what you'd call them, but humans call the place they live 'Europa.'"

"...As in the continent of Europe?" frowned Marinette.

"As in Europa, the moon of Jupiter," Tikki corrected her.

"...Stop. Stop right there," Marinette blurted out, waving her hands frantically. "Are you telling me... right here, right now... that there is life on other planets? You've met intelligent life from another world?"

"Marinette... what do you think that we are?" asked Tikki, with a smile.

"That's... right," she conceded, with wonder on her face. "Spirits traveling across the universe, who found Earth and decided to visit. I'd just never... thought of you that way."

"Well, these sillies hadn't thought of it that way in a long while, either!" declared Duusu, gesturing at his fellow Kwamis. "And neither had I, until all this happened and I remembered. I mean, I really like Earth, and you humans are sooooo much fun to be around... but we don't have to be just here. Like how I'm here and I'm there, too!"

"Apparently, from what Duusu has told us... we can all 'split' like that. And at one time, we all knew how to initiate that by ourselves," marveled Wayzz. "That cloud that you saw when you opened your yo-yo, and set Duusu free? We could all change into one of those... and divide and separate and even act independently, while remaining connected in other ways. Separate and whole, all at once! And capable of communicating almost instantly, regardless of distance."

He shrugged at Marinette's look of shock. "Magic. Leave it at that for now," he offered. "We can theorize about it later."

"We've all spent so much time here on Earth, interacting with humans... we got used to looking like this. You know... having eyes and hands and eating things and all that," added Duusu. "But that's only one way that we can be."

"He... may be right," Wayzz conceded. "Or he may be disoriented and loopy. Or all of the above. This calls for so much research..."

"But this is awesome!" grinned Duusu. "On Europa, they don't have a Guardian of the Miraculous. But now, I've met you... so you can be their Guardian, too!"

Marinette burst out laughing... until she saw that the tiny Kwami appeared confused by her reaction. "You... you're serious?" she gasped. "Duusu... I'm still figuring out what it means to be a Guardian here. I'm not ready to go galactic!"

"Duusu," Wayzz suggested, gently, "they do not have Miraculous on Europa yet, do they? Perhaps that should wait until they've evolved that far."

"Yeah, you're right," Duusu smiled. "That should be... what? A couple of billion years from now?" He turned to Marinette and declared, "We'll talk about that then."

"Y-yeah. I'll put that on my calendar," she parried.

The tiny Kwami shuddered, slightly. "So, um... I don't mean to be rude, but... I think that I could use a little rest now. But I am so happy to be here!" he beamed.

"And we're very happy to have you," Marinette smiled. "What do you like to eat? My kitchen is small, but with eighteen Kwamis living here, I keep a pretty big variety of things here."

"Hmmm. Insects, mostly," Duusu grinned. "Got any crickets?"

"I... um... I'll check the cupboards... but I think I'll need to make a little shopping run."

As most of the Kwamis returned to the Miracle Box, Marinette gestured to her more typical companions to stick around.

"Okay!" breathed Marinette. "So... that was interesting."

"That's one way to put it," agreed Tikki.

"I'm trying to figure out how to ask this," wondered Marinette. "I am beyond relieved that Duusu is okay. Really! But... uh... is Duusu okay?"

"You mean, all of that with the multiple me's and Jupiter and the leaking and the insects?" said Plagg. "Uh... the insect part, I can vouch for. The rest of it... I'm not sure what to think yet."

"Duusu has always had a vivid imagination... and he's been living in an imaginary world for years," Nooroo pointed out. "But he's also never been a liar."

Wayzz shook his head. "I wouldn't dismiss his stories out of hand," he noted. "Look at all the mysteries of the Kwamis that we've uncovered in just this last week! Things that we didn't know about ourselves! And the parts about multiple selves, existing in two places at once, not being bound by a body's limitations... am I the only one who found those sounding kind of... familiar?"

Nooroo nodded, enthusiastically. "It did!" he agreed. "Can we have simply... forgotten what that was like back then?"

"It has been hundreds of thousands of years since we were drawn to Earth. That's a very long time, even for us," mused Tikki. "And I kind of think that... I've done that at least once before? The multiples thing?"

"Not... recently, I hope?" asked Marinette.

"More like 'before humans existed,' so no," Tikki assured her. "But crazier things have happened."

"Or Duusu could be recovering from years of being stuck in a human's imagination, and his story could sound very different tomorrow. I don't know," sighed Wayzz. "The important thing... is that he's here. You and Adrien have pulled off a true miracle, Marinette... and you have our eternal gratitude."

"I'm just relieved that it all worked. Not quite how we'd planned it... but all's well that ends well," she smiled. "Do you think that Master Fu would have let us try what we did today?"

"No. Not in a billion, trillion years. Not a chance," deadpanned Wayzz. "The risks were far too overwhelming."

"Then... why did you all let us attempt this?" Marinette boggled. "You could have insisted that it was far too dangerous!"

"Ahem."

Marinette nodded towards Plagg. "Yes, you did. But even you gave in and helped us when it counted!" she argued. "If this was nearly impossible..."

"Marinette?"

Tikki looked up at her with adoration. "Because in the time that we've known you and Adrien, you've truly opened our eyes," she said. "You've helped us discover and remember so many things about humans... and about ourselves. You've reminded us that while we've learned quite a lot during our time here... we don't know everything. We're still learning, too. And when it comes to the impossible... somehow, when the two of you put your minds to it, anything becomes possible."

"It is better to be lucky than good, some say. You are proof that it is best to be both," Nooroo grinned.

"Well... having friends like all of you makes that possible," beamed Marinette, leaning in for a group hug.

"Master Fu would be so proud of you right now," Wayzz smiled, from within the group cuddle. "Shaking his head in horror and disbelief, yes. But so, so proud as well."

Adrien answered the phone on the first ring.

"We did it. We did it!" Marinette gushed. "I can barely believe it... but it looks like things have turned out okay."

"For real?" Adrien gasped. "Duusu is alive? He made it?"

"Duusu is here. He can even come out of the Miracle Box for a little at a time," confirmed Marinette. "Now, he may not be the most stable Kwami I've ever met... and even the other Kwamis aren't sure about some of his story so far. He's been through an awful lot, though, so we're giving him time to settle and rest and see what he says next."

"That is wonderful," Adrien marveled. "How does... Plagg feel about that?"

"He's trying to play it cool," Marinette replied, rolling her eyes a little. "But he's barely left Duusu's side since they were reunited. He's in shock that Duusu not only wasn't mad at him about what happened... but Duusu thanked him."

Adrien took in Marinette's quick retelling of the reunion. "I'll want to hear all about this when I get back," he declared. "But if Plagg is finally healing, too... that's something that I wanted very much."

"I know," she smiled. "How is your mother doing?"

"She's upstairs, in bed. The neurologist is with her now. His eyes went as wide as dinner plates when he saw that Mother had awakened, and could respond to him," explained Adrien. "i sat with her for a while... doing that one-squeeze-for-yes, two-squeezes for no thing, trying to reconnect... and it's her. It's absolutely her."

Marinette felt a wave of emotion pass through her, hearing Adrien's overwhelmed voice. "It's going to be a long road. I know it is," he breathed. "But I have my family back. It sounds strange as it's coming out of my mouth... but it's true."

"If it is a long road... that's okay with me," Marinette replied. "Because we'll walk it together. It seems to me that, now... you and I have all the time that we need."

"We do," Adrien glowed.

"You're spending the night there, at the very least, right?" asked Marinette.

"I will," he confirmed. "I want to be here when she wakes in the morning. So we both know that neither of us is dreaming this."

"Good. I'll come by tomorrow and check on everybody."

"Do I want to let you spend tonight alone?"

Marinette laughed at that. "Alone? I have nineteen tiny roommates now - one of them very tiny! - and a fuzzy one sitting next to me," she said.

"And one more, very soon."

"There's a spot right here reserved for you," Marinette beamed, patting the mattress. "We'll be waiting."

After she hung up, Marinette flopped straight back onto her pillows, her arms outstretched, her eyes closed.

Years of pining for Adrien, of battling evil as Ladybug, of wondering about her lost partner, of struggling to find her own path in life... all combined into one delicious moment, a realization that Ladybug's luck had finally struck completely true. So many loose ends in her life had finally been tied off; now, she and Adrien could see what might come next. They could make that future happen... together.

It's not really an ending. Nothing ever truly ends, she thought to herself. This is a beginning... and what comes next ought to be wonderful.

But for just this night... in so many ways...

...I finally got my happy ending.

Marinette lay silently, eyes shut, a purring kitten by her side, peace in her heart... and soaked it all in.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Despite how it may sound here... we're not done QUITE yet. ;)