It had been the same thing again, Chloe pulling her usual bad attitude, and Marinette dealing the best she could. Only this time Adrien defended Chloe's worsening behaviour, and Lila's over-the-top lies.
Again.
It left her fuming.
If they were on the same side, why didn't he see that those two were hurting their friends, were hurting her?
If she was really his friend-
She stood.
Marinette ignored the ruckus of the classroom after Lila hung up, supposedly late to meet a famous pop star; and Adrien's high road spiel to head right home.
.
By the time she walked inside, and greeted her parents, her roiling emotions had settled to a simmer. Heading upstairs to her bedroom, she felt Tikki phase through her purse to settle on her shoulder.
"Oh Marinette..."
The little goddess sighed, and nuzzled the side of her neck.
"What should I do Tikki? I'm not sure what I should do anymore."
The kwami made a soft sound and leaned in a little more.
Marinette gazed down towards her with misty eyes.
"Thank you for being here with me Tikki..."
The kwami and hero spoke for the better part of an hour, before Marinette fell into an emotionally exhausted sleep with the turmoil of her day catching up with her.
.
The little god looked around. She felt suspicious, anxious almost, waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for Hawk Moth to take advantage of her partner.
Finally deeming it safe enough to drift over to Marinette's desk, Tikki sat down heavily beside the girl's open sewing box.
She picked up a tapestry needle that lay apart from the rest, and moved to push it back into the tomato shaped pincushion.
.
As she was so lost in thought, she failed to notice the aura of tainted magic fill the air as an akuma flew through the skylight above Marinette.
The barely-sentient magic butterfly hesitated as it hovered; there were two possibilities for it to serve its master... but who?
The one that had called it's master in the first place had seemed to calm, but the other...
The other was just beginning to get unhappy, downright angry, and called to the akuma with promises of power, fulfilling that which its master sought.
In a split second it made its choice, and fluttered on silent wings down to the desk.
The little cosmic being sat there, consumed by her thoughts, gazing at the metal needle between her paws. Not noticing the corrupted magic settle itself onto and into the needle, nor the mask of energy.
"It's sad that no-one appreciates what she does, isn't it? Don't you want to be able to help her, Durga, that one so precious to you? Help her feel appreciated by her foolish peers? "
With deep conviction, and distant horror, Tikki nodded.
"Good," the villain spoke to his newest pawn, "Good, Durga, you may call me Hawk Moth. You know what I seek in return for power? "
The kwami chuckled rather darkly.
"The miraculouses of the Ladybug and Black Cat, yes, Hawk Moth, I know what you seek.
"When I get my vengeance, the heroes will come. When they do, you will be repaid."
Tikki rose in the air, magic flashing around her form, changing from the small size of a kwami, to the stature of a goddess.
The now-woman smirked wickedly, looking at herself. Tall, dark and ethereally beautiful.
Draped in crimson and blood red robes, black skulls dotted across the fabric. The crowned Durga stood proud, a gleaming ranseur in her grasp, black steel flashing in the afternoon light.
Stepping lightly, with grace belying her size, the dark goddess moved up to her charge.
Running the back of a stiletto-like nail down the sleeping girl's cheek, Durga hummed, feeling the last remnants of that sweet, light creation magic twine around her changed power.
With a feather-light kiss to the forehead, the goddess was on the hunt, and her former avatar slept, unaware and unbeknownst, of the seal, creation magic warring with the destruction magic seeking to absorb it.
17/08/2020: edited for better clarity. The first version was a little murky. (please stop eating my spacers and linebreaks, please)