Thank you for the well wishes. Unfortunately my mom passed away last month which is why I never updated. This is going to be my last post for a few months as I try to get through everything. I appreciate the dedication you readers have and I will be back. We are over halfway through this massive story after all!
Thanks again.
(Slow Burn Detective AU!) Marinette is used to working alone on the streets of Paris as she strives to take down the Hawkmoth gang. When the thief Chat Noir comes crashing into her life things are bound to get magical, especially when co-detective Adrien returns to Paris and seems to want to be her new partner. Will their fated partnership end in a capture or a kiss?
Ancient Histories Part II
The silence seemed almost heavy as Marinette tried to wait patiently for Fu to start his story once again. Her question of who Fu really was had seemed to cut readily into Fu's heart, and had sent him into a deep silence that Marinette wasn't sure how to draw him out of. Even Plagg could sense an old, profound wound, one that hadn't ever really healed no matter how much time had passed since its making. As the silence continued to stretch out into an uncomfortable length, Gram took Fu's hand in hers, patting it as if to give him some encouragement. The touch seemed to jolt him out of whatever memory he'd been reliving and he sighed, "Right… Well if you want to know the true origins of my people you would have to understand that Atlantis's end was responsible for my people's beginning. The story goes that my people were the incredibly lucky survivors of Atlantis's destruction. While there is no proof historically, I am inclined to believe the supposed ancestry. It would certainly explain where their knowledge and possession of miraculous stones came from. The oral stories of my people say that when Atlantis was decimated they had been protected by a miraculous user who gave their life to shield them. Unsure of whether or not the miraculous were still being hunted, and unable to activate any new stones due to unknown reasons, they decided to hide. Through whatever twist of fate they eventually drifted to Canarias Islands. These days they are now known as the Canary Islands. My once proud people settled there and lived happily, content in the existence they managed to eke out. That is where my story begins. As I said before my people, when they were relocated, managed to bring with them several pairs of Miraculous stones. Since the Canary's are several large islands instead of a single landmass, they decided to spread the stones across the islands while leaving them unactivated until the islands needed guardians. I believe they also wanted to be sure that all the stones couldn't be stolen all at once, hence the distribution. I am unsure if they tried to activate the stones periodically and failed or if they only tried when our home was threatened. Either way I became a guardian when it happened."
"Were you chosen or did you want to become a guardian?" Marinette asked, her voice gentle.
Fu looked up at her, a grim smile upon his face, "That is the heart of the matter isn't it? As you already know from Adrien and Plagg the stones are picky about the people they bind to. Not everyone can activate them even if a person desperately wants to. Even if a person manages to find an activated stone they must have some compatibility with that stone. Magic is finicky at best and while desperation can shield a person momentarily, if an incompatible person manages to transform, the stress of the magic will eventually kill them at best. The best host is a healthy one, so my people were very much out of options when they arrived at my family's doorstep. So I suppose I was both. I was both chosen and I chose to become what I am."
"What happened that your people decided to bring out the Miraculous though?" Adrien asked, "I mean Miraculous are dangerous forces of nature and considering that several thousand years had already passed…"
"Invasion." Fu stated grimly, interrupting Adrien thoughts, " The Miraculous were always meant to be a last ditch option that was more fable than a true choice. My people knew the consequences of activation, or at least I was led to believe they did. It's been so long I can only guess and tell you what I think I know or remember. As far as I understand, the invaders wanted the islands for the growth of crops. I never asked the invaders myself and since the history books are a little vague I can't be sure. History is after all written by the winners, not the losers."
It was a poignant statement, one that Fu had lived through time and time again. It made him wish that he'd been able to write things down from the very beginning rather than a hundred years later when Gram had come up with the idea. He had half a library filled with journals he'd kept over the long years, but his beginnings had been fraught with changes and time tended to be a devil with the details.
"What I do know is that the invaders arrived and my people were unable to dispel them from our shores. Since the world had very much changed by that point my people felt that they had nowhere else to go. They were prideful, foolish people that couldn't move forwards because they were so stuck in what the past told them. Truth is they should have been trying to advance themselves with all the time that had passed. When they had first arrived on the islands their grasp of science and even minor technologies had been far ahead of any other culture. Even with the possible threat of that one wish breaker hunting for more stones, some of my people should have traveled or tried to further advance themselves. Instead, for the most part my people clung to the islands they had landed on and stagnated, believing that if they did anything else they would be found again. By the time they finally started to look somewhere besides their own shores it was too late and they were too far behind. When the invaders landed and my people were forced to face their mistakes, they gathered the elders to decide how to proceed. In the end they chose to allow the Miraculous to be used to 'deter' the invaders. Some of my people had already started the process on other islands before I was born but when the French began their invasion in earnest my tribe decided to activate their stones as well. They tested every person within the tribe and they found my brother and I to be a perfect match to one of the stones. We were children at the time and two other children, two girls named Liqqah and Aria, were found to be a match for our stones pair. I admit, being chosen was the best thing to have happened to me. You see, while I am hale and healthy now, originally from birth I was a very sickly child. 6oo years ago they didn't have any idea what caused sickness or disease, much less how to prevent them. It really had nothing to do with my people either. In fact, as far behind as they were in some technologies, they probably had the most advanced medical knowledge of any civilization at the time. Unfortunately, I was just weak, almost constantly sick from various maladies that others never caught. Due to this I was considered practically worthless since I couldn't contribute anything to my household. My brother, my twin as a matter of fact, worked twice as hard to make up for my failings and thankfully my people believed that twins were a blessing so I was not killed outright when my sickly nature truly came to light. By the time the stone chose me I had fallen ill from so many maladies that… I was dying. My brother was probably the only thing keeping my soul tethered to this world. When I touched the stone it refortified me, bringing me back from the brink, and anchored me to the living world again. Our parents were thrilled, they received notoriety as well as compensation for their two 'sons' and they would no longer have two mouths to feed. As I said I was sickly and couldn't contribute much to my home. Up to that point I'd been nothing but a burden, but the moment I held the stone, I could feel that there was something that I could do for the world even as a sickly child."
Gram squeezed Fu's hand as he went silent for a moment, and Marinette made eye contact with Adrien who looked both horrified and intrigued.
"What was your brother's name?" Adrien asked, his morbid curiosity outshining Marinette's for the moment.
"He is Wayzze." Fu answered, taking a sip of tea to wet his throat. "Before you ask, yes, he is much like Plagg now, and will remain so even after my eventual death. However, I shouldn't skip ahead. As I said there was an invasion on the horizon and we were just children. My people were, at least in major part, ancestors of Atlantis and they had brought the knowledge from their past with them. They had watched one civilization fall and my people were not eager to see their homes taken from them again. That is why they chose to try and activate the stones, at least that is the reason my brother and I were told. Either way they had much to teach us before we could be called ready. They had one small problem though, because I was so sickly they couldn't do much for my body, instead they trained my mind as they trained my brother's body. They assumed that when we made the final bond that I would become the kwami. I assumed the same and I was content with the idea. Wayzze and I thought that we knew our roles so we didn't prepare for any other options. We were strongest together and to be honest I look upon those years fondly. They were the best years of my young life even though they were some of the most mentally demanding. We were well fed, trained, and cherished. Plus we got to do so with two of the loveliest girls I have known in my lifetime."
"Ohhh, someone had a crush." Plagg interjected.
Fu laughed, "Actually Plagg, My brother was the one with the crush! I figured I would be physically dead in a few years so I didn't dare venture out in that way. I had been taught to not make those types of connections so that my transition to a kwami would be easier. That way I wouldn't be leaving anything I regretted behind."
Everyone but Gram gazed at Fu in horror and he shrugged. "Don't worry I have… deprogrammed such thinking but it took decades to do and it's only due to Gram that I managed it at all. Plus it was entirely unnecessary in the end, not that I knew that at the time. Anyways, even though Aria might have been into me she didn't want to risk falling in love only for me to die so I was left to my own devices. Wayzze and Liqqah however, fell head over heels with one another. Even though they committed to each other they also were committed to the task ahead of becoming our people's protectors. When I look back I can tell that out of all of us Aria was the least committed, but like me she was content to learn all she could to support her tribe. As we got older the French continued to encroach upon the islands and the elders continued to train us. Unfortunately even with the stone bolstering my strength my health finally gave out at 17. I had made it years past anything expected and the elders decided to go ahead with the ritual that would bind my soul to the stone and activate it fully. They should have let me die, then did the binding, but they were impatient and they thought they knew all that could happen."
"The binding went wrong didn't it?" Marinette guessed.
Fu grimaced, "In a way I suppose. There is no perfect way to determine who becomes the kwami and who becomes the wielder if both are alive at the same time. If you want to force the choice, the person who is to become the kwami is… sacrificed in a way, so that their spirit can mingle with the stone. That has its own dangers however because once a spirit is freed, sometimes it can disperse before it can be bound into the stone. I believe the elders were a little afraid to kill me first. Perhaps they believed it would enrage my brother, or maybe they believed that my soul was as weak as my body... or perhaps due to my advanced sickness they didn't think it was necessary to do the whole… finishing me off bit. Either way they went ahead with the ritual without killing me. As I said before, Wayzze and I were twins. Utterly alike in all the physical ways down to our DNA. My people didn't know about DNA of course but something about twins especially, mess with the stones... senses I suppose. When the ritual began and Wayzze took my hand with the stone something happened within us. I don't know what it was exactly but our bodies became one and his soul was the one trapped within the stone. He became the kwami and I was whole for the first time in my life."
He went silent again but this time no one spoke. They simply let Fu regather his memories and continue his story.
"When Wayzze and I awoke in the morning sun we realized immediately what had happened. He was devastated… So was Liqqah. Even still we became the hero Terrorpin and we went to work with more training. We had trained for opposite roles for so long and now with our roles reversed, I had too much catching up to do to mope for long. Thankfully while transformed, Wayzze was able to help guide my movements so I wasn't starting from total scratch. Plus our bodies had… melded, so we hadn't lost our physical capabilities either. Liqqah and Aria continued their own training as well but neither of them were truly content with being a hero any longer. Initially the elders had planned to let them activate as soon as Wayzze and I proved the bonding was good but when I became the holder instead of my brother they decided that it would be better to wait a while and make sure everything was as it should be. I still wonder what might have been different had they done the ritual and made Aria and Liqqah bond."
"Nothing would be different Fu." Gram murmured, "Magic can only do so much; the elders should have fled with the rest of the stones and taken the people with them. Instead they tried to use you as some kind of errand boy and sent you off, leaving the village unprotected."
"They sent you away? Why?" Adrien demanded.
Fu sighed, "That is a question I will never have the answer to, but I fear that my people may have had a traitor in their midst. I returned from my errand in the midst of a battle. My people were being slaughtered and I did my best to protect them. Those that managed to escape got into the hillsides and as the French followed they caused landslides. In all the chaos I had managed to find Aria and as we were falling back she told me that Liqqah had been taken captive. I could see them… the men dragging her as well as some other women and children away. I tried to go after them but my people caused a landslide in order to stop the French troops from coming after them. I had to use my power, Shelter, to protect us and by the time we managed to haul ourselves from the earth Liqqah had been taken. The only good news was that Aria had been in possession of the stone, but Wayzze could not let her remain a captive. Even as a kwami he loved her and he insisted on trying to reunite with her. Aria wanted nothing to do with any of it anymore. She saw how drained I was from fighting and the last thing she wanted to do was die at the hands of the French. To be honest, I don't even remember what I said that convinced her to come with me but… she did."
"She loved you fool." Gram chuckled. "You always were as dense as the shell on your back. Honestly a turtle suits you."
Fu blushed and coughed, continuing before Marinette or Adrien could break in, "Anyways… We moved in to save Liqqah and the rest of our people but we were too late. We fought to get to her in time but as soon as the French realized who we were trying to save they decided to end Liqqah's life. She died In Aria's arms but Wayzze demanded that we try for the binding. Between the three of us we managed to activate their stone and Liqqah became a kwami while Aria became a miraculous user. In a way it was probably for the best. Liqqah loved my brother and now they will remain together until their souls are severed from their stones. Two halves of a whole much like you and Adrien."
"That's… sweet and a relief in some ways I guess... that being absorbed into the stone can be a good thing - together forever with your loved one - in a way." Marinette said softly, peering down at the stone she held and thinking about Tiki. A soft vibration shivered through the stone making a smile flit across her lips. "So… Gram… Is your name Aria?"
Gram snorted, "No. My mother was a coward and fled the second her wings came in."
"Dear, you know as well as I that's not why she left." Fu fretted
"Close enough." Gram dismissed "Anyways, Fu remained on the islands for a few more years attempting to find the other activated and deactivated Miraculous. My mother left him high and dry the second his back was turned. She went to the mainland, got herself hitched and did her absolute best to forget that the Canarias Islands, her home, her people, ever existed. She was an exotic beauty so it wasn't too hard for her to find a willing man."
"You're her daughter." Adrien stated
Gram nodded, "I am. I found the miraculous in my mother's things as a very young child. She had revoked Liqqah the second she touched down on the mainland. I felt Liqqah calling to me as a bitty little thing and when she came into being for me I fell in love. Basically the second I laid eyes on Liqqah I knew I was meant to be her partner and thankfully Liqqah decided not to hold my mother against me. Instead she practically raised me since my mother was always busy being the 'perfect wife and mother' for her precious husband and sons. As a child Liqqah became my guardian of sorts, and she warned me not to tell my mother anything or she would be taken away. With the way our home life was… I was inclined to believe that Liqqah held the keys to my freedom, even if I didn't understand at the time. I trusted her more than my mother and to this day I am glad I listened to her. I grew up and Liqqah taught me everything I could ever want to know. Reading, writing, fighting, even other languages! Liqqah taught me everything my mother chose to try and keep from me. I wouldn't have minded I suppose if I hadn't known the knowledge existed, but I had brothers and they were all being at least minorly educated. When I asked why I wasn't allowed to be taught I was violently discouraged from asking such questions again."
"Your mother allowed you to be beaten for asking questions even though she had been educated herself?" Marinette asked, looking utterly aghast.
Gram shrugged, "Different times dear. The times were so very different back then and women were looked at as a source of children and not much else. Her people had educated her sure, but they hadn't had much of a choice considering she had been chosen by the stone. Anyways, my mother was weak willed and had only ever wanted to raise a family. Being chosen by the stone and the subsequent training she'd had to endure only made her desire a simple life even more. I'm pretty sure the only reason she hadn't lost Liqqua was because even she couldn't escape the desire to hold that kind of power close. In the end it doesn't really matter how my mother felt, I learned to pretend to be meek all the while learning everything I could from Liqqah. I truly don't hold her decisions against her, as I said it was a different era, plus I know that everyone has a certain way they want to raise their child. After all, I have raised plenty of children in my time and I have found that there is no right way. Two children raised the same way will often turn out radically different so all you can do is love them and teach them right from wrong. My parents' focus was on their sons which at the time was the most practical. I could have forgiven that. What I couldn't forgive at the time was when I came of age my father tried to sell me to our neighboring village. For the first time in my life I stood up for myself. I refused to be some pawn and let's just say that my father deeply disapproved while my mother did nothing to try and prevent it. She said it was an honor as they hauled me away. Thankfully Liqqah was there for me. She basically rescued me because I had really begun to believe my mother and think that all I had to look forward to was a loveless marriage. Fortunately, I had more of an affinity with Liqqah than my mother ever did so she was able to show me what my future would be IF I did set my own course. I left, ran away and together we chose to rewrite who we once were. I chose the name Marianne eventually and Liqqah chose to be called Pollen. She felt that it was more appropriate since her form is a bee. It was probably for the best since Liqqah sounds an awful lot like liquor in English and Liqah with only one Q translates as Pollen anyways. With our new identities we went in search of Fu since Pollen could tell he was still alive through her connection with Wayzze. About 10 years later I finally found the idiot and here we are. It took a while because I had to travel halfway around the world to find him."
"What about the other stones?" Marinette asked, deciding she really didn't want to know how Aria's story had ended. From the sound of things Gram or Marianne probably didn't know or care.
"That was another failure of mine." Fu admitted. "I managed to find some of them. One active pair decided to bond into one in order to take out an infantry. They became the horse Miraculous which has some… unique abilities. Unfortunately, combining had too high of a cost and it killed the person who wielded them. As for unbound stones I was only able to find out how many others were on the islands as they fell. In total across the islands there were at least 14. Most of them were paired and out of all of them I only managed to collect five."
"So you have five random unused Miraculous stones laying around?!" Plagg yelped, flying off the sofa to glare at Fu.
"No… I only have two and they are not a matched pair. When I realized that I could not beat the French my mission turned to getting as many people off the islands as possible. Another Miraculous user, the snake, helped me. Their paired stone had been lost long before they were given the opportunity to activate their stone so they had been fighting alone. Towards the end of our mission they realized that I had inactive stones and I think they sought to make themselves untouchable by trying to absorb the inactive stones. They attacked me when my back was turned since I was more than a match for him even with their odd abilities, and after I was unconscious they stole the pairs. They had literally kicked me off a cliff into the ocean below which is the only reason why I retained my stone at all. Their attempt at absorbing the stones failed and ended up killing them, but not before scattering the unbound stones to the wind. All I managed to keep in the end was the horse Miraculous and that was only because I met them later. It took me a while due to some extenuating circumstances but eventually I collected the snake as well. Sass is a very friendly fellow, as is Kaalki. I will have to introduce you kids to them sometime."
"Do you know where the rest of the un-bound stones went?" Marinette asked, her voice soft.
Fu shrugged, "I have heard rumors throughout the years… Marianne, or Gram as she likes to be called now, had been following stories of the stones when we first met up because she had been trying to find me. For a long while Gram and I had to lay low and remain transformed due to the bubonic plague that was sweeping the continents. The magic of transformation rejects sickness of any kind and since we didn't know what was causing the plague we remained transformed. Unfortunately, neither of us have the most subtle transformations so we had to retreat to a place where people would not easily find us. By the time we were able to truly travel again most traces had gone cold because so many people died. I have heard rumors of a dragon miraculous through the years and I know for a fact that a Fox miraculous exists. I have had a few run-ins with the fox and while they are not a bad fellow, they have sunk deep into the miraculous magic. They also would not reveal if they had found an already active stone or if they had activated it themselves. As for the others… I was trying to keep an eye out for other stones but it is a very big world out there. Unless someone knows exactly what to sense for, or is specifically attracted to a stone, most Miraculous stones look like nothing more than an uninteresting rock. That's why when a set of miraculous stones appeared several years ago I got involved."
Marinette and Adrien glanced at each other. It seemed like there was always some little tidbit more when it came to the miraculous and they both wondered if they were about to learn how their stones came to be in their possession.
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