Chapter 3: Master Plan
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng," Master Fu said without looking up. The old man sat cross-legged on the broad white mattress that lay flat in the middle of the room. A round wooden tray lay by his side, supporting a white teapot and a set of teacups. "What brings you to a humble old healer such as myself?"
Marinette stood at the doorway and watched while the old man lifted the teapot from the tray. He brought it over to a cup and tipped the spout over the mouth of the cup. The scene felt somewhat nostalgic to her, but she reminded herself of more pressing matters to attend to. She wasn't simply here for a friendly visit. "I—I'm here to talk about a Miraculous. More specifically, Ladybug's earrings."
"Hmm." The old man started to pour a second cup of tea. Without raising his eyes, he said, "Come. Sit and have a drink with an old man."
Marinette stepped into the room and slowly closed the door behind her. Master Fu's room looked exactly the same as she had remembered it. She gingerly stepped towards the mat and then carefully sat herself down onto wooden floor with her knees together. Not too long ago Tikki lay sick on top of that very same mattress to receive the healing powers of the old man. She had come to visit him a second at the insistence of her kwami, and only then did she realise exactly who he was. Now, she sat before him for the third time and accepted a small cup of tea with both hands. She gently blew over the surface of the liquid but her eyes remained locked onto the Chinese healer sitting before her.
"I remember the day when I had chosen you to be the new Ladybug." Master Fu brought his cup up to his lips and took a sip from it. He slowly savoured the taste of tea in his mouth before swallowing the brew. "You were carrying a box of delicious macaroons with you. It was a shame that you dropped some of them."
Marinette chuckled softly. She had remembered that day all too well. She ran out into oncoming traffic to pull the old man away from immediate danger and onto the sidewalk. In the ensuing chaos, she had dropped her macaroons like the clumsy girl that she was. She hung her head down and said softly, "I remember it too."
Master Fu slowly replaced his cup on the tray by his side. All this while, his eyes remained locked upon her. "Then you can imagine my disappointment when you were overcome with self-doubt after you had failed to capture your first Akuma. Instead of learning from your mistakes, you decided that you were unworthy of the gift that I had bequeathed upon you."
Marinette's eyes widened. She raised her head and her gaze met with the old man's. "Are you telling me that I had chosen to give up my earrings?"
He nodded in silence.
"But—But to whom? Alya?" Marinette of course already knew the answer but she simply had to hear it from him. She wouldn't have believed it otherwise.
Master Fu picked up his teacup and took another sip. He closed his eyes and sighed, his head shaking slowly from side to side. "I am surprised that you do not remember. Tell me, Miss Dupain-Cheng, why are you really here?"
Marinette inhaled deeply. She had thought that she would have been prepared for all manner of responses from the old man—even something like this—but his words still bit into her deeply. She exhaled and prepared to make her plea. "I've come for your help. You see, the truth of the matter is, it wasn't supposed to happen that way. While I admit that I did nearly think of giving up after failing to properly restore the Stonehearts, but the fact is that I didn't. I never gave the earrings to anyone. In the end, it was Adr—Chat Noir who convinced me to carry on, and that was exactly what I did. I continued to fight Hawk Moth's supervillains as Ladybug. Chat Noir and I, we were such a great team together. We fought all kinds of enemies and kept the citizens of Paris safe. All this—everything you had said—shouldn't have happened. Something has gone terribly wrong and I don't even know where to begin to search for answers."
"Hmm." The old man kept his eyes closed and held his tea close to his mouth. The steam rising up from the cup swirled playfully around his nose and when he exhaled, the serpentine vapour seemingly dodged and recoiled from him. Eventually he broke the silence but only said, "Continue."
Marinette told her tale as best as she was able to. From her exploits against Stormy Weather and The Bubbler, and all the way Princess Fragrance, Jackady and Volpina, she weaved an account that was as thorough and as detailed as she could remember. She knew that her own version of events would differ from the news accounts that she had found from her research on the Internet, but she stayed true to her own interpretations. That was a point that she was trying to make: that the things she had remembered—things that should have been—were not properly reflected by this reality. After Volpina, she also mentioned a book that she had recovered from Adrien Agreste. Tikki had insisted that the book was so important that its theft was justified, if only to bring it over to Master Fu for consultation. The book held cryptic information about the various Miraculous users that needed to be deciphered; that included the Butterfly Miraculous which was currently in Hawk Moth's possession. She only stopped talking when the old man raised his hand.
"This book you speak of. Do you know where it is now?"
Marinette tilted her head slightly to one side and blinked. "You—You don't have it with you?"
"If I had it with me, I wouldn't be asking you now, would I?" The old man chuckled briefly before slurping another mouthful of tea from his cup.
She lowered her gaze and nervously toyed with her own fingers. "I—I suppose you're right."
"Hmm." The old man stroked his chin. He reached for the teapot and started pouring himself another cup of tea. "What do you think of her tale, Wayzz?"
The green turtle kwami floated out of its hiding perch from behind its master. "I can't really say, Master. Marinette's tale is, on the surface, too far-fetched to be true. However, her intimate knowledge of a great many things involving us and the Miraculouses are simply too detailed to ignore. If only we had the insight of the Peacock…"
"Unfortunately the Peacock is lost to us, as was the Butterfly until these recent times of turmoil. All we have now are the words of a girl who once held the power of Creation in her hands, only to give it up in self-doubt."
Marinette snapped back up and gaped at the old man. "What are you saying, Master? I—I didn't give up my Miraculous!"
"That is your side of… whatever happened." The old man waved his hand around in no particular pattern. "Look at it from our point of view. A girl who was once Ladybug had doubted her own worth and given up a powerful gift to her spunky friend Alya Césaire. Now there are two stories that cannot be both true at the same time. One one hand is an honest girl who finds herself in a mysterious predicament and looks for answers; on the other hand, a girl who regrets parting with a power once entrusted upon her and is now relying on deceit to reclaim what she thinks is rightfully hers. So, which one are you?"
Marinette felt as if the old man was gazing right into her soul. She shook of a feeling of dread that had been trying to creep all over her slowly. This was her life that she was fighting for; it wasn't just about some trinket that she had lost in a storm. She steeled her nerves and stared back at her wise, old mentor. "Master, I would never wish for such a thing. You have to believe me!"
"Wayzz?"
"I think you bring up a good point, Master. Facts can be fabricated, no matter how detailed they may be. Until we can ascertain exactly what is going on, we cannot simply take her words for granted." The kwami spun itself to face Marinette. "I'm sorry, but will you please give us time to look into your claims first? You do understand the weight of your story and its implications if it were true."
"I suppose that is fair. But what am I supposed to do in the meantime?"
Master Fu replaced his cup and then rested his hands on his knees. He let out a deep, long sigh. "Miss Dupain-Cheng, you must continue with your present life. If you are the hero you claim to be, you will endure the trials that fate has dealt into your hand and be prepared to accept whatever comes out of it, even if this may be permanent."
Marinette shook her head. "No. I—I can't accept that. This isn't my life. I've been fighting so hard, all this while, you don't understand what it's like to—"
"I'm sorry girl, but I do understand what it's like," the old man snapped back. His stern look was enough to keep the girl quiet. "I am a hundred and eighty six years of age and the wielder of the Turtle Miraculous, so don't tell me something I don't already know."
Marinette stared down at her own cup of tea while her fingers nervously playing with the mouth of the white porcelain cup. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"
The old man sighed again. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "If what you say is the truth, Wayzz and I will get to the bottom of it. However, you cannot keep denying this entire life of yours while you continue to live in it. You must adapt to it or you will fall. That is my advice to you, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Whether you choose to accept it is your own decision, but bear in mind that we can only continue to help you if you are willing to accept our aid."
Marinette nodded slowly. "I understand, Master. It's just so hard to bear seeing someone else wield my Miraculous—and I see her on a daily basis."
"Even if it was your best friend?"
Marinette looked away. She had no answers to that. What was so wrong about her best friend being Ladybug instead of her? There was a dull pain in her heart, too little to really understand the reason for it but enough to know that it was there.
Wayzz hovered closer to her. He flew into her field of view and met her gaze. "Marinette, are you feeling envious, or even jealous perhaps, of Alya's status as Ladybug?"
"I—I don't know…" Marinette was shocked, not because of his words but because there was a ring of truth in them. Envy. Jealousy. Those were the feelings that Marinette could not lay a finger upon until they were brought up to her front and centre. But so what if those feelings were real? What was she fighting for all this time? In the end, she knew that she could neither deny nor fully acknowledge them. "I can't say that I can understand exactly what is going on, or why the world is completely different from the way I remembered it. However, deep down inside I know that something is very wrong and, as Ladybug, it is my duty to correct it. But at the same time, I also cannot deny the fact that there might be a hint of envy in me. After all, I am Ladybug and to think that someone else is holding that mantle now, it is only human to be envious of that fact. I suppose in the end, it is not simply a black or white case that you can just shoehorn me into; the real world is a lot more complicated than that."
Master Fu's lips slowly curled upwards into a smile. "You are wise to understand what you are going through, Miss Dupain-Cheng. But you must also steel your heart to your own feelings, lest you fall victim to Hawk Moth's evil."
"Yes, I understand." Marinette nodded. She rested her hands on her thighs and held them tightly. Hawk Moth was an ever-looming threat that forever hounded the citizens of Paris, and all for the little trinkets of power that Ladybug and Chat Noir wielded. She was curious; what was Hawk Moth's whole deal anyway? "Master, I thought that the Miraculouses were meant for good. How is it that Hawk Moth could use one for evil, and why is he so obsessed with the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir?"
Master Fu let out a soft sigh. "You see, the man who called himself Hawk Moth was seduced by the dark side—"
"Master, it is so unlike you to make a joke like that," Wayzz interrupted. Marinette could only stare blankly at the both of them.
The old man smiled. "You are right, Wayzz, but at the same time what I am trying to say is also true. Whatever intentions he had when he acquired the Butterfly Miraculous, they are surely twisted now as Hawk Moth only covets ultimate power while he continues his journey down a dark path that Miraculous users would never stray from. This is why each Miraculous user is carefully hand-picked. Only the worthy are given the opportunity to wield their powers for good. To use them for evil, like Hawk Moth, will only bring about disaster and ruin."
"I—I see, but what has that got to do with Ladybug's and Chat Noir's Miraculouses?"
"Ladybug wields the power of Creation," Wayzz said. "The Black Cat grants the power of Destruction. They are quite unique as a pair amongst the Miraculouses. Legend has it that whoever controls the powers of Creation and Destruction at the same time will achieve absolute power."
"Absolute power… you can't mean that Hawk Moth desires to become a god?"
"While the legends may be true in the sense that Hawk Moth will be able to wield a terrible and destructive power if he used Ladybug's and Chat Noir's Miraculouses for evil, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that they grant god-like powers," Master Fu said. "They are but legends, after all. No one in our history has ever wielded such power before, and for good reason too. It is our duty as Miraculous wielders to prevent such a disaster from ever happening in the first place."
"But you still sent out the Ladybug and the Black Cat the moment Hawk Moth appeared?" Marinette covered her mouth and resisted the urge to chuckle.
"I have only been wrong once in my life. When I made the decision to hand out the earrings of the Ladybug and the ring of the Black Cat to two very promising youths of Paris, I promised myself that I would not make the same mistake twice." Master Fu's gaze burned deeply into Marinette's own. "I have yet to decide if I can call this one a mistake or not." Master Fu closed his eyes and lowered his tone. "Do not worry yourself with such matters. Focus on your goals and for now, live the life that fate has so callously dropped onto your lap. You have enough on your plate as it is and Wayzz has already said too much on this matter. Besides, it is growing late and we do not want to worry your parents about your whereabouts now, do we?"
"I'm sorry Master," Wayzz said, sounding apologetic. "Marinette, you should go home now. Think about my master's advice. I hope that this discussion has given you something positive to take away with."
Marinette slowly picked herself up and gave both Master and kwami a low, courteous bow. "Thank you both for your time and your much-needed advice. I think I know what I must do now. I look forward to hearing from you when you have the answers that I am looking for."
With that, Marinette left the Chinese healer's shop and headed straight home. She had a lot to think about, especially on how she would continue to live her life and what she had to do if everything from now on had become permanent. This whole situation was new to her and deep down, she was frightened. Fighting supervillains that she could understand was one thing; this was neither a thing that she could fight nor understand. She only had the assurances of an old man and his kwami whom, as far as she knew, were also somewhat changed by this different reality. After all, them not remembering her as the real and rightful Ladybug was proof enough that it deeply concerned her. She wondered if she could trust them to come up with answers, or if she should continue to seek those answers on her own.
The more she thought about the darkness that she found herself in, the more convinced she became that there was a ray of hope in all of this. Although her meeting with Master Fu did not produce the favourable outcome that she had hoped for, something that Wayzz had said planted an idea in her mind. If she was able to harness the powers of Creation and Destruction, she could get all the answers that she sought: answers to how she could undo this false reality and return to the normal life that she remembered. Whether it was just legend or fact, power was still power no matter how you looked at it. All she needed to do was steal Ladybug's earrings and Chat Noir's ring.
She knew that she had very strong competition in the form of the Hawk Moth, but she had a distinct advantage over the supervillain: she knew who the Miraculous holders were. With a smile, she went home knowing that tomorrow morning, the sun would rise again to conquer the darkness of the night.