MiraculElse #36: When Karma Runs Over Your Dogma
by DFC
(TImeline: Post-Season 5. Specifically, beginning in the time window in between The Big Showdown and the finale's closing scenes.)
Chapter 1 - Nice of You to Drop In
"Things are going to be okay."
A head turned from the pillow that it had been buried in, in response to Tikki's words. A tear-streaked face stared at her, uncomprehendingly. It was only when Ladybug had returned home, detransformed and had time alone that she'd allowed herself to comprehend the full impact of what had just happened - to her, to Adrien and to the universe.
"They are not going to be okay. Not ever again," Marinette sobbed. "I failed. I couldn't have failed any more completely. Monarch won."
"You did everything that you could to stop him," Tikki consoled her. "You held out far longer than I thought would be possible, once Monarch collected so many Miraculous. It's not the end of the world-"
"It is! It was!" Marinette nearly shrieked. "The world we knew is gone! Monarch wished it away. Now we're in... whatever this is... and I have no idea what to do next."
"Listen to me, Marinette," the Kwami explained. "I'm no happier about what happened than you are - and it was my power that enabled half of his Wish! The rules of magic are... complicated, and I can't just tell you everything that's changed outright. But will you listen for a minute to what I can tell you?"
"...Yeah."
"It's like this," Tikki began. "I can say that the changes that Monarch made... they mattered more to him, personally, than to the world at large. His changes were pretty small. He didn't conquer the world, or make himself a god, or hurt or kill people. He had a simple goal - to reunite with his wife - and he got that."
"Where is he now?" asked Marinette. "Where are they now?"
Tikki remained silent for several seconds. "It's... complicated," she evaded. "Very complicated."
"What about Adrien?" Marinette continued, her eyes welling up with tears once more. "What's going to become of him now? Now he's lost both his parents?"
Fluttering in close, Tikki emoted as much sympathy as she could. "Adrien is a very brave, very strong young man. He's remarkable in so many ways. He is going to need all the support he can get from his family, his friends... and from the girl that he loves more than anything else on this world," she stated. "What's happened... has happened. Many things are unsure as of yet. I know that you will be there for him at every turn."
"We have the Miraculous! We could-"
Shaking her head, Tikki frowned. "You can't Wish his Wish away. It doesn't work like that, for one thing, and you'd bear the weight of erasing another universe on your soul. I can't have that," she chided her young charge. "Plagg took the ring back to Chat Noir, and is telling him the same thing now, I'm sure. Besides, it'll be months before our power has recharged enough to even consider another Wish."
"Then there's nothing I can do," Marinette whimpered.
"There is! I just told you, there is. You can be by Adrien's side. You can help him move forward, one little step at a time. You can love him, the most potent healing force of all," said Tikki.
"While I'm lying to him, every step of the way," frowned Marinette. "I know the truth about his father. Should I - can I tell him that? Can I live with myself letting him think that his father was somehow... admirable?"
"Look," blurted Tikki. "Do you trust me?"
"I do?"
"Then trust me now. You are the best thing that could have ever happened to Adrien," she insisted, "and the two of you will find your way together. As for Gabriel, maybe he did 'win.' Maybe he got his Wish. But I'm telling you, as much as I'm allowed to say... that you'll see very soon how that turned out for him."
"What do you mean by that?" pleaded Marinette. "Come on, you can't just leave it at that!"
"I have to," sighed Tikki.
Four days and nights followed, one after the other, in the usual way of things.
It was an immense relief to Marinette to see firsthand that, yes, Adrien wasn't shattered completely. Their first embrace was long and silent, her feeling him shuddering in her arms, him knowing that his remaining peace was holding him close and would for as long as he needed.
The cover story for Gabriel's disappearance held up surprisingly well, and fended off many uncomfortable questions that INTERPOL and French authorities felt the need to ask. Like any major corporation, plans for covering for emergency vacancies had been made and were implemented; a board of directors would handle the affairs of Agreste Fashions until a new CEO could be named.
Adrien's school friends - including Chloe, surprising Marinette to an extent - closed ranks around him, giving him their strength and support, keeping paparazzi away from him and ensuring that he'd always have someone to talk to or spend time with.
"They've been amazing," he confided to Marinette on the fourth afternoon. "I mean, it's one thing to know that I've made so many friends here, right? I didn't doubt that any of our relationships were real. But knowing that and now seeing that like this, the way that everyone's made a special effort to catch me when I'm falling..."
"You know how much you mean to everyone here," Marinette smiled. "You are so one of us. You have been for a long time now."
"I know what you mean to me," breathed Adrien. "And that's something I'll never want to be without."
"And you never will be."
And, for a little while, the time for words was over.
Much later that night...
Wake up.
The voice was tiny and somehow distant, but also insistent.
Marinette struggled against it for as long as she was able. I'm sleeping, she grunted in her mind. I'm finally getting a little bit of rest. Go 'way.
Please, wake up, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I need to speak with you, urgently.
Still half in dreamland, Marinette cursed her alarm clock, forgetting momentarily that her alarm clock had never spoken to her before, much less called her by her full name.
She opened her eyes, grudgingly -
- and jumped with a frightened yelp, retreating as far back on her bed as she was able!
Relax, child. I mean you no harm, the voice declared. As you can see, in this form, I am not sure how I could harm you if I had meant to.
Goggle-eyed, Marinette processed the situation. Becoming Ladybug had turned her into something of a weirdness magnet compared to her prior, ordinary life; sharing one's living space with an eons-old magical entity tended to improve one's reaction time to new developments. Still, this was an unexpected curveball.
"You're... a hamster," she gasped, leaning in as closely as she dared to study it. "A real hamster, not a Kwami... how are you even here?... and you're talking to me? Somehow?"
I am speaking to you mind-to-mind, it projected. A little gift from those who made me into this; a method of communication I was accustomed to in my former existence, on occasion. I have no audible voice like this, other than a depressingly tuneless squeak.
"Who or what ARE YOU?" Marinette demanded. "Just because you're cute doesn't mean I won't... um... I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it!"
I am what my arrogance and folly have made me, the voice lamented. Stories of old warned of magical beings twisting one's words and desires, turning wishes into nightmares. I should have listened to them more closely.
Marinette froze in place at its words, a shock of recognition sweeping through her.
My Wish gave me precisely what I desired; a reunion with my beloved wife, Emilie, she heard. A reunion for five short minutes. She was then whisked away from me, cruelly, and I was told that I owed five years of spiritual restitution before I would see her again.
She shook her head, overwhelmed by the implications. "You're... you're Gabriel AGRESTE in there?" she blurted out. "You cannot be serious...!"
One and the same.
If a hamster was capable of displaying supreme annoyance, this one was.
Gimmi read my soul to know my desires, and the price that I would willingly pay, he admitted. I was ready to surrender my life for Emilie. I was not ready for THIS... but here I am, in all of my... void of dignity.
"I'm not dreaming this. I'm not," Marinette told herself. "I'm not hallucinating, I haven't been drugged, this isn't an illusion..."
If only. Any of those would be preferable.
"So..." she pondered. Reality was what remained when all else failed, she reasoned, and this reality appeared to be persisting. "What am I supposed to do with you?"
Apparently, Gimmi read your desires as well, it deadpanned, with all of Gabriel Agreste's snark and condescension on display. Your foremost desire, beyond peace and justice for all, was my son... but you had him already. Your second-greatest desire, of all things in this world that it could have been... was a pet hamster.
He sniffed around her bed, tentatively.
So, I am now your private advisor, disturbingly enough. I assume that you will think of an appropriate name for me, as well as a reasonable place for me to sleep...
There was only one word left in Marinette Dupain-Cheng's vocabulary.
"TIKKI!"
"Took you long enough to get here."
As a smirking Tikki fluttered over to Marinette's bed, the hamster reared back and squeaked at her, baring its tiny teeth and attempting (and failing) to look fearsome.
My God, he's just so CUTE, marveled Marinette, except for the part where he makes me want to vomit.
"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" she asked Tikki, tonally somewhere in between a question and an accusation.
"Of course I did. I had to do something with him," shrugged Tikki. "I wasn't about to let him drift off into some afterlife. Not with so much yet to be reckoned with on this plane."
"So you stuck his soul into a hamster?"
"I did. And I sent it to a timeless dimension, an endless white nothingness," Tikki continued. "He could either sit there for eternity and ponder everything he'd done, knowing that the clock would never start on seeing his wife again, or he could agree to attempt to atone our way."
You vile, heartless VERMIN, snarled the hamster, audible in Marinette's head as well. You-!
"You're going to talk about vermin now?" giggled Tikki.
"Hamsters are not vermin! They're the sweet, delicate angels of the rodent... world..." interrupted Marinette, trailing off as she realized whom she was defending.
I made my Wish in good faith! Offering my very life as the payment...
"Gabriel, do you know how the ancient Egyptians measured the value of a life?" Tikki asked him. "Upon death, Anubis would grasp one's heart and soul and weigh them against a feather. Only those pure of heart, unencumbered by evil deeds, could pass that test and be allowed into the more... pleasant resting places. Do you know whom it was who taught them that method?"
You, I must presume.
"Orikko, actually. He came by that metaphor very naturally. But I digress," she smirked. "You did offer your life, and we accepted it as partial payment, as the gesture was... somewhat selfless of you? You are not devoid of value. But you have debased yourself sufficiently to be a trinket, not a king's ransom. Your wealth, your power, your worldly prominence mean nothing next to your intentions and your deeds."
This is ridiculous. For the sake of my family, I sacrificed EVERYTHING, and to become a rodent is what that earned me? Is there any way for me to negotiate with the other half of Gimmi?
Tikki shifted to a vehement scowl so quickly that even Marinette recoiled a bit.
"Plagg wanted to wait the five minutes and then Cataclysm you, one tiny piece at a time. Leaving every single nerve ending intact, so that you would experience every single sensation-"
I take it back! I take it back! Being a rodent is delightful. Yes, yes, this is so nice.
"That's... not the Plagg that I know," said Marinette, looking puzzled. "Usually, he's pretty easygoing."
"Plagg and Chat Noir are... um... very close. Bonded, you might say," explained Tikki. "When Plagg found out who Monarch was, he took it very personally."
"He did?" Marinette appeared even more curious. "Why was that?"
Why, indeed? What did I do to his host?
When Tikki turned away, as if unable to face either of them while replying, it sent a chill down Marinette's spine. "He had his reasons," was all she would say.
"Okay!" chirped Marinette, creeped out but intent on changing the mood. "If he's going to stay here, and I'm not sure what I did to deserve that..."
"Who else is qualified to keep a watchful eye over the former misuser of the Miraculous?" asked Tikki. "Although I think he's through causing any fuss for a while."
"...There is one more thing that I have to do before this goes any further."
"Isn't he so cute?"
Marinette did her best to play up the hamster's adorableness in every way, despite its apparent intention of sitting on her hand like a furry lump. For their parts, Tom and Sabine looked more confused than anything else.
"You bought yourself a hamster?" wondered Tom. "I don't understand what brought that on."
"I didn't buy it, Papa! It just sort of... appeared."
"And how did that happen?" asked Sabine, staring her down.
"Um... uh... I heard this little scratching sound on my ceiling, so I went up to my balcony and there he was! It was as if, um, a bird had picked him up and dropped him there by accident. As if it was meant to be!"
"Riiiight," Sabine replied, doubt in her eyes.
"I mean, Mama, I can't just put it back where I found it or put it out on the street where animals could get at it and I don't know who else could take care of it!" bubbled Marinette. "Pretty please, can I keep it?"
"You will be taking care of it. Not me, and not your mother," intoned Tom. "If we find that you're slacking off on that, we will be very, very disappointed."
"I promise I promise I promise that I will be good to it. Cross my heart and hope to die," she declared.
"And you will keep it in your room. I don't want to find, er... little hamster raisins all over the house," sighed Sabine.
At that, the hamster glared at her, as if offended by the very notion.
"You do have what else it needs?" asked Tom. "A cage for it to live in, proper food for it?"
"Er... not yet!" worried Marinette. "I mean, I just found it on my roof! I can run to the pet store tomorrow. Until then..."
Hrrmph. I suppose that this will do for now.
As the hamster snuffled around the dollhouse, Marinette couldn't keep herself from watching him with eager eyes.
...What? You're staring at me.
"I'm sorry. I'm just... this is beyond the last thing I expected to happen today," she apologized. "I'm taking it all in."
You're a little old to still have a dollhouse, aren't you? It is of reasonable quality, although... the roof appears to have been cracked.
"The Miracle Box was hidden away in it, briefly," she replied. "Keeping it away from someone."
Hah.
"You said that you were to be my private advisor," Marinette added. "What are you supposed to advise me about?"
I am not exactly sure.
Turning towards her, the hamster met her gaze, and Marinette felt like she could read human emotions on his tiny face.
I mean, you have my son's full affection and attention, so surely you do not need any advice on chasing HIM, yes? You have all of the Miraculous, except for the Peacock, and...
"Not all of them. I know who has the Peacock, and I am... okay with him having it for now," she answered. "But I do not have the Moth."
Wait, WHAT?
"When the smoke cleared, it was the one Miraculous that was missing."
The hamster stuck his face through the dollhouse's open window, as if profoundly alarmed.
So you are telling me that this entire nightmare might begin again anew, with someone... less controlled than myself sending out Akumas?
"You call yourself controlled?" scoffed Marinette. "Wow, we do have a lot to talk about while you're here."
I will confess... that I am looking forward to getting to know you, Marinette, he mused. To truly get to know the girl behind the mask. Clearly, my son has found you fascinating... and I suspect that, now that I am free of old prejudices, you will interest me greatly as well.
"The feeling is... mutual, I guess?" she allowed. "There is much about you for me to learn."
But part of my... atonement?... must be to recover the Moth and see that it is used for good this time. I feel that most sincerely.
"If we're going to even think about working together, so to speak... I need a name for you. I can't call you 'Gabriel,' or everyone will find that very weird. Especially Adrien."
He considered that briefly, as if this was his first realization that his son would be coming to this room quite regularly.
Call me... Gigi.
"Gigi?" she wondered.
My name... my birth name... was Gabi Grassette, he explained. So... G. G. A private joke that only you and I will understand.
"It's a deal. Welcome to your new home, Gigi," smiled Marinette.
Investigating further, Gigi poked his head out again.
I do assume that the plumbing in this dollhouse's bathroom is... ah... fully functional?
"Oooh," gasped Marinette. "About that..."
The only remaining sound in Marinette's bedroom was Tikki's distant laughter.