Summary:
She thinks that if she were human, if she were anything less than what she is, (a god, the embodiment of creation, of life) it would have broken her.
Miles away, locked in a secret compartment behind a painting, Nooroo and Duusu feel the release of power, and they feel the shift in guardianship. They hold each other, ecstatic, waiting for their miraculous to be reclaimed, to return to the miracle box with their brethren, but it doesn’t happen. They feel the end of the summoning, Tikki’s final release of power, and their miraculous don’t move.
They’re still there. They’re stuck.
It hits them. They realize the gravity of what’s been done to them.
They’ve been away for so long, and Tikki doesn’t know who has them. She can’t revoke a miraculous when she doesn’t know whom she’s revoking it from, when she doesn’t have a name, which is the one and only limit to her power over the miraculous.
There’s a loophole when guardianship is being revoked, in which she can recall all the miraculous the guardian has distributed, but the butterfly and peacock miraculous were lost years ago, even before the previous guardian acquired guardianship.
They all agreed to it back when the miraculous were formed, because it seemed innocent enough. They would never not know who had a miraculous.
Not even Plagg could have imagined the depravity and selfishness of humans. The innate, almost compulsive, need not just to have, but to take. To own.
They found out soon enough.
Which is why nobody, not the Guardian, not even the Order, knows about the limit to Tikki’s power. The mage who made the miraculi took it to her grave with her. The kwami themselves are never allowed to discuss it unless they are all safely within the miracle box, nor can they be compelled or ordered to divulge the information.
That is the only solace for Nooroo and Duusuu. The fact that their abusers will never know, they will never have even an inkling of an idea, and they cannot be forced to give the information up.
They didn’t realize that someone would abuse them so profoundly, so consistently, and that if they did, that not even the Kwami of Creation would know who was culpable.
Gabriel and Nathalie have perverted the miraculi in a truly heinous way. Terrorizing innocent people and using their emotions as cannon fodder.
Nooroo and Duusuu are exhausted. They are spent. They don’t have enough in them to be angry, not anymore.
But, it’s a new day. There’s a new guardian. For now, it’s enough. It has to be enough.
They cry themselves to sleep in each other’s arms.
*****
There’s something beeping, she doesn’t know where she is, and she’s got something stuck in her throat.
Her throat is working to get rid of the intrusion, and she’s coughing so hard her chest hurts, everything hurts, hands flailing as she tries to get her bearings, all while the beeping gets faster and louder until it’s practically screaming in her ear.
Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, someone is at her side whispering in her ear. “Hey Marinette, welcome back honey. You’re in a hospital and you have a tube down your throat to help you breathe. You’re ok, I just need you to relax for me.” She tries to listen to the voice, it’s soothing and somewhat familiar, but her body is still rejecting the intrusion.
“I know it’s uncomfortable, sweetheart. This is a good thing, I promise. Just relax, and try to keep breathing like normal. Inhale, exhale.” She does.
