Not Alone: A Miraculous Ladybug Story

Chapter 21

 Before Alya could respond, a joyous shriek came from next to Marinette.

"Trixx!" Tikki zoomed over, tackling the small fox-like kwami. Trixx squealed in response and the two tiny gods collided and went tumbling through the air, a trail of giggles echoing behind them.

"Aw, Mari! Our kwamis are best friends, too!" Alya excitedly clasped her hands in front of her, looking decidedly less nervous that she had a few minutes ago.

"Trixxy, come come. Meet Alya, your new miraculous holder!" Tikki zoomed back over with Trixx in tow and stopped just in front of Alya's face. Tikki floated over to Marinette, burrowing beneath one of her pigtails, as was her custom, and watched them from her shoulder.

Trixx looked Alya over in a maternal way, noticing everything with a sly canniness. Alya shifted a bit nervously under the scrutiny, but held the god's eyes. Finally, a wide grin broke out on Trixx's face and the fox started zipping in circles around the girl and in and out of her curly hair, before colliding into her face with a massive hug.

"You're perfect!" She looked over at Marinette and Tikki and then back at Alya. "Do you need the spiel? I'm a kwami, your necklace is a miraculous, you have powers of illusion. Yadda yadda yadda..." She trailed off.

"Illusions," Alya looked at Marinette. "Like when Lila was akumatised, right?"

"Yeah," Marinette responded hesitantly, not wanting to equate Alya's new miraculous with the girl who had gotten under her skin so much. Although, she did have Lila to thank for bringing her feelings for Chat to the surface. She had been almost as jealous of Volpina flirting with Chat as she had when Lila flirted with Adrien.

"Fantastic! So we can skip the boring part." Trixx got a mischievous look in her eye, pulling Marinette from her reminiscing. "Let's have fun then. Repeat after me: Trixx, let's get foxy!"

Alya repeated the phrase, and nothing happened. Tikki rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at her friend, while Marinette giggled and Alya gave her kwami an amused look.

"Verrry funny."

"Alright alright, for real this time," she winked at Alya. "Say: Trixx: Ears up!"

So Alya repeated her phrase just as Marinette cried "Spots on!"

Then the two friends linked hands and jumped through the window, racing across rooftops towards the sun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While still mildly uncomfortable with being "chosen" as worthy of this honor and the fact that being a superhero of Paris wasn't exactly his usual brand of inconspicuous, Nino was loving his new kwami. The turtle had the ultimate chill vibe, and he and Wayzz had been getting along like old friends. He'd transformed once, but otherwise was more interested to talk with the kwami, learning what he could about his new powers and past miraculous holders.

"Wait, wait, wait." He held up his hands. "I still don't get why it makes sense for the turtle kwami to have speed powers."

"It's not really speed," Wayzz answered patiently. "It's more like a limited power over time. You can slow down certain situations, so it only appears like you're moving much faster. But you must remember, while you can temporarily slow time--for short bursts of a few seconds--it will drain your power, and you can only stop time once every charge. Like Chat Noir has his cataclysm or Ladybug her Lucky Charm, you can stop time completely once for 30 seconds."

"So what's my catchphrase?"

"Err.." Wayzz muttered something unintelligible.

"What?"

"Turtle time... I've never been a creative being, okay? Although, for the god of creation, I think Tikki's 'Lucky Charm' is pretty lame too." He guffawed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Nino burst into laughter, more at the kwami's sudden annoyance than the weird catchphrase.

"Dude, it is kinda lame! Don't tell that to Mari though," he chuckled. Then having an idea, he added, "Wait, if Tikki is the god of creation, what are you?"

Wayzz smiled, happily passing over his lack of creativity and answering the boy in the academic manner he enjoyed.

"Progression. Each kwami came into being as a new abstract entity entered the world. So Tikki was first; she's creation. Plagg was next, as creation always needs to be balanced with its counterpart, destruction. Nooro and Duusu came after. They're manipulation and emotion, respectively. When humans came into being, they brought with them a tendency to using things, and each other, in ways that hadn't existed before intelligent beings. Trixx was right on the trail of them. She's the god of illusion, but you could also think of her as imagination. When people became less nomadic and started settling together, they started exchanging ideas and a burst of creativity and imagination occurred. Pollen and I came last, and almost at the same time. Pollen is the god of civilization. Soon these groups of people started to take root and settle down in certain areas. Her powers are sometimes seen as similar to emotion, but they're more thought and logic based. She can put ideas into your head, either creating or destroying any kind of "hive mentality", but she can only tell the truth--albeit it tends to be only part of the truth sometimes. She makes you see sense, in a way." He paused, thinking for a moment about how best to explain it. "She get's overlooked a lot, but she is actually a counter-balance to many of the more powerful miraculous. Civilization tends to have a mellowing effect. It takes radical ideas, puts them through a processor of many other minds with very different opinions and points of view, and gives back a more moderate end product. She can wipe away a veil that emotion or manipulation may create, and let you see the truth about something. Oh, and when all the miraculous work together, she gives us the ability to have a hive mind. Not that you can read each other's thoughts," he hurriedly reassured Nino, who suddenly had a stricken look on his face. The prospect of Alya being able to read his mind was terrifying. "But she gives you all the ability to know when the others are transformed and to communicate if you want to. Like a conference call on bluetooth."

"Okay, that sounds handy. What about us?"

"We're progression, that's why you can control time to a degree. You can slow or stop the progression of a battle. That's why Fu was impressed with your calm wisdom, because we are arguably the most powerful yet the most limited." Wayzz looked at Nino, hoping to make him understand. He knew the teen had been hesitant, and still was unsure, of his qualifications for this role. Wayzz had no such reservations. He had what Nino would call a "good vibe" about the boy.

"With civilization came the acceleration of the spread of ideas. Sometimes though, if given more time, those ideas would be looked at twice and some philosphies would have been recognized as flawed or evil before they spun out of control. I'm sure you can think of numerous discriminatory practices and ideals through history that would fit the bill. Humans have learned and evolved from most, and some shaped their very formation, but others were senseless and the world would be a better place without them." He signed, but continued. "That's why your ability to step back and look at things critically and your gut instincts about people and situations is crucial. You need to have the judgement of when to slow progression, and when something needs to play out by itself."

"And that's me?"

Wayzz smiled at his charge, "That's you."