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Tikki finally realizes she’s had enough when her chosen wakes up in the middle of the night with yet another nightmare.
Marinette is shaking. Tears form in her eyes, and, as Tikki jolts out of her slumber and reaches out in an attempt to comfort her, there’s only one thought running through her mind.
She doesn’t deserve this.
She doesn’t. Marinette doesn’t deserve having nightmares every single night about something that happened in another timeline. She shouldn't have to beat herself up over it. She shouldn’t have to think about it over and over again, she shouldn’t have to let the thoughts consume her, she shouldn’t have to dream about it every night and cry out in terror.
This isn’t fair. The more Tikki thinks about this, the angrier she gets. How in the world is she supposed to handle this? Marinette is young. She doesn’t deserve any of what’s happening.
“Marinette?” Tikki whispers, hovering in front of her chosen. “Are you okay?”
Tikki knows the answer even before Marinette says anything. She chokes back a sob as she stares at her kwami, and Tikki’s heart clenches.
“I-I’m fine.”
“Don’t lie,” she says softly, “you had another nightmare, didn’t you?”
In that moment, Marinette’s face falls. She seems as though she tries her hardest to prevent the tears from spilling, but it is to no avail.
She breaks.
Tears run in rivulets down her cheeks and the sobs she choked back come back to the surface and she’s shaking, shaking, shaking all because of one event that’ll never happen again—
But the trauma is still there.
“Shh,” Tikki murmurs, nuzzling against Marinette’s cheek. “it’s okay. It’s not real. It’s not going to happen here.”
“B-But—”
She doesn’t deserve this. No one does, least of all Marinette.
Tikki continues to whisper soothing words to her, slowly trying to calm her down. It’s hard. It’s hard, because Marinette doesn’t actually believe the words. All she believes is that she’s in the wrong, that this is all her fault, that in the end, she is the one with all the responsibility and needs to prevent this from ever happening again—
She’s fourteen. Until this moment, Tikki hasn’t fully taken that fact to heart. But the more she thinks about it. . . .
Marinette is fourteen. She has the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she’s breaking. Tikki can see it more and more every day. She’s slowly crumbling under the pressure, and it won’t be long before she crumbles completely.
It’s a terrifying thought. It continues to plague Tikki’s mind as she gently lulls Marinette back to sleep.
This is what Marinette will remember when she thinks about her teenage years. There have been happy moments, yes, but there have also been sad, devastating ones. Moments where Marinette has been alone in shouldering the burden she has to carry.
As Tikki’s watching over her chosen, she realizes: that’s it. She’s had enough of Marinette shouldering so many burdens. It’ll only get harder for her from here; she needs some sort of support system, and Tikki can’t provide that all the time.
It’s time to go find Fu and have a talk with him.
Because really, what was he thinking, giving Marinette the Ladybug Miraculous? There’s no doubt she’s the best for the job, but at what cost? At the cost of her mental health? At the cost of everything that makes her who she is as a person? What about her hobbies, her passions, her friendships?
“I’ll be back,” Tikki quietly whispers to a now sleeping Marinette, before flying out of her bedroom and taking to the skies of Paris.
It doesn’t take long for Tikki to find Master Fu. Although he no longer has the massage parlor, Tikki is able to sense his presence. Soon, she finds him sleeping in the back of a van on the streets of Paris, with the Miracle Box secured safely in the trunk and Wayzz sleeping near the window.
Tikki phases through the van and flies over to him. She hates to wake Fu up, but there’s no other choice. She needs to talk to him, sooner rather than later. It’s time she gets an answer to this.
“Master?” Tikki calls out, cautiously at first. She hovers above him. When he doesn’t wake up, she calls more forcefully, “Master?”
Fu simply continues to snore.
Tikki lets out a sigh. She flies closer and nudges his cheek. “Master!” she hisses. “Wake up!”
“T-Tikki?” Fu asks, sleepily opening his eyes.
“Master, I need to talk to you.”
“T-Talk to. . . . me?”
“About Marinette.”
If Fu was half-asleep earlier, he’s wide awake now. He glances around them in panic as he moves to sit up. “Is something wrong? Where’s Marinette? Is she okay? How—”
“She’s fine,” Tikki says. Or, well, as fine as she can be.
“Oh,” Fu says, “so there aren’t any akuma related situations?”
“No.”
Fu relaxes at the words, but instantly stiffens. “Then what are you doing here? It’s dangerous for you to be here in the case of an akuma.”
“I need to talk to you,” Tikki repeats.
“About what?” he asks, but Tikki sees the unspoken question in his eyes.
What’s so important that you have to come here without Marinette?
“My chosen is having nightmares.”
Fu furrows his eyebrows. “Nightmares?”
“Nightmares,” she says firmly, “about Chat Blanc.”
“Chat Blanc? Is that—”
“It happened in a separate timeline,” Tikki says, and begins to recount the events of Chat Blanc—or more accurately, the events of Chat Blanc that were known to them. By the time she’s finished, Fu is staring at her with nothing but shock in his eyes.
“Is that it?”
“That’s all we know,” Tikki confirms. “Bunnyx knows the entire story, but. . . .”
“It does not do well to mess with time,” Fu says, nodding in confirmation. “Poor Marinette. So this is what her nightmares are about?”
“Yes. She wakes up almost every night with these nightmares,” Tikki says quietly, “and they don’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.”
“Meditation can help with that,” Fu says, “and tea. Herbal teas are good.”
Tikki nods, but in that moment, that’s not the answer she wants. She doesn’t want to know how to help Marinette get rid of her nightmares. She doesn’t need solutions. What she really wants to know has nothing to do with how to fix the current situation they’re in. Right now, at this moment, what she really wants to know is:
“Why did you give the Miraculous to her?”
It’s a question Tikki didn’t intend to ask at first, and, from the look Fu gives her, it’s clear he didn’t expect it either.
“What?”
“Why did you give the Miraculous to someone as young as her?”
“What do you mean, Tikki?”
“Marinette. . . . is young. She has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She has so much to do, so much pressure, and she’s crumbling.” Tikki turns and looks at him. “I’m not saying she’s not the right person for the job—because she is. Marinette is one of my best Ladybugs. But why her? Why did you have to give the Miraculous to a fourteen year-old?”
She’s trying her best not to be accusatory. She’s simply asking Fu questions. Questions that she’s finally decided she wants the answers to.
It’s complicated. On the one hand, Tikki loves Marinette with all her heart and wouldn’t want anyone else to be Ladybug. But on the other hand, she’s carrying such a heavy burden. That much is clear, and it will only continue to get worse as months go on.
Fu sighs. “It isn’t my intention to put Marinette through struggles.”
“I know.”
Tikki knows that. Master Fu has never meant to harm anyone, not never. And yet. . . .
“She is a very unique individual, and she’s smart. Kind. Creative. She has the qualities to be a hero that not many people have. I know that is not an excuse,” Fu says softly, “but Marinette is really the only person in Paris suited for this.”
Tikki wants to feel angry, she really does. She wants to challenge it: perhaps there are other people in Paris who could be Ladybug. Other people in Paris who could do the job just as well, if not even better, than Marinette.
But the question is, is there someone out there?
The truth is, they don’t know.
As Tikki contemplates this, watching Fu staring at her wearily with a “what can I do?” expression on his face, she realizes something else.
Fu hasn’t had much training. He hasn’t had a proper support system for a long, long time. He’s been carrying the burden of Guardianship since he was very young, since the Temple was destroyed all those years ago.
In the end, he isn’t much different from Marinette. He’s made mistakes, and he’s been attempting to make amends. How can Tikki possibly scorn him for that?
Yes, perhaps giving the Miraculous to a fourteen year-old wasn’t the best idea. But he’s been simply doing what he’s been taught—and his training hasn’t even been completed. He’s doing what he knows. She can’t possibly fault him for that.
“I’m sorry, Tikki,” Fu whispers. “I never meant to give Marinette so much pressure.”
“I know,” she murmurs. Because it’s the truth.
“I don’t know what your intention of coming here was. If. . . . if you want me to take away her Miraculous—”
“No! Not that. But we can fix something else,” Tikki says.
“Fix what?”
And suddenly, Tikki has an idea.
“We can fix the amount of pressure she feels,” she repeats. “Marinette doesn’t have to take the burden of being the Guardian on her own when the time comes.”
Fu stares at her in confusion. “I am not sure if I understand what you mean.”
Tikki feels herself get excited. Maybe this can actually work! “In the past, people have held the Guardianship together, at the same time. As Co-Guardians. It kept their bond strong and helped them overcome things together. Master, trust me on this,” Tikki says pleadingly. She’s so close. This could actually work if she continues to fight for it. “This could be the only solution. Marinette is crumbling, and she’ll need Chat Noir more than ever. The fight with Hawk Moth is continuing to become harder. She’ll have too much pressure if she’s the only Guardian, but with Chat, if she has him by her side, she can become stronger. I promise he will—”
“Wait,” Fu says.
“—be a good Guardian, he—what?”
It’s then Tikki begins to feel nervous. What if he disagrees? What if Fu decides it isn’t a good idea after all?
He looks at her in amusement. “Adrien is. . . . very similar, yet at the same time, very different from Marinette. He also holds a lot of power, a lot more than he believes he does. I am worried that bestowing this type of power will hurt him.”
“He won’t be alone,” Tikki says quickly. “Neither of them will.”
“He doesn’t have the training, either.”
“He can learn. And if he doesn’t finish his training, Marinette can always help him out.”
“What if he isn’t up to it?”
Tikki feels herself deflate. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” she mutters. “I just thought. . . .”
Master Fu simply smiles. “It can be done.”
It takes a moment for the words to set in. Tikki stares at Fu in shock. “Really?”
“It will take awhile, but yes, we can do it. It isn’t a bad idea, but it will take a lot of effort for it to be done properly. I am willing to try, though.”
“You mean it?”
“Yes,” Fu says, and Tikki grins.
“Thank you, Master!” she squeaks, before reaching over to nuzzle against his cheek.
That night, Tikki leaves Master Fu that night feeling much less anxious than she did coming in. She’s hopeful this will help the both of them when the time comes.
And, when Miracle Queen happens and Fu finally has to relinquish the Miracle Box, Tikki is proud to see he keeps his promise and passes on the Guardianship to both of them.
They’ll go through many tough times, yes. But so long as Marinette and Adrien have each other, they’ll be able to handle it together.