Chapter Fifteen- Explanation

"Marinette, there's someone in Gotham that's trying to hack the Miraculous Teams' identities." Marinette jolted up in her bed. Chloe had already gone to sleep a half hour before her, so she hadn't heard Tikki.

"What do you mean Tikki?" Marinette asked with wide eyes. Tim couldn't possibly be trying to find the identities of the other members of her team, could he? But that didn't make sense: he knew her identity and it wouldn't be hard to figure out the rest from there, so why would he need to search their identities up?

"It was coming from underneath Wayne Manor." Tikki's cute high pitched voice said, sensing where the search came from. If anyone tried to discover the identity of the heroes without their knowledge, the kwami's would be able to prevent that, using their magic to get rid of any trace of the information they had procured.

"Wayne Manor, as in Bruce Wayne?" Marinette paused in thought, why would Bruce Wayne want to know about her Miraculous Team?

"I wouldn't worry too much about it Marinette. Mr. Wayne probably heard something about Paris after he accepted your essay as the winner. Wouldn't it make sense to research the school that won his contest? And he probably saw something about akumas and got curious from there." Tikki tried to soothe her holder, knowing she would only fret over it and lose sleep over something that she won't be able to solve right now.

"...Yeah, yeah, I guess so." Marinette's shoulders slowly relaxed, accepting Tikki's explanation. "I guess there's really nothing to worry about then," Marinette said hesitantly.

Marinette eventually went to bed, but her previous anxiety haunted her and doubt started to creep into her dreams:

Marinette was back on top of the Bourgeois Hotel, Inferno's black soulless eyes glaring at her. The akuma moved faster than Marinette could keep up with and her sharp, fiery talons ripped into her shoulder taking out a huge chunk of her flesh. The fire seared her skin, blood pushing out of her, her shoulder crying in protest at any small movement she made.

She knew what would happen next, but she had no way to stop it. Inferno reached for her again when Chloe jumped in front of her. Just as Chloe's agonizing scream broke the air, Marinette jolted up in bed.

She bolted upright, breathing hard, eyes searching all around her unfamiliar surroundings until her eyes landed on Chloe's figure resting in the next be over. She kept her eyes on Chloe, watching her breathe evenly and trying to match her's so that she could calm down.

When her breaths had slowed, she threw back the comforter and got out of the bed, away from her sweat covered sheets. She grabbed her phone and checked her phone to see that it was three in the morning. She sighed in exasperation, wondering if she would ever be able to sleep well ever again.

Grabbing her suitcase, she took her clothes that she needed for the day and went into the bathroom to take a shower. Getting dressed, she put on a buttoned up shirt that she rolled up to the sleeves with a black and pink hearted sweater over the top of it. She pulled up some red high waisted shorts with gray knee high socks and brown laced up combat boots. She pulled her hair into two braids that fell over her shoulders, not waiting for it to dry.

She walked out of the steaming bathroom to see Chloe sitting up in bed, and rubbing her eyes before looking over at her.

"Why're you up? It's not even four o'clock yet." Chloe asked her in a low sleepy voice with her eyes only half open.

"Just couldn't sleep. Go back to bed Chlo, you don't have to get up just because I am."

"Nah, not happening Mari-Honey, once I'm up, I'm not going back down." Chloe said, sounding a little less sleepy.

Chloe got up, not bothering with a shower, just choosing to splash water on her face to wake her up. She changed into a light baby blue dress with a brown belt wrapped around her waist and brown laced up boots that went up to her knees.

"Alright Mari-Honey, if we're up, we might as well go downstairs for some coffee." Marinette nodded, knowing she didn't have anything else to do, then grabbing her bag that she stored her sketchbook in as well as Tikki.

They sat down in the lobby, coffee cups in hand, enjoying the comfortable silence between them until an hour later when they saw their class walking out of the front door of the lobby. They both froze, then looked at their phones: it was only five o'clock in the morning, they weren't scheduled to leave for the Wayne Botanical Gardens until Six. They scanned the group and realized that Adrien, Nino, Max and Nathaniel weren't there either which meant that Lila probably told another lie in order to get the class to leave without them.

"Do we try to catch up to them?" Chloe turned to Marinette, waiting for her response.

"No, they won't open the gate to the Gardens until six, when we're scheduled to be there, so there's no use in following them when they're just going to end up sitting at the gate for an hour. Plus we still need to go wake up our friends." Marinette and Chloe relaxed in their seats, realizing that there was no need to run after them.

"I'll call them and tell them what happened." Chloe muttered absentmindedly before pulling out her phone.

Marinette shook her head, wondering why she can't ever have a peaceful morning.

Twenty minutes later, four disheveled bed-headed boys scrambled out of an elevator and into the lobby

Marinette and Chloe stood in front of them, arms crossed, both with amused expressions overtaking their faces.

"Well that was quite the entrance losers, now do you think we can get going? It's going to take awhile to get there since now we have to walk." Chloe's expression cooled into one of boredom, thinking about how Lila got the class to leave early, including the teacher.

"Certainly, I've got the address to the Botanical Gardens programmed into my phone." Max said as he started leading the way.

Chloe tapped Marinette's forearm, silently asking her to fall to the back of the group.

"What's up Chlo?" Marinette whispered, despite being a couple feet away from their friends.

"What are you going to do to contact this Batman guy? We don't exactly have a number we can call to set up a meeting spot." Chloe pointed out, unsure of how her friend was going to accomplish the task.

"I'm going to go out tonight, if they're anything like us, then they'll be patrolling the city. With my luck I'm bound to run into them at some point... or run into a criminal. But where the criminals are, the vigilantes are never far behind." Marinette stated with confidence. Tikki had discussed it with her the night before, so her plan was solidified, with only one hitch.

"The only problem is, I can't go as Ladybug." Marinette voiced her problem out loud, still whispering in low tones as they walked along the sidewalks of Gotham

"What!?" Chloe whispered, yet also shouted at her.

"Calm down, they might hear us," Marinette gestured to their friends not far ahead of them. "I can't go as Ladybug because if I'm spotted and word gets out that a Ladybug themed hero is in Gotham, then Hawkmoth will know I'm out of town and may take advantage of it or he will come to Gotham himself." Marinette explained while Chloe followed her logic.

"Then how are you going to approach them? You can't exactly go as your civilian identity." Chloe asked, unsure how Marinette was going to be able to contact the vigilantes without exposing herself.

"No, I can't, but I thought of that. I have a backup suit that I made. It's not magically protected, but it'll keep my identity hidden."

"We're almost there!" Max shouted to the group, causing Marinette and Chloe's heads to pop up like prairie dogs. When they looked up they indeed saw the yellow school bus and a group of people all waiting at the gate, some of them sitting against it in order to rest their feet.

When the class saw them, they either rolled their eyes or scoffed in their direction, Kim and Alix did neither, still unsure of either group since Max changed sides.

Coincidentally, the gate opened up just as Marinette's group reached the class. Some of the students fell backwards, having been leaning up against it, but righted themselves at the sight of the large man standing in front of the entrance. Some of the girls openly gawked, mainly Alya and Lila, at the man's stature. He was tall with dark hair and soft ultramarine blue eyes that reflected an innocent child-like demeanor. His physique was muscular with broad-shoulders, but not overly so, and his effortless gait suggested he was more graceful than his athletic build let on.

Tim stood behind him, looking small next to the seemingly older man in front of them.

"Welcome everyone, I am Dick Grayson and I will be your tour guide for the day. I have been asked to remind you to leave any food or drinks on the bus and if you don't have any questions we can begin the tour." Dick announced with a smile on his face. Tim had told him how irritating the class was, but he held out hope that it was just the coffee talking.

A hand raised in the air and Dick shifted his gaze to a petite blonde who didn't look like she could hurt a fly.

"Yes?" He asked her. Tim discreetly moved to the side, slowly making his way towards Marinette without drawing any attention to himself.

Rose asked a question about the flowers while Tim went up beside Marinette as a couple more people asked questions. Chloe gave Tim a side-eyed glance, but decided to pay him no mind.

Dick started the tour with Lila's group towards the front followed by a wide berth and then Marinette's group.

"Alright, you better start explaining because I am getting more confused everyday that you don't tell me." Tim said outright once he thought no one was listening in on their conversation.

Marinette nodded, multitasking at listening to him and appreciating her surroundings. It was like a huge maze of flowers, trees and bushes that mixed into a colorful cocktail of beauty unlike any she had ever seen.

Tim watched her amazement before noticing something strange: all the flowers that were wilting, or beginning to, seemed to perk up in Marinette's presence. Tim watched one particular flower on the brink of drying up and dying, slowly grow it's color back and bloom a bright tropical pink. His eye twitched at the sight, not believing or understanding the sight in front of him.

Marinette giggled, seeing his disbelief and finding it amusing.

"Don't worry, everything will make sense eventually, sort of." She shrugged at her words.

"Okay, I suppose I should start from the beginning. And by that, I mean the very beginning of time." Tim looked quizzically at her, not understanding her cryptic words.

"At the very beginning, before the world existed, there were Gods called Kwamis. Each Kwami held a different power, but the two most powerful of them were of creation and destruction which in this case took the form of a Ladybug Kwami named Tikki and a Chat Noir Kwami named Plagg." Tim seemed to be following her so far, though he seemed skeptical at the concept of Kawmis. "With their power, the universe was born, and with it, good and evil because there cannot be one without the other. The Kwamis believed that humans needed saviours in order to keep peace and balance within the world and so they bound themselves to pieces of seemingly ordinary jewelry-"

"-This sounds like a children's fairytale." Tim interrupted.

"Would you let me finish." Marinette glared at him scoldingly before Tim nodded.

"So they bound themselves to seemingly ordinary jewelry that was called a miraculous and they had hoped champions would rise up to use the Kawmi's powers for good. However, in the balance of the world; where there is good there must also be evil. So when someone misused a miraculous and used it to cause chaos, champions, mainly a version of Ladybug and Chat Noir, rose up against them to create order and peace again.

Many years ago, an Order of the Miraculous was created in order to train and assist a guardian to watch over and protect the miraculous jewelry from those who would misuse it. However, the Order fell during an unfortunate accident and during which the peacock and butterfly miraculouses were lost. Until, they showed up again three years ago in the form of Mayura- who doesn't appear as often anymore- and Hawkmoth. Once the guardian knew that the butterfly miraculous was in use again, he knew he had to choose new Ladybug and Chat Noir holders, but he couldn't choose just anyone.

"Miraculouses need to be wielded by a true holder, someone whose soul is harmonious with the kwami's power. That was how I was chosen, I had to take up the responsibility as a true holder or watch as the people I cared about suffered. With my power, I could call upon an object that would help me in battle and I could also erase the damages caused by an akuma or even the memories of a civilian should they be affected by the akuma, which is why most of the information surrounding the akumas in Paris is limited.

"After the first attack I went to the mayor and I called the Justice League to see if they would help us, but all they did was laugh at me. After we realized nobody would be coming to help us, and with Hawkmoth growing stronger, I suggested to the mayor that he limit outside media outlets and to make sure that no superheroes entered Paris.

"Akumas are dark butterflies that have been used by Hawkmoth as a delivery system of sorts to transfer powers into someone that is experiencing negative emotions. If those powers were to be given to someone that already has pre-existing powers, let alone someone with combat training, there would be no stopping Hawkmoth."

"But what is it exactly that Hawkmoth wants?" Tim asked, not understanding Hawkmoth's motive.

"If someone were to gain possession of both the Ladybug and Chat Noir miraculous and combine them, then that person would be able to make a wish, any wish. They could wish for ultimate power, wealth beyond belief or even to bring a dead loved one back to life, whatever the reason we must prevent it from happening."

Marinette saw Tim's questioning gaze and decided to elaborate. "There must be a balance in the world; therefore, there will be a price for whatever he wishes for. For example, if Hawkmoth wished for ultimate power, he would be asked to give up all worldly possessions or if he wished for someone to be brought back to life then someone he cares for equally as much will die. Whatever it is that he wants, we must prevent it at all costs."

Marinette's gaze darkened at the notion of Hawkmoth having her and Adrien's miraculous and her stone-cold expression chilled Tim to the bone. He had never seen Marinette this grim and visibly angry before and it reminded him of Bruce when the Joker murdered Jason. This girl had obviously been through a lot in order for her to acquire an expression that dark, something that spoke of deep experience with something that would traumatize normal people. A look that said that she had seen death, and a lot of it.