Chapter 14

Third Person P.O.V:

"So, let me get this straight." Tim looks over at the kwami. "Little Miss Badass over here has all these magical pieces of jewelry."

"Miraculous." Tikki corrects.

"Yeah. Miraculous." Tim nods. "And you call her a guardian of these said 'miraculous' and you want our help trying to fix a broken one?"

"No. Just Alfred." Another black kwami comes out of Marinette's purse.

"Plagg." Marinette looks angrily at the kwami of destruction. "What are you doing?"

"The cat's out of the bag, Bug." He floats around above Damian and looks intently at him. "Hey kid, you got any cheese?"

"Excuse me?" Damian looks thoroughly confused at the kwami.

"Ignore him, Damian. He's not important right now." She turns to Alfred. "Will you help us? Or at least try to help Duusu?"

"I don't see why not." Alfred said calmly.

"Wait a minute." Bruce walks over to stand in front of Marinette. "You said you know who we are? What did you mean by that?"

The young guardian stares sheepishly up at the brooding billionaire. "I kinda figured Jason out." She shrugged. "Once I found out you were all family of his, the rest of you weren't hard to put together either."

"Meaning?" Bruce questioned the girl.

"Uh, hi Batman." She waved before looking down at her feet. "I'm sorry. I promise I was never going to tell anyone."

Bruce saw how genuinely sad the girl looked and sighed. He didn't like that the Sunshine of Gotham looked so defeated. "I'm not mad at you, Marinette." The billionaire placed his hand on the small girls' shoulder. "But I am curious. How did Jason give us away?"

Marinette looked up, surprised that he wasn't mad before cracking a small smile at him. "Sunshine." Was all she said.

"What?" Damian asked.

"As Red Hood." She turned her attention to Jason. "You called me 'Sunshine'. The way you said it with so much concern." She paused for a moment. "I knew it was you right away, without a doubt."

"Wait." Tim walked up to her to look at her face. "You're Ladybug then, right?" Marinette gave him a lopsided smile before nodding her head. "This all makes so much more sense now."

"If that is true little kitten, then how did you get stuck with all this responsibility?" Selina looked a little sad for the girl.

"Do you remember me telling you about Master Fu?"

"The one who taught you self-defense?" Barbara looked up at her.

"Yes. But that was sort of a lie. He was the guardian before me. He was the one who chose Chat Noir and I."

"Why did he choose a bunch of teenagers?" Dick's eyebrows knit together as he asked.

"We showed him kindness and selfless bravery when no one else did. He was on a short timeframe and we were his best shot. I think that in the end, he chose correctly. All the miraculous are safe now."

"Master Fu wasn't perfect," Tikki sat down on her chosen's head as she spoke. "But Marinette is one of the best Ladybugs I have ever seen. Fu would have been so proud to see what you accomplished." She patted Marinette's hair.

"Thanks, Tikki."

"You said you needed my help?" Alfred stepped up to her. "I would love to see Duusu again."

"Oh, right." Marinette pulled a pair of foldable glasses out of her thigh high boot and put them on her face as Kaalki zooms out of her purse. "Don't freak out." She smiles at everyone, then looks up at Kaalki. "You ready?"

"Yes, my guardian." The horse kwami replies.

"Okay. Kaalki, Full Gallop." Marinette is engulfed in a bright light that everyone has to shield their eyes from as she transforms. Before anyone can comment on what happened, she then says "Voyage."

A large portal opens up in front of her and everyone looks inside to see a girly pink room on the other side. Just before she hops through, Marinette grabs a biscuit off the dining room table and then vanishes into the portal with her other two kwami's.

"Wow, demon spawn." Jason breaks the silence. "You really know how to pick 'em, and I mean that in the best possible way."

"Yeah." Barbara agrees. "You better marry that one. Please don't scare her off."

Damian shakes his head for a moment as he looks at the spot where she once stood. "She's not even my girlfriend."

"Well then you better hop to it, baby bird." Dick pats Damian on the back.

A few seconds later, another portal opens and Marinette hops through, this time holding a beautiful wooden box. "Kaalki, Dismount." Another bright light engulfs her and she now stands back in her regular clothes.

Marinette takes off her glasses, folds them up and tucks them back into her boot. "Thanks, Kaalki." She breathes a sigh of relief. "That was close. My parents almost caught me." She smiles up at Alfred. "Are you ready to help us?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Alfred nodded.

"Okay, but first we have to ask you a few questions." Marinette shifts the box in her hands. "We should go sit down."

"Of course. Follow me." Alfred guides them all to the living room.

Once everyone is all seated, Marinette speaks up. "First of all, I'm going to need the story of how you lost him."

"Yes. Well it's very strange really. The mission was supposed to be a quick in and out but it seems that our man with the intel was working for the enemy. It was an ambush. After it was all said and done, it was clear what they were after. Our miraculous."

"You said you were working with a friend of yours and that he held the butterfly miraculous. Where is he now?" Marinette sat at the edge of her seat.

"He was killed in the ambush. I would have died too if it wasn't for Duusu."

"I'm sorry to hear about your friend." The young girl frowned at Alfred. "How exactly did Duusu save you?"

"Well the people who ambushed us clearly knew how the Miraculous worked. They waited for us to detransform. My friend was first and the moment that it dropped; he was shot. I was in mid detransformation when the bullet hit my miraculous. All I remember is a strange wave of energy running through my body and then I blacked out. I woke up a week later in the medical bay."

"This is good!" Tikki squeaked from her place on Marinette's shoulder.

"Why do you say that?" Marinette looked over at her. "If it was a bullet that damaged the Miraculous, then how can we fix it?"

Tikki shook her head. "The only thing that can hurt a Miraculous is a cataclysm. This is all about Duusu himself. He was still partially bonded to Alfred when their transformation was disrupted. This explains why Duusu is so emotionally unstable and has memory loss. He left a part of him with Alfred. All we need to do is reconnect the bond."

"Really? Tikki this is good news." Marinette thinks for a moment. "But why was he hurting everyone else that used him?"

"Duusu is incomplete. I think he was subconsciously draining the life from his users to try to make himself whole again."

"Okay," The bluenette nods. "Makes sense." She turns to Alfred. "Are you ready to meet him?"

"Wait." Bruce cuts in. "If a part of him is still inside Alfred and you take it out, then will this change Alfred? He has been living like this for many years."

"No, he will be the exact same." Tikki smiled at how worried Bruce was for his butler. "When transformed, we kwamis hide in the deepest, most hard to reach places of the brain. Parts of the brain you hardly ever access, besides maybe when you are dreaming."

"Yes, I understand now." Alfred nods along with Tikki's explanation. "This is why I have dreams of talking with him all the time."

"Awesome!" Marinette hops up excitedly from her chair and sets the miracle box on the coffee table. She opens it up and grabs the peacock miraculous then swiftly shuts the box again. Walking over to Alfred, she holds out the miraculous for him to take. "Alfred Pennyworth. As the guardian, I am giving you the gift of the peacock miraculous. You are to only use it for the greater good and to make this miraculous whole. Once your job is complete, you will return the miraculous back to me. Can I trust you?" She smiles up at him.

"Yes. Of course." Alfred gently takes the miraculous from her hand and pins it to his shirt. A bright light shines as a small purple kwami flies out of the miraculous to face Alfred.

"Oh, I know you!" The small creature zooms around his head in elation. "I see you in my head all the time. You must be a friend, right?"

"Yes, Duusu. This is Alfred. He was a previous holder of yours." Marinette smiles at the kwami. "He is here to help you."

"Help me? That sounds like fun! How will he help me?" The kwami zooms around the room in a childish way.

"All he needs to do is transform with you. Are you up for that?" She asks.

"Oh, yes yes yes." Duusu stops in front of Alfred. "I'm ready."

Alfred takes a deep breath before smiling at his kwami. "Duusu, Spread My Feathers!"

And Alfred is engulfed in the brightest light that anyone in that room has ever seen.