Chapter Text
When the kwamis came to earth, they have always wanted to interact with humans, and with the help of a mage that happens to have heard their plea, he made the miraculous for them to have the ability to interact with them. But soon they realized that only a majority of humans have good intentions, and so each kwamis created a protector to guard them. However, with more pressure from the humans to try to take the miraculous by any means, almost all of the guardians start to turn on each other. And soon enough, all of the defenders have fallen.
All but one, the protector of the black cat miraculous, the only survivor throughout the endeavor of the rebels and other protectors, when it’s all over, he made a vow to the other kwamis to be their shield as well as to not harm, but to protect humans. And so, he became the first guardian of the miraculous.
And as time passed, the protector and his charges meet a group of humans who wish nothing more than to interact with the kwami and to help them in any way they can. And for the concepts given form, while wary of the humans, wishes to have peace between them. So the kwami and the protector made a contract with the humans, for peace and safety to all, the first defender let the humans be the guardians of the miraculous, but the protector will always be the one that watches to be sure of their worth.
This has been passed on for generations of the story of the miraculous and the first guardian in the temple of Tibet.
As the years go by, rumors about the ghost of the last protector still linger on the temple, always watching, and for what purpose? Some say that the last protector spirit is out for vengeance, while some say that he is still carrying out his duty on protecting all of the miraculous, but the higher ups know better.
Su Han makes his way behind the temple towards a lonely tree uphill, he closes his eyes and bows. “Protector Xiao, I have news regarding the progress of the new chosen guardian.”
When he opens his eyes, he sees a young boy with dark hair with teal undertones, with his gold eyes resembling a cat's eyes. The most noticeable feature is a small purple diamond on his forehead, and a black and green cat mark on his right arm.
“So you have chosen a new guardian?” Xiao asks, crossing his arms.
“Indeed, he’s now starting his training, and later on, in the upcoming week, you should be able to pass judgment.” Su Han says, crossing his arms as well.
Xiao didn’t say anything, but gave a nod. He was about to leave when something stopped him, he felt two presences at the far side of the temple, something… unnatural.
“Protector Xiao?” Su Han calls out in a bit of confusion but on guard.
“I sense something off.” Xiao says as he summons his spear, he then looks at Su Han “I’ll be back if anything happens call by my name", and not bothering to wait for the response he runs and starts jumping to the top of the temple and off towards the disturbance.
Xiao continues following the unnatural phenomenon he sensed. He maneuvers past the small village near the temple and into the forest at the outskirts. The closer he was to the other side of the forest, the more powerful the odd sense became.
And soon enough at the far end of the forest, near a cliff edge, is where he sees two people. A boy and a girl, they look identical, like twins, both blonds with the boy having long braided hair while the girl's hair is on the short end.
He notices that something is off about those two, he could sense something otherworldly coming from them, so he hides away in the trees and shrubs so he can observe if they were a threat.
But soon he saw the twins link their hands together, and all of a sudden a flash blinds his vision, he shields his eyes until the light disappears. Quickly, he looks in the twins direction only to see... himself?
Other than his doppelganger, he notices that he is no longer in the forest at night, rather in an open field at noon.
‘An illusion?’ he thought, as he put a defensive stance for any ambush, but his mind was still in disarray at the sight of himself.
Curious, he looks back at his copy, the illusion looks the same as him, however he wears a very different clothes and his tattoo is different as well, the one in the impostor’s arm looks like an upside down light green crane, unlike his black and neon green cat tattoo.
Xiao was confused, if they want to throw him off with an illusion, why does his look alike seem to be different? He slowly goes closer to the it while warily looking around, keeping his guard up.
Once he gets close, the scene suddenly shifts, the sky turns red, and the once peaceful field changes into a war zone, he turns to see ruins and humans turning into creatures that he has never seen before, the whole place falling apart. Throughout the wreckage, Xiao turns to see someone familiar, he chokes, that can’t be, they’re dead.
Xiao blinks the sweat out of his eyes and the vision adjusts, his breaths start to quicken, these warriors are not the same people that he once knew, but still, he fights, or the one who looks like him does, all those screams for the other to stop or to see reason, but it’s all for naught. Has it always been futile? Why is he still fighting? Why is he still trying?
He could hear the cries of war and agony, his old companions turning on each other, the clashing from weapons, and one after another his comrades falling and not getting back up. Magic saturates the air, the creatures are closing in, everything is falling apart, he couldn’t breathe, he can’t do this, not again, no-
“Protector Xiao.”
He snaps out of it with a gasp to see that he is back in the forest in the dead of night, he then take slow breaths to calm his panicking mind and anxious heart. Once he finished calming himself, he looks around the area, but he no longer sees or feels any of the supernatural magic that he once followed, as if it never been there in the first place.
He slowly turned away from where those mysterious twins were and was about to head back until he saw smoke... in the temple's direction. Not thinking twice he runs to the sanctuary at a very fast pace, practically slashing through the winds.
By the time he arrives, many of the monks are either running away clutching onto one of the miracle boxes or attempting to fight off a beast that is wreaking havoc, at the same time that the temple is being engulfed by flames. The creature looks like the guardian lion statue that is at the front gates of the temple, but it’s not made of metal or stone. The snow lion rampages through the temple and eats the miracle boxes it reaches, Xiao sees one of the elders that is on the floor, and he goes to help out.
“How did this happen?” He demanded as the elder replied in a shaky tone.
“I-I have no clue...w-we were just cleaning up from t-today's lesson, b-but then the beast appeared out of n-nowhere.” Xiao nods in understanding, the sense he feels from the beast is something he’s familiar with.
“It’s an amok.” He says as the elder eyes widen “t-the peacock miraculous?” Xiao's eyes harden making the elder flinch “I’ll keep it at bay while you try to find the source of it.” He responds and not a moment too soon he goes into the burning building.
Inside he sees the snow lion nearly tear down the place with it’s teeth, holding a miracle box. The beast tosses it up and opens its mouth waiting for the box to go in. Xiao quickly runs at a pillar to boost his jump across. He manages to get the miracle box from the hungry beast, he lands and glares at the lion as it lets out a roar, angry for being denied.
“Miraculous!” It screams in hunger. The beast jumps to pounce on Xiao with his jaws open, but the warrior uses his polearm to defend, lodging his spear between the mouth of the sentimonster, causing it to get stuck. It then tries to slash at his opponent with his sharp claws but Xiao dodges it, letting go on the polearm with no hesitation. The beast was distracted by trying to get the weapon out of its mouth.
Xiao starts to cough as the smoke fills his lungs but he has to pull through to try to find the source of the amok while the manifestation of hunger is occupied.
“Protector Xiao, is in the trial room of endurance!” He heard someone yell outside of the burning temple. He looked back to see the beast manage to get his mouth free from his polearm.
“You want this?” He says gesturing at the miracle box he is holding, the lion growls “Miraculous!” As it slowly stalks to Xiao, he says “ Then come and get it!” Before running to the endurance room with the snow lion chasing him with hunger in its eyes.
Xiao maneuvers through the wreckage of the temple as well as dodging the lion as it tries to pounce and cut him until he makes it to the endurance room. He looked around quickly for any item that looks like it’s where the amok is implanted, but the room was empty save for the small pool and fire surrounding the room. As he hears the beast closing in, he quickly makes his way to the pool to see if there is anything, spotting the staff that the new disciples use for their training.
‘This is it.’ He thought, as he jumps in the pool, which is deeper than it looks. He dives in to get the staff; while underwater he can hear the beast burst in the room, which causes the ceiling to collapse and some of it falls into the water, Xiao barely dodges the debris, some of it hitting him in the back and head, making him in lose his air and sense of direction, everything goes out of focus. However, he feels something touch his arm.
The staff.
He uses his power, cataclysm, to destroy the staff. As his vision starts to darken, he feels a pair of arms grabbing him and bringing him back up to the surface.
He gasps and starts coughing, he slowly manages to open his eyes to see Su Han, getting him out of the pool.
“Protector Xiao, we must leave immediately.” Xiao groans at the pain on his head but nods. Su Han grab his arm to maneuver around his shoulder and once they're ready, both set a quick pace and start to leave the temple as it continues to fall apart, and with the beast no more, the only thing they have to worry about is dodging the fire and what’s remains of the ceilings and pillars falling on them.
Soon enough, Xiao and Su Han manage to get out and everyone watches in sorrow. For their once-proud temple and home, burns to the ground.
~~~
Xiao's eyes closed as he sat on a tree a bit far from the camp the Order made. After the incident, the elders and disciples decided to make a campsite for shelter and a place to treat those who have been injured from the fire or the beast, and after the fire has subsided, Xiao and a few disciples went to scavenger the area for any of the miraculous that might have survived, or people that couldn’t get out in time.
While in the burnt temple, Xiao also finds the amok feather laying under water of what’s left of the pool, he dives in once again to destroy the it, so it won’t implant itself to any other object and cause another mayhem.
Soon after returning, they have a discussion on the event that happened and how it could be. And for Xiao, as much as he wants to know more about this as well, he still doesn’t want to interact with humans, so before he goes off, he tells one of the elders to talk to him later.
Which brings him to now, underneath the tree. After getting a moment to finally breath, his mind starts to shift to the time at the forest, about what visions he saw and why was there another him that looks the same, yet different. Is it a sight of the future? Are those people oracles? Or is it another timeline, even a different world? These are the questions running through his head, and there’s no answers.
He sighs internally and shakes his head, since he couldn’t really know about those, he has no choice but to drop it until he can know more.
“Protector Xiao.” He heard one of the elders greet him.
“So, any news?” He asked the elder, and he nodded.
“We have, and unfortunately, the culprit is the new guardian in training, Wang Fu. One of the monks mentioned that the miracle box that contains the miraculous of creation and destruction as well as the Miraclux was given to him. While that horrid beast was on a rampage, he was tasked with the protection of those artifacts in the confusion.” The elder says, looking ashamed.
Xiao sighs and shakes his head. “At least we know who has it now, I expect you will kick him out when I retrieve the miracle box.” The elder nodded. “Of course, we’re ashamed that our guardian in training has committed such horrible mistake. We will expel him once the miracle box is back in place. However protector Xiao, I must inform you that the majority of the miracle boxes didn’t survive the beast, rampage.”
Xiao grunt in agreement. “Yes, I can sense the kwami that had their miraculous destroyed. I will help restoring those, it might take me a few months or years, but soon after I will set off to get back the last miracle box.”
His source of information nodded, then bowed before leaving and Xiao looked off into the distance.
He has a lot of work to do.