Fanfic / The dark never consumes all, for the light remains within its core

The dark never consumes all, for the light remains within its core is a crossover fanfic by SaltyOni666. It includes Miraculous Ladybug, Ninjago, and Dark Parables with key elements from MyStreet/Minecraft Diaries.

Marinette has won a trip to Ninjago for her class, most of whom are still under Lila's sway. However, on her first day, she has to face off against more than the regular troubles from Paris, such as the Dark Lord, his cold hearted son and the users of the Dark Miraculous, a set of Miraculous stolen from the Order centuries ago.

Yet, despite this, she also has to, unknowingly, deal with a prophecy linking to her possible fate, one most would avoid at all cost.

A prequel series, titled Once Upon Another Time, was released, detailing the past of the second jury of nine, set between the 1850s to the 1920s.

To see the first story of the series, go here.

An Alternate Continuity Fanfic, written by the same author, has been published called I'm okay, even if I leave my grin behind.

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The dark never consumes all, for the light remains within its core contains examples of:

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon, Marinette still has her friends' support in and out of the mask, even Adrien’s, though not much when it comes to Lila’s lies. Here, she’s subject to bullying and gaslighting in and out of the mask, and that’s not considering the prophecy as mentioned above.
• Adaptation Expansion: The first ladybug and Black Cat users are Lady Irene and Shad the Destroyer respectively.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Par for the course for Salt Fics like this, most of the akuma class (save for Chloe Bourgeois and Juleka Couffaine) have begun a campaign of bullying against Marinette, including Adrien (through gaslighting).
• Adaptational Villainy: Lloyd Garmadon has gone from a noble Ideal Hero to The Bully of the school, and is not above committing murder. Although he still has a soft spot for Marinette, time will tell if it’s genuine or because his father ordered her protection without her knowing.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Lloyd made a deal with Luka: If he won against him in a match, he’d not only release both Chloe and Juleka, but he’d also stop looking over Marinette in a concerned manner unless Luka allows them to. But if Lloyd won without using his powers, he keeps the girls as new recruits.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Marinette is bullied and excluded from certain events by her classmates, especially events she had planned and scheduled.
• Attention Whore: Lila is this, as usual. She’s usually seen spreading lies to either Alya or the rest of the class when Marinette isn’t around.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Garmadon has the ability to shapeshift into anything, such as Stoneheart, but the ability has the drawback of revealing his true form in reflective surfaces that anyone who's remotely familiar with this ability can spot.
  • The Dark Miraculous that Garmadon stole have presented themselves as powerful compared to their good-natured counterparts, yet each one has a downside in regards to their abilities:
    • The Spider Miraculous has the ability to view anyone’s memories but, unless he sees through the entirety of said person's memories, the order in which the memories will be viewed is completely random. Despite this setback, it appears that, at least for Garmadon, a few moments of using this power on a teenage heroine can give him more than the basic facts about her, including most of her background.
    • Around the start, we see someone, most likely a juror, use the Puppet Miraculous to conjure a puppet of Ryuokko, enabling the user to control her. However, it only affects the person’s body, not their mind or spirits, so said victim can easily warn those around her that something’s wrong with her body.
    • On that note, the Hydra Miraculous has the power to force someone to tell the truth so long that a) the user is still active and b) she has to be in contact with the weapon. and that while the attack is a homing one, it’ll hit anyone in the way.
    • After that, we get to see the Leviathan Miraculous in action, which includes the unique ability to manipulate the gravity of the user’s current location. while it isn’t known how far it goes, or if it does indeed have a limit, it is shown that it requires the user to be conscious to safely use the power, as knocking the person unconscious will result in gravity suddenly reverting to normal, and everything once affected by the gravity shift comes crashing at once, most likely in numerous injuries, casualties and/or death.
  • Gerda can easily cleanse akumas with her bare hands, thanks to her golden child abilities, but this revelation does have some drawbacks, most notably unwanted attention, when used in public, largely because of how rare the chance of a golden child is (once in a hundred years, to be precise). Her action of cleansing Ross Red's Akuma led Alya to falsely believe that she's Hawkmoth
• Big Bad Ensemble: The story’s antagonists include Lloyd Garmadon, Lila, Lord Garmadon, Hawk Moth, Pythor, his employer and the employer’s employer.
• Canon Foreigner: The Dark Miraculous, consisting of the Scorpion Miraculous of infection and disease, the Wolf Miraculous of loneliness and hunting, the Leviathan Miraculous of gravity (capable of manipulating the gravity of a given area), the Spider Miraculous of memories (capable of viewing other people’s memories), the Marionette Miraculous of manipulation (capable of taking control of a victim’s body through a puppet lookalike) and the Miraculous of Truth (capable of forcing someone to tell the truth whilst the user is still active). These Miraculous had been in Garmadon’s care since he stole them from the guardian temple before the fall. While Miraculous for these animals might exist, some of the concepts they represent won’t, since canonically Kwamis cannot be born from negative concepts.
• The Cavalry: The second generation of the Jury of Nine promised to help Snow White when her daughter in law was unjustly arrested under suspicion of being Hawk Moth.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being the villain in this, the Garmadons legitimately care for Ladybug's well-being, mostly because she’s a vital key in the universe’s survival. Plus, they’re disgusted by the way her classmates treated her.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • The Miraculous heroes merely just charge into battle (which shocks Marinette, as she didn’t recall handing out miraculous to her classmates yet), without even noting who happens to be their adversary. Worse still, they’re the primary (and personal) targets because they hold Miraculous, subjecting them to a one-sided battle.
  • Anything Alya says tends to be this, especially at the start when she badmouths Garmadon despite having been beaten by him earlier. In her defense, she didn’t expect him to be personally at school for his son
  • When Chat Noir and Carapace attacked Charron whilst she had her powers activated, and even when she and Ladybug teamed up, they’d didn’t think about the consequences, such as gravity suddenly returning to normal
  • Surprisingly for once, Lloyd is hit by this when he was attempting to ambush a surprise dance orchestrated by the Akuma class. In his defense, most school dances are held in schools.
• Downer Beginning: Marinette wasn’t having a good time after “Ladybug” and “Miracle Queen”, being blacklisted from the fashion world and expelled, at the very least.
• The Dreaded: Lloyd is this to anyone in Ninjago, or to anyone who has met him. He's an Oni prince and has a criminal biker gang, and is well known to dish out punishments to anyone who crosses him on the spot, accidentally or otherwise. In fact, his first encounter with the Akuma class has him telepathically throw Adrien into a nearby swimming pool because he simply sat in his spot.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Despite having a biker gang and being willing to resort to murder, Lloyd doesn’t like how the Akuma class treats Marinette.
  • Lord Garmadon, alongside the other Oni, wants to keep Marinette alive on account that her death leads to the universe’s demise.
  • According to Garmadon, Lucifer genuinely cares about the environment, and is willing to drop everything (including his hatred for humanity) to save the world.
• Evil Versus Evil: Lila Rossi (a high school student and daughter of a diplomat who’s got most of the school around her fingers) against Lloyd Garmadon (an oni prince who’s got the entire school, and a biker gang, under his thumb).
  • This could be also applied to Garmadon and Snow White to an extent against Hawk Moth, especially after he was technically responsible for making Marinette's life hell, endangering her life both in and out of her mask, attempting to akumatize Snow White, thus bring up personal trauma, successfully akumatizing Ross Red and indirectly responsible for framing Snow White's daughter in law, leading to her arrest.
• Faux Affably Evil: Pythor acts like a genuine friend towards Marinette when she’s lost in the sewers, that being the only time they meet each other, but it turns out it was a facade to keep tabs on her by his employer and keeps tabs on her now and then.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Someone is after Marinette, and has a more sinister agenda then Lila, Lloyd, Garmadon and Hawk Moth.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Marinette genuinely believes that her classmates can change.
• It's All About Me: Lila and Alya’s schtick. Well, in the latter’s case, it’s more “Me and my Blog”. As for Lila, whether it was during or outside a battle, she'll spew out whatever lie to her classmates, such as one morning she was talking to Alya about being in contact with Jagged Stone.
• Light Is Not Good: Team Miraculous are said to be on the side of good, but most of them are those that are bullying, or are complicit in this, and are selfish, glory hogs.
• The Load: Most of the classmates act like this, and when they do try to help, they’re making things worse, such as when Chat and Carapace knock out Charron whilst she was manipulating the area’s gravity.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Surprisingly, all of this could've been avoided if Marinette grew a spine, such as not making Adrien a Guardian, and said no to any of her classmates' demands.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Lord Garmadon and Lloyd are this to the classmates, in the mask and out respectively. The former has beaten them twice on the battlefield, whilst the latter doesn’t buy any of Lila’s lies or excuses.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The whole class, when Garmadon begins to target them personally, then when he reveals his own Miraculous.
  • They get another one, when Garmadon was about to attack them, only to be saved by by Jay’s mech.
  • After that, Alya is shocked when Lord Garmadon appears behind her, especially after badmouthing him.
  • Apparently, Nya and Kai are shocked when Brigid appears by the museum the class are visiting. Made even clearer when Garmadon appears and explains that she’s his adopted daughter.
  • When some of Lila’s followers from another class after being set on fire by Brigid’s Daemon after they attempted to badger Brigid for more views on Alya’s blog.
  • Back in Paris, Tom has a look of shock when a woman is found unconscious in their trash. That woman happens to be the Fairytale Detective, after seemingly travelling through time.
  • Nya is afraid when she sees Harumi standing by the school doors after bringing Marinette (who was left behind) there by bike. Given what happens later, that’s understandable.
  • Everyone in the mess hall goes deadly silent when a student accidentally spills her drink on Lloyd when Alya sticks her foot out, even after Lloyd dumped his drink on said student and then on Alya.
  • Alya and Lila have this moment when they go to the student council to complain about Lloyd, only to find him there instead.
  • Wang Fu had one in his last moments against a masked assailant
  • Luka is shocked to hear what Marinette’s friends wanted her to do, especially in such a short time.
  • The class is attacked again, this time by the current generation of the Jury of Nine, who used the Hydra Miraculous, and the others are implied to have used the Wolf and Scorpion Miraculous, against them.
  • Marinette is shocked when Garmadon refers to her as “Ladybug” whilst taking her away. Then the roles were reversed later in the battle after he was in a battle against Charron, a member of the jury of nine.
  • Garmadon and Marinette are shocked when Chat Noir and Carapace attack Charron. Especially while she has the area’s gravity shifted, leading to everything crashing down at once.
  • The class reacts in shock when Lord Garmadon appears at the embassy, and then when he and Snow White remain civil.
  • There's a collective one between Viperion and the royal family of the Snowfall Kingdom when Snow White was almost akumatized, and then when Ross Red is.
  • Luka is in horror after learning that Lloyd has taken his sister (and Chloé) hostage.
  • Everyone in Garmadon’s circle, especially himself, has one when they learn that Gerda was arrested under suspicion of being Hawk Moth.
  • Luka is shocked how Lloyd can be powerful despite willingly withholding his dark powers.
  • After Luka’s defeat at the hands of Lloyd, Juleka and Choe are shocked at how effective Lloyd is at blackmailing when they learn that Kagami lost a duel against him and made sure she stuck with the forfeit.
  • Lloyd has a rare Oh, Crap! moment when after his men searched the school for the dance the class organized, he learns that Marinette has arrived at the school as well, prompting him to realize that the dance wasn’t even going to be on school grounds.
  • Around that moment, whilst going through some files, he finds one that was marked “Lloyd Garmadon”, and ponders what he was like before the incident.
• Original Character: Lucifer isn’t part of Ninjago, Miraculous, Dark Parables and/or Mystreet/Minecraft Diaries. Neither are Kronos and Gabriella Etoile-Aube.
• Poor Communication Kills: Both Team Miraculous and the Dark Miraculous holders could’ve at the very least made a truce, but the attitude of most of the Paris heroes made it clear that a peaceful truce won’t happen in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, the opposing team (either Garmadon, the Sons of Gamraond, or the Jury of Nine) had every chance to tell them of the prophecy, yet not one of them actually clued them in on its existence.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Lord Garmadon states that he got the information from the Ladyblog, Alya immediately accuses Marinette of betraying the heroes. If the rather harmless mind rape that Garmadon subjected Ladybug to see her memories was consensual, then she’s technically right (for once).
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
  • Lloyd usually gets away scot-free whenever he does anything criminal thanks to his connections with his father.
  • Lila presumably does this with her diplomatic heritage back in Paris.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Team Miraculous heroes (in this case, Marinette’s classmates) do this in the first battle because they weren’t getting recognition.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: The Garmadons seem to be in favor of the stealth Hi part, seemingly appearing out of nowhere all of a sudden. This seems to be done via Shadow travel and/or teleportation.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Plenty of the Akuma class are subjected to this whilst they were in Ninjago City, but notably Brigid, Lloyd, and Haruma tear into Alya when she instigates Gerda’s false arrest through what she posted on her blog.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Alya gave Marinette the assignment of preparing everything for the party they’re planning and assures her that they’ll return to being friends if all goes well. Not only is she lying through her teeth, she doesn’t tell her where the party was, leading her into the custody of the Sons of Garmadon (though they were instructed by Lloyd to keep her safe).
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Marinette’s and Luka’s reaction when their colleagues bail out on their first battle after Garmadon left.

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the prequel collection Once Upon Another Time contains tropes of:

• Adaptational Expansion: the series serves as a backstory to the original fanfic above.
• Adaptational Wimp: Compared to the original story, the cast is not as powerful, capable of going down after a few turns of a battle, which includes Lord Garmadon. Justified, as at that point they’re at their rookie stage of life.
• Anachronism Stew: the series takes place between the 1850s till the 1920s, despite the fact that, amongst other things, the Dark Parables series took place in the present, and the use of an audio recorder, despite the fact that the oldest known audio tape was around 1886.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Whenever Lord Garmadon or Lucifer are involved in a fight, none of the battles drag on enough to make half a chapter, though the results get less bloody over time. This goes both ways, though.
• Delaying the Rescue: Garmadon and his accomplice Lucifer seem to be this for the detective and Sensei Wu in regards to the children’s safety.
• Didn't Think This Through: Sensei Wu diverted Garmadon away from the palace by lying about the whereabouts of the keys to get inside, forgetting that A) Garmadon can see through lies and B) he and his accomplices have the ability to teleport anywhere at a whim.
• Failed a Spot Check: Twice, as of the first book:
  • Lucifer genuinely believes that there could’ve been some lost hedgehogs around the castle grounds, and resorts to picking locks on any nearby doors in the courtyard. While it did benefit Lord Garmadon regardless, he still questions his apprentice’s logic by reminding him of the local weather and hibernation season.
  • Neither Garmadon or Lucifer had noticed a blond child after them, or that said child managed to snag a miraculous from under their nose
• For Want Of A Nail: The detective isn’t alone in her adventures. She will be accompanied on her adventures by friends and foes alike, such as the case with the “rise of the snow queen” where the detective has her mentor Sensei Wu with her, had an encounter with Garmadon and Lucifer around Chapter two, and then with the mountain beast later on before they could set foot in the courtyard, yet in the game proper, she was alone and only had her first encounter with the mountain king by the palace doors.
• In Spite of a Nail: The events of the game “Rise of the Snow Queen” still happen, regardless of who the detective is with.
• Mêlée à Trois: In the first fic, it’s the detective and SenseiWu (who are looking for the missing children) against the Snow Queen and the mountain beast (who are looking for the golden child to heal her son) against Lord Garmadon and Lucifer (Who simply sought a magical mirror to make himself (or otherwise themselves) more powerful)
• Tempting Fate: After dealing with the snow wolf, Wu distracted his brother and his apprentice by lying that the key was last seen elsewhere, with the sensei stating that that lie would most likely buy them time. it didn’t, and that Garmadon only listened to him so that they could teleport inside once they were out of their sight and ambush them.

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