Adrien didn’t need to swap places with Felix to stay in Paris. Hell, it likely would’ve turned out better if he had just sat it out on the train.
Adrien not swapping out with Felix means Ladybug sees he’s affected by Risk when she sees him at the train station, and therefore likely doesn’t opt to recruit him for the Dog miraculous.
Ihighly doubt (after what he pulled in “Felix”) that she would trust Felix with it knowing it was him, even if he’s unaffected by Risk. So she’d probably just take a risk and unify the Dog miraculous along with the Ladybug, Horse, and Rabbit (if she still assumes time travel is necessary due to the lucky charm) to retrieve the akuma object. Unifying miraculous doesn’t seem to be a real problem considering that she was using 3 at once in the finale. Unless they wanna tell me that 4 miraculous combined is where it starts really taking a toll on the user.
Chat Noir was completely unneeded and unnecessary in the fight. Risk required the Dog, Horse, and Rabbit (and in reality only maybe needed the Horse to transport to the zoo if going without it would take too long). Strike Back’s defeat only truly required the Turtle and Horse (and maybe the Rooster, but even then cloning the sunglasses could’ve been replaced by a conveniently placed sunglasses stand). Chat didn’t need to be there.
Once Strike Back & Risk were defeated, Gabriel threw a tantrum and instructed Nathalie to come back to Paris and bring Adrien home since the plan failed (so was there any real point to the perfume ad plan?)
Adrien would’ve gotten to stay in Paris no matter what.
Alternatively: If she DID still go through with trusting Adrien even if he was compromised by Risk, he could just help with the dog [he should be able to manage since his only job would be 1.) Hit the doll with the ball, 2.) “Fetch”], and then Gabriel still loses while Marinette keeps all the miraculous.
Adrien didn’t need to swap places with Felix to stay in Paris. Hell, it likely would’ve turned out better if he had just sat it out on the train.
Adrien not swapping out with Felix means Ladybug sees he’s affected by Risk when she sees him at the train station, and therefore likely doesn’t opt to recruit him for the Dog miraculous.
Ihighly doubt (after what he pulled in “Felix”) that she would trust Felix with it knowing it was him, even if he’s unaffected by Risk. So she’d probably just take a risk and unify the Dog miraculous along with the Ladybug, Horse, and Rabbit (if she still assumes time travel is necessary due to the lucky charm) to retrieve the akuma object. Unifying miraculous doesn’t seem to be a real problem considering that she was using 3 at once in the finale. Unless they wanna tell me that 4 miraculous combined is where it starts really taking a toll on the user.
Chat Noir was completely unneeded and unnecessary in the fight. Risk required the Dog, Horse, and Rabbit (and in reality only maybe needed the Horse to transport to the zoo if going without it would take too long). Strike Back’s defeat only truly required the Turtle and Horse (and maybe the Rooster, but even then cloning the sunglasses could’ve been replaced by a conveniently placed sunglasses stand). Chat didn’t need to be there.
Once Strike Back & Risk were defeated, Gabriel threw a tantrum and instructed Nathalie to come back to Paris and bring Adrien home since the plan failed (so was there any real point to the perfume ad plan?)
Adrien would’ve gotten to stay in Paris no matter what.
If a character or idea would’ve been helpful to Marinette or made her life easier, it’ll be used to benefit Adrien in some way. (Or if it’s something that negatively affected Marinette, it’ll positively affect Adrien.)
- Kaalki would’ve enabled Marinette to escape off the train and back to Paris in “Hack-San” and thus no replacement Ladybug would be necessary and thus there would be no Adrichat shilling scene where she promises to never abandon him. (Also could’ve avoided Scarabella being nearly cataclysmed or Marinette could’ve showed up with the Horse to catch him in the act of doing so).
Meanwhile Kaalki and the use of voyage is immediately remembered in “Strike Back” to retrieve and recruit “Adrien” for the fight, and Maribug was going to use it to bring him back to Paris before Strike Back showed up anyways.
- Completely changing the name and look for a hero to pretend they’re a different person entirely/that they got replaced would’ve been SO helpful for literally ANY of the compromised temp heroes to avoid being targeted (Optygami), especially Alya (especially since she still chose to go by Rena and got only a recolor for a design change) and maybe with their safety insured Marinette would’ve potentially let them keep their miraculous instead (which would lessen the blow of the finale).
The idea however IS used for Adrien in “Kuro Neko”, but instead of doing so to deceive Shadow Moth, he’s deceiving Ladybug to keep the miraculous even after he impulsively quit.
- Risk’s powers affecting Marinette leads to her ‘making a mistake’ (that she would’ve had to be psychic to avoid) which ends up with Gabriel getting ALL the other miraculous.
Risk’s powers affecting Adrien got him to vent to Marinette about his feelings and got him to go along with the plan to switch places with Felix, keeping him in Paris completely (the trip gets cancelled anyways after Strike Back is defeated, and since Chat Noir was not neededin the fight, Adrien would’ve gotten to stay in Paris regardless even if he sat out the fight on the train).
- Su-Han and Alya’s absence in “Kuro Neko” prevent Marinette from having someone that could find a replacement for the cat instead, or at the very least call out Plagg’s blatant lies (Su-Han in particular would have), instead of having her stress out over it and be manipulated.
On the flip side, their absence means there’s nobody to find a replacement or call out Plagg’s lies, meaning there’s no one to stop Plagg’s plan to give the ring back to Adrien (since Tikki just goes along with it), meaning Adrien gets the ring back, no issue.
- Marinette is lamenting her breakup with Luka in “Gang of Secrets”, is at an emotional rock bottom, her upset is directly tied to her duties as Ladybug/Guardian and her identity. She can’t ask anyone for help without compromising herself, she directly asks for help and receives nothing from Tikki/the Kwami. Her friends then barge into her room and mess with her things, giving her no room to breathe or process.
Adrien is at an emotional low in “Glaciator 2” after a firm rejection from Ladybug, but his problems are about his heartbreak, it isn’t a problem completely hinged on his identity and it’s something that could be talked about without compromising himself/his identity as Chat. Kagami offers him help directly without him even asking for it, and unlike Marinette who’s despair was made worse by her friends trying to pry and force her to talk with little regard to her feelings, Adrien is instantly comforted by Marinette attempting to give him a gift and Gabriel calling off the akuma and bringing him home with an offer to talk about it, no invasive attempts to get him to talk are made and his feelings aren’t disregarded.
- Luka finding out Marinette’s identity in Truth would’ve not only given her a more reliable confidant than Alya, but Lukanette’s relationship would’ve stayed intact and thereby avoided a lot of the things that went wrong for Marinette throughout the season. (Truth could’ve been avoided altogether, GOS wouldn’t have happened, Sentibubbler wouldn’t have happened, etc). See this post for a full breakdown: here.
Luka finding out Adrien’s identity (along with Marinette’s) makes it so not only can Luka be used to support the square (as well as a writing excuse to keep him away since his presence would break the paper thin plots the writers present us with), but him finding out the way he did and not telling Marinette about it ONLY serves to protect Adrien (if Luka was made to divulge how he found out their identities, Chat would be painted in a bad light to Maribug, Luka keeping quiet effectively shields Adrien from consequences).
- Speaking of Luka, him specifically being in the finale would’ve probably saved the miraculous from getting taken, as well as minimizing any collateral damage from Strike Back. There’s little-to-no chance SB could absorb his Second Chance ability (especially since doing so seems to require direct contact going by the other times it absorbed any abilities) so he could reverse damage as well as be able to warn the other heroes about Strike Back. Then he would’ve immediately caught onto the fact that Flairmidable was an imposter, with how Maribug was fawning over him Luka would likely put two and two together and realize she thinks it’s Adrien when he knows it can’t be. He’d have to come clean to her about his knowledge of their identities, but that would enable them to put a stop to Felix before he pulled what he did with the Dog miraculous. Meaning Gabriel doesn’t get all the miraculous.
Luka not being present in the finale makes the fight more dire, more collateral damage happens, and with no one to call out Felix, Felix runs off, hands Gabriel all the miraculous, and gives Adrien exactly what he wants: Ladybug having him and only him to rely on, with no backup. No more having to “feel replaced” and no more sharing her with the others. He is made her “most important partner” by being made her ONLY OPTION.
This is alljustfrom season 4, and even then I’m sure there’s ones I’ve forgotten.
serendipity | +3.9k | lila salt, adrien salt, alya salt
summary: the last time damian al-ghul saw marinette was when they were twelve. he didn’t think he would see her again. so, it’s a huge surprise when he stumbles upon her in WE while exposing the liar of the class from France.
the confrontation | +0.8k | lila salt, mild class salt [part 2 to ‘serendipity’]
summary: what a lovelytime to run into her enemy that probably wants her deadby now.
soulmate au | +1.8k | lila salt, adrien salt, alya salt
summary: tradition says that your soulmate will have another tattoo, something that relates to you. when they meet you, it is said that the tattoos start glowing a bright gold.
summary: he was a handsome man, she would give him that, but according to her father - the one of the most important lords of the kingdom - he was extremely stand-offish and cold. she didn’t know if she would get along with him.
summary: damian glared at her fiercely and she shrunk back. “i can assure you, lila rossi is most definitely not my soulmate. perhaps you should check everything she has said on google. it does exist you know.”
summary: tim and marinette attend marinette’s class reunion.
the recording | +1.5k | little angst, fluff, salt; [part 2 to ‘an…interesting reunion’]
summary: the recording (can be read as a stand-alone)
the gala | +1.6k | lila salt, adrien salt, alya salt, class salt [platonic]
summary: timothy drake-wayne was not happy. he had to lead the (according to dick at least, and he was inclined to believe him because he had never seen dick so unhappy) class of dimwits from france because it was his turn. He had put it off all week and now he had to do it as the CEO of WE.
summary: “you really should have sat down,” sighed anarka. “lad, your father is bruce wayne.”
no pairing
oneshots:
the exposé | +5.3k | lila salt, adrien salt, alya salt, class salt
summary: lila was having the time of her life at WE. the class was fawning over her, ready to do her bidding whenever she wanted, however she wanted. she could spout out a ridiculous lie and they’d believe it; they were completely and irreversibly under her spell. but then, of course, things hadto go wrong.
summary: marinette wakes up in a hospital, paralyzed.
what a liar! | +1k | lila salt, class sugar, fix-it fic
summary: lila rossi mentally prepared her plethora of lies as she entered her new class. the only thing was, she wasn’t aware they possessed brain cells.
summary: “i mean,” marinette says frustratedly, ready to tear her hair out - you will never believe the number of rants she has told chloe and kagami and the nights she has spent obsessing over it, “i’m in love with both of you!”
summary: damian glared at her fiercely and she shrunk back. “i can assure you, lila rossi is most definitely not my soulmate. perhaps you should check everything she has said on google. it does exist you know.”
Said girl stirred a little, mumbling, “5 more minutes, maman.”
“Marinette!”
Yet she did not respond, rolling over to cover her ears with the pillow next to her.
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, if you do notwake up right now you are going to miss your flight to New York!”
Sabine Cheng stifled a laugh at her daughter’s high-pitched shriek.
**
Marinette grumbled as she picked herself up from the ground.
Amazing start to the day, rolling off your bed and falling down.
“Cheer up, Marinette!” Tikki said, unfailingly happy in the morning (as always). “You’re going to go on your America tour today!”
Her chosen brushed her teeth faster, while simultaneously trying to make sure she had everything ready. “Tikki, am I missing anything?” she asked frantically.
While looking at the list Marinette made, Tikki smiled fondly at her chosen, hoping that the Rossi girl and Marinette’s ex-friends didn’t ruin the trip Marinette had worked so hard to organize.
Since Bustier couldn’t be bothered to, it fell onto Marinette to plan the senior trip. It was supposed to be educational and fun, in a way, since they would be required to write an essay about their trip. It counted for more than 50% of their grade.
With help from her friends (Alix, Kim, Max and Chloe), in no time, Marinette had developed an outline of what places they could visit.
Theoriginalplan (before it was presented to the class) was to go to New York, Metropolis, LA and then finally California.
But nooo, Lila Rossi just hadto see her so-called soulmate, Damian Wayne (“Marinette, how could you?” “How could I what?” “How could you just exclude Gotham because I want to see my soulmate?”), billionaire Bruce Wayne’s son.
Despite Marinette’s warnings, Mdm. Bustier forced her to change the itenary so that Lila could see her ‘soulmate’ (“Marinette, please change the locations.” “But Mdm. Bustier, Gotham is one of the most crime-ridden-” “I will not stand for your petty grievances, Marinette. Change it at once.”) and so the list had become:
California, New York, Metropolis and thenGotham.
Nevertheless, Marinette beamed as she waved to her parents, feeling excited.
“You can stop waving now,” Chloe remarked dryly, filing her nails. “They’re out of sight.”
**
You might be wondering, what happened to elicit such a changebetween their relationship.
Lila.
That was one thing Marinette had to thank her for. She showed Marinette who her realfriends were, a.k.a Chloe, Alix, Kim and Max.
Chloe didn’t believe Lila from the start (“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Does she expect meto believe that Jagged Stone, the one who lives in my hotel every monthowns a cat? Everyone knows he’s allergic to them!”) but Max was disillusioned when some of the things Lila said didn’t line up – “I got tinnitus from saving Jagged Stone’s cat from an airplane!” “You would’ve become deaf. Not suffer from tinnitus.” “Don’t be silly, Max!” – case in point.
Kim and Alix, on the other hand, came to know when Lila mixed her names up (“I know Michael Phelps – he’s such an amazing skater, Alix. I could give you some tips from him!” “Michael Phelps? Isn’t he a swimmer?”) and (Marinette snorted when she heard that) said Michael Phelps was a skater.
That certainly didn’t earn her any points with thosetwo.
In the end, Marinette could say she would take her life right nowthan the one before because until Lila came, she never really noticed how whinythe class was.
She shuddered when she remembered the never-ending requests they had – and they expected herto do it for free.
Thank god she got away from them.
**
In response to Chloe’s statement from earlier, Marinette mock-glared at her. “I know,Chloe. I was about to stop.”
“Sure, Mari,” sniffed her best friend.
Marinette protested feebly. “Really!”
“Uh-huh,” Chloe continued to file her nails, completely uninterested.
Before Marinette could retort, the door burst open and two balls of chaos rolled into the car with one poor Max.
“Ha! I won, Kim, you owe me 30 Euros!” Alix crowed triumphantly.
Kim, as expected, disagreed. “No way, pipsqueak! Iwon.”
“I did.”
“No, I did.”
“I did.”
“Can you both pleasesit properly?” Chloe pushed them with a surprising amount of strength. “You’re wrinklingthe car leather.”
In response, the two of them stuck their tongues out.
Marinette snickered at the expression on Chloe’s face – exasperation, pureexasperation.
Maxfinallyup righting himself, stood up unsteadily as he walked to the only empty seat next to Marinette.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Kim said, pulling Max onto his lap.
Max squeaked, his cheeks turning a fiery shade of red.
Alix cackled, “Poor Max. Kim, you reallyshouldn’t do that. You’re going to give the poor boy a heart attack.”
Marinette sighed happily for her friends. She was honestly elated that Kim and Max had found their soulmate in each other. They were just adorable!
She fairly beamed when Marinette saw the love-sick smile on Chloe’s face. It meant she was talking to Kagami.
Alix hadn’t found hers yet and according to the girl herself, she wasn’t really bothered by it either because she was ace.
Marinette just wished she could find hersoulmate.
Soulmate bonds – in their world – came in different types. For example, Chloe and Kagami’s bond was the word bond. Each had a word or a phrase written circling their wrists (“Excuse me, you dropped your phone.” “Thank you”) and whoever said those words was their soulmate.
Kim and Max had the string-bond – one of the strongest bonds in existence. The bond only surfaced when it decided whether the two people were readyto become lovers.
Marinette had the aura bond – one of the most difficultbonds to find your soulmate with. Basically, her aura and her soulmate’s aura – when they meet – would touch each other and glow.
It was extremely rare to witnesssuch a bonding and even rarerfor someone to find their soulmate with it.
She often wondered whether she would ever findher soulmate. At first, she thought her soulmate was Chat Noir, after all, wasn’t he her other half?
But their auras did not connect when they met.
“Marinette?” She snapped out of her thoughts when Chloe shook her arm. “Come on! We’re at the airport!”
**
After checking in – and successfully avoiding Lila’s attempts at sabotage (“Oh my gosh, Marinette! Your ticket is ripped to shreds, you can’t come!” “Well, it’s a good thing I made two copies then, isn’t it? Just in case I lost mine.”) – Marinette sighed and resigned herself to listening to Lila’s bullshit for the next few hours.
Unfortunately, she and Alix had gotten the seats rightbehind her and Alya.
“-and then Prince Ali took me out on a date!” Lila was babbling.
Alya gasped theatrically, right on cue. “Oh my gosh, girl! How did it go?”
“Well-”
Marinette groaned and resisted the urge to throw herself out of the window. “Kill me now,” she said tiredly, “Please.”
Alix didn’t look like she was faring any better and glared at the idiots in front of them. “Why did we have to get stuck with them?”
“I don’t know,” Marinette banged her head on the table in front of her. “But what I doknow is that the next few hours are going to be torture.”
**
By the time the plane landed, Alix was eyeing the knife in her hand murderously, clearly plotting Lila and Alya’s murder, and Marinette had scribbled uselessly on 2 clean pages of paper because Lila’s voice was interrupting her inspiration.
“FINALLY!” Alix screamed, running around like a maniac. “FINALLY, WE GET TO LEAVE THOSE-” Yelling some extreme profanities, she continued, “BEHIND!”
Even though the attendants were eyeing the two of them like they were crazy, Marinette didn’t care because finally.
How did anyone believe Lila anyway?
**
The next day, Marinette argued with Chloe the better color for her new sketchbook at one of the gift shops near the Statue of Liberty. “Red it better because it’s so bright but not toobright. That way, if I don’t know where it is, I can just look. For. RED!”
Snatching the yellow one off the shelves, Chloe held it in front of Marinette’s eyes. “NO! Yellow! Red would just mergeinto your room because it’s pink, while yellow would be more obvious!”
“But yellow is too brightfor the night!”
Offended, Chloe gasped. “How dare you-”
Seeing as they were dragging the attention of other customers, Alix snatched both the books from their hands and put it on the counter. “Both of them, please.”
As they walked out of the stationary shop (Chloe and Marinette still arguing) the three of them spotted Lila, Alya, Mylene and Rose walking out of a boutique loaded with bags.
“I can’t believe they’re going shoppingwhen we’re supposed to be taking notes for the essay.” Alix muttered glaring at them with disgust.
Chloe smirked icily. “It doesn’t matter because when they fail the essay, it’ll be theirfault.”
Marinette and Chloe agreed to disagree in favor of scorning Lila and her cronies.
**
California was the funpart of the trip. With its beaches and just right weather, Marinette and crew set up their site somewhere on the beach.
They spent most of their days running around, playing games and in Marinette’s case being completely oblivious to the boys flirting with her.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t help wonder whyHawkmoth wasn’t striking. It had been 3 days now and yet there was no akuma. Perhaps he was giving hera break since Chat Noir didn’t show up to half the fights anyway.
It certainly wasn’t because Gabriel Agreste was frantically planning for his spring line of which the developments got delayed due to his…terrorizing activities.
They were in Metropolis now and Marinette was currently stuck inside a sideways bus.
How, you ask?
She saved a young girl from being the hostage of the villain. Unfortunately, because she wasn’t Ladybug then her reflexes weren’t as fast and now Marinette was stuck inside the bus being the villain’s hostage.
Just a regular day for her.
Along with Chloe, Alix was yelling, “Mari, what is wrong with you?”
“Marinette, is her name?” asked the terribly-dressed villain (seriously, was he color blind or something?), “Alrighty then! Superman!” he bellowed suddenly.
Superman appeared almost immediately and distracted the villain.
While,Superboypulled Marinette out and set her beside her friends where she was promptly pulled into a bone-crushing hug.
“Guys,” she gasped, exaggerating only slightly(read:a lot), “Can’t….breathe…need…to…breathe!”
Finally, they let her go and just before Superboy was about to take off, Marinette called out, “Thank you!”
In reponse, he merely tipped an imaginary hat.
**
Marinette muttered angrily while Kim and Alix rough-housed with each other blow some steam.
How could they? She fumed. How f*cking could they?
Their ‘class’ had left them behind in Gotham Park. And Mdm. Bustier (someteacher) hadn’t even bothered to do attendance to check if everyone was there.
Marinette would even go as far as to bet that Lilawas the one to engineer this.
“Look OUT!”
Yelping, Marinette tumbled down laughing when a Great Dane came jumping on her, licking her face.
Giggling, she ran her hands through his fur making no move to get up.
“Marinette!” Chloe gasped, running to her, “Are you okay?”
Still playing with the unnamed dog, Marinette giggled out a “Yes,”.
“Ms, I am sosorry,” a masculine voice gasped, evidently from running. “Titus, no. Bad-”
Marinette sat up slowly. “It’s fine, your dog – Titus, is it? – is really very cute.”
“Cute?” Surprise laced his tone. “Most people describe Titus as scary. I haven’t seen him take to someone so fast.”
Standing up with Chloe’s help, Marinette brushed her outfit and made eye contact with the man.
Her breath suddenly whooshedout of her chest.
And slowly, slowly but steadily, her pinkish red aura reached out and merged with his dark emerald one.
As Marinette watched in wonder, the two of them slowly formed a beautiful, breath-taking gold turning brighter and brighterand then it was gone.
The only sign it had been there was a little heart made out of a puff smoke – one side red, the other green.
“Oh my god, Mari,” Chloe breathed. “I think that’s your soulmate!”
You think?
◇─◇──◇─◇
When Damian went to walk Titus that afternoon, he expected it to go normally.
He certainly didn’t expect Titus to run off and then meet his soulmate all in one go.
Nevertheless, he swallowed thickly and introduced himself, “My name is Damian Wayne.”
His soulmate’s friends looked at him in shock but his soulmate didn’t have any such reaction. If she was surprised, she was doing a damn good job of hiding it. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”
“Marinette,” her glasses friend said, “Don’t you know who that is?”
She turned to him curiously. “He’s my soulmate, Max.”
The girl – familiar from somewhere, he thinks – slaps her forehead and pulls Marinette to her side while whispering something in her ear.
“Oh!” Marinette’s cheeks suddenly colored and she said, “I didn’t know you were theDamian Wayne, I just-”
Suddenly feeling nervous, Damian interrupted her. “It’s fine,” he said slightly harshly. “It was actually kind of refreshing to meet someone who didn’t know who I was.”
She started blushing all over again and he distantly thinks, it’s cute.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Damian moved forward to try and dispel the awkward silence that had descended upon them. “I’ve never seen you here.”
“Well,” Marinette stutters, “We were actually on a school trip, but our teacher acci-”
“Since Mari’s too nice to tell you it objectively,” Her blonde friend interrupts, “I will. We were left behind by our teacher. Chloe Bourgeois.”
Chloe holds out her hand, eyes threatening and Damian takes it, equally cold.
Somehow sensing the tension between them, Marinette continues, “And we were supposed to go to WE but because they left us behind-”
“-we’re stuck here,” finished a pink-haired girl. “Alix Kubdel.”
Nodding towards her (she certainly seemed better than Chloe), Damian sends a small smile to his soulmate (his heart beat faster at the thought that he found his soulmate). “I can take you to WE if you want. But how did your teacher just forgetyou existed?”
Exchanging looks with her tall friend, Marinette gestures towards him and says, “Kim will tell you.”
**
By the time they have reached WE, Damian is fumingresisting the urge to go and murder this Lila Rossi and Adrien Agreste and the rest of their idiot classmates.
Whotells someone letting a pathological liar, lie and lie is taking the ‘high road’?
What kind of friends ditch someone who did so muchfor them just like that?
And the liar. Damian seethed at the thought of her. How dare she, how dare she targethissoulmate.
“Woah, Damian, man,” said Kim – the tall one, “You might want to calm down. You’re scaring the people.”
Breathe Damian. Breathe.
Inhaling with great difficulty, Damian said, “I am going to murderyour class and teacher. And I won’t even make it look like an accident.”
Chloe finally looked at him with something other than wariness as she murderously said, “I’ll help you.”
Marinette panicked looking at their serious expressions. “No! You guys can’t do that!”
“Watch me,” Damian snarled.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Richard Grayson considered himself to be a good person.
So,whothought he deserved this?
This being a class (and teacher) without braincells because they believe every damn word out of a patheticliar’s mouth. Seriously, hadn’t they heard of something called Google?
Oh, and as if thatwasn’t enough, the teacher had forgotten about 5 students and stated, “They are troublemakers anyway, we can start without them,”
Was she insane?
She was a goddamnteacher! Didn’t she know it was her jobto make sure they straightened out?
Gritting his teeth, he said with a patience did notfeel, “Mdm. Bustier, we cannotstart the tour without your missing students. You will have to findthem and get them here.”
So, here he was.
Waiting for the idiot of the teacher to try and get her students to WE.
Needless to say, he was elatedwhen the WE doors slammed open and Damian came striding in (even though he looked like he was about to murder someone).
“Lil’ D!” Dick yelled, hoping Damian saw the pleading in his eyes, “Come meet the class we’re touring today!”
Growling, Damian walked right passed him and glared icily at the class. “Which one of you is the liar?” he hissed, glaring at everyone.
When no one responded, Dick volunteered himself, “That one.”
Damian shot him a slightly thankful look and advanced to her. “You,” he spat. “Lie about my soulmate one more time and I’ll end you.”
Turning her nose up at him, she sniffled theatrically. “How dare you say that to me? My soulmate is Damian Wayne and he’ll have the Wayne lawyers on you in seconds.”
By now, everyone (employees included) had frozen, watching the drama eagerly. But when Lie-la said that.
Most people burst out laughing immediately, and Dick would have too, had she not said Damianwas her soulmate. “What do you mean, Mdm. Rossi, that Damian is your soulmate?”
Smirking triumphantly, her olive-green eyes sparkled maliciously as she said, “Damian Wayne is my soulmate.”
Woah.Shereallyhadn’t done her research. “Mdm. Rossi,” Dick said coldly. “Damian is not your soulmate.”
“And how would you know that?” An ombre-haired, glasses-wearing girl glared at him.
“Because,” he said coolly, “I am his brother andyou do realize that Damianwas the one to tell you to stay away from his soulmate?”
Lila paled and Dick felt satisfaction course through him.
But then he registered what Damian said. He had found his soulmate.
“Wait, Damian,” Dick asked turning to him, “Just whois your soulmate?”
“I am,” a female voice said. A short blue-haired girl with pale skin walked next to Damian and held out her hand. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng,”
Dick smiled at the girl and shook it firmly. “Dick Grayson.”
“But that’s not possible,” cried out the glasses-wearing girl, Alya. “Lilais Damian’s soulmate!”
Damian glared at her fiercely and she shrunk back. “I can assure you, Lila Rossi is most definitely notmy soulmate. Perhaps you should check everything she has said on Google. It doesexist you know.”
Alya quickly pulled out her phone and was probably searching up everything Lila told her.
The rest of her class watched her in tense silence and then backed away slowly as they saw the unbridled fury grow in her eyes. “You.” Alya hissed. “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!”
◇─◇──◇─◇
Marinette jumped when she felt a hand touch her elbow.
It was Adrien. “Marinette,” he hissed, “What are you doing? Why are you exposing Lila?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Adrien,” she said loudly, drawing the attention of Damian. “Maybe it’s because she’s been lying about me?”
“But she wasn’t-”
“Hurting anyone?” Marinette glared at him coldly. “She was, Adrien. Me.And you and your ‘high road’ bullshit can go and rot in hell for all I care.”
“Wait,” asked Nino, hurt evident in his expression. “Adrien knewall this time?”
Chloe smiled icily. “Yes. He didn’t wantto expose Lie-la because she wasn’t ‘hurting anyone’,”
And then suddenly, the entire class was rounding on Adrien, who was frantically trying to explain his actions.
In the chaos, no one noticed Lila advance closer and closer to Marinette.
She jumped onto her and screeched, “MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG,I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”
Lilaattemptedto try and choke Marinette but said girl was quicker, stronger and smarter.
Marinette quickly backed away and flipped her onto her back, pinning Lila’s wrists together.
“Let me go!”Lila was thrashing around trying to get out of Marinette’s hold.
“Mdm. Rossi, you are under arrest for assault and attempted murder,” came the cool voice of an unfamiliar officer.
As one of his men handcuffed Lila, Damian wrapped Marinette into a warm hug. He opened his mouth to say something but Alya interrupted him.
“Marinette!” she called. “I’m so sorry! Can you give me an interview with theDamian Wayne?”
Marinette goggled at her, unable to process what she said. Turning to Chloe, she asked, “Did she actually just saythat?”
“Well?” Alya tapped her foot impatiently and Marinette glared at her.
“No,Alya, I will notgive you an interview with Damian,” she hissed.
Alya looked gobsmacked. “But…why? I’m your best friend!”
“Best friend?” Marinette laughed. “Best friends don’t leave each other when the next shiny thing comes around. Best friends don’t ditch other. Best friends don’t believe a liar over each other. And besides,” she added sweetly. “Youare not my best friend. Chloeis.”
Chloe beamed at her.
“Alright,” Dick clapped. “I know this must be a nasty shock-”
Damian Al-Ghul eyes the assassin in front of him. “Are you sure?” he asks with no semblance of emotion.
The assassin bows his head. “Yes. The Great Guardian of the Miraculous is currently in New York City.”
“And what does the Guardian do?”
“The Guardian has a business she owns – designing for various…celebrities,” The assassin displays disgust at the word, but Damian ignores it.
“And her name?” he asks.
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”
Pursing his lips, Damian motions for him to leave. “Leave. And permit no one to enter.”
Bowing once again, the assassin leaves the room and shuts it behind him.
Damian rubs his temple, wondering just howhe could kidnap the Great Guardian of the Miraculous. She had the most powerful miraculous in her hands, and if he was not stealthy enough, the Guardian would detect him.
Yes,him.
Damianwas going to go and kidnap her for the miraculous. But the plan would have to be flawless and well executed.
So far, no one knew of his idea and Damian planned to keep it that way.
Now, back to the plan…
◇─◇──◇─◇
A few weeks later…
Marinette smiles brightly (and fakely) feeling her cheeks hurt with how hardshe was smiling.
Once she walked into her office, she slams the door shut and slides against it.
Her shaking shoulders and telltale sting in her eyes tell her that she’s about to start crying again.
“Why?” Marinette whispers to the room. “Why did he have to do it now?”
‘He’ was Adrien Agreste, her ex-fiancé.
The previous night, he had broken off their engagement for reasons Marinette couldn’t fathom to understand.
**
Smiling stiffly, Marinette smiles for the cameras outside the restaurant.
“That’s right,” Adrien whispers into her ears, also waving for the paparazzi. “You’re doing great!”
Marinette says nothing, somewhat annoyed at him for ruining what was supposed to be a privatedinner.
After 10 minutes of constant smiling, she finally relaxes into the limo. “Done,” she groans.
Adrien looks at her with an odd look in his eye. Then, Marinette didn’t realize what it meant.
As the car glides to her apartment, Marinette discusses her latest designs for her business. “-And if I finish it, it would be a huge boost!” she finishes excitedly.
“A boost you wouldn’t needif you joined Gabriel.” Adrien points out – for the millionth time – and Marinette sighs.
“Adrien,” she says, “We’ve discussed this. I am notgoing to be joining Gabriel as one of the designers. I have my own dreams to fulfill.”
And later, as Marinette reflects, this is what made him snap.
He stiffens up and they sit in uncomfortable silence for the rest of the ride.
Once they reach her apartment, Adrien asks her, “Marinette, would you mind if I came to drop you off?”
“No, of course not,” she says, oblivious to what comes next.
Inside her apartment, Adrien looks at her. “Marinette,” he begins in the patronizing tone she hates. “I’m giving you a choice.”
She stares at him. “What choice?”
He breathes in. “Either, you join Gabriel and we can continue our relationship or…”
“Or what?” Marinette asks, still not completely sure what’s happening.
“Or it’s the end.” Adrien finishes, looking at her with those hopeful green eyes as he was expecting her to choose the first option.
As if he was thinking she would give up her dreams, something she spent yearsmaking true, just for him.
“What are you doing, kid?” Plagg flies out of Adrien’s pocket and glares at him.
Adrien looks at Plagg as is he’s the one being stupid. “I’m giving Marinette a choice.”
“A choice between youand her job?What’swrongwith you kid?” Plagg asks bluntly.
Apparently, his owner is unwilling to listen and snaps, “Shut up, Plagg.”
As Plagg opens his mouth to speak, Adrien says it again. “Plagg. I order you to shut up.”
The kwami’s mouth snaps shut.
Marinette’s jaw drops open and Tikki and the other kwami’s fly out in indignation.
“Adrien,” Marinette asks sternly, “Whatare you doing?”
“Marinette,” Adrien says as if that will excuse what he’s done, “I gave you a choice. You pick.”
Seething now, Marinette glares at him. “I pick-”
“Me right?” Adrien asks excitedly, as if she would actuallydo that after what he’s done in the last past 5 minutes.
“No,” Marinette hisses. “Ipick my business.”
Now it’s Adrien’s turn to be shocked. “What?” he gasps. “But what about us-”
Practically fuming now, Marinette advances on him. “I wasn’t the one who gave the ultimatum Adrien. You were. And you can take it back how much you want. But Iwon’t be coming back.”
She snatches the ring on her finger and slams it onto her table, feeling spiteful satisfaction when it shatters to pieces.
An analogy of their relationship really.
“Nowget out.” Marinette dares him to try and fight her.
Still shocked, Adrien walks backwards, towards the door. “Come on, Plagg.”
Plagg tries to say something, but all that comes out is a muffled noise.
Enraged, Marinette snaps her fingers and he can speak again.
“You wish, kid,” Plagg hisses flying to the rest of the kwamis.
Adrien glares at him – as if he ownsPlagg, “Plagg, I orderyou to come with me!”
But nothing happens because Marinette has snatched the ring from Adrien’s hand. “Out.”
“But my miracu-” he stutters, looking at her with betrayal.
Later on, she will laugh bitterly at the irony.
“OUT!” Marinette yells, but yetAdrien still tries.
“Marinette-”
And for the first time in Marinette’s entire time, she’s had the Ladybug Miraculous, Tikki yells.
Boy, does she yell.
“GET OUT OF HER HOUSE!” Tikki screeches. “GET OUT NOWADRIEN AGRESTE OR I SWEAR I WILL MURDERYOU,RIGHT NOW!”
Adrien hightails out.
And hours after he has left, Marinette is sobbing with the kwamis trying to comfort her.
**
Coming back to the present, Marinette wishes she hadn’t left Tikki behind today. For two reasons really, 1) she could reallyuse her support and 2) Marinette felt like she was being watched.
Instead, Marinette tries to think about what Tikki would have said. He isn’t worth your tears, Marinette, she would say fiercely, you deserve so much better than him.
Yes, Marinette thinks, standing up and smoothing her clothes out, Tikki would say that.
Walking to her desk, Marinette opens up her laptop and while waiting she organizes her desk.
She pauses when she sees a dark shape behind her.
What in the kwam-
Spinning around, Marinette gives her attacker a solid punch in the jaw, smirking triumphantly when she hears himcurse loudly.
But it was far too soon, because later, to the smell of chloroform, Marinette falls into the waiting arms of unconsciousness.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Damian rubs the ice pack over his jaw thoughtfully, while assessing the short woman tied to the chair.
She is stronger than she looks, he thinks thoughtfully.
He smiles wryly, remembering the solid, surprise punch to the jaw she gave him.
When she starts to stir, Damian immediately makes his face blank and sets the ice pack down.
“Where am I?” she mumbles and he is momentarily thrown off by the innocence in her voice. For some reason, it appealsto him.
Clearing his throat, Damian waits for her to open her eyes before addressing her. “You,” he says coldly, “Are in the lair of the League of the Assassins.”
She stiffens up immediately and her eyes (beautiful ones) become glaciers. “Why?” she hisses. “The Order has done nothing to you.”
“Exactly,” Damian says walking closer to her. “Nothing.Zero. Zip. Nada. I wish to know why.”
She glares at him, subtly (but not subtle enough) trying to loosen her bonds. “And so, you kidnappedme?”
“Yes,” Damian says casually. “And I also want the Miracle Box.”
Her back straightens defiantly. “What makes you think Ihave it?”
Laughing softly, Damian looks at her. “You don’t think I would have done my research, Marinette Duoain-Cheng, Ladybug, former superheroine of Paris?”
She doesn’t look to surprised at the use of her name and alias. “I was hoping,” she admitted, “Damian Al-Ghul.”
And Damian can safely say he is shockedshe managed to get his real name. He made sure to keep it a secret.
“Interesting,” he says, walking around her. “Bit you still didn’t answer my question. Whereis the Miracle Box?”
Marinette tips her head back and gives him a cocky smirk (and for some reason Damian wants to kiss it of her lips). “What makes you think Ihave it? After all, if you know I was Ladybug, then you mustknow I had a partner too?”
He doesn’t miss the emphasis on ‘had’. Damian wonders if it has something to do with the momentary weakness she displayed once she was in her office.
His expression shifts uncomfortably, feeling like he wanted to murder the one who made her so…weak.
It disappears in a flash.
Replying as cockily as her, Damian smirks. “Unlikely because Wang Fu trusted you much more than your partner and fiancé, Adrien Agreste also known as Chat Noir.”
“Ex-fiancé,” she says almost angrily and then Marinette snaps her mouth shut as if she hadn’t meant to say that.
Quirking an eyebrow at her, Damian says, “This must be recent development because otherwise it would be all over the news.”
She rolls her eyes at that. “Yeah, because Adrien just hadto make us look good for the press,” she mumbles, apparently unaware he can hear her.
Ignoring the ugly feeling in his stomach, Damian eyes her thoughtfully. Perhaps if he opened her up more, she would give him more information about the Box.
(Definitely not because he wanted to know more about her)
Thisbeing opening up to Damian Al-Ghul, her quite literally arch enemy.
But here she was, telling him all about her issues with Adrien and how they broke up.
“-And then, he gave mean ultimatum – either I join Gabrielor we break up! And then when P-”
Marinette pauses abruptly. Shit. How could she have fallen for this trick?
He must have noticed the tear tracks on her face, she thinks.
“And then?” Damian looks at her with interest – interest that is faked, she tells herself firmly.
Realizing she should probably continue so as to not arouse his suspicion, Marinette says, “He did something I couldn’t forgive. So, I broke off the engagement.”
“There’s more to the story,” Damian says, no demands.
Marinette shrugs – or as much as she could in her bonds. “That’s all I’m willing to tell you.”
Damian presses his lips together and it draws her attention to them.
They look soft, she thinks longingly and almost immediately snaps out of it.
“Fine,” Damian snaps. “I’ll let you go.”
Marinette gapes at him as he rummages around his desk for a knife.
Quickly, he pulls one out and she stiffens. What if he’s going to kill her?
But that would defeat his purpose, she reasons. But isn’t letting her go alsodefeating his purpose?
She waits, her heart thumping, and Marinette feels her muscles become slack with shock when he actuallycuts her loose.
Unsure, why he is doing this, warily Marinette gets up and promptly tumbles into his chest.
“Mmph,” she says and she feels her cheeks color in a way they haven’t since Adrien.
Damian’s arms are wrapped around her and she can smell the scent of the cologne he uses.
Backing off, Marinette winces as she rubs her wrists. “Why are you doing this?” she misses Damian’s eyes tracking her wrists and then him cringing at her wince.
“Because I want to,” he says brusquely.
Glaring at him defiantly, she replies, “That’s no answer.”
“No, it’s not,” Damian agrees. “But if you want to escape, now’s the time.” He gestures to the door.
Marinette wastes no time, launching herself out and then taking off into the streets of New York.
Thank Kwami Damian took her somewhere familiar, she thinks as Marinette runs through the streets zigzagging for the benefit of any followers.
Taking the longer route to her apartment, Marinette stares at the Kwamis wide-eyed. “You will neverbelieve what happened to me.”
**
That night, as Marinette lay in bed, she wonders why Damian Al-Ghul of all people let her go.
Little does she know, said man is wondering the same thing himself.
All Marinette wanted was onenight of relaxation. Was that so hard to ask?
Her phone buzzed with a text from Adrien, once againbegging for her forgiveness, apologizing for his actions, promising to make it better.
It was the same story everyday since the day she caught him kissing Lila in Marinette’sapartment.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Marinette hummed along with the song playing in her earbuds, carefully clutching onto her sketchbook so that it didn’t fly away.
She may be older now, but that didn’t mean her clumsiness wasn’t prone to show up now and then.
The song paused when an incoming call from Chloe flashed across her phone, and Marinette picked up immediately.
“Hey, Chlo!” she said, cheerfully. “What’s up?”
“Mari. Mom says you can go to-”
She cut off abruptly and the distinct sound of phone-wrestling was heard.
“Marinette,” Audrey Bourgeois’ cool, confident voice was heard. “You are going to be going to the USA as an ambassador for our partnership with the Waynes. My assistant will forward the details to you.”
The call was cut, leaving Marinette staring at her screen open-mouthed.
The USA? To form a deal with the Waynes?
Marinette phone, for the second time in the last few minutes, flashed with an incoming call from Chloe.
“Sorry about that Mari,” She sounded out of breath as if she had just yelled at someone.
Marinette laughed nervously. “It’s alright. But…what did Audrey mean about a deal with the Waynes?”
A man bumped into her and Marinette stumbled.
“Watch it,” he hissed and Marinette rolled her eyes, nervousness momentarily forgotten.
She started walking towards her apartment in favour of standing in the middle of the street.
As Chloe explained, Marinette fumbled with her keys, opening the door to her apartment.
The scene she saw made her jaw drop and her keys fall.
Adrien and Lila were tangled up together on the couch, vehemently kissing.
They hadn’t even noticed her coming in.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Marinette thanked the flight attendant with a polite smile and pulled her suitcase through the airport.
As she emerged through the sliding doors, Gotham looked every bit of the gloomy and dark place it was described to be.
Rain poured down in torrents, sliding over cars.
Marinette, thankfully, got out of the rain unscathed and as she stepped into the limo that Audrey provided her with, Marinette gaped at the luxuriousness of it.
The female Bourgeois’ fortune never failed to shock her.
“To the hotel, ma'am?” asked the American driver, looking at her through the rear-view mirror.
Marinette cleared her throat and nodded. “Yes.”
The car started to move and curiously, Marinette looked outside the window, watching as the buildings flew by.
One, in particular, stood out, looking particularly grand and elegant compared to the other flashy buildings next to it.
On the building, a big ‘W’ was stamped upon it, and Marinette assumed it was the esteemed headquarters of Wayne Enterprises.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when the car came to a standstill, in front of a grand building, adorned with bright lights giving it a certain flair.
Marinette stepped out of the limousine already seeing some very harried-looking people hurrying to her.
“Welcome,welcome, Madame Dupain-Cheng,” A moustached man said exuberantly with a prominent french accent.
Marinette assumed he was french so she smiled at him politely and said, “Bonjour, Monsieur.”
Quickly, he took her single bag and directed her to her room, and Marinette had to say Audrey Bourgeois went all out on this one.
The room was luxuriously decorated with chandeliers and sparkling bottles of champagne in ice.
“Please do call if you need anything.”
Marinette nodded, still in shock as she shut the door behind him.
As soon as she did, her phone began to ring and Chloe’s name flashed across the screen.
Marinette sighed as she picked up. “Do you have some superpower?”
“I know I’m special Mari, you don’t need to remind me.” Marinette could practically hear the smugness in her voice.
“Sure, Chloe,” she drawled, walking into her room. “So, what’s up?”
“Two things,” Chloe said, suddenly business-like. “First, Adrien is taken care of. He doesn’t know you’ve gotten a new phone number, so he can’t call you anymore.”
Marinette felt some of the tension in her shoulders flow out of her. “Thanks, Chlo. What would I do without you?”
“Probably shrivel up and die.” Chloe sniffed haughtily but Marinette knew she was touched. “But anyway, two, I’ll be coming to Gotham the day after tomorrow, but you have a meeting with the Waynes tomorrow itself, so you’ll have to meet them on your own.”
Marinette groaned. “Seriously? Can’t you come tomorrow?”
She could hear the smirk in her best friend’s voice as she said, “Nope. You know I can’t. I still have to deal with the fall of the Gabriel Empire. Mom says there’s a lot to be taken care of and I can’t leave before that.”
Only sighing in response, Marinette flopped onto her bed. “I take back what I said before.”
Chloe cackled and Marinette was struck with a sense of dread. This wasn’t going to end well.
“You, Mari,” she said, “Are going to hate me even more after this.”
“Chloe-” Marinette started but said girl interrupted her before she could say anything.
“You,” Chloe paused dramatically. “Are going to be going on a night out. To themost famous club in Gotham.”
Marinette groaned. “Chloe, no.”
“Chloe, yes.” The girl cackled again. “I told you, you were going to hate me after this.”
Marinette sighed, this was a conversation they had somany times before.
It was always the same thing; Chloe thought Marinette should go and find more fish in the sea (especially after Adrien) and Marinette didn’t agree.
She was perfectly fine on her own.
“Marinette,” Chloe said, and this time, said girl knew she meant business. “It’s been agessince you’ve had some fun, especially with the work Mom’s putting you under. Now, you’re not even dating Adrien, so you can hook up with people. C'mon Mari, you’re in your twenties, live a little.”
Marinette sighed, already resigned.
“You’re lucky I brought some dresses with me.”
Marinette was already regretting her decision to listen to Chloe.
The club was loud, ridiculously loud and Marinette was already starting to get a headache from the volume.
She needed a drink.
It was most definitely a bad decision, but Chloe said to let go, and that was exactlywhat Marinette was doing.
Striding to the bartender confidently, Marinette asked for the strongest drink they have.
She settled herself on a barstool, sipping her drink, content with watching the writhing masses of the people.
“What’s a pretty lady like yourself doing alone?” A sleazy voice crooned.
Marinette cringed.
She turned around, only to see a mucholder man, smirking at her, clearly leering at her body.
“None of your business,” Marinette said shortly and turned her back to him.
“Aw, don’t be like that, love.”
Shuddering in disgust as she felt his hand on her arm, Marinette stood up.
And promptly stumbled over her feet.
So maybe she had had too much to drink.
“Get away from me,” she yelled over the loud music.
The man ignored her protest as he tightened his grip on her arm.
Marinette was getting ready to kick him right where it hurt when the man’s hand was ripped off her.
“I think,” a voice said casually, “She said to get away from her. I suggest you do that before things get messy.”
Marinette turned around to see a veryhandsome dark-haired man defending her honour.
She would be lying if she didn’t say she wasn’t attracted to him.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when her assailant stepped forward and tilted his head in a way Marinette assumed he thought was intimidating.
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t in the slightest.
Her 'knight in shining armour’ smirked. “Are we seriously going to do this?”
Marinette snorted. “Clearly.”
Shooting her a look that screamed danger, Marinette’s assailant stepped forward with his fist cocked.
Any bystander would have assumed that it was for the man standing next to Marinette.
Instead, his fist came flying to her and Marinette’s Ladybug instincts kicked in.
She ducked and shoved him back as hard as she could.
Marinette may or may not have underestimated how much strength she had.
He went flying and slammed into one of the chairs behind him.
“Oh my god,” the man whose name she stilldidn’t know, gaped.
Marinette stifled her laugh as all the people near them turned and gaped at him, assuming it was himwho caused the commotion.
“What the hell is going on here?’ A burly bouncer stood in front of them, arms crossed.
Marinette blinked her eyes open slowly as they adjusted to the light.
Where was she?
Light was streaming through the large windows of whatever room she was in and the sheets under her were as soft as silk.
Marinette tried to remember how exactly she ended up here.
◇─◇──◇─◇
As Marinette’s assailant was being kicked out of the club, her knight turned to her.
"So,” he said charmingly and Marinette cursed herself as her heartbeat sped up. “I wasn’t expecting that, but it certainly wasn’t unwelcome. Maybe it’ll teach him something about consent.”
Marinette shrugged lightly. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“It was one,” he responded humorously.
Marinette decided it was time she got his name.
“So,” she started casually. “Who ismy knight in shining armour? I think I deserve to know.”
He bowed. “Dick.”
Marinette reared back. “What?Is that supposed to be a joke?”
“No, no, no,” he said frantically. “My actual name is Richard, but you can callme Dick.”
“Oh.” Marinette felt her cheeks warming up but hopefully, Dick wouldn’t notice. “Well, my name is Marinette.”
◇─◇──◇─◇
After that, things got fuzzy and Marinette vaguely remembered dancing with him.
And then kissing him.
And then coming home with him.
Marinette sat up suddenly, muttering, “This was a terrible decision, I should never have done this, I’m such an idiot-”
She fell silent as the sheets rustled beside her.
Turning around, she saw the man of the night himself stretched out all over the bed, smirking at her. “I didn’t think I was thatbad.”
Marinette rolled her eyes at him. “Cocky much?”
“Well,” he leaned forward, and Marinette willed herself to not look down. “I dohave some good comments and, if I do say so myself-”
He was cut off abruptly with Marinette throwing a pillow at him. “Ever heard of too much information?”
Dick held up his hands in apology. “But seriously, was it good?”
Marinette’s cheeks stained a light pink as she muttered, “Yes.”
He smirked.
“But,” Marinette said, to stop his ego from inflating. “Don’t let it get to your head.”
Obviously, her statement didn’t do anything.
Marinette stood up, picking up her clothes. “Is there anywhere I can change?”
“Already leaving?” Dick pouted and it was adorable.
Marinette had to fight the urge to not melt then and there. “Well, I do have places to be and things to do. So, yes.”
His face fell exaggeratedly and Marinette almostfelt bad.
Almost.
While he was getting out of bed, she fought to keep her gaze on his face only.
It took her a few seconds to realize he was pointing at something.
Feeling her cheeks turn scarlet, Marinette said, “Thanks!” and raced off to the safety of the bathroom.
Dick was left behind, and Marinette could practically hearhis smirk.
◇─◇──◇─◇
“Youwhat?” Chloe screeched. “Oh my god Mari, I’m so proudof you!”
Marinette paused. “That was not the answer I was expecting.”
“I can’t believe yougot laid, that’s amazing-” Chloe sounded like she was about to ramble on and on, so Marinette cut her off.
“I know, and you can rant about it later, but right now, I need your help in getting ready for the Wayne meeting.”
Chloe grumbled but she complied anyway.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Marinette straightened her back as the receptionist let her into the meeting room.
As she entered, Marinette subtly gaped at the luxuriousness of the room. It was beautiful but there were some improvements required.
Her internal rambling was cut off with a veryfamiliar laugh; one she had heard multiple times in the last night.
I feel like it’s high time that someone pointed out that abuse shouldn’t be used to excusea terrible character’s/villain’s actions. It should be used to explainit.
Many authors and media developers try to down play heinous displays that their characters exhibit by giving them dark, gritty, abusive, and bloody backstories to rouse pity in the audience, effectively erasing anything they’d hold he/she accountable for.
Dark backstories shouldn’t be given to characters for the audience to pity them and justify everything they do. It should be used to understand them and their motivations and what shaped their identity that we’re shown on screen.
It shouldn’t be expected that victims of abusive backgrounds will automatically become evil or spawns of satan or a brutal antagonist to the protagonist.
Does it happen in the real world? Of course it does. Many individuals who grew up like this end up directing their anger at the world and do terrible things. Does it always happen? No, it does not. There are people out there who rise above their abusive pasts and are motivated to be good people.
Like, it’s so tiring to see people of abusive backgrounds being condensed into this stereotype. There are books, movies, and shows that manage to stray away from this misguided idea, but that doesn’t stop the audience from taking it out of context.
So, the next time you see someone murder a person for absolute no reason other to further their goals, destroy a planet, take over the world, and/or steal candy from babies, it shouldn’t be excused because they were abused. It should understood,explained, and notjustified.
TL;DR I’ve seen this trope way too many times and I think what made it worse are fans defending awful people or label abused people as potential serial killers. If you want to write a villain/criminal/character tat has an abusive background, go right ahead. But don’t use it to defend and coddle them because of their unfortunate background.
people are literally so boring a male character will kill 10000 people and steal candy from babies and theyll be like omg thats my king! but a female character is rude once and theyre like i hope she dies violently
Maybe instead of saying “hurr durr Marinette is also catty and a liar and a thief and a stalker who disregards Adrien’s personal space”, ask yourself why SO MANY GIRLS IN THIS SHOW are pigeonholed into that stereotype
You’re not groundbreaking defending your fave by salting about other female characters who are “just as bad”
The show is led by men. Figure it out.
Especially when the male lead is arguably doing things that are worse and the only one being given a free pass for it all by the narrative. Including 1) LYING and letting his partner take the blame for an incident that was his fault; 2) trying to blackmail his kwami instead of listening to him; 3) refusing to work with his partner at least twice because she rejected him and still refusing to accept that she’s not interested; 4) listening to and believing in an akuma and sentimonster over his own partner at least twice; 5) using his knowledge of his partner’s identity to date her without her knowing; 6) threatening to abandon the city to drown. And yet we’re supposed to be seeing the female character who did none of these things or was at least called out for the things she did wrong as “worse” somehow because the narrative at least frames her poorly for it.
A lot of us have been saying from the start that the problem is the writing and this is a huge part of the reason why.
To add on to your annoyance, at least every major female character we’re introduced to have any semblance of a memorable personality/character stripped away to condense them into that common stereotype.
Marinette: She has an interesting character. She wants to be a fashion designer (That barely gets explored). She’s half chinese (Which is probably slapped onto her like a sticker to exotify her and in Kung Food she has to have a *white* guy explain her own damn heritage to her). She has a crush on Adrien (That can’t make her think straight, makes her obsessive, and clouds her moral judgement). She has several rivals for a boy who barely thinks of her as a “very good friend”.
Chloe: She had *some* depth in seasons one and two but that ultimately served no purpose as she’s reverted into some kind of murderous villain and hawkmoth’s pawn (Ket’s forget that she’s only a teenager). She is the classic white girl, blonde, and rich bully that amounts to nothing more than an obstacle for the stupid love square.
Kagami: A walking Japanese stereotype. She’s strict, stoic, businesslike and can’t even smile correctly. Also an obstacke for the love square. Her second apperance in Oni-Chan gave her two lines where she sulks over the fact that Lila kissed Adrien before being akumatized. She behave in a way that one would describe as a Yandere. Even if they dated in season four, the writers decided it was okay for Adrien to use her a Ladybug stand in, cheat on her emotionally, and half ass the relationship until Kagami broke things off. She is now delegated to cheering for the love square.
Lila: An Italian transfer student who didn’t even have a reason nor arc as to why she loves Adrien (It’s probably superficial). She’s supposed to be a master manipulator and liar (nevermind the fact that the universe has to bend over backwards and break already existing rules for her lies to work). Was only used total a grand of at least four episodes and all she amounted to was pointless and immature drama. She too like Chloe, became a spawn for Hawkmoth because Ladybug was mean ti her one time.
Case in point, tldr, the girls of MLB, at least the (supposed in Lila and Chloe’s case) important female characters are nothing but accessories for Adrien’s harem. It’s disgusting and sexist. To make matters worse, these girls are the most hated in the fandom and their crushes are portrayed as unreasonable and creepy, while Adricat’s is portrayed as romantic because he’s white, rich, and attractive. And a boy.
Not to be edgy or whatever but I did have a dark fic where Marinette loses her memory and hands over Guardianship to the Order so they can handle Hawk Moth, but Adrien deduces that she’s Ladybug as a result and starts trying to date her. Alya is initially supportive but realises Adrien is sort of unsettling, getting jealous whenever Marinette hangs out with other friends and seeming kinda curt with Alya and Nino. Marinette meanwhile just doesn’t understand the difference between platonic and romantic love and because she doesn’t know Adrien or remember his actions during Origins, she doesn’t really feel anything for him beyond friendship.
I don’t know why my friends were so shocked when they watched the season finale of Miraculous Ladybug and realized it was so bad. Like, I’ve been mentally preparing myself for how ass it was going to be (note: i was kinda caught off guard by how much the stupidity was kicked into overdrive). Everyone and their mother knew that the season 4 finale was going to be just as underwhelming, terribly executed, and downright stupid like it’s predecessors.
Pardon us if the idea of an episode almost definitely taking place in the supposed “rich-sad-cat-boy-getting-the-short-end-of-the-stick arc” of Season 4 doesn’t interest us in the slightest when this season’s timeline literally began with Chat actively hoping for akuma to happen to the point of prodding people about their emotions and showing outright excitement when Chloe was yelling at Sabrina.
Oh, and when he was doing stuff like this in Season 3.
And this.
And that time where his prank nearly made Ladybug’s Lucky Charm fail and he accused her of having no sense of humor when she called him out for it.
And apparently he Cataclysm’d Bunnyx’s miraculous in the future too because of his recklessness.
Soexcuse us if we give a serious side eye at any indication that Chat “deserves more” than he’s already getting.
“Miraculous New York” & “Shadow Moth’s Final Attack”
wow, it’s almost like the love square follows an extremely repetitive pattern because its gimmick can only be maintained for multiple seasons by needless drama, doing the same things over and over to keep the ship in an endless cycle, and forcing of the main character’s feelings while simultaneously propping up the endgame love interest to her
Isn’t it weird that the characters that are treated worst by the fandom, i.e, Marinette, Alya and Kagami, have two things in common, that is being girls and being POC? Like, I have noticed that people in this fandom are usually harder on POC characters than they are on white characters and also treat the girls way more badly than the boys.
I even pointed this out before, when the fandom wanted Luka and Adrien to be the guardian and the superhero duo while wanting Marinette to be erased. They didn’t even want Kagami to be the Cat miraculous holder which makes all the important members of the team male. Both Luka and Adrien are white boys while the characters they deliberately erased were girls of color.
In Rocketear, Nino, a black boy, acted possessive of his gf Alya just like Chat Noir, a white boy, has been acting for three seasons straight, but he still got more flack for doing so than Chat Noir ever got by the mainstream fandom. Many ML stans also support the writers’ idea of making Marinette, a girl of color. apologize to the police in the episode Qilin, which was supposed to tackle racism.
In the show too, girls are usually the ones making wacky decisions, screwing things up and facing the consequences while the boys get to be the perfect angels the writers think they are. And IF the boys do make a mistake at some point, they usually have to face lesser consequences. Their mistakes are often brushed off (Chat Noir’s jealousy in Copy cat) while the girls have to face long term consequences for making a similar sort of mistake (Marinette’s jealousy in Volpina).
The boys are given better friendships and are seen casually supporting each other, while the girls’ friendships often revolve around their crushes and boyfriends. The girls are shown to be fighting over one boy while the boys have no such rivalry. Girls are pitted against each other and hardly get any character development. Marinette still is obsessed over Adrien and Chloe is still a selfish bully while Adrien was able to get over his creepy flirting and Alec, a guy who tried to trash a teenager on tv for his dream job, gets a redemption in one episode.
And these are just a few examples of the discrimination that exists in Miraculous.
With all the racist and misogynistic things I have seen in the show, I feel confident enough to say that a group completely made up of White Men shouldn’t be writing a show about a POC Girl. It is a shame that Miraculous is known as a “Girl power show”.
Thereal mistake is thinking that the majority, if not, allof Marinette’s mistakes and flaws HAVEto revolve around Adrien.
Both “Simon Says” and “Gamer 2.0″ bring up a conflict for Marinette that has nothing to do with Adrien - that fact that she takes on so many responsibilities and activities, and how overwhelmed she is. Does this get addressed or worked on? No. “Simon Says” drops the subplot in favor of the Agrestes, and “Gamer 2.0″ tells Marinette she needs to goof off and play games.
Her jealousy of Chloe being close to Adrien stems from their extended history together - that Chloe has bullied Marinette for years and Marinette has only recently started to stand up for herself. But is Marinette ever allowed to call Chloe out for what she did and receive any closure for the harassment she received?
No. She’s made to feel bad for being relieved that Chloe is leaving school. In fact, she’sthe one to help Chloe find closure regarding her mother, without so much as a thank you for her efforts, or an apology for anythingthat Chloe has made her go through.
And furthermore, Season 1 puts more emphasis on them fighting for Adrien’s affections rather than their own personal history together. Adrien isn’t needed here for this conflict to exist, he just exacerbates it.
Or how about her tendency to jump to conclusions/catastrophize? That mostly revolves around Adrien, but you can easily write an episode where Marinette catastrophizes over something else, like a project, homework, or superhero duties, things that she already stresses out over.
I shouldn’t need to write a mini-essay on why Astruc’s response here is dismissive and completely ignoring the point. Marinette canmake mistakes and canlearn lessons, but
A. they don’t all need to tie back to Adrien
B. tying it into her feelings for Adrien is tiresome and offensive to those in the audience that want Marinette to learn something about her culture
and C. ignores the fact that Marinette can learn lessons that aren’t inherently about “doing the right thing” or morals - she can learnabout her culture and heritage, is that not something worth learning? She can learnmore about her family history and where she came from. Is that not something worth sharing with an audience?
This is why I’m not watching the special or seasons 4 and 5.
miraculous ladybug is a girl?? empowerment??? show???? why does marinette get bashed every episode even when she’s done nothing wrong then? why does adrien never face the consequences of his actions and have the entirety of paris fawning all over him then? heck, the recent finales are all catalysts to worsen maribug’s mental and emotional health. do they want her to suffer that much?
Anonymous asked:
Can someone kidnap Marinette and put her in another show already? Give my poor girl a break
I thought they couldn’t screw her up more than season 3 finale did but here we are
I’ve never seen writers so determined to absolutely destroy their female protagonist’s mental state just for the sake of propping up their male love interest.
Like–if the guy was so great, maybe they wouldn’t need to do it??
And at that point, it just feels like they have to keep tearing her about and dragging her down until she’ll accept AdriChat. Pre-umbrella scene is probably the “best”(?) Marinette will ever be (tbh I’d even prefer pre-Ladybug Marinette because she might grow better without it so longer as she has a good support system) and everything past that is a fall off a cliff.
Adrien just serves as the ground she’s going to crash into in the end.
My God does Strike Back really culminate in the writers’ ethos on how the LS works. That FUCKING breakdown actually enraged me a bit like holy shit. it’s clearly framed as this huge manganimous thing Chat’s doing and uwu superhero corner is winning out guys uwu.
LB breaks down in the saddest fucking moment and the writers still have to have her say ‘I didn’t trust you and kept secrets from you’ to him as if Kuro Neko ain’t still fresh in all our fucking minds of just HOW untrustworthy this guy actually is, like my god….
They really had the gall to have “Kuro Neko” be, what, two episodes away from the finale? And did it all with a straight face.
And if you insert “Miraculous New York” into the canon (where Ladybug rightfully said that she couldn’t trust Chat Noir anymore), then he was the one who’d already proved that he couldn’t be trusted, yet two episodes into Season 4 they’re pretending it didn’t happen.
“I didn’t trust you!” wow I can’t imagine what perfectly valid reason you had for doing that, Ladybug, but I guess there’s no time to talk about that (nor the trauma they gave her explicitly so she’d be afraid to get close to him)
Anonymous asked:
Considering how Angstrien’s plot this season involved him whining about how MariBug is learning to rely on people that aren’t him, I should’ve seen it coming that they’d take away all the residual miraculous.
Now she has to fall in love with him, guys! She’s isolated, miserable, and overwhelmed, so much so that any remaining standards she has will fall by the wayside as she falls for the only person she has left. They’ve been breaking her down to rock bottom so that even someone as unreliable and self serving as AdriChat would look like a good choice!
What an amazing Girl Power show this has turned out to be!
I genuinely feel like people forget that this is supposed to be a girl power show and not “The Adrien Agreste Show.”
God, season five is going to be so bad. I bet the narritive will force Maribug to fall in-love with Adrichat. That’s not even mentioning the smug gloating of the toxic adristans and love square stans. I’m crying just thinking about how much the stupid is going ti be kicked into overdrive.
It’s hardly surprising that Adrien’s stans expect Luka to move heaven and earth for his sake. That’s what the series is training them to expect, after all. Marinette’s the most obvious example, but even a cursory look at his dynamics with other characters reveals that Adrien is all take and no real give. The things he offers in exchange for the others’ services have no real substance, no value.
Take Nino, for instance. “Bubbler” has him fighting tirelessly for Adrien’s sake, so that he can have a birthday party – something that ultimately gets him akumatized and leads to a lot of innocent victims facing asphyxiation and/or a horrible demise in the upper atmosphere… but hey, what does THAT matter so long as Adrien has a good time? The trauma and horror everyone faced – including Nino having his emotions twisted to Hawkmoth’s murderous ends.
Then there’s the infamous “Party Crasher” showing Nino and the other boys casually ditching the girls, breaking their promises and shrugging off their responsibilities because Adrien ‘needs’ them to throw a massive house party. Because no matter what, Adrien and his happiness should be their – and everyone’s – top priority.
Chloe is a horrible excuse for a friend, yet Adrien constantly makes excuses for her behavior because “That’s just how Chloe is; she’ll never change.“ The only times Adrien is willing to call her out on her attitude is when he’s personally affected by her antics, such as with the fire alarm. The same applies with Lila: only Adrien is allowed to draw the line. Marinette is not permitted to make that call, and demonized for daring to get upset over how she’s been bullied and mistreated.
After all, Marinette is being trained NOT to stand up for herself. Because Adrien doesn’t want her to. In order to be his ‘ideal girlfriend’, she has to bend to his every whim… and the same applies to everyone else around him. His ‘true friends’ are expected to enable him. To prioritize HIM over everything and everyone else, including themselves.
Chloe and Lila both believe the world should revolve around THEM, and are presented as wrong, evil and selfish for it. Clearly they don’t recognize that it actually revolves around Adrieninstead.
^^^^^^
THIIIIIIS
Also, Marinette will be bashed no matter what. If she doesn’t prioritize him 24/7, she’s wrong, but when she does, things go terribly for her. The show wants to have its cake and eat it too, training Marinette (I really like how you worded that, by the way) to prioritize Adrien so the whole show can revolve around him as much as possible (with only exceptions being episodes needed to set up stuff to blame her for in the future, like “Silencer”->”Truth” and “Gang of Secrets”->”Rocketear”) while simultaneously punishing her for it.
(Another note on “Party Crasher” too is that “Mega Leech” pretended to be all about the environment and how important it supposedly is to the writers, as if they didn’t say “Adrien > The Environment” at the end of “Party Crasher”…)
This was a post from @smartlanceisreal Salt Fic Ideas, I saw one I really liked and just expanded on it. I was just in the mood to post something a little different than I normally post, but there is still salt galore for all my faithful followers. Warm-Fuzzies and please enjoy!!
It had been a bad day for the, now former, employees of Gabrielfashion company. Vincent the photographer, Elisa the makeup artist, Alizabetta the model, and Andrew the staff assistant had all been fired or rage quit because of Mr. Agreste’s new favorite; an Italian brat named Lila Rossi. The girl thought she was untouchable. Unfortunately; she was right, so she got away with so much more bull than anyone else would be able to at any company in the entire fashion world.
She refused to take Vincent’s directions while modeling, which had the photos looking sub-par and was hurting his reputation. She was borderline abusive towards Elisa, literally throwing things at her and using racist slurs that had the artist crying off set at times. Alizabetta had been outright bullied and tormented by the Italian until she was akumatized that day, which resulted in Mr. Agreste firing her, believing that shewas tormenting Lila. When Andrew stood up for her, saying that it was the other way around, he was fired as well for talking back. Seeing the situation, Vincent and Elisa quit as well and left with the others.
Which brings them to now, drowning their sorrows in pastries at the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. Alizabetta was upset because this was her first real modeling job. The others were worried about Mr. Agreste being spiteful and blacklisting them, that was something that he seemed to enjoy doing since his wife disappeared.
The table was quiet when a new plate of macaroons were gently set on the table in front of them. Looking up, they saw a young woman, a little older than Alizabetta. Vincent recognized her from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place her.
“You all looked like you could use some more comfort food,” she said, smiling kindly.
“Oh, thank you so much, Angel. We could definitely use this.” Elisa smiled back, before taking a bite out of one of the pastries and humming from the wonderful flavor.
“If there’s anything else I can do to help, please let me know. My name’s Marinette and this is my parents’ boulangerie.”
Vincent snapped his fingers. “Ah, si! That is how I recognize you. You were the girl that won Singor Agreste’s contest a few years ago and your designs were praised by the Style Queen.”
Marinette blushed at that. “That was a while ago. I’ve stuck with private commissions for a while, since I wanted to at least finish lycee before trying to join the big leagues.”
“Piece of advice, avoid Gabriel. That company treats their people like crap and let others get away with anything but murder.” Andrew groused as he helped himself to his plate pan du chocolat.
The table didn’t miss her scoff of disgust as she crossed her arms. “Nothing new there. He treats his own son like a billboard, ignores him in every aspect of his life unless it has to do with business, and lets that lying bitch climb all over him like a cat in heat. It’s disgusting.”
Alizabetta’s head snapped up at her. “You know about her?”
Marinette shrugged. “Italian liar that makes fashion and anyone with Italian blood feel dirty? Yeah, I’m familiar with Lila Rossi. She got me expelled once, convinced all my friends that I was practically the antichrist, almost got me akumatized 12 times, and tried to ruin my career choice. If I hadn’t switched schools and gotten a restraining order against her, I don’t want to even think about what might have happened.”
The four of them stared at her for a long moment before Vincent grabbed a chair from another table and pulled it up so she could join them, having found a kindred spirit and someone they could vent to about the ammature model. It was hours later, and a lot of pastries that Marinette mentioned that she was actually looking to start her own fashion house. She had clients that wanted her clothes, a fanbase of people on her waitlist that she hadn’t been able to get to because she was only one person, capital to pay employees, and a facility that she had just leased. What she was missing was people. It was hard to find competent people in the fashion industry that weren’t already employed in one of the bigger fashion houses and willing to work for an eighteen year old girl.
Alizabetta was the first to speak up about that. “Do you need models? If you do, I’d be more than willing to work with you. I mean, if you’d be willing to hire me.”
Vincent completely agreed. “Si, I have seen Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale wearing your designs and have always thought they were molto bella. When you are in need of a photographer, I would be willing to work with you.”
Elisa and Andrew were partially joking and semi serious when she said “You seem nice enough, and Vincent here knows your work. We’d be willing to give you a try.”
“For the right price,” he finished with a smile.
Marinette was practically vibrating with excitement as she stared at the four of them. “You mean it? You’d be willing to work with me even though I’m practically a kid?”
Andrew shrugged at that. “It’s not like we have any other jobs right now. And accepting a job from you will help us make sure we can pay our bills.”
Nodding in understanding, Marinette stood from the table with a smile. “Okay, if we’re going to do this, let’s do this right. Alizabetta, I’m going to need your resume, comp cards, and any spreads you’ve done in the last three months. Andrew and Elisa, your resumes and references for my records. Vincent, your resume and I’d like to take a look at your portfolio. And if at any time, any of you are offered a ‘real’ fashion job, just give me proper notice and there won’t be any hard feelings. I’ll schedule some meetings with you this week to get the details ironed out and you can start work as soon as next Monday. Does that work for all of you?”
They all stood from their chairs and shook Marinette’s hand. Although they were admittedly worried about working for someone so young and new to the business, they had a good feeling about the girl.
~oOo~
It had been three years since that afternoon at her parents’ bakery and Marinette’s business had been skyrocketing ever since. Much to the surprise and delight of the five people that had been there.
Alizabetta had become the face of her brand and was the least high-maintenance model around. The girl was just so happy to be treated with respect and without being asked to be beanpole thin, that her happiness easily showed through in her work. Although that might have something to do with her amazing photographer, Vincent. The man’s reputation had been saved when he had joined MDC, proving that his work with Gabrielhad been sub-par due to the model rather than his talent as a photographer. For that, he was eternally grateful to Marinette, going so far as refusing to leave for another company, even when he was offered more money.
Elisa became the head of the makeup department with six artists working under her. She worked very closely with Marinette and was glad to say that the girl-turned-woman was as sweet and wonderful as the first day she met her. All the stress she had dealt with working for Gabriel was now a distant nightmare that she only bothered mentioning when other artists asked her to compare the two companies.
Andrew ended up becoming Marinette’s personal assistant and was very good at his job. His biggest responsibilities were making sure Marinette took time to herself for things like eating and sleeping, and protecting her from the people from her past. Namely, her former college friends that came asking for jobs, favors, and interviews after her business had picked up. Hardly any of them had references or any experience, expecting their former connection with her to get them what they wanted. The first time was a girl named Alya Cesaire, she’d applied for a PR position and had demanded to meet with Marinette, saying that “she owes me this job, after everything I’ve done for her”.
He had gone to see his boss, and at the mention of the woman’s name, Marinette had gone deathly pale. The four of them knew of all the things that her former classmates had put her through and swore that they would protect the woman that saved their careers. So Andrew had told Ms. Cesaire that his boss did not remember any friendby that name. That her references and experience were not up to par for the company; as the Ladyblogwas little more than a gossip blog and Lila Rossi had recently been fired from Gabriel.
Speaking of, not long after the four of them had quit/been fired, Gabrielhad seen a high turnover rate of employees. Many of those employees found their way to MDCthanks to her popularity, good pay and benefits, and just the fact that she treated her employees so well. When Mr. Agreste had looked into the reason for the high turnover rate; he discovered a few other problems with his company along the way. The number of applications from qualified applicants was dwindling, his sales dropping to a low that he hadn’t seen in over a decade, and there were multiple scandals that were connected to his company’s name. Most disturbing of all, it could all be traced back to a single person: Lila Rossi.
Anyone and everyone who was forced to work with the talentless diva soon found themselves fired due to her tantrums or they quit because they couldn’t bear working with her. Word quickly spread around the industry that Gabriel was a company to avoid, so they weren’t getting any new, qualified candidates. Then there were the lawsuits. Lila had two lawsuits against her for sexual harrasment in the workplace filed by other models. Another for assault when she threw a prop at a set hand that required him to need stitches on his head. And another for theft and disturbing the peace when she refused to pay her bill at a restaurant and caused a scene which saw her being arrested.
Mr. Agreste had tried to do damage control by firing and blacklisting the girl from the fashion industry, but it was too late. His company and its sales were in the toilet and nothing he did could bring its reputation back up.
Lila had tried to save her career, turning on Gabrieland telling anyone who’d listen about how unprofessional and disorganized the company was. That the quality of clothes was terrible, and Mr. Agreste himself had been pressuring her to cause those public scenes so that it would bring some attention back to the brand. She wasn’t a bad person, she’d just had to deal with a terrible boss so she could keep her dream job. This was followed up by her applying to be a model with MDC.
Andrew made sure that all five of them were present for that interview. He would admit, the girl was smart enough to realize that she was screwed the second she saw the people behind the half-circle desk. Alizabetta was glaring at her with disdain at the far left. Vincent sat next to her, looking through the photos on Lila’s comp card, while verbally ripping it apart. On the far right, Elisa only asked her how she was able to get any modeling work with her highly questionable choice of hairstyle? Andrew made a show of calling each of Lila’s fake references in front of her, unsurprised when they all came up as unavailable. At the center of the table, presenting herself with all the poise of a queen looking at a subject that she’s about to sentence to death, Marinette sat quietly as she listened to her friends.
Lila made an admittedly pathetic attempt to kiss up to Marinette. With crocodile tears in her eyes, she pleaded with her former school mate. “Please, Marinette. I am so sorry for how I was back in college. But we were just kids back then and mistakes were made by everyone. I never meant for you to get hurt or anything like that, I just wanted to make friends and you scared me since you realized right away that I didn’t always tell the truth. But I swear, that’s not who I am anymore. If you would just give me a chance, you’ll see that I can be a valuable employee and model for your brand.”
Marinette said nothing for a moment, simply stared at her former tormentor before pressing a button on the desk. A man walked in, a man that had been sitting next to Lila in the waiting room. He pulled a pocket sized recorder from his jacket and pressed play, Lila’s sneering voice filled the room.
“I can’t believe I have to stoop so low as to try working for Maritrash. You know, I used to go to school with her?”
“Really? What was she like? I’ve only been here for a few days, so I haven’t had a chance to meet her yet.” The man asked her, playing along with Lila.
“Ugh, she was a total nosy-good for nothing that would have been better off slitting her wrists and stop taking up air. But she’s also a bleeding heart, so she’ll probably give me a job anyway. If I can fool her for long enough, I can fix my reputation, ruin hers again, and maybe claim that she’s actually a madame or something and her models are call girls.”
“If you’re willing to cut me in on the deal, I’ll back you up. I could probably print out some evidence on the letterheads to support your claims.”
Lila’s chuckle, which had been genuine at the time but made her feel sick as she listened to it now, echoed off the walls of the room. “I get this job, and you’ve got a deal.”
The man pressed the button again to stop the recording before handing it to Marinette. She calmly set the recording on the desk in front of her, never looking away from Lila’s pale face. “You were saying?”
Doing her best to hide her fear, Lila shot to her feet in a rage. “You had no right to record me without my consent! I could sue you-”
“If you had bothered to read the notices when you entered the building,” the man interrupted her, “you would know that by entering the premises you are consenting to being recorded. This includes video and audio.”
“Thank you, Philip.” Marinette smiled at him. “Oh, I forgot to introduce you. Lila, this is Philip, my head of security, and he takes his job very seriously.”
“I’ve already called the police. We’ll be filing charges against Mlle. Rossi for attempted corporate espionage.”
The girl let out a guttural shriek before diving for the recorder while taking a swing at Marinette. Her fist didn’t get close before her arm was twisted behind her back and her face was slammed into the table. No matter how much she struggled, she couldn’t get away before the police arrived and slapped cuffs on her. Since the news crews were minutes behind, their head of PR had “no choice” but to share the security footage along with a statement that they were pressing charges for attempted assault and corporate espionage.
The story blew up. Any miniscule amount of sympathy that Lila may have earned was now in ruins, along with her reputation. Especially when Marinette gave Nadja an exclusive interview.
~oOo~
It was two months after the Lila incident that they received their next surprise guests. Gabriel Agreste, Adrien Agreste, and their assistant Natalie had made an appointment to talk business. Marinette had a feeling that this meeting would be coming. The others were worried and had wanted to sit in on the meeting, but she assured them that she could handle it.
Her guests, on the other hand, seemed very out of place. Natalie seemed frazzled, her hair not as neat as she remembered, and hands gripping last year’s tablet a little too tight. Gabriel was attempting to exude an air of calm that he was known for, but the incessant tapping of one foot gave away what was really going on in his head.
Adrien, who had always seemed perfect in her eyes, was the most obvious. Or maybe she was just more aware now that her rose colored glasses had been removed and crushed beneath her designer shoes. His clothes, hair, and posture were not quite the perfect model look she remembered. His expression was open; she could see that he was uncomfortable with his family’s situation, as well seeing her again.
The last time they had spoken was their last week of college. Lila had destroyed Marinette’s final project for class, claiming that she had done it herself. Adrien had publicly sided with Lila before pulling Marinette to the side and chiding her for trying to expose her. At that point, she was done. She called her parents, had them bring a lawyer, and forced the principal to look at the security footage. Once they had the rock solid proof that Lila had destroyed Marinette’s property, it was easy to get a restraining order. It was harder to get her in trouble, since Lila fell back on her “lying disease” excuse and only got a week of detention, which she never served.
However; that was the past, now was time for business.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Agreste?”
To her relief, he and Natalie didn’t waste her time. Proposing that they were interested in merging GabrielwithMDC. They went on about how with her skill and his experience, their companies would flourish and grow to new heights. They even hinted that with Adrien as her model, it would add more legitimacy to her company. Especially if the two of them were seen out together in romantic settings.
“I think I’ve heard enough.” Marinette said as soon as she saw a break. “I’m sorry, Mr. Agreste, but I don’t see any value in joining our companies. As it stands; Gabriellacks stock value, you are unable to keep any decent staff, your business practices are questionable at best, and you have not created a single noteworthy design in years.” She watched as spoke, apparently they hadn’t expected her to turn them down and were surprised that she had.
What surprised her was when Gabriel Agreste lost his ever present cool and started yelling at her. “Who do you think you are speaking to me like that?! You have no experience in this world and you think-”
“Despite what you think of my experience, Mr. Agreste, the numbers don’t lie.” Marinette cut him off easily. “Your stock price is lower than it has been in over 20 years. People are not buying your clothes, some have even boycotted you due to your lax policies on sexual harrasment and your choice of models. Everything about you has become toxic. In fact, when my board members heard that I was meeting with you, some threatened to leave if our companies joined. I will not jeopardize my company for another that can’t even claim to be on its last leg, more like its last toe."
"Please, Marinette,” Adrien pleaded as he stood from his seat to move closer to her. “We really need your help, and friends-”
“I’m going to stop you right there, Agreste.” She interrupted again, refusing to let Adrien take her on a guilt trip. “You made the choice to ignore my warnings about Lila years ago. You took her side and told me over and over that her lies didn’t hurt anyone. Your employees told you what she was doing, and you fired them instead of punishing her. At this point, the consequences are catching up to you and I want no part of it. This meeting is over, I’ll have someone show you out.”
Gabriel and Natalie were smart enough to realize that Marinette wouldn’t budge on her decision and were willing to leave without a scene. Adrien made the mistake of grabbing her to make her “listen to reason” just as Philip entered her office. His hand was forcibly removed and there was nothing Gabriel could do to keep the man from forcing his son from the building. He could only hope that there weren’t any paparazzi waiting for them.
The final part of my “Marinette’s Haunted Doll” series. It took a lot of time and effort to write, but it was really worth it. By request, I have included the Adrien salt and redemption ending. Please let me know qhich ending you liked the most. And thanks again to @unmaskedagain for the prompt that inspired this story. Blood, gore, and character death ahead. You have been warned.
It had been the most eventful week of Marinette’s life. And considering she had gotten her miraculous, became a central figure in Paris, met Chat Noir, and met Adrien in a single week; that was saying something.
It all started when Lila convinced Alya to dump a jar of paint on her during the class photo. Mme. Bustier didn’t do anything to help, neither did Adrien. She just went home crying and told her parents what happened. They had been furious by the state of their daughter and her mother took pictures of the damage to her dress, the smeared makeup, and the bruises and scratch marks on her arms and face. Marinette attempted to salvage her dress; but it proved to be beyond saving. She could hear her parents on the phone with the Board of Governors when she got out of the shower and they did not sound happy. But there was only so much that could be done until the class, Mme. Bustier, and Adrien stopped blaming herfor Lila’s behavior. All that happened on Monday.
On Tuesday, things started happening. First, Kim and M. Damocles both fell down the stairs and someone from the Board of Governors had to come to take over until their principal could return to work. She had a feeling that her parents’ call the night before might have had something to do with it. When she saw Lila try to blame her for both of them falling, Marinette wasn’t sure what to expect, seeing as the teachers of the school kept letting her down. But when M. Rupere confronted Lila and pointed out that if she had been pushed down the stairs, she would be injured, Marinette almost cried in relief and Lila later showed up with detention slips. The day got even better when Nino came up and apologized to her. It was a relief to have one of her oldest friends back on her side.
Wednesday morning, she heard the news about Alya and couldn’t help but cry for her former friend. She had hoped that somewhere down the line, Alya would have figured out the truth about Lila and they could try to start over, but that was gone. A part of her admitted that she was relieved that Alya would never torment her again, but that feeling was fleeting. She would miss the girl that she had met on the first day of the school year and shared a macaron with.
Then after lunch, M. Rupere was in class, saying that Mme. Bustier had decided to take the rest of the day off for personal reasons. Much to her relief, he kept a keen eye on Lila for the rest of the day and stopped her every time she tried to interrupt the lesson to tell one of her stories. At one point, even threatening to give her another day of detention for every time she interrupted class. For the first time since Lila came to school, Marinette felt like they actually learned something in class.
When Mme. Mendelieve’s class came; she and the rest of the class watched in horror as Max and Alix’s experiment literally blew up in their faces and burned them. The smell of chemicals and burning flesh nearly made her throw up as she covered her face with her sleeve. Classes ended not long after that and Marinette decided to go visit her former friends in the hospital, knowing that Lila wasn’t likely to do it. Although she wasn’t allowed to see Max and Alix, she was permitted to see Kim. She brought him his favorite macarons from the bakery to cheer him up, already knowing how much he hated hospital food from the time he broke his collarbone when they were nine years old. He was happy to see her, saying that she was the only person to come see him and that he appreciated it. He even apologized for being a bully, since being stuck in bed with nothing to do but think, as well as listening to his mother chastise him for his bad behavior, made him realize what a terrible person he had been.
Not long after she got home, Mylene and Ivan came over to visit and apologized to her as well. They even brought her fabric to replace her ruined dress, apology cards, a new sketchbook, and money to pay for the things they had asked for but never paid for; going so far as to ask for receipts to pay back everything to her. Marinette had started crying and hugged the two of them in relief.
Thursday morning, she went to school early with her mother, since M. Rupere had apparently called the day before and asked them to come in to talk. After arriving, he asked her why Lila had accused her of causing Kim and M. Damocles’ accident. Since he had already proven to be a more trustworthy educator than Damocles and Bustier combined, she told him everything. It was Kim who took her bag and dumped it out, then ran up the stairs with Serafina and tripped near the top, and the doll was still missing. She told him about how much Lila lies and that she’d had it out for her since she called the italian out after she returned from her “trip to Achu” and threatened Marinette. That she hadn’t said anything because Adrien had asked her to take the high road, but Lila hadn’t stopped.
She told him about the day she was expelled; the test answer sheet, the fake push down the stairs, and necklace in her locker; pointing out that her locker had been broken into before, that the answer sheet had been crammed into the top of her bag, and that M. Damocles had never looked at the CCTV footage. And through the entire incident, Bustier and Damocles had basically refused to listen to her side of the story and believed Lila without a second thought. They only reversed their decision after Lila told them that she had a lying disease, which did not exist in any of the medical journals she had looked into.
Then, just earlier that week while they were taking the class photo, Mme. Bustier had forced her and Lila to sit next to each other in an attempt to make them get along. She had seen the jar of paint seconds before Alya went to dump in on her. Marinette had tried to get out of the way, but Lila had gripped her arm so tight that her nails dug in. When she started really struggling, Lila threw an elbow into her face and then got out of the way before Alya dumped the paint on her head and down her dress. Sabine pulled out her phone to show M. Rupere the photos she took after arriving home, and he looked quite disturbed by what he saw.
He asked her what Mme. Bustier had done and that brought Marinette to tears. Her teacher had told her to stop causing a scene and not touch anyone, or else she would ruin the photo for everyone else. She was then sent home for the rest of the day and told that she simply would not be in the photo that year.
M. Rupere listened to her before looking something up on the computer. A moment later, he turned the screen to show Marinette the entire incident from Monday, happening exactly as the girl had described it. He also showed them a recording of Marinette and Lila arguing at the top of the stairs before the other girl practically skipped down, sat on the ground, and began crying. Sabine was furious that the girl she had thought was simply sick from a diseasewas actually hurting her little girl.
They were interrupted a few minutes later when Rose came rushing into the office, saying that Sabrina had fallen with a bag of knives and razors in her hands and was badly hurt. Their meeting was paused for a long while before M. Rupere returned to place something in his desk drawer, and then called the Italian embassy to have Mme. Rossi join them. From what Marinette could hear, the woman sounded very amicable and agreed to come to the school right away. He left the office once again and returned with Lila herself, forcing the nervous girl to sit in a vacant chair.
“Now, Mlle. Rossi, Sabrina claims that she got that bag from you. Do you want to explain why you brought a bag of weapons onto campus?” M. Rupere asked, his tone indicating that she had to answer.
Marinette watched as Lila began her act, covering her face as she pretended to sob. “I-I didn’t mean for this to happen, i-i-it was Marinette’s fault. *sniffle* She blames me for what ha-happened to Alya, but that doesn’t make sense. This-this morning, just before class, she-she practically threw that bag at me and told me to use it. *sob*”
Her gaze switched from the liar to M. Rupere, he was looking at the girl with a hard glare while writing everything down. “You said that Marinette gave you the bag full of sharp objects?” Lila nodded. “And she did this right before class, correct?” She nodded again. “About how long was that before Sabrina got hurt and Rose came to get me?”
Marinette saw Lila hesitate, but she still answered. “N-not long. *sniffle* Maybe, ten minutes at most.”
He nodded, writing that down while Marinette fought the urge to smile. She and her mother had been in the meeting with him for close to half an hour before Rose came. And before that, she’d been with her parents at home.
“And why would she do that?” He asked her.
Marinette barely caught Lila’s snide glance before going into her sob story about how Marinette bullied her, threatened her, had stolen from her and pushed her down the stairs. True, she had been very lucky to not be seriously hurt, but that was because she’d been trained by an uncle who was a stuntman in Hollywood.
By the time Lila had finished spinning her tale of all the reasons Marinette was jealous and had been bullying her; her mother, Greta Rossi, had arrived and sat next to her daughter. Everyone saw the utter shock and unease on Lila’s face the moment the woman stepped into the room. Marinette had to keep herself from smirking, knowing that the liar wouldn’t be able to spin such tales with her mother sitting next to her.
“Is everything alright? What happened?” Mme. Rossi asked, looking from M. Rupere to Sabine.
“Mme. Rossi, your daughter was just telling us about her life. But before we get into all the things she’s been saying,” M. Rupere paused as he reached into his desk and pulled out the object he had placed in his desk earlier, one of the knives that he had taken from inside the bag. Marinette and the other two adults saw Lila’s face pale significantly when he placed it on the desk, while Mme. Rossi looked at it with a bit of shock. “Do you recognize this kitchen knife?”
The woman’s brow creased. “It looks like one of our old kitchen knives. Lila said that they were beginning to rust and that we should throw them out. We got the new ones last night.” Then she turned to her wilting daughter. “Why in the world would you bring that to school? Someone could have gotten hurt!”
“Someone did get hurt, Sabrina Raincomprix fell with the bag in her hands and had to be rushed to the hospital.”
“But those aren’t our knives!” Lila practically yelled in a panic. “I told you, Marinette threw them at me before class and told me to ‘use them on myself’. She basically told me to kill myself!”
Greta Rossi turned back to M. Rupere in shock. “Is that true?”
“That your daughter claimsthat Mlle. Dupain-Cheng gave her the bag of knives a few minutes before Mlle. Raincomprix was injured, yes. The problem with her claim is that she, her mother, and I were in a meeting for close to a half hour before I was alerted to the incident. So, unless she was in two places at the same time, your daughter is lying.”
“Well, considering how terrible those vigilante heroes are at doing their jobs, that could be a possibility. After all, the school was closed down for months when Principal Damocles was akumatized.”
His brow creased at that. “I apologize, Mme. Rossi, but the school never closed for that amount of time for akumas. However, there isthe matter of the trip you and your daughter took to the kingdom of Achu, missing four months of school. If you are saying that is not the case, your daughter will be charged with truancy, will very likely be expelled, and you will be paying some significant fines. And then there are the other matters to be addressed. Such as the assault and destruction of property your daughter committed against Marinette, of which we have picture and video evidence. Framing the same girl for assault, which we also have video evidence, and there are likely to be other charges added on once the Board of Governors, of which I am a member, concludes their investigation.”
The meeting quickly devolved into a lot of shouting after that; with Lila’s lies coming undone, recordings of her purposefully framing Marinette being shown to the woman, and talk of possible jail time since she had brought weapons to school and a police officer’s daughter had been seriously injured. Marinette could see that even though Lila was nervous and angry that she was in trouble, she wasn’t really scared. After all, she had a magical safety net known as diplomatic immunity.
She even had the nerve to roll her eyes at the adults discussing her fate. “So what if I’m expelled? I’ll just be enrolled in another school by the end of next week. That’s the worst anyone in this country can do to me since I have diplomatic immunity.”
“No, you do not.” Greta sneered as she coldly stared at her daughter. “Only the higher ranking members of the embassy have immunity. I’m a secretary at the embassy, I don’t have immunity which means you don’t either. And even if you did, I would have it revoked.”
“HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT!?” Lila screamed, standing from her chair.
“If I didn’t, the embassy would have. But that’s neither here nor there. And as for your next school, it will be a reformatory school in Italy and you’ll be staying with your Zia Francesca.”
Lila’s jaw dropped even more. “But-but Zio Simone andZia Francesca don’t have internet, cell signal, or even a tv at their house!”
“Do I look like I care? You are in big trouble, young lady. This is not something you talk your way out of. You are going to answer for everything you’ve done. Including committing assault, property damage, and slander; while trying to frame this girl for assault, theft, slander, and threatening you with deadly weapons. At this point, you’ll be lucky if I can convince the courts to try you as a minor instead as an adult since you were fully aware of your actions.”
Marinette saw it happen; the shift in her expression, posture, and pallor to alert her that she was about to do something. She barely had time to react when Lila screamed, grabbed the kitchen knife from the desk, and dove at her own mother. Her Ladybug reflexes had her leg lashing out and striking Lila in the chest. The girl, not expecting the blow, was thrown back into the desk and fell to the floor in a heap. The two women had jumped from their chairs while M. Rupere dashed around the desk to restrain Lila, only to pause when he turned her over. Marinette looked on in shock when she saw that the knife had impaled her throat and she was quickly losing blood. Marinette quickly removed her jacket to staunch the blood while her mother called for an ambulance.
A few minutes later while the paramedics were treating Lila, Greta Rossi approached Sabine and Marinette with tears in her eyes. “I want you to know that I don’t blame you for Lila getting hurt. You likely saved our lives, mine at the very least, when you kicked her away. And I promise you, Lila will answer for everything she’s done to you.”
Seeing that the woman was on the verge of a breakdown, Marinette hugged her and whispered words of remorse that she was going through something so horrible. And she really hoped that things would get better very soon.
M. Rupere excused Marinette from school for the rest of the day, but she was expected to speak with the school counselor the next day. She thanked him before she and her mother left for the police station to give their statements.
It was a little after 3pm by the time she got home, but didn’t stay for long as the Nadja reported another akuma on the news. She half expected it to be either Lila or Mme. Rossi, considering how upset they had been, but no. It was Nino, back as Bubbler and at least three times as powerful as before. She expected it to be difficult, but Chat Noir was surprisingly on top of his game that day. Apparently, he was aware of Alya’s passing and knew that Nino had been dating her, so he wasn’t messing around this time. They soon defeated Bubbler and restored Nino to normal. Ladybug gave him a hug, telling him that she knew about Alya and although they didn’t always see eye-to-eye about what she was reporting, she knew Alya was a good person, a wonderful Rena Rouge, and would miss her greatly.
Friday morning came and everyone in school knew about Lila’s freak out, attempted murder, and that Marinette had been the one to stop her. She was glad to hear that Sabrina would be alright, although she had suffered nerve damage and would have to go to physical therapy to regain full use of her hands again. Kim had joked with her about being therapy buddies to push each other to get better sooner. Nino was a bit of a mess, but Marinette set a box of his favorite pastries in front of him and got a small smile in return. Alix and Max were still in the hospital, and were not likely to return until after their surgeries. It was now suspected that Lila had mixed up the chemicals to go after Marinette but the other two had grabbed those bottles instead, though this could not be proven.
M. Rupere had hired a substitute teacher as Mme. Bustier was on leave for the foreseeable future. Although it wasn’t mentioned, most of the students were pretty sure it was because she had a nervous breakdown at the school the day before. One of M. D’Argencourt’s students had found her hiding in a corner of the supply closet just after lunch and it took a couple hours to coax her to come out. They did hope that she would get better, she was a really nice teacher, afterall.
Adrien also wasn’t in school that day and he wasn’t answering his phone. Most everyone in the class tried to reach him, but received no reply. It wasn’t until during lunch that they got their answer on the news. Gabriel and Emilie Agreste had been found dead in their home by Adrien the day before from heart failure and an apparent suicide. Although details were scarce, Adrien mentioned that he had been out to see his friends but returned to find his parents in his father’s office. He guessed that his mother had returned to their home on the brink of death and passed away. His father had not been able to handle it and took his own life to be with his wife again. Anyone watching could see how broken Adrien appeared and knew that he would never be the same. Nadja went on to report that the investigation was still underway, but the thoughts and prayers of Paris went out to the last surviving Agreste.
Adrien Redemption
Marinette went out that night as Ladybug, focused on going to see Adrien and comfort him in any way she could. What she hadn’t expected was to find him sitting on the front steps of his house in the dark. He barely even acknowledged her when she landed a few feet away and then sat beside him.
The two of them sat for a long time in silence, tears slowly leaking out of Adrien’s eyes before nodding absently. “You were right.”
“About what?”
“About my father being Hawkmoth. You were right, M’Lady.”
It took her a moment for her brain to fully comprehend the meaning of what he’d just said. She had only told two people her theory about Gabriel Agreste being Hawkmoth; Master Fu and Chat Noir. And since the Master had recently lost his memories and left the city…
“Kitty?” She gasped, surprised at herself for not figuring it out sooner. “But… how-”
Plagg flew out of Adrien’s shirt pocket before reaching in to pull out a folded piece of paper, holding it out to her. Ladybug carefully unfolded it before reading the elegant script.
Dear Adrien,
I am not one to admit defeat, and I refuse to do so now. However, I am also a businessman and recognize a failed investment. And the endeavor I have been participating in has failed.
For the past year, I have been operating as Hawkmoth in order to obtain Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous. This was so I could bring your mother back to us. She fell into a deep sleep after using the damaged peacock miraculous, and I was going to use the wish to wake her.
However, after today’s failure, Nooroo informed me that Emilie has been dead for a number of months and I was only preserving her body at this point. He also informed me of the cost of using the wish. If I were to wish your mother alive, you would have likely taken her place. If you had died, she would have never forgiven me. Therefore, I have relinquished my claim to the butterfly and peacock miraculous.
All I have wanted was to hold your mother in my arms and hear her voice. With that out of reach, I can not go on.
I expect you to maintain the dignity of the Agreste name and protect the company in my stead. Nathalie will assist you as she did me, if necessary.
Goodbye,
Gabriel Agreste
Ladybug couldn’t help but read the letter again once she had finished. M. Agreste’s reasoning for wanting their miraculous made a lot more sense now. But she didn’t miss the underlying statement that he had only had himself and his wife in mind. He didn’t even tell his only son that he loved him in his final words, only that he was to uphold the Agreste name. Part of her wondered, if he had been a little further gone, would Gabriel have sacrificed his son to get his wife back? From the tears in Adrien’s eyes, he believed that he would.
“After we saved Nino, I hung out with him for a while to make sure he would be okay. When I got back to my room, I saw that letter on my desk with both of the miraculous beside it,” he said, his eyes unfocused as he remembered what had happened. “I must have read it four or five times before realizing exactly what it meant and ran downstairs. They were in his office on the floor and I just… I couldn’t move. I mean, the paramedics told me that they were both dead for a while when I found him, it must have happened just a few minutes after we saved Nino.
“After the paramedics left with their bodies, I confronted Nathalie. She denied everything at first until I showed her the letter. She was Mayura, that was why she was getting sick. She tried defending Father, that he was only doing what he thought necessary to bring Mother back…” A shuttered sob escaped him as he gripped his hair in both fists. “I lost it. I yelled at her, told her she was fired. She packed most of her things and left a few minutes before you got here.”
Tears brimmed in Ladybug’s eyes as she wrapped her arms around her kitty and held him close. The moment she did, the floodgates opened and he was sobbing into her shoulder. They sat there for a long time, holding each other as he let everything out, and she never once loosened her grip on him.
It was a long time before he gently pulled away from her, but only so he could reach into his pants pocket and show her the butterfly and peacock miraculous. “I am returning these to you, the new Guardian, to keep them safe. I had the chance to talk to Nooroo and Duusu earlier, they’re sad, but they’ll get better with the rest of the kwamis.” Then he paused, giving Plagg an apologetic look before removing the ring from his finger and holding it out to her as the little cat disappeared.
Shocked, Ladybug stared at the ring for a long moment before shaking her head as her own tears trailed down her cheeks. “No, I can’t take that. You’re my kitty, I could never replace you.”
“It has to be done M’Lady. After losing them and knowing what the wish is capable of, I’ll be tempted. And despite you saying that you love someone else, I’ve loved you since we defeated Stoneheart together. Meaning that you would be the person I lose if I ever got your earrings and made that wish, and I won’t risk it. So, I’m begging you, M’Lady. Let me be a hero one last time and give you my ring to make sure that you and Paris will be out of danger.”
With trembling fingers and her eyes blurred with tears, Ladybug gently took the ring from his hand and placed it safely in her yoyo. “That was the most noble thing I have ever seen in my life. And with or without the mask, you will always be my kitty.”
Adrien gave her a sad smile before looking away from her. “I realize that you’ll have to tell Paris that Hawkmoth is gone, but…”
Knowing what he was asking, she tilted her head back to look at the stars that were beginning to form in the sky. “I’m going to tell them the truth. That Chat Noir discovered the identity of Hawkmoth and Mayura and was able to retrieve their miraculous, they are no more and will never be able to harm anyone again. However, while doing so, Chat worried that he had become corrupted by the events that had taken place. Rather than risk anyone being harmed by his future actions, he gave up his miraculous to live a normal life.”
He nodded, grateful that she was willing to let his father keep his good name in the end. It was more than the man deserved, but Ladybug wasn’t doing it for him. She wanted Adrien to be able to live in peace; and as difficult as it would be with the knowledge of who his father had been, she wasn’t about to make it worse with the world against him for being Hawkmoth’s son.
“So… what are you going to do now?” She asked him, a little worried about what his answer would be.
“I, um, called my Aunt Amelie this morning. I’m going to be moving to live with her and my cousin Felix in London. I just… if I’m not my father’s perfect model son anymore and I can’t be Chat Noir, I need a fresh start to figure out who I am. I’m hoping I can figure that out away from Paris.”
Ladybug nodded, knowing that he was right. “While you’re doing that, you can start by knowing this; you are a good person, Adrien Agreste. Not because of your status or what your father made you to be; but because you made the choice to put others before yourself when it really mattered. Start with that, I think you’ll eventually be okay.”
That gained a soft smile from him before looking her in the eye. “May I ask one thing from you before you leave, M’Lady?”
“Anything.”
“I know that I’ll probably never see you again with me going away and you staying here to watch over Paris. So, before I go, can I have a kiss that I’ll actually remember?”
A sad chuckle bubbled up, thinking of the two kisses they had shared but how he hadn’t been able to remember either. Reaching towards him, she gently cupped his cheeks between her hands and gave him a lingering kiss that said so many things: “I will always care about you”, “you are a wonderful person”, but the saddest one of all, “goodbye”.
Breaking the kiss, Ladybug wiped away her tears before yo-yoing away.
~oOo~
Saturday morning, Ladybug met with Mayor Bourgeois and had him hold a press conference where she alerted Paris that Hawkmoth and Mayura had been defeated by Chat Noir and that Ladybug was now in possession of their miraculouses. There were a lot of questions and a lot of tears when they asked where Chat Noir was.
With tears in her eyes, she told them. “Chat feared that he might have been corrupted and refused to put the city he loved in danger. As many citizens have been akumatized, you know the kind of influence he had and how skilled he was at getting into peoples’ minds. Chat refused to risk that. To protect Paris and its people, he gave up his miraculous and opted to live a normal life. It was the bravest and most heartbreaking moment of my entire career as a hero. He is truly the embodiment of what a hero is meant to be and I am honored to call him my partner.”
The Mayor immediately declared that a new statue would be erected in honor of Chat Noir’s sacrifice and that he would not be forgotten. Ending the press conference with declarations of celebration across the city, as they were finally free to feel again.
Back home, Nooroo and Duusu’s miraculouses were where they belonged in the miracle box. She had asked the kwami if she should retire as well, but all of them agreed that even though Hawkmoth was gone, the world may still need Ladybug.
By Monday morning, school was a very different place. Adrien was gone, Mme. Bustier was on permanent leave, and M. Damocles had been let go with M. Rupere taking over as his replacement for the rest of the year. Word has also gotten around that Lila had completely lost use of her vocal cords and had attacked a police officer with a syringe while in the hospital when they came to arrest her. That resulted in her being drugged into a stupor and immediately deported back to Italy where she would be tried on five counts of attempted murder, assault, property damage, slander, as well as other charges being added on every day as the investigation into her actions continued. Max and Alix would not be returning to school that year, as it would take time to recover from their upcoming surgeries. And then there was Alya’s funeral, which would be taking place after school.
However, on a good note, classes were a lot more peaceful. People were finally expressing themselves in ways that they hadn’t been able to do in over a year. And someone had found Serafina. The porcelain doll had been left sitting on top of her desk when she got to school that morning. Although her outfit was a little worse for wear after being kwami knows where for close to a week, she still looked to be in pretty good condition. Giving the doll a hug, she carefully placed her in her bag before turning forward since the class was about to start.
Serafina was satisfied. Marinette’s enemies had been punished, she was no longer in danger, and she had even regained some of her friends. All that, and she had only killed two people. It might have been easier to just kill everyone, but it was worth the effort to see this special girl smile. Adrien had even surprised her when he had not only handed over the butterfly and peacock jewels, but also the ring of the black cat to make sure that his lady would never be in danger from him. For that reason, she had decided that the knowledge of his father’s identity was enough punishment.
She also hoped that those she had punished had learned their lessons. Because, if she was forced to step forward again to protect Marinette, she would not be so kind next time.
Adrien Salt
When Ladybug arrived at the Agreste Mansion, she immediately sensed something off with the atmosphere and was on high alert. The front door was open, she could hear movement inside, and the smell of blood and death had her covering her nose and mouth with her hand. Following the sound, she cautiously entered the mansion and opened the door to M. Agreste’s office. The inside was an absolute disaster area, nothing like the organized workshop she had seen during the Simon Says incident. The chaos of the room had been so drastic, it took her a second to clear her head and look at Adrien.
With bags under his eyes, rumpled clothes, and cuts on his hands, it looked like he hadn’t slept at all since finding his parents. She might have considered that an understandable reaction if he wasn’t manickly pacing the room, while looking over the Miraculous book with the butterfly and peacock miraculouses beside it. She must have gasped or made some sort of noise, because Adrien stopped what he was doing and turned to her with a large smile.
“M’Lady! I’m so glad you’ve come! Now I can fix everything once you give me your miraculous!”
So many things ran through her head in the moment Adrien was reaching for her ears. First was that only Chat Noir called her M’Lady. Second, since the butterfly and peacock miraculous were both on the desk, her previous theory about Gabriel Agreste being Hawkmoth had been correct and he’d tricked them. And third, the way Adrien was acting, she was having some serious flashbacks to Chat Blanc.
Just as she felt his fingers graze her cheeks, Ladybug shoved him away with all her strength before diving across the desk to grab the other two miraculous while she could. By the time Adrien was standing again, she had already placed the jewels securely in her yo-yo. When he looked at her, she could see the shock and a bit of hurt in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, M’Lady. I didn’t mean to be rude. And you didn’t have to snatch the other miraculous like you did, I was going to give them to you as soon as I saw you. Now, can I have your miraculous, please? It’s the only way I can fix things.”
“Kitty?” Unable to help herself, she stepped closer to him. “I don’t understand, why do you need my miraculous?”
His eyes went wide and manic for a split second before rushing over to the book and pulling out a piece of paper to show her.
Dear Adrien,
I am not one to admit defeat, and I refuse to do so now. However, I am also a businessman and recognize a failed investment. And the endeavor I have been participating in has failed.
For the past year, I have been operating as Hawkmoth in order to obtain Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous. This was so I could bring your mother back to us. She fell into a deep sleep after using the damaged peacock miraculous, and I was going to use the wish to wake her.
However, after today’s failure, Nooroo informed me that Emilie has been dead for a number of months and I was only preserving her body at this point. He also informed me of the cost of using the wish. If I were to wish your mother alive, you would have likely taken her place. If you had died, she would have never forgiven me. Therefore, I have relinquished my claim to the butterfly and peacock miraculous.
All I have wanted was to hold your mother in my arms and hear her voice. With that out of reach, I can not go on.
I expect you to maintain the dignity of the Agreste name and protect the company in my stead. Nathalie will assist you as she did me, if necessary.
Goodbye,
Gabriel Agreste
She was genuinely shocked. Gabriel Agreste had been trying to steal their miraculous so he could bring back his wife, but committed suicide when he found out the cost. She remembered Tikki and Master Fu telling her a while back about the dangers of having the black cat and ladybug miraculouses out into the world and something about a wish and the cost. If M. Agreste had brought his wife back, Adrien would have died.
“It’s all here,” he said looking from her to the book. “By merging our miraculous together, we can be granted one wish. Any wish we want. My wish would be to fix everything. My parents would be back, you’ll be safe, and we can be together. Even if someone has to be sacrificed, it doesn’t have to be someone I know, any random person will work-”
“Kitty, stop! Are you listening to yourself? You’re talking about human sacrifice to resurrect your parents after your father…” Her voice trailed off as she saw his brow crease and his lips turn into a grimace.
“You’re not even listening, you don’t understand. Plagg, claws out!”
Ladybug jumped into action before he even finished transforming, jumping up to wrap herself around his right arm and drag him down into an armbar. She moved fast, grabbing his ring and yanking it off his finger before he could call for his Cataclysm. He transformed back into Adrien, giving her a hurt and anger look as he struggled to free himself from her hold. But without his transformation, he was no match for her strength.
“Why won’t you help me fix it! We’re soulmates! You’re supposed to help me no matter what!”
“We are not soulmates,” Ladybug said between gritted teeth as Adrien continued to struggle, her own heart breaking as she realized it was as true for Adrien as it was for Chat Noir. “We were only ever to be partners to keep Paris and its people safe, but you never listened to me when I told you ‘no’. And now you’re willing to let people die, just to get your wish? I can’t let you do that!” Giving his arm a twist, not enough to break anything but it would still hurt, she jumped a safe distance away. “As Guardian of the miraculous, I hereby reclaim the ring of the black cat. You are unworthy of its power and will never come by it again.”
Without waiting for his response, she sprinted out the door and yo-yoed away. His anguished scream chasing her every step of the way until it faded in the distance.
~oOo~
Saturday morning, Ladybug met with Mayor Bourgeois and had him hold a press conference where she alerted Paris that Hawkmoth and Mayura had been defeated and that Ladybug was now in possession of their miraculouses. There were a lot of questions and a lot of tears when they asked where Chat Noir was. Although it made her uncomfortable, she didn’t want to completely destroy the city’s memory of Chat Noir.
“As many of you know, Hawkmoth had the ability to get into peoples’ minds and corrupt them. Chat Noir fell victim to his manipulation and it affected him even after I had the butterfly and peacock miraculouses in my hands. For the safety of Paris, I had no choice but to relieve Chat Noir of his miraculous. And although I will not reveal his identity, I believe that he will not be a danger to Paris. Nor should we blame him for what transpired. We should all wish him a happy life and future.”
The Mayor immediately declared that a new statue would be erected in honor of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s defeat of Hawkmoth. Ending the press conference with declarations of celebration across the city, as they were finally free to feel again.
Back home, Nooroo and Duusu’s miraculouses were where they belonged in the miracle box. Plagg apologized and told her how he tried to calm his kitten down, but the loss of his parents sent him over the edge. Plagg was glad that Ladybug had reclaimed his ring before Adrien could do something that he would later regret. She had asked the kwamis if she should retire as well, but all of them agreed that even though Hawkmoth was gone, the world may still need Ladybug.
By Monday morning, school was a very different place. Lila was gone, Mme. Bustier was on permanent leave, and M. Damocles had been let go with M. Rupere taking over as his replacement for the rest of the year. Word has also gotten around that Lila had completely lost use of her vocal cords and had attacked a police officer with a syringe while in the hospital when they came to arrest her. That resulted in her being drugged into a stupor and immediately deported back to Italy where she would be tried on five counts of attempted murder, as well as other charges being added on every day as the investigation into her actions continued. Max and Alix would not be returning to school that year, as it would take time to recover from their upcoming surgeries. And then there was Alya’s funeral, which would be taking place after school.
On a good note, someone had found Serafina. The porcelain doll had been left sitting on top of her desk when she got to school that morning. Although her outfit was a little worse for wear after being kwami knows where for close to a week, she still looked to be in pretty good condition. Giving the doll a hug, she carefully placed her in her bag before turning forward since the class was about to start.
When Adrien walked into the room, Marinette couldn’t help but tense a little. His posture was ridged, he looked to be wearing the same clothes that he’d been wearing on Saturday, and he appeared exhausted. If she had to guess, he still hadn’t slept since he found his parents.
When the class started talking about everything that had happened the week before and someone mentioned Lila and her lies. What happened next, Marinette would say that it came down to how angry and exhausted Adrien was. He jumped up from his seat, turned to glare at her in the back of the room, and yelled “Stop trying to expose Lila, Marinette! Her lies aren’t hurting anyone and I don’t want to deal with her getting akumatized again! Stop antagonizing her!”
It was only when he was met by her shocked expression and the intense silence from the classroom that Adrien realized exactly what he had done. Or more specifically, what he had said to Marinette.
“Dude, you knew that Lila was lying to us? How long did you know?” Nino asked, not bothering to hide how hurt and angry he was at his friend.
“Um, since Ladybug confronted her?” Adrien responded, still seeming dazed but what he was saying.
Ivan glared at him from the back of the room. “When was that? A week ago? A month ago? When did you find out, Adrien?”
“The first day she was here. Ladybug told her not to spread lies about her or claim to be the fox miraculous holder.”
Nino growled when his friend said that. Not only had Lila lied to them for close to a year, but she lied about having Alya’s miraculous! If he had been angry before, he was becoming more furious by the moment. “How could you not tell us about this?”
“Well, it, her lies weren’t hurting anyone-”
“How can you say that after what happened to me?” Sabrina snapped at him with tears in her eyes. “She told me that Marinette gave her a bag of knives and razors and told her to ‘use it’, but she brought those from home herself! If she hadn’t brought those in and lied about them, I wouldn’t have gotten hurt!”
“And what about me?” Kim glared. “Lila suggestedthat since Marinette tried to dump paint on her during the class photo to ruin her outfit, she wished that someone would show her what it was like to have their stuff sabotaged. I’ll admit that I did what I did myself and the fall was my own fault, but it might not have gotten to that point in the first place if you had told us!”
“Lila got Marinette expelled, too!” Rose said in the most disapproving tone. “Do you have any idea what that can do to someone’s student career? Assault, theft, and cheating are not things that will just disappear from your record. Notes like that stay in files. Because you let Lila lie and get away with everything, Marinette might not have been accepted into lycee!”
Adrien wasn’t sure what to say. He wanted to argue that he was right, that all you had to do was ignore the person lying until they left you alone, just like his father taught him. But the evidence to the contrary was literally staring him in the face. Sabrina’s hands, Kim’s broken bones, Marinette’s permanent record; all hurt because he didn’t out Lila. And looking back, even though she hadn’t been outed earlier, she had still been akumatized multiple times for petty reasons that were out of his control.
“I… I just-”
“Didn’t think her lies hurt people.” Nino growled at him. “I know you were sheltered, dude, but that was just mean and wrong.”
Without another word, Nino picked up his bag and moved to the back to sit with Marinette. Everyone else turned away from him. Even Marinette looked at him with utter disappointment before turning away from him to comfort Nino. He wanted to say something else, try to defend himself, but the substitute teacher came in and they got down to the lesson.
By the end of the day, Adrien had practically been slapped in the face as he realized just how alone he was. He’d lost his father, his mother all over again, his Lady, and now all of his friends. There was literally nothing left for him in Paris. On the way home, he called his Aunt Amilie in London, set on asking if he could come live with her and Felix. Maybe he just needed a new start, a place to find out who he was if he wasn’t his father’s perfect model son or the masked superhero.
Based on @unmaskedagain post “Marinette’s Haunted Doll” this is my take on the story and the kind of things Serafina would have done to get even. There’ll be three parts, and will hopefully be posted through the week. Blood, gore, and character death ahead. You have been warned.
She was seven years old when her Grandma Gina’s sister, Ramona, passed away. Marinette couldn’t remember ever meeting her. Her dad said that she was a very private person and didn’t get out much. Since she had never married or had any children, all of her relatives were asked to come over to the house and divide the property before the rest was sold and equally divided.
While her parents had been in the kitchen, looking over some family cook books, Marinette had wandered around the old house until she came to a small room. It was full of spiderwebs and old toys, which greatly interested her. She spent a long time looking through the boxes and shelves until she found a locked chest in the closet. Remembering the key she had seen in a dresser drawer, she retrieved it to see if it worked. It was hard to turn, but she heard the click and was able to open the lid. Inside was a box with an envelope laying on top of it. Curious she opened the envelope and read the note as best as she could.
“If I’m dead, Serafina killed me.”
Tilting her head in curiosity, Marinette set the letter aside and opened the box. Inside was an old looking porcelain doll. It was covered in spiderwebs, the dress was old and ripped, she was missing a shoe, and the hat looked like it was stained with red paint.
“Are you Serafina?” She asked the doll before carefully lifting it out of the box. “I don’t think you’re bad, you just look lonely. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of you!” Giving the doll a gentle hug, the little girl got to her feet and left the room and letter behind. Finding her parents, she asked if it was okay to take the doll home so she could take care of her.
Tom remembered seeing that doll when he was a kid and had always thought it was creepy, but if his little girl saw the good in it, he would trust her. And since none of the other relatives wanted anything to do with the doll, it came home with them.
Once home, the little girl raced up to her room with the doll and immediately got to work. She threw away the old dress, hat, and shoe before cleaning away all the dirt with a washcloth and carefully combing out the knotted hair. Then Marinette got to work on making Serafina a brand new outfit with new shoes and a hat. It took a few days, but she was really happy with what she came up with: a pink Victorian dress with rose and pearl accents, a wide brimmed hat with maroon feathers, and maroon slippers that tied with ribbons around the ankles.
Proud of what she had made, Marinette held the doll up high as she twirled around her room. She had been interested in fashion and clothes for months now, and making the pretty outfit for Serafina was a lot of fun. If anything, it proved to her that fashion design was what she wanted to do.
“I hope you like your new clothes, Serafina. You make the perfect little model, so I hope you don’t mind if I make more clothes for you later on. I promise to only make you clothes that will make you feel pretty.” Giving the doll a kiss, Marinette placed her next to her computer before skipping down stairs for dinner.
~oOo~
Serafina had not been expecting this when the young girl, Marinette, had opened her box. It had been decades since anyone had shown her any kindness. For so many years, she had been passed from person to person, shoved into boxes and hidden from sight or attempted to be sold off. Serafina had had no choice but to punishmany of her past owners, and she had not been lax with their punishments.
But she didn’t feel the need to do that with Marinette, this girl was different. She wasn’t afraid of her. She didn’t scorn her and hide her away where no one could see her. No, this girl was kind and made Serafina feel loved; something she hadn’t felt in nearly a hundred years. Staying with Marinette, she knew that she would be happy. So, no one needed to die here.
And she was.
The porcelain doll smiled quietly on Marinette’s desk as the years passed, and felt more for this girl than she could remember with anyone else. She felt beautiful whenever Marinette used her to experiment with a new outfit before she would make a full sized outfit for herself. She had fun when the girl would sing and dance around the room, sometimes even picking her up so she could dance with her. She felt entertained when she would play movies on her computer, one time watching a movie about a haunted doll like herself; they didn’t watch much before she turned it off, but Serafina thought it was funny. Scratching people and leaving notes wasn’t scary, she had done muchscarier things than that.
As Marinette grew into a teen, Serafina felt proud as she grew from a shy girl into a fearless superhero. Her owner had a lot of love and light to give, so it made sense to her that she became Ladybug. She also felt scared for the girl, not wanting to lose her to Hawkmoth, but silently promised her that if she was ever hurt, the people who hurt her would pay her back in blood.
Serafina was also aware of the tiny god that gave Marinette her power, just as Tikki was aware of her. No doubt, the god could sense the darkness that dwelled in her porcelain body, but realized that she cared for the girl and would not harm her. So the little god wisely said nothing, she would hate it if Marinette suddenly feared her.
After all, the three of them were happy and at peace.
Until the day Marinette came storming into her room, complaining about a girl named Lila. From what she could hear, this girl was a liar and was using her friends. Knowing how much her human cared for other people, that didn’t sit well with how it would affect her. Then she didn’t hear anything about the girl for months. But when she was mentioned again, it quickly got worse from there.
Serafina heard about the threats, the lies, almost being akumatized, her crush Adrien telling her to take the high road, all of it. She watched as one by one, her friends turned against her. Bullying her while accusing herof being a bully until only three of her classmates remained. She knew that the teacher and principal were useless and even accused Marinette of being a problem, especially after the expulsion. Serafina had nearly enacted her revenge that day, but held back when she was reinstated the next day.
Nathaniel, Rose, and Juleka were the only people left that believed her or even bothered to try and help in her class. There was also Kagami and Luka, Juleka’s brother. Serafina would admit, that boy was sharper than most. When he first saw her, his blue eyes studied her intently for a long moment until Marinette spoke up.
“That’s Serafina, she’s been passed down through my family for a long time. She was in really bad condition when I got her and took a lot of work to get her fixed up, but it was worth it. She was my first ever model and I’ve never felt lonely since she’s been around.”
Luka looked back over at the doll and gave her a smile. “I can tell, I’d bet no one gave her the proper love or attention until she came to you. And I think, if she could talk, she would say that you kept her from feeling lonely too, and all she wants is for you to be happy.”
Serafina liked that boy, a lot more than she had liked Adrien when he had come to play video games. The boy genuinely seemed to care for Marinette. And even though he could somehow sense that she was more than just a doll, he didn’t spill her secret. Yes, she approved of this one.
And then, less than a week after she returned to school, came the worst day. They were taking pictures at the school and Marinette had worked so hard on a new dress; it was pale purple cotton with teacup sleeves, a tulip skirt and pink lace at the hem. It was so sweet and looked like she was going to a spring tea party. Then half way through the day, she came into her room crying. Her makeup was smeared, there were bruises and scratch marks on her arms, another bruise on her cheek, her hair was a mess and covered in dark blue paint. The same paint that covered almost half of the dress. Tikki was doing her best to comfort the girl as she showered. Marinette was unable to save her dress and ended up throwing it away before she cried herself to sleep on her bed.
Serafina was angry, the kind of anger she hadn’t felt since Ramona had attempted to burn her in the fireplace… and that hadn’t gone well for her. Tikki flew over to face her. “I know what you’re thinking and I can’t condone you falling into old habits and killing her entire class. Despite how much they’ve hurt her, it would still break her heart if they all suddenly died.”
The doll actually considered that for a moment before picturing some very specific people. Lila, the liar that was trying to take away/destroy the person she cared about. Alya, the best friend that betrayed her, acted like a hypocrite, and took joy in hurting her. Adrien, the boy that not only broke his promise to help her as a civilian, but continually harassed her as a pseudo-hero. And finally, Hawkmoth, the person that was constantly putting her in danger. Everyone else that had harmed her would be punished, paying back the harm they had done to Marinette in blood, but those four would pay with their lives.
Tikki shook her head. “As angry as I am with Adrien, you can’t kill him. Marinette still has feelings for him and if he dies, she might never get over him. I can’t stop you from punishing them, but please try not to kill them. You know that she has a big heart and it would hurt her to lose any of them, so please keep that in mind.”
Serafina would have argued, but the little god was right. Killing around Marinette would only upset her. So she would do her best to punish them without killing them… although, accidents do happen.
~oOo~
It was easy enough to sneak herself into Marinette’s bag the next day of school. It was even easier to select her first victims. One of her classmates, Kim, stole her backpack and dumped out all of her stuff, including her. The boy laughed about Marinette bringing a doll to school as he ran up the stairs to keep it away from her. It took little effort to make the boy trip, in full view of everyone that had been watching, and fall backwards down the steps.
Serafina had landed at the top landing with a perfect view of the boy’s tumble, and it was oh so satisfying. She could see his knee bent in the wrong direction, a bone in his arm protruding from the skin, and blood dripping from the cuts and open wounds. But the sound was even better, all the cracking and popping of bone before he began crying like a little girl, begging for his mom. Ah, she hadn’t realized how much she had missed those sounds.
When the principal came out to see what was happening, she hid her presence and let the principal trip over her and fall as well. He even landed on Kim, causing more injuries to both of them. She held back a laugh as the grown man wailed and cried until the paramedics arrived. Loading the two into the ambulance while one of the teachers called the Board of Governors. A representative, M. Rupere, quickly came to take over the principal’s duties while he was gone, and was surprised when a bunch of students tried to blame Marinette for the incident.
“And how is it her fault?” He asked the students that surrounded him. “Did you see her push or trip M. Le Chien or M. Damocles down the stairs?
“Marinette brought in a doll and Kim was distracted by it when he was going up the stairs, that’s how he tripped and fell,” Lila told him with tears in her eyes. “Then M. Damocles tripped over the doll and fell down the stairs too. It’s just like how she pushed me down the stairs last week and I hurt my knee. I think she’s actually trying to hurt people.”
The man looked at Lila for a moment before looking to the top of the stairs, but there was no doll there. Then he looked back at Lila with a stern glare. “Young lady, if you had been pushed down the stairs last week, you would have been severely injured just like your friend or M. Damocles. And whether or not it was Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s doll that caused the incident or not, does not mean that she is at fault for the accident. To the principal’s office, right now. I think we should have a discussion as to why you are trying to blame another student for something she did not do.”
Totally shocked, the girl looked around to her followers for some support, but they were now looking at her with uncertainty. They had just seen two people fall down the stairs and receive severe injuries, so how was Lila walking around just fine without a scratch on her? Huffing in annoyance, Lila stomped her way to the office while the class stared after her, most of them noticing the lack of limp to her walk.
Serafina was pleased with how this was turning out, she had already punished two of the people that had betrayed Marinette and had begun sewing seeds of doubt with the liar. At the moment, she was hiding in the classroom, observing everyone so she could figure out the best way to punish them. She noticed Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel sitting close to the girl and doing their best to comfort her. She also noticed Nino, a boy she had seen a couple of times over the years, casting looks back at Marinette.
During the first break, the boy cautiously approached her, clutching his hat in his hands. “Hey dudette, listen… I, um, wanted to say I was sorry,” he said, having a hard time looking her in the eye. “After Kim fell, what that Governor dude said about Lila not being hurt, and the fact that I’ve known you forever. I felt so stupid. You would never push someone down the stairs or cheat or steal from someone like that. And I tried looking up Jagged’s discography to see if there was any mention of a song about Lila, and there was literally nothing. I tried telling Alya, but she didn’t want to listen and-”
Nino was interrupted by Marinette giving him a hug. Serafina smiled at that. The boy had thought for himself and admitted that he was wrong. He apologized and Marinette was willing to offer him forgiveness. She supposed that Nino could also be exempt from punishment, so long as he never betrayed the girl again.
Half way through the second lesson, Lila had returned to the class with two weeks worth of detention and had a meeting scheduled with herself, M. Rupere, and her mother at the end of the week. Serafina decided to let the girl’s empire fall before going in to completely destroy her.
During lunch, when all the students had left. Serafina got to work on punishing Mme. Bustier. She started by slamming the door shut, it made the woman jump and look around the room, but there was no one there. Then the giggling started, causing her to look around the room again. This time, she walked up the steps to see if anyone was hiding in the room, but she was completely alone. When she turned back to her desk, the papers she had been grading were torn to pieces. A bit panicked, Bustier tried to run out of the room, but the door was locked. As she struggled with the door, she heard the scraping of chalk and froze for a moment before looking at the board. Large words were scrawled in block letters: LIAR, ENABLER, MEAN, CRUEL, and the most frightening of all, YOU WILL PAY.
Bustier’s hands were shaking as she erased the words from the board, not understanding what was happening. Only taking a breath when the door opened and her students began to file in. Serafina quietly laughed at the teacher’s fear, she was another person that she would take her time in punishing. Payback for failing to help Marinette. For now, it was time to take out her biggest supporter.
Again, it was much easier than it should have been to sneak herself in Alya’s backpack and go home with her. When the girl found her she sneered. “The klutz must have put you in my bag by mistake.” Then she smiled cruelly at her. “I think I’ll give you to Etta and Ella to play with before giving you back to Maribrat, maybe tell them that you need a makeover and give them some permanent markers too.”
Turning to take the doll out to her sisters, she stubbed her toe on her desk chair hard enough that she felt a crack and dropped back on her butt while hissing in pain. When she was finally able to think past the pain, she realized that she had dropped the doll and didn’t see it on the floor. After wrapping her foot, she looked all over her room but couldn’t find it anywhere.
That night, things got… more than scary. Alya was absolutely terrified.
First, her computer turned on, on its own, and started printing off papers saying “YOU KNOW THE TRUTH”. She turned the computer off, only for it to turn back on after she’d climbed into bed and the browser pulled up past searches; specifically, the searches that proved that Lila had been lying. She had found that out after Lila had disappeared from school for months, but had kept to herself so she wouldn’t lose her credibility on her blog or have to admit to Marinette that she’d been right. Turning it off again, she’d decided to sleep on the couch when her phone suddenly let out a hiss and burst into flames.
Letting out a shriek, Alya rushed to her door, and had just barely opened it when it slammed shut on her fingers, causing her to scream as she struggled to pull her hand free. She could hear her parents and Nora shouting on the other side of the door, trying to push it open, but it wouldn’t budge. Her head got fuzzy and she suddenly felt cold, she realized that she was going into shock. Her parents’ shouts became garbled background noise and Alya heard the sound of tiny feet running around the room. She tried reaching the light switch so she could see, but it was out of reach.
From the light outside her window, she could barely make out the movement of a small shadow, moving from one part of the room to another. Coming closer and closer to her with every sweep. Alya began tugging harder on the doorknob and her hand. She needed to get out. Something was in the room with her. She could almost feel the darkness creeping closer. It wanted to hurt her!
What happened next, Serafina couldn’t have planned better if she’d tried. Alya jerked back her trapped arm and the doorknob at the same time Nora threw her shoulder into the door as hard as she could. Sending the teenagers flying into her bedside table and her head hitting the corner with an audible *crack*. The doll smiled silently in the corner of the room as the paramedics were called and listened to her parents cries for their horrid daughter to wake up. They called time of death at 2:03am.
~oOo~
It was a bit more of a chore for Serafina to get back to the school, but it was still manageable as her mother had to inform the school of her daughter’s death and pick up her things. The woman had also noticed the information that had been brought up on Alya’s computer and thought that she had been up late chasing a lead. And as the lead had to do with the disturbing behavior of one of her daughter’s classmates, she thought it best to show the acting principal the information before taking her leave.
Making her way back to the classroom, she saw that the news had spread already. Nino seemed to be hit the hardest, as it was his girlfriend, but he would get over it. Kim was still out of class, and likely would be for a few more days. Tikki saw the doll when she was peeking out of the purse and gave her a disapproving glare, but there was nothing she could do. And in Serafina’s defense, she had only intended on maiming the failed journalist, her death had been an “accident”.
When class let out for lunch, Serafina got back to work tormenting Mme. Bustier. Today, the door slammed and locked shut a few minutes after the last student left. The woman shrieked and was struggling to open the door when the giggling started again. Bustier started screaming for it to “go away” but the giggling continued. Turning back to the door, books began flying at her from all over the room, hitting her chest, back, arms since they were shielding her head.
Then the door opened to show a panicked looking M. Rupere. “I heard screaming, are you alright?” The red haired teacher looked extremely frazzled; her hair was a mess, eyes wide and dilated, and her hands were shaking.
“The books,” she said in a trembling voice. “There was giggling, the door wouldn’t open, and the books attacked me. And this was the second time!”
His eyebrows rose to his hairline as he stared at the woman. “Did you see who was throwing the books at you?”
Bustier shook her head in a frantic manner. “There was no one, the books just started flying at me after the giggling.”
Giving her a slow nod, Rupere gently motioned her to step out of the room ahead of him. “How about you take the rest of the day to recover? Some rest will do you some good.”
To his relief, Mme. Bustier agreed and collected her purse before leaving the school. Looking around the room, he was confused to see all the books in place on the shelves. Curious, he went to examine her desk and saw essay papers… covered in red ink with large “F’s” on every one of them. Reading the paper on top, all he saw were a few grammar mistakes, nothing that should have resulted in a failing grade. A bit unsettled, Rupere called the Board to schedule a psychological exam for the teacher. Serafina watched the man with satisfaction, at the rate she was going with that terrible teacher, she wouldn’t be around much longer.
Her next victims were Max and Alix during science class. She switched a couple of labels on the tubs on their desk before hiding in the room to enjoy the show. Half-way through class, Max poured a large amount of reactive chemical into the mix while it was warming over a burner, and the glass exploded. The two screamed and cursed in pain as Max tried wiping the liquid away from his face, only succeeding in getting more in his eyes. Alix tried wiping it away with a cloth, not noticing in time that the fabric was also soaked in the chemicals that now covered her entire face.
Serafina was impressed with how quickly Mme. Mendeleiev reacted to the incident. Doaning on gloves in an instant and leading the two students to the chemical wash station. Both students looked to have chemical burns on their faces, arms and necks. She could already see the burns covering a large amount of their exposed skin. While the class was distracted, Serafina switched the labels back so it would appear that the two had not been doing as instructed.
When school let out, the doll hid away in Mylene’s bag and ended up going on a date with the girl and Ivan. They commented on the bad luck their class seemed to be having and wondered out loud at what the cause might have been.
Mylene was hesitant to speak as the two ate their ice cream. “Do you think… maybe it’s karma coming back on our class?”
“Why do you think that?” Ivan asked her, seeming genuinely curious. Deciding that their conversation might lead to something more, Serafina waited and listened.
“It’s just… ever since Kim fell down the stairs, it’s got me thinking. Lila says that Marinette pushed her but the only injury she says she got was a bad knee, and she’s been walking around fine since then. And then she tried blaming Marinette for Kim and M. Damocles, when Kim shouldn’t have been running up the stairs and M. Damocles tripped at the top of the stairs when she was still down in the courtyard.”
“You’re right, now that I think about it. Lila lied to that new principal and she did it really easy.” Ivan nodded slowly, his brow creased as he pulled out his phone. “I wonder if she lied about anything else.” Mylene watched over his shoulder as he looked up the story about saving Jagged Stone’s kitten from an airplane. There was nothing, the only article that came up about a pet was his crocodile, Fang. The story said that he had hatched the reptile himself seventeen years earlier and any other pet wouldn’t be as rock’n’roll as Fang. “I don’t think Jagged ever had a cat, this article says that he’s only had Fang for longer than we’ve been around.”
Mylene pulled out her phone and called Rose, putting the call on speaker when she answered.
“Hi Mylene, did you hear anything about Max and Alix? Are they going to be okay?” The girl asked as soon as she picked up.
“Ivan and I haven’t heard anything about them yet, but we have a question for you, Rose, and it’s something only you would be able to answer.”
There was a slight pause on the line. “Go ahead.”
“Do you still chat with Prince Ali?”
“Sure I do! We video chat every Saturday and I send him videos of our performances with Kitty Section. Why do you ask?”
“Ivan and I were wondering… Has he ever mentioned Lila to you?”
There was another pause, although they could hear a hushed conversation in the background. “So, you guys figured out the truth about Lila?” When they didn’t respond right away, Rose continued. “I found out a few weeks after Lila says she came back from Achu. I mentioned Lila to Ali and asked him about the charities they had been working on together, but he’d never heard of her. And Ali is only working on charities involving children, nothing with the environment. When Juleka and I tried asking Lila about it, she got really mean and threatened us if we told anyone. I would have been akumatized if Marinette hadn’t been there to calm me down.”
Ivan and Mylene were horrified, not only had Lila been lying to them, but she had threatened Rose, Juleka, and probably Marinette too. “What should we do?”
“First, you should apologize to Marinette for how you’ve been treating her and let her know that you know the truth.” They heard Juleka over the phone. “Lila has been more terrible to her than anyone else and she keeps getting in Lila’s way to protect us and Nathaniel since we know the truth about her.”
“Who all knows?” Ivan asked, feeling a bit sick to his stomach. Sure, he and Mylene hadn’t really hurt her or done anything, but they hadn’t stood up for her either and they were supposed to be her friend.
“Us, Luka, Kagami, Nathaniel figured it out when she said she could introduce him to Stan Lee, Nino figured it out yesterday, and Adrien’s apparently known from the start but didn’t say anything because he doesn’t think her lies are hurting anybody.”
Both of them could hear the acid in Juleka’s voice when she mentioned Adrien, and they couldn’t argue with her. They knew he had led a sheltered life, but how could he claim that ‘lies don’t hurt anybody’ after sitting back and watching Lila and her friends torment and bully Marinette?
Mylene hadn’t even realized that she had asked that question out loud until Rose answered them. “He told us that it was Marinette’s own fault for antagonizing Lila, and ‘If she just took the high road like I told her, then Lila would leave her alone’. It took everything I had not to slap him.”
Coming from Rose, that really was saying something.
Serafina was then taken on a shopping trip to an arts supplies store, a card shop, and a stop at an ATM before going to Marinette’s family’s bakery. She smiled quietly and with great respect to the couple as they apologized to her girl, gave her cards, an entire bolt of soft purple cotton the same color that her ruined dress had been, a new sketchbook, and money to pay her back for some of the things that Marinette had given them over the past year. They even asked her to provide them with proper receipts, and admitted that they knew the amount they had given her wasn’t enough to cover everything. But they promised to pay her back before asking for anything else, as well as pay in advance for any future items or baked goods.
The little doll would have cried right along with Marinette if she could. These two had proven themselves to her and would avoid punishment, just as Nino had.
Theories began floating around that she was Mayura. The fact that she looked eerily similar to the peacock themed villain.
It was then that a dam burst. Students and teachers alike who had witnessed Bustier’s teaching methods revealed her tendency to gaslight or outright punish victims of bullying while letting the aggressors off scot free.
“And why should I apologize,” Marinette asked. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“We talked about the Marinettes of the world, remember?” Caline smiled. “You have to be the bigger person; be an example for the other students. Show them the right way to act.”
“This attitude of yours is getting out of control Mari-“
“What attitude?! Mme Bustier? The one where I sat quietly in class taking notes? Or the one where I calmly answered questions when asked? Or maybe the one where when the class got disruptive I didn’t do your job for you?” Anger filled Bustier’s eyes and her smile twisted into an ugly look.
“Don’t you think your going a bit far. Marinette.” Bustier’s voice was sickly sweet barely hiding the venom behind it.
Marinette reminded Ms Bustier, “Smile and forgive, Ms Bustier. Isn’t that what you told me? To be a better example.”
Caline had forgotten that mantra when she was a teenager, the teachers actually did their job so she wasn’t punished. The rule breakers were. It was easy to be on the high road when she wasn’t the one punished. Sure she wasn’t popular with her class, but it’s not like they would stay friends upon graduation.
And now here was, a teacher, while her bully was a socialite. It wasn’t fair.
Mrs. Bustier went to the school board the next day to ask about her pay. She didn’t expect to hear what she did. “Why haven’t I received my most recent pay checks? I haven’t received my last two checks, and I need to pay my rent. What is going on?” The board just looked at her with bored expressions. “You haven’t been paid, because you haven’t been doing your job.” Mrs. Bustier was shocked. “What do you mean? I show up everyday, and I teach my pupils all day. I am doing my job.” The head of the board just rolled their eyes.
Remember some chapters are longer than others (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
She looked and saw an open mouth Chat Noir and was surprised to see him there already but then saw everyone looking towards a nervous looking Lila and a girl she didn’t recognise. “Wait, you’re not Milady? Did you use the Mouse Miraculous to multiply yourself or something? Please tell me this wasn’t a lie!” Chat Noir demanded and Marinette demanded someone explain what was going on.
“The new student is Sara and she is Lila’s best friend; they had been telling us that she was you.” Sabrina spoke up and Marinette had her mouth wide open and was growing angry. This had gone far enough…
“Then why won’t you help the class,” asked Adrien. Lately, he’d been on Lila’s heels. Her former crush was another name on a long list of betrayals.
“It’s simple, I’m always willing to help my friends. Now, please leave, I’m busy.”
They left the art room, her words sinking in. Oddly enough, it was Nathaniel who broke the news. Telling Alix, who told Kim, who told Max, and so on and so forth until it got to Alya.
Marinette shook her head, “Fifteen thousand dollars of work you were going to get for free, gone.”
Most of her classmates’ faces had drained of color at the price, at realization of how big of a screw up they made. They had no idea just how much work Marinette did.
Lila was seething because it would be too hard to turn this around.
“What’s your best friends name? And can you describe them.”
Marinette froze and stayed silent. Tikki suddenly felt a strange twist in her tummy. Sabine and Tom looked at their daughter uncertainly. Finally after a long pause. Marinette spoke with a strained laugh.
“I uhh dont remember having one sir.” Sabine felt her stomach suddenly drop, hidden away behind a plant Tikki felt the same thing.
“I suppose there’s nothing left to say then.” She told them, before she turned away from them, heading to the back of the class. She sat down and refused to speak for the rest of the class despite the confused looks she got and the annoyed ones. Even a few hurt ones.
