Chapter Text
Washington D.C.
Marinette’s POV
I turn around at the sound of my name. Alya was standing there, surrounded by my old classmates. I raise one perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Yes?”
Alya is opening and closing her mouth, trying to get words out. After a solid 20 seconds of silence, Max steps forward. “You’re some kind of genius?”
I resist, just barely, rolling my eyes. “I’m on an accelerated course.”
My Dad snorts. “Don’t be modest. She has an IQ of 265.”
Rhodey snorts. “That’s all you’re going to bring up. She has partially taken over part of Avengers Tower, has more patents on the market than you did at her age, has her own fashion business being built up, already started her own superhero group, verbally destroyed Steve’s fashion sense, plus, she has more common sense than you.”
“Wait,” Peter turns to me. “When did you verbally destroy Captain America?”
“Just before we met. His fashion sense is atrocious. Someone needed to tell him.”
“Atrocious?”
“Heinous. Narvarious. Nightmarish. Loathsome. Ghastly. Intolerable. Unspeakable. Unforgivable. Egregious.”
“Are you going to keep listing synonyms?” Peter sighs.
“You said you didn’t know what atrocious means. Did you know what it means now?”
“Why are you like this?”
I point to my Father. “Blame his genetics. I’m completely innocent.”
“Up for debate.”
“What is going on?” Alya finally manages to find her voice.
“I was answering questions, you rudely and loudly interrupted us, Max asked if I was a genius, I answered, Peter asked a questions,-”
“Mari got sassy.”
I turn to Peter. “Now who’s sassy?”
“You.”
“Peter Par-”
“What is? Mari I-”
I turn back to Alya. “Alya, I’m in the middle of something. What do you need?”
“Lila said she was friends with Tony Stark’s daughter. But-”
“I’m Tony Stark’s daughter, and you know I’m not friends with Lila. You already know the answers to all your questions, you just don’t want to admit it. So, I’ll say them out loud because you won’t. Lila isn’t friends with Tony Stark’s daughter. She doesn’t know Jagged Stone, she never saved his cat, he doesn’t even have a cat and there is no song written about her. She doesn’t know Clara Nightingale. She doesn’t do charity work with Prince Ali, and she has never ridden in his private jet. She doesn’t know a single Hollywood director, especially not Steven Spielberg. She’s never even left Europe until this trip. Lastly, she’s not friends with Ladybug. They never were. Almost nothing Lila says is true.” Alya pales, the conviction and confusion on her face disappearing.
“How’d you know?” Max looks up at me. “She didn’t lie about knowing, well you, until recently.”
“The first day in class she told every single person she came across that she was friends with Ladybug. Hawkmoth had already proven that he didn’t mind killing, mutilating, and mentally destroying people in his mission. You’d have to be an idiot to go around bragging about that. Not to mention, Ladybug would never willfully endanger someone by maintaining a relationship, even a platonic one, with a civilian. And Max, in what universe can a napkin gouge out an eye? You wear glasses.” Max blushes. “All the evidence was right there. None of you wanted to see it.”
Alya is gapping. “She can’t be lying. She can’t be.”
“Why can’t she be? Why?”
“Jagged Stone knows her! She saved his cat!”
“He has a crocodile that’s 20 years old. You’ve seen the damn thing! He’s never had a cat.”
“How would you know!”
“I’m his designer! He’s publicly stated that I’m one of his designers. I talk with him weekly, if not more often. He’s practically my Uncle, he calls his honorary niece.”
“He wrote her a song.”
“He didn’t, and if he did, that would be creepy. Jagged’s over 30, and Lila is 16. Do you understand what she was implying?”
“I-”
“No, you don’t, because you posted it online.”
“She has to be telling the truth!” Alya is almost yelling at this point.
“Prince Ali works with children, sick children, exclusively. He’s applauded environmental work and encouraged it in his country, but he’s put his time and focus on children. Do you think for one second that a Prince doing large-scale environmental work would be kept quiet? That there wouldn’t be a single media post about it? That Lila’s name would just be forgotten?”
“She has worked with him. She was gone for weeks doing environmental work.”
“And yet, none of her charity projects exist. Nothing online, in papers, nothing to make what she did sound legitimate.”
“Clara Nightingale-”
“Is absolutely fantastic on her own. She’s gone out of her way for her fans and for her crew. She makes sure that everyone is somehow mentioned for their part. She’s cited half a dozen dance teachers over the years, why wouldn’t she include Lila? It doesn’t make sense.
“She knows Ladybug! They’re friends!”
Alya wasn’t dropping this. “Ladybug has repeatedly expressed the fact that she is a professional. She doesn’t have civilian friends. She has Chat Noir and that’s the only friend she’s ever mentioned. She’s walked out on interviews where they try to imply that she’s dating someone or friends with someone. She’s mentioned, numerously, that being a Superhero is a job to her, not a game. She takes Hawkmoth seriously, why would she be so stupid to befriend a civilian who-”
“She could have civilian friends!”
I fix Alya with a glare. “Yes, she could. But, why would Ladybug befriend the vainest and most braggart person in existence! Lila painted a target on her back, her family’s back, and our entire school with her actions. Everyone knows that Lila is the supposed best friend of a superhero. It’s a miracle no one has tried attacking our school or our class!”
“People are friends with your father!”
“Yes, people are friends with Tony Stark, Steve Rodgers, Clint Barton, and Natasha Romanoff; just to name a few examples. But Captain America is friends with Iron Man. Hawkeye is friends with the Black Widow. Their legal names might be public, but their superhero identity is separate. Tony Stark is Iron Man, but Iron Man is a separate identity. Ladybug probably has a private life, with friends and family, but we don’t know her secret identity. It’s a secret. You are comparing Apples and Oranges, these are not the same situations.”
“Lila is not a liar!” Alya isn’t yelling anymore, she’s no longer as convinced.
“Because if she’s a liar, then you gave up a diamond for fool’s gold.” Peter chimes in one more time. “Lila was supposed to be your golden ticket, but she doesn’t know any of the people she promised to introduce you to.”
“There’s no proof she’s a liar.”
“There’s no proof she’s telling the truth, and there is proof she’s a liar. I’m Tony Stark’s daughter and I am not friends with Lila Rossi.
“I- Why didn’t you tell me?”
I roll my eyes this time. “I did tell you, numerous times, that Lila was a liar. I pointed out holes in her story, the number of times she backed out of promises, and how she took advantage of you. You called me jealous. You called me petty. You left me out of things, you insulted me, and you made me the bad guy.”
“NO! That Tony Stark was your father.”
I sigh. “Because I didn’t trust you. I don’t trust you. You’d have published that story in a hot second. Don’t deny it.”
“Mari!”
“What Alya? What do you want me to say?”
“Why’d you stay? If you hate us all so much why’d you stay?”
“I wanted to see how far you’d go. How far that class would go? How far Madame Bustier and Principle Damocles would go. How far everyone would let Lila go. I got my answer, so I’m done.” Alya is silent. I must not have answered the way she thought I would. “I don’t think you’re all bad people and I don’t hate you. But at this point in time, you’re bad friends. I will not burn myself to keep you all warm.”
I look around Alya. Some of the class had left. Others, who lingered looked just as lost and upset as Alya. I wasn’t happy they were hurt, but I also wasn’t distressed. I simply didn’t care. The truth was, they were never really my friends for more than a few months. These weren’t the people I would text and call for the rest of my life, the ones I would plan vacations with. The people I would want to celebrate things with. They were unimportant to my future.
As I looked around I noticed Lila has disappeared. I imagine she was on her way back to the hotel and probably the airport after that. An attempt to make it to France before her tower of lies collapsed around her. The perks of being Tony Stark’s daughter meant that I had the means to hire a private investigator. This wasn’t the first time Lila had lied to her classmates, but it was the first time real consequences could hit her. In her early days of lying, no adult had believed Lila, they just thought she was just imaginative. It was noted in a report, the teacher cited Lila’s “tall-tales” and that her mother ought to put her daughter in creative writing classes. Lila continued to lie, getting small things like extra cash or free meals, or the nicest class chores. Just before moving to France, Lila had spun a decently large web of lies, gaining a lot of admiration and some decent perks at her school in Sweden. A few people lost friends and some switched to different after-school organizations. The eventual reveal took place after Lila had left, but most of the kids recovered. They were younger than my former classmates, and Lila had been far more careful.
I turned back to the reporters, some looked dumbfounded, and others looked interested. It was quick to tell who spoke French and who didn’t. Alya and I had been talking in French. I had no doubt, however, that a translation of this argument would be on the internet within 24 hours. Probably within the hour. Several people had recorded the conversation, it was likely already on youtube.
“I believe you all were still asking questions.” The various reporters shuffle around. I imagine many had new questions to ask me.
“Who is Ladybug?” One woman starts off.
“Paris’ superhero. She fights alongside Chat Noir, the other hero. They’ve had some temporary heroes, but no one else has been permanent.”
“Who is she fighting?” We’d forgone selecting reporters. They all seemed more eager to hear my answers than to shout over each other.
“Hawkmoth and Mayura. They have a way to temporarily possess people with negative emotions.”
“Why wasn’t Avengers called in? Or the military?”
“I can only guess, but the Hawkmoth threat is magical. The previous attempts at using military force had been failures. Not to mention, Ladybug has the ability to undo the damage from the Akuma.”
“Like fixing buildings?”
“Yes, but also returning people who were killed in the attack and fixing physical injuries.”
“She can raise the dead?” There is a lot of shuffling at that.
“Only those killed in the Akuma Attack. Someone who dies in a car accident after an attack doesn’t return. Someone riddled with cancer isn’t healed every Akuma attack—her miraculous fixes the damages from other miraculouses, nothing more. As for the Avengers, Akumas can take over anyone who is upset or angry. Do you want the Hulk to get akumatized, or the Black Widow? They are just as capable of human emotions as everyone else. Keeping the Avengers, and other powerful heroes out of Paris is necessary for the good of the city.”
“Does that mean other people left Paris because they were dangerous?”
“I can’t speak for everyone, but I do know some ex-military people who took jobs out of Paris after Hawkmoth’s reveal. Some people who were akumatized more than once moved or took jobs out of the city. However, this doesn’t represent everyone.”
“Why didn’t anyone know about this? A Paris supervillian?”
“You’ll have to ask the Mayor. However, if you heard that a man was possessing people with butterflies, having them fight two teenagers dressed like a bug and a cat for some jewelry, would you believe it?” I got a round of laughter from the reporters. It did sound ridiculous.
“Any more questions?”