Chapter Text
Oh how the mighty had fallen farthest and on the absolute hardest of times.
Lila bowed her head before she stared up into her reflection, through her unevenly growing back hair, in the tiny, barred window next to her single bed. Absentmindedly she poked at the edges of the black eye, her latest 'gift of admiration' from her classmates of over a year for trying to go to teachers and tattle on the other girls for tie-dying all of her clothes with bleach. The bruise was only just starting to fade but she knew more were to come.
They always did.
The girls here were the worst of the worst, many outright disowned by their entire families the second that a judge had passed down sentencing to send them here. These girls? They had nothing left to lose and, like the brunette, would most likely be serving prison sentences as soon as they became adults. As far as they were concerned, what was one more nail in their coffins?
And it wasn't like anything could save her.
She had tried to lie in the Parisian courts and claim that the evidence was falsified and that she was disabled and everything else just to save herself...only for her mother to formally state that the court should disregard anything that came out of her daughter's mouth as it would be a lie. She had never felt such a spike of terror as she did then...and it had only grown worse when her mother had stated to the court that she had fully revoked diplomatic immunity for her daughter and was expecting the courts to punish the teenager to fullest extent of the law as if she were an adult.
Oh, she had tried to plead with her mother, but her mother...had just glared at her and said, quite firmly, that no child of hers would ever be a terrorist before going to sit down to watch the proceedings with a glare that could have cut diamonds.
It wasn't just Adrien and his lawyers against her, for himself as well as Marinette. Nor was it simply the city of Paris and later the country of France. No...Jagged Stone had filed his own charges against her when he had been made aware of how she had been spreading lies about him as well as her treatment of his number one designer...and apparently abusing his daughter? She didn't really know as she couldn't remember the name brought up during the trial, only that the rock star was full of righteous fury for himself and his own.
And then it had gotten worse when, of all of the people who could show up via teleconference, Prince Ali had become involved on behalf of himself and his kingdom and how she had tried to, due to her slander and lies, apparently tried to somehow implicate him and his kingdom in her deeds. She honestly couldn't remember everything that the furious prince had said...but, in order to prevent further international incident, the courts had been quick to allow Prince Ali's lawsuits to enter into the trial as well.
A former-model and now businessman with a squad of lawyers, a rock star with his own set of high-powered attorneys, and a prince with full-backing of his own Embassy...and her mother and Italy had abandoned her to be torn apart by them.
From that point on, the entire trial had been a several weeks long blur. Every charge that came up...multiple counts of assault, threats of assault, theft, slander, libel mostly due to the screenshots of her lies that had been published on the Ladyblog, falsifying evidence and accusations, faking disabilities for preferential treatment, sexual harassment that lawyers were able to tack 'repeated attempted sexual assault' onto, and the biggest one after using her mother's diplomatic immunity to get away with her crimes? Conspiracy with a known terrorist.
Oh there had been many more legal terms and charges thrown about...and they all came back with a guilty verdict. Every. Single. One.
There was no doubt in anyone's minds. Even her own mother testified against her...and then it got even worse.
Apparently, at some point, a few Interpol investigators had been brought in by request of the French government and those investigators had successfully found the entire papertrail that she could have sworn that she had covered up. They had everything from all of the files on her computer to USBs she had hidden with her plans to the notebooks of plans that had been hidden in a false bottom of a drawer in her home desk...to CCTV footage of multiple instances at her school up to her willingly taking the akuma butterfly and becoming akumatized.
They had everything and no matter how she tried to spin it and paint herself as a misjudged victim, the courts were advised, by her mother, to ignore every single one of her attempts at defending her actions.
At the end of the trial, she was declared 'persona no grata' by the courts and deported back to Italy with the understanding that a yearly photograph of her would need to be uploaded to border security computers and all airlines so that she could never enter Paris, and after later deliberation by higher courts any location within the borders of France, again or she would be arrested and incarcerated on sight.
Two of her previous schools, where she had committed similar crimes except for terrorism, had jumped onto that particular train during the course of the investigations and the trial, and the issues with Italy and the cities those schools were in were being handled without her input or presence unless requested.
No one requested her.
Though her mother was present to act on her behalf.
Her name and face, with a yearly update as well, had been added to the international terrorist watchlist and she knew that would impact her life if she ever did see the world outside of a prison cell again.
Only through all of this, had she also learned that there was apparently a fairly recently-made international sex offender registry, dominantly handled by Interpol, and that she had been added to that as well only due to her other crimes that warranted international notifications.
Her second series of trials in Italy to decide what all her government could tack on to the already massive list decided on in Paris, had gone equally as bad and had landed her in this nightmare until she reached legal age, where she would be transported to a women's prison to live out the remainder of her sentence.
Lila reached up to tug angrily at one too choppy and fried-at-the-ends lock of her now jaw-length hair--all of which was growing back slowly due to how many times the other girls would capture her when they had a chance and butcher her hair if it ever got past her neck just so they could laugh and mock her when she cried or failed at getting free of them. The teachers and guards here only kept the girls from killing each other and broke up fights when they saw them, but had a habit of ignoring most of Lila's claims unless they saw the attacks in the act since her being a 'pathological liar' was in her file.
She hated it here.
Everything was structured where she had no control over her life unless she was locked in her room: she had to wake up early when ordered, eat all of her meals when ordered, go to classes where a teacher would strike her desk with a ruler if she even so much as looked like she was not paying attention to the monotoned matrons, and then be sent back to her room to sleep and repeat everything all over again save for the odd exception of a few hours in the 'group room' or time doing chores around the school with other girls to 'build character'.
The room, a prison cell really, was too small and made her wonder if she was becoming claustrophobic just from being in here. The bed creaked, the sheets were thin, and the blankets were scratchy, and...there was only a small cubical-like closet with no door that housed a toilet only mere feet from her bed. She wasn't even allowed the privacy of a shower alone due to the rules of this place that stated that, as luxuries had to be earned, she was to use the communal showers at the appropriate shower times, with the other girls who would mock her for everything that they felt like.
She wasn't allowed to take a meal in her room to avoid them because that would be a privilege that she would have to earn, so she had to eat in a cafeteria with her tormentors, guards at every wall and door, and she was barely allowed to choose what she was expected to force down her throat if she even got any without one of the girls deciding to flip her tray onto her for whatever reason they had decided to.
Or they dumped their trash-filled trays on her just to mock her like they had done earlier at lunch.
The only time that she was allowed 'free time' outside of the room was on days like this when the block her number was in came up on the weekly schedule to be allowed into the 'group room' to talk with others, watch the lone television that was controlled by the female guard watching from behind the safety glass of her secured office, play board or card games, or be allowed to read books in places other than their rooms.
The computers in the library were off-limits unless you had permission from teachers for school assignments or had earned the privileges of being allowed, while being heavily monitored, to look at the headmistress' pre-chosen 'appropriate' sites.
Phone calls to the outside world? Unless you had someone who cared about you on the outside and was willing to talk to you, no one really made use of that. Lila had tried at first, in hopes that her mother might have forgiven her by now...or that her father was willingly to rescue "his little girl"...or even that her grandparents might be willingly to help her...
Her grandparents had never answered the phone.
Her father had told her that she had made her bed so she needed to lie in it before he had hung up and never answered again.
Her mother? Her mother's assistant had answered and told her that her mother was a very busy woman cleaning up Lila's mess and to not call again unless her mother contacted her first. Her mother still hadn't made contact a year later.
The door unlocked and a guard, the usual dime-a-dozen-in-this-place-type of burly woman who looked like she crushed watermelons between her thighs for fun, called for her to hurry up unless she wanted to pass on her 'free time'.
Being marched down the halls in two single-file lines by the guards, every girl in the block keeping silent only because of the rule for silence when traveling from the dormitories--really the cells in Lila's opinion--to any other part of the 'school', but the brunette knew that it would be in her best interest to find a spot as close to the security office in the 'group room' as possible if she wanted to avoid any of her tormentors deciding that today was the day that they abused the 'free time' privilege for the block by going after her...again.
Entering the drab beige room was no different than it had been for the past year. The tv was on, focused on a life and style type of network this time. The girls split off into their individual cliques to pick games or books to occupy themselves, immediately beginning to chatter amongst themselves about whatever crossed their minds. The guards took up their positions at the main door to keep anyone from attempting to be sneaky.
Lila bowed her head and carefully slunk over to a spot close to the security room with a well-worn deck of cards, settling herself onto the floor and beginning to deal out the cards for her usual rounds of solitaire...when she heard something that made her blood boil.
"...And the hottest of the hot right now is straight out of Paris as Gabriel lead designer, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is taking the fashion world by storm ever since she hit the ground running a year ago after former teen model, Adrien Agreste, took over control of the brand after Gabriel Agreste decided to go on sabbatical."
Lila dropped the ace of spades card in her hands as she snapped her head up to stare at the screen as clips from the latest fashion show in Paris, debuting the upcoming summer line, showed Marinette cheerfully thanking everyone for coming to the show, while dressed in a stunning rose-pink cap-sleeved qipao embroidered with delicate golden butterflies decorating up the ankle-length skirt to the girl's abdomen. Marinette's hair was not in her usual pigtails, but flowing past her shoulders in loose beach-waves, save for a delicate ornamental comb tucking her hair back on one side, highlighting the delicate wash of make-up enhancing the girl's natural looks. A pair of delicate gold 'kitten' heeled sandals were strapped to her feet--the only bit of 'bling' aside from her usual earrings and...what looked like...a ring on her finger?!
"I admit, I'm surprised that she is pulling everything off so wonderfully since she has to split her time between being lead designer and being the preferred fashion designer for Jagged Stone as well as style advisor to Clara Nightingale. And let's not forget that this rising star is still in school to boot."
"It's almost enough to make you feel like you wasted time as a teenager, isn't it Giovanni?"
"Funny hearing that coming from you, Rosalina."
Lila's jaw dropped as her hands began to shake when she saw, of all things, Adrien step up onto the stage and take Marinette's hands in his as he offered his own thanks to everyone for attending, for the people working at the show, for the reporters covering the show, and to the models and backstage crew who made sure everything went off without a hitch. Marinette grinned at the blond who was dressed in a silver-grey suit and partly open black shirt not unlike what he had been modeling that fateful day at the photoshoot...only this one included a green-colored scarf, held in place by the lapels of the suit, and a pair of black boots not unlike something Jagged Stone would wear.
When Adrien brought one of Marinette's hands up and kissed her knuckles right above the ring on her hand, a piercing screech began tearing through the room, causing all conversation to stop and several girls to practically leap out of their seats like they were being shot at.
Lila tangled her fingers into her hair and pulled as she shrieked and screamed, thrashing about against the wall like a mad beast as the guards rushed over to restrain her before she could injure herself.
"CURSE YOU, MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG!!! I'LL GET YOU!!! I'LL GET YOU!!!" Was all that the other girls in the 'group room' heard as several of the guards hauled the lunatic away, the girl's screams and threats of horrific retribution echoing off of the walls as she tried to get free as if under the belief that if she just fought and clawed hard enough that she could strangle the bluenette through the television screen...only to spy, over one guard's broad shoulder, the happy couple cheerfully strutting back down the runway with their backs to their long dealt-with enemy.
[epic scene cut while Lila does her finest impression of Queen Leah from the Descendants movies]
[and, if you're looking for a story with everybody growing some sense in that franchise, may I recommend fanfiction dot net's own ginnyrules27's insanely good Watch and Learn/Bridges series and Choosing Family series?]
After the ride back to the mansion after the show and the show's after party, Marinette and Adrien went their separate ways to get out of their 'public' attire and into their preferred lounging attire so that they could take some well-deserved rest and relaxation that had pretty much been ordered by one Emilie Agreste, Tom and Sabine Dupain-Cheng, and silently alluded to being needed by one bodyguard who was the world's best Alfred for the superhero duo of Paris.
Marinette grinned to herself as she sat down at the vanity table in the spare bedroom she used whenever she needed to pass out at the mansion, and removed her comb from her hair before setting about on removing her make-up...while Tikki floated next to her. "The show was great Marinette. From what I heard people saying, they all loved it."
"I'm so happy they did. I was worried that, with everything else going on, I might have made a mistake with some of the ideas and no one wanted to tell me because I'm dating Adrien."
Tikki just shook her head in amusement at that--it would still be a road ahead, but her chosen was growing into the roles she had built for herself with her partner's help and support. "Chloe, Kagami, and Luka are going to handle patrols tonight?"
"Yeah...because Chloe knew how much has been on our plates getting ready for the new line debut. She pretty much demanded that, as 'Queen Bee', we need to take a night off after the show." Marinette said with a laugh as she put up her shoes and stepped behind the changing screen, only to emerge in comfortable leggings and a T-shirt, with the dress on its hanger to be cleaned later. "And Kagami seconded her."
Tikki just grinned at that before flitting over and helping the bluenette put her steadily growing longer hair into her signature pigtails. "Have you and Adrien thought about who should have the Fox or Turtle miraculous...or any of the others? I know a lot of the other kwami would love to work with us."
"We haven't really decided yet...though I can't help but think that Juleka might be a good miraculous holder. Maybe Rose? I'm not sure since I don't want to ever put her in danger, you know?" Marinette said as she walked out with Tikki in her arms so that the staff, if they ran into anyone, didn't ask questions about seeing the red kwami moving on her own. "Sabrina might be a choice too...or even Nathaniel if we find a good match. I'm not sure about Max for the same reasons as Rose...and Mylene, I don't know."
Tikki nodded from her position in Marinette's arms as they walked down the empty hallway to the TV room. "Well, we don't need anyone else right yet, so we have plenty of time to decide."
When Marinette entered the room, she let Tikki fly away to join Plagg and the other kwami--save for a certain trio who were keeping Paris safe tonight--who were all spread out on every surface not unlike the puppies in 101 Dalmatians, each with their own preferred favorite snack. Adrien grinned from where he was setting down a plate piled high with Camembert for Plagg...who was looking at that plate like a chorus of angels had just descended from the heavens and starting singing while bathing the plate in holy light like it was a gift from on high.
'Twas a weird look for the black kwami but Marinette had long since learned to just roll with it.
As had every other kwami apparently if the fact that they all seemed far more interested in discussing what movie they were going to be watching tonight.
Tikki just shook her head and stuck an arm under Plagg's jaw to push his mouth shut. The red kwami sat down to help herself to the plate of cookies that had been provided for her...and occasionally poked her partner to remind him to eat the cheese instead of just stare at the huge pile like it would tell him the secrets of eternity.
The blond walked over to Marinette--sporting a T-shirt and sweatpants--and took her hand in his. "I've queued up the streaming service for the evening, we have plenty of food and drinks, and I'm pretty sure my mom, your parents, and Gorilla are all enjoying their 'parents not having to worry about their kids jumping off a building to fight crime' night in the other TV room."
The bluenette laughed at that and she and her boyfriend took their seats on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. "Then let's enjoy our night off."
Marinette curled up at Adrien's side, picking the first movie and hitting the play button.
She could get used to this new life.