Chapter Text
Marinette should have known better.
She should have expected this to happen, taken the right measures to prevent it. But things had been going so great lately, she had just...let her guard down.
Her friendship with Alya became stronger after revealing her secret. She was starting to get the hang of her Guardianship. Chloe's influence was steadily waning after the Miracle Queen Crisis.
And of course, there was Lila.
Lila had not committed a single crime against Marinette since getting her expelled then un-expelled with her fake disease. She had steered clear of Marinette, backed off respectfully when Marinette approached, and simply people she understood and respected Marinette's reluctance towards her after the incident.
Marinette had begun to believe that perhaps Lila had given up her initial threat to ruin Marinette. Perhaps she had gotten her expelled and then reinstated as a warning to back off, which Marinette had done, resulting in Lila leaving her alone. Perhaps Lila realized she was overreacting to Marinette knowing her secret, since Marinette had done nothing since the day of her return, and reinstated her as a way to smooth things over and convince Marinette to give her one more chance and not expose her. Perhaps she had simply become bored, since Marinette wasn't fighting back, and decided to just let bygones be bygones.
With Lila sticking to stories of glamour and adventure, leaving Marinette and her friendships alone and in tact, Marinette had let go of the idea that Lila was a threat, choosing to focus on more pressing matters in her life, like her Guardianship and her messy love life.
But it was always the calm before the storm. And now, here she was, kneeling, bloodied, bruised and beaten, before a victorious Lila, akumatized into Volpina 2.0, more powerful and slippery than the first version.
That wasn't the worst part for Marinette. The worst part was her partner, her kind, brave, irreplaceable partner, who she cherished more than the world itself, limp in that false fox's bloody, slimy hands, eyes shut, barely breathing.
And for Lila, it was heaven.
Seeing that stupid Ladybug so heartbroken, so defeated, kneeling at her feet like the worm she was, gave Lila a sense of triumph that she had lusted after for so long, ever since that day in the park. That day, Lila had been the one crying and humiliated, while that stupid bug stood over her, like she was better than her. Now Lila, as Volpina, was rightfully standing over Ladybug, watching with glee as she wept, as beaten and powerless as Lila had been that day.
Revenge felt so good when the shoe was on the other foot.
"And so, here we are...", Volpina taunted the fallen heroine. "The Eiffel Tower. The very same spot where you first defeated me. You thought that'd be the last of me to deal with, didn't you, Loser-bug? Well, you were wrong!"
Excellent, Volpina., came Hawkmoth's voice in her ear
Ladybug looked up at Lila with teary, pleading eyes. "Lila, please! You can't do this!"
Oh! She was begging! That arrogant bug, who had once acted like she was above Lila and everyone else, was now begging HER, Lila, for mercy! Things just got better by the minute!
"Ha! Not so high-and-mighty now, are you, Ladybug?"
"Lila, you can't! You can't let Hawkmoth win!"
"Shuddup!", Lila barked, silencing her with a deadly glare. "You have no one to blame but yourself! You started all this! You just had to stick your nose where it didn't belong! So what if I told one stupid little lie and fake necklace! It's not like I was hurting you directly! Everything would have gone fine if you hadn't called me out! No one would have gotten hurt, and I would have Adrien eating out of the palm of my hand!"
Ladybug paused, pressing her lips together. "You're right."
What? What did she say?
"You're right. I shouldn't have been so aggressive. I'm sorry, Lila. But please...your beef is with me. Chat had nothing to do with that. Leave him out of this. It's me you want revenge on. Let Chat go. He's innocent."
Innocent?
Innocent?!
Chat Noir was Ladybug's partner. It had been stated multiple times in articles and blogs all over the Internet how much he adored and believed in Ladybug. He may not have had a hand in Lila's humiliation, but anyone who held any sort of close bond to Ladybug like he did was guilty by association! He enabled Ladybug's behavior by praising her to the high heavens and cheering her on! It was sickening!
"Innocent?!", screeched Lila. "No one who works with you and trusts you like he does can ever be innocent! The cat's said in interviews that he trusts you with his life! Anyone with that level of faith and devotion to you is just as bad as you are!"
Ladybug flinched, and Lila could see a flicker of something across her face. Guilt? Over what? They had already mentioned Lila's humiliation.
Excellent, Volpina., came Hawkmoth's voice in her ear. Now do as I say, take her miraculous!
"In a minute, Hawkmoth.", said Volpina. "I'm gonna start with the sidekick, if you don't mind. I want to savor Ladybug's heartache over her beloved partner a little more."
Whatever you want! Just take their miraculous!
Lila grinned and lifted a twitching Chat Noir by his collar. "Here, kitty kitty kitty...", she cooed, hand slowly reaching towards his clawed hand where his ring still sat.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she relished the growing anguish on Ladybug's face. The stupid bug screamed as Lila finally gripped Chat Noir's ring by the tips of her fingers and slipped it off with a smirk. A flash of neon green light engulfed the stupid alleycat, and his leather melted away in seconds to reveal himself as—
"Adrien Agreste?!"
Both girls shouted in shock when they saw the blonde target of their affections standing in Chat Noir's place.
Or former target of affections, as he became in Lila's case in that very moment.
That...That traitor! So that's why he took Ladybug's side all those times! Lila had thought he had simply been blinded by her glamour, like all the other sycophants in this city, and she could make him see the error of his ways. But all this time, he had been her cat-eared minion, her enabler, her right-hand cat with all the same morals and beliefs as her!
To think of all the time she wasted trying to make him hers!
He didn't deserve her!
He didn't deserve to model beside her!
He never did!
She spit right on his cheek, where a dark bruise was blooming. "You! You really had me fooled, Agreste! I thought you were the perfect match for me! I thought that the whole Ladybug fan thing was just a teenage boy phase, and I could help you grow out of it! But the whole time, you were the problem behind Ladybug! Encouraging her behavior! Inflating her ego by acting like she hung the moon and stars! Heck, you're probably the one who told her that I deserved to be exposed!"
"That's not true!"
Lila whipped her head towards Ladybug. "What?!"
"Adrien was the only one who was truly on your side!", that dumb bug wept. "He knew you were lying the whole time, and he tried to give you another chance! Everyone else who knew you lied wanted you exposed, and those who were nice to you were unaware! Adrien was the only one who knew you lied and still treated you decently! He's the closest thing you had to a friend here!"
Lila glared at Ladybug. "How do you know so much about Adrien and our relationship?"
Ladybug blanched. "Uh...I...um..."
Take her miraculous!, came Hawkmoth's voice. Reveal her identity! It will give you answers!
Lila smirked. "Right. Thanks, Hawkie."
Swift as the wind, Lila removed the studs from Ladybug's ears. In a flash of neon pink light, her red and black spandex vanished, her mask evaporating to reveal the face of—
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"
There the girl stood, in her hair tied into those babyish pigtails, in her ugly pink jeggings, that dumb black blazer and top she embroidered herself just so she could brag about what an amazing designer she was (which she wasn't—a circus clown had more style than she did).
Of course.
Of fucking course!
It had to be Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It all made sense!
That girl just relished getting in her way! Swooping in, calling her out on her lies, effortlessly soaking up all the praise and adulation of the class just by breathing! Acting like some godsend to the earth while grating on Lila's nerves!
Only she would have the gall to attack Lila as a superhero! Only she was sanctimonious and self-righteous enough to use her miraculous to bully Lila for a few lies that didn't involve her!
Lila gritted her teeth, glaring down the stupid, holier-than-thou bitch.
"You...I should have known it was you. I guess it wasn't enough, destroying my life as Ladybug. You had to destroy my life in the classroom, too, telling everyone I'm a liar, so that they'd shun me!"
Marinette glanced down. She looked angry...bitter?
"No need to get mad at that. It's not like they believed me."
Hm...
Lila saw an opening.
"Oh, really? And why do you think that is?"
Marinette looked up, her face hardening. "What?"
"A sweet girl comes into the class, does nothing wrong, asks for accommodations for her illness, and some random girl from the class starts yelling that she's a liar?"
"I'm not some random girl! I'm their friend!"
"Their friend who is known for getting insanely jealous when another girl so much as says hi to the guy she's crushing on.", Lila reminded her.
"I helped him on his ice-skating date with Kagami before then!"
"And a week after I came back, you gather your friends around to talk about how to stalk him to another country and sabotage his time with her.", Lila said. She cherished the way Marinette's face went slack. "Yeah, Alya told me all about that. I feigned worry about you not liking me, and Alya told me the story to comfort me. Because the story proved their suspicions right. You do still get crazy when it comes to Adrien. So I guess your friends know you a lot better than you think they do. Better than you know yourself, even."
Marinette looked defeated, at a loss for words. Lila had hit a nerve, she knew it. And she was proud of it. She decided to keep rubbing salt in the wound.
"I mean, it was obvious from the day we met! The way you just stomped right in during my date with Adrien and yelled at him in front of me, tearing apart my little lie!"
"You were lying about being my friend! You were putting yourself in danger!"
"Bullshit!", Lila barked back. "You didn't care about any of that! You only cared that I was cozying up to your crush and saying you were a second-rate superhero! If you really cared about my safety, why didn't you talk to me in private and explain to me why it was dangerous to lie about being your friend? Better yet, why didn't you go to Alya and explain to her that she was putting me in danger by posting my video interview? Yes, Alya posted it without checking sources, but you were the one who never contradicted it! You never spoke up about it! You never even let her in on the truth in private! You just let her keep that phony interview up on her website and let her keep believing a lie that only you could disprove! You're supposed to be her best friend and her idol, and you just kept her in the dark like that! You had months worth of chances to suit up and tell reporters the truth about me, but you just chose to let it all go on and pile up! You're just as guilty as Alya posting the video by enabling me for this long!”
“Oh sure, blame me for not trying harder to stop you!” Marinette lashed back.
Lila scoffed at Marinette. “Wow… that’s the message you got from what I said? That I’m blaming you for what I did? Open your earholes, Marinette! I’m not calling you out for not doing anything! I’m calling you out for being a hypocrite about it! You sit there and whine that Adrien did nothing to stop me, that he didn’t try hard enough to expose me, when you did the exact same thing! If you really felt that strongly about me and my lying, as much as you say you are, you would have exposed me anyway! But no, you just sat on your sorry little butt, feeling sorry for yourself! Face it, you’re not mad at him for not exposing me! You’re mad at him for not doing the hard work for you!”
“But… he enabled you, too…”
“The keyword there, Marinette, is ‘too’. You both enabled me. But you wanna know what the difference is between you and Adrien? The difference between you and him is that he underestimated how bad I could be until it was too late, while you understood all along. The difference between you and him is that when he finally understood how bad I was, he didn’t sit around and wait for someone else to stop me for him, while you did the absolute bare minimum before pushing the rest of the responsibility for me onto others. And the difference between you and him is that he never once blamed anyone else for the damage I did, while you literally blamed everyone else around you but yourself for my misdeeds, just because they didn’t do your dirty work for you!”
Lila placed her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at her victim. “Face it, Marinette. You did everything you condemn Adrien for doing. And you did it while whining that no one else was doing the heavy lifting for you. And you have the nerve to act like the victim here when you had every opportunity to stop me, you just chose not to and expected everyone else to pick up your slack!"
With every word, Lila could tell Marinette was pricked, like every accusation was a needle in her heart. It was refreshing and delicious, every flinch and wince like sugar on her tongue.
She deserved this. In and out of the mask, she was always acting so high and mighty, like she was soooo above it all. Always looking down her nose at Lila, always silently judging her. And for what? A few little white lies?
God, it felt so good to knock Stupid-Cheng off her goody-goody high horse. It was like a drug. People said it was bad, but it gave her a thrill and satisfaction like never before. The more she got it, the more she wanted. It was addicting. She had to keep going.
"Just admit it, Marinette. The class was right. The main reason you waged war against me is because you were jealous and paranoid of me getting close to Adrien!"
Marinette swallowed the lump in her throat, hanging her head in shame. "You're right. I was jealous. At first. But then I wanted to keep him safe from you."
"Safe? From me?", Lila scoffed. "Adrien would have been just fine as my boyfriend!"
"But you don't love him!", Marinette yelled, lifting her head to show her narrowed, tear-filled eyes.
Well, she was crying, at least. That was something.
"You don't love Adrien! Not really! You don't see him! You only see his fame and status! You don't see him for who he is on the inside!"
That made Lila boil.
"Oh, and you do?"
"Yes!"
Lila laughed coldly in her face. "Really? I never woulda guessed, with you fangirling over him all the time!"
Marinette looked offended. "Fangirling?"
"I've seen you, Marinette.", said Lila. "I've seen the way you act around Adrien. You stutter and gawk and foam at the mouth, just like most of the girls who know him as Adrien the teen heartthrob and not Adrien the guy who sits by you in class. If you see past his fame and status, why don't you act like it?"
"I-I'm nervous!"
"For a year? You've had a whole year to talk to Adrien normally, get over the initial hype of a crush, the hype of his fame. Everyone else in your class does. But you still spazz out whenever he's in a five foot radius. Which is weird, because you're the one who claims to see past his fame and status. Shouldn't you, of all people, the girl who supposedly loves him for him, treat him like a normal boy instead of a flawless celebrity?"
Marinette flinched again.
Oh, Lila was loving this.
Marinette hardened again. "I know Adrien isn't flawless. He's the one who told me not to expose you."
"Hm?" This should be interesting.
"The day you came back, I wanted to expose you for the liar you really are. I knew that you would hurt my friends in the long run, leading them on with false promises, manipulating them into doing your bidding. But Adrien convinced me to stay quiet. He told me to take the high road, that your lies weren't hurting anyone, that it was better to give you a second chance."
She shook her head, turning towards Adrien.
Wait, was she glaring at him?
She was!
"I knew I shouldn't have listened."
Lila's ears perked up, and a half-smile came to her face.
"Than why did you?"
Marinette looked back at her with that stupid, confused face. "Huh?"
God, she really was clueless, wasn't she? Couldn't even see the flaws in her own logic, even when they were right in front of her!
Seriously, THIS was the girl who was expected to save the day? That everyone looked up to? It was pathetic, really.
"If you didn't really believe what he said, why did you go along with him? Sure, his advice was bad, but you're the one who took it willingly. Why? If you didn't agree with his idea, why did you do what he said?"
Marinette's anger melted away, replaced with shame and regret. Every self-righteous, hypocritical layer of her was being shucked away by Lila's words, stripping her bare before her enemy, forcing her to face all the truths about herself that she had been ignoring all this time. It was beautiful.
"Was it because...you wanted to please him?", asked Lila, twisting the knife in. "Because you wanted to look good in front of him? Sure, you thought the idea of the high road was terrible, but Adrien suggested it, so it can't be as bad as you believed, right?"
Marinette mashed her lips together and turned her head away.
"Ha! I knew it! Adrien's high road went against your morals, but you went along with it anyway and went against your own thoughts because you believed Adrien could do no wrong! Tell me—if Alya or someone else you knew suggested the high road, would you have still gone along with it?"
Her silence was more than enough of an answer.
Lila grinned from ear to ear. "See? This is exactly what I was talking about! You claim to be above all of the superficiality of Adrien's fanbase, act like you're better than all of his fame-obsessed admirers who only know him as the face on the cover of a magazine, because you love him for 'who he is on the inside',". Lila used finger quotes.
"But in reality, you're just one more crazed fangirl who sees 'Adrien the supermodel' and not 'Adrien the teen boy', who worships him like a god and acts like nothing he ever does is wrong! So don't look me in the eye and preach to me about only seeing Adrien for his status when you're the one who has him so far up on a pedestal, she's gone against her own morals and beliefs in the name of pleasing him!"
Marinette sniffled.
Oh! She was crying again! Good!
"You're right.", came Marinette's whimpering voice. "I failed Adrien. I knew how horrible you were, the hurt you were causing...and I just looked the other way because Adrien said to. If I'd been a true friend, I would have set him straight, told him why he was wrong, tell him the full extent of what you did. But I just kept him in the dark. In the end, I did to him the very thing I was mad at him for doing to our friends. I didn't tell him something important about someone they trusted."
She started sobbing. "This...This is all my fault. I was so stupid. I had plenty of chances to stop you before, to nip this whole thing in the bud. All I needed to do was find Alya as Ladybug, or tell Adrien about your threats in the bathroom and his book. Even gently poking holes in your stories instead of screaming that you were lying would have been enough to stop you. But I just...I just did nothing. I knew who you were, I should have been the one to stop you. But I just pushed the responsibility onto others. I blamed Adrien for being passive, my friends for believing you...but I'm the one who enabled you, letting you lie and ignoring every chance I had to stop you."
She wept uncontrollably, like the immature little bitch she was. "I failed. I failed Adrien, I failed Alya, I failed my friends, I failed Paris. I'm the worst Ladybug ever."
She looked up at the tiny red thing that had been floating at her side the whole time. "I'm sorry, Tikki."
She looked at the little black cat. "I'm sorry, Plagg."
Finally, she turned to a barely conscious Adrien. "I'm sorry, Adrien...kitty."
Could he even hear her now?
Whatever, not important.
Alright, Volpina, came Hawkmoth's voice. You've had your fun. Now deliver the miraculous to me!
This was it. The result of the glorious battle. The fruits of labor coming to fruition. The moment of supreme victory.
"And why would I do that, Hawkmoth?"
Huh?
His voice was shocked, confused, and Lila snickered.
Only this wasn't going to be HIS victory. It would be HERS.
"Wake up, Hawkie! I don't need you anymore!"
Cease this nonsense! Bring the miraculous to me or I'll strip you of your power!
"And then what? I already have the Miraculous in my hand! I have what I need! I don't need anything from you!"
Hawkmoth really thought he could use her like a pawn and discard her while he gained the ultimate prize?
Ha!
Fat chance!
SHE was the one who beat Lame-o-bug and her mangy cat. SHE was the one who took their miraculous.
Hawkmoth thought she was nothing without him.
But it was the other way around.
HE was the one who needed her!
She didn't need him. Not anymore. She had the miraculous! She had earned them! They were rightfully hers!
She didn't know what they could do, but if a man is willing to become a super-powered terrorist to get them, they had to be powerful.
He tried pleading with her. Of course he did. He knew better now, knew that he needed her more than she needed him.
Volpina! Stop this madness and—
"Peace out, Hawkie!"
And just like that—she severed their telepathic link.
Turns out, anyone could do it with just the right amount of willingly wicked willpower.
Marinette turned to Lila with tears in her eyes. "Lila, listen to me! Do whatever you want with me! It's my fault, after all! But leave Adrien out of this! He's done nothing to hurt you! He's the only one who's tried to help you!"
"Help me?!", howled Lila. "Help me?! That stupid ignorant boy! Please! He's even more deceitful and manipulative than me!"
Marinette looked baffled at the thought. That stupid girl. She's wrapped so far around his finger, it's a surprise to her that perfect boy Agreste can do any kind of wrong.
She didn't know.
Know the way he always talked down to Lila like he was speaking to an ignorant child.
Know the way he had silently judged her behind his smile, seeing her as a pest, a bug to be brushed off.
Know the way he went around, acting like Daddy's perfect little angel, lying that he just wanted to be normal and that he was just like everyone else, when his actions spoke the truth, when he strutted around like he was so much better than everyone, like some sort of matyr, telling Lila to "just be honest" and "it was better to be nice", like it was his job to "reform" her, like she was some broken little bird that needed to be "fixed".
Seeing her as less than him, or his sweet little "everyday Ladybug".
Secretly comparing Lila to Marinette.
Prioritizing Marinette over her.
Holding her over Lila's head as an "example" she needed to aspire to.
God, he was horrible! Lila regretted overlooking everything, just because he was rich and good-looking, both of which he didn't deserve.
Marinette wanted Lila to tell the truth?
Fine.
She'd get the truth.
"You and everyone else think Adrien is soooo perfect and wonderful! Like he's some sort of holy god among mortals!"
Lila leaned in, cherishing Marinette's anxious face as she awaited further word from Lila.
"You think I'm a liar, Marinette? You think I manipulate people? I don't even come close to all the things Adrien does! Every time I met up with him, he talked down to me, like I was beneath him! He droned on and on about honesty and kindness, pushing me again and again to tell the truth about myself and just be nice to you! Like I was a child to be scolded!"
Lila heaved breaths and went on.
"Every single conversation we had included at least one jab at me, at my lying, telling me to stop it, to stop hurting YOU! He would stand by me, preaching about kindness and righteousness, silently judging me, thinking he was somehow better than me! And you know what he would always say at the end?"
Marinette was silent.
"He would always say, 'You don't need to lie to make friends. Look at Marinette. She's always herself around others, and they all love her!'"
Marinette gasped softly. "He said that about me?"
"Oh, puh-lease! I could fill a book with all the praises he's sung about you! 'I know you don't like Marinette, but you could take a page out of her book!' 'Marinette is very forgiving, just apologize to her, and she'll accept you as a friend!' 'I don't understand why you're so stubborn about hurting Marinette, she's really so nice, you could be friends with her if you just tried!'"
Lila visibly gagged, putting emphasis on her sound of disgust. "It was revolting, really! The way he gushed about you all the time to me! Holding me up to your standards! Comparing me to you! He thinks I didn't see what he was thinking, but I did! He always thought I was less than you! Less than him! Everyone's less than him in his eyes!"
"That's not true!", Marinette exclaimed. "He was the one who forgave you when you started lying! He's the one who convinced me to take the high road, out of kindness for you!"
"You think his high road was an act of kindness? Gimme a break! I see what it was now! It was just an excuse for him to sit on the sidelines and judge me, laugh at me for not being as effortlessly popular and irresistible as him and actually working for what I have!"
"You call lying and pretending to be someone else working?!", Marinette scoffed.
Of course. She wouldn't get it. She was just like Adrien. She didn't have to work to be popular and pursued. Everything she wanted just fell onto her lap. She wouldn't understand why some people had to work their butts off to get even a sliver of what the universe gave her and Adrien on a silver platter.
This was the reason Lila did what she did! To even the playing field! Why should some people get all the breaks just because they were lucky enough to be born into riches and fame like Adrien, or into natural talent like Marinette? What made them more deserving of their popularity than her? They didn't even work for their good reputation!
Lila was just as pretty as Marinette, just as interesting as Adrien. And people would easily see that if she had the same opportunities life had handed them! She was just as deserving of everything Marinette and Adrien had, their popularity and acclaim and happiness, if not even more so!
"Oh, I'm sorry, Marinette.", Lila simpered falsely. "I'm sorry that not all of us have a famous father or modeling career! I'm sorry that not all of us are willing to settle for being nobodies! I'm sorry that some of us have to resort to other means, just so they're not immediately outshined by anyone! But just because I wasn't born as lucky as him, that blonde jerk thought that gave him the right to look down on ME, to reprimand ME for everything I did to YOU!"
Marinette started again. "He...reprimanded you...for me?"
"Oh, puh-lease! Do you really think I made up that stupid lying disease to get you back in school because I liked you? Because I felt guilty for what I did to you? Gimme a break! Adrien bribed me with a modeling contract and his friendship so I would clear your name!"
Marinette blinked back tears. "He...bribed you? To get me cleared?"
"Well, it's not like he could just tell people I'm a liar.", scoffed Lila. "After all, if your friends don't believe the girl he sees as an everyday Ladybug, what are the chances they'll listen to him?"
Of course, the class only distrusted Marinette because of her crush on Adrien, but Adrien wasn't aware of that. As far as he knew, his classmates were disregarding the words of their beloved class rep for no discernible reason. It didn't give him a lot of faith that his own word would matter.
"Honestly, though, it wasn't worth it! Spending all that time with Adrien, whenever he did talk to me, he just talked about you. 'Wah wah, you're so mean to Marinette, she's so kind, she doesn't deserve this!' Being friends just gave him an excuse to shove his morals down my throat! To make me into his little project! To fix me! Like I was broken! Honestly, I think it would have been better if he had stayed homeschooled and locked away from the world!"
Because than she wouldn't have wasted so much time on him. Because than she wouldn't have lost so many hours feeling second-best to the girl talked about nonstop like she was some sort of goddess and Lila a mere mortal. Because than she wouldn't have changed her plan to destroy her rival, just to please the boy she wanted, only to find that he was worse than the rival, that his friendship with her was his way to manipulate her into "changing for the better", that he was a waste of her attentions.
Lila looked back at the unconscious Adrien, lying on his back.
"All he is is a disappointment."
A sob came from Marinette and stole Lila's attention back to her.
The stupid girl was crying again, only now, anger was thrown into the mix.
"You don't know anything about Adrien."
"I know he has everything!", Lila shouted at her. "He has everything, and looks down at people who have less! He constantly tries to hold me to his standards, to his way of doing things, not understanding that not everyone has the same opportunities to be popular and admired that he or you have! That some of us have to resort to other means to get what we deserve!"
"What you deserve?!", Marinette scoffed. "And just what makes you think you deserve to be popular and admired? What have you ever done for our class that makes you believe that you deserve to have them as your loyal followers? What have you ever done for Adrien that makes you believe you deserve to have him as your trophy boyfriend?"
"I deserve it more than you!", Lila growled. "In fact, I deserve everything you have and more! I deserve..."
She looked back at Adrien.
"...I deserve everything he has."
"What?!"
"His fame, his money, his popularity, the love of the opposite sex, the fancy house and designer clothes! Adrien has the perfect life! The life I always knew I was meant for! The life I rightfully deserve!"
"And just what have you done to deserve it?"
"What has he done to deserve it?", Lila retorted. "All he's ever done is look down on other people like me and act like he's better than everyone else! He's petty and rude!"
"He's petty?", exclaimed Marinette. "That's rich, coming from a girl who teamed up with a terrorist and risked the safety of a whole city just because she got called out one time on her lies!"
"You humiliated me!"
"GET OVER IT!"
What? She was yelling now? After she was the one who started it with HER pettiness?!
"Get. Over. It! So I said a few mean words to you in front of a boy you were lying to for leeching off my fame for your own benefit! I apologized to you! Twice! And even offered you my friendship! Which YOU threw away out of spite!"
"Like I'd wanna be friends with you after what you did!"
"You don't have to be my friend! You just have to NOT team up with a supervillain just to get back at me, and put revenge over the safety of thousands! Chloe's been mean to me and humiliated me countless times! You never saw me bullying her back, or risking the ire of the Mayor to take her down! Because unlike you, Lila, I know where to draw the line! I focus on moving forward with my life, instead of clinging onto a grudge and letting that rule me! And you call Adrien petty?!"
"He interferes in all my plans because he lives in a world of black-and-white!"
"He interferes in your plans because they rely on hurting and manipulating innocent people! People he cares about! What was he supposed to do? Just stand by and do nothing while you smeared my reputation and turned our class into your servants?"
"I wasn't smearing HIM! I wasn't manipulating HIM! Why should he get involved in something that's not hurting him? Especially since he has everything!"
"Adrien doesn't have everything!", spoke up the tiny black thing that had come from Adrien's ring. "He doesn't have his mom!"
"Oh, boo hoo," mocked Lila, holding up her fist to her eye and pretending to wipe away tears. "Adrien's mommy left him in a big house with lots of money and a bedroom with an arcade and a skate ramp built in! Wah wah, poor baby."
"That's your problem, Lila.", Marinette said solemnly. "You only see people for what they have, not for who they are. You only only care about what's on the surface. You never bother to look deeper, truly get to know what's on the inside. The only thing that matters to you is appearance, and you're always trying to make yourself look better than everyone else. You're never satisfied with what you have, always wanting more and more. You look at people, and you only see the things they have that you don't. You're just...not happy unless you have the most among your group, unless you're the most popular or powerful person in the room."
She sniffled as she looked down hardly. "It's a sad existence, really."
Sad?! Sad?!
She had defeated Ladybug! What was sad about that?!
"It IS sad!", said the back kwami. "And that's what Adrien saw! He saw right through your bravo and arrogance, and saw what you were trying to hide from the world—a sad, lonely little nobody who's so full of insecurity and self-loathing that she depends on lies to be liked, not even bothering to try being honest and kind, because she believes she's nothing!"
"I am not nothing! I am EVERYTHING!"
"No, you're not. If you really believed that, really believed in yourself, you wouldn't be constantly lying about yourself and making up stories to impress everybody around you! You depend on lies to look good, because deep down, you know there's nothing special about you! That's why you're always trying to get more, always trying to look like the best person in the room! Because you're so insecure, you can't stand the thought of being second best in anything to anyone! Because if you're not the center of attention for more than ten seconds, you feel like you're worthless!"
Worthless? Her? She was the one who defeated Ladybug and Chat Noir! If anyone was worthless, it was them!
"And Adrien knew that. He saw what no one else, not even Marinette saw, the core of your personality, the root of all your sin! Everything you do, every lie you tell, every plot and scheme you pull is to push others out of the spotlight so you can feed your ego and avoid the crushing realization that underneath all your tall tales and diva attitude, you're just a loser!"
What did that little rat call her?!
"Shuddup! What does a rat know?! What does that blonde ass know?! He thinks he's so great, walking around like he's God's gift to mankind! Always smiling and preaching about kindness like some kind of saint!"
"Because that's who he is!", cried Marinette. "Adrien isn't perfect, and he's made mistakes, yes, but no matter how much he loses, no matter how mean people are, no matter how cruel the world shows itself to him, he never stops believing! Never stops believing in the good of the world, never stops looking for the best in people, never gives up hope for the future! Even when people like you try to keep him in darkness, he will always search for a spot of light!"
She looked towards him longingly. "It's what I love most about him."
Lila's nostrils flared. What?! She was still lying about genuinely loving Adrien? After being defeated and called out? This girl didn't know when to just quit and admit she was wrong!
"You're still gonna tell me you truly love Adrien?"
"I do!", she declared, whipping her head back to Lila. "I do love Adrien! I approached it wrong, but I do truly love him! And I only wish I had the chance to express my love properly."
"Huh...you know what, Marinette? You and Adrien are made for each other! You're both stupid little holier-than-thou hypocrites who are totally blinded to just how devious and cruel you really are! I mean, the way you talked about him just now...like he's some sort of victim, some poor unfortunate soul who's been dealt a bad hand in life...it's so similar to how he would talk to me about how mean I'd been to 'poor, innocent Marinette'. Talking about each other like you're these sad widdle rainbow children who need to be coddled, and I'm the bad guy who's unfairly bullied and persecuted you!"
She curled her upper lip in distain. "It just makes me sick!", she spat at Marinette. "And after everything I told you, you still look at Adrien with those stars in your eyes! Just like everyone looks at him! Everyone looks at him like he's the best thing to happen to them! They fight for him, fawn over him, plan their class events and hangouts around his schedule, include him in their lives, even giving up things to make HIM happy! He doesn't even have to ask, and you and everyone just instantly bend over backwards for him! Just because they feel sorry for him!"
No one ever did that much for her. She had to lie and frame things to get the people to cater to her the way they automatically catered to Adrien. All he had to do was make a sad face and everyone rearranged the world to suit his desires.
It was infuriating. What made him so special?
"We try to help Adrien because we care about him!", Marinette shot back. "And you know why? Because he'd do the same for us! Because we know that if one of us switched roles with him, he would fight for us the way we fight for him now! Even if the fortunes were reversed, nothing would change! Because he cares about other people, puts his friends first, sometimes at his own expense!"
Then she muttered some words darkly.
"Unlike you, who puts herself first at everyone else's expense."
That's when Lila snapped.
"SHUT UP!"
She didn't know anything! She wasn't WORTH anything! She was just like Adrien! She had no right to judge Lila! Neither of them did!
Lila spun around to glare daggers at the boy that she now realized was the root of all her problems.
"You! This is all your fault!", she snarled at him venomously. "You may still have Marinette and everyone else in Paris fooled by your sweet little sunshine boy act, but you're not fooling me! Not anymore! I always thought Ladybug was the one ruining things for me, but now I see clearly—it was YOU! You were the puppetmaster, pulling her strings, both as Chat Noir and as Adrien! You fed her ego, encouraged her to see me as pest, pulled her up onto your stupid moral high ground to look down me! You're the one I should have been trying to take down, not her! It was always YOU!"
She thought of all the times he had looked at her like a spoiled child, pity and self-righteousness agleam in his eyes. All the times he had lead her on, dangling himself in front of her, giving her hope for them, all the while only protecting the girl who had tried to ruin her life, putting HER over Lila, when SHE was the one who went after her first. All the times he had manipulated and taken advantage of her affections to turn her into his pretty little puppet who acted nice to people who deserved her wrath.
As she thought of all this, her fists clenched tighter and tighter. As they did, she felt her palms press against two little objects in each, reminding her of their presence. Putting her rage on hold, Lila reopened her hands facing up, to see the Miraculous she had taken from the heroes.
The Miraculous...
The Wish...
Lila's face twisted into a vile, face-splitting grin as an idea popped into her head. She turned back to Adrien's just-awakening form, leaning over to look him in his fluttering eyes as they began to open ever-so-slightly.
"You don't deserve your status!", she shouted at him. "You don't deserve your fame and fortune! You don't deserve to have Marinette and the class's love! And you certainly don't deserve your Miraculous!"
She placed a foot on his chest, towering over him with a fiendish grin. "You don't deserve any of it! It's all wasted on you! I'm the one who was meant to have life of a rich and famous person! Ever since I was little, I knew I was meant for luxury and fame! But the universe messed things up, and put me in an average family and home! Anyone could have your fame and popularity if they had the chances you got! I could have had it! I should have had it!"
Marinette's face was struck with horror as she watched Lila slip the Black Cat's ring on.
"I'm going to have it!"
Adrien's perfect life was a fluke, a mistake. It was Lila who should have been born into riches and fame, Lila who was meant for a glamorous life of celebrity and VIP treatment, Lila who deserved all of the popularity, both as a beloved icon and at school among the class.
But of course, cruel fate had spit on her, the first of many times, by seeing to it that she was born into an average household.
Just one more unfair cruelty from the universe that hated her.
Well, the joke was on the universe now.
"You stole everything from me! I'm the one who should have been born into money and prestige! I'm the one who should have become famous and admired! I'm the one everyone should be fawning over at school! Not you! Me! It should be me! The universe gave me the wrong life!"
She put on one earring.
"And now, I'm going to fix their mistake."
She would set everything right. She would alter the world to make it work in her favor for once. She would get everything she was rightfully owed, that the universe had cruelly denied her. She would finally have the life she deserved.
She put on the other earring.
"I deserve your life! And now that I have the Miraculous Wish, I'm going to get everything I should have had to begin with!"
"Lila, don't!", Marinette said pleadingly. "Don't do it! The Wish has consequences! It requires sacrifice! You have no idea what will happen to everyone if you use it!"
"I don't care!", barked Lila. "I don't care what happens to everyone else! I've had it with holier-than-thou snobs like you and Adrien! I'm done watching you stuck-up jerks getting everything that should be mine! I'm going to fix the world to how it should have been in the first place!"
She looked over at Adrien. "You don't want your life, Adrien. That's okay. I'll gladly take it for myself!"
"What?", gasped Marinette.
Lila smirked cruelly at her. "The universe mixed me and Adrien up. I was supposed to be born into rich celebrity, and he keeps saying he would be happier as a normal kid in a normal family. Now that I have the Miraculous, I can switch our places and make the world the way it should have always been!"
It was the perfect Wish. Lila would have a grand fortune at her fingertips, fame around the world, thousands of adoring fans, boys dying and fighting to date her, and the unlimited power and celebrity to destroy anyone who dared oppose her.
And Adrien, or anyone else, would never be able to look down on her ever again.
"Finally, the world will work in my favor for once! With this Wish, I'll finally have the spotlight all to myself and become the star I was born to be!"
She expected the black thing to protest her decision, to preach about how wrong she was, about the importance of "empathy" and "compassion" and all that gross stuff.
Instead, the little rat smiled at her.
"Really? Are you sure? You want everything Adrien has?"
Wow, this thing was stupid! Had it not heard her for the past ten minutes?
"Yes, I'm sure!"
"No!", cried the cat's pink friend, the pesky bug attached to Marinette. "You don't what that will do to our world! The effects it could have!"
"Have you not heard me all this time?", Lila shouted at it. "I! Don't! Care! Now shuddup and grant my wish!"
The thing looked heartbroken.
But when she opened her mouth to protest further, the cat cut her off.
"You have to actually say the Wish out loud first.", it told Lila.
"Plagg!"
"Tikki, it's over.", said the cat, now known as Plagg. "We have no choice."
Lila smiled. Now this was more like it. Exactly how she liked those living around her. Submissive, obedient, and broken down enough to do her bidding at the wave of her hand.
Of course, if Lila had known Plagg, or even if she paid attention to anything other than herself for more than ten seconds, she would have recognized the smile on his face.
The smile of a god awaiting chaos about to erupt.
And as mentioned before, Lila can't focus on anything besides herself or her own self-centered thoughts for longer than she feels necessary.
So after the Kwami seemingly bowed to her will, she turned her focus back to her own delusions of grandeur and fantasies about the life that she would soon have.
Which is unfortunate for her, as it distracted her from the wink the tiny black cat threw the former Ladybug holder.
"Just to be clear, you want everything Adrien Agreste has, right?"
"Yes!"
"Good, good, you should be specific when you say it out loud. Just...say it exactly how I just did, okay?"
Lila smiled. At least someone here knew when to fold.
She shot one last look towards the stupid girl. "We'll see how much you love Adrien when he's just a normal, average, nothing-special nobody like you."
"It won't change, Lila.", Marinette told her. "No matter what reality Adrien is in, I'll still find him. And I'll still love him."
Lila smirked, remembering a few words from the day she returned, when Lila promised to turn everyone against her.
"We'll see, Marinette. We'll see."
Lila didn't pay any heed to her, or the hint of cynicism or smug triumph in Plagg's voice.
Because they weren't important.
Because Lila had won.
She had won, and everyone else had lost, just like it was supposed to be.
She was on her rightful place at the top of the world.
And soon, with the Wish, she would stay that way.
Forever.
"I Wish to have everything Adrien Agreste has!"
And the world...
...went...
...b l a c k...
.......................
Seconds later, reality twisted and warped itself to rewrite fate itself.
To adjust the world to the Wisher's demands.
The universe, the director of the world, snapped his fingers to alter his script.
He moved actors around and rearranged their roles.
He rewinded the show to the beginning.
He pressed "play".
And Lila woke up in a strange new room.