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The easiest target is often the most convenient. It is easy to forget this sometimes when Hawkmoth's choices seem anything but convenient for him, but it is why she chooses to go to Lila next. A bit of petty revenge isn't beyond her, and she's set the heroes back.
Right now, she is an arsonist, and the world could easily burn if she wished it to. But no one wants the apocalypse, in truth. Even Hawkmoth, she thinks, doesn't truly wish for the end of the world. He just has a critical lack of foresight about the power he gives his akumas — including her.
She breaks in. It is dark, but that does not matter to her — she does not need to be able to see to do this.
"What are you doing here?" Lila asks. She sounds afraid. Good, she thinks, and she isn't sure which part of that is her and which part of it is this spiteful butterfly sitting inside of her, reveling in the flares of her anger and her spite. "Are you the real Ladybug?"
"You tell me." She sits down on a beanbag and folds her hands atop her lap. "You're the illusionist, after all."
Lila frowns, coming across as more confused than anything else. "You're an akuma. Why did he let you…" she murmurs.
Hmm. Smart. She hadn't expected that.
The butterfly lingers over her face, a purple warning for Lila.
"I've wondered for a long time what exactly goes on in your head," she says, tilting her head sideways. "You liar."
"I am not a liar," Lila says. It is her first mistake.
She lights a fire.
It burns.
She is not usually cruel. She finds herself caring less.
She has come to crave the stench of burning things and smoke. It is a side effect of this power, she suspects, and how akumas dig into the akumatized's head.
How much does this corruption matter?
She keeps pushing, and Lila keeps lying — refusing to learn her lesson.
And then Chat Noir breaks in.
"Chat Noir!" Lila yelps, as though he will be her salvation.
"Arashi!" he yells, calling for an ally that will not save him. She laughs.
"She's still here!" A warning, issued far too late.
"Now is your chance," Hawkmoth whispers in her ear, waiting for her next move.
Chat Noir flicks on the lights. It feels oddly fitting.
"Good evening, Chat Noir," she says. "I hope you haven't come to surrender."
"You don't want to do this," he says, looking around wildly as though there's some sort of solution to everything in this room. But it is a lie.
They will burn together, if he decides to become a liar.
"Duck!" he yells, shielding Lila. She realizes the point; she would have done the same if their roles were switched.
Her fire goes through the wall instead, and likely lands on something that will burn outside. There is a crash and a scream and several beeps. She doesn't move.
Chat Noir orders the other heroes around.
Lila attempts to warn him. How…sweet.
"That true?" Chat Noir asks.
She chooses English for her next words. "Fighting a liar, lighting a fire." She switches back. "I hear your reputation precedes you."
"I'll stop, I'll stop," Lila pleads. Lila may stop, but she will not. "I promise, I'll tell everyone myself, I'll tell them you were telling the truth all along, you don't have to send that video, Marinette, please—"
Ah. Lila has done the math, and has come to the conclusion that she is Marinette.
Two halves of the whole — Chat Noir knows she is Ladybug, Lila knows she is Marinette.
"Marinette?" Chat Noir asks. She chooses not to respond. Lila explains her logic — it does add up.
"There are differences between false statements, lies, unfulfilled promises, and disbelieved truths," she says slowly, phrasing it like a fact. "But of course you knew that, Lila. Chameleon. Volpina."
"So when I was fighting the Evillustrator…"
Chat Noir is still processing the revelation of her identity.
She shrugs, trying to stay relaxed. "Everyone was comparing me to Chloé that day. Him, Sabrina — I didn't ask her to do my homework, you know."
"I know," he says, some kind of…default response.
She shuts the yo-yo. It isn't necessary anymore.
"Marinette, please," Chat Noir says. "Why do you want to do this?"
She rolls it cautiously on the ground. It rolls perfectly on its side, stopping just short of his boot. "You know how Hawkmoth operates, Chat Noir. I cannot want much of anything else." It consumes her like the fire will consume everything.
"Something's wrong with the fire alarm," Carapace declares from the other side of the door.
"Yep," she says, lightly popping the p. That was her fault.
Arashi pushes Carapace aside and moves towards Lila with a bundle of soaked bedsheets. She knows what will come next, the sort of evacuation Arashi is planning. "This is going to hurt," Arashi warns.
"Far be it from me to stop you from hurting her," she says, "but you're not planning to leave with her, are you?" She smirks. "That wouldn't help me get any justice. And I don't want to be done yet with my revenge.
"That doesn't sound like you at all," Chat Noir says.
What does he know of what she sounds like? He does not know her now, as the person she has become.
"I know you've heard all the other akumas, Chat Noir," she declares. "Marinette isn't home right now. He calls me Firebug."
He seems stalled for a moment. "Get Chloé," he orders Carapace.
She doesn't interfere. What is the point?
"Shut up, Bunnyx," he snaps — and, and oh it seems that she and Hawkmoth are more fucked than previously thought.
"What happened to vegetarian?" Carapace asks. She is missing context.
"You two go deal with Mayura and the sentimonster," Chat Noir says. And yes — she is just one part of a plan to get the other half.
The idea of burning the world down intoxicated her. Now she must figure out how to do it. "Arashi, get the EMTs to come to Lila."
She leans forward. "Don't. I told you. I'm not done yet."
"Marinette," says Arashi, gentle. She wishes the heroes would treat her with less sympathy — she is not sure how much she deserves. "What did she do to you?"
Perhaps she has a kindred spirit in Arashi. Strange.
"Not that much!" Lila says. "Nothing like — nothing this bad!"
It rings true. Her vengeance has gone overboard. "You're not lying. Wrong. But not lying. Pity." She remembers. "I lied for you, Lila. I tried to pro—"
But she was never trying to protect. Not truly. She was selfish, saving herself in all this. Her mouth seals itself shut.
"Marinette?" Chat Noir asks, cautious. "Do you know what she's talking about?" he asks Lila. She shakes her head — of course Lila has no idea what she's done for her.
She manages to get words out, and they are an insult — she puts her yo-yo back. She will have to leave soon.
"Take him now, Firebug," Hawkmoth orders.
"Oh, no," she says. She could. She will not. "You already got more than you bargained for. Keep pushing, I dare you. I'm longing to find out what I am capable when our bargain doesn't hold me."
No one has broken free once taken over. It is one part a bluff, but she is almost certain she could.
"You know our bargain gives you your power," Hawkmoth says.
"Fine," she says, half to Hawkmoth and half to the three heroes in this room. "Fine, have it your way. But let me remind you the main reason I am not burning your house down with you in it is because my not doing that was part of the bargain."
"Main?" Chat Noir asks. She senses another question lurking underneath, one he will not voice. "Main reason?"
She knocks on her knee. "Main." She looks up at him. "His wife wouldn't get out in time. As far as I know, she's not part of this."
Chat Noir is watching her hand — probably anticipating what she holds within it to be let go. Or expecting something. It isn't like there is actually something there, after all.
"Not Mayura, then," he remarks, cracking a joke on his own thoughts. It doesn't lighten the mood in the room.
"Why are you stalling, Firebug?" Hawkmoth asks.
She doesn't answer. She forces the easy relaxation and confidence that comes with power.
"Maybe you should keep the insults out of his personal life," she says, responding to Chat Noir's quip on the wife of Hawkmoth.
"Maybe he should keep his butterflies out of ours," Arashi retorts with a sharp bitterness. "Chat Noir, shouldn't the EMTs be up here by now?"
She shrugs. She knows very well why. "Probably."
"Marinette — do you hate Lila that much?"
"Trick question," she answers. "Like saying 'the present king of France is bald.' It's neither true nor false. He can only be bald or blond or whatever if he exists at all. Hawkmoth's bargain was what I suspect it usually is. Get the power to hurt the people who hurt me." Most akumas are seeking revenge, after all. "Use that power. Lila — made herself convenient."
The easiest solution.
"Lila made herself convenient," he repeats, voice hoarse.
She nods. "Using the power is part of the bargain." She looks outside and sees smoke. "The bakery. I didn't expect the fire to be that big."
"You don't want to hurt the people who hurt you," he says like a realization.
She snorts. She is not cruel by nature. "Generally speaking, I don't want to hurt anyone." She pauses. "There's — there's a lot."
"Anyone in particular?" he asks, strangely casual. "Who else — who else has hurt you?"
Does he want to join her revenge quest?
She stares. "Promise me you won't hurt him, Chat."
"Who?" he asks.
"Promise me!" she insists. "Promise me, chaton! You'll want—you'll, you'll—" She does not know that. She cannot finish her sentence. "I think it is likely you will want to hurt him," she says instead, saying the words clearly. "You get upset every time I remind you he exists, and I cannot let you hurt him." She loves him. "Promise me."
"I won't hurt him, Marinette," he says, addressing a person that at this point in time does not exist. "I won't let anyone hurt him. I promise."
She closes her eyes and gathers her courage. "His name's Adrien."
If Chat Noir has read her right, it is likely he knows now — knows who exactly she is in love with.
"Adrien?" he asks, sounding one part confused and one part nervous. "Sits in front of you in class Adrien?"
How does Chat Noir know that?
"Yes, Chat Noir," she says, attempting to claim some semblance of composure. "That Adrien. I know you know him. I don't think you like him much, but he's—" She pauses, not knowing what the truth is. "Well. He says we're friends. I'm always so busy trying to impress him that I can't be sure we are." She keeps going, explaining from the very beginning.
Chat Noir interrupts her as she talks about the hat, that foolish decision to use something without being aware of the consequences. "Did he or did he not tell you he thinks that hat's awesome?" he asks.
How does he know that?
"He did. That's not the point, Chat. He's allergic. Moving on," she says, continuing her list of fuckups around Adrien, with occasional commentary from Chat Noir that does nothing to assuage her guilt, she eventually hits a wall talking about their first meeting.
"As fascinating as this teen rom-com is," Lila drawls, being sarcastic — she can't help the flame that rises in her.
"I told you not to lie to me!" she shouts.
Chat Noir prepares for the worst.
"You." She turns to Arashi. "Dragon. Is the building clear?"
A beat.
"It's just us four," Arashi says.
"Make it two," she says at the same time as Chat Noir.
Arashi takes Lila away with her.
"Chat Noir?" she asks without preamble.
"Ladybug," he breathes.
She doesn't move.
He does something like hugging her without her hugging back. A crushing gesture one part comfort and one part practicality.
"I can't tell you where my butterfly is," she says. It would be a breach of contract.
He destroys the ribbons in her hair. It is a fruitless effort.
"Now is the time, Firebug," Hawkmoth says. She is tired of being ordered around. "Destroy him."
She does not want to. She snarls. "If he dies," she threatens, "I will bury you beside him, so when I sit by his grave I can piss on yours!"
"LB," Chat Noir says. Relying on her. Is it foolish?
Hawkmoth keeps talking. She does not listen. "Lie to me," she tells him, because she knows Chat Noir will listen.
"The fire," he gasps.
But both of them will survive — what is the point?
"It’s…harder to hold it when he's pushing me," she says by way of explanation. "I think you'll all survive."
She certainly will. She smiles with a glimmer of hope — hope that it will all turn out alright in the end.
This is just the beginning.
"Lie to me, Chat Noir," she breathes.
"Ladybug," he says, and right now she feels like she can claim that name— "we're going to lose."
She gasps as she realizes just how false the words are. He smiles, easy.
She sets the world ablaze.