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Marinette was angry. No, she wasn’t just angry, she was absolutely furious. Livid, even. She couldn’t believe that everyone was still friends with Lila after everything. She stood in the bathroom, frozen as she watched Lila walk out of the room. She wanted to scream and tell everyone everything. Lila would be humiliated, just like Lila had threatened to do to her. “Marinette, you have to calm down!” Tikki squeaked, flying out of Marinette’s bag and trying to get her attention. Tikki could tell exactly what Marinette was thinking just by looking at her. Her face was so red Tikki thought she might explode.
“Shut up, Tikki!” Marinette said, swatting Tikki away from her face. Tikki rebalanced herself as she stared at Marinette in disbelief. “You just don’t get it, do you? Lila is going to ruin my life! Or are you on her side too?”
“Of course not! But you need to control your emotions, or you’ll get akumatized!”
“Whatever. Chat and I have never gotten akumatized, it’ll be fine. What isn’t fine is Lila, we need to do something!”
“The best revenge is a life well lived-” Marinette groaned and rolled her eyes. As they continued arguing, both of them failed to notice the little purple butterfly flying towards them…
Lila casually leaned on a wall outside the bathroom. Although she couldn’t hear exactly what was said, she could still tell that what she said had gotten to Marinette. She smirked. Scaring the girl had been so much easier than she thought. Then, once Marinette was out of the picture, she would basically have free reign over the school; even more than that Chloé girl. She didn’t see the butterfly flying into the bathroom. If Marinette changed her mind and took Lila’s offer, Lila would spare her. Or, at least, she’d pretend to. “She’d never see it coming.” Lila said to herself as the noises from the bathroom suddenly stopped. Deciding it was time to make a quick exit, she walked off nonchalantly. She was certain that everything was going according to plan. “Adrien!” She called out to him, walking over.
“Oh, hey Lila.” Adrien said.
“Could you please help me catch up on all this homework? If you don’t help me, I just know I’ll never be able to get it all done in time.” Lila sighed. She was waiting to see how Adrien would react. When he gave no immediate response, Lila continued, “Maybe you could show me some piano too! My uncle’s a famous pianist, and he tried to teach me but I had to stop practicing because of my arthritis. Just promise not to laugh at how rusty I am!”
“Of course I’m glad to help you, but you have to stop lying about everything first.”
“What?” Lila said, feigning shock, “What did I lie about?”
“You know what I’m talking about Lila. I really want to be your friend, but lying to me and everyone about being friends with Ladybug wasn’t cool.”
“Ladybug’s the liar! She was just jealous because people like me more than her.”
“Can’t you just try to be honest with me?”
“Why can’t you just trust me?” Lila snapped back before storming off down the hallway. Why did both Adrien and Marinette have to be so difficult? It’s not like she was hurting anyone. “I just tell people what they want to hear.” She had explained to Marinette just earlier. And if it did benefit Lila, so what? It’s their own fault for being so gullible. The more Lila thought about it, the more Lila realized maybe she would have to do something about Adrien as well…
Back in the bathroom, Tikki had seen the akuma far too late. She knew that she only had a few seconds before Marinette was akumatized. Time seemed to slow down as Tikki desperately tried to figure out what to do. She knew that there was no way she could calm down Marinette at this point, so she had to think of a different way. Fortunately, Marinette saw the akuma too. Marinette, also panicking, had to make a hasty decision. With the little time that was left, Marinette took off her earrings and threw them across the room. Tikki flew to them as fast as she could and grabbed them. Looking back at Marinette, Tikki saw that the akuma had already gotten to her. She took a deep breath to strengthen her resolve and fled to hopefully find a replacement Ladybug in time.
Tikki flew around the school in a panic. She originally hoped that she could choose Alya, but she had been with her friends and Tikki couldn’t think of any way that she could have gotten Alya by herself in time. With a groan as she looked around one more time, Tikki realized she had only one option: Chloé Bourgeois. Trying to stay positive, she flew over and tried to get her attention. “Hmm? What was that?” Chloé said, not even glancing up from her phone.
“Please, Chloé, we need to hurry! Ladybug needs your help!” Tikki said, trying not to panic any more than she already was.
“Wait, Ladybug needs my help?” Chloé looked up excitedly, then stared at Tikki for a second in confusion. “Wait… aren’t you that freaky doll that Marinette had the other day? Is this a prank?”
“No!” Tikki almost shrieked, frustrated that Chloé wasn’t taking it at all seriously. “I’m Ladybug’s kwami! There’s an akuma attack going on, but Ladybug can’t help right now, and she needs you to take care of it instead!” Chloé wanted to ask why Marinette of all people would have a replica of a kwami, but was starting to realize how serious of a situation this was.
“And Ladybug wanted me to help?” Chloé said in awe, “Well then! If Ladybug needs me to do this, I promise I’m up to the task. I won’t let you down!” Tikki sighed in relief.
“All you have to do is say, ‘Tikki, Spots On!’ and then you’ll transform. Do you know what to do after that?”
“Um, duh! I’m Ladybug’s biggest fan. I know exactly what to do.” Chloé flicked her hair back with a confident look. “Tikki, spots on!!” Chloé exclaimed as she leaped to her feet. She transformed. It somehow felt different then when she’d transformed into Queen Bee. Taking a deep breath, she set off to hopefully find Chat Noir or the akumatized person.
Adrien watched as Lila walked away. He sighed. At first, when Ladybug had called out Lila, he thought that maybe there was just a sort of misunderstanding or something. Now it was becoming a pattern. Adrien wasn’t sure why Lila lied so often. Maybe she just liked the attention, or she was manipulating everyone intentionally. Perhaps it was both. Plagg came out of Adrien’s bag. “Wow, touchy, isn’t she?” He said.
“Don’t be rude, Plagg.” Adrien rolled his eyes. “I’m sure she’ll come around.”
“Sure, sure. And maybe there’ll be a day when I don’t like cheese!” Adrien didn’t deign him with a response. He was about to get ready to go and find Nino when he heard a noise coming from the girl’s bathroom. Confused, Adrien walked around the corner but quickly jumped back when he realized what was going on. He peeked again and saw he was right: someone had been akumatized. There was a girl standing in the hallway, a sword in one hand and the scales of justice in the other. The scales were engraved with strange markings that Adrien couldn’t exactly make out. She wore a gray wrap around her eyes tied in a knot at the back of her head, the leftover strands intertwining in her long, braided hair. “Marinette?” Adrien muttered to himself as he put the pieces together. She wore a pink cheongsam, and a gray cape attached at the shoulder with a pink charm that looked an awful lot like the design of Marinette’s bag. The person who used to be Marinette raised her scales into the air, and they began to glow. She muttered a few words Adrien could not hear and then a magical glow shone from the scales. Suddenly, a trail of light appeared leading from the scales down the hallway. She began to follow the trail with a strong purpose. Once she was out of sight, Adrien ducked into the bathroom. “Hurry, Plagg, I think Marinette’s been akumatized!” Adrien said.
“I’d bet anything that means Lila’s in trouble too.” Plagg shook his head.
“No kidding.” Adrien transformed, then ran to follow the trail the scales had left behind. At least, that’s what he was trying to do, when he bumped into someone else. At first he thought it was Ladybug, but a second glance told him that it had to be someone else. His face immediately fell. "Who-" Chat Noir was about to ask, but he was cut off.
"I can explain!" She said, "I know I’m not Ladybug…”
“That much is obvious.” Chat scoffed, folding his arms.
“I’m…” She thought for a moment, “I’m Dame Ѐcarlate. All I know is Ladybug’s kwami, Tikki, came up to me and said that Ladybug was in some sort of trouble, and needed me to fill in! So, I did, because I know pretty much about her; therefore being the obvious choice.”
“How can I trust you? What if you’re using illusions to trick me, just like Volpina!”
“I don’t know. But we don’t have time for this, anyway. Someone’s been akumatized. Tikki told me!”
“Yeah, I saw her. I think it was Marinette. She followed that trail of light down there, I was just about to chase after her. C’mon! We have to follow her.” Chat Noir sped off down the hallway, with Dame Ѐcarlate following closely behind. Dame Ѐcarlate could tell that Chat Noir still didn’t really trust her. Which was utterly absurd, in her opinion. Chat Noir could just as easily be an illusion as she could! He really should be grateful to her for showing up to help. Dame Ѐcarlate could have easily turned Tikki down. She never would have, of course, but Chat didn’t know that, did he? Hopefully all of that practice would pay off and he would see how much of a capable partner she was! “Did you see what the akumatized person looked like, or what the object was?” Dame Ѐcarlate called to Chat, hoping he couldn’t hear how breathy she sounded.
“Yeah. She had a sword, and what do you call those things?” Chat paused for a moment, “Oh, yeah, the scales of justice. If I had to guess, the akuma’s probably in that. Or maybe the charm she was wearing.”
“The charm makes a bit more sense, I think. I can’t think of anything Marinette was wearing that could have become the scales.”
“The charm did look a lot like Marinette’s bag.” Chat remembered. Soon they reached the end of the trail, but they were too late. Lila was floating a few inches of the ground, held in place by the same glowing that had led the superheroes here. A girl stood in front of her, holding a scale and a sword just like Chat described. She held up the scale towards Lila as she spoke. “Lila Rossi, it is time for you to be judged!”
“Who are you?! I swear, I haven’t done anything! I’m completely innocent!” Lila wailed.
“I am Princess Justice, and the scales will say whether you have spoken honestly, or if you have lied.” Princess Justice scowled, as if she already knew exactly what the scales would say. The scales began to glow again, along with Princess Justice’s eyes under the cloth. Chat knocked the scales out of her hand with his stick as he and Dame Ѐcarlate entered the room. “Hey, haven’t you heard it’s not nice to judge?” He said. Princess Justice whipped around to face them, readying her sword.
“I don’t need my scales to see that you are guilty!” She proclaimed as she attacked. Chat jumped out of the way, feeling the sharp edge just graze his skin. Princess Justice raised her other hand, calling her scales back to her. Dame Ѐcarlate tried to grab the scales with her yoyo, but Princess Justice threw her back with her sword before Dame Ѐcarlate had the chance. The scales began to glow again, and then turned a dark blood red. “I declare you guilty!” Princess Justice said. Lila began to scream as she realized she was slowly turning to stone. “Someone do something!” Lila shrieked, but it was too late. A glowing orb, the same dark red color as the light from the scales, came out of the statue and into the pommel of Princess Justice’s sword. Dame Ѐcarlate quickly used her yoyo to wrap around the sword and snatch it away. “Hah! Not so dangerous now, are you?” Dame Ѐcarlate teased as she snapped the sword in half. But as the fight went on, Dame Ѐcarlate realized this didn’t give them as much of an edge as she had hoped. “I don’t have time for this!” Princess Justice said, frustration in her voice. She grabbed the pommel from the broken sword and pointed it at the two heroes. A blast of red light threw both of them back, slamming them against the wall and rendering them incapacitated for a few seconds. By the time that they came to their senses Princess Justice was already gone. “Ugh!” Dame Ѐcarlate groaned, “I can’t believe she got away! Is it always this hard?”
“More or less.” Chat shrugged as he got to his feet. “Why don’t you try your lucky charm?”
“Wait, already? I didn’t think that was how Ladybug normally did it. What if I do it wrong?”
“You’re Ladybug’s biggest fan. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”
“Yeah, I am! Wait. How do you know that?”
“It wasn’t too hard to guess. With how fast you showed up, I figured you had to be somewhere inside the school at the time.”
“Well I guess it’s alright that you know. Just don’t tell anyone.”
“You don’t have to worry about that, Dame Ѐcarlate,” Chat chuckled, “Now go ahead.” Dame Ѐcarlate called on the lucky charm. A hose fell into Dame Ѐcarlate’s hands.
“Cryptic as always.” Chat shook his head.
“Wait, I think I have an idea!” Dame Ѐcarlate said, resisting the urge to jump up and down like a little girl. “Have you ever seen those movies where they hold back tree limbs and when they let go, they smack back at them?”
“Uh, yeah, I think I understand what you’re saying.” Chat nodded.
“Good! So here’s the plan…” Chat smiled as Dame Ѐcarlate went on. When he realized Chloé was the one behind the mask, he had honestly been a little worried after what had happened with Queen Wasp. Now that they were planning and she looked so excited it seemed like maybe she was finally coming into her element. Chat always knew Chloé could be more than just the school mean girl.
Princess Justice was getting impatient. She had been searching the school for what felt hours but she couldn’t find that pesky Chloé girl. She had found Alya and the rest of the girls already. Of course, all of them were guilty. All of them had listened to Lila and hurt Marinette. Unfortunately, one of them had managed to take her pommel and smash it. “Alya.” Princess Justice hissed, “I always knew you would choose Lila over me.”
“What are you doing, Princess Justice?” Hawk Moth interrupted her thoughts.
“I have to find Chloé first. She needs to be judged!”
“If you don’t get Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous, there won’t be any more justice for you.”
“That girl isn’t Ladybug. She’s a thief! She needs to be judged as well, I won't let her get away with that.”
“Then go, find them!” Hawk Moth was beginning to get frustrated, but relented as Princess Justice headed off to find the heroes. She went to the room where she had first encountered them. They were already gone. Princess Justice frowned, and raised her scales into the air. “Lead me to Chat Noir.” She whispered. A trail of light appeared. She smirked, and began to follow the trail down the hallway, still holding her scales aloft. She was certain that the two of them would be planning a trap for her. That was supposed to be my thing! Princess Justice thought angrily. She almost had half a mind to take back the Ladybug miraculous for herself. But then Hawk Moth would take back her powers… No, she would just have to make due with what she could. She knew she would have to prepare herself for an ambush. She wondered if they had figured out where the akuma was yet. They probably thought it was in her scales. That’s what she would have guessed, when she was Ladybug. Princess Justice wasn’t Ladybug anymore though. She didn’t want to be. Nobody listened to Ladybug or Marinette, but they would have to listen to Princess Justice. And if they didn’t… she could actually do something about it for once. Which is exactly what she was going to do with Chat Noir and that imposter.
Dame Ѐcarlate felt kind of stupid, waiting in the classroom. She looked around, double checking that Chat was still in position as well. She kept double checking everything in her mind. Being Ladybug always seemed so exciting, but now that she was actually on the job she kept worrying she’d mess something up. What if she messed this up, and then Ladybug never gave her the Bee miraculous again, either? This was the only way that she could do something important. Being a superheroine made people pay attention to her and like her. Dame Ѐcarlate didn’t want to lose that. “Are you really sure she’s coming?” She hissed to Chat Noir, trying to be as quiet as possible.
“She’ll be here, I’m sure of it.” Chat said calmly, “Those scales should lead her to either you or me, just like when she was looking for Lila.”
“Ok, I trust you.” Dame Ѐcarlate said, taking a deep breath. “I just keep worrying I’ll mess something up.”
“Ladybug wouldn’t have given her miraculous to you if she didn’t think you could handle it. You just need to trust yourself, or at least you need to trust Ladybug. Now shh, I think I hear someone coming.” Dame Ѐcarlate nodded. She saw a shadow of someone coming towards the classroom, and ran through the plan in her mind one more time. “Come out, Chat Noir!” Princess Justice’s voice came from the hallway, “I know you’re in there.” Chat Noir readied himself as she walked into the room. Just as she walked in, Chat Noir leaped forward, smacking the scales out of her hand again. Princess Justice almost laughed. “You really think that will work any better than the last time?”
“I guess we’ll have to see!” Chat retorted. As Chat and Princess Justice fought, Dame Ѐcarlate tried to quickly grab the scales without her seeing it. It wasn’t too much of a problem, as Chat Noir was distracting her. She quickly (and kind of sloppily) tied the hose around the scales so that she could hold it firmly with the train, then untie it as soon as she needed to. Chat, meanwhile, was too busy to see her do this. I hope you’re ready… He thought. Finally, Princess Justice was able to knock him back long enough to try and grab her scales. Dame Ѐcarlate smiled as she felt the hose tighten. “Chat, get out of the way!” Dame Ѐcarlate said. Princess Justice had just enough time to see the scales flying towards her before they rammed into her, sending her charm flying. “Cataclysm!” Chat Noir yelled as he caught the charm in his hand, destroying it immediately. Dame Ѐcarlate quickly caught and purified the akuma. “Miraculous Ѐcarlate!” She cheered as she threw the hose into the sky and watched as the ladybugs fixed everything. Princess Justice had disappeared, and in her place was just Marinette. Chat Noir helped Marinette to her feet. “What happened?” Marinette said, bewildered.
“You were akumatized.” Dame Ѐcarlate explained, “But don’t worry, Dupain-Cheng, we handled it.”
“Is everyone ok?”
“They should be. I better go now, I’m about to de-transform!”
“Alright. Hopefully this won’t be the last time we meet, Dame Ѐcarlate.” Chat said with a grin.
“Yeah! And thank you, Chat, for what you said earlier. I really mean it.”
“Anytime.” Dame Ѐcarlate smiled and ran off. Once she was certain she was alone, she de-transformed. Chloé sighed in relief as she took off the earnings and gave them back to Tikki. She almost wished she could keep them, but she made a promise to Ladybug. She wasn’t going to break it anytime soon! “You did amazing, Chloé.” Tikki said.
“Well, obviously!” Chloé laughed, “Make sure to tell Ladybug thank you for me.”
“I will.” Tikki flew off. Chloé watched as she left. Her day had been so eventful, and class wasn’t even over yet. And yet… something was tugging at the back of Chloé’s mind. Why was Ladybug absent today? Nothing was too out of the ordinary, it could always just be a coincidence. The more she thought the more she realized something. Had anyone ever seen Ladybug and Marinette together? Chloé almost lost her breath. “No way… could Ladybug and Dupain-Cheng… be the same person?” She said to herself. Maybe Marinette was more capable than she appeared. Either way, she was right about Lila. And now that Chloé knew the truth she wasn’t going to stand by idly. Ladybug (or Marinette, or both, or something?) had chosen her, despite everything. Chloé smiled and started her walk to class.
Marinette was shocked, and kind of embarrassed, when Tikki explained everything that had happened. She couldn’t believe Chloé had been the one to replace her. It was even more surprising that it had actually worked. “I’ll be honest Tikki,” Marinette had said, “I didn’t think she could ever do something like that.” Lila had been silently glaring at her all the rest of class. Nobody had noticed, of course. Marinette tried to take deep breaths. Getting upset wasn’t going to make her problems disappear, today had already proved that. She was silently dreading what would happen after class, but somehow it felt a lot easier after she’d already gotten all of those emotions out of her system. Kind of like after a good cry. When class was finally over, she got up and walked out. “Well Tikki, it’s been nice knowing you.” Marinette sighed.
“Don’t worry Marinette! I have a feeling everything's going to be fine.” Tikki said reassuringly. Marinette smiled, hoping Tikki was right. Marinette waved goodbye to her friends as they all headed home. Soon enough, Lila walked over to confront Marinette. “So, have you thought about what I said? I really hope you’ve changed your mind. I really don’t want to start unnecessary drama, but I will if I have to.” Lila said with a sneer.
“Sorry, Lila. I can’t be your friend if you’re just going to keep lying to everyone.” Marinette shook her head.
“I see you've made your decision, Marinette. From now on, you and I are at war. You will lose your friends and wind up all alone and Adrien will soon be mine.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Suddenly, Chloé walked up and put a reassuring hand on Marinette’s shoulder, “You may have enthralled the rest of these peasants with all your utterly ridiculous stories, but you can’t trick me as easily. And if you even try to hurt Dupain-Cheng, I’ll make sure you’ll never be able to step foot in this horrible school again.”
“What-” Lila tried to say something, but both she and Marinette were completely shocked at Chloé’s intervention.
“I’m sorry, did I say something that gave you the idea I wanted you around? Shoo now!” Lila scowled, but walked away all the same. Chloé laughed. “That was honestly a lot easier than I thought it would be. You alright, Marinette?”
“I’m alright… just confused. Why are you helping me?”
“It feels nice to be trusted, I thought I’d pay it forward.” Chloé took a deep breath. “Besides, that Lila girl had it coming. If anyone’s going to “steal” Adrien, it’s going to be me. I bet I could even help you with that, if you’re willing to listen.” Marinette blushed furiously and Chloé laughed. “C’mon, I’ll give you a ride home.”
“Yeah… I’d like that.”