Archive of Our Own

“Then you’re all done!”  Marinette held out her hand towards her former friends.  “As Guardian, I have to ask that you please return your Miraculous!”

The new heroes looked baffled by this.

“And where are you gonna find replacements?” asked Luka. “Because at this point, Marinette, I highly doubt there’s a competent soul in Paris, in France itself, who would agree to work under you!”

“I don’t need anyone else!”, said Marinette. “I’m fricking Ladybug! I have the power of luck and creation on my side! I was chosen to be the Guardian of the Miraculous! I can take yours and take down Lila all by myself!”

“Oh yeah, go after the bad guy by yourself, cause that worked so well when Adrien tried it,” drawled Jean sarcastically with a roll of his eyes.

“That’s different! He was never a real hero! I am! I take my job seriously! I can do this all by myself!” Marinette spat.

“See? You haven’t changed at all!”, shouted Rose. “You still think you’re the exception to the rule, that you can succeed where you claim others were doomed to fail!”

“ENOUGH!”, bellowed the ladybug heroine, wiggling her fingers as she held her palm out facing up. “Your Miraculouses. Now.”

Kagami’s eyes narrowed dangerously at her former friend. This was, at risk of emulating Chloé, utterly ridiculous! Marinette already failed to fight off Lila before. That's why she gathered them all to help bring her down in her home before they all found out she fled to places unknown. Even with more Miraculous all to herself, how will she be able to fight Lila when she likely knows she's coming ahead of time thanks to her stealing the Rabbit Miraculous along with the Miracle Box?

And speaking of the Rabbit Miraculous, it can also double as the Horse Miraculous in allowing her to teleport, making Marinette's claim that Lila couldn't have gone far without the Horse Miraculous false.

This is a fool's errand, all for a vanity project with the sole goal of getting back into Adrien's good graces just so she can manipulate him into downplaying what she did to him, or allowed to happen to him, and regain her reputation and dream life.

And if Marinette loses her Earrings to Lila, and if Lila finds out about the Wish either from the grimoir or from asking the right questions to the Kwamis, then Marinette would effectively damn the entire world to Lila's whims!

Kagami had half a mind to take off her Necklace and be done with Marinette right here and now.

But again, if Marinette does this without them and it backfires, the world could effectively end.

Besides, Marinette is clearly the least worthy of being a Miraculous user out of everyone who was one in Paris aside from Gabriel and Nathalie, even when compared to Adrien back when he was at his worst.

Before she fully realized what she was doing, Kagami was already pouncing on Marinette before the disgraced heroine could hope to dodge. The others gasped in shock as Kagami started reaching for Marinette's Earrings. Kagami thought that this might end up futile, mostly due to being Kitsune instead of Ryuko and not being as physically enhanced by the Fox Miraculous as she was with the Dragon. She also expected that the rest of the soon-to-be ex-team was going to pull her off at any moment so Marinette can take their Miraculous and damn herself further.

She was instead surprised when she first heard Luka yell out "Second Chance!" before seeing some of the others help keep Marinette pinned down. Ondine, Juleka and Aurora all helped turn the struggle into a dog-pile against Marinette. Ondine in specific kept Marinette's head as still as possible, giving Kagami the opening to take the Earrings in spite of Marinette's curses and shouting. First the left one, which caused Marinette's costume, and her super strength, to start to slowly fade away, and it wasn't long before Kagami got the right one, causing what was left of Marinette's costume to disappear in short order. It was only when Kagami got off of Marinette and backed away to joining Luka, Jean, Mireille and Rose did the others let go.

With that, Marinette turned to all of them, her face absolutely livid.

"You TRAITORS!" She screamed out as she got up from the ground. "I should have known! You were all after the power of the Miraculous for yourselves! This was what you all wanted from the beginning! Even if you have to betray the Order to do it!"

"You do not get to speak about betraying the Order, Marinette." Kagami curtly replied. "You already did so a year ago."

"And you roped us all into it." Juleka growled. "Especially my brother!"

Luka just looked away from Marinette as he waited for his Miraculous to lose power and detransform him. A small part of him still loved Marinette, and it was that part that made him decide to use Second Chance when his sister ran to help Kagami to make sure her Miraculous was taken so she wouldn't be able to do anything reckless, even if the struggle thankfully went in Kagami's favor the first time.

"Fine! I can deal with you all later once I find Lila! I still have the Black Cat and-" Marinette's stopped her sentence short as she felt around her pocket she kept Plagg's Ring in to find nothing, and then her eyes went wide when she reached into her other pocket and found it equally empty. "His Ring! Where is it!? I-"

"I already took it while you were struggling with Kagami." Juleka announced as she showed Plagg's Ring on her finger. "I made sure not to forget to take it."

For a couple of moments, Marinette stared at the group with a twitch in her eye. Then, suddenly, she bellowed a scream of pure unbridled fury before then collapsing to the ground, crying tears of rage. Rose, Luka and Ondine felt mild sympathy for Marinette as they watched her scrape her fingers across the rooftop, but the rest couldn't even feel vindictive satisfaction.

That's when Plagg decided to chime in.

"Oh for God's sake Stinkbug, it's not like your plan was going to work even if they went along with it!" He shouted angrily at Marinette.

"Yes it would have!" Marinette retorted. "I was going to be able to bring Lila to justice! We could've found her with the Horse Miraculous!"

"No, you wouldn't have! You don't know where she is, and the Rabbit not only gives her the ability to teleport like the Horse does, but it also lets her get glimpses of the future that would let her counter your attempts to capture her even if you did get lucky enough to stumble upon her!" Plagg countered. "That's how she was able to anticipate your little ambush attempt back at her home!"

Marinette had no counter, and that just made her seethe more.

"We need to get out of here! Get away from that crazy bitch and contact Su Han!" Plagg all but ordered, desperate to get away from the deranged girl he had foolishly enabled and gaslit his kitten into believing he was inferior to.

"Yes. It's imperative that we contact the true Order, and the police, in order to seek Lila and put an end to all of this." Kagami agreed, side eyeing Marinette with contempt. "If we are to relinquish the Miraculous, it will be to them. Giving them to you, Marinette, is only slightly preferable to giving them to Gabriel."

With that, Kagami jumped away across the rooftops, the Earrings held tightly in her hand as she expected the rest of Marinette's former band of 'new hereos' to follow her to the police station, which they all did, one by one.

Luka was the last one to go, looking at Marinette, and then down at the remaining time he has left to be Viperion, probably ever again. If only he wasn't so love struck and unquestioning to Marinette. Maybe he could have kept her from scaring Lila and instead find an actual way to punish her for her crimes. Maybe he could have saved her from becoming... this. This broken, hateful girl who keeps lashing out at everyone and losing everything she cared about piece by piece.

Instead, he'll just have to live with the 'what ifs', which is rather ironic considering his power.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Marinette." He said solemnly as he turned his back to the girl he used to love before bounding for the police station like the rest of the team.

Marinette, still in her rage, couldn't help but sob on the concrete of the rooftop, now deprived of her power and even of Tikki, her last chance to redeem herself in the eyes of Adrien and the public now gone because of her 'treacherous teammates'.

However, she refused to give up. If the team was going to the police station with her Miraculous, then she'll follow them there on foot.

With that, she walked over to the metal staircase that lead off the rooftop and and climbed down it, seeking to take her Miraculous back, one way or another.

Plagg had convinced the other 'new heroes', who were far better at being heroes currently than Pigtails was, to let him go out and search for Su Han, having sensed his presence somewhere in the city.

No doubt the Order had caught wind of Marinette's fall from grace. How couldn't they? It's international news! Even if they still haven't gotten the hang of modern technology, some of their scouts would've still gotten it through word of mouth. If Su Han is here, no doubt he came to Paris to investigate the matter.

And after just a little while of searching, Plagg found the guardian in question.

Plagg mused that, in most other circumstances, he'd much rather not engage with the overly stuffy guardians if he could help it, having no care for their over-abundant "discipline" that was more like torture sessions that made something like the Feast incident inevitable in Plagg's eyes.

It should be a testament to how big of a fuck-up Marinette made with the whole Lila fiasco that Plagg was not only willing, but almost gleeful to seek the guardians' help.

Plagg rushed over to Su Han and got the guardian's attention.

"Plagg? What are you doing without a holder? You know that's in violation of-"

"My Miraculous is fine and you can deal with it later." Plagg cut him off. Normally he wouldn't be this brazen about it, but this was too important. "Listen, Marinette screwed up big time."

"I am quite aware of that Plagg. The locals here have already told me about her misdeeds, and she will be punished accordingly." Su Han curtly stated.

"Yeah, I figured as much." Plagg responded. "Anyway, she was about to go search for Lila all by herself while refusing to get the police involved in order to win back my kittens favor and emotionally extort him into talking the town down from continuing to hate her."

"What!?" Su Han exclaimed. "Does she not know how dangerous and hard to find someone with the Rabbit Miraculous is?"

"I already point blank told her that because she still didn't get it even after Lila trounced her the first time by using the Rabbit to find out if and when Pigtails would ambush her." Plagg said. "But anyway, her teammates couldn't take it anymore and took both mine and Tikki's Miraculous away from her before heading to the police station to get their help in hunting Lila. They already wanted to contact the Order about all of this, so they let me come get you after I told them I sensed your presence."

While Su Han was irritated at the amount of the Order's rules that were broken in this chain of events, he decided it was best to deal with that later.

"Lead me to the station." He commanded. "You and her team of 'new hereos' can fill the gaps in my knowledge there."

"Right. Follow me." Plagg replied before flying over the rooftops to the police station, knowing Su Han can follow.

"And that's why we took her Miraculous and need your help in finding and arresting Lila." Jean Dupont finished telling the police, and the now present Su Han, about everything he knew had gone down, including the theft of the Bee and Monkey Miraculous from Chloé and himself by Lila.

Su Han looked enraged, though it was clear it wasn't aimed at them, at least not much.

Plagg thought (correctly) that Su Han probably wanted to find and strangle Master Fu, which, sure, Fu technically caused this by picking out Pigtails and his kitten, but it's not like he had much time to properly assess their worthiness since Gabriel began his attacks that very same day and Fu was the last guardian left at the time. That, and it was their discipline he carried with him that made him refuse to use the Rabbit Miraculous for things like this anyway, so Su Han shouldn't try playing the blame game here. Not that Plagg would voice his thoughts on the matter.

Just then, Roger came into the room.

"There's someone here to see you all." He said, motioning everyone to follow him.

And so they all entered into another area of the station.

Bengina Rossi had been there to tell them, and Marinette's old classmates as it turned out, about how Lila was murdered by a girl named Mariana after Lila framed her for assaulting the boy she was in love with, how the police were able to find out Lila's true identity after the fact and most importantly, that she now has the Miracle Box and was wanting to give it back to its proper owner, which Su Han gladly accepted.

It was bittersweet. At least Lila can't hurt anyone ever again, and it also means the world can't be destroyed by her,but she still took one more victim with her so to speak and now her mother's mourning her loss. No one in that room knew how to feel about it.

Adrien then had the bright idea to use the Miraculous to get back the stolen property, causing Su Han to give the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous to Bengina and Felix respectively. By transforming Adrien into Golden Boy and giving him a sentibeing named Platinum Retriever (which was a feline instead of a canine), he was able to get everyone's stolen property back, from his own trust fund, to Max's machine code, to Alya's laptop (with an added bonus of potentially getting her data back as well), to Kim's exercise equipment and everything else.

And Marinette came in just in time to watch Juleka congratulate him for doing her job before Adrien then detransformed and his sentibeing disappeared.

“Wait,” Kim asked him, “what about that blue scarf of yours? Don’t you want to retrieve that, too?”

Adrien’s face darkened a little.

“No… let it rot in a landfill somewhere.”

That was the last straw for Marinette.

She was appalled, enraged even, that this was happening. Adrien just stole her chance at redemption when he was already being given lots of sympathy! She was supposed to make it up to him and win back his trust, and he-!

No, it wasn't just him. Her team, the ones she had considered her friends, stole her chance from her as well when they took her Miraculous away. They were in on this. They had to be! It was all... It was all just...

Not fair.

It's not fair. Not fair. Not fair. Not fair. Not fair. Not fair. Notfairnotfairnotfairnotfairnotfair! 

It's not fair that they stole everything from her!

And with that, she charged over to everyone before they even knew she was there.

"YOU!" She bellowed out in rage at Adrien and her own chosen team of 'new heroes'. "You all did this on purpose, didn't you!?"

Kagami, however, already guessing what Marinette was alluding too wasn't going to have it with her latest meltdown.

"Marinette, Lila is dead." She curtly stated. "Even putting aside the potential of her using the Rabbit Miraculous to see your attack coming a second time, which she evidently didn't do with Mariana, your plan to capture Lila was still doomed even if we gave you our Miraculous instead of taking the Earrings and Ring from you."

"You still let Adrien get all their stuff back before I could!" Marinette yelled back. "I came here to get my Miraculous back from you!"

Several memebers of the group flinched at the way Marinette said 'my Miraculous'. Sure, those of them who have used Miraculous, either in the past or present, have used the same wording, but it was mostly just for simplicity sake. To Adrien and Su Han, rather than think what it means, they outright knew it meant what everyone else thought it meant.

Just like Adrien, if not even more so, Marinette has let herself become entitled to the power of the Miraculous.

At least with Adrien, he accidentally let him associate Plagg's Ring with his own freedom. He finally got to have some semblance of a normal life at school like he wanted and gained tools to rebel against Gabriel the very next day after he was given the Black Cat Miraculous. And just as coincidentally, soon after he lost the Ring to Mayura was when the press and the police suspected him of being an accomplice to Gabriel and trying to embezzle his own funds before becoming a prisoner in Marinette's old room with Amélie as his warden.

This time, the only thing he could suspect that Marinette associated Tikki's Earrings with was control.

The ability to control the situation, and especially everyone around her, to her benefit.

And just like how he didn't realize the reason behind his entitlement to the Black Cat until mere days before he tried to kill himself, he doubts Marinette realizes that she mixed the Miraculous with her own unconscious desires. Because she really doesn't have much control anymore, and if this is going the same way that Adrien's fall from grace went, she's probably going to have the last little bits of control she has left stripped away from her soon too, probably by the end of the day.

"I had to walk over to here for hours! HOURS!" Marinette continued to scream. "Being stopped by what might as well have been every single Parisian trying to give me a piece of their minds and wasting my time! Having every bus and subway refuse to let me on even though I saved up just enough to afford a ride to here! And now, Adrien gets to have his redemption when he doesn't even need it since he's already back in everyone's good graces!? Of course you'd steal my chance to give them their stuff back and give it to him! It was all just to spite me!"

Adrien's worn thin patience finally broke down.

"Marinette, are you truly, honestly saying that your teammates somehow predicted that Lila had died and that her mother would come here to give the Miracle Box back? That they predicted that I would come up with the idea to make a couple of us into heroes who could turn me into a champion and let me bring their stuff back? That they planned the entire thing out, without access to the Rabbit Miraculous, or even the Butterfly or Peacock Miraculous that can mimic the Rabbit's powers, to be able to know the future well enough to lay out a plan that puts your Lucky Charm schemes to shame, all just to spite you for the Hell of it!?"

“Are you really that delusional and petty and spiteful yourself!?” He finally yelled out.

Marinette couldn't believe what she was witnessing. Adrien never yelled like that before, especially not to her.

"It's not like I should be surprised." Alya interjected. "She did the same damn thing in accusing me of knowing ahead of time that Juleka was in that video that proved Adrien's innocence. Right down to screaming 'YOU' at me like I killed her pet hamster right in front of her just like she did when she got here. Basically, it was 'morally wrong' for me to show off the tape because it proved that she had the capacity to know that Adrien was innocent because Juleka was there, which I didn't know was the case until some of the news station's tech crew enhanced the footage and brought it to our attention, and I didn't even know at the time that Juleka definitely told her about Adrien's innocence either. That was the moment when I decided to show Marinette what she did to Adrien by taking him to his hospital room."

The rest of the room groaned in frustration.

"Marinette really has devolved into everyone that she hates." Sabrina said with a look of disdain. "She's been acting just like Chloé has all week! No wonder why she allowed her to be redeemed out of all of us."

"But I... I really did want to bring Lila to justice and give you your stuff back because it was the right thing to do." Marinette weakly protested.

"Marinette, stop lying to us all."

Everyone turned to see Félix having spoken up, staring at Marinette with contempt.

"I've seen, and even been, the kind of person you are." He continued in his usual cold tone. "You lie so expertly that you genuinely fool yourself. You display the kind of mindset that caused me to delete everyone's videos to Adrien and pose as him to badmouth you all and destroy your friendship with him. Not like I needed to do that with you around, Marinette, had I known what was to come at the time. Either way, I know what you really desire: Your dream life. Said dream life is to have a bunch of yes men cater to your whims while affirming every action you take as 'just', 'assertiveness', 'self care' or whatever excuse you can throw out, all while the public figuratively, if not literally, executes anyone who dares to stray from their worship of you. That's the only thing you truly care about beyond a superficial level: Getting that life back."

"Don't you dare insinuate that that's my dream life! Don't even say that my goal is to-"

"I'm not finished." Félix spoke, cutting Marinette off. "Every single action you have taken since the moment Alya and Juleka exposed the truth of your cover-up about Adrien's innocence in my uncle's schemes as Hawkmoth has been in service of getting the public back on your side so that they'll lavish you with praise, goods and opportunities like they have the past year. You tried to fake cry your way back into the hearts of Paris in that interview before Alya exposed your stalking of Adrien, which is a crime he can still press charges against you with if he so chooses, might I add. You, from what I've heard, repeatedly tried to get everyone who contributed to your downfall to recant their confessions or try to smooth things over and downplay your actions, or inaction, rather. You harassed Alya repeatedly for having the audacity to prove Adrien's innocence, and I wouldn't be surprised if you did the same to Juleka and Rose when the former confessed her part in the cover-up when the video that proved my cousin's innocence was first broadcasted, because they were the ones you needed to discredit or bully into retracting their word so you could restore your public image, as if that would even have worked. You wanted to find Lila yourself instead of asking the police to help so you can get all the glory. You came to my cousin's hospital room just to badger him into forgiving you and try to get him to downplay what you did to him, or allowed to happen to him. Same difference. And on top of all of that, you're angry that you 'lost your chance at redemption to Adrien' because he was the one who got everyone's belongings back, even though he had help from Madam Rossi and myself to do it, as well as from Nooroo and Dussu. Just constant attempts to extort and emotionally blackmail everyone, from those in this room, to the city at large, to the entire world, into going back to catering to your whims. The only question is whether you not being, and refusing to be, conscious of this fact that everyone else can most certainly see at this point makes you better or worse than Lila, who was full conscious of why she's done what she did and doesn't care."

Marinette glared hatefully at Félix, unable to come up with the right words.

“Honestly, Miss Dupain-Cheng.” Felix continued. “one could be forgiven for believing that you deserved to be treated the way you were by the likes of Chloe and Lila; maybe you were merely the lesser of two or more evils, and they happened to triumph over you, at least for a while. Nothing wrong with gaining some confidence, but maybe those other girls were right about you, and you were simply a brat and a bully in sheep’s clothing all along. Or maybe they were the lesser of those evils, and it was for the better that they robbed you of any self-esteem and kept you meek and inactive in anything, seeing as what you’ve done now, as a confident person, has certainly eclipsed anything they’ve ever done.”

“FELIX!” Marinette screamed at him in fury.

“Or, at least, that’s how it looks from where I’m standing.” Felix added with a small smirk. “And that’s how it looks from those of us who have known you personally, so just imagine how the rest of the world must view you right now. You're lucky I'm aware that you're deluding yourself into believing that all of this somehow isn't just a pathetic attempt to reclaim a life you feel entitled to. Most eveyone else probably thinks that you're just like Lila: A girl who knows what she's doing is wrong, but does it anyway so she can stay in her own little world.”

"You know, Miss Dupain-Cheng,” Emilie then said slowly, trying to suppress all that anger, “there was once a time when I would have welcomed a sweet and ambitious young lady, someone like you once were, as a girlfriend for my son, and maybe eventually as a wife for him as well. But now? After everything you’ve done, after everything that’s happened… I am so glad that such a thing never happened. For all the talk about him 'sexually harassing' you, you yourself would likely have been the abuser in that relationship, emotionally and mentally controlling him just like Gabriel did.”

Marinette stomped her foot in irritation. Nothing was going the way it should have been. Everyone was ganging up on her, her chance for redemption, and her powers, were stripped away from her by Kagami and the rest of her team.

“But I’m a good person!" She yelled in defiance " I know I’m a good person! And I am sorry for what I did! Don’t I at least deserve a chance to prove that?! Don’t I get a chance to fix my mistakes if I really want to?! Don’t I get to redeem myself?!”

"Oh please, Pigtails. You are far from being a 'good person'." Plagg stated. "A good person doesn't manipulate others into agreeing with her selfish whims. A good person doesn't ruin people's lives over small grudges. A good person doesn't allow horrible people get away with crimes they could be arrested for, especially when said horrible person hurt her intentionally, just to facilitate said ruination of those she held grudges over. That's exactly what you did, just like Lila and Chloé! You are a bad person, Marinette! And I'm a bad Kwami for enabling you and helping you gaslight Adrien like I ended up doing a year ago."

Adrien and Su Han's respective surprise with Plagg's self-depreciation and his role in these events was cut short by Marinette.

"It wasn't for some petty grudge!" She yelled. "I was eventually going to be Akumatized because of everyone and end up giving my Miraculous to Hawkmoth! The entire class put me and the whole freaking world in danger by-"

"That's enough with that excuse, Marinette!"

Everyone turned to where the voice came from. Tikki was glaring at Marinette with determination and a bit of sorrow in her eyes. She was shaking, and it was clear she was still a little conflicted about fully turning against Marinette. But even so, she continued to speak.

"You know, and have told me, about Timetagger and how he's from the future and was an Akumatized teenage Chris. You know that there was a high likelihood that a new villainous Butterfly user would come about. You know that it can give people the ability to travel through time. Even if you want to say that Adrien not having the Black Cat Miraculous would make it better for such a villain to Akumatize him with, he'd still make an extremely powerful Akuma from how strong his emotions would be after losing everything and having no way to even have a life that's anything above impoverishment. And since everyone knows you're Ladybug and the current guardian, if he was Akumatized into something invincible and the Butterfly user kept his Akumatized object with them, he'd be able to steal the Miracle Box anyway, potentially even regaining Plagg's Ring and becoming even more powerful as an Akumatized villain. You set up a future Hawkmoth to travel through time to Akumatize him and do exactly the same thing you were claiming to be trying to avoid. It's a miracle that it didn't happen, and it's illogical for you to worry about it happening to yourself, but not caring about it happening to Adrien."

"But it still doesn't change the fact that they were putting me at risk!" Marinette tried to counter. "I could've been Akumatized and given you, and the other Miraculous, to Hawkmoth."

"Then I could've just taken the Earrings off of you and rushed to your room to warn the other Kwamis and have me give the Earrings to someone you trust like Kagami or Luka." Tikki explained. "We could have came up with it together and made it so you'd have no reason to find the Miracle Box, and thus not expose your identity. I wish I could have thought of this before... Maybe this wouldn't have happened if I did."

Tikki hung her head with a sullen expression. This 'what if' scenario, where she could've potentially saved Marinette and Adrien, will probably haunt her for the rest of her life. She then looked back up to Marinette, the determination showing in her eyes again as she continued to speak.

"The point is, even taking out the other solutions everyone else had already told you about, your claim that everything you did, and all the damage to the lives of your former friends, were justified just because Hawkmoth could Akumatize you is a horrible excuse. By that metric, you shouldn't have forgiven Chloé since she nearly caused you to be Akumatized on Miss Bustier's birthday since you were the one experiencing heavy enough emotions to attract and Akuma that day when you thought you were being punished. And for that matter, since Hawkmoth would destroy the world in order to resurrect Emilie, since you claim that Adrien's fate is justified because Hawkmoth would win if you were Akumatized, that would've meant that Adrien really did deserve to die on the streets since he nearly got the world destroyed because of you with no chance to improve his life. That's essentially what you're saying whether you mean it that way or not, and the same with the rest of your former class."

Some kind of idea went off in Kim's head as he listened to Tikki.

"You know, with all this talk about the 'karmic debt' stuff, wouldn't Marinette's explanation of it mean that Adrien would be considered an accomplice to his dad as well under its rules since he made it easier for him to steal Marinette's Miraculous?" He said while holding his chin in thought.

The rest of group stared wide-eyed at him as they processed what he said.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" He asked, confused as to why everyone looks so shocked.

"Oh my God... Did the numbskull actually say something smart?" Alix half-heartedly snarked.

"Then, that means that by the rules of the so-called 'karmic debt' system, Adrien should have been arrested and charged with being Hawkmoth while Gabriel should've cleanly gotten away with all of it." Max stated, verbalizing the thought that most everyone else had. "And yet, Gabriel was exposed and arrested while Adrien was only accused of being his accomplice. It's evidence that Marinette's views of how karma works are erroneous."

"Wait, really!?" Kim asked in shock.

Everyone turned to Marinette in horror and disgust. Everything she said about karma and the debt system was all just an excuse to pretend that everything she did to them, and especially Adrien, was all justified. Not even to fool them, but rather to fool herself into believing it.

"G-guys... I-"

"My daughter is dead because you wanted to justify destroying your former friends over her...?" Bengina questioned slowly, her sorrow and rage starting to bubble as she realized just what her daughter died for.

Marinette couldn't help but feel annoyed. “You do realize that if I had done all that, Lila would be serving a life sentence in prison right now!”

“At least she’d still be alive!” screamed Ms. Rossi in despair, making everyone near her jump at the high pitch of her wail, the potent agony of losing her only child entwined in her tone.

Marinette, in particular, was spooked, all her irritation towards the mother of her now-deceased bully evaporating away as the older woman went on, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Given the choice, I’d rather that Lila be alive in jail and mad at me, than have her murdered when she’s just a teenager! How dare you even suggest that her being dead is better!” Bengina continued in grief-stricken rage.

"And what about that Mariana girl she tried to frame for assault!?" She continued. "You could've saved her too! She's going to be in prison for murdering Lila and would've had her life ruined like Adrien's was even if she didn't kill her! Did you just assume Lila wouldn't do something like that when it worked so well even before she got hold of the Miracle Box!? You've all but effectively killed that Mariana girl too by not arresting my daughter when you had the chance! And for what!? So that you could punish your former friends for not letting you be the one controlling them instead of her!? So that you can pretend that a cosmic force caters to your whims so you can feel like a goddess who everyone must worship!?"

"I've heard more than enough." Su Han said as he rushed over to Marinette with great speed and grabbed her arm. "It's clear that Whiny Chicken Legs was beyond abysmal in not only picking out Miraculous users, but also in choosing a successor in being a guardian. It's true that our old ways of discipline have their flaws, as the incident with the Sentimonster proved beyond a doubt, but even with that said, this is a major byproduct of his lack of training. As such, I will rectify it here and now."

His free and glowed as he pressed it up to Marinette's forehead.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, as the grandmaster guardian of the Order of the Miraculous, I hereby strip you of the guardian title and revoke your right to the knowledge of the grimoir."

With that, a bright light emanated from his hand, causing everyone else to look away. When it finally stopped, the first thing everyone noticed was the Miracle Box.

"The Box! It changed into its original form!" Adrien exclaimed, knowing the octagonal Chinese design it originally had before Marinette became the guardian and it transformed into an oval with ladybug spots.

And that's when Marinette realized something.

She could remember her time as Ladybug.

She could remember what she did as the guardian this past year.

But she couldn't remember a single thing that Master Fu taught her or that she learned from the grimoir.

"Wha... What did... What did you do to me!?" She yelled.

"That was a skill that only a grandmaster can learn." Su Han explained. "It's designed to allow its user to steal specific memories and knowledge from another without completely wiping it. It was created some time after the ritual that forced a guardian to lose all their memories of their time as a guardian, performed in the event a guardian is ready to pass down their legacy and live the rest of his or her life as normal. Or in this case, for failures of guardians like yourself to be forced to take responsibility for their actions without the ability to hide behind the amnesia the old ritual causes."

Marinette crumbled under the explanation.

"Now, for the last order of business." Su Han continued before turning towards the group and holding out his hand while looking towards Marinette's group of 'new heroes' and to Bengina and Félix. "I'm going to need you to give me all your Miraculous that you all still have."

The group in question looked at each other before nodding in agreement.

"Of course. We had planned to do so anyway." Kagami stated, being the first to give hers up.

One by one, they each gave up their respective pieces of magic jewelry. Luka in specific looked sad. Not because he can't be a hero anymore, but that he failed Sass and that he'll never be able to make it up to him. All he could do was mumble an "I'm sorry, Sass" before he too gave the Snake Miraculous away, being the final one to do so. With them all accounted for, Su Han put the Miraculous into the Miracle Box and commanded the Kwamis to enter it too.

"Now that all of this has been settled, I shall be taking my leave back to the Order. As for you, Dupain-Cheng, I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, even though I know you likely won't have any." Su Han said before then exiting out of the station with the Miracle Box, leaving Marinette in the company of the many people she's hurt.

This couldn't be happening. This shouldn't be happening! Everything, her dream job, her new home, her Miraculous, her family and even the knowledge of the grimior has been taken away from her! She needed a way out. She needed to convince them to forgive her.

“C’mon, guys, please.” She begged them. “Isn’t there anything I could do to make it up to you?”

“No, Marinette,” Alya told her firmly, her voice like steal. "If you'd gotten your way, we'd all be destitute at 18 while our stuff that Lila stole was used for God only knows what. You also nearly ruined our families lives just for them having the audacity to be related to us and didn't even try to tell your fans to lay off of them. Lila is dead and her murderer would've had her life ruined anyway even if she didn't kill her, which could've been prevented, along with the museum vandalism and charity fraud that Mylene, Sabrina and Nathaniel's IDs were used for, if you had arrested her a year ago. And of course, you drove Adrien to attempt suicide and even successfully gaslit him into thinking you were a perfect angel and that he truly deserved to be tortured by every single person on the entire damn planet! You also caused Chloé to suffer a psychotic break! So no! There's nothing you can do to make it up to us! Even if you had gotten our stuff back instead of Adrien, Félix and Mrs. Rossi, we know that that 'favor' would just be used to emotionally blackmail us, because a Lila Rossi under any other name would be just as thorny and poisonous! And the same goes for anything else you try to do from now on. We can't trust you anymore, Marinette!"

"Even my own resurrection feels like something you did to increase your favor in the public." Emilie added mournfully.

"Mom..." Adrien couldn't help but mumble at his mother's admission.

"You got what you wanted by never getting our stuff back." Alya stated scornfully. "Come on guys. Let's get out of here."

And they each, one by one, made their way out of the room with the intent to exit the police station and return to their homes. Adrien himself was the last person to exit when he was blocked by none other than Marinette.

He felt a flare of anger and then forced himself to try to lock down those emotions.

“Adrien, please.” She begged him.

"Marinette, I'm not going to forgive you for what you've done to me." Adrien spoke curtly. "We've already went through this back at the hospital, and if anything, my mind is even more set than it was then."

“Adrien, please,” she whined, “I’m sorry… please, just tell me that you forgive me, that’s all I ask…”

"It doesn't matter how many times that you say 'Adrien, please', the answer will still be 'no'. Now get out of my way and let me pass."

"Adrien, please." She begged again, not moving from her spot.

"No, Marinette. Ge out of my way."

"PLEASE!" Marinette screamed as she held onto to Adrien's arm a little too tightly.

"GET OFF OF ME!" Adrien yelled back as he started to flail, trying to release himself from Marinette's grip.

Marinette did indeed let go, worried that Adrien might accidentally strike her with his struggling.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng, if you do not stop keeping Adrien held captive, I will have to arrest you on mild kidnapping and assault charges." Roger called out from the next room, causing the two of them to look over and see that everyone was still there and watching Marinette's last attempt to coerce Adrien into forgiving her.

"What I said about pressing charges on her for stalking you still stands, Adrien." Felix added.

"I'll have to think on that." Adrien replied, using this moment to scoot past Marinette. "Don't ever talk to me again, Marinette. Even if I don't press charges, I'm going to file the best restraining order against you that I legally can."

"He then readjusted his shirt, which inadvertently caused Marinette to see the marks her scarf left on his neck from his suicide attempt. A physical reminder of what she enabled and how close it came to killing him.

And then, to his great surprise, she got down on her knees in front of him.

“Please, I’m sorry,” she told him. “Please, please just forgive me…”

“No.”

“I SAID I’M SORRY!” she screamed.

“Don’t yell at me!” he snapped, and that actually shut her up.

“Please,” she begged him, practically whimpering the words. “I said I’m sorry. I promise I’ll never hurt you again or make a mistake like this ever again. Please, just tell me that you forgive me. Please, please just give me another chance, I promise…”

“I. Said. NO.”

“But I’ve lost everything!” she wailed. “My family, my friends, my job and career… you…”

"I always knew you saw me as an object even when I was Chat Noir. Now I know you felt that way about both my identities."

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she hastily insisted, but he swiftly cut her off.

“It’s over, Marinette. We’re through. Maybe we did some good together as superheroes, maybe we even had some good times as civilians, but those days are long gone now.”

“But you’re all I have left!”

“Then maybe you should find someone else to give you another chance and support you,” he sneered. His face softening just a little, one last time, he told her with a blank face and a neutral voice, “Maybe in the future, somebody else somewhere else will give you a second chance and then you can try to rebuild your life and your reputation as well… but it’s not going to be with me.”

Was he deliberately echoing some of the things she’d said to him, back when he was forced to leave the manor and she moved in? He was never the petty or vindictive type, and it didn’t look like he was deliberately throwing her own words back in her face…

Desperate, she tried one last time to earn his forgiveness…

“Adrien…” she feebly begged him.

“Goodbye, Marinette.”

And he, along with everyone else, walked away, not sparing her another glance.

And that left Marinette with nothing left.

Marinette numbly walked through the police station until she came to the exit. She was on autopilot, no longer caring about getting into arguments with the other Parisians. She didn't even realize she was headed for her old apartment until it finally came into view. She entered and climbed up all the stairs until she got to her old room where she finally allowed herself to collapse onto the floor of the empty, lifeless tomb that Adrien nearly died in.

No Miraculous. No school. No friends. No fans. No work. No home. No family. No boyfriend. No team. No knowledge from Fu or the grimoir. The only thing she had were the clothes on her back that were already worn. She lost absolutely everything. She doesn't even have Tikki anymore.

And her team, Adrien and Su Han took away her chance at redemption.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair at all!

Why does she have to be rendered homeless and powerless!?

And what of the genuine good she had done as Ladybug? Would criminals be able to use this to claim that all her arrests were out of spite or laziness and get off scot free? Even if she still had the Earrings, she couldn't be a hero anymore due to her reputation that Alya and Juleka cast onto her. She would've had to not get involved from here on anyway.

She closed her tearful eyes, seeing Adrien's hate-filled face aimed at her twice over, both when she went to see him in Mercy hospital and again earlier at the police station.

He loathed her on a personal level.

And why wouldn't he?

Marinette blamed him for everything Lila did. She blamed him for everything wrong in her life, and encouraged other people to do the same to him, like Chloé blaming him for her own actions as a bully or the class blaming him for the Lila mess by not trying to tell them. She sat on the truth of his supposed crimes and allowed everyone to believe he was an embezzler and accomplice to magical terrorism, causing the public to essentially sentence him to a slow, painful, multi-year long execution had he not killed himself, providing that no one broke into this very room to kill 'Hawkmoth's accomplice son' themselves, or waited to get him after his aunt kicked him out at age 18. She even allowed the very girl who had actively tried to ruin her life to get away with her crimes just to make sure Adrien couldn't get his trust fund back (which lead to the aforementioned embezzlement accusations), simply opting to give her a scare instead of averting the disaster that was her theft of his money and her former friends' belongings.

She completely ruined his life just for some twisted, sadistic satisfaction for "betraying her".

And he wasn't even betraying her, as he was the one who got Lila to revoke her expulsion, as he revealed during his own interview after he got discharged from the hospital and exposed his aunt's abuse.

And all the while, she invoked the name of "karma", saying that it was a cosmic force of justice that did this to him. That being condemned to life-long physical and psychological torture by his fellow man was what he got for not ratting Lila out. That it's his punishment for making her susceptible to Akumatization and losing her own Miraculous. But like Kim and Max said back at the police station, that would've also meant he was an accomplice to Hawkmoth, meaning that Adrien would've had to take Gabriel's punishment, which, of course, didn't happen. Karma, and the "threatened her Miraculous" excuse, really were ways for her to justify destroying Adrien, and the rest of the class, for not bending to her will. Maybe "karma" is being so cruel to her because she put words in its mouth. After all, she'll be stuck being both figuratively and literally powerless in a city that hates her. Even if she tried to escape, she'd be recognized instantly in any other city, country, even continent, all of which would hate her, or at least wouldn't want to risk their business by associating with her. She's even rejected from riding cabs, busses and subway trains even though she has just enough cash to purchase it. She couldn't possibly get to an internet/news-lacking country that wouldn't know her on foot either. And now, she has no Miraculous to give her strength. Karma had stripped her of everything, just like she helped strip Adrien of all he had.

And now, she'll never get any of it back.

After a while of crying, she finally got back off the floor and stood up, deciding to peer out the window.

She saw a group of 4 people, 2 boys and 2 girls, all looking like they were searching for something. Then, one of the girls looked up at the window, her eyes widening a bit before pointing at her and yelling in an angry tone.

“THERE SHE IS!”

Great. Just great. Just what she needed right now.

It was yet another angry mob. As if she didn't have to deal with several of them wasting her time trying to get to the police station over and over. She opened the window, deciding to tell them off because she was so done with hearing the same things over and over and over and over.

“Haven’t you guys lectured me enough?!” She screamed at them down below.

“We haven’t lectured you at all!” Yelled the girl who first alerted the other 3 and was most likely their leader.

“Really?!  All the insults from you Parisians—”

“We’re not Parisians, we’re Lila’s past victims!” The girl yelled out. “I’m Adriana, and my sister Mariana is now sitting in a jail cell for taking out Lila, because Ladybug here wouldn’t stop her!”

Marinette's eyes went wide with horror and dread. These were Lila's victims, including the sister of the final victim Lila ruined before her death...

Oh fuck.

“I’m Lars!” a Swedish boy shouted. “Lila ruined my life when she was living in Sweden!  She turned all my friends against me by telling them I bullied her!”

“My name is Luz, and Lila almost got me arrested and imprisoned when she planted drugs in my school locker while she was living in Spain!” a girl added.

“My name’s Tucker, I’m American,” he said with a Texan draw, “and Lila darn near destroyed my life with her false accusations that I done raped her after I rejected her as a date!”

“And now, we had to find out that you had the chance and the power to finally end Lila’s reign of terror once and for all, and you just LET HER GET AWAY SCOT FREE?!” screeched Lars.  “Do you have any idea how insulting it is to everything you suffered, to know that someone out there had the chance to stop the person who destroyed you, and instead chose to just let her go on to continue her horrible tirade of cruelty and lies?!”

Marinette flinched with each story of how Lila nearly caused each of these people (or in Adriana's case, succeeded posthumously with her sister) to be shoved into the same hellhole that Adrien went through this past year and she's going through right now.

“Hey, if you’re really mad at that, try yelling at Adrien! He did the same thing!” She yelled out, desperate to defend herself somehow

“Except Adrien at least underestimated what Lila could do!” Luz shouted up at her, wagging an accusatory finger towards the disgraced designer.  “You knew that she could totally ruin lives, and you let her go free to do it all over again!  Like ruined lives mean nothing as long as it’s not yours!”

"Not to mention that Adrien also had to deal with 4 Lila's including you, Chloé and his own darn dad!" Tucker added. "It's a miracle that no one gone done try to kill him between his terrorist accusations and his suicide attempt after what you 4 did to him all his life! I should know since many a person tried to attack me for 'rapin'' Lila! No wonder he was so permissive of her when he's been made a puppet by people like her for his whole life! What's your excuse that hasn't already been hog-tied and left in the sun by the locals here!?"

"Somebody take her powers away before anybody else gets hurt because of her!” Lars yelled before rushing into the apartment, the others quickly joining in, much to Marinette's shock and horror.

It was like a horror movie to her as a hurricane of stomping echoed through the completely empty building, getting louder very quickly as the group closed the distance.

And without a Miraculous, there's no escape.

And there's nothing in the room to barricade the trapdoor with.

In a desperate panic, Marinette put her whole weight on the trap door and locked it just in time, but the vengeful, enraged teens below were still determined to breach into Marinette's old room.

"Please stop!" Marinette begged them, trying to stay on the door despite the constant thudding. "I don't even have my Miraculous anymore!"

"Shut up, Fraudbug!" Luz yelled back as she banged on the door with the others. "I didn't fall for Lila's lies and I won't fall for yours either!"

And that made it clear that they're not going to listen to anything Marinette says unless they see it for themselves.

Despite Marinette's best efforts, she was not powerful without a Miraculous and had lost weight due to not eating as much. The group of Lila's victims only took a few minutes to break the lock on the trap door and flip it open while Marinette was still on it, causing her to go flying half-way across the room as the 4 Lila-wronged teens poured in. Tucker stayed back to guard the trap door while Adriana, Lars and Luz all rushed towards Marinette, the latter two pinning her to the ground while Adriana searched for the Earrings. She was confused when she didn't see them on Marinette's earlobes and a bit disturbed when she couldn't find them in her pockets.

"What the- They're not here! Where are they!?" She yelled, baffled at the lack of Earrings on Marinette's person.

"I already told you I don't have them!" Marinette explained while struggling. "My team already did the same thing you're trying to do and the grandmaster stripped me of guardianship!"

The 4 teens looked shocked at this revelation.

"Wow... Liarbug actually told the truth for once..." Lars stated in bitter astonishment.

"At least her team and the Order saw sense." Tucker snarked. "I wonder how well Lila taught Marinette for her to have done manipulate them in the first place."

"OK! I get it! I'm sorry for letting Lila go with only a scare!" Marinette yelled. "I wasn't thinking about you guys and I didn't think that she'd ruin someone so badly that they'd murder her! Now please let me go! I have nothing for you to take!"

Adriana looked towards Lars and then towards Luz before getting off of Marinette and standing back up, the other two letting go of Marinette and doing the same.

"Don't think this is over, Marinette." Adriana stated, glaring holes into Marinette's soul. "My sister is rotting in prison in part because of you letting Lila free to ruin her life. You deserve to be arrested for all you've done too."

She then leaned closer to Marinette.

"We're gonna be watching you very closely from now on." She continued. "Every moment you're on the street is another moment you get to ruin someone else's life even without your powers or social status, so we will see to it that you're behind bars where you can't hurt anyone again. We'll dig up as much dirt on you as possible. We'll make sure to witness any crime you try to commit. We'll do everything we can to convince Adrien to press charges for your stalking and breaking and entering if we have to. Our parents are already looking into doing so, especially mine, so we'll be staying in Paris for a while as we find a way to convict you of your crimes. Hopefully that'll deter anyone from following in your and Lila's footsteps, and maybe even restore France's image to the world if we succeed."

She then stood up strait again. "Come on everyone. Our work here is done for now."

And each of them left through the trap door, Lars and Tucker giving hateful glares towards Marinette as they descended the stairs and made their way back out of the apartment.

Once they were out of sight, Marinette lightly banged the back of her head on the floor. Now even her freedom, what little she has without any way to earn money consistently, is in jeopardy at the hands of people who were denied justice for what Lila did to them (or in Adriana's case, her sister) and see her as Lila's biggest enabler in Paris, wanting her to be thrown in jail.

And to think, this would probably be Adrien's life had he not committed suicide or proven innocent of Gabriel's Hawkmoth schemes.

He'd be homeless, never to find a job because everyone would see him as an accomplice to terrorism who'd attack anyone given the chance and an embezzler trying to find ways to con people out of money and would steal company funds. Any business that would be willing to hire him despite that would probably lose business due to how hated he would have been. He'd have to be an actual criminal whether he wanted to or not just to make ends meet, and likely be arrested anyway, because the alternative is dumpster diving and making himself sick. It would also be easy for anyone to frame him for crimes, just like Lila did...

Just like Marinette allowed Lila to do to him...

Marinette laid there crying. She nearly stripped Adrien of everything, and now, she's had everything taken from her as well.

What was she thinking in claiming that Karma was the reason for Adrien's torment?

She laid there on the floor for nearly an hour, and she wasn't much better emotionally for the rest of the day. She was on autopilot as she got out of the apartment and onto the streets, barely able to think, dreading the police coming to arrest her because Lila's victims already found a way to get law enforcement to do so.

And when she finally went to sleep that night, she had nightmares of Adrien's hung corpse dragging her to the hell she had prepared for him.

The next week found Marinette in front of her apartment, now owned and transformed into a restaurant owned by the Césaires. A bit of anger was held at how the logo of her parents bakery (that she made herself) was now gone.

She had been given restraining orders from each one of her former friends, both her former class and her ex-team of 'new heroes', who made it very clear that they'd press charges if she violated the terms without a damn good reason (as in, she'd have to be saving their lives in the process of breaking the orders for them to not to call the cops on her). Funnily enough, the only 2 of her ex-friends who didn't file a restraining order on her were Juleka and Rose, the two who helped air her dirty laundry (though Anarka filed a restraining order for both herself and her son and Juleka and Rose had to convince their respective parents to not do it for them). Why they would go against the grain of their group is a question Marinette pondered over, but she has yet to find the answers.

But needless to say, Marinette isn't going to be able to enter her old apartment for the foreseeable future with the Césaires owning the place now.

The group of Lila's victims have also been keeping their word about essentially being Marinette's unofficial parole officers. She'd constantly see them in the corner of her eye trying to spy on her, and because of the reason they're doing so, the police don't consider it "stalking", so she can't press charges or allowed her to file her own restraining order against them (though, she has a feeling the police are either spouting bullshit or are abusing a loophole so that they don't have to help Marinette, not that Marinette can prove it even disregarding her reputation). Even worse, 2 new memebers have joined the original 4.

One was Stan, from England, who was nearly killed when Lila manipulated another student into pushing him in front of an oncoming bus by claiming that his attraction to his crush, a black girl named Julianne, was somehow a sign of extreme racism (because of course the same girl who was willing to frame someone for sexual assault would also use minority/majority hatred to destroy those who threaten her). Thankfully, the bus hit the brakes just in time to avoid hitting him, but just from how livid he was when he confronted her, it still left an understandable scar on his psyche that was never allowed to properly heal. He and Tucker got along well due to both being framed for, as Stan put it, 'excuse to kill' sins.

The other was Sophia, from Germany, whose best friend had nearly killed himself after several months of bullying and destroyed property and even death threats sent to him (which were just... so wonderful to read off of the screenshots she took from her phone. As in it's a wonder how sadistic assholes like that exist and not get the Lila treatment). She and Adriana bonded off how Lila destroyed their loved ones, effectively make her the unofficial co-leader of the group alongside Adriana (who still got top filling in the group because she's the one whose plight could have been avoided if Marinette arrested Lila a year ago whereas the others were hurt by her before she came to Marinette's school).

Both these members were just as diligent as the 4 founding ones at keeping watch on Marinette's every move whenever they have free time. They even memorized the few places she still frequents (not that that's saying much since there are only 3 or 4 'locations' she can loiter around now) and keep patrolling those few areas like they're Miraculous users who were tipped off to Hawkmoth's general area.

To the public, that's basically what they were, minus the supernatural elements the Miraculous created.

Everywhere Marinette went she was surrounded by enemies on all sides who either wanted to get away from her, give her another lecture about how badly she screwed up or try to find a way to see her off to jail or prison. To say nothing about her attempts to find a job, or even try to pay for anything with the limited money she did have. Even people who were still sympathetic to her refused to hire her or give her service because they knew that it would sink their businesses if word got out, or at least negatively impact them.

She had nowhere to go, stuck in a city that hates her.

And unlike with Adrien, where the minor reasons were true but the major ones were false, all of the reasons why Marinette was hated were completely true.

But she was cut off from her thoughts as she noticed some people approaching.

First was the group of Lila's victims, who seem to have not noticed her. She forgot that they've become acquainted with Marinette's old friends due to their shared disdain for the two girls who nearly ruined their lives. They even got along with her former team of 'new heroes', seeing them as victims of Marinette's manipulations and resolving to, as Stan put it, 'take back the lives Marinette stole from them' by trying to help restore their reputations to the public.

But among them was Adrien, who had changed his surname to Johnson along with his mother both to try and make himself less conspicuous for when they leave Paris (and the entire European continent for that matter) and to cut their one remaining tie to Gabriel so they never have to think about him again (as well as forgoing Émilie's maiden name because she also doesn't want to be reminded of her side of the family either). He was welcomed with open arms into their group due to being a victim of... well, everyone really. His father, Chloe, Lila, the entire population... Marinette... But especially for being a victim of Lila and Marinette, who both essentially punished them for failing to pick between two horrible sides. Pretty much the only thing keeping him from being their new leader is that he's moving away, and from what Marinette heard, today's the day he does so.

Marinette knew that he wouldn't forgive her. Even then, he also has a restraining order against her. And God only knows if her going up to him will also make him press stalking and breaking and entering charges on her, which she knew that Lila's victims were already trying to get him to do.

It was over, and she knew it. She had lost everything because of all her failures that, unlike Adrien, were caused out of malice.

All she had to do, was not be spiteful towards her former class and punish Lila properly. But instead, not only did she choose to destroy her classmates for choosing Lila over her, but she made up a convoluted fantasy about karma in her head, including that it works for the benefit of the user of the Ladybug Miraculous. And then she was found out, and everyone took back what they gave to her under the pretense that she was a perfect heroine and a martyr to sympathize for.

And now, her old life, even when Lila was hurting her, was gone, and never coming back.

If she had done better, been better, she would have seen all of this coming and not set up her own success on the damnation of Adrien and the rest of their class. Instead, that's exactly what she did, and it backfired horribly. She went from "unjustified dislike" to "irrational crush" and back again when it came to Adrien, and she allowed it to color the entire view of the Lila situation. She used it, and Hawkmoth's powers, as an excuse to take away her class's happiness in ways that Lila wouldn't have done by badmouthing them on live television. She allowed Adrien to be accused of abetting his dad just to spite him, and it nearly lead him to his death, which Marinette realized could have also been from starvation or disease from the streets or a vigilante wanting to kill him for being "Hawkmoth's accomplice son". She effectively nearly murdered him by being so short sighted. And her dad... He was nearly killed by Lila when she stole the Miracle Box. Something she wouldn't have been able to do at all behind a jail cell.

And now, Marinette has been given Adrien's fate.

She ran away from the new restaurant, not wanting Adrien or Lila's victims to see her for multiple reasons. But when she was in the alleyway, all she could do is cry over what she lost, and what she'll never be able to gain.

"..... I'm sorry.... I'm so.... so sorry.... Adrien...... Dad......." Marinette wept, making apologies that were much more genuine despite no one hearing and her knowing they wouldn't accept after what she enabled them to undergo. This was her punishment, being stripped of everything possible, just like she did to Adrien.

All she could hope was that life would be good to everyone she wronged.