Twenty Four – Exposed

The next day, as promised, Chat Noir stopped by Collège Françoise Dupont to talk to the students. Nathaniël heard the murmurings.

It's Chat Noir! What is he doing here? Is there an akuma nearby? The students huddled together, some fearful, some excited.

Chat Noir moved to the head of the crowd. "Um, hello," he waved. He looked nervous. "I… wanted to talk to you about something."

The students all looked to Chat Noir concernedly, but before he could speak, the door to the collège flew open and a familiar pigtailed girl ran in, late as usual. "I'm here!" she announced, before glancing at the crowd. "Uh…"

"Marinette!" Nathaniël exclaimed, breaking away from the crowd to join the bluenette. "You want to hear what Chat Noir is about to say."

"Chat Noir?" Marinette asked, and then saw the black-clad superhero standing in front of her. He waved awkwardly.

"Marinette?" Alya asked suddenly. "You're back?" She was standing with Lila.

"Uh, yeah!" Marinette stuttered. "I'm back. Did you miss me?"

Before Alya could respond, Chat Noir cleared his throat. "Um, I'm glad Marinette's back, but can I quickly finish what I have to say? I have to get somewhere soon."

The crowd all turned back to the superhero.

"Um, so Lila," he began. "You're probably all wondering why Marinette's back – after being accused of stealing from Lila – and uh… why Lila's mom was akumatized the other day, and so on. Well…" he glanced at Alya, who was recording. "The truth is, Lila's a liar. My fellow superhero brought this to light the other day, and I realized just how fabricated some of Lila's lies sounded. I patrolled Françoise Dupont the other day and heard Lila say she was best friends with Ladybug – I know that's not true."

The crowd whispered amongst themselves.

"And furthermore," Chat Noir said. "Lila has been threatening two students. She's the one who sent Marinette to the hospital, and hurt Nathaniël earlier as well."

All eyes fell on the two students.

"So, yeah. I hope you… believe me, and make the right decision."

Nathaniël spoke up then. He played a recorded snippet of what he'd taken, when Lila was talking to her mom and M. Damocles."

He showed me several recordings of you lying in class, the unmistakable voice of Mme. Rossi said. We never went to Achu, Lila.

Tears streaked down Lila's face, and she turned to Alya to comfort – but Alya looked unsure. "Marinette?" she asked tentatively. "Is this true?"

Marinette nodded sadly. "I've tried so hard to tell you guys, but…"

Chat Noir looked around the room awkwardly. "So, I have to get going now," he said. A few minutes later, Adrien walked into the classroom – Nathaniël didn't know why no one made the connection between him and Chat Noir, but he didn't bother to dwell on it for too long.

"So, what did I miss?" Adrien Agreste asked.

A/N: Extra long update! How'd you like it? The story will be ending soon, but there will be an epilogue and a few mixed POV extras (I wanted to do one from Lila's perspective, and Marinette's, and maybe Adrien's - you can leave a review with which ones you want so I can get started writing them).