"LET'S GET THIS OVER WITH, FURCIFEROS!" Lilith screeched. In each of her hands, a humongous cage was grasped.
"THAT SAID, I HAVE LESS QUARREL WITH YOU JAPANESE BRATS…" Before anyone could react, Lilith smashed the Tokies (minus Oracle) with the cages, causing a magic flash. When the light died down, the sextet of Tokyo-goers was inside the cages.
"NO!" Chance shouted.
"Hey! No fair, this is cheating!" Skull exclaimed angrily, banging against the bars with Fox and Queen. Joker, Panther, and Mona were occupying the other one.
"THIS IS BETWEEN YOU FOUR AND ME!" Lilith screamed, violently banging the cages together.
"Us four, huh…" Beat murmured, "What do you say, Chance?"
"When we take you down, you free our friends. Do we have a deal?" Chance eventually said, her tone resolute.
"WITH PLEASURE! NOT LIKE IT'LL HAPPEN, THOUGH…"
"Try us…" Viper growled, shifting to battle position and ripping off his mask to begin, "Terpander! Garula!"
The musician Persona appeared, sending a gust of sharp wind towards the akumatized Lilith. She grunted in pain as some of the wind blades sliced her form.
"Mulan! Kouga!"
"Shaka Zulu! Eiga!"
"Atalanta! Freila!"
Each of the attacks crashed into the Shadow, but it only seemed to annoy her.
"TAKE THIS!" she shrieked, her wings extending. With a sharp flap of said wings, a great gust billowed up and slammed into the Parisians.
"All right! How about this, then?!" Oracle exclaimed, the only Japanese thief not captured, "Speeeeeeed up!"
Alix, Beat, Chance & Viper felt much lighter on their feet. They were sure that if they wanted to run a mile, they'd barely break a sweat doing so.
Chance bit her lip. Besides the fact that Lilith was able to fly out of reach, she was concerned for the Tokies' safety as well… and she'd learned through experience to never trust this horrible girl. So she had to do something.
Drawing her crossbow, Chance shot a couple of shots - not at Lilith, but at the cages she held.
"HEY! WHAT DID I SAY EARLIER!" the monster shouted, "THIS IS OUR FIGHT!"
"You've cheated, lied, and been generally dirty, Lila," Viper snarked, "Every doctor hates the taste of their own medicine, I suppose."
"TCH! I DON'T KNOW WHY I NEVER SUSPECTED YOU WERE THOSE ANNOYING HEROES BEFORE! YOU'RE JUST LIKE THEM AFTER ALL! ALWAYS SPOUTING YOUR SELF-RIGHTEOUS BULLSHIT!"
"Aim for the cages! We need to get them out first!" Chance ordered.
"No more excuses, Lila," Beat grinned, "Let's finish this. You two ready?"
"RAAAGH - WAIT, TWO?"
The sound of something above Lilith caught her attention. She looked up just in time to have Alix heel-kick her face in.
As she fell to the ground, she dropped the cages, which broke down on contact with the ground. Quickly, the Tokies & Alix escaped their bonds and dashed over to the side of Chance, Viper, & Beat.
"You all okay?" Chance asked.
"Never better," Skull grinned, "Now let's catch us a fox!"
The group surrounded Lilith, ranged weapons pointed right at her face.
"THAT WAS A CHEAP TRICK!" Lilith snarled.
"But apparently effective enough to work, wasn't it?" Alix smirked.
"You can try and divide us all you want Lila," Beat exclaimed, "it ain't going to work!"
"Phantom Thieves, together!" Joker commanded, and the team tore into her with an All-Out Attack.
The mighty team attack managed to deal a lot of damage, but it wasn't quite enough. Lilith rose to her feet as the Phantom Thieves scurried to a decent distance. They didn't want to get trapped again, after all.
"Too bad we don't have some kind of ballista to take her down," Mona muttered in annoyance.
"GRRR… YOU THINK I'M STUPID ENOUGH TO FACE YOU ALONE?!" Lilith howled, "SOLDIERS OF HAWKMOTH! ATTACK!"
Several pillars of purple miasma rose up in front of the group. When they faded, they gasped.
"Hail to Lord Hawkmoth!" perfect copies of the previously akumatized Parisians stood in front of them. Timebreaker, Bubbler, Silencer, and even an akumatized Ladybug from the Heroes' Day illusion as well.
"What the hell?!" Skull exclaimed.
"Everyone, careful! We'll handle this!" Alix shouted, narrowing her eyes.
"You sure?" Panther asked.
"Of course. They're us, after all," Beat smirked.
As if by signal, Bubbler took his large bubble blower and threw several red bubbles at the group; they had dispersed within seconds.
"Watch out!" Chance warned and everyone quickly ran to avoid the bubbles, which exploded moments later.
"Akuma Charm!" the akumatized Ladybug shouted, throwing her evilized yo-yo in the air. A machine gun fell into her hands. She wasted no time beginning to fire mercilessly at the group.
"Shaka Zulu!" Beat exclaimed, summoning his Persona. Not wasting another second, the warrior threw his shield in front of the group, protecting them from the volley of bullets.
The second the shield lifted after the volley, Alix and Viper barely had time to block some physical attacks from their akumatized forms. Fortunately for them, the powers of Timebreaker & Silencer did not carry over, so Alix didn't dissipate into thin air, nor was Viper robbed of his voice.
"Manticore!" Joker exclaimed, apparently having had enough, "Ravage them with Double Shot!"
The gun spell ripped into Timebreaker, causing it to dissipate into Shadow.
"Feel my rage!" Queen shouted, summoning Johanna and throwing a Mafreila at the rest of the akumas. With shrieks of pain, the other akumas faded away as well.
"ARGH! EVEN THEY WERE USELESS?! " Lilith screamed in fury, "MUST I DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?!"
"Lila, you and Hawkmoth are fighting a pointless fight!" Chance shouted, "That's why you'll never win!"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" the monstrous form of Lila shouted, before swooping into midair and charging at Chance.
"Ugh… are you done?" Chance groaned, before nocking her last arrow. Steady… steady…
THWANG!
THUNK!
Struck down by the arrow, Lilith screamed and collapsed to the ground, skidding to a stop right in front of Chance. She was enveloped in a dark purple light, and when that was gone, Shadow Lila was all that remained.
o~o
Shadow Lila groaned as she struggled to her knees. Not wasting a second, Viper grabbed the laurel wreath and wrenched it away from her grasp.
"No!" she cried in despair, "Don't you dare! If you take that, I'll turn into a goody two-shoes like you!"
"And what's so wrong about that?" Alix demanded, "'It's worked for us so far,' after all."
"But without my popularity, I'm nothing!"
"...Lila, you don't need to be popular to make friends," Chance said, "Look at Chloe. She was 'popular' too, but the only people she had were Sabrina and Adrien. And even then, they were only 'friends' with her because either she was their only friend or because she manipulated them. Look where it got her..."
"You focus so much on what you can achieve now with your lies, but what about the future?" Queen asked, "You may have fooled people now, but in the real world, it will never work as well as you want it to. You'll only get so far… and just because you can't do something doesn't give you the right to decide what others deserve and/or don't."
"Not to mention half of the things you bragged about are barely going to be remembered anymore after a while," Alix added, "I'd wager we'd have forgotten or grown sick of you by the time university rolls around. We'll have our own problems to deal with by then."
"Did it ever occur to you that the people who called you out just wanted to help you?" Joker asked, "That they wanted to be your friend? That's what friends are supposed to do, after all. Help people that they care about improve."
"...Fine. You've convinced me… I'll stop and confess everything."
Beat gave her a look. "You say that… but do you really mean it? After all, you're a noted liar. Thanks to what you've done, I don't know how to trust you anymore."
"...For once, I mean it. I'll even delete those photos of you and Marinette and not blackmail you…" Lila's form began glowing, and it slowly started fading away.
"...Is it over?" Chance asked.
The question was answered for her as the ground began to rumble once again.
"It's over! And now we've got to skedaddle!" Mona proclaimed urgently. With a yowl, Mona leaped up into the air, and with a *pop* a large van replaced where the cat once was.
"Wh-wh- what?!" Nino squawked, sharing similar gaping expressions with the other three Parisians.
"Just get in!" Skull demanded, wrenching open the car door.
"Uh… okay," Alix said, deciding to just roll with it. Everyone piled into the bus and Mona took off with a squeal against the stone.
"HANG ON!" Mona shouted as he barreled off the side of the tower. All the Phantom Thieves could do was scream as gravity took over and the Monabus started free-falling to the cobblestone streets below…
o~o
...Only to feel their bones rattle intensely as they landed hard on their feet on the sturdy concrete streets of France.
"Holy...Cow… That… Please don't tell me that that is a normal thing you guys do?" Alix gasped.
"Heh, heh," Ryuji chuckled between breaths, "And if we said yes?"
"I haven't felt like this since my first akuma fight," Marinette breathed, hands on her knees. Tikki gave her holder a sympathetic look and patted her head.
"The destination has been deleted."
"Huh?" Nino gasped, pulled out his phone, and pulling up the Nav.
"We did it," Ann smiled, "That Palace is gone."
"So… Lila is-"
Before Marinette could finish her question, Alix's phone suddenly blew up. The skater scrambled to grab it and answer it. She saw that the first couple of texts started around lunchtime.
Ladyblogger: Alix where'd you go? Lila's still a bit freaked out by the cards this morning, so we're having a sleepover at my place tonight!
Most of the texts after that were of the other girls sending ideas for activities and even 'safety measures' to take in case it was real.
There weren't any other texts addressed directly to her until around 5:00.
Ladyblogger: Alix where r u?! The sleepover's starting soon!
Alix grimaced when she saw that the text had been sent two hours ago along with several other texts sent by the other girls too, asking where she was and if she was okay. Now that she looked around, she realized that it was actually starting to get pretty dark out. How long had they been in that Palace? She sighed and sent a quick reply with an excuse.
Pinkbitch: Hey, sorry, just saw this text. Suddenly wasn't feeling too good this morning, so I went home. Been sleeping until now.
It wasn't even five seconds later that she got a reply back.
PurpleBats: That sucks...
Flowerpower: Oh dear! I hope you're feeling better soon!
Bookworm: Luckily there wasn't any new homework today, so you're good there.
Smellywolf: You want us to bring you something? I know a really good chicken noodle soup recipe!
Pinkbitch: Nah, I think it was just a stomach bug. I'm okay now, just not in the mood to go out. You guys have fun. Maybe next time.
Ladyblogger: Okay. But seriously if you need something, let us know.
Alix scowled as she put her phone away.
"Who was that?" Luka asked.
"The other girls from class. They're having a sleepover at Alya's house because they're paranoid about the calling cards," she answered.
Ann smirked, "Well, hate to tell them this, but that's not going to help them much."
"Yeah… oh, where's the Treasure thing?" Marinette asked.
"This…" Akira said holding up-
"A tiara?" Nino asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"That's it?" Alix complained, "I'll be honest, I was expecting something… more treasury?"
"Most of the time, the Treasures in real life aren't that impressive. With some exceptions…" Yusuke explained with a grimace before shaking his head, "It doesn't matter what it is except that it is what began their distorted crusade in some way."
"And I think I know what this one did," Akira said holding out the tiara, "Look what's on it."
Leaning in, the Phantom Thieves read what was on it.
'Awarded to our gold star student, June Peña.'
"June Peña…" Futaba muttered, "...I don't remember her being mentioned among the suicide victims. I don't think she was a trophy either."
"...This must be when it started," Marinette realized, "Whatever this crown was meant to award, Lila wanted it so badly that she must have lied to get it. She likely told a lie about June to steal this crown from her so that she could get it instead."
"And so she realized how 'useful' lying could be to get what she wants," Luka finished.
"What a pitiful creature…" Sass frowned, folding his arms. Tikki just shook her head.
"...I can't believe it was something as silly as this that started all of this," Makoto sighed.
"When you think about it though, we kind of have to thank Lila too," Ryuji said. Upon seeing the incredulous looks from his friends he raised his hands, "H-hear me out! I mean, if it weren't for her, we likely never would have met Marinette. Or maybe we would have but we wouldn't… you know?"
"As twisted as that sounds, you're kind of right," Ann admitted.
"...So what now?" Nino asked, changing the subject.
"Now, all we can do is wait," Morgana said. If he was human, he would have shrugged, "We've done our part. Now we just have to wait for her to confess herself."
"And how long does it take?" Marinette asked persistently.
"It depends," Ryuji said honestly, "Like with Kamoshida and Madarame, it took about a week for them to confess. They also timed it to happen after something else was going on. With Kaneshiro, he turned himself in to the police the very same night."
"So… all we can do is wait…" Nino summarized glumly.
"Yep," Futaba nodded, but she was smiling.
"We understand if you're feeling a bit antsy," Ann said, "Ryuji, Akira, and I felt the same way when we stole Kamoshida's heart. But don't worry. Everything should be fine! It's always worked out so far."
"...Honestly, I'm more concerned about the aftermath of this," Luka said solemnly. Everyone's attention turned to him, "Marinette and I have discussed this before, about the damage control we'll have to clean up once Lila's lies are exposed. Even though the last two incidents seemed calculated and planned…"
"Wait! You don't seriously think Hawkmoth would try and pull another Heroes' Day from Lila's confession?" Nino exclaimed. Looks of alarm crossed everyone's faces.
"It's a possibility…" Marinette muttered, "Even if it's not planned if I were Hawkmoth, and I felt all of the negative emotions suddenly emanating from Lila's confession, I'd at the very least be curious and would be a fool to not take advantage of it."
"And yet this entire scenario could have easily been avoided if someone spoke up sooner," Makoto scowled.
Alix nearly growled at the reminder of that. When they had told her in the Palace that Adrien had known about Lila this whole fucking time she had wanted to leap right out of that Palace and slug the blonde in the face. Maybe knock some teeth out for good measure. Lawsuit from Gabriel Agreste for assaulting his star, cash-grab be damned!
"...So what do we do?" Nino asked uncertainly.
"...We get ready," Marinette frowned determinedly before walking purposefully out of the alleyway, "Wait here. I'll be right back."
No one argued as they watched her leave. That wasn't Marinette Dupain-Cheng walking away. That was the hero and savior of Paris, France, Ladybug.
o~o
Marinette returned not long after, not even five minutes, donned in her Ladybug guise and carrying a rounded object under her arm.
"Mar-Ladybug…" Makoto started when she saw the box.
"I'll get straight to the point," Ladybug said authoritatively, "I trust you guys. Your actions in the Palace and in the real world have proven that much. Even so, I'm going to lay down some rules and I expect you to follow them."
"We're listening," Akira said seriously.
"This is a temporary arrangement. I expect you all to return these to me once Lila confesses. So rule number one, don't transform or use your powers in public. If word gets out that a Miraculous is in Tokyo, that's going to draw attention that we do not need right now. I will give you permission to practice your powers, but it has to be in a place where no one will see you."
"Sounds like a plan," Ann said.
"Rule number two. Don't tell anyone about your other identity. That should be pretty obvious but I still need to say it."
"Of course," Yusuke agreed.
"Rule number three, take care of the Kwami that comes with the Miraculous. These guys aren't pets, they're ancient beings that each have a personality of their own. I expect you to treat them with respect and as a close companion."
"Absolutely," Makoto nodded.
"No problem!" Ryuji grinned.
"And rule number four. This rule is probably the most important. Don't give or lend your Miraculous to anyone. These are special, powerful relics, and people have sought after them for centuries. There are likely people out there that are looking for them even now, other than Hawkmoth. Maybe even worse than him. So, if someone asks you where you got it, say you bought it, or it was a gift from a friend. And… if anyone approaches you and asks or threatens you for it specifically, contact me immediately so we can figure out something else."
"Okay, we'll do that," Akira said, agreeing to the conditions with the other Phantom Thieves.
Only then did Ladybug finally smile, "Then let's get to work."
o~o
AN: And there you have it! Lila's Palace has officially crumbled and her Treasure stolen. Sorry if the Treasure seems a bit disappointing. I know a lot of you were likely expecting the Fake Fox Miraculous to be it, but remember that Lila started her lying crusade long before coming to Paris, so it wouldn't make sense that it's that necklace.
Next up, the Miraculous themselves. So each of the Phantom Thieves is now being given temporary ownership of a Miraculous. We already know three of them, but I won't be revealing what the other ones are for a while, and some of them won't be the endgame holders. Ladybug has a new team and likely wants to experiment with who works best with what. You'll have to wait and see who ultimately ends up with what. You're more than welcome to speculate, but I won't confirm nor deny anything!
Love you all! R&R and see you next chapter!