Wide-eyed, Adrien glanced at Marinette in astonishment.
Did her anger about Lila make her lose her mind? Was she suffering of a sudden fit of madness? Or maybe it was his own ears playing tricks on him? It couldn't be an akuma, that was for sure. So, what…?
However, Adrien's new doubts about his hearing were once again dispelled by the reaction of his friends.
Around him, the other students were also staring at Marinette with as much amazement as a second head had grown on her.
Marinette had just apologized. To Lila.
Superbly indifferent to the puzzled looks of her classmates, the young girl continued along the same lines.
"I'm so sorry I doubted you," she repeated, giving Lila a dazzling smile. "I knew you were lying, but I didn't realize it was to protect your secret!"
"What –" tried to intervene Lila, but Marinette did not give her time.
"It's so obvious, now that I think about it!" She continued enthusiastically. "For example, when you told us that you had to leave to give dance lessons to Clara Nightingale. I knew it wasn't possible, because that day Clara was on the set of her new music video on the other side of France. She would never have had time to take lessons, in addition the same morning she posted a message saying that she had hurt her ankle and that she was going to be careful," clarified Marinette, holding out her phone in front of her to show the message in question to her audience. "So I knew you were lying, I just didn't know why. But," she added, raising her finger dramatically," there was a Hawkmoth's attack that day. It all makes sense now! You are Ladybug! You weren't with Clara, you were with Chat Noir, fighting a supervillain! "
As Lila's cheeks marbled with red patches, Max intervened in turn.
"That's right," he said, staring at his phone. "The day you were away, Clara was shooting a music video. And she wrote that she was injured and that she was going to be very careful with her foot. There is no way she took dance lessons. Statistically, that would have increased the chances of making his injury worse. "
"And there was indeed an akumatization that day," Alya added without even bothering to take a look at the Ladyblog - whole chunks of her memory were undoubtedly reserved for the sole listing of villains and their attacks.
All eyes were on Lila, who swallowed hard.
"That…That's right," she confirmed with a tight smile. "I… I wasn't with Clara. I was fighting. Against Hawkmoth. As Ladybug. It was my duty, you know?" She continued with more confidence. "I hate to lie, but sometimes I can't help it. The life of a hero is so difficult, I hope you understand," she concludes, looking around with puppy-dog eyes.
The other students immediately crowded around her to reassure her. No, they didn't blame her for lying, of course. How could they? She was Ladybug. Their heroine. It normal that she had been forced to hide the truth from time to time to protect her secret, and out of the question for them to hold it against her. On the contrary, they were infinitely grateful to her for having protected them all this time.
Lila's expression relaxed again as her classmates repeated to her again and again how much they admired her for her courage and dedication.
"Ohhhh, thank you," she cooed. " Really, thank you. I was so afraid that you would react badly. You know, the life of a hero - "
"Don't worry, we understand perfectly!" Marinette cut her off, attracting another murderous glance from Lila. "And while we're at it, I have a question," she continued, jumping from one foot to the other. "Can I, can I?"
If one look could kill, Marinette would certainly have dropped dead right now.
But luckily for her, Lila's eyes didn't have that power.
The young Italian angrily clenched her fists, but at the expectant expressions of the other students, she could only acquiesce reluctantly to give her rival permission to question her.
The smile that lit Marinette's face was so dazzling it could have eclipsed the sun.
"Oh, thank you, Lila!" Marinette exclaimed enthusiastically. "I was wondering about your trip in Achu, " she continued, insisting dramatically on the end of her sentence. "It was also a story you made up, wasn't it? You weren't there at all when you called us?"
"I -" Lila tried to justify herself, before being abruptly interrupted again by Marinette.
"Because you see, I thought there was something strange about the landscape behind you. Then I understood!" She continued in a triumphant voice. "The landscape seemed strange to me because it was actually a poster!" She said, tapping her phone again and then showing it to her friends, the picture in question perfectly recognizable on an interior design website.
Lila's complexion took on a chalky colour as startled exclamations rose around her.
"But in reality, you were on a secret mission, right?" Marinette added immediately. "I'm sure you were on a secret mission! Don't say a word!" She continued, dramatically extending her hand in front of her. "I suspect that you're not allowed to give details, but you were here, investigating Hawkmoth, right? But you couldn't tell us, that's why you made us believe you were in Achu! "
Lila looked at her with narrowing eyes.
Nothing would have probably made her happier than to make Marinette swallow her phone to shut her up for good, but in front of the watchful eyes of the other students, she had no choice but to approve to save face.
"Yes, you're right," she hissed through clenched teeth.
"I knew it!" Marinette chirped, bouncing with excitement. "Your trip was a cover, but in reality you were investigating in Paris!"
New cries of admiration arose around Lila.
"Woaw, so cool! "
"Can you tell us a bit about it? "
"What about Chat Noir? Was he with you? "
"And -"
"Oh, and Lila, while we're at it," Marinette interjected again in her clear voice - giving, Adrien could have sworn, the urge for the young Italian to tear her head off with her teeth. "I wanted to know, the time you were supposedly backstage at a Jagged Stone concert…"
For a few more minutes, Marinette continued to dismantle lie after lie, each time praising the creativity of her classmate to develop such inventive alibis.
Holding up her phone in front of her to prove her point, she cited the non-existent charity events. The meetings with celebrities who could never have been there when Lila claimed. The injuries without any consistency. The improbable excuses.
All while graciously apologizing to Lila, and chastising herself for her own lack of clairvoyance.
"I should have known that there must have been a good reason for you to tell so many ridiculous stories," she said happily. "Really, who could believe that?"
Marinette's remark snatched some embarrassed laughter from her classmates, which she graciously ignored to continue her inventory.
Adrien felt a sort of morbid fascination to see Lila forced to confirm every remark of her enemy, under penalty of having to admit that she had lied for a reason other than that of saving her secret identity.
On one hand, seeing Lila so pushed to the limit was, in all fairness, highly satisfying.
But on the other hand, the fact that Marinette validates her initial lie only strengthened her hold on their friends, obviously still convinced they were dealing with the real Ladybug.
Adrien wasn't sure how to rectify the situation.
By the time the young man wondered how to intervene, the conversation had taken a much more serious turn. After mischievously reviewing Lila's lies, Marinette now mentioned the supposed dangers of her double life.
"I can't even imagine what the final battle against Hawkmoth must have looked like," she said in a serious tone. "It must have been the hardest fight of your life!"
Lila glanced suspiciously at her, obviously wondering where the trap was. But Marinette's face was that of innocence embodied, and her attentive expression betrayed nothing more than mere curiosity.
" Oh yes!" Alya exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement. "Can you tell us what happened?"
"It must have been so impressive!" Marinette added with an admiring expression.
Around them, enthusiastic voices also rose to demand more details on what must have been the battle of the century.
For Lila, the opportunity to shine was too irresistible.
"Oh yes, it was absolutely terrible," she cried dramatically. "I had to fight with all my might! I almost died! Several times!"
Rewarded by a chorus of frightened exclamations, Lila resumed her story with even more emphasis.
She described the beatings, the chaos, the deadly and omnipresent danger. She recounted the explosions, the dodges at the last second, the constant struggle. She spoke of the power of Hawkmoth, of the strength of Mayura, of the hordes of supervillains they sent over and over.
The apocalypse she was portraying was such that it was starting to be really hard to believe that she could have gotten through this without help - or gotten through this at all, to be honest.
Hand clasped to her mouth, Marinette let out a terrified gasp.
"How awful!" She exclaimed. "Fortunately you weren't alone to fight. Well, I guess…" she added uncertainly.
The other students nodded, certainly making Lila realize that she could hardly claim otherwise.
"Y-yes, of course, I was not alone," she approved half-heartedly. "I certainly could have gotten out of it without help, but after the fourth supervillain…"
A triumphant gleam lit up in Marinette's eyes and suddenly, a realization struck Adrien.
Oh, my Lady...
Until then, Lila's lies were mostly independent of each other. They were a cloud of distinct elements, of fables disconnected from each other, which made it nearly impossible to visualize the extent of the deception without seriously considering it. Noticing an inconsistency in one of her tales had no impact on the others.
But there, with her skilful maneuverer, Marinette had forced Lila to link all her stories together. Her imposture concerning Ladybug was now the keystone that held up the edifice of her lies.
If it collapsed, everything else would immediately follow.
Adrien's enamoured gaze on Marinette was overflowing with admiration.
Brilliant.
That girl was brilliant.
Adrien's thoughts must have been visible on his face because, when she looked at him, Marinette blushed slightly and winked at him. No more was needed for the young man to come out of his trance.
Given her interventions in the conversation, he knew exactly what his Lady was getting at.
It will be a pleasure for him to come as reinforcement.
"I guess Chat Noir was there," he intervened with a huge smile. "And probably Carapace and Rena Rouge too?" He added innocently.
"Yes, that's it!" Marinette cried, slapping dramatically her forehead with the flat of her hand. "Rena Rouge! It explains everything!"
As her classmates looked at her with perplexed glances, Marinette began to bounce with excitement.
"That's why no one has ever heard of your fight against Hawkmoth!" She declared. "It's thanks to Rena Rouge! She used her illusions to camouflage everything! "
Adrien saw Alya's eyebrows rise in surprise, but chose to ignore her amazement and instead focus on Lila.
He had a job to finish.
"Oh, I see!" He exclaimed, appealing to his best acting skills to look at Lila in admiration. "I was wondering too. Normally, it should have been impossible for a battle of this size to go unnoticed. I mean, collapsing buildings? Dozens of supervillains? Someone would inevitably have noticed. I should have known that you brought in Rena Rouge!" He continued cheerfully. "I feel really stupid not to have understood sooner! "
The panicked gleam that lit for a moment in Lila's gaze reminded him of a doe caught in the headlights light. But true to her habit, his comrade recovered in a blink of an eye.
"That's exactly it," she agreed, giving him a flirtatious smile. "Calling on Rena Rouge was part of my plan from the start. I couldn't allow Paris to sink into chaos. You're so smart to have noted that," she cooed, royally ignoring the fact that it was Marinette who had made the point first.
Beside them, Alya looked like she had taken a brick on the head.
"Woaw," Adrien said, pretending not to notice his friend's surprise. "And Carapace was there too, I suppose? Considering the scale of the battle, I imagine you must have called on your whole team. "
"Yes, they were both there," Lila confirmed confidently. "The fight was so hard, I needed all the help I could get. It was a matter of life or death," she added emphatically. "Well, I didn't ask Queen Bee to come, of course," she clarified, eyeing Marinette defiantly, as if to challenge her to catch her making a mistake. "It was a too important mission for someone so unmanageable. I only surrounded myself with heroes who I could really trust. "
Unaware of digging her own grave, Lila quickly resumed the story of this impressive battle she had supposedly fought alongside Chat Noir, Rena Rouge and Carapace.
It took Adrien all control in the world to avoid staring openly at Alya and Nino, but out of the corner of his eye he saw their confusion growing as Lila continued to tell her story.
It was only after a few minutes of stupor that they finally regained their composure. Their faces now impassive, Alya and Nino listened to Lila with polite attention.
But Adrien knew them well enough to notice the abnormal force with which Alya clenched her fingers around her phone, or to notice the stiffness of Nino's posture.
The calm displayed by his friends was clearly only a facade, which undoubtedly concealed a violent internal storm.
Adrien couldn't help but smile.
Lila was not (yet) aware of it, but her fall had begun.
Bien joué, my Lady.
Note : This is not the end of the fic :) . There are 6 chapters after this one (well, 5 chapters and a bonus chapter)
Note 2 : Bien joué = Well done