Well, this was a fun one.

06/25: Hope/Despair

It had been such a good day. Adrien and Chat Noir's faces when they found out they were too late had been amazing, she had got a fake martial arts master (the kind who claims to be able to use no-touch techniques without a gun) to pay her to arrange for a fight with someone who was supposed to take a dive only to sick Anansi on the fool, and Marinette had agreed to a Disneyland date.

So, of course, the moment she took a shortcut Papillon came down of the sky.

"I'll take the Fox Miraculous, miss Rossi." he had said.

"You know who has it?" Lila replied, trying to gain time even as she realized the mess she was now in and wondered how she had gotten caught.

"Don't insult my intelligence, and give me the Miraculous."

"There's not much to insult when you're dealing with someone who calls himself The Bowtie."

Shocked at the reply and the comparison with what a "papillon" is in Italian, Papillon stared at her with an open mouth, giving Lila the split second she needed to pull her custom pepper spray (10% capsaicin mixed with CS. Utterly illegal for her, but that was what diplomatic immunity was for if she got caught) and spray it in the supervillain's mouth. An attack a Miraculous does not protect against, as Papillon was learning as he dry-heaved in horrific pain.

"Did you really think I wouldn't be ready for you?" Lila asked as she put her spray in the pocket (for her jacket, a Gabriel model, had actual pockets. Say what you want about Gabriel Agreste as a person and a father, but as a designer he knew what he was doing).

Then of course the Akuma (the fake martial artist she had exposed, by the outfit) came out of hiding, and she was thrown in a dumpster.

When Lila woke up she was in a hospital room, with her mother missing (as usual) and half the class around. She was wearing a hospital gown, with her jacket on the hanger… Blinking?

By reflex, Lila grabbed the pillow and hit the hat, from which an eye-thing emerged and then dissolved as defeated Sentimonsters would. Well, that explained it.

"Razza di stronzo…" she commented.

"You're awake!" Marinette said as she glomped her.

"Yeah. Did the faker break anything?"

"No… But your necklace-"

Lila put a finger on Marinette's mouth.

"OK, everyone but Marinette out. NOW."

The others got out, then, after two seconds, Lila opened the door, and the class stumbled in as they lost their support before they actually left.

"Well, now we can talk." Lila said calmly.

"How are you so calm?!" Marinette half-shrieked half-whispered. "Now Papillon has the Fox Miraculous, and-"

"No, he doesn't." Trixx said as he emerged from Lila's mane.

"The moron has the other necklace, the Gabriel line one." Lila explained. "That I managed to get a tracker in just yesterday."

"We… We're about to find him now!" Marinette realized. Then she had to ask: "But where are you keeping the actual Miraculous?"

"Have you read V for Vendetta, the original graphic novel?"

"Yes, but-"

"Same place Valerie hid her pencil."

Lila could pinpoint the exact moment Marinette remembered it by when she blushed furiously.