I pushed this chapter for the sole reason I never liked Volpina as episode (and it had potential). Also you will realize there are A LOT of changes from the original... A WHOLE TON. So, canon? Don't know her.

Turned out, the way to get evidence against his father came sooner than Adrien anticipated, in the sense of him being quite loud in his office, giving Adrien enough curiosity to take a peek and look inside the room. He assumed his father had a safe of sorts so to see it wasn't that much of a surprise, that one came from where it was hiding.

Adrien hid behind a column as soon as he heard footsteps going his way, waiting until his father had left to take the chance and sneak inside to check on the safe.

"What if I mess up the code and it sets an alarm off?" Adrien glanced at Plagg "what if he finds out?"

"Geez allow me" the kwami rolled his eyes and dived into the safe, a few moments later allowing the small thing to open.

There were trinkets inside, not exactly valuables. A photo of his mom, that was a given, trip tickets, a hotel flyer and a peacock brooch.

"Oh this, I've seen before" Plagg tossed a big old tattered book at Adrien, who caught it and tried not to wince from the impact. He opened it and gasped, the book was about superheroes? He could recognize his miraculous on one page, the illustration of probably an ancient Chat Noir looking back at him. Adrien flipped more pages, his eyes almost bulging out when he saw a clear picture of Hawkmoth in it.

"What's he doing in a book of superheroes?"

"You have to show this to pigtails now," Plagg pulled at his hair, the sound of footsteps causing them to panic. Adrien lunged for his bag to stick the book in it while Plagg dashed back into it to grab the brooch and hide in Adrien's pocket as he closed the safe, sparing just a second before the door opened to reveal Nathalie.

"Adrien? You're going to be late."

"I…was looking for my homework!" he stood up, the book now safe in his gym bag. He waited until he was at the car to text Marinette, urging her to meet as soon as possible. He had fencing practice early before classes so he knew she would tell it was important as she was not the best at waking up early.

In the meantime, he just tried to focus on fencing, but he couldn't help but keep an eye out on the gym doors every five minutes.

"Ah, I forgot something, I'll be back fast!" he called to his teacher the moment he saw Marinette peeking out of the door. He practically ran towards her, dragging her to the locker rooms and looking around to make sure no one would be near.

"Ok, I may have found something huge," he said first and went to his bag to retrieve the book "like, we may be right huge."

"A book?" Marinette took it in her hands and opened it, Tikki poking out of her purse and flying just above her shoulder to see it "wait, are those?"

"Oh my stars," Tikki gasped "the grimoire!"

"The what?" Adrien and Marinette looked at her.

"Huh and here I was thinking it was lost forever," Plagg grumbled "great."

"I'm lost," Marinette looked at the book flipping the pages "you are saying this book is related to us, to the miraculous?"

"Yes!" Tikki clapped "and it must be returned to someone who can decipher it, it'd be terrible to leave it in the wrong hands."

"Like my father, if he were, yeah," Adrien frowned.

"Oh and," Plagg moved back in Adrien's pocket, retrieving the brooch he had taken "this too."

"Plagg!" Adrien hissed "now he'll definitely know something was taken!"

"Duusu" Tikki's eyes watered as she held onto the miraculous "oh…"

"Duusu?"

"I found him there too sugar cube," Plagg looked at the two teens "this is one miraculous that had been missing for years, but it's…broken somehow, we have to heal Dusuu first."

The coffin kept going deeper and deeper in their heads as Marinette held onto the brooch.

"We have to go with this expert then,"

"But we can't really skip with how many absences we have," Adrien bit his thumbnail "it will raise more suspicions on us and that would be worse."

"Adrien's right," Marinette gave the book back to him and wrapped the brooch in a handkerchief to be hidden in her purse where she knew Tikki would keep an eye on "we'll deal with this today but as long as it doesn't get out of our sight we can hold up a few hours."

"Wait why are you giving it back to me?"

"I'm such a scatterbrain I can barely trust myself with my homework, I don't want to lose this," she said, "besides, you found it."

"I don't think you would, you're very attentive Marinette" he smiled at her, seconds later flushing as he had just complimented her "I mean, with all the responsibilities you handle and how attention you give to each- "

Marinette's face turned bright red.

"I ah, t-thanks," she stuttered "I mean not as good as you with all your activities but- "

It was lucky for both the bell decided to ring at that moment.

"Oh damn, classes," Adrien looked down to see he was still in his fencing uniform "I must hurry."

"And I have to go give a transfer student a tour before," Marinette pointed at the door "weird right? To have someone just a few months before the end of the year."

"Y-yeah, but, after school?"

"Of course" Marinette walked back to the door, stumbling on the handle "see you later!"

She could feel her chest pounding as she made her way to the principal's office. Why was that so weird? They complimented each other before, why was this time making her face red and her palms sweaty?

And what type of reply was that?

Marinette had to do something about this sprout of feelings. The most obvious answer was to tell him, but if she had to be honest, she was afraid of doing that.

There were just too many variables now, not only the change of their dynamic. Now they also had the worry of Gabriel being Hawkmoth and if that were the case then Adrien was in a lot of danger. She didn't want to pressure him into anything when they already had a colossal weight over their heads.

"Ah! Here she is," the voice of principal Damocles snapped her out of her thoughts "Marinette, this is Lila Rossi, the new student for your class, Lila, this is Marinette, the class president and who will give you the tour around our school."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the girl offered her hand, Marinette shaking it with a smile "I'm sorry to cause you problems over this."

"Not at all! It's part of my duties as a representative of our class, so, allow me to show you around."

Within five minutes Marinette could tell a lot about Lila. Number one was that she was incredibly narcissistic, talking a lot about herself, about how her mother was an important ambassador from Italy and they had travel a lot which meant transferring so often, which fair in her case, that was a given, but Marinette was soon hoping for this tour to end.

She showed Lila the basics, all the time trying to keep a friendly smile but the girl talked nonstop about how her other schools were compared to this and that it was rattling on her nerves.

"And this is our classroom," she pointed at the door, glad she had reached the final spot of the guiding and opening it for her to get inside, "everyone, this is Lila Rossi, a new transfer student from Italy."

Her classmates weren't slow in welcoming her and Marinette noted how Lila gleamed to all that attention. Huh, so the girl was very histrionic too. She caught a little here and there about her knowing famous directors and artists, each one of her classmates with big eyes of amazement.

She made her way to sneak to her seat, looking down to see Adrien looking up at her with a quizzical look. She could only shrug.

Adrien pulled out his phone to send her a message instead.

Catdrien: Quite popular the new girl already?

Buginette: Apparently so, then again this class has its fair share of networking, can't blame them

Catdrien: True :T

"So how long have you been in Paris?"

"Oh just a few days, but it is so exciting already, in fact on my first day I got to be saved by no other than Ladybug!"

Marinette snapped her eyes back at her. She doesn't remember saving her at all. And judging by the buzz on his phone, neither did Adrien.

Catdrien: Did you?

Buginette: I don't recall?

"She even stayed with me to talk afterwards and turns out we have so much in common" Lila kept talking "we practically became BFF's," she crossed her fingers, smiling at the admiration from the others.

Buginette: liar liar pants on fire : (

Catdrien: Maybe she's just trying to get their attention? There's no way Ladybug could discredit her after all

Buginette: Ladybug could do that

Catdrien: I didn't know Ladybug could speak in third person

Marinette frowned, her mood souring the more she heard Lila talk. Ok, maybe she was doing it for attention but it was still a lie and that was something Marinette never enjoyed from anyone, not even herself who had ended up lying to her parents in order to go around saving the city.

"What about Chat Noir?"

"Oh I did meet him too," Lila said as Adrien looked her way "but I had to reject his advances on me, after all, I had only met him there I wasn't going to fall for a boy who flirts with anyone, he probably is secretly a womanizer."

Catdrien: ٩(ఠ益ఠ)۶

Buginette: wow, much flirt, such charm

Catdrien: What kind of lie is that!?

Buginette: I know; you wouldn't know flirting even if it showed up with giant neon green letters in front of you

Catdrien: Chat Noir is not a womanizer!

Buginette: Who is talking in third person now?

Marinette was so relieved to see the teacher arrive and dispersing the chatting group so they could finally have class, focusing all her attention to history instead. Adrien was right, it wasn't as if Ladybug could just show up and interrupt class to call Lila out, it would be unnecessary and mean. And it wasn't as if she was actively hurting anyone, right?

"Isn't this amazing?" she heard Alya tell her once they were on their worksheets "Lila has agreed to have an interview of Ladybug for my blog!"

Scratch that, Marinette turned to look at her friend, this was going to be bad.

"Uh… don't you think it would be best to ask with Ladybug? You know, have both sides of that story?"

"Well yes but Lila is so amazing I'm sure Ladybug would be happy to see it."

'Oh Ladybug would not be happy about that' Marinette thought, then frowning that she had again, thought of herself as the third person.

"I'm going to side with Marinette here" Adrien turned on his seat "that's something a good reporter does after all,"

"Well, when you get me an interview with Ladybug I'll gladly do so,"

Marinette and Adrien could only spare a glance at each other.

It all went downhill from thereon. The more time it passed the more their classmates fell for every connection Lila claimed to have. It was as if the girl knew the entire world!

"This is a nightmare," Marinette groaned into her hands once they were in study hour, both her and Adrien in one corner of the library, the grimoire on top as they took a look through the pages "it's like watching a big snowball of disaster while everyone thinks it's just a snowflake."

"I am too stunned to think of a better reference," Adrien muttered, "but maybe if Ladybug and Chat Noir cleared that one lie…"

"If Chat Noir can come up with a feasible way to do so then Ladybug will do it," she mumbled and stood up "I have to go give some budget forms to the other members of the Council, we still up for later right?"

"Yes," Adrien flipped another page of the book "you'll wait for me after fencing?"

"Of course, but I have to wonder why couldn't they give you two hours in a row instead of early morning and last of the class."

She went out of the library, almost stumbling into Lila on her way.

"Oh, sorry about that" Lila smiled at her "I was just about to go in and get started on my assignments, I would hate to not catch up on time."

"No problem Lila" Marinette replied, albeit with a tiny forced smile.

"Thank you Marinette you are so generous," Lila turned and went inside, Marinette getting shivers as soon as the girl was out of her sight.

"This is going to be a nightmare," Marinette mumbled, heading to the student council room. She couldn't wait for this day to be over.

As she waited for Adrien's class to finish she kept glancing at her purse where the brooch was safely tucked.

How were they going to deal with this now? How and why did Gabriel have a miraculous with him? And one that was broken too?

"This is too much Tikki" Marinette sighed against the wall she was leaning on "way too much information to deal with."

"I'm sorry Marinette, but the sooner we reach this person the better you will understand what is going on."

The doors opened to reveal the fencing students leaving their work out, but Marinette didn't see Adrien coming out. That was weird.

She sneaked inside and took a look around, but couldn't see her friend anywhere. Marinette thought of checking the locker room, but she was surprised when they burst open, Adrien running towards her with a frantic expression on his face.

"The book is gone!"

"What!?"

"That liar took it from him moments after you left the library" Plagg grumbled, "she has it!"

"We have to find her then!"

A sudden notification reaching both their cellphones made Adrien's face go sour while Marinette felt her cheeks fuming. Alya was going to get Lila's interview at the park in a few minutes. So much for wanting to wait on more sources.

"The park," Adrien grabbed Marinette's hand and ran with her "she must have brought it there with her."

"We cannot let her broadcast that!"

They ran as fast as they could, seeing how Lila sat on one bench while unfolding a necklace that looked like a fox tail, putting it on as she admired the book with the page on that same heroine. For their combined luck it was a surprise to see her actually tossing the book to a trash bin as she spotted Alya, flaunting her way towards her.

They sneaked their way to the bin to retrieve the book, hiding just in time to hear Alya start her interview intro.

If what they heard at the classroom was wild, this was the cherry on top.

"Ladybug knew the moment she saw me of course" Lila showed Alya her necklace "but I'm the descendant of a vixen superheroine myself, Volpina."

"Wow, this is huge!" Alya gasped, her phone still recording "so you are saying miraculous are inherited?"

"Of course!" Lila smiled "Ladybug knew, and she knew I had to arrive sooner to Paris, after all, Volpina is more powerful and celebrated than Ladybug,"

Marinette's nose flared, Adrien holding her back from jumping out of the bushes.

"In fact, she could do better with Volpina than Chat Noir."

Now it was Marinette pulling Adrien back. They made their way around the park.

"That lying snivelling, agh!" Marinette stomped her feet "I am not letting this continue."

Adrien had enough time to put the book back in his bag, but he was also seething in anger.

"No, we have to go to- "

"Spots on!"

"Claws out!"

Was it harsh? Definitely. Did any of them regret it? Probably how they reacted. But at that moment they were fed up with Lila lying about their superhero personas so much it all took to appear interrupting the interview to see her face blanching, running away once they called her out on the lies.

"Wow, what just happened?" Alya turned to look at them "wasn't that a bit too harsh?"

"I don't put up with lies" Ladybug frowned "especially about us."

"Besides think how much it would have harmed your blog,"

Alya looked down at her phone just as the two heroes leapt out to a nearby roof.

"Ok, I'll say it" Ladybug sighed "we went overboard."

"Yeah…" Chat frowned "but just…ugh."

"This is going to bite us in a moment," she said and as soon as the words escaped her mouth, both saw a giant meteor going straight to the centre of Paris.

"What in the world?!"

Both jumped and ran towards it, about to try and stop it, when they saw an orange silhouette beating them to it, stopping it with her bare hands and throwing it out to the sky.

"Is no one going to question the physical inaccuracies with that?" Chat muttered, both looking as the girl announced herself to the civilians as Volpina.

"A meteor appearing out of nowhere or a superheroine showing up just like that to destroy it?" Ladybug squinted her eyes. Something was definitely up with this one.

As if on cue, Volpina jumped right in front of them, but just called for their help and ran in the opposite direction, giving them no choice but to follow her.

Volpina guided them to a rooftop, where they could see, clear as day, Hawkmoth standing on one edge of the building in front of them.

"What?!"

"We can take him together but it'll require us to be a team in order to defeat him," Volpina said, "Chat you can take the left while Ladybug you can take the right, I can go from behind."

Chat and Ladybug spared a look at each other. There was no chance of discussing at this point, both splitting to catch Hawkmoth.

This smelled like trap and they both knew it, but Ladybug had to admit it had been a ruse to separate them, as she soon found herself trapped on lockdown by tons of missiles.

"But at least now you won't be able to say we don't know each other" Volpina laughed, confirming Ladybug's suspicions.

"Lila?"

"You will address me as Volpina!"

"You are not a superhero!" Ladybug exclaimed, "you've been akumatized!"

"No! Everyone thinks I'm a superhero! So now you won't be able to call me a liar anymore! Now give me your miraculous or I'll throw that building down!"

"You wouldn't-"

Volpina played her flute and tossed a light ball to the building that started to crumble.

"No!" Ladybug clenched her teeth. She was powerful alright, and she would have fallen for it, had it not be for the pigeon that flew towards it, dissipating what was a very convincing illusion.

Ladybug threw her yo-yo at her, stomping her feet when she found it was an illusion too. She pulled her yo-yo to call Chat and warn him about it being Lila.

"So we really blew up this one" Chat sighed "any idea where she might be going now?"

"Probably…Alya!" Ladybug looked to the other side "since she was the one doing the interview."

Chat vaulted his way towards the park where Alya still was, checking her phone. He saw as Volpina landed right in front of her.

"What? Who are you?"

"Alya! Don't you recognize me?" he heard Volpina say as she showed her necklace "I didn't want to say it with those two but I truly am a superhero, Chat Noir was just jealous I would be replacing him and Ladybug just is in denial about me being more powerful than her."

Chat gripped at his baton and jumped towards her.

"See?!" Volpina turned to Alya "he's jealous of how I can help the city instead of him! You have to hide!"

"Will you stop that?" Chat jumped at her, her flute moving like he used his baton. Volpina tossed a bright ball to the ground, hundreds of trees coming to avoid his vision. Chat swung at them, just as Ladybug arrived to see Volpina jumping away from them while dragging Alya.

"No!" she chased after her, Chat about to jump too when he spotted the journalist hiding behind a trash bin.

"Wow, what is going on in here?!"

"Ah... akumatized victim, you should really hide Alya" Chat jumped to catch up with Ladybug towards the Eiffel tower, where they saw Volpina apparently hanging from the edge while barely holding Alya.

"Give me your miraculous or I'll throw her!"

"No!" Ladybug clenched her teeth.

"You're bluffing! It's an illusion!"

"You want to bet on that?!"

"Damn right I do!" Chat threw his baton, relieved Ladybug hadn't pulled her earrings off when the illusion dissipated "Alya is back at the park LB, I saw her."

"I'm tired of this akuma," she growled, both jumping to the top to see a small army of Volpinas waiting for them, "lucky charm!"

"Cataclysm!" Chat called his power, just as Ladybug put her plan into motion. It was just a matter of physics, the reflection of sunlight enough to blind the real Volpina and trap her, the akuma purified as soon as Ladybug captured it.

As soon as Lila was back to normal, Ladybug leaned close to apologize for how she had reacted.

"I…we totally overreacted and never should have spoken to you like that,"

"We are sorry Lila," Chat handled her the necklace "we shouldn't have treated you that way."

Lila eyed them both, snatching the necklace out of Chat's hand.

"Forget it, you were right either way" she sneered at both "we'll never be friends."

"Harsh," Chat muttered once Lila was out of reach "I have a feeling we have another enemy."

"Great" Ladybug sighed "just what we need-the book!"

It was at that moment they both transformed back, catching their kwami as they were ejected from the miraculous.

"Sorry," Marinette pulled out a cookie from her purse, relieved to see the brooch was still there, while Adrien tossed a piece of cheese to Plagg "we…got derailed."

"I'll say" Plagg frowned "Are there any more distractions or can we get going now?"

"Right, right" Adrien looked at his bag, the book safe inside "where are we going?"

"To the Great Guardian," Tikki said, "and there's no denying, it is time you get to meet him."

Adrien and Marinette spared a glance at each other and nodded, transforming again to move to another side of town, just close enough to be back as civilians to reach a tea shop.

"Wait…" Marinette looked at the sign "I brought you here before, when you were sick Tikki, is…?"

"Come on, come on!"

The teens went inside, sparing another look at each other before knocking on the door, the inside revealing a small space with a massage bed, a few books and an old phonogram at the back, but before they was an old man in a red Hawaiian shirt meditating.

There was an odd sense of familiarity coming from him, but neither Marinette nor Adrien was able to pin from where or how just that odd feeling they had seen him before. Adrien closed the door behind him as Marinette held the book tight to her chest, waiting for the man to speak up.

"Hello Ladybug," he looked up, at last, looking at Marinette and then turning towards Adrien "and Chat Noir, please come in, I believe we have a lot to talk about."

And with that, I say goodbye to season 1 episodes!

Coming up next season 2 episodes with hopefully less plot angst and more romantic shenanigans.

Also have to figure out how to add Kagami and Luka into this mess without making it like a love triangle because not my jam.