La Red

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D/C: I own nothing.

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Chloe knew from the beginning that Sabrina has been using her just as much she is using her. It was, in a way, a give and take friendship. Despite this, they are actual friends and could trust each other with a lot of aspects in their lives. Sabrina knows why she has acted out, all in an attempt to gain attention from parents that never bother to pay any attention to her or believes material wealth could replace love. Chloe knows that whenever something happens to anyone in Sabrina's family, she takes a turn for the worse. Especially when hearing what happened to her cousin in Italy.

So, when Lila arrived in Paris, Chloe actually became slightly terrified at the sight of Sabrina wanting to outright eliminate the liar. Once getting the backstory, it became clear to the blonde that they needed to be just as devious and manipulative to get rid of Lila. Luckily for the both of them, Sabrina knew all about that. How she managed to deceive so many people is beyond her?

Now, all that results with Chloe standing in front of Nino's family food mart. Sabrina's text had told her to meet her, Nino and Marinette here. For what reason? To layout a plan to take down Lila.

So, here is Chloe, wondering if her reputation is worth this. Looking up at the sky, she wonders if this is something Ladybug would like her to do. To take down Lila Rossi.

"This better be good." Chloe muttered to herself, marching into the shop with a look of complete distaste.

Right by the door is the cash register and standing behind it is Nino's mother, who simply pointed to her at the far corner of the shop where the eating area is located at. Marching towards the back, she could already hear people whispering over the sound of a fan and food being cooked. Okay, the smell is good but nothing on the many high-class restaurants she's been too.

"Chloe knows that I hate Lila and been acting like a total sheep for Lila to get information." Sabrina explained to the others.

"And she's okay with it all?" Nino asked.

Ah… Nino… If there was someone that would go up against Lila, he would be on the top of Chloe's list. The top name of that list is Alya… his supposed girlfriend. This doesn't sit right for the blonde. Even with the information Sabrina provided, she is still wary of Nino's involvement in taking down Lila. For all she knows, this could be some sort of ruse.

"Long as we take down that lying piece of crap, I don't care what happens." Chloe butted in, causing everyone at the table to jump momentarily. The first person to react is Sabrina who quickly jumped up and proceeded to jump around her. With a roll of her eyes, Chloe extended an arm and that was enough for Sabrina to engulf her into a hug. "There there, now get off."

Sabrina did as ask and pulled Chloe to sit next to her with the others.

Nino and Marinette both looked tense as if they were waiting for the worse to come.

"What?" Chloe questioned with an eyebrow raised. "That liar needs to be thrown down a couple dozen of pegs and it would be something Ladybug would want me to do. How no one bothers to ask her side of things, are beyond me!"

Right then and there, Nino and Marinette knew they could trust her. Even if Chloe still is acting a bit trivial about it, her mind and heart is in the right place.

"Especially that girlf-"

"I broke up with Alya the other day over it all."

Okay, Chloe was not expecting that response. She looked over at Sabrina for confirmation and got a nod. Okay… this could still be a ruse…this could still be a ruse. Everything could be a ruse. Alya is the type to use every underhanded tactics to get information. "I find that hard to believe."

"It's true, there was a massive fallout because of it." Sabrina responded, opening her phone to show her the group chat Alya had created after the breakup.

Chloe took the phone out of Sabrina's hand and scanned through the chat. Many of the responses had her raise an eyebrow or just frown at the stupidity of it all. "She's blaming you for the breakup. He's already on the grounds of breaking up with Alya with her sheer stupidity in believing."

No one responded to Chloe's responses to the chat, it was clear she was not amused by what she is seeing. One when she placed the phone on the table with an audible noise of disgust. "That is a couple of minutes of my life I can't take back."

"So… what do you think?" Nino asked, he only flinched when Chloe gave him a glare that wasn't the typical glare, she always gave everyone. This one had more bite to it.

"What I think is that Lila needs to be taken down several pegs. I know for a fact Ladybug isn't friends with her as Ladybug always made it a point to never get close to any civilian in fear of Hawkmoth getting to them." Chloe replied sharply. She looked away from everyone, remembering her own mistake but will not admit to it. She'll be lucky if Ladybug would even reconsider being part of the team due to her own mistakes. "What of Adrikins?"

"He knows of Lila's lies, told Marinette to take the high road as the lies are not hurting anyone." Sabrina responded before Marinette could respond.

"He keeps insisting that I kept misinterpreting things. I… accidentally said Lila threatened you, Marinette to Adrien, and he was more focused trying to convince me that Lila's lies are not hurting anyone." Nino said uneasily. "He keeps insisting on trying to get me to forget about it and that Lila's lies aren't hurting anyone."

Chloe took in a deep breath and truly wondered the sanity of her… friend. Oh, how much she and many others attempted to get him to understand how the outside world works. She could very well blame Mr. Agreste for it all. However, Adrien had more than plenty of time in the outside world to see how it is and yet… he refuses to see it. Preferring to keep his head in the sand whenever something occurs that is not up to his expectations. "Why am I…"

Chloe didn't bother to continue one as she began to shake her head at Adrien's actions at his futile attempts to make things right in his own way. "Okay, he's out. Anyone else I should know about? That could be of some use?"

"Well…"

-.-

"You... want me to apologize to her." Kagami pointed her foil at Lila with complete disgust. "She lied about knowing my mother and us supposedly being fencing partners."

"I-I-" Lila attempted to say but was cut off when Kagami's glare deepened.

"I am not one of those spineless puppets you could easily manipulate." Kagami stated, she looked over at Adrien to see him looking apologetically. At who? She doesn't know. "I am surprised at you, Adrien. Marinette has always been a good friend to you, and this is how you treat her… and you!"

Glaring back at Lila. "The next time you decide to lie, make sure they sound believable."

"I wasn't lying anything on what Marinette said or did to me!" Lila managed to say, her eyes started to fill up with tears. "She ha-"

"ENOUGH!" Kagami brought her foil back in before she turned to leave. "Adrien, you should look for a new fencing partner.

Kagami walked off, ignoring the blonde that called out for her to stop and come back. There was no reason on going back if Adrien just wants her to play nice with his supposed friend. Not once did he try to protect Marinette's honor. No, Adrien became more worried in making sure Lila doesn't get upset.

Nothing else.

Pathetic really. She should have seen this coming when she saw the picture of Lila kissing Adrien's cheek. Forever the pushover to please everyone around him.

"A franc for your thoughts?"

Kagami looked over her shoulder to see one of her classmates had managed to sneak up to her, walking beside her. How long he had managed to do that, she doesn't know, and this annoys her. "How much did you see, Felix?"

"I heard everything." Felix stated without much of a care for the fact he had been caught eavesdropping. Kagami looked over at her classmate with a glare, the pale blonde teen only stared back at her with a hint of mild amusement in his blue-ish-gray eyes. "What?"

Kagami looked ahead of herself before she took in a deep breath. "You are right."

"Oh? What was that?"

"Don't make me repeat myself, Lachance." Kagami grounded out.

"… I warned you that Agreste sees the world through rose-tinted glasses."

-.-

Chloe knew something was up when Ladybug had offered her a second chance to become Queen Bee. Little to no words were exchanged as she transformed to go help Ladybug in the latest Akuma attack. It was nothing out of the norm really, what did catch her attention is the fact Carapace was also there and not Rena Rouge.

Those two are package deal and always appear around the same exact time. However, that is none of her concern right now. Right now, Queen Bee is visibly annoyed at Chat Noir's own annoyance at her and Carapace's help. More so whenever Ladybug calls out for help by anyone but the mangy black cat or not taking his confessions seriously.

"Oh for… MOVE YOUR BUTT, YOU MANGY CAT!" Queen Bee yelled at Chat's behavior. "YOU'RE GOING TO GET US KILLED!"

As if in cue, Carapace pulled out his shield to block an upcoming attack that was directed towards Ladybug. "Dude! Not cool!"

It was a constant repeat throughout the battle and when they finally beat the Akuma, Carapace and Ladybug had to leave as they were on their last-minute before they retransformed. This left Chat Noir and Queen Bee, one glaring at the other.

"What was that?" Queen Bee seethed out, stabbing a finger into Chat Noir's chest.

"What was what?" Chat Noir flinched at the stab, not expecting the jab.

"You know why." Queen Bee huffed out; she could tell already that this conversation was going nowhere. "Your actions out there nearly caused Ladybug to get hurt if it weren't for us. You got all pouty whenever she called out to us for help an-Are you even listening to me!"

Chat Noir's attention went down on the street below. Looking down, Queen Bee could see Nino standing in front of Marinette as they were being approached by Alya and Lila. She placed a firm hand on Chat's shoulder when he made a motion to head down below to the upcoming fight.

Even if Queen Been couldn't hear what they were seeing, it was evident that Nino is on the offense and not leaving any room for argument. The only time he did stop is to breath or when it was Marinette's own turn to continue where Nino left off. Clearly, whatever Marinette is yelling it's causing Lila to lose control of that ever-careful façade of hers.

"What is Marinette doing?" Chat exclaimed, he attempted once more to move but Queen Bee made it impossible.

"She's standing up for herself, something everyone put her down for doing so against the Liar."

-.-

"Everyone knows you're just jealous because of your damn massive crush on Adrien!" Alya finally screamed out, not even carrying if anyone else overheard the admission.

"That's a low blow, Alya." Nino defended, shooting his ex-girlfriend a glare. He could sense Marinette tense next to him at her former friend's words. "There you are again, saying things you shouldn't. Whatever happened to the girl code?"

"Let's go, Nino. I've had enough stupidity for one day." Marinette placed a hand on Nino's shoulder to get him to start moving. Surprisingly, she has a very strong grip.

As they walked away, Marinette turned around to look at Lila and Alya with an annoyed look. "FYI, I'm over Adrien. Like I'm over being everyone's stepping stool!"

-.-

[I'm losing my mind. I have managed to gain another ally, a former tormenter that wants Lila taken down just as much as the rest of us. Alya had said something that made me lose all complete trust in her. I had hope, that perhaps there was some sort of redemption despite it all, but after today… no more. I cannot trust someone who will more than happily tell my secrets in such a manner.

That happened today…

With the help of Sabrina, she has been whispering in everyone's ear to get the wheel's turning. Many are still siding with Lila, but the stronger minded ones are questioning her. It has gotten to the point she's gaslighting some of them. I fear what will come of their mental state by the end of it all.]

[I see… I understand you want to save your friend, but understand… if she was more than willing to spill your secrets in such manner, was she even a friend in the first place? At this point, if your friend hasn't opened her eyes to what is happening around her and by the time she does, it will be too late.

Enough of that. Right now, you must put everything aside. You are not in a decent state of mind to continue. You must also take care of yourself. I could tell you are hanging on a very thin thread. Many of use had lost many nights of sleep because of Liar-Liar. You need to be well-rested to take her down. After all, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar… does it go that way? Hm…. I'll check it out later.

Anyway, why don't you volunteer for a bit? That always is a good idea to do. No one will ever think twice about it. Why don't you keep your head down low for a while and I'll deal with some things on our end? Kay?]

-.-

"Hello and welcome to KIDZ+, The Heroes Within! Where our everyday heroes do their best to better our lovely city of Paris. Today, we have to do a Food Drive for our local homeless shelters. This drive started up by one of our local denizens, Sébastien Gaudreau. Sébastien is a fourth-grader who is doing his best to help our city and its people! He is our hero!" Aurore Beaureal stood in front of a camera that recorded her life to the city of France with a microphone in hand. Behind her is a massive line of people carrying bags what could be presumed to be food to donate for the drive. All of them waiting to go to the stand where a preteen is taking in the food and handing it over to the volunteers to have the food separated. Despite how tired the kid looked; it was clear he beamed with happiness at the massive turnout.

Aurore made a small motion for the cameraman to cut the live feed, her smile seemed to grow. She had recently been approached by KIDZ+ on becoming a teen reporter, in hopes of getting the younger generations to help the city in their own way. A way for the average person to become heroes by helping their city, even if they do not have powers like Ladybug and Chat Noir. She loves it, in a way, it's a way to give back to the people afte-

"Aurore, hi!"

Aurore turned to see Marinette and her parents holding multiple boxes on what she could assume to be baked goodies. "Marinette, hi! How are you? Are you here for the Food Drive?"

"Of course." Marinette smiled at the other teen. She held up the boxes to emphasize her words. "At the end of every day, whatever isn't sold gets donated to all the shelters in our reach, so nothing goes to waste."

Marinette turned to see the cameraman and gave Aurore a questioning look. Aurore gave Marinette a condensed version of what has been happening in her life and how grateful she felt for the opportunity, along with the opportunity of helping others.

Marinette looked amazed at the other girl's words. She had heard of the Food Drive from Sébastien, in hopes her family could bring in anything they could. Since the very early morning of the drive, the entire family got to work making as many baked goods as they could, close the shop for the day and made the way over. Almost every other drive they have ever been to, the turnout is nowhere near as huge as today. This, this is how the media should be used for. Then to hear "This, this is amazing."

"Instead of focusing on Ladybug and Chat Noir, we are focusing on others who are helping our community."

This got a smile out of Marinette. "I love it!"

"Thank you! As much I would love to continue talking, I promised Sébastien I would help with separate the donations. Would you like to help?" Aurore asked, motioned over at the busy stand.

Marinette looked over at her parents, both of them motioning for her to go help. She gave the boxes she was carrying to her father before running after Aurore to help the clearly overwhelmed helpers.

In a short distance away, Sabrina, Mylene, and Ivan were standing in line. All of them carrying items to donate. Sabrina kept looking around, hoping to see more schoolmates at the drive. There were Marinette and Aurore, helping take in the items, Mireille is waiting in ling with a filled wheeling basket and several others. However, no one else from her class, minus herself, Mylene, Ivan and Marinette. "It seems like no one else is here yet."

"Didn't Lila say she put this thing together?" Ivan wondered, looking around to see if his classmate is actually at the Food Drive.

"Well, according to The Heroes Within, an eleven-year-old by the name of Sébastien Gaudreau is the one that coordinated all of this." Sabrina said, pulling out her phone to look up the information.

"Seventh…" Mylene said just above a whisper. "This is the seventh time I've been to an event she kept saying she either was going to participate or leading it."

'It's actually more than that… but who's counting.' Sabrina thought, she looked over to see Marinette and Aurore carrying a box over to the volunteers. The volunteers looked rather relieved at whatever that was in the box when they opened it.

"I thought she said she was going to a dog show?" Ivan asked.

"Eighth. There's no dog show today here in the city and she made no plans on traveling anywhere else either."

-.-

Lila threw her bookbag across her room, seething over what has been happening the last couple of days. Even if things have been going her way, it was been increasingly clear she's losing her grip on everyone. She recently lost grip on Alya's stupid now ex-boyfriend and possibly one of her more stronger allies as he was a focal point of the class. Even with Adrien by her side, she could only use him for so long. He's still too new in the school and thus, doesn't have that strong of bonds with everyone. Alya has become too much of a liability, but at least she still has that blog of hers…

With a grumble, Lila went over to her computer and turned it on. She needed to a break from the school to regain her bearing and to think up a plan. Yeah, that's what she'll do. Doing that will be easy, her parents are foolish enough to believe her lies. All she has to do is to create some evidence that she's out of the city…

Lila growled under her breath as her computer started to act up. She hit the desktop, cursing it under her breath. As of late, it has been acting up but her parents refuse to get her a new one. As much as she could manipulate them, they always made it a point to not get her the newest gadgets out there. "Work!"

Pause.

The screen went static causing Lila to fall back into her chair into mild shock. That was new to her… The screen went white before returning back to normal. Lila raised an eyebrow at it before she continued on what she had planned on doing, well, until she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. She paused, wondering if she should continue on with her plans. This feeling of unease is something she hardly ever felt and the last time she felt like this, her life was nearly in ruin.

Furiously, Lila shut off the desktop and decided it would be best to continue on going to school. Getting up from her desk and going over to pick up her bookbag before running out of her room.

Once Lila had left the room, the desktop's screen turned white once more before fully turning on once more…

-.-

DonQuioxie: I'm in.

TBC.