Summary: Lila may not be a liar, but that doesn't make her a good person.
TW: Noncon is heavily referenced in this chapter. Nothing happens, but the attempt is made.
The minute Marinette met Lila, she knew that she liked the girl. Famous for her charitable work with Prince Ali and frequently spotted alongside Jagged Stone, the name 'Lila Rossi' was second only to that of 'Adrien Agreste'. When Marinette heard that Lila was going to be joining her class she was ecstatic. Marinette had lined up with her classmates to greet Lila and had readily presented the girl with a box of freshly baked macarons.
Marinette, just like everybody in her class, fell over herself to accommodate for Lila's needs. When Lila broke her wrist, Marinette painstakingly copied out her twice the amount of notes and if Lila said she couldn't make it to a class trip because she had to go to a charity event, Marinette made sure to rearrange the entire thing so that Lila could be there.
Marinette let Lila get away with everything she did─even when Lila asked out Adrien, she didn't complain. She didn't comment when Lila had her bake dozens upon dozens of cupcakes for a venue that was cancelled last minute and Marinette didn't react when the entire classroom was rearranged so that Lila could sit beside Adrien.
She made up for it. Lila paid for the class to go to Portugal and she donated those cupcakes to the Foundation for Troubled Youth. And for whatever reason, Adrien decided to join her at the back of the class. Mlle. Bustier didn't put the seats back to normal, but she didn't blink at Adrien's new position, either.
But now, as she stares at Adrien in shock and horror, Marinette knows that she is an idiot.
She is an idiot for not seeing how Adrien cringed away from Lila─for failing to notice his flinches and shudders when she grabbed his elbow a bit too harshly or smiled rather tightly. Marinette didn't notice and she knows that nobody saw it either─saw how Adrien withdrew into himself and became so pale that he had to be caked in make-up for a simple photoshoot. Nobody would've seen it─and if Adrien was fully clothed, then she wouldn't have either.
Except Adrien isn't fully clothed─his shirt thrown astrew and his belt just barely unbuckled.
Well─there's one good thing about Lila's busy schedule. She didn't have time to go all the way.
Adrien's hands were bound tightly overhead and blood caked his hair. His eyes were barely open and Marinette knew that she couldn't let him fall asleep.
His lips parted weakly as she approached, "...Ladybug?"
She nods, not trusting her voice. Marinette reaches out, hastily undoing the rope. It was a miracle that she'd happened to glance inside Adrien's window on her way to patrol─Chat Noir had been nowhere in sight for once, so she hadn't been too sorry about taking her time. Now, Chat Noir wasn't even a concern because when Marinette looked inside, she'd nearly dropped her yoyo because she could see Lila sitting on top of her unmoving boyfriend and she'd watched in horror as Lila slapped Adrien across the face. Marinette would've left them to it, if not for that slap. They're sixteen, after all. Wasn't it normal to fool around at their age?
Lila had reached for Adrien's belt and Marinette's feet were rooted to the ground. She's not sure that she could've done something for Adrien─her blood was ice and her eyes cloudy. Marinette didn't even consider moving─she couldn't feel her fingers. But then Lila had paused her ministrations and reached for her phone. She'd gotten up, laughed at Adrien's sorry state and left him like that. Something inside Marinette snapped when she saw the door shut and she could move again. One window was conveniently open, so she slipped inside and raced to his side.
"'M sorry," Adrien slurs, eyes fluttering.
She can't let him fall asleep.
"You're sorry?" she gulps, grabbing her yoyo. She needs an ambulance, like, yesterday.
"Late." His eyes close.
Marinette doesn't know much about concussions─she doesn't even know if Adrien actually has one, but she does know that sleeping is bad.
"Hey, stay with me," she says, frantically taking his palm. "I need you to stay awake, Adrien. Okay?"
Adrien blinks at her, confusion dancing in his green eyes. "Why?"
"Do you trust me, Adrien?" She doesn't know why, but he seems somewhat more alert at those words. When he nods, she knows it's the truth. "Good. Then I need you to stay awake." He nods again and that sets her off. She races to the door, sprinting into the hallway and shouting out. It took a minute, but Gabriel Agreste appeared soon enough. The bewildered look on his face would've been comical in any other situation.
"Ladybug─"
"No time to explain, but your son was attacked by his girlfriend and now he's bleeding so I'm calling an ambulance─okay?"
Many things could be said about Gabriel Agreste─he's a horrible father, a great fashion designer and probably murdered his wife. But he does know how to act in a serious situation. As Marinette started dialling numbers, Gabriel called for Nathalie and Adrien's bodyguard and swiftly broke into Adrien's bedroom.
Marinette had thought Lila was a saint. Now, Marinette will make a pact with the devil to take her down.
Ladybug gave her statement to the police and dodged the reporters hanging around. She swung to the hospital and stopped in an alleyway to recharge. Marinette buried her face in her hands and slumped against the wall. She needs to breathe, but it's quite difficult knowing what she does now.
"Hey─hey, you! Marinette! Sugarcube!" Marinette jumped at the scratchy voice as a familiar black kwami raced over to her, a silver ring gathered in his arms.
"Plagg?!" she gaped at him. Plagg dropped the ring into her palm and stared forlornly at it. "What are you doing here?" Is this why Chat Noir hadn't responded even once?
He chuckles nervously. "W-well, you see─I, um─I don't know?"
Tikki hisses. "Plagg!"
"What do you want me to say, oh, by the way, Chat Noir was attacked by his girlfriend after he tried to break up with her and instead of transforming he threw his ring at me and allowed that bitch to tie him up?!"
"Plagg!"
"Well, he didn't exactly allow her to tie him up─his head was bleeding and he probably thought transforming would make it worse or something, but that doesn't really matter anyways. So can I kill her now?"
"PLAGG!"
Marinette can't breathe. She knows what this means, but she can't accept it. Can't accept what Plagg is saying because if that's true, then not only was Adrien the one attacked, but so was Chat Noir. Her partner.
She knows what this means.
Lila Rossi must die.
When she gets to the hospital, Ladybug dodges past another crowd of eager reporters and is directed to a private ward by a shy nurse. She slips past the Gorilla, who's guarding the door with clenched fist, a terrifying scowl and wet eyes, and inside she finds Nathalie standing at attention, her clipboard cracking under the pressure of her grip. Gabriel hasn't bothered with pretenses─he sits with his face buried in his hands, glasses strewn aside. Marinette had always wanted to see Gabriel Agreste acting casually─but not like this.
Never like this.
She clears her throat. The gesture is unnecessary, she knows, as there's no way Nathalie hadn't notified him of her arrival before she was even inside the hospital (Marinette can clearly see the hospital security cameras on Nathalie's tablet on the low-lying coffee table), but Marinette's throat is constricting herself and she needs to say something before she starts crying.
"Raincomprix issued a warrant for her arrest," she says, the only words that come to mind.
Gabriel is silent, but he clenches his hands into a combined fist and presses his lips against them, boring holes into the tablet on the table.
Marinette feels she should let them know.
"I'm going to bring her in."
Still, Gabriel doesn't look up. Nathalie's expression is unreadable. Marinette turns around, and it's when she reaches the door that Gabriel finally speaks.
"The charges will never stick, Hero. Why bother?"
Marinette hums, "Why, indeed?"
'I'm going to kill her.'
Instead, she looks over her shoulder and tells him reassuringly, "I'll make them stick."
Gabriel doesn't believe her and neither does she.
Still, Marinette needs Lila to be convicted, because otherwise Rossi will not make it to December.
She finds Lila in a coffee shop. A café. She's sitting on a high stool, drinking from her cappuccino like she hadn't a care in the world, laughing fakely with her unsuspecting fans and, much to Marinette's disgust, their naive classmates. The television is off, so these people don't know what Lila's done.
But she knows.
She knows.
Ladybug doesn't think when she storms inside and when she summons her lucky charm, red and black spotted handcuffs land innocuously in her palm. This solidifies her decision.
She only pauses to call the police to her location.
"Lila Rossi." Her voice rings out, fury and confidence radiating off of her.
"Ladybug!" Alya exclaims, grinning widely. She doesn't get the memo. "Oh my God─Lila! Ladybug's here for you! That's amazing! I need to get this on the Ladyblog!" Alya whips out her phone, streaming. Marinette suspects that Alya's phone is constantly poised to stream in case of an akumat attack.
Lila looks Marinette up and down. She glances at the handcuffs hanging off her hips and the hatred oozing from Ladybug's stare. Still, Lila knows that she's on camera and she's nothing if not clever.
"Oh, Ladybug! This is─it is such an honour to meet you. Really, I─"
"Lila Rossi." Ladybug grabs the handcuffs from her belt. "You are under arrest for the assault and attempted rape of Adrien Agreste." She began rattling off the spiel about rights that Sabrina's dad taught her and Chat after they'd officially been deputised by the mayor and were globally recognised as heroes.
"W-what─" Alya shakes.
"My bro…" Nino stares blankly at Lila. "You… you…" He snaps. "YOU BITCH! HOW DARE YOU?! HOW DARE YOU?!" Kim grabs him, stopping Nino from lunging at Lila with a plastic teaspoon. He still throws it at her and his screams don't stop even as he's restrained.
Ladybug turns Lila around, silently marching her towards the doors where Raincomprix and his squad awaits them.
Before she's handed off to the police, Lila has some words to say to Ladybug.
"You know they'll never keep me─right?"
Marinette wonders if Lila knows she'd be safer rotting behind bars than roaming freely on the streets of Paris.
Gabriel was right. Lila was right.
They all knew it was going to happen─Lila got an amazing lawyer who was great at bullshitting and her fans mobbed them. Some went so far as to try attacking Chloé Bourgeois─a staunch supporter of the Anti-Lila Rossi campaign. They camped outside the Agreste Mansion and screamed slurs and insults through the gates when they finally ushered Adrien home.
Of course, there were people who sided with Adrien─in fact, more Parisians had. However, Lila was a global celebrity. An angel, one president had called her in her defence. In response, Prince Ali publicly denounced Lila Rossi and pulled out of anything he had to do with her.
Nino and Marinette enlisted the help of XY, Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale to speak out against Lila. Mayor Bourgeois had sworn on his life that Lila Rossi was a criminal and deserves the guilty verdict. In the words of his wife, Audrey Bourgeois; "Rape is one of the few crimes that can never be forgiven. You can kill a man in self-defense. You can never excuse rape. No man, woman or child should ever experience it."
But it was all for naught. The judge listened to both sides of the case (his bias was clear from the start) and he declared Lila innocent, on account of a lack of evidence and no credible witnesses. (Since Adrien himself refused to testify and Ladybug's identity was unknown, they apparently couldn't be believed).
It came as no surprise when Lila was let go.
Marinette has a decision to make.
Adrien smiles when Ladybug walks in. It's weak and hardly there, but it's still a smile. She wishes it were brighter.
"Ladybug. I haven't seen you since…" and the smile is replaced with a frown. Lila's faith isn't looking too bright. "What brings you here?"
Ladybug takes in his unkempt hair, his dark eyes and his bony wrists. The untouched meal beside him is self-explanatory.
She makes a decision.
"Spots off."
Adrien blinks. He doesn't utter a word, but his surprise is clear. His eyes twinkle and it's a familiar look. She misses that look.
"...Marinette?"
"Yes."
"Why… why did you─…" He stops abruptly, realisation dawning in his eyes. "...Ah."
"Yes."
"I… oh." Adrien looks confused. "Why did you tell me?"
"Because I need an answer to a question."
Adrien looks wary as she takes a seat. He knows that she's planning something. "And what is that question?"
"Do you want her dead?"
Adrien opens and closes his mouth in succession, leaning heavily against the headboard and shutting his eyes.
Marinette waits patiently by his bedside, hardly shifting as five, ten, fifteen minutes pass quietly. Even when the door slides open and Gabriel steps inside, they don't speak.
Gabriel looks at Marinette strangely─unsurely. He doesn't trust her and Marinette doesn't blame him─she wouldn't either. Her crush on Adrien was no secret. To everybody but Adrien.
Still, Adrien breathes steadily and Marinette wonders what will happen if Adrien says no.
If he says no, she won't do a thing, because that's what he'd want, but she's not sure she'd be able to hold back on Monday when she walks into class. She already knows that Nino's planned three hundred different ways to kill her (she and the rest of the class helped) and no person's going to be able to hold back. Even Mlle. Bustier wouldn't fault them.
"I…"
Marinette's head snaps up, zeroing in on Adrien. Gabriel shoulders square and he stands at attention.
"I want to do it."
Not the answer she was expecting, but it's certainly an answer that makes her grin wickedly. Adrien doesn't say anything afterwards, so she walks out, trusting Gabriel to follow her.
The designer looks questioningly at her.
"What does he want to do?"
She answers carefully.
"Tomorrow night, around one or so, Adrien is going to sneak out. On the following morning, when the police come around questioning his whereabouts, he never left his bed."
Gabriel's eyes narrow. "If you are planning what I think you're planning─which I suspect you are, because you're not the only person who is, why should I let him do this? What makes you think you won't get caught?"
She tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear, smiling cutely.
"They'll never find her body."
For a normal person, it would've been relatively difficult to kidnap Lila Rossi, but all Marinette had to do was open a portal into her room with Kaalki's help and bring her onto a secluded clifftop. Even better, because of Trixx, this open space looks completely empty, so they'll never be caught.
Lila wakes instantly when she's unceremoniously dropped onto soaked stone. She's greeted with the cold stares of Ladybug and Adrien Agreste.
She tries to play cool, at first. Tries to sidle up alongside Adrien and convince him that she hadn't intended to rape him─that he'd wanted it. Ladybug stops that with a well-directed yo-yo toss at her head with enough force to bring Gigantitan down to his knees.
Lila resorts to insults, then. About how useless Adrien was─how he needed her. She shut that down once more.
Finally, Lila switches tactics and starts appealing to Ladybug.
Ladybug lifts her by the shirt and holds her over the cliff's edge. That's when the screaming starts. Ladybug smirks and lets go.
She lets Lila free fall, laughing joyously at her musical screams and the sheer terror in her eyes.
Adrien utters, "Stop." and the yo-yo shoots out, catching Lila mid-air and swinging her back onto the cliff, at his feet.
Marinette carefully watches Adrien's face. It's carefully blank─the same mask he wears in the presence of reporters. But she can see through that mask, and underneath, he is furious.
"Claws out."
It's showtime.
Lila gapes. "Wha─you're─I─"
Lila's clever, but she's not smart.
She jumps up, pushing past Chat Noir and attempting to sprint away from them. It seems the reality of the situation has finally settled in.
Marinette allows her to get away─to feel that small glimmer of hope at the idea of getting away. She delights in ripping it from Lila's hands and sends her sprawling on her knees when she brings Lila back.
"L-look." She glances nervously at Ladybug. "I-I didn't mean to h-hurt Chat Noir. Really, I was just─"
Marinette walks behind Lila, slipping her fingers into her hair and tugging. She's careful not to pull any hair from her scalp, just like Lila isn't actually bleeding. After all, they can't leave any evidence.
"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! Let me go─just let me go and I won't tell. I'll keep your secrets, just let me live─please, please, please. Let me live."
Marinette wonders if Lila thinks this will work. Thinks that begging will let her get away with her life.
Adrien must've begged. Begged for her to stop─promised that he wouldn't tell if she'd just please let him go.
Retribution is a bitch.
Smiling, she opens another portal and walks them into an old, empty warehouse, helpfully provided by Nathalie.
Chat Noir steps out after her, and stares coldly at Lila. She helplessly shakes on the ground, a pathetic and writhing mess.
She looks at him now and knows he can do it.
"Cataclysm."
The screams start again and if not for Trixx, they might've been heard.
Chat Noir approaches her and looks over her head at Ladybug. She nods and Chat Noir cracks the barest of smiles.
Lila sobs uncontrollably. Ladybug swipes a tear from her cheek, smiling sweetly. Lila almost relaxes at the look but then her head is yanked around and she's staring into the hate-filled eyes of her would-be victim. Let that be her last sight.
Lila's death is sadly short, but certainly painful.
Ashes that were once Lila Rossi settled like snow around them.
She exhales and grins.
And now, for the reason why Marinette had made them move from the cliff.
Recently, she's learned that since her kwami is the Kwami of Creation, she can do more than just create lucky charms.
She focuses her power and Lila's ashes rise, forming into two separate rings. They're rather pretty, if she should say so.
Chat Noir takes one and holds it out to her.
"My Lady. Would you?"
She holds the other ring in her palm. "Only if you'll have me."
They slip the rings onto each other's fingers and a bond is formed. It's similar to what they had before, but now they have a reassurance─they now know for a fact that they'd kill for each other.
And they'd do so with a grin.
True to her words, the police come around to the Agrestes asking if they know anything about Lila Rossi's whereabouts─apparently, her mother is horribly worried. Nathalie sends them away and invites Marinette to dinner.
At dinner that night, Gabriel examines his son's grin and the matching rings they have on their fingers and decides he's okay with Marinette Dupain-Cheng as a daughter-in-law.
Monday morning came and everybody was careful around Adrien, until Nino cracked a joke and called him 'dude', and Adrien held out his hands for Chloé to hug him. She tackled him and that's the first time Marinette's heard him laugh since this entire incident went down.
Lila's fans are pretty pissed about her being missing, but the majority of them forget about her when fashion genius 'MCD' arises under the tutelage of Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgeois and she basically takes over the world.
When Gabriel finds out that his son and daughter-in-law are his worst adversaries, he remembers that Lila's body was never found and quietly hands over his Miraculous.
Marinette's content to be with Adrien and to work on her career─everything just seems to be going right lately.
And Adrien? Adrien goes to therapy.
Got some dark Adrienette going on here. Yeah, fuck Lila. I'm fairly certain this is the first time I killed her off, which is horrendous and completely wrong.