Interlude

The problem with this city was that its people got used to shit too quickly. Like the smell of one's one house. Like the white noise of a quickly rotating ceiling fan. Like a mark on the wall, which catches a glance every now and again when perceived at the corner of one's eye, until, after a few perturbed looks, it is either forgotten or painted over. Animal-themed superheroes swept up the mess made by acts of magical terrorism every two or three days and Paris went about their business. Then, just as suddenly as these things emerged from a space lesser than shadow, they retreated. And Paris went about their business. Like it had never happened. Like it had been painted over.

But Lila Rossi was no mark on the wall. She refused to be. When she set foot in this city, two months deep into its mundane routine of resisting akuma attacks as plainly as one resists their alarm in the morning, Lila decided that she wasn't going to be as unimpressive as these spontaneous super villains seemed to be. Lila wasn't going to be ignored. She wasn't going to be brushed over. Lila was no mark on the wall because she was no accident. Lila was a grand work of art, a huge, intricate, vibrant mural, drawing a gasp from everyone who walked by, drawing their eyes so they could gaze at every expertly crafted detail. Standing. Staring. Letting out a little, breathless "Wow…"

Maybe, she realized, people could so easily dismiss those pesky marks because they were blind. Utterly blind. Because she was starting to think that they couldn't see her either, and it was not for a lack of brilliance. Lila had never stopped beaming. As far as everyone was concerned, she was meeting new famous friends every day, she was seeing new places, doing anything and everything necessary to be the most fascinating, desirable girl in the city. Somehow, all of that power clenched so tightly in her fists like fabric flowing between her fingers had started to slip away from her, threads unraveling and taking to an unforgiving wind.

It started with him. That short-sighted man claimed to want a good influence in his son's life, but surely he hadn't truly cared enough. He'd cinched such a perfect agreement, associating Lila with his brand, pairing her with Adrien. Smart as that kid was, he was so depressingly unaware of what was best for him. It broke Lila's heart. He could have had it all if the arrangement lasted, but his father, the designer known as Gabriel Agreste ceased communication with Lila eventually. She was no longer invited to photo shoots, no longer responded to over text message by that sickly, uptight assistant of his. She'd not even been spared a brusque, "We no longer require your cooperation." No, she'd merely been phased out of mind, as impossible as it seemed to her.

But then, everyone else seemed to change along with him. Lila, who used to captivate the attention of anyone who was near enough to listen, started to lose her audience. Her classmates began peeling away from the crowd that gathered around her at lunch whenever she returned from a trip with her mother. She was lucky to speak with three of them at once. Lila felt herself die a little bit every time a pair of eyes drifted away from her, like a petal shriveling up inside her, becoming so brittle that it shattered with a touch. She was filling with decay and waste slowly. A classmate would smile at her on the way into class and Lila would wilt because anyone could by smiled at, and Lila was not just anyone.

For a long time, far too long, Hawkmoth was the only one who never seemed to lose sight of her splendor. From that very first day, he could tell just how much she resented that dreadful bug. And on the days she felt most dead and withered, one of his blackened butterflies would flutter through the window she left open and fill her with life again. She had been akumatized a total of seven times, and each time she'd come closer to destroying Ladybug. It was what both she and Hawkmoth wanted, and though all his other victims had been driven by rage or sorrow or bitterness or something, Lila was the only one who felt the weight of what Hawkmoth was chasing, like a gravity pulling them and closer to that satiating revenge, so that he could take whatever power he wanted from that girl, so that Lila could finally make worse than a fool out of someone who'd so intently tried to tear her down, throw her to ruin before she'd even built herself up. The best part was that she would return to school when it was over and be greeted by the comforting words of her classmates, who said things like, "I hope you're feeling better today," and "I'm sorry I didn't notice you were feeling so down", because no one had ever been akumatized as many times as Lila. She relished in it.

But then, out of the blue, Hawkmoth disappeared, and so did his ally. So suddenly, and so without warning, that Lila felt like she had been dug out from the earth and thrown into a heap of roots and petals that were dying and questions that wouldn't be answered. If she didn't know any better, she'd have guessed that Ladybug and Chat Noir had done away with them, but that those two despicable creatures had defeated their enemies with enough ease to keep it quiet was unthinkable to Lila. Unthinkable. Lila knew they were still out there. Lila knew they were hiding from something. Lila thought, once - maybe twice - that they might have been hiding from her, the one person who understood just how badly they craved victory. Maybe they'd used their powers of empathy to reach into her animosity and find it bottomless, and it scared them.

They never came back, though. They vanished without a trace, and they left her with nothing, when they once had offered everything she could ever need to achieve everything she could ever want. They left her to shrivel and become nothing.

But Lila Rossi was not nothing. She was an explosion. She was a tempest. She was a sky burning with a billion stars, enclosing all the world.

And it didn't take long for someone else to notice.

Lila Rossi pressed her thumbs together. Pearl white teeth sank into her bottom lip as she stared at the metallic badge of the police officer sitting across the table from her. She could feel his glare boring into her forehead, his, and those of the pair of heroes flanking him on either side. Ladybug betrayed her petite frame to stand tall and stern, her arms crossed in front of her chest, face wrenched into an expression of disdain. Her partner held a similar stance. Chat Noir's jaw was clenched and his green eyes hard as crystal behind his mask. Lila wasn't certain if he had blinked once this entire time. For the first time sitting before them, she felt truly uneasy.

"Miss Rossi," growled the officer, and she flinched a little bit, "You need to answer the question."

"I-" She wrung her hands, cringed at how slick they were with sweat. "I can't, sir."

He raised a bushy eyebrow. "No? You can't tell us anything?"

"I've told you before. I don't know anything. Every time Ladybug uses her miracle cure, it erases my memories of what happened while I was akumatized."

Ladybug laid a hand on the table and leaned forward, her shadow, crisp under the fluorescent lights, crawled its way in Lila's direction. Her blue eyes blazed with anger, but she kept her voice level. "But Lila, we didn't capture an akuma. How were you akumatized without an akuma?"

"I was akumatized," she insisted. "You know I was! I have been every time! How else could I have those powers?"

"Miss Rossi, is there really nothing you remember at all?" the officer asked before Ladybug could give her retort. "Nothing about this Conspiracy fella? What he wants, who he is?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Lila answered, shrugging. "Didn't you guys think he was a sentimonster? Is that out the window now?"

"No, he might very well be a sentimonster," the officer sighed. He leaned back in his chair and set his hands behind his head. "We're just not a hundred percent certain, is all. We've gotten some reports of him engaging with Hawkmoth during the attack. This would be the second time. If Hawkmoth is trying to disassociate himself from Volpina's acts of terrorism, then he could be using a sentimonster to do it. That's what we're thinking is most likely anyway."

"Terrorism?" Lila said, pouting.

"I don't mean anything by that, kid. We know it's not your fault."

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged a glance. Chat ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair and heaved a heavy sigh.

"I'm so sorry," Lila said, dropping her hands into her lap. She blew at her bangs. They were getting too long. "This has been freaking me out ever since it happened for the first time last week, and since then I've been so stressed and overwhelmed. I'm trying to control my emotions, but I'm just as worried as the rest of Paris, probably even more so!"

"Miss Rossi." The officer spoke gently, catching the hitch in her breath as she worked up some tears. "We understand this is a very frightening situation for you. We know you don't want to be questioned every time. Can you think of any reason why Hawkmoth would be targeting you specifically? According to our record, you were akumatized a considerable number of times before his disappearance. Has there always been something that he's wanted out of you specifically?"

Lila wiped her eye with her index finger. Over the officer's shoulder, she saw Ladybug roll her eyes and it filled her with loathing. "Well," she huffed. "I don't know. Maybe Hawkmoth knows how much influence I have. I'm familiar with many celebrities around Paris and the rest of the world, and, you know, all of my friends have been really worried about me. Maybe Hawkmoth thinks that makes me a valuable ally to him? I wouldn't know why."

"Yes, it's just strange that he would choose to akumatize a singular person three times consecutively."

"Officer Raincomprix," Ladybug said. He turned his head to glance at the hero, who had placed her hand very suddenly on his shoulder. "Do you think you could leave Chat Noir and I alone with Miss Rossi for a couple minutes?"

His gaze flicked back and forth, and he withheld his response for a few seconds. Lila widened her eyes, trying to communicate an expression of discomfort at this suggestion of Ladybug's, but if he recognized it, he didn't seem to care. He rose out of the chair. "Sure thing, Ladybug. You're in charge."

Lila watched him quit the windowless room, gnawing the inside of her cheek. She crossed her ankles beneath the table and held her breath until he closed the door behind him.

Ladybug and Chat Noir glared at her murderously.

"What do you want from me?" Lila's voice sailed up a pitch. She made herself small in the foldable metal chair that chilled her bare legs. "I've told you everything I know."

"Can we cut this out?" Ladybug snapped. "Everyone in this room knows you're not really being akumatized. Now, mind telling us exactly what the hell is going on?"

Lila brushed her thick auburn hair back behind her ear. A sour feeling sat in her stomach and crawled up her throat until it tainted the taste of her very own tongue. Her lips twisted into a smile that burned Ladybug enough to darken the look of hatred in her eyes and stiffen her narrow shoulders. Beside her Chat Noir appeared nothing short of disgusted. He wrinkled his nose and revealed a fang behind his upper lip.

If Lila had to guess why Paris's superhero duo had yet to inform the public of her lie, she would say it's because they'd have to admit how totally incompetent they were to defend this city the way they promised. They would have to admit to losing a miraculous, letting it fall around the neck of the one who always had it out for them, nearly since arriving in this sad, stupid city. Ladybug and Chat Noir had never been anything other than beloved. They couldn't bear the thought of losing the faith of these millions of mindless citizens. It was simply too precious to them, and truly, Lila understood. Too bad they didn't deserve any of it. But it made things easier for her.

"Oh," she sighed, "Two of the world's greatest heroes in all of history are getting sick of doing their job, is it? It's almost like you've forgotten you already had to spend two years picking up the pieces to somebody else's mess."

Chat Noir growled. "It's terrible that you would take this so lightly."

"Lightly? Sure, of course I do. Aren't you having fun?"

Ladybug slammed her hands on the table, blue eyes a pair of sapphire flames. "Fun, Lila? You think this is a game? You're endangering people."

"No, I don't think I am. I'm pretty sure I haven't hurt a single other person, actually, aside from the two of you," she shot back.

"That's -"

"Oh, go on, name another person I've threatened! I think you'll find I'm a lot less of a villain than Hawkmoth was."

Neither hero replied. Both of their glares cut like razor blades into Lila's skin, but she braved the looks and held them with challenge. Within herself, she was second guessing her approach. Ladybug and Chat Noir clearly valued their public image, but the further she pushed them, the more likely their animosity might be to outweigh the patience they had for her mischief. Lila swallowed roughly and let herself fall back into her chair, eyes glazing over with thought.

"Let's try something else," murmured Ladybug, once she'd taken in a long, deep breath. "Those people you're working with. Conspiracy. The Sorcerer. Who are they? What do they want?"

"How are you so sure Conspiracy isn't a sentimonster?" Lila asked back.

The heroine narrowed her eyes. "Fight enough of them, and you can tell. Who is he, Lila?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do. You can't lie to me. Maybe it hasn't dawned on you yet, but your mind games don't work on me, so quit trying." She leaned further over the table. "Who is Conspiracy? Somebody like that does not simply show up out of the blue with zero explanation. Answer the question."

"Or what, you'll use force?"

"We don't need to. You'll regret it one way or another," Chat Noir snapped. Lila was surprised by the danger in his tone, but she tried to brush him off.

Then she darted her eyes around the empty room, as if she was looking to see if anybody else was around them. "Okay, listen to me," she whispered. Ladybug and Chat Noir watched her keenly as she reached across the table and took them each by the wrist, drawing them nearer. "I don't know who Conspiracy is. Really. I have no idea. And I don't know anything about that Sorcerer person either. I genuinely have not a clue. At all."

Ladybug was unconvinced. "How did you get involved with this? How did you get that miraculous?"

"It was given to me. They wanted my help. I guess they knew about how many times I had been under Hawkmoth's control as an akuma, and they thought I'd make a believable ally. But I don't know what they want. I mean, I think I know what they want. I think they want your miraculous. That's what Conspiracy keeps telling me to go after. But I don't know why they want it, and I don't know who they are. Swear it."

For a moment, Ladybug's countenance lit up with surprise at the fear shaking Lila's words. Then, she cleared her throat and hardened her gaze. "Very well. I believe that. Now, care to explain why you accepted them?"

"I…" Lila sighed helplessly. "I don't know, what do you expect me to do when a tall, scary person in a mask who looks like they might be able to kill you with a stare asks you to help them? Refuse?"

"You really didn't seem to be in much of a precarious situation at all that first night. You still don't," rumbled Chat Noir.

"Oh, yeah, surprise, surprise. I'm a good actress. And maybe a part of me did feel like taking you down a peg. But is that really so bad? The point is, I never would have been able to do a damn thing if I hadn't been threateningly approached by a dangerous super villain. Maybe you two would know a way out of that situation, but how am I supposed to? I had nothing until they gave me that miraculous."

"Okay, calm down," Chat Noir said, prying her hand off of his wrist.

"You're in way over your head," Ladybug murmured.

The blow to her pride ignored, Lila threw her hands in the air. "But that is everything I can say to you. They tell me what to do, and I barely know what I'm doing it for. But I have to do it. That's all."

The pair of heroes glanced at each other. Ladybug had been recording the entire conversation using her magical yo-yo, and she tapped her fingers where it was attached to her hip, clearly deep in thought, while her partner flicked his ears back and forth, pressing himself against the concrete wall to his left. To sit before them now, when just an hour ago she had been crashing her flute against Chat Noir's baton and flinging stones at Ladybug's head felt absurd. They spoke to her like a child, and Lila had to wonder if they really had any idea what she was willing to do to get what she wanted.

She blinked as Ladybug held out her palm. "Hand it over," the heroine said.

"What?"

"The miraculous," she clarified sharply. "Hand it over."

"Are you insane?" Lila exclaimed, clutching her hands over her chest. The fox pendant dangled under her shirt, and it wasn't going anywhere. "I can't just give this to you!"

"Why not?"

"It's not that simple."

"It's not yours," hissed Ladybug. She reached out her palm further, til her fingers nearly brushed against Lila's nose. "Surrender it immediately, Lila."

"No."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I suppose you actually want to be tangled up in this situation, then? And you're willingly participating as a self-determined super villain? And despite claiming to have been compelled by others to scheme against us and endanger the city, you would rather continue to take this opportunity to peaceably disengage from these circumstances? In which case…" Ladybug's expression was cold and deadly, "I have no sympathy or patience for you whatsoever."

"Give her the miraculous, Lila," snarled Chat Noir.

"You don't understand!" shouted Lila, shooting up from her seat. Ladybug withdrew her hand and set it on her yo-yo, as if preparing to use it. "I can't do that! I can't give up the fox miraculous like it's nothing. It's not nothing." Her fists trembled over the hidden pendant, as if protecting her very heart. "What do you think they could do to me if they found out I'd handed it over? Huh? Do you think they'd shrug their shoulders and find another ally and leave me alone? No!" Lila tried to blink the tears out her eyes. "As soon as they know, they'll make me regret it. Don't you think I'm already terrified of them finding out I ended up here, being questioned? I can't lose this miraculous. It's out of the realm of possibility."

Ladybug and Chat Noir stared at her open-mouthed, appearing remorseful of their impetuosity. "Lila," Ladybug said, voice gentle and slow, "I understand. But we can't let this go on. If you give us the miraculous, we can ensure that you will be protected. We won't hang you out to dry."

"How can you protect me? It won't matter if you have a ninja guard me when I sleep! You've seen what Conspiracy is capable of! Turning invisible, teleporting? And the Sorcerer? I don't even know where to begin. It won't help. You want to keep me safe?" Lila stepped away from the table, holding out her hands. "Let me go."

"Lila-"

"What? What else do you want from me?"

"We can find a solution-"

"No, I don't want to hear it, okay? I'm sorry. There, does that please you? I'm sorry. I never wanted it to go this far."

"How far did you want it to go?" demanded Ladybug, her anger quickly returning. Lila tensed. "Far enough to hurt us, right? As long as you were in the clear?"

"That's not fair!"

"What would be fair?" said Chat Noir, green eyes narrowed to emerald slits.

"I don't know, but I won't be thrown to the wolves. You think this situation is fishy?" she challenged as she scowled at them. "Well, it is. I'm working with super villains, so what do you expect? What about the two of you, huh? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Ladybug was appalled. "Us?"

"Care to tell me why you don't bother telling the whole world I'm lying about being akumatized? Seems like a pretty easy way to end this if you ask me, but no." Lila's voice was rich with contempt. "Or, maybe you can explain why I found you hanging around Gabriel Agreste's house that first night, having gone there on your own volition? Like you…" She sneered into Ladybug's pale visage, "Suspected something?"

Chat Noir stepped in front of his partner. "You're way out of line."

"No answer then? I shouldn't be surprised. Do you honestly expect anybody to trust you when-"

Lila stopped talking as a bright light flashed to life behind her head, washing out the faces of the angered heroes in before her. Stunned, the pair failed to make a move for several seconds, and Lila stiffened as an arm, covered by a black leather glove, reached out and wrapped around her waist. A different hand latched itself in Lila's hair. Regaining her senses, Ladybug detached the yo-yo from her hip and unwound the string, but before she could toss it forward, Lila was pulled back into the light, her vision going snow-white, burning from her eyes to the back of her head. She last heard a shout from Chat Noir, a loud "No!" that was abruptly cut short as Lila vanished from that windowless room at the police station and found herself carelessly tossed on a cold stone floor several miles away. The white light blinked away and left nothing behind but a headache and a pair of eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness.

Her heart pounded, and she was not quite ready to stand. Lila scratched her fingernails across the floor until they provided a discordant chorus of tiny marble shrieks. She was waiting for the fear to ebb out of her body.

She could hear no footsteps. She was being stared at. Lila brushed her bangs out of her eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and slowly brought herself to her feet to face the cloaked figure looming above her.

Lila swallowed. "Hi."

Silence. They emanated fury like light.

"You took me a little off guard…and I was just turning it on them too, you know."

"What was that?" snapped the Sorcerer.

"What was what?"

"When you act naïve it only makes you look stupid. Answer the question."

"Please, no more questions. I spent the last forty-five minutes answering questions. Maybe we can forget this ever happened."

The Sorcerer had no face Lila could see, but she guessed it might have been dark and twisted with rage. Everything else about them seemed dark and twisted after all. They replied, "Don't be flippant. What was that this morning?" A deep, mechanical voice sent shivers up Lila's spine and she crossed her arms to warm herself. The summer heat penetrated this place, but that didn't stop her from feeling cold in the Sorcerer's presence. They were like a ghost.

"You ask me that like I did something wrong," Lila said back. "I attacked Ladybug and Chat Noir. That's what you've been asking me to do this whole time."

"When I ask you to do it. Who gave you an order?"

Lila shut her mouth.

"I had to send Conspiracy out there to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. Next thing I know you're being brought in by police and questioned by Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves? I can only hope you didn't say something foolish."

"I didn't tell them anything about you." It's not like there's much I can say.

"Why'd you do it?" asked the Sorcerer. They lifted their chin, appearing taller than they already stood. Lila thought they had to be close to two meters.

"I had a promise made to me," Lila answered. She tried to keep her voice firm, but there was nothing she could do to prevent the shaking in her words. "I was told that I'd get my revenge. That's all I'm after. That's what I was doing. You know I wouldn't try to get in your way."

"Wouldn't you? How thoughtful," they growled bitterly. Lila backed away as they started stepping towards her, feet clapping down loudly and echoing through the room. "Maybe I need to make myself more clear. You and Conspiracy are a distraction. A distraction. Do you understand?"

Feeling small and afraid and indignant for it, Lila shot back, "We're not a distraction because we're going after what actually matters! The miraculous! And what is it that you're after again?"

The Sorcerer clenched their fist. "Justice."

"Yeah, well, so am I. Justice and revenge and all those fun things. Just like you. So, who are you to keep me from it?"

"You find those things fun?" murmured the Sorcerer incredulously.

Lila flushed. "Well, isn't it? Giving people what they deserve?"

"Revenge is a duty. Justice is a duty. Induced by pain. You take joy out of revenge?"

Suppressing a shudder at the delicate, gravelly tone of her ally, Lila rolled her shoulders back. "Yes," she answered proudly. "I do."

The Sorcerer may have been gazing at her, but there was no way to know for sure. But they were silent nonetheless, and it was like a wind had very suddenly died.

"At the very least, I enjoy actually doing something about it. Call me a distraction all you want, but I'm making more of a difference then you have. All you do is hide away and play with glowing bottles like that's helping you."

"Playing. Yes. That's right, and that reminds me." The Sorcerer had a few of those bottles latched to a belt hanging loosely around their cloak. They selected one that looked like it was filled with ink and whispered something into the stifling air. Lila leaped back as the glass exploded, a shard piercing the toe of her boot. The Sorcerer manipulated the black potion to swim around their fingers, and Lila's heart tumbled into her feet as she heard them whisper, "Cataclysm."

Suddenly, Lila felt herself being seized by the chest. The fox miraculous that had been hidden from view was pulled, seemingly by nothing, out of her shirt to dangle in the air. Dark energy bubbled around it, and Lila felt this blazing pain searing her neck, exactly where the chain still hovered above her skin. The Sorcerer rotated their fingers, enhancing the magic until it nearly engulfed the pendant, all traces of orange being concealed in a floating shadow. Over the roaring of blood in her ears, Lila could hear them groaning with concentration, until at last, the magic burst. With a hiss, the blackness dissipated, and Lila's miraculous fell against her chest, completely spotless. Without a dent.

The girl herself was on her knees, catching her breath in absence of the agony that had also been ripped from her body. Tears rolled down her cheeks, which she wiped away with the back of her hands as if the Sorcerer had not already noticed them. Where she had once been freezing, Lila now dabbed at the sweat building along her hairline, trying to collect herself as fast as possible.

Without a word, the Sorcerer turned elsewhere in the room. They had but a drop of potion still flitting around their fingers, which they directed at a chair. "Cataclysm," they yelled, and it took all of two seconds for the chair to turn black and crack apart into dozens of useless pieces. Their hand dropped to their side. "So it doesn't work on miraculous," they said aloud, voice dangerously low. "Duly noted."

Lila stumbled for the exit, but just as she had set her hand on the door knob, a gloved hand caught hers and forced her to turn around. "I'm not done with you yet," the Sorcerer said.

"Let me leave," Lila begged breathlessly.

"No. I want to make sure you're not going to make that same mistake."

"Trust me, I won't."

"A perfect liar like you, why should I believe that?" Their voice dripped with scorn. "Your vendetta is useful to me, but I want to make sure it doesn't get in the way of you knowing your fucking place."

Lila pulled on her arm and the Sorcerer released it. They tended to know when they were pushing too far. The only light illuminating the room filtered through closed curtains, and it reflected faintly off the silver surface of their false face. Lila stared, but she could not see the Sorcerer's eyes through the mask's dark slits, as if nothing but pure darkness rested behind them.

The Sorcerer was not like Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth was far from kind, but he at least he seemed to have some respect for Lila, until, of course, he gave up the act. She'd been so suddenly, so painfully uprooted, that it almost felt safer to know just how little the Sorcerer cared. But then again, if the Sorcerer hated her so, yet still kept her around, it was because they needed her. At least they knew that, despite clearly being unhinged.

Lila rested against the door as the Sorcerer slowly stepped away. Gingerly, she whispered, "I can make this up to you."

"How is that?"

"I know your first plan…" Lila glanced at the ruined chair, "...didn't work out. But maybe all hope isn't lost."

The Sorcerer balled their fists but didn't say a word.

"Maybe it would be helpful to know their identities?"

A pause. "And what does that entail?"

"I can get Conspiracy's help. Let's just say, personal history has led me to suspect certain people of certain things. We can use that to our advantage."

"No."

"No? What do you mean, no? I haven't even told you-"

"I'm sorry, have you still not gotten it through your thick fucking skull?" Broken glass snapped beneath the Sorcerer's shoes. "Stay in your lane. Do only as I tell you to."

"I'm not being unreasonable here. The first time I attacked with Conspiracy, I found Ladybug and Chat Noir near Gabriel Agreste's house. And I didn't lead them. They went completely on their own. Why would they be there, just standing and waiting, if they didn't suspect him too?"

The Sorcerer pulled at their hood. "I don't care about your suspicions."

"But this could change the game!" Lila was frustrated now, blood boiling at her ally's stubbornness. She stepped forward. "Get this, he has a baby! That could be useful to-"

The Sorcerer yanked Lila's collar and managed to lift her off the ground. Lila gave a choked yelp. "Are you insane?" they bellowed, deep, muffled voice reverberating off the walls. "A baby? Is this a joke?"

"He really has one," Lila rasped.

"Moron," they grumbled. "Absolute psychopath."

They dropped Lila on the floor, and she nearly toppled over into a bed of glass shards. "You're deranged. I didn't mean we'd actually hurt the baby."

"Sure you didn't." The Sorcerer turned around, violet cloak dragging behind them. "I don't give a fuck about Gabriel Agreste or his baby. Do what you're told and nothing else. Rather than let you ruin this for me, I'd sooner-" They cut themselves off with a sharp inhale. "Get out of here."

Lila held her breath until they had gone, opening up a door and slamming it shut behind them. She made sure she still had the miraculous around her neck and found another exit. Once she had emerged, she squinted into the afternoon sunlight and smiled like she was fine.

When she got home, her mother reprimanded her for leaving the windows open and letting akumas inside. Lila waited through their seemingly endless embrace of relief that she was unhurt before she returned to her room and phoned the police station to let them know she hadn't been whisked away to her death. She responded to her many gratifying text messages from concerned classmates and emails from her teachers, all of them expressing their sympathy for her troubling circumstances.

And then she broke out a pen and paper and got to work on her next plan.

Lila Rossi was no mark on the wall. Lila Rossi did not stay in her place. She made every place hers.

So, this chapter was a little different, but I hope you found it interesting.

What do you think is going on? What do you think Lila is going to do?

~ Lullaby