hi this chapter features an akumasona by superethanworld: post/143491778528/akumasonas-heres-my-civilian-id-and-revised

"I'm going to wait for her." Marinette said to Alya as they put their bags down next to their chairs. "When she's done with her call, I'll try to talk to her." She decided, and Alya nodded.

"Sounds good. I'll stay here." She replied, and sat down to await Nino and Adrien, who despite Chloe's rants and ravings, consistently hung out around them. Marinette smiled at Alya, and then turned to move towards Lila, who was standing in a corner of the courtyard with one hand holding her phone to her ear while the other was pressed against her other ear.

Marinette turned away, waiting for the call to be over.

Hopefully she could get Lila to open up, and they could talk about whatever was wrong. They could better their relationship and maybe Lila would take off her mask and be herself.

Just then Marinette caught a few words.

"Yes, I'm going back to Italy." Lila's voice was saying brokenly. Marinette gasped, eyes widening as she turned to look behind at Lila, who was facing away from her.

Lila was leaving?

At the sound of Marinette's breath, Lila turned around, her hand falling to her side.

"Lila…" Marinette began, seeing nothing but sadness in Lila's face. "I- Are you okay?" She asked, taking a few steps forward and wanting nothing more than to take Lila in her arms and just hold her for a bit.

Lila wiped at her eyes, and Marinette realized that she had shed some tears.

"I'm fine." Lila said.

Marinette's felt the words like they were knives, twisting in her gut. It would be obvious to anyone that she was lying.

"Why…?" She breathed, looking down at the ground. You don't have to lie to me. You can talk to me.

But then something shoved her side, and Marinette jumped, seeing that Lila had pushed her aside and ran.

"Lila!" Marinette called, worry striking her to her core as she reached out a hand. But Lila was fast, and she was gone in seconds. Her last words echoed in her ears as her heart thumped.

Lila had said I'm sorry.

She was always running away from her problems. She'd leave unresolved fights behind as she boarded planes that took her to another country. She'd lock herself in her room whenever something went bad with her parents. She'd run away the moment her lies would shown to be false. She'd run when she'd realized Marinette was Ladybug. She would run, and she wouldn't stop until she was far enough away from it that it wouldn't matter anymore.

But no matter how hard she moved her legs or how much distance she covered, it still hurt. Everything was crumbling. Everything was falling down around her. Lila finally ducked into an alley, sinking down to her knees as she shook, heaving breaths.

She'd known she'd be leaving Paris; she never stayed in one place for too long. But her family had only been there for a little while, and she certainly hadn't expected being put back in boarding school. She'd thought that she'd have more time with Marinette. With Alya and Nino and Adrien. With her friends.

It hurt, it crushed her. She'd finally begun to change. She'd finally started to become someone she liked. Someone who didn't need to wear a mask. But with her parents fighting and the ultimate decision to send her back, it was like none of that mattered.

It's my fault they were fighting, Lila realized. This is my punishment; I deserve this. She sobbed as she curled over in on herself. Marinette's hurt face flashed in her mind, and she knew that that had been her fault, too.

Everything was her fault. She deserved this.

Come home.

Lila blinked, remembering what she had to do. She always had to do what her parents said. She slowly got to her feet, bracing herself against the wall as she choked back tears.

I have to pack. I have to get home, she repeated in an attempt to calm down. Well, on the bright side, at least if she left soon, she could avoid seeing Marinette and everyone else and thus avoid painful goodbyes. She didn't want to go explain everything; she could just leave it behind and it wouldn't matter anymore. She just had to avoid all possible contact with the only people who ever really liked her.

Easy.

Lila felt her heart wrench and she clutched at her chest, forcing her breaths to slow down. You can deal with it. No biggie.

She just never had to see Marinette ever again.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered how negative emotions attracted akuma, but she dismissed it because she'd been turned twice and the second time had been a waste of Hawkmoth's energy.

Lila took a few unsteady steps. She wanted Marinette to come find her and tell her it would be okay. She scoffed, remembering Marinette's face when she left.

She probably hates me now.

Lila was leaving anyway, it's not like it mattered.

Just as she was about step foot outside of the alley, something blue dropped down in front of her and Lila jumped back, stumbling as she tripped. Her phone fell from her hands to the cement. She hit the ground and she grimaced as she looked up, squinting at the silhouette.

"Found her." A voice said, and Lila sensed she was in danger. She shuffled backwards, but a blue hand closed around her wrist and yanked her up to a standing position. Here, she could see the person clearly.

He was obviously someone who'd been akumatized, with a dark blue butterfly shape on his face. The young man wore an outfit striped with dark and light blue colors and had gauntlets on both wrists, and he had on a blue hat that closely resembled the hat of a fairly famous video game protagonist.

"What do you want?" Lila spat, yanking her arm out of the blue grasp.

The person didn't reply, and Lila watched as the purple outline of a butterfly appear around his face. He was communicating with Hawkmoth, Lila could tell.

She thought it might be best to get out of there, before Ladybug showed up. The man looked down as he talked to Hawkmoth, studying the purple gauntlet on one of his hands. Lila bit her lip and glanced behind her. This alley was mercifully not a dead end, and opened up to another street. One look at the akuma told her he was occupied with talking with Hawkmoth, so she steeled her nerve and ran (again).

Just then she heard a laugh, and all of a sudden a force started slowing her down. Lila felt dread pierce her as she glanced behind her. The man had lifted his left arm, and purple cannon on his wrist was pointed towards her.

And it was pulling her in.

Lila turned back around, moving harder and looking for something to hold on but there was nothing. Air rushed past her and she watched as leaves flew towards the akuma. His gauntlet was functioning as some sort of vacuum, pulling everything towards him.

"I suppose it's admirable that you tried to escape." Lila heard over the gusts of wind, and then her feet lost purchase on the ground and she felt herself fly backwards. Just then the pull stopped, and she dropped hard onto the ground at the foot of the akumatized man. "But it's not easy to escape Game Over." He laughed again, venom in his voice as Lila scrambled to get up.

"What do you want with me?" Lila demanded again, and this time she managed to hide the terror in her voice. She was good at lying, just not around a certain Chinese girl. She glared up at the man, hands closed into fists.

"Well," Game Over began, clearly unafraid, one hand coming to rest on his hip, "You know Ladybug, don't you?"

Marinette hurried to the exit, determined to follow Lila. But as she looked outside amongst the hundreds of students leaving the building to have lunch at home, Lila was lost. There were people everywhere and all in motion and it was hard to find Lila in the crowd.

Her heart thudded as she looked left and right, blood pounding in her ears. Lila looked like she was broken, and it hurt her heart to see it. How much suffering was Lila going through that Marinette didn't know about? And why was she leaving Paris so soon? Going back to Italy?

Questions swam through her mind as she continued her search, sweeping her eyes across the crowds of people that walked about. But as time passed, she knew it was useless.

Just then a touch on her shoulder brought her back.

"Marinette?" Alya asked, concern clear in her voice.

"She's gone." Marinette said, staring hard outside. "Lila. She ran outside."

"What?" Alya said in surprise. "What happened?"

Marinette bit her lip. It wasn't exactly her business to say what she'd overheard.

"She was talking to her parents about something. And she- she was crying." Marinette's shoulders sagged as she looked away from the daylight to Alya's eyes.

"She just ran out like that?" Alya repeated, and she too took a moment to look outside. Marinette's hand pushed into her pocket and she drew out her phone.

"I'll call her." Marinette said, typing in her passcode and then pulling up Lila's contact.

Hearing the phone ring for so long had never felt so heartbreaking.

"Did she pick up?" Alya asked, and Marinette shook her head solemnly.

"I'll go look for her," Marinette said, moving forward.

"Hold on." Alya stopped her, grabbing her hand. "You don't even know where she is right now."

"But I can't just do nothing!" Marinette burst out. She knew something was wrong. She knew Lila needed someone. Something was going on in her home and if Lila wasn't sharing anything with her, she might not have been sharing with anyone at all. The impression she had of her family was that her parents were very busy and always working, and never there for her.

"I'm not telling you to do nothing," Alya huffed, tightening her grip a little. "Think rationally. She might not pick up calls, but we can all text her. We can also ask if anyone knows her address and visit her house. If her parents were the ones calling, they were most likely asking her to come home."

Marinette stared at her friend, and then sighed.

"I'm sorry for yelling. I'm just worried," She said quietly.

"I know. I'm worried, too," Alya returned, letting go of Marinette's hand and patting her shoulder. "But she's most likely okay."

Marinette actually did know where Lila lived, but the obvious thought hadn't crossed her mind until Alya had said it to her face. She recalled that once, she had brought Lila home as Ladybug. There had been an akuma attack at night, and she hadn't wanted Lila to walk home alone, since they were pretty far and it was very dark.

"Only on the roof." Lila finally complied, huffing as Ladybug scooped her up in her arms. Ladybug had laughed as she leaped from roof to roof, traveling short leaps that didn't require her yoyo. They soared through the air, flying above Paris as Lila held on for dear life. Laughing together, smiling, having fun. Ladybug setting Lila down on her balcony and giving her a goodbye kiss.

She wasn't going to have that anymore.

Marinette gazed outside again, thinking. Going to Lila's house and interrupting what was probably a very important discussion in the family didn't sound ideal. Had Lila even gone to her house? It didn't look like Lila was leaving to go on a walk home. It looked like she wanted to escape. To escape everything. But where else could she have gone?

Lila might even get akumatized again, what with the despair that had colored her face.

"I think I have her address," Marinette finally said, a plan forming in her mind. As long as she could confirm that Lila was safely at home, she could hold off on freaking out over what she'd heard over the phone until the day after, or until Lila contacted her. Since lunch had just started, she did have time to go out, at least for a bit.

She could go visit the house under the guise of dropping off homework (at least, if Lila didn't contact her or any of her friends).

"Let's go see, then," Alya said, relief in her voice.

"I think we should check different places, though. We'll cover more ground." Marinette shook her head. If by chance Lila did get akumatized, it would be difficult to get away from Alya to transform.

"Do you think she might go to the park? Or something?" Alya suggested in agreement.

"Maybe." Marinette shrugged.

"I'll tell the others; they can help us out too," Alya added before turning to go back to the lunch table.

"Okay."