Things had gone from bad to worse for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She had been hurt and betrayed by the people she thought who cared about her. Lila kept true to her word and had taken away not only Marinette's friends, but now the adults like her teachers and her parents as well.
Alya, the girl who was her best friend and encouraged her to stand up for herself, continuously disregarded her feelings about Lila. Taking Lila's word over that of her best friend and accused Marinette of acting out of petty jealousy, completely ignored all of her warnings even after Marinette was expelled because of that lying vixen. She also had the nerve to accuse Marinette of not having actual proof of Lila's lies and trying to slander Lila out of spite. That stupid journalist never bothered to check facts online, nor did she do any proper investigation on the day Marinette got expelled. If she truly was her best friend, Alya should've listened to her. But she didn't. Did their friendship mean so little to Marinette?
Adrien made a promise to stand up for Marinette, but he had shown his true colors when he continuously stayed quiet, taking the high road and blaming Marinette for things going wrong in her life. He knew Lila was lying, but he refused to stop her because he claimed her lies aren't hurting anyone. He was so caught in his delusion of peace, so Lila won't be akumatized again. His heartless traits of being a pacifist shattered her vision of love for him as Marinette felt her heart breaking. Lila's lies are clearly hurting her, but is Adrien really that delusional? By keeping quiet and turning a blind eye, Adrien abandoned her to Lila and her pack of brainless dogs to attack her.
That tramp finally got Adrien for herself, modeling with her ex-crush, canoodling and smiling side-by-side in multiple pictures in the public magazines or on the internet like they were a couple. Like she deserved to be awarded for her bad behavior. Who gives a damn anyway? Lila can have him for all Marinette cares.
What did she ever see in Adrien in the first place? He actually valued the feelings of bullies over the feelings of the victims whom the bullies hurt. First, he had defended Chloe's bratty behavior. And now, he's still doing it with Lila. And here Marinette had been swooning over a clueless idiot when she could've been with Luka, the sweet and kind-hearted musician who actually cared for her. But with her duties as a hero and no thanks to Lila, Marinette can't have a relationship with Luka.
She used to date him after the events of Miracle Queen. However, the stress of being a superhero and making excuses to leave forced Marinette to end their relationship. She stopped talking to Luka, even avoided him. Meeting him would just make things awkward. And when Lila started digging her claws in him just to tick off Marinette, Luka would reject her and he never believed that vixen's lies about Marinette being a wolf in sheep's clothing.
That's when Lila got him into major trouble with his mother by claiming he had been hitting her (by putting makeup on her face to look like bruises) and claimed that Marinette had been cheating on Luka and that's the reason for her sudden disappearances. Anarka, Juleka and the members of Kitty Section fell for it hook, line and sinker. Luka was grounded and Marinette was officially banned from setting foot on the Liberty again. Of course, that never stopped Luka from sending a text a couple of times, asking if she was alright. Sometimes Marinette responded, sometimes she didn't.
The whole class had betrayed and abandoned Marinette in her time of need. After everything she had done for them, after all of the good times they shared together, her friends had thrown her aside for some new girl whom they barely knew, just because she told them some cool stories, which could easily be disposed of by a simple Google search to prove she's a liar. It didn't matter if their beloved everyday Ladybug alias Class Representation tried to warn them that Lila was lying.
They were traitors and backstabbers.
Her word meant nothing to them like she meant nothing to them.
Her friends believed she was a dramatic and jealous bully.
Not even they had the guts to stand up for her whenever Chloe was around. Speaking of Chloe, she took her bullying up a notch against poor Marinette whenever people's backs were turned... right after Lila somehow got in cahoots with Chloe by forming an alliance. How did Marinette know this? She just happened to eavesdrop on their conversation in the girls' restroom by hiding in one of the stalls. Lila continued gaining admiration amongst her peers claiming she was able to help make Chloe into a better person and was able to take away Marinette's position as Class Representative, with Chloe acting as her deputy, and Marinette failing once again of convincing anyone of Lila's deception.
Because she always believed to be invincible because of her status as the Mayor's daughter and got away with helping Hawkmoth, Chloe got aggressive toward Marinette and to some of those students who didn't fall for her 'reformed' act. She tore up one of Marinette's fake sketchbooks (she left her real one back home, thank goodness), constantly tripped Aurore in the hallways, tore holes in the yukata that Kagami was going to wear during an invitation to dine with the Agrestes (thankfully, Marinette had sewn up parts of where the yukata had been torn,) and dumped a bucket of paint onto a portrait that Mireille had finished in art class. Their reports to the principal end in failure with Chloe feigning hurt at these horrid accusations and everyone is out to get her because nobody believed she had changed for the better, the results sadly end in landing Marinette or anyone else in full weeks of detention.
If that wasn't bad enough, Miss Bustier has known Marinette far longer than Lila and she's the best student in her class. And how does she thank Marinette? Accusing her without proof. It's bad enough that she let Chloe get away with a lot of bad stuff, but whenever Lila is around, it's like the situation only got worse. Marinette would never cheat, steal or hurt anyone. And she would never call someone an idiot out of spite. But that ignorant woman chose to believe Lila, a girl who has done so many 'accomplishments' and needs 'special treatment' for all the illnesses she has, and that Marinette needs to put aside her selfishness and jealously and be a good example. Even if she has to be a good example to Chloe every time the brat tormented Marinette in the past. Why did Marinette look up to Bustier to begin with? That woman should never have been a teacher to begin with.
Principal Damocles didn't make things fair either. In fact, he never cares to do so anyway. He always took Lila's side whenever she claimed to have gotten hurt or is sick, even though he could've done his job correctly like calling Lila's mother or send Lila to the nurse. His enabling Chloe in the past earned him the scorn of his students, always cowering to the whims of her father because he doesn't want to get fired. Now he had the audacity to ignore some teachers' complaints about Lila, threatening to fire them or anybody else for being too strict toward Lila whenever the liar continuously shed crocodile tears and told a sob story to manipulate him. He claims it's not Lila's fault for something she can't control like her disease and people need to stop being harsh on her and give her a chance.
If she does have a disease, how did the test answer sheets and the necklace show up in Marinette's bag and locker, and how did Lila end up at the bottom of the stairs? Nobody had a brain in their heads to care about answering those questions, they just accepted Lila's word like it was the truth.
Now for Tom and Sabine. Even though they had raised Marinette their whole lives still doubted her based on the word of a stranger they barely know. At first, they did stick up for their daughter, but seeing a single lie with either circumstantial or fake evidence, it was enough to convince them to believe Lila instead. If they truly cared about their daughter, they should've at least tried to help Marinette, especially during all those times Chloe made her life miserable. But no, they never lifted a finger to help their only child.
What sickened Marinette the most was when Chat Noir paid a visit to her balcony, he had the audacity to gaslight her for overreacting or trying to expose Lila's lies because it's hurting Lila and she needs to stop being selfish and think of how her actions are hurting everyone. Now he had to lie in her face that Ladybug agrees with him, Marinette didn't buy it and told him off for his poor choice of words.
She had hoped he would listen to reason as Ladybug when she lectured him, but like always, her words fell on deaf ears. Even when fighting akumas, he refuses to take no for an answer every time he asks her out and he would stay out of the fight unless she admits her love for him. What the hell is wrong with that cat!?
Speaking of akumas, Tikki had to warn her of akumas coming for her every time Marinette suffered. It was the twentieth one in the past few months. The Kwamis had been doing their best to keep Marinette from being akumatized, but due to the toxic and abusive environment Marinette was in, it was only a matter of time before she was actually akumatized. If Master Fu's memories hadn't been erased, Marinette would've given him the ladybug miraculous to keep it safe if she succumbs to akumazation.
What about Marinette's dream of becoming a fashion designer? Lila promised her that she would have no place in the fashion industry. One night, Nathalie came to the bakery with a tablet in her hands. Gabriel, from the small screen, blacklisted Marinette from the fashion world after Lila had informed him of Marinette's misbehavior towards her and Adrien in or out of school, stealing designs from other aspiring designers, and slandering the brand's most popular muse - Lila. Marinette was heartbroken at the man's stupidity to believe a teenage brat, going too far to blacklist her. Her parents grew disappointed in her afterword, again refusing to believe the daughter they raised.
Fortunately, Marinette had made some confidants whom she can rely on in her time of misery. Zoe Lee, a transfer student from America and Chloe's half-sister. She was quite the opposite of Chloe, kinder and friendlier. She had introduced Marinette to a trio of students she had made friends within Miss Mendeleiev's homeroom. A trio of new kids who transferred to Francois Dupont shortly before Zoe had arrived.
Allegra Lafontaine: Cute girl with long orange copper hair tied in a single braid and grass-green eyes. Wore a white shirt with a purple vest, dark purple skirt and white dress shoes.
Alain Rochefort: Dark skin, dark brown hair and golden-brown eyes. Wore a green jacket with a white collar, dark gray pants, green slip-on shoes, and a green flat cap with a white horizontal stripe towards the top and with a white bill.
Claude Montagne: Attractive, cocoa brown hair with bangs swept to the right-side angle and sky-blue eyes. Wore a V-neck white and blue striped T-shirt, white on the top and blue on the bottom with a darker blue shirt underneath, dark blue jeans, and blue and white sneakers.
Marinette had confided in them about everything in her life going wrong. It felt like a weight had been lifted off Marinette's shoulders when she told them the whole story. Her trust in her only remaining friends had grown stronger ever since that day... The memory made her shudder and her face turn pale...
From the start, the four had sworn themselves to become Marinette's support group. It started on that day...
Marinette shook her head out of that memory. Don't think about that now, she shivered. If it wasn't for them, she wouldn't be standing here today. Because of that particular incident, her new friends had discovered her secret as Paris' superhero, Ladybug.
After she poured her heart out to them, things became a routine: they would protect Marinette from Chloe's bullying. Cover for her anytime she needed to sneak off and transform to fight an akuma. Other times, they'd also defend her whenever Lila tried to frame her for something she didn't do.
And guess what else had happened?
After today's events of yet another one of Lila's schemes, everything basically went to hell.
That lying witch had gotten Marinette expelled - AGAIN.
Lila had gone too far this time. She had set her sights on Claude, refusing to take no for an answer when he rejected her. Marinette couldn't ignore his cries for help and intervened. Nobody bothered to defend Marinette when she, Lila and Claude were ordered to go to the principal's office. He told the entire story to the principal, recounting everything that happened.
Unfortunately, that biased fool Damocles refused to believe Claude about Lila's heinous actions and how Marinette stopped her from molesting Claude. That owl-obsessed principal expelled Marinette unfairly for a second time. Claude was severely grounded after his parents listened to Damocles' report, not giving their son a chance to explain.
Marinette is under a strict lockdown by her parents, not allowed to leave the bakery until they figure out what to do with her. A few days later, a visitor was contacted by Tom to come for a visit. Miss Harrison, a middle-aged woman with a British accent who ran a boarding school in London, introduced herself to Marinette. The poor girl stood frozen in disbelief as her parents explained their idea of sending her to a boarding school in the hopes that Miss Harrison can straighten her out.
It was all too much Marinette, and she can't take it anymore. Everyone believed Lila was an innocent angel, and they all thought Marinette was a selfish bully and a jealous devil who lashes out unfairly at Lila for something stupid and petty for getting too close to a crush, when it was the other way around.
For once, it sounds like Lila had won this war. Remembering that afternoon when she got akumatized as Chameleon, she really did keep her promise and made Marinette all alone by making everyone hate her.
Marinette couldn't take it any longer. With Master Fu gone, along with the fear of more people close to her either turning against her or suffering like her, she felt like there was nobody else she could trust. Everyone had abandoned her. If no one was going to help her, then she shouldn't be here anymore.
But where can she go?
Wait a second!
Master Fu's old massage shop.
And so, Marinette had made up her mind on what to do. She would leave this wretched hellhole and stay in hiding someplace far and safe whilst dealing with akumas and figuring out a plan to get rid of Lila and, by extension, Chloe and Hawkmoth. And because she's still a superhero, Ladybug is her escape from everything. She wrote a letter saying goodbye and voicing her disappointment in her parents.
She didn't care if her parents or former friends were upset, or the fact that Lila could twist it in her favor. Marinette had spent so much time thinking of others first, but after growing tired of the way people mistreated her, she decided to be selfish for once and think of herself. It'd just be better if she wasn't here anymore.
Marinette checked the clock, almost midnight. Her parents are definitely asleep. With Tikki's help, she unlocked the trap door (her parents had locked it so to make sure she doesn't try to sneak out, only letting her out to help at the bakery or do chores in the house) and snuck downstairs to put the note on the kitchen counter.
The young designer hurriedly packed a few suitcases and luggage bags with food, clothes, pajamas, money, sleeping bag, her comb, her toothbrush, her laptop, her phone and charger, her sketchbook and some pencils. She crept back upstairs where she transformed into Ladybug, climbed out onto her balcony and took off onto the rooftops.
"You sure it's a good place to hide out until you clear your name?" Zoe questioned her friend in a small video conference, accompanied by Claude, Allegra and Alain.
Right after Marinette had gotten settled in at the shop, she requested the kwamis to create a powerful, magical and invisible charm circle to protect the shop and its inhabitants from the threat of akumas or amoks. Then she unpacked all the things she had brought with her and turned on the Face Time video chat to speak with Zoe and the others to let them know what's going on. She was glad to know they took their time out of their day to reach out to her.
"It's the only place I could think of," Marinette assured her. "Besides, nobody ever comes here. As far as anybody is concerned, the place is deserted. I'll be fine."
"I hope so." The blonde girl sighed, frowning. "I'm just sorry I wasn't there to help you, Mari. If only I could-"
"Don't beat yourself up about it, Zoe. Even if you did speak up, I seriously doubt Damocles or your stepfather would listen to us. Knowing Lila, she could've twisted everything you'd say against you."
Alain was still beating himself up over it. "That lecherous snake! Groping Claude like he's some kind of arm candy she wants to play with! Who the hell does she think she is!? It's sexual harassment!"
"That's the problem with incidents similar to this one," Allegra added. "Boys who get molested by girls are often ignored or not taken seriously by those who are supposed to protect them because of the stigmas and misconceptions associated with men due to society believing it's impossible for a guy to be molested by a woman. Not to mention society can be very biased in their bigoted views on the situation. I've read about it online once."
Tikki stares at the copper-haired girl in horror. "Humans don't actually provide males the help they need when they're suffering from sexual abuse? Isn't there anyone who would try to help them?" Hearing such a thing made her sick.
"There are some who do, but when society is run by a lot of biased morons who don't see the truth, it's a losing battle. Anyway, how are you doing, Claude?"
Claude had successfully managed to steal his phone back after it had been confiscated by his parents. Poor boy was devastated, his eyes are red and puffy from crying, those blue orbs once full of life are now dull and filled with misery. Fortunately, there's still traces of life in them when he spoke with his friends. "I'm still hanging in there..." his voice cracked a bit, "I'm under lockdown by my parents... they refused to listen when I tried to tell them. And I'm so sorry I got you into this mess, Marinette."
Marinette gives him a gentle smile. "It's not your fault. Lila is the one to blame. No way I'd stand by and let her hurt you. You're my friend, Claude. You've helped me out so much on a regular basis."
Claude nodded, more tears building up. "Thanks, Mari."
"Don't worry. We're going to put an end to Lila's reign of terror, alright?"
"Just one question..." Alain cut in. "How are we going to do that? Get ourselves akumatized so we can get some sort of power to make her confess her lies? Then have the witch burned at the stake? Although, I wouldn't mind watching Lila engulfed in the flames of hell!" The maniacal grin on his face said he was eager to destroy Lila for all the horrible misdeeds she has done.
Everyone stares at Alain in silence, the awkwardness of his suggestion creeps everyone out.
Finally snapping out of her stupor, Marinette said, "As much as I'd want to burn Lila, we can't risk ourselves getting akumatized. Hawkmoth would know who I am, and he'd know you know my secret identity. And furthermore, killing Lila would only make us the bad guys. We'd be thrown in prison if we did so."
Alain scoffed, crossing his arms. "Well, it's not like anyone would know if we did."
"We're not killing Lila! And that's final!" The bluenette takes a deep breath and exhales softly. "Look, the hour is growing late and we're all tired and upset. We need to calm down. The last thing we need is an akuma right now. We should turn in and discuss what do to tomorrow."
"That sounds like an admirable idea," Zoe nodded, and the others voice their agreement. They all needed to relax from the bad things that happened today.
Claude checked the time on his phone. "I gotta go. Can't stay in contact with you long. Gotta hide my phone or my parents will catch me with it."
"We understand." Alain also checked the time on his phone. "We'll discuss plans tomorrow."
"See ya, guys!" Marinette smiled for one last moment with them to say farewell for now.
One by one, the group logged off. Marinette stares at the screen of her laptop for a second before turning it off. Standing, she left to go brush her teeth and put on her nighttime attire to go lay in the sleeping bag she had unfolded onto the floor.
Tikki flew over, hovering over her head with a concerned look. When she tried calling her Chosen by name, she got no answer. All she could hear were sad whimpers and weeping. The little kwami felt tears prick at the corner of her eyes as well. The pain from her friends and family punishing her for stopping Lila from sexually harassing Claude had destroyed Marinette's trust in them, leaving her broken and abandoned.
How can people be that way? After everything her Chosen has done for them, this is how they thank her? Believing a malicious liar over someone they knew far longer. Even Adrien had let her down. He abandoned her holder to protect Lila rather than help a friend in need. Tikki grew disappointed in him. From what she heard from Plagg, he too was very upset in his Chosen for his lack of action. If this keeps up, Adrien will be stripped of his title as a miraculous holder. And probably for the best considering his apathetic nature.
A few seconds later, a strange ping is heard from Marinette's phone. Curious to see who could be trying to text her, Tikki went to investigate. She picked up the phone and, to her surprise, didn't find a text. Instead, she found a very strange app on her Chosen's phone - a red little icon with a black symbol in the shape of an eyeball and in the center of the eyeball is a black star.
"That's queer..." Tikki didn't know why such an odd app is on Marinette's phone, but decided not to question it right now because her Chosen has fallen asleep.