Welcome back, readers! Oh boy…will Sabrina and Libby be able to figure out where Vivica is—and what she's up to? And can they stand up for themselves against all odds? It's time to find out. ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own either of the shows featured in this story; all credit goes to Zappa & Zappa, the creators of Star Darlings, and Thomas Astruc and the many other people who formulated Miraculous.

Second note: This is the second and last chapter that takes place during a Star Darlings episode, except this time, that episode is "Lib-erated."

Chapter 3

The next morning, Sabrina got up a few minutes earlier than usual and got ready for school very quickly. After her chat with Libby last night, she was more convinced than ever that her new classmate wasn't an ordinary girl. Because of this, she did not want to miss even a second of what today had to offer.

"Hey, slow down," Roger said, noticing how fast his daughter was gobbling down her breakfast. "Driving isn't the only thing you should avoid doing too fast."

"Sorry, just really excited to meet my new classmate," explained Sabrina, her mouth full of cereal.

Roger smiled. He'd heard about Miss Bustier's announcement yesterday through his daughter, and he'd also been suspicious. But Sabrina was pretending not to be (for the sake of the Star Darlings), and having fallen for it, her father decided it wasn't that big of a deal.

Sabrina finished getting ready for school and was then driven there by her father. As they travelled down the road, she kept looking out the window, in case she happened to see Vivica walking by, but she was nowhere to be seen. Luckily, Roger thought it was Chloe she kept glancing around for and reassured her that everything would be fine; even as they arrived at school.

Once she arrived at the building, Sabrina headed inside, toward her classroom. As she walked down the hall, she froze, seeing Chloe banging the wall in frustration. "Ugh," she was groaning, "everything's been done already! I can't use any of my revenge plans on my ex-minion because I already used them on Dupain-Cheng! Except for that locking-her-in-the-bathroom plan, which was already done on Juleka Couffaine!"

Sabrina noiselessly scurried past Chloe and, once she was far enough away from her, stifled a giggle. If this kept up throughout the day, that would give her plenty of time to worry about the Vivica thing without having to keep redirecting her attention to Chloe. And it wasn't like Chloe's frustration would cause her to get akumatized either—with Hawk-Moth and Mayura stripped of their powers and in jail, akuma and amok attacks were now the least of the town's concerns!

The bell rang, and Sabrina hurried into class. She and all the other students (this time including Marinette) sat down, and in walked Miss Bustier. Much to everyone's surprise, there was no sign of any new student.

"Vivica's on her way," reassured the teacher. "She's just in the office, collecting her workbooks and schedule. Mr. Damocles will bring her here in a few minutes."

Everyone smiled except two people: Chloe and, for some reason, Lila. Ignoring the girls' frowns, Miss Bustier asked her students what they wanted to do until their new classmate's arrival.

Rose's hand shot up into the air. "Ooh! Let's read some fairytales!"

Several other students nodded in agreement, and with a smile, Miss Bustier came toward her desk, reached into its drawer, and pulled out a fairytale book. They then spent the next thirty minutes reading Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty & The Beast—and listening to Max's "science vs magic and the power of love" speeches every time they came across a fairytale kiss—until the principal entered the room.

"Hey, Mr. Damocles," Adrien greeted, causing everyone's attention to turn toward the head of the school.

"Hello, boys and girls," replied Mr. Damocles. "Please welcome your new classmate…Vivica!"

The door opened again, and in walked a girl with long straight hair that was pale blonde; the kind that looked almost white. She was wearing a pink shirt with a primrose sweater, a light blue skirt, and white sneakers—an outfit that Rose quickly complimented. However, the girl's face and one strand of her hair, which was silver instead of pale blonde, were unmistakable; to Sabrina, anyway. It was Vivica from Starland.

Sabrina stiffened. Her fears confirmed, she swallowed hard, hoping Vivica didn't recognize her. It had been a week since the last time they'd seen each other, so maybe she'd forgotten what she looked like…but unfortunately, Vivica's fake-friendly smile vanished when her eyes met Sabrina's. She did recognize her; and she could tell her old Wishling rival remembered her too. Oh no…this was turning out worse than she thought!

When Libby woke up the next morning, she headed straight to the Celestial Café, making sure she kept an eye out for Vivica as she made her way to the Star Darlings' special table. The spiteful Starling was nowhere in sight though, which made her nervous. Sabrina had been right; there really was a chance that she could be in Wishworld.

Libby quickened her pace and arrived at the Star Darlings' table within a starsec. However, by the time she got there, the other girls were already talking about Vivica's peculiar absence. Apparently Sage had become aware of that before Libby arrived, and she and Cassie were now telling the other girls about it. But…why hadn't Libby's friends waited for her first?

She got her answer when she pulled out her chair to sit down, and the girls instantly fell silent upon her arrival. Libby saw Scarlet and Leona exchange weary glances, and all at once, everything became clear: the Star Darlings' issues with her constant mentions of boys/pink/parties/shoes had increased the tension between them and her so much, now they didn't even want her to help them on their missions. Well, she wasn't about to let that stand.

Not wanting to start the starday off on a negative note, Libby managed a smile and said, "So…what were you saying about Vivica?"

Cassie, Piper, Astra, Adora, Tessa, and Gemma all looked at Sage expectantly, but she didn't say anything. Libby noticed she had the same hesitant expression as Leona, Scarlet, Vega, and Clover now did, and she realized they hadn't forgotten about her reaction to the remix last night. Seriously, why couldn't they just let all this go?

Finally, Gemma spoke up. "Sage just noticed Vivica wasn't here, and she really wanted to say it as soon as possible. Cassie and I asked her if we could wait for you first, but she insisted she talk about it right now." She then turned to Sage and asked, "Why did you stop if it was so urgent, by the way?"

Sage started to reply, but Vega did so first, smiling awkwardly. "We were just startled when Libby came and sat down, that's all."

Libby sighed. "Just admit it. You don't want me to be a part of this because you think the only things I care about are pink, boys, shoes, and parties."

"Fine," admitted Scarlet, "you're right. It just gets so annoying."

"But why can't any of you just accept that talking so much about those things is part of my personality? I did that for you, even if I don't like all of your interests."

Leona placed a hand on her hip. "Uh, no you didn't. Remember when I was cleaning the Big Dipper Dorm and singing? I like singing as loud as I can, and you were one of the Starlings who told me to keep it down."

Libby was at a loss for words. Leona was right of course; she had asked her to keep it down. On top of that, when she did it, she'd sounded a lot more annoyed with Leona's singing than any of the Star Darlings had ever been with her tangents.

"Leona's right," said Sage. "I wasn't happy with her loud singing either, but—"

She was interrupted by a loud crashing noise as another Starling rushed past their table, tripped, and fell down. Her tray landed in front of her as she collapsed, and her food went flying all over the floor. Some of Vivica's cohorts saw this and burst out laughing, but Vivica herself was still nowhere in sight.

Libby sprung from her seat and went to help the girl. "Moons and stars, are you okay?"

"I'm okay," replied the girl, "but the hedge maze isn't! I just saw it get completely consumed with negatite!"

The Star Darlings gasped. Negatite was a magical substance that could, one way or another (depending on how it was used), control the emotions of Starlings. Every time they touched it, smelled it, or did so with an object containing it, they would be overcome by negative emotions, which got stronger if they were exposed to larger quantities of negatite. In some cases, Starlings could become so influenced by the negatite, it could control their minds along with their emotions.

Vega, who loved the hedge maze more than anyone else in Starling Academy, was most distraught upon hearing the news. "How could that have happened?"

"The negatite started out as a very tiny drop," said the girl. "But once it touched a hedge, they just merged into one big piece of negatite! Then the rest of the maze was affected."

The Star Darlings exchanged secret glances. There hadn't been an incident with that much negatite since they'd faced Rancora! That cruel woman was defeated of course, but that didn't mean she was rendered completely powerless. She apparently still had a little bit of strength left—enough to create a tiny amount of negatite that, despite its size, was still very harmful.

Once Sage and Libby were finished helping the girl stand up, collect her food, and return to her seat at another table, the Star Darlings met up at their own table, whispering so no one else would hear them and discover their secret. "Do you think Vivica's absence has anything to do with this?" Piper murmured.

"I'll say," said Astra. "She wouldn't miss out on a chance to make fun of someone. That girl falling down would have made her starday!"

"We have to tell Lady Stella about this," affirmed Cassie. "If Rancora merges anything else with tiny fragments of negatite, she could end up with enough of it to get her powers back!"

Sage formulated a plan. "Leona, Scarlet, Vega, come with me and search for Rancora. Piper, Gemma, Astra, Clover, go to Lady Stella's office and tell her about what's going on here. Cassie, Tessa, Adora, see if you can find Vivica. If she's not on campus, holo-text us, and we'll warn Lady Stella about her absence too."

"If the teachers don't do that first, you mean," said Gemma, and Sage nodded.

"What about me?" Libby asked.

Trying to hide her hesitation, Sage said, "We'll um…we'll need someone to stay behind in case Vivica comes back."

"What?!" exclaimed Libby, but her friends were already leaving the Celestial Café.

Groaning, the pink Starling clenched her hands into fists, then unclenched them as she realized how upset she was getting. She tried some of the relaxation techniques Piper had taught the rest of the girls, but even that didn't seem to work. Libby just couldn't get her mind off of how unfair her friends were being! Maybe she should have been the one to go to Lady Stella's office. Then she'd be able to tell her about not just the hedge maze incident and Vivica's absence, but also about how her so-called team was treating her. In fact, she was very tempted to actually march over there and see if she could get to the office before Gemma's group did. How she managed to go to the glorange tree forest instead, she would never know. Oh well…at least she'd have a chance to calm down and figure out what to do more easily. After all, this forest was one of her favourite places to go to at Starling Academy. And it wasn't like she'd miss out on catching Vivica in case she did come back to the Celestial Café. After her conversation with Sabrina, she knew for a fact that she didn't need to "stay behind in case she came back."

Libby walked down a path in the forest, silent and wistfully at first. Then she decided to let out her frustration by doing the safest thing she could think of: talking to herself. "I don't know why," she said, "but the other Star Darlings seem to think I'm just this frivolous girl, because I chatter away about pink, and boys, and parties, but oh my stars, there is so much more to me than that!"

She would have kept going on about this, but at that moment, something fell out of one of the trees and bonked her in the head, causing her to yell out in pain. As the object landed in her hands, it split in half, and she could see it was a moldy glorange. She gasped in starprise. "Glorange?" she asked. She looked up and gasped again, this time in horror. All the gloranges in all the trees were moldy! Remembering what happened to the hedge maze, the pink Starling knew this could only mean one thing: another tiny seed of negatite had struck, this time affecting the forest fruit.

"The girls," Libby realized, "I've gotta get the girls."

It wasn't like she really wanted to see them now; she was still upset with them about what happened earlier. However, she couldn't save the gloranges without them. So that was why, when Libby returned to the forest, she was pulling Vega along by the hand, with Sage, Leona, and Scarlet following them in annoyance.

"Hurry!" Libby urged. "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Scarlet was the least happiest about being led into the glorange tree forest. "Is this about…pink?"

"Or boys?" added Sage.

"Or parties?" asked Leona.

Libby let go of Vega's hand. "No! I swear on my stars," she said, and pointed to the treetops. "Look. The negative energy is beginning to affect the plants in Starland!"

Finally, the girls looked up and saw the moldy fruit. "Oh starf," said Scarlet, and Leona gasped.

"We have to do something to fix this!" Libby exclaimed.

Leona took Libby's hand in hers. "We will, Libby."

"That's right," said Vega, clasping Leona's other hand.

"Because we're Star Darlings," added Sage. She held Vega's free hand, then gestured to an annoyed Scarlet.

Despite never being in the mood to hold hands with anyone, Scarlet said, "Fine." She then took her hands out of her pockets and used one to hold Sage's free hand, and the other to hold Libby's.

Now standing together and forming a star shape, each of the girls closed their eyes and focused with all their might. A cyan aura appeared around them, which then morphed into a bright cyan star that expanded and burst, covering the entire forest with a blinding light. When it cleared away, the gloranges in the trees were now glowing beautiful orange and gold colours—just the way they were supposed to be. The Star Darlings opened their eyes and took it all in.

"Wow!" Vega exclaimed.

"Yeah," agreed Scarlet.

Libby observed the gloranges, relieved and excited to see they were back to normal. "Oh my stars, girls. Look what we did!"

She turned to look at the other four girls, who (with the exception of Scarlet) all looked surprised, and…proud. Then Vega said the one thing Libby especially didn't want to hear at a time like this: "Whoa! You really do care."

Libby's mood instantly turned sour. No—she was not going to get angry. Not after they saved the glorange trees from negative energy. It was such an accomplishment; she had to keep it light. So, although she was unable to hide the iciness from her eyes, Libby managed to muster a smile and tried to respond as positively as possible. "Oh yeah! Now that the trees are all sparkly again, this would be the perfect place for a party!"

She did a groovy little dance at the thought of parties and was finally able to truly smile cheerfully. She then waved, trying to get a caring reply out of her friends, but it didn't work. The other girls were already walking away; Vega with an awkward smile on her face, Sage doing an annoyed face palm, Scarlet just looking weary, and Leona…well, she just looked like she didn't have a care in the world. But still.

Libby tried to ignore Scarlet and Leona's groans and complaining. Surely they weren't really letting this starmendous moment slip away just because they still weren't okay with Libby's chatter about her favourite subjects…maybe if she just gave them one more chance…

She quickly talked more about the party, which led to her mentioning the boys from Star Prep, the all-boys school near Starling Academy and the school Ganymede went to. The thought of inviting them to a party, right here in the glorange tree forest, almost made her forget all about her misery…but then she turned and saw her so-called friends were still walking away from her in annoyance. And that was it. Suddenly, Libby couldn't take any more of this and felt her frustration spinning out of control. Before she even realized what she was doing, she took off after her teammates and hollered, "STOP! This has got to end! Right now!"

Leona, Sage, Scarlet, and Vega stopped in their tracks, spinning around to face her. They all looked stunned. Libby couldn't blame them; she hadn't gotten this angry since those magic negatite-filled flowers made her get into random and inexplicable fights with Gemma. She hoped they knew that this time, her anger wasn't flower-induced. That it was real.

"I'm so tired of you not simply accepting the fact that this is who I am!" Libby continued. "I'm not just some frivolous girl! Maybe I like talking so much about stuff you happen to not like, but that doesn't mean you can exclude me from missions or try to change me!"

"We're not trying to change you," said Sage. "You have a serious problem, and we're trying to fix it!"

"IT'S NOT A PROBLEM!" Libby screamed, clenching her fists tighter than she ever imagined she would need to. Immediately she became aware of how loud that outburst was and tried to lower her voice. "Gemma talks all the time, even in her sleep. Astra sometimes has trouble controlling her temper. Tessa can be really stubborn, and Adora analyzes Starlings a little too much. Vega, you're the only Starling in our entire school who likes the hedge maze. Sage, you're never exactly…patient. Everyone in the Star Darlings has a part of them that seems like a problem, but really isn't. And we all came to accept those parts of them. Why can't you accept mine?"

Scarlet narrowed her eyes. "Because you have even more serious problems than the rest of us."

"Yeah, your star is totally strobing," agreed Leona.

"And thanks to that, I haven't been able to study!" Vega added.

"That doesn't mean you have to try to change what I'm interested in, or leave me out of our missions!" Libby insisted. "I mean, how would you like it if someone tried to do that to you?"

Realization seemed to appear in Vega's eyes at this comment. Her gaze wandered toward the grass, and Libby thought she saw a hint of guilt appear within her expression. Had she finally gotten through to her?

Unfortunately, the other three girls were still unfazed. "Libby," said Sage, stepping forward, "face it. Your constant chatter about boys, pink, and etcetera is harshing all of our stars! You have to put a stop to it! No one wants to hear about that stuff all the time!"

Libby locked eyes with Sage, and could instantly tell from the look in her eyes that, at this point, it would likely be impossible to make her realize how hard everyone was being on her. After shifting her gaze to Leona and then Scarlet, whom it was clearly the same case for, tears of sadness started to well up in her eyes. Desperate, she turned to Vega, hoping she'd say something in her defence now that she was seeing the error of her ways. Sadly, Vega didn't say anything at all. It seemed like part of her wanted to stand up for Libby, but another part of her wanted more chances to study; chances Libby's "problem" seemed to interfere with.

Glittery pink tears streamed down her cheeks as Libby did the only thing she could do at this point. It hurt more than the Star Darlings would ever know to have to do this, but if they couldn't understand how upset she was already—more importantly, why she was upset—then clearly they couldn't be her friends. Not if they just didn't get it.

"Well, then…I guess no one wants me in the team anymore," whimpered Libby. She removed her gold star-studded necklace—her Wish Pendant—from her neck and threw it to the ground.

Sage, Scarlet, and Vega gasped. "Libby, you can't just quit the Star Darlings," said Leona. "What about the band? Besides, Lady Stella chose you for a reason!"

"Gemma can be your new keytar player," retorted Libby, doing her best not to let any sobs interrupt her. "And whatever the reason I was chosen was…I don't think you'll ever understand it as long as you don't understand me."

And before Leona could object, Libby ran out of the forest as fast as she could. She was hoping to get to her dorm room so she could have some alone time, but she'd barely even made it to the Cosmic Transporter before she collapsed, unable to hold back her sobs any longer. Other Starling students passed by on the Cosmic Transporter, on their way to various places around campus, all of whom heard her crying and couldn't resist giving her at least one glance. Libby didn't have to look up to know they were staring at her; everyone at Starling Academy knew the Cosmic Transporter wasn't exactly a private area during this time of starday. She felt so embarrassed! Yet there was nothing she could do but sit there and weep. Literally.

Libby cried harder and harder. Everything that had happened today was just too much for her to handle. Her friends not understanding her feelings was bad enough, but rejecting her role as a Star Darling, her part in the band, and her friendships with all the unique Starlings she'd come to know and love because of that had made things a lot harder. She really thought she'd be able to get through to the girls with that final speech! How had they still not seen her point?

Because they're not my friends, Libby thought. At least not anymore. I don't know what, but something happened over the staryear that changed everything. Now I've only got one friend…just one friend in the entire universe…

As she thought about Sabrina, Libby suddenly remembered the whole Vivica thing. She shook her head. The Star Darlings could find out what that girl was up to without her, like they wanted. She would just stay in her room, on Starland—stay out of the mission, out of the way. Not that she minded. There was a lot of things she could do in her room…all alone…without any friends to talk to…

Oh, what was she saying? She did mind staying out of the mission. However, she minded going on a mission with people who didn't truly appreciate the real her even more.

We're done, Libby thought as she finally got up and headed for her dorm room. There's no doubt about it now. From now on, I'm just like any other Starling here. At least, during the starday. Now I've only got something about me to hide at night.

Oh dear. So much drama happened there…let's hope things will work out for our loyal protagonists sometime soon! Chapter 4 coming up later on; I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one. :)