Chapter 47: SentiBug(Part 1)(Lila's POV)
Lila sits at her seat beside Adrien, though she isn't obsessing over him, instead she focuses on the door that leads into the classroom. She's extremely lucky that Madame Bustier happened to leave the test answers for the mock exam yesterday on her desk. Right in plain sight.
Gabriel will get what he wants, and when he does it will ensure her raise in status. She's already a muse for him and gaining a bit of traction in the world.
Then the one she's been waiting for walks in, with their mock exams in hand. Perfect Lila smirks.
Madame Bustier straightens the paper by hitting them on the desk and then she lays them on her desk.
"I have graded your mock exams, but before I hand them out. Keith, may I see your bag please."
Lila keeps her smirk, it's going so well. Soon chaos will be unleashed, and she'll be one step closer to getting what she deserves.
As Keith hands his bag to the teacher, she says, "I got an anonymous note saying you had the test answers in your bag."
Madame Bustier then rummages through the bag and finds the pages, showing them to the class.
"That's ridiculous!" Nino shouts, "Someone must have planted them in Keith's bag!"
"Exactly, Keith wouldn't have done such a thing," Adrien adds.
Alya then scoffs, "Of course you would defend him, you're his friends. But those pages are in his bag, who would've planted them. None of us have a grudge against him….."
"Lila for one does. Ever since the Despair Bear incident, or are you forgetting the constant slander she told us about him!" Nino argues.
Lila acts innocent, "All I've wanted to be his friend…."
"Then why all those slanderous things, like that he would convince Chloe to make our lives miserable, or that he's just being a playboy and sticks up for any pretty girl? I find it hard to believe….."
"Enough! Nino, Adrien, Keith and Lila meet me in the Principal's office and we'll discuss it there."
Lila simply nods and follows Madame Bustier out of the classroom. So much for that. Good chaos though. It's a good thing she planted her fox pendant in his locker just in case the test answer sheet theft wasn't enough. Though she'll have to slog through this meeting first.
They walk into the office, and Monsieur Damocles is sitting at his desk, like he was expecting them.
"Well Madame Bustier, what is that you want to discuss and why are some of your students here?"
"Because someone stole my test sheet answers and pinned the blame on Keith….."
"And do you know the young lad didn't do it?"
"Because he only got a sixty percent on the mock exam. His lowest score of the whole year…."
Lila notices that Adrien and Keith shared a quick word with each other before turning their attention back to Monsieur Damocles and Madame Bustier.
"I see that is a dilemma, but why are Adrien, Nino and Lila here if this matter only concerns Keith?"
"I wish it was that simple, but upon finding the pages, Nino reacted harshly, accusing someone of planting the pages and Lila's name was mentioned and Adrien furthered the notion of someone planting the pages to pin the crime on Keith. So it isn't as simple…."
"Hmmm. I see…."
"Wait!" Lila shouts, not wanting to waste this opportunity.
"I am the one who planted the pages, but only to get back at Keith for stealing my fox pendant….."
"And what's so important about a pendant that you'd steal test answers…."
Lila brings out fake tears to convince them, "It was a gift from my grandmother. The last one she gave me before she passed. It's a special reminder of her…" She fake sobs, hoping they will all buy it.
"But…" but before Adrien can refute, "I suppose Keith you'll have to show us if the pendant is in your locker and Lila you won't be coming back to school after exam week is over for two weeks as punishment for stealing test answers."
"A small price to pay to catch a thief."
Lila smirks at Keith, but it seems like he's in a daze. Darn, she was hoping to revel a bit in his demise and his departure from Francoise Dupont High School.
But it doesn't matter.
They all walk to the locker room and Keith opens his locker and right on one of the hooks is her necklace. She smiles, "See,"
"Well, sorry Keith. But for stealing a personal item of a student it's expulsion…"
"What no way! I bet Lila only admitted that she stole the papers to bring this up. Isn't it suspicious that she didn't put a note in the office that her necklace was stolen, especially since it's sooo special to her," Nino argues, pissed off.
"Or never mentioned it when talking to Adrien or any other classmate that she usually talks to…."
Lila's smirk falters, damn she hadn't thought that far ahead. Most people usually believe her without an ounce of proof, the only expectation is Marinette.
"Sorry but my decision has been made….."
"But it's not fair…."
"It's fine…."
Keith's POV
"But it's not, you're getting expelled!" Nino shouts.
Yeah not the most fine situation. But he's been expelled before and honestly his mind hasn't even been paying attention to the things going on. More focused on trying to figure out Hawkmoth's identity and how Gabriel either fits or doesn't. But Gabriel has been hiding in the manor all this time, and he hasn't shown his face in public for almost a year now, only attending via online through a tablet.
And there's the motive. Emile disappeared a year ago, he could be trying to get her back. He knows that he would have done anything to bring his father back after he died. But no amount of wishing and pretending could change the fact that his father is gone…
"Keith? Are you really okay with this?" Adrien asks softly, shattering his thoughts.
"Yeah, besides there's much we can do to change his mind. I'll get my stuff."
"There must be something dude. We can't just give up! Monsieur Damocles please there must be something to prove that….."
Keith tunes out the conversation and begins to pack his stuff from his locker into his bookbag. He knows when a decision is final. When there's nothing you can do to change someone's mind. Like when General Iverson expelled him because he punched him in the eye for insisting that Shiro is dead and that he should just move on.
It's just one of those things…..
Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he notices a purple butterfly. Swiftly he turns around to notice that everyone has become akumatized, including Lila, who looks like a fox heroine.
Meanwhile Nino and Adrien have yet to be. A purple outline of a mask is over their faces and Keith's heart starts racing. Adrien is Chat Noir if anything happens… Suddenly the mask breaks, and the akumatizations drop.
The hell?
What just happened?
Turning back to his locker he finishes packing out his stuff and speedwalks out of the school, not wanting to hear the conversation waiting to happen about what the hell just happened. All of them were akumatized and Nino and Adrien were about to be, but then it just drops, and they're all back to normal. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
It's the weirdest thing. And he witnessed it. And if Adrien was akumatized, his miraculous would be as good as gone. Hawkmoth might've won had his plan succeeded. So why didn't it? Why did it just drop? And can he use this to figure out if Gabriel is connected to Hawkmoth? Probably not, but there has to be a reason, right?
Natalie's POV
She coughs, it wracks her body full of pain.
"You can still use the chaos Lila created….."
"No, Natalie, you're weak. I should've never let you continue, I knew what would happen, but…."
"I chose to help you that day and I intend to keep helping you…." Another cough wracks through her.
"No, you need to rest. No more Mayura, or Catalyst. Not ever."
Natalie tries to protest, but another coughing fit stops her. If she doesn't help Gabriel end this soon, Adrien will only be more hurt. This has to end soon.
Later:
She gets up from the couch, feeling a little better after resting like the doctor said and Gabriel insisted. But now it's time to end this once and for all. And she's got an idea to do it.
Creeping up to Gabriel's room and opening the door ever so slightly she spots the Peacock Miraculous on his nightstand. Quickly she takes it, while Gabriel sleeps, snoring softly.
Once out of Gabriel's room and back on the couch she puts the Peacock Miraculous on. Dusuu appears and smiles, "You're feeling better?"
"A little, but I need to use you once again. This whole thing has to end, for Adrien's sake. He deserves to be happy, so Dusuu spread my feathers."
Even if the wish will rewrite the whole universe, Adrien deserves to be happy with his mother and father. And perhaps having his family whole will make Gabriel less controlling and less afraid of losing him.
In the Sewers:
Holding on to the Eiffel Tower keychain, Natalie breathes. Concentrating, she pictures Ladybug and uses her hands to make the image a reality. Slowly the blue blob that encased the amok becomes an identical look-alike to the real Ladybug who disappeared.
"Sentibug, here are your orders."