So... haha... hello! It's been a while, huh? 2 years. I'll be honest, I really didn't expect it to take me this long to write this chapter, but it fought me so goddamn hard! I'd still be struggling with it if I didn't cheat a little with Chat GPT to get a couple words down just so I could find a place to start with it and then clean it up later!

Anyway, finally, this is the Epilogue of this little short story, and I'm so glad to finally get this out after so long!

Personally, I still feel it isn't ready but I've probably been looking at it too long so idk!

Anyway, enjoy!

Chat Noir's confrontation with Alya and Lila

Chat Noir bounded across Paris, burning with righteous fury. How could Alya even have the capacity to talk to another person the way she did to Marinette?! When he got back to her, he would make sure to permanently bench the Fox Miraculous in search of a new holder. Not that it'd really matter once his father was dealt with, but still, it was the principle!

As the minutes ticked by in his rush towards Alya's apartment, his claws flexed, itching to do more than just verbally confront her and Lila. The messages he'd seen on Marinette's phone played in his mind on loop, compounding his fury with guilt that his stupid advice had let it get this bad.

When he eventually arrived, Chat dropped and landed silently on the balcony of Alya's bedroom. His eyes narrowed as he saw light filtering out through the curtains. Good, he wouldn't have to go searching all of Paris for her. With a deep breath to steady his nerves and calm the worst of his rage, Chat Noir tapped on the glass door.

Alya opened the door, her face a mixture of confusion and surprise. "Chat Noir? What are you doing here?"

He stepped inside, his gaze sharp and unyielding. "We need to talk, Alya." He absently noticed Lila wasn't in the room yet, but from their texts to Marinette, he knew she was in the house.

Before she could respond, Lila sauntered into the room, her smile fading as she saw the hero standing there. "What's this about?" she asked, her voice dripping with feigned innocence.

Chat Noir turned to Lila, his eyes glowing with barely restrained emotion. "You know exactly what this is about, Lila. You've been tormenting Marinette with your lies and manipulations, and it stops now."

Alya's brow furrowed in confusion and anger. "What are you talking about? Marinette is the one that has been bullying Lila, and I have proof! I've seen the messages."

Chat's eyes narrowed further into slits. "I have been with Marinette all day, she didn't even have her phone with her!" Chat Noir countered. "Plus, thanks to Ladybug's warning about her, I know she's a liar because she caught Lila lying about being her best friend and knowing her identity. From what Marinette has told me, Lila has been lying to everyone about everything in her life, using those stories to slowly turn you all against her for her own gain."

Lila scoffed, crossing her arms. "Why would I do that, Chat Noir? What could I possibly gain from making Marinette look bad?"

"Attention, sympathy, power," Chat Noir shrugged, stepping closer to her. "You thrive on the chaos you create and use other people's compassion to get them to wait on you hand and foot. But I've seen the messages you've sent Marinette, the ones bragging about how you've fooled everyone. I could tear down your little empire with the click of a button. These texts alone would prove everything Marinette ever accused you of…"

Alya looked between them, her resolve wavering. "But… Lila, you said…"

"Lila lied," Chat Noir interrupted, his gaze never leaving Lila's face. "She's been lying from the start. Marinette has done nothing wrong and actively avoids interacting with this witch. You're her best friend, Alya. You should know better than to believe Lila, or anyone, without question! You're a reporter!"

Alya let that statement process for a second before her face paled, her eyes wide with realization and then guilt. "I… I need to see those messages."

Chat Noir nodded, handing her Marinette's phone. "Read them. See for yourself."

As Alya scrolled through the messages, her expression shifted from shock to horror. Tears welled up in her eyes as the truth became undeniable. "Oh my God… Marinette…"

Lila's mask of confidence faltered, and she took a step back. "This is ridiculous! You can't prove anything, Chat Noir."

"Even without these texts, I don't need to," he replied, his voice cold. "The truth is out, and it's only a matter of time before everyone knows what you've done. I suggest you stop now before things get even worse for you."

With that, he turned to Alya, his gaze softening slightly. "Alya, if it were me, I would not be giving you this chance, but you know Marinette. Not right now, because she probably needs some space from you, but you need to make this right."

Alya flinched but nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I will. I promise."

Chat Noir nodded before turning his poisonous gaze back to Lila. "And you, Lila, should think very carefully about your next move. Because if you hurt Marinette again, you'll have to answer to me."

Without waiting for a response, Chat Noir leapt out of the window and disappeared into the night, his heart lighter, but still aching with guilt for not having defended his lady sooner. Maybe Chloé could help with permanently nipping the Lila problem in the bud? If anyone can destroy a person's image, it would definitely be her. She'd even be using that power for good this time!

Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Present Day

Marinette sighed as Adrien finished his story the day after Émilie's recovery, her expression turning into one of resigned sadness. She had never had a friend betray her in such a way and she was finding it hard to deal with. She didn't even know what, if anything, she wanted to do about her former best friend.

"Thank you, Adrien. I know you wanted to do much worse to them, but thank you for holding back." She mumbled, allowing her now-official boyfriend to pull her into his embrace.

"Anytime, bug. I'm still angry and I don't think I'll be able to forgive Alya so easily for what she said and did to you, but at the end of the day, you were the one most affected. Whatever you want to do, I will support you one hundred percent."

Despite the situation, Marinette couldn't help but smile. She really was a lucky, lucky ladybug.

Two Months Later

Two months after the end of Shadow Moth's reign of terror, Émilie Agreste's return to the land of the living was announced to the public, and Gabriel Agreste was arrested as the infamous terrorist Shadow Moth. He explained the reasons for his actions to the press as he was being removed from the mansion and cleverly won himself a lot of sympathy from some of the less affected Parisians when they learned he did it for his wife. (It's the City of Love, what do you expect?)

At his sentencing three months later, due to the lack of major property damage and loss of life thanks to Ladybug's Miraculous Cure, as well as the sympathy he'd won from the jury, he was sentenced to only 10 years in prison, with a chance of parole after 5 years. After all, since Ladybug confirmed she had retrieved both the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous from him, no one feared he would ever return to his terrorist ways.

Meanwhile, in the time between his arrest and sentencing, Marinette and Adrien took this reprieve to thoroughly enjoy living their lives without having to deal with the stress of fighting supervillains at all hours of the day. Even better, with the return of his mother, Adrien's schedule had been massively rearranged and he was finally free to experience life as a normal teenager for the first time.

Naturally, he and his new girlfriend spent most of that time together, going on dates, studying the grimoire, even visiting the Guardian Temple occasionally to receive the training they should have received before they took up their lifelong mantles as Holders of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous.

As for Lila, Adrien followed up on his absent musings from after he confronted her and enlisted the help of Chloé to expose Lila to their friends and the school now that they no longer had to worry about akumatizations. The fallout was massive and Marinette had to take a few days off from school after her classmates started bombarding her with apologies that she wasn't ready to hear yet.

Things had mostly settled since then, and the former Akuma Class was slowly starting to repair the friendship that they had nearly destroyed, though Alya and Marinette would probably never be as close as they once were.

Lila, to no one's surprise, was expelled from Françoise Dupont after the evidence was presented and her mother was called in. Of course, it took quite a while to get a hold of her mom seeing as Lila had listed a false phone number under her name, but once they did finally get her on the phone, Signora Rossi immediately came down to the school and chewed out her daughter in front of the whole class before dragging her home.

No student really felt bad for the humiliation she was probably experiencing, and, last they heard, her mom was sending her to a nearby military school where she would hopefully suffer under their care for a bit before learning a little more discipline. No one really thought she would change, though.

In other news, Émilie Agreste recovered from her coma rather quickly after taking a few extra doses of leftover healing potion and, as soon as she was given a clean bill of health, wasted no time in making up for lost time with her son. With Adrien's much emptier schedule, mother and son set aside Thursdays and Sundays as days exclusively meant for them to hang out, not counting whatever free time they spent together during the week.

They went on little dates, watched movies, played games, Émilie even started teaching Adrien how to cook, with the obligatory teasing that 'women love a man who cooks'. What Adrien learnt that day was that his mother was surprisingly quick on the draw and took way too many high quality photos of his blushing face!

Naturally, that led to an impromptu game of tag as Adrien chased his mother around the house in order to destroy the shame that was those photos. The Agreste household finally enjoyed the laughter and joy that had returned to it after Gabriel's successful attempt to suck it all out.

Marinette did visit for a few unscheduled dinners with mother and son and she was happy to say everything went very smoothly. In fact, if it wasn't for their current age, the teen heroes were almost positive Émilie would have long since started planning their wedding.

Things were right in the world and it would stay peaceful for many years to come. At least until the next generation, where Paris would see the return of two new Miraculous Heroes in the form of Louis and Emma Agreste Dupain-Cheng, and the return of a certain spiteful Italian and her daughter.