#different holders

The blond had told Marinette to just lay low and not bug Lila. Marinette did her part of the deal, but even so the class would try and guilt trip her. Lila didn’t seem satisfied that someone knew the truth about her. She couldn’t leave it alone, didn’t want Marinette to simply leave her alone. She wanted Marinette to cater to her.

The latest stunt had been trying to get Marinette to design a dress for her for the ball. Even if she really wanted to, she had all the extra work from helping with the planning for the dance. When Alya got on her case, Marinette helpfully recalled how Lila mentioned knowing a famous dress maker who’s been designing for years and how her designs are to die for. Surely since Lila was such good friends with them, they could design her dress. That had gotten everyone to back off.

Adrien himself had approached Marinette a month before the dance, commissioning her for a tie and a matching mask. He provided all the materials and paid her in both cash and excess fabric that his father had leftover from a previous collection. Really, she would have done it for free. Even though her crush on him had mellowed out a lot, it was still there. But for now, she just considered him a good friend.

Marinette happily designed his tie and mask, glad that he was keeping it on the down low as to not wake Lila’s wrath. She was able to sneakily give it to him without anyone knowing, before finishing her own dress.

It was a beautiful light pink, floor length dress. Hot pink flower embroidery went all the way from the bottom of the dress upwards to her left shoulder. She had even designed a custom mask: a matching pink with a half flower on the outer side of her eyes. It was the longest project she ever made. Marinette had designed and begun making it back when the theme was discussed with the student council, and only was able to finish it a week before the dance.

Styling her hair back with silver clips, she spun in her mirror. The hours of cutting and sewing and hand embroidery were worth it. Besides it being her favorite thing ever made, it would be a great design that she could use in her fashion portfolio when applying to schools in the future. She had gotten some photos of it earlier in the week, and hoped to get plenty more with her friends at the dance.

With one last look in the mirror, Marinette nodded to herself and left for the school. Tonight was going to be fun.

Walking into the school, she smiled. It was a lot of work to help the student council get things set up, but Marinette was happy with the results. Paper lanterns with various designs were hung up on the ceiling. (Plastic) crystals were scattered on the ceiling as well. Tables were set up on the second level, allowing for people to eat and drink in the main courtyard area but allowing the lower level to have more space for dancing. Lights sparkled and shinned, and the hours spent before the dance string those and the paper streamers around the space was worth it for the look it made.

Looking around, she noticed most of her friends had already arrived and were standing off by the one wall. She waved to them, making her way over. Juleka and Rose had decided to match, each wearing complementary shades of purple. Even though they both showed off their usual styles — Juleka had black lace accents and Rose had pink — you could tell they were matching. As Marinette laughed with them about a joke, Mylene perked up.

“Look, Adrien’s here.”

Once everyone’s eyes were on him, that’s when she felt it. Marinette didn’t even know how to react. Her mouth was open, blinking as some liquid dripped from her head underneath her mask. Slowly looking up, she saw Lila Rossi holding a plastic cup from the second story.

“Oh no. Marinette I’m so sorry it slipped from my hands and-”

The blunette couldn’t listen to Lila’s lies. Her focus was now on her stained dress. Hours of work- No, days of work. All of it wasted. Marinette felt tears pricking at her eyes but held them back. She couldn’t cry, not when the entire school was looking at her. She needed to get out of here. But slowly the crowd seemed to form a closed circle towards her, blocking the doors to outside. The only way to move was up the steps to the locker room.

As she quickly climbed the steps and went to the left, a hand grabbed her arm.

“Marinette?”

Said girl turned to look at Alya.

“Can we please go to the bathroom?”

“We can go after you accept Lila’s apology.”

Wait… what?

Marinette merely blinked at the girl.

“Lila said sorry, and she feels bad for what she did. You need to accept her apology.”

“But-” But she meant to do it.

“Are you seriously going to hold a grudge over a dress? Come on girl, knowing how clumsy you are, you probably would have tripped and spilled punch over yourself anyways.”

Marinette didn’t know how to respond. Who was this person? There had to be some akuma. That was the only reason why Alya would not be comforting her and claiming something like this. Frustrated, sad, and angry, Marinette pulled out of Alya’s grasp.

“I don’t need to accept someone’s apology when they aren’t even sorry.”

Before Alya could object, Marinette stormed off to the bathroom.

She couldn’t believe it. How far were Lila’s claws that she could get Alya to believe that that was an accident. As she stumbled into the bathroom, she assessed the damage. Her makeup was running, both from the punch that slipped under her mask and the tears that she allowed to fall once she was out of sight. The front of her dress was the most stained, with a giant red blotch covering her top down to the middle of her skirt. Her hair was also soaked in the sticky, sugary drink.

She set her mask down on the sink before acting. Grabbing some paper towels, she soaked them in water before working to remove the punch on her dress. Or at least, she tried to. As she worked, it became clear that the red dye would not be able to be fully removed. She didn’t understand it. She had gotten some punch on her at the last dance, and that came out easily. Did Lila do something to her drink?

Giving up, Marinette just decided to work on ridding her hair of the sticky mess before sneaking out to go back home. There was no reason to stay, and she certainly didn’t want to return just to hear Alya try and lecture her. The bluenette wasn’t so distracted that she didn’t hear the door opening behind her.

“Look Alya, I am not-” She began, turning around before stopping. Instead of Alya or even Lila, it was Adrien who had walked in. “I-” Marinette backed up, only to hit the sink. She didn’t want him seeing her like this. He was never supposed to see her like this, at her lowest.

“Marinette.” The way he said her name. It was a mixture of sadness and a bit of something else she couldn’t identify.

He approached her, looking over the stains on her dress, her dripping hair, and messy face. His own face morphed, like he could feel her pain.

“Please, don’t look.” She closed her own eyes, clenching her hands and willing for him to leave.

“Marinette, I-I’m so sorry. I’ll help you get your dress dry cleaned and-”

“It’s not just about the dress.” She shouted, before opening her eyes and covering her mouth. He had seemed surprised at her outburst, but nodded for her to continue. “I am upset about it. I spent days working on it. But Alya- She didn’t even care. She told me I had to accept Lila’s apology. That was the first thing she said to me.”

Alya hadn’t even tried to see how Marinette felt before going into her “how dare you don’t worship Lila” spiel of the day. That had hurt the most.

“She acts like she cares, she acts like she’s the best of my friends that I’ve ever had, but never shows it. Even if Lila had done it on accident, accepting her apology would be the last of my concerns. Alya has just… stopped caring about my opinion. About my needs and… I’m sick of it.”

It was becoming exhausting, trying to balance her life with Alya’s demands. She had enough on her plate with school work and class rep work, she didn’t need to cater to Alya or Lila’s demands as well.

“This dance was supposed to be my one night to finally relax. I helped put so much work into all of it, and for what? A ruined dress and a night that would go down to be my worse.”

The tears were flowing again, and Adrien had slowly stepped to be right in front of her.

“I’m sorry, Marinette. I had no idea you felt this way.” He looked down, and that’s when Marinette noticed the pink rose in his hand. “I knew that Lila was lying, but told you to do nothing. I thought that she would leave you alone if you left her alone. I’m so naive.” He held out the rose, voice raising like a promise. A vow he was putting into the universe. “I’m not leaving you alone anymore. It’s you and me. You and me against the world.”

Marinette wiped her tears and grabbed onto the rose, right above where his hand still was. Even with his promise, she didn’t feel too much better. Her emotions were still high: of betrayal from her best friend, anger for Lila and everyone who believed the girl over her. Adrien wasn’t doing much better, with his own anger, sadness, and desire to help protect one of his first friends. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, when, a black butterfly landed on the rose and it turned black.

“Princess Justice, Karma Knight, I give you the power to judge people and punish them as you set fit. All I ask for in return is Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s miraculous. Do we have a deal?”

No. That’s what they would say. But they were pushed too far. Their emotions were wrapped up in Hawkmoth’s magic, and their judgment was clouded. They both nodded, bowing their heads as the magic overtook both of them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They couldn’t do it. Bunnyx watched in growing dismay as Ladybug and Chat Noir failed to defeat Princess Justice and Karma Knight. She looked over her burrows carefully, trying to figure out which timeline would allow them to win against this akuma. It was only in one of them, when Ladybug had desperately called for her lucky charm for it to be twin beaded charms, that Bunnyx knew who needed to be called in.

She hated having to disturb other timelines, but it seemed like this was a necessary case. Jumping into one burrow, she stopped the heroes before they could make it to the school.

“Bunnyx? What are you doing here?”

“You can’t defeat this akuma.”

The pair stayed silent, thinking that it was a strange joke from the hero. However, after a few seconds it was clear Bunnyx was serious.

“What do you mean? Do we need to pull another hero?”

“You could say that.” Bunnyx sighed, twisting her umbrella in her hand. “Although, it’s a bit more complicated than I wish it would be.”

Ladybug seemed to catch what she was saying. Bunnyx had insight to many different timelines, and was trusted to not give away more information than was needed. However, she did let some things slip. She said that she was a constant, a hero in almost every single timeline. However, other holders were often switched around. Including her and Chat. One such alternate timeline including completely different holders.

“You’re pulling a different Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

Chat immediately straightened. He knew about the alternate timelines too, after all.

“Hold on. Aren’t the other holders just kids? How are they going to defeat this akuma?”

“It was in the lucky charm. They’ll be able to beat them. Of course, to not make things so complicated it would be best to have them fight alone.”

Both heroes wanted to protest. They had both felt off when discovering that mere children were given the miraculous in another timeline. If it wouldn’t have ruined the timelines, they would have gone to help them. But to leave them to fight in their timeline? And by themselves?

“Trust me. They’ll be able to figure out how to defeat this akuma. Just stay at home and think of some excuse for the media.”

Knowing protesting further would be pointless, the two turned and headed home. Bunnyx took a deep breath and opened her burrow again, stepping into the needed timeline.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last time Bunnyx had stopped by, it wasn’t a good thing. Marinette still remembered fighting Chat Blanc in a destroyed world, water flooding everything and seeing herself crumb into dust. So when Bunnyx jumped out of a portal during her and Chat’s patrol, she only felt dread.

“Mini bug, kitten, I need you two to come with me.”

Chat seemed curious, and immediately started walking towards the portal. Marinette was a bit more hesitant.

“What’s going on?” She asked, as Bunnyx pulled her inside.

“Well, you see there’s a lot of different timelines. A lot of variations that can change with a split second decision change.” She noticed Chat’s eyes wandering and snapped her fingers, pulling his attention to her. “There’s a timeline where you two aren’t holders.”

“Wait, so who are they?”

“I can’t give names, but they’re adults. Unfortunately they were unable to defeat an akuma. The lucky charm showed that you two were needed.”

Now Chat was excited.

“So we’re fighting with different holders?”

“Sadly not. If Hawkmoth sees two Ladybugs and two Chat Noirs, it could complicate things. A lot. The less he knows about the ability to pull in other versions of holders, the better. Besides, it’s not a smart idea to have multiples of the same miraculous active.”

Bunnyx led them over to the burrow they would be going into.

“Remember, do not answer any questions. This versions Ladybug and Chat Noir will deal with the media later. Defeat the akuma and meet me in the alley way by Tom and Sabine’s bakery. It’d be best to get you in and out without anyone seeing me. Any questions?”

Both heroes shook their heads. Bunnyx stepped out of the way, letting them walk through.

Once they got out the other side, it took a second for them to realize they were in the alley outside of the bakery. As the burrow closed, Ladybug thought of something important.

“Where is the akuma anyways?”

“Probably over there where the castle is.”

Sure enough, she turned to where Chat was pointing to see a castle that was most definitely not there before.

“That looks like where Francoise Dupont is.”

The two headed up to the rooftops to get a better look. As they approached, it was confirmed that the castle was where the school used to be. Instead of the normal tan bricks, dark gray stones laid as an outer wall, hiding and protecting the main castle. There was even a moat, with a wooden bridge that was pulled up. Give how the rest of the city seemed to be untouched, the akuma had to be inside.

“Let’s try to find a way in. Maybe from the back.”

Keeping the element of surprise would be best. Besides, they didn’t know what they were up against.

“How about there. Through that window.”

Ladybug looked to where Chat was pointing. At the right corner of the castle was a tower. One which, upon closer inspection, had a hole where a window would be. With a nod, the two shot up, going quickly to try and avoid being spotted.

Once they landed inside, Ladybug felt on edge. It seemed already destroyed. There was a bed in the far corner with beige, ripped sheets. Over by the window was a vanity with a broken mirror. The rest of the furniture — a dresser, small table with two chairs, and a love seat — were all ripped or ruin in some way.

“What happened? Everything’s ruined.”

“Everything expect that.”

Sure enough, in the one corner was a full length mirror, untouched from any damage or dust. As Chat made to go towards it, Ladybug grabbed his tail to pull him back.

“Don’t. We have no idea what that can be.” She glanced around, happy to see the door opened. “Let’s go find the akuma.”

Walking out the door, it dawned on them what that room was for. The door, while from the inside of the room looked like a regular wooden door, had thick, metal bars from the outside. It was a prison. For someone or something was still to be determined.

Chat seemed to be more on edge once he realized that, because it was him who pulled Ladybug away from the room. There was a short hallway before they made their way down a spiraling staircase. Down, down, down, mostly in darkness save for a few torches spread sparely throughout. It was once they made it down to another hallway, that things were lit up more.

Before either could comment, a commotion was heard from the distance.

“That has to be the akuma.” Ladybug whispered, turning to Chat. He nodded, readily his baton, knowing what she wanted.

Creeping down the hall, they were able to see that they weren’t exactly at the bottom floor. Rather, they were in a looping second floor balcony of sorts, overlooking the floor below. Both ducked, seeing the akuma on the opposite side of the balcony. Or rather, the akumas.

Two figures stood proudly across the way. At the very top of a set of steps was a girl in a deep red dress holding a black rose. A tiara sat on her head, with her dark locks flowing freely behind her. Presumably a boy stood next to her. Someone with a dark silver knights amour on, a lance at their side. On their chest was some emblem. With a careful eye, you could tell it was a black rose with red dripping down. It didn’t take a genius to guess what that was supposed to represent.

The akumas weren’t the only two standing there, however. In between them, kneeling with chains wrapped around her wrists, was none other than Lila Rossi. Her dark orange dress was ripped, and her hair was a mess. Probably ruined in her struggle to get away from the akumas.

“My subjects,” the girl announced, her voice sounding familiar. “For far too long have we allowed a liar to infiltrate our ranks. She has spread promise of wealth and connections to help our kingdom prosper. But all the words she’s said, the promises of gold and diamonds are nothing more than dirt and fools gold at best. But no longer shall I stand by, trying to let you all see the truth for yourself.”

The akuma looked over the floor below, and that’s when the heroes realized they had an audience for this fight. It was all the students, each one in some fancy attire fit for a dance. A masquerade most likely, given the masks. They were turned away from them, and as such the two couldn’t see their faces, but it was clear most students were scared. All expect one girl, who was holding a cell phone.

“Are you kidding me, Marinette?” Alya said, causing both heroes to stiffen. “You got akumatized because you didn’t want to accept Lila’s apology?”

The knight at her side made to move, clearly mad about the blogger’s comment. However they stopped when the akuma put her hand up.

“No Alya, I did not get akumatized because I was petty. Or a bully. Or whatever other lies Lila decided to feed you while I cried in the bathroom. I became Princess Justice because I could not stand being at this school another second while I was hurting because I tried helping all of you see the truth. If you are so insistent on still trusting a liar when Ladybug herself called her out on her lies, then I’m afraid we may have to check your karma too.”

With a nod, the knight pulled out his lance, pointing it at Alya. Chains formed, pulling her down to the ground. Her phone fell out of her hands, breaking once it hit the stone floor.

“That’s a pity.” The knight spoke, and the feeling of familiarity struck again. “Now the liar’s trial won’t be caught on film.”

“Oh my dear Karma Knight,” Princess Justice said with a laugh. “That doesn’t matter. News will spread fast, with or without live video. The most important thing is ending the problem, right here right now.”

They needed to strike now. Go in and catch the akumas off guard, before they could hurt anyone else. But they were frozen. For similar reasons.

Ladybug couldn’t believe it. She had gotten akumatized. All because of Lila. She might have avoided becoming Princess Justice before, but did this mean that it was only a matter of time before she succumb to an akuma?

Chat felt like his stomach was full of rocks. He knew that Lila was a liar, but she was just supposed to be some liar who was trying to fit in. If she was lying to people in this timeline about Marinette being a bully, was she doing the same thing in their timeline and he just didn’t know it? The thought of Marinette having to deal with that was awful. The thought of Marinette becoming akumatized, and seeing her as an akuma, made him feel a thousand times worse. It didn’t help that he recognize the knight standing besides her.

“Now, with any subject in our kingdom, it is only fair to give each of them a trial. Even though we know your lies, it would only be justice to allow all of our subjects to see for themselves that you deserve to be punished. Karma Knight, if you would.”

He stepped behind Lila, who’s struggles had only increased.

“Marinette, I can’t believe you would pretend that I was a liar just because you are jeal-”

The Italian’s panicked rant was stopped, and silence fell over the room. The lance that Karma Knight was holding was now stabbed through Lila’s chest, poking out from the front. He held it there for a moment, before pulling it out.

Luckily there was no blood or wound. Somehow the weapon was able to pass through without actually piercing her. But that was the extent of Lila’s luck. It only took a second for her to scream. Scream and cry out in pain, pleading and begging for relief.

The truth of her lies poured out of her. About her trying to take control over the school. How she lied about anything and anyone to get the upper edge. How she decided that since Marinette knew the truth, she would get everyone to turn against her. How not even Adrien’s attempt at threatening her to get Marinette back into school could stop her. She would get him to date her, even if she had to forced him to be her boyfriend. How she hoped, even though she wouldn’t go through it on her own, that Marinette would feel so heartbroken that she would turn to other means to escape.

Next to Ladybug, Chat Noir threw up in his mouth.

“Kitty?” She whispered, not being able to offer up much comfort. Once she was back in her timeline, she needed to expose Lila once and for all. In case her Lila was just as insane as this one.

Lila’s confession slowed down, all the way to the minor things she did today, including ruining Marinette’s dress on purpose. The students below didn’t know how to react to any of it. Princess Justice watched carefully, eyes scanning them.

“Now that Lila has confessed, it’s time to decide the final punishment. With the pain you have caused both the subjects in this kingdom and in past kingdoms, it’s only fair for the forces of karma to decide your fate.”

“Chat Noir, we need to move. Now.”

As much as she didn’t want to help Lila, they needed to go. Otherwise who knows what would happened. Chat seemed to be stable enough to nod. The two inched their way around. There were two akumas, but sticking together would be best. They still didn’t know what powers Princess Justice had yet.

Karma Knight stepped forward again, this thing choosing to stand in front of Lila to deal her punishment. Right as he pulled back his lance to do it, Ladybug flung her yo-yo right at the lance. She didn’t manage to pull it out of his hands, but it was enough of a commotion to get their attention.

Karma Knight immediately went on guard, lance positioned to fight. Princess Justice, however, turned to face them with little worry on her face.

“My, I was wondering when the heroes would come. But I didn’t expect them to be like… this. What happened to you? Last time I remembered you two to be older.”

“That doesn’t matter. You need to stop this.”

“Oh, no I will not. Lila has finally confessed and will get her dues soon. Anyone who wants to speak up in her defense can, but their truth will need to be examined too.”

With that Princess Justice held out her rose, and a dark light shot from it. Before Ladybug could blink, Chat jumped in front of her. She grabbed her partner, pulling him down to the first level. Luckily the students were smart enough to move to the sides of the room.

“I’ll hear your truth, and then we’ll decide your karma. My knight, if you would.”

Upon her command, the Karma Knight charged down the stairs, taking a swing at Chat. The two heroes separated, dodging and trying to get in hits when they could. Princess Justice didn’t try to sweep in to help fight, instead watching from above.

“Are you telling me you want to save Lila? That you don’t think she should be punished?”

Chat managed to dodge another attack and try and throw out his own.

“After hearing what she said? No, I don’t really want to save her. But I can’t let her die.”

Princess Justice tensed, hands curling into fists. The thorns from the rose causing small droplets of blood to form. Karma Knight did a counter attack, this time harder.

“You’re a coward. Trying to save a monster instead of a damsel in distress.”

Ladybug manage to loop her yo-yo around the lance, holding it for long enough that Chat was able to dodge.

“It’s not about saving Lila. It’s about saving Marinette. I refuse to let Marinette be told that she hurt Lila. That, as an akuma, she had her killed. I won’t let Lila try to hold that over her head, even if she did worse as an akuma herself.”

Karma Knight seem to hesitate on attacking Chat. Princess Justice must have sensed this, because she turned her rose onto Ladybug.

“What about you?”

“I need to save you.” Ladybug said, the truth being pulled from her. “I can’t let you be controlled by Hawkmoth. You deserve better.” She was just able to hold herself back from saying ‘I deserve better.’ “Please, let me help you.”

It seemed to work. Karma Knight had stopped trying to attack them, and Princess Justice was quite. Everything seemed like it would go smoothly from there. Even Lila speaking up didn’t seem to bug the akumas.

“I’m the victim here.” She manage to spit out, still in pain. Princess Justice spared her a glance before turning her attention on the two heroes.

“I’m glad to see you both willing to help us. However you can help us more once karma is done to you.” Both heroes turned their eyes onto Karma Knight, who readied his lance. “Do not worry. Karma is a two sided coin. Yes, there is bad karma but there is also good karma. Once you join us, you can help save me as you then wish to.”

“So the ‘then what we wish to’ means that we just want to follow your orders, doesn’t it?” Chat said, getting a nod. “And here I thought that honestly would be able to save an akuma. But no, we still have to use force.”

Seeing as the fight was only going to get tougher, Ladybug decided to risk it.

“Lucky charm!”

Down dropped a thing of pocket tissues. Taking a quick scan before having to dodge, she didn’t see what she could possible use her lucky charm on. Usually she would have to combine it with several other items to make something happened. It was just a quirk of her powers that she’d come to accept: everything needed to be overly complicated to make a solution.

“If you really don’t want to save her, why fight us? I can judge from your hearts that you aren’t like everyone else. That you truly mean what you say. Why don’t you give in?”

“Because we can’t let Hawkmoth win. All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. Hawkmoth is taking advantage of you. He takes your pain and twists it to make you do his bidding. He doesn’t truly care.”

Ladybug risked a look at Princess Justice, hoping to get through to her. As her eyes locked onto hers, she realized something. This time her lucky charm was simple. She only had to talk.

“It doesn’t matter. Lila twisted everyone’s emotions to do her bidding. I’m used to it. I can handle Hawkmoth later.”

The butterfly mask appeared on both akumas’ faces, causing Karma Knight to be hit by a blow by Chat. Princess Justice quickly waved the mask away.

“I know that Lila caused you a lot of pain. Trust me, I can relate. And I know how tempting it is to fall into a spiral of your emotions. I do it too. But you can’t give up. There’s always another way. Don’t let Lila win.”

Princess Justice made a noise, causing Karma Knight to look at her before turning his focus onto Ladybug.

“Look out!” Chat screamed, moving to stop him.

Ladybug used her yo-yo and swung up to the second balcony, a good distance away from Princess Justice but still close enough.

“You aren’t alone. You still have people who care, don’t you? You haven’t given up, right?”

Her eyes drifted to him, whoever else was akumatized with her.

“He still believes in you. He still cares. Sometimes… sometimes you need to cut your loses and see who your real friends are.” Slowly she walked forward, towards her other self. “You aren’t alone. And you are so strong for making it this far. You don’t need to keep pretending that you’re okay, that everything is fine. You can be honest.”

Princess Justice looked down, and her fists tightened again. That’s when Ladybug noticed the blood. She stood right in front of her. Cautiously, she reached out for the rose. Princess Justice didn’t even fight it.

“You deserve to be loved. You deserve to have people who stand with you, and not be alone.”

Slowly, her eyes looked up, tears falling. In a few seconds, Princess Justice fell to her knees, sobbing. Ladybug took one last look over at Karma Knight, who had since stopped trying to fight. His eyes stayed trained on his princess. Ladybug took a deep breath, tearing the rose and freeing the butterfly. Once she purified it, she casted her miraculous cure.

The ladybugs swept around the school, freeing Alya and Lila from their chains, changing the stone to brick, and finally freeing the two teens from their akuma forms. Ladybug kept her eyes trained on her other self, even as her earrings beeped.

She was a mess. Her hair was dripping wet, makeup all messed up, and a massive red stain on her dress. Her eyes were widen and looking around, confused by what had happened.

“What… what happened? I-”

“You were akumatized. Don’t worry, Chat and I saved you.”

Ladybug reached out a hand, helping her up. She handed the rose, now back to its light pink form, to the girl.

“Marinette, I can’t believe you got akumatized to try and trick everyone into thinking that I was lying. How could you do that to me?”

All focus turned to Lila, who must have recovered from the akuma. Ladybug felt her own anger rise. But she didn’t get a chance to do anything.

“Marinette wasn’t tricking anyone. The only one lying and trying to trick others is you.”

Right where Karma Knight once stood was Adrien Agreste, his dark blue mask pulled up above his face so you could see his face and- oh he looked mad.

“A-Adrien I don’t know what lies Marinette told you to get akumatized but-”

“Save it. I saw you purposely dump that punch on her when I walked in. And I know about all of your lies. Ladybug had even called you out on lying about her yet somehow people still believe you.”

No one said anything. They could only watch as Adrien Agreste, sunshine child of Paris, went on an angry rant.

“I don’t care if your mom is actually a diplomat. I will do whatever I can to keep you away from Marinette. I won’t let you hurt my friend ever again.”

“A restraining order would be a good start.” Chat piped in, looking at Lila. “After all, I wouldn’t want someone who wished for Marinette to kill herself to be able to get by her ever again.”

The two teens were horrified, being the only ones not to have remembered what Lila confessed to.

“I can’t believe you got the heroes to turn against me too. Marinette how could you? All I wanted to do was be friends. I can’t believe you let your jealous over me modeling with Adrien get in the way of friendship. All because of your crush on him.”

Marinette looked like she wanted to run away. Ladybug reached out and held her hand, ready to help her leave via yo-yo if needed.

Adrien, for his part, turned to look at Marinette. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she clutched the rose again. He muttered something quietly, causing Chat to look at him in shock. Adrien turned his focus back onto the liar.

“Lila, I don’t care what you have to say. I can’t even trust an apology from you since I know it would be fake.” He began to walk up the steps, continuing as he went. “I promise you what I said was true. I will do whatever I have to, even if it means dealing with my father, to protect Marinette from you.” Once he was in front of the liar, he dropped his voice into a whisper. “I will ruin you. So go ahead. Try. After all, the school has cameras everywhere. With enough complaints things will be looked into. I’ll be sure of that.”

He gave a final glare to Lila, who glared back at him. Noticing the stares of the other students, she decided to fake cry and run off. Paying no mind, he walked over to Marinette.

“A-Adrien?”

“I do want to ask about… it, but now’s probably not the right time. Can I take you home? If your parents allow it, maybe we can take a walk in the park. After you clean up?”

Ladybug noticed the students slowly edging forward, clearly full of questions. Both from the two previous akumas and the different heroes. Alya reached for her phone and towards Chat, obviously choosing to focus on the heroes first, but he quickly bolted up to the top of the stairs where they were.

“How about we take you two over? It’d be quicker and…”

They both looked at each other and nodded. Quickly her and Chat picked them up and swung out of there, leaving behind the protests of some of the students. Ladybug aimed for the balcony, dropping and setting Marinette down. Chat and Adrien dropped down a few seconds after.

“Hey, um, I have some questions that if… as long as you’re okay with answering-”

“Lila confessed to all her lies. She did get someone else expelled at her old school in Italy. She’s also spying on you for your father. Besides that and her… um, feelings about… well Chat said it earlier, nothing else she said was something you didn’t know.”

“Oh. Um, well thank you for letting me know.” Adrien did look mad when she mentioned the spying, but pushed it away for now. “But I was going to ask what happened to the other Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“Oh, well you see…” She glanced over at Chat Noir. Bunnyx told them not to say anything. Before sure could fumble out some excuse, her earrings beeped rapidly.

“Shoot.” She exclaimed, looking around. Forget coming up with an excuse. She needed to leave and recharge. Now.

“Go to another alleyway and recharge.” Chat said, practically pushing her off the balcony. “Meet me back here so we can go.”

Giving one last look back, she shot off to the closet alleyway that would be far enough from the school in case Alya or anyone tried to follow her. She made it just in time, transformation falling as she landed. Tikki was floating, but landed quickly when Marinette held out her hand. She looked exhausted.

“Sorry. I tried holding out your transformation for as long as I could, but-”

It must have been longer than five minutes since she used her lucky charm. Tikki had told her about that. In an emergency, she could forced the transformation for a few minutes longer, but it wasn’t a good idea. Not only would Tikki be more tired, but her powers would be weaker as Ladybug. Besides that, doing it repeatedly could make Marinette feel the side effects instead.

“Thank you Tikki. Here.”

She quickly got out a cookie for her kwami, waiting patiently so she could transform and meet Chat and Bunnyx. Once her kwami was ready, she transformed and swung over.

No one was waiting on the balcony, so she aimed for the alleyway where Chat was.

“They went inside. I explained that we were just one time heroes to help cover for tonight.”

That was a good explanation. Before she could say anything, a portal appeared.

“Good job you two. Come on, let’s get back to your time.”

The two heroes didn’t protest, walking into the burrow with only a quick glance up to where the two teens once stood. Bunnyx guided them across the burrow, finding their time.

“Do me a favor, you two. Don’t mention this fight to others. Even your alternate team members. It would be best to move past it since it won’t affect the rest of Paris.”

Ladybug was already planning on not saying anything. She’s been keeping Chat Blanc a secret from Chat himself for so long. She knew the importance on dealing with the burdens of alternate timelines by herself.

Bunnyx gave one last look at the two before stepping back inside. Once the blue and white light faded, an uncomfortable silence fell onto them. Too much information was discovered tonight. Both of them wanted to say something about it to someone else, but they couldn’t say it to each other. Both had the same thought, of being worried about exposing their secret identities.

“It’s too late to continue patrol.” Ladybug finally said, even though she knew Bunnyx dropped them off at the same time she grabbed them from. “I think we should both head home for the night.”

“I- Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ladybug nodded, swinging off. She landed on her balcony and took a quick look around, before going inside and detransforming.

Tikki flew out of the earrings, landing on her pillow. She would probably still be tired until tomorrow.

“Here,” Marinette said, reaching into her bag for the last cookie. “I’ll have to grab some more cookies for you.”

“I’ll be okay for tonight, Marinette. Why don’t you get some rest? You fought a tough akuma today.”

Sleep was the last thing on Marinette's mind. Her homework was finished, for once, so she could work on designing or sketching something. But as he eyes turned towards her manikin, she noticed it. The draping of some pink fabric. It wasn’t close to being finished, but once she was done it would look an awful lot like what her alternate self was wearing.

If she hadn’t already started to figure out stitches and form, she might have redesigned it. But there’s not enough time for her to do that. Besides, she had spent too much money on all the fabric for that design. Turning her focus away, she decided that it would just be best to just get ready for bed.

The whole time she tried to push back the thoughts on the akuma she just thought, about who it was and what had happened. Once the lights were off and she was in bed… it became a lot harder to do.

No matter how hard she tried to close her eyes and force herself to sleep, her mind kept going back to her other self. Her as Princess Justice. How calm she had been as an akuma only to turn back into a sad, powerless version of herself. Her ruined dress and tear stained face.

Marinette sat up, looking over to her manikin. Would it even be worth it to make the dress? Even if she knew what Lila was going to do, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be upset. What if she tried to prevent it, only to fail in the end? Then what? No answers were coming to her. The bluenette laid back down and forced her eyes shut, trying and failing to will herself to sleep.

The next couple days, as people continued to talk about the upcoming dance, Marinette kept thinking back to her other self. How was she doing? Hopefully everything turned out fine. Marinette continued making her dress, continued helping the student council and the rest of the class reps with dance preparations, but her mind couldn’t just shake what she saw.

Two weeks before the dance, Adrien had came up to her. He quietly asked her if she could make him a tie and a mask to out with his outfit.

“I’ll pay you,” he promised. “And I can get you all the materials you need.”

She agreed, and five days before the dance was able to drop off his mask and tie in his locker. Sure enough, he did pay her. A lot more than she needed. But when she protested he refused to take it back, even going so far as to gift her fabrics. Left over from his father’s past collection, he said.

She was left the only choice to accept. ‘Besides,’ she thought as she looked over the fabrics, ‘it would give me something to do during the dance.’

She didn’t tell anyone her plans until the day of the dance.

“You’re not going?”

Marinette nodded. Tikki looked sad.

“But you worked so hard on your dress. And you were talking to Alya about asking Adrien to dance.”

“I can’t afford to go. I got akumatized in another time because Lila hurt me at the dance. Besides, even if I know she’s going to do it, why would I bother going? There’s no point in ruining a good dress.”

She would lie to her friends on Monday, or more likely Saturday when she would answer their texts, and say that she got sick after school. If she told them now Alya might try to drag her to the school, thinking she was just letting nerves get to her.

Marinette dropped down in her desk chair, pulling out her sketchbook to work on a new design. Just as Tikki opened her mouth to try and argue, there was a knock on her trap door.

“Marinette, there’s someone here for you.”

A pit formed in her stomach. Surely Alya didn’t decide to pick her up. The last thing they confirmed was that they would meet at the school, since Nino was taking her over. Maybe if she went down and complained about her stomach in front of her parents, they would make sure Alya didn’t drag her out. Once she made it down to the living room, however, she froze.

Adrien was standing there, mask pulled off to the side, a pink rose in his hands.

“Marinette, why aren’t you wearing your dress?” Her father asked, camera already in hand.

“It’s my fault. I came over earlier than I said I would.”

“I…”

“We were going to get some food before the dance. Go ahead and get dress and I’ll tell you where we can go.”

She couldn’t say no. Not when Adrien was looking at her like that. Mechanically, she turned and headed back upstairs. Tikki floated out of her hiding spot, watching as her holder got ready. As Marinette was finishing doing her hair, another knock was heard.

“Yes?”

“Can I come up?”

She jumped.

“Y-Yes.”

Adrien stepped in, giving her a smile and slowly closing her trap door.

“Sorry about lying earlier, but I-” He looked at her, his turn to be frozen. Marinette couldn’t help but blush from his stare. He must have realized what he was doing and shook his head. “Sorry, I- I had other plans for tonight but didn’t want you parents to question it and- okay that sounds worse than I thought it would… um…”

“What are your plans?”

“Would you want to go out? Just the two of us? Not to the dance. Um, if that’s okay with you. I know you might want to but I just-”

“I would love that.”

He seemed surprised, like he expected more of a fight.

“You would?”

“Yes. F-Friends can hang out, right?”

Something flashed across his eyes before he gave her a soft smile.

“Right. As friends.”

He held out the rose to her.

“Here, it goes with your dress.”