#mlbjustice

“We just can’t believe such a horrible person got to be a model after ruining our lives,” Maria, a girl in her late teens, said as she gripped the magazine so hard that the pages tore.

“Do you mind if I ask what she did?” Remios asked, using a slight amount of his power to make them more willing to spill everything.

“What hasn’t that bitch done,” Terance growled in disgust. “She sexually harassed me, tried to get me to date her because my family has money. When I told her I wasn’t interested, she told everyone that I was harassing her! She got me expelled and taken to the police for questioning, it ruined me at school even though we had proof that it was the other way around. My family had to move to keep people from beating me up every day.”

Beatrix clutched at the two crutches that were laid across the bench beside her. “She tried to ruin my reputation at school, too. It almost worked, but our teacher believed me instead of her and kept giving her detention. When the teacher told Lila that if she did one more thing against me, she would get suspended, I got pushed down the stairs. I was in a coma for over a week, broke a lot of bones, and I still can’t walk without crutches. My parents and the school tried to get ahold of her parents, but the phone number and email they had were defunct. The school never found where she transferred to.”

Maria’s eyes were full of hate and tears as she continued to glare at the magazine in her hands. “She bullied my sister for months; at school, on the internet, she convinced our parents that she was the bully. People were throwing stones through our windows. Jennifer came home covered in bruises at least a dozen times. But the worst…” Her breath shuttered as she threw the magazine onto the street. “Someone had posted online that Jennifer was a prostitute and wanted to have ‘fun’. A group of boys from her school cornered her in the locker room and…” Maria broke down in sobs as Beatrix rubbed the older girl’s back in soothing circles. It was a few minutes before she was able to gather herself enough to continue.

“It wasn’t until then that my parents actually tried to do something… but it was too late. My poor little baby sister couldn’t take anymore and killed herself. That… that thing masquerading as a teenage girl ruined our lives and who knows how many others.”

“At least twelve, if we go by the group chat.” Terance muttered, before looking at Remios. “That’s how we met. Maria set up the group chat as a sort of support group/warning system for others. Lila’s done everything from stealing from people, getting people expelled because they tried outing her for lying. One girl, Katy, almost committed suicide before she found our chat and we were barely able to talk her down.”

“And now that thing is a model for a famous fashion designer,” Beatrix groused. “All her dreams are coming true and all the people she hurt have to deal with the fact that all we can do is try and fail to make her pay for what she’s done.”

Remios just looked on in shock. If these three were telling him the truth about this girl, then she would be the youngest person he’d even punished. He had gone after sociopaths before, that was nothing new, but those were normally in their mid-thirties or older. Just to make sure, he asked them to show him the chat so he could see the stories for himself. Sure enough, there were dozens of different members of the chat. Some were Lila’s victims, others were friends/related to former victims, and there were still others that had tried to tell people at Lila’s schools the type of person she was, only to be ridiculed and bullied for their efforts. 

No one had known where she disappeared to after her last school in Florence, where she had brought her classmates a batch of cookies, knowing full-well that one of her classmates was allergic to coconut and served them to her. The girl had recently discovered that Lila was a liar and decided to give her a chance to confess on her own. If Amelia hadn’t had an epi-pen with her, she would have died. By the time her mother had found out what had happened and tried to contact Lila’s parents, the family had moved on and the contact numbers and emails on file were defunct, just like all of her previous schools.

With so many different stories from people all over, and the fact the souls of the three people he was speaking with were in so much pain that he wasn’t sure how much longer he could be around them, he knew what he had to do. It was time for him to wield the power of the wish. He just had to know what they wished for.

“This girl, Lila, really does sound like a rotten person. I bet you all wish something or someone would do something to take her down a peg or 30.” Remios prompted. 

Terance nodded. “More than anything, I wish all of her lies were exposed so everyone will see exactly what a disgusting, vile, and corrupt psychopath she really is.”

Beatrix’s hand absently ran over her crutches again as she spoke. “I wish she understood the pain that she’d caused the people she targeted, both emotionally and physically.”

Maria was wiping away the remaining tears from her eyes before looking up longingly at the sky. “I want her to pay for what she did to my sister and everyone else. But I don’t want it so bad that she dies, I want her to live with the consequences of what she’s done. And I wish I could see her face when it all happens. That way I know that what she did to Jennifer, she won’t be able to do to anyone else.”

The three of them were all looking to the street or the sky at that moment. No one saw his human mask melt away to reveal his true demonic face. All they heard was the word “Done,” whispered in their ears before the man that the three of them swore they had been speaking to, vanished as if he was never there.

~oOo~

It started with emails to a few celebrities from lawyers that they didn’t remember retaining. 

Jagged Stone and his manager Penny received a call from their lawyer that the lawsuit against the girl that accused him of reckless endangerment, copyright, slander, and accusations of pedophilia was ready for his signiture. The rock star had been confused at first, not remembering having anything like that in the works, but a look through the paperwork and he was glad that it was being resolved. When he recognized the name as the girl that was also harassing his honorary niece, he had the lawyer draw up a restraining order and lawsuit on her behalf, to be implemented as soon as he had her parents permission.

Clara Nightingale received a similar call from her lawyer, pertaining to copyright, slander, and theft of art that she was being accused of from a girl she’d never met, but the name was familiar. Once she realized that it was the girl that Marinette had been venting about after the girl had accused her of stealing her design ideas, Clara had the lawyer add theft on Marinette’s behalf. There was no way she was going to let the girl that inspired such good will and a few new songs suffer from some no talent wannabe.

There were over a dozen other celebrities that suddenly found themselves signing lawsuits to be delivered to the teenager and her parents later that afternoon. Most didn’t even remember wanting or filing the lawsuits, but agreed wholeheartedly after reading the charges that were being brought against the girl. There was everything from slander, copyright infringement, and liability; to theft, harassment, and impersonation for pretending to be dating/related to a celebrity and making them foot the bill for whatever restaurant or store she went to.

Another lawyer, M. Fontaine had a completed class-action lawsuit on his desk that morning; full of testimonies, video, digital, and physical evidence against Lila Rossi for what she had done to her former classmates. This included the wrongful death of Jennifer Cartia, the attempted murders of Amelia Rostiere and Beatrix Devoux, the sexual harassment of Terence Armounte, as well as bullying, harassment, slander, destruction of property, and theft of 17 other former classmates. There were also notes about Miss Rossi’s current school, that there was a student that was accused of being a bully to Rossi and had nearly been expelled. This girl was likely another victim and he had interviews set up with her and other students that day. He wasn’t sure how he had almost forgotten about the interviews, he could have sworn that he was looking forward to nailing this girl’s lying tongue to the wall. Gathering up his paperwork, he began making his way to the Francoise Dupont School.

~oOo~

Greta Rossi had just barely sat down at her desk at 7:15am sharp. She had always taken pride in her punctuality. It surprised her when her phone rang,  normally the office didn't receive phone calls for another hour, but answered all the same. “Hello, this is Greta Rossi.”

“Oh, Mme. Rossi, it’s wonderful to speak with you. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Her brow creased for a moment. “What do you mean? You called me. Who is this?”

“I apologize, but my phone rang and you answered, I could have sworn that you called me. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. This is M. Damocles, Principal of Francoise Dupont.”

 “Is everything okay with Lila? Has there been another akuma attack?”

“Lila is fine and there are currently no akuma. But while I have you on the line. I would like to discuss a few things with you. I am in need of the note for her absence from school for those months you and she were away in Achu for diplomatic work. I’ll also need the doctor’s notes pertaining to Lila’s medical needs and instructions on dealing with her accommodations. Specifically her lying disease, as I would hate to have another misunderstanding like we had a few months ago.”

There was a pause on both ends while Greta processed what M. Damocles just told her. “Exactly what ‘misunderstanding’ are you referring to? I didn’t receive any call or email about anything happening. Did my email get deleted or something after you were akumatized for all those months and the school was damaged? And what diplomatic work in Achu? We haven’t left Paris since we moved here.”

Another pause… The two confused, and soon angry, adults agreed that Mme. and M. Rossi needed to come in right away to discuss what her daughter had been saying and hash out the truth of the matter. 

It was 8am as she was grabbing her purse, there was a knock on her office door and she was met with numerous men and women in power suits and carrying briefcases. After introducing themselves as lawyers representing multiple different parties, Greta was handed lawsuit after lawsuit that she, her husband, and Lila were going to have to answer for in the coming weeks. They then informed her that they would also be delivering the lawsuits to Lila herself, but wanted to make sure that Greta was informed first, as she was the adult and Lila had proven a tendency to lie.

The more Greta read, the angrier she got. It was only through sheer will that she kept calm so that she wouldn’t attract an akuma while she called her husband and informed him what their daughter had been up to and that they had a standing appointment at the school for that day. He told her that he would meet her there within the hour. By 10am, she was sure that any freedom Lila had would be stripped away.

~oOo~

Lila had a feeling that today would be different. She wasn’t sure how, but she had a few ideas in mind to do with Adrien, Maribrat, and possibly getting her classmates to do her work for the rest of the term. She'd bought a box of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies from a bakery near her apartment the day before and put them in a tin from home, ready to tell everyone that she made them herself. 

She had just stepped on campus, already half way through the school day. Not that it mattered since her "mother" had already emailed the school to let them know that she had a doctor's appointment and would be coming in after lunch. If that meant she would have to miss a test she hadn't studied for, oh well. She was a little surprised to see Mme. Bustier waiting for her at the door with a somber look on her face. "Lila, you're needed in the principal's office. Something has come up with your parents."

A little surprised by the grave tone in the teacher's voice, Lila rushed up the stairs to the office. She took the time to knock, attempting to keep the image of an obedient, but worried girl. But in reality, she was annoyed that whatever happened was interrupting her plans for the day. Still, she plastered her best scared/concerned expression on her face when she heard Damocles call for her to enter.

Her eyes hardly found him sitting tall behind his desk before she noticed her parents standing to one side, looking absolutely furious. Lila was contemplating just turning around and sprinting away, knowing full-well that it would be hard to work things to her advantage if they'd had any time to talk before she arrived. 

Before she could decide, her father marched forward to move her away from the door and stand in front of it, firmly blocking her exit. Ciro Rossi, a naval commander turned diplomat, was a force to be reckoned with when he was angry. Lila was fortunate, and skilled enough, to never have that anger directed at her. But now, it felt like every experience she had avoided had accumulated and was now directed at her all at once.

Her mother… she had never seen that expression on her mother's face before. She was the type that was open and loving, always with a smile on her face. Going on and on about how much she loves Lila, whatever that really meant. But now, her face seemed completely devoid of any readable thought or emotion besides anger. Which was very bad for Lila, if she couldn't read the emotions of her parents, it was harder to manipulate them. 

Still she had to try. "Mama, Papa, is everything alri-"

"Sit down," her father said sternly behind her. She looked back at him, doing her best to appear small, vulnerable, and scared. "Now." 

She did as she was told. "What’s going-"

"Shut up," her mother harshly interrupted her, surprising Lila into silence. "You will not speak unless asked a direct question. Every interruption or attempt to lie will see you more harshly punished. Are we clear?"

Unable to help herself, she visibly winced before nodding. They knew that she had lied, but which ones did they know about? Probably the ones having to do with school and attendance. Worst case scenario, she'll be expelled and have to start over at a new school. Not the worst thing, since her classmates were a bunch of idiot sheep and didn't have much to offer anymore. 

"First thing's first, the school never closed. You lied to us and the school about your attendance," her mother said matter-of-factly. "That's called truancy. The Board of Governors has already been notified, it will go on your permanent record, and your father and I will be forced to pay a fine for believing your lies. That fine will be paid for from your allowance."

She automatically jumped up to protest, but her father firmly grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down into the chair again. One hard glare from him had Lila biting her tongue as she glowered in her seat.

"Secondly, we have been informed of your 'diseases and disabilities' that you have told the school about and the fake doctors' notes you gave them. Do you realize that each one of those is a possible fraud and forgery charge? Because either you knew and didn't care, or you're an idiot and didn't realize the trouble you could get in."

Lila scowled at her mother for the insult. She hadn't meant to and averted her eyes back down to the floor, but it was too late.

"Ah, so you did know and didn't care. After everything we've been told, I'm not surprised."

"We could also add that she didn't think she would be caught." Ciro stated behind her, his voice making her quake slightly. "After all, she has forged our signatures, faked our contact information, and assaulted other classmates at her past schools. Why wouldn't she think she'd be able to do it again?"

"But I haven't, I swear!" Jumping from her seat in a panic, she looked from one adult to another while trying to figure out what to do. There was no way they could know about her past schools and classmates. None of those places had their numbers or forwarding address. She'd made sure that none of them were able to contact her parents. They had to be bluffing!

As if the gods heard her thoughts and wanted to torment her, there was a knock at the office door followed by a tidal wave of lawyers. They greeted Greta with a nod before each of them served Lila with lawsuits. A lawsuit and restraining order from Jagged Stone. Another lawsuit and a cease and desist from Clara Nightingale. Bruce Wayne had sent a lawsuit for slander and theft, how could he have known about the times she had sent tabs to him, claiming she was dating his son? 

Lawsuit after lawsuit were being dropped into her lap as the lawyers filed in and back out of the office. She hadn't even realized that she had sat back down, likely from the shock. This can't be happening! How did all these people find out about me?

Lila hadn't even realized that she had zoned out for a couple minutes until a stern voice cleared his throat. She looked up from the towering pile of envelopes to face yet another intimidating man in a power suit… and was backed up by a couple of police officers. 

"Are you Lila Rossi?" She dumbly nodded before the man looked towards her mother and father. "M. and Mme. Rossi, thank you for allowing me to finish my other interviews before speaking with you formally." 

"Of course, M. Fontaine. Now, if you would please tell us about the charges you plan to file? You said it was in relation to Lila’s past schools and classmates?" Ciro asked in a resigned voice. Their daughter already had 14 lawsuits handed over to them in one afternoon. What was one more?

The man nodded to the two officers before approaching Ciro and Greta. "Yes, I'll be leading the class action lawsuit against your daughter." As he said this, the officers had stood Lila up and proceeded to arrest her while giving her miranda rights. This seemed to wake Lila from her shock as she began thrashing and screaming. Fontaine ignored this as he spoke to her parents. "I represent Lila’s past and current victims of bullying, harassment, sexual harrasment, and slander; as well as two charges of attempted murder and the wrongful death of one of her classmates."

Hearing that, Greta nearly collapsed but was kept standing by her husband. Ciro's expression turned hard as he glared. Luckily for M. Fontaine, he was pretty sure that look was for daughter rather than him.

Speaking of, the three of them were startled when there was a sudden *tang* of metal striking flesh. They turned towards Lila and the officers just in time to see the teenager strike the second officer in the face with the tin of cookies that burst open from the force. The handcuffs were hanging from her right wrist and her expression reminded Fontaine of a rabid badger, something that would attack anyone and anything that got too close. 

The class bell rang a moment later and the girl sprinted out the door in the hopes of blending in with her classmates so she could escape the school, find an akuma, and use its power to make everyone forget about today. She didn't count on the police officers recovering as quickly as they did to follow her out, along with her parents, the principal, or that last lawyer. But it wasn't over yet, the dark purple wings of the approaching akuma proved it. A good jump in the air and the butterfly was trapped in her fist.

"Just you wait, once I've got my powers I'll make every one of you suffer for even thinking of challenging-"

*BUZZZZZZ*

Lila’s entire body went ramrod stiff as the two prongs of an officer's stun gun made contact. The akuma got crushed in the girl's grip in addition to the 1,200 volts coursing through the insect and her. Unable to control her body, nothing could stop her from tipping sideways and tumbling down the stairs. 

The officer that had shot her was nearly in a panic as the girl fell. All he'd been able to think about was that this girl they were arresting for multiple counts of attempted murder was about to willingly akumatize herself, risking the lives of everyone in the school. Who knew what kind of powers she would have gotten. He had done what was necessary to protect the students, his partner, and himself in a situation that he hadn’t thought possible. Still, she should have fallen forward and away from the stairs, not towards them. Now they had to worry about being accused of using excessive force on the arrest. 

~oOo~

It had become one of the biggest trials in Europe since the Nuremberg Trials. Lila Rossi had been found guilty of aiding known terrorist Hawkmoth, the wrongful death of Jennifer Cartia, the attempted murders of Amelia Rostiere and Beatrix Devoux, the sexual harassment of Terence Armounte and Adrien Agreste, and numerous other charges. 

She'd lost every charge and lawsuit brought against her. Lila didn't know how they had found all the evidence or how they traced it back to her, but they did. It made whatever defense her lawyer attempted seem pathetic. 

Lila claimed that Terance harassed her? They had audio and video of her harassing and threatening him. She says that she had nothing to do with Beatrix’s accident? The seven eye witnesses and DNA evidence from the fingernail that broke off in Beatrix’s hair says otherwise. Lila is currently being bullied and was injured by her classmate, Marinette? CCTV footage of Lila faking her injury and planting evidence in Marinette's locker proves it's the other way around. Claims that she and Jennifer were friends and would never hurt or bully her? There were literally stacks of printed texts, emails, and social media posts that were time stamped and traced back to Lila’s accounts. Including the post that had resulted in Jennifer being assaulted, which had Lila being charged for the crime, just like the boys that hurt Jennifer. 

Her lawyer refused to let her take the stand in her defense. Both because of her tendency to lie and the fact that she was on a constant supply of pain killers that made her loopy. The fall had left her unable to walk due to shattered vertebrae, but the nerves were still able to transmit pain and had been doing so to an impressive degree. Lila had hoped for a bit of sympathy from the jury. She was just a teenager, who was now paralyzed from the waist down as a result of her fall down the stairs when she was tazed. They ignored her pain and focused on the pattern of behavior, saying that if she hadn’t been discovered, she'd have continued to escalate. 

At the very least, she hoped that the stupid police officer that paralyzed her would have been fired and forced to apologize to her. But NO, the officer had gotten a freaking award for stopping her willing akumatization. Stating that he had made a difficult decision in an unpredictable situation, likely saving hundreds of lives, most of them school students. 

When the judge had finally come to a decision, she cried real tears for the first time since the doctors said she'd never walk again. He sentenced her to the maximum penalty as permitted by law. Lila Rossi was to serve 182 years in prison for all her crimes. The possibility of parole had been completely revoked once it had been proven, via video evidence, that the day of her arrest wasn't the first time she had been willing to be akumatized. 

When the verdict had been read, she had wanted to launch herself at her past victims, the people that had testified against her. Not that it would have worked. Between her injury and the four officers that surrounded her at all times, she never had the chance. Worst she could do was throw her cup of water at the crowd when they cheered at her verdict. 

Lila just couldn't believe everything that happened. All of her lies had been exposed on international television and all over the internet. She was in constant pain from her injuries and would never walk again. But worse of all, the humiliation from being exposed would never leave her. She was constantly monitored to make sure she would serve her sentence…and not end it abruptly due to selfish actions. No, this was Lila Rossi's life until she died of old age in a cramped, disgusting prison cell. 

She never once noticed the nondescript man that had attended every day of her trial, despite the proceedings being closed to the public for her safety. The man had seriously given Marinette and Adrien the willys, and their kwamis had warned them to steer clear of him, but there were no incidents. He wasn’t a witness or one of her past victims. He never took the stand. All he did was sit to watch the trial. When the verdict was read, he watched three of the people up front: Terance, Maria, and Beatrix. As they cried tears of relief and joy, the man gave a smile and nod. Then it was like he was never there.

**Bonus**

Gabriel Agreste slowly came around as he propped himself up on the floor. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of thousands of bees buzzing under his skin after Rossi grabbed his akuma. Very unpleasant. 

After transforming and returning to his office, he was greeted by Natalie, who held out her tablet with a video cued up. It showed a news clip about an "unnamed student" being arrested for willingly accepting an akuma while in the process of being arrested for other heinous crimes. Although force had been used and the student had been taken to the hospital for her injuries, witnesses state that the actions of the police officer saved their lives. 

Gabriel handed the tablet back to his assistant. "Be ready to prepare a statement to the press about canceling Lila Rossi's contract. Including that we were unaware that she forged her parents signatures and, due to her obsession with Adrien, we will be filling a restraining order as well. We don't know what kind of diplomatic pull her parents have, the little weasel may get out on bail."

A little while later, Adrien came rushing through the mansion doors. He demanded to see his father, saying that there was a big incident at school that he had to tell him about. 

Gabriel hummed. "That will work."

Tag List:

The principal, M. Damocles was his name, seemed very happy to have spoken to her and said that he would have her assignments waiting when she came to pick them up. Also, if she could bring the doctors’ notes with her, that would be very much appreciated.

Checking again that Lila was sound asleep, she left a note on her daughter’s bedside table that she was running some errands, would be home soon, and to text her if she needed anything. 

Arriving at the school, she was surprised to see everything running so smoothly and that the reconstruction after the two month akuma attack had been gone so well. She was impressed that she couldn’t even tell the difference between the old and new parts of the building. But then, she wasn’t overly skilled with architecture or building construction, so that wasn’t a surprise to her. 

A few knocks on the door and she entered M. Damocles office. She had only met the man a couple times, but he had seemed like a decent person. It was a shame that he had been akumatized for so long and she was curious about what had happened to cause him to be akumatized, but she wasn’t sure if it was proper to ask him.

“Mme. Rossi, good to see you. I understand that Lila has fallen ill?” He asked, spinning around to grab a blue folder behind his desk.

“Yes, the poor dear has strep throat and has been coughing nonstop for days.” Greta told him as she pulled the doctor’s note from her purse. “Here’s the note you requested, do you have her homework packet?”

Damocles looked over the note for a moment before nodding and looking at her expectantly. “Thank you, do you have her other doctor’s notes?”

Greta tilted her head in confusion. “Does she need more than one? It’s just strep throat, she should be back to school after next week.”

“No madam, this is all I need for her current leave from school. I was referring to the doctor’s notes for her tinnitus, arthritis, sprained wrist, and her lying disease. That last one especially, and any information you can give me on accommodating that one so we do not have a repeat of the incident last month.”

Nothing in the world could have kept her jaw from dropping. What he had just told her? “M. Damocles, everything you just said is completely false. Lila has no such ailments, and I don’t think there is such a thing as a lying disease, unless you are referring to pathological lying.”

The man blinked back at her a few times before raising one hand to rub his brow. “Oh my, Mme. Rossi, I believe you and I must have a long discussion about the things your daughter has been saying and doing since she started school here.”

Her legs were stiff as she lowered herself into a chair, a sick feeling growing in her stomach as M. Damocles pulled a different folder out from his desk.

~oOo~

Over two hours later, many truths had finally come out. 

1) The school had never closed for months due to akumas. 

2) When M. Damocles had been akumatized, it had been at night and did no damage to the school. 

3) Greta was not the ambassador, but a secretary. 

4) Lila did not suffer from any diseases. 

5) They had been in Paris since Lila had started school, no globetrotting whatsoever. 

6) She and her husband were not estranged, he had simply wanted to stay at his dream  job in Venice and she would never force him to leave it for her temporary assignment here in Paris. 

7) Lila’s grandmother was alive and had never owned or given Lila a foxtail necklace. 

8) The phone number on file was Lila’s number, not Greta’s. And the email was supposed to be ‘.gov’ not ‘.com’.

Damocles had also called one of Lila’s classmates to his office, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. When the principal told Greta about the incident from the previous month, she was shocked. Then Marinette told them her side of the story; all the lies, the threats, and finally setting the poor girl up to be expelled. Greta had never been so angry with her daughter in her life. Sure, she had been a good little story teller and actress when she was little, but she never would have thought she could be so cruel.

By the end of her explanation, Marinette was practically in tears.

When she mentioned that Adrien Agreste also knew of Lila’s lies, he was called to the office as well. He was a little more reluctant to talk about what Lila had been saying, but Greta insisted that she wanted to know what her daughter had been doing since coming to school, so he told her. If she hadn’t been disgusted before, she definitely was now. Getting Adrien’s father’s employees in trouble, lying about being friends with Ladybug all while telling Greta that she was a useless hero, sexually harassing Adrien while the boy didn’t even realize that was what she was doing to him. She had become a Gabriel model without her permission, which meant that Lila had likely forged her signatures on the contracts, so she would need to contact M. Agreste to get that sorted out. One of the things that surprised her was hearing that Lila had been akumatized, not once or twice, but three times! 

Not long after that, M. Damocles dismissed the children so he and Greta could finish speaking. He told her that, due to falsifying contact records and two months of truancy, Lila was likely to be expelled. Greta accepted this, knowing that she would have done the same thing in that man’s position. In fact, she already had a plan forming on how to thoroughly punish her deceitful daughter. And since Lila had basically been quarantined for the next week and a half, she knew exactly what to do.

First, she began the paperwork to have Lila pulled out of Francois Dupont, effective immediately and asked to go speak to Lila’s classmates. After hearing what her daughter had put Marinette through, she wanted to make sure everyone knew the truth. Damocles allowed this, first pulling Mme. Bustier from the class to alert her as to what was happening. The woman was appalled to hear what had happened but insisted that she had been in contact with her for months via email, to which Greta informed her that it was not her email, but one that Lila had likely set up to keep the school from contacting her. This shocked the teacher to the point where she heavily leaned against the wall and M. Damocles had to support her to keep from collapsing.

When Greta was finally permitted to address the class and debunk the lies that her daughter had been spewing, there had been a lot of shock and questions to follow. But when a girl named Alya began furiously typing on her phone to blow up at Lila, Greta stopped her.

“I’m going to ask that none of you contact Lila from now on.” Alya and the other students looked at her in surprise, but she continued before anyone could interrupt. “I have already begun putting her punishment into motion and know for a fact that it will not be something she will forget anytime soon. So I ask that you do not call, text, or email her. If she attempts to contact you, tell her that you are busy and can’t talk. If she attempts to invite you over or make plans for the future, tell her that you are unavailable or that you already have plans. If she makes any threats or rude remarks to anyone, please forward those messages to me, I will leave my number for you to do so. Do this so that I may move forward with her punishment without her suspecting that I have discovered the truth.”

Having finally had the wool lifted from their eyes, the students realized just how much attention Lila seemed to demand on a daily basis. So, by acting like they were too busy for her or not in the mood to talk, that will drive her crazy and be a nice bit of revenge for lying to them. The class agreed.

After that, Greta headed home to find that Lila was still asleep but beginning to wake up, if the coughing was any indicator. While still having the chance, she called up her husband back in Venice.

“Pronto.”

“Mio amor, how are you? How are things at the school?”

“Ah, mia bella, the school is wonderful, though I must admit, my urge to see you and Lila grows by the minute. When will you come to visit me?”

“Very soon, actually. I’m afraid that you and I need to have a talk about our daughter.” About thirty minutes and a lot of cursing later, Ciro Rossi was now completely up to date on the actions of their daughter.

“I wish to say that I cannot believe Lila would do such things, but I can’t help remembering that boy, Roberto, from two years ago.”

Yes, Greta remembered him well. He had been a very popular boy at Lila’s school; handsome, rich, from a very well connected family, and from what she understood, completely dedicated to his boyfriend. She hadn’t paid him much attention until Lila came home crying that Roberto had attempted to sexually assault her. Greta and Ciro had refused to let such a thing go unchecked and went to the police to report him. During the weeks to follow, Roberto was put through hell; bullied at school, he was beaten up a few times, his boyfriend broke up with him, and his name slandered all over Venice. They had believed what happened to the boy to be justified… until proof was provided that he was nowhere near Lila when she claimed to have been assaulted. 

She suddenly recanted her story, saying that she must have been mistaken and someone that looked like Roberto assaulted her, but the damage had already been done. The boy and his family moved somewhere far away, and Greta and Ciro were forced to pay restitution to Roberto for ruining his name and reputation. Through her tears, Lila convinced them that it had been an honest mistake and that she hadn’t meant for any of that to happen. It wasn’t long after that, Greta received an offer to be the secretary for the assistant ambassador in Paris. Lila had begged her mother to go with her, claiming that her classmates were now bullying her for what happened to Roberto. Wanting to protect their daughter, they agreed.

Looking back on it now, and noticing the similarities between Roberto and Adrien, both Greta and Ciro were disappointed in themselves for not seeing the truth. Which likely was that Lila had tried to get close to Roberto for his money and connections, and when he turned her down, she lied about the assault to ruin his life, much like she had done to Marinette. And when it came out that she had lied about Roberto, her classmates had turned on her. So when she got the chance to start somewhere new, with people who didn’t know about her lies, she took it. Not caring if she harmed anyone at her new school while repeating old habits. But they were not about to let Lila do the same thing to Adrien or Marinette. Once Greta told her husband her plan, he was all for it and began preparing things on his end. By the time Lila was done being sick, her entire life would have turned upside down.

~oOo~

It took a lot more effort than Greta had expected to hide her intentions for the nine days it took for Lila to get over her case of strep throat, but she had been making good use of that time. 

She had contacted Gabriel Agreste’s secretary and asked about any contracts that may have been signed. When she told her she hadn’t signed any contract and that her daughter would no longer be modelling, the woman had no choice but to accept this and inform M. Agreste of this development. The woman also informed Greta that such a breach of contract would result in Lila being blacklisted from the fashion industry. She agreed and promised that she would inform her daughter of this once she was better.

Greta then looked into Lila’s savings and trust fund, of which she had control of since Lila was still a minor. She drained the accounts to pay restitutions to Marinette for bullying and slander, Adrien for sexual harassment; and then sent the rest of it to Roberto, along with a message that she was now completely aware of the type of person her daughter was and would be adequately punished very soon.

And to keep too much suspicion off of her, Greta began mentioning to Lila how her father desperately wanted to see her after she got better, so after the doctor gave her a clean bill of health, they would be going to Venice to see him. Now that she was watching, Greta saw the twinge of uncertainty at the mention of Venice, but quickly covered it with false excitement for going back to visit her father.

As the day grew closer that they would be heading to Italy, Greta also noticed Lila glaring at her phone with utter malice. She might not have known what was going on if Lila’s classmate, Alya, wasn’t keeping her up-to-date on what Lila was telling them. Her daughter was attempting to tell the class that she was going to be going on a trip with a famous singer after she was better, but her classmates were doing as Greta asked and treating the lies as if they meant nothing. When she accused Marinette of calling her a liar while she was sick and couldn’t defend herself, the class stopped responding. 

One message that was forwarded to Greta nearly had her abandoning her plan and confronting her daughter at that moment. It was a message that Lila had sent to Marinette, who had shared it with Alya, who then forwarded it to Greta. It read:

You fugly, no talent bitch! You think I don’t know what you’re doing? Those stupid sheep were eating up every single one of my lies before I got sick, and now they won’t even talk to me! Just you wait. When I get back to school, I’m going to ruin you in every way imaginable. No one will want to be your friend. By the time I’m done with you, I hope you kill yourself. Maybe I’ll convince someone that you tried to kill me and they’ll kill you for me. Either way, you’re dead. And even if you show someone these messages, no one will believe you over me. 

Greta forwarded the message to Ciro as well. He called her right away to discuss other accommodations that they would be making for Lila in the coming days. There was something seriously wrong with their daughter, and they refused to turn a blind eye to what was happening.

When the day finally came that Lila was better and they were heading to Venice, Greta instructed Lila not to pack her more expensive clothes as she would not want to lose them if their baggage got lost. What her daughter didn’t know was that Greta was planning on selling all of her designer clothes, jewelry, her electronics, and everything else to continue paying restitutions to Marinette, Adrien, and Roberto. And it wasn’t like she would need them soon, anyway.

The plane ride was a bit nerve racking for Greta, as she worried about giving something away and Lila figuring out her plan; but if she did, it didn’t show. When they landed at Venice Marco Polo Airport, she had to resist her sigh of relief. The plan was almost ready to be put in action. 

When she saw Ciro waiting for them in his dress whites, her heart sped a bit more. The man was, without a doubt, the most handsome man she’d ever met, and was the love of her life. Being away from him for so long was difficult, but what else could they do? Her husband was a Capitano di Vascello of the Italian Navy and had worked very hard to get where he was. Although he was semi-retired now and no longer served on a ship, he had followed his dream and became the Vice Principal for the premier naval academy in Venice, Francesco Morosini Naval Military School. 

He had gone to the school when he was younger and always claimed that it was the best experience he could have ever wished for. That being in that school saved his life. So when he continued into the navy to serve his country, he made it his goal to one day become the Principal of the school that saved him, so that he could do the same for other students. And now, they would be doing the same for Lila.

Greta and Ciro had thought of admitting Lila to Francesco Morosini when she came of age, but quickly realized that she was not the Navy type and did not want to force her into it. That choice was no longer Lila’s and she would be staying at the military school where it was Ciro’s job, not only as a father, but as an administrator of the school, to keep a close eye on any problem children.

Ciro embraced Greta and then Lila before taking their bags and walking them to his car. Lila was talking at length to her father about all her friends at school, all the happenings in Paris, and even mentioned her boyfriend, Adrien Agreste.

“You would like him, Papa. He’s a model, a gentleman, and his father is the designer, Gabriel Agreste. And he treats me like a princess!” Lila gushed as she showed her father a picture of Lila kissing the blonde boy’s cheek. Greta had seen that picture and had even asked Adrien about it while they had spoken in M. Damocles office. Lila had apparently kissed him without permission when she took that picture, and then sent it to every girl in Adrien’s contact list to make it seem like they were dating. 

Ciro played along, asking questions about her classes, Adrien, the akuma situation that he had heard about over the news, and other things to keep Lila from growing suspicious. Sure enough, she prattled on through the entire car and ferry ride to Venice. Only seeming to look around questioning when they arrived at the Naval school, rather than their apartment.

“What are we doing here?” She asked, looking at her father in confusion.

The two parents dropped the act and glared at their daughter in disappointment and anger. “I’m surprised at you, young lady,” Greta started. “Did you really think you could keep lying to us? We. Know. Everything.”

They watched as her olive skin quickly paled. “What do you mean? I didn’t lie, I sw-”

“We know the school never closed,” Ciro interrupted, his tone leaving no room for argument or interruption. “We know about you lying to your classmates and teachers about having disabilities and diseases. We know about you changing our contact information on your school records. We know about you bullying and sexually harassing your classmates. We know about the threats you’ve made to that one girl. We know that you’ve been akumatized multiple times. We know the truth about what you really did to Roberto two years ago! WE KNOW EVERYTHING!”

With every word he said, Lila seemed to inch away from her irate parents and shrink into herself. At the same time, they saw the rage and contemplation in her eyes. She was angry at being caught and was already trying to think of a way out of trouble. Not that they would give her a chance to even try.

“But I didn’t li-”

“Lie number one, Ladybug is a useless superhero that let your school get damaged and spent months trying to deakumatize your principal, which is why you were out of school for two months.” Greta interrupted that time, pinning her daughter with a glare that she usually reserved for idiot interns who screwed up important paperwork at the embassy. “I personally spoke to your principal and looked into Ladybug. The school never closed. Ladybug and Chat Noir have always defeated the akumas and restored the damage thanks to their abilities. And you told the school that you and I were off globetrotting to places like Achu.”

Her eyes grew to the size of saucers. She was just beginning to stammer out an excuse when her father spoke over her.

“Lie number two, a girl named Marinette Dupain-Cheng has been bullying you because she is jealous of your relationship with your boyfriend, Adrien Agreste. We have seen the texts that you have sent that girl, the most recent saying,” Ciro pulled out his phone to read off of the text “‘...I’m going to ruin you in every way imaginable. No one will want to be your friend. By the time I’m done with you, I hope you kill yourself…’ Does that sound familiar to you?” 

“I also personally spoke to Adrien after I spoke to Marinette, and found out that not only are you not his girlfriend, but you have been sexually harassing him! You even showed us proof in that picture you took where you kissed him!”

“But that’s not sexual harassment!” Lila shot back at them as her panic grew.

“Any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment. Your mother and I memorized that when you accused Roberto of assault, which is another thing you lied about! And let me guess, you wanted to use that boy’s popularity and family connections for a leg-up, but he turned down your advances since he was gay. You didn’t take that rejection well, so you told us he assaulted you. Is that what happened?”

“How did you-” Lila interrupted herself that time by slapping her hand over her mouth, quickly realizing that she had confirmed what her father had just said.

“Well, congratulations young lady. You have earned a complete overhaul on your life.” 

“What do you mean?” Lila didn’t want to know, but it seemed like she had no choice but to ask.

“Your modelling contract with Gabriel is done,” Greta told her, noticing her wince since they weren’t supposed to know about that either. “I spoke with his assistant and discovered that you forged my signatures on the contracts to let you model. They were kind enough not to pursue legal action against you, but they have asked that I inform you that you have been blacklisted from the fashion industry, so that career option is completely closed off to you.”

“Your mother educated your friends at school with the truth. They know about all your lies and have kept us apprised of what you have been saying, the rumors you have been attempting to spread about going on a trip with a random music star, and were kind enough to forward that threatening message you sent to that girl, Marinette. They are no longer interested in being your ‘sheep’.”

“Not that you will be returning to that school,” Greta continued. “Your truancy has made that impossible, even if we did want you to stay there to face the consequences of your actions. Which includes paying restitution to the people you’ve hurt.”

“Paying!” Ciro and Greta watched as Lila’s right eye began to twitch as she snapped at them.

“Yes, paying. I’ve already emptied out your savings and trust fund to pay back Marinette, Adrien, and Roberto for what you’ve done to them-”

“You can’t do that! That’s my money!” She screamed, stomping her foot at her mother like a five year old throwing a tantrum.

“Money that you earned illegally modelling after forging my signature. And you are a minor, I am well within my rights to take that money to pay for the damages you have incurred. I will also be selling your laptop, tablet, mobile phone, as well as the clothes and jewelry you left in Paris. Seeing as you won’t be needing them anymore.”

As she said this, Lila clutched her phone and hugged it against her chest. “How am I supposed to talk to anyone without my phone?”

“Pen and paper, and if you need to speak with your mother, there’s my office phone or the payphone in the barracks, where you will be staying.” 

The girl’s eyes grew impossibly wide as she looked at her parents in a panic. They couldn’t mean…

Ciro smiled the smile that he used to greet the families whose children were in need of discipline. “Welcome to Francesco Morosini Naval Military School, where we strive to give children an education that will help them for their future and the world that waits for them.”

~oOo~

There had been a lot of begging, crying, and screaming after that as Lila did everything she could to try and change her parents’ minds. This was a total nightmare for her. Forced to wear a uniform she hated. Surrounded by students, teachers, and her father; all of whom knew that she was a liar. No one gave her the type of attention she craved, but everyone was giving her the overly watchful attention she despised. She couldn’t even enjoy becoming an akuma anymore, as she was far out of Hawkmoth’s reach.

Greta and Ciro had gone out to dinner afterwards in an attempt to de-stress, only to get a call an hour later that Lila had tried to steal a boat and run away from the school. She was put on a 24/7 watch after that, now required to wear a tracking monitor wherever she went and was on bathroom and floor cleaning duty for the foreseeable future.

When Greta returned to Paris, she went about doing exactly as she promised. She sold Lila’s electronics, clothes, and jewelry; only keeping a pair of plastic stud earrings that her grandmother had given her. She met with M. Damocles again to let him know that everything had been taken care of. She contacted the Dupain-Cheng family to let them know that Lila wouldn’t be bothering their daughter again. That was probably the most pleasant thing she did, as they were a lovely family and sent her off with a box of assorted scones, so yummy! When she had them send a box of goodies to her husband in Venice, he called her a few days later and begged her to send more whenever she could.

Lila absolutely hated seeing her father enjoy pastries from the bakery of her rival’s family. That, along with being forced to talk to a psychiatrist three times a week to make her admit that she was a liar and to figure out why she feels the need to lie. All while wearing a horrible uniform and actually having to clean. She was in her own personal hell. How she wished that she had never gotten sick.

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The door was locked, but she had come prepared with a lockpick set she had gotten a couple years ago. It was really too easy to get inside. In fact, it had been much harder to get the fake evidence she would need to shut the place down. She discovered while going through the dumpster for old pastries that the bakery didn’t throw away much of anything. They sold out most of the time, and the things that didn’t were donated to a local homeless shelter. It took three days of dumpster diving to find anything, which ended up being a single batch of croissants that had burned in the oven. Heck, collecting some cockroaches from a restaurant dumpster down the street had been easier; albet, a lot more disgusting.

Once inside, Lila crept towards the door as she heard Mme. Cheng speaking to the man. He was, in fact, the health inspector. A malicious grin stretched across her face as she put the first moldy croissant on the counter next to the-

“What are you doing here?” A deep voice growled behind her.

Lila froze for a moment, suddenly realizing that she had heard Mme. Cheng speaking with the inspector, but not M. Dupain. She couldn’t let herself get caught! She was facing away from him and he hadn’t seen her face yet, so there was still a chance. Grabbing the first thing she could, she didn’t even look to see what it was, she swung it around at the towering man before trying to run past him. 

Despite hearing him curse in pain, Lila didn’t make it two steps before the man grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and lifted her off of the ground. She swung her object at him again, only for the enraged man to grab her wrist and twist, forcing her to drop it with a shout as it clanged to the floor. 

The noise drew Sabine and the inspector to the back where they say Tom holding Lila off the ground. Furious and still trying to escape, she tried kicking at him only for him to release her wrist, grab her ankle, and then release her jacket so she was hanging upside down. More items hit the floor as her hat fell off, a couple of croissants and the tupperware container of cockroaches fell from her pockets, and landed next to a bloody knife…

Uh-oh.

Looking up, she saw that his right arm was bleeding from where she had slashed him with the knife, which had her fingerprints all over it. She was going to be in so much trouble unless she could think of a way out of this!

“What happened, Tom?” Sabine asked, worried when she saw her husband’s bleeding arm and was slightly confused by the girl hanging upside-down in their kitchen. It took a moment before she seemed to recognize Lila as the girl that had gotten her daughter expelled a few weeks before.

“I was coming down to meet Inspector LaStare with you and caught this girl putting bad pastries with the others.” 

“That’s not it!” Lila yelled in a panic and she wiggled in his grip, resembling a fish on a hook. “I-I-I was- I was getting rid of them! I was taking them off the counter to throw them away!”

“And your container of cockroaches?” Asked Sabine, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring dubiously at the girl.

“Those aren’t mine! I swear! If you would just let me explain-”

“I’ve already heard enough to recognize your voice, young lady,” the inspector snapped as he stepped closer to glare at Lila. “I bet you weren’t paying attention when you called the health department all those times and the recording told you that your call would be monitored and recorded. And when a single business gets over twenty complaints in less than a week, it gets some attention. But when we listen to the recordings and hear the same voice for every message, we figure it’s someone with a vendetta against the establishment. Still, we do our do-diligence and inspect the establishment, but I had no idea how stupid a person would be to attempt to plant fake evidence while I was here, in full view of the security cameras.”

She couldn’t help her surprised gasp as she, while still hanging upside down in the hulking baker’s grip, looked around the kitchen ceiling until her eyes landed on the cameras. One pointed at the side door she had picked open and the other pointed at the counter where she had put the moldy pastry.

Sabine leaned in close, glaring straight into Lila’s upside-down eyes. “Young lady, what is your mother’s phone number?” It was clear that it was more of a demand than a question, but she was still trying to think of a way out of trouble before Sabine grabbed her face and forced Lila to look at her. “You can either tell me her number now, or you can tell the police so she can go pick you up at the station while they tell her all the crimes you’re being charged with.”

Angry at being caught and forced to call her mother, Lila thought of what she could do as she tried to look and sound pitiful as she recited her mother’s number. Not difficult since she was red-faced from hanging upside-down for so long. She might not be able to get out of trouble, but she’d be damned if they didn’t pay for humiliating her.

After Sabine stepped into the front of the bakery to make the call, Lila tearfully looked up at Tom. “Can you please put me down? I’m getting really dizzy.”

She could tell that the man was tempted to drop her on her head, but he was too much of a goody-goody like his daughter and he eased her gently to the floor. As soon as he let go of her ankle, Lila’s uninjured hand snapped out and grabbed the tupperware of cockroaches, ripped off the lid, and flung the insects across the floor. 

Tom and Inspector LaStare yelled in surprise and disgust as Lila attempted to escape, this time running for the front of the bakery. She actually made it out of the kitchen, but ended up face to face with Sabine. Without a word, the woman grabbed Lila’s by the arm, flipped her over her shoulder to the floor, and twisted her arm to where she couldn’t move.

“Are you okay, Tom?” Sabine called, her voice eerily calm to Lila’s ears.

“She flung those cockroaches across the kitchen! They’re everywhere!” Tom yelled as he and the inspector scrambled to try and kill or capture the insects.

“I’ve already called her mother and the police, they’ll be here any minute.”

Lila’s struggles doubled when she heard that. “You said you wouldn’t call the police if I gave you my mom’s number!”

Sabine merely twisted the girl’s arm a little more, halting her struggles rather than letting her arm break. “I said no such thing. I only said you could choose whether to talk to your mother here or at the police station. And I promise you, young lady, your mother is going to hear everything you’ve been up to. Including what you’ve been doing Marinette.”

~oOo~

The fallout had been epic after the police and Lila’s mother arrived at the bakery. 

Greta Rossi had been in denial at first, not wanting to think that her daughter was capable of such terrible behavior. But it was hard to argue with the video evidence and eyewitness accounts of Lila attempting to plant moldy pastries, vindictively releasing the cockroaches in the kitchen, or attacking Tom Dupain with a knife, which would require stitches. 

It got even worse when school let out for lunch and the majority of Lila’s classmates came rushing over when they saw the police and ambulance at the bakery. Mme. Rossi had asked them why they were all out when there was an akuma on the loose. The class asked her why they were back in Paris since she was supposed to be in a meeting with the royal family of Spain. It became apparent after a few more minutes of back and forth that Lila had been lying for the entire time they’d been in France and Greta would have to meet with M. Damocles and Mme. Bustier soon about her daughter’s absences and failure to contact her.

When the police were placing handcuffs on Lila, she started shrieking. “You can’t do this to me! I have diplomatic immunity! Let me go or I’ll get you fired and Italy will invade France for what you’re doing to me!”

“Wrong!” Greta spoke over Lila as she approached her daughter. “I’m a secretary at the embassy, not a diplomat. Only I have immunity, you don’t. I was lucky to even be able to bring you on assignment rather than leave you with your Zio and Zia in Italy. But I see that was a mistake, and now both of us will have to pay for that mistake!”

Lila continued to shriek and curse as she was forced into the back of the police cruiser and taken to the police station. 

In the end; Lila was charged with corporate sabotage, breaking and entering, assault with a deadly weapon, and slander by Tom and Sabine. She was also charged for truancy, forgery, bullying, slander, and cyber bullying for what she’d done to Marinette at school. Lila’s mother was forced to pay for an exterminator to take care of the cockroaches, as well as all of the supplies and pastries that had been at the bakery and had to be thrown out due to the infestation that Lila had attempted to cause. But the worst was having to pay restitution for the time the bakery was closed. Turns out, Tom and Sabine’s bakery really was the top bakery in Paris and had the receipts to prove it.

There had been some worry that the temporary shutdown would hurt the bakery’s reputation, but Inspector LaStare, with the help of Nadja Chamack, had seen to it that none of the problems would blow back on the Dupain-Chengs. Inspector LaStare had gone on record stating that it was a rare occasion where an establishment was completely innocent of the accusations brought against it, but this was one of those times. He then showed footage of Lila planting the moldy pastry, assaulting Tom with the knife, and flinging the bugs into the kitchen before attempting to escape. He also stated that he was personally working with the Dupain-Chengs to make sure that the bakery was up to code and open as soon as possible so all of Paris could get back to enjoying their favorite pastries.

Viewers all over Paris were appalled at the actions of the teenage girl,discovering her vendetta was against Marinette since she knew about Lila’s lies. While laughing at her as they watched Tom hold her upside-down by her leg and Sabine flip the fleeing girl over her shoulder via security footage. The footage ended up being shared by people all over YouTube and gained millions of views, showing their support for the Dupain-Chengs and humiliating Lila on a now global level.

There was also sympathy towards Marinette and outrage towards the Francois Dupont administration when Nadja reported how Lila had also been bullying Marinette without receiving any help from the school. This would result in both Damocles and Bustier being suspended from their jobs until they completed training in regards to handling bullies.

With all the publicity against Lila Rossi, Gabriel Agreste had been left in a difficult position since Lila had only recently been named a new spokesmodel for his brand. Adrien, however, offered a solution to save face and help the brand in the future. So, when Nadja was doing a followup on the story the following week, Gabriel did a video interview where he very publicly announced Lila’s termination from the company for her actions and announced that he had offered Marinette an internship and a scholarship to the fashion university of her choice, so long as she was accepted. This caused a slew of universities to scout Marinette themselves, as it wasn’t every day a fashion mogul does a public shout out to a girl in college. And just like that, sales and public opinion of the Agreste brand went up.

Lila watched all of this unfold from her prison cell outside of Paris. She had been tried as an adult and was caught committing perjury during her trial, which prompted the judge to give her the maximum sentence for her crimes. She couldn’t even enjoy the pleasure of being akumatized anymore since she was so far out of the city. All she could do was sit in her cell eating moldy bread with cockroaches as her only friends as she sulked on the fact that she had failed, and the entire world was laughing at her.

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Ladybug and Chat Noir were barely keeping clear of the beams that were shooting from the camera in Stillshot’s hands. They were even more encumbered because they were carrying a civilian around with them. Aurore recognized her as Lila Rossi, another student from her school. She didn’t know her well, but was pretty sure that the girl was a total liar. She’d once heard her say that she used to be a junior weather girl in Italy, which was admittedly impressive. But when Aurore looked her up, she couldn’t find a single news or radio station that ever listed her as an employee, intern, or even a volunteer; so she was pretty sure that it was a total lie.

Looking down, her phone in hand, she could see Stillshot shouting at the two heroes for protecting the girl. To her surprise, Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t look thrilled by the situation either, but were still doing their best to protect her. When Ladybug called for her Lucky Charm and got a can of hairspray, Aurore was excited to see how the heroes would use it to save the day. 

Lila was quickly tossed to the side, Chat Noir used his Cataclysm to destroy the top spray button, and then Ladybug chucked the can at the akuma. Hairspray practically exploded all over him, covering his lens with a thick coat of the sticky substance and making it impossible for the camera to focus enough to take a picture. Then the yo-yo shot at the camera, breaking the lens and freeing the little purple butterfly to be caught and purified. 

Seeing the magical ladybugs swarm around the city always made Aurore smile. So much so that she almost missed Ladybug and Chat Noir jumping over her roof and landing on the building next to hers. It was a story lower than her apartment building, which gave her a good vantage point to look over at them. It was a bit surprising to see that they had brought Lila with them… and they appeared anything but happy with the girl.

“Thank you so much for saving me! I was so scared, and I have no idea why he was coming after me-”

“Will you stop lying already? There’s no one here to show off for.” Ladybug snapped at the girl, surprising both Lila and Aurore. “We know that you told that poor boy that you would get him a personal interview with Gabriel Agreste to become one of his photographers, and he believed you because you're a Gabriel model. Then when he went to the mansion, at the time you told him to, he was arrested for trespassing!”

Chat Noir put a hand on his partner’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, but he didn’t look any happier. “This has got to stop, Lila. We’ve heard about all the things you’ve been doing; lying about having disabilities, sexually harassing Adrien Agreste, getting Marinette Dupain-Cheng expelled from school because she called you out on your lies! Do you not care that your lies are hurting people?”

The facade that Lila had been wearing at first faded into a cruel scowl that caused a cold shiver to crawl down Aurore’s back.

“Do I look like I care? I only tell people what they want to hear. If they’re stupid enough to believe me, then that’s their own fault.”

“And what about the danger you’ve put your family in?” Ladybug asked, seeming almost desperate. “What if Hawkmoth sees that fake interview on the Ladyblog of you claiming to be my best friend? He’ll target you or your family, just to get leverage to get out miraculous!”

Lila let out a manic laugh before stepping closer to Ladybug. “Like I would care about that? If anything, I would gladly help him if it meant taking you down!”

That’s when the girl lunged at the red and black spotted hero, her hands reaching for her ears as Ladybug was knocked back onto the roof in surprise. But before she could rip the jewels from her earlobes, Chat Noir had grabbed Lila by the back of her jacket and flung the girl away from his partner. The italian landed hard on her shoulder and Aurore could see scrapes on her cheek and knees from the impact as Chat helped Ladybug to her feet and checked her ears to make sure her miraculous were still in place.

Aurore made doubly sure that she was out of sight as she kept recording, barely believing that someone would dare try to take Ladybug’s earrings while knowing what would happen to Paris and its people without Ladybug. Lila’s smile reminded her of a feral animal as she stood up. “Now I’ll make both of you regret ever challenging me! Everyone saw you carrying me away, I’ll tell everyone that you beat me up.”

“And why would we even do that?” Chat snapped at her.

“I’ll think of something,” she continued to grin. “A few tears, tear my clothes a bit more, you’ve already given me a few marks to make it more believable. By the time I’m done with the two of you, you’ll be just as infamous as Hawkmoth.”

Chat and Ladybug were alerted by their miraculous that they were down to their last minute and had no choice but to flee, glaring at the girl before jumping away. Aurore continued to record as Lila grabbed the sleeve of her jacket and ripped it at the shoulder, then slapped herself across the face to leave nail marks on her right cheek, opposite of the scrape on the left . She paced around for a moment, muttering to herself before she began crying.

“I don’t know why they did it. *sob* They carried me to the roof, I thought it was to make sure I was alright, but then they started blaming me for the akuma, said that they should have just let it have me and then they wouldn’t have to deal with me anymore. *hicup-sob-hicup* I tried to get away but Ladybug slapped-” she stopped crying suddenly, giving her head a shake “No, I can do  better than that.” Then she started crying again “I tried to get away, but Chat Noir grabbed me and threw me down, it hurt so bad. Then Ladybug slapped me and said that if she ever saw me again, she’d do worse than just scare me. Chat Noir even said he would gladly use his Cataclysm on me. Please, I’m so scared, I don’t know what to do!” 

Then Lila’s face went back to that manic look that gave Aurore the creeps before skipping over to the fire escape and began climbing down. She stopped recording as soon as the girl was out of sight and then played the recording back. She’d never been so relieved to have a good quality phone, the camera had caught everything that happened and picked up every word that was spoken.

She was nearly in a state of panic, indignation, and urgency as she raced inside and down the stairs, calling her producer at KIDZ+ news to call an emergency meeting and get some police there as well. The producer sounded skeptical at first, but when Aurore went on to say that she had proof of someone that was not akumatized trying to steal Ladybug’s earrings, that got her moving.

~oOo~

The entire upper level staff of KIDZ+ and TVi News were present when Aurore arrived. Officer Roger Raincompix had come, along with Mayor Bourgeois. They had been in a meeting when Roger received the call and the mayor insisted on coming, saying that if someone was threatening the heroes of Paris, he wanted to be in the know. She began playing her recording from the beginning, attempting to prove how recent it had been made and that she’d of had no time to doctor the footage. When it came to the footage from the roof… the reaction to her recording had been immediate and about what she had expected; shock, horror, fear, and disgust at the girl’s actions.

“Are you sure this recording is accurate?” Officer Roger asked, looking like he was about to be sick.

“I’m sure,” she said before sliding it towards him. “Check it, put it through every test you can think of to see if it’s authentic. I recorded that video from the roof of my building, it was right by where the akuma battle ended. I’ll give you my address so you can make sure it’s right.”

“I can also say, from a preliminary look, that I didn’t see any cuts, skips, or changes in color or texture which would indicate that this recording has been altered.” Nadja Chamack stated as she restarted the video and looked it over with a more critical eye. “At this point, I’d say that this is authentic, but I agree that we’ll want to run some tests to be absolutely sure before putting in on the news.”

Just then, Roger’s phone rang. He mentioned that it was the station and that he had to answer it. Stepping away, Aurore watched his back go stiff and his brows crease into a deep scowl. “I understand. Are her parents present?” Another pause and he nodded. “Put her in a private interrogation room, and don’t let her talk to anyone else. Tell her that we cannot do anything or properly take her statement unless she has a guardian present. Do what you can to keep her at the station and her mother present. I’ll be in touch very soon.”

Hanging up his phone, he turned back to the group. “Apparently, a Mlle. Lila Rossi has just come to the police station claiming that she was assaulted by Ladybug and Chat Noir. Her injuries that Officer Laurent told me, match the ones that were shown in the video.” He then looked to the President of TVi News. “How long will it take your people to inspect the recording?”

“Since it hasn’t been uploaded to any social media sites and we have the date, location, the phone that recorded the video, and the person who recorded it; not long, maybe a few hours.” She glanced at the clock, reading 11:27am before looking back at Officer Roger. “It could be ready and verified in time for the 6 o’clock news tonight.”

“Get started,” Roger nodded, “I’ll be sending a few of my people from our tech division to observe and double check the work. Once it has been verified, I want copies made for evidence.”

“I will also need a copy,” Mayor Bourgeois spoke up, finally finding his voice after the shock of the video. “If I’m not mistaken Mme. Rossi is employed by the Italian Embassy, meaning this could result in an international incident. If this turns out to be true, I will not allow this horrid girl to remain in my city or to ever set foot on French soil again.”

The TVi President nodded, writing down notes while Officer Roger called his best tech people from the station to drop whatever they were doing and come to the TVi station immediately. Then he turned to Aurore, took her statement, her address, and had her send him a copy of the recording before calling another one of his officers to meet him at that address to compare the video to the scene. As well as sending officers to the Dupain-Cheng Bakery and the Agreste Mansion to get corroborating statements. 

~oOo~

Lila was beginning to get tired, she had been fake crying for hours and really wanted to go home and take a nap. It had become even more taxing when she was forced to call her mother to the station or else the police wouldn’t be able to take her statement. At least her mother had bought her story hook, line, and sinker and was already talking about filing charges against the city of Paris for allowing a couple of vigilante teenagers to run around and hurt her daughter.

It was just after 5pm when Officer Roger, Sabrina’s dad, entered the interrogation room along with Officer Laurent. The younger officer had taken her statement not long after her mother arrived at the station but had told them that, due to the serious accusations being made, it would be best to take this up the chain of command to make sure that nothing was overlooked. That had made Lila nervous at first, but she was confident that they would believe her. After all, she was the one that had been hurt and Ladybug and Chat Noir were nowhere in sight to contradict her story.

“Hello Mme. and Mlle. Rossi, I’m Officer Roger. I want you to tell me what happened.” He said as he placed his tablet and a notebook on the table and pulled out a pen.

“Do I have to do this again? Just thinking about what they did scares me.” Lila squeezed her eyes shut as she pinched her inner thigh to draw tears. Her mother wrapped an arm around her shoulder in comfort, eating it up.

“I understand that this must be difficult, but I need to hear your statement.”

Giving a shaky nod, Lila went into her story again, making sure that her voice trembled a bit and to keep her shoulders hunched. “I don’t know why they did it. *sob* They carried me to the roof, I thought it was to make sure I was alright, but then they started blaming me for the akuma, said that they should have just let it have me and then they wouldn’t have to deal with me anymore. *hicup-sob-hicup* I tried to get away, but Chat Noir grabbed me and threw me down, he even kicked me. It hurt so bad. Then Ladybug slapped me when I was trying to get up and then grabbed my face, it felt like she was going to crush my chin. She said that if she ever saw me again, she’d do worse than just scare me. Chat Noir even said he would gladly use his Cataclysm on me. Please, I’m so scared, I don’t know what to do!” 

Officer Roger nodded as he continued to write everything down. “And you’re willing to testify to this in a court of law?”

Mme. Greta Rossi was already nodding to the affirmative. “Yes, those incompitent vigilantes are going to pay for hurting my daughter. I want to file lawsuits against them for assault and intimidation.”

Roger nodded in understanding but then gave Mme. Rossi a curious look. “I understand that you are upset, but I don’t see how Ladybug and Chat Noir could be labeled as incompitent. They have always defeated the akumas sent by Hawkmoth.”

“That’s not true, my daughter’s school was closed for months, months, because those two couldn’t beat the principal of her school after he was akumatized and damaged the school.”

He blinked at her. “Mme. Rossi, I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but our daughters are enrolled in the same school and attend the same class. There have been days when an akuma will cause the school to open a bit late or close early, but it has never been closed for months. And as for M. Damocles being akumatized, that occurred after school hours, with the majority of the battle taking place off of school grounds, and he was returned to normal before the end of the night. It did not interrupt the school at all.”

Hearing this, Mme. Rossi’s mouth dropped open before turning to look at her daughter, who had gone suspiciously quiet and was ducking down a bit in her chair.

“And as for the lawsuits that you wish to file, you should be made aware that there lawsuits being filed against your daughter by three different parties for assault, slander, intimidation, sexual harassment, and a few other charges.”

“WHAT!?”

“Yes, Madame. Some of those charges are being filed by the city of Paris, itself.”

“How dare you!” Mme. Rossi yelled as she stood so quickly that she knocked her chair backwards onto the floor. “My daughter was assaulted by those two and the city has the nerve to blame Lila? I won’t stand for this!”

Officer Roger stayed calm as he turned on his tablet and played the video he’d queued up. As Mme. Rossi watched the video, her anger ebbed away into surprise at the things the two heroes  said and how Lila didn’t deny it; then shock when Lila attacked Ladybug for her earrings only to see that she was injured because Chat Noir had protected his partner; back to anger as she watched her daughter rip her clothes, scratch her own face, and then practice the lines she had told the police, almost word for word. Officer Laurent was forced to come around the table to steady Greta before righting her chair so she could sit down. 

“For the record, Mme. Rossi, multiple people have inspected this recording, including TVi News and members of the Paris Police Department, and have come to the conclusion that it is authentic. No tampering whatsoever. Your daughter assaulted Ladybug in an attempt to steal her miraculous, which is designated as a terrorist act as she and Chat Noir are the defenders of Paris, and currently our best defense against the known terrorist, Hawkmoth.”

Lila had been silent since giving her statement again, she hadn’t expected her mother talking about the school being closed or Officer Roger destroying that lie so easily, but that was something she might have been able to recover from if given the chance. But now with that recording, actual hard evidence that proved that she’d been lying, had attacked Ladybug, and had faked her injuries and lied to the police… there was hardly a single thin straw for her to grab at, but she had to try.

Lila turned up the tears as she desperately gripped her mother’s arm. “Mom, you don’t actually believe them, do you? You know I would never do the things they’re saying I did. That video has to be a fake! Please, you have to believe me!” 

To her dismay, her mother removed her grip on her arm, stood from her chair, and began pacing the room. “Who are the other parties that are filing lawsuits against her?”

“Mom!”

“Be quiet!” Mme. Rossi snapped at her daughter, glad that her mouth snapped shut before slumping lower in her seat. “Who else has she hurt?”

“M. Agreste is planning on filing lawsuits for sexual harassment and slander. The Dupain-Chengs are filing lawsuits for slander, intimidation, and harassment. I have looked into the school and found that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was indeed expelled after your daughter accused her of assault and theft, but later recanted her story while claiming that she suffered from a disease that makes her lie uncontrollably. Mlle. Dupain-Cheng also claims that your daughter has been bullying her by spreading lies and rumors about her to isolate her from her friends.”

“She’s lying! Marinette’s the one that’s been bullying me!”

“I SAID BE QUIET!”

Lila jumped in her chair that time before cowering, she’d never seen her mother this angry before. It was actually kind of scary, but even worse… she was sure that her mother wasn’t going to support her or back up her lies. She was on her own.

~oOo~

When the news broke an hour later, Mme. Rossi had never been more humiliated in her life. The Embassy had called her as well, saying that she would be on leave pending an investigation, meaning that she would be lucky to still have her job by the end of the week. After leaving her daughter at the police station to face the charges against her, Greta had made a beeline for the school, demanding to know why they had never contacted her about the truancy, the disabilities, or her daughter’s supposed tumble down the stairs. The teacher and principal had given her less than satisfactory answers like “Lila said you were busy and we didn’t want to disturb you” and “she promised that she would get us those doctors notes”. She was on the phone with the Board of Governors before she was off the property. Since they had also seen the news, she could easily say that they were almost as upset as she was and the two incompitent educators would be lucky if they were still employed at the end of the week. 

The visit to the Dupain-Cheng Bakery was even more enlightening. From the stories Lila had told her during the past few months, she expected Marinette to be cold, callous, and rude. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Sabine Cheng had invited her up to the livingroom to speak and Marinette soon joined them. She was a shy but sweet girl that offered to get her a glass of water and whatever she would like from the bakery. To be honest, she had wanted to try the pastries from the shop months ago, but had made the mistake of believing her daughter when she said that they were terrible. So she asked for a berry scone and Marinette gave a kind smile before going down stairs and coming back up with the scone, a few different macaroons, a croissant, and a chocolate chip cookie. 

When Mme. Rossi looked at her in surprise, Marinette gave her a kind smile. “You look upset, I thought having a variety of sweets might help cheer you up.”

The sincerity on the girl's face nearly brought tears to her eyes. She couldn’t believe that her daughter had been tormenting this sweet girl just because she had called her out on her lies. She asked the girl honestly, what her daughter had done to her. And although hesitant, Marinette told her everything; from the threats and lies, to acting like she had been pushed down the stairs and planting her necklace in Marinette’s locker; if it could even be called that since it didn’t lock. 

After that, Marinette asked to be excused and Greta proceeded to speak with Sabine. She admitted that she’d had no knowledge as to what Lila had been up to, that the school had never contacted her about any of the incidents, she had already filed a complaint with the Board of Governors, and recommended that they do the same. Despite Lila’s terrible treatment of Marinette, Sabine accepted the advice with gratitude but informed her that they would still be filing the lawsuits against Lila. Greta stated that she hadn’t come to change their minds, but to hear Marinette’s side of the story.

Just before she left, Marinette hurried down the stairs with a small white silk square with royal purple flowered embroidery. In one corner, the initials G.R. were stitched in elegant script and looked to be hand sewn. “It’s a handkerchief, my way of saying ‘thank you’ for hearing me out. Other than my parents and the police officers that came by this morning, you were the first person to really listen to what I had to say about Lila. Thank you.”

Not bothering to hold back tears this time, Greta accepted the gift and asked the girl for a hug, which she easily gave. Then turning to Sabine, she told her. “You are wonderful parents, I am so sorry that my daughter has put you through so much. I just hope after this, she’ll learn that actions have consequences.”

After that, Greta jumped in a cab and made her way over to the Agreste Mansion. This was a completely different experience compared to the Dupain-Chengs. She never actually spoke to Gabriel Agreste, only Adrien and Gabriel’s assistant Nathalie. Adrien explained that he discovered that Lila was lying on the first day when she claimed to be best friends with Ladybug and the descendant of the wielder of Fox Miraculous. That was when Ladybug had shown up and chastised her for lying about her. Adrien agreed due to the danger of tempting Hawkmoth. 

He went on to say how Lila claimed that she was traveling the world with her mother and was friends with all sorts of celebrities. If Mme. Rossi wanted a more complete list of her lies, to check out the Ladyblog, as she had done several interviews. Adrien also went on to talk about how during their first photoshoot together, Lila wouldn’t keep her hands off of him and it made him uncomfortable. Lila had told him that unless he wanted Marinette to suffer even more, he’d stop complaining.

When Greta mentioned that she was told that the photoshoot was a relationship announcement between the two teens, and that she’d had no idea that she was a Gabriel model, Nathalie pulled up Lila’s contract on her tablet. The one that Greta had supposedly signed to grant her underaged daughter permission to work as a model. Mme. Rossi told the assistant at a glance that it wasn’t her signature and Lila had never shown her any such paperwork. To which Nathalie informed her that Gabriel would also be adding forgery and fraud to the list of charges being filed against her daughter, Greta simply nodded in acceptance. After all, forgery and fraud weren’t nearly as bad as assault, sexual harassment, or terrorism. 

~oOo~

When her daughter was brought to trial two weeks later, Greta Rossi sat dutifully behind her daughter but refused to testify on her behalf, not that it would have helped her. Between all the charges that were filed against her by the city of Paris, the Agreste family, the Dupain-Cheng family, and the investigation into the school and Lila’s actions by the Board of Governors; her daughter had no leg to stand on. She also made the mistake of lying to the judge on the first day and committing perjury, which only added to the charges.

The trial lasted for three days due to all the evidence and testimonies brought against her and the fact that Lila was the daughter of a diplomat. However, the evidence was overwhelming and the Italian government had already revoked any immunity that Lila might have had. The jury found her guilty and the judge declared that the sentencing would lie in the domain of the Italian government. Although it was decided that Lila would not be permitted to return to France.

Mme. Rossi made it clear to the court that she was already preparing to send her daughter to a juvenile corrections center in Italy, where she would remain until her 18th birthday and the courts would decide further sentencing. 

Lila had screamed at her mother, accusing her of betraying her only daughter and that she was not her mother anymore. She had also hissed and attempted to attack Marinette for “ruining her life because she couldn’t keep her nose out of her business” and “why couldn’t you have just killed yourself”. Greta did her best to ignore the cruel words, but found herself pulling out the handkerchief that Marinette had given her. It was a small comfort, but it was more than what she deserved after Lila had hurt so many people.

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That complaint had surprised him. Only the Board of Governors had the power to expel a student after an investigation, and they hadn’t expelled the girl. The parents claimed that it was done on the same day as the accusations against the student, and was then retracted the following day. Again, something that only the Board of Governors had the power to do.

Looking over the incident report, the details were slim at best. Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was accused of cheating on a mock exam and the answer sheet was found in her backpack. When looking at the schedule, he saw that the mock exam had been taken the day before and the teacher only noticed that the answer sheet was missing after receiving the exams. A fact which bothered him a bit, but he’d seen a few scatterbrained teachers, as well as students make the mistake of not getting rid of the evidence. However, he also saw from her student records that she was one of the top students and always got high grades, so there was some doubt that she would have cheated.

The next thing was the accusation that she had pushed another student, Mlle. Lila Rossi down the stairs, injuring her right knee. However, there was no mention of an ambulance being called or even a trip to the nurse’s station. It was also suspect that there was no mention of other injuries that someone would have received after falling down stairs; no recorded cuts, bruises, or anything. So either Rossi had the most well placed fall that kept her from major injury, or she was lying.

The last part of the report was that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng had stolen a necklace from Mlle. Rossi and put it in her locker. Again, he was a bit skeptical considering that the same two girls had been involved with a separate incident on the same day. There was a picture of the locker, but Walters quickly noticed that there was no actual lock on the locker, something that he should be seeing since the Board had funded upgrades for lockers months ago. There was also no CCTV record attached to the incident report, meaning that the system was down and not reported, or the principal never checked them and only went by the word Mlle. Rossi.

Looking over the rest of the file, it was even more suspect when he saw that only Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents had been called in. Mlle. Rossi’s contact, her mother, had been listed as “unavailable”. This was yet another thing that didn’t sit well with him. Following his gut, M. Walters set aside the Dupain-Cheng student file to look more closely at the Rossi student file. 

Not five minutes in, he knew that things were not right. The disabilities she had listed in the current file were not consistent with the files from her previous schools, and there were no doctors notes to support them as being recently discovered ailments. He attempted to call the number listed on the current file, but it kept going straight to voicemail. Comparing the number to the previous files, he noticed that the number did not match.

Finding himself very unhappy with the incomplete file provided by Principal Damocles, he decided that he would have to go to the school in person the following morning and see for himself what was really going on.

~oOo~

First stop he made was to the principal’s office. M. Walters had not alerted him of the inspection so that the man would not have a chance to change or hide specific documents, he’d seen that happen more than once. What he had not expected was to see a grown man playing with dolls/action figures behind his desk. Damocles quickly straightened up, hiding the dolls in a drawer before scowling at him. “What is the meaning of this? You can’t simply barge into my office without-”

“Actually, M. Damocles, I can,” he interrupted, pulling out his identification. “Inspector Walters, I’m with the Board of Governors, looking into a recent complaint filed against the school.”

“Complaint? What complaint?” He asked, sputtering a bit in surprise.

“The expulsion of Mlle. Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he glared at the man.

“Oh, that incident has already been handled.”

“Is that so? Then please, explain to me how the incident was handled.” Pulling out a chair, Walters flipped open his notepad and clicked open his pen. Some of his colleagues considered the whole pen and paper thing to be a little old-school at times, but it had its purpose. He waved a hand at Damocles to begin.

“Well, Mlle. Lila Rossi suffers from a rare disease that makes her lie uncontrollably when she is stressed-”

“I’m going to stop you right there, M. Damocles. We will get to the reason why you reinstated Mlle. Dupain-Cheng in a moment. First, I want you to go through everything on the day of the incident.”

“Oh, of-of course,” he was beginning to fidget. “I was sitting in my office when I heard screaming outside of my door. When I came outside, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was standing at the top of the stairs and Mlle. Lila Rossi was at the bottom of the stairs, crying that she had been pushed.” Walters wrote this down and waved a hand for him to continue. “M. Harpele and I brought her upstairs and wrapped the knee that was injured, and then contacted Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents to talk about the incident, seeing as Mlle. Rossi had been badly injured.”

Walters finished writing that down before looking back up at Damocles. “And is that when you called an ambulance to look over Mlle. Rossi’s injury and check to make sure there were no other injuries?”

It was no surprise to him when Damocles mouth did an impersonation of a fish for a moment. “Well, um, no. I did not call an ambulance-”

“Then I can only imagine that you called the school nurse to your office to look her over and deem whether or not a trip to the hospital was necessary?”

Again, he began impersonating a fish. “I-I didn’t think it was- Mlle. Rossi claimed that she was fine and that only her knee was injured.”

“You just told me that you believed Mlle. Rossi was, and I quote ‘badly injured’, and yet she received no medical attention?” Walters hummed in a disbelieving manner as he looked down at his notepad and wrote down his thoughts. “That was quite irresponsible of you. I’ve read your personnel file and nowhere does it list that you have a medical background. Yet, you thought yourself qualified to treat and diagnose a girl that claimed to have been pushed down the stairs and could have underlying injuries, such as a concussion, broken bones, or internal bleeding?” 

To his satisfaction, the principal began to sweat, but he was nowhere close to finished yet. “I can imagine that Mme. Rossi was upset when you called her to the school for the meeting with M. and Mme. Dupain-Cheng.” Just as he suspected, Damocles wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You have contacted Mme. Rossi about the incident, have you not?”

“Well, Mme. Rossi is an ambassador and is very busy-”

“Are you meaning to tell me that you failed to alert a parent that their child was injured while in your care?” When the principal looked away again, Walters glared before double clicking his pen and writing down more notes.Taking his time as he wrote to allow the man to sweat and worry about what was being written.

“We will return to your failure at contacting parents and guardians later. Now, tell me what you observed when you reviewed the CCTV footage of the stairs at the time of the incident.” Just as he suspected, the man became flustered and refused to meet his eyes. “Are you telling me that you did not, at any time, look over the footage to corroborate whether Mlle. Rossi was pushed or accidentally fell?” 

Hesitating again. “I, um, thought it unnecessary. It was clear that she was pushed-”

“And you know that for fact, how, exactly?” He glared as he kept writing.

“As I said, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng was standing at the top of the stairs while Mlle. Rossi was at the bottom of the stairs, crying that she’d been pushed-”

“You also said, and I quote ‘I was sitting in my office when I heard screaming outside of my door’. Meaning that you did not actually see whether Mlle. Rossi was pushed or simply fell. Am I to understand that you believed one child over another without gathering evidence to prove or disprove the claim?”

Walters watched as the man’s parlor turned a pale green while muttering multiple failed excuses, which only served to anger him further. So far, Damocles had failed to show him, in any way, that he was qualified to run this school and had let an innocent girl suffer for his mistakes. “You are going to pull up that footage right now, and have it prepared for a meeting I will be setting up with Mme. Rossi later today. And not just the stairs, but the footage of the classroom to see exactly who stole the test answer sheet and the lockerroom to see if the accusations of Mlle. Dupain-Cheng stealing Mlle. Rossi’s property is at all valid. And allow me to make something very clear, you are already looking at being brought up on negligence and abuse of power, seeing as you expelled and reinstated a student, something that only the Board of Governors has the power to do. If I find out that the footage is somehow ‘missing’, I will have no choice but to assume that you have purposefully erased it to protect yourself and will have you brought before the Board by tomorrow morning. Am I clear?”

The man gave a shaky nod, as he immediately got on his computer and began pulling up the footage from that day.

Getting on his phone, Walters called the number that Mme. Rossi had listed in the previous files and it went straight through. He easily scheduled a meeting for later that day and hung up.“I will be sitting in on Mme. Bustier’s class for the rest of the day, until Mme. Rossi arrives at 1pm for our appointment. Have all the footage ready by then.” Without another word, Inspector Walters left the office and made his way down to the Akuma Classroom.

~oOo~

Lunch had finally come and Walters was anything but impressed by what he had seen. To her credit, Mme. Bustier had been polite and understanding towards his presence in the classroom and seemed to go about teaching as usual. She was also a very upbeat type of personality, something needed in a city plagued by akumas. But that was the extent of his compliments towards the teacher. 

During the first half of the day, he witnessed the woman allow her students to become disorderly multiple times. Three of which stood out to him beyond the normal rowdy teenage energy that is normal for a classroom. 

The first was how a boy in the front of the room kept flinching and curling into himself whenever another student, who just happened to be Mlle. Lila Rossi, touched him. She was sharing his desk in the front, sitting inappropriately close, clutching his arm in a possessive manor, and ignored him when he asked her to let him go or give him space. All this was done in full view of Mme. Bustier, and she did nothing.

During the literature lesson, they were studying Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mlle. Rossi interrupted and began telling a story about being a descendant of Vlad the Impaler. A complete falsehood since Vlad’s only child had been killed as an infant. This was a fact that the teacher should have corrected or told the girl to pay attention to the lesson, but she did nothing. Allowing the girl to prattle on for close to 15 minutes before returning to the lesson.

The worst though, was when Mlle. Rossi, made another scene when she began complaining about how her left knee was still hurting from when Marinette pushed her down the stairs. The other students proceeded to glare and speak harsh words about the girl. It was at this time that Mlle. Dupain-Cheng stood from her seat in the back and attempted to defend herself. Mme. Bustier did intervene this time, but she did not reprimanded the other students that were ganging up on the one girl. Instead, she reprimanded Marinette and told her that she was not setting a good example for the class. Then forced her to apologize to Lila for upsetting her. Blatant victim blaming, right in front of him, and the teacher had the nerve to smile at him as if to say that she had handled the situation.

Walters had written everything down, already deciding that he would need to call the Board at the first possible moment to alert them to the incompitent administrative practices of Damocles, as well as the toxic teaching methods of Bustier. It was now little wonder why this class had produced so many akumas. It was a miracle that there were any students left in the class that hadn’t been akumatized. But seeing as one student was clearly being bullied and the other was being sexually harassed, it likely wouldn’t be long.

He was just barely able to fit in the call and look over the CCTV footage before his meeting with Mme. Rossi in M. Damocles office. That had been interesting, to say the least. Before the meeting had even started, Mme. Rossi was voicing her worry about the amount of time that the school had been closed due to akuma attacks…

Once that had been cleared up, M. Damocles got to the matter at hand. Beginning with requesting information and doctors notes at her earliest convenience pertaining to her daughter’s injuries, disabilities, as well as requesting more information about her lying disease. Again, that had been a very interesting conversation that resulted in the woman yelling at Damocles in French and Italian about how incompetant he was and why hadn’t he gotten ahold of her sooner?

But the worst reaction came when Damocles told her about the day of the incident. They showed her the footage found of Lila, and yes it was Lila, stealing the answer sheet off of Mme. Bustier’s desk and then slip it into Marinette’s bag on her way back to her seat. Then the footage of Lila breaking into Marinette’s locker and planting the necklace. And finally, Lila smiling at Marinette before walking down the stairs and sitting on the ground before she started screaming. 

By then, another inspector from the Board of Governors had arrived to assist in the situation that he had reported during his earlier phone call and the students had returned from lunch. Walters requested Mme. Bustier to join them and to bring Lila along. When the girl entered the office and saw her furious mother and principal, she paled immediately and started lying.

Even when Walters, Damocles, and her mother tore apart every one of her lies, she kept trying to turn things around and make herself a victim. And to Walters’ horror, Damocles was actually buying her lies! It was at that moment that he decided that the man had no right being a school administrator and would be put on leave, pending the end of his investigation and the Board of Governors decision. 

Bustier attempted to side with Lila as well, claiming that the girl suffered from a disease and shouldn’t be punished. Completely ignoring that Mme. Rossi told her that her daughter suffered no such ‘disease’. The other inspector, Marchand, looked on in disgust before pulling out his phone and calling the Board of Governors right there, relaying his support of Walters’ recommendation against Damocles and Bustier. 

Walters took charge of the situation, forcing Damocles out of his chair to take his seat. “Mme. Rossi, as an inspector of the Board of Governors, I must ask if you fully understand the situations that your daughter has caused?”

The woman took a deep breath before slowly letting it out, all the while retaining a firm grip on her daughter’s arm after she had attempted to flee the room earlier. “If you would, please go over everything from the top.” The woman requested, her voice a bit hoarse after yelling at the principal, the teacher, and her daughter.

Giving the woman a sympathetic nod, he flipped open the notebook and went over his notes while Marchand kept Damocles and Bustier quiet and standing in a corner. “I have personally observed your daughter disrupting class, bullying a student named Marinette Dupain-Cheng, lying to her peers, leading them to also bully Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, and sexually harassing another student who verbally asked her to stop. We have video evidence of her committing theft, harassing the same student I witnessed her bullying, framing that student for assault, as well as framing that student of theft and cheating. All that, as well as your testimony of her lying to the school administration about different injuries and illnesses, fraud in regards to changing your contact information, and four months of truancy. 

“At this point, the school has no choice but to suspend Lila, pending an investigation to be completed by the Board of Governors,” he said, handing her the paperwork to sign, which she did right away. “At the time the investigation is complete, she will have the opportunity to plead her case to the Board. However, I want to make it clear that, from what I have seen, it is very likely that your daughter will be expelled.”

To her credit, Mme. Rossi held her head high as she nodded and handed back their copies of the suspension papers. “I suspected as much. However, I do request that a meeting be scheduled with Mlle. Dupain-Cheng’s parents so that Lila may apologize in person. I also want her to apologize to the class and admit her lies to them so that there won’t be any backlash on that poor girl.”

Lila turned to her mother in a panic. “No, Mom! Please don’t make me-”

“YOUNG LADY, you are going to tell the class everything you lied about, apologize to that girl, and admit that you have been bullying her. Am I clear?” Walters was impressed that the girl simply nodded as she curled into herself before Mme. Rossi looked back to him. “I will not allow Lila to escape her punishment, that includes telling the truth to the people she has wronged.”

He nodded in understanding. “I’ll see about arranging a meeting. However, the suspension will be taking effect immediately, if you wish to have her confess to the class, I suggest doing so right now before school lets out.” Walters then turned to give the teacher a hard look that had her wilting under his gaze. “I’m sure Mme. Bustier would have no problem with that, I will also accompany you. M. Marchand, would you mind keeping an eye on M. Damocles?”

“Of course, I would like to word with him in private, myself.” He said, sending the man his own scathing look.

Mme. Bustier quietly escorted the Rossis and himself back to the classroom. The gym teacher, M. D’Argencourt had been watching over the class while Bustier had been in the meeting. Walters asked him to stay, and that they would only be there for a moment before turning to nod at the other teacher.

“Students, may I have your attention, please?” She waited a few seconds as the students put away what they were doing, likely hearing the tremor in the woman’s voice. “As you know, M. Walters, from the Board of Governors, has been sitting in with us today. It has been brought to my attention that one of our students has not been honest with us and has been causing a fair amount of trouble.” 

Looking back at the girl and her mother, Mme. Rossi forced her daughter to step forward while keeping a hand on her shoulder. At first, she didn’t say anything. Then her mother leaned forward to whisper something in her ear, causing her to slump and tears to fall down her cheeks. “I-I lied, about everything. *sniffle* I don’t know any celebrities. I’ve never helped charities or been to Achu. *sniffle* I don’t have tinnitus, arthritis, or anything like that. I’m not Ladybug’s best friend and I’m not related to Vlad the Impaler. And-and…”

“And…” Mme Rossi said in a forceful tone, ignoring the stunned looks they were receiving from the class. Lila tucked her chin to her chest, muttering the rest of her confession under her breath. But her mother wasn’t going to allow that. “Speak up so everyone can hear you, unless you want to be grounded for twice as long with no allowance at all.”

The girl’s hands fisted at her side as she spoke loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. “Marinette never bullied me. I-I bullied her. I told her that I would take her friends from her. I pl-planted the answer sheet in her bag. *sob* I put my necklace in-in her locker. She never pushed me down the stairs either, I faked it to get her expelled.”

“And why did you do all of this to that girl, Lila?” Her mother asked, making it clear that she had to answer. 

“Be-because sh-she knew that I was lying *sob hiccup sob* and I wanted her gone.”

“And what do you have to say to Marinette?”

Lila lifted her chin, glaring dangerously at the girl sitting in the back. “Sorry,” she snapped.

Mme. Bustier looked up at the girl, giving her a kind smile. “And do you accept her apology, Marinette?”

That really pissed him off, that woman had no right to put that girl on the spot after Rossi had done everything in her power to ruin that girl’s life. Before she could say anything, Walters stepped in front of Bustier. “Marinette, you are under no obligation to accept her apology, that is completely up to you.” Waiting a moment he saw the absolute relief on the girl’s face before quietly shaking her head and settling back in her chair. 

Walters then instructed M. D’Argencourt to continue with the class while he escorted Bustier back to the office while Mme. Rossi took her daughter home. 

There was still a lot to do in this school, it was clear to him that the two educators, and he used that term loosely, needed to go. There was paperwork to fill out, more CCTV footage to go over, interviews with the students of Bustier’s class, and calls needed to be made to the Dupain-Chengs and the Agrestes about Lila Rossi and what she’d done to their children. The investigation literally had weeks of work to do, but it had to be done. But Walters knew, by the time they were done cleaning house, the students and school would be better off for it.

~oOo~ Four Weeks Later ~oOo~

Walters was working on the last of the paperwork having to do with the Francois-Dupont College debacle, greatly relieved that it was over.

Lila Rossi had been officially expelled after the investigation for bullying, harassment, theft, sexual harassment, cheating, destruction of property, fraud, and truancy. During her trial before the Board, the Dupain-Cheng family had been present and she had been forced to apologize to them for what she had done to her daughter. From her file, he saw that the Dupain-Chengs, as well as the Agreste family, had placed restraining orders on the girl. The Agreste family were also pressing charges for sexual harassment. Mme. Rossi had mentioned a reformatory school for delinquent children in Italy, stating that she had already enrolled her daughter, despite the outcome of the Board’s decision. He was glad that the woman was taking everything in stride and seemed to be doing the right thing.

The investigation into M. Damocles had uncovered even more skeletons than Walters had expected. Negligence and abuse of power, those were easily confirmed. They also uncovered proof of favoritism, taking bribes to ensure that certain students were not punished for offenses or that they passed their classes, despite failing grades. But the nail in the coffin was when Walters tracked down the money that was supposed to go to upgrading the lockers, Damocles had embezzled it to fund his vigilante superhero activities. He had officially been fired and blacklisted from ever working for the educational system or any branch of the government. The new principal was a vice principal from another school, well versed in bullying situations and had degrees in accounting as well as education. She would be going over all the books to see exactly how much money Damocles had embezzled over the years, so the Board of Governors would be able to sue for the proper amount of restitutions.

The issue of Mme. Bustier turned out to be an interesting matter. While looking into her qualifications, it had been revealed that her teaching license had been suspended before she had been hired by Damocles to teach at the school. Not trusting her file, Walters contacted her previous school and found out that they had fired her for much of the same reasons he had put her on leave. She had enabled bullies, blamed the victims, and pressured her “star pupil” to take on the work of a teaching assistant. When that same student complained and refused to help anymore, Bustier had told his parents that the boy was a troublemaker, refused to follow instruction, and was talking back. The boy had insisted on talking to the principal, who had cleared things up with the student and his parents. Bustier had been fired for her behavior and her license suspended until she completed anti-bullying classes, which she never attended. She simply applied to a new school, where the principal didn’t look too closely at her paperwork, and resumed her toxic teaching methods. Because of this; Bustier had been fired, blacklisted from ever teaching again, as well as arrested for teaching without a license.

The whole of Bustier’s class had been assigned counselling sessions for the foreseeable future until the toxic habits that the teacher had instilled in the class could be rectified. Though Walters was pleased to see that there seemed to be progress, as none of the students had been akumatized since the day he had gone to the school. A new record for time between akumatizations. The substitute that had been hired was stern, well versed in squashing bullying habits, but was sympathetic to the victims. That was what that class needed for the time until the Board could find a suitable, permanent replacement. 

All in all, Walters felt that he had done his job with investigating the Dupain-Cheng expulsion, and was happy to hear that the girl was doing much better. Her record had been cleared, her grades were still at the top of the class, and she had given the Board a basket of baked goods on the day of Lila’s trial, which had been like eating little bites of heaven. She had even given him a custom notebook cover, that he was pretty sure she made herself, and a matching pen. It was a very kind gift, and might have thought it was a bribe if anyone else had given it to him, but he could tell that she was just grateful to him for listening to her and making her school life better. 

That was the reason he enjoyed his job.

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“How bad?” Alya asked, standing from her chair.

“She’s alive, but I’m afraid that her parents and grandmother were killed in a fatal car accident.”

From there, gossip flew all around the room. How bad had it been? How hurt was Marinette? Do you think the accident was Marinette’s fault?

What?

They weren’t sure who asked that question, but it brought up other things. How she’d been acting strange the past few months. The way she’d distanced herself from everyone in class. How she’d been bullying Lila when she thought no one was looking. Always calling Lila a liar even though she had no proof. It was clear to everyone that she was a troubled girl, but the idea that she’d caused the accident and killed her parents and grandmother? That didn’t seem like the girl they knew.

Still, they weren’t sure. So, no one really reached out to her in the hospital. No one called or went to visit to see if she was alright. Except Lila, she put the fear of her bully aside and went to check on her, only to call Alya crying an hour later.

“I don’t understand why she hates me so much.” Lila sobbed on Alya’s couch and the spectacled girl rubbed her friend’s back. “All I did was tell her that I was worried about her, but she yelled at me and told me to get out of the room. But I can’t blame her. I think she’s just scared.”

“Of course she’s scared, she just lost her family-”

“No, she killed her family!” Lila stressed, looking freaked out. “She admitted it to me, like she didn’t think anyone would believe me! She said she distracted her father while he was driving and caused the crash since they were starting to get wise to how she really is, and that her grandmother was just ‘collateral damage’. I didn’t think anyone could be so cruel!”

Alya was in shock. She hadn’t thought that Marinette, someone she used to think of as a friend, would ever do something like that. Especially to her own family. But… Lila had never lied to her, why would she start now? “Do the police know about this?”

Lila shook her head. “I’m not sure. But I do know that she’s talking to a lawyer, she’s probably going to get her inheritance and disappear before anyone figures out what she’s done.”

“Don’t worry, girl. I won’t let her get away with this.”

“What are you going to do?” Lila asked, her voice trembling.

“Whatever I need to do to get justice for Tom and Sabine.”

~oOo~

To say that the reaction Alya got from the Paris Police Department when told them that she had a source that Marinette had killed her family in order to collect her inheritance and disappear… it hadn’t been well received. Officer Roger came to the interrogation room personally, seeing as how she was in his daughter’s class, as Alya sat with her extremely angry parents.

“Do you want to explain why you just tried to file a false police report?” Officer Roger asked her.

“It’s not false! I have a source.”

“And who might that be?”

She hesitated at that, Lila had begged her to keep her name out of it. “I’m not really comfortable saying.” 

“Then how exactly did this source of yours, gain this information?”

Thinking it over for a moment, she decided that was okay. “It was someone that visited Marinette, she admitted to my source that she purposefully distracted her father while he was driving and caused the crash.” When Officer Roger looked even angrier, she knew that must have been right and he didn’t want to admit that he’d been wrong.

At least…

“Mlle. Cesaire, as this has been made public knowledge, allow me to tell you exactly how wrong your source is. Firstly, Tom Dupain was not driving the car, Gina Dupain was driving. As for Marinette causing the accident, that’s also untrue. Street cameras confirm that four university students ran a red light and struck their car. The driver of the other car even confessed to having been drinking and causing the accident.”

Alya was in shock. Tom hadn’t been driving and Marinette hadn’t caused the accident… that would mean…

“Hate to break it to you Mlle. Cesaire, but whoever your source is has lied to you and caused you to be charged with filing a false police report.”

All the way home, Alya’s parents were scolding her for even thinking that Marinette could do such a thing. “She has always been such a good friend to you, and don’t think we don’t know about all the times you had Marinette watch Ella and Etta while you went off on dates with Nino. I bet you never even offered to pay her for babysitting the girls, did you?” Her father snapped as he parked the car outside their apartment building.

“And what about all the dresses and handmade gifts she gave you, some for no reason at all. Did you ever even thank her for those? And still, you accuse her of killing her entire family and almost getting herself killed for money? Why would you ever believe that?”

Seeing no reason to keep it to herself anymore, she told them. She told them how Marinette seemed to change when her new friend, Lila, came to school. How she had been calling her a liar just because she was jealous about the glamorous life she lived, the celebrities she knew, and her crush on Adrien. How she kept on accusing Lila of lying and faking injuries, even to the point of hurting her when Marinette threw a napkin at her and strained her sprained wrist. And then, when Marinette had been expelled, how she had accused Lila of being behind the whole thing.

When she was finished explaining, she thought for sure that she’d convinced her parents. Then she saw the looks on their faces.

“Alya, at any point, did you ever look up any of Lila’s claims?” Her mother asked in a slow, even voice.

“Now you sound like Marinette!”

“You do not talk to your mother like that!” Her father snapped before taking a deep breath to steady himself. Even without Hawkmoth around, it was difficult for people to express themselves as they used to. “Alya, I want you to take out your phone and look up any articles that have to do with Jagged Stone and Lila Rossi.”

Realizing how upset her parents were, she did what her father told her, knowing that she would find the proof in a couple minutes and they would see that Marinette…

Her phone read 1 result found: the Ladyblog.

Confused, she looked up any connection between Lila and Bruce Wayne. She said that she was practically a member of the family and that she and Damien Wayne were…

1 result found: the Ladyblog

Her hands were beginning to shake as she did her search for Lila and Tony Stark, that had to be true! She had talked about meeting him over video chat in class and how they’d talked about…

1 result found: the Ladyblog

Search after search, it was all the same. Lila and Clara Nightingale, Lila and Prince Ali, Lila and XY, Lila and the Avengers, Lila and Ladybug: 1 result found: the Ladyblog.

“I-I don’t understand?”

“Did you, at any time, check your sources before posting them?” Her mother asked, but Alya didn’t answer. She’d thought that Lila’s word had been enough, but… “This Lila girl has been lying to you, and apparently she’s been bullying someone who you used to think was a real friend. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

And she really was. She’d turned on Marinette, accusing her of being a jealous bully that had killed her own family, all on the word of a liar. So when her parents grounded her and told her that she was to shut down the Ladyblog, she didn’t argue. The blog was so full of lies that she would never be able to use it as a credible source for work experience in the future, if she even had a future in journalism anymore.

~oOo~

The next day at school, Alya could barely lift her eyes to meet anyone around her. Her mother said that she should be ashamed, and she was. She was ashamed, mortified, depressed, and all together hating herself after spending the entire night thinking of all the cruel and terrible things she had said to and about her former friend. She wasn’t going to delude herself thinking that she and Marinette could ever be friends again, she didn’t deserve her after throwing her aside for a bunch of fake stories and glittery lies.

But there was still one thing she could do. It wouldn’t make things right but it would probably be something Marinette would have done if she could have. So Alya got to class early and connected her laptop to the overhead projector. When everyone, barring Adrien and Marinette got to class. She got down to business.

“Everyone, I’ve got something very important to tell you, it has to do with Marinette.” She could already hear the murmurs around the classroom, Lila must have messaged them the lies while she’d been at the police station. “I want to start by saying that we have been misinformed. After speaking with the police and doing a ton of research, I can say with close to 100% certainty that Marinette never bullied Lila and that Lila has been lying to us since she got here.”

Before Lila could say anything, Alya brought up her first powerpoint slide. “I did a search last night on all the connections that Lila’s told us about with Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Prince Ali, and many others; and they all came up the same thing” The slide showed a screen shots of her searches, showing the only result being the Ladyblog. 

“Lila also told me the other day, how she went to visit Marinette and she confessed that she distracted her father while he was driving to cause the accident and kill her family so she could collect her inheritance.” Alya switched slides to the news article on the accident. “Yet the police report, traffic cameras, and witnesses all claim that to be false. Marinette’s grandmother was driving. The other driver admitted to running the light and causing the accident. And seeing as Marinette has never hid her dislike of Lila, it’s highly doubtful that she would even let Lila into her hospital room, let alone tell her something like that.”

The class had been staring at the slides in a state of shock until Alya finished speaking. Then all of them were whipping out their phones to do their own searches. Lila looked to be in a state of panic, unsure if she could bring anyone back to her side after showing all this evidence and everyone suddenly looking things up themselves.

“Oh, and Lila,” Alya said in a slightly sweet voice that made the italian glare. “So you know, my parents grounded me when the police charged me for filing a false police report after what you told me. They also decided to call the embassy to talk to your mother directly. I hope you at least get into as much trouble as you tried to do to Marinette.”

The girl didn’t want to stick around to find out, she was about to run out of the class but Mme. Bustier entered a second later and told everyone to take their seats. Lila tried to get herself excused multiple times, but the teacher just said “I understand that you must be upset by everything that has happened, but please know that you don’t have to leave the room to cry. This is a safe place again, and we are here for you.”

Before Lila’s 4th attempt to be excused, M. Damocles’ assistant knocked on the door and said that Lila was required in the office. The girl shot Alya an if-I-could-kill-you-now-I-would look before gathering her things and stomping out of the classroom. Alya hoped that she would never see the girl again. 

Then just before lunch, Markov came on and alerted everyone that the news was talking about Marinette. Mme. Bustier turned the projector back on and plugged Markov in. Sure enough, there was Marinette, looking much worse for wear. She was in a wheelchair with her right leg and arm in casts. They could see cuts healing on her exposed skin and she was much more pale than the last time they saw her. But what really caught the class’ attention, was what the bar read at the bottom of the screen. “Custody battle between Stark, Wayne, and Stone”.

The camera switched from Marinette to Jagged Stone. “Tom and Sabine were like family to me, some of the most rock’n’roll folks I’ve ever met. When I got the call saying that they were gone and Marinette had no one else, all I could think about was being there for the rockin’ little lady. She is the kindest, smartest, and most talented girl I’ve ever met. Whatever it takes, I’m going to do what I can to help her.”

Then the camera went to Tony Stark. “Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng were the kind of people others should strive to be; they stood up for what was right and let you know if you were wrong. I was on the receiving end of their lectures more than once, and they’re probably one of the reasons why I put on the suit over and over again. They helped make me a better man… and now they’re gone. I can never repay them for how they helped me, the least I can do is try to give their daughter a safe environment to heal.”

Finally, the camera came to Bruce Wayne and his sons. “I know the pain of losing one's parents when you’re young, it’s not something I would wish on anyone. But I had a support system when I was young, one of those people was Gina Dupain, a wonderful woman that forced me to see that there was still good in the world. She passed that goodness and strength to Tom Dupain and was lucky enough to find a good woman like Sabine. The fact that they are gone from the world… all I could think when I heard of their passing was how dark the world would become without the three of them. But there is also so much goodness in their daughter, Marinette. If I can have the opportunity; I just hope that I can do for Marinette, what Gina did for me.”

When the camera switched again, it came to Nadja Chamack, who looked a little teary eyed. “This story has been admittedly difficult for me to remain objective, as I know… knew the family personally. I do agree with Jagged Stone, Tony Stark, and Bruce Wayne in saying that Tom, Sabine, and Gina were wonderful people and it is a great loss that they are no longer with us. TVi news will continue to follow this story as it develops. Back to you, Alec.”

Mme. Bustier’s class watched the news in total shock. They’d had no idea that Marinette knew Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, but how could they have forgotten that she knew Jagged Stone and Nadja Chamack. Hell, Alya had even watched Manon with her more than once. 

All the things Lila had promised them, Marinette probably could have done and more. She could have introduced Kitty Section and Nino to Jagged Stone and given them an in to the music industry. Computer programming and robotics for Max, there was no one better known in the industry than Tony Stark. Business and charities, an introduction to Bruce Wayne could have done wonders for Chloe, Sabrina, and Mylene. If Alya had even asked while they were still friends, Marinette may have asked Nadja if they were offering any internships at TVi for her. And even if her former friend didn’t have any obvious contacts in sports for Kim, or art for Alix and Nathaniel; with the way her name was getting out there with her fashion designs, she’d have probably made connections within the next few years.

A look around the room told Alya that the class was thinking the same thing. If they had just listened to their friend, instead of calling her jealous. If they had looked into a single thing Lila said instead of blindly following her. If they had even just gone to visit Marinette in the hospital rather than leave her alone during the hardest time of her life… No, they had no right to ask anything of her and all of them knew it.

Later that day, just before school let out for the day, Markov alerted everyone that Marinette was leaving the courthouse and the little robot was reconnected to the projector. What they saw was Marinette giving a small smile, her lawyer looking relieved, and the three men smiling fondly at the teenage girl. When the reporters started firing questions at them they were silenced when Marinette raised her good arm and motioned for everyone to calm down before pointing to Nadja.

“Has the judge come to a decision on the subject of custody?” Nadja asked, pointing her microphone at Marinette. Only to be answered by her lawyer, the bar listed his name as M. Contere.

“Mlle. Dupain-Cheng and I have presented a proposal to the judge, it has yet to be finalized but I will say that it holds potential.”

Marinette pointed to another reporter, who had been politely raising his hand. “Mssrs. Stone, Stark, and Wayne seem to be in high spirits, does this indicate that the final decision will allow for all parties to have interactions with Mlle. Dupain-Cheng?”

M. Contere kept a straight, professional face, but everyone could see the happy crinkle at the corner of his eyes. “Although I cannot, at this time, comment on the specifics of the proposal, I will say that it is in the best interests of my client.”

Marinette chose a young girl who looked a bit overwhelmed but smiled gratefully. “This question is directed to Mssrs. Stone, Stark, and Wayne. What kind of accommodations are you planning on making if receiving custody?”

The three men shared a look before smiling at the young reporter. 

“Anything Marinette will need to heal and make a future for herself,” Bruce Wayne began.

“And probably a bunch of things she’ll say she doesn’t need, but will end up giving her anyway, since she deserves everything.” Tony Stark smiled down at her, earning a you-better-not look from Marinette, and caused a few reporters to chuckle.

“All of us here see this rockin’ little lady as family, these custody hearings will make it official. I can say with great certainty that, no matter what the judge decides, myself and these two men will do everything in our power to help her in any way we can.” Jagged said, as he placed a gentle hand on top of Marinette’s head.

M. Contere pointed at a different reporter this time, and was visibly surprised by the question. “There has been a rumor going around that Marinette purposefully caused the accident to collect her inheritance, any comment?”

The three powerful men that were standing behind Marinette became visibly upset and Marinette began to cry. Before Jagged Stone, Tony Stark, or Bruce Wayne could advance on the reporter to demand where he had heard such a claim, their lead lawyers stepped forward. The intimidating force that the three of them exuded was enough that all of the reporters took a few steps back.

“That question is a blatant falsehood that was founded by rumor, not facts,” stated the Stone lawyer in a cold voice as he stared down the reporter who asked the question.

The Wayne lawyer continued, speaking clearly so no one would mishear or misquote what was said. “As stated in the police report and other sources, the accident was caused when a group of university students failed to yield at a red light and struck the Dupain-Chengs’ vehicle. The driver has already pleaded guilty to charges of DUI, three counts of vehicular manslaughter, and vehicular assault.” 

The camera panned over to Tony Stark’s lawyer, as he finished speaking quietly to the three men before turning back to the camera. “These comments have also come to the attention of the Paris Police Department, as someone attempted to file a false police report on the matter. After a brief discussion with Mssrs. Stone, Wayne, and Stark, they have agreed to work together, along with the PPD, to find the source of these rumors and see the individual brought up on charges of slander, harassment, and defamation of character; among other charges.”

“No more questions,” M. Contere said as he and the other lawyers escorted their clients away from the courthouse. The reporters tried to ask more questions, but were met with icy looks and ‘no comment”.

Alya couldn’t help but smile at that. After school, when Officer Roger came to pick up Sabrina, she would tell him exactly who her source was. She would tell who her “source” had been and all the things she’d said about Marinette since she’d started attending school. She would show him all the recordings on her blog before it was shut down and send him video copies of Lila’s interviews as evidence. If she was lucky, Lila would also be charged for slandering Jagged Stone, Tony Stark, and Bruce Wayne; as well as Marinette.

Again, Alya knew that this wouldn’t fix her friendship with Marinette, but it was also the right thing to do. And for the first time in a long time, she was going to be on the side of good.

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Her hand froze as she stared at the woman. “Are you sure? I only ask because that wasn’t my laptop, that was my daughter’s laptop.”

Evelyn’s eyes widened slightly before nodding. “It was the first thing I was able to recover since it was mid-correspondence. I assumed it was your laptop since the emails were addressed to you and were signed by you. If that’s not the case… I think you should probably read those emails and talk to your daughter’s principal as soon as possible.”

A little uncertain of what the woman just told her, Greta called the Embassy to tell them she would be taking the rest of the day off. Going home, she plugged in the flashdrive and started looking over the emails that Evelyn had mentioned. Sure enough, they were between Principal Damocles and supposedly signed by her. The first emails were dated the day Lila had told her the school was closed due to akuma attacks, only the email said that she was pulling Lila out of school to go on a diplomatic trip to Achu. 

A little taken aback, Greta looked up the akuma incidents to see just how bad things were. She normally wasn’t permitted to look up these kinds of things at work, nor did she ever have the time since she had to make sure the Ambassador’s days were scheduled down to the minute and all the paperwork was ready to be signed. But now that she had a moment to look, she could see videos of Ladybug and Chat Noir defeating every akuma… and two of the akumas had been her own daughter! This meant that Lila had been lying to her for months!

The next email was from the day of the Scarlet Moth incident, she remembered her co-workers talking about it. That email to Damocles said that her number had changed and gave a new number, which just happened to be Lila’s number.

Another email requesting doctors notes for Lila’s numerous injuries and disabilities: tinnitus, a sprained wrist, a dislocated kneecap, and tonsolatius. Lila had responded with photocopied doctors’ notes that even Greta could tell were fake, and the principal had responded with gratitude for the prompt response.

Some of the more recent emails spoke about Lila being pushed down the stairs by another student and how a family heirloom had been stolen by the same student! Only to be followed by another email requesting another doctor’s note referencing a disease Lila claimed to have that makes her lie uncontrollably. Was the principal a total idiot? 

The most recent email, the one Lila had been working on when the laptop was destroyed, stopped mid-sentence as Greta Rossi told Damocles that she and Lila would be going on another extended diplomatic trip to London, as she would be working personally with the Queen of England. If Greta hadn’t been furious at her daughter before, she sure was now. 

Still, part of her wanted to have some faith in her daughter, so she would set up a test when Lila got home. Which, coincidentally, wouldn’t be long as she had spent a good few hours reading over the emails and she had finally looked into akuma reports that had occurred since they had moved to Paris.

Lila came home about half an hour later, texting on her phone with a cruel smile, but abruptly stopped when she saw her mother. “Mama, you’re home early. Is it because of the akuma attacks?”

“No, mia bella. I was just given the afternoon off, so I decided to spend it with you. How was school?”

Watching her daughter carefully, she saw her change in posture and expression as she began to do the same fake crying she did when she was 6 years old. “Oh Mama, it was terrible. The school got attacked by another akuma and Chat Noir was just so reckless, his Cataclysm destroyed half of the school. It got closed down until repairs can be completed again.”

“Mia Bella! You weren’t hurt, were you?” Greta asked, faking shock and worry. She suspected that Lila had completed the email on her tablet or a computer at school and sent it to Damocles. Now, her daughter was trying to make an excuse as to why she was staying home. But Greta wasn’t about to be fooled again. Oh no, she had given her daughter a chance and now she was going to make her pay. “That’s it, I can’t allow you to keep attending such a dangerous place.”

Lila stopped mid-sob to look at her mother in surprise. “W-what are you saying?”

“Lila, from what you’ve told me about Hawkmoth, the akuma’s, and those terrible vigilanties; I can’t force you to stay in such a dangerous place due to my job. Go to your room and pack, I’ll call your Zio e Zia in Italia and ask if they can take you in while I finish my assignment here in Paris.” Greta continued to watch her daughter as she spoke, her expression becoming more and more panicked and upset as she spoke. Lila had never liked staying with her uncle and aunt because they lived on a farm that was far from everything, had no internet or cell service, and Greta’s brother was of the mindset that if you didn’t work on the farm, you didn’t eat.

“Bu-but Mama, you can’t just send me away like this! What about school-”

“You just told me that the school was shut down again due to the attacks, and after all the other times the school has been closed, I doubt if you’ll be able to graduate with the other schools or even be accepted into lycee at this point. At least if I send you back to Italia, you’ll be safe and be able to go to school without worrying about being attacked.” Reaching forward, Greta took Lila’s hands firmly between her own. “Please understand, mia bella, I am your mother and I love you more than anything. Even if you’re upset with me, I must do what is best for you and your future.”

Lila didn’t bother hiding her scowl as she tried to tug her hands from her mother’s grip. Then the girl really looked at her mother’s face and realized something was wrong. “Mama?”

Greta returned her scowl. “I am very disappointed in you, young lady. I was giving you a chance to come clean and tell me the truth.” Lila’s eyes blew wide open and was about to say something, but was cut off. “I saw those emails between myself and M. Damocles on your computer. Funny thing, I don’t remember writing them. I also don’t recall changing my contact number, going on a diplomatic trip to Achu, or telling him about a bunch of injuries, disabilities, and diseases that you don’t have. I also don’t remember my bosses assigning me to go on another diplomatic trip to London to work with the Queen of England, seeing as I’m not an ambassador.”

“Wait, Mama! I swear, I can explain-”

“You’ve already said enough! You and I are going to the school right now to speak with M. Damocles. You are going to tell him everything that you’ve been lying about and I’m going to have a talk with him about your supposed fall down the stairs since I’m pretty sure you lied about that as well since I was never notified and you were never taken to the hospital.”

“No, Mama! Please-”

“Be quiet! If you dare try to fight me on this or say one more lie, you will be on a plane back to Italia tonight and spend the rest of your school career with your Zio e Zia, understand?

Pouting the entire time. Lila went back to the school with her mother and was forced to confess to everything she had lied about. M. Damocles also ended up looking at the CCTV footage, something that Greta thought he should have done in the first place, and showed that her daughter had not been pushed down the stairs and had planted the not-family-heirloom in the other student’s locker. Greta demanded that he tell Lila’s class exactly what her daughter had done and that he apologize to Mlle. Dupain-Cheng for getting her expelled. She also demanded the student’s information so she could speak with the girl’s parents and force Lila to apologize. Damocles, still thinking that Greta was an ambassador, told her about the bakery and promised that he would alert the class to Lila’s misdeeds before the two Rossis were out the door. 

Greta thought the Dupain-Chengs were wonderful people, offering them pastries as soon as they were upstairs and listened intently to her when she described the things that her daughter had been lying about. When she asked Marinette for her side of the story, Greta got even angrier at Lila. Threatening, bullying, and framing that poor girl when all Marinette had done was tell Lila to stop lying to her friends. Not only had she been lying to the school and her classmates, but all of Paris, if she were to go by the posts on the Ladyblog that Marinette showed her. She had never been more disappointed in her daughter. 

Once they got home, Greta forced Lila into her room and confiscated her phone and tablet. “I thought it was bad when you were lying to the school and playing truant, but now I find out that you are being a bully, and tempting a terrorist to attack you! How foolish are you?”

“Why are you believing that goodie-two-shoes ove-”

“I believe her because there is literally video evidence of you setting her up and trying to get her expelled! After what you’ve done, you’ll probably get expelled!”

“What!? But I didn’t do-”

“You bullied a student, committed months of truancy, forged signatures on doctors’ notes, and changed my contact information so the school couldn’t contact me. Any one of those are grounds for expulsion!” Greta shook her head in disgust when she saw the shock on her daughter’s face. Lila actually believed that she wouldn’t be punished for all the things she had done. Well, that was not something that she was going to allow, and she didn’t trust the principal or Lila’s teacher to do the right thing by her daughter anymore. “You know what, pack your bags right now. I’m calling my brother and putting you on a plane tonight. It’s clear that you need to learn some responsibility, and I highly doubt that you’re going to do that here.”

Lila tried to argue with her, but no amount of begging, pleading, or threats was going to change her mind. Lila was on a plane back to Italy within a few hours and Greta would be spending the next month cleaning up the mess her daughter had made in Paris. She was fortunate that she was able to keep her job. Luckily for her, her boss was a big fan of the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie and she had told him when she had brought in a big box of the pastries. That smoothed things over a bit, although she was no longer permitted to bring her daughter on assignments anymore. Greta considered that a small price to pay to keep her job, and maybe her daughter would learn that her actions have lasting consequences.

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