#bustier's class | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

comics-and-fanworks · 1 year ago

Note

Hi! I found this Drabble and was curious on how you’d write your own story around it because of how amazing you are! So, if it’s not too much trouble, do you think you could write a Maribat story around this prompt please? Thank you!

“It was gentle moments like this that made her life worth it. Of course these moments were few and far between, but they were there, and that’s what mattered. She leaned into the gentle touch, the loving way his fingers ran through her hair. The rise and fall of his chest. The warm, beautiful sound of his heartbeat against her ear. It was wonderful, so wonderful she knew that it wasn’t real.

She opened her eyes, letting the tears slip down her cheeks as she looked around her cold empty apartment living room. It had been another dream of something that was impossible. She had been alone for so long, going outside as little as possible so that her curse of misfortune would not spread. But she longed to make that dream a reality.

It was strange though, she had similar dreams before, but from what she could tell after studying them was that in every one it was the same boy. Despite never seeing his face even once, despite never once meeting them, she longed for them. Longed for the gentle love that they showed her, even if it was only for a moment.”

Hi! So sorry for taking so long! I’m currently in college and it’s killing me slowly, there’s been a lotta ups and downs, and my mental health is realistically not where it should be. Thank you so much for being patient with me, I really should have gotten this done sooner. Also I didn't know which batboi you wanted so I put them all on a wheel and spun it. I also rewrote some of the scenes in Miraculous like Lila's first appearance to make her a bit craftier and such.

I love this prompt! Thank you for suggesting it to me and for your sweet words! I hope you like this super cute Soulmate AU!

Also heads up this is super long and only loosely adheres to canon! The thing is so long because it took so long for me to get this done, one thing led to another and here we are. This thing is pages long and has 23,741 words. P. S, some of this was written on my phone sorry if the formatting is inconsistent! Also, let me know if I miscalculated ticket prices or made mistakes, and I’ll fix it! How I did the math was I googled a Disneyland Paris ticket price, took the highest value, multiplied that by the number of students going (They had a pass for ages 3-17 that I used for the students), and then did adult ticket prices for the two teachers. I multiplied those by seven days and added the results. My result came up to about 9,667 not including tax, so I chucked on a few extra thousand to account for Lila pocketing some of the money.

TW: swearing, mentions of bullying, and minor violence, hints of PTSD, mentions of death

~~~~~~~~

Marinette knew the minute she had her first dream about him. She was sitting on a couch in a library working on her designs. A faceless man approached her, holding two mugs, and set one down in front of her, gently kissing her head. Despite her inability to identify this man, she felt safe with him and could feel love and affection swelling in her chest. He set his mug down and sat beside her, chuckling as she snuggled up. In comfortable silence, they worked on their own projects, not a care in the world.

When Marinette woke up that Saturday, she immediately called Alya. "Girl guess what? I just had my first soulmate dream!" She quickly removed the phone from her ear, correctly predicting the excited shriek from Alya. "Oh my gosh, Marinette! This is amazing! Did you see his face? Was it a guy? Was it Adrien?" Marinette jumped out of bed, an extra bit of pep in her step. It was going to be a great day, she knew it! "Yes, it was a guy. I couldn't see his face though... so that rules out Adrien." She hadn't even thought of that. Everyone knew that you wouldn't see your soulmate's face in your dreams until you met them! She would have to face the reality that Adrien was not meant to be hers. Alya heard her tone change, and thought quickly, "That doesn't necessarily mean that! People are reporting that they haven't seen their soulmate's face even though they had already met them in real life because the time wasn't right! Maybe Adrien is your soulmate but now isn't the right time because his supervillain of a father who could make Hawkmoth look like a saint won't let him date. Or girl have you considered that your soulmate could be a superhero? Lois Lane stated that she knew her soulmate before she saw his face in her dreams because he had a secret identity that obscured it! Your soulmate could be Chat Noir," Marinette made a face as she styled her hair, " or one of the vigilantes from Gotham! The way I see it is that you have three options. 1. It is Adrien, it just isn't the right time. 2. You haven't met them yet. 3. It's a superhero." Marinette laughed, "What if they're a supervillain?" "No way girl. You’re too sweet and pure for a villain. Anyways-" An Akuma alarm sounded, cutting their conversation short. "Welp, that's my cue. I gotta go Mari, duty calls!" And with that, Alya hung up to chase down the Akuma, while Marinette shouted out, "Tikki! Spots on!"

There she was, hiking through the woods with her soulmate. She still couldn't see his face, but she immediately knew why they were there. He wanted to show her someplace special, somewhere he'd never taken anyone before. Eventually, they found a stream, and she turned to see her partner rolling up his pant legs and taking off of his boots. "Throw a stick in the water to see how strong the current is. If it's too strong we'll have to turn pack." His voice was slightly garbled so she couldn't identify it, but she could clearly hear what he said. Picking up a stick she tossed it far out into the creek, watching as it lazily floated away. With that, she took off her own hiking boots, and the two made their way into the creek. The water was cold and she almost lost her footing, only to be caught by strong arms and pulled against her soulmate's broad chest. Marinette couldn't help the blush rising to her face as he held her. She could feel his gentle breath by her ear, along with the steady rise and fall of his chest. She could fall asleep listening to his heartbeat. He whispered, "Careful love. I don't want you getting hurt." He helped her stabilize and the two continued to make their way up the creek until-

Marinette woke with a start to the sound of her alarm clock. She cursed the thing, of course, it had to go off when she was getting to the good part. She realized as she rushed to get ready for school that she was able to identify something about her soulmate, they were both adults in this dream. She had been having them for a few months now, but this was the first time she could figure out any detail about when they would meet. It also didn't rule out any of Alya's theories either. She kissed her Maman and Papa and sprinted to school, thanking her lucky stars that she wasn't late. However, she was in for a surprise when she arrived at Mrs. Bustier's classroom. There was a new girl sitting in her seat, while the whole class gathered around her. Alya noticed her and waved her over. "Marinette! This is Lila Rossi! She just transferred here and she's from Italy! Guess what girl? She knows Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale too! She saved Jagged's cat and he wrote a song for her, and she taught Clara some of her most famous dance moves! She also works with Prince Ali on environmental charities!! She's so amazing!" Marinette paused. Jagged Stone doesn't have a cat, he has Fang the alligator, and Prince Ali focuses on charities for children, not the environment. She could also remember Clara doing all of her own choreography, so her suspicions were already raised. She had serious doubts about the girl in front of her, and despite wanting to voice them she held her tongue. "It's very nice to meet you, Lila! I'm Marinette the class president, welcome to Dupont." Lila looked her up and down and gave her a saccharine smile which only raised Marinette's suspicions even more. "Hello, Marinette! I hope we can be good friends! Alya tells me you like fashion, I happen to be a personal friend of Hubert de Givenchy, so maybe I can introduce you to him!" Marinette's eyes narrowed, Hubert de Givenchy had passed away in 2018, and if Lila really knew him she would have known that. Her classmates looked on with bated breath, clearly believing Lila knew these famous people.

"Oh, you knew him?" Lila nodded, "I was so sad to hear when he passed away in 2018. He really was an inspiration of mine," Marinette said, watching as Lila's eyes widened, but was impressed with how quickly she recovered, "Oh I know! I misspoke earlier, I meant his nephew!" Before Marinette could reply, the bell rang. Alya turned to her and said, "Marinette I hope you don't mind. Lila has really bad tinnitus from when she saved Jagged's cat from getting run over by a plane. She struggles to hear so we gave her your seat." Marinette looked around and noticed no one was in their normal seats. If Lila had her seat, it meant the only place left to sit was alone in the back. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but I really would have appreciated it if you waited for me to get here. I have no problem with Lila sitting there if she needs it I just wish you would have-" Lila cut her off with fake tears, "Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to cause problems I just wanted to be able to hear the lessons! I can move to the back if that makes things better." Shit, she was good. Marinette looked around at her classmates who were now glaring at her. Did they not hear what she said? She had no problem with Lila sitting there if she needed it, she just wished someone would've let her know! "Don't worry Lila, you can stay there it's not your fault. I guess Marinette has decided to have an attitude today," Alix said, glaring at Marinette. "I just said I wished someone would have let me know!" Marinette shouted. "Girl it's just a seat it's no big deal. Why are you acting like a child about this?" Alya crossed her arms looking at her. "It's not even about the seat," Marinette started, "It's about you making a decision that affects me without talking to me about it!" "Well, we figured that since you're our Everyday Ladybug you'd have no problem with it. Come on Mari, you're supposed to be nice." Adrien scolded, and before she could defend herself the second bell rang, signaling the start of class.

She dreamed of walking down the streets of Paris, her soulmate nowhere in sight. However, she felt happy, it was a good day. She was going to her favorite bulk fabric supply store and texting some friends about the project ideas that danced in her head. She wasn't paying attention to where she was going, she knew this path by heart. She was planning on buying fabric to make a new spring line when she ran straight into someone, how embarrassing. Looking up, there was her soulmate, with his clouded face. He chuckled and asked where she was going in such a rush, and she stuttered out an apology. He offered to walk with her, making Marinette smile, they must have done this before many times.

The next few months were rough. Later that first day she had gone to talk to Alya and had presented evidence to prove Lila was a liar, but her best friend had simply shaken her head and told Marinette that jealousy was not a good look on her. Marinette had been stunned, she had nothing to be jealous about until Alya told her that everyone could see Lila had a crush on Adrien. Alya's words still burned in her brain, "I can't believe you Marinette. To try and ruin another girl's reputation because of a crush. You need to take a good look in the mirror." Marinette couldn't fathom why her best friend wouldn't listen to her and decided to go for a patrol as Ladybug. Then while she had been passing by the park, she had overheard Lila telling Adrien that she was the fox hero, Volpina. She had to say something, Lila might not realize how much danger she was putting herself in by making those claims. So she swung down, (and tried her best to keep her cool) and explained to Lila that there was no fox hero and that if Hawkmoth had overheard her she could be in danger. Of course, that caused Lila to get akumatized. To make things worse, a couple of days later Lila had cornered her and threatened her! Despite everything, she still believed her classmates would come around and see the truth.

That was exactly five years ago. Marinette really should have had less faith in the people around her. Lila got her expelled, Alya disavowed their friendship, and Adrien betrayed her worst of all. In his endless quest to avoid any confrontation, he pressured her to keep quiet, and when she didn't he turned his back on her. Marinette had quit trying to expose Lila years ago, but the brunette had kept her promise. Adrien just watched as their class left her out of their plans, destroyed her things, and ripped up her work, among other things. When she confronted him about why he was allowing this to happen, he just shook his head and told her it never would have if she had done what he said. Her heart shattered, and she prayed that her soulmate wasn't Adrien. The only people she had in her corner were her parents, Luka, and Kagami (who had quickly seen through Lila's bullshit after she'd tried to lie her way into Marinette's room), Nino, and Kim (they snapped out of it after Lila accused Marinette of pushing her down the stairs), and she had the newfound support of Nathaniel, Juleka, and Rose. The last three didn't want to rock the boat or have Lila's wrath directed towards them but had expressed seven months ago that they figured out Lila was lying, but after Marinette was nearly knocked into the path of an oncoming car, they began to be more vocal in their opposition. Chloe had also stepped back from tormenting Marinette, the two girls never talked, but were never hostile. Her friends couldn't do much while they were in school, and since they were busy with their own lives, Marinette truly felt alone. Even under the mask as Ladybug she was alone, witch Chat Noir had gotten so frustrated with her constantly refusing his feelings, that he'd almost completely stopped showing up two years ago. Her only solace was that Paris seemed to be on her side with that one, and whenever Chat Noir did emerge he was met with anger from the citizens he'd broken his oath to. On top of all that, Marinette hadn't had a soulmate dream in years, which terrified her to her core. Did her soulmate die?

"Tikki, I haven't dreamt of him in years! What's wrong with me!?" Marinette sobbed, holding onto a pillow on her bed. Most of her days ended like this, with tears. The Kwami were kind enough to protect her from akumas during these times, after realizing that Marinette was only putting herself at risk by bottling up her emotions. Her room had changed since the Lila Era began. She had taken down all of her photos, save a few, her bright pink walls seemed to lose their hue, and she only ever designed for commissions, simply because she knew she needed a portfolio for college. Tom and Sabine had tried their hardest to get their little girl out of Dupont, but her transfer papers kept getting "lost." They tried to get her into therapy, but with Hawkmoth around every therapist had a waitlist that was beginning to enter into years. Tikki was growing more concerned with each passing day, her Chosen was close to breaking. "Oh baby bug, there's nothing wrong with you! Soulmate dreams are different than regular dreams because they're tied to real people in this world. The interesting thing about them is that they show up when you need them." "But I've needed them! I need to know I'm not alone, that I haven't been abandoned, and that the universe doesn't hate me enough to take away everything," Marinette just sobbed harder before she froze, "What if Adrien really is my soulmate and that's why I'm not having dreams? I'm unlucky as it is, so this would be on par for me," Tikki was horrified that Marinette would even think that, and before she could say anything, a new voice cut her off. "No. That brat is not your soulmate, I won't allow it." There was Plagg, in her room, holding a familiar silver ring in his paws. "Pigtails after what he's done to you, as Adrien and Chat Noir," Marinette and the other Kwami gasped, "I won't let him. I won't let him hurt you anymore! Marinette I am so sorry, I should have done this a long time ago, but I let my gluttony and my pity for the kid cloud my judgment. I let him fail you inside and outside of the mask, Kitten I promise you I will never let a black cat holder hurt you again." Plagg nuzzled against her cheek, gratefully accepting Marinette gently kissing his head letting him know all was forgiven. "Besides! His karma is coming for him, but I have to warn you too. He's going to try and pursue you romantically because he doesn't like who his soulmate is." Marinette perked up at that, "Adrien knows who his soulmate is?" Plagg nodded, "Yep. One Lila Rossi. A liar and an enabler, how fitting. He had rejected her because at the time he was still convinced that Ladybug was his soulmate, but now that that's not true, he's turning his attention toward you. He found out from Alya that you had a crush on him, and so even though he knows you aren't his soulmate he's going to try and pursue you anyways." Marinette's brows furrowed, deep in thought. No wonder Lila was so obsessed with Adrien, and it explained why she wanted to get close to him. What Marinette needed was a plan, so she hopped out of her bed and made her way down to the kitchen where her parents were talking. "Maman, Papa. Would it be alright if I took a mental health day tomorrow?" Her parents seemed to light up at the thought, seeing this as an opportunity to give their child a break from her tormentors. "Of course! In fact, why don't you take the whole week off? You're ahead on your work and haven't missed any school this year. We'll call the school tomorrow and take care of everything." Sabine said, right before she and Tom were tackled by their daughter for a hug. With time to plan, Marinette made her way upstairs to begin her work.

It was gentle moments like this that made her life worth it. Of course, these moments were few and far between, but they were there, and that’s what mattered. She leaned into the gentle touch, the loving way his fingers ran through her hair. The rise and fall of his chest. The warm, beautiful sound of his heartbeat against her ear. It was wonderful, so wonderful she knew that it wasn’t real.

She opened her eyes, letting the tears slip down her cheeks as she looked around her cold empty room. It had been another dream of something impossible. She had been alone for so long, going outside as little as possible so that her curse of misfortune would not spread. But she longed to make that dream a reality. It was strange though, she had similar dreams before, but from what she could tell after studying it was that it was the same boy she had dreamed of before. Despite never seeing his face even once, despite never once meeting them, she longed for them. Longed for the gentle love that they showed her, even if it was only for a moment. Marinette quickly snapped out of her sorrow when she had a realization: She had dreamt of her soulmate again! She couldn't help the smile that crept onto her face. A knocking on her trapdoor snapped her out of her thoughts, and her mother's voice brought her back to reality, "Marinette sweetie? Are you up? I have some news. We couldn't have timed this better, it's your spring break, so we don't need to worry about problems from Damocles or Bustier! Also, your class has left for their trip, so there's no way you'll bump into them! Alright, that's all I've got, go back to sleep." Marinette couldn't sleep, not after hearing that great news! The kwami were already waking up and grabbing their food from the minifridge she kept in her room, while Marinette dashed to her wardrobe. She had made herself an outfit a while ago but was too afraid her classmates would ruin it. It was a short light pink sundress, perfect for today's weather. She was going to spend the day out on the town enjoying her life. She had a considerable chunk of fun money saved up from her commissions and decided that she deserved a self-care day.

She had just left her favorite brunch spot and was making her way to her fabric shop of choice, texting her friends who had gone on the class trip. Marinette was the only one who was purposely excluded from it, and while her friends tried to drop the trip, Mrs. Bustier made them go because if that many people dropped there would be no way the class would hit their fundraising goal. Marinette was pretty sure some of that money was going straight into Lila's pocket, but she wasn't class president and had no way to get her hands on the class's records. Marinette didn't know the average price of sending 13 students plus two teachers to Disneyland Paris, but 12,000 euros seemed like a lot. And the worst part: she was still expected to contribute! Marinette was so wrapped up in the sheer ridiculousness of it all, that she didn't realize where she was going until she ran right into someone! As she began to fall, she felt a strong arm grab her by the waist and suddenly she was standing upright and looking up at the man she had just run into. He was stunning, at least 6'2 with medium-length dark hair he kept neatly styled. His tan skin radiated warmth, and his muscles were clearly defined by the dress shirt he was wearing. As her eyes trailed up from his sharp jawline, she froze when she saw his eyes. They were a rich green, held a deep, almost mysterious gleam, and were as sharp as a panther's. Like the cat, there was something wild about his eyes, hidden just below the surface. The only thought running through her head was a simple, 'He should be Plagg's next holder.' Suddenly the man staring at her let out a deep chuckle that rumbled in his broad chest, "What's the rush little Lily?" His voice was deep, with a sort of sharpness to it, like this kind of conversation was new to him.

"I, I am SO sorry sir! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and ran into you! I hope I didn't mess up your outfit!" Marinette was in full panic mode, the most attractive man she'd ever seen in her life and she just made a fool of herself. Instead of the rage she expected and was used to, he only smiled, "No harm done. I don't have anywhere I have to be, and besides you only bumped into me, you didn't spill anything on me. Can I ask where you're going? My family has just arrived from the U.S. and I was exploring the city." Marinette blushed, he looked so intimidating, but so far he'd been nothing but kind. Still, she had learned never to drop her guard, but... If he wasn't from here she supposed it wouldn't hurt to be polite. "I'm going to some of my favorite fabric shops in the fashion district... I'm a clothing designer and I was going to pick up some to start working on a spring and summer collection," She decided to take a gamble, "If you have nothing to do I can show you around." He smiled, "I would love that Ms...," "Marinette, and you are?" "Damian." Marinette smiled as the two began to walk toward the fashion district together, "Well it's very nice to meet you, Damian, even if it was in interesting circumstances."

When Damian heard his father talking about going to Paris to investigate the Hawkmoth situation, he quickly volunteered to go along as well. His official pitch was that he was closest in age to the young heroes of Paris, and would have an easier time getting them to talk. He also said it would look good to add a bit of international travel and education abroad to his resume. However, he had a secret reason for wanting to go to Paris: to meet his soulmate. Younger him would have scoffed at the thought, but he was not the same person he was when he first came to his father. Thanks to his brothers and Jon (mostly Jon), he had grown as a person, and now that he was close to graduating high school, he was beginning to think about the rest of his life and how he wanted to spend it. Of course, there were the staples, going to college, starting at least 5 charities for animals, and inheriting the cowl, but a part of him wanted more. A part of him didn't want to be alone. So he started looking back at all the soulmate dreams he'd been having since he was thirteen. Even though he'd dismissed it at that age, he at least had the foresight to write everything down, and using his Batfamily-honed detective skills, he deduced his soulmate was somewhere in Paris. One dream stood out to him, he was standing on a sidewalk in Paris when his soulmate crashed into him. From the way she spoke in the dream, he deduced that this was when they would meet. So there he was, standing on the exact sidewalk in the exact spot. He knew how ridiculous he must've looked as he texted his family, his official story being that he was going to look for clues about the heroes. Right as he was about to reply to a snarky text from Tim, he felt a small mass crash into him with way more force than it should have. He quickly spun around and caught the woman, and as he stabilized her he was able to get a good look at her. The first thing Damian noticed was how small she was, at least compared to him, however, she did have quite a bit of lean muscle. Her skin was pale, with a slight pink undertone to contrast her shoulder-length ebony hair. Her cheeks were lightly dusted pink with small patches of freckles, and her lips were ruby red. She almost resembled a porcelain doll. She was gorgeous, but what really took his breath away was her eyes. Framed in long dark lashes they were a beautiful deep blue. They reminded him of an ocean, deep and rich and sparkling under the sunlight. This had to be his soulmate. He learned her name, Marinette, and she invited him to go with her to the fashion district. Damian was content, while she may not recognize him as her soulmate yet, it was undeniable that she felt the same pull towards him that he felt towards her.

Before she knew it, Marinette had spent her entire spring break with Damian. She couldn't help it, she felt drawn to him, like she needed him to breathe. What surprised her the most, was the dream she had the night after she met him. She was sitting atop a building as Ladybug, watching the sunset, and next to her with the black cat Miraculous, was Damian. They watched the sun sink below the horizon, and suddenly the sky erupted into fireworks of all colors. The show ended with a sentence spelled out in fireworks "Thank you Ladybug and Panthère de Nuit." She knew the moment she opened her eyes that Damian was her soulmate, and from the texts, she'd received, he knew it too. The two of them agreed to take it slow, they were still very young and had just met. However, as the mini vacation went on, the pit of dread in her stomach began to grow, and she would have to return to school. She had told Damian what was happening with Lila, Adrien, everything. Needless to say, Marinette was surprised when he told her he would be in her class, and that he wouldn't let them do anything to her (Little did they know Tom and Sabine heard them, and Damian had just won their approval). So when he arrived to pick her up, he made sure they got to Dupont early. Marinette gave him a tour, and as they were walking he stopped to talk to people. "Don't you normally hate talking to people?" "Normally I do my Lily, but in this case, I do not mind. However, I do have an ulterior motive. By talking to these people, I've created an alibi. Look over there," Marinette looked over and saw Sabrina and Alix watching them and whispering, "Those are two of that liar's sycophants right? Well now that they've seen that you spent your time before class giving me, a new student, a tour, if Lila claims that you did something to her, two of her own followers have seen evidence disproving it. So either they mention that there's no way you could've done it because they saw with their own eyes that you have not even interacted with her, or they say nothing and you know what kind of people they are." It was brilliant. Marinette was a little miffed she hadn't thought of it before. The two walked to class, and Marinette whispered, "Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. Adrien will give you the most problems. I heard from a friend that he was interested in me, even though he already knows who his soulmate is." "Is it Lila?" "Yes. I know enough about her to know that she's incredibly selfish, she hated it whenever Adrien gave me any attention, because-" "Because he was her ticket to fame and fortune, and if he had picked you she would be locked out." "Exactly. I do not doubt that the second she hears your last name, she won't give a shit about Adrien and will focus her full attention on breaking us apart." Marinette was shocked when Damian told her his last name, she may be oblivious but even she knew who the Waynes were. Plagg joked that it was the Universe trying to make up for how shitty it had been to her. She was not expecting the wicked grin Damian gave her as they arrived at their classroom. "I would like to see her try."

Before the two could reach their seats in the back of the room, Marinette was yanked away from Damian by Kim and Nino, "We don't know who you are but you don't deserve her!" Kim shouted, holding onto Marinette. "Yeah! Mari's the nicest dudette the world has ever seen, if you hurt her we'll kick your ass!" Nino said as he put himself between Damian and Marinette. There was a small moment of awkward silence before the group laughed. Marinette had warned him that her two best friends would try something like this, especially after she told them that he was her soulmate. Taking their seats at the back of the class, the group chatted about their spring break, until Lila walked in with the rest of the class. She readied a fresh accusation to fling at the ravenette but caught herself just in time. WHO was that gorgeous man sitting with Marinette? He put Adrien, a freaking model, to shame. Everyone else seemed to share that sentiment, and Alya was about to start demanding answers when they were spotted. The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees as the man glared at them. Marinette waved to Rose, Juleka, and Nathaniel, who quickly took their seats near the group of outcasts while Damian Batglared the rest of the class. "Can I help you?" He asked in an icy tone, one that demanded immediate answers. Alya balked, "We, we were just curious about you, since you're, um, a new student here." Damian pinched the bridge of his nose, and sighed, "My name is Damian Wayne, yes, from that family. I came to Paris with my father for a business trip, and to find my soulmate, Marinette," Little mutterings of "no way," "That's impossible," and "I didn't think that bitch would have a soulmate," filled the room. "I plan on staying until graduation, and from there I will be going to college with Marinette. Let me make one thing clear: I will not hesitate to retaliate against anyone who tries to hurt my soulmate in any shape or form." Nathaniel could be heard whispering, "Oooh, I like him," To the rest of their little group, who nodded in agreement. After waiting for a second for anyone to challenge him, Damian turned back to Marinette, and almost like a switch flipped, began showing her pictures of his cat.

Lila couldn't believe what she'd just heard. Damian Wayne was in her class, the richest, most eligible bachelor in the world was in her class... and his soulmate was fucking Dupain-Cheng! She swore this had to be some sick joke. There was no way that THE Damian Wayne (whom she had instantly recognized because she had seen him once at a charity ball her mother had taken her to and committed his face to memory) had someone as pathetic as Marinette as his soulmate. The universe truly was cruel. She'd thought she was lucky when she found out Adrien was her soulmate and was devastated when he told her over the break he was going to pursue Marinette. But now? Now Lila knew she must be the luckiest girl in history! Glancing over at Adrien confirmed her belief, the dumbass pushover glared at his rival, and she knew he wasn't going to back down. This was perfect. All she would have to do is separate Marinette and Damian, use the mountain of evidence against Marinette that she made over the years to convince her future husband that his soulmate was no good, and then bam! In a few short years, her name would be Delilah Wayne! Adrien's persistence would only help her case, especially with Marinette's former crush on the blond it would be so easy to frame her for cheating. She would have to be careful though, just from the look in his eyes she could tell he would be much sharper than the rest of her classmates had been: he would be her greatest challenge yet. For now, she would bide her time, and perfect her plan.

Lila made her first move at lunch. She and Alya were sitting at a table, observing Marinette and her friends talking with Damian. "He's so kind to them, why is he such an asshole to us?" Alya muttered. Ah, an opening. "Well, I don't think it's really his fault. I mean he did say that he had come to Paris to find his soulmate, and well, Marinette IS a pathological liar," Lila said as she picked at her food. Alya nodded, "I just can't understand why they still hang out with her! They know what she does to you, they know she's a bitch!" "I think it's a mix of sunk cost fallacy and denial Alya. Nino and Kim have known her since they were little, so I think the reality of Marinette being a bully just can't compute for them. As for Juleka, Rose, and Nathaniel, I think they feel indebted to her or something," Alya nodded, agreeing with her logic. "Girl you're so in tune with people it's crazy!" 'Yes I am,' Lila thought, 'You have to be able to read people to trick them.' "Alya... Can I tell you something? Something bad happened between Adrien and me over the trip." The reporter's head snapped around to her, "What did that bastard do?" Lila began to channel the sorrow she felt when Adrien confronted her over the break, "He... He told me he didn't want me!" She wailed, just loud enough for Damian to overhear, "He called me a liar and all of these awful names, and he told me he was in love with Marinette and that he knew she felt the same for him! He told me if I told anyone about this he'd ruin me!" She cried. It was amazing that Adrien had just handed her this opportunity, completely unaware that he'd done so. As Alya promised revenge against Adrien and the whore who stole him from Lila, the girl in question carefully glanced over to see Damian looking right at her. Perfect. When Lila had decided on this plan, she decided the initial bonding point would be that they had both been betrayed by their soulmates. If Damian was emotionally vulnerable he would be that much easier to manipulate, it would also be the perfect story to pitch to the media as well, they were both betrayed by their soulmates and fell in love!

Lila was quiet for the rest of the day, waiting eagerly for their classes to end. She had a feeling that Adrien would make a move and wanted to be there to see what she'd have to work with. She made an excuse to leave class early and quickly hid behind the stairs. She had to wait a bit for them to leave and spent the time doing research about Damian on her phone. So he loved animals, was passionate about the arts, and was a master swordsman and martial artist. He also spoke seven languages including Italian!! Lila sighed, he was perfect. Finally, the bell rang, and students began making their way out of the building. Lila knew Marinette usually spent some time helping the art teacher before she left, so she was certain Adrien would wait for the girl. Risking discovery, she poked her head out and saw her plan falling into place. Adrien was standing at the top of the stairs, clearly waiting for Marinette. He was muttering to himself, about how it wasn’t fair, about how he couldn’t understand how Marinette could trust a stranger she’d just met. Lila had to keep herself from letting out an amused snort. Isn’t that rich considering their class’s track record?

She had to wait for about fifteen minutes before she heard laughter coming towards the entrance of the school, it was Marinette, laughing at something Damian had told her, “Oh my gosh, are all your brothers on crack?” she gasped for air, “Sometimes it feels like it,” Damian chuckled. The two were about to walk down the stairs when Adrien stepped in front of them. “Hi, Mari. Can I talk to you, please? Alone.” Wow. Lila didn’t know Sunshine Boy could have such venom, she figured he must’ve been directing that at Damian. Lila could only imagine the glares between the two boys, not daring to poke her head out now and get caught, however, when she thought she heard footsteps back into the school she took out her phone and pressed record. “Why? So you can pressure me into silence again? If you need to tell me something, say it now because Damian and I have plans.” Lila had known about Adrien’s high road advice, and that Marinette had been so in love that she listened. She doubted the ravenette would fall for that now. Lila waited with bated breath to see what Adrien would do, and could not believe what she heard. “I think you should stay away from him. You only just met him, he’s probably lying about who he is Mari. You saw how he treated our friends-” “He has been nothing but kind to MY friends. That’s so rich coming from you Adrien. Lila comes along and lies about everything and it’s totally fine, I meet my soulmate and now suddenly you care about honesty?” “It’s a different situation and you know it Marinette. Lila’s not hurting anyone and if you expose her she could be akumatized.” “What about me Adrien? What if I’m akumatized because of the lies that have ruined my reputation, my belongings are destroyed, when I’m being excluded from practically everything? Do I not matter to you?” “What- no Marinette you matter to me! Besides it’s not that bad and you’re our Everyday Ladybug so-” “SO WHAT? So I’m supposed to accept being mistreated and abused? What are you even here for Adrien?” Lila could tell that Marinette was losing her patience and for a moment, she genuinely wondered if this would be what got her rival akumatized. Adrien took a deep breath, “Marinette you are an amazing woman, what I wanted to tell you was that I accept your feelings and will be your boyfriend.” Perfect! Adrien had given her just what she needed. Lila kept recording because even if Marinette didn’t respond how she wanted, she might say something Lila could doctor later. And it would seem that Marinette was finally shaking off her shock, “Are you crazy? Adrien, I haven’t loved you since we were thirteen, since you made it clear that not rocking the boat was more important to you than me. Besides, I’ve met my soulmate, and yeah we haven’t known each other long, I want to focus on getting to know him.” Adrien did not back down, “Come on Marinette! I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but I know we’re meant for each other. The reason I know he’s not good for you is that you’re MY soulmate!” Wow. Lila wasn’t expecting such a bold lie from the blond, he must have been banking on the fact that Marinette had no way of knowing that Adrien was HER soulmate. Now that she had what she needed, she carefully snuck through the bushes and as soon as she turned a corner, she booked it for home. She wasn’t going to risk slowing down to look behind her, she figured since the two were still arguing that she’d successfully completed her mission. Soon it would be all over the media, ‘Model Adrien Agreste Ditches Soulmate for Useless Nobody: How Lila Rossi Saved the Day and Won Damian Wayne’s Heart.’ Lila knew she had a lot of work to do, and couldn’t wait to get started.

After a long day, Damian returned to the upscale apartment his father was renting during their time in Paris. Marinette hadn’t been joking, her class was a nightmare! Damian had been skeptical at first, no way people could be that ignorant, but after what he saw today, he realized it ran deeper. They looked at Lila the same way people looked at him: They wanted something. Marinette had told him that Lila lied and faked evidence conveniently showing she knew famous people in their fields of interest, so it was likely they followed her because they wanted her to boost their careers. The Ladyblogger, someone who should have known to fact-check followed Lila like a sycophant, either knew she was lying or was really bad at her job. Then there was the other big problem in the class, Adrien Agreste. He seemed to believe he was entitled to Marinette’s love, despite his soulmate making it clear she wanted nothing to do with the blond. He had texted Nino about the Adrien-Marinette situation, and the DJ had filled him in. Marinette used to have a crush on and did some very crazy things to get his attention (Nino had also admitted the class had pushed her into some of the crazier situations), but Adrien either ignored her or was oblivious. At the time this was going on, he had a massive crush on Ladybug and still had a crush on her until recently. Googling the Parisian hero, he found a few things that made his blood run cold. First, Ladybug had stated that she would never date a civilian (smart) in an interview. Second, the videos he’d seen from when Chat Noir was acting showed the hero displaying the same entitled behavior Adrien did, along with a couple of the same speech patterns and body language. Finally, Ladybug and Marinette looked very similar. There were some differences, but he couldn’t deny that the two could be sisters. A theory was forming in his head, Adrien had been Chat Noir, and after being rejected constantly by Ladybug, decided to set his sights on someone who looked similar to Ladybug. It was clear he still believed Marinette was a sweet, naive girl who would never say no to him, so he potentially thought he could pressure her into accepting his feelings.

Damian was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice that his father and Tim had returned home, however, they certainly noticed. Bruce decided that this was one of those moments where Damian might need some fatherly advice, and Tim decided he wanted to hear whatever was giving Demon-Spawn trouble. It must be interesting. “How was your day Damian? I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you lost in thought,” yes he could. It was right after Damian had been brought back from the dead. He watched his son’s head snap up, “I… I’m fine. My day was fine.” “No, you’re not fine. Something’s been on your mind since B mentioned going to Paris, so you can either tell us what’s up or I’ll hack your phone.” Dammit, Tim not now. Damian sighed, surprising both that he wasn’t putting up more of a fight. “The reason I wanted to come to Paris was that I had figured out my soulmate was here.”

Tim dropped the coffee mug he was filling, and Bruce stared at his son in shock. “Oh my gosh! Did you meet them yet? What are they like? When will we meet them? How did you meet them-” “Tim.” “Sorry B,” “Start from the beginning Damian.” “I met her last week. She was going to buy fabric and bumped into me. We spent every day of her spring break hanging out and getting to know each other, and I was lucky enough to be in her class at the school you enrolled me in. I also found out she had been having trouble with some of her classmates,” “Is she drama-prone?” “Tim let him talk,” “Not necessarily. She’s being bullied and has been for the past few years. Her classmates are the typical users we encounter at Galas and believed her bully because she promised them she had connections. My main concern isn’t the bully, I can deal with her, but a boy in her class has begun to show some alarming behavior... From what I’ve figured out, he was the hero Chat Noir, and I think he’s become obsessed with Mari- my soulmate because of how similar she looks to Ladybug. From my information, I know that he has never shown any interest in her before and that when they were younger she used to have a crush on him. I also know that for whatever reason he’s no longer active as Chat Noir.” “So your theory is that because he no longer has access to his obsession that he’s shifted targets to someone he thinks he still has power over in order to pressure her into fulfilling his fantasy?” “Yes. However, I don’t think he’s realized that. I think a part of him genuinely believes he has feelings for her. I did some research on him, and he grew up with a very controlling and sheltering father, so he’s still incredibly naive, that or he’s so deep in denial he’s become delusional. He still seems to believe that staying silent about my soulmate’s tormentor purposely lying to ruin her reputation and all the physical torment she’s receiving is the right thing to do.” Bruce raised an eyebrow and Tim clutched at his pearls. “So how do you plan on handling this?” Bruce was worried, they needed to find out why Chat Noir was no longer active, if Damian’s theory was true and the former Hero of Paris got akumatized he could still be a massive threat. However, Damian was his father’s son, “I looked into some of the old posts on the Ladyblog before it… strayed. From some clips, I think my soulmate might actually have a connection to Ladybug.” Tim raised his eyebrow, “Damian it’s not that I don’t want you to be happy, but she sounds a little too good to be true. An amazing talented woman who just happens to know celebrities and heroes? Isn’t that the same thing that girl with the weird hair on the Ladyblog claims?” “Well, my soulmate can actually back up her claims. Her class has had the most akumatizations minus the pigeon man, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Ladybug noticed, and my soulmate is connected to one of the most popular boulangeries in Paris that Ladybug has been seen stopping by. I was going to go out on patrol, and if I couldn’t meet Ladybug that way I’d find a way to see if my soulmate could get her attention.” Bruce nodded. The spotted heroine had been incredibly elusive, and he was beginning to suspect magic was involved. He gave Damian his blessing, and as his youngest son left to get ready for patrol he and Tim turned their attention to a new mystery: Figuring out who his son’s soulmate was.

Paris was beautiful at night. Damian stood atop the Eiffel Tower, looking out over the city. He could almost run the path between his classmates’ homes by muscle memory alone. While he may not like them for their treatment of Marinette, he knew his soulmate still cared about them to some degree, and if anything happened to them it would kill her. He was debating swinging by Marinette’s home but decided against it. While he felt like he could trust her with his life, their relationship was still too young to bring the baggage of a hero into it. He almost didn’t pick up on the gentle thud behind him, and when he turned to snap at Tim for bothering him, he froze. “Mari? My Lily?” He couldn’t believe his eyes. Standing in front of him was Ladybug… who looked exactly like Marinette. Her costume had changed since her initial debut, but there was no doubt who the woman in front of him was. This whole time his soulmate was also the hero they were trying to contact. “Damian? You’re Robin?!” “And you’re Ladybug.” That seemed to snap Mari out of her stupor, “I can explain! Please don’t be mad!” He would address that last bit later, but for now, he just leaned against the railing and watched as she began pacing back and forth. He’d wait all night if that’s what Mari needed to get her thoughts together. “I became Ladybug when I was thirteen. I was chosen by the Guardian of the Miraculous, and he snuck the Ladybug Miraculous into my bag.” “Forgive me but what’s Miraculous?” “Oh right,” He watched as Marinette took off the red and black earrings, “Miraculous are magical objects that are often worn as jewelry. Each Miraculous is connected to a Kwamii, and each Kwamii is the embodiment of a fundamental force of the universe,” A bright red flash came from the Miraculous, and next to Marinette was a floating Ladybug-like creature. The little Kawaii-thing flew up to him, and he carefully held up a hand to allow it to land. “Hello! Damian Wayne, Robin, Son of Bruce Wayne, Grandson of the Demon, and Heir to the Cowl. I am Tikki, the Kwamii of Creation! I am bound to the Ladybug Miraculous that my Chosen uses, and am the source of her powers! If you’ll excuse me I’m going to refuse with Marinette, it’s awfully chilly up here.” With that Tikki zipped back to Marinette, as soon as the two touched a bright red flash appeared and Ladybug stood before him again. “The previous Guardian, well long before he left and left the title and other Miraculous to me, lost two Miraculi, the peacock and the butterfly.” “Which are being used by Hawkmoth and Mayaura.” “Exactly.” Damian nodded, their theory was correct, magic was involved with the Paris situation.

“Lily, didn’t you used to have a partner?” He watched his soulmate huddle into herself and immediately got off the railing to comfort her. “I did. Chat Noir wielded the Black Cat Miraculous of Destruction. He was my other half, my balance. Over time he got it into our head that because our Miraculi were complimentary, that meant we were soulmates. He began flirting with me constantly, calling me these embarrassing nicknames even when I asked him to stop, and would needlessly throw himself into danger to try and impress me. Eventually, he got tired of me turning him down, and he started missing battles and patrols. When he did show up he’d just get in the way, saying he’d help me again if I admitted we were soulmates. It got so bad his own Kwamii took the Miraculous back from him and brought it to me. I used to have temporary heroes I could count on, but they’re out of the question because their identities were exposed or they’ve chosen Lila’s side.” Damian hugged her tightly, he wasn’t one for physical affection but she was the exception. “So you’ve been alone this whole time? Oh my, Lily I’m so sorry,” he sighed, “Does Adrien know you’re Ladybug?” Marionette’s eyes widened, amazed he knew who Chat was. “Not that I’m aware of. He thinks we look really similar, but he’s seen Ladybug and I in a room together so I doubt he thinks we’re the same.” Damian nodded, “Mari I promise you I’ll help you through this, I just need you to trust me. My brother Red Robin and my father Batman are here-“ “BATMAN IS HERE?!?!” “- yes love. We’re here to help you take down Hawkmoth. I’ll help you take down Lila and figure out how to deal with Adrien, and then as soon as we graduate I’ll steal you away to Gotham.” He looked into her eyes and watched as a hopeful spark began to reignite.

It was time for phase two of Lila’s plan. She was going to paint herself as Damian’s ideal woman, not by exactly mirroring his interests, he’d catch on to that. A good idea would be to lean into his love of animals. She had researched some well-known animal charities, and even though she really hated getting dirty, she had gone to a volunteer event the other day. Sure, the puppies were super cute, but Lila would rather spend her time working on her manicure. But now she has photos, timestamped photos. She took extra care to make sure her hair and make-up were absolutely perfect, checking on her secret weapon one last time before she left. She was going to save it until she absolutely had to, it would be either her killing blow or her final saving play. As she walked to school, she mentally mapped out her plan for today. She would brag to her class about her volunteer work, and show them the photos on her phone, then she would spread a rumor about seeing Marinette talking and being affectionate towards some random guy. ‘Lila Rossi!’ she thought, ‘You can do better than that! He would see through that in a heartbeat, they spend all of their time together.’ She decided to settle on making Marinette look bad. She’d have to be sneaky, Damian was clearly aware of her tricks and would be on guard, but Lila still thought she had a window of opportunity to convince him Marinette was the evil one. She went into a coffee shop and ordered an iced coffee, Lila wasn’t going to drink it, it was simply a prop she’d spill on herself as a direct result of Dupain-Cheng. She hated to sacrifice her favorite outfit but consoled herself with the knowledge that this would be rags compared to the luxury she’d wear as the girlfriend of a Wayne. Now she just had to decide how she’d spill the coffee, would she make it look like Marinette shoved her? No… too complicated. How about tripping? That won’t work, the little brat’s gotten too smart and now specifically looks for it. She would make it look like Marinette ran into her, and while it wouldn’t do as much damage as she’d like it to, it would be good to show Damian that his soulmate was WAY too clumsy to represent the Wayne Family. She was excitedly daydreaming about all the galas and events she’d go to, hell maybe she would start an acting career! Lila was so caught up in her fantasies that she almost ran into Alya! “Hey, girl! Don’t you look lovely today!” Lila smiled, “Hey Alya! I think you’ve got me beat today! Have you seen Damian? I’m worried Marinette might have said some things about me… and I wanted to talk to him and show him I’m not the person she says I am.” Alya scowled at Marinette’s name, “Ugh I bet she did! But she’s not here today. Her parents called and said she’d gotten sick over the weekend. Damian called in sick as well, and come to think of it, Adrien isn’t here either! Today should be an easy day for you!” Lila had to force a smile, this screwed up her plan damn it! Oh well, maybe if she got the chance, she could poke around Marinette and Damian’s lockers to see if there was anything she could find, it would also be a good chance to strengthen her hold on the class. If Lila is anything, it’s flexible, and she would never let an opportunity slip by.

Damian was looking around Marinette’s room, marveling at just how much his soulmate had accomplished. It looked less like a bedroom and more like a design studio, with mannequins adorned with projects ranging from just starting to fully complete, the walls papered with designs, and the occasional photo of friends or loved ones. Just underneath the papers, he could see the faint hint of a light pink painted wall. Bolts of fabric were arranged against another wall, organized by color and material, as well as a massive piece of wall art made to conveniently store different yarns. There was a closet filled with cases of embroidery floss and other art supplies. Under Marinette’s loft bed was a table with two sewing machines, a modern one able to do large-scale embroidery and Esme. Esme was Marinette’s pride and joy, a vintage singer sewing machine that was practically indestructible. Esme has been through everything, leather, denim, silk, you name it she’s sewn it. When she wasn’t in use, she was kept on her own table, in a place of honor within the room. Beside Esme was a vase of white lilies he’d given her, and a massive book. This was Marinette’s logbook, in which she kept meticulous records of everything: Who commissioned her, how much they paid, what they wanted, how much of each material she had, where it was, and other expenses. It seemed like wherever Damian looked, he saw something new. She made clothing, shoes, hats, jewelry, accessories, and the evidence of that was in her controlled chaos. Even though it was smaller than the Manor, he loved it, he loved everything about Marinette’s home and her family. They were warm and inviting, and it was reflected in their home, and in the daughter Tom and Sabine had raised. Marinette’s room was like her, bright and full of unique colors and energy. She was currently moving Esme to her spot of honor, and opening a special compartment in her desk. From the compartment, she pulled out a vintage sewing box that looked almost ancient (I’m sorry but they made the Miraculous box an EGG when they could have done something that could blend in).

As soon as Marinette opened the box, sixteen bright lights shot out of it, flying around the room. “Alright everyone listen up!” Mari clapped her hands together to get the light’s attention. They eventually came to a stop in front of her, and Damian looked at them in shock. There were… SO many Kwamii, and apparently there was supposed to be more his soulmate had to recover from around the world. “This is Damian, my soulmate. He’s-” Marinette was cut off by the excited shriek of some of the Kwamii, “He’s going to help us take down Hawkmoth and Mayaura and rescue Duusu and Nooroo. He and his family are superheroes from Gotham and-” “He’s going to be the next Cat,” Plagg interrupted, the seriousness of his tone taking everyone by surprise. The cat Kwamii flew over to Damian, holding a small ring. “The Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous are connected. One cannot be active for long without the other.” Damian’s eyes met Plagg’s, “And how do you know I am compatible with the Miraculous? I am Marinette’s soulmate but that doesn’t mean I am a match for you.” Plagg cackled, flying around Damian, who stood with his arms crossed, “You’ll do just fine! Much more serious than my last holder for sure! You are more compatible than Adrien was for the simple reason that you are deeply connected with Destruction itself. You come from a tragedy on both sides, a father driven to fight an endless war to avenge his parents’ murder, a mother who needed a pawn and heir to an empire of assassins. Not to mention, the Lazarus Pit.” Damian froze at the mention of the pits, and for a moment, he could almost feel the blazing fire of twisted life rushing through his veins. “Damian? Are you alright? Plagg? What did you do?” Marinette gently rested a hand on Damian’s cheek, she could tell he was reliving something… Plagg simply flew back towards the box. “I’m doing things differently this time Pigtails. I had some time to think… I need to be more responsible for you and for future cats and bugs. Nothing should be hidden between partners, and I know you love him, I know he loves you, but there are people in his life who will not approve. I think he should be the one to tell you when he’s ready. It’s a conversation that needs to be had for both of you. There can be no more secrets.” And with that, the Kwamii flew back over to Damian and gently placed the ring in his hand. The weight of it seemed to snap him out of his flashback, and he looked down at the ring in his hand. He remembered what he’d seen from the videos, he knew the basics of the Black Cat’s powers, and combined with his training, he would be formidable. “I’ll do it. What do I have to say to transform?” Plagg smirked, “Alright kid, all you’ve gotta say is, Plagg claws out!”

Alya was out with her class, chilling in the park after school. They had stopped and gotten smoothies and were working on their own projects in comfortable silence. Alya was busy chasing two leads: What were the Waynes doing in Paris, and where was Chat Noir? Sure, he didn’t do much in most Akuma fights, but he was still one of the heroes of Paris! Come to think of it, no new heroes had been called up since Hawkmoth discovered their identities. She had to take a little bit of pride in that, they were so good that Ladybug couldn’t find any good replacements. She thought about asking Lila for the inside scoop, but with how stressed her bestie had been lately due to Adrien and Marinette’s actions she decided against it. That was another mystery: Marinette. When had the switch flipped? What caused the switch to flip? Was she always like this and Lila was just the first to uncover it? She was also curious about Damian, why would nobody Marinette have such an impressive soulmate? She figured his bad attitude was Marinette’s fault, although, from the articles on her laptop, he’d never been the most approachable or friendly. ‘An asshole for an asshole,’ she thought. Although she’d noticed Lila had been eying Damian since he arrived, maybe she was giving him the benefit of the doubt? Alya shook her head and went back to her research. Something had happened to Chat Noir and Ladybug has been silent about it. She had her theories, and normally she’d run them by Nino, but since the two had broken up all those years ago… Alya sighed. Marinette split the class in two and nothing has been the same since. The Girl Squad was disbanded, she and Nino broke up, and class events rarely hit their goals because if the bully wasn’t invited, her supporters wouldn’t go either. Alya groaned and shifted positions, she NEEDED to finish her research about Chat Noir's disappearance. It’s been forever since she uploaded Ladybug and Chat Noir content to the Ladyblog, even Alya would admit her blog had started to shift towards Lila content only. Just as she was beginning to give up, a message popped up on her screen.

Hello Ladyblogger. I have some information you might be interested in.

Alya stared at her screen. Was this a scam? She tried to click off the message, but it stayed. She should close her computer, and ask Max to take a look at it, but… what if this person was an inside source!? Carefully she typed out a reply.

Who is this? Why should I trust you?

Her elusive new friend was quick to respond.

That’s funny. You were so quick to trust before. What changed?

She didn’t know if she should be freaked out or offended, but her curiosity would get the best of her.

I got betrayed by someone I thought I could trust. Now what do you want?

Oh, you got betrayed alright, or to be more exact, you’re currently being betrayed, you’re just too deep in denial to realize it.

‘What?! What could they possibly mean by that?’ Alya thought as her eyes narrowed and she looked around at her friends.

Look if this is you Marinette I don’t want any of your bullshit.

My name isn’t Marinette. It’s Red, and I happen to know about Chat Noir’s whereabouts or his lack thereof. But, if you want the file, you’re going to have to do me a favor.

Oh shit. There were many things Alya was willing to do for a lead, but she had a couple of lines that she refused to cross.

Oh Yeah? And what kind of favor is this?

I need you to look into your class’s multiple akumatizations.

The feeling of wielding a Miraculous was exhilarating. Domain’s whole body was practically vibrating with an energy he’d never known. It felt like everything was amplified, he wanted to, no he needed to run, and could feel his senses sharpening and his emotions, or at least how he felt them, intensify. ‘This must be what Starfire feels like,’ He thought as he admired his new suit. It was all black with acid-green accents and made from the same material as his Robin suit. Instead of a belt tail and ears, he wore a long cloak with a hood, and two tiny bits poked up to form the ears. The cloak was lined in gold and the ears were tipped in gold as well. A solid black domino mask hid his identity, and his eyes were a bright shade of acid green to match the accents on his suit. The suit itself was made of a similar material as his Robin suit and was solid black, but if you looked at it in the right light, leopard spots were visible. He’d said to hell with the bell, and holding his cloak on and the sash-belt that doubled as a tail were held in place by a deep green cat’s eye gemstone His boots and gloves were solid black, and fitted with braces for extra support when landing. At the tips of his gloves were retractable claws that glistened in the light, and they were slightly curved so he could use them to grab onto buildings and climb. He still had the baton, but a sword was really more his style, but even still he marveled at the magical weapon. “Before you make your debut, you should come up with a name so you aren’t put on the spot like I was,” Mari said as she looked him up and down in the new suit. Damian thought for a moment, “Panthère de Nuit. Night Panther.” his soulmate let out a pleased hum, “Letting Hawkmoth know he faces a more dangerous apex predator?” “Indeed my Lily,” Marinette smiled, and with a quick, “Spots on,” the two were ready to begin Damian’s first patrol as Paris’s new hero.

The two heroes raced along the rooftops, with Panthère de Nuit easily keeping up, a credit to Damian’s training and time as Robin. The two finally came to a stop on a rooftop near the Eiffel Tower, they could see their class in the park below. “Okay, the second Alya sees us, she’s going to try and flag us down for an interview. Do you want to speak with her?” Damian thought for a moment and shook his head. “No. Since Lila has taken over her blog, I don’t think she is a reliable source of information. I do not trust your local news here as well, they seem to lean into rumors. Is there anyone reliable we can talk to?” Ladybug looked around and spotted a familiar parasol. Aurore. The two had gotten to know each other better since Marinette distanced herself from her classmates, and she found out that the blonde ran her own Ladybug-themed blog called On the Spot. While Aurore didn’t get the close-up Akuma footage that Alya had, she was far more accurate in her reports. She recorded information such as the time of akumatization, rough location, and the direction the akumas had been seen traveling from. She had meant to begin working with Aurore and decided this would be the perfect opportunity to start. “See that girl over there? The blonde one? She runs her own blog, On the Spot, and while it’s less popular than the Ladyblog, it is more accurate. We can talk to her, but we need to make it look natural, so our class doesn’t think we ignored them.

As luck would have it, an Akuma decided to make an appearance. Frozer was back and seemed to be determined to turn Paris into a winter wonderland. “He has ice powers similar to Mr. Freeze, and the Akuma is in his ice skates,” Marinette said as the two rushed into battle. “The easiest way to get the skates would be to immobilize him. If we could somehow trip him, you could cataclysm the skates and release the Akuma.” Damian nodded, “Not my first time dealing with ice-themed villains. I can distract him, while you try to use your yoyo to catch him off guard. Do you want Batman and Red Robin to help with this?” “No. If Hawkmoth finds out they’re in Paris, he’ll for sure try to target them. Please be careful,” Damian gave her a reassuring smile. “Darling I promise I’m not the type to pick fights I can’t win.” With that, he leaped into action. Frozer had sent a blast of ice towards his classmates, which Panthère de Nuit skillfully blocked with his blade. The world around them seemed to, well, freeze as everyone took a moment to process what just happened. “And who are you?” Frozer asked as Hawkmoth’s signature mask appeared over his face. “Panthère de Nuit, the new black cat.” Frozer laughed, “Oh? So Ladybug’s finally replaced that mangy feline? Well no matter, you’ll be just as easy to defeat!” With that, several more blasts of ice were thrown at Damian, who easily dodged, blocked, and reflected. Frozer seemed to pale, if that was even possible, and began to back up for a hasty retreat. Damian couldn’t help himself, “What’s wrong? Not used to fighting a competent Cat Miraculous holder? Too bad.” His eyes met Ladybug’s and he nodded, the sound of her yoyo zipping through the air, and the thud from Frozer hitting the ground confirmed their plan had worked. Damian simply waltzed up to Frozer, and one Cataclysm later, a dark butterfly made a break for it, only to be caught and purified by Ladybug. “That was amazing! I didn’t even have to use my Lucky Charm! Well, I still have to reverse the damage but, you know!” Ladybug exclaimed as she did just that. Damian looked at his ring to check how much time he had before he transformed back and noticed the little pawprint was still full. Weird, he’ll have to ask about that later. A crowd of people had begun to gather, including their classmates and Aurore, Ladybug noticed her and smiled, which encouraged the blonde to ask her questions. “Hello, Ladybug! Great job with the Akuma, that has to be a record!” “Thank you! Aurore is it? Of On the Spot?” The blonde nodded excitedly, “Although, I can’t take all the credit. My new partner was amazing!” Damian sensed this was his cue, and stepped up to answer Aurore’s next question, “Who are you, and what happened to Chat Noir?” With one last glance at Ladybug, Damian spoke, “My name is Panthère de Nuit, and I am Ladybug’s new partner. Chat Noir, as well as some of the temporary heroes, have been permanently retired. The Black Cat Miraculous was taken from him by his Kwamii, who felt he was no longer worthy to wield it,” This was met with cheers from the surrounding civilians. “I promise to do a better job and be a reliable and competent hero that Ladybug and all of Paris can count on. All I can say to Hawkmoth and Mayaura is that your days are numbered.” And with that, the two heroes left to roaring applause.

Adrien was watching his TV in horror. Plagg, not Ladybug, not the Guardian, PLAGG had taken his Miraculous. His own kwamii had betrayed him, did Plagg even have the power or right to take the ring from him? And now, he was seriously in a bind. If Plagg took the ring, it was safe to say that Ladybug had no idea who he was, and most likely had no idea who her new partner was so he couldn’t ask her to get it back for him. Not to mention the last time they spoke, they weren’t exactly on good terms. Yeah in retrospect skipping patrol and all those akuma battles wasn’t his best idea, especially because that soured his relationship with the people of Paris. If his dad had taught him anything, it was that public opinion mattered a lot, and now he couldn’t exactly count on the public’s support for Chat Noir. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, his best chance of EVER getting a Miraculous again was to pretend to support this new cat, and hope that gets him Ladybug’s attention. Adrien let out a groan and flopped on his bed, his whole life was a mess. Plagg had taken his ring and hadn’t even given him a chance to fix his mistakes (He’d been given many chances), Lila was his soulmate and causing trouble in the class, and then Marinette shows up one day with Damian Wayne claiming to be her soulmate! He’d looked it up, and it really was Damian Wayne, and not some imposter using his name, but it was still so frustrating! He couldn’t figure out just why Marinette was so smitten with the man when he seemed like such a terrible fit for her! Marinette was kind, compassionate, and warm while Damian was cold, selfish, and quite mean. Adrien had been nursing a small crush on Marinette for a while and had known about her crush on him before Alya told him. He still loved Ladybug but realized after a while that she really might not feel the same way, and he couldn’t help it when a brilliant girl like Marinette was in his class. It didn’t hurt that she and Ladybug could be sisters, but he just figured he had a type. What he couldn’t figure out was why she was so focused on Damian when she’d been in love with him for years! “Calm down Adrien,” he muttered to himself, “Mari’s always been a hopeless romantic, so it’s probably just the fact he’s claiming he’s her soulmate.” He also needed to do something about Lila. Sure, he still believed the high road was the best way to go, but he had never expected things to escalate to the point Lila and their class were physically harming Marinette. Walking over to his closet and pulling out a whiteboard and some markers, he began to work on Operation Win Back Marinette.

Across Paris, another student was working on a plan: Alya. She had been working on her newest lead, and chatting with her new friend, Red. True to his word, Red had given Alya information about Chat Noir and Panthère de Nuit. What she knew so far was that Chat Noir’s behavior had gone on longer than anyone in Paris had realized, and that this was not Panthère de Nuit’s first time as a hero. In return, she had compiled a list of all her class’s akumatizations, and why they were akumatized. She slowly began to notice four outliers in their class: Marinette, Damian, Adrien, and Lila. Damian she could explain away easily, he had just gotten to Paris and hadn’t had the chance to be akumatized yet, but that was where easy ended. Marinette had a few failed akumatizations, in which she was always able to break out of Hawkmoth’s control. Alya chalked it up to Gina teaching her some meditation methods she used, but what was harder to explain was why Marinette was almost akumatized. The first time made sense, she had just been expelled, but the others were a complete mystery. Adrien hasn’t been akumatized (I’m not counting Cat Blanc or Ephemeral), but it almost seemed like the akumas never targeted him. She had seen him express negative emotions before. Then there was Lila Rossi, who had been akumatized into Volpina a scarily high number of times. Drawing from her own experience as Rena Rouge, Alya knew that the Fox Miraculous was all about illusions, and an Akuma based off of a Miraculous will share its powers, but in a weaker state. Come to think of it, there were times Lila was akumatized into Volpina that didn’t fit. She would be crying because Marinette had bullied her, and still turn into Volpina. Alya knew that you would only turn into an akuma twice if you felt the same emotions both times, such as Mr. Pigeon, so something wasn’t adding up. Opening her laptop, she typed out:

Red? Are you on? I have a few Questions.

She waited nervously, tapping her fingers on the desk as she checked her phone.

Yeah. What’s up Ladyblogger?

Alya could’ve kissed her computer, she felt like she was closer than she’d ever been to uncovering something big.

I was going back through the list of my class’ akumatizations and noticed a couple of outliers. Do you have any information on Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste, and Lila Rossi?

I never thought you’d ask. Here’s what I have.

Red sent over a bunch of files, with a ton on Adrien and Lila, and very few on Marinette.

Why does Marinette only have like, three things?

She isn’t a public figure like the other two, well at least under that name. Ever heard of MDC? That’s her. You aren’t a true celebrity if you don’t have an MDC original.

Marinette was MDC?! This was news to Alya, but she guessed it would make sense. Marinette had stopped making them things a few years ago, saying she was too busy. If she was covertly running a fashion empire that would explain it. However, one last thing still haunted Alya, especially as she began to click through the files on Adrien and Lila. She paused for a moment, Red had sent her camera footage from the day Marinette was expelled, but why was it labeled as Lila’s file? As she pressed play and began watching, she began noting some inconsistencies. Before returning to the video, she typed out one last message.

Red? I’m starting to think I’ve been lied to.

For the next week or so, all anyone would talk about was Panthère de Nuit, and the hype was justified. He’d been spotted a few more times since Frozer, at Akuma fights and on patrol, and was just as skilled as his first fight. Videos were made speculating about his powers if he had any new ones, and where he could have possibly gotten the skills he used in his fight. The most popular theory came from Aurore, who hypothesized that Panthère de Nuit was not new to being a hero. The public was still a little apprehensive, since they remembered what they’d been through under Chat Noir, but were rapidly warming up to the man. Of course, a certain someone claimed to have more info than she did. Marinette sat in her spot with Damian by her side and rolled her eyes as Lila went on and on, “I’m so happy I was finally able to convince Ladybug to replace Chat Noir! I’ve been telling her for years that he isn’t a good partner, but she’s so sweet and sentimental, so she was hesitant to get rid of the partner she’s had since the beginning. Maybe now that he’s not around to get jealous, I can convince her to give you all your Miraculous again! Well, some people might not be worthy of wielding one, but that’s their own fault.” The class snickered and shot looks at Marinette and her friends, who simply ignored them. Lila had no way of knowing that some of the class would never wield any Miraculous again, their identities had been exposed and it was too much of a risk. Lila went on and on, even when Ms. Bustier came in and tried to start class. However, someone caught Marinette’s attention: Alya. Her former best friend was sitting with her laptop open to the Ladyblog analytics page, and she was watching Lila with narrowed eyes. She would occasionally stop and type something out. Her concentration seemed to stop when Adrien walked into the room, and Marinette quickly looked away to avoid eye contact with either. Damian shot a glare at the blond who was trying to get Mari’s attention, and the ravenette paid him no mind. Nino (Who still had connections in the Adrien fan club) had informed her that the model talks about her at his shoots, and when people ask if they’re dating he never denies it. “He’s trying to create a public narrative,” Damian had explained, “If the media picks up the story and the public catches on, it could spread like wildfire. Remember how everyone thought Ladybug and Chat Noir were in love and destined for each other? That resulted in people pressuring Ladybug to admit feelings she didn’t have.” The group nodded, clearly understanding that Damian was worried the same thing would happen to Marinette.

Adrien made his next move at lunch. Marinette and Damian, along with their friend group were going to spend their lunch at a nearby cafe. The group didn’t want to deal with Lila, and wanted to be able to discuss their topic privately: Reopening an investigation into who Hawkmoth is. Marinette had a theory board about it that she had made with Alya when they were younger, but the two stopped when they had their falling out. As they were leaving, Adrien approached them. “Hey, Mari! So where are we going for lunch?” I know a great place-” “We? Dude, you haven’t been caught dead anywhere near us since middle school,” Nino practically growled and crossed his arms. The ending of their friendship had been… explosive. Nino had gone to Adrien after he figured out Lila was lying, hoping to gather support to expose Lila and save his childhood friend’s reputation, and was horrified to find out that Adrien knew and pressured Mari to keep quiet. The following argument resulted in Nino being akumatized into Maskless, who was determined to “remove the masks” and expose people for who they truly are. It was a difficult fight for Ladybug, and after it was over, Nino disavowed the two boys’ friendship for good, the last thing he’d spoken to Adrien before now was, “I just can’t be friends with someone who would sacrifice a friend to avoid having to deal with a little discomfort. Talk to me when you grow a spine and maybe I’ll forgive you.” And the future director had kept his promise. This was the first time he’d spoken to Adrien in years. The callout seemed to catch the blond off guard, and he stumbled out, “Well uh, my father wanted me to talk to Marinette about an internship, so I was going to do that today at lunch. So Mari where do you want to go eat?” And with that Adrien made a move to grab Mari’s wrist, but was blocked by an angry Kim and pissed Damian. “Didn’t your dad teach you it’s rude to grab someone without consent?” Kim snarked. Nathaniel, Rose, and Juleka nodded, with Juleka working up the courage to add, “You’re forgetting that you aren’t the only model in the class anymore. I’m in the same gossip circles you are now, and I know you’re trying to make people think that Adrienette is a thing.” “That’s not true I-,” “Enough,” Marinette cut in, Adrien gave her a hopeful smile, while the others snickered. “Adrien, I already have plans with my friends and it would be rude of me to cancel at the last minute. Plus I seem to remember two very important things you’re conveniently forgetting: First, the conversation in which I very clearly told you I wasn’t interested, and second, the letter I received in the middle of class a year ago from your father telling me I’ve been blacklisted from the company. And from the looks on both your and Lila’s faces I can conclude you both had something to do with that. If Gabriel wants me to work for him, he needs to start by addressing the elephant in the room and the damage he’s done to my career before I could even graduate. Come on guys, we need to actually get something to eat before lunch is over,” and with that, Marinette and her group sidestepped a disappointed Adrien and made their way toward a cafe.

After they’d gotten their food, they got to work on their theory of who Hawkmoth was. “Here’s the list of people I considered before I knew for sure he had a partner,” Marinette set a stack of papers down, “And here’s the list of suspects after I had to start over once Mayura came onto the scene.” That list was twice as long and seemed to radiate an aura of frustration. The others each took papers and began crossing out people that they knew couldn’t be Hawkmoth. “Soooo… I think we can rule out some people based on the fact they don’t have time to be Hawkmoth or Mayura. Like we know they aren’t any of our parents because they’re too busy with work,” Rose chirped as she crossed off names with her sparkly pink Pom Pom pen. “So I hate to be that person but are we sure Mayura is Hawky’s only partner?” Nathaniel asked, playing with a pencil. Damian nodded, “Surely he has to have someone else. He can’t guarantee that someone in Paris is going to feel upset enough to attract an akuma even though Paris is a big city. It would make more sense if he had someone working to actively cause akumas,” the group seemed to be stuck for a moment after the obviously innocent people have been ruled out. The problem with Akumatizations is how little solid evidence is left behind. Hawkmoth can emotionally hijack someone and leave behind no DNA or fingerprints, or really anything.

Damian had (and none of them except Marinette knew this) checked the databases the Justice League and Batfamily kept on the various super criminals of the world only to have it turn up empty, so the group was stuck… until a new voice cut in, “You’re assuming he’s smarter than he really is. I should know, I’ve helped him before.” Chloe and Sabrina stood in front of their table, with the heiress making a point to sit herself down at the head of the table and continued, “Be honest with yourselves, I’m not the only person with an attitude problem in Paris who didn’t care how many akumas I caused. There are many more who don’t care, and those people are the backbone of Hawkmoth’s operation whether they realize it or not. Unless you and Ladybug have a plan to make everyone in Paris act as sweet as pie, you need to stop acting like Hawkmoth is a genius. He thrives off dumb luck and takes advantage of problems others cause.” Marinette froze at the mention of her alter ego, “Why do you think I know Ladybug?” Chloe snorted and gave Marinette a look, “Dupain-Cheng you got that wannabe reporter an interview with her! Despite your family’s lack of financial wealth, you have connections coming out of your pigtails. If anyone in this hellhole keeps regular contact with Ladybug it would be you. Anyways, Hawkmoth isn’t the brains of the operation, that could be Mayura if she would stop going along with all his ridiculous schemes and grow a backbone. In the few times I’ve willingly helped him, it was clear that his plan was only cobbled together at best and completely on the fly at worst.” “Why did you help him in the first place?” Rose blurted out, and realizing her mistake she quickly covered her mouth.

Chloe simply sighed, “I guess I do owe you all an explanation since I was responsible for most of your akumatizations. When I agreed to help him, I was at my lowest. He prays on weakness in any form it comes in. I was always taught that I was born lucky, and everyone else was just lucky to be born- yes Kim I know what show I’m referencing- and for the longest time I believed it. I believed I had the right to act the way I did, and my parents encouraged it, but as I started getting older, it became clear that I didn’t inherit my mother’s talent so she started distancing herself from me. My father tried to fill the void by just giving in to everything I wanted. I know he loves me, but he wanted to be my friend instead of my parent, and that whole dynamic messed me up even more. Then I met Marinette fucking Dupain-Cheng, a girl who my parents taught me to consider less than dirt beneath my feet… but she somehow had everything I wanted,” Chloe clutched the smoothie in her hand, and couldn’t meet Marinette’s eyes, “Your parents love you so much, and are so involved. They made it to every event our class had, while mine couldn’t be bothered, they encouraged you when you failed and promised to help you, while my mother would scream at me and tell me I was a waste of her time. They helped you learn how to deal with your problems instead of paying them to go away. I was and still am, so jealous of you Marinette. I’d give anything in a heartbeat to trade places with you, but instead, I did the only thing I knew how to do: I lashed out. I made your life hell for years, long before Lila came around, in fact, I’m surprised that you didn’t dump our class sooner. In all the years I bullied you, not a single one of them helped you, they avoided you, and the second you stood up to me they tried to act like all those years just disappeared,” Damian, who was mainly focusing on how Marinette was reacting, quickly noticed the shame on the faces of their friends. While he wanted to rage at them for what they’d done to his soulmate, he stopped himself, he knew he couldn’t now that he was Panthère de Nuit if Hawkmoth found an opening… He focused back in on Chloe’s story to try and calm down, “Anyways, when Ladybug came onto the scene, I immediately latched onto this idea that if she was my friend, all my problems would be fixed. I would have an amazing friend who would get my parent’s attention and make all my problems go away, but I screwed it up royally. When I found the Bee Miraculous, I thought it was a chance to redeem myself. I should have just returned it to Ladybug instead of causing that train accident, I thought if I showed her that I could be a hero then maybe she’d accept me. She kept giving me chance after chance, and I kept fucking up because I would let my ego get the better of me. When I lost the Bee Miraculous, when I realized Ladybug wanted nothing to do with me, and when I realized it was all my fault, I broke. I was convinced that I was destined to destroy anything good in my life, and that was when Hawkmoth approached me about becoming Miracle Queen. I was so emotional that I forgot who I was talking to, and gave him everything he needed to convince me to join him. After that… I was bitter, bitter at the world, Ladybug, Zoe, you name it I was upset at it because something had occurred to me during that time. I realized that I was never born lucky, that’s you Marinette, I was actually the one lucky to be born- shut up Kim let me have this- even though you were going through hell, you still had people in your corner who support you unconditionally. I know Ladybug hates me, I know you do too, but if she really wants to defeat Hawkmoth all she needs to do is get him at his lowest, and Mayura will follow him down.” With her speech over, Chloe and Sabrina simply got up and left, leaving a stunned table in their wake. “Get him at his lowest…” Marinette murmured to herself, and she kept muttering it all the way back to school.

As the school day neared the end, Marinette had gone to the restroom, promising to meet Damian by her locker. As the Wayne heir waited, he heard a gentle, ‘ahem,’ and turned, expecting to see his soulmate. Instead, he felt his blood pressure spike as he was face to face with the ravenous wolf that looked at him as if he were a gullible lamb, a.k.a, Lila. She looked a mess with puffy red eyes and mascara streaks down her face reaching her chin, it was clear to anyone she had been crying. Damian narrowed his eyes, this might not be one of her fake crying episodes, but it clearly was still a carefully laid trap. They were alone, with no witnesses to watch what was about to go down. Lila hesitantly held her phone out to Damian, and tears began rolling down her cheeks again, “I… I thought you should know,” she sniffed, pressing the play button. Damian listened with a raised eyebrow to the conversation Lila had supposedly recorded, “Marinette you are an amazing woman, what I wanted to tell you was that I accept your feelings and will be your boyfriend,” Adrien’s voice could be heard loud, and clear through the recording, Damian opened his mouth but Lila cut him off, “There’s more hang on,” Soon after, his Lily’s voice could be heard, “Adrien, I have loved you since we were thirteen-” With that Lila stopped the recording and began to cry, “I know Marinette’s probably told you all these nasty things about me… but it felt wrong to say nothing and let her keep manipulating you like this when I know what I heard.” With that, Lila went back to sobbing and wailing about how her bully ‘stole’ her soulmate and was a filthy cheater. If anyone else was around, they would have caught the Bat Glare Lila herself was too wrapped up in her act to see. Damian wasn’t surprised Lila stooped this low, in fact, he wasn’t surprised she didn’t stoop lower and try to fake a pregnancy or something, but it dawned on him that this was the perfect opportunity to end Marinette’s torment and he decided to take it. “Oh, you were there for that conversation too?” Lila froze, and looked up at him with fresh tears still rolling down her cheeks, “E-excuse me?” A deep laugh that rumbled like thunder cut through the tension. “Do you seriously think I would have let Adrien speak to my Lily alone when I knew he would try to pull something? And do you seriously think I wouldn’t consider the possibility someone could have been listening in,” With that, Damian pulled out his own phone, shooting Lila a vicious smirk. “Let me fill you in on what you conveniently missed,” As he pressed play, the smirk only grew as he watched the color drain from Lila’s face and his voice played from the speaker, “Agreste there is no way you are her soulmate. I saw Marinette in my dreams, and she saw me in hers. Besides, I know your soulmate is Rossi. She was determined to make a scene today at lunch, and it tipped me off that you would try something like this. I suggest you listen well Agreste because this is the only time I will be kind enough to give you some advice. Leave Marinette alone. All you have done is hurt her and allow others to hurt her. You have stood by and watched as a petty ectoparasite burrowed into Marinette’s class and allowed her to spread her manipulative disease. Even if by chance you have somehow seen the light and exposed the truth tomorrow, which we both know you will not do because you are too much of a coward and care more about what other people think of you, it’s too late. You have blown all your chances, and Marinette is far too good for you, someone who will throw her to the wolves to avoid a minor inconvenience. So stay away Adrien, if you know what is best for you.” With that, Damian placed his phone in his pocket and looked back at Lila.

“You know, I really ought to thank you, Rossi, you tipped me off to Agreste’s plan and allowed me to collect evidence to foil your own. I have that entire conversation recorded from the moment he approached my Lily, and I have already been recording this one too,” Lila’s eyes widened and she looked like she was about to faint, so Damian moved in for the kill, “Do you really think you’re the first one to try and pull a stunt like this? I am from one of the wealthiest and most influential families in the world, did you really think you would be the first to lie about my soulmate? How convenient, you happen to have a recording of Marinette supposedly accepting a confession from Adrien, and that you finally worked up the ‘courage’ to tell me the first moment I am alone and Marinette is not here to defend herself. I will give you some credit though, your editing skills could fool someone who is not looking for signs of manipulation, and could have definitely fooled our gullible classmates, which brings me to my next point,” Damian channeled his rage into a calm, icy glare, “You will cease tormenting my soulmate immediately. I am not afraid to expose your lies and underhanded tactics to our class, but let me give you some more incentive. Before, Marinette did not have the… legal resources to handle you properly, but I have my family’s lawyers on speed dial Rossi. Marinette is not my wife yet, but the same protections that cover the Wayne family extend to her. So if you know what is good for you, you will shut your mouth and never speak ill of my soulmate again, or my lawyers will see what other secrets you have been hiding.” Taking that as her queue to leave, Lila booked it toward the exit like the devil was on her heels. Operation: Lila Wayne was clearly dead in the water, and Damian would be sure it stayed that way. Once she was gone he took a deep breath and got his emotions in check, just in time to see the love of his life jogging towards him. “Sorry! I realized while I was in the bathroom that I left some stuff in the art room!” He smiled as the familiar feeling of warmth returned to him. It was wonderful, being in love.

Alya just got finished pacing around her room for what felt like the hundredth time. She stared at her computer, open to the video she had yet to publish, and the one that would be the final nail in the coffin for her career. She knew deep down she had to do this, it was the only way to atone for all she’d done. A chat popped up on the screen from Red:

Are you okay Ladyblogger? I know this is a tough decision, and I’m here for you.

Alya smiled, over their many late-night conversations, Red had become a good friend and close confidant. She’d never meet up with him in person, that was online safety 101, but he’d helped her come to some difficult conclusions.

Yeah. Just trying to settle my nerves a bit. I know I have to do this, it��s the right thing to do, and lately, I’ve struggled with that.

You’ve got this. I think it will go over better than you think it will.

With that, Alya closed her eyes, counted to ten, and pressed the upload button. A video titled after one of the worst things she’d ever said was now on the front page of the Ladyblog, a video she could never take back.

Marinette and Damian were in her room, munching on a variety of cookies and discussing their plan to end Hawkmoth’s reign of terror once and for all. Their brainstorming was interrupted when a notification popped up on Marinette’s phone, and a new video had been posted to the Ladyblog. The two shared a look and a shrug, sure, why not? It wouldn’t hurt to see what Lila was saying now, instead, they were met with a thumbnail of Alya sitting at her desk, and a video called ‘A Good Reporter Always Fact Checks’ was staring back at them. Damian pressed play, and the two sat back to see what this was about.

“Hey everyone, it’s the Ladyblogger. This video is VERY different from what I normally post, and it needs to be because I have a lot I need to say. Many years ago, when I was just starting out I posted a video about a girl named Lila Rossi who claimed that she was Ladybug’s best friend. That video has been removed, but at the time I thought nothing of it. A girl who was my friend confronted me about it, and rightly, called me on the fact I had no evidence to prove anything Lila had said. Instead of fixing my mistake, I told her that a good reporter always fact-checks, but that wasn’t what I did. I am here today to apologize to her and to all of you for failing you. I neglected to do the right thing and gave a liar a platform to spread dangerous misinformation, but I also took that liar’s side and turned against the best friend I’ve ever had.

I met Lila Rossi when I was thirteen, and I along with most of my classmates naively believed every word that came out of her mouth like it was gospel. She told us that because her mother was a diplomat, she had gotten to meet and work with all these famous people and that she could talk with them and help our careers. We were so excited, there was someone who could help us reach our dreams and she was doing it out of the kindness of her heart. Hindsight really is 20/20, and looking back there was no way any celebrity in their right mind would be that deeply involved working with a teenage girl to the extent Lila claimed. I can’t speak for my classmates but I know a part of me kept believing her because the fear of pissing her off and then it all turning out to be true kept me loyal to her. I was a coward and afraid that if I questioned her I would lose out, and that later turned into fearing what I’d done in her name if it turns out she was lying. This resulted in me interviewing her and publicizing her lies and misinformation, giving her a platform to fuel her own ego. To put it simply: I didn’t fact-check, and now everyone is paying the price. I’m sorry. I’m so, so, so, sorry. Taking her videos down doesn’t fix the damage she caused, and just saying I’m sorry won’t either. It sounds cringy but I promise to do better, but I don’t expect you all to stick with me now that I’ve proven not to be a reliable source. For accurate, truthful information, check out Aurore’s blog On the Spot. She’s a great reporter and has done a much better job than I did. I would also like to apologize to Ladybug, and not just for giving Lila Rossi a platform. I want to apologize for all those shitty things I did to try to figure out her identity and push LadyNoir even after she clearly expressed multiple times that she was uncomfortable. Most importantly, I want to apologize to my former friend and ex-boyfriend,” Marinette’s eyebrow raised a bit, “They caught on to Lila’s bullshit years before I did and tried to snap me out of it because they cared about me. But instead, I dug my heels in and participated in icing them out from the class, and stood by while they were harassed. I broke up with my boyfriend over this whole mess because I was appalled he’d take Lila’s “Bully’s” side when the truth was that they were the ones being bullied. All I can say to them is that I’m sorry and that they don’t have to forgive me. My teacher taught us that we always need to forgive and be the bigger person, but forgiveness isn’t something owed, it's earned. I’ve acknowledged my wrongdoings but I haven’t yet begun to work to make things right. So to that girl who was my best friend and one of the best people I’ve met: I should have trusted you. This isn’t your fault, it’s mine, and I am so sorry for what I’ve done.” Marinette sat and stared, stunned at Alya’s admission and watching in awe as the blogger exposed Lila’s lies to the world. Out of all the people to do it, she never thought it would be Alya, Lila’s self-proclaimed BFF. However, it also meant the last variable in her plan was taken care of, so walking over to the Miraculous box, she took what she needed and gave a variety of Miraculous to Damian. Standing on her toes she kissed his cheek and whispered, “Text Red Robin and Batman, tell them to meet us at the Eiffel Tower at Midnight. And if you would be so kind, please take these Miraculous to their most recent holders. I know I said I retired the old heroes, but we’ll need most of them again. I have one errand to run, and I’ll meet you there.” Damian nodded, and kissed Mari’s forehead, “Be careful my Lily.” and She hesitantly broke away from his embrace, transformed, and snuck out through her balcony.

Alya was scrolling through the comments on her apology/Lila Rossi exposè video, it was a habit she never could break. Yes, there were quite a few harshly criticizing her, and a couple were straight-up name-calling, but the majority of people were happy she’d seen the light and were encouraging her not to give up on her dream. Her phone was blowing up with texts and calls from her classmates (and quite a few angry voicemails from Lila), but she couldn’t bring herself to care. A part of her felt at peace, even though she mourned the loss of her dream. A knock on her door snapped her out of her spiral, it was probably her mom coming to give her a pep talk and reassure her she did the right thing. But as she opened the door to her room, a familiar set of pigtails nearly made her jump out of her skin. “Hi… I came to talk,” Marinette said, and Alya moved back to let her in. This felt so right, but wrong. It called back to the many sleepovers they had, laughing about boys and reading superhero comics, but this time it was like two opposing soldiers laying down their arms in a tentative truce. Marinette decided to break the awkward silence, “So I saw the video. I have to admit, I certainly wasn’t expecting you to expose Lila like that.” Alya gave a half-hearted chuckle. “Neither did she. She’s been blowing up my phone with voicemails calling me every name she can think of and promising to ruin me. Well, she’s too late 'cause I already did that.” Marinette looked over at the comments, skimming through them. “Not necessarily. You apologized, admitted you were wrong, and have already begun working to undo some of her damage,” “But that doesn’t excuse what I did to you, to Nino, and your friends.” “No, it doesn’t, but you’ve owned up to it which is admirable. What snapped you out of it?” Alya smiled softly, “I made a friend who got me to stop and think… and also got me access to the school’s cameras. I don’t know how much of the video you watched but I played the video from the day you got expelled and it showed Lila framing you so Damocles and Bustier are in some hot water right now.” Marinette laughed, genuinely, it felt so strange for Alya to hear, “About time! I can’t help but wonder how many other people they messed up, besides us.” “Oh, a lot. I plan on exposing more, but that’s a problem to take out another day.” Marinette perked up a bit, “Speaking of taking out problems, I need your help with a big one.” Alya nodded eagerly, ready to make up for her years of inaction. “I asked Aurore to post this too, but I need you to post this article,” Marinette handed her a piece of paper to read, as she read, her brow furrowed a bit, “You’re not planning on taking on Hawkmoth, are you? Oh my god, you are. I don’t know what secret weapons stash the Waynes have but-” “Tikki spots on,” Standing there, in her room, was Ladybug, where her former best friend once stood. Before Alya could find her words Maribug, no, Ladynette, no, Ladybug cut her off, “I have a plan but I’m going to need Hawkmoth to panic thinking the Miraculi are slipping out of his grasp. We need this to bait him out.” Alya was stunned, and began to stammer, “Of course! I-” “You said you wanted to work to make things right, so if you’re willing,” Marinette held out an oh-so-familiar fox necklace, “I’ll need Rena Rouge’s help too.”

Chloe was sitting in her room with Sabrina, pretending to be invested in whatever show they were watching. In her mind she kept replaying that day she spotted Marinette and her group in her favorite cafe. The conversation she had… she had never expected to spill her heart out like that. Her mother always told her that she could never be vulnerable, she could never let others see any weakness, and yet there she sat pouring out her heart. Eventually, Sabrina had to leave, they did have school tomorrow, and the heiress was left alone. Alone was something familiar to Chloe, especially since her Icarus Moment, as she called it, was something she dreaded. She knew her parents would leave her out to dry in a heartbeat, she knew Zoe had her own life and that the two sisters would never be close, and she knew all her daddy’s employees would quit the moment they found something better. All she had left was Sabrina, so she clung on for dear life. She’d stopped treating her friend like a servant a long time ago, and even when she was at her worst, Sabrina stuck by her. Initially, it was out of fear, Sabrina knew that if she was going to swim with sharks it was better to be a remora. She had many chances to leave but stuck around time and time again and Chloe realized that maybe Sabrina really did care for her. Then there was the hot mess that was Adrien. He’d tried to give Chloe the “Her lies aren’t hurting anybody” speech a while ago, but the heiress wasn’t having it. This girl had humiliated her and needed to pay. She and Sabrina decided to gather information, and that was how they overheard Adrien making Marinette agree not to do anything and later Lila threatening Marinette.

Chloe had always felt a little bad for the baker’s daughter, she was madly in love with Adrien but had no idea what he was really like, he could be incredibly manipulative if it meant avoiding an uncomfortable situation. She knew that Marinette wouldn’t trust her to outright accept help from the heiress, so she decided to back off entirely, a cease-fire of sorts. It helped that this coincided with her revelation that she was jealous of Marinette and her family. When Damian Wayne joined the class and declared himself Dupain-Cheng’s soulmate, Chloe thought, ‘About damn time.’ She’d seen how the former class president was treated and knew she most likely had another major stressor (Chloe theorized she was Ladybug’s woman in the chair, working behind the scenes), so she was a bit relieved to see the universe finally being kind to the ravenette. Unfortunately, it also marked the turn for Adrien to go off the deep end. He had confessed to Chloe before that he knew about Marinette’s crush, but that he was pretty sure his soulmate was Ladybug, and he’d also said that she’d be his second pick if that didn’t work out, and she certainly got an earful when he found out his soulmate was Lila. After she and Sabrina returned to school after their run-in with the Mari Squad, Adrien stopped her and asked her to help him win back Marinette. “Agreste,” She remembered snapping, not bothering with any nicknames, “You’ve lost your mind. Dupain-Cheng finally, FINALLY has something positive working out for her and you, one of the main sources of all her anguish think you can just waltz back in? You don’t really love her Adrien, you said it yourself she’d always be your second choice, and when your first choice fell through and your soulmate turned out to be Lila you sought out your consolation prize. Let me give you some advice: Life isn’t a fairytale, you can’t expect Marinette to wait for you forever or to completely throw away her life for you.” She doubted Adrien would get the message, but at least she tried. If she was naïve, Chloe would wonder if this marked the start of the end of their rivalry and the beginning of a new friendship, but the logical part of her knew that the damage she did was too great. She was snapped out of her thoughts by a sound coming from her balcony. She groaned and got up, thinking a pigeon had crashed into the door and was now stunned on the floor. But when she opened the door, she was shocked, there was Ladybug and Rena Rouge on her balcony. Ladybug smiled gently, and in almost a whisper asked, “Is Queen Bee available?”

The three women arrived at the Eiffel Tower just before midnight. Their arrival was acknowledged by a majority of the Miraculous team and Red Robin. Batman stood back, silently observing. Marinette could feel the nerves rising in her stomach. There was Batman, in person, and he was here to help her. Alya seemed to be going through a similar mental process, trying desperately to act professional and not fangirl, until Red Robin greeted her, “Well, well, well. Gotta say I wasn’t expecting to see you here Ladyblogger!” Alya’s jaw dropped, “Red??” Tim threw his head back and laughed, “Yep! I needed some information for our investigation, and figured I’d help you off the sinking ship in the process.” Before Alya could reply, Batman spoke, “Speaking of information, we were able to figure out That Hawkmoth and Mayura are Gabriel Agreste and his assistant Nathalie Sancoeur by hacking into various cameras to track the akumas, and from there we monitored his activity through his security system,” “For the record I’ve seen better security from Rogues like Crazy Quilt,” Red Robin interjected, Batman sighed and continued, “We have solid evidence that will hold up in court, so our main objective will be to catch him,” the Dark Knight turned to Ladybug, “So I’m assuming you called us here because you have the plan to do that.” Ladybug nodded and stepped forward to begin to tell the team her plan, “So as most of you know Hawkmoth and Mayura get their powers from the Kwamii within their Miraculous, that’s the same thing that gives us our powers,” She clarified for the Gotham heroes, “All we have to do is remove the Miraculous from them, and their transformation will be dropped and they’ll be powerless. However, the tricky part is actually getting them to come to the fight themselves. The nature of their Miraculous allows them to create minions to fight for them, hence the Akumas and Sentimonsters, so it’s very likely that they’ll try and distract us so they can escape. We have a mostly full Miraculous team, minus the mouse, rabbit, ox, and horse, but those can easily be given to other holders to fill that void,” The group felt a mix of emotions at the realization that some of their classmates had still yet to try and make amends for what they did, but knew that it was for the better until they could fully trust the former team members again. “So in order to get them out, we need to get them to their lowest, a point in which they’ll be so desperate that they’ll feel like they have no choice but to face us themselves, and we’ll do that by making them think that everything is slipping out of their grasp.”

Adrien had just gotten home from school, and turned on the TV in his room, flopping down on his bed. His day was AWFUL because the night before Alya had made a video on the Ladyblog exposing Lila completely out of the blue. Needless to say, the class was furious, and then their fury was directed at him when they found out he’d known the whole time and the things he did to keep Marinette from exposing Lila. He’d tried to argue that yeah he’d made a mistake, but no major damage had been done and that the small stuff could be fixed, so they should all just move on and be friends again. That had only added fuel to the fire, and all of this was before Marinette and Damian walked in. Adrien could practically feel his blood pressure rising at the thought of his rival’s name. He’d changed Marinette, encouraged her to stand up for herself, and in Adrien’s opinion was shaping her into a toxic person, but it seemed like he was the only one who could see it! More and more people gravitated to Mari like moths to a flame, and she was enjoying quite the popularity spike while he and Lila were seemingly deemed the school’s outcasts. If he still had his ring he would go to her as Chat Noir and demand that she stop the bullshit and fix everything, but he couldn’t even do that. Lila had contacted him, screaming that he’d ruined her plan to split up Dupain-Cheng and Wayne, and if he’d just followed her lead, he’d have what he wanted and she’d have what she wanted. For once he wished he listened to Lila, especially when she told him that Damian had a recording of his confrontation with Marinette and her rejection. His lawyers explained that there was nothing he could do, the Wayne family was a legal juggernaut so even if they did have a valid case, they would simply be able to drag it out until the Agrestes had no choice but to drop it, the same thing Gabriel had done to countless people before. They drilled into his head that any move he made against Damian Wayne would bring the wrath of his lawyers and that for once, Adrien was in a position of weakness.

He was brainstorming ideas on how to convince Marinette to leave her soulmate when the TV switched over to breaking news. “Ladybug and Panthère de Nuit will be meeting with members of the Justice League and Justice League Dark today in order to transfer over the Miraculous to the hero teams. According to statements from Ladybug posted to the Ladyblog and On the Spot, ‘Hawkmoth’s attacks have become far more brazen, and in order to assure the safety of Paris, I felt it was necessary to entrust the Miraculi, including the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, to people who can properly protect them,’” The screen cut to Ladybug and Panthère de Nuit handing over what was supposedly the Miracle Box to the superheroes Batman, Red Robin, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate, The box was almost in Zatanna’s hands when a loud boom caught the attention of the heroes, and as the camera turned to show what they saw, Adrien gasped. There were Hawkmoth and Mayura on the back of a massive multi-headed dragon Sentimonster, with an army of akumas and amoks floating around them, ready to turn at least half of Paris into their own army. A burst of fire was shot from one of the heads of the dragon, with Ladybug, Panthère de Nuit, Batman, and Red Robin easily dodging. Zatanna and Doctor Fate, along with the Miracle Box disappeared in the familiar smoke of an illusion from the Fox Miraculous breaking, in fact, the whole area seemed to disappear, and when the smoke settled, it showed the heroes and villains trapped in a large Shell-ter. It struck Adrien that this was never a poorly executed plan that Hawkmoth discovered, this was an ambush. Realistically, he knew he shouldn’t get involved, he didn’t have a Miraculous and would be putting himself in great danger. However, he was convinced that if he showed Ladybug that he could still be a hero, she would have to give him a MIraculous, and he could prove to Marinette that he was the best match for her. So he left for the battlefield.

Everything so far was going according to plan. Hawkmoth and Mayura had taken the bait and were now trapped in the Shell-ter with the Heroes. Rena Rouge was working overtime, creating illusion after illusion to confuse the devious duo. Carapace’s Shell-ter was holding strong, preventing anyone from entering and potentially getting akumatized. Vipereon was given the rabbit miraculous as well and was currently hopping between dimensions and using Second Chance to reset the fight and figure out the next moves they should make. King Monkey (with help from the Mouse Miraculous), Pigella, and Caprikid were using their respective powers to work with Batman and Red Robin to try and throw off Hawkmoth and Mayura’s concentration. Meanwhile, Ryuko, Panthère de Nuit, Purple Tigeress (also using the Ox Miraculous), and Rooster Bold were handling the massive dragon Sentimonster. Ladybug herself was along the outskirts of the battle, with Miss Hound and the “new” Bee hero Swarm. Ladybug was using her yo-yo to get her allies out of the way of various attacks, and waiting for the signal from Vipereon to use Lucky Charm. Swarm was waiting for an opportunity to use Venom to stun either Hawkmoth or Mayura, while Miss Hound was using the Horse Miraculous to teleport around to take shots at hitting the villains’ Miraculous. All of the heroes were connected with earpieces so they could communicate and monitor how each other was doing, and so far everything was going smoothly.

For the first time in forever, Ladybug was beginning to feel hopeful that this nightmare would be over soon, when Miss Hound caught everyone’s attention, “Ummm… Why is Adrien trying to get in? Does he know that Hawkmoth is his dad?” Red Robin dodged an attack from an enraged Mayura, and quickly answered, “Not that we’re aware of. Although we did find out that he was Chat Noir, so maybe he thinks he can help,” Ladybug sighed and declared she would handle it, swinging off to the border. Sure enough, there was Adrien, banging on the Shell-ter, and he perked up as soon as he saw her. The only thing standing between the former partners was a magical green wall. “What are you doing here Adrien? It’s not safe!” Ladybug crossed her arms and glared, she did NOT have time for this! “I’m here to help My Lady! So tell Carapace to drop Shell-ter and let me in,” The blond boy shot her his best Chat Noir smile, while Ladybug simply raised an eyebrow, “I can’t do that Adrien. Lifting the shelter would allow thousands of akumas to escape and terrorize Paris. It would be too much of a risk and put too many people in danger. Besides you don’t have a way to fight, so you wouldn’t be any help.” She hoped that would put an end to it, but she was wrong, “But I can help! If you give me a Miraculous I can help you defeat Hawkmoth. Please Ladybug we’re partners, we’re soulmates! I should be there fighting with you!” Adrien was persistent she’d give him that, but there was no way she’d let him in, potentially ruining everything when they worked so hard. “No Adrien, I will not be giving you a Miraculous! Every single one of them is in use right now and to take one away from someone would put them in danger. Besides, you already blew your chance when you were Chat Noir! You proved that you were never in it to protect people, and you were barely a decent partner! There were several times Hawkmoth almost won because you were goofing off or just didn’t even show up. Finally, you aren’t my soulmate, you never were. Just go home, go home, and sit this one out,” That seemed to cause him to only get more upset, “This is because of the new cat isn’t it?! He’s convinced you I’m some awful person so you’d give him the Cat Miraculous instead of me! It’s mine, not his! Master Fu chose me! I am the real holder of the Cat Miraculous, so you have to do what’s right and give it back if you’re such a ‘real hero’!” Ladybug sighed, “And Plagg, the Kwamii of the Cat Miraculous took it away from you because he felt you were unworthy to wield it. Why would I give it back to you then? Leave Adrien.” With that, she turned away, ready to rejoin the battle, but stopped dead in her tracks, “I should have known all along Ladybug, you aren’t a real hero. You’re just a narcissistic, pathetic, lonely girl pretending to be this great, benevolent hero because, in your real life, nobody loves you. Nobody wants you. I used to think I was your soulmate, and it’s clear I’m not because there’s no way such a vile person like you could ever have one. This is the only way you can get attention, and you strung me along in the process! If anything, you’re just as bad as Hawkmoth!” Adrien spat, before storming off. Ladybug took a deep breath, fighting back tears. It hurt to have someone she cared about, and used to love say such vile things about her, but now was not the time to lose focus, she had a battle to win.

Diving back into the fray, she quickly tugged Caprikid out of the way as Hawkmoth tried to strike him. “You good,” He asked as the two regained their footing on a building, “You left your earpiece on so we kinda heard all of that. Panthère de Nuit looked ready to kill him at one point, and the rest of us would back him up if you want.” Ladybug chuckled a bit, “Thanks but the Miraculous Team is adopting the Bat’s no-killing rule. I’ll be okay, no, I’ll be amazing once we end this!” “Then I’m happy to inform you that it’s time for Lucky Charm,” Vipereon chimed in, “Swarm! Miss Hound! Take the shot! Lucky Charm!” Panthère de Nuit Cataclysmed the Sentimonster, causing cracks to form, destabilizing Hawkmoth and Mayura, with some help, the Amokized pendant was caught and quickly broken. Swarm hit Mayura with Venom, and her Miraculous was taken with Miss Hound’s fetch, leaving a defeated Nathalie, and Hawkmoth standing alone. Ladybug would have to move quickly so Hawkmoth couldn’t Akumatize Nathalie, and looked down at the Lucky Charm in her hand: A lily. Looking around, she quickly developed a plan, Grabbing a few supplies, she made her way to the tallest point within the Shell-ter, and set a trap for the Akumas. Sure enough, the allure of a flower overpowered Hawkmoth’s control over the butterflies, and as a result, they left the villain powerless. The heroes were quick to surround Hawkmoth, and with no Akuma and nowhere to ruin, it looked like his reign of terror was over. “You’re done Hawkmoth, you lost,” Ladybug declared as she jumped down to meet the villain. His cane, which contained a small blade, was ripped out of his hands by Batman, who did not want to risk the former villain attempting to stab Ladybug out of desperation. Seeing as he had no way out, all Hawkmoth could do was sigh in defeat and remove his Miraculous. Once it was securely in Ladybug’s hand, Carapace let the shelter down, and one Miraculous Ladybug later, the destruction of the battle seemed like a distant memory.

It was like waking up from a dream. For a moment, no one said anything, what was left to be said? News helicopters were now flying overhead, as people began to gather around. A few stunned police officers made their way to the front of the crowd to arrest Gabriel and Nathalie, and as they were marched away the crowd erupted in a roar of jubilation. The Miraculous heroes were quick to leave the scene, and not a moment too soon, since their transformations dropped shortly after they landed on a distant roof. As the rest of her team celebrated, Marinette turned to look at the Eiffel Tower, where it all started five years ago. It didn’t feel real, Marinette looked down at the celebrating crowd below, she was happy, but she also felt lost in a way. Being Ladybug had been such a huge part of her life, and she hadn’t really planned what she’d do once Hawkmoth was defeated. She was snapped out of her thoughts when a familiar arm wrapped around her waist, “Hey,” Damian murmured. She could feel a smile growing on her face, “Are you doing okay my Lily? I thought you would’ve been celebrating as well,” Marinette leaned into his side, “I feel like I won the lottery… but I’m not sure where to go from here. I’ve been Ladybug for a good chunk of my life, all the plans I made revolved around being Ladybug and responding to Akumas. Now I don’t really know what to do with myself,” “Come to Gotham,” Tim shouted at the pair, effectively ruining the moment. Damian turned, shooting Tim a glare over his shoulder. “He’s not wrong you know,” Batman started, getting everyone’s attention, “You’ve proven yourself to be incredibly capable, and now that the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous are back in your possession, the threat they pose has been taken care of. We would be honored to have you join us and the rest of the Gotham Knights.” Marinette was stunned, she stammered over her words trying to piece together a sentence, “I, I don’t know what to say-” “How about yes?” Damian asked as he leaned in for a kiss. “Alright then. yes. “ Marinette responded as her eyes fluttered closed. Before their lips could meet, the moment was ruined, “Get a room!” Tim called, resulting in a groan from the couple, and laughter from their friends.

Marinette took one last look around her bare room, almost everything was gone except for her bed and a change of clothes. This was her last night in Paris for a while, maybe forever unless she came back to visit. In the month since Hawkmoth’s defeat, all of Paris had been in a state of constant celebration, and tonight there was supposed to be the biggest party of all: to wish Ladybug good luck and farewell as she joined the Batfam and by extension the Justice League. She would be the only hero moving up to the big leagues, with the rest of the Miraculous holders involved in the final battle releasing a statement that they would be permanently retired until further notice. They cited that it would be too dangerous to have so many Miraculous out and active on a permanent basis, potentially giving supervillains multiple targets to go after, and the potential danger each Miraculous could pose if they were to fall into the wrong hands. They wished Ladybug well and stated that they’d always be ready if she needed them again. Panthère de Nuit was publicly revealed to be Robin, the vigilante from Gotham, along with a slightly watered-down version of why the Bats were in Paris in the first place. No one really cared about the schematics, Hawkmoth was gone, and people could live their normal lives again. Marinette plopped down on her bed, sighing as she watched the Kwamii fly about the room. There really was nothing left for her in Paris, Hawkmoth and Mayura were gone, the rest of her class finally apologized, Lila was exposed and she’d just graduated high school alongside her soulmate. All she had to do now was go to college in Gotham, build her fashion empire, and help defend the world whenever she was needed. She was excited, who wouldn’t be? That excitement was dampened by a sense of melancholy, Paris was her home and she had so many good memories here, some she could remember vividly, like her soulmate dreams. “Hey Tikki?” The little Kwamii paused, floating over to her champion, “Now that I’ve met Damian, am I going to stop having soulmate dreams? I mean I’ve never had them consistently before… but it would be weird for them to suddenly stop right?” Tikki sat for a moment in Marinette’s hand, pondering her chosen’s question. “Well, it depends. Soulmate dreams work differently for different people, but you primarily seem to get them when you’re in a situation relating to hope. When you’re either full of hope or desperately need it, that’s when your dreams seem to come to you. They act like a promise, a promise that all will be well. So I imagine that you may occasionally have one when you need it most or when you feel particularly hopeful. Anyways, I hope you’re ready, it’s almost time for the party to start!” Tikki cheered as the Kwamii surrounded the two.

Damian sat atop the Eiffel Tower as Panthère de Nuit, he watched Ladybug (It’s Lady Miracle now, he reminded himself) as she made her way across the rooftops to him. She was followed by cheering from the crowd of people, who all seemed to surge forward towards the celebration. Occasionally she would stop to pull a few people out of the crowd who looked like they were having trouble, but nonetheless, she was making good progress. She landed next to him gracefully, and he stood to meet her. “Hello my Lily,” he whispered as he pulled her into an embrace. “How was your last day in Paris?” She hummed contentedly as she kissed him, pausing a moment to snuggle closer. “It was good. I finally got apologies from the rest of the class, and anyone else who believed Lila. I only had to deal with Adrien for a few minutes, he tried to convince me to stay in Paris and go to college with him instead of leaving for Gotham. Papa showed him the door. And I also finished up the last of my packing! I’ve never seen the room so empty, it’s kinda scary.” Damian sighed, It seemed like Adrien would always be a pain in their sides, he couldn’t do much, but he seemed determined to be a constant presence in their lives. The two decided they wouldn’t focus on it now, they had a celebration to attend to.

The heroes wove their way through the crowds, talking to people, and occasionally stopping at vendors to purchase some snacks or merch. Eventually, the two made their way to where the old Ladybug and Chat Noir statue stood. There were plans to take it down and replace it. “It should just be a statue of Ladybug, I only came to help defeat Hawkmoth, but she has been fighting him the whole time,” Panthère de Nuit explained to the mayor and various sculptors and architects that were discussing it. Ladybug was munching on a chocolate croissant from her parents’ booth, when someone spoke, “So this is it huh? You won and now you’re just packing up and leaving?” She turned to see Lila standing there, arms crossed and looking a mix between furious and annoyed. ‘Annoyed Hawkmoth didn’t drag me down with him,’ Marinette thought, swallowing the bite of croissant. “Hello, Lila. Yes, I got invited to join the Justice League, so I’ll be spending a few years in Gotham training with Batman. How about you? Got any plans?” It was a bit of an antagonistic question. Since Gabriel Agreste was exposed, the brand Gabriel had been in a perpetual death spiral. Adrien, with the help of the board of directors and some lawyers, was able to stabilize the company, but it was going through a serious rebrand and may have to downsize. So Lila’s future as a model was shaky at best. Lila however, did not show any uncertainty, “Oh I’m probably going to continue modeling, after I finish college that is. Who knows, maybe I’ll leave that behind and branch into acting. Now,” her gaze hardened, “Let’s drop the pleasantries shall we? Hawkmoth is gone, so I expect I won’t be having any more trouble with you-” “Unless you decide to work with a terrorist again. The only reason you haven’t been arrested is because there isn’t enough evidence Lila.” “And it's going to stay that way. You have no reason to go snooping around my life anymore, and besides,” Lila shot her a smirk, “I’m sure the Justice League wouldn’t like it if it got out that their newest member was stalking an innocent model, accusing her of outlandish crimes.” Ladybug laughed, “Considering some recent revelations about you I don’t think I’ll have a problem convincing them you’re anything but trustworthy. So stay out of trouble, because you’ll certainly end up getting in over your head, and someday no one will be around to bail you out.” Lila made a sound similar to an outraged chicken, and placing a hand over her heart she cried, “Is that a threat?” an obvious attempt to make a scene. Ladybug simply shrugged, “Nope. It’s a warning. Do with it what you will,” and with that, she walked over to Panthère de Nuit, and the two swung back up to the Eiffel Tower to watch the fireworks. The show was amazing, the symbols of all the Parisian heroes lit up the sky, and Marinette contentedly sighed as she leaned into Damian’s side. Life was good. After a couple of minutes, the grand finale began, with the final fireworks spelling out: Thank you Ladybug and Panthère de Nuit.

#marinette deserves better #adrien salt #lila salt #maribat #class salt #chat noir salt #adrien salt prompts #bustier salt #daminette #gabriel salt

358 notes · View notes

vintage-retro-queen · 8 months ago

Text

Paris Reacts to Nature is No Picnic Up Close

Akuma Class

After the past two weeks, with no TV or electronic devices, the class finally found a way to watch Total Drama Island. While on their usual walk at the shopping mall, they found a little restaurant that is called Addict Yourself. A restaurant that has every single electronic device the world has ever had. They even have DVRs for those who want to catch up on movies and episodes of their favorite shows that they might have missed. It was like they all had died and went to heaven. Adrien could never forget the time he and his friends watched the third episode of the show.

As they all got together to watch the third episode, they were shocked and surprised to learn about Lucy and the chained kunai debacle. When they hear about Lucy's family not doing technology, they are completely shocked. "Then what does she do for fun?" "Does she stare at the wall or something?" "How does she even talk to her friends?" "Why can't her family do technology like us?" Even Adrien couldn't believe that the Corleones don't do technology, he was even afraid to tell his father that.

When they finished the third episode and moved on to the fourth one, they were shocked and happy that Marinette was now a member of the MetaBetas. Even Adrien was proud of her. He was so proud that he wanted to tell the world that his friend was now a member of a popular idol group. Yet, they still can't get in touch with the girl. But they know that when she gets back, they will be happy to have her to show others how amazing she is. And hoping that she would drop on hurting Lila and they would all be friends again.

When they all got together, they were happy to see the show again as it now starts.

"Last time on Total Drama Island, a talent contest brought out the best and worst in our campers. It was awesome. And while Lucy and Marinette were occupied taking an urgent phone call, the Killer Bass struggled to find any talent on their team. And Bridgette's clumsiness pretty much knocked out their best prospect...Courtney. Gwen stood up to Heather for Marinette. So Heather swore to make both Gwen's and Marinette's lives miserable. Starting by stealing Marinette's diary. Then she tries to read it in front of the entire viewing world. But it then backfired when the box that holds Marinette's diary trapped her hand in the nick of time. Man, was that a close one." "You said it, Chris," Alya said, crossing her arms and smiling proudly at her friend's diary box. "Then Heather managed to save her butt by convincing the rest of the team to vote off Justin "McGorgeousness." Who will be the next one to walk off this lame dock? Find out tonight in the most dramatic marshmallow ceremony ever on Total Drama Island."

After watching the usual theme, they watch as Marinette and all of the other campers are in the campsite, and Chris tells them something. "Campers, today's challenge will test your outdoor survival skills. I'm not gonna lie to you, some of you may not come back alive. Just joking." he laughed. "It's not even funny." one of the Addict Yourself waiters said, walking past the teenagers. "All you have to do is spend one night in the woods. Everything you need is at your team's campsite in the forest. You just have to find it." Chris then tosses Lucy and Duncan a map and a compass for each of the two of them. "Oh, and watch out for bears. Lost a couple of interns in preproduction." the class's eyes widened when they heard that coming out of Chris's mouth. They were more shocked when they started to hear Lucy talk after, "I'm sure we'll keep that in mind," she said, looking unamused and handing Gwen the map and compass. "You sure are fearless all of a sudden," Gwen said, looking at Lucy surprised. "Well, you could say that this isn't the first time I was in the great outdoors," Lucy explained as she got her BerryPod and earphones out. Before any of the class can react and question where Lucy got the BerryPod, they see her confessional.

"I'd just like to thank my friend Angie for this BerryPod and earphones." Lucy said, holding a light purple sticky note that says in violet-purple pen, 'Just thought you might need it while at camp-Angie.' "Oh, that's where she got it from," Rose said, now understanding where Lucy got the BerryPod from. "I know I said my family doesn't do technology like everyone else, but there is one thing I miss doing back home, and that is listening to my music in my record player." "A what player?" "What the heck is a record player?" "How does she listen to music with a record player?"

"My favorite music I like to play is classical, all songs from the 1950s to the early 2000s. In other words, from 2000 to 2009." "What? What about the songs we have? Doesn't she like those too?" "Some 2010 songs I can tolerate, notice I said I only like some of them. I have reasons why." "That doesn't make any sense. What's wrong with the songs we have?" Anyway, I'm still grateful for Angie giving me this. Thanks, Ang. I owe you one." she said, waving at the camera to her friend. "Hope Marinette can bring Lucy with her when she gets back. That way, we can show her and her family what they're missing." Nino suggested. Alya and the others agreed, thinking it would be a great idea to help the Corleones see how wonderful life is with phones, laptops, and other stuff that would be very useful for them to have.

After that, they continue watching the show. "First team back for breakfast wins invincibility." Chris then blows his airhorn while some of the campers get up from their seats and start walking. "Well, off you go." "Did he say there are bears up in here?" asked Leshawna. "I had a little encounter with a bear once," said Owen. "Let's just say his head looks real nice up on my mantel." "Lucky," Kim commented. "Oh, this one time, I saw a bear eating our garbage. He had old spaghetti noodles hanging from his big, huge teeth, and it looked like blood and guts." Izzy explained. Most of the students and some of the people who walk past them look pretty shocked hearing that from Izzy. Some looked disgusted even. Juleka, on the other hand, looked amazed hearing that. "It was so gross. And we thought he was eating the neighbor's cat, Simba. But it turned out he was just lost for a week." Rose sighed in relief hearing that. Juleka smiled, even though she was amazed about the bear, but she was also glad that the cat was okay.

After that, the scene changed to the Screaming Gophers heading over to their campground. Marinette is walking with Lucy while she (Lucy) is already listening to some classical music played by Mozart on her BerryPod and earphones. "Man, that music sounds like unicorn barf!" Kim groaned in disgust, covering his ears. Nino nodded in agreement while looking disgusted. "What are you talking about? There's nothing bad about classical." a person said behind him. "There's EVERYTHING bad about classical!" Kim and Nino complained in unison. Adrien's heart starts to ache as he watches Trent walk with Marinette, and the two of them look happy.

They then watch as Heather scoffs and rubs her hand and wrist. "She is so the next one to leave." she said. "Who?" Beth asked. "Who do you think? She had her box trap my hand in front of everyone." "Uh, no. It closed and trapped your hand by itself to protect Marinette's secrets from you. Maybe you should've stuck to dancing instead of trying to read someone's private life out loud to the public." Alya said, crossing her arms and glaring at Heather. "Yeah, but you did almost read her diary out loud to the whole entire world. ALMOST." Gwen pointed. "That's what I've been saying!" Alya explained. But hearing that from Gwen made Heather stand her ground, making the other Screaming Gophers behind her stop. "So?" "So, that was pretty harsh," Gwen said, with Cody nodding in agreement. "Exactly! She's just as worse as Chloe!" Adrien was about to say something until Heather continued, "She is so going down," Before any of the students can react and say something, they watch as the scene changes to Trent and Marinette still walking to their location until they both hear a scream behind them. They turned to look back and saw Heather hiding behind Owen, shaking in fear. "Jeez, what scared her all of a sudden?" one of the waitresses said, looking at Heather oddly, then continued on walking to take people's orders.

"What's wrong?" Marinette asked. Heather tries to tell them while pointing at Lucy, but all that comes out of her mouth are sputters and stutters. However, when they all watch as the scene changes to Lucy, all they see is Lucy still walking and listening to Mozart. "Okay, seriously, I'm gonna puke if I hear another one of that unicorn barf." Kim complained. Nino nods in agreement. "Lucy isn't doing anything, Heather." Marinette and Trent then continue walking, catching up to Lucy.

Along with the rest of the Screaming Gophers following along with them. Heather was both shocked and in disbelief about none of the Screaming Gophers believing her when she saw what happened that might've involved Lucy. Seeing Heather's shocked expression made Adrien look back at the shocked faces of Marinette, Chloe, and Sabrina. He can never forget the time that he told Chloe and Sabrina the truth about Lila after Chloe demanded him to tell him why Marinette is in Total Drama. He was even upset that Chloe stopped talking to him. Chloe and Sabrina both. He just doesn't understand why people can't see that he's trying to make people see that lies don't hurt anyone and they should just let it all go.

After Heather's unexcusable confessional, the scene changes to the Screaming Gophers finally arriving at their campsite. When Owen pointed out that there were no food supplies, Lucy explained to him that the challenge was a survival task. "Lucy's right. Look at the instructions," said Trent. After a bit of watching the show, Heather explains while reading they're supposed to find their own food. "I don't see it," she said. "I think they mean in the woods, Heather," Marinette said, pointing at the words that were in small font in the instructions. "Leave the food finding to me," Lucy said loudly, getting out a fishnet and a spear. They all looked surprised, seeing that Lucy had a fear and fishnet. "Where did Lucy get those?" "Where did that girl get the spear and fishnet?" Leshawna asked, pointing to the two things in Lucy's hands. "She probably got them from Chris or Chef," Heather said, rolling up the map. They then watch Lucy's confessional. "Actually, they are my stuff one of my relatives gave me one summer," Lucy said, holding up an old photo of her tween self, holding the same spear and fishnet. "Like I said, it's not the first time I was in the great outdoors." "Wow, I never knew that Lucy was a pro of this." "She's so gonna win with the Screaming Gophers." two of the teen customers said, walking past the students.

They then watch as the scene changes to the Screaming Gophers's campsite already set, and they are all waiting for Lucy to come back. They then see the camera turning to a pizza guy, asking who ordered a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. One of the cameramen then calls out to the pizza guy, saying, "It's for the camera crew, over here." "No way," Heather said in disbelief. "For once, I agree with Heather." Alix admits. Her friends all agreed with her. "Yeah, they could've at least order some for them too." "Well, this is a survival task. I don't think they mean we can't use any modern things like ordering food." Marinette said, with Trent and Gwen nodding in agreement. "Well, Marinette does make a point there." Adrien said, making Max, Ivan, and Mylene nod in agreement.

"Alright, I'm back," Lucy called out, with a fish in her spear and thirteen fish in her fishnet. "Oh. My. Gosh." one of the teenage girl customers at one table said, looking shocked, seeing Lucy had caught a lot of fish. The Akuma Class on the other hand, too looked shocked, yet surprised, amazed, and impressed with Lucy catching all of those fourteen fish.

After a while of watching the Killer Bass and the B.F.F.F.L's, the scene changes to the Screaming Gophers again, where they watch as they're cooking some of the fish Lucy caught. "Alright, fire's hot, fish is grilling, and we already got the tent set up." Lucy said as she looked at the tent, and Marinette looked at the fish. "Nice going, Lucy, fish looks awesome." "Thanks. I owe it all to my relatives back home." Lucy explained.

"Lucy must've got an amazing family back home." Adrien said, looking impressed, along with Nino nodding in agreement. "She's so lucky. Her family must be so cool teaching her cool things." Kim said, feeling a bit jealous. Alya nods in agreement, feeling a little bit more jealous than Kim is. Adrien tries to tell them that there's no need to be jealous about it until they hear Heather start asking something. "Hey, has anyone seen Crazy Girl?" she asked. "I think she had to use the can." Owen guessed. "But that was over an hour ago." Trent said. The Akuma Class looks to worry for the Screaming Gophers while they (the Screaming Gophers) are calling out Izzy's name. Just then, Owen notices the bushes rustling and heads over to it in relief.

"Good. I thought we lost you there for a minute, man," he said, walking over to the bush. But he then stopped when he saw that it was not Izzy. Instead, it was a bear that was growling. "Great Pyramid of Giza!" Owen screamed. The Akuma class and some of the other people in the restaurant looked shocked to see a bear on TV, growling at the Screaming Gophers. "AAH! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! WE'RE GONNA GET EATEN ALIVE BY A BEAR! OH, THE HORROR!" Owen screamed while running around in fear. As Owen continues screaming, Heather trips him, making him snap out of it. Heather then panics a bit and quickly tells the Screaming Gophers, "The trees! Climb into the trees!"

The scene then changes to Marinette and Lucy walking in the woods, calling out Izzy's name, and looking for her. The Akuma Class sighed in relief, knowing that Marinette was okay. They then watch as they walk into the Killer Bass's campsite. "Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to join us." Duncan said, crossing his arms. "Funny, Juvie," Lucy said. "Hey, have you guys seen Izzy?" "No, sorry, Lucy," Courtney said. "Man, that bambina is gonna put us six feet under. Thanks." but before Lucy and Marinette can continue with their search for Izzy, they both notice the rabbit in D.J.'s arms. "Where'd you find that?" she asked as she and Marinette sat down. Before the Akuma Class can react and D.J. can answer the question, an owl is heard, and Bridgette is startled by the sound. "It's okay, Bridgette. It's just an owl." Marinette said, comforting her. "Sorry, I just get really freaked out in the forest," Bridgette said. "Hey, if it's any consolation, sometimes nature is a wonder to behold." Before Rose and Mylene could agree with that fact, Lucy continued, "Well, not all the time, honestly," "Why? What's wrong with it?" Harold asked. Lucy crosses her arms, looking down, saying, "Well, it's kinda hard to explain, really." "Huh, I thought you said that it wasn't the first time you were in the great outdoors," Duncan said. "I did. But sometimes nature is, honestly, no picnic. Asides from being in one that is bear-country on one side of it, and dealing with..." The class, the people in the restaurant, Marinette, and the Killer Bass looked surprised seeing this new thing of Lucy. Lucy crossed her arms, held herself tightly, never letting herself go, looking down, not feeling comfortable continuing on, shaking as if she experienced something traumatizing, and her face looked like she was scarred for life.

"Jeez. Why did Duncan have to smart-mouth that?" "That punk should've kept his mouth shut." 'What happened, Lucy? Who hurt you?' Juleka thought, looking at Lucy with full-on sympathy for the shaken female idol.

Courtney then smacked Duncan on the head. "See what you did?! You're making her feel scared now!" she said angrily. Juleka crosses her arms, angrily glaring at Duncan. "Courtney, it's fine. It was just a nightmare I just had before I got into this show." Lucy said, snapping out of it. "I got a bit carried away reading old newspaper articles." "Old what articles?" Alya said, looking at Lucy, completely confused about what Lucy was talking about. "One of them was about a former country idol and a female idol from another genre. I guess I read that one too much that it gave me that nightmare, making me be the said female idol, being hunted down by that creepy former country idol..."

Lucy then pauses for a second, snapping her fingers while thinking of the name of the former country idol. "Ah, man, I forgot his name. It's kinda the same name as a bird. But I forgot what bird it was." Marinette, the Killer Bass, and the people in Addict Yourself understood that she was dealing with a nightmare, but Courtney and Juleka were still glaring at Duncan for making her remember the said nightmare. "You are so vile. Do your parents even like you?" Courtney asked, making Juleka quietly laugh at that burn. Adrien was about to say something to Courtney. Even though it is just an episode of a reality show in a different country, Duncan answered the burn question, saying, "I don't know, Gawky McShocker. I haven't asked them lately." Then, wolves start to howl, which startles Marinette into jumping into Duncan's arms in fear and looking scared, not aware of Duncan looking at her, then at Geoff, causing him to give Duncan a smile and a thumbs up. Seeing that started to somehow make Adrien jealous.

The scene then changes back to the Screaming Gophers' side, where everyone watches as the Screaming Gophers are all up on a tree, trying to get away from the bear. "So what do we do now?" Trent asked Heather. "Don't look at me," "It was your idea to climb the trees." Gwen recalled. "Well, why don't you ask the bear-hunting expert?" Heather suggested. "Hey, Owen, what now?" "How should I know?" Owen asked. "Dude, you said you killed a bear while we were walking." Leshawna said. "I was being thearitical." Owen admits. Heather then yells at him, saying, "This is all your fault. If you hadn't been growling like that, we never would've attracted him to our side." "Forgive me for living!" Owen exclaimed.

"Hey, ease up on the guy. He did help Lucy and Marinette set the campfire up for the fish." Trent said. "Wait a minute, where is Lucy and Marinette?" Gwen asked, causing the others to notice the two were missing. Heather then notices the bear next to their fish that is still at the campfire. "Hey! Lay off our fish!" Heather yelled at the bear. "It's probably already eaten, Izzy!" Lindsay cried. "Then is shouldn't be hungry anymore." Everyone looked at Heather in shock and disbelief. "What? This is Survival of the Fittest." she said. Suddenly, the tree branch Leshawna was on broke, causing her to fall and face the bear. Everyone gasped, looking shocked and scared for Leshawna. "Dear, Abby, she's going to die!" Owen cried.

After a bit of panicking and telling a scared Leshawna to run for her life, it was finally revealed to be Izzy, wearing a bear costume. "What are you? Some kind of weirdo?" Gwen asked as she and some of the other Screaming Gophers started glaring at Izzy. "I thought it would be funny." Izzy laughed. "How is any of THAT even funny?!" Alya yelled, making the rest of the people in Addict Yourself agree with her. Little did any of them know, Kim found it hilarious and started laughing without any of them knowing about him laughing about what they all saw.

After that, they watch as the scene changes to the Killer Bass campsite, where they, Lucy, and Marinette are all sleeping in their tent. After a bit, they watch as a bunch of bats start flying past Bridgette until one accidentally flies to her face, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the floor, causing a still-burning rock from the campfire to fly up, heading over to the tent. But before it can make contact with it, Lucy quickly catches it and tosses it back into the campfire. Everyone sighed in relief from that. Lucy then walks over to Bridgette, gently grabbing the bat off of Bridgette's face. "Come on, Vinnie Stoker, off the gal and head back with your pals," she said, letting the bat fly off. "Who's Vinnie Stoker?" "I don't know," "How the heck should I know?" they all then shrug and continue watching the show, seeing Lucy help Bridgette up.

"Thanks, Lucy." "Of course. It's what I'm here for." "Is your hand okay?" "Oh, it is. Slightly burnt a tiny bit. But other than that, it's fine, really." "Guess she does have experience with the great outdoors," Duncan said, crossing his arms impressed. "Of course, she does, punk-o," Juleka mumbled, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. After that, they all headed back into their tent to rest, just in time before it started to rain.

After a while of watching the Screaming Gophers dealing with a real bear, it was finally the next morning, and everyone was awake and in pain on their backs. "Well, I think it's safe, guys. The bear's gone." Trent said. "And... the map," Gwen added, holding the map that seemed to be torn and dripping from last night's rain. "Hey, I don't know how raccoons sleep in trees, because I'm so stiff." Izzy says. "They must be really limber." Owen guessed while stretching. That was until Heather angrily walks to the two, telling them, "You know what, Crazy Girl? I don't want to hear another word from you or the "Bear Hunter" here. If you two hadn't been acting like bear bait all night, we could have actually slept in our tent." a bird that came out of the blue then started chirping, causing the three to yell 'shut it', making it fall to the ground.

After that, and seeing the B.F.F.F.L's running from the bear, they watch as the scene changes to the Killer Bass again. There, Adrien sees Marinette resting on Duncan, causing his heart to ache more than ever until she starts to wake up. "Morning, Sunshine." Marinette's eyes opened, and she finally realized that she was on top of Duncan. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" Marinette gasped, quickly getting off of him, looking embarrassed. "Seriously? Cuddling Nettie like that? Not cool, Juvie." Lucy said, looking at Duncan unamused. Juleka too, looked at Duncan unamused while crossing her arms, shaking her head. "Hey, I was calmly lying on my back and trying to catch a few z's. She was snuggling up to me." "You are one heck of a beta-punk." "You tell him, Lucy." Juleka said. "I've been called worse." Lucy and Juleka both rolled their eyes, and Lucy started to walk out of the tent. "Come on, Nettie. We're leaving. Hope the gang found Izzy and they'll meet us at the campsite." Lucy said, with Marinette walking next to her. They all then watch Lucy's confessional.

"I am not trusting that Juvenile one bit whenever Nettie is with him. If he ever hurts a hair on that bambina, he will regret it." "Please do," Juleka said with a nod. After that, the scene then changes to the campsite, where Chris is moving the wood for the campfire for the next elimination ceremony until he turns to see Lucy and Marinette are the first two back for the Screaming Gophers' side. "Glad you two made it. You two can head back into the main lodge and help Chef out." "Sweet!" Lucy said, looking like she'd won a Platinum Record at the music awards. Marinette happily nodded, and the two headed over to the main lodge. 'Why is Lucy excited about making breakfast? I thought idols were supposed to be happy with performing on stage for fans. Not doing lame hobbies like making breakfast.' Alya thought to herself.

That was until she snaps out of it, seeing the Killer Bass, running into the scene. "We're the first ones back!" Courtney happily cheered. The Screaming Gophers then arrive as well. "Oh, no! They beat us here. This is all your fault!" yelled Heather. "Not so fast, Gopherinos," said Chris. "It seems the Killer Bass are missing a few fish." "Oh, you mean Katie and Sadie?" Courtney asked. "I'm pretty sure they got eaten by wolves last night." "Darn shame," said Duncan. That was until Katie and Sadie ran in, panting. "Way to jinx it, you two." Alix said, crossing her arms. "We made it." "We're safe! Oh, my gosh, guys, we got totally got lost and then got in this massive fight." "And there was this huge bear, and he was all, "Rawr! You're in my crib, so get out!"" "And we had to run, and it was, like, so scary." After a bit and seeing the two hug and make up, Courtney gets their attention, clearing her throat to them. "Are you two finished your little love fest?" she asked. The two nodded. "Good. Because thanks to you, we just lost the challenge!" "Wait, but what about Marinette and Lucy?" Lindsay asked. "Oh, those two got here too. They're just helping Chef in the kitchen making breakfast as we speak." Chris said, pointing to the main lodge. The Screaming Gophers sighed in relief, knowing that the two were okay and they didn't lose the challenge either. Chris continued. "All right, Killer Bass, one of your fishy butts is going home. Gophers, as the two are done helping Chef, you're going on an all-expense-paid trip to the Tuck Shop!" The Screaming Gophers cheered while the Killer Bass gasped and then glared at the duo.

"Man, Marinette's lucky. I would kill to have an all-expense-paid trip to the Tuck Shop." Kim whined, crossing his arms. "I wonder if there's a way to ask Chris to have us in the show too?"

After a bit, they watch the elimination ceremony begin. "You've all cast your votes. The camper who does not receive a marshmallow must immediately hit the Dock of Shame, grab the Boat of Losers, and get the heck out of here. And you can't come back. Ever...Now, I can see you're all tired, so tonight, I'll just throw them to you. Savvy?" Chris then starts to throw the marshmallows to the campers who are safe. "Courtney. Duncan. Bridgette. D.J.. Harold. Geoff. Tyler." Which then leaves Katie and Sadie. "Ladies. This is the final marshmallow of the evening...Sadie."

After a bit of watching the B.F.F.F.Ls say their heartbreaking goodbyes, the scene then changes to Lucy and Marinette, who are sitting on the steps of the Killer Bass cabin, reading another Stephanie Queen book and sketching designs on her sketchpad while Duncan walks over and sits down next to them. "Hey, Duncan," said Marinette. "What do you want?" Lucy asked, glaring at him and trying to continue reading her book. "I just want to say that I'm sorry I asked that question, making you remember that nightmare." "Hey, you're lucky I had my essential oils on me, or else I would've brutalitied you into a pulp." "Brutalitied?" "Brutal-what?" "Oh, it's slang my people and I usually use back then. Anyway, just know that I accept your apology." Lucy and Marinette then got up and headed over to the Screaming Gophers cabin for bed, not aware of Duncan looking at Marinette romantically. "She is so into me." Duncan says to himself while leaning back, still having the hook in his right hand, feeling the sharp point caused him to 'agh' in pain. 'Hmph. Serves you right.' Juleka thought, smirking triumphantly.

After the show was over, they all headed home. All agreed to meet back at Addict Yourself to watch the next episode. And agree to have a discussion about having Marinette bring Lucy and her family to Paris so they can show them what they are missing technology-wise, and Alya can get her viewers back by having an idol be on her blog. Adrien, on the other hand, plans to make sure that when everything goes well, everything will finally go his way. Even getting his miraculous back and getting the poser heroine out of his spotlight.

Celebrities + Friends and Family (+ ??? & ???)

It was another weekend for all of the celebrities, friends, and families in Paris, France. They are all getting together, getting ready to watch the new episode of Total Drama, wanting to see what Marinette is going to do in the next challenge.

When they all settled down, they got their hors d'oeuvres and drinks and started to watch the show as it is now on.

"Last time on Total Drama Island, a talent contest brought out the best and worst in our campers. It was awesome. And while Lucy and Marinette were occupied taking an urgent phone call, the Killer Bass struggled to find any talent on their team. And Bridgette's clumsiness pretty much knocked out their best prospect...Courtney. Gwen stood up to Heather for Marinette. So Heather swore to make both Gwen's and Marinette's lives miserable. Starting by stealing Marinette's diary. Then she tries to read it in front of the entire viewing world. But it then backfired when the box that holds Marinette's diary trapped her hand in the nick of time. Man, was that a close one." "You said it, Chris." Jagged said, raising his soda cup up, along with everyone agreeing with him. "Then Heather managed to save her butt by convincing the rest of the team to vote off Justin "McGorgeousness." Who will be the next one to walk off this lame dock? Find out tonight in the most dramatic marshmallow ceremony ever on Total Drama Island."

After they watch the usual theme, they watch the show, showing them Marinette and the campers are all at the campsite, listening to what Chris has to say. "Campers, today's challenge will test your outdoor survival skills. I'm not gonna lie to you, some of you may not come back alive. Just joking." he laughed. Some look confused, some look uncertain, some look uneasy, and some chuckle, thinking that Chris was actually kidding. "Uhm, exactly, how is that even funny?" Aeon asked, looking confused. "I am not sure, but I feel like McLean needs to work on his sense of humor." Kagami commented with her mother nodding in agreement with a hum. Chris continued, "All you have to do is spend one night in the woods. Everything you need is at your team's campsite in the forest. You just have to find it." Chris then tosses Lucy and Duncan a map and a compass for each of the two of them. "Oh, and watch out for bears. Lost a couple of interns in preproduction." "I'm sure we'll keep that in mind," Lucy said, handing Gwen the map and compass. Everyone looked surprised, seeing the unamused look on Lucy's face.

"You sure are fearless all of a sudden," Gwen said, looking surprised as well. "Well, you could say that this isn't the first time I was in the great outdoors," Lucy explained as she got her BerryPod and earphones out. Before anybody can react and ask where and how Lucy got a BerryPod and earphones. "I'd just like to thank my friend Angie for this BerryPod and earphones." Lucy said, holding a light purple sticky note that says in violet-purple pen, 'Just thought you might need it while at camp-Angie.' "Oh, that's where she got it from, okay." "Well, that was very nice of Angie to give Lucy something." "Yeah, but I'm still a bit confused as to why she gave it to her." "I know I said my family doesn't do technology like everyone else, but there is one thing I miss doing back home, and that is listening to my music in my record player." "Oh, that's why." "That makes perfect sense." "I get it now." "My favorite music I like to play is classical, all songs from the 1950s to the early 2000s. In other words, from 2000 to 2009. Some 2010 songs I can tolerate, notice I said I only like some of them. I have reasons why." "No judgment here." "Hey, it's her choice. No one's stopping her there." "That is true. I don't see what's wrong with her choice of music." "Truthfully, I'm with her. I'm used to some songs, but not all of them." "I, as well. But personally, I prefer the old songs than the ones on the radio." "Me too." "Well, we're all entitled to our own opinion." "Very true." "Anyway, I'm still grateful for Angie giving me this. Thanks, Ang. I owe you one." she said, waving at the camera to her friend. "It was so nice of Miss Maleficent to give the Madame Hatter something she needs." "That's for sure."

They all then continue watching the show. "First team back for breakfast wins invincibility." Chris then blows his airhorn while some of the campers get up from their seats and start walking. "Well, off you go." "Did he say there are bears up in here?" asked Leshawna. "I had a little encounter with a bear once." said Owen. "Let's just say his head looks real nice up on my mantel." "Yeah, sure you did have him up on a mantel, Owen." One of the wunderkind actors said with sarcasm in their tone while crossing their arms.

"Oh, this one time, I saw a bear eating our garbage. He had old spaghetti noodles hanging from his big, huge teeth, and it looked like blood and guts." Izzy explained. "And possibly some moldy spots along with it," Lucy muttered, sticking her tongue in disgust while Marinette quietly giggled from that. Some people laughed and chuckled at that as well. "It was so gross. And we thought he was eating the neighbor's cat Simba. But it turned out he was just lost for a week." "Better the cat alive than dead." Lucy muttered again, with Marinette nodding in agreement. "Oh, that's right. Lucy's a full-on cat person. Well, she likes dogs too. And birds. And hamsters. And guinea pigs. Well, actually, she likes all animals that are adorable in her eyes." one of the teen bloggers said. "How do you know that?" Manon asked with full curiosity in her eyes. "Oh, Lucy confirmed it herself at a talk show once with the rest of the MetaBetas. It's still on the internet, and there's still the episode of the interview to prove it, too." "Oh, okay."

They watch as the scene changes to the Screaming Gophers walking on their way to the location of their campsite. Trent then caught up to Marinette. "Hey, Marinette, wait up. Can I walk with you?" "Sure. I don't mind at all." Marinette said to him. Trent smiled as the two walked together while Lucy, who was listening to her music, was just more focused on walking and listening to her said music. Everyone found out that Lucy was listening to classical music, starting with Mozart. "Ah, Mozart's Don Giovanni. A true classic." one of the female conductors said, with full satisfaction hearing slightly of the song in Lucy's earphones. Just then, their smiles faded when they watched Heather scoff. "She is so the next one to leave," she said. "Who?" Beth asked. "Who do you think? She had her box trap my hand in front of everyone." "Yeah, but you did almost read her diary out loud to the entire world. ALMOST." Gwen pointed out. "EXACTLY! She had it coming." One of the teenage debate champions scolded, with everyone agreeing with her. Hearing that from Gwen made Heather stand her ground and make the others behind her stop. "So?" "So, that was pretty harsh," Gwen said, with Cody nodding in agreement. "You tell her, Gwen!"

"She is going down," said Heather. Before any of Marinette's friends can say anything to defend Marinette, they watch as the scene changes to Trent and Marinette still walking to their location until they both hear a scream behind them. They turned to look back and saw Heather hiding behind Owen, shaking in fear. "Jeez, what scared her all of a sudden?" Jessica said, looking at Heather as if she had grown another head. "What's wrong?" Marinette asked. Heather tries to tell them while pointing at Lucy, but all that comes out of her mouth are sputters and stutters. However, when they all watch as the scene changes to Lucy, all they see is Lucy still walking and listening to Mozart. "Why is she pointing to Lucy? All she's doing is listening to Don Giovanni." one of the teen classical historians said, looking at the other teen celebrities around her as they all shrugged, muttering out an 'I don't know' or an 'I have no idea'. "Lucy isn't doing anything, Heather." Marinette and Trent then continue walking, catching up to Lucy. Along with the rest of the Screaming Gophers following along with them. Heather was both shocked and in disbelief about none of the Screaming Gophers believing her when she saw what happened that might've involved Lucy.

After watching Heather's confessional, the scene changes to the Screaming Gophers finally arriving at their campsite. When Owen pointed out that there were no food supplies, Lucy explained to him that the challenge was a survival task. "Lucy's right. Look at the instructions," said Trent. After a bit of watching the show, Heather explains while reading, they're supposed to find their own food. "I don't see it," she said. "I think they mean in the woods, Heather," Marinette said, pointing at the words that were in small font in the instructions. "Leave the food finding to me," Lucy said loudly, getting out a fishnet and a spear. They all looked surprised, seeing that Lucy had a fear and fishnet. "Where did Madame Hatter get those?" "Where did that girl get the spear and fishnet?" Leshawna asked, pointing to the two things in Lucy's hands. "She probably got them from Chris or Chef," Heather said, rolling up the map. They then watch Lucy's confessional. "Actually, they are my stuff one of my relatives gave me one summer," Lucy said, holding up an old photo of her tween self, holding the same spear and fishnet. "Like I said, it's not the first time I was in the great outdoors." "Huh. Well, that's smart of her." "She and Marinette are definitely going to win this one for the Screaming Gophers."

After that, they watch as the Screaming Gophers are already done setting up their campsite, waiting for Lucy to come back. After watching the Screaming Gophers look disbelieved about the camera crew ordering pizza. Marinette reminds them that they're doing a survival task, and Lucy calls out, saying she's back. They all see her come back with a fish in her spear and thirteen fish in her fishnet. Everyone looked amazed and impressed with Lucy catching a lot of fish for the team. "Atta girl, Madame Hatter. Atta girl." one of the famous travelers said, crossing their arms proudly.

After a little while of watching the Killer Bass and the B.F.F.F.Ls, they watch as the Screaming Gophers cook the fish Lucy caught. "Alright, fire's hot, fish is grilling, and we already got the tent set up." Lucy said as she looked at the tent, and Marinette looked at the fish. "Nice going, Lucy, fish looks awesome." "Thanks. I owe it all to my relatives back home." Lucy explained. "They must be very proud of you, Lucy." one of the intern journalists says, feeling proud of Lucy. That was until Heather started to notice something was not right. "Hey, has anyone seen Crazy Girl?" she asked. "I think she had to use the can." Owen guessed. "But that was over an hour ago." Trent said. "Well that isn't good." one of the servants said, pouring some soda in one of the children's cups. As the Screaming Gophers are calling Izzy's name, looking for her, Lucy and Marinette started walking, looking for Izzy. That was until Owen noticed the bushes rustling and headed over there, looking relieved."Good. I thought we lost you there for a minute, man," he said, walking over to the bush. But he then stopped when he saw that it was not Izzy. Instead, it was a bear that was growling. "Great Pyramid of Giza!" Owen screamed. Everyone looked shocked to see a bear on TV, growling at the Screaming Gophers. "AAH! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! WE'RE GONNA GET EATEN ALIVE BY A BEAR! OH, THE HORROR!" Owen screamed while running around in fear. As Owen continues screaming, Heather trips him, making him snap out of it. Heather then panics a bit and quickly tells the Screaming Gophers, "The trees! Climb into the trees!"

The scene then changes to Marinette and Lucy walking in the woods, calling out Izzy's name, and looking for her. Everyone sighed in relief, knowing that Marinette was okay. They then watch as they walk into the Killer Bass's campsite. "Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to join us." Duncan said, crossing his arms. "Funny, Juvie," Lucy said. "Hey, have you guys seen Izzy?" "No, sorry, Lucy," Courtney said. "Man, that bambina is gonna put us six feet under. Thanks." but before Lucy and Marinette can continue with their search for Izzy, they both notice the rabbit in D.J.'s arms. "Where'd you find that?" she asked as she and Marinette sat down. Everyone chuckled, knowing that Lucy was always a sucker for animals. Before D.J. can answer her question, an owl is heard, and Bridgette is startled by the sound. "It's okay, Bridgette. It's just an owl." Marinette said, comforting her. "Sorry, I just get really freaked out in the forest," Bridgette said. "Hey, if it's any consolation, sometimes nature is a wonder to behold. Well, not all the time, honestly," "Why? What's wrong with it?" Harold asked. Lucy crosses her arms, looking down, saying, "Well, it's kinda hard to explain, really." "Huh, I thought you said that it wasn't the first time you were in the great outdoors," Duncan said. "I did. But sometimes nature is, honestly, no picnic. Asides from being in one that is bear-country on one side of it, and dealing with..." Everyone looked as surprised as the Killer Bass were when they all saw this new side of Lucy. Lucy crossed her arms, held herself tightly, never letting herself go, looking down, not feeling comfortable continuing on, shaking as if she experienced something traumatizing, and her face looked like she was scarred for life. "What the heck, Duncan?!" "He should've kept it to himself, the rotten punk!" 'What happened, Lucy? Who hurt you?' Luke thought, looking at Lucy with sympathy for the female idol.

Courtney then smacked Duncan on the head. "See what you did? You're making her feel scared now!" she said angrily. Marinette's friends were either crossing their arms, glaring at Duncan, or both. "Courtney, it's fine. It was just a nightmare I just had before I got into this show." Lucy said, snapping out of it. "I got a bit carried away reading old newspaper articles. One of them was about a former country idol and a female idol from another genre. I guess I read that one too much that it gave me that nightmare, making me be the said female idol, being hunted down by that creepy former country idol..." Lucy then pauses for a second, snapping her fingers while thinking of the name of the former country idol. "Ah, man, I forgot his name. It's kinda the same name as a bird. But I forgot what bird it was." Everyone and the Killer Bass now understood that Lucy was dealing with a nightmare, but Luka knew that there must've been something else that even Lucy didn't know about. However, asides from Luka believing that there was something else, the rest of Marinette's friends and Courtney were still glaring at Duncan for making Lucy remember the said nightmare.

After a while of watching the show, watching that the Screaming Gophers were actually facing Izzy, dressed in a bear costume, they watched as Lucy and Marinette were sleeping in the Killer Bass's tent for the night. Everyone knows that they are since it is already getting dark for them to head back to their tent on time, so it is very understandable. They watch as Bridgette has a bat flying at her face, causing her to lose her balance and fall, causing a still-burning rock to fly over to the Killer Bass's tent. Before it can make contact with the tent, a hand catches it right on time, making everyone relieved that the Killer Bass's tent didn't burn down accidentally from Bridgette. The camera then shows that it was Lucy who caught the still-burning rock. Everyone looked surprised to see Lucy not reacting to the still-burning rock in her hand. After Lucy puts it back into the still-burning fire, she walks over to Bridgette, getting the bat off of her face, saying, "Come on, Vinnie Stoker, off the gal, and head back with your pals." "Mom, who's Vinnie Stoker?" "Oh, he's a..." as Nadja explains to her daughter who Vinnie Stoker is, everyone still watches as Lucy now helps Bridgette back up.

"Thanks, Lucy." "Of course. It's what I'm here for." "Is your hand okay?" "Oh, it is. Slightly burnt a tiny bit. But other than that, it's fine, really." "Guess she does have experience with the great outdoors," Duncan said, crossing his arms impressed. "Of course, she does, punk." Aurore said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms, still glaring at Duncan. Lucy, Marinette, and the rest of the Killer Bass then head back into the tent to rest, just in time before it starts to rain.

After a while of watching the Screaming Gophers deal with an actual bear, it was finally the next morning. After watching Heather accuse Owen and Izzy and watching the girly-duo, Sadie and Katie face the same bear the Screaming Gophers dealt with, running away from the said bear after, the scene changes to the Killer Bass again.

Everyone looked surprised to see Marinette resting on Duncan. But they quickly stopped and thought, realizing that it must've been the deep sleep getting to her and the other campers. Which would make sense since that happened to some of them from time to time. They then watch as Marinette, Lucy, and the rest of the Killer Bass start to wake up. "Morning, sunshine." Marinette's eyes opened, and she finally realized that she was on top of Duncan. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" Marinette gasped, quickly getting off of him, looking embarrassed. "Seriously? Cuddling Nettie like that? Not cool, Juvie." Lucy said, looking at Duncan unamused. Some of Marinette's friends agreed with Lucy, crossing their arms and looking unamused.

"You tell him, Lucy." Jessica said with Aeon and Zoe agreeing with her while Tomoe and Kagami both shook their heads at Duncan. "Hey, I was calmly lying on my back and trying to catch a few z's. She was snuggling up to me." "You are one heck of a beta-punk." "You tell it, Lucy." Fei said, with Aurore and Mirelle agreeing with her and Lucy. "I've been called worse." Lucy and some of Marinette's friends (and some feminist teens and celebrities) rolled their eyes, and Lucy started to walk out of the tent. "Come on, Nettie. We're leaving. Hope the gang found Izzy and they'll meet us at the campsite." Lucy said, with Marinette walking out of the tent with her. They all then watch Lucy's confessional.

"I am not trusting that Juvenile one bit whenever Nettie is with him. If he ever hurts a hair on that bambina, he will regret it." "Please do," one of the feminist motivational speakers, Kagami and Luka, said in unison with a single nod, along with Jagged, Penny, Clara, and Marinette's family and friends agreeing with the three. The scene then changes to the campsite, where Chris is moving the wood for the campfire until he turns to see Lucy and Marinette are the first two back for the Screaming Gophers' side.

"Glad you two made it. You two can head back into the main lodge and help Chef out." "Sweet!" Lucy said, looking like she'd won a Platinum Record at the music awards. Marinette happily nodded, and the two headed over to the main lodge. Everyone smiled, knowing that Lucy had loved to cook since she was a child and that Marinette was happy to help from time to time. They are also okay if she doesn't want to and respect her decisions. They then watch as the Killer Bass arrive. "We're the first ones back!" Courtney happily cheered. They then watch as the Screaming Gophers arrive. "Oh, no! They beat us here. This is all your fault!" yelled Heather. "Not so fast, Gopherinos," said Chris. "It seems the Killer Bass are missing a few fish." "Oh, you mean Katie and Sadie?" Courtney asked. "I'm pretty sure they got eaten by wolves last night." "Darn shame," said Duncan. That was until Katie and Sadie ran in, panting. "Those two jinx it." one of the popular astrology influencers said logically, and then looked down at her phone, posting tomorrow's zodiac posts. "We made it." "We're safe! Oh, my gosh, guys, we got totally got lost and then got in this massive fight." "And there was this huge bear, and he was all, "Rawr! You're in my crib, so get out!"" "And we had to run, and it was, like, so scary." After a bit and seeing the two hug and make up, Courtney gets their attention, clearing her throat to them. "Are you two finished your little love fest?" she asked. The two nodded. "Good. Because thanks to you, we just lost the challenge!" "Wait, but what about Marinette and Lucy?" Lindsay asked. "Oh, those two got here too. They're just helping Chef in the kitchen making breakfast as we speak." Chris said, pointing to the main lodge. The Screaming Gophers sighed in relief, knowing that the two were okay and they didn't lose the challenge either. Chris continued. "All right, Killer Bass, one of your fishy butts is going home. Gophers, as the two are done helping Chef, you're going on an all-expense-paid trip to the Tuck Shop!" The Screaming Gophers cheered while the Killer Bass gasped and then glared at the duo.

After that and seeing the Screaming Gophers celebrate their victory, they watch the elimination ceremony begin. "You've all cast your votes. The camper who does not receive a marshmallow must immediately hit the Dock of Shame, grab the Boat of Losers, and get the heck out of here. And you can't come back. Ever...Now, I can see you're all tired, so tonight, I'll just throw them to you. Savvy?" Chris then starts to throw the marshmallows to the campers who are safe. "Courtney. Duncan. Bridgette. D.J.. Harold. Geoff. Tyler." Which then leaves Katie and Sadie. "Ladies. This is the final marshmallow of the evening...Sadie."

Meanwhile, in another location, there is nowhere that no one is even aware of...

"Of course. I will let him know. Thank you." the person on the phone then hung up. The person then watches the episode, the second person taped, and they both watch as Lucy forgives Duncan's apology for bringing up the so-called 'Former Country Idol Chase Nightmare' debacle. "Hey, you're lucky I had my essential oils on me, or else I would've brutalitied you into a pulp." "She's still using the same slang from back then." the first person said. "She is." the second one said. The second one then turned to the first person. "Any luck?" they asked. "They said they will let the four know and see what they will do." the second person smiled. "Perfect."

Desc Prologue Get to Know My OC Chpt 1 Reactions Pt 1 Chpt 2 Reactions Pt 2 Chpt 3 Reactions Pt 3 Chpt 4 Reactions Pt 4 Chpt 5

20 notes · View notes