Aftermath - Ten Years Later
is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction by AnUnknownPerson
After Marinette has enough of Lila and her classmates's bullying, she decides to finally expose them as the bullies they are to the whole city of Paris. Lila is arrested, her classmates face retribution, Marinette becomes a successful designer... Ah, how boring, we already know how it went.
BUT!
What happened to the class after they were exposed? Have they moved on from the past? Are they still the same people they were as ten years ago?
Only one way to find out.
This fic contains examples of:
- Above the Influence: During their first meeting in years, Nino finds Alya so dead drunk she's basically disconnected from reality. Instead of taking advantage of it, he saves her from two molesters and carries her to his apartment to let her sleep it off.
- Accomplice by Inaction: Juleka and Adrien are treated as such in the bullying campaign against Marinette. This is brought up in the narrative for Juleka's chapter.She was too shy and afraid of speaking up. But an enabler is considered an accomplice so she was attacked by the people as much as her other classmates.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Lila became much more curvaceous and tall during her imprisonment due to a growth spurt. It's actually a curse in disguise, since it only made her life more terrible.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Chloé treats Sabrina even worse than canon by making her do a lot of chores while wearing a skimpy maid outfit with fake dog ears, tail and even a collar.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: Nino and Alya broke up before the events of the fic since the latter used to get angry at the former retaliating. Years later, they meet and become friends again. In the final chapter, the two tell Adrien they are thinking of getting back together.
- Adapted Out: Season 5 is explicitly stated to not be canon to the fanfic's events, since the author had no idea how to write the characters otherwise.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Marinette visits Lila, the latter has some questions to ask as to whether or not she's actually moved on."Do you really think you moved on from me? From your classmates? From Adrien?"
- Benevolent Boss: The boss at the bar Alya works with may be tough, but he does look out for her.
- Big Damn Heroes: A guard that finished his rounds early caught an inmate trying to rape Lila and immediatelly called reinforcements.
- Blessed with Suck: Lila's growth spurt made her tall, attractive and curvaceous but it actually made her life even harder. She started to get hungry really easily and she had to endure it since the guards would never give an inmate more food, her breasts became so heavy that it caused her severe back pains until she put on some muscle, her suddenly increased height caused her to stumble a lot (including constant nausea for a while), and her being so attractive made other inmates want to rape her, with one almost managing to.
- Break the Cutie:
- Juleka was heavily bullied because of her Accomplice by Inaction role in bullying Marinette to the point she becomes an hikikomori and never leaves her room, only when everyone is sleeping.
- Rose and her mother were told by the doctors that Rose's illness was untreatable, causing both to be crushed by stress. When they are told by a remorseful doctor that her illness can actually be cured, and they were lied to the whole time, the woman reaches her Rage Breaking Point while Rose goes into a Heroic BSoD.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Myra treats Lila extremely harshly while in prison but the reason for it is to toughen them up since Lila would easily end up dead on their own and with time the two become friends.
- Deconstruction Fic: The whole fanfic can be read as a Deconstruction of Salt Fics. It literally destroys what salt fics tend to do to the classmates in punishing them harshly by showing just how much their lives have been destroyed over people still recognizing them as Marinette's bullies and instead of never learning from their experience, the classmates do realise their mistakes and are willing to move on from the past. And considering what happens to each and every one of them, it's pretty much impossible to find satisfaction in their punishments.
- Demoted to Extra: Myléne and Alix do not have a chapter dedicated to them, and the former only appears in flashbacks while the latter is only mentioned once as being the only person aside from Chloé to side with Marinette.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Adrien has to go through hell after Lila's exposure and Gabriel's arrest, from having the stigma of being Hawk Moth's son and also an Accomplice by Inaction in Marinette's bullying campaign. But in the end, he manages to become a respectable politician and he's a favored candidate to become mayor. This also applies to the classmates themselves, who are heavily implied to finally leading happy lives by the end of the fic.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Nino meets Alya again, she's so drunk she's not even realizing she was being molested. Despite them breaking up because Alya was harsh on him, the first thing Nino does is chase her gropers off and take care of Alya until the next morning when she's in a better mindset.
- Face Death with Dignity: Myra doesn't cry when it's time for her execution, simply grinning and asking Lila to get out of prison for the both of them.
- Heel–Face Turn: Because of how much hellish her life became after being imprisoned, Lila understood that all the things she had done, both to Marinette and to get attention, just weren't worth the glorious punishment she received and grew much wiser, even if a bit crass.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: Max had his name changed so that he can attend classes and avoid harassment. Likewise, Nino covers his face with a mask when out, passing it off as a smelling problem.
- Humanizing Tears: Lila silenty cries as Myra is taken away to be executed, signifying that she genuinely saw her as a friend.
- It's Not You, It's Me: Nathaniel broke off his partnership with Marc because he couldn't give the latter's stories justice, as he was getting worse with his drawings. Before he told him, though, Marc believed it was because of him Nathaniel decided to stop working with him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While being particularly harsh about it, Lila makes several good points to Marinette in telling her that she hasn't moved on one bit from the past.
- Karma Houdini: Discussed. Natalie is shocked when Adrien allowed her to work for him, given that she's just as responsible as his father for the Akuma attacks in the past. Adrien states that he doesn't want to kick her down for what happened in the past.
- Kick the Dog: Chloé calls one of her maids (Sabrina) a "mutt she picked up from the street" with Marinette stating it to be harsh, but she otherwise shrugs it off. Her uncaringness definitely passes off as this.
- Last Request: Just before Myra is executed, she asks Lila that she gets out of jail for the two of them.
- My God, What Have I Done?: All the classmates deeply regret what they have done in the past to Marinette. Yes, even Lila.
- My Greatest Failure: Luka's is to not having been there for Juleka when she was bullied. When Jagged finally manages to bring Juleka out of her room, Luka breaks out crying and apologizes to her.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Even after a decade, no one has forgiven Lila or Marinette's classmates for the bullying and lies they spread around.
- Posthumous Character:
- André Bourgeois died of a cardiac arrest before the events of the fic and the only consideration of him are mostly Sabrina's mulling.
- Lila's cellmate, Myra, is exclusively seen in flashbacks since she has been executed four years before the events of the story.
- Rage Breaking Point: Rose's mother goes ballistic when it's revealed that the doctors lied to her about Rose's illness being incurable.
- Time Skip: As the title reads, the story takes place 10 years after Lila was arrested, Marinette is famous, and her classmates were left to deal with the aftermath of their ignorance.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After all the humiliation Sabrina went through for years, the final chapter has her in the care of Adrien who is a much more benevolent boss than Chloé.
- Took a Level in Badass: Due to Myra's ruthless training, Lila became much tougher in order to survive while in prison. She even manages to kick down an inmate that was trying to punch her.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Marinette is shown to be too invested in their new life and became extremely bitter towards their former classmates to the point they basically visit Lila just to gloat at their face. Ironically, This pushes Marinette to Take A Level In Kindness.
- Took a Level in Kindness: All the classmates that appear (barring Chloé) understand that their bullying was very wrong and are now definitely wiser. Inverted for Marinette, who Took a Level in Jerkass, but after confronting Lila one last time, she plays this straight and during her encounter with Adrien, it's shown that she took Lila's words to heart.
- Training from Hell: Myra pulls Lila through this so that they can survive the toxic atmosphere of being in jail.
- Walking the Earth: Nathaniel leaves Paris due to people's toxicity and his own problems, becoming a rather famous wandering artist. He later encounters Marc, who also ended up leaving Paris for the same reasons.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ms. Bustier is never mentioned in the story so what happened after Lila's lies were exposed is left unclear.
