Fanfic / Cut My Life Into Pieces, This Is My Last Resort

Marinette has reached the end of her rope. Hawk Moth is driving her overboard as Ladybug, and after three years Lila has finally managed to ruin her life and take all her friends. Desperate and exhausted, Marinette finally decides to take drastic measures; something’s gotta give, and that something can’t be Ladybug. Out of options, exhausted, and desperate, she decides to take her civilian self out of the equation for a while, but outside circumstances force her to put things into motion way before she’s ready. Now she has to try and soldier on to the end of her mission, despite the devastation she’s left in her wake…which for some reason seems to have hit Adrien and Chat Noir the hardest.

Cut My Life Into Pieces, This Is My Last Resort is a completed Miraculous Ladybug fanfic by Silver_fox_fyre.

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Cut My Life Into Pieces, This Is My Last Resort contains examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Lila to Adrien. Adrien even mentions being disgusted by her mere touch, only putting up with it for Marinette's sake. Naturally, this tolerance goes out the window once he learns what Lila did to her.
• Adaptational Karma:
  • Gabriel is defeated and turned over to police custody. Although, due to negotiating with Ladybug and Chat Noir to willingly turn himself in, they manage to get him a reduced sentence, and according to the author, Emilie eventually negotiates for him and Nathalie to be placed on house arrest after a few years' exceptional behavior, during which he reconciles with Adrien.
  • Lila is exposed, fired from Gabriel, turned over to the police for her illegal actions against Marinette and for willingly collaborating with Hawk Moth, and thoroughly humiliated by the end of the fic.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Chat Noir gives one of these to Marinette after learning she’s alive, and detransforms in the process.
• The Atoner: Several examples:
  • Adrien/Chat Noir becomes driven by guilt and grief to take down Lila at any cost for what she's done to Marinette.
  • Nino and Alya also become this after realizing that Lila lied to them. Alya is hit especially hard with this following her Akumatization into Truth Bomb and seemingly killing Marinette.
  • A villainous example. Gabriel resolves to atone for the mistake of Marinette's death... unfortunately, this still entails using the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous to Wish her back to life alongside Emilie.
• Attempted Homewrecker: Subverted. Lila illegally spoofs Marinette's phone to frame her as trying to take Nino from Alya to destroy her friendship with them. This temporarily works, and results in Alya's Akumatization into Truth Bomb.
• Bad Liar: Tom and Sabine. Their relatively controlled grief over their supposedly recently dead daughter is Adrien and Plagg's first hint that something isn't right about the whole ordeal.
• Batman Gambit: Hawk Moth manages to create rifts in Ladybug and Chat Noir's partnership by exploiting Chat's grief over Marinette by having Volpina create illusions of Marinette in pain and calling for him to save her. This nearly works in getting him Akumatized, and only fails because Marinette reveals herself to him as Multimouse.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Adrien's generally very pleasant and mild-mannered but when pushed to the point where he snaps becomes downright terrifying. And that's not even getting into his Secret Identity. This trope is in full effect when he discovers that Lila as Volpina had been torturing and gaslighting him with illusions of Marinette for over a week, causing him to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and beating her up to the point of almost killing her.
• Broken Pedestal: Ladybug becomes this to Chat Noir for failing to save Marinette and her constant lying. This culminates in Chat hitting his Rage Breaking Point and temporarily breaking off his partnership with Ladybug.
• Brutal Honesty: While Master Fu is kind and sympathetic towards Marinette, he's also upfront that any explanation Ladybug can give to Chat Noir for why the cure didn't resurrect Marinette will only hurt him.
• Cassandra Truth: Ladybug tells Chat Noir that Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste, but by this point, he's become so jaded about everything she says that he refuses to believe her. It takes Gabriel revealing himself to Adrien and asking for his help in retrieving the Miraculous for him to believe her.
• Celebrity Lie: Adrien's own experience with these is what led him to initially dismiss Lila's own lies as harmless. That is, until he learns about the full scope of what she did to Marinette. After which he changes his stance.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Chat Noir delivers one to Volpina and nearly kills her but for the intervention of Multimouse.
• Didn't Think This Through: Marinette really didn't consider the consequences that faking her own death would have on herself or the people around her. As while her parents are (mostly) in the loop, they're terrible liars, and the deception takes a toll on everyone involved, let alone those who aren't in the know, such as Adrien and Alya. It reaches a point where Nino tells Marinette after she reveals herself that he was seriously worried Adrien might end up Driven to Suicide from how depressed he looked.
• Disappointed in You: Nathalie has this reaction when Gabriel tells her that he's come too far to back out of his quest.
• Dramatic Irony: Chat Noir becomes barely able to tolerate Ladybug as a partner due to blaming her for not being able to bring back Marinette with her World-Healing Wave. The irony, of course, being that Ladybug is Marinette. It's summed up in Marinette's Inner Monologue after Marinette reveals herself to still be alive and she learns who he is.
  The rush of emotions she had felt in such a short span of time was overwhelming. Terror at the possibility of her partner being akumatized. Love, so much stronger than anything she could have imagined, when she had learned that both of the boys she loved were one and the same. Joy and excitement and disbelief upon discovering that he loved her back.
  Guilt, almost unbearable, at the fact that he loved her without knowing everything that she had done to him. He didn’t know that he also hated her. And she couldn’t tell him. He was in love with a lie.
  She was so happy, and she hated herself for it.
• The Dreaded: Chat Blanc is this to Marinette. To the point where she reveals herself as Multimouse to Chat Noir to prevent him from getting Akumatized.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It takes a lot of pain, blood, and tears, but ultimately Adrien and Marinette are finally able to put their pain behind them and look forward to their future together.
• Enemy Mine: Chloé helps Adrien, Alya, and Nino expose Lila due to Lila taking her place, and also because even she doesn't think Marinette deserved what Lila did to her.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all their faults, Gabriel and Nathalie truly love Adrien and will do anything to keep him safe.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Gabriel is horrified by Marinette's death, and takes steps to ensure none of his Akumas can ever truly harm civilians ever again. He also refuses to Akumatize Adrien.
• Faking the Dead: Deconstructed. The whole plot is set off when Marinette does this to fully commit to stopping Hawk Moth. However, the psychological implications are explored in agonizing detail. Marinette is burnt out and not thinking clearly when she comes up with this plan. And by the end, the stress and guilt have clearly taken a heavy toll on her, to say nothing of the toll it's taken on her friends and family.
• Guilt-Induced Nightmare: Adrien suffers from these regarding Marinette's death.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Adrien/Chat Noir has this mindset regarding Marinette's death, blaming himself for failing to save her and blaming Ladybug for failing to bring her back.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Downplayed, but Alya admits to finding Nino hitting his Rage Breaking Point with Lila's lies attractive.
• I've Come Too Far: Gabriel's torn up by the events of this fic, and at one point genuinely considers retiring, but ultimately decides that he's in too deep.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Lila endures a well-deserved Humiliation Conga in the events leading up to her Akumatization. First, she gets fired from Gabriel on the grounds of inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment, then the police find out that she illegally spoofed Marinette's phone to frame her as having an affair with Nino, then Adrien viciously chews her out and exposes her lies one after the other in front of the whole school and humiliates her. Then she willingly gets re-Akumatized into Volpina, only to later endure an absolutely brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Chat Noir, who's only barely stopped from killing her. And then, she's finally defeated along with the other villains and turned over to the police for willingly collaborating with Hawk Moth.
• Lie Detector: Truth Bomb's explosives flash green if the person she’s interrogating is telling the truth, but turn red if they're lying.
• Love Epiphany: Played for Drama. Chat Noir has one of these during Truth Bomb's attack. As Truth Bomb exposes him as a liar after he denies being in love with Marinette. And immediately afterwards, Marinette is seemingly killed by the bomb. As a result, he drives himself half-mad in his quest to get revenge on Lila and Hawk Moth for their roles in it.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Gabriel's regret over Marinette's death, while genuine, doesn't stop him from using it to play on Chat Noir's grief to try and Akumatize him.
  • Lila has spent two years slowly alienating Marinette's friends from her. By the start of the fic, all she has left outside of her parents, Fu, and the Kwamis are Adrien, Alya, and Nino. And she manages to turn Alya against her for a while afterwards.
• More Despicable Minion: Volpina to Hawk Moth and Mayura. While the latter two villains are higher ranked and more powerful than she is, they also have some standards and a conscience. And they sincerely care about Adrien. Volpina, by contrast, lacks any redeeming qualities to speak of, cares only about herself, and is motivated solely by petty revenge. Tellingly, while Hawk Moth and Mayura are horrified by the idea that they've accidentally killed someone, Lila is downright thrilled by the fact that her petty grudge got Marinette killed. And even mentions that her only regret is that she didn't do it herself.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Adrien is horrified upon hearing of Lila's ceaseless torment of Marinette and blames himself for telling her to Turn the Other Cheek.
  • Alya and Gabriel have this reaction when Alya's Akumatized form of Truth Bomb seemingly kills Marinette.
  • Marinette herself has one of these after seeing just how broken Chat Noir has become from her "death."
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Adrien's Rage Breaking Point with Lila, while satisfying and deserved, served as Hawk Moth's window of opportunity to re-Akumatize her into Volpina.
• Papa Wolf: Gabriel wastes absolutely no time in firing Lila the second he hears of her sexual harassment of Adrien.
• Plagued by Nightmares: Chat Noir is plagued by never-ending nightmares of Marinette's death, and her accusing him of killing her. This reaches a point where he admits that it's been a week since he last actually slept.
• Save the Villain: While no love is lost between Marinette and Lila, to put it lightly, Marinette still rushes to save her life from the enraged and revenge-fueled Chat Noir.
• Secret-Keeper: Master Fu serves as this to Marinette. Apart from Tikki, Mullo, and her parents, he's the only one who knows Marinette's still alive, and he's the only human character to know the full story.
• Shipping Torpedo: Lila manages to convince Alya that Marinette is an Attempted Homewrecker trying to steal Nino from her. This results in Alya's Akumatization into Truth Bomb.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • Truth Bomb only appears for a total of three chapters out of 36, and yet she unwittingly provides Marinette a window of opportunity to fake her death, thus kickstarting the fic's plot.
  • Another example is Mullo, who only appears for one scene, discounting Multimouse. It's her power that Marinette uses to fake her death; during Truth Bomb's attack, Marinette creates a clone of herself and sends it to die in the explosion, creating the illusion that she'd been killed
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Gabriel ends the story in prison, as opposed to dying from using the Wish.
  • A non-fatal example with Master Fu, as he keeps his memories and position as Guardian here.
  • Emilie is saved and woken up by the Order of the Guardians in Tibet.
• Super Mode: Halfway through the second act, Gabriel Akumatizes Nathalie into Catalyst to turn himself into Scarlet Moth.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • A one-sided example on Chat Noir's part, who's grown increasingly frustrated with Ladybug's lies and secrecy This leads to him temporarily breaking off his partnership with her after she claims that Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste.
    Chat Noir: I’ve had enough. If I want to talk, I will call you. Otherwise, unless there’s an akuma, you stay the hell away from me. We are finished.
  • A much straighter example is Hawk Moth and Volpina. Gabriel loathes her for her sadistic torment of an innocent girl and her harassment of Adrien, even flat-out calling her "repulsive and reprehensible." But this doesn't stop him from Akumatizing her and using her to to gaslight Chat Noir.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Chat Noir considers Ladybug lying to him about Marinette's death to be this. And even at the end of the fic, when everything becomes clear, Adrien makes it clear to Marinette that he's furious with her, and still hasn't forgiven her but he's still willing to try since he loves her.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Downplayed but present with Gabriel. While it's not enough to fully stop him from villainy, Marinette's death provides enough of a reality check for him to be more cautious with his Akumas. The impact it has on Adrien causes him to realize how awful of a father he's been, and causes him to commit to being a better parent to Adrien.
• Trauma Conga Line: The prologue is one for Marinette. The rest of the story is a long, drawn-out one for Adrien.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Nino, of all people is the one to give this to Marinette when all that she's done is out in the open. Specifically about how her actions affected Adrien.
  Nino: Mar, not to put too fine a point on it, but you don’t owe Alya and I anything. She’s right, we both fucked up big time and we’re both just happy and relieved that you’re okay. But… you do owe Adrien. An explanation, an apology, and frankly a little groveling if I had my way. You destroyed my boy, Mari. I’ve never seen him like he’s been these past couple weeks, and I can’t even tell you how worried I’ve been. Now, finding out that he’s Chat Noir…did you see the look on his face when you dropped your mask?
  Well, imagine that, but worse, for two weeks straight without a break. If he wasn’t falling asleep on his feet he was either crying or screaming at someone. I don’t think I saw him eat once at school, so I hope to god someone was forcing food into him at home. I was honestly waiting for the call that he’d hurt someone, or h-himself. Adrien was always on your side, Marinette, and he’s loved you for so much longer than either of you realized. What you did to him, it broke him. And now he knows that you could have put him back together at any time and you chose not to.
• Xanatos Gambit: Hawk Moth's Batman Gambit mentioned above doubles as this. If the Akumas he sends out as Scarlet Moth actually manage to take Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous, he wins. If they fail, they still serve their purpose as a diversion from Volpina. Volpina and Chat Noir's fight also counts. If Volpina manages to take his Miraculous, he wins. If she fails, she's angered him enough to become Akumatized, indirectly giving Hawk Moth his Miraculous and allowing him to use him against Ladybug. It fails, as Gabriel didn't expect Marinette to not actually be dead, and therefore able to calm Chat Noir down.

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