Just Rewards and Just Deserts
One week later, Marinette overhears her mother commenting on how somebody seemed to be following her, wearing a ridiculous costume with a deerstalker cap. Juleka warns her that Alya and the rest of the class seem to be planning something, and agrees to go meet up with them to learn what's going on.
The group meets up outside of school, unable to use the study hall like they'd originally planned. Rose wonders why Ms. Bustier left; realizing that she was gone on the day they found out what happened, Sabrina explained that she and Principal Damocles had turned the spare art room into a 'quiet space' for Lila, using money meant to help disabled students to cover the cost. But since there was no record of any of Lila's supposed disabilities, the school board investigated the matter, believing that they misappropriated the funds. So Ms. Bustier was fired, the Principal is being pressured to quietly step down at the end of the school year, and their new teacher refuses to let them goof off and play around like they used to.
Since they were akumatized so often, and Marinette officially cut ties with them and transferred out, the rest of the class has languished under clouds of suspicion and distrust. However, Alya and Adrien continue to insist that she'll forgive them soon enough. They just have to force the matter, which is why they're targeting her parents. The plan is to ambush them and plead their case, outlining all the things that Lila stole from them.
One by one, each of them describes how Lila sabotaged their dreams, taking their hard work and selling it to the highest bidder. Several of their reputations have been ruined to the point that they've been banned from places they once loved, or planned on attending or working at someday. Alya even lost the Ladyblog, along with her brand-new computer, as Lila got into her account and deleted it.
Sabrina then reveals their secret weapon. She accessed her father's files and copied everything pertaining to Adrien's case, including transcripts of the interviews Lila gave. By looking through them, they hope to ferret out all the lies she told so they can prove them.
However, they wind up getting sidetracked by Alix discovering Adrien's testimony that he knew about Lila the whole time. He frantically tries to downplay this, to no avail — all of them were seriously hurt by how she strung them along, and the revelation that he stood by and let it all happen infuriates everyone. He's ultimately asked to leave, as none of them want to hear his pithy excuses anymore.
A few more weeks go by. Marinette's designing career is starting to take off, and her efforts to help repair Chloé and Audrey's relationship are paying off as well. While Alya and the rest of the class went through with their plan to badger the Dupain-Chengs, it backfired spectacularly, getting them banned from the Le Grand Paris. Kagami also took evidence of their harassment right to their parents, shutting it all down.
Team Miraculous has expanded, with Jean, Aurore, Mireille and Ondine becoming the Monkey, Dragon, Horse, and Turtle bearers... along with Chloé getting a second chance with Pollen under a new identity. Rose also tentatively reaches out to Marinette, starting the slow and delicate process of rebuilding their friendship from scratch.
Meanwhile, Adrien sulks in his new apartment... which, ironically, was Marinette's old room. His aunt Amelie has become his new legal guardian, and has forced him into seclusion for his own safety, making him continue his schooling online. He laments his lot in life, wondering how everyone could have abandoned him like this.
Plagg picks apart his argument, pointing out all the ways he failed to keep up his end of the bargain. He refused to take his duties as Chat Noir seriously, expecting Ladybug to pick up his slack and 'fix everything' with her Lucky Charms. He enabled bullies like Chloé and Lila to do as they pleased, standing by and letting them hurt others. Karma came for him, and the best thing he can do is accept his new lot in life and adjust as best he can.
...But that's not good enough for Adrien. Desperate, he decides to use the one thing he's got left: his alter ego. Nobody knows he's Chat Noir. If he can just score a win as him, like by taking down Mayura whenever she finally comes out of hiding, he can make everybody love him again, get the money he needs and get out of Paris, tracking down Lila to take his revenge. If he gives it a few years, surely Marinette will realize how much she needs him and welcome him back with open arms...
And his opportunity is coming quickly, as Nathalie has scraped together the resources she needs to finally launch her counterattack.
This chapter contains examples of:
- Accomplice by Inaction: The rest of the class learns how Adrien stayed silent about Lila until after he was victimized, watching all of them get swindled for several months. Understandably, they're rather less than thrilled about it.
- All for Nothing: Alya laments that everything she did for her Ladyblog, including getting hit by various akumas while Going for the Big Scoop, was rendered pointless when Lila deleted the blog and everything on it.
- All Take and No Give:
- Alya, Adrien and the majority of their classmates intend to force Marinette back into this toxic dynamic, having grown so accustomed to exploiting her generosity that they're convinced she owes them.
- Plagg notes how Adrien's 'friendship' with everyone worked this way. While more than happy to spend time together and hang out, he wasn't willing to do any favors for them, or look out for their best interests. He took their support completely for granted.
- The Atoner:
- Chloé has continued her efforts to improve, such as apologizing to the Dupain-Chengs and volunteering to work for them, along with kickstarting an investigation by the school board that got Ms. Bustier and Principal Damocles kicked out of their jobs.
- Rose starts the process of rebuilding her relationship with Marinette, having finally recognized what she did wrong. She's also taken her own initiative to improve, such as looking into doing fundraising for actual charities and making amends with her aunt after losing a paperweight she made to Lila.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Adrien complains that he's not getting the respect he deserves after everything he did as Chat Noir. Plagg deconstructs his arguments, pointing out how little he actually did when it came down to it.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Nino is stung to learn that his 'best friend' let him fall for Lila's claims. The rest of the class feels the same way.
- Fair-Weather Friend: While most of Marinette's former classmates have retained this status, they all chose to avert this when it came to Adrien, sticking by his side and continuing to support him in the face of the public's growing scorn and distrust. This only serves to make it sting all the harder when they learn that he was a False Friend the whole time.
- Financial Test of Friendship: Played for Dramatic Irony. Aside from Marinette and Chloé, all of Adrien's classmates have continued supporting him after he lost any access to his family's fortune. Then they learn about his Betrayal by Inaction.
- Foil:
- Both Chloé and Adrien were Spoiled Brats who grew up accustomed to the privilege they were born into. Both have faced scorn for their misdeeds, and ignored the backlash. However, Chloé had a Jerkass Realization and has been working to change her ways, while Adrien continued the same behavior even in the face of mounting evidence that the world wasn't working the way he wanted it to.
- Rose serves as one to both Juleka and Adrien. While Juleka was bothered by the classes' behavior from the start, Rose didn't see anything was wrong until much later, being just as cheerfully oblivious as Adrien. Once it sinks in for her, however, Rose immediately takes the initiative to make amends with Marinette, as well as finding other ways to atone. Adrien, meanwhile, has no intention of apologizing, continuing to blame everyone and everything else for his problems.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- The account Adrien gave to the police comes back to haunt him when Alix reads his testimony and discovers that he claimed to have known about Lila all along.
- Alya's efforts to go over Marinette's head and have the Dupain-Chengs pressure their daughter into forgiving them just gets the class busted for harassing her family, along with getting them all grounded.
- Alya also harassed anyone who reposted any of her videos and other content from the Ladyblog. After its deletion, that leaves her with no way of recovering any of her work.
- Hourglass Plot:
- Alya and the rest of the class find themselves being ignored and shunned by Marinette in much the same way they treated her before. The effect is amplified since the public knows that Marinette is Ladybug, making them question why she's avoiding her former classmates so much.
- Adrien now lives in what used to be Marinette's old room, bitter over how his fortunes have soured, while Marinette continues to enjoy her Karmic Jackpot.
- Hypocrite: Alya and most of the class grouse about Marinette ignoring their efforts to reach out and reconnect... much like how they ignored her in favor of Lila. Also, despite expecting Marinette to let all of Alya's mistakes against her slide, Alya declares her intention to hold Marinette's slowness to forgive over her head forever once they 'make up'.
- Incredibly Obvious Tail: Nino put on a jacket, fake glasses, and deerstalker cap to follow Marinette's parents. He thought it was an amazing disguise. They both saw him and thought he looked nuts.
- Internal Reveal:
- Marinette hears that Chloé drew attention to how Ms. Bustier and Principal Damocles catered to Lila's nonexistent disabilities, something which surprises her, as Chloé hadn't told her about any of it.
- Alix finally admits that she was meant to be Bunnyx.
- The whole class learns that Adrien told the police that he knew what Lila was doing the whole time.
- Ironic Echo: Marinette previously noted while staying at the Le Grand Paris that the closet in her room there was bigger than her old room. Adrien, now staying in her old place, complains that it's smaller than his old closet.
- It's All About Me:
- The class. Aside from Rose, Juleka, and Chloé, they continue to prioritize concern for themselves over concern for the person they hurt while demanding any issues she has with them be put aside, take absolutely no accountability for their own actions and choices, and think that if they emphasize how much they're suffering because of Lila, Marinette will have to help them, despite the fact that they all ignored Marinette when she was the one suffering because excluding her seemed more personally beneficial. They further discuss Marinette like she's the one who has to apologize for the distance between them and treat the only one among them who shows concern for Marinette's feelings like she's a traitor to their side. Naturally, Marinette hearing about this just reinforces her unwillingness to give them the time of day.
- Ironically, Adrien pulls the same argument on them and they're not having it. He asks them to put aside how he's wronged them because he's personally suffering now and needs their help; they turn him away and then go back to plotting the above scheme to make Marinette help them.
- It Was a Gift: Alix reveals that the expensive skates she lost to Lila were a birthday present from her father, meaning that contrary to Adrien's assumption, she can't just replace them.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite their own entitlement, the class's outrage at Adrien upon learning how he left them in the dark is perfectly understandable and justified.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Alya and most of the class latched onto Lila in hopes of using her connections to their advantage, getting their names out there and making it big. Instead, Lila directly sabotaged their chances of achieving their goals and dreams.
- Ms. Bustier and Principal Damocles never fact-checked or followed up on any of Lila's disability claims, which comes back to haunt them when they don't have any paperwork to show the school board once they investigate the matter.
- Adrien let his classmates get conned for several months. This costs him his friendships with everyone once they find out.
- Alya and her co-conspirators bring another round of this down upon their heads with their campaign of harassment against the Dupain-Chengs, which only serves to get them into deeper trouble with their own parents.
- Liar Revealed: It's now clear to the whole class that Lila truly was deceiving them all along, stringing them along with promises that were Too Good to Be True. Then they learn that Adrien, the resident "golden boy of Paris", was effectively lying to them as well.
- Mundane Utility: Bunnyx abused her Miraculous Time Travel abilities to pop back and chat with her past self, offering her tips on how to avoid minor issues like wardrobe malfunctions or ensuring that she studies for upcoming tests.
- Never My Fault:
- Alya and most of the class blame Lila for everything that went wrong. After learning about Adrien's inaction, they start blaming him as well.
- Alix also blames Marinette for not warning them that they could lose access to 'their' Miraculouses if they weren't careful. When Rose points out that Marinette might not have thought she'd have to warn them to behave, Alix cuts her off with a glare while demanding to know whose side she's actually on.
- Adrien continues to insist that he hasn't done anything to deserve his current misfortune, even after hearing how much his friends suffered as a result of Lila's deception.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Lila accessed the Ladyblog's administrative account and deleted it (presumably to remove the videos showing her lying about being Ladybug's friend), and stole Alya's backup drive for good measure. Since Alya went after anyone who reposted any of her content before, she's got no way of restoring any of it now.
- Off to Boarding School: Amelie makes clear that if Adrien lets his grades slip too far, she'll ship him off to Military School.
- Oh, Crap!: Adrien realizes just a moment too late that the police transcripts Sabrina brought include things he really doesn't want the others to see.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Alya states that she's going to tease Marinette and hold the fact she was so slow to forgive them over her head once they reconcile.
- Playing Sick: Alix reveals that she skipped a major skating competition which she had qualified for, one that could have gotten her scholarships and sponsors, because Lila claimed to be very ill and needed Alix to take care of her. Given what they now know about her, though, Alix realized that Lila was never sick; she just was worried that Alix might get close to some of the judges (whom Lila had lied about knowing) and would learn Lila had made stuff up. As such, Lila pretended to be sick to force Alix out of the competition and keep her away from the judges.
- Plot Parallel: Adrien's relationship with his classmate serves as a mixture of their relationships with Marinette and Lila:
- Much like the whole class took Marinette's generous nature for granted, becoming so accustomed to her going out of her way to support and do favors for them that they began exploiting her kindness, Adrien was similarly All Take and No Give with his "friends". He also encouraged them to take their "everyday Ladybug" for granted; after all, he saw absolutely nothing wrong with his behavior or theirs.
- This also meant that Adrien was a False Friend stringing them along much like Lila, being All Take and No Give with no intention of ever repaying their kindness. But while Lila was able to escape being directly confronted by all of the classmates she hurt, Adrien isn't as fortunate.
- Post-Support Regret: After firmly siding with Adrien in his time of need, even in the face of suspicion and condemnation, Alix and the rest of the class learn that Adrien had known that Lila was deceiving them the whole time and hadn't said anything until he was victimized. They immediately regret their loyalty, realizing that he had never reciprocated.
- Riches to Rags: Aunt Amelie forces Adrien to live in more modest conditions than he's used to, staying in Marinette's old room and taking classes online. Thanks to his father, he has no way of accessing the money he made as a model until he's a legal adult.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
- Lila conned Nathaniel into giving her extra passes to the Louvre and other art galleries, which she then sold to others. One of the rich patrons who bought one of these passes proceeded to throw a fit when he wasn't allowed to get as close as he wanted to the artwork, culminating in him throwing wine onto a Veronese painting in a fit of pique.
- Thanks to Lila copying Sabrina's list of all the contacts she and Chloé had made and selling the information online under Sabrina's name, Sabrina now has a lot of powerful enemies who are more than willing to use their influence to crush her in this fashion. For instance, her father warns her that practically every college is going to have a couple of big donors who will ensure she won't be able to get enrolled.
- Sabrina also uses her status as the daughter of a police officer to secretly pull copies of all the files connected to Adrien's case.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Adrien decides that after dealing with Mayura and getting the money he's 'owed' from the superhero fund, he's going to leave Paris behind, track down Lila, get his revenge, and spend a few years waiting for the heat to die down and Marinette to 'come to her senses'.
- Self-Serving Memory: According to Adrien, Marinette, Luka and Kagami 'hogged' the final battle with Hawkmoth, as opposed to him deciding not to go despite being warned well in advance and asked to come.
- Spanner in the Works: Sabrina bringing copies of the various police interviews related to Adrien's case, including his own testimony, which exposes his deceit to his classmates.
- Stealing the Credit:
- Lila convinced Nathaniel to give her some of his work, including the original copies, so that she could submit them to Marvel on his behalf. He later discovered another artist was passing his work off as their own, selling copies of it on their website.
- Lila also stole Markov's AI code and sold it to a Canadian team. Since they published first, Max is unable to claim his work as his own; even though Ms. Mendeleiev and his circle of friends know that Markov existed first, it would be their word against others.
- Many of Nino's custom mixes were sold to various DJs without his knowledge, with Lila getting all the money for them.
- Cruelly Averted in Sabrina's case: while Lila stole her list of contacts and sold the information online, she did so under Sabrina's name, so that all of the powerful people who were doxxed believe Sabrina was fully responsible.
- They Just Dont Get It:
- Alya and Adrien continue to insist that they know Marinette better than she knows herself, and that her rejection of them is just a temporary setback. Something she'll regret once she 'comes around'.
- Marinette has already made it quite clear to her former classmates that she's not obligated to help or forgive them, but is willing to give them another chance provided they admit their mistakes and work on their behavior. Yet aside from Chloé, Juleka and Rose, Alya, Adrien and the rest of the class remain either willfully blind or in denial, continuing to insist they aren't accountable for their own actions — that Lila's completely to blame. What's more, they're convinced that if they stress how much they're suffering thanks to Lila, Marinette will be obligated to help them. Even when Adrien pulls a similar plea after they learn the Awful Truth about his Betrayal by Inaction and they rightly reject him, they fail to recognize how they're doing the same thing with Marinette.
- Even after hearing all of his friends recount how much they were hurt by Lila's various schemes, Adrien downplays the severity of his Betrayal by Inaction, claiming that he "didn't want to cause any tension and unpleasantness over a few little lies" and asking to be Easily Forgiven.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By bringing copies of all of the files connected to Adrien's case, including transcripts of his interviews, Sabrina unintentionally exposes how he was aware of Lila's true character for months and never bothered warning anyone.
- Unwitting Pawn: Several of the classmates detail how Lila played them in this fashion.
- She convinced Nathaniel to give her passes to various art galleries across Paris, which she then sold to others. When one of her customers threw a tantrum over not being allowed to get too close to the artwork and damaged a painting, the pass was traced back to Nathaniel, who got banned as a result.
- She also got Max to delay publishing his work on Markov long enough to sell the code to somebody else, so that they got the credit instead.
- She tricked Alix and Kim into giving her thousands of dollars' worth of sports equipment under the pretense that she'd get them signed by various pro athletes, then sold them all off. This included a pair of skates that Alix had gotten for her thirteenth birthday.
- Lila stole the list of contacts Sabrina had gathered during her friendship with Chloé and sold all that information online... under Sabrina's name, so that she'd take all the heat for the leakage.
- Mylene used many of her own connections in the political and activist world to spread the word of Lila's Fake Charities, unaware that none of them were real. When the truth came out, her contacts assumed she was the one who'd made them up, resulting in her being blacklisted and banned.
- What You Are in the Dark: Chloé has been working to atone for her past mistakes without letting Marinette or anyone else know about it, showing how she's stopped doing things just for the sake of getting attention. Marinette is both surprised and impressed when she hears about this while listening in on the class meeting.
- With Us or Against Us: Most of the class takes this attitude, with Alix specifically attacking Rose for daring to suggest that they might be even partially at fault for what happened.
- You're Not My Father: Adrien declares to his aunt that he doesn't have to listen to her because she's not his mother. Amelie calmly replies that if he acts out or lets his grades online slip too far, she'll simply ship him off to Military School.
- Your Heart's Desire: Lila promised to help her friends achieve their greatest dreams, only to stab them in the back and sabotage their chances of actually making those dreams come true.
