I Can't Bear to Be Betrayed Again
After a quick trip to the Hall of Records, Luka shows Marinette where the Cesaires are living now: a quiet little apartment far removed from the penthouse they'd once had downtown. The humble surroundings make the warm reception they receive all the more startling, as Marlena and the whole family greet their unexpected guests. All save for Alya, and her little sisters ask if Marinette's there to help her.
They find Alya in her room, bleary eyes blinking behind chipped glasses. Once she registers who her guests are, she she welcomes them in — she's been texting Marinette for months, but she must have changed her number, so—
No, Marinette corrects her. She just muted her.
Flinching, Alya tries to appeal to her former best friend. She's got big problems — but those problems aren't hers, Marinette declares. She's just got a question for her, then they never have to see each other again. Stunned by her stony demeanor, Luka tries encouraging her to soften, but she refuses, saying she can't afford to show any sympathy.
Alya pleads with her: Marinette has to know she didn't really do 'that stuff' to the new Ladybug, right? She was set up! She—
But Marinette holds firm. Their friendship ended long before that incident; long before the world ever saw Alya and the new Ladybug on TV.
Dropping to her knees, Alya begs for clarification: at least tell her what she did wrong! But if she's asking that, then that's just proof that she never really cared about her 'bestie' at all. So Marinette declares, even as Luka reaches out to her, gently encouraging her to clear the air so they can move forward.
So she does. Alya betrayed her, in the worst way possible.
Is this about Lila? Absolutely not! She was Ladybug, Marinette angrily reminds her; she had far more important things to deal with than her classmates treating Lila's tall tales like gospel truths! No, Alya's betrayal had nothing to do with Lila and everything to do with how she told Nino that she was Rena Furtive.
But why is that such a big deal, she wonders? Face flushing red, Marinette spells it out for her: for a year and a half, she'd kept her own identity secret. Spent all that time lying to everyone, breaking promises, canceling plans, sacrificing her social life for the sake of ensuring that nobody else knew she was Ladybug. Because she couldn't risk it. She couldn't risk Hawkmoth learning who she was by akumatizing somebody she'd trusted.
She put that faith in Alya. And Alya didn't even last two weeks before she blabbed, sharing her own secret identity with Nino. Something that could have led Hawkmoth straight to Alya, and through her, to Marinette. And it wasn't as though Nino had a shining track record of avoiding akumatization, or even keeping secrets.
Still, everyone makes mistakes. But as Marinette coldly reminds Alya, she wasn't allowed to make those kind of mistakes — one slip-up on her end would have meant the end of the world as they knew it. As eager as Alya had been to help out, Marinette had hoped she'd take the responsibility seriously, only to be let down.
Despite all this admonishment, Alya pleads with Marinette to hear her out, insisting that the new Ladybug set her up. Marinette's sudden retirement seemed incredibly suspicious, especially since she'd started avoiding Alya around that time, so she'd started chasing down every rumor she could. Finally, she came into contact with somebody claiming to be part of the Order of the Guardians, who convinced her that he wanted to help take 'the imposter' down.
With his aid, she snuck into a warehouse that was supposedly the heroes' secret base. There, she discovered Chat Noir sleeping in a cage, so heavily locked that she couldn't free him. Then an akuma alert went off on her phone, and she noticed some Chat Noir costumes on a rack nearby... so she disguised herself and ran to the scene, hoping to throw Ladybug off by having her 'partner' unexpectedly show up.
But the plan blew up in her face. As Alya tried getting footage, Ladybug treated her like the real Chat Noir... until Music Band-It attacked the powerless reporter and she screamed for help. Then she leapt in, shielding her at her own expense — though Alya insists the blow was faked. After the battle, her phone was confinscated, and the superheroine limped about while entreating the public to avoid getting involved in akuma fights, while making it sound as though Alya was trying to unmask her.
The public backlash was immense. Labeled "Hawkmoth's sidekick," Alya was pulled out of school, and both of her parents had to publically denounce her at press conferences just to keep their jobs. Their address was leaked, forcing them to move... and Nino's family moved away to give their son a fresh start, without people knowing they used to date.
All she wants is for Marinette to publically declare her innocence. Nobody will listen to Alya, but surely they'll listen to her. She doesn't even have to speak as Ladybug; she was Multimouse, after all!
But Marinette refuses. Even if Alya's telling the truth, she declares, that doesn't make this her problem to solve.
Stunned, Luka asks Alya for a moment alone with his girlfriend. But even his words won't move her, even as he offers an alternative: if Multimouse can vouch for her, then so can Viperion in Multimouse's stead. What's more, he can try to smooth things over with the new Ladybug, reframe things so that they can affirm that there's no proof Alya was working with Hawkmoth, in order to defuse the mob. That would lock Alya on 'her side', but her investigation has already reached a dead end, so that seems a small price to pay.
Before they leave, Luka finally asks if she had anything to do with the rumors of him supposedly knowing who the original Ladybug was. Alya insists she hadn't known, and hasn't left her apartment in the last two months. Plus, she's only able to use social media anonymously; she can't talk to anyone as herself anymore.
As they walk out, Marinette declares that she's tired... but despite Luka offering to take her home, she decided to stick with him. Though she admits that she's got some kind of horrible feeling about Adrien that she can't seem to shake, even though she can't think of anything specific he might have done to cause it...
In her letter to Luka, Marinette confessed how she'd previously trusted Alya with her secrets. The relief she'd felt in having a confidant at last, somebody who could take up the mantle when she was away. Even after Rena Rouge was exposed, she decided to trust her with the Fox, to make her a permanent hero as Rena Furtive.
...And she told Nino. Putting her secret identity and life at risk. Hawkmoth wouldn't even have to send an akuma after her; he could have her kidnapped, set fire to her home, have her beaten bloody, ripping the Earrings right out from her ears... but apparently, none of that mattered to her 'bestie'.
So she pleaded with Luka: even if he hated her for how she'd abandoned Paris, and never wanted to see her again, could he please ensure that she didn't become friends with Alya again? She couldn't take that kind of betrayal. Not again.
This chapter contains examples of:
- All for Nothing:
- Alya revealed the existence of Rena Furtive to Nino in hopes of saving her relationship with her boyfriend. Not only did this destroy her bond with Marinette, who no longer wants anything to do with her, but their relationship fell apart anyway when the Lahiffes moved away.
- She also complains that if Luka convinces the new Ladybug to publicly forgive her, she won't be able to continue her investigation into the supposed hero's corruption. Never mind that she hit a wall long ago; she's deeply unhappy about the prospect of not having anything to show for her efforts after so much time.
- Brutal Honesty: Marinette pulls no punches with Alya, starting with correcting her misconception about why she couldn't get in contact with her. No, she didn't change her number; she muted and blocked Alya.
- Clear Their Name: Since Alya's reputation is completely shot, she begs Marinette to help clear the cloud of suspicion hanging over her by vouching for her, either as the former Ladybug or as Multimouse. Luka eventually volunteers to speak on her behalf as Viperion.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: After Ladybug was seemingly injured saving Alya from the Music Band-It, she made a big show of begging the public not to get involved with akuma fights 'just to get clips for social media', along with reminding them that her secret identity was a matter of national security. The backlash was so severe that her parents had to pull her out of school, along with being forced to denounce their own daughter just to keep their jobs. Then they got doxxed and had to move.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: As Marinette notes, Nino was akumatized into Rocketear after seeing Alya briefly talking with Chat Noir, instantly leaping to the conclusion that the only reason he'd have to talk to the Ladyblogger was because she had to be cheating on him.Marinette: He saw a two-minute chat between you and Chat Noir which he couldn't even hear, and that got him angry enough to become akumatized. What would have happened the next time you talked to some boy for a couple minutes?
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Alya.
- The moment Marinette finally tells her point-blank why she's so upset with her — that she told Nino that she was Rena Furtive — Alya promptly asks "Well, yeah, but why do you care?"
- Once Marinette finishes ranting about how much Nino sucked at keeping secrets secret, Alya declares that "Everyone makes mistakes!" and asks for forgiveness.
- Fatal Flaw: Alya's impulsiveness, tendency to leap to conclusions and stubborn pursuit of 'the truth' all contributed to her downfall.
- Going for the Big Scoop: Trusting somebody who claimed to be affiliated with the Order of the Guardians, Alya snuck into a warehouse that was supposedly a 'secret base' for the heroes, without any backup. She then decided to throw herself into the middle of an akuma attack while disguised as Chat Noir, despite not having any Miraculous powers or other forms of protection. This completely blew up in her face.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Marinette's unsympathetic response to Alya's plight is brutal, but she brings up some valid points:
- Marinette kept her Secret Identity hidden for a full year and a half before she finally cracked under all the pressures of being Ladybug and turned to Alya as her Secret-Keeper, hoping for a confidant she could trust to take matters just as seriously. Alya barely lasted two weeks before outing herself to her boyfriend.
- As harsh as she was on Nino for all the times he got akumatized, she does highlight how easily he lost control of his emotions, along with how he leapt to all the wrong conclusions regarding Alya and Chat Noir.
- She also points out that once again, she's being expected to leap in and solve somebody else's problem, with no regard for how that might impact her. Which is exactly the sort of thing that led to her retirement in the first place, as she was constantly expected to shoulder responsibility and clean up everybody else's messes.
- The fact that Alya needs to have everything extensively explained to her also seems to support Marinette's insistence that her so-called 'bestie' never actually cared about how she felt, or spared much thought to how her actions might impact her.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Thanks to Marinette/Ladybug, Alya rarely had to deal with any serious, long-term consequences for her actions, and she tended to brush off the ones that remained, along with downplaying the impact her choices had on Marinette. All of that changes after the Music Band-It.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Alya frequently leapt before she looked, 'trusting her instincts' no matter how often they led her astray and brushing off the fallout from her actions as "No big deal" or "Not my fault". All these bad habits worked against her when she tried investigating the new Ladybug, culminating in a disastrous debacle where she threw herself into an akuma battle while disguised as Chat Noir, without any powers, protection or plan beyond trying to expose the heroine. This resulted in her reputation being completely ruined.
- Alya was also careless with her secrets, leaving Marinette terrified of the very real possibility that Hawkmoth could use Alya to discover Marinette's secret identity. The public turned against Alya primarily because they believed she intended to expose the new Ladybug's secret identity to the world — and to Hawkmoth — all for the sake of an 'exclusive scoop'.
- The main reason Alya betrayed her trust and told Nino about Rena Furtive was because she wanted to ensure being a superhero wouldn't damage their relationship. After her reputation was destroyed, she wound up losing him anyway, since his parents moved away to protect their son from being slandered right alongside her.
- Long-Distance Relationship: After the Lahiffes moved away, Nino and Alya tried to make one work, but couldn't sustain it. The fact that his family had moved in the first place specifically to give him a clean break away from her and ensure he wouldn't suffer for being associated with her didn't help.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Avoiding this was why Alya decided to reveal Rena Furtive's existence to Nino after the Rocketear debacle. Given how Marinette had been dealing with how Keeping Secrets Sucks for well over a year before she finally trusted Alya to be her Secret-Keeper, she's enraged by how quickly and easily Alya folded under the pressure.
- Misplaced Retribution: Not only was Alya framed and falsely accused of working with Hawkmoth, Nino's family feared that he'd be punished for dating her, spurring them to move away.
- Not Helping Your Case:
- Alya's insistence that she doesn't know why Marinette is so upset with her is bad enough. Her clueless response when Marinette does explain only makes matters worse, especially when she continues to insist that "Everyone makes mistakes!"
- The fact that she pulled out her phone and was filming during the Music Band-It incident, combined with how she'd dressed up as Chat Noir, also helped convince the public that she was there for all the wrong reasons.
- Not Your Problem: Marinette bluntly informs Alya that her problems are hers to deal with, not Marinette's.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Alya insists that she honestly has no idea why Marinette keeps saying she betrayed her, Marinette declares that's just proof of how little Alya really cared about or understood her. After revealing just what she's so upset about, she then extensively spells out why.
- Red Herring: After the Soundstealer incident, Bob Roth claimed that he'd never hired the guy. Alya spent a solid week digging into that, only to learn that Roth was lying — the sound tech was an illegal migrant, one of many whom he'd hired specifically so he could pay them practically nothing and withhold their wages.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: While Alya found the new Ladybug to be highly suspicious from the start, it was largely because she'd been caught off-guard by Marinette's decision to retire. She also assumed the new Ladybug had something to do with how Marinette was avoiding her, missing (or ignoring) all the signs that there might be more personal reasons for that.
- Social Media Before Reason: Invoked by the new Ladybug after the Music Band-It debacle, as she asks the public to avoid getting involved with akuma attacks 'just to get clips for social media'.
- Starting a New Life: The Lahiffes moved away in order to protect their son from the massive backlash against Alya, as they feared he'd suffer Misplaced Retribution for dating "Hawkmoth's sidekick".
- Stopped Caring: Marinette declares that it only took a couple of weeks for her to completely give up on convincing anyone to listen to her warnings about Lila. Her lies were so completely over the top as to strain credibility far beyond its breaking point, and she had far more important matters to deal with as Ladybug. In fact, she declares that everyone hanging off Lila's every word and listening to all her nonsense made it easier for her to sneak out and deal with akumas.
- Taking the Bullet: Played With; when Alya showed up to the Music Band-It fight disguised as Chat Noir, the new Ladybug wound up having to shield her from an attack. However, Alya insists that she was faking.
- Theory Tunnelvision: Alya immediately latched onto the idea that the new Ladybug was responsible for Marinette 'acting strangely', assuming that she'd been forced into retirement rather than doing so willingly. She also blamed the new Ladybug for how Marinette was avoiding her.
- This Is Unforgivable!: When Alya told Nino that she was Rena Furtive, she betrayed Marinette's trust, risking the possibility not just of Hawkmoth learning about Rena Furtive from Nino, but subsequently learning who Ladybug was from Alya. As far as Marinette's concerned, that's completely unforgivable.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: While her investigation up to that point led her into what she belatedly recognizes was likely a trap, it wasn't sprung until Alya decided that the most logical way to proceed was to grab one of the Chat Noir costumes and crash the fight with Music Band-It.
- Trust Password: Alya's online contact convinced her that they were a member of the Order by sharing 'insider information'. They not only knew Tikki's name, they also knew how much Tikki loves galette.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After spending their whole visit begging Marinette to help her out, Alya responds to Luka's proposal by griping about his methods: if he convinces the new Ladybug to tell her Cult of Personality to lay off, she won't be able to continue her investigation anymore! Luka has to get her to admit that said investigation hasn't been getting anywhere for her to reluctantly accept his plan.
- We Used to Be Friends: Marinette repeatedly makes clear that she no longer considers Alya to be her friend, much to Alya's dismay.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Following the Music Band-It fight, the new Ladybug dramatically limped around while pleading with the public about how they shouldn't interfere with akuma fights, making it appear that Taking the Bullet for Alya had nearly taken her out of the fight.
- You Know What You Did: When Alya pleads with her that she doesn't know what she did to upset her so much, Marinette counters that the fact she hasn't figured it out already is evidence of how little thought she ever spared to how her 'bestie' felt.
