1. By Jagged Stone

Marinette's heart was breaking.

Lila had won.

It had been a slow, quiet, battle that Marinette hadn't even noticed was happening until it was too late.

|Far, far, too late.

Despite the seat snafu when Lila first returned to the school, everything pretty much carried on as usual. Lila tried the occasional big lie, like the time she manipulated her way into Adrien's home, but it never seemed to work out the way she wanted and the excitement surrounding the lie fizzled out quickly. What Marinette hadn't realised – because she was so fucking busy with homework, Ladybug duties, fashion commissions, and a never-ending sleuth of babysitting – was that Lila had been quietly undermining Marinette the whole time with subtle comments and difficult questions until all of her friends were well and truly against her.

They all surrounded her, not in a cheerful group of comradery like usual, but in a mob of anger and spitting accusations.

"I...I...I..." Marinette stammered uselessly as she felt her eyes burn with tears, "I don't know what you're talking about! I haven't done anything!"

"Of course not!" Alix snorted. "Because you're never here, are you Marinette?"

There was a loud angry buzz of agreement from the crowd.

Even Alya and Nino!

Who she has been constantly been there for by babysitting their bratty siblings the last few months. To point she knew more about what was going on in Chris and the twins' lives than she did about her own best friends.

"You guys!" Lila cried out in a sickly sweet voice as big, fake, tears, glittered in her eyes. "You shouldn't do this. Not for little old me! It isn't Marinette's fault that she's so clumsy and tripped into me!"

"Marinette isn't that clumsy," Max scowled, "in all her accidents she has never accidentally pushed someone down the stairs."

The implication that Marinette had purposely pushed Lila down the stairs was loud and clear.

An indignant burning rage swelled up within Marinette's chest. These people had known her since they were five. She had never hurt a fly on purpose before. The things she had done for them, helping them in their time of need, making them things for their birthday or as a favour for an event or just because, and the constant advice and encouragement she gave when she could have focused on her own life instead. God knows, her own life needed some focusing on with the piles of homework and commissions she needed to catch up on. And now, because some exotic liar has strolled in, they were abandoning her and accusing her of being a Chloe?!

What the hell?!

Marinette opened her mouth on the very verge of losing her temper when suddenly Adrien called out to her.

"MARINETTE!" He sounded terrified and desperate and for a horrible, sinking, moment Marinette feared that Hawk Moth had sensed her fury and despair and sent an Akuma after her. "WATCH OUT!"

Marinette didn't even have the chance to look up for the dark little butterfly when Adrien suddenly tackled her to the ground.

CRASH!

There was an odd, loud, sound of something large and heavy crashing to the ground, followed by a strange, tuneless, high trill of a piano, and a freaky splatter of something. Not that Marinette paid great attention to the noise around her, she was far too caught up in the burning sensation of having Adrien Agreste's body pressed up against hers, how his face – so beautiful – so close to her own that their noses touched and his warm breath mingled with her own, and how bewitching worry and concern looked in that shade of green.

Marinette's whole being tingled with giddiness until the suffocating silence around them made her disturbingly aware something was not right.

"...holy shit!" Kim choked out.

Adrien and Marinette struggled out of one another arms and turned to see the strangest, most horrifying, and yet most karmic thing Marinette had ever witnessed.

Lila had been crushed to death by a grand piano.

Yeah, that's right. A grand piano.

A GRAND PIANO?!

Where the hell did a grand piano come from?!

(Marinette was desperately fixating on this specific detail because she didn't want to think about how the mush before her feet that consisted of Lila's brains and blood looked eerily like strawberry jam...Marinette was never again going to eat strawberry jam.)

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" a panicked voice up above them cried out. "OH MY GOD THIS WAS NOT THE ROCK N' ROLL SCENE I HAD IN MIND!"

Marinette looked up the sky so abruptly that her neck clicked (as did everyone else's) and she was flabbergasted at the sight of Jagged Stone strapped to a chair that was tied by some ropes to a low flying helicopter. There were some frayed ropes before him which suggested that the grand piano had been similarly tied but the weight was, clearly, too much for the ropes and had snapped them thus the grand piano falling out of the sky and on top of Lila like an act of God.

Adrien had come just in time to save Marinette's life

It could have been her alongside Lila with her brains splattered out on the pavement.

The thought was nearly enough to make Marinette hyperventilate but judging by Jagged Stone's loud screams and rapid breathing there was already one person on the verge of a mental breakdown and Marinette couldn't add to it.

(She couldn't do much else either though as a pale Adrien kept a steel like grip on her as he held her close to him. She could feel the slight trembling in his arms around her that suggested he too was on a verge of a meltdown any moment as well and therefore couldn't bring herself to pull away as she leaned in slightly to comfort the shocked model.)

The rest of her classmates looked sickly pale and petrified as she felt.

"Jagged?!" Marinette shrieked. "What are you doing here?!"

"I heard you were being bullied by some liar called Leela or Layla or Lilac or something the other," Jagged replied loudly but numbly, his eyes were still glued before the crime scene he accidentally created, "I thought a concert in your honour in the sky would have cheered you up but I didn't think the logistics through properly...Oh God, what have I done?!"

Horrifying realisation that Lila had lied about Jagged and therefore most likely lied about every other damn thing in her life seemed to click within each and every one of Marinette's so called friends as their faces took a deadly pallor of guilt as well. "Marinette," Alya said softly, "Girl, I'm so sor-"

Marinette lifted a dismissive hand before she reluctantly pulled away from Adrien and walked away to comfort Jagged Stone.

(In the end, the whole world grieved when Jagged Stone was sentenced to prison for five years for manslaughter. The classmates of Marinette Dupain-Cheng were extra mournful at the loss of their friendship with Marinette, who while was polite and civil to them, never once again smiled warmly at them or invited them home or helped them with any problem no matter how small, or made them little gifts. Adrien had suffered the same fate briefly, but almost losing Marinette had been the wake up call he needed and the boy had owed up to his mistakes and proved to be the man Marinette always thought he would be.

They all moved on, almost forgetting Lila Rossi altogether.

However, ironically, Lila Rossi was eventually immortalised in a song by Jagged Stone eighteen months later when he came out of prison for good behaviour.

It was a rock n' roll ballad about Jagged's time in prison.

She was only referenced once.)

2. By Gabriel Agreste

Lila smirked.

She couldn't help but feel superiorly smug as she strutted across the foyer of the Agreste Mansion. One day this great big beautiful house and all of the money and power associated it with it would be all hers. As well as the beautiful prince safely ensconced in one of the bedrooms away from other girls like Kagami Tsurugi and Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Gabriel Agreste stood before her as stoic as ever but she was certain there was a glimmer of approval in his eyes as he nodded stiffly in greeting.

He didn't say anything when he turned away. He didn't have to because they have done this song and dance enough times for Lila to know he wanted her to follow him which she did without hesitation. The latest Akuma had failed again yesterday but Lila had been stirring things up and she was steadily getting to Marinette Dupain-Cheng like Gabriel Agreste asked her to. It's been months now and Lila has got to be closer to getting a reward.

She had been promised a date with Adrien weeks ago and it still hasn't happened yet!

It didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon once again. Lila scowled with displeasure as instead of letting her into a room with Adrien, Gabriel Agreste led her back into his office. Probably for another scolding.

Urgh.

It's not her fault that Ladybug and Marinette are both so annoyingly goody goody and irritably interfering.

"Mr Agreste!" Lila simpered, prepared to defend herself. "I know it feels like nothing is happening right but I can assure you that-"

Gabriel Agreste held up a hand which silenced Lila immediately. She knew better now to not talk when Gabriel Agreste did not want her to speak. "I have no doubt you have worked tirelessly on my behalf for selfless motivations, Miss Rossi," he said dryly, "which is why I wanted to show you something important."

Lila perked up with excited curiosity when Gabriel Agreste then revealed a secret passage. His assistant – the ever silent and disapproving Nathalie Sancoeur, who was the world's biggest bitch if you asked Lila – stood there with a carefully blank facial expression as Gabriel cordially invited Lila to step into the secret lift.

"I would be delighted to!" Lila cooed as she fluttered her eyelashes with an additional sickly sweet smile. It was totally worth lowering herself like that when Nathalie's eye twitched ever so slightly. Anything to get under Nathalie's skin and rub it in that snob's face. "Is this where you hide your butterflies?"

Gabriel smirked slightly, it was the most emotion he had shown since Lila arrived and she revelled in achieving this. She bets Marinette could never evoke such positive emotion from Gabriel Agreste. She would be greeted with disgust from the get go.

"You could say that," Gabriel murmured.

The elevator ride itself was long and boring and well over drawn out by a man who is clearly every melodramatic cliché rolled into one but Lila plastered a sweet, fake, smile to appease her future father in law's ego and kept her mouth shut.

She was a little bowled over by the impressive massive basement and what was essentially a sci-fi version of Snow White's glass coffin in the centre of the room. The woman inside was beautiful, golden-haired, and – Lila was willing to bet all of her money – was most likely green-eyed. She was clearly Adrien's mother.

"You're trying to save your wife," Lila said numbly.

How...disgustingly cliched.

What ever happened to causing trouble and mayhem for trouble and mayhem's sake? He could just crave power like a good villain but no, he had to be sympathetic and be trying to do the right thing.

Urgh.

And here, Lila thought they were two feathers of the same bird.

How disappointing.

But Lila wasn't deterred, she was determined to have her prize of Adrien Agreste whether or not Gabriel Agreste was actually a real bad guy.

"I understand," she said softly as possible though she couldn't quite reach the level of sincerity she often heard in Marinette's grating sweet voice. "I will do my utmost best to bring you the Ladybug Miraculous so you can save of your wife."

"I'm sure you would," Gabriel Agreste said wryly, "but to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is merely insanity, my dear."

He clicked his fingers and, before Lila could even begin to comprehend the dripping sarcasm on what was supposed to be a term of endearment, she is suddenly crushed in a hold by Adrien's gigantic gormless bodyguard.

"What the hell?!" Lila shrieked furiously. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"I suppose I do owe you an explanation," Gabriel shrugged elegantly, "as you can see my wife is near death and I have been searching desperately trying to find a way to save her life."

Oh dear God, was he monologuing?

He was, wasn't he?

As if this couldn't get any more cliched!

Lila rolled her eyes.

"I had encountered many rituals during my research that required a sacrifice of human life," Gabriel continued, "which, of course, I morally objected to and they were dismissed. My beloved Emilie would never forgive me if I harmed another living soul for her sake. I then managed to finally coax some stories about the Ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous out of my Kwami Nooroo which was when I began my pursuit for the Miraculous stones. Alas, I find myself in a constant loop of insanity and failure."

A cold sensation of dread and realisation made it's way up Lila's spine.

He was giving up on destroying Ladybug.

Worse, he has given up on destroying Ladybug in order to kill Lila!

"I decided to revisit that little requirement of human sacrifice," Gabriel smirked, "especially when I encountered someone who wouldn't be missed."

"My mother-"

"Would be heartbroken, of course, " Gabriel said drolly, "but then secretly she would probably be relieved. You haven't been the easiest child to raise, have you? I've had a background check done and you most certainly would have been a trial for any parent."

Lila flinched.

She had gotten better at lying because she had to be better at lying. Her first few attempts had gotten Lila into loads of trouble, shamed her mother, and caused the first of many moves across the world. It hadn't stopped Lila from lying – because it's not her fault people are so stupid and gullible! - but it had spurred her to be better if only to spare herself from her mother's tears and shouts.

"You don't want me," Lila switched tactics swiftly, "I'm not your wife's equal. You would want someone as powerful and gorgeous to sacrifice, like Chloe Bou-"

"The Mayor's daughter?!" Gabriel interrupted with an abrupt cackle. "You think she wouldn't be missed?"

Lila flushed at that.

"Well someone more composed and elegant," she said hastily, "like that Kagami bitch!"

"My new business partner's daughter?" Gabriel rebuked. "Why I could never do that. I need that alliance to get my foot in the door in Asian world."

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" Lila cried out desperately. "She's a sickeningly pure soul!"

There was a beat of silence and for a moment, a brief, beautiful, moment, Lila had thought she had convinced him to spare her. Instead, Gabriel's lips curled into a slow, terrifying, smirk as he shook his head.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng," he said in a soft dangerous voice, "is the future of my company. I look forwards to taking her under my wing and using her talent to better my son's future. She, unlike you, has so much to offer me."

And on that horrifying note, Gabriel Agreste raised his arm in the air. The gnarled dagger sparkled sinisterly, there was a shout of gobbledegook words that could have been Latin or something, and suddenly the dagger is brought down sharply and all Lila can feel is a burning hot pain as life was unfairly ripped away from her.

(Emilie woke with a soft sigh and after an excruciatingly long lovey-dovey sequence as she and Gabriel called each other every pet name under the sun, they remembered their son long enough to dash back upstairs to surprise him. Gabriel's excited boy act was interrupted when he remembered the bleeding corpse just a few feet away from him and had absolutely no problem being the tyrannical boss once more as he barked orders for Nathalie to clean it up.

Nathalie did so without protest as she always handled her tasks on Gabriel's behalf...but if Nathalie just happened to kick Lila's corpse in the head once or twice during the clean-up process...well, that was Nathalie's business and no one else's, wasn't it?)

3. By Prince Ali's Secret Service

When Prince Ali's name appeared on the Ladyblog in relation to a girl named Lila Rossi and some anti-pollution campaign, it had raised a few eyebrows on the agents who were monitoring the internet. After all, they all knew that Prince Ali was dedicated to children charities and not the environment.

However these lies suddenly came with detailed interviews about Prince Ali's private jet and the numerous palaces in Achu. Some were clearly exaggerated, embellished, tales that had no grounding truth but some...were disconcertingly accurate.

True; they were details found on the tourist websites, but it was enough to warrant a closer look.

And disturbingly a thorough check revealed that Lila Rossi was a dangerous delusional stalker.

A few years back she had sent obsessive love letters that quickly turned into death threats when there was a lack of response. Not too long after there were posts from a group of teenagers in Switzerland discussing about the turbulent and intense romance between Lila Rossi and Prince Ali, and then not long after that there were a series of photo-shopped pictures of Prince Ali making romantic gestures to Lila Rossi.

This was enough to put Lila Rossi on a watch list of potential threats to the Royal Family alone.

But the person in charge of researching Lila Rossi was nothing but a perfectionist when it came to her work.

The constant lies, the manipulation, the people harmed both emotionally and physically, and the disconcerting trail of suicides that followed the girl wherever she went...

Well, it was very concerning.

After much debate it was agreed that the child was rabid and had to be put down before she became too dangerous.

They could have His Royal Highness, Prince Ali assassinated because they hadn't nipped the threat in the bud when they had a chance.

An excellent assassin was sent into Paris and, with an ease most people had with their morning routine, had successful poisoned the girl within their first day of arriving at the city. Lila Rossi died before the day was out and the assassin proceeded to spend the rest of the week monitoring the situation (just in case the death wasn't ruled accidental) while enjoying the sights that City of Love had to offer.

The death was ruled as a tragic case of dehydration after a terrible case of food poisoning (the poison had forced Lila Rossi to vomit herself to death after all) and the restaurant at some fancy hotel owned by the Mayor had been forced to close down temporarily.

The assassin was able to come home with a good report and received a pat on the back for a job well done.

And that was that.

(Meanwhile at the funeral Alya Cesaire gave the eulogy on behalf of her fellow classmates. She barely had a chance to talk about Lila's heroics in rescuing Jagged Stone's cat when Mrs Rossi stood up and furiously ripped into Alya for making up lies about her precious baby at her funeral. Marinette trembled with barely repressed giggles as Alya's every weak protest was ruthlessly and brutally torn to shreds by Lila's own mother.

"Marinette!" Adrien hissed disapprovingly. "This is a funeral!"

"Don't you dare accuse my baby girl of ruining your silly blog!" Mrs Rossi shrieked. "It's not her fault that you're incapable of checking your sources!"

Marinette nearly fell out of her seat as she laughed so hard tears of mirth rolled down her cheeks.

"Oh bless!" Rose whispered loudly. "Marinette's so torn up with guilt that she's crying. Don't worry Marinette," she said gently, "you can make it up to Lila when you reunite in heaven."

Marinette choked so hard on her laughter that snot shot out all over Adrien's hand as he hastily covered her mouth to smother the giggles in a desperate attempt to keep things respectable and prevent any more fighting.

And to think, Marinette thought she would resent being forced to the funeral of a girl she despised with her very being.

Instead this turned out to be quite an entertaining morning.)

4. By Chat Noir

Lila was used to her lies blowing up in her face eventually.

It was difficult to keep up a pretence for so long, after all there was gigantic holes in her stories, but usually her lies begin to fall apart a mere few days before her parents were transferred elsewhere and she could start all over again without any sweat off her back.

It was different this time.

Mainly because her new crowd of disgruntled morons had transformed into one big monstrous Akuma ready to crush her without a single thought.

And it was all that Marinette Dupain-Cheng's fault!

She just had to be so damn likeable and nauseatingly sweet and sincere that her classmates turned into great big crybabies the moment she transferred to a new school. Her lack of positivity meant that the class, as a whole, negative feelings outweighed Lila's and Hawk Moth sent his Akuma to them instead of her! So here she was defenceless, weak, and tiny in comparison to the monster that was going to squash her flat.

If Hawk Moth would just give her the damn Akuma she could hunt Marinette Dupain-Cheng down and strangle the bitch for making her life so much harder! She would pay a million Miraculous stones to be able to achieve that right now!

Lila barely dodged her classmates' collective giant paw as she dashed across the street.

She tripped over the curb and staggered a few steps as she sensed the Akuma trying to grab hold of her once more. She closed her eyes and waited for them to pick her up and crush her or smash her to the ground. She took a deep breath, and another, and another and...

Lila opened her eyes and turned round to see Chat Noir fending the Akuma off.

Oh thank God!

Chat Noir was really on top of it which was a refreshing but necessary change as Ladybug was apparently arriving later and later to Akuma battles these days. He managed to wind the gigantic Akuma down and the cars parked down the street all jumped two feet in the air from the force released from the weight of the Akuma's body as it fell down.

Chat Noir raised up his hand. "Cact-"

"Chat Noir!" She wailed melodramatically as she flung her arms round the stinky cat hero (he reeked of strong cheese!). The tom cat had sheer nerve to flinch beneath her touch! He clearly still hadn't forgiven her for that incident with Kagami and Ladybug. Lila instantly went to work on him so he would be heroic putty in her hands. Then she could swipe his stupid ring and maybe Hawk Moth would actually do what she wishes instead of the other way round. "You saved me! Thank you so much!" Lila simpered. "I don't know what is wrong with these people, they're so violent and cruel," she faked a shiver, "I think they might be insane."

Chat Noir was rigid beneath her arms. "Or purr-haps," he said flatly, "you are the cruel one."

"Chat Noir!" Lila gasped. "How could you say such a thing?"

"With great ease!" Chat Noir retorted.

"Ha!" The Akuma burst out. It's voice echoed with the voices of all her classmates but it was Alix's voice that came out stronger and clearer over the rest. "He has your number there, Lie-la."

"I'm not cruel!" Lila protested. "I just merely tell people what they want to hear. It's not my fault that Marinette," she spat out that name like an insult which it was...to her, "is so sensitive that she took things the wrong way."

Chat Noir's nostrils flared furiously at that.

Urgh, another member of the Marinette Dupain-Cheng fan club.

Wasn't there anyone in this city who didn't have their noses so up her arse that they smelt cookies and unicorns? Even Hawk Moth greatly admired Marinette Dupain-Cheng for her creativity and strength, and desperately desired her as his new Akuma. It was sickening!

"Don't you dare!" The Akuma shouted, sounding more like Alya this time round, "Don't you dare hate on my girl after what you did."

"What I did?!" Lila scoffed. "You were the ones that shunned her, you were the ones that called her names, you were the ones that hurt her, and you were all the ones that had her running to her a new school. All I did was warn her what was to come."

"You're twisting things!" The Akuma protested, a mingling of furious different classmates but Max's voice sounded the clearest out of them all. "You manipulated us into doing that with your lying."

"Oh who cares?!" Lila shrieked. "It's just lying. Lying doesn't hurt anyone!" Chat Noir flinched at that as a pained expression flickered on his face. "Besides what's so special about Marinette Dupain-Cheng anyway? She's nothing. She's a pathetic little clumsy girl who just got lucky enough to encounter famous people dumb enough to think she's talented. Talented!" Lila scoffed. "Ha! Yeah, right. That sanctimonious self-righteous bitch has as much talent as a slug. And let's not get into how she just hangs on uselessly and pathetically to Adrien Agreste because she's just so sweet and sincere and nice," Lila's voice squeaked mockingly as she remembered all the loving adjectives Adrien had piled on Marinette whenever he spoke about her. "My only regret in dealing with her is that she transferred schools instead of having the decency to off herself like she ought to!"

The Akuma gasped – and echoed over and over again with the many classmates' voices – while Chat Noir looked as if he had been slapped.

It happened within an instant.

Lila was gloating one second over the fact that she had managed to shock both Akuma and hero into a stupefied state and then the next second she was suddenly shoved away from Chat Noir, and her entire being was burning.

Lila let out an agonised scream as she felt every atom of her very being explode.

It was as she felt herself begin to disintegrate to ash that she remembered that Chat Noir had started his Cataclysm when she threw herself at him. There had been clips of him being able to hold the Cataclysm for a long time and releasing it later. This was clearly what happened now. Chat Noir lost his temper and accidentally released his Cataclysm when pushing Lila away.

Oh fuck she was being murdered over Marinette Dupain-Cheng!

This was already pure hell!

(Ladybug arrived in time to see Lila's body turn to dust. Hawk Moth was clearly as dumbstruck as Chat Noir and the Akuma, and had instantly released his butterfly for a cleansing without uttering a word against it. The Miraculous Ladybug did nothing to heal Lila and Ladybug found herself holding Chat Noir as he crumpled over into guilt and despair.

Chat Noir would have likely moped for an eternity and had most certainly been on the verge of handing himself into the police when he had bumped into Marinette.

To see her sincere, radiant, and real smile for the first time in months had been worth killing a hundred Lilas. Especially when Marinette wrapped her arms round him in a comforting hug, declared him a hero, and kissed his cheek in gratitude.

It was enough to persuade him to not turn himself over to the police and to keep being Chat Noir.

There had been, briefly, crowds of people demanding his blood and that he should be arrested. These were mostly led by Lila's mother and were fully supported by the Italian government. However Hawk Moth mysteriously released private correspondence with Lila to the press that revealed that Lila had deliberately and knowingly plotted with a terrorist just get back on schoolgirl slights.

Mrs Rossi left the country quickly and silently upon hearing this while the rest of Paris dropped the matter of arresting Chat Noir and continued with the rest of their lives in semi-peace (Hawk Moth, of course, did not stop Akumatising people).

Lila was soon quickly forgotten.)

5. By Her Own Sword

Lila scowled down at her lunch.

For the first time ever in her life her lies had failed her. It had been three months since she returned to Collège Françoise Dupont and usually by now she had all the students eating out of the palm of her hand and that one annoying goody two-shoes made an outcast. This time around it had not been the case. Her lies were steadily met with disbelieve and irritation until the point she was the one that had become an outcast in the school.

And it was all that bitch Marinette Dupain-Cheng's fault!

Lila doesn't know how but she knows somehow, some way, the interfering little cow had managed to disprove each and everyone of Lila's lies before Lila could have the chance to paint the annoying sickly sweet girl as the devious manipulative bitch, Lila knows her to be.

So far Lila is currently grounded for lying to her mother about the school being shut, under an avalanche of homework and detention for lying to the school about being out of the country and for threatening the pigtailed bitch in the bathroom, had been screamed at by Alya Cesaire for ruining the Ladyblog integrity, had been shunned by all the others for 'using them', and has lost all favour from Gabriel Agreste for 'sexually harassing' his son.

Meanwhile the smug little pink bitch Marinette Dupain-Cheng has been praised to the heavens by the whole class a some sort of venerated saint as she was re-voted class president, complimented for her latest design work for both Jagged Stone and Gabriel Agreste by not just the Ladyblog but the local news and some of the bigger international magazines, and had the likes of Adrien Agreste gazing at her in adoration as she giggled that irritating sweet giggle of hers.

It was like nails on a blackboard.

Lila didn't know how people could stand such sickly sweetness.

It made her sick just to think about it.

She was so furious with the world betraying her that Lila hadn't looked down at her lunch properly as she took a huge bite of her chicken.

It wasn't until she swallowed that she realised there was a problem.

A small, but painful, bone caught in her throat.

Lila began to choke.

It hurt so much!

She...couldn't....breathe!

Lila heard her chair clatter to the ground as she stood up and spluttered loudly as she clutched her throat.

"...Help..." she wheezed out. "...I'm...choking...!"

"Yeah, sure you are," Alix rolled her eyes, "just like you had arthritis in your wrist and couldn't carry your tray."

"Or like how you had tinnitus for rescuing a cat that doesn't exist," Kim sneered, "and needed to sit at the front right next to Adrien."

"Or perhaps it's like the time you twisted your ankle," Max glowered, "and had to distract Chat Noir away from protecting Ladybug."

Lila didn't know how Max knew about that one but she knew once she was saved she would have to wreck vengeance on a certain black cat who hadn't kept his mouth shut and further ruined her reputation in Paris.

She was sure Hawk Moth would help her.

(Then she remembered that Gabriel Agreste ignored all her pleas for an Akumatisation since he cut all ties with her recently and scowled through the pain.)

That annoying Disney Princess of a human being called Marinette or sweet, beautiful, Adrien would have probably rescued Lila but they both ate lunch at home and therefore there was no one too forgiving was present to help Lila as she spluttered her last breath and slumped to the floor dead as a doornail.

Of course, her classmates felt dreadful when they realised she had been telling the truth far too late, but Mrs Rossi dismissed their apologies with a slow, pained, shake of her head.

"It's my fault," she said tearfully, "I never told her what happened to the boy who cried wolf. Perhaps if I did she would have known better to not lie so frequently."

Mr Damocles patted her back sympathetically as he couldn't help but think truer words were never spoken before in regards to Lila Rossi.

It was a fitting epitaph for the liar.