Kim

Kim stared at the livestream in horror. Lila had manipulated everyone in the class, even him. Did this mean her feelings for him were a lie too? On their own accord his fists balled up. He was unable to stop the tears from falling as rage and heartbreak swirled around inside of Kim.

Adrien

Lila pointed at Adrien frantically, sputtering out, "It was all faked, Alya! Marinette and Adrien are trying to ruin my life by tricking you!"

"How stupid do you think I am!" Alya screamed, her face red with rage. "I trusted you with everything and you spat it back out in my face. My entire career might be over, all because of you!" Alya pointed a finger at Lila accusingly. Lila backed away, staring at the finger like it was a gun.

Ivan and Mylene looked at each other, then with a silent nod from Ivan, they left the room. Adrien didn't blame them. Alya was more focused on blaming others at the moment, ignoring her own responsibility in the matter. She jabbed a finger into Lila's chest, "Did you seriously think you could get away with this?"

Lila suddenly narrowed her eyes at Alya, a smirk forming on her face, "Yes, I did and I have. I owe it to you, really, because you were all so eager to believe some amazing story from a stranger instead of your own best friend."

"I thought we were friends!" Alya spat, seething with fury. Adrien looked around, keeping an eye out for butterflies attracted to the angry blogger. "And you dared to lie about being Ladybug's best friend to her favourite blogger?"

"If you are Ladybug's favourite blogger, then why didn't she tell you about my lies?" Alya didn't answer, looking clearly stung by the comment. Seeing her chance, Lila pressed on, "Why didn't she ever tell you the truth about my lies? She told Adrien on my first day, making it very clear to him that we weren't friends. Now that I think about, Adrien didn't tell you until just now. Why did he take his sweet time telling his friends the truth?"

Alya didn't reply, staring at her feet as she considered all the facts Lila had laid before her. Lila smirked and walked out the room, only to find an angry Alix blocking her way. Lila put a hand on her hip, raising an eyebrow at her. "What? Are you planning on keeping me here until I confess my sins or beg for forgiveness?"

"You owe everyone an apology," Alix growled.

Lila facepalmed towards Alix, stating dryly, "You're right. I am sorry. I'm sorry you people are so stupid that you can't use a simple google search to see the facts. I'm sorry that you don't know that napkins can't cut your eye out. I'm sorry that you are such terrible friends that you would abandon the one person that had been there for you every single time." She turned to look at Adrien, smirking as she added, "Or be so oblivious to the fact your friend is clearly hurting until after they almost get akumatized." Looking back at Alix, she dropped one final bomb, "I'm sorry that it takes petty jealousy over a boy to finally cause you to wake up and realize the truth. Or did you make it up at first to justify your jealousy? I honestly don't care, Kim would have picked me over you, regardless."

Alix snapped and lunged at Lila, only for Adrien to grab her. "Alix, she isn't worth it," Adrien insisted. He did his best to restrain her, Max coming over to help him as Lila left the room without resistance. Eventually Alix stopped thrashing, prompting the boys to release her. A single tear was rolled down her cheek. "Are you okay?"

"She isn't wrong," Alix admitted. "Everything she said was true. We fell for every lie, every manipulation since she first came here. It's true." Adrien placed a comforting arm around her.

Max frowned, staring in the direction Lila left. "When did any of us almost get akumatized?" He shook his head, it wasn't the right question to ask. "I mean, related to Lila recently?"

Adrien frowned, "Not anything that I know of. Why?"

"What does Lila know that we don't? And how would she know of an akumatization that happened with no other witnesses?" The questions weren't asked of anyone in particular. Suddenly, Max took off after Lila, ignoring Adrien's call for him to come back.

Alya finally stalked over and stared Adrien down through tear-streaked eyes. "You've got a lot of explaining to do," she growled.

Marinette

Marinette kept a kind smile on her face as she focused on the questions asked of her. She did her best not to let her thoughts stray to Adrien and the others at school, concerned that their plan may have not worked and that Lila was still deceiving everyone. Finally the interview was over and she was able to look at her phone. There were a few messages waiting for her.

Adrien: Lila has been outed. Everyone knows the truth now

Marinette sighed in relief, thankful that it was finally over. There were a few messages from her other classmates, all bumbling apologies for not standing by her side and believing Lila over her. Marinette scrolled past them, not ready to start forgiving people just yet.

Penny came up behind her with a wide smile on her face. "Both Jagged's and your social media accounts are blowing up. Your brand's popularity is soaring. Congratulations, Marinette."

Marinette thanked her for the praise as she headed out of the room, eager to get to the school and meet up with Adrien. If she could transform, she could be there in just a couple of minutes. But as she exited the news channel's studio, Marinette was shocked to see the crowd of reporters waiting for her to leave.

Marinette felt frightened by all the cameras flashing her way; she wasn't used to getting this kind of attention as Marinette. Her feet froze in place as the numerous questions were shouted at and Penny walked to her side, each of them holding one of her arms as they led her safely to his car. Leaving the shouting reporters behind, Jagged's driver drove off. "Welcome to famous life kid!" Jagged grinned and Marinette realized the mistake she had made. She was famous now and reporters would be following her everywhere.

Lila

"There is a room full of pathetic losers ready to be akumatized. Don't waste this wonderful opportunity." Lila scrolled through her news feed as soon as she hung up. Marinette and Adrien may have exposed her, but she knew of a few ways to turn things around, not to mention having powerful allies with connections.

Just as Lila took a step down the stairs, on her way out of the school when someone grabbed her hand. The scowl settled on her face even before she turned to face an angry Max.

"Who were you talking to just now?" It wasn't a question but a demand.

Lila shook his hand off, glaring at him, "Back off four-eyes. I'm done toying with you and your pathetic classmates. You all were so simple to manipulate, it wasn't even a challenge."

"Why did you say that we were ready to be akumatized?" Max narrowed his eyes as he questioned, jumping in front of Lila to keep her from walking any farther. "What does that have to do with anything?" Suddenly Max's eyes flashed wide open as he realized the truth. "You are working for Hawkmoth, aren't you?"

Lila stared him down, her eyes raging with anger. "Be careful what you choose to say next," she growled, a deadly glint appearing in her eyes.

"You purposely tried to get us all akumatized! All of this was for Hawkmoth!" Max's clenched fists were the only part of him that didn't shake with rage. " Why? What did he offer you?"

"Nothing a simpleton like you would understand,'' she growled before turning away from him, looking back at her phone as she began to walk away.

Max lunged forwards and moved to grab onto Lila's phone from her hand. "I'm going to expose your connection to Hawkmoth!" He gripped the phone tightly, trying to pull it out of her hand.

Lila scowled as she tried to rip the phone away from him. Max did his best to hang on to the phone, but Lila was stronger than him. It didn't take long for Lila to jerk her phone away from his grasp and shove Max down the stairs. Max landed on his right arm with a sickening crunch, gasping out in pain. He hadn't noticed when his glasses fell until Lila's form blurred in his vision . "Help," he pleaded to her.

Lila didn't waste a second pitying him, rushing down the stairs. Lila stomped on his glasses as she raced past, shattering the high tech lenses into tiny pieces. Max tried to sit up, but only to fall back down in even more pain. As Max lied at the bottom of the stairs, he felt the physical pain and a consuming rage against Lila build up.

Max never realized his powerful negativity attracted the akuma until it entered his broken glasses and a sinister voice spoke inside of his mind. "Gamemaster, I am Hawkmoth. People around you are fools and too blind to see the truth. I can grant you the power to test them and find out who is truly worthy. All you need to do in return is bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous!"

"Yes, Hawkmoth," A dark shadow enveloped the boy at his acceptance, the akuma's power corrupting him. As Gamemaster began to emerge, a dark shadowy energy moved to consume the school.

Adrien

"Alya, just stop for a moment," Adrien insisted. "Lila had me deceived at first too, along with everyone else."

"But you found out and didn't tell anyone else," Alya accused him, her face red from anger and crying. "Why didn't you tell anyone else about this?"

"Because I thought it would be best to avoid causing anymore akumas. Lila has been akumatized twice already after getting called out for her lies and I didn't want to cause anymore attacks," Adrien reiterated, backing away from Alya.

"Guys," Alix interrupted, the panic in her voice caused Adrien to turn his attention over to her. Only then noticing the dark energy seeping across the room, covering everything in sight like a dark fog.

When the fog cleared suddenly, it was as if Adrien was transported out of the room. After a quick survey around the room he saw that Alix and Alya were no longer around. He was alone in the middle of a cage similar to the one Sandboy had trapped him in for the first time the little boy had been akumatized. The walls beyond the bars were dark and bare, except for a speaker on the far wall. An unknown voice came through the speaker, "Welcome contestants, to the ultimate challenge. Everyone here has made mistakes in their life. I intend to test all of you in order to see who is truly competent and who is a failure. To leave, you must clear each room on every floor. Maybe you'll encounter your friends again. Let the games begin!"

Suddenly the light in the room turned off, leaving Adrien alone in the darkness, caged.

Marinette

She stared in horror at the large black structure that replaced the school. She had urged Jagged to drop her off at home, reassuring him that she would be safe. Adrien wasn't answering his phone, meaning he could either be in a fight or inside the mysterious box structure.

Marinette waited for the car to leave before avoiding the entrance to her home and rushing into a nearby alley to transform; unaware of a pair of eyes watching her.

Jac followed the girl that the dumb blonde had tried to keep away from him into the alley, careful to remain unnoticed. He had rushed to the studio after seeing her on the news earlier. He was able to catch up to her as she left and followed at a safe distance in his motorcycle. No one stops him from getting what he wants.