I don't even know how to intro this one. It's depressing as all heck, so do not read this is that isn't what you're looking for. (Though honestly, if you don't want something depressing, why did you click this story in the first place?) It's a salt one-shot and it doesn't end happily for any parties involved. Take that as you will. Also, character death warning, and trigger warning for suicide.

You have been warned. This is rated T for a reason.

It was time. Time, Lila had decided, to finally force Marinette's hand. The stupid bluenette refused to bow to Lila's whims, and Lila was confident that she now had enough of a hold on their classmates to pull the stunt that she was planning off. Unless Marinette agreed to Lila's demands, she wouldn't retract her claims on what was about to go down.

No, Lila was ready to destroy Marinette's life, because she was not going to allow the baker's daughter to keep trying to expose her. Lila was in the best place she'd ever been, and if Marinette was determined to try and ruin that, Lila would ruin her.

Adrien wasn't sure what he was expecting to see when he stumbled into school. He wasn't, however, expecting to find a police car present when he pulled up. Gorilla followed close behind him, obviously not eager to be releasing Adrien from his custody when police were outside his school.

Worried, Adrien rushed into the school, Gorilla barely even able to keep up, and came to a halt at the sight of his class in the courtyard, most crowded around a crying Lila. Two police officers stood in front of her, with one occasionally jotting down in their notebook something Lila was saying. The model almost didn't notice the conspicuous absence of Officer Raincomprix. Almost.

"She swung a knife at me, officer!" Adrien heard as he came closer. "I was so scared. She chased me and, when I started calling for help, ran away. I was here early to help her with some of the work she was doing as class rep; at least, that's what she asked me to do. Instead, she tried to kill me. I didn't think Marinette would ever do such a thing!"

Adrien was moving before he even realized was happening, and as if on autopilot, approached Lila and slapped her across the face. "You filthy liar! Marinette wouldn't do such a thing!"

Alya shoved him backwards, getting in his face. "Marinette just tried to murder Lila! She's traumatized! We found her here, crying and frozen. She was so scared Marinette was coming back to finish her off, and that's the first thing you have to say to her?"

"Marinette is your best friend! How could you believe something like that?"

"Dude, this isn't cool!" Nino snapped, red cap clutched close to his chest. "Why would Lila lie about something this big?"

Adrien stared at him, dumbfounded, as Max added, "When has Lila ever lied to us?"

Oh gosh, he realized stomach sinking at the reality of the situation, I've let it go too far. Oh gosh, Marinette, please forgive me. I was wrong. It's all gotten out of hand. It wasn't supposed to go like this.

"Please, officer," he said, turning to look at the two police officers who were watching the scene with cautious interest, not doing anything to interfere despite the fact that he had slapped Lila, "Marinette wouldn't do such a thing!"

"He's sheltered. He doesn't think anyone could do something bad. Marinette's blinded him-" Alya tried to brush off his comments.

There was no way in hell he was letting her do that though, not now. "Stop! Marinette didn't do anything. I learned this all on my own! Lila is a liar. I promise you, Marinette wouldn't do something like that!"

"It's okay, I understand that it'd be hard for him to understan-" Lila began through crocodile tears, only serving to make Adrien angrier as the whole crowd of his classmates began to mutter about how insensitive Adrien was being.

"His background is no excuse for his behavior!" A crying Rose said from beside him, clutching Juleka's hand. The quieter girl just nodded her assent. "He has no right to treat you that way after-"

"Nothing happened!" Adrien retorted, turning to glare at the two girls. "Lila is making this whole thing up!"

"Enough."

Everyone in the room froze at the deep, commanding voice, turning to look at the police officer who had spoken. His eyes swept over the whole crowd of Miss Bustier's students, and Adrien couldn't help but notice how cold his eyes were. Cold and unforgiving.

"And you are certain Marinette attacked you this morning?" He said to Lila.

"Marinette didn't-" Adrien began again, only to get shushed by the other, redheaded officer. She gave the subtlest shake of her head, her ponytail flopping back and forth as she gave him a pitying look.

"Yes," Lila sniffled, wiping her eyes, "I'm certain it was this morning."

"What time was it?"

"I got a look at the time on my phone before she tried to shove me down the stairs. It was shattered before I could do anything else with it, but it clearly said 7:33 am."

The officer held up a ziplock bag with a phone in it. The screen had been completely shattered. "This phone, correct?" Lila nodded. "And you said it said 7:33 am?"

Lila nodded once again. "Yes, I'm certain that's the time it was."

The two officers exchanged a look between them. The silent conversation lasted far longer than Adrien was comfortable with, but finally, the officer who had been questioning Lila turned his attention back to the students.

"Miss Rossi, can you turn around for me?"

With wide, confused eyes, Lila did as she was asked, only to panic when the officer grabbed her wrist. "Officer, what are you do-"

The officer cut her off as he handcuffed her. "Miss Rossi, you are under arre-"

"Officer, what are you doing?" Alix interrupted, gaping at him.

"Why are you arresting Lila? She was brutally attacked and is terrified! She needs a doctor not a-" Alya also protested.

The redhead cut her off. "Lila Rossi is guilty of framing Marinette Dupain-Cheng for homicide. Miss Rossi, you are-"

"How do you even know she's lying? What evidence do you have?" Max demanded, pushing his glasses up his nose. "You have the shattered phone, you've seen her ankle and wrists, and she's obviously traumatized. So how can you say-"

"Miss Dupain-Cheng had nothing to do with the attempt on Miss Rossi's life, if there was indeed an attempt on Miss Rossi's life," the man said again, face cold, "because Miss Dupain-Cheng was found dead in her room at 11:39 pm last night."

Everyone was frozen again. Adrien couldn't even begin to formulate any words. That couldn't be right. Dead? Marinette was dead? It wasn't possible. There had to be some mistake. Even Lila looked shocked.

"Dead?" Alix finally asked, the first one to be able to say anything. "But...how...?"

She continued to splutter unintelligibly till the ginger cop said, "Pill bottles all over the scene. Messed up wrists. Her face was surprisingly peaceful considering the circumstances."

"No." Adrien's eyes widened in horror as he realize just what the cop was suggesting. "No. no, no no no. No, she can't have. Not Marinette. Not..." He trailed off, not even knowing what else to say.

"That can't be right," tears began to stream down Alya's face, "because...because Lila said-"

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" The man snarled as the ginger took the handcuffed Lila, beginning to lead her out from the room. "The girl committed suicide. She can't have come here and tried to murder Lila. The only person she murdered is herself! In fact, I-" He cut himself off, panting. "I can't say what I'm thinking. However, I will say that I will be recommending that Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain pursue legal action against Lila, the class, and the school. Good day."

Adrien sank to his knees, feeling as if his world was crashing around him as he let out an anguished cry. "This is all my fault!"

Well then. I'm not sure I love the quality of my writing this time around, but this was meant more to just be a dabble into what could happen. It borders on crack since I highly doubt Lila would (or could) frame Marinette for murder, however, I wanted to write it anyways. I'm salty about the events of the show and, having dealt with a (far less convincing) liar in my life, I know what that does to a person. Not good things.

So that's the story. It's tragic and depressing, but it had to be. Hopefully it was an interesting read, at the least. I figured there weren't enough stories out here highlighting the very tragic reality that could be the ending of this scenario, because if you subtract the murder aspect, if this were to happen in real life, I could sadly) see this as a very real possibility.

~ Dagger