Marinette walked down the halls of the school the next day, Tikki on her shoulder to provide emotional support. While the main cause for all the hostility towards her in the school had vanished, there was still a tense atmosphere remaining in the air.

Marinette had been AKUMATISED.

The students were scared of her.

"No matter that basically every other student here gets akumatised and there was no negative reaction - no - when I become Pest everything changes!" Marinette scoffs as she stomps to her next class. Tikki immediately flew to her ear and whispered to her, trying not to catch the attention of the other students.

"No Marinette! No negative emotions. We can't rely on Chloe to keep saving you and taking over Ladybug's responsibility." She said. "You're Ladybug, and you need to remain strong and secure."

"I almost killed Alya! It's a wonder she's happy to be in the same class as me, let alone sit next to me." Marinette sighed but thinking of Alya afraid of her didn't feel right. Maybe... there's a separate reason. She could be afraid of Marinette, but...

She's probably going to try and use this akumatisation as a spring board to continue emotionally abusing me... she thought to herself, already knowing what she's getting into.

Marinette sighed, showing no other verbal response, and touched the earring on the ear Tikki wasn't near.

"Maybe I shouldn't be Ladybug - maybe Paris would be better without someone like me 'protecting' them."

Tikki opened her mouth to reply, but Marinette had already opened her class door, and had stepped inside. As she passed by other desks, she noticed some students edging away from her in fear. Mylene and Rose gave her shy smiles, while Chloe gave her something between a smirk and a grin. Marinette shook her head - while wearing a light smile at the sights of the other girls.

It was quickly wiped by Alya glaring at her, which to Marinette felt like a sharp dagger impaling her from behind. She winced when she spotted Alya and stumbled a couple steps. She heard someone move behind her and she braced herself - expecting it to be Alya, about to shove her to the ground or something. In her haste and worry, she tripped herself, and braced for the hard hit of the floor.

"Alya will get a kick out of this." Marinette thought - half believing her statement to be literal and Alya to start kicking her back as she landed.

She closed her eyes, preparing to feel the first hit.

She didn't expect feel a hand against her stomach, stopping her from tripping and falling on the floor. In a daze, she turned around and saw the shiny blonde that used to make her heart flutter like a dragonfly.

"A - Adrien!" She stammered, gratefully allowing him to help her back up, and guide her to her seat. Her cheeks flushed, she smiles happily at him, and felt her heart lift again at the sight of him returning that smile, his cheeks also slightly red. All thoughts of that kiss she shared with Chat Noir the previous night disappeared at the sight of the colour on Adrien's cheeks.

Honestly, she felt strange now, thinking about her and Chat Noir. In the moment, the kiss they shared felt almost perfect.

The keyword being ALMOST.

It felt right, but also incredibly wrong. As if something was missing - a part of Chat Noir that Marinette had been unable to unlock. It made the interaction between the two of them feel... hollow. Abandoned. Incomplete.

She realised she'd been spacing out thinking about the kiss, and quickly turned to Adrien again, realising he'd been trying to talk to her.

"Adrien! Yes - umm - Adrien. Sorry but I misheard... basically everything you just said." The class harshly laughed at her - Alya the loudest of all - but Marinette tried to push the embarrassment aside and focus on Adrien. "Umm... would you mind repeating yourself?"

Adrien looked at her, concerned. "Are you sure you're happy sitting next to Alya, Mi'l - Marinette?" He whispered, making sure only Marinette - and Tikki - could hear. Thankfully for him, it seemed as if Marinette didn't notice the stammer.

Marinette didn't verbally reply, and simply smiled at Adrien, before willingly sitting down next to Alya. Alya leaned away from her and Marinette sighed, trying to ignore her and focus on the class.

As the teacher spoke, note after note was flung at Marinette's head from others in the class (mainly from Alya). Alya smirked at her, as she opened each letter. They all contained rude works and harsh messages - but they all basically told her the same thing.

Kill yourself before you kill someone worth living - PEST.

Marinette jumped every time she read those awful words, no matter what form they take, feeling them attack her soul. She hadn't gone to the rooftop for potentially fatal reasons for a few days now, the fates of those she'd consider her friends being the greatest concern.

But you can't expect someone suicidal to get completely better overnight.

Her breath turned shallow and her hands shook. She found herself spacing out during the rest of class, not paying attention to anything the teacher said. Her mind could only focus on the written notes. Tikki tried her best to distract her, but Marinette couldn't even comprehend that Tikki was trying to talk to her, and all the words Tikki tried to say went unheard.

When the bell went, Marinette dashed to the bathroom, to splash water on her face and to try and calm down. Alya's anger driven words flew through her head.

She remembered the awful things she did as Pest - attacking people, trying to... hurt... Alya. She's helped de-akumatize so many civilians that thinking about being in the opposite situation - as Pest - makes her head hurt.

She did so many terrible things...

"I don't deserve to be Ladybug." Marinette muttered, not noticing the bell ringing for the next class. Tikki flew to comfort her.

"Yes you do! You're an amazing Ladybug. You've saved so many lives and improved even more. Besides - I've never told you this but - you actually can't properly pass on the Ladybug earrings."

Marinette paused. "What??" She yelled. "What do you mean I can't pass it on? Chloe used the miraculous just fine!"

"Yes she borrowed it - but she was unable to use the full extent of Ladybug's power, remember?" Marinette nodded. "This is because only the proper Ladybug - you Marinette - can use the full extent of the power."

Marinette thought for a moment. "But what about all the other Ladybugs?" She asked. "If this continued forever, then I wouldn't have all these powers in the first place!"

"When a Miraculous holder perishes, then we get to pass the entirety of the power to another person." Tikki explained. Marinette's expression darkened, as she remembered the words Alya wrote to her - to kill herself.

"Honestly... maybe its not such a bad idea..." Marinette muttered again. Tikki looked at her, concerned, but she didn't know what Marinette was referencing, so she decided to simply give Marinette a cheek hug.

"Aww, thanks Tikki!" Marinette said, smiling slightly.

Marinette sighed happily and tried to focus on the moment at hand.

However, life doesn't work that way.

The bathroom doors burst open, and Alya stormed inside. Tikki had just enough time to hide in Marinette's bag before Alya spotted Marinette.

"Hah! I thought you'd be here." She snarled. "When you didn't show up for class, no one wanted to look for you, but I decided I'd be willing - as long as I got to see your cute little face break into tears!" And with that said, Alya lunged at her.

Marinette put up no struggle. At first it was because of the shock of hearing no one cared enough to look for her, and afterwards...

... its because she knew she deserved it.

Blow after blow hit Marinette's face and as the girl started to turn black and blue, her soul grew ever darker. She's suffered worse from dangerous akumatised civilians, but what made it worse here is that no one's able to help her. At least with the fighting as Ladybug, she has Chat Noir! Here - as Marinette - she has no one.

As it should be.

Finally, mercilessly, Alya lets go of Marinette. Her face is the same colour as Alya's knuckles - blue, black and bleeding.

"There's 10 minutes left of class. I doubt you'll get expelled since everyone's so scared of you, but you'll probably get into trouble if you don't arrive soon." Alya said to her, before giving Marinette a swift kick to the ribs, and walking out of the bathroom.

Instinctively, Marinette's hand moved to her wrist - where the red thread gifted to her by Mylene was still wrapped and secure. Needing the comfort, she opened her backpack, and removed the cardigan gifted by Chloe, and the red shoes, gifted by Rose.

She slipped the shoes on - putting her own pink ones in her bag - and threw on the golden cardigan, hugging herself to gain its warmth. The blood on her face dripped down into her regular shirt (one of her favourites, she designed it herself for her 14th birthday) but she was careful to make sure no blood was staining her cardigan.

She sat in the corner of the bathroom, knees to her chin, and sat there for what felt like hours. She heard the bell ringing but chose to ignore it. A couple times Tikki tried to talk to her, but Marinette refused to respond. Eventually, Tikki gave Marinette a small peck on the cheek, and zipped to her bag, trying to emanate a protective and comforting aura. She waited there for ages after the bell rang but surprisingly no one entered. Alya must've warned the students that Marinette was inside.

Once Marinette felt like she had healed enough to properly walk, she slowly stood, and washed her face with the bathroom sink, less to heal her wounds and more for her to calm down from the events from earlier. Once she finally stopped shaking, she decided to just face the world head on, and slammed open the bathroom door.

As she walked out and headed to the classroom, she passed by numerous students. Each and every one shied away from her, shaking in fear, and turned away. Each time a student refused to meet her eyes, felt like a stab in the heart - each one felt almost fatal.

Marinette kinda wished they were.

As she entered the classroom, she noticed no other students were in the classroom - not even the teacher! She found a note on the table:

Dear Marinette,

I understand that you're having troubles with students, and that's okay! These sort of fears around people who have recently been akumatised is normal. You just need to hold your head high and let them know you're fine and no danger to them! Now in this last class we...

Marinette stopped reading after that, and just tucked the note in her pocket. Noticing the privacy, she sighed, knowing what she needed to do. She grabbed some sheets of paper, a pen, and wrote some notes.

If they were tear-stained, Marinette made no comment.

Once they were written, she folded each one into quarters, and tucked them into her bag. She also whispered to Tikki while she placed them inside.

"Tikki, stay in the bag. Do not leave until you need to. Also," She placed the last note inside. "Please wait for an hour or so before reading this - its private, okay?" Tikki looked once again concerned but nodded. She trusted Marinette, and that's what hurt Marinette the most. Once the locker door shut, Marinette sighed, wiped away a loose tear, and headed up...

... to the rooftop.

Hiya!! Okay so -

I planned for the entire scene of Marinette at the rooftop to ALSO be here.

... But I wrote too much and now I gotta add a chapter XD

Sorry you guys have to wait a bit longer for the ending, but I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible. I might try to tone down the epilogue a bit so I can fit both the rooftop scene AND the epilogue in one chapter, but its honestly looking like there's gonna be two more chapters after this one.

Sorry again!!!

I'll try to post the next chapter soon.

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊