Archive of Our Own ^beta

 You know, some say yellow is the color of justice. Close, but that's not the word I would choose... Yellow is the color of judgment. Consequence... You would know, wouldn't you?

—Flowey to Clover, Undertale Yellow

Andrew Gregas was walking home from school, still fuming about everything that has happened over the past week. It had to have been the worst week of his life so far.

 Thanks to all the controversy surrounding Marinette, the economy of France is in turmoil, which lead to the company his parents work for deciding to cut themselves off from France entirely and move his family's workstation back to the location in North Carolina. This means not only that all his and his parents' effort to learn French will be rendered pointless, not only is he being robbed of the fresh start he could have had here after being manipulated by a bully back in Raleigh, but any chance of seeing any of his current friends again, especially close ones like Michelle and Raiden, will soon be a distant fantasy even after he grows up. He and his parents were both not happy to learn of this decision, to say the very best of it, especially since they thought they finally had a chance to have a normal life in Paris without Hawkmoth around to screw everything up all the time.

 But what frustrated Andrew more is that he should have seen this coming. He felt something off from the moment that Adrien was accused of being an accomplice to his father. He just couldn't see it. It didn't make sense even counting that Adrien was Gabrial's son. How could that have even been the case? Why would he fight off any Akumas instead of trying to claim the Ladybug earrings from the get-go? But because he had no evidence that casted doubt on those claims, he couldn't say a single word to anyone, lest he basically be accused of being a "terrorist sympathizer" or whatever and potentially suffer the fate of the rest of Marinette's class.

 All that effort trying to increase his perception so that he'd be less likely to fall for lies, and it was all useless due to lack of an ability to find proof of claims.

 Finding out that not only was his gut instinct correct, but that Marinette and at least some of the "new heroes" were knowledgeable in this aspect filled Andrew with horror and disgust, and later learning that Lila, (who he was one of the few who didn't fall for her lies and only got away due to not being in her class and being able to avoid interactions with her) was let off without anything more than a scare (which Andrew found out due to Marinette's former classmates spreading the news after the hospital trip they happened to encounter the "new heroes" at) was even worse, especially since that basically lead to Lila obtaining the Miracle Box and all the Miraculous inside it before then stealing the Bee and Monkey Miraculous off of Chloe and Jean.

 And then came finding out about Adrien's suicide attempt...

 Andrew couldn't blame Adrien for doing so after everything that happened, but knowing that he actually did it, and there's still a chance for it to be successful even now, meaning that Adrien will never know that his innocence was proven or that he's regained his ability to have a future... and knowing that it happened because Ladybug, her team and probably even Plagg chose not to debunk the claims when they had every chance to do so before that dash cam footage did it for them...

 Andrew had never felt more furious in his life, even the rage he felt when he found out that manipulative classmate's true nature back in Raleigh paling in comparison.

 But before he could think any more on these things, he was knocked to the ground. When he looked up, he set eyes on the culprit: A girl with bluish hair held up in twin pigtails.

 It was Marinette. The girl that caused all of this looked a bit worse for wear after being kicked from the former Agreste mansion the day prior.

 It took a lot of effort to keep a neutral face around her as he got back up and tried to dust himself off. Even though he could say and do just about anything to her and basically be celebrated for it like a real life "and then everyone clapped" internet post, he didn't want to stoop to that level if he could help it.

 "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Marinette exclaimed, a little bit of her decency still shining through.

 "... It's fine." Andrew mumbled slightly, trying to stay civil, especially since it's probably the first time in a while where Marinette wasn't being malicious. However, there was still a little aggression that came out in his tone that Marinette noticed.

 Whether it was because she wanted to vent or because Andrew's tone made her feel defensive, Marinette couldn't help but respond

 "Look, I promise it was an accident. I didn't mean to-"

 "I already said it was fine." Andrew stated, cutting her off from telling him what he already knew. "Now if you excuse me, I need to go back home."

 However, Marinette still has yet to let things go. As such, she runs towards Andrew as he tries to walk away and grabs him by the wrist.

 "I promise you that I didn't-"

 "Would you let go of me!?" Andrew yelled out while breaking his fist out of Marinette's grip, causing a couple of passersbys to take notice. "What the heck is wrong with you!? I already told you that it was fine!"

 "It's obvious that you don't forgive me though..." Marinette explains.

 "I did, for bumping into me. It wasn't malicious, and I know it wasn't malicious, so I don't want to make a big deal out of it like you are." Andrew retorts, holding his tongue to keep from saying "this time" in regard to her malice.

 Of course, Marinette quickly realized that Andrew was yet another person who was angry with her for the whole Adrien and Lila debacle. She was so used to people just spouting off against her that her brain apparently didn't comprehend that Andrew attempting to be civil didn't mean he didn't know or care about what happened this past week. Of course he wasn't going to forgive her for that.

 "Anyway, I need to go home." Andrew said, trying to get away from Marinette before she makes him snap.

 "But I'm sorry for all of it!" Marinette exclaimed.

 ".... I'm sure you are." Andrew retorted, knowing what she meant but not seeing it as genuine at all as he kept trying to get away. Marinette is a liar. She lied about Lila's innocence and Adrien's guilt. She screwed over her ex-friends by ruining their futures over snubbing her when they never beat her or called her that many names. She lied about being there for the sake of justice despite committing several acts of injustice for her own selfish ends. Then again, if this entire fiasco and the one back in Raliegh were enough of indicators, justice is a concept that might as well not exist, if it actually does exist in the first place, due to its meaning being waaayyy too malleable.

 "I mean it! I didn't mean any of-"

 "He tried to hang himself to death, Marinette!" Andrew yelled out again, either unknowing or uncaring about the phones people are taking out. "Whether you meant to drive him to suicide or not doesn't matter! You helped drive him to that point by deliberately keeping quiet about his stolen money and innocence in Gabrial's Hawkmoth schemes! And you did it entirely out of spite!"

 He was fed up with all of this and knew that Marinette likely wouldn't leave him alone at this point due to her desperation for an "ally" after losing everything unless he backed her into a corner first. After all, he wasn't the first person she's pestered for either forgiveness, acceptance or agreement for everything she's done, and he's sure her won't be the last by a long shot.

 Marinette herself flinched, both at the tone and the vision of seeing Adrien comatose on the bed. "But... I can still fix it..." She tried to claim.

 "How!?" Andrew exclaimed. "How are you going to fix it!? Are you going to restore his reputation? Oh wait! Not only could you have done that a year ago due to both Juleka and Rose's testimonies and Plagg also being able to tell you since he's the Kwami whose ring was stolen by Nathalie, as well as you already having an inkling of his innocence since you said 'that's before you lost the ring' if Juleka's interview is anything to go by, but his reputation is already saved now thanks to the dashcam footage anyway, so you missed your chance to fix it yourself! Are you going to give him his money back that was swindled by Lila? Oh wait! She's hiding out in Heaven only knows where with over half the Miraculous from the miracle box! Good luck trying to find her, let alone the information to his trust fund! Are you going to heal him like you did Emilie? You already had a chance to do so at the hospital the past 2 times you went there, so I guess I'm just gonna have to assume that it won't work since his injuries aren't magic or are self-inflicted or whatever reason you didn't use Tikki's Miracle Cure on him! Hell, Tikki did more than you when it comes to helping him by leaking his suicide to the press so Amelie couldn't sue anyone over it! You yourself did nothing because of how much you hated him! So, unless literally beating yourself up with your own Lucky Charm is the way you can cast the Miraculous Cure and revive him, which I highly doubt you'd do anyway even if it did work, you can't fix his body either!"

"So, no! You're not going to fix it! Every chance you had to fix it has already been used up or is unreachable because you took too long! Again, because you hated him over his stupid high-road advice that you decided you needed to destroy every single minuet portion of his life to the point where you'd rather let your main oppressor go free with only a scare than let him feel even a neutral, let alone positive emotion ever again!"

 "How do you know about the scare!?" Marinette yelled out in shock.

 "Your old class has become a lot more talkative now that your bad reputation means that they're spared the city's wrath." Andrew explained. "As such, they've mentioned quite a number of things that they've learned about you and your misdeeds, like the fake Rabbit Miraculous bad future for Lila you schemed up for instance! Dupont is basically a place where we get insider knowledge of everything you've done now!"

 Marinette couldn't help but internally seethe. As if they haven't done enough to destroy her reputation.

 "And you know what? While we're on that subject, I just want to lay out how freaking awful that scare was at 'punishing' Lila! I'm going to assume that people already beat into your head that you could have used the Miraculous, including the Rabbit itself, to collect evidence to arrest and indict her, or scared her into confessing. I'm also not going to mention what she can do with the Miracle Box and the Miraculous inside for my point. If for no other reason than to make it fair."

 "Suppose that Lila just uses Adrien's 50 million euros entirely on frivolous things and doesn't do any more direct cons like she pulled with your former class. The money is still stolen. She is essentially using illegal money to pay for the goods she wants. I don't care what the courts or law enforcement say, because I consider that a type of scam, especially if she started using all that money for the stock market! Even if she's never found out, I don't want to know what kind of damage she could unwittingly, or uncaringly, end up doing to the French or even the entire European economy by doing that."

 A few more people were recording at this point as Andrew continued his argument.

 "However, let's face it, we both know she wouldn't have stopped doing more scams after her previous one went off without a hitch and the superhero who could have easily brought her to justice let her off with a vague warning that she didn't even bother to verify to her. She would have easily realized you were bluffing once her emotions cooled, even taking out what she actually did, to you, your dad and the Kwamis she now has captive specifically, from the equation like I mentioned before. So, there are two ways that this could end. Either the broad strokes of the future you made up isn't going to happen for a good long while, if at all, meaning she leaves victim after victim in her wake for years, if not decades, or it happens around when you said it happens. In the latter case, it comes down to one of two things. Either she gets betrayed by an accomplice, employer or underling who will now carry on her "legacy" and ruin more innocent lives after kicking her to the curb, if not murder her themselves, or her final victim ends up killing her in a fit of rage. In any of these cases, you could have saved her and her partner(s)' victims, and in the latter cases, Lila herself, just by getting her arrested for her crimes like you were supposed to!"

 "There's also the matter of any potential victims she has made out of people before you and your class. What about them? Did you even care to think about what she's done to them!? Who she conned in the past with lies that might have held up even better than the ones she did to her classmates? Who she did the same thing she did to you and ruined the reputations of with false claims against them? You didn't think she might have done this song and dance before since she seemed to be a natural at it with you and your class!? Sure, arresting her before she fled to Marseille likely wouldn't help her previous victims get their stuff back except for maybe her classmates... Except it probably would when it comes to stuff like the Rabbit Miraculous and especially the Dog Miraculous! So yeah! You should have tried for their sake, especially since some of those conned out of money and/or property might have actually been more sympathetic than your class! And barring that, even pretending that you couldn't help those she conned as if that's somehow 'personal use' or whatever other excuse you decide to pull out of your anal cavity, then you should have done it for the sake of those she slandered like she did to you! So many people who could have been framed for just about anything under the sun! People who could be rotting in jail because of her planting evidence to frame them! All of them could be freed from their unjustified reputations if you did the one, simple, easy, morally correct choice after you defeated Mayura and had no more distractions: Just. Arrest. Lila! 

 "But you didn't! You didn't because you knew that if she was arrested, odds were that Adrien's trust fund would've been given back to him since it's one of the few things she stole that she kept for obvious reasons, and if that happened, there was also the chance that the police or news media or even the general public would think: 'Wow! Adrien was right about his trust fund theft and wasn't trying to scam anyone! Maybe he's also telling the truth about not abetting his terrorist father!' And you just couldn't have either of those happen, let alone both! As such, you kept quiet and lied by omission! Twice! Omitted Adrien's innocence! Omitted Lila's guilt! And if that meant that Lila was able to inflict the pain that she both actively and inadvertently did to Adrien onto more innocent people or make it nigh impossible for any potential previous victims to have the unjust penalties inflicted on them revoked, that was a fair trade off in your mind! Or maybe you had so much proverbial tunnel vision that you let your arrogance make you stupid like what happened with Gabriel and his abuse of the Butterfly Miraculous!"

 Marinette was hurting with each syllable as if she was under the line of fire. She couldn't keep taking it lying down though.

 "But he hurt me!"

 "So did Lila!" Andrew rebutted. "She hurt you far more than Adrien, yet you let her go free! She was the main person who actively tried to hurt you because you exposed her in front of Adrien! So, no! You don't get to use that argument!"

 "And don't bring up the romantic harassment as an excuse to say, 'but he actually did hurt me more'! First off, if you knew he was Adrien before you became the guardian, you'd have fawned over him until you melted into a love puddle! You know that. Everyone at school knows that because only those as sheltered as him couldn't see how bad your crush was with him. Or that's what I thought until Alya revealed the next point to us, which is that you stalked him thoroughly! You went into his room for personal reasons multiple times, one time ogling his stuff and smelling his pillow!"

 "He sniffed me one time too!" Marinette defended.

 "Hey Tikki, what's the actual context for what she's trying to claim?" Andrew asked, hoping to get the Kwami's attention.

 Tikki then popped out of Marinette's purse to explain. "During the fight against Animan, she sprayed perfume on herself and Chat Noir in order to hide their scent from him. Adrien liked the smell, and they happened to be close to each other."

".... OK, thanks Tikki." Andrew said in frustration through gritted teeth as he wondered if Marinette has a thing for lying by omission like a standard YouTube commentary channel. "I'm probably going to have to cross check with you a lot... Just fair warning..."

 Tikki decided to just stay out in the open after hearing that, knowing that Andrew is unfortunately probably right. She also heard a few people repeating what she said to their phones since she can't be seen or heard by technology. She just knew that this encounter is going to tank Marinette's reputation even more. Despite it being somewhat deserved, she still felt sad about it.

 "Anyway, back on topic. Lila hurt you more than Adrien did, but you still made him the one who took the fall. That's what happened. So, the 'he hurt me' argument holds no water. It's bullcrap and you know it is."

 "And you know what, there's also that interview you had. Despite being in the perfect position to out Lila for her crimes, you instead badmouthed your classmates! You ruined each and every one of their futures because of a few snide remarks and otherwise shunning you. And considering they at least had an inkling about how badly you handled your crush with Adrien, even before what was found out on Stalkerbug.com, I'd say they had every right to think that you're a jealous girl, because you are one! You tried to prank Kagami over a friendly encounter at that movie premiere for crying out loud! Yet another thing that spread throughout the school after you went with your so-called friends to see the damage you brought to your former crush! Sure, the way they acted didn't help matters, but why would anyone, guilty or not, take any accusation lying down!?"

 "And don't even get me started on the "senti-Bunnyx" thing! If you were actually thinking of doing that, that's utterly disgusting and it was even back then! That just tells me that you are, or at least were, going to create a clone of Alix in the future and give her the rabbit Miraculous specifically to rub it in her face in the past, getting her hopes up during the Timetagger incident so that when the day came that you would deny her the Miraculous, she would feel even worse than she already would have! Not to mention how that cruel trick likely caused her to develop some of those negative traits that made her 'deserve punishment' anyway, meaning you actively enforced her corruption! I have half a mind to think that you hate Alix just slightly less than you do Adrien. Not to mention, since footage from the Timetagger event had her say something like 'this isn't how I remember it', that implies that she was using her younger self's memories to help defeat Timetagger. How were you going to zap Alix's memories into her sentimonster copy!? Would that even properly work!? Would that stave off any paradoxes!? Maybe Bunnyx already faded away since you did all of that! Seriously! Why would you model a sentimonster after one of your former friends and give it a Miraculous!? What purpose would that possibly have outside of being needlessly spiteful, Marinette!?"

 Marinette couldn't come up with an explanation for all of that. He was right. She badmouthed her friends and didn't even try to expose Lila. She probably wouldn't be able to pull the sentimonster thing off either and it would have been immensely cruel even if she succeeded.

 "You set up that interview just to spite your classmates and turn us against them. You manipulated us for a year, Marinette. And the behavior I kept seeing around Paris and online that came from said manipulation was disturbing."

 That got Marinette's attention. "What do you mean by that...?"

 "I mean that the people's hatred towards your former classmates and especially Adrien was psychotic!" Andrew explained. "Any time I go through social media, even stuff that had nothing to do with you, Adrien, your class, Gabriel, the Miraculous or even fashion, I'd still see tons and tons of comments and discussions about people wanting to kill Adrien! Over and over and over and over! 'He's Hawkmoth's accomplice son, so he needs to die so we can finally be safe from him' was an extremely common sentiment, to the point where people were roleplaying assassination attempts in videos, comment sections, forums and posts that otherwise had nothing to do with either of you! And even offline, the number of times that I heard people wondering if Adrien was finally dead or if someone should burn his apartment down or that it would be great if someone would just stab him to death or other similar wishes for him to become a corpse was staggering! If it wasn't for the video, I bet some people would've gotten sexual pleasure out of his suicide attempt, and that's not an exaggeration! At school, on the bus, on the streets, at the museum, near the Eifel Tower, it did not matter! Neither did age! 5-year-old kids were joking about his potential death with their 70-year-old grandad over at the park near your former apartment one time!"

 "Not even the rest of your classmates were safe! Especially Alya and Alix! They'd justify it because 'Alya was a fake friend' and 'Alix can just be replaced with a sentimonster' (which, by the way, is another reason I find your attempt to justify keeping her from being Bunnyx deplorable) and it was only slightly less common to hear death threats aimed at them as it was with Adrien because of that! Even the other ones I still heard a couple death wishes or threats against because 'they nearly got you Akumatized and might as well have been accomplices to Hawkmoth' or whatever excuse they made up when they didn't use that one!"

 Marinette was horrified to hear about this. She was too busy with work and the galas she'd attend to go out and see or hear all of this.

 Were her fans really that "protective" of her that they wanted everyone involved dead?

 ".... I..... I didn't know..." Marinette mumbled out.

 "Then you are lethally out of touch, Marinette." Andrew accused. "What Adrien was accused of was the perfect 'excuse to kill' crime, especially when combined with that trunked up 'sexual harassment' claims when it wasn't even sexual. Combine with what I mentioned before, it's a miracle that no one acted on any of it. It was even more frustrating since, deep down, I knew that Adrien was most likely innocent, but I'd never have been able to find the evidence necessary to prove it on my own, and I'd likely have my own life, and the lives of my parents, completely ruined if anyone caught so much as a whiff that I was doubting Adrien's guilt. I was living in fear of the people of Paris for a year, even more so than I did when Gabriel was transforming everyone into supervillains, and that's saying a lot!"

 A decent amount of the people holding out their phones were hit by a wave of guilt whether they participated in the death fantasies or not. Andrew still paid them no mind though.

 However, Marinette still didn't want to accept defeat and decided to use her trump card. The reason she took the risky plan to finally defeat Hawkmoth to begin with.

 "But even still," Marinette tried to retort. "Adrien not helping me with Lila and having me 'take the high road' was putting me at risk of Akumatization! If that happened, Hawkmoth would have won, and all the blame would have gone onto me! He just racked up Lila's karmic debt for not helping me!"

 Andrew was about to try and excuse himself again when Marinette said this, but the words to do so died in the back of his throat when those words came out of her mouth. He was in awe. Amazed at the absolutely pathetic attempt at a justification that came out of Marinette's mouth just then. He just stared at her with a blank look on his face as he recovered, and when he did, an anger started to build up in him. One that he knew he could only delay the eruption of. But he at least had to try.

 ".... Marinette... Is that your argument?" Andrew asked in a careful, but still venomous tone. "That, by not tattling on Lila when he had no clue if that would even work when you failed to do so, and he had no clue of your crush towards him and how that impacted the believability of your claims against her, that he deserved to have his finances stripped, be framed for being the accomplice to one of, if not the most heinous type of crime, thus destroying any chance of ever having a job, and as I stated before, having people wanting to kill him, when Lila was the one making you susceptible to Akumatization?"

 Marinette felt a bit of dread at the way that Andrew laid out the reasoning.

 "Do you realize how unbelievably egotistical that sounds? Are you really that self-centered? Never mind that Gabriel needed the Black Cat Ring as well as your Earrings in order to make the wish. The fact that Adrien could have still saved you from Akumatization apparently didn't even cross your min-"

"I'm the one with the Miraculous Cure!" Marinette stated, interrupting Andrew for a change. "Any damage that I would have done as an Akuma would have been permanent! Especially since we kept our identities secret from each other!"

 Marinette probably thought it was a good counterargument. That Andrew would finally back off. That is until she saw him shaking and his fists tightening.

 Andrew was fed up with this entitlement that not even Adrien had on his worst day before his life fell to pieces. It's amazing how that one single power completely warped the perception of everyone, including Marinette herself, about how much the Ladybug wielder is practical required to be protected and put on a pedestal.

 "So, you admit that the other Miraculous are completely useless then?" Andrew bitterly questioned, reigning in some of his rising anger.

"What!?" Marinette sad in shock. "I didn't say-"

 "You implied it!" Andrew said, cutting her off. "'Because of that power, all other Miraculous users mean jack squat in the grand scheme of things.' That sentiment has been shared by so many people throughout Paris and online even before you let Lila get away and let Adrien be labeled as a terrorist. I hated it from the start and loathed it more and more and more as time went on and I kept hearing that. So, to hear it come out of your lips, proving that you saw Chat Noir and both versions of your team as nothing but sidekicks all because of that one power is infuriating! 'Oh! I have a World Healing Wave! That means that I'm entitled to anything and everything! I can let criminals go! I can help frame people for crimes they didn't commit! I can screw with people's emotions across space and time! It's what they get for putting the Miraculous Cure in danger after all!' That is what you sound like! Yes! It's a very useful power! I'm not denying that! That's not up for debate! But you used it as an excuse to screw everyone over for your own selfish gain! If it wasn't for that power, you'd have no argument! Hiding behind a power that technically isn't even yours since literally anyone can wield the Earrings instead of you and cast the cure themselves is pathetic! That just proves you're a nominal hero!"

 "And the worst part? That's not even close to being the only thing wrong with that horrible 'he made me susceptible to Akumatization' excuse. I no longer care about being civil anymore, so I'm just going to lay it out!"

 The onlookers were getting very excited at this point and Marinette braced herself for the incoming tirade as Andrew continued on. 

 "First off, you could have done so many other things to alleviate the situation that were much more moral than the route you chose! You could have switch schools! You could have talked to your friends sooner! You could have dialed back your crush on Adrien and not constantly yell at Lila like a madwoman so that she'd be less inclined and able to play the victim! You could have used your status as Ladybug to debunk the claim that she was your friend!  You could have done all of that! And no! Using the Miraculous to calmly and collectively expose Lila would not be 'abusing it'! You'd either be saving your classmates and other people from being scammed by her or be saving her from being targeted by Hawkmoth! If you want to argue that it would still count as 'personal use', then I guess you were just selfish every time that you saved one of your friends from Akumatization or from Akumatized villains too by that logic! And besides! After using the Ladybug Miraculous to ogle his stuff that one time, you don't get to use that excuse anyway!"

 "In fact, there was literally one thing you could have done. One thing you could have said that would alleviate the entire damn thing the instant you finished saying it You want to what it is? 'Tikki, if you ever see that butterfly sigil around my face that signifies that I'm about to be Akumatized, take my Earrings off as fast as you can and go find someone you can trust to use them in my stead.' That's all you had to do. One sentence! That's all it would've taken for your potential Akumatization to become about as much of an issue as anyone else becoming and Akuma: still a problem, but one that can be more easily solved! And don't give me the 'I couldn't trust any of my classmates due to Lila' spiel! You still had friends outside of class! Kagami and Luka especially! Just tell Tikki to bring the Earrings to them and explain the situation in a way that doesn't out your identity if you still cared about keeping it hidden from them! Again, a single command to Tikki would have drastically decreased the severity! Yes, it's still bad that you could have been Akumatized and might have had to trust someone with less experience with your Miraculous to save you in this scenario. But overplaying your suffering or the severity of a problem is just as bad as downplaying it, especially when you use that suffering or problem as an excuse to ruin people's lives disproportionately!"

 "But I'm also the guardian!" Marinette said. "I could have given him the Miracle Box and all the Miraculous inside it!"

 "Another command to Tikki is all that would take to nullify that!" Andrew stated. "All you had to say was 'Before going to find another holder, go back to my home as fast as you can to warn the other Kwamis so that they can take their Miraculous away from it'! Simple! Not only does it mean that you won't be able to give any Miraculous because they, along with the Kwamis, will be long gone, but since you know about it before getting Akumatized, you might not even go home to look for it, and thus not even expose your identity! Even if worse comes to worst and you still went to get it and blew your identity, you could just stay with the guardians and have them redistribute the Miraculous! You wouldn't even have to worry about 'being blamed' for anything at that point since you wouldn't be Ladybug anymore, at least until Hawkmoth was defeated, and you could just be the Miraculous distributer! But that would be unlikely to happen anyway if you just told Tikki to do this if you're Akumatized in the first place!"

 "Then there's the little bitty teeny tiny fact that Lila has the Butterfly Miraculous now! I thought that one was supposed to go to Rose, but she told me you changed your mind because you wanted Nooroo to rest for a while before his Miraculous was put to use again. So, now that she has that Miraculous, she can come back to Paris and corrupt us all over again! But the one I want to mention the most is what that means for Adrien."

 "Let's say he wakes up. He survives his suicide attempt. I'm going to show you his suicide video that was uploaded to Alya's blog last night."

 He then does exactly that, playing the video that Adrien made, the blond former model is seen apologizing for his actions and even his existence with eyes complete filled with nothing but negativity. Among it all was his direct, extremely genuine apology to Marinette herself. Once it was finished playing, Andrew put his phone back in his pocket and continued on.

 "As you could plainly hear, Marinette, he thought that you were the victim and he the victimizer. He 'learned his lesson', that he was a waste of space who ruins the lives of anyone near him, and that he deserved every single horrible thing that happened to him. He thought that so much that he decided to try and take his own life, leaving this final video to apologize to a public that he told to celebrate his death. And most of all, he basically admitted to having put you on a pedestal before he decided to hang himself."

 "Now, what would happen if Adrien woke up, and then, either because Alya and Nino tell him, or he watches the news, he finds out that you sat on the chance to debunk the 'Hawkmoth's accomplice son' accusations and get his trust fund back AND that you were stalking him both in and out of the suit because of your obsession over him? He'd get very angry at you. He'd be angrier than all the rest of us, because he's the one you ruined the life of out of spite! Because you also gaslit him into thinking that you were a perfect angel and that him not snitching on Lila makes him a demon worthy of ruin! Now, if Lila decides she wants the rest of the Miraculous, especially the Ladybug, and decides to come back to Paris to retrieve it, even taking out that everyone here hates you now, she wouldn't really need us."

 "The Adrien we know is going to be dead even if he wakes up. Whether it be due to the brain damage brought on by the oxygen deprivation, the things he finds out about you and what you let happen to him, or both, Adrien will most likely have a massively more bitter personality soon after he wakes up. He'll be more likely to hold a strong, and even justifiable grudge against you. Would that not be perfect for Lila since she has the Butterfly Miraculous? Someone who knows your fighting style very well, has a stronger and more justifiable reason to hate you, knows how to use a Miraculous, including the Black Cat, which she also has after stealing the Miracle Box, and, for all he might know, has nothing left to lose. All it would take is an Akuma to go into anything on his person that she can then take for herself so that you can never break it and release the Akuma, and then give him back the Black Cat Miraculous. That's all it would take! Then you'd be fighting against him at the height of his power, and he'd easily be able to steal your Miraculous for Lila's own ends!"

 "In other words, you opened up Adrien to Akumatization and repossession of the Black Cat Miraculous! You did the exact same thing to him that you claimed he was doing to you! And no! You not knowing that Lila would potentially come back to steal the Miracle Box does not make it better! Especially after the Timetagger incident where another Hawkmoth was who Akumatized him! You should have at least planned for the worst-case scenario!"

 "I have something to say too." Tikki said, looking morose. "That time where Marinette ogled Adrien's things was when she was trying to deliver a letter to him for his fifth name's day. As such, she left her real name on the card she gave him. Bunnyx then took her through the burrow while still transformed. She then took us to a future were Chat Noir was Akumatized into Chat Blanc, who had already flooded the city and destroyed the moon when we got there, as well as already killed everyone, including that version of Ladybug and Hawkmoth..."

 Hearing this, Andrew became even more enraged. "Are you kidding me!? Marinette had even more reason to see that coming, and she still put Adrien in an extreme version of her own perceived position when she already knew that he could easily defeat her if Akumatized!?"

 Marinette looked like a kid who was caught saying a bad word. "I.... uh..."

 "Seriously, Marinette! What the Hell were you thinking!?" Andrew yelled out.

 ".... I.... I thought it was karmic justice since he did nothing to help me with Lila..." Marinette admitted.

 "'Karma'? Really?" Andrew vindictively questioned. "Making us hate him, not want to hire him for honest work, not let him even leave his apartment and even wish for and plan his death is 'karmic justice'? That it was just some cosmic debt he racked up? You know what? Screw the hell out of that."

 Marinette flinched again as Andrew listed off how disproportionate it all was as the male teen continued.

 "Considering that you kept telling people that Adrien took on Lila's karmic debt by basically being her accomplice, let's skip the fact that you actively abetted her to get back at him, because I have a more pressing question. Since you said that he was putting you at risk of Akumatization, that would imply that you view him as an actual accomplice to Hawkmoth. In other words, since those who abet criminals and wrongdoers, even accidentally, must take on the penalties of those who they helped further the goals of, that would imply that Adrien should have also incurred Gabriel's debt from being Hawkmoth. So, answer me this, why was Gabriel exposed and arrested then?"

 "What do you mean by that?" Marinette asked, confused by the question.

 "What I mean is simple." Andrew explained. "Adrien 'put you at risk of Akumatization', making him an unwitting accomplice to his father like he was with Lila, per your explanation as to how Karma works. As such, Gabriel's karmic debt should have shifted to Adrien. So, why was Gabriel arrested? Shouldn't Adrien have been accused of being Hawkmoth instead of just an accomplice while Gabriel and Nathalie get off scot free? After all, you implied that Adrien fit the 'abetting' penalty for his dad like he did with Lila. And yet Gabriel actually paid for his crimes. Where's the consistency, Marinette!?"

 Marinette yet again had no retort or rebuttal.

 "And another thing. This ties back to your implying that the Ladybug is far more important than any other Miraculous as well. More than a few times you mentioned how Karma apparently works, and you kept saying that it prioritizes helping whoever is wielding the Ladybug Earrings. Not only does it once again imply that all the rest of the Miraculous are basically just there for their holders to be living shields like what happened with Adrien when he was Chat Noir, but you're also saying that it plays favorites. And yet it took its sweet time with Chloe and Lila, both of whom had nearly caused you to become Akumatized. Not only that, but it rewarded both of them! Lila got away clean with 10s of millions of euros, plus a few more from the stuff she conned from your class and then sold! Chloe got to become a hero again despite, considering those brainwashing wasps looked very similar to Queen Wasp's paralyzing wasps, she was very likely the one who caused you to become the new Guardian to begin with! Am I right Tikki?"

 Tikki then nodded solemnly. While she still cared for Marinette despite everything her wielder has done or failed to do, she won't lie to cover her. Everyone needs to know the truth, even if it further condemns Chloe and Marinette. "She was called Miracle Queen. She wanted to be Queen Bee again, but Marinette chose Kagami to wield the Dragon Miraculous during the Heart Hunter incident. As such, Hawkmoth was able to convince Chloe to abandon Marinette and join with him after he got the Bee Miraculous from Master Fu, the previous Guardian, which resulted in all of the previous heroes to have their identities revealed to Hawkmoth and forced Master Fu to give up the title of Guardian to Marinette at the cost of his memories. This was after she told Chloe that her identity being reveled means that she couldn't be Queen Bee. Granted, Marinette said the same to Kagami, and she gave Kagami the Dragon Miraculous again because she wanted to break up her date with Adrien at the time..."

 To say that the onlookers and those recording were appalled that Chloe was so entitled and that Marinette was sabotaging Kagami a second time when Kagami was already dating Adrien was an understatement as the phone carriers angrily parroted what Tikki told Andrew.

 "Of course, little miss stalker did that..." Andrew said through gritted teeth as he facepalmed at the reveal. "But I'm also guessing that Chloe couldn't have known about Kagami being told the same thing before being brought back to the team, right?"

 "Right." Tikki said. "Outside of Marinette and Adrien, only her mother Tomoe and Gabriel knew at the time. No one else knew her identity."

 "So, let me get this straight..." Andrew started up. "Chloe, despite betraying you to Hawkmoth actively, revealing the identities of everyone who was on your team at the time and making you lose your mentor in the process, when she has no idea that Kagami was under the same circumstances as her at the time, is more redeemable than all of your classmates, Marinette? She was a direct accomplice to him, just like Lila, unlike Adrien, and you chose her, of all people to give a second chance!? That's what Karma did to protect you from her!? Or are you going to say that 'it's also part of Adrien's Karmic debt because he should have acted like an authority figure around her'!? You know, despite their clear age similarities that make such authority non-existent and how unlikely that he would have made much of a dent in her behavior. If we're gonna go by that logic, then for all you know, she corrupted him during their childhood instead of the other way around. Not that Chloe would have admitted it either way."

 Marinette yet again failed to find a rebuttal.

 "I'll give Chloe a bit of leeway in that Hawkmoth could have told her that he knew Ryoko was Kagami, but he wouldn't be able to explain why you chose the Dragon Miraculous over the Bee Miraculous. Hell, you could have given Kagami the Bee Miraculous if you wanted to (rightfully) boot Chloe off the team and still break up Kagami and Adrien's date like the obsessive stalker you are! I mean, she probably had the Dragon a single time before that. She's been Kitsune for far longer than she's been Ryoko and hasn't screwed up with the Fox Miraculous! She clearly hadn't settled into the Dragon's powers too much for the learning curve to be much of an issue! It would have given her a new glamour cover too! So, no! Saying that it wasn't truly her fault isn't going to fly! I don't know why I bothered saying this since I know that you'd never admit to it being even partially your fault, but I guess I just felt like covering all my bases."

 "But back to the point, if what you said about the Ladybug wielder being prioritized for protection by Karma is true, Karma waited half a year to deal with either of those 2, during which you could have become Akumatized, and then Karma let them both have their biggest desires! That's not protection! I'd have half a mind to say that what Adrien said about how anyone who hurts him gets rewarded for it in his suicide video is more apt for you since the two people who hurt you the most got the happiest endings possible for them! Once again, there is no consistency! It doesn't exist! Two major contradictions! They both should have had Gabrial's Karmic debt metaphorically drowning them to death for actively furthering his goals, but Adrien's the one that it happens to while they both get to flourish, even as Lila remains completely evil! So, in other words, Karma was supposed to let Gabriel off the hook and possibly Nathalie too, and then have Adrien be framed for being Hawkmoth, and Lila and Chloe either being framed as Mayura if Nathalie gets away or just have their accompliceship exposed, either because Nathalie gets arrested for being Mayura or because the honor of just being a normal accomplice went to whichever one doesn't get accused of being her since they can't both be her at the same time. Instead, just shy of the complete opposite happened, and happened way too late to be genuinely protective, because your explanation of Karma's debt system doesn't make a damn bit of sense!"

 Marinette was curling into herself at this point as Tikki revealed more of her secrets and Andrew sliced through her logic to the point of preemptively debunking potential arguments she could make before she had a chance to make them. It was like a nightmare. She's already had these sorts of speeches made against her these past couple of weeks, but Andrew was hitting her with so many new points that no one else had made before.

 "You know what?" Andrew continued. "Now that I think about it, I really hope that Karma doesn't exist, or at least not the version you claim exists." Andrew spoke again. "I mean, from the way you describe it, not only is its system horrendously flawed, not only is its punishments heinously disproportionate, but there's something else I've noticed. Every single 'punishment' involves other people being the ones to inflict it. Lila inflicted the punishment of stolen property/money, you inflicted the punishment of shattered reputations, and the public at large gatekept opportunities, destroyed social connections, committed assaults and even advocated death. Not a single punishment came in the form of a natural disaster or a random bit of bad luck. It was always another person's ineptitude and/or cruelty that advanced the punishments. With that being said, what am I supposed to think other than that Karma has the ability to brainwash us into doing its bidding if that's the case!? What if this is one of the few times where I have free will before I go back to dancing to its puppet strings!? Not to mention that means that Lila, Adrien, and the rest of your classmates and even yourself had absolutely no agency in your decisions! That is outright fatalism, Marinette! The only light I can see your version of Karma in is that of a sick monster that controls our minds to advance its goals, not caring about its arbitrary system if said system hinders its plan! If it exists, then it should have allowed someone to destroy or enslave the world centuries if not millennia ago! So don't bring up Karma to me again!"

 Those recording held smirks as they digested what Andrew said about Karma. It was nothing more than an excuse for Marinette from the get-go. She basically worded it so that it would always cater to her and only her and the implications and logic fall to pieces as soon as one starts to question it. But Andrew wasn't done venting.

 "I'd like to also talk about something else. Alya told the school about what you said and how you acted in the hospital before she showed you what happened to Adrien because of your little champaign to ruin his life via omissive lies, both what she ended up experiencing and what her sister, Nora, told her the next morning. Apparently, you went over to her family's apartment to fuss at her about bringing the innocence proving dashcam footage of Adrien and Mayura to the press, only to run into Nora, who then decided to point you to Mercy Hospital because she suspected that you'd finally find the truth if you went there and get it through your thick skull about just how much damage you've done. You then did exactly what you wanted to do to Alya and kept trying to make her decision to release that video into a personal matter. That she did it specifically to spite you and nothing else, as if Adrien still being seen as a terrorist accomplice for his dad was something completely unmotivating for such a reveal even if Adrien didn't decide to kill himself and no one acted on the aforementioned desires to murder him. Even putting aside that that has got to be some of the most narcissistic BS I have ever heard in my life that puts even Lila's victim playing to shame, I'm going to break this down too!"

 "First off, she also mentioned, that she was originally trying to find evidence to incriminate Adrien when she first started out because she wanted a chance to prove that she had the potential for change before her and her family moved to the Bahamas. Why were they moving to the Bahamas? Because that's where Alya's mom found a job at because no one in Paris or even France wanted to hire her because of your class defaming interview! Who'd have thunk, even after seeing it happen with Adrien when Gabriel was outed as Hawkmoth, that negative reputations might just unfairly trickle down to the family members and/or close friends of the tarnished person? Alya's parents couldn't find more work here, Nora's kickboxing career was unfairly taken from her, and she was banned from gyms and had to train in the woods, and the twins were mercilessly bullied by the other students in their class, all because of one bad apple who you made out to be far worse than she actually was. And the rest of the families of your former friends got this too. All I really need to say to get the point across is that Mylene's dad had to change his last name to distance himself from her to keep his acting career, and it worked, and it's a miracle that Sabrina's dad was still allowed to stay a police officer considering everything that became known about her."

 "And all of them, up to the point of them finding out Adrien's innocence, were trying to redeem themselves as well after Juleka opened Alya's eyes due to a chance meeting and Alya repeated her points to the rest of them. So yeah, it was originally something Alya was essentially going to do to glorify you as a farewell gift before she travels to the other side of the globe because of your stupid interview! Of course, I know you already knew the part about it being done to prove that Adrien was an accomplice, but I doubt she told you about the Bahamas thing, so I decided to tell you in her stead."

 "Secondly, and I'm sure Nadja would also be able to verify this if ever asked, that she had no idea of you even potentially having kept quiet about Adrien's innocence until after she already showed the video to the studio and their tech crew found Juleka in the background of it! That's right! By the time she found out you knew, that video was already in possession of the press, and it was the press themselves that revealed to Alya that Juleka was at the scene to witness Adrien losing his ring. Sure, she probably didn't tell you this fact for one reason or another, but how self-centered do you have to be to automatically jump to 'she did this just to make everyone hate me' to begin with!? But even if you wanted to pull that stupid card, as well as ignore that no one had the clairvoyance needed to know that whatever car that had that dashcam footage was placed there to begin with, you should instead blame Juleka for being in that spot in the first place! After all, if she wasn't there, no one would be the wiser that you knew or could have known of Adrien's innocence ahead of time! At least for as long as everyone forgets about Plagg's existence, but I don't know if he told you as well or not."

 Tikki looked down, averting her gaze, knowing that Plagg never did tell Marinette that she was right about Adrien losing his Ring instead of giving it willingly. Andrew noticed Tikki's body language.

 "Tikki, what is that... Oh my God..." Andrew said as he pieced it together. "Plagg never confirmed it to Marinette, did he?"

 Tikki hesitated before slowly shaking her head.

 "Plagg already knew that his Ring was stolen from Adrien by Mayura instead of him giving it to her and Plagg still said nothing!?" Andrew exclaimed. "Why!? Why wouldn't he do so!?"

 Tikki had her head down. "It... was probably for the same reason Marinette didn't..."

 Andrew's eyebrows furrowed even more in anger at that. "So, out of spite because he was mad at Adrien?"

 Tikki didn't answer, deciding to just let Andrew come to the conclusion on his own as she knew that her silence would speak volumes.

 Andrew sighed in exasperation. "Well... I guess he'll have plenty of time to think about it... under Lila's control... likely having seen the news of Adrien's coma and suicide attempt... Because that's definitely 'Karma', making bad things happen to someone that also endangers hundreds, thousands or even millions of people. Yet another reason why I hope that your version of Karma doesn't exist, Marinette, because that would mean that Plagg's 'debt' is to be at the mercy of a girl who now has the ability to turn people to dust with his powers! I guess you and Adrien got the wrong Miraculous during the giving process since you're clearly perfect for Plagg."

 Marinette sunk into herself as Tikki felt a bit of shame about her counterpart's actions due to Andrew's sarcasm filled verbal beatdown of the missing Kwami and the failed Guardian of the Miraculous.

 "But you know..." Andrew started up again. "I actually have very personal reasons to loathe what you did to Adrien and for Lila, Marinette. So, I'm going to tell you a story about myself. Consider it a 'gift' or whatever if you like."

 Marinette didn't like the sound of that considering what Lila's 'story' was the last time she confronted her.

 "Back in my hometown of Raliegh, North Carolina, there was a classmate of mine who was just like Lila. He'd put up a facade of niceness to lure us all in and tell tall tales that we couldn't really verify nor debunk that made him seem more interesting, especially since his parents were pretty rich all things considered, so it was possible. Then, anyone he'd fail to enrapture would be framed as bullying him. Here's the kicker though: I was one of the enraptured classmates. I believed in him. I hate that I did. While I was never conned at of my stuff, not only did I end up helping him with many basic favors much like Lila got your class to do, but I also lost so many potential friends because he put wedges in all of our friendships even when we weren't the targets of his ire so that we'd pay more attention to him. He successfully tricked me into shunning his enemies and making the occasional snide remark just like Lila did with your class. Not only that, but the bullying he'd get my classmates to do to those who he targeted was far worse than what Lila made you put up with, including personal threats and beatings, both of which none of your former classmates ever did to you. It was disturbing to me even back then, and my attempts to get them to tone it down were shot down as my classmates continued their battery attempts."

 "By the time I finally overheard him threatening one of his victims and recorded the encounter on my phone, it was 3 days before graduation. The teachers and even the principal couldn't do anything to him, especially since, like the now jobless Principal Damocles and Ms. Bustier, they were afraid that his parents would use their connections to have them fired. Whether they actually would or not, I don't know, nor do I care right now. I don't know if any of his victims accepted my apology either. Maybe they did, or maybe they didn't."

 "As such, coming to Paris was a fresh start, since for all I know, that bully got away with it all and that video never left my old school's principal's office, meaning he'd have all the time in the world to get back at me for attempting to expose him while his former victims would have probably treated me only a little bit better than you treated your former classmates in that I doubt they'd try to destroy my future by ruining my reputation to the entire world like you did."

 "But now, you took even that away, Marinette."

 "What!?" Marinette exclaimed, appalled at the accusation. "How is that my fault!?"

 "Because of what your reputation did to France's economy!" Andrew yelled back. "Everyone, from celebrities like Clara Nightengale and Jagged Stone, to company owners like Audrey Bourgeois to even scumbags like Bob Roth are all abandoning the entire country because of how much your misdeeds tanked France's reputation and caused many tourists, companies and stockbrokers to cease trade here! And the catalogue company my parents work at is no exception!"

 Marinette stared wide eyed at that revelation as Andrew continued on.

 "My parents were moved here the Summer before Hawkmoth started raising Hell here a little over a year and a half ago. I met two of my closest friends in Dupont, your school, in Michelle and Raiden. I was allowed the ability to start over, and after Hawkmoth was defeated, even with the bad feelings after Adrien was accused of helping him and Lila got away with her cons, I thought there would be a chance to have a somewhat normal life here after all of that. But no! You just had to be a fake hero! You just had to be the reasons behind the loose ends with the whole Hawkmoth debacle! You just had to drive the Parisian public into psychosis! And now that it's all out there, me and my parents will have to leave back for North Carolina next week because the location they work for here is being closed down because their catalogue isn't being renewed since no one wants to export goods to France anymore! And it's all because of how you corrupted this country and made it look worse than what you already helped turn it into! After I leave next Friday, I'll likely never get to see any of my friends again!"

 At this point, Andrew started to cry.

 "If the bully or someone like him ends up being in the school I end up attending, I'll likely never make another friend until I graduate... and this entire ordeal proved to me that all that time I spent trying to build my perception to not be fooled like that again was completely meaningless... Redemption is a pointless buzzword... All that's going to happen is that I'll be forced to go with the grain in order to survive because justice doesn't exist! We killed it by conflating it with its subjective counterpart, judgement!"

 Tikki, wanting to try and alleviate some of Andrew's pain, decided to speak up.

 "Well, there's a Renling, a cousin of us Kwamis, who inhabits a similar artifact to the Miraculous called the Prodigious." She said, keeping an optimistic smile. "His name is Long Long, the Dragon Renling who is the living incarnation of justice. So, since he's still alive and well, you humans haven't destroyed that virtue!"

 It was of small comfort to Andrew though, now knowing just how rare justice is within people, especially thanks to people forcing subjectivism into it.

 "He probably still doesn't get much use though..." Andrew said, wiping his tears away.

 That made Tikki's heart break considering that Andrew was right about that. The Prodigious was locked away for a while in Shanghai and Fei awakened to Long Long's power last thanks to her desire for revenge against Gold for killer her father and manipulating her into becoming his personal thief. She decided not to say anything. It's better to do that than to lie by ommission... like Marinette...

 "So, thanks Marinette." Andrew said in disdain. "You completely ruined my life here in Paris, all without making me one of your targets like you did with your old class. I'd rather there still be Akuma attacks than to either have your fanatics make me feel like I'm walking barefoot on eggshells and needles or be forced to leave because the economy is tanking, both of which were your fault. But then again, my parents and I are some of the lucky ones considering what happened to everyone you associated with. And I know I'm not the only one who's being ushered away from his friends here in France because of what your reputation did to the country's trade operations. There are probably thousands of other people going through the same things my family is going through because of what you did, or in some cases, failed to do when you should have."

 "Because of you, the French economy is in ruins, the fashion industry is in tatters, people have been traumatized, friendships continue to be torn apart, Chloe's gone insane despite her genuine attempts to be a better person finally, thus paying for all the evil she's done at the worst possible time she'd be forced to do so, the worldwide public has become even more wrathful, Adrien is likely going to die or be a radically different person even if he does wake up, and Lila is going to do Heaven only knows what with all the Miraculous in her possession, including the one that Gabriel used to start this horrible chain of events to begin with. I can easily forgive you bumping into me, but I will never forgive the rest, especially the last three things I listed. You're a villain, Marinette. You abused your Miraculous and your falsified good reputation and then claimed you didn't while you made us civilians into your personal, emotionally paid assassins, which need I remind you, that even with Adrien's suicide attempt notwithstanding, was very close to being literal if the death threats against your former classmates were any indication. So don't ask for forgiveness again. Not to me or anyone else. Forgot not deserving it. We don't have the capacity to give it to you anymore."

 With that, Andrew walked away, still hurting and not the least bit satisfied as the small number of onlookers watched on. All he could do was hope that he could spend what little time he had left with his friends before they likely part ways forever. He can only imagine how people will react to the set of videos taken by the people who recorded his interaction with Marinette, especially anyon who watches them back in Raliegh.

 Marinette herself was dumbfounded by the whole thing as she processed everything that Andrew said. She looked around at the crowd as those who were recording the encounter finished doing so before the mini crowd dispersed with a few sneers, jeers and scowls at Marinette, especially in regard to her so-called Karma and her using her access to the Miraculous Cure as her justification to do what she wanted to her former classmates. Yet another hit to her reputation that was about to get worse once the videos get posted online and start gaining traction, especially with the new counterarguments that Andrew proposed that no one used against her before. She knew she had to find some way to fix it before things get worse for her, because pretty soon, once those videos of her argument with Andrew start cropping up, everyone in France who's even remotely close to being in dire straits, let alone in similar positions as Andrew and his parents, will be coming for her head even more than they already are. There had to be a way to redeem herself. To save her reputation before it gets any worse.

 Unfortunately, we already know that she'll fail to do so in the end because of her hubris... especially when those videos reach the phones, laptops and tablets of Lila's previous victims from around the world.

 All she can hope for at this point is that Karma truly isn't real...