Jerk in Sheep's Clothing

Taking Action

Adrien arrived home, feeling like he had been wrung through a presser or flattened by a steamroller. He called off his transformation, stumbling forward and falling face-first into his mattress. The information he had received from Marinette weighed heavy on his mind and on his heart.

It hurt. It hurt knowing that Marinette had not trusted him enough to tell him everything about Lila. It hurt knowing that his own actions, or rather inactions, had made her doubt his loyalty and care for her. It hurt knowing that he had inadvertently had a hand in leaving her open to Henri's manipulation.

"Kid! You okay?"

"No, Plagg...", he mumbled, lifting his head to look at him. "I'm not okay. This is all my fault. I caused this whole thing with Henri."

"Shut your mouth!", Plagg snapped. "It's not all your fault! You didn't make Lila lie in the first place! You tried to ask her to stop, and she just ended up getting akumatized. Of course you would be scared to confront her again."

Adrien sat up, a crease forming in his forehead. "Wait a minute...akuma...Marinette said she was almost akumatized the day Lila came back..." His eyes doubled in size. "Plagg! What if it was the same akuma that got Lila? What if she was just in the wrong place in the wrong time?!"

"That would make sense. But you know, kiddo...even if you didn't confront her...you didn't make the other kids turn against Pigtails. That was their decision."

"But Lila is manipulating them! Twisting their hearts and minds around! Using them for her own gain!"

"Maybe...but that's a fate they chose. They knew Marinette. She tried to warn them multiple times, but they chose not to listen to her, despite the fact that she's proved her character to them over and over again. If they would rather listen to a bunch of stupid stories just because they sound nice, then accept the truth, no matter how ugly, that's not your fault."

"But if I had been more active in standing up to Chloé instead of just letting her walk all over me, Marinette would have trusted me enough to tell me the whole truth about Lila, and I could have backed her up when she confronted her. If I had been a better friend, we could have nipped this whole thing in the bud sooner."

"I'm not sure you could have, Adrien.", Plagg said sadly. "I mean, everyone knew Marinette better than you. If they didn't believe her over Lila with no proof, I doubt your chances would been any better."

Adrien's shoulders slumped. "You're right...plus, thanks to Chloé, I don't have the best track record with dependability. There's no way they would believe me about Lila. And even if there had been a sliver of a chance they'd believe me, it's long gone now. Lila's hold on the class was cemented a long time ago. They're too far gone to listen to me now."

He straightened up. "But I'm not giving up. I have to expose Lila, whatever it takes. It's the only way to get rid of Henri."

"Huh?"

"Plagg, think about it. Marinette only takes Henri's side because she's lonely and hurt from losing everyone to Lila. She thinks Henri is the only one who really cares about her, and that's why she's so willing to defend him, no matter what the charge. If we try to shake her loose of him while Lila's still around, she'll just think we're being hypocrites because of how we stick to Lila. We get rid of Lila, the class apologizes and works towards owing to to their mistakes. Then, next time Henri tries to pull something, Marinette won't be so quick to point the finger at her friends."

Plagg nodded slowly. He was right. As long as Lila was around, Marinette would think the class was biased against her and Henri because of everything that had happened. They needed to get Little Miss Pants on Fire out of the picture first before they could work on getting Mister Phony Baloney out, too.