The Queen's Reign

The Call

When she walked into school the next day, Marinette's head was still fuzzy. She couldn't pay attention to anything except her black jackets. She watched their every move, every breath, wondering who it had been that was betraying her.

They all wore their pins, she could see the indent on their jacket, as well as see the nerves each of them had when talking to anyone who wasn't wearing the pin, the typical behavior of a black jacket.

At lunch, Marinette contemplated who it could be.

Maybe Juleka was loyal to her girlfriend, and Rose was completely under Lila's spell. Maybe Lila convinced Rose to have Juleka come after her.

It could be Nino for the same reason. As much as she hated the thought of her childhood best friend betraying her, especially after knowing what she was capable of, he was loyal, and Alya was Lila's biggest supporter, so he sadly wasn't out of the running just yet either.

Kwami, doubting him felt wrong. Doubting any of her followers felt wrong.

Then came Kim. He was extremely loyal and unforgiving. Could Lila have gotten it into his head that Marinette had hurt her?

Marinette scowled. If only Ciemny had been a black jacket. Of course, they wouldn't have learned that there was a traitor if they had been, but it would have been easier to get word on how they acted and who they interacted with.

Marinette's eyes drifted from her lunch tray to the black jacket's table, seeing them all quiet and whispering. It was common for the black jackets to stick together after being revealed, especially when dealing with such a high target.

Her heart clenched, thinking of all her previous black jackets, which she usually treated as if they were babies, taking care of their every need, bending to their will, changing the course of plans to their every need, usually because they were the court's only weakness, once they had even gone as far as to delay plans a whole year because a black jacket was in direct contact with a target 24/7, and it'd have been too suspicious to keep tabs on them the whole time.

She and her court always promised that their followers would be put before anything, even before taking down targets, which was usually why so many people followed her. Because they weren't just disposable pawns, but instead a team - a kingdom.

Their opinion was important and valued.

Every single one of them.

Marinette glanced over at the black jackets, who were chatting happily, as if there wasn't a traitor amongst them, and groaned, her head falling into her hands.

Ciemny saw Marinette's head fall into her hands out of the corner of their eye. They could just imagine the frustrated groan she was letting out.

They would've gone over and hugged her, but that'd have blown their cover.

"(Censored!), what are you looking at?" Ciemny's head snapped back to the conversation, their whole class staring at them, as Lila's eyes bore into their head. Having been a spy for the past half-year - thanks to Marinette's paranoia and strange way of predicting the future - Ciemny was used to making up excuses.