The Salt Files: Additional Cases (MLB)

Checking Your Sources

Marinette actually gets asked if the lies are true or not, like she should have in the first place. Instead, it took humiliation and embarrassment to push Alya to ask.

Marinette sighed at her best friend. "Alya, who told the lies?"

"Lila!" The reporter responded immediately.

"And who believed them?" The girl was silent.

Bunnyx sadly smiled at the reality. It was one of the ones that could've happened but didn't. She turned towards the current one the little bug was in, where a similar situation was going down.

Recently in this universe, Alya's blog had been going downhill. Not because Hawkmoth stopped making appearances, no the akumas were a weekly occurrence if not daily. But lately, Ladybug hasn't stopped to give Alya an interview. The heroine actually started giving Aurore interviews, gaining her followers. Cat Noir actually subtly requested some Cat Noir merch, which she gladly said she would think about. 

Which also led to her and Marinette creating a merch line including hoodies and shirts, as well as stickers and magnets and such. Aurore also included a link to Marinette's official fashion page, but that's not the focus of this story.

No, the focus is why Ladybug chose Aurore over Alya. And the answer was simple: Lila.

Since the akuma attack were now becoming less frequent, Alya needed to find a way to keep her popularity going. Sure, akuma battles were interesting to watch from the sidelines. But when all is said and done, who's going to remember Alya? As just the girl who recklessly chased after akumas everyday for a view? 

No, Alya needed more than that. How else was she going to make a bigger name for herself? And she knew the perfect person to help her.

Lila Rossi. Her life was interesting enough, visiting all these places, meeting famous people, and still being humble to the core. This girl had no flaws, and Alya was sure her followers would love her and eat her up!

So, Alya started interviewing Lila. She started a mini series called 'Lila Rossi: An International Icon". Each video was an interview about each of her adventures, ranging from Achu and meeting Prince Ali to volunteering at children's shelters around the world. This girl could do no wrong!

But the more videos that were posted about Lila, the less views Alya would get. She didn't understand, Lila could be just as interesting as Ladybug! She just needed something extraordinary, that's all...

Alya went online to search up ways to gain followers when she saw Aurore's Bug Out page trending. It turns out most of Alya's views were going to the weather girl since she was about to score some interviews. More evidently, her interviews sometimes would be one on one, and even have Cat Noir asked a lot of questions since he was often overlooked. The internet seemed to appreciate very much since they saw that Cat Noir didn't get as much attention as Ladybug. Even the heroine herself has tried to get news outlets to focus on him more, but they ultimately either forgot her request entirely or ignored it. The world sure does love a female hero that takes the spotlight, doesn't it?

But this was all wrong! Alya was the one who had the heroes on her page first, she should be getting all the traction from it! And what was that about Marinette and Aurore doing a merch collab? Doesn't she know that Marinette was not as good as she appeared to be?

Alya ignored the pang in her heart when she thought about Marinette. They were friends once, but the friendship was scrapped once Alya realized she would never get over Lila and her so-called lies. In response to the bullying she endured by Marinette's hand, she made sure to give Lila extra screen time on her interviews.