Ladybug's fake identity

Chapter 11: Café

Time passed. Lyssa pierced her right ear a second time to wear the dangling earring. It wasn't that she particularly liked the present, especially since it came from Marinette, but Lila had insisted that it would be a good opportunity. After they started wearing their matching hero-themed earrings, the students in the school whispered about Rena Rouge, too. About how the hero couldn't possibly be anyone else than Lila. The latter started disappearing whenever the fox heroine helped Ladybug and Chat Noir, too.

 
Marinette didn't try to prove that the rumor was wrong. She knew there was no use. But Alya did. Nino helped her, but with an only halfway convinced ally, there wasn't much she could do. She showed videos of Lila akumatized as Volpina, then videos of Rena Rouge. The villain and the heroine were obviously different, but people explained that difference by the fact that one was evil while the other one was good.

 
"Don't you want to help me?" Alya begged Marinette to help her after school.

"I do, but there's no point in trying to convince them. We have no proof. The only way to show that Lila isn't Rena Rouge is to discover her identity." The blue haired girl shook her head.

"But there's no proof that she actually is! Do you really believe that Lila is Rena Rouge?"

"Of course I don't! I'm not even sure that Lyssa is Ladybug, it would make no sense to just deduct who Rena is."

"Then why did you offer them those earrings?"

"Because I thought that, if they were heroines, it would have been them. Just like I would have chosen you to be my fox if I was Ladybug. It would simply make sense for Lyssa to choose Lila as the holder of the miraculous of illusion if she really is Ladybug."

"But she isn't."

"Then who is it?" Marinette crossed her arms, seeing how her best friend bit her lip.

 
She knew that Alya wanted to tell her the truth, but she couldn't. She had made a promise to Ladybug, she couldn't break it for the sake of an argument. No matter how much she wanted to tell her, she couldn't. It was for the sake of her identity and she understood the consequences. So she just stood there without saying anything.

 
"The problem is that you all assumed that Lyssa is Ladybug with the same arguments as the ones they use now to prove that Lila is Rena Rouge. There's no proof that they are, but there isn't proof that they aren't, either. Only their behavior can help us get to a conclusion. But they could very well be acting, too."

"Lila is acting." Alya directly declared with a surprising coldness in her voice.

Marinette supressed a smile. This conversation was going exactly where she hoped it would be. "Then what about Lyssa?"

At first, Alya didn't seem to understand what she was hinting. Then it hit her. Her eyes widened with a bit of fear. But she had convinced herself for too long that she had finally found out Ladybug's identity. Taking it back directly would have been too easy.

 
"No, it's impossible. Lyssa isn't acting. She's been like that since the beginning and she's bad at lying."

"If she really was, don't you think that everyone in Paris would know by now? It isn't like she's being discreet about it."

The designer could have continued, but stopped right in her tracks when she saw Lyssa approach them with a smile, dragging Adrien behind her.

"Alya!" the liar called. "Didn't you want to go to the café with us this afternoon? Are you coming?"

"I- Um-" the reporter panicked. "But... What about Marinette?"

The latter was flattered that her friend thought of her, for once. But there was no way she'd come. "I'm sorry, I promised dad that I'd help him out today at the bakery. Another day, maybe?"