Marinette learns the biggest rule when it comes to trusting Lila Rossi:
You DO NOT trust Lila Rossi.
You DO NOT trust Lila Rossi.
— The story's summary
In the aftermath of Two Letters, all seems well for Marinette. She no longer has to deal with the stresses and hassles of being Ladybug, she has the perfect boyfriend in Luka, and the new Ladybug Lila Rossi has defeated Hawkmoth (if only for her own gain) while also inflicting pain on the various citizens that Marinette grew to despise.
But when Lila decides that she's not satisfied with this relationship, she decides to use her brand new powers and manipulative skills in order to ensure that Marinette's actions come to light.
Face the Truth
is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic which acts as a recursive fanfic to Two Letters. It is complete.
The fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Achilles Heel: Light Eye could stare at someone indefinitely, trapping them in their truth-enforcing light forever, but here the more it does the more it needs to blink, and when it does, its victim is free to move.
- Adaptational Karma: For Marinette. In the original story, she got away with destroying the Rabbit Miraculous, making Lila Rossi the new Ladybug, and even planning on using the wish to rewrite reality so she can live the normal life she feels entitled to, should it be necessary. This story has Lila herself betray Marinette, forcing her to reveal the truth about what she did to all of Paris.
- All for Nothing: The story renders the events of Two Letters invalid by not only having Marinette forced to reveal all the horrible things she did, causing her reputation to tank, but to come from the very same person she entrusted the Ladybug Miraculous with in the first place.
- Ambiguous Situation: The story never actually reveals if Lila was the one who akumatized Luka. We see him akumatized, but Lila exclusively uses the Ladybug Miraculous throughout the story.
- Ascended Fridge Horror: One of the things left unexplained in the original story was the fact that, with Lila now having the Ladybug Miraculous, nothing prevented her from using that newfound power to destroy Marinette's social life. This story runs with that interpretation.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Regardless of what happens off-screen, the story ends with Lila destroying Marinette's good standing yet again.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Marinette retains this outlook from the original fic- and it really comes back to bite her this time. She had previously justified throwing Paris to the wolves because they were continually getting akumatized for the stupidest reasons, while she never even came close to that point. The main reason that she chose Luka as the boyfriend she deserved was that he had only been akumatized for her sake, which made it okay. Marinette is at a complete loss when her boyfriend showed up as Truth, since "he's a sweet and kind boy who can't be akumatized." She apparently forgot the very important fact that it only takes a Moment of Weakness to fall prey to Hawkmoth.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The story ends with Marinette charging at Lila with full intent to attack her for being forced to reveal her Dark Secret. Lila is smirking in victory and is in Ladybug mode (read: enhanced physical abilities and a Killer Yo-Yo) plus has the Butterfly Miraculous and Truth is also in the room but in a heavily implied Heroic BSoD. On the streets of Paris, Alix has a reignited desire to get even with Marinette for her actions. And Heaven only knows what revealing her identity and her hatred for all of Paris will bring to Mari.
- Broken Pedestal: Lila's plan to smash Marinette's in front of the whole of Paris works flawlessly.
- Deconstruction Fic: In the original fic, Marinette had no difficulties in outmaneuvering her foes to get her “happy ending,” and even though the story ends with a lot of players still on the board (Lila and Felix, Adrien and the Guardians, Kagami and the Resistance, an unpowered but otherwise still capable Alyx) she remained confident that she would be able to defeat any of those factions if they got in her way, leaving her a Karma Houdini. This fanfic lays out just how utterly misplaced that confidence would be. Considering Marinette’s plan involved going to a girl she knew to be an Attention Whore, a heartless manipulator, and the embodiment of Evil Is Petty and handing her near-unlimited power, there was absolutely no threat or display of prowess she could give that would leave Lila toeing her line forever. Lila simply akumatizes Luka with a power set he had in canon, and Marinette is helpless to do anything about it.
- Didn't Think This Through: Marinette's scheme to get her revenge on all of Paris eventually runs into one big hurdle: she entrusted the power of the Miraculous to Lila Rossi, who will do anything to regain complete control and destroy Marinette. She also discovers the hard way that just because she destroyed the Bunny Miraculous, it was not as if the Guardians could not remake it later — although Lila decides to use it by presenting it as evidence of Marinette's evil instead of the more destructive application.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Lila instantly broadcasts Marinette's Akuma-forced confession to the whole of Paris by hijacking every television set in the city.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Marinette knew perfectly well that Lila Rossi is petty, treacherous, and driven to destroy those who annoy her (let alone those she hates, such as Marinette) at any cost; what did she expect?
- Eviler than Thou: While Two Letters shows ample proof of how much a Saltinette Played for Horror is an example of this to the villains of Miraculous Ladybug, this tale makes it clear that trusting Lila to not exploit her power (in every way that term stands) as Ladybug to destroy Marinette regardless of what Mari set to keep her on a leash was a truly stupid decision.
- Fighting from the Inside:
- As Marinette's confession goes on, Truth noticeably begins to shake, although the story ends without him doing more than that or showing if he is doing it out of love or rage at how much of a Broken Pedestal Mari has become in his eyes.
- Marinette tries to prevent herself from spilling the beans under the light of Truth, but she is completely incapable of stopping. Even the potential dodge of giving a Metaphorically True answer she cannot do, courtesy of Lila giving very thorough questions.
- Happy Ending Override: The story pulls one for Marinette, as she ends up losing almost everything she gained at the end of Two Letters by the hand of the very person she entrusted the Ladybug Miraculous as part of her revenge.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Marinette chose Lila as her successor as Ladybug because she knew that she would do anything it took to defeat Hawkmoth and then punish all of Paris as the “hero they deserve.” Lila ends up taking Marinette down just as easily, destroying her reputation while framing herself as the good guy- proving to be the hero MARINETTE deserves.
- Internal Reveal: Lila akumatizes Luka into Truth and forces Marinette to admit that she broke the rabbit miraculous and used to be Ladybug.
- This also results in Luka learning something that even he hadn't known- namely that Lila's ascension as Ladybug had been engineered by Marinette specifically to punish all of Paris.
- Karma Houdini: The story ends before we see if Marinette is even able to punch Lila in the face, with the latter having an implied huge increase in her acceptance amongst the citizens of Paris (and implied she got some good standing with the Miraculous Order by giving them the Rabbit Miraculous to repair) and the obvious immediate glee at ruining Marinette yet again, and this time in a really huge degree.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Marinette ended Two Letters with everything she wanted, but this story takes away the warranty by having the very person she entrusted the Ladybug Miraculous with turn on her and expose her.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The story casually reveals three big plot points from Two Letters: Lila is the new Ladybug, Marinette destroyed the Rabbit Miraculous, and that she did everything as part of a revenge scheme against all of Paris.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Marinette is destroyed by Lila yet again, and this time she definitely has nobody else but herself to blame.
- Loophole Abuse: Defied. Lila makes damned sure to question Marinette in ways that would prevent her from giving Metaphorically True answers, and under the Light Eye of Truth her struggle not to answer is both tortuous and futile.
- Retroactive Idiot Ball: This story makes Marinette's decision to entrust the Ladybug Miraculous to Lila as part of her revenge scheme into this, as not only does Lila still hate Marinette with a passion, but she has no problem using the very power she was entrusted with to destroy her.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lila has Truth make Marinette tell Paris's citizens (via a televised speech) how much she despises them.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Luka / Truth thinks that the Light Eye sentimonster will force Marinette to tell the truth even about things that she forgot thanks to losing her memories when she lost her position as Guardian. In reality, Marinette already knew everything Truth makes her confess because she wrote herself a letter to tell herself everything important anyway, so her amnesia wasn't a factor.
- Sequel Hook: The story ends with Alix and Luka utterly enraged at hearing Marinette's confession (although we don't see what actions they take) and Marinette charging at Lila with intent to attack her after being forced to reveal to the world that she was Ladybug and the depths of her spite for the rest of Paris.
- Smug Snake: It just would not be Lila without every single mention of her in the story having her swooning in glee at having one over Marinette.
- This Cannot Be!: The first three lines of the Fic are Marinette thinking, with increased emphasis, that "this [Lila ruining her] was not supposed to happen".
- Too Clever by Half: This story retroactively makes Marinette this, if not an example of Revenge Before Reason. By handing Lila the Miraculous and setting her loose to cause mayhem in Paris, Marinette gave one of her most insidious bullies too much power.
- Uncertain Doom: Within seconds of showing up, Lila makes clear that she now has possession of the Butterfly Miraculous. Which was in the hands of Felix in the previous story, and he was a willing accomplice of the Monster Protection Racket Lila had going on. The story helpfully declines to tell us where is Felix right now, and/or if Lila did anything to him.
