Miracle Box - an MLB rewrite

Despair

Marinette studied the board she'd just made. It was a map of Paris which she had bought ages ago at a second hand store, thinking it looked cool and vintage and then never putting it up in her room. She put little red dots on each place around an area she remembered akuma victims becoming akumatized. Next to each, she had a sticky note with the name of the villain and their identity; Ivan Bruel as Stoneheart, Aurore Bureal as Stormy Weather, Nathaniel Kutzburg as the Evillustrator, Rose Lavillant as Princess Fragrance, and Alya Cesaire as Lady Wifi.

All but Aurore happened to be her classmates, only raising her suspicion that Hawkmoth had something to do with the school. All but Rose and Aurore had been akumatized within the school building. It was certainly noteworthy.

Alya had gone through a handful of surgeries to repair her leg. The incident had severed her bone, though she had absolutely no memory of the event. She now wore a cast on her leg, but because of how fragile the bone was now, Alya had been coming to school in a wheelchair.

It was surprising to Marinette that she'd never noticed how unfriendly her school was to people in wheelchairs. There were stairs, but no ramps. Alya needed special assistance to get to nearly all of her classes up and down the stairs. Because of the way some of the classrooms were built, Alya had to sit in the front row, swapping with Adrien in a few of their classes.

Marinette was there for her. Because of the injury, many people quickly found out Alya had become Lady Wifi which caused some resentment between her and Chloe. In fact, a lot of people took their anger out on Alya, now knowing who she'd become. She'd received hate notes in her locker, nasty glares and people had spread awful rumors about her as well.

"I think I want to spread positivity for the akumatized victims, using my channel," Alya said. They were in Ms. Mendeleev's class, meaning Alya could sit next to Marinette without a problem.

"Yeah?"

"I mean... I don't remember anything from Lady Wifi. I just remember this... horrible feeling coming over me before it happened and then... nothing. Next thing I know I wake up and Chat Noir is carrying me to a hospital," Alya said. "None of the victims–and they are victims mind you–know what's happened. We have no memory of it, so who's to say we had any control over our actions while we were akumatized?"

"Right," Marinette agreed, thinking of Rose. Rose, sweet little Rose. She'd never hurt that many people the way she did. It was easy for Marinette to separate Princess Fragrance from Rose, just as she could with all the other victims. They were different people, their bodies simply becoming a vessel.

"I just don't think they deserve any hate. It's... a complicated situation though, isn't it? Especially since whoever Princess Fragrance was..."

"Yeah, yeah," Marinette nodded, hoping Alya wouldn't connect the dots on Princess Fragrance's identity and change her mind. 

"Would you like to share your important conversation with the class Miss Dupan-Cheng and Miss Cesaire?" Ms. Mendeleev snapped.

"N-no ma'am!" Alya said with a meek smile.

"That's what I thought," Ms. Mendeleev said, turning her back on them to continue writing on what the projector had up on the board. Marinette noticed Chloe glaring cruelly up at Alya, hate filling her eyes. Chloe had been Lady Wifi's first victim, it was no wonder Chloe was mad about it.

Thankfully, there weren't any akuma victims for the next few days. Perhaps Hawkmoth was busy, or maybe he was reassessing a plan. Either way, the break didn't put Marinette at any ease.

At lunch, Marinette sat with Alya. Alya had mastered the art of wheeling around in her wheelchair and was fully capable of getting her food on her own. It made Marinette happy to see she was adapting to overcome, she was getting better. Alya didn't seem hindered by this at all. In fact, she was back to her usual self by the end of the week.