Ok here was my idea for this:
Marinette was found dead below the Eiffel Tower. All the evidence displayed points to suicide, but what if someone planted the evidence because they took it too far?
The ship for this is Lukanette and it's class salt cuz I like the drama, and Adrien Salt might be included in this one
TW for talking about death, suicide I guess idk how to do it T-T
The news struck Paris hard. Marinette Dupain-Cheng found dead below Eiffel Tower. Everyone knew the girl as the kindest person in town. She was always willing to help someone even if she was busy, she made it her mission to help them feel better and even perform unnecessary favors.
And when the city found out she was Ladybug, there was immediately construction for a statue in her honor.
But what caught their eye while investigating the crime scene was that there were scratches and scars, revealing a struggle. It gave birth to the theory that Marinette was attacked and possibly thrown off the tower, not that she committed suicide and jumped on her own accord. Detectives immediately spread out and questioned anyone close to her if they knew anything. They decided to go to one of the first people to go to in a murder case: the lover.
Luka began dating Marinette 6 months prior to her death, and he loved her with all his heart. He also knew of her alter ego, as her melody was the same in both forms. He was heartbroken when she died, he didn't even look at his bass for 3 days straight. He was hiding from the world in his bed under the sheets, just like Marinette did when she felt alone.
The investigator took his time with the teen, as he knew that he would need time and the wounds were still fresh. The musician successfully gave answers to all of their questions, wanting to know who would kill his girlfriend and leave her like that.
Luka said they were talking about an hour before she could have died, discussing plans to meet up later in the week. He showed him the messages of Marinette then saying she was going to the Eiffel Tower to get inspiration for designs, messaged that she loved him, and that was the last thing she said. The detective made sure to get copies of the messages, as it solidified their theory that it wasn't a suicide. You wouldn't make plans with someone later in the week if you were only to die an hour later, it didn't add up.
The detectives thanked Luka for his time and recommended he talked to someone if he was feeling down, they didn't want him to end up like Marinette. They moved on to their next suspects: the parents.
The Dupain-Cheng couple started off slow, Sabine was still in shock that their baby girl was found dead in a place were she visited all the time. They opened up more about how Marinette's demeanor changed as there were problems emerging at school. They talked about how most of her friends from childhood believed another girl who they knew for probably a few days. The couple tried their best to comfort their daughter and offered to get her transferred to another school. Marinette apparently declined, saying she couldn't leave. Then she told them she was going to the Eiffel Tower to clear her head, and was seen carrying her sketchbook out the door.
Based on the time that the parents say the chat happened, the authorities were starting to piece the investigation together. Marinette was facing bullying problems, her parents tried to comfort her, messaged Luka, and left to clear her head by drawing at the Eiffel Tower. But police thought back to when they were clearing the crime scene, her sketchbook was nowhere to be found. They made sure to get a picture copy of the book from her parents in case anyone saw it. They moved on to their next suspects: the bullies.
And this was where the case became interesting.
The detectives started questioning each classmate one at a time who were involved or witnessed the bullying to Marinette. The ones who were involved would say the same thing, about how she was jealous of Lila and that she was being rude all because of an obsessive crush. However, some stories varied.
Nino Lahiffe was a childhood friend of Marinette, and seemed to be one of the few in the class who had a braincell. He explained that at first he fell for the lies, but realized Lila was lying when she lied about knowing a deceased famous filmmaker. He apologized to Marinette and started rebuilding their friendship and trust, occurring a month before the incident. Nino was taken off the suspect list, as it wouldn't make sense to fake being friends again just to kill a month later. It would have been sooner, or he wouldn't have seemed so sad to lose his friend. Nino dedicated himself to finding out who killed his childhood friend after they were repairing their friendship.
Other classmates who were like Nino were Chloe, Sabrina, Max, Juleka, and Nath. They all had similar stories of finding out the lies, apologizing, and rebuilding the friendship. Chloe and Sabrina called her out on the lies but were called bullies and isolated. Juleka, like Nino, had a lover chose the liar over the other. Max realized that a napkin can't scratch your eye, especially if you are wearing glasses and forever is haunted by his lacking brain at the time. Nathaniel found out after Lila lied to him and Marc about knowing a dead comic artist from over a decade ago.
Adrien was soon investigated, and this was where the case was starting to take a dark turn. He seemed cross between two different answers, and was hesitating to explain which. He eventually spilt that he knew Lila was lying but didn't speak up because he didn't see how much it was physically and mentally hurting Marinette and others. It also didn't help that he grew up without social skills and learned to ignore it like he did with tabloids. He didn't realize his mistake until it was too late.
Rose was Juleka's lover. She slowly started to believe Lila's lies, even though Juleka was wary of it and tried to get her to stay away from her. They started fighting, the tension between them grew, and eventually they took a break, which turned into an official breakup. Rose basically sobbed to Lila about it, which honestly made the liar feel slightly bad, but not bad enough to admit everything. But we'll get to her soon.
Alya was Nino's lover and Lila's most loyal sheep. She sticks up for Lila for anything and was convinced that Marinette was a bully and she got what she deserved. Marinette's friends said most of the bullying was because of Alya, and she didn't deny it either. Whenever it was brought up in questioning, Alya would just say:
"A bully needed to be put in their place." Those words would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Now Lila, she was all over the place. She gave a fake sob story about how the bluenette bullied her, bringing in some fake tears to really sell it. The detectives pretended to believe her, and she bought it. When they brought up the case, Lila was the most honest in that moment than they had seen in the entire investigation.
Lila said that Alya threw her off the tower, but she wasn't sure if it was an accident or not. She even showed them the messages of Alya saying what she was planning to do, and failed to delete the messages to cover her tracks. There was even a photo of Marinette's book, but no sign of the blue haired teen.
Apparently, as Lila puts it, she had a sketchbook that looked similar to Marinette's, and Alya thought it was hers. Alya knew that one of the places Marinette goes to think is the Eiffel Tower, where she confronted her. Lila thinks that Alya tried to get the book, and killed Marinette on purpose, or by accident. For once, Lila didn't do anything physical to harm the girl.
The authorities decided to contact the Akuma Class' parents, and they were clearly unaware of what their children were up to. Miss Rossi had a fit when she found out about what her daughter was lying about just to get out of school.
And just like that, all of her lies were outed, and Lila went down with Alya. The girls were found guilty 2nd hand murder (I think that's what it is anyways) and were placed in juvie. They would be sent to an adult prison once they were old enough. On top of that, the families were sued, the Ladyblog was taken down, and Lila was transferred to a mental hospital. The rest of the class faced similar fates.
Bustier and Damocles were sued for neglect, bribery, abuse of power, and favoritism. (I just wanted to add those in for the ones who wanna know the future consequences)
A few weeks later, at Marinette's funeral, a miracle occurred. As Luka was about to speak, the coffin was being banged on from the inside. It was quickly opened, to find a drowsy and disoriented Marinette confused on where she was. Everyone was crying and hugging her, wanting to never let go. Marinette isn't allowed to go anywhere without at least one friend around and had to take self-defense classes, not that she was complaining.
But there was that question that lingered after she 'rose from the dead': was Marinette alive the entire time? She wasn't breathing for 3 week and suddenly came back good as new as if she just woke up from a nap. It was reported on the news as Luck of the Bug, believing that maybe her powers saved her and she went into some sort of hibernation to prevent herself from dying.
Or it could have been Tikki and a wish.
Either way, the world has its sunshine back, and won't take her for granted ever again. Life is too short for that, anyways.
Miraculous Salt is so fun to write :)
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