Demon Alya AU: Lila the Possessor
Marinette could feel the blood draining from her face. She’d expected to see almost anything when she’d decided to follow Lila, from her weaving her next lie to a clandestine meeting with Hawkmoth himself.
The girl casually talking to a burning portal in midair was so far outside expectations that Marinette was having trouble reorienting herself.
“You would not believe the level of goody-goody nonsense I have to put up with over here. It frankly makes me want to puke. Fortunately most of them are as gullible as they come, so I’ll eventually be able to collect their souls no problem. It’ll make a nice power boost for myself while I’m tracking down Hawkmoth to claim both his soul and his Miraculous. Make sure to keep up the ritual sacrifices and everything going strong, because some of my bosses are coming later this week and we want to impress them. I’ll stop by later after I’ve checked in with ‘mommy dearest’. Ta-ta.”
Marinette realized she needed to hide just a second too late.
“Well, well,” Lila grinned just a little too wide for Marinette’s comfort level. “Look who just saw more than they were supposed to.”
“You-you…”
“Yes, me, me. What of it?”
“I-You-Ladybug and Chat Noir will stop you!” Marinette finally got out.
To her astonishment, Lila actually laughed at that. “Those two imbeciles don’t even know I exist, and it wouldn’t matter if they did.”
She stepped up and leaned so far into Marinette’s personal space that the girl had to take a step back.
“I’m inviolate. The daughter of an Italian diplomat. Those two nitwits would never start an international incident. They’re too noble for that.”
“I… I doubt you’re really the diplomat’s daughter,” Marinette said with a confidence she didn’t feel. She should have hidden. Or transformed. Being transformed right now would be really nice, but she didn’t dare do it in front of Lila unless there was no other option.
“Aren’t you clever?” Lila simpered. “I’m not Ambassador Rossi’s daughter… but I am wearing her.”
“Um… what…?” Marinette squeaked.
“You see, there was this little Italian girl crying in the park one day a few months ago, moaning about how hard it was to make friends. How her mother kept moving and she kept having to start over from scratch and boo-hoo all the kids at her school wouldn’t be her friends. And then you know what happened?”
“W-what?”
“She foolishly said she’d sell her soul if she could only make friends easier. I mean, what was I supposed to do with an opening like that? So I told her I could help her get friends if she wanted. She was so stupidly happy that she said she’d do anything right then and there.”
“W-what did you do?”
“What did I do? I plunged my hand into her chest and ripped her soul out right then and there! The look on her face was priceless! 'Oh, don’t worry,’ I told her. 'I’ll be sure you have plenty of "friends” to fawn all over you or at least me.’ and then I possessed her body!“
"What d-did you do with h-her then?”
“Oh, I keep her around. Let her watch how well I’m fulfilling my end of our bargain. She’s so ungrateful, though, always moaning about how I should stop lying and manipulating people because that’s 'not what friends do’. It’s so pathetic it’s hilarious!”
“Ladybug and Chat Noir will stop you,” Marinette tried to rally herself. “I’ll help them.”
Lila laughed like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Oh, I hope you try! Wouldn’t that be a sight! Poor Marinette has a psychotic break from stress and accuses a classmate of being a demon! No one would believe you! They’ll throw you in the nuthouse and I’ll just take all your classmates souls anyway. Maybe I’ll have them be human sacrifices too…”
“Don’t you dare!” Marinette snarled. She didn’t care if Lila was really a demon from Hell, no one threatened her friends!
“Temper, temper…” Lila sneered. “But you know, maybe you could get someone to believe you. Which would mean that 'Lila’ has outlived her usefulness. I’d have to abandon her, maybe get my cult to carve her up to throw off suspicion, and find a new gullible sap to
inhabit.”
Lila’s expression turned extremely dark and taunting.
“As a matter of fact, I’ve had my eye on dear sweet Adrien for a while.”
“No…”
“Yes…! Such a perfect host. Rich… famous… connected… An overprotective father who neglects him constantly, leaving a son starved for affection and attention. I could probably get him to sell his soul just by promising to get his father to pay attention to him. And you know… If you helped me, I could be persuaded to ensure 'Adrien’ would be your boyfriend afterwards…”
“Never!”
Lila actually seemed a bit surprised by how firm her denial was.
“Well, suit yourself. It’s not like you can do anything to me anyway. Even if you killed this body, I’d just find a new one and then you’d never see me coming. See you around, Marinette.”
Marinette managed to wait three minutes after Lila turned the corner before allowing her legs to give out from under her.
“Tikki…”
“She’s gone,” Tikki said, looking uncharacteristically solemn. “Now that I know what she is, I can sense her presence easily.”
“How… how do we deal with something like that?”
“Oh, Marinette,” Tikki said gently, “what forces do you think the Miraculous were created to combat in the first place? The day we can’t handle one little upstart demon is the day we retire.”
“Oh god, that poor girl… Lila…”
“There are ways to get her soul back to her body, even if it’s been taken to Hell,” Tikki said. “They’re some of the few rituals the Order of Guardians allowed us kwami to learn.”
“Okay… okay… we’ll still need to get… er… 'Lila’ out of… um… Lila’s… body… geez that sounds weird to say…”
“There are ways to do that too. Your cleansing powers could manage it, but for the best results…”
“You’ll need the cleansing powers of Destruction.”
Marinette and Tikki both looked to see Plagg, looking so thunderously irate that Marinette had to double-check that he wasn’t actively using Cataclysm.
“To think,” Plagg said with the care and deliberation of someone who knew if they exerted any less self control they would lose any semblance of control over their temper, “that there was a possessor demon so brazen as to be on the same continent - the same city - as my kitten. And I managed to miss it for this long… I’m losing my touch. Well, now that I know she exists, there’s nowhere for her to hide. I’ll be teaching my kitten the more advanced uses of his powers immediately. Clearly I’ve been lax in his training. Well, no more. It’s time to remind those spirits who would steal and inhabit the bodies of others exactly why those who wear the Ring of the Black Cat are the most feared exorcists in history.”
—–
Chat Noir eventually learns the tricks and when he and Ladybug face off against 'Lila’, he shocks 'Lila’ when he proves intent on Cataclysming her directly, but she feels confident that would only dust her 'meat suit’. She has just enough time to scream in terror when it proves to do the opposite, dusting the possessing spirit and leaving the body intact.
Ladybug does the ritual to return the real Lila’s soul to her body and the girl has to spend a month in therapy before she can go out in public from the trauma.
The class welcomes her with open arms, and a hug (and secret blessing) from Rose does more good for her than the month of therapy.
The demon 'Lila’s’ cult seems to have vanished off the face of the earth and when asked about them, Alya and Juleka just kind of whistle innocently.
The real Lila goes on to become friends with everyone in class and eventually this traumatic chapter in her life becomes almost like a bad dream.
—–
Oh, hey, you can have your Lila hate sink and your Lila redemption!
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