To Lyger 0: That's how some wishes work, but not all. I'm going with an equal exchange. And the "equal exchange" for this insanely-powerful eldritch monstrosity ceasing its rampage of death and destruction across the planet… would probably be a different insanely-powerful eldritch monstrosity rampaging across the planet. And I doubt they want to deal with that!

Sabrina rushed out of the conference room and raced down the halls of the unfamiliar Angolan Temple, her vision blurred by the tears in her eyes. How could the others be so stupid? If they have the ability to stop the Tarasque, to bring back everyone they had lost, why wouldn't they at least consider it? Max was gone. So were Pablo and so many others. The Tarasque had bulldozed through the police line as if it weren't there; knowing her father, he must have been there with his officers. Had the Tarasque crushed him, too? And Emilie, and so many others who hadn't escaped from Paris – were they even still alive? She had felt hundreds – thousands – of civilians killed or injured during the fight. What about them? Didn't they count? Stopping the Tarasque – or making it so that the Tarasque had never woken in the first place – would bring all of them back to life, too. Why couldn't Marinette and Adrien see that?

Sobbing, Sabrina wiped away her tears just enough to see where she was going. She had never been to Angola before; visiting the other temples had always been Chloe's thing. Adrien and Marinette had visited a few of them, but the only other to have come here was – her stomach churned. She couldn't bear to think about him. Stumbling down the corridor, Sabrina could sense two sets of emotions in the large room to her right, but she ran right past the entrance without stopping to see who it was. All the hallways in the temple ran together. A whiff of cooking food touched her nose. She was near the dining room. The main hallway met another hallway, and the lighting created a stark shadow just beyond that corner, helpfully hidden by an open door. Hardly thinking about what she was doing, Sabrina slid to the floor, ducked behind the door into the shadow, and pulled her knees up to her chest. Hugging her legs, she closed her eyes, weeping silently, her shoulders wracked with silent sobs.

Even here – even inside the temple, she could still sense all of the emotions from outside. Everyone in Paris had suffered a loss. Everyone in the camp was still in shock from what had happened… but everyone in Paris was finally starting to snap out of their shock and straight into anger. Sabrina shuddered. Anger, depression, grief, sadness… never had she felt such a wave of all the same negative emotions, all at once. She could pick out some individual people's emotions – Marinette's guilt and grief and anger stood out like a beacon; Julia's grief threatened to overwhelm her. But beyond those few exceptions, she could hardly separate out individual emotions, let alone individual people's emotions.

So many people dead. Max, her father… how many more?

Damn them both, she thought darkly – her breathing hitched, and her cheeks flushed. How could she even think such a thing? How could she reject Max's sacrifice in such a callous way? Her father had told Max to keep her safe. Max had kept her safe… but it had cost him his life.

It had robbed her of him. "Oh… Max," she whispered to herself, sniffling and resting her forehead on her knees.

Footsteps pounded down the hall after her from the direction of the conference room. Worry, fear, anxiety… Sabrina wasn't ready to face any of it yet. Sabrina pushed herself deeper into the shadow as Chloe ran past, holding her breath and trying to still her pounding heart. Would Chloe hear it? Finally, the sound of Chloe's footsteps thudding on the stone floor faded into the distance. Once she could no longer hear Chloe or sense her emotions, Sabrina allowed herself to relax the tiniest bit, resting her head back against the cool stone wall behind her. Sometimes last summer, when Paris had been especially hot, she and Max had just sat in the Headquarters cavern against one of the walls, absorbing the cool from the ground. She clenched her fist, a hitch in her breath. "I can't believe they wouldn't do it!" Abruptly she slammed her fist into the floor next to her.

Soft paws patted her on her shoulder. "There, there," Kaalki consoled her. "I–I know what loss is."

Sabrina wiped her scratchy eyes. "I just – I can't believe he's gone…" she whispered, staring at the set stones of the wall without really seeing them.

Kaalki nodded sadly, her mane lacking its usual volume as she hovered right in front of Sabrina's face. "I haven't lost many active holders… but they all hurt. And Max – he was a special one."

Sabrina shuddered, sniffling.

Nooroo fluttered his wings against Sabrina's neck, tickling the ends of her hair. "I am sorry," he squeaked, his voice tremulous.

"I just… I loved him." Her voice trailed off weakly. She could feel fresh tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"I know," Nooroo told her sympathetically, brushing her cheek. "I could sense how much you cared for him. And I could sense how much he cared for you. Your love for each other was beautiful."

"And now…" She sniffled, rubbing her eye. "Now he's gone. H–How do I go on?"

Nooroo hummed softly. "Love like yours is special. And it will take time. Allow yourself to grieve. But… remember the good times you experienced together. What you had was a gift."

"Max would want you to live and find happiness," Kaalki added, nodding fervently. "He would not want to see this break you."

Sabrina's shoulders slumped. "How?"

Kaalki patted her cheek. "Live."

Sabrina's shoulders slumped. "It's just… it's hard." Her hands shook. "I–I'd gotten so used to life with Max and… I don't know… do you think we would have had a future together?"

Kaalki nodded, her ears drooping. "I know Max had thought about that, too." She sighed. "He saved you so you could do great things."

Nooroo shook his head. "No. He saved you because he loved you."

Sabrina scoffed. "And he didn't think I loved him and wanted him to stay with me?"

Voices echoed down the hallway from the direction of the dining room, arguing. Sabrina froze, waving for the Kwamis to be quiet, and pressed herself further back into the shadow to avoid being seen.

"It's not like we have forever to figure this out," Mihaela's voice warned. "It's going to start getting dark soon, and we can't just have Rapeto play 'nightlight'! And we can fit maybe a couple hundred in that cave, but that's it. But there are a couple million refugees! If Delwer excavates any more of it, the whole thing could collapse on top of them!"

"Charles agreed to let us have as much of the material in the Canal warehouse as we need," another voice assured. "All we have to do is get it."

"How the hell is that supposed to help tonight!? That's the opposite side of the continent! I was hoping they would actually bring us something. Can't they at least find anything a little closer?"

"If they had known in advance that this was going to happen, perhaps they would have staged supplies in Luanda. But they didn't know. We didn't know. No one knew. So we can only live with the way that things are."

Sabrina cocked her head, curious in spite of herself, and leaned forward to look for the source of the voices. Mihaela walked into view, alongside an older woman with white-streaked black hair. They didn't appear to have noticed her but continued to argue, walking side-by-side toward the temple's front door.

Kaalki nudged Sabrina and gestured toward them. "I think I know the first thing you can do…"

With a resigned sigh, Sabrina stood up and stepped out of the shadows. Mihaela turned toward her and jumped, blinking in surprise. "Sabrina? What are you doing there?"

Sabrina shrugged. "What's wrong?"

Mihaela let out a breath and groaned. Waving to the woman next to her, she explained, "Aïda's friend in the Red Cross got us supplies, but they're in Egypt, which doesn't exactly help us here and now."

"There's more than enough there to supply us for a couple weeks, and they can bring in shipments of other necessities in a few days once they figure out a system," Aïda added. "But they don't have anything better or closer available now."

Sabrina hummed, pursing her lips in thought. "If I open a portal there, could you get all the supplies we need?" Mihaela cocked her head in surprise, and Sabrina tapped the Horse Miraculous glasses with which she had replaced her own.

Mihaela's mouth opened in understanding. She nodded slowly and turned to Aïda. "Go and collect as many people as you can find," she instructed her. "We should do it near the center of the camp for convenience." After giving Aïda a minute's head start, Mihaela gestured to Sabrina and led the way back to the Temple entrance, transforming just before she stepped outside.

Hustling to keep up, Sabrina transformed when Mihaela did, unifying the two miraculous. Then she followed Rugindo Leoa down the rocky path from the temple down to the valley floor below. Rugindo Leoa led Cavalière Lavande across the valley to a small cleared-out area near the center of the valley where a number of the African Miraculous Users and their Guardian Initiates were milling about. Rugindo Leoa stopped near the middle of the group, beside Maroodiga Cawlan and Hakɛto.

Lagging a few paces behind Rugindo Leoa, Cavalière Lavande started as a Guardian Initiate jogged up from the opposite direction, followed by a couple other miraculous users, and immediately threw her arms around Cavalière Lavande. "Wait – Aisha? You're here, too?"

Aisha nodded and stepped back, twisting slightly to show off her robes. Pride and excitement emanated from her in waves. "Master Said decided that I've trained enough that I could come with the rest of the team. Shadya wanted to come, too, but she had to stay behind and help him. But how–how are you? You look… different."

Cavalière Lavande's gut twisted. She swallowed hard. She couldn't bring herself to speak. The enthusiasm coming from Aisha mingled in with her own grief, churning her stomach uncomfortably. Dumbly she shook her head. Aisha opened her mouth to say something further, but Rugindo Leoa spoke first. Aisha stepped back, clutching her walking staff tightly, and looked up at Cavalière Lavande with a frown.

Rugindo Leoa pulled out a screen on her short sword's blade and pressed a few buttons. "The warehouse is right here," she explained to Cavalière Lavande, handing her the short sword. "We'll have to work quickly, people!" she called to the others, louder.

Cavalière Lavande studied the map intently before closing her eyes and concentrating on the location. She had never actually used the Horse Miraculous before, but from what Max and Kaalki had both told her, all she needed to do was focus on where she wanted the portal to open, and Kaalki would take care of the rest. "Voyage!" she called, winding up and punching out with her fist. Air whooshed around her, and the portal formed.

"Nice work!" Rugindo Leoa praised her, patting her shoulder. Waving to the others, she called, "Bring as much as we can! Especially tarps and food! Hopefully we can come back for anything else we need, but let's try to get everything we need for tonight right away!"

Watching the Africans carry equipment through the portal – assisted by a couple of the refugees – Cavalière Lavande felt some of the tightness in her chest starting to ease. Helping people – that was what she was good at. When people were stressed and upset, she could alleviate some of their negative emotions and talk them through it so they could recover. When someone was in danger, her butterflies could give them the power to protect themselves. Even when she didn't need to use her power, she could always help keep the group together. Both Emilie and Max had told her so–

Her stomach clenched. Emilie and Max… both of them left behind; one of them crushed by the Tarasque, the other… who knew? All she knew of Emilie was that she had stayed at the bakery – but how close had the Tarasque gotten to the bakery? Tears stung Cavalière Lavande's eyes.

Rugindo Leoa and Angel dragged an enormous shipping container through the portal between them while Cadaabta Ey wheeled a half-dozen portable toilets through after them. "How long can you keep this open?" Rugindo Leoa asked, dropping her end of the shipping container to the ground with a thud.

Cavalière Lavande frowned. "More than five minutes, at least," she answered slowly. "Ordinary Voyage is only five minutes, but the Butterfly lets me boost other miraculous abilities a little…" Her face fell, her shoulders slumped. The last time she had done that, it had been for Max – right before…

Rugindo Leoa nodded. "But you can open another one after if we need it, at least."

Cavalière Lavande hummed. "Of course. I–" She froze, her eyes wide in shock. A jolt of terror from the far side of the valley, near the path up the cliff. Rugindo Leoa opened her mouth, but Cavalière Lavande waved for her to be quiet. Closing her eyes, Cavalière Lavande traced the emotion back to its source. Other emotions – sadness, guilt, grief – all vied for her attention within the camp, but she pushed past them, following the one that had stood out so much stronger than the others as to be clearly sensed over the noise.

It was a brunette girl, a couple years younger than Cavalière Lavande herself, whom Cavalière Lavande vaguely recognized. Sliding back away from the girl, she examined the situation around her. The girl was being dragged backward into the encroaching shadows, one hand over her mouth and an arm pinning her arms to her sides. Her eyes were filled with terror.

Cavalière Lavande's eyes shot wide open, and she threw out a hand, reaching for a butterfly.