Ondine finished brushing her teeth and took a swig from her water bottle to rinse out her mouth, spitting the water out the tent flap onto the stone floor of the valley. She let out a breath, shaking her head to knock out some of the cobwebs. It was still early in the morning; at home she would normally sleep much later, but it was so much different here. The canvas tent didn't keep all the light out, so as soon as the sun had started to peek over the cliff wall to the east it had woken up and made it impossible for her to go back to sleep. Then there was her cot, which felt at the same time too stiff and too loose. She could hardly get to sleep on it, and so far she had started every morning with a stiff back. Still, it could have been worse.

She could have been left behind in Paris. Her stomach clenched, and she glanced over at the other cot, where her father continued to sleep. Ondine looked down at the ground, suppressing a sniffle.

Finally she put on one of the new shirts she had picked out of the pile available yesterday at the supply tent – a t-shirt with "2020 NFL Champion San Francisco 49ers" emblazoned on the front. It was a little big, it didn't match her curves, and she didn't care for American football… but it was better than the shirt she had been wearing when they fled Paris. That one had torn and accumulated a nice collection of stains over the last couple days. It was too bad – her mother had given her that blouse for her last birthday. She swallowed hard, blinking back tears at the memory. Finally she dropped down to sit on her cot, which creaked audibly. Her father snorted and turned over, but didn't wake.

Ondine frowned, staring mindlessly at the tent wall.

Suddenly, a small brown head phased partway through the canvas and looked up at her with enormous brown eyes. Ondine's eyes widened at the sight, and she gasped in shock before taking a second look and recognizing his big round ears. She covered her mouth with her hand to stifle the noise, hardly daring to breathe. "Xuppu?" she hissed, sneaking a glance at her father's cot. He continued to sleep on without waking. Ondine beckoned the Kwami into the tent, throwing her old blouse over his head once he was hovering directly in front of her. "What are you doing here?" she whispered urgently.

The Kwami swallowed hard, staring at her with wide eyes. "Um… I'm sorry for bugging you, kid," he began, his eyes darting around the tent anxiously. "If this is a bad time– I–" His ears drooped. "It's just–"

"No – you don't have to be sorry," she interrupted him quietly, stroking the top of his head with one finger. "I've just–I've been worried about you two, ever since we left…"

"Yeah…" He frowned, staring down at the tent floor and fidgeting with his tail. "That's actually why I'm here."

"Huh?" Ondine's eyebrows shot up, and her breathing hitched. Leaning forward, she stared at the Kwami intently, hanging onto every word. "Is–is everything okay? Is Kim–"

"That's the thing…" He paused, working his mouth awkwardly and looking around, his gaze settling on Ondine's father. "He's not as okay as he thinks he is." His eyes widened meaningfully.

Ondine let out a breath and nodded, her mouth set in a thin line. Hands on the edge of her cot, she leaned forward to stand. "Where is he?"

"Do you have anything to eat first?" he asked hopefully, glancing around the tent again as he did so.

Ondine gave him a deadpan look and grabbed a snack bag of fruit gummies that she had picked up from the food tent yesterday off the old cardboard box she had placed between the two cots as a makeshift nightstand. He snatched for it, but she held it back, waving it just out of his reach. Her eyes fixed on the Kwami, she carefully tore open the package and held out one of the gummies. "So…"

Xuppu sighed heavily and flitted out of the tent. "Follow me."

As she trailed the Kwami across the camp toward the section where they had placed the miraculous heroes, she sighed heavily, her stomach clenching into an even tighter knot. The last couple days had been so difficult, easily the worst of her life. Ever since the Tarasque first formed, nothing had been right. She and her father had been able to see the Tarasque out their apartment window, looming over the roofs of the buildings just north of them as it began moving south through the city. She had watched with bated breath as the Heroes of Paris fought against it, seemingly without effect. An apartment building two blocks north of theirs had been melted through by a blast of fire vision from the Tarasque before it threw one of the heroes through the building, destabilizing it. Ondine's father had just been wondering if they should leave when Ondine had received a message from Kim: "Get out. Now!" Ondine had shouted to her father and grabbed her purse off the table before following him out the door.

The Tarasque had been far too close when they reached the street, the ground shaking beneath Ondine's feet with every step the Monster took. Her father had unlocked the car and jumped inside, starting the engine as he did so. Traffic had been backed up all around them – someone had abandoned a vehicle right next to theirs, while someone else's car had run out of gas a few blocks down. Her father had let out a string of curses while trying to push out, past the abandoned vehicle.

Before he could do so, King Monkey had landed right in front of their car and shouted for them to grab what they could and follow him. They had crawled out with little more than the shirts on their backs, moments before King Monkey had jammed his cane below one end of the car and pushed it up so one set of wheels no longer touched the ground. With a tremendous roar, King Monkey had pushed the car up off the ground and hurled it at the Tarasque. Their car had crashed into the Tarasque's head, and it had let out a bellow. King Monkey had grabbed Ondine's hand, all but dragging her away from the apartment building as the Tarasque drew closer. The streets through which he led them had been sheer madness, with people running in all directions, screaming, begging for help, calling out for loved ones. King Monkey had fended off a couple of men who tried to take Ondine's bag from her, knocking one across the street into the side of a building with a backhand from his staff. That had cleared out a path. In the distance they had heard the other heroes fighting against the monster, the whine of energy weapons and yelled battle cries filling the air. Someone with wings had been thrown over their heads to slam into the side of a building. Sk8r Girl had stood at one of the intersections they passed, near her mother's work, directing people away from the fighting. Ondine had craned her neck, searching the street all around for any glimpse of her mother, but the crowd had pressed together too tightly for her to see anything. Sk8r Girl had barely acknowledged King Monkey, only giving Ondine herself a quick nod of recognition, as King Monkey led them past the intersection and over the river. A few blocks south, on the grounds of the Sorbonne University campus, had been a portal with two figures standing beside it.

Suddenly the Tarasque had lunged forward, waving one massive claw to the side, crushing a building and sending debris in all directions. Her father had shouted for her mother and started back toward her mother's office building. Before he could take more than a step, however, King Monkey had grabbed both of them and propelled them toward the portal, promising to look for her mother. He had stayed there to watch them step through the portal, and that was the last she had seen of King Monkey. He hadn't returned with her mother. He hadn't come to find her that first night in Angola. Other people around the camp had mentioned seeing him there, that he had made it to Africa. So he was alive. And he had saved their lives – hers and her father's.

Chewing on a raspberry-shaped gummy, Xuppu led her past the long tent that the African Miraculous Heroes had erected to house the kitchens and food. Ondine swallowed hard, watching two people in brown robes move around the camp stoves set up in the makeshift kitchen. It was amazing. Kim had saved her so many times – he had saved everyone so many times, though no one else knew it was him. In Germany, he had saved her from the magical fire. Before that he had rescued her when an angry swim parent tried to attack her. In the park he had fought a… a monster, apparently… to protect innocent people. Over the course of last summer, he had been one of the heroes fighting to stop all the drugs coming into the city. And the year before that he had fought Hawk Moth. All to protect people. To protect her.

And now Kim and the other Heroes of Paris were in Africa, still trying to protect people. Just like he had done on his last trip to Africa.

She frowned, sighing heavily. Kim had refused to speak about that trip beyond confirming that it had happened, so Ondine had cornered Chloe after school one afternoon, demanding to know all the details. They had fought monsters and aliens together. Some of those monsters had been in human form, but one of those monsters had been such a monster as to rape a girl nightly… In the end, Kim had fought the–the thing alone, and he had come out on top. And he had never told her about any of it, suppressing the memory and burying it away.

What kind of burden must that have been on him?

And now, the Heroes had been defeated – and at such a high price. She had seen Geber and Capricorn walking through the camp, checking on the Parisian refugees. The Owl likewise had stopped to visit with a couple of children whose parents had either been killed or left behind – or both. But there had been no sign of Ladybug or Cat Noir. There had been no sign of Sent-Bee apart from a brief glimpse of her running through the camp yesterday. And King Monkey hadn't been seen since the portal closed. All of them were in such pain and grief, having lost so many of their own and their city.

And if she knew Kim, he was trying to deal with it all on his own.

Finally Xuppu stopped in front of a tent near the edge of the hero section. "He's in here, kiddo," he told her, his ears and tail drooping. "I'll…"

"Thanks, Xuppu," she assured him, cupping him in her hand and kissing his forehead. "I can handle it from here." Xuppu nodded and watched as she pushed the flap open and stepped inside.

There were two cots in the tent, both unmade. The one on the left was empty, with a couple pieces of clothing tossed haphazardly on top of the quilt. The one on the right had a lump buried under a blanket. Looking closer, she could make out Kim's bleached hair sticking out from beneath the edge of the blanket, moving slightly as he breathed. Carefully, she sat down on the edge of the cot near his head and placed her hand on his shoulder. Kim froze, silent.

"Hey," she whispered softly. "It's me."

Kim pushed the blanket back and looked up at her, his eyes red, cheeks tear-stained. "Oh… hey, sexy," he greeted her hoarsely, grinning so widely it turned into a grimace. "What's shaking?"

Ondine softly rubbed his shoulder as his façade crumbled and he buried his face in her lap, his shoulders wracked with sobs. She had no idea what this was really about, but she could wait for him to tell her. After all, he was always being so strong for everyone else. She could be strong for him now.