"Who was responsible for yesterday's attack?"

"Bite me."

Rugindo Leoa let out a low growl, glaring at the prisoner on the other side of the metal bars. The makeshift prison was little more than yet another small cavern that Delwer had carved out of the bluff, this one closer to "Hero Town," the section of the camp set aside for the various hero groups. The "bars" covering the front of the "prison" were little more than strips off of a metal shipping container, melted and formed by one of the New Atlantis sorcerers before Delwer and Koldunya worked them into the stone. But, then, what more could they do? Rugindo Leoa had never even considered the need for a prison when setting up the refugee camp. Even though many of the refugees were known criminals – Elettrisicario, Mecha-Man, the Dark Acolytes, and more – she had assumed that they were too worn down by the escape from Paris to attempt anything… or that the presence of so many superheroes would act as a deterrent. But clearly it had not, if yesterday's attack was anything to go by. They had only captured a handful of the Dark Acolytes and a couple more of the gunmen who had been hiding in the woods, but thus far interrogation was proving unhelpful. Jueran Eazim had attempted to force his way into the mind of one Dark Acolyte, only to meet an impenetrable brick wall.

So here she was, face to face with one of the gunmen.

The man's eyes flashed as he stared back at her fearlessly before suddenly spitting in her face through the bars. Rugindo Leoa remained rigidly still but drew the short sword from her side, holding it up to the bars. "We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way," she informed him curtly, slipping the blade between the bars and holding it out with the tip facing the man's chest. "You can tell me exactly what I want to know. Or, if you pull a stunt like that again, I will cut out your tongue so you can never spit again. Now–" She leaned forward, eyes narrowed "–tell me. How did you come to have the Butterfly Miraculous? Is Cavalière Lavande still okay?"

"Why should I tell you anything?" he retorted, folding his arms. "It's not like you're going to let me out of here – I'm too smart to fall for that."

"No, I won't let you out of here," she agreed, her eyes narrowing. "But that isn't the only benefit you can get for cooperating." Suddenly she twirled her short sword around in her hand and flicked it out, over the man's left shoulder. The sword embedded itself in the rock wall with a ding, vibrating. The man flinched, and Rugndo Leoa held out her hand, summoning the short sword back to her hand. She glared at the man. "Now you are going to tell me what I need to know, or the next hit will be to your head!"

He scoffed. "You wouldn't dare."

Rugindo Leoa growled. Snatching the sword out of the air, she threw it straight at the man, whose eyes widened in terror. Just as the tip brushed his chest, she opened her hand to pull it back. At the same moment, she called, "Cur-Lion," drawing a loose rock against the cavern wall toward her and into the back of the man's leg. He jumped, his eyes bugging out, and gasped before he could regain control of himself. Rugindo Leoa's nostrils flared. "Need any more demonstrations?"

He glared back at her for a long moment, but his shoulders slumped, and he nodded sullenly. "Fine."

"Now," she began, examining him carefully, "who was responsible for the attack yesterday?"

The man shrugged. "I'm not exactly the one making the decisions," he pointed out. "The boss told me to go, and I went."

"And who is your boss?"

He clamped his mouth shut, eyeing her with distrust. Rugindo Leoa's eyes narrowed. "His name is Dembo," the man told her sullenly.

"What brought you here?" she demanded. "Was it these refugees?" She waved her arm out toward the camp spread out behind her.

He scoffed. "Can you think of a more inviting target?" He let out a breath. "Colonel Dembo was contacted by… someone – don't ask me his name; I don't know – who was interested in you people, even before the camp showed up here. Then some girl – young woman–" he shrugged "–came to us from the camp."

Rugindo Leoa folded her arms, eyeing him suspiciously. "Go on…"

He spread his hands and shrugged helplessly. "Not much more to say. She said she'd help us and caused a distraction so we could get the drop." He frowned. "Pity your people got the upper hand."

"Yeah," she agreed sardonically. "It's so tragic that you couldn't shoot a bunch of refugees who had to run away from home with nothing more than the clothes on their backs." She clenched her fist, punching one of the metal bars hard enough to dent it. "Now where is your camp?"

An hour later, Rugindo Leoa jogged slowly through the forest with Cackle, slow enough for Aisha to keep up with them. She frowned. If they didn't have to move slowly for Aisha, she and Cackle could already have finished searching their section. But with Dark Acolytes running around the woods, allied with this "Colonel Dembo," that was no longer an option. Rugindo Leoa glanced back at Aisha, who had a firm set to her mouth as she sprinted to keep up with the much faster miraculous users. She hadn't realized just how much of a difference it would make to their activities, having to accommodate non-miraculous-using teammates.

Perhaps she needed to give Ladybug and her group more credit – them and the Initiates.

This was actually the first time that the African Miraculous Team had used their Initiates in the field, she mused. They took in Initiates in much the same way that they did miraculous users: some were recruited from the nearby villages; others were orphans whom they housed and fed. Under normal circumstances, the Initiates were responsible for supporting the miraculous holders and protecting the miraculous themselves. When miraculous holders went out on missions, they would sometimes be accompanied by an Initiate. They received some basic training in hand-to-hand combat so they could protect themselves, but hardly enough to make a difference against a trained fighter – ordinarily in the field they relied on the miraculous holders for protection. But with the Dark Acolytes intent on taking the miraculous and capable of defeating miraculous holders, the Council and Guardians had agreed: their Initiates couldn't stay on the sidelines any longer.

"Are you okay, Aisha?" called Rugindo Leoa, glancing back at the younger girl.

Aisha nodded firmly. "I'm good," she assured her, panting as she pushed herself forward with her quarterstaff. "It's just a lot of walking. I'm… not used to it." A shadow passed over her face.

Cackle hummed and quirked an eyebrow at Aisha. "Want a ride?"

Aisha shrugged and put her arms around Cackle's neck, holding her staff straight to avoid hitting it against any of the scrub trees lining the path. In that position, the three of them managed to make better time, running through the trees and following the tiny hints of passage of a half-dozen people. The men Rugindo Leoa had interrogated had pinpointed a couple different locations within the forest where the camp might be, but they one had warned that Dembo liked to move his camp every few days to avoid detection.

Rugindo Leoa examined the trail carefully: a couple of broken twigs, a footprint in the dirt. Ahead, the path led over a patch of stone, and on into a bed of fallen leaves where a branch had been snapped off near waist height. She frowned, eyeing the footprint suspiciously. "This feels a little too obvious," she muttered under her breath, pulling up short just in front of the stones.

Cackle's mouth set in a thin line as she stopped next to Rugindo Leoa, turning in all directions to scan the thin forest. Aisha slipped off her back, her eyes darting around the area. Rugindo Leoa's ears twitched, listening for any sign of people nearby. A gentle breeze rustled the tree branches on one side of the path, drawing Rugindo Leoa's attention. She froze, standing stock-still, waiting for it to return. But after standing in the same spot for a few minutes, she finally relaxed and let out a breath. Suddenly she spun to her right and swung her short sword, sending a dart rocketing off into the underbrush. Another shot out at her from behind, and she dropped out of the way. Cackle spun her assegai in a tight circle, blocking another dart from behind them. Aisha pressed herself into the space between Rugindo Leoa and Cackle, barely avoiding the next dart. As Cackle slid to one side, moving away from the path, Aisha dove behind a tree and disappeared, leaving Cackle and Rugindo Leoa standing back to back, flanking the path, watching for the next dart. Rugindo Leoa tensed, on high alert. Something rustled in the grass near where the first dart had appeared, and she hurled her short sword at it.

"Hey!" Aisha yelped, standing up less than a meter from where the short sword had embedded itself into a tree trunk. She held a narrow tube in one hand, connected to a thin wire that stretched out toward the path down which they had come. "Someone booby trapped the path," Aisha explained, tossing Rugindo Leoa's sword back to her. She caught the sword deftly as Aisha stepped closer and passed the blowgun to her.

Rugindo Leoa fingered the wire, following it with her eyes to a point on the trail where it vanished from view underneath a handful of leaves. Her brows furrowed, deep in thought. "Good eye," she finally told Aisha, who set her shoulders back proudly. "Think you can check ahead for any we didn't already trip?"

Aisha nodded eagerly and vanished back into the forest.

Rugindo Leoa turned to Cackle and raised an eyebrow. "That was close."

Cackle hummed, nodding slowly. "Yeah," she agreed. "But if they left booby traps, it probably means we're on the right track here," she pointed out. "And it means they might not have anyone close by. If the traps were being watched, we would have seen them by now, right?"

"Probably…"

"We almost certainly would have been attacked while the darts were keeping us distracted," Cackle argued, raising an eyebrow. "Especially if there were any of those damn Dark Acolytes around, they would have done something while Aisha was distracted."

Rugindo Leoa frowned. "But what does that mean…"

A couple moments later, Aisha poked her head back out of the trees further up the path. "I didn't see any more traps," she reported. "We might be good."

Rugindo Leoa let out a breath and nodded. "Good," she replied. She groaned. "Why we are having to deal with all this stupid on top of having two million refugees down there…"

Aisha folded her arms. "They did go through a lot."

Rugindo Leoa froze and let out a breath. "I know," she admitted. "And I know you're friends with a bunch of them."

Aisha pursed her lips. "I wouldn't be here now if it weren't for Sent-Bee – she and King Monkey saved my life. And if it hadn't been for Impératrice Pourpre…" She sighed heavily.

Cackle placed a hand on Aisha's shoulder.

"That may be the case," Rugindo Leoa began, "but…" She paused, hating the direction in which her thoughts were going. "I think Impératrice Pourpre might be off the reservation," she finished, watching Aisha for her reaction.

"What? No!" Aisha's eyes widened in shock. "She would never!"

"It is her miraculous," Rugindo Leoa pointed out bitterly. "One of the men you captured said someone from our camp came to them and agreed to help them against us."

"But after everything she's been through–"

Cackle shook her head. "That doesn't excuse something like this. If she's endangering the people we're trying to protect, there isn't much we can do, other than stop her."

"You wouldn't really hurt Impératrice Pourpre, would you?" Aisha asked, worried.

Rugindo Leoa frowned. "If she's going to hurt my people – if she's going to put innocent people in danger – then I'm not exactly going to hold back."

"But Sabrina isn't normally like this!" Aisha insisted. "She's sad. She's in pain. She needs our help."

Rugindo Leoa gave her a sympathetic look. "If we can help her, we will," she agreed. "But we have to help the people she's putting in danger first."