To Lyger 0: He's going to be in trouble once they find his camp.

To yellow 14: Of course, after everything Sabrina's been through, she's not even close to thinking straight.

Bri examined the tangle of wires in front of her, tapping her chin pensively. She had hardly been in Angola for a day before Biladurang and Maroodiga Cawlan had grabbed her and asked for her help in trying to figure out this problem. But even now, nearly a week later, still she was no closer to an answer. They needed to be able to portal from temple to temple, but the portal system was offline without the central hub in Paris. Onça Feroz was supposed to be helping her, but she was nowhere to be seen. And with Sabrina and the Horse Miraculous missing… Bri groaned, resisting the urge to smack her head against the stone wall next to her.

Based on the schematic she had found, these wires were supposed to carry charge to the nodes around the ring, all of which shared a quantum link with the rings located in the other temples. Frowning, she brushed her bright-red hair out of her eyes and pushed a couple of the wires apart with her screwdriver to count their number. As she did so, the brown roots of her hair caught her attention, and she pursed her lips. It had been close to a month since she dyed her hair last; she should have touched it up sooner, but with everything else going on, that had faded into the background in importance. Now, stuck in this camp, there was no way she could ever find the dye to touch it up. But that still wasn't important; connecting them back to the other portals had to be her priority. She looked down at the plans on her tablet again, and back at the wires. The diagram blurred in her vision. Even with the internal workings exposed, she still couldn't quite figure out what she needed to do.

What she needed was the original designer… but he was… dead.

Her stomach clenched.

A throat clearing interrupted Bri's reverie. "Um… do I still need to hold this?" asked Hoda, indicating the sleek metal ring-shaped casing in her hands.

Bri started and looked up at her. "Oh, no, sorry," she replied, waving toward the wall next to the stripped-down portal ring. "Lay it over there for now." She grimaced. "It may be a while before we can actually put it back together."

Hoda set the casing down and shrugged, leaning against the wall beside it. "Just tell me when."

Bri nodded, fixing her attention on Hoda instead of her tablet. "Thanks – I appreciate the help – and the company." She chuckled drily, waving toward the far corner of the room, where her suit idled, a thin wire connecting it to a power source. "I couldn't exactly lug things around in my suit and do all this fine work!"

Hoda smiled easily. "I don't mind helping you out here. It beats carrying supplies around the camp." She furrowed her eyes. "I just wish I could be more help. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how this thing works; before coming to Terra and meeting your Heroes of Paris, I had never seen something like this before in my life…"

Anne, sitting in a swivel chair at the desk set against the wall near the Iron Maiden suit, cocked her head in surprise. "You haven't developed this kind of portal technology before?"

Hoda shook her head. "No – or at least not when our ship left." She gave a rueful chuckle. "I guess we just don't have a Max."

Anne hummed pensively, nodding. "From everything Chloe and Sabrina say he's something else," she agreed. "Or I guess now he was…"

Bri's jaw clenched and she squeezed her eyes shut. Her grip on the screwdriver tightened until the ridges on the handle dug into her palm painfully. Why was Max's death bothering her so much? She hadn't known him very well – they had worked together a few times when he was testing the propulsion system for his flying car, but she could count the number of times they had met face-to-face on one hand. Most of the time, they had merely passed designs back and forth without actually collaborating beyond that. But even in their limited interactions, she had seen how smart he was. And even more than that, Bri knew Sabrina. Whenever they talked on the phone, Sabrina had simply gushed about Max, about how special he was. Bri could see how much she cared for him. She could infer how much he cared for her. In a way, their partnership was even stronger than Bri's was with Felix and Anne. But now Max was gone.

It wasn't fair.

Anne put a hand on Bri's shoulder, and she almost jumped out of her skin. "Hey, you okay there, sis?"

Bri frowned, relaxing her grip on the screwdriver and allowing it to clatter to the ground. "Sure; why wouldn't I be?" She glanced back into the stripped portal ring, tracing the one black wire with her eyes. "Pass me the pliers, will you?"

Anne gave her a doubtful look but obeyed, kneeling next to Bri while she worked. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that there are butterflies around again has you thinking about a certain purple-clad arse we could mention?"

Bri raised an eyebrow. "You mean Felix's uncle? Amelie's brother-in-law? Emilie's–" Her shoulders slumped, her stomach clenched. Emilie… "Yeah… I've had a few Hawk Moth flashbacks lately," she admitted softly.

Anne scoffed, though her voice quickly took on a sympathetic tone. "I know – after last night, I'm pretty sure Coquette and Sombra figured it out, too!"

Bri flushed. "Was I really that loud?"

Anne hummed. "Maybe not," she allowed. She frowned. "Of course, it's not like you're the only one having nightmares lately; Multiplice, in the tent on the other side of us, woke up screaming about Taureau Dechaine this morning, too." She rested her hand on Bri's shoulder. "Remember was Sabrina said, though: you need to talk it out."

Bri let out a breath. "Living in Paris through the height of Hawk Moth's reign of terror, it wasn't exactly easy. Any negative emotion could attract an Akuma. So to see Sabrina, someone I know and love–"

"Do you really think it's her, though?" Hoda interjected. "It's just… so unlike her."

"I don't know." Bri shrugged helplessly. "I wish it wasn't… but it's happening with her miraculous, and she's not here. You have to admit: the evidence is pretty clear."

"Maybe it is…" Anne allowed. "But…"

Bri sighed. "But it's more of why Sabrina is doing what she's doing – if she really is the one doing what we think she's doing," she went on, loosening one of the screws and separating a couple wires from the rest of the cluster. "I mean, look at what happened…"

"Are you worried about your family?" asked Hoda, leaning forward with a curious look in her eyes. "I can understand that. When Father and I left on this mission, we knew we were leaving everything behind to do it. But I still think about Mother, and my siblings, and my friends."

"Yeah… I guess I'm a little worried," Bri admitted. "I know Papa is okay… but nothing about Mama. And I don't dare to speak to him, or ask about her; he can't know I'm here." She paused, frowning. Seeing her father again in Angola, while walking around the refugee camp with Anne, had been an unpleasant surprise. She looked down at the stone floor, thinking about her parents. At last, she shook her head. "But that's not it, either… Not really."

Anne raised an eyebrow meaningfully, stifling a smile. "Thinking about a certain partner of yours? About losing him?"

Bri looked away, studying the wiring in front of her. This whole experience – fighting the Tarasque, fleeing to Angola, and now becoming stuck here after Sabrina's boyfriend was killed – had brought up feelings that she had been ignoring, bottling up for months now. Her stomach twisted around uncomfortably, and she turned back to find Anne watching her closely, a knowing look in her eyes. Bri opened her mouth to respond. Just then, however, the door opened, sparing Bri from having to answer, and she looked up to find Chloe and Aisha standing in the doorway, watching the three of them.

Chloe had her arms folded, a serious expression on her face. "I'm glad all three of you are in one place. We need help."

Anne cocked her head. "Why come to us? Don't you have the Heroes of Paris to call on?"

Chloe frowned in distaste. "It's… complicated."

"Are you here about Sabrina?" asked Hoda.

Aisha nodded. Her shoulders slumped. "She's in trouble, but no one else understands it. She needs help, but it sounds like literally everyone just wants to beat her and stop her."

Bri pursed her lips, letting out a heavy sigh. "I can kind of see their point, though," she began, pushing herself up to her feet. "I remember what it was like living in Paris under Hawk Moth." Chloe's nostrils flared, and Bri held up a hand. "I get it – Felix talks about his 'Uncle Gabriel' and how much it hurts for him to be related to Hawk Moth, and your childhood friend is his son. But for me, it was scary – living in a city where someone getting upset could cause an international incident."

Chloe's eyes narrowed. "I remember, too. Hell, I've had to come to grips with the fact that I caused most of those 'international incidents' back in the day. And I didn't know my connection to Hawk Moth until only a month or so before you found out his identity. But still. This isn't Gabriel 'May he rot in hell' Agreste we're talking about. This is Sabrina. She's our friend."

"Do we know what kind of trouble she's in?" asked Anne. "Do you know: is she responsible for the Akuma attack?"

Chloe shrugged. "At this point… I don't know. Ladybug is convinced that she is. But it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"Regardless, she's helped all of us," Aisha interjected, her eyes wide and insistent. "We owe it to her to help her now."

"But she's also hurt people," Hoda pointed out, looking at Aisha and opening her eyes a little wider. "Assuming that she hasn't lost her miraculous, she hurt you. Or if not her, then some people who must have been working with her. Do you think that ambush was a coincidence?"

Aisha folded her arms and huffed. "That was nothing," she retorted dismissively. "I can take something like that – because Sabrina and Emilie–" She stopped, her shoulders slumping, and swallowed hard. Her mouth set in a thin line, and she met Hoda's gaze. "We can't just give up on Sabrina. Not after everything she did for me – for us all."

"That's why we came to you," Chloe continued, her gaze shifting between Hoda, Anne, and Bri. "Ladybug, Rugindo Leoa, Jueran Eazim… if she did join them, everyone else just wants to stop her because of what she's doing now. But we can still remember what she did for us – for each one of us. And now she is the one who needs us. So… will you help us?"

Anne nodded slowly and stood up. "We need to at least try to help her."

Bri arched an eyebrow. "Just like that?"

"Would you give up on me under these circumstances?" Anne asked her meaningfully.

"That's a little different," Bri retorted. "You're my sister."

"And Sabrina's basically my sister," interjected Chloe, folding her arms, her mouth set in a thin line. "And my sister needs me."

Hoda shrugged one shoulder. "I'm in. I don't have all that many human friends; I'd rather not lose another one."

Aisha grinned brightly. "Friends forever, right?" Hoda smiled back, nodding.

Chloe fixed Bri with a firm look. "We could really use you… don't make me bring up our first little 'heart-to-heart', Rusty."

Bri sighed and looked around at the others, running her fingers through her hair. If it were her… Finally she walked over to her suit and hit a button on her bracelet to open the back. Stepping inside the suit, she slid her bracelets home into their ports, and the suit sealed itself automatically. The display activated, and Iron Maiden ran through the diagnostic, turning to face the other four. "So what's the plan?"