"Space-Plane 1, requesting landing clearance."

"Acknowledged. Permission granted for vertical landing." There was a pause. "Welcome home, Iron Maiden."

"Glad to be back."

The Hound leaned back against the side of the plane, trying to ignore the dull throbbing of his foot as the plane tipped up slightly and touched down. While they had been in the air – while Bri had been in the cabin to distract him, the pain had receded into the background, almost entirely vanishing from his consciousness. But the moment she had returned to the cockpit, all the pain from his injury had returned. Barkk had insisted that he transform for the extra support of the suit, meager though it was. Yet as the plane's landing gear touched down on the rocky surface, his foot jostled, sending a stab of pain up his leg. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenching and unclenching his fist, forcing himself to breathe through the pain. The moment the cockpit door opened, he forced his hand to relax and looked up with a grin.

Bri stepped out of the cockpit, stretching her shoulders and twisting her back, groaning in relief. "I'm glad that's over."

"Agreed. The view just got so much better!" The Hound's eyes trailed across her form for a moment before she looked down at him, smirking in amusement. The smirk turned almost instantly to concern, and he swallowed nervously.

"How's your foot?" she asked, kneeling in front of him and placing a hand on his leg.

He winced. "It only hurts when I think about it." He raised an eyebrow. "Care to give me something else to think about?"

She pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "I would," she allowed, "but we need to do a few other things first." She helped him to his feet and draped his arm over her shoulders to support him. "Perhaps in a little bit, once all the work is finished?"

He nodded, groaning. "Of course you're the responsible one," he grumbled, rolling his eyes. Nevertheless, he allowed her to help him down the ladder to the cargo hold, where Anne, already wearing her Bandruí suit, and Dhuan stood in front of the tied-up Vicar.

Bandruí waved her hand gently through the air, her eyes fixed on the Vicar's face. Tendrils of vines drifted around in front of him, following her movements. Suddenly two lashed out and wrapped around his head before slowly releasing. Bandruí's eyes flashed. "Now you remember this, next time you try to pull any crap like that again."

As the Vicar glared silently at her, the Hound leaned against the side of the plane while Bri activated her suit and climbed inside. The ramp slowly eased open, revealing Biladurang and a pair of Guardian Initiates waiting just outside, the area around the space-plane lit by torches to hold back the darkness. At a glance, it had to be at least an hour or two after sunset. Groaning, the Hound grabbed his walking stick and hobbled down the ramp, followed by the others.

Biladurang looked them over carefully and gave an evaluating nod. "I'm glad to see you all in one piece," she observed. "We were starting to wonder if something had happened." Her head cocked to one side in surprise as she caught sight of Dhuan and the Vicar. "Okay, there's got to be a story here…"

The Hound winced. "There is," he acknowledged, "but I'd prefer to save it for tomorrow if you don't mind. Though we should see to this bastard now…" he added, jerking his head to the Vicar. "He stowed away and tried to kill me."

One of the Initiates nodded firmly and put his hand on the Vicar's shoulder. "We'll lock him up with the others." His eyes took on a hard glint. "He won't be going anywhere."

"We're going to have a lot of questions for you," the other Initiate told the Vicar as they led him away. "Starting with how you got on that plane…"

Biladurang hummed. "Sounds like you had quite a trip. Joey and your Ladybug and Cat Noir and the rest will be relieved to see you back here in one piece."

The Hound frowned. "Where can I find them? We should probably report in."

Biladurang pointed in the direction of the temple. "In the dining tent, most likely," she explained. "Or at least that's where I saw Joey last. It sounded like they were planning to have a meeting of some sort there, though they might have finished. Of course, your space-plane isn't exactly quiet…"

The Hound nodded, glancing to the others. "Shall we?"

Bandruí shook her head, handing the small box to the Hound. "I want to go and check on Chloe and the others as soon as I can," she told him. "You two can manage to deliver these on your own, right?"

"Tell them I'll come over in a little bit," Iron Maiden replied. She hummed. "But actually, I was going to stay here." She turned to Biladurang. "There were a few issues that cropped up on the flight, and I should make a list while they're still fresh in my mind."

The Hound quirked an eyebrow at Dhuan, who shrugged. "I guess it's just you and me then."

As he was starting to move away, Iron Maiden grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Popping her helmet, she pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "Come to my tent when you get done," she whispered as she released him. Mutely, he nodded, turning back toward the indicated direction. Behind him, he could hear Iron Maiden clomping around below the space-plane. "This elevator felt really sluggish on takeoff."

Biladurang hummed. "We can take a look in the morning; it might just need lube…"

Limping through the camp, Dhuan at his side, the Hound turned this way and that, hardly able to believe that they were finally back. It felt at the same time like centuries and seconds had passed while they were on their mission – everything had changed, but everything had stayed the same. The camp looked almost exactly as it had when they left, the same mix of tents erected in straight rows, the same conflicted faces showing both defeat and hope simultaneously. And yet, having seen the outside world – having experienced Hy-Brasil, it all felt so different.

"[What has happened here?]" asked Dhuan, looking around curiously.

"You remember we mentioned the Tarasque, right?" he replied. Dhuan nodded. "It kicked our asses in Paris, so we all fled here through a portal. Now we're basically stuck here until we can figure out how to stop the Tarasque." He held up the box. "That's where this comes in."

Dhuan paused to watch Neptune and Fin arguing about something by one of the tents while Coquette rubbed her forehead. "[I see so many of the different miraculous sets represented here,]" he observed.

The Hound hummed. "Yeah, that's not exactly a usual occurrence. It was only a year or two back that my cousin – or I guess cousins – managed to get all the miraculous sets working together again. As far as I know, they had been split up for millennia."

Dhuan started. "[And Atlantis permitted that?]"

"Oh, New Atlantis is here, too, but they don't have any more sway than the other miraculous leaders," the Hound answered dismissively. "There are people here from everywhere: Americans, Europeans, Africans, Australians; Japanese, Brazilian, Russian, German… Even some of the bad guys – like the Vicar – are here, and some of them are even helping us." He barked out a laugh. "Nothing like a crisis to get people to work together, huh?"

"[That does seem to be the way it often happens,]" agreed Dhuan. He frowned. "[Although that is not always the case…]"

Finally, after crossing the border into Hero Town past another two Guardian Initiates, the Hound stopped in front of the large dining tent, lit up within by several battery-operated lanterns. Around a table near the center of the pavilion sat Marinette, Adrien, and three others that the Hound barely recognized – Joey, Jueran Eazim, and Coyotemaria, all un-transformed – with a small cluster of Kwamis sitting on the table between them. As the two of them entered, Jueran Eazim looked up from the table, his eyes widening in surprise, and nudged the others. Before the Hound even knew what was happening, Adrien and Marinette had both jumped out of their seats and charged him, pulling him into a crippling hug. Dropping his walking stick in his surprise, the Hound nearly lost his balance and fell over before Adrien caught him.

"You're back!" Adrien exclaimed, holding him out at arm's length and examining his face. "And you're in one piece! I'm glad; Tante Amelie would have murdered me if I'd sent you off and something had happened."

Marinette cocked her head, finally catching sight of Dhuan before turning back to the Hound. "Who–?" She froze, examining the Hound's face. Her eyes took on a hard set. "What happened?"

The Hound winced, grimacing. "We're mostly in one piece," he corrected Adrien, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "The others are fine," he quickly clarified, before Marinette could interrupt. "But I got half my foot ripped off with this–" He removed the pin from the box and set it on the table with a flourish.

Coyotemaria looked down at it in shock. "Is that – what is that?"

"That would be the Stingray Miraculous," the Hound explained, collapsing into a chair. "You really don't want to feel its Barb-arity."

"Another Atlantean Miraculous," Joey observed pensively.

"[What do you mean, another one?]" asked Dhuan.

Adrien furrowed his brows in confusion. "Um… they've been showing up all over the place lately," he explained. He cocked his head. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

The Hound groaned, waving toward his companion. "This is Dhuan. He was left at the outpost to guard the Jellyfish Miraculous. He came back to make sure it is used properly."

Jueran Eazim hummed. "Then you did retrieve the Jellyfish?"

Nodding, the Hound placed box on the table next to the pin, flipping it around to reveal the pendant. "It's here."

"Excellent!" Joey nodded approvingly. "I guess now we can figure out–"

"Never mind what we do with the Jellyfish," Marinette interrupted irritably. "Let me see your foot, Felix."

With a sigh, the Hound de-transformed, and Barkk spun out of the miraculous with a yawn. She looked up at Marinette, and her eyes widened. "Miss Guardian!" she yelped. "I'm so happy we're home! And we got the miraculous – two of them!" Her ears drooped. "But the Hound was hurt – I–I couldn't stop it. I–"

"Enough," Marinette interrupted gently, patting her head. "I'll see to him; you can get a snack with the others." Swiftly she transformed, pulling Tikki away from the other Kwamis and into her earrings. Moments later, Felix's foot was covered in swirling red magic, and the dull ache that had been growing ever since their arrival in Angola vanished.

"Ohhh," he groaned, sighing in relief. "You have no idea how nice that feels."

"You're welcome," Ladybug replied, giving him a smile as she sat down. "I couldn't exactly sit here and let one of our few family members in the country suffer…"

"So what all happened there?" asked Joey, fixing Felix with a penetrating stare.

Felix shrugged. "We arrived, we found out we had a stowaway, we fought a bad miraculous user–" he nodded to the Stingray Miraculous "–we got the Jellyfish, we came home."

"Can you give any more details?" asked Jueran Eazim. "What was this outpost like?"

Felix furrowed his brows.

"We can give him a night to recover before debriefing them," Adrien asserted. "Right?"

Marinette nodded firmly. "After all of this, they deserve some time to recover before we grill them. We won't get too much more tonight. And I think we have what we need – at least for now." Coyotemaria nodded, and Joey shrugged. Turning to Felix, Marinette smiled. "Thank you. We'll want to talk again in the morning. For now, go and get some rest."

"Don't need to tell me twice," he muttered, leaving the dining tent with Barkk floating next to him. Quickly he cut across Hero Town in the direction of Bri and Anne's tent, picking his way carefully through the darkness. Few of the tents had been moved, but he could still get around easily enough with the little light provided by the moon and stars. He sighed. It had been a long, arduous process, but they had made it. They were home – in more than one sense for him and Bri.

"Isn't your tent over there?" asked Barkk curiously, pointing.

He shook his head. "Bri said to meet her at her tent, so that's what we're doing!" Stopping outside the tent, he paused.

"Ooh! A sleepover!" Barkk chirped, wagging her tail excitedly. "I love when I can have all my people together!" She cocked her head in surprise. "Aren't you going to knock?"

Felix swallowed. Hesitantly, he tapped on the canvas.

"Come in," Bri called, her voice sounding nervous. Pushing the flap aside, Felix stepped inside and looked down to find Bri lying in her bed, her blanket pulled up to her chin. Looking back up at him, she blushed. "Anne is staying in Chloe's tent for the night with the other therapy girls," she explained. "That means we have the tent to ourselves. If–if you want…"

Cautiously, Felix sat down on the edge of the cot, putting his hand to her cheek. "I want as much as you want," he murmured. "I want you to be happy and comfortable."

Bri pressed her lips to the inside of his wrist and sighed. "I want this."

AN: Tomorrow begins the next story, "The Miraculous and the Mundane."