AN: While I am not a professional counselor, I have experience both giving and receiving counseling, including in this kind of group retreat setting. So this is based in part on my experience; yours may differ.

If you were scared away from "The Darkest Nights" or "Fear Itself" by the content/warnings, this chapter gives a brief summary of the major events of those stories.

Emilie took a deep breath, steeling herself against the swirl of disjointed emotions pouring off of the six younger women sitting in the circle of chairs set up in the Graham de Vanily Manor's large back sitting room, taking comfort from Duusu's presence in the corner of the room. Of all the emotions she felt, the simplest had to be coming from Sabrina, sitting on the opposite side of the circle from her with Nooroo on her shoulder: nervousness. Emilie could understand that: while she had encouraged Sabrina to take some Psychology and Counseling classes this year – both at lycée and through a friend she knew who worked at Université de Paris – all of that was academic learning; this was practical application. Emilie drew in a slow, measured breath and released it, pushing her own calm and confidence to the forefront of her emotions. Sabrina's emotions shifted through embarrassment into relief. Emilie focused on her own happiness, which was mirrored by Sabrina.

Now if only the other five could be so simple…

"Thank you all for agreeing to come today," Emilie began, looking around the circle with an encouraging smile as every eye turned to stare at her. "I know it isn't easy to open up to people, and especially under these circumstances. I am glad none of you are truly alone here. However, not everyone knows each other, so I think we should begin by introducing ourselves and sharing why we are here. Would anyone like to go first?"

Silence; the anxiety level in the room rose measurably.

Emilie allowed her disappointment to dissipate and smiled wider. "I can go first: my name is Emilie and I'm a member of the Asian Order of the Guardians. My miraculous allows me to sense emotions, as does my assistant Sabrina's – that is why we decided to put together this program for the next two weekends. I'm not a professional counselor, though I have some training, but Sabrina and I are safe for you to talk to about things you wouldn't be able to share with a civilian counselor. Sabrina and I will meet with you individually and in smaller groups, and there will be a couple times that we will all come together as a whole group. Our goal is to help you work through and process your respective traumas and bring healing. This isn't a simple or an easy thing – don't place too-high expectations on yourself that you will be back to 'normal' by the time we're done. There is no going back, and pretending that the trauma didn't happen isn't healthy. But with help, I think we can all grow together and find understanding. Did I miss anything?" she asked Sabrina.

Sabrina shook her head. "Just that you are completely safe to share whatever you want to here. Amelie won't disturb us or ask for more than you're willing to share, and the two of us only want what's best for you. Nothing will leave this room."

Emilie nodded gratefully. "Thank you ," she responded, smiling. The anxiety level in the room wasn't quite as high as it had been, though she could still feel a level of nervousness emanating from a few of the participants. Examining faces carefully, she quickly decided on her next course of action.

"Chloe!" she called, and the girl in question, sitting next to Sabrina, started. "Can you start us off by introducing yourself?"

Chloe scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Please: everyone knows who I am!"

Emilie raised a single eyebrow at Chloe, whose emotions suddenly turned to shame.

Chloe looked away. "Oh, fine. I'm Chloe Bourgeois, of course," she stated proudly. "I was Queen Bee; now I go by Sent-Bee."

"Can you explain why you're here, sweetheart?" asked Emilie patiently.

"Tante," Chloe complained, "do I have to?" She sighed heavily and turned sullen. "Because of the reason I'm not Queen Bee anymore," she admitted, stifling a sniff. Sabrina put a hand on her arm. "Last spring I was abducted by the bad guys and they stole my miraculous. The bad guy was going to have me killed – and he threatened to let them rape me first." She stopped and clenched her eyes shut, lines deepening around her mouth. "If it hadn't been for my best friend, I wouldn't be here right now."

Sabrina patted Chloe's back. Chloe's depression – buried for so long though it had come out again while she had been talking – abated slightly. "And there is no way I would ever have let that happen, Chlo," she assured her.

Emilie nodded and gave them a benign smile. "Thank you, Chloe, sweetheart. Who would like to go next?" She looked around the circle expectantly. Had hearing Chloe's story emboldened any of the others?

The girl who had taken the seat next to Emilie let out a heavy sigh. "Bridgette – I go by 'Bri'," she began. "Or Iron Maiden. I'm a student in London. And I was attacked by the Stripper Ripper, end of last month: a London serial killer we were trying to stop." She stopped and clenched her fists. "I didn't have my suit, and he almost killed and raped me. I barely managed to fight him off, moments before my partner showed up. I found out afterward that the only reason he was even on the loose anymore was because my partner had let him escape months ago."

"Serious?" The girl sitting next to Bri's jaw dropped. "How thick is he?" she wondered, shaking her head ruefully. "You never told me the Hound was such a right moran!"

Chloe scoffed and arched an eyebrow. "I could've told you that…"

Bri shook her head, a surge of guilt and frustration boiling up. "I was all set never to talk to him again, but then…" She looked up at Emilie and frowned. "I blamed him at first – I was so mad at him – but I was just kidding myself. I was the one who decided to walk home on my own. Because I thought it couldn't possibly happen to me. It was his fault the Ripper was loose, but it was my fault the Ripper could hurt me. But I still can't let it go… I've spent the last week trying to design tools to keep what happened to me from ever happening to another woman again."

Emilie nodded. "From what Amelie has told me, you are the perfect person to tackle a project like that!" She smiled. "I hope that this project will help you understand what happened." She felt doubt and guilt from Bri. "Everything you are feeling now is understandable," she assured her. Bri's guilt abated slightly. "Recovery is a process, and it will take time. For now, perhaps we should move on to our next introduction." She turned to look at Bri's friend.

"My name is Anne," the girl announced promptly. Emilie felt a level of guardedness and false bravado from her. "And I'm just here for moral support."

Bri raised an eyebrow at her dubiously.

Anne groaned. "… and I'm here because the same monster who attacked Bri also abducted me, held me as his prisoner for a day under the campus library, and tried to sacrifice me to Danu."

Emilie's own surprise almost prevented her from sensing the disbelief and confusion from Chloe and Sabrina.

Chloe blinked, jaw nearly on the floor. "You're–you're being serious."

Anne snorted in amusement. "As a heart attack."

Chloe turned to Sabrina and rubbed her forehead. "This is our life now, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically.

Sabrina smiled. "Didn't you meet some unusual people in Somalia?"

Emilie felt a jolt of shock and anxiety from the last two in the room. "Girls," she interrupted them sharply. More calmly she went on, "Allow her to finish."

Anne shrugged. "Not much more to tell," she said. "Bri and her fella showed up before he could light the fire. Something happened… and now I can talk to and control plants."

"At this point nothing surprises me," Chloe muttered, shaking her head.

"If you're looking for a 'hero name', call me 'Bandruí': 'Druidess'."

"'Bandruí'?" Sabrina repeated.

Anne shook her head. "No, flip the 'r'."

"So 'Bandruí'?" Chloe asked.

"The emphasis is on the first syllable," Anne corrected her.

"She's a stickler for pronunciations," Bri observed, stifling a smile.

"Considering that the Ripper's bad pronunciations probably had something to do with how his rite went wrong…"

Emilie blinked a couple times. She had met Jalil Kubdel, the Heroes of Paris' resident "mage," as well as a couple of the Australian sorcerers when she had visited their Temple-Island, but she still wasn't used to the idea. "Okay… thank you… Anne." She looked to her other side at the last two participants. "Aisha, are you ready to share?"

The youngest girl present shook her head nervously. "I… I'm not sure if I really belong here," she finally admitted. "I mean, I don't have any superpowers. I'm not a hero. I'm just… me."

"Of course you belong here!" Sabrina assured her, smiling reassuringly. "We didn't invite all of you here because you're superheroes; we invited you because you have shared experiences that you can't really talk about otherwise, and we think you can help each other to recover."

"Okay…" Aisha nodded, trembling. Emilie could feel the pent up anxiety and guilt and shame bubbling up within her. The girl's mouth set in a hard line. "I'm Aisha. My family was murdered, my village slaughtered, by a warlord who called himself 'Popo'. Turns out it was short for 'Popobawa'. The monster claimed me as his… 'wife'." She froze, trembling, swallowed, whispered, "He did…" she burst into tears and buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Sabrina knelt in front of Aisha and wrapped her arms around her. Aisha grabbed onto her like a lifeline. Emilie placed her hand on Aisha's shoulder, squeezing gently and closing her eyes. Opposite Emilie, their last participant also put a hand on Aisha's shoulder.

Emilie took in a breath as she gauged the emotions coming from Aisha, almost crippling in their intensity. "You're among friends, now, sweetheart," she assured her, keeping her voice low and soothing.

Aisha sniffed. "My brother, Abdi – Cadaabta Ey – served Popo for months just to keep me alive, before he had the chance to turn on Popo and rescue us – me and Hoda. That's why Abdi and I live at the temple in Somalia now. We don't have anywhere else."

"You aren't going to be homeless or alone ever again. You will always be welcome with us," Emilie promised her, rubbing her shoulder gently. "Thank you for sharing that story. I know how difficult it was to tell." She looked over Aisha's head at the last person in the circle. "And I suppose that brings us to you."

The Shunjar's lips turned down. "Do I have to talk about it?"

"The best way for you to move forward after all of this is to allow yourself to talk about and process everything that happened to you."

She groaned. Emilie schooled her features to avoid betraying the tangled mix of largely indecipherable emotions she sensed from the alien. "You may as well call me 'Hoda'," she finally told them. "My actual name just sounds weird whenever you simians try to pronounce it. My father and I crash-landed in Africa a couple years ago after our vessel ran into trouble while in orbit around your planet. We were found by the same creature who hurt Aisha, and he kept me like a pet, beating me as a way to keep my father passive and compliant. And he even forced Aisha's brother to do it." Hoda stopped, and Aisha leaned over and wrapped her arms tight around the Shunjar's chest. Slowly Hoda swallowed and continued. "Now my father and I live in New Atlantis, and he works at the spaceport there."

Bri furrowed her brows. "'New Atlantis'?"

"'Spaceport'?" Anne added, also confused.

Chloe smirked. "Have we got a surprise for you…"

Emilie smiled and looked around the circle at the five participants as well as Sabrina. "Thank you all for sharing," she told them. "Over our next few sessions, we will continue meeting to talk together. Sabrina and I will also visit with you individually and in smaller breakout groups over the rest of this weekend and next weekend. I think all of you have something of value to share with the others as we work through your trauma. All of you have shown yourselves to be stronger than what happened to you. And Sabrina and I want to help you become stronger still."