Iron Maiden landed in front of the medical tent, the Hound's limp body clutched to her chest, his arms flopping at his sides and eyes closed. He still hadn't moved, not since the ambush, not since the Dark Acolytes – she swallowed hard, fighting back a sniffle, trying not to cry inside her suit. What had the monsters done to him? What had happened? Why wouldn't he wake up? A small part of her hoped that maybe he was faking it – trying to trick her by playing possum. But he wouldn't do that to her – he wouldn't terrify her like this, would he? His body had offered no resistance as the wind had whipped around them in their frantic flight back to the camp. Her breathing hitched.
What would she tell Amelie if they returned home and he was–was–
Caridad stood outside the tent, leaning against the pole holding up the entrance, and glanced up at her as she touched down. "Please–" gasped Iron Maiden, holding the Hound protectively against her chest.
Caridad stared in shock for a breath before crossing herself and jumping into action. "Get a stretcher!" she shouted into the tent, pulling one of the Hound's arms over her shoulder. "What happened?" she demanded, reaching up to feel for a pulse.
"We–we were attacked!" Iron Maiden clutched the Hound to herself reflexively. "The–the Dark Acolytes – they did something to him. One of them touched him, and then he… Please! You have to help him!"
Iron Maiden didn't see when a gurney was rolled out of the tent, but Caridad carefully settled the Hound onto it before pushing it back into the tent. Iron Maiden followed them woodenly into the tent, only dimly aware of Caridad and Mão Curadora as they were joined by a civilian nurse. Caridad directed the gurney into a small curtained room along one side of the tent as the nurse pushed the curtains back to give them better access. Stopping just outside of the room, Iron Maiden tried to listen to their rapid conversation, only to get lost in moments. Mão Curadora placed one hand on the Hound's forehead, and a dim white glow spread from that spot through his entire body. Iron Maiden's breath caught in her throat, watching him for some sign of a reaction as the whiteness spread just beneath the skin. Nothing happened. The glow began to fade, his skin sallow. Caridad took one of the Hound's hands in her own, closing her eyes. On his other side, the nurse took his pulse and frowned, whispering something to Mão Curadora before removing a syringe from a drawer and pulling off the cap. Mão Curadora cleared her throat and grabbed her wrist, shaking her head.
"I do not think that will do anything for him," she warned, a troubled look in her eyes.
"What–what's happening?" Iron Maiden demanded, pushing forward toward the Hound's side, looking around wildly.
Opening her eyes and glancing up at Iron Maiden, Caridad stepped away from the others and placed a hand on Iron Maiden's arm, steering her out of the tent. "He's still alive, but he isn't responding," she explained. "Annette and Mão Curadora will keep working, but without knowing what the Dark Acolytes did to him, we don't know how to treat it." Guiding Iron Maiden out of the tent, she let out a breath. "We can let you in to sit with him, but you have to stay out of the way. And I'm sorry, but your suit will definitely be in the way."
Iron Maiden nodded reluctantly and stepped to one side, activating the control to open the back of her suit. The suit froze in place as she squeezed out, and with a tap on her bracelet, the suit shut back up and switched into sentry mode, the helmet turning back and forth in a constant pattern. Reluctantly, Bri followed Caridad back inside. A couple of the other beds were in use, separated from each other by thin curtains. Caridad pushed a curtain apart and stepped aside for Bri to enter. The Hound lay impossibly still, his eyes closed and mouth slightly parted. Now that she took the time to look a little closer, Bri could see his chest rising and falling steadily as he breathed – finally she could allow herself to breathe as well. Quietly, Caridad stepped back, allowing her to get closer. Bri dropped into the canvas chair next to the cot and took the Hound's hand, squeezing it gently.
Caridad backed away from her and spoke quietly to Mão Curadora. After a moment, Mão Curadora stepped up next to the Hound and leaned over, only to hesitate. "It will help if we de-transform him," she told Bri. Bri looked at her in surprise. "Remove his miraculous," Mão Curadora instructed her.
Woodenly, Bri reached back behind his neck and unclasped his dog collar. The Miraculous came away easily, and the Hound was covered in a flash of brown light, leaving behind Felix, still unmoving, but still breathing. Barkk spun out of the miraculous in a flash, her shoulders and head drooping lethargically. Bri snatched the Kwami out of the air as she drifted toward the ground, examining her anxiously.
"M–Maiden?" whimpered Barkk weakly, her tail . "W–what happened?" She turned to look at Felix, and her eyes shot wide open. "No!"
"He is still alive," Caridad told her, patting Barkk's head sympathetically. "We will do what we can to bring him back."
Reaching into a pocket, Bri found some of the remains of their lunch and held the sandwich out to Barkk. "Here: you need to eat."
Barkk shook her head. "I'm not hungry."
Bri nodded, sighing, and slumped down on the chair, Barkk curled up on her lap.
She wasn't sure how long she had been in that position when noise from outside the medical tent drew her attention. Bri cocked her head. The sound of her suit adjusting slightly was clearly audible, as was someone rapping on it, a sharp ting. Slowly, Bri released Felix's hand, laying it back on the bed beside him, and leaned forward to press a kiss to his forehead. "I'll be back, Pup," she whispered, before transferring Barkk to his pillow and slipping out of the makeshift room, making her way outside. She flicked her wrist to deploy the control for her right bracelet, her thumb hovering over the taser trigger, and stepped out. Just outside, she froze, head cocked to one side. "Valkyrie? What are you doing?"
Valkyrie spun away from the suit, her eyes wide in shock. "I–I was just… Wait–are you…?"
Bri nodded. "In the flesh – in a manner of speaking. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, um… the Knight and I were flying around the forest together, and we went to go check on Caravela – she's practicing with the Jellyfish Miraculous for the first time today, you know – but we couldn't find her anywhere," Valkyrie explained. She looked behind Bri at the medical tent. "But what are you doing here?"
Bri's shoulders slumped. "It's the Hound: we were attacked by Dark Acolytes."
Valkyrie's jaw dropped, and she blinked rapidly. "What!?" Bri's mouth set in a thin line. Valkyrie cocked her head, brows furrowed. "Wait… But if they attacked him–" her eyes shot wide open in realization "–we need to find Caravela. Now." Holding her hands out to either side, she pushed off into the air, hovering a meter off the ground. Bri stared up at her without moving. Valkyrie raised her eyebrows insistently. "Aren't you coming?"
Bri folded her arms, giving Valkyrie an annoyed look. "I'm not leaving my partner here! They tried to kill him!"
"And if they went after him, how much do you want to bet that they also went after Caravela?" Valkyrie shot back. "And if they did that, how are we supposed to stop the Tarasque?"
Bri looked back over her shoulder at the medical tent. Felix was still in there – unconscious. He had been attacked, and she hadn't been able to protect him. And now Valkyrie wanted to pull her away from him, to leave him alone here when he could be dying. She couldn't leave him here like this! Her stomach clenched. Was that what he would want? What was more important right now? Sitting with Felix while he's unconscious, or making sure that the Jellyfish Miraculous – the one he had almost been killed to acquire – was still safe? "Fine," she ground out, stepping back into the medical tent and stopping by Felix's bed. Gently she clasped the miraculous back around his neck before pressing a kiss to his mouth. "I'll be back, Pup," she whispered, choking back tears. Reluctantly, she patted Barkk on the head and backed away. With a heavy sigh, Bri hit the button to open the back of her suit and shimmied inside. Pushing off into the air, she rose to Valkyrie's level. "Happy?"
Valkyrie pursed her lips and opened her mouth, only to close it again. Quickly she gained altitude and led the way east across the camp, flying over the steep path leading up out of the valley.
Iron Maiden's stomach clenched more with every kilometer they flew away from Felix. What if something happened while she was away? What if he–if he… But she couldn't do anything – she didn't even know where to begin. She couldn't keep thinking about that… Finally she glanced ahead at Valkyrie. "So, you and the Knight…?" Valkyrie hummed in a question, raising an eyebrow. "Are you…?"
Valkyrie stifled a giggle. "Since right after that first time we faced the Bear," she confirmed. "Though he didn't find out it was me until we were here…" She blushed. "I wish I hadn't kept that from him, but I just didn't know how to tell him."
Iron Maiden frowned. "That seems to be a theme," she muttered. "Hound and I have known each other outside of the mask – or suit, if you will – just about as long as we've known each other. But it took him practically dying to get this stupid miraculous in the first place before I actually said anything more to him. And now…"
Valkyrie nodded sympathetically. "I know what you mean. And–" she paused "–I'm sorry for pulling you away from him – es–especially now. Believe me, if it were my boyfriend lying in there…"
"The Dark Acolytes are going down for what they did to him," interrupted Iron Maiden, her mouth set in a firm line. As they flew over the forest, she activated her ground-scanning radar, scanning every centimeter of the ground for signed. Just as they flew over a small clearing a kilometer from the camp, she paused, double-checking the indications on her HUD. While the forest floor was pocked and uneven throughout, there was a much greater concentration of small imprints in the ground in this clearing. Zooming in on the trees surrounding the clearing, she could see several which had had the bark peeled away. And at the base of one was a slick patch of blood. "Damn."
Valkyrie looked over at her in surprise as Iron Maiden shifted vertical and dropped to a hover directly above the blood. Valkyrie landed just under the tree cover inside the tree line and bent over. "It's Caravela's trident," she announced, picking something up.
Iron Maiden stuck one of her fingers into the blood. "Human," she called after checking the analysis on her HUD.
"You think…?"
Iron Maiden waved her hand to brush off the bloody dirt and rocketed up into the air, turning in the direction of the camp. "We need to tell Ladybug."
The flight back to camp passed in an anxious silence. With every kilometer they flew, Iron Maiden's worry increased. Felix was only hanging on by a thread. The Jellyfish was missing. Caravela and Dhuan – both gone and probably dead. And after the attack in the woods, the Dark Acolytes had to be at the center of it all. She pumped more and more energy into her jetpack, accelerating to her fastest possible speed. Behind her, Valkyrie rode the thermals of Iron Maiden's jetpack, keeping up with her easily, uncharacteristically silent. But for the first time since the ambush, the way in front of Iron Maiden was clear.
"Ladybug! Cat Noir!" Scanning Hero Town as she crested the cliff, Iron Maiden located them almost immediately and landed unceremoniously in the soft earth in front of the main dining pavilion, sending clumps of loose soil in all directions. Ladybug and Cat Noir stood with a group of other heroes, looking down on the forms of several Dark Acolytes who huddled on the ground, bruising visible on their faces, their robes ripped and torn in several places. The Prior lay trussed up in webbing at Spider-Monkey's feet. As Iron Maiden slammed into the ground, the whole group jumped aside, dropping into defensive stances. Majestia remained hovering, arms folded. Valkyrie landed next to Iron Maiden but shrank back away from the crowd, eyeing all of them nervously.
"What's going on!?" yelped Rugindo Leoa, staring at Iron Maiden.
"Whatever it is, it had better be w-earth it!" added Cat Noir with a too-wide grin, brushing dirt off of his legs.
"Down, Kitty." Ladybug frowned. "But he's not exactly wrong. We were in the middle of something: these Dark Acolytes just tried to attack us."
Joey scoffed, kicking one of the Dark Acolytes in the ribs. "They tried to attack several of us," he corrected, his eyes narrowed. "Had it not been for Olivet…"
"I'm just relieved I was there to help," Olivet interjected, placing a glowing hand against her own forearm and wincing.
"Do we know who else was attacked?" demanded Knightowl, arms folded.
Rugindo Leoa's mouth set in a thin line. "I'm still waiting on reports from my Initiates," she replied. "The damage to the supply depot was substantial – one of the containers was entirely destroyed. That's where most of the Initiates are."
"If they even thought about hurting mi vida, I will turn them to paste," Lupa Gris growled, smacking her war club against her palm.
Ladybug held up a hand for silence, looking intently between Iron Maiden and Valkyrie. Her face took on a hard set. "What happened?"
"It's Caravela – she's disappeared!" Valkyrie reported breathlessly, holding out her trident. "We found this in the woods."
"They wouldn't," gasped Draco.
Olivet's gaze turned dark. "They absolutely would."
Iron Maiden folded her arms. "There were definite signs of a struggle."
"They were training," Lupa Gris pointed out. "Could that be what you saw?"
Iron Maiden shook her head. "There was blood. We–we think it was the Dark Acolytes."
"Dammit!" groaned Joey.
"No one else has the same motivation as they do," observed Jueran Eazim, humming pensively.
Rugindo Leoa nodded. "That tracks with what happened here."
"If that's the case, we have to do something about this!" Ladybug declared, looking around at the others. "We can't let them get away with hurting our friends! And we have to get the Jellyfish back from them if we're going to stop the Tarasque!"
"Hang on," Cat Noir interjected, putting a hand on Ladybug's shoulder. "It definitely looks bad – especially after this. But we can't act too hastily. We don't even know that it was the Dark Acolytes–"
"They attacked me and the Hound earlier today," Iron Maiden interrupted. "He's still out."
Cat Noir's face suddenly changed, a dangerous glint entering his eye. "I'm going to fucking kill those bastards," he swore, his claws abruptly extending.
"No, you're not," interjected Majestia, dropping back down to the ground and folding her arms.
"And you're going to stop me?" he demanded, glaring at her.
"No," Knightowl told him, stepping up next to Majestia. "They will. You've said yourself that the Dark Acolytes can specifically target and defeat miraculous users. Most likely, they are counting on you going after them so they can take you all out at once."
Ladybug opened her mouth to argue, but Jueran Eazim raised a hand. "Then what do you propose?" he asked.
Majestia's mouth twisted into a feral grin. Raising an eyebrow at Iron Maiden and Valkyrie, she cracked her knuckles. "Leave it to us."
