AN: This is a follow-up from "Group Therapy," with a couple references back to the "Australia" chapter of this anthology.

To armadas: The next even will have a story with Rose as a major character (I haven't decided if she'll be a POV), along with a couple other crucial moments for her.

To Butterfly: I like to think of the "Mind Games"-verse as the regular ML universe, but with the logic setting enabled!

To StarDaPanda225: I haven't really been able to work her in before now; not sure if I will again. But maybe.

To yellow 14: Give me about 3 minutes!

As Emilie walked along the smooth path leading out of New Atlantis, the setting sun illuminating the small hill in front of them with a warm red glow, she thought back to the only other time she had visited the Australian Temple-Island, months ago. While Adrien and Marinette had met with the leaders of the other four miraculous teams, she had visited with representatives from the other Orders of the Guardians. It had been a good week of meetings, but they had been long – she and the others had only had a few hours each day for exploring the island. That trip had been all about business… right up until the trip was interrupted for a possible Shunjar invasion.

So what a strange twist of fate that she was now here to visit a Shunjar!

Unfortunately, this trip wouldn't be a particularly long one. Although Hoda had invited all of them to stay for a couple days, the girls all had classes on Monday, and trying to adjust to the time difference for a weekend and then back would be too much. As it was, Emilie's head already hurt from trying to keep the time straight: Her body was still trying to wake up, but her senses were telling her that it was going to be dark soon. And after their dinner-for-breakfast, they would be returning to a Europe that had already eaten lunch. She rubbed her forehead. For as convenient as the portals were for short trips, traveling across the globe by them still carried its own problems.

Not that the time difference seemed to be affecting the younger ones.

Ahead of her on the path, Emilie could hear Chloe and Bri arguing. Chloe scoffed. "Are you telling me you never got caught up in an Akuma attack?" she demanded. "How did you manage that living in Paris?"

"Not never," Bri retorted, rolling her eyes. "Zombizou, Syren… the ones that affected all of Paris – Darkblade even turned me into one of his knights. Then there was that time with the Tramp. But…" She paused, brows furrowed in thought. "No, I think that was it."

Chloe shook her head ruefully. "It seemed like they were always after me," she commented wryly.

Bri snorted. "That sounds like a you problem!" she teased, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Touché."

Emilie smiled, feeling the girls' high emotions – even Chloe seemed more amused by the conversation than anything else. Behind her, Anne and Sabrina were comparing notes. "So have you been here before now?" Anne asked curiously.

Sabrina shook her head. "Believe it or not, this is my first time visiting one of the other temples. Chloe's been to all of them; so has Max, or at least to most of them – he installed all the portals except the ones in Angola and Mali. But I've never had to do any traveling for the Heroes of Paris since my role is largely confined to Paris itself, combing through the city's emotions to find anyone in danger."

Anne hummed. "I wouldn't mind doing a little more travel," she commented, running her fingers through the leaves of a bush alongside the path and causing a few of the leaves to elongate and produce thin white pinwheels. Duusu flew off of Emilie's shoulder and pounced on the flowers, sniffing at them happily before picking a small handful and bringing them over to Emilie. "It's pretty unreal, playing around with different types of plants!"

"Is it any different?" Sabrina asked. "Different types of flowers, or flowers from different places, I mean."

Anne furrowed her brows and knelt beside the bush. "I… hmm. It's… different… but not really different. If you know what I mean. It's as different as trying to talk to Felix. They use the same 'language', but there's just a hint of a difference."

Sabrina hummed thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "You know," she mused, "we really should have you over some time to test out your abilities, see what all you can do!"

"Bang on!"

Chloe stopped in front of a tall wooden door set into an alcove of the hill and rapped sharply. Only a moment later, the door opened and Aisha stood in the doorway. On catching sight of Chloe, her eyes lit up and she threw her arms around her in a hug before pulling Bri into the hug and looking past the two of them at the others. "You made it! I hoped you all would! Mr. Kassim is just finishing with the meat, and Hoda is setting the table. Abdi is here, too; I really want you all to meet my brother!"

Emilie smiled, suppressing a gasp at the pure happiness radiating from Aisha. On her shoulder, Duusu cooed in delight. Behind her, Emilie sensed a similar outpouring of elation from Sabrina as she also recognized it: the improvement in Aisha's outlook and emotions over the last two weeks was absolutely breathtaking. Certainly some of that had come from the therapy retreat, but some of it must also have resulted from this visit, the week she and her brother had spent touring New Atlantis with Hoda. Emilie could still feel the pain and shame that had dominated her previously, now hidden well beneath the surface. But those emotions were far outweighed by this infectious happiness.

Was this closer to what she had been like before Popo?

Leaving such musings behind, Emilie following the others into the cave, a large stone-lined room, easily three meters in height, furnished simply with a human-sized couch and a pair of oversized chairs set around a coffee table shaped from petrified wood. An earth-toned woven mat covered most of the stone floor. From this large central living room, doorways radiated out like spokes of a wheel. Three of the doors were shut; what appeared to be a bathroom was visible through another. The sound of meat sizzling came from the room opposite the entrance. Voices could be heard from another doorway. The whole structure appeared to be lit by a mixture of electric lights set into the ceiling and natural light filtering in through shafts in the roof. Aisha led them toward the dining room, where Hoda and a boy who could only be Aisha's twin were busy arranging plates and silverware on a long petrified-wood dining table. A black Kwami with pointy ears carefully placed a salt shaker in the center of the table next to the matching pepper shaker. Hoda looked up and waved as Aisha ran over to Abdi, grabbed him by the hand, and dragged him over to the others, beaming with excitement.

"These are my new friends," Aisha told him, introducing them.

"It's… nice to meet you." Abdi's eyes shifted nervously between the five of them. Emilie could sense his anxiety and fear building. His Kwami floated up from the table and settled on Abdi's shoulder, curling up and fixing the newcomers with an unblinking gaze.

"Wait… is that Growll?" asked Duusu, perking up. He grinned and tackled the Kwami into a hug. "It's been ages! It's so amazing to see you again! Nooroo, look who it is!"

Emilie raised an eyebrow at Sabrina as Nooroo joined the other two Kwamis in flitting around the high ceiling, chattering in high-pitched voices.

Sabina nodded in recognition and smiled warmly at Abdi. "Aisha has told us so much about you; it's nice to have a face to put with the name!"

"Um… thanks…" Emilie could still sense his nervousness growing by the minute. Perhaps the number of people in the room was too much for him?

Sabrina gave Hoda a quick hug, a contemplative look in her eyes. "Thank you for the invitation!" she told her. "I love your house: it's so different from anything I've seen before."

"Would you like a tour before dinner?" Hoda offered, her mouth parting in a smile. "This isn't exactly like home, of course – Cyclone did his best, but he could only work from our descriptions. But the lighting shafts are exactly like how I remember; growing up my friends and I would play games to see who could throw the most stones in a row through one of them from the bottom without touching the edges." She pointed out a painting of a green-and-tan orb on the wall just inside the central room. "Father drew that after we arrived – it's supposed to be home."

"Is the green part the jungle you mentioned?" asked Anne.

Hoda nodded. "The city where we lived was just on the northern edge of the jungle."

The others all followed Hoda out of the dining room as she pointed out other features of the house. Emilie hung back, examining the contours in the table. Before long, she, Abdi, and the Kwamis were the only ones left in the room. Abdi's anxiety spiked again.

Emilie helped herself to a water glass and took a small sip. "Your sister is doing so much better now than she was the last time I saw her," she began, watching him closely for his reaction.

Abdi nodded. "I–yeah, she is," he agreed, his emotions still in turmoil, though with happiness starting to encroach on the anxiety.

"I think that this trip has helped her," Emilie continued.

Guilt and shame rose up in Abdi. "It has."

"And you're upset with yourself that you didn't do anything sooner to help her escape from Popo?" asked Emilie.

Abdi looked up at her in surprise. "Well, yeah… If I had just tried hard enough, maybe I could have gotten her away from Popo months earlier than I actually did." His shoulders slumped. "Maybe then she wouldn't have been hurt so badly."

Emilie hummed. "It is possible that you might have rescued her and escaped," she allowed. "But what might have been the tradeoff for that?"

"Popo could have caught us and killed us." His emotions turned sad. "Then it would have been pointless."

Emilie nodded. "You both survived," she pointed out. "And you still have each other. Given the circumstances, that isn't something to take lightly. Not only that, but you retained a desire to help people, rather than do to them what was done to you."

Abdi frowned.

Sensing that Hoda and the others had almost returned, Emilie put a gentle hand on Abdi's shoulder. "I can see that this is still painful for you," she told him. "Would you like to visit some more later?" He eyed her nervously, his mouth twisting around into a frown. Emilie could feel his anxiety increase. "Maybe not today, then," she decided. His anxiety abated. "But if you ever need to talk to someone about it, Aisha and Mohamed both know how to contact me. You aren't alone anymore; you don't have to work through this on your own."

Abdi nodded. "Thanks," he answered as the rest of the group returned.

"Who's hungry?" called another Shunjar, this one even taller than Hoda herself – her father, Kassim. He carried an enormous platter laden down with an entire roasted side of beef which he placed on the sideboard. Hoda and Aisha followed him, carrying smaller platters, one with a garden salad and the other with some flatbread. Kassim held out his hand to Emilie. "You must be the one Hoda and Aisha have been raving about all week!" he greeted her, his mouth turning up in a toothy smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you – though after listening to them I feel like I know you and the others already!"

"Likewise," Emilie replied, taking one of the offered talons. "And thank you for the invitation! The food looks delicious – and I know this isn't what you normally eat."

Kassim shrugged one shoulder. "It's the least I could do." He paused. "Thank you for everything you did for my daughter."

Emilie smiled. "That was my pleasure. They were all so wonderful to work with; I'm glad I was able to help them." She looked around at the others, all of whom were conversing happily as they found their seats at the table. "To be honest, I think they helped each other as much as Sabrina or I helped them."

AN: At this point I only have one "Fridge" chapter left to write, which will probably post after the upcoming "Lukagami" story since it will come after the New Year. In the meantime, tomorrow will be another "Life and Times" one-shot, with an "SLD Case Report" starting after that. Then it will finally be Christmastime in-universe!