Warning! OOCness ahead. a very emotional/traumatized Dan and worried/nostalgic Shun!Angst-centric. Dan!Shun!Marucho!centric! May seem very OOC for the original 3, but I can't help but want to torture Dan a bit and just give the brawlers some newer, different emotion.

Read, rate, vote, comment, review, enjoy!

Disclaimer: This game is older than I am. I doubt that I made it or have any claim over it whatsoever.

Normal POV

Shun and the others were terrified when Dan started to shake and gasp as her face scrunched up in pain and fear. Rage would swap out with sometimes, but pain was always dominate. Cuts and slashes mysteriously appeared all over her person, the blood was flowing from them freely. Even worse, tears streamed from her eyes. Even Drago was worried at this point. Dan's nightmare's have never been this bad before. At least, not in a long time.

"Dan! Dani! Come on, you gotta wake up!" Shun and Marucho begged her to wake up. Shun was shaking her the best he could without injuring her further while Marucho was tapping her face. Marucho was crying as well and Shun was close to following.

"Dani-"

"No," she murmured, causing all movement in the room to freeze," No, no, nononononono, NO, NO, NO! NOOOOOOO!"

"Dani- WAKE UP!" Shun screamed. Dan's eyes snapped open, still glazed over in fear. She scrambled up and away from the others, backing into a wall. She was bawling, tears falling freely as her arms came up to guard her.

"Stay away," her voice quivered," Get the hell away from me Magmel!" All Dan could see when she opened her eyes was Magmel. Everyone in the room looked like Magmel to her.

"Oh Dan," Drago sighed. He knew she had been traumatized to a whole new level. Looks like the next few days were going be more sleepless nights.

"Dan?" Marucho was worried. Regardless of how selfish and unreliable (in his mind) that Dan had been lately, he still cared about the older girl that he thought of as a sister. He had never seen her look so completely and utterly terrified and broken. "Dan?" Said girl flinched away and whimpered.

"Dan?" Shun has never remembered talking to he ex- fearless leader in such a soft tone before. Sure he was a naturally quieter guy, but even then he had never spoken so . . . gently to someone since his mom died. "Dani?" He walked closer to her.

"St-stay away! Get away from me Magmel!" was her response. She curled even closer to the wall, her body shaking from fear. Shun didn't stop until he was right next to her. Dan was practically trying to become one with the wall.

"Hey, it's alright Dani," Shun soothed as he tried to move her hands from in front of her," Magmel's not here. You're safe." It didn't work. If anything, it made her increase her struggle.

"No! Get the hell away from me! No! NO!" Dan fought against Shun desperately, not realizing it was Shun holding her. "Let me go! Please! Drago! Shun! Marucho! Mama! Daddy! Help me please!" She was crying uncontrollably, trying to wrench her arms out of Shun's grip. Eventually, Shun gave up on trying to gently snap her out of it.

"Dani!" Shun yanked her arms away and grabbed her face. Dan had her eyes closed and turned away from him. Her hands had reached up and clawed at his hands in attempt to get the away from her face. He didn't let go. Instead he forced her to face him.

"Danielle Pyra Kuso, look at me. Now," She opened her eyes and looked at him. Her normally bright and fiery eyes were clouded and watery. The look of fear on her face made Shun's heart clench. "Dani? Look at me! It's me, Shun. You're at the Gundalian HQ. Magmel's isn't here. You're safe." They stared at each other for a little longer.

Slowly, Dan's eyes cleared up. She stared at Shun, who hadn't let go of her face.

"Shun," she breathed," Is that you?"

"Yeah," he whispered," It's me." Dan reached up a hand and tugged at a strand of his hair. Hard.

"Ow!" Shun let go of her face. She pinched his cheek just as hard. "Hey- OW!" She grabbed his nose and tugged. "DAN!" Shun ticked. Next thing he knew, he was bracing himself with one arm as she tackled him to the ground. "Dan . . .?"

The Pyrus brawler was clinging to him tightly. She straddled his legs and had her arms wrapped tightly around his torso. The Ventus brawler could feel her shaking as she muffled her sobs in his chest.

"You're alright," her voice was so shaky,"You're alright. I was scared. So scared." Her voice was practically a whisper. A pain filled whisper.

"Dani?" Marucho approached her cautiously, like as if she would collapse again if he wasn't careful. Dan's head shot up as she lunged at the approaching Aquos brawler.

"Marucho!" She grappled on to him with one arm. Pulling him close, she laid her head down on both of their shoulders. "You're alright. You're both alright," she started a fresh wave of sobs," Thank god, I was so, so scared." As both boys wrapped an arm around the traumatized girl, they couldn't help but wonder, Is this really the same girl I've known all my life?

All three original brawlers just sat there, the two boys comforted the girl who had a near death grip on them. The boys had difficulty breathing, but didn't say anything. Eventually, Dan's sobs had quieted down to a slight sniffle and the shaking had calmed down to a slight tremble.

"Uh, guys?" Rafe and Paige broke the silence. Dan stiffened and bolted away and backed into the wall.

"S-sorry," she turned away and lifted her hand to her face," Sorry about that. I lost myself for a bit. Ju-just give me a minute." She leaned against the wall, facing away from the rest of the occupants of the room.

Marucho and Shun just stared at her. Dan was facing the wall and trying to remove all traces that she was crying from her face.

"Dan?" Marucho cautioned. This girl in front of him didn't seem like his ever enthusiastic, fiery ex-leader. She looked like she was bearing the world on her shoulders and they all have just noticed. For once in his life, Marucho had absolutely no idea what to do.

Shun was in a similar state. Standing before him wasn't his bullheaded, rash best friend Dan Kuso, but the strong yet sweet Dani he had left when his grandfather took him away. The same girl that had told him to stop being a coward and go face his mother, who was on her deathbed, the one that held him when he cried after the death of his beloved mother, the one that tried to be strong for him and lent him her small shoulder.

He knew that a lot must've changed when he left with his grandfather. When his returned, Dani soon changed to Dan, and he had never seen that side of her again. She was even more headstrong than before, but she never lost her ability to make things right in the end. He never questioned whether or not if she had forgiven him though. Sometimes they were on opposite side of each other and they still got mad at each other. Dani had always been able to forgive and support both him and the others. Soon, for him at least, it became a matter of when would she forgive him, and not if. He had never really questioned if she would ever not forgive him. Now he feels as if he's finally seeing the light.

Why is it that he has never noticed the pain that was seen deeply in her eyes? Why has he forgotten that she has always been dragged into a mess because her heart and her will are too big to refuse helping someone? What happened in those few minutes to cause her to react like that? There were two even bigger questions on his mind though.

How often has she cried like that with no one but Drago ever know?

Did we add to her burden by never noticing?

"Ah, sorry about that! I guess I just lost myself there for a minute," Dan declared with a final swipe across her face. Oddly enough, the section she just swiped appears lighter that the rest.

"Dan," said Marucho slowly," Are you wearing makeup?" That seem plausible, but this was Dan we're talking about. She was a diehard tomboy and hated wearing makeup. Julie tried to put on her once and she literally and to tie her up and eventually knock her out in order to put any on.

Dan froze for a brief second before denying that she was wearing any. Too bad that brief pause was enough for Shun and Marucho to know that they had caught her.

"No," she blustered," Why in Vestroia would I paint my face with a clown's paintbrush? You know that's what it would end up looking like," seeing their unconvinced faces, she panicked slightly," Come on guys. This is me, we're talking about. I'm a tomboy through and through, for Pyrus's sake. Why would I ever put that stuff on?"

Shun frowned at her. "If you're not wearing makeup, then why is one of your cheeks a different color from the other?" It was a lie, but worked well enough to prove that she was lying after all.

Dan tried to bolt, but Shun practically tackled her to the ground while Marucho came up with a handkerchief and wiped her face. Shun was physically wrapped around her in order to keep her still. Her attempts at struggling were more feeble that normal, and Shun could feel how thin she was. Her waist was too thin and he could almost feel her ribs and other weak bones. All of her hard and soft muscle was gone and all that was left was more skeletal Dan, and that immediately set off all of the alarm bells and red lights in both boys' minds. Even if Marucho wasn't wrapped around her like Shun, he could see the tell-tale signs of something being wrong with her.

Marucho took the handkerchief away from Dan's face, all covered in makeup that resembled Dan's natural, healthy skin tone, and looked at her face, and dropped the handkerchief. Shun took a look at her face, and froze with a look of pure shock and worry plastered across his face. Then, they simultaneously said one thing.

"Dan/Dani, what the hell happened?!"

OOOHH A CLIFFY! Don't kill me!

Sorry for the long wait. I've been a combination of lazy and busy (contradictory, I know), but now I am back with a new update! Tell me what you think of the story so far!

Later Brawlers!

-LovelyKami 3