"If you can accept the indescribable nature of your true identity, you unveil the mystery of life."- Akemi G

The brawlers made their way up to the rose garden. They finally had a chance of getting any info that could help them make sense of recent events and/or whether they were to be genuinely concerned for the future. As they reached the rose garden, there did not seem to be anything happening. It was quiet and uneventful. "So much for finding any useful leads," Paige stated. "We really don't need anything that might result in a wild goose chase." There was nothing up here. "Maybe your grandfather got the coordinates wrong?" Mira asked. "I don't know, he seemed so sure," was the reply.

Since, it seemed like they had lost their potential lead, the brawlers began to return into the building. Suddenly, thunder roared. It roared so loud, it left their ears ringing. It was then that they figured something was going to happen but they couldn't stay outside under the mercy of the weather. So Marucho suggested that they should all go into the greenhouse. That way, they would still get some protection and witness whatever was going to occur. They all agreed and ran into the nearby greenhouse.

"I never knew you had a greenhouse, Marucho! The flowers in here are so beautiful" Fabia's eyes sparkled as they wondered from potted plant to tree. "Hey, isn't that Dan over there?" Sure enough, Dan was facing a glass window at the far end of the greenhouse. He wasn't moving but seemed to be looking intently at something that they couldn't see. "Dan the man! What are you doing over there?" Jake shouted. "Hey! Maybe he can't hear me from there."

Shun walked away from the group towards Dan. He had a strong feeling that something strange was happening again and his friend was caught in the middle of it. He was not wrong. As he was about to call his friend, he noticed the moving images on the glass but there was no sound. "Um guys, you should come and see this," Shun called. The brawlers came towards Shun with inquisitive looks. Their expressions quickly changed to ones of shock. Right in front of them they saw scenes of peril and disaster. It was upsetting to look at. Especially where a young child was instantly killed. "Dan, do you know what's going on?" Marucho walked to the silent boy. Dan was so focused he hadn't realised that he had company. The visuals and the sounds that he was witnessing made him feel like he had been physically transported to this panic-stricken place. "Dan, please answer us," Alice pleaded. Shun looked towards his best friend and then towards the glass. There was a young boy standing underneath a brilliantly coloured ball of energy. Energy surging through the air surrounding him. He looked so sorrowful yet held an air of responsibility and acceptance. Like he expected something to happen to him. The rest of the brawlers saw this too. "Who is that?" someone asked.

The young male disappeared right in front their eyes with a flash of light and a small orb of light drifted away. But they all heard his final words. The words that had been concerning them for a while. They finally knew who it was asking for help, whether it was meant to be theirs or not. They had finally witnessed the events that had sent that serpent to their world even though having an idea of what was being said would have helped too.

"Finally! Something to work with but we still need to investigate some more," Ren said. "Yes but I can't help but wonder what happened to that young man. Did he die?" Gus spoke up. "Both he and the serpent were completely absorbed by that ball of energy. The serpent came here; do you think the young male is also on earth?" The question had them thinking, if they could find the young man, they might just get all the answers they need. "But how do we start looking for him?" Keith asked. "We have nothing that could be a potential lead." The sounds of disappointment were evident. It seemed that they had approached another dead end.

"Actually, we do have a lead," Shun suddenly commented. Everyone looked at him expecting him to explain himself. "Dan, are you with us?" Dan blinked as though he had come out of a trance and turned to look at Shun. "Let's all go inside and I'll explain," Shun finished. There was a slight air of awkwardness as everyone made their way to the living room. "Perhaps we should call Dr. Michael as we discuss, just to inform him of our findings." Rafe suggested. So Dr. Michael was placed on a video call while the brawlers arranged themselves to discuss their recent findings. "So what did you kids find? Anything substantial?" the scientist inquired.

"When we first arrived at the rose garden there wasn't anything going on. It was so quiet that we almost doubted there being any useful information that we could retrieve. We were about to return back into the building when the sound of thunder caught us off guard. It was then that we realised that something was about to happen there so in order to stay protected and still have a clear view of the garden, we all went into the greenhouse. That's where we met Dan and he was staring at something, completely focused on it. So we went up to him and saw what could only be described as scenes from a disastrous occurrence. The place was not familiar; neither did anything we see, resemble any documented events or urban myths. But we all heard the plea that Dan was talking about, it came from a young man that bonded with a ball of energy before disappearing." Keith recounted. Marucho and Alice then went on to explain the details of the events that they had witnessed from colours to the kind of people they saw.

"I have a feeling that the coloured ball of energy must have been the power of the Nexus that monster was talking about," Dr. Michael stated. "It is also possible based on what you've explained to me that the young man might also have been transported here, finding him might help us make more sense of the situation before it becomes a global issue." "Shun mentioned that we do have a lead that could help us find this person," Rafe reminded.

"Before I explain myself, I have something that I should share with all of you," Shun replied. Shun told everyone present what he discussed with Dan earlier that evening. After explaining himself, everyone looked lost for words as Dan stood up and excused himself from the meeting. "Daniel, wait!" Dr. Michael interjected. Dan stopped when Keith and Gus prevented him from leaving. Dr. Michael continued, "You were already at the greenhouse before I sent the brawlers up there to check the rose garden. You were at the source of the signal. What else did you see before your friends arrived?"

"I didn't see that much before they arrived. I saw people running in panic and screaming. I heard someone instruct some others to get the people to safety and then these six people were helping the people with these super….," Dan was saying when Ace suddenly interjected, "You could hear what they said?!" Dan looked surprised and unsure as he answered "Yes, I could hear the screaming, the tremors that were shaking the place, there were a lot of voices saying stuff that I couldn't distinctly make out but I could tell that they were the voices of people's conversations."

"You heard what the rest of us couldn't hear" Shun pointed out. Dan quickly defended himself, "Nothing they were saying was as important as what we all heard that dude say before we came here. Like I said, it was hard to make out." "You were there before any of us was and you didn't even notice us there until the end. You were so absorbed you ignored us," Shun stated, "You mentioned that you didn't care whatever theories might come up. Well here's one for you Dan, you and that guy are connected. I was watching, it was like he was talking to you directly before he disappeared. Stop being difficult when you clearly have a connection to everything that has been happening." The atmosphere became tense as both Shun and Dan seemed to have a heavy disagreement.

"I'm being difficult?! What exactly do you want me to do? So I witnessed something that you didn't. I'm now a prime centre of focus? I won't deny being involved but don't expect me to have the answers to all your questions. I don't know any more than you do when it comes to this. I don't care about the theories because I want us to have progress in figuring out these bizarre circumstances. But I also mentioned that the whole situation has me on edge. Nothing makes sense to me and it's too much to comprehend." Dan retorted.

Dan looked at the rest of the brawlers and continued, "The night before that serpent came, I couldn't sleep. I woke up feeling distressed and concerned but I couldn't tell why. I tried to relax by watching the rain through one of the windows and I noticed that the sky was discoloured. I fell asleep not long after and woke up around dawn. I figured to psyche myself up again, I'd go for a morning jog. I felt better but not completely relaxed before coming to join you guys for breakfast that day. I remember seeing the same sky I had seen the previous night before I ran out." The room was silent and Shun felt concern as his friend explained his hesitance regarding the whole situation.

"I've had this feeling that something bad is going on and I'm somehow connected to these events but I also can't shake away the feeling of distress and unease within me. An instinctive feeling to not involve myself, to keep away from something hidden. Almost like an intuition that my involvement could make matters worse."

Dan's statements emotionally struck the people present. They had no idea that their ever-cheerful leader was feeling this way about the whole situation. He felt somewhat responsible for the bizarre occurrences because he had indirect connections to the events. But it hurt him that he couldn't even provide answers for these things occurring. Nothing was revealed to him precisely. It was as though the information was being kept from him.

"I apologize," Shun's voice brought everyone's thoughts back to the situation at hand, "I shouldn't have said those things earlier and now. To be honest, I'm also scared of what's been happening and concerned with how little we know of the situation. I guess the main reason we're not on equal terms of agreement is because I feel like the less we know, the more prone we are to whatever is actually going on and we can't do nothing about it."

"What do you mean?" Jake asked. "What I mean is I respect Dan's feelings but wouldn't not knowing put him in more danger," Shun replied. The thought had never occurred to anyone that their friend could potentially be in danger. Keith commented, "I agree with Shun, in both these instances, Dan was focused on, I'm willing to bet that it was because he was outside that this recent signal was detectable and witnessed outside. Then the other time, the serpent directly attacks Dan upon sight, Dan acts like a completely different person and then forgets about the whole thing entirely. Maybe this Nexus power is to blame and solely targeting our friend for a reason. A reason that could either be good or bad but still unknown."

"So now we need to figure out all these loose ends, I really hope that nothing bad is going to happen," Fabia sighed. "I think the first thing we need to do is to find out all we can about this Nexus power. Something relevant should surface if we direct our attention in that manner. I'll ask my sister if she's heard anything about it in Neathia."

"I can ask Master Nurzak about it too," Ren said. "We can search through all the Vestal archives and ask Klaus to keep an ear out about it too in Vestal," Ace supplied. Drago spoke up, "We'll help too, it will mean going back to New Vestroia to gather any helpful information but I'm sure we'll be able to contact you once we've find anything."

"And we'll find as much as possible here too, I know someone who did a course in Ancient History and Beliefs, perhaps she could help us out," Julie excitedly said, "Finally! We have a game plan! Awesome!"

"That's very good. I'll keep researching and inform you of whatever I find, goodnight and good luck!" Dr. Michael said as he signed off.

The brawlers and their bakugan were glad that they were making progress and were eagerly chatting with one another about how they were going to find out the required information. They were so caught up with one another, they didn't realize when two people had left. One leaving in the middle of the excitement, the other noticing and following close behind.

AN: Thank you to everyone who has been following this story. I'm back to work now but I should have the next chapter ready in about a fortnight. Hope you're enjoying the plot so far and if you've read/followed "The Dark Three", one of my previous stories, please check out my recent AN for it.

The angst between Dan and Shun was pretty short-lived but that doesn't mean that these two friends' and the brawlers' relationships won't be tested. Come on, the summary says it all – but all of that will come soon. It'll be fun to know if anyone has any theories as to what is going on.

Do you have a fave out of the OCs?

They might be coming back.

:D

Rate, Review and I'll see you soon.