Disclaimer: As usual, do not own Bakugan.

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Conflict and Answers

The sound of the crowd cheering was always a pleasant sound to Alice. She smiled as she watched the end of the show. No matter how many times she watched, it always amazed her how talented all of her friends were.

"NOT YET! I NEED MORE TIME!" The sudden yelling scared Alice and she turned to where the sound was coming from. It seemed to be coming from behind a stack of crates about 30 feet away from her. She debated whether or not she should interfere, but curiosity got the better of her.

Alice tipped toed quietly toward the crates and as she got closer she was able to identify the voice as Jackson. She crouched behind the crates and peeked around the corner. She saw Jackson standing with his back to her and he was tapping a foot while rubbing his head. He looked to be quite angry.

"I don't care what he says, nothing is ready for that yet. The new addition is far from ready from any kind of testing let alone intensive testing….Really? You are going to threaten to fire me? At this point, whom are you going to trust with this information? I guarantee that you won't be able to find anyone, so let me put it simply; I am here and can see where all of them are as far as their skills go. I will inform you when I believe that they are ready. Oh, and one more thing, don't call me from this point out. I will call you." Jackson furiously snapped his phone closed and threw it against the wall. Plastic pieces flew in multiple directions.

Alice watched wide-eyed at what she was seeing. She had never seen Jackson act like that before. She decided it would be best to leave before she was seen. She took a step back and bumped into a stack of boxes. A bucket on top suddenly toppled over and hit the floor making a loud bang.

"Who's there?" Jackson's voice was close and Alice froze unsure what to do. She could hear his footsteps getting closer. She closed her eyes and hoped she wouldn't be seen.

"It's me. Sorry if I scared you. Just wanted to let you know that we just finished our last show here. I'm assuming it is time to pack up." Alice's eyes snapped open and she slowly looked around the boxes and saw Shun standing in front of them. 'When did he get here? I didn't hear him.'

Jackson sighed and combed a hand through his hair. "Jeez, you scared me. I would appreciate it if you didn't sneak up on me like that. Yes, let's pack up. Thank you." He then turned and left quickly.

Silence fell for a long minute and Alice thought it best to stay as still as possible. "If you are gong to eavesdrop, then try to not make so much noise." She looked up straight into a pair of serious honey-brown eyes.

Shun sighed and gently grabbed her arms and pulled her up. "Now, I believe we have work to do." He started walking away. "Why did you help me?" Alice asked. "After all, you seem to hate me."

Shun stood still for a moment, all of his muscles were tense. He turned his head to look at her. Alice was unable to see his expression since his hair hid his face. "I have my reasons and they are not any of your business." He walked away in the direction Jackson had gone. "You should get your stuff packed up soon." He called over his shoulder.

Alice let out a frustrated breath. 'That's it, I'm going to get him to tell me what's on his mind one way or another.' She headed towards the performance tent to help clean and pack everything up, but she was formulating a plan.

~S~

It was the middle of the night as the train made it's way through the countryside of France. It was currently heading towards Spain and all of the passengers were fast asleep. 'Well, everyone but me.' Alice thought. She had been sitting on her bed for the last several hours trying to think of a way to get Shun to open up to her, but she finally decided that playing nice wasn't going to work anymore.

With her mind made up, Alice went to her door and slipped out. She quietly made her way to the boys' side of the train and found Shun's door. It wasn't hard to find since apparently Shun was the only one who didn't snore. Alice raised her hand to lightly knock when the door suddenly opened. She jumped back against the opposite wall in fright.

"If I had known you were this desperate to see me I would have just stayed in the dining room." Was Shun's sharp remark. Alice glared at him. "Not funny." She decided now would be the time to make her move. She pushed off the wall, walked up to him and shoved Shun as hard as she could back into his room. Alice quickly walked in, closed the door and locked it.

"What do you think you are doing?" Alice looked at Shun and realized that he was angry. She dug deep for confidence she wasn't feeling and glared at him. "You obviously have a problem with me and I am sick and tired of it. So I am going to stay here until you tell me what your issue is."

If she thought Shun was scary earlier then he was very terrifying with the look he was giving her at that moment. "I am going to say this one final time. My reasons are none of your business. Now get out so I can get some sleep."

For a moment Alice considered doing what he asked, but she shook her head. "No, Shun, I want you to tell me why you hate me." He gave a growl and the next thing Alice knew, she found herself pinned to the door. She felt her heart racing and her breathing quicken. Her vision was filled with Shun's very angry face. "Fine, you want to know why I act the way that I do?" Alice managed to nod at his question.

"Well, you won't know, because I are leaving right now." Alice felt his hand leave her shoulder and heard the door being unlocked. She suddenly realized he was going to push her out of the room.

"No, I'm not leaving." She pushed against him hoping he would give her a little more room." Shun growled and pushed back. A wrestling match then followed. Alice was trying her hardest to keep her ground while Shun was trying to get her to leave without hurting her. He was a jerk, but he wasn't going to hurt anyone.

"Why can't you just tell me?" Alice demanded suddenly.

"Because you wouldn't understand."

"How do you know? You haven't even tried."

"I have no reason to tell you."

"You are just being a coward."

"I am not. Now get out."

"You are being a bully. Making sure my life is worst than yours."

"You don't know what it's like to have a terrible life."

"I lost my grandfather in an explosion, what could you know about loss?"

"You don't know what you are talking about."

"Yes I do, but you can't seem to get that into your brain. You don't know what pain feels like."

Alice realized her mistake when Shun suddenly growled loudly and threw her onto his bed. She looked at him with wide eyes unsure what to do. Shun planted both hands on either side of her body. "I know the worst kind of pain that you can only imagine. I watched as my parents were killed, my grandfather slowly die from an illness that we had no control over. I have lost all of the friends that were closest to me without a reason or cause. So don't ever say I don't understand because I have seen worse than you can think of. The reason I despise you is because I don't want to see anyone else get hurt or lose because I got close to them. Do you understand NOW?!"

Silence followed the outburst. All they could hear was Shun's heavy breathing. Alice stared at him in disbelief. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. After a few more tries, she managed to speak in a small voice. "I had no idea. I'm sorry. But if what you told me is true, then the only reason you have been mean to me was because you didn't want to get close to me?" Alice was certain for his reasons now, but she wanted him to tell her that.

Shun sighed. "Yes. That's way I have been such a jerk. The last thing I need is to get close to someone and then experience another loss because of it." Alice shook her head. "That won't happen."

He suddenly stood up and leaned against the opposite wall from her. "You can't promise that. There is more going on here than just a performance group. This place is had a dark secret. I don't know what it is but I am going to find out."

Alice was confused at this confession. "What do you mean? How do you know that?" Shun sighed and looked away. "I've told you more than you need to know. Go back to your room and forget we had this conversation."

For a moment Alice was surprised at the return of the hard bite in Shun's voice, but then she saw a tear on his cheek. Due to the light she was just barely able to see it. She only saw it because the light hit off of it just right from the moon shining through the window. She stood up, crossed the room and hugged Shun before she even realized what she was doing. She felt him stiffen for a minute before he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her.

"Please, Shun. Tell me how you know that there is a secret going on." Alice pleaded one more time, hoping that her softer approach will give her the answer she wanted to know.

"Because….my closest friends used to be performers in this group as well."

~S~

Hello, my loyal readers. I had to put this on the back burner for quite sometime. Big life changes kept happening and I had to deal with them. Now that that is all settled I can finally get back to this. Anyway, I hope all of you have been doing well. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, especially leaving it on a cliffy. :D Stay tuned because more answers will be coming your way. Please leave a comment or review. I always look forward to reading them. See ya'll next time! *SaphirePearl*