I hope you guys enjoyed the early submission of Chapter 37, because here comes 38! Whoooohooooo! I'm on a huge roll! I guess listening to Madagascar through earphones and coloring art does affect you, I have tons of ideas popping in and out of my head and I shall continue planning until I become an old shell again XD

Now to warn you guys, I have a scene for each couple, excluding two because I cannot seem to find a way to introduce themselves once again and create a Chapter all for themselves… I'm actually trying to do so X3

Disclaimer: Madagascar DOES NOT belong to me. Madagascar and all of its CANON Characters, even semi canon, belong to their creators, the awesome DreamWorks Animators and crew. The OC's used here belong to me and to other users and non-users on . They will be credited at the end of the story if appropriate. I am NOT using this story to create a profit or claim it is canon to the series, it is simply made to explore an idea I had for a 4th installment of the Madagascar Series. Please support the official release.

Chapter XXXVIII – The Realization

The red tiger huffed angrily, throwing his collection of knives even more dangerously and with more intent on them than he usually would. The next theme would be something akin to Horror, and while he would usually think of ideas all day to actually perform and scare the American kids (He heard they were quite hard to scare).

But sadly, every time he would try to think of an act, the image of the white tigress with blue eyes came up in his head as if his life depended on seeing images of her from previous meetings pass through his head, making his cheeks flush. He growled slightly, throwing another javelin onto the intended Target, a carving of Alex's frame. He found it a useful and very satisfying stress reliever, even though he could not do it to the real Alex, Vitaly decided it was better and more humane to throw it at something similar to him.

It bothered the lion for quite a bit, but he never complained. Rather the piece of wood than he himself.

It escaped the tiger's notice when a familiar Sea Lion waddled towards him, a huge grin on his face and a somewhat sib similar to a cry and a laugh. With Stefano, no one ever knew which was which.

"Vitaly-a! Vitaly-A!" the Sea Lion called, waving a flipper and catching the red feline's attention, finally. The tiger nodded, his way of acknowledging Stefano's presence. The Sea Lion giggled loudly and clapped his flippers.

"Alice-a just-a asked-a me to give him my-a blessing to marry-a Gia! Oh I am-a so glad!" The tiger raised an eyebrow at him.

"Did he now?" Stefano nodded.

"Oh yes-a!"

"And you said yes?"

"How can I-a not? He's a perfect for-a Gia! They both are-a perfect for one another! And guess-a what-a?" the Sea Lion clapped. The tiger eyed his friend. "Catalina wants to move from her Circus with us-a! She wants to live with-a me-a! We are in-a love-a!" Vitaly smiled and patted the Sea Lion's head, but said nothing. All this talk of romance and love was making him sick; he decided to say nothing on the matter, he would not hurt Stefano's feelings. That was selfish.

The Sea Lion stopped clapping happily at the news as he saw Vitaly's mood swing from amused to slight… sadness? Stefano squinted. The tiger never showed his emotions to anyone but Gia or him; sometimes he would not even show them at all.

"So-a… what about you and the tigress?" the blush was not visible because of his red fur but Stefano knew he was. He knew Vitaly when he was just a pup and the Tiger a cub. They knew each other better than anyone, and Stefano knew when the tiger blushed. He would avoid contact, stiffen, his tail would flip and, sometimes, his skin was so hot, you could even tell with all of that fur.

"If you ask-a me, she is-a perfect for you Vitaly"

The tiger spoke none but his mind was juggling thoughts. Was their complicated relationship obvious to everyone but him and Saffy? Was that how love worked? Did others see it but the ones feeling it did not know? Eyeing the Sea Lion curiously, he spoke.

"Vy do you say zat?" Stefano sighed, as if recalling a distant memory.

"Well-a, it's-a obvious to everyone-a" He knew it. "But it is-a okay. It took me awhile to-a figure it out-a" Great, even Stefano could tell… sorry to insult him. Vitaly wanted to slap himself with his own paw. "But, if you can actually see-a, she is your opposite-a. Like opposites attract-a. She is rash-a while you-a think before you do-a something. She is loud and you are quiet-a. You both are-a too shy to talk-a to each other-a when you both are-a close. You can practically sense the-a tension between you two-a"

The two males were silent, wondering how the other would react only to have their thoughts interrupted when a shrill cry sounded in their ears.

"STEEEEEEEEEFANOOOOOOOOO! WHERE AAAAAAAAAAARE YOUUUUUUUU?" Catalina's voice rang in the air. The Sea Lion's head snapped back and he waved at Vitaly.

"Sorry-a Vitaly! I have to-a go! Catalina is calling me-a!" The small Sea Lion waddled away, leaving the tiger to his own thoughts.

Yeah, sure, he and the tigress had some differences but, did everyone, even Stefano; really think that the two were meant for each other? The red tiger looked at the knife in his paws and suddenly found his hobby to not give himself the relief he once looked for. Oh well, guess he had to find something else. But, one thing sure did bother him. How did everyone know? He had only interacted with Saffy a couple of times and it obviously took a lot more to realize love, right? It took him months to figure out his love for Natalia, he had only known Saffy for six weeks.

Or was the matter more complicated than that?

With a grunt, Vitaly threw his knife onto the ground, impaling itself in the dirt. With a snort, the feline wrapped his arms and thought hard. How did he feel? Well, he was hurting, mostly because he missed seeing her every other day. He felt weird, because he never felt anything so strong and powerful in that type of state. He felt, happy, every time he saw her, he wanted to smile but refrained from doing so, because he felt guilty, but why did he? What was it about Saffy that made his emotions so confused and made him feel as if there was so much more in life to learn and the very fact that he would like to learn it all, as long as he was by his side?

His eyes widened. That was it. He wanted her by his side. He loved her. It did not matter if he had only met her a couple of times, he had heard of love at first sight and that was both Stefano's case and Alex's, though it took a while for Gia to get used to the thought. Vitaly smiled to himself. He was on love. Again, only this time, the feeling was not doubted by his own suspicions or worries, he felt confident, happier, and more alive.

He wanted to desperately see her, and hear her voice, he wanted to hold her paw in his and he was just ecstatic that he could call her his own.

So it was decided then. The tiger wined from chin to chin, he would visit her tonight, and tell her how he felt. He was sure she felt the same. He had never been surer in his life, he was positive. He would tell her, and then, things would be complete, just like he always wanted them to be.

0O0

The striped equine drank from the bucket, filling his thirsty muzzle from hours of dry and hot weather. He had been painting the cars again for hours with gabby until he decided he had enough of the hot air and realized how thirsty he was. He left Gabby painting, hoping that she would not mind.

Unbeknown to him, his female friend was sneaking up from behind him, a wide smile on his face. "BOO!" she screamed. Marty gasped, all the while accidentally swallowing his water, and started to choke with the unexpected surprise from the female Albino.

Gabby had been laughing and when she heard her Marty choking, she had gasped and hit his back, hard enough to get Marty to cough out the water that had become stuck down his throat. He could have drowned in the surface. How lame!

As Marty recovered from the shock, Gabby had been cleaning his face, covered with sweat, with a wet cloth.

"S-Sorry Marty! I didn't mean to make you choke I just wanted to scare you! To have a good laugh! Please don't be mad at me! I didn't mean it, I-" Marty, now recovered from his state of shock, reacted by laughing. The female Zebra stared at him, confused before realizing the reason of his laughter and frowning in place. "That wasn't funny Marty! You scared me! I thought you were going to die… Stop laughing!" The Zebra could not help but wipe the tears that had grown in his eyes with a random cloth.

"Oh come on Gabby!" he smiled. "It was an accident; you don't need to get overdramatic about it" the Zebra male giggled. The female stared him down, to the point Marty had thought he had gone a bit too far before she started laughing as well.

"I guess not, but if you died, then that'd be quite a loss. The world needs your charms Marty" Gabby replied, somewhat sarcastically. Marty smiled.

Since he had introduced Gabby to the Circus, plus some help from the others, Marty had been trying to get rid of Gabby's shyness and nervousness to speak her mind. She had found new confidence and he saw a side of her he never thought she would show, and he had to admit, he liked the new improved Gabby, she cried less and smiled more. And some were surprised at the speed she had improved, all it took was a few smiles, a few jokes and kind words to get her to realize that not everyone hates her, as she once believed. Marty was only happy that when she left for her home and came the next day, she never had puffy cheeks and red eyes, or sniffing horribly.

He was glad that he had helped her.

"Wow!" The Zebra commented, trotting away. "I never thought, under all that shyness you'd actually had a sense of humor!" The female equine replied by huffing and trotting next to him.

"I always had a sense of humor. It's just no one ever tried to hear my jokes. All of yours are too corny for my taste" Gabby smiled teasingly and poked her friend. Marty smirked and stopped walking, allowing for Gabby to stop as well.

"Oh yeah? Like what. Show me that your jokes are better!" The female nodded her head, accepting the challenge and stood in front of the male, a smile dominating her lips.

"Because you seem so keen, you'll be the first to hear my jokes and you shall never hear others like it!" The male sat down on the grass and crossed his front hooves, waiting expectantly for these jokes she claimed were better than his. None were better than his! Corny jokes were his specialty, and there was no way he'd let Gabby steal the prize.

"Alrighty then!" Gabby cleared her throat. "Why was the broom late?"

Marty shrugged. "I dunno. Why was the broom late?" Gabby smiled.

"Because overswept" she exclaimed, smiling. Alright, not so bad, but it only made Marty smile amusingly.

"Nice try. Next!" Gabby frowned slightly but shrugged, accustomed to the way Marty joked when it came to corny jokes.

"Alright. Why did the lion eat the preacher?" Marty shrugged once more. "Because he told them he must put away their pride" the Zebra yawned.

"Alright, I admit, that one was good. Try a little bit harder on the next one" Gabby furrowed her brow.

"Alright, since lion jokes don't work with you, let's try actual ones" Gabby smiled, trying to think of one that was actually good enough to make Marty at least laugh a bit. She was lucky if she would get a very good one and make him collapse. "Ahem. This one is my favorite" she smiled. "What did one plate say to the other?"

Marty smiled and shrugged. "I dunno, why?"

"Dinner's on me" Gabby smiled proudly. Marty merely stared at her. Gabby opened one eye and, to her disappointment, found that Marty was not laughing. Until suddenly, he bit his lower lip and Gabby nearly screamed. "I KNEW IT! YOU THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY! LAUGH DARN YOU! "

At this, Marty had started to roll over, much more carried away in his laugh than he was before. Rolling on his back and on his belly, the howls of laughter coming from the equine's mouth were enough to alert the other animals and check on him, only to see the equine toppled over with laughter and Gabby could not help but laugh along with him because of that. Sure, it was a great joke but his reaction was beyond hilarious. When he did not relent, the animals merely raised their eyebrows and went on their way to their acts.

After at least thirty minutes of laughter, it had subsided, and Marty was left to wipe his face, full of tears and sweat. Gabby had stood over him, quite proud of herself that she had managed to get at least one corny joke right. Clearing his throat, her male friend jumped up, with a huge grin that still dominated his whole visage.

"Hey, we're not finished with those murals yet. Wanna keep working on them?" Gabby smiled and nodded her head. Marty found that, like him, Gabby found painting and art really fun and challenging. Fun because it brought out their more creative side and challenging because they had to use a paintbrush, despite the fact that paint brushes were meant for those with opposable thumbs- he and Gabby had hooves. Still, it didn't make it any less fun; it just meant that it was harder. Thankfully, Marty's decade long observance of the Mural back at the Zoo made him sort of an expert at Art, once every two or three years, the humans would repaint the mural to help it keep from fading and he would observe them every time.

While Marty tried to figure out how to make Vitaly's expression seem less mean and more… he didn't know, not mean, Gabby had started to paint her own side of the Mural, trying to convey the Elephants in their acts. As she tried more and more to meet the right shade of brown for their eyes, an idea slowly formed in her head.

She looked back at the paintbrush, dark brown paint dripping from the brush. She looked intensely at it for a long time, ignoring the hums coming from the Stallion's mouth as he started to sing his and Gabby's favorite song "Bad Day".

Gabby broke her concentration from the brush to look at her male friend, wondering if he would notice if she left for a while. Probably not, the way he was painting and singing made her sure that he was in the zone right now. Taking the bucket and the brush with her, she quietly snook off to find the nearest mirror.

0O0

Looking at her handiwork, Gabby stared at the figure in front of her. The mirror she had found was inside the tent and since no one was around to see what she would do, she went right to work in coloring her stripes with the paint. Trying not to look in the mirror was the hardest, she wanted so desperately to see how normal she would look, or if she looked worse as a normal Zebra than she did in her… true form.

She had been as precise as she could be when painting herself, making sure to cover most of the stripes that were visible to her own eyes. Looking at each and every feature in her new coloring, the female quivered. Tears were visible and were beginning to flow. No noise came out, as Gabby had been used to crying silently, no matter how painful the pain was. She looked… beautiful.

Those chocolate striped had completely stolen her breath away; it made her more likable, prettier. Why couldn't she have been born like this? Why did she have to be born different? She could have been normal, with her mother, happier, and much less able to deal with pain. She had rather been blissfully unaware of pain and naïve than being corrupt on the inside and knowing pain, emotionally and physically.

0O0

Marty had finished his song for the third time when he had finished Vitaly's portrait. He had half of it done, not wanting to finish all… in case something happened. Everyone in the Circus knew. Marty smiled. Gia could keep her mouth shut, but Alex couldn't. Smirking to himself, the young Stallion stood back to admire his work and turned, eyes closed but smile full of smug.

"So Gabs- whaddya think of my masterpiece? I think it's the best one I've done yet! Finished yours?" but no answer came from his partner. He waited for a while, thinking that she had been examining his art piece and waiting for her reply, but it remained quiet as ever. Curiousness taking over, Marty opened one eye, his smile wavering and he gasped to find that his female friend was not there. One bucket was missing and so was one paintbrush. Where did she go?

Stepping back on all fours, Marty trotted away, asking many of his Circus friends on the whereabouts of the albino Zebra mare. The only ones to give him a sort-of-answer were the Penguins who told him they had heard someone silently sniffing in the tent, and Private recalled her going in.

Knowing where she could be, or having more of an idea, anyway, Marty charged into the Tent, looking around ferociously for Gabby. He did not spot her, but he did see another Zebra with brown stripes. He approached her slowly, as she cried, weird. She smelt just like Gabby, but with more of a paint smell. No sooner had he thought that when he spotted the bucket filled with brown paint and a used paintbrush.

He looked back at the crying equine. Putting two and two together, Marty realized that the figure was Gabby. She had painted herself, and Marty had a good idea of why. No matter how much both she, he and the rest of the Circus tried to boost up her self-esteem, those darned creepy Zebras back at her home still made fun of her, called her names, and pushed her around. Every time he had helped her though another day of abuse, when she left the Circus happy, somehow those idiots kept making him start from the bottom.

Though he was stupid to think she would get over it all in just a few days. She had been abused for years, and he should have known that her smile in the morning was just her trying to hide her feelings. He looked around for something to wash that paint off, he spotted what he needed: A bucket and some shampoo.

Smiling, he had gotten ahold of those two and made to attempt to hide his presence. He was just sad that Gabby had not noticed he was there until she felt something on her head. Drying her face, she tried to look up only to have Marty whisper.

"Don't open your eyes, the shampoo will sting your eyes" she did as she was told and closed them, wondering why Marty was putting shampoo on her… and seemed so serious. Soon, she felt the cooling, and may she add freezing, sensation of water running down her hair, her ears, her arms and her legs.

It was not long before she felt a dry towel around her and she dared look back at the mirror. She was the same as before. She wanted to cry harder now.

"Why?" she cried. "Why did you do that? For ONCE I looked normal! Why did you take it away!?" she cried harder at her friend, hiding her face from her friend in the towel. Marty merely stared back at her, waiting until her sobs became nothing but little gasps from time to time.

"Why?" he repeated, tilting her muzzle to look up at him. "Because I got tired of seeing that smelly paint hiding real beauty" he smiled softly. His grin widened when Gabby had her jaw hanging from her muzzle, apparently too speechless to say anything back to him. She could not. She really could not. But why would he say something like that? Wasn't she hideous to look at? Wasn't she too light in her color to look more than a freak of nature? She looked into his vibrant teal eyes, suddenly realizing why he said such a thing.

She felt so stupid. He really did mean it. He meant it with all of his heart. He never stuttered or looked at her weirdly. He never stared too long, or treated her any different. He had even given her some sunglasses to help her shield her eyes. He had told her that he had read about albinos and knows that the sun can really hurt them if stood in the open far longer than they needed, and she could go blind, so he had done the kindness and bought her the shades. She had been embarrassed since most of the information he had told her was true but had thought his gift to be very thoughtful.

But this time was different. He saw something far deeper in her than the outward appearance. If he truly accepted her, much more than the Zebras did, and so did everyone else here, then there MUST be something good about her. All this thinking made her head hurt. Then why were the other Zebras so hostile? She looked back at Marty and smiled back at him. Who cared about them? If Marty told her she was perfect, then she must be something special… right?

0O0

The brown Sea Lioness held the beautiful Cattleya in her flippers, sniffing it and admiring its beauty. Stefano had compared her to so many things today; it was their first exercise Catalina had read in a human magazine to get to know a guy any girl fancied better. She had taken the advice to work and explained it to Stefano who was curious at what she proposed. They had to think good thoughts about one another and share secrets that they would not tell anyone else, something they were ashamed or not so proud of knowing.

Catalina had compared Stefano to coffee, as it excited her and kept her awake all night. Stefano had compared her to the Sea, mysterious, beautiful and quite breathtaking all at once. She had shared that sometimes, whenever she had argued with Bruno about being her mate, she would hide in a box and pretended to be in a fantasy of her own, with rainbows everywhere, the sun was always bright, the grass was green, and her hero was happily taking care of her and their many pups. She would wake up only to find that her wish had not come true. She had turned to Stefano, and his deepest regret and secret was that he had witnessed Alex sucking his thumb while sleeping and had been ashamed as he told Vitaly by accident, and the worst part was, Alex did not know… neither did Gia… well, not for long anyways.

Catalina had wanted to laugh, he was just too cute and too nice it made her giggle with delight sometimes.

BAM BAM BAM!

Catalina sighed, rolling her eyes, and angrily staring at the door to her trailer.

"Catalina! I wish to speak to you- NOW!" Bruno yelled from the other side, continuing to bang on her door. The Sea Lioness frowned and had carefully put her newest flower in a vase, along with many other flowers Stefano had given to her. He had given her at least twenty, and each were different, well, expect for two or three Cattleyas in the vase.

BAM BAM BAM!

"CATALIIIIII-NAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she heard Bruno yelled, far much louder than before. She hissed and threw a pillow at her door.

"BRUNO! Give a girl some space and some decent quiet time! I'm tired! And I want to go to sleep and your constant badgering is driving me crazy!" she threw another pillow at the door again.

"But this is important!"

"Is it about the Circus?"

"Well no, but-"

"Let me guess, you want to talk about me surrendering to be your mate?"

"I'm not forcing you I just-"

"WHAT!? You expect me to believer that? Why nothing this week has been anything other than 'Catalina, please choose me' or 'Catalina, believe me when I say that no other Sea Lion is better for you' and ESPECIALLY 'I don't care about that other Sea Lion! You barely met him and I know you love ME far more than HIM! I KNOW you do' so ZIP IT!" she yelled back, covering her head with a giant pillow to shield her ears from either some cursing or loud protests.

All she heard, though, was mere grunts and flippers walking away. She quickly sped to the door and opened it slightly, to make sure he was actually going away… or gone, she preferred either, mostly gone, and smiled to full satisfaction to see that he was, in fact, gone form sight.

She looked back at her flowers and sighed. She took the Cattleya once more and sniffed it.

"I love you Stefano" she smiled, taking a chocolate from her basket hidden under the small desk and popping it into her mouth.

SO I hope you guys enjoy this Chapter as well, I will admit, this was much harder to finish as I lost interest halfway through it. Hopefully, the next Chapter will excite me much more to write tomorrow or the day after that but right now I am much too sleepy to do so. I hope you guys are enjoying the smorgashboard of writing and Chapters I am handing out! You lucky people YOU! X3

I was also thinking of making Circus Showdown a comic, I have the ability and the time to do so, but I don't know, as I fail at comics as much as I fail to finish a story sometimes, so hopefully I will get started on it soon as I can see not a lot of fans have created comics of their own version of Madagascar 4, only fanficiton, so maybe I will be the first one, eh?

I will leave the decision up to all of you and I shall also create a poll so you guys can vote on it. If not more than 20 people want the comic to be real, then I won't do it, but if there are more than twenty who want it, I will do it but I also ask for you guys to also let me know and review it as well. For those who do not have a DeviantART as I shall post it there, you can put a review about it here as well as your regular review for the story, or you can email it to me or AIM me about it. I shall put my AIM address on my Bio ^^

So the comic is still being determined by myself but you, my fans, are going to have the honor of deciding that and hopefully I shall not quit on it as I really want the comic myself but my own personal drive to keep going will tire soon. So please answer soon, and vote! X3

And yes, I know I am asking for my own death sentence because of this XD Too much things to do and so little time! literally! XD