To say that Mirabel was stumped was an understatement. "You really want to chat about my headaches RIGHT NOW? Don't you think that getting Elena and your daughter out of danger wouldn't be a little bit more urgent?" She gestured with her hands, not knowing what her uncle tried to tell her.

Bruno sighed. "That is precisely what I am doing right now. They can't flee from the Encanto because if they do, Lina… And if they try to hide here, Samuel and Mateo will find them, leading to the same outcome. So the only way out is to finally end this war between our families."

"What do you want from me, Bruno? I can't fight them with a shovel, well maybe Luisa could, but I…. "

"Mirabel!" He interrupted her, sounding sharper than he intended. "A fight is not the way to end this feud. On the contrary, it would only start more fights, eventually leading to the downfall of the whole Encanto."

Mirabel raised an eyebrow, not sure if Bruno exaggerating or not. Considering his voice, he was not. "Well, I can't tell our families to hug it out, can I?"

"Actually, that is pretty close to what you are supposed to do." She stared at him; maybe all the time he spent between the walls eventually drove him insane.

"Listen, Mirabel." Bruno massaged his forehead, fully aware of how ridiculous it all must sound for her. "Since Casita is rebuilt, everyone's power grew. We all have headaches when our gifts try to say something to us: Pepa has migraine attacks if she holds her emotions for too long, and I can't even sleep if I try to fight back an uncontrolled vision."

"What does it have to do with me? Maybe you forget the fact that ' . ."

Bruno frowned, looking straight into Mirabel's face. "Certainly, you have a gift."

His niece rolled her eyes, not wanting to discuss the same old tune over again. "Tío Bruno, please. Don't tell me "you don't need magical powers to have a gift" or "you are just as special as everyone else." I know that by now."

He sighed; of course, she didn't understand him. „No Mirabel, I mean a gift. An actual gift that only one of the Madrigal family could have. At least as far as I know." Bruno paused, giving Mirabel time to process everything he just said.

"Every one of us already showed his or her possible gift way before the gift ceremony. Your mother always made sure that Pepa and I were ok when one of us felt sick when we were kids; Dolores always had a better hearing than anyone else. Heck, Luisa could beat Félix in arm-wrestling when she was only four! And I always had some weird dreams that somehow came true."

"Your gift was also part of your life before your door finally showed up. I remember when Pepa got mad, and not even Félix or I could calm her down. You only took her hand and muttered something, and all the clouds instantly disappeared. You were only three at that time." Bruno paused, carefully thinking about every word he was going to say. He knew how ridiculous he must sound and that he could open up old wounds if he didn't choose his next words wisely.

"You are a highly compassionate girl Mirabel, and you always had been. Don't you think it's weird that you were able to make everyone tell you stories about me in just one day? Nobody else ever challenged Pepa's "we don't talk about Bruno" rule in over ten years, and even she told you about how I ruined her wedding." Bruno smirked, aware that Pepa might have forgiven him, but one day or another, his sister would pay him back.

"Luisa and Isabela hold back their feelings for all of their lives, and still it took you ONE chat to make them talk about their feelings. You were even able to get Abuela to talk about her trauma, something we triplets tried for our whole life!"

Seeing that his sobrina still didn't understand him at all, Bruno quickly thought about a solution to let everything sink into her.

"Let me ask you a question, Mirabel: How did it feel when everyone finally talked about their feelings?"

"I don't know how to explain it." His sobrina hesitated, unsure what all Bruno said had to do with a gift.

"Let me guess: It felt like you could feel everything they were feeling, experiencing everything they ever experienced, and see everything they saw." Bruno assumed, making his niece simply nod.
Her uncle smirked, finally getting to the bottom of what he tried to explain. "Well, that isn't something normal people would call "compassion" ."

"But it isn't a true gift, either!" Mirabel objected, shaking her head hard enough to almost lose her glasses. "Why did I never see behind Isabelas perfect facade before? Why did my door disappear when I also have a gift?"

"People don't simply wake up and be compassionate; they have to choose to. You never wanted to understand Isabela; therefore, you never did." Bruno clarified, seeing that his niece still had a hard time following. "And your door didn't simply disappear; it merged with the house. "

"Did you never ask yourself why you have the closest bond to our house? Why Casita would always help you before everyone else? We all hide in our rooms when our powers are getting too much to handle. On some days, we only saw us during the meals before you were born. You had to be able to look at all of our facades we constantly built up and see what was going on; therefore, you were never allowed to have an awesome room of your own where you could hide. Instead, the whole Casita became your room, making the entrance door your door."

It was the thing Bruno could observe while he was hiding behind the walls: Mirabel was always the first who knew that something was wrong, at least if she didn't choose to ignore it. And judging the look on her face, she just chose to ignore the facts he presented her, too.

"Well, there is a flaw in your little theory, Tío Bruno: My talk with Abuela happened AFTER Casita broke down, so I didn't have any "gift "at that time."

Bruno grinned, glad she pointed that out. "Casita broke we weren't in line with ourselves, our gifts, and our family anymore. You were the only one not struggling with her gift; hence you never expected to even have one only minutes ago!"

He paused for a second, then he sighed. "The only part that didn't break down was the front doorway, Mirabel. The new entrance door didn't place you in the middle because the house finally acknowledged you as an essential part of the family, but because keeping the family together by being compassionate had always been your gift."

Mirabel stared at him, dumbfounded. "It doesn't make sense…."

"It does, and if you give it a chance, you know that I am right."

The girl shook her head, not allowing herself to believe any word he said. Her tío could see that she had to fight back her tears, and somehow, he felt how much it hurt her to even think about the possibility.

"It is not a stupid theory, Mirabel." Bruno mumbled, not wanting to hurt his niece more than he had to. "I suspected that you might also have some kind of magic the moment Abuela told me about your headaches, but I couldn't put my finger on it. But, then, the moment you passed out this morning, I could finally see it."
He could see how Mirabel stared down at her feet, and he felt sorry when he saw the light trails of tears under her glasses. Bruno felt relieved when his sobrina let out a deep sigh, finally allowing herself to consider the option of having a gift.

"But how can my "gift" help in this situation?" Mirabel questioned, suddenly feeling like a lot of pressure was put on her soul. "Maybe I am better than others in being compassionate, but how can I help when the Moreno's hate US."
Bruno shook his head. "You could sense the emotions coming from Samuel and Mateo, right? I mean the real once, not all the hate and anger they try to hold up for over 40 years."

"There was so much grief and sadness… Whatever happened must have truly traumatized them."She muttered, and Bruno couldn't agree more. A rare vision showing the past instead of the future showed him everything that happened when Samuel lost all his family except his teenage son. He never told Elena that he saw her paternal family die or that he blackmailed Samuel with it. Unbeknownst to him, Bruno respected Samuel way too much to tell anyone the story he didn't have the right to share. It was only a desperate try to save Elena's mother, which sadly didn't work.

"It is crucial that you stop seeing Samuel and Mateo as the bad guys." Bruno clarified. "They have their reasons for treating us the way they do. They are proud and stubborn, but I know that they really care for Elena."

"I know," Mirabel mumbled, remembering all the guilt the Moreno's felt that morning. "Still, maybe I can sense everyone's feelings, but they won't listen to me."

Bruno smiled at her. "You made Abuela listen to you, and she is easily the most stubborn person in the whole Encanto."

"But I agree that with compassion alone, you can't make Samuel listen before it is too late." Her uncle admitted. "But like I said before: Everyone's power grew over the past weeks, and all the headaches you had lately are a clear sign that your's did, too. But I can't tell you what it means."

Mirabel massaged her forehead. She got so much information in less than an hour, but still, she felt like she even knew less than before.

"There was something else in that vision, but I really don't know what it means." Bruno suddenly admitted, looking down on his feet. "It said "asked Pedro"."
"But the only Pedro in the Encanto was…."
"I know." Bruno sighed, trying not to sound sad. Many parents considered naming their sons Pedro to honor his father, but none of them dared to potentially sadden Alma or any other Madrigal.

"It doesn't make any sense." Mirabel muttered to herself, and her uncle couldn't agree more. Bruno felt sorry for all the pressure he had just put on her shoulder, but he knew that he had to do this. He couldn't tell her how much the odds stood against her succeeding, but if he didn't try, he would lose his family for sure.