A/N: Here we go... Warning: there is a little bit of curse words in this.

"A warning to the people,

The good and the evil,

This is war."

-This Is War by Thirty Seconds To Mars

*Danny*

After Raimundo was released from the hospital, he said he was well enough to walk, so we did. His injuries were still bothering him, but he managed to not show the dull pain of his wounds. Him and Kimiko talked the entire way to the house about everything from favorite music artists to video games and they seemed to be having a nice conversation together. Clay and I remained silent for a little way, then he asked me what I was thinking about.

I glanced over at him, "I'm thinking about telling him the story."

"Oh..." Clay replied, nodding his head. "Well, he'll be able to understand what you went through, I mean, he was their member, too."

I sighed, "I hope so."

"You formed our gang, Danny. We've accepted your past and I have a feeling Raimundo will, too." Clay stated reassuringly. "When are you going to tell him?"

I thought for a moment, "The sooner, the better. After we get home and he meets everyone, I'll tell him."

Clay nodded in agreement, "Just don't worry too much about it."

How can I not? Even I can't live down what I done. I can't put my past behind me and move on... I sighed and walked ahead of the others, lost in my thoughts. The others accepted me after they saw I wasn't a bad person, but will Raimundo? Will he turn his back on us? What all has he been through? What has he been forced to do for the LAD? I looked up and saw the house was growing nearer and I walked straight to the sidewalk. The house was white with burgandy shutters, two-stories, and could fit all of us. I opened up the gate and looked back at the others, then at Raimundo. "Welcome home." I lead them inside and the others greeted us. However, I could sense the tension in the air as the others eyed Raimundo with suspicion. "Guys, you know Raimundo. Raimundo, this is Omi, Jermaine, Chloe, and Sandra." They nodded at Raimundo, who nodded back. Then, Kimiko and Clay gave him the tour of the house and the others still remained tense. "Calm down. He's hurt, it's not like he's going to kill you in your sleep."

Jermaine asked, "How can we trust him? His 'friends' beat him up for a reason."

I glared at him, "You'll never understand what it's like to be a LAD member. They'll beat anybody up for no particular reason. They force you join their gang and threaten you if you try to leave. I barely managed to get away from them and I'm still their target after three years." Not looking any of them in the eyes, I walked away.

*Raimundo*

I went outside, in the backyard, and laid down to stare at the night sky. The wind blew a little, but it warm, comforting, and peaceful. I closed my eyes and thought about my new home and friends, well, some friends. I knew it would take some time before they all trusted me. I heard the door opened and I saw Danny walking over to me. He sat down on the grass next to me and I sat up, too. "Look, I need to talk to you aboust something and I need you to listen, to understand me." He looked over at me, "Can you do that?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

He sighed, "Three years ago, my family died in a fire and I was left alone. None of my other relatives would adopt me and I didn't want to go to a foster home, so I ran away to live on the streets. Weeks passed and I realized nobody really noticed me, but I was tired and hungry. I fell asleep in an alley one night and was jumped by two people. I put up a fight, but they were too strong and I was taken to a house. That's where I met Boss."

Raimundo's eyes widened, "You're the guy that left..."

I nodded, "They made me join their gang and threatened me with death if I ever tried to live. I done their dirty work, stealing, the little things. Then, those little things grew into big things. They went out one night and jumped a man walking on the street, probably going home after a late shift at work. They beat him up badly and gave me a knife, telling me to slit his throat. I panicked and ran, trying to find anybody to help the businessman. Boss just killed the man and came after me. I fought as best as I could and managed to get away, but not unharmed." He lifted his shirt a bit and I saw a scar at his ribs, "They shot me before I got away. I remember running, then waking up in the hospital hooked to all kinds of machines. The bullet had ricocheted off my ribs and went through my back. When I was released, I learned the LAD was still after me. They tried to kill me three times after that. Finally, I formed a group and we fight everytime we run into a gang like the LAD. Our gang has no name, it was formed because of my mistakes, if you wish to leave, I'm not making you stay." He looked at the ground, pain from his past shining in his downcast eyes.

I looked at the sky again and decided I would be honest with him, since he was honest with me. "When I was eleven, I lived in Rio de Janeiro with my siblings and parents. I walked home from school and saw policemen at my house and a coroner. My mother was murdered and the killer was never caught. My father became an alcoholic and began to not care for my brothers and I, he'd even hit us, but I'd normally be the one to get beat. Eventually, my siblings went to their friends houses and was hardly ever home. One night, the LAD members came into the house wanting money my dad had spent on alcohol. My dad gave me to them instead. Boss and the others took me away and brought me here as one of their gang members. They just used me for their dirty work and a human punching bag. When I was old enough to actually fight back, things started to get worse. That day in the store when they were threatening to kill that child, that was the first time they had ever done anything like that while I was with them. Well, you know what happened. When I went back to them, they were waiting on me. I was beaten and left on the back porch to die. The next morning, I remember being put in the trunk of the car and dropped by the river." I stopped to let him process what I told him, "The only time I was left alone was when I'd crawl onto the roof at night and look at the stars. I understand what you went through, Danny, I really do and I know you are aware of the risks of allowing me to stay here. As soon as I am well enough, I'll leve and never bother you or your friends again."

Danny shook his head, "You don't have to leave. From here on out, you're a member of our gang, if you wish to be so. The LAD will come after you, they're still coming after me, but your survival won't be easily forgiven."

"I know, I'm sorry I brought this onto everyone." I stated.

He shrugged, "It was already brought onto us."

*Boss*

"Dammit, find him and kill him! I don't care what you do to kill him, just make sure the job is done!" I yelled at the others and they ran to complete their mission. "Whatever happens, Raimundo Pedrosa must not live."

A few hours later, Pedro returned, "Boss, Raimundo is a member of Danny's gang."

I was not surprised, "Well, things just got a bit interesting. Find the others, we have to plan our next move. We're going to try to kill two birds with one stone."

(Three Days Later)

*Kimiko*

It was a quiet, peaceful night, at least, that's how it began. I walked with Chloe and Sandra after going grocery shopping, we were just talking about girl stuff, like boys, etc. We took a shortcut back to the house and we were nearly there, but we were jumped. Sandra screamed in surprise and was tackled moments later along with the rest of us. I swung my fist at the person holding me down, but it was useless, they were too strong and just bound my hands. "If you scream again, we'll kill you." I heard a man tell Sandra, who whimpered a bit, but did not scream. I heard another man grunt painfully, "The bitch kneed me in the balls!" If it was any other time, I would have laughed. I heard Chloe run away and two men pursued her. I tried to move, but the man just tightened his grip, so I just prayed my friend would get away and get the others. The two men came back, breathless, with a struggling Chloe in their arms. My hope faded and despair filled my heart.

"They're feisty, but they'll serve the purpose. The more feistier they are, the better." A man laughed. Immediately, I knew who these people were. Rapiers. They kidnapped girls and raped them before killing them. However, nobody could prove they done it, it was only rumors. However, I now knew it was true. Two of them dragged me to my feet and I began to fight, but they simply retrained my wrists and legs with barbed wire to cut me everytime I moved. I didn't show them I was afraid, if I did, they would just take advantage of it. I closed my eyes when they moved close to my face and I ignored their insults. I could hear Chloe yelling at her captors, but they smacked her across the face. However, she refused to shut up. Eventually, it became a big argument on how to get her to shut up without knocking her our since none of the threats were working.

A voice rang out over the rest, "Let them go, now!"

I opened my eyes and sighed in relief, "Danny." His eyes glowed with rage and the rest of the gang stood behind him.

"Who the hell are you?" My captor asked.

Danny took a step forward, "I'll tell you one more time. Let them go."

"Or what?" The man closest to Danny sneered.

In that moment, the sneer was knocked off the man's face. Danny's punch seemed to be invisible before it connected with the man's jaw. The Rapiers cursed and three of them pulled knives from their pockets. I watched as two of them charged at Danny, who swung his fists multiple times, each connecting. Finally, it was a full scale fight between the two gangs. The Rapiers outnumbered my gang, but, one by one, the enemy gang began to fall. My captor glared at me and I saw his face for the first time, it was the main leader of the Rapiers. He pulled a long knife from the inside of his jacket and raised it in the air, preparing to bring it down on my head. I couldn't close my eyes, I was too afraid. I heard Danny yell, "Kimiko!" I heard a string of punches connect and a fierce battle cry nearing me as the knife began it's decent. A blur past me and the Rapier leader was tackled to the ground. A violent struggle began over the knife. Everybody stopped fighting and watched. The Rapier leader was trying to stab the pinned down Danny with the knife as Danny used every ounce of his strength to keep the weapon away. I looked at the others and saw Danny was among them. Then who? With a yell, the Rapier leader was shoved away and I saw Raimundo rise to his feet, his fists clenched and eyes burning with unmatched rage. What confused me was he waited for the enemy to get up. Why would he do that?

"Bastard!" The Rapier leader yelled and charged, the knife swinging toward Raimundo, who did not move.

"Get out of the way!" I screamed at him, trying to get him to move. I didn't want to see him die, but as the knife went crashing toward him, I believed I would soon see blood. The knife cut through the empty air and I realized Raimundo was no longer there. Instead, he was behind the Rapier leader with the enemy's arm twisted around their back. The knife clattered to the ground and Raimundo shoved the man into the cement.

Raimundo growled, "If you ever do something like this again, you'll wish I had killed you today. If I hear of anyone being raped, I'll find you and kill you. Do you understand?" The man did not answer, so Raimundo twisted his arm further and the defeated man said he understood. Raimundo let the man's arm go and backed away from him.

The Rapier leader rose to his feet, "This isn't over." He left with the other gang members following him, Raimundo watched until they were gone. Then, he turned to me, grabbed the knife from the ground and began to walk toward me . What is he doing? I held my breath as the knife came closer, then I felt the barbed wire loosen. I picked the barbs out of my wrists while Raimundo cut the wire from my legs. The same was happening to Chloe and Sandra. I sighed in relief and leaned my head against the brick wall for a minute, trying to calm down and process what had just happened.

"Why?" I asked Raimundo as he sat down beside me.

"Hmm?"

I looked at him, "Why did you-"

He smiled, "I owed you. Besides, I couldn't let any of you get hurt if I could prevent it." After saying this, he rose to his feet and offered me his hand. "Come on, let's get back to the house."

I nodded and grabbed his hand, letting him help me up. Then, I let go of his hand and walked to the others. Chloe asked Danny, "How did you find us?"

He pointed at Raimundo, "He heard somebody scream, told us, and we came to see what was happening."

Chloe and Sandra looked at Raimundo and nodded their heads. Raimundo nodded back. We all went back to the house, silent regardless of what just happened. I went in the bathroom and checked my wounds, but there were only a few bruises. I took a shower in order to attempt to wash the memories away. When I exited the bathroom, I went to where I knew Raimundo would be. I walked in the backyard and sat down beside him. He didn't say anything to me, nor I to him. Instead, I hugged him. "Thank you."

After a few seconds of hesitation, he hugged me back. "Anytime." In that moment, I didn't want to let him go. Even though he was a former member of the LAD, I learned not all people in enemy gangs were cruel people. There were those few that were forced to do the gang's dirty work, and Raimundo was just another victim. Him and Danny were alike in many ways, but my feelings for Raimundo was on a whole different level than the ones I had for Danny, a boy I saw as my brother for so many years.

A/N: Hmmm... I didn't exactly plan for there to be a fight in this one, but it just popped up and said 'hello'. So, can a message pop up on my hotmail that says 'review'?