Maximum Rage Plus

Dreamprism

Summary:

What if Sean's confrontation with Daniel at the motel at the end of Episode 1 had gone even worse?

This fic re-imagines how the game could close out the episode if Daniel has a worse reaction to Sean picking the very worst things in the confrontation (silence, silence, and "chill out").

Notes:

Over 4 years ago, I uploaded a clip of "Daniel's Maximum Rage" to my YouTube channel to be able to show people the clip of the very worst choices at the motel: /cn69Nn9B4V0

My fic begins aligned with that but diverges after the 3-star divider (***).

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

"DAD!" Daniel screams from the hotel room.

Sean has already put a dollar into the soda machine, but there is no time to insert the second dollar.

"Daniel!" he shouts while running back to the room, drinkless.

Opening the door, Sean sees the room in chaos. Wind swirls around the room, carrying items in its currents and nearly lifting their new dog Mushroom off the floor. Daniel has his fists clenched, and he looks pretty mad.

"Oh fuck!" Sean exclaims. This isn't how he wanted things to go tonight. For starters, he was hoping he could keep Daniel quiet and not have any incidents force them to run again… but that plan is already out the window. "Oh my god… Daniel…?! What's happening?! Daniel, calm down!"

Calming down is the last thing Daniel wants right now. He can't believe Sean would say that after lying to him the whole past few days. He tears up and shouts back at Sean "YOU LIED! Dad! Our Dad is dead!"

A grainy image of a news story about Esteban's death can be seen on the screen amidst the static. If there was any doubt in Sean's mind on if Daniel learned the truth, that's now erased.

"WHY?" Daniel pleads for an answer.

Sean is looking for the right words but can't come up with anything.

Daniel is tired of waiting. "Say something, YOU ASSHOLE!"

He makes a motion with his fists, and a force pushes Sean back toward the entrance to the room. Some of the other objects flying around the room collide with the wall and break, and a painting that was hung there falls down.

Sean is still near-speachless. "I…"

"Why?" Daniel gestures toward the TV. "Why did you LIE to me?!"

Sean really doesn't know what to do with this boy. He's not sure how to handle Esteban's death himself, so how could he offer any real answers to Daniel?

"ANSWER ME!" Daniel screams louder than Sean's ever heard him scream. The room continues to tear apart, and Sean is pushed back again.

"Daniel, I…"

When Sean had first entered the room, Daniel hoped he might have something to say to somehow make sense of this, but now Daniel sees that Sean has no excuses. He's just a liar who was caught red-handed, and this devastates Daniel, who had looked up to his brother so much before this moment.

"I HATE YOU!" Daniel lets loose the words and doesn't even feel bad saying them. Right now, for the first time, they are true.

Emotions surge through Daniel. He is brought to tears as the closet door busts open and its contents begin circling the room.

"You're not my brother!" Daniel rationalizes that no brother could lie to him the way Sean did. No, they are not brothers anymore.

Meanwhile, Sean just doesn't understand things from Daniel's perspective. He had wanted Daniel to be quiet - to discuss things calmly when time time was right, whenever that might eventually be.

His inability to talk to Daniel about this now just serves as a demonstration for how he could never do it over the past few days. The most he can think of is that he wants the situation to cool down immediately; he can figure out the rest later.

"Daniel, chill out, okay?"

This does not produce the cooling down that Sean wanted. "Get away from me!" Daniel demands as he sees Sean starting to step closer. "I hate you…"

Since words aren't working, Sean hopes maybe cradling Daniel in his arms will calm him down, like someone does to a baby. "Shhh… Shhh…" Sean mutters as he steps forward. But as he gets close, Daniel pushes him away with his own hands.

"Don't touch me!" Daniel asserts. He wanted Sean to actually respond, not to just pressure him into calming down.

Sean isn't sure if Daniel's last push was pure adrenaline from the boy or if this strange power he has amplified his strength too. Normally, a 16-year-old can't be pushed much by a 9-year-old.

Sean reaches forward again…

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" Daniel roars.

Sean is pushed back all the way to the door and feels a strong pain in his back. Pipes have burst, and Sean can see the bathroom filling with water. Glancing behind him, he sees his body dented the door.

"Daniel, hey, we can't stay here like this. We need to go!" Sean pleads with him, knowing the whole building must've heard this now and time is of the essence.

"ARE YOU GONNA FUCKING ANSWER MY QUESTION FIRST!? I ASKED YOU A FUCKING QUESTION!"

"Daniel… I… I…"

"URGHH!" Daniel grunts loudly, raising his hands in the air as if mimicking a motion of strangulation. "DON'T YOU KNOW ANY OTHER WORDS!?"

Sean is just trying to think, but thinking is very hard when you've got an angry force of nature ready to judge anything you say and nothing seems like it would be good enough.

For a moment, Sean wishes it was just him running from the cops and he had left Daniel at home. They're going to be caught now anyway, he figures, and now it's all because little brother just can't calm down for one second.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The glass door behind Daniel shatters, and thousands of shards of class join the whirlwind. The floor itself seems ready to rip apart. "SAY FUCKING SOMETHING! YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS BROTHER!"

Sean catches a glimmer of hope in hearing Daniel call him a brother again. But Daniel quickly catches his mistake. "NOT my brother! Just worthless. WORSE than worthless!"

Daniel's tears aren't flowing anymore; there's just an anger as sharp as the glass flying about the room. Sean doesn't even dare approach now, knowing he'd be cut to pieces.

"Seriously, Daniel! If you calmed down, we could've just talked! Instead of… all THIS shit." It feels liberating for Sean to share his peace with Daniel.

Sean reasons that if he were in Daniel's shoes he wouldn't have made a scene like this, and he's bitter that Daniel has ruined everything for them now. They could've taken the bus tomorrow and quietly made their way to Puerto Lobos, but this child just can't obey a simple order.

Things simmer down for a moment. "Oh. So that's how you feel?" Daniel looks defeated. He just can't get Sean to understand what it was like to be lied to like that and to have some sympathy.

Mushroom regains her footing and runs into what remains of the bathroom, yelping as she steps on a few specks of glass along the way.

"Now she doesn't trust me!" Daniel looks scornful. "Because of YOU!" A gust of air rises from the floor as Daniel lifts his hand to point at Sean.

"Stop blaming me for everything. Come on, Daniel, let's go!" The door frame is distorted, but Sean manages to pry the door open and motions for Daniel to come. Police sirens can be heard in the distance.

"I'M not going ANYWHERE with YOU." Daniel makes his position very clear. "You lie about everything! I bet there were bears in those woods too."

Sean stands at the doorway in silence.

"See? I'm right! Were those people in Room 14 even watching TV?"

Sean looks outside at the flashing red and blue lights on a nearby street and then back at his brother. "I don't know, Daniel…" He sighs.

"You DO know! You're just not TELLING me! I could just walk over and ask them, you know?"

Sean rolls his eyes, not even believing this is happening right now. "Dude, the police are like right here. Let's go! Toss me my backpack."

Daniel tightens his eyes. "Fine." Everything falls to the ground once more.

Water is still flowing out of pipes, the floor is uneven as if supports have started to give way, and Sean can see other visitors of the motel fleeing to their cars in terror and driving away, but, relatively speaking, things have calmed down.

Daniel picks up the two backpacks and hurls the larger one at Sean, using his newfound power to do so and nearly knocking Sean backwards over the railing.

"I still hate you, I want Dad here instead, and I seriously think you're more of a monster than… me… But let's go."

As he finishes the words, he's already keeping pace behind Sean as they both escape down the stairs with the hope that they can somehow still evade the police. At least all those other cars driving away have clogged up the road.

Sean and Daniel's relationship is as tense as ever, but Sean still wants them both to be safe, and Daniel isn't sure he can manage everything on his own as just an elementary schooler.

Maybe, Daniel thinks, if he finds someone else - someone actually trustworthy - then he can ditch Sean.

Notes:

If anyone is interested, I might continue this fic with a series of additional short fics that could show future effects of this outcome on later episodes.

This may continue keeping mostly on the railroad of the game's overall canon (as I have done with this fic, still allowing it to proceed to Episode 2), or it might eventually diverge completely (like if Daniel decides to run off with Chris in Episode 2 or with Finn in Episode 3).