Next chap! Oh yeah, I'm on a roll! 8D

Shout outs?

Copperpelt: Haha, sorry. I wanted to wait for a few reviews, to make sure people liked the idea :P

Chocolate Luver 12: You'll see =) I'm trying to update quickly. Thanks for reading 8D

callistojones: Thanks :)

MarshmellowsSleeping: Thanks! :D A/N stands for Author's Note. :) Probably should have included that somewhere.. I don't mind at all, thanks for reading. And I'll check out Choices now. 8D

Shun: Shut your face. This is a horrible story and you're a horrible human being.

Me: He's cranky because I got him up at three am to write this...

Shun: Hell right I am. You're a freaking nutter.

Me: Does this mean no disclaimer? )=

Shun: *sigh ShunandAce does not own Bakugan. And for the sake of humanity, I pray to God she never does.

-Three days after accident, 11:00 am

Ace and Shun sat in the grass at the park, watching the brawlers and Acsio play soccer in the field. Neither of them were actually paying attention to the game, however.
Ace's thoughts were consumed with what the doctor had said. The man was an idiot, clearly. Shun did not have CJD.

Now, Ace wouldn't deny that his brother was very ill. Yesturday morning, Shun had begun coughing profusely. He tried to hide it, but Ace knew he had seen blood on Shun's hand when he coughed into it.
Ace, being the genius that he was, knew that coughing up blood was not consistant with CJD - a brain disease, which had nothing to do with the lungs or respitory system at all.

Shun had also been showing signs of a fever recently, but when Ace checked, his temperature was oddly low. It didn't make much sense.
The mint-green haired boy sighed lightly and looked over at his brother for the millionth time. Shun glanced sideways at him, unsmiling. Then he coughed again. It was a sick, sad sound. The coughing was wet, and lasted for several seconds.

Ace winced and reached over to pat Shun's back. "You alright?"

Shun just nodded, wiping his hand on the grass.

When the game ended, the others ran over to sit with Shun and Ace.
Dan plopped down next to Shun and exhaled deeply. "That was fun. I'm hungry."

Runo rolled her eyes and lay back in the still-dewey grass. "No surprise there."

"Hey, I'm a growing boy. I need energy."

Ace looked between the two, coldly. "You don't seem to have a shortage of that."

Runo and Julie laughed.

"No, seriously, you guys, I need food."

Runo sighed. "I guess we can go to the cafe for a few."

Dan grinned. "How about you guys?"

Julie and Marucho quickly agreed.
Acsio looked up at the sky. "Su- oh, wait." He frowned slightly. "Today is the day we take Shun to the doctors'."
Before he could even complete the sentence, the raven-haired ninja had gotten to his feet and fled the scene in a blur of purple and black.

Acsio sighed huffily. "Coward."
Ace looked at Acsio seriously. "We should get him before he gets himself hurt or passes out. He's not supposed to be moving around much."

Alice nodded. "I'll get him. I think I know where he went." And with that, she turned and walked swiftly in the direction in which Shun had gone.

After walking for about twenty minutes down the street, then another dirt road, she came to a small, but thriving horse farm. It was also a riding school, and one of Shun's favorite places to escape to when he needed time alone. Not many people knew that, but Alice had come to know him pretty well over the years.

The outside of the farm was very welcoming; green grass, smiling students leading their rides, and grazing horses in the rear pasture. The air was crisp and clear. The farm had three outdoor, and two indoor rings. Two stables, one for school horses and one for boarders, two or three pastures, and several people; instructors and stable-hands were buzzing around the grounds quickly.

Alice walked into the main stable and down the rows of stalls. Horses sniffed at her and whinnied in hope for treats and petting as she passed. She patted the nose of one particularly large Clydesdale before finding the stall she was searching for.

She came to a stop at a stall simply marked 'Skyress.' ((A/N: In case you haven't noticed, this fic isn't exactly canon, so there are no Bakugan. I just figured I'd fit Skyress in somehow. xP))

Alice slowly pushed open the stall door. Skyress, a beautiful, but aging, female Arabian, was in the back of her stall, head bent down towards the floor. Alice closed the stall door behind her and, as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, she saw why.
Shun was laying in the corner, his head at the large horse's hooves, curled up slightly. He had straw in his hair, and he appeared to be sleeping. Skyress was sniffing and nuzzling the boy's face.

Alice knelt next to him and checked to make sure he was sleeping, and not injured.
He seemed fine, so she decided to let him rest for a few more minutes before making him go back.
She leaned back on the wall, looking up at the retired school horse as she continued to nudge Shun with her nose.

Alice took the moment to look her friend over. She carefully turned his head, with two fingers under his chin, trying not to wake him.
Shun had gotten considerably paler, and he had dark circles under his eyes that were only visible if you looked closely. When she brushed his hair away, Alice noticed small bruises on his face and neck. She also found dried blood stains on the palm of his right hand.

After a few minutes, Shun's eyes slowly opened and re-adjusted. When he saw Alice looking at him, he quickly sat up, causing Skyress to back off. "W-what..how did you know I was here?"

Alice smiled a little, relieved. "I know you." Was her simple answer. "You probably have your brothers worried, you know."

Shun frowned. "I'm not going back."

"I know. I'm not here to force you."

He hesitated. She was confusing him. He slowly stood up, using the side of the stall for support, and brushed the straw from his clothes. Alice followed suit.
Skyress whinnied, as though to remind him that she was still there, and nudged her nose against his chest.
Shun smiled weakly at his favorite horse and patted her neck. "Good girl," he crooned softly, wrapping his arms around her strong neck and leaning on her. Then he looked at Alice.
"Why did you come here, then?"

Alice shrugged. "I was worried you would get yourself hurt."

"Oh."

All was silent for a moment.

"Shun?"

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"Are you scared?"

Shun scowled and straightened up slightly. "No. I'm not a wimp." He all but spat at her, then quickly regretted it when he saw the look of hurt that flashed across her features. He looked down a little guiltily. "..Well, maybe a little." He admitted softly.

"There's nothing wrong with that." Alice assured him. "I would be. Terrified, actually."

Shun shrugged a little and looked away, then coughed. He spat a little bit of blood into the straw, ignoring Alice's worried look.
"Are you alright?" Alice looked at him with wide eyes.
Shun grunted in response, then abruptly turned and headed for the door. Alice followed after a short pause.

-Two days later, 3:00 pm, Kazami dojo

It was a slow day for the Kazami triplets, and hot. By two, the temperature had reached a hundred and four, and rising. Shun still hadn't gone to the doctor.
Said boy was carrying on with his usual chores, despite his rapidly deteriorating health. Ace tried to help him, but what with Shun's superior speed and strength, it was difficult to keep up.
Acsio made an attempt at first, but quickly gave in to the sun and was now on the porch overlooking the gardens, in shade, strumming his guitar. He stopped when Ace approached him, dripping wet and looking quite disgruntled.

"Manna push you in the pond, again?"

"I freaking hate that tiger."

Acsio smirked. Manna was their guard dog, of sorts. He was a Bengal tiger, very big, and very playful. He was more of a house-cat than anything. Shun and Acsio had him well trained, but Ace just couldn't seem to control the beast.

"Where's Shun?" Acsio set his guitar aside, the smirk quickly replaced by a slight frown.

Ace glanced in the direction of the dojo. "Practicing." He frowned. "I wish he wouldn't. He's getting worse."

Acsio stood up. "Maybe we should get him before he passes out again."

Ace nodded and turned, leading the way to the second 'building' of their large, extravagant home. It was really all one big dojo, but in different parts. That specific area was for Shun's personal use in practice.

When the two entered the dojo, it only took a glance around to spot Shun practicing on a punching bag in the corner. His eyes were narrowed in concentration, and he had tape over his knuckles ((like boxers use)). Even so, there were bloodstains on the tape from how hard he was hitting the bag, which looked like it was very close to snapping off of the ceiling, and possibly taking a chunk of drywall with it.

One wall of the little dojo had large panels of glass covering it, making it like one big mirror. There were mats to one side, and training equipment to the other. The floor was concrete, and polished so it was smooth as ice, almost. The walls were plain white with different types of Japanese weapons covering them, from the katana and ninjato to nunchucks, metal stars, and even black eggs.

Ace hung back a bit while Acsio approached the distracted ninja-in-training.

"Shun?"

No response.

"Shun!" Acsio snapped his fingers. "You need to stop. You're going to really hurt yourself."

Shun finally ceased his mutilation of the punching bag and stepped back, panting and stumbling. "I'm f-fine..."

Acsio grabbed his brother's arm. "Come on, sit down inside."

Shun shook his head and started to refuse, but before he could get the words out, he collapsed onto Acsio's shoulder. He seemed to have just passed out without warning.

Ace quickly ran up and slung Shun's other arm over his own shoulder. "Let's get him to the hospital," he said quickly, and Acsio nodded, fear consuming his features. Together they walked outside, supporting Shun's limp body between them.

-At the hospital, intensive care unit

Ace paced anxiously, back and forth, in the hallway outside Shun's room.

The doctors weren't letting him and Acsio in, so they were forced to wait. It had been a little over an hour, and still no one had entered nor exited the room. Ace focused on the low sounds of the doctors speaking on the other side of the door, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

Acsio had gone outside to call the rest of the brawlers and tell them what was going on.

Ace stopped suddenly as he heard loud footsteps down the hall. He recognized the pattern of footfalls immediately.
Well, that was fast.

Dan, Runo, Julie and Marucho all came running up to him, panting and dripping wet, for whatever reason. Ace realized it must have been raining. That was an odd change of weather.

"What's going on?"

"Is he okay?"

"Where's Shun?"

They all questioned at once.

Acsio returned to Ace's side with a shaking Alice, both completely dry. He exchanged a glance with his brother before looking at them all.
"We're not sure yet. We'll know soon. You didn't all have to come, you know.."

Julie looked offended. "Of course we did! He's our friend, too, you know. Poor Shun..." She made a pouty face.

Ace looked at Alice, noticing just how quiet she was. She hadn't said a word yet. "Are you alright?" He asked gruffly. He'd always had a soft spot for Alice, he thought of her as a little sister.

She just shook her head, still shaking slightly. Acsio's phone call had scared her out of her wits. From his tone, it had sounded like...she quickly pushed that thought from her mind, and focused on listening at the door instead.

After hours of just kind of waiting around, and just when the teens were starting to consider staying the night in the waiting room, the door finally opened, and out walked a very flustered-looking Dr. Mason. He looked down at them and forced a tired smile. "Hello..I have good news, and bad news. Which would you like first?"

"Good news." They all said at once, desperate for something to ease the tension.

Dr. Mason nodded and looked around at all of them before continuing, "well, he's conscious and currently stable. And it is definitely not CJD."
The brawlers all breathed a large sigh of relief, relaxing slightly, all but Alice, anyway.

"And the bad news?" She pushed, dread in her tone.

Dr. Mason swallowed. "His is unlike any case I've seen before. There is inflammation in his central nervous system, it appears to be an infection of some sort, I don't recognize it at all. We can't diagnose it properly without performing a biopsy, and.." he stirred uncomfortably, "I'm afraid if we tried to go near his spine, it would only worsen more quickly. But we do know that the infection is literally eating away at his spinal cord and creeping upwards, towards the cerebral cortex. And, in the process of reviving him, we..were not able to save all of him."

Ace's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Dr. Mason shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I regret to inform you that your brother..will not be walking any more. He no longer has any control over his legs."

Alice's eyes welled up with tears, and her shaking increased, she almost appeared to be having a seizure. She turned and hid her face in Ace's shoulder, ashamed.

Ace and Acsio had both frozen, in shock. After several seconds, Ace spoke up once more.

"And the coughing? He's been coughing up blood." His tone was surprisingly calm.

Dr. Mason gave a small nod. "Another confusing bit. It is possible that the infection has spread to his respitory system, or it could be something completely unrelated."

Acsio looked up, eyes wide. "There's nothing you can do, then?" His voice shook.

The old man shook his head solemnly. "I'm afraid not. At this rate, it could take the infection anywhere from two months to a year to reach his brain. It is invariably fatal. I'm very sorry." He looked the saddened group over once more. "You can go in and see him now, if you want. Just try not to crowd or over-excite him." With that, he turned and walked back down the hallway.

By then, both Runo and Julie were crying, Marucho looked about ready to burst into tears himself, and Dan was wavering as though he might just up and faint. Slowly, the small group filed into the plain white room, closing the door behind them with a soft click.

The air was sterile, cold, and smelled strongly of hand sanitizer. It was an instant atmosphere change from the hectic, exhausting buzz outside in the ICU.

Almost..serene, in a way. It would have been relaxing to the tired teens, had it not been for the sad sight before them.

Shun lay limply in a bed that reminded Alice of a cage, wires hooked up to him and I.V. tubes coming out of his arm. His eyes were closed, and the circles around them had darkened, giving him a very worn appearance. He was paler, surely, and what with the oxygen tube under his nose, the hospital gown and the cast on his arm, he looked downright pathetic.

The only real sign that he was even alive was the slow, uneven rise and fall of his chest under the thin sheet.

Acsio quickly walked up to him and pulled up one of the hard wooden chairs from against the wall to sit on. He slowly took his brother's surprisingly cold hand, stroking it with his thumb. The other brawlers followed suit, a few lingering by the far wall.

Marucho sat on the floor at the foot of Shun's bed, silent and looking down.

Alice moved to Shun's side, opposite from Acsio, and carefully pulled the sheet over the boy more, for he looked terribly cold. She stared at his still form for a moment before collapsing into tears. The red-head dropped to her knees and cried into her folded arms on the edge of the bed.

Shun's eyes slowly opened, the golden-brown orbs scanned the room slowly, as he raised a hand to place on the sobbing girl's back, without ever looking at her. "Hey, guys." His voice was hoarse and cracked.

Acsio forced a little smile at him. "Morning, sleeping beauty." He teased quietly.

Julie and Runo both quickly approached him. "Feeling better, Shun?" Julie asked, wiping at her red eyes and slowly returning to her former bubbly self.

Shun looked around again, then gave a small shrug and cough. "My chest hurts." He said simply.

Alice raised her head slowly to look at him, rubbing her eyes, embarassed. "W-what did they do to you?" She attempted to make conversation.

Shun closed his eyes half way and paused. "I don't remember that much," he admitted, "I was asleep a lot. They put things down my throat and took a lot of tests. And they stabbed me with needles a lot." He frowned.

Julie cringed. "Did it hurt a lot? Were you scared?" She prodded.

Shun narrowed his eyes. "Yes and no. I didn't really know what was going on." He took a deep breath. "Have you guys been here the whole time?"

Acsio nodded.

Shun looked around at his friends. "I appreciate that, but you should go home and sleep..I'll be fine here.."

Runo paused. "My parents will be pretty worried if Julie and I aren't home soon...but you shouldn't have to be here alone."

Ace cut in. "He won't be. Acsio and I are staying here, and grandfather is coming later. He's right. You should go home."

Julie sighed and nodded. "See you tomorrow, Shun." She promised, and gave him a very careful hug before she, Runo and Marucho turned to leave.

Alice didn't move.

Shun looked at her. "Really, Alice, I'll be fine here. You can go home. I know you hate hospitals."

Alice realized that the thought had never even crossed her mind. She had been too consumed with fear and worry to care much about her surroundings. She shook her head stubbornly. "No, I don't want to. Don't make me." She whimpered.

Shun hesitated, then nodded. He closed his eyes again, and the room fell silent once more.

Hoooly cow I feel like that dragged on way too long. D=

I hope I didn't bore you...but it's hard writing with this kind of plot, to decide what moments are important to detail and which ones can just be skipped over, you know?

I wanted to fit more into this chapter, but I was not expecting the hospital and stable scenes to take up so much room. And if I didn't stop here, who knows how long this could get. o.o

It's about one am now and I'm just now uploading this. Started at 3:00 am finished at 1:00 am. Nonstop writing all day.

It's safe to say, I spent a lot of time writing this and editing was..gruesome. Some parts I wish I could just take out, but then I'd feel like a loser for spending so much time on them. -.-

Shun: :(

Dan: What's with him?

Me: He's giving me the 'silent treatment.' =/ I'm sorry Shun! I couldn't help it!

Shun: :(

Me: =( *hugs

Please R&R! :D Not sure if the next chapter will be the last or what. It depends. I'm gonna need four more reviews to write it though. B)

Julie: Bargaining now, are we?

Me: Don't you judge me.