Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Disclaimers: As much as I may want to claim ownership of these two productions, I can’t because Encanto (2021) belong to a whole lot of different companies that I can’t remember the names of at the moment. Any characters that appear in this fic that are not a part of either original series, belong to me so don’t take them without asking first.

Timeframe: This story is going to take place in the Encanto (2021) universe. I’m also making it so that the Madrigal family starting from Alma Madrigal going down the family list, is born in the mid-1930’s instead of the original earlier time period that the series starts off in with Pedro and Alma, so that by the time Mirabel is born, she is born in the year 1990.

I am also making Julieta, Pepa, and their spouses (and Bruno) five years younger than what they were when they married and had the grandkids, so they are not in their fifties by the time Antonio is five years old.

Author’s Notes: Because of the ‘Wish Reboot‘ back to the night before her Gift ceremony, Mirabel’s magic bedroom door remains and she receives a Gift this time around, as well as gained the power to become the next Candle Bearer when Alma eventually dies.

Warning: Because of their memories of their experience in the other timeline, both Mirabel and Bruno will stubbornly be completely different than what they were in canon, as they do things they didn’t do in the original timeline, like being more stubborn and confident about things and not backing down and standing up more against Alma instead of quietly letting her treat them the way she did in the old timeline as one of the things they are trying to change for the better.

• -Alma Madrigal née Ramirez - Birthday: February 6, 1935
• -Félix Madrigal née Hernandez - Birthday: November 11, 1959
• -Agustin Madrigal née Santos - Birthday: June 19, 1960
• -Julieta Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Pepa Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Bruno Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Mariano Guzmán - Birthday: March 19, 1982
• -Isabela Madrigal - Birthday: August 7, 1983
• -Dolores Madrigal - Birthday: September 5, 1983
• -Luisa Madrigal - Birthday: April 12, 1985
• -Camilo Madrigal - Birthday: April 21, 1990
• -Mirabel Madrigal - Birthday: May 6, 1990
• -Antonio Madrigal - Birthday: July 23, 2000

• -Kiara Madrigal née Mendoza - Birthday: December 30, 1960
• -Zéphyrus Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Génesis Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Adrian Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Anaïs Madrigal - Birthday: May 13, 1986
• -Vesta Madrigal - Birthday: January 19, 1990
• -Diego Madrigal - Birthday: January 19, 1990
• -Nicolás Madrigal - Birthday: October 31, 1992
• -Jade Madrigal - Birthday: February 5, 2000

Word Count: 1,493

Summary: (Encanto) In the distant future where Casita falls, Mirabel and Bruno both die trying to save the miracle candle. But thanks to the last of the magic of the Miracle candle and a wish that Mirabel makes just as she takes her final breath, instead of staying dead Mirabel and Bruno both suddenly find themselves ‘waking up’ years in the past inside of their younger bodies the night before Mirabel’s Gift ceremony with all of their memories of the possible future still intact. In an attempt to stop the events that happened in the original future, can Mirabel and Bruno save their family and make a better tomorrow for everybody? (Papa Bruno Madrigal AU)

Glossary:
‘Hi’ – thinking
“Hi“ – Another language

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Author’s Notes:
So what do you guys think? This chapter is completed at 7 pages. This is my first attempt at writing a Encanto (2021) fanfiction story. Please tell me what you think of it in reviews. Do you guys love it? Hate it? What? Though extremely rude flamers won’t be tolerated. Please tell me what all of you think of this story of mine.

So what do you guys think of this song chapter? I was rewatching a movie on Netflix called Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey that this song came from, and the after listening to the song I thought it sounded perfect for this story, and once it got it my to use it, it wouldn’t go away. *lol*

Once I heard this song, I couldn’t stop visualizing Bruno and Mirabel singing it instead. I think it fits the two of them perfectly, and the idea wouldn’t leave me alone until I finally typed it out, with some tweaks and edits to the original version of the song so it would fit Mirabel and Bruno better.

I edited the Make It Work Again song a bit in the first beginning in the first four lines that has Bruno and Mirabel singing, but other than those parts, everything else in the song is from the original song. *lol* If you guys watched the original version of the song can you really tell me you can’t imagine Bruno and Mirabel singing it, seeing what’s going on with the plot line in this story?
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Started On: May 14, 2024
Completed On: June 21, 2024

Chapter Text

Disclaimers: As much as I may want to claim ownership of these two productions, I can’t because Encanto (2021) belong to a whole lot of different companies that I can’t remember the names of at the moment. Any characters that appear in this fic that are not a part of either original series, belong to me so don’t take them without asking first.

Timeframe: This story is going to take place in the Encanto (2021) universe. I’m also making it so that the Madrigal family starting from Alma Madrigal going down the family list, is born in the mid-1930’s instead of the original earlier time period that the series starts off in with Pedro and Alma, so that by the time Mirabel is born, she is born in the year 1990.

I am also making Julieta, Pepa, and their spouses (and Bruno) five years younger than what they were when they married and had the grandkids, so they are not in their fifties by the time Antonio is five years old.

Author’s Notes: Because of the ‘Wish Reboot‘ back to the night before her Gift ceremony, Mirabel’s magic bedroom door remains and she receives a Gift this time around, as well as gained the power to become the next Candle Bearer when Alma eventually dies.

Warning: Because of their memories of their experience in the other timeline, both Mirabel and Bruno will stubbornly be completely different than what they were in canon, as they do things they didn’t do in the original timeline, like being more stubborn and confident about things and not backing down and standing up more against Alma instead of quietly letting her treat them the way she did in the old timeline as one of the things they are trying to change for the better.

• -Alma Madrigal née Ramirez - Birthday: February 6, 1935
• -Félix Madrigal née Hernandez - Birthday: November 11, 1959
• -Agustin Madrigal née Santos - Birthday: June 19, 1960
• -Julieta Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Pepa Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Bruno Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Mariano Guzmán - Birthday: March 19, 1982
• -Isabela Madrigal - Birthday: August 7, 1983
• -Dolores Madrigal - Birthday: September 5, 1983
• -Luisa Madrigal - Birthday: April 12, 1985
• -Camilo Madrigal - Birthday: April 21, 1990
• -Mirabel Madrigal - Birthday: May 6, 1990
• -Antonio Madrigal - Birthday: July 23, 2000

Word Count: 7,036

Summary: (Encanto) In the distant future where Casita falls, Mirabel and Bruno both die trying to save the miracle candle. But thanks to the last of the magic of the Miracle candle and a wish that Mirabel makes just as she takes her final breath, instead of staying dead Mirabel and Bruno both suddenly find themselves ‘waking up’ years in the past inside of their younger bodies the night before Mirabel’s Gift ceremony with all of their memories of the possible future still intact. In an attempt to stop the events that happened in the original future, can Mirabel and Bruno save their family and make a better tomorrow for everybody? (Papa Bruno Madrigal AU)

Glossary:
‘Hi’ – thinking
“Hi“ – Another language

~-Mirabel’s POV - Encanto Village, Columbia - Inside the Ruins of Casita – July 31, 2005~-

Pain.

That was all Mirabel Madrigal could feel as she slowly woke up to a splitting headache and a sharp pain to the back of her head, as her mind was feeling a bit foggy as she opened her dark brown eyes to absolute darkness surrounding her at all sides of where ever she currently was, as she found it hard to breath because of a weight that was lying on top of her in the darkness, and moving her body itself made the pain she was feeling feel a lot worse than it was before.

Agonizing pain seemed to fill every part of Mirabel Madrigal’s body as she slowly came back to consciousness, as she found it extremely hard to breath, and trying to move her body seemed to make the pain worse. As she shifted her body a bit, she realized that she could still move her arms inside the cramped space she was in.

As she tried to move her head, she flinched in pain as the movement caused the back of her head to ache and throb more than it already was, as she her left arm as high as she could towards her head, and as soon as her hand came in contact with her head, she could feel her hand come away feeling wet and sticky.

The pain coursing through her head and body was all Mirabel was feeling at the moment and all she could focus on, as she came back into consciousness in total darkness, with a soft yet heavy and wet weight pressing down upon her body as her arms wrapped around it instinctively, as she tried to squint her eyes to get a good look at her surrounding despite everything being dark around her, and her vision being blurry since her eyeglasses were missing.

’Why’s my head bleeding?! What the heck happened? Why is it so dark, and where are my glasses? I can just barely see anything at all in here without my glasses,’ Mirabel thought silently to herself, as she lowered her hand from the back of her head, as her fog filled mind tried to remember what had happened that caused her to be in her current situation, as a loud racking cough escaped from her lips, and she could taste something wet and salty coppery taste on her tongue when she coughed as her eyes widen as she realized just from the taste that it was blood, ‘Am I coughing up blood? Why? Plus why does everything hurt…’

As Mirabel looked around, she could vaguely hear what sounded like her familia yelling her name from somewhere far away, as she heard their voices from what sounded like it was coming from somewhere above her, as she started to realize she was under some under some kind of debris.

As she looked around something above her was moved, and a small sliver of sunlight started to shine down at her in the darkness, she spotted the shattered remains of one of Casita’s wall decorations lying nearby in the rubble, and her eyes widen in shock as everything that had happened slowly started flowing back into her foggy mind, as memories of the miracle candle going out and Casita collapsing filled her mind.

“Casita? Please no.” Mirabel whispered as she realized what had happened, as a fresh wave of tears started to well up in her eyes as she began to remember exactly what had happened that led her to be in her current situation, as she realized exactly what had happened, ‘Casita cracked and fell, just like Tio Bruno’s latest vision showed us. I thought I was about to finally save the miracle, yet it’s all because of my fight with Abuela that everything came crashing down around us.’

~-Flashback~-

As the memories filled her mind, as she remembered her last argument with her Abuela, that led to Casita’s falling, and how she and the rest of the family had rushed to try and save the candle as Casita collapsed around them, while Casita used the last of her strength to kick the rest of the family out so they wouldn’t be harmed by what was happening.

Mirabel remembered hearing everybody yelling at her to just leave the candle behind and save herself, but she had stubbornly ignored all of them and managed to make it to the tower room where the candle resided with Casita’s reluctant help after multiple failed attempts by other family members who had tried to reach the candle only for their powers to completely disappear before they could get close enough to the candles location, causing Casita to use its powers to protect them while sending them flying out of the collapsing family compound.

Along the way up, Mirabel accidentally slashed open the palm of her right hand in a deep and jagged line as she grabbed hold of a broken piece of wall to help pull herself further up, but she ignored the pain as she quickly continued on her way up to the tower room where the candle resided.

Once she finally reached the top of the tower, she carefully pulled herself inside the open windows, as she feels the windowsill walls starting to crumble underneath her grip, as her feet hit the ground and she quickly ran over to where the candle was located, and gently scooped the miracle candles holder into her hands.

’I can’t let the miracle die like this. I won’t let it not after everything that has happened so far up until now. If we lose it, everybody is going to hate me more than they already do, especially after they all found out about Bruno’s prophecy about me…’ Mirabel thought silently to herself as she gently scooped up the container that used to house the miracle candle into her hands, and flinched a bit when she saw how much of the candle had burned away, as she started to turn around to head back the way she came, ‘Oh my lord, there is barely anything left of the candle… there must be a way to save it from going out and save Casita and the miracle…’

As she held onto the candle, the floor started to collapse under her weight as more of the candles flame started to go out, causing her to cry out in both terror and pain as the sudden movement caused the still hot and oily wax from the candle to splash onto her injured hand, causing her to flinch a bit at the sudden burning sensation that filled her hand, as the wax causes the cut in her hand to glow brightly for a moment as a strange warmth seemed to briefly spread throughout her body from the brief contact.

As she started to fall with the floor, Casita used managed to create a slide from broken debris underneath Mirabel’s falling body, causing her to slide safely to the ground below much to her relief, as she immediately gets to her feet off of the slide and starts running towards the nearest exit she could find while clutching the dying miracle candle, as she tried to avoid being hit by falling debris. Casita tried to protect her while she ran, but she could see that the magical old house was getting weaker with each attempt to help her so she just kept on running as fast as she could.

Casita had tried to help in her escape from the collapsing magical home as best as Casita could as furniture and other objects from inside the house got in the way of anything that came close to landing on top of Mirabel as she ran, and Casita had even tried to make the ground at Mirabel’s feet move faster as it tried to sweep her out of the danger zone like it had done with the rest of the family, but each attempt by Casita seemed to be getting weaker and weaker with each passing second until it came to a stop completely as the miracle candle’s flame completely flickers out and there was nothing but darkness inside of Mirabel’s hands.

As Mirabel continued to run, she could see Casita erect some kind of stone enclosure out of the ground a few feet away from her that was directly in her path. The enclosure was about a foot and a half off the ground and wide enough for her to get into if she crawled into it, and looked like it would be able to give her some protection from the collapsing house, if she made it to the enclosure in time.

’How can this still happen? everything was looking up and going perfectly, yet what? Why did it have to happen this way at all?!’ Mirabel thought silently to herself, as she continued to run as she ran straight towards the enclosure, while glancing down at the now flameless candle in her hands, there was barely anything left of the candle except a small pool of melted wax inside of the candles holder, ‘Just because I yelled at Abuela and pointed out that what was happening was her doing and not mine, everything went to hell? I have to fix this somehow…’

“MIRABEL!! WATCH OUT!!!“

As Casita fell around her as Mirabel tried to avoid the falling debris while trying to keep ahold of the melted mess that was the candle as the still hot wax burned her hand briefly, the sudden shouting of her name caught her attention, distracting her long enough to look in the direction of the shout to see Bruno charging towards her, as his normally brown eyes were now glowing bright green indicating he was in the middle of a vision as he ran towards her.

Just then a loud rumbling sound caught Mirabel’s attention, causing her to glance upwards in time to see Bruno’s old tower bedroom starting to fall in her direction, just before Bruno went into a flying tackle straight at her body, his body colliding with hers as he knocked the two of them off their feet just as a huge piece of his old tower bedroom came tumbling down on top of the two of them and buried them under its weight with Bruno using his own body to try and shield Mirabel from the damage as he wrapped his arms tightly around her own body just as she instinctively wrapped her arms around his to hold onto him.

As they hit the ground and went sliding a few feet across the courtyard from the force of the impact from Bruno’s tackle, Mirabel’s head came in contact with the hard stone floor that used to be Casita’s front courtyard, as they slid into a small stone enclosure about a foot off the ground that half covered their bodies from the falling debris, that Casita had managed to erect just before the candle completely went out.

As they slid into the enclosure, Mirabel could feel her head cracking hard against the stone wall of the enclosure as her eyeglasses went flying from her face, as her vision started to swim as she passed out just as her and Bruno’s world was surrounded by darkness as falling debris landed above them.

~-End Flashback~-

As the memory of what had happened hit her, Mirabel quickly realized exactly what the soft and extremely wet weight that was on top of her really was, as she let out a startled gasp, as her grip on it tightened reflexively, and a loud moan of pain reached her ears, and the smell of coppery blood coming from above her filled her nose from the soft thing that was pressed against her body.

’Oh no… Tio Bruno… Dear lord, please tell me he’s okay… that he’s not dying because he tried to save me. Since he’s on top of me, means he received the worst of what happened than I did when everything came tumbling down…’ Mirabel thought frantically to herself as she tried to gingerly shift her body a bit under her uncles weight and the weight of the rubble that was on top of both of them, as she tried to get a better look at her uncle as best as she could in the little bit of light that was coming through the rubble, ‘This isn’t fair. I promised I would bring him back home to the family once this was all over, so people would stop talking badly about him.’

Now that she becoming more focused on what was going on around her, and she fought against the pain that was going through her own body, she realized that she could now hear her uncles ragged breathing coming from above her, as his breathes came in deep and ragged gasps of air, like he was having trouble breathing, and she could feel his heartbeat beating weakly against her chest.

As Bruno’s broken body pressed against hers, she could feel his blood soaking into her clothes, and she could feel the heat coming from his body starting to fade away, as she slowly reached up with her injured hand as best as she could to try and gently touch his face to try and wake him up, and accidentally wound up brushing some of the leftover waxy oil from the miracle candle that had spilled on her injured hand earlier onto his face, which caused a faint glow to appear where her hand had touched his injured faces cuts.

“Tio Bruno? Tio Bruno can you hear me? Please speak to me if you can hear me. Are you okay?” Mirabel choked out, as she struggled to force the words out of her mouth as pain filled her own body just from trying to speak, as she felt relief fill her at the thought that he might still be alive despite everything that had happened as she looked sheepish for a moment when she realized what she had just asked Bruno, “Okay… I admit that was a really stupid question seeing the situation we are in… Tio Bruno, come on and please answer me!”

For a brief moment that seemed like it had lasted forever as she didn’t immediately get a response from her uncle as nothing happened, but then the body on top of her shifted a bit on top of her, causing them to both flinch in pain from the movement, as Bruno’s still glowing green eyes slowly opened up to stare down at her, as a wracking cough escaped from his mouth, and Mirabel could see blood starting to form on the side of his mouth.

“Mira… bel…? …Ey kid… do…” Bruno gasped out as another round of coughing escaped from his lips as he tried and force the five words out of his mouth, as he struggled to keep talking even as glowing green eyes started to droop closed once again, like it was becoming harder for him to remain awake, “Sobrina… r… u… okay…?”

“I’m fine thanks to you. Just hold on a bit longer and don’t close your eyes. Please hold on awhile longer. Helps coming soon,” Mirabel said, lying about her own condition to try and not make Bruno worry more, as she could hear the panic in her own voice as she heard how weak and far away his voice sounded to her ears, as she tried to keep him from losing consciousness again, as she could hear the sounds of voices getting louder from above the rubble, “I can hear mama and the others. They’ll get us out of here soon, and we can get you mama’s healing food to make you all better.”

“I’m… fine… just a… bit… tired… Don’t worry… about me…” Bruno mumbled a bit as he struggled to stay awake as he stared down at Mirabel for a moment, as he gave her a small reassuring smile, though it looked strained in the dim light, as the green glow in his eyes started to die down and his eyes returned to their normal brown color once more as a small chuckle escaped from his lips, but was quickly followed by a loud coughing fit as blood came shooting out of his mouth with each cough, “It doesn’t even… urt… anymore. Glad… u… r… okay… Ur… mama and your Tia and Abuela…will… kill me… if anything… happens to you…”

“I promise you they won’t be mad at you or will kill you, Tio Bruno, you don’t have to worry. Just hold on a bit longer, please…” Mirabel said with a pleading tone in her voice even as she could feel the coldness that was starting to seep into her uncles body as she held onto him, as a wracking cough escaped from her own mouth, “everybody will be glad to see you again when we get out of this mess…”

~-Bruno’s POV - Encanto Village, Columbia - Inside the Ruins of Casita – July 31, 2005~-

“…io …uno…”

Bruno Madrigal slowly came back to consciousness as he vaguely heard the sound of somebody calling his name, as he sucked in a sharp gasp of pain as any movement he made caused agonizing pain to shoot throughout his body, as a sharp stabbing pain went through his head.

Pain.

That was all Bruno Madrigal could feel at the moment, as it felt like his entire body was on fire, as it became harder to breathe, and focus on what was happening around him, as he lay unmoving on top of something soft, as he blearily opened his eyes a little bit to see nothing but darkness surrounding him, as his fog filled mind tried to remember what happened that got him in his current situation.

‘OW!! What the hell hit me? Oh, yeah thats right… Casita fell on top of me… I guess I really did it this time, and there is no coming back from this one.’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he tried to not move as much as possible as more pain shot through his body as a wracking metallic tasting cough fell from his lips, ‘Plus, if my injuries are as bad as I think they are, then by the time they dig me out, I don’t think even Julieta’s food will be able to help...’

“…io …uno… ear… me…?” A familiar sounding voice called him from some far away distance, as he felt somebody’s hand touch his face, and he felt a strange warmth fill him that seemed to spread through his entire body before it quickly faded away just as fast as it had started.

As he heard the voice calling his name, Bruno’s fog filled mind slowly became more fully aware as he focused on the voice more, as he realized who the voice belonged to, as he felt the soft object underneath him move underneath him in the cramped space under the rubble, as he felt the hand from before lightly pat his face as the voice frantically called his name again begging him to answer her.

Upon realizing exactly what, or who, it was he was lying down upon, Bruno started to move, grunting in pain as he moves while trying to push himself up as far as he could get himself, as he forced his eyes open and found himself looking down at his youngest niece’s panicked face as she stared back up at him. As he stared down at her he could see the glowing green light of his eyes half lighting up the darkness.

“Mira… bel?” Bruno choked out as another wracking cough escaped from his lips, as memories of what had happened earlier started rushing back into his mind.

~-Flashback~-

Bruno had been busy walking down the hidden hallways behind Casita’s walls, with a bucket of cement and patching holes in the walls, listening to the fight between Mirabel and his mother out in the courtyard, as he tried not to flinch in pain when he heard what his mother had said about him and Mirabel response as the younger girl started to defend him against Alma.

‘Thanks a lot, Mirabel. It’s good to know you have my back on this matter. In all these years I always chickened out when it comes to confronting mom,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he wiped a bead of sweat that was dripping from his face as he used the spatula on another crack as he tried to ignore the pain and hurt that filled him at the latest cruel thing his mother had to say about him ever since he had ‘run away’ from home and thought he wasn’t around to hear her, ‘mom needs a wake up call and somebody to call her out on her crap and…’

CRACK!

Jumping in shock at the loud cracking sound that seemed to echo all around him in the hallway he was in, Bruno’s eyes widen in shock and terror as everything began shaking all around him, as cracks started splintering all across Casita’s walls as it spread in all directions all around him everywhere he looked, as he spotted some of his pet rats fleeing down the hallway from his secret room.

‘Oh no. Oh no. Don’t tell me Mirabel and mom’s fighting with each other is what starts Casita to fall? We failed to stop it!’ Bruno thought frantically to himself as he started running around the halls trying to see if he could do something to stop what was happening, before finally giving up as support beams and other things started falling around him as he started running as well as he ran down the same way the rats were running, ‘why does it always have to end like this even when we try and stop the bad things I see in my vision from happening.’

As he ran down the hallway, he soon came a dead end as more debris fell down around him, as he grabbed a nearby bucket and placed it on his head, as he gave Casita a quick apology for what he was about to do, before charging head first at full force at a nearby severely cracked wall on his right, and smashed through it easily and found himself safely outside of Casita and out of the danger zone, as his rats ran out of the newly made hole and scattered in different directions to get away from what was happening.

As he sat on the ground trying to catch his breath after his escapade as he pulled his bucket helmet off of his head, he suddenly gasped in pain as he clutched his head as his eyes started glowing a bright green color as one of his visions came to him right at that moment.

Groaning in pain when he recognized what the sensation he was feeling was, he couldn’t believe one of his visions would pick now of all times to come. Unlike when he summoned a vision using his sand ritual, the sand ritual visions were painless, but when the visions came on their own it always left him with a splitting headache afterwards.

He really hated it when his visions came to without him summoning it using his sand ritual, but he also hated it because usually when they came out of the blue like it was now, it was usually to warn him of some impending future disaster that needed his immediate attention.

’Why couldn’t it have done this before Mirabel and moms argument started up? Instead we got the vision of Mirabel and Isabela happily hugging each other, as a supposed way to stop Casita from falling.’ Bruno thought silently to himself in anger as he sat on the ground and waited for the vision to start as he forced himself to relax as images started to fill his mind as a loud sigh of irritation and frustration escaped from his lips as he reached up to run at his throbbing forehead as he started to feel a headache starting to build up, ‘Fat lot of luck that did even though it did briefly work for a short while until mom came and ruined everything like she always does when she’s angry about something…’

~-Vision Begins~-

As the vision started to begin, he could ‘see’ images of Mirabel and the rest of the family filling his mind, as he watched as Casita began to collapse around everybody there as his nieces and nephews all rushed towards the the Candle tower to try and get to the candle.

Bruno saw Camilo and Isabela both completely lose their powers as they rushed to try and get to the tower, only for Casita to sweep them and the rest of the family away to safety outside the courtyard while Mirabel kept making her own way towards the candle as she climbed up the walls to the tower.

‘Crap! So if Casita and the candle die, the magic Gifts that everybody has will die with them, if everybody’s losing their powers. Even if it means losing Casita forever,’ Bruno thought silently to himself, feeling sad at the idea of losing his powers, but at the same slightly felt relieved by the idea at the same time as a low chuckle of amusement escaped from his lips at the thought of losing his Gift, ‘at least we’ll all finally be free to be normal again after all this time. Maybe even mom will finally let up on the family if we all lose our powers and become normal…’

As Bruno continued to watch, he could see Mirabel reach the candle and grab it, before making her way back safely to the ground below with Casita’s help when Casita creates a slide to send her down safely, before the fifteen year old began running for her life as she tried to avoid getting hit by falling debris as Casita continued to fall around her, as the rest of the family was being blocked by Casita from going after her as Casita tried to protect her from being hit. As she ran, he notice that she was holding what looked like the melted remains of the Miracle candle, as the flame slowly went out in her hands.

Gasping in horror as the images started to fill his mind, Bruno began to start to see the image of Mirabel running through Casita’s courtyard as the house fell apart around her, as large chunks of the house hit the ground around her, though it looks like Casita was trying to help in her escape, but Bruno could tell that Casita’s attempts were getting weaker by the second, as the house created some kind one foot tall stone enclosure that was further ahead of Mirabel on the ground.

Before Mirabel could reach the enclosure, the flame on the candle finally went out completely as Bruno looked around as a loud rumbling sound reached Bruno’s ears, before he finally glanced up in time to see what used to be his old tower bedroom started to crumble and fall as it fell towards Mirabel’s fleeing form, as Casita tried and failed to try and protect Mirabel as the tower fell on top of her as she glanced behind her with terrified eyes, and she was buried under a few tons of rubble before she could reach the enclosure, just as everything became dark around Bruno as the vision comes to an end.

~-Vision Ends~-

‘Oh hell no! No way. I’m not letting that happen if I can try and stop it from happening. Not on my watch,’ Bruno thought as anger, becoming filled with panic as the vision came to an end, as a stubborn and determined look appeared on his face, as he quickly stumbled to his feet from the dirt floor, ‘will that particular vision happen. If I can just get there in time, maybe I can save her. Mirabel doesn’t deserve that to happen to her.’

Reaching up to grab the handle of the bucket on his head, he quickly yanked it off and tossed the bucket to the side as he started running as fast as he could, as he hoped he made it in time, as his eyes continued to glow green as he ran, ‘Maybe if I can just get there in time before my tower bedroom starts to fall, maybe I can still save her, even it means I have to die instead...’

As he sprinted around the house he could already hear the sounds of his familia screaming out Mirabel‘s name, and he made it around the house in time to see Mirabel come tumbling down a slide that Casita had created that led down from the Miracle Candle room, as the fifteen year old immediately started running while clutching the miracle candle in her hands.

Knowing what was soon to come, Bruno picked up his pace and started chasing after Mirabel, hoping that he would catch up with her in time, to get her out of danger when the telltale rumbling sound signaling that his tower was about to fall reached his ears, as he glance upwards to see it started to crumble and fall down towards Mirabel, who was also looking up at the tower as the last of the miracle candles flame finally went out in her hands.

“MIRABEL!! WATCH OUT!!!“ Bruno shouted out as he managed to get a few feet behind his niece, causing her to look back at him with shocked and fear filled eyes, before he charged at her with a flying tackle, his body impacting with hers as he wrapped his arms around her, as the force behind the tackle sent the two of them flying a bit further away from where Mirabel originally had been standing.

As the two hit the ground with Mirabel pinned underneath his own bodies weight, Bruno kept his arms wrapped around Mirabel’s slim body in an attempt to try and shield her from what he knew was coming, as his grip tightened around her body as he glanced over his shoulder to see what was left of his tower bedroom still falling towards them, before they were both buried under the debris, and everything went dark as Bruno was knocked out.

~-End Flashback~-

As Bruno looked down at Mirabel, he realized just how much trouble they were both in, and knew that it wasn’t good as his bleary eyes scanned the area they were trapped in once more before looking back down at Mirabel once more.

‘Well, even if I die here, at least hopefully I gave her some time to be rescued, by getting her away from the original spot she was in when my tower fell on her in the vision,’ Bruno mused silently to himself as he tried to smile down at Mirabel despite the pain he was in, as he started asking her questions about how she was doing, and answering any questions she gave him in return as he tried to reassure her that everything was going to be fine, ‘She still got hurt, and looks almost as bad as I feel. She definitely would have been dead by the time help finally got to her under the rubble in the original crash area…’

As his eyes began to close more, his breathing started to become more ragged sounding with each passing second as his body started to slump forward to lie on top of Mirabel’s body once more, shuddering a bit from the sudden cold that seemed to spread through his body despite Mirabel fading voice pleading with him to stay awake and hold on until help came. But he was feeling too exhausted to stay awake even for another second despite his best efforts to do so.

‘I just wish that if I could have a second chance to fix things, that the first thing I would try and fix is how I handled Pepa’s wedding day. Then maybe just about everything that happened afterwards over the years could have been avoided.’ Bruno forlornly thought silently to himself, as his eyes started to close as he became harder to keep them open, as the green glow in his eyes slowly started to fade away, ‘just so she wouldn’t still have a grudge against me all these years later for a disaster she caused by over reacting to what was meant to be a joke I made. Including a whole lot of other things I did back then…’

In the next few seconds, Bruno’s breathing came to a stop completely as darkness filled his mind and he knew nothing more after that.

~-Mirabel’s POV - Encanto Village, Columbia - Inside the Ruins of Casita – July 31, 2005~-

As she held her uncles body in her arms, she could feel how cold his body was getting with each passing second as she felt his heart beat weakly against her chest, as she also could hear Bruno’s labored breathing coming his mouth as he lost consciousness once again.

“Sleep well, Tio Bruno and have peaceful dreams where ever you are now…” Mirabel murmured softly to her uncles now lifeless body as it lay in her arms, as she bends her head forward as far as she could reach to place a light kiss on top of his head, not caring at all about how dirty it now was as she kissed it.

Knowing there wasn’t much she could do to help him without her mom’s magic healing food, all Mirabel could do was just hold onto Bruno’s body as he ‘fell asleep’ in her arms, as tears fell down her eyes as he stopped breathing completely a few seconds later as his body went completely limp against her own, and she knew immediately that he was gone and she was now all alone in the darkness.

‘This isn’t fair… I promised that I would bring him back home to the family when this was over. He wasn’t supposed to die in this scenario. No… I mean we weren’t supposed to die here. At at least i don’t think we were supposed to.’ Mirabel thought silently to herself as she felt tears well up in her eyes, as she clutched his rapidly cooling body against her own, as a shiver of pain coursed through her own body from the movement, as she refused to let Bruno go for any reason, ‘Of all the insane and horrible things that could have happened because of the prophecy, why the hell did this one have to be the final outcome?’

As she lay there, she started to hum the Family Madrigal song to herself to try and calm herself down as a loud wracking cough escaped from her own lips, as she tasted the metallic taste of blood in her mouth once more after coughing for awhile, as she began to find it harder to stay awake too as her breathing became more labored.

‘I guess I’ll be joining Tio Bruno in death as well? I was really hoping they would have found us by now…’ Mirabel thought silently to herself as she stared up at the ceiling of the enclosure she was in as her eyes started to close, ‘I just wish that I could have had a chance to change how things ended up happening, and save everything and everybody. Especially if I had a Gift to help me out, maybe things would be different too…’

With those final thoughts Mirabel’s body went limp as her arms fell from Bruno’s body as she took her final breath and she knew nothing more as everything became black.

As Mirabel died, a faint glow started to form on the injured hand that had the Miracle candle wax spilt on it, that seemed to momentarily spread across both Mirabel and Bruno’s bodies before it quickly faded away as fast as it had come.

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Author’s Notes:
So what do you guys think? This chapter is completed at 17 pages. This is my first attempt at writing a Encanto (2021) fanfiction story. Please tell me what you think of it in reviews. Do you guys love it? Hate it? What? Though extremely rude flamers won’t be tolerated. Please tell me what all of you think of this story of mine.

Since Mirabel is supposed to be the next Candle Holder after Alma dies, seeing how in the end of the movie Mirabel was able to bring Casita back to life, I thought that was the best way of making her wish to work, because of her still unawakened candle holder powers semi-activating because of the oil from the miracle candle. It woke up just enough to grant her wish to save herself and Bruno by sending them 10 years back in time to the bodies of their younger selves when they died.

If anybody is wondering about how the wish even activated, remember Mirabel’s open hand wound and the oily melted wax from the miracle candle splashing on it, and the glow that happened afterwards and the same thing happen when she touched Bruno’s open injuries with the same hand that was still covered in the waxy oil so she basically unintentionally spread the candles magic to include Bruno. It also grants Bruno’s own final wish too.

UPDATE: Speaking of Bruno’s wish, since it’s not implied in the summary, so to hopefully stop any confusion about exactly when they ‘wake up’ in the past, remember what Bruno’s main wish was? *lol* Bruno’s going to be ‘waking up’ in the year 1982-1983, with Mirabel being born in the year 1990. It is the year 1995 when Mirabel finally ‘wakes up’.

So Bruno at least has about 12-13 years further back in the past than Mirabel does before any of the grandkids are even born, in order for his wish to be granted, so he’s going to have years to change some things before Mirabel is born and her own memories eventually ‘wake up’. One of the changes he’s going to make is, getting married and having his own family and kids by that time. Which is the reason for the Papa Bruno Madrigal AU tag in the summary.
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Started On: November 8, 2022
Completed On: February 4, 2023

Chapter Text

Disclaimers: As much as I may want to claim ownership of these two productions, I can’t because Encanto (2021) belong to a whole lot of different companies that I can’t remember the names of at the moment. Any characters that appear in this fic that are not a part of either original series, belong to me so don’t take them without asking first.

Timeframe: This story is going to take place in the Encanto (2021) universe. I’m also making it so that the Madrigal family starting from Alma Madrigal going down the family list, is born in the mid-1930’s instead of the original earlier time period that the series starts off in with Pedro and Alma, so that by the time Mirabel is born, she is born in the year 1990.

I am also making Julieta, Pepa, and their spouses (and Bruno) five years younger than what they were when they married and had the grandkids, so they are not in their fifties by the time Antonio is five years old.

Author’s Notes: Because of the ‘Wish Reboot‘ back to the night before her Gift ceremony, Mirabel’s magic bedroom door remains and she receives a Gift this time around, as well as gained the power to become the next Candle Bearer when Alma eventually dies.

Warning: Because of their memories of their experience in the other timeline, both Mirabel and Bruno will stubbornly be completely different than what they were in canon, as they do things they didn’t do in the original timeline, like being more stubborn and confident about things and not backing down and standing up more against Alma instead of quietly letting her treat them the way she did in the old timeline as one of the things they are trying to change for the better.

• -Alma Madrigal née Ramirez - Birthday: February 6, 1935
• -Félix Madrigal née Hernandez - Birthday: November 11, 1959
• -Agustin Madrigal née Santos - Birthday: June 19, 1960
• -Julieta Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Pepa Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Bruno Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Mariano Guzmán - Birthday: March 19, 1982
• -Isabela Madrigal - Birthday: August 7, 1983
• -Dolores Madrigal - Birthday: September 5, 1983
• -Luisa Madrigal - Birthday: April 12, 1985
• -Camilo Madrigal - Birthday: April 21, 1990
• -Mirabel Madrigal - Birthday: May 6, 1990
• -Antonio Madrigal - Birthday: July 23, 2000

Word Count: 10,735

Summary: (Encanto) In the distant future where Casita falls, Mirabel and Bruno both die trying to save the miracle candle. But thanks to the last of the magic of the Miracle candle and a wish that Mirabel makes just as she takes her final breath, instead of staying dead Mirabel and Bruno both suddenly find themselves ‘waking up’ years in the past inside of their younger bodies the night before Mirabel’s Gift ceremony with all of their memories of the possible future still intact. In an attempt to stop the events that happened in the original future, can Mirabel and Bruno save their family and make a better tomorrow for everybody? (Papa Bruno Madrigal AU)

Glossary:
‘Hi’ – thinking
“Hi“ – Another language

~-Encanto Village, Columbia - Outside the Ruins of Casita – July 31, 2005~-

Meanwhile high above the rubble that once was the living magical house known as Casita, the rest of the Madrigal clan were rushing around searching the area they had last seen Mirabel in just before Bruno’s tower bedroom had fallen, as they pushed and pulled broken debris and getting it out of the way with the help of the townspeople who had come running with tools and other things after seeing everything in Encanto fall apart just before Casita fell.

Once word reached the villagers had learned that Mirabel Madrigal was buried underneath the rubble, people from all over Encanto of all ages came to help, as they tried to remove debris as best as they could, as more and more broken pieces of Casita were removed from the area and set off to the side away from everything else.

Meanwhile some of the village children were running around the destruction with Antonio and Camilo, as the two younger Madrigal boys were walking around yelling out Maribel’s name and trying to see if they could hear her by pressing their ears against the rubble.

When the full news of what had really happened reached the ears of everybody in the village, everybody had come running to try and help the now powerless family who had always been there to help them no matter what. The whole area was filled with villagers who moved quickly to help move things out of the way as they continued digging and looking for any sign of Mirabel.

Among the people who had come along with the villagers, was the village doctor, Dr. Juan Ricardo who ran a small clinic in the village, who’s clinic treated the villagers who couldn’t make the trip up to Casita for Julieta’s special magical healing food, or treating injuries and ailments that Julieta’s food couldn’t heal at all and needed actual professional medical help for.

As everybody continued to dig in the rubble for the youngest Madrigal granddaughter, some of the villagers stopped what they were doing when they noticed what looked to be a strange faint white light emanating from underneath the rubble, but the light disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and decided that it was a figment of their imaginations when it didn’t return as they went back to digging in the rubble.

~-Julieta, Agustin, and Dolores’s POV~-

“Dolores! Please! Do you hear anything at all?” Julieta cried out, as tears ran down her face as she grabbed up some broken lumber and handed it over to Agustin who was also digging at her side furiously, “please tell me you can hear her, sobrina?!”

Dolores was walking around the rubble with her hands pressed against the sides of her ears as she frantically looked around for any sign of the sound of her youngest cousins voice any other sound from Mirabel anywhere in the area, but she couldn’t hear anything at all except the sounds of the villagers and her families frantic voices and nothing else, as she turned her sad gaze on Julieta.

“I’m really sorry, tia Julieta, but my Gift is completely gone as far as I can tell right now. I can’t hear anything more than what’s going on right now.” Dolores said forlornly as she turned away from Julieta so she wouldn’t have to see the desperate pain filled agonizing look on her tia’s face anymore, “I’ve been trying really hard all this time to hear her under the rubble, but I can’t hear Mirabel anywhere at all.”

“Julieta please calm yourself, we will find her hopefully before it’s too late. Everything shall be well again once we get her out of there safe and sound,” Agustin said as wrapped an arm around Julieta’s waist to give her a comforting hug, as he tried to keep himself calm in the face of his wife’s panic and despair at the thought of what had just happened to their youngest daughter, “if she’s alive, then we can give her your healing food and everything will be right as rain, right? Just like always.”

”I know Agustin, it’s just that…” Julieta starts to say only for her voice to cut off as a pain filled gasp escaped from her lips, causing Agustin to grab her just as she started to double over in pain.

Julieta let out a startled gasp of shock and pain, as her hands reaches up to clutch at her chest as she started to stumble a bit in surprise as she walked, as her hand reached up to where her heart was, as a sudden sense of pain and loss hit her out of nowhere as she doubled over for a moment and started gasping for breath as it suddenly became harder to breath as her vision became blurry. After a few seconds, the sensation was gone almost as quickly as it had hit her. The sensation was unfamiliar to her, but at the same time it felt like something was missing from inside of her, as Agustin reached out to gently grab and steady her when it looked like she was about to fall over.

“Julieta! Are you alright?! Mi amor, what happened? You suddenly became pale and stumbled and now you look like you are about to pass out any second now,” Agustin demanded as he stared at his wife with a worried and confused look on his face as he saw how pale Julieta had suddenly become within a matter of seconds after stumbling, as he steadied her as he helped her over to a nearby rock to sit down and rest for a moment, “Do you want me to go get Doctor Ricardo to come check you over? Can I get you something? A snack, or a glass of water or…”

’What was that? It felt really weird. For a moment I couldn’t breathe at all and whatever happened is making my heart and chest hurt.’ Julieta thought frantically to herself as she looked around herself in open confusion as if she was trying to find the location of whatever had caused the strange feeling, as a sudden sense of loss and pain filled her, as she ran a shaky hand through her graying black hair nervously, ‘It felt like somebody was walking over my grave. What the hell just happened? Why did...’

“TIO BRUNO! Where are you?! We need your help to find Mirabel! You don’t have to hide anymore so come on out!”

Just then Julieta’s train of thought was rudely interrupted by the sound of Antonio’s voice, as the youngest Madrigal boy suddenly stopped calling out Mirabel’s name, and was now calling out the name of her missing brother, Bruno, as Julieta immediately turned her gaze towards where Antonio was standing and calling out both Mirabel and Bruno’s names, while Camilo stared at his younger brother in wide eyed shock.

’What the heck? Why is Antonio calling for Bruno now of all times? This isn’t the time to be talking about Bruno during this latest calamity we are facing. It will only set off Pepa and mama again,’ Julieta thought frantically to herself, as she looked around for her mother and sister, and saw them nearby, and she could see from the incredulous looks on their faces as a pang of hurt filled her heart at the thought of her missing younger brother, ‘Bruno is gone and he isn’t coming back or else he would have been back way before now, so now isn’t the time to...’

Just then her train of thought is broken once again, when Antonio’s next words caught her attention once again as Antonio started loudly arguing with Camilo, as she felt her body stiffen and freeze up as she heard the next thing Antonio had said.

“...Tio Bruno isn’t missing, because I just saw him just a few hours ago hanging out with Mirabel...”

~-Alma, Pepa and Félix’s POV~-

Alma Madrigal stood outside the collapsed ruins of what had once been both her home and longtime companion, Casita, who had been by her side through thick and thin for the last fifty years since the night her beloved Pedro had been murdered in cold blood and left her a young widow and single mother to three infant babies.

Alma didn’t know how she would have been able to handle things if Casita and the villagers hadn’t been there to help her out during her more trying times, but over time she had managed to pull through and raised her children the best she could, now that she was alone without Pedro at her side.

Five years after losing Pedro and the creation of the Encanto, Alma was keeping busy raising her three children on her own with the help of the villagers who were grateful to her family for what happened all of those years ago, and had been the official leader of the still growing village.

It had been a shock to her when Bruno, Julieta, and Pepa’s fifth birthday came along and three glowing doors had mysteriously appeared inside of Casita on their birthday. The doors had never been there before yet there they were on the second floor of Casita in what used to be an empty hallway, while the door that led to her own bedroom started glowing as well.

At first, she had tried to open the first three doors herself, only for her hand to pass through them like they weren’t even there, but when she went to open her ‘new’ bedroom door, she was able to firmly grasp it in her hand, as it started to glow brighter as her hand gripped the doorknob, and a picture of herself smiling and holding the miracle candle appeared on the outside part of her bedroom door.

Pulling open the door and walking into it with the triplets right behind her, she had quickly discovered that her bedroom had been expanded and looked better than it had before when she had been in the room earlier that day, and there was now a staircase in a corner of the room that led up to an open tower that overlooked the Encanto, surrounding area.

While Alma had been trying to figure out what was going on with the doors, Bruno had been the first one of the triplets to step forward to try and grab the doorknob of one of the doors before Alma could stop him, and much to her amazement she watched her sons hand managed to firmly grasp the glowing doorknob with no problems.

As everybody watched in shock, as soon as Bruno’s hand made contact with the doorknob, the mystery door started to glow brighter with each passing second, before an image began to form on the doorframe, until a picture of Bruno holding what looked like a hourglass appeared on the door, before all of a sudden the door started moving backwards down a newly formed corridor that hadn’t been there moments before.

When the family of four walked down the corridor, Bruno reached for the doorknob once again and flung the door wide open, as they stepped into what looked like a cave entrance with a wall of falling sand that was further ahead of them, that led to a spacious cavern that shouldn’t have even been there to begin with seeing how small Casita itself was, yet there it was.

There was also a extremely LONG winding staircase that led up to the top of the cavern, where they found what looked like a temple at the top, where carvings of hourglasses decorated the walls, and some kind of ritual room that lit up a bright shade of green as soon as Bruno stepped into it, while off to the corner of the ritual room was another room that had been set up to look like a bedroom inside of it, for Bruno to sleep inside of.

It didn’t take long before Pepa and Julieta were both rushing out of Bruno’s room and heading towards the remaining unclaimed doors, and like with Bruno’s door, images of the two girls appeared on their doors while the inside of the rooms were just as big and amazing as Bruno’s rooms had been.

It hadn’t taken the family of four to discover the full meaning of their new doors, when the triplets started exhibiting strange and phenomenal powers as time went by.

Bruno had developed the power to see future events, and could manifest glowing green plaques that display what the visions are. At first the power had seemed easy for the young boy to handle but over the years he started developing problems with it, as some of his visions were directed more to being bad omens than good ones, and had left Bruno an outcast among the villagers because of it, even though people still came to him for vision requests.

Pepa’s power was discovered almost immediately when she lost her temper at some local village boys who were picking on Bruno, and she accidentally summoned her first thunder storm which chased the bullies across the village, and had lasted for over two hours until Pepa had finally calmed down. Ever since that day Pepa had to keep control of her emotions in order to prevent something worse from happening.

While her eldest daughter, Julieta, had developed healing powers even though it’s effects only appeared in whatever type of food she cooks. At first they hadn’t been able to tell exactly what kind of power she had possessed because of how her door had been designed, but her healing powers was quickly soon discovered when Julieta had been helping Alma in the kitchen one day, and Julieta had just removed a tray of fresh pastries that she had made all by herself from the oven, when Bruno came into the kitchen crying with a freshly cut hand.

While Alma had been treating Bruno’s hand, Julieta had offered her brother one of the pastries she had made, in an attempt to make him calm down, which Bruno had eagerly taken and ate. Within seconds of him consuming the pastry, the trio watched in shock as Bruno’s injury instantly healed before their eyes.

Over the following years since then, the Madrigal family of four became well known throughout the village for their special Gifts as everyone began to call the triplets unique abilities, as they used their powers to help out around the village as they grew older.

Alma had been proud when Julieta found love with Agustin Santos and Pepa fell in love with a charming young man named Félix Hernandez, who the two sisters married within months of each other’s weddings, with Félix and Agustin taking up the Madrigal family name as their own names, instead of Pepa and Julieta taking their family names.

Bruno himself had somebody he had been seeing, and things had been looking like it was getting serious between the two, but then after the incident with Pepa’s wedding day, the two of them had broken up and gone their separate ways, and Bruno had never found anyone else to get together with before his disappearance ten years ago.

Alma Madrigal was listlessly wondering around the fallen debris of what used to be her former living magical house known as Casita, eyes staring blankly at her surroundings as she watched everybody else do the search for her granddaughter Mirabel who was buried somewhere under the debris, as the sound of everybody calling Mirabel’s name echoed within her ears, as Alma thought about everything that had happened to lead up to this exact moment.

’How in the world could something like this have this have happened?! After everything I had tried to do for the last ten years to try and stop something bad from happening, right after Bruno left without telling me what Mirabel’s future was going to be like after her Gift ceremony failed,’ Alma thought frantically to herself as she started walking around the wreckage of her former family home as her children and grandchildren frantically ran around the wreckage with the local villagers who had come to help, ‘I thought I was doing the right thing with how I handled things over the years, so why did this have to happen this way? Everything was going so well for so long and now Casita is gone, and Mirabel could be…’

Everybody who was there were all looking for her youngest granddaughter, Mirabel, who was buried alive somewhere underneath the wreckage, and the longer it was taking to dig up the wreckage everybody’s hopes that they might find Mirabel still alive dwindled more and more as time continued to went by.

Alma could only stare in open disbelief at everything around her, as shock and horror filled her very core as she looked around at the utter destruction that had befallen Casita in a matter of minutes, yet at the time it had felt like hours had passed after Casita had fallen, as the sounds of her family and the villagers yelling Mirabels name rang in her ears as they searched for Mirabel who had been buried when Casita had collapsed around her.

Seeing Casita’s utter destruction and resulting ‘death’ had been bad enough, but the shock of witnessing Mirabel disappear under the falling rubble of their former home, had shocked Alma to her core, as she realized what had just happened to her youngest granddaughter, who had possibly just gotten herself killed trying to save the miracle candle.

Alma had seen everything perfectly from outside the boundaries of Casita after the house had kicked herself and the rest of the family out when everything started falling apart around them, and Casita had completely barricaded all of them from going back in as it fell apart before their shocked eyes.

Alma and the rest had repeatedly yelled at Mirabel to forget about the candle and to save herself, but Mirabel either couldn’t hear their shouts over the noise or just point blank ignored them as she continued on her way to the candle.

Alma had watched as Mirabel made her way up to the tower where the miracle candle with Casita obviously helping her along the way as it made a path for her up to the tower, and could see her manage to reach the top and grab hold of the candle, just before Casita sent her falling back to the ground below.

Alma could only watch as Mirabel started running as soon as her feet hit the ground, as she came running in their direction while holding onto the flickering miracle candle, as Mirabel tried to avoid the falling debris as Casita tossed things in the path of anything that came really close to hitting Mirabel as she ran, and for a brief moment Alma almost let herself relax when she thought it looked like Mirabel was about to make it to safety, when a loud rumbling sound caught everybody’s attention.

Alma and the rest of the family immediately turned their attention in the direction of the rumbling sound in time to see the tower that used to be Bruno’s bedroom starting to fall, and everybody’s cries turned to screams of terror, when they realized it was falling straight towards Mirabel, just as the last of the miracle candles flame finally flickered out completely.

“MIRABEL!! WATCH OUT!!!“

Hearing the somewhat familiar sounding voice calling out to Mirabel, Alma jerked her head back down towards her granddaughter just in time to see Mirabel being tackled by somebody that sent the two of them flying a few feet away and out of the way of the worst part of the falling debris, only for the two figures to still wind up getting buried by what was left of Bruno’s tower.

’How could this have this have happened?! After everything I tried to do for the last ten years to try and stop something bad from happening after Brunito disappeared after I asked him to do a vision about Mirabel’s future,’ Alma thought frantically to herself as she started walking around the wreckage of her former longtime home and best friend, as she felt tears well up in her eyes as she stared at the rubble that had once been her home for the last forty-five years, ‘but ever since Antonio’s Gift ceremony it’s been one thing or another that everything started going wrong. Everything was all perfectly planned and prepared for, and now this just had to happen. Where did it all go wrong?’

Just then the memory of her last conversation with Mirabel just before everything went to hell for the family came to Alma’s mind, as she flinched again as she remembered exactly what Mirabel had told her, and remembered the hatred and venom she could now hear in her granddaughters voice as she spoke to Alma.

“It’s not because of me that the miracle is dying. Everybody in our familia is utterly miserable because of you. All of you are completely wrong about Tio Bruno, because he loves our family and he loves Casita and the Encanto just as much as everybody else does, and he will do anything for all of us to protect all of us, no matter what any horrible thing any of you may say or think about him. No matter what I do is never good enough for you just because I didn’t get a Gift. For the last ten years I’ve been working hard to prove that I could be just as good as everybody else in the family was whether I had a Gift or not, to try and get you to love me the way you used to do before my failed Gift ceremony,” Mirabel angrily, her face flushed in rage as tears began to run down her face, as her voice began to raise with each passing second as her face seemed to morph into a look of pure hatred as she started at Alma as Alma tried to interrupt her as Alma’s own anger began to grow with each passing second as the two of them argued with each other, but Mirabel was now on a role and continued talking, refusing to let Alma get a single word in during Mirabel’s rant as everything around them in Casita’s courtyard started to rumble and shake all around them, “but absolutely nothing I ever did was good enough for you was it? Because all you ever did was yell and scold me no matter what I tried to do, even when I didn’t mess up anything at all. Like right now, when I first discovered that Casita was breaking and none of you would listen to me, I’ve been trying so hard to fix the miracle, to make you finally proud of me by protecting Casita, but once again all you do is look at me and yell at me about how what’s happening is all my fault, and won’t listen to me at all! But now I finally have realized something. Nothing I will ever do is good enough for your high expectations just because I don’t have a Gift. Nothing i do will make you stop hating me just because I don’t have any damn special powers. Not only that, but from the way everything is going, it looks like the miracle is DYING because of YOU, not me, and YOUR high expectations of what you expect everybody in our familia to do, instead of letting us be ourselves!”

Mirabel’s last words to Alma just before Casita started to fall apart echoed in Alma’s mind, causing the older women to flinch a bit at the accusation. Alma had been shocked and pissed off when Mirabel had talked to her in such a way when Alma had been reprimanding her about everything that had been happening, Alma had looked around at the rest of the family as she argued with Mirabel as they silently watched what was happening.

As every memory of every interaction with her youngest granddaughter over the ten years filled Alma’s mind, she flinched a bit as she recalled the hurt look on Mirabel’s face each time she had reprimanded the girl over the littlest thing and Mirabel always looking like she was about to cry, but Mirabel had always smiled immediately afterwards and agreed with her, and did what she was told just like everybody else in the family did, and like always Alma had ignored it, believing that how she treated Mirabel was the best for everybody to ensure the peace inside of the Encanto.

But tonight… tonight Alma had seen something different in Mirabel’s face. She didn’t see sadness or tears, as she reprimanded Mirabel once again over the latest troubles that were happening. Instead Alma saw nothing but pure hate and anger on Mirabel’s face and the look in the girls face, as for the first time in ten years Mirabel talked back to her, and yelled at her as she listed everything that was wrong about the family to Alma, that Alma herself had tried to ignore over the years in hopes that she was imagining things.

~-Flashback~-

Alma had spent hours searching the Encanto for Mirabel with the rest of the family after what happened during the disaster that was supposed to be Isabela’s official engagement party to Mariano Guzmán that the two families had been planning for weeks just to make that night special then Mirabel had to go and mess everything up by acting out of control and suspicious.

’I really must have a word with Mirabel later on about her actions tonight. Of all nights she has to act this way, she picks now?! The Guzmán’s are going to get a bad impression of us as a proper and good family if she keeps this up…’ Alma thought angrily to herself as she looked at her youngest granddaughter out of the corner of her eyes for a moment, as she also noticed Dolores whispering in family members ears about something that seemed to be upsetting everybody including Pepa who now had a thundercloud forming over her head because of whatever had been said to her as everybody glanced at Mirabel with worried looks on their faces, as Alma’s scowl deepens, ‘I’ll have to talk to Dolores as well about her own antics tonight. We are in the middle of something very important yet she can’t be bothered to wait until later to tell everybody whatever her news is?’

Alma had tried to ignore Mirabel’s antics all night, as she tried to focus on the engagement process that was happening in front of her as she eagerly waited for Mariano Guzmán to finally pop the question that they had all been waiting for that would have been the start of Isabella’s engagement to the Guzmán family.

But then everything seemed to go wrong quickly, as out of the corner of her eye Alma spotted Dolores beginning to act suspiciously as her second eldest granddaughter started whispering in the ears of all the family members, and the odd responses everybody was exhibiting from whatever it was that Dolores was telling them, and she could see them turning their gazes towards Mirabel who was trying to look panicked by what Dolores was saying and wouldn’t meet Alma’s gaze when she saw her Abuela looking her way.

‘What in the world is going on here? What is going on with everybody tonight? Are they purposely trying to disrupt this joyous and momentous occasion,’ Alma thought incredulously, her brow furrowed in irritation at the antics of her familia during this important time, as shot a silent glare at her family in reprimanding which quickly made them all stop as soon as they saw her looking their way, ‘with whatever they are talking about that could have waited until later to discuss? I must talk to Dolores about her antics tonight. She should already know better than this…’

Then the worse thing to possibly happen became a reality as just as Mariano was about to pop the big question to Isabella, Mirabel started running around the room, acting suspiciously like she was trying to not draw attention to herself, while encouraging Mariano to ignore what she was doing and to continue with his proposal, before she started scrambling around on all fours like she was chasing something, before seconds later some of Antonio’s animal friends dragged out a familiar looking glowing green plate that was depicting Mirabel standing in front of a cracking Casita.

At that moment, Dolores had finally cracked and blurted out her news to everybody just as Casita started to shake and large cracks began to appear all over the dining area they were in as pieces of the ceiling started to fall and they had to immediately evacuate the area before anybody got hurt, with the Guzmán family running away back to their home, with Mariano now sporting a bleeding broken nose caused by what happened inside of Casita.

Now that Alma had time to truly think about her actions after the disastrous marriage proposal of Mariano and Isabella, that she might have over reacted. But she had been so angry by everything that had happened, and after the discovery of Bruno’s final vision plate and what it implicated involving Mirabel, Alma had just let her anger take over, and had wanted to blame somebody for what happened and had chosen Mirabel for what had happened, especially when the villagers started coming up to Casita demanding answers about what had happened, and to stop the rumors that the Miracle was failing.

It had infuriated Alma when she discovered Mirabel had apparently run away during the commotion at the botched marriage proposal, instead of sticking around, Alma had spent hours trying to locate Mirabel while at the same time trying to console the villagers and trying to fix things with the Guzmán’s.

It was during her meeting with the Guzmán’s when everything went to hell as far as Alma was concerned, when hundreds of plants of different species and in different colors suddenly started sprouting up all over the village, with one plant hitting Mariano right in the eye, and she looked followed the path of destruction back to Casita where she could see Mirabel and Isabella standing on Casita’s roof laughing and dancing together, as Isabella’s powers ran a mock and made more plants grow everywhere.

After making quick apologies to the Guzmán’s over Mariano’s latest injury, Alma had immediately rushed back to Casita and got there just in time as Mirabel and Isabella jumped off the roof and landed in a patch of plants that Isabella had created to catch them, and she found the two of them laughing their heads off on the ground.

Seeing the two sisters acting that way after everything that had happened up until that point, had truly set off Alma as she let her anger take over much to her growing shame, and she immediately rushed over to the two girls and started berating and shouting at both of them.

Isabella had immediately backed down, not bothering to argue with Alma at all, as she seemed to cringe away from the older woman in fear as Alma yelled at her, but to Alma’s shock it had been Mirabel who had spoken up and openly defied her and defended Isabella and her actions, as the two of them got into a heated argument with each other as the rest of the family started to show up and gather in Casita’s courtyard, and it was during the argument when Casita started breaking once and for all.

~-End Flashback~-

’Oh, nieta, I didn’t mean it. If I still can, I want to take it all back if it’s not too late to do so,’ Alma thought morosely to herself as she felt tears start to run down her cheeks, as she remembered her last ‘talk’ with Mirabel just a short while ago, as she began to remember how she had been treating Mirabel for the last ten years, ‘Oh, who am I kidding? After everything that has happened up until right now, even if Mirabel is still alive somehow, it might be a long while before I can fix things with her if I can…’

“Pepa! Are you all right, mi amor?!” Félix’s voice suddenly rang out, causing Alma to immediately turn her attention on her second daughter and her son-in-law, as worry filled Alma when she saw that it looked like Pepa was suddenly having trouble and was clutching her chest tightly with one hand, as the redhead looked frantically around in search of something, as Félix tried to help her stand.

Looking around, Alma quickly spotted Julieta who nearby with Agustin, and from the looks of Julieta, her oldest daughter seemed to be exhibiting the same symptoms as her sister, as Julieta also clutched at her chest as if she was in pain as well from whatever was happening to the two of them, while Agustin was tending to her as well.

Even from where she was standing, Alma could hear Pepa instinctively chanting her trademark “clear skies, clear skies” speech, as Pepa tried to calm herself down so she wouldn’t trigger one of her really bad rainstorms, after whatever had just happened that was making her have a panic attack, even though there was no sign of one of her storm clouds forming anywhere.

’It’s truly strange to not seeing a thundering rain cloud hovering over Pepa’s head after all these years. By now we’d be in a rainstorm because of how upset she is looking right now,’ Alma thought silently to herself as she briefly looked up at the empty space over Pepa’s head, where her trademark rain clouds would usually be, but she didn’t see anything, ‘I guess that both Casita and the miracle are truly both gone, if not even Pepa’s weather powers are working anymore.’

Concern filling her as she wondered about what was happening to her daughters, Alma hurried over Pepa and Félix’s side as fast as she could, and within seconds she was kneeling next to Pepa who was now sitting down in a chair one of the villagers had brought up, while Félix stood at her side with a bowl of water and was dipping a wet cloth into the bowl and patting Pepa’s sweating face with it.

“Pepa, Félix what is happening? Pepa it looks like both you and Julieta were about to collapse any second? Do you feel unwell and need to go rest?” Alma demanded as she stared into her daughters’ green eyes with open concern, as she took in how pale and withdrawn Pepa was beginning to look with each passing second, as she reached out to take Pepa’s hand in hers to give it a comforting squeeze of encouraging, “please tell me that you are all right and what’s wrong.”

“I don’t know, mama. One moment I was feeling perfectly fine, then it felt like a chill spread throughout my body, and it became harder to breathe,” Pepa said as she stared at her mother from under the wet cloth as Félix gently brought it across her face once again, as her hand clutches at her chest once more as she took a deep breathe, “and my chest and heart started hurting for no reason at all. It just came out of nowhere, and I don’t know what it was, but the feeling is gone now. But now all I feel is…”

“You feel what now, Pepa?” Félix asked as he stopped what he was doing to stare intently at his wife, when her voice seemed to trail off for a moment as a vacant look appeared in her gaze.

“It feels empty inside me now. Like something very important to me is now no longer there anymore…” Pepa finally says after a few moments of silence, as tears began to well up in her eyes as she stared at her mother and husband, “I really don’t like how this is making me feel right now with everything that is currently going on…”

“TIO BRUNO! Where are you?! We need your help to find Mirabel! You don’t have to hide anymore so come on out!”

“...Tio Bruno isn’t missing, because I just saw him just a few hours ago hanging out with Mirabel...”

~-Luisa and Isabella’s POV~-

Meanwhile Luisa was off to one side trying to lift a stone wall but found she couldn’t move it at all, as panic filled her as she kept trying to pull and tug on it to no avail as it refused to budge at all thanks to her lack of her super strength.

’Why did I have to lose my powers now of all times, just when we really need it?!’ Luisa was wailing silently to herself as she struggled to pull up a collapsed wall, but she could just barely move it an inch off of the ground, ‘It’s bad enough that Casita collapsed, but the longer this takes to move this blasted wall, Mirabel could already be dead…’

Just then, Luisa jumped a bit when multiple hands joined her in trying to lift the wall, and she quickly glanced around to see the faces of some of the villagers who she had always used her super strength to help in the past were now standing at her side and helping her try and lift the wall.

“Senora Luisa, please do not cry. Allow us to help you with this, while you should go take a break for the moment.” One of the men said as he brought over some tools, which most of the men who were helping Luisa with the wall rushed over to grab, as the man walked over to Luisa and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder as she turned her gaze upon him in confusion, “you are taking to much upon yourself right now, and need all the help you can get if we are to find Mirabel in time.”

“TIO BRUNO! Where are you?! We need your help to find Mirabel! You don’t have to hide anymore so come on out!”

’Wait what?? Antonio doesn’t even know Tio Bruno, so why is he calling for him? Especially with Tia Pepa and Abuela around to him say it?’ Luisa thought silently to herself as her head jerked up when he heard her youngest cousins, Antonio, voice calling out for Tio Bruno for some reason, as she and some of the villagers who were around her all also paused in what Antonio had said, as confusion filled everybody’s faces as they all turned their gazes to where Antonio was busy talking with Camilo, ‘At a time like this, Abuela and Tia Pepa are going to be angry again by hearing Tio Bruno’s name again…’

Just then what Antonio was saying to Camilo reached Luisa’s ears, causing her to suck in her breath in shock and confusion about what the five year old was telling his brother.

“...Tio Bruno isn’t missing, because I just saw him just a few hours ago hanging out with Mirabel...”

‘Wait… Antonio’s actually seen Tio Bruno?! Recently?’ Louisa thought incredulously, her mind running a mile a minute at the implications of what she was hearing coming from her youngest cousin as confusion filled her as she started making her way over to the two boys, ‘But how could Antonio have met him when he’s gone now?’

~-Camilo and Antonio’s POV~-

The rest of the Madrigals had tried to get Antonio to stay out of the rescue process because they didn’t want him to see the condition Mirabel might be in, when they found her. But Antonio had stubbornly refused to stay back to the sidelines as he wanted to help look for Mirabel no matter what anybody said, so Camilo had volunteered to watch over Antonio as he searched for Mirabel.

“Mirabel! Can you hear me?!” Camilo was shouting loudly, as he and Antonio combed the areas where they had last seen their favorite cousin, as Camilo was digging through debris that seemed to never come to an end no matter how much he dug through it, “Come on, Mira! Please answer me!”

“Mirabel! Where are you?!” Antonio called out as he started looking around for something, like he had suddenly remembered something else, as the five-year-old started yelling again, causing everybody who could hear him to freeze up when Antonio suddenly started yelling out a completely different name now instead of just calling out Mirabel’s name, “TIO BRUNO! Where are you?! We need your help to find Mirabel! You don’t have to hide anymore so come on out!”

“Tony why are you calling for Tio Bruno?” Camilo asked, calling Antonio by his nickname as he turned his full attention on his younger brother in confusion, as he saw the way Antonio was looking around the area as he called out both Mirabel and Bruno’s names, “Tio Bruno is gone, remember? Plus we’re not allowed to talk about him anymore for any reason. He’s been gone for ten years. We are looking for Mirabel only now.”

“But, Camilo! You don’t understand! Tio Bruno isn’t missing, because I just saw him just a few hours ago hanging out with Mirabel. He was really nice and not like what everybody says he is. Tio Bruno never left. He’s been right here the entire time that everybody thought he was ‘missing’. A bunch of rats that hang out with Tio Bruno took me to where they were,” Antonio denied vehemently as he shook his head at what Camilo had just said, as he continued speaking when he saw the incredulous look on Camilo’s face at his words, as he innocently looked up at his big brother with a big smile on Antonio’s face, despite the disbelieving look Camilo was giving his brother because of what Antonio had just told him, as Antonio quickly continued speaking, “the rats were telling me that Mirabel and Tio Bruno needed my help and took me to where they were. He’s been living inside Casitas walls all this time. I even let them use my room to do a prophecy vision because Tio Bruno’s room got destroyed by something Mirabel did earlier.”

A startled gasp of shock caught the two boys’ attention, as they immediately spun around to see Alma, Pepa and Félix standing behind them, with stunned looks on their faces after hearing what Antonio had just said about Bruno, as the three adults approached the two boys with stern looks on their faces.

When Camilo saw the looks on both his mother and abuela’s face, he immediately started to panic, knowing that the two of them were on the verge of doing one of their ‘we don’t talk about Bruno’ rants, and he tried to de-escalate the situation before it had the chance to start, especially since Antonio would have been the target of the rants since he was the one who brought up Bruno’s name this time.

“Mom, dad, grandma, don’t listen to Tony, he’s just kidding around. There is no way he…” Camilo immediately spoke up, as he tried to stave off his mother and grandmothers impending rage at hearing Bruno’s name again, only to immediately stop talking when he saw the distraught look on Alma’s face, as she held up a hand to stop him.

Alma stepped forward and closed the gap between herself and her two grandsons, she quickly approached Antonio and knelt down in front of Antonio so that they could be staring each other directly in the eyes before she started to speak in a calm yet strained sounding voice.

“Yeah grandma, I did see him. I don’t know why everybody hates him so much, because he’s really nice and sweet he even does the funny ‘Knock on Wood’ move that made me laugh when I saw it,” Antonio said sincerely as he vehemently nodded his head yes at Alma’s question as he continued to speak with growing excitement in his voice, not noticing the shocked looks on his familia and the villagers faces as he spoke up, “He’s been trying to fix Casita all these years so nobody would be sad. He worried about what was happening to Casita just like Mirabel was. His rat friends told me that he’s been trying to patch up all of the cracks that kept appearing around Casita to keep Casita from falling apart.”

“Wait, what’s the ‘Knock on Wood’ move?” Camilo asked, confusion filling his voice as he listened to his younger brother talk about their Tio Bruno.

“I’ll show you. This is how he did it.” Antonio said.

Much to the surprise of everyone who was watching and listening to what Antonio was saying, they stared in shock as Antonio pulled away from Alma and proceeded to do a perfect imitation of Bruno Madrigal’s infamous ‘Knock on Wood‘ ritual that everyone in the village always saw him doing, as he bent over and scooped up some sand off the ground, tossed it over his shoulder, then started knocking on various wooden surfaces and while saying ‘Knock on wood’ repeatedly, before sucking in his breath and holding his hands up as he started walking around.

‘I don’t believe it. He’s doing it exactly the way Bruno always did it. It’s like seeing Bruno back when he was Antonio’s age again…’ was the thought that was running through the minds of everybody gathered there watching Antonio’s antics in shock and disbelief, as what Antonio had told them hit them hard, ‘Bruno’s been missing since before Antonio was born, so the only way he could know about it to mimic it so perfectly was if he had seen Bruno Madrigal himself do it…’

Meanwhile Alma’s mind was running a mile a minute as the implications of what Antonio was telling her hit her hard as she watched her youngest grandson mimic his missing uncles unusual quirk perfectly for a five year old child who had never even met the man before in the ten years that Bruno had been missing.

’No way… Antonio truly has met Brunito, but how and why? Why has Bruno been hiding from us all this time, let alone been living inside of Casita’s walls if what Antonio says is true,’ Alma thought silently to herself as she watched her youngest grandsons antics as he did his tip’s ritual, as for a brief second Alma could almost imagine Bruno doing it at that age instead, ‘What he is saying has to be true, because we never told Antonio about Bruno’s ‘Knock On Wood’ quirk or did it in front of him in the last five years, yet he’s doing it perfectly…’

Just then what Antonio said next caused everybody to freeze up in shock and horror, as cold chills filled everybody’s body to the core.

“When Casita was falling, I thought I heard tio Bruno’s voice calling out for Mirabel when the prophecy tower was falling towards her,” Antonio said, as worry began to fill his voice as he looked back at everybody else after he stopped doing his Knock on Wood impression as he riddled with his rurana for a moment before he looked back up with tears starting to form in his eyes, “I also think I saw him tackle Mirabel just before the tower fell on top of her, but I’m not sure. Do you think he’s okay too since he’s not here and not answering me?”

“Oh no… I have a bad feeling…” Pepa said, panic filling her voice once more as she spoke as she turned her gaze on her sister who own face was also beginning to look as panicked as Pepa imagined her own face was now looking like, “Julieta you don’t think…?”

“After what happened a few minutes ago when we both had our attacks at the same time, it could be, Pepa.” Julieta said as tears filled her own eyes, as she realized what Antonio had been implying could possibly mean, as the memories of what both she and Pepa had been feeling just a few minutes ago came back to her as she clutched at her chest with one hand, “Remember the pain we both felt?”

“And how it suddenly felt like it was becoming extremely hard to breathe, or move without pain?” Pepa added in, as Julieta nodded her head in agreement to what Pepa had said as despair began to fill Pepa the more she thought about what had happened, “it was like when we were kids only a million times worse.”

”Wait, what happened that is ‘just like when you were kids’, Tia Pepa?” Luisa asked as she came up to the rest of the group, confusion lacing Luisa’s voice as she looked between her mother and aunt and back again.

“Luisa, the best way I can think of to explain this is that when your Tia Pepa and I were children along with your Tio Bruno, we could always feel each other.” Julieta said as she said as she turned towards her daughters as the rest of the family came up to them, “Thats the best thing I can think of to properly describe it. No matter where we were we always knew where each other were, plus what the other was feeling...”

“…Or if one of us was in extreme pain… then all three of us felt it even if it was our own even though it was only one of us who had the actually physical pain. Then just a few minutes ago,” Pepa said as tears was starting to form in her eyes as the words left her mouth, as her hand reached up to grip at her chest once more, as both she and Julieta shared a panicked look between the two of them, as Alma began to drastically pale as she listened to what her daughters were saying, “Julieta and I both felt excruciating pain coursing through our bodies that came out of nowhere, and then it stopped. With everything going on I didn’t think about what it meant until Antonio brought up seeing Bruno… if he’s really here, and he’s down there under the rubble with Mirabel and then the way the pain went away…”

“No…” Alma whispered quietly to herself as she heard what Pepa had said, as she glanced down at the pile of rubble that was at her feet in open disbelief for a few moments, as her mind went over what Antonio had just said, “it can’t be true. Why would he be living in Casitas walls all this time? Hiding away from us for ten years? Dolores would have heard him and…”

“I always told you guys I could still ‘hear’ him, but you guys were so mad that he had ‘left’,” Dolores piped in, interrupting Alma and causing everybody to immediately turn their gazes upon her, as she gave a small shrug of her shoulders at the incredulous looks they were giving, “I stopped bringing it up. Besides I eventually made a promise to Tio Bruno that I wouldn’t tell anybody where he was even somebody did ask me.”

‘Brunito’s been here the entire time? Living in Casita’s walls all these years,’ Alma thought frantically to herself silently, as the memory of one of the last things Mirabel had said to her involving Bruno, ‘when we thought he was gone completely? That would mean he heard everything we said about him over the years…’

”All of you are completely wrong about Tio Bruno, because he loves our family and he loves Casita and the Encanto just as much as everybody else does, and he will do anything for all of us to protect all of us, no matter what any horrible thing any of you may say or think about him.”

Just then a loud commotion from nearby drew everybody’s attention.

“Hey I think we found them!” One of the villagers yelled out, as he and some men continued digging furiously in one spot with pickaxes and shovels while others lifted derbies out of the way.

As the Madrigals all raced over to where the villagers were, they looked down into a growing hole the villagers were making, where they could see the top of what looked like some kind of upraised stone enclosure underneath the rubble.

But what really caught everybody’s attention as more rubble was removed, they could all see what appeared to be two different pairs of unmoving legs half sticking out of the enclosure, that had a pool of blood coming out of the enclosure.

Upon finding the enclosure and bodies, everybody started digging more hurriedly hoping that they weren’t too late, and it took several whacks of the villagers pickaxes before they were finally able to break open the enclosure to reveal Bruno and Mirabel’s unmoving bodies underneath.

Before anybody else could move, Alma was the first one out of her family to rush forward, as she reached the enclosure, and stared down at the two unmoving bodies of her only son and youngest granddaughter as they laid in the debris, as tears started to well up in her eyes.

“Bruno? Mirabel, the two of you are safe now, so you can get up and out of there,” Alma said in her best stern sounding voice, though her voice wavered a bit as denial filled her as she stared at what was before her, as she hoped it wasn’t true, but received no reaction or answer from either one to her words, “Bruno you have a lot of explaining to do young man…”

”No! They are just knocked out. Everybody come help me get them out of there so we can get the two of them some proper medical treatment for their injuries. Then all will be well again I assure you of that,” Alma said s she knelt down and grabbed onto Bruno’s blood soaked green ruana and started tugging at his unmoving body, before Félix and Agustin stepped forward to help her pull were they able to finally manage to pull him up and gently set his body on some nearby grass, before they moved onto Mirabel’s body and placed her next to Bruno’s body, “No…”

Pretty soon the sound of loud wails and cries of remorse and sorrow could be heard all around as everybody stared down at the unmoving and lifeless bodies of Bruno and Mirabel Madrigal as their bodies laid side by side outside of Casita’s ruins, as the Julieta’s rushed forward to grab her youngest daughters body into her arms, as she cried loudly while rocking Mirabel in her arms, as Agustin, Isabella and Louisa gathered around the two of them.

Meanwhile Alma was also crying her own eyes out as she also held Bruno’s lifeless body in her own arms, while Pepa and her family gathered around her trying to comfort her, as tears started welling up in Pepa’s own eyes as she stared down at the lifeless body of her brother in despair.

‘He’s really been here the whole time we thought he was missing for the last ten years? Living inside of Casita’s walls, like Antonio claims? Why would he do this? Was it all because of his last prophecy involving Mirabel?’ Pepa thought silently to herself as she thought about what Antonio had told the family about how he had found out about Bruno still being there, as pain hit her as she realized Bruno must have heard every single horrible thing she had been saying about him over the last ten years, ‘Having all of us worry about him all these years, thinking he had run off, yet he’s been here the whole entire time? If I had known he was here i would have dragged him out of hiding immediately.’

A few days later, Bruno and Mirabel were buried in the local cemetery that Encanto had, with their graves next the grave of Pedro Madrigal.

==================
Author’s Notes:
So what do you guys think? This chapter is completed at 24 pages. This is my first attempt at writing a Encanto (2021) fanfiction story. Please tell me what you think of it in reviews. Do you guys love it? Hate it? What? Though extremely rude flamers won’t be tolerated. Please tell me what all of you think of this story of mine.

To everybody who has already read the Prologue chapter when I first posted it, and skipped straight to the new Chapter 1, I just wanted to tell all of you that I put up a update in the Author’s Notes at the bottom of the Prologue chapter, that you guys should go read, to find out what is going to happen in later chapters. I also as updated certain parts in the chapter as well.

This chapter used to be a part of the prologue chapter, but then the combination got too long, so I split it into two separate chapters. The prologue would have just ended with Mirabel’s part after I took out this part, but then I got the idea to add the scene with Bruno’s POV, so the prologue wound up getting long again.

I did the scene with the rest of the family to show what happened in the old timeline after Mirabel and Bruno were buried under Casita’s rubble, and how the family was reacting as they tried to dig them out in time. While Mirabel and Bruno ‘waking up’ in the past will happen next chapter.

If anybody is wondering about the ‘feeling’ Pepa and Julieta both felt the moment when Bruno died, it’s the infamous special twin (or ‘triplet’ in this case lol) bond thing. As all of you just saw when Julieta and Pepa had their ‘attacks’ where they both nearly collapsed at the exact same time, it happened because of the bond they share with Bruno. Like they described it to the family, the three each other can ‘feel’ anything that happens to the other, including pain that one of them is feeling.

I got this idea from another book involving a pair of twins in it. One twin had broken their leg, and the other one could feel the pain in the same leg like it was their own pain, even though there was nothing physically wrong with the uninjured twins leg, as well for the entire time their siblings leg was healing. *lol*

I also read another book where a pair of twins who were separated at birth and never knew the other one existed, and one of them died and nearly took their twin with them even though the twin was millions of miles away, and the one who was still alive decided years later to go looking for her mystery family she never knew and winds up in the country her twin lived in and gets mistaken for her by people who knew her, who said the twin disappeared without a trace years ago on the same day the living twin nearly died and nobody’s seen the dead twin since or even knows she’s dead as the reason she ‘disappeared’ since they never found her body.

They both felt Bruno die, but had no clue what the feeling was when it happened until after they found his body with Mirabel. The bond is probably also amplified because of the family magic as the reason Bruno’s death hit them so hard when it happened.
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Started On: January 29, 2023
Completed On: April 24, 2023

Chapter Text

Disclaimers: As much as I may want to claim ownership of these two productions, I can’t because Encanto (2021) belong to a whole lot of different companies that I can’t remember the names of at the moment. Any characters that appear in this fic that are not a part of either original series, belong to me so don’t take them without asking first.

Timeframe: This story is going to take place in the Encanto (2021) universe. I’m also making it so that the Madrigal family starting from Alma Madrigal going down the family list, is born in the mid-1930’s instead of the original earlier time period that the series starts off in with Pedro and Alma, so that by the time Mirabel is born, she is born in the year 1990.

I am also making Julieta, Pepa, and their spouses (and Bruno) five years younger than what they were when they married and had the grandkids, so they are not in their fifties by the time Antonio is five years old.

Author’s Notes: Because of the ‘Wish Reboot‘ back to the night before her Gift ceremony, Mirabel’s magic bedroom door remains and she receives a Gift this time around, as well as gained the power to become the next Candle Bearer when Alma eventually dies.

Warning: Because of their memories of their experience in the other timeline, both Mirabel and Bruno will stubbornly be completely different than what they were in canon, as they do things they didn’t do in the original timeline, like being more stubborn and confident about things and not backing down and standing up more against Alma instead of quietly letting her treat them the way she did in the old timeline as one of the things they are trying to change for the better.

• -Alma Madrigal née Ramirez - Birthday: February 6, 1935
• -Félix Madrigal née Hernandez - Birthday: November 11, 1959
• -Agustin Madrigal née Santos - Birthday: June 19, 1960
• -Julieta Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Pepa Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Bruno Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Mariano Guzmán - Birthday: March 19, 1982
• -Isabela Madrigal - Birthday: August 7, 1983
• -Dolores Madrigal - Birthday: September 5, 1983
• -Luisa Madrigal - Birthday: April 12, 1985
• -Camilo Madrigal - Birthday: April 21, 1990
• -Mirabel Madrigal - Birthday: May 6, 1990
• -Antonio Madrigal - Birthday: July 23, 2000

• -Kiara Madrigal née Mendoza - Birthday: December 30, 1960
• -Zéphyrus Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Génesis Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Adrian Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Anaïs Madrigal - Birthday: May 13, 1986
• -Vesta Madrigal - Birthday: January 19, 1990
• -Diego Madrigal - Birthday: January 19, 1990
• -Nicolás Madrigal - Birthday: October 31, 1992
• -Jade Madrigal - Birthday: February 5, 2000

Word Count: 13,854

Summary: (Encanto) In the distant future where Casita falls, Mirabel and Bruno both die trying to save the miracle candle. But thanks to the last of the magic of the Miracle candle and a wish that Mirabel makes just as she takes her final breath, instead of staying dead Mirabel and Bruno both suddenly find themselves ‘waking up’ years in the past inside of their younger bodies the night before Mirabel’s Gift ceremony with all of their memories of the possible future still intact. In an attempt to stop the events that happened in the original future, can Mirabel and Bruno save their family and make a better tomorrow for everybody? (Papa Bruno Madrigal AU)

Glossary:
‘Hi’ – thinking
“Hi“ – Another language

~-Bruno Madrigal’s POV - Casita Villa, Columbia – July 19, 1982~-

Late one afternoon found Bruno Enrique Madrigal lying on a double bed, inside of one of the spare bedrooms inside of Casita, as he tossed and turned in his bed as he had been in a fitful sleep, as his eyes gave off a bright green color as he slept, as his body seemed to burn from the inside out from an unknown fever that had left Bruno bedridden for the last couple of days in a comatose state.

Over days ago, Bruno Madrigal had been out and about in the village helping out with preparations for his remaining older sisters upcoming wedding day, while also being busy doing visions for the villagers as usual while also hanging out with his friends, when he suddenly started complaining about a headache that seemed to only get worse the longer he was out.

Another thing that the family had discovered as they tended to Bruno while he was in a coma was the sudden appearance of strange freshly healed cuts and scars that appeared and littered all over his body, that hadn’t been there before he fell into a coma, yet they were already healed and sealed up and looking like they had been there for years instead of having just appeared.

At first they had been worried by the extent of the injuries, but since they looked like they had already healed, and he wasn’t suffering from whatever had caused them to appear when they touched each area, so they decided in the end to wait until whenever Bruno finally woke up to deal with it, while Julieta kept feeding him her special healing food to keep him healthy and going in the meantime.

Bruno’s friends had tried to get him back to Casita to get him some of his second sister, Julieta Madrigal’s special healing food to hopefully take care of the headache, but halfway back to Casita Bruno suddenly collapsed and fell into a deep coma like state with a raging fever, that he still hasn’t woken up from, and didn’t look like he was about to wake from any time soon, as shortly after he went his coma they started to see the familiar green light from a vision starting to emit from his eyes, and when they peeled open his eyes, they could see that his vision powers were definitely active right now while he was knocked out.

Not even Julieta’s magical healing food seemed to be capable of breaking Bruno’s raging fever that was coursing throughout his young body for the last three days, and the family had placed him inside of the spare ‘normal’ bedrooms they still had inside of Casita so that it would be easier for them to take care of him instead of having to deal with his special bedroom while he was sick.

As the days went by with no change in Bruno’s condition, no matter what anybody tried to do to wake him up from his comatose state, so all everybody was doing was waiting and watching for any sign of him waking up soon, and everybody in the family took shifts watching over him as he ‘slept’, with some villagers coming to help keep watch every now and again while the family went about their daily duties around the village when they weren’t keeping an eye on Bruno.

As their wedding day was coming up in the days that Bruno was in his coma, both Félix and Pepa had both come to the agreement to push back and temporarily postpone the wedding until after whenever Bruno eventually woke up again, and was fully recovered, despite Alma’s protests that they should continue with the wedding, but Pepa had stood firm against her mothers wishes, as she said she refused to have the wedding without Bruno in attendance no matter how long they had to hold off the wedding for in order for Bruno to still attend as planned.

It hadn’t taken that long for word to spread of the postponement of Pepa and Félix’s wedding day, and the main reason for it, and a lot of people had understood the reasoning. Even Padré Cisco Florés who was going to perform the ceremony for them had been understanding and had offered the Madrigals his best wishes and prayers for Bruno’s immortal soul, as he also promised to hold a spot open in the church ready for Pepa and Félix to resume their wedding plans when the time eventually came.

~-Bruno Madrigal’s POV – July 19, 1982~-

Deep inside the recesses of his unconscious mind, Bruno Madrigal was being assailed by strange dreams and memories of another life, as he saw visions of things to come, including what appeared to be his impending death as Casita fell down around him and his niece Mirabel Madrigal, as he tried to save the life of a girl who was caught in the middle of the collapsing house.

As they hid underneath the stone enclosure that Casita had erected for the two of them to hide in when it became apparent they wouldn’t be able to escape from the destruction of the house in time, and he could remember the pain caused by the falling debris that had managed to hit both him and Mirabel as they entered the enclosure, and seeing and a teary eyed Mirabel looking up at him as he laid on top of her inside of the enclosure as he tried to tell her that everything would be fine and that he wasn’t that badly hurt, before everything around him went black around him.

’So this is what it feels like to be dead… out of all the ways I thought I would die, I never once thought that it would be bloody Casita falling on me who would take me out in the end?’ Bruno thought sarcastically to himself for a moment as a wry chuckle escaped from his lips, as he let out a loud sigh as he floated around in the vast darkness, ‘At least I did something good when I died when I saved Mirabel from the worst part of Casita’s collapse like that stupid vision showed me. Knowing the people of Encanto they’ll probably still be bad mouthing me even when they discover my body.’

For Bruno it seemed like he was in some kind of haze as he floated aimlessly in complete darkness around him, as he died lying on top of Mirabel inside of the stone enclosure, as he could feel his body getting colder by the second, when all of a sudden there was bright light glowing in front of him.

‘What’s with this weird light? Is it what I hear supposedly waits for me when I die?’ Bruno thought silently to himself, half conscience of what was happening around him, as he reached out a hand towards the light, he felt a warmth fill him as his hand came in contact with him, as he heard what sounded like an echo of his own voice ringing in his ears, as a memory of the last thing he had done before waking up suddenly hit him.

”I just wish that if I could have a second chance to fix things, that the first thing I would try and fix is how I handled Pepa’s wedding day. Then maybe just about everything that happened afterwards over the years could have been avoided.”

’What the hell?! That was my voice and its the last thing I was thinking about when I died. Why did I hear it again just now?’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he tried to figure out what was going on and what the strange light in front of him was with the strange light that was in front of her, ‘Is this what people who die see and hear when they are dying that I always heard about growing up?’

Just then the light in front of him started moving forward towards him, and before he had time to react or get out of the way of the light, it suddenly phased straight into his body without burning him, before he felt a warm tugging sensation that filled his entire body before he was pulled away from the surrounding darkness.

~-End POV~-

Meanwhile on this particular day in the past, the green glow under Bruno’s closed eyes slowly died down until it was completely gone as Bruno’s high fever finally broke, as he started to come back to full awareness of his surroundings, as he tried to open his eyes only to quickly shut them once again because of the blinding sunlight coming through a nearby window, as the light caused his growing headache to become worse as a low moan of pain escaped from his lips.

‘What happened? Where am I? The last thing I remember is Casita falling on top of me, and Mirabel was… Oh god. I died didn’t I? That isn’t good at all. But if I am really dead then where am I exactly...’ Bruno thought silently to himself as memories or what had happened to him and Mirabel slowly filtered into his aching head as confusion started to fill him at the same time as he felt the softness of what felt like mattress underneath him and the warm quilt op top of his body, ‘Though if I’m really dead, why am I waking up again pain free, and am I really lying on top of what feels like a bed with blankets on me? Did Mirabel and I get saved while I was still knocked out before we died? Even if we were, Julieta should have lost her healing powers when Casita died… What’s going on?’

Squinting his eyes against the blinding light coming from the uncovered window, Bruno could just barely make out the familiar surroundings of what used to be his old nursery room that he used to share with Pepa and Julieta when the three of them were little up until they received that special doors that led to their new magical bedrooms, while the old nursery had been left uninhabited since then other than when they had guests spending the night over, or was used by Bruno himself whenever he decided to crash inside of the nursery rather than have to deal with his ‘bedroom’ because he was too tired to go up the super long flight of stairs, before it started being used as a nursery again when the grandkids started getting born.

‘Yep, this is definitely the old nursery room. But how is that even possible? It should have been destroyed along with everything else when Casita fell… Ah man! Is this going to be what my afterlife is going to be like, still stuck inside of Casita for all eternity even in death?’ Bruno thought silently to himself, as he tightly closed his eyes as he felt his headache begin to build up once more as he felt confusion fill him, as he barely heard the sound of the bedroom door opening up and the sound of footsteps approaching him but he kept his eyes tightly shut to feign still being asleep to whoever had entered and he could smell the scent of rose scented perfume coming off of whoever it was as they came closer so he figured whoever it was just have been either his mom or one of his sisters, ‘Great, it sounds like somebody’s come in here. I really hope it’s not mom, because I really and truly don’t want to have to deal with her and her crap again yet right now with the way I am currently feeling…’

“…I thought I heard a sound coming from in here, and Casita is acting really excited and causing a ruckus outside of the nursery.” A voice that sounded like Félix’s was saying to whoever had entered the room, his voice sounding worried as he spoke to somebody else who was in the bedroom, “Does it look like Bruno’s finally awake again after all this time or is he still knocked out and unresponsive?”

“…I think he’s finally waking up. Just in case, Félix go get Julieta and have her bring some of her healing food so we can try giving it to him again then go get everybody else and tell them to hurry back as soon as they are able to do so…” a woman’s voice was saying from what sounded like a long distance away, as his fog filled mind started to become more aware of his surroundings, as he felt a cool hand touching his forehead to check his temperature, before he heard a sigh of relief from the person, “he’s feeling cool again, so at least that is a sign his high temperature seems to have finally broken down. Bruno can you hear me? Can you understand me? Please squeeze my hand if you can.”

“Fine I’ll try and be back as soon as possible with everybody once I find them. Try and keep him awake if you can, Kia,” Félix’s voice said, before the sound of footsteps leaving the room echoed in Bruno’s ears, followed by the sound of a door closing behind him.

‘What the hell? Who is that? That’s not mom’s voice or Pepa or Julieta’s so why are they here in the nursery? Who is she and why is she here? Though her voice really sounds awfully familiar…’ Bruno’s thought silently to himself as he tried to figure out who the voice belonged to, and why were they there in the nursery checking up on him, as his face scrunched up in confusion as he tried to decide if he should answer the unknown person or not, ‘Especially if they are telling Félix to go get Julieta and have her bring me some of her healing food? Though that voice is starting to sound familiar the longer I listen to it…’

“Bruno, I know you are already awake. You making faces in your so called ‘sleep’ in response to what I just said is always a dead giveaway as proof to you being awake. You always sucked at lying and trying to fake being asleep when you don’t want to deal with something,” the woman’s voice said, as a small melodic sounding laugh escaped from her mouth as she spoke to him, as she gave reached for his hand and gives it a small squeeze, “I really don’t know we are going to do with you, Bruno. You had a lot of worried people panicking by passing out the way you did, and it’s been three days since you went unconscious, so if you are waking up now, please give me a sign.”

As Bruno felt the hand move away from his forehead to gently grasp his left hand and give it a small squeeze, the sudden memory of somebody else asking him the same question, as the image of a blood covered teenage girl wearing green eyeglasses looking down at him with a worried expression on her face in a semi-lit up area briefly filled his mind.

”Tio Bruno can you hear me?”

“…I’m… fine… Mirabel… don’t worry about… me…” Bruno responded automatically in a low mumbling voice that sounded hoarse even to his own ears as he forced out the words, licking his dry lips a bit as he gave into the voices request and gave the hand gripping his a small squeeze in response, as he was still half asleep as he kept his eyes tightly shut as he hoped whoever it would leave him alone soon when…

TWACK!

“OW! What the hell?! What was that for?!” Bruno exclaimed in shock and pain, coming fully awake once more as he suddenly felt whoever was talking to him finger flick him hard against his forehead, as his hands fly up to cover the area on his forehead that had been hit, as his eyes fly open to glare at the offender angrily through his fingers, opening his mouth to give whoever it was a piece of his mind, only to stop as he stared in shock as he finally saw who it was as he slowly lowered his hands from his face to get a better look at her, “…Kiara? Kiara Mendoza? How… Why… what are you doing here? Why the hell did you finger flick me on my forehead for? That hurt!”

“Bruno Enrique Madrigal! Why wouldn’t I be here to see you, Bruno? You had me and everybody else worried for the last three days when you passed out. Your eyes were also glowing green the entire time you were knocked out as if you were trapped in some kind of future vision which also made us even more worried than before,” Kiara snapped angrily as she stared down at Bruno from where she stood at his bedside with her hands on her hips as the glare she was now giving him caused him to flinch back a bit, “As for why I finger flicked you, I would think that as your longtime girlfriend it’s my right when you are calling me by another woman’s name while you are pretending to be asleep. You had me so worried about you and here you are calling for another woman…”

As Kiara ranted for a bit, Bruno remained quiet for the time being, as his scattered mind tried to figure out what was going on, as he wondered why his ex-girlfriend who he hadn’t seen in over twenty-two years after they had officially broken up after Pepa’s wedding day fiasco was not only there in the nursery room with him, but was looking as young and beautiful as he last remembered seeing her.

‘What’s going on here? Why is Kiara here? Plus what does she mean that she’s my ‘girlfriend’? We broke up over twenty-two years ago after Pepa’s wedding fiasco. But she even looks exactly the way she did back then,’ Bruno thought incredulously as he stared at the red-headed woman standing next to him with a disbelieving incredulous look on his face as he tried to figure out what was going on here, ‘She can’t even be here at all. She doesn’t even live in the Encanto anymore ever since the day she packed up and left the village a few months after our breakup and she never returned in all these years. If seeing Kiara again is part of my afterlife punishment then I’ll just go along with it and see what happens…’

“Kiara? What are you doing here? What happened exactly and why am I in bed?” Bruno asked, confusion filling his voice as he spoke up, as he quickly decided to go along with what was going on, as he halfheartedly rubbed at the area of his forehead where she had flicked him at, as he felt himself becoming excited at the idea of seeing Kiara again after so many years, “Plus why are you mad at me for, mi amor? Since apparently I just woke up with you making accusations of me, exactly what ‘other woman’ are you talking about?”

“Don’t you ‘mi amor’ me, Bruno Madrigal! When you were waking up, I was speaking to you and you called me Mirabel! I don’t know anybody in the village by that name,” Kiara snapped back as in frustration as her face flushed a bit in her anger as she gave him an accusing look, “so exactly who is this ‘Mirabel’ you were calling out for in your sleep exactly, so I can go have some words with her about stealing another woman’s boyfriend?!”

Bruno just stared at Kiara with a wide eyed look on his face at the news, as more confusion began to fill him as he tried to contemplate what was going on right now, as it felt like his growing headache was starting to build up once more, and caused him to groan in pain from the intensity of the headache.

As Bruno tried to figure out what was going on he looked around the familiar bedroom in confusion, Kiara walked over to a nearby window and pulled open the curtains to let in the afternoon light into the semi dark room, nearly blinding Bruno as his eyes had to get to used to bright lights, as he turned his gaze away for a moment from the sunlight.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, his eyes landed on a nearby full length mirror that was facing his bed, and his eyes widen in shock and disbelief as he saw his appearance in the mirror. Throwing off the blankets that were covering his body, and if ignoring Kiara’s protests that he should stay in bed until he was a hundred percent better, Bruno stumbled over to the mirror and touched the shiny surface as he stared at the image staring back at him.

Staring back at him wasn’t the familiar image of his disheveled older slightly grey haired, forty-five year old self that he was used to seeing whenever he looked in a mirror, but instead he was seeing his younger twenty-two year self staring back at him in the mirrors surface as a worried Kiara stood a few feet behind looking worriedly at him was also showing in the mirror.

“Bruno, you should return to bed, it’s too soon for you to be out of bed already after being unconscious all this time,” Kiara said, as her voice filled with concern and worry at how Bruno was acting, as her anger from before was momentarily forgotten, as she watched Bruno’s antics, “Pepa and Julieta will kill me if I let you stay out of bed while you are still recovering.”

“I’m fine, Kiara. I’m not going to pass out again any time soon. I feel perfectly fine at the moment and want to be standing for a awhile,” Bruno said as he waved a dismissive hand in Kiara’s direction, as he continued to stare at his reflection in open disbelief, as ran a hand through his unruly pitch black hair, “Just give me a few minutes, and I’ll head back to bed if you really want me to do so.”

‘What the hell is going on here?! First Casita isn’t destroyed, and Kiara being here should be impossible after all these years, but this...’ Bruno thought to himself frantically as he checked himself all over in the mirrors reflection, and even gave himself a hard pinch on his left arm to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, closing his eyes as the pinch caused him to flinch in pain before slowly opening his eyes back up to see that nothing had changed which meant he wasn’t dreaming everything, ‘Ow! That hurt and I’m still here, still looking like I did when I was twenty-two years old. What’s going on here exactly? How is it even possible?’

As he stood there thinking hard about what was going on, a thought occurred to him, as he quickly spun around to face Kiara once more with a serious look spreading on his face as he reached out to gently grab her by her shoulders.

“Kiara since I’ve been unconscious for a few days, exactly what day is today supposed to be? Did I miss Pepa and Félix’s wedding day celebration because of it?” Bruno demanded as he waited for Kiara’s answer to come as his mind started running a mile a minute at the implications of what his current situation meant, ‘if this is really the past somehow, am I back before Pepa’s wedding like I wished for when I was dying? If so…’

“No you didn’t miss it at all, Bruno. In fact you woke up just in time because the wedding was supposed to be tomorrow, but when you passed out they decided to postpone it until whenever you woke up,” Kiara said, as confusion filled her voice as she saw the intense look in Bruno’s eyes as he stared at her, as she also saw him starting to relax and loosen his grip on her arms when heard what she said, before she continued talking, “you had a lot of people worried about when you passed out like that. We were starting to think you would never wake up any time soon. Especially when we realized your psychic powers were also acting up while you were unconscious...”

‘What is going on exactly? If this was a dream, I’d understand, but the way she reacted when I mentioned Mirabel’s name is making what is going on less of a dream now…’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he gave his aching head a small shake, before letting out a small groan of pain that the movement caused in his head, as he tried to think of something to say, as he reached out to gently grip Kiara’s hands as he looked her directly in the eyes, ‘Though if this was really nothing more than just a dream, that finger flick was too painful for what’s happening now for it to not be 100% real...’

Feeling a bit lethargic the longer he stood in front of the mirror, Bruno decided to head back to his bed, as he shakily turned on his heel and nearly stumbled and fell over if it wasn’t for Kiara quickly moving forward to catch him in time before he hit the floor, as she supported his weight as they made their way back to his bed at a slow pace.

“Do you see, Bruno? I told you that you should have stayed in bed. You’re still too sick and weak to be out of bed so soon. If that is all you wanted to know, let’s get back to what I was asking you about before you changed the subject and started acting weird, Bruno,” Kiara said as she started helping him back to his bed, as the angry look that had been on her face earlier started to return as he climbed back into his bed and pulled the blankets over his body once more, “Just who is this Mirabel girl who’s name you were calling out for as you were waking up? I don’t know anybody in the village by that name, so why did you…”

”Kiara, I swear to you that I don’t know anybody named Mirabel. You know perfectly well that you are the only woman for me in my life and after all these years, you should know me better than anybody in the village else that I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize what we have together, mi preciosa amor,” Bruno said reassuringly, as he automatically started comforting her look he used to do whenever she became upset about something, as he looked away sheepishly and not meeting her gaze as he quickly continued speaking as he came up with an excuse for saying Mirabel’s name, “There isn’t anybody I know of in the village named Mirabel that we know of. You said my powers were running while I was asleep, so maybe she was in a vision I had while in my sleep.”

“Fine if I hadn’t witnessed for myself what was happening to you while you were knocked out,” Kiara sternly stared down at Bruno for a few moments as she scowled at him, before she finally let out a loud sigh as she took a seat in the chair next to his bed as she reached out touch his hand, “then what you are saying has to be true, then I will believe it…”

Before Bruno could say anything further the two of them suddenly noticed how dark it was starting to get outside of Casita, followed by the sound of thunder and lightning in the distance.

“Uh oh. Looks like Pepa is back already. I have to warn you that she’s been really upset and worried about you, Bruno. She had barely slept or eaten while you were unconscious.” Kiara said cheerfully as she started to get out of her chair so that she wouldn’t be in the way of the possible incoming stampede of Madrigal family members who would be coming into the room, “Everything has become really hectic in the village because of it. So you should be really careful on what you say and do when she gets here…”

Before Bruno could say anything in response to what Kiara had just told him, as confusion filled him by her words, just as the bedroom door was flung open with a bang as Pepa Madrigal showed up in the door.

Pepa had a small storm cloud hovering over her head as an indication of how upset she truly was as she looked in the direction of Bruno’s bed, and the storm cloud started to clear up almost immediately as relief spread across her face as she charged towards Bruno’s bed as fast as she could.

“Hiya, Pepa,” Bruno said awkwardly as he waved at his sister in an attempt to greet her as she approached, then flinched a bit as a loud crack of lightning rumbled outside of Casita, ‘Oh, great. She’s thundering already. She must really be angry at me right now.’

“Hiya, Pepa. I’ll just leave the two of you alone. I have to get home soon anyways,” Kiara said, as she gave Bruno a quick kiss on top of his forehead, before briefly greeting Pepa as Kiara quickly made her way to the bedroom door, and quietly shut the door behind her as she left the two siblings alone in the bedroom.

“Bye Kiara. Bruno, don’t you simply ‘hiya Pepa’ me after everything that has happened! I can’t believe you are finally awake! How are you feeling? Do you need anything right now that I can get you before Julieta and mama comes home?” Pepa cried out as she threw herself at her younger brother, and landed on top of him with a loud thud that temporarily took the breath out of both of them from the impact, as Pepa wrapped her arms around Bruno’s body in a tight hug as tears started running down her cheeks, “You had everybody so worried, hermano. Don’t you ever do something like that again if you know what’s good for you.”

It took Bruno a few moments to get over the shock of having Pepa crying in his arms, as it had been such a long time ever since the wedding day fiasco since she had looked at him with anything except anger and disdain, that it took him a moment to finally react as he slowly raised up his arms to return his sisters hug, as he gently patted her on her back in an attempt to comfort her for a few minutes before he slowly pushed her away so that he could look into her tear filled green eyes as a wave of guilt hit him hard at seeing Pepa cry again because of him, though at the same time he felt pleasure rise up inside of him at seeing this side of Pepa once again who wasn’t always angry at him.

“Pepa, I’m truly sorry for upsetting you and making everybody worried. You should try and calm down now, before you flood Casita with a storm.” Bruno said as he reached up with a shaky hand to wipe away at her tears, as he pulled her back into a hug, “it’s not like I planned to pass out for days you know. It just sort of happened out of nowhere for absolutely no reason at all.”

“Ha, ha, very funny, baby brother. You know perfectly well that I can’t control the weather when I’m feeling this emotional? I’m blaming this storm on you for worrying me and stressing me out so much,” Pepa said after a few seconds as the two of them reluctantly broke off the hug, as Pepa playfully punched Bruno in the arm for what he had said, as she sniffled a bit and tried to calm down a little as the rain slowly started to calm down, as a small smirk appeared on her face when Bruno yelped in pain from the shoulder punch before Pepa pulled him back into a tight hug, “I swear, Bruno, that if you do this to us ever again I will never forgive you for making us worry like this. I was starting to think we had almost lost you when you didn’t immediately wake up until today.”

As they sat there talking a for awhile, it wasn’t long before Alma and Julieta soon joined the two of them in the bedroom, as Bruno was soon swarmed by everybody as both Alma and Julieta tearfully grabbed onto him and hugged and kissed him as soon as they saw he was finally awake again, as they bombarded him with questions about how he was feeling and demanding to know what had happened, while Bruno just gave out vague answers to their questions.

Julieta briefly left to go get him a plate of food she had prepared earlier that day, and brought it to him, as he eagerly ate it, surprising himself by how hungry he felt as he ate the food, and felt the familiar warmth of Julieta’s healing food filling him from head to toe.

‘I really missed the taste of Julieta’s food, when it’s still nice and hot and fresh out of the oven. Having to sneak around Casita just to get food for ten years was never the same when half the time the food was cold by the time I came out…’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he ate his food, as he stared at his family as they sat around him with relieved looks on their faces as they talked amongst themselves while he ate, ‘I highly doubt what is happening right now is a dream, but if this is a dream, then I don’t want to end any time soon so that I can stay this way for just awhile longer.’

Kiara Mendoza was a twenty-two year old young woman dressed in a blue blouse with a pair of black pants that had a red rose design on the left side of the pants, who stood tall at 5’11”, who had long ruby red hair with black highlights in it that was currently tied back into a ponytail that went down her back to hang just above her butt. Her ruby red hair was a darker shade of red than Pepa’s own hair, and had mismatched Heterochromia eyes that left her left eye a dark purple color while her right eye was a bright shade of green.

The two of them had met each other back in kindergarten school in the village and had immediately hit it off. Kiara had always been his back up when he was feeling down or lonely, especially after a bad session with one of the villagers involving one of his visions. When Pepa or Julieta wasn’t around to defend him, Kiara was always the first to jump in to defend him against anybody who tried to bad mouth him or assault him in an attempt to try and stop his visions from coming through. As they grew older she developed the annoying habit of finger flicking him on the forehead whenever she was annoyed with him or when he became stuck in one of his visions and nothing else they tried to snap him out of it worked.

When she wasn’t hanging with Bruno she spent most of her time with Julieta and Pepa as the three girls got into all kinds of mischief together, whenever they could find time without Alma jumping in to interfere with their fun, with the excuse that as a madré soltera that had with her always telling the three siblings that they needed to help the village and not waste time hanging out with their friends.

Alma had always been more strict in her rules when it came to Bruno and his psychic visions, as she always pushed and pressured him to focus more on using his powers to help out the villagers whenever they came to him for a vision request, despite Bruno’s continued resistance on the matter as the years went by, as he got older, and he always caved under the pressure from both Alma and the villagers, though Kiara had always made things better when he had the time to get away from his ‘duties’ to the village

Kiara was also a bit of a tomboy with an attitude who enjoyed doing things like dressing in pants and shorts instead of wearing skirts or dresses like most of the older generation of women in the village like Alma, who had all thought she would grow out of her ‘phase’ and start acting and dressing more ‘ladylike’ like all the other young ladies her age were, and stop wearing pants and put on dresses or skirts.

But Kiara repeatedly steadfastly refused to change her ways for anybody, which was one of the many reasons Bruno had wound up falling in love with her over the years they had known each other. He didn’t care about how she dressed or acted and could care less what everybody else thought about his relationship with her, especially when she stood up for him against anybody who got mad at him because he had given them a ‘bad’ vision.

She was also one of the few people who actually stood up to both Alma and Pepa when the two of them were mad about something, and seemed to be one of the few besides Félix who could get Pepa to calm down in a short amount of time if she can, especially when one of Pepa’s panic attacks starts to cause a major storm around the village. It was one of the few things that made her close to all three of the Madrigal triplets.

Kiara would also definitely got into loud arguments with Alma about different things, with some of the main arguments being about Bruno and his supposed ‘duty’ to the village to be using his powers to help everybody. Kiara wanted Bruno to take time off from using his powers, because she always saw the after effects of what his visions did to him especially when they were truly bad, but Alma would always argue back that it was the duty and expectation of the Madrigal family to share their gifts with the villagers whenever it was requested of them.

Kiara herself came from a huge family who seemed to have no trouble giving birth to multiple births at a time into the world. Sometimes the family would produce twins to triplets into the family every couple of generations, with Kiara herself having a near identical twin sister born into the Mendoza family line. Kiara’s sisters name was Sierra Mendoza, who was identical to Kiara except both of her eyes were pure green to Kiara’s mismatched Heterochromia purple and green eyes.

The two Mendoza sisters had a dress shop that they owned together in the village, where almost everybody came to the sisters whenever they wanted flowers or dresses for special occasions like weddings or holidays, with Kiara running the florist part of the shop while Sierra and her staff worked on the dresses, though Kiara would always step in to help her sister in designing and creating dresses if she needed the extra help.

The shop also had a large sized greenhouse attached to the back of the shop where they kept their prized plants that they grew all year round inside so they never had any trouble keeping up with the constant demand for flowers when requests were made for them.

Though besides the dress and flower shop, Kiara herself ran a large equestrian ranch that on the outskirts of the village where she raised and trained horses, and boarded the horses or donkeys of other villagers if they needed a place for their own horses and donkeys to reside, and also was a sanctuary for livestock and other animals.

Kiara had inherited the ranch from her grandfather for her twenty-first birthday, after spending practically her entire life learning all the ropes of running the ranch at her grandfathers side, since none of her siblings or others relatives had shown any interest in taking over the ranch.

When Kiara wasn’t busy running the shop with Sierra, she could always be found on the ranch taking care of the animals, with the help of the hired ranch hands, who help care for the ranch and take care of the animals that resided there, while also giving sanctuary to any stray animals that might need a safe home off of the streets.

The ranch was Kiara’s pride and joy that she took great pleasure in running whenever she had a spare moment from her daily life in helping Sienna run their dress and flower shop, and running interference for Bruno when he had to deal with angry villagers who sometimes took offense when they heard bad news from one of Bruno’s visions. The two of them together became known throughout the village as the perfect matched couple, and some villagers had even started putting out bets on when Bruno would finally pop the marriage question to Kiara.

Alma Madrigal could see for herself how different Bruno was whenever Kiara was around, but she didn’t really support the idea of them becoming an official couple. She thought that Kiara was too flighty and unpredictable to be a proper future Madrigal bride, who fit Alma’s idea’s of how a woman should be like.

Alma had even tried to set up Bruno with other women over the years to try and dissuade him away from Kiara, hoping that her son would take an interest in one of the young women she had chosen, but he had flat out refused to have anything to do with any of the young ladies he had been introduced to, and insisted on remaining with Kiara.

Alma had even gone to Kiara herself, to try and convince the younger woman to stop hanging out with Bruno, and to ‘take a break’ from being together with him, but Kiara had flat out refused Alma’s requests, saying that unless Bruno himself told her to her face that he didn’t want to be with her anymore, that she wouldn’t leave his side for anybody or anything.

For weeks after Pepa’s wedding day fiasco, Kiara had stuck to his side like always and had defended him from some of the villagers who were still holding a grudge against him specifically because of what happened at Pepa’s wedding, because her hurricane storm endured panic attack caused by his joke about it ‘looking like rain that day’ had caused a lot of property damage and injuries to the villagers.

The day of the wedding, Bruno had been nervous as he made his way out of Casita and down towards the church where everybody was waiting for his arrival to start the wedding, since he had been appointed the job of walking Pepa down the aisle to hand her over to Félix to start the ceremony in place of their dead father, just like Bruno had done for Julieta on the day she had married Agustin.

Despite his protests and insistence that what he had said that day was nothing more than a joke and nothing else, nobody except Kiara and Félix and Agustin was willing to believe him because of what his so called ‘joke’ had caused to happen in the end as a result.

After the wedding fiasco, Pepa barely talked to him at all after that, as she fully blamed him for what happened. When she did talk to him it would either be with short anger filled answers, or she wouldn’t answer him at all, even when he tried repeatedly to tell her that what he had said at the wedding hadn’t meant to sound like a vision of impending disaster.

Things only seemed to get better when she became pregnant with Dolores and she started to mellow out, though he could still see the anger in her every time the wedding was brought up, and the fact that she and the villagers even made up a song about what happened, showed how much of a grudge she still had over what happened even twenty-two years later.

Bruno had heard some of the whispers that people were saying about him, and had tried to ignore them like always, since they were nothing anything different from what people had said about him in the past because of his psychic future visions, but then when people started badmouthing Kiara and causing trouble for her and Sienna and their businesses.

It had been a long and hard decision on Bruno’s part, and a heavy broken heart, to break off contact with Kiara, and their long time relationship with each other. Kiara had been upset and had tried to talk him out of breaking up with her, but Bruno had reluctantly stood firm in his decision, and Kiara had reluctantly given in and started avoiding him, and stopped coming to visit the Madrigals at Casita, though she still met up with Pepa and Julieta when the two sisters went into town.

About a week later after Bruno came out of his coma, it was now the day before Pepa Madrigal and Félix Hernandez’s wedding day after a week long delay past the original set date. Despite Bruno’s reassurances that he was fine and still able to participate in the wedding as scheduled which should have been exactly on the day after he came out of his coma, the happy couple had also insisted on delaying the wedding for a few more days just to make sure that Bruno was 100% fine.

Bruno’s eldest sister, Julieta Madrigal had just gotten married herself about three months earlier back in April to her childhood sweetheart, Agustin Santos, who had taken upon the Madrigal family name when he married Julieta as agreed upon by him and his family with Bruno’s mother, Alma Madrigal, because she wanted to keep their families name going for as long as possible and had insisted that anybody who married into the family had to take the Madrigal name.

Pepa Madrigal and her childhood sweetheart, Félix Hernandez, who was a cheerful fun-loving young man who was also one of Bruno’s few childhood best friends who wasn’t freaked out by Bruno’s future sight visions. Félix always had his back when Bruno was in trouble, Félix and Pepa had first met each other through Bruno, and the trio had always been extremely close growing up, alongside with Julieta, Agustin and Kiara.

When he had proposed to Pepa, Félix had also agreed to Alma’s request to drop his own family name and take on the Madrigal family name when he marries Pepa in a matter of just a few days and like with Julieta and Agustin’s wedding the preparations for the ceremony were already looking great as everybody in the village showed their support of the happy couple.

‘Let’s see now. If my memory is correct, it’s going to be awhile longer before Julieta becomes pregnant with Isabella first, and then Pepa will get pregnant with Dolores both…’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he goes over his memories of the future he had lived through, as he took notes down in the journal he had recently started so he could keep track of things as they happened the way he remembered it happening, ‘Then later, Julieta is going to get pregnant with Luisa who will be a year younger than Isabela and Dolores.’

Since their father was dead, as the only other male in their family, Bruno had been appointed the job of walking Pepa down the aisle and giving her away to Félix at the altar, where Padré Cisco Florés would perform the wedding ceremony for the happy couple to finally be united in holy matrimony, and he was also supposed to give a big speech about the couple during the banquet dinner that the family was having that nearly everybody in the village was invited to attend.

‘I still can’t believe that I somehow came all the way back over twenty-two years into the past to just before Pepa’s wedding day, it almost feels like that other life was just some really bad ‘vision dream’ I had while I was in a coma. But at the same time it was too real to have just been a vision but at the same time it was too real to have just been a vision,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he stood in one of Casita’s spare bedrooms as he got dressed for the wedding, as he put on his best looking outfit fit with his green poncho hanging over his head and shoulders, before sitting down at the foot of his bed as he pulled on his boots to cover up his feet, ‘Especially after what happened to Mirabel and me in the end. Somehow my wish to have a second chance at the wedding debacle has been granted, and I plan to not do a repeat of last time and have to put up with Pepa hating me again for another twenty-two years. I refuse to again be known as ‘no good, bad luck Bruno’ or any other nickname they came up for me over the years, and especially no longer being known as ‘doom-bringer Bruno’ who had the nerve to have ‘ruined’ his own sister’s wedding day with one of his awful visions.’

When he had been informed that Pepa’s wedding day had been postponed because of what had happened to him, Bruno already felt a wave of guilt fill him at the news at the news, as he had immediately apologized profusely over what had happened, but both Pepa and Félix had quickly reassured him almost immediately that she wasn’t upset about the wedding getting postponed, because she was just glad that he awake again and getting better, and told him that they were settling the new wedding date for two weeks once he was officially back on his feet.

‘I hope them missing their original wedding day didn’t mess up anything too badly by having the wedding day changed from its original date,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he tried to not think about the real ramifications of Pepa and Félix’s wedding getting changed to a later date because of what happened to him might cause the future, ‘At least I know for sure that Delores is still going to be born despite everything thanks to the vision I had, so at least I don’t have to worry about her.’

Bruno had even done two special visions about the future of Pepa and Félix, and managed to get two really good visions. The first vision showed the day of the wedding, and showed everything going well during the ceremony, while he had to struggle with the second one to look further into the future, until he got a vision of Pepa and Félix holding what looked like baby Delores in their arms also looking happy.

‘At least if I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time. Now I have actual proof that I can show Pepa and Félix as proof that nothing I wind up saying is a prediction of something bad happening,’ Bruno thought smugly to himself, as he looked at the vision of Pepa and Félix’s successful wedding day vision with a small smile on his face, as he put the vision plate away so nobody would see it before he was ready to reveal it, ‘if I have to prove it, I’ll just show them this vision plate as my proof that nothing bad is going to happen during the wedding.’

~-Flashback~-

It had been a few days since Bruno had come out of his coma, and he was finally out of his bed and back on his feet despite his mother and sisters attempts at trying to get him to stay in bed and rest some more after his ordeal, but he managed to convince them that he was feeling fine and felt more than capable of handling.

As Bruno became reacquainted with life in the past, he spent most of his time hanging out with Kiara Mendoza, as he became used to being with her again after twenty-two years after their initial breakup, even though apparently now it hadn’t happened yet at the moment since Kiara had been sitting at his bedside tending to him when he had been knocked out.

Despite Bruno’s continued protests and multiple attempts to convince everybody that he was feeling 100% better within a few hours of waking up, and feeling energized and healed from Julieta’s magical healing food, the family had still called in the village doctor for a second opinion.

The doctor, whose name was Pablo Ricardo, had made a special house call at Casita to check on Bruno since nobody trusted Bruno to not have a sudden relapse if he had tried making the trip to the clinic on his own two feet. After examining Bruno for awhile, Doctor Ricardo had instead that he get a few more days of rest in bed before he was to be allowed out of bed to resume his usual daily activities.

Since he was currently alone in the house, Bruno had taken the time to sneak out of bed, despite Casita’s insistent attempts to try and stop him from doing so, to go over to the full length mirror in a corner of the room, as he stripped off his clothes, so he could fully examine his body. His family had told him about his new scars and cuts that had appeared on his body while he was unconscious. The mirror had three large mirrors attached to it so that he could see himself from all sides with no problems.

‘Geez. Are these scars from when Casita fell on me? I didn’t realize the damage was this bad until right now… No wonder I wound up dying because of it…I don’t even know how I’ll be able to properly explain,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he looked at each different visible scar that he could see, as he reached up to head with one hand as he ran his fingers through the thick mass of black hair, and flinched a bit when he felt another healed scar on top of his head that was being hidden by his thick hair, ‘these scars away, or explain the one on my head if they ever found out about it somehow. They would be totally freaking out a lot more than they already have been if they found out the truth.’

Shaking his head a bit in irritation as he took one last look at his reflection in the mirror, Bruno quickly got dressed up back in his clothes as he made his way back to his bed as he felt tiredness and exhaustion fill him from the short time he had been standing front of the mirror, as he climbed back into bed and pulled the sheets and blankets back over his body once more.

‘The longer I am here, and nothing has changed back to ‘normal’, I’m truly beginning to believe that I must really be in the past. If that’s all really true then there is so many things,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he let out a loud sigh of exhaustion as he stretched out on his bed and raised his arms high above his head as he stretched, as a small smirk appeared on his lips briefly, ‘that I want to change that will hopefully make things a lot better for everybody in the family this time around, because I absolutely refuse to do it all over again for a second time. Especially if it ends with me getting killed again.’

A few days before Pepa and Félix’s official new wedding day, Bruno decided to confront the two of them, and have a long talk with the two of them about the upcoming wedding, in hopes to forestall the impending fiasco that had happened before, because he refused to have to go through another twenty-two years of listening to everybody talk about how he had ruined Pepa and Félix’s wedding day. Though he had to reluctantly admit that song they made about him was pretty catchy if not down right rude when referring to him.

As he walked around in search of the duo, he carried a bulging, heavy looking medium size red backpack slung over his left shoulder as he walked around the village looking for the duo’s exact location, while hoping that where ever they were would give them some privacy from any prying eyes and ears of the villagers who were passing by.

As he continued his search for the elusive couple, Bruno let his mind wonder back to the past, and how his life became a living hell after the wedding fiasco, because what he had said simply as a harmless joke and nothing more had set Pepa off into a full blown panic attack that had led to a hurricane hitting the ceremony and wrecking everything. Ever since that day, Pepa had become hostile to him and their relationship had never been the same since then as she fully blamed him for what happened no matter what he tried to say to the contrary.

The wedding fiasco had also made his reputation in the village a lot worse than it already was, as the rumors about his visions became a lot worse, even though people still came to him for a vision. It was also because of all the new rumors that he had come to the hard decision to officially break up with Kiara, despite her protests on the matter to try and protect her own reputation within the village.

Kiara had been completely against breaking up and had flat out refused to break up with him and had argued that they can handle what was going on together as a team like they had always done in the past, but Bruno had steadfastly stood firm in his decision to do the breakup. It had taken a few hours of arguing between them

‘For Pete’s sake, it was just a joke. Even with Pepa’s anger issues, how was I supposed to know she would freak out the way she did, and create a hurricane that destroyed the wedding. Yet she took it the wrong way, and caused a hurricane to happen,’ Bruno thought angrily to himself as he remembered what happened the day of the wedding in full detail, and he flinched a bit at the memory and resulting chaos that had ensued, Pepa wouldn’t speak to him for weeks after that, and when she did he could always tell how angry she still was, especially when the wedding day was brought up, ‘All I said to her was that ‘it looked like rain today’. I never had a vision about a storm happening when I said it. I was just to break the stressful mood that she was exhibiting when we were waiting for the ceremony to start.’

“Pepa and Félix! There you guys are! Pepa, my all time favorite hermana and Félix my favorite compadré and future cuñado in the whole world! I wish to have a word with the two of you, hermana, that is if the two of you have some time to spare from your busy wedding schedule.” Bruno said in teasing voice as he came up to Pepa and Félix as they sat down outside on some benches outside of Casita’s walls, causing the duo to jump apart at the sound of Bruno’s voice as Pepa started blushing and Félix started stammering about something, causing Bruno to smirk a bit mischievously at their reactions as he continued speaking while holding up a hand to silence them when it looked like they were about to interrupt him, “There is nothing to worry about, but I feel that this talk is going to be important and involves the wedding, and I want to clear up some stuff first before your big day. Though if the two of you are way busy at the moment with other stuff, then I can come back later to talk with you if you would prefer me to do so.”

“Bruno, of course I know you wouldn’t purposely hurt me, so I don’t know why you are bringing this up, and we can talk now if you want. Plus why are you panicking so much? The only time you act like this, is when you have some form of bad news to tell us,” Pepa said sternly as she stared at her brother with a suspicious look on her face as she examined his face carefully for a few moments, before a panicked look appeared on her face, as a storm cloud started to form over the trio, “Oh no?! Don’t tell me you ‘saw’ a vision of something bad happening during my wedding?! I don’t think I can handle it at all if something bad is going to happen and…”

“Pepa, mi amour, calm down, and allow Bruno to talk. You haven’t even heard what he has to say yet and already you have a storm cloud forming above you.” Félix said, as he tried to calm down his upset fiancé, even as he stared at Bruno with his own worried expression on his usually jovial face as he worriedly glanced up at the forming storm cloud that was appearing over their heads, “I’m sure that everything will go perfectly fine as scheduled without any problems, right Bruno?”

“He had better not, because I really don’t want anything to go wrong with the ceremony to ruin it,” Pepa said as she sniffed a bit as she closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down as she started repeating her “Clear Sky’s” mantra repeatedly as the storm cloud slowly disappeared from above the trio, before she let out a loud sigh as she opened her eyes once more to look at Bruno, “so what did you wish to speak with us about? The only time you start a conversation by complimenting whoever you are talking to, is when you are either super nervous or have really bad news to give us.”

“Who me? You should know better than anybody that I wouldn’t dare, especially not on your wedding day. At least I wouldn’t do it on purpose. Pepa, I just want to tell you something, and it’s really important that you listen to me.” Bruno said chuckling a bit as he waved off what Félix had just said, as a serious look appeared on his face, as he took a seat in front of the couple, “I swear to you as your brother, that what I am about to say isn’t because I saw something happen in a vision, so you don’t have anything to worry about at all, so please don’t get mad.”

“Bruno you are starting to make even me worried now, with the way you are talking and acting right now. Has something happened that you are keeping from us? Did you have a bad vision of the wedding or…” Félix said, as he stared at his future brother-in-law and best friend in confusion and worry on Félix’s usually carefree face as he started thinking about how Bruno had been acting lately ever since the day he had passed out for apparently no reason at all, ‘What is up with Bruno lately? He’s been so different even since he came out of his coma. It is almost like he’s a completely different person half the time, yet at the same time he still acts exactly the same as he has always has acted in the past…’

“Okay, so let’s say for example that on your wedding day, I said something extremely stupid or ominous sounding to you. Something that might be like ‘It looks like rain.’ or something similar to it, then I don’t want you having a panic attack and setting off your powers,” Bruno said as he reached out to gently grasp Pepa’s hands in his own as he looked her directly in her green eyes to show how serious he was being, as he continued talking quickly, as confusion filled both Pepa and Félix as this listened intently to what Bruno was saying to them, “I swear to you right here and right now, that I’m telling you that no matter whatever I may say to the two of you on your wedding day is just meant to be a joke and nothing more than that, especially if I see how stressed out you are being. All I want to do in that instant is to try and make you laugh and nothing more. Not a vision at all. In fact to confirm that whatever I wind up saying is just a joke, I’ll tell you that I even did a special vision of your wedding just before I came to see you and Félix today, and all I see is you being happy on a warm and sunny day celebrating with everybody with absolutely no signs of weather trouble coming. Here I even brought it with me to show you guys as proof. You can decide what to make of this vision however you may like.”

As he mentioned his latest vision he reached into the red backpack he had brought out with him that day, and pulled out one of his emerald green vision plates and showed it to Pepa and Félix to show them that he had truthfully been telling them about his vision, where the vision showed Pepa and Félix looking happy in the vision with a bright sun in the background, as their family and all their friends surrounded them in the background cheering them on as the happy couple shared a passionate kiss together in the image.

Pepa and Félix both stared down at the vision plate in shocked disbelief for a moment as Pepa reached out with shaking hands to carefully take the plate from Bruno as she and Félix both examined the plate all over, looking at it from every angle to see if anything was wrong with it.

“Oh my, this is so beautiful and perfect! Is this truly what your vision shows is going to happen on my wedding day, Bruno? If it is, then it’s perfect! I was hoping for a sign that the wedding would go smoothly especially after all of the delays, and you have given us that sign with this vision plate. I was afraid to ask you to do one of these just in case,” Pepa asked as tears started to sell up in her eyes again as a small rain cloud appeared above the trio, as Bruno nodded his head in confirmation to her question, as it started to sprinkle chilled water down on just the three of them, as Pepa handed the vision plate to Félix to hold onto as she reached into her dress pockets and pulled out a handkerchief and wiped at her eyes, before reaching out and pulling Bruno into a tight hug, “Thank you so much for this, hermano! Up until now, as the wedding got closer, I was beginning to get worried that something horrible was going to happen. This is absolutely the best wedding gift you could have ever hoped to have given me. I feel a lot better now. You’ve taken a huge load off of my shoulders by doing this.”

”I agree with Pepa that this is the best wedding gift you could have possibly given us, Bruno.” Félix exclaimed happily as he walked over to Bruno and slapped Bruno on the shoulder in gratitude, before walking back over to Pepa to look over the vision plate once, as he shot Bruno a big smile, “I was really starting to worry about the wedding way before you even came to us today, and this vision of yours has taken a huge load off my mind about the wedding.”

“It’s taken a huge load off of my mind as well, thanks again Bruno. If you’ll excuse us, Félix and I still have preparations for the wedding to do today, so we will see you later at Casita.” Pepa said happily as she gave Bruno one last grateful hug, and a kiss on the cheek, as he nodded his head silently at what she had just told him, before she turned away from Bruno and grabbed a hold of Félix’s hand as they walked away talking excitedly between themselves.

‘Well, I think that went way better than I originally thought it would have. Pepa really looked extremely happy to see the vision plate. So hopefully seeing the vision plate will hold off,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he watched his sister and her fiancé disappear into the crowd as he let out a loud sigh of relief as he felt a heavy weight had just lifted off of his chest after his talk with Pepa and Félix, as he took a seat on a nearby bench, ‘on the dreaded ‘wedding day disaster’ that ruined everybody’s lives last time, and made Pepa have a grudge against me for it until the day I died.’

Reaching into his red backpack, he pulled out a silver canteen filled with cold water, uncapped the top and took a quick and long swig from the canteen to quench his thirst, before screwing the cap back on and returning it to the backpack and zipping it up once more as he let out another loud sigh of resignation.

‘I guess after the wedding, now all I have to do now is wait and see if anything truly has changed, then go with the flow of things, and wait until Mirabel is born again. In the meantime I’m going to make some other changes,’ Bruno thought happily to himself as the image of Kiara’s face filtered through his mind as he pushed himself off the bench to go look for her as he walked through the crowd of villagers who were in his way, avoiding bumping into anyone as best as he could, though some villagers did immediately get out of his way when they saw him coming, ‘With the first thing I’m going to do is spend more time with Kiara. After what I had to put up with after I broke up with, I’m not going through that again. Now that i have her back, nothing is stopping me from being with her. Not even mama or my ‘duties to the village’ will stop me.’

~-End Flashback~-

Later that day after spending the afternoon with Kiara before finally going home for the day, found Bruno holed up inside of his temple bedroom as he watched the full moon rise up in the sky above the temple as a wistful look appeared on his face for a moment, as he sat down next to the rope bridge that led to his temple, as he took a swig of water from a bottle he kept stored in his room.

‘If I am really am going to change things for the better, I really do need to start making plans soon, otherwise I’ll just be doing everything that happened before will only happen all over again if I don’t at least try and put a stop to it before it has time to start. I have to remember that it wasn’t just myself and Mirabel who suffered under moms rule,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he took another swig from his bottle, before letting out a loud sigh of irritation that was soon replaced by a look of sheer determination on his face as he remembered the times he had spied on the family over the ten years he had been in hiding, and remembered the looks of utter misery on his nieces and nephews faces every time they had to deal with Alma anger over every little thing, just like he and his sister had to put up with when growing up, ‘Especially if I want to make Mirabel and the other kids lives a lot better as well so that Mirabel doesn’t have to suffer again this time around. I have seven years before Mirabel’s birth to come up with a proper plan, and I swear that even if I have to take custody of her myself and raise her to give her the life and love she deserves if she fails to get her Gift again.’

As he sat down on a nearby chair inside the guest room , he reached up with one hand to rub at his forehead as he started to feel a migraine begin to build up in his head, as he suddenly felt a shiver of anger rush through his body as he remember how miserable his nieces and nephews had been growing up, that they kept hidden behind fake smiles as they did what Alma said without question. His anger also spike up a bit more as he thought about his own future kids that he and Kiara may or may not have now that he wasn’t going to leave her this time around, if he could help it and Bruno silently made a promise to himself.

‘I swear to god that if Kiara and I ever have kids in the future, then I’m not going to let mama ruin their lives as she did with Mirabel and the other kids. That is the one boundary I will not back down on, even if it means moving out of Casita with Kiara to get it,’ Bruno thought stubbornly, though a low chuckle escaped from his lips for a moment though the amusement really didn’t reach his eyes as he felt more anger begin to fill him at the thought of his future children being treated like Julieta and Pepa’s kids by Alma, especially after seeing how Mirabel was treated when she failed to receive a Gift like everybody born into the family had received, ‘though now that I think about it, I might move out anyway with Kiara and move to her place instead of living inside of Casita raising my family like Julieta and Pepa raised their kids. Being around mom was highly toxic for the kids wellbeing. My days of being everybody’s doormat and whipping boy when I gave them bad visions who they walked all over are done and over with. My own happiness and my future families happiness will always come first in everything even if it means fighting mom over it constantly.’

==================
Author’s Notes:
So what do you guys think? This chapter is completed at 26 pages. This is my first attempt at writing a Encanto (2021) fanfiction story. Please tell me what you think of it in reviews. Do you guys love it? Hate it? What? Though extremely rude flamers won’t be tolerated. Please tell me what all of you think of this story of mine.

If anybody is wondering, Chapter 2 is listed as part 1 is because I started to notice that chapter 2 was getting a bit long by itself so I split it into two parts to shorten, so the rest of chapter 2 will be showing up in chapter 3 instead.

For everybody who read this story back when I wrote it in 2023, I made a third chapter called ‘Oneshot - Make It Work Again’. I put it before the Prologue and Chapter 1 chapters, so you guys should go back to the chapter before the Prologue chapter to find it. Please leave a review telling me what you think of it.

If anybody wonders where Kiara Mendoza came from in this story, I didn’t just spontaneously bring her into the story out of the blue. *lol* Remember back in Chapter 1 when they were digging Bruno and Mirabel out of Casita’s rubble, I had future Alma mention how Bruno once had somebody that he had been in love with just like Julieta and Pepa had Agustin and Félix, but the two of them broke up after the incident with Pepa’s wedding day?

So Kiara Mendoza was that person as you can all see. I thought it would be perfect to introduce her to the story, by having her be the first person Bruno sees upon waking up in the past in his twenty-two years younger body, because this time they won’t be breaking up as one of the changes Mirabel’s going to find when she eventually is born seven years after Bruno’s return to the past and Mirabel ‘wakes up’ five years later in her five year old younger body.

So what do you guys think of Kiara Mendoza? When I created her, I at first tried to think of somebody who would be the perfect match for Bruno, who would be willing to protect him from the hardships he suffered from the first time around, who was also somebody who wasn’t afraid of pissing off Alma or put up with her and her crap, especially when it came to Bruno and their future family, unlike Pepa, Julieta, Agustin, and Félix who let her get away with everything involving themselves and their kids.

Kiara wasn’t raised to be docile and obedient, but to always speak her mind on everything and to not take crap from anybody no matter who they were, and like she said to Alma, why would she change who she is now after all these years just because she married into the family to do what Alma wants instead if she doesn’t want to instead of continuing to do what she wants and helping Bruno do what he wants as well? *lol* She will always have his back and protect him no matter who is against what they do.

To everybody who has read my story before if you looked at the Years and Birthdays of Characters that’s listed at the top of the previous chapters in the past, you will now notice that I changed the year that Agustín Madrigal was born in from the year 1962 to the year 1960 to make him the same age as Julieta and the other Madrigal parents. I made the year change in previous chapters as well. I originally made him 1962 to make him younger than Julieta, but as I was writing this latest chapter with Bruno’s return to the past, I realized Agustín would have been too young to marry Julieta when they got married.

Some of the OC Madrigal grandkids ideas came from this video: Overanalyzing EVERY REJECTED Encanto Character! - An Encanto Theory and Discussion! The most obvious one that’s in the video is the one I call Vesta instead in my story. *lol*

Génesis Madrigal’s Magical ’Gift’ Keys. (Can be found on istockphoto(-dot)com(-slash)vector(-slash)set-of-gold-keys-gm873790560-244003061).
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Started On: September 15, 2024
Completed On: December 7, 2024

Chapter Text

Disclaimers: As much as I may want to claim ownership of these two productions, I can’t because Encanto (2021) belong to a whole lot of different companies that I can’t remember the names of at the moment. Any characters that appear in this fic that are not a part of either original series, belong to me so don’t take them without asking first.

Timeframe: This story is going to take place in the Encanto (2021) universe. I’m also making it so that the Madrigal family starting from Alma Madrigal going down the family list, is born in the mid-1930’s instead of the original earlier time period that the series starts off in with Pedro and Alma, so that by the time Mirabel is born, she is born in the year 1990.

I am also making Julieta, Pepa, and their spouses (and Bruno) five years younger than what they were when they married and had the grandkids, so they are not in their fifties by the time Antonio is five years old.

Author’s Notes: Because of the ‘Wish Reboot‘ back to the night before her Gift ceremony, Mirabel’s magic bedroom door remains and she receives a Gift this time around, as well as gained the power to become the next Candle Bearer when Alma eventually dies.

Warning: Because of their memories of their experience in the other timeline, both Mirabel and Bruno will stubbornly be completely different than what they were in canon, as they do things they didn’t do in the original timeline, like being more stubborn and confident about things and not backing down and standing up more against Alma instead of quietly letting her treat them the way she did in the old timeline as one of the things they are trying to change for the better.

• -Alma Madrigal née Ramirez - Birthday: February 6, 1935
• -Félix Madrigal née Hernandez - Birthday: November 11, 1959
• -Agustin Madrigal née Santos - Birthday: June 19, 1960
• -Julieta Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Pepa Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Bruno Madrigal - Birthday: October 17, 1960
• -Mariano Guzmán - Birthday: March 19, 1982
• -Isabela Madrigal - Birthday: August 7, 1983
• -Dolores Madrigal - Birthday: September 5, 1983
• -Luisa Madrigal - Birthday: April 12, 1985
• -Camilo Madrigal - Birthday: April 21, 1990
• -Mirabel Madrigal - Birthday: May 6, 1990
• -Antonio Madrigal - Birthday: July 23, 2000

• -Kiara Madrigal née Mendoza - Birthday: December 30, 1960
• -Zéphyrus Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Génesis Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Adrian Madrigal - Birthday: June 27, 1984
• -Anaïs Madrigal - Birthday: May 13, 1986
• -Vesta Madrigal - Birthday: January 19, 1990
• -Diego Madrigal - Birthday: January 19, 1990
• -Nicolás Madrigal - Birthday: October 31, 1992
• -Jade Madrigal - Birthday: February 5, 2000

Word Count: 11,614

Summary: (Encanto) In the distant future where Casita falls, Mirabel and Bruno both die trying to save the miracle candle. But thanks to the last of the magic of the Miracle candle and a wish that Mirabel makes just as she takes her final breath, instead of staying dead Mirabel and Bruno both suddenly find themselves ‘waking up’ years in the past inside of their younger bodies the night before Mirabel’s Gift ceremony with all of their memories of the possible future still intact. In an attempt to stop the events that happened in the original future, can Mirabel and Bruno save their family and make a better tomorrow for everybody? (Papa Bruno Madrigal AU)

Glossary:
‘Hi’ – thinking
“Hi“ – Another language

~-Bruno Madrigal’s POV - Casita Villa, Columbia – October 5, 1983~-

It has been nearly over a year since Pepa’s successful wedding to Félix, with nothing bad happening during the ceremony. Even now, people were still talking about how great and perfect the wedding has been, which made Bruno smile broadly as he remembered the days events, and how everything had gone down.

Just like last time he had arrived at the wedding in his best green poncho, as he ignored the glances some of the villagers shot at him as he made his way into the wedding, as he greeted everybody as he passed by with a huge grin on his face as he walked up to where Pepa was waiting for him to walk her down the aisle, as the wedding music began to play around them. Once they reached the alter, Bruno smiled happily at Pepa for a moment before handing her over to Félix, as Bruno turned to take his place on benches with the rest of the family as Padré Cisco Florés started the ceremony.

Julieta was Pepa’s maid of honor just like Pepa had been Julieta’s own maid of honor during her wedding to Agustin, Kiara and her sister Sierra stood on the sidelines as bridesmaids, with two other women from the village as bridesmaids, while Alma stood at the alter with Félix waiting for Bruno to bring Pepa forward. After the wedding had gone off without any problems in sight, they had moved on to the reception where everybody dined happily on food that Julieta and some villagers had brought to the wedding, and Bruno had even danced a few dances with Kiara before Bruno decided to take a break from the festivities, as Alma smiled happily at Bruno who smiled nervously at his mother for a moment before turning his back on the group to go sit down on a bench.

A few hours later found Bruno sitting alone on a bench at the after-wedding reception as he watched everybody dance and eat and party the night away, sipping from a glass of wine as he watched everybody enjoying themselves as the music played loudly around them, blissfully unaware of the grand disaster that could have happened earlier that day if he hadn’t intervened and changed things.

‘This worked out way better than I originally thought it would have happened, if I hadn’t known beforehand,’ Bruno thought happily to himself as he greeted and waved at villagers who greeted him with warm smiles and congratulations for Pepa and Félix’s successful wedding, which in Bruno’s eyes was way better than the looks he had received for the wedding fiasco, ‘at least for now I seem to have nipped the whole ‘disaster Seer Bruno ruined his sisters wedding day with a prophecy’ in the bud before it had the chance to fester and grow.’

Just then he felt a hand brush against his right hand and giving his hand a small squeeze, causing him to turn his gaze to the side to see that Kiara was sitting next to him on the bench, as she smiled serenely at him for a moment as she offered her congratulations to Pepa and Félix’s successful wedding, as she leaned against him for a moment as they watched the rest of the ceremony in silence, as a low rumble from the sky caught Bruno’s attention, as he and a few villagers looked up at the sky to see rain clouds starting to for, which worried Bruno briefly for a moment before a very light and sprinkling shower of rain started to come down on the party.

Glancing in Pepa’s direction, he immediately realized the cause of the sudden downpour, as he could see Pepa seemed to be crying while she danced together with Félix, as the water fell, but then Bruno smiled a bit and forced himself to relax as he realized that Pepa had a big smile on her face as she laughed and danced with Félix, that showed she wasn’t sad or upset at all despite the tears and rainstorm.

‘Just great. it still rained just like last time, though at least it didn’t turn into a hurricane rainstorm this time. Rain caused by her being happy is good too, despite what mama says. I still can’t believe that almost everything went along way better than I could possibly imagined it would, I think. Good thing I decided to forgo making any jokes in the end for just in case I still set her off despite whatever I would have wound up saying. Better be safe than extremely sorry later on,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he mind wonders back to the day of Pepa and Félix’s wedding day and how everything had gone down exactly in full detail like his vision plate had shown as he reached up with one hand to brush a hand across his sweaty brow for as a moment as he looked up at the hot sun blazing down on the crowd, ‘At least Pepa was slightly more calm and relaxed this time around during the ceremony than she was last time. So maybe showing Félix and her the vision plate helped more than anything else that I could have told her during the wedding.’

In the months since his ‘rebirth’ in the past, Bruno has been working hard to set his own goals and follow a path that was completely different than what had happened the first time around, and it hadn’t taken long before the villagers started noticing the changes in Bruno and voice their worries and complaints to Alma about it.

Another change Bruno had experienced, was since the wedding did not fail this time around, his relationship with Kiara has flourished spectacularly, as they spent all their time together, in the following weeks since Pepa and Félix’s wedding day, until one afternoon Bruno finally asked Kiara for her hand in marriage, and Kiara had eagerly accepted, and they decided to have the ceremony within three months from the proposal day.

Ever since news of their brand new engagement had been announced and reached the ears of the villagers, Bruno and Kiara suddenly found themselves spending the first few days of their engagement were being spent being congratulated on their impending nuptials by everyone who knew and supported them, as everybody in the village helped the happy couple prepare for it so that it would go off without a hitch, especially with how fast they were planning to have the wedding.

Kiara’s sister, Sienna was working with her to design and create her dream wedding dress in their shop, with the help of some seamstresses they had hired to help in creating the dress, so that it would hopefully be finished by time the wedding came up, while also working on other dress orders.

The dress was going to be a open back, long sleeved, snowy white dress that flowed all the way down to her cover up her feet, with ivory colored dragonfly prints stitched going down the sides of her dress to the hem starting at her waist, while on her chest and arm areas of the dress Gloriosa Fire Lily flower design in matching ivory colors.

In the weeks leading up to the wedding, Bruno had been approached by nearly everybody in the village as they gave both Kiara and him their congratulations and well wishes on their impending marriage, as many in the village even offered to help out with the wedding preparations.

One thing that amused Bruno this time around, was he had found out that a lot of villagers had been making bets on when he would finally ask Kiara to marry him, and a lot of the villagers who had watched the two of them growing up had made bank on the betting pools. He only found out about the betting pools because some of the villagers had decided to share some of their winnings with him as part of a wedding present for his impending wedding.

‘If the betting pools were around back in the other timeline, I wonder just how many of the villagers lost the bet when I broke things off with Kiara,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as a slow smirk appeared on his, lips as he gratefully thanked another villager for their congratulations, as he pocketed another pouch of winnings somebody had given him, ‘at least I’m making some cash out of this situation this time around, since nobody is blaming me for messing up Pepa’s wedding and treating me worse than they did before the wedding fiasco.’

As the months leading up to his own wedding came closer with each passing day, Bruno started making other changes in his life in a bid to make things better in the new life he was building for himself and his future family and let himself have a peaceful and stress free life compared to how things were like growing up and how things had become after the wedding fiasco, much to the growing ire of both Alma and the villagers.

One of the things that has truly and really upset the villagers in the ensuing months, was that Bruno had changed after his rebirth, was that he now flat out refused to do his future vision readings for the villagers whenever they came to him for what he now considered to be trivial things that he didn’t want to waste his time on, especially since he remembered what happened the last time he did the readings for them in his old life. He told everybody he would only do a reading if it involved something kind of drastic life threatening emergency.

Some of the villagers who had been turned away, had immediately gone to his mother to voice their complaints to her, about how disrespectful and unhelpful Bruno was being to the village now when it came to his gift, in hopes that Alma would be able to talk some sense into her wayward son and get him to start working again, since everybody knew he always listened to her and did what she wanted.

Alma hadn’t been very pleased when she heard the news from some of the villagers who had come to complain to her about her sons refusal to use his powers for them anymore. Upon hearing the complaints from the villagers, Alma’s face had turned red in anger, as she promised everybody that she would immediately go speak to Bruno and would set him straight and put a end to the nonsense he was spouting to the villagers.

After turning away from the villagers she had spoken to, Alma had immediately gone storming back to Casita where she knew her wayward son usually spend his days inside of these days ever since coming out of the coma to confront Bruno on the matter, and the ensuing argument between mother and son could be heard all through out Casita.

‘Just how can Bruno dare to embarrass the family like this with this sudden ‘retirement from using his Gift’ talk of his? He has a sacred gift to the family and a duty to the village to use his Gift for the benefit of everybody here in the Encanto,’ Alma thought angrily to herself as she stormed up the road to Casita, as a determined look appeared on her face the closer she got to the magical house, as she tried to think of how she would handle the latest situation with her only son, ‘I just knew that he had changed since coming out of his coma, but I never believed that he had changed this much that he’s willing to stop using his gift, when he knows exactly how important what he does is to me and everybody else…’

As she made her way towards Casita, Alma started to feel some of her anger start to lesson a bit the more she thought about Bruno and how much he had changed in the last couple of months, as she thought about he seemed to be acting like a completely different man since his awakening, yet at the same time was exactly the same much to her chagrin. Though in her mind he seemed to be acting more rebellious than usual.

‘It doesn’t matter upon whatever reason he has for turning away his duty to the Encanto. It is imperative that he does to show our goodwill to the village!’ Alma thought silently to herself as she felt determination fill her once again as Casita came into view as she picked up her pace towards the magic house, ‘I will convince him to go back to work even if it is the last thing I do.’

~-Flashback~-

Bruno was currently lying on his old bed in the nursery surrounded by books and journals as he scribbled down notes into blank pages in the journals, as he recounted everything that he remembered happening in his previous life, after deciding that he needed to document everything, as well as using some of the journals to write down his old telenovela ideas that he had come up with over the years.

He had also bought a large trunk with a reinforced deadbolt padlock on it that would need somebody nearly as strong as Luisa to break it open. He was busy storing all of his books and journals into, with the padlock in place to prevent anybody from opening the trunk and snooping in his journals when he wasn’t around to stop them.

Along with the books and journals, he had some sketchbooks that he had also bought, that he was using to draw sketches and of people and things he knew in the future. He had always been good at artwork when he was younger, and before his Gift had awoken he had always wanted to continue with his art, but his mother started pushing him to focus on using his newfound Gift to help the people of the Encanto instead, and put away his artwork.

During his ten years in hiding after seeing Mirabel’s vision of Casita cracking around her, Bruno had taken back up his old artwork skills to take some of the stress and loneliness off from his self isolation inside of Casita as the years went by as he watched, listened and waited for the big event he had seen.

He survived by sneaking into Casita’s kitchen to get food and other supplies whenever he was sure nobody was home to catch him before he disappeared back into Casita’s hollowed out walls.

At first it had gravely hurt him with his madre had basically declared him persona non grata to both the family and the village, and nobody was allowed to talk about him anymore without risking her wrath if she heard his name being mentioned by anybody, and making him into a bigger outcast to the village because of it.

Even now thinking about it still hurt, though it hadn’t surprised him that much when the villagers had gone with his mothers edict without hesitation or questioning it, seeing how not a lot of people really liked him at that point in his life because of his visions. But it had especially hurt when even Pepa and Julieta went along with Alma’s decree without a fight and encouraged their kids to do the same.

‘Did any of them actually miss me even just a little bit while I was gone? Or wanted me back at all, even if I had come out of hiding and ‘come home’? Yeah, sure i’ll be the first to admit that not all of my visions were ‘good’ ones, but who cares?’ Bruno thought morosely to himself as he remembered how he had heard nothing but bad things people were still saying about him in the ten years that he was ‘missing’, whenever he managed to sneak out of the house to get something he needed, ‘It’s not I had control over what kind of visions I received or even had a choice in what kind of visions that came out? But after the wedding fiasco things became worse than it was before, since now I had Pepa hating me as well for saying something that wasn’t even from a vision but was meant as nothing but a harmless joke instead?’

When he was younger he used to help Kiara and Siena with sowing up things if they needed an extra pair of hands, so when he came up with his telenovela stories with his rat companions being the ‘actors’ in his shows, he used his past experience with sowing to create and design the costumes he had the rats wear, as well as create the background for each production with his art skills.

At first he had created his telenovela as a way to entertain himself while he was in the walls, since he figured nobody else would ever get to see or hear it, until one day he heard his second niece, Dolores’, voice coming through the walls asking him to do another one for her to hear, that he realized that Dolores knew exactly where he was all this time thanks to her Super Hearing Gift allowing her to hear him through the walls, yet she had never ratted out his location to the rest of the family in the time he had been ‘missing’.

Over the years he had been so busy doing predictions for everybody he barely had time to relax and enjoy what he actually loved to do, and sometimes had to hide away to get some free time from everybody who had all thought they could call in his psychic services whenever they wanted, even when it was obvious he was busy with something else.

He only put up with it because he was a bit of a pushover, and didn’t want to disappoint anybody by refusing, especially knowing how his mother would react if she found out that he wasn’t ‘helping the people’ like SHE wanted his sisters and himself to be doing. But now Bruno was simply sick and tired of it all and was putting his foot down on using his powers constantly for the sake of others.

That was one of the reasons why he finally put a stop to it once and for all after his rebirth. He wanted to live his life on his own terms and not have to always be having to stop whatever he was currently doing to go use his powers to answer peoples questions about future events, and then be blamed for anything bad that might happen if the predictions turn out to be bad news.

‘If that’s how everybody is going to react all the time then I flat out refuse to put up with it again now that it looks like I have to relive everything all over again for a second time this time around. I’m definitely not going to do a vision for mama involving Mirabel,’ Bruno thought silently to himself, as anger filled him at the memories that filled him of the what was going to happen over the next thirteen years, before he went into hiding behind of Casita’s walls, ‘or any of the other kids when she asks. It’s frankly none of her business anyway, especially after the way she treated Mirabel after I disappeared just because she became paranoid about why Mirabel didn’t get a gift…’

Just then Bruno started feeling a tingling sensation going through his body, as he gripped at his head again, as he felt one of his visions coming up. That was another thing that was different since his rebirth about his past, was that he now randomly got psychic visions that came out of the blue, that he didn’t need to summon them using sand and whatever he usually did when he made his predictions.

‘Great now what? I was really hoping for just a quiet and peaceful day today, and now this has to happen,’ Bruno thought angrily to himself as he rubbed his now throbbing temples as he closed his eyes and forced himself to relax, and let the visions come.

As the vision came in, he saw and heard his mother talking to some of the villagers about him down in the villages and saw the angry look on her face, as she turned away and started making her way home, just as the vision came to an end as quickly as it had begun, as Bruno’s eyes fly open as he jumped out of bed and grabbing up stuff and tossing it into his trunk as fast as he could.

‘Crap! If she’s coming home to ‘talk’ with me, I can’t have any of this stuff out in case she see’s what’s in them. That will be a whole slew of questioning I’m not ready to answer right now involving these pictures.’ Bruno thought frantically to himself as he rushed around grabbing the more noticeable things that were out like his sketchbook drawings of future events, and his journals while leaving out a few that wouldn’t draw too much attention if anybody looked at it, ‘With how nosy she and my sisters are, she’ll want to see what it is I’m writing about or drawing about. I’m simply just not in the mood to answer any questions that they might have about them, and knowing mom she might get the wrong idea of my pictures…’

Bruno had just barely gotten the lid of the trunk shut and the padlock securely in place on the front of the lid, before quickly rushing back into bed and picking up one of his journals and making it look like he was busy writing in it, while Casita helped him out by using the floor to slide the trunk into a corner in the other side of the bedroom.

“Thanks for the help, Casita,” Bruno said smiling at the walls of the house as Casita made a few clanking sounds on the window blinds, in response to what he had said to it, “It’s greatly appreciated.”

“You are really afraid of meeting with Abuela again aren’t you, Tio Bruno?” Mirabel’s teasing voice echoed in his head the last time he had seen her just before she went to talk to Isabela.

‘I’m not scared of her, per se. I’m just extremely cautious around her, especially while knowing how she gets when she’s upset. Now that I think about it. It’s more than past time that I start standing up to mama, or else my new life will only become a never ending repeat of last time,’ Bruno thought silently to himself, as a dark scowl appeared on his lips at the memory of Mirabel’s words as he realized there might be some truth in what Mirabel had said to him, as he remembered all the times he had caved into Alma’s demands in ‘fear’ of making her upset at him, even though it made him miserable all the time, ‘That’s definitely something else I will need to change involving mama. I can’t allow her boss me around anymore the way she did the last time around, and i have to stop being scared of her...’

SLAM!

Looking up he could see his mothers enraged face, he immediately knew this was going to be a long day.

“Bruno Enrique Madrigal!! What is this utter nonsense that I am hearing from the villagers that you are telling them that you won’t do predictions for them anymore?!” Alma demanded angrily, as she stormed into the bedroom to stand over his bedside as she looked disdainfully at his remaining collection of journals and sketchbooks that he had left out in the open for a moment before dismissing it as unimportant for the time being as she focused her attention on Bruno once more, “I am sure that it is just a misunderstanding and I have reassured everyone that they are mistaken about your supposed refusal to accommodate everybody as you have always done and will soon return and…”

“Mama there is no ‘misunderstanding’ about anything at all, because as far as I am concerned I am officially retired from being the town prophet. I have my own life to live that no longer revolves around the villagers constant need,” Bruno said, interrupting what his mother was telling him, as he sat his journal on his lap and closed it as his gaze met hers firmly as he crossed his arms across his chest as he spoke, “for my predictions on nearly a daily basis, and I will not be returning to telling prophecies any time soon if I ever do unless an extreme emergency comes up. I need to focus on myself more than making everybody else happy at the expense of my sanity.”

“Bruno you need to listen to me. It is imperative to the honor of our family that,” Alma started to say only for Bruno to immediately cut her off before she could start lecturing him.

“No, mama. My answer is final and there is nothing you have to say that will make me go back to how things were before. I am tired, and sick of all the crap I’ve had to put up since gaining my powers. I’ve only put up with it this long is because I didn’t want to disappoint you or upset you, but after all the crap I’ve had to put up with all these years, I’m done now,” Bruno said firmly, as he cut into whatever Alma was about to say as his own anger began to show in his voice, as he refused to back down in the face of her anger as he reached up with one hand to run a hand through his hair as he settled back against his bed, “For years, you ignored how people treated me, and always take their sides when they come complaining to you about one of my horrible visions, yet you never listen to me when I try and tell you something. I’m going to start thinking for myself from now on, and do what I wish. I have my own life and plans for my own future that don’t revolve spending every single day making everybody else happy over my own happieness.”

For a few minutes Alma just stood there for a few moments, as her mind ran a mile a minute inside her head, as she tried to process what was happening, as she couldn’t believe that Bruno was truly going against her express wishes and seemed to be willing to stand his ground on the matter to her.

She wasn’t used to this new version of her son who had always been accommodating and willing to do anything she asked him to do without question just like his sisters always did. As she stared at Bruno for a moment, Alma started to realize that this was another sign of how different Bruno had become since he had come out of his coma, and she didn’t approve of the sudden change in the slightest.

“I had a revelation thanks to my time in the coma, mama. An epiphany if you want to call it about everything that I wrong about my life, and I’ve decided that I have had enough of continuing to do things for you and the village at my own unhappiness. I’ve decided that for once in my twenty-two years of life I will be thinking of myself for once and what I need to make myself happy, instead of wasting my time spending the rest of my days making everyone else happy.” Bruno said firmly, not backing down for once against his mothers rage as he openly flared back at her now with a stubborn look in his eyes, “as far as I am now concerned, I’ve been wasting the better part of my life always doing what you wanted me to do, even though it made me miserable, and now I am done with it. I refuse to be on hand doing predictions for everybody who wants to know their futures anymore, when half the time I never get any thanks or gratitude for what I do depending on how good or bad my visions are.”

~-End Flashback~-

“Bruno Enrique Madrigal! I can not believe you think I will permit this venture of yours! You are a Madrigal and you will remain living here with Casita with the rest of the familia!” Alma Madrigal exclaimed angrily as she glared at her only son, as he sat across from her at the dining room table with the rest of the family surrounding the two of them, “both Kiara and you both need to forget about this nonsense about ‘moving out’ and remain right where you are, as your sisters and their husbands have been doing. We need to show a united front as a proper familia to show to the villagers.”

“Madre Alma, Bruno and myself are grown adults now and do not require your permission for anything anymore. We do not require your ‘permission’ to move out because our decision has nothing to do with you personally. It is Bruno and my own choice alone in moving out of Casita and that is all that matters. We were simply giving you the formality of our plans. We will be out of Casita before the end of the week and there is absolutely nothing you have to say or do that will make us not move out.” Kiara said, her own anger showing as she spoke up, causing Alma to furiously turn her gaze upon her son’s wife, as the older woman’s eyes narrowed on the younger woman as Kiara continued to speak up while ignoring the glare she was receiving from her mother-in-law, as Kiara placed a hand on the small bulge that was beginning to form on her belly, while gripping Bruno’s own hand with her free hand and giving it a comforting squeeze, “No offense to Casita specifically, because I will be the first to admit that staying inside of Casita is nice, but Bruno and I truly need our own space to live in. Plus his ‘bedroom’ really isn’t a proper place to be raising a family in with the way it is, or safe as far as I am concerned. I refuse to spend the rest of my days living in that sand covered desert wasteland he calls a bedroom, or having to climb the thousands of steps to get to the top of the room. In my condition it won’t be safe or practical for us and our future kids to be living in there. We need a normal place to live in to raise our family in. Plus I have other responsibilities to deal with back on my ranch that I can not do if I am living here and have to keep traveling back and forth from here to there. Bruno is moving with me back to my ranch where we will be living from now on.”

To say that the rest of the family had been excited and happy when Bruno made his big announcement that he was planning to move out of Casita and into his own home to live together with Kiara in the village to raise their future family together in, would be considered a major understatement to what actually happened that particular day.

At first, when he made his announcement, his sisters and brother in laws immediately congratulated him on his decision and Pepa and Julieta were already asking if they already had a house in mind that was available in the village, and were offering to help out in anything the two might need or want, while Félix and Agustin also congratulated him on the idea.

Alma on the other hand, now looked like she had sucked on a really sour lemon, as her lips pursed in irritation and her eyes narrowed as she listened to her only son make his announcement that he was moving out of the family home to settle down elsewhere with his new bride, as her mind began to run a mile a minute as she tried to figure out what his plans might do to the family.

Alma had always imagined that her children would stay in Casita even after they eventually gotten married, and raise her future grandchildren there inside of Casita’s walls and show a united front by keeping the Familia together in one property, and Pepa and Julieta and their new husbands seemed to already be up to the task, as they had no plans to move out into their own homes. Yet for Bruno to suddenly make his announcement about moving out, seemed inconceivable to Alma.

“Bruno, what do you mean you will be moving out when you and Kiara marry?!” Alma demanded, her face becoming flushed with anger and frustration as Bruno laid out his plans for his future to her and the rest of the family, as she looked around at Julieta and Pepa and their husbands for any signs of them supporting what she was saying to Bruno and Kiara, before turning her attention back on the couple once more, as her face flushed in anger, “You will not be moving out! I absolutely forbid it! You are both a part of this family and have obligations to it, so you and Kiara must stay here and do your duty to the Familia.”

Just as Bruno and Kiara started to open their mouths to say something in response to Alma’s rant, Alma quickly interrupted them as she went on another long winded rant.

“As for Kiara’s ranch, you will just need to hand over control over it to somebody else to run, because you have duties as a member of our family to uphold now,” Alma said as she then turned her attention back upon her wayward daughter in law, as she mentally scoffed at the girls audacity of thinking that she was moving out with her only son, knowing Bruno would go with what she wanted once she laid down the law, “you need to focus on how to help with your new obligations as a new addition to our family. You will have no time for your ranch anymore, and will need to now focus upon more important things. As for Bruno’s room being ‘unsafe’ I am sure we can make accommodations for you if you insist and…”

“That’s never going to happen, mama Alma. I didn’t build up my ranch from the ground up just to give it all up and become a simple house wife. My ‘duties’ are what I alone will decide upon, not you, so you can take your talks about my ‘duties’ to the family and shove it because I never agreed to anything of the sort concerning your plans for my life, and I don’t plan to start doing it now,” Kiara said as she interrupted Alma’s growing tirade, as she returned the dark look Alma was now giving her as she continued speaking and ignoring the angry look that was slowly forming on the older woman’s face as she and Bruno shared a look before turning her attention back on Alma with a serious look on her face, “Frankly I feel like I will go insane from sheer boredom doing your plans, when I can be doing what I love instead. and I will not give it all up to do what you seem to think I should be doing instead with my life. My life is my own and so is my choices in how I spend it and what I will do for it, not yours. Bruno understands and respects that, and wants to move out with me so we can both be happy together. We are not asking for your consent or permission and will be moving out and living our own lives whether you ‘approve’ or not.”

“How dare you speak to me that way?!” Alma exclaims loudly, her face flushing bright red in anger at Kiara’s words, as she shot her son a dark look only to see him nodding his head in agreement with his wives words, “Bruno you can’t be seriously be agreeing with this. You have a duty to our familia to remain living here in Casita and…”

“Kiara is right, mama. I have my own plans for my future that no longer revolves around what you want me to do. As Kiara says, we were not telling you of our plans to get permission to move out. We are flat out telling you that we will be moving out,” Bruno said firmly as he ignored the glare his mother now directed towards him as he continued to speak while ignoring the look Alma was giving him, “This is another thing that has to change. I always planned to move out of Casita when and if I ever settled down and got married.”

Bruno only stared silently as he let Alma rant for a while about how he was insane if she would give him her ‘consent’ to move out of Casita and move into the village with Kiara, and that he and his future family needed to remain living in Casita to show a United front in the familia to the rest of the village, like his sisters and their husbands were doing, by living in Casita instead of moving out into their own homes like Bruno wanted to do.

Bruno quickly steeled his resolve as he stubbornly stood his ground against his mother once again. In another lifetime he would have easily given in to her demands and ‘requests’ even if it was something he didn’t want to do just to keep the peace in the family, but after living the life he had before and being granted the chance to do everything all over again, he now flat out refused to have to do a repeat of what happened last time and go through everything that happened before all over again seeing how utterly miserable his life had become the last time around.

‘At least this time around I won’t have to hide inside of Casita’s walls again for ten years if I no longer live here, though maybe I’ll still use it every now and again when I want some peace and quiet from everybody else if I want some solitude,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he chuckled a bit at the thought, as a slight smirk appeared on his lips at the thought of his old hideaway in the walls as he thought about all the good and bad times he had behind the walls, ‘It was so peaceful back there, even though I was lonely at the same time. I just won’t tell anybody exactly where it is I disappear to. Gotta remember to tell Dolores not to tell anybody either when she hears me back there.’

“Get over it mama, because I wasn’t asking you for permission to move out. I am a grown man and I need to start my own life, so I will be moving out and into my own home with Kiara, where we will start our own family in our own home,” Bruno said in a deadpanned voice as he stared at Alma with a bored look on his face as Alma sputter a bit in shock at Bruno’s ‘disrespect’ towards her and her wishes as the younger man quickly continued speaking before she could try and say anything further, “Initially, growing up and living within Casita seemed like it was great and has been fun growing up in, but I flat out refuse to raise my future family here inside of that cavernous desert hellhole that is currently called my ‘bedroom’ where it takes hours to climb up those steep stairs to get to the temple area at the top where I normally sleep.”

As he mentioned his room, Bruno inwardly smiled as a memory hit him of that other future, where he had watched Mirabel trek up the seemingly endless flight of stairs leading to the temple part of his bedroom to find the prophecy he had made over ten years ago that involved her personally. He had been hanging out in his room in a hidden area that he had discovered in his youth and had kept it a secret from everybody, and he used it to secretly spy on anybody who came into his room for a vision reading if they couldn’t find him out and about in the village. The hidden area also turned out to be a shortcut that took him straight up to the temple a lot faster than the flight of stairs did.

“Tio Bruno, your bedroom is the worst!” Mirabel’s voice suddenly yelled out into the seemingly empty cavern, as she exhaustedly made her way up the flight of stairs, her voice echoing through.

‘Sorry Mirabel. I 100% agree with you that my room really sucks compared to everybody else’s magical bedrooms. Now that I think about it though, it might be a good idea for me to look into somewhere else to live other than Casita if I’m going to stay with Kiara this time around,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as a small chuckle of amusement escaped his mouth, as he remembered what he had heard Mirabel yell out as he watched her climb the stairs to his meditation temple from his secret hidden alcove in his room, ‘It wouldn’t be fair to Kiara either, along with any future kids we may have later in life, if she has to put up with that room, or force my kids to live in it until they get their own rooms.’

As he thought about it, Bruno began to make a mental list of all the things he wanted to now change that had happened to his family and himself in the other future. Even before he had gone into hiding for ten years, he had witnessed how absolutely miserable everyone had been as the years went by, as Alma seemed to get more and obsessed to preserving the family honor.

Out of all of his nieces and nephews, Mirabel had always had a special soft spot in Bruno’s heart, and he had spent the most time with her, babysitting her and Camilo when he wasn’t busy working in the village when nobody else was at home, during her first five years of life leading up to the fateful failed Gift ceremony.

Bruno had always stayed out of it, not wanting to get involved, but after the way Alma had started treating Mirabel when she failed to get a Gift, had been the final straw as far as Bruno was concerned, especially with the way everybody else followed Alma’s wishes and basically shunned Mirabel, though the other Madrigal kids still tried to include her in things.

‘If it’s the last thing that I’ll ever do, I’ll change everything to try and make everybody’s lives happier than they were last time around. Even if Mirabel still doesn’t get a Gift this time around,’ Bruno thought silently to himself with a determined nod of his head, as he continued making plans for what he was going to do as he pulled out a piece of paper and pen and started writing things down, ‘I’m not going to abandon her again and disappear for another ten years. If mama asks for a vision plate again, I will flat out tell her no and will keep telling her no.’

~-Bruno Madrigal’s POV - Casita Villa, Columbia – May 6, 1990~-

‘Today is finally the day that Mirabel is coming back. It’s been so long I can’t wait to see her again. Hopefully if I keep on my current path to fix everything, life will be a lot better for her as well. I won’t allow her to be treated like last time, even if I have to take her in myself after her failed Gift Ceremony and take her to the ranch to live,’ Bruno thought silently to himself, as he sat downstairs inside of Casita’s living room with his family and friends, as he watched the kids with Félix and Agustin while the women were upstairs in one of the spare rooms that had been designated as the birthing room, as his sister Julieta had gone into labor with he latest child a few hours ago, ‘If she remembers the other timeline like I do, I wonder how she would react to all the changes I made over the course of the years before her birth? Or the number of extra cousins she now has because of those changes?’

On August 7, 1983, Julieta and Agustin welcomed their firstborn daughter, Isabela, into the world who was already the delight of the family in the eyes of everybody, as Alma held Isabela in her arms proudly, as everybody celebrated Isabela’s birth, while barely a month later on September 5, 1983, Dolores was born to Pepa and Félix.

Among the Madrigal grandchildren, the number of Madrigal grandchildren had grown greatly over the years thanks to Kiara and Bruno, who had given birth to triplets on June 27, 1984, nearly six months after the happy couple had moved out of Casita and moved back onto Kiara’s ranch full time, despite Alma’s complaints that the two of them should have remained living inside of Casita with the rest of the familia, with her and Pepa and Julieta’s families where ‘the two of them belonged’ to show they were still a united familia to the villagers, as well as continue their duties to the village as proper Madrigals.

But much to Alma’s extreme displeasure, instead of conceding to her wishes and remaining in Casita Bruno and Kiara both stubbornly refused to remain living inside of Casita especially if living there meant having to put up with Bruno’s ‘bedroom’ for the rest of their lives while trying to raise a family of their own.

When she tried to bring up Kiara’s expected new duties to the family to help show a united front and had even given Kiara a list of things that was expected her to do with the family, Kiara had laughed in the older woman’s face while ripping up the list in front of Alma as she immediately point blank flat out refused saying that she had her ranch to run and couldn’t waste her time doing what Alma was expecting her to do now that she was married into the family. That she and Bruno had already agreed she wouldn’t be doing it if she doesn’t want to do it, and that she had other responsibilities to deal with that didn’t involve what Alma wanted her to do instead.

But both Bruno and Kiara both steadfastly and repeatedly refused her demands, and moved out, saying that they needed to focus on themselves and their growing family and what’s best for themselves. When Alma had tried to tell them that their unborn babies needed to be prepared for the day they will help in the community when/if they got their Gifts, Bruno had immediately snapped back that when and if his children received Gifts, he won’t force them into spending the rest of their days ‘serving the village’ like he was forced to do growing up.

Alma had immediately put up a fuss over their announcement, as she felt that it was an honor for their family to share their Gifts with the village in any way that they could, and that it would be a disgrace and shameful, that the family was breaking up into separate households instead of everybody staying together living inside of Casita and showing a United family front for the rest of the village to continue to look up to.

“Mama, we have already over this multiple times and my mind hasn’t changed in the slightest on the matter. This is my child not yours, and I will raise it as I see fit. I am not going to force my kids to become as sad and utterly miserable as I was while growing up, by making them use whatever powers they might get to use it to ‘serve the people’. I won’t raise them the way that you want them to be raised.” Bruno said with finality in his voice, and getting a gasp of shock coming from his mother at his words, as her face flushed angrily, “I will give them a choice in whether they want to use their powers the way you want them to do or not, and if they don’t want to then I won’t force them like you always did with me growing up.”

“Mama, maybe you should just hear them out first instead of…” Julieta started to say only to immediately cut herself off at the glare her mother turned onto her, as the older woman waved Julieta off, as Alma turned her attention on Kiara instead.

“Kiara surely you agree with me on this?! It is detrimental that the family remain living together in one place inside of Casita to show everyone that we are still a united familia that the villagers can depend on in a crisis,” Alma demanded as she turned her gaze on her daughter-in-law expectantly, thinking that Kiara would be on her side on this matter, only for the younger woman to give her a deadpan look on her face as Kiara shook her head no in answer to Alma’s question, “Now really? Even you will go against my wishes for the family, after I welcomed you into it as my honorary daughter because of your friendship with my children, and allowed you to marry my only for you to turn on me as well and go against my wishes?”

“That’s the problem, Madre Alma. For one thing it you didn’t ‘allow’ me to do anything when it comes to Bruno at all. We still would have gotten married even if you had rejected us being together. It’s your plans for the family that you are talking about, not our plans. We have our own lives and plans for how our lives will be run, that are more important than the Gift and our supposed ‘obligation’ to the village. I have a business to run and a home of my own to live in with Bruno, and I’m not dropping either one to follow what you think the familia should be doing instead,” Kiara said stubbornly, as she stared back at her mother-in-law with a irritated look on her face, before letting out a loud sigh and huff of air from her mouth before she continued speaking, “I’ve seen how miserable Bruno has been over the years while you turned a blind eye, and I refuse to put my own children through that exact same thing. You’ve known me my entire life and if I wouldn’t change myself over all these years, why should I change myself now? I didn’t spend all these years learning how to run my ranch and mak king it into what it is now. It’s always been our plans to move out whether you ‘approve’ or not.”

By the end of the day, despite Alma’s objections to them not living in Casita, Kiara and Bruno had packed up and loaded what was left of Bruno’s belongings from within the majestic magical house into a wagon that was being pulled by two donkeys from Kiara’s ranch, before saying their final days and making promises to come visit again, before they set off to their new life at Kiara’s ranch away from the hustle and bustle of Madrigal familia.

When the triplets had been born, they had two boys and one girl. The oldest of the boys was named Zéphyrus, while the daughter who was born second was named Génesis, and the youngest boy was named Adrian. Both Adrian and Génesis had inherited Bruno’s black hair but had their mothers purple eyes, while Zéphyrus had his mother’s ruby red hair and Bruno’s green eyes.

On April 12, 1985, Julieta and Agustin welcomed Luisa into the world, who had her parents tanned skin and chocolate brown eyes and matching black hair, who was lovingly doted upon by her older sister, Isabela, and their parents while Alma watched over her growing family with pride and joy on her face.

Two years after the birth of the triplets, Bruno and Kiara became the proud parents of another baby girl, whom they named Anaïs, who was born on May 13, 1986, who had inherited her fathers messy black hair, but had her mother’s purple eyes.

On the triplet’s fifth birthday in 1989, they went through the Madrigal Gift Ceremony just like everybody else in the family had gone through, and like everybody else they managed to receive special magical Gifts from Casita that surprised everybody.

The image on Zéphyrus’ magical door showed him surrounded by a flurry of snow while wearing winter clothes while in one hand he had snow coming out of it, and the other hand had a small geyser of water coming out. And when he tested out his powers they were all amazed when he started producing ice and snow all around him, similar to Pepa’s own powers, though his powers didn’t affect the weather like her powers did, and when he used his powers his eyes turned blue while his hair turned either white or blue depending on what element he was using.

On Génesis’ door the image showed her standing in front of another door, while holding a set of designer keys in one hand while posing like she’s about to stick the key into the lock on the door next to her, just as the keys in the image appeared for real in Génesis’ hands.

The magic door opened up without using the keys with no problem, so they tested the keys on other doors, and watched the keys change shape to match the size and shape of lock on any door that had a lock on it, and when she put the key on the lock and turned it and they turned the key in the doorknob, the door would start glowing for a few seconds and when they open the door it would be to discover it now led to a completely brand new location than the inside of Casita. When they went to through the door sometimes it would let them out through a door that would be just standing by itself and not attached to any building or anything else, and as soon as they took the key back out of the lock the door returned to normal and opening back up to whatever was supposed to be on the other side.

On Adrian’s’ door the image showing on the door was… unique… to say the least, and sent chills up the spines of everybody who looked at it, because it showed him sitting on top of what looked like a gravestone, surrounded by faceless transparent humanoid figures all around him.

By the time 1990 started to come around, it had been a huge surprise when it was discovered that Kiara, Pepa, and Julieta were all pregnant once again, much to Alma’s extreme great pleasure when she heard the news of more grandchildren being born soon, though Kiara’s pregnancy was further along than her two sister-in-laws, with her pregnancy slated as possibly ending in either mid or late January or even early February.

Kiara and Bruno had welcomed a pair of twins into the world on January 19, 1990. The eldest of the twins was a girl who they had named Vesta, and her brother Diego, who had both inherited their mothers red hair, but had received Bruno’s green eyes.

On April 21, 1990, Pepa and Félix welcomed their first born son, Camilo, who had inherited his mothers auburn colored hair, and slightly tanned skin, who was already starting to act like a troublemaker at such a young age, though he mostly spent his days eating and sleeping.

Now today was May 6, 1990, a day Bruno had been eagerly waiting over seven years for, as this would be the day Mirabel would be born. Julieta had gone into labor in the early hours of the morning, that day and had been immediately rushed to the room they had designated as the birthing room, with the rest of the Madrigal women and the village midwife in attendance.

As the years went by, Bruno found himself proud to say that he noticed that all the things he was doing now to change the past, seemed to also be affecting his sisters and their families, as Julieta and Pepa started sticking up for themselves more against their mother and her demands.

Especially after Isabela received her flower creation powers, and Alma started to groom her into the spoiled brat she had become in the future, treating her extra special, while putting her to work almost immediately in the village right after her Gift ceremony night.

For a few weeks, Julieta and Agustin had put up with it, until something happened that made Julieta snap and she got into a huge argument with Alma about Isabela and how Alma was treating the rest of the children because of her favoritism towards Isabela.

What had really set off the argument that day was that Alma had been screaming at Isabela for slacking off in her ‘duties’ to the village, when she caught Isabela outside playing with Dolores and the other grandkids, instead of working, which had left Isabela crying in terror, and Dolores covering her ears in paid from the sheer volume of Alma’s screaming affecting Dolores’ enhance hearing.

Zéphyrus had been the first to make the move to run for help and had immediately gotten Julieta and Agustin from Casita and brought them to where Alma was still screaming at Isabela, who was cowering away from her grandmother in terror from her grandmothers wrath, as Isabela shook her head negatively at whatever Alma was yelling at her.

After witness what was happening to their daughter, to say the least that Julieta and Agustin were ‘upset’ about what Alma was doing to their daughter would be an understatement as for the first time in the couples lives they saw red as anger filled them as they both stormed up to Alma and Isabela and separated the two of them, with Agustin walking away with a sobbing Isabela while Julieta laid into her mother with a loud screaming match, while Agustín consoled Isabela in his arms trying to calm her down, while openly glaring at his mother-in-law as she argued with Julieta.

The resulting argument between mother and her eldest daughter had reached the point where Julieta had finally snapped and had actually given Alma an ultimatum that if Alma didn’t stop trying to dictate how her kids acted or what they wanted to do, that she and Agustin pack up their things and would move out of Casita like Bruno and Kiara did, and cut off all contact with Alma.

Bruno felt proud when both Pepa and Félix also voiced their own agreements with Julieta, when they told Alma that they would do the same thing, especially now that they had little Camilo to worry about as well as Dolores to worry about, and after seeing how Alma had tried to do to Isabela when they weren’t around had everybody worried.

Ever since the labor pains had started in the morning, it was now mid afternoon, with no sign of the pregnancy ending any time soon, as Pepa and Kiara were always rushing back and forth from upstairs and back bringing things that the midwife requested that they bring her, as the sounds of Julieta’s screams of pain echoed throughout Casita.

‘I really feel bad for Julieta. I remember it was this bad when Mirabel was born the first time, but at least it will be worth it in the end once she’s here,’ Bruno thought silently to himself as he held Vesta in his arms, as he looked worriedly at the staircases, as more memories of the last time Mirabel was born filled his mind, ‘Last time she went through this with Mirabel, Julieta was bedridden for a couple of weeks to recover enough to get out of bed to make her healing food to help heal herself faster.’

Bruno was happy with what was going on around him, though at the same time he was filled with trepidation at the idea of what the future was going to be like now that Mirabel was finally back, as he listened to the sounds of Julieta’s agonizing screams of pain as they rang out throughout Casita, who was trying to help out with the husbands by keeping the children entertained as best as the magical house could try and do.

‘Everything I have done for the last eight years went a lot better than I originally planned it to be. So far nothing is like it was before, and at least so far everybody is appearing to be a lot happier this time around,’ Bruno thought silently himself as a small grin quirked his lips, as he glanced around the room as some of the children ran around excitedly for a moment in a game of tag, as he held his youngest daughter in his arms, ‘I’m definitely more happier than I’ve ever been, since I was able to stay together with Kiara this time around, and I also have my own brood of kids to love and raise, instead of watching Julieta and Pepa living their lives with their own families…’

Pretty soon the sound a wailing baby could be heard throughout of Casita, quickly followed by the announcement that it was a baby girl. Pretty soon, the birthing room was filled with family members as they all took turns getting to see the newest member of the family as it was announced that her name would be Mirabel.

When Bruno finally took his turn to meet Mirabel, he gently took the newborn into his arms and cradled her in them as he stared down at familiar face of his youngest niece as she lay calmly in his arms wrapped in a rainbow colored baby blanket that Kiara had made for her, as Bruno felt tears start to form in his eyes as he stared down at Mirabel.

“Hola, Mirabel. I am your Tio Bruno and I welcome you to a brand new world. I promise to be the best Tio you will ever get to know.” Bruno said softly as tears brimmed in his eyes as he stared down at the little girl cradled in his arms as she slept peacefully, smiling happily at the idea of seeing his youngest niece again after all these years, even though she was currently a newborn baby at that moment, as memories of Mirabel all grown up briefly flew through his mind, from the last time he had spoken to her just before she went to confront Isabella in her bedroom, ‘Welcome back, Mira, whether you grow up to be the same Mirabel I knew. I’ve already changed things for the better so far and hopefully things will continue to be so as you grow up…’

”Tio Bruno, I swear that when this is over there will be no more hiding inside of Casita’s walls for you.” Mirabel said with a stern and stubborn look on her face as she gave him a small smile as she watched him go hide back behind the wall once more, “Whether Abuela and Tia Pepa agree to it or not, I will be bringing you back home so that you may rejoin the family again if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

As he watched, Mirabel let out a small whimper and yawned as she slowly opened up her eyes, and her chocolate brown eyes stared up at him with a curious look in her eyes, as a small smile appeared on her lips as she saw him.

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Author’s Notes:
So what do you guys think? This chapter is completed at 23 pages. This is my first attempt at writing a Encanto (2021) fanfiction story. Please tell me what you think of it in reviews. Do you guys love it? Hate it? What? Though extremely rude flamers won’t be tolerated. Please tell me what all of you think of this story of mine.

The description of Pepa and Félix’s wedding dance scene where it starts raining while everybody dances and parties, is supposed to be like the dance scene at the end of the movie after Casita was brought back to life by Mirabel after Casita was rebuilt and everybody got their Gifts back.

Want to see a example of Kiara’s wedding dress? Check out this link for a Berta Daphne Muse dress. This real life dress is as close to what I see Kiara wearing that I could find.

If anybody is wondering, Chapter 3 is listed as part 2 because everything in this chapter used to be part of Chapter, but I started to notice that chapter 2 was getting a bit long by itself so I split it into two parts to shorten it.

For everybody who read this story back when I wrote it in 2023, I made a third chapter called ‘Oneshot - Make It Work Again’. I put it before the Prologue and Chapter 1 chapters, so you guys should go back to the chapter before the Prologue chapter to find it. Please leave a review telling me what you think of it.
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Started On: September 15, 2024
Completed On: December 7, 2024