Dani Moonstar's powers make other people's fears visible. During the Demon Bear story, the fear that threatens the class is her own.

Dani Moonstar's powers make other people's fears visible. During the Demon Bear story, the fear that threatens the class is her own. By this point she shares leadership with Sam, and her forceful personality has become part of the team's everyday rhythm. Dani is willing to challenge people, including the adults around her. She has to learn responsibility without losing the independence that makes her useful as a leader in the first place. Then New Mutants #18–20 puts her in a much more vulnerable position. The Demon Bear has haunted her life and the loss of her parents. When she confronts it, the consequences pull her classmates into a supernatural emergency around the hospital where she is being treated. A story that begins with one student's terror becomes a test of the whole group's loyalty and resourcefulness. Illyana's Soulsword is crucial to ending the threat, and Dani's missing parents are released. That resolution gives the story a family at its center. The strange imagery and escalating danger matter because someone the team knows is hurting, and because the truth behind that hurt can still change. Dani's bond with Rahne supplies another, quieter example of how she connects to people. Their communication in Rahne's wolf form makes her powers part of a friendship as well as a weapon. Her abilities can expose terror, but they can also keep somebody from being isolated. The larger class needs both sides of her. Sam brings his own protective instincts, while Dani brings a readiness to question what everybody else is accepting. During this stretch she can lead the others and still have to depend on them. The Demon Bear makes that dependence painfully concrete.