Star Wars is owned by Lucas, Care Bears is owned by Kenner

I'm in it for the whimsy, not the green.

Rebel Bear

A Long Time Ago.....In A Galaxy Far, Far Away.......

A massive Starship glides through the black satin of space like a knife through velvet......a mighty cruiser with so many beings on board....windows and rooms and luxurious accommodations beyond number, necessities these blessed beings-- thank goodness-- now never lacked. A window......

A tiny being peeks out of the majestic lens, his paws pressed against the glass.....

He looks at the world he once dwelled in eons ago.....a small, bright blue orb adorned in massive green jewels. Recalling a magical, mystical place in the sky......a place pure, a place full of wonder. A place where every child's dream, every pure grown ups' dream existed, a vast, majestic place with a ethereal castle....a place called Care A Lot.

Nobody knew much about him, for when he dwelled in that glorious place....it was eons ago indeed, in the days far nostalgic when Care A Lot was first built, long before the legendary magical beings who lived there prospered and thrived. He used to be adorned with no marking on his tummy due to a birth defect.....now, by a phenomena, he was graced at last with the marking of a lightsaber.

He was Rebel Bear.

Cheerful bleeps and chirps were heard in the distance.

A familiar friend glided toward Rebel.....

Bleeps and chirps turned to those of questions......

"Oh, hey, R2, I was just looking down at some old memories....."

R2-D2, a cheerful droid and loyal friend perched beside Rebel and looked down at the mysterious blue marble below with him.

His bleeps were suddenly sounds of loving kindness as he inquired.....

"He he, this planet's my original home. We call it Earth. My home land is a place far distant in the highest sky....it's called Care A Lot."

His bleeps and whistles were more inquisitive.....

"He he, the beings who live there are a lot like me. They're all ursine, bears, you know? And each one of them is born with a marking on his or her tummy, by nature, that signifies who they are, their spirits, their personalities...."

R2's whistles and bleeps turned to insightful chatter.....

"He he I know....I wasn't born with any marking on my chest that you could see with your eyes---or in your case, a lens—but I've certainly got one now, thanks to the force!"

Suddenly, a young male voice intervened on the intercom........

"R2-D2, mechanic droid, R2-D2, please report to X-Wing hangar number 344, R2-D2, mechanic droid, R2-D2, please report to X-Wing hangar number 344."

R2-D2 muttered a polite au revoir and sped off.

"He he, see you later, R2," Rebel giggled, feeling awkwardness creeping in. He had every right to feel awkward.

For his friends, his fellow bears, are no ordinary bears. The legends call them Care Bears, and the minute they're born in Care A Lot, nature gives them beautiful markings on their tummies the minute they're born that signifies who they are in soul, spirit and heart. Eventually, when Care Bears are old enough to know, they know, for the most part, who and what they are as individuals and what their purpose is as far as sharing that with others. The Care Bears that actually ran Care A Lot gave them their titles, deemed them who they were as the parents, shortly after birth, brought them forth in a naming ceremony that named their personality and purpose.

But Rebel Bear, when born, wasn't born with any mark on his stomach, due to a birth defect that happened while he was in his mother's womb, a defect never fully explained.

When he was brought before Care A Lot's royal family..... they saw no mark on his tummy....they never knew the birth defect, they simply sent him away, not knowing what else to do, his parents were flabbergasted.....devastated.....they simply named him Pure Bear, for his tummy was white.....

The other Care Bears were always awkward around him whenever he met them......they were polite and never treated him with flat out cruelty.....but they didn't really have to. They weren't aware at the time about what they couldn't understand....a Care Bear with no symbol on his tummy? Due to a birth defect, no less? The Care Bears meant well, yet as wonderful as the Care Bears are, they are, needless to say, far from perfect. Like humans, they are often fearful of the unusual or out of the ordinary. They shunned Pure Bear, excluded him from games, activities, parties, even simple playtime. They never talked about his defect to his face.....they always talked behind his back, the youngsters such as Good Luck and Friendship did it with pity, indeed, to Rebel Bear, the lowest blow of all, the adults, however, did it out of predjudice, their barbarically imperfect side coming through.....

Rebel Bear remembered the way he'd been treated....though he'd seen the wonders, kindness and magic of what the Care Bears could do for other beings on the cobalt blue, emerald green orb he gazed down upon, especially as fully grown Care Bears, he himself had never felt it. He often wondered why he wanted to even look at the globe, with all the hidden, knife-beneath- silk cruelty that the beings called Care Bears had inflicted on him so long ago.....

Rebel had always had recurring dreams....he always had dreams about being a fetus in his mother's womb, her heart beating at a steady pace, nutrients flowing to him from her placenta, his respiratory rate normal, everything absolutely perfect.....until a mysterious phenomena happened, a sort of black ink flowed in to the womb from out of nowhere, a black ink that seemed to be darker than the black satin of outer space......it began to flow inside of his body, penetrating him......he felt his soul scream in terror, even though everyone knows fetuses can't scream.....a rending and tearing sound was always heard....his tummy left twinkling with a sort of glowing ember type light when the dark black ink left the womb at last.... embers flitting about his stomach area simply dying.....

Somewhere in Care A Lot.....a young bear was looking up at the skies, the skies above Care A Lot, the skies loftier and more celestial, the skies further distant....he remembers a bear a long time ago, a bear innocent, a bear so clean, so wonderful, so pure and untainted in personality, so kind to everyone, so wanting to be friends, selfishness was never in his vocabulary, never in his knowledge.....yet he had always been sent away, sent to the side, shut out, his very existence shut out from the Care Bears' minds, hearts and souls, both child and adult.....cast out......

Tenderheart Bear looked down at his own stomach....he had a huge red heart right in the center....signifying his honest, pure love, loyalty, devotion and friendship to all he met.....true, honest love and friendship was within him, according to the Care A Lot Royal Family.....his destiny told him it was something he himself had as a talent, it was his purpose not only to have and to use....but to teach others to use also.....he remembered what the elders of the family had said about the Care Bears being imperfect by nature.....for that is what nature inteded. Yet Tenderheart found that when he and the others were kids........they were talking about Pure Bear as if he were some sort of circus freak, a piece of a puzzle that was part of the whole Care Bear picture by destiny, yet nevertheless, simply didn't belong.

What kind of Care Bears are we?, he thought. Here he was, an honest-to-god keeper of pure love and friendship, allegedly, and he couldn't even treat a Care Bear that stood out from the rest with love and care and friendship? Truth to say, he wasn't flat out, full blown unkind to him.....he didn't have to be.....the crime was just there, he was, as were the others.

Even Cheer Bear, the bear with the rainbow on his tummy, the bear who could illuminate people's everyday living, simply, by his supernatural powers, painting them a rainbow simply by making a sliding motion....he did not bother to do so to Pure Bear whenever life was getting heavy......Tenderheart was secretly upset that Cheer Bear didn't bother to illuminate his day or dry his tears. Yet his pride had gotten the better of him for several years.....Tenderheart's eyes filled with tears of shame. The shame was more painful than his mind could register.

Rebel Bear remembered his recurring dreams he had when dwelling in Care A Lot.

The black ink.......his home. He sat outside as a baby. He tried to reach out to the other baby Care Bears, but as he tried, crawling up to them, they turned away....he had no marking on his chest......he wept. Suddenly, the black ink arrived again, this time from the sky......turning it from cerulean blue to pure black, blacker than any night that had ever existed in Care A Lot......he heard his parents scream within the home.....he wept....yet......

Something beautiful had burst from the midst of the horrible black ink.....something stark white and majestic.....a bright star......so huge......so beautiful......it descended, and none too soon.......a figure appeared from it, the figure of a young man.....

"Come away with me, oh, little one, come away with me where you will be loved and cared away with me where you will find what you oh-so- desperately need.....friendship.....wondrous friendship......loving care......loyal friendship and love that will never die.......games and toys and flights of fancy with friends who have nothing but love in their hearts....people who will never care what you are, people who will treat you the same as they....no more, no less....."

The figure stretched out two arms......

"Come away with me, O beloved little away and live in peace.....and safety....away from the imperfections of your former world....."

Desperate, the weeping bear reached out his hands.....

A new world awaited.....a celestial world of onyx black and sapphire blue.......clouds of endless miles.......liquid from the Kingdom of Heaven itself......ethereally liquid figures as illuminous as he who saved Rebel's life when he hadn't any idea who he was.......they walked amongst the endless celestial world of night.......loving touches lived here, true touches........honest friendships......welcome............warm welcome............honesty......acceptance no matter what and who he was......everyone there loved him for who he was..........it was all the exact opposite of what he'd experienced in Care A Lot.

He decided to stay forever.

Awake, he found it was all only a dream......

.......One day, years later......as a young bear......mysterious happenings happened in Care-A-Lot........

He remembered the battleships....the imperial cruisers......it was a night no Care Bear would ever wish to remember........lasers sliced through building and shop, through house and natural environment, through the vitalmost parts of the Castle of Care A Lot.

Not a single soul knew what they were or what they wanted.

Every being of Care A Lot was caught off guard, not one of them could perform a Care Bear stare, every Care Bear's natural, biological defense system against darkness, in time......

A symphony of explosions unleashed......screams of horror accompanied......children had to be rushed, some for safety, others to the hospital, some no more than babies......

Rebel, known as Pure, looked outside, he must have been no more than six or seven.......

A phenomenal feeling inside that he couldn't distinguish tried to tell him desperately that the dark apparitions were there for a specific reason.

They were there for him......

No being in Care A Lot, to the present day, ever knew why.......why they came, why they destroyed, why they caused mayhem and madness......

But Rebel fought a horrible feeling inside as he watched helplessly.....watched young bears his age such as Good Luck, Cheer and Funshine run for their very existence......

He had something....something.....something this horrible darkness desired........

A nightmare of his that had indeed come true......his heart pounded and screamed in terror, even for those Care Bears who had treated him cruelly.

Suddenly, a raining, a downpour of luminous green destruction rained behind him.....his home exploded and burned before his very eyes as he turned around.

All too sudden....death was hungrily eating its way through Care A Lot, eating away at the women and children, eating away at the males, eating away....

Rebel Bear was looking about only to find more of the same....

He desperately tried to reach out to the others as he did in his nightmare, only to find the same results....they turned away.

I shouldn't have even tried to reach out, he thought. They don't want me because I don't have a mark on my tummy. Why did I even take the chance?

He reached out in tears to the massive heavens above, to the heavens.

Something.....something deep within his heart soul spirit and mind....emerged suddenly and reached out further than his own physical flesh, blood, bone and fur would let him.....

....It had found someone....found someone who loved.....

"He's here!"

"Who's here? Where? What are you saying?"

"The being I found in my dreams, Leia. I feel him....he's in the Earth system right below us."

Eager bleeps could be heard.

"Rahhhhahahaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

"He lives in the sky, in the clouds, in a tribe of beings just like him!"

"Rahhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhrrrrrr!"

"He's dying, Leia!"

Tears flowed from the eyes of the being within the heavens.....

"How do you know all that?"

"The Force, Leia. It's him, I know it's him. He's using it to reach out to us! He's dying, Leia! He can't endure their cruelty anymore! He'll be dead before the suns on Tattooine melt in the sky! He's crying, Leia! His eyes are full of tears! We've got to rescue him, before it's too late!"

"Imperial Troops....Leia....they know about him.....they know all about him! Before we head for Tattooine, we've got to take him with us before it's too late! They'll kill him!"

"Those barbarians! He's only a baby! Let's do it!"

The Milliennium Falcon careened forward into the Earth Solar system, cloaking device deflecting all detection screens, none too soon, as it reached the heavenly skies of Care A Lot.

"He lives there! In the skies! Just like he said! Care A Lot!"

"Where does he live? I can't see with all the smoke!"

"He's kind of an orangey color. He has no mark on his tummy."

"So many with marks on their tummies, but I can't see....they run so fast....."

"Who wouldn't, Mistress Leia, with all the Imperial Barbarians running amok blowing away everything that lives?!"

Frantic whistles were heard.....

"Ah, there...he's right in front of his house....!"

The being's eyes filled with more tears.....

"It's been blown to the Realm Where Alien Beings Live Eternally....it's his family's house....."

"We've got to take him now! He'll die if we don't!"

Pure looked up to see the stark white angelic entity careening towards him.....

"Lower me just enough, Leia, we've no time to lose. His future and the fate of the Rebel Alliance hangs in the balance."

The entity slowly lowered before Pure.....

A doorway opened.....

A being came and spoke the exact same words of salvation, word for word, that Rebel Bear heard in his dream.

Rebel Bear was saved at last.

The being was Luke Skywalker.