Chapter 11: The Festival
They were at a concert, yet again. Wesley would rather be back on the Enterprise, helping out in Engineering, running his hands over the smooth, glass sealing of the controls, the lonely hum of the warp drive his only constant companion.
This is where I feel at home…
Instead, he was here with an immortal dimension jumper and two death gods who transport souls between the worlds, listening to Indie music in Southern California. They had long since left India, with a giant bag of Masala chips, and they were off to the twenty first century to listen to some band called "Of Monsters and Men" at a music festival.
The Traveler was thoroughly enjoying the concert, but Rukia only came to listen to Mumford and Sons, who were up in about an hour. Ichigo could care less about any of this, because soon enough, he was asleep against a tree in a noisy crowd of people.
Wesley was admiring how well he could sleep with all the noise, when he found that he couldn't remember in the slightest how he got here. He didn't remember leaving the temple in India, let alone moving forty years into the future to a concert in the middle of a lushly green park.
However, he had a strange feeling that his lack of memory was somehow due to Ichigo's actions. He felt a surge of anger towards the shinigami, and this triggered his anger towards the Traveler reigniting. Everyone had been treating him like trash since he got here; maybe this was all a test to see if he could perform his training? No, how foolish!
Wesley now remembered how, for a second, he had been able to read Ichigo's mind, and something that he thought had triggered an intense emotion inside of him.
If only Counselor Troi was here…I'm sure there are plenty of counselors in this time, but at an Indie rock concert?
Rukia was getting impatient, and Ichigo stirred from his slumber.
"Are Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes up next, huh?" he yawned.
"Nah, you were only sleeping for a few minutes, they are barely done with this act. I wish they would hurry up now."
"I know, tell me about it. What does a guy have to do to get some sleep here?"
"It's a concert, idiot, you are supposed to be listening to the music."
"I hear it, don't worry."
"There is a difference between listening and hearing, you know!"
"You know, I never really thought about it like that."
"Of course you didn't, now shut up!"
Wesley listened passively to this exchange while the band finished up their last song. As time went on, he neglected to feel tired, and every once and a while, he sipped from some strange green beverage that he didn't remember buying.
What the hell is happening to my memory?
Judging from Rukia's screams of delight, Mumford and Sons walked onto the stage.
"YEAH… WOOHOO! YES!"
A hurried collection of screams from the unusually polite audience followed this. Out of the corner of his eye, Ichigo saw a little girl with light brown hair alone in the crowd.
"Hey, little girl, are you here alone?"
She stared up at him, clearly confused.
"No, I'm here with Elise." She stated plainly, as if this would simply explain everything.
She ran off, and the band began playing their first song "From our new LP, the song is called 'I Will Wait'".
Rukia let out one more scream before she and the rest of the crowd settled down for the performance. Wesley had been watching this exchange absentmindedly, realizing that someone may have put something in his drink; he poured it onto the tree where Ichigo had been sleeping a few moments earlier.
He soon felt the bottom of Ichigo's shoe propped up against the back of his neck. The shinigami pushed down without hesitation, causing him to black out yet again.
"He's kind of sad, really." He accidentally said out loud.
Rukia was too busy gawking up at the stage to notice, and the Traveler had suddenly disappeared.
"Hey, Rukia, the old guy's gone. Let's ditch this loser in the dumpster and get out of here!"
"Are you crazy, I got into this concert for free, for Christ's sake, let me enjoy this, damn it...Oh, and the Traveler is over there…"
She pointed over to a cluster of trash bins, where Wesley's mentor had his head buried in one of them, as he was obviously puking his brains out.
"Disgusting…no wonder he took this kid on…"
Although the three brothers Gibb had their memories wiped by Q after their brief encounter, they could not stop thinking that something awfully strange had happened.
Maurice was the first to have a thought of this, as he unexpectedly ran into a wall that materialized in the middle of Robin's living room. By the time Robin himself had gotten there, it had disappeared.
Then the flashes began. Little bits and flashes of information, that were hyper compressed, entered into the three brother's minds.
The first event happened to Barry, when he was enjoying a nice night off from his busy schedule (which, to be perfectly honest, was beginning to clear up due to the end of the tour). He was alone, eating dinner, when into his head flashed the words:
"That's right, my name is Q. It is my pleasure to meet you, such great musicians as yourselves"
He connected a name to a face, and just like that, George Harrison and Tōshirō Hitsugaya were standing on top of his table.
George said, "Grab my hand, there is no time to explain. I'll fill you in on the way."
"Where are we going?"
"…to get your brothers, of course."
"What's the deal with all of you? What's going on -"
"Don't speak, you're in danger. We are being watched.
To Be Continued