One moment John Dory was walking away from Rhonda, and the next, he was standing in a strange room. Taking in his surroundings, he noticed that a large black screen sat in front of him and across from the screen sat five identical looking red chairs. He felt his heart beginning to race, panic quickly setting in. Where was he?
Seconds later, a light appeared to his left, and as it faded a startled troll with long purple hair appeared. Looking at the troll next to him, recognition and astonishment filled John Dory. "Spruce?!"
Hearing his old name, Bruce whipped his head around to see a familiar looking troll. "John Dory? Is…is that you?"
Before John could respond, a light filled the room once again and was soon replaced by a troll with crazy lime-green hair and a pink female troll with wild yellow hair.
"What the…" Clay stammered, looking around the room he was in, his gaze quickly landing on his two older brothers.
"Oh my gosh…w-where are we?" Viva gasped, breathing hard and fast as she looked widely around.
"Viv, you need to calm down," Clay said, putting his hand on her shoulder with his gaze not leaving his brother's faces, who were both staring at him in shock.
Before another word could be said, the room filled with light once more as Floyd appeared in the room.
"Floyd?" At Floyd's appearance, John Dory felt relief wash over him. Running toward Floyd he flung himself at his brother, hugging him tightly. "Floyd! You're alive!"
"John Dory?" Floyd questioned in surprise as his oldest brother hugged him tightly. Looking over John Dory's shoulder, Floyd spotted his other brothers Spruce and Clay, along with a fourth troll he did not recognize. "Clay? Spruce? What're…what're we doing here?" Floyd asked as John Dory pulled away.
"Well…that's what we want to know," Clay responded, still shocked to see his brothers, while Viva continued to breathe heavily beside him.
"Who're you?" Bruce asked, pointing at Viva.
"I'm Viva," Viva responded, eyeing the brothers curiously. "And, who are you guys?"
"I'm John Dory, and these are my younger brothers Spruce, Clay, and Floyd," John Dory answered.
"These are your brothers," Viva repeated, looking at Clay.
"Actually, no one's called me Spruce for years, I go by Bruce now," Bruce told John.
"Wait, what?" John Dory said, staring at Bruce.
"Oh, I like it! Someone got fancy," Clay told Bruce, the shock of seeing his brothers ebbing away as joy replaced it.
"Yeah, I wanted to put my boy band days behind me," Bruce explained, smiling at Clay.
"I can't believe we're all here," John Dory said, still shocked at seeing his brothers again after twenty years.
"Wait a minute, where's Branch?" Floyd asked.
At the mention of their baby brother, all the brothers looked around the room, even though they already knew he wasn't present.
"Floyd, was Branch with you when the light appeared?" John Dory questioned, turning to look at Floyd.
"No, I haven't seen Branch since…since we all left…" Floyd finished sadly, hanging his head down in guilt.
"Wait, you mean that you left too?" Bruce asked Floyd, who nodded his head in shame.
"When?" Clay asked.
"Right after you three did. I said goodbye to him and I told him that it was time for me to start a solo career," Floyd explained, ashamed.
"So, we all walked out on him that night?" Bruce clarified, hating the truth in those words. "Has anyone been in contact with him?"
"No one's been in contact with anyone since that night," Clay said, folding his arms.
"Guys…I-I don't think Branch is…alive…" John Dory said quietly.
At his words, all heads turned to him.
"What do you mean?" Floyd asked, scared to hear what John had to say.
"Last week, I decided to return home…" John started, causing his brother's eyes to widen in surprise. "I had no idea you guys all left. I mean, I thought maybe you two had," John said, gesturing toward Bruce and Clay, "but I didn't think you would leave too," John said, looking at Floyd. "Anyway, when I got home, it was abandoned. There was moss and leaves everywhere, and it looked as if it's been unlived in for years."
As John Dory finished speaking, all the brothers went silent as they processed his words.
"Maybe-maybe they moved?" Clay asked, refusing to believe the worst.
"I don't think so. All the furniture was still there, I found clothes hanging outside on the drying rack that looked as if they'd been there for a long time, and some of Branch's old toys were lying all over the place," John Dory sadly said.
"You don't think a-a Bergen got them, do you?" Clay asked, causing Viva to gasp in horror.
"A Bergen?" John, Bruce and Floyd questioned at the same time.
"You don't know what a Bergen is?" Viva gasped. The three trolls shook their heads no.
"Viva, we didn't grow up in the Troll Tree, you know that. Also, remember how you had to explain to me what they were when we first met?" Clay gently reminded her.
"What's a Bergen?" Floyd asked.
"Bergen's are terrifying creatures, who don't know what happiness is. The only way for them to feel happy is when they…they…" Viva broke off, unable to finish her sentence.
"Eat a troll," Clay finished for her, his brothers gasping in horror.
"You think that's what happened to…Branch and Grandma?" Bruce whispered. Clay could only shrug miserably in response.
"Oh, your brother is alive all right," a new voice said in the room.
Looking around, the brothers and Viva turned to see a small cloud walking toward them, wearing socks but no shoes.
"And…you are?" John Dory asked the newcomer.
"Hey everyone, how's it going? Name's Cloud Guy," he said, introducing himself.
"Hold on, rewind. You said Branch is still alive?" Floyd asked Cloud Guy, hopefully.
"Yeah, we're best buds," Cloud Guy casually told them, the brothers looking at each other in relief.
"Wait, but if he's alive, why isn't he here?" Clay asked Cloud Guy.
"Well, right before you were all brought here, you all felt remorse for your past mistakes at the same time. In other words, your thoughts and feelings were in perfect harmony, shall we say. You all felt regret for leaving, you missed one another, you wondered what became of each other, etc. etc." Cloud Guy explained. "So now, you get your wish! You were brought here not only to reunite and catch up with each other, but you will get to see what has become of your youngest brother. You're here to watch your brother's past as well as your future. And when I say your future, I mean your future because if it wasn't for me bringing you all here, then you'd be reuniting with each other in a very different circumstance, which you'll soon see."
As Cloud Guy finished talking, the brothers all looked at each with mixed emotions of nervous excitement and confusion.
"Wait, so we're going to…watch…our baby brother's life?" Bruce summed up, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
"Exciting, right? Although, he's certainly not a baby anymore," Cloud Guy said.
"But…how?" John Dory asked.
"Well it has been twenty years so-"
"No no, that's-that's not what I meant," John Dory interrupted Cloud Guy. "I meant how are we supposed to watch our brother's past, as you put it."
In answer to John's question, Cloud Guy simply pointed at the large black screen attached to one of the walls.
"And you don't have to worry about friends or family wondering where you've gone, since time is frozen on the outside. Once you leave here, time will resume and it will be as if you never left," Cloud Guy explained.
"Oh, well that's good," Bruce sighed in relief, causing Floyd to look at his older brother questioningly.
"You still haven't answered my question though. Why isn't Branch here?" Clay repeated to Cloud Guy.
"Well I did answer it. As I said, you were all brought here because your thoughts were in sync. You all missed each other and felt remorse for the past at the same time. Branch isn't here because he was not thinking this. He wasn't missing you guys, wasn't even thinking of you, etc. etc." Cloud Guy said. At his words, the brothers all looked at each other sadly.
"Wait, then why am I here?" Viva asked him.
"Because you were missing your family. Your thoughts were harmonized with theirs. How many times do I have to repeat myself," Cloud Guy said, muttering the last part to himself but was still heard by everyone in the room. "And before you ask, yes, you'll see your sister's past and future too, and no, she's not going to come because she doesn't even know you exist," Cloud Guy told Viva, who looked shocked and hurt to discover her father never told her sister about her. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to just put it out there like that. I tend to do that," Cloud Guy said after seeing Viva's expression, shrugging.
"You said you know Branch. Does he…miss us?" Floyd hesitantly asked Cloud Guy.
"That's for you to find out and not for me to answer," he responded, bringing a disappointing frown on the brother's faces.
"You said we're going to watch Branch's past and future as well as Viva's sister's? How long are we going to be here exactly?" John Dory demanded, putting his hands on his hips.
At his brother's words, Clay turned angrily on John Dory. "Why? Are you not interested in finding out what happened to Branch?"
"What? I never said that?!"
"Well it sounds like you don't want to be here and you have more important things to be doing," Clay accused his oldest brother.
"What! What else do you think I would want to be doing?" John Dory asked, arguing back with his brother.
"Oh, I don't know," Bruce sarcastically said, joining in the argument. "You seemed pretty eager to walk out of his life then, why not just do it now and leave?"
"Huh?" John Dory asked, offended by his brother's words. "You guys walked out on him too!"
"Guys, please. Do you have to argue?" Floyd said, trying to reason with his brothers, who just ignored his words.
"If you don't want to be here then just let the Cloud Guy know. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to bring you back," Bruce snapped at John.
"You know what Spruce…" began John Dory.
"It's Bruce!" Clay yelled over John, interrupting him.
"Thank you, Clay!" Bruce said, exasperated.
"Well, as entertaining as this is…" Cloud Guy said, stepping between the fighting brothers, causing them to stop their bickering, "I'm afraid even if he did want to leave, he wouldn't be able to. You see, I'm not the one who brought you here. You guys brought yourselves here, unknowingly of course." At the troll's confused looks, Cloud Guys rolled his eyes. "As I said, your thoughts were in perfect harmony! There's power in that, and not just from singing it either. Anyway, to answer your question John, you won't be watching Branch's story and then Poppy's, who's Viva's sister by the way. Years after you guys left, Branch found the Pop Trolls who escaped from the troll tree and have been living with them ever since."
"You mean they escaped!" Viva happily exclaimed.
"Yes, which you'll soon see. Now, any more questions before we begin?" Cloud Guy asked the trolls, who looked at each other then shook their heads, Bruce, Clay, and John still throwing glares at each other. "Great, you guys may now take your seats and then we'll begin." With those words, Cloud Guy disappeared from the room.
Sighing, the trolls made their way to the seats. Viva sat down first on one of the end chairs, Clay sitting next to her. Throwing one last glare at each other, Bruce took his seat next to Clay while John Dory took the other end seat, leaving Floyd sitting between his two older brothers.
As soon as everyone had taken their seats, the screen turned on and the movie began.
Author's Note: I didn't have the brothers living in the Troll Tree because they ended up leaving. If it was so easy to leave, why hadn't any of the other trolls left? Also, when John Dory is seen leaving through the window of their home in Trolls Band Together, we see the forest outside, not Bergen Town. It also just doesn't make sense because when BroZone is performing, John Dory mentioned they're on tour, meaning they travel. If they'd been living in the Troll Tree, they wouldn't have been unable to do this. My opinion is that during the Pop Trolls escape from the Troll Tree, Branch was still living with his brothers, before they separated because he and Poppy are around the same age and Poppy was only a baby when the Pop trolls escaped. Branch was a toddler when his brothers left, so his brothers left him shortly after the Pop Trolls escaped. Also, I don't think all the trolls know what Bergen's are, which includes Branch's brothers as well as the Rock Trolls, Classical Trolls, Funk Trolls, Techno Trolls, Country Trolls, etc. Bergen's discovered the Pop Trolls in the Troll Tree then built their town around it, as is seen in the beginning of Trolls 1. No other troll villages were near Bergen town, otherwise the Bergen's would have gotten them too. This is also seen on the Troll Kingdom map, as each Troll tribe has their own territory. And since Branch and his brothers lived outside of the Troll Tree, I don't think they knew about them. When John Dory crashed Bridget and Gristle's wedding, he seemed unafraid of the Bergens. If he'd known about their history with trolls, he probably would have been more cautious. Also, Bruce seemed unaffected in living on Vacay Island where he is surrounded by taller creatures than he is. If he'd known about the Bergen's he probably would have felt more safe living among his kind and those his height. Same goes with Floyd, who moved to Mount Ragous to start a solo career. As for Clay, he learned about the Bergens from Viva and the PuttPutt trolls after meeting them when he walked out on his brothers. Branch, on the other hand, found out about Bergens after Chef took his Grandma after she was banished from Bergen town. When Chef got banished, we see her searching for Trolls. I believe that as she's living in the woods searching, she one day here's Branch singing, follows the voice, and grabs Grandma who pushed herself in the way to save Branch. I think this because in the scene in the first movie, where we see Branch's flashback to losing his Grandma, they're in the woods, not in the Troll tree in Bergen town. And as Branch and his Grandma lived away from the Pop Trolls, Chef only found them in that area and not other trolls. A few years after losing his Grandma, Branch found the escaped Pop Trolls and began to live with them so he wasn't entirely alone anymore, as he's been on his own for a few years, and so he could protect them from the same fate his grandma suffered. Also, I had Viva having a slight panic attack in the beginning of this chapter because in Trolls Band Together, she is terrified of leaving the golf course. So when she's brought to this strange room against her will, she panics at first because she doesn't feel safe. But once things start being explained, she calms down. Sorry if any of that was confusing, I was just trying to get some thoughts out and explain a few things before really diving into this story.