Hard Feelings & Questions Answered

Bruce watched Rhonda leap across the buildings before disappearing down one of them, his stomach twisting as he turned back to the other two trolls on the roof.

One of them, Poppy, was watching where Rhonda had gone too, her mouth hanging open.

The other, Bruce's extra long-lost baby brother, was staring directly at him.

"What the HECK is going ON?" Branch demanded, gesturing wildly with his hands. "Who was THAT? Why are you HERE? Where have you BEEN?"

"That is a long story," Bruce said, running a hand through his hair.

"Who was she?" Poppy finally looked back at him, wringing her hands together. "Why did she say she was my sister?"

Bruce let his shoulders fall. She genuinely didn't know. "You… you are Queen Poppy, right? King Peppy's kid?"

Poppy nodded slowly, and Branch was looking back and forth between the two.

"Poppy, that was princess Viva. She is your sister."

Poppy giggled nervously. "No, no, that can't be right. That would be so totally crazy if I had a sister because I've been an only child my whole life. My dad would've told me if I had a sister. That's a big secret to keep. Even bigger than the Pop Trolls history of trying to steal everyone else's strings and music. Which he did keep secret. But he wouldn't keep a sister secret. If I had a sister, we would've been doing sister stuff all this time."

Bruce didn't know what to say, as Poppy grabbed the skirt of her dress and started fidgeting with it. "Because, if she was my sister, that means I just said right to her face that I don't have a sister. And if I have a sister that means I've missed twenty one years of birthday parties and holidays and sleepovers–"

Branch looked back and forth between Bruce and Poppy like he was being torn between them before he made a choice and walked over to Poppy, grabbing her hand. "Poppy."

Just that touch seemed to be enough to jolt Poppy out of whatever spiral she'd caught herself in, biting her lip and looking down at Branch holding her hand before looking back at Bruce. "She's really my sister?"

He just nodded.

"W-where has she been? Why wasn't she…"

"According to her and Clay, some kind of abandoned golf course? They said they got separated during the great escape from the Troll Tree. Well, Viva did."

"Where have you been all this time?" Branch asked, his free hand on his hip. It wasn't as formidable as Bruce imagined he wanted it to be considering his other one was still holding Poppy's hand, but the bitterness in Branch's voice more than made up for it. "Where have all of you been?"

Bruce let his shoulders slump. Hardly the reunion any of them had imagined when they'd heard the Pop Trolls had a proper village and were still alive. "Branch…"

"Wait, how do you know them?" Poppy asked, and Branch faltered, his hand dropping from his hip.

"They… they're my brothers. Three of them, anyway." He glanced back at Bruce, before grimacing. "I threw Clay off the roof, didn't I?"

"Uh, don't worry about it. I caught him." Bruce sighed. "We gotta talk, dude."

Branch's face darkened in a way that told Bruce yes, they would absolutely have to talk, and no, it was not going to be pleasant, but then his gaze drifted to Poppy again. Who was once again stunned into silence.

"You have brothers? Branch–"

"Poppy?! Shout 'help' if you need help!" A Bergen's voice came out from below, and Poppy scrambled to the side of the roof.

"It's okay, Bridget! I'm fine!"

"Oh! Good! Uh- do you think we can get back to the wedding?"

Another voice yelled out more impatiently, "We lose the venue at three!"

They really were friends with Bergens.

"Um," Poppy said more quietly, looking back at Branch and Bruce, before calling back down to Bridget. "Yeah! Yeah, you guys go get set up again, I'll be right there!"

"Okay!"

Whatever crowd had gathered at the bottom of the building marched back to the town center while Poppy stood up, brushing off her dress. "So! This is a totally earth-shattering revelation with absolutely awful timing! I have a sister! You have brothers! I need to go be a good maid of honor but I don't know if I can right now? I need to talk to my dad!"

"Sorry about that?" Bruce tried to sound sincere, but he honestly didn't know what the next move here was. Who knew how long it would take JD and Clay to find Viva, and how long on top of that to get back up here. If they could.

Maybe they should've picked a different meeting spot. One that wasn't inside the town that had both of them freaking out.

"Okay, Poppy, you go be maid of honor," Branch said, shuffling in front of Poppy to talk directly to her. "I'll talk to Spruce and shake him out for all his secrets, then we'll get your dad and do the same for him after the ceremony."

"I am not gonna be able to think of anything else right now."

"And I don't think Gristle's deposit is refundable. Bridget will just be happy you're there, she'll understand."

After a moment of exchanged looks, Poppy nodded and headed to the edge of the roof. She looked hesitantly back over her shoulder before jumping down.

There was a brief silence after Poppy had left where Branch just stood, facing where she had been. Then he spun around, suddenly storming up to Bruce. "I still haven't gotten an answer. What the heck is going on, Spruce?!"

Each of the final few words were punctuated with another step forward, Bruce holding his hands up in surrender and stepping back. "Like I said, it's a long story! And we're confused about what the heck is going on here too! I mean, friends with the Bergens?! They were eating us!"

"Yeah! And now they don't! But you wouldn't know that because you weren't here!"

"Well now we are!"

They both stared at each other, before Branch threw up his hands. "Okay! Okay. Okay. One at a time! You first!"

Bruce nodded. "Okay. Now, I wasn't actually there for a bunch of this, so I don't know the details, but from what I've been told, Floyd got kidnapped–"

"Floyd?"

"Got kidnapped by some giants someplace, and Clay got a note to go rescue him, so he did, but he's trapped in a diamond prison and needs the Perfect Family Harmony to free him. So Clay and Viva went and found JD, then they went and found me, and we were on the way to find you only to find this big party here and we figured 'Hey! That looks suspicious! Let's investigate!' and Viva kinda jumped the gun a bit and here we are!"

"So- where have you been this whole time?"

"Clay's been at an abandoned golf course with Viva, JD was galavanting in the woods, and I was on an island. I don't know where Floyd's been but right now he's at the golf course."

"What- why- what giants kidnapped Floyd?"

Bruce shrugged. "That's a Clay question. I don't have a clue."

"What happened to Clay's hair?"

"JD got him to start dying it yellow before you hatched, it's naturally green."

"It's naturally green?!"

"It's also in an absolutely atrocious state right now. I don't think he can even stretch it anymore."

"Why–" Branch began before shutting his mouth tight, opening and closing his fists and taking a few steps back. "So you only went looking because you need the Harmony?"

"We all thought the rest of us were all dead, or at least unreachable," Bruce said, choosing not to delve into the specifics of who knew what about who. "JD and I didn't even know you'd all tried to escape the Tree. We had no idea where to even begin looking for you."

Branch's face hardened, and he folded his arms, looking down at the ground. "Fine. My turn. The Bergens stopped trying to eat us a year ago because Poppy made friends with Bridget and played matchmaker with her and Gristle. We showed all the Bergens how to be happy without eating us and boom, now we get wedding invitations." He gestured vaguely down to the suit he was wearing, shiny vest included.

"…just like that?" Years and years of Trollstice. Undone in one move.

Branch shifted on his feet, leaning back and forth. "Yeah. More or less."

They lapsed into silence, Branch avoiding eye contact. A part of Bruce wanted nothing more than to hug his baby brother, the final unknown out of the five of them. He hadn't seen him since he was one, and now…

Now he was an adult. An adult with subdued colors and a vest that looked suspiciously similar to the one Floyd had worn every day, which he somehow got away with as a kid.

Branch sighed. "Spruce–"

"It's actually… Bruce now. I go by Bruce."

A moment's pause, where Branch actually held his gaze before swallowing and continuing. "Bruce. Okay. So you came looking for me to do the Harmony, which was a complete failure the one time we tried it. In fact, it was such a failure that you all completely gave up on being brothers. How does that translate to my girlfriend getting launched halfway across town?"

After cringing for most of that before automatically locking onto the word 'girlfriend' and immediately filing it away for future reference, Bruce cleared his throat. "Yeah, I… suffice to say that news about Bergens being chill now hasn't made it very far out of Bergen Town."

He sighed, and Branch kept glancing in the direction of the wedding, despite obviously trying to stay focused and in control of the conversation. "We saw the celebration and we thought the only way it could be happening was if the Bergens had recaptured you all. We didn't understand what was going on and I think Viva just panicked."

Bruce paused for a moment. "I think her getting separated from everyone else was a messed up experience, and being back in town just… I don't think she was thinking straight."

"What about Clay?" Branch asked. "He didn't exactly seem to be cool and collected either."

"He said he wasn't at the Tree when the escape happened, but he came back a couple months later. He… hasn't really said anything about what happened but I'm guessing it wasn't pretty. He and Viva are very close, so her stress probably rubbed off on him."

"Close, huh?" Branch was frowning by now, a finger tapping on his arm.

"They're dating."

"Oh… Well, good for them, I guess. … So they were, what, doing mini golf off in the middle of nowhere?"

"Based on how they act whenever they think there's a threat around, I think it's more like they were prepping for the apocalypse."

Somehow, that seemed to actually mildly impress Branch, tilting his head and pursing his lips thoughtfully. "What about you? What were you doing on your island?"

Bruce tried to smile, though it probably came off more awkward than intended. "I… have a wife. And kids."

"Kids?"

"Yep, thirteen of 'em." It was easy for his smile to become more genuine. "I also own a restaurant there."

What little respect Clay being a survivalist seemed to gain withered away, Branch's expression slowly dropping again, his shoulders hunched. "Ah. So you got yourself a new family."

It took a lot for Bruce to keep himself from flinching. "It's not like that–"

"It's fine, Bruce. New name, new family, I'm happy for you. I've got a new life too, you know. One with no brothers. It's great. I even helped save all music. One of my friends reunited with his long-lost brother while we were doing it, except you know what? His family was actually looking for him the whole time, and not just when they needed him."

Bruce bit his tongue, hanging his head.

"They sang a song about it," Branch continued irreverently, almost rambling, half-turned away from Bruce. "It was a good song. They didn't even argue about it afterwards."

Bruce doubted there was any excuse he could give that would satisfy Branch, but silence seemed to be the wrong answer too, as after a few seconds Branch huffed, brushing past him to walk to the other end of the roof.

"Branch–"

"Looks like the ceremony is nearly over. I'm gonna go grab Poppy and get her dad up here." He stopped at the edge of the roof, looking over his shoulder. "Try not to disappear anywhere."

Then Branch jumped off, leaving Bruce alone with the echo of that stinging final comment.

He wished Brandy were here. Bruce glanced out to the edge of town, wondering whether JD and Clay were having any luck.

They searched the edges of town first, in the general direction Viva had gone, going back and forth along the backstreets. But there wasn't a single flash of pink, not a glimpse of blonde hair.

John Dory was trying to remain focused, calm and stable. He could hear Clay's unsteady breathing behind him, his brother clinging to the back of his chair with a white-knuckled grip.

He still didn't understand entirely what had happened, but what he did know was that whether the Bergens were friendly now or not, just being in this town was knocking Clay and Viva completely off-balance, and that their whole perception of Bergens being challenged all at once, plus whatever was going on with Poppy, had effectively thrown them overboard without a life jacket. Clay was handling it a bit better than Viva was, just because they'd been able to convince him not to bolt too, but John Dory was pretty sure he hadn't seen Clay this freaked out since the days immediately after their parents had been taken.

Which meant it was his job to be the life jacket.

"I think she might've gone down the sides," Clay said stiffly.

"Got it." John Dory steered Rhonda into a turn. "Hang on, bro."

It was a rough landing, Rhonda effectively dropping herself over the edge and using the natural bumps and curves to guide her momentum. But it was fast, and that was what they needed. Who knew how far Viva could get in her state.

"What next?" John Dory asked while Rhonda caught her breath. He was trying not to rush his brother, but also not let him get too caught up in his own head either.

Clay walked forward to be next to his chair rather than right behind it, looking out the front window. There was forest ahead of them, the walls of Bergen Town behind, and a small stretch of scraggly bush land in between.

Plenty of places for a lone troll to hide.

Or run to.

"Would she try going all the way home?" John Dory asked, grimacing just at the thought. If Viva had headed into the forest, all she needed to do was find a hole to hunker down in or a tree to climb up and they'd need a miracle to find her.

But he didn't know her well enough to say whether she'd actually do it. Based on everything he'd seen or been told, she didn't seem the type to completely leave Clay behind, even in a panic like she was.

But he didn't know her well enough. Clay did.

And Clay was standing stiffly, eyes glassy in a way that told John Dory he was overthinking the hell out of this. He'd looked the same back on that rooftop, though that had been tinged with a bit more horror and manic energy. Bruce had been able to somewhat calm him down then – and a part of John Dory had stung, seeing him step into that role so easily, so naturally, that it had worked.

But Bruce wasn't here right now. All Clay had was the brother he hated the most.

"Hey, Clay." John Dory stood up out of his chair, loosely tapping Clay's arm to grab his attention. "You make plans, don't you?"

"Plans?"

"Yeah, for the Putt Putts. Viva told me that. You do plans and drills, right?"

Slowly, Clay nodded. Then, a bit more confidently.

"So. What's the plan if someone gets lost?"

"It depends on where they get lost." It was like Clay was slowly going on autopilot, his eyes unfocused but his eyebrows starting to furrow thoughtfully. "If you're alone in dangerous territory, find the closest familiar landmark if possible and hunker down. Then we use whistles to communicate and call for help."

A small spark lit up in his eyes. "I have an idea."

John Dory grinned. "Which way do we go?"

Clay looked out the front window again, glancing up to see where the sun was in the sky before finally choosing a direction, running parallel to the walls of Bergen Town.

They went slowly for a few minutes, Clay diligently studying the landscape before patting John's shoulder. He pulled Rhonda up to stop, and Clay was already heading for the door. "Where are we?"

The door sliding open was the only answer, so John simply followed his brother out, watching as he paced through the area they'd stopped at, looking back and forth between the forest and the scrub around them. He didn't see what was different from where they'd been five minutes ago, but hey, he wasn't the one directing.

Clay seemed to have his focus back, the same sort of serious determination he'd had when he'd fought the wood spider before John had gotten in his way, when they'd first gotten to Vacay Island, and even when he'd first appeared in front of John in the Neverglades.

After a few minutes of searching, Clay straightened up, fiddling with his wristbands the way he always used to when he was nervous before a show. "Here."

"What is it?" John Dory had been following a few steps behind, close but giving his brother a wide berth. Now he stepped up next to Clay, a few inches gap between them. In front of them was what seemed to be a hole in the ground, the dirt cracked and dried. Wait, not just a hole.

"The tunnels I escaped town from, and Viva would've escaped from." He said it casually, even though the tightness in his shoulders and the way he upgraded from fiddling with his wristbands to pulling at the frayed threads exposed his true discomfort.

Clay was staring down at the old tunnel, not making a move to go in. He thought Viva was down there; back up on the roof he'd nearly torn himself out of Bruce's arms to follow her, but now he was just standing.

"You really think she's down there?"

"I don't know where else she would go," he said softly, his gaze drifting to the forest. "I remember, when I got to the end, it felt safer to stay inside, in the dark, than to leave. Safer to… to hide."

John Dory didn't know what to say. The last thing he wanted was to misspeak with Clay, again, and make things worse. It felt like that was all he'd been doing since Clay had found him. Since their parents had died, he just hadn't been able to say the right thing. He was supposed to know what to say. Once upon a time, he would've known.

Maybe he needed to stop talking.

John Dory glanced over his shoulder, catching Rhonda's attention and gesturing for her to come closer. When she did, he ducked inside, collecting some of his equipment before coming back out. Clay was still standing there, head tilted towards him with a confused look on his face.

He'd had twenty long years of practice in lighting torches, so it took less than a minute for John Dory to have one ready, holding it out to Clay.

After a long, silent pause, his brother took it, before dropping down into the tunnel.