Trolls World Tour: Forever My Queen

Ch. 22: Rise

Titus's eyes widened as I gave him a quick wink. I reached into my back pocket, pulled out the smoke bomb I had picked up only moments before, and threw it on the ground. Once the smoke had surrounded the both of us, I quickly yanked the other two gumdrops Queen Poppy had given me earlier in the day and stuck them in his ears.

"Just follow my lead," I told him quietly. "Show no emotions and don't react to anything that happens until I say so. Got it?" He nodded and smiled while wiping the tears off his face. As soon as the smoke began to clear, I backed up and played the power chord, aiming directly at his heart.

As soon as the blast hit him, the same chrysalis I was trapped in formed around him, and not even a second afterwards, it began to shake and crack until he emerged. It was really hard to hold my emotions in, because to be honest, even though I had turned him into a "rock zombie," he still found a way to look smoking HOT!

His skin had went from navy blue to black and his hair had turned red. He was now wearing fishnets on his tail and a dark blue vest was draped around his shoulders. I took notice that his pixel heart was now missing, which made me a bit sad, but at least he was still himself and not an actual zombie. I mean, I had hardly noticed that mine was also missing.

With his eyes glowing red, he walked with me back to the stage. My heart ached in my chest a bit as I took a quick glimpse at Trollex. He was frozen in shock as tears poured down his face. I had to look away quickly or else I would've ran over to him and hugged him...I wish I could, but I knew I couldn't. At least not right now.

Why didn't he remember me?

After I had handed the guitar back to Barb, Titus and I stood off to the side and watched as more trolls were turned into rock zombies.

Barb was about to convert Queen Poppy when her good friend, Branch, arrived unexpectedly in a hot air balloon with the Reggaeton trolls and the K-Pop gang in tow to save her. However, he jumped in front of Barb's blast, taking the hit for Poppy, and turned into a rock zombie. He must care about her a lot if he was willing to put his life on the line for her.

Then, someone hooked up Barb to a wire so she could fly around the stadium as she blast each of the troll leaders one by one. The two of us just had to watch in horror as our son was converted into a rock zombie before our very eyes. I started to feel sick to my stomach, but I forced myself to stay strong.

Finally, it was Poppy's turn. In the short amount of time she had while Barb was converting all the other troll leaders, she had managed to pick the lock to her cage and had started to escape. However, she wasn't fast enough, and was soon caught by Branch, who held her still while Barb played the power chord and blasted her.

She fell to the ground and stood there in her new rock n' roll attire as she threw up her hands in our standard salute.

"Who's ready to party?" She roared. "Without smiling."

The rock trolls cheered when they saw that Queen Barb had successfully converted all of the troll leaders. I thought Barb was going to continue converting more trolls but instead, she tossed her guitar to Poppy.

"Finish them off," she told her as a sly smile spread across her face. Poppy started to walk towards the front of the stage as she began to play the power chord. When she had walked about halfway towards the front, she started to slide around on her back with her tongue sticking out. Once she finally reached the front, she aimed the guitar at two identical funk trolls who were standing there. But, instead of converting them, she winked, then quickly turned the instrument and herself at Barb.

Barb gasped. "What are you doing?!" She shouted at Poppy. "You're supposed to be a rock zombie!" Poppy just smiled as she took the gumdrops out of her ears.