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.

"Gumdrops," she said. "Soundproof, and delicious." Then, to my horror, she ate them.

"Hey! She learned that from me!" I heard a voice shout from the audience.

I couldn't hold it back anymore. I started gagging loudly. Everybody quickly turned their heads to look at me as I covered my mouth. I groaned.

"Welp!" I said as I took my gumdrops out of my ears. "That was...disgusting, Poppy. But, it was fun while it lasted!" I looked over at Titus, who was still stone-faced. I elbowed him in the side. "You can stop now."

He sighed loudly as he, too, took his gumdrops out of his ears. "Thank goodness," he grumbled. "I don't know how much longer I could keep that straight face."

A smile crept across his face as he wrapped one of his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him so he could breath playfully into my ear. "But I must say, my dear, even now, you are still full of surprises."

My face flushed deep red as I quickly removed his arm from around my waist. "Not now, dearest," I whispered to him as he crossed his arms and started to whimper sadly. "And stop pouting like a child! You're nearly fifty!" I giggled.

"You two done yet?" I heard Barb growl. We snapped our heads back towards her. She grumbled something under her breath, then turned back towards Queen Poppy.

"Give that back to me!" she demanded as she slowly walked towards her.

"No!" Poppy answered as she started to back away from Barb. "I'm not gonna let you do this!"

"Why not?" Barb asked as she began to crouch down near the ground, like she was getting ready to jump at Poppy and snatch the guitar away from her.

"A world where everyone looks the same and sounds the same? That's not harmony!" Poppy told Barb. Barb growled in response.

"What do you know about harmony?"

"I don't know much about it," Poppy said quietly. Then she pointed at me. "But she does!"

Barb turned around to look at me in disgust. "She knows more about harmony than any of us!" Poppy continued. "Because she's the harmony troll!"

The entire audience collectively gasped at her remark. Barb's mouth dropped open as she continued to stare at me.

"I have heard so many different types of music in my lifetime," I said as I took a step towards my niece. "They create harmony BECAUSE they are so different. This world needs to hear voices, Barb! Not just one voice! But different voices!"

Almost as if waiting for me to say those words, Poppy ran forward and jumped into the air, ready to smash Barb's guitar to pieces.

""

Katheryn ran into Poppy at full speed, catapulting her into the air. The guitar fell out of her hands as she flew across the stage and landed with a thud on the other side.

"Poppy!" I screamed as ran over to her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she groaned. Enraged, I turned around to face my sister. I could see fire in her cold, black eyes as she dug her long, sharp nails into the guitar's neck.

"" she spat out. ""

"I AM playing my role, father!" I heard all the rock trolls gasp in unison. I just rolled my eyes. "It's you who has become so blinded by tradition that you have failed to realize that maybe I don't WANT to be who YOU want me to be. Why can't you just drop the facade and let me BECOME WHO I WAS BORN TO BE!"

"" She aimed the guitar at me and began to play the power chord.

"" The musical blast went rocketing towards me at breakneck speed. No! The gumdrops! I didn't have them!

I closed my eyes tightly and waited for the blast to hit me...this was it...this was the end for me...

But nothing happened.

I could hear quiet murmuring coming from the audience as I slowly opened my eyes and froze. Someone was standing in front of me. Titus? No...this troll had legs. But she was transparent! Was she a ghost?

Suddenly, a picture of a certain page in my Harmony Troll book popped into my head.

If that was true, and this spirit really was one of the chosen few, then...who had risen to protect me? She seemed awfully familiar...

As she turned around to look at me, I gasped. Now that I could see her face, I knew exactly who she was. How did I not recognize her immediately? It really has been such a long time since I'd seen her face. She smiled softly at me.

"My little ray of sunshine," she said sweetly. "Our ancestors have chosen me to protect you in your time of need."

I took a step towards her and reached out to touch her. I thought I could hold her, but my hand phased right through her. She really was a ghost...tears began to fall down my face as I choked out the one word I hadn't gotten to say to her in over thirty-five years...

"Mother?"