Chapter Text
- just before the World Tour -
She wasn't serious. There was no way, she couldn't actually be doing this, right?
"Alright, looks great!! Let's pack it up!"
Barb's voice rang in their ears, repeating over and over again till the reality of them finally settled in.
She was serious
Mavros marches up to the Queen of rock, ears pinned back and anger clearly displayed on their face. "Barb, you can't be serious! You can't do this!"
Her reaction was instant, face morning from one of excitement to pure rage, matching the shorter troll.
"Are you defying me?!"
"If defending innocent trolls means defying you, then yea! I guess I am!" Barb continued to grow angrier and angrier, but Mav didn't let that stop them from speaking their mind. "This plan is a load of shit and you know it, what do you even have to gain from all this?!"
Calling her plan a "load of shit" was probably the wrong choice of words in hindsight, cause the next thing Mavros knew, Barb had grabbed the front of their shirt in a threatening manner. She towerd over them like this and it made Mav stutter, her angry glare sending chills down their spine.
"Because we deserve it" she growled, a stark contrast to her previous yelling. "We should have free reign over the valley, none of this separated bullshit" her tail was lashing angrily behind her, a clear indicator of her rage.
"W-we can talk to them, Barb. A negotiation is an option" they could hear their heart pounding in their ears, never having felt so afraid of their friend as their words stutterd out. "We dont have to do this!"
"Dammit, mav. Fine!" She let go of their shirt, the shorter troll feeling relief for a moment, thinking they had gotten through to the Queen. Untill they felt her hands return, this time grabbing onto their arm, and begin trying to pull them towards the now fully loaded ship. "We're leaving, and you'll see! We are past negotiations."
Mavros quickly planted their feet into the ground, refusing to let themselves be dragged away. "No! I'm not just going to just stand by and let you-!" Barb had released her grip on them again, cutting Mav off and causing them to stumble. She then grabbed their shoulder, turned them towards the ship, and pushed them to the ground.
They landed hard and directly on their tail, unable to catch themselves from shock. Sitting up, they saw Barb standing at their feet, looking down at them with more rage in her eyes than they had ever seen. It made their breath hitch and brused tail curl instinctively around them.
We're going" she growled, hands curled into fists at her side. "We could have all been united all thoes years ago, and pop had to ruin it." She spat the word pop out like it was poison in her mouth, snarl never leaving her face as her tail continued to thrash around angrily.
Mav swallowed the lump in their throat, hoping their voice wasn't half as shakey as the rest of them. "Please Barb, this isn't right." Their plea came out as more of a whisper then anything, fear and anxiety clogging up their throat and making it hard to talk.
Barb simply scoffed, looking away and starting to walk past them towards the ship. Mavros watched her leave, confused and anxious at the Queens sudden slience.
As she approached the ship they moved to their knees, already feeling achey from their rough landing. Preparing to stand up, they heard her voice speak again, but this time it wasn't directed to them.
"Hey Rin! I've got a job for you."
Rin? Who the heck was Rin?
Still kneeling, Mav looked up towards the opening of the ship. There they saw Barb talking to another, rather large, troll. She was bright compared to the average rock troll, with light blue fur and white hair. She wore a shredded, sleeveless denim jacket with large spikes all the way around, black crop top with matching shorts and crossed belts over her hips, also with studs on them. She also had many pearcings, as was typical of rock troll. There were multiple in each ear along with a bar at the top, a brow peircing and lip ring.
Not to mention the fact she was at least half a head taller than Barb, and clearly very buff, even from where Mavros was still kneeling they could see the muscle on her arms.
They couldn't hear what they were saying anymore, Barb was facing away from them and had lowered her voice.
After a few moments Barb turned and they both begun walking back to them, the smirk on her face telling them that, whatever they had been talking about, wasn't good. At least not for them.
Mav finally went to stand fully, feeling awkward being the only one on the ground, and decided to try their luck at talking some sense into their friend again.
"Come on, this makes you no better then thoes bastards and you know it! You're better than this Queen Barb, please just stop. We can talk to them!"
They saw Barb's face fall for a moment, Mavros never called her by her title, they'd know each other for a long time and they never felt the need. Barb never minded either, rather encouraging it. Saying it was nice having someone just call her by her name.
But the situation called for it. Hopfully, if nothing else, it would show her how Serious Mavros was about her plan, how against it they were.
She covered it quickly though, the look disappearing from her face so quickly if you blinked you'd have missed it. A cruel smirk taking is place instead.
"Mav, I want you to meet Rin. She's going to be your bodyguard during the tour."
The smaller troll could have sworn their heart stopped at thoes words. They looked at the two in front of them, eyes flickering across both of their faces, trying to find something that would tell them this was a joke, or at least a really bad prank. But there was no such sign.
"Please, Barb please don't do this." Mav's voice was barely a whisper at this point, tears prickling in the corner of their eyes as their breath shuddered in their lungs and made it hard to talk.
Barb rolled her eyes, a dry chuckle leaving her throat like this was one of the funniest things she had seen in a while, Rin joining in on the laughter.
"Don't be so dramatic man, you'll see. After we get that first string I know you'll change your mind. You just need a little help getting there." She looked up at the blue troll next to her, "get them on the ship and make sure they stay there till we leave." With that, she once again turned and made her way inside the still awaiting ship.
"You got it Queen Barb"
Rin took one step towards Mav before they took the hint and tried to male a run for it. Attempting to dodge the trolls large hands and escape. Maybe if they got away, Barb would give up and leave without them.
Unfortunately, luck still wasn't on their side. Rin had clearly been expecting them to run and managed to grab their arm before they even made it a few steps away.
"Sorry man, your not getting away that easy."
Her grip was rough and Mav yelped a bit as their arm was jerked back, they begun desperately trying to pry her hand off. Tears were streaming down their face now as they begged and pleaded for Rin to let them go.
"No! I'm not getting on that ship, this is insane! Please Rin, this is crazy just let me go!" Sobs racked their voice as they spoke, digging their heals into the dirt to avoid being dragged.
Unlike Barb, who they were roughly the same strength as, Rin was strong. It didn't matter what Mavros did, how hard they pulled against her grip that was becoming painfull or how hard they dug in their heals, she marched on. Hardly even seeming fazed at the shorter trolls struggle.
Before long, she'd managed to pull them up the ramp of the ship, or the mouth technically, seeing as the ships were living creatures.
Barb was standing just inside, directing a few trolls on where to set things up. Looking over her shoulder as she heard the two trolls enter, Barb's expression fell as her eyes landed on Mavros and how distraught they looked.
"Where do you want me to keep them, Queen Barb? I doubt they're gonna stay still long enough for us to get into the air." Rin was the first to speak, a chuckle joining her words. It was like she found Mav's fear funny. All the red troll wanted to do in that moment was disappear, they wanted to run back to their apartment, hide under the covers of their bed and pretend the world didn't exist. But they knew now. Barb, their friend, wasn't going to let them run away from this.
She shook her head lightly before speaking, taking a moment to hide the shock on her face and drop her shoulders. Doing her best to appear indifferent.
"I'll have to set up a room for them or something. For now, just take them inside and keep a grip on them. I don't want them going anywhere"
Those last few words were spoken directly to Mavros, anger and shock still clearly visible in the Queens eyes no matter how calm she tried to act. Mav stared at Barb, trying to find some trace of the caring troll they knew lurked beneath the surface. But that troll had been buried, all they could see was the rock hard determination that fuled this whole situation.
They didn't have a choice anymore, limply following Rin as they pulled them further into the ships hull. Blankly watching as the shadow of their friend disappeared into a crowd of trolls.
