A/N: A small rewrite of the scene in my oneshot "The Trade" as requested by webslingerofthegalaxy on Tumblr, who suggested the possibility of Poppy having a different reaction to learning of Branch being captured :)

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"This I promise you..."

As Branch held on to the last note of the song, the doll-like siblings' full attention had gone to him. They faced him, a look of astonishment clear on their faces. Clearly, they hadn't expected Branch to confront them by breaking out singing at random. Nor did they expect him to sound that... good.

Velvet looked at Veneer. Veneer looked at Velvet.

Branch glanced at the two of them.

"Once again, I've come here to ask that you release my brother, Floyd."

The twins grew a malicious smile on each of their faces. "Well," Veneer said.

"Perhaps we can work out a compromise," Velvet said, finishing the thought.

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In the meantime, Poppy had made her way back to John Dory, Spruce, and Clay, having explained with much distress of what had occurred when she'd spoken to Branch after he and his brothers argued.

"I tried," she said, nearly on the verge of tears. "I really did try. And I know he can change his mind. But it doesn't look like it's going to happen right now..."

The brothers hung their heads. They figured Branch would not be easily convinced to come back, but they could not be mad about it. It was understood why.

"I guess we'll just have to wait," Spruce said, a bit defeated.

John Dory gave a shrug of agreement, unable to think of anything else, and hoping that the wait for their brother to come back around wouldn't be too long.

"Or maybe you don't have to," Clay said, suddenly perking up and pointing behind them. "Look!"

The Trolls turned to look in the direction he was pointing and, sure enough, running towards them was the figure of a Troll.

Poppy gasped. "Branch!" She began to run towards him, trying to meet him halfway, when she started to slow her pace after getting a better look. Wait a second. This Troll was not her boyfriend. This nearly-out-of-breath Troll who was sprinting towards them did share some slight similarities to him, though instead of a crop of rich blue hair on his head, it was a vibrant magenta, styled to where part of the bangs obscured his left eye. A single black earring was embedded into his right ear. She reared back in surprise, recognizing him at once. "Floyd?"

Floyd panted, trying to catch his breath. "Yes, yes, it's me." He gave a small wave when the other brothers instantly flanked Poppy's sides, also as surprised to see Floyd before them now.

"Yo bro, it's good to see you're okay!" John Dory exclaimed. "You are okay, right?"

Floyd quickly checked himself, ensuring that he was uninjured. "Um, yeah, I think so." Though he said it, the Trolls could still see that something still wasn't quite right. He looked very shaken... and extremely worried.

"Dude, how did you escape?" Spruce asked.

"Yeah, those weirdos were something fierce and nasty!" Clay added.

Floyd said nothing at first, looking as though he was recalling something painful. He averted his gaze and looked down at the ground, looking almost ashamed. Poppy felt worry start to prick at her now. Something's not right here... but I need to find out WHAT. She moved closer to Floyd, putting a hand on his shoulder. He flinched at the unexpected touch, but welcomed it. He really needed the comfort right now.

"Floyd," Poppy said gently, her voice lowered. "Can you tell us what happened? Please?"

The magenta Troll was silent, but he nodded his head, able to find the voice to finally explain. "It was Branch."

Poppy stiffened at the mention of her boyfriend. But she needed to hear this. "Branch?" she asked.

Floyd nodded. "He came, not too long ago. He asked them to let me go and when they didn't... h-he sang." He stopped, recalling the moment. He shook his head. "I never got a chance to hear Branch really sing when we were kids. But now, it... it sounds like... like..."

"Like an angel's," Poppy finished, familiar with how beautiful his voice could sound.

"Exactly," Floyd agreed. "And they seemed to think so, too. So now I'm out here, and he's..." The Troll trailed off, unable to bear finishing his sentence.

From behind him and Poppy, the three brothers gasped. "They took him!" John Dory exclaimed.

Floyd nodded, looking terribly guilty. "He didn't have to do it. I wasn't worth it. I left him!" he cried, wishing more than ever that he could change what happened in the past.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, taking in this new information with grim understanding.

Then, suddenly, Poppy spoke.

"They... took... BRANCH?!"

The brothers were startled out of the silence when Poppy's voice raised on octave. When glancing at her, they were incredibly surprised to find that the happy-go-lucky Pop Queen had her face twisted in anger and her fists clenched. "They took OUR Branch?? MY Branch?!" she yelled out again.

Floyd felt himself tear up. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for it to happen..." he whimpered.

Poppy whirled on him. "Floyd, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at THEM!" she shouted, pointing back in the direction the magenta Troll had come from, in reference to Velvet and Veneer. She gritted her teeth, her cheeks turning red and her body trembling with rage. "I can let a lot of things slide," the Queen began icily, "They can go off and be big phony-baloneys all they want... but not with any of you... and definitely not with MY BOYFRIEND!!"

Poppy glared daggers in the direction of his kidnappers. They were still back there in their dressing room, probably getting ready to get up into their talent-stealing antics once again. That image of Branch being sealed in a diamond bottle - getting the lifeforce sucked right out of him, draining him, making him weaker and weaker - made her blood boil, and suddenly imaginations of a very unqueenly-like nature began to flash through her mind - of beating the cupcakes out of those two fakers, of trapping them in some diamond prison and seeing how THEY liked it, of forcing them to free her beloved through any torturous means necessary...

But then she realized where she actually was, seeing the shocked look on his brothers' faces, and realizing how angry she had gotten.

Poppy sighed, feeling it drain out of her a little. "Sorry, guys, it's just... those bastards! They're gonna hurt Branch the same way they hurt Floyd!"

"Girl, you got a HUGE right to be angry!" John Dory replied, not at all disturbed. He was impressed, if anything, for how riled up she got, for it showed how much she really cared about him.

"We can't let anything happen to Branch," Floyd said, "... but how?"

"I'll tell you how," Poppy said, feeling every bit determined. "We're gonna band together so we can save him!"

"She's correctamundo!" JD replied. "It wasn't just you who walked out on him, Floyd... we ALL did," he said, gesturing to himself, Spruce, and Clay. "You were worth it, bro. Because you're his brother. And Branch is our brother. And those days of walking-out-on-each-other are over. You know why?"

Spruce did, seeing where JD was going with this, and he piped up. "Because we're a family."

"And families are there for each other!" Clay added.

"Exactly!" Poppy cried. Then she thrust her hand out in front of her. "So who's with me?"

The hands of John Dory, Spruce, and Clay shot out to join hers. Floyd, still feeling bad for what had occurred, hesitated a second. He didn't know what she or his brothers had in mind, but what he did know was that he wasn't going to let his baby brother down. Not again. So he, too, placed his hand on time of theirs and threw it up in the air when they all did.

"IT'S BRO-TIME!" came the collective shout.

John Dory quickly huddled them together, all the Trolls' heads nearly touching each other as the group formed a tight circle.

"All right, we need a new game plan," the BroZone leader said, more determined than ever. "And I think I got just the one. It's going to take ALL of us, though, so listen in..."

So Poppy, Spruce, Clay, and Floyd did listen in, adding their own input when sought necessary and tweaking what was needed to be tweaked. Soon enough, their plan did indeed start to come together, and soon enough they set themselves into executing the ambitious task.

Dangerous? Maybe. Worth it? One-hundred percent.