*Hey folks! I'm here with the remake of Past Troubles! If you like this chapter don't be afraid to vote and comment! This is published on June 28, 2021. The song I'm using for the prologue is called "Deliver Us" from the Prince of Egypt soundtrack. I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful day. Enjoy!*

Thirty Years Later:

They were a success! Buster couldn't believe his own eyes. While it's a far-off dream for a child, thirty years of both experience and love of theater had gotten him this far. Not only him though. Johnny, the tall gorilla who always wore leather in his clothing, came from being in the gang to a pianist, singer, and dancer in the huge famous theater known as the Crystal Theater in Redshore. Ash, the porcupine in a red leather jacket, came from being an emo rockstar to an inspiring person in the world. Rosita went from being terrified of heights to overcoming her fear. Buster could name all of his cast members who changed so much over the course of the theater.

The koala clapped as the group took their final bow on the huge stage. But there's something about their bows that didn't seem...well, genuine. Not that he would accuse them to be fake but as if they were uncomfortable to be in Redshore. And that...he could completely understand. Missing his old theater, the koala knew it was time to go back home. Where they first started to become big...back to where big dreams began.

Back to Catalonia.

~.~

The drive back was as horrible and exhausting as the trip away from it. The gang took many buses and trains to get back home. Johnny acted suspiciously around security since his bag contained something heavy. Well, slightly heavy. Rosita had been anxious and texting her husband up the storm about the kids and their wellbeing. Gunter was playing Solitare as Meena was holding hands with someone she fell in love with.

Buster couldn't remember that elephant's name...Alfonso? Or something like that. He heard her giggle throughout the whole train ride.

Well, at least, there's a giggle. He thought with a small smile. Buster sat back against the cushion of the seat he's sitting in while watching a romantic comedy with Ms. Crawly sitting next to him and laughing at all the little quirks of the movie with her. Buster drifted off and stared out of the window, gazing at the endless scenery of forest and desert clashing together. He took a moment to focus on his reflection on the window. When he did that, he saw Ash reading while sitting next to Johnny, talking about the performances and what they think of famous singers--

"Look out!!!"

Buster's eyes went wide immediately as he felt a bump from underneath the bus. His blue eyes glanced around to see the others felt it too along with him, their eyes broadened in horror as the bus jerked to a stop.

"What did you do?!" A voice shouted as the theater group glanced at the bus driver, who was sputtering out of fear.

"I don't know! He just jumped right in front of me! I couldn't stop!" The bus driver responded defensively.

Buster blinked while calming his theater friends down.

It's nothing...it's probably nothing at all. Probably some rock.

Buster shook his head. He knew that if he thought that, he'll instantly deny the reality of it all.

"Well, check it out," the other bus driver suggested as Buster noticed his theater group looking out into the back window with the other passengers on the bus. Buster could instantly tell that something was wrong. A cold sweat came down the sides of Johnny's head, Ash's quills tensed up, Rosita's breathing became heavier and heavier, Gunter lost his enthusiastic smile, Alfonso shielded Meena from the sight, and Ms. Crawly fainted.

Buster climbed up with the group, wondering what they were staring at that's so horrifying. He immediately regretted being curious. There's a trail of blood and disembodied limbs scattered on the road. The koala blinked while almost ready to vomit from the sight. Buster looked to see the bus driver investigating the scene.

Buster shook his head. "What happened?"

"He got run over," Johnny uttered.

Rosita began to tremble. "Who do you think it is?"

"Let me in! Let me in!"

The passengers turned to see the bus driver letting an aimless monkey wanderer in as the bus driver began to take off. He's slim to the point where anyone could see his ribcage as if he hadn't eaten in all of his days. His brown fur was dry while his beard was all over his face. The awful smell of sweat didn't sit well with everyone on the bus. The wanderer took a seat closest to the fan to keep himself cool, drinking lots and lots of water.

Buster felt uneasy as he took a seat back in his chair. Ms. Crawly finally woke up from her faint and sat next to her boss, unsettled by the fact that there's a stranger among them.

Johnny and Ash kept an eye on the wanderer while Gunter tried to keep his mind occupied by playing Solitare. Rosita sat next to Meena and Alfonso, scared out of her wits of what's going on around her.

The wanderer drifted off deep in thought. Buster gazed at him, piquing an interest in him. How long had he been out there? Was that his friend the bus driver ran over by accident? What was he doing all the way out in the desert? However, when the wanderer moved his head to glance up at Buster, the koala immediately looked away, trying so hard to watch the cheesy and corny romantic comedies with Ms. Crawly. However, Ms. Crawly's out-of-place eye twitched and looked at the wanderer out of pure subconsciousness.

"You," the wanderer finally spoke, his voice cleared as ever before.

Buster wasn't sure if the wanderer was talking to him or someone else, so when he glanced at the wanderer at the corner of his eyes, he immediately found his answer when the wanderer was staring right at Buster. Not at Ms. Crawly...but at Buster. The koala felt chills going down his spine as he glanced at his theater friends, who noticed this exchange. Johnny seemed ready to move off of his seat in case the wanderer was going to do something maniacal like attacking Buster for no apparent reason or whatever was going on in the wanderer's brain.

"You," the wanderer repeated, causing Buster to direct his full attention at him. His smile went wide, his missing teeth out of line in his mouth. Buster didn't know how he should respond or even if he should respond.

Ms. Crawly glanced at the wanderer, shifting uncomfortably in her seat while scooting closer to her boss.

"You're Buster Moon," the monkey wanderer recognized.

Buster had no idea how he could avoid this conversation but he wanted to be polite by responding, "Yes...that's me."

The wanderer's body shook. "It's you...what are you doing here?"

"Uh...going home," Buster uttered timidly.

The wanderer's smile just disappeared without a trace. Almost like he never really smiled at all.

"Catalonia," the wanderer assumed.

Buster nodded but tried his best to not engage in any more conversations with him as Ms. Crawly helped by turning up the television to distract both her and her boss.

"Catalonia!!!!" the wanderer let out a blood-curling scream, scaring every single passenger out of their seats. "No! No!!! I can't go back there!!"

"Sir, you need to calm down," the bus driver claimed.

"Don't take me back there!!! Please, don't take me back there!!" the wanderer begged the bus driver. "I'm going to die!!! You're all going to die in Catalonia!! And it's all because of you!!!"

Buster glanced to see the wanderer pointing at him. His eyes went wide when he noticed the monkey's head twitching.

"You!!!! You're the reason why hell broke loose!!!" The monkey barked, his body shaking. What once was a happy recognition turned bitter and furious.

Buster didn't know what's going on as he saw the monkey holding his head.

"If you've died, everything will be back to normal!!! Everything will be perfect!! Without you!!!"

Buster breathed heavily as his pupils shrunk in terror.

Then...the monkey did something...unthinkable. He pulled out a gun.

Everyone screeched in panic while they ducked their heads. Buster backed up against the window sill while Ms. Crawly curled up to defend herself. The koala noticed the gun wasn't pointed at anyone in particular...it was pointing at him. Buster couldn't breathe while staring into the barrel of a pistol. His mind went through serious flashbacks of someone holding a gun up to his head. He froze like the deer in headlights as the monkey was about to pull the trigger. However, Johnny jumped up from his seat and moved the monkey's aim so that it wouldn't hit Buster. The bullet crashed onto the head cushion right next to Buster's head. He breathed heavily while Johnny struggled with the wanderer, taking his pistol and tossing it onto the floor away from him.

The monkey was going to charge at Buster but Johnny held him back and pulled him further away from his koala boss. The gorilla slammed the monkey onto the chair, tying him up against it so that he wouldn't dare get up and charge at Buster during the ride.

"Don't you see?! He's the cause of this mess!!! He's the cause!!" the monkey screamed louder as the bus driver drove faster towards Catalonia. The theater gang and the other passengers had to put up with him screaming and thrashing his feet and his arms to get out of his bondage throughout the whole ride.

When they got to Catalonia, the bus finally stopped in front of the theater where a sheep, a pig, and a family of elephants awaited the bus along with the cops. As soon as the bus stopped and opened its doors, the police strode in to apprehend the monkey wanderer.

When the monkey was untied from his bounds temporarily, he charged towards Buster, causing Johnny to jump off of his seat again and shielded his boss from any kind of attacks the monkey may have planned.

"You're the blame for this, Moon! If you've stayed dead, this wouldn't have happened!! Hell is waiting for you, Mr. Moon!" the monkey growled as the cops grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him away from the koala.

Buster's pupils were shrunken in horror, breathing heavily. He glanced out of the window to see the people waiting at the bus stop watching the monkey screaming out in pure anger and pain about everything going to be destroyed.

Buster tried to regain his composure as Johnny stood up straight and picked up his suitcase.

Ms. Crawly placed a hand on Buster's, guiding him out of the bus with the rest of the theater gang.

Rosita was the first one to exit off as she sprinted towards the pig waiting for her, which everybody could assume that it's her husband, Norman.

"What in the fiddlestick happened?" Norman gasped as he gestured at the blood covering the tires of the bus and the crazed monkey wanderer.

Rosita shook a little bit. "We'll explain everything."

The sheep approached Buster and Ms. Crawly. "Did the monkey hurt you guys?"

Buster was silent, his thoughts filled on what the monkey had said. Part of the koala wanted to say that he's a crazy old loon wandering out in the desert and might've hallucinated. But...there's another part of him that wondered...what was happening in Catalonia?

"No," Buster managed to squeeze out, not sure how to make it believable. "We're fine, Eddie."

"Bloody Mary, that monkey was nuts," Johnny vented while placing his suitcase carefully down on the sidewalk.

Ash scoffed. "You're telling me."

Meena and Alfonso were the last to exit the bus with bewildered gazes around the city.

"How long do you think that guy has been out there?" Alfonso uttered with a brow raised.

Meena shrugged. "Maybe he's out there for too long."

Meena's mother came up to her daughter. "Hey, baby girl."

"Mom!" Meena shouted as she hugged her mother.

Her mother broke away from her and noticed Alfonso. "And you must be Alfonso."

"Yes, ma'am," Alfonso replied with a smile.

"Ooh, and polite too. I heard all about you from Meena," her mother gushed while Meena's grandpa approached the boyfriend.

"So, you're the one who swept little Meena's feet?" her grandfather probed while poking at Alfonso with his cane gently.

Alfonso nodded his head. "Yes, sir."

"Put it there!"

Meena's grandfather shook Alfonso's hand firmly, jolting the young elephant up and down. Alfonso's shocked gaze was present on his face, earning a laugh from an old elephant.

"Aww, you got yourself a big softie, Meena!" Her father laughed as Alfonso glanced over at Meena in confusion.

Meena rolled her eyes. "Forgive my grandpa, he's an old fashion man."

"I could tell," Alfonso responded with a nervous chuckle.

"So, who's that crazy guy on the bus with ya?" Meena's grandfather probed again.

"Just some random guy," Alfonso said with a shrug.

"More like a random nutcase!" Gunter expressed his shocked tone when he overheard the family of elephants conversating.

The group made their way into the theater while Rosita explained to her husband, Norman, and Eddie, the sheep, everything that happened on the way home.

Buster felt chills down his spine.

You're the reason why hell broke loose!

What did he mean? Buster didn't think he caused any harm. Why was the monkey happy to see him than angry?

Ms. Crawly noticed her boss deep in thought while rubbing his shoulder in comfort. "Don't worry about that monkey, Mr. Moon. He's just a crazy man."

"What kind of hell did he mean?" Buster finally uttered a question.

Everyone heard him and turned to him.

"Oh, don't worry about what he said," Johnny was the first to reassure Buster. "He probably hallucinated."

"Bah, it's nothing to worry about!" Meena's grandfather joined in reassuring Buster that everything was okay.

Buster glanced up at Eddie, Norman, and Meena's family. "What was happening in Catalonia in the past five months while we're gone? Anything...weird?"

"Weird? I don't watch the news! It takes away peace from the soul to even watch it," Meena's grandfather answered eyes rolled.

"We barely watched the news about anything," Meena's mother explained it more thoroughly.

Norman pondered while shaking his head. "Um...not exactly. I've been so busy with work and with kids that I didn't notice anything."

Eddie tried to think about anything suspiciously weird. "I don't know...I mean, there's a couple of fires here and there. Um...Gangs jumping on people and...killing people--"

"Bah, that's normal if you lived on a bad side of town," Meena's grandfather replied with ignorance.

Eddie blinked and then glanced at Meena's grandfather. "No...it happens on the good side of town as well. This was weird because I got a call from my nana, which I never get calls from her unless she wanted me to fetch something, telling me to stay safe and be on the lookout. Nana...never...I mean never calls me to tell me to be safe. If anything, Nana must've been concern about my well-being or...maybe there's something more to it than that. I don't know...that's probably the only weird thing that happened."

"How long ago did it happen?" Buster immediately asked his best friend.

"Uh...I say about two weeks ago," Eddie said with a shrug.

"That's funny, we performed two weeks ago," Rosita muttered to herself.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Meena's mother reassured the group softly.

A sudden thumping from Johnny's suitcase startled the group. Johnny had his eyes wide in pure shock as if he forgot something. The suitcase fell over as it was unzipping by itself. Suddenly, the young Lynx cat popped out of the suitcase with her green hoodie on.

"Are we even in Catalonia yet?" The Lynx cat asked as her eyes went wide. There's an awkward pause as Johnny pinched his forehead with his index finger and thumb, shaking his head in discouragement.

The Lynx smiled awkwardly and slowly closed the suitcase, not zipping up though. "You didn't see me."

Buster switched his gaze on Johnny. "Did you just kidnap a child?!"

Johnny looked at his koala. "She insisted on coming with me."

"Long story short, I asked him to kidnap me," The Lynx spoke from inside of the suitcase.

"That does explain the constant insisting on getting a room for yourself," Meena pondered in thought.

Johnny shrugged. "Yeah. Besides, if I were kidnapping her, she would've been tied up with a duct tape over her mouth."

The Lynx popped her head out of the suitcase again. "Dude, we should try that as a prank--"

"No!" Buster interrupted.

"You're no fun," The Lynx said with her eyes rolled.

"What's your name again, kid?" Buster asked.

"Nooshy," the Lynx, Nooshy, answered with a small smile.

"Okay, we need to take you back home to your parents--"

"I don't have any parents," Nooshy informed Buster before he could finish his sentence.

There's a brief awkward pause.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Buster expressed his sympathy.

Nooshy shrugged her shoulders in a wave. "I barely know my parents. Nothing to pity over. By the way, I heard screaming from outside of the suitcase. You all seem to have some sort of a party or something."

"There's a crazed weirdo on the bus with us," Johnny explained the situation.

"Oh, that does explain the screaming," Nooshy determined. "What was he screaming about?"

"Eh, nothing important," Ash reassured her.

There's an awkward pause while Nooshy shrugged. "Alright."

Johnny smiled brightly. "If you like, Nooshy, I could show you around the city."

Nooshy's face brightened up. "Yes! Let's go!" She ran ahead of Johnny but Johnny caught up with her as they both exited the theater.

Buster blinked a bit while becoming deep in thought about the events that happened. "You know, guys, I'll hit the hay. It's a good idea for you all to get your good night's rest and dream big dreams."

Rosita smiled softly. "Alright, goodnight, Mr. Moon."

Buster headed up towards his office, his eyelids heavy from the stress of today. He opened the drawer and just crawled right in. He closed the drawer, took off his clothes, and wrapped himself in a blanket.

Buster was ready to fall asleep. But...he couldn't. For some reason, his mind was racing. He thought about the well-done performances. He thought about that crazy monkey on the bus...he thought about someone being run over by a bus. He couldn't stop thinking about that gun that was just aimed at his face and, like a dummy, stood there and froze in fear. He remembered someone holding that gun before...but...who? Was it Jimmy Crystal? No...no...the wolf was too reliant on security to take them out. Was it during one of Johnny's dance lessons? No...that couldn't be that either.

Where did I remember that gun from?

That thought was bothering him to the point where he just stared up at the drawer, letting the silence fill the air and surround him. That one question burned in his mind and turned into a million different questions. Who was holding the gun, why did someone holding a gun at him, and how come that he froze up when he saw it. What made him afraid of it? These were all questions that Buster couldn't help but ask himself.

Maybe if I go to sleep, it will all go away.

Buster sighed deeply and began to close his eyes, just resting them until he could finally get his body to relax and fall into a deep sleep. 

To Be Continued...