DISCLAIMER: RAINBOW BRITE, RAINBOWLAND, AND ALL CHARACTERS
CONTAINED THEREIN ARE THE PROPERTY OF HALLMARK, INC. I DO NOT OWN
THEM (I JUST LOVE THEM) AND I AM NOT RECEIVING ANY PROFIT (THOUGH IT
WOULD BE NICE...) THIS WORK OF FICTION IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE
ENJOYMENT OF FANS OF THIS WONDERFUL SHOW

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story does not fit into any kind of chronology that I've previously established in my RB stories. Frankly, I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. But until I decide, let's just say it stands alone as a crazy, "what if" idea that I decided to explore.


WHEN THERE WERE THREE
A Patty-Buddy Fanfic
by Cyanne

Patty took a break from her morning chores around the Color Castle to sneak into Violet's library. The previous day she'd happened to hear Violet mention the 'primary' colors, and how all other colors are combinations of those three. Patty, unable to keep silent at this startling news, immediately asked Violet which three of the colors were considered 'primary.' Violet looked up from the poster she was decorating for the upcoming science exhibition, and told her "red, yellow, and blue." This answer had troubled Patty for several reasons. First, because it made her wonder if there had been a time, before the other colors were created, when there were only three colors. And if there were only three colors, it followed that there could only have been three Color Kids. The idea that there might have been Color Kids around before she, Patty, was created, was an unwelcome one, but before she could question Violet further, the other girl had been called away by a sprite requesting her assistance. So Patty had made up her mind to find out the truth behind the 'primary colors,' and about her origins. After ascertaining that no one was around (Violet, she knew, would be occupied all day with the science fair) Patty pawed through the books in the library, pulling out a dictionary first. She flipped through the pages, looking up the phrase 'primary colors,' found the corresponding entry, and then sat down on the floor to read.

"The 'primary colors' are red, yellow and blue, which, when mixed in various ways,
produce the 'secondary colors,' green, orange, purple, etc..."

Patty let the book fall to her lap. So it was true. Her color, along with Violet's, Indigo's, and Lala's, were not _original_ colors; they had been created from the first three colors, the primary colors. Which meant that there might have been a time before she, Violet, Indigo and Lala existed, but when Red, Canary, and Buddy _had_ existed. The idea was disconcerting, and to take her mind off it, she turned to the 'G' section, looking up the entry on her own color.

"Green: the color of growing grass...can be produced by blending blue and yellow..."

Patty stopped reading again, her mouth dry. ~It isn't true, it can't be true, I won't believe it! I'm my _own_ color!~ She leapt up, the book tumbling to the floor, and began to search Violet's desk. A moment later, she found what she'd been looking for: a box of colored felt pens. Next she found a crumpled sheet of paper in the trash, smoothed it out, and removed the blue and yellow pens from the box. First she scribbled the yellow, then, biting her lip, reluctantly colored over the yellow with the blue. The result was a warm green. ~No~ she thought, tears stinging her
eyes. ~It's true. I'm not my own color. I'm just a combination of blue and yellow, of Buddy and Canary~ Being one of the more fiercely independent Color Kids, the thought made her feel sick. She threw down the pens and fled from the room, heading blindly toward her keep. Buddy was coming out of his own keep as she tore down the hall, and he stared as she flew past him. "Patty, what's wrong?" he called after her.

"Nothing! Just leave me alone!" Patty yelled, slamming her door. She threw herself down on the bed and abandoned herself to her misery. ~I don't want it to be true!~

The next thing she heard was knocking at her door. "Patty?" Buddy called through the door. "Patty, are you all right? I'm worried about you. Can I come in?"

"I'm fine!" Patty shouted back, furious to hear her voice wobble. Buddy entered anyway (there were no locks in the Color Castle). His concern had overidden his usual courtesy toward his friends' wishes, no matter how upset they were at the
time. "Are you hurt?"

"No." Patty scrubbed the tears off her face.

"Then why are you crying?" Buddy asked, clearly mystified.

Patty looked up at him, suddenly seeing him in a completely different light. ~Buddy
existed _before_ me~ she thought in amazement. ~He can remember a time before there was green in the world~ She remembered the pens. ~And if green is a combination of blue and yellow, does that mean...he created me?~ A hundred questions were suddenly burning in her brain. Patty sat up on her bed, coming to a decision. "Buddy, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Have you ever heard of the 'primary colors?' " she asked, then was startled to see him flinch. "Well? she prompted, a vague feeling of unease starting in her stomach.

"Where did you hear about that?" Buddy asked, trying to look nonchalant and failing
miserably.

"I read a book in Violet's library. It said that the primary colors are red, blue, and yellow, and the secondary colors--green, orange, and violet--were created from those first three colors. Do you know anything about this?"

"I know...something about it," Buddy hedged, looking very uncomfortable. "But what are you reading about that stuff for?" he added, forcing a laugh. "Don't you know there's work to do today?" He was edging toward the door. "You know, I think Rainbow wanted us to go up to the Color Caves and see how the sprites are doing, so we should probably--"

"No," Patty replied, refusing to let him dismiss the subject. "I want to talk about this."

Buddy hesitated. "Patty, I don't think it's a good idea--"

"I don't care! If book I read is right, then there was a time before _me_--before _I_
existed, but when _you_ did! When there were only three colors--just you, Red and Canary. Is this true, Buddy?"

"How would I know? That's just a theory, Patty, there's no proof--"

"Yes, there is! I tested it--I put blue and yellow ink together, and I got green. If that's not proof I don't know what is. You know you can't lie to me, Buddy. So stop pretending."

"Why do you want to know this?" He sounded almost desperate.

"Because I want to know where I came from. Tell me about it, Buddy. You were there. Tell me about the time before I existed!"

"I don't _want_ to remember that time!" Buddy blurted, then immediately looked like he regretted it.

"But you do, don't you?" Patty narrowed her eyes, knowing she'd caught him. "Tell me about it."

Buddy was silent for several beats, staring at her as if he believed she would back down at any moment. But Patty held the gaze firmly, never having lost a staring contest in her life. Then, before her eyes, Buddy seemed to turn to ice. His jaw tightened, his eyes narrowed, and when he spoke, his voice was as frosty as if it had been left out in one of Stormy's best snowstorms. "I suppose this was inevitable, but that never stopped me from hoping this day would never come.
All right, Patty, I'll tell you, but on one condition--I want you promise never, ever to mention it again. Don't tell anybody else. Forget what you're about to hear."

"I promise," Patty answered, meeting his eye to show him she was serious. "It'll never leave this room."

"All right then." Buddy took a seat in the chair beside her desk, moving as if he were
sitting in front of a firing squad. "What do you want to know?"

Patty considered a moment. "Well, is it true? Was there a time before me, before Lala, before Indigo, before Violet, when there were only three Color Kids?"

"Yes," Buddy answered, as if the word was being forced out of him. "It was a very, very long time ago."

"What was it like?"

"Chaotic. The Universe was very young then, unstable. Everything was...shifting."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know, Patty. I can't give a detailed explanation. I only have a few memories. Nothing was solid then."

"What does _that_ mean?"

"I said I don't know!" Buddy seemed like a completely different person. He seemed
almost...tortured. "Look, you're the one who wanted to know what I remembered, and this is it--things were out of balance in the beginning, before the rest of you were created. It was an--unpleasant time, and I really don't like remembering it."

"All right, I'm sorry," Patty said sincerely. "But I just can't imagine it, being around since the beginning, before there were seven Color Kids. You can."

"You say that like it's a good thing," Buddy retorted bitterly.

Patty paused at that, not knowing what to say. She dreaded her next question, though, but she knew it had to be asked. "What about what happened with the pens? The book said the secondary colors were created by mixing the primary colors. Is that what happened?"

Buddy refused to meet her eyes. "In a way, yes."

"And green..." Patty hesitated again, feeling a stab of guilt for doing this to him, but the desire to learn of her origins was irresistible, "it said that green is created by mixing blue and yellow, like what happened with the pens. Does that mean--that you and Canary....created me?"

Buddy met her gaze unflinchingly. "Not in the way you think."

"I don't know what to think, Buddy," Patty replied, her body suddenly cold. "Tell me."

"Patty, I'd really prefer not to talk about this, at least not right now--"

"Please, Buddy, I have to know, and if not from you, then from somebody else. I'll ask Red if necessary." She tried to look as though she really would.

"I don't care who you ask," Buddy snapped with uncharacteristic ire. "I can guarantee you'll get more of an answer out of me than you will out of Red or Canary." Then he said a strange thing. "It's really none of your business, anyway."

Patty blanched. "Where I come from is none of my business? Is that what you're saying?" She began to get angry, but froze at the look on his face.

"It's none of your business because you weren't there," Buddy responded, sounding
curiously sad. "You don't understand what it was like."

"So tell me, and then I'll understand!"

"You don't know what you're asking. If you did, you'd want to forget, too."

"What was so bad about being one of the primary colors?"

"Being alone!" Buddy shot back, then, again, Patty saw that curious flicker of chagrin in his light blue eyes, as if he knew he'd said too much.

"But you weren't alone," Patty said, her brow creasing. "You had Red and Canary with you."

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" When Buddy refused to answer, Patty let her frustration boil over. "Oh, fine, what does that matter, anyway? You were there at the beginning of time, at the beginning of everything, one of the very first colors created!" She did not bother to conceal the jealousy in her tone. "And every other color in the universe is descended from you! Don't you know how significant that is?" And then it hit her, what that really meant, and her entire body went numb. Her mouth dry, she stammered, "Does this make you my...?"

"It doesn't make me anything!" Buddy responded sharply. "The fact that you can only see it _that_ way proves that you don't understand, that you _can't_ understand what it was like then. We did what we had to do."

"Why?"

"Because there had a to be a balance."

"A balance?"

"The universe was unstable with just three colors. It wasn't enough."

"Because there had to be green things?"

"Yes, and orange things, and violet things and indigo things."

"That's why you created us?"

"We had to."

"Was that the only reason?"

"Well, yes."

For some reason this made Patty's heart hurt. "Weren't you guys lonely?"

Buddy paused to consider. "Yes, I suppose. We knew something wasn't right. It felt...wrong to exist without you. All of you."

"How long was it 'wrong?' "

"It seemed like a long time, but it couldn't have been more than a few nanoseconds."

"Nanoseconds?" Patty repeated, vaguely remembering having heard Violet use the term.

"A billionth of a second? That's practically instantaneous!"

"It seemed like an eternity to me," he replied quietly.

Patty digested that. "Who was created first?"

"Oh, probably Lala, since orange is so close to red. But I'm not sure. It was so long ago. To be honest, it's hard to remember a time before you four existed."

Hearing him say that made Patty feel a little better about not being the first secondary color created. "Do the others remember?"

"Maybe. But I envy them if they've managed to forget it completely."

"Why?" Patty asked, some envy still lingering in her tone. "Just think of what you were a part of! The first Color Kids."

"We are _all_ the first Color Kids," Buddy corrected firmly. "None of us--not Red, not
Canary, and not me--existed as Color Kids until you four were created and we became a unit. Remember that."

Patty nodded obediently. She was suddenly conscious of how tired she was. The crying fit had worn out her body, and her mind was reeling from the revelations that had come to pass in the last half hour. Against her will, she found herself yawning.

"Can I take that to mean you're through interrogating me?" Buddy asked, most of the acid gone from his tone, and the beginnings of his old smile curving his lips. He was beginning to look like himself again, and Patty smiled back, glad.

"Yes. Thank you, Buddy."

"You're welcome, but don't forget your promise."

"I know, I'll never mention it again," Patty agreed meekly. ~But I wasn't thanking you for that~ she continued silently ~I was thanking you for creating me~
After a few moments of silence that were not the least bit awkward, Buddy said, "Get some sleep."

Patty nodded again and watched him leave, then lay back on her bed. She wanted badly to mull over what she'd learned, but her body was demanding rest whether her mind wanted it or not...

She awoke to soft knocking at her door. "Patty? Are you there?"

Patty recognized Buddy's voice and sat up, wincing from the stab of pain in her temple, telling her that she'd been in a deep sleep. She felt slightly disoriented, but called out, "Yes, I'm here. Come in."

Buddy entered hesitantly. "How are you doing? Are you feeling better?"

"Was I sick?"

"I don't know. I just saw you run in here in tears an hour ago, and then you told me to leave you alone."

"I'm glad you didn't." Memories of their talk filtered through her fuzzy mind.

Buddy looked puzzled. "What do you mean? I did leave you alone."

Patty stared at him. "No, you didn't," she repeated. "You came in here, and you told me about..." she remembered her promise and caught herself just in time.

"Told you about what?" Buddy prompted, frowning slightly.

Patty hesitated. "About the primary colors."

"The what?"

Patty's confusion was rapidly turning to alarm. "I know you told me not to mention it
again, but I think something's wrong with my memory. You _did_ come in here, and you told me about being one of the primary colors, and how..." She broke off as she recognized sincere confusion in his eyes. ~Can he really have no idea what I'm talking about?~ she wondered.

"Patty, maybe you should lay back down, you seem--"

"No, I'm fine." Patty swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. "Just come with me for a second." She exited the room, Buddy following her, and headed back towards Violet's library. Sure enough, there was a book on the floor, face down where she'd dropped it. And on the desk, a slightly crumpled piece of paper with a green stripe on it. Patty released the breath she'd been holding. At least _that_ memory was correct. ~But what about the rest?~ She bent to pick up the book. "Have you ever heard of the primary colors, Buddy?"

Buddy nodded, and Patty, who was watching him closely, noticed no signs of discomfort or dismay. "Yeah, I've heard of them."

"Look here," Patty pointed to the paragraph she'd read and handed him the book.
Buddy skimmed it, then looked up, still confused. "Yeah, so, what's this got to do with you?"

"Nothing to do with me, but everything to do with you." Patty was beyond keeping the promise she'd made; all that mattered now was finding out if what she remembered had really happened. "I'm a secondary color, created from the primary colors." Patty pointed to the scratch paper. "Green is a combination of blue and yellow. See? I tested it. I put yellow and blue together and I got green. That's how I was created."

Buddy had been scanning the book again, but he looked up at her last words. "I don't know where you got an idea like that, but you're wrong. First of all, green is a primary color, too."

"What?!"

"It says right here," Buddy pointed to another paragraph, then read aloud: 'The primary colors of the spectrum are red, green, and blue, the light beams of which variously combined can produce any of the colors.' "

"But I read--"

"What you read is true for pigments and dyes, not light. You _do_ know that our powers are based on light, right?"

Patty had the distinct feeling this was definitely something she _should_ have known. "Well, yes, of course..." she lied, not wanting to admit her ignorance, "but...I thought..." she trailed off, trying to rearrange her thoughts. ~So I dreamed it all?~

"Are you okay, Patty?" Buddy was looking at her quizzically. "You look upset."

"No, I'm not upset," Patty replied honestly, beginning to smile. "So I'm a primary color, too. I guess that means we were both around at the beginning, huh?"

"The beginning?"

"When the first colors were created."

"Patty, there's no proof--"

"Maybe there is, and maybe there isn't," Patty replied, unruffled. "It was a very long time ago." ~Nothing was solid then~ The words from the dream echoed through her suddenly incredibly clear mind. Then she noticed Buddy giving her a funny look again, and she grinned. "I just had a weird dream, that's all."

"What kind of a dream?"

"A dream where you told me you had created me."

Buddy placed the book back on the shelf. "That is weird. Why would I tell you that?"

"Because it was true, at least, it was in my dream." Her eyes took on a faraway gleam. "In the beginning, there were only three colors, the primary colors. But the universe was unbalanced with just three colors, so four more were created, to form a balance. Seven colors, seven Color Kids."

"How do you know that?" Buddy asked, an odd look on his face.

Patty's smile widened. "Don't you remember, Buddy? You were there. We were both
there, at the beginning of time." Before Buddy could respond, she skipped ahead, out of the library, feeling lighter in spirit. "Thanks, Buddy, I won't forget this--but I'll pretend I will."

"That's probably a good idea," Buddy agreed, who still looked like he had no idea what she was talking about. "It's all in the past, anyway, and none of it matters now."

~Oh, but it does~ Patty thought happily. ~It matters quite a bit~