Well, that was it again with my help. I don't know why, but I don't want to complain about it. And since this chapter already has taken too much time I will release this chapter without help. If nothing changes with my help I will search for another beta. But enough with this, I wish you fun with this big chapter, we will see us at the end.

The days went by and a bit normality came back to the loud house. Well, that kind of normality that you know from this specific household.

Lincoln hadn't nightmares since he become one with The darkness and also hadn't shouted at anyone again. He wanted to apologize to Lucy and Lola, but every time he was with them in the same room, he quickly left the room. Lincoln didn't know if it was because he was afraid that neither of them would forgive him or that he didn't deserve their forgiveness.

He still became less and less of an early bird, if he was one in the first place. No one had a problem with this, it still was summer vacation, so no problem with sleeping a bit longer. On the weekends he was with Isaac and the others in the woods partying all night long. He also became friends with Ellie, most because his brother-mode kicked in to help her feel a little bit better about her life.

With Lincoln's other sisters it also was a bit different. Like with Lucy and Lola, him most of the time avoided Lori. He managed to give her an apologize for pushing her the one day, but this was all.

When Leni needed his help, he said he doesn't want to be her puppet again. He would help her in other ways when he can, but not anymore in this way.

With Luna it was most like before. Listening to music or jamming with her. But now it was darker and in Luna's opinion more depressive music, something that Lucy maybe would like. She was giving him one day a hint that she is there when he need someone to talk. She know that it had no sense to try to force him so she just give him this one reminder and then looked if he come to her to talk or not.

Luan tried again to bring him to laugh and at some point she managed that. But it wasn't for one of her typical jokes, it was of a darker and cynical one. "Of course, his humor had changed like himself. Why hadn't I thought about that before? But those jokes were one of them, I thought I wouldn't ever use," said the brunette jokester to herself.

Lynn tried many times to bring Lincoln to play with her again, but to no avail. He likes to spend time with her, but he doesn't want to go rough with her again. That frustrated her a lot and she most likely would have dragged him to do something with her. But she doesn't want him do get angry again, so she let him be.

He still helped Lana with some animals or just playing with her. It wasn't that much because he quickly was tired. That and his even bigger bags around his eyes, had made her worried about him. But every time, he told her that he is fine, he just hadn't much sleep because he was awake late to read comics.

His interactions with Lisa was as typical as always. She was running some test to find the reason for his sudden changes. She wanted to know if it has something to do with their genes and if maybe she would at some point also going through some changes. She also mentioned to him that he looked like a bigger mess than she did.

And Lily. Sweet, little, innocent Lily. She was happy to spend time with her cool and great big brother. Reading comics, playing video games or looking movies with him. But also those times were shorter than before and he didn't play other things with her.

His sisters all were worried about this kind of changes, but not as worried as one specific sister.

Lucy was worried the most about Lincoln's disappearances on the weekends. Most because she was the only one who knows about this. But he always proved her wrong when he returned home in the early hours, completely fine and unharmed. But there was still one question. Who exactly is this Isaac?

Lucy started to search for answers to this question. And the first logical thing to do was to ask her sisters. Since she had found out that the dark figure, that waited for Lincoln in the night was the same guy who works in The Black Coffee, it would be easier to find something about him. With hair like his, someone had to know him or at least something about him.

With his age anywhere between 15 and 18, one of her older sisters should have seen him in school. But to her big surprise had no one of them has seen nor heard about him in school. "That is very strange," said the young goth in her typical monotone voice. The next place where she can find some clues would be the cafe, she hoped so.

But again, no one had seen nor heard about him before. All what the people in the cafe knows is that he was one day there to get the job as a waiter and that he is a dick most of the time.

"How can someone just pop out of nowhere?" ask Lucy herself. Completely overseeing the irony in this question.

Her search for answers was unsuccessful, but that didn't stop her. When she can't get answers from others than maybe from her target himself.

She waited for Isaac ending his shift. And as he did so, she confronted him. "Excuse me, can I have a speak with you?" she asks the young man.

"Hm?" Isaac turned around to see who was talking to him.

There he stood. A young man something between 15 and 18. Hair, red as fire, combed back, but still with some loose strands and a length that grows beyond his shoulder plates. A black zip-hoodie with no significant brand name, black fingerless gloves with something that looked like a band logo, black jeans and also black steel cap boots.

"What is it?" he said. It wasn't a friendly tone, but neither was it an annoyed one too.

"You are the leader of this group that my brother joined a few weeks ago."

"Ah, now I remember. You were with Lincoln. So you're the sister of the little fella."

"This is correct. And I wish to speak with you about something."

"Let me guess. You're afraid that we may do something bad to Lincoln and we're a bad influence to him because we're too deep into The darkness. Am I right?"

Lucy wasn't sure about this anymore. Maybe it was a bad idea, who knows if he may be dangerous.

"Well, yes. That is how I think about you and your group. But maybe I just overreact. I do not know you and your group. So I want to know who you are and why you do all of this and especially, why Lincoln? So far no one knows a thing about you. It's looks like you came out of nowhere."

"You're worried about your brother. That's a nice thing. Family is important. But I, my group and our doings are non of your busyness. Lincoln came to use on his own free will. And so far is anything, alright with him. Whatever ghosts had haunted him is gone for good. He is happy and no one is hurt and that's all that matter."

"This still does not answer my question. How it come that no one at school knows you? You are not one that is easy to overlook. Like me," she mumbled the last part to herself.

"You shouldn't sneak around and put your nose where it not belong to. Your brother is now a part of us, if you like it or not. If you excuse me."

With those words was Isaac going. Lucy wanted to go after him, spy him out, find out where he lives. But something deep inside of her told her otherwise. "There is only one person, I had not asked yet."

Back home, everything looked at normal at it could be in this family. Lucy goes directly to the room of the only boy in this family. Well, 'room' wasn't the right word for it. It still has been just a big closet, that was changed to a room for Lincoln as the family grows bigger and bigger. As always, did no one really noticing that Lucy was gone for a while or had turned back home.

Why is it always like this? It is fun when I want to scare them a little bit. But when I do not intentionally doing that, even then no one noticed me.

Lucy's heart felt heavy as she thought this to herself. But she has to focus on the task that lay before her. With new found determination, she knocked at the door and opened it as she got no answer.

Lincoln has been already in his bed, asleep. So she had to ask him another day.

In the next morning, Lucy had to find a way to talk with Lincoln, without him flee from her. The easiest way would be at the table, but the others shouldn't hear about this. Also, it was highly possible that he was still sleeping.

As she was the last of the sisters that arrived to the dinner room, she saw that she was right. No Lincoln.

"Is the twerp still sleeping? I don't want to waste another breakfast, so someone has to get him out of his bed," ordered the oldest Loud sister.

"I will do that," answered Lucy quickly and was going back upstairs.

She entered his room and looked at him, how quiet and peaceful he looked in his sleep. Lucy felt a big urge deep inside of her heart, but she has to focus. Carefully tried she to wake him.

"Good morning my dark brother," greeted she Lincoln, as he woke up and stretching his arms out.

"Lucy!" he cried in shock as he finally noticed that it was her, who had woken him. He wasn't prepared to face her yet. But he knows, now he hadn't no other choice. "Lucy, I... eh... it..."

"I know you are nervous about the things that happened between us. But this does not matter right now. I am here for another reason."

"Uh, okay. W... what is it then?" Lincoln asks confused.

"I want to talk about your new friend Isaac."

"Isaac? What is with him? Oh, wait. Is it this thing again, that I am in his group? That I'm too close to The darkness now?"

"I do not want to lie to you Lincoln. I still do not like this. But this is not why I am here right now."

"What is it then?"

"I want to know who he is. I have asked our sisters and everyone in the cafe, but no one knows him, nor have anyone seen him before the day he had started working in the cafe."

"Lucy, are you spying on him?"

"I am sorry for that, but please understand that I am worried about you. Something is very strange about him and I do not want that something might happen to you."

"Lucy," said Lincoln with a calm and understanding voice. "You see it for yourself. I'm fine, nothing will happen to me. Quite the opposite, I'm feeling better. Thanks to them the nightmares had stopped, I hadn't screamed at anyone of you again. And I'm still very sorry for that."

The young girl in front of him shook her head, "no need to apologize. It was my fault in the first place."

"That is not true," he contradicts.

"It is true, but it does not matter anymore. Someone else was able to help you. You are happy again, that is all I can wish for."

She quickly turned around so Lincoln couldn't see the single tear that rolled down her face. It hurt her that it wasn't she who had helped him, but she truly was thankful that at least someone could help him. She left his room because she couldn't bear it right at this moment. But before this, she mentioned that breakfast is ready and that he might apologize her to the others, because she felt not good right now.

"Good job, Lincoln. Good job indeed," he mumbled angrily to himself. "How do I blow up so bad, every freaking time? Even now I manage to hurt the ones that I hold close to me. Just face it Linc, you're a failure after all."

Yes, everything was back to normal. Back to be good again. On the outside.

Lincoln sits in the cafe, in the same place as always, his so called 'sweet spot'. To his bad, wasn't it Isaac's shift, so he wasn't there.

"I really have to talk about it. But with whom?" Lincoln thought out loud.

"Maybe I can help you, young man," came an old man's voice.

Lincoln looked at the source of the voice and saw the owner of the cafe. "Oh, eh hello sir."

"Hello, I assume you wanted to talk to Isaac about something that troubles you."

"Yeah. But he isn't here, so I have to wait. Too bad I don't know exactly where he lives."

"I'm just an old man, but thanks to this high age, I can fall back on a large treasure of knowledge. So I'm a very good adviser, if I do say so myself," the owner said with much confidence.

"I don't doubt this, sir. But I don't want to bother you with my small problems."

"Any problem is still a problem, no matter how small. And it is the task of the old ones like me to clear the way for the youth of the nation."

Lincoln thought about it. He really needs a talk and a good advice and so far the owner looks like a nice person.

Well, I have to wait for Isaac anyway. So hearing what he has to say don't hurt.

"Okay, I didn't want to go anyway," said Lincoln.

The man gives a young woman behind the counter a sign and then sits down. "So tell me. What bothers you so much?"

"Since a month now I have problems with my sisters. I have started to get angry at them, even shouted at them for no good reason. Thanks to Isaac this has stopped, but now I make other mistakes which hurt them. I can't make things right, every time, I do something wrong."

"I understand how you feel. As I was younger, I also had hurt my friends and family lots of times."

"And what did you do about it?"

"Nothing."

"Wh... what?" Lincoln said without understanding.

The old man took a deep breath before speaking again, "As I saw what I did to them, it was too late. I had lost them all."

"I'm sorry for you."

"Thank you. I can see that you're indeed a very kind young man. So I hope you didn't make the same mistakes like me. Something in you causes you trouble and that is why you are acting against those who you love the most."

Lincoln wanted to speak more with him, but as he heard the bell ringing, he looked to see Isaac and Damien enter the cafe.

Most of the time he talked with Damien. To talk to Isaac he had to wait for his breaks.

Lucy lay in her coffin, not knowing what to do. While she was deep in her thoughts an unpleasant feeling overcome her. "Something is not right," she said as she shot up and out of her coffin.

Lincoln enters the front door, his head down, his feet shuffled. How Lucy had said, something was very wrong. Some of the sisters were on the couch and as they had seen him, they ask him what was wrong but he didn't respond to them. Instead, he just walked upstairs and in his room, closing it so no one couldn't come in.

Right now Lucy was worried sick about this sight. "What had happened to you? I have to find out. I know you don't like this, but I have to spy on you my dark brother," mumbled Lucy to herself.

As soon as possible she entered the vent. She was careful, to be not noticed by Lincoln as she spied him out.

He let himself fall face forward into his bed and after five minutes or so he turned himself to face the ceiling.

"Twelve years," Lincoln sighed. "I'm twelve years old and have nothing done for this family so far. Helping in the household is normal and being there for my sisters is the duty of a brother. But I have nothing done what really helped them."

That is not true, Lincoln. You may not have realized how much you have done for us and how much you mean to me, but that is definitively not nothing. Lucy thought to herself. Should she say only one word out, her cover may would be blown up.

"Every time I came up with one of my so called 'great plans' anything goes wrong and my sisters get hurt in some way. And not only this. This freaking feeling that I have. I shouldn't have this, it isn't right."

A feeling which are not right? What feeling? Please Lincoln tell me what do you mean.

"Maybe she can help me with this. Hope I can fall asleep quickly."

With this he throws his blanket over himself and tried to sleep. Lucy was still there, but after half an hour where nothing happened, she decided to go back to her room.

"What does he mean with all of this?" she asked herself. Then a thought came to her and she goes to her books to search for a specific one. "There it is," she said as she took a small novel, going to her bed, sit down and start to read it.

It was Friday afternoon. Lori, Leni, Lana and Lola were in the mall because of the huge discounts offered in some stores. Luan was also on the road visiting her friend Maggie. Lynn was in the backyard, dropping her anger about Lincoln, who didn't want to play sports with her anymore, on a punching bag. Lisa and Lily were in their room doing what they always did. Luna was given the responsibility of Lori, but soon she received a message from her best friend Sam. She asks Luna if she wants to come to her and listen to some new music. Luna thought Lynn, Lincoln and Lucy could take care of everything. "They are smart enough," Luna told herself.

Lucy had spied on Lincoln the entire week and with any new thing she finds out, she got more and more scared. Lincoln showed some big similarities with the main character of her little novel and what happened to him at the end of it afraid her the most.

"That must not happen to Lincoln. I have to tell him in what danger he is," she said.

Lucy entered Lincolns room without knocking or his permission. He was laying on his bed, doing absolute nothing. He faced her with surprise that she just comes in without knocking.

"What the? You cannot just come in like you want!" said he angrily to his last youngest sister.

"I am sorry for this, Lincoln, but these are drastic moments."

She came closer and closer to him. Something was really strange at her, even her voice sounds different. As she stood right in front of his bed, she lifted her head and he could finally see it. Lucy was crying and not only just a bit.

"Lu... Lucy, what's wrong? What had happened?" he asks her with big worries. All his anger washed away in an instant.

"I... I am so so sorry that… that I had n... not seen it before," she sobbed. It was hard for her to talk through her crying.

"What are you talking about? What haven't you seen before?"

"What yo... you are going... going through. What really tr... troubles your heart, s... soul and mi... mind."

"Can you please speak with more sense, that I understand what you mean."

"You're depressive Lincoln. You're in a v... very bad state. Pl... please Lincoln, you need he... help. I... I don't want... I don't want to lose you," she cried to him.

Her novel was about a young man who had become depressed and in the end that killed himself. And now was Lucy afraid that Lincoln might end in the same way.

"I'm what? Where the heck had you this freaking stupid idea?! I'm not crazy or broken! I'm fine!" Lincoln again, shouted at her.

"You're not f... fine, Lincoln. I have s... seen e... everything. H... how you ac... acted to every...one in this... this week and especially... especially to you... yourself."

"You spied on me the hole FUCKING week?! I HAVE ENOUGH OF YOU!"

Now he really was angry. Well, angry wasn't the right word here. Completely furious, would be the better term. But what both of them didn't notice was that the youngest of them was standing in the door frame.

Lily wanted go to grab her something to drink as she had heard Lincoln becoming louder. She wanted to look what was going on and as she saw her two siblings fighting there was only one thing she could do.

"Please stop fighting," Lily said to them and ran between them.

She had seen many times how Lincoln stopped the fighting between Lana and Lola. And every time she thought how cool it was how easy this was for him. So she wanted to be like him, ending fights between her siblings as easy as him.

"I don't know what Lucy had done, but I really believe she had done this for a very good reason. She surely wanted just to help you," Lily said to Lincoln in the hope he understand and would apologize to Lucy.

But instead she had thrown herself into the line of fire. "THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU! HOLD YOURSELF OUT OF THERE! AND NOW GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"

Oh yeah, how furious he was. But soon after it, after he saw Lily's little face. Completely terrified and the tears which started to show in her eyes. He immediately regretted it.

"L... Lily, oh my god. I'm so sorry, I didn't want to shout at you," he apologized to her. But it was too late.

She cried and ran away from her own brother. The boy she looked up to so much. Lincoln tried to run after her, but was stopped when he heard also the cry from a shocked Lucy.

"L... Luce..." Lucy was complete with shock, she gave no response to him. She just stood there and cried. Lincoln had done in this one month many bad things, but this was the worst. "I... I'm a monster. How could I hurt them so much?" Now his eyes began to get wet too and he ran into the bath.

First, there was the sound of puking. Then silence and after a while a loud shattering sound. It sounded like a mirror which was smashed. This snapped Lucy out of her shock and as she pulled herself together again, she runs there from where the sound came. And what she saws let freezes her blood.

Lincoln had really smashed the mirror and hold now one of the shards in his hand. The point of it is facing his throat, ready to pierce him and end his life.

"NOOO!" cried Lucy, as she runs to him.

Well, that was intense. But maybe you already can guess it. This and the next chapter is the finale, but not for the story, but for the first phase of its. Also will come a 'filler' chapter after the next one. It is just a filler, but important nonetheless, because it will explain some things that had happened. So be patient and have a nice day.