Forbidden Allure

by edward18

When Lucy notices a cute guy at one of her Goth Mic Nights she decides that he'd be perfect to go to an upcoming dance for the Goths of Royal Woods with. The only problem however is how to get him. Knowing better than to ask her sisters for help she gets Lincoln. But are her feelings for the guy she's after or are new feelings beginning to develop for someone else?...

14. Royal War Z Part 2

Chapter 13: Royal War Z Part 2

"Damnit!" Lisa growled slamming her fists on the table in front of her. Her eyes twitched with rage and worry as her glasses dropped onto it. Minutes had turned into hours and not a single amount of progress seemed to have been made since that morning. Even after a whole day of sacrificing her scheduled academics she had failed to find just where Lucy and Lincoln had been sent to in the accident that had occurred. A line of sweat trickled down along the side of her face and dripped onto her ruined oil-splattered shirt. "Damnit damnit damnit!" she cried slamming the table each time, "WHY CAN'T I FIX THIS?!"

"Dam mut!" Lily laughed from her crib. Trembling, Lisa shook her head and glared at the baby. She'd certainly been no help.

"We already did that episode Lily! Let me focus on the matter at hand!" she spat. The baby returned her look to her. The inventor may have been having trouble, but she didn't appreciate getting yelled at for her input. "I have everything here! The power source is hooked up, the universe-hopping-tracker is operational, and all the damages have been fixed! I've searched through countless universes already! So WHY CAN'T I FIND YOU?!" Lily crawled backwards to the wall of her crib. She was used to the crazed antics of her older sister, but the pure depraved yelling was not something she had much experience with. The voice quieted though as another sound echoed through the house. A bang. Wood against wood. The two turned to the door as they heard the one at the front of the house open to let in the rests of their siblings from their day at school.

"What?! Already?" Lisa gasped and turned back to her table in a frenzy, "No no no no!"

---

As in their world, the leaves of the cemetery crunched softly beneath the feet of the brother and sister, their jog swift and quiet. Both had been surprised by how few zombies had been occupying the area. There was more than they would have liked to have sneaked around of course, but all things considered it was fairly manageable. In their run they assumed that, once the outbreak had started, most of the ones that had initially been resurrected must have moved on into the more populated areas to find more food. It was likely paranoia about where the outbreak had started that had kept survivors from traveling that far into it. As they made their way up the latest hill, one such infected stumble out from a tree in front of them. Almost instinctively Lucy slashed the shovel she'd collected from one of the gravesites into its stomach causing it to fall to its knees where Lincoln smashed its head in with the bat Lynn had given him. The sound of the skull crunching was all he needed to witness. Normally he might have made the ill-inducing mistake of looking at the wounded, but their race pumped his body with a pressing adrenaline that kept him more occupied with whatever the next actions were.

"You know I'm always surprised Lincoln. You are one of the easiest people I can think of to scare, but you never seem to get as frightened by zombies," Lucy mused.

"Should I? They're all over games and everything," Lincoln smirked. Obviously the initial contact with the monsters had been terrifying and there was the ever-present horror of what had been done to their bodies in the infection, but with how desensitized society had made him towards the entities in pop culture he viewed them as more of video game enemies than he did the other terrors of fiction. It didn't make the dispatching of them wholey unfrightening, but it did help. Lucy grinned back at him. She would have never dreamed that she would be able to enjoy such a visit to her sanctuary with the only one that ever seemed willing to accompany her to it. The mistreatment of the undead wasn't the most prideful thing to her, but it was unavoidable given the situation and it was at least returning the corpses to their rightful state. "So where're we headed?" he asked.

"Should be just over this hill," she replied looking forward. Their path cleared of interference, the two leaped through the branches of the bushes in front of them and started down the other side. Lincoln was surprised to see a little clearing in the crater that the top of the hill dipped into it. Surrounded by trees, the area was almost peaceful. Crows flew away from the tombstone they skidded to a stop in front of at the center of the site and Lincoln bent over to put his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. His lungs burned as air rushed into them.

"Alright," he panted, "We're here...now...what is this place? And...wh-...what's that smell?" Lincoln looked around for the source of the odor. It wasn't strong enough to be unpleasant, but the faint stench of decay was noticeable.

"Us," Lucy replied. Lincoln shook his head and looked at himself. Though unbelieving to the claim, he sniffed his shirt.

"It's definitely not me. And besides, I used the shower before we went over to Mr. Grouse's," he told her, feeling a bit insulted.

"Not me and you. Us," she repeated. Lincoln shot her a questioning eye, but seeing that she was pointing to the grave they'd come to he approached it and looked into the hole. Almost immediately he turned back around and clutched his mouth. That was the sight he'd wanted to avoid seeing when he'd bashed the zombie's head in before, but it was made only worse by who occupied the grave.

"Oh god..." he moaned through his fingers as his cheeks puffed out. Thankfully he was able to swallow his sickness, but that didn't erase the image in his head. When he closed his eyes those blank ones that had rolled up into the back of his head stared back at him...well...the one that remained anyhow. He didn't allow himself the best view of the decaying figures within the hole, but it was clear enough to see who the two had been.

"As for what this place is, this was my "recovery location" in case anything went wrong with the resurrection process, which, obviously for this world, it did," she told him, "I had managed to buy up the space for practice burials and was planning to have it ready in case any of us ever died. Didn't think I'd end up in it though"

"Well, that's very thoughtful but-GOD! Lucy what are you doing!" Lincoln put his hands over his mouth again as he heard some sort of dryish squelching noises from where she had just jumped into the grave. His cheeks fought with his lower eyelids as more rustling was heard from the hole. After half a minute or so, the girl reemerged with a brown pouch and she breathed in a large gulp of air. In awe, Lincoln approached her. Had she gone insane?

"Lucy, what is-"

"Arrows of Hod, outward go

Find your mark, pierce the foe."

"Uh...what are you-" Lincoln tried to ask but she continued as if he hadn't said anything.

"Guard the one who bears the charm

Protect his life and soul from harm."

As Lucy finished the incantation she took the fingers she had dipped into the brown bag when she'd begun speaking out and put them to Lincoln's face where she drew a symbol with the purple dust they'd been coated in. Lincoln went cross-eyed as he tried to look at the marking, but it wouldn't have mattered. It disappeared a second after it'd been drawn. He scratched at his face as Lucy repeated the process on herself.

"Uh...thanks?" Lincoln shrugged.

"It'll offer some defense. As long as we don't get directly up against the undead they shouldn't notice us," she explained. Lincoln felt some relief, though he wasn't exactly willing to put it into practice.

"Well...that's great for US, but I don't think the others are going to be THAT thrilled that you just managed to ward them off a bit for them," Lincoln commented.

"Dry laugh. You think that their me was carrying enough of this stuff to cover everyone else in?" she asked as she bounced the small bag up and down, "No I came here to get help from their me and for that I'd need to talk to her directly." Lincoln blinked and looked to the grave.

"...but...she's...dead..." he pointed out. Lucy smirked.

"Again, look who you're talking to," she said as she pulled a purple turban out from inside her shirt and put it on her head.

"Wait, were you carrying that all this-...hold on, you changed your clothes earlier! Where would you have-"

"Blood of my blood, you spirits of love," Lucy interrupted putting her hands together at her chest, "Come from below and from above."

"Oh yeah, just...ignore...me?..." Lincoln began to complain but stopped as noticed the sky above. Clouds seemed to have started rolling into a circular pattern above them.

"Entities loving who wish me well," Lucy continued and put her hands to the air as the clouds circled slightly faster, "Come to this circle from heaven or hell!" Lincoln put his hands in front of his face. He wasn't quite sure if the motion of the condensation high above had been linked to the ritual or not but he felt it best to prepare for whatever might come of it if it were. They seemed to not have been though. Even with Lucy's arms extended, the clouds' rotations slowed. Nothing seemed to have happened.

"...ummm..." he drolled in the disappointed wait, "...is something gonna-"

"Groan...this would work fine if I had more stuff to work with," Lucy grumbled. In vain she searched around in the sack she had procured from her corpse within the hole, but all that lay within was the purple dust that she had charmed Lincoln and herself with.

"Wait, more stuff?" Lincoln whined, "come on! I thought we came out here to get everything sorted out!"

"No no, I-I know I can do this! I could feel it working!" Lucy assured him, "I just, I need more to beckon with. Sigh, my own energy is...just not strong enough..." Lincoln smacked his forehead. He couldn't believe that she'd dragged him all the way out into a zombie-infested cemetery only for it to be for naught. What's more, he didn't even know if anything she was claiming was actually true! How was he to know if any spell of her's was gonna save the day? Lincoln looked to the grave where their bodies of that world rested. He didn't know...but if nothing was done they would probably end up just repeating the same fate that that Lincoln and Lucy had. Knowing that it was probably stupid, he walked over and wrapped his arms around Lucy's body from behind. The girl felt a lump crawl up her throat from the unexpected pressure and bit her lip.

"Lincoln, w-w-what are y-you-"

"How'd it go? Blood of my blood?" he murmured. Lucy's mouth fell open slightly. Catching on, she nodded and put her hands to her chest again.

"Blood of my blood, you spirits of love," they chanted together. Lucy hadn't been lying. The moment that they had started speaking, Lincoln could feel something grab him. Well...not him but...him. Who he was. It was like something was tugging at him. Stretching his self from his body.

"Come from below and from above." Had Lincoln not closed his eyes to focus he may have noticed the clouds from earlier starting to swirl more rapidly above them.

"Entities loving who wish me well." As the chant continued Lincoln could feel the link that had been established pulsing, filling him with some otherworldly vigor.

"Come to this circle from heaven or hell!" they finished. The two opened their eyes just in time to see the bolt of energy that shot down from the ring above them. As it impacted the grave that their bodies from that world resided within they were knocked back from the force and rolled across the ground until Lincoln put his elbow out to slow the motion. Lucy shook herself off in the net that her brother's body had formed for her and shakily she got back to her feet. Lincoln took the hand she offered him to help him back up. After checking themselves over for whatever damage might have been dealt to them they looked towards the hole in the ground. The gravestone above it was shattered and smoke billowed out from its opening. Still recovering from the event, Lincoln and Lucy looked around, their senses in search of whatever the surge had heralded. But nothing seemed to have changed aside from the charred alcove in the Earth.

"Well that was great!" Lincoln blurted, "Wasn't that supposed to do something?"

"Lincoln, y-you know it did!" Lucy growled, "You felt it too! You had to have!" The boy rubbed his arm as he looked to the side.

"...yeah well-...what'd it do then? I don't see-"

"It called forth spirits," Lucy replied. Lincoln eyed her.

"Oh it did did it?" he asked, "Well where are they?" He waited for an answer, but the only response he got was the girl's face just staring back at him with her mouth partway open.

"...that...wasn't me..." she told him. Lincoln blinked. Slowly he peeked his head over her shoulder as she turned around. Looking back at them was...her. Lucy. This one however was more...translucent looking. As she floated before them the bushes and trees beyond could be seen through her partly invisible figure.

"Hello," she said.

"Holy shit!" the two solid Loud kids exclaimed, though Lucy's input was more emotionless and monotone.

"You...wanted something?" the see-through Lucy asked. Lincoln and Lucy gaped at each other and looked back up at the specter. "...now I know this isn't your first time seeing a spirit," she muttered down at her look-a-like, "Though I am confused as to how there's another me here..."

"How else? Lisa just decided to do some cloning to fill in the missing kids," another voice grumbled. Looking towards the shattered gravestone they could just barely see a tuft of white hair leaning against the back of it. Lincoln felt an uncomfortable shudder run across him. It was one thing seeing someone else, but realizing the state that he himself was in in that version of world was...a bit uncanny.

"We don't know that," the ghostly Lucy responded.

"Whatever," her Lincoln muttered. The living Lincoln and Lucy were still processing just what all was going on. Though Lucy had anticipated the communion with the souls, it...was still a bit of a shock.

"Actually..." Lincoln said, "We're...from another universe..."

"Ah...I guess you were right about Lisa's doing then," the hovering Lucy notified her Lincoln. Though he'd poked his head over the gravestone at the intriguing twist, his sister's agreement towards the cause of their look-a-likes' appearance plopped him back into his seat where he just rolled his eyes at her. Lincoln and Lucy weren't exactly sure what the issue between the two ghosts was, but the way that the dead girl looked away at her brother's actions illustrated a bit of a rift. Looking at his own version of the girl, Lincoln could feel a bit of guilt. Seeing the distance between the two souls before them...he felt silly to have worried so much about what the hypnosis had reminded him of. So what if there had been awkwardness to his words? It's not like Lucy remembered it nor did he actually believe it meant that much, even if there had been backing to the statement.

Besides, most of it had been true after all in some sense. He did love her. Did he really want to allow such a divide to form between them as it so clearly had, for whatever reason, with the ghosts before them? No. It was just silly little nonsense that'd been spouted in his drugged state. It would be ridiculous to let such a trivial matter lead to the kind of dejecting divide that their doppelgangers displayed. It's not like he had the intent of courting his Lucy. The uncomfortableness was only natural with how long he'd been having to train up to being her "boyfriend" for the approaching event. That nervousness and awkwardness. That was what he had to do away with, both for the sake of their "mission" and their bond. It was part of what he had to endure, and he did not want it to jeopardize the partnership they'd formed because of it, not with how he saw the distance between the them that they looked at. They were already somewhat separate from the rest of their kin. Why should he throw away the fellowship they'd been building up?

His dilemma was nothing when faced with what the them from that world displayed. He'd happily play her "boyfriend" and endure whatever oddities that entailed if it meant avoiding the separation they saw.

"Sigh..." the hovering Lucy said, "while it is appealing to see that some version of us has survived, why is it that you have summoned us back from the grave?"

"We were hoping you-"

"Oh great and wise spirit, we seek your wisdom and guidance," the physical Lucy interrupted her brother. Both he and her other self just stared at her.

"Sigh, I have waited for such recognition for quite a while, but this is just weird. I'm you. You don't have to do the whole presentation for yourself," she pointed out.

"Yeah, and besides. Great? Wise?" the translucent Lincoln commented. The normal Lincoln glared in his direction. It may not have been his Lucy that he was talking about, but the criticism hit all the same. At the least it was irksome to see the expression that the ghost they were talking to wore from the ridicule.

"What is it you desire?" she sighed.

"The world's all messed up. Zombies are everywhere. Lucy-MY Lucy dragged us out here to see if you could help figure out how to reverse it," Lincoln told her.

"Well, that certainly sounds like her," the other Lincoln scoffed.

"Okay, the fuck is your problem dude?" the solid one barked at him. Lifting a brow towards his counterpart, the ghostly Lincoln propped himself up onto the gravestone and glared back.

"I don't know if you put it together yet or not ME, but she GOT ME KILLED," he spat. The living duo took a step back from the announcement which only added to the droop of the translucent Lucy's head.

"...the bite..." Lincoln murmured. He felt the itch run across his arm again.

"I did what I could to halt the infection, but I didn't know the spell to return the zombie to its rest," the ghostly Lucy told them, "it...he...the bites got bad..."

"Yeah, wasn't too pleasant to go that way," the boy's spirit added, "and since the zombie apparently wasn't stopped it just spread everywhere."

"That's what we're here to undo," the solid Lucy told them, "you didn't have your book with you to remember what the spell was. I did. And I made sure to memorize it after that incident."

"Yeah, only got one bite," her Lincoln complimented.

"Well whoopdeedoo for you," his other self sang. Lincoln held up his middle finger at him in annoyance.

"What do you need our help for if you have the spell?" the ghostly Lucy asked. The solid one twiddled her thumbs together.

"I was hoping...since...I looked at the book a few times before the day that you guys got...um...killed...that you might have remembered what we'd need to cast the spell on for it to affect the most number of zombies possible..." Lucy murmured, embarrassed at her forgetfulness, "...it's...been weeks since I took a look at the details. And since you...got killed because of it maybe you might remember those...details..."

"You put the spell on the zombie you brought to life. That cancels out the infection to all the ones that it spread it to," the other Lucy told her. Grinning, the living one looked to her brother who gave her an incredulous look. "THAT'S all that you needed?" the ghostly Lucy said with him. The living one blushed in the reignited embarrassment. "I WISH that was all that I needed to remember back when that happened," the ghost sighed.

"Yeah...woulda been nice..." the ghostly Lincoln murmured.

"Well, if Lisa hadn't needed to use the book as a STEP STOOL," Lucy grumbled as she looked to her Lincoln.

"Hey, I didn't know she was gonna time travel to find it," he refuted. Both of the ghosts jaws dropped slightly.

"...wait...so...YOUR Lisa...was the one that..." the male spirit said putting the details together in his head, his expression ever worsening, "Well, good to know the whole family's fucked up."

"Eh, maybe it's for the best that this me bit the dust," the living Lincoln shrugged directing the other's nasty expression to him but he ignored it as he turned his gaze towards the female spirit, "But how did YOU die? You didn't get bit at all that day."

"She snapped her neck," the girl next to him said. Both Lincolns looked at her. "When I went down to get the bag off of her I was curious myself so I looked her over. The point of breakage indicated that the skull had been forced far enough to the side that it broke apart from the spinal cord." Once the implications had sifted through the boys' heads they turned them to face the other Lucy who looked away. "Thank you though," the living Lucy said. Putting her hands together, she bowed to the ghosts. Though unsure of if the gesture would be appreciated and still thinking over what all had transpired between their other selves, Lincoln decided to do the same.

"Yeah. Now we're sure it'd be interesting to talk some more, but we got a world to fix," he said. Lucy jumped as she felt him grab her hand. For the first time in what felt like ages she saw him smiling. Not a smirk or a dissatisfied grin. A genuine happy smile. Warmly she smiled back and squeezed his hand. Nodding to each other, they grabbed their weapons and ran off towards the edge of the hill. Once they were out of sight, the ghostly Lincoln looked up at his own sister. She had floated down to sit on a rock, but she was still turned away from him. Guilt-ridden, he turned his gaze to the ground.

---

"I said give me a few more minutes!" Lisa yelled slamming the door in Lori's face. Crazed, the young scientist ruffled her hair and skittered back over to her desk. With how little of progress she'd made she had also brought out the Assistant-Bot 5200 to help her. Even Lily had carried a bundle of wires and buttons over when no hands had been available. No matter what she tried though, Lisa never seemed to get any closer to recovering her lost subjects. With a frustrated clang, her wrench slammed into the console flickering the glowing portal from its view of the volcano covered landscape to one of a world submerged in water. Lily laughed at the fish-tailed people that she knew swimming around in it. But for Lisa it was just another confirmation of where their siblings weren't.

"Lisa! Have you got Lincoln and Lucy back yet? I need someone to judge my pageanting!" Lola's shrill voice cut through the door to their room grinding Lisa's teeth.

"Perhaps I'd make more progress if you people would LEAVE ME ALONE!" she yelled back.

"Mom! Lisa's yelling at me!...and she hasn't got Lincoln or Lucy back yet!" Lola called from the other side.

"Lisa! You know you're supposed to get your brother and sister back!" their dad reminded a bit aggressively from the downstairs.

"If you don't we just might have to dock your allowance!" his wife added.

"MOM!" Lola cried.

"Oh right, and don't yell at your sister!" she tacked on. Lisa hissed as her eyes closed partway. The interruptions were becoming unbearable. And with how little she had accomplished distractions were not what she needed. Angrily she pounded her console to flip the view to another world. This one displayed people with mechanical body parts built into them. Lily laughed again. At least someone was getting enjoyment out of the dilemma. Sadly, Lisa had lost the ability to properly search the worlds quite some time back. She only had so many drones to send out. The rest of the search had comprised of her simply spinning the portals around to see if Lincoln or Lucy had been smart enough to stay within the vicinity of the portal to wait for potential rescue. Be it by her misfires or their "stupidity" however, they never felt fit to show their faces in any of the searches.

"Yo shrimp! Where's Ms. Brooding and Stinkin' at?!" the closest thing the family currently had to a middle child hollered as she banged on the door. Next to her Lana stood ready with a wrench. They may have wanted to stop the inevitable disaster they'd bring to the town, but not like this. They were still family.

"I'm sorry, I can't seem to find them over ALL THESE INTERRUPTIONS!" Lisa yelled back. Adjusting some buttons on a locating device she was putting together she hit her console again flickering it to another universe. The terminal had become so used and worn in her efforts that she didn't even need to operate it to change its settings any longer. And with how vast the search had gotten there was little difference between switching to a random universe and picking one out manually. The one it had landed on seemed to be a world of cheese.

"Lisa! If it's the martians they're with tell them I have the suit in the closet!" Leni said, apparently having joined Lynn and Lana at the door.

"Brah, you really ain't got em back yet?" Luna asked.

"Come on guys, let the girl "tinker" it out," Luan laughed.

"Lisa you like literally have a few minutes!" Lori yelled. Her eye twitching, the second youngest Loud grabbed a hammer and let loose a violent cry. Over and over she brought the object down on the terminal to the portal.

"Why won't you show up?! WHY WON'T YOU SHOW-"

BANG! The hammer wouldn't come back up. Lisa's pupils shrunk as she looked at the hole in the console that she, in her crazed aggravation, had created and lodged the instrument in. Time seemed to stop as the girls on the other side of the door finally broke through it and landed in a pile behind the gawking baby. With Lily they watched as the portal warped and collapsed leaving nothing behind but the clean view of the wall it had been mounted on. All eyes turned in disbelief to the girl that had made it, her own eyes on them from where she stood red-handed at the terminal that controlled the portal as smoke now sputtered out of its malfunctioning form.

"...so how ya doing?" Lisa asked with a shaky smile.

---

"I can't believe that you did that!" Lynn growled at the little green-clad scientist.

"How can you pin this on me?! It wasn't THIS VERSION of me that did it!" Lisa argued.

"No, but it was you!" Lola yelled, "which means you WOULD have done it if the book hadn't been taken!"

"Like, I think you're all overreacting," Leni commented, "If Lisa wants a book I don't see what the problem is. It's not like the library will let her walk out with them anymore. She needs to get them somehow."

"That's not the point brah!" Luna said slapping her forehead while Lisa glowered at the input.

"Um...what's going on?" a male voice asked. The gathered siblings and friends looked to the rear of the defense-box they'd taken up residence in to see the boy and girl that had departed about half an hour before as the door shut behind them. Lincoln and Lucy braced themselves as the crowd of excited, and partially angered, faces charged at them.

"So? So? Did you figure out what ya needed to do?" Lana exclaimed jumping up and down around them.

"About time you got back loser!" Ronnie Anne said hugging Lincoln.

"I was about to go out there and find you myself!" Clyde told him, though his fathers' expressions didn't seem to agree.

"Lincoln and Lucy Loud!" their father said sternly. All eyes turned to him. "I can not believe you did not tell us everything that you knew!" Lucy and Lincoln looked at each other unsure of what they were being accused of, but were nonetheless hesitant.

"What are you-"

"This world being the way it is because your Lisa took Lucy's stupid spellbook from this one!" Lynn said. The pair cringed at each other, but they looked around the crowd in confusion as to how the others had found out about the information. Before Luan and Lola could change their own guilty faces they gave each other, Lincoln and Lucy drilled their startled annoyance into them.

"We...overheard ya in the car," Lola murmured.

"Yeah, for being the queen of quiet, you sure were "batty" about chatting it up back there," Luan laughed, though her jovial diaphragm quieted from the tense silence around her.

"So you probably aren't gonna be surprised at what we found of us then," Lincoln sighed. Luan and Lola shrugged.

"You said something about the you guys from our world being in there?" Lola asked, legitimately surprised.

"Wait, did you hea-" Lincoln began to ask legitimately surprised, though Lucy's more alert senses clamped her hand over his mouth.

"We were just...wondering between each other what had happened to the us from your world when we were in the van," Lucy told them a bit quickly. With the topic changed to the whereabouts of the lost Louds, the others looked on with bated breath.

"...and?..." Luna pressed.

"Well..um..." Lincoln mumbled scratching the back of his head. Most of the others began to drop their's.

"Like, what's wrong guys?" Leni asked everyone.

"They're dead you dolt!" Lola barked, the rim of her lower eyelids wet. Leni tilted her head to the side and looked at Lucy and Lincoln.

"...but they're right there," she said. Tears of her own having begun to form, Lori shook her head and put an arm around the less-intelligent girl's neck.

"Well that's just great!" Lynn huffed, "so this whole trip was for nothing!"

"No it wasn't," Lucy told her.

"How not?" Ronnie Anne's thick-hipped older cousin asked, "you said we were coming to get help from the you guys in our world. They're dead."

"And we brought them back," she replied. Almost the entire group jumped at the response. "Well...not them exactly, but their spirits. They're ghosts now," Lucy explained, "and we did the get the information we needed to undo this." Whatever issues the group had with the revelations were forgotten in that instant. The unexpected assurance had taken everyone aback, but as some took part in the elated relief others settled into more uncomfortable demeanors. "I had the right spell and everything. We just needed some info on how to get it to work...correctly," Lucy told them.

"Alright, then let's bust out some chairs and watch the bodies drop," Lynn grinned, her previous irritation reversed.

"Eh...yeah not that simple," Lincoln winced. The irritation returned causing Lynn's arms to fall back down. "We have to use the spell on the zombie that was resurrected originally. That'll get rid of all the others it passed onto."

"And do we know where this hombre is?" Carl asked. Lincoln and Lucy looked over their shoulders towards the cemetery they'd come from.

"Oh don't tell me you were trying to "wake" him again," Luan grumbled. The others looked at her, though Lucy and Lincoln's stares held a hint of annoyance to them.

"You know where the zombie is?" Lori asked, surprised by the jokester's presumptions.

"Yeah, it's in a crypt near the center of the cemetery," she sighed before twisting her face into a more goofy expression, "But be careful on the way there! Ya don't want to meet a "grave" fate!" The group let out a collective groan to the added quip.

"Alright, so we literally drive in, break into the crypt, take this creep out with the spell, and save the world," Lori summarized. After thinking it over for a second, Lincoln and Lucy nodded to her.

"When you put it like that it sounds pretty simple," Lincoln confessed.

"Well alright then!" their father exclaimed hopping over to the van, "You kids ready to end this?"

"YEAH!" they all cheered.

"Casagrandes! We ready to show these corpses how to party Great Lake City style?" Ronnie Anne called thrusting her fist into the air. Eagerly the rest of her family did the same with a cheer of their own.

"McBrides! We ready to not die?!" Clyde joined in. A bit less eagerly his dads did their best to give an agreeable reaction, though Clyde put his hands on his hips confidently all the same.

"Hold on, are you guys...all sure about this?" Lincoln asked, "I mean...NONE of you have any hesitation? It's the final confrontation and you're a-okay?"

"Lincoln, it's ONE zombie in a cemetery which really doesn't look too bad considering the other places we've had to hole out in before," Lori told him as she stepped into the van, "When you've lived in this hell as long as us you want it to be over."

"Yeah, now get your asses in the van," Lynn said as she hopped into it.

"This theoretically should go just fine," Lisa calculated, "We likely don't even need any of the troops that we brought with us. You all just stay and continue to defend the way into the cemetery here. Our families should have this done in a little bit." Almost everyone had shunted into their respective vehicles by the time Lincoln and Lucy finally moved. Any worries they might have had for the families didn't seem to matter much with how insistent the others were on tackling the issue. And besides, they'd seen the cemetery themselves only minutes before. It's not like it was crawling with an unmanagable amount of the bodies.

Lucy likely would have dwelled on the carelessness of their team's excitement a bit longer had her body not been moved for her. She was surprised to see Lincoln pulling her in a jog to the van which he yanked her into as it roared to life. She hardly had time to register which people her body had hit before the various hands and body parts from the siblings carried her in a wave towards the back where she and Lincoln were deposited. As they passed, the civilians left behind to defend the area saluted at the vehicles that had begun departing through the exit in the defense's barrier. Of them Lucy could see Borris and Bertrand of the Morticians Club waving with their own customized gothic weapons.

As the van rolled through the broken gates of the cemetery Lucy could feel an unusual sense of anxiousness. She wasn't used to feeling such nervousness for such a simple apocalyptic premise, but the way that the others were so willing to just dive into her realm of terror, it was...very unusual. With how her family normally was they would just shrug off her interests as creepy nonsense, but with it encompassing their lives they just charged straight into the danger. It was almost...too crowded. She liked not being on her lonesome in her journeys of terror, but at the same time, there was some...harmony to be had for a more...isolated party. There was an appreciation of peace when she had only herself to contend with. Maybe Lincoln if she were lucky.

Looking to him, she could see discontent on his face as well, but not nearly to the extent that she felt she had had. It was likely the excitement of the situation pressing him on, but she knew that he too felt some regret about the whole ordeal. Even if she had been the one to initiate everything, he had had a hand in the venture on that day. To have everyone else throw their lives into the fray for it felt...it pricked at her conscience a bit. But like her, Lincoln knew they had little say in the matter. When push came to shove, the family stuck together and tended to support each other. And whether it be to their slightly more inclusiveness towards him or his more mature nature, Lucy knew that he accepted the assistance easier than her.

She could also see something else in his face though. A confidence that hadn't been there before. Even as gunshots warded off the zombies that approached from where the Casagrande vehicles behind the Louds had attracted them, Lincoln sat with a stern look of determination. He had a different air about him than that which he had carried throughout most of the day. Ever since their arrival in that world...no, ever since the night prior he had been much more...difficult in his encounters with her. When she'd approached him he'd try to look away. When she'd try to talk, he'd dampen his eye contact. But now? There was none of that. There was no...fear towards the closeness of their proximity. Throughout their stay in that world he seemed to have grown more tolerable. And after their journey into the cemetery, any lingering awkwardness left by whatever the hypnotism had brought him that previous night seemed to vanish. It was as though their meeting with...themselves had flipped off that switch in him. And Lucy couldn't be more thankful for that.

"You turn left up here," Luan told the father as they approached a split in the path ahead. As Lynn Sr. jerked the steering wheel in its direction the family tilted their bodies to account for the shift in gravity it'd bring. Lincoln and Lucy, who were rather unused to the customs of that world's horrorscape, were left to topple into each other as it swerved. Shakily, Lincoln lifted himself up from their fall. He blushed as he noticed Lucy's face buried into his body but smirked and patted her head.

"Comfy?" he asked. Blushing herself, Lucy creaked her body up and turned her face away with a smile.

"Only if it's as snug as where my body rests when it's in the ground," she replied.

"Well, the you from this world seemed to confirm that," Lincoln reminded. Her face hotter, Lucy's unseen smile grew. Yes...he had definitely changed after their encounter with the ghosts. To further test the extent of his teasing, Lucy leaned back up against him again with a soft hum from her throat. "Shall we pick a grave of our own then?" he mused. Lucy didn't care if he could or couldn't see her blush as he wrapped his arm around her neck and tiled his head towards the window to display the various tombstones that lay around them. Lucy was happy to have the companionship that'd been trying to distance itself from her back at her side. She was used to the loneliness of her interests, but it was nice to have a partner in them once more.

Whether or not she would have given a response didn't matter as a zombie slamming itself against their window made them jump to the opposite end of the seat. A blur of light ripped through the body's head and it fell away from the van as Lincoln and Lucy looked to Lola who caught her sharp tiara which flew back into her grasp from where she'd thrown it from the window she'd propped herself out of.

"Kids! It's getting rough!" Rita announced from the front of the van, "Have your weapons ready! We may have to go on foot!"

"Where'd all these zombies come from?!" Lana exclaimed.

"Louds, McBrides, CasaGrandes! This is the defense post!" a voice crackled over the radio in the van's dashboard, "too-many! Zombies from every—have to abandon! Get out of-get out! GYAHHH!" A majority of the passenger's eyes dilated at the screams on the other end as the feed cut out. As if on cue the van started to shake more violently. Clyde and his fathers were already running as best they could through the hordes forming around the convoy.

"Ding dang darnit!" Lynn Sr. growled as he slammed his fist against the steering wheel, "do we really have to bail on this?!"

"Of "corpse" not!" Luan said. Not a hint of humor lay in her voice as she pointed ahead. Lucy and Lincoln's eyes lit up at the sight. "That's the crypt! It's only a little farther away!" she told them. Even the most prepared of the passengers wobbled a bit at the latest shake to the van. But their goal was in sight, and with or without their transport they were going to get to it. Hestitation gripped Lucy and Lincoln as they looked at each other.

"You sure you got the spell down and how to do everything right?" Lincoln asked her. Lucy nodded.

"Just gotta get to him is all," she responded. The zombies around them rocked the vehicle in slow-motion as they stared at each other. Lincoln was the first to hug and Lucy rubbed her face against his neck as she returned the embrace. She may have, on some unacknowledged level, felt some form of fear, but at least she wasn't alone.

"We only got one shot at this," Lisa said typing away on a computer that she'd hooked up into a torn-out part of the van's interior, "Hopefully the Casagrandes get the idea. I'm overloading the systems of the van to send out a wave to knock the zombies back. It'll only be a few seconds and short out all the equipment within a half a mile of us, but it'll at least stun them enough to hopefully slip by on foot. Everyone get ready!" Once the initial surprise of the described act had passed, the family scrambled to collect up their weapons and get their hands onto the doors. Lincoln could see Ronnie Anne's family doing the same in the car behind them after they, he assumed, had seen them doing so. Lucy squeezed his hand causing him to turn his attention to her and, realizing her worry, he squeezed back. They smiled as the lights of the vehicle flickered and went out.

Lincoln wasn't sure if it was the intensity of the scene or the impact of the wave that rushed outwards from the van that quieted the area, but for whatever reason the world that he and Lucy hopped out into was plagued with an inescapable silence. The entire family charged for the crypt in front of them as the zombies that had surrounded the vehicles stumbled about trying to recover from the wave that Lisa had rippled through their ranks. In the sea of decaying bodies that wobbled on either side of them the run they made felt like wading through quicksand. Each morbid visage dragged the sense of time down further. But as they jogged they also heard. Slowly the moans and shuffles of the life-threatening masses crawled back into their eardrums and the pace picked back up.

Well, for most of them. As the racing Louds made it to their destination, Lana spun back around to face the following horde with her jaggedy wrench.

Lincoln jerked to a stop causing Lucy to flop in the air for a moment from the hand that grabbed her's.

"Brah! What are you doin'?!" Luna called as the Casagrandes began to filter in through the door behind them.

"You guys go! I'll buy you time!" Lana told them as she scowled at the crowd, "I wanna go out like Pop Pop!"

"Oh like hell!" her twin spat. Lana let out a cry as Lola grabbed her by the ear and dragged her inside behind Lincoln and Lucy. As she bounced along in the pull, Lana could have sworn she saw another Lincoln and Lucy floating through the air, though that was likely due to the jiggling vision in her step. With a slam the families forced the doors to the building shut once the final members had entered. Most of the older ones just barely held it in place from the building pummels from the other side. Hastily, people looked around for blockage to substitute for the force of the bodies against the door. Spotting a large beam of wood, Bobby and his uncle carried it over to the vibrating door and slid it into the hooks that were bolted onto it effectively locking the ancient entrance.

The group sighed as they fell away from the rattling door. It may not have been a permanent solution with how many zombies seemed to have been making their way over the hills of the cemetery, but it did give them some reprieve.

"You guys should've gone on without me! I totally had them!" Lana whined.

"You moron! You were going to die!" Lola yelled.

"Ya know senorita, you did look mighty brave out there," Carl commented leaning into the scene. In annoyance both twins punched him in the face.

"That was insane!" Lynn cried as she fell to her knees trembling.

"Yeah guys I uh...I'm not sure we're getting out of this..." Luna murmured as she wiped some blood from her guitar. A few from the group jumped as they heard some groaning from around the corner from where they'd entered. Looking to each other, Carlota and Leni nodded and approached the bend with their weaponized fashion accessories. Those that weren't too worn from the race prepped their own items and started towards the bend. Letting out a couple of high-pitched war-cries, the fashion-savvy females leaped around the corner and flailed their dangerous clothing items. A few male cries could be heard as the girls attacked.

"Whoa girl! Stop!" Carlota exclaimed.

"Leni! What are you doing?!" a younger guy's voice hollered.

"Saving you from the zombie," she replied. After some struggling, the blond was thrown back into the open and the rest of the families came into view from around the corner. Some of them jumped backwards at the scene before them. Laying against the wall of the building, now bruised and battered, were Clyde's dads. Howard though was much worse for the wear. Many of his injuries were clearly obtained from before Leni's assault on them. Below him a small pool of blood had started to collect and heavy bags hung under his eyes. His arm was likely where the injury had been dealt to him as an unusual amount of red had stained through it.

"Dear lord..." Carlos said putting a hand to his mouth.

"At least you all made it," Howard choked coughing up some blood.

"What did I say about talking?" Harold told him, his voice a bit weak. Howard just smiled. Clyde was clearly doing what he could to keep from crying.

"Hold still," Ronnie Anne's mom said bending down next to the man. As quickly as she could she got out her first aide kit and Lisa scuttled over to his other side to set up some more sophisticated equipment to work with.

"Even if you patch him up he's still been bitten..." Clyde told them, "There's...he's..."

"If we get to Gip and reverse the spell it should get rid of the infection if he hasn't turned yet," Lucy said.

"Gip?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"It's the name of the zombie this crypt is for," Luan grumbled remembering her "punishment" for her trickery of her younger sister and brother on their first excursion to the location.

"Then you all get going," Maria ordered.

"But mom!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed looking towards the rattling entrance as she clutched the arm of the woman that checked over Howard with a stethoscope.

"No buts, the rest of you have to get this thing dealt with if we want any chance at keeping him human," she said.

"Don't worry squirt, I'll keep her safe," Bobby assured his sister.

"What? Bobby no, you have to protect your-"

"She's got two families with her," Bobby said cutting his mother off. The older Santiago wanted to protest, but looking to the massive group around them she couldn't make much of an excuse. One stepped forward from it however.

"Bobby-boo-boo-bear!" Lori cried as she grabbed his hands.

"Oh Lori, I..." the two closed their eyes as they bumped their foreheads together. Most of the younger children rolled their eyes or hung their jaws in disgust.

"You guys go on without me," Lori waved to the rest of her family.

"But there's like lots of people wanting to get in," Leni said, "They're not even ringing the doorbell. It's like a mob at Reigners." Even if the speaker didn't fully grasp what all that "crowd" was after, a few of the others went to hug those that were staying behind.

"Be careful," Harold warned as a loud bang on the doors of the building jolted everyone back into their departing positions, "before you got in here we heard some moaning further down. There's more in here than just that one you're looking for." The group was more hesitant with their numbers lessened as much as they had been, but they knew they didn't have much time left. Waving to the others they began their run further into the depths of the building with Clyde taking a moment or so more to look at his dads before joining the rest.

Through the stone corridors their footsteps echoed. The bodies of the decreasing band of venturers could be seen through the columns they passed by in the darkened passages leading deeper into the earth beneath the structure. Lucy had hardly realized her position in the pack until they'd made it about a quarter of the way to their destination. Being one of the few that knew of the location it was only natural that she'd be leading the way, but it was still a bit of an odd feeling when the realization hit her. Looking to her side she could see Luan jogging with a surprising look of seriousness to her. Having not found the one she'd expected to see she looked to her other side, but it was a few feet back that she'd find her brother.

Although a flicker of jealousy over the lack of their rekindled compansionship could be felt, sympathy for the girl that Lincoln ran alongside overrode it. After all, who was she to be distasteful towards the girl that the family had been so happy to see him with originally, and especially when her own family was at stake? That was to say nothing of his other friend that ran with him. Clyde was likely the most hurt of all of them with what had happened to his dad. And who was to blame for all the death and destruction? Lucy squinted her eyes beneath her hair. She knew she could only reference Lincoln or Lisa's involvement so much before the finger pointed to the main culprit. While it was true that the world was now a wonderland of the macabre, it was at a price that she didn't care to think about, and though they had avoided it in her world it would've only taken one tiny misstep for their's to have been plunged into the hell they now ran through. A tiny misstep by her.

Some of the group stumbled in their pace but picked their speed back up when they realized how quickly everyone was moving past them. Those of the undeterred ones that did hear simply didn't let the moans affect them, at least not in ways that would show the fear. Unfortunately Carlota, who'd dropped the furthest back, was the first to encounter the arriving undead. She let out a scream as one lunged at her from one of the pillars comprising the hall they'd been running down. With a snap, Leni's barbed scarf slashed its head open allowing the fellow fashionista to proceed, but with how many bodies had begun to swarm behind the group it was only a matter of time before other members would begin to fall into their midst.

In the distance though their goal could be seen! Just ahead lay the chamber that Lincoln and Lucy had traveled to on that fateful day. And inside it the coffin within lay open. From the sides however, zombies shuffled into view, and with the ones following from behind there was looking to be little hope of escape. As the corpses closed in, Luna brought her guitar to her front and slammed her fingers down as hard as she could into the strings. With a force that stunned even her teammates, a bright wave of energy blasted out around her and knocked the zombies off their feet.

"Thank you Lisa," she sighed. Noticing the perplexed look from Lucy and Lincoln she smirked. "Girl knows how to make anti-zombie equipment. Now that's it right?" she asked looking to the chamber. The two nodded. "Get goin' then. I'll hold em for as long as I can!" As the zombies crawled back up she let out another wave of music, this one being directed towards the ones behind them from the head of the instrument that she aimed at them. Leni and Lynn joined her alongside Carlota, Carl, and the adults to fight against the approaching swarm. The rest charged towards the chamber beyond. As they did though, one of the recovering zombies reached out and grabbed Lola.

"Hey! Get off you creep!" she yelled kicking at its head. With a whack of her twin's wrench, the body fell limp, but the interference had given enough time for one that had managed to stand up to make its strike. Noticing the movement, Luan pushed the zombie to the side, but with a hungry grip it clung to her. Her scream shot throughout the corridor as it sunk its teeth into her shoulder. Realizing who'd been attacked, Luna spun her weapon around but that had given the zombies that had decided to move around from the side the opportunity to make their own grab at her. It didn't take much for her to shake them off and clear them away with her instrument, but her needed attention at the commotion at the rear made it impossible to assist her roommate.

"Luan!" the twins cried. Swiftly Lucy and Lincoln sped past them. A konking sound reverberated from the bat that hit the ruined corpse giving Lucy the chance to rip it open with the spade of her shovel. With a fading groan it slumped over backwards and the two scrambled over to the injured girl that lay slumped against the pillar they'd been next to.

"Luan, hold on!" Lincoln yelped as he skidded to a stop next to her. Lola and Lana were clutching each other in fright and sorrow.

"Hey now, don't "fall to pieces" over me," Luan laughed but coughed a bit towards the end as she clutched her torn shoulder, "but seriously, get this thing done. This like hurts...REALLY bad..." The group looked towards the chamber again and their eyes widened as a couple of more zombies shambled towards them. Their movement was interrupted before they could reach them however. Grinding their teeth, Clyde and Ronnie Anne pushed with all their might against the zombies with their weapons.

"GET MOVING!" they yelled. The twins, Lincon, and Lucy ducked beneath the opening that the two provided through the limbs that flailed about. Before they could reach the doorway Lola and Lana had to break off themselves to block two more that jumped in from pillars at the side leaving only Lucy and Lincoln to dive into the room beyond. Even though the families were able to dispatch a few of the attackers every now and then, with each one that fell two or three more seemed to take their place. Realizing how close a few of the zombies had gotten to Lynn, the senior one pulled her back. He was about to criticize her careless placement when he heard his wife call for him and felt something jagged rip into his arm.

"GAH!" he cried clutching the bite-mark as he pulled away, "Ding dang darnit!"

"DAD!" Lynn exclaimed. Furiously she smacked the zombie's head off only to get pulled in by two more that bit her own arm.

"Don't worry Chica!" Carl yelled throwing himself into the feasting couple, "Carlino has got you!" Grinning he smashed through the two corpses with the pipe he'd been carrying. He smugly pulled the girl into his grasp before realizing where he was. Looking around his eyes bulged seeing all of the zombies encircling him. "THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!" he screamed as they dove at him and Lynn. What he thought was his flesh being torn from his spirit was in fact a rather weaponized scarf that had dug into his skin. To his fortune, none of the zombies made their mark and they were instead pulled back into the circle of the living by Leni.

"MIERDA!" Carl cried upon hitting the ground. Frantically he ripped the cloth off from the wrist that it'd wrapped around.

"It serves you right Hijo!" his mom yelled at him.

"We raised you better than to just throw yourselves into a group of the undead!" his father chimed in. While he received berating from his guardians, Lynn's rushed over to her.

"I did that so this wouldn't happen!" her father cried.

"Lynn, come on dear, look at me. Come on!" Rita repeated patting the girl's cheek. Her failing senses bobbled her eyes loosely in their sockets.

"Stinkin?...stop...stop playing that stupid...Fish Brawler..." she mumbled.

"Dudes! It looks like this might be it!" Luna announced. With each strum of her guitar the shockwaves it emitted had gotten weaker until she'd resorted to simply bashing it against the zombies more often than not. The people huddled around the injured closed their eyes to brace for the unimaginable pain. But it never came. Instead their eyes popped back open as they heard a familiar voice. A voice that should be have been in another room entirely.

"Oh dear...zombies..." an emotionless girl exclaimed as energetically as she could. A number of the horde along with most of the people fighting looked towards the opposite direction of the crypt-chamber. Standing there was what appeared to be Lucy. Ignoring the confusion as to how she'd even gotten over there, the Louds and Casagrandes couldn't believe what she was doing. As if to draw attention she waved her arms and bounced up and down. Taking the bait, a number of the zombies broke off to chase after the girl as she seemingly flew off into the darkness of the hall. Seizing the opportunity, Luna led a vicious attack against the remaining undead.

"That Chica is a crazy..." Carl said looking down the hall. Those that were still looking in the direction Lucy had disappeared into jumped in surprise as another Loud floated into the corridor from the out of the wall.

"Relax, not like they're gonna be able to hurt her," Lincoln's ghost told them. Once Luna had dispatched her latest kill she yelped and blasted a wave from her guitar at the spirit. He drooped his eyelids at the welcome. "Or that would be able to hurt me..." he added.

"L-L-Lincoln?" Lana stuttered. Lola put her hand over her mouth at the sight of the translucent figure.

"Hey," the departed boy waved. Their parents just gaped in shock at him. "Don't worry about the ones we got off of ya. Lucy's leading them to where we helped Lisa, Bobby, and Lori set up," he told them, "you just keep up the fight here. Hope this evened things out a bit."

"More than you know brah!" Luna told him as she cracked her guitar into a zombie's chest cavity.

Within the chamber beyond, the living Lucy and Lincoln had had their own hassle to deal with. Once they'd made it inside the walls had been lined with zombies that had seemingly been waiting for guests to arrive. Thanks to the charm Lucy had placed on them it made getting around the corpses slightly more easy than it had been for the others, but in such confined quarters it had proven to be more trouble than it'd been worth. The two's backs hit together as they backed up towards the center of the room. Looking over their shoulders they noted the zombies on each other's side and nodded to each other. As the zombies dove at them they spun around and swung with their weapons. The ones that Lucy had struck collapsed to the ground beyond her in a liquidy mess while Lincoln's prey flopped around in broken shambles.

"Okay...so no Gip...tons of zombies...people sound like they're dying out there...this is going just great!" Lincoln commented as he swung at one of his victims that had managed to get back to its feet.

"We still don't know if it's a lost cause. Have we checked everywhere?" Lucy asked slashing at another zombie that appeared from a hole in the corner of the room.

"Well, there's a pillar over there and a pillar over there," Lincoln said pointing to the objects between thwacks from his bat, "And an empty coffin. But no sign of Gip!"

"Well chief, if that's what you wanted you just had to ask!" a familiar raspier voice said. Lincoln's brows lifted as did his body from the hand that grabbed his arm. Lucy spun around, but before she could do anything the Flip-looking zombie bit into the boy's arm.

"GYAHHH!" Lincoln cried. Gip would have probably torn all the way through the limb if the boy hadn't slammed his bat between his eyes.

"Bloody hell kid! You think that's a way to get a good deal on a girdle?" the undead man growled pawing at his injured face and dropping the boy to the ground. With the zombie distracted, Lucy snuck in under Lincoln's arm and helped him hobble off to the backside of one of the pillars. "I don't know how you kids got back here! You should've been the first to turn!" Gip complained, "I even called all the other zombies once I saw that we had company! Rolled out the red carpet and everything and you brats still somehow made it in here!"

"Lincoln, don't worry. We-"

"Lucy, stop talking, we don't have time," Lincoln told her putting a finger to her mouth. Lucy dipped her head downwards with a regretful expression written on her face. Her eyes locked with his though as he lifted her chin back up. "I said we don't have time. This is it," he told her. Noticing the zombies that had made it through the cracks in the walls that had begun searching for them he gulped. After their entire journey to get back home it could all just end there. If something went wrong, if they didn't undo the spell fast enough...it could have all been for nothing. Thinking it over in his head, Lincoln's face flushed slightly. Earlier in the day he would have been more hesitant, but with death just inches away and after the whole ordeal, he found it more appropriate to repeat the actions he'd tried to distance himself from. Lucy joined in the color of his face as wrapped his arm around her neck and rubbed his cheek against her's.

"I love you," he whispered into her ear, "...you're my favorite sister." Lucy's face maddened in its hue. Given the closeness and wording it was predictable how her complexion would look when they pulled apart.

"Um...I uh...love you...too?..." she murmured more hesitantly, "Y-you're...my favorite brother..." Giving a half-hearted smirk Lincoln shook his head and Lucy looked to the side in embarrassment.

"Lucy," he said conking his forehead against her's. The girl bit her lips into her mouth. "Kick his ass already."

"Hm?" she hummed.

"Where are you brats at? Ol' Gip ain't too kind on the riff-raff!" the decayed voice hollered.

"Oh r-right," she mumbled, a blush still on her face. Sucking in a deep breath, she exhaled the air and stood up. It was now or never. With one last look to Lincoln she stepped out into the chamber and slid over to the backside of the coffin. She just barely slipped past a zombie. Fortunately she was lost to it senses under her charm.

"Kay, I'm gonna give you til the count of-" Gip grumbled but stopped as he heard something in the back of his ears.

"Through the darksome night, Visions come a-winging," the hushed voice said. Gip darted his head around looking for the source of the voice. "Lo. 'Tis the queen of light. Joyfully singing," Lucy continued, "Solstice-"

"I don't want no Solstice!" Gip blurted. Lucy looked up just in time to see the zombie's hand reach over the top of the coffin and grab her head. Hoping in vain to trick the attacker, Lucy let her body go limp so as to play dead, but the larger figure dealt his assault all the same and sent the girl hurtling into the pillar opposite of Lincoln's.

"Lucy!" the boy cried quietly.

"Now then, I never properly thanked you for bringing me back to the realm of the living did I?" Gip chuckled as he approached her. Rage pumping through him, Lincoln grabbed a rock and stumbled out into the open to throw it. Gip let out a cry as it hit his head and he turned to turn to the still standing Loud.

"Well well, still conscious," he spat. Lincoln looked on in confusion as the zombie grinned at him. "Ya know kid, I've had two bites now, and I really ain't a fan. But maybe my loyal patrons will enjoy ya," Gip laughed. Lincoln gasped and looked to his sides. Zombies had begun to approach from either end. In his anger he must have gotten close enough to alert some that he'd passed by to his masked presence.

"S-...soltice is drawing nigh..." the quieter voice muttered. Both Lincoln and Gip looked at Lucy. She had taken the brunt of the blow, but she was still able to prop herself up on her arm. "Candles are gleaming..." Lincoln could hardly believe she was still pressing on with the spell. It wouldn't last long though with the ancient conman approaching her.

"Hey Gip! I bet your girdles don't even slim anyone down!" Lincoln yelled at him. A spark flowed through the undead man's clouded eye as he turned to the boy. With the other zombies approaching him he could spare some time to snap back at him.

"For your information my girdles work just fine for any woman that isn't a large!" he claimed. Lincoln hung his arms as his face went dumbfounded.

"Welcome are visions..." Lucy said in the distraction. Feeling a grab at his shoulder sleeve, Lincoln pulled away, but the zombie pulled him back allowing a second one to tug at him as well.

"You know your descendant is just as much of a cheapskate as you are!" Lincoln yelled at him. Looking genuinely touched, Gip's expression softened.

"Aw...well at least the family spirit's being kept alive," he sniffed. Lincoln screamed as the zombies began to tear into his skin snapping Lucy's eyes open.

"AND LUMINESENCE!" she yelled. The sudden exclamation spun Gip around to face her.

"Oh right, you. Hope you're enjoying the view cause you're about to-to...guh...gyuh!...GRAHHHH!" Gip screamed. The zombie clutched his head in agony. Her lower face illuminated by her glowing eyes, Lucy focused as best as she could on the decrepit figure. Even Lincoln's screams dulled as the zombies attacking him unclamped their jaws to stare at their master's pain. "W-w-what are y-y-you d-d-doin' to...me?!" Gip cried. The ground shook as he fell to his knees.

"Putting you back where you belong," Lucy answered.

"You are so not getting a discount!" Gip cried. His body flailed and spazzed as blueish flames shot out of the openings in his torn body withering his skin and muscle. The air in the room felt as though it were sucked into him with the eruptions and in a cloud of smoke his form burst into ashes. The zombies holding Lincoln were disintegrated as the wave of smoke washed out through the chamber and raced through the halls of the building into the world beyond. For a time all was silent. Lucy and Lincoln just stared at each other unsure just how to react as the ashes drifted down around them, but as a commotion of voices gathered in the hall beyond the chamber they smiled at each other and laughed.

Lincoln stumbled as he made his way over to his sister and tried to help her up, though by the time she was bending her legs in her weakened stand, he was the one that was needing help. The two made their way to the door flopping around like drunks where cheers greeted them.

---

Lisa panted as she crawled. Within the cramped space of the tunnel she'd managed to find she'd been allowed some moments of relief, but it wasn't much. She knew that no matter how much she hid it was inevitable that she would be found out and her pursuers gifted whatever horrors they had in store for her. Under normal circumstances there was little that could frighten her. More than Lucy, but that wasn't saying much. Her intellect and logic insisted on the dispelling of the usual fare of paranoia. But this? She'd never been hunted as before as viciously as she had been within the last hour or so. When she'd turn a corner another would pop out to grab her. When she'd find a closet another would sniff her out. There was no end to her predators.

That too was the case with her current hiding place. While it had given her some moments to collect herself, all too soon she heard the thumps of some of the smaller ones making their way through the tunnels she'd slid into. Praying beyond hope for some miracle she sped up her crawl knowing that it would only attract more attention. But she had no choice. She may not have had much of a chance, but she couldn't just give in to her fate. It was human instinct to try to survive. As the thumps grew to a near impossible frequency behind her, she saw light ahead and threw herself out into the open. Almost immediately she screamed. The others that had been waiting for her dove at where she landed, but she somersaulted beneath them just in time and ran down the hall. Her head spun as she slammed straight into the door that the smallest one opened in front of her and in her disoriented state she was pulled kicking and screaming into the room where the chase had started.

"No no!" she cried trying to squirm out of the grasp of her sisters. Lana shut the door once the others had all filed in, "you can't do this! I'm too important to the science community!"

"You get them back RIGHT NOW!" Lori yelled.

"This is like NOT okay!" Leni added.

"Brah, your little experiment's bummin' me out," Luna glared at her.

" "Orange" you glad it's not me everyone's after this time?" Luan smiled. The three other ridiculers gave her a glower causing her to laugh sheepishly. "Um, what I meant to say is, you're not gonna "warp" your way out of this one!" Rolling their eyes, the others turned their glares back to the toddler. "Nailed it," she said to herself.

"Where are they brat?" Lynn growled from where she'd pinned the younger girl's arms beneath her. Lisa looked at the crowd of fuming faces around her and cringed so hard that her cheeks nearly went up over her eyes.

"The machine! You saw! It broke! I-I-I couldn't find them!" Lisa cried.

"Wrong answer brah," Luna murmured. Lisa struggled as the circle glared at her.

---

The scanner that Lisa drifted across Lincoln's arm beeped a few times before she took it away and looked at the screen on it.

"Yep, you should be healing up in no time," she nodded to him. Smiling, the boy rubbed the bandaged appendage. Under the care of both Ronnie Anne's mom and the child genius he felt practically nothing left of the injuries he'd received.

"And I assume your world will be doing the same," he replied. The two of them looked into the hallway as the rest of the siblings ran around. With how long they'd been forced to stay away from the house it was almost surreal for the family to be zipping through its structure again, and with that retrieved normalcy came a whirlwind of excitement the likes of which they had hardly witnessed before. Since the group's rehabitation of the house it'd practically been bouncing off of its supports from the items they'd been taking back to their rooms and the activities they'd been doing. Lola could only grin ear to ear at the improved driving skills she'd picked up for her Princess Car as it sped by.

"Sigh, Lincoln, what do you think? Should I take the extra dresses or no? It's not like the me here needs them anymore," Lucy asked as she poked her head in with the clothing item.

"That doesn't mean I don't want them," the other Lucy told her upon floating through the wall.

"You're a ghost. You don't need material possessions anymore. That's like ghost Lincoln requiring the stuff from his room," the living Lucy retorted. As the two Lucys went back and forth, Lincoln's brows lifted and he walked to the door grinning. It dropped however as he turned the corner to head to his room. His own spirit stood right in front of him, arms folded.

"Nice try," he muttered. Laughing nervously, Lincoln rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't you have a grave to get back to?" he asked.

"Eh, consider it a second house. We're still gonna spend some time with the family," the translucent version of him said, not daring to budge, "besides, good luck getting into the room. Your little contraption you had Lisa build is right around the door." Lincoln poked his head over the clearish figure to get a better look. Indeed the blurs he'd seen through his ghost was a ring not too dissimilar from his own Lisa's portal, and with the ingredients it had needed it was only a little reward from the mall that they'd had to ask for to get it powered.

"Aw man this is soooo cool!" Clyde exclaimed as he jumped up the steps to hug his Lincoln only fall face-first through him. Shaking his face, he sprung back to his feet and put his arms out. "Think of how awesome it'll be the next time we get to see the "ARGGH!" guys!" The ghost practically lit up at the idea and joined his corporeal friend in the bubbling excitement.

"Oh we could give them a real show!" the ghost Lincoln suggested, "you tell them about some haunting and me and Lucy'll lift some things off the ground and fly through some of them!" At the mention of her name the two Lucys looked to them.

"Me?" the ghost asked from the scientist's doorway.

"What? You don't wanna join in? I figured the whole literal ghost thing would be right up your alley," her Lincoln said. Smiling, the ghost Lucy blushed and looked to the side.

"Don't worry, he makes a great teammate when you get him into it," her living copy told her as the boys turned back to their conversation.

"Yeah...I know..." her ghost self smiled, "...thanks for...showing up...I don't know what I would have done if I had to...unlive with him hating me forever."

"I doubt he would have hated you FOREVER..." the living Lucy told her.

"You think?"

"...it's Lincoln..." she reasoned turning so that the ghost wouldn't see her own blush, "...he'd of come around eventually...maybe a century or two but...eventually..."

"This is all well and good, and we thank you for finally getting our world back to normal, but weren't you two wanting to get back to yours?" Lisa asked as she skittered out into the hallway directing the Lucys' view to her. The look-a-likes brought their relieved gaze back up to each other, but beyond it could be felt some regret. For as bizarre as it was, the whole ordeal had been a very unique experience, and one that, though it was a joy to have finished, would be emptying to part with on some level. It needed to conclude though. The two foreign Louds had their own lives to get back to and ordered had been restored to that world. And they weren't the only ones that had heard the talk.

"Guys! They're leaving!" Lola practically screamed from where she'd stopped her car to eavesdrop. Instantly the house bounced around as all the people within it scrambled into the upstairs hallway. With practically no say left in the matter, the living Lincoln and Lucy huddled together near his room to keep from being stampeded by the three families that'd forced themselves into the house once they'd gotten done with the festivities at the mall.

"Hey Louds, good work out there," Mr. Grouse congratulated Lincoln and Lucy as he popped his head out from the stairwell, "Also, I'm taking the lasagna that's downstairs." Lynn Sr. shot him a dirty look as he disappeared back down the steps.

"Do ya have to go?" Lana whined.

"Yeah! You like totally saved our world!" Lori agreed, "Without you we would still be cooped up in that depressing mall!...wow that is something I never thought I'd say..."

"I know, right?!" Leni agreed.

"Yeah, you two sure whipped those monsters," Lynn grinned giving them a thumbs-up from her bandaged arms.

"Goo goo! GOO GOO!" Lily cheered from her mother's arms. Lucy and Lincoln smiled at each other under the continuing appreciation.

"It's been a blast guys but, like Lisa said, we do have to get back home," Lincoln admitted. As the fact set in, the praises died down, but the group still stood decorated with happy faces. Out of them, a girl about Lincoln's height stepped forward.

"Hey...loser..." Ronnie Anne murmured as she shuffled her hands in her coat pockets.

"Hey...Lame-O..." Lincoln replied just as awkwardly.

"...ya know...I came out here thinking...maybe this would be the one chance to really save you and...um... "hang" with ya again..." she coughed kicking the ground. Most of the others around them grinned. The ghostly version of Lincoln squinted his eyes at the girl ghost who had joined in the expression. He wish he'd kept looking at her however as when he looked away he caught the more sorrowful eye of the girl that'd been speaking. He knew she could see the same look on his face. "And...well..." she murmured. The crowd stood waiting in the swelling silence until she placed her lips against the living one. As quickly as she could she backed up and glowered away from the cooing audience. The brief look she gave them though showed her the expression on the ghost version of the boy had now turned to an embarrassed smile, something that she more than happily joined him in, no matter how his Lucy widened her grin at him.

The other Lucy however had felt a bit of a different emotion when she'd bore witness to the kiss. But, for whatever reason she'd felt the disturbance in her stomach, it'd only been for a moment. It was an action that was more than deserved after all, and the two had shared a bit of a history together. There was little need to feel anything more than happiness for the affection. The jeering over the revived flirtations quieted once Lisa had inputted some sequences into a terminal that she'd set up next to her room activating the glowing gateway behind the visitors. Realizing the final moments were upon them the otherworlders smiled to the alternate version of their friends and family.

"Now this should be the correct coordinates to your world if my scans of your signatures were correct for if you ever end up lost out in the multiverse again," Lisa told them as she made her way forward and put a wristband with some numbers and letters onto Lincoln's wrist.

"Now don't talk to any anomalies!" Lori suggested.

"And if you ever end up in a world where there's different styles of outfits make sure you find the me there for tips on how to blend in," Leni added.

"Or just get me to beat up the people giving you the stink eye," Lynn smirked.

"Oh, and air. Seeing if it's breathable is very important," Rita stated. Her husband nodded.

"And when you get back home tell the Lisa in your world to go fuck herself," the ghost Lucy spat.

"LUCY LOUD!" her parents yelled. The ghost sunk her head down into her shoulders as her siblings "oooo!"ed at her. Holding back their own snickers, her living counterpart and her brother turned to the portal. Ahead they could see his room, though a version of it from another world.

"Thanks guys," he said putting his hand into the air. Out of the sides of their vision they could see some of the waves the others were giving them. The girl he'd received the kiss from though he could see was more preoccupied with that world's version of him, and the sight of her smiling at him. His hair stood on end from the wave of loss that he'd suddenly felt and his head titled downwards. Realizing where'd he'd looked to, Lucy mimicked the action for a moment. She knew what he must be feeling with the absence that awaited him in their world. But he at least had one girl that his connection had been growing with. Delicately, she slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze. Lincoln blinked and looked down at her. It took a moment, but soon he returned her smile and squeezed back before walking through the portal.

In the goodbyes, Lisa had returned to her terminal and leaned against it for a more casual posture. She hadn't noticed until she'd taken her elbow off of it and deactivated the gateway that the limb had hit against one of the knobs. A light sweat specked her forehead as she looked at the changed numbers on it, but shrugged it off nervously. After all, it was only a few numbers away form the world that their visitors had come from. It should have been similar enough that that one's Lisa could get them home.

Lincoln and Lucy tensed up their bodies as they stepped into the familiar room. In actuality it was no different from the room of the world they'd just been in, but looking behind them they could see the door that should have been open to the family they'd departed from was now closed as well as saw a pinker hue to the coloring of the walls. Noticing their stomachs were just fine, the duo relaxed a bit. At least they knew now that a success trip didn't involve the...illness they'd experienced on their first one.

"So, you think this is the right one?" Lucy asked, "I mean there's stuffed animals and stuff in here-"

"God Loni, get off my back. I got things to-" Lincoln's voice replied. Well...it was clearly Lincoln's voice but...it was...wrong. It was like it'd been pitched an octave or two higher. The two turned around fully to view the newcomer, though Lincoln feared who he knew must have been the true owner of the room. Staring back at them equally as awestruck as Lucy was Lincoln, though...not a Lincoln that had the gender that her's did. The white-haired girl stayed equally as silent in the unbelievable scene that played before both parties' eyes until the boy version of her spoke up.

"NOPE!" he answered. Grabbing Lucy's hand, he pushed his way past the startled girl version of himself and dashed into the hall. As they made their way into the room of the scientist of the houehold, Lucy caught a glimpse of what she could only assume was a boy version of herself walking out of what should have been her room which sent one of the weirdest feelings she had ever felt across her body. The flipped versions of them looked to the door their bizarre duplicates had disappeared into, then at each other, and then back at the door again before charging towards it along with the rest of the brothers that had been in the hall to witness it.

"What in god's name is this?!" the boy Lisa of that world screamed clutching his chest as he gripped the crib he'd backed up into, "What type of spell did you cast on-"

"Wait, this wasn't you that did this?" the girl Lincoln asked from the doorway. The boy Lisa looked to the gathered audience as the remaining Louds that hadn't seen the invaders finally joined the congregation. Whoever they were, their "Linka" certainly seemed to have experience with the portal that Levi had been working on. Their "Lars" though just continued to stare at the group with as much dumbfounded fascination as they had towards her and her brother.

"Okay, got it going!" Lincoln growled. The group jumped back as the portal flashed to life. Lincoln would have changed it if the universe it had opened to hadn't paused him. What showed before them seemed to be a view of the downstairs, but in it what appeared to be a ninja with dark skin beneath his outfit and glasses cracked open the front door and slipped in. Almost immediately female ninjas of various sizes and outfit colors leaped in from behind potted plants, the fireplace, and the couch with swords and other weapons drawn. The intruder bent his knees into a fighting stance, but before the conflict could commence a young male ninja in orange dressings dropped from the ceiling and put his hand up. Respectfully his siblings lowered their items and the dark-skinned ninja bent his knees to offer what appeared to be a comic to him. Taking the reading material, the orange-garbed ninja bowed as did his sisters.

While Lincoln did find the scene entrancing to watch, he was the first to break from the view and quickly input the sequence that the Lisa from the previous world had put on his wristband. Instantly the portal flashed to a view of another room, this one of Lisa's with all of her siblings minus himself and Lucy gathered around her. Figuring that the Lisa from the world they had come from must have been smart enough to set the destination to her room in whatever universe it would have led to, Lincoln bounced over to Lucy and grabbed her hand.

"FINALLY!" he cried but was jerked back, "What the-"

"Not yet," Lucy muttered. Lincoln gave her a startled look but once he'd looked back to the portal he'd realized the reason for her stalling and folded his arms over his chest to join in her glare at the scene.

"Okay it was one thing when you took my tiara to use as some stupid gear in your Stew!-...curry!...tank!...thing!"

"Chicken Noodle Soup Tank," Lisa corrected.

"I'M YELLING AT YOU!" Lola screamed shrinking the girl back into the center of the circle, "But you have gotten our brother lost in-"

"And sister," Lynn interjected remembering her roommate.

"-and SISTER lost in some endless expanse of time and space!" Lola screeched.

"Yeah, not gonna lie. They might be...odd sometimes," Lana murmured sharing a glance with Lynn, "but that ain't cool."

"But it wasn't-I didn't-" Lisa stammered as her mind raced. There was no way out. The machine was busted and she had been cornered right back into her room when she'd tried to make her getaway. She could have tried getting the Asssitant-Bot 5200 to distract them, but against the entire family there was little chance of success, and she'd most likely have only been prolonging the inevitable. In the world that watched them, the boys gawked in disbelief as what looked to be girl versions of themselves screamed at the Levi of that world. The boy scientist though had realized just where the Lars and Linka that had activated the portal must have come from, as did some of his older brothers for however flabbergasted they were.

"You know normally I'd make a joke," Luan said putting her hands on her hips, "But that was Funny Business Inc.'s best assistant and my theater apprentice. And you've probably lost them forever!" Lisa turned where she sat over and over again to watch for which sister would reach her first in their imposing approach. Lynn rolled up her sleeves while Lori cracked her knuckles. Tears welled up in the toddler's eyes.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she cried, "I didn't mean it! It's my fault! I messed up! I'M SORRY!" As the girl devolved into literal sobbing Lincoln and Lucy looked to each other in satisfaction and nodded. As casually as possible they approached the portal. Before Lincoln had fully gone through it however, he picked up a wrench off of Levi's worktable and threw it at one of the switches on the control terminal closing the portal as he made his exit. Just as Lisa began to disappear from view in the enclosing ring of sisters, they stopped.

"Well, nice to finally be back," Lucy said emotionlessly. Her sisters turned to look at her and Lincoln who waved at them. Lisa was no longer the only one with tears in her eyes as the group charged and smashed them against the wall with their embrace.

"Whoa, hey!" Lincoln yelped, "Guys calm down-"

"Where were you two?" Luan cried rubbing her cheeks against their's.

"How'd you just appear here? Is this some vampire trick?" Lana tried to accuse through her relief.

"Like, you literally had us worried to death!" Lori sobbed. Lola couldn't even talk with how much she was crying. Though Lucy would have insisted on the discomfort, it felt kind of nice to have the others smashing their bodies against her's for once. Behind the rest of the group, Lisa just looked in shock at the reappearance of her lost test subjects as the tears that had been dripping down her cheeks began to dry. She had no idea how they had come back, and just as she was about to probably be killed for their disappearance, but she would forever be grateful for it. With some resistance, Lincoln and Lucy eventually got the kissing and hugging to subdue leaving their focus on the short girl that hadn't joined in. The entire group had some distaste towards her.

"Well, it's about time you two found your way back," Lisa said putting her hands behind her back as she got to her feet as if nothing had happened, "Do you know how long I've been having to look for-"

"Oh shut it brainiac," Luna scoffed, "It's great to have you dudes back." Lincoln and Lucy blushed under the affection the ring of Louds had been giving them.

"Indeed," Lisa agreed as quickly as she could, "Now which universe did you end up in? Where's the footage? What was it like there? Have you-"

"Seriously?" Lola gawked, "THAT is YOUR concern? After what you just went through?"

"Traumatizing errors aside, are you telling me you aren't interested in where they ended up?" Lisa replied. While the group still held their resentment towards the girl that had started the whole incident, they would have to admit their curiosities. Reluctant and curious, they group looked towards the brother and sister that had reunited with them. Lincoln and Lucy looked to each other ambivalently, but knew that the only answer they could really give.

"Okay, this is gonna take a while to tell," Lincoln sighed. His eyelids lifted slightly as he felt a hand grab his and give it a squeeze. Squeezing back he smiled. He didn't even think about how he'd have to mention the footage he'd forgotten to collect in the chaos. The other sisters just eagerly took their seats as the stars glistened in the sky outside.

-end of chapter-

And THIS was the chapter that was meant for Halloween. Shows you just how off-schedule everything can get with me. Either way, it was pretty fun. I almost instantly figured out what the title would be when I started thinking of names for it. But yeah, talk about an excuse to get out of school for a day. May not have been the safest distraction, but I'm sure Lucy and Lincoln found it more exciting than having to sit in class. Hopefully you all did as well. Now that they're back home though that Ball they've been preparing for is not too far off. Not nearly as much danger to come after this, but there's still some preparations left before the big event.

See ya then.