For the next hour and a half, Liby was too done in from Lupa's desertion. She cried herself to sleep, face still messily moist of her own tears, resting upon the bed that Lupa would or would not ever sleep in again. For the autumn-haired girl's own sake, she wanted- needed- to believe that Lupa would have a warm change of heart, that she needed them just as much as they needed her. Blood sisters so inseperable, unbound by the primeval laws of nature, the way of the man.

Meanwhile, there was the short athlete Lacy sitting on the floor, back leaning against the side of the bed, there to make sure Liby didn't wake up alone and injured of her heart. Neither she or the sweet, innocent girl needed this. It was bad enough that Liby had gotten into trouble when she hadn't earned it, hadn't sought it out, and here went Lupa, taking her leave as if it were punishment for Liby in the end.

How could you do this to us? To her... You-

Never changed anything, but Lacy's heart went through a rollercoaster ride of its own. She'd be lying to herself if she said unto Liby that she felt nothing, but here, with no literal audience, door locked away for them to be out and away from the spinning world, Lacy was allowed to cry softly, but it hurt her. It hurt her more than anything, and there was absolutely no way for her to do anything. Lacy could not go on a frantic search hunt, not without leaving Liby here all alone- Not like this.

Best bet was to tell Dave, but this was folly in the end. Lupa was a D-level resident, they wouldn't dare search for a troublemaker. Best bet was that they'd clear her room and find themselves another occupant to fill the spot, someone probably nastier than Lupa herself. This was unfair, unjust. And not a damn thing Lacy could do.

I hate you... She cursed Lupa, struck her down from the very place she was at, with the lightning of her fury. Hated her. The promise- The words she spoke in a sacred bond, those were rendered invalidated. Lupa's words to have less value of trust now. Maybe not at all. I hate you... Now come back... Come back...

The room was silent, save for the heart beats she could hear pump wildly out of her ribcage. Her eyes, the green spheres of glory and beauty, blurred out her vision. She closed them and dragged her knees right over her chin, then wrapping her arms around and seeking the comfort and distraction she needed to overcome the infinitely-powered agony. For starters, Liby, the sunshine of the pack, was there still, the one girl who knew she could never leave. Whatever was in her mind, whatever it was she was dreaming- Having nightmares of- Lacy would snap her out of it, comfort and consolation immediately.

And still, a large portion of her heart had taken in significant damage.

Come back, ice bitch... Don't you know that we love you?

Don't you know?

Funny how it worked out. At no doubt this would leave Liby to blame herself for this. It started with her to begin with, a curse presented by her nature, the pacifist kind. She hadn't yet- At least that's how it seemed to Lacy- But it would happen, Liby would find that path that led to it. Liby, the snowball that rolled down and became a bigger menace to those down below. No, not on Lacy's watch. Never her fault. Not on her. Could not afford this shit.

Lupa would come back, had to. The albino had nowhere to go.

Nowhere to run off to.

I'll get you back for this, Lupa. This I swear.

Lacy wept into her knees, defeated by the weakness she could not admit to being bested by. All of it, none was luxurious for her, she could not afford it. She told herself mentally that she just had to be strong, because Liby wasn't. But no, Lacy wasn't a tough girl, and could have her ass handed to her by Allie or Laika, those two were the hardcore chicks on this floor. If only...

If only Lacy could plow through it like she was a stone-cold being. A human zombie at most.

One of the caretakers, Janet Cardigan, a young woman blooming into her late twenties, knocked upon the room thrice before entering. Lacy pulled her head upwards as Janet, calling out in her calm, sugary-sweet voice, had informed whom she believed to be Lupa that she was coming in. And what a surprise it was when she saw Lacy on the floor, and sleeping beauty Liby right on Lupa's bed.

"Oh! Hello, girls!" Janet's firm, platonic smile faded, flipping on itself when her hazel-green eyes met Lacy's. Something was up, and it was in her nature to pry into the heart of the troubles of the kids and help to resolve the internal conflicts. "Lacy, what's the matter?"

Lacy tried to wipe her face, sniffing and turning away from Janet. "You and the master keys," Lacy scoffed, annoyed.

"Where's little old Lupa?" Janet asked to know. "And why are you two here? You both belong in C."

"Yeah, yeah..." Lacy let out, reduced to a depressed songbird, full of woe and everlasting sorrow. "Give us a minute, would ya?"

"Lacy, where is Lupa?" Janet asked again, this time looking around the plain room. "I'll oblige if you could just tell me-"

"I don't know..." Lacy lied without making eye contact. "Find her yourself, we've got her a present."

"Okay..." Janet shook her head and advanced closer to the two girls. "You're not normally hostile, now I know you-"

Liby turned from her side, waking up to see Janet and the upper half of Lacy's head looking back at her. She hadn't slipped away from the sadness yet, but Liby did try to hide her tearful face from Janet, burying into the pillow. "H-hi, Janet-" Voice still trembling in its unsteady manner as she left it off as. It shut her up, making her unable to talk some more.

"Hey," Janet had recognized what a crying face looked like. "Honey, what's wrong?,

Lacy kept still, facing away from Janet who got too close to her, hovering over the bed to reach to Liby.

"Liby?"

The autumn-haired girl dug her entire face into the pillow, emitting a muffled cry. She simply did not want to tell anyone of what had happened; sure, they'd come to know on their own but she wanted the privacy of it. Liby wanted to savor it and not feel bad and hurt while she could. This, and to not acknowledge it. Yeah, Liby, pretend it didn't happen and you'd be as sane as The Trashcan Man. Your life for hers and all that. But Liby had made it already too crystal clear of what she was going through. The reason why, to Janet, not yet known- And Janet made an eager face at Lacy, non-verbally asking for the explanation, and Lacy returned an empty, lifeless stare. It was this bad. "Liby, a-are you hurt? Did Lupa hurt you?"

Lacy broke character and winced a crooked smile, suddenly having the giggles to laugh, finding the humor in what Janet inquired. Of course, Lupa was the berserk girl of the group, she had some negative vibes and had a colder nature that would pop an erection in Jack Frost, and would make Elsa heavily jealous, but Janet did not simply understand the one and only thing about the stone-cold ice queen; Lupa would not hurt her own.

Lacy was wrong to believe that, which was the hidden side she didn't see, and yet She laughed anyways. Lupa had indeed done so, not in the way Janet knew, but regardless- Lacy clapped her hands. "Good one, Cardigan!"

Liby sobbed deeper into her- No, Lupa's- pillow, staining it with her painful state.

"Is this a joke to you, Lacy?" Janet had crossed her arms, setting them over her chest. "Do I have to call the nurse down here?"

"Call the nurse if you want to!" Lacy bounced up to her feet and met Janet Cardigan at height level. Here, Janet, a plump brunette of medium hair, pale skin, bags under her gorgeous blue eyes, probed to be three inches above Lacy, but in terms of physical confrontation, the child could possibly overthrow her down to size. Anyone's game as to how that catfight went. "Go, go do your job and fucking find Lupa, you fat piece of shit!"

Liby brought her pillow away from her face, noticing the spiking flare in Lacy's voice. A very dark anger that suddenly burned inside her and kept her warm, but this wasn't right. This wasn't what Liby wanted Lacy to feel, to experience.

"Watch- Watch your language, missy!" Janet sniped back. "Don't be rude!"

Lupa had rubbed off on Lacy to this amount- Or perhaps this was a true hidden side Lacy had harbored away from the light. Liby knew this was a change in Lacy's character, but not of her own doing, nothing like she'd seen before. For both of their sakes, it didn't need to be out and about. That was the sole reason Liby lunged her upper body at Lacy, grabbing her from behind in a hug that meant to diffuse the risen anger brought to the party. "Please... Please, no fighting."

It could have been you... It was supposed to be you.

Lacy lost her footing briefly, and then her place in talking back against the staff member Cardigan.

Not me, never me. Why do I fill the hole you made?

Lacy shook her head, lips quivering away. "Is she gone, Liby?"

No... Why do you make Liby think I'm the one to fill it? Why, Lupa?

"T-take it all out on me," Liby requested. "It's my fault, it's all my fault.,

Lacy objected. "No, you didn't-" And it was as she initially feared. "How could you have known Lupa would leave?"

Janet's face immediately read shock. "Lupa-?" It was the cue to have her turn around and inform the head honcho and the rest of the staff. But it was futile, Lupa had to have been that far now. Far away...

And the two girls were alone again, heartbroken and once again, graduating to their teary mode. Neither of one could help it, but Liby had helped Lacy roam right into the field of emotion. Wake her up right to reality when Lacy was trying her hardest, on the inside, to flee reality. Reality, there was no escape from, ever. The dreams, the fantasies could only last so long until she snapped back on solid feet and recollect how she had left off before the sleep.

Lacy despised it so much. Bad enough that she had no mother, no father- No, she had them. She came out of a womb, just as Lupa and Liby did, and they weren't wanted. They were abandoned and disregarded so coldly, and so damn easily. Lacy had a secret resentment for her birth parents for condemning her to this lonely life. She didn't deserve it, she wanted love they dare not provide. And Liby and Lupa were of the same variety. Liby was such a sweet girl with a big heart, but Lupa had already been tainted by it, and it showed. Lupa had already become a little rotten, turned insane in her own way, the squirming effect from having a lack of love.

Never meant that Lupa didn't want it.

Lupa.

Lupa...

You, of all people, leaving us! Don't you know?! Don't you know how that makes us feel?! You bitch...

Lacy cried harder than Liby was, asking to be held by not fighting Liby off of her.

Why is it this easy for you?!

The athletic girl came undone. Undone and asking all the right questions, a hailstorm of all sorts. Why she wasn't good enough. Why they didn't just use protection and spare the sperm cells a whole lot of trouble. Which parent she took after and what the families they came from thought of it. She was awfully confused, infuriated and humiliated. For the girl who had a compunction to win all she partook in, for the girl who loved to play sports outdoors with the other buckaroos, she lost the biggest game in her young life. And only so far, only now when she was just young, with a whole lotta life ahead of her. She'd be out of here, adopted, raised and never to see Liby again- This was heaven and yet it was hell at the same time.

Lacy wanted to win, to keep all her joys she had in this miserable dump. She wished to keep all lines open. She lost one of the two closest people in her life, could you really blame her for this?

Could you?

It was as they believed; Lupa had tucked tail and ran away, but not empty-handed. Fuck no, the albino youngster was smarter than that, having looted the office real fast by nicking the key to its lock that was in Laika's possession. Cross the Russian girl and get dead, that was the beastly, unwritten rule of many in D-level. That's why Lupa snuck in while Laika was out, got it and did her snooping around Lancaster's private quarters. That was where the jolly good shit was, starting from the man's desk.

Top drawer had your average shit, files, pencills, a stapler- and a box of assorted candy bars. The guy was a sweet tooth. Bottom one, a set of skin mags, specifically Playboy. Lupa rolled her eyes, firmly disgusted by his perverted side. She shut it, and made noise that had spooked her. It was a silly mistake she pledged to not repeat. She stuffed some chocolate bars into her sweater pockets, still insistent to scavenge around.

And she came across the motherfucking files on them all. L-B. Liby. L-C. Lacy. L-D. Lupa. Arranged all by alphabetical order, and the L names before her were all regular ones, like Lawson, Lars, Laika, etc. For them, for these three, they had the L label, part of a group for some reason. They were connected, and for a moment, Lupa considered that it was this way because of the trio they made up...

But it should have been A, B and C. She was D. D... Level?

No, it couldn't have been arranged by levels, both Liby and Lacy were housed in C.

B.

C

D.

Lupa went back and looked to the file before Liby's. No way, no way did she miss it the first time, as if it wasn't there before. Right after the file of he who was called Lucky, there was that one and only other one. The elusive one, the file...

L-A. A. The girl with the funny name of...

Linka.

The fourth girl, this stranger with a weird name that rivaled her own, revealed to have been connected to all of this. With these four files right here for the taking, Lupa slipped them out of their proper boxes, eyes rummaging from up to down for all of them. And she learned more than she could have ever known. The information here, what it presented, what it meant-

Royal Woods, Michigan. A man's name mentioned in all of them, only that. Her father. Same name on all of them, the first note before the filed delved into the analysis evaluation of them. They came from the same place from Royal Woods, Michigan. Her, Liby, Lacy... And this other girl. This Linka person-

Linka's file was different from the other three, however, and this crucial fact was what had Lupa morbidly frozen stiff;.

Relocated to Royal Woods.

Relocated... She was undoubtedly sure that this word mean Linka had been moved. Moved from here. Too many kids have come and gone, but here? Was Linka a D-lister? Or was there another reason behind this? If so, the piece of shit file failed to provide the critical.

A place in this town of Royal Woods, this is where this Linka, described as a blonde girl of five-four, younger than Lacy (How old was this?) and definitely shy and quiet.

And she was well on her way to find out why Linka was returning to her- Their- place of origin.

Running.

Running.

Ran to the outside portion of the world she occupied. A brave new world, building its path before her, welcoming her. To show her what it meant to be Lupa in a world where Lupa was unwanted. D-Level, soon to be renovated into something else, that meant Lupa would be moved.

No, she would not bother staying those last few days with them when she had known this was the end of the trio. And if it were, she'd have kill it faster to spare herself of the pain that would come and linger. Yeah, she knew it would hurt them, she knew they'd come to tell her when they assumed she didn't get the news- And that was it.

Lupa took her early exit, going on a journey to locate this Linka girl, and to find out why things were the way they were. Answers.

And more.

AN: Secondhand words from Flagg, Darko does not want it continued, ergo new direction. I've got something down here that expands this fic massively, but the changes will not be too fauthful to the main source. I'll try to keep stuff as much as I can pull from their collab fic, of course. Here's to this attempt. Things are still being assembled together.