And so begins, the final countdown to the grand finale. I'm gonna try to keep my breath until the very last chapter for a big speech, so... for now... Let's answer some reviews:

1) Nobody245: Funny you mention the Proto-Sisters and Sincoln in the same sentence. I don't think he'd like that.

2) Observant Guest: I gave the theme a listen. Good lord, it's so amazing!

And now, to the chapter!

Episode 96: The Preparations Are in Order! The Prelude to the Final Battle!

At the conference room of the Citadel, Neo-Lincoln sat on a chair while surrounded by the remaining, living Loud Sisters, who looked at him in anticipation.

"Okay, so, I know you must be sick of it at this point, but yes," he sighed wearily. "The Lincoln you were following wasn't the real Neo-Lincoln... which would be me."

"Yeah, Lori and Leni gave us the gist of it while we were trying to free you," Luan replied, scratching her head. "More importantly, what happened to the fake Lincoln?"

"I wiped him out," Neo-Lincoln frowned and lowered his head. "Given what he had done until now, I couldn't take any risks leaving him alive."

"Well, then another question pops up; where did he come from?" Lynn inquired. "I thought when Proto-Lincoln split apart, the end result were you and Sincoln."

Lincoln raised a honestly surprised eyebrow. "Did Lori and Leni tell you that?"

The sisters nodded.

"Well, I can't blame them for fudging some of the details: they only know so much, after all," Lincoln took a deep breath and clasped his hands together. "What actually happened is that I was created separately from Proto-Lincoln, who split into Sincoln, and a Lincoln that was the embodiment of his pure, uncorrupted being. Purecoln would be his proper name."

"Okay, so you were separate from Sincoln and... Purecoln," Luna folded her arms. "But then, what did Purecoln do?"

"Since he had the memories of Proto-Lincoln, he shoved me in a prison beyond the new reality while he merged with Sincoln again to try become my replacement. Once that was done, he lived my life as best as he could without drawing attention."

Lucy frowned. "All while you were unable to do anything about it..."

"Hey, it's not as bad as it sounds: I could still possess things and interact with the world," Lincoln sighed. "I just couldn't do it that often without getting Purecoln's attention and convincing him to reset everything, including your memories."

"So that even if the reality was reset, we wouldn't know about it," Luan hummed. "Were Lori and Leni mind wiped too?"

"I wish the answer was yes, but unfortunately, he knew better than to apply the memory wipe to his partners in crime: Lori and Leni were the only ones to remember how every timeline went down. Even Purecoln wiped his own memories."

"Geez, dude, no wonder Lori's so irritable," Luna put her arms behind her head. "If I had knowledge of hundreds of previous timelines and nobody to talk 'bout them, I'd be pretty sour too."

"So, where do we go from here?" Luan shrugged. "We were going through the trials Purecoln set up for us to try control corruption, but now that he's gone, what do we do?"

"Purecoln had his heart in the right place, but his own catharsis came first over actually getting things done," Lincoln took a deep breath. "Luckily, there's one thing all Louds know how to do, and which I'm a master at."

Luna smiled. "Improvisation."

Lincoln nodded. "Luna, did you manage to make amends with the Lunar Empire?"

Luna nodded back. "Yup. I came to a compromise with their princess, which I'm still surprised is Clyde's therapist."

"Wait a minute, Doctor Lopez is a princess?!" Lynn asked in disbelief, earning a nod from the divine rockstar. "So not only does Clyde have God himself as his best friend, but he's on speaking terms with the princess of an empire of moon people. What's next, he can hold the power of Lincoln himself?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Lincoln waved his hand. "Anyway, right now I need to go check up on the Wild Cards. Meanwhile, you four should try to relax before we head to purgatory."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Purgatory? If we're gonna see a dead person, shouldn't we go to Heaven or Hell?"

"Not when those people are our sisters," Lincoln stood up. "I'll explain everything eventually. For now, take a breather."

The boy looked elsewhere and sighed wearily. "We all need one after what just happened."

And with a little use of Omnipresence, Lincoln was gone, leaving the sisters to sit down and get their thoughts together.

"Man, this just keeps getting crazier and crazier by the day," Lynn sighed. "If things get any weirder, I don't know how we'll manage."

"We're reaching the endgame, or at least, I feel like we're getting there," Luan said, forcing a little smile. "We just need to hold on a little longer, and soon enough, we'll get to rest in peace."

"Will we be alive or dead by then, though?" Lucy pondered out loud. "You guys, I mean. I have no idea where I stand in the whole alive-dead conundrum."

"For now, let's just do what Lincoln says and take a breather," Luna rubbed her forehead. "He said it himself: we all need it after what happened, and especially given what we're about to do."

"Okay, but I have one more question," Luan blurted. "Where are Clyde, Ronnie Anne, and the redhead?"

Lynn hummed. "I think they said they were going to train with someone."

"Before we synthetize, we'd like you to get a quick look at what powers you'll get."

Those were the very first words spoken by the prototype versions of Clyde, Cristina, and Ronnie Anne, their Neo selves nodding in agreement.

"Allow me to go first," Proto-Cristina said. "I believe I have the least to explain, right?"

"More like nothing to explain," Cristina remarked haughtily. "I've had more than enough time to figure out every single ability you have, Proto-Me!"

"Do you now?" Proto-Cristina scratched her chin. "So you know how to move a heart from its spot?"

Cristina winced. "Huh?"

"Or how to add multiple hearts to a body?"

"W-Wait-"

"Or how to squeeze a heart just right to restart it?"

"I said wait!"

"Guess you're not as knowledgeable as you thought you were, huh, Cristina?" Ronnie Anne snickered.

"You're not that much better, Ronnie Anne," Clyde pointed out. "I mean, last time I checked, you don't even know how to fly."

"Wha-of course I know how to fly!" Ronnie Anne replied, looking away while sweating a lot. "I just prefer to fly with my wings!"

"We don't have time to try appease our own egos anymore," Proto-Clyde stated as he took out a card. "You need to learn the abilities and synthetize with us, if you want to have a chance at defeating Sincoln."

Proto-Clyde eyed Proto-Cristina, who nodded and shoved her hand into her own chest before taking out a heart.

"Hey, don't you need that to live?" Cristina asked, slightly unnerved at the sight.

"It's alright: I got more where that came from," Proto-Cristina turned back to Proto-Clyde. "Your turn, Clyde."

The prototype threw the card at the heart, and as soon as it hit, it glowed white before morphing into a card, now depicting the heart on both sides.

"Whoa," the trio said in unison.

Proto-Clyde handed the card to Proto-Ronnie Anne, who ripped the card and caused it to turn back into the heart, which kept beating as she threw it up and down.

"Now, are you ready for lesson number one?"

"Mom! Dad!"

"We missed you so much!"

Those words were spoken by the twins, who not only had halos on their head, Pink and Navy Blue respectively, but they now had both of their arms, which they used to hug their equally halo'd parents as tightly as they could.

Watching this was Lisa and Lori, the latter looking as healthy as she did four years ago. And off at the side was the last deceased sister: Leni, who was drinking from a teacup while looking at the sky with a little smile.

"It sure must feel nice, doesn't it, Leni?" Lori asked, walking to Leni's side. "After so many years working under a control freak, you get to catch a break. Sure, you had to literally die to get it, but-"

"Lori, like, shut up and enjoy the moment."

The oldest sister snickered and obliged as Leni summoned a teacup for her, one that she gladly sipped...

Until Lincoln's sudden arrival caused her to spit it out.

"Greetings, everybody. I hope I didn't appear at a bad time."

"Oh no, literally not at all!" Lori chuckled, tea falling down her mouth as she spoke. "I just love spitting out tea in utter shock!"

Lincoln sighed. "Right, I forgot that dying only heals physical wounds, not mental ones."

"Hi, Lincoln," Rita said as she and her husband walked to their "son." "What brings you to Purgatory?"

"Well, I wanted to discuss a couple things with my deceased sisters," Lincoln answered, getting Leni's attention. "Something I also plan to tell the living ones soon enough."

"Why not tell the living ones the news first?" Leni inquired. "Why, like, tell us first?"

"It's simple, really: because I came to pick you up, so you could help me better explain it."

Leni narrowed her eyes and went back to her tea. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You know, I think I know what he's talking about, and I agree with him," Lori said. "I think it's better that everybody finds out about this one right now, rather than in the battlefield where the corruption can take them over."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Lana asked. "You wanna tell us something about corruption?"

Lincoln glanced at Leni, who refused to look at him, so he simply went ahead and stated:

"The reason the Corruption can be controlled... is because we created it."

Lisa's eyes widened. "Wait, so you and Lori-"

"And Luna. And Luan. And Lynn. And Lucy. And the twins. And you, Lisa. And Lily. And even Lincoln," Leni crossed her legs. "The Corruption was something that was created by the hands of all the matriarchs and the patriarch of the universe." Leni narrowed her eyes. "In other words, us."

The twins lowered their heads while Lincoln took a step forward and continued where Leni left off:

"Since the new reality would require things to change, the gods had the job to establish both good, and bad change. The latter took the form of the Corruption, which was meant to corrode and... well, corrupt, whatever was unfortunate enough to come in contact with it, into a negative version of itself."

"Each of our abilities were implemented in the way the Corruption worked," Leni interjected. "Lisa and Lily's bit caused the mind of the affected to wither, reducing their sentience until they were only vaguely aware of what they were doing, while Lola and Lana's bit corrupted the affected's body, morphing it into something different. Lynn and Lucy's bit made it so that a corrupted existence was a cursed one: though the corrupted would be immune to disease and couldn't die without outside assistance, they'd be plagued by a pain that would make them wish for the sweet release of death. Luan and Luna made it so time and space meant nothing to the corrupted. And Lori and I... made it so reality and fantasy were one and the same for these creatures."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "And Lincoln created a vessel for this concept."

"A vessel made from the corpse of Proto-Lily."

Everybody turned around to see Lily flying down, pocketing her hands as Lincoln picked up where she left:

"Proto-Lily's death was an accident... but one that the Maker turned into a benefit."

"One that, soon enough, caused the Proto-Sisters to suffer a fall from grace," Lori remarked. "Sure, they weren't the best of people before, but after Lute was created, they got infinitely worse."

"Lute?" the twins asked in unison.

"I heard about that name back when we worked for the organization," Lynn Sr remarked. "Something about them being the boss of Sincoln."

"You mean there's somebody out there even stronger than Sincoln?!" Lola grimaced.

"Not necessarily," Lisa argued, scratching her chin. "Assuming that both of them are as strong as their counterparts, Sincoln would logically be stronger than Lute. However, since Lute controls Corruption, which is Sincoln's main weapon, she technically gives him most of his power."

"In other words, if we take out Lute," Lily smiled. "We'll cripple Sincoln!"

"It's a bit more complicated than that, but yes, you got the gist of it," Lincoln smiled. "If we can defeat Lute before Sincoln gets his hands on her, then we'll have an easier time beating him."

"Good to know," Leni sipped her tea. "Well, now that you told us this stuff, could you please let us rest in peace?"

"Well, I'm planning to leave soon, anyway," Lincoln shrugged. "But there's still one more thing I think they need to know about-"

"Get out."

Without any resistance, Lincoln used Omnipresence to leave, leaving Leni to enjoy what remained of her tea... and the concerned looks she got from her family members.

"Lisa, you probably already know, don't you?" Leni asked the tiny genius. "Could you do me a solid and tell them?"

Lisa adjusted her glasses. "I believe it'd be better if it came out of your mouth, rather than mine."

Leni finished her tea and undid the teacup as she took a deep breath.

"Fine, if there's no other choice, guess I just have to tell you..."