Omens and nightmares
It had been a week since the Loud siblings and their partners returned home to Royal Woods, after making an interdimensional trip using Lisa's portal to fight the entity known as Bill Cipher. Having seen the chaos and devastation he left behind during his visit to their hometown, corrupting Lucy by turning her into a dark sorceress, then unleashing a deadly plague upon the citizens, the Louds could not stand idly by while others fought. They took it upon themselves to partake in the war efforts. Along the way, they discovered the Loud Family's most well-guarded secret, so well hidden that even their parents and grandparents had no idea, that the Louds were a magical family, their ancestor Harriet choosing to bind each generation's powers. They chose to unlock their hidden abilities, and these came in very handy when facing the Nightmare King and his hoard. Eventually, their foe was defeated, but the battles had left their mark, in this case, literally, as well as psychologically. Each sibling, with the exception of Lily, who was left behind, now had a pair of cheek marks permanently emblazoned on their faces. No doubt questions would be asked, so Lori called a sibling meeting to discuss the matter further. The siblings found themselves in her and Leni's bedroom, where the meeting was called to order with a bang of Lori's shoe.
"OK, we all know why we're here, so let's get down to it. What are we going to do about our new 'abilities'?" Lori posed.
"Does it matter? I mean, aside from the obvious, we've never needed magic before. We could just not use it," Luna suggested.
"But our magical abilities make us who we are. We can't just ignore our heritage," Lucy argued.
"Don't you remember what magic turned you into?" Luan reminded.
"Dark magic made me the Dread Mistress, but good magic could make us all something stronger," Lucy countered.
"Filling out your application to join those Sisterhood women, Luce?" Lynn joked. In the course of their adventures, the Loud siblings found out that their great-grandmother Harriet founded a group of witches called the Sisterhood of Shining Light. They helped free Lucy from Bill's control and stem the spread of his plague, not to mention fighting in the battle that defeated him once and for all, with Rosa Casagrande at their head.
"Maybe. They could teach us how to use our gifts correctly," Lucy responded.
"Personally, I'm hoping never to go through anything like Gravity Falls ever again," Leni interjected.
"Magic aside, there's one more obvious issue, our marks. What do we tell people, we all got temporary tattoos?" Lola inquired.
"Yours look fine, Lola," Lana complimented. With the unlocking of their abilities also came magical marks on their cheeks. Lori's marks resembled stars, Leni wore hearts, Luna had musical notes, Luan had the sock and buskin, Lynn had two soccer balls, Lincoln was gifted with the spade symbol, Lucy had skulls, Lana wore the club symbol, Lola had the diamond, and Lisa was imprinted with two beakers.
"My pageants don't allow face art. If I bring these to the stage, I'll be disqualified," Lola observed.
"Not to mention our schools may have rules that forbid tattoos, temporary or otherwise, and no teacher or principal will believe that these are magical marks that cannot be removed. As I say that, even I find it hard to swallow," Lisa added.
"I might have enough make-up to hide them," Leni volunteered. While the girls saw this as a viable option, Lincoln, understandably, had reservations.
"If I had to choose between being busted for wearing tattoos to school and getting beat up for wearing make-up, I'd choose the former every time. You can all do that if you want, but you're not putting that stuff on me," Lincoln objected.
"OK, Mr. Man-With-A-Plan, got any better ideas?" Lori shot back.
"Wear masks and say we have colds?" Lincoln weakly suggested.
"That's your best idea?" Lucy replied sarcastically.
"This is new territory for me," Lincoln defended.
"In anticipation of elder brother's objections to wearing make-up, I have come up with these," Lisa interjected. She then produced what looked like enlarged contact lenses, only these were skin-coloured. "You put them over the marks, and they serve as adequate concealers," Lisa explained. Lincoln took a pair and applied them to his cheeks. They fit like a glove and stuck to his face without effort or the need for adhesives. One peek in the mirror told him that the marks couldn't be seen.
"I like these," Lincoln complimented.
"I have made a pair for each sibling," Lisa offered. Everyone took a pair and applied them to their faces.
"Now that the mark issue has been resolved, there's still some items that need clearing up, namely, do we tell anyone about all this?" Lori changed the subject of the meeting.
"Sam, Benny, Bobby, and Ronnie Anne already know, plus we had to explain to Mum and Dad where we got our marks from anyway," Luan answered.
"Sid probably knows, too," Lincoln added.
"I think we should keep our true selves secret. The more people that know, the greater the risk of discovery," Lucy reasoned.
"And if that happens, we'll probably be dissected for our abilities, or treated as a threat. I am in agreement with Lucy," Lisa guessed.
"I'm not comfortable with lying to our friends like that," Lincoln responded.
"We can't run the risk of them revealing anything by accident. Only tell people we totally trust," Luna guided. The rest all agreed to this resolution.
"Another item I'd like to bring up is…..do we use our powers? Like a superhero team?" Lincoln wondered.
"Absolutely not. We want to return to normal, and that means no magic. We can't rebind these powers we have now, but we can limit our use of them. Emergencies only," Lori resolved.
"What about popping to Great Lakes and back to see Bobby and Ronnie Anne?" Lincoln inquired.
"That will be an exception, but nothing else. Using magic in the open tends to draw unwanted attention," Lori conceded.
"Oh, come on. I could make my music hit much harder with some assistance," Luna complained.
"I'm with Lori on this one. If word got out that I had these powers, it would throw my natural athletic abilities into question. I do not want to go through that," Lynn rebutted.
"And my pageants. People may think we use magic to cheat," Lola backed Lynn up.
"There are rules to magic use, no cheating in competitions, no inflicting malicious harm, except in self-defence, that sort of thing," Lincoln observed.
"Makes sense. OK, no magic use except to see distant lovers or as a defensive measure against equally powered opponents, though I find that highly unlikely, wear Lisa's concealers when out in public to hide our marks, and tell no-one else," Lori summarised.
"Agreed," the others said in unison.
"With all that, I declare this meeting adjourned," Lori concluded the gathering, banged her shoe, and everyone went to bed, their path forward decided.
It had been a full year since that meeting, and the Louds have been able to keep their powers under wraps, and with the help of Lisa's cheek concealers, their marks were well-hidden. Lincoln and Lori only used their abilities to visit Great Lakes for dates with Ronnie Anne and Bobby respectively, until Lori went away to college. Lincoln had debated with himself whether to let his friendship group in on the secret or not but given Zach's penchant for studying other-worldly beings, not to mention the dangers that came with magic, Lincoln decided against it. That wasn't to say there weren't questions about Lincoln's disappearance from Clyde, Rusty, Zach, Stella, and Liam. Lincoln filled them in as best he could while still omitting his powers, but part of him still felt uncomfortable talking about it. Once he disclosed this, all talk of the war was dropped. This was the case with the rest of the Louds. They kept their secret to just themselves and their respective romantic partners, and life returned to as normal as it could get with the Loud family.
However, that could not be said for Rosa Casagrande, Mother of the Sisterhood of the Shining Light. She had been summoned to a secret meeting in the city by her coven. While doing their weekly readings, one of them spotted a dark omen that could not be ignored. Normally, Rosa would not bother with this, but the other sisters thought the situation so dire as to demand her presence, and Rosa could not ignore her witchly duties. She made her way to the Sisterhood's secret gathering place in the city and took her place at the head of the meeting table.
"Mother Rosa, you're here. Good, we can begin," Margaret, Rosa's right hand in the Sisterhood, called the meeting to order. With her were Sisters Charlotte, Agatha, and Julie, as well as someone else Rosa was not expecting.
"Mama Lupe? What brings you here?" Rosa inquired.
"She was the one that called the meeting, Mother Rosa. I realise she had long retired from her role as Second Mother of the Sisterhood, but I thought it prudent that you, as the Third Mother, should be present when you heard what she had to say," Agatha answered.
"Of course, anything for her," Rosa agreed.
"Good, then I will explain. The Strength card was in reverse, meaning self-doubt is in the air, but The Hanged Man and The Moon were upright, meaning new perspectives, as well as fear and anxiety. Something dark is at work here," Lupe clarified.
"Sounds fairly standard to me. I take it something else is at play here?" Rosa guessed.
"There is. When I settled down for the night, she came to me in a dream. The First Mother, Harriet, warning me of a returning evil, the one we faced down before, many years ago," Lupe continued. This alarmed the Sisters. A year prior, they had charged against the Nightmare Army in another world and were not eager to rush into battle again.
"Dreams can mean anything. We should not take this as concrete proof they have returned," Julie dismissed.
"I thought so, too, but the next morning, I was greeted by another individual who gave me this message. She says the following; 'The Order has returned. Warn the Sisterhood. Maintain vigilance'. Then she just disappeared in a flash of bright light," Lupe quoted.
"Who was she? What did she look like?" Rosa questioned.
"The same way she did when Harriet and I vanquished this evil alongside her all those years ago, brown hair, blue gown, and those wings. I'll never forget those wings," Lupe described. The Sisters then murmured amongst themselves. Rosa was speechless. In her heart, she both feared and expected this. When the Dread Mistress came about, she half-expected it to be one of the Order's dark magicians. She was relieved when it turned out to be something else entirely. Now, she was at a loss.
"Do we know where they'll strike next?" Rosa probed.
"No. All I was told was to keep watch and pass on her message," Lupe replied.
"I see, well, the Sisterhood stands ready. We'll have to double, no, triple, the watch on the Dark Orb. I'll see to reinforcing the defensive enchantments myself," Rosa resolved.
"I will alert our Sisters in the field," Charlotte volunteered.
"If the Malefic Order is rising once more, we'll need a battle plan. No doubt they'll try to bring their Dark Master back into the world of the living," Julie added.
"There's only one thing we can do. Full recall, as fast as humanly possible. We'll reconvene once we are all assembled. I'll help Charlotte with that," Agatha suggested.
"Very good, Sisters. Meeting adjourned," Rosa concluded the gathering, and everyone left to their tasks. Rosa and Lupe then went down into the basement and approached the far wall. After tapping a few bricks with their wands at the same time, a passageway opened up, leading to another sublevel, magically concealed from the rest of the world. They came across the vault door that contained the Dark Orb, and a light flickered to life. Then, out of nowhere, the light took the form of a dragon, which spoke to them.
"Identify!" the dragon demanded.
"I am Lupe Casagrande, Second Mother to the Sisterhood of the Shining Light," Lupe asserted.
"I am Rosa Casagrande, Third Mother to the Sisterhood of the Shining Light," Rosa added.
"Sufficient," the dragon responded. It faded away from existence, and suddenly, the vault door's locks clicked open one by one. Eventually, the door opened to reveal a small room, at the center of which contained a pedestal holding a dark purple orb encased in black bindings. Rosa and Lupe circled the room, inspecting various elements. What they found troubled them.
"The protections are beginning to wane. This thing has been busy," Lupe observed.
"Could it be reacting to the Order's presence in this world?" Rosa wondered. Just then, the room started shaking violently for a few seconds, then stopped as quickly as it started.
"Take a look at this," Lupe noted. She inspected the orb closely and noted that the black bindings encasing the orb had been cracked in a few places.
"The suppressors aren't holding. How long until they break completely?" Rosa asked with great dread in her voice.
"I do not want to guess, nor should we make plans without consulting the Sisters. Come, we should re-apply the defensive enchantments," Lupe resolved, and the two witches set to work fortifying the vault with spells and rituals, hoping beyond hope that a solution to this problem could be found in time.
Back in Royal Woods, Lincoln was in the school gym, only it wasn't looking like a gym right now. Instead of his class readying themselves for whatever dodgeball-related onslaught Girl Jordan had in mind for them that week, the room usually used for sports instead housed several hospital beds, upon them lay his classmates, their bodies succumbing to a virulent plague. Lincoln recognised this scene, he had been here before, and did not care to relive the events surrounding the Michigan Flu outbreak. Lincoln tried to find his friends, and after some searching, he found Clyde, surrounded by his dads.
"How come….you didn't…get sick?" Clyde probed through strained breaths.
"I had been away. I didn't know this would happen," Lincoln replied. Then, Stella's bed rolled into view.
"You left us….*COUGH*….for her?!" Stella demanded, referring to Ronnie Anne. While Royal Woods suffered the outbreak of this disease, Lincoln and his sister Lori were on school retreat in Great Lakes City, spending quality time with Bobby and Ronnie Anne.
"I thought you'd be fine without me. I honestly had no idea this would happen," Lincoln repeated his point.
"Oh please, *coughCOUGH* it was obvious…..what you were after," Rusty chided.
"It wasn't like that!" Lincoln rebuffed.
"Some….brother….you were," Clyde remarked before the heart monitor beside him uttered the long beep that indicated a flatline.
"NO!" Lincoln exclaimed. He turned around to see the others flatlining as well. The scene shifted to the Loud House, where his sisters were meeting similar fates.
"You…..abandoned us," Lana scolded before shuffling off the mortal coil.
"I….needed you most….and you weren't here," Lucy chastised before she gave up her fight for life. Lynn then came rushing towards him, grabbing him by the collar and forcing him against the wall.
"Where were you when we needed you, 'bro'? Off with your girlfriend?" Lynn demanded. Then, a pool of a strange, gold-coloured substance appeared on the floor. The substance then rose up and took the image of Timmy Turner and Chloe Carmichael.
"No, no, anyone but them," Lincoln whimpered.
"You watched us die, Loud!" Chloe bellowed.
"It should've been YOU!" Timmy added. The gold figures then advanced towards him. Lincoln could swear that he heard Timmy calling Lincoln's name, but before he could investigate further, he awoke from his bed with a start. It was just a nightmare; the same one he'd been having for three nights in a row. Lincoln had hoped they'd gone away by now, but no such luck. They got more and more intense every night. So much so that Lincoln started to dread going to sleep, and he was getting fewer hours of sleep each night as this went on. He tried to tell himself over and over that it wasn't his fault, but the visions would not fade away. He tried to get a few more winks in before morning, but he found sleep difficult that night. Thankfully, it was a Saturday, so no-one noticed Lincoln's fatigue. In the morning, Lincoln went about his routine as usual, only with more noticeable bangs under his eyes and he had to stifle a few yawns. After breakfast, Lincoln retreated to his room and opened a portal with his powers, but this wasn't a visit to Ronnie Anne, but somewhere else Lincoln thought he should go. He re-appeared at a cemetery and found the grave he wanted to visit. It belonged to his two friends Timmy Turner and Chloe Carmichael. He brought with him a fresh bouquet of flowers to replace the wilted ones. He knelt in front of them and paid his respects.
"Been a while since I was last here, but it seems only yesterday I had to break the news to your parents. I know what you two would tell me if you could, that it wasn't my fault, or that you don't blame me, but the fact is I wasn't strong enough. I promise you guys, I won't fail again," Lincoln vowed before rising to his feet and making to leave. Unbeknownst to him, someone was waiting behind Lincoln.
"You didn't fail them, Lincoln," Lucy assured, jump-scaring Lincoln in the process.
"Lucy, what are you doing here?" Lincoln asked.
"I wanted to see how you were. I can't speak for the others, but I've noticed you've been sleeping less and less," Lucy replied.
"It's nothing that won't fade away with time," Lincoln tried to convince both Lucy and himself, but neither were buying it.
"See. You're so tired, even your convincing aura's beginning to fade. You sure you don't want to talk about it?" Lucy offered.
"It's sweet of you to think of me, but I'm fine, really," Lincoln rebuffed.
"I'm over here," Lucy stated. Lincoln shook his head to realise he had been talking to a particularly fancy gravestone as black as Lucy's hair. All Lincoln could do was chuckle awkwardly. "Better have Lisa check you over," Lucy suggested.
"I told you, I'm fine," Lincoln repeated. After a pause, Lincoln spoke again. "I'm talking to another black gravestone, aren't I?" Lincoln probed. Lucy nodded in response. "Fine, poking and prodding it is," Lincoln conceded. They both returned home, where Lisa, the resident physician of the house, could give Lincoln a once-over.
Meanwhile, in a distant section of Royal Woods, two cloaked figures were surveying the town from atop a hill. The pair had arrived on separate missions yet were bundled together for mutual gain. They each carried mechanical staffs with green orbs encased in yellow binders at the top to serve as power sources. One of the figures was staring deep into his, while the other was hoping to get his attention.
"Any luck?" the male figure probed.
"None whatsoever. I've been over every inch of this dreary suburb, and yet there is no sign of the Michigan Flu virus. I did so hope to replicate it. The Nightmare King had a stroke of genius when he made that," the female companion replied.
"That was to be expected, Plague Bringer. It was powered by the Nightmare Realm after all. With its destruction, I doubt the virus would've served much purpose anyway," the male figure explained.
"Maybe you're right, Fear Monger. How goes your little experiment? Still giving that white-haired lad night terrors?" Plague Bringer inquired.
"I had hoped to have yielded results by now. I'm beginning to think he needs to be pushed further before I learn what I have to," Fear Monger resolved.
"Whatever happened to the operations regarding the other one? You know, the Murphy boy?" Plague Bringer wondered.
"The Supreme Warlock had his reasons for ordering us to withdraw. Vainglorious may have over-stepped her mandate regarding him, but she learned what she needed to, that he was one of the Three Beacons of Light," Fear Monger exposited.
"And let me guess, you think this 'Lincoln Loud' is one of the other two?" Plague Bringer guessed.
"It's a possibility, but he needs to be tested, hence, the nightmares," Fear Monger clarified. There was a pause in their conversation before Plague Bringer had a burning question.
"You know, I have heard rumours that the Dark Master's power orb is stored in this realm," Plague Bringer diverted the topic.
"It is, but the Supreme Warlock has given specific instructions not to go near it unless he commands otherwise. Our enemies in this realm are many, and he has learned that they have been alerted to our presence. For now, we are to stick to probing the Loud boy, and determine whether or not he is one of the other Beacons," Fear Monger asserted.
"Then think of it as a bonus objective," Plague Bringer responded.
"The Supreme Warlock tells me the War Leader is busy retrieving an objective that would make it easier to steal the orb when the time comes, since you're so eager. Has anyone ever told you you're too impatient for your own good?" Fear Monger joked.
"Yes, but that's what you love about me," Plague Bringer flirted back. The two embraced and looked out into the horizon.
"When all this is done, and the Masked One is finally deposed and executed, we'll get our own little corner of the Boiling Isles, all to ourselves, free of covens and tracks. It'll just be us, from now until the end of time, my love," Fear Monger promised.
"Something to look forward to," Plague Bringer pined, and the two kissed lovingly before breaking apart for air.
"If only we didn't have to work today," Fear Monger mused. He then resumed his investigation into the Loud boy, while Plague Bringer left to look more into the Michigan Flu. The two sorcerers hoped they could get their tasks done quickly. After all, it had been too long since they had any time to themselves.
Author's note: Don't worry, I'm still here. I've been spending time building my team on Brilliant Diamond, plus there's some drama regarding on my teeth that needs to be taken out sometime next month. I haven't found time to write a story of my own. I'll be honest, I have no idea where this is going, but you know me, making things up as I go along is how I write, and it's served me well so far. First chapters are what I use for set-up anyway. The usual disclaimers, I own nothing, all properties belong to their rightful owners. Enjoy.