Around the same time Lincoln changed rooms, Lynn was awoken with a heavy sweat. All due to an unsettling dream she had earlier that repeated throughout the entire night...

She was standing on a blackened field, paralyzed, blinded, and unable to even make guttural sounds. She could only stand there and listen as two people slugged each other. It was a good five minutes before someone connected a hook to the other person's face. That person was knocked down, as the other took a few steps forward and kicked the person's head down, giving off an all-too-familiar-sounding grunt. Lynn panicked and tried to break free, but she was halted by a distorted female voice...

"Woo, Yeah! Potshot to the face! Who's your mama?! Can't nobody touch this!" It taunted.

"Hah...hahahah...hahaaaaahahahaha..." but Lincoln's voice, she heard very clearly.

The woman stopped when he chuckled, "Oh, finally. What's your point?"

"You know something, [~~~]?" Lincoln said, "I always wondered why everything you do always had intense emotion...Why do you have the absolute best and worst moments?...I never questioned it because you're my sister..."

"Guh..."

"But after that crap display of power, which I never told anyone about...I have to question it. What is the matter with you? Why do you care about your show of force so much that you would go out of your way to make me submit?"

"Maybe it's because I'm just that good of a fighter, albino!"

Lincoln sighed and growled at the woman, "That moment when I said I forgive you...it was at an impulse. I thought it'd be much easier to just let go."

"And in we go." The woman quipped while being tackled to the ground. "Uh-oh, Spaghetti-O's-"

"SHUT UP!" Lincoln began pounding her into putty, "YOU AND YOUR BAD LUCK CRAP! YOU WILL NEVER CHANGE! YOU OR YOUR BROODING HORDE OF SISTERS!"

"They're your sisters too, blockhead!"

"THEY'RE MY FRAUD! THEY RAIL ON ME WHENEVER I ASK FOR EVEN THE LITTLEST THING!"

"That's what they're supposed to do! What year do you think you're living in?!"

"THE YEAR OF THE SORE LOSER! EVERY SINGLE TIME I MAKE A MISTAKE, YOU GUYS POUND ON ME LIKE I'M PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE! BUT EVERY TIME ONE OF YOU BIMBOS MAKES A MISTAKE, IT'S ALL SOOTHING MASSAGES AND HALLMARK GIFT CARDS! WHAT GIVES?!"

"Because, for one thing..." when she was punched again, she spat in his eye.

"AGH!" Lincoln flinched before feeling a sharp impact.

"...you are a super wimp."

Lynn heard Lincoln fly off and hit the dirt hard.

The woman continued her rant while he was struggling to stand up properly, "And for another thing...you are a wimp on purpose. Tell me, why do you think you are what you are? Because we made you that way."

"Wha?..."

"Oh, and that bad luck crud? We knew it was a joke, but hey. More for us, am I right?"

Lynn wanted to punch as much as Lincoln did. She wanted to smack her other half for devaluing her brother, and for turning her superstitions into a cruel fakeout, but she couldn't wriggle free from her invisible constraints. All she could do was hope that Lincoln could get the upper hand somehow.

"What's the matter, Stinkoln?! Got nothing left?!" But that didn't seem likely.

"I'll show you...I'll show all of you!"

"Aw, are you gonna tear up because you're only slightly ahead of me?"

"I am done being your personal punching bag. It's time I did now what I did when you lot were going ape all over each other!"

Red alert. Lynn heard what Lincoln had to say about Why Blank Is The Worst Sister Ever, and how he was going to singlehandedly destroy the house for good before taking his leave.

"And what in the world would that be?"

Lynn put all her energy into one final attempt to move a single body part.

"TO BUTT OUT AND LET YOU RESOLVE THIS ON YOUR OWN!"

She strained her mind and focused, ignoring all the bashing noises that overwhelmed her ears. She was able to move her hands when she heard someone go down for the count.

"And what is your response now?"

Lynn freaked out even more and flailed her hands, around the same time that she heard Lincoln groaning in pain,

"I made a horrible mistake... I should have ran away when I had the chance..."

"Wouldn't do you any good," The woman taunted, "Lisa put a chip inside you. You won't get far."

That was the last straw. To Lynn, that line spoke of betrayal within the family. She gripped her fists and got angry. She was able to move her arms and her head, and she was able to get a full view of Lincoln being held by the collar.

"I got just the thing for an unruly dyke like you."

Seeing the mysterious woman preparing to finish him allowed Lynn to finally break herself out of her invisible prison and lunge at her, "GET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM, YOU BITCH!"

Except it wasn't a mysterious woman. It was her. The moment she kicked the woman's head, she finally saw who it really was: a replica of her darker side.

She stepped back, "Wha... what is this...I'm not..."

"Oh, get real, freckles."

"What the-"

The other Lynn muffled through the dirt, "You know it's true... and you can't stand that he's getting the spotlight more than you..."

"I never get jealous of him! I never-"

"He's a Representative Contender now...he's captivating himself in all that glorious limelight. He doesn't deserve it," the other Lynn picked her head up and grinned at her, "The only thing he's good for is a mop."

"..shut up."

("Clyde, get help! Get everyone here!")

"He's not worth the hair on his neck. He's a charm...nothing more."

"Shut up."

("What are you...are you crazy?! You'll get hurt!")

"Don't deny it. He's only man-candy. He's only good for service."

"Shut up!"

("And if I don't, she'll get killed!")

"If only you hadn't locked him out...then, you'd never have to worry about losing your only lightning rod. Oh, wait...you already have a replacement."

"SHUT UUUUUUUUUP!" Lynn lost it and flung herself at her downed clone. At least, it looked like it...until the punch connected to someone else.

"OUGH-" it was a smaller Lincoln.

"Ah-no-not-it-" Lynn just punched a younger Lincoln. She was overwhelmed with so many negative thoughts that-

"Look! That mascot is pummeling them!"

"That's Just sad..."

"Way to stuff their insides, man!"

-she was suddenly in that squirrel costume.

And then-

"AAAAA!" She woke up, "Oh my... Well...hhh..." She yanked her lucky sweaters to her body. She did not know what to make of that dream at all. She has had weird dreams like this ever since Lincoln left, growing worse as each day passed. "Ugh...I need to do some calisthenics..."

"No you don't."

"WOOOHAHAHAHA-" SLAM! "Owwww..." Lucy's voice spooked Lynn off the bed and onto the carpet.

"You need to move back to your own bed," Lucy said, "It's clear that Lincoln's room has taken a toll on you."

"You said I should move here because of the dreams..."

Then, they both heard Lisa's vice from downstairs, "We still have the situation under control. But right now, we need you to be a capable Representative Contender. You absolutely cannot falter under any circumstances."

"Lisa?!" Lynn turned to the alarm clock, "At this early in the morning?..."

"Mom said she had an appointment at 8:30, didn't she?"

Lynn blinked, then rushed downstairs to try and get a glimpse of Lisa's chat. Only to reach the living room right after it ended, "Hey, is he still... in the..."

"'Fraid not," Clyde said, "We're in a crisis all our own now."

"Indeed, this was supposed to be an interrogation," Lisa reminded, "Instead, this has escalated into a turf war."

"Sorry," Lynn scratched her neck, "I just...I just saw the picture and I-"

"We know," Clyde went to her, "and Lincoln is handling it as best as he can."

"Can't we help him in any way? Aside from wasting our allowance on every minute talking to him?"

"I'm continually sending him diagnostic reports on his IS, and study guides to help him in his education," Lisa said, "but apart from that... it all has to be indirect."

"Great..." Lynn groaned.

"That's so weird, though," Clyde mumbled while running through his to-do list, "I honestly thought it was done and over with months ago."

"You seem to have forgotten that we attract a rather strong crowd wherever our antics threaten to bloat out of proportion," Lisa pointed out, "It's in the name."

"*SIGH...* I'm gonna ball for a bit," Lynn murmured.

Lynn spent the morning by herself, playing around with as many soccer ball tricks as she could to ease her mind. She mentally went through the whirlwind insanity that was just the first four weeks of school. She thought she could spread the word about what a good pilot Lincoln was, but her classmates always brought up his discovery of the IS touch. How did he get it? Where did he go to find an IS? She fabricated a story about a family camping trip, with him getting lost in the woods and stumbling into an IS. That story only worked for some peering eyes. For many, many more, they connected the squirrel beach incident with the discovery, saying that the family had done something horrible that caused him to flee the house and run to the IS for support.

Lynn was quick to shift the blame away from herself. She changed the story so many times that she got dizzy the last time someone asked about Lincoln. Her coaches weren't very helpful in controlling the story; every time someone asked about Lynn and how she was related to her brother's special abilities, they would bring her in and describe how she taught him everything he knows about "kicking major mechanical keister" for five minutes straight. Not even some of her own friends would ease up on the IS talk, so she frequently confided in Clyde and Margo to take the conversations out of IS territory and into normal life, but that wasn't as effective as she wanted. The only thing that could calm her nerves, strangely, was sending out an email to Lincoln every day. She didn't care if he responded; she just wanted to give him her two cents. She thought it would keep her uncertain feelings at bay...but then the pictures happened.

"Gimme a-" extra hard kick "-BREAK!" Lynn bounced the ball into a wall and across the street, "*GASP*"

and into Margo's hands, "Easy on the gas, Lynn-sanity! No goalkeepers here!"

Lynn momentarily tensed up, "Oh...what are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd come by to visit," Margo tossed the ball to Lynn, "There's this video that's spreading like an un-victory parade."

"How bad is it?..." Lynn asked. Her beat friend ran to her with a video of- "Uhhhhhh... I wish it was that other video..." -a "punk kid" bragging about how Royal Woods was better than Hazeltuckey, "How do a thousand people already like this?!"

"I guess they had the same thought?" Margo said.

"What Thought?..."

"That it was someone from Hazeltuckey?"

Suddenly, they heard Clyde and Lisa scream "BATTLE STATIOOOOOOOOOONS!" The house was rocking with a mighty ruckus.

Even Lola was goaded into cutting her beauty sleep short by a half hour, "WHERE ARE THEY?! LET ME AT 'EM!"

But not Lori, "CAN YOU PLEASE KEEP IT DOWN?! YOU'RE RUINING MY HAIR!"

It took all of ten seconds before the Clyde and Loud siblings (sans Lori and Leni) blasted the back door off and jumped out into the yard. All of a second to confront Lynn and Margo.

"Who is this sentient little Hazeljerkey?" Luan hissed.

"I can't see-" Clyde struggled to squeeze through the crowd.

"Me thinks she be a treacherous snake bound to steal more secrets!" Lana said through her pirate getup.

"Ok, uncalled-" Clyde poked his head out and saw who had come on their territory, "No! Everyone, stand down! She's not hostile!"

"What?!" Luna eyed him, "How do you know?"

"She's my best friend?" Lynn said, "The woman who had my back in every sport?"

"Ohhhhhh..." the siblings recognized Margo.

"Really?" Lynn groaned, "That long?..."

"She's from Hazeltuckey!" Lola growled, "We can't trust anyone from that dreadful place!"

"I thought Winston was from Hazeltuckey-" Luna was cut off-

"HE'S DIFFERENT!"

After that...eventful test of their emergency services, they all walked back inside. Lynn, Clyde, and Margo spent the morning talking about their yesterday and how much that one post basically upended the world around them.

"And that's the gist of it," Lynn was munching on a PBJ sandwich, "The dreams haven't stopped egging on me since school started."

"Yikes..." Margo slumped, "and no one knows the full story?..."

"Not yet. And knowing Lola's tattle tale tail, I'll give it till tomorrow morning before I get batted for it."

"Well, I think I know why you lashed out at JandJ," Clyde said, "You haven't gotten over your own mind yet."

Lynn and Margo let out a well-deserved "Huh?"

"Ok, I guess I should explain. Dr. Lopez said it best," Clyde took out a piece of cake, "So, here's a visual representation of your inner thoughts. This is the frosting, a thin layer of sweetness an wonderful things. Beneath it is a bunch of layers of fluff that may be edible, but not at all appealing...what? What's so funny?"

Lynn and Margo were all giggles, thanks to Luan whispering in their ears while Clyde virtually drowned in his ideal metaphor.

And Clyde was nonplussed, "I'm gonna guess that I went into uncharted territory..."

"Get to the point, peanut," Luan snickered, "before we ruin the mood..."

"O...k..." Clyde brushed it off, "See, what we've been doing is...this sweet thin layer is our outward thoughts and feelings, the stuff we want to say to make them feel good, and therefore make us feel good. But down here..." he scraped off the frosting and showed the other three layers of cake, "...is the true conscious, the feelings we've been hiding. Down here's what we truly feel."

"So, what you're say is that I'm a giant twisted knot of angst?..." Lynn raised an eyebrow.

"If that's the term you wanna use...but what I'm saying is..." Clyde stowed his cake slice away before Margo or Luan could snack it off, "I suspect you told Lincoln ("I'm not gonna stop apologizing, you hear?") just to make him and yourself feel good, when I'm actuality there's a very big layer of your real thoughts and feelings hidden underneath that thin layer of apology."

"Are you calling me a faker?"

"Um...overachiever? More like?"

"The heck does that mean?!"

"Well, Lucy told me you're in Lincoln's room now."

"What?" Luan stopped him, "Say that again?..."

"He said nothing!" Lynn covered Clyde's mouth, "Just Lucy rambling on about her novel again!"

"Really?" Luan eyed Lynn, "Is it really nothing?"

"What's it to you?" Lynn confronted her, "Why's your nose in my crud, all of a sudden?"

Clyde made a muffled babbling noise, which Luan was able to translate.

"Whoa-ly mackerel!" Luan exclaimed, "Are you sure that cake is just three layers?"

"God dangit..." Lynn let go.

"What is going on, Lynn?" Margo asked her.

"Oh, boy..." Lynn was in for it now.

Meanwhile, back in Japan, Lincoln was having an eerily similar discussion with Maya.

"Oh yeah, I'm in for it," he smirked, "There's something so long and drawn out inside that I might confuse Rin for Lynn. Again." Then, he thought about the forthcoming mental conversation, "But what am I supposed to do? I can't just take it all back lickety-split."

"Not saying to take it back," Maya said, "Just saying what you really feel. All that bad luck crud is the cherry on top, but there has to be more than that."

"Um...well, ok," Lincoln had to agree with them. He hadn't found any hints that could point him toward the ends of existence. But if this was the proper first step to a properly incredibly long journey...he doesn't have a choice. "Ok, what do I have to do?"

"Let's start with a simple talk out," Maya suggested, "Whatever you don't have the courage to say in front of your sisters, you can say it here. But sooner or later, they'll get on your case about it, so you could try to talk to the person you're conflicted with in private."

"Is that really that important?" Lincoln cringed, "I mean, this is gonna get out of hand..."

Back home, Lynn, Margo, and Clyde moved to Lincoln's room, and Lynn had just been given the same advice. And a cellphone.

"How's talking to Whitehead's face gonna help my case in any way?" Lynn cringed, "It's just gonna leave...you know."

"We're all alone in a closet," Clyde said, "I don't see the problem."

"Do you not feel the paper thin walls?!"

"Lynn, relax," Margo massaged her shoulders, "All you have to do is close your eyes and say what you wanna say."

"There are so many things wrong with that..." Lynn said.

"Come on, it's not hard at all," Clyde fully swayed her into the session, "What have you got to lose, Lyn...da?"

Lynn twitched upon hearing that name, "Ok, fine! Just...where's the thing..." She saw Clyde point to her hand, "Oh...duh." She chuckled before she closed her eyes and focused on the hidden thoughts deep within herself.

Back in Japan, Lincoln received a similar prescription

"Uh...do I really have to do this?..." Lincoln could tell that this was about to take a detour into a bottomless...thing, "Can we both agree that this is gonna get weird, in every sense of the word?"

"Just give it a try," Maya urged, "What do you have to lose? Besides a few drops of sweat?"

"You're not gonna hold it against me, are you?" Lincoln asked Rin.

"Only if you can score high marks on the next test," Maya joked.

"Yes you are..." Lincoln gave up and went with it. He had himself a few good breaths before he closed his eyes and focused on the hidden thoughts deep within himself.

And then, they pressed the button at the same time and initiated the call.

——————————

"Bro?"

"Been a while."

And now, it was just Lincoln and Lynn in the black empty digital void.

Lynn was conflicted. It was a relief seeing her brother again, but the last time they were together, they had unresolved feelings. She sought to find out both their minds in this moment, if only to confirm that their vows before they parted weren't sincere, "So, What's on your mind?..."

"A lot," Lincoln looked down.

Lynn sighed, "You look like you got a crap ton to say. Why don't you just let it all out right now?"

"You first," Lincoln hissed.

"Whoa, where'd that come from? 'You firsssssssssssssssst'?"

"What? You don't have a crap ton to say?"

And from that line, Lynn already knew where this conversation was going, "I can eat my own words on my own time, dude. And that academy did a number on your manners."

"Manners?" Lincoln eyed her, "Like yours?"

"Wha... what'd you say you mean?!"

"I mean, riddle me this," Lincoln declared battle on, "Why did you threaten me with the bat? Of all the underhanded tactics you could have used, Why the bat?"

"Well, I wanted to-well, it...I..." Lynn could not come up with a viable answer, so she kept coming back to that one excuse, "You never come to any of my games. You could squeeze yourself into those other pageants and shows and everything else thanks to Lisa's schedule voodoo magic thing. But you never bothered to show up at my thing. Ever!"

"Is that your excuse for nearly clocking me upside the spine?!" Lincoln snapped, "Is that why you declared me bad luck after I went to one game?! Is this all just for a little payback?!"

"What gave you that idea?!" Lynn snapped too, "You gave me the impression that this was all part of some convoluted Zeno-Psycho Bad cycle!"

"Not what I'd call fond memories, considering what you get up to behind my back."

"Are you just pulling this stuff outta your scrawny ass now?"

"Just thinking back to what we said before we separated, is all."

"Oh, what a coincidence. Me too."

Lincoln twitched, "About...how we didn't mean what we said?"

Lynn folded her arms, "Oh, EYE...meant what I said. I still haven't stopped. But, I'm not so sure about you."

"*SIGH...* same here," Lincoln sat down, "All this time, I've been searching for a place to drop it and let it be. But you keep butting in and shoving it back down my throat."

"So, you're wishing you could take it back...on account of me," Lynn scoffed, "What a pushover."

"Say that again."

Lynn quickly realized what she just said, "Aw, bad Lynn..."

"I think I know why you've been keeping me from full on forgiveness," Lincoln mused, "And it's not just you."

"Oh. Well, this oughta be rich."

"It is. I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner," Lincoln smirked and shook his head, "We just can't stay consistent."

"What's that?"

"Every time-every time we try to get something for ourselves, there's always another force ready to shove us back in line," Lincoln said, "And that force is always you girls."

"Uh...define 'you girls'?"

"Every time we try to do something really good for us...driving, silence, even a secret which I'm sure we're all gonna suffer from...something related to one of you sisters always finds a way to butt in and ruin it, making everyone have to bend over backwards and sometimes twist themselves out of shape just to make things right."

"Oh, come on," Lynn wagged her hand, "You're just exaggerating everything like we all do."

"Am I?"

"Well, that's...I mean, you-"

"I asked because I'm usually the one who has to do it. I'm the one who usually has to get bent out of shape because of some screw up, and I'm usually the one who has to make right with the world. By myself."

"By yourself?" Lynn took offense with that, "What about that time we fixed your project?"

"It broke because of your skates. Thanks for that, by the way."

"You let me in your room when Lucy and I were on edge."

"And look how well that turned out."

"Wuh?...Well, what about that study muffin? Mrs. DiMartino?"

"Could've done without you going pewey all over Hugh-ey, who by the way, told me he's banned himself from our block... and speaking of going pewey, what exactly have you done so far that warrants the kind of crap I have to put up with? You, or any of the other sisters? What did you guys do that brought any kind of retribution upon yourselves?"

Nothing. Granted, there were a few incidents that the other sisters have incited that needed attention, but not exactly swift remuneration. And most, if not all, of the incidents that did call for some degree of retribution were the cause of him. And the retribution came from the girls to him. It was all right there for Lynn to see.

"Ok, speedo," Lynn rubbed her eyes, "Just get to the point and say you didn't really forgive me. Us. Them. Whoever."

"You're not at all the least bit remorseful?" Lincoln said with slight irritation.

"No, not anymore," Lynn looked away, "Ever since I moved into your room, it's been buzzing around me like a bee on a pollen generator."

"You're in my room?!"

"Yep. Thought I could get some peace there, since nobody around me could shut up the...you-know-what...but oh my GOD the stories that could spin off the bat of the bat. Remember that vacation we had planned? Well, it took a long while, but guess what the Jerry King asked us?"

("Say...ain't your brother that boy in the costume? The Squirrel Boy?")

Lincoln was hardened. To think that the incident reached far beyond the limits of the backwater small town. He knew rumors fly fast, but this was not what he thought would happen. He was supposed to say his true feelings, but he ended up fantasizing about what Royal Woods was now that the pictures have officially conquered the entire state of Michigan. Well, that's what he thought, seeing how outlandish that idea used to be.

He wanted no more part of this mess back home, so he had to aggravate her into distancing him from the family, "And let me guess...you took it in stride."

No, but a few sisters did. Lucy, Lola, Lana, and Luna managed to spin together a superhero origin story of the Savvy Suite. And that was all the crowd needed to set Lake Michigan ablaze with rumors. But Lynn couldn't bring herself to tell him that, so she kept quiet.

Forcing Lincoln to come to a conclusion without her. He assumed that she did and worked with her sisters to create a ludicrous story about him, "Just as I thought... I was raised to be a lightning rod."

"Why that notion now?"

"You didn't raise me like a brother. You raised me like a mop whose only job is to clean messes."

Lynn bit her lip. She was already exhausted from this pointless reaffirmation that she wanted to end this conversation right away. But she had to find out the answer to the question he dodged, "What, you didn't like the good times we shared?"

"I don't doubt we had some good moments, but they're overshadowed by the bad," Lincoln said, "I will say this, though... I forgave you for that bad luck crud. On an impulse. I didn't forgive you...or anybody else...for anything else."

"Ok, ok, I get it," Lynn waved her hands and turned the other way, "Just...you still didn't tell me why you skipped out on all my games."

Lincoln stood up, "I couldn't stand your sore winner attitude. I could tolerate everyone else's, but yours is the worst." And with that, he ended the call.

Lynn already knew that the IS Academy has begun to change him. She just shook her head, dropped the phone and walked to the bathroom, knowing that what was said would stay between them, "Lori was right. Your manners are deteriorating."

————————

"Oh man..." She wiped her eyes dry, "Not a good morning for emotional diarrhea..." She attempted to walk back to Lucy's room, but Clyde and Margo were waiting for her by the stairs.

"You ok, Lynn?" Margo asked, "You sounded like you were having a ball. And not the good kind."

"You, Uh, wanna come with me to see Dr. Lopez tomorrow?..." Clyde hesitated.

"No way," Lynn answered, "Why would I waste my money listening to someone tell me what I already know?"

Suddenly, Lynn Sr called from the living room, "Lynn? LJ? We need to talk to you."

"We?! Uh-oh..." Clyde clung onto Lynn's side, "My dads sound scary when they say that to me!..."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Margo assured them, "Maybe they found some good news."

Nope. It was something. When the trio went downstairs, they found the Loud parents and Clyde's dads waiting for them, with stern faces. When everyone settled down, Rita dropped a bomb.

"Why are you making me quit the sports team?!" Lynn protested, "There has to be a better way to do this!"

"There isn't," Rita calmly said, "You and Luna attracted so much attention, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go out on the field right now."

"Right now? As in, maybe forever?!"

"No, not forever," Lynn Sr said, "Just until this war thing settles down."

"I don't think it's likely," Harold said, "I talked with my coworkers on the phone. They're unsure about their kids hitting up extracurricular activities, since their motivation is reputation."

"Friends? Like Zach and Rusty? Even Haiku?!" Clyde yelped, and Howard nodded. "Boy, am I glad I decided to stay home..."

"Extracurricular is just the tip of the iceberg," Howard said, "There's no telling what they're going to do at a sporting event or academic tournament. Lynn, I have to agree with your parents on this."

"No, I can't!" Lynn rejected, "What am I supposed to do with my recommendations? My varsity tryouts?! I got a whole truckload of stuff lined up for me!"

"I'm sorry, honey, but you'll just be caught in the crossfire. And when you're caught up, so are we," Rita reiterated her main point, "Tomorrow, I'm coming with you to pull you out of everything after school. There'll be no sports for you this semester."

"Se...sem...no..." Lynn lowered her head in defeat.

"If it makes you feel any better," Margo offered, "I can talk with the coaches to work a hold on your position."

"No! This ain't right! I'm not gonna stop midway just because of some dumb punks!"

"Do you know what those dumb punks did to you last time?!" Margo shouted, "Your ankle was shattered, and your brother had to take the heat! Two people down because of-"

Lynn grabbed Margo's collar and pulled her in, "DON'T. SAY. IT."

"Get ahold of yourself!" Lynn Sr separated them, "This is exactly what we needed to avoid!"

"Lynn Laurela Loud!" Rita grabbed her shoulders, "What has gotten into you?!"

"I don't know!" Lynn shouted, "Maybe the fact that the only thing that gives my life that kick! That edge! Without sports, my life is mean-"

"HOLD IT!" Lynn Sr grabbed her hands and forced them into her pockets to calm her down. When her shocked gaze was on his face, he said, "It's. Only. Temporary. Just until we can get everything under control again."

Lynn backed away from them, "We can't," then went out to be alone.

Back in Japan, Lincoln was having a late night dinner. He had just suffered through a conversation about ways to let go of his emotional baggage and dealing with the massive fallout of the posts, which he cut midway in favor of buffet night at the park. Unsurprisingly, no one wanted to sit with him. And this time, he did mind it. Not even Ichika was available to save him from drowning in his thoughts.

Suddenly Kim, "Hiya, Linky-dink!"

"AAAAA-" Lincoln fell off the bench and landed his face into his food "-mm...BLECH! Mountain Yam?!"

"You okay?"

"I'm...well, yes...and no...I'm nokay," Lincoln brushed himself off and went to get another plate of food, "I just got off a weird therapy session with Rin, which somehow bloated into a conversation with Lynn."

"Oh..." Kim followed him, "did it go south?"

"Yeah...last thing I remember is telling her that I only forgave her for the bad luck crud...but not for anything else, which...does that make any sense to you?"

"Huh...not really. I'd think that forgiveness is an all-or-nothing type thing. Chow mein?"

"Yeah, please," Lincoln didn't notice Kim piling both their plates with food. He just took them to a nearby table, "Pretty much the conversation with Lynn went all over the place, and I don't think I got any closer to figuring out why I forgave them. At all." From that point, he narrated the story of how he came across the IS, starting from the attempt escape his sisters' activities, up to the verbal acceptance letter from Chifuyu.

"Ah, and therein lies the problem," Kim stopped him while taking her seat, "You've lost focus because your wall has crumbled."

"My what has a what now?" Lincoln took his seat and dug into his plate.

"If I had to guess...when you said that line before you got here, you set up a barrier between your heart and your brain. I assumed you were going off the "It's easier to forgive than forget" cliche?"

"Pretty much, Yeah."

"Well, there you go. Your heart betrays your mind. While it is better to forgive, and the rest of your family thinks you did, your entire being could not handle yet another instance of F-and-F, since you have worn yourself out with their vast abundance. Therefore, you kept doing the easiest thing in an attempt to brush it off and continue living your life, when in fact you should have confronted it from the moment those incidents started."

"Whoa Whoa Whoa! Back up. Are you saying that I somehow enabled it?!"

"Well...more like..." Kim thought, "I guess you could say you were made to do that?"

"Geez..." Lincoln wasn't too happy to hear that...affirmation. That mental conversation was supposed to be just spouting out nonsense; it wasn't supposed to be true. Maybe he was raised as a lightning rod. "Well...now what?"

"Hmm...maybe now, you can decide for yourself what you want for yourself and your family. You're far away from them, next to zero influence."

"But what if I can't figure out what it is that I want?..."

"You have three years here," Kim winked, "You have plenty of time."

"Oh...I hope it is..." Lincoln just looked around. He caught several glances of girls who heard the entire conversation, a couple of them approaching him.

"Um..." a student from Class 1-3 nervously said, "hi, Lincoln..."

"Oh...uh..." Lincoln looked to Kim, who was already talking with the student's friend, then back to her, "Hello?"

"I, uh... I saw your fight with Huang...did she do anything to..."

"Oh, no! It was nothing she did, really! It, uh...she wanted me to try something called confrontational therapy since she reminded me of my sister. Heck, she wouldn't let me out of her grasp until I agreed to the fight."

"Oh, that's a relief! I thought you...heh."

"Yeah, I tend to do that a lot lately."

The student took the seat next to his, "Is that what you were doing with Miss Yamada?"

"Sort of. I'm staying with her for the night."

"Really?! I thought you were with Orimura."

"She said something about us getting new roommates. Hopefully, nothing veers off the rails."

Back in Royal Woods, after a long afternoon by herself...at the park, Lynn started internalizing everything into her mind. Maybe it would be for the best if she could lay low on sports, but that wouldn't stop the students from walking around the halls and asking her about the brand new turf war.

Only now did she ask herself if any of that nonsense was just nonsense.

"Come on, he said he forgave us, didn't he?" Lynn wondered as she walked through the grass.

"Dudette?" Luna stumbled upon her, "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing," Lynn paid no mind and kept walking.

"Come on," Luna followed her. She sat down beside her and tried to lighten the mood, "Hey. I got a fresh pan of Lynnsagna for you. Eh? Eh?"

"I rather not, Lunes...just...man, there's a lot to unpack right now."

"What, about that stunt? I already heard from Margo."

"Oh," Lynn stopped on a park bench, "Did she tell you what Mom's gonna do tomorrow?"

"I know. I know..." Luna sat down next to her, "but...maybe, mom has a point."

"Aw, don't you start with that crud, too."

"I'm just saying...plus I didn't expect you to utterly beat the crap out of Juniper," Luna smirked.

"Uh, yeah..."

"I guess...with all the attention we've been getting, a lot of it bad thanks to the pics...maybe we oughta lay low until they get forgotten in the wind."

"That's the thing," Lynn shook her head, "I've seen the internet. It ain't going away...ever."

"Maybe not..." Luna nodded, "but still, this ain't the kind of bang you wanted to go out on, is it?"

"Nope," Lynn muttered. She kept going back to the moment when Lincoln lashed out at the family in a controlled manner. And then, two days later, he let them all down gently, yet in a controlled manner. She couldn't help but think of big tests that took place in between as his method of telling them that he was done with them. Done with his family and friends.

"Question," Lynn said, "Did he really forgive us?"

"Pfftt, whaddaya talkin' about?" Luna laughed, "Of course he did! Why wouldn't he?"

"I don't really know...just..." Lynn's mind trailed off. She didn't want to think about it anymore. She figured that the best way to move past this insanity was to focus more on the family without him, "I'm feeling a song coming on, is all."

"Oh yeah?" But Luna...somehow decoded Lynn's feelings from that one line, "It ain't a sappy song about cliches, is it?"

"Ew, no. Just one about life...yeah, just life."

And then another voice "And what's in that life?"

"AAAAA!" Lynn and Luna jumped off and fell on their keisters. When they got off each other, they saw who that voice belonged to.

"Wow...is everyone in this town this jumpy?" Tabane.

"Whoa! Tabby!" Luna piped, "What'cha doing here?!"

"Can't resist a good turf war," Tabane said, "By the way, that was a killer left hook. Not a lot of people can do that."

"Oh...well, thanks? I guess?..." Lynn winced.

"Ah, no need. I am abundant with energy, after all!" Tabane hopped over the bench and landed between the sisters, "And I wanna share some with you! You look like you're in desperate need of a quick picker-upper."

"Uh, no. I just wanted to-"

"Come on! I know a battle chant we can use! We just need Luna's axe."

Luna was hesitant at first, but upon hearing Tabane mention her axe... "Eh, why not? We need some relief every now and then," she effectively ended her delay to music that she started mere hours ago.

"But, huh?!" Lynn stuttered, "Literally yesterday, you said you-"

"Ah-buh-buh-buh-" Luna covered Lynn's mouth, "What Mom doesn't know won't hurt her..."

"Let's get a move on!" Tabane dragged them both back to the house, "This is no reason to delay anything!"

Lynn kept silent. She just went along with the flow of things because she didn't want to force anyone's hand. Not to mention the fact that she doesn't know what Lincoln truly thought of his own family, given everything he said and everything he could be hiding. So, she's decided not to wait until he speaks his mind, "Eh, I've been contradicting myself. Why stop now?"

"Wuzzat?" Luna heard something.

"Uh, nothing! Nothing," Lynn said as she tried to keep pace with Tabane, "Just...come what may. Whatever that means..."