Author Notes - Hey, you know what sucks? Getting a certain illness that affects your throat and respiratory system when you only proofread out loud. Because if it wasn't out loud, I wouldn't catch nearly as many errors. But I'm back now!

CHAPTER ELEVEN - WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT LUCY (WITH LUCY)

Lucy led them into a little room within the walls. Compared to everyone else's bedrooms, or even Lincoln's room in the nursery, it wasn't very big at all. Still, it seemed livable. The light on the ceiling worked just fine (though it was a little dim), and there was plenty of old furniture that Lincoln could've sworn had been thrown out. There were even little tombstones scattered around the room, fortunately not in trippable territory.

Oh, and there were bats. A looooot of bats, hanging upside-down just about everywhere one could possibly hang upside-down from. It was a miracle that the place didn't smell like bat poop. And… was that a stone bust of a vampire on her table?

'Well, here's my room.' Lucy said. 'It isn't as wicked as my old room, but it's good enough.'

Lynn sat herself down on the soft chair, caring none for how dirty or ripped it was. It felt oddly familiar… She was all but certain this was the chair that needed replacing after another twin fight. In fact, she could still see some scorch marks from a wayward lightning bolt.

'Why are you living in a dump like this?' She asked.

Lucy shot her a look of… offence? It wasn't easy to tell through her bangs, and her unmoving smile didn't help at all.

'It isn't a dump.' She said. 'It's my room. Ruidosa has even given me a sink and a toilet over there.'

'Wait, you get your own bathroom back here?!' Lynn yelled, seeing the (surprisingly) clean toilet in the corner. 'And the rest of us have gotta share the one toilet?'

'It helps make up for everything else.'

Lincoln walked through the old room slowly, taking note of all the bats around the place. A couple were bathing themselves in the sink, while another was grooming her fur with what appeared to be Lucy's toothbrush. He cringed, and tried not to think about that much longer.

'So…' He said. 'What's with all the bats?'

'They're my friends.' Lucy replied. 'This little guy on my shoulder is named Fangs.'

Fangs confirmed her statement with a happy little squeak. Lincoln had to admit, these bats were pretty cute for blood-sucking pests. And now that had him wondering what they had been eating this whole time, and that was another thought he had to ignore.

'Okay, here's a more important question.' He said. 'How long have you been back here for?'

Her mouth did that 'slight downwards turn' thing. '... Seven years.'

'Seven years?! Wait, that's how long you've been gone for. Have you really been living inside the walls this whole time?'

'... Yes.'

While Lucy stood in place, Lincoln wandered around her room a little bit more. It certainly looked livable, but it still baffled him as to why she was here in the first place. As he glanced around, something caught his eye - a small crack in the wall. Seeing as Lucy hadn't bothered to plaster this one, like she had done for all the other cracks, he assumed she must've left it there on purpose. As to why… he had to find out.

'You could've gone anywhere in the world.' Lynn said. 'Anywhere! But you decided to stay cooped up in these dusty old walls… because?'

'I didn't see a reason to leave.' Lucy replied. 'It saved me the trouble of finding my own place. And the next town is so far away, and no one here would dare to take me in. Because… I'm so creepy, and my visions killed someone's goldfish. And…' She pulled out a small piece of Lynn-sagna seemingly from thin air. 'I'm right next to the kitchen, so sometimes Fangs will go out and fetch me some free food.'

Lincoln peeped through the small crack in the wall, cringing a little as a bright light hit his eyes. When the temporary blindness went away, he saw a very familiar sight: the dining room. It was still cracked, with the limp vines and piano remaining exactly where Leni and Lori had left them. There were puddles everywhere from the melted hail, but no one was seated there.

'Why couldn't you hide out in the graveyard or something?' Lynn asked, cocking her eyebrow. 'It'd be a lot like your old room. Just with real bodies. Heck, you can hide out anywhere. I still remember having a heart attack or two when you popped out in front of me.'

As Lincoln backed away from the wall, he bumped into a small table. His attention fell onto it, and he saw one thing on the otherwise plain wood: a crayon-drawing of a black-coloured plate. Writing in white crayon spelled out a single word…

LUCY

Without saying a word - because he couldn't - he turned to Lucy. It was a look begging for answers to questions he couldn't bring himself to ask.

'I figured you'd find that eventually. Sigh.' Lucy said, looking slightly more sad.

'You didn't stay out of convenience.' Lincoln said. 'You stayed here because…'

She nodded. 'I just couldn't bear to leave my family. I had predicted that Lisa would be born soon after your gift ceremony, and I had to stay for that, and then Lily came around, and…'

Lynn jumped out of her seat and ran to Lucy's side faster than the blink of an eye. 'Hang on! This just makes it more confusing. If you apparently loved us so much that you couldn't leave, then why did you pretend that you were gone? We've been reciting 'WE DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY' for years now!'

Lucy just stared at her for a bit. Lynn had the feeling that even if she could see those eyes, it wouldn't matter since they'd be just as 'expressive' as the rest of her body. It could've been a range of emotions - anger, sadness, frustration, even happiness.

'Lynn,' She said, with the same tone she had been using this whole time. 'Do you have that vision with you? The one that Lincoln barged into my old room to find?'

'Not on me.' Lynn replied. 'Do you need me to fetch it?'

'Yes.'

Lynn gave her a nod, and in the very next second she had disappeared and reappeared in a white blur with the cracked vision in her hands. Lucy took it from her grasp and placed it upon the little table, right where the crayon-plate was. As she looked at it, Lincoln could've sworn he saw a hint of regret on her face. It was near impossible to tell either way. The seer's older sister and little brother looked over her shoulders as she ran her hand over the vision, feeling every little bump of the engraved text for the first time in forever.

'Lincoln,' She said. 'There is no way you don't remember what happened at your gift ceremony.'

Lincoln groaned. 'I wish I could forget it.'

'Indeed. I bring it up because… when you had failed to receive your gift like the rest of us, Rita asked me to look into the future. I didn't really want to, because I already had a reputation. But I had to do it. So, I used my gift, got a glimpse into the future, and… Sigh…'

'Come on, Luce!' Lynn yelled. 'Tell us! We're not gonna get anywhere if you just 'sigh' every other second.'

'... Alright. I had that same vision three times, more than I ever had to before, because it just wouldn't be consistent. It kept changing, like even fate itself didn't know where it would go. Sometimes it said that Lincoln was the key to fixing everything, but other times it claimed he would be the one to destroy it. Even when it was carved into the tombstone, the vision itself admitted that the path was unclear. For the first time since I got my gift, the future was uncertain.'

Lynn glanced at the tombstone again and read it over about five times in just a few seconds. The information didn't change. After the fifth run-through, she glared at Lucy.

'And… what?' She said. 'Your vision was terrible, so you booked it because you didn't want people mad at you?'

Lucy's head turned to face her. Despite her expression seeming the same, Lynn shuddered; that must've been Lucy's equivalent of a death stare.

'People were already mad at me.' She said.

'Well…' Lynn said. 'You did tell Scoots that her fish would die, and then it did, sooo-'

'That wasn't even a vision. It was an observation. She kept that fish in a tiny bowl with nothing inside it. It's a miracle that it lived to begin with. I didn't care about people getting mad at me, because they hated me enough already.'

Lincoln could hear the slightest - barely detectable at all - quiver in her voice. It was quite the contrast from the rest of her emotionless voice.

'This doesn't explain why you left.' He said.

Lucy slumped her shoulders. 'No matter what I say - unless it's Leni, for some reason - everyone will assume the worst from my visions. Everyone looks at me like I'm the Grim Reaper. Which is wicked. But still. So, if I told my family that Lincoln could be responsible for destroying the magic, when he was only five-years-old, I knew they'd get rid of him so he wouldn't cause trouble. That was my little brother, and I didn't like that thought, so I smashed my vision into pieces and…'

She went silent, dropping the vision onto the table and sitting down in the old chair. Despite being about a year older than him, she was a little smaller than him and that big chair made her look even tinier. Even with her bangs in the way, it was clear she was staring at the floor.

It didn't take long for Lincoln to get it.

'So you pretended to disappear… for me?' He asked.

'Like I said,' Lucy continued. 'Everyone already hates me. If that's all I was worried about, I would've stayed. But…' Her mouth turned downwards into the smallest grimace. 'I thought it would be fun, at first, to have everyone be scared of me. Oh, Lucy's so creepy and her vision killed my goldfish! It was wicked that just the sight of me would send shivers down people's spines…'

Her mouth curved down a little more.

'But then they started spreading rumours about me. Saying that I would feast on their screams. That I caused hair to fall out. That I doomed people's love lives. It was like they saw me as nothing more than a monster, rather than a real kid. Which sounded cool, but now that it's actually happened, hearing that even my own family was terrified of me, I… I don't want to be feared anymore!'

Her voice rose, sharply. Compared to the yells of everyone else in the family, it still wasn't all that loud, but it sounded like shouting when it came from her. It was enough to make both her siblings flinch.

'I didn't want to hurt anyone!' She cried. 'I was just using my gift, like Mom told me to do. I wasn't cursing people or anything like that… as cool as that would be. I just told people what I saw. And it wasn't like Leni was the only one with a positive vision. I saw that Lola would win her first pageant. That Flip could win Tammy's heart if he only bothered to talk to her. That the Fox Quintuplets would grow up to be the most helpful people in town.' She slumped her shoulders. 'But then I see that Lori is going to lose her gift unless she treats herself better, and everyone thinks I'm cursing her!'

Even without seeing her eyes to be sure, Lincoln was certain - just by listening to her voice - that she was on the verge of crying. He couldn't help his mind drifting to thoughts that were, perhaps, a little bit selfish. Lori was super strong, and had been turned into a work horse. Lana could talk to animals, and felt useless compared to the others. Lola could control the weather, and got hailed on. Heck, Lisa had just got her gift and was already being dragged around town so much to fix technology, that she was falling asleep at the dinner table.

Maybe he was lucky to have no gift…

Then, suddenly, he smiled. But not because he felt lucky about having no gift.

'Wait a minute!' He said. 'This is your chance to redeem yourself.'

Lucy glanced at him. 'Uh… how?'

'I don't know if this vision is positive or negative, but if you're telling me there's a chance that I - we - could fix everything, then you can make everything better again! You can tell me how to save the magic, and we'll work together!'

Lynn gave him a look. 'Oh, great idea, Stinkcoln. How?!'

'Lucy, it's been years since you had that vision. Maybe, just maybe, your gift may have improved over the years. Maybe you'll be able to get a more specific answer!'

Lucy looked at him with a blank expression, leaving him to wonder if she was buying it or not, and got out of her seat. She rubbed her chin in thought, which Lincoln saw as a good sign.

'That… makes sense.' She said. 'I'm not sure if it'll work, but I guess it's worth a shot.' She paused. 'But what if we do get an answer, and it turns out that you will destroy the magic instead of restore it?'

Lincoln had not denied this very real possibility, but it didn't make facing it any easier. His sisters became a little worried when he did not reply, and the only response he seemed to have at first was clenching his fists.

'I'm willing to do anything,' He said. 'For my family. If it turns out that I have to leave too-'

Lucy 'gasped', once again simply saying the word. 'Lincoln, you can't do that! I don't want you to end up like me.'

'If I have to, then I will. But we shouldn't worry about that now. There's still a chance that I'm actually the one who fixes everything. That's why I want another vision! There's only one person in town capable of looking into the future, and I have her right in front of me.'

'I… guess I can't argue with that. But I haven't had any visions - on purpose - since that day. Every vision I've had since was one that hit me randomly, making me see the future of whoever it decided. Just last week, I saw that Rusty was going to get stuck under a bookcase. Of course, if I went to warn him then everyone… forget it.'

In a little fit of excitement, Lynn circled around the whole room a few times, moving so fast Lucy wasn't entirely certain if she had even moved. She could still remember, right before she 'disappeared', that her next older sister would always try to get faster and faster until she could, quote, 'run across the whole world twice in a second'.

Lucy tried to ignore that, for she had thought about how much she had missed already.

'Alright!' Lynn yelled. 'Maybe now, we won't have to worry about our gifts fading away! I don't even want to think about not being able to break the sound barrier anymore.'

'There's just one problem.' Lucy said. 'If I want to focus on a specific time and person, I'll need a big open space. Which my room really isn't.'

'What about your real room?' Lincoln asked. 'There's plenty of room there.'

'I'd rather not. My bats will be happy to see me again and everyone will hear it. I don't want anyone else in this family to see me, if possible.'

Lynn scoffed. 'Well, that's easy. Most of my room is just a massive stadium. You don't get more open than that! … Heads up. It reeks of enthusiasm.'

Lucy took a deep breath. Lincoln could've sworn she was muttering 'heavy inhale' to herself as she did so, but he couldn't be certain.

'Okay. I need you two to meet me there. I can't risk anyone else other than you or Luna knowing that I'm here. Especially Lola. I still don't think she's forgiven me for that vision. I didn't even want her to find it! I… sigh. Let's just get going.'

Lincoln turned around to head over to Lynn's room, opening up the door to give Lynn a nice road to run down, but he stopped before he even left the room. His gaze went straight down, to the little girl standing at his feet with a little metallic radar in her hands.

'Scratch that.' He said. 'Now we've got Lisa.'

'Grooooan…' Lucy muttered.

Fortunately (for them), Lisa appeared so sleep deprived and exhausted that there was a good chance that she wouldn't even remember this entire encounter.

'I have… I have finally found you, Lin… brother.' Lisa said, slurring all of her words into a barely-comprehensible mess. 'When I could not find you after the, uh… the… the dinner, I whipped up a special, um, thing that could track you down. I did not, e-expect to see you in the…'

And that was all the little girl could say before she fell over onto her face, dropping the device in the process. It didn't take long for her to start snoring again.

'She's fallen asleep again?' Lynn said with a slight groan. 'Come on. When I was five, I could run around all day!'

'Yes, that's because when you were five, you were blessed with a gift that lets you run super fast without getting tired.' Lincoln said. 'While Lisa's a five-year-old being dragged around town to fix a bunch of machines.'

'Alright.' Lucy said, a slight bit of frustration seeping into her voice. 'We can take Lisa with us too. She's so young she wasn't even around when I was still here. She can know about me too.'

Lincoln lifted Lisa up into his arms and rested her against his chest, being as gentle as possible. The bags under her eyes had their own bags, and her breathing against his body felt so harsh. He got a good look at her face, and it must've been the first time all day she managed to smile.

'I had a vision about this once.' Lucy said. 'But it was a random one, so it wasn't quite clear. All I knew from it was that one of my sisters would be incredibly smart and mature for her age, and it would lead to people treating her like an adult while she's still a little kid. As soon as Lisa said her first word at one-month-old, I should've known this would happen.'

Lincoln groaned. 'Add that to the list of things I need to worry about. The last thing I want is for Lisa to lose her gift so soon after getting it. But it seems like she's doing as much work as Dad does, except she's way younger.'

'So, what you're all saying,' Lynn said. 'Is that our family kinda sucks.'

'I wouldn't say that. But it might if we don't hurry up and fix things.'

Author Notes - I'll be honest. That shot of Bruno's 'plate' on the table, right next to the kitchen, broke my goddamn heart the first time around. Like, it's quiet and they barely say a word, but the amount of emotion that one scene conveys is just... BEAUTIFUL.