No one saw much of Lincoln that Sunday, having learned of August Smith's escape that morning. Lincoln spent the day patrolling Royal Woods and all its neighboring towns for any trouble. Ronnie Anne showed up occasionally but mostly stayed in Great Lake City to be close to her family. Eventually, Lincoln was forced to call it a night. Returning home, Lincoln was surprised to see Lori was still home. However, Rita explained due to Lori's emotional state, they felt it would be better if she stayed home and did remote learning. The next day Rita took the girls to school in Vanzilla, and Lincoln took the school bus while Lynn Sr. stayed home, wanting to keep an eye on Lori. The moment Lincoln got on the bus, the feeling was different. Everyone was offering him a seat, but Lincoln ignored them as he sat in his usual spot. Back at the house, depressed and disheveled, Lori didn't care about her appearance as she sat down to start her online classes. Lynn Sr. hated seeing his daughter like this; despite her current state being self-inflicted. He still loved her absolutely and wanted her to be happy.

"I'll talk to her later."

Back at school, as Lincoln made his way to his homeroom, many kids kept apologizing for how they treated him. However, he brushed them all off, including girl Jordan. Sitting at his desk, he was immediately bothered by Chandler, who needed to take a stab at him.

"you know, Loud, I always knew you were innocent."

Rolling his eyes, Lincoln said. "oh, really?"

"there was no way a lame 1 like you could ever get a 10 like her."

Lincoln rolled his eyes again and sat forward, but Chandler was far from done talking.

"I mean, it's a wonder an 8 like Stella lasted going out with you for a whole month." Mocked Chandler. "Your sister Luna is only a 6; it's a wonder how she scored a 10."

Lincoln wasn't falling for it; he knew the game Chandler was playing, trying to lure him into a fight.

"most of your older sisters are between 1 and 6, except for Lori and Leni. They're both 9s; Lori's got a nice butt, and Leni's got a nice chest."

Despite Lincoln's current situation with his sisters, some of him was getting annoyed from hearing Chandler run his mouth about them.

"a guy like you should stick with 1s like Ronnie Anne; who knows, maybe when you two grow up, you'll get married and produce a 2." Mocked Chandler.

Hearing Ronnie Anne being called a 1 really annoyed Lincoln as he was ready to call on the strength of Hercules and smash Chandler's desk. But he noticed Mr. Bolhofner coming from the window.

"that's funny coming from a loser like you, considering you're a -1."

"ha, the only negative is Bolhofner; it's no wonder his wife dumped him!" Chander laughed.

"is that so, Chandler?"

Chandler turned white, realizing Bolhofner heard what he had just said about him and was furious or making fun of him for Bolhofner's wife leaving him.

"I, uh."

"I'll see you in detention for the rest of this week."

Everyone laughed as Lincoln sat forward with a smile as Chandler sank into his chair. The class then settled down to watch the action news team's report. Stella was acting as the anchor today and was ready to give her report.

"Good morning, everyone, and this is the morning news. Our first story is one spreading across campus, new information regarding the scandal around Lincoln Loud."

Lincoln sighed and put his head on his desk. 'People just will not shut up about this. Do I have to be Shazam full time just to get away from it?'

"Said information details how the photo showing Lincoln Loud in a compromising position with high school student Sam Sharp was altered with photo maker and may have never been real in the first place. This revelation comes from Lisa Loud, who, despite being Lincoln's sister, has spent the last three months decrying him. Like the rest of the school, it cannot be ruled as a family-defending family. The photo has been checked by non-biased sources who confirm it was a fake, so it appears that the entire school owes Lincoln Loud a huge apology."

The class looked to Lincoln to see his reaction. Said reaction was him just wanting to get on with his day and not caring what was being said.

"I'd like to start while I have the opportunity." Stella continued, putting down the piece of paper she had been reading off of. "I'm Sorry I said all those things to you, Lincoln, and sorry that I dumped you so cruelly and the gang and I abandoned you. Let's put this behind us. Let's all make up by seeing a movie this Saturday and then go to the mall after. I'm sure we all would like that."

A snapping sound drew everyone's attention, and they could see Lincoln's clenched fist along with a broken pencil.

Stella continued with her news report, but everyone had to admit they weren't paying much attention to it anymore.

School went normal, with Lincoln not saying a word unless the teacher called on him. The students were talking about him in hushed whispers, but at least now, it wasn't insulting and boasts about being better than him. Chandler had still tried to put him down, but most of the students told him off on Lincoln's behalf, saying all he was doing was making himself look stupid. Lunch came, and as had become a habit for him, Lincoln sat alone, well aware of the attention he was unintentionally accruing.

He was about to take a bite out of his simple meal when he noticed Stella walking toward him along with Rusty, Liam, and Zach. Stella looked confident, like she had already been forgiven. Still, Rusty looked defensive, like he fully expected a fight to break out, and was dying to hit someone when it did. Appetite lost, Lincoln sighed and stood up on the table.

"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" He called out, silencing the entire cafeteria. The teachers there meant to keep order looked ready to stop him but also curious about what he would do.

Stella and Rusty stopped in their tracks, both looking surprised by this and worried about what he would say. Lincoln's sister Lynn was also there and nervous, suspecting he would repeat what he did the night of the failed apology.

"I have told anyone with ears for the last three months that that picture was not real. And yet not a single one of you believed me. Not my sisters except my baby sister, not my friends, not my teachers, not even the bus drivers believed me. Half of you have played around with Photoshop on your phones; any one of you could have faked that picture yourselves. And not a single one of you stopped to consider that this picture was altered? It's like you all wanted me to be guilty. You all wanted me to be a bad guy you could pick on and get away with it."

"No, we didn't!" Some random kid called out, but Lincoln ignored them.

"Now, three months after I told people to analyze that stupid photo, someone actually does and sees that apparently, I was right the entire time. So now you all know the truth and think a simple 'sorry' is good enough to erase three months of bullying? For three months, you all made me feel unwelcome here and treated me like a bug to step on. So I'm going to say this just once, don't waste your time apologizing to me. None of you are forgiven. None of you deserve it. None of you are my friends."

He then turned his glare towards Stella and the others. "That includes you too, Stella. You weren't apologizing to me; you were reading a script. I know how you talk, and that was not you; someone else was writing for you. You were just trying to make yourself look good to everyone and twist my arm into taking you back, which I don't. There will be no movie or mall this Saturday; I suggest you stick with your rebound guy."

He then jumped off the table to the floor and walked out of the cafeteria, lunch left behind along with everyone else.

Stella looked shocked, watching Lincoln leave; however, her attention soon turned to everyone else in the lunch room, who all gave her a suspicious stare.

"what's everyone looking at?"

Back At The Loud House

Finished with her scheduled classes, Lori sat on the couch just watching reruns of "The Dream Boat." Lori stared blankly at the screen, not caring about anything, not even the fact she was hungry. Slowly Lynn Sr. walked into the living holding two bowls of soup.

"hey Lori-Lou, I whipped up a batch of my famous chicken and Lynnoodle soup, one of your favorites when you were little."

"no thanks, dad, I'm not hungry." Lori lied before her stomach started growling, showing the opposite."

Lynn Sr. handed her one of the bowls before sitting down next to her; slowly, she started eating and started feeling a little better but was still depressed.

"dad?"

"huh?"

"Why are you being nice to me? I thought you and mom hated us for what we did to Lincoln."

"Lori L. Loud!" replied Lynn Sr. in his authoritative voice.

"yes, daddy?" Said Lori sounding a little scared.

"your mother and I are very disappointed in all of you girls. Especially you, in particular, young lady."

Lori only hung her head in shame as she looked down at her food while Lynn Sr. continued.

"you failed Lincoln and Luna by taking sides and helping to stoke Luna's anger towards your brother into irrational hatred. I would expect you to try and make her see she was wrong, but instead, you thought Luna's hatred was justified. That might have been okay if you at least prevented Luna from acting on it, but rather, you got swept up in her anger and encouraged it. Not only that, you allowed your other sisters to be swept in this mess and allowed them to escalate it too. You ignored your brother's suffering for the past 3 months that you participated in causing. You tried to break him mentally by destroying his last remaining friendship just to protect your own relationship.

To make matters worse, you somehow believed you were justified in everything you did the entire time. But now you all learned the absolute truth, and it's not pretty for you. Bobby broke up with you, and everyone in town realizes that your brother was right the entire time. You have no one to blame but yourself." Scolded Lynn Sr.

Lori was on the verge of breaking down again; hearing her father call her out for everything only confirmed what she thought.

"However, despite all that, it doesn't mean that your mother and I love you any less." He informed, surprising her.

"dad?"

"We want our family to be whole again, but you girls are the ones who have to figure out how to make that happen. You have to dig deep beyond the surface to see how your actions hurt your brother right down to what you took from him," he said, leaving.

"took from him?" she thought as she looked down at her bowl, thinking before her eyes widened with a realization.

End Of School Day

The school day hadn't been the best day for Stella after Lincoln's outburst in the lunchroom. The whole student body started accusing her of being behind the photo, led by Girl Jordan. Despite protesting her innocence, no one believed her all day. She dealt with whispers and dirty looks from everyone, even though her friends tried to comfort her.

As soon as the bell rang and everyone was allowed to leave, Stella rushed to try and get Lincoln to listen to her. She had difficulty finding him, almost like he was trying not to be seen. But she found him outside where the buses waited, and he hadn't gotten onboard yet.

"LINCOLN!"

Lots of kids looked toward her, but Lincoln did not. He just ignored her and got on the bus. Not wanting to let that stop her, Stella rushed to get on the bus, too, a few kids beating her to it. So when she got on, he was already seated in his spot alone; others still avoided him for different reasons.

"Lincoln, what gives? I offered to put this behind us and be friends again. And you humiliate me like that in front of everyone? Talk down to me like I'm not good enough for you. Why would you do that to me?"

All eyes were on the two after hearing that. Lynn was there too and tempted to jump in on her brother's behalf, but she stopped herself. She wanted to see what he would do about this on his own.

Lincoln crossed his arms and strangely smirked. "You mean like you've been doing to me for the last three months, Stella? Funny, you couldn't even handle three hours."

Several students on the bus 'ooohed' at hearing that putdown. Lynn smiled and gave her brother a thumbs up, which he saw but didn't respond to, causing her smile to disappear.

On the other hand, Stella looked like Lincoln had just spit in her face. "Excuse me?"

"What? Do I need to write it down so you can read it on your show? You and your posse turned the entire school against me and humiliated me every chance you got. Now the tables have turned, and you're asking me what you've done to deserve it? Am I so meaningless to you that you completely forgot what you did to me?"

"But... but we thought you deserved it." Stella defended, resulting in others frowning at her.

"But you said on tv this morning that I never deserved it."

"Yeah, but we didn't know that back then. Besides, I apologized. You're supposed to forgive us."

Lincoln laughed. "Oh, I was? Tell me, Stella, what would happen after I forgave you all? I go back to being your friends? Pretend nothing happened while you slowly try to get me to like you again. Until another reason for you to turn on me comes up?"

Others were whispering about that, agreeing with Lincoln. Lynn nodded as well, seeing what he was getting at.

Rusty, on the other hand, was fuming. "Like she'd ever take a loser like you back."

"Oh, she wasn't taking me back, Rusty." Lincoln countered. "She was bribing me."

"Bribing you?" Both Rusty and Stella repeated, confused.

"Oh yes. You accused an innocent man of betraying you, Stella, and for three months, you've been empowered by that. Everyone was saying you dodged a bullet by leaving me. But now everyone knows the truth, and everyone says I'm the one who dodged a bullet here. Not you. And you don't like that. You're not special anymore; you're the bad guy now. So now you just want to prove to everyone that you're not a bad person. That you're forgiven, and it was an honest mistake, so everyone thinks you're so great again."

"that's not true."

Everyone was silent while Stella and Rusty tried to say more, to argue against his claim, only to fumble over their words. It didn't matter as the bus driver told everyone to sit down and be quiet before getting ready to leave. Everyone complied, with Lincoln getting out one last remark.

"You don't care about me; you only care about your reputation."

Stella sat down in defeat with Rusty trying to comfort her; however, she became despondent as she looked at everyone giving her unfriendly looks. Rusty knew he could end all of this by confessing. However, he knew he'd lose everything, including Stella if he did.

Later

Arriving home, Lincoln went to his room, stopping for a moment to greet Lily before going inside and locking his door. Lynn followed behind, heading to her room, where Lucy was already lying on her bed, looking more depressed than usual.

"hey Luce, what's up?"

"one of the worse days, Lynn; the whole day, everyone kept reminding me, Lana, Lisa, and Lola of what fools we were for believing that accursed photo was real."

Lynn was saddened to hear that it was bad enough they're reminded every time they see Lincoln, but she at least wanted her sisters to have some relief from their guilt.

"Did anyone bother you today, too?" asked Lucy.

Lynn didn't want to talk about it, but she did get berated by her friend Margo, resulting in a brief argument.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"I'll take that as a yes."

Suddenly, the girls heard Vanzilla pulling up, signaling their mother was back after picking up the high school girls. As Lynn looked out the window, she noticed the sad expression on their faces, concluding that Leni, Luna, and Luan all had similar days to hers. Rita walked in and was greeted by Lynn Sr., who kissed her on the cheek before Rita told him that she was going to lie down for a nap. Lynn Sr. tried to greet his other daughters, but they barely spoke as they made their way upstairs.

"at this point, it'll take a miracle to bring our family back together." Thought Lynn Sr.

As the girls made it upstairs, Lori came out of the bathroom, having cleaned herself up a little.

"girls, I know you all had a bad day."

"you don't know the half of it." Said Luan.

"but I need you all for an emergency meeting later after dinner."

In Lincoln's Room

Lincoln was hard at work finishing his homework; he wanted to go out and find the white dragons. But keeping his promise to his parents, he wouldn't let being Shazam deter him from school work.

Later.

After dinner, Lincoln started his patrol as Shazam, deciding not to transform in the backyard since Mr. Grouse was outside doing his lawn. Lincoln chose to change in the rock of eternity. Going upstairs, he began to activate the portal to the rock of eternity by opening the door. Just then, the rest of the girls came upstairs to see Lincoln enter and close the door getting a brief look inside the rock of eternity. Lisa then walked to the door opening it but instead, she saw only the inside of Lincoln's room.

Shazam!

Once again, Shazam, Lincoln teleported high above Royal Woods, trying to find some sign of the white dragons. Sadly he couldn't find anything.

"Finding these guys would be way easier if I had at least super hearing or X-Ray vision," he thought.

Saying those powers, Lincoln started to think of the downsides; for super hearing, he'd probably hear everything at once and would have to train himself to tune out all noises. For X-rays, while seeing through things would be a benefit, there was also a chance it could go wrong, like accidentally seeing through someone's clothes. Lincoln cringed at the thought of seeing Scoots naked, then thought of what Ronnie Anne would do with that power.

"I think she'd enjoy it more than I would."

Lincoln then thought of Ronnie Anne as Lady Shazam striking different sexy poses. Encouraging him to use his X-Ray vision to find the secret surprise she hid in her costume. Lincoln quickly snapped himself out of his fantasy before it went any further, berating himself for acting like a pervert before flying off to continue his search. Back at the house, the girls were all sitting in Lori and Leni's room, ready for their meeting.

"guys, was that a castle?" Asked Lynn Jr.

"Lincoln has his own castle." Said Lola.

"I doubt it's merely a castle but a base of operation." Explained Lisa.

"a what?" asked Leni.

"she means his HQ; I prefer a cave filled with bats." Said Lana.

"Likewise." Said Lucy.

"I like an abandoned comedy club." Said Luan.

"That sounds more like something a villain would use," Lynn noted.

"Focus girls, this is not why I call this meeting; it's to talk about what we took from Lincoln."

"We didn't take anything from him," said Lola.

"do you girls remember after we beat Morag and Lincoln gave the crown to Angus? And he finally explained why he wanted to be the duke so badly?"

"yes." They all replied.

"he wanted to feel special like us." Said Luan.

"He wanted to shine like us." Said Lola.

"he wanted to find his purpose in the family." Lucy.

"Okay, and what did we tell him?" asked Lori.

"he was special." Said Leni.

"he did shine like us." Said Lana.

"he's always helping us to shine and helps keep our family on track, and we needed him," Lynn said.

"Now, what did we do to him lately?"

"We took it all back; we took his purpose in the family. We told him he brought us together, but then we blamed him for driving us apart. He now thinks we're all liars. We took his ability to trust in others." Said Luna.

"Exactly, this is why none of our apologies will ever be true in his eyes. To him, we have been lying since day one. Every word of encouragement we gave him, every compliment we ever said, worst of all, every time we told him we love him, are lies to him now. We've made him believe he was never loved, which makes all the negative things we've done even worse."

This revelation hit all the girls at once; they better understood how deeply their treatment may have damaged their brother and overall relationships with him.

"but we do love Linky." Cried Leni.

"can we honestly say that considering how we acted?" Cried Luna.

"Just because we were mad at him doesn't mean we don't love him or never did." Said Lynn.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Lynn, do you seriously expect Lincoln to believe that?" asked Luan. "If it had been you instead of him, would you believe you were ever loved by us?"

"Stop fighting. How do we fix this?" asked Lana.

"I'm not sure we can." Said Lisa.

"Normally, it would be Lincoln who comes up with the plan to fix things." Said Lucy.

The girls could only hang their heads in shame as they seemed to fully grasp the full gravity of their situation.

"What does everyone have to say about him being Shazam?" Luna asked to slightly change the subject.

"I think it's incredible," Lana said right away.

"I am perplexed by how exactly his powers work, as they appear quite paradoxically unscientific," Lisa noted.

"it has to be magic, and I think it's all the proof in the world that he is everything we told and took away from him," Lucy claimed.

"I worry about what dangers he'll get into, same with Ronnie Anne if she really is Lady Shazam too," Lori stated.

"Who better than her to work with him?" Luan replied. "We know he's got her back, and she's got his. April Fools Day proved that beyond a doubt."

"Do you think he'll ever trust us enough to tell us how this all started for them?" Lynn asked.

"Doubtful. I mean, I heard Mom on the phone with Pop-pop talking about it, and she said she thought we'd try and take advantage of him. If Mom thinks we will do that, Lincoln surely must think the same." Lola told everyone.

"How can we? I mean, I'm not saying that I want to, but how can we take advantage of Linky being a superhero?" Leni asked.

"Bragging rights?" Luan offered, sounding uncertain.

"Doubtful. With all, we've said about Lincoln for the past three months, who would believe us if we went around claiming he was Shazam?" Lisa asked.

"We can't do that. I mean, not just because it wouldn't work, but if we ever want Lincoln to forgive us, we cannot go around telling people his biggest secret." Lori insisted firmly.

"She's right," Luna added, sounding a little more firm herself. "The truth about him and Ronnie Anne does not leave this room for any reason, and anyone who breaks that rule is an enemy of all of us, not just Lincoln. Anyone got a problem with that?"

All the girls shook their heads, none of them even wanting to consider being the one who made their situation worse. Elsewhere Lincoln was sitting on the roof of the Casagrande bodega, talking to Ronnie Anne about school.

"Seriously? She expected you to just take her and the others back just like that and act like nothing happened?" Ronnie Anne asked, half amused by the stupidity of that expectation. And half offended by Lincoln's ex trying to interfere with her own chance to be with the white-haired boy. "Didn't she start dating Rusty as soon as she left you? Sounds to me like she only wants to "befriend" you again so that she can eventually get you to fall for her again. "

Lincoln chuckled. "No, I don't think so. I think she just wanted to be seen with me so everyone would think we were friends again; she didn't want to get back together. Not that I intended to get back with her, that is."

"Damn right, lame-o. I think Lady Shazam trumps anything she could come up with. Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me about accessing the Rock of Eternity. I can't believe I forgot that, but that will make changing back and forth easier around here. But does this mean you're free this Saturday?"

"Well, Lori has some golf thing that day, and I don't remember what the others are doing; they'll probably go with her, so yeah, I'll be free all day. We could take a break from this white dragon business and have some fun." Lincoln replied.

Ronnie Anne smiled. "So, what do you have in mind?"

"To be honest, I am still interested in going to Hawaii and trying surfing," Lincoln answered, avoiding looking at her.

Ronnie Anne chuckled. "You just want to see me in a bikini."

"Oh, and you don't want to see me in a swimsuit too?" He chuckled back.

"Only problem is I'm not the only girl who'd see it, and I just know some hussy is going to try and get her hands on you. And that might make me do something I shouldn't do." Ronnie Anne remarked.

"Like what?"

"Either hurt her or mark my territory. Maybe both."

Lincoln smirked; to be honest; he was a bit conflicted. He was a bit flattered that she was willing to 'claim' him like this; she had come a long way from the girl who didn't know how to express her feelings. Yet he was also nervous; Lincoln had a lot of issues he needed to deal with; thus, Lincoln was afraid he would only disappoint or disgust her. How ironic would it be that Lori and the others get exactly what they wanted through his own fault?

"Maybe tone it down on the Courage of Achilles part a bit Ronnie Anne." He suggested.

"That's okay; all I need is the Courage of Ronnie Anne Santiago." She quipped, making them both laugh.

Realizing the time, Lincoln changed back and flew off, wishing Ronnie Anne goodnight before leaving. Flying back to Royal Woods, he found a spot to change back into his usual self that was a bit of a walk from the Loud House. As he walked, he enjoyed the peacefulness of the night, thinking of where the white dragon was hiding.

"something big is coming; I can feel it."

Making it back home, Lincoln notified his parents he was home before heading off to bed. Lincoln noticed something on his door; as he got closer, he realized it was a piece of folded paper taped to his door; on the front, it read "Lori."

"what does she want!?" thought Lincoln.

Taking the paper, his first thought was to toss it until it opened up, revealing a letter inside it.

Dear Lincoln

I'm writing this letter because I know nothing I say will sound truthful, so I hope writing to you will help. I want to say how sorry I am for everything. I failed you and Luna as an older sister; I should have been trying to resolve the fight and bring our family back together. Instead, I helped drive you further apart, and I am sorry. I've made nothing but selfish choices, and they've cost me, but I have no one to blame but myself. I know nothing can erase how badly I've treated you and the pain I helped cause you. I understand if you choose to never speak to any of us again. But if you believe anything from this letter, please believe that you are special and shine brighter than us. And above all else, I… no, we are sorry & we do love you.

Sincerely Lori

P.S. Please tell Ronnie Anne we're sorry for what we tried to do.

Lincoln stared at the letter; his first thought was to tear it up, but instead, he took the note into his room. Laying it on his desk Lincoln changed before climbing into bed; as he drifted off to sleep, a single tear left his eye.

Elsewhere

Hidden in an unknown location, August Smith is resting as he converses with what remains of his organization at a meeting.

"This is what remains after all these years? Pathetic!" he asked, annoyed.

"We tried to rebuild, but we were constantly hunted down discreetly by the FBI and Interpol."

"bringing our numbers down even further."

"not good enough! August shouted, gritting his teeth, "I wanted that town terrorized in fear for what they destroyed and for having me locked up. Instead, it's still standing!"

"We tried; we even hijacked an automated plane to crash and burned down that hotel to cause a fire to spread, but these heroes kept getting in the way."

"about these "Heroes," who are they?"

"All we know is one is called Shazam, and the other is Lady Shazam, and they're both powerful."

August went up from his seat and looked out his window before addressing his men again.

"how long before R&D is finished with my suit?"

"not sure they are currently integrating new tech we acquired recently, but sir."

"this matter must be resolved by me; Royal Woods will suffer for disrespecting the White Dragon, and they will suffer by my hands along with these heroes."

"Well, sir, if you feel this is the only way they might, I suggest this as the perfect opportunity to reintroduce yourself." Said another member as he handed Smith a flyer.

August looked at the flyer and smiled wickedly at his men, who smiled back just as evil.

"gather up the rest of my solder and tell R&D they have until Friday to finish my suit; we've got a mission."

"Yes, Sir."

End Of Ch. 11

author's note

. Are Lori's words enough to prove the girls do love Lincoln and do care about him? We'll find out.

. Will we ever see lady shazam in that bikini?

. What sinister plot are the white dragons planning?

. Is Lincoln ready to handle it?