"This is a what? Simu- I'm sorry, who did you say you were?"
"I'm Lupa, I know you! You have to remember! Snap out of it!" She slapped him like a bitch, which only infuriated him.
"Why did you just-"
Lupa pointed up. "Look up. See anything out of the ordinary?"
Lincoln peeked his head out, staring up into the blue blanket of a sky. There were no clouds at all, not above or in the distance. But something else was missing. "There- There's no sun! How is that possible?"
"It's not. I told you, this is a simulation. Notice the people around us, they're not paying attention at all!" Lupa moved out of the way, allowing him to see several bypassing civilians going about like nothing happened. "Don't tell me that doesn't strike you as odd?"
"Hmmmm... You still didn't answer me, who are you?"
"Lupa, of course. Knowing who I am is complex to explain, considering your memories are still being blocked. We just gotta... Well, get out of the car! Come on, we're heading back home!" Lupa moved to Lily's side, guiding her out. "Up and at them."
"Lupa, huh? That's a funny name."
"Yeah, well fuck you too," she gave him the finger, while holding Lily's hand. "We gotta get out of here."
"What? Town? I'm planning to-"
"No, you're all actually strapped and hooked to a system. That's also hard to explain, but we'll get there." The three began their venture back to the house. Lincoln gave Lily a piggyback at halfway, seeing that she was getting tired.
Back at home, Lori had just finished her shower. She dried up her hair with a spare purple towel, while having a blue set of robes. She crept back to her old room, seeing Leni already awake and slipping on her green dress. "Hey, Lori!" She greeted.
"Morning, Leni. Glad to see one of you is up," she said, implying at the snoring husband of hers. "He's worse back home, actually."
The two both laughed lightly. Lori wiped away a tear of joy, sighing. "It's been nice seeing you again, Leni. Will you be alright here?"
"Like, totally. Mom and dad aren't getting any younger, so it falls on me to help them, and Lily too."
"I'm proud of you, you know? You're literally the purest one of us, and..." Lori was hitting feel territory, and her mouth closed, thinking for a way to say it. "I'm..."
Leni reached over to Lori, stopping her by grabbing the arm Lori was using to rub her elbow in a guilty way. "It's okay, Lore. It's okay."
That did it. The oldest Loud sibling drowned in the guilt about Leni having been scolded, not by her, but by some of the others. But Lori herself carried out most of these times Leni was berated for being Leni. She remembered a time where she was cooking, and asked for Leni's help. She instructed her to fill a blender that had just finished blending veggies. The silly Leni thought she was merely rinsing, but she was wrong. Lori shouted at her, and the ditzy blonde ran out, clearly hurt.
She hugged Leni in that moment, attempting to redeem herself for those moments at a steady rate. "I'm sorry," she uttered in Leni's ear. "I'll let him sleep, I guess. In the meantime..."
She broke away, reaching back to the doorway. "I'll make us our favorite-" Leni had distorted into a corpse when Lori looked back at her. The temple of her head was bleeding, and not only that, but her green dress was stained with mutiple red patches all over. "L-Leni!"
"I died because of you..." The transformed sister darkly replied.
Lori blinked, and that dead version of Leni was gone. "Hey, like, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost!"
She stuttered her words, squinting at her. "I-I-I just..."
She made a racket when leaving the room, having gone to being spooked that her heartbeat had leveled up. Luan, and the twins were alarmed, but Lucy stayed looking forward.
"Oh, my God..." She repeated over and over again. "Sorry, you guys. I think I'll brew up some coffee immediately." I must be going crazy, she thought.
Lynn made no effort to hide from whoever was coming downstairs. She had adjusted to taking up the whole couch, comfortably resting like the world had owed her one for so long.
"I thought you left already, Lynn," Lori called to her. Lynn casually opened her eyes, barely seeing the blonde in the corner of her eyes.
"I will be. Eager to see me leave?"
"No, you just sounded so sure of yourself. Glad you're still around. Want coffee?" Lori set up and turned on the coffeemaker after finding its jar. The flaw was the wait it took to brew. And this wasn't a new one either.
"Sure, I might need it, actually," Lynn answered.
Luna was applying the dove soap to her breasts, after having finished the shampoo part of the shower. The days of her short hair had ended the year before graduating, and when it grew back again, she had already switched instruments. The electric guitar, the amp, and her punk rock phase had died, replaced by her more soothing, peaceful music.
That was how she met a particular blonde she fell in love with. She came out about three years ago. And Luna and Sam had been in a beautiful, loving relationship, which still was.
The hot water trickled down her body. She ran the soap down her hands now, when she then lost grasp of it. The bar fell, making a splash and light thump below her feet. She bent down to pick it up, when a black shadowy figure appeared through the curtain. Luna peeked out, seeing Lincoln dressed in black, staring ominously at her. "You're nothing but a pussy..."
"L-Lincoln?"
He pulled something from behind, and shoved it right into her face. It was a handgun, and it made Luna freak out. She pushed through the curtain, ripping it off of the hinges, and slipping onto the floor. "No, please! What did I do?! What did I-"
He was gone when she turned to look back up, going forward to risk it. "Ohhh..." Luan heard Luna's frightened scream, and barged in to check up on her.
"Luna! Are you okay?" The twins followed right behind her took to each side. "Oh, my God!" She exclaimed, rushing to help her up. "What happened?"
"I buhhh... Iceeeee- Sawww..." Luna trembled, lifting up finger right to where the dark Lincoln was. "He had a g- A guhhh..."
"Who? There's no one-" That version of Lincoln reappeared, crawling out of the bathtub. Luan and yhe twins were now seeing what Luna had just witnessed.
"You all... Dare to defy me... Defy our very nature to survive..." Lincoln hissed with clear hostility. Like before, he took out his piece, and aimed at Luna. "Die for it!"
The gun did its job, spitting out a bullet through its open mouth. The classical violin player took it to her knee, crawling away from him. Luan and the others moved back cautiously.
"Lincoln, why did you-?!" He moved quickly, pushing into Luan and moving the crowd behind her. He locked himself in, warning them to not intervene while he was going to do what he planned. Luan hopelessly turned the knob, then banged and kick when that failed. "LUNA! LUNA!"
The Lincoln in front of her wasn't the one she knew. Luna raised both her hands up defensively. "You- You're not Lincoln!" She noticed a scar on the side of his forehead as she protested. Lincoln only kicked at her. Luna was feeling cold now, still dripping from her skin. The shower head was still running, making the bathroom more steamy.
"Stay the fuck out of my way," came the cold words. The gun kissed Luna's forehead, and Lincoln had the trigger finger ready to pull. Luna then went through something else.
A vision formed, and she was fighting the Lincoln she was seeing now. She didn't know where she was at the moment, but it looked so familiar. Claws popped out, and she attempted to scratch him, while he was holding a pair of handguns and letting his rounds fly.
Luna blocked the gun with her elbow, now having the necessary fuel to fight back. Whatever the surreal vision was, it shut away all her fear, replacing it with a secret amount of hatred. She leaped up and kicked him where it could hurt his children. He dropped the weapon and went on his knees in pure agony. Luna ended it with another kick, this time to his face. "Damn you!"
He flipped back, making a blood-curdling sound of something breaking when hitting the floor. Luna looked back to her wounded knee. The opened hole was gone. No blood, no lodged bullet or any pain. Luna unlocked the bathroom, pushing past Luan. "Get back, he's-"
"Gone," Luan stated. Sure enough, the hostile version of their brother had vanished. "What the fuck was that?"
Luna stopped to turn, confused at the scene. "What the hell- Tell the others!" The naked Luna returned to her room to dress, still wet.
The twins headed downstairs to warn Lori and their parents. Luan knocked on Leni's room, not seeing her or Bobby come out of it. "Leni, Bobby, get out of the room! Something is-"
It swung open by itself. Inside was a different sight that she could not comprehend. The room was charred, darkly ominous. It was as if someone took a torch to the place. Behind the only bed she saw, of a queen size one, something was moving about, writhering on the carpet. Luan went down, looking from the doorway. She saw nothing, however, but went further to make sure. The closet opened, and the dead version of Leni moved like a mummy. Luan trembled at the footsteps and nearly pissed herself at the sight of corpse Leni.
Lynn groaned when the twins came down, shouting gibberish. Lori had poured Lynn's cup by then. "What's with all the yelling, you two?"
"Its Luna! She's been attacked by Lincoln upstairs!"
"Lincoln? But he and Lily left, we saw them! Where is Luna?!"
They pointed up, and Lori, backed up by Lynn, who heard everything, raced upstairs. Luan backed up into Lori. "Luan, where is-?"
Dead Leni emerged, smiling so devilishly that it sent chills down Lynn's back.
"Oh my God!" Lori pushed her back, then shut the door. "This can't be real... Wait, Bobby!"
"He wasn't in there, I checked!" Luan told her.
Luna, dressed in a classical set of clothes, looked to the halls before heading into it. "Is it all clear, guys?"
From the other side, the dead sister was slamming her hands against the door. "Let me out!"
"Don't worry, it's just Leni. So..." Luan turned to the others. "These aren't hallucinations, are they? Did we eat something?"
"That'd be the case, only if Lisa was here, and she isn't," Lori suggested. The banging stopped. "You sure he wasn't in there?"
"I am," Luan confirmed.
On the lower floor, all four heard the twins scream.
Lana and Lola encountered a room, completely on fire. Mom and dad's room was replaced by a fiery inferno. The heat made their faces sweat intensely. They cried out for both parents, but it all seemed hopeless, pointless. Something about this struck the twins as somehow familiar. Lori and Luna pulled the two away, looking onto the still-going fire.
"What- What the fuck is going on? Lincoln, Leni, and my missing Boo-Boo Bear, now this?! Tell me... Tell me they weren't-" Lori let a tear fly down. All six were now huddled around, scared and lost.
"That wasn't Lincoln, because he and Lily left somewhere! But-" Luna chimed in.
"Leni... That was Leni to me... It was the real one, and-"
Lincoln, Lily and Lupa finally arrived to see the gang arrive as Lori realized Lucy was missing. "You all look spooked. You seen some shit, too?"
They all nodded. Lupa moved in front of Lincoln. "Listen to me, all of you. This isn't the real world. We're all asleep, trapped by that robot!" She slapped Luna, and then Lori. "You have to remember!"
"Remember what? What are you on about?" Some of the sisters crossed their arms, looking at Lupa strangely. "And just who the hell are you?"
"Lincoln, who is this? And why does she have your hair? Don't tell me this is your-"
Lupa didn't have time to waste, so she punched Luna this time. "I never liked you," she murmured.
"Whoa, hey! No need for that!" Lincoln cried out.
"With all due respect, you all, all of you, have been engaging in such activities long enough. None of you seemed surprised when I punched her. Luna, did that hurt?"
Luna rubbed at her face, which actually didn't feel like it was giving her a hard time. "No... No, it didn't actually."
"So, all of this, it's-" Lori was figuring out.
"It's a damn make believe. All of you are who this was intended for. They placed memory blocks on you, but you have to overwhelm them by remembering. That's how we can escape!"
They all eyed each other, skeptical of the girl's claims. "No... This is bullshit... Luan put you up to this, didn't she, Lincoln? That's it, it's just a cruel prank," Luna assumed. "That fire's fake, green screened, in front of a heater. Gotta be."
Lori, Lynn and the twins began to nod at this, believing this was all it was, nothing more.
Lupa and Luan objected to this. "Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"I didn't set this up! Honest!"
"You, Lincoln, Leni and this girl seem to be in on it," Luna countered. "Not to mention Bobby and whoever this girl is. Gig's up, guys. I can't believe you'd scare me like that... Fuck you, Luan."
Lupa covered the innocent Lily's ears, disgusted completely by Luna's thinking.
Just then, a car outside honked its horn. Lynn turned with a sudden excitement. "It's my Franny-pack! Well, you can resolve this on your own. I am done here, and maybe I might come back next year..." Lynn took het duffel bag onto her shoulders and burst out like a tornado.
"Hey, what took you-" Not only was he there, but next to Francisco were three other figures; Dead Leni, Bobby, and Lucy. "B-babe?"
"Come on, Lynn. Let's go home now. We can stay together here forever," he said with a suave but sinister smile.
Lincoln and Lupa joined Lynn, once the thump of her duffel bag made them look curiously.
"Come home, Lynn. Forever." In that second, a dark green blanket replaced the light blue skies, slowly changing right before their eyes.
"CLOSE- CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Lupa shrieked. The lights mesmerized Lynn and Lincoln, as well as the others, who were looking up through the window. Lupa groaned, escaping from the process that meant the memories of the illusions were being wiped. "NO, FUCK ME! LINCOLN, REMEMBER! REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!"
And in that second, Lincoln's high will broke him free. All the blocks had been destroyed as Lupa yelled out the keywords. All the death, all the darkness. All the hatred and the ugly realization of a real world. All the fights with most of the sisters, and the lives he mercilessly took. This world was indeed just a stupid fantasy, and he was seething from it. The deadly Lincoln Loud had returned and cut away the false persona whatever this thing created for him.
And it was time for payback.
AN: Lo and behold, the brother has regained all control and knows what's real now. Now, onto saving the others. But, more to come! Huehue.