The new sky had already domed over the regular blue one. Lincoln shielded his eyes. He pulled Lynn, who was still in the trance, by the collar of her jersey. Lupa was hidden behind the couch, not sure when the simulation ceased its new coating of the memory block.
Lincoln threw his sister onto the floor, while looking for Lupa. "Where the fuck did you go?!"
Just like Lucy, she popped up in a spooky fashion. "What? I don't know what to-" His expression had read to an angry, serious one. The very same one Lupa only knew as the true Lincoln's face. "Holy shit!"
"Yeah, I'm back. I remember now. Goddamn scrap metal," he barked, returning to Lynn. He began to slap her repeatedly. She was still out of it, which led to him going for punches.
"Is that really necessary?!"
"Really? You're questioning me?"
"...I-" Lupa stuttered.
"Get the others!"
Lupa pulled Lily and Luan away, but looked outside to see someone else walking towards the house. "LINCOLN, WE HAVE TROUBLE!"
Linka Loud, if it was her, stopped right before stepping onto the porch. She niether smiled nor seemed like herself. In her hand was an M32 Grenade Launcher.
"What is it?" He stopped his attempt to bring Lynn back, moving over to the window. He didn't expect to see his main clone in here. "Aw, fuck, is that-?"
"It can't be Linka. They're adding versions of our loved ones to hurt us. But that girl out there, that is not our Linka!"
Linka lifted the heavy weapon to her shoulder, intending to fire. Lincoln came out, raising his hands. "No need to fire, I am unarmed."
Linka raised an eyebrow, still holding the grenade launcher firmly.
"Linka... It's me. Please put it down..." He eased his hands carefully, taking slow steps to her.
"D-daddy?" She finally lowered it, changing the look on her face. It was as if she was about to cry. " are we here? I... I wanna go home..."
"We will, okay. It's going to be alright... It's going to be-"
"I love you, dad..."
It was almost enough to kill him. Countless times he had to remember that she was an innocent girl, made up of his genetic structure, and in it. No, she didn't ask to be alive, or to be exposed to those moments where Lincoln was going dark without restraint. He felt he didn't try his hardest to avoid that while with her. No, it definitely killed him, and he was just now owning up to it.
He was more speechless this time, despite already having seen this deep affection from Linka. "I love you too..."
She dropped the launcher to hug the person she cared for. Lincoln gave her a warm, loving pat. "Never leave me again," she cried.
"I'll never," he said comfortably. The second he took his hands from the hug, he placed his hands on the top of her head and underneath her chin, killing the fake Linka. He faced away, actually scared to see it happen. "Ugh... Fuck." He let the body drop, and eagerly moved back inside with the launcher.
"Geez, you... I don't feel so good..." Lupa gagged a little. "Wait, gimme that."
"This isn't a toy-"
"Fucking scare them out of the trance!" Lupa moved the gone sisters in a line, staring at the kitchen. "They can still see, but you have to make them remember! Blow the kitchen! They'll remember the fire, and-"
Lincoln went through with it. Explosion after explosion wrecked the insides of the lovely kitchen. Bits of wood, and metal shards bounced up and down, while Lincoln screamed with rage as he unloaded all the rounds in the chamber.
Lupa kept an eye on the others. Luan was the first to move. Lincoln's actions gave her a fright. She slipped backwards, crawling away backwards while she regained back the memories of where she had last been. Lupa had to bring her into a calm, as others begin coming back.
Lincoln was finished, and he threw the empty thing, sighing heavily. "Jesus fuck..."
Lori placed a hand on his shoulders, lightly kissing his cheek. "Twerp..."
Lincoln returned to the house fire. Like he remembered it, it was Lisa who ran down first. She carried Lily, followed by Lincoln and Lynn, going down hand in hand. The fire was spreading downstairs already. Lincoln was twitching at the sight of this. "No, no! This wasn't supposed to happen! What the fuck, why?!"
All he could do was watch helplessly while all the kids, apart from Lucy, had stormed out in fear for their own lives. "Take me back, take me back!" He fell to his knees, going mad after the re-imagining of the most horrible event in each of their lives.
The scene shifted before him, and Lily and Lynn were helping him up. Lupa sat down on the stairs, unsure if there was gonna be another Lincoln vs Luna round. The twins, Luan and Luna, however, seemed to be in a brooding state. Lola was crying, held closely by Lana. Luan had skipped to heavy sobbing, moving away from them all, covering her face.
"I've been living a lie? This..." Luna had trouble grasping the hideous reality, dismayed that this fantasy wasn't, and never will be. She looked down at her clothes. "No, this is a lie! You there!" Luna pointed and advanced towards Lupa. "Why?!"
"Snap out of it. I don't know what lies they fed all of you, and I'm sorry we had to bring you back, but we have to go, like right-"
Behind them, the kitchen reset itself to its original stage. The youngest five girls were sitting on the kiddie table, as Lincoln pulled a chair with them. He seemed to be happy. No, he was happy. "Wjat did I miss? Let's ketchup," he joked, squirting his sisters with a ketchup bottle.
The older Louds looked on, some of them actually remembering this day. The empty table here had been then filled with the elder sisters, and the parents. Lynn excused herself from the grownup table, seeing the chance to finally return to the younger days.
The current Lynn, Lori and Luna had their mouths open, shaking their heads.
The other four from the grownup table followed her lead. "Wow, chicken nuggets! I haven't seen these in years!" After that, a food fight ensued between the happy, playful Loud kids.
In the background, Lori had broke; she streamed tears of this distant memory. Everything was so damn beautiful, and she was looking at it, wishing this could stay. That everything broken could return to form the portrait of their amazing, loving family.
Lily stared at her baby version, finally seeing a key memory of herself before it all went downhill. She wasn't sad, however. She was smiling, admiring herself and them. This was something she wanted to see, since forever. Baby Lily was also participating in the food fight as well.
It ceased, as quickly as it started. All the kids focused their attention to the current ones. "Come join us. If you stay here, you can relive all your painless memories," Leni informed them, slowly standing up. The lights went off and on, and Leni's image transformed into the same one they last saw of her.
"Lori... You guys, I don't want to be dead. We don't want to be dead..." Lucy joined Leni, both of them depicting sad expressions to the siblings.
"I want to be with you all again. It's been so long since..." Leni wiped a tear away, in which everyone, minus Lincoln and Lupa, took a jab to the heart.
Leni Loud, the sister they knew was a godly creation awhile after her life was brutally taken. Many of them blamed Lincoln, for another one of his failures. "Lincy, you can make it right if you stay..."
He saw through the deception, giving her a nice headbutt. "Well, fuck you, you're not real."
But Luna pulled him, and let him fall to the floor. "THAT IS OUR SISTER, YOU STONE-HEARTED SON OF A BITCH!" She pushed Lupa down with her original.
"What are you doing?! She's not real! We have to-"
Not-so-cheap imitations of the four pets came huddled together from the darkened kitchen and past them. Hops, Lana's favorite, also appeared, leaping towards the living room. In a matter of seconds, Lana screamed his name in absolute joy.
Lynn wrapped herself around the triggered Luna, actually managing to lift her high. "Let me go! He hit Leni, we have to-"
"Leni's dead! She's been dead for awhile now! I'm sorry this hurts you, Luna, but it's true."
Lupa helped Lincoln up, looking down at her black sweater. "We can't keep fucking around for much longer!" Try as she might, Lupa could not break the three up.
"Lynn, we can stay here! This... This is a better-"
Lynn let go of her, dropping her away from Lincoln. "No... This isn't right. Luna, you should be on to get out. I know-"
"No! You know nothing! Linc, come on... We can stay here forever..."
Lupa eyed at him weirdly. "You feeling it too?"
"Yeah," he confirmed. "This isn't the real Luna."
"No, no, I- It's me! It's me!" The violinist protested. "But... I don't wanna return. Why the fuck should we?! All we do is fight and-" She dropped, punching the tiles beneath her. "We don't have to go back! We don't!" She kept repeatedly punching to the point her knuckles were broken and bloodied up.
"Luna, please stop!" Lynn yelped.
"IT'S NOT FAIR! IT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR!"
Lincoln had no words to say at the second. He, along with Lupa, left the two in Luna's climax moment. "Get it ready!"
"I am!" She scoffed.
Lana and Lola were occupied with the pets. Luan found Mr. Coconuts somehow, and was flying away with the horrible jokes. Lori and Leni had their phones out, taking various selfies together, giggling like crazy. Lily was staring at all of them, sitting with a wide, content grin on the edge of the sofa.
"ALL OF YOU, FUCKING STOP!" He didn't seem to care that a minor was present. "Wake up, this is fake! We have to get back to the real world, right fucking now!"
None of them seem even the slightest bit concerned. Lupa sighed in disgust, the same way he did. Lori returned Leni's phone back to her. "What's the problem here, twerp? You don't miss anything? Do you need to-"
Lynn and Luna made it out, rather calm than in a storm. Luna was done drying her wet face, as Lynn was taking to Lincoln's side. "Dudes, listen to them... We need to move on."
Lynn nodded at Luna, and then to the others. "None of this is real. I'm not married, I'm not even pregnant. I'm infertile, you guys. I can't fucking have kids, and as much as it hurts, I'm strong enough to look toward my future, in the real world. I'd rather live with the pain than living this... This fantasy where we're being suppressed. I'm with these guys."
Luna found it was time to cut in. "I lost my Sam to Lisa and her experiments. In here, I know she's alive and well, but it's not- You guys, it's not gonna be good for us if we stay... We can't let them win. And-"
"We have priorities up there. We have to raise Lily and Linka. We have to be strong and leave..."
"Everyone, hold hands," Lupa commanded. Luna and Lynn locked in.
The twins, Lori and Luan looked at each other, reluctant to make a move. Then, Lori decided to join in, holding Luna's other arm. "I want it. I want this to be real," she sobbed. "But I'll always know the real Leni is dead, and nothing can change that. Mom and dad are dead, and all our friends are in different places. That's why I can't stay here."
The fake Leni had dropped her phone, and stepped into the parents' bedroom, which had swung open while Lori decided. The room was pitch black, and Leni disappeared within it, face forming back into her decaying state one last time.
Lucy came out of the darkness, with widened eyes and a perfect smile. "You guys, I'm back! They no longer keep me there! I'm finally out!"
No one really batted an eye. Lola was sold on leaving, and joined Lori, holding her hand firmly. "Lana, we can find another frog, I promise. Just come with us, okay? We can make this better."
"Hops... I miss him so much," Lana whimpered, developing puppy eyes for Lola to see.
"I know you do. We all lost too many things and loved ones up there. We could live here forever, but... No, we'll have all this in-" Lola stopped, wiping away a fresh tear of her own design. And everyone there had circled around, holding each other's hand. All, save for Luan, who still held her ventriloquist dummy like a baby.
"Don't take this away from me!" She screamed at them. "I just want my dummy back! And now he can be! Guys, isn't this want we wanted all along?! Just a minute ago, we didn't want to leave... Why?!"
"Luan..." Lincoln pulled out the final card. "Mom, dad, Leni, and Lucy- They wouldn't want us to stay here. They wouldn't want us to suffer. Here, it wouldn't be right. Because it's not them, and it'll never be them. That dummy is literal nothingness. But we are real, Luan. We have to let go... Guys?"
"I wanted to spend my life with Bobby. It's over, but I don't grieve over what could've been. I do miss him... But I don't let it get to me," Lori confessed.
"Dudes, I wanted nothing more than to hurt Lisa, and destroy her system of facilities. But... The violence, the killing, everything. It was too much, and we... It didn't have to be brutal. I thought we could be better than what we've gone down to. Lincoln, I don't want to fight you, I never did. Not with any of you. I love you all, and I want us to be just like we used to be," Luna coughed up.
Lynn stuttered mildly before opening up. "Ahem, well... Like I told you all, I had been with Francisco for a good while. I lived with this guy who took me in, as I've said before, and we moved away. Met Francisco in high school, and he..." She sighed, trying to not weep it up. "My caretaker, I guess you could say, was dying from natural causes. That same night, Francisco proposed to me, but I turned him down, because this wasn't fair at all!"
"Lynn, I didn't- We-" Lori began.
"I know, I just... I guess I'm fueled by the anger I have for it. You know I'm more fists than words. But, so is Lincoln now. That's why I'm-"
"In love with him, right?" Luna had already pieced it together since recently. "That's why you've been siding with him. If it weren't for that..."
The other sisters were eyeing Lynn completely different, which made her feel embarrassed. "I-Yes, I..." She blushed at the sight of Lincoln staring at her, with one of his eyebrows raised. "Don't look at me like that," she said shyly.
"Twins? Anything you want to say?" Lori asked.
"I'm the Homecoming Queen this year... But I'm not, aren't I?"
"I wasn't a plumber for hire in the last three years. I... I miss Big Bertha..."
"Luan, we're all sacrificing the same thing you are. We can get through this together." Luna disconnected her hand from Lincoln, attempting to pull Luan to them. "We can work this out, Luan. We'll get a new dummy," she calmly told Luan, reaching out a hand to her.
"They all love me... I want them to love me..."
"Luan, we love you," Luna laid out, putting a hand on the dummy. She gently took it out of Luan's hands. The comedienne was only blinking casually at Luna as the dummy was set down. "Come on, don't be scared."
"Luan..." The voice, unrecognizable by everyone, echoed in the dark abyss of the room behind them.
"Oh, what now?" Lupa groaned.
"Luan, don't leave me..." Maggie emerged from the darkness; she appeared to be older, yet had the same set of clothes Luan knew by heart. "You hurt me. I thought you loved me."
The guilt trip seemed to be working on her. "Muh-Maggie, I-"
"Glad to see I'm not the only non-straight in the family," Luna chuckled. She pulled Luan away, using her other hand to grab Lola's, nudging to Lupa to get them out. "Let's go."
Lupa, being on Lynn's other end, hit on her stomach. A bright green square lit up, hissing and whirring. "I've hijacked their fucking system. Everyone, don't let go!"
All their eyes met a flash of bright green that dazed and hurt them. The screams of the sisters roared at first, but then distanced from one another. They stretched out quickly, until they couldn't hear each other. This went on until blackness took over the green.
Lincoln's body shook as he was waking up. He slipped off the white helmet that placed him in the simulation. He found himself part of a circle, facing away from the computer monitor that controlled the simulation. The others, all of them leaning up from the surgical seats, were throwing their own helmets onto the floor. Luan, Lana and Lori still seemed phased from the ordeal.
Lupa was at the end of this mysterious place, underneath a bigger set of monitors, depicting four different camera views. Three of them were of cells, occupied by Linka, Liby and Lacy. The fourth one was empty, courtesy of Lupa herself. She slipped off her helmet, sighing in relief. She removed the green belt-strap like device from her waist, flinging it away. "Well, that's that!"
"No, this cannot be!"
Their captor, the android, had broken through the cement wall of the old Freight hideout. "I'll kill all of you!"
"Powers! Use your powers!" Lori screamed. Lola and Lynn tag-teamed; Lynn was given a speed boost to deliver her mightiest punch yet.
"But not today..."
DEREK made his retreat there. He calculated and timed the impact, effectively ducking Lynn's attack. A blue portal beneath him opened up, and in he fell. Lynn landed on her hands, creating two small craters. "Fuck!"
Lupa leaped onto Lola, pointing forward. "Go, go, Power Ranger! My sisters are still locked below!" The pink streak of light had stretched out, leaving the others to examine the place.
"Where are we, dudes?"
Lori sighed, "It's where me and Lincoln grew up after the fire. This is where we turned into who we are now." She scratched her elbow, uncomfortable being here again. "Geez..."
"This all seems like Vial technology. Is it really Lisa behind this?" Luna asked.
"Maybe she faked her death, or something. Either way, something is definitely going on here. I don't think this is over, but we should get going," Lori ordered. And with that, Lana made a couple of runs with them after Lynn sabotaged the technology.
AN: Ooooh-weee! How about that? Poor Louds.