Pre-chapter author's note: I saw from some of the reviews on this story that some are worried that I completely forgot about what Lincoln went through during the events of 'Broken Mirror', and that Lincoln having done what he did was never going to come up. I would like to put those worries to rest. Remember what I said about someone going through stuff like that not being able to get out without some sort of baggage? I still firmly believe in that. In fact, Lincoln will, in part, work to overcome his past in this chapter (another part will take place in a future chapter). Anywho, without further ado, here's chapter five.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

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Chapter five: Haunting Dreams

He was back in one of the many alleyways in the city he ran away to. Lincoln, once again in the guise of Broken Mirror, was chasing down one of the many members of the violent youth gang, aiming to do to them what they have been allowed to do to the innocent citizens of this city. The gang member tripped and fell, landing face-up as their trip made them spin around slightly. As they laid prone, Lincoln jumped onto them. Taking out the butterfly knife that he lifted from a gang hideout he raided a short while ago, Lincoln raised the deadly blade in a reverse grip, then brought it down into the gang member's neck, swiftly and without hesitation.

After yanking the blade out of his target's neck, Lincoln thrusted it into the gang member's torso a few times, not stopping until his victim laid forever still. Lincoln panted hard in exhaustion as he got up from his latest kill. As he regarded the gang member he just killed, Lincoln became confused. From what he remembered, Lincoln thought that all of the gang members were in his general age group (hence the 'youth' part of the violent youth gang), yet this person he just killed was clearly older than late elementary to early middle school. Did the gang somehow managed to recruit a high schooler?

And for that matter, the gang member was wearing a bandanna over their face, covering the lower half of their face entirely. Curious, Lincoln, who wore a face-concealing bandana himself, bent over to remove the bandana from the person he had just slain. After he had removed the bandana, Lincoln saw who he had just killed; the white-haired boy had to cover his mouth, so as to not let out an ear-splitting, horrified scream. Lincoln backed away, step after shaky step, as the butterfly knife slipped out of his hand. The white-haired boy could not believe what he had just done, who he had just killed.

Luna. One of his ex-sisters.

Quickly breathing as if he were hyperventilating, Lincoln could not find it in himself to calm down. Even with what Luna and the rest of the Louds had done to drive him away, Lincoln would never wish any of them dead. And yet here Luna laid on the ground in an alleyway, never to get up again. All of Luna's hopes, all of her dreams, all of her future. All of that was now flowing freely out of the musically inclined Loud sibling as rich, warm crimson that stained her lifeless form, stained the ground in the alleyway on which she laid, stained the hands of her younger brother Lincoln.

The one who had taken her life.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Lincoln screamed as he jolted upward into a sitting position, having practically catapulted awake after the horrific nightmare he just had. He was panting, shaking, struggling to calm down. Lincoln, as his vision adjusted to the darkness of his bedroom, looked as his shaking hands. Hands that, in his nightmare, had killed someone who Lincoln would never want dead, regardless of what she had done to him. Lincoln's head fell forward, his forehead resting in palms that were slick with a very cold sweat. As Lincoln breathed shakily as he tried to steady himself, he started to cry.

Through his crying, he didn't hear his bedroom door open, nor did he hear someone enter his room; Lincoln didn't know he wasn't alone until he felt someone wrap their arms around his panicking form and draw him into a reassuring hug. "Shhhh," Luna said in a reassuring tone as she gently rocked Lincoln as she held him, "No one's going to hurt you, bro. You just had a nightmare is all, little dude." Upon hearing Luna's voice, Lincoln started crying even more, but this time it was out of relief. Luna, not recognizing the change in the tone of Lincoln's crying, simply continued to hug and reassure him.

A few minutes after they were all woken up by the sound of Lincoln screaming in fright, the Loud sisters minus Luna watched as Luna herself came walking out of Lincoln's bedroom, closing the door behind her. "The bro just had a really bad dream," Luna said to her sisters in a concerned tone, "He's going to be fine."

"What kind of a nightmare was it?" Lana asked in a concerned tone, "Was it one where mud no longer existed? Or one where frogs were declared illegal? Or one where both mud no longer existed and frogs were declared illegal all at once?!" As Lana looked up with a horrified expression, her twin sister Lola regarded her with a '…really?' kind of expression.

Gently shaking her head, Luna replied, "No, girls." Sighing in a resigned tone, Luna explained, "When Lincoln calmed down enough, he told me about the nightmare that he had. Apparently, Lincoln was chasing down someone in an alleyway, and when he got to them, he jabbed them repeatedly with a knife until they were dead."

"He killed someone in his dream?!" Luan said in a shocked tone, taking a step back.

Luna nodded a few times in the affirmative, not even wanting to tell her sisters the rest of Lincoln's nightmare; she was afraid that some of them would take it as a sign that Lincoln was so upset with them for what they did to him that they were afraid he'd try to kill at least one of them at some point. "I say that we should leave him alone for the rest of the night, then be as warm and welcoming to him when he wakes up tomorrow morning," Luna suggested, "But don't try to crowd the dude."

"Ooh, I hope Linky gets better soon," Leni remarked in a worried tone, "It's totes bad to see him suffering like this." Seeing as how there was nothing left to do in this situation, the girls all went back to their respective bedrooms so that they could go back to bed.


The following morning over at Royal Woods Elementary School, Lincoln and his friends Rusty and Zach were sitting together in the library, studying at one of the tables. As they went over their schoolwork, they heard a girl's voice call out, "Hey, Lame-o!" Lincoln and his friends looked up from their work and turned to face Ronnie Anne, who was walking up to them with a girl who Lincoln didn't recognize.

The girl that was with Ronnie Anne was roughly the same height as Lincoln, his friends and Ronnie Anne herself, so he assumed that the girl was a fifth grader same as them. She had long white hair, wore a white long-sleeved blouse that had an orange-colored sailor-style collar, an orange ribbon laced through a loop around her neck, a dark blue skirt that reached her knees, a pair of loose socks, and a pair of black slip on shoes. Also, Lincoln could tell just by looking at the girl that she has some sort of Asian heritage.

Jerking a thumb at the girl that was with her, Ronnie Anne said to Lincoln, "Hey Lame-o, she wants to talk to you about something."

"Don't you think referring to him with that name is kind of mean?" the mystery girl said as she turned to face the Hispanic girl.

"It's something between Lame-o and I," Ronnie Anne replied, "No need to worry, Astrid."

"Wait a minute," Lincoln said, "Her name is Astrid? As in that Astrid Ace girl I keep hearing people talking about?"

"Yeah, that would be me," Astrid replied with a nod.

"You know, you look kind of different from your brothers," Zach remarked.

"Yeah, I show a bit more of our family's Japanese heritage than either Andy or Argent," Astrid replied, "And speaking of brothers, that's part of why I'm here." Turning to face Lincoln, Astrid said, "I was told that it was you who made that one bully that's been bothering Argent and his classmates back down. Is that true?"

"Oh, you mean that Biff kid?" Lincoln asked. With a nod, the white-haired boy said, "Yeah, I guess I did make him back down. Although that was mostly because I was inspired into action when your brother told me that Biff had struck my little sister Lucy in the eye."

"That's reasonable," Astrid replied with an understanding nod. With a slight giggle, Astrid continued, "Rusty also told me that you managed to get that Chandler creep to be afraid of you. Is that true as well?"

"All I did was tell Chandler to give me some space," Lincoln said, "I wasn't in any mood to deal with him at the time. I'm still not in the mood to deal with him."

"Same here," Astrid remarked. Gesturing to Lincoln, Astrid continued, "A friend of me and Ronnie Anne's is having a birthday party today after school at the restaurant that my family owns. If you want, you can swing by."

"I don't even have a gift for your friend," Lincoln pointed out dryly, "If I can be given some time before the party, I'd be glad to pick something up for her."

"Meet up with me after school then, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne replied, "I still need to pick something up for Susan myself, and Bobby told me that he'd give me a lift to the mall where I can buy a birthday gift for her. I'm pretty sure I can convince Bobby to let you tag along."

With a slight smile, Lincoln said, "Thanks, Ronnie Anne." After both girls had taken their leave, Lincoln turned to regard Rusty and Zach.

"It still amazes me how you aren't terrified of Ronnie Anne, dude," Rusty remarked, "I mean, I have nightmares about that girl."

"When I heard that Ronnie Anne wasn't moving after all, I immediately went to the local church so I could ask the priest to bless me," Zach stated.

"Guys, relax," Lincoln said as he picked up the book he was studying out of, "Ronnie Anne isn't that bad. You just need to remember not to rile her up is all." As the boys continued their studying, Lincoln thought about how his friends are amazed that he isn't frightened of Ronnie Anne. Although the white-haired boy was, a long time ago, frightened of the Hispanic girl, that had long since passed, especially when Ronnie Anne started acting affectionate towards him. …Well, affectionate in her own way, that is. Yes, the white-haired boy was no longer frightened of the Hispanic girl.

There were other things that frightened him, after all.


After school that day, Lincoln went with Ronnie Anne and Bobby to the mall so he and Ronnie Anne could both try and find something for Ronnie Anne and Astrid's friend Susan. "Hey, can I ask you something, Ronnie Anne?" Lincoln said as he and the Santiago siblings were in one of the mall's many stores.

"What's up?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Lola and Lana told me you stopped them in the hallway yesterday at school," Lincoln began, "And that you warned slash threatened them against acting up." Giving Ronnie Anne a serious look, Lincoln asked, "Is this true?"

"You said so yourself, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne replied, "That little spoiled brat with the tiara was one of your sisters who made your life a living hell and made you run away!" Lincoln sighed; he remembered that Ronnie Anne was standing right next to Bobby when he was asking Lincoln about why he had run away. So of course, the queen of pain heard Lincoln mention Lola by name when Bobby expected him to name some names.

"I can appreciate that you're looking out for me, Ronnie Anne," Lincoln replied, "But you don't have to go so far as to threaten girls roughly half your age. Besides, Lola's my…" Taking pause, Lincoln considered how he should word what he was about to say; with the exception of Lucy, who he had recently forgiven, Lincoln still doesn't consider any of the girls related to him as his sisters. On the same subject, Lincoln still doesn't consider Lynn Sr. or Rita as his parents, and he likewise won't even acknowledge the family pets. "…Lola's related to me," Lincoln finished, "I can handle her."

"Uhh huh," Ronnie Anne replied, suspicious of why Lincoln hesitated for a bit before finishing.

"That's pretty mature of you, bro," Bobby remarked, "Handling your issues like that on your own. You're really getting to be a man, Lincoln."

"Thanks Bobby," Lincoln replied. When Ronnie Anne turned around to look at a wall of merchandise, Lincoln said to Bobby just loud enough for Ronnie Anne to hear, "So Bobby, you said that you have a picture of Ronnie Anne back when she was five." Upon hearing Lincoln say that, Ronnie Anne stopped her browsing.

"You mean the one where she was dressed up like a princess?" Bobby replied, "Yeah, what about it, dude?"

"I don't suppose you can show me, can you?" Lincoln asked, a hint of mischief in his tone that only Ronnie Anne was able to catch; her older brother was oblivious.

"Can I show you?" Bobby replied in an almost delighted tone, "Heck, I have it in my wallet!" Reaching into his right back pocket, Bobby said, "It'll take me a minute to fish it out, bro."

"Bobby, don't you dare show that picture to Lincoln!" Ronnie Anne nearly exclaimed.

"Oh, come on, Nie-Nie," Bobby replied, "It's an adorable picture! Besides, you saw that one baby picture of the bro a while ago when Lori pulled out a family photo album, so fair is fair."

"ARUGH!" Ronnie Anne cried out in frustrated anger, shaking clenched hands in the air.


Later, after the two fifth graders got the gifts for the birthday party, Bobby was driving them to the location of the party. Ronnie Anne, her arms crossed, had a very grumpy look on her face. "…Don't you dare tell anyone about what you saw, Lame-o," Ronnie Anne said in a clearly peeved tone.

"Why are you so embarrassed about it?" Lincoln asked, "I mean, Bobby was right about you being adorable back then."

To her surprise, Ronnie Anne found her interest was piqued by Lincoln's admission. "…Are you for real?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Yeah," Lincoln nodded, "I mean, why are you so embarrassed about it?"

"…I wore glasses back then," Ronnie Anne replied. It was true; the picture Bobby had showed a five-year-old Ronnie Anne dressed in a long-sleeved lavender princess dress, holding a wand, and the little Hispanic girl was wearing what looked like horn-rimmed glasses. With a huff, Ronnie Anne continued, "It was embarrassing how I looked with those glasses back then."

"I personally don't see what the big deal is," Lincoln said, "Lisa wears glasses, remember?"

"Yeah Nie-Nie, and Lori used to wear them too, back when she and I were in middle school," Bobby remarked, "A shame I wasn't able to work up the courage tell her that I thought she was cute until around the time we were in high school. I kept getting cold feet."

Lincoln merely nodded in response; he knew full well about how Lori was like back then, during her quote unquote 'awkward phase'. The white-haired boy also fully remembered the day that Lori started showing an active interest in boys, Bobby in particular. It was a day that still pained Lincoln's heart to this day.

The day that Lori stopped being his favorite sister.

"Here we are!" Bobby said suddenly, dragging Lincoln out of his thoughts and prompting both Lincoln and Ronnie Anne to look out the window. When he looked out the window, Lincoln instantly recognized the restaurant that Bobby had taken him and Ronnie Anne to.

"Odin-Dono's Swedish-Japanese Cuisine?" Lincoln said aloud as he recognized the fusion restaurant that his grandfather had taken him to lunch at a few days back.

"Yeah, my friend Aggro's family owns this place," Bobby explained as he, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne got out of the car, "It's a Swedish and Japanese place because Aggro's mom and dad were born in Sweden and Japan respectively before they moved here to the states and met each other."

"Hey Ronnie Anne, your friend Astrid said that her family owns the restaurant that Susan's birthday party was being held at, right?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah, and this is it," Ronnie Anne replied with a nod in the affirmative as she gestured to Odin-Dono's, "Bobby's friend Aggro is Astrid's older brother."

"Well, we ought to be heading on inside now," Bobby remarked, "We can't keep the birthday girl and her party waiting, can we?" The two fifth graders both nodded in agreement as they followed the Hispanic teen into the fusion restaurant.


A private room in Odin-Dono's was set up for the birthday party of Ronnie Anne and Astrid's friend Susan. While the girls at the party were all laughing and having a good time, Lincoln was off to the side, talking to Bobby and Aggro. The male Ace teen had fair skin and long pale blonde hair that trailed down his back in a men's ponytail, save for his bangs which he allowed to frame his face.

He wore a long-sleeved light gray shirt (the ends of the sleeves hanging loosely, not clinging tightly, around the wrists) under a seafoam green men's tank top, a pair of light gray cargo pants help up with a belt, a pair of men's sandals and, oddly enough, a sleeveless haori long coat the same color as his men's tank top. Aggro also had a pair of white studio headphones (with black circles on the outside of the earpads) hanging around his neck, the cords from the earpads trailing down until they became a single cord that disappeared into the right front pocket of his pants. Similar to Astrid, Aggro displayed more of the Ace family's Japanese heritage than some of the other Ace siblings.

"So, my younger brother Argent told me that you're the one who made the elementary school's resident bully back down," Aggro began as he regarded the white-haired boy, "And that you didn't even strike the kid."

"Well, after I saw that Biff had punched my little sister Lucy in the eye, I was sorely tempted to do the same to him," Lincoln admitted.

"Hmm, an older brother's prerogative, I suppose," Aggro replied, "I'd be a liar if I didn't admit that I've been in situations exactly like that myself."

"If I hear that anyone's been picking on Ronnie Anne, I'll deal with them personally and right away," Bobby swore. Lincoln suppressed a chuckle after he heard the declaration that Bobby had made; he obviously isn't aware that his little sister can handle any bullies herself. After successfully suppressing the chuckle, Lincoln let out a yawn; although the two teenage boys didn't notice Lincoln suppressing a chuckle, they did notice the white-haired boy's yawning.

"Yo bro, you okay?" Bobby asked Lincoln in a concerned tone, "You look bushed. You didn't get enough sleep last night or something?"

"I…had a very disturbing nightmare," Lincoln admitted with a mildly worried look on his face. Sighing, Lincoln continued, "It's got me spooked."

"I don't suppose you'd care to talk about it?" Aggro asked in a gentle and understanding tone, "Bobby and I may not be certified psychologists, but maybe we can help you through your troubles, Lincoln."

"Yeah," Bobby said in a tone of agreement, "We're bros, and bros stick together."

With a small and sad yet appreciative smile, Lincoln said, "Thanks, but you guys are going to be looking at me weird, not to mention think that I'm slightly creepy."

"We'll see about that," Bobby remarked in something of a dry tone, "You'd be surprised by how eccentric my Grandpa Hector is."

Sighing, Lincoln figured that he might as well get this over with. "Okay, here's how the nightmare began," Lincoln said, "I was chasing down someone through an alleyway. When they tripped and fell, I jumped onto them, pulled out a knife, and stabbed them repeatedly until I had killed them."

Both Bobby and Aggro's eyes widened in shock upon hearing the dream that Lincoln was describing. "After I had killed the person," Lincoln went on, "I saw that they were wearing a bandana over the lower half of their face, so I bent over to remove the bandana." Gulping nervously, Lincoln said, "When I did, I saw that…that the person was one of my sisters."

"That…" Aggro remarked in a mildly troubled tone, "…Is a rather troubling dream." Shaking his head gently, Aggro said, "I've been made aware that you ran away from home sometime ago, along with being given a basic summary of everything around it by Bobby, including how four of your sisters treating you horrifically is the reason that you ran away." With a somewhat serious look on his face, Aggro asked, "Would I be correct in assuming that the sister of yours that you killed in your dream last night is one of the sisters who made you suffer so much that you decided to run away, yes or no?"

Technically, Aggro's guess was accurate, as all of Lincoln's sisters had fallen for the bad luck ruse, thus they treated him like he carried the plague. But Lincoln remembered what he had started back in Bobby's relatives' apartment, so he had to act accordingly. With a gentle shake of his head in the negative, Lincoln said in a mildly upset and scared tone, "No. It was Luna."

"Hmm, Luna, huh?" Aggro remarked as he and Bobby considered what Lincoln had just confessed. After a few seconds, Aggro turned to Bobby and said, "Luna is one of Lori's two sisters that goes to Royal Woods High with us, right?"

"You mean the one who dresses like a punk rocker and likes talking in a British accent sometimes?" Bobby replied, then after Aggro nodded in the affirmative Bobby continued, "Yeah man, that's Luna, alright."

"I see," Aggro said. Turning to regard Lincoln, Aggro remarked, "That is a rather disturbing nightmare, just like you had said."

"What am I going to do?" Lincoln asked, "I mean, I would never do anything like that to any of them, even the ones who worked together to drive me away. And yet in my nightmare I killed one of them, in cold blood." His eyes widening a bit out of being freaked out, Lincoln said, "What if I'm losing my mind? What if I'm turning into a monster?!"

"You aren't a monster, bro," Bobby said, getting Lincoln to look up at him and Aggro. "You aren't a monster," Bobby reiterated, "Nor are you turning into one."

"Bobby is right," Aggro said in a tone of agreement, "You yourself had just said that you would never take the life of one of your sisters, even the ones that had made you suffer. Were you serious when you said that?"

"Of course, I was!" Lincoln replied in an insisting tone.

"And your dream from the previous night has you feeling disturbed," Aggro went on, "Would that be accurate to say, yes or no?"

"Yes, it's perfectly accurate," Lincoln replied.

With a mild smile, Aggro said, "In that case Lincoln, you are by no means a monster. If your dream didn't have you feeling disturbed in any way, then that would be cause for alarm. But your dream did disturb you, making you see things that you would never want to do in real life." With a confident nod, Aggro added, "Bobby is right when he says that you are no monster, nor are you becoming one."

With another appreciative smile that seemed a little bit sad, Lincoln said, "Thanks."

"Hey, no problem, bro," Bobby remarked, "And hey, this lets me pay you back for when you helped me sort through that one nightmare that I had."

Chuckling a bit this time, Lincoln said, "Yeah, Bobby. I don't see Lori ever wanting to break up with you."

"Mmm, you're pretty lucky, Bobby," Aggro remarked, "You managed to somehow find yourself in a relationship, yet I am single."

"It's not like you've ever tried to get a girlfriend, dude," Bobby replied to his Swedish/Japanese friend, "Although with how many girls I hear have been scoping you out at school, I'm surprised you haven't given any of them a shot." With a mildly suspicious look on his face, Bobby asked, "You aren't hoping Lori will dump me for you, are you?"

"Nonsense," Aggro answered, "I have no such interest in Lori. Besides, she's one of the girls on the varsity golf team that's been more or less nagging my twin sister Allison to join them. If I started dating one of those girls, Allison would never let me hear the end of it." With a mildly amused look on his face, Aggro added, "Also, I was kind of hoping that I would get to be your best man if you and Lori tie the knot."

"Bro…" Bobby replied in a genuinely touched tone as tears began to well up in the corners of his eyes, "…dude." The Hispanic teen then threw his arms around his Swedish/Japanese friend to draw him into a bro-hug. As Lincoln watched in mild confusion as the scene unfolded, Ronnie Anne came walking up.

"Hey Lame-o," Ronnie Anne began, "Astrid's mom was able to get some Swedish candy for the party, and that candy is out of this-" The queen of pain stopped short when she saw that her older brother was hugging his best friend. "…Why did my older brother have to be such an overly emotional goof?" Ronnie Anne said in a deadpan tone.

END, RESTORED IMAGE CHAPTER FIVE

Author's notes:

…Yeah, it's going to take me some time to introduce all of the people that will be playing some sort of role in helping the Loud siblings in this story, although Aggro is an especially important character in that regard, given what I have planned for him (spoiler alert: Aggro's going to introduce Lincoln to a sport/martial art that will keep him active, something that Rita wanted in that football episode).

Anywho, remember when I said that I had a collection of one-shots that I was working on? Yeah, 'Broken Mirror' actually isn't the first Loud House story that I've ever worked on; it's that collection of one-shots. The reason why I haven't gotten them up yet is due to a mix of classes, working on other stories, and other things out of my control. Starting in the next chapter, I'm going to try to adapt the events of those one-shots into this story's setting.

Here's the thing, though; the one-shots play out as if Lincoln didn't run away due to the events of NSL.