Chapter 17: Lynnical

"Are you guys totes sure Lori will approve of this?" Leni yawned.

"Of course she will." Lucy lied. Luna didn't have the heart to lie to their pure-hearted sister. God forbid that Lori answers the door instead of her. That would have ruined everything. Leni nodded and grabbed a sweatshirt with a smiley face on the front and threw on a pair of teal Nike Air Forces. Luna was more shocked about her choice of clothing then anything else. But there's a time for everything, and clearly it wasn't that time. With stealth skills so clean that even Ezio would be jealous, The trio of girls slipped their way out of the house, while Lucy grabbed the keys to Vanzilla. Once inside, Luna took a look at her watch: 1:30 am.

"Where are we going again by the way?" Leni inquired.

"Tri-Raw Highway" Luna muttered.

Leni stared at Luna with sympathy.

"Are you really ready to go back?" she asked softly.

Luna looked at the window. She didn't know emotionally if she was ready, But she wouldn't know until she tried. Sometimes it's best if you swallow your fears and fight your way through the pain and turmoil.

"I don't know Leni. But we have to let me do this. No matter what trauma I might have, We gotta try."

Leni wasn't easy with the answer Luna gave her, but she knew it had to be done. She started Vanzilla up and they pulled slowly out of the driveway. There wasn't another car insight as they left the neighborhood, and the quiet was driving Lucy crazy. There wasn't a need to start a fight between the three of them, but there is so much to be talked about. How did Luan end up the way she did? Why would they mysteriously come home and not tell her anything? There wasn't a need to, because she had done what was asked of her. Lisa still hadn't put everything together, and when she had come across anything that was evidence, it would mysteriously disappear. Guess who?
Maybe it could wait until they got to the place of the accident. For now, all she could do was find herself looking out a dirty old window. Once they hit the turnpike,
down below them, the cars in the city were rushing by.

"We sit here alone and I wonder why?"

"Did you say something Lucy?" Luna turned to her.

"Oh, it's nothing." The girl mumbled.

"So that's all that happened?" Lynn huffed. You could see the smoke blowing out her nose.

"YES HONEST, WE'RE SORRY!" Tessa and Lincoln pleaded on there knees. Tobin laughed and smacked both of them in the head with a rolled up newspaper.

"Next time, I'll have to keep a closer eye on her." She insisted.

"So what's the agenda?" Lincoln rubbed his head. That girl has a grip and a hell of a strike.

"I realized from what Lynn told me, there is a safe house we can stay in that Rina used to live. I was hoping we could stay there for a bit to regroup and relax."

Lincoln stared dead at Lynn. The Athlete smirked and held up the phone Lincoln used to contact Rina.

"I was originally mad about this, but after what I saw in the closet." Lynn pointed at Tessa. "I got over it."

Tessa flipped her purple streaks and grinned. "Would've done much more too."

Lynn immediately got up but Lincoln grabbed her hand.

"You know she's testing you. I had to deal with it for twenty straight floors, I think that's enough punishment." He said.

Lynn groaned and laid on her back clinching her fists. Lincoln couldn't help but look at the fire that burned in her soul. She's really grown from the moment they left the house. and she's always looked out for his well being, even if its been from mostly girls. He hadn't properly thanked her for that either.

"Lynn, can we talk?" Lincoln whispered. Lynn nodded and the two slipped out while Tobin argued with Tessa about boundaries. Once they were out the door. Lincoln immediately took a deep breath and turned to Lynn.

"What did you wanna talk about bro?"

"I just wanted to thank you. For everything" Lincoln said.

"Its fine Lincoln, you didn't have to." Lynn turned a bit red with embarrassment. "Don't get soft on me now."

"I won't" and the two exchanged laughs that turned into wide grins.

NO MATTER WHAT, I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOUR SIDE!

"I'm NOT going to let you embarrass my brother like that!"

"Did you say something?" Lincoln and Lynn asked each other. When both of them shook their heads "No", Then it hit Lincoln.

"Lynn, something weird is about to happen."

"We're here." Luna spoke.

Leni pulled Vanzilla to the side of the highway. The trio of sisters exited the van and took a small glimpse of the scene. It was built curvy with an intersection that pulls off into an unknown area that none of them are aware of. Leni and Lucy were reluctant to step closer, But Luna urged herself to come even closer. In the distant she spotted a dirty rag that was lying on the side of the road. She looked both ways and decided to run across quickly as she could. A car shot out of nowhere, to Leni and Lucy's dismay, but Luna was quick to avoid it and snagged the rag as she rolled to safety.

"It wont, No it wouldn't happen again" was the thought that ran through her head. As she flipped the rag over, It began to unravel a little bit more and more until it couldn't anymore. Luna took a look at what became of the rag and it was clear as day.

This wasn't a rag.

It was the rest of her sweatshirt she lost during the accident.

Luna sat on her good leg and clinched onto the torn pieces. She could remember every horrific moment. The car blindsiding her, the people cheering her or telling her to get out of the road. And Lincoln... Why did he hid from her? he KNEW she was there for him and he ignored her. How could he be so cold? She felt herself weep in disappointment.

"Why?.." Luna felt some of the tears drip into the sweatshirt.

Lucy and Leni stormed their way over to Luna and wrapped themselves around her.

"You're not alone anymore, Luna." "We're going to do this together." Leni promised her.

Luna didn't respond to her. She couldn't even hear her.

"Luna? Luna?" Leni began to panic a bit.

"She's in the zone" Lucy took a look at Luna.

Her eyes were closed.

"I knew it was a mistake coming here! We need to call Lori." Leni took out her phone, but Lucy grabbed it and popped out the SD card.

"No. We need her to do this. This could lead us somewhere" Lucy smirked.

Purple walls? Check.

Piano in the room? Count it.

Dark shading covering the ceiling? Dead on.

This was the destination. Lincoln was far aware of all of this. Lynn wasn't however.

"Where are we, Lincoln?"

"I haven't exactly found that out myself, but I do know its safe here."

Lynn took a small look around the environment. It was very bland in terms of details at first, but the scheme of the entire room shifted constantly. She couldn't understand why she was here or why Lincoln had even brought her here. She was even more shocked when Lincoln had a orange glow cover his outline. When she mentioned this to him, he laughed and told her she had the same, except her color was red. Of course, Lynn freaked out about this until Lincoln explained that it was something that was just natural when he randomly appeared here.

"I didn't get it much me self when I got here." A voice called out from the shaded ceiling.

*SMASH*

Lincoln dropped immediately unconscious.

"LINCOLN!" Lynn yelled out.

"He's alright, I promise he didn't feel anything. This is between you and me."

Lynn wasn't having any of it.

"SHOW YOURSELF" She slipped from her clinched teeth.

"Hmm, I'll reject that offer. I wanna pick your brain a little bit."

Lynn needed to stay calm. Her most reliable asset was laying motionless on the ground, the area was unfamiliar, and the voice was a bit streaky bouncing of the purple walls. Fear was reasonable here, but Lynn knew that wasn't an option.

"Look, Ask me whatever you want. But I'm not gonna let you hurt him." She got closer to Lincoln's body.

"That's not up to me. That's up to those guys." The voice beckoned.

Lynn looked around her. Surrounding the purple room, were multiple shadow figures. Maybe ten in total from what she could see.

"I think you should negotiate with them before you try anything." The voice echoed.

"Like I need your help with anything. Bring em at me!" Lynn shouted.

And with those words, The shadow figures moved swiftly between the light and the shadows. Lynn closed her eyes and thought it out.

"I can spread these guys out in different places. That'll give me a chance to knock out a majority of them out of the running."

Lynn ran towards the piano to encounter the first shadow, which looked a lot like...

"Luan?" Lynn stopped short.

"That's right Lynn. These shadows aren't just random strangers. These are your family members!" The voice howled in laughter. "How will you-"

Lynn punched her fist straight through Luan's shadow and wiped it out with no sweat. The random voice became silent.

"Should've been Lori first." Lynn stood tall.

The figures came in swarms, First came Lana's, then Leni's, then Lucy's and so on. Each one finished as Luan's shadow was: One punch.

Eventually All that stood between her was Lori's.

"Why would you leave that shadow for last?" The voice asked, a bit curiously.

"There IS a specific reason why. But you dont need to know." Lynn coldly finished.

Lynn rolled her sleeves up, and threw several punches at Lori's shadow, each connecting with a huge blow. However, it wasn't like the shadow wasn't getting any licks in, as Lori's shadow kept pace with Lynn and at a certain point, started landing punches as heavy as Lynn's were. The shadow then grabbed Lynn and dragged her high into the endless ceiling. Lynn struggled with all of her might to fall free, but the shadow kept throwing heavy punches into her guts, causing Lynn to spit up blood.

"Think Lynn! You are going to die here if you can't escape." The girl thought desperately.

"Lynn, You can do this. Dig deep."

"Lincoln?"

"Yeah.. I have a lot to explain to you and I should have told you sooner!"

"It's okay.. I just need to make it out of here with a plan. Wait how can you hear me?!"

"I'll tell you another time, Look! There's a move you've been working on right?"

"Yeah.." Lynn winced as she took another punch. "What about it though.."

"Let's do it."

"But how can I if I'm being held captive through the darkness? I can't see!" She argued.

"I'll be your flashlight. Trust me and be ready." Lincoln's voice said. The way it came out, it sounded like a smirk came after that.

"Alright.. If you think it'll work, Let's try it." Lynn answered.

Lori's shadow threw two other punches, but this time, Lynn grabbed both of it's fists and pulled them closer to her.

"NOW LINCOLN!"

Suddenly, a huge flash of light pushed its way inside of the ceiling and destroyed the shaded area of the entire purple room. Running out of shade to hide in, Lori's shadow slowly became weaker and weaker as the two tangled in the air for separation. Lynn threw one more desperation punch and landed it straight through Lori's shadow that ended the fight for good. The only thing left was for Lynn to balance her body to try to break her fall, but the fatigue and damage done to her stomach was too much for her to flip her body the right way to land. Seconds away from certain injury, Lynn prepared for the impact, only for Lincoln to dive in and shift Lynn the correct way she needed to be in order to limit her recoil damage as she hit the deck and rolled across the purple room.

"Are you okay Lynn?" Lincoln asked as he crawled his way to his sister. Lynn was barely able to raise a thumbs-up sign, but it was enough for Lincoln to ease up on his pace. He wasn't fully awake in his legs, so he figured that was the only thing he could do.

"Well, I guess I know how close you two really are now..."

Lincoln sat himself up and looked in the direction of the voice. Lynn was able to rest herself on her elbow to take a peek at what Lincoln was staring at.

"That's impossible.." Lynn said, bewildered.

"No, I had a feeling this would happen...Show yourself, Luna.." Lincoln sighed.

And as quickly as she was called, Luna was in sight, and it was the real deal.

"The fight's just getting started." Luna forced out, as she dropped her crutches.

"Luna, NONE of us are ready for another fight!" Lincoln yelled at the top of his lungs.

"That's too bad, bro! I didn't try this hard to get to you without ANY RESULTS!" Luna fought back in the battle of vocals. Lincoln wanted to say more but Luna was already closing in on him. Lincoln hadn't gotten feeling in his legs yet, but he had to defend himself. The closer Luna got to him, the more he pushed himself away. But then it occurred to Lincoln, that Luna wasn't trying to hurt him. She had passed him and grabbed Lynn by her shirt.

"Why... Why do you go so far for her?" Luna turned to her younger brother.

"Luna, Just please let her go.." Lincoln pleaded.

"What's so special about her that we all as a family don't have!" Luna shouted.

"LUNA!"

"1717 Lear Doar Avenue... We can settle it there." Lynn whispered gently. Luna couldn't spot anything that would signal a lie out of Lynn, so she let her go.

"We'll all be waiting on you two. We're talking you back home to end this." she coldly said.

And with that, The purple room shattered into millions of pieces.

Lincoln and Lynn awoke, breaking out in a sweat. In front of them, Aaron and Tessa were standing above them.

"Good, you're both awake. Tobin has already grabbed your bags and put them into the shuttle bus. We gotta leave now." Aaron stated, as he walked towards the bus.

Lincoln stretched out his legs to see if anything was wrong. They worked perfectly fine now, so he decided to pick himself up. Lynn, however was a bit shaken up from the whole ordeal. She didn't expect anything like that and she certainly didn't want to come close to it at all.

"Lincoln...What happened to us? I was torn up and spitting out blood and now, I'm cleaner than I was before this whole mess." She stared at her hands. Lincoln wrapped his arm around her shoulder and looked immediately in her eyes. It was truth time.

"I'll tell you everything when we get to the safe house." Lincoln promised.

Did you spot the two references I put in there? Let me know when you see them.

Anyways, I enjoyed this and I worked effortlessly to make sure I could post this tonight. BY FAR, one of my favorite chapters and I hope you guys enjoy it as well as I did writing this one.

Let me know what y'all think. I'll keep getting these out as fast as I can, so keep a tab on this story. I'll keep on my grind.

Stay Awesome!

Titan Out!