Chapter 19: Santa Anna/RR
Leni and Lucy looked at each other. 1717 Lear Doar Avenue.
Fake.
Imaginary.
"Lynn" pulled out a save. By the skin of her teeth. It wasn't even good, but it worked.
Failure lingered every thought that rolled through Luna's head. Once again, she came up short. It was something that pissed her off completely. She had promised herself she could succeed here, but once again the opportunity shows itself and it slips away. She would be lying to herself if she didn't admit she felt like sh
"Guys, what are we gonna do? I don't know we can possibly win like this.." Luna forced out of her mouth. She would be lying to herself if it didn't feel like she had bad luck of some sort.
She wasn't alone anymore, but she still felt the burden of doing everything. After all, nobody else could lead them like she could. She had to step up, for the sake of Lynn and Lincoln. The world is a dangerous place, and sometimes, you can't just expect everything to be rose-colored. All of this overthinking was going to send her over the edge.
"Luna, every time there's a setback, you just have to keep going. Don't beat yourself up, because I know we're going to find them." Leni put her hands on her anxious sister.
Sometimes, Leni could really be a reliable source to fix the mood. Luna could just tell from the look in her eyes that Leni wanted this as much as she did. Every night the blonde wonder would wake up and ask herself a huge question that she wanted to ask Lori. Was any of this worth it? Ever since the two decided to bury their problems, they hadn't discussed how each was feeling. Lori might have caused more damage, but Leni pushed as hard as Lynn did, and that situation was nuclear. So where does that leave them? Lori didn't know that this was bothering Leni, of course, she couldn't have, but it was something that was hurting her. She had to try hard to keep herself the way she usually was.
Luna nodded her head in agreement and turned her attention to Lucy. "What do we do from here?"
Lucy put her hand over her mouth and thought about it for a second. "We'll need Luan and Lori. I've got an idea."
"Well, it still kinda hurts. I'll be okay though. But at least I showed up in crutch time. " Luan winced in pain trying to laugh at her horrible joke. Lori didn't even need to groan.
She took a deeper look inside of her punny sister's mouth. The top piece of Luan's braces was completely missing and only the left side of her face had a tiny dent. This was from her fearlessly ripping out the broken wire that Luna had punched through her mouth accidentally. The fact that Luan didn't cry out in any type of pain, and then having the mental strength to grip Luna from her collar to stop her was even more admirable.
"Luan, I wanted to ask you something about the fight at the hospital. How did you manage to get Luna to calm down?"
"I didn't really get her to calm down. She was still raging. Inside, I know she's hurting deeply. Luna never wants to give up." Luan answered truthfully.
"Well, what else? I could really use any information that can help me learn more about her emotions." Luna said.
Luan showed heavy concern for Luna, despite the latter being the cause of her injuries. "What exactly do you plan on doing to her?"
"Well, I have a strong feeling that Luna's emotions are key to any lead we have so far. The more her emotions are messed with, she seems to just blacked out for some reason, like she's in a different zone. If we can figure out when and where her emotions kick in the strongest, we'll know that those locations are Lynn-Linc spots."
Lori explained.
On paper, it sounded pretty solid, but there were certainly danger points. This was trauma Lori wanted to pick at. The odds of Luna blowing up or not being able to control herself could severely damage her. If that were to happen, Luan would never forgive Lori. It would anger her to the point to where she would consider fighting her much stronger sister. The potential for failure was a much higher ceiling than success, but they were running out of leads and ideas.
"We need to establish ground rules for this idea first." Luan came to her conclusion.
Lori nodded. "What're your demands?"
"First we don't push Luna too hard. I will be the one to lead these... tests?"
"That's fine with me."
"Every development you find, immediately tell Lucy. She has a knack for this sort of thing."
"Okay."
"Lastly, If all of this fails...We have to tell Lisa."
Lori did everything in her power to prevent herself from denying this request. Lisa would leak this information and they'd all be grounded, let alone killed for what she did to Lynn. When you're apart of a family as big as the Loud house, it means everything to stick together... And that was something Lori hadn't realized until it was too late. Fights are like poison: It spreads quickly and kills from the inside.
So because of this new found knowledge, she agreed to Luan's final request.
"Is this the place?" Tessa asked, with an eyebrow raised.
The group found themselves dropped off in an abandoned neighborhood. Yes, an abandoned neighborhood, despite the fact that Rina said it was a neighborhood full of elderly people. They would have preferred that over a ghost town. The sole thought of spending a single hour, let alone a single day inside of something so bizarre, bothered everyone. There were no cars, every plant in sight was dead, and the houses themselves began to rot due to age. Lincoln found himself looking for a sign to tell him this was indeed the place Rina mentioned earlier. When he found one a couple of feet away, he took out the phone Rina lent him and looked at the location.
"15th Salita Way. Battle Creek, Michigan."
It was indeed. Lincoln groaned. Rina really meant they had to stay low. But she really had a good reason for it. It was only until the heat from Chief Johnson's death cooled off. It had to be in the news by now, so Lincoln wasn't very keen on finding any new details on it from Rina. That's IF she texted him anyway. She had told the boy it would be the last time the two kept in touch until Rina let them know she would meet them here. It had already been a day, So he couldn't dwell on it too much. He did worry about how things were going on her end. Was she okay? Did she get hurt? What was the deal with her mom? There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but he had to wait a little bit longer. Just a tiny bit at least. Right now he had to focus on the situation at hand. Lynn and the rest of the group were focusing on which house had belonged to Rina, but since it was an abandoned neighborhood, They could just choose whichever house was in the best condition. This was Tessa's idea of course, who had grabbed a rock in order to break open the window of the house they chose. Tobin disagreed to the notion, due to not knowing what could possibly happen if one of the house were still under protection of an alarm. Lynn countered that point, stating that the odds of that occurring were very slim, and if they found valuable assets left inside, it could assist them in their future travels. Aaron didn't give any type of helpful input, just restating what Tobin had said. So the group of four looked directly at Lincoln for the tiebreaker.
"Well, I'm not exactly-"
Tessa cut the boy off by firing the rock inside of an empty white-painted house. To everyone's dismay, the rock flies in and instead of just hearing the shattering of the glass window, they heard the rock bounce off something else. Tobin immediately grabbed Tessa by her shoulders and shook her furiously, while Tessa laughed the entire time.
"Well, I guess what's done is done." Lynn sighed and pulled out a bat. Lincoln gave her a bewildered look. Lynn's bat was taken in for evidence back in the fight between them and Nightmare.
"I stole it back from Officer Tontarelli back when the prison fight broke out." The athletic prodigy read her brother's look.
She walked over to the window and smashed the rest of the remaining glass onto the floor and climbed into the small space. She happened to be the third tallest in the group, which was a fact that was heavily overlooked, but she was more than willing to dive through a broken window knowing, what was waiting on the other side. After a few seconds of fiddling with the locks, Lynn opened the door and let the rest of the group inside. There wasn't going to be any light, so Lincoln turned the flash on from the iPhone, while Lynn and Tobin searched around for any important assets. Aaron decided to stick around with Lincoln and Tessa, who were about to climb the stairs to see what was upstairs.
"You two don't think there's much here, do you? I mean, this is an abandoned house after all. The owners couldn't be so careless." The blonde boy curiously asked.
"Maybe not the owners, but if you low-ball a couple of workerssss, there's a stand-off." Tessa smiled. She was right about that.
Well kinda.
It wasn't something that happened often, but in the rare case that it did occur, movers have been known to leave the possessions of the owners behind until they paid up. It was even rarer that they would leave them in the houses that they moved them from, but it's happened. If they could luck out on an item or two, It could do them some good. Tessa walked into one of the empty bedrooms and pulled out a pocket knife. Lincoln and Aaron immediately froze in their places at the sight of this.
Tessa plus a weapon of choice equals a bad situation.
"Look, Put the Knife down!" Aaron threw his hands up and faced against a wall. Tessa cocked her head to the side in confusion, until she realized what was going on.
"Aaron, I would never do that to you! This is to pry open that box over there." She cracked up, pointing to the box in the dark region of the room.
Lincoln took a closer look at the box. It was a tiny black chest with a keylock in the middle of the chest. Tessa must have pulled the knife out in order to pick it. Aaron caught on to this quickly and gave out a sigh of relieve. Kiroy took the knife and twisted around with quick precision. Lincoln wasn't caught off guard with how fast Tessa was with her hands. When they were working on fixing all of the elevators, She was able to use the same techniques with only her screwdriver, despite missing the screws required to properly hold the back of the panels. To substitute, she ended up cutting a hole into the back of each panel and slid each wire through to the correct spots,
while also shaving the sides of the backings in order to keep the wires from being tampered with. It wasn't completely perfect, but it was well placed. Within a couple of seconds, Tessa forced the box open and looked inside.
What she found excited the young picklocker.
"Lincolnnnnn!" She sang out. "Guess what I found?"
Lincoln turned his attention to Tessa, who revealed the items she boasted about: Dual-Knives and a note. It was simple to figure out which one Tessa was happy about.
The hacker tossed the blades to the white-haired crusader, who dropped both of them immediately, much to the dismay of Tessa.
"You have to be careful!" She hissed at him. Lincoln only rolled his eyes. She had been the one to throw them at him. Once he picked up the dual knives, he noticed that each blade was engraved with a different message. The first one was Marked with an "L" and the message said:
"To my son, You will never fail. Always focus on the positive and stay true to your soul."
Lincoln flipped the other knife over, this one was marked with an "R" and read:
"To my daughter, Your image will never define your limits. You will strive for greatness. Fight on and keep your mind pure."
These were supposed to go to a set of twins. That wasn't a given, but it seems odd that the timing of these being in the same condition, could only mean that this was most likely the case. Why else would you bother making them at the same time before you knew you were having kids? Let alone the genders. Regardless of that, he couldn't take these. It didn't sit well with him that he would be stealing from children.
"We can't take these." He spoke.
"Why not?" Tessa frowned.
"Because, not only are we stealing from kids, but stealing in general. It's wrong. Especially with what's written on them." Lincoln replied. Aaron nodded in agreement.
"Lincoln, It's an abandoned house. We don't even know if he even had the kids yet. Or maybe, he forgot he even had the knives. Orrrr, He could have just decided that kids don't need damn knives in the first place." The irony rung true with the last statement, which Tessa made the exception to. But every other point she made was valid. There wasn't a point in giving knives to kids. Even in saving them, the knives could grow dull until the kids were old enough to inherit them. So would it be really wrong?
Lincoln honestly didn't know.
"You don't have any weapons to defend yourself with. We're in the back-end of the trail back to civilization, so we're going to have to get food eventually. We need to be prepared to walk because we can't always rely on the bus." Tessa continued.
Lincoln looked down at his hands and clinched the knives tightly.
"Okay. I'll take them for now."
Aaron groaned. "I was hoping you would give them up."
Tessa laughed at the mention of this. "You wouldn't even be able to catch a wall with those things. Besides, Lincoln looks wayyyyy better than you do with them."
The white-haired boy blushed because of that.
Luna, Leni and, Lucy pulled into the driveway and slowly made there way out of Vanzilla, while Leni stayed behind to help Luna with the crutches. Once they were all out, Lucy twisted the door know and slowly forced the door open as softly as she could. Leni and Luna followed suit. Everything was clear until a light turned on in the middle of the living room.
"What are you three doing up so late?"
Lori waltzed over to the trio. Luan made direct eye contact with Luna. The rock-star began to sweat bullets. The two hadn't spoken to each other since their previous bust-up.
So now what can she say?
"Sorry I almost broke your face?"
Nah, that was a shitty thing to do.
Luan had somehow surpassed her in strength, so another fight would be a lose-lose situation. She had to think quicker than her quick-witted sister. Lori was also in the room, so it also wouldn't do good for her to explain a lie. The cast on her leg was still there, but at this point, it was cut up due to the chance she took at the highway. So Lori knew for a fact that Luna was good enough to travel on her own. That was the first point.
"You've told us you'd need a week at least to learn how to walk with the crutches, yet it's been two days." Lori struck with a bit of uneasiness.
"Well...We also needed a couple of days for Luan's face to heal." Leni argued back.
Luan stood up and flashed an angry smile. "My braces are done for. What's the real reason?"
Lucy stepped in front of Luna.
"Get upstairs" were the words she mouthed to her sister. Luan was clearly going to try to get something by going through Luna, and the young rocker was not in the mood to deal with something like this. She was exhausted, and getting angry wasn't going to do the group any good. But Lori quickly read the room and tested Luna with a step closer to Leni.
"The keys to Vanzilla are in your hands, so I can only assume you two drove off. I just can't figure out where that place might have been." She enquired.
"We don't wanna discuss this right now, how about we wait until we get more rest?" Leni flashed a sly smile.
It was supposed to be a shy one, which flipped the mood to a different tone. Now, instead of angry, Luan became suspicious, while Lori became more intimidating.
Leni at her best, could still cause more damage than she attended to. The plan to exit was now a non-existent option for Luna. A heated argument could possibly break out if she left, because the cast would fall apart completely. That didn't mean she didn't need it though. Running was tough but possible at this stage in her recovery, but she had enough will-power in her to get out of tough spots. So Luna's eyes set their gaze on Lori. As unlikely as it looked, She was their ticket to getting out of there. It came at a huge price, however: Leni.
She was going to be mad at her for this, but later can wait.
"We're clearly ignoring the biggest Elephant in this room!" Luna shouted in fake anger. It was convincing enough to the others though.
"What do you mean?" Luan asked innocently.
"We're so focused on where the three of us have been when we should be talking about you two's relationship!" Luna pointed at Leni and Lori.
Leni immediately spun around to her sister and frowned immensely. There was no way Luna could have know what was going on between them! Lucy didn't take long into catching up with the act and secretly smiled. The greatest deceivers could always pull themselves out of the dirt. She wanted to let Leni in on the quick plot, but she knew her older sister wouldn't get it, nor was there an opportunity to let her know. Lori was put off by the comment but tried to regain her composure, but Luan put up a hand to stop her.
"You two still haven't buried your issues with each other? I thought you two came up with a truce?" Luan turned her attention to Lori.
"We did! I don't know where any of this is coming from!" Lori anxiously answered.
"Oh, but I do." Lucy played along.
Now to double team the point home.
"All this time Leni and Lori have avoided each other's true feelings. Leni doesn't feel that Lori understands what really drove Lynn out of the house."
The room fell silent. It was at this moment Luna booked it up the stairs as fast as possible. Luan extended her hand in order to stop her, but Lucy pointed at Lori and Leni.
"We're mediators from this point on." She said with an icy voice.
The blonde duo looked at each other with different expressions on their faces. Leni's was clearly fear. The conversation on that topic was going to be an absolute nightmare, and in front of her other siblings no less.
Leni vs Lori: The trilogy.
Seems fitting.
But Lori's face surprised her younger sister. In fact, It surprised everyone inside to room.
It was a sign of repentance.
The search on Lynn's part wasn't really that great. She found two pairs of batteries, which could be useful for something, but didn't know for what. Then Tobin had shown her that there was an old camera that was hidden in between the bathroom...Which Lynn didn't want to imagine why. The only interesting thing the duo was able to find was a sticker that said "War Zone" and Lynn decided to apply that to her baseball bat. The two caught up to Lincoln and the rest of La Bambina, and Lynn's eyes immediately caught on to the two shiny items in Lincoln's hands.
"Woah Lincoln! Where'd you get the sweet cuts?" Lynn melted with intrigue.
"Tessa picked the lock on a crate that was in one of the bedrooms." Aaron said.
"They look like their brand new. We could sell them off for some serious money!" Tobin smirked.
Lincoln shook his head. "These are engraved, so they weren't meant to be pawned off. It's bad enough I have them, but It's the best of the worst scenarios."
Tessa nodded vigorously. She had been the one to convince him. Regardless of that, Lynn thought they were cool. Now Lincoln had an opportunity to defend himself when the time called for it. The group went into detail as to what else they should do, and Lynn decided it was best to go into Rina's former home. After all, It was the reason that they were here for, and they didn't feel right breaking into houses, abandoned or not. So Lynn, Aaron and Tobin made their way out of the house. Lincoln and Tessa were following their trail, when Tessa tugged on Lincoln's shirt. When the boy turned to her, She pointed up to the hill. Very close to it were a string of lights that were working... Lincoln knew she was up to it. Nobody else could have been. She held out her hand and asked him to grab hold. Mostly due to Curiosity, He accepted and the two ran up to the hill. When they reached the top, Lincoln took a strong look at the moon. It seemed closer than usual for sure. But that wasn't why she brought him to that place. Tessa took her index finger and pointed it at the moon. At that precise moment, the sun and moon aligned into a beautiful lunar eclipse. It was the most beautiful thing Lincoln saw in a while. The image of the eclipse beaming down on the duo was mesmerizing, and Lincoln couldn't believe that it was happening.
How did Tessa know that this would happen? She had to have planned this.
"I think it's time to tell you everything." She said. Her voice was a little bit heavier. It didn't sound like she had any crazy intentions. She was being genuine. Lincoln took a minute to gather himself from awe. Tessa didn't seem to be the type that got nervous.
"What's up?" He said.
"I know things started out unconventional between the two of us, but I was hoping to fix that by showing you the eclipse." She told truthfully.
Lincoln turned to the hacker. "The gesture was really kind of you. This is probably the coolest thing I've seen in a while."
The amount of red coming from Tessa's face was nerve-racking for the quirky girl. She hid it for the most part, but every hair on her skin stood up.
"I'm glad you're enjoying it. The view from my home worked out pretty well, and we used to see the eclipses very often, but.." The young hacker stopped short.
"What happened?"
"Toronto became corrupt. Riots have become a huge danger, and the looters are limitless. Someone even stole tide money from the churches. And any opposers were dealt with. My father didn't want me to grow up in the dangerous area, but my mother was so reluctant to leave everything she had ever know. I wasn't from Toronto per say, although technically Scarborough is a district of Toronto, but that's not important. My mother was born in Toronto, and she didn't feel that running away would be the proper measure to take control of the situation, and their two ideals clashed immensely. It got to the point to where I couldn't even paint anymore without having to hear the two argue. One day, I just walked in and shouted at them to please stop. That's when it got to the lowest point. My mother struck my father in the face with a frying pan and pleaded that he just leave and she would keep me here. But my dad snapped at that point. He didn't want to leave her satisfied. Instead, he wanted to hit her where it hurt. All he had to do was separate her from me."
Tessa rolled up one of her sleeves and continued.
"A few days later, he sent me to Locanave Heights, an orphanage in Toronto that was as corrupt as the streets. It was here that I met Tobin, and together we formed La Bambina. We stormed through the place and uprooted the headmistress, who would starve the other children. We placed an older friend of mine named Johnathan Leweski to overhead the Orphanage, while I found myself back in Scarborough. There, I spent four more years teaching myself how to wire, disfigure, hack and modify anything I could get my hands on. Once I perfected my craft, I traveled back to Toronto to see my mother. But my family in the area told me that she had gone insane from my sudden disappearance. It was at this moment I knew, I had to track her down and try to speak to her. So I took my belongings and traveled to every hospital I could find until I appeared at CAMH.
I found my dad waiting outside. He could recognize me, but only by my hair. As a kid, I dyed it this way because my mom's favorite color was purple and my dad's red."
Tessa pulled on her hair. It was like a blessing and a curse. It drew attention, but not always the attention she wanted.
Lincoln took a second to collect his thoughts.
"Were you angry at your dad? I mean, You'd have every right to be angry at him for what he did to you and your fam-"
Tessa cut the boy off with her hand.
"Dun kno, But he wasn't the only person to fault here. I was more emotionally confused than angry because my mom was rude enough to physically hurt my father and my father was evil enough to abandon me to mess with my mother's head. When he saw me, he told me that my mother was dying from a broken heart. I rushed up to see her in her final moments, But the moment I touched her floor, she had died. I ran back down to the entrance to find my dad, but he had left long before I got there."
Lincoln looked down to the ground. "I never knew how hard you had it... I'm really sorry."
Tessa smiled. "Lincoln Loud, You're so kind. But it's okay. It shaped me into who I am, and without all of this, I would have never met Tobin or Aaron."
Lincoln agreed. Tessa was a normal girl that got pushed into a life of terrible events. She could have been lived a much better life somewhere else had the timing been right for her.
"So the way you act around Lynn and the others?" Lincoln looked her in the eyes.
"I think of it as a persona for the most part. I'm not as quirky or confident with my thoughts as I seem to be." Tessa looked away. "But around you...It seems like it occurs more often."
Lincoln froze up at the last words the girl uttered. He knew what she was saying, but he didn't want to discuss it much further.
But she took it further.
Before the boy could find his composure, Tessa leaned quickly and lightly kissed him on his cheek.
Twice.
That left Lincoln even more flustered. There was a difference when Rina kissed him: That was to calm him down from a panic attack! He had to remind himself of that from time to time to keep himself from spiraling, but Tessa's was not in the same category. She did it because she felt a different way, and she did it twice! What could he do? No, what should he do? Should he ask her how it was? His thoughts were conflicting with one another as fast as they were coming in. So he stood silent.
"My birthday isn't until a few more months, So I'll consider this an early birthday wish." Tessa teased.
She knew what she did was going to further complicated things between the two. She even felt her heart skip a beat or two.
But she didn't care. It was worth it.
Luna could hear a small tap on her door. Reluctantly, she opened the door and Lucy slid in between the cracks.
"How'd you get away so fast?" Luna was astonished.
"I hit the vents when Lori started to talk about everything. It seemed easier to travel through there than attempt to allude Luan. But if I were a betting man, she's going to come up here any minute now." Lucy admitted.
Luna growned. Luan was the last person she wanted to talk to. She'd rather talk to Lori, and that was a beast.
But then a weird idea came to Luna.
"Lucy, let's block the door until sunrise. I want you to stay here for tonight." She proposed. Lucy didn't see the point exactly, but she was okay with the idea. The two took the heaviest items and blocked the door with them. Once they were done, Luna thanked her for accepting the idea and Lucy nodded. Her thought process was more on where she would sleep, but she quickly came to the conclusion that the floor was the best option. It might be a little stiff, but she wasn't uncomfortable.
"Do you think we'll be okay after this?" Luna asked honestly.
"I'm sure it'll be fine. There isn't much they have to fix, Lori just has to be honest. I could see the guilt in her eyes. Leni should be okay." Lucy replied.
"But what's her real intention? I have a strong feeling it has to do with me? That's probably why they weren't very happy with us leaving so late."
"I'm sure it does, but you need to focus on you, Luna. As un-assuring as that sounds, I know it's going to be fine." Lucy mumbled.
She didn't want to admit it, but she was falling asleep. Luna was having a bit more luck, as you could hear the musical prodigy practically snoring at this point. But they both needed to benefit from the sleep anyways. How long that sleep would last, would depend on how fast Lori and Luan woke up. But for now, the duo were sitting in the living room, talking to Leni. The conversation didn't even drift off while Lucy sneaked away. Luan wanted to give chase, but Lori stopped the girl. She was the last buffer needed. Lori explained the sorrow she felt for the scar on Leni's right arm, which the latter used Lynn's old basketball sleeve to cover. She thought it was that ugly to show the world, she even dyed the sleeve to match her dress, although that was a style move more than damage control. Leni had accepted that, because in her heart, she knew her sister was deeply sorry. It wasn't like her to not express her anger in dangerous ways, but when she went over the limit like then, Leni knew her older sister knew the rights and wrongs. It's what made her as mature as she was. Leni's heart was the purest thing that she had, and it was also the biggest thing that allowed her to forgive the people who had wronged her in the worst of ways. And if push came to shove, she was also capable of holding a grudge over things she cared about the most. In this particular situation, Luna became the subject on the 2nd oldest's mind.
"So you've heard the concerns I have about what you plan to do with Luna?" Leni's tone lowered.
"I have, Luan and I can assure you that we're not going to push her too hard." Lori nodded. Her face showed a bit of fear that only Luan noticed.
"And you've decided that Luan would be best to do this part?" Leni asked.
Luan nodded.
Leni clapped her hands. "Okay, We can pick this up tomorrow. I'll spend the night here in the living room, while you and Lu can discuss things in our room."
The duo looked at each other and back to Leni. "Are you sure?" was Luan's response.
Leni nodded. "I need time to rest anyway." she added with a yawn.
Lori and Luan walked up the stairs to do as Leni suggested, while the fashionista laid across the couch. There was more to discuss, but the issue was more of a looming cloud: It wasn't going to be something that required them to drop everything, but every once in a while they need to talk it out. Time seemed to be the biggest issue with the search efforts. The biggest asset they had was going through emotional turmoil, while the jack of all trades was trying to plan things out with a way to drag more information out of her. If only they could find a way to get a second indication.
Suddenly her cell phone began to ring.
"Hello?"
"Leni? I'm glad it's you!"
"Who is this?"
"It's Lincoln!"
Leni felt the phone slip a bit from her grip. She had to focus up though.
"Lincoln..?"
"Yeah, it's me! I need you to believe me, Please!"
Leni didn't know how to exactly how to respond, So she nodded.
...which didn't do anything to let Lincoln know she was willing to listen.
"Leni?!"
"Yeah Lincoln, That's fine. But are you okay?!" Leni responded.
There was a slight pause on his end.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you alright?"
"Who cares?!" Leni raised her voice.
"I do!" He retorted.
Leni felt herself go numb.
"Then why? Why did you leave us?!" She pleaded.
"...I'll tell you if you can promise me one thing."
"Okay? What is it?"
"You have to leave Luna and the rest of the family behind... I want you to meet me in Ann harbor... Just you and me."
Leni didn't know what to say. She wanted to see her little brother sooo bad, but they had to stick to the plan. It was just so hard, she felt as if her heart was conflicted, torn between the decision as to what to do. If she snuck off one more time, she was risking the ire of her sisters, and that just puts them in a situation similar to where they were at today.
But you have to be willing to take risks for huge breaks, and Leni knew that was the case. If she could find a way to get the information on Lincoln and Lynn's location, then she could relay that information to Lori and the others, who would then decide what action to take next.
So she agreed to Lincoln's terms.
"When do you want to see me?" Leni asked.
"March 7th. That gives you time to prepare to seperate yourself from everyone else."
"Okay, I'll see you then. I guess this is goodbye." Leni sighed.
"Wait! Leni?"
"Yeah?"
"Take care."
"You too Linky.
With that, the call ended. Leni had exactly three days to get to Ann Harbor from here. She didn't waste any time and slowly slithered her way off the couch. She packed necessecities for her trip and hid them under the couch. When the opportunity arrived, she would head out with Vanzilla.
Lincoln paced himself around Rina's abandon house. He had done the very advice she had told him to do. Leni might be in deep with Luan and the rest of his sisters, but he knew he could talk to her. Her heart was big enough to understand. It had to be, right? He would leave it up to himself to take the road to Ann Harbor alone.
That's what Leni was expecting anyways.
Little did the pure hearted girl know that it was Lynn who would be making the apperance. Lincoln knew deep in his heart if he and Leni met eye to eye, it would break him and probably her. Lynn had also been the one to nominate Leni as the perfect person to trust, so it makes sense.
"Did you tell her the date I recommended?" Lynn asked.
"Yeah, I let her know.." Lincoln admitted.
Lynn knew why he answered like that, but she didn't want to stress him out more than he already was. He was mumbling a bit in a nervous state, his pacing increasing as each word flawless dropped out of his mouth. Lynn walked over to him and placed her hand and turned him to face her. She looked him dead in the eyes and smiled.
"Lincoln, don't worry. We can do this. I'll come back victorious. But I'm starving right now!" Lynn claimed.
It was 5:30 in the morning. How could she eat so early?
"So you think walking in the dark is a good idea?" Lincoln asked.
"If it leads to food, then yeah." Lynn responded naively.
Lincoln knew arguing with Lynn over food was a terrible idea. But they could find a bunch of places to get food from for future travels, and that intrigued Lincoln's interest more than anything. Besides, with Lincoln's sweet daggers and Lynn's bat. No one could stop the duo as they stepped outside to start their journey.
Except for timberwolves.
A PACK of timberwolves. Eight at least in total.
Lynn froze at the sight of the dangerous beasts.
"Lynn...Whatever you do. DO NOT ENGAGE." Lincoln stressed as hard as he could.
Lynn barely heard him.
Instead, her eyes were dead set on the leader of the pack, which had a black streak on it back. The timberwolf looked back at Lynn and shifted its body towards the girl.
In this situation, you are always encouraged to NOT stare at Timberwolves. Why is that the case you might ask?
The leader of the pack launched itself at Lynn in an attempt to kill the girl.
Luckily, Lincoln caught the attack head-on and swiped the blade of one his dagger through the throat of the timberwolf. Seeing the danger of their leader scarred the rest of timberwolves into attack mode, each coming with fast speed. Lynn broke herself out of her tranced state and took a good swing at one of the timberwolves, while dodging another two with her feet. Lincoln put the finishing touches on the fallen leader and sprung himself at one of the two attacking Lynn. Lincoln and the wolf tumbled on the ground, each trying to secure the upper hand until the wolf overpowered him and tried to sink in a bite. The boy repeated his past action and stuck the left dagger in the mouth of the beast. Lacking reaction time, The wolf bit down on the dagger at full force, splitting its mouth open. Lincoln pulled the knife out of the animal's mouth and slowly pressed the same knife into the wolf's hide and pressed hard until he could see the end of his weaponry.
"Lynn, behind you!" He yelled out.
Lynn turned her head and felt the presence of the wolf ambushing her from behind. Before she could dodge, the wolf swiped at full force at the girl's left leg. It was successful, as Lynn yelled out in seething pain. The cut was deep, as blood oozed out of Lynn's leg. Lincoln ran towards her, but two other wolves cut off his direction.
Lynn tried to stand, but struggled immensely. Smelling the blood, the rest of the wolves drew their attention to the girl, which allowed Lincoln to stick his daggers in the necks of both of the wolves in front of him. He dove to pick off another wolf off, but the two beside it stood their ground to block him again. The wolf they protected focused back to Lynn, who scooted her way to the front of Rina's house. The wolf launched again and got a mouthful of Lynn's bat.
"HA! Whatcha gonna do n-"
The wolf bit through a crack that was present in her bat, which ended Lynn's sentence prematurely. Having lost her defense, she put her fists up in desperation, which gave Tobin time to burst through the front door with her weapon of choice: a katana. The La Bambina ran her sword slashed at the legs of the wolf, leaving the wolf immobile. Showing no mercy, the girl beheads the creature. Lincoln finished off the last two wolves by slashing at their eyes, blinding one of them, but effectively making them flee. He felt even worse, but it was either them or Lynn. He walked over to the timberwolf that was only knocked out by Lynn's bat at the beginning of the skirmish. There wasn't a need to kill it, but rather restrain it for the moment until it became conscious again. So Lincoln quickly asked Tobin to run inside to grab anything that could hold the creature, but after she grabbed wraps for Lynn's knee. The boy ran to his injured sister and took a look at the injury. It was oozing as bad as Clyde's nose did whenever he used to first look at Lori. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel nauseous just looking at it.
"How do you feel?"
"I'll manage. The pain is so-so. I just need to stop the blood." Lynn replied as she took her shirt off, revealing a black sporty tank top. Very quickly, she wrapped the shirt like a make-shift bandage over her knee.
"I should be fine now!" she smirked. The boy looked at his sister. Sometimes she could just be so cool.
"I found some old rope, but no bandages!" Tobin shouted.
"Let me see the rope." Lincoln stated and caught it.
Lynn and Tobin watched as Lincoln moved the knocked out Timberwolf and softly placed him next to a tree that would receive plenty of shade when the sun arrived. From there, he took the rope and tied a big enough Loop that was strong enough to hold the timberwolf in case it woke up, but not tight enough to choke the animal.
In comparison to it's fallen pack, the timberwolf was much smaller and its teeth weren't as sharp. Lincoln assumed that it was a younger wolf, so the danger levels weren't as deep as before.
"We need to get Lynn some bandages and the wolf-"
"Santa Anna." Lynn interrupted.
"What?" Lincoln and Tobin were in sync.
"I named her Santa Ann. She's a girl."
"How did you know she was a girl?"
"Look at her appearance compared to the other timberwolves."
Lincoln took a look at Santa Anna. Her appearance was lighter and her paws were shaped differently from the rest of her pack.
"I never meant to hurt Santa Anna. She was mainly avoiding the conflict, but only pounced at me because that's what the pack did. I never connected the dots until it was too late and I cracked my bat hitting her."
"SHE was the reason your bat was broken?!" Tobin was surprised. The little pup didn't even have a mark on her body! How the hell was that possible?
Lincoln ignored the fun fact and refocused on Lynn. "We gotta move. Lynn, stay here and wait with Tobin until I get back with Supplies."
"No Way! I'm coming with you." Lynn refused, making a valiant effort to stand.
"Why can't you ever let your pride take a backseat to your injuries?" Lincoln shook his head.
"Lynn Loud never quits!" the girl rallied. "You think I'm going down just because the back of my knee was cut near an artery that could kill me if I let it bleed out long enough? NO! I'm coming with you, and there's not a thing you can say to make me change my mind."
"I admire your bravery!" Tobin gushed.
Lincoln groaned. "Alright fine. But you're not gonna be walking on that leg. With the help of Tobin, Lincoln gets Lynn on his back to carry her. It might have been the start of the morning, but this was an abandoned neigborhood.
Good luck trying to catch a bus at one of those.
The duo made their way to the nearest store, but it was at least 8 miles away accoriding to GPS. The sun was probably going to beat them to the punch at the rate things were turning out.
"Hey, Lincoln?" Lynn asked.
"Yeah?" He replied.
"Have you been getting stronger? Like out of nowhere?"
Lincoln was a bit thrown off. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I'm asking because it seems as if every time we get into a new encounter with trouble, your athleticism has increased tremendously. I would have never been able to catch that Timberwolf that you pounched on."
And she was sorta right.
Since the fight with Nightmare, Lincoln did feel a bit stronger. He's also noticed that he's gotten faster and his stamina was much better. Hell, he was even able to carry Lynn's body weight without a wince or grunt. Maybe all of this was making Lincoln stronger, although his appearance didn't seem to change at all.
"I wouldn't be able to pinpoint exactly when this started happening. You're the expert on things like this."
"Fair enough."
Lynn silenced herself for a bit and then fired back another question.
"Soooooo, you were pretty late coming back coming back to Rina's house.."
Lincoln didn't have anything to spit take, but he would have.
"L-Lynn?"
"Did she kissed you when you two were alone?" Lynn looked at him with suspicousion.
Lincoln could only hold a blank look on his face.
Lynn wrapped her legs around his torso so it'd be easier for her brother to carry her.
"I figured something like that happened. What am I to do with you?"
Lincoln kept the same look as he had before. Lynn looked over his shoulder and couldn't help but laugh as she saw it.
"Okay Rodwell, Tell me everything that you know about my mother." Rina said coldly.
The two were alone in an isolated room. No guards close by, as requested by Rina. she had only made the trip to get the information she needed about the murder her mom committed. Wasn't it too convenient that a guy that pulled a gun on an innocent civilian solely because of the fact she was the daughter to one of the most dangerous criminals that he's chased? It just might be.
"I'm not telling you anything. I don't even know why I'm fucking in here!" Rodwell raised his voice.
Rina got up from her seat and leaned over the table opposite to him. Officer Rodwell could only watch as the young girl removed her glasses.
"You're here because you messed up. You thought you could pull a gun out on Oliva's daughter. You wanted to be big and bad with me when you were around the other officers, but when it's even playing grounds, YOU can't handle the heat."
"I'm a cop, why would you intimidate me? And even playing field? I could strangle you with my hands and be jailed with only my rep being tarnished. Then you would never learn of your mom's case." Officer Rodwell gave an insane smile. It was icy as Rina's voice. but he was right. In the room, there was nothing stopping him from being corrupt. He didn't even need to talk to her, all he had to do was sit back and aggravate her by relaxing. Then, when their time was up, he could lie and say he answered all of her questions.
But he was messing with the wrong person. Rina was as smart as she was deceiving.
"Then why did you obsess over my mom when you were supposed to ask me questions about Lynn Loud?"
"I only did that to draw info out of you, but it obviously wouldn't work."
"MMMM, I doubt that's exactly what happened. I think you hold something against me because youuuu love my mom."
"I should kick the hell out of you for even making a stupid deduction like that! Like what?"
"I'm only 13 though."
"I don't give a damn! You could six and I'd step on you." *Click* "What was that?"
Rina snickered as her right arm went inside of her red hoodie. Inside of it, contained a tape recorder that was taped on the top of the record button. Officer Rodwell immediately stood up and rushed for the girl, but Rina held her hand up and leaned back in her chair.
"You come near me, and I'll make sure this goes public." She smiled widely.
"HOW THE HELL DID YOU RECORD ME!"
"With the recorder sillyyy."
"Grrr..."
Rina picked up the recorder and twirled it in her fingers. "It was really simple. Do you think I would walk into this room without trying to get you fired? Do you think after what you said about my mom, that I wouldn't find a way to get you to admit the truth to me? You said my mother was a brilliant mind, but you forgot about her 'evil' daughter if I may recall? Now all you had to do was be a good law abiding cop and none of this would be occurring right now. But you pushed the Lawrence button. Let me give you a word of advice in the future: Don't ever push that button again. I'll delete this recording IF you tell me what happened in my mom's case."
Steam was visible from the top of Officer Rodwell's head at this point. This is why he wanted to end the girl, so that a situation like this would never happen to any other person. But nooooo, his comrades found it unconstitutional, which it was, but that didn't matter to Rodwell. Now he was trapped, looking for a way out of this. He could become silent and risk his job along with his freedom, or he could finally end this saga and possibly get the help he needed to get himself on the right path to being a better cop. Then, he could truly become the captain he dreamed of becoming one day. It would be the happiest situation that could solve all of his issues. But that was too hard for him. Coming to that solution would mean something that he never wanted, regardless of his happiness or good paths he could possibly adventure.
That something, was Rina winning. No matter how you sliced that cake, it came out with that being the biggest issue Rodwell had. But there was a quicker solution that would bother Rina for years to come.
That's the option the semi-sane cop came too.
Officer Rodwell untucked his shirt to reveal a revolver. Rina froze as to what he was going to do with it next, but when the revolver pointed to his heart instead of her,
The girl immediately yelled for a guard. But it was futile.
"This room is soundproof, you're not going to be able to stop this."
"Is this really what you want? You'd rather kill yourself instead of telling me what happened in my mom's case?!" Rina was furious. Not because she felt like her advantage was fading, but that Rodwell hated her mom so much, he'd do something so stupid.
"You're mom's a murderer kid. What else can I say? I swore I'd uphold justice, and what she got was sweet justice!" Rodwell laughed.
Rina could feel her hands trembling. She couldn't have planned for something like that. Death is sometimes unpredictable, but it's still something you can't detect until it's too late. A piece of Rodwell's mind wanted that more. There's no saving him.
"So this is how you're doing things? You know I can't delete the recording. It's the only thing I have on you right now.." Rina's voice hit with sadness.
Rodwell noticed her face and looked at the girl.
"I cannot forgive what your mother did to that person. But I'll tell you something. If you always use this amount of smarts as you did in this battle, you'll win more than you lose kiddo. But for today, I'll die happy knowing you'll never win this final meeting."
"Rodwell please don't do this! This should mean more than just a grudge! It's your life, you should strive for the best." Rina pleaded.
"Funny hearing you plead for me, the person responsible for your heinous mother being locked up for life." Officer Rodwell slyly grinned.
In a matter of seconds, there was a loud bang, and Rodwell's lifeless body fell to the ground. Rina ran over to the man, hoping he would make some type of miraculous mistake and the bullet missed his heart. But it wasn't the case. She felt her eyes water immensely, as she clenched her hands. That son of a bitch Rodwell robbed her of the information that she had to abandon her friends to get. The whole point as to why she even wanted to be here, was a freaking dud. But she knew she couldn't stop here just because the case got cold.
This was just the start of things.
Rina pulled out her cell phone and sent Lincoln a text.
"I'm coming to Battle Creek. I'll be there in three days."
With that, the motivated thirteen-year-old exited the isolated room.
Before I begin this author note, Just in case you were confused about a few things, I'll go over a few I assume might be the cause as quick as possible.
1. Tessa's from Scarborough, Toronto. When I was writing that, I keep struggling to say that properly because Scarborough is no longer a "City" It's considered a district of Toronto. The important thing is, She's picked up some of the slang that is tossed around from the residents there. If I decide to use more of it, I'll put down a key or something next to the Title.
The thing she says in this chapter was "Dun kno' which equals "Of course, or I know." in Non-slang. (That's not a word but you know lol.)
2. If you didn't know, Rodwell killed himself, solely because of his hatred of Rina and her mother in an attempt to never let Rina find out the truth of the case from his end. I wanted to start a road to redemption for him, but writing him as a semi-sane cop contemplating the love of his job over his hatred of his worst nemesis, made for a better idea that you'll see once Rina joins up with Lynn and Lincoln later on. So just wait on that part, It gets better.
3. RR stands for Rodwell's Resolution. (Hint: This matters later. No Spoilers!)
4. Lynn yelling out in pain was the thing that drew Tobin's attention to the situation. That's why she burst through the door. It was loud enough to wake up Tessa and Aaron, but neither have weapons, so it wouldn't have done them any good to be in a fight with animals that can eat you alive.
If you have any more questions, PLEASE feel free to ask. On to the actual AN:
Hey guys, This is me wanting to again, I know this sounds annoying, thank you for even giving this a look. The support means a lot to me, and I'll see if I can give you chapters as long as this more often. It was actually really fun to spend the extra time to think a little farther ahead. This one chapter for me could have ended up two or three chapter links but hey, if you guys like this, I'm going to find the time to do this again.
I had to challenge myself to make this as good as possible, so I spent a week going through a small rough draft and breaking it down and made it better once I promised it would be out today. THEN I flipped it again to fix a lot of errors in editing. That's also why it has two titles, the first being the rough draft, the second being the final copy with what I took from the rough draft. Doc manager almost ruined all of the edits like twice, so I was not very happy with it at first. Then I opened Mircosoft Word and just went from there. Didn't make it much easier though.
This is the only time I've really had problems from Doc Manager when it comes to mini edits (Second Spell checks, Multiple Line breaks etc.) Hopefully, this isn't something that happens constantly.
Sorry, it wasn't "first thing in the morning " like I promised, but I got the day right though! The editing took so long like I had this ready to go Friday, and then I went back to make sure I caught as many Grammar errors as possible. But it's still in good timing.
One last time because it's so much stuff I wrote here. It's more like a damn essay than a note but screw it, it's a special type of chapter today.
Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you so much: For everything. Please let me know what you think.
Stay Awesome!
Titan Out! (Plus Ultra)