August 7th, 2030

Gloom was the only one, not her and Lyle. Just her. And she tried to outrun him. No, not Lyle. The other guy. The damned man with a familiar face, a recognizable voice, and then, the memories she had built with him. "Heather..."

"Why are we jogging?" Lyle had no issue in keeping up with Heather Eleanor White, but it was her sudden change in speed that had him raising an eyebrow. She was speedwalking, her breasts bobbing about- which he didn't see because he was behind her- eager to get away from that man, that cynical mirage her mind played on her. Fuck, she would have preferred to go insane over coming across him if it were possible. "Uh, Gloom!"

"I'm... Tired," she lied, not looking back to see the intersection where Ray Robertson had been standing. Nice tuxedo and million-dollar smile and all. Same man with the brother who had a nasty hard-on for black magic. That same black magic used on her, turning her, desecrating her body and deflowering her mind. Sixteen forever was Gloom. Sixteen, pale and immortal, otherwise able to feel the same human things as she did before. That was proven by Jerry Cruise's campaign of bloody death. The sledgehammer and an M60's hail of bullets. "I need to rest."

"But why don't you just sit?" Lyle knew this wasn't the case. "Could you tell me what's wrong? I know something is wrong, I've had a sister for years! You're acting just like her!"

Gloom stopped, nodded but didn't turn to face him- then scattered into the nearest alleyway right in front of them. Lyle peered into the area but didn't feel right. This was one of those places where he saw a helpless person bleeding in the middle of the alley, right over the greasy oil slick, and he and Lindsey had approached to give help. Lyle hesitated because he somehow expected another assailant to attack, even when he and Gloom weren't regular teenagers. "Aren't you coming?"

"Why are we here?"

Gloom ran a hand through her long hair. "We're- Well actually, I'm being followed by an old friend... If he could show himself, that would be great."

"Oh, I'm always around, my dear," Ray Robertson explained, appearing on the bottom of the fire escape, arms set on the railing. "My, it has been far too long."

Act VII: Revolution, Chapter II: Insatiable

"Is- Is he talking to us?"

Gloom and Ray locked in a showdown of stares. Only, Gloom radiated pure hostility and hatred in her eyes, but Ray was most sincere, telling her he wasn't bad, to be antagonized by his role in her death and afterlife. He had been sorry- "Stop stalking me."

"Decades pass but my responsibility of you will never fade."

"Re- Responsibility?" Gloom laughed, snorting. "What, are we a couple? Did I get to marry you in the end? No, to hell with this responsibility!"

Lyle blankly stared, minutes from a poker face. "Uhhh..."

"Heather-"

"Gloom," the goth cannibal replied. "It's been Gloom for awhile now."

"Okay... Gloom, I'm just trying to say you're going the wrong way."

"We're trying to find Lyle's friend here," Gloom scoffed. "The trail leads here-"

"Yes" I'm aware of this search for Lindsey Sweetwater, but what I mean is that there is a party interested in her, said party wants to exploit her as a weapon. This party has already done so in a test to prove that these remarkable phenos can also be hostile. It has worked, and that puts Lindsey in danger-"

Lyle exhaled.

"He will reclaim her."

"He?" Gloom didn't buy anything he tried to sell. "He or a party?"

"He is known as the Tacitus Kid."

"And I'm suddenly supposed to know who that is?" Gloom nodded. "Yeah, we've gotten ourselves caught up on the news, thanks for telling us what we know."

"I know where Lindsey will be, assuming the bigger party does not get to her first. You don't have long to intercept her now that moves are being made at once."

Gloom forced herself off the ground, levitating right up to Ray, hands slamming on the railing from the other side. "You have nothing to do with this, so what's with this bossing around all of a sudden? What are you trying to prove here? This won't change how I feel about you-"

"Wait... What do you mean by that?" Lyle had his interest peaked. "Sir, h-how do you know all this? Wh-who are you and how do you know... Heather here?"

"We go way back," Ray addressed. "You must be Lyle Jefferson, it is a pleasure."

"What the-?"

"Stop creeping Lyle out," Gloom threatened. "You can disappear now, thanks."

"Heather- Uh, Gloom, we need answers!"

"Lyle, no! Trust me, Ray here just wants an eye for an eye, he's not gonna-"

"There is a base in Maine," Ray casually dropped. "I can lead you to it so you know where it is. This is where Lindsey had been taken to when she was captured."

Lyle's heart skipped a beat. "Mmm..."

"I spare you the trouble, but this is not where she is at this second. Gloom, if you could...?" Ray fixed his tie, turning to the window behind him, opening it and defying reality by showing her a gateway to the Black Network base. "Come inside, both of you."

"What is that?"

"It's a trick, Lyle," Gloom decided, floating back down. "He worked his way into my mind and heart and turned me into this me you see!"

"Heather..." Ray frowned. "That happened over a century ago."

Lyle strained his throat and choked on his tongue. "WAIT, WHAT?! A- DID HE JUST SAY A CEN-CEN-CENTURY?!"

"Can you please not toss that around like candy?"

"Keeping your friend in the dark, are you?" Ray smirked, waving his arm at the window/portal. "If you could so kindly-"

Lyle, having not much to lose right now while trusting his back senses about this handsome man, jumped on the hanging ladder, rapidly climbing up the fire escape. "Can I ask what this is?"

"It has come to be known as the Black Network," the old gentleman guided. "It has had many uses, but the current use for it now..."

Lyle climbed through the window, preceded by Ray. His first action was to smell this environment- and trying to rationalize how a window that led to a room had actually led to a long, dark hallway. Long, dark and cold, actually. Lyle detected a series of smells through his nostrils, and very faintly had he picked up Lindsey's own. "Hey!"

Gloom hoped to hear bad results that did them no favors, so imagine her surprise when Lyle had been alarmed by something. "Lyle?"

"She was here!" Lyle ventured off further down, away from the floating square that defied reality. "Her scent!"

"Wait, are you-?" Gloom returned back to higher ground, coming over the railing and peering in. Lyle had already been going to distance. "Lyle!"

Finally... Don't worry, Lindsey, I'm coming! I'll find you! I'll- He didn't know or expect what to find, but when he had turned some corners, led to the very room she had been forced in, confined too. He got there, and found it empty. Nothing but empty, save for a single wooden chair in the middle of the room, and loose rope around the chair legs. Neither of these two things were what drove Lyle mad; it was the blood stains he had found in polka dot drops around that had him on edge. Blood... Blood of Lindsey Sweetwater shed by none other than her psychopathic captor. "Why... Why is there b-blood-?"

Lily Loud's weak echoes filled the hall, ringing into Lyle's ears. "Wait, what's that? Who-?"

Gloom had no choice but to follow the pair into the Black Network base.

Lyle dropped on all fours, sniffing the blood too close for comfort. Undoubtedly it matched Lindsey's odor. He pulled away and sat down on the ground like a loyally obedient canine, mouth propping open. It really is her...

"I can only imagine your pain-"

"How- How did you know? And...-" Lyle scratched at the blood stains. "I have so many questions..."

"He won't give them, Lyle," Gloom had entered the room, arms crossed. "It just isn't how he works."

"The only other girl just a few cells away is to be rescued."

Lyle took his time ascending to his feet. "Where is Lindsey?"

"Oh, it's like I said, she'll be brought here, but now... That might not be so certain. Which is why I'll be more than happy to give you the location of an underground facility, but today, time is your enemy."

"Time is our-?" Gloom giggled at the joke. "I've all the time in the world."

"You do..." Ray agreed. "But not the others..."

"What others?"

"Just admit it, we lost his trail..." If there was any day where Lemuel Porter was bothered, it was today and just underneath an early afternoon. He and "Nyla" Laude walked around Staten Island, hopelessly tired of their no-longer-endless search of Lincoln Loud. "Well, we lost him and Allie... If he hurt her-"

"Sorry..." Lynnette had kicked herself for being a failure in her mission. "Sorry..."

"Silly of us, we didn't bug each other or I would have pinned a location on her."

"Might've been overboard, but..." She tried to keep hope alive. What would Lyra do? Oh, other than scold Lynnette for interfering in another's life. In this case, she had joined Lemy and Allie in trying to kill Lincoln. They had their reasons and Lynnette was fine with that as long as the bloody deed was carried out. Carried out before the end of days. Carried out to prevent a great loss of life. "Mind telling me what we're doing here?"

Lemy found a functioning payphone, to which he picked up. "Hey, I need to make a call... My last resort where I have to break radio silence."

"Radio-?" Lynnette didn't quite comprehend at first, but she then figured that Lemy might've been wanted; she had time-traveled to an era where shooting at people could get you arrested as opposed to her own timeline, where there were no laws anymore. In fact, there was so much that she had to learn and adapt to while she was here- She assumed she didn't need to, it was a one-and-done deal meant to be fast. So, why wasn't this mission fast? Why was it taking her, and only her, this long to kill a man?

"I only have a contact Allie put me in line with, so I gotta call him for help."

"You mean you had a wildcard all this time?"

"No... Yes... It wasn't that simple-"

"I would have spared me the trouble of running around in circles!"

"Be mad!"

"I will!"

"I still need a pair of quarters, babe."

"You fucking asshole..." Lynnette groaned before speeding off in a greenish blur. She came back and threw sixteen quarters at Lemy. "Take it, fucker."

"Thanks!" Lemy snatched two of them as they fell, inserting them into the slot, dialing away. When the ringing started, the person on the other side quickly picked up. "Hey, Crudensky! Hey, listen-"

"Wait, is this Lemuel Porter?!"

"It's bad! It's Allie, she's gone off radar! I'm aware of the circumstances about establishing contact with you but Allie has entrusted me with your number if ever anything went sideways, and it has!"

"Okay, okay... Please stay on the line, I am triangulating your position now, I can help you, I have known Allie long enough."

"Please..." Lemy begged. "We lost her, we fear the worse when he took her."

"Who?"

"L-Lincoln Loud, he took her after beating us up."

There was a pause. Then- "Hang tight, Lem."

"Okay, thanks."

And Lynnette managed to hear every single word from the mysterious contact. She picked her own brain, recollecting on the day when she, Lemy and Allie had captured Lincoln, and it was there and then that Lincoln dropped claims that Allie was connected to Peter McMahon and the bigger conspiracy at work. Lemy hadn't shown signs of recalling that, or maybe he just didn't believe it. After all, it was Lincoln Loud, effortlessly trying to find a way out. Maybe Allie hadn't ulterior motives. Still... Lynnette was wondering about Allie- and also as to how Lincoln had known her name before they even met officially.

Lemy finally hung up when he was told his location was acquired. Not like he could tell the contact Crudensky where he was manually. "Our guy's on his way."

"Hey..." Lynnette had a curious reason to address the elephant in the room. "Do you think Allie was part of something bigger than she let in on?"

"No, we both wanted to go after him! Well, I did and she was onboard because she was my-" Lemy shut his mouth. "I mean, she was talented and she agreed with me on this whole thing, this... This need to-"

Lynnette nodded comprehensively. "Right..."

"She had nothing to gain from this, Nyla, it was my personal war... I told you before... I told you that he- He, in his Freight days, k-killed my family."

She picked up on his pain, lurched forward and hugged and kissed him to console him. And he kissed back and found comfort in Lynnette. The greater pro that separated her from Allie was the emotional availability, the level of humanity Lynnette projected, which was of no act. Not to play Lemy's mind and have him do someone else's bidding.

And it went both ways, Lynnette needed it from him as well when it was scarce back home. A boy around her age, nice and not so jumpy or cold. She made sure to lock her silk-smooth hands with this as she continued to kiss him gently. She noted that he wasn't shoving his entire mouth into hers forcibly, another pro factor she liked. He wasn't so brutal deep down, same as her. Just a pair of young human beings still capable of love. "How do you do that?"

"I just don't like seeing you... Like that."

"I should marry someone like you."

"Someone like me? Are you trying to trade me up for a better girl? Do I scare you with my zoomer lifestyle?"

"You know what I mean."

"Riiiiight, get you a girl who can't ever outrun you, huh?"

"Overthinking much? It was supposed to be a compliment."

She pecked his cheek. "Oh, I'm sorry! Please, adore and pamper me with all your affection."

"Nyla, you're such a whore."

"Am I, Lemy? Am I?" Lynnette jokingly pushed Lemy, laughing. She gave herself a pat on the back, seeing Lemy's mood flipped brightly. "So, why not marry me?"

"In a world where gay marriage isn't legal in all fifty states, do phenos have a greater chance of being able to do so? And that's only if they're accepted into society a hundred percent, which I'm not in support of."

"Anything can happen... And last I checked, I'm on the other side of that, so why am I an exception?"

"Are you an exception?" Lemy waddled a finger. "You're siding with us normies, not with the phenos. You've helped me and Allie, and you even knew where Loud was gonna be. You knew when Allie and I didn't. This is how it should be, Nyla. Turn them to this side to make things so much easier, so much simpler."

"I'd like things to be normal, that much I know... For me and my sister."

"Her name, it was Lyra, right?"

"Huh?" Lynnette didn't reveal her name just yet. "Wait, when did I-?"

"You muttered it back there when we all fought him. You didn't think I missed that, did you?"

"Erm- No, no, it's-" Lynnette assembled an alias for Lyra as well. "Sylvia."

"Sylvia?"

Lynnette nodded. "Oh yeah, but she's a brunette, has a fetish for the Bible and its wisdom words. Although she didn't start out that way."

"Religious, that's cool... I guess. I'll never know the merits of being a sibling."

"She's a pain in my ass, I wish..." Lynnette reassessed her words. "She could lay off my back, that's for sure. And it wouldn't help if she saw what I did, you know? Understood me from that distance she-" Lynnette sighed.

"Sounds like drama."

"You have no idea, man."

"So, who's Lyra?"

"...uhhh... I wasn't in my right mind... I don't know what to tell you."

"Fair enough. Say, don't you have a family? A sister, but what are you doing so far from home?"

"You're asking me this now? And when I haven't asked you or Allie the same thing?"

"We have our reasons, but you're a pheno, you were taken by your family, so-"

"Oh..." Lynnette found the dirt to fill in the blank holes. "Yeah, okay so I'm pretty sure I'm dead and that's fine by me. I don't have to come back home. Not to my mom. Not to Sylvia, and not to..." Lynnette mentally pictured young Lynn Loud III, the younger daughter born to their mother and the nefarious Lincoln Loud, an incestuous pairing that came to be under reasons she didn't know, or wish to know. "Oh yeah, I forgot I have a younger sister. She's all nerdy and-" Lynnette was about to say she was born with fangs. "Well, she's not like me, that's for sure."

"So, two sisters?"

"Sylvia and..." Lynnette struggled. "Uh, Erika."

"Why not? And don't tell me because drama... I'd have come back if I were in your shoes."

"You want be to be truthful?" She considered it greatly, and she didn't need to go in depth about her past- this future. His future, wherever he was. "Alright, Lemy, I'll give you the satisfaction in knowing, but there isn't anything clean or light about it. See, before I ended up here in this moment, this point in time- It was too horrible. I hated my life, I hated how things worked. I guess you could say... Poverty struck us. Bad poverty."

"Poverty...?" Lemy shifted his eyes around. "Really?'

"Shithole town, supplies are scarce, and plenty of... Well, plenty of infighting..."

"You just described a smaller version of Detroit if you really mean town. Town like...?"

"You get it," Lynnette played out. "Not city size."

"Oh..." Suddenly, Lemy had a sharp pain filling inside his head. "Agh...!"

"Hey, what- What's-?" And then, Lynnette had it as well. She stumbled down, falling onto a knee, bending over. "What's this?!"

Lynnette let her unofficial boyfriend jump onto her back, his arms wrapping around her neck. "You said you had a sister, right? Same as you?"

"Maybe you can help me convince her to help us! She's got cold feet."

"Then let's pay her a visit!"

"Wait, what am I seeing?!" Lemy howled. "When did we-?!"

"I- I don't remember this!"

In the sudden flashback, they saw themselves forced onto the ground by an unseen force, all of this followed by a great stroking white flash that filled their eyes. The power of the Silver Element at work again, tested out here by Liberty Loud for the very first time. They fell and cried out moments before they had this scene erased from them, reset back by a few minutes.

"M-Mandela Effect?!"

"Man-what?!" Her hearing sense faded in and out, an apparent side effect from the sharp pain that soon subsided in long seconds. Lynnette had lost control of her breath rate, and Lemy, untrained in this type of situation, had proven to be weak, slumped over and sprawled on his back. "Lemy-"

"What- What was that sound?! That- That memory?!"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I KNOW?!" She was too focused on herself and Lemy long enough to not have noticed her surroundings, but was on time to hear the clicking of assault rifles behind her. "Wait, Lemy-!"

Then came the shooting. Four perfect suppression rounds aimed and fired upon Lynnette's limbs, disabling her right off the bat. Lemy gasped, taking out his piece he never could afford to leave. "NYLA!"

"GET ME UP!"

Lemy started shooting off his rounds, but the Prime Federation units dispatched to their location were far better in marksmanship, shooting his kneecaps with accurate precision. "NYLA, I'M SORRY!"

"WHO ARE THOSE CLOWNS?!"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I KNOW?!"

"AGH, FUCKING TOUCHE!" Lynnette had lost the feeling in her arms and legs, despite being able to wiggle them, which she didn't actually feel. "S-SON OF A BITCH!"

"THIS MIGHT JUST BE AN UNDERSTANDING! IT HAS TO BE!"

"YOUR CONTACT MIGHT'VE SOLD YOU OUT!"

Lemy poked his fingertips at his kneecaps, no longer concerned in trying to escape through shooting. "OW, OW, OW!"

"FOR GOD'S SAKES, STOP TOUCHING THE WOUNDS!"

Jeez... I was told they'd be teens but this is ridiculous... He who entered the scene was none other than James Shepherd, a deep member and affiliate working the Black Network for Lisa Loud, thought to have been incarcerated some time ago. But he wasn't at this second, he was here, acting as commanding officer. Miss Taggart, if you truly are dead, you didn't die being useless in the end.

Lyle rubbed his hands just outside of Lily's cell. "I hear her breathing..."

"Who's behind there?" Gloom asked her old flame.

"The girl confined inside this particular cell is Lily Loud, and she has a very special gift that she is oblivious to as of yet."

"Gift?" Lyle pinned mentally. "Another one?"

"No, this girl is not a pheno, but she possess-"

"Can you not sound like some wise old man for one fucking second?"

"Patience is a virtue, my friend."

"UGH, YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE!" Gloom accepted, giving up and pouting away. "You were not like this before."

Lyle opened the metal door, letting himself in. "Lily, was it?" He carefully approached her, her who had a sack over her head. Secondly, he inspected the ground around her, seeing no blood whatsoever at her feet. Supposedly this Tacitus fiend had not harmed her in any which way, not unlike with Lindsey. Lily moved in place, having heard Lyle. "H-hello? If- If it's you... Please- Please, I'm hungry. I'm hungry and I'm... Scared."

"You're okay, I'm gonna get you out," Lyle promised, approaching Lily. "You're safe now."

"Th-thank you..." Lily broke out. "Thank you!"

Lyle snatched the sack from Lily's head and untied her from the chair, picking her up with both arms. "You're not so heavy... Hey, uh, magic man, where do we go from here?"

"She must be hidden from the enemy until the pieces are pulled into the same area."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You said we have to intercept her, you mind telling us where she'll be?"

"Why, New Rochelle, of course! Enter here-" Ray Robertson made another magical gate, turning another cell doorway into the gateway of an empty park. "-and find her before the Tacitus Kid or the Prime Federation soldiers do."

"The... What?"

Lindsey Sweetwater had never stepped out of her mindless form yet. The Medi-Sin proved to be an infinite but unstable power source, driving her to a non-stop campaign of mayhem and hostility. At this second, she had broke into a basement and took refuge there, resting long enough to regain her energy. But Lady Luck proved to work against her, for the primitive redhead had been spotted lurking suspiciously on the premises, which led to the cops being called- and the reports were flagged by the bigger guns, accounting for the anti-pheno forces serving the mysterious Supervisor and the secretive Prime Federation. It was the latter force that got to the address first, mobilizing four armored vans with well over twenty personnel units taking position on the front, sides and back.

"No kill shots, incapacitate only! We want this one alive!" the leading officer dispatched through the radio. "Use stuns! These freaks can still be dazed by regular devices! On my mark!"

Lindsey opened her eyes, hearing the faint yelling outside of the walls.

"Three!"

She rolled right out of the blue tarp she laid out to sleep on, growling gently.

"Two!"

She sped up the capture operation, bursting right out the door, coming into contact with the opposition. They fired upon her, but she moved too fast, pouncing off the wooden fence, going cannonball on those she saw before leaping over to the backyard over. "GRAUGHH!"

"SHE'S HEADING EASTBOUND, ONE STREET OVER!"

Lindsey knocked a round grill out of her way, aiming to run through the balcony when Gloom made her quick landing from the sky. Lindsey, stop! Here, come! Come with me, Lyle and I will get you out-"

"L-L-Luhhhh... Mmmmggghhhh."

Gloom extended out her hands, welcoming her. "Here, I'll take you away! Hurry, before-"

Lindsey charged at the goth, stampeding like an enraged bull, catching Gloom before she could elude her, ramming her right into the balcony screen. Their combined force shattered the glass, cutting Gloom's skin in multiple places, as opposed to Lindsey who did not appear to have sustained injuries. Furthermore, Lindsey ignored Gloom, galloping out the front window. "WAIT!"

"Lieeeee-uhhhhhl..."

"Y-yes!" Gloom chased Lindsey outside. "Listen, Lyle is here! He's worried-"

"Ferrrr-ehhhnd!" Lindsey ran in a circle, stomping around the front yard, calming herself. "L-Lyle..." She clawed at the grass, creating lined and messy unearthing marks beneath her.

"L-Lindsey, it's okay... We've come for you- He's come back for..." She noticed the transformed Lindsey's demonic features, astonished but sickened by this. We've been looking for a girl but Lyle never said she was- Or did he not know? Was she... Turned into this against her will?

Lindsey finally grasped an understanding of Gloom's nature, calming down. "Lyle?"

"He cares... He cares about you, that's why we've come here."

Lindsey ceased her gnawing at the dirt, inhaled and exhaled repeatedly. She studied Gloom with those pure white orbs with no pupils. Her right hand made a jerk-twitch gesture before it rose up, stretching out to Gloom. And the first round that echoed through, breaking the tense silence, penetrated the winds and into Lindsey's palm. A hole was made after chunks of meat and blood spread out, shocking Gloom and painfully providing hurt to Lindsey for the first time since being exposed to the Medi-Sin formula. "Erghhhhhh!"

"What- No, stop!" Gloom pleaded to the trio of armed individuals. "Stop shooting!"

"MOVE THAT GIRL OUT OF HERE, SECURE THE TARGET!"

Gloom sprung herself into the air before they forced her out of the scene, astonishing them for a fraction of a second. And it was just like back then, when some guy with steel balls and no care in the world had aimed his M60 machine gun to her while she was diving for a kamikaze attack. She grew scared to experience that again, especially when it was possible more today than before. She simply fell into a category that she greatly qualified for, even when she didn't belong in that specific class. She knew that, and she had to be more careful about her lifestyle. The meat-eater that could not rely on her kills to be classified as animal attacks anymore this year and after.

They aimed at her, forcing her more higher, right over their heads. Lindsey had not been taken out just yet, but her newfound bullet wound had given her much to be angry about. She turned to face her attackers and charged at them while they were distracted with Gloom. She knocked them all down with ease before they fired, now proceeding to head down the street. Gloom followed her from the air, soaring after her. "LINDSEY, IT'S THIS WAY!"

Lyle continued his journey, with his special passenger Lily Loud mounted on him, holding tightly. "Keep hanging on! Forgive my-"

"You're fine!" Lily assured. "You're not so bumpy!"

He picked up her scent since five streets ago, determined to intercept and rescue her from whatever trouble she was in. "What a gracious compliment I'd never thought I'd receive!"

"If you get tired, I'll get off, I can still walk-" Albeit Lily wasn't at full strength just yet.

Lindsey crossed a closed-off road currently made busy by a pack of construction workers reinforcing the uneven, cracked pavement on both lanes. She ran through the white barrier, breaking it in two at full force, creating a ruckus to capture the attention of the construction unit currently on break. Gloom made a quick swoop for her, raining down on Lindsey and grabbing hold of her. "GOTCHA!"

"NYAUGHHHHH!" Lindsey resisted with all her might.

"No! You're not escaping me again!" Lindsey threw a back-headbutt, causing injury to Gloom's face, particularly her nose, now bleeding. "Crazy girl!"

Lyle grew closer to the girls' location, still adamant to get to Lindsey, the girl he had sworn he'd protect. I dropped the ball once, but not again!

Now where did I leave Lyle? Gloom gripped the shorter, younger girl, leading back off into the air. The challenges had arrived, beginning with Lindsey's freakishly heavy weight, and then, the faint smell of the blood dripping out of her palm. Gloom locked right onto the smell, her primal nature getting drunk on the flesh and blood. Oh... That's good stuff...

And she gave in without hosting an internal battle over it, sinking her sharp teeth into Lindsey's shoulder gently and trying to do it innocently. "Just a little..."

Lindsey glocked her face with her elbow swung back hard, severing Gloom's hold on her. "OW! LINDSEY!"

Lyle had reached the street the girls were over, looked up to see Lindsey freefalling to earth at fast velocity. "NO!"

Lily didn't recognize Lindsey at first, but the closer the latter had gotten to the ground, she widened her eyes. "One of the other girls..."

"O-other-?" Lyle pointed up. "S-s-s-"

"I can't look!" Lily shielded her eyes, leaving Lyle to handle whatever outcome would be chosen. But he didn't stay on the sidelines to be an observer; Lyle sprinted and tried to align himself to where he thought Lindsey would land, calculating it in a high-stakes gamble to catch her, and he was terrified like no other. He would catch her, or he would not, no due-over. Meanwhile, Gloom realized her slip-up and followed after the falling redhead frantically. The immortal had felt foolishly guilty and like an amateur in front of Lyle, after all the time they had spent in the search for this girl.

Sorry to say that Lyle was distracted with Lindsey while moving into the perfect spot that he tripped on himself, falling right on his back- and Lindsey had kissed the face of the earth just six feet to his left. The search had met its end with a heartbreaking result, when it appeared to have been perfect for a faint second. He had found her, fulfilling his word that he'd keep her safe. But not like this, there was no saving her from this grisly fate.

He stared in disbelief, face flushing of its color. He was mortified, disheartened and left breathless at the gruesome sight of the dead Lindsey, her head cracked open. It was a tragic blow that ensured his staying on the ground. Gloom landed right over the body of the fallen girl, her nose wiggling out of place. The yummy aroma of fresh meat outweighed her sense of humanity, and so it was, written in stone that she'd go and devour the corpse, feasting on Lindsey's shot arm first.

Lyle lifted his arm, but his body worked against him, the sensation that crawled in his arm weakening it, letting it fall. "Lin- Lindsey..."

Gloom bit off at the joint, messily tearing up the fallen girl's arm. She bit through and chewed, consuming the tender flesh with no hassle. She had her attention to the arm, disregarding Lyle and the mission she had agreed to aid him in. She didn't notice his tearing up, his horrid expression and faint whimpering from here.

"Wait-" Lyle pleaded, "give it back to her..."

Gloom licked the stump for the blood, not hearing Lyle.

"Put her back... But my friend back," he said, going in a state of shock. "She needs to go back home, silly girl-"

Her fifth bite. And sirens, getting closer. Patrol car sirens this time, and Gloom had then a grasp of understanding the situation. And she finally made contact with the hurt in Lyle's eyes, his confusion she could see. His inability to comprehend why this was how it happened, why it had to be, and why her. Gloom set the arm at her side and couldn't help but feel remorse and pity for Lyle. "I'm sorry."

"What did you do?" He just had to know. "You- You dropped her. You let-"

The speeding armored van stopped before passing Lyle, and his unwillingness to flee the scene made him an easier grab for the anti-pheno unit to take him without incident. And by then, Gloom soared high with her quick snack, hurrying out of range from the deadly shooters below, not to intervene in his capture.

But he was right; she had dropped Lindsey in the end simply because she was enamored with the essence of flesh. Yet again did Gloom prove to herself she was more a carnivorous entity than a compassionate human being. She had lost her ability to be a civilized individual in the end. This was the end, now and forever. Just the way it's supposed to go...

And Gloom left, letting the unknown force take Lyle away, to do as they pleased. Somewhere, Ray Robertson would be watching, would know that the mark was missed. And Lily, the girl they had freed, was leaving, jogging away from the noisy streets without a clue on where to go. But at least, at the very least, she was out of Dylan Blood's grasp.

All the while, Lyle kept whispering her dear name, stuttering frequently, paralyzed to the core. The girl was dead, and he had greatly failed her. This was... All for nothing.

"When we get out of here, the first thing I wanna do is head back home," she confided in him after months of silence. "And I'll get back to my family and we'll have everyone arrested."

Lyle merely sat in the corner, lopsided against both intersecting walls. "Hopefully so, I would love to return to mines, to see my sister again. I can't help but think... But wonder if they think us-" He zipped up, not trying to be bluntly morbid.

"What, dead?" She surprised him by being aware about such matters. "We're not dead, we won't be when we're back. I... I've figured that they might think so, but we're not... We are still alive..."

He nodded slowly. "We are. We are still alive."

He blinked, head down, eyes connecting to the floor. But his mind was far from earth. We aren't alive anymore... Are we? Are we, Lindsey?