Alright, this chapter got me so excited I just had to do it, because some pretty big stuff happens here.
But most importantly, the plot goes somewhere!
Saying anything else would be a spoiler, so let's go!
Outside the Loud House, Darcy came out of hiding and walked closer to one of the lit windows, taking a peek inside at what was going on.
The Loud siblings were sitting at the couch, staring at the girl who was apparently Lincoln's future daughter, while the Ynovation girls and childhood friends tried to comfort a crying Cristina.
"I should've been the one to have Lincoln's kid! Me!" the redhead whined, stomping the ground. "It was love at first sight! How could someone take this away from me?!"
"Hey, try to look at the bright side!" Clyde remarked. "Maybe she happens to be yours and Lincoln's daughter!"
"Then why are her highlights purple instead of red!?"
"And most importantly," Stella blurted, walking closer to the visitor. "How did she even travel from the future to here?"
"A future," the girl sighed. "I'm not from the future, but a future. You know how time is: it's not so much linear as much as it is a clusterfuck of ever-expanding lines."
"Okay, but the question still stands," Stella narrowed her eyes. "How did you travel back here? Did you get help from a Time Traveler in your time?"
"Nope, I did it myself!" the girl answered proudly. "You see, Edgelord's not the only component of my Cliche; I also have a little bit of Time Traveler!"
"So, Time Traveler, and Edgelord…" Cristina hummed while counting with her fingers, pouting as she glanced between her hands and the girl. "Do you have two Cliches?"
"Why don't you give us the full explanation of who you really are before steam comes out of Cristina's head?" Polly requested.
The visitor nodded, and struck a pose with a wink.
"My name is Rosie Loud, and as I've said before, I'm Lincoln's daughter from the future. My Cliche's Future Child, in case you're curious."
"Future Child?"
"It's a Hybrid Cliche created when someone is born to a set of parents where one has Time Traveler," Tabby answered, taking a step forward. "It mostly works like Time Traveler, with additional traits and powers gained from the other parent's Cliche."
"So that's why she can use powers similar to Edgelord," Lincoln folded his arms. "Because her Cliche is practically half-Edgelord."
"Now the question is who's the mother," Leni remarked.
Everybody faced the Hacker in disbelief, Leni herself looking rather confused at this reaction.
"Leni, who here has Time Traveler besides Tabby?"
Leni began looking around at the girls in the room, quickly looking past her own sisters and onto the former Antagonists...
"Tabby's my Mom!" Rosie yelled.
Leni hummed and scanned the Time Traveler herself. "But she's still in high school. Were you the result of a teen pregnancy?"
Rosie winced, and looked elsewhere while blushing. "I mean, you're not exactly wrong, but-"
"That's not important," Lincoln stated. "What's important's that she must've come back to make her future better, right?"
"Uh-"
"Yeah, now that he mentions it, how even is your future?" Lana asked. "Is it a hellish landscape where only the strongest survive?!"
"What? No, my future's actually fairly similar to this timeline," Rosie answered, waving her hands. "And like I told you before, I'm not from your future, I'm from an alternate future. Whatever happens in this timeline won't affect mine."
"Well, then what's the reason you came here?" Lori asked. "Normally with these kinds of things, the time traveler comes back in order to prevent a bad future from happening, but if that's not the case then what gives?"
Rosie paused, then looked around as she tried to think of something to say… until she caved in:
"I just don't want Lincoln and Darcy to end up together!"
A silence developed in the room while Darcy blushed in disbelief… Until everybody started laughing, causing her to slid back down in relief.
"Dude, Darcy's way too young for Lincoln!" Luna said, wiping off a tear. "She probably only has a small crush on him right now, but it's not gonna lead anywhere!"
"That doesn't mean she can't wait until she's old enough like she did in my timeline!"
The silence returned, with Rosie looking
"Wait," Cristina raised an eyebrow. "What did she do?"
The time traveler took a deep breath and explained:
"When I became a teenager, Dad got a visit from Darcy, who was now old enough to be considered a legal adult. She tried to set things off with Lincoln, try to become a second wife basically, but things… didn't go well."
Everybody became silent as they connected the dots, with any feelings they had towards Rosie becoming sympathetic and concerned.
"So…. What happened next?" Lincoln asked.
"I don't… really feel comfortable talking about it in front of so many people," Rosie answered, avoiding eye contact with Lincoln. "Could I speak with you and Mom in private?"
Lincoln exchanged looks with Tabby, and once everybody else nodded, they went with Rosie to the backyard to talk alone.
And just in time too, since both Lynn and Lola
"Damn it!" Lynn groaned as she got up. "Lori, I need you to teleport us to Mr. Grouse right now!"
"There's a riot at the Detention Center he's working at!" Lola added.
Lori took a deep, weary breath. "You haven't even been gone for five minutes and already there's a riot. Alright, let's go."
"We're coming with you."
The trio turned around, and saw the former Antagonists walking to them, led by Stella.
"Is that really such a good idea?" Lynn asked. "You guys are Neutrals now."
"But we're also Former Antagonists," Stella pointed out. "We both know how the world works, Lynn: if we give the Index Council any reason to believe we haven't changed, they'll demote us back down to Antagonists like nothing happened. Now let's get going."
Lynn paused for a moment, then turned to Lori and nodded.
With no time left to lose, the group clung to Lori and she teleported shortly after, just in time for Lynn and Lola to smack some inmates off Mr. Grouse's back.
"About time you arrived!" Mr. Grouse. "These malcreants somehow left their cells!"
"Must be a bug in the system," Lynn remarked. "Stella, you and your group can go to Cyberspace and see if there are any bugs?"
The Demon Lord nodded, and Girl Jordan promptly opened a portal to Cyberspace, with Mollie summoning an energy sword while the rest got ready to go through.
"Cookie, stay here," Lori instructed. "If there are any wounded, they're gonna need your healing abilities."
The brunette nodded and stood back as the rest of her friends went through the portal, which closed as the group ran to contain the riot.
"The Head of Detention is gonna get such an earful from Lisa when this reaches her," Lori sighed as she prepared to teleport back home. "It's his job to ensure these things don't happen, after all…"
The Head of Termination stood above a muscular man with blonde hair, a slashed chest wound bleeding profusely as he looked up.
"I'm very sorry for this, Head of Detention…"
The HoD walked out of the shadows, revealing herself as a woman with tanned skin and brown hair, wearing a black cloak with matching spiked boots.
Specifically, a spiked underside that the Head of Detention got a good look at as she prepared to stomp on him.
"But I can't let you jeopardize the beginning of a brand new world."
*STOMP!*
"I… lied about everything being okay in the future."
Those words were the first thing Rosie told Lincoln and Tabby, who listened clearly as she continued:
"For the most part, things are fine. But when it comes to smaller, more personal things, they… they could be better, to say the least."
Tabby scratched her chin. "What happened to your version of us?"
"Well, to say what happened requires me to tell you of a great disaster that might strike this timeline as well," Rosie answered. "Do you want to listen regardless?"
The White-Purple pair flinched… then nodded.
"Alright then. So, in the future, the actions Mom and her friends did as Ynovation are finally discovered, and as a result," Rosie frowned. "The Index System marks them as Mavericks."
"Tsk, of course they would," Tabby put a hand on her cheek. "We knew the danger going in, but somebody still needed to try to innovate."
"Was my future self marked a Maverick, too?" Lincoln asked. "If Ynovation was discovered, that can only mean my connection to them was found out too, right?"
"Yeah, but before they could decide what to do with you," Rosie twiddled her thumbs. "That's when… it happened: a massive attack by many Antagonists struck not only the Index System, but all of Royal Woods."
"No, you mean the people who are mistreated by the system eventually decided enough was enough and fought back?" Tabby rolled her eyes. "Color me surprised. Although, were they alone?"
Rosie shook her head. "Not only did they have rebuilt versions of the Trainerbots that were discontinued a long time ago, but all the Antagonists seemed to possess a variety of powers unrelated to their Cliches. So, as you can imagine, they went fairly unopposed."
"An army of robots, and people with both a bone to pick and multiple powers to cause chaos…" Lincoln hummed. "That's… disconcerting."
"Indeed it is, though not as bad as what I've observed in this timeline."
Lincoln raised an eyebrow.
"Things in this particular timeline have been happening faster than on my own. For example, Lincoln becoming an Outsider wasn't supposed to happen until he was in college, and the Ynovation, childhood friends, and former Antagonists weren't supposed to join forces until two years after Lincoln became an Outsider."
"And if what you said is true," Lincoln hummed. "You think this Antagonist Revolution or whatever is gonna happen sooner too?"
"Even if that's not the case, I still have to help you. Dad didn't manage to perfect his use of Edgelord despite unlocking its full potential, so when the end of the Index System came and he had to fight powered up Antagonists, he couldn't keep up."
Rosie grabbed Lincoln's hand with both of her own.
"I'm here to avert that. To help you reach your full potential and perfect Edgelord before that event comes to fruition. It's too late for my timeline-"
"Don't say that."
The duo turned to see Tabby adjusting her goggles, saying:
"Just because you traveled here doesn't mean you can't go back to your own time. And when you do, we're coming along."
"Wait, what?!" Rosie separated from Lincoln and waved her hands. "You don't have to do that! I already told you that whatever happens here-"
"Won't affect your timeline, yes, we know," Tabby smiled. "But given how you said things aren't as good as you claimed they were, that means you're gonna need help when you go back. And since you're technically our daughter, you're our responsibility now."
Tabby winked at Lincoln. "Right, Lincoln?"
"Well, while I definitely feel like we should talk about this more," Lincoln turned to his future daughter and smiled. "I think the least we can do is give you a place to stay while you're on this timeline. I just hope Mom and Dad don't get the wrong idea."
"Speaking of them," Rosie hummed. "Where are they?"
"They had to go on a business trip to Scotland," Lincoln casually explained. "Something about Dad having to assume the throne of a tiny Duchy called Loch Loud or something. They'll be gone for a while, so don't worry."
"R… Right…" Rosie snapped her fingers. "Oh! One more thing, before I forget: whatever you do, don't pursue a romantic relationship with Darcy. And don't even give her hints that you might reciprocate her crush."
"Again with Darcy's supposed crush on me?" Lincoln sighed. "Actually, while we're at it, does Darcy have anything to do with the future?"
"Yeah, now that I think about it," Tabby turned back to her daughter. "Tensions between Lincoln and Darcy aren't the only reason you're worried about her, right?"
Rosie paused, and clasped her hands as she tried to speak:
"Well, how do I put this? Darcy… is among the Antagonists in the revolution. Not as an Antagonist, of course, but as an Outsider."
"So it's not made entirely of Antagonists," Lincoln grimaced.
"Not only that, but the leader of the Antagonist Revolution has a connection to Darcy…"
"And who's the leader?" Tabby asked bluntly. "If the manga I've read is anything to go by, the identity of the leader must be some big, world-shaking revelation, right?"
"...Ever heard of the first person to ever get a Cliche? She was a woman who, upon reaching her adulthood, stopped aging altogether. Not only that, but she could no longer get sick. In essence, she couldn't die by natural means. And everybody pretty much agrees that if she were to see the Index System, she would disapprove of it."
"Which means, if she took good enough care of herself," Lincoln folded his arms. "She could've lasted long enough to spearhead the attack?"
Rosie silently nodded.
"So the First User returned from obscurity to lead an attack against the Index System in order to tear down the corrupt system she rejected," Tabby recapped. "It all checks out so far… except for one thing."
Rosie blinked. "And that is?"
"What is Darcy's connection to the first User?"
"She's my mother."
The trio got off their seats and turned around, ready to attack… until they saw Darcy enter the backyard, looking slightly regretful.
"What?"
"You heard me right. My Mom…" Darcy sighed. "She happens to be the first person to ever get a Cliche."
