I'm so sorry for spamming this story instead of my other works. I'll make it up to you all, I promise. :(
At Lincoln's bedroom, the unconscious guy laid on his bed, lightly snoring as Luna tucked him in before leaving his bedroom, where the other sisters-and Rosie-stood outside, waiting for news.
"Okay, so, he doesn't seem to have been hurt by the strike from Cyan, he's simply fallen asleep. I think the main reason's because of Over the Edge, but for now, we can rest assured that his life's not in danger."
The sisters sighed in relief, Rosie chief among them. "Thank goodness, I was worried he might've gotten hurt."
"I wouldn't stop worrying if I were you."
Rosie raised an eyebrow, but before she could say anything, Luna appeared right in front of her, eyes shining with rage.
"You still need to be punished for driving Lincoln up a wall like that, after all."
"Cut her some slack, Luna."
The superheroine was grabbed and pulled back by Lori, who held her tightly as she stared at her with disapproval.
"Aunt Lori!" Rosie chirped with glimmering eyes.
"It's not her fault she inheritted Lincoln's bad track record with thinking things through."
"Aunt Lori..." Rosie moped.
"Besides, you need to remember that she's mostly working using knowledge from her timeline alone," Lori continued. "We still have yet to find out how much our timeline differs from hers, so it's only natural that she might have an error of judgement once in a while."
"This "error of judgement" could've gotten Lincoln killed!" Luna snapped, stomping the ground. "The only reason he was beaten was because Cyan popped out of nowhere! I mean, what were we going to do if she wasn't there?! I alone couldn't beat him and he was actually keeping up with me!"
Lori lowered her eyelids. "You were holding back, weren't you?"
"OF COURSE I WAS HOLDING BACK!" Luna yelled. "You know how strong I am! If I didn't watch how much power I was using, I could've easily killed him!"
"That's not what I mean," Lori folded her arms. "You were holding back even after it was clear that Lincoln needed to be beaten up, weren't you?"
Luna flinched and took a step back, looking elsewhere as the eldest sister continued:
"You've always been terrified of the full extent of your power, and always made sure to hold back even when the situation called for you to go all out. But a part of me tells me that it's not quite simple."
Lori wiped some blood off Luna's nose, showing her bloodied fingertip to the superhero as she added:
"I'm guessing you got the nosebleed because of one of Lincoln's attacks. Normally, you have incredible resistance and resilience; the sort that would require someone incredibly powerful to damage you. But nowadays, such power rarely appears, let alone has the potential to become a long-term threat, allowing you to grow arrogant at the belief that you might as well be the most powerful person in the room."
Lori wiped the blood off her finger and finished:
"Because of this, anytime you meet anybody or anything that can actually hurt you, you flinch. You panic. You grow weary. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is..."
Lori narrowed her eyes. "You're scared of Lincoln's new power, aren't you?"
Luna looked absolutely shocked, right before she shook her head and stomped away.
"I'm gonna go check up on Cyan!"
And with that, the superhero went downstairs, leaving the sisters behind. Lori took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead.
"Typical of Luna, retreating when her pride is hurt."
"Has Aunt Luna always been this prideful?" Rosie inquired. "I remember my Aunt Luna being at least somewhat more humble-"
"Kid, how much longer are you going to act like this timeline is bound to become your own?" Lori asked. "I know you come from the future, but I think it's clear as crystal that this timeline is vastly different from yours."
"I know... I know..." Rosie frowned and lowered her head. "It's just... the more divergences I see, the more I feel like I might've traveled to a different dimension instead of a different time. And if that happened somehow... I may not be able to return to my time."
Lynn raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Future Child is a combination of one Cliche and Time Traveler, a Cliche that only allows the user to travel through time," Rosie explained. "Traveling across the multiverse is not supposed to be possible for someone other than a Dimension Traveler. But if I really did end up in a different dimension, then that means even if I travel through time, I'd only be going through the time of that dimension, rather my home one."
"Meaning," Lola blurted. "You're stuck here?"
Rosie lowered her head and sighed, prompting Leni to pet her head.
"We can, like, talk about that another time. For now, we should totes go check up on Luna and Cyan, see if they're okay."
And so, the sisters joined Leni and Rosie downstairs, Lori taking one last look at the room to her brother's bedroom before she joined them.
As for Lincoln, he soon found himself awakening in the middle of a giant void, essentially floating in the middle of nowhere as he looked around in hopes of finding another living creature with him.
"Where... am I?"
"Ah, you're finally awake."
The guy turned around, and a sphere of white light materialized before taking on a humanoid form: this one resembling Lincoln, but with some spikier hair that covered his right eye.
"So, this is the guy who tried to reach On the Edge at his current level? Tsk, how unfortunate."
Lincoln blinked. "Who are you? And why do you look like me?"
"Who am I? Why, I'm just the humble source of your power," the lookalike lowered his eyelids. "Or Cliche, as your people now claim it to be."
Lincoln raised an eyebrow.
"I know, that's too vague an answer, but I really don't have the liberty of telling you everything you need to know right now," the lookalike shrugged. "After all, you just got a little taste of the true power of an Edgelord. If I were to bombard you with all the information you're supposed to know about the Cliche... well, that wouldn't do us any good, would it?"
Lincoln paused to process the information... then nodded.
"Call me Edgelord. As for why I look like this, that's simple; it's customary for me and my fellow Archetypes to take the form of whoever it is that currently wields the same power we used to have," Edgelord answered plainly. "But that's not all; as you can see, I look similar, but there are notable differences. There's a reason for this: For you see, my current form..."
Edgelord pointed at Lincoln.
"Is the form you'll have at your disposal once you become a True Edgelord."
"A... True Edgelord?" Lincoln scoffed. "So what, do I have to start writing cringy haikus and act like "life is pain" and other melodramatic stuff?"
"No, that's Poet's, Nihilism's and Drama Queen's things," Edgelord answered plainly. "What you need to do is grow stronger until the point where you can assimilate the full power of Edgelord without going Over the Edge as a result. Only when you can access On the Edge, can you consider yourself a True Edgelord, just like your potential daughter."
"Potential daughter?"
"Multiverse theory's a bitch," Edgelord chuckled. "Anyway, I believe that's all I can tell you right now without blowing up your mind. So, time to wake up, sleeping beauty."
Edgelord prepared to snap his fingers, and as soon as he did, Lincoln woke up back at his room, breathing heavily as he looked around to find himself alone again... except for his future daughter.
"I'm glad you're awake, Dad," Rosie sighed. "After the beating you got from Luna and Cyan, and getting stuck Over the Edge, I was worried that..."
But the girl couldn't finish her sentence, instead looking away with shame. Lincoln understood her concern, and patted her head.
"You were just trying to help using the information you had. If anything, I should've been more careful not to go overboard," Lincoln flashed a smile. "Don't worry, we'll keep practicing until I'm strong enough to not go Over the Edge... though until then, there's something I'd like to ask you."
"What a coincidence, so do I," Rosie giggled. "What do you need to know?"
"While I was unconscious, I wound up on this black void with only a lookalike of me as my only company, and he claimed to be the source of my power, and his form the one I'll take once I become a "True Edgelord" like you," Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "He also called himself an Archetype... do you have any idea what that means?"
Rosie's eyes widened in shock, but she quickly regained her composure and scratched her chin. "It might be something worth looking into... but it might be a little hard to believe."
Lincoln rolled his eyes. "We live in a world with superpowers literally called Cliches, how hard could it-"
But before he could finish, Rosie shot an annoyed look at him.
"Sorry, it escaped me. But anyway, do you know anything about this?"
"I might, but before I tell you about it, can you answer my question?" Rosie replied. "I feel like after explaining what all of that means, you'll be too tired to give me the answers I need."
"... Okay, sure, sounds fair," Lincoln shrugged. "What do you wanna ask?"
"Downstairs, alongside my your sisters, Aunt Maggie and Greataunt... what was Aunt Cristina's caretaker's name again? Anyway, they showed up, spoke with everybody for a bit... and this caused them to mention something that caught my eye. Something related to you and Aunt Cristina."
Lincoln had a bad feeling about this.
"So, the question is... Dad, what's Virgin Sacrifice?"
