I wanted to add Giggles somewhere on this chapter, I really, really did. Alas, I need to try and stay focused on the plot, so that's what we're gonna do. Don't worry, Giggles will be important eventually.

I hope.

Another day, another calm atmosphere surrounded the household of sisters Haiku and Maggie, the latter reading a book while the former walked down the stairs, backpack in her back.

"Maggie, I'm gonna go out to school now," Haiku told her sister. "Lunch is in the fridge, you just gotta reheat it and serve it, alright?"

"Mhm."

Maggie's eyes were glued to her book, the True Succubus flipping the page as her sister stared at her for a moment, then walked to her, putting the book down as she asked:

"Maggie, is something wrong?"

"Huh?! What?!" the True Succubus flinched and shook her head. "N-N-No! Nothing's wrong! Nothing-nothing at all!"

Haiku frowned directly at Maggie's eyes, causing her sister to look away, while she put her hand on her cheek and said:

"Maggie, I know you: you're fairly provocative and, no offense, a bit of a scatterbrain, but you're also pretty happy-go-lucky. For you to be worried about something, it must be something really troubling, and that worries me."

Haiku grabbed Maggie's hand. "I'm here for you, Maggie. If you have something that worries you, then you can tell me what it is. I'll hear you out, and I'll help you to the best of my ability."

Maggie turned back to her sister, who flashed a reassuring smile at her. Feeling a sense of relief at seeing her, Maggie took a deep breath and blushed while stating:

"It's... about Lincoln..."

"And so, that's what happened."

Cristina finished recapping the mall incident to another member of Ynovation, Polly Pain, who stared at her with complete and utter shock before sipping her tea and sighing:

"Well, shit, that's... really rough. And kinda baffling. I mean, if I had gone through half the crap Stella put you through, I never would've spoken with her again."

"Truth be told, I never really did," Cristina confessed. "It was Lincoln who decided to look for Stella and try to make things cool with her."

"I take it that's the thing that caused her to be "promoted" to a normal Antagonist, right?" Polly sighed. "Geez, if that's what she did, what the hell did the other Former Antagonists do?"

"You can say that again," Cristina giggled. "Then again, considering how the world seems to work nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised if some of their "evil actions" were nothing more than minor things bloated and exageratted to make them seem like the worst."

Polly paused. "Seriously, though, Lincoln must have the patience and benevolence of a saint to actually forgive Stella after what she did."

"Who said anything about forgiveness?"

The Monkey King-ish girl processed the remark then turned around, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Isn't that what Lincoln did after everything went down? I mean, he seems like a very nice and forgiving guy-"

"Then you really don't know him like I do," Cristina giggled. "No, after what happened and Luna dealt with the supervillain, Lincoln... he didn't take it well. He kept to himself for quite a while, even I couldn't get him to come out and hang out with me like he used to do. It took him a long time to finally get out, but once he did, the first thing he did was find Stella and set things straight with her."

Polly paused. "Which means?"

"They talked things out, and came to realize that Stella felt terrible about the whole deal," Cristina explained calmly. "Now, if she had shown no true remorse for what happened, Lincoln would've never spoken with her again, I believe. No, they simply kept their distance"

"And what did you do?" Polly folded her arms. "I mean, your chastity was taken as well, surely if Lincoln took it pretty badly, you didn't take it much better, did you?"

Cristina took a deep breath, twiddling her fingers as she tried to figure out what to say, and once she did, she stated:

"No, I... I guess I did not."

"Crystal eyes?"

Tabby blurted that question while having lunch with Rosie, her alternate future daughter with Lincoln, who eagerly ate her sandwich before continuing:

"Yeah, it took me a little while to remember because of all the chaos that's been happening recently, but you look incredibly different from my mother. Like you're not double my size, you don't have crystalline eyes, and you don't go around floating everywhere with clocks floating around you."

"Well, I'm still just a teenager," Tabby said with slight confidence. "Some of the things you mentioned only happen when time travelers gain better control over their powers... though the crystal eyes still throw me off."

"Why, though?" Rosie tilted her head. "In my future, people have even weirder physical attributes than crystal eyes."

"It's not that I think it's weird, it's that, by the logic of the Index system, I shouldn't even have any physical changes," Tabby folded her arms and hummed. "Crystal eyes is something that should only apply to somebody with a Cliche that deals with crystals or-"

Then, Tabby got an idea. "Rosie, tell me, what's Haiku like in your future?"

"Aunt Haiku? Hmm," the child from the future scratched her chin. "I can't say we meet often, but when we do, she seems to be fairly calm and nice. Why are you asking about her, though?"

Tabby leaned back and scratched her chin, looking visibly concerned as Rosie took a sip of her drink and giggled:

"Hey, Mom, you don't think that Dad cheated on you, did he? Because I don't wanna be disrespectful, but that's dumb: My Cliche is only possible by mixing a Cliche with Time Traveler, which you have, and Aunt Haiku doesn't. If Dad did cheat on you, I wouldn't be able to travel through time, would I?"

However, this didn't stop Tabby from looking concerned, and so she tented her fingers and stated:

"Rosie, what I'll suggest next might make you think I have a screw loose, but after telling me about this fusion gig, I think it might have some basis. Will you be willing to hear me out?"

"Sure," Rosie leaned back against her chair. "Give it to me straight, Mom."

Tabby took a deep breath, and paused before asking:

"What if... you had multiple mothers? As in, your mother wasn't just me... but a fusion where I was a part of it?"