ATWN: Chapter 17

Meanwhile, as Eddy dashed off to find his friends to tell them about his exciting news, we could see Lily sitting on a bench located by the entrance to the fairground. She was currently thinking about what Ben and Hazel told her and Eddy earlier, revealing to her that the nightmares she was having were visions from the past (as well as the other things they said about her past self being royalty from the fantasy world they came from).

'It's good to finally know what those dreams were about; that they were not visions of the future like I thought. Eddy was the one having those… I feel kind of bad for him,' Lily thought to herself, 'I could barely make out most of mine, but the ones I could remember clearly were all about Double D. I thought that some of the dreams I was having were just me remembering a few episodes I watched already; that's until I started seeing him around a lot of fire before it became clearer,' she closed her eyes, 'But why? Why were all those visions about Double D and the things that happened to him?! I don't understand what it's trying to tell me!'

Suddenly, Lily could feel herself being lifted from the bench by her shirt collar. Her eyes snapped open in surprise to see Marie was now in front of her, she had a peeved look on her face, "Nice to see you're finally alone. I need to talk to you about something; Girl-to-Girl, Rival-to-Rival!"

Lily could only stare at Marie before narrowing her eyes slightly; she had a feeling she knew what Marie wanted to talk about, "Gladly, but you don't need to ask me like this. Please put me down."

Marie growled a little before complying with Lily, sitting her feet back down on the ground.

The two girls stood there for a moment, with only one of them glaring at the other, "Now, I know you and your friends were keeping the 'different world' thing a secret, and probably a bunch of other stuff too!" Marie started to say as she could feel her hand begin to curl up into a fist, "What else have you all been hiding? Like the little girl that Double D was crying over… I wanna know what's up with that!"

Lily remained silent to Marie; she was not expecting THAT to be the first question she would ask, "You don't need to worry. Double D will give everyone an update on that when he's ready to talk," Lily replied.

"That's not good enough!" Marie barked. She got up to Lily's face once more to grab her by her shirt collar again, "Also! I want you to be honest with me about Double D; what IS he to you?!"

'THERE'S the question I thought she would ask first,' Lily thought before replying, "Listen, I know you like him; I've known that for a very long time because of the show," she glanced away, not trying to look at Marie directly, "When my friends and I crossed over here from our world, I didn't expect something like this to happen at all between me and him… I-I didn't even know he was real; that he existed at all until I met him!"

Lily then looked back at Marie, "I don't blame you at all for hating me because of this," she grabbed Marie's wrist from the hand that was holding her by her shirt collar, "Honestly, if you started to act a bit nicer to him over time, I could have seen you two become a really cute couple," Lily looked at Marie in sadness, "I-I really am sorry about this, Marie. I want him to be happy, and I know you want that for him too, right? S-So… Maybe you should try to be friends with us instead and start from scratch? I can try to talk to him about it if you want me to, and I'm not going to stop you if that's what you want to do to stay near him… I-I just wanted you to know that I won't judge you."

Marie could only glare at Lily before her words finally got through to her; Marie could tell she was not lying about her feelings, but… Lily felt bad for her. A Kanker?! Marie's eyes widened as she pushed Lily away from her, letting her out of her grip. Marie started to slowly back away from her before running off in the other direction, leaving Lily standing there where she pushed her.

Lily made a sigh at what happened, 'That… went so much better than I expected. I just hope Marie feels better about this eventually… Hopefully sooner rather than later.'

She could feel her hands shaking a little before finally calming down, "I-I feel like need some water," Lily stated, closing her eyes for a moment before looking around to see where the concession stands were located again.

Lily began to walk off, not noticing that someone was watching her from the shadows; one of Ultima's shadow clones could be seen nearby on the ground as a small lump, hiding easily to sneak around like this.

"My dear Lilith, you are still so young…" Ultima stated to himself, sighing a little, "I remember how beautiful you used to be when we fought against each other all those years ago! Oh, how I wish you could go back to how you were…"

The lump of darkness stayed silent before he started laughing, "Or maybe there IS something I can do! I just need to get to work on it… Hahaha, what a wonderful idea!" Ultima stated before disappearing.

Meanwhile, back with Double D and Lynn, the two of them were sitting in Eddy's brother's trailer, still conversing on things like what they had been doing while they were separated, as well as their likes, dislikes, and hobbies.

Suddenly, the two could hear a loud knock at the door before it opened, "Hey, Double D!" Eddy stated with a happy tone as he walked inside the trailer with Ed behind him, "I gotta tell you something!"

"Eddy, I thought I asked you two to not interrupt us…" Double D started to say before making a sigh and a smile, "Though it did take you a lot longer than I expected to barge in here."

"Geez, sorry for having good news of my own for once!" Eddy retorted with a small huff.

"Eddy dragged me here by my jacket!" Ed stated to Double D with a small laugh, "Not sure what that was about, but now we're here!"

Double D could only smile at his two friends, "Indeed…" he glanced to Lynn beside him before turning back to his friends, "Ed, Eddy… There's something you two need to know about."

"About dang time!" Eddy grumbled to himself as he and Ed closed the door to the trailer behind them, "Come on, you gotta tell us what you've been hiding from us, Sockhead!"

Double D was silent to that remark before taking in a deep breath, "Do you two remember when we first met four years ago? That I had moved to Peach Creek from another town, right?"

Ed nodded his head, "Yeah?"

"I… never told you two why I moved to Peach Creek, to begin with," Double D started to say, gesturing to Lynn beside him, "This is Evelyn, my…"

He paused for a second, still hesitant about saying anything else before he felt Lynn put her hand on his shoulder, "You got this, big brother!" she whispered to him.

Double D nodded his head to her as he took out a pair of fluffy earmuffs from his pocket, handing them to her, "Put these on for a moment, trust me."

Lynn did as she was told, putting on earmuffs as Double D glanced at his friends. We zoomed out of the trailer for a split moment as Double D revealed who this girl was to them.

"WHAAAT?!" Both Ed and Eddy screamed at their hat-wearing friend, making the whale-shaped trailer they were in jump a little in the air like an explosion went off.

"Are you being freaking serious right now?!" Eddy continued to yell, "Why didn't you TELL us you have a sister?!"

Lynn started to form swirls in her eyes from the loud yells while Double D remained unfazed, Lynn was not used to how loud his friends could be, even with earmuffs on.

"I had a very good reason," Double D continued to explain, taking the earmuffs off Lynn before proceeding, "You see, a month before I moved to Peach Creek, I used to live in Lemon Brook with my family—"

"Wait, LEMON BROOK?!" Eddy exclaimed with shock, "THAT'S where you used to live?! In that town with the dumb school that beat me up after the football game?!"

"Yes, that's my hometown," Double D replied, "Anyway, my family and I were out in town for the day, and when we finally returned home… Our house had somehow caught on fire."

"A fire?" Ed questioned in a worried tone.

Double D nodded his head, "The fire department was already there when we arrived, trying to put out the fire," he turned to Lynn, looking at her with sadness, "I then saw Lynn running towards our house, she had snuck pass everyone before bolting to it to save something inside. I was the only one who saw her run in, so I went after her; not even thinking of telling anyone that she went inside beforehand…"

Ed and Eddy could see their friend start to tremble slightly, "That's when the house collapsed on top of us; or just on top of me. You two know about the burn scar on my forehead, correct? It's always covered by my hat… Well, n-now you know how I got it…" he paused for a second before continuing, "I thought Lynn died that night, but now I know that's not the case; she had wandered away after going in there before someone found her, leaving her at an orphanage here. She's been there ever since, a-and I didn't know until today… I-I was very overwhelmed when Lily told me she was alive."

Double D could feel himself being picked up into one of Ed's trademarked Ed-Hugs, "Double D!" He sobbed to his friend in sadness.

Eddy could only stand there in shock from his friend's story, not exactly knowing what to say to him, 'Whoa… so that's where his scar came from?' Another thought crossed Eddy's mind at something, 'Wait a sec, Double D told Lily this already, but not the two of us? His best friends?! What the heck is up with that?!'

Ed then lets Double D out of his hug, sitting him back down next to Lynn, "I-I'm sorry that I never told you two about what happened," Double D stated with sadness, "I wanted to forget that day so many times; trying to forget how much I failed to help Lynn… Always trying to hide how scarred I was from it…"

He then felt Lynn pull him into another smaller hug, "Don't worry! It's gonna be okay now, big brother!" she said to Double D.

"I-I know… Thank you, Lynn."

Double D felt a hand on his shoulder, he saw Eddy standing next to him, "Seems like everyone had some bad memories to talk about today, huh? At least this one had a happy ending."

Double D looked at Eddy with both confusion and concern from what he said but decided to not question it right now.

"Anyway, I got some really good news to tell you!" Eddy chirped with a big, happy smile, trying to change to subject, "I finally scored myself a girlfriend! Amelia even kissed me! My first one that wasn't from a Kanker!"

Double D widened his eyes in surprise as he remembered his conversation with Lily on the night before the disastrous scam, where he confessed how he felt about her before she went back home, 'I guess that explains Eddy's drastic change in attitude recently. I don't know how I didn't put that together.'

"Oh my, t-that's wonderful to hear!" Double D replied with a slight bit of nervousness before making a smile to Eddy, "I'm very happy for you and Amelia."

Ed clasped his hands together, "D'aww! That's so cute!"

"W-What do you mean cute?" Eddy replied to Ed with a small blush on his face, trying to pass off the statement Ed said, "It's just something that happened!" he looked away a little in embarrassment, "Honestly, I had no clue she felt the same way about me. Evan was the one who gave me the heads up on how she felt."

"Uh… Evan?"

"Oh, my Bro's name is Evan… Did I not ever say that?"

"Nope!" Ed replied.

"… Oh, well now you know!"

Double D could only sigh at his friend's behavior, now feeling relieved that he told them about Lynn and who she was. But now he needed to tell everyone else what he told his friends.

Lynn looked up at her brother, making a big smile to him, "Your friends are funny."

Double D looked at Lynn before chuckling at her, "I hope you get along with them and with everyone else."

Lynn nodded her head, "I'll do my best!"

Another thirty minutes passed by at the fairgrounds. We could see everyone starting to gather back at the tent by the beach; the Eds asked for everyone to go there to see Double D. He was finally going to tell everyone about who Lynn was to them; or at least the bare minimum of what they needed to know.

"Oh dear, I'm feeling nervous again…" Double D muttered to himself before everyone arrived, clutching his right arm with nervousness.

He could feel Lily lean on his shoulder and arm as she held his right hand, "You got this!"

Double D stared at her before making a small smile at her, nodding his head. It was about a minute later that everyone was grouped back up, including the six older teens from before; they were curious to know what the hubbub was about so suddenly. Double D stood in front of everyone with Lynn beside him, as well as Ed and Eddy. Lily was standing further away with Amelia and Naomi instead of being beside Double D.

"I-I'm sorry for making you all worry earlier," Double D started to say to everyone, "I was, umm, a bit overwhelmed by something at that moment," he glanced to Lynn beside him, "This is Evelyn… She's my little sister."

There was a very small pause before their crowd of neighbors yelped out in surprise and shock at the news, while the six new teens seemed a bit confused. It was then that Double D explained why he never told them about her; that he thought she had passed away during an accident when their house caught on fire four years ago in a different town. Even after explaining the story, Double D did not tell his neighbors about the scar under his beanie. Despite feeling better after he told Lily and his two friends about his scar, he was still being insecure about it; on what other people would say or think.

"… I didn't have the heart to say anything about why I moved to Peach Creek. I just wanted to forget it happened," Double D finished explaining, glancing away from everyone afterward.

"… I see now, that's really interesting to hear."

Everyone turned their attention to the six new teens, "It's extremely rare for folks from the other two worlds to have any sort of magical abilities that are not inherited," Hazel explained to them, "Your story helped confirm my suspicions that your sister has the element of fire for her to wield, or at least have some sort of natural resistance to it," she then turned to Naomi's brother, "I also noticed you have magic as well, of the earth element."

"… Huh? Me?" Carter questioned, pointing to himself in confusion from her statement.

Hazel nodded her head, "I don't want to put you two in immediate danger or under any pressure since you're both so young, but we might also need your help with what we need to accomplish; maybe as a backup team or sorts."

Lynn made a small gasp, "Does that mean I can go with my brother and his friends on their epic quest?!" she asked.

"Lynn, NO!" Double D yelped with horror to his sister, catching everyone off guard, "I-I don't want you to be in danger again!"

Lynn looked at her brother with a sad face, "But—!"

Double D felt Lily's hand on his shoulder, "Listen, it's okay," she started to say to him, "Lynn can come with us if she wants. ALL of us will protect her; just like how we'll all protect each other, okay?"

Double D stared at Lily before making a reluctant sigh, "I-I suppose…" he stated before closing his eyes to contemplate, 'Honestly, she might have to come with us after all…' he scrunched his face a little in sadness, 'Mother and Father are not coming back, and I don't want her to be alone again.'

Double D opened his eyes as he turned back to the crowd to look at them, "I'm sorry for shouting like that…"

"It's okay, Eddward," Ben stated to him, "You were just reunited, so it makes sense."

Some of their neighbors began to walk over to them to properly say hello to both Lynn and Carter. Sarah and Jimmy were the first to come forward to chat with them, seeing that they were all in the same age group, "It's nice to meet you two!" Jimmy cheered with a smile, "We should all hang out sometime!" Sarah stated.

The rest of the neighbors (minus the sisters) went up to the two preteens, all of them introducing themselves to them.

"So, you're Double D's sister, huh?" Nazz asked Lynn before chuckling, "It's kinda funny how I can see the resemblance between you two."

"Really? You can?" Lynn questioned.

Nazz nodded her head, "Yeah, but it's a little weird. I had no idea he was a blondie. He wears his beanie every time we see him… I guess he always has his hair tucked underneath it."

"Kinda makes you wonder what he's really hiding there, but it's not any of our business," Kevin stated with a shrug of his shoulders.

Jonny had Plank up to his ear for a second, "Oh gosh, that's a good question!" he turned to Lynn with a bit of worry, "Those weird teens said you have fire magic… Do you know how to use it? If so, please don't use it on Plank!"

Lynn widened her eyes, "Umm, don't worry! I don't know how to use it, and I would never want to hurt anyone with it!" she replied.

Jonny made a sigh of relief at that.

Rolf began to scratch his chin, thinking about something that was bothering him, "Rolf knows The-Ed-Boys need to be punished for their crimes…" he started to say as he turned to Kevin and Nazz, "But if The-Ed-Boys have to leave for a quest, Rolf thinks we should hold off on punishments until The-Ed-Boy's Quest is done!"

Kevin could only make an irritated growl, knowing that Rolf was right, "Yeah, I get it. It also gives us time to figure out what would be a good punishment for them when they get back! They can't get off the hook that easily."

Both Lynn and Carter looked at the teens in confusion, "What happened to make you all hate them so much?" Carter asked.

The four teens looked at the preteens with a bit of silence.

"Hate is a pretty strong word to use for them, honestly," Nazz replied to him, "I would say they are not on our good side right now, but I don't really hate them."

"HUH?" Kevin questioned her in disbelief, "But they messed up your hair; you gotta wear a bandanna now because of it! Isn't it gonna take months to grow it back to normal?!"

"Oh, I know that!" Nazz stated to Kevin before making a sigh, "Listen, I know it was their fault, but I could also tell it was an accident," she gave him a small glare, "I don't think any of them would go that far to actually hurt us as they did that day. You know this, right?"

Kevin made an irritated sigh, "Yeah, but…" he shook his head from side to side, "Ah, let's not think about it right now."

Meanwhile, a little further away, the Kanker Sister watched everyone around them talking to each other like nothing bad had happened.

"Wow, guess the kids are a lot more forgiving than I thought," May muttered before scratching the side of her head in confusion, "Wonder what's up with that?"

"Who cares! All that matters is that our boyfriends are safe!" Lee stated with a hint of pride before turning to her two sisters, "Come on, let's go get them!"

Both May and Lee began to walk off until they noticed Marie did not follow them; she seemed a bit quiet, "Hey, Marie! Do your ears not work anymore or something?!" Lee asked.

"You guys go on ahead," Marie replied to her sisters, looking away from them like she was distracted, "I got something I wanna do first."

May and Lee looked at Marie in confusion, "You got a stomachache?" May asked.

"What the – No!" Marie shouted to them before making an irritated growl, "Listen, I'll tell you guys what it is later, okay?!"

Marie began to walk off in another direction away from her sisters, "… Geez, she's sure in a bad mood!" Lee stated before shrugging her shoulders, "Come on, May! Let's go."

Marie looked back to her sisters, who were now walking away. She made a sigh, closing her eyes at a thought she had, 'Starting from scratch, huh… Is that even possible? Could I even BE a normal friend to them?!'

Marie made a yell of irritation as she continued to walk away, still taking in Lily's statement as a possible thing she could do. She decided to walk towards the concession stands to get a drink to take her mind off things.

Author's Note (March 12th, 2024): Wow, it took a while to type this chapter out. I apologize for that, video games and other things can do that. Will we finally leave this fairground and get on with the story?! Of course! Just wait and find out!

It was also Mario Day a few days ago; Nintendo announced the release date for the Paper Mario TTYD Remake; May 23rd, 2024! A lot earlier than I expected it to be, but not on a month with any other games I'm looking out for (as far as I know). Let's hope it stays that way, at least for the sake of my wallet.