Okay, so, before we wrap this up, and trust me I want to do that just as much as you do, but remember the lessong spelled out by Lori last chapter?

That lesson is not set in stone.

The lesson of the story, if there even is one, is whatever you think it is. "Fiction and Reality are not the same", "Some plans are bound to fail", heck, even something stupid like "Keep up your adult filter or else your child will attempt to destroy all of shipping" can all be lessons if it's what you got from the fic. Point is, if you learned something from this, that's fine, and if not, that's okay.

Now, let's go to the grand finale!

Another week later...

Mrs. Johnson drove down the street as she approached a large, heavily protected prison far away from Royal Woods, Michigan. Notably, she had a syringe and small container on her pockets... And Cristina was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, she parked outside the facility and immediately went to the door, where she was stopped by two particularly muscular guards.

"State your business," one of the guards said.

"I'm here to visit one of the inmates," Mrs. Johnson bluntly stated, folding her arms.

"Specify the inmate." the other guard requested.

Though hesitant at first, Mrs. Johnson took a deep breath and just as bluntly stated:

"Cristina Johnson."

Next thing she knew, the woman was being escorted by the guards all the way to the deepest level of the prison, level 34. Once there, the woman firmly focused on the last cell as the other inmates gave her rather... Suggestive looks. And once they reached the last cell, the woman took a couple of steps forward and ordered:

"I'm here, come out and show yourself."

The inmate inside the cell promptly came out of the light to reveal herself as Cristina, wearing an orange jumpsuit and still as badly injured as before. Not only that, but she soon summoned her tentacles, causing the other inmates to flinch and step back.

"It's good to see you again, mother," the redhead remarked, narrowing her eyes with perverted lust as she rubbed Mrs. Johnson's face with her tentacles. However, it was clear from her expression the woman was neither disgusted or horrified at the action, but mostly annoyed. "What brings you to this wretched pit of perversion?"

Mrs. Johnson smiled, took out the syringe and extracted some blood from one of Cristina's tentacles while the redhead screamed, with the scream echoing through the facility for a couple seconds after the woman finished.

"This should be good enough for the cure," Mrs. Johnson stated with a smug smirk, showing the blood-filled container to her daughter. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go gather the blood of Lori, Leni and Ronnie Anne for the serum cure."

This only got a chuckle from the redhead. "I'm very sure Ronnie Anne's quite busy with Lincoln at the moment."

"What could they be doing at this moment that's keeping them busy?" the redheaded woman pondered, then asked to the girl, crossing her arms. "What are they doing?"

Cristina just chuckled before giving her answer in... Rather vague sentences. "Well, you could say they're screwing around, planting a seed, creating a dynasty, inserting the hotdog in the bun-"

"Okay, Cristina, your vagueness ran its course a long time ago, and its starting to get on my nerves," Mrs. Johnson growled loud enough to catch the rest of the prison's attention. "I want you to be blunt from now on, understood?"

"For fuck's sake, Lincoln is preparing to have sex with Ronnie Anne! Again!" Cristina shouted loud enough for it to echo across the facility. "There, is that blunt enough, you Leni!?"

The woman took a step back as she processed what her daughter just said, mostly wondering how she could even know that was the case. But nevertheless, Mrs. Johnson soon shook herself back to reality and sternly stated, "Whatever, I got your blood, so I have nothing else to do here."

"Farewell, Agnes, it was quite an unpleasant time to meet again," the redhead remarked as her mother was escorted out of the building. "I hope we never see each other again."

Once Mrs. Johnson reached her car, she went inside and took the time to catch her breath before calling someone. "Lisa, I got Cristina's blood," she stated, with slight exhaustion in her tone. "What about you?"

"Lori and Leni-with some coercion-agreed to let me use their blood, and Bobby is working on getting Ronnie's blood," the little genius responded from the other end. "By the way, sorry for asking, but... How's Cristina?"

Mrs. Johnson was both quick and blunt in her response:

"The less we talk about her, the better."

And with that said, she hung the phone and drove away from the building while thinking about what her daughter said about Lincoln and Ronnie. Whatever she said could only be taken with a grain of salt, no doubt about that, but still, would Ronnie and Lincoln be doing such a thing?

Speaking of which...

Lincoln and Ronnie rested on the couch, a large bedsheet covering their lower bodies as Ronnie grinded her crotch against Lincoln. "A-Are you sure we should be doing this, Ronnie?" the boy nervously asked, grabbing the ghoul's shoulders. "I mean, we kinda did it last week, remember? Is there really a point in repeating it?"

"It's a good stress reliever, Linc, and after all that happened, we got a ton of stress to relieve," Ronnie argued in return, though going by Lincoln's reaction, this wasn't enough to convince him. "B-Besides, our older siblings aren't here yet-"

And then, without warning, Lori and Bobby barged through the door. "Lincoln! Ronnie! We're-" the duo shouted in unison.

It wasn't long before the older siblings noticed what Lincoln and Ronnie were doing, and a couple seconds later, Ronnie and Lincoln massaged their butts while Lori and Bobby dusted themselves.

"That's for trying to do that while we were away!" Bobby scolded, mostly to his sister.

"Yeah, specially because it gives us flashes back of what happened at the tower!" Lori added, scolding her brother. "Now, apologize to each other!"

Ronnie and Lincoln exchanged looks, then uttered "I'm sorry" right before Lori grabbed Lincoln and left the house, with Bobby restraining Ronnie. "I literally can't believe you and Ronnie were about to do that again!" Lori growled as Lincoln tried to free himself from her grasp. "Given what happened between you and the redhaired bitch, I'd expect you to be very hesitant to do it! Our sisters just got healed mentally and physically, we don't need you to give us more mental issues with the fact you had sex and we did nothing about it!"

"And I was hesitant to do that, but Ronnie basically overpowered me!" Lincoln argued in response. "Besides, since it's a good stress reliever, she figured it wouldn't hurt to try it-"

"Lincoln, you can literally do a million other things to relieve stress other than banging Bobby's younger sister!" Lori hissed. "You can throw balls at a wall, write some sort of hate fiction about it, literally anything is better than banging someone else!"

"I'm sorry, Lori," Lincoln stated, looking at the ground in regret.

"Whatever, just... Be more assertive, okay?" Lori responded, focusing on the sidewalk. "You can't let anybody use you as a rug! If a girl tells you to bang her, then tell her no! And maybe recommend her a psychiatrist, I heard Luan knows a very good one."

"Hey guys!" a familiar voice shouted.

"And speaking of Luan," Lori said as the comedian and Luna approached the pair. "Hi girls, how are you doing?"

"Dudes, you got to go to the public park right now!" Luna answered as she and Luan grabbed Lori's hand. "Something amazing is happening right now, and it can't be put into words! No time to explain, just come with us!"

So Luna and Luan dragged the duo to the park while Lori complained, with the only complaint they replied to being: "I could just fly us there, you know?!"

"Yeah, but we were told to bring you, so..." Luna argued, giving a wink to Luan.

The duo continued to drag the pair to the park, and once they arrived, the first thing they saw was that an event called "The Loud Carnival" was taking place, with all their friends and family enjoying the festivities. Oh, and Clyde and his parents were also there.

"What... What is this all about?" Lincoln asked as Lori dropped him, only for Lisa to catch him and put him on the ground.

"Well, with the help of Polly Pain, Haiku, Giggles, Clyde and Tabby, among other people, we managed to make this event!" Lisa explained as she dusted her brother. "You see, our friends felt bad that they couldn't be of help for the final battle, so to repay us, they made us a giant stress reliever in the form of a carnival!"

"So, where are the rest of our sisters?" Lincoln asked.

Lisa grabbed the boy's arm and said, "Follow me, please."

The boy nodded and followed the scientist as Lori went off on her own. First, Lisa took him to a football field with several mud puddles, with one in particular serving as the place where Lynn and Lana played together. They splashed each other with mud and laughed as Lisa and Lincoln took the time to watch their sisters having fun.

"Lana and Lynn are enjoying some mud soccer at the moment, they said it brought back good memories," Lisa explained as Lynn and Lana got up and decided to play soccer for real. "Lola was asked to join them, but she decided to leave them alone. She said something amongst the likes of leaving the lovebirds alone."

Then they continued on to a mock-up fashion show, where Lola struck several poses and blew kisses at her audience-consisting of a bunch of elementary school kids-while they took pictures of her. Lincoln was surprised that there was so many people in there, while Lisa looked more amused.

"Speaking of Lola, she's currently in a mock-up fashion show, striking several poses to her fans," the little genius explained, blowing a whistle before adding, "We wanted to put up a mock-up pageant, but for some reason, she said she wanted to take a break from that business. I guess after everything that's happened, it's kind of understandable, but we were still rather surprised."

They then went to what looked like a concert, with Luna manning the drums and Luan playing a kazoo while Mick Swagger played the guitar. Almost everybody as either dancing "Luna and Luan are doing the impossible: They're joining heavy metal and kazoo music together, and it actually sounds good!" Lisa explained, pulling off some robot moves in her dance. "As for how we got Mick Swagger to come at all, well, that was a difficult task..."

Lincoln, however, raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so all we had to do was have Luna call him, but we were still lucky that we got him to come," the genius corrected.

Finally, they went to the center of the carnival, where Leni-now with both arms-leaned against a pole while looking at the setting sun. "And Leni is taking a break," Lisa remarked, pausing as she tried to think of something else to say. "I'm not really sure what else I can add about her, she's been oddly silent about everything."

"What about mom, dad and Lily?" Lincoln asked.

"They're ensuring the festivities don't go awry."

Lisa pointed at the entrance, where Lily, Mr. and Mrs. Loud stood as bouncers... More specifically, the latter two stood as bouncers while the woman held Lily in her arms.

"You forgot about me."

The duo jumped and screamed before they noticed Lucy standing next to them. "Dang it, even during a celebration that's supposed to account for all the Louds, we still forget about Lucy!" Lisa exclaimed, before remembering something. "Although, come to think of it, Lucy wasn't really doing anything."

"That's because I'm not interested in the games," the goth answered before taking out a poem. "I just waited for Lincoln to arrive so he could tell me what he thinks about my newest poem."

"Alright, this is the Lucy I know and love! Creepy, silent to the point of absurdity, and with a perchant for poetry!" Lincoln said before taking the poem. "Now then, let's see what this is all about."

And so he read it out loud:

Fiction can be inspired from reality,

And reality can sometimes become fiction,

But there is still a line that separates them,

And we must make sure we see it,

Lest we become paranoid to the point of hurting those we love.

Once the boy finished, he gave Lucy a deadpan look while the goth smiled. "Why do I get the feeling this whole adventure was your inspiration, and that this is for Cristina?" he inquired.

"Well, it has to do with what I tried to tell you earlier: Cristina gave me a weird look as early as when you got your game, and I'm surprised nothing came out of it," the goth answered, twiddling her fingers as she further explained herself. "And since we were told earlier that she's currently on a maximum security prison, I don't think her mental state is going to survive for long. So, I thought I could become something like her pen pal if it will keep her from becoming even worse, since crazy Cristina was bad, but super crazy Cristina... That must never happen."

"And I wholeheartedly agree," Lincoln replied, handing the goth back her poem. "But there has to be another way to do that, you know?"

Lucy just smiled as Lincoln brushed her hair, and then the trio went deeper inside the carnival to enjoy the festivities. And while this happened, the couples decided to share some time together before the upcoming grand finale.

The first couple was Lori and... Bobby, who were sitting at a table near the center of the carnival, drinking some juice.

"So, babe, if I can keep calling you that," Bobby started, getting Lori's attention. "Are you really sure you want to date again?"

"Bobby, it should be clear right now that the only reason I broke up with you and started dating Leni was because of the chips," the winged ghoul explained, taking a sip of her drink. "Now that everything's back to normal, we can resume our dating life because I can think straight again! Besides, Leni and I weren't exactly the best couple ever when we were together."

"Did you even ask Leni about it?" the teenager asked, causing Lori to nearly spit out her drink. "How is she taking the idea?"

Lori glanced at Leni, who continued to lean against the pole nearby. But the physical ghoul simply looked away with a stern look, upon which Lori turned back to her boyfriend and nervously answered, "S-She's taking it fine. B-Besides, what we had was nothing more than fake, artificial love. What you and I have is the real deal. A-And if you want, we could do a threesome?"

And as the duo continued to talk and Lori tried to calm down Bobby, Leni glanced back at them and shed a couple tears.

"Is something wrong?"

Leni flinched and turned around to see it was Carol Pingrey who said that.

"No, nothing's wrong," the teenager answered as she wiped off her tears. "Lori broke up with me, she's back with Bobby, Lisa got us all fixed up... Everything is back to how it should be, or at least, it's getting there."

Then, Carol grabbed Leni's hand and leaned closer to her. "You know, even if it's how it should be, I still find it rather sad that a precious sweetheart like you is left all alone in these festivities," Carol whispered, making Leni blush at the statement. "How about we hang out for now? And, perhaps, we can have some coffee later?"

"We... This wouldn't work," Leni replied, gently pushing Carol away. "You don't know me, I don't know you-"

"Then how about we fix that?" Carol suggested, giving the ghoul a wink.

Seeing she had a chance, Leni blushed even harder as she smiled and gave the nurse a nod, upon which she followed her to one of the games. And while they did that, the next couple were Luna and Luan, who played a whack-a-mole game, with Cristina's head replacing the moles.

"This is so cathartic!" Luan exclaimed as she smacked as many Cristinas as possible. "Take this! And that!"

"Hehe, I'm glad you're having so much fun, Love," Luna remarked as she hit her own Cristinas. "Now, if you don't mind, there's something I need to ask you: Do you want to continue dating?"

Luan stopped hitting the Cristinas and took a deep breath. "Luna, we've been through a lot together: Pain, romance... Painful romance," the comedian answered, blushing as she leaned closer to the rocker. "Now, I would be happy to date you some more, I really would, but I was wondering if you ever thought about going... A step further?"

The rocker almost immediately caught on what her sister was implying. "Luan, I would only go a step further if you wanted me to," she answered, avoiding eye contact.

"Will you be gentle with me?" Luan inquired, leaning against Luna's shoulder.

The musician wrapped her arm around Luan's head and answered "Of course, Love," before she gave her a kiss... And then the duo returned to beat up the mole-Cristinas.

The next couple, or should I say couples, were Lola and Lana, with the former looking particularly confused, and Lucy and Lynn, with the former writting something down while the latter twiddled her fingers.

"So, why are Lucy and I here?" Lola inquired. "I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Lana and Lynn have a better history together than she and I, and Lucy brings a rather creepy atmosphere in general-"

"Lola, Lynn and I have fixed our issues, and it's time that we fix ours," Lana answered, grabbing her sister's hand. "Do you finally know what you feel towards me?"

The ex-diva thought about it for a moment, then took a deep breath and answered, "I appreciate you as a sister, but in the case of love, we simply wouldn't go anywhere. And not just because of the whole social norms thing."

"There, was that so hard to say?" Lynn jokingly complained, causing the twins to laugh as she turned to Lucy. "So, Duchess of Darkness, what do you think about what we have between us?"

"Lynn, there's nothing between us," the goth answered with a blunt tone. "All we had was a little love triangle between you, me and Lincoln that ultimately went nowhere. I honestly believe we should stay as far away from this whole romance business until we're older."

The athlete looked surprised at the statement, right before she shrugged and remarked "Touche" with pleasure.

And as this all happened, Lisa and Lincoln enjoyed a little "test your strength" game, which Lincoln actually managed to play unlike last time. He grabbed the hammer, lifted it and then swung it down as hard as possible, causing the ball to skyrocker right to the top.

"Alright!" Lincoln exclaimed, lifting his fist victoriously while Lisa clapped in joy. "Point for Lincoln!"

And then Polly Pain came out of nowhere and tackled the guy, followed by Haiku, Tabby and Giggles to run past Lisa and go to Lincoln, while Clyde helped her stabilize before going straight for the boy.

"Hello, dude, I didn't see you arrive!" Polly exclaimed as she got off Lincoln and allowed him to catch his breath. "Are you enjoying the carnival so far?"

"Well, yeah, and it's nice to see you too," Lincoln answered, rubbing his arm. "But I have to ask, why did you bother to make this?"

"Cristina broadcasted the entire event across all of Royal Woods," Tabby responded, scratching the back of her head as she further explained. "And we felt really bad while we saw our friends being tortured and we could do nothing about it."

"But then, we gathered again ever since the Sadie Hawkins dance and thought about what we could do to help you," Giggles added, somehow forming the whole scene out of balloons. "And we thought that, since you would probably be exhausted-in more ways than one-from the whole deal, something filled with fun and catharsis would do the trick!"

"And so we worked for the last couple of weeks in setting up this carnival, for all of you," Haiku finished, giving Lincoln a hopeful smile. "To relax from the torment that was this adventure, and gather around and enjoy the fact that it's finally over. Rejoice like a family, and hopefully, remember it so that the next time something like this happens, you'll know what to do."

She then gave him a wink while the boy processed what he was just told. And then Clyde walked to his friend and said, "I hope you're enjoying the festival as well, it's the least I can do for being basically useless during the whole fiasco."

"Hey, guys before gals, am I right?" Linc replied.

And the duo did a fist bump while exchanging pleased smiles.

"Now if you excuse us, we got to party with our besties!" Polly exclaimed, pointing at Lynn, Lucy, Luna and Luan in a nearby table bas she grabbed Clydee's arm. "And this guy's coming with us!"

"What, why?!" Clyde exclaimed.

"A little bird told us that you made sure our dates with Lincoln came out okay," Tabby answered. "And we would like to give you a reward for that."

"Curse you, Waltz!" the nerd shouted, lifting his fist in anger.

So the quartet immediately ran to meet with their friends while dragging Clyde along, but not before blowing some kisses at Lincoln, which he easily caught as Lisa walked to him and grabbed his arm.

"Hahaha! We got a casanova in the house!"

Lincoln and Lisa, recognizing the rather tomboyish voice, turned around to see Ronnie Anne, holding a cotton candy with her tail while she clapped and laughed in delight. "R-Ronnie Anne!" Lincoln exclaimed as Lisa hid behind him. "D-Did you see everything?"

"Yeah, I didn't knew you were such a hit with the ladies, Lame-O!" Ronnie replied, taking a bite out of her cotton candy. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"I... I didn't knew myself, honestly," Lincoln answered as the Hispanic ghoul went closer to him. "And, to be perfectly honest, I thought you were going to get very angry about it."

"Lame-O, this is your family's carnival, a place where you can relax after everything that's happened," Ronnie answered, offering some cotton candy to the boy. "What kind of potential girlfriend would I be if I were to ruin your fun?"

Seeing what she was saying, Lincoln took a bite out of the cotton candy as Lisa came out of hiding and gestured Ronnie to come with her. So the ghoul and the scientist left the boy behind just as he realized something:

"Wait, potential girlfriend?"

Then, the duo reunited at the entrance of the carnival, with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson standing nearby. "So, what is this topic you wanted to discuss that we need to do it in private?" Ronnie inquired, putting her hands on her pockets. "That I'll have to get over your body to date your brother if I ever care enough to do that? That you prefer to see your brother with somebody else? Perhaps you want me to help you hook up with someone like Clyde or something?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Lisa took a deep breath and responded, "Ronnie, I would like to apologize for kissing Lincoln right in front of you. It was a very bad move, and a pretty insensitive one too, and I honestly didn't want to hurt your or Lincoln's feelings-"

"Hey, girl, stop acting like it's a big deal," Ronnie replied, gently jabbing Lisa's shoulder. "You had no idea I was there, and you simply had to get it out of your system. I probably would've done the same thing if I was in your place."

The genius chuckled for a moment before the idea of their roles being swapped turned her smile into a frown. And then Lincoln arrived, "Oh hey girls, I heard that something called the grand finale is about to happen, and all the family needs to be there," he said as he grabbed Lisa's arm. "Are you coming, Ronnie?"

For some reason, the ghoul hesitated to give an answer. She couldn't help but feel somebody needed some company nearby, someone to talk with regarding what just happened.

"Before I do that," the Hispanic ghoul glanced at a nearby tavern. "There's something else I need to do."

At the Tavern...

Mrs. Johnson put down a cup and took a deep breath before saying, "Give me another drink, please."

"Lady, you've had seven drinks already," said the bartender, who was none other than Flip. "If you keep drinking, then eiither you're going to get drunk or you're going to stay in the bathroom for a long time."

"Screw you, I'm in the middle of emotional turmoil and I need as many drinks as necessary!" the woman growled.

Flip rolled his eyes and went to serve the woman another drink as another person entered the establishment and sat next to her. "I would like some juice, if you have it, that is," said the person... With a familiar voice.

The lady immediately turned around and saw who this new companion was. "Ronnie Anne?!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"You're still troubled by what happened with Cristina too, aren't you?" the ghoul inquired as Flip handed the duo their drinks. "I figured you'd be here too, and I thought I'd give you some company. Is that a problem?"

"Well, on the one hand, I do need somebody to talk about after sending my own daughter to prison," Mrs. Johnson replied, taking a large sip of her drink before she continued, "But on the other hand, I'm essentially taking away the precious time you have to relax and take a breather after this madness."

"By that logic, you should be out there having fun as well," Ronnie pointed out.

The woman failed to give an answer. "Listen, I know it must be hard to talk about her at this point, but there's something I would like to know that I never got to ask," Ronnie replied, taking a sip from her drink and a bite from her cotton candy. "Just where did Cristina managed to get all her gadgets and stuff?"

"Lord Tetherby made them: The tower, the bracelets, the helmets, everything," Mrs. Johnson somberly answered. "I remember striking a deal with him: He made all of those things in exchange for getting revenge on some people he'd rather not mention. At first, I thought it was a decent deal, but by the time I figured out he was talking about the Louds, it was too late to call it off."

"Okay, one more question then," Ronnie remarked. "Was Cristina always so messed up? Or was the moment she learned the whole shipping business the catalyst of her becoming unstable?"

"She had been acting like a childish brat for a while after the whole video fiasco, so I thought it was just another part of her phase, but then I told her what shipping was, which caused her to do her research and... You know what happened next," Mrs. Johnson explained, taking another sip of her drink. "And even before that, the doctors told me that her brain seemed to work differently, almost as if she was developing a thought pattern different from most humans. I don't know if the research awakened that or if she was always that crazy, but in the end, I can't help but blame myself about it. After all, if I hadn't told her what shipping was, she never would've done her research and none of this would've happened."

"That's a way you can look at it, anyway," Ronnie replied, finishing her drink and handing over her cotton candy to Mrs. Johnson. "Say, how about you come and enjoy the party with us? You deserve a breather as much as everybody else."

"No, It's okay, I'd rather stay here," the woman answered. "Now go, have fun."

The tomboy gave the woman a worried look before she shrugged it off and walked out of the establishment, as Mrs. Johnson took a bite out of the cotton candy and got a little smile.

Back at the carnival...

Almost everybody gathered around the center of the carnival for a large group photo. Lincoln and his sisters stood out in the middle, with their friends and other acolytes gathered around them, while Mr. and Mrs. Loud manned the camera.

"Okay, everybody, show us some big smiles and say cheese!" the couple exclaimed in unison.

Ronnie Anne then barged in and sat right next to Lincoln, giving off a big smile as the picture was taken.

Later, back at the school...

Lincoln, alongside Ronnie and Clyde, entered the empty building and walked deeper inside, with the boy grabbing the latter two's hands as they walked. Soon enough, they reached their destination: the locker that used to belong to Cristina. So Lincoln released his friends' hands, took out the girl's picture from his pocket and put some glue in it.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Lincoln?" Ronnie asked, catching the discount albino's attention. "After all, seeing what she did through this whole endeavor, I'm pretty sure that remembering her would be the last thing you'd want to do."

"Yeah, besides, if somebody does take her locker, they're probably going to get rid of the picture anyway," Clyde added, twiddling his fingers. "So why even bother putting that in her locker?"

"Do you guys really think now's the best time to discuss that?" Lincoln retorted, making the duo scratch their heads. "Besides, I'm not doing this to remember Cristina in general, I'm doing this to remember who she used to be... Who I fell in love with... Who I..."

When Lincoln couldn't finish his sentence, Ronnie and Clyde exchanged curious looks. What exactly was he going to say?

Once he put the picture on the locker, Lincoln gave it one last, somber look before he turned around, grabbed his backpack and left the school with Ronnie and Clyde by his side.

"Are you okay, Lincoln?" Clyde inquired, putting a hand on the saddened boy's shoulder. "D-Do you need us to do something for you?"

"Stay sharp," Lincoln bluntly answered. "I don't want you, nor anybody else close to me, to ever go through something like this ever again."

Ronnie and Clyde gave the boy a pair of silent nods, then separated and went back home shortly afterwards. And so, Lincoln went back home alone. Not that he minded, after everything that happened, the boy didn't wish for anything more than a quiet, relaxing walk home.

Which he soon got for a while, since the white-haired kid reached his house within a rather short amount of time. Once there, he knocked the door and was answered by Lori almost immediately.

"Oh, Lincoln, I was about to go look for you," Lori remarked once she saw her brother. "Mom and dad bought some pizza, and everybody's trying their hardest to make sure there's some left for you."

Lincoln promptly went inside the house and to the living room, where he saw Luna and Lynn holding Lola and Lana respectively as Leni and Luan formed a totem to keep the pizza out of their reach, while Lisa sprayed them with water. Lucy? She was basically just there, holding Lily with her arms.

"Aw, this is a sight I'd been missing for so long," Lincoln said, scratching the back of his head as it was swarmed with memories. "I'll be there in a moment, just give me a second,"

Lori nodded and went to help save the pizza from Loud doom. With his mind left at ease, Lincoln returned to the entrance, then turned around and faced the readers as he grabbed the doorknob.

"So there you have it, folks," the boy said, showing a reassuring, relaxed smile. "In the Loud house, we may be louder than cicadas, and fight amongst each other more than a wrestling league. But if we're ever in trouble, specially if it concerns a psychopath bent on breaking us for a stupid reason so much, they'd give up their humanity just to achieve it... Well, we always got each other's backs, and we'll always find a way to survive."

And, with a renowned feeling of hope growing inside of him, Lincoln bid farewell before closing the door.

The End

And with that, The Loud Sim Date is done...

'Bout freaking time, am I right?

But seriously speaking, though, I'd like to thank all of you for following through the whole fic up to this point. I'm gonna be honest, when I started writing this, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I was basically writing by the seat of my pants through this whole journey.

Now that it's over, I'd also like to give some special thanks to Omega Ultra, who was nice enough to help me improve the story, and also give me suggestions on how things should go. Believe me, if he hadn't helped me, this story would've been MUCH worse.

Quality-wise, I mean, though content wise...

Anyhow, point is, I thank all of you who read and reviewed this work. This is Exotos135 saying:

keep up the good work. :)