Chapter One
Max Caulfield doesn't want to continue her entire life protecting the same person from what is perpetually inevitable. Max Caulfield also doesn't want to destroy the girl, leaving her to die paranoid, and guilty. Max Caulfield also doesn't want to hurt so many others. But who is Max Caulfield? What should be wanted for her?
Choosing to let so many get hurt by the usage of her powers is selfish. Chloe Price could be alive. Yet keeping Chloe alive will destroy so many things. Destruction… at such a high cost, why would Max save Chloe?
Is there not any alternative?
Any alternative at all to killing her best friend - no, her soul mate. They were so connected. There is no way Chloe and Max could call themselves mere friends after this. So much has happened. So much could happen, with Chloe still alive. Killing so many others, so fucking many others, just to save Chloe.
"I think I've made my choice, Chloe. Those people won't die." Max half-whispered, smiling weakly. Chloe nodded in fear, not ready to accept her death. One thing kept Chloe from the idea of utterly panicking. Perhaps she will already stay here with this Max forever. The Chloe who saw Max's redemption may get to stay with Max.
That also means Chloe will die having fell into a depression. A loneliness. A debt. Oh God, that is too fucked up for me. Soon enough, Max was focusing on the photo intently. This time she travelled back more quickly than those other times. Staring at the linoleum in the bathroom, she knew what had to be done.
Max jumped out from behind the bathroom stall, Nathan frowning in dismay upon her arrival. Nathan Prescott looked alarmed and Chloe barely started to recognize Max. "The fuck, you hid behind there to get the jump on me? You her fucking back-up?" Nathan practically seethed with hatred. But Chloe felt so relieved. Max? Well, she had this look of utter understanding on her.
All along she should've come out from her hiding place. This was what her power taught her. All along, she didn't need powers to save someone else. Nathan shot Chloe out of fear. And Max took her shot just now by deciding to jump out. She is no longer her old safe. Much stronger, much braver. "See you, then." Max grumbled out with a look on her face much too complex to decode.
Utter badassery seemed to deter Nathan from his original plans. The bathroom was then only occupied by a confused Chloe and an enlightened Max. "Max Caulfield, that really you?" Her voice shook. It shook with the knowledge someone just saved her ass and they seemed so sure about it. They even knew her before, but they seemed to… to look at Chloe like they even left Arcadia Bay.
"Yes, Chloe, yes! It's totally me. Let's go somewhere else to talk. I don't think being here is all that great. It being a bathroom, and all." Max didn't care about preserving Chloe's mind and hiding what happened to her. After everything that happened, Max wouldn't be surprised if it gave her a God complex. In response to Max's words, Chloe nodded. Her eyes said more than her gesture. They glowed intensely while darkening in the face of Max.
Something felt like it'd separate Max from reality. Now she'd become something other than a hipster shit - she was an enigma. Only Chloe would understand. But soon enough, Chloe would know that she was as inhuman and Max. Humans aren't supposed to defy death because another human decided it'd be so. "Yeah, Max… we'll go wherever you want."
Max noticed the woeful look in Chloe's eyes. Whatever came across Max just scared the shit out of her. It's almost like changing time like this opened an entirely new reality. Does Max really need to ponder the morality of this? Of playing God until she burns out?
Does she even physically age when she rewinds?
Could she live forever?
The thoughts were a bursted bubble when Chloe tapped on Max's shoulder. "Dude, you're like, hovering here. It's hella freaky." Max lifted herself from the deep analysis of power usage. Just moments ago she refused to think about its morality. Then she started to wonder how much she could accomplish. It sounded seriously cool. No Max, you're here for Chloe. Your powers were never meant to get in the way.
An eye rub and then a glance at Chloe made Max feel that concern was the prime emotion Chloe felt. "I'm fine. I think I just want to forget everything to do with the Vortex Club." The words came out so nonchalant. Chloe still replied to the honest comment.
"Yeah, forget about that. Think about, well, how shocked I am that you're here? Even better that you saved my ass from Nathan like that." Chloe said, stoked by Max's bravery. Guilt wriggled free from Max's chest as Chloe's head seemed to take a bullet. Could she really have gotten shot again? After all the effort Max made to find what the true meaning of her powers were they had been proved yet again that she made the wrong choice. Insufferable tears slid down her cheeks quickly and she began to vaguely panic. "Chloe, Chloe you can't be dead! You can't be!" With those words she collapsed on the ground, rolling in the grass as if she was trying to shake her way through a tube of nightmares. It kept squeezing around her tighter and tighter, constricting Max's body. All she could hear with the screams of the hurt and afraid.
Chloe Price was certainly hurt and afraid. After her ex-best-friend let go of her like she saw a ghost, she began screaming that Chloe couldn't die again and gripped the grass insanely. "Max, Max, you're really scaring me! Stop!" Chloe got out before feeling the sob rise and release.
Looking up, Max knew she was still with Chloe. Breathing, speaking, feeling. It was really her. "Oh, Chloe… I'm so sorry, I thought you were gone all over again." Each word came out strained through an empty voice. Max felt so sorry for Chloe. Nothing she said would make Chloe believe she had it together. Nothing about time travel, or Warren, or Chloe dying multiple times, or Rachel-
Rachel Amber needed justice. Chloe needs the truth. Instead of letting Chloe poke at Max's mental wellness more, Max nods at Chloe. "Max, what did you mean 'again'?" She asked out of more than concern. Curiosity plagues human beings. Deprivation kills human beings. Entitlement kills those without it.
Max felt so entitled. More entitled than any cis man ever fucking could. She could go back for do-evers, live this week over and over again, do anything she fucking wanted - but it came at a cost. Max didn't lose her powers, really. They were powerful. But slowly, Max found herself losing her humanity.
It was time for Max to ease back into being a human. This sad lifetime could not continue the way it has been. The sun may be setting, but it will always rise. The storm can't destroy the bay. It can't destroy Max, nor Chloe. Bright days were ahead for Arcadia Bay. Max would make sure of it. God, if she wanted, she could be a fortune-teller. She'd make so much cash. Then she could draw and take pictures of whatever she wanted.
No job would tell her what to take pictures of. They would be her art. A perfect life where all of her friends live with her and she is married to Chloe Price.
"Chloe, I saw you die. In the bathroom, on the train tracks, and at the Junkyard. Everything wanted you dead and wanted me to back off. At least I thought. But I was meant to learn that I was strong." Max claimed wildly, bringing Chloe's hand to her own heart.
"Max, hooooly shit. You've gone off the deep-end since we last met." Chloe stammered, feeling butterflies storm around in her stomach. Winds blew because of their immense wings fluttering at a constant beat. Their wings went so fast and made the winds so heavy. So intense. Like Max's eyes and demeanor right now.
"Chloe, you died and I rewound time. I know everything that happens this week - well, it happened then. This time will be different. I'm not rewinding anymore, and we're going to stay alive. To prove to you that I have time powers…" Max said, pulling something out of Chloe's right pocket. It was her wallet. "I'll memorize the contents of your wallet and go back in time to tell you what they were."
Chloe's face was completely stiff. It felt like her entire body was stiff. None of this made any sense to her. The foreign Max she had barely interacted with that acted like they were very close. The promise that she died so many times, too many times. Chloe shook and nodded at Max. Whatever plan she had phased Chloe no more than what happened earlier.
Max did her last rewind. And stood back, looking at Chloe, explaining everything. No amount of explaining would do for Chloe's face, however. It twisted into something that Max knew was fear, mixed with sorrow. How many more times would she see Chloe like that?
Death threatened Max. Threatened everyone she ever associated with. Saving everyone, watching them intently, keeping the peace - it was Max's purpose. Not as a timekeeper. She wasn't one of those anymore. Purpose filled the eyes that saw through the storm once again. It was time to stop bending time, as it would seem. No more catastrophes will stop her. She is now strong.
Chloe's fear and sorrow turned into something else when Max lost her concentration. "None of that hella cool time shit anymore at all?" Words came out with less uncertainty than impulsiveness. Impulse was supposed to be who Chloe was. Yet she spoke like any word messed up and Max would totally snap. What made her so intimidating?
Seems that since she got back, there's been something else warding off people. Inside of her? Was it just emotional strength?
No. It was something else totally uncool and unflattering to think about. Power has responsibility. But what if responsibility has power? Like, something has been emptying Max out from the inside? Just my God complex problem again. Back to Chloe and her inquiry about time-powers. "Chloe, they're not hella cool. They caused so much destruction. I just want to forget that I have them."
A nod was what Max received. Max was sure that Chloe had so many other questions about Max and how she felt. Maybe even how her time-power functions. The functionality of such ability and raw power was no longer within Max's interest. When she told Warren, she thought he'd wanna test on her. But he trusted her the whole way.
And now, Chloe seems to understand what Max needs now.
Belief in the idea that the time-powers should be forgotten about. Slinking down to a nearby bench, Chloe yawns. "Wait, Max, if you've got time-powers, couldn't we somehow save Rachel?"
Max shakes her head. There was no mention of Jefferson or Nathan. Only that she saved Chloe and Kate, and a huge storm came. Most things were overly glossed to beautify the terrifying week it had been. To show how serious she was, Max turned away from Chloe, facing the setting sun. Blackwell Academy will always be a dark place in my heart, she mused grimly.
"Chloe, I tried saving your dad. And that… that went horribly wrong. Worse stuff would happen if I tried to save Rachel, too." She bluffed. Rachel was not beyond saving. Max would have to find a photo she took of herself wherever she was around the time she went missing. Then after a couple moments, careful extrapolation would reveal itself to Max and she'd then carry out her plan. Rachel would be saved - but it'd be countered by something worse. Max finally learned to own up to the moral of her power. Best not get cocky now.
Maybe it'd be best to try and report Jefferson through Nathan very quickly. Manipulating Nathan wouldn't be too difficult, really. There were soft spots visible to those who had seen them in the broken timeline. Soft spots. Soft bodies. Soft corpses. Crowds of corpses. Corpses everywhere. Many dead.
"Max, come on? You have to do this for me. You left me here for five years, and now you want to tell me-"
"Chloe. Shut the fuck up." The words came out clearly. Max couldn't handle this conversation right now. In fact, it made her heart wretch with grief. Sickness consumed her body and mind.
"I… okay Max." Chloe said obediently, not wishing to perturb Max anymore than she already had. The rest of the day went on without quarrels.