"Come on Max, we're almost there…
Please! Wake up!..
Max! Come on now!...
Don't worry, we'll be okay…
Max… Max can you hear me?! Please, say something"
Feeling the heavy rain hit my skin I regain consciousness. With my head screaming in pain I quickly come to reality. There, right before us raged the behemoth. This was it, after everything, here we stood to finally face the consequences of our actions…
"Chloe? I… I must have passed out… Sorry."
Although I had jumped time numerous times, the feeling still shook me, causing my stomach to turn, my ears to ring, and the feeling of a hundred tons being slammed against my head. Getting better control of myself I turn to see Chloe. I see her. Her world being dashed before her. And yet, despite all the stimulation around me, everything I just saw… the torture… still so very alive.
"Oh Thank God… Don't you ever do that again, okay?!"
"I swear! … But the nightmares were so real!... was so … Horrible…
I could still see HIS face. The look of complete sicking joy of thinking he had got away with it again. The thrill of his psychotic pleasures being fulfilled, till the urge demands to be satisfied again. But above that, nothing made me more sick than to watch Chloe … no… that wasn't Chloe, none of it was real… yet the pain continued to cause me to shake. Raising my head I could only feel the insurmountable guilt build up as the storm began to tear Arcadia Bay apart. Watching the rubble from the coast, as the storm inched ever closer to its designated course. Destroying everything in its path. The tumultuous noise echoed in my ears, with the sky only being lit up by the fierce lightning.
"This is my storm!... I… I caused this! I caused all of this!
I changed fate and destiny so much I… I actually did alter the course of everything!
And… And all I really created was just death and destruction!"
Everything… Everything was for nothing. Fate had been sealed, and now it was claiming her own.
"Fuck all of that, okay" Being turned around, Chloe's words pierced right through me. Regardless of everything that was happening, her voice reminded me why I hadn't given up. "You were given a power. You didn't ask for it!... and… and you saved me!
"Which had to happen… all of this did… except for what happened to Rachel…
But without your power we wouldn't have found her!"
The irony of her words is that I had seen her die more times than I had actually 'saved' her. If I had never been given these powers… I would have watched her die in that bathroom. And I did nothing to stop that from happening.
Okay, so you're not the damn Time Master! But you're Maxine Caulfield!
And you're amazing!"
Again, a shiver shoots through my spine at her words. Whether from guilt, or from the contrast of whatever nightmare I had come from, her words gave me strength. I could only stare at her, with the weight of everything that had happened, what was I supposed to say? I watch as the expression on her face changes. It reminded me of when we had just found Rachel, and yet, it was different. A mixture of defeat… and yet relief.
"Max…"
"This is the only way…"
I watched as she pulled out the photo she took as a gift and places it in my hands. The rain sliding down the laminated paper only defined more the quality of the sky blue butterfly I had captured only a week again… the picture that started all of this. How iconic to capture a butterfly and right before us the chaos was far from a theory.
"I feel like I took this shot a thousand years ago…"
"You… Could use that photo to change everything right back to when you took the picture…
Feeling my stomach turn upside down at the suggestion, hadn't I proven I had already fucked up time and this is exactly what happens, I couldn't fix it, so what good would be going back and doing it all over again? I watch as Chloe stares off into the storm. Already feeling uneasy I wait for her to finish her idea trying hard to make out what she is saying over the sound of carnage below.
All that would take…
is for me…
Me too…"
"FUCK THAT! NO! No way! You are my number one priority now! You are all that matters to me!"
Pain and trauma have a way of making you forget the big picture. When you are surrounded by darkness you strive to search out even the very glimpse of light. Chloe was my light. And after everything I had been through, I wasn't ready to just watch her die all over again knowing how much we had pushed through to get here.
"I know… You've proved that over and over again… even though I don't deserve it…
I'm so selfish… Not like my mom… Look at what she had to give up and live through!... and she did. She deserves so much more than to be killed by a storm in a fucking diner!
Even my … my step … father deserves her alive.
There's so many more people in Arcadia Bay who should live… Way more than me!
"DON'T SAY THAT! I won't trade you." The lump in my stomach found its way to my throat, desperate to find any other option, another choice, another path I rack my brain trying to think… an almost impossible task.
"You're not trading me! Maybe… Maybe you've just been delaying my real destiny…
Look at how many times I've almost died or actually died around you! Look at what is happening to Arcadia Bay ever since you first saved me. I know I've been selfish but for once I think I should accept my fate… our fate."
Indeed, no amount of souls would settle deaths demand for what was his. Just like us, we always struggle over those things we can't have, and would do anything to get it. I could only watch as I know despite being able to manipulate time… it was running out fast. Maybe it was me that was being manipulated by time… either way… whatever we decided, it would have consequences.
"Chloe!…"
"Max, you finally came back to me this week, and… you did nothing but show me your love and friendship! You made me smile and laugh, like I haven't done in years! Wherever I end up after this… In whatever reality… All those moments between us were real, and they'll always be ours… No matter what you choose, I know you'll make the right decision..."
"Chloe!.. I can't make this choice!"
"No, Max… You're the only one who can…"
The weight of her words rang in my ears. All this time I had been trying to make the right choice, trial and error and reversing time looking at all the options. I had pushed myself to the limit to save Kate, and when it came down to it, my powers didn't mean anything. The choices that really matter there is no going back on. That's what makes life so strange, that despite everyday regretting the actions we do and don't do, we ultimately rely upon the ever progression motion of time to keep us sane. The paradox of being able to change time, is that is keeps on moving, and leaves you behind.
For a moment, without me acting, time seemed to stop… the storm was silenced, and all that was present was me and Chloe. In that moment of silence, the weight of the two choices before me rested on each one of my shoulders. Before I knew it, that silence was broken. By the only thing I every wanted, the tender voice of the girl I had loved and fought for all this time, the girl I had left, alone to fight through her demons, and yet welcomed me back with open arms.
"Max…
It's time…"
I had made my choice.
"Chloe! I'm so… I'm so sorry… I… I don't want to do this!"
"I know, Max. But you have to. We have to save everybody, okay? And you'll make those fuckers pay for what they did to Rachel!
Being together this week… it was the best farewell gift I could have hoped for.
You're my hero, Max…"
I look into the eyes of the girl standing before me, lifting my hands forward I lean forward for our last embrace, pushing myself up I tenderly connect lips with my best friend, never to know what might have been. Yet, this was enough. It always seems the first, and last time that passion is most evident, most memorable, most cherished. Silence again surrounds us, in this moment time stood still. A timeline I would die for. Tears ran down our cheeks, disguised by the rain. My knees wanted to buckle, and I grasped for her embrace more than my lungs needed air, and yet. This was goodbye.
"I'll always love you… Now get out of here! Please! Do it before I freak!
And Max Caulfield…
Don't you forget about me…"
"Never…"
I watch as Chloe slowly backs away and kneels to the ground breathing erratically, lifting the picture for a better view, those familiar sensations began to sweep over me. This was my choice. I refuse to let fate impose on my choice, from here on out there is no going back.
So, obviously, this is the ending of the game, we already know this, but I included it to provide context for later chapters. And trust me, you'll thank me later when you get into them. The first 3 chapters really outline the very foundation of the story, and without it, would only add confusion. xD So sorrynotsorry for stating the obvious.
