Joining Of The Hunt
A/N: Test Chapter, want to see what you guys think of the combo and if you like it I'll go on and if not it might stay a oneshot.
It was all she could do, she could only watch the Storm begin ravaging her hometown as she held Chloe close. The Bluenette had fallen to her knees after Max had made her choice and kissed her Best Friend, everything just became to much for the older girl.
She'd dropped to her knees and began silently crying, her tears mixing with the rain running down her face while Max held her tightly in her arms. Her vision had come true, nearly down to the very last detail it had all come true and she couldn't do anything to change it, not anymore.
Max had tried every possibility, every choice and every single path she could've taken the past week and everything led to this point. She let Kate jump, let Jefferson take Victoria, busted Jefferson and Prescott, tried everything she could think of to save Chloe but nothing changed anything, the Storm always ravaged Arcadia Bay.
She realised on her last try that nothing she did would help, that her first vision would happen no matter what and everyone would die. Her last run through the timeline had been meticulous to a point but always careless and messy.
Max did what was necessary and left everything else to chance, she pulled Kate from the rooftop and grappled her into submission before she hugged and comforted the Christian girl when she began crying.
She warned Victoria to leave town, not to trust anyone and to just leave but the girl ignored it, running straight to Jefferson and ending up in the Dark Room. Max drew a great deal of satisfaction from watching Warren going ape on Nathan in the hallway, taking his gun and letting the boy go on until someone else came and pulled him off of Prescott.
When they went to pay Frank and get his client list she pulled out the gun she'd stolen from Prescott and this time, showed the Dealer that the gun was loaded. They got the list, Chloe got to keep the money, Pompidou got to live and Max warned Frank to leave.
She fought hard in the Dark Room, so hard that the injuries she got from struggling hadn't faded when she jumped back to warn Chloe. She could've missed the Dark Room entirely but Max felt it was something she had to do, just one last time to show she was still there, still strong enough.
And now here she was with Chloe, the two of them would probably be the only survivors of the Storm but it was enough for Max. She felt regret and sorrow over the fact that everyone else was either dead or about to die but she wouldn't sacrifice Chloe for them, not her Clo.
The storm moved so slowly across the town, tearing the buildings and streets apart bit by bit as it continued on its path. Max wouldn't let herself look away, she continued to watch the storm as she held her friend and forced herself to understand that she was the one killing them all.
"Well, well, well. After so long I've found you." A grave and coarse voice said softly but it still cut through the sound of the gale force winds and rain. "Always knew a Hunter here would destroy everything, still don't know how you got here though."
"W-who are you?" Max stuttered as she stood up and turned around to look at whoever spoke while positioning her body in front of Chloe. She had to blink a few times to clear the water that had gathered in her eyes, blurring her vision slightly.
What she was wasn't what she expected to see, she'd never heard anyone speak in her visions and they always ended when the storm hit Arcadia Bay. But there he was, a seemingly wheelchair bound man was behind her with a woman standing next to him as if there was no Storm.
"Me? All Hunters know me dear girl, it's a wonder you don't know who I am really." His lips barely moved but Max could hear him quite clearly and felt Chloe shift, the girl had stopped crying and was now clutching Max's jeans while looking at the man. "I am Gehrman and this is Doll."
The woman bowed her head slightly when the man referenced her, placing her right hand over her heart as she did so. She looked so unaffected by the Storm, her clothes almost didn't move in the wind and she didn't even blink as the rain continued to wet her clothing and hit her face.
"Wha-what do you want?" Her teeth chattered as she spoke, the cold wind and water clearly affecting her now as it seeped into her body and chilled her to the bone. "Why're y-you here?"
"Me? It's quite clear why I'm here Hunter, it's to come bring you home. Take you back where you belong." He told her and even though Max didn't understand what he meant a part of her seemed thrilled, positively happy. "This world is not for us Hunters, you were never meant to come to the Resting World."
"What the Fuck are you talking about!?" Chloe screamed, her voice nearly being drowned out by the Storm as she stood up. "Max isn't going anywhere, I won't let you take her you old creep. You don't know shit about my friend!"
"Oh, but I do, I know that eighteen years ago her Soul became lost. I waited for the soul of a Hunter to appear but she never did." Gehrman said as Doll moved behind his wheelchair and began pushing him forwards. "I was forced to ignore the Hunter's Dream in order to look for her, let it fester, grow stronger and fall further into depravity."
"Other Hunter's came and fought but they were not strong enough, falling to the Blood or not being able to do enough." They were coming closer and while Chloe was feeling boxed in and scared Max was strangely free, uncaring and wanting him closer. "The Healing Church fell and there are too few Hunters remaining in the Dream."
"You are a Hunter Maxine Caulfield; a Hunter of the Dream and you were never meant to arrive in the Resting World." Doll stopped pushing once they were directly in front of the pair and Gehrman waved his right arm around, gesturing to everything around them. "This Storm became because of you."
Max was stunned into silence, the man was saying that she caused the Storm and she couldn't help but know that he was right. She had Power over Time itself, something should be impossible and she got visions of the Storm the more she used her powers.
Chloe herself was stunned as well but tried to justify herself as she mentally began denying what the man was telling them. There was no way this was Max's fault, it wasn't possible but the more she tried to argue the point with herself the more his words began winning.
Gehrman watched them for a minute, sitting in silence as they thought their own thoughts and saw the Blue haired girl didn't believe him. 'She matters little, I need only to bring our Hunter back to the Dream. The Storm will clear and the girl will go on with her life.' Gehrman thought and the corner of his mouth turned upwards as he looked into Max's eyes.
"W-what if I never was here?" Max asked softly, ignoring Chloe's indignant scream of 'What', Doll smiled slightly while looking down at Gehrman. "Would the Storm still happen; would Chloe be alive if I wasn't born?"
"Your coming into the Resting World began all this, your continued living only worsened it as time went on." He admitted and while Max looked even sadder that this really was her fault she had hope. "It would be difficult to stop this at the beginning, nigh impossible if you hadn't come to this World."
Max was bolted to the ground, the wind, the rain and the sound of Chloe's voice all fell away as she listened to Gehrman, listened to the words he was saying. Chloe herself was trying to shake and pull Max way, down the path despite the storm still raging but he small Hipster wouldn't move, not an inch.
"To reach back in time and take you before it all beginning will be difficult and it would only change what happens in this world, not in the Dream or the Waking World. Your power over Time will be enough, you have great strength with it but not enough control to adequately use it."
"Take my hand and offer me your power, I shall use it to undo this all. Take you from this world and back to the Dream, where you belong." Her eyes were glued to his left hand as he raised it, offering it to Max and waiting for her to take it. "It shall return to you in time but everything will be put right."
"Your friend shall live a long life, full of her family and friend and she shall die peacefully, slipping away to the Waking World without knowing." Those final words sealed the deal and Max slowly raised her right hand to take his.
She was dimly aware of Chloe yelling in her ear, her ineffectual struggles of trying to stop the Time Traveller. Chloe even tried to directly pull on Max's rising arm to no effect, it continued moving and refused to move a direction that was not towards Gehrman's hand.
His skin was rough and calloused, years of small scars and hard skin made up his entire hand and it scratched against her soft skin almost pleasantly. Max held his hand for a second before focusing on her power as she'd done countless time before, pushing it from herself to Gehrman through their joined hands.
Another second passed and Max watched as everything stopped before slowly rewinding, saw Chloe's semi-translucent form try pull nothing. Max couldn't see her own echo anymore, she could see an echo of Gehrman or Doll anymore and realised he'd removed them from time completely.
"G-goodbye Clo, I love you." Max whispered as she lowered her head and she cried, scant few tears falling from her closed eyelids. She didn't look but all around them time moved back and as it went on it slowly became faster and faster.
The world quickly became an indistinct blur around the three of them as eighteen years were erased in a matter of minutes. Eighteen years of hardship, suffering, love and friendship were erased and Max opened her eyes when Gehrman squeezed her hand slightly.
She opened them to see a hospital room, her mother on the bed while her father was having his hand squeezed to pieces. Max felt drained of all power as Gehrman let time advance and watched as her mother gave birth to what was supposed to be her.
She couldn't find it in herself to feel anything as she saw what had been her baby self at one point come out. The baby stayed silent, eyes closed and lips pursed without a single movement to be seen and Max was quick to realise how Gehrman would take her soul to the Dream.
Her mother cried and her father held his wife when the Doctor told them two minutes later that she was stillborn. Born into the world and leaving it in the same moment without ever truly being alive, never to draw a single breath.
Max closed her eyes and let another few tears escape before she felt a different kind of pull and the darkness became all she knew. Falling unconscious and dropping to her knees in front of Gehrman as he brought them to the dream, the place where they all belonged.
ooo000ooo