"What the fuck?!"

Max was used to weird things happen to her, but she had absolutely no idea what had happened. One moment she was at the Arcadia Bay Cemetery looking at the casket, then her powers did some shit and suddenly everything changed. It was still the same cemetery, but it looked ancient and overgrown. Had she gone back in time again? How the fuck could that happen? She wasn't supposed to use this power again.

Ok, Max, calm down and think, she thought.

She knew that her power was somehow connected to stress. The first time she had used it, she had seen Chloe die. Then she managed to freeze time seeing Kate jumping off the roof. Finally, she felt depressed and went back in time through a photo. Chloe's funeral was the worst thing in her life and she shouldn't have been surprised that her fucking power acted on its own again. Well, not really on its own. She did want to be far away from the cemetery, to pretend that nothing had happened.

Wait… The headstone was still here and there was Chloe's name on it. What the fuck?! Did I go to the future? No way!

"Don't panic, Max," she muttered. "You're time traveler, you can get back."

Max focused on her power and attempted to rewind time as far as she could before falling to her knees, feeling something warm flowing down from her nose. Of course, this wouldn't work! She couldn't rewind more than a few minutes and judging by the look of the cemetery it had been years since the funeral. How would she get back? The only way to time travel to the far past she knew was using a photo, but even that was temporary. What year was it anyway?

Feeling unsure about what to do, Max sighed and walked towards the entrance. The cemetery looked neglected, as if it had been dozens of years since anyone had visited it. There were rusty remains of the gate and no sight of a road. Not even a sign of the town or civilization. Just a forest.

Everything is so messed up, she thought, looking around. Did I do this? What happened?

She continued to walk through the forest for another ten minutes before she heard some noise and looked up. Max froze and blinked. There was a massive alien looking ship-thing flying to the north. What was that thing?! Was it an alien spacecraft? Did she end up in a future where humanity fought some aliens? Was she the last human on Earth? That sounded so stupid!

Another five minutes later she stumbled upon a well-maintained hiking trail. That somehow reassured her. If there was a war against aliens nobody would care for hiking trails. Soon she found a wooden signpost, pointing to various places, the lighthouse among them. It took her twenty minutes to get there. The lighthouse wasn't in ruins, although everything looked different. Arcadia Bay wasn't there, there was however a large holo-fucking-graphic panorama that created an illusion of the existing town. An inscription told her that Arcadia Bay had been abandoned in the 2082 and subsequently demolished.

"Holly shit," whispered Max. "It'd been more than seventy years."

She wasn't sure how to feel about it. What if it would ruin the time? What if she wouldn't find a way to get back? Now that she thought about it, it was logical that traveling to the future would be easier. It wasn't something that would defy the laws of physics. Not that she was eager to try it again. The last thing she wanted to do was to skip another seventy years or more. Max shuddered at the thought.

What about my parents? Oh, god, she thought, Everyone was probably dead!

Max stared through the hologram at the bay feeling completely lost. Why did she have this stupid power? It didn't help at all, couldn't even save Chloe! It was useless! And now she was stranded somewhere in the future with everyone she knew dead.

"Fuck you!" she shouted.

"That's one way to relieve stress."

Max let out a scream and turned around in fright. There was a middle-aged pair standing in front of her, clearly amused by her outburst. They were hikers and looked nothing like survivors of an alien invasion. That flying ship-thing must have been what they were using instead of planes nowadays. She felt a little relieved to see humans and not some alien invaders.

"Sorry, I didn't notice you," she said.

"Are you all right?" the man asked.

The dark-skinned man possessed a deep powerful voice, full of bass, that made her feel like a small child in front of an old and wise king that would decide her fate. He was very tall and broad in his shoulders, towering over her like a giant. The man reminded her of David Madsen for some reason, although a better version of him in every possible way. Max couldn't help but feel attracted to him. Her hand moved to her forehead on its own while she was trying to think of an answer.

"Yeah… I mean… except that I'm not even sure where I am."

"Are you lost?" the woman asked with concern. "Do you need help?"

The woman in comparison to the man looked plain normal, although her features were somewhat similar to him. The most striking likeness was in their eye shapes. Were they siblings? Max shook her head. She needed help. She was in the middle of nowhere, had absolutely no idea where to go and what to do. All her belongings were a dress, shoes, bracelet and a necklace. But how would she explain her lack of knowledge? Her powers were too dangerous to use recklessly. She didn't want to cause another storm... if she hadn't caused one already... A memory loss perhaps?

"I… yeah," she said. "I sort of… can't remember, how I got here or even what the current date is."

"There is a shuttle station nearby, we could walk you there, if you want," the woman said.

A shuttle station? Like a space shuttle or a flying car? I'll totally get a flying DeLorean.

"You… I mean, I don't want to be a bother."

"Don't worry about it," she said. "We don't have any pressing matters. I'm Kelly and the big guy next to me is my brother David."

"I'm Max," she said. "Maxine Caulfield."

"As in Maxine?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah, but I prefer Max," she said, following the pair down the trail.

"It's a good sign that you remember your name."

"I guess… Could you tell me what date it is?"

"It's the seventh of July."

"And the year?"

"2173."

Her eyes widened. Holly shit!

"Do you remember where're you from?" David asked.

She almost said Arcadia Bay but stopped herself in time. Max, don't be stupid, she told herself. The town had been abandoned ninety years ago.

"I'm not sure," she said instead.

"Any friends or relatives you can recall or even just names?"

"I… I don't think so."

"Do you have an omni-tool?"

"A what?"

"An omni-tool. A wearable or handheld device used for variety of tasks, like communication, banking and extranet surfing."

"Like a phone?" Max asked.

David chuckled as if I'd said something funny.

"I apologize," he said. "Most people don't know what a phone is. I think it was my two-times-great-grandfather who had used one. Maybe. But yes, it's similar. Let me see your bracelet and necklace... No, just trinkets."

"What does it look like?"

"They're sold in various forms. Some people use a handheld version like this one," he said, takin a small grey device out of his pocket. "Kelly uses a bracelet. It usually stays in your pocket, and you use it like this."

Suddenly an orange hologram appeared around his left hand, while he used his right hand to manipulate it. This thing is mega cool.

"You need haptic gloves or cybernetics to use it efficiently, otherwise it lacks any feedback," he continued while demonstrating the tool's functions. "It's strange that you don't remember it. Kids spend most of their time on omni-tools."

"I guess I must have bumped my head pretty hard."

"We'll take you to the hospital. It's going to be okay."

"Thanks."

They walked in silence for a few minutes. The world had changed and she wasn't sure if she would be able to adapt. If only Chloe were here with me... Why had she listened to her? Why had she chosen to save the town instead of Chloe? It wasn't there anyway. Perhaps there had been a way to prevent the storm without sacrificing Chloe. What if she could have saved her without causing the storm? What if the storm had been a result of her reckless power usage? A self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Max sighed, kicking herself for stupidity. If only I could go back again.

As they neared the shuttle station she looked around. It was just a paved area with a few dozen parked shuttles of various forms and sizes. And they were flying cars just like she had guessed. There were a few fast food outlets on the edge of the station and a sport store. She had tons of questions, but decided to stay silent, trying to not ask too many stupid questions.

David led them to one of the shuttles and opened a door.

"Get in," he said.

Max sat down on the back seat behind David and looked out of the window as the shuttle launched itself to the sky. It turned out that the air was really busy, reminding her of an air highway, just like in sci-fi movies. Then she saw a futuristic city full of skyscrapers and large vessels flying over it. Wowzers! The metropolis in front was so massive that she couldn't even see the end of it, but she recognized the landscape easily. It was Seattle, although the city itself looked nothing like the one from the past.

"It seems you recognize Vancouver, don't you?" Kelly asked.

"What?" she asked then quickly continued, "I mean it looks familiar, but… is this really Vancouver?"

"Yes."

What the fuck? She knew that it was Seattle. Had it become a part of Canada and somehow got absorbed into Vancouver? How the fuck did the U.S. lose a city to Canada? Was there a war? Why? Did the U.S. lose the war or did the countries simply merge into a single entity for some reason?

They landed in front of the Vancouver General Hospital and got out of the shuttle. As she followed David and Kelly, Max looked around and felt like an ant in this new massive megacity. It looked nothing like the old Seattle or Vancouver, which she had visited with her parents once. This Vancouver looked as though it had population of a few hundred million. She couldn't explain why there would be countless skyscrapers otherwise.

"Wait here, I'll explain your situation," David said.

She nodded and sat down in the waiting hall with Kelly. Max wasn't sure what she would have done if she hadn't met them. What was the chance to meet these nice people who decided to help a perfect stranger in the middle of nowhere? She fidgeted thinking of the upcoming conversation with a doctor. Would they be able to tell that she was lying and didn't have a memory loss?

"It's going to be okay, Max," Kelly said. "Don't worry."

"I'm just unsure what will happen next."

"They'll get a DNA sample to find out who you are."

Good luck with that, she thought.

Then she saw a thing that shocked her. An alien. It resembled a human female but had blue skin and some tentacle-thingies instead of hair. Very creepy, but still somewhat attractive. Max was so engrossed in watching the alien that she almost missed the question Kelly asked.

"I take you don't remember seeing an asari, do you?" Kelly asked.

"This alien is an asari?"

Kelly nodded. "It's been sixteen years since the First Contact War, but I still can hardly believe that there are other sapient species."

"The First Contact War?"

"There was a misunderstanding that led to a limited conflict with the turians," she said and activated her omni-tool, showing her a picture of a turian. "No memories about them?"

Max shook her head. "No. Could you show me other aliens too?"

"Sure!"

By the time David came back, Max learned a lot about the galaxy. Humanity had colonized numerous planets outside of the solar system and had spread very far. Some colonies were secure while others were under constant threat of attacks and raids both aliens and human criminals. The same could be told about aliens. Some were friendly, but other were deadly.

"Here," David said, giving her a bracelet. "I got you a simple omni-tool."

"Oh… You didn't have to," she said blushing. "I mean…"

"It's not a problem," he interrupted her. "You can pay me back once you have money. Here, put it on."

It was a small black bracelet made from something that felt like ceramic.

"How do I activate it?" she asked as she put it on.

"Press and hold the button on the bottom."

As she did it, Max felt the bracelet adjusted itself to the size of her wrist, and after a second an orange hologram appeared around her hand. Then she followed the instructions to calibrate the activation and set up her as the owner. The omni-tool wasn't hard to use. Unusual and different, but very intuitive.

"I think I got it," Max said and immediately received a message from David.

"Add me to your contact list."

"Okay," she said, trying to do as he asked. "David Anderson… Done."

"Contact me if you need help."

"I… I wouldn't want to impose."

"It's not every day I find people who can't remember an omni-tool. Kelly and I are going to stay for the next two weeks on Earth, so don't be afraid to send me a message if you need anything."

"Thank you."

He nodded.