Hey community!

its uhh, ncie to meet everyone. I couldn't sleep so I wrote my first ever fan fiction. may I say, that it is an honor to be here and while I've never really been a fan of fan fiction i've found that so many of you are talented and precious.

This story doesnt have any major romance for a while but is based on the decisions I made in my own play through of Life is Strange. Max is curious about her relationship with Warren and Chloe and her were BFFs.

I'll try and stay as true to the characters as I can, please keep in contact with me and let me know what you feel.

Ciao!

Michikyou.

(Today's Path)

"Please, say something." Max heard Chloe speak.

"Chloe? I must of passed out." She replied.

Max and Chloe stood there, at the pinnacle of decision. The twister growing larger the longer they both seemed to look at it. "I…" Max began to speak, pointing towards the storm as her voice grew frantic. "This is my storm. I caused this… I caused all of this. I changed fate and destiny so much that… that i actually did alter the course of everything. All I really created was just death and destruction!" she cried out, lowering her hand to her side in defeat, stepping towards the seat.

Her friend spoke up, the punk who was always here for her. "Fuck all of that, Okay?." she was as equally angry. No, not angry, she was determined in her own way. A wild spirit who had been the cause of this storm. "You were given a power. You didn't ask for it…" her voice softened. "and you saved me."

Like Max she looked towards the storm, trying to push her point across. "Which had to happen, all of this did… except for what happened to Rachel."

Rachel was the true tragedy here. A beloved idol of Blackwall who never got to live into adulthood. her face was almost too beautiful for all those missing persons posters they were left on.

"But without your power, we wouldn't of found her!" Chloe continued.

They had found her, found her buried in the escape that she and Chloe had loved so much. A symbol of their own rebellion and a home for their notoriety. "Okay, so you're not the god damned time master. But you're Maxine Caulfield... and you're amazing." Her arms extended to grip Max's shoulders. Supporting her weight for what was to come.

Max lifted her gaze from Chloe's shoulder, wanting to avoid this conversation. Max's heart was lead. Heavy and weighted into the weather. Nothing could shake the guilt which stormed through her mind. One more glance was directed towards the twister.

The small amount of comfort Max felt on her jacket fell as Chloe stepped away, her gaze drifting to Max's before she spoke up.

'No Chloe.. anything but that..' Max already knew. Chloe knew that Max knew.

"Max, This is the only way." her hand reached into her wallet. Extending the picture she kept of the butterfly back to Max. "You could… use that change everything right back to when you took that picture…" her voice was beginning to crumble. "All that would take would be for me to…" she choked on her voice, still trying to stay strong. "is for me t-" she wept. "T-"

"Fuck that! You're my number one priority right now. You are all that matters to me."

"I know." she replied, melodically as if she already knew Max's decision. How could she? "You proved that over and over again… even though I don't deserve it." she paced, turning from and to Max. "I'm so selfish.. not like my Mom… Look what she had to give up and live through.." Chloe was straining to speak. "And she did. She deserves so much more than to be killed by a storm in a fucking diner." she flipped the storm off while she gestured. "Even my step…" she strained further, admitting something she should've sooner. "Step father deserves her alive. There's so many more people in Arcadia Bay who should live… Way more than me..."

"I won't trade you!" Max begged, pleaded with her friend. "I can't make that decision."

"You aren't trading me. Maybe you've just been delaying my real destiny.." she drew in a breath. "Look how many times i've almost died or actually died around you. Look at what's happened in Arcadia bay ever since you first saved me."

So, so much had happened. Kidnapping, torture. fear, nightmares… the suicide of a friend. The loss of so many people who didn't deserve it. Maxine thought to herself, trembling in the storm that engulfed more than the dry domains of her world around them was falling apart and she knew, deep down she knew that Chloe was right. No one else deserved to die. But why did Chloe have to? Why was the universe forcing her to make this decision.

Whatever Chloe said next drowned out with the rain as Max looked at the photograph in her hands, thinking of what she should do. Was there enough time to save the others in the town? How many people could she save?

"I think I should accept my fate, our fate." those were Chloe's words as her hand gripped at Max's shoulder, turning her to face her.

"Chloe."

"Max you finally came back to me this week. And you did nothing but show me your love and friendship. You made me laugh and smile like I haven't in years." she sobbed, soldiering on through the words. "Wherever I end up after this... in whatever reality.. all those moments between us were real, and they will always be ours."

"Chloe, I can't make this choice."

"No Max, You're the only one who can."

Max apologised, covering her eyes for the smallest of moments.

"I know Max... But we have to save everybody, Okay? And you'll make those fuckers pay for what they did to Rachel." A clap of thunder sounded out in the bay. "Being together this week... it was the best farewell gift I could have hoped for... You're my Hero, Max."

They embraced as suddenly as the storm. They were going to miss each other more than any ink on paper could describe. A bond that transcended time and space was forged in the last four days, in the uncountable hours and trials the two had faced together.

"I'll always love you, get out of here before I freak." she paced away towards the standing lighthouse. "And Max Caulfield? Don't you forget about me..."

"Never."

Max turned towards the storm. Looking down to the Polaroid photo in her hands and all else faded back in time.

Lost to all existence apart from her own memory.

The smell of soapy goop and toilet cleaner filled her nostrils as she dropped the photo before her feet, not needing to hold it any further. This day felt a million years away and now she was living it again. Max braced herself as the door clicked open, back pressing against the door.

Nathan Prescott bust in, then Chloe spoke. The same quarrel began, about money.

Max pressed her hands against the sides of her eyes, trying to dim the sounds and hold down the tears.

BLAM. A Gunshot.

Her tears fell against the tiled floor, and history was rewritten.

It had been a sad week, one that would never be mentioned by anyone else. Because for them it never happened. It wasn't even a thought in the smallest spec of their imagination. Less than one grain of sand in the cascade of their thoughts. Arcadia bay had been saved yet the events which had happened were all still fresh in Max's mind. Not all of them were sad, some were filled with a precious joy that made her smile like bitter chocolate. The sun shone on her face now, the warmth bathing her mood in a clarity Max had not known for a while.

The lighthouse looked the same. Gulls singing in the sky as the fishermen set out not knowing what had happened to them in another timeline. All of that was so clear, and what had happened in this was was still quite fuzzy. what stayed the same? What didn't her rewind make. Egged or worse. warren was still her friend, Kate was... was she alright? Nathan would of been caught based in the gunshot alone... David was always so nearby. Just too far away, one clue off stopping Chloe from meeting that fate.

Max shook her head, clutched the doe necklace against her breast and drew in a breath for confidence.

'You can do this Max, you don't need your rewind to do this' Max reminded herself.

Pushing herself from the bench to make her way down the all too familiar pathway. Down the winding dirt road, passed the graffitied sign and onward to where she had to be.

The whole ride to the Cemetery Was a blur, the silence only broken by the purring of the car engine. 'She wanted this, To protect Joyce, oh gods. Poor Joyce. She had to lose William and Chloe...' What could be done, what could Max say that would help. Everything without rewind was so much more difficult. For Max there was so,e solace in the fact that Chloe had left some of Williams things to her, including that trusty camera, all of those memories of a couple of pirates and Chloe's favorite necklace which in some reality - Max had taken from Jefferson's desk.

The only memento she wore today was stashed on her wrist amount the many bracelets she often wore. A Euphoric dizziness ebbing into her mood as her fingers idly traced that punk band among her plain colored, insert-charity here stretchlets.

Reluctantly Max clicked the car door open, stepping onto the pavement. Everyone had already began to walk towards the ceremony. The pressure building like stacked bricks on her shoulders. Max could already feel her chest tightening at the thought of facing Joyce, of facing that casket.

'Chloe...' Max could almost her her voice scolding her. Part of her imagined a message from her, claiming she would be late as usual. Only Chloe would be late to her own funeral, that was the friend she had grown to love. But none came, her decision had been final.

Loose pebbles were stirred by my steps as Max meandered in silence towards the grouping. Kate, she was alive - and she had been an angel to Joyce, who more than anyone needed someone right now. Even David was doing his best - arms around his wife. Victoria, the two skaters Justin and Trevor were here too dressed in a style no one ever would've expected from them. Just the sight of those familiar faces lifted a few bricks from her shoulders.

It was beautiful, the words spoken full of sorrow. During the ceremony Max kept her gaze down, drowning out the words of sorrow and hope that he had to speak. They didn't matter to Max, she had known Chloe. listening to the old man speak of how bright and charismatic she was. He had forgotten to mention her short temper and her rebellious side. But funerals were about the living, they brought a sense of closure to something horrific. An end to a journey.

Warren acknowledged Max with those caring eyes, he had come perhaps on the request of Joyce. Another weight was lifted from her shoulders.

'No one.. But me remembers. Warren doesn't-' she cut off her own train of thought. Her arms resting atop her stomach lightly as she tried her best not to cry. The light that strobed down upon them flickered in blue , broken up by the pattering of wings. A filter breaking the sunlight until her gaze caught what was responsible.

'Chloe.' she recalled again.

That same butterfly, the one which started everything - or one that looked the same landed on the casket. It couldn't be coincidence. She was still here. Max convinced herself like that formless doe, this butterfly was guiding her.

'It... appeared in that alternate reality too.. It can't just be a coincidence.' A smile spread across her lips, an ache in her cheeks so foreign compared to the weight that still remained on her shoulders.

The rest of the ceremony was a blur. tomorrow would be like every other day, but unlike the ones she had experienced.