Author's Notes:

The events of this chapter are inspired by We Are Nowhere and It's Now – Bright Eyes.

All credit is given to Bright Eyes for the song lyrics used and referenced in this chapter.


The world felt empty. A hollow nothing twirled against her skin, depriving her body of any and all stimuli. Gradually the world around her shifted into existence and a soft haze overtook her mind. She felt tired, but not in the usual manner. It was the type of fatigue that usually signals the arrival of a deep, comforting sleep.

As she began to become cognizant of her environment, she perceived a cool, flexible substance hugging her partially unclad body. Her body was moving beyond her control, as if adhering to the prewritten script of a supernatural playwright.

Wha… where am I? What's happeni-?

She was forcefully taken out of her thoughts by the faint whispers – well, it resembled a whisper to her, in reality the voice was speaking at a normal volume – of a voice somewhere in her immediate vicinity.

"Your power is changing everything, Max. Especially you. I can already tell. You're not so… chickenshit anymore."

Finally regaining her vision – and the rest of her senses, for that matter – Max took in her environment. She was in the Blackwell pool, its illuminated waters reflecting against her saturated skin. Chloe was situated to her right, leaning on the side of the pool and gazing at Max.

Several moments passed as Max processed what was happening.

I… how am I back here? Oh my dog, did I break time?

On the verge of a nervous breakdown, she abruptly swallowed, burying her feelings so as to not alert Chloe to her current emotional state.

Okay, okay. I'll just try to make sure everything goes the same way as last time, and… figure it out from there. Easy.

Greedily taking in a deep breath of air, she tried to recall how she had replied to Chloe previously. She offered a half-hearted chuckle and replied with whatever cheer she could muster, "Thanks, girlfriend."

Staring ahead into the empty control room, Chloe imparted a small, content smile. "You know what I mean. You're becoming like this… force of nature."

Once again struggling to recall her past responses, Max paused. "More like luck of nature. I mean, my power failed when I tried to rescue Kate. Maybe I'm just stumbling back and forth in time… for what reason?" She shrugged, her movement being too subtle for Chloe to notice. Close enough, I guess.

"You didn't stumble when you saved me, Max."

Max bobbed her head in hesitant agreement. "Yeah, not that time. But only because you were there to kickstart my power."

Chloe continued to look ahead, rhythmically tapping her fingers on the wet tile as she thought. "So it's time to start moving forward in time. And we're obviously connected since… without me, you would have never discovered your power, right?" She glanced briefly at Max, awaiting a response.

"Absolutely. You make me feel like I know what I'm doing."

"And you make me feel like I have a reason for still being in Arcadia Bay." She lightly nudged the photographer's elbow.

Max shifted closer to the bluenette. Their eyes met as Chloe rolled her head toward Max. "I hope so."

Chloe shook her head, droplets of water flying out of her dampened hair as she did so. "Stop being so goddamn humble. You're like the smartest, most talented person I've ever known."

"More than Rachel Amber?" Max cringed slightly at the reminder of her past jealousy of the girl. Chloe says she's a jealous bitch, but… I think I've won that title.

Chloe's eyes briefly flashed in annoyance. She momentarily diverted her eyes from Max's. "Dude, I'm not her groupie, okay? And I'm sure you have Blackwell bros all over you – like Warren."

Max shook her head. "You're the bro killer." She giggled. "Tats and 'tude."

Chloe's lips tugged upward into a smile. "You did not just say that. Plus, I am not down with these Arcadia Bay hillbillies." She retorted with a playful inflection.

Max stifled a laugh. "I don't blame you… Anyway, we have bigger fish to fry, right?"

Chloe sighed and nodded. "No worries. Once you get over yourself, you're going to make the world bow."

"As long as you're there with me." Thinking back, Max realized that she hadn't truly realized how true those words had been when she had originally said them all that time ago. Without Chloe, her confidence had been completely sapped – she'd become completely despondent in nearly every way.

Chloe noticed Max's shift in attitude through her peripheral vision. Max's depressing thoughts had made themselves clear on her face. "Don't look so sad. I'm never leaving you."

If only that were true.

Desperate to get away from that conversation, Max pushed herself away from the wall. She relished the feeling of the water as her body crashed into its depths. Her arms moved in cyclical motions to keep herself afloat as she shot a playful look in Chloe's direction. "Now I'm getting cold in here."

"Because we're yapping instead of attacking each other, otter-versus-shark style!" Chloe proclaimed, following Max deeper into the pool and splashing water at her.

Max turned her face as the bits of water flew past her face, giggling all the while. Once the air was clear, she turned around and retaliated with an admittedly weaker splash of her own.

"I, uh… think I've had my pool experience for the year. Let's jet." Chloe declared. She span herself around in the water and dove for the pool wall.

"Let's call it a draw. I'm gonna freeze my ass off when I get out."

Okay, so far so good. Shouldn't be long until… wait.

Something was… off, to say the least. A cold, expectant fear grasped at Max's heart as it began to beat faster and faster. She examined the area around her in a blind panic. It was then that she noticed that the pool had no bottom. The water descended indefinitely into a seemingly endless black void. Goosebumps appeared all over Max's body as she began to shake. A thick, warm liquid began to pool on her upper lip. Before she had a chance to react, she heard a loud 'thump', immediately followed by a 'crack'.

Max whipped her head around in a panic frenzy. She witnessed a sight she had hoped to never see again; Chloe's body, lacking consciousness, floating face-down in the water. Blood was painted on the edge of the pool's wall, small beads of the liquid occasionally falling into the pool and mixing with the water. A thin wisp of the thick liquid was being emitted from Chloe's temple, dancing in the water as it rose to the surface.

Max stifled a sob and brought her hands to her face, a sharp inhalation of air coming with it. She recoiled slightly, the previously rhythmic nature of her breathing became increasingly irregular.

In hope that Chloe may somehow still be alive, Max cautiously treaded toward the girl's body. She lightly nudged it upon arrival. As if scared out of her slumber by the touch, Chloe jerked slightly and grabbed the smaller girl's arm. She rolled onto her side. The way she was floating in the water defied all laws of physics; it was as if she was floating, her body completely ignoring the water around it. Her eyes were glazed over, looking at nothing in particular – and yet, it looked as though she were gazing deep into Max's soul. Her chest laid still… she wasn't breathing.

Max tried to jump back – to get away – but she found herself anchored in her spot. She couldn't move anything, and just like Chloe, she wasn't sinking.

A thin, raspy voice came out of Chloe's mouth. It sounded hollow… lifeless. "You never learned, did you? Every. Single. Time. That you've changed the past, you've just fucked everything up." The voice was full of venom… it sounded nothing like Chloe's. Its face steadily moved into a robotic smile, seeming more malevolent than anything. "You'll see in time. Perfection doesn't exist, Max. Something is always wrong with the world… and you can't just rewind all of your problems away."

Max opened her mouth to speak, but the moment she tried to utter a single syllable, the world around her instantly faded to darkness. It was as if some higher power had flipped a light switch, signaling the end of… whatever had just happened.

Echo. Echo.

It's happening again.

"Max? Max!"

She's shaking. Wait, no… something is shaking her.

"Max!"

"Why are they shaking her? Please, stop. She needs to see. She has to see."

Echo. Echo.

Silence.


"Max!"

A sharp breath of air filled her lungs as she sprang awake, flinging herself to a sitting position. Still alarmed from what had just happened to her, she threw her eyes around her, taking in her environment.

Chloe's room. It… it was just a dream. Just… just a dream.

One would think that the familiarity of her surroundings would be comforting to her, but they weren't. In fact, her surroundings were honestly just making this worse; they were naught but a reminder of her fear of the unknown. The unknown consequences of how drastically she had changed the past.

It'd been around twenty-four hours since Max had supplanted herself into this reality. Most of her time since then had been spent talking to Chloe, sleeping and crying. But she'd never had a nightmare like that before. The mere thought of her dream was enough to send her spiraling near a nervous breakdown.

She felt a soft hand graze the fabric of her t-shirt. It rested on her shoulder and lightly squeezed it in a reassuring manner.

Max turned her gaze to the direction of the touch and saw the sight that she'd hoped to see. Her blue haired punk… Chloe. Finally letting it all go, she dove toward the girl and buried her face in her chest. She tightly gripped the cloth of her shirt. Her grip on the other girl's shirt was hard enough that her knuckles began to grow white.

With a soft breath, Chloe wrapped her arms around the smaller girl. "Nightmare?" She felt as Max delicately nodded her head against her. Sighing, she rested her chin lightly on the other girl's head, rubbing her back reassuringly.

Max focused on Chloe's heartbeat, finding it helped to calm her down. The sounds of her sobs filled the room, dominating the noises of the night. They stayed there for quite a while – likely close to an hour – before Max pulled herself slightly away from the other girl and rested her forehead on her shoulder.

"S-sorry." Max managed through her sniffles. "I, uh… didn't mean to wake you up."

Playing with Max's hair, Chloe planted a sweet kiss on her temple. "Don't be sorry, Maxaroni."

Max removed her head from Chloe's shoulder looked up at her with wide eyes. They threatened to burst open with a brand new batch of tears at any moment. "Do you remember my story?"

Chloe nodded.

"Every time I changed the past, something went wrong. You became crippled in a car accident, I got myself trapped in the Dark Room with no way out… hell, even the tornado was my fault! I want to just say screw it and believe that nothing is wrong this time, but… the fear's just hiding in the back of my mind, you know? That's, um… that's what my nightmare was about." As another sob broke out, she hid her face in the bluenette's neck. "I'm so scared, Chlo."

Unsure of what to say, Chloe instead opted to just pull the girl into a tight embrace. She kissed her lightly. "I'm here." She murmured, desperate for any way to comfort Max.

"Uh, you know… when Dad died," Chloe began, initially uncertain of where she was going with her thought, "I started thinking, like, 'What if I'd just stopped him? Couldn't he have just taken the bus or something?'" She shook her head softly and let out a strained sigh, attempting to hold back her own tears. "I even blamed him for a while. I'm… I'm sure you know what grief is like. Clearly you would, since you lived with it for over half a year. But, Max…" She lifted the brunette's head from her shoulder, lightly holding her hand under the brunette's chin. "Max, you're so much fucking stronger than me. Hell, you're the strongest person I know. You want to know why?"

Max offered a frail nod, prompting Chloe to continue.

"Anybody else would have given up had they gone through what you went through. You saved my life so many goddamn times and stayed strong the entire time. There's a reason that you were given these powers. You're the only person that's strong enough to use them; to save my life and to keep everyone else safe in the process. I guess what I'm trying to say is… maybe this is the exception that proves the rule? Maybe, just this once, whatever's dictating the story of the universe just slipped you a get-out-of-jail-free card?"

Max shrugged, still unconvinced but happy to hear the comforting words. She leaned her head against the other girl's bust and continued to cry softly. She cried on and off for hours, until the first peeking of the morning sun. At some point, as Arcadia Bay began to wake up, the two fell asleep, wrapped in each other's arms.

One final thought ran through Max's mind as her mind drifted into a dreamless slumber.

A get-out-of-jail-free card, huh? Hm. Maybe.

I guess we'll see.


"And like a ten minute dream

In the passenger seat

While the world was flying by

I haven't been gone very long

But it feels like a lifetime."

- Bright Eyes, We Are Nowhere and It's Now