Chapter 10 Judge, Jury, Executioner

Max

April 17th, 2014

9:52 AM

Arcadia Bay Oregon

Arcadia Bay Courthouse

After Dr. Sorenson wrapped up his testimony on the stand, it was Principal Wells' turn to testify. All the equipment used to project my experimental footage and x-rays were taken down and lights were now back on. Crosby was the one to question Mr. Wells as he took the stand. And my trial resumed session.

"Mr. Wells, Max Caulfield has attended Blackwell since the beginning of the Fall semester of the current school year," Crosby began. "Starting with her Senior year and with a ranking of a 2.8 GPA. For starters, evidence claims that the defendant took advantage of her powers in order to prevent the suicide of Kate Marsh. Which is now confirmed to be true by Mr. Crosby. At the time of that incident, did Caulfield ever speak of her power at all?"

"Not at all, Mr. Crosby," replied Wells. "In fact, I've never heard of such power of hers until the morning I was informed by the District Attorney, yourself, and Mr. Prescott themselves. At the time of that incident with Ms. Marsh, I was only able to come to terms of admiring Ms. Caulfield's heroics of preventing that suicide attempt and determining why it occurred to begin with. In the end, the climax of that case turned out to be the responsibility of not only someone I can't name, but by Mark Jefferson. A once trusted faculty member who was then charged of a series of kidnappings and murders of other past female Blackwell attendees. But that's a whole another story compared to what this trial relates to."

Another censored Nathan reference spoken by Mr. Wells. As long as the Prescotts were present in this room, no one could speak of or use the name of their dead heir. Simple as that.

"What of the Blackwell shooting? You had stated in the media that if the hunt for Max Caulfield would go as far as assassinating her on the school grounds, you could've done more that what you prepared for the safety of everyone else on campus. Did you know this shooting was going to happen or did it not occur to you that it would happen from the start?

"I was told that the Chrysalis task force would only be there to apprehend Ms. Caulfield and that they would march into campus armed with firearms in case she resisted arrest and things got ugly. Turns out it became worse than I figured. Never in my years of running Blackwell have I had to confront such an atrocity of a school shooting. As a result, there were at least twenty or more soldiers killed on campus leaving a majority of both students and faculty outraged of the travesty. In the aftermath of the shooting, Chrysalis had to detain the school and make me reprimand the rest of the school day. Therefore, I should've known things would go from bad to worse when I didn't."

"When you look at Max Caulfield herself, who do you personally see before you? An innocent appealing teenager who works hard every day at school or a deceptive quantum terrorist disguising her self-indictment?"

"As far as Ms. Caulfield's reputation is concerned, she's an eccentric, but motivated and hardworking student at Blackwell. Not a quantum terrorist so to speak. The kind of word Chrysalis and Mr. Prescott perpetuates her to be. Despite her self-indictment, the only Max Caulfield I've ever known is the one who remains to be a good student knowing right from wrong. That is the only Ms. Caulfield I've come to know up until now."

Next up, Captain Cage on the stand. This time dressed in a coat and tie and not in military gear. How lovely to see ass show up to this court. I should enjoy what he has to say. I always thought of Cage to be a David version of Sean. Talks like a soldier, acts like a douche. At least David tries to be a more caring person than Sean does. Karen was the one to question him by the stand.

"Captain Cage, you were the person running the Chrysalis operation to apprehend the defendant that had started the Blackwell shooting," Karen began. "At first, you and your unit of Chrysalis operatives were given orders to take Caulfield alive. Then for some reason you were given orders to kill her on sight. The more reason there's protest at Blackwell and the rest of Arcadia Bay. Did you ever feel it was mistake being given those orders?"

"A mistake?", muttered Cage. "Besides from the fact that Caulfield shot down half of Alpha Team and the other half of Bravo Team single handedly, what choice did we have? We had to put her down. She ended being more dangerous to my men, good men of mine who always fought at my side in a war between the Chrysalis Corps and quantum terrorism, than I had figured. What would anyone else have done if she was too dangerous to apprehend?"

With all that said, I half expected Chloe to flip out again in court like she did with Prescott, but she stood down and put a zipper on her mouth like a mature young lady. Even Chloe wasn't cavalier enough to make the same mistake twice.

"If you and your men were to take Ms. Caulfield alive instead, that is if the defendant would have capitulated to you her arrest instead of resisting, would it have toned down the controversy Arcadia Bay remains today?"

"Ma'am, controversy or no controversy, we would've arrested Caulfield regardless. As a leader of the Chrysalis Corps, it's my duty to bring order and justice to the Quantum Crisis that is not only a threat to Arcadia, but a threat across the globe. When George Bush declared war on Al-Qaeda after 9/11, it was to prevail order and justice to that historical tragedy. Sean Prescott chose to do the same for Arcadia Bay when he

discovered that tornado storm was conducted by terrorist."

"Anything else you would like to share to this court that can testify against Ms. Caulfield?"

"Your honor, this may sound a little personal, but it's only something to testify against Caulfield."

"Say as you wish, Mr. Cage," said Jude Gareth.

"Believe or not, I lost my family to that tornado incident in Arcadia Bay," Cage admitted.

Well shit. Just another reason to call me a monster for what I've done. I blush for a second or two, but Chloe takes notice of me and tries to comfort me by putting her hand on my shoulder. Just to make sure I don't break down for what I'm about to hear.

"My wife, kids and I were visiting Arcadia to see my sister-in-law. When we first saw the tornado wind whirling around in the middle of the ocean side of Arcadia and everyone in town began to panic, my son was asking, 'Daddy, is the tornado going to kill us all? I'm sacred.' Then my daughter said, 'I'm scared too, Daddy. Are we all going to die?' I reassured the two of them, 'Don't worry you two. The tornado's not that close. It's not gonna hurt us.' It took me three days to find the bodies of my wife and children in the aftermath of that storm. Just when I thought I had left the war fighting quantum terrorist, that war was brought to my family. With that said, I'd be lying if I said if the blood isn't on Max Caulfield's hands. But it is."

I squint my eyes, blush my face, and cringe my stomach when those final words are said. If I even heard one more example of what blood I put on my hands just to live with my bluenette punk-angel forever, I was going to have a panic attack. Period. I calm myself down before I break down. Even Chloe couldn't cope with what Cage had to say to testify against me. I wonder how everyone else I'm close to feels about hearing this as well. Frankly, they would feel the same way no doubt. Insulted is how they'd feel.

"Another example of what it means to be a victim of quantum terrorism, good people of the jury," said Karen turning over to the jury. "I have said before that I too am a victim of that endeavor. If any one of you are victims also, then we can all relate to how if feels to falsely loose the ones we love dearly to such terrorism. And we can only avenge that terrorism by bringing it to justice. The one person you all know who is indicted to that terrorism to justice. Think about all that while you still can."

After hearing Captain Cage on the stand, it was now time for Chloe's testimony. At last, after hearing all this nonsense about my indicted terrorism, I finally get to hear Chloe testify on my side from her point of view. Presiding as my judge, jury, and executioner. I only wondered how well the judge and jury would be able to compensate what she was going to say on the stand. Crosby was the person to question her by the stand. Chloe looked nervous when she got up there. I really hoped Crosby knew where he was going with her testimony. Let alone what Chloe would say in a matter of cooperating. Only one way to figure that out.

"Ms. Price, you are Max Caulfield's closest and most dearest companion," Crosby began. "You have known each other since childhood and now the two of you have an affectionate relationship with each other. Also, it is said by Ms. Caulfield herself that from the very beginning, you were the first and only person to ever come to knowledge of her power. Now, if you don't mind me asking this as a first question, what happened that day? The day your Father was tragically killed in an accident?"

Why would Crosby ask Chloe about her Father dying? What does that have to do with anything? I'd assume it would be related to his statement or whatnot. Maybe he only asked my key witness in order to persuade the jury of my false accusation. Chloe still acted nervously, but a took a deep breath to sustain her confidence.

"It's alright, Chloe," Crosby assured. "I understand it's difficult. Just remember you are under oath for whatever you say."

Chloe gulped and began to turn her voice on.

"What can I say about loosing my Father," she began. "I was fourteen when it happened. It was just an ordinary day between me and Max and little did I know it just so turned out to be my Dad's last day on the planet. Not sure what that has to do with anything about this trial. Why do you ask?"

Crosby cleared his throat before he changed the subject.

"Ms. Price, as much as that was a day that changed your life, there could've been a day that would've changed Max's. That is why asked. Speaking of which, exactly what happened that day? The day you were assaulted in that restroom by you-know-who when Ms. Caulfield first had to save you with the help of her power? In fact, why don't you tell this whole court about that whole week between yourself, Max, and why she had to use her powers that first week before the storm. The people of Arcadia Bay want to know. The people of Arcadia Bay need to know."

Now we're getting somewhere. By now I wonder how Sean feels about referring his son in this court to you-know-who. I supposed as long as no one used the name Nathan, he would sugarcoat it more. More importantly, let's find out what the people of Arcadia Bay feels about the week of my origin story between me and Chloe.

"Okay, I'll tell you," she says

When Chloe tells our story to the court, she spares not one missing detail about it. From the bathroom to the cliff where the lighthouse stands. Everything.

She starts off with the fight between her and Nathan without using his name and how I was able to use the fire alarm to divert Nathan from harming Chloe. Then the part where I run into her in the parking lot when Nathan picked on a fight with Warren. And then the part where we danced in Chloe's room while she was stoning. And finally the part where I first tell Chloe about my powers at the lighthouse and my vision of the storm.

Chloe is able to talk about the rest of our story throughout that rest of the week. When she speaks of the following day, she speaks of the part from using my power at the diner, to the junkyard, to the train, to Kate, to even the night we snooped into the Principle's office and the Blackwell pool. Then the next day where she dared me to kiss her in her room, to taking sides with Chloe against David, to breaking into Frank's RV and finding out about him and Rachel, etc. Of course, I wouldn't have known to much about what we did the rest of that day since I ended up traveling to the next world where William was alive and Chloe was in senile mode and loathed the word 'hella'.

Disregarding what happened in that time stream, she definitely brings up the following day where everything was back to normal. From visiting Kate in the hospital, to Warren knocking the shit out of Nathan, to the Dark Room and Rachel's buried doppelganger, you know what. When she got to the part where we went to the Vortex Club party to find Nathan and warn Victoria, she talked about how I time traveled to save her again and warn her about Jefferson. Considering how I was able to prevent myself from getting kidnapped to the Dark Room myself and getting Chloe killed by Jefferson, it was obvious she would tell that part of the story from her point of view.

The crowd in the gallery behind me begins to murmur about what they were hearing. Since my parents, Chloe's parents, and everyone else I knew were present in this court, I hoped they had fully grasped what Chloe and I had to go through that week. Which I had no doubt they already had with all that said from Chloe on the stand. They all had the right to understand. The right to know what it was all about. They all deserved to know how and why that week occurred. When Chloe reaches to the climax of that week, that is when she starts to get emotional.

"I carry Max all the way up to the lighthouse for the next half hour until she wakes up when we reach the cliff side," Chloe continued. "When we're up on that cliff, that's when she admits that the storm was hers. I tell her to screw all that. If it weren't for her power, not only would I not be alive, but we wouldn't have been able to know what happened to Rachel and everything else we were able to achieve that week. She is no time goddess or quantum terrorist. She is my friend. My lover. My little doe. And then..."

Chloe takes a deep breath before opening her lips to let out those one words I certainly knew she was about to let out.

"And then I finally make her do something I never wanted to do and she never wanted to do either. I give her the photo she took in that bathroom before the fight between me and you-know-who. She would be able use that picture to change everything that happened that week. Assuming it would prevent that storm and prevent those six-hundred deaths that were caused by it. In order for her to do that, she would...she would..."

A tear begins to roll down her check. Now the people of Arcadia will start remorse for the two of us.

"She would have to let me die and let you-know-who kill me," she muttered.

The crowd murmured again when Chloe finally got to spit it out. Joyce and David blush about what they had heard their daughter say on the stand. Now I wasn't the only person that felt insulted about sacrificing the most imperatively beloved person in my life. Perhaps this ought to persuade the jury to stay on our side. Just perhaps.

"Instead, she tore that photo away and let everyone die just so I can live longer," Chloe continued. Still shedding tears. "Out of all the people that died in Arcadia Bay, I deserved it just as less as everyone else. I'm just as much of a scapegoat to that atrocity the way everyone else is. Especially Max. I have the right to live. The right to be together with everyone I love, too. And the right to be saved by Max if I had to. If you all think for one minute that Max and I don't know how it feels to be sadistically sacrificed in vain, we damn well know how it feels precisely. I just want to say that if any one of your loved one were alive, I would not be. Nevertheless, I am grateful to be alive. So is my family. So are my friends. So is Max."

Chloe cupped her hand in front of her eyes. Still sobbing away about what she had to say. By now, everyone in the court starts mumbling to each other empathically about Chloe's testimony. Even my prosecutors, Karen and Burke, looked sympathetic about my girlfriend's words. The jury will have a lot to debate about between my crimes and sacrificing the life of Chloe to save six-hundred souls. If it really were my storm that is. If there's evidence to confirm me not liable for the storm that is.

"I have nothing else to say, your honor," said Chloe talking to the judge. "I hope I've said plenty already."

"As I've said before, ladies and gentlemen of the jury," said Crosby turning to the jury. "As much I cannot condone quantum terrorism, neither would I for unjustly made sacrifices. A tragedy for a tragedy merely ensures conflicts than it does resolve them. Max Caulfield could've easily sacrificed Chloe to prevent the atrocity we good people of Arcadia Bay confront today, but her profanity in loosing Chloe was too great to her. We are all obligated into our personal tragedies every once in lifetime that can easily devastate our lives in the blink of an eye. It'll get the greater of us. It can. And it will. And it is no hyperbole. This trial is no different from any other trial that has criminalized people with powers like Caulfield's. The combination of false sacrifice and mass tragedy is what makes everyone uncertain of this endeavor. If you good people of the jury are capable of returning the sorrow Ms. Price and Ms. Caulfield are showing, now is a greater time than any to do so now."

Note: So I'm posting this chapter in time for my birthday my fellow readers. I've just turned 19 today. I also wanted to spend sometime making Chloe's testimony as perfectly written as possible. And I hope it was worth my time folks.

Until next time, stay golden and wish me Happy Birthday!