Chapter Ten
Deep Secrets of the Earth

Hearing was the sense that returned to her first, her ears picking out a melancholy tune floating gently out of a radio. Then she could feel again, her face pressed into soft denim that radiated heat, warming up her cheek. She smelled a strange mix of jasmine and something grittier, close enough that she could taste it as well.

Finally, Max cracked her eyes open, blinking slowly in the evening light, the sun barely above the horizon. She beheld the side of a truck bed, the tan paint having peeled in several places, leaving rust in its wake. A hand was running through her hair, while another stroked her shoulder. She moaned and looked up.

"She lives," said Chloe, staring down at her and continuing to move her hand over Max's arm. "Welcome back, Rip Van Max."

Squinting, Max turned her eyes to the hand touching her hair, and saw Rachel's face above it. "How long have I been out?"

"From what I hear, about an hour. Chloe called me and we met up. We almost took you to the hospital."

She shook her head vigorously, trying to clear it of cobwebs. "Why didn't you?"

Chloe shrugged. "Wanted to see if you'd come out of it on your own first. This is kinda what you were trying to do."

"Not like this." Pushing down hard with one arm, she rose and sat across from them. From her higher vantage point, she could see that they had moved, though the truck was still parked somewhere in the woods, off the main road. "I had the craziest fucking nightmare. Actually, I'm not sure it was a nightmare. I went to some place called the Dead Side of Forever."

Both of them stared at her with blank expressions. "The what now?"

"You've been there too," she said, looking at Chloe. "When you had those dreams about your dad. He told me to say hi, by the way."

"Wait, you saw him? For real?"

Max nodded. "He was one of the few people I saw in there that wasn't out to fuck with my head. It wasn't the first time I'd been there, but I still wasn't prepared for any of it. I only made it out because of you."

"What'd I do?"

"You showed me the way." She smiled. "Like always."

Rachel was still looking at her in bewilderment. "What are both of you talking about?"

"Sorry." Max turned to face her. "That nightmare I told you about this morning… I had another one, and ended up back in the same place. I'm still not sure what it was, but it's connected to my visions. I think it's some kind of place between realities, and occasionally I cross over into it. Chloe's done it too."

"Right around the time I met you," said Chloe, "I kept having dreams about my dad. But everything about them was super freaky, and I think they told me the future. I saw a poster for The Tempest with me dressed as Ariel, the day before it actually happened. And right before you burned down Overlook Park, I saw you catch on fire."

Reeling back, the other girl's eyes shot wide open and she stared at both of them in confusion.

"Everything in there is some kind of mental landscape made up of fragments of your life," said Max. "And all of it's rearranged to mess with your head and make you go crazy. I met… something in there. Something that rules that place. I'm still not sure what it wanted with me."

She puffed her cheeks and exhaled slowly through her mouth. "Holy shit. And I thought the time travel was freaky."

"Did you at least find what you were looking for?" asked Chloe.

"Yeah. The tornado's gonna happen on Halloween."

"Wait, what?" Rachel was back to freak-out mode. "What tornado?"

"I had another vision of it," she revealed. "But this time it wasn't threatening the whole town, just Pan Estates. Chloe and I went there earlier, and then I fell unconscious. I had to find my way through that maze just to get back to my vision. We have ten days to figure out how to stop it."

They both looked at her despairingly. Chloe sat cross-legged and leaned against the sides of the truck bed at an angle, while Rachel clasped her hands together in front of her ankles and rested her chin on her knees.

Frowning, Chloe stared off into the distance, towards the town. "Should we try to warn people?"

"Who would believe us?" Rachel asked, chuckling darkly. "We're just three punk teenagers in a small town. Nobody cares what we have to say."

"And it's not like before," said Max. "There's no freak snowfall or weird eclipses this time. No dying animals. Nothing strange we can point to."

The blue-haired girl nodded. "So at the very least we know it's not your fault."

"It doesn't make a fucking difference anyway." Rachel was glaring at a particular spot of rust, focusing all of her hatred upon it. "You said the tornado's gonna take out Pan Estates, right? I say let it happen."

"Hey, I said that too!" She smiled wryly. "But it's still close enough to town that a lot of people could get hurt who don't deserve it."

A spiteful laugh escaped her lips. "When did our lives get this fucking serious? Why can't we just be normal teenage girls?"

"Please, we never have been. But I get what you mean. I'd rather just be off shooting the shit with both of you in the junkyard."

Max smiled. "Believe me, after everything I've been through, I wish my life could be normal. But in a weird way, all this crazy bullshit brought us together. If it wasn't for my powers… I wouldn't be sitting here with either of you."

"I know, Max." Chloe leaned forward and rubbed her shoulder. "I'm glad things worked out this way."

"I am too," said Rachel, moving closer and latching onto Max in a side hug that was also a slow motion tackle. "But we really need to get going. We're due to meet Sam in like twenty minutes."

"Right." Chloe detached her hand from Max and hopped out of the truck bed, and the two of them followed suit. "I almost forgot we're about to meet someone who could land us in federal prison if we're caught associating with him."

Rachel grinned as they all clambered into the truck, with Max sitting in the middle. "How fucking punk is that?"

"Well, if it isn't the wonder triplets."

Samantha Black Elk stood in front of the bar with her arms crossed, staring over the trio. Max was in the middle, crossing one arm over her chest and clutching the other. Chloe had folded both of her arms and stood facing slightly away, while Rachel had one hand on her left hip.

By this time the sun had finished its descent, and the moon had risen in its place. This far away from the lights of Arcadia Bay, they could see an entire galaxy above them, an image from millions of years ago frozen in time, having just reached their eyes even though several of them were long dead.

"Hey Sam," she said. "We're ready when you are."

Nodding gruffly, she tossed something their way, which Rachel caught deftly in one hand. She unraveled the pile of fabric to reveal three long strips of cloth, examining them with a grimace before fixing a deadpan gaze upon her.

"Seriously?"

"Put 'em on and get in the van," Sam ordered, turning around and walking towards the van in question. "And don't ask questions."

Chloe opened her mouth to defy that directive, but Rachel waved her hand. "If we get caught and someone brings us in for questioning, we can honestly say we have no idea where Joseph Black Elk is hiding."

Leaning closer to Max as they walked, the blue-haired girl whispered into her ear. "Still think this is a good idea?"

"Please, I was against it from the start."

"Great. Just fabulous."

The three of them hopped into the van as ordered, tying the blindfolds around their eyes. There were two benches running parallel to the sides of the van. Chloe sat in the middle of the passenger's side, with Rachel on her right near the front of the vehicle and Max closer to the back. Sam climbed into the driver's seat, or so they presumed from what they heard, then the motor started with a healthy roar. The tires kicked up a storm of gravel that pelted the sides of the van, before finally hitting asphalt.

"So Sam," said Chloe after a few minutes. "How long have you and Rachel known each other?"

"What'd I say about questions?"

"I just figured that meant questions about where exactly we're going," she replied. "Which I don't give a shit about. It's just weird that Rachel talks about you like you're old friends even though she didn't move here until like tenth grade."

"My family and I spent time here before we moved for real," said Rachel. "Sam and I met at summer camp."

"See, that's the other thing. You said Sam's three years older than you. What were you doing at the same summer camp? Was she a counselor or something?

"There's a lot of summer camps that have kids from different age groups," she countered. "Why do you care so much about this anyway?"

"Just making conversation. No telling how long this ride's gonna be."

"No questions means no questions," said Sam, cranking up the heavy metal track playing on the radio. "Now shut up."

Chloe shrugged, grinning like a punk. "Sure. Whatever you say."

"We're here."

Max felt a tap on her shoulder and bolted awake, confused by the darkness before she remembered the blindfold. Old hinges squealed as Sam pulled open the doors.

"You can take 'em off now. Follow me."

The three of them obeyed, hopping down one by one into soft earth covered in pine needles. They were deep in the forest, with no real landmarks around to speak of. Squirrels flitted quickly between the trees, and somewhere in the distance a raven cawed. Spears of silver moonlight punched through the canopy in places, forming crosshatched shadows on the ground that stood apart like solitary islands in the boundless darkness.

Sam cracked a glowstick in her hands, and an eerie green light began to blossom inside it. She passed it back to Rachel before activating another, this time blue, which she handed to Chloe. Max received one in red, while Sam kept a purple one for herself.

They walked in silence for several minutes before they saw the shadows of tents lingering ominously in the darkness. They heard the soft crunch of pine needles to their right, and saw a large Native American man wearing a forest green sweatshirt under camouflage-patterned body armor, an assault rifle strapped to his shoulder. Max and Rachel stepped back instinctively, but Chloe kept on walking. Sam gave him a nod, and he allowed them to pass.

"This is some serious Apocalypse Now shit," Chloe whispered, leaning in closer to Max and Rachel. "I bet these guys would get along great with step-crack."

"Not the time for jokes, Chloe," Rachel whispered back. "For once just… don't be you."

"Who do you want me to be, then?"

"Someone who doesn't say the wrong thing and ruin what we came here for. Max's power can only go so far."

"And it's been seriously unreliable today," whispered Max. "Don't count on me."

"Jesus, okay. I'll try and restrain myself. Scout's honor."

"You weren't even in the scouts."

"Love those cookies, though."

"You don't have to whisper," Sam said loudly from in front of them. "Nobody here gives a shit what you're talking about."

The three of them clammed up and continued to follow, passing more sentries as they headed to a tent on the far edge of the camp, which had two guards in front of it, one of which Chloe recognized. She squinted and leaned her head back just to be sure.

He looked at her in shock as well, clearly having the same realization. His thick arms were covered with traditional Samoan tattoos, along with his face. He leaned to the side and pointed in her direction. "What's she doing here?"

Raising an eyebrow, Sam turned around and glanced at Chloe. "You two know each other?"

"I wouldn't say that," said Chloe, stepping forward with her thumbs dipped inside her pockets. "But the last time we saw each other he was standing guard too. How's your bike these days? Still rocking the flowers?"

He gave a hearty chuckle. "You know it."

Max stared at them with the most helpless puppy dog face Chloe had ever seen her make. Grinning widely, she shook her head and stumbled closer to her. "The night I met Rachel, this dude was standing guard outside the old mill. I had to talk my way past him."

"Didn't get a better fight out of anyone else that night. It's too bad that place burned down."

"So are you a professional security guard or are you down with the cause?"

He tilted his head back skeptically. "What cause is that?"

"Uh…" She glanced around awkwardly. "Nevermind."

He laughed again, then turned to Sam. "He's ready."

She nodded, then looked back over her shoulder at the three of them before nodding her head towards the tent. They entered silently, without protest, and Sam followed after them.

The inside of the tent held a table buried under various maps and documents, lit with a golden hue by multiple electric lamps. The space clearly wasn't meant for sleeping, and all of them fit comfortably inside it, slowly making their way towards the middle, where a man was leaning over the table, his hands splaying out a large blueprint as he scowled at it with great determination.

He looked to be in far greater health than Chloe or Max had anticipated, grey-haired but exceptionally spry, moving with the grace of a man twenty years his junior. Not that they could tell much when his only movements so far had been to occasionally circle something on the blueprint with a red marker, not even looking up to greet them. But there was an aura about him, something cunning and dangerous. He looked like a man of great wisdom, but also one who was never more at home than on a battlefield.

He wore a tan leather jacket and a turquoise bolo tie, his hair secured behind his head in a grey ponytail. His deep bronze skin had not been too thoroughly plagued by wrinkles, save for the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. Those eyes squinted occasionally, and the wrinkles became more pronounced. Overall however, he didn't look nearly as old as Rachel had made him sound.

"So," he said in a smooth baritone, his eyes still fixed to the blueprint in front of him, which they could now see depicted Pan Estates. "What can I do for you?"

Rachel stepped forward, arms folded over her chest. "Hello, Mr. Black Elk. It's been a while."

He paused, remaining completely still for several moments before slowly raising his head to look at her. "Indeed," he said. "It has."

"I'm here for information," she continued. "It's gonna sound a little crazy, but bear with me."

Chuckling, Joseph Black Elk removed his hands from the table and gave her his full attention. "If there's one word I don't think belongs in the English language, it's 'crazy.' People often use it to dismiss something they aren't interested in understanding. It's a survival instinct. But instinct is a lie, told by a dying body, hoping to be wrong."

Raising an eyebrow, Chloe reared her head back and stared at him in utter bewilderment. "The hell does that mean?"

"It means," he said with a confident smile, "that it doesn't pay to write things off as impossible or crazy. Not until you've thoroughly considered them."

"We're in agreement there," said Rachel. "These are my friends, by the way. Chloe Price and Max Caulfield."

"I'm aware." His eyes briefly met theirs before returning to Rachel. "Samantha vetted them before arranging this meeting."

"Seriously?" Chloe whipped her head around to glare at Sam. "What'd you dig up?"

"That you never got over your daddy issues and this one wants to be a hipster but can't quite go all the way with it." She shrugged. "Boring shit. What matters is you're both clean, or at least you're not the kind of dirty that'll put us in danger."

"Damn, and here I thought I was special."

Max rolled her eyes. "Chloe…"

"What?"

"Don't worry; you're not going to ruffle any feathers," said Joseph, reaching out his hand in a pacifying motion. "Let's return to the matter at hand. What information do you require?"

Tucking a stray hair behind her ear, Rachel sighed deeply and began. "I'm wondering what you can tell me about… wow, I have no idea how to phrase this." She shook her head. "See, I think Arcadia Bay and I are linked together somehow, but…"

Rachel sighed, her arms dropping to her sides. She turned around, looking at Max. "There's no way to ask the questions I need to without telling them the whole story."

Joseph quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing. Max stared for several moments, before nodding. Rachel nodded back, and turned to Sam. "Do you remember when I had Max tell the future the other night? That wasn't just a trick."

"Oh yeah?"

"And it wasn't just me telling the future," said Max. "I saw all those things happen, then I rewound time and lived through it all over again."

She crossed her arms and leaned backward, her face sporting an incredulous expression. "You rewound time?"

"It isn't a joke," she insisted, sending a gesture in Joseph's direction. "He just said you should keep an open mind."

"Yeah, but time travel? I'd believe you more if you said you were psychic. At least that involves calculated guessing. Any two-bit charlatan could have dreamed up something like what you told me. And how do I know I wouldn't have handled that guy the same way if you hadn't put the idea in my head?"

"Look, I couldn't wrap my head around it at first either," said Chloe. "But she knows things she couldn't possibly have found out any other way. It's real."

She waved a hand dismissively and turned her eyes to the ceiling. "If you say so."

"Max's power is the reason I'm even standing here talking to you right now," continued Rachel. "In another timeline, another world, I'm supposed to be dead. And because of her, I'm not."

Sam and Joseph exchanged a look, then shrugged. "I'm not sure how much I'd be able to tell you about that," he said. "Time travel isn't really my area of expertise."

"That's not the question." She waved her hand back and forth in front of her. "The reason she went back and saved me is because, in the timeline she came from, a tornado wiped out Arcadia Bay, after the weather went batshit for a week and all the animals died. She thinks it had something to do with me dying."

Max nodded and stepped forward. "In the other timeline, Rachel's ghost appeared to me as a doe, and it led me and Chloe to the lighthouse, where we'd be safe from the tornado. I think Rachel has some sort of spiritual connection to Arcadia Bay, strong enough that when she died, the laws of nature broke down to the point where me getting time travel powers wasn't even the fifth weirdest thing that happened that week."

"Hm." He placed a finger to his chin and began to pace, then settled his gaze on her again. "That… I might be able to shed some light on."

"What's happening with me?" asked Rachel, looking at him pleadingly. "What am I?"

"What you are," said Joseph, "is an unwitting thief."

The three of them took a step back, as if struck. "What?"

He stretched out his hand and closed his eyes, motioning for them to remain calm.

"What you describe… it wasn't ever meant for you. The power you have was stolen from us, from our people, more than a hundred years ago. Before the expedition came this land was a paradise, watched over by a benevolent mother spirit. Now…"

"It's a shit pit," Chloe said with her trademark bluntness.

He nodded sagely. "Because of the Prescott family. The Blackwells desired to live in harmony with the tribes, but the Prescotts… they came because of the power held in this land. And they will not rest until it is drained entirely."

"So how is Rachel the thief?"

"As I said, the power she holds was not originally contained inside a human vessel. It belonged to the land. But that all changed."

"When?" asked Max. "And how?"

"There was a ritual," said Rachel, quietly. "Ms. Grant told me it's why your family was banished, but your ancestors weren't the ones performing it, were they?"

Joseph shook his head. "They were trying to stop it."

"But she wasn't even born in Arcadia Bay," protested Chloe, moving forward as if to shield Rachel. "And how would a ritual from a hundred years ago give her powers like that?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is that the ritual was stopped before it could be completed, leaving the fate of the land tied to whoever possesses the other half of its spirit. I have no idea how it ended up inside of her."

"I might," said Max, so quietly that only Chloe heard her.

"What?"

"I said I might know what happened," she repeated, a little louder. She clutched her upper arm, looking as though she wanted to retreat into herself. "Or at least where the next lead is."

"Well?" Rachel turned to face her. "What is it?"

She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes. "Before I left the other timeline, Chloe and I found out that your biological mother was involved with the Prescott family somehow. Her name was all over their files, going back at least thirty years."

Chloe and Rachel exchanged a glance. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Frank did say she was causing a lot of trouble when she showed up three years ago," said Chloe. "But it's not like we can ask her now."

Rachel nodded. "But we can ask the Prescotts."

"How's that gonna work? Nathan's one shitty day away from shooting up Blackwell, and good luck getting anything out of his dad. They're not gonna tell us shit."

"Who said anything about asking them ourselves?" She turned to Joseph. "You have people who can look into it, right?"

He nodded solemnly. "We have assets embedded within the Prescott organization. Nobody has managed to penetrate the higher levels yet, but we're making headway. I don't know how much they'll be able to discover, however."

Max jerked stiffly upright as something occurred to her. "There's someone else we know on the inside."

"Who?"

"David Madsen. He's Chloe's step-father and Head of Security at Blackwell. Chloe and I were investigating Pan Estates earlier, and we saw him talking to Sean Prescott. They were going over plans for surveillance cameras or something."

"Oh, no fucking way!" Chloe shouted, sweeping her hand in front of her. "We are not telling step-douche about this!"

"Do you have any better ideas? I'll admit that he's an asshole and he scares me sometimes, but he's a good man underneath it all."

"Yeah, mom's been telling me that for three years and I still haven't seen the guy she keeps talking about. You might think you know him, but you haven't had to live with him like I have. We can't trust him."

"Maybe you haven't seen any other side of him because all you do is treat him like the enemy," said Rachel. "You're right; he's a paranoid fascist with PTSD issues who thinks he's still at war. But that could make him useful."

Chloe grumbled aloud. "What guarantee do we have that he'd even be on our side?"

"Like I told you earlier, David saved my life in the other timeline," said Max. "And the whole reason he was acting so suspicious of everybody was because he wanted to find out what happened to Rachel just like we did. I don't think he'd be working for the Prescotts just for their money. He might be trying to investigate them already."

"Fine." She threw her arms up and turned away in disgust. "But you can be the ones to talk to him about it. I'm staying out of it."

"We'll check with our informants just in case," said Joseph. "Samantha will be in contact with you if we learn anything. Was there anything else you wished to discuss?"

Rachel shook her head. "Thank you for the answers you gave us. This whole thing just keeps getting weirder. Sometimes I regret not leaving Arcadia Bay when I had the chance."

"What's stopping you?" asked Sam.

"I don't know. But I need to get to the bottom of this or it'll haunt me for the rest of my life."

"Fair enough."

"We'll be here to help you." Max placed a hand on her shoulder, and Chloe latched onto the other one.

"Yeah. Both of us. Until the end."

She smiled. "Thanks."

Joseph bowed. "Samantha will show you out now. Until we meet again."