WARNING:

All characters and the story upon which this fanfiction is based are property of Dontnod Entertainment and Square Enix. I don't own anything.

As this is my first story to be published here, I will be happy about every reviews - both good and bad as only so I can know what I have to improve. :)

Rated M for crude and strong language at times, violence and mature content.

- Red Raw-

Max had been completely silent while they had driven back from the beach to the house, but then again – Chloe didn't really have much to say. She was too preoccupied with getting her thoughts back on track and on the task of finding Rachel. Only when they finally got to her room and Max crashed on the bed did she speak up.

„You okay, Blue?" The rocker-gal mumbled still lying face-down on the blue-nette's bed.

„I'm glad things worked out okay with Frank." She answered truthfully as she sat down on the chair by the desk and booted up her laptop. This small question had given her mind the needed kick to focus what they had started this morning. „It's nice to have one less enemy in Arcadia Bay."

„I hear you." The shorter woman grunted as she rolled over on her back and grudgingly got up from it, clearly also intending to focus on the task of binding the various clues together that they had gathered during their little raid today. Before she got to the board and unpacked the stashed 'loot' though knocking noises from her phone made her stop to check, who'd written her.

'Hi Max. Just thought I'd wish you and Chloe good luck for your search. With what little luck I have left.' Read the surprising message from Frank. She hadn't anticipated him to get this friendly just because of their conversation, even if he did agree to help by giving them what they had asked – the names of his clients.

'Thanks, Frank. The bigger the team, the more luck we have.' She tipped in a short reply, but was again surprised, when the older man wrote back again nearly instantaneously.

'I see why Chloe digs you. Stop by later if you both want to party. And good luck!' This made her smile a bit though. 'Seems like Frank is a softie after all. Even after all that went down… Still, better get started on getting to see what all the clues can tell us. And let's be extra concentrated on this – RPG style. First rule: Combine everything with everything.' She focused again on the task and without much ado she started to go through Frank's notebook as she checked with the list of names he had given them, which client was Nathan and when he'd bought drugs from the dealer.

It took her a short while, but she found the times and places for when and where the young Prescott had bought his drugs from Frank. Combining these findings with the Intel that Chloe's stepfather had gathered on Nathan resulted in her rather quickly finding what she had hoped for to find. 'Fuck, am I good or what?' She allowed herself a little bit of pride about how fast she had been with finding and combining the right clues.

"Yo, Chloe! I think I found what we're looking for, but we gotta check. Let's plug in these numbers and see if they lead to an actual address." The girl with brown-red hair said as she came up to her friend, who was checking up some data on the net.

"Aye aye, Captain." The punk-girl replied and got straight to the task, while Max herself went back to the cardboard and started to look through the messages Nathan had on his phone after successfully unlocking it with the third try. This time around it took her a bit longer to find the connections between the messages on Nathan's phone and the places he had gone to buy the drugs, but from what she had read on his phone it matched with the times of the Vortex Club parties and the times in Frank's note-book.

"Found it!" She exclaimed as she got back to her friend who was still going through the various places and coordinates she had dug up before. "This is definitely the place."

"Nope. Nothing, Max. There's nothing there but a shitty old barn." The punk-girl with the blue hair sighed, when the quick search for the location her friend had provided resulted with the image of an old, seemingly abandoned barn somewhere in the outer proximity of the town, popping up.

"There has to be more. Why would Nathan meet Frank there? Why this specific place? We gotta find out who owns that shithole." The rocker-girl with the nose-piercing insisted.

"I'm on this. Hold on." Her friend sighed, but still got back to searching. The results she came up with were not really surprising. "Somebody named 'Harry Aaron Prescott'."

"Booya! I knew it!" The shorter woman exclaimed a bit excitedly as it seemed their whole endeavour of finding the clues finally paid off and everything started to fall into place, but her demeanour changed quickly as the thoughts of what might be there started to crawl up in her mind and it was nothing pretty. "We have to go check this barn out and see what's there…"

"Right! No police! Can't trust them, 'cause they are like Nathan's personal babysitters. Just the two of us. Nobody else. After what I saw today I doubt even an army could stop you. So, I'm not scared at all. Plus you have the power!" Chloe said, her thoughts focused on the girl they tried to find this time. "I feel like we're this close to finding Rachel…"

"Yeah, I feel so too." The rocker-gal replied a bit hesitantly, still in her thoughts, but followed her friend, who already was on her way down the stairs and to her car.

It took them the better part of an hour to get to the old farmhouse, but as they got out of the car, the first thing they saw was the fresh tire tracks on the untrimmed lawn and the dirt before the door of the barn.

"Dude, somebody was just here." Chloe said as she took a closer look at the imprints in the ground. "We need to get in that barn." They both looked around for another way to enter the barn, as the door was locked with a heavy padlock, but it was Max who found the opening in on the side of the barn that was covered by only leaning a few metal plates against it.

"Chloe! I found the front door!" The rocker-girl said, raising her voice to a half-shout, so that her friend would hear her, before she entered the barn through the opening. The farmhouse was dimly lit and full of haystacks.

"Oh, yes! Maximus rules!" She heard her friend say under as she jogged over to the other side of the barn and got in as well.

"Yeah, right. I found hay. Such clues! Much wow." The rocker with brown-red hair snorted dismissively as she started to look around a bit more as her eyes adjusted to the half-dark of the space around them.

"More like Blair Witch, if you ask me." The punk-girl mumbled as her eyes too adjusted to the half-lit room.

"Sais the girl who told me she isn't afraid." Max replied teasingly, but didn't feel really comfortable herself. Something just felt really off about this place. Her eyes fell on an old chest near to where they were standing. "Hey, check this out!" She opened it, but all that was there seemed to be old files, account-books or some other stuff nobody needed anymore.

"Jackpot. Old shit." This time it was Chloe's turn to tease. "Come on, SuperMax. You nearly pulled a real-life Sherlock thing back home with all the clues. There's got to be more to it, if this really is the place. Or this might not be the place after all." The blue-nette let a folder she had picked up from the trunk fall back into it. As she let her eyes wander over the room she saw something on the ground that didn't seem to fit in with the rest of it.

"It is the place. The coordinates and everything matched perfectly-." The shorter woman cut of her sentence as her eyes followed the outstretched hand of her best friend pointing to a heavy-looking padlock attached to a hatch on the ground. "Got some good eyes there, Chloe." She said as she made her way over to the hatch, closely followed by the punk-girl. "It looks new … And recently used." The rocker-gal commented as she knelt down and took a closer look at the padlock. It was sturdy, that's for sure. "Not gonna get this open with our bare hands though…" A quick scoop around the room gave her an idea.

"I think I got this, but I'm gonna need your help though." She said, before telling her friend of what she was exactly thinking of and how she intended to get the strangely out-of-place hatch open.

"Sidekick at your service." The blue haired woman agreed and went to give her friend a boost as the shorter woman tried to climb up some loosely connected storeys, leading up to a half-build second store, which had at some point been probably used as an additional place to stack hay.

Max got onto the first storey easy with Chloe giving her a push and used the handle of an old motor to pull it down on the first storey so as to make herself an improvised stepping-platform. While Chloe was still watching her friends' acrobatics with her arms crossed before her chest, Max already had checked what she was looking for. A small rewind later she was standing on the second storage and the motor was still up there too. Without wasting time she loosened one end of a rope that was tied to one of the central poles holding up the roof of the farmhouse.

"Hey, Chloe! Look if when I pull on this rope the one with the hook starts to move too. If yes, then attach the hook to the padlock and step away from the hatch." She instructed her friend, while tying her own and of the rope to the motor, when she heard the blue-nette's affirmation of her suspicion and the clank of the hook being attached to the padlock. "Okay, just to be sure – just get the hell away from the hatch. Best go next to the old chest over there."

"Okay, okay. Fine. It's not like you're gonna drop something on me." The punk-girl said, though she knew what Max's plan was and thus obeyed her friends request and moved to the old chest at the far end of the barn. "Growing a bit overprotective here?" She asked a bit snappily, but then again she didn't mean it really in a snappy way. 'Guess with all that has happened this week, I kinda didn't really establish an image of being completely capable of ensuring my own safety…' She was still musing about it, when a loud crash ripped her attention from her thoughts to the motor that had just crashed down to the ground barely a few feet away from the hatch. The padlock on the hatch had been ripped clean off. "I'll take my words back."

"Hey! I told you to get away from the hatch so that it doesn't hit you. And did it hit you? No." The brown-red haired girl stuck her tongue out at her friend when she had finally climbed down from the second store and came up to the blue-haired punk, who already was opening up the hatch. "So no complaining- What the fuck?!" The teasing tone from Max's voice was replaced by one of utter disbelief and something that Chloe couldn't put her finger on, but it seemed to scare and at the same time enrage the rocker-gal immensely.

"I know, right? Do I even need to say how weird this is?" The blue-nette said as she took a closer look at what they had found. It looked like the hatch led to an underground bunker or safe-room from the looks of it. "I mean, who builds this kind of place?" This somehow gave her the creeps, but still it was their best shot in their search for more clues. Still, even as her mind was obsessed with the task of finding Rachel (for one, because she knew that she actually missed her friend, even if she would kick her ass first thing when she would see her again, but for the other – it blocked out the other thoughts troubling her – the thoughts about what she felt for the shorter woman standing next to her), she had to steel her nerves and start walking down the stairs leading to whatever structure was there, as her instincts told her to stay away from it. She didn't notice that the rocker-girl with the nose-piercing had gone pale and was not looking at the hatch or the stairs at all. She was staring at a small fluttering insect as it vanished again out of an opening between the boards of the farmhouse-walls, seemingly melting together with the colour of the sky.

"Hey, Max, you okay?" It was only when her friend grabbed her shoulder from behind, as she was trying to open a heavy iron door hoping that the code she had tried to type into the keypad next to it was right, that the punk-girl noticed something was really riling the rocker-gal up.

"Just- Let's get this done and be out of here. I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to." The shorter girl said, her face unreadable and it started to worry Chloe, but her friend didn't give her time to ask further questions. The rocker-girl pushed her slightly to the side and pulled out a sheet of paper she had used to write down various possible clues on, when they had been at Chloe's home. "Let me try something." She said as she typed in a code in the keypad. Something clicked and the rocker-gal went to turn the valve to open the door.

"Oh, yes! I thought this would work only in movies!" The punk-girl's spirits soared a bit as her friend pulled the door completely open, but when she entered the room behind the heavy iron door the uneasiness that was written on her best friends' face started to grow on her. Something really didn't feel right. "Stocked and ready for the apocalypse. This must cost a fortune." She commented as she took a look around the room. The first section of what seemed to be a converted bunker of some kind was practically bursting with various food-stuffs and nearly everything that one would need to survive a couple of weeks without getting out of it. "Come on." She said to Max, who was still standing at the door, seeming rather pale.

"Everything is sketchy as fuck, but nothing about Rachel here." The blue-nette said as Max made her way to the second part of the bunker. It made her stomach churn and a sickening sense of deja vu was spreading in her mind. This second section of the bunker had been converted into some twisted image of a high-tech photo studio, with some black and white pictures of bound women adorning the walls. A letter on one of the desks and a peculiar-looking red jacket caught Max's eye.

'Shit. That's Nathan's jacket… was he the one who has been here recently?' She mused as she picked up the letter. It was not that she feared Nathan. Actually she was rather fearing for him in a twisted sense as she didn't know if, after whatever they would find here, the young man would walk away from their next encounter. And at this point she didn't know if she would be able to control her rage at all… it already had taken so little back in the dorms for her to nearly bash in the young Prescotts' head. 'Damn, that fucker is sick in the head… He needs serious psychological treatment…' She left the letter on the table where she had found it and turned to look over the room again. This was seriously giving her the creeps. She found another strange note on the desk with the set up PC, but after quickly flying over it, she left it there too. 'Is it from his father or…?' She wondered, but something else caught her attention. The door to a jet-black locker near the desk was standing slightly ajar and the rocker-gal could see that it was stacked full with red portfolios.

"Chloe? I think I found something." The woman with the brown-red hair said to the punk-girl as she took three of the numerous labelled portfolios and stacked them on the desk. The first binder was marked 'Victoria'. "Okay, the first one is empty…"

"Look, the next one says 'Kate'." The taller woman said as she opened the second binder Max had found in the locker. It was filled with black pages, marked with white ink and decorated with black and white pictures of the young girl they had visited in the hospital just moments ago. She had clearly been conscious at the time of the photos, as her eyes indicated, but she probably didn't even realise what was happening to her…

"That motherfucker!" The young punk-girl nearly leaped two feet in the air, when the shorter woman slammed her hand on the desk, startling her. "I should have killed that bastard back there." The rage in her friends' voice left no room for wondering if the rocker-gal would actually kill the young Prescott. The look on Max's face was enough to send cold shivers down Chloe's spine – the rocker-gal was looking downright fierce and frightening.

"Kate wasn't the first… All those binders are filled with other victims." The blue haired woman muttered under her breath as she tried to focus on the binders before them and trying not to think too much about the number of those still in the locker behind her.

"Victoria was probably supposed to be next…" The look on Max's face made it clear that she was ready to beat the living shit out of anything that would move into her sight right now. "Nathan must be planning to dose her tonight at the Vortex Club party." She concluded and winced, when Chloe opened the last binder she had taken from the locker. It was labelled 'Rachel'. The pictures in the binder clearly showed the girl they had been searching for…

"This can't be real…" The punk-girl said in a small voice, as desperation started to get a hold on her. "These are all- these are all posed shots, right? Right?" But from one look on the face of the young woman in the photos it was clear – she was completely out of it. When the rocker-gal didn't answer, the taller woman just continued to try and make excuses for what she was seeing. "Maybe- maybe Nathan paid her a shitload of cash to do this. She probably would have…" The girl next to her was standing there as if she had frozen solid – pale and nearly unblinking; her face was an unreadable mask. Only the glint in her eyes indicated to the blue-nette that her friend was still there with her.

"I don't think so." Came a slow answer from the woman with brown-red hair, as she pointed at a particular picture. "Why is he putting her in the ground like that? Where-" She didn't finish her sentence as she bolted for the door, prompting Chloe to stumble after her. "The junkyard! Chloe, we have to the junkyard right now!" Dread was filling her gut and mind, and it took all her willpower not to fall or stumble as she ran to her friends' truck. She hoped against hope that what she thought was happening in the photo they had just seen was not real, but what she had seen before entering the bunker turned creepy photo-studio was still fresh in her mind. Memories of the young blonde woman from the various 'pasts' and 'presents' plopped up in her mind, while she ran. Even if she hadn't known the young woman, who had become Chloe's new best friend after she had left for Seattle, in this timeline – she still cared for her, as in some other timelines it had been Rachel that saved her more than a couple of times from various situations... and she had been her friend.

"There's no way she's dead. No way! She posed for those pictures, Max. I know it…" Chloe said, still trying to convince herself, as she hopped in the driver seat and started the truck, while Max climbed into the passenger seat. The desperation in the punk-girls' voice only added to the growing dread in the rocker-gals' stomach. She felt sick.

It took them only a short while to reach the junkyard, as the punk-girl was driving full speed. It took them an even shorter while to reach the spot they had seen on the picture, as they ran from all the way from where they had left the truck to that place at break-neck speed. Without even uttering a word they started to dig with their bare hands, as both of their minds raced. And both of their hopes were crushed, when inch by inch they dug deeper and finally revealed what appeared to be a plastic bag.

"Please, no…" The young punk sat back, her hands falling by her sides as she watched in horror, when the woman before her tugged the plastic bag away from the object it was covering. The smell that erupted was pungent and overwhelming. "Rachel… Oh, Rachel, no, no! Please, not her!" It was as if something had been shattered in Chloe's mind and heart, when she saw what was beneath the fabric of the plastic bag. Her mind went blank and she barely registered that she actually stumbled away from the hole in the ground just to fall to her knees and throw up only a few feet away. Tears were blurring her vision. It was hard to breathe. "Rachel… why?" She didn't even notice, when the shorter woman with the nose-piercing came to her side and embraced her, holding her steady and letting her cry on her shoulder. She didn't notice the tears or the look on her friends' face. "I loved her so much… How can she be dead? What kind of world does this? Who does this?" She hadn't noticed how she beat on the Max's chest with her fists until the rocker with brown-red hair crushed her in a tight hug. Only now she allowed herself to hug back the woman in front of her, as she reached around and her hands practically clawed at the rocker-gals' back, desperately seeking something to hold on to.

She didn't notice how her friend stayed silent and still for the whole time they sat there, nor did she notice how the smaller woman practically heaved her up in her arms, like she had done the night before and carried her all the way back to the truck and helped her into the passengers' seat buckling the safety-belt and going back to the place they had found the missing girls' corpse. She didn't notice when the other woman returned and got into the drivers' seat and started the engine… Everything was a blur…

It took her mind some time to notice that she was actually back in her room, when she finally woke up from the sleep she had fallen into – exhausted from the crying and the grief. She propped herself up on one arm and took a look around the room. The rocker-gal was not there and for a split-second Chloe's mind allowed her the false hope that it all had been a nightmare, but a look on the card-board and her desk shattered this hope, as all the evidence and proof they had gathered was still there. Fresh tears came to her eyes.

The opening of the door to her room startled her a bit, but she somewhat calmed, when the one who entered was the young woman with the black nose-piercing, holding two mugs of steaming hot chocolate. For a moment their eyes met and it was as if the normally confident rocker-gal didn't know how to react. But then that moment was gone and the shorter woman closed the door with the heel of her foot and crossed the room to sit on Chloe's bed right next to the punk-girl.

She didn't say anything; just put down the mugs on the small bedside table and cradled the blue-nette in her arms, when the slightly older woman set up completely and turned to her. It was only after some time that she loosened the embrace, so that she could look the blue-haired punk in the eyes.

"We have to get going, Chloe." It was only now that the punk-girl noticed how red her friends' eyes were, or the look on her face. She looked like Chloe felt – like something inside her had been deeply and maybe irreversibly broken… or had been taken away from her. "It's already night." She added as if that would explain what she was thinking. Though, in a sense it did. It was night and that meant that the Vortex Club party was in full swing right now.

They actually left the hot chocolate there on the bedside table as it took Chloe only a couple of minutes to get her boots back on, which she didn't remember to have taken off and to grab a few things from the room, before they went down the stairs and locked the house as they left. By the time they reached the campus grounds she was seething with rage and hate for the young Prescott. Still, despite the situation they were in right now, Chloe couldn't help but muse over her friend, who seemed calm, but was behaving a little bit strangely…

"I hope Nathan enjoys his last party." The blue-haired girl said with venom in her voice, when they finally had parked her truck in the parking-lot of the Academy. "Rachel wanted us to find her. So that we could get real justice… and revenge. The Prescotts have had this coming for a hundred years, and nobody is going to get in my way." She knew she was talking herself into another burst of rage, but right now she didn't care. How could she even care for something like that after what she had seen and discovered today? "Especially with your help… right?" This was the first time she addressed the brown-red haired woman next to her since they left the house. Frankly speaking, it somewhat worried her that the young woman sitting in the passengers' seat had remained silent throughout the whole drive to Blackwell. She sure could understand if it was due to them finding a corpse and the corpse of her best friend and the woman she had loved for many years at that. Hell, she herself knew she was not thinking clearly, but still - she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was really off.

"I'm with you to the end, Chloe. You know that." The rocker-gal said as they got out of the car and started to walk towards the party-area. It was only, when a drunken couple of party-goers started to talk loudly about this evening being like the eclipse before that Max turned to see what they were pointing at, as her gut-feeling was compelling her to do so. She regretted it instantly.

One would have assumed that the two moons would be the thing that shook her up, but it wasn't, for there it was again – fluttering in the pale light of the strange two moons – a blue butterfly.

Ripping her eyes from the accursed insect she started to run after her friend, who seemed not to have noticed, neither what the party-goers had been talking about, nor that she had left Max standing behind.

"Chloe, listen, I have a really bad feeling about this. Something major is going down here. I-" The rocker-girl with the nose-piercing started, when she finally caught up with the taller woman, but whatever she had intended to say was cut off, when a familiar, but visibly drunk nerdy guy stumbled towards them.

"Welcome to the end of the world, ladies. I'm glad you decided to escort me…" Warren slurred, gesturing at them both, before placing a hand on Max's shoulder.

"Warren, I warn you – I don't have the fucking time for this right now and if you don't want to get hurt – back the fuck off." The sudden explosion of anger in the shorter woman's voice made the blue-nette turn towards her friend. The look on the young man's face told her that it was definitely not what he had expected or hoped for either, but he seemed to be too drunk to fully comprehend what was happening and so his hand stayed on the rocker-girl's shoulder. "Chloe, let's go." Max said as she brushed Warrens' hand from her shoulder and pushed past him.

"Hey, hey… I know this is a bad time, but can I get one picture?" The young man reached out towards the shorter of the two women again. "I've been feeling like this might be actually the end of the world, so… I want to have something for prosperity. I know I'm a pain in the ass, but just one picture?"

"We got no time for this shit. Unless you have seen Nathan and can tell me where he is right now – fuck off." The tone of Max's voice made the nerdy young man instantly retract his hand and back off a few feet.

"Whoa… Easy there, Max. I just wanted a picture with the hero after all the ultra-violence this week, you know? Normally it's me who gets his ass kicked and I did already this week…" He said trying not to spill his drink as he put up his hands before him in a placating gesture. "Sheesh… And no, haven't seen Nathan since you beat him bloody."

"Listen, Warren, I'm sorry, but I really don't have time right now." Max replied trying to regain some composure. "If you see Nathan, text me immediately, ok? Bastard has it coming for him."

"I will, and I won't let him see me – I know how to be invisible here…" Even if the rocker-gal's answer had been everything but kind, it still cheered the young man up as he went to wherever he had been heading in the first place.

"Okay, Chloe, now-" Max started again turning to where her friend had been just a moment ago only to find that she had left already. Immediately dread and anger started to war over dominance in her mind as she rushed towards the entrance of the party-area, all the while cursing under her breath. 'For fucks sake! You have to be fucking kidding me! Where the hell are you, Chloe?'

It was not hard to get into the party-area, which actually was the pool-house, as the few half-way sober guys standing by the door had not even the slightest intention of getting in the way of the visibly enraged rocker. The rumours and the few known facts about how she could deal with anyone standing in her way seemed to have been solidified by the tale of her beating Nathan to a pulp, as it had spread among the students of the Blackwell Academy like wildfire. The red, dim light in at the entrance somewhat irritated Max's eyes, but she had no time to let this hold her back – it was the second time in one day, where she had seen that damned butterfly and that could mean only that something terrible was going to happen to either herself or Chloe. The thought alone and the memories of what they had found and found out today made her gut twist into knots, but hell be damned if she'd let fear rule over her now.

"Have you seen Nathan?" She asked harshly, when she came up to the stand, where a few students were guarding some of the belongings of the party-goers that had left them behind.

"Hey, Max! No, thank God. That boy creeps me out…" One of the girls standing at the desk replied. 'What was her name again? Stella?' Max mused, not that she really cared. Not now at least. "Wait, some girl just asked about Nathan before you came in."

"What girl? Chloe? Where is she?" She hadn't intended to slam her fist on the table, but her anger got the better of her.

"Dunno. She had blue hair, dressed like a punk… Saw her putting up those Rachel Amber posters around the campus some time." The slightly frightened girl offered. "But I don't know where she is. I'm stuck here behind the desk, can't help you."

"Damn it! Fine! Tell me if you see her or Nathan." With that she left the other woman and headed for the main area of the party. The music was terrible, but then again – it was typical party music and thus nothing really outstanding or good. 'Guess nobody here's really into metal…' A small voice in the rocker-gals' mind noted the thought as she made her way through the crowd of students searching for her blue-haired friend. 'Dress codes, VIP section… What a load of bull!' A more angry voice in her head intoned, when she had searched nearly every inch of the main area of the party without finding her friend. 'Fuck it! Let's see if we get lucky with door number VIP-lounge.'

"Yo, dude! You can't just waltz in there. This is a VIP-section. If your name's not on the list – you can walk right back the way you came from." A guy from the rugby team, who was standing guard before the section for the 'special guests', announced as the rocker-gal came to stand face to face with him.

"Look, DUDE! You either step aside or you can start to pick up your teeth from the ground in the next ten seconds, got it?" The volume of the music was loud enough here that Max actually had to raise her voice quite a bit to be heard, but she didn't mind that – actually it helped her went some of the rage.

"Whoa, damn, chill! Hey, Stacy! Is this girl on the list?" The bouncer asked a young woman, who was sitting behind a desk right next to the entrance to the VIP-lounge.

"Sorry, but this is the VIP section. Members only. And I know that Max Caulfield is not on any list for the Vortex Club. Mmm-kay?" The girl replied in an annoyed tone, clearly not happy to be stuck behind the desk, when there was a party going on.

"There you have it. Can't let you through. Sorry." The young man turned to the rocker with brown-red hair apologetically, but remained firmly standing where he was, either not knowing with whom he was dealing or not caring. 'His own fucking fault then!' Max had nothing really against the young man, but right now – woe those that would stand in her way.

With a lightning-fast spinning kick to his knees the rocker-girl sent the much taller tumbling to the ground. Another vicious kick to the bouncers' stomach made him curl up in a fetal position. The girl at the desk yelped and scrambled away from the scene, probably to get help, but Max seriously didn't care right now. Yeah, she might be in trouble come day-break but to hell with all of that. Something horrible was going to happen – she just couldn't shake off that feeling and right now that meant that her one friend she felt so deeply about was her top priority – screw the rest of the world.

"Don't say I didn't fucking warn you!" This time it was just the pure rage and helpless anger that made her kick the young man just for good measure, before she brushed aside the curtain and entered the VIP section.

"M-Max?" A slightly trembling, familiar voice from her left made her turn sharply. It was nobody else than Victoria Chase herself that was standing before her. "What are you doing here?"

-Bach – G Minor-

"Listen, Max, I want you to know, that I'm really sorry. I truly am. I never wanted for something like this to happen!" The young blonde started, visibly distraught by seeing the enraged rocker with the black nose-piercing here at the party. "All I wanted was to win the contest, but I wanted her no harm. I swear!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" It was only now that the girl with brown-red hair fully registered that the woman in front of her was actually talking to her. It was also only now that she fully registered who the girl before her was. "The fuck do you want?" She unintentionally made a step towards the blonde with the short-cut hair, who seemed to be frozen in place.

"I-I…" Victoria started again, staring wide-eyed at the shorter woman in front of her. "I'm sorry about what happened to Kate and what I did… But there was no reason to beat Nathan like that!" She seemed to slightly regain her composure and furrowed her brows. "I know he has issues and he takes some serious meds, but he still is like one of my best friends. It's not his fault and he's going through a lot… His family is treating him like a total freak, just because he has some little meltdowns… And as a friend, I just can't ignore what you did!"

"What I did?" Max nearly yelled. Only the frightened yelp of the blonde girl brought some sense back to her. She hadn't noticed how she had grabbed her by the collar. She couldn't find Chloe, she couldn't find Nathan, she was getting more and more agitated by the minute and felt like crawling out of her skin. She was angry at herself and frightened by what may come. The image of the blue butterfly was still fresh on her mind. She hadn't wanted to roughen up the jock / bouncer; she hadn't intended to grab Victoria by her shirt. This was getting out of hand fast. 'I have to resolve this fast and find Chloe.' The rocker-gal thought as the uneasiness she felt twisted her guts again.

"Listen up, Queen-bitch, for I'm going to say this only once." The woman with the brown-red hair said locking her eyes on Victoria's, pulling her close enough that their faces were only inches away and she didn't have to raise her voice. "Those little meltdowns? They're not little anymore. They are deadly. Nathan pulled a gun on me and nearly did kill Chloe. He drugged Kate and did something to her enough to make her want to die. And for all I know – you are supposed to be next. I don't give a shit about if you hate me and you have still a lot coming for what Kate had to live through, but you don't deserve to end up like that. So if your life is dear to you – stay the hell away from him for the time being and stick to your cronies or other 'friends' that you might have." Max could practically see the cogs and wheels turning in the other woman's head as something like realisation and sadness washed over her eyes.

"I… I don't hate you, Max." The blonde with the short hair said quietly and the rocker-girl with the nose-piercing had to strain her ears to hear the young woman over the music in the background. "You beat be for mistreating your friend and I deserved it… I was a total asshole towards Kate, 'cause I thought I knew how this world of artists' works, but I was wrong. I let my self-consciousness rule over me and gave her a hard time, because I was jealous and wanted someone to feel as miserable as myself… I really did something horrible to Kate and I don't know if I ever will be able to make up for it. I don't even know if Kate will be able to forgive me…" The young blonde fell silent for a minute and stared at her own feet before she spoke up again, not raising her eyes. "To be honest, Nathan has been freaking me out lately. He's not here and I haven't seen him since the last time I checked on him after you beat him… I have other people to go to for protection..." She looked up and if she would be able to care right now – Max might have noticed the sincere tone in the other woman's voice, but she didn't care and she didn't notice – she had other things to worry about. She was already about to turn and continue the search for her blue-haired friend, when she felt Victoria grab her hand prompting her to turn to the other woman with a vicious scowl on her face. The blonde girl with the beige-black costume seemed to struggle for words, while the rocker-girl yanked her hand free, but before Max could turn again Victoria spoke up.

"Thank you for telling me this, Max…" She began and tried not to look frightened by the expression on the other girls' face. "And despite everything or maybe because of it - I actually think you're one of the coolest people at Blackwell…" 'Ok, now this is getting kinda weird…' The rocker-gal thought taking a slight step back. "You don't give a shit about what people think, and I do. You're strong and don't let anything dictate what to do or what to think… And, uhm, if what you say is really true – take care too… if you need anything – just text me."

"Uh… yeah…" Max said, before she finally turned and walked away from the blonde girl. She had seen different 'Victoria's' in the various 'pasts' and 'present', but the fact that this strange situation had resolved itself by showing the rocker-gal that this Victoria actually did have some of the qualities that had made them friends in other timelines, had sent her thoughts for a slight tumble.

As she was walking and still taking a look the place if by any chance she'd see the young Prescott, a glimpse of blue-hair caught her attention. Without a second thought she bound towards her friend who had just come out of one of the party rooms with a deep scowl on her face.

"There you are!" She didn't know if she wanted to slap the girl in front of her or hug her, so she decided on just telling her what she knew. "Nathan isn't here, Chloe. Nobody has seen him tonight." The punk-girl seemed not to notice the look on Max's face and continued to stare daggers at everyone.

"He's definitely not upstairs or in the lockers." The punk with the blue hair commented. "The bastard is probably hiding in his dorm… Come on, Max. Let's bail. Nathan can't hide anymore." But just as they turned to go and leave, another person stepped in their way.

"So you made it, Max." It was the photography teacher.

"Not again. The hell is wrong today? The fuck do you want?" This time Max was yelling, but due to the volume of music she might have as well said it normally, for she hardly could hear her own voice. She felt like the fuse in her head had become shorter and shorter over the last few days and right now was not the time for anybody to get in her way.

"Hey, hey! Easy there. I'm just here for the announcement of the winner of the competition." The older man said stepping back a little, with a slightly worried expression on his face. "Um… are you both okay? You look like you're on a mission…"

"I'm looking for Nathan. There you have it. Happy now? Can you finally move?" The rocker-girl replied dismissively. Having to deal with Jeffer-creep was the last thing she wanted to do right now.

"Aha. I didn't know you were pals with him. I haven't seen him since this afternoon…" The teacher said with a slightly bemused expression as if he'd made a joke only he understood. "He seemed pretty upset. I think he's still quite upset over the whole Kate situation… but sorry, seems like we'll have to continue our little chat later, Max. I have to announce the winner of the contest in a few minutes. I do wish you'd have competed. You have to build up that resume and portfolio, but I know you will." He gave them a small smile and excused himself as he walked past them.

"Let's get the hell outta here, Chloe." The rocker-girl said as she gave her friend a slight push to get her moving. Still, she couldn't supress a shiver from running down her spine. Something was bloody fucking not alright… She didn't really pay it any mind as the teacher announced that Victoria Chase had won the contest or to whom the girl dedicated her prize.

They were already half-way to the boys' dormitories, when suddenly Chloe's phone buzzed indicating that she had received a message. At first the punk-girl hadn't wanted to look who it was, but when it buzzed again shortly afterwards, she did stop to look at it. As she flew over the short messages, she could feel herself grow pale. Immediately the shorter woman beside her noticed it and inquired about what was going on.

"Nathan just texted me. He says there won't be any evidence left after he's done." The blue-nette could hardly believe that the young Prescott had found out about what they were after or had been doing so quickly, but right now was not the time to worry about that. "Shit, Max, we have to go to the junkyard right now!" She started to run towards the direction of the parking lot.

"Chloe, wait! Something is seriously not right. I-" The slightly younger woman said, but couldn't finish her sentence as the blue-haired punk was already out of earshot and increasing the distance between them fast. "Goddamn it!" She cursed in frustration before bounding after her friend.

"Chloe, listen, something doesn't feel right!" Max repeated the umpteenth time as they walked through the dark and abandoned junkyard. She had explained to her best friend that the message she had received was nothing like what she herself had received from Nathan or that they had gathered enough evidence and proof to get the young Prescott even if her would do something right now, but to no avail. "If you're not going to listen to me, at least stop stomping around!" The rocker-gal couldn't explain why, but the whole situation put her teeth on edge. The whole day had been one punch to the gut after another, but something right here, right now felt more out of place than anything. Still, she couldn't put her finger on it – at least not completely, as she did have a guess though.

"Right. Just get ready to use your rewind fast if Nathan tries to jump us." The blue-nette conceded as they came ever closer to the spot they had found Rachel's body. "God I want to kill that little psycho…" Max didn't respond to that. She felt like someone was watching them and for some reason her head was starting to hurt. It was hard to concentrate. Disregarding her own earlier statement Chloe ran the last couple of meters to the shallow grave dropping the light she was holding to the ground and started to claw at the earth.

"Oh God, Max, look… She's still there." The punk-girl chocked up again as the plastic bag came into view. She hadn't noticed that the shorter woman had stayed behind a little and had positioned herself so that if someone had been indeed following them – she'd be able to jump that person.

It was just as the rocker-gal had convinced herself that it was probably safe enough to come out of the dark corner she was standing in, when she felt a slight brush on her right shoulder. Without a moments' hesitation she turned to kick whoever was there, as all her instincts screamed – this was a live or die situation. Her kick connected but the odd angle and the timing were off. She lost her balance and just as she was about to regain her footing she felt a sharp sting a little above her collarbone as someone stabbed her with something like a needle. With increasing panic the rocker-girl with brown-red hair felt that she was losing consciousness, but still her body moved on – the muscle memory still worked a bit longer. She tried to reach out to her 'power' too, but to no avail – the haze was blocking out everything and her vision was starting to blur.

"Chloe! Look out!" Max managed a half-shout, but it was hardly necessary as the commotion of her nearly fruitless struggle had alarmed the blue-haired woman already.

"What the fuck?!" She heard her friend shout in disbelief as she levelled the gun at the unknown attacker. With the last reserves of her willpower the rocker-gal managed to kick out again in the general direction of where she suspected the attacker was standing. She felt her feeble kick connect, but if it had done any good – the scenery before her eyes didn't show it. A gun went off and the woman she loved was hurled backwards as the bullet penetrated her body. By the time the punk-girls unmoving body hit the ground Max couldn't even move a muscle anymore. She was barely conscious as she muttered her best friends' name one last time before the darkness settled on her mind and vision. She didn't notice how she was carelessly heaved up and dragged into a car. She didn't register where they were taking her. She didn't even know if her best friend was dead. And she didn't see the wicked and slightly triumphant smile on the face of the man she had suspected and despised for a long time now. She didn't hear when the photography teacher from the Blackwell Academy started to hum in a low voice to the tune of the piece of classical music that was currently playing on the radio…

"You were always the feisty one, weren't you, Max?" The older man leered as he turned the car into the drive way of an old farmstead. "But you do have an eye for observation. So now show me if you have an equally great talent for listening." He didn't really care that the girl didn't respond. Well, how could she – she was practically out cold. Still he allowed himself to indulge on the subject a bit more. "Wouldn't you say that Bach's piano concerto in G Minor perfectly underscores your failure and my triumph?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hey, guys and gals. I'm sorry that this latest (and one of the shortest) chapter is bing published so late. Again. (no pun intended this time) Work is hell on earth right now and the little time I have for myself, when I get home is mostly spent on just crashing on the bed and sleeping 'till the morning. I'm really sorry if the quallity of the content has dropped (at least I do believe so, myself), but I hope you can still enjoy it. I hope that I'll get the next one up by next saturday as work should be getting a teeny-tiny bit easier by that time. Still, I beg of you not to hold too great of a grudge on me if I don't manage it.

With that said - cheers and have a great day and rest of the week ;)!

Yours,

Bovragor