Max's head hurt, and it seemed like everything was out to make it worse.
It'd started when they'd stopped to get money for the trip home. Chloe had decided that they shouldn't do it so many times at one ATM, so Max had only rewound twice. But the ache, which usually faded in about twenty minutes at most, had persisted, leaving her with the throbbing beginning of a bad day.
The rattling sound of the window, loose with age, irritated her in a way it never had before. The smoke from Chloe's cigarette, which failed to go entirely out of her cracked window, was starting to make her nauseous, making the pounding feel even worse.
Chloe herself glanced over, seeming to notice that Max wasn't in a good state, for she promptly put it out.
"Not feeling good?" She guessed, turning the music down mercifully. The brunette nodded slowly, grimacing as even that felt like smashing into a wall.
That was Chloe's cue to take the next exit, where she pulled into a gas station lot. After parking, she got out and went inside, returning with a plastic bag weighed down by various drinks. She passed these in to Max, then hopped into the bed of the truck and rummaged through some of the bags.
She must have found what she was looking for, as she returned and slid into the driver's seat.
"Mkay, ibuprofen or marijuana?" She inquired, offering her hands which held both a dose of tiny pills and a joint. Max considered both.
"…Ibuprofen." She decided, holding her hand out to accept them. Chloe opened a coke for her as well.
"A little caffeine might help. I grabbed you an OJ too, for later."
Max nodded gratefully, taking the pills before sitting back and closing her eyes. The sun was so bright. She heard the engine turn over as Chloe started the truck, and felt it roar to life under her. She felt them pulling onto the highway. Then she felt Chloe's hand on her arm, and she cracked her eyes open. The sun seemed even brighter.
"Why don't you lie down?" The other girl suggested, patting her thighs invitingly. Max wasn't about to argue.
It was darker now that she wasn't in the range of the sun spilling in through the windshield. Chloe's legs made as good a pillow as any. And whenever she could free up a hand, she'd run it through Max's locks, brushing them over her face and then back out of the way.
The brunette was starting to get an understanding for why Chloe enjoyed it so much. It felt heavenly, and distracted her from the pain pulsing in her forehead. Enough so that she found she could doze as Chloe drove. When she would blink awake occasionally she would find the scenery and time had changed rather drastically.
Eventually, she found it in her to stay awake longer than a few seconds.
"Where are we?"
Chloe glanced down, a bit surprised, but then she grinned, and Max couldn't help but smile back.
"Just about to leave Colorado. After a stop, if you know what I mean…" She said, wiggling her eyebrows. Max giggled, sitting up.
"Alright. Don't spend all of the money my headache earned, though. Don't forget that baggie in the pocket of those pants in your bag. The one you bought in Florida." She reminded, rubbing the spot of her head that was still throbbing a bit. Chloe's lips puckered into an O.
"Dude, yeah! I forgot! Shit, thanks."
Max chuckled, leaning over until she could rest against Chloe's side.
"Am I still not allowed to go in?" She wondered, closing her eyes again.
"Fraid not, sweetheart. They'd take one look at you call the cops."
Max pouted weakly, shoving Chloe gently with her shoulder.
"Want some juice?" She asked, reaching for the bag from earlier. Chloe shook her head dismissively, so Max kept it to herself, sipping lazily until Chloe found a dispensary that she liked the look of. Max got out as well, heading into a coffee shop across the street to use the bathroom and order a small hot chocolate when she felt guilty for not buying anything.
With the paper cup in hand, she returned to the truck to find that Chloe wasn't back yet. She did like to take her time where her illegals were involved. Max figured she had a few minutes to kill, and decided to take a quick walk along the sidewalk winding around the buildings. It was probably the last opportunity she'd have to stretch her legs for a while.
There was a pretty area dotted with trees behind the line of businesses, and it made for decent scenery as she waited for Chloe to finish shopping. She remembered Colorado being a sight for sore eyes last time they'd come through, too.
When she rounded the corner again, Chloe was slouched against the truck, waiting with a cigarette pinched between her lips. She grinned dopily as Max approached, reaching out when she neared to wrap her up in her arms.
"Good walk?" She asked absently, finishing her smoke and tossing the butt in a trashcan. Max nodded, following into the truck.
"How was shopping?" She countered, once they'd buckled up. Chloe grinned, pointing to a bag in the floorboard. While they sought their ramp onto the highway, Max perused the contents of the bag. Chloe had done well at not buying too much this time. There was only one small container.
A storm rolled in, and Chloe focused more on seeing the road through the speckled windshield, so Max lost her conversation partner for the most part. The pattering of the rain irritated the headache that was still lurking, but she tried to ignore it. At least the lightning, which was very close and very loud, was pretty to see.
She fell asleep at some point, not waking again till Chloe stopped the truck. The lack of noise jarred the brunette awake, and she blinked groggily, trying to figure out what was going on. The storm had let up and it was sunny again. Chloe was in the process of getting out of the truck, a cigarette dangling from her lips again. Stressful day for her too, it would seem. She paused when she noticed that Max had stirred, though.
"Hey, sleepyhead." She greeted, tugging the unlit cigarette from her lips before leaning in for a kiss. Max smiled. "Bathroom break." She added, lighting up and hopping out.
Max followed suit, stretching with a yawn before joining Chloe where she was leaned up against the side of the truck. It wasn't long before the girl draped an arm over Max's shoulders.
"Nice nap?" She asked, ruffling what must have been already messy hair. Max's nose crinkled.
"Yeah. I still have a headache, though." She admitted, sighing.
Chloe frowned, rubbing the space between the brunette's shoulders, trying to offer some sort of comfort. Max leaned into it, letting her head loll back towards the sky.
"I'm sorry, babe." The taller girl murmured. Max felt a smooch against her temple. She hummed, pressing her face into the crook of Chloe's neck. She remained there till the girl finished her smoke, then they went inside the rest stop they'd pulled into to use the toilets.
Refreshed, Chloe suggested they go for a walk around the area. Max wasn't about to argue with another chance to stretch her legs. They were driving through a National Park, so it would likely be a worthy waste of time.
Max snapped pictures while they walked. She managed to catch a stag grazing across the way, and got a snap of Chloe squealing as she ran through a stream, water splashing up around her boots. In retaliation, Chloe stole the camera and lined them both up with the distant view of tree covered mountains in the background.
The brunette rolled her eyes, but let Chloe do it. They didn't have a lot of pictures of the two of them together, but the ones they did take turned out to be Max's favorites. It helped that Chloe smooched her cheek right before hitting the shutter.
She picked a spot near the stream to sit, holding her arm out until Max nestled into the space, then curling it around her shoulders. Her side was warm compared to the air outside, and the brunette found herself sinking into it.
Chloe's hair caught the breeze and tickled against Max's cheek, but the sensation was quickly replaced by the girl's lips instead. Max turned to catch them with her own, kissing the other girl until she couldn't anymore for want of breath.
"I'm so glad we broke into the same room." The taller girl murmured, and Max could feel the smile on her lips rather than see it. And even though her head hurt, and her body was starting to wear down after traveling for so long, and she really just wanted to sleep for a week, it all seemed like it would be alright as long as Chloe could still smile.
"Me too." She finally replied, shifting as Chloe went limp. If they weren't leaned up against a tree, it might have been problematic, but as it were, she just adjusted so she could balance the weight with her own. Chloe's head dropped to her shoulder, and she smiled, leaning to rest her own on top.
Honestly, things could have wound up much different. What if she'd never met Chloe? What if she'd never decided to sneak into the motel? What if she'd wound up somewhere else instead of Los Angeles? What if she'd never gotten that ticket in the first place? What if Nathan had chosen a different direction? What if she'd never taken the chance to escape?
Chloe must have fallen asleep, for her head slipped from the brunette's shoulder, and she lurched forward. Max only barely caught her shoulder before she faceplanted right into her lap. It made her giggle, to see the girl conked out so completely. She wasn't one for naps, so it was rare to see her dozing during the day.
With some effort, the smaller girl hauled her back up, resting her weight against her shoulder again. It was sort of amazing she didn't stir, though, with all the manhandling.
Glancing down to catch Chloe's hand with her own, she felt her heart stop beating. Or maybe she'd briefly halted time in her shock. It didn't matter.
Chloe's lap was wet, and her shirt staining a familiar dark red. Max knew it was blood before her brain could even come up with the word, and panic rose faster than she could move.
It's so much blood. How long had she been bleeding? Where from?
A million half-thoughts flew through her mind as she scrambled to keep the other girl upright. Her stomach was already sinking, but she had to try to keep her wits. She could fix this. But she needed to know what happened.
The source of the blood proved to be a small hole directly through the center of her forehead. And Max knew exactly what that meant. She also knew that, if enough time had passed for her to realize, that it was almost certainly too late already.
Sure enough, before she could raise her hand and start the flow of time back, she felt the bite of a needle sinking into her neck. The drug was fast-acting, and her vision was already spinning as she fell heavily on her arm. Chloe crumpled beside her without any support. While her power made time stutter around her, her grasp on consciousness was too loose for her to truly rewind, and she felt her eyes burn with welling tears as everything she was about to lose came to mind.
Jefferson, who had probably been a few yards away somewhere, stood over her now. He looked annoyed, but also undeniably pleased. Probably because he'd won. And all she could do was to glare up at him with what little energy she had left, to try and make him understand exactly how much he'd taken from her.
Of course, it only made him all the more smug to see her anger, and she saw him smirk as she finally lost the battle with whatever he'd injected her with.
-.-.-+-.-.-
She woke in a chair, hands and legs strapped down. She'd only ever been in that particular sort of chair once before, as a punishment for trying to use her power when it wasn't authorized. Needless to say, after a day of not really moving at all, she'd learned the lesson.
Now, though, she wished she'd put more of an effort into learning how to escape, because she doubted she'd be able to get out before someone noticed she was awake.
What did it even matter anyway? If they were already back to the bunker, which it would seem they were, then it wouldn't do her any good. Her parents were gone. Nathan was gone. Any chance she had of escaping again was gone. Chloe-
God, Chloe.
She sobbed, body sagging as much as the chair allowed her to. She could scream, and wail, and curse every name she knew. But what good would it do? Even if she could somehow fight her way out of the bunker again, which would be almost one hundred percent impossible, it wouldn't matter.
Chloe was gone. She couldn't rewind that far back, even if she started now. Everything that had come to matter to her since she'd found freedom had been taken away from her with one bullet, and she was too late to undo it.
Fate was cruel to her. Perhaps it was because she bent it so carelessly? But what else could she lose, really?
The door opened, and Jefferson strolled in like it was any other day. Like it was just time for another quick test. Like he hadn't just chased her all over the country and ripped everything away from her. Like she wasn't strapped to a chair and mourning the loss of the only person that meant anything to her anymore.
"Good afternoon, Maxine." He greeted, finding it in him to put on a miniscule professional smile.
"Fuck you." She spat back, voice unwavering despite her tears.
He frowned, as if he was looking at a particularly dirty animal that had dared invade his home. As if she had merely said something sort of rude.
"Well, I see you've learned a few things since the last time I saw you." He commented, sitting down across from her. "You've also lost weight. Are you hungry?"
Some part of her considered laughing. It was all so… Mundane. But in the way that her life used to be, not in the way that Chloe was showing her it was supposed to be. It was as if she'd never left. And it terrified her more than anything they could possibly do to her to think that she might get used to it again.
"No." She hissed, staring at her fingers, at her wrists, willing them to be stronger than her restraints. Jefferson was unimpressed.
"Well, that's fortunate. You'll be getting your nutrition through an IV for the time being, since you can't use your hands." He explained, grinning. Of course he was enjoying this. If it was up to him, she'd probably be in much worse conditions, actually.
"Just fucking kill me, already." She grit, trying to clench her fingers. There wasn't enough give for even that.
Jefferson's smile only grew, and he tsked mockingly like he was talking to a petulant toddler in timeout, not a furious superhuman strapped to a chair. He'd always had a way of managing to be condescending in any situation.
"Now Max, why on Earth would we go to all that trouble to get you back if we only wanted to kill you?" He wondered.
And that made her blink.
Why hadn't they killed her yet? In fact, why hadn't they just shot her along with Chloe in Colorado? The whole reason she'd fled in the first place was the threat of death. What had changed their minds? What had she done to make herself worth keeping alive?
Jefferson was very obviously enjoying her confusion.
"Max, did you really think we were going to kill you?" He asked, the tone of his voice making it obvious that he knew the answer. "Someone who can rewind time. Who can literally raise the dead, can undo mistakes, can see the future. Do you think we would just throw a tool like that away?"
She swallowed, refusing to look at him anymore.
"Nathan, yes. His power is useful, and devastating, but more dangerous than it's worth. I can't tell you how much trouble it was keeping that brat as stable as he was for so long. Nathan was expendable."
Was? Had they caught Nathan? Was he dead already? Even though she hadn't really known much about him, some part of Max was saddened. In a way, he'd become something of an ally. She hoped it was quick for him, at least.
"But you? No. Bending time space is an ability we can't afford to lose. We were never going to kill you. Nathan overheard me talking about euthanizing a few of our… Less stable experiments. He assumed you were included."
She was sobbing again as she realized what was going to happen to her. She was going to be strapped to a chair for years. At least until they trusted her enough to let her roam the bunker again. Even then, she'd have assigned armed guards twenty four/seven for the rest of her life. Probably more than one. No visitors, no personal belongings.
They were going to test her, and if she dared refuse, they'd torture her. They were going to change her, break her, and wash her mind out so thoroughly that she wouldn't even know better anymore. She was going to be a weapon for them, as she was always meant to be. Only this time, it was going to be much more abrasive of a process.
They were going to fill her head with nonsense until she couldn't remember her own name, or that she even had one. They were going to prod and puncture and alter her body until she couldn't remember what it felt like to be touched tenderly, to be held and hear someone's heart beating. They were going to take away her very right to choose whether or not she lived or died.
Jefferson sat down, turning his chair to face Max squarely, as if to be an audience member while what little she had left shattered before her. To watch her break. He got a sick satisfaction out of it, she could tell.
He waited till she'd cried herself out before getting up. He was heading for the door, but he stopped at her side to withdraw something from his pocket.
"She had this in her pocket." He explained, placing a polaroid on the table before her.
A corner of it was stained with Chloe's blood, which made Max's stomach lurch. It was the picture she'd taken of them together while they were walking. Max hadn't even noticed her putting it in her pocket.
Chloe had her arm slung around Max's shoulders, and she was smiling even while she kissed the photo-Max's cheek. It made tears well up all over again.
"Poor thing. She really liked you, huh? Too bad."
Max screamed as he left, unable to even find words. He only laughed in response.
A/N: I guess this is sort of appropriate, considering how I've been feeling lately. The results of the election have really fucked me up, if I'm being real with you guys. I've dealt with so much political bullshit over the past couple days that I'm too drained at this point to hash it out anymore. I don't want to discuss it at this point. If anyone needs to talk, then feel free to message me on tumblr. I'm here for support if anyone is feeling scared or just needs someone to listen. But I don't want to argue, or debate right now.
I'm just here to give you guys an update. If you're like me, it'll probably be a welcome distraction. I know it's begun taking me a solid month to update, and I'm sorry. I think I need to play through the game again soon, refresh everything. And I want to go back through and reread from the beginning to keep my ducks in a row.
On a side note, if any of you are Voltron fans, I have a oneshot up called Glow Stars. It's Klance, Halloween themed, and explicit towards the end. So, you know. Enjoy if that's what you're into.
Other than that, I've not got a lot to say. I'm gonna get back to drinking and wishing things were different. Stay safe, stay strong.
KuroRiya
九六りや