Max closed the dorm room door behind her. Chloe was hunched over her desk, with her head in one hand and the other holding a piece of paper, her back turned to Max.

"You okay, Chloe?" Max asked. "I picked up some more dye for you. It's starting to fade, you need to touch it up."

"You shouldn't have," Chloe sighed. "I'm letting it grow out. I'm done with it."

"Oh…" Max shrugged and dropped the bag with the dye on Chloe's bed - she could have it in case she changed her mind.

Blackwell Academy had been kind enough to allow Chloe to move in with Max after readmitting her, and even found her another bed. This had meant sacrificing the sofa to make room, but Max didn't mind - many of the other students - the ones who survived - were doubling up to make room for other displaced survivors of the storm. Chloe's home had been among those destroyed, and nearly all of her belongings were lost with it. The school's gesture was very generous.

"Is everything alright?" Max asked gently. Chloe ran a hand through her hair, pushing it back, and turned to face Max.

"It's these medical bills...I don't know what to do, Max. Our insurance - mom's insurance - it isn't great. It helps, but God, I don't know how I'm going to come up with the rest. Mom didn't have enough put away to cover it. Shit, she barely made enough to put food on the table."

Max could see the weariness in Chloe's eyes. She looked as though she had aged ten years, in a matter of weeks.

"I can see if there's anything my mom and dad can - "

"No, no - Max, this isn't your responsibility. I should have been working a job or at least still be in school...but no, I'm a useless fuck up, and...and now my mom is in a coma in the hospital, and...and..." Chloe couldn't continue. She leaned forward and put her head in her hands, as she tried to choke down tears.

Max immediately went to her knees in front of Chloe, and gently pulled the blue-haired girl's hands away from her face. She then reached a hand up to cup Chloe's cheek.

"Chloe, you're not useless. You've aced all the tests you've done the past few weeks. You saved that little girl, remember? You've made mistakes, but now you're on the right track again. We'll figure out about the money together, okay? The Prescotts have some kind of fund they're putting together - I just heard about it. Maybe they can help us. And help your mom."

"Prescott…" Chloe repeated. She scowled as though she had just tasted something rotten. "You should have let Nathan - "

Max knew what Chloe was going to say, but didn't want to hear Chloe say those words. She interrupted her with the first impulse she had - she leaned forward to catch Chloe in a kiss. When she realized Chloe wasn't responding, Max pulled away.

"I'm sorry, I - "

Max was cut off when Chloe darted forward to rejoin their lips. Soon they were standing, then shuffling over to the bed. Max sat on the edge, maintaining the kiss as she began to fumble at Chloe's belt. Chloe's hands came up to catch Max's, and she broke the kiss.

"Max...are you sure about this?"

"Yes," Max breathed.

They made love for the first time that night.

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Timeline 2

Max and Chloe

"Okay, Agent Berry, I want your version of the story, now. Why did you join the FBI?"

Agent Berry looked confused. "Uh, what now?" Max and the two agents sat gathered around the small coffee table in Max and Chloe's apartment.

"Why did you join the FBI in this timeline?" Max persisted. "I know your story in the other timeline."

"Christ, I don't even know my story in the other timeline. This 'linked' stuff is...weird. Well, what can I say? The storm came and destroyed everything. I used that opportunity to get the hell out and not let the Prescotts use me anymore."

"You left too? You're a cop...were a cop. Protect and serve, you ever hear that phrase before?"

Berry cringed. "I know. I feel guilty about it every day. But when Margaret approached me and told me about how the Prescotts were involved - somehow - I knew that was my chance to set things right. Not just for leaving Arcadia Bay - for everything I've done for the Prescotts in the past that I've regretted."

"You know," Max growled, "after the storm, Chloe immediately wanted to go back. She went back to help everyone she could. She saved lives, she helped rebuild homes - until they were bought out by the government, anyway. But she didn't abandon Arcadia Bay. She took responsibility and tried to make things right."

Max wasn't entirely sure why she was telling this to Berry. Was she trying to guilt-trip him? Or was she trying to make sure he understood who she had sacrificed an entire town for? Max huffed and looked away. She had wanted to leave, but Chloe insisted on staying. Max could have gone without her, but there was no way in hell she was ever leaving her again. In retrospect, she was glad she stayed - seeing the destruction tore her apart, but rebuilding the Bay also put her heart back together, a little piece at a time. Sadly, she wasn't able to completely mend it.

It was tough for Chloe too, she recalled. When William died, well, that was the day Chloe was no longer a little girl. When Arcadia Bay died, Chloe was no longer a teenager. Dealing with her mother's insurance, health bills, and eventually, Joyce's passing, then everything following that with the house, Chloe was forced to give up the rebellious, impulsive life she lived and become a responsible adult.

Max redirected her attention to Andrews. "All of that stuff you told me once, about 'marrying the wrong guy' and losing your house, was any of that true, or was that all just a bunch of shit?"

Andrews mulled over her coffee. "It was all true," she said at last. "I was married to another agent. Met him during my assignment where I was linked. He turned out to be a scumbag; he cheated me of my savings and I lost the house. Only the homeless part wasn't true - I could have easily gotten a small apartment for myself, but I was just starting with the Prescott case, so I decided to go the homeless route."

"I'm sorry," Max replied genuinely. She sensed a painful tale, there. Her previous anger was washed away.

"How's Chloe doing?" Andrews asked, changing the subject.

"She's at the lab. I'll be heading over there in a bit. We're going to be running some more tests."

"And the portable quantum device?"

"Still working on it," Max answered. "Generally these things take a while. I have another question...have you guys investigated the township council for Arcadia Bay? They would have authorized the sales of any land to the Prescotts."

"We haven't," Andrews said. "That...never occurred to us to do so. Should we?"

"We've been thinking that the Prescotts may have bribed some of them into selling them the lands," Max answered.

Berry and Andrews exchanged looks."We'll look into it. How is Chloe in the other timeline?" Berry inquired.

"Surviving. Barely. Winter has settled in and it's making life difficult for her."

The agents exchanged glances.

"Winter?! It's October!" Andrews exclaimed.

"I know. Things are...weird in that timeline. She's started gathering things she needs to put together the quantum device," Max answered.

Berry shook his head. "Fucking hell...how will she be able to put together a … quantum device? From scraps?"

Max grinned. "She's smart. If anyone can figure it out, she can."

Timeline 1

Max Alone

Max groaned and rubbed her aching head. She sat in the lab while Warren and Brooke ran about, getting everything set up.

"Cooling system at two-hundred and fifty five Kelvin," Warren called out.

Not so loud, Max wanted to say. She kept the thought to herself.

Apparently Brooke caught on. "You okay Max?" she asked.

"Yeah...just had a little too much to drink last night."

"Weren't you on shift last night?"

"Yes, but I didn't drink 'til I got home. Don't worry, I'd never drink on the job."

Max ignored the incredulous look Brooke shot her.

Dude, your shift ended at, like, 2 AM. Were you really drinking at that time? Geeze, Chloe doesn't even stay up that late! Not anymore, anyway, Noir admonished. Max just grumbled in response.

"Two-forty Kelvin. We have contact," Warren announced. Max glanced over at the computer screen, and saw HEY DUDE in the textbox.

"Okay Max, do your thing."

Max stood and raised her hand. A dot of bright light appeared, hovering in the middle of the room, and expanded. When the throbbing in her head subsided, she was once again looking at Chloe and herself.

"Hello again, my alternate reality friends!" Warren called out cheerfully. Chloe gave a little wave.

"Hey guys. Okay...so, as the Maxes suggested, we are going to test just two things today. One: if they can open the bridge with just one device running, and two, if they can both open it from just one side, together," Chloe explained.

Everyone nodded their understanding.

"Let's get to it, then," Warren said.

"Just one thing. Max - er, Mad Max -I have something for you."

Max frowned and crossed the "bridge" to Chloe. As she approached, Chloe picked something off of her desk - a small piece of paper, or the size of it.

"I uh, I have two copies here," Chloe said. "One for mom, if you could pass that on to her...and one for you."

Max took the items from Chloe's hand and looked at it. Copies of the photo of Max and Chloe together, both in graduation robes. Both smiling happily.

Max smiled, too. "Thank you, Chloe," she said. "I'll see to it that Joyce gets this. It's lovely." She threw her arms around the blonde. "I'm so proud of you, Chloe," she said softly. Chloe returned the hug, wrapping her arms around her and squeezing. Max pulled away after a moment, and returned to her side of reality to carefully put the photos in her bag.

"Okay, now, let's start with the 'one device on' test," Warren said.

They agreed to start with the other reality - they'd sever the bridge, power down the device on their end, and Max would try to open it. Once the bridge was gone and the other side was shut down, Max raised her hand and concentrated on trying to reestablish the bridge. She was able to...sense an opening, almost like feeling a fish slip through your fingers in a stream, but when she tried to grab hold and force the bridge open, she felt extreme pain in her head that wouldn't allow more than a small pinhole-sized opening to form. When the pain was too great, she released her hold on the bridge and was staring at the plain white wall lab in this reality, once more.

They tried again from the other reality. The other Max had marginally better success - likely due to the fact that she was not majorly hung over - but even then, she was only able to open a softball-sized hole before the pain forced her to let go. Even Max could feel it through their connection.

Soon they reestablished the bridge the normal way. Chloe and Warren talked briefly about their observations before deciding to move on to the next part.

"Okay...so what side of reality do we want the Maxes to be on?" Warren asked.

"I'm going over there," Max declared before anyone else could answer.

So she crossed over to the other reality, and watched as the bridge shrunk closed. Brooke and Warren disappeared from view.

"So," Noir spoke up as they stared at the empty space where Brooke and Warren stood moments ago, "what if we can't open it from here?"

That was precisely the reason Max decided to go to their reality - if they got stuck, then at least both Maxes were with Chloe, and Chloe wouldn't be alone.

"Well," Max began to answer, "if we're both stuck here, then Chloe will get to experience two Maxes at once."

The other Max blushed a bright red. Chloe snorted, but judging by the grin on her face, that idea was not unwelcome.

"Alright. Let's do this," Max said. Together, the two Maxes raised their hands and concentrated on opening the bridge. It worked, with considerably less head pain. Max wasn't sure if she was happy or disappointed that she wasn't trapped with Chloe.

Soon they were saying their goodbyes, and planned to meet again in a week. By then, they hoped to have the first versions of their portable quantum devices - PQD's, they were calling them now - ready for testing.

And then, they would finally be rescuing Chloe.

Timeline 3

Chloe Surviving

Chloe picked up the dusty laptop and turned it over in her hands. It had a detachable battery - good, she didn't want to try prying it open to pull it out .

Chloe stuffed the laptop and the charger into her bag. She searched through the drawers of the desk she found it on, and finding nothing of interest, left the room and headed down the stairs, careful to avoid the rubble pile partway down. The steps creaked loudly under her feet. Hopefully, no one else was near to hear it.

Chloe proceeded inside the next house. She checked the first floor garage, living room, and kitchen. Satisfied that there was no laptop sitting around, Chloe went up the stairs. Halfway up the staircase, a step gave out under her foot. She yelped and gripped the handrail.

"Shit…"

She pulled her leg out from the hole and placed it carefully on the next step. Very slowly, Chloe transferred her weight to that foot to test the integrity of the step, and when she was sure it would hold, she moved her other foot over the gap and continued up the stairs. Chloe released her breathe, just realizing she had been holding it.

Chloe glanced around when she reached the top of the stairs. To the right was the master bedroom. She went through the doorway and glanced around. The closet was open and drawers were pulled out and emptied. She wondered if the occupants had packed all of their clothes and left, or if the home had been ransacked by scavengers like her. She went over to the desk. Another laptop sat on it, also covered in dust. This one, too had a detachable battery. She took it.

After another thorough search of the desk in the master bedroom yielded nothing of interest, she went across the hall to the secondary bedroom. This room had sci-fi posters all over the walls. She went to the desk - score! Another laptop with a detachable battery. She opened the drawer of the desk. Inside was an external hard drive, with "movies" written on a piece of tape stuck to it.

If I can get one of these laptops to charge up and work…

Chloe pocketed the hard drive, and dug around the drawers more. Much to her delight, she found an unopened, single packet of instant hot chocolate mix. This she pocketed too, regardless of how old it might be. She left the room and went back into the hall in high spirits - finding the three laptops was great, but finding the simple packet of cocoa made her very happy.

She was at the top of the stairs, about to head down when the front door creaked open.

Shit!

She snapped out of her happy trance. Slowly, she backed up, and turned to a closed door behind her. She grasped the handle and slowly twisted it open, trying to make as little noise as possible.

"Oh, Chlooooeeee," a frighteningly familiar voice called out. Chloe's blood ran cold, and every hair stood on her neck. She glanced back down the stairs as she opened the door, crossed through the doorway and quietly closed the door behind her. As she turned around, she had to wave her arms frantically to stop herself from falling. The floor in this room - a bathroom, once - was almost completely gone, collapsed to the first floor. A section of the wall was gone too, from the second floor down to the first, as if a strip of the house was just torn away. Snow-filled backyards of the surrounding houses were visible. She pressed herself into the small corner that remained from the room, and set a hand on the handle of the knife on her belt, ready to draw it in an instant.

She heard steps below her and froze. Maxine was entering the rubble filled room. Chloe held her breath as the brunette stepped into view below her.

"I know you're heeeeerrrreeee, Chlooooeeee," she called out, as if she were playing hide and seek with a small child.

Shit, shit, shit! If Maxine turned around now, she would almost definitely see Chloe pressed back into the small remaining portion of the second floor bathroom.

I'll have to make sure she doesn't turn around.

She glanced about and found a decent sized chunk of broken bathroom tile sitting on the ground beside her. Chloe cautiously crouched down, not taking her eyes off Maxine, and grasped for it with her fingertips. When she felt it, she clutched it and slowly straightened back up. As Maxine began to turn around, Chloe hurled the piece of debris right through the opening. Maxine's head immediately snapped in the direction of the sound when the chunk of tile hit something outside.

"I hear you, Chloeeeee," Maxine called out as she stepped over the rubble towards the opening in the wall. "Come and plaaaaayyyyyy!"

As Maxine stepped through the opening to the outside, Chloe snuck back out the door she came through. She hurried, as quietly as she could, down the stairs - carefully avoiding the hole she had stepped in - and out the front door. She ran down the street, back in the direction of her camp. She rounded the corner of a street and stopped dead in her tracks.

An armed patrol of Marshians stood right in front of her.

"STOP! IN THE NAME OF THE DIVINE PROPHET!" The man in front demanded. He bore the burned cross of a Paladin on his face.

Chloe glanced between the gaggle of men - and a woman - then turned and ran in the opposite direction.

BANG! BANG BANG!

Holy shit, they're fucking SHOOTING at me!

RUN! Blue answered.

Chloe instinctively threw her arms up to the back of her head to shield it. Logically, she knew there was little her arms would do to protect her, but that didn't stop her from keeping her head shielded. She turned to the right and ran between two houses into a backyard.

"DON'T LET HER GET AWAY!" The paladin roared.

Chloe kept running straight towards a large box that was pushed up against the fence. She jumped on it, then sprung off to propel herself over. With a grunt and a thug, she tumbled into the snow on the other side, but quickly recovered and was back on the move. She sprinted out of the new backyard to the street, then into yet another backyard on the other side of the street, and again vaulted over a fence. She continued this pattern for a while until she was satisfied she had lost both Maxine and the Cultist patrol.

"Thank God for fence-happy subdivision housing," she muttered. She stood bent over, trying to catch her breath. After a few minutes, she sat and opened the sack of laptops. She pulled one out to inspect it for damage - and boy, was there damage. The first one had taken a bullet right in the middle of it.

Shit, she thought. Probably won't be able to use that. Hopefully the battery still works.

That probably saved your life, you know, Blue told her.

You're right. Chloe was sure she'd never felt so grateful for such a piece of technology.

The other two laptops, thankfully, appeared to be unharmed. Hopefully they still work when I find something to plug them in to.

The sun was setting when Chloe arrived back at camp. She now had to find a car with a normal plug for her to plug the laptops into. Gonna have to be a newer car, she thought to herself. Older ones typically just have the cigarette lighter. Unless I'm lucky enough to find an adapter.

Chloe wandered around the camp, popping open doors to inspect the interiors, and shutting the doors with a huff when she did not find the proper plug. After checking several vehicles with no luck, she finally found one - a nice, newer SUV with a three-hole plug in the backseat. Chloe eagerly pulled out a non-bullet-ridden laptop as she sat in the back seat, connected the charger and pressed the power button.

Nothing.

Dammit! Chloe thought bitterly. Hold on a sec…

Chloe leaned forward to the front console and pressed the 'clock' button under the radio. Nothing.

Battery must be dead, she thought.

There's a chance that maybe the terminals just aren't connected. Take a look, Blue suggested.

Chloe jumped out and popped the hood of the vehicle. Blue was right - the terminals were disconnected.

What do you think the chances of this having charge is?

Slim…car batteries generally degrade over time, even when unconnected. Unless they've been put on a trickle charge to maintain them. I wouldn't count on it, though.

Chloe sighed and nodded in agreement. I thought as much. She connected the terminals, then returned to the back seat and tried again.

It worked.

"YES!" Chloe cheered. She couldn't believe her luck.

How? Blue thought. I didn't expect that to work…wait, the solar panel you saw in the shed a few days ago. I wonder if they've been using that to charge the battery?

Maybe. But why? It doesn't look like they've really been using this for anything. No signs of electronics.

Radio?

There hasn't been any broadcasts in years.

CD, maybe? Blue suggested.

Chloe frowned and tried the eject button. The CD drive whirred as though trying to eject a disk, but nothing came out.

Nope.

Cigarette lighter?

Chloe glanced down. Beside the three prong plug was the typical lighter cap. She pulled it out, and twisted it in her fingers to examine the metal end. Sure enough, it showed signs of use.

None of the bodies I cleaned up had any cigarettes on them, though. I checked carefully.

Maybe they used it for fire starting.

Chloe grinned. So you're telling me that I don't have to worry about running out of matches? And that I won't have to rub two sticks together to start a fire anymore? Score!

Uh-huh! Blue answered. All you have to do is pop that in, let it heat up and stick a leaf or something to it.

This was beyond fantastic. Chloe had access to a computer for the first time in years, a power source for the quantum device, and an easy way to start her campfires.

Chloe cheerfully jumped into the backseat of the vehicle and pulled the "movie" hard drive out of her pocket, and plugged in the USB to the port on the laptop. She was happy when a little box popped up on the screen. She opened the folder titled "Movies". And when she saw the selections inside, she nearly wept tears of joy.

That night, she sat by a small campfire she built just outside the SUV, drank hot chocolate, and watched Blade Runner.