Max stared intently out the front window as Chloe did her best to zoom through the streets of Arcadia Bay in their desperate effort to get to Blackwell Academy; a life was at stake. No one she knew, not personally, but one she'd become heavily invested already.
"Wow Max, you really got your game face on." Chloe remarked, doing her best to straddle the line between driving dangerously irresponsible speeds and the need to not get them immediately arrested by the local cops.
Max nodded once. "Suppose so." she murmured. "Lucky thing, you already gave me the briefing on what I need to know before I jumped back. About Kate Marsh. The video she was in, the people giving her shit about it." She paused, took a deep breath, and then looked over to her friend.
"And you told me about what Nathan did to you too, Chloe. About him drugging you in his dorm room and shit, before you tried blackmailing him yesterday."
Max sat still, as Chloe's jaw tightened, her grip on the steering wheel becoming white-knuckled.
"Yeah, that fucking sicko prick. I mean, Jesus, I got myself into a bad situation. It could have gone a lot worse and I should have known better. But poor Kate. I may not go to Blackwell anymore, but the town's small enough, so people gossip, 'cause they're assholes. I don't know her all that well. She came in just as I was on my way out, but she seemed nice, you know? She's really into her whole Jesus thing, and that's fine I guess. Gotta confess, I shook my head and laughed the first time I saw the video on YouTube, thinking she was just another hypocrite, hella making out with half the jock lineup the way she did, but after another minute, it was obvious she was drugged. She didn't know what she was doing, not really. And all those Vortex Club bitches probably know exactly what happened, and they're still calling her a slut!"
Max watched as Chloe did her best to keep from gunning the engine again out of bitter frustration.
"This town is a shit-factory, Max!" Chloe exclaimed, voice dripping with bitter resentment. "So many fucked up, ugly, mean people. World would be a better without Arcadia Bay. You say a storm was gonna wipe this place off the map, five years ago?" she shook her head, and hissed out through clenched teeth, "Probably woulda done everyone a favor."
"That's easy for you to say!" Max snapped. "You never had to make the call! You seriously think you could sit there and just let it happen, if they told you that you were the reason why a whole town of people was gonna be destroyed!" She groaned, rubbing at her forehead, and mewed in a soft tone, "Fuck. Sorry...didn't mean to snap like that."
"Don't be sorry. You're right, I'm being a selfish bitch. Again. Gah...shit!" She brought the car to a quick halt as the two of them came up to a police roadblock ; fortunately they weren't spotted, but there was some sort of car accident that was blocking off the road ahead, with cops re-directing traffic.
They sat there for a second, both blinking in tandem, unable to believe their bad luck.
Max was the first to speak, as the two of them stared out the window with almost identical incredulous expressions.
"I-I was having a really great time, Chloe. We were chilling, that weed was totes awesome...and...we made a cake, too. Talked about a lot of shit, catching up. And then, you finally looked at your cell phone, and it's past midnight, but all these texts are busting up, and there's Facebook shit...she's dead. She jumped off from the top of the girls dorm. Couldn't take the taunting and the shit anymore. They broke her. And she broke herself to deal with it." Max scrunched up her face and snarled, "Worst was the assholes, note the plural, that took video while it was happening. Her jumping off the roof of...I guess the girls dorm."
She swallowed against the lump in her throat, resting a hand on Chloe's leg, then turned her head and blushed. "Ummm. So I just want you to know, how important it is, why I had to wipe out what we had before. Why I have to make sure everything goes in a different direction. Because...being responsible. Saving a life. Taking all the stuff we did tonight, wadding it up into a ball and tossing it away. That's the cost; we can actually do something good in this town you hate so much. We can actually save someone's life, someone who was already dead. And...and the last five years...it'll finally mean something." By this point, Max had a burning, desperate look in her eyes.
Chloe reached down, squeezing her hand in return. "Max...damnit. I'm sorry again, about what I made you do. And there's a million things I want to say at the moment...but fuckfuckfuck! We'll never get around this accident and get to Blackwell in time now!" She reached down and smashed a fist in frustration against the steering wheel.
"Oooooh..." Max groaned, then smacked herself on the forehead. "I'm such a moron! Cammie would be giving me grief for not figuring it out sooner." She turned to the side, regarding Chloe dead on. "Okay. Here's the thing: no matter what, eventually, you and I keep driving. We make it to Blackwell. It's too late to do anything once we get there, but I can rewind time afterwards."
Chloe scrunched her face up in confusion. "Okay. So you want me to keep driving then?"
"Yes...er no. I mean...shit. Get to Blackwell, because I'm going to need a ride back, but I'm already at Blackwell too. Or I will be in a second, in a new timeline that's about to wipe out this one. The one I just mentioned, where we go to Blackwell, but we don't save Kate." Max peered at her lifeclock, committing the time to memory so she could run the rewind correctly.
Chloe breathed out. "We're getting into some seriously Donnie Darko shit here, Max. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey..."
"Yeah, just do me a favor?" Max asked. "Don't freak when I disappear." She glanced down at her lifeclock and counted down. "Three, two, one..."
Max was gone; the truck creaked slightly, the air softly wooshed in to fill the void. Reality gently hurried and scurried to adjust to being roughly manhandled by Max Caulfield.
Chloe sat in the truck, allowing herself just one more minute before she made her way to the school. She hugged herself, fighting the trembling chills running up and down her spine. Under normal circumstances, she'd think it was all incredible. Marvel at the impossibility of it. But at this moment, all she could feel was sadness. Worry. For her best friend.
Max...how do you do this? Seriously, how do you handle this kind of power and not go absolutely insane in the fucking membrane? If I'm keeping score right, you've seriously altered the past, and then undid it. I guess you spent like a day in some alternate timeline. Then spent hours in another immediately future that's never gonna happen. Now you just disappeared thanks to a third future that's also never gonna happen!
She bit down hard on her lip, trying to pin down exactly why this was all freaking her out. Threw the truck into reverse, and slowly worked on trying to thread through her thoughts and feelings as she drove on.
Worried this is turning you mental, Max. Like this is somehow going to corrupt you, make you less than human. Unable to relate to people because...because how can you keep it all straight in your head? How can you keep the memories of shit that never happened straight from what's really going on?
"Fuck." Chloe breathed out. "No wonder she's got partial amnesia. No wonder she went crazy. And that was just yesterday!"
You gotta try and keep her grounded, Chloe. Be her anchor. Maybe encourage her not to use her power unless it's really super-stupid important. Otherwise, she could start floating adrift, in all these different timelines. And you'd lose her. Forever.
She just wanted her friend to still be in there; her best friend, the shy, nerdy girl who was too fucking positive and optimistic for her own good. The one who saw decency in almost everyone. Who lit up the room, just by being in it. Who was happy when she made other people happy. The one who , and Chloe hated to admit that she thought this, but needed someone to watch over her. Someone to protect her.
Just a little?
And how can I do that? I'm not even as cool as Kato to your Green Hornet. Just the loser girl driving the truck.
She gave a soft sob, leaning her head miserably against the driver side window. The voice from a time that would now never be echoed instantly in her brain.
"...you take good care of my angel, Chloe Price."
She swallowed hard, reaching up to wipe her face. Took a sharp, deep breath, and huffed out, "That much, I can do. Yeah."
Chloe made her way to Blackwell as quickly as she could.
A few minutes earlier...
"Three, two one..." Max stared at her lifeclock for a few seconds longer, before she turned to Chloe. "All right. That should do it. Let's get to Blackwell now."
Chloe shook her head in confusion. "Wait, what? What the hell, I thought you were going to teleport!?"
Smirking, and trying not to laugh, Max answered, "Don't be silly, I can't teleport. I still have to go the long way around. But if I don't prepare the moment for when I do rewind back, it's gonna confuse the hell out of you. One moment, we'll be chatting away, and the next, I'm gone, and you're freaking out for cereal, wondering what the hell is going on."
Chloe put the truck into reverse and did her best to find an alternate route.
"This...can I just say how messed up it has to be, to be you? Seriously Max, I just..." Chloe shook her head. "Probably not much point in talking during the rest of the trip, huh? I mean, you're just going to wipe it all out anyhow."
Max nodded emphatically. "Yeah. Sorry. Probably doesn't seem fair. I mean, I'll remember it for both of us for the most part, but my brain has a weird way of filing stuff away from alternate timelines after a while. Like...not so much that I forget it, but it just fades off into the background. It's like I was telling you when we were making the cake? About how Cammie...shit! See, I'm still getting confused, but only because it's so fresh in my mind. Anyhow, point being, the people who studied me think my brain evolved to handle all the weird time travel shit better than your average human being ever could. Not that there's any way you could really know, but I mean woo hoo, yay me. Thanks brain, for not going completely insane by now. But don't worry, after all this shit is over, and we're back at your house and talking again, I'll repeat this whole explanation for you."
Chloe stared straight ahead. "Yeah just...I'm shutting up." She managed to last a whole minute, before piping up, "Okay, seriously, so I could confess deep, dark shit, or do something wild and crazy, and you'd never remember it?"
Max blinked. "Er...no. You totally have it in reverse. I could say or do crazy shit and you would never remember it, because it never happens for you. But for me, the memory of it would sort of - uh - fade off, develop different context? It's hard to explain, but it's like my brain has a separate mode, an instinct so I don't get too confused between what really happened in the ongoing subjective timeline verses everything I've ever seen or done objectively. I mean, I still get confused sometimes, but after five years, I'm not a messed up wreck either, when honestly, I should be."
She bit her tongue, and tried not to think too hard about the current gaping hole in her memory, the one from New York.
Chloe smirked. "Yeah well, I think I might still like having your power, even though I've seen - uh - seen the dark side of it. Macking on someone and then taking it back, for instance?Hella cool."
Max laughed. "Oh my God, what is it with you and that? Second time you've mentioned it today."
Chloe blushed and refused to comment further.
They eventually pulled up into the parking lot, a few minutes past the point of Kate's suicide.
Max turned to Chloe, as she reached for the door. She shyly asked, "Wish me luck?"
Laughing, Chloe shook her head. "Why the fuck do you need that? You make your own luck, SuperMax. You are luck, in lady form. I mean...what...what can I possibly give you or say that'd help?" She blushed lightly, and shrugged. "You're gonna save Kate. I don't even doubt it, Max. You already saved everyone in this town once. Some of us twice, even."
Impulsively, Max leaned in, planting her lips in a hard kiss against Chloe's cheek.
"Whoa!" Chloe responded, a scarlet hue already spreading quickly across her face. "What was that about?!"
Max half giggled, a manic, lopsided smile plastered across her lips. "I...I have no idea! Just...went with whatever it...was. I mean, it was your stupid idea, so shut up!"
Quickly beating a hasty retreat, Max ran towards the girl's dorm. She felt a giddy rush driving her on, equal parts thrilled and confused.
Max, W. T. F? Seriously girl, what was that about?
She'd have to file it away and process whatever new emotion was working its way through her brain later on. It was time to get her head in the game.
As she approached the quad, there were still the occasional shouts, sobs, and din of activity. School officials were trying their best to bring order to the crowd that had closed in around the broken form of Kate Marsh. Max barely knew what the girl looked like, beyond a few hazy photos and the video that Chloe showed her on her laptop, but she was damn certain she didn't want the first clear view to be of Kate's corpse.
You know what's at stake. Just rewind already. Take this all back, make this into something good! This is what you've wanted to do since the first day you got your power: save people. Like a real superhero.
Max wasn't sure what she was going to say to her. How she'd talk Kate down. It probably would've helped if she knew something more about her, but sneaking into the poor girl's room and rifling through her things was not only dangerous, as it would be quickly investigated by the local cops, but it just struck Max as disrespectful as well.
Even then, Max could normally get past that initial squeamishness and rewind back a bit, try and go through her effects to see if she could find some useful information before she began talking to her, but given the weird "strained" feeling she was getting from using her powers since she went back and changed the past, and then had to fix her initial mistake, she definitely felt like she'd overdone it. Given she might need to rewind several times before she figured out how to talk Kate down, she was going to have to save her powers for critical moments.
Okay, look, you've been trained by the Government in psychological manipulation and reading people. So...so what's suicide prevention really? It's just a form of manipulation for the right reasons! To 'manipulate' people into seeing the better side of things. That's good, yeah? Christ, that's probably a fucked up way to look at it, but the intention is good, right?
"Okay." She whispered. "Here we go."
She could feel the same 'ache' run through her, the same resistance; whatever sort of quantum muscle that drove her power protested. It was only a few minutes back though, easy enough. All she had to do was come out of it, right at the same point she gave Chloe the warning. By her calculations, that will still give her a good four or five minutes to make her way up to the roof...
...which is why Max was shocked to discover that it was more like five or six seconds.
Her blood frozen cold in her veins, stomach clenched in horrified protest as she witnessed Kate Marsh leap to her death. She could taste how slow the time passed, before a soft but sickening thud filled the air.
I...I missed it! How the hell could I have screwed it up?! I've been timing this shit for years now! I'm...something's wrong with me! So wrong!
She started to panic, caught between the need for more time to think, and hung up on the notion that she couldn't cross back against her own timeline past a certain point, lest she wipe out the explanation she gave Chloe, leaving the other girl completely confused and in the dark.
Under normal circumstances, Max could have no doubt figured it out: she had the training, and the experience. But she was quickly finding out that tests under controlled laboratory circumstances were miles apart from real world application. She'd never used her powers so hard, or so often before; combined with her lack of sleep from the many hours she put into trying to fix the and then unfix the past, she felt completely off her game. Her rapidly dissolving self confidence was only aggravated by the shock of seeing Kate die when Max expected to have far more time to handle the situation.
Max! Max just hold it together, you just need to do...just run over to the building and...and then you can...
There were voices in her head. Flashes of memory she couldn't previously recall: an image of her leveling a gun at a small boy, somewhere dark and dingy. Someone was screaming in her ear, demanding she make a terrible choice, in a split second. Lives were at stake.
"...terminate the target! Do it now!
So many lives were at stake! She had to make a decision!
No! I have to save Kate! Just stop...just...
"STOP!" she cried out.
And the world was kind enough to oblige.
Max found that she'd fallen to her hands and knees during her panic attack. As she gazed upward, she realized she'd somehow managed to rewind time as well as freeze it; Kate thankfully wasn't in midair, but it was clear she was only seconds away from making the leap.
She paled, glancing at her hand as drops of hot crimson splattered onto it. Reached up and wiped her nose.
Oh...oh no. Oh shit. Oh shitshitshit! I know what this is...
It was years since Max last pushed herself to this level, to the point where her brain protested, where the headaches and the nosebleeds gave tangible warning that she was hitting her hard limit. Worse yet, she'd managed years ago to accidentally pull this trick off before: stopping the timeline completely, pulling herself out to the point where she could move about in the world. It was incredibly useful, but chances were good that when she let events play out again, she'd be unable to call upon her rewind abilities for...
...last time it was a day or two. Maybe I'll recover quicker now, but I'm...I'm so fucked!
She chased back the tears of panic welling up in her eyes, and dashed towards the dorm, weaving her way skillfully through the frozen crowds. Tried not to meet the ferocious sense of terror nipping at her heels. The dread that pushed her forward towards this moment with destiny.
Not that Max had much experience running through frozen time, but it felt the same as last: like pushing through syrup. Fortunately, she could still roughly interact with her environment; open and close doors, climb up the stairs. Get to the top of the roof. She was never sure as to whether she simply took herself out of the timestream, or stopped all of reality from moving forward.
I guess it shouldn't matter, but the latter thought really scares the shit out of me!
On the way to the front door of the dormitory, she passed by Chloe's stepdad. Of all the others gathered up, he was the only one who had the idea to run in and try to save Kate. Now, he was frozen in midair, making a desperate rush, despite the fact he was eternally doomed to failure.
Well...good for you, David! Maybe you're shitty to Chloe, but at least you gave a damn about this poor girl!
Finally, she made her way to the top of the roof. Kate was there. Dressed in a chaste sweater vest and light blue skirt, her dirty blonde hair pinned up in a large bun, she looked every bit the "Jesus freak" that Chloe described her as.
...maybe I can just drag her back. Away from the roof. Then knock her out. It's not pretty but it would solve the problem. I've never tried actually touching anyone while I was frozen in time before; always scared to even think about it.
Still, Max took a few footsteps towards Kate. Like fragile ice starting to crack under her weight, she could feel the flow of time slowly but surely returning; almost as if the Universe Itself sensed her intentions, wagged a warning finger at her, and said:
"Ah ah ah, Max Caulfield. It won't be that easy."
She quickly threw her hoodie up, better to obscure her face, and allowed time to reassert itself.
Maybe, just maybe I'll luck out, get a little of my rewind power back.
But as soon as time began to move forward again, she could tell that wasn't the case. Five years with her ability, and she could intuitively sense what was and wasn't happening with it. And for the moment, Max was sans superpower.
She groaned, giving a soft whimper and rubbing at her nose. Barely noticing that her fingers came away a little bloody yet again. Max was too busy fighting back the titanic waves of helpless panic that threatened to overwhelm her. Though she often considered her abilities a curse as much as a gift, after five years they were as much a part of her as her sight, hearing, or ability to walk. She felt something vital was taken from her; an ability to cope with the rest of the world. For a third of her life, she was blissfully excused from having to worry about saying the wrong thing, taking the wrong action, because she always had a second chance. And a third. And a sixty eighth.
But no longer; for the first time since she Emerged, Max found herself in a life or death situation where she only got one single shot. If she messed it up, and it took longer than a day for her powers to come back, that was it: Kate was dead. Permanently.
Max wanted to throw up. Scream, shout, cry. Find a proper adult to fix everything for her. She desperately wanted something, anything, other than to have this situation thrust upon her shoulders.
You have to be the one to do this, Max! No one will get to her in time! No one else has your power. But you're more than just your ability; you have some of the finest training taxpayer money can buy! You go and you fight for this girl. You fight like the entire world depends on it!
She ignored the burning feeling in her throat as the bile rose up, and called out, "A...are you Kate Marsh?"
"Who...who are you!" Kate demanded, turning quickly towards her. The girl speaking in a voice that was a fragile, tortured thing.
Max tried to approach, prompting the other girl to call out, "Stop! Whoever you are! Don't...don't come near me! Seriously! I will jump!"
Max hugged herself through the soaked hoodie, trying to make herself seem as unthreatening as possible. She shivered, cold and wet, then held out her hands in submissive ascent.
"My...my name's Ma..."
Shit! Don't tell her your actual name! You're still a government fugitive, dummy!
"Ma...ck. Mack Holden..and..." she paused, It was obvious Kate didn't believe her. After all, what the hell kind of name for a girl was that?
"Look, it's short for Michaela, alright?" Max started to explain, smoothly slipping into a new lie. "Never liked feeling that my Mom gave me a stripper name, so I...my friends call me Mack. You...can call me Mack too, okay? Just...just don't. Please? Please just step back and let's talk. Believe me, you don't want to do this!"
"Why do you care? I don't know you. Do you even go to this school?!" Kate cried out, still eyeing Max suspiciously.
Quickly shaking her head, Max said, "No! I mean...not yet. I'm supposed to transfer in at the start of the next semester. But I wanted me to look around the place, check it out, before I moved here to start the rest of my school year. Look, I...I don't really know who you are either. All I know is that I saw someone...someone clearly in pain...in desperate agony, up here, about to make a huge mistake. Because that's why you're here, right? Something about a video? And a guy who drugged you and shit. I don't know anything more than that!"
Kate stared at her; long, hard, appraisingly. But there was something else. A desperate edge. Max would almost call it hunger. Whatever it was, there was an obvious need bubbling up.
"Y-your the first...first person who actually gave a d-...who cared!" she said, with a soft, wet whimper that quickly turned to ice. "Or acted like it!" She then shook her head, refusing to budge from the ledge. "But it's too late! It's too late for me now!"
"No!" Max yelled. "God, no! Don't say that! It's never too late! Whatever shit happened to you, whatever pushed you to this, as long as you're alive and kicking, you can always keep fighting. Believe me! I know. Probably better than most."
"I don't believe you!" Kate wailed. "You don't know anything about what I've gone through. The lies people believe, about me. About that stupid video! I know you're trying to be nice. I...I'm...thank you for coming up. It makes me feel better, just a little. That in the end, one person cared. But..." she shook her head, tears mingling in the rain. "You can't possibly know what I'm going through." she all but whispered.
Max took a tentative step forward, hands still held up. She was pleased to note that nothing in Kate's body language indicated that she took the action as a threat, or a reason to jump. Swallowing hard, she considered her next move. She couldn't shake the notion that this was a fulcrum point; the moment by which all the others would arise from.
Reach down, Max. Reach! For years, you've been taught to read these situations, read people. So what do we know about Kate? Obviously, she feels like the entire fucking world is against her. Even the one little lifeline I've thrown her is starting to make a difference. Wait, does that mean literally no one else cut her some slack? Jesus fuck, what the hell is wrong with high school kids?!
Okay. She needs to know someone understands her. Feel that someone is unquestionably on her side. Chloe say she's deeply religious; probably, I mean...she's wearing a cross. And Chloe also told me that a lot of the blowback is because people think Kate's being a hypocrite, and they want to take her down a notch. I can work with that too, I think. Maybe not directly, but still...
Max was going to have to give the performance of her life. She was going to have to touch someplace meaningful. She couldn't make up whatever was going to come out of her mouth out of whole cloth. That much was certain.
"You're wrong, Kate. I...oh God." Max feigned threatening to fall to her knees from the tension of the moment, but she didn't have to pretend much. "I'm going to share something with you, okay? Shit that I...I would never tell another living soul outside of the therapists they've sent me to. But you need to really see you're not alone. So okay...okay. Here's my story, Kate. Here's why I'm starting in the middle of the school year."
She took a deep breathe, and dredged up every emotion she could that colored the past five years. The whole experience. The betrayal, and heartache, the hopelessness, the defiance. She took the pieces that were true, and spun them into a new tale to tell. The song would be the same, she hoped. Just the lyrics would be different.
"When I was thirteen, my Dad got crazy into this wacko like...a cult thing. Sorta like Scientology, but way worse. My Mom hated it, and they got into this custody battle. So one day, my Dad picks me up from school, and he takes me away. Away from my Mom, from my friends, from everything I ever knew and loved. All the way down to this compound in Mexico, where he and his wacko buddies were hiding out."
Max again hated telling a story that impuned her parents, painting them in a bad light. She tried her best to remember that this wasn't Max Caulfield telling her tale. This was Michaela Holden, the invention serving her purpose.
"And it was bad, Kate. Okay? Really...really." She trembled, force herself to relive every shitty, degrading humiliating moment. The days Nicole would ride her ass and not let up. When Jenkowitz treated her like a freak of nature. When the guards were making passes, and Martinet lied to her. She needed her motivation and her reactions to read as authentic. They had to carry a certain ring of truth. She had to assume that Kate was almost as clever as she was, with regards to reading people.
"I was a prisoner. They wouldn't call it that, but it was true. And they...they did things, to me..." She was honestly starting to feel sick to her stomach. She could see the softening of something, right behind Kate's eyes. "For years. And I was where you were now, Kate. Only it wasn't the top of a building. It was a knife. I was so close, and I was so ready, to make the pain end. I felt like I had no escape. That no one cared about me. That I'd been abandoned."
Kate hugged herself, staring hard at Max, and asked, trying not to seem too concerned about her. "So what happened?"
Oh, Kate. I can see it. I can see what a good person you are. You're in such anguish. You've been driven to the point where you want to end it all, and here some girl starts to tell you a story about being abused, a victim, and I can see it in you. You care. You want to help. You want to comfort. Shit, imagine if I had the chance to stick around, and go to Blackwell. I bet...I bet we would have been awesome friends!
Max silently damned herself for having to lie like this, but reminded herself it was for the best reason.
"I...had a moment of clarity? I told myself no one cared, but then I remembered. My Mom still cared. And I had a friend. My best friend. I knew she was missing me, and if only she knew where I was, she'd come find me. Move heaven, and hell, and bust down doors, and kick everyone's ass. She'd never stop until she found me."
Max began to cry in earnest. As her thoughts turned to Chloe...
"Holy shit, like...like I was about to go all Xena on his ass, you know? Storm the castle and shit for you..."
Kate wasn't moving any forward, but she didn't seem in a mood to jump either. Max moved in a little closer, relieved it didn't change the dynamic.
"I finally escaped. After five years, someone got stupid, I got lucky. I finally escaped. I ran, and I ran and I never looked back. And do you know what happened?"
Kate silently shook her head.
"I made it back home! And there she was. My friend. My shining beacon of hope. She'd been going crazy with worry. But she never gave up on me. Five years is a long time to be apart, but she was so happy to see me. Didn't have to ask her for help, she started giving it to me immediately. I was so grateful, you know? A week after I got home, I remember praying, and I said, "God. Thank you! S-so m-much!"
Max was barely holding it together herself now; she wasn't sure where her own reality ended, and her false construct began. For the moment, it didn't matter.
"I swore to Him, I literally got down on my knees and vowed...if there is anyone in the world that I come across, and they need a friend...I will be that friend for them. If someone thinks there is no hope left in the world, I will give them hope! Because I remember what it was like, Kate. Some nights, I still wake up, screaming, afraid that they're going to come and...and violate me. But it's over. It's over, and I am so...damn...glad I didn't end it. That I kept fighting. Didn't lose hope."
Kate shook her head, and softly said, "I...I'm not you. I'm not that strong. I'll just...it's better this way! I'll jump, and then everyone can post up the pictures on the Internet. I mean, I'm already there forever!"
Max shook her head. "It doesn't matter! Oh God, believe me, I know it feels like it's the only thing that matters, but it doesn't. The only way they'll win is if you give up, Kate. If you take that last step. These assholes, what they did to you? They triumph. I mean, this shit is probably what they want! So here I am, Kate. Please...please take my hand?" Max was close enough now, just a couple of steps, holding out one shaky hand. "Just take it, and know that you have one friend in the world. And...and I mean...I can't be the only person who cares about you, Kate. I just can't! I'm some stranger you only just met, butyou must have friends. What about your family!? Your parents?"
The look on Kate's face was difficult for Max to make out, especially through the tears and the rain. The emotions producing it were complicated.
She shook her head, "N-no...not...they don't..."
Okay Max, okay. Situation at home is obviously less than rosy. But the way she's acting? Chances are the conflict is coming from one parent being on her side, another...less so. Right...so...how do I figure out which one? How do I make the call. THINK Max, think! Everything could be riding on this answer. So she's religious. Maybe the father is the one judging her? But noooo. That doesn't have to be it either. She looks like she could be a Daddy's Girl with a bitchy mom, too.
Max took a chance. Placed all of her chips on the table, and let it ride, In a single flip of the cosmic coin.
"Your Dad, Kate. He's the one who still has your back, isn't he? Maybe it feels like your Mom turned against you, but your Dad...he's the one who still believes you. I know it."
Kate all but crumpled, a look of utter disbelief overtaking her face, jaw literally dropping. At first, Max worried she'd made the wrong call, and was ready to jump out to try and stop her. But then...
"...how can you know that? How can you possibly!?" She sobbed, "B-but you're right. He does! He does believe me. I hurt him, and he still cares. He still loves me. How could you know that?!"
Oh...thank you God!
Only now could Max see how desperate and irresponsible her gamble had been. But it looked like it was going to pay off.
That's all that matters now.
"Kate? Please...please just step down. Take my hand? I promise, whatever the story is, whatever you need, I'm gonna help you. Okay?"
Kate met her eyes. Wild, hard, piercing.
"Are you telling me the truth. About your Dad and your friend, and what happened to you. Did that really happen?"
Max hissed through gritted teeth. "I swear it!"
And for a moment, through sheer force of will, she actually believed it herself.
It must have been enough for Kate. Slowly, but surely, she stepped off the ledge, took Max's hand, and then collapsed onto the roof.
"Sorry...I'm so sorry!" she mewled.
Max kneeled down, hugging her tight, "I know. It's okay. It's gonna be okay now, Kate. My name's Mack, and I'm your friend now. So...so hi."
Kate gave a little laugh, as she took great sobbing gulps of air. "Thank you! Thank you, Mack. I don't know what to say!"
"Don't have to say anything." Max whispered close to her ear. "Just don't let the bastards grind you down."
That prompted another weak laugh from Kate.
Suddenly the door burst open. Max wheeled around, looking behind her.
She didn't mean to run; later on, when rational thought returned, she realized what a newbie mistake it was, given Kate's delicate mental state. But she was running on nerves, emotion, and vulnerability. Bereft of her powers, and having to exhaust herself to make a convincing story for Kate to believe, she breathed out a soft. "Sorry!" and then swiftly rose to her feet and dashed off.
She acted on instinct, leaping up off the high tower, making a perfect midair roll as she did; landing on the sloped roof below the upper deck, she slid down the rain soaked shingles, somehow managing to remain upright all the while. As she came to the end, she had no choice but to leap into the air again, desperately praying she'd make it onto the top of the next building on the other side.
Time seemed to come to a halt yet again; Max was vaguely aware that it was all in her head.
She also realized that she had the biggest audience imaginable watching her.
Oh! Fuuuuuuuck!
She tucked and rolled, skidding to a halt behind a chimney. And then vanished into thin air.
Chloe nervously drummed against the steering wheel of her truck. She alternated between reading the social media feeds on her phone, and glancing outside for any sign of Max.
"Shit. Shiiiiit. Max! Where the hell are you?"
The passenger door flew open, and Max barreled inside, drenched to the bone, and keeping her head totally down, out of sight."
"Drive!" she hissed. "Drive, drive, drive Chloe!"
"Damn, boss! You don't have to tell me five times!"
Chloe peeled out as quickly as she dare. She drove speedily for a few blocks before Max decided it was safe enough to sit up in her seat. She was panting, clearly having made a mad dash for the truck.
"Ho-holy shit. Max! Are you okay? God, I was getting hella worried about you. Massively freaked!"
Max shook herself out and nodded. "I'm okay! I'm okay...I think? Shit!" she stared intently at her lifeclock, and blinked. "Wow. Damnit I can't believe it. I freaked out, you know? I didn't mean to run, but when...oh shit, I think maybe it was your stepdad? He burst up here, and I ran. I got so scared, I think I jumped ahead in time. A whole hour! Never went that far into the future but..." she started to laugh.
And I think I can rewind again. Not more than a minute, but it's like jumping ahead sorta fixed my powers a tiny bit. Weird.
Chloe pulled over to the side of the road. Leaned in and hugged her tight.
"Max! You did it! You saved Kate. I can't believe it! You are a hero...a...fucking superhero! SuperMax!" Chloe pulled back, her face positively beaming with pride and respect.
Max simply blinked. "I - did. Holy shit...no...wait. We did it, Chloe! I couldn't have done it without you! I mean, like...literally...when I was up there, I thought of you and..." she leaned in, returning the hug, and sobbed a few times against her friend's shoulder.
In the heat of the moment, the visceral emotional intensity, her head whipped up, and their faces were close.
So close.
Max felt herself to start to lean in towards the blunette, but stopped short, with only a couple inches to spare between them.
Whoawhoawhoa. Max, what are you...?
Chloe blinked, blushed, and then gave a soft laugh. "Yeah, well, I don't know about me, Max, but you already got a superhero name now." She held up her phone, letting her read through the Facebook and Twitter feeds.
"Hashtag The Blackwell Ninja? Seriously?" Max asked in an incredulous tone.
"I know, right?! Is that not the coolest name? Everyone is freaking out about you, and how amazing you are! The shit you pulled off. I barely made it in time to catch that part with my own eyes. And now, of course, everyone is all 'Oooh! We love you Kate! We're so glad you didn't die!' Huh. Hypocritical fucks."
Max felt her stomach sink low, a cold chill of fear running up and down her back. She opened a few of the video links some of the students had taken, showing her running away.
...okay Max. Chill. Just...chill the fuck out! I mean, this is super-grainy shit. Yeah. You can barely see anything, other than a shape. I mean, you can't even tell if I'm a guy or a girl in this video. Damocles isn't gonna see this, they aren't going to put two and two together. Not anytime soon.
She groaned. "Fuck. I mean, I'm glad I saved Kate. Would do it again...because Jesus Christ, those stupid kids at Blackwell!" She softly snarled. "I don't know the whole story, Chloe, but Kate Marsh seriously felt like she didn't have a single fucking friend in the world. I remember some of the shit you showed me, in what's now an alternate timeline, when Kate actually did die. People were really cruel to her, right to the very end."
Still. I can't help but feel like history's repeating itself. I stick my neck out. I go back in time and save someone who was otherwise going to die, and now maybe the Government is gonna find me again, because of it. I shouldn't have gotten involved! I should have just let it go! Chloe and I were having an epic night together...!
But how the hell could she have just ignored it?
She was Max Caulfield. To do anything less?
That wasn't her. Not one little bit.
The rest of the drive home sort of blurred away in the back of Max's awareness. She couldn't help but smile softly to herself. She stole little glances at Chloe, as the other girl expounded upon her awesomeness, her bravery, her awesomeness, her self-sacrifice, her style, and most important of all, her awesomeness.
The cold pit in her stomach, and the chill in her bones turned into a softly warming flush, spreading out from her chest and suffusing the rest of her body, as she watched the light in Chloe's eyes dance, the other girl singing her praises. Max only stopped her long enough to talk about what actually happened, from her perspective, explaining the talk they had on the drive up to Blackwell, and about how her brain worked. For some reason, it seemed to set Chloe's mind at ease.
As soon as they got home, Chloe got her a towel, some old flannel pajamas, and had her lay on the bed. Pausing only to make her hot chocolate.
Collapsing into the covers, Max drowsed. It felt like she'd been up for days, which admittedly wasn't far from the truth. From her objective perspective, it'd been a day and a half or so since they went to the diner together.
Chloe flopped down next to her on the bed, just staring. Then in a sing-song voice, declared anew. "Soooo awesome!"
Max laughed, "I'm detecting a theme here, Che." She sighed and then took a long, slow pull of her hot drink. "Oh God, thank you for this. For cereal." She then groaned. "Fuck. Kinda can't get around the issue now, Chloe. Should probably leave tomorrow for sure. After everything that just happened?"
Chloe's shoulders visibly slumped, but she nodded a couple times. "I know, Max. I know but I'm gonna make your last night here the extra-best I can, okay? You just lie here, and maybe we can order some food tonight. Smoke'm that peace pipe with the weed you got."
Max gave a sigh, really, truly relaxing for the first time in what felt like forever. "Sounds good, Che."
A few minutes later, she finished up the hot cocoa and put the mug to the side. When she turned back, she found Chloe standing there, cradling something in her hands.
"Max? If you're really going to head off tomorrow..." she fidgeted, shifting the weight side to side. "Then there's someone you need to take with you. I think she'll be a big help. You know, maybe not as much as meeee, but..."
She then held out an old doll; the plastic was faded, and some of the wild pink hair was missing, but Max immediately knew who it was.
"Oh my God! Jem!" she reached out, her face alive with absolute joy. "I...I can't believe you...how?!"
Chloe sat down on the side of the bed, leaning over a bit. "Yeah. When your folks moved, I guess the rest of your stuff got tossed. But Jem? Uh, a couple years ago, I went to see your parents, and they were so gone in the brain, they thought you might actually be in your bedroom. So I went up there, looking for you. You weren't there of course, but I found our mutual acquaintance. I thought maybe she needed a change of scenery. That, and..." She blushed, rubbing the back of her head as she murmured, "It was all I had left of you, really."
Max hugged the toy doll to her face, and then gazed at it, drinking in every little detail. Smiled to herself, as she recalled the reason why Jem was so special to her. Her gaze drifted over to her best friend, and for just a second, she saw her as the scrappy five year old who came to her rescue.
"I may be The Blackwell Ninja now, Chloe. But you'll always be my hero." she whispered.
Chloe smiled, and then bowed her head, covering her eyes. Her expression changed into something far more pained, as she spoke in a husky voice, "Max...shit. I am...sorry. So, so, fucking sorry, about what happened today. I used you in the worst way possible. I don't even know how to explain how bad I feel, how even though you're gonna leave soon, I will never stop trying to make it up to you. I know you may not be able to forgive me, but I promise you, I so understand now how much of my life today is...is about me not being able to get over my dad dying. How I let my anger at the world, the place that took away so many people I cared about, like, warp me. I'm gonna make sure that all the bad shit you've ever gone through for me means something, Max. I don't know how, but I'm gonna turn my life around. I promise."
Smiling, Max reached over squeezing Chloe's hand tight. "I know. We had this conversation already. I'm sorry I had to take that away from you. But about your Dad... I understand why you did it. I just hope I didn't break you too badly, you know? With the videos and the pictures and..."
Chloe shook her head, emphatically. "No. No, you needed to show me that. Fuck, I'm just - my brain is still tripping out, that you could do that. I mean, shit, what other kind of technology does the Government have, Max?"
Gazing at her lifeclock, Max quietly said, "The woman who invented this? She's pretty amazing. I wish you could meet her. Camilla...I think you two would get along."
"Not if she was one of the bitches keeping you locked up, Max! I'm just as likely to punch her in the fucking face!" Chloe huffed.
Max tried not to be upset. She understood why Chloe was so pissed, and simply said, "She was one of the good ones, Che. One of the very few trying to help me. Stop the worst of it. Anyhow...uh...hope you don't mind, but I kinda need to zonk. Just for a couple hours, okay? Don't let me sleep. I don't want to miss too much of what little time we have left together, okay?"
They held hands, tightly, and looked at each other, almost as if each were afraid that they were about to permanently lose the other in the next few seconds. The moment of tension passed between them, bleeding away slowly, as Chloe rose up.
"Sure Max. Couple hours. Not a problem, it'll barely be three o'clock. Plenty of time still." She shot her a winning smile at that.
"Thanks, Chloe." Max murmured, leaning back and let her eyes close. She murmured out, "By the way? Best. Sidekick. Ever. Thank you, for giving me hope."
Chloe didn't have the chance to ask exactly what that meant. It was obvious Max had passed directly into sleep. She kneeled down, leaned in, and stroked her hair, before planting a kiss on her nose. Continued to stare devotedly, and then moved on, intending to go in one direction, but then chickening out at the last second, and planting a second kiss on the forehead.
"You rest up, Angel." she whispered.
Chloe rose up, and walked to the bedroom her arm, and looked over her shoulder at Max's soundly sleeping form.
Biting down on her lip, she tore herself away, and walked out.
A/N: Hey guys, happy Black Swan Saturday! I hope you like tonight's chapter. I will admit, doing "retellings" from the game are a bit more exhausting, because it involves watching and rewatching a ton of game footage, but I also like figuring out how things would unfold differently, and why.
Two new things I am enjoying these days: Steven Universe, which is made of crystalized awesome. If Corentin were a Crystal Gem, she'd totally be Garnet.
And DC's Legends of Tomorrow, staring Rory Williams from Doctor Who (hee) as DC's version of a Time Lord, Rip Hunter. There's a neat comic book feel, and it reminds me a bit of this story in that sense.
Have a great weekend!