Further into the cemetery, blackened vines hang off of the trees, entangle themselves around the gravestones, and dig deep into the dirt. Chloe remarks, "Judging from all the weird shit around here, we're getting close."

In a tone that so heavily wants to be like Jack Bauer or Big Boss, William tells the four heroines, "I'll do reconnaissance. And I'll stay close by. Tread carefully, girls."

Max nods her head and tells him, "Will do." And so, William dashes through the graveyard and jumps into a mausoleum.

Suddenly, another voice speaks as the four reach the center of the cemetery: "Just don't get too close, children."

The four glare at the source of the voice: Bedlam, larger and stronger than ever. He has outgrown his thin limbs, trading them for golden armor to match his skull. Within the armor are verdant shrubbery poking out of the armor, acting as muscles. Wrapped around his neck are dark velvet robes just inches off the ground. He stands at the side of Damon Merrick, also entangled in black tentacles that keep him suspended above the ground.

Raising an eyebrow at her bulked-out tattoo, Chloe asks with a bit of a nervous chuckle, "You, uh, been juicing?"


Tangi stares intently at his opponents, thinking back on his journey and theirs. How far they have all come. Where it has brought them at this current moment. And he tells them: "Welcome to the end of the world, young ladies."

Patting the head of the Holloway family on his shoulder, Sean Prescott tells him with a smile, "Congrats on your wife's recovery, Jebby! Hope to see her again some time!" To end the conversation, he walks away to mingle further.

He happens to bump into the trenchcoated Merchant, who calls out to him from just a few feet away, "Got somethin' that might interest ya!"

As he tries to open his jacket, Sean stops him in his tracks. "No, no, but try one of the Senators." He looks off and spots one of them: "Steve! This guy wants to make a deal!" He pats the Merchant on the back and tells him, "Go get 'im, you… fuckin' weirdo." And so, the Merchant runs off into the crowd in search of Senator Steve.

Prescott sighs, feeling pretty fulfilled by the party around him. And then, he sees Doctor Court waltzing around in her usual silver business attire. "Doctor, how are you enjoying the party?"

"It's fine. But it could be much better." She motions for him to head to the balcony and he follows, seeing as she has something to say.

"How so?"

Tapping her chin, the Doctor explains, "Maybe if we got rid of some of these guests. They can be so drab."

With a shiver from the shit-cold weather outside, he asks, "Like who?"

The Doctor scoffs like an annoyed child and answers, "Like you."

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't burp. I didn't stutter."

Reaching into his jacket for his deterrent against any more of the Doctor's treachery, he tells her, "And I hope you haven't forgotten about my controller."

The Doctor looks at the controller, a bit confused. And she starts laughing with a big grin on her face. "Oh, I haven't. Although I didn't think you'd put one in her if she's been so instrumental to, well, everything." Tired of these charades, Prescott pulls out the controller… or so he thinks, instead pulling out a small turtle… with wings. It flies off into the night and the Doctor smirks. "You're so easy, you know that?"

Putting his hands up in apparent defeat, he asks, "Who are you?"

She looks around in confusion. She'd figured her mannerisms, her chipper voice, and the fact that she leveled an Agency base back in March would have given away her identity, or at least some sort of clout. Chuckling, she simply explains, "Seriously? I'm Dolly!" Seeing Sean's jaw drop at the sound of that dreaded name, the Doctor adds, "GASP! I agree."

"What do you want?"

The Doc grabs Prescott by his shoulders and explains: "I just wanted my place in the world. You and Doc Court helped me hone into it, getting me out of Nevada and into a testing chamber. And Bedlam showed me the next step in my metamorphosis." Prescott raises an eyebrow, not knowing of this Bedlam fellow. "You wouldn't know him. Not in this timeline anyways. It doesn't matter. I've learned my destiny. I am a messenger for Death himself. Me and my pals will bring about the end of the world, and it'll be a doozy. Of course, we've got those pesky lesbians to deal with… and they are quite pesky. But it'll be fun, even if they beat us. Which, uh, they will."

"So what, you just go with the flow? Even if you know you'll lose?"

Doc shrugs her shoulders: "Even if I know I'll lose. I've seen the future. I saw it in Max. I saw it in the Transect. I saw it in the OTHER MAX. That's the way it goes, almost no matter what I do."

Prescott grabs her by the neck and demands, "So give up this game, you sick bitch!"

In response, she screams in his face,"What would be the fun in that?!" As she does so, her face begins to warp and whirl in his eyes. "But then again, you'd know a lot about giving up." She pushes him away and lets his head spin for a few seconds as she prepares another party trick: "Tell me, when I say 'it's easy to give up'… Who do you see?"

Prescott opens his eyes, but can't bear to see who is now standing at the Doctor's side.

Flicking him in the face, the Doctor demands, "Open your damn eyes, Moneybags, and tell me WHO DO YOU SEE?"
He sees his son.

With him under her spell, Moth-Dolly flutters around his head before finally perching on his shoulder to tell him, "Now, follow the leader while I get changed." And the two begin walking back into the party, effectively undetected.

And before the games begin, the Doc answers a message on her walkie-talkie at her waist that says, from Tangi, "Okay, Doll- er, Doc - the generator's set up. It'll be on in just a few minutes."

"So ten minutes, right?"

The Clown laughs nervously before immediately answering, "Uh, actually, it's five. We kinda forgot."

The Doc rolls her eyes and sighs. "Okay. Five min-"

"Now, it's four minutes."

Doc grabs the walkie-talkie and speaks straight into it, "Shut the fuck up and just get ready, alright?"

"On it, boss."


In the air, "Merry Christmas Everyone" by Shakin' Stevens courses through the party thanks to its DJ. As Victoria gulps down her soda, she smiles as she passes by the younger children. All they care about is running after each other in some strange game of tag. A rather rough game of tag, but that's just how she was once. And it's almost as if that violence is rubbing off on her, because her head starts ringing, just lightly anyways. It has tended to do that before moments of great distress. Namely, moments where supervillains feel the need to ruin everyone's holidays.

"Aw, shit." Quickly, and yet with caution so as to not cause a ruckus, she pushes through the partiers in search of her parents. She can't see them, but she knows they're in this crowd somewhere. Just a matter of- "There you are!" She walks up to her parents as they lean back by the punch bowl. She tells them with terror in her voice, "Mom, Dad, we've gotta go. Someone's gonna attack this place and people are gonna get hurt."

The two hold her close, seeing her anxious behavior, and Zara asks, "What? Victoria, are you okay?"

She shrugs her shoulders and explains, "I mean, I'm fine. But I've got a bad feeling about this party, I think we need to go."

Colin scratches the back of his head and tells her reassuringly, "Things are locked down tight. We're all good."

"But I got through the metal detectorrrr…" Victoria starts mentally backspacing before she confesses to her possession of a gun at this party. She sighs in an attempt to just end the convo ASAP and looks at the unaware crowd of partiers as they dance. Badly.

Colin asks, suspicious at the awkward silence, "And?"

"Aaaaand…" She scratches at her beret and it crinkles. With a rather devious smile on her face, she confesses, "I've got tin foil in my hat."

Her parents both glance at each other blankly, just dumbfounded at what their daughter just said. Zara reassuringly tells her, "Everything will be fine, Vic. Just relax." Victoria groans and, to appease her feelings, she states with a well-aware smile, "Although, I suppose we can leave soon, if you really want to."

Victoria perks up and tells her parents, "Cool, let's leave now." And so, they begin walking out of the Ballroom. However, she remembers just one more person to save: "Wait. Where's Montrose?"

Colin asks, "You want him to come with us?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Victoria says, "He can visit, right? I don't think Prescott would stop…" She thinks about that statement before quickly adding, "Okay, maybe he would. But I need to warn him at least. You two can go a little early, I'll see you in a little bit."

Quickly, she pushes through the crowd, as she has had to for the last little while, in a desperate hunt for the butler. But he is nowhere to be seen and time is ticking down.

And then, it begins with a bang.

An explosion erupts in the heart of the Ballroom as Lord Laundry pulls himself from the wreckage. The music abruptly stops as the DJ hides in an understandable panic. Stepping past dazed partiers and seemingly compliant guards, he makes way for the entrance of Elmer and Tangi, both sitting on a table as it hovers into the air. And finally, the leader of this gang of villains flutters over them all. Back in a human body and outfit like her old one no less, and with pink moth wings on her back.

She speaks angrily and simply: "Ladies and gents, you have eaten well. Eaten at this country's heart and spirit. Normally, I'd praise ya for that, but not you people. From this moment forth, none of you are safe." She raises her palms into the air and yells, "WELCOME TO THE THUNDER GLOBE!"

Victoria hides herself in the crowd and glares at Dolly, pissed at her inexplicable return. She keeps one hand on her hat, to keep it from falling off, and lowers her other to grab her gun from her ankle holster, hidden under her outfit. And quickly, with perhaps not enough time to truly consider her next plan of action, she aims at Dolly's face and she fires and hits her square in the chest.

But the bullet doesn't kill her, instead ricocheting into the ceiling. Angrily, Victoria grumbles, "Shit." The crowd explodes into a panic and people begin running in all directions, giving Victoria something of a smokescreen to hide in.

And yet, by scanning everyone's thoughts, Dolly detects who shot her and where they've gone. "Victoria Chase! Oh, how I've missed her lame action hero shenanigans!" Sensing more thoughts from the unwitting populace, Dolly tells the Enforcers, "She's headed for the bathrooms. Take her down! And you!" She points at the DJ as he hides behind his sound system. He peeks at her fearfully and the villainess tells him, "Play that good shit again, I was digging it!" The DJ nervously turns the music back on, just the perfect background for the Enforcers' Yuletide Evil Scheme.

With a salute to their de facto leader, they chase after Victoria. They violently push past anyone in their way, regardless of gender and age, and make their way through to the women's bathroom.

Elmer and Lord Laundry step forward while Tangi sniffs into the air with his bulbous red clown nose and threatens, "I can smell your scent, Icky Vicky. You're in one of these stalls. Give up! There's no way out of here!"

In her head, Victoria fires back, " I can think of one. " Standing on a stall, Victoria pulls out her phone to send a message to Kate:

TEXT FROM VICTORIA

KAtie

Villains attacking at the party

Please be careful

She sends it successfully and she lets out a sigh of relief. But mere seconds later, the entire facility begins to rumble. A crackle is felt in the air as the base becomes enveloped and shielded by a giant forcefield the size of three football fields.

And to make matters worse, the door shielding Victoria from her enemies is torn away by Lord Laundry.

Elmer asks on the Lord's behalf, "Oh, I'm sorry. Is this stall taken?"


Having heard Bedlam's motivations for destroying the Bay, Chloe asks rather mockingly, "Okay, so you're a pissed off colonist obsessed with the 'good old days'?"

Max, Kate and Rachel stifle laughter, much to Bedlam's annoyance. With a smile still stuck on her face, Rachel asks, "Why attach yourself to Chloe though? She's, like, anti-'good old days'! And we love her for it!"

Bedlam glares at her and explains, "I felt her hatred for the town. And I felt yours. In your love for one another and your hatred for this failed future, I found kindred spirits. And so, I used your lifeline, so to speak, to summon a storm to destroy Arcadia Bay."

With eyes widened in shock, Chloe elaborates, "Christ, dude, I mean, that's not at all what I would've wanted! There are still a lot of good people in this town! More than just me and Rachel!"

"It mattered little. If I had to align myself with that damned Victoria Chase, it would've been a necessary next step in my plan."

Max asks, "What about Kate? She should be spared too, at the barest of bare minimums!"

"A noble sacrifice, assuming she weren't dead already." Kate raises an eyebrow at this strange notion and Bedlam continues, "But monologue is for the past. And this is the future. It is the Arcadian Armageddon!" He raises his right arm and shows off Teddy's broken wormhole watch that he extracted from the ruins of his mansion. "Same for this here watch."

Kate asks, "Is that your Plan B?"

"'C'. Or rather, 'C.A.V.B.H.' for 'Complete Annihilation Via Black Hole'. 'B' would have been utilizing the Staff of the Storm Singer, but it appears to be missing."

Chloe pulls out her pistol and aims at it Bedlam, yelling, "Bullshit! That's what all your plans are! You won't get that far in hurting people. Max agrees. Right?" She looks at Max who is nervously whistling. She also looks at Kate who is currently receiving a text message on her phone. Chloe groans and declares, "Oh, whatever. We'll beat you anyways!"

"Oh no, I've gotta go." Kate holds up her phone and explains, "It's Victoria. She's-"

Max pats her on the shoulder and tells her with a smile, "Go, Kate. She needs you. We can handle things here."

As Kate sprouts wings of light from her back, Bedlam says hastily, "I'm willing to spare you, Kathryn, should you leave her to her fate. We both know she's not worth-" She makes a gun gesture with her hand and fires a red beam of light that chops off his right arm at the elbow. Bedlam screams as he falls to his knees and clutches his wound, "You WENCH!"

And so, Kate flies off into the night as Max, Chloe and Rachel wave her goodbye. "Shine on, Kate! Shine on and save her!"

Bedlam rises to his feet and scoffs at his three apparent enemies. "Your best attempt at stopping me is gone."

With a smug smirk, Chloe rebutts, "For now."

Bedlam shakes his head at this. "For now."

Swiftly, Rachel retrieves the wormhole watch with a small tornado. Once it is in her possession, she jumps into the town to take it away from Bedlam. Noticing these two absences, he grits his teeth and screams, "GO!"

From behind him, a zombie runs past him and screeches her dead lungs out. Chloe manages to grab the zombie in a chokehold and notices the dull blue hair on her head. She comes to the horrifying realization that this isn't just any zombie leading the charge. This is her dead self from this timeline.

More zombies rise behind Bedlam, all ready to devour the world and kill it too.


Scrolling through Victoria's most recent messages, Tangi mockingly says to her as she lies on the floor, "Awww, your final goodbyes." He tosses the phone to Lord Laundry who crushes it in his palm. "Shoulda said 'bye bye' to that too."

Victoria lays on the floor with a gratuitous amount of duct tape keeping her restrained. She asks, clearly annoyed at this whole situation more than anything else, "What are you assholes being paid in? Isn't the world gonna end if all goes well?"

Tangi squats on the ground and pats Victoria's face before explaining, "Oh, the bosses know they're going down. Sort of a, uh, 'dramatic irony'. But, in their sacrifice and resolve, we'll be living lavishly once we're free. Tell me, rich girl, how's it like?" Victoria can only glare at him in spite. "Silent treatment." Tangi sucks his teeth and sighs. He then pulls out a shotgun from the back of his pants and aims it straight at her face. "Guess you'll have no last words."

Elmer swiftly pulls away the shotgun and exclaims angrily, "Yo, bro, what the fuck?!"

"What? This is the plan. We shoot her, show the world how serious we are!"

Looking at Victoria, he continues, "I mean, she's a mean girl and all, but we can't just KILL her!" He lightly punches the Lord and says, "Back me up, Lord." The Lord can't speak of course, so he just nods his head.

Tangi laughs, astounded at this show of morality, and yells, "The world NEEDS to see this!"

Another voice from another stall speaks: "The world wouldn't see this. Nor would they care." From within this other stall steps the Other Max, wearing her jacket and camera helmet. She gazes at Victoria in this position of vulnerability and laughs.

Rolling her eyes, Victoria says with great disdain, "Oh, you're working with them. For fuck's sake."

"I missed you too." She steps past her and explains, "Trust me, I'm busier with other affairs to be working here. Otherwise, I'd be lending a helping hand. But the Enforcers are doing good right now, number wise, so we'll meet again next time."

Attempting to tear herself out of the duct tape, Victoria yells at her, "There won't be a next time! When Dolly and Bedlam go down, you're next on the list."

Behind her helmet's lens, the Other Max cackles. After stifling this laughter, she adds plainly, "And now is the part where I say something cliche like 'au revoir'. But that's cheesy, so fuck you, Chase. I hate you. I- I HATE you! I'll regrettably see you in October. Bye." She walks into a wormhole and vanishes inside it.

Victoria exchanges looks with the Enforcers in awkward silence, which Tangi breaks by saying, "What a bitch, right?"

Through another wormhole, the Other Max steps out and grabs both Elmer and Lord Laundry by the wrists. "Oh, also, you two are needed elsewhere in the base. " She pulls them in, leaving Tangi behind with Victoria, much to both of their confusion.

Tangi verbalizes this by screaming, "What the hell!" He sees Victoria laughing at this and aims the shotgun at her. Loading it, he grumbles, "Screw it."

And as things seem dark, a beam of light whirls into the bathroom and grabs the shotgun, aiming it into the ceiling as the Clown fires. Victoria sees this beam take form and calls out to her with a grin on her face: "Katie!"

Kate looks at her and, from behind her mask, smiles back at her love. Melting the shotgun in her grasp, she tosses the hunk of metal at Tangi's face, knocking him into a garbage bin. She then fixes her attention on Victoria and lifts her off the ground.

While exchanging loving glances with one another, the two get rid of the duct tape and set their sights back on the Clown.

He can only huff anxiously as he knows what comes next. He gets down on his knees and puts his hands together, begging, "I'm down, I'm down!"

But there is no mercy with these two as they just curbstomp him right then and there. NO MERCY.

As the Clown lies on the floor, brutalized, Victoria wraps her arms around Kate in a bear hug and says to her, "Oh, Kate, oh my god, I've missed you so much."

Patting her on the back, Kate adds, "Likewise, Vic. You're doing good?"

Victoria looks back on what her predicament was just a few minutes earlier and tells her, "Aside from being held at gunpoint by a clown… Yeah." The two separate and Victoria asks, "How'd you get in?"

Kate shrugs her shoulders as she admits plainly, "I just flew in. Right through the shield."

Victoria scratches at the back of her head and asks, confused, "Like, just FLEW in?" When Kate nods her head, Victoria tells her, "Nice. Can you get us, and my parents, and Montrose out?"

"Not sure." Kate strokes her chin and explains, "The forcefield's made of light, so it was a piece of cake for me, but I dunno if I could bring other people out. Plus, we need to stop Dolly and the other bad guys too."

"Yeah." Dusting herself off and delivering another kick to Tangi's face, Victoria adds, "Well, no use standing around doing nothing." She pulls out her gun and says to Kate, "Let's get out there and show these… assholes who they're fucking with!" The two walk out of the bathroom, ready for war with the criminal element at play.