Max woke up to an alarm on her phone, simply reading "RING JOEY" in all caps. Rachel was still asleep, but Chloe had already left. It was 9am, so Max assumed Chloe was working. Max opened her social media and discovered that it was Joey's birthday. She felt a memory surface of her past-self joking with Joey about being a day older than her, and Joey rebutting with a height joke and giving her a noogie. Max smiled. She and Joey must have been close. Max decided to give her a call.

"Hey Joey. Happy Birthday you old fart." Max said once Joey picked up.

"You're lucky I'm an early bird, or I would have gutted you for that one." She replied, her voice clearly not fully awake.

"Did you party too hard on the wrong birthday, little-miss stage diver?"

"Maybe. At least I got laid."

"Ew! Gross! Don't wanna hear it!"

"God, I'm just joking, Max!" Joey giggled. "Anyway, apparently your day was pretty special."

"Yeah! Saw a bunch of friends, and we hung out at the junkyard for a bit. Rachel and Chloe totally decked out the shack for me."

"That's wonderful!" Joey cooed. "Meanwhile I just piss-drunk. Well, we also went out to the field and had a bonfire. Roasted marshmallows, looked at the stars, it was sick."

"That must have been so much fun." Max replied. "Oh shit! That reminds me- I'm supposed to see Warren today for movie night."

"Movie night?" Joey teased.

"Yes, Joey. I'm going to cheat on both of my girlfriends with one of my best friends, whilst he is also dating another one of my best friends." Max said sarcastically.

"Wait shit- he and Kate are actually a thing? I thought you were joking."

"God, no. They've been thick as thieves for 2 weeks now."

"Talk about strange attractors."

"It's kinda good in a way. If it lasts, which I hope it does, they could teach each other some cool things."

"Like how not to be a creepy weirdo about sex?"

"They're equal and opposites on that regard." Max said through gritted teeth. "Still. I love them to pieces and I'm happy they're together. Anyway, how are you doing?"

"Hungover." Joey mumbled honestly.

"Well no shit." Max laughed. "How did your parents react?"

"My parents couldn't give less of a shit. You know them." Joey replied. "Hell, Mom even gave me money for booze. 'Just as long as you're home safe', she said."

"My mom would have skinned me alive."

"That's because she doesn't trust you. That's one thing my parents are good at. Trust. Both of my parents were victims of harsh abuse from their own parents."

Max's jaw dropped. "So that's why you never talk about your grandparents."

"Yep."

Silence.

"How's your uh… brother doing?" Max asked, eager to change the conversation.

"He's alright." Joey replied. "Still at that retail job, even though I know he hates it."

"The things we do for money." Max sighed.

"God, I'm gonna have to get a job soon." Joey sighed. "I'm moving out between semesters and lord knows I need money for that."

"Well, good luck then." Max said.

"Thanks. I'm gonna need it. Nice talking to you, Max. I really miss you."

Max's heart dropped. "I miss you too." She said genuinely. "I should go. It was nice talking to you as well."

"See ya, Supermax. Stay safe."

"You too."

Joey scoffed, then hung up. Max sighed as she put down her phone. Rachel was still fast asleep, so Max decided to do some more power training. She hadn't quite mastered walking while rewinding yet, as it was she could either walk normally and rewind very slowly, or rewind rapidly but be forced to walk at a snail's pace. Both methods resulted in nasty head pains and nosebleeds and occasionally she would have to lie down for a while. She opened the apartment door, and held it open with a rock they had found at the junkyard Rachel insisted on keeping. She ran out the plan in her head.

"I'm gonna run downstairs, whilst rewinding. Hopefully I don't pass out on the stairs." She thought. She took a deep breath, and started running. No sooner than she had taken two steps she was forced to lower her right hand. She sat down on the stairs, clutching her head with one hand and holding her bleeding nose with the other. "Okay. So that didn't work." She sighed. "Perhaps I need to go slowly. Baby steps." She waited until the head pains had gone away, and slowly descended her the stairs of the apartment building, rewinding as she went. She was careful not to rewind too far back, lest she accidentally erase the call with Joey. After what felt like several minutes (but in reality only several seconds) Max slowly opened the door of her apartment and walked back inside, breathing heavily. She wiped her nose and crept into Chloe and Rachel's bedroom, where Rachel was still fast asleep. Max slowly approached Rachel, leaned down, and kissed her on the forehead.

Rachel moaned sleepily, her hand lazily reaching out, lightly slapping Chloe's pillow. Max giggled.

"No, dad I don't wanna go to school today…" Rachel moaned, half-asleep.

Max gulped. She knew how Rachel felt about her father. It had been a subject that hadn't arisen in conversation for over a year, at least from what Max could remember. By this stage, her memories were slowly returning. Max leant down and whispered in Rachel's ear.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

Rachel smiled and slowly opened her eyes. "Max!" She beamed, leaning in to kiss her. "What time is it?"

"Like 9:30."

Rachel blinked. She picked up her phone and looked at it. "That was a test, and you failed."

Max looked at her phone. The time on her phone said roughly 9:25, but Rachel's said only 5 minutes past 9. "Shit. Caught in the act." Max smirked.

"Don't overwork yourself." Rachel said, immediately in lecture mode. "Your nose is still bleeding. I can see it."

"Please, Rachel. I just wanted to do something cute for my cute girlfriend."

"Sorry. You're right." Rachel sighed and turned away. "This whole situation is still terrifying to me."

"Can't say I blame you." Max said without sarcasm.

"You have to live with it." Rachel looked Max in the eye. "Answer me honestly: How the fuck do you do it? How do you not crack under the sheer pressure? How do you survive with that level of trauma?"

"Chloe did and she doesn't have superpowers." Max shrugged.

"She's on antidepressants and has had years of therapy."

Max looked down and said nothing.

"You cried in your sleep last night. You were tossing and turning. It was horrifying." Rachel said. "I could tell you were having a nightmare. Chloe didn't even notice she was still asleep."

"Sorry." Max mumbled.

"Don't apologise. You do that a lot too."

Max sniffed. "The nightmares are constant."

Rachel nodded. "I was like that too. So was Chloe. I can imagine for you they'd be a lot worse." She sat up. "Are there many… of me?"

Max sat down on the bed. "Some of them. Nowhere near as much as they used to be. Most of them are about the tornado, or Chloe, or J-" She paused. "Jefferson."

"God, that must have been hell for you. No-one should have to live through that."

"And no-one ever will again." Max said confidently. "I'll put a stop to it."

"I'm confident you can, but that won't stop the pain. At some point you're going to have to see a professional."

"I know."

"Hey Max, is it… difficult?"

"What is?"

"Looking at me. Looking at me and not seeing… a dead girl walking."

"I look at you and see the woman I love. The woman that saved Chloe's life. The woman who probably saved mine. A beautiful woman who almost died trying to find the truth about her mother. You're a brave and wonderful woman, and that's the Rachel Amber I know." Max smiled. Her phone started running. "Oh. It's Warren. I should answer."

"Saved by the bell." Rachel smiled. "You're seeing him tonight, right?"

"Yeah."

"Have fun. Not too much fun, but have fun."

Max giggled. "Of course." Max answered the call. "Hey Warren. What's up?"

"Maximum Ride! How soon can you come over here? My parents already left so we basically have the house to ourselves."

"Oh cool! Will Kate be there?"

"No, Sunday's her busy day. Between church and her afternoon youth groups she's booked. It'll just be the two of us." Warren said casually.

Max gulped. "Oh."

"Shit does that make you uncomfortable? You can invite Rachel and Chloe if you-"

"It'll be fine." Max said quickly, worried she might have hurt his feelings.

"Anyway, the sooner you get over here, the more we can binge."

"Sounds like a plan." Max said happily. She smiled. She hadn't done anything socially with Warren outside school for a long time. She felt that she wasn't being fair, her being so caught up in her own insecurities. Warren was a nice guy, and it comforted Max to know that she could finally have a best friend that didn't crush on her so hard. "I'll have to take a bus. I'll see you soon."

"Text me when your bus leaves. I'll meet you at the stop."

"Thanks Warren. Bye."

"See ya." Warren replied, then hung up.

"Have you eaten?" Rachel called from the bedroom.

"Not yet." Max shouted back.

"Well eat something. Just a quick bowl of cereal."

"Says the 130-pound girl on a diet."

"Oh shut up."

Max laughed. She obliged anyway, and took the time to make and eat a bowl of cereal before heading out the door.

Half an hour later, she arrived at the bus stop. Warren came to greet her.

"Max! You made it!"

"Hey, Warren." Max said, offering a hug. He looked surprised for a second, but accepted it. "You look nice."

"Thanks." He said shyly. "You do too. How's Rachel and Chloe?"

"They're good." Max smiled. "Chloe's working and Rachel had only just woken up when I left."

"Nice."

"How's Kate?"

"Pretty stressed at the moment." Warren nodded. "Between all her church work, homework, getting her photo for the Everyday Hero contest, and dealing with me, she's got a lot on her plate."

"Oh come on, Warren." Max lightly punched his arm as they walked. "I'm sure you're bearing the load, not adding to it."

"I don't know. You of all people know I can be a handful."

"Warren, you're my best friend for a reason."

Warren blushed and looked straight ahead, smiling.

"Are you… scared?"

Warren looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Of this relationship? Are you worried? Frightened?"

"I… I've just never been in a serious relationship before. Certainly not one at this level."

Max put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "And that's okay. Until Chloe and Rachel neither had I. And I'll admit it was pretty terrifying at first, especially since they wanted me to move in straight away."

"Yeah but you've known them for years."

"This year is the first time I've met Rachel in person."

"Didn't you say you came down to visit last Christmas?"

"Ah-" Max stuttered, then held up her right hand. Slowly, Warren's movements were played in reverse.

"I haven't known Rachel for that long. I felt like an intruder, Warren."

"Chloe's known you for too long. That wouldn't be fair."

"I know. That's why I'm saying this- the fear will pass quickly, then you can start enjoying your relationship and all its wonder and beauty." Max smiled, and felt her nose start running. "Shit." She mumbled.

"Woah, your nose. You good?" Warren asked.

Max realised she still hadn't told him about her power, and now she was getting second thoughts about whether she should. "We should get inside. It's getting cold."

Warren looked up. "I think it's starting to rain-" His speech was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder. "Well. There goes my hypothesis."

"There's a storm a-brewing…" Max said in a terrible attempt at a Northern English accent.

Warren laughed. "Here we are. Just down this street." Warren led Max down a nice-looking suburban avenue, lined with trees. Warren's house was nice and perfectly nondescript. Max realised she had never seen Warren's house, let alone been inside it. The lack of a Prescott fund meant there was no dorm for them to live in, which meant Warren still had to live with his parents. Max was glad to live with better company, even though she still missed her parents. Max quietly reeled, remembering she was partially responsible for the death of Arcadia Bay's wealthiest asshole. "Come on in." Warren smiled, opening the door for her.

"Thank you, kind sir." Max said. The interior of the house was much more impressive than the outside. It was large and spacious, and it had clearly been recently cleaned. Aside from the old sheet and ladder resting against the wall in the hallway, it was perfectly tidy. "You certainly know how to keep a place tidy."

"That's my parents." Warren chuckled. "We're almost finished repainting, hence the ladder. We spent most of yesterday cleaning up."

"Shit, Warren. You guys have done a good job."

"Thanks. Anyway, have a seat. The living room is just down the hallway. Wanna drink? I got some soda, tea, alcohol…"

"Some tea would be nice. Perhaps save the alcohol."

Warren chuckled. "Alright, if you insist. How do you have your tea?"

"Same as Kate."

"Shit." Warren mumbled to himself. "Milk no sugar… Earl grey… Do we even have earl grey?"

"You're stressing yourself. Don't worry about it." Max said.

"No no, you're my guest. Sit down." Warren said firmly. "Got it!" He said eagerly. He waved the tea box in Max's face. "Told you I got this."

"Alright, esteemed host." Max said sarcastically. She turned around and walked back towards the living room. "Where do you keep your DVDs?"

"If you wanna watch my sisters barbie movies, they're in the rack under the TV. My movies are all on my laptop."

"Of course." Max said. "Wait, you have a sister?"

"Yeah. She's like, 13."

"Ah, the best age." Max said dryly.

"Laptop's in my room. Upstairs and to the left. Right in the middle."

"Cool. You're cool with me just going and grabbing it?"

"Yeah. No worries. Just don't look in the drawer- I'm kidding." Warren laughed.

"You're gross."

"What can I say? I'm a teenage boy, raging with hormones."

"Ew! I am so not listening to you anymore." Max fired back, walking up the stairs. She quickly found his bedroom and walked in. She chuckled. "Clearly Kate's influence has been rubbing off."

Warren's bedroom was mostly tidy, save for a few clothes on his bed. His desk was a mess, however, with books, notes, and several takeout boxes strewn about the large desk space. Underneath the desk was a large PC, and two monitors sat on the desk, covering what little space was left.

"Shit." Max mumbled. "That's an impressive rig. Crap now I want one!" She fiddled a little bit with the keyboard and mouse. A stereo system not too dissimilar to Chloe's sat on a small bedside table, Warren's phone plugged in. The walls were lined with various posters, including Alien, Doctor Who, and Halo. "He's such a nerd." Max said aloud. "But he has taste." Max found Warren's laptop on his bed and opened it. Several browser tabs were opened, and Max being Max, decided to snoop. "Emails between him and Daniel…?"

"Hey Danny boy! Need your advice on some drawings. I know you're more of a pencil and paper kinda guy, but I'm wondering if you have any advice on digital art programs."

"Sure! What do you need?"

"I noticed you drew some pictures of Kate and Rachel and I wanted to know if…"

The messages trailed on, and Max got the general idea. Several reddit forums were open, mostly fandoms. Max didn't bother with them. However, Max's Facebook profile was open in the browser. She was confused. "What the hell…?" The art program Warren referenced in the email exchange was still open, so Max opened it. The most recent project was not yet finished, but it was a drawing of Kate. Max smiled. "She looks so good here." Max clicked onto another recent project, and she saw a recreation of her profile picture digitised in art form. "Oh Warren…" she sighed. He must have still had feelings for her after all. She took the time to appreciate the drawing before she let the questions run in her mind. How long ago had he drawn this? Was this why he was feeling so worried about his relationship with Kate? Did his feelings conflict? Who, pray tell, does his heart desire? Max couldn't think of an answer. As more questions racked her brain, she heard the door open.

"Did you find the lapto- Oh." Warren said, seeing Max, with his laptop open on the drawing. "It's not-" he tried to explain, but Max didn't let him. She used her rewind. She watched as her best friend closed the door and walked back downstairs, him being none the wiser at her antics. She cursed herself for her nosiness. She realised now the best thing for her to do was to tell him. She saved and closed the art program before closing the laptop and walked downstairs.

"Sweet! You found it. Your tea's on the coffee table."

"Thanks Warren."

"It's not too cold in here, is it?"

"It's fine. We should just sit down."

"You're right. I'm stressing too much."

"Yeah, jeez Warren. It's only me. You don't have to bend over backwards for me."

"You're right. I'm being dumb."

"Which begs the question, why do you have a drawing of me on your laptop?"

"Uh… you saw that?"

"I mean, it's really well-done, but why keep it a secret?"

"Cause I was nervous…"

"About what?"

Warren said nothing.

"Warren…" Max said kindly.

"I liked you! Okay! There it is!" Warren blurted. "I knew you were already in a relationship, but I still couldn't get over it. You introduced me to Kate and that was wonderful of you. You've been nothing but kind to me and I've just been an idiot!"

"Don't say that. You're the smartest person I know. And I'm dating Rachel Amber."

"Rachel is a hell of a lot smarter than me, but I'll accept your compliment anyways." Warren sighed. "Kate invited me for tea that day you introduced me to her. I said yes, mostly because of what had happened with her and Victoria."

"And how did it go?" Max asked.

"Wonderfully! She was amazing. She was really cool. Reminded me a lot of you, actually."

Max gulped.

"Anyway, we decided to make it a regular thing, and after a week, she said she liked me, and I thought I liked her too, and that this could be an easy way to help get over my crush on you."

"Did it work?"

"For the most part, yes. But seeing you now, and remembering the drawing I started in the first week, it's still pretty hard."

"Are you gonna talk to Kate about this?"

"How can I? She's already pretty fragile. It could break her heart. This relationship is new for her too. She's never even been in a relationship at all, let alone a serious one." Warren flopped down on the couch, his head tilted up at the ceiling.

"To be honest, I've been keeping secrets too." Max said quietly, sitting down next to him. "But mine is quite… hardcore."

"Please. Anything to change the subject."

"I…" Max started, but her nose started bleeding.

"Shit, again?" Warren said. "Hold on I'll get a tissue." Warren raced away, quickly coming back with a box of tissues. "Is your secret related to the nosebleeds?" He said jokingly.

"They're usually accompanied by rather painful headaches." Max said, fully serious.

"Shit, Max." Warren murmured. "You're not gonna tell me you're dying or something, right?"

"Ha! I wish it were that simple." Max said.

"What can be more complex than death?" Warren inquired, looking incredibly puzzled.

"I've cheated it more times than I can count. At this point, it's the most simple thing I know."

"What are you saying?"

"Warren, how much do you know about Chaos Theory? Time travel and shit?"

"No more than scientists and mathematicians that actually study it, that's for sure. Why?"

Max said nothing.

"No fucking way." Warren gasped, his mouth forming an O. "You're a time traveller! That explains so much!"

"Not quite, and it's nothing to be excited about."

"Hell yeah it is! My best friend is a fucking time traveller!"

"Heehee, you sound like Chloe." Max giggled, then her face dropped. "Or at least, how she used to sound. Now she's mostly scared."

"Chloe Price? Scared of something? It must be serious." Warren replied, suddenly straight-faced.

"Yeah. I'll get into it later. Just stay right there, I'll show you what I can do." Max stood up and took off her shoe. She placed it on Warren's head, then rewound time.

"So?" Warren asked.

Max held up her shoeless foot and pointed at Warren's head. Warren reached up and grabbed her shoe and passed it back to her.

"How did you do that?" Warren asked.

"I'll show you." She replied. "Can you put on a movie? Just play like the first minute or so. Oh and look at the time."

A couple minutes later, the first minute of The Shining had played, and Max placed her left hand on Warren's right shoulder.

"Okay. You ready?"

"Of course."

Max held up her right hand and rewound time, clenching Warren's shoulder. The movie restarted from the beginning.

"Holy shit." Warren breathed. He looked at the clock. It displayed one minute past 10. "You can rewind time!" He cried.

"Yes, yes, calm down!" Max whispered harshly. "Look, it's a lot darker than it sounds. The whole story is rather horrifying. Part of it involves Kate, so I don't want her to know until I feel she's ready, and I'll be the one to tell her. Okay?"

"Okay." Warren said.

"Good. It all started in October of this year, when I woke up in Jefferson's class after having a vision of a tornado destroying Arcadia Bay. With me so far?"

"Where else would I be? Go on."

"I went to the bathroom after class, and saw my best friend Chloe Price get shot by Nathan Prescott."

"Shot- good lord." Warren breathed. "Ah- go on."

"After that, I discovered I could rewind time. I was able to go back and pull the fire alarm, thus saving her life."

"Ah. I see." Warren said. "It's like you said, Chaos Theory. The Butterfly Effect."

"Quite literally. Right before I first used my powers, I took a photograph of a blue butterfly. Ever since then, butterfly imagery has accompanied most of my extreme time jumps."

"Shit. Okay. So, how exactly does this involve Kate?"

"I was just getting to that." Max said. "After I saved Chloe's life, we reunited. In this timeline, it had been 5 years since we talked, and she was desperate to find her best friend that had gone missing."

Warren blinked. "You mean Rachel?"

Max nodded. "Rachel Amber goes missing, and I never meet her."

"Shit."

"After some digging, I managed to work out she had connections to this drug dealer, who did dealings with Nathan Prescott, who dosed Chloe with a date-rape drug in his room after she tried to get some quick cash from him."

"What the fuck?"

"Chloe tried to blackmail him, hence the shooting incident. This is where Kate comes in. During this time, a video had circulated around the internet of Kate Marsh making out with a bunch of random people at a Vortex Club party."

"That doesn't-"

"Sound like Kate at all? Exactly what I thought. She said she didn't remember a thing, despite only having one sip of red wine."

"Wait, so Nathan dosed her?" Warren looked horrified.

Max nodded.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard!" Warren stood up angrily.

"Woah, now, hold on. He hasn't done that in this timeline. At least, not yet."

Warren sat back down. "Sorry. Please continue."

"The stress and bullying from that only got worse. At that stage, I had a strong suspicion it was Nathan that dosed her, but that was it. A suspicion. Principal Wells didn't believe me when I told him Nathan had a gun in the girl's bathroom, and David Madsen was ten times the scary prick that he is now, so I had no-one to really go to."

"What about Mr. Jefferson?"

"I knew even then he wouldn't believe me. Anyway, the reason why I felt Rachel and Kate were connected was I knew drugs were involved, and Nathan Prescott's reputation, as someone both obsessed with Rachel Amber and drugs. It just made sense to me. Unfortunately, I was right. The stress got so bad that Kate...|" Max trailed off.

"Go on." Warren said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"That Kate tried to kill herself. In front of the whole school." Max started crying. "God it was awful, I was the only one who went up to save her. Even David couldn't get there in time."

"Max, I'm so sorry."

"It gets worse." Max sniffed. She explained how Jefferson was the puppet master behind the whole situation, and how she managed to use her time powers to go back 5 years in the past, and all the events that led up to where she was now. After a decade of silence, Warren spoke.

"Max…" He said, rubbing Max's shoulder. She leaned into his shoulder, tears streaming down her face. "That must have been awful for you. No-one should have to go through what you did."

"Thank you Warren." She sniffed.

"So, do you have a plan for taking down Jefferson."

Max nodded. "Yeah. It'll take time. I have to get Nathan involved, and thanks to me, Kristine has him in such a tight hold it's gonna be nigh impossible to reach him."

"You did the right thing, Max. Nathan was fucked-up and abused. You saved his life, literally."

"What about the tornado, Warren? What do I do about that? How can I know if I stopped it?"

"Well, you said so yourself all those weird astronomical events happened after you first saved Chloe's life. You ended up saving Rachel, has anything weird happened since then?"

Max shook her head.

"Then you may have stopped it entirely!" Warren said eagerly. "You saved Rachel's life, Nathan's life, Chloe's life, Kate's life, hell, maybe even the entire town!" He rested his head on top of Max's. "And it was all worth it."

"I'm still in so much pain, Warren. And Jefferson is still out there. Home free, secretly abusing so many other students."

"But he might not be. As you said, he no longer has Nathan as a scapegoat. Or that Frank guy for drugs. His dark room probably doesn't even exist."

"You're right, Warren. I'm panicking too much about this. Let's just binge our movies and enjoy ourselves."

"That's the spirit, Max! I'll max us some popcorn."

They watched several films from Warren's movie horde, including The Shining and Alien. Max refused to watch Cannibal Holocaust due to its graphic maltreatment of animals, to which Warren just sighed and chose Final Destination. Warren sat through most of it laughing, but Max felt mostly uncomfortable. The overly graphic and silly nature of the characters death made Max laugh sometimes, but Max felt the entire time like something was just horribly wrong. She couldn't tell if that was the suspense in the films (Warren had insisted on watching the whole series), or her mind was playing tricks on her, or something was in fact horrifically wrong. She shook off the feeling, telling herself to just enjoy her afternoon with Warren instead.

Rachel sang to herself as she worked, cleaning up the dishes from last night that she had neglected to clean. She was singing a Coldplay song, one of the few ones she actually liked.

"I turn the music up, I got my records on…" Her concert was interrupted by a phone call. "Ugh!" She moaned. "Oh wait, never mind. It's from Chloe." She said aloud to herself. "Hey, Chloe! Everything alright?"

"You're gonna want to listen to this." Chloe said sternly.

"Chloe?" Rachel turned white.

"Rachel. It's me."

"FRANK?" Rachel yelled. "I told you we had to stay away from each other."

"I know, but listen. You… your mother… your family… you're all in danger."