Chapter 8

It had taken a lot of persuasion for David to let Chloe borrow his pickup truck. Agreeing to a massively long chore list had been dehumanising, but she knew it was small change compared to every reality in existence. Since Kate also hadn't had the consideration to send Warren's car back with them, she had no other way to get where she was going. And since David still didn't remember Max, she didn't want to tell him anything she didn't have to.

The pickup truck was a much newer model than hers was. It was much newer with a much smoother ride to it. And she hated it. She wasn't used to the assisted steering and over-steered so many times that eventually a cop car pulled her over and she had a breath test. Luckily, she hadn't been on a bender in days and managed to score nothing. It took far longer than she would have liked, but eventually she reached her destination. It wasn't easy for her to walk up that path again and she knew stepping inside would be even harder. But she was prepared. She loved Max. If she wanted to get past Kate, there was only one way she was going to do it. And this house held what she needed.

"Chloe Price." The man who answered the door seemed to have aged thirty years in as little as three. His hair was grey and had grown quite fiercely. His skin was saggier and his eyes were sunken. He actually looked quite ill. "To what do we owe this displeasure?" There was a faint slurred note to his voice and he seemed to be leaning rather heavily on the doorframe. That was good. That meant Chloe could take him if the trouble started. After all, the last time Chloe had seen him, she had turned his own daughter against him.

"Mr Amber." She acknowledged him politely. "Is Rose there?" It was her best chance. If she could talk to Rose, this job would be a lot easier.

"No." His frown turned into a full-blown glare. "But then you knew that already, didn't you? You can't seriously expect for you to turn our own daughter against me in a way that means my wife finds out what I did and then for that daughter to turn up dead sometime later and have feelings between her parents be the same, can you?" Chloe hadn't even stopped to consider that. Right now this felt like a stupendously bad idea. But she had no choice. This was just as much to save James as it was everyone else. No matter how angry he was at her or Rachel had been at him, they wouldn't have wanted to see each other dead.

"I guess not." Chloe confessed sheepishly. "Look, I'm not going to mess you around, James. Have you had chance to go through Rachel's stuff yet? I have a friend who's in some really serious trouble. She had something in her room which would really help me fix this. You know I wouldn't be here asking for favours if it wasn't an absolute emergency. Hell, I already agreed to do a month's worth of chores for my step-douche just to borrow his truck!" She pointed to the pickup truck at the end of the driveway. James looked past her at it, sparkling like it was fresh off the showroom floor. Of course, he couldn't see the glossiness on it that Chloe could since he himself was covered in it. But that didn't matter. What mattered was the heavy sigh he gave as he stood aside and let her in.

"You break into my study again, I will shoot you myself." She believed him. Quickly, she kicked her shoes off before running upstairs and heading to Rachel's room. She opened the door, not really knowing what she'd expected as she stepped in. It was like stepping back in time. It almost made her burst into tears on the spot. It was clear that James had been cleaning in his few sober moments. The lack of dust was shocking. Everything was where Rachel had left it. From the map on her wall, the phrase she'd written on it to encourage Rachel still there, to the emergency flashlight she'd fixed the night light cover to still sat on the nightstand.

Forcing herself to put it out of her mind, she moved over to the desk and started rummaging through the drawers. It wasn't there. It wasn't on top of the desk either. Swinging around, she walked over to the chest of drawers. There were sets of underwear, spare jeans and neatly folded shirts. Not what she was looking for. By that point, Chloe felt like crying. She sat down heavily on the bed, rolling sideways and looking at the map.

'The corners of the world our mere prologue.' The words, so empowering when she'd written them, now stared at her in open accusation. The most of the world Rachel had ended up seeing was the patch of ground she'd been buried in by Nathan and Jefferson and then the proper grave she'd been moved to when the cops had found her thanks to Max.

Just as she was about to give up and resign herself to the fact that she was going to have to punch her way past Kate- the least she deserved for what she'd done- something caught her eye. It was on Rachel's shelving unit by the map, next to the glowing globe. She got up and picked it up, noticing that it was the only thing in the room that wasn't glossy. This was it! And it was sitting on a piece of paper that Chloe found very interesting. She snatched it up too, making her way out quickly. James had given up, clearly. He snored from his chair as she left, not even hearing the door shut behind her.

Hope reignited, she jumped into the truck and started to head home. The journey was going well until she started to pass through the country lanes. With no warning, a small doe erupted from the bushes off to her right. It froze as she approached it, but seemed totally unafraid as she slammed the brakes on. She managed to stop in time, gasping raggedly for breath as it sauntered over to her door. Her nerves feeling like they were fraying at the ends, she got out and went to chase it off.

"Go on! Get lost! You're not special or anything!" The deer met her halfway before lowering its head to her hoodie pocket to sniff at it. Chloe didn't dare move. For some reason, this deer was going for Rachel's scent rather than hers. She looked at it again just as it turned to stare at her. Its gorgeous hazed eyes seemed to stare into her soul. Totally unafraid, it stepped forward until they were practically nose-to-nose before flicking its tongue out and licking her. Its tongue brushed over her lips, seeming to break whatever trance it held over her and bring her back to reality.

'Stop it, Chloe!' She snapped internally. 'You're only torturing yourself!' But despite that, she was unable to stop herself. She crouched down to be more on its level and kept her voice low, wondering how crazy she sounded to the animal she was talking to.

"Rachel? Is that you?" In response, the deer proceeded to move even closer, resting its head on her shoulder. Chloe felt her arms move of their own accord, wrapping around it and holding it close gently. No normal deer would have let her do that. "I love you." The confession sprung from her lips automatically and left her feeling like a tremendous weight had been lifted from her. "I miss you." The doe pulled back a bit. Chloe let it go, not wanting it to feel trapped. As soon as she did, it darted off into the bushes on the other side of the road. In an instant, there was no sign it had ever been there. There was just a blue-haired girl sobbing in the middle of the road. But when she was finally able to pick herself up and resume driving, she knew more than ever that she was ready to finish this.

When she got in, the others were still there waiting for her. Their dedication was enough to make her want to start crying all over again. The fact that no one had decided that enough was enough and to just leave without telling her was more than she could have expected from a bunch of people she barely knew. But there they were, as big as life and clear as day.

"Did you get it?" Steph asked. Chloe pulled out the D&D miniature from her pocket, holding it up to show her. She handed over the character sheet to show her. "Kadia? This is your answer?"

"Rachel was the only other girl I ever came close to loving as much as I love Max." Chloe explained. "When I get into a relationship, it's for keeps. I can use Legion again with this. As much as I just want to punch my way past Kate, she's likely to just use that 'Judgement' thing on us again. It seemed to work on the same principle as the chair. I'm not keen to go through that. If I want to have a prayer of getting to Max, I have to beat Kate at her own game. And this is my last shot."

"Am I the only one who thinks it wastes entirely too much time?" Juliet asked.

"It's the only way Kate's willing to do it." Warren countered. "Look, I don't like it either. It's clear she's doing it to stall us. But it's all we've got."

"Warren's right." Steph nodded. "I can't say I like this new Kate. I like bad girls, but she's a straight-up bitch. Something tells me that if we don't do this by her rules, we don't get to do it at all. It's that simple." Chloe let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, looking everyone in the eyes in turn.

"Look, I'm not going to say I like this. In fact, I fucking hate it. But this has to happen. I'm going to go back there and I'm going to keep going as many times as it takes. I'll use one chance after another until I win or the chances are spent and we're all annihilated in the cold void of white oblivion. Now if you're coming with me, come with me. But if you want to back out, now's the time. There's no shame or disgrace in backing out now. Just don't let me down when you get there." They didn't have to think about it. Once again, everyone was on their feet and moving to stand with her. It was a symbolic gesture that felt more reassuring than if they'd just said it aloud. She nodded in thanks and turned to head to the truck just as Steph took hold of her shoulder, stopping her. For an awful second, Chloe thought she was going to confess to having second thoughts.

"Just so you know, Chloe: Rachel didn't get chance to level up her character and... Is that a blade of grass on your bottom lip?" Chloe's hand went to he mouth, finding what Steph was on about and wiping it away to be replaced by a smile. It felt almost foreign after everything that had happened since she woke up that morning.

"Come on." She moved over to the door and opened it to let everyone else out. "Let's get this done."

Author's Note: As promised, this is the second update for Gone and Forgotten to get back on track. I also want to take this moment to address some comments that I was going to address in the previous chapter but didn't get a chance to:

MaxandChloe4ever: The song Chloe was listening to in Chloe's Greatest Test was Peace Sign, which is one of the opening songs to My Hero Academia. I would actually recommend checking that song out to anyone, even if they don't like anime or (like me) have yet to see My Hero Academia for the first time since it's really catchy and totally addictive. Some of the covers are also amazing. Actually, I'd recommend those especially. Also, you raise a good point. It would be interesting to see this badass Kate and regular Kate come face-to-face at some point and see what happens. Maybe if I were to ever get an idea for a sequel...