The two lovers finally parted from a kiss that seemed both to last forever and too briefly.
"I'll always love you…" Chloe asserted tearfully. "Now, get out of here, please! Do it before I freak. And Max Caulfield? Don't you forget about me..."
"Never," Max vowed.
And with that, she lifted her photograph and stared into it, her heart laced with dread.
Then, Max found herself back in that fateful bathroom, having finished taking a picture of the blue butterfly. She took it out and let it float slowly to the ground.
She turned and watched the bathroom entrance, waiting until it began to open, and she ducked back into cover so Nathan wouldn't see her.
"It's cool, Nathan… don't stress, you're okay, bro, just… count to three," Nathan muttered, ranting to himself.
Max watched the blue butterfly land on a sink and fly by slowly, tears beginning to streak down her face. 'No, no… I can't… do this…'
"Don't be scared. You own this school… If I wanted, I could blow it up. You're the boss…"
'Fuck, fuck,' Max thought, fighting back tears. 'I can't do this, I just can't do this… I am so sorry, everyone…' She moved to once again grab the hammer with which to strike the fire alarm.
Then everything froze in place.
'What- what's going on? I'm- not using my power-? Is this a hallucination? Another dream?'
"It is neither," A strong, resonant voice spoke, and a moment later, a beautiful woman with silky green hair and a long, flowing green dress that descended down to her ankles materialized before her.
With an effortless gesture on the strange woman's part, Max found she could move again, though everything else seemed frozen in time.
"Who… are you?" Max asked, flabbergasted. "Are… you the one who-"
"I am the Spirit of Love, one of the Spirits who granted you your power, though my sister, the Spirit of Determination, regrettably cannot be here with us currently." The woman spoke in a melodious voice.
"But… why… me?" Max stammered. "Why chose me?"
"We chose someone from a pool of potential candidates at random. You were entered in the pool because we thought it might be good to give you one last week with Chloe- "
"So, what am I supposed to do?!" Max demanded, tears welling in her eyes and her friends balling into fists as all her frustrations boiled over. "Just let Chloe die?! Or kill everyone in Arcadia Bay?"
"I am afraid those are indeed your choices. Chloe was always meant to die and her death will return everything to its original timeline. Your power shall vanish and all that shall remain will be your cherished memories with Chloe. A final goodbye- that is what my sister and I anticipated. But alternatively, you can choose to sacrifice this town and its people, cast them to the wind, and establish a new timeline where Chloe lives on. Ultimately, it's your choice."
"But- that's- that's so cruel!" Max protested, wracked with sobs. "Why can't I save both? Why do I have to let anyone die?!"
"I'm sorry," The Spirit of Love looked away. "Those are the rules. No matter what you do, as long as Chloe lives, the storm will happen one way or another. And if you manage to try and cheat, and evacuate or save everyone in Arcadia Bay, the universe will likely find a way to take Chloe's life as a consequence. The machinery of the universe demands blood, the compensation for your tampering."
"That's not fair!" Max lunged in panic to try and grab the Spirit and shake her, only for her hands to pass right through. "I- I didn't choose any of this! Can't you do anything about this?!"
"I'm afraid this is out of my hands," The Spirit sighed. "As for your choices perhaps if you'd chosen to stay in touch with Chloe, visit on occasion, maybe none of this would've happened. But… it's too late for that now, I'm afraid."
Max fell to her knees in despair, clutching her head. "I- I know I was wrong! I screwed up- I was a fool and a coward! I'm so sorry, Chloe, I'm so, so sorry!" She broke down into tears, weeping inconsolably.
After several minutes of crying her eyes out, and her cries had shriveled up into hiccuping sobs, the Spirit of Love asked, "So, little one, have you made your choice?"
"I- I can't- !" Max sobbed. "Chloe- I love her! I finally got the courage to fix what I screwed up all those years- and now I have to say goodbye to her forever?! Tell me, Spirit, what the hell is the right thing to do?!"
The Spirit of Love lay an ethereal hand on Max's shoulder in a consoling gesture. "The right thing to do, in my opinion, is to save the maximum amount of people. And it's not just your own choices that have led us to this point- Chloe made mistakes too. But it's not my place to force my values onto you- ultimately, you have to make your own decision. Regardless of what you choose, regardless of what happens- remember it won't be forever. Even if Chloe dies here, one day, eventually you will grow old and die too. And when that day comes, I'm sure Chloe will be waiting for you in the afterlife with open arms.
"I- I- see- wait-" Max's eyes widened as she thought of something.
"My time grows short, I must leave soon," The Spirit of Love stated mournfully, seeming not to heed Max's reaction. "Soon the world shall start moving again- you must be prepared to make your ultimate choice."
"I will," Max looked up at the Spirit, her demeanor changing considerably as a look of fierce determination overtook her face.
The Spirit looked taken aback at the sudden transformation in Max's attitude, but softened rapidly. "Ah, that's good. My sister… she would love your expression just now…"
And with that, the Spirit of Love faded from sight.
Nathan was once again ranting to himself in the mirror.
'This… will be my choice,' Max thought, as she bent down to pick up the hammer. 'No, wait, this won't do…'
By this time, Chloe had entered and, after rather-incompletely "checking the perimeter", had begun arguing aggressively with Nathan.
Max felt tears run down her face all over again, before the previous streaks had any chance to dry. Yet, she restrained herself, staying quiet and holding her breath.
"You don't know who the fuck I am or who you're messing around with!" An aggravated Nathan lifted a handgun and flipped the safety off to threaten Chloe.
Chloe looked about nervously for an escape and held up her hands, as she backed up slowly. "Where'd you get that? What are you doing? Come on, put that thing down!"
An incensed Nathan pushed Chloe up against the wall, holding the pistol up to her abdomen. "Don't EVER tell me what to do. I'm so SICK of people trying to control me!"
"You are going to get in hella more trouble for this than drugs-"
"Nobody would ever even miss your 'punk ass' would they?" Nathan snarled, crazed with fury.
"Get that gun away from me, psycho!" Chloe violently shoved Nathan away, and in that instant, he accidentally discharged the weapon.
Chloe fell straight to the floor, a bloody gunshot wound in her abdomen, and the recoil also knocked the gun to the floor. Panicked, Nathan began gripping his head, shocked at what he'd done.
Max lurched in horror at the gunshot, despite knowing exactly what was about to happen. Then she breathed deeply despite her quiet sobs. "One last charge, for the Pirates of Arcadia Bay. Right, Chloe?" She managed a forced smile, and charged out from hiding.
She'd decided the hammer wasn't a suitable weapon for this task, so she'd grabbed the mop on the janitorial cart instead.
Nathan was so aghast at what he'd just done, his ears still ringing from the echoed shot, that he didn't even notice until the mop whacked him upside the head.
"Ugggh!" Nathan fell flat on the bathroom floor. "The fuck?!"
He quickly rolled over and tried to get up to view the new threat, only to be smacked twice more by Max's mop.
"Stop! You bitch!" He shouted furiously, anger beginning to boil up. "It was a set-up!" He clambered rapidly for his fallen firearm, and grabbed hold of it. "I'll fucking kill you!"
Fear ran through Max's veins like ice water, but in an instant she suppressed. She acted out some of the taunts she'd already prepared. "Try it, you son of a bitch! You killed Rachel and Chloe on accident, you dumb bastard! You don't have the balls to kill someone on purpose!"
The words came out a little cracked and tremulous, nowhere as powerful as she'd intended, but Nathan was too enraged to notice. Especially with Max continuing to wallop him with the mop and keeping him disoriented.
"What do you know about me, stupid bitch?! Aah! Fuck, got in my mouth, you sick whore!"
He backed up rapidly until he slid on Chloe's blood and ran up right against her rapidly-cooling corpse, but Max did not let up with her mop strikes. "Ow! Ow! That's it! You're dead!" He fired the weapon again, raving with blazing rage.
Max felt a violent, horrifying-intense agony tear into her abdomen, beyond any pain she'd ever felt before, and the mop fell from her hands.
Coming back to his senses, panic once again overtook Nathan, and he bolted out the room- but this time his shirt, seat of his pants, and left hand were all stained with Chloe's blood.
"Uuh! Uah-uh-" Max fell to her knees and her head fell to the floor, her back arched in excruciating pain as she gripped her bullet wound. Though she was only able to make desperate gasping and gurgling noises, her mind screamed with pain.
As her lifeblood continued to soak her shirt, hardly contained by gripping hand, and occasionally dripping on the floor, Max felt the strength leave her body and she keeled over onto her side.
"One last- Arcadia- Pirates- Chloe- " Max gasped incoherently.
Then her final breath escaped her body, and she never moved again.