"I bet you look totally badass doing this stealth mission right now!"

"Who's that?" the girl asks, still looking rattled as she snatches Max's phone out of her grasp and puts the device to her ear. Her spunky friend has just repeated herself without even being aware of it. Chloe wouldn't have even noticed that a single thing has changed, but somehow this same chick from Max's vision actually does?! How the hell does that work?!

Dusting off the initial shock for just a moment, and secretly thankful that the girl didn't pull a knife against her throat or anything, Max shakes her head and tries to grab the phone back, but the girl's as strong as she is stubborn, so it's no easy task.

"Listen up, are you that blue-haired bitch from before?! Yeah, I bet you'd know who I am!" she outbursts, feeling that such an occasion calls for her to be a little forward and direct with these people. "It's Clementine, not that that's any of your business! Now you're going to explain to me just what the hell is going on! Why did your friend just… gah! I don't even know!"

"Look, if you'd just give me the phone back, then I could – "

"Max?! Are you alright?! I'm coming down there, just keep her in sight! This little shit better not lay one finger on you, or else…"

"Me?! Ha! I'm not the one here who murders people, jackass!" Clementine rebukes, swearing under her breath as Max manages to quickly swipe her phone back. "You'd better not have a gun on you right now…"

Holding her hands up and out in front of her, Max tries to dissolve the tension in the area before trying to explain herself as best she can. "Look… I know that probably seemed really messed up… and I know you've got questions…" she elaborates, realizing that that's probably the understatement of the century. "But in order for me to answer them, you're going to have to trust me."

"More like not rat you out to the cops!"

"That too…" Max shrugs, finding it incredibly difficult to justify the act she had committed. At least this girl wasn't around for the aftermath. "It's… Clementine, right? That's what your name is?" she questions, continuing as she nods her head slowly. "Alright, well… why don't we find a better place to talk than this? Somewhere that we won't be overheard."

Chuckling bitterly, Clementine immediately shakes her head and folds her arms across her chest.

"What, so you can take me out to the woods to have me killed for squealing on you? Thanks, but I'd rather take my chances out in broad daylight," she sarcastically quips as Max sighs in exasperation. The girl can understand why Clementine would be so hesitant about this, but between trying to convince her along with just recently finding out that she isn't affected by the time powers… it's getting a little difficult to keep her patience in check.

Still though, if it will at least get the teen to talk to her, then Max is willing to go with the flow.

"Chloe, could you come meet us down by the school? No, it's not a disaster, so please don't come here swinging!" Max chuckles over the phone, turning her back on Clementine for just a moment. "…alright, I'll see you in a bit, then. Later, hipster!"

Lee would kill me if he found out I was doing this, Clementine thinks to herself, leaning up against the bark of a nearby tree and shivering slightly as a cool breeze blows by. Being so close to the ocean in the colder months isn't always a great thing. Zipping her jacket up a little bit more, she makes sure that her bare neck is covered from the cross-breeze as Max hangs up the phone and turns back to her frightened patron.

Clearing her throat, Max awkwardly stands there as Clementine stares her down in anticipation. Max had never really been much for small talk back home in Seattle, but had made a conscious decision to try and be a little more open with people upon coming to Arcadia Bay. It certainly isn't perfect, and could definitely use some work in some areas, but it's been a necessity – Max hadn't known a single person when she returned, and it's not as if she had tried to give Chloe a ring at first. Arcadia Bay wasn't the same town that she had remembered growing up, and it still isn't.

But maybe, like time itself, things change and adapt of their own accord. They don't just sit around and wait for things to happen to them, just like Mr. Jefferson has been drilling into her head over the past few weeks.

"I don't know if you're going to believe this, but I have… powers. Time powers, and I can prove it to you," she starts off, practically leaving Clementine staring in surprise right off the bat. "Watch – I'll tell you what's going to happen within the next few sec –"

"How could I see what you did back there? Why was everyone else besides us going backwards… in time?" Clementine interrupts, clearly already somewhat believing this story after witnessing it firsthand. As Max lifts her hand up again and concentrates, clenching her teeth and having to hold her head for a brief moment, Clementine glances around her.

Not only has time been somewhat reversed, but things seem to be running in almost slow-motion around them. A couple of joggers are moving at little more than a fraction of a mile per hour, a fly's wings are actually somewhat visible as they flap in the air, and a driver's mouth slowly starts to go wide open in rage as somebody starts to cut him off in traffic. It's actually pretty comical, but Clementine can barely find any words to say.

Stunned, she tries to lift her hand up and softly rub her fingertips against the wings of a blue-winged butterfly that's slowly starting to flow away; acting squeamish at the touch.

"This takes a lot of concentration…" Max grunts, having to hold her fingers against her temple in order to keep from losing control. "My powers are only good for short bursts, though. But I have no idea how you're not affected… unless…"

"Unless what?" Clementine asks, still glancing at the incredible display around her. She can practically see the tiny fragments of dirt, dust and other particles of the sort as they hang in the air and gleam in the sunlight.

"This is gonna sound strange… but for some reason, I think you're resistant to this thing," Max continues, releasing her hold on the world as everything goes back to normal. Chloe likely won't be here for another five minutes when in actuality she should've been here by now. "Maybe all of this is connected somehow," she mentions, not wanting to reveal the fact that she saw this girl in one of her visions just yet. That day may come, but not until they get a better understanding of one another first.

Unable to wrap her head around this, Clem briefly takes her father's hat off for a moment and rubs her fingers through her dark hair. "This can't be real… you… you're… how?" she stutters, starting to question now whether her assumptions about this girl were true or not. From what she's just experienced today, so far Clementine would have to admit that she's mostly been wrong – dead wrong, in fact. "Nothing about this makes sense to me…"

"You're preaching to the choir on that one. I've been trying to figure this out for almost a month now."

"So what I saw back there…" Clem trails off, turning around to the time traveller as she holds her hands out in front of her, "that was… did you go back in time then, too?"

Nodding her head, Max sighs in relief as Chloe's beaten-up pickup truck pulls over to the side of the road. Just in time, too, as it seems that Clementine may be starting to see things from their point of view.

"And… that man you shot back there… Why?"

As Chloe steps out from the front, giving an icy glare to the back of Clementine's head, Max motions for her to wait one second in order for them to finish. This could be a defining moment for all three of them, and possibly start to connect their destinies together.

That is, if you really believe in fate and that sort of thing.

"Here," Max encourages, reaching her hand out towards Clementine's forehead as the girl wonders what kind of magic trick she's trying to pull. "Let me show you."


Adjusting the little dreamcatcher that she's got on the rear-view mirror, Chloe silently drives on down the dusty road; bored out of her mind and pretty ticked that she's had to drive all the way to the other side of town for this drop-off. What would normally be a relaxing trip to her bedroom in order to get high and prepare for whatever insane gimmick she'd be up to this evening has instead turned into basically a taxi service – an "Uber" driver, pretty much.

She's not exactly in her preferred company, to be sure, as not only does Clementine not talk a whole lot to begin with, but she's still trying to figure out if what she saw was true. Was that actually what would've happened had Max not stepped in like that? Or did the duo simply put her on one hell of a drug trip?

Braking a little bit too hard as she narrowly halts at the stop sign, Chloe turns left as the houses start to become progressively smaller. Many of the buildings in this part of Arcadia Bay are townhouses, looking almost identical to each other with the only real noticeable differences being the vehicles parked in the driveways, along with some of the flowers in the tiny gardens out in front. But even those generally look similar to each other around here.

Welcome to suburban America, Chloe always used to joke. Land of the clones.

"You were seriously gonna walk all this way?" Chloe ponders, finally breaking the silence between them after what had felt like hours of endless monotony. "Geez, kid… This would've taken you over an hour at least. Don't you have parents or a sibling to come pick you up?"

"…no."

"What, they won't do it? Or they can't do it?"

Realizing that Chloe doesn't really know about the circumstances which brought her over here in the first place, Clementine chooses not to go into further detail about her personal life. That's on a need to know basis only. "I transferred over from Atlanta… just to come over for the arts program," she says, not entirely lying as that was a valid reason for choosing Blackwell in the first place. "I've been staying with my uncle for the time being. He's working around this time, and the buses don't travel out this way very often."

Whistling in astonishment, Chloe rests her head against her fist as she keeps the other one firmly on the wheel. "Wow, you're definitely not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy," she quotes, loving to reference movie and tv show lines when she's able to. "Sorry if Black Hell has turned out to be a major disappointment, then."

Turning her head to the driver, Clementine arches an eyebrow in confusion. Aside from the bullies, which pretty much appear no matter where you end up, her experience so far hasn't actually been that bad.

Noticing her doubtful glance, Chloe rolls her eyes and chuckles bitterly; still somewhat harboring a resentment to that place. "Don't tell me you haven't figured out what's going on yet," she remarks while dodging some of the cars that have been parked on the side of the street. "Your school is corrupt – the security guard, the teachers, the principal… they're all being bought off by the Prescott family."

"Who are they?"

Reminded of that time in the bathroom with Nathan and the gun, Chloe grips the wheel a little bit harder and frowns deeply. "Bunch of rich snobs, the lot of 'em. Picture your stereotypical wealthy, stuck-up, assholish family, and bam! There ya go," she snaps her fingers for added effect, mentioning how they're one of the most influential families around. "They practically bought and paid for that school to keep running, so none of your teachers will say a word if their son happens to get into serious shit. Hell, they practically run this fucking town!"

Taking all of this information in, Clementine tries to juggle her feelings and judge whether or not Chloe's telling her the full story. Aside from not meeting on the greatest terms, her and Max have actually been pretty straight forward with her, all things considered.

"Well… if they're doing something illegal, then why doesn't anyone go to the police?" she asks as Chloe squints her eyes at something up ahead.

"They practically own the police around here – nobody screws with them without facing something worse than getting their asses thrown in jail," Chloe responds, stopping suddenly on the side of the road as Clementine is thrown forwards; only getting saved by the seatbelt as she wonders what's going on.

Switching off the ignition and placing her panda bear keychain into her jean pocket, Chloe reaches over to the front compartment in front of Clem's lap as she digs around for a plastic baggie stuffed inside.

It takes Clem only a split second to recognize what's inside.

"You're a drug dealer?" Clementine questions, even though in hindsight she could already kind of tell based on the way she acts. "What are you gonna do? Go up to some random people and offering them some doobie rolls?"

"I've dealt to them before, smartass. Now stay put – I'll be back in a flash," she answers, not giving any time to argue as she closes the door behind her and starts casually walking over to the group of two boys and one girl; looking both ways for any people watching the exchange.

"I could probably just have walked the rest of the way…" Clementine mumbles, sighing and looking out the window as Chloe digs into her pocket and pulls out the weed. A few hits of those would likely send these kids on their asses, as they don't even look as if they've hit seventeen years of age yet.

A part of her just wants to hop out and leave, but another part of her actually wants to watch this go down in full – not as a spectator from afar, but on a more up close and personal approach. The adventurous side of her brain is starting to kick into overdrive.

Deciding to go and witness this for herself, Clementine quietly unlocks the door and wanders over to the drug deal herself, wondering why the three of them are looking so antsy about it. It's not as if the stuff is completely illegal in Oregon anymore.

"…so, can I put you down for this much?" Chloe asks her customers, who quickly nod and pull out a thin wad of cash that Clementine frowns at a little bit. Something seems off about those bills…

"This should last us for that Halloween party coming up. At least it might make the thing a little more fucking bearable," one of the teens grumble, although his face brightens up a little bit upon glancing at the substance in the plastic bag. "Cool – Mark, give her the cash and let's get out of here."

"Hold on for just a second…"

Glancing towards Clementine as she intrudes upon the circle, she's about to examine the money when she's abruptly stopped by Chloe as she places a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Who the hell is she? Did you rat us out or something?!" Mark insinuates, believing in his paranoia that this is all some sort of scam or set-up.

Shaking her head, Chloe frowns at Clem as she tries to hold her down. "I told you to stay in the truck…"

"Look at that twenty dollar bill for a second," Clem suggests as she ignores the request and pulls out a twenty from her own pocket. "This is an actual bill, see? The hair on Andrew Jackson's head is parted on the left," she explains, proving her point as Chloe holds the bills that the teens gave her in comparison. "Now take a look at theirs. Spot the differences yet?"

Upon closer inspection, Chloe realizes that she's got a point. None of the bills that the teens had given her match to what an actual one is supposed to look like, with the hair being parted differently, the cheekbones being more subdued, and even the logo on the side of the president's picture doesn't even completely match. A poor attempt to fool someone into believing that this is legit, and not quite as worthless as Monopoly money would've been.

In other words…

"You fuckers were trying to cheat me!" Chloe accuses, tosses the bills back in their faces as the teens all stand there looking petrified. "How long do you think you were going to get away with this shit, huh? Trying to rip me off like some sort of idiot… what the hell do you take me for?!"

"W-we didn't know they were fake! Honest! Some people were just giving them away to-" Mark tries to explain, but his pleas are cut off as Chloe kicks him right between the legs and hustles back to the truck with Clem and the weed in tow.

Giving the three little squirts the finger before speeding away down the road, Chloe roughly hits the steering wheel with her fist and rubs her eyes tiredly.

"Damn it… that probably means they duped me the last time, too. Shitballs!" she swears, making a sharp U-turn after missing the street that she was supposed to turn onto. With a lot of reluctance, Chloe lightly nudges Clementine on the arm in appreciation. "Hey… so uh, thanks for backing me up there. I probably wouldn't have been able to tell otherwise," she tells her, sporting a puzzled expression only seconds later. "How'd you know they were fakes, though?"

Shrugging her shoulders and brushing it off as if it wasn't anything special, Clementine recalls back to her time as a young teenager spending many of her summer days out at her cousin's house. "My uncle Bud used to work as a bank teller – he showed me a lot about this kind of thing," she clarifies, looking out the window again as her house starts to come into view. "This is me up on the right. Thanks for the ride, and… sorry, you know… about calling you a blue-haired bitch and everything."

Managing to smirk a little bit, Chloe pulls up to her driveway and spots Clementine's uncle Lee driving in his car and coming close behind them. "Definitely not the worst thing I've been called, so don't sweat it," she remarks, stopping the girl just before she exits the vehicle. "Wait," she says, sporting a more serious look this time around. "About Max… despite what you might have seen, she's actually a really good person to have around. So… don't judge her based off what went down with Frank, alright? She's… she's my best friend, and I pretty much owe her my life at this point…"

"Umm… yeah… yeah sure, Chloe…" Clem nods, willing to try her best after having seen that what they said was true. All of those different scenarios, and only one result that ended up being even remotely positive… That would probably send her over the edge, too.

Watching as she drives away and Lee instead pulls into the driveway after apparently gathering some groceries, all Clementine really wants to do is sleep. What a fucking day it's been. Sleep would definitely be a boon right now.

Sleep, and also thinking about Max's apparent time-reversal powers, and how she (and only she) can somehow keep self-aware whenever she actually uses them.

She can't help but wonder just how far back the girl can actually go with this gift. Has she reached her limit and full potential?

Or is this just the start of what she can hope to accomplish?


"Have you seen the video yet, Max? Come on, check it out! You'll die laughing!" Juliet promises as she and Brooke stand near the exit to their dorm room, both seeming to have the time of their lives as they chuckle and giggle away.

Max knows exactly what video they're watching right now, and she isn't laughing. Not even a little bit. It didn't take her rewind power this time around to figure out just who it is they're all poking fun of.

Telling her to shut the video down and explaining to them the error of their ways, Max can't help but feel horrible for Kate. The girl had confided in her earlier this week about how messed up things were getting in her life, and although Max had advised against trying to call the police about the issue, she secretly kind of wishes now that she had. Even with her time rewind, Max wouldn't be able to foresee the messed up stuff that was bound to happen. Now not only does the entire school know about that dumb video, but people all over the internet have started joining in on the bullying.

Thankfully being able to stop Juliet from spreading this even further, seeing's how she had gotten help from her earlier, Max sighs and decides that a trip to the washroom is in order. Maybe a nice, cold splash of water over her face will be enough to temporarily settle her down.

Way too much has happened today, Max internalizes. I still couldn't believe it when Clementine was still moving in front of me… but what does it all mean? Is there some kind of sign that I'm just not aware of? Does it have something to do with my vision? That's… that's the only explanation I can think of… that tornado vision…

Feeling that asking too many questions after such a stress-filled day will only give her an even bigger headache, Max opens the door to the washroom and scrunches her face up in disgust at what she sees – the link to the video, spread in red lipstick with the words "Enjoy ;)" written in a messy scribble beside it.

No doubt this was the work of Victoria in an effort to increase its infamy even further. Why she constantly has to do these horribly mean things to people Max will never know.

"Hopefully this'll keep at least a few people from watching it, Kate," Max mumbles to herself, frowning when she hears some muffled sobs coming from down the hallway somewhere.

Knowing exactly who it could be, she quickly splashes the water on herself and rubs her eyes a little before venturing back out into the hall; not caring that she isn't completely dry yet.

Some people are having real concerns right now.