Every sensible bone in her whole body is telling her that suddenly blurting out to Max about rewinding time – in the middle of a semi-crowded bar no less – was a terrible idea, but her brain isn't exactly complying with what her instincts are warning her about. Or rather, her heart isn't agreeing, not with so much at stake. Her parents' lives are very much on the line here, and that desperation, that longing for their love and compassion to fill her with warmth once again has blindsided her from everything else.

Max looks over at her as if she's completely insane, but not for the same reason that everyone else is looking at her.

"Whoa, easy there, Clem," Kenny mutters, awkwardly looking around and mentioning for his wife, Katjaa, to grab one of the empty booths so that they can talk in peace. Too many prying eyes are glancing in their direction right now as Clementine struggles to get past the happy couple. It's not that she doesn't appreciate being able to see them again, but Clem's problems are greater than being able to exchange pleasantries with some old friends. "Ehh… you feelin' alright, darlin'? Quite the spectacle you're putting on over here…"

"Ken, please…" Katjaa lightly scolds him, shaking her head with a disapproving glance. "Don't embarrass her – you're just making things worse right now."

"Sigh… alright, hon," Kenny mumbles, rolling his eyes and chuckling as his wife playfully smacks him on the shoulder. With Clementine so intent on getting past them, however, it's difficult for the fisherman to keep himself from wondering. "Clem, c'mon – you're already here, why not share an appetizer with us? My treat," he proposes, concerned that Mr. and Mrs. Marsh may not have told them about some disclosed medical/mental trauma that the girl may be currently experiencing. That would certainly explain this erratic behaviour. "Why don't you invite your friend on over here with us?" Kenny suggests with a beckon of his hand. Turning to the girl with a small smile, the man then tries to get the attention of the bartender as he waves his hand around. "Howdy there! Could we get a plate of nachos for the girls here?"

Rolling her eyes, Jane grumbles under her breath before turning back around, wiping out the remainder of the glass and heading back towards the kitchen; leaving one of the patrons with an empty cup as he complains and tries to hop the bar when he thinks that she isn't looking. One holler from behind the revolving doors stops the man dead in his tracks though, as Max gulps and starts to head over to the table. Clem seems to be boiling about the fact that she hasn't just rewound time yet, but she can't yet appreciate how delicate these types of matters are. Nothing with time travel is ever simple – that was one of the first lessons that Max had learned.

"What a grouch…" Kenny comments on Jane's behaviour, paying it no heed as his wife smiles at the newcomer. The couple still find it a little odd how edgy and antsy they seem to be, what with Clementine snapping her head to the window every chance she gets, but they figure that it's not really any of their business to be telling the girls what to do. They aren't their parents, and they know for a fact that Clem would normally open up to them if she was ready to.

Clementine's fingers incessantly tap on the table as her eyes grow wide and her bottom lip trembles in fear. Max can only try reaching out her hand below the table in order to try for some flicker of power, but the most she can do right now is to send them back a couple of milliseconds – not even coming close to being worth the effort.

While she waits for it to charge up, Max grins sheepishly as Katjaa asks what her name is. "M-Max Caulfield…" she stutters unintentionally, introducing herself as she gives Kenny and Katjaa a handshake.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Max," Katjaa nods, wanting to know more. "So… how do you two know each other? Are you going to the same high school? I just figured that our son Duck would've said something if he had seen the two of you hanging out around the building," she mentions, causing Max to gulp as she is forced to think on the fly.

"Umm… yeah! Yes, that's exactly it," she nods furiously, lying straight through her teeth as Kenny raises a suspicious eyebrow over at her. Fortunately for Max, however, he once again says nothing and instead thanks a waiter for handing him and Katjaa a couple of drink menus. "Clem and I, well… we met at a drama club at high school this year – it's really small, though. Aside from us, there's like one other kid in it," she fibs, leaving Clementine to wonder where the hell she's trying to string this story.

Smiling with that sweet, motherly affection that Clem had come to know and grow quite fond of over the years, Katjaa widens her eyes when she hears the news. "Really?" she inquires with quite a bit more interest than Clementine had expected. "Well that's really something! Clem, you don't have to be embarrassed to tell us a thing like that – I was actually in a drama club myself back in the day… Ken here even swung by for a couple of sessions, come to think of it."

"Longest four hours of my life…" he jokes, earning a playful shove as Jane comes back with a steaming pan of nachos for the four of them to enjoy. "Wow, that was pretty darn quick! Say…" he trails off, rising his curiosity as he raises one of the chips while Jane seeks to make a hasty getaway. "Are these… microwaved? You didn't happen to just serve us up some leftovers, now did ya, miss?"

Winking humorously over at Max, Jane pretends to spit on the tray before heading back towards her spot at the bar. "Consider it half-price tonight, then," she admits, chuckling lightly as Kenny glares at the back of her head.

Deciding to get back to the folks at hand instead of going up to that smart-mouthed bitch and demanding a refund, Kenny breathes deeply as the air rumbles through his chest; eyebrows furrowing in slight worry as Clementine stares out the window, looking as though somebody has just run over her puppy with their car. With Katjaa still deep in conversation while a shy, anxious Max Caulfield nods at pretty much everything being said, Kenny reaches over and lightly places his hand on top of her shoulder.

Flinching, Clementine releases a shaky breath before turning her gaze away from Kenny. Desperately she tries to get Max to move out of the booth so that they can get outside, but Kenny for the life of him can't figure out why.

"C'mon, Clementine… we're doing this for you," he points out, trying to encourage her to stay with limited success. Frowning deeply as the girl almost makes it out to the floor, Kenny tries in vain to snatch onto her wrist as Clementine shakes Max's shoulder like a maraca. "Hell, I know it ain't any of our business, but could you at least tell us what's goin' on? You're kind of scaring us, kiddo…"

Katjaa doesn't even try to argue that, as even she is having some difficulties with understanding what's gotten the eighteen year old girl so upset… along with why she'd be out on the town like this so underdressed.

Nearly scratching her nails on the wooden table as she trips out onto the floor, taking Max down to the ceramic tiles with her, Clementine is so preoccupied with her prior knowledge that she doesn't even apologize for her rude behaviour. I can't miss this… she thinks to herself, sprinting towards the front door as Max brings time to a brief standstill.

It's fascinating for her, really; to be able to see time being bent to someone else's will. Clementine can see particles in the air glittering as they stay abruptly in place, with the light raindrops slowly starting to climb back up the windowsill as Max's power starts to kick in. The hairs on the back of her neck prickle with awe even to this day, and the girl's absolutely certain that after discovering that she isn't affected by Max's ability, that she'll never be surprised by anything else ever again. There's just no comparison in the world today – nothing could even come close.

"…I think that's him…" Clementine points out, watching as the shadowy figure she had spotted before is jogging backwards as the environment reverses around her. Max can't say a word about it with all of the concentration that's required, but Clem can tell that she sees him, too. She had never been to the actual scene of the crime herself, with the police being afraid that the girl could've potentially done something to disrupt the evidence, but she's almost certain that it took place right here; right around this street.

A cold sweat forms on the girl's forehead as shivers are sent up and down her spine. Clementine's never been so terrified, and yet she's also never felt more of a drive than the one she's experiencing right now. It's almost as if she's been bottling up her true courage deep inside of her for so long that Clem hadn't even realized that it was there in the first place.

Cringing at how unbelievably cheesy that sounded in her head, Clementine walks out onto the sidewalk, rushes over to a dark, creepy alley over beside the bar, and hides behind a smelly garbage can as Kenny and Katjaa once again start to enter the building; completely unaware of what just transpired.

"Drama club? Really?" she questions as Max joins at her side moments later, finding it cute how that's the only plausible excuse she could think of in her head at the time. Accidentally bumping into the trash bin as a rat the size of a hare scurries out from underneath, she turns toward her friend with a sort of half-smile. "You couldn't have just said that you were a friend visiting from out of town or something? We don't want to arouse suspicion here, you know."

"Maybe I would've kept a level head about it if you hadn't yelled out for me to rewind time in the middle of a pub…"

"Hmph, true enough."

Spotting the nervous look upon her new friend's face, Max sighs as she takes a chance and grabs onto Clementine's hand, who responds by squeezing it tightly. Even though she won't openly admit it, Max being with her right now speaks volumes – she needs her here, more than Clem even realizes.

"What do you want to do?" Max whispers, hearing Mike tell the shady man to take it easy as he zooms by with malicious intent. Carver would probably look like your average petty thief were it not for the intimidating presence he wields. He hasn't even said a word, and yet Max already has some uneasy shivers crawling up and down her spine.

Creepy can't even begin to describe it.

Knowing deep down that the cops won't be here in time to take him down, and not wanting to put her friend in danger or anything by overexerting her time bending ability, Clementine tries to think on her feet as she points over to one of the streetlamps standing tall across the street. "There," she mentions, pointing it out as Max sees that the lightbulb is shattered, presumably by a group of vandals given the condition of the rest of the road. "Follow me – maybe we can take him by surprise or something."

"Or something?" Max repeats, wondering if she heard that right as Clem's hasty plan is set into motion. Her heart beats like a drum in her chest as she follows the ebony-haired eighteen year old across the asphalt; sprinting like a madwoman as she crawls behind a graffiti-ridden wooden bench with a whole bunch of profanities strewn under her breath. She's got to admit – Max hadn't exactly thought that her night would end up on a stakeout like this. She can't help but wonder what Chloe's going to make of all of this when they get back to their own timeline. Will she even realize that they've been gone for so long? And what else have they changed so far? Has the timeline been forever skewed?

Rubbing her arms to stow off that chill in the cold, night air, Max can see her breath in front of her face as she glances over to Clementine again, wondering what she herself is thinking right about now. Is it fear? Anxiety? Both of those would make sense, all things considered, but the girl looks too determined to allow either of them to affect her too much. Tonight, Clem's a warrior – a fierce combatant with retribution on her mind and the fire inside her to actually pull something off.

It's more than likely something very stupid, but it's still… something.

Max is about to ask her what the hell she plans on doing when, without warning, a small station wagon pulls up to the curb on the other side of the road; adjacent to the pub where Kenny and Katjaa have already resided. Not even needing to see the faces to know who it is inside, Clementine's breath hitches in her throat as she sees her parents undo their seatbelts. Just seeing them both alive like this is causing her insides to tighten up into little balls; seeking the comfort of their embrace as she has half a mind to rush over and tackle them in a fit of hugs and kisses. What she wouldn't give to smell her father's cologne or to feel her mother's soothing fingertips tracing circles upon her back one last time…

"Diana… stay in the car, honey…"

"…I'm not leaving you alone out here, Ed…"

"Please, just… quickly! Take off and get back to the house – keep Clementine safe!"

"I was thinking that this should only be a parental affair and nothing more, but now that you mention it…" Carver harshly hisses out, knocking on the passenger window of the car as Ed's knuckles tighten around the steering wheel, "I'm gonna make this real simple for ya. Either the both of you come out and settle this right now, or I send some of my boys over to your house to find your precious Clementine. You put the pieces together."

"Clem…" Max whispers, urgently trying to keep her friend from booking it over there and doing something she'll regret. "Think about this, alright? What the hell are you gonna do? Go up and grab his gun? He's got the upper hand!"

Teeth chattering and blood boiling, Clementine breaks free of Max's grasp as she tiptoes over towards an abandoned building across the way; somehow managing to avoid detection from Carver and her parents as Max nearly doubles over. What's even more surprising is how oblivious Mike has been to the whole situation; not even batting an eyelid when there's a crazy man with a fully loaded magnum threatening a couple right outside his bar. Aren't adults supposed to know what to do?

Seeming to have no other choice, Ed and Diana step outside of their car and walk down the dark alleyway in between Clem's location and the bar beside them. Max can't help but roll her eyes at the backdrop; finding it really clichéd that they'd end up in the place where just about every crime drama on television has ever taken place. Coupled with the fact that this "Carver" person looks almost like a member of the mafia, and you've got the setpiece for a below-average Sopranos episode…

Once the three of them are out of sight, Max too scurries across the street to find that Clementine is listening in on their conversation and trying to find something to distract him with. "This should work…" she mumbles, lightly tossing a brick in her hand as she prepares to toss it right at Carver's face. Just as she's about to do so, however, she stops herself as Carver talks to her parents once again.

"You really thought you were being clever about this, huh? Thought that you'd pull a fast one over my eyes, that I wouldn't find out…" he rants, placing his gun at the side for a moment as he smugly folds his arms over his chest. "Typical. Nobody ever wants to own up and admit they fucked up. I gave you plenty of chances here, you know. It didn't have to come to this. You could've given me the medicine without selling me out, but you didn't. Have you ever been forced out of your own home and thrown to the wolves before, Diana? Like I have?" he questions, eyeing Ed carefully as Clementine puts a hand over her mouth. "This could've been so much easier… but now you have to pay the price. I'm truly sorry that it's come to this…"

Without putting any real thought into it, Clementine suddenly bursts from her cover – much to the surprise of her mom – and throws the brick right at the back of Carver's head; stunning him temporarily as she tries to charge ahead. Max's brain burns like fire as she tries to rewind time again, failing to do so as she collapses to the ground. Watching helplessly as Clementine is backhanded by Carver's flailing arm, Max weakly raises her arm up and asks him to stop.

Naturally, nobody can hear a word she says.

"NO!" Ed barks out, starting to head straight towards his daughter as Carver fires off a warning shot near his feet. Shaking his head, the madman mocks the distraught couple and waves a disapproving finger in front of them. "C'mon, now," he says; one arm locked around their daughter's neck tightly as he speaks, "no need to do anything rash. I think we've just found the ace in the hole right here!"

Spluttering as she nearly doubles over with worry, Diana begs and pleads with Bill to let their child go as Clementine starts to clue in that this wasn't a very bright idea.

In a coughing fit, she struggles to breathe. "G-get… off me! You son of a – "

"Feisty one, aren't ya?" he teases, shooting Diana square in the leg as Clementine screams for him to stop; having to shriek over her mother's pained cries and her father's own yells. "Let me make this real simple for you all: you screwed me over, and now I'm going to do the same in kind. Say goodbye to your precious daughter over here."

Panic erupting in her system, Clementine bites down onto her captor's hand as he grunts and slams her against the door of his truck; parked deeper into the alley as he shoots the charging Ed right in the chest. A ringing sound forms in her ears as Clem's vision starts to blur, and Max finally manages to make it to her feet as she stumbles her way over to the car.

Seeing this, Bill tries to fire his gun straight at the girl, but the empty click of the weapon causes him to open the passenger door and toss Clementine inside instead. Quickly fumbling for the keys in his pocket, Carver finally grasps onto the set as he tries to put the car into the "drive" position.

That is, until Clementine takes a pen from the front cupholder and jabs him right in the shoulder with it. Blood and ink mix together as he groans in pain, but the crazed maniac is only fueled by his cold, calculating attitude. Within seconds, he's got the girl by her hair as he slams her face repeatedly against the dashboard.

"You're really starting to piss me off today…" he growls lowly as he continues to bash her face against the front of the car. Clementine's front teeth are gnashed together as her jaw breaks, her nose heavily bleeds and gets mangled up in the upholstery, and her left eye is crushed from the impact. Almost instantly falling unconscious as she lifelessly falls against the door, Clementine's limp body causes Max to yell out in terror.

There's no way in hell that she can leave her friend like this, no matter the consequences. She wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that she had just let Clementine get beaten on so ruthlessly.

Finding the resolve deep within her, and feeling that familiar spark of energy that she has become accustomed to over the past little while, Max uses a good chunk of her power to rewind time once again; just before Carver is about to mow her down with his Chevy pickup truck.

All rational thought goes straight out the window. In an instant, Carver reverses the truck as the headlights switch off and he steps back out of the vehicle; completely oblivious as the bullet worms its way back into his pistol. Ed and Diana are magically healed once again, albeit temporarily, but the odd thing is entirely about Clementine – Max can see her wounds healing, but the girl is still entirely unconscious. Quickly ducking into the front seat before Carver can tell the difference, Max hurriedly tries to shake the girl awake. However, it's no use. Clementine is completely out cold.

"Diana… stay in the car, honey…"

"…I'm not leaving you alone out here, Ed…"

"Oh god…" Max gasps quietly, leaning back in her seat as she watches the whole exchange go down once again. Knowing that she's really the only person here who has any real say over what's going to happen, and knowing that without Clem awake there's nothing she can do to prevent this, Max makes a split-second decision.

Grasping onto Clem's hat, the teen takes a deep breath; brushing her fingers through the girl's dark, curly locks and apologizing over and over again. "There's no other way… I'm… I'm so sorry, Clementine…" she mutters, trying to focus on the object in order to return to their own time period – a few months from now.

It takes a lot out of her, both physically and emotionally, but within a few more minutes, Max is finally able to do it; hearing a couple of gunshots and some frantic yells from Kenny, Mike and Katjaa as they all rush outside.

Her world goes blank as time and space rush past her head like a whirlwind.


"…yoo-hoo? Earth to Max? …helloooooooo?"

A light blinds her eyes, keeping her from seeing anything apart from the shadowy figure of a beanie-wearing, blue-haired angel coaxing her gently as Max sighs in content. Is… is this how it ends? Has she just died and gone to heaven? Who could this punk rock beauty be that's…

Nope, she's not dead – at least, not to her knowledge. The "light" is merely a flashlight that her best friend, Chloe Price, is shining in her face to try and wake her up. As annoying as it is, it's working pretty effectively.

Angel? Max jokes to herself, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she's helped to sit up from the office floor. Pfft… I don't think that Chloe's real "goody-goody" material. And that's just how I like her.

Feeling her back being supported as she groggily turns to face Chloe, Max breathes heavily and doesn't say anything for a while. Trying to get her bearings and figure out what the hell is going on is more important than trying to rush into trouble again.

"Is this a new thing with you? Spacing out, I mean. I mean, you were pretty brain-dead and all when we were kids, but…" she jokes, earning a ghost of a smile as Chloe's expression turns grim again. "Seriously though, what's up? Your face went all green and I totally thought you were gonna hurl. It would be pretty funny if you messed up Principal Wells' carpet and all, but not the office chair though."

"You're not taking the chair, Chloe."

"How did you – "

"It doesn't take rewind powers for me to figure you out," she mentions with a grin, trying to stand on her feet as Chloe helps her rise up. Max's knees buckle and threaten to give out as she tries to put some weight on Chloe's shoulder, just waiting for some snarky comment about her weight, but thankfully none come. "How long was I out?" she inquires, curious to see whether any time has passed since her and Clementine's fateful adventure took place.

Shrugging her shoulders and setting the girl down on top of the desk, nearly knocking off the guy's prized bronze bird in the process, Chloe explains that it was literally only for about two minutes or so at the most.

That's impossible… Max mulls over, holding her head in her hands as she tries to nurse a growing migraine. We… we were gone for hours, at least. Has… has anything changed since then? Have we made things even more fucked up than before?

Wanting to know for sure, Max tries to look around Chloe over towards the filing cabinet that she was at before she had collapsed. "Can… can I see that report again? That one on the floor there…" she describes, watching as Chloe raises an eyebrow upon noticing the name of the student plastered onto it.

"Oookay…" she drawls out, wearily handing it back to Max even though she had just witnessed her passing out with the thing not even moments earlier. "You sure you're up for that right now? Maybe you should just chill out for a little while. You've been getting into trouble and shit over the past week more times than I can count. This place is giving me the creeps, anyways."

"Just call me Danger-Prone Daphne," Max teases, paying the warning no heed as she flips through the numerous letters and student profiles stapled together in Clementine's file. Much of it is the same as what she had seen before, and she's made sure to avoid the sections that had caused her to have this relapse of time power, but something strikes out near the bottom of the page.

Quite a bit of personal information has been blacked out in pen, and several of Clementine's drawings as well as a few pictures of her around campus have also been snuck inside for some reason.

"The hell…?" she mutters, wondering why Mr. Jefferson's signature is down at the bottom as Chloe widens her eyes and urges for Max to come out into the hallway with her. "Chloe, what's – "

"Where's she going?" Chloe interrupts, totally confused as to why Clementine's just sprung out of Blackwell and slammed the door behind her; not even bothering to provide an explanation. The loud bang that follows her exit ricochets down the hallway, and Max can't help but drop the folder onto the floor; spilling its contents as guilt riddles her being. This is her fault, and she damn well knows it.

Max can't even find the words to mention that, according to the report in this timeline, Carver had somehow escaped the police and is still at large. She nearly chokes with the knowledge that not only are Clementine's parents buried six feet underground, but their killer, in this new reality, was never brought to justice.

And there's not a damn thing she can do about it.


AN: Hey there – been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that. My computer's been on the fritz and we've only just been able to put this latest chapter together.

But anyways, onto some of the reviews!

Lilacs Bloom: Hey, thanks for checking it out! Yeah, Frank kind of got axed pretty early on XD But trust me, it was necessary. We needed to get across that unspoken tension between Chloe, Max and Clementine while also trying to explain some of the time powers, and we kind of wanted to deviate from the game a little bit with that – even though *spoilers* Frank can die depending on the choices you make. Regardless, we both appreciate that you've been liking it so far, so thanks for reviewing :)

Guests: Yeah, we've both played episode four, but I'll get to that in a sec. They revealed that Chloe became paralyzed because of a car crash after she was (presumably) driving recklessly in a car that she got for her birthday. Sucks, but thankfully (or not, depending on how you feel about her dad) that was reversed later on.

But none of that really fucking matters now, does it?! God damn, episode 4… I think I just died a little bit inside lol. What an ending… I was totally not expecting it, even though spiderclone over here was XD

For those of you wondering, we're not going to do the exact same thing as what we see in the game, so hopefully there'll be some surprises – including why Mr. Jefferson's name was signed in Clem's report, the whole Carver thing, etc.

So that's it for now. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it, and we'll be back with the next chapter as soon as we can! Thanks for reading!