[A/N: Oh, jeez, I am so sorry everyone! I did something silly while uploading and everybody got to see all the extraneous unnecessary formatting stuff! It's gone now and the chapter should be lovely to look at. Thanks to Lyta Halifax for letting me know~]
"This is your grand idea? The lighthouse?" As usual, Lilith was the one with the worst filter, but there was no ignoring that pretty much everyone was equally unenthralled. True, all this had seemed much bigger in Kate's mind. But arriving here now, being at the structure for the first time in a while, she realized just how totally boring and gross the lighthouse looked if you weren't seeing it from Kate's perspective.
This was going to take some work. She stepped up to the building and looked it over. Yes, it was especially rusty in some places, and it hadn't been fired up in ages. Unlike a lot of other lighthouses across the country, the town of Arcadia Bay was so small that there was no need to declare the lighthouse a protected monument. It remained in place only because it looked pretty and was far enough out of the way that everyone was too lazy to do anything else with it.
"You just... have to try and..." She sighed and turned back to look at them. "Look, every time Max had a vision, this lighthouse was always part of it. And she told me herself, she feels sometimes like it's drawing her to it! And so have I, like... it's this part of the town, older than everything except maybe the Prescotts themselves. If anything can tap into some raw, natural power in this weird little hamlet, it's this lighthouse. Plus, we'll be out of the storm's path."
"Hey, that brings up another excellent point..." Now it was Chloe's turn to voice her confusion and complaints. "This weather seems particularly... unstormy. Is there really supposed to be a town-destroying tornado in less than 12 hours?"
Well, now Kate was just getting a bit frustrated. "Chloe, last night, the sky suddenly sprouted an entire extra moon for long enough to turn you into a giant wolf, who then proceeded to utterly decimate a man who has lived for a century and a half, trying to construct the perfect woman out of pieces of other women. If, after all that, you can't imagine a tornado appearing out of nowhere, I don't know what I can do to help speed that along..."
"Shit, I was just asking." Chloe already had this whole 'constantly hungover' look, and now she looked even worse for the wear. In fact, pretty much everyone did. Hell, Kate kept freaking herself out with horrible thoughts that the storm wouldn't be the end of things, that somehow there was another week from hell just around the corner. Even Lilith looked rough, and it wasn't like she needed sleep or food.
As if to drive home the weirdness, the wind began to pick up as the sky went a shade or two darker. Kate pointed a finger upwards, almost violently so, eyebrows raised. "Now, we should probably get started..."
Max and Kate had already gone over the finer points of her other undiscovered powers, mainly the fact that she could travel backwards through photographs. Much of the morning was spent exploring just what this meant, though at least Kate was able to keep Max from actually changing anything while time-hopping. She was confident about the mechanics, but there was no way of knowing if they would actually translate. If not, this would be a significantly more depressing end of the world.
But unlike everyone else, all Kate had was hope and faith. No powers, no super strength, no magic. She had to believe that this would work. That was kind of her thing. The plan itself was very straightforward in a way, Max would funnel her time powers into the lighthouse, channeling it into being a kind of beacon. From there, well...the rest of her plan still relied a lot on figuring stuff out on the fly. But she believed, she had to.
The wind was getting worse when Max finally pressed her two palms flat against the cylindrical wall of the lighthouse and started concentrating. Kate's hair blew about her face and the sky continued to shift darker still. It was just as the first inklings of despair began to gnaw at her corners that a few things happened all in succession, as though the universe was trying a little too hard.
The top of the lighthouse, a place that hadn't shone in perhaps thirty or forty years, suddenly burst with light in every direction. Max bounded back with a bright laugh, and everyone was just about to join in when the first crack of thunder sounded along with intensely bright lightning. And when their ears stopped ringing, the silence was filled with slow applause approaching from the lone path leading down to the beach.
The others turned just in time to see Mark Jefferson walking up toward them. Everybody took a few steps away, Max nearly tripping over the bench in the process. He was in one piece, and seemed to be smiling, though he was still covered in much of the same viscera as Chloe had been the night before. Oh fuck me... That disgusting concoction keeping both his body and Lilith's moving. He had actually managed to reconstitute himself after Chloe ripped him to shreds. He had nearly ended things last night, and only by complete chance had they managed to stop him. Now it turned out that they had only stalled him a while.
"It's a cute magic trick, I suppose, but hardly impressive. So if you're done, I'm going to utterly destroy each of you, and then go hide in what's left of my bunker – thanks for that by the way - until this little doomsday storm passes." That one threat was all they got before he lunged, and only the combined efforts of Chloe, Victoria, and Lilith were able to stop him and drag him down.
Max grabbed Kate's arm and looked her desperately in the eyes. "Kate, whatever your instincts are telling you to do, you'd better do it now, because we are out of options. We'll keep him busy... somehow..."
Trusting that her friends could do this, Kate turned her full attention on the lighthouse, and finally saw it. It wasn't just the obvious portion – the entire inside of the structure was glowing brightly. Beams pushed their way through the cracks in the door, and as Max told her, Kate trusted her instincts and threw it open, dodging inside.
Somewhere, Kate has always been a good Christian girl, and when the unthinkable happens she nearly ends her own life. Somewhere else, she succeeds.
Somewhere, Kate kisses Chloe Price desperately on the lips because no one has ever stuck up for her quite like that before.
Somewhere, Rachel Amber and Chloe put the moves on Max simultaneously.
Somewhere, the five of them all get high in Chloe's truck.
Somewhere, Victoria has Max bound in the basement of Blackwell and she has never been happier.
Somewhere, a young Kate and Victoria spend a day hanging out in a theme park.
Somewhere, Max's photography is on display in a gallery, and as desperately as she wants to stay, there's a town that needs saving.
Somewhere, Alice nibbles on Lisa, perhaps erotically. Somewhere else, a lamp rests seductively against a worn leather chair.
Somewhere, Mark Jefferson is only in his forties, and instead of dismembering girls, he just kidnaps and photographs them. Somehow, that version seems far worse than her own.
Somewhere, Brooke is giving Kate drone-flying lessons, and next thing she knows they're kissing.
Somewhere, Max Caulfield realizes that her love for Chloe Price is worth more than she could ever explain. Somewhere else, she allows her to die. The needs of the many. The needs of the few.
Somewhere, everything is happening at once.
But there's always a lighthouse...
It's a little like tea-reading, but the mug is roughly a lightyear in diameter and bends with spacetime. Everything ever is laid out in front of her, and it is only by the grace of an unkown force that Kate's vision is limited to the bounds of Arcadia Bay. But regardless, they were all there, every little piece of time and space within city limits, waiting, begging for her to play around with them. It would have been as easy as swiping a hand to switch two realities without warning. The simplest thing in the world. Time did not exist, and so she had all the time in the world. She could make everything absolutely perfect. So simple...
"No!" Kate's head screamed as she tried to wrangle back some semblance of control. "You are... not a goddess, and you are not the only hero... One job. One job Kate, and then we leave. Just have to... I have... to..." Every not-second she spent in this void it became harder to think. So many lives to play with, all these worlds...
"Stop it!" As a child, Kate assumed that sitting through a sermon or a lecture from her parents was the most agonizing thing one could experience. But fighting her own innate desire to fix things was unbearable. "Stop, just... Just have... to... M-My friends... Victoria... They'll die you idiot!" It was strangely frustrating to not have any solid surfaces to slam her hand into. This was ultimately a world of pure will.
Finally, she managed to ease her distractions by throwing all other worlds aside so that she could focus her attentions completely on her own reality. Everything was frozen, the melee of three teenage girls fighting one horribly mangled ancient instructor, and Max standing off to the side, only able to stare in horror. "All those lives already ended... And more to come if he's not stopped. And all the while, a tornado of unimaginable power... What if...?"
Slowly she examined bits and pieces from other worlds. She wondered if she could somehow stitch an ending together out of all of them. But the problem always remained the same, the storm. There was no reality near enough from which she could rip some kind of anti-storm, it was just always there. "What the hell are you?" Kate glared omnisciently at the storm as it began to form in the bay. "Not natural... Not even supernatural... Cosmic?"
Kate could sense she was running out of humanity and would soon become lost in her own personal time vortex, so she made a few final flicking motions and...
Kate fell to the rough dirt in front of the lighthouse just in time to watch as Jefferson faded to little more than particles and the storm disappeared as quickly as it came. In seconds everyone was around her, Victoria hugging all the breath out of her from one side, Max doubling the efforts from the other side, Chloe ruffling her hair. Even Lilith, who so far had only mastered the emotion of 'disaffected,' managed to look beyond pleased.
"Baby, what the hell was that?" Kate could feel Victoria peppering her face with kisses. Goddess, her head was pounding so hard now. Still, all the affection felt nice, and with everything seemingly over, there was a definite calm over the whole moment.
Giving a soft sigh, she finally looked at her. Being back in a single reality made her appreciate the little things, like the way Victoria's lips naturally formed a kind of pout, or how her hair had little lovely brown streaks running through it. Rather than answer the question immediately, Kate pulled her girlfriend in for a soft kiss on the lips, cooing as she did so.
Victoria finally pulled away, pleased but stunned. Everyone around them looked equally confused. "Um, that was nice and all, but it doesn't really answer what you just did..."
"Yeah, I was kinda hoping to distract from having to explain. I'm not sure I can, unless one of you knows what it's like to see in eight dimensions instead of three or four..." Shaking fingers raked through Kate's hair as she tried to explain anyway. "Jefferson had... a body-count. The storm wanted a body-count. So I just fed his actuality into it's potentiality. I think? I'm still not totally clear myself. In the moment it felt like a math problem – subtract from one side, add to the other, it cancels out. It was so easy..." The realization came over her in waves. "I killed him. I mean, I'm glad you all are safe, but... I-I-I killed someone... And there was no remorse. I almost started playing god, just because I could."
She was babbling now, and losing touch with reality. She was dissociating, and before long she was only aware of Victoria's arms, and movement, and a car ride, and a bed. If the arms ever stop holding her, Kate wasn't aware of it. Perhaps it had been minutes, perhaps hours. The little witch was just so tired, and before long she fell asleep.
Victoria talked to Nathan, and he talked to his father, and soon the chain of command ensured that Jefferson's disappearance would remain an unsolved mystery that no one would ever bother with. The remains of his terrible lab were to be filled with concrete in a week's time. Lilith, the only remaining sign of his presence in Arcadia Bay, was content to bum around with Frank or her Blackwell friends. Soon, 'Lily' was a scarred, confusing, but accepted part of everyday life around town. Brooke has been showing a particular interest in her, and seems to be one of the few students who knows the truth about her.
Victoria and Nathan adjusted to vampiric life together, more close-knit than ever. They resumed control of the Vortex Club, leaving daytime activities to the likes of Taylor and Courtney and leading the charge on anything dealing with nightlife. The whole process was made much easier for the both of them when it was pointed out that they would be forever young and beautiful and rich. They were already making plans to take over Arcadia Bay over time, planning on making it the greatest town in America. It was touching, in a maniacal sort of way.
Frank dropped Chloe's debt in honor of her part in saving the town (not to mention that whole 'infecting her with werewolf disease' thing). He helped her learn to control herself, and Max was all too eager to play with both of them and Pompidou whenever the full moon came around. Needless to say, Chloe dealt with things in her own kind of style and stride. The blue fur remained a mystery, and she still couldn't pronounce lycanthropy.
Max's powers stuck around for good, and every day she'd learn more about their limits and what would happen if she overdid it. No matter how much science nerd stuff Warren told her, she still couldn't fully work out if all the apocalyptic stuff was her fault or not. She opted for a life of ignorant bliss, content to take photographs and dream of her future with Chloe.
After everything that had happened, Kate was more than happy to go back to a quiet life. She remained Victoria's mysterious weirdo girlfriend, and together they would cuddle and watch anime and talk about anything boring and normal. In time, she began giving tea readings again, providing everyone with mysterious fortunes. If anyone ever consulted her about Jefferson or the storm, she would shrug, pet Alice ominously, and say the stars refused to tell her anything. For a brief window, Kate had been allowed access to the expanded universe, a direct hand in crafting time and space as she saw fit. With that enormous power, she just made one change and bowed out.
Like any good witch worth her salt, Kate was quite happy with a life of books and tea and relative solitude. She was an old lady at heart. Kate Marsh had saved countless lives, and as far as she was concerned, she had earned the right to never do a damn thing ever again.