It was weird to see everyone in suspended animation. People that were usually so full of life, moving around like normal, breathing, thinking individuals were frozen completely in place as time stood completely still.

'Wowsers...The Day the Earth Stood Still...I never thought that this is what they meant. I wonder how long that time has been frozen? Did anyone hear...hear me earlier?'

Max had to be a little crafty when she escaped her room. The laws of time travel seemed to be exactly the same as they were before, whatever she touched came through with her, but everything else was reset the moment time began to flow again; and when the flow of time stopped, everything was completely unable to be moved. It was almost as if once things froze, they were encased in the air, as if it were made of concrete. This was of no problem for the time master herself however. All Max had to do was set time to be moving once again to manipulate anything she saw fit. Raising her arm and rewinding back a few seconds was all the time she needed to open her door and step into the hallway, with time coming to a crashing stop as usual.

Acting almost on instinct, the first thing on her mind was to check on Kate; as the last time that time stood still, it was due to her forcing time to stop to save Kate from her own demise. Regardless of the situation, Max still felt something in the pit of her stomach telling her that Kate was in danger, and Max was more than willing to save her friend again. Not but a second after entering the hallway, her feet quickly carried her over to her room. The doorway was slightly ajar, and peeking through, Max could see the young girl sitting on the edge of her bed, playing her violin for her rabbit Alice. Relief instantly washed over the anxiety inside of her as Max let out a small sigh of relief.

'Thank dog you're safe Kate. But...if that's not why time froze...why did it? What the fuck is going on?'

Looking down to the end of the hallway, Max could see that Juliet was frozen in a mid sprint, running toward her room with Dana in quick tow behind her wielding a pillow as if it were an ax above her head. If she weren't jealous before, this would surely be the thing that sent her deep into jealousy territory. Being that the two of them seemed to be the only people out and occupying the halls, Max figured that the rest of the girls were all in their rooms.

'So if no one in here is in danger...then what is happening? Why did my life suddenly become a really complicated scenario again? I guess you have literally all the time in the world to find out Max.'

Max pressed her way to the doors at the end of the hallway. Getting closer to Juliet, Max felt a slightly uneasy feeling begin to coarse through her veins as she gazed upon her friend, now stuck in an endless suspension.

'It's just...so weird. Shes like a statue...'

She had to get away from her frozen friends before the feeling manifested itself into anxiety somehow. Reaching out both hands, Max slowly let the tingling sensation turn the clock backwards as she pushed the door open and made her way to the darkened stairwell. As she trekked downwards back into the cold April air, a burning feeling manifested in the back of her head that if she were to leave her dorm, that everything would become clearer somehow. That somewhere outside lay the answer. Maybe it was just from past experiences. Maybe it was that when time froze before it had to do with the roof of this very building. Maybe it was all just speculation, but it was the only thing she had to go on.

The pressing thought that this was somehow her doing was forefront in Max's brain. Even though she had never used her powers in this timeline, the concept of time doing anything that wasn't moving in a forward, perpetual motion felt like it was somehow related to her. It was a thought that seemed echo off of the walls, building strength inside of her as the reverb bounced back toward her as she descended the stairwell of her dorm building.

'Is it even possible that this is a punishment for trying to fix things? Why would I ever get off the hook that easily? I'm probably being punished for ever messing with time at all. This is probably my own personal hell or something. But if this is my personal hell, it has a lot more it better try to throw at me. I eat things like this for breakfast with a side of Belgian waffles.'

Almost immediately, the moment her foot seemed to hit the concrete outside the door, something felt...off. As if the air around her felt almost charged somehow, like something was surging through the air around her.

'This is so weird...even weirder than it already was. It feels like everything is moving and not moving at the same time. What the hell is going on?'

Looking around the grounds, everything looked completely normal. The grass was green and well maintained, the trees and bushes were just as they should be. Benches, walkways, brick, mortar, windows; everything looked as it should, yet, it all felt slightly off somehow. It was almost as if things were slightly blurry, almost as if the world was going out of focus.

'Out of focus? Did the universe forget to turn its lens? What if time froze to show me this?'

The only thing that Max could think to do, was to follow the blur. Every single fiber of her being was telling her that following whatever it was that caused time itself to freeze was a surefire way to end up six feet under in a casket being fed to hungry worms, but Max knew that she had to do this. She understood that it was her almost duty to try and fix anything and everything time related at this point. With great power and all that. So, Max pressed herself forward, following the path of the most resistance.

As she walked toward what she thought seemed like the source of all of this, everything around her seemed to not only get blurrier and blurrier; causing trees to look like green splotches almost, the ground below her to mush together into one brown mass, and the night sky above to smear the stars over the black canvas that was the universe; but as she pressed forward into the beast, objects seemed to...flicker. At one moment the blurry smudge would be in one place, then into the next, it would jump into a different position, returning to its original position.

'The closer I get to Blackwell, the more things seem to be...fucking up completely. Is something happening at school?'

Her pace quickened slightly as she came upon this realization, carrying the small girl faster toward the front of her academy. With each slightly accelerated step, everything seemed to go from its usual bright and colorful splotch of spastic blurs, to a more and more desaturated blur.

'Is fucking reality breaking apart? I've never seen anything like this! It-its up to me to fix this. I have to somehow repair time...like Bill and Ted or something. Except you're both Bill and Ted, and you're better at music than they were.'

Fear and dread began to creep on her as she neared the front of the school. As she stood adjacent to the entrance, Max could see that everything around her had become completely monochrome. Black, whites, and grays surrounded the girl as she looked in the direction of the only source of color, a bright red beam of light emanating out of the windows of a classroom on the right hand side of the school; which is the very thing that filled her with fear to begin with.

'Oh no...please...don't let that be coming from Jefferson's old room. Please.'

Her hands began to involuntarily shake ever so slightly as she walked toward the stairs at the front of the school as memories that had been long suppressed crept their way back into her mind. Memories of duct tape and needles. Max grabbed at the bracelets on her wrist and began to rub them, assuring herself that she was okay.

Things were no doubt more difficult to make out when they were in black and white. Lights that were once a bright orange were now a dull gray. The walkway beneath her feet was only slightly separated by the different shades of the same color beneath her as the grass itself took on the shade of death.

'I thought I hated the color of Blackwell during the winter...but this...this is soul crushing.'

But even thorough all of the creeping despair that was trying hard to seep its way into Max's very bones, she saw something that brought her a small since of peace and calm; standing out like a beacon of clarity in a murky world stood David Madsen.

There he was, just a few steps down the stairs, with a flashlight in his hand and determination in his eyes. After the death of his stepdaughter, David took things a lot differently than Joyce did. His life became about constant movement. Everyday he would come into work and be twice as diligent as he was yesterday, some considered him a hero, and others a villain. He would never let anyone know how destroyed he was deep down inside that he couldn't save Chloe, as he felt as if as a veteran, it was his duty to protect his family, a duty he felt he failed. Since then he has dedicated every single day to uncovering everything he could about her murder. It went without saying that without David; Rachel Amber's body would have never been found, Mark Jefferson would have never been caught, and Nathan Prescott would never have confessed to his part of their crimes.

'He really is the real Everyday Hero. It's almost crazy to think about what David has done. He's shown just how strong he is and just how much he cares. I have to say, I'm proud of him.'

With her hands still trembling from the fear of having to possibly confront something she promised herself that she would never have to see again, Max raised her hands up and began to rewind time while grabbing the front door to the school, letting time slip backwards just enough to giver her enough time to slip through the doors. As soon as time began its crawl back forward, Max pulled on the door, only to feel the piece of steel refuse to move.

Locked.

'Of course it's locked dumbass, school has been out for hours. Well shit...how the hell am I gonna get inside?

She took a step back and threw her head back in frustration.

'I have to fix this. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. Come on Max, time to break out that Nancy Drew side of me again.'

Intuition kicked in as Max began to survey the school grounds slightly. The thought crept into her mind that there were other ways to get into the school, other entrances, possible windows, limited roof access...but those were locked too.

'I'm more pirate than ninja, but there has to be someway inside. David...He has keys to the school...maybe I could get them off of him...okay Max, it's just like Samuel and Victoria. Just now it's to commit a break in instead of drop paint on a girl who told me to fuck my selfie. You can do this, just believe in...ugh...your selfie.'

Once she had settled behind the billboard in the front of the school that her and Chloe had used to spy on Jefferson and Victoria before, Max raised her hand and allowed time to flow back as far as she could before the throbbing in her head caused her to momentarily black out. Wincing at the slight pain, Max opened her eyes and tried to study David as hard as possible, paying attention to every little detail. It took several rewinds to memorize the pattern; David would step outside the door with his flashlight in his right hand, then turn around, fumble to get his key's out of his pocket, place them in the door, lock it, and turn away before freezing in place down the front steps.

'Okay...so not a lot to go from there...but maybe...maybe this doesn't need to be as complicated as I think it should be...'

Raising her hand again and ignoring the thumping feeling already slightly prevalent in the back of her head, she allowed time to flow backwards again. Once time had slipped as far back far as it could, she dropped her hand and watched again as David walked outside the door and attempted to get his keys out from his pocket. It was right then that Max let her idea spring into action.

Stepping out from behind the sign, Max began to sprint in the opposite way of the school toward the bus stop at the end of the sidewalk, screaming as loud as she could. "Help me! Somebody! Please!"

'There is no way that he is going to miss this. David is too much of a bad ass honestly.'

Max stopped and turned around to see if her plan was working, gazing at David as he turned his head toward her. "Hey! You!" He shouted as he dropped his keys and ran toward the shadow figure standing just far enough out of his vision to be recognized. Trying to keep her voice as convincing as possible, Max pinched her leg as hard as she could before once again yelling "Please help!" as loud as her lungs would allow.

He approached faster than Max figured he would, sprinting as if his life depended on it – maybe even hers – just about reaching where Max was before time halted the man once more.

'Holy fuck! He was so fast to get to me. I guess...I guess he feels the need to save everyone. I'm sorry I did that David, but time kinda needs me to save it again.'

With the new keys in her hand and time rewound just enough to give her time to unlock the door and step inside, Max now had to deal with the one thing that she had slightly been dreading inside of her this entire time, actually trying to fix this.

With each and every single footstep the young photographer took toward the right wing of the hallway, her heart began to leap up in her chest. It was almost as if her heart were trying to force it's way into her throat and actually suffocate her. Part of her liked that idea actually.

'Okay Max...why are you so scared? You've walked by this classroom a bazillion times since then, you've survived then, and you'll survive now. You're a time warrior Max, you've gone through more than anyone could ever go through. You can do fucking anything. Just gotta breathe.'

Ever creeping forward toward the photography room, Max could see that everything around the room was flickering even more intensely. Objects in the hallway were moving back and forth between locations sporadically as reality was bending and breaking all around her. The air itself felt as if it were displacing and replacing itself by the second, electricity felt as if it were floating freely through every object around her as she rewound time to unlock and open Mr. Jefferson's door, entering the room for the first time in half of a year.

Heartbeats began to become deafening, her palms were completely drenched in sweat as every single molecule in her body shook and convulsed. To say that entering the room of the person who nearly murdered her, tortured her, bound her, killed her lover, one of her best friends, and countless other girls made her terrified would have been the understatement of the millennium. Cool azure irises were nearly completely covered by dilated pupil, as they scanned the room in its entirety. Chairs and desks in the room were completely untouched, left exactly as they were when she was a student of the class, but were now moving and shifting around the room as if they were tearing apart reality piece by piece; all of them, except one, Max's desk in the back of the classroom.

'Why?' Was the only thought Max's terrified brain could think as her feet began to walk over to her assigned seat as slowly as she possibly could. Even now as she took every single step, her body screamed out in agony, begging her in every single way it could think to that this was a bad idea, the worst idea in the history of ideas. With a stomach on the verge of getting sick, knees that were threatening to give out at any second, arms that trembled intensely, and breath that could only be described as ragged, Max Caufield reached her hand out to her chair in the classroom and touched it with resolve. The very moment she did, everything in the entire room settled. Light came in through the windows as color returned to every single object in the room. The sudden burst of clarity and color felt almost vibrant to Max, as if she had been seeing things in a horrible darkness for so long, that everything around her felt like light. Just as the feeling of comfort began to wash over her, a singular voice ripped her straight out of her own mind and right back into her fear induced stupor. It was the voice of an older man, a voice that Max would never forget, no matter how hard she tried.

"...And Max? Come see me at the front of the class please. You and I have to talk about your entry to the Everyday Heroes Contest."

His voice.

Authors Notes:

Hey yo, welcome to chapter 3! Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. Pretty crazy shit eh? Not really feels-y this time! So dry eyes all around? Hella rad! I hope you're enjoying this so far, because this is about to get crazy. Strap yourself in lads, it's gonna be a bumpy ride! Don't forget to tune in next time! Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel!

Until next time, stay golden.