Chloe could barely lift her head up enough to confirm that Blackwell was just starting to come into view over the treeline through all the rain. Her head was pounding, and she could feel her temples pulse with each heart beat. She had experienced migraines once or twice before, but in terms of sheet pain this put all others to shame. She also could tell that her nose had been letting out a constant flow of blood since they had started up the road to the school, though she had stopped trying to wipe it away. Leaving her focus on just taking that next step.

Looking down at Max though, the girl looked like one of those creepy statues that wept blood that was the sign of some religious miracle of something. She had to admit, Max was performing a miracle right now, but unlike a piece of art, it was a real live person doing the bleeding now, and she was getting worried. Max seemed to be moaning and shifting about a bit less, but she now had a slow constant stream of blood coming from the corner of her eyes and ears as well as the larger flow from her nose. The rags stuck in her nose so soaked through at this point that it looked like something had mauled the girls nose off.

A part of Chloe was wondering if this hadn't been a terrible idea. The animals seemed to have a plan in mind, but if she had just let go of Max up on the cliff top, maybe she wouldn't have had to hold time basically still for so long. She was terrified that whatever was going on with Max could be permanent, and it would be her fault for following those animals when she didn't really know what they were even hoping to accomplish. At this point though, she had come too far to turn back. She wouldn't be able to make it back to the light house, so the only way out was through. 'Hopefully.'

It took a few more minutes for Chloe to finish pushing Max up the incline of the road between her exhaustion, her labored breathing, and her headache. It wasn't until she reached the long stretch of level road that led to the front of the school that she allowed herself to take a moment to breath. Just off to the side of the building, no more than about a quarter mile away through the paved and wooded trail the school had constructed, were the dorms.

Looking around, she tried and failed to spot the doe in the immediate vicinity. She had hoped it would give her a clue of how best to go about this. Maybe someone nearby to talk to or leave a message for, but it seemed to have disappeared. The butterfly was still around, though. It had remained on her shoulder throughout the hike, always visible out of the corner of her eye just slowly opening and closing its wings.

Sighing deeply and steeling her flagging resolve, she began to push Max and the wheelchair to the far edge of the lawn, where there was the one handicap ramp onto the main grounds of campus. 'Karma is a bitch.' This is what she got for using that money to pay off her debt with Frank.

As she passed the front of the school on her way towards the dorms, she saw the doors were hanging open and wondered if anyone was inside. She couldn't seen anyone in the immediate area, and she knew people would have been here before the storm. So that left either the school or the dorms to take shelter in. Neither of which presented great options.

While making her way here, she had turned that problem over in her head as best she could through her tired mind. There weren't too many good places to bunker down around here.

The school had obviously taken a beating from what she had seen before Max rewound time. But the dorms had definitely been leveled by the hurricane. She could still see with great detail the building practically flying into the sky as the hurricane passed over it. Still, it wouldn't do to just escape from the dorms and hide in the school, only for it to come crashing down with them inside.

Luckily, she did know one good place for people to hide. Back when she had still attended Blackwell, she had used to sneak off to smoke in the basements under the gym and pool. The school stored various equipment down there, as well as ran some of the pipes needed to heat the pool through the area. It had made a perfect spot to hide from David and the teachers, even if it was a bit small and smelled of chlorine down there.

The tricky part would be getting down there, though. The door leading down was in the gym, which itself was just slightly separate from the main school, would be easy to get into But after her breaking in so many times, they had invested in something more than their regular cheap ass locks. And only the principal and the coach had a key. Neither of them were likely to be around, or at least easy to find quickly enough.

Still, it was all she had to work on right now. Her brain was scrambled, and anything better was just not making its way to the front of the brain. Her best best was to leave a message for the people at the dorms somehow to get their asses over to the gym, then use the slowed down time to take a crack at the door.

As she approached the gate of the dormitories, she began to pick up her pace. The adrenaline of getting close to her goal filling her with a bit of renewed vigor. But as she turned the corner on the gate, she stopped suddenly as several things happened at once. Just along the way, she could see the doe prone by the Tobanga totem. At the same time both she and Max gave a loud shout. The brunette in what sounded like surprise to Chloe's ears, or at least, that was the best she could interpret it as the pain rocketed through her head, causing her to scream in pain.

The surprise and pain of it all was just too much for her. She dropped to her hands and knees hard, feeling the concrete impacting hard on her bones. And through it, her arm slipped off Max. Her sole focus on just avoiding falling entirely face first onto the concrete. Her arms shaking as she stayed there on all fours, a stream of blood pouring from her nose to the ground below.

She could feel her head splitting with the pain of the moment. Each breath seemed to make her head expand past its limits, and tears began to join the blood from the sheer agony of it. And yet despite the pain of it, she was acutely aware of one thing.

Time hadn't stopped. The wind had picked up. And she was beginning to be soaked by entire sheets of rain.

Whatever had happened to stop the storm from coming, it had ended.

Max's consciousness came back in one momentous rush. Unlike when she had fallen unconscious before, where the process had been hazy and slow, this was a sudden reassertion of all her senses and thought. The onslaught of it all forced an almost unconscious shout of surprise to leave her, and she bent over until her head was nearly in her lap, her hands going to her forehead.

A second wave came over her, just a moment after the first. Unlike the first, this was a sensation of vertigo and being lightheaded. She took a shuttering breath to try and settle herself, but only started choking and coughing, blood flying out of her mouth until it had cleared. Reaching up to her nose, she wiped her hand across her face and saw that it had come away bloody. She could also feel stickiness around her eyes and ears, and placing her fingertips to both spots she found blood there as well. Max just stared at her hands, 'I've never had that happen before. What's going on?'

Max jumped when she heard a slight moan come from next to her. "Fuck..."

Spinning around, Max was surprised at the sight of Chloe hunched over the ground, her body trembling as she let out a few more low moans of pain. Her breathing coming in shuttering gasps.

"Chloe!" Max scrambled to get out of whatever she was sitting in, positioning herself down on the ground next to her friend. She hovered over the girl, her hands rubbing her back, trying to draw her attention and hopefully provide a bit of comfort. She looked to be bleeding also, a few heavy drops hanging off her nose for only a moment before falling to the ground and being replaced by more blood. "Chloe! What's wrong?"

She knelt close, her arm going over her friends shoulder, holding her in a half hug, her face getting close to Chloe's. Through the curtain of wet blue hair, she could see her eyes open slightly, though the eye rolled around in its socket for a moment before it seemed to focus slightly and look in her direction. Chloe took a deep breath as if to speak before giving out a wince. After a few shallow breaths, she gave a weak chuckle and a very pained smile. "Hey there, Max. Good nap?"

"What's going on Chloe? What happened to you?"

"Just give me a mo', just a moment." She muttered, leaning her weight into Max's side. Max just sat there, unsure what else to do other than hug Chloe as she slowly got her pain under control and the rain hammered away at them. Eventually, the girl seemed strong enough to shift her weight away from Chloe, moving to sit on the ground instead, both of her legs straight out on the ground in front of her.

"Thanks, just needed a minute there." She laughed a bit, "Your time powers are a bitch." She took the beanie off of her head and just wiped all the blood from her face on to it, tossing the hat to the side afterwards. Her eyes were still half-lidded, and Max could tell her head must still be hurting, but her voice was steadier and without the blood she looked like she was doing far better than a moment ago.

Chloe reached a hand out and grabbed Max's wrist lightly. "You rewound time to right before the storm hit and were out for a few hours. I don't know how, but I came along for the ride this time. You damn near stopped time for like the past four hours Max. Remind me to tell you how freaking cool that is later." The girl let out a half laugh. "My smoker ass had to cart you around town. We're at Blackwell now. I think we're supposed to help the people here get to safety. But first I've got to catch my breath a bit more and you need go grab everyone in the dorms. The storm is coming again, and we have to get somewhere safe to hide."

At that, Max began to give her first good look around them since her focus had suddenly been shifted to her hurt friend. Chloe was right. Somehow they had gotten from the light house on the south side of Arcadia Bay all the way to the Blackwell dorms. And she couldn't remember anything of how they got here.

If what Chloe was saying was true, then that would be the longest period of time she had managed to maintain either rapid rewinds, and way longer than the time it took to reach Kate. She was surprised that it had worked at all. The few times she had tried to rewind often had drained her quickly, and there was no way she could have made it work for a single hour, let along multiple. That wasn't even touching the subject that she had brought Chloe back with her. She had no idea how that worked. The few times she had tried to rewind powers while touching someone else, she was the only one it worked on.

And judging by the sticky feeling of old blood on her face, her own headache, and the state of Chloe, it sounded like it hadn't been easy on either of them.

"This is nuts, Chloe! I don't understand!"

The girl shakily raised a hand, holding a unlit cigarette. "Cheers to being fucking confused then. But really, go grab everyone. We can figure it out later. We probably don't have more than a few minutes before shit hits the fan big time. I'm going to try and find a way into the basement once I can move. I'll meet you there"

Looking at the girl, she grabbed Chloe's hand in hers, giving it a tight squeeze before standing up. She started to back up and turn when her back hit something. Spinning, she saw a wheelchair sitting in the way. She hadn't noticed what she had been sitting in originally, but now that she did, she felt her heart rise into her throat.

It was identical to the one Chloe used in the other timeline.

It might have been a bit more beat up, but the striped leather of the seat, the design, and the head rest left no doubt about it. What was it doing here?

"Chloe, where did you," she started, before Chloe interrupted her.

"Max! Go! You need to grab whoever you can, right now."

Snapping her mouth shut, Max just nodded numbly. Her mind honestly okay with shying away from the importance of the wheelchair being there in light of something more urgent. So she took off running towards the dorms.

Just around the way she could only see one person outside, standing underneath the overhang to the dorms and looking up at the sky. And thankfully it was someone who could be helpful right now.

"Daniel!"

He jumped, looking at her with a look of surprise before moving to give her room under the shelter. "Max! You're safe! I saw the crazy storm brewing, and I think I would take a quick look before hiding. I'm glad you made it. Most of the other student's are inside, but no one knew where you went."

"I was in town. But you need to go in and get as many guys out of the men's dorm as you can! The storm is coming this way. We have to get to the school basement. Spread the word." He looked confused, but Max was already running into the building, grabbing his arm and pulling him hard so he would come with her.

"The police in town were worried about Blackwell," she lied. "I think a few were trying to get here, but they looked like they had their hands full. So I ran up here as fast as I could. Now please, go get everyone."

He nodded shakily, rushing into the men's side of the building. Max sprinted down the corridor for the women's side of the dorm, pounding on doors and shouting as she went. "The hurricane is headed this way. We need to evacuate to the gym basement. Please, you have to come out of your rooms!" She repeated this a few times on each floor, only moving on once she saw a few heads poke out of the rooms and give her a nod acknowledging they understood. She also noticed that most people seemed to be huddling down together in the innermost rooms, avoiding any with open windows. That would make things easier to find them, but she had to hurry to make sure she got to everyone, and not miss a single door, if people were hiding together.

She had just reached her own hall and was about to pound on the walls to get attention when Dana stepped out of Brooke's room, where most of the girls from this part of the dorm were hiding. They had pushed a bookshelf against the one window in the room, and all of them looked frightened. "Max, thank god you're here. What's going on? We heard yelling."

Max grabbed Dana by the shoulders, giving her a hard look. "Dana. The storm is coming this way. Right now. We have to get everyone to the gym basement. My friend Chloe is getting it unlocked, but we can't wait." Max hoped that was true. Chloe had looked pretty shaken even after she had gotten some control of herself. She didn't have much time to find the keys and get to the basement if they had as little time as she thought they did.

"What, really? Are you sure, Max?"

"Yes," she replied, making sure no doubt entered her voice. She had seen the storm come before, and she knew that this place was going to be destroyed. Whether it was her tone of voice, or the look she was giving the other girl, Dana seemed to respond to that confidence, because she slowly nodded.

"O...okay. We'll help you grab people. Come on everyone." Dana rushed into her room, grabbing her cell phone and ushering everyone out. The girls began to scatter through the hall, a few knocking on doors in this section of the building and a few other rushing to the stairs to get the remaining students.

Only one girl seemed to lag behind, Brooke being the last one out of her own room. She looked nervous, and as she passed by Max, she suddenly stopped and grabbed her by the elbow.

"Max," she began, her voice cracking slightly, "Warren...do you know where he is? He wasn't at the dorms when they told us to stay in the dorms."

Remembering back to her attempt to go back through time to save Chloe from Jefferson, Warren had been at the Two Whales. Which was in the path of the storm. But so much had changed since then that she had no idea if that were still true or not. Either way, just by being in town, he was in danger.

Judging by the tears that sprang to the eyes of the other girl, some of her doubts must have shown through. For the first time, the slightly arrogant facade of Brooke came down completely, and she started crying softly, wiping away the tears with the back of her sleeve. Unsure what else to do, Max put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I'm sorry Brooke. I don't know where he is. But you know you know as well as I do how smart he is. I'm sure he knows how to find someplace safe to hide. So let's get ourselves to safety first, and then we'll try to call him once this passes, all right?"

Brooke just nodded numbly, staring down at the floor without moving as Max joined the others in rounding up the students. She wanted to help the girl, but right now she had to worry about all the other students still in danger.

Blackwell was a small school, but it still took awhile to find everyone they could with only a few quick passes through the halls. Judging by the crowded foyer though, it looked like they had gotten most of them. And judging by the boys filtering out from their side of the building, it look like Daniel had done a good job as well. Still, the number of students was nowhere near the full student population, meaning some people were missing or out in the storm.

Pushing through the crowd, she tried to grab everyone's attention by shouting, but the panic of the group meant everyone was just pushing around and yelling at each other, looking for the direction she was trying to give without actually hearing it. Pulling in a large breath of air to try and shout once more when she was cut off by a shrill whistle. Looking a few feet over, she saw Victoria with her fingers in her mouth, looking at Max with something between a arrogant and softer, harder to read, expression. Her face was covered in running mascara, probably from tears of quiet fear. Sensing the change in energy in the room, everyone quieted and looked at Max and Victoria, seeing that they seemed to be taking the lead. Max though continued to just stare at Veronica, forgetting what she was doing for a moment as she tried to decide what to say to thank her for the help.

"Well," Victoria said, gesturing with a hand in a lazy gesture, giving off a ghost of her normal arrogance. "You had a plan, right?"

"Right...," Max said. She then turned to the crowd and started shouting out as loud as she could. "We need to get beneath the gym. My friend is getting the lock open now. We'll be safer below ground. Come on."

With that, she turned around, heading out into the courtyard, which was now covered in a few standing inches of rain water as the storm raged. The winds nearly knocked her off her feet as soon as she stepped outside, but with the mass of bodies right behind her, they helped her stay standing. Getting her footing and leaning into the heavy wind, she began jogging towards the school and the gym as the entire group followed, keeping their wits about them enough to avoid panicking and trampling each other along the way.

As they went, Max tried to spot the wheelchair or Chloe on the path outside, but was unable to do so. She couldn't be sure if it was because of the wall of water, or the press of bodies in the area, but there was no sign of either. She only hoped that Chloe was gone because she had gone to open the door like she said she would. As for the wheelchair, that was a deeper problem she couldn't deal with right now.

As she ran, she looked over and could see the hurricane dominating the horizon. Large, heavy clouds swirled around it, and despite its size messing with her perspective, she could see just how fast it was moving. It looked like it had nearly reached the town, and was quickly making its way towards the school. Feeling her heart sink at how close they were cutting it, she tried to just turn her attention back to the school, nearly missing the sound of a heavy cracking sound, only just stopping her run and putting her arms out to halt the people behind her in time. Looking to the left, she could see a large branch of a tree had broken off of a nearby tree, and she was shocked to see it fly by incredibly quickly not twenty feet in front of her, slamming into the side of the school building in a spray of glass and stone. As the debris rocketed out, she could hear a few shouts of pain from the group behind her, but she also heard people moving to help.

Swallowing heavily, she began to full on run now, not worrying as much for trying to make her way safely in the rain and wind. She could feel the same energy of the people behind her, and they all quickly reached the gym. As she pulled open the door, she felt it ripped from her grasp, slamming against the wall hard enough to crack the wood behind it. Getting inside, the noise died down slightly, but looking at the far door leading to the basement, she only saw a shut pair of double doors and no Chloe anywhere.

Running over to the door, she tried it and found it locked. She could hear a few people shouting behind her, yelling that she lied and asking what to do now. She was about to try and say something, anything, to stop them from leaving when one of the far doors to the gym opened in a slam as well.

Standing there, soaked to the bone, was Chloe. In her hands she held a small duct taped object. One that looked just like the one they had used to break into the principals office just a few days prior.

"All right you fuckers, back up. This key needs some space."

Running over, Chloe quickly attached the device to the door handle and lit its fuse before jogging over to stand with Max. As she did so, she took Max's hand in her own, lacing their fingers together. "Good job, Super Max."

With a loud thud, the object exploded, causing the door to break slightly around the lock before it swung open. Turning to Chloe, she smiled up at the taller girl, "You too, Captain Bluebeard."

Whew. Another chapter done. Hope you all enjoy it. It will likely be a few days before I post the next chapter, as life demands my attention. But we'll see. :)

Max and Chloe are both back in action. And it seems they might have done some good on the way. Next chapter we'll get to see just how successful their efforts were.

As always, please follow and review.

Clear Skies,

Rylkan