"So you dropped her off and came back here?" Ruby asked.
"Nah, I went home after that. Got some sleep. Then we met up this morning," Chloe explained.
"This morning? So we're not caught up yet. Where'd you two meet up?"
"A diner in town where my mom works…"
The Two Whales. The best diner in Arcadia Bay. And the only one, Chloe mused to herself as she stepped inside. She saw Max in the back booth, getting a plate of food from Chloe's mother, Joyce. The pair turned to face her as she approached.
Joyce sighed. "Chloe, you're supposed to be… what are you wearing?"
After seeing heartless the day before, Chloe had decided to wear her enchanted clothing for the added protection. She had hoped it was close enough to her normal style to not raise eyebrows, but she supposed the oversized sleeveless hooded tailcoat, all plaid pants, and armored boots stood out no matter who wore it. Still, Chloe couldn't explain all that, so she settled with rolling her eyes and spouting a quick, "they're called clothes, mom."
"I think I would have remembered buying those," Joyce shook her head. "You're supposed to be grounded, young lady."
"Well, there's your problem right there. You grounded a 'young lady', and I'm no lady," Chloe countered smugly.
Joyce responded with an exhausted sigh. She turned to girl sitting in the booth. "You enjoy your food, Max. And try and keep an eye on my daughter, please? Maybe you can be a positive influence on her."
"I'll try my best, Joyce," Max smiled. The student watched her old friend slip into the booth across from her, her eyes lingering on those strange clothes. "I think your mom was onto something. There's something distracting about your clothes, besides the Scottish flair," Max asked carefully.
Chloe looked around the diner quickly before answering. The place was nearly empty, but thankfully no one was very interested in the pair of girls in the back corner. "Yes, they're magic. Enchanted, for extra protection."
"Right…" Max seemed a little shaken.
Chloe noticed. "What's up? You seemed to take things pretty easily last night."
"So much happened yesterday, I don't think I properly processed everything. I don't think I could have…" Max explained. "I mean, you have magic. That's not supposed to actually exist."
"Says the girl who can literally turn back time," Chloe pointed out. "Do you even know how difficult that's supposed to be?"
"It's supposed to be impossible!" Max reiterated. "All of this is supposed to be impossible…"
Chloe had to concede the point. "Speaking of, have you… at all this morning?"
"Wouldn't you know if I did?" Max answered, poking her own head for emphasis.
"Right, probably, just making sure," Chloe nodded.
"I tried not to, honestly," Max confessed. "I don't want to mess with stuff I don't understand."
"Well… maybe we should try and understand it," Chloe suggested.
"Chloe…"
"Come on! You can't tell me that no part of you don't want to play with this. You could hook up with people with no strings attached! Steal something right in front of someone's face and they'll never know!"
"Except for you," Max pointed out. "Look, this isn't a toy."
"Forget that, it's totally a toy!"
Max shook her head. "We can't just be reckless."
"How can we be reckless? You're the ultimate get out of jail free card!" Chloe argued. "Besides, weren't you just saying you want to know how it works? Come on, I got the perfect training ground."
Max shook her head, but finally smiled. "All right, you wore me down. You have a point. Let me at least finish my breakfast first?"
"Ugh, I guess," Chloe groaned facetiously.
A few minutes later the pair were on their way out the diner. Just as they reached the door Max's phone rang. Chloe frowned as Max pulled out the device. "Are you seriously going to answer that right now? We got places to be."
"It's Kate Marsh," Max informed.
"Big whoop," Chloe rolled her eyes. "It's someone you see every day at Blackwell, but sure. Not like we haven't talked in five years, Go ahead."
"It will only take a second," Max insisted, putting the phone to her ear.
"Don't let your 'best friend' get in the way…" Chloe crossed her arms.
Max stepped away to take her call, and Joyce slid into her place next to Chloe. "And where are you going?"
Chloe groaned. "I'm hanging out with my friend, is that okay?"
"Did you forget you're grounded?"
"And spend all day with Corporal Cornhole? I think this is better for my mental health, you know?"
"David is only so hard on you because you keep pushing him."
"Me push him? I'd be more than happy to ignore him, but he keeps getting up in my business!"
"He's only doing that because he cares!"
"If he cared, he wouldn't be trying to replace my dead father!"
The diner quieted. "He isn't trying to replace William," Joyce pleaded softly.
"Yeah, right," Chloe spun on her heel and stormed out of the diner. She heard her mother calling after her, but she didn't stop.
Max stepped out of the diner sans phone a moment later. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, found time for me, did you?" Chloe snapped.
"That's not fair," Max chided. "You're my best friend, but you're not my only friend."
"Whatever, are you coming or not?" Chloe stomped over to her truck without bothering to make sure Max was actually following her.
"Don't you think you're being a bit harsh?" Ruby asked.
"To who?"
Chloe genuinely seemed confused, which only frustrated Ruby more.
"Everybody? The world doesn't revolve around you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're not the only one going through stuff?"
"Oh, really? Tragic that Max gets free superpowers, and I suppose my mom is so absolutely grief stricken that she's shacking up with David in her and dad's bed!"
"I'm not saying that what you're going through doesn't suck, but you're not being fair," Ruby asserted.
"Screw fair. If life were fair, none of this would have happened."
The pair sat in silence for a moment while Chloe stewed. Ruby eventually sighed and broke it. "So, how did the tests go? With Max's powers?"
Chloe remained silent for a moment before shrugging, "okay, I guess. I took her to one of my few hidey-holes in this crap town…"
Chloe's 'perfect training ground' turned out to be a junkyard past the end of town. The punk girl parked her truck just outside and b-lined through the gate, with Kate struggling to keep up behind her. "When did this become a race?"
"Just keep up," Chloe deadpanned.
"How many times are you going to get pissed at me this week…"
"Well, now you get to make it up to me," Chloe smirked, her mood lightening almost instantly at the thought of what was next.
"Right. Your 'training ground'," Max nodded, "so… how are we doing this?"
"First…" Chloe picked up a nearby empty bottle and shook it in her hand, "what happens if you grab an object then, what did you call it? Rewind?"
"Okay…" Max took a few steps forward and took the bottle out of Chloe's hand. She then took a further few steps away before raising her hand.
The blinding headache was no less painful even with Chloe fully expecting it. When she finally looked up, Max wasn't standing where she was a second ago, but a few feet to the side, sitting on some scrap and looking concerned.
"There's the headache after all… wait, does that mean you do remember now?"
"I remember…" Chloe took a moment to try and unscramble her warring memories. "I remember you taking the bottle from my hand and standing here… but I also remember you suddenly teleporting here with the bottle already in hand right as I picked it up."
"It looks like I keep whatever I'm holding onto when I rewind," Max nodded.
"But it doesn't make a second bottle, we talked about that," Chloe responded. "You also pointed out I didn't remember this time, and we started to theorize, you sat there… then the headache."
"So… you get your memories back when we reach the second I originally went back from?"
"That would line up with the other times this has happened."
"I wasn't sure about this before," Max admitted, "but I am glad we did this."
"Me too," Chloe smiled, "now throw the bottle!"
"What?"
"Throw the bottle! Then rewind and see if you get it back!"
Max shrugged and tossed the bottle over one of the large islands of garbage. They heard it shatter somewhere beyond the mound, and Max raised her hand once more.
Cue headache, and Chloe stood back up to see Max already next to her. "There it is. You okay?"
"I'm getting used to it…" Chloe lied. She searched her new memories and smiled. "You still have the bottle."
Max returned the smile and held up the intact and still in her possession former beer receptacle.
"Good."
"Good?" Max questioned, "you have another idea?"
"Yeah, but first we'll need more bottles."
The girls spent a few minutes collecting more old bottles, ignorant of dark shapes watching their every move. They convened nearby a shelf Chloe had finished propping onto a set of barrels. The punk wielder took the bottles with a satisfied grin. "Perfect."
"So what's this about?" Max asked, wracking her brain to no avail.
"I have my Keyblade, but you are self-defenseless," Chloe explained, pulling a revolver from the back of her belt. "Six bottles, six shots. With your power, you literally cannot miss. Ready?"
Max was clearly not ready. "I don't like this…"
"What if the Heartless show again?" Chloe asked. "What if you get a supervillain to match your new powers? What if we get drawn into some huge conspiracy threatening to swallow the town and I get captured by a Bond villain?"
"A Bond villain?" Max shook her head skeptically.
"What, that's less likely than a tornado on the northwest coast?" Chloe pointed out. She shoved the weapon into Max's hand, forcing the girl to take it, "come on!"
Max acquiesced reluctantly, her hands shaking slightly as she took aim.
BANG
The first shattered immediately, to both girls' surprise. "Holy crap, Max! Way to go!"
Unfortunately, Max was, if anything, only more nervous after feeling the kick of the revolver. She shifted her aim to the second bottle.
BANG
This time the bottle remained intact while the bullet lodged itself into the wood beneath it. Chloe shrugged, "ah well, guess your beginner's luck only covered one bottle. You rewinding?" Max shook her head and took aim to the next bottle.
BANG
The sound of a ricochet briefly interrupted the gunfire. Chloe's eyes widened as a different pain shot through her body. She and Max turned their eyes to her bleeding stomach. "Not again…"
"Chloe!" Max shouted, immediately raising her hand.
Chloe actually had her defenses up this time and was about to heal before the headache intervened. Chloe's next coherent moment afterward found her listening to Max repeatedly apologizing.
"Max! Max, it's okay!" Chloe assured her. "I'm fine now!"
"I still shot you!" Max shouted. "God, Chloe, I… I…"
"Max?"
Max didn't respond. Blood began to drip from her nose as her eyes unfocused and she collapsed. Chloe only just caught her before she hit her head on the hard ground. Thankfully she was still breathing, but Chloe still lightly slapped her cheeks hoping she would wake up.
A shadow passing over Max's face made Chloe look up to see the Heartless Shadow that had almost snuck up on them. Chloe quickly summoned Rebel Soul and dispatched the creature. She heard more Shadows wiggle into existence behind her. Chloe carefully lowered Max and stood to face the monsters.
Ruby interrupted again, inquiring with a thoughtful air, "and you say the Heartless haven't stepped foot on this world until yesterday?"
"Well, two days ago now," Chloe corrected after checking the time on her phone. "Why?"
"Just thinking…"
"Well, thankfully the heartless were easy. A bit more of them than before, but still took care of them pretty quickly…"
Max woke up on the hood of a junker car, her head still pounding. Is this what it feels like for Chloe every time I rewind?
"Hey, welcome back."
Max looked up at the sound of Chloe's voice, realizing that she was currently using the punk girl's lap as a pillow. The thought made her panic internally as her cheeks heated up.
"Max? You okay?"
"Almost…" Max quickly answered as she sat up. Part of her was upset to be leaving her spot on Chloe's lap. That part was very quickly shoved deep down somewhere to be ignored. "Not that this wasn't fun, but I think I'll need a few minutes before we do anything else…"
"Fair enough," Chloe conceded, hopping off the junker. "Let me know when you feel okay."
"Okay might be a stretch…" Max admitted. "I saw that tornado again."
"Seriously? What does it mean?"
"I don't know… but it's starting to feel like a premonition."
"Like… you're seeing the future?"
"A future where a massive tornado swallows Arcadia Bay."
"Jeez… I kind of hope not."
"Me too…"
The ensuing silence was soon interrupted by the sound of someone approaching. The girls turned just in time to see Frank Bowers turning the corner. "If it isn't Thelma and Louise. Or is it Bonny and Clyde?"
"Excuse me?" Chloe crossed her arms.
"I heard the gunshots and the breaking glass," Frank clarified. "It's cute that you're playing with guns. Like me at your age."
"We're nothing alike!" Chloe scowled.
"We both need money, don't we?" Frank reminded her, shoving his finger in her face. "In fact, you needed it so badly you borrowed some of mine."
"I'll get you your-" Chloe's plea stuck in her throat when she noticed a bracelet hanging off the wrist attached to Frank's personal-space-offending finger. "Where did you get that?"
"From a friend," Frank defended quickly, "which is none of your god damned business!"
"Bull, that's Rachel's!" Chloe shouted. "Why are you wearing Rachel's bracelet!?"
"Calm down, she gave it to me, okay!?" Frank shouted back.
"No way she did, you stole it!" Chloe accused and reached for his arm, "give that back!"
"Back off!" Frank stepped away and pulled a knife on the punk girl. "Don't touch me, alright!? I won't hesitate."
Click
Both argumentative parties turned to the forgotten Max to see her pointing the revolver right at the dealer. "Please…" she pleaded, "please step back."
"Oh, this is rich…" Frank laughed, fearlessly walking right up to Max. He clearly didn't think she could pull the trigger, and he was right. He stepped right up to her and snatched the gun from her shaking hands with ease. "You two are more like Abbott and Costello." He turned back to Chloe, gesturing with the firearm, "I'll consider this an interest on your loan. You have until Friday, or I'm tracking you down with this 'interest'."
The girls watched Frank walk away. Chloe, still angry at the bracelet, turned her rage onto her friend once again. "What the hell, Max! You practically handed it to him!"
"I'm sorry, Chloe, but did you really expect me to shoot him!?"
"Maybe not, but you could always rewind and keep the gun hidden!? If you hadn't noticed, I'm a bit beyond being threatened by small knives!"
"So now you're angry I did the very thing you wanted me to do!?" Max pointed out.
"Yes! Or no, I guess… Fuck!" Chloe shouted. She took a deep breath to try and calm her fury. "You could still rewind and make sure my angry drug dealer isn't armed with one of my step-CO's guns."
"My head is still pounding from earlier," Max informed her, "I don't think a rewind is a good idea, even if I wanted to…"
"Wanted to? As in you don't?"
"Look, maybe this is for the best," Max argued, "I'm clearly not capable of handling a handgun under pressure."
"Yeah, no kidding…" Chloe shook her head. "I just… you saw that bracelet, right? There's no way Rachel gave it to him. They didn't even hang out! She would have told me if they did."
"Do you think he may have something to do with her disappearance?"
"He got that bracelet somehow." Chloe was adamant. She finally looked Max in the eye for the first time since before Frank arrived, and it finally landed just how uneasy Max was right now. "Look, don't worry about Frank. His bark is worse than his bite, and even if it wasn't guns aren't really threatening to me either, at least when I see them coming. I'll be fine."
"Right, because you have magic too," Max nodded. "God, this is a crazy week."
"It's only been two days."
"It feels like it's been a month."
Chloe didn't have a rebuke for that, in fact she found herself agreeing. She placed herself next to Max and threw an arm over the scared girl's shoulders. Max's shaking didn't stop, but it did lessen significantly. Chloe walked her back to the truck, figuring the padded-if-a-little-stiff seats were at least a slightly more comfortable place for them to calm down and recover than the middle of a literal garbage heap.
Once Max was finally steady enough to actually think about things, she found herself asking, "how did you end up taking money from that guy anyway?"
"I needed money to fix this thing," Chloe slapped the truck's dashboard as she answered, "so me and Rachel could escape. No Bank was going to lend me that kind of dosh, and I already bought weed from the guy. I knew he had cash."
"And obviously you didn't think far enough ahead to plan how you would pay him back," Max jabbed. Chloe responded with a rude gesture, but thankfully she smiled as she did so. At least Max knew she hadn't angered her old best friend once again. "So I know this is probably a terrible time to change lanes like this, but I do need to get back to Blackwell."
"Look at missus good student over here," Chloe teased as she turned over the engine, "bet mom prefers you were her daughter."
"That's not fair, Joyce loves you."
"Supposedly, but she could do a better job showing it."
"Chloe…"
"C'mon, Max, haven't we had enough downers today? I wanna be smiling when I drop you off!"
"What would make you smile?"
Chloe thought on that for a moment. "I guess… some assurance."
"Assurance?"
"That we're actually going to do something. Combine our powers and look into all this crap."
"You mean like Rachel and my tornado visions?"
"The police won't help. None of the other adults seem to care, even her own parents. And then we meet up again, both of us supersized? This is like… fate or something. We could be like the magical Hardy girls!"
"My powers might not last…"
"All the more reason to use 'em before you lose 'em!"
Max couldn't deny that it all seemed to line up perfectly. And that seeing Chloe smile seemed to light up the room. Which is a thought that is going straight back down next to the lap thing… still… "Alright. You and me, a pair of old pirates with new tricks. Together again."
"Damn straight!" Chloe smiled, and Max unfortunately had to look away before she started shaking again.
The arrival at Blackwell happened way too soon for either girl's tastes. Max gathered her things, at which point she realized she was missing something very important. "Shoot! My camera! I never finished fixing it! We need to swing by your house."
"Right, your camera…" Chloe rubbed her neck, "I may have… useditasaprojectileagainsttheHeartlessyesterday."
"What!?" Max shouted.
"I used it as a projectile against the Heartless yesterday!"
"I heard you!"
"I'm sorry! It was the first thing I grabbed, I didn't have time to think!"
"Are you cereal…" Max sighed, "what am I supposed to do for Mr. Jefferson's class?"
Chloe didn't hesitate to reach for the glovebox. Max watched with curious interest as she pulled out a separate yet no less familiar (and more importantly, intact) polaroid camera. "I grabbed this, this morning, as an apology gift. Now it can be commemorative too! In honor of us becoming the Hardy Girls."
"That's William's, I can't take that."
"Come on, we both know dad would rather it was used, and I'm not going to start snapping away anytime soon."
Max took the camera, holding it as though it were as fragile as a Fabergé Egg. "Thank you, Chloe."
"Just make sure to impress your celebrity crush for me, okay?" Chloe smirked.
"He is not my crush!" Max defended a bit too quickly, a fact Chloe picked up on.
"Oh? So there is a crush? Is it that nerdy kid who sucker punched Nathan yesterday? He seems your type."
"Like you know what my type is…"
"I'm your best friend! I totes got you figured out."
"I think you might be a bit off this time."
"It's not that witch Victoria, is it? Cuz even I would be better than that."
"Ew, no! And you wouldn't be too bad."
"Thanks for the ringing endorsement," Chloe laughed. "Alright, get out of here before you're late. I'll put my Hardy Girl brain onto what's next so you can make doe eyes at Mark Jefferson without worry. We'll hook up later, 'kay?"
"Sounds good," Max smiled. "Everything else aside, I'm glad we linked back up."
Chloe returned the smile genuinely. "Me too."