Please be alive.

Chloe sprinted through the barn to the stairs at the back, and started jumping down them several steps at a time. She heard voices as she neared the bottom, starting with David's. Is that a good sign? Maybe Jefferson is down!

"…I'll start by apologizing to Chloe. I don't expect her to call me dad, but maybe she'll stop calling me 'step-hole'. So, where is Chloe?"

"David… Chloe is… She's-" Chloe burst through the strip door before Maxine could finished the statement. Max's eyes widened. "Chloe!?"

Chloe hardly registered the upturned furniture and unconscious Jefferson beneath David. Her eyes focused on Maxine. She rushed forward, unable to stop herself as she pulled Maxine against her and mashed their lips together. They stayed like that for several moments, ignorant of the world around them even as Ruby finally made it down the stairs and joined David in second-hand embarrassment.

It took David clearing his throat to bring them out of it. The two broke apart quickly as reality set back in. They had a lot to talk about and a clash of thunder shaking the bunker reminded them that it would have to wait. "The storm is still on?" Maxine questioned. "But we stopped Jefferson, we avenged Rachel!"

"Maybe Rachel didn't have anything to do with the storm," Ruby theorized.

David spoke up, confused. "How can a single girl be responsible for a storm?"

"You'd be surprised what a single girl is capable of," Chloe replied off-handedly.

David sighed. "Maybe you're right."

Chloe blinked. "About what?"

"You girls figured all of this out when I couldn't," David answered, gesturing around the Dark Room. "I cast my net too wide, suspected everybody… even kept tabs on my own home, my family… Chloe, I'm sorry for everything, for how I treated you… I never should have…"

Chloe's eyes softened. "You're right, you shouldn't have. And I don't know if I can ever honestly say that I forgive you. But if mom takes you back… maybe we can start over? From square one."

David nodded, a smile threatening his features. "I'd like that. It's probably more than I deserve…"

Another thunderclap shook the bunker again.

"We need to go," Maxine insisted.

"Woah, hold on, out there?" David interrupted. "Have you seen what it's like?"

"I'm with David on this one, Max," Chloe added. "It's bad. Maybe Ruby and I can evacuate a bunch of people-"

"No!" Maxine argued. "If it's anything like I've been seeing, its too big and too fast. We have to stop it!"

"How? We never figured out what it even is!"

"I don't know… but in every vision, I watched it from the lighthouse. Maybe we'll find the answer there?"

"Vision?" David wondered aloud.

"That's… really shaky, Max," Chloe affirmed.

Maxine's face hardened. "Even if I'm wrong, I have to try! This could be my fault, Chloe, my messing with time! I can't just hide here, not if there's a chance I can stop it. I'm going to the lighthouse."

"Messing with time?" David asked again. "What are you talking about?"

"It is her power, Chloe," Ruby cut in with a shrug. "Maybe there's something to this idea?"

"Is someone going to tell me what's going on!?" David finally shouted.

The three girls quieted. Chloe and Maxine weren't sure how they were supposed to answer. It was finally Ruby who stepped forward. "David, you asked about my war before. What me and Chloe are a part of. I can't give you the answers you want, I'm not allowed to. But I will say that what we fight isn't always as simple as an enemy. Thank you for your help, but we have to go do our duty now."

David nodded slowly, not understanding but accepting. "Will you three be safe?"

"Chloe and I can take care of ourselves, and we'll keep Max safe. I promise. Can you keep sitting on him?"

David looked down to the still unconscious Jefferson. "He won't be going anywhere. You girls do what you have to."

Ruby turned back to Maxine and Chloe. "Let's hurry."

The world beyond was chaos. High winds carried cold rain, striking like icy daggers against any exposed surface. The town was already suffering heavy damage from the winds alone. The massive tornado was still inching closer from the sea. And the lighthouse gave the girls a perfect view of it all.

"Okay, we're here," Chloe broke the silence, "now what?"

"I… I don't know," Maxine admitted. She was hoping for some grand revelation as they crested the hill, but she had nothing,

"Jeez, that thing's huge…" Ruby remarked, "was it always that big in your visions?"

"It's even bigger," Maxine told her.

"There's no way that thing can sustain itself," Chloe noted. "It has to be powered by… something."

"By Max's time magic," Ruby stated plainly. "All the rewinds, the changes she's made. This is the recoil."

"Can we even stop it?" Maxine wondered. "If it's magic, maybe you two can fight it or something?"

"I'm not that good," Ruby shook her head. "I don't think anyone is."

The three quiet again, watching, their anxieties rising as the storm inched closer to the town.

"There is one thing," Maxine suddenly stated. The other two spun to face her as she pulled out a photograph. "I've been thinking about it for a while…"

Ruby looked at the photograph. "A butterfly?"

Chloe froze.

"The first time I used my power… if I undo that, maybe I'll create a reality where I never knew I could use it. No rewind, no tornado… Nathan will be found out from using his gun and he'll probably give up Jefferson."

"But the first time you used your power…" Ruby looked over to Chloe.

"…was to save my life," Chloe finished. "But that can't be right?"

"Right," Ruby nodded, "we would just be making a copy while this Arcadia Bay is still destroyed."

"Not that, well, not just that," Chloe cut in. "Ruby, remember how I told you Rachel was in my dive? She told me, 'you are fated to find out what happened to me, then fated to die having never learned a thing', and that following 'the key' could change that."

Ruby looked between Chloe and the photo. "Well, a ghost that can see the future isn't the strangest thing I've heard this week. But what does you getting a Keyblade change?"

"Well, you're here?" Maxine pointed out. "We wouldn't have known about the pocket realities without you and your magic knowledge."

"So Rachel drew me here so you wouldn't kill Chloe in a pointless pocket reality?" Ruby guessed. Maxine could only shrug.

Chloe's mind was going a mile a minute. "There has to be more to it… I mean, if everybody else is going to die anyway, why not let a version of them live, somewhere? This just doesn't feel like the choice Rachel would make."

"Well…" Ruby grimaced, hating herself for what she was about to say. "You didn't know her as well as you thought…"

Chloe glared at her. "Maybe not, but I still know she wasn't that."

"Sorry…" Ruby disengaged meekly.

The tornado had nearly reached the shore by now. Pressed for time, Maxine stepped forward to try once again to parse the madness they found themselves in. "Okay, let's say for argument's sake that she came up with some perfect plan that saves everybody. What ties my power to the Keyblade?"

"Nothing as far as I can tell," Ruby answered.

"Alright, what about if we include the Heartless?"

Ruby thought. "It was just the heartless and the Keyblade, there would be options. But throwing you in the mix muddies things…"

"So don't."

Maxine and Ruby turned to Chloe.

Chloe's eyes were filled with realization. "The world doesn't revolve around me. You two spent the better part of this week hammering that into my thick skull. The world doesn't revolve around me… it doesn't revolve around Max either."

Ruby crossed her arms. "Where are you going with this?"

"This entire week, we've been asking what her power is, but I don't think we ever asked where it came from? What did she do to get it? What if all of this," Chleo gestured to the storm, "was an accident?"

Ruby thought about it and shortly added, "well, the Heartless do only attack right after a rewind…"

"Exactly! Never any other time, because it's not Max they're chasing! Take Max out of the equation and we just have her power. So what ties together world-altering power, Heartless, and the Keyblade?"

Ruby's eyes widened. "By the light, Chloe, you're a genius!"

"I am?"

"Yes! Do you not realize what you're saying?"

"No," Chloe admitted flatly. "This may surprise you, but I'm not a very good student. I wasn't being playfully rhetorical, I was genuinely hoping you had an answer."

"I think I do!" Ruby revealed excitedly. After a moment of grounding herself, she looked toward the storm. It was about to reach the point of dealing irreversible damage. If she was wrong about this… well, they didn't have time to be wrong.

"There's just one thing I have to check," Ruby told the pair before walking toward Maxine. She held out her hand, slowly placing it on Maxine's chest. Maxine felt her mind being pulled away as the scenery darkened around her and Ruby. A stained-glass floor faded in beneath them, the top of a massive ethereal tower. And in the void besides that tower was a brilliant light.

"What is that?" Maxine asked.

"That's Arcadia Bay."

"What!?"

Ruby pulled her hand away, disorienting Maxine as the lighthouse rushed back in around them. "Chloe, it's Arcadia Bay! It's her heart! The Keyhole!"

It was Chloe's turn to shout, "what!? Is that even possible? I thought Keyholes were physical places…"

"Usually, but not always," Ruby informed. "Atlantica's could only be accessed after a ritual with the local king's trident. This is probably the trickiest hiding place our school will have ever recorded…"

"So Arcadia Bay's heart is inside Max's?" Chloe asked, to clarify. "And that's why she has power over the world?"

"It was a perfect storm… it's heart hidden inside hers, a Keyblader nearby, sudden shock and grief, it all allowed her to open that door and tap her heart into Arcadia Bay's."

"Casting a spell that can turn back time, because that's what she wanted in the moment," Chloe connected. "So how does that help with this?" she asked, pointing to the tornado.

"It means we can dispel it," Ruby answered. "We seal the Keyhole, it disconnects Max's heart from Arcadia Bay's, and the spell will break. The tornado will collapse because, like you said, it couldn't possibly maintain itself."

Maxine, who was starting to feel left out of the conversation, stepped forward. "So what do I do? How do I seal this 'Keyhole'?"

"That's what 'the key' is for," Chloe told her.

Ruby summoned Crescent Rose. "Okay, Max… this might feel weird. I'm going to cast a spell that will open a portal to your heart."

"Wait!" Chloe reached out. "Let me do it. My world, my problems, my… uh… ahem, my Max."

Ruby nodded and guided Chloe. "Stand here, and I'll send you inside. Just will yourself to come out when you're done."

Chloe nodded and turned to Maxine. "You ready for me to be in your heart?" she joked.

Max smiled, and respond in sincerity, "you already are."

Ruby cast her spell, and Chloe felt herself falling.

Below her Chloe could make out Max's stained glass, a picture of the girl with William's camera, polaraids falling away showing friends and family. And behind Maxine, in full form, was a picture of Chloe herself. Chloe smiled.

Her feet touched the tower and she straighten up, staring at the massive light beyond. The heart of Arcadia Bay. Chloe's breath hitched when she recognized a figure standing between her and the world's heart. "Rachel?"

The transparent visage of her friend walked toward her. She stopped before her, smiling. "I knew you would figure it out."

"Please, we both know I got lucky," Chloe jabbed.

"Exactly."

The pair shared a laugh. Their last, Chloe realized. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

"You have," Rachel countered. "You and Frank are safe, Jefferson is taken care of. I can rest now. As for Maxine," the ghost winked, "take care of her."

Rachel faded away in a glow, leaving behind only Rebel Soul, in Chloe's hand. Chloe steeled herself and raised the Keyblade toward Arcadia Bay's heart. An ambient keyhole appeared in the air. Rebel Soul charged and fired a beam of pure white, using it's light to lock away Arcadia Bay's heart, making it safe from Heartless, the Darkness, and Maxine.

Outside, Ruby and Maxine watched the storm closely. Maxine could feel it when everything changed. A sudden emptiness filled her so quickly she fainted. Ruby caught her, looking over her. Once she was sure Maxine would be fine, she looked back toward the town. The tornado began to fade immediately, the winds and rains dying down. The sky cleared, allowing the stars to shine through. Among those stars, Ruby watched the time sigil brighten briefly, and then shatter.

Arcadia Bay was safe.

It was only a moment later Chloe's heart burst out of Maxine's chest. The wielder's body re-formed around it and set her on the ground. Her eyes opened, facing the sea. "We did it! Max, we- oh shi-!"

"Chloe!" Ruby shouted quickly. "Don't panic, she's fine."

"Are you sure?" Chloe worried.

"Her heart has been connected to Arcadia Bay's for a full week, and we just slammed that door shut. Her heart took a shock, but it'll recover after a bit of rest."

"Thank god…" Chloe collapsed. Her eyes found the town next. "We did it, huh? Saved everyone."

"I'm sure there will be injuries," Ruby countered, thinking realistically. "I hope there were no deaths, but we can't be sure from here. What we can be sure about is that we stopped it. Without killing you or creating an alternate timeline prison."

"Yeah… we did it," Chloe nodded. "Let's get her back to mine. She can rest on a nice bed, and we can all get some sleep."

Ruby frowned. "Now that Arcadia Bay is safe…"

"Tomorrow, Rubes," Chloe interrupted. "Please."

Ruby sighed and nodded. "Fair enough."