After the strangest week of her life, Max Caulfield was faced with an unfair and impossibly difficult decision. She was forced to choose between ensuring the safety of an entire town, sacrificing the life of her best friend and soulmate, Chloe Price, or saving the girl’s life by sacrificing the town (and possibly many lives within it) to a disastrous storm. Because of the love Max and Chloe shared at that moment, the timeline split into two, each choice becoming a reality.
In both scenarios, Max chose to photo-jump at the exact same moment, forcing the timelines to merge back into one:
Timeline #1:
Flipping through the endless pages, the hipster found the photo she was looking for. On one of the rare occasions Chloe stayed at the Caulfield’s house, Ryan took a picture of them in front of their Christmas tree, which was set up adjacent to the fireplace. Chloe had her tongue out and giving her friend bunny ears, while Max just smiled, oblivious to the fingers behind her head.
She laid the photo on her bed and began to focus. The distant sounds of a young pirate captain laughing filled her heart so much a tear slid down her cheek, breathing staggering as she attempted to catch a controlled breath of air. She finally inhaled properly, focusing once more on what she had set out to do. As reality began to wink and fade out around her, she could barely speak, “Chloe… My Chloe. We’ll be back together soon.”
Timeline #2:
Chloe placed both hands on either of Max’s cheeks, gently pulling her closer, head craning inward. With two sets of eyes closed, their lips inched together and locked in place. It felt tender and sweet, and seemed to last forever. A torrent of electricity pulsated through the photographer’s body. By the end, they were just staring into each other’s eyes, blue reflecting blue, tears beginning to fill – not because they were afraid, but mainly because of their shared awareness of each other’s unconditional love. It was perfect.
After slowly pulling away, Max clutched the photo with one arm, the other wrapped around Chloe. Studying and focusing on the photo, Max noticed the room blinking in and out of existence. Perception swelled then retracted as it had with each photo-jump she’d experienced. She heard the laughter of a younger version of Chloe, and she audibly gasped like the wind had been knocked out of her. Uncertainty and excitement filled her heart, and the two girls faded out.
Before returning to the present, she and Chloe changed one thing in the past, causing Rachel Amber to leave Arcadia Bay prior to falling victim to Jefferson’s darkroom:
Merged Timeline:
“Whoa!” Max exclaimed, as the scent of balsam and cinnamon filled her nostrils. The camera blinded her with a bright white flash for a moment, and before she could fully react, she felt a tight squeeze around her shoulders.
“Max, oh god, Max!” Chloe called out not loosening her grip in the slightest. “This is wild!” She looked around, mouth hanging open in disbelief. Looking at her arms and hands and body, her mind was filled with shock. Even her voice sounded different…
“God, I can’t believe you just jumped with me!” Max raved after removing her eye patch. There was so much she wanted to say, but she knew she only had a brief few moments before they’d be back in the present. “We don’t have much time…”
“What if we write ourselves a note, uh, our future selves?” Chloe calmly asked, moving her shoulders towards her ears in a shrugging motion. Max usually had to try and figure things out alone, but this was a new experience. She felt a sense of comfort and trust knowing Chloe was there with her. Looking deep in the taller girl’s clear, blue eyes she smiled…
Considering for a moment, Max replied, “That could work…”
Max quickly and thoughtfully wrote out a letter on notebook paper, put it in an envelope, sealed it, added Chloe’s address to the front, then attached the sticky note with directions. “Chloe, this has to work! It just has to!”
The older girl squeezed her friend and kissed her on the cheek. “You fucker, it’ll work.”
“That’s a dollar for the swear jar,” Max giggled through uncontrolled sobs as the edges of reality began to burn out of existence.
“I love you so much, Chloe Price!”
“I love YOU so fucking much, Max Caulfield!”
“Another dollar for the swear jar…”
The girls’ plan worked and Rachel left Arcadia Bay prior to overdosing. Upon returning to the present, Chloe decided to visit her in Los Angeles while Max met a stranger who claimed to have the rewind power before her. She discovered that the power was connected to an entity called The Watcher and was part of some cosmic balancing act known as The Cycle.
Once Max and Chloe reunited, and because of the joint photo-jump that merged the timelines, they found out Chloe somehow had manifested a power of her own. When the two combined their powers, they ripped a hole in time and space that lead Max to the realm where The Watcher existed. He informed Max that he could see the past, present, and possible futures. He also stated that she needed to sacrifice Chloe because The Cycle demanded the ones with the power to give up the love of their life. She refused and was held in a trance, where she was shown other sacrifices in an endless loop:
“…You have no idea just how connected you two truly are. I see everything that exists as atoms and molecules, cells and matter. At the atomic level, beyond anything you could ever know, you two share a bond. In others who are in love, their atoms do not react the same as yours. Very much a yin and a yang, as your people would say. But none of that matters. A life is demanded. The cycle will collect.”
“I will sit here and starve to death before I allow Chloe to get hurt. It’s not happening, Watcher. You’ll just have to ‘watch’ what happens. No matter what, this time will indeed be different.”
“You do not understand, Max Caulfield. Your being here is no accident. Everything has a purpose. Hmm,” he considered, “perhaps it is my responsibility to show you your path.” The man held out both hands, crossing and uncrossing repeatedly at the wrist. His old, feeble bones creaked and popped as he rapidly waved his arms…
…Death. Disasters. Sacrifices. More death.
Death. Disasters. Sacrifices. More death.
Death. Disasters. Sacrifices. More death.
Death. Disasters. Sacrifices. More death.
She was growing weaker and was forced to take a knee. “I have to get out of here.” Reaching as deep as she could, soaring past the grey, she located the meshed spot again. It took nearly everything she had remaining, but she drilled it as hard as she could. A tiny pulse sizzled outward, but quickly faded. The freckled girl fell to both knees, as her body was giving out.
It was then, in that moment, she heard her captain’s voice – just barely, like a whisper…”
After breaking free from the torturous trance, Max extinguished the entity’s flame causing him to fade away and the week to reset. She found her way back from the realm to join Chloe and Rachel on the cliff, once again being forced to make the same polarizing choice all over again.
Just as Max and Chloe were about to sacrifice themselves for the other, Rachel snatched the photo and destroyed it, taking the decision away and placing the outcome on her shoulders rather than the one with the power. In turn, she was instead sacrificed, and the town was still destroyed by the storm:
“No,” Chloe said, horrified and moving towards her girlfriend. “Fuuuuuck! No, n-not again.” She and Max locked eyes and realized they had traveled back to the day of that unfair decision. “We’ve been through too much! FUUUUUCK!”
“Chloe, there’s so much I need to tell you, and I may never get the chance after this…”
“What are you talking about, Max?”
“The two choices could never be merged into one. Our love is so strong, it pulled both decisions together. It took us ripping a hole in fucking space and time for me to realize it, but one decision must be chosen. One life is demanded by the cycle. If we don’t comply, we’ll be back here again, over and over, until we do.” Max pointed towards her partner’s pocket.
Chloe slid her hand in and retrieved its contents, pulling out the butterfly photo Max had taken in the Blackwell restroom. It seemed like a lifetime since they had last seen that picture, and it made her heart sink knowing what it represented.
“No… no, no! There’s got to be another way, Max! No fucking way we’ve come so far only to end up here again. I can’t leave you. Yeah, I’m afraid to die, but I’m more afraid of what will happen to you after I’m gone. It’s my job to protect you. Forever! We’re goddamn Max and Chloe! FUUUUUCK!”
“I won’t let you die, Chloe. I’ve made my decision.” The brunette reached out and seized the photo from her girlfriend and began to focus on the picture.
“NO!” Chloe screamed, as she violently reclaimed the item. “I know what you’re doing, you goddamn beautiful bitch!” The rain was pounding down, soaking the girls. “There’s no fucking way I’m letting you take my place. If I lose you, that’s it for me too. You might as well pull the trigger on both of us.” Max snatched at the picture, grasping one corner, while her girlfriend held tight onto the other. A small tugging match ensued, ending in a stalemate.
“Either way,” the smaller girl explained, “I have to go back. At that point, it’s my decision. I’ll need the photo regardless, so you might as well release it and let me go. I know it isn’t fair, but there is no other way. A life is required. Shit!”
Out from their peripherals, a hand swooped down and grabbed the picture, ripping it away from the duo. “I understand… this is the only way now. Max, take good care of her. And Chloe, precious Chloe… don’t forget about me…” The blonde winked after a small curtsy. “Laters,” she whispered, as she pinched opposite sides of the photo and tore it down the middle.
Immediately, a curtain of bright yellow and red flames and wind enveloped the girl. A booming shriek blasted from the center, then the flames vanished and a translucent doe stood peering at the two remaining girls.
“RACHELLL!” Chloe screeched, as the doe turned and pranced towards the woods, dematerializing as it entered. “Max, rewind! PLEASE!” Her eyes were peeled back, jaw clinched, rivers flowing from her face.
The time traveler held her hand out, closed her eyes, and began exploring the grey. She searched but the sweet spot was no more. “It’s gone, Chloe. I can’t feel it anymore. Fuck!”
…“Try again!” Noticing the empathetic look in the freckled girl’s eyes and watching her shake her head, she realized the power was gone…
Chloe clutched her bullet necklace and tenderly stroked the feather earring her friend gave her only moments earlier. The girls, overflowing with tears and pain, held each other and stood on the cliff just watching, as the storm destroyed their hometown and everyone in it… again.
Max and Chloe left Arcadia Bay and moved into the Caulfield’s Seattle home. From the depths of depression and mourning, the girls leaned on each other for strength, finding healing in themselves through each other’s profound love.
Max earned her GED and Chloe started a photography business, landing Max’s artwork in several galleries. The lovers, after leaving the past behind them, got engaged and dove headfirst into their new life together.
Max and Chloe were madly in love, their photography business was successful, and they were planning to get married. Suddenly, Rachel appeared in a dream to warn them about a bleak future, which is equally beautiful and horrifying:
“Chloe, wake up.”
“Hey, get up.”
“CHLOE!”
“Okay, okay.” Slowly sitting up in the bed with her eyes still closed, she ran her fingers through her own hair. She knew it was way too early to be awake, so she laid back down again.
“Get your ass up! We have a lot to talk about.”
Immediately, it occurred to Chloe that it wasn’t Max’s voice she was hearing. She hurriedly flung her eyes opened and noticed the ceiling. It glowed a purple hue with speckled bright white stars. “I know this place,” she said aloud. Looking up and to her left, she saw a star-shaped wall light glowing with an amber tinge. “Rachel?”
“Yep, it’s me,” the other girl confirmed. “I brought you here. Do you like the setting I created?”
“But, Rach, you’re… you know…”
“Oh, yes, that. Yeah, I’m still dead.”
“I can hear you but I can’t see you. Why?”
“Look harder, Chloe. I’m here.”
She sat up, rolled to the edge, and spun around, seeking the body that belonged to the voice. The taller girl desperately cut her eyes back and forth, searching around the dim room. Faintly, she spotted the girl she sought sitting at her desk looking in Chloe’s direction.
“There. You’re right there,” she pointed with squinted eyes. “Uhm, Rach? I can see right through you. Are you a… ghost?”
“No, not really. Well, I dunno, maybe. This, though, is a dream, try and focus directly on me; do not wake up. There are several things we need to discuss, one of which is a threat to the most important thing ever in your life.”
“Max?”
“Well, not exactly.”
Rachel somehow existed in a dreamspace where she could see possible outcomes of potential futures. In all but one, Max and Chloe’s future daughter is murdered by religious zealots, who somehow discovered her existence and decided she was an abomination that needed to be eliminated.
In the meantime, Max and Chloe discover they could connect deeply with one another way beyond the tangible world. While making love, their essences connected at the atomic level, creating an exact copy of the engaged couple, ending with Max becoming pregnant with their daughter, as foretold by Rachel:
As the laughter continued to swell, Max found herself lost in a sound gap where she couldn’t hear anything besides hers and Chloe’s giggling. All else became silently still. She opened her eyes and could see the colors of each laugh, as time seemed to crawl forward at a dramatically slowed pace. Each slow-motioned, audible syllable that escaped her goddess’s mouth rose upward like ocean waves of sages, blues, and violets.
“Kiss me,” her lover demanded, staring at and through the brunette. Looking back towards the blue-haired beauty, she noticed the bright and vivid shades of love pouring all over them. She had never seen such beautiful colors, and no words had been created to describe what she was witnessing.
As their lips brushed, a magnetic pulsing energy drew the girls together. Their perfectly clear, sapphire eyes aligned and locked in place. Max could see, taste, smell, hear, and feel the deep connection the couple shared. Tangible reality twinkled from sight, and she couldn’t discern logic from the impossible. The universe disappeared leaving them with a weightlessness she felt only a few instances before. Unlike the other times, she completely let go, allowing their love to take over. As she released control, she realized her fiancé had done the same. Branching, splintering bolts of energy pulsated and rippled between the pair…
…The girls shared several passionate moments together, and as the pleasure spiked and peaked to a height she had never experienced, the younger girl looked up at her partner. She no longer saw flesh or the physical world. All she could see was a bright circular white ball of energy shining from where her lover’s body used to be. Looking down at herself, her material body was gone too but a matching glowing sphere resided where she once laid. Without warning, the two globes merged, becoming one, pulsating and erupting inside each other. They were connected at a level beyond perception.
The warmth and perfect alignment was a feeling Max hoped would never end. For what seemed like an eternity, the spheres of energy were suspended in mid-air wrapped in an inseparable embrace. Reality phased in and out while consciousness swirled around the room. Abstract thought was finally replaced with rational conceptualization. When awareness returned, the girls were lying on the couch, eyes closed, smiles on their faces, just holding each other the way the universe always intended. Nothing mattered but each other.
“Goddammit, I love you, Max,” Chloe cooed. “I love every inch of you. Every part of your body, every part of your heart, and everything we cannot see is fucking perfect.” Like drug addicts still riding and clinging to a high, Max and Chloe stayed tangled together never wanting to leave each other’s touches. They hugged, kissed, and ran their hands all over one another’s bodies.
“Chlo, I don’t know what’s happening between us, but that… that was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced.” A few tears silently fell from her fiancé’s eyes in a moment of pure and extreme love. Max leaned in and kissed the girl’s cheek allowing the moisture that trickled down to land on her lips. She moved her tongue outward to taste the salty wetness now glistening on her own mouth and cheek. “I love you forever, babe. Always.” The younger, freckled girl felt the intense purity of their love and her heart was filled. Wrapping their arms around each other, the engaged couple laid on the couch, bare to each other and the universe, and drifted into a deep and joyous slumber.
With Rachel’s assistance, the pair traveled to the future, trying to save their daughter from being shot. After many attempts, Max and Chloe realized they would never be able to save the little girl’s life with that approach. Instead, they traveled to the exact moment of Destiny’s birth, where the zealots found out about her existence in the first place. Chloe used a portal in the dreamspace to make sure the zealots never discovered anything about Destiny. The plan worked and they were able to finally focus on their wedding. The best-friends-to-lovers got married and enjoyed their honeymoon.
Two years later, Max, Chloe, and their two-year-old daughter, were at a festival when they noticed a strawberry blonde-haired teenager with a streak of red in her bangs staring in their direction. As it turned out, the teen was their daughter, Des, who had been traveling back in time to observe events in her mothers’ lives:
…from the corner of her eye, she noticed a girl who had to be in her late teens propped against a streetlamp looking in their direction. She was on the opposite side of a red-bricked half-wall that separated the sidewalk from the benches about twenty meters away. “Look.” She bobbed her head in the teen’s direction, motioning for her partner to discover what she was seeing. “Where have I seen her before?”
“That’s the girl from our wedding, Max. Check out the red streak in her hair. What the F is she doing?” Chloe was working on not cussing in front of their daughter since the girl repeated a choice word a couple of months back. It couldn’t always be helped but she was trying her best.
“Oh, damn, you’re right.” Upon noticing them looking back at her, the girl turned and briskly started walking away. “I gotta find out who she is, Chlo.”
Max caught up with the girl, and Des agreed to return to their townhome with her moms and a two-year-old version of herself. She then accidentally time traveled, or “glitched”, away, taking Max with her. Max realized that Des could do more than travel up and down their timeline, she could actually travel to different universes. Eventually, the teen ended up back in their universe, but Max was pulled into The Watcher’s realm once more. This time, the Watcher was now Rachel:
The glimmering, ruffled outline of a figure could finally be seen at the end of the path where The Watcher once resided. As she approached, she noticed a radiant glow illuminating the walls and ceiling, but it was too bright to make out any specific features of what was up ahead. Standing only a few meters away, Max could tell there was a person, or at least an entity resembling a person, existing behind the glow. She shielded her eyes to block the bright sunshine-like rays that spread across the narrow landscape in bars.
“Max, you made it.” The comment echoed through the lair, bouncing off the walls and emptying into the dark space behind her. She recognized the voice but couldn’t quite make out why it sounded so familiar. Her mind jumped around from person to person like a game of Guess Who , trying to determine which face the voice belonged to. The palpitating sound was amplified in this place, so discerning the owner of the vocals was more difficult than it might have been anywhere else.
“Hello? I know your voice.” Max assuredly spoke with an inflection of curiosity while still shielding her eyes from the radiance of the figure with her hand in a salute on her forehead.
“I knew you were strong, and obviously you’re hot as hell like me, but damn. What you had to go through the last time you were here would destroy most others. It was beautiful seeing you break through from this side; last time I only saw what happened on the cliff.”
Suddenly, Max pinpointed the voice and knew exactly who she was talking to. “Rachel? But… how are you here?”
Rachel informed Max that there was a reason she could previously see possible futures; she was supposed to fulfill her purpose to become The Watcher. She told Max the three of them fractured the prime timeline into an infinite number of multiverse realities. She and Chloe began the process by splitting the timeline in two, and Rachel finished it off by shattering it when she sacrificed herself. Those universes started losing stability, causing them to begin phasing out of existence. If they didn’t restore the multiverse back to a singular prime reality, they would all pay severe consequences with Max and Chloe possibly not surviving.
Rachel shared that a highly intelligent version of Chloe within the shattered multiverse figured out what was happening, so she devised a plan. That Chloe, along with many other versions of Max and Chloe, were working together for a possible solution. As it turned out, Des’s ability to time travel between universes was the missing piece to their gambit and provided the answer.
With the help of science and technology, Max and Chloe’s daughter spread herself among the multiverse, restoring order and merging the universes back to prime, saving her moms from possible doom:
Des sat on the side of the tub in her bathroom, where she arrived moments prior, pondering the overwhelming success she just experienced. During her journey, she met numerous versions of her moms: 3… 16… 78… 194… 2,952… way too many to actually count or fully recall. Some of the meetings were vividly clear in her mind while others felt like distant memories, tucked away never to be thought of again.
There was one hazy memory that greatly differed from the others. In most every instance, Des collected a version of her moms, who had been spread out across the multiverse, and restored them in the prime reality. However, she also pulled someone else into a realm she only heard stories about. The mastermind version of her mom convinced the teenager to restore Rachel Amber as well, merging the former actor with her prime form. When she did, she received a message from the Watcher that she would never forget: “I love your moms so much, ya know? They’re hella special to me, and you are undeniable proof that love always wins…”
…The time traveler could still feel the power inside her like a dark passenger lingering in the background of her mind… watching… and waiting. She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing at this point, all she knew was if she still had it, there must be a good reason. She would be careful if she traveled, as her parents taught her, but if she needed to use it again, she wouldn’t hesitate. Des realized the future would be upon her before she knew it, and the rest of her life was right in front of her.
The red-streaked teenager brushed her teeth and hair then exited the bathroom. She changed into her nicest light-blue pair of jeans, a Fireweed graphic t-shirt, her favorite mahogany pleather jacket, and slid on her boots. She stepped out of the room and joined her moms in the kitchen where they were standing with each other’s hands held out in front of their bodies, fingers interlocked. Chloe released her hold on Max, threw one arm around the teen’s neck and the other around her wife’s. She stood in the middle and firmly squeezed the three together in a sort of three-way hug. The trio, still linked, strolled towards the door that led to the garage. Before they broke their hold, Chloe turned her head towards Max then towards her daughter. Twice she said one of the most meaningful words that would be imprinted in Des’s mind for the rest of her life…
“Forever.”
Nearly two years after restoring the multiverse into a single reality, Des was surprised with a visit from Rachel. She didn’t think it was possible, as The Watcher was supposed to only observe and not get involved:
“Sorry, I had to startle you like that. Literally, Des, it was the only path I could see to get to you.” The woman dropped her hand down, an impish smile tightening the skin on her face. Hazel, olive-shaped, ageless eyes stared back at the girl with a combination of child-like playfulness and the wisdom of a hundred lifetimes.
Lowering the kickstand and pivoting her vehicle over on its support, the blonde, with a strawberry-red streak in her bangs, removed her helmet and set it on the bike’s seat. She rapidly shook her head back and forth, then ran her hand through messy hair.
Stepping around to the front of her ride, she hesitantly walked closer to the woman. “You’re not supposed to be here… right? I thought your job, for like, all of eternity, was to just… watch.”
“About that,” Rachel began. “I know you’ve paid more than your fair toll and should be able to enjoy a peaceful life now. But, Des, you have a very specific set of skills, and I need your help. One final time.”
