[She inhales deeply, holds it for a moment, then two, and then keeps holding it. She gnaws at her lip, eyes darting around. The breath eventually comes out in a gush, and her voice wavers as she speaks.]
Reversing time. Changing things... in the past. [She looks up at him, almost pleadingly.] I don't have it anymore. But I did... and I used it to save my best friend.
[She wants to pause, to take another long breath and bury all the hurt underneath the pressure in her lungs, but if she stops it will be a struggle to continue again. So she forces the words out, her voice strained and tight.]
I just wanted to help people by changing things, but every time I did it got worse and worse, until-... the storm came because I changed things too much and- and I had to choose between never having changed anything, and letting storm destroy the whole town... So I went back to the moment I first used it and. Didn't.
[She doesn't mention being kidnapped, drugged. She doesn't mention watching people die beneath a hailstorm of flying debris. Doesn't mention the murder they uncovered, the insanity underneath it all, the ripping up of space and time as she tried to rewind again and again to fix it, Max, why couldn't you fucking fix it!?
Doesn't mention hearing the best thing that had ever happened to her dying just a few feet away, as she hid around the corner and did nothing, because nothing is exactly what she had to do.
Or the loneliness of the week afterward, knowing Chloe sacrificed herself willingly to save everyone, practically begged Max to go back to the moment when she started rewinding and never rewind again. And nobody knew what they had gained because of it. And what Max had lost.
Stupid- at the end of it all, it turns out there was only one person she couldn't save.
Or maybe two. The second one is still to be decided.
That's it. That's the end of the story. So she just stares, blinking as tears start filling her eyes.]
[Action]
Reversing time. Changing things... in the past. [She looks up at him, almost pleadingly.] I don't have it anymore. But I did... and I used it to save my best friend.
[She wants to pause, to take another long breath and bury all the hurt underneath the pressure in her lungs, but if she stops it will be a struggle to continue again. So she forces the words out, her voice strained and tight.]
I just wanted to help people by changing things, but every time I did it got worse and worse, until-... the storm came because I changed things too much and- and I had to choose between never having changed anything, and letting storm destroy the whole town... So I went back to the moment I first used it and. Didn't.
[She doesn't mention being kidnapped, drugged. She doesn't mention watching people die beneath a hailstorm of flying debris. Doesn't mention the murder they uncovered, the insanity underneath it all, the ripping up of space and time as she tried to rewind again and again to fix it, Max, why couldn't you fucking fix it!?
Doesn't mention hearing the best thing that had ever happened to her dying just a few feet away, as she hid around the corner and did nothing, because nothing is exactly what she had to do.
Or the loneliness of the week afterward, knowing Chloe sacrificed herself willingly to save everyone, practically begged Max to go back to the moment when she started rewinding and never rewind again. And nobody knew what they had gained because of it. And what Max had lost.
Stupid- at the end of it all, it turns out there was only one person she couldn't save.
Or maybe two. The second one is still to be decided.
That's it. That's the end of the story. So she just stares, blinking as tears start filling her eyes.]