Life is Strange: Polarized Revised Endings

Sacrifice Arcadia Bay

Author's Note: This Ending is known as the worst ending. It holds the least character development and is kinda a jerk move on your part. But I have a different take on it. :P Sorry if it isn't exact. BTW all dialogue beyond the eighth paragraph is original.

"I know. You proved that over and over... even though I don't deserve it. I'm so selfish... not like my mom... look what she had to give up and live through...and she did. She deserves so much more than to be killed by a storm in a f****** diner. Even my step... father deserves her alive. There's so many more people in Arcadia Bay who should live way more than me." Chloe said, looking at Max expectantly.

"Don't say that, I won't trade you." Max's resistant answer drove a stake through Chloe's heart.

"You're not trading me, maybe you've just been delaying my real destiny. Look how many times I almost died or actually died around you. Look at what's happened in Arcadia Bay ever since you first saved me. I know I've been selfish but for once I think I should accept my fate... our fate." Chloe tried to reassure Max, but Max was still reluctant to kill her best friend.

"Chloe..." Max couldn't believe her best friend was telling her to kill her.

"Max, you finally came back to me this week, and you did nothing but show me your love and friendship. You made me smile and laugh, like I haven't done in years. Wherever I end up after this... in whatever reality, all those moments between us were real, and they'll always be ours. No matter what you choose, I know you'll make the right decision." Chloe tried to hide how scared she was by acting firm, but it wasn't working.

"Chloe, I can't make this choice." Max replied, depressed that to end this, she might have to kill her best friend.

"No, Max, you're the only one who can." Chloe said with finality.

What was Max to do? She couldn't kill Chloe... but she couldn't kill the city either. Max tried to reason with herself, thinking that she could live past Chloe's death, but it wasn't true. There were so much scum in Arcadia Bay, but there was also good people. It was an impossible choice.

"Chloe... I'm sorry. But I can't kill you." Max ripped the photograph and threw it down onto the ground.

"Okay... then we'll wait out the storm." Chloe sat down and watched the tornado. An hour went by and the tornado didn't move. "Wait.. shouldn't the tornado have moved by now?"

Max got up and moved toward the edge of the cliff. "I... I think it stopped." The second she said this, the tornado started to unravel. "What? Has the apocalypse ended?"

"It looks like it! The rain stopped too! Is the town still standing?" They ran the distance into town and saw everybody who was still alive getting up and looking around confused. We saw Evan sitting in the corner, eyes wildly swinging all over the place. We ran over to him. "Evan! The storm is over! Arcadia Bay is safe!" Max told Evan and he looked at her.

"Really? But there was just a huge tornado coming to kill us all!" Evan was so confused and scared.

"Get up, dude, let us show you!"Chloe said. Max and Chloe lifted Evan up and he let out a gasp.

"It's over. I'm alive. Thank you, Max, for helping me!" He ran towards the main city, but Max and Chloe continued to move towards the diner. When they finally got there, they still had to use the entrance Max used earlier.

The minute they got to the diner, Joyce hugged Chloe.

"Chloe, I'm so glad you're safe! Where were you?" Joyce asked with desperate urgency.

"We," Chloe motions to Max, "were up at the lighthouse. The tornado totally missed us, or it would have if it didn't stop at the middle of the bay." Chloe explained. "I know you're happy to see me, but Max and I need to go talk to Warren." She said, then started to move away.

Joyce grabbed Chloe's arm. "I'm just glad you're safe." Then let go.

Max and Chloe soon picked out Warren, sitting at one of the booths.

"Warren... We need to talk. Remember that time travel stuff I told you about? Well, I can time travel through photographs. I took one a while back, and it was around the time Nathan was threatening Chloe with a gun. The reason this all started was because of me messing with time, and that was the first place I used it. To save Chloe. I still had the photo, and I took it before I used time rewind, so I could fix everything." Max said all of this in what seemed like one breath, and Warren followed along at lightning speeds.

"Okay, got all of that, but shouldn't Chloe be dead then?" Warren said, still trying to put together the pieces.

"The thing is, I didn't go back. I ripped up the photo." Max explained.

"Wait. Instead of stopping the tornado, you ripped up the photo, and were basically going to let the tornado kill us all?" Warren hissed incredulously. "Are we really that unimportant?"

"No! I couldn't kill my best friend, Warren. I'm sorry. The reason I'm talking about it is because I'm wondering how the tornado stopped." Max apologized sincerely, but the question was still burning a hole in her brain.

"Well, you said that your power lets you time travel through photographs, right?" Warren asked, still miffed about the whole I'd be fine with killing all of Arcadia for one person thing, but unable to resist time travel.

"Right." Max confirmed.

"That sounds like wormholes. You see, every time that you take a photograph, you basically capture the essence of the moment. All it would take to travel back in time is the ability to latch onto the wormhole. Wormholes are incredibly unstable, though, and that wormhole at such a universe-changing moment would have create massive fluctuations in the space-time continuum. I'm thinking that you closed the wormhole, stopped the massive fluctuations, and effectively made the tornado, caused by the flux, to stop." Warren ended his scientific mumbo jumbo and simplified, "You stopped what was causing the tornado."

"That makes sense, Warren, thanks." Max stood up and walked out of the diner with Chloe. They were going to see the rest of the town.
                                ***

"Two weeks after the freak tornado, Arcadia Bay is rebuilding. The tornado might have claimed some of the town, but it's inhabitants are still dead set on rebuilding the town by winter." The news reporter then interviewed David Madsen, leader of the builders.

"Blah blah blah. They might be the reason we'll have a town again, but you're the reason that the tornado ended." Chloe lightly punched Max's arm. The pair were at the Two Whales diner.

"Yeah, I guess." Max said, eating her pancakes.

"Well, it'll always have been a weird week." Chloe said, her back to the bar and watching the news.

"Yep... A weird week indeed." Max finished her pancakes and watched the news too.
                              *** 

After a year of rebuilding, the town was back to it's normal state. Blackwell Academy was up and running, so Max continued to attend school there. The Two Whales became famous because of the news cover on the tornado, and David Madsen ended up coming back to Joyce and Chloe, without opposition this time. The Price family was back together. Soon enough, everything was back to normal, except Max didn't have her powers anymore. Her life was better because of it.  Max's life wasn't strange, it was great.