Protector

A/N: So, it's been a really long time since I've actually written anything. Please bear with me while I get my bearing and make this into the amazing story I hope for it to be.

This is going to be an AU story. Max doesn't have time traveling powers, and Rachel Amber is still alive and well. Some characters may need to be a little OOC to fit into the story as I want it to be told so fair warning. Lastly, this story will contain sensitive subject matters (abuse, rape, drugs, etc) so be warned if you're easily triggered. I will do my best to keep it as light as possible for those who are triggered can enjoy as well. If you have gone through sexual abuse, PM me or review. I can send you an alternate chapter if needed.

Disclaimer: I do not own any parts of Life is Strange. Please excuse any spelling mistakes/errors. I try my best. I'm always open to ideas and comments, so if you have an idea of where you think the story should do shoot me a PM or write it in a review. It just might find its way into the story.

(Update) IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: On chapter 6, I got a review from a user that brought up something that reminded me that I haven't mentioned this before. As this story covers heavier topics, and some that may be triggering to people, I want this story to be as accessible as possible to anyone who wishes to read it. As such, if there are any more times where I think that what Max is going through is going to be too much for some people, I will mark the area of the story to skip. I will also, if something plot related happens in that time, either write up an alternative part to replace that for those people to read or I will write up a summary of what happened, leaving out details.

I hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter 1: Doppelganger

She stared up at the photos splattered across her wall as she picked up clothes and packed them into a suitcase. It had been an amazing five years in Seattle where her art was concerned. She'd learned so much from the school that she went to, and it was really exciting that she was now able to go back to Arcadia Bay and study under Mark Jefferson. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and she wasn't going to pass it up.

Her parents wanted her to go as well. Sure they'd miss her and they'd all cried about it, but they all knew that it was for the best. And not just because of Max's art. There were two reasons that they moved to Seattle. One being her dad had an amazing job opportunity up here. One that he just couldn't pass up. The second was her mother's brother. He needed them. He'd been in and out of jail and said that he needed help getting his life back on track. What a load of bull. Life back on track my ass. Max thought to herself.

Up until they moved to Seattle, her life had been normal. Normal family. Normal friends. Normal house. But everything had changed for the worse when they moved. Everything had been normal for a time, until her uncle started getting confident. She didn't even know what he'd been in prison for, but she wouldn't be surprised if it had to do with some form or another of abuse. It started out small, sure. The depreciating joke here, the jab there. But it had gradually begun to build over the years to the point where she didn't feel safe being home alone or alone with him, so when her parents went out, so did she. Max thanked her luck when she got into Blackwell. She'd be free...

"Max! Supper's ready!" her dad called up the stairs, his voice echoing up the stairwell and to her open bedroom door.

"Coming!" she replied, closing and zipping her suitcase. This would be the last meal they all ate together, and it filled her with sadness and excitement at the same time. She picked up her phone and stared at her for a second. Should I text Chloe...? It's been years since the last time we talked, but... She let the thought trail off and pocketed her phone. She'd text her that night before bed if she could gather up the nerve to do so.

Dinner was filled with idle chatter about how the day was and how excited everyone was for Max to be going to Blackwell. It actually felt normal for once, and Max was grateful for it. Maybe nothing bad would happen, and she'd get the strength to tell Chloe she was coming back to Arcadia and things would be okay. She'd been waiting all day for something to happen. For some explosion that she'd seen as inevitable, but so far so good. Usually at dinner time the air was tense with the long held secrets. Her mother and her would eye each other trying to make sure they were acting as normal as possible while Ryan was kept in the dark. But tonight... tonight things were filled with stories told and memories shared.

It was an hour later that Max finally trudged her way back up the stairs and into her room. Removing the suitcase from the bed, she laid down still fully clothed and looked at her phone. It was nerve wracking trying to decide whether to message her long lost best friend or not, because they'd not contacted each other in years. She didn't even know if her number was still the same one she had... Chloe had always begged her to keep in touch. Letters. Texts. Everything. Chloe hadn't wanted to hear all about her moving and what she was up to. In the beginning, it had been easy to keep in touch, but after awhile she just slowly stopped talking to Chloe. Sighing, she opened up a new message.

Someone knocked on her door and started to open it. Putting her phone down at her side, she saw it was her uncle. He was a tall guy standing at about 5'11" and had a rather round face. A black beard and mustache covered his lower face while a scar across his eyebrow was the only really noticeable, distinguishing feature otherwise. He wasn't overweight, but he still had a bit of a belly that you could see through his too tight shirts.

"Get out of my room." She knew that she needed to be forceful. Her dad was home, so it was really risky for him to even be in here, and they both knew it. One yell, and her dad would be up here in a hurry.

"I don't think so, Max. You know, I'd never seen you till you all moved up here. Not in a way that wasn't pictures," he said lowly, shutting the door and moving closer. "It wasn't too hard to get your parents to leave for the store. I'm sure your mother didn't think much of it since I pretended that I was beat and it was a suggestion of a surprise for you. So go ahead. Yell. Your daddy isn't here to protect you, Max."

(Slight trigger warning ahead!)

She shuddered at the thought of what he wanted to do to her. Grabbing her pillow, she threw it toward his face as hard as she could and tried to make a break for it around him and toward the door. He was took quick for her though and had a hold of her around the waist before she could even make it halfway. Being thrown onto the bed hurt, but it wasn't anything compared to what he did afterward. She tried to yell out, and it fell on deaf ears. He maneuvered his way around, keeping her pinned as he did it, to take off the clothes on her bottom half. After that, all there was was pain.

(End slight trigger warning)

He had his way with her then got up to leave the room. "Remember little Max. This is our secret. Or else much worse will come to others you care about. You don't want me to have to hurt your parents, do you?" Max curled into a ball as he left the room, silently sobbing to herself. She didn't feel comfortable or safe anymore, and she knew it would be a long time before she ever did again...

Monday October 14th, 2013

Months later, and Max had settled in well at Blackwell. She'd met three amazing people, and they had quickly become close friends. First, there was Warren Graham. A science nerd, but probably one of the sweetest guys that you'd ever meet. It hadn't been easy making friends with him after what had happened to her, but she managed along pretty well. He could tell that she wasn't all that comfortable around him, so when they talked for the second time he let her do most of the speaking. He sat and listened to everything that she'd had to say about her photography and multiple other subjects that she was interested in. After that, he slowly started opening up, and she let him in.

Second was Kate Marsh. She was really religious, but Kate was a sweet girl. It had been easy talking to Kate the first time. She'd actually come up to Max and introduced herself on the first day she was there at Blackwell. It wasn't long before the two had taken to exchanging books that they'd read and discussing them over tea or hot chocolate out in town.

Then lastly, there was Rachel Amber. Rachel was supermodel gorgeous, and she seemed to be friends with all the photography students. She was in Jefferson's class with her just like Kate was, but it took a little bit for them to become friends. The thing that had really kick started their friendship had been when Rachel had needed some photos taken. She'd seen Max's work and had liked her style, so she came up to her during a free period and asked for her to be her photographer. It had been a great experience, and the two had become quickly close.

It was a nippy day in October, but Max didn't really mind it. She'd just gotten out of Jefferson's class and was headed to meet Kate when Rachel stopped her.

"Max, hey, could I ask you a favor?" she asked, smiling brightly. Rachel had an amazing smile that really lit up a room. She'd been witness to it many a time. Rachel would enter a room and start smiling and talking and all of a sudden everyone else was smiling. She was bright. Brighter than Max could ever hope to be.

"It depends. I've actually got a lot of homework today, and I'm supposed to be meeting Kate out front so that we can get tea," she replied, looking around at the other students chatting away. She wondered if anyone else was as stressed as she was. Probably not.

"It's nothing huge, Max. Just a teeny tiny little favor. Okay? Please?" Rachel pouted her lip a little as she asked. Max always wondered if she realized that when she wanted something she did that. She'd pout her lip out just the tiniest little bit, only noticeable to a careful eye.

"What is it?" Max had noticed something recently. A lot of people, including her, tended to give in to Rachel. It wasn't because they didn't have the willpower to say no to her. It was because people trusted Rachel. People trusted that Rachel knew what she was doing.

"Thank you so much, Max!" she smiled brightly and gave her a quick hug. "Okay, so I'm going to be going to meet up with a couple friends from out of town tonight. I just... didn't mention it to Frank. So, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind covering for me? Tell him that we're doing a project for Jefferson's class with me. If he hears both of us talking, he'll be more inclined to believe it."

"Why are you trying to hide from him that you're seeing some friends from-"

"He doesn't tend to like me hanging out with a lot of other people, because even though he puts up that front of a tough guy he ends up getting insecure. Okay?" Rachel said, not waiting for a response before she pulled out her phone and dialed Frank.

"Hello?" Max didn't know how Rachel could handle Frank. Frank answered the phone the same to her as he seemed to for everyone. Which tended to be with this annoyed undertone. Like he didn't want to be bothered with talking to you. Rachel swore it didn't sound that way to her though.

It was a simple phone call that didn't last all that long between the three of them before Rachel gave Max a thumbs up that she did a good job and could walk away now. So Max did just that. She checked her phone and saw there were a couple texts from Warren asking her to meet up with him sometime later that day, to which she replied that she would once she was back at school, and one from Kate telling her to meet her in her room as she had to finish something small before they left.

Sticking her earbuds in, she headed out of the school building and out onto the main campus. She loved being out here surrounded by all the art and nature. A bunch of kids felt the same and you could see the skateboarders doing their thing, kids drawing, kids talking. The Vortex Club all huddled together somewhere quietly laughing at whatever they'd done to some poor kid this time. David was nowhere in sight and the science teacher was standing nearby, watching the students to make sure that they weren't getting into any trouble.

Max took the left down the path toward the girls' dormitories and headed in, getting to Kate's and knocking before letting herself in. "Hey, Kate. What's up?"

Kate turned and smiled a little at her, gesturing to her bunny. "I'm sorry. I had to take care of him first. I couldn't remember if I'd put enough water in his cage this morning or not, so I wanted to be double sure that he had enough before we left."

"It's okay. Are you ready to go then?" Max asked, looking around Kate's room and seeing everything was a little disheveled from the last time she'd been in there.

"Actually... There's something that I wanted to talk about... And I don't want anyone else knowing, so I don't want to talk about it in public..." Kate murmured and then sat at her desk. "It isn't an easy thing for me to talk about, but Max, I know that you'll guard this secret with your life..."

Max sat on the bed and turned her phone to silent and turned off her music so that she could listen more intently to Kate. Kate was always tidy and neat. Something big must have happened for her to let her room even get a little disorderly.

"You know how I went to that Vortex Club party, right? I don't know... I don't know what happened... Things just got really weird... I think I was drugged... I started to feel funny and one of the guys offered to drive me back here... I don't remember much after getting in his car... And when I came to, I was here in my bed... But my shirt smelled like cologne when they hadn't before, and everything was completely rumpled... I hurt everywhere... Especially..." she paused and half whispered, "especially 'down there', Max... I don't know what to think or what to do..."

Images flashed of what had happened to her months ago, and it took everything she had in her to not start tearing up. Going over to Kate, she hugged her tightly and rested her head on the smaller girl's. She knew how difficult this was... She'd been there months ago. The only difference is that Max had known it was happening and Kate had no clue exactly what had happened to her... But she swore that she'd get Kate justice. She had to, because she wasn't yet able to help herself...

A/N: If anyone you know has ever been abused, please reach out for help. National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673. If you've ever been assaulted and (as I understand) want resources where you can get help or want someone to talk to about it, please call that number. They keep everything confidential and don't have your full phone number if you call. They're obliged by law to report sexual assault on minors but otherwise they must get your consent if law enforcement is to be involved.

Now this has been a pretty heavy chapter for a beginning, but I needed it this way. It'll get a bit lighter later on as we start getting into other topics. I apologize for any bad grammar/word choice/etc on my part. It's been a long time since I've been able to write due to various different circumstances, and I'm really trying to get back into it, so bare with me, please.

And please if you can take a moment of your time to leave me a review, I would really appreciate it.