Amelia sat on the edge of her building staring up at the stars above her twinkling high above her. She breathed in the night air as she tried to find the two dippers up in the sky. Ever since she had been a small girl, staring up at the sky from Vinland's lap, she had loved that set of stars.

"The bigger of the two." She had told Amelia and Matthew one night while they sat around a small fire. "It's the older sibling, like me. It's job is to protect the other from dangerous spirits who try to take it away. Who wish to hurt it… only, only truly worthy one's are allowed near the littler one."

"Do you ever think I could take the little dipper?" Amelia had asked innocently.

"If you prove yourself to be worthy."

Amelia felt a hot tear run down her face at the memory, one of her most treasured of her older sister, and felt shame cloud her thought. Worthy… She had reached the moon…. but she would never be worthy enough to reach the little dipper. She took a shaky breath as she listened to the sounds of the street below her. People moving, bustling, going on with their lives though everything around them was falling apart.

Bitterly she felt a few more tears, more unworthiness, fall down her cheeks. This is what she had become. An uncaring, cold, ignorant people. People who listened to the lies they were told, and didn't challenge them. If anyone did they were mocked and persecuted for daring to know the truth. She took another breath, trying to calm herself from these harsh feelings, willing them to not be true.

Trying to distract herself, she took another breath and listened, as only a nation could, to the city streets below her.

"Did you hear Janice?"

"What Tracy?"

"An officer on fifth was shot?"

"Was he killed?"

"Thankfully no."

"…Well, better luck next time."

Amelia sucked in air and tried to keep breathing, quickly turning to another conversation.

"Hey Mikey! Where you been dog!"

"Aye man! My Aunt busted me with some dope, said I couldn't leave the house. Started talking shit about drug tests and whack crap."

"Whatcha do?"

"I told that bitch she couldn't control me and I snuck out the back window! Jus cause the mother effing court says I gotta stay with that ho don't mean shit! You'll see. My Pop's gonna get me when he's outta jail! we gonna score big together man!"

Amelia felt a wave of nausea at the blatant disrespect and tried to listen to another, but the sheer fear of hearing something worse made her stop. She came back to her surroundings, feeling like she was breaking the surface of the water. her unworthiness streamed down her face, but now she didn't stop them. What was the point. This, this is what her people had become. Long had she fallen from the founding father's dream of a republic, and now, now she saw there was no way she could ever revive that golden dream.

She was a failure.

She let that revelation wash over her as she looked up at the sky, sickened by her shame and misery. This was her now. This was America. She heard the sounds from the streets calling to her, beckoning to her, and she closed her eyes tightly.

Everyone was right. She was a failure. She was a fluke. She was a pig. She was a wench and troll and now, now she was turning into a socialistic slob! Heat rose in her throat and she thought back to her meeting today. All the other nations seemed to want her to be gone as America. Her own boss had asked how he could make a new one. She was too weak to compete with the greed and the corruption taking over. Too weak to handle all the hate that she received…

It was time to give up.

She looked once more up at the two dippers in the sky and tried to keep her breathing steady as she thought of Vinland. Long ago she and Matthew had saved the girl by making her the representation of Newfoundland, no one knew there were technically two personifications of Canada running around. Amelia took another deep breath and felt a small wave of peace thinking of how once more Vinland would run her own land again. She would be a far greater America than Amelia could ever be. She was a fierce Viking, the last thing she was, was weak.

Amelia took one last breath and closed her eyes, saving the picture of the two dippers, and let herself lean back.