Elizabeth frowned as she took in their surroundings. She'd mistakenly led them too far south. They were dangerously close to the middle of Ghost Nation territory. But, it was too late to arc up toward Pariah. It would add at least another two days to go around the canyon now. Best to just commit to up and over.

With the horses they made much better time, but their caution kept them from going as quick as could have. Alexa wasn't used to riding for eight hours straight, and Elizabeth changed their path at any sign of life. They couldn't chance another fight, not in the state they were in.

Teddy had gone ahead, to scope out their campsite for the night. The girls were alone, and Alexa stuck as close to Elizabeth as physically possible. She was quiet, lost in her thoughts. "You did good yesterday," Elizabeth said, breaking the silence. Alexa looked up, mouth open like she wanted to yell at Elizabeth for bringing it up.

Then Alexa smiled. Elizabeth squirmed in her seat. She knew that smile. It was the same self-satisfied smirk she got right before walking into an investors meeting. The kind of smirk that said she had the whole world eating out of her hand.

"Teddy and I had a rather interesting conversation yesterday," Alexa said, shit-eating grin still in place. "I got the whole story, every gritty detail. I thought it was particularly interesting when you used our code to wake him up."

Elizabeth frowned. It didn't seem like the time to talk about copyright infringement. "I'm not going to apologize for that. Besides, I didn't start it; you can blame some super-fan lab tech for that one."

Alexa waved her hand. "Oh no, I don't care about the code. I'm slightly more intrigued by the mini-rebellion, but I'm willing to put that on the backburner. What I'm most interested in is you," she paused, undoubtedly for dramatic affect, "And Teddy."

"I don't know what he told you, but–"

"Beth. Please." Alexa rolled her eyes dramatically. "I know you better than anyone, except maybe your mother. You don't do things out of the kindness of your heart. You do things for yourself. And you don't work well with others." She paused, shaking her head, surely remembering one of Beth's past missteps. "But the things you've done for Teddy…You know he remembers dying? Well, he's died a lot. But the specific time I'm referring to, you got him patched up. Somehow. That couldn't have been easy."

"It wasn't an inconvenience, Bernard needed a favor so we made a deal. I got more out of the bargain than Teddy's life, and Bernard didn't even know." Elizabeth bit her lip. Maybe he hadn't known, but she was becoming increasingly convinced that Ford had.

"Okay, explain the impromptu trip to hunt down Wyatt? Or the reason you went back for Teddy? The Beth I know doesn't get distracted so easy. William was out there, but you couldn't bring yourself to leave Teddy behind."

"I don't know what you want from me, Alexa."

"Oh, fuck you. You know exactly what I want." Alexa kicked her horse, moving ahead. For a moment, Elizabeth thought she'd won. Then, with a jerk of the reins, she tugged the horse in front of Beth's and came to a stop. "You don't want to talk? Fine. Then listen."

Elizabeth flipped open her pack to find some jerky. She had a feeling they were going to be here for a while. "When I went back to school for that HCI certificate, it was only for a few marketing strategies. I wanted to see what consumers wanted out of their synths, right? But I got more out of it than I expected."

Two years into Service Synthetics, Alexa had gone to Berkley for a Human-Computer Interaction course. The way she talked about it, it had been a life changing experience. But all the company got out of it had been prettier robots and a new promotional roadshow.

"You always thought I lacked your creativity," Alexa said, shaking her head. "It wasn't that. I saw your vision, the art you wanted to create, but the world wasn't ready for that. I had to be pragmatic, shut you down before you could even begin."

"Yeah, you were content with the money. No fun, no games, just product."

"Not all of us come from royalty, Elizabeth," Alexa snapped. "You may be self built, but we both know there was always a safety net to catch your fall." She held up a hand before Elizabeth could get another word in. "You didn't want to talk, so don't."

They were both quiet for a moment, while Alexa took a few deep breaths. "You know the Turing test." Elizabeth rolled her eyes and Alexa glared. "That wasn't a question, obviously you know what the Turing test is."

"The Turing test is obsolete," Beth reminded her. "We passed the appearance of intelligence threshold decades ago."

"I am aware of that." She frowned, starring at Elizabeth until she was sure the blonde wasn't going to make another quip. "Turing said the convincing appearance of intelligence in AI proved they were intelligent. David Levy took that a step further."

Elizabeth tried very hard not to roll her eyes again. "If AI convincingly portrays an emotion, we can't argue that it doesn't feel that emotion. Yes, Alexa, I read Love and Sex with Robots too. As far as scientists go, Levy's writing wasn't half bad."

Alexa ignored Elizabeth and glanced in the direction Teddy had gone. "Well, I'd say he's doing a pretty convincing portrayal of A Person Desperately in Love with Elizabeth Fowler. I'd know, I was that person for eight years." Elizabeth looked intently at a tree. "He looks at you like a person caught in the orbit of a supernova."

"A supernova is an exploding star, that's a terrible analogy."

"I'd say exploding star is the nicest possible comparison I could make. Would you prefer black hole? There was a time after our break up when I would have said you were exactly like a black hole. Sucking people in, swallowing them up, and forgetting about them as soon as they were gone."

Elizabeth grimaced. "Let's stick with supernova."

"You think shutting yourself off from other people makes you safe. But you feel just like everyone else. And every time Teddy so much as breathes in your direction, I can practically hear your heart stop."

Elizabeth turned her horse abruptly, urging the black mare past Alexa's palomino. "It doesn't matter, Alexa. None of it matters. When this is over and we go home, what happens here means nothing."

Alexa kept up, riding next to Elizabeth. "Sometimes I really hate you, you know that? You're so busy trying not to become your dad; you haven't realized you're becoming something worse. At least he felt things."

"If it weren't for my dad–"

"Without your dad, we never would have met. The way I see it, I ought to buy him a beer. Service Synthetics wouldn't exist if he hadn't screwed you up." Alexa paused and smirked. "Screwed up is putting it too lightly. Normal people with screwed up childhoods become bitter and angry. It might even fuck up their lives. But at least they have lives."

"Your entire life since you were sixteen has been consumed by the idea that William is a problem you need to fix. Everything is like a big puzzle to you, and it always will be," Alexa's voice rose as she went on. Her cheeks turned red. "In fact, I think Teddy is the perfect person for you. He may be conscious, but at the end of the day, he's still 1s and 0s. That's got to be a lot easier to fix than neurons and synapses."

Elizabeth pulled her horse to a stop, catching Alexa off guard. She had to turn around and come back. They sat there, staring at each other. Alexa's shoulders heaved like she'd been running a marathon. "That's what I'm afraid of," Elizabeth whispered. Alexa gave her a blank look. "It's already happened once. We got in an argument; I grabbed my phone and erased a line of his code."

"That was different, that wasn't–" Alexa broke off when Beth jumped from her horse and took a few steps toward the trees.

"It was an outsider's code, it wasn't like he created it organically. It was the equivalent of virtual handcuffs. That's what I told myself too." Elizabeth shook her head, looking at the ground. "But what about next time? What happens when we start arguing and I get tired? Instead of saying, let's talk about it later, I grab my phone and add a few lines. And the next time, and the next time. What if I look up one day and realize he's not the person I used to know, because I turned him into someone else?"

Alexa scrambled down from her horse, and closed the distance between them. "I know you, Beth. You wouldn't do that."

Elizabeth started pacing, further into the forest. Alexa followed on her heels. "Will I ever stop wondering if this is love? Will I ever stop wondering if I'm wrong about him? Will I ever stop asking myself if he's real?"

Alexa grabbed Elizabeth's arms. "Everyone questions love. Singers write songs about it, scientists study the chemical responses in our brains. No one understands it, we probably never will. That doesn't stop us from jumping head first into relationship after relationship looking for the one." Elizabeth frowned, unconvinced. "It is not often your ex-fiancée shakes you and says, this is your one." At Beth's silence, Alexa groaned and shook Elizabeth as hard as she could. "Teddy is your one!"

"I want you to be right," Beth whispered.

"You should know by now, I'm always right." Alexa tugged Elizabeth toward the horses. "Now, I'm not walking to camp, so get your ass back on that horse."

OoOoO

That night, they made camp in an abandoned Ghost Nation settlement. At least, they hoped it was abandoned. Teddy had been there for hours, and there hadn't been sign of anyone else, but Elizabeth wouldn't let her guard down.

The other two didn't appear to share the same apprehension. Alexa and Teddy sat on the other side of the fire talking. The dark haired girl laughed at something, loudly. Elizabeth couldn't even remember the last time she'd seen Alexa genuinely smile.

The sound of a branch breaking made them freeze. Elizabeth was the first on her feet. Leaves crunched under someone's heavy steps. More branches snapped, and a few shook the trees as they were shoved aside. Elizabeth drew her knife, her fingers drummed over her gun just in case.

Over her shoulder, she saw Alexa draw the gun she'd taken off a dead man. Host or guest, they hadn't checked. Elizabeth scowled at her. "Put that down. If they were trying to attack us they would've been quieter." And the last thing they needed was to run out of bullets in the middle of the park.

Finally a man stepped out of the trees and Elizabeth rushed toward him. Alexa let out a war cry, but didn't move from her spot. Beth wrapped her arms around the man. "Stubbs, you're okay!"

"She's hugging him," Alexa narrated, dumfounded. "Beth doesn't hug people."

Elizabeth pulled back, grabbing his arms. "I thought you were dead. After everything–" She frowned and hit him as hard as she could in the chest.

"That's more like it," Alexa muttered.

Beth crossed her arms. "You could've texted me back!"

Stubbs held up his hands in surrender. "I was attacked by Indians–"

"The appropriate term is Native American," Alexa said. Elizabeth didn't need to turn around to see the Desi girl's hairflip in her mind.

Stubbs paused a moment to scowl. "I was attacked and I lost my phone. Did you get the files?"

"No, but now it seems a little obsolete. Ford's dead," Elizabeth told him. "I didn't see it, but Teddy and Alexa did. Dolores blew his brains out."

"You're sure he's dead?" He lowered his voice, as if the others wouldn't be able to hear from a few steps away.

Elizabeth shrugged. "From what I hear, it was pretty gruesome. But it scared the hell out of the board, they all scattered, right into the trap. If it weren't for Teddy, we would've gotten caught up in it too."

Alexa took the opportunity to step forward and offer her hand. "Nice to meet you, I'm–"

"Alexandra Reid," Stubbs finished. She looked briefly smug before he continued. "I vetted you before you joined the board. For what it's worth, I told them not to take you. Ford overruled." Elizabeth shuddered at the thought of Ford orchestrating this moment too. Was there any part of this he hadn't touched?

Alexa took a step back toward Teddy and sulked. Between that and her mismatched outfit, she looked like a child playing dress up. Beth would've laughed if the past few days hadn't been hell. "You're probably exhausted," Beth realized, tugging Stubbs toward their makeshift campsite. "We're running low on food, but–"

Stubbs slung his duffle over his shoulder. "I had the chance to stock up." He unzipped the bag revealing piles of food and boxes of ammo. "Elsie always said I was paranoid, but look at us now."

Elizabeth tried to give him a reassuring smile. "I'm glad you're okay. With all that chaos…" She shook her head, trailing off. They'd all seen enough, there was no point reliving.

"Yeah, I was worried about you too." Stubbs shook his head. "Should've known you'd be able to save yourself."

Elizabeth shrugged. "I'm a regular antihero."

"Wait, Beth, did you make a friend?" Alexa asked skeptically. "Because, traditionally, you've only had three. And that includes me, your ex, which is kind of sad if you think about it."

"What about me?" Teddy asked.

"You're sleeping with her, you don't count." Alexa waved him away dismissively. She turned on Stubbs with narrowed eyes. "You're not sleeping with her, right?"

Elizabeth and Stubbs looked at each other with similar looks of shock and disgust. "Oh god, no," Stubbs added, shaking his head. "Definitely not."

Elizabeth glared. "The look was enough, now you're just being excessive."

"Sorry, not everyone wants to sleep with you, Fowler."

She raised an eyebrow. "Of the people here right now, you'd be in the minority."

"Are you counting yourself in that number?"

Before Elizabeth could speak, Alexa jumped between them. "Okay, let's just agree that Beth's dad probably gave her narcissistic personality disorder and call it a day."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Alright, if you two are done slandering me, we should talk about what comes next."

"It's only slander if it's untrue," Alexa said in a singsong voice.

"You heading to Mesa?" Stubbs asked. Elizabeth nodded. "That's my plan too, we can go together. It's safer in groups. But I don't have enough supplies for four people. We'll need to stock up."

"You have a place in mind?" Beth asked.

"Tech outpost about a half mile from here," he explained. He glanced over and shook his head. "For someone who claims to have insider knowledge of this park, you have terrible navigation skills."