Total Drama Endless

by NondescriptNorbert

Total Drama back again! This time there's new twists, a cast of twenty seven fictional characters, and most importantly; a new host. The story isn't over. Epilogue part 4/6. Wonderland is gone. The girl in the looking glass stares back.

45. The Prairies

Total Drama Endless Epilogue, Part 3.

---

"Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."- Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky.

---

...

Seven Years Ago…

July 4th.

The Day of Unification

The hour was drawing near, two time zones away in Ottawa and Washington there was all the signs of an approaching change, within an hour flags would be lowered, the gears of government were winding down for the last time, two nations hundreds of years old were going to end here and now and a new, virgin nation was to be born from them.

In the little house in the little town of Fairview, Alberta there was a flurry of voices.

Deep within her hiding place she could hear them. Mom was asking where she was, trying to get the family organized. They had intended to watch the ceremonies online live as they happened, much to the chagrin of their grandmother. She could hear the old hag shrieking death upon Wade Watts, that traitor Vancouverite whore who had married him and all of the United States. That didn't concern Paisley, she was use to the old woman's hateful tirades, she was ten after all, a big girl, they hadn't frightened her for a long time.

It was the world beyond the cluttered halls of her home that terrified her now.

Suddenly the closet door creaked open. Fearful as a mouse Paisley looked up.

"I like your hiding spot Paiselberry."

Even though she had been growing like a sprout lately her father still towered over her. His body was harsh, shaped by decades of hard labour. His features harsher, shaped by decades of watching a world give up on hope.

His heart and eyes however were soft and full of love.

"Everyone's looking for you. Can you come out?"

She shook her head. Her father gave her a diplomatic look.

"Can I come in then?"

Paisley hesitated then nodded softly. Her father crouched down and shuffled into the little nest of stuffed animals and blankets she had made for herself.

He noticed the doll she was clinging too and smiled good naturedly.

"Didn't you say you were getting too big for Madeline?"

Paisley hugged the doll closer.

"We're reconnecting."

Shawn Parker chuckled softly at his daughter.

"It's a holiday you know Paisley? Everyone's celebrating. Mom bought a cake." He grinned at her. "We can even send Nanny Dany back to her trailer if she's bothering you."

She didn't meet his eye.

"I know change is scary."

"It's not scary. It's just not fair!" Paisley moped. "I don't want to learn American history and states and Fahrenheit and crap at school! I already learned all the Canada stuff. I want to keep being Canada."

She sighed dejectedly.

"Why does it have to change?"

Her father gave her a melancholic smile.

"That's how the world works kiddo."

"…It's not fair."

"Not always." Her father agreed. "But let me ask you, tomorrow when you wake up as an Athabascan, will the town have changed?"

Paisley reflected on it.

"No…"

"Will your school change? All your little friends, Zoey and Mackenzie? Will they be different?

"No."

"What about your house, all your toys? The little Cyril Sneer stuffy Mom gave you? Your Madeline doll? Are they gonna change?"

Paisley shook her head uncertainly.

Her father gave her a very loving look.

"Doesn't matter what country your part of or what changes in the world, you'll always have your family, you know that right?"

"Even Nanny Dany?" Paisley groaned.

Her father laughed and embraced her.

…

Sunday August 19th, 2057

Hope, State of Colombia, North American Union.

...

"DEER!"

Farid turned his head in the direction Kayla was pointing. A young buck had stepped out of the woods and onto the highway just a couple dozen metres ahead of them.

"Have you ever seen one?" He whispered.

She shook her head excitedly. Her eyes were practically shining with a childlike wonder. He smiled.

He had to keep reminding himself that she had been the one that had played Beatrice and Paisley had been Peach. Outside of the simulation their personalities felt almost reversed.

He was really beginning to hit things off with Kayla ever since they had been on the road, which mind you hadn't been that long. There were still some signs of makeup left on her from the party, otherwise she had put her hair back in dreads and switched her party dress for acid washed jeans and an orange varsity jacket.

They had left Vancouver just that morning heading east and had passed through the Fraser Valley. The scenery hadn't been glamourous. The air was hazy as it had been since they had left ARCADIA, and the area surrounding Vancouver wasn't much different from any other modern city. A ring of trailer stacks, vertical hydroponic farms, and old suburbs and outlying communities. Once desirable places to live now decaying into squalor.

Now finally they were at the end of the valley and had arrived in the town of Hope. Even with the haze in the air and the obvious signs of fire scars the town was beautiful, nestled at the base of several mountains, the first they had properly seen all summer. Nearly eighty years ago in 1981 the famous action movie Rambo had been filmed here, which to most of the thirteen former Endless contestants, all products of modern eighties worshiping society, it made this place a holy site they were honoured to have made the pilgrimage to.

There was a large wood carved statue of John Rambo himself close to the burger joint they stopped for lunch at, most of the gang we down there now except for Jaxson who had disappeared somewhere and Paisley and Yeong-Ja, both sulking in the RV.

The deer fled back into the brush. Kayla didn't seem to mind. She drew in a breath of smoky air (How she managed that Farid didn't know) and sighed happily.

"God I am so hyped to be doing this trip."

"Have you traveled much before?"

Kayla laughed.

"You kidding? Never left Long Beach before the contest. Never left North Long Beach! Never even made the couple mile journey down to see the Queen Mary. This is new to me. This is exciting, seeing these Northern States, the newest parts of the Union. I'm excited. Did I already say that?"

"You might have."

She laughed.

"My bad."

Jaxson reappeared the others trailing behind him like ducklings.

"Yo! You two ready to hit the road again?" He called.

"We're coming." Farid said.

They walked by over to the RV. They were traveling in Jaxson's personal tour bus. The one he had traveled up from Los Angeles to Vancouver in for the contest. A lot of people lived a semi nomadic life in self driving RVs these days, Aech famously had done so during Halliday's contest. Though it was rare to see a celebrity own one. The rich and famous were some of the only people to still travel for pleasure but their preferred method of travel were hovercrafts. Jaxson was something of an oddity in his price range for choosing to travel by land, but that hardly meant he had skimmed on the expenses. His RV was a truly massive vehicle, almost more of a yacht on wheels. It easily had enough room to fit all thirteen of them, though they'd still have to check in to hotels at night to have enough beds. There was a kitchen, two bathrooms, a couple of couches, an entertainment console and a dedicated OASIS room, which wouldn't get much use on the trip. Wade had forbidden them from using any public OASIS servers or connecting anyone until December. Not that any of them cared. They had been in the OASIS for a whole year. This trip was about experiencing the real world again.

"Where did you disappear to?" Farid asks the rapper. He gave him a broad, almost guilty smile and pulled out something Farid recognized from back home in Buffalo.

"Back when my grand dad was a kid he used to take road trips out to Halifax to visit family and he told me the most important tradition was the 50 pack of Tim Horton's Timbits."

He opened a yellow cardboard box to reveal a treasure trove of glazed donut holes. The group swarmed them eagerly.

"Nice mate." Lennox laughed. "Very Canadian."

"Krispy Kreme does them better." Said Hannah unimpressed. It didn't stop her from grabbing another handful.

"There so good though!" Aria gushed. She poked her head into the RV. "Paisley your so lucky you can have these all the time."

"What's up?" Paisley asked distractedly. She had been sitting on one of the couches in the back, running her thumb over the locket Wade had given her.

Jaxson held up the box so see could see it.

"Oh Tim Hortons." She said, her tone dripped disinterest. "Never had 'em."

"How?" Luisa laughed.

"It's a franchise restaurant, guess nobody ever decided to open one in Fairview. How far are we gonna get today?"

Jaxson shrugged. "Dunno. I'm fittin for whatever. Depends what the road's like."

There was a mild panic that flashed in Paisley's eyes.

"The trips still gonna be done in under a week right?"

Kayla laughed.

"Girl you've got nowhere to be but Muskoka. Relax and enjoy yourself a while."

"I'll relax if we can get through Colombia by the end of the day." Paisley said.

…

As it turned it, they didn't get anywhere close to crossing the state by days end, or the one after that. When it was finally done and over with it took them the better part of three days to cross the state. Colombia lengthwise was mountains followed by sharp hills followed by another set of mountains, and in August all of it was burning. Landslides and erosion had decimated parts of the highway, shutting them down for hours at a time, on the steep mountain roads they passed the husks of wrecked trailers and trucks. Some rusting on the side of the road, others having tumbled hundreds of metres into the mountain valleys.

The air grew progressively more carcinogenic as they ventured into the Interior of the state. It kept them in the vehicle for the first view days. The only stops they made were to recharge the RV and eat meals and sleep in some of the mountain towns along the route, Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Revelstoke. Perhaps once these places had been scenic, but they had given up on that dream decades before. Now their purpose on the Earth was to ravage its surface for raw resources. They saw the effects of heavy industry everywhere, lumber mills, ore mining and the rail lines to support them and in between them long lonely stretches of poorly maintained road.

"It's the logging that ruined them." Steven said one day. "No trees means no root systems means nothing's holding the top soil in place."

"I'm sure they're trying to log sustainably." Farid said.

"I'm sure they could." Steven countered. "Unfortunately, the hyper consumerist American corporate empire that's illegally occupied this province had no foresight on how it's rape of the natural world is quickly decimating an irreplaceable natural ecosystem."

He sighed bitterly.

"There's no place for environmentalism in the book of capitalism."

Steven wasn't an environmentalist, at least that's how the others would describe him. Career contrarian was a better title. Steven seemed to love arguing for the sake of arguing, almost as much as Yeong-Ja did, though she more complained. Being stuck in the RV with them without escape had been a chore the first day but Farid and Kayla eventually got used to them complaining, just as they quickly learned to get used to Neil and Hannah and their terrible shock humour, most of which boiled down to saying offensive things to get a reaction from people.

Kayla was unbothered by all of them, nothing could spoil this for her.

On the evening of the 21st the air at last begin to improve as they crossed into the Canadian Rockies, and by the time they crossed the state line into Alberta the mountains were all encompassing. Great jagged peaks of sedimentary rock towering over thousands of kilometres over the roadways. Their glaciers had melted decades ago but it did little to impede upon the mountains natural grandeur.

The forests too looked far healthier. According to Steven and Jaxson they were passing through Banff National Park, the oldest in former Canada and famed as one of the most beautiful places on the continent. It was also host to three very popular and luxurious sky resorts, Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff, therefore (Steven acknowledged bitterly) the rich and powerful had reason to preserve its beauty.

That evening they camped at Lake Minnewanka, most of them stripping down to their undergarments and swimming, then they hiked the lakes along the banks.

"I'll be real with you Paisley…" Kayla said, the two of them looking out from the bridge over Stewart Canyon. The soft oranges of sunset dancing with the deep blues of the lake, the sharp greens of the conifers, the bare greys of the mountain peaks.

"…You Albertans sure got it lucky."

"Athabascan."

Kayla gave her friend a look.

"I'm not from Alberta anymore, I'm Athabascan." Paisley said firmly. "President Watts's decree."

Kayla was thrown off by the bitterness of the statement.

"I thought you and the President hit it off during the party?"

Paisley sighed and glanced down at her locket.

"Yeah. I thought so to."

…

It was almost alarming how quickly the mountains faded away.

The following morning it took less than half an hour after they had left the park for all elevation to level out into nonexistence. A vast flat landscape stretched near endlessly into the horizon. They had entered the Prairies, the northern portion of the Great Plains, the vast grasslands that spanned the heart of the North American continent. Like it's sister across the sea the Eurasian Steppe the Plains had once been host to horse tribes and settlers and fertile soils that had fed people the world over. Now all those were gone and the plains were semi-arid and semi-anarchic.

There were still farms here though, the same kind that loomed around Vancouver. Quiet family run places half in ruins seemed impossibly small next to the government sponsored fields along the rail lines. So critical were these to feeding the country that they were guarded by the National Guard. Both men and robotic soldiers sulking about the grain elevators like an occupying army.

Soon after the mountains disappeared did they enter Calgary, Alberta's largest city and the biggest they'd encounter on their trip.

Jaxson restocked on supplies, then they stopped for lunch at a fast-food joint in Crescent Heights where they could see the glass spires of downtown Calgary glimmering on the other side of the Bow river. There was a palpable grandness to the city. Over the past couple decades it had gained a reputation by being one of the few cities to still be thriving in the country outside the Tech Belt around the Great Lakes and the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland corridor in the Pacific Northwest. As they parked the van at the charging station and walked to the restaurant Steven informed them without request of how The Albertan government had fiercely pursued autonomy from Ottawa and prioritized using its vast oil reserves and the wealth they generated to maintain stability and prosperity within its own borders even as the rest of the continent was spiraling into post-oil collapse.

This was all hardly surprising coming from him. Steven was from Victoria, the coastal capital of Colombia and the rest of them had quickly learned from his many tirades that there was something of a rivalry between Colombia and Alberta. Steven had put it most elegantly back in Revelstoke.

"British Colombia was the Canadian California, Alberta's one big Canadian Texas and God thought it'd be real fucking funny to stick them next to each other."

Fortunately for the others their food was soon in front of them and Steven lapsed into silence (Food was normally the best way to do that. The other was Yeong-Ja screaming at him to shut up) giving the others some time to get a word in and talk about the only part of Canada they had any interest in, Camp Wawanakwa.

"You think he's actually gonna be there?" Luisa asked.

Hannah looked up from her sandwich and sucked a stray blob of garlic sauce off her finger.

"McLean?"

The Hispanic goth nodded, dark curly hair bouncing up and down. Hannah rolled her eyes.

"No chance."

Sitting between Her and Kayla was Matsunaga Keiji, Tomoko's player and a Twenty-two-year-old man from Aomori, Japan. He was pleasant if a bit awkward to be around but as a former Hikikomori seemed constantly intimidated by his surroundings, having strayed so far from his comfort zone. Though he was older than either girl he hovered around Hannah and Kayla for protection nearly as much as Tomoko had clung to Amethyst and Beatrice.

"I thought meeting Chris was why we are going?" He asked. Brow furrowed in confusion. "Is he not going to be there?"

"He'll be there." Kayla insisted firmly.

"…Whether he lets us in is the real question." Hannah added. "But the hell with it. Worst case scenario we get to see his house."

"No worst-case scenario we'll meet he's security system." Steven said cynically. Hannah laughed.

"I'm not worried about that."

"What if he's got attack dogs? Could you outrun something like that?"

"No but I can outrun you."

Steven gave her a look of deep offense. She smiled condescendingly at him.

"Aight be real here. No guarantee anything happens up there. But even if McLean don't let us in you kids'll like Muskoka." Jaxson says. "It ain't Banff but it's still a nice part of the country."

Several of them looked surprised.

"You've been to Muskoka?" Aria asked amazed.

Jaxson gave her a much kinder laugh than Hannah.

"Course I've been. Got a couple buddies that have cabins up there."

Aria's eyes widen further.

"Oh my gosh! Seriously? That far from civilization?"

"Aria, Muskoka's only two hours outside of Toronto."

Several contestants looked confused now.

"Total Drama always made it out like it was the middle of nowhere, like Survivor." Luisa said. Jaxson grinned.

"Yeah, that's the joke. The show's shot like it's this big wilderness survival thing but it's set in the Canadian equivalent of like Malibu or the Hamptons. That's why in season one the contestants get off the boat and they're expecting a resort or a fancy cabin. That's the kind of shit you'd normally expect over there. But instead, they get a summer camp and everything's run down and shitty. Again, it's part of the original satire, but that's lost on people outside of Canada."

"I thought it was a set?" Neil said.

"Nah Wawanakwa's a real place." Jaxson insisted. "It's an island off the coast of Muskoka in Lake Huron. Big one too, talkin' maybe 5k, two and half miles. Boney Island's about the same size. I've actually gone hiking there."

"Wawanakwa?" Kayla asks.

"No Boney. Boney's a State Forest. Used to be a Provincial Park before the unification. Pretty popularly hiking spot. You take you're kayak out and spend the afternoon climbing around. Really nice spot actually. Wawanakwa I think used to be part of the same park, really was a summer camp there decades ago. These days McLean owns the whole island, won't let anyone else go near it."

"How do you know all this?" Matsunaga asked mystified. "I thought you were a Los Angeles rapper?"

"Yeah but he probably did his research on the show before signing up." Lennox said. "I mean I did, I could have told you all that and I live on the opposite side of the fucking planet mate."

"Actually, I'm from Toronto. Born there." Jaxson clarified. "I had a dad that worked in film production we when back and forth between LA and the GTA throughout my childhood. Rep both proudly. Both homes, both towns. I was shaped by there streets and speak to their souls equally. Love Toronto as much as Drake or The Weeknd. Love LA as much as Tupac or Marked Improvement."

Kayla's nostrils flared ever so subtlety. Farid saw her expression darken and changed the topic.

"This isn't your first time traveling the country then Mark-Er Jaxson?"

"Did the trip a lot as a kid. Wasn't glamourous. This was back during the worse years of the energy drought. Toronto to LA mean weeks crawling from town in town in this big ass armoured bus. There'd be mercs with assault rifles riding with you in case some Neo-Nazi bandit gang got any ideas. Scared the piss out of me doing it. Now a day's things have got better, I can cruise around in the RV, conquering my fear of the countryside, visit buddies, crash after concerts, it's blessed."

"Must be nice to have something like that all the time." Kayla said, not all of the bitterness had disappeared from her tone. Hannah caught it and looked at her.

"You're rich too idiot."

"What?"

"You got second place."

"Uh yeah…" Kayla said flatly. "That means I didn't get the grand prize. Or do you not get how these shows work?"

"She does. You don't." Lennox assured her. "Total Drama ripped off a lot from Survivor including how it pays its cast. Since you know it's a fucking Televisions show and we're technically the actors. We get paid even if we don't win the prize."

"Why do think the OG cast keep coming back?" Hannah said. "Wasn't because of sentimental feelings or to make amends with their old friends or whatever BS excuse they made Gwen Dyer say in All-Stars."

She and Lennox had Kayla's attention now.

"How much we get paid?"

Lennox screwed up his face as he did the math.

"Runner up normally gets a tenth of total prize money. Which was a Billion NAU dollars. So… you're worth… Dunno. Probably like a hundred million I'd say. Then Farid's got eighty-five million, Hannah's got a little less and it works its way down from there. But we're at millionaires… before taxes at least."

The look on Kayla's face was comical. At least Hannah and Lennox found it so. The Australian boy got a good look at the stunned expressions surrounding them and threw up his hands exasperated.

"They had us floating in a tank for a fucking year! You're telling me only three people here actually did the fucking research on these shows before they signed up!?"

Kayla laughed faintly.

"I uh… didn't know that."

"Didn't anyone mention that to you at the complex?" Steven asked.

"I think Wade or someone said something about the rest of getting a reward." Kayla said, looking like she had been struck on the head. "I thought he was talking about the fame."

"Oh, we'll be famous too." Hannah assured her. "Honestly if you don't have a break down in front of the camera then we're all set for life, doubly so if there's an actual season 2."

"There'd better be a season two!" Yeong-Ja insisted furiously. "They owe it to me after they cheated me out of the first one."

"You and me both kid." Lennox agreed giving her a very wry look. He settled in the uncomfortable plastic form of the booth they were sitting in. "…Course even if this a huge waste of time and it turns out this little kindie beauty when and fucked my only chance of glory out existence, Being a millionaire helps sooth over any lingering emotional devastation doesn't it?"

"Yeah millionaire life's gonna be lit…" Hannah agreed. She cranked another smile. "Better than being a billionaire."

All eyes drifted to Paisley, who was as usual during food and rest stops sitting away from the group with her Walkman on. A passive bitterness settled over her.

"I can't believe Banff didn't cheer her up." Kayla said.

"Right? She's got no business being so gloomy." Luisa said with mild scandal. "She won!"

"Exactly she won. She doesn't have any reason to be here." Hannah said. "Bellam practically guilt tripped her into it."

Kayla looked mildly bruised. "I thought she'd be happy to hang out."

"You took her away from spending time with her money. She probably hates you."

"Enough Hannah." Farid said firmly, then he turned to Kayla and said more gently. "Paisleys just homesick. Misses her family. I'm familiar with the feeling."

"You Pakistani's have big families, do you?" Aria asked.

"They breed like rats back in Korea." Yeong-Ja said.

Farid suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"My family's not from Pakistan."

"Where you from them?" Hannah asked.

"Buffalo, New York."

"I mean where you were born dumbass?"

"Buffalo."

"Where's your family from?"

Farid's shifted in his seat with increasing unease.

"I don't tell people that. People treat us differently."

"Bullshit answer. Seriously what are you? Palestinian?"

"Drop it Hannah. No hate in this group." Kayla said. Now it was her turn to rescue Farid.

Hannah shot her a defensive look. "I'm not being racist. It's a serious fucking question!"

"Aight seriously cool it." Jaxson insists. "We came on this trip to have fun, enough of this picking on one another. You're bringing the vibe down."

"Yeah, what about Parker then?"

Jaxson looked over his shoulder at Paisley and grinned. It was a very similar grin to the boyish look of delight Markus had always been so fond of.

"Don't you worry about Parker. I picked out a stop for ya'll this afternoon that's guaranteed to be a people pleaser."

…

Misery hung over Paisley like a shroud. It bound her in a vice and squeezed until every bit of joy was drained from her.

There was a tiny logical mechanism somewhere in her brain's left hemisphere that argued this misery was nothing but teenaged melodrama. She would after all see her friends and family again in a few months, but that little raft of rationality was lost in the yawning expanse of a year's worth of exhaustion.

If there was any fleeting bright side it was that today was sure to be the worse of her emotional ordeal. After such a long absence coming so close to home without returning was agony. To see the flat plains of the prairies, their dusty fields, the rusting pump-jacks, now this place that was reminding her so strongly of the Dunvegan Stacks with it's sloping canyon walls.

"Drumheller, Alberta!" Jaxson had said gleefully. "Famous OG Total Drama World Tour spot in your neck of the woods! Let's hope no one blows up our ride ain't that right Pais?"

Total Drama World Tour hadn't of course actually ever gone to Alberta, nor had Pahkitew Island which had been implied to have been set in the province. Hosting Endless in Vancouver was actually the first time the show's production had left Southern Ontario. Everything before hand had been filmed on Wawanakwa or the Toronto film lot first since in action, including every World Tour locale except for Niagara Falls. They had even used the same airplane set in World Tour that they had used for the war movie challenge in Total Drama Action. Even recycled the bit about jumping out of it without a parachute. No one noticed until McLean brought it up four years later during the Pahkitew scandal.

This had been public knowledge for a long time but to her castmates it seemingly didn't matter. They were mesmerised when the highway dropped beneath the flat expanse of the prairieland and down the sloping route into the hoodoos and badlands the Red Deer river had carved around itself.

In fairness Drumheller was famous long before Total Drama quote on quote "visited" in 2010. Alberta was just as known for it's fossils as it was its fossil fuels, and Drumheller was its paleontological Mecca. All the quintessential dinosaurs had roamed here once, the celebrity A-listers of the Mesozoic world like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops and all the other long Latin named hell beasts five-year olds like her kid brother Will took delight in memorizing.

God how she missed him.

Maybe a younger Paisley would have taken delight at being here, like she would have been in Banff. Under the current circumstances it made her heart ache painfully. Beyond the canyons and a 50-metre fibreglass T-rex that looked like it needed a paint job Drumheller looked much like any small town in Alberta, just like home.

Too much like home.

While the others were stopped taking pictures of all the touristy things, she let her gaze wander to the red brick municipal building across the street. Two flags were fluttering in the August breeze, the old flag of Alberta with its coat of arms on a dark blue field, and their national flag of North America. Two vertical red stripes surrounding a blue one with two white stars in it's centre. Wade Watt's painfully generic compromise for a symbol to unite four hundred million people.

She savaged the flag with a glare, thinking vengefully of the president. She couldn't quite find it in herself to blame Kayla for this trip. The girl meant well. The Gamer in Chief on the other hand, now that was always someone she could rally negative thoughts around. She had found him tolerable for all of five days back at the compound, but now after this, he was back on her shit list.

"Oh, the hormonal indecisiveness of teenagerhood." Lamented that logical piece of her mind.

She'd give that thing a kick if she could.

That piece of her head always thought it was better than her.

"Exciting isn't it?" Kayla asked.

"Hmm? Oh. Yeah. No it's great. Really great." Paisley said, giving the giant decaying fiberglass T-Rex another look of pity. Someone had plastered a series of adverts on its body long ago, It only added to the poor things gaudiness.

"Jaxson I saw a Vend-All store as we were coming in. I'm gonna grab something from there."

"Take someone with you." Replying the rapper distractedly.

"I can handle a town like this." Paisley said flatly. "It's what I'm used to."

"You're precious cargo Parker. I'm not letting you run wild on your own. Steven go with her."

"You've already got me on Yeong-Ja babysitting duty!" Steven griped.

"Then take her too."

All three of them groaned.

…

The Vend-All store was two blocks away. Like every location of the franchise the store space was occupied entirely by two straight rows of vending machines of every variety and size conceivable. Paisley found the one she needed quickly and started making her choice. The other two hovering around her irritably.

"Idiot..." Grumbled Steven. "Bossing us around like that. He's not even thirty, what gives him the right?"

"It's a national tragedy." Paisley agreed dryly. "Also do me a favour and shut up for once? Oh God dammit!"

She slammed the machine's panel with her fist. It was giving her trouble processing her payment. No doubt whatever internal card processor was a little confused that no one under her ID had made any transactions in almost a year.

Steven raises an eyebrow.

"What did you even need so badly?" Steven demanded.

"Just a comfort object." Paisley said.

She all her information in again. This time it cleared and with a metallic thud her item vended.

She reached into the machine and pulled out what she had paid for, a Taurus G2C wrapped in cellofoam, as well as a holster and ammunition, which she immediately began loading. She hadn't of course been allowed to bring her own gun to the competition and now that she was back out in the real world, she was starting to feel uncomfortable without one.

She caught Steven's expression from the corner of her eye. He was watching her sourly, palpable disgust across his features.

"Got something to say?" She asked.

"No." He grunted.

Of course, a moment later as she turned her attention back to her ammo he decided to go ahead and get his point in away.

"Typical Albertan, you people just love having those American gun laws around."

"Just because America stole our country doesn't mean they didn't have some good ideas."

They walked out of the store. Steven laughed sarcastically.

"Our country. Nice. You people hated Canada right up until the day it disappeared." His's eyes flashed to a worn sticker of the old Canadian flag someone had stuck to the nearest street light.

"…Now suddenly you're all patriots."

"We didn't hate Canada we hated being part of an empire ruled by Ontario, having them tell us what we could do with our resources."

Steven sniffed unsympathetically. "What bastards they were to try and regulate your dirty tar sands."

"Yeah, us bastards. Driving the national economy. Hey while were on the topic what did you British Colombians ever contribute to Canada? Besides you know, the woman who destroyed the entire country?"

Steven's eyes narrowed.

"I don't know if you noticed but we're not British Colombians anymore. We're just Colombians now. President's orders."

"Yeah, well I don't if you noticed but I'm not Albertan anymore, so I can't speak for them." She waved her arms around to the town surrounding them.

"Not my province anymore. Or State or whatever. We've got a new State now, president's orders. Even if that asshole doesn't even remember he changed it."

Steven sneered at her. "You're a President Watt's critic too? That's rich considering…"

"What? I signed up for his game? You did too dickweed."

"…you won them."

"Yeah. I know."

"… and are on your way to what's probably another one."

"I know!"

"…and you're pretty much going to be his propaganda tool for the rest of your life…"

"Didn't I tell you to shut the fuck up Steven!?"

She suddenly stopped at a dilapidated concrete bench, trying to get her hands steady enough to resume loading her gun. Intent on ignoring the other two for as long as possible.

Steven threw a victorious look at Yeong-Ja.

"Guess she's mad."

The little Korean girl kicked him in the shine. Steven yelped.

"I'm mad at both of you." Yeong-Ja grumbled. "Stupid white kids, dragging me around, making me listen to dumb shitty politics of a dead country."

She marched up Paisley and pulled at her sleave.

"Hey fatty! You owe me an apology for wasting my time."

"Fuck off."

"Why are you so grumpy? Stop being so grumpy all the time, people don't like that. Grumpy people are unattractive."

"I'm not grumpy I just miss my family."

"Call them." Yeong-Ja said. Paisley gave her a look.

"I can't. I don't have a phone and Wade told us to stay off the OASIS." She said impatiently

Yeong-Ja looked at her blanky.

"So? Use it anyway."

"He's the President, and co-owns the OASIS, and knows me personally, I think he'd find out."

Yeong-Ja considered it.

"He probably would. If you were stupid, which you are." She said thoughtfully. "If you're not stupid you can get away with it easy. Fortunately for you I'm not stupid. I can get you through to your family." She grinned. "…For a price."

"How much?" Paisley asked.

"Ten Million!"

Paisley gave her a skeptical look.

"You sure you can do this?"

"If it fails, no charge."

"Deal."

Paisley shook the girl's hand without hesitation. Yeong-Ja looked very pleasantly surprised.

"It is? Wow! I should have asked for more…"

…

The name of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology was one of the last blatant nomenclative vestiges of British Colonial rule in former Canada not wiped out by American annexation. The museum attached to the name, just outside of Drumheller, was widely regarded as one of the best dinosaur museums in the world.

At the front desk, Yeong-Ja had pestered Jaxson for a video tour guide, as she insisted, she had trouble reading English. The museum had a variety of tour guide options, most of them extravagant as it was really only the rich that traveled in person to museums anymore. There were OASIS visors for sale that through augmented reality could bring the exhibits to life or an autonomous humanoid robot guide with a brain full of natural history facts to show them around. Yeong-Ja had opted instead for the cheapest option, a simple tablet full of factoids and individual tours and a bulky set of headphones to listen to them. This, she had told Paisley, was essential to the plan.

As the young girl trailed behind them, fiddling with her device Paisley did her best to try and at least appear sociable. Kayla, Jaxson and most of the others accepted the minor mood shift openly and unsuspiciously and they spend the afternoon roaming through the museum. Paisley ended up amongst a small group with Luisa, Aria, and Matsunaga. It surprised her to find she was for the first time on the trip actually enjoying herself being with them. Luisa spoke her mind but was friendly, Aria was bright and bubbly and Matsunaga had a reserved kindness to him. Paisley had seen the Tyrell many times before. In school, touring the museum through the OASIS was a field trip she had done in several grades and the layout was old and familiar even if she had never been in person. Yet seeing everything through the eyes of the three, especially Aria and Matsunaga who were from so far and so different places, it brought new life to the exhibits. They ran about the skeleton displays, drinking in all there was to see. A Halloween showcast of life long lost, of all the great species, the Allosaurus, Albertosaurus, Stegosaurus, the Black Beauty Tyrannosaur, it's dark stained bones fully intact and still half embedded in the stone slab it was found it. Great beasts once fact now gone forever, alive only in fiction, and her foreign friends were mesmerized by them.

There was a smaller exhibit dedicated to the Paleozoic, the life before the dinosaurs with immersive life like dioramas of all the strange life of the Cambrian, the fish of the Devonian and Carboniferous forest that was all too familiar to all four of them. One wall showcasing fossils of the time had a set of Arthropleura tracks and Luisa who had played Wednesday Addams back in Endless couldn't help but channel her character once more and dramatically mourn her beloved pet.

"My poor baby fossilized. After all the things we did to get you back to me. I still can't believe they had us singing Cydni Lauper on A CW show."

Aria and Matsunaga looked amazed.

"When did that happened?" Aria gaped.

A smile found it's way onto Paisley's face. "I thought you never wanted to talk about it?"

"Wednesday didn't." Luisa said. "I couldn't be that tight lipped if my life depended on it."

And Paisley laughed. It was a small, but it was the first time in a long while.

She felt another tug on her sleave. Yeong-Ja was staring up at her imploringly.

"It's ready."

…

They walked a ways more with the others before doubling back to the Carboniferous exhibit and crouched into the corner near the large glass case displaying a model of a forest of scalewood trees. Yeong-Ja passes the tablet and head phones to Paisley.

"Sure this will work?"

The little girl scoffs.

"Like I said, easy." She gestures to the screen. "All these Gregarious made tablets have the ability to connect to the OASIS. The museum had this one only operating their tour program but once it was set back to developer mode It was very simple to get it back to standard operations."

Paisley frowned.

"Whose OASIS account is this?"

"One of mine." Yeong-Ja said causally. Paisley gave her a look.

"Isn't Gregarious supposed to really strict about not letting people make multiple accounts? Like they ban your IP for life if they find you with one?"

Yeong-Ja blew a raspberry.

"That's stupid people rules that only stop stupid people. Smart people like me can get around them easy. I have 9 accounts. No one knows about them but me."

"That's… really impressive actually." Paisley admitted. "You're actually pretty damn smart kid."

Under her imposing fortress of bravado Yeong-Ja seemed quite happy with the compliment. She grinned very genuinely at Paisley. It was a proud look but one that befitted her age. The kind a child would give showing a drawing to their parents.

"My mentors say I could be the youngest person to pass the Samsung exam." Yeong-Ja said brightly. "I'm going to take it when we get back."

"You want to work for Samsung?"

"Every Korean wants to work for them. Only the best get in. The company's the heart of our people's fortunes." Her smile grew less innocent. "It's still owned by Koreans too you know? Unlike all those inferior Japanese companies that got bought by Gregarious."

She tapped the screen.

"I see your father's online. Call him now before anyone sees us. You may need to text him first, he won't recognize this account. That is his account yes?"

Suddenly the little tablet in her hand became a deeply pressing matter. Paisley mouth had gone dry as she nodded. She hadn't seen her father in well over a year.

Heart beating hastily somewhere in her throat Paisley tried to drive the rest of the world away as she pressed the call button.

The device rang, Yeong-Ja got up and when to stand guard leaving Paisley with the tablet. She stood up and stared at it as if it was made of gold and tried to control her hands, which she suddenly realized were shaking.

There was a light electronic ring and the call connected.

"Hello?"

Paisley swallowed hard. Mouth still dry.

"Hello? Who is this?" Came the voice on the other side.

"Hi dad…" Paisley croaked.

The voice on the other side went quiet

She turned on her video, he did as well and she staring into her father's eyes.

Both of them stayed frozen like that for a moment before he broke into a broad smile.

"You're alive."

She laughed weakly. Eyes swimming beyond her control.

"I'm alive."

"We figured you'd be out soon. Welcome home Paisley. How was Wonderland?"

She beamed.

"Good dad. It was really good. I missed you guys."

"Everyone missed you too Paiselberry."

She laughed again and felt the tears run down her face.

"How's everyone back home?"

Her father sighed.

"There good. Mom says everyone's healthy. Kerry's started working up here in the Territories with me, everyone else is still at home. Your friends stop by every once in a while. They say they've got some secret project you guys were working on before you left for Will." He saw the look on her face they added quickly. "They haven't shown him yet. Say they're waiting for you to get back. Your kid brother really misses you."

"I know." She said painfully. The thought was agony. She changed the topic quickly to get away from it.

"What about you? How's the project?"

Her father's grin broadened further but it didn't distract her from the rest of his features. He had visibly aged since she had last since him. Thick lines of ore and grit had settled into the wrinkles on his face and his dirty blonde hair was greying. He was in his late fifties now and the signs of a harsh life of hard labour were piling up.

"Project is busy as ever." He said. "So long as they keep building that starship they'll be plenty of work for your old man."

"You're still a manager, right?"

"Site supervisor."

He moved the screen to show her the tiny pre-fab site office he was currently in.

"Sit on my ass most days now but the weather makes it hard up here no matter what you're doing. Had a real motherfucker of a winter if you don't mind the French. That was about the time Kerry arrived. Your brother's doing great by the by. I was telling Macauley, this old guy from out east I've been working with about it. Really thriving in the business Kerry is."

He coughed.

"He'll be earning the pay for us pretty soon here. Or well… we'll see. Be nice to retire, spend some more time with guys, but it's might still be ten years away."

His eyes flashed humorously.

"Unless of course… you're bringing in some kind of windfall."

Paisley bit her lip. Her father misinterpreted the sign

"Paisley we were over this before you left, don't beat yourself up about what place you got."

"No actually…"

Her face flushed and there were more tears forming, it was suddenly quite hard to speak.

"There…might be… some…" She choked out. Shawn Parker's eyes went wide.

"You didn't?"

She nodded, fresh tears rolling. Her father laughed feebly.

"You didn't?"

She nodded frantically both of them now grinning weakly.

"That's… Baby girl that's… Oh my god Paisley. I'm so proud."

"No one can know until December!" She added hastily. "Don't let anyone know I told you."

"Until December?"

He father frowned and gazed past her.

"Where are you now? Is that Vancouver?"

"The Carboniferous."

"What?"

She stepped back to show him the exhibit behind her.

"The Carboniferous Period. Second time I've been actually. We're at the Royal Tyrrell."

Her father's eyes lit up.

"In Drumheller? That close?"

"Yeah…"

"You're coming home then?"

There was hideous shock of pain that flashed through her.

"Not yet." She said. "They have a couple more things they want us to do." Her voice grew more urgent. "But I promise I'll be home soon as I get okay? I don't care what it takes, fast as I can. You tell Will his big sister's coming home fast she can, and she's gonna give him the biggest hug when she does. Tell him I promised that!"

Her father laughed softly.

"Easy Paisley, your brother's not going anywhere. He'll be there when you get home. I'll see if I can pull some strings, get me and Kerry some time off in December, then once you're back Fairview we'll all be together again? Alright Paiselberry? Can you hold out that long?"

Another wave of emotion had her in it's throes, She stared into her father's eyes, heart tearing itself apart.

"I love you guys, so, so much."

"We love you to Paisley. Try and enjoy yourself. We'll be here when you get back."

He shook his head in disbelief.

"I'm so proud of you, Baby Girl."

"…. Thanks Dad."

She gave him a stricken, almost desperate look.

"This isn't goodbye. I'll be home soon."

"We know."

Her father gave her a final reassuring look then the call ended, and the screen when black. She was left staring blankly at her own reflection

Paisley slowly slumped against the glass wall of the exbibit and buried her face in her arms.

"There." Yeong-Ja said marching back over. "You talked to your family. Feel better?"

Paisley groaned.

"I feel worse."

…

"Yeong-Ja I think you broke her."

They stayed in the museum for most of the afternoon. By the time they were back on the road again, it was early evening. Ever since then Paisley had been laying facedown on the carpet of the tour bus, and she had stayed like that long enough to draw the concern of some of the others.

"I only did what she asked me to idiots!" Yeong-Ja said defensively. "It's not my fault her stupid white woman brain is overemotional."

"She really is that homesick huh?" Kayla sighed.

"Yeah you've really got out for the Princess huh Bellam?" Hannah said lightly. Farid gave her a look.

"Jaxson how far is it from here to Fairview?" He called up to the front. "Maybe we go stop by. How's that sound Paisley?"

Paisley murmured something despairing into the floor.

"I'll have to catch you guys on that later." Jaxson said. "We're a little lost at the moment."

Hannah came up to the front, frowning.

"Isn't this thing autodrive?"

"GPS signals a little rough so I took over." Jaxson said.

Kayla and Farid came over. The two of them and Hannah stared out the window. The country east of the Badlands was especially dusty and desolately, there were hardly any farms, just a poorly maintained road through a wasteland. Now the sun had set fully and night had crept in, it was overcast and visibility was low. All they see was what was being illuminated by the bus's high beams. Beyond that was a vast ocean of darkness.

"We're still on the main highway, right?"

"The Trans-Canada? Nah we left that a while back."

"Shit!"

Hannah suddenly looked uncharacteristically grave.

"We need to turn around now."

"When we get to the next turn off."

"Now dipshit! Cut through a field if you have too. Just get us the hell out of here."

Jaxson made to interject angrily, Hannah didn't give him the chance.

"Listen King. You pompous ass Hollywood types might not know about this, but the people that live in the real world know to stay the fuck out of places like this. The government only patrols the main roads, back roads are a free for all and there are some very unpleasant people out here you do not want to meet."

"Maybe it's like that in the South." Farid argued. "I know what sort of groups you're talking about, I don't think they'd be active this far north."

"Then you don't know my part of the world."

Paisley had appeared behind them, fully alert. Like Hannah she seemed concerned.

"Hannah's right, we need to get out of here Jaxson. As in like yesterday."

"Alright, I'll see if I can turn us-"

"HIT THE BREAKS!"

Jaxson slammed the break pedal. The bus screeched to a stop and everyone lurched forward. Farid and Jaxson foreheads hit the windshield. Behind them they could hear the outer contestants groaning in pain.

"LITTLE WARNING NEXT TIME HUH!?" Lennox shouted.

"My bad." Jaxson winced rubbing his forehead. He turned to Paisley. "What's up?"

Paisley pointed straight ahead.

There was some dark shape on the road, barely visible in the dark. Jaxson drove forward until the object was fully illuminated in the headlights, then they all went deathly quiet.

There was the burnt-out husk of the tractor trailer blocking the road. That in of itself wasn't shocking. They had all seen plenty littered back in the mountain passes of Colombia.

This was different though; this wasn't an accident.

Hanging from the side of the trailer was the driver. A trail of blood leaked down from his corpse. The body bruised and blacked. It gaped out at them from three empty holes in its skull, eyes and tongue gone.

Behind the corpse the trailer had been spray painted with a manifesto of hatred. The poisoned ramblings of all North America's most lethal societal diseases littered the vehicle, weaving there way behind swastikas and Qs.

The others came to gather around. Lennox put it best.

"Jesus fucking Christ."

"You kids convinced me." Jaxson said hoarsely. "Let's turn back."

Then they hear it somewhere behind them.

There was the distant sound of motorcycle engines.

"Go." Hannah and Paisley said in unison. "Go! NOW!"

Jaxson thrashed out at the gas pedal with his foot. The RV served wildly off the road and around the trailer before speeding back onto the asphalt. They could hear men shouting now. They were gaining quickly.

"What do we do?" Luisa whimpered.

"Everyone but me and Neil needs to get away from the wheel and hide yourselves." Hannah commanded. "Shorties are taking over."

"It's my bus!" Jaxson protested.

"These people pull ahead of us and see a man like you at the wheel what do you think they'll do!?" She snapped at him. Jaxson shallowed hard and retreated with the others. Only Paisley stayed put.

"What makes you think your special princess?"

"This is my part of the country. I'm helping."

"Fine. Don't get in the way of my plan!"

"What plan?"

"This plan!"

Hannah, now at the wheel served off the bus off the road and into the wasteland.

"That's a terrible plan!" Yelped Paisley.

The RV's suspension seemed to agree. The whole bus was shaking violently.

The bikers were right all around them now. There was at least five of them, all harden, savage looking men.

"PULL OVER!" One shouted.

"KISS MY ASS!" Neil roared back. "Hannah gun it!"

Hannah slammed down on the gas. They sped ahead of the bikers, but not my much.

"Jaxson tell me you've got self defense on this thing!" Paisley said.

"Press that button on the dash!"

She pressed the one Jaxson was pointing too.

A shrill noise came from the vehicle and the taillights began to strobe blindingly. In the side mirror she saw one of the bikers fall from his motorcycle. The others however were still fast behind them.

"Can't this thing go faster!?" Hannah demanded.

"You think this fancy piece of shit's meant for off-roading!?" Paisley shouted back at her.

There was a loud bang from the back of the Bus. They had lost the tire. Hannah grit her teeth.

"Shit!"

"We're fucked! We are so fucked!" Neil moaned. He ran his fingers through his rust-coloured hair.

"Why the fuck did you people talk me into this!? I'm gonna die without getting laid!"

"What was that Neil?" Hannah asked.

"Nothing!"

They were noticeably slowing now. The bikers had them surrounded.

"PULL! OVER!"

"What do we do?" Squeaked Aria in an unusually high voice.

"Stay low!" Paisley barked. "I'll do the talking."

"You think you can talk us out of this?" Hannah asked incredulously.

"You have a better idea?" Paisley said.

One the bikers dismounted and marched towards the driver's door. He was a grim looking man, built solid with muscle and fat, most of his face obscured by an orange beard.

He pounded the door furiously with a closed fist. Paisley put on hand on her holster than against every logical bone in her body rolled down the window.

"WHERE'S THE DRIVER!?" Demanded the biker.

"You're speaking to her!" Paisley said.

"Bull SHIT I am! GET OUT HERE!"

"You talk to me understand!?" Paisley ordered forcefully. The biker gave her an almost rabid look, she hoped desperately he didn't notice she was trembling.

"Which one of you retards thought it was a good idea to come out here in a bus like this? Didn't you see that truck?"

"We don't get intimidated from shit like that!" Paisley said, then she spun backwards, blinding pain in her check. The biker had struck her.

"GOD DAMN FUCKIN DUMB ASS AMERCIANS AND YOUR GOD DAMN HUBRIS! YOU HAVE ANY FUCKIN IDEA IN THAT FUCKING SKULL OF YOURS WHAT THE SCUM THAT DO THAT SHIT WOULD DO YOU!?"

Between the shock and anger to took a minute for Paisley to process the statement. Hannah caught it first.

"We're supposed to believe that lynching, wasn't you?"

The biker gave her a hard look of offense.

"Do I look like a monster?"

He pointed out to the night.

"The 88 Militia's been active in the area. My gang's been trying to hunt them down, but it's ain't exactly fucking easy when we're tied down by ignorant ass foreigners that don't have the common sense not to go trouncing into the dangerous areas!"

Cautiously Jaxson approached the window.

"Alright, driver here. Don't need to hit anybody else. GPS went out me and I got us lost alright? Innocent mistake."

"Oh, you think this is innocent? Dragging kids out here? You get a look of that body or did you have your minors driving for that."

"No I saw it-"

"Then you should have known to get out of there!"

"What do you think we were doing before you starting chancing us?" Paisley asked rubbing her check angrily.

"You were the ones that drove of!"

"Wonder why?"

The biker scowled at her then it seemed some of his anger passed and he relented slightly.

"You're face alright?"

Paisley gave him a dirty look. "Been better."

The biker snorted. Paisley saw another member of his gang stagger over. It was the one that had fallen off his bike, most of the skin on his forearm had been grazed off by the fall.

"How's his arm?"

The Biker glared at her.

"Been better."

He gave a sharp kick to the side of the Bus.

"Which of you idiots thought it was a good idea to try and off-road in this thing?"

"Hannah." Neil said. Hannah slugged him hard.

"You've got a tire out, if you need a replacement, we'll grab one for you."

"I got one." Jaxson told him.

"Tell us where it is and I'll have my boys change it for you."

"That's nice of you but it's good."

"I want you out of here fast as possible, us doing it will be quicker."

"I'll help."

Paisley started to get out of the Bus. The biker began to protest.

"I can change a tire in fifteen minutes." She said. "My best friends a mechanic, I picked up some tricks from him."

…

With the two of them working they had it done in ten.

"There." The biker said. "That'll get you moving again, but I'm worried about your suspension. Tell your driver to get that looked at first chance he can. Not Oyen, that town's bad news. Keep going until you're over the border in Saskatchewan and stop in Kindersley. You can take the 21 from there, that'll get you back on the Trans-Canada. Got all that kid?"

"Yup." Paisley said. Her tone still guarded. The biker gave her a perplexed look.

"You mind telling me where you're from?"

"Fairview." She said quickly.

The biker scratched his beard.

"North of Grand Prairie?"

She looked at him mildly surprised. "Yeah… Exactly."

The biker snorted again.

"Kid what in the hell is a local girl like you doing traveling with a bunch of rich…" He scowled darkly at Jaxson's licence plate "…Californians?"

"Long story… we're actually not allowed to tell anyone"

"You part of some American child trafficking ring?" He knelt down and lowered his voice. "'Cause if these motherfuckers have done anything to you…"

"It's not like that. Honest to god, that much I can say." She sighed. "Look these guys are fucking dumb asses getting caught out here and we're not exactly friends, but they mean well. They just don't get us."

A sympathetic half smirk crept onto the biker's lips.

"Course they don't get us. They're Americans. They've been a disease on this fucking continent since the Mayflower. Never give shit about other cultures or people, we're all fucking beneath them."

He spat on the ground.

"Doesn't matter. This is our country not theirs. It belongs to us, to Albertans like you and me."

"Technically up north were not Albertans anymore."

"Don't give me that shit. You really gonna let that fascist motherfucker Wade Watts erase your identity? I can see it in your face kid, you're an Albertan and you know it! You're were born Albertan and you'll die Albertan! No one's ever gonna be able to fuck with that!"

Paisley rolled her eyes, the ghost of a smile curled her lips.

"You sound like my mom's mom."

The Biker folded his arms. "Do I? Sounds like she'd be my kind of woman."

"She's a massive bitch, and dead."

"Shame."

"It's really not."

The bus's horn blared. Hannah was leaning out the window.

"PARKER! MOVE YOU ASS!"

"IN A MINUTE!" Paisley shouted back. She turned back to the biker.

"Speaking of massive bitches…"

The Biker chuckled.

"You're alright Parker. Shame to see you mixed in with these god damn foreigners."

"Technically we're countrymen now."

The Biker gave a confident laugh. "Over my fucking corpse! Will be free again, you wait! We'll drive all these fucking scum from our borders. Until that day remember who your people are Parker."

She nodded quietly and returned from to Bus. As they pulled away the Bikers raised their fists and cried in the old Albertan motto.

"Fortis et liber!"

…

They made it Kindersley without much issue. By that point it was late and everyone checked in their hotel barring Paisley and Jaxson. So far on the trip Jaxson had been staying in his RV, partly to watch over it and partly because he didn't feel comfortable rooming with a dozen people who were mostly underaged. Paisley meanwhile had been sleeping on one of the couches on the bus, never having had the desire to room with the others.

After the day they had, everyone had talked of wanting nothing more than to get to sleep, which made it so surprising when there was a knock on the door.

Kayla was waiting for her when she opened the door. The girl seemed mildly taken aback, as if she hadn't been wholly expecting something to answer.

"What's wrong?" Paisley asked her.

"Oh, uhhh nothing." Kayla wasn't meeting her eye. "I just came to check on you."

"Thanks but I'm fine."

"That's good… that good. I um… You really saved our asses out there tonight. Thanks for that. I'm real sorry we got lost."

"Yeah, whatever. Don't apologize, that's on Jaxson, not you."

"You're not messed up by all that?" Kayla asked gingerly.

Paisley shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe. I've seen a dead body before. My friend Grant lives in a pretty rough stack… or town. Whatever."

"I didn't think you had shit like that up here." Kayla said. "I'm really learning I don't know that much about your part of the world."

"You think?" Paisley asked. It came off more bluntly than she had indented it to. Kayla winced slightly.

"Yeah… Look. I…"

She puffed out her checks in a very Beatrice like way. Whether all the times Beatrice had done was because of Kayla or Kayla could pull it off so well now because of some left-over Beatrice coding in her brain, Paisley couldn't tell.

"I'm sorry we-I guilted you along on this trip. I know you're homesick, I wasn't thinking about that, I was just hoping we could hang out something? Like we used to in Springfield? Or before we were gonna face or Aku, except…" Kayla grinned innocently. "No stressing about fighting monsters this time…or left over Hogwarts beef."

Paisley pinched the bridge of her nose. She decided that if had started blunt she might as well go all in.

"We've never hung out Kayla. Those were different people. And I'm fine. Seriously. I don't need your pity. But thanks for the apology or something."

She made to close the door.

"Wait!" Kayla cried. Paisley locked eyes with her. The girl looked away again.

"It is too late to start over then? Maybe I could hang here tonight?"

Paisley had to think it over.

"Alright. Let's go." She said after a minute. Kayla blinked. "Go?"

"There's a convenience store across the street, after the day you people put me through, I need a sugar fix."

"What go over there unsupervised?" Kayla asked. "Is that safe?"

Paisley gave her a wry smile.

"I'm the local expert remember?"

It felt nice to be back in a convenience store, probably more than it should have. She got her regular Fairview special, way too much candy, way too much chips, and a way too large Slurpee. Tonight, was probably give her a few zits but she was alright with that. Her skin had been a little too perfect after siting in a pod for a year, and she had now pretty firmly decided that she preferred imperfection. For a place so universal Kayla strangely seemed at a loss for what do in the store. She hadn't known you could mix flavours on the Slurpee machine either. Once Paisley had showed her, she looked at Paisley like the girl had just performed magic. In spite of herself that got another smile from Paisley. Just like back at the compound she found it hard to stay mad at Kayla for too long. By the time they made it back to the Bus then were talking openly.

"Alright how have you never been in a convenience store before!?" Paisley asked her and she fumbled the key to the RV one handily.

"I don't really leave the house." Kayla said plainly.

"You an OASIS junkie or something?"

"Not by choice. I'd love to go out but it's not safe. Also, It's LA, there's no place to go on foot."

"No one drives?"

Kayla gave her an incredulously look. "Course no one drives."

"Still?"

"Nah… we can't afford it. Even if we could somebody would slash your tries if you parked on the street."

"Seriously?"

Kayla nodded grimly. "LA's no joke." She grinned slyly. "Even worse than Mos Eisley."

Paisley sighed.

"Find that hard to believe."

"Jabba treated you that badly huh?"

"I mean I was worse for Peach at Hogwarts."

"I'm really sorry about that."

"Don't be. It wasn't you. Also… you know how Slytherin's are."

"Guilt as charged." Kayla said. "Although out here I'm actually Gryffindor."

"I'm actually Slytherin." Paisley admittedly. Kayla giggled.

"I don't see it."

"The Sorting hat did." Said Paisley truthfully "It was temped to put Peach in there, guess it was seeing past her and looking at me."

Kayla looked a her strange.

"It saw you? Like you you?"

"Yeah that happened a lot. My character rig broke when Wednesday knocked Peach out with the statue in episode two. After that she keep seeing me in her reflection."

"What!? You for real right now?"

"Yeah no seriously. Sometimes I'd talk back to her. IT even used me to taunt her back in Camazotz."

Kayla looked thoughtful.

"Is that why you're so insisted that your two different people?"

"I've been a fictional character's head while she looked at me as a stranger and judged me against her own make-believe experiences." Paisley said. "It was weird. A lot of weird things happened during the game actually. It's hard to process sometimes."

"Yeah…" Kayla gave her a look. "I mean I don't know if I can compete with that but Beatrice saw some strange stuff too. I had Perky and Yerdey show up in Narnia and tell me about the Void between universes."

"Like that crackpot Natalie Campbell talks about?"

Kayla looked scandalized. "What? I love her stuff!"

Paisley rolled her eyes.

"What was Perky and Yerdey's deal anyway? Why was she his henchwoman?"

"No clue."

"Speaking of weirdos, did Beatrice ever run into Emperor Norton?"

"What the 'Cisco guy?"

"Yeah."

"No! When did he show up? Did kid Indy summon him?"

"No he was in the Rodney House. He gave Peach advice… that was actually the first time she saw me."

Kayla shrugged.

"I got no idea."

"Weird."

"Alright let me think of something else."

"No enough Endless stories." Paisley declared. "Tell me more about Kayla."

Kayla looked surprised.

"What's there to tell? My life's nothing special."

"I don't know. I realize I barely know anything about you." Paisley said. "Tell me what's your interests? Favorite TV show or something?"

"Over the Garden Wall." Kayla said immediately.

They had a pretty good laugh at that.

"Should have seen that coming." Paisley admitted. "What else?"

"Ton of stuff." Kayla said. "One my favorites is the Phantom of Opera. Love me some Lord Andrew. Seen his musicals like a million in the OASIS. Uh… I like me, some Hadestown, Invader Zim, Great Comet, Avatar the Last Airbender, Wicked. Idina Menzel is just… I can't even. Love me some Lovecraft even though he'd totally hate me, some folk rock, Don McLean, love me some Beetlejuice, some Edward Scissorhands, anything Burton really."

"Did you go through a goth faze or something?" Paisley asked. Kayla laughed.

"Nah! There was point there when I was twelve though I was real into spooky stuff. You know. Creepypasta's, Michael Myers, Paranorman, Ruby Gloom…"

"You've watched Ruby Gloom?" Paisley asked, mildly interested.

"Yeah why?"

"I… might of built the replica of the mansion from that show in the OASIS."

Kayla looked almost starstruck.

"What!?"

"I help built content for old shitty Canadian cartoons in the OASIS. It's kind of my hobby. When it came time to build Gloomsville all the goths that were building planet Deadrose started like a massive flame war, so they decided to outsource and I got the job because they liked the work I had done on the Madeline recreation."

"What's Madeline?"

"It's this old series about this girl and her friends in this big old house. Basically, just Ruby Gloom but they're Parisian schoolgirls."

"That's awesome! That is so cool you get to work on all these old shows."

"Yeah we had a bunch of local shows back in the day." She pulled out her backpack. "Mom even got me this little keychain. It's from the Raccoons. Classic eighties toon that aired on CBC when her folks were kids."

"That's like really cool Paisley!"

Paisley looked embarrassed.

"I mean… there all pretty terrible honestly. Captain Flamingo, Yvon of the Yukon, Atomic Betty, Being Ian, Jacob Two Two, Jimmy Two-Shoes, Iggy Arbuckle. This is the same stuff that aired along side Total Drama when it was just some stupid Canadian Survivor knock off no one thought was gonna do well, but they're all trash alright? Like there's a reason why no one talks about them anymore. Most of them we just stick on the same planet because their too small to need their own. They're little pieces of nothing. But… I don't know. They're ours. We made them on our own which is… I don't know. Nice I guess."

She coughed.

"There also just an easy in to start designing virtual surreal estate."

Kayla smiled.

"They're guilty pleasures, I hear you. I got one of those."

"Yeah? What?"

Kayla blushed slightly.

"Please don't tell anyone alright? I don't it's really cringy but…"

She wrung her hands.

"I kind of really dig Homestuck."

Paisley laughed; it wasn't a mean laugh.

"No shit. God, I know people that can't stand that comic. I think Mackenzie and Zoey said once…"

She trailed off.

"Who?" Kayla asked. Paisley didn't respond. She had gone very quiet all of a sudden. It took Kayla a moment to figure out why.

"People from home?"

"Yup…" Paisley said softly.

Kayla gave her her best reassuring look.

"Look Paisley. I know you're missing home, and I know we can't compete, but you'll see those guys again soon okay? Once we get to Chris's place, I won't be mad if you bail, but I'd like to hang out with you in the meantime. That cool?"

Paisley thought it all over. Her brain, overtired and sugar high doing the best it could with the difficult material. After a minute though, that small pretentious logical part of her mind, and the over emotional rest of it seemed to make peace with another.

She smiled at Kayla.

"Cool."

…

The next day was one the best Paisley had had in a long time. Forcing her family from her mind for the time being, she turned her attention to the moment, and the people then and there. Hannah, Neil, Yeong-Ja and Steven were all just as prickly as ever but the others accepted her open armed and they enjoyed each others company.

The days setting was perhaps somewhat lacking. Even as someone who had spent their entire life in the Canadian Prairies and knew their subtle charm Paisley didn't exactly associate Western Saskatchewan with excitement. But she was pleasantly surprised.

True most of the countryside was still flat expanses of grass and dust, with the occasionally abandoned town, this had always been one of the pourer parts of Canada and such it was now almost entirely depopulated. Yet in between the many fields' landmarks would assert themselves.

The first they all been surprised to spot along side the of the road. White sand dunes appeared suddenly out of the Prairielands somewhere south of the town of Spectre. They stopped to summit them and goof off, those who had survived the Dune Sea of Tatooine now having to chance to experience something similar in reality.

Paisley and Hannah spent most of the time on the road standing behind Jaxson navigating, hoping to avoid a repeat of the previous night. Under their guidance they mostly stayed to the main highway once they returned to it. The only exception being a brief detour mid morning, they strayed slightly south to visit the Old Wives Bird Sanctuary. A placid blue lake ringed by an ocean of reeds, grasses and the birds that lived among them. There was a wooden observation tower to climb and they spent a few minutes atop it, mediating in the purgatorial serenity of the flat landscape of the Prairie.

The lunch stop for the day brought with it the first real potential for trouble. They had stopped in the large town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Host to perhaps the most aggressively Canadian place name in the country and not helped by the large fibreglass moose statue in the centre of town. This is seemed was an opportunity for the Americans in the group to unleash the deluge of Canadian jokes they had apparently been bottling up all trip. There was a cacophony of 'Ehs' and 'Tuques' and 'Aboots' and Moose puns galore. Steven naturally was provoked into shouting at the others. Paisley almost joined him, especially after she (with a mild sense of betrayal) noticed Kayla was one of the people cracking jokes at her old nations expense. Instead, she distanced herself from them for a while and found a different restaurant to eat at.

Farid agreed to join her and they had a long conversation at the local Thai place. Even though she didn't feel the world's eyes on her anymore Farid's presence was still reassuring.

She hadn't seen much of him, he had spent most his time on the trip with Stacy Chen, Yao's old player. Her tall willowy figure rarely leaving his side. The girl had still been largely a mystery to Paisley. She keep much of her emotions to herself. She surprised Paisley, coming with them to lunch. Alone with only the three of them Farid brought out a new side to Stacy, here she was open, even confident. He still had the same affect on her as well. They spoke naturally and had interests in the same places. He was her rock in the sea of change her life was adrift in, and it almost embarrassed her how fond of him she had grown in such little time. She was almost jealous of Stacy, to whom Farid now seemed romantically paired to.

Still Paisley rejoined the group in better spirits than she left it.

Their last stop of the day was Regina. Saskatchewan's capital city. Paisley and quite a few of other kids had never been to a shopping mall so there was an attempt to visit the one in downtown Regina. They found it nearly abandoned and full of squalor and addicts so that idea was quickly cast aside. Instead, most of the gang when to the Mackenzie Art Gallery. Paisley meanwhile, did another quick snack run, grabbed Farid and Kayla, and found a nice place to sit on the grounds of the Saskatchewan State Capitol. Under the shade of a gnarled old oak they hid from the August sun, a pleasant breeze drifting from Lake Wascana. The three of them debated things than meant nothing and laughed at everything.

It was a perfect carefree summer afternoon, one that made Paisley almost feel like herself for the first time in a very long time.

It was of course, too good to last.

…

They spent the night at the hotel in the small town of Indian Head, just east of Regina. For once Paisley was talked into joining them. She hadn't stayed in a hotel since she had been four, in the aftermath of the Sand Hill Fire. It seemed they hadn't changed much since then, if anything this one was a little more intense than the one she had briefly lived in in Grand Prairie. These small towns didn't get tourists, the only people who came to places like this were those that absolutely had too, namely government officials. As such the security seemed like something of a war zone, with an armed guard at the door and several security gates.

Once they had settled in to their two rooms however any semblance of formally fell away, they ordered pizza and gathered in the boys room to chat.

"I can't believe how close we are!" Aria squeaked. "Just two states until were at Wawanakwa!"

"We still have to cross most of Ontario." Laughed Farid. "Widest state in the union."

"It's supposed to have good camping." Paisley said.

"We show totally camp!" Kayla said. Paisley smiled.

"Yeah. That'd be sweet."

Aria gasped.

"We should camp at camp Wawanakwa!" She squealed. "Oh my gosh! I can't imagine how amazing that would be!?"

"You remember we're going to there to meet the actual guy right?" Hannah asked. She smirked. "Or at least watch his guard dogs maul Steven!"

"I could for sure outrun you!"

"And I for sure liked you more as Lapis."

"Will you people stop saying that!?"

"I'm super, super, crazy excited for Chris too." Aria said. "But think of how much history is on that island! Just picture us standing there! Like real Total Drama contestants."

"Um… Aria? We are real Total Drama contestants." Luisa acknowledged gently.

"We've been through harder challenges than any other group before us." Stacy said quietly

"Hell yeah we have!" Hannah said. "Up top Stace!"

The girl accepted her High-five with stoic pride.

"Imagine if we were all on the original Total Drama Island?" Lennox laughed. "We utterly destroy that place mate."

"My Sobo likes to mention that she signed up a lot." Aria said.

Matsunaga gave her a look of surprise.

"You are Japanese Aria?"

"My dad's mom was half, Amy Ishimine. I took her last name 'cause it sounded really cute and my friends are HUGE into anime. I hope that's not like cultural appropriation Matsunaga."

"It definitely is." Lennox said.

"It's okay. I don't mind." Matsunaga insisted.

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Everyone tried to sign up back in the day. Mamaw told me it was like waiting for your Hogwarts letter. Every dumb kid in the 2000s thought it was gonna happen for them."

"Has anyone ever heard the story about how the Nathan De Marco tried to sign up for one of the early seasons?" Farid asked.

"Wade's VP?" Lennox asked. Farid nodded.

"I think Natalie Campbell mentioned she did too." Kayla laughed.

"Imagine if just all these people made it in season one." Lennox said. "Campbell, De Marco, Aria's grannie. Fuck who else was big in the 2000s?"

"Hold up!" Kayla cried. She bounded across the room and grabbed a pen and pad of paper from the desk by the pay-per-minute OASIS rig.

"I've always wanted to try this!" She said excitedly. "Let's see if we can get to twenty-two."

"What we're doing like fantasy football for Total Drama?" Paisley asked.

"Yeah!" Kayla said. "Make our own fan season!"

"What's the rules?" Luisa asked.

"Paisley you want to set us up?" Kayla asked.

All eyes drifted to Paisley.

She exhaled.

"Okay…. Uh... We show up at Chris's place and find out he wants to do a reboot of the first season in the OASIS and he's outsourcing the job to us."

"What's the title?"

"Uh… Total Drama Island but it's been outsourced to the Endless gang?"

Kayla scribed down.

Total Drama Outsource.

"Alright we got Natalie, Nathan and Amy, who else was big back then?"

"Alice Ostergard." Matsunaga suggested humbly. Everyone but Stacy, Farid and Paisley burst into manic laughter. Matsunaga seemed pleasantly surprised by the response.

"Who's Alice Ostergard?" Farid asked.

"Cult leader down in Minnesota." Lennox said wiping a tear from his eye. "There was this whole in joke at lunch, you had to be there."

"Okay who else?" Kayla prompted.

"Do they have to be real people or can we make up our own?" Luisa asks

"Give me whatever you want girl!"

"Great! Because I have this character, she's like this shy mute girl from England, maybe Cornwall. That's a real place right?"

"Cringe!" Neil cried. "You're shitty Tumblr OC is cringe!"

Luisa slugged hit him with one of the pillows.

"I'd like to see you do better!"

"I can think of one better in thirty seconds!" Neil boasted. Lusia folded her armed.

"I'm counting."

"Okay. Shit! Wait! How about the Ocean Man!?"

Luisa raised an eyebrow.

"Like the Ween song?"

"Yeah!" Neil said. "He's like's this crazy good diver who wears a speedo everywhere, and he swims like David Hasselhoff in the SpongeBob movie!"

"That sounds like a JoJo stand Neil." Hannah smirked. Neil scowled.

"Fuckin' does not!"

"You read JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?" Matsunaga asked.

"Man JoJo is the shit." Said Hannah. "Stand names are great. I love the one just named Doggy Style. Kayla put that guy down!"

"You want me to write Doggy Style?"

"Yes! Fuck! Fuck yes! Matsunaga my guy, you got a JoJo character too?"

Matsunaga considered it.

"Scarlett Valentine from Steel Ball Run."

"Nice."

They fist bumped.

"You need to add Lucius Malfoy!" Yeong-Ja demanded suddenly. Kayla looked up.

"What?"

"Back at Hogwarts Rick told Draco his dad would fail stupidly if he ever signed up for the show. The Princess was there. Remember Princess?"

Paisley muffled a laugh. "I forgot about that."

"I got one!" Lennox said. "Hank Hill!"

"Yes!" Cried Luisa.

"I thought we were making our own characters?" Steven said.

Lennox gave him an amused look. "Fine. I'll use my own original character, Propane Jesus. He's a Texan Propane sales man that had a fucking holy revelation from God and now flies around in a cowboy hat and biblical robes with a propane tank strapped to his back preaching the good word of the good gas."

That had most of the room in stiches again. Steven glared at him.

"That's just Hank Hill again!"

"Yeah nah. Completely different mate. Fuck's your problem?"

"Steven what's your character then?" Paisley asked.

Steven drew himself up importantly.

"My character is a fifteen-year-old fellow British Colombian, lives in Vancouver, but probably spends most his time at the beach at Tofino. Real layback guy most of the time, but when the balance of nature is threatened, he unleashes his mighty power to control animals as the BEAST MASTER! Also he's Jewish, like I am, and most definitely proud of it."

"Yeah real original self insert." Neil snarked. "Also you're takin my thing of having be like only known by his superhero name."

"You don't own that!"

"Yeah! What's your Beastmaster's real name? Steven?"

"It's not Steven… it's uh… Blackwood!"

"Is that a Jewish name?"

"He doesn't need to have a Jewish name just because he's Jewish!"

"Alright Steven! Neil! Shut your fucking whore mouths! No one ever cares about anything that comes out of them!" Paisley shouted over them. "Come on! Let's keep this moving, I'm getting into this. Who's next?"

"Stacy you have one?" Farid asked.

"Yeah! Give us a freak Stace!" Hannah said.

Stacy looked thoughtful for a minute before a tiny smile creased her lips.

"Gaston from Beauty and the Beast."

The room erupted into cheers.

"Nice!" Lennox and Hannah said simultaneously. Stacy smiled modestly.

"I really like the Disney Renaissance."

"…And we love you for it Yao!" Hannah cried.

"God! Forget us, these people would obliterate OG TDI." Lennox said.

"We're barely halfway." Kayla said.

"What if all these people we're one team?" Farid suggested. Lennox shook his head.

"Nah mate! They'd be too powerful, all these utter fuckin meme kings, or meme lords."

"Memeo Supremos." Paisley said. Another cascade of laughter over the room.

"That's the name for sure!" Luisa declared.

"The Memeos has one too many." Kayla said. "We got to move someone over if they're all one team."

"Move Campbell!" Neil suggested. "All these fuckin memers up against a confused girl all like "How did I get here?" the whole time. You could even make that the team name."

"It's almost funny but it's too wordy." Farid said. "What about Nondescript Normies?"

The group quickly agreed.

"Alright let's fill this new team up." Paisley said. Kayla beamed at her, she was glad to finally have her as part of the group.

"Paisley you haven't given us a character yet throw one at us."

The others shouted their encouragement. Paisley laughed.

"Alright. I mean she probably wouldn't normally be my first pick but since we were talking about her last night, how about Ruby?"

The silence in the room was deafening.

"Who?" Aria asked.

Paisley cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Uh just Ruby Gloom. Like the… you know. Luisa probably knows her."

The goth shook her head. "No clue."

"She's from an old Canadian show." Kayla piped in helpfully. Neil and Hannah snickered.

"So she's garbage then?" Neil said.

"Just like all those shitty Canadian series." Hannah added.

Paisley went slightly red behind the ears.

"I hate to break it to you, but you were a cast member of one of those shitty Canadian shows."

Hannah scoffed. "Every knows Total Drama was the only good thing to ever air in Canada. Why do you thing people were so surprised when it came out?"

"No I've seen Ruby Gloom, it's aight." Kayla countered. "I almost feel bad putting her in TD she's so dang innocent, but we need friends for Campbell's team."

"Actually I've changed my mind. I don't want her anymore." Paisley said heatedly.

"Oh Paisley you sure?"

"Very!"

"Well that's alright then, maybe we'll use Madeline."

"Kayla I don't care."

"Look we'll even make space for her on the Memeos. Luisa's character probably fits in better on the Nondescript team anyway."

"Fine! Whatever! Just leave it then. Or let me write."

Paisley grabbed the pad and pen from her. Kayla gave her a rueful look.

"Paisley no one meant to hurt your feeling."

"I don't know where you're coming from." Paisley said unconvincingly. "Second team needs filling here people, start throwing characters. Can be anything so long as it's not some stupid piece of shit from Canada."

"Okay…" Luisa said uncertainly. "Uh how about more Disney characters? We've already hit the 1990s. Maybe someone from something later?"

"Like Meet the Robinsons?" Aria asked.

Kayla squealed.

"Oh my God that one was my favorite as a kid!"

Aria gasped.

"Mine too! Oh I love the message!"

Paisley laughed joylessly. "Right that's the one with the perfect happy utopian future where everything's perfect and the US annexed Canada and made it a state called 'North Montana'. God what fucking whimsical Disney escapism."

"I'm pretty sure that's a joke in the movie?" Aria said.

"Yeah. Joke, great! No it's real funny."

Hannah smirked. "I thought you were done being a bitch?"

"I thought you were done shit talking my country, guess we're both disappointed."

"Paisley we were only teasing." Kayla said gently. "The town's name was Moose Jaw for god's sake!"

"No it's fine I get it!" Paisley snapped. "I get it if you can't feel bad for places like Turkey or Kashmir. So What? I don't really care about those places either. But you know, you can't even fucking learn anything about the country next door before annexing them? Fine! See if I care! It's all a joke. That's all we are to you people."

"Where's this coming from?"

"Oh what? You care now?"

There was a flash of pain beneath Kayla's expression, then she steadied herself with a long draw out breath.

"You're lashing out at something unrelated because it's too painful to face whatever's hurting you." She told Paisley. "If you gotta step out for sec and vent, I won't judge. I've been in the head of someone like that, I get it."

"No, you don't understand! That's you people's problem! You've never understood! Every other country on the planet's some stupid little Epcot exhibit for you! You Americans are the most self-obsessed people on the face on the Earth!"

"Americans?" Luisa seemed entirely taken aback by the term. "What are you freaking out about? America's gone. We're one country now."

More dry laughter from Paisley.

"Oh right the great peaceful unification where your country and your goddamn president conquered us like we were fucking Iraq!"

"Hey! We gave up shit too in the unification!" Neil countered. "We changed our name and flag for you ingrates! The motherfucking stars and stripes!"

"Oh Boo hoo! One of the only good things that fascist prick Watts ever did was get rid of that ugly rag!"

Hannah was on her feet, red with indignation "You watch your fucking mouth Parker!"

"Hannah! That's enough!" Kayla said loudly. She looked Paisley dead in the eyes. There was a clear warning in her expression now.

"You need to leave Paisley." She said in a controlled tone. "I get you're mad but you can not be running your mouth about people like Wade. Not after all he's done for you."

Paisley glared at her. "Do you have any idea how much the man's made us suffer?"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SUFFERING!?" Kayla bellowed. Paisley flinched backwards. The other girl's expression now wild with rage.

"You have it better than almost any other person on the planet and all you do is bitch and moan!"

"We have it rough it Fairview!"

"No! Let me tell you what rough is! It's not driving around anywhere you want with you friends or having a family that fucking loves you! Rough is being trapped in a house with a woman that can't stand you for sixteen years! Rough is it never being safe to go outside because the Blood-Crip Alliance is out on the streets feuding with Sinaloa! Rough is hearing about your neighbours losing kids to stray bullets 'cause even their living rooms ain't safe from gun violence. Rough is sneaking past Cartel gangbangers and their AKs on the way to school because you know if they wanted to, they could do whatever they'd like to you, and no one's gonna stop them!"

"…and where was the President during all of this!?" Paisley countered. "I'm supposed to… what? Believe he has my country's best interest at heart when he let's his own suffer!"

"We are the same people! We have always been one people!"

"We have never been Americans!"

"Fine! You don't get to shit talk America then!"

"I get to say whatever the fuck I want about the people who stole my country!"

"Not everything's about you!"

"This is what I mean! You don't care about us!"

"You don't care about us!" Kayla shouted. "You Paisley! That's who we're talking about! Not the US and Canada and all that stuff in the past!"

"You wanna talk about me you talk about Canada!" Paisley insisted. She drew herself to full height. "I am Albertan! I am Canadian! Nothing anyone will say can change that, and if you and Watts don't like that you shouldn't have got involved in my life."

"You hate Wade that much you shouldn't have entered his contest! Let someone who deserves it win!"

"It's not his contest it's ours!" Paisley banged on the wall of the hotel. "My culture's not going to be erased by you people and your imperialism! You are on a Canadian show, on Canadian soil! Get! It! Right!"

Kayla gave her a look of disgust.

"I get what you mean when you say we aren't our avatars anymore Parker. If there was a part of me that was still Beatrice maybe I feel like she'd owe the Princess something. But that Kayla part of me? She doesn't owe you shit!"

"Remind the Kayla part of you that she's the one that guilted tripped me into coming."

"Yeah my bad for wanting a friend I guess. Thanks for teaching me better! You miss your cushy life so bad? Go home then! Go waste all that money on something selfish! I don't care so long as you get out of my life!"

"Get out of my fucking country first!"

"MAKE US!"

Paisley made to counter, but fell short. She was left there for a moment in hatred before she howled in rage, turned on her heeled and stormed out. Slamming the door forcefully.

Her departure left a long stunned silenced in the room, punctuated only by a very tired sigh from Kayla. The silence lingered like that for a long while before Steven said.

"I have a whole new respect for that girl."

The others turned and stared at him. He shrugged.

"What?"

…

Marching through the hallways of the hotel Paisley felt as though she could spit venom. Her face was burning red. All the negative emotions she had felt since she had left the game and had finally boiled over and it left her feeling overwhelmed. So high was she on a rush of adrenaline it took her ten minutes to realize she didn't have a destination. She ended up booking her own separate room in the hotel and trying to get to bed in the vain hope that her maddening life would make more sense in the morning.

It took ages for her to settle enough to sleep. Soon as she had her restless mind fell deep into a torrent of nightmares.

People and faces swirled in her subconscious mind. Memories of fiction and reality blurring together. She was Peach, herself, someone in-between. Her baby brother was crying because he didn't recognize her, she was mobbed by paparazzi, sent into an arena and forced to kill for someone that might have been Wade's amusement. She was killed repeatedly, torn about by a thousand people or wreathed in flames as firebombs fell.

She woke from this screaming, bolt upright in bed and in the throngs of a panic attack. Even once the worse of it subsided, she knew sleep was a lost cause.

More miserable now than after her fight she returned to the hallway. She ended up mauling the venting machine she found when it refused to properly give her the candy bar she had wanted. One of the housekeepers walked over to find the machine's plexiglass window cracked open and Paisley scooping up snacks from the floor.

"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded.

"I'm a billionaire! I can do what I want!" She called angrily, not bothering to look back at him.

She found her way up to the roof of the hotel and ate about twelve chocolate bars in a gluttonous frenzy. It did little to make her feel better, if anything the stomach ache made her feel worse.

She sat there curled up in a ball for a half hour or so, the whole time running her thumb over the smooth blue stone embedded in the locket Wade had given her. She was tempted more than once to tear it from her neck and hurl it in to the night, reject all that it represented. And yet, she couldn't.

She didn't even know why she couldn't.

…

Outside in the guarded lot on the hotel property. There was a knock-on Jaxson's door. He paused his music, and got out of bed.

"What's good?"

"Is Parker staying here?"

He opened the door. There was a very forlorn Kayla standing outside. There were fresh tears on her dark checks.

"Can I crash here tonight?"

…

It was the music that finally lulled her from her aimlessly moping. An easy-going Bob Marley track floating up to her from a vacant field next to the hotel. She looked and saw it was some of the other contestants, Farid, Yeong-Ja, Luisa, Hannah and Lennox. They had started a fire in an old barrel and were sitting around in on the husks of some long-abandoned cars. Farid spotted her and was waving her over. The others glaring at him annoyed.

After some deliberation she obeyed, scurrying carefully down from the roof and shuffling over to them. She wasn't quite sure why she was joining them, no one but Farid and Lennox seemed happy to see her.

"Can't sleep either can you?" Farid asked her lightly. She shook her head. He gestured a space next to him and she sat down awkwardly. Luisa and Hannah were glaring dangers through her.

"Must have felt good to get that all out huh?" Farid said.

She shook her head.

"Where's Kayla?"

"Still crying." Hannah said. Paisley looked up surprised. Hannah gave her a grim look.

"Couldn't help yourself huh Princess? Had to go fuck that girl up, get revenge for Hogwarts."

Paisley said nothing.

"I think everyone said some things they shouldn't have." Farid said. Luisa gave him an offended look.

"She's the one that started this! Insulting America out of nowhere. How did you think everyone would react?"

"I thought it was funny." Lennox said.

"It wasn't." Hannah said still in that grim mood. "You don't talk shit about our country like that."

"Well she's right." Yeong-Ja said. All eyes turned to her. As usual the young girl met their gaze defiantly.

"None of you stupid Americans know what it's like, having your country stolen from you by disgusting imperialists! Living under occupation! Only Farid would understand."

Farid frowned.

"What do you mean by that?"

Yeong-Ja groaned.

"Don't play stupid with me. You admitted it yesterday, brown Muslim boy saying he doesn't want to be pitted. All the Ignorant whities may not have gotten it yet but I know who you are. You're Kashmiri!"

Farid went pale. The others gaped at him in shock.

"No fucking way." Lennox said. He gave Farid a ponderous look. "You aren't-"

"I am not, Kashmiri." Farid said, defense had crept into his usually tempered voice. "I am a third generation Kashmiri-North American. I have never been to Kashmir, nor have my parents. It was my grandparents that left Srinagar decades ago. They saw the path that place was going towards and fled long before the nuclear bombs fell." His eyes past over the others, challenging them. "I have lived in Buffalo, New York all my life. That is my homeland. It is there that defines me, not some distance part of the world I've never been to."

"You've abandoned your culture then." Yeong-Ja said.

"That's ridiculous."

"Ridiculous is someone of your race hanging out with one of those Chinese dogs!"

"Yeong-Ja!" Farid snaped.

"They destroyed our homes Kashmiri!" The girl cried. "Yours and mine! How can you not blame them for that!? Hanging around that little Chinese tramp Stacy?"

"Stacy's an American! I don't blame her, or the Chinese, or Indians or Pakistanis for the nuclear war. Most of them have suffered just as much as we have."

"What are you taking about!? China barely got nuked! They deserve more! More of them should have died! All of them should have died! Then they would have stayed away from North Korea!"

"The fuck? I thought you we're from Incheon?" Lennox said bewildered. Yeong-Ja glared at the ground, deeply emotional.

"I wasn't born there."

…

Jaxson's room was built for a musician. There was equipment cluttered around and programs open on a computer in the corner. Rap songs were playing quietly from a speaker in the corner.

"I get bad insomnia some nights." He explained to Kayla. "That's normally when I get by best work in. We speed so much time in the system, I've been trying to catch up. People'll be looking for a single or something now that we're out."

He grinned embarrassedly.

"That's probably gonna be a while, but if you want you could listen in. Get some exclusive first access to some post-TD JK. That cool OK?"

"Sure." Kayla said disinterestedly. Jaxson would have had to have been quite dense to not read the meaning of the tone.

"Alright… well if you're not into that we could just chill. Listen to some music?"

He turned up the song playing. Harsh lyrics spilled forth, derogatory and slur heavy poetry, all of it furious at society.

"You know this one right?"

She gave him a look.

"On you' Knees off The Comptonation of Nat Turner. Marked Improvement's third album. Released 2026."

Jaxson was impressed. "Damn girl. You know you're shit. Most people don't know earlier, more political Markus."

"Everyone in LA knows Markus." Kayla said. "He was West Side. One of our own poets off the streets like Cube or Kendrick."

"I hear you." Jaxson said. "RIP the legend. Man it was an honour to bring him back. Even if his life was ended to soon again, I feel I can properly represent now."

"No you can't!"

Jaxson looked at her surprised.

…

Yeong-Ja's eyes were boring into the earth.

"Grandmother always said she never thought there could be something worse than the Kim Dynasty. But at least under them people were allow to be Korean. Then the party fell and the Chinese came in. Only Han Chinese allowed in China. No minority cultures! No Tibetans or Uighurs or Hui or Hakka. No Koreans! Doesn't matter if it's our land, they'll send you off to re-education camps.

My family was from Rason, trading port near the Russian border. Father got us out soon after I was born. Said there wouldn't have been a life for us under those fucking Chinese dogs. We left family behind… after we reached Seoul, they we were told they had disappeared…"

She trailed off into a long silence. Farid reached over and made an attempt to pat her on the back. The little girl recoiled violently and glared at him.

"They did worst to your people Kashmiri! How can you not care!? Why don't you hate them!? How are you so stupid?"

Farid looked up contemplatively.

"What I love about North America is that no one ever judges you for who you are."

Paisley, Luisa, Hannah and even Lennox opened their mouths to protest. He cut them all off.

"Sure some people will, but not the government. We are all equal under the constitution. People do not often realise what a beautiful concept that is.

In Kashmir my ancestors were slaves to the governments. Indian, Chinese, Pakistani. They could do whatever they wanted to us. Nothing could stop them. They we're the ones to make the rules. But here? Here the rules belong to the people.

People always are the ones that pay the price of their governments. It was the Indian, Pakistani and Chinese governments that started the Kashmir War, and it was the Indian, Pakistani and Chinese people that suffered the most for it. I could never hate them for that. Mashallah I pray for that one day they will have hope again. And It fills my heart to see people like Stacy or my family raised here. Away from all those piety hatreds.

In Kashmir before the bombs fell the Hindus and the Muslims hated one another. But here in our community in Buffalo, the Kashmiri Muslims and Hindus live in peace with each other, and with our Indian, Pakistani and Chinese countrymen. That is the gift of freedom."

"Mate I'm sorry to cut in, but I think freedom's been fucked in this place since like 2016." Lennox said.

"Things are getting better though." Farid acknowledges. "Things can always get better. My father once told said that no story is truly over while there is still someone there to write it. That is true of North America, and even of countries lost whose people keep its culture alive. Tibet, Kashmir, even Canada."

He locked eyes with Paisley. She looked away shamefully.

…

"Look Kayla." Said Jaxson back in his bus. "I know my take on Markus back in Endless was a little uh, unorthodox?"

"Unorthodox?" Kayla parroted in disbelief. "You butchered him. You took one the realest most badass west coast rappers to come out of LA and you turned him some big ass softie in a pink suit and a friendship with Princess Peach!"

Jaxson scratched the back of his neck. "It's kind of a weird take on the character huh?"

"What character!? What are you on about? Markus wasn't a character! He was a real guy that died tragically young! It was messed up of you to use him like he was your little plaything in like whatever screwed up fanfiction of his life you got going."

"This has been what's been causing all the bad blood between us ain't it?" Jaxson asked. Kayla glared at him. He sighed and threw his hands up defeatedly.

"Alright. In hindsight, signing up as a legend like Markus wasn't my best play. But Kayla I want you to know I deeply respect Markus Obasi, I mean like no one else."

"You serious right now? What makes you think someone like you could get Marked Improvement? You've probably never even seen LA outside those little gated paradise all you rich folk live in. It's different on the streets, Markus was part of that, Markus spoke to that. He's ours. One of us. Our culture. How do you think it feels having some rich asshole from somewhere else come in and tell you he knows what's best with your culture? You don't know anything about that!"

The rapper shrugged.

"Yeah. I mean you got me there. I probably don't." His eyes flickered over to her.

"But I know a lot of people in Canada that feel that way about this whole North America business."

Kayla looked like she had shallowed a lemon.

"You heard us fighting?"

Jaxson smiled.

"Just a lucky guess."

The surprise faded and Kayla returned to her wounded look.

"Paisley said some really nasty stuff."

"Yeah I can imagine. And I'm not fitting to defend that. But there's a lot about Canada you don't know Kayla."

…

Paisley cleared her throat.

"So uh… Farid… back when everything got heated… If I had know you were Kashmiri…"

He silenced her with a wave of his hand and a disproving look.

"Please Paisley. Don't give me that. Why do you think I never tell people my background? All this sympathy. People mean well but they can be condescending at times. 'You poor brown boy! Child of the place all the crazy brown people nuked themselves over. Have my pity' My community doesn't want to be seen as a bunch of poor charity cases. A lot of my family are doctors. We've done well for ourselves in New York, and are very proud of it. It's almost refreshing when someone says they've never heard of Kashmir, or that they don't care about it."

He grinned at Paisley, she returned the look sheepishly.

"You ready to apologize yet?" Hannah asked. "I hear you Canadians are big on that?"

"Guess you heard wrong." Paisley replied quietly. She meets Hannah's gaze for a moment before diverting first to Yeong-Ja, then to the fire.

"But I guess we could have things worse."

"Yeah no shit." Hannah said bluntly. "Hell you don't even have it the worst in this country. You think people make fun of Canada? Try coming from the South!"

"It's not so bad." Luisa said. Hannah frowned.

"Luisa you're Texan. People have shit they like about Texas, try being from the Deep South, or Ozark ass Arkansas. You want to talk about dead nations? My neck of the woods spent four years playing traitor to the Union and the next two hundred huffing 'Heritage not Hate' bullshit. Like I swear to fucking god there hasn't been a single fucking politician down there that wasn't fifty fucking years behind the times."

"I've got a friend on the OASIS I talk to from Florida." Lennox said. "Says Gulf of Mexico's already risen by a metre, Everglades are permanently part of the sea and the next big hurricane to hit Miami's gonna drag in under too. 'What's the governor doing about it?' I asked him. 'Nothing!' he says. Fucker's a bloody climate change denier! Like, how's that even fucking possible these days?"

"Oh, you'll still find people like that in Texas." Luisa insists.

"…and Alberta." Paisley said.

"Seriously? How?" Lennox demanded.

"Oil Country." They both said simultaneous. Then laughed slightly.

"This is what I mean though." Paisley said suddenly. "When we were in Canada, Alberta was unique. We were the oil province, the conservative heartland, the place where people wore cowboy hats and herded cattle and shit. Us and maybe Saskatchewan were the only places like that. But there's like fifty states like that in North America. What's special about Alberta and Athabasca now? We're just North Montana, and Even More North Montana."

"Sounds like you miss your province more than your country." Lennox observed.

Paisley stayed silent for a moment.

"…It's complicated." She said.

"We'll maybe now that you're part of a country with similar people you'll find people can relate more." Luisa said. Then she quoted.

"Things are rough all over Ponyboy."

Paisley groaned like she was ill.

"Got that fucking novel!"

Luisa gave her a wounded look.

"What's wrong with The Outsiders?"

"It was so corny! I can't stand YA. I can't believe they make read stuff like that in English class?"

"It's such a human story though! What would you rather be reading?"

Paisley cleared her throat and recanted dutifully.

"the people under the sky were also very much the same—everywhere, all over the world, hundreds of thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same—people who had never learned to think but who were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world!"

"What's that from?" Farid asked.

"1984." Paisley said. "Really good book actually. Though sometimes I feel like I'm the only person that's actually read the thing instead of just meaninglessly parroting the terms from it at anything they don't like."

"God, kill me." Hannah lamented. "I'm so glad people don't talk politics back home anymore. Put an end to shit like that."

"Who was that one fuck that was really bad for that?" Lennox asked. "Watched a video about it once. He was like some fake phycologist that joined one of the militias. Big into crabs or something? Paisley you good?"

All eyes turned to Paisley who had started physically cringing.

"He was from my town."

Lennox gaped at her.

"Shit!"

Paisley sighed.

"Good old Lobster Man."

"Beats being from the same state as the Huckabees. Or the Clintons!" Hannah mined projectile vomiting.

"We had a Premier born in Fairview too." Paisley said. "Canadian version of a Governor." She added when the others gave her a confused look. "Rachel Notley, she was with the NDP."

"Local conversative party?" Luisa asked. Paisley shook her head.

"Old federal socialist party."

"Fucking tits! I thought your neck of the woods was conservative." Lennox laughed.

"Most conservative part of Canada." Paisley clarified. "I told you it's complicated."

"Tell us what's like up there then?" Hannah prompted. "Since you've clearly been so fiery about that shit all trip, go on and share some stories."

Paisley looked away.

"I've said enough about myself."

"Oh totally, but it doesn't matter."

"Are we cool then?"

Hannah folded her armed and nodded.

"Just don't ever insult the stars and stripes again."

"Yes." Luisa said curtly.

"That would be for the best." Farid agreed.

"Deal." Paisley said.

She exchanged a look with the group. There had been an otherness about them all in her mind she now only recognized because it was falling away. Something new glowed in her mind and the emotions seemed to settle. People were as Orwell said similar everywhere, and for the first time since leaving home she allowed part of herself to believe that. The tempest in her mind softened as she relaxed in the comfort of fellow teens.

"There's a statue in Fairview of Lobster Man. Got pulled down after he did all that real bad stuff. Lays on the ground now, it's kind of a local pass time to try and trash it. My best friend Mackenzie, you guys would like him. He got a really bad idea for what to do with it one winter…"

…

Things were silent in the Tour Bus. Kayla watched Jaxson distrustfully as he ran his fingers over a shelf of keepsakes before finding what he sought.

"Here."

He handed her the picture. She frowned.

"You we're on a hockey team in LA?"

"Try outs." Jaxson said. "Never stayed put long enough to get on the team." He shook his head. "Lot of Canadians down in LA. But the locals…" He gave her a playfully look. "They ain't shy to tell you you're not one of them. You can't rep them if you're from out of town."

"Because you wouldn't get it." Kayla said exasperatedly. Jaxson laughed.

"Probably not. Though, you're probably right that I could stand to try harder.

One thing I did learn growing up moving back and forth between US and Canada is the differences between the too of them… cause it's easy to miss. There a lot a like. Canadians are a lot more like Americans than they want to admit. But there's powerful differences. 'Cause the was never any country like America."

Kayla gave him a skeptical look.

"It's true." He said. "People say American Exceptionalism is bullshit. No it's real far as I know. Comes from being a Superpower. Biggest country on Earth.

Americans, now North Americans…. They don't realize how weird it is that they don't have to care about other countries. Not really. Even fifty years ago when there were still people who traveled the world, there were Americans that never left the country, they never had to! Never had to interact with a foreigner offline either, or someone that didn't speak English.

Rest of the world isn't like that. Other countries, always have at least one other culture they got to contend with. Either us, or China or their neighbours, sometimes all three. They got to learn other languages to talk to people online, got to learn a different culture if they want to watch a movie from Hollywood, got to deal with the foreign policy decisions made by I country that knows them at best for some shitty stereotype and at worst hates their guts.

Then there's Canada. Culturally, let's be real. Almost identical to America. But politically they were distinct. Canada wasn't a superpower, it had to give a shit about the rest of the world. That defined that country more than hockey and Mounties ever could. Canadians had their own government, their own flag, their own identity on the international stage. All that bad shit America got pegged for, Vietnam, Iraq, Venezuela, all that shit with the Republicans in the 2020s, Canadians didn't have to get grouped in with that. They could forge their own path. One foot in America, but also in tune with the rest of the world. They could appreciate the American experiment, the Empire, from safety of the sidelines. They could sympathize how Americans were treated abroad but also with how other countries were treated by Americans.

Then one day, all that's gone. There all in on America. Part of the Empire. Part of its legacy. It's scared people up here Kayla. I think more than they would have realised before it happened. And fear does things to people. Makes them emotional. Canadians were never patriots to their country they same way the average American- was, but after annexation they've been mourning. Think it only hit people what they had now that it's gone."

"They voted for this." Was Kayla's only response. Jaxson chuckled again.

"America got to vote on this. Canada didn't. Wasn't ever a referendum up here. There was no unification as Wade calls it. They got annexed by a larger foreign power. Doesn't matter how culturally similar they were before hand, something like that causes bad blood."

"Why you telling me any of this?" She asked him. "I thought you said you weren't going to take Parker's side."

"I can explain things without agreeing with them."

"But do you agree with them."

"It's complicated… I see a lot of people's sides."

She crossed her arms and turned away from him.

"Hear me out." He insisted. "One thing that doesn't get brought up enough is what Americans lost in this new state. Yeah, sure, it's only a new flag, a new name but damn. The amount of people gave their lives for the old flag, that bled for it, stood by it despite everything that had been done under it. You gave up history for this, and it's all feels off. They said sometimes America a lot like Rome, and that maybe were just doomed to collapse some day, and this NAU business is just our Byzantine twilight years.

But maybe that's just because this country still so young. North America hasn't been defined yet, it's still got an identity to write and if people stopped obsessing over history, maybe they'd find time to write it one."

"Can you please stop talking about politics!" Kayla bemoaned.

"I'm not." Jaxson said plucking at her chin.

"Kayla I'm sorry you had a shitty upbringing. But you're past it. You're not going back to that life when this is over. You're a millionaire! You got the money and fame to set your own path. LA's not fair how it's run so change it. I know you've got that in you! You're a real good kid! And you got friends now alright? Even if you're fighting with Parker you still got people who care about you."

Jaxson barely saw it happen. One moment the girl was sitting there quietly. The next she had thrown herself around him, sobbing. He smiled gently and let her ruin his shirt with her tears.

Her letting go of a decade and a half of pain was more than worth it.

…

The next day brought them through the rest of Saskatchewan, and most of Manitoba. A summer storm kept them mostly within the bus as the landscape began to gain some variety in elevation again, and trees began to populate the roadside, the first of the vast eastern forests of the Canadian Shield.

To Farid, and indeed to most of the group it seemed some law of nature had righted itself. Paisley had finally fallen in line with Peach. After some minor awkwardness in the morning, she had embraced being part of the group fully. Participating openly and honest in the groups many conversations with only a slight reservation. She laughed more than she had all summer, even at a few of the Canadian jokes Neil had thrown at her.

She didn't apologize. She couldn't. Not yet. She had too many feelings to still sort out. But she wasn't hostile to the others anymore, and it was a change that was noticed.

There was of course though the other side of this new development, That Kayla too now embodied properly the habits of her old avatar. The girl was withdrawn most of the day, talking only really with Jaxson who she spent most of the day with in the passenger's seat up front. She was still friendly. That hadn't changed, Kayla was perfectly pleasant to everyone except Paisley. There had been an attempt at communicating between the two in the morning that had ended awkwardly, since then they'd done their bets to ignore one another. It was a blemish on a day otherwise full of good spirits. Even Yeong-Ja having gotten some weight off her shoulder at the previous night's fire seemed to be in very slightly better spirits.

As evening settled in, the lights of the city of Winnipeg shone to meet the darkening sky. Here was the last major city before Ontario, and Jaxson had ensured it would be special.

…

"… Just up these steps."

The former contestants rose into the room and a hush fell over them. They had entered into a hip little club near downtown Winnipeg. One with a stage for live music, booths, arcade machines, and a bar.

"Can't believe you got us in here." Aria said. "We're not even 21."

"First up, drinking age is 19 up here in the North, and 18 in Manitoba" Jaxson said. "Secondly, I pulled some strings. It's all cool so long as I keep you kids from drinking."

"Damn it." Neil murmured.

"How'd you know this place?" Paisley asked. "Celebrity secret knowledge?"

Jaxson smiled warmly. "Me and the owner go way back. This was the first place outside Toronto I performed at."

…

The rest of the night was a warm blur. They got a pair of booths and most of the group ate too much food, played too many games, and laughed too loudly at nothing. The festivities lasted well into the evening. At one point the owner, a boisterous middle aged Ukrainian woman arrived and she and Jaxson lapsed into a long conversation. The bar closed but at the wave of the owners' hand they were allowed to stayed later.

It was almost nearly a perfect night. Provided Kayla hadn't been sitting alone in the corner.

"God she's making me feel bad doing that." Paisley sighed.

"Her fault for being wrong." Steven said.

"She's not. Be nice. I know she's pissed at me, but it sucks she's excluding herself from the group."

"What if we all did some big karaoke number… or like some Bollywood scene where we profess how dearly we all value her friendship?" Aria asked.

Luisa laughed.

"I don't think that's how these thing work cuate."

"But I though she was into musicals?"

"Actually, some music would be nice." Luisa said thoughtfully. "Anyone play?"

There were some impressed sounds as Farid got up from his seat.

He marched over to a standing piano propped against the wall and sat down.

Again, the cast whistled and murmured in approval as music spilled from the keys. Farid obviously had quite some experience on the piano. He blew through some warm ups, testing several melodies before he seemed to the one, he was going to play. It took a second for Paisley to pin it, then she recognized it as one of McLean's. Not Chris for once but Don McLean. The old American folk singer. One of Kayla's favorites.

Then… Farid started the melody a new, and he himself began to sing.

"A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while

But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step"

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died"

Paisley gave Kayla a fleeting glance, the other girl watching her, her emotions unreadable. Then without caring what the others would think, got to her feet

"So bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Kayla smiled weakly at the two. They smiled back. Suddenly someone was strumming a guitar, Neil. Farid upped the tempo. Paisley began the next verse.

"Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Now do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?"

Well, I know that you're in love with him

Paisley head served. Hannah was singing now.

"'Cause I- saw you dancin' in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues"

"I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck"

Sang Farid.

"With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died"

All three of them were joined by Luisa and Neil now.

"I started singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Luisa took over now.

"Now for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin' stone
But that's not how it used to be"

In came Steven with gusto.

"When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me"

Stacy's voice was quiet yet full of life.

"Oh, and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned"

Aria sang confident.

"I don't know the words."

The others laughed. Kayla included. Neil and Hannah covered for Aria.

"And while Lennin read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died"

Most of the group was clapping or singing along now.

We were singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Then it was back to just Farid.

"Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast"

Then paused for a moment, waiting. Kayla had stepped forward. Farid's fingers hovered over the keys, Then at last Kayla sung quietly.

"Now the halftime air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune"

She grinned at them. Paisley led her onto the floor.

"We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance"

Both girls sang.

"'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?

We started singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Paisley began this time.

"Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again"

Farid and Kayla joined her.

"So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan's spell

And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died"

Most of the group sang now. All but Neil and Farid had gotten to their feet. Stacy waltzed a very uneven shuffle with Yeong-Ja, Steven, Hannah and Lennox danced manically by them selves and Paisley and Kayla twirled round one another in circles.

He was singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

They were singing bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey 'n rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die."

Farid played the last few notes and a cheer rose from them.

"Eat your heart out World Tour!" Lennox shouted.

…

They left they bar tired and happy, more united as a group then they had ever been.

Though Jaxson was all but asleep when they left in the early hours of the morning they still returned to the road. This was less of an issue that it may have seemed. The tour bus was of course, like most vehicles these days fully self driving. Jaxson had merely been keeping himself at the driver seat as more of a failsafe than anything. What with the large group he was responsible that second layer of safety had been important to him.

That night however he had slept for several hundred kilometres, only waking when a cheer rose from the rest of the company. A road sign having informed them that they'd finally made it to the State of Ontario.

It was a celebration the whole group was part of, Kayla included. She had remerged from her mask of sadness, though of course between her and Paisley there was still some unfinished business. One Paisley knew had to be dealt with.

…

Unlike back home there were still functional campgrounds along the Trans-Canada highway. Jaxson had booked them one just outside the town of Kenora. The scenery may have been beautiful come sunrise but for now it was still 3 in the morning and everything was dark. After setting up the tents no one had been desire to do anything but sleep.

Paisley cast a glance up at the bus. Kayla was perched atop it, silhouetted against an ocean of stars.

"Think she'd be ready to forgive me?" Paisley asked timidly.

"Never know until you try." Jaxson says with a yawn

He ducked into the bus to retire for the night and left her alone. Paisley sighed and slowly climbed the ladder on the back.

The Summer night was warm and the sky clear. Paisley found Kayla staring off into it in a trace like state. When she sat down beside her the girl gave her a fleeting acknowledgement. Little more than a nod of the head. But it was something.

"Nice view." Paisley said ideally trying hard as she could not to be awkward and failing horribly. "You can really see everything." She continued when the Kayla didn't respond. "Seems like a good place to think…but I figured you could use some company."

For a moment Paisley was worried all she'd be getting back was silence. Then Kayla responded.

"I don't if I'm ready to talk things out yet." She said, her tone was still guarded. Paisley threw her hands up passively.

"That's fair. Take your time. Just uh… I guess letting know that I'll be ready whenever you are."

She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Kayla cried suddenly.

She turned to Paisley, expressions were difficult to see under the starlight but she seemed suddenly quite penitent.

"You can stay. I appreciate you making an effort. I know that's hard."

Paisley smiled wryly.

"I guess you really know what this is like huh?"

"Why do thing I was trying to work things out with you!" Kayla said impatiently. "I mean girl, I gave you so many chances, to talk through this."

"I know… I'm a shitty person for what I said. I shouldn't have taken things out on you guys."

She took off her locket and handed it to Kayla. The other girl pulled out a pocket flashlight to inspect it.

"You met me at a really confusing part of my life Kayla. So much is changing and change hasn't always been good for my family. All this money and fame… it scares me the effects it's going to have on my family. And I can get really, really defensive of the things I care about. That's just part of me. It's not going to change. But it's not fair to make that your problem."

"You've such a big family." Kayla breathed. She sounded almost reverent.

"We got it pretty good back home." Paisley said reflectively. "Better than we realized sometimes."

Kayla removed something from around her neck and handed it to Paisley. To her surprise it was another locket. While Paisley's was shaped like Peach's brooch, Kayla's took the shape of a bluebird.

"When did you get this?"

"Same place you got yours. It was a gift from Wade."

She lent Paisley the flashlight. She opened Kayla's locket and inspected it.

"How come you don't have a picture in yours?"

"Because I don't have anything worth putting in there."

Kayla looked back up at the stars.

"It's hard trying to imagine what it's like to have something worth protecting sometimes. Something you wouldn't want to change. My whole life I've wanted nothing but change. Maybe that's why I've been so, extra about this trip. This is like the first good thing in my life, I wanted to stretch it as long as possible."

"You know things will be different when you get home." Paisley said. "I mean… you didn't win but you made a lot of money as a runner-up. You can move out."

"I know. Jaxson mentioned it last night. I admit I wasn't thinking about long term. I just get so into the moment you know?"

"Teenage brain."

"Yeah!" Kayla laughed. "God… sometimes I feel like there's part of me that wants to be logical but theirs this big emotional monster in control half the time. You feel that?"

"I might know what you're talking about." Paisley admitted. "We've both been too focused on the past. Hard not to, I guess. But there's a lot of chances for the future to be better."

"Yeah…"

They were quiet for a few minutes.

"I should get a bus like this. Travel around. See the country." Kayla said thoughtfully

"That'd be nice." Paisley agreed.

"Maybe if you'd have me I could even travel up to Fairview some time. Meet your family."

Paisley looked surprised.

"You'd want that?"

"I'd still like to be friends someday."

"…Me too."

She sighed.

"Would have be nice if I hadn't wasted most of the trip being a bitch. The parts where we were getting along we're actually pretty rad."

Kayla smiled.

"I mean… Ontario's one the biggest states in the union right? It'll take a couple takes to cross it. Plus it'd be nice to have a local expert around. Maybe teach us uninformed something about what makes these Northern States special?"

Paisley laughed.

"Ah… it's not so great up here. Locals are all kind of full of themselves and there's not a whole lot to do…"

Something happened in the sky, a subtle change in hue the girls mistook for day break. Then the light grew stronger. Great bands shone with increasing intensity and dances in ribbons across the sky. Kayla's mouth grew wide with wonder. Paisley smiled warmly.

She was from the subarctic after all. The Northern Lights were a common enough thing in Fairview. But words couldn't to justice to the amazement stirring in the eyes of her Southern Californian friend. For they were friends, fire forged at that, most of the others were too.

Maybe it was nice to share this country with them. See the things familiar to her from a new perspective.

She sighed happily.

"…But I guess this place has it's up sides."

…

When it was finally done and over with it took them the better part of three days to cross the state. Not that anyone minded. Ontario lengthwise was a patchwork of lakes and mixed forest. It was the landscape of the Canadian Shield, of ancient water worn rock exposed by glaciers during the last ice age, there were never more than a kilometre from fresh water. Cool and refreshing in the summer heat. They swam several times a day, they had campfires at night, when on hikes in the evening. Summiting boulders and discovering waterfalls. Nothing compared to Banff in beauty but the Rockies had almost seemed unreal in their splendor. This was a cozier wilderness. One they all felt at home in. Which made sense.

They were Total Drama contestants after all. This was this landscape was where their kind had been born, where their natural habitat was.

It was sign they were close now.

They sighted the vast shores of Lake Superior late on that first night and the highway spent much of the second day hugging it. The forests staying with them all the while.

They weren't as pristine has they would have been in 2007. Sights of the times still hung about. Fire scars, abandoned cars, shady motels offering private OASIS pods. It would also be disingenuous to say everyone got along those final three days, Yeong-Ja and Steven were contrarians through and through. But none of those little things took away from the trip. From the stargazing, from the dancing, from the laughing, the diving, the singing. It was everything. The happiest moment in most of their lives.

For most of them Paisley including there was part of them wanted it all to last forever.

It was a thought that would stay with Paisley for a long time after.

Inevitably with every passing kilometre of road their destination drew closer, and the anticipation grew stronger.

They passed through Sault Ste. Marie and traded the shores of Superior for those of Lake Huron. The road wound away from the lake up to the industrial town of Sudbury. Then by the time they saw its shores again Jaxson informed them they were there.

Muskoka at last.

The cacophony they gave half deafened poor Jaxson.

There was a final bittersweet round of sightseeing in the lakeside town of Parry Sound. The group bought a few things, keepsakes, things they may need in case the hunch Kayla had that had led them here proved right.

The confusing thing was where to go next. Wawanakwa was of course an island in Lake Huron, one that was entirely private property. There were however sightseeing trips that went out to Boney Island State Forest, and those that could be rented for general use. When they inquired for the rental, the man at the Parry Sound marina gave them an odd look.

"You folk aren't his company? Are you?"

"Chris McLean?" Jaxson asked.

The Boatman gave them a thoughtful look.

"Ten years living on that island, no one in the community hears a word from him. Then all of sudden I get this call. Said if anyone turned up asking for him point them to King's Bay."

"Where's that?"

"Couple miles south. I'll show you the map."

They thanked him and walked back to the bus. Hannah gave Kayla a shove.

"You were right."

"I was right." She breathed.

They followed the boatman's instructions, turning off the highway at the next side road. The passed all the staples of the area, campgrounds, private cottages owned by wealthy Torontonians, and native reserves before they reached a small marina.

It was quiet. Nothing but a few dilapidated buildings and a long pier. There was a single small yacht moored to it, fancier than anything they had seen since Vancouver. Next to it stood a machine. A white featureless humanoid. A standard model robotic butler with basic level A.I. The kind the wealthy had been using for years.

When they approached it, its neck swiveled towards them so that they were gazing into its featureless face.

"You are the cast of Total Drama Endless?" It asked. The voice was human enough yet devoid of tone.

"Guilty as charged." Jaxson said.

The machine extended its hand.

"Welcome to Muskoka. I am Chef 43, I and Chef 29 will escort you to the McLean Estate. The Master has much he wishes to discus with you."

"That's why we came."

They boarded the yacht. Paisley hesitated at the pier.

"So… this is really going down huh?"

"Yeah." Kayla said. "I guess this is where we're parting ways."

Paisley gave the boat a long thoughtful look.

"God I'm stupid sometimes…"

And she lowered herself onto the yacht. The was some cheering from the others. Kayla's eyes lit up.

"You're really doing this?"

"I'll meet with Chris at least." She said. "Though knowing McLean I'm sure he'll find a way to force me into to whatever he's got planned."

"You know if this is another contest, there's no way we'd let you win twice right Princess?" Hannah smirked.

"You're signing your self up for embarrassment for no reason." Neil said.

Paisley rolled her eyes.

"Yeah… fuck it! I've been through worst."

She threw her armed around them both playfully.

"It'll be worth in to spend more time with you assholes."

"It's like you're growing fond of us or something." Luisa said.

Paisley gave them all a wink.

"Don't get any ideas."

She locked eyes with Kayla and they exchanged a nod.

"Alright. Let's do this!"

Their robotic captain unmoored the yacht and they were off across the silky surface of Lake Huron.

Off to their destinies.

And to the island of forested hills and beaches they could already see out in the lake.

Wawanakwa.

…

In a dark room in a vast mansion, one of the machines opened the door.

"They're on their way sir."

A dusty old laugh came wheezing from a lone figure in the room.

"Thank you Chef. See to it they're comfortable when they arrive will you? With what's to come I at least owe them that."

The machine nodded then disappeared.

The old man hobbled over to a cabinet.

"Thirteen years… the time is upon us."

He withdrew something, a manila folder from a hidden compartment, then sighed bitterly.

"Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face no longer hide what the false heart doth know."