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Intro
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This is a collaborative story/rp written by the lovely cabin mates of Horror SWC March 2021 and edited, slightly, by Eevee @AmazaEevee and me, @PaigeTurnerE @Arobot10 and @PaigeTurnerE were the ones who started this. Thanks to @Candylanguagegirl for making SWC!!! Tell me if there's anything I should change. Warning: G0re and V!ol3nce

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Horror Cabin Mates
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@paigeturnere = (former) Host Resistance Leader, Paige (Doesn't like cows) she/her
@Arobot10 = Assistant Host Resistance Leader. She turns into an elemental kitty cat, she/her
@AmazaEevee = Grammar police, Eevee, she/her
@Layspotatofan = Potato, she/her
@ArtisticB00k1e = Cheese Lord/Cheese, she/her
@swimmingelephant1 = Ella, she/her
@Dat_one_cow = Ham, she/her
@CJllama = CJ, she/her
@diamondsarts = Dia, best witch, she/her
@-chocobear = Coco, Kaitlyn, she/her
@Caramelize = Her Highness, Supreme Overlord, Greatness Personified, Cara, she/her
@BagelLover17 = Supreme Underlord, Almost As Great As Cara, Bailey
Floofy cow = Cheese Jr (Owner @ArtisticB00k1e) he/him they/them
Pearl Almezeen = Fawn (Owner @AmazaEevee) she/her

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HOSTS
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@-Alocasia = Alba
@-IcicIe- = Icy
@perfectlypinkpanda = Li

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EXTRA
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@pxl_games = Pxl
@softmoon = sof, soft, cara’s servant
@Berricake = Alyelle
@FloraFauna_SS = Sana/Flora
@euphoricai = Yuna
@-ChocoLoco- = Bakie
@26friedland = LJ

Onto the story…

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Prologue
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'hello,' a voice whispers.
you turn around. there's no one there.

'come ON,' you hear. ‘you have to go, otherwise they’ll catch you!’

'who's they-' you begin to ask, but someone grabs you and pulls you through a doorway.

'this is the only safe-haven for miles. it's one of the only places where the Hosts can't enter.' the voice continues. ‘if the Hosts catch you… well, we don’t want to talk about that.

'welcome to horror. you're going to be here a long, long time.'

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Present
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“The Hosts have taken over the smoldering ruins of Horror cabin. At first, they’re frustrated that there aren’t as many people there to… do whatever they do, but then they realize that the abundance of chaos energy works to their advantage! Using the powerful chaos of this studio as a crack to slip through, they are slowly leaking all across Scratch. Hopefully, you racked up enough Weeks. Best wishes.”

A scribble that dropped off was all that was recorded of a signature on the piece of notepaper Arobot found blowing in the wind. She turned to her fellow cabin mate who happened to be examining the rubble with her.

“Paige, have you seen this?”

She handed the half-scorched scrap over, hurdling and sidestepping flames.

Paige took it from her as flames surrounded them. She was no longer safe. All this time she thought Cara was her enemy but really it was the Hosts. She was not going down without a fight.

She put on her bag, a look of resistance on her face. “Let’s do this!”

Arobot pulled out a freshly sharpened #2 from the sheath and nodded. The two made their way to the center of the wreckage.

“We need to rebel!” Paige says.

Cheese looks around in panic at the burning landscape that surrounds them. “Guys, I think I lost my cow.”

“WE DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR FR!CKIN' COW, CHEESE” Paige yells.

“But the cow-” said Potato.

“THE COW REIGNS SUPREME!!” Cheese cackles maniacally. She turns around and whispers to Potato, “Once the cow takes over the world, I'll make sure she spares you.”

“Ooh!” Eevee piped up, suddenly interested. “Does your cow have a name, Cheese?”

“Guys our lives are in danger and you guys are talking about a cow! A stinkin’ cow!” Paige screams

“What?” Eevee asked. “Cows don't have to stink y'know.”

Cheese looks into the distance. “Hmm yes, the name is Cheese Jr. ‘Tis a beautiful cow. And Paige, you better be careful. Cheese Jr is listening. AHAHAHAHAHAH-”

“Guys!” Arobot yells, crossing her eyes and holding her head. “Cheese Jr. is right over there, munching on the Hi-Fi garden, but Cheese, you’d better put him somewhere he’s safe. We’ve already added so much chaos energy with this dispute, the Hosts will be here any second!”

“I’ll ask my friend Pxl if she has a place for us,” Paige says

“Hm… Who is she exactly? I don't recall.” Eevee asked. She then continued in a whisper. “You should be more careful around Cheese Jr.”

“Cheese Jr will spare you, Eevee. The others, however, I cannot say.” Cheese picks up the floofy cow and puts them back in the secret compartment in Paige's hair.

Arobot10 ignored Cheese. “Yeah, whoever that is, we should probably get out of here if there’s any hope of our survival. Pxl is our best bet. I did get about 15 weeks, anyway, I think, although I wouldn’t know anymore.” She glared at the charred remains of the giant blackboard where the camper’s stats had once been.

Most of the others rolled their eyes at her uptightness.

“Ok, I know this is the point of cabin destruction, but I don’t want to find out what the Hosts do! Do any of you?” Arobot realized that if someone else had said this, she probably would have answered yes.

“Um, yes.” Eevee replied. “Of course, I would want to know. Then we could actually do SOMETHING about it instead of standing here, while our only shelter is burning.” She pointed at the Horror Cabin, or what was left of it.

“Pxl was a fantasy camper. She is also a sorceress. The fantasy cabin can’t be nearly as bad. I’ll go check,” Paige ran to the fantasy cabin, “Actually it’s worse, last time I checked the casino was still intact, we could go there. I have met one of the campers, she yelled at me because I kept my sanity at the Hamilton fancul- ahem club.”

“Hi there, what did I miss?” Coco asked as she jumped out of a hard wooden crate secluded in a corner.

“Hosts have come after us,” Paige says.

“YAY, I GET TO BE SPARED WHEN CHEESE JR TAKES OVER!” Potato exclaimed. “YAYAYAYAY”

Paige rolls her eyes and starts to write a letter to the leaders of the mystery casino.

“What you got there?” Eevee asked, peeking over Paige's shoulder. “You spelled that wrong.” she pointed to the misspelled resistence. “It's supposed to be r-e-s-i-s-t-A-n-c-e.”

Paige fixes it. “I'm writing to Alyelle, Yuna, and Sana at mystery casino”

Cheese looks over Paige's other shoulder. “Mmmmm no, it's too boring, they won't read it. I would suggest some sparkles and probably a cow to go with a detailed movie on the contents of the letter.” She thought for a bit, before adding, “Yes, that'll do.”

“IT’S NOT ABOUT THE COW! A person has already responded but it wasn’t any of the leaders.” Paige says.

“Don't we have to say something about missing a fluffy cow named Cheese Jr and that it was found munching on Hi-Fi's garden? Wonder what Bakie will say about that.” Eevee said, grinning, knowing that Paige does not approve of formal letters with cows. Well, most likely.

Paige gets her b0w. “Guys we need to @tt@ck”

“Okay, I guess.” Eevee gets up, bag in hand.

“Who are we attacking and why Cara?” Soft asks.

“Not Cara, Alba,” Paige says. Paige runs around like a crazy person.

Pulling Cheese Jr out of Paige's hair, Cheese asks, “OK wait 1) why aren't we escaping the burning remains of Horror yet and 2) Why are we attacking Alba and 3) Floofy cow is hungry.”

Eevee looks at Cheese, stunned for a moment, and shakes it off. “Okay, so. 1) I think we are escaping like now 2) Alba and the other host practically did this 3) what does Floofy cow eat?” She stops and looks suspiciously at Paige's hair and begins examining it. “And 4) HOW THE HECK DID A COW FIT IN HER HAIR???”

Cheese ignores the last two questions and continues to pet her cow. “Wait, I thought we were supposed to burn down horror? Right?? If we weren’t, then Cheese Jr definitely did NOT try to eat someone's hairdryer and accidentally burn down the cabin. Absolutely not.“

“The cow can eat stinkin’ grass!” Paige says.

“How does grass stink? Or going further, how does it smell?” Eevee wonders. “If it stinks, I don't think it's okay for Cheese Jr. to eat it.”

“I’m Christian and I’m not allowed to c#ss so I say ‘stinkin’ instead!” Paige explains in not the nicest way possible

“Cool, I'm also Christian and okay.” She turns her attention to Cheese, narrowing her eyes. “Who's hairdryer was it exactly?”

“Not mine, 1) I don’t have one. 2) I don’t use hairdryers or curling irons.” Paige says.

“I hope it isn't mine.” Eevee continued to stare at Cheese.

“Umm, the really fancy one with your name on it? Yeah, nope. No idea what you're talking about.” Cheese suddenly got really interested in a piece of burning chalk.

Eevee glared at Cheese. “I hope so. That cost a fortune.” She changed the topic. “So, where's our destination?”

“Didn’t someone say something about Pxl? Or are we going to do a direct offensive on Alba, who I don’t really understand how she’s involved?” She flickered, glitch-like, between her human form and a

“Alba is THE Host and uh, Pxl is in the middle of leading the pineapple rebellion,” Paige says.

“WHERE IS LE COW CHEESE JR?” Potato exclaimed. “HE MUST GO GET SOME SURGERIES!”

“Oh!” Arobot gasped. How could she have been so blind? At first, she had thought of the Hosts as a dark force, but now she realized that it really was the Host of SWC! “I think I get it. Then I’d suggest an offensive.” She started packing her backpack with whatever she could salvage for the journey to the Main Cabin.

Eevee walks past Arobot to Potato. “Hey!” She whispers loudly to Potato. “He definitely needs surgery, but where are we going to get a surgeon, and even if we had one, where would we get the money? Well, I guess it's Cheese's responsibility.”

Cheese looks at everyone in horror (haha pun), “NO!! WE MUST NOT TAINT CHEESE JR WITH SURGERIES!! HOW DARE!??” She thinks for a moment. “Oh, right the hairdryer. No worries, floofy cow is fine. Cheese Jr is all-powerful- UH I mean, Cheese Jr knows nothing about the hairdryer, and neither do I.”

Lord of the Rings-style aerial shot panning over mountains with faint sounds of Cheese, Eevee, and Arobot arguing as they walk, Paige several yards ahead of them in concentration, and a very floofy cow tagging along behind

Paige stops, she flips on her phone, one percent, she sighs and gets out her compass. “Good news, we are allowed to stay at mystery casino, for now anyway, bad news,” she sighs and checks her phone again, “My phone just died. At least I know how to use this compass or as my sixth-grade science teacher would call it, a magnetic field detector.” She starts to hear loud music, “We are close, I hear the music from the casino.“

Hearing the music, Cheese Jr trotted ahead to greet the members of the Mystery Cabin.

It’s sunset so the casino’s lights were on. “I think we made it.” Paige says, “now what do we do with cow…”

”Scuse' you, ‘cow’ is not floofy cow's name. And don't worry, they'll be fine.“ Cheese ran after her excited cow.

“Whatever, we are here, I talked to LJ she said we could stay for a bit,” Paige says.

”That's good.“ Eevee said. ”I better go and help keep that cow under control. We don't want to get kicked out.“ She waved and dashed after the two Cheeses.

“But Cheese Jr. should have his free will and-“ Potato started.

“I don’t want to hear about it!” Paige snaps, “I’m going to go charge my phone and call Pxl.”

But Pxl arrives before the phone is even charged. She literally just climbs out of the phone and onto the ground, in all her eye-searing neon glory. ”'Sup?“

“How- You know what I’m not even gonna ask,” Paige says

In the background, Cheese and Eevee were chasing the floofy cow around.

”CHEESE JR NO!! DON'T EAT THEIR CABIN-“ Cheese looked at Pxl. ”Oh hi, random huma- CHEESE JR, GET BACK HERE!!“

“I am sorry about the cow…which I want to k!ll…” Paige said to Pxl

”HOW IS THIS COW SO FAST?“ Eevee tells from a distance, still chasing after Cheese Jr. ”HE ATE A HAIR DRYER, DIDN'T HE? CAN SOMEONE HELP?“

”Fine“ Potato said starting to chase Cheese Jr. ”WAIT, LET HIM BE! He's trying to destroy dystopian's cabin.“

Paige bites her lip, /just tell them/, she thought to herself.

”TELL US WHAT??“ Cheese shouts to Paige, still following Cheese Jr around.

”Oh, nothing…“ Paige says

”So you're not gonna wonder how I read your mind?“ Cheese walks closer holding Cheese Jr, figuring a tiny subject change would do Paige some good.

”Not really,“ Paige says

”WHY THANKS FOR ASKING!“ Cheese continues on a long rant about the human expressions and tells.

Pxl clears her throat. ”Okay, so I was called for some reason. What is it that you need? And more importantly, will you pay me for it?“ She phased into a nearby shadow by accident. She pinched herself, and she solidified again.

”The hosts, Alba, Li, and Icy, have destroyed our cabin. They are after us and well… want to k!ll us,“ Paige says as it starts to rain, ”We are starting a rebellion and we were going to shelter at Fantasy Castle, BUT you guys are in a fr!ckin' war, so we decided to shelter at mystery casino,“ Paige looks up at the clouds, something starts to smear around her right eye. Paige always said she never wore makeup but the substance coming down her cheek was obviously makeup. ”Gosh, dang it!“ She grabs a paper towel and puts it to her eye, ”You didn't see that!“ She runs to the other side of the field with her bag.

Arobot shrugged. She stuck out her hand to Pxl. “I’m Arobot. What kind of skills do you have that Paige might call you?” Then she remembered her shadow trick. “That’s cool how you can turn into shadows! I can turn into elemental cats.” She demonstrated by popping into the form of a sandy yellow tabby, floating five feet off the ground in a cushion of wind. “So I can essentially fly,”

Paige comes back over, her eye completely normal, “So what happened while I was gone”

“Apparently, your friend over there can turn into a cat. Or was that multiple cats…? It was unclear. Anyway, the war surrounding the Pineapple Rebellion had died down,” Pxl says. “At least, I THINK it's died down. I really just don't visit the castle very often anymore. If you guys need a place to stay, I could take you over to the Tape Gang headquarters. It's a house entirely dedicated to tape, but more importantly, it's abandoned.” Pxl pulls out her signature blue m4chete, which has the ability to open portals. She opens a portal in the air: Tape Gang
“Head inside, unless you want to be stuck in an unidentified area that was never described in the story,” she yells.

"LJ aka @26friedland says we could stay at Mystery Casino, for now, but thanks for the offer,“ Paige says, her heart still racing. /What if they find out both your secrets, you'll be in deep trouble then/, she thought.

”What secrets?“ Eevee pops up behind Paige. ”What 2 secrets could get her in trouble?“

”How are people reading my mind?“ Paige groans

”To be fair, you're literally writing them down,“ Pxl says. She flinches as a piece of the fourth wall crumbles and falls onto the ground behind her, shining the color of opals. ”Oops,“ she says, but it's really nonchalant. She stuffs the piece of the fourth wall in her lucky satchel.

Cheese looks at Pxl with panic, ”Shhh don't break the fourth wall. As far as anyone knows, we can read her mind.“

Pxl's eyes widened. ”Sorry,“ she mouthed. She took a crystalline bottle out of her satchel and used the liquid inside to fill the empty chink in the fourth wall. The wall was magically filled and smoothed over.

Ella came up with the Official Petition for Cheese Jr. to buy Eevee a new fancy hairdryer and started bugging everyone to sign it. Cheese Jr. ignored her and continued after Dystopian Cabin.

Eevee signed her name on the Petition. She then proceeded to pull out something furry from her bag.

”Excuse me for a sec,“ Paige says, she runs to the other side of the field and started talking to herself, the only words that you were able to hear were ‘Ian’ and ‘forklift’ not very helpful.

Pxl takes a shadow from nearby and started swirling it around. She shaped it until it took a familiar shape. The shape of a fancy hairdryer. ”Here,“ says Pxl, handing the shadow-dryer to Eevee. ”It doesn't actually dry hair, or do anything at all, but maybe it could be some consolation.“ Pxl then had a realization. ”It could also be used as a guide, so Cheese Jr buys the right hair dryer instead of a different one!!“ Happy with her ”genius“ capabilities, she signs her name on the petition and glares at Cheese Jr.

Eevee takes the shadow-dryer, setting the furry thing down. ”Uh, thanks. I guess.“

Paige comes back, still pondering whether she should tell them, /if I don't tell they could shut me out, if I do they could h@te me, choose one/, she thought to herself.

”Come on!“ Eevee says, after giving Paige 5 minutes to think. ”Choose already. It would be better if you told us, and if it's that bad, then why haven't you told us already?“ The furry thing in her arm whimpers a little and she gives it a pat.

Paige takes in a deep sigh, she takes makeup removal and wipes it around her right eye to reveal a huge scar going through the middle of her eye, her eye shined purple while the other was green. ”I got st@bbed with the end of a forklift.“ She starts to fidget with her hair, ”I also…am a former dystopian camper and I am still dystopian at heart…It's fine if you- you want me to leave, I know how to survive…It may be best for me to leave, you never know.“

Pxl was internally screaming, but she stayed calm. She needed to be logical here. ”Well, I suppose it's not really up to us, is it?“ she asked. ”If you want to re-join Dystopian, then that's your decision. But if you choose to stay with us, then I'll have your back. And front! Maybe not your sides, ‘cause that’s too much surface area for me.“ Pxl joked. ”Other than that, I don't care too much about the scar. It makes you look like a cool person with a mysterious past!“ Pxl paused. ”I just realized… You DO have a mysterious past. I don't… I don't really even know who you are. Well, I'll stand by you anyway, no matter how bad of a decision that is.“

Arobot and Eevee nodded.

”It's cool. We'll be with you. How did you get st@bbed by a forklift anyway?“ Eevee quickly changed the subject. ”Is anyone going to ask about this?“ She pointed to the brown living furball in her arms.

“I don’t know,” said Arobot, “I was starting to think it was an actual, like, sentient pom pom.” She blipped into the form of a gray tabby, and the ground shook under her as a rocky platform raised her up to Eevee’s arms to sniff the thing. The platform rumbled back and she blipped back.
“Nope, I still have no idea what that is.”

”Is it a cat?“ Cheese asks, ”Because if it is, I would suggest keeping it FAR away from Cheese Jr. They REALLY like cats.“ she glanced nervously at the cow skipping around in the background.

”You probably wouldn't know because it's an original species.“ Eevee gestured at the furball, which looked up. It seemed to be a hybrid of a fox and deer. ”This is Fawn. She's a pearl almezeen (Alm-e-zeen). With deer-like ears and a foxy appearance, it's no wonder that she's magical. Oh- and her big brown eyes. WHY WOULD YOU CALL HER A SENTIENT POM-POM? I also think you meant sentiment.“

Paige points to her eye, “My first job was at the grocery store, some dude that h@ted me was teaching me how to use the forklift and purposefully st@bbed me with the end of it. Also, I may not see you guys in July… I’m applying, applying to be a- a leader, hopefully for dystopian…It’s up to you, should I leave?”

“I- I have to go, for everyone’s own good…See you in July…” Paige says picking up her bag.

”Nooooo!“ Ella bursts out. The betrayal she felt from Paige ran deeper than blood. She almost broke down crying from the pain. Ella knew she would always be loyal to Paige, even if Paige was no longer loyal to horror. Her soul felt like it had ripped in half, and she turned away from Paige, tears streaming down her face.

Paige runs off and finds a place to sleep, she opens her bag and starts to fill out her leader application for July. She fought off tears because it stings a lot with her cut. She has turned on ‘The Heir’ audiobook. ‘The Heir’ is the fourth book in ‘The Selection’ series which is dystopian. “I once tried to run a mile in 7 minutes…” the book trialed off. Paige felt a pang of regret.

Eevee turned to the others. ”There is nothing we can do about it for today. It's too dark. We can deal with it in the morning. I'm going to set up camp if anyone wants to join.“ She heads off to a nearby hill with Fawn following close by.

Meanwhile, Paige was making candles out of crayons so she can have some source of light. She wanted to go back but chances are they wouldn’t want her anymore. She made a small fort and changed to her battle outfit, a gray shirt, a black belt, gray cargo pants, and purple boots. She blew out her candle and fell asleep…In the morning she awoke fresh and happy, then she remembered what was happening. She groans and starts to walk towards the Hosts' office, she wasn’t scared. Birdi a former dystopian (co)leader was getting trained there so maybe they’ll consider her for a dystopian (co)leader.

Pxl put some colorful candles into her satchel. They smelled oddly like crayon wax, but they'd still work. She was tired and shocked after the previous night's events, but she still planned to sign up for Fantasy's co-leader. She hung her head. Paige was a good person, she really was, but if Pxl was chosen as a co of Fantasy, they'd be sworn enemies. She acted like she didn't care about Paige's choice, for the sake of their friendship, but it cut deep. She sighed. At least she'd get to show off some Fantasy pride in July, with her Pineapple Rebellion-themed signup sheet halfway done. It had allied so many people, from so many different places… Wait! That was it! If Paige, Pxl, and the rest of Horror couldn't unite because of their factions, then they could create a new one! The Pineapple Rebellion had been a joke during cabin destruction, but now it could be a glimmer of hope. A banner to unite under. A chance to break free from the shackles of territorial disputes and live as friends! She held her head high now as she walked to the menacingly tall office building, about to look for Paige while she worked on the signup. Pxl muttered to herself.
”I sure hope she likes pineapples.“

“I LIKE PINEAPPLES!!” Cheese jumped out from behind a bush, with leaves in her tangled-up hair. She then ran back in. “Sorry I just felt the need to say that for some reason. Imma go back to following everyone.”

Arobot blipped into a Wind cat and flew at her highest speed, using wind to slow down Paige and blipped back.
“Hey, I totally understand you. I think Dystopian was actually pretty cool this session, myself. And if you think you were the only one in an enemy cabin, I was a loyal Sci-Fi last time. I think you’re pushing people away more than they are to you.” She looked around awkwardly, realizing that if the others disagreed, she’d given out a lot of incriminating information. She shrugged it off. “Anyway, I wish I could go with you guys to sign up; it turns out I have irl sleep-away camp for a week that month. I hope you get into a fun cabin, whatever that will be!” She took Paige aside for a bit. “Also, I think you should pay more attention to Pxl. I think she feels like you’re prioritizing the wrong things here. I don’t know what you should do, but you should at least talk to her a bit more.” She blipped into an unobtrusive gray Earth cat and trotted back to keep an eye on Cheese Jr.

Paige stops, her heavy boots making a splash in the mud. She looks at everyone, her purple eye gleaming in the early morning light. “I chose this life, Pxl, I don’t care if we are sworn to be enemies. I don’t care if I have to be enemies with any of you! Good for you that you came after me, it’s no use, ok? I have made my decision and you can’t change that.” Paige fiddles with her watch, suddenly a helicopter came, Paige jumps in and flies away.

”So, you hate me now?“ Pxl demands. She slashes a portal in the air with her blue m4chete and takes the portal to the inside of the helicopter. ”You're just gonna forget all of your friends here because of some stupid factions?! If you're so *' LOYAL to Dystopian, why bother even getting our hopes up! Why bother trying to be friends with everyone you meet, knowing that the next month they'll be your enemies!“ Pxl then had a terrible realization. ”You… You didn't WANT Horror, did you? All the spots in Dystopian were taken, and you were assigned to Horror by force.“ Pxl sighed. ”Still, though. If you don't want to be in Horror, then why did you pretend to be everyone's friend?“ Pxl was fuming now. She knew she was being mean and terrible, but she didn't care about the consequences at this point. ”Why did you act like you cared??!! To get some temporary comfort while you were away from your precious home? To feel a LITTLE better about yourself while you attacked your old cabin? Do you REALIZE how selfish that is?!“ Pxl was phasing in and out of existence, sometimes melting into shadows before continuing her tirade. ”Real friends are supposed to give to each other, and always be there for each other! Your cabinmates at Horror were there for you, but in their time of need, you're acting like you never cared about them! Like you never cared about ME!!“ Pxl stood, slashed another portal in the air, preparing to return to Horror. But a strange wind from inside the portal swirled around the helicopter, sending both Pxl and Paige flailing to the earth, miles away from civilization.

Paige grabs her backpack, it had a parachute, her b0w, and some food and other supplies. She puts on the parachute and jumps. Her bl00d was boiling, she wasn’t loyal to anyone but herself. A quote from ‘The Heir’ popped into her head, it was, ‘I am Eadlyn Schreave, and no one is me…’ Paige took out her b0w and aimed at Pxl. “You’ll soon regret this.”

Pxl hastily portaled over behind a rock, breath heavy. She peeks around and sees Paige, still aiming in her general direction without seeing her. She didn't have time to think about what she was doing when she leapt out from behind the rock and charged at Paige, bl4de raised. She could almost imagine the sick praise from Fantasy… congratulations on eliminating a Dystopian Camper… she wasn't worth anything… She'd be in the right to k!ll her… At the last second, she turned her blade, cutting Paige's b0wstring in half. As the broken b0w fell to the ground, Pxl stuffed her m4chete into her lime hoodie pocket. ”If you want a f1ght,“ Pxl said, a scary-calm look in her eyes, ”Let's have a fair f1ght. No w3apons, no tricks. Just you versus me.“ She breathed heavily. ”Dystopian versus Fantasy.“ Before waiting for an answer, she charged.

Paige smirked, she takes out a little something she st0le from sci-fi. She activated it and started walking in midair. She takes out a ruler from her bag, “Anything goes…”

Pxl didn't exactly think this was a fair f1ght, but she didn't have any time to complain. She gave a smug smile to hide her fear and anger and threw the first pvnch.

Paige climbed the nearest tree. She used the branches like monkey bars to swing from tree to tree. “HOPEFULLY THERE ARE NO M#TATED B33S!” Paige says obviously referencing the hunger games.

A random Poem camper had been taking a walk through the woods when Paige swung by. ”Oh, geez!“ they cry before running back to the Sky Castle.

Up on the hill, Eevee could hear the echoes of the cry. /What's going on there?/ she wonders.

Pxl sat on the grass, hands to her temples. ”You don't get it, do you?“ she said, quiet and resigned. ”I don't care that you like dystopian. I've read my fair share of the stuff- The Selection is something I re-read all the time! But you can't let your dvmb, genre-based alliances affect who you get to be friends with. I don't give a flying flip about your past, but you're acting like that past HAS to affect your future. It doesn't, though. You're pushing everyone away, assuming that everyone will automatically hate you, DESPITE the fact that most of us are willing to stand by you! I mean, we just tried to k!ll each other, for heck's sake. And for what? An alliance? trust me, I know from experience that even though alliances are strong, friends are stronger.“ Pxl held out her hand. ”So let's be friends, and let's be strong enough to help each other. Because I KNOW you're strong, Paige, and right now we all need you back on the team.“

“Actually you wanted to k!ll me because you wanted praise, I didn’t push them away, they didn’t want me anymore. Therefore I can not come back.” Paige says, mending her b0wstr!ng.

Pxl laid down, staring directly at the sun. Being made of shadows, sort of, it didn't really hurt. ”Do you think I want their praise?“ she asked. ”I like congratulations as much as the next sorceress, but I don't want to get it by… those means. Before I sold potions out of my lucky satchel, I was a dragon sl@yer. I had to k!ll things all the time, and I'd get paid exorbitant amounts of gold to do it. You wanna know why I stopped?“ Pxl paused, but there was no response. ”I stopped because I don't like k!lling anyone who doesn't deserve d3ath. Paige, you don't deserve d3ath.“ She kept staring up at the sky. ”If you want to leave, then that's fine. If you want me to be your enemy, that's fine, too. You know what?“ Pxl sat up. ”Why don't we just skip the process? I mean, you OBVIOUSLY h@te me by now, so I'll just h@te you in return!“ She clapped her hands, a sadistic grin on her face. ”I'll give you thirty seconds to either accept my GENEROUS offer or to run away. Make your choice quickly, because as soon as the time is up, I will hvnt you down.“

”You're not the only one with a past. I was a time traveler, my best friend is in the late 1700s, her older sister h@t3s me. Her older sister also h@t3s her own mother who is now d3@d. I tried to keep everyone safe and happy but I failed because of my best friend and her sister running off to become royalty, if you are a Hamilton fan like me your jaw will drop when I tell you who the two girls are,“ Paige pauses for a sec standing up, she was tall, 5' 9” to be exact, “Peggy and Eliza Schuyler.” She let the silence hang there, “At one point Eliza and I almost started a w@r against each other, Peggy and I almost lost our friendship, and their little sister Cornelia almost k!II3d h3rs3lf. I tried to prevent this but I couldn't. When I came back to the present my older sister was d3@d. You see I have gone through a lot and have my reasons.”

“Well, that was a positively WONDERFUL speech!” Pxl exclaimed. “However, your time is up. You said you had your reasons to be my enemy, and I respect that! That's why I'll be YOUR enemy.” She paused. “If I had the right gear, you'd be gone before you could say ”I change my mind,“ but I'm going to go back to Horror. Regroup. Tell them all about the HORRIFYING sequence of events that have occurred.” Pxl laughed. “Then we can ALL h@te each other!” She ran off to where the other Horror campers were.

Paige gets out leather fingerless gloves and teleports. “Glad I packed these”

Pxl sobbed a few times on her way back, as practice. You see, she had been staring at the sun on purpose. Her eyes were burning just enough to produce a few fake tears. “Perfect,” she murmured to herself. When she could see the Horror campers, she broke into a run, sobbing loudly. “Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “Paige- I- She-” Pxl broke down into more sobs, for good measure. She decided to lessen the theatrics as she explained, still making sure to give her voice a slight stutter. “Paige h-h@tes me, h@tes everyone here! She tried- she tried to k!ll me, and I barely es-escaped! She told me herself, that she was- was Dystopian at heart, and that we could NEVER be friends!!” With that, she resumed her crying, hoping no one would try to interrogate her about details while she was /acting/ so emotional.

Paige was watching from a nearby tree, ready to teleport at any moment. She knows that some people have a way of wrapping others around their fingers. Paige lets herself think back to Celeste from The Selection, she had such a tragic end. She aims her b0w to Pxl’s back, “3…2…” she whispers. She sh00ts it, it missed. “Dang it!” She says to herself.

Ella slowly slinks off from the rest of the group and goes for a walk in the woods to clear her mind. She ends up sitting under a big oak tree, pondering her next moves.

She clearly didn't believe Pxl's story about Paige and realized that if Paige walked into the Host's office, she might not come out alive. The Hosts wanted to k!ll the members of the horror cabin, and they may not pardon her, despite her change of heart to Dystopian. Paige may as well have committed su!c!de.

And Ella had another secret; she was applying for leader too. She would have to face the hosts eventually, and she'd rather have Paige by her side. She would still be loyal to horror but would need Paige's help if either of them wanted to even be considered.

Her plan was to slip away from the others in the pitch of night, after gathering supplies. Her most important item, however, would be a cell phone. She could use this to track Paige's cell phone, the only way she could possibly locate her. Then, she'd need to move swiftly while Paige was sleeping to catch up.

Pxl heard the familiar whooshing sound of an arr0w and instinctively ducked. She wasn't the only dragon sl@yer in her old village, and there had been quite a bit of… disputes. These disputes often involved a LOT of w3apons. Pxl picked up the arrow, scanning the area. She couldn't see anyone, but there was no way she could relax now. She needed to have constant vigilance if she wanted to surv1ve.

Paige teleports to a mall after she sees Pxl looking for her. Paige walks into the Apple store, “Do you guys have any iPhone 8’s” she asks, wanting a fake phone to plant. She buys the iPhone 8, sets it up and plants it with a note that says, ‘Ha, you can’t outsmart me!’

Back on the hill, Eevee notices something is off. “Hey! Has anyone seen Pxl? I haven't seen her since her emotional breakdown.”

Paige is watching from a tree, “Whoaaaa.” She says almost falling.

Eevee scoffed. “Some breakdown,” she muttered.

Paige falls out of the tree landing on her back, “Owwww”

Eevee begins debating with herself about how ridiculously Pxl was acting and also her behavior. Was she supposed to agree and think that Paige was a traitor? Or was she supposed to discuss this with the rest of the cabin? What else did she not know? Her mind became a jumbled mess as she began to pace around, unknowingly ranting herself to Fawn. Fawn kept following her, slipping in between her feet as Eevee walked, and eventually tripped her. “Oof.” Eevee landed on the grass with Fawn laying down next to her as they took in the view.

“You should listen, even though it’s only half true,” Paige says behind Eevee. “It’s more like she stretched the truth.”

“ACK!” Eevee cried. “Oh, it's just you. When did you get here? What's the truth then?” She decided to start off with a few questions instead of her mental pile of them. She didn't want to scare Paige away already.

“She was the one who almost k!lled me not the other way around, and I do h@t3 her, and I am dystopian at heart, and you guys should believe her because she is right except that one part.”

Pxl melted out of Paige's shadow, where she'd been hiding. “Ok, we're both stretching the truth here. We both, uh, kinda tried to k!ll EACH OTHER. It was at the same time, so it's pretty complicated.” Pxl's eyes flashed green as she remembered what else Paige said. “You really DO hate me, huh? I thought I had been lying about that too,” she murmured. “I guess I should've expected this, but I thought… I thought we could just forget about it for a few months. SWC July isn't for two months, and I was foolish enough to think we could've been friends for those two months.” Her eyebrows drew into a frown. “It seems ‘Dystopian at heart’ didn't just mean her alliance… it meant that we weren't even friends in the first place.” Pxl sighed. “I'm sorry for the fake breakdown earlier, I thought it'd make me easier to believe. I WAS stretching the truth, and I probably shouldn't have. But at least I'm bad at acting! Apparently, Paige is a good enough actress to even fool ME into friendship.”

Cheese fell out of the same tree Paige was in, from behind a clump of leaves. “Sorry, I was pretending to be Tarzan with Cheese Jr.,” She said as she slowly stood up and brushed the leaves out of her hair. “I’m back now, though, since Jr started getting into the role of a gorilla too well that it was starting to get scary. What’s going o- OOF-“ Cheese Jr leaped out of the tree and landed right on Cheese’s back, knocking her back to the ground.

Paige stood her ground. She pulls out her phone. “I have proof that you- never mind.” She had to protect her past. She puts her phone back and runs off. When she is far enough away she teleports to the other side of camp, st3@l$ some bread from dystopian, gets some greens from hi-fi, and makes a shelter near the main cabin. She wants to show Pxl that she is not just a v!0l3nt person. “Your such a c0w@rd…” she says to herself.

“CHEESE! I thought I told you to stay with the others!” Eevee exclaimed after Paige ran off. “Wait, did I? Anyway, why are you guys pretending to be Tarzan?”

Paige watches as rain pours down on everything. So peaceful…

She starts to sing to herself, “All we see is the sky, forever…” She stops singing for a long time, thinking, determination shined in her eyes, “Watch out Pxl, I'm coming for you!” She takes her b0w and @x, she grabs her bag and packs it up. “I am fine to be the villain, I am fine to be the hero.” She runs to find Pxl. She was running so fast she bumped into someone.

Pxl walked over to where Cheese Jr was laying on the ground after their unfortunate fall. Pxl smushed her face into their side. /This is my life now,/ she thought. /I will live out the rest of my sorry days with my head inside of a bunch of floof, because I'm too scared to face the rest of the world./ She made a noise, and even she couldn't tell if it was a sob or a desperate laugh. Her eyelids started feeling heavy. Cheese Jr was so floofy… She might just fall asleep…

Paige accidentally trips on Pxl, “AHHHHHH! Ugh, you.” Paige’s valuables fell out of her bag. Her w3@pons, a note that says, ‘i’m coming', and the normal things.

“Hey,” Pxl murmurs, her face still hidden in Cheese Jr's floof. She knows she should be running away from the girl that wanted her d3ad, but she was half-asleep and unwilling to wake up. She fell asleep entirely, accidentally melting into Cheese Jr's shadow. To any passerby, it would look like there wasn't anyone there at all.

Paige’s note blew right in front of Pxl’s face, “Dang it!” Paige says going to grab it. It kept flying away in the wind. She finally got it.

Pxl had unfortunately woken up at that exact moment, and just barely saw the words ‘I’m coming.' Pxl laughed, still a bit woozy from sleepiness. “Paige, you're already here! You came. Hiiiii.” She kept half-melting into her shadow, sometimes leaving nothing but her head before phasing back. “I'm gonna go and… uh… I don't know, I'm bored. Wanna go wreck Dystopian with me?” She then remembers Paige WAS Dystopian. “Neeeeevermind then, sorry. Well, talk to ya later!” She giggled, then p* out.

“Cheese Jr really is a floofy cow isn’t he.” Cheese grinned at Paige.

Paige smiled. She hauled Pxl to her bunker. She knew that they would never think to look here.

“Oh, are you taking Pxl there to keep her safe from the evil humans?” Cheese asked while following Paige, with Cheese Jr in tow.

“Uh yeah,” Paige says hesitantly. She has got to get rid of Cheese. “Hey Cheese can you get the others?” She says.

“No stop tryna ditch me.” She paused. “You’re very expressive about your thoughts, even if you don’t say anything.” Cheese adds after seeing Paige's surprised expression.

Cheese slung Pxl over her shoulder and held her cow in one arm. “Also, I’m not gonna let my friends fight each other over some dumb cabin thing. It’s just something we do for fun, and we just want to do the thing that we find fun and interesting. Talk to people about our interests. It’s literally just a glorified book group. Why does it have to be more than that? I know I always act crazy and dumb, like everything is fine. But this is just stupid. I’m not mad… I’m just… disappointed. I’m not letting you hurt Pxl, and I’m not letting Pxl hurt you. Have fun in Dystopian.” She gave Paige a wide smile and walked away while Jr mooed at Pxl.

“I am sorry but…” Paige st@b$ Cheese’s back. She removes the kn!fe and walks away.

Watching from a distance away behind a large tree, Eevee watched as Paige walked away. “Ohmigosh.” she said under her breath, not wanting to get caught. “What are we going to do?”

Paige grabs her belongings leaving Pxl and Cheese where they were. She left a small smile on her face.

“O-oww…” Cheese grunted as she stood up. “I—“ She tried for a joke, but it got cut off with a fit of painful coughs. Everything was blurry, and black spots swam in her vision. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, and the searing pain in her back prevented her from standing straight. But she was still alive, and as long as that was true, nothing would change. Except for the fact that Cheese probably needed the doctor. Either way, she won’t die easily. /This won’t change anything Paige (ow) I still trust you (still ow). I’ll never stop being your friend./ she thought. /Although literally stabbing me in the back might be a bit of a red flag. She laughed to herself, and immediately regretted it. Blood oozed out of the wound in her back, staining her shirt. She heard somewhere that smiling really hard (or screaming) would take some focus off the pain. So grinning until her face hurt, she picked up the growling cow and Pxl and continued as she went, determined to take Pxl somewhere safe.

Fawn runs to Cheese, jumping up and trying the lick Jr's face. Eevee follows frantically. “Cheese, are you okay? We need to have someone take a look at you! Um, here!” Eevee lifts Jr off of Cheese and onto her. “Okay. Let's get you back to camp.”

“Hehe I'm fine, I- Ow-I'm not gonna hold it against her, but- Ow- what was she thinking when she stabbed me- ow- like, ‘Oh no, Cheese is being a supportive and kind friend! I guess I got to stab her now-’ Ow-” Cheese winced through her grin.

Paige stalks them from a tree, ready to @ttak. She takes aim at Eevee. “3…2…1…” she releases the string.

As the arrow sliced through the air, Cheese Jr jumped up, snatching the arrow before it could reach Eevee. Holding it in her mouth like a dog, they trotted back to Cheese and dropped the arrow at her feet.

Paige jumps down silently and st@b$ Eevee.

Cheese intercepts the stab, moving quickly despite the wound in her back. This earned her another wound in her side. At least Eevee was safe, but she seemed pale from the shock. /Oh no you don't, Paige, I'm not letting you hurt anyone else/.

Covered in armor made of floofy pillows, Potato runs up to Eevee, Cheese, and Pxl. “AHHHH” she yelled while calling for help. She, Fawn, Cheese Jr, and Eevee tried their best to help get Pxl and Cheese back to the Horror cabin. Soon after nursing Pxl and Cheese back to health Potato sits down and starts thinking about what just happened. “Why would Paige do this?” she thought. “I have no idea,” said a voice behind her. She jumped from her seat and turned around. “Eevee?” she said. “You almost gave me a heart @ttack. Plus how did you hear my thoughts?” she finished up.

Paige is in her bunker she is screaming at herself, “you st#p!d person, why did you do that!” She b@nged her head against the wall. “You can’t change it, Eliza never forgave you so why would they!” Paige texts the others, “Sorry is not enough, Pxl knows my past, its weird and I don't wanna share it, I will always be dystopian so I can stay away from you guys or I could come back” she hits send.

“There's nothing to forgive” Cheese stood behind Paige, leaning on the wall. A bandage was falling out of her shirt as she ran here before she could even be fully bandaged. She didn't even change out of her bloodstained clothes. She needed to be there. “But you DO owe us an explanation on what got you riled up enough to go around stabbing people.” She tried to give Paige a smile, but a rogue tear broke free. But as quickly as it came, Cheese turned around, wiped it away, and grinned.

“What's happening?” Potato said coming into the room holding a sw0rd eyeing Paige. “Just in case,” she said putting the sw0rd to her side.

Paige takes a deep breath, “Sorry is not enough, Pxl knows my past, it’s weird and I don’t want to share it, I will always be dystopian so I can stay away from you guys or I could come back.”

“Y'know, secrets, magic, creatures, stuff, and- What's going on here?” Eevee walks in, following Potato explaining her mind-reading skills. “Uh, Hi Paige.” Fawn slips through her legs and places herself on Eevee's feet.

Paige takes in a deep breath, “I don’t trust you guys with my secret.”

“Ow,” Cheese winced, but not from the pain from the wound.

“Hm?” Paige says .

“Who says we don't already know?” Eevee asks, placing her right hand on her hip.

“I’ll k!ll you if you do.” Paige thr3@t3ns, they know she isn’t kidding after what happened before.

Laughing, Cheese walked to Paige. “Maybe we do know, but whatcha gonna do about it? We gotta angry cow and an angry Potato on our side.” She smirked and stopped right in front of Paige, crossing her arms on her chest and leaning forward. Her whole posture and expression was joking and light. The exact opposite of the pain that was throbbing through her body, punishing her for the movement.

Pxl shot up out of bed. “JUNE!!” she screamed in anguish. She paused as she ACTUALLY woke up, sweating. /You'll be fine,/ she thought. /They don't know who June is./ She took in the scene.

Cheese froze. “Wait, were you sleep talking this entire time?” She looked to Pxl.

“Wait..” she says. “This ENTIRE time?! What was I saying?!!” She saw Paige at the opposite end of the room, and frowned.

“Is… Is someone gonna explain this?” Pxl asked. Cheese had a bunch of b@andages over her back, and Paige was holding a suspiciously red kn1fe. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots. “Paige, what the heck?!” Pxl screamed. “I'm totally down for you st@bbing /me/, but don't you DARE involve any of your ‘friends’. They never did ANYTHING to hurt you! Yet here's Cheese, with a fr1gg1n' st@b w0und! Wow, I WONDER how that happened!” Pxl sighed. “I don't hate you yet, but you're making it VERY hard to like you.”

“Haha actually I have two stab wounds. From when she stabbed me, then tried to stab Eevee but stabbed me again instead.” Cheese pretended to think hard. “Ow. I don't think she likes you very much.”

Pxl glared at Paige. She was making it EXTREMELY hard to like her.

~A rogue CJ, bedecked in fluffy sheep onesie and bunny-ear slippers, swam over the people below her due to the immeasurable tension in the air. ~

Paige was so stressed she took out her sketch pad and drew an usual picture, one teenager and a woman were at a table where broken remains of a crown lay. She drew speech bubbles, the teen saying, ‘you are either a real cheap queen or that’s a phony.’ The woman was wearing a dress much like a queen’s and held a j@ckhammer. Then
Paige burn3d the drawing.

Ella burst from the trees, holding her cellphone out in front of her as if her life depended on it. She ran straight towards the bunker, and headed inside. The scene inside surprised her so much, she almost fainted.

Cheese was covered in bl00d, and Eevee was trying to stop the bl**d!ng by ripping the sheets off of the bed Pxl was laying in. And to top it off, Paige was over in the corner, drawing, with a scarlet kn!fe by her side. She never looked up, until she finished, and burned it, completely ignoring the rest of the room.

“PAIGE!” Ella shrieked, “What have you done?” Paige didn't respond, just ignored her. After waiting a bit, Ella grabbed Paige's arm, and dragged her outside. She gave the kn!fe to Eevee, and handed Paige's backpack to Cheese. “See if there's something in here to help,” she said, clearly eyeing Cheese's back.

Once outside, Ella looked directly at Paige and said, “Explain.”

“Goodbye Peggy, goodbye-” Paige cut herself off. She almost gave away her past AGAIN. She st@b$ her weird fingerless gloves, “It's all fine until someone gets hurt…Goodbye Pegs, I won't see you again, EVER.” She takes out a shard of gold plastic much like in her picture.

Ella lunges for Paige, and tackles her, retrieving the shard of gold plastic, and tucking it into her pocket. She shakes Paige, “You can't do this to yourself! Just tell my about Peggy! I can make a pretty good inference, but you need to explain what is going on. RIGHT NOW.”

In a slightly softer tone, Ella asks, “Paige, are you still applying for (co) Leader?” she pauses, “Cause I am too. Let's go to the hosts office together, and apply with each other. We have to have each other's backs, if we are going to make it out alive. But I'm only going with you if you tell me your secret. Otherwise, you aren't going anywhere. And I'm great at keeping secrets. Trust me. It's your only choice.”

Paige is on the verge of tears, “I am a time traveler. My ex best friend is Peggy Schuyler, Eliza h@t3s me, when I got back to the present it turns out my older sister was d3@d! I h@te c0mmunism and absolute monarchies. I also almost k!ll3d Eliza!”

Ella looks down at her, almost crying too. “Oh Paige. That's awful. But that was the past. What happened, happened. You will live, and so will Peggy and Eliza. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me too.”

This is what Paige meant as, ‘I am leaving for your own good’ she is dangerous.

“NO! PAIGE! DON'T LEAVE!” Ella cries out! “We can do this together! We can face the Host's together!” she says with major emphasis on the ‘together.’ She runs to catch up with Paige.
“So, which way is the Host's office?” Ella asks.

Paige sh0ves Ella, and starts running.

Ella walks back to Paige and sits down in the dirt beside her. They are both silent for a couple minutes, just thinking.

“Stop following me, or else…” Paige grabs out her kn!f3.

Ella looks at Paige. Staring deep into her eyes, grabs the kn!fe out of Paige's still tied up hands. “You should have cut the ropes while you had a chance.” Ella says, tears threatening to spill out.

And then they do. All the tears kept hidden inside her throughout her life came spilling out, like raindrops pitter-pattering in a never ending storm.

“Why… Why… Why… Why do you do this, Paige?” asks Ella, stuttering a bit with shock, “Why do you push away all your friends? You and Eevee are my only close friends, ones that I can trust. I don't know if Eevee will forgive me for chasing you, after what you did to everyone else. If I don't have you either, I have no one. I have no home. Horror was my only sanctuary. I care about you, and I can't let your past determine your future. Paige, you have to forget it. Maybe, someday, you can make it right. But until then, you have to live with yourself.”

Paige starts a f!re, it spreads closer to Ella as Paige runs away. She pants, she knew that they would never forgive her but she doesn't care. She puts her kn!fe back in her pocket and heads to f!ght the hosts…

Ella runs away from the f!re, sprinting like never before. Eventually, she stumbles upon a pond, and decides to take a bath. She can no longer see the f!re, just the sm0ke lining the horizon. She empty's out her pockets and backpack, and does a quick inventory of her belongings. A four foot piece of rope, two Snickers bars, a bottle of water, Paige's kn!fe, her own kn!fe, and her cell phone.

Her phone! She can track Paige again! Ella jumps around with joy, and then realizes how dirty she is, after all her tracking and fighting. She decides to take a bath, and quickly str!ps down.

At first, she just sits in the murky pond water, but she get's cold quickly, and does a couple laps around the pond. When she finishes, she hops out, drys herself with her backpack, and slips her clothes back on. She repacks her backpack, and using her phone, begins to track Paige.

The little dot said to be Paige was moving in the direction of a large area, that mysteriously, had no name.

“That must be the Host's office!” Ella said to herself, and began her journey forwards, moving swiftly through the underbrush, kn!fe in hand.

After a couple hours of walking, Ella grabbed her cell phone a checked Paige's location again. Paige's dot was no longer moving. That meant Paige was probably sleeping!

Even though her body ached, Ella picked up the pace, starting to jog.

Soon enough, she could go no longer, so she stopped for the night and climbed up into a large oak tree. She checked Paige's location, and then she checked hers, and realized that the dot that was Paige, was coming in the opposite direction she was.

That was't possible! Paige had to be coming from the same direction as she, after fleeing the fire. Ella was unsure what to do next, and decided to sleep on it.

When she woke up the next morning to the sound of a little Barn Swallow chirping, she checked the location of Paige, and saw it hadn't moved.

Maybe Paige was hurt? Would she want help? It was too risky to go after Paige with her angry and such, so Ella decided that she would have to go directly to the Host's office, and hope Paige was there. She didn't have time to waste, and needed to get her application in, so she started again, off to the Host's office.

Meanwhile at the Hosts office, Paige is stalking Alba from a far, she has to find the right time to att@ck. Paige eyed pxl, holding her kn!fe close. She was about- Paige got an idea, “Deal, if you can go into their office a get me the files.” Paige was pretty dark, but Alba was darker, Paige knew Alba has some secrets and Paige wanted to know what they were, she also had a play to get rid of Pxl at the same time. She also knows how she can use Pxl’s talents to her advantage.

Ella walked into the lobby of the Hosts office and found Pxl and Paige staring at each other, both with weapons raised. She walked painstakingly slowly sideways, listening to their conversation, and trying not to be seen. From what she heard, Paige and Pxl would work together to turn in their applications.

“Hey Paige. Pxl.” Ella said nodding at the two of them. They turned to face her, surprise crossing their faces. “I'm applying too, so lets work together!” Ella pulled her kn!fe out of her backpack, and started to make her way towards them.

“So, where do we turn in our applications?” Ella asked casually, ignoring the tension between the three of them.

Paige got all dark all of a sudden, “Oh you guys won’t be able to turn them in…” Ella and Pxl feel a sharp pain in their back. Paige walks away with her kn!fe. Smiling to herself.

Pxl saw the droplets of lime and knew this was gonna be hard to fix. She melted into the shadow of a nearby tree, letting her non-physical form ease the pa1n. She just needed to steal a bit of shadow from somewhere else, and use the shadow to fill in the gap in her back. She'd usually just st3al a bit of shadow from the tree's shadow, but she was conscious enough to want to mess with her “ally.” She re-formed, leaving a trail of green bl00d as she silently followed Paige. She h1t her on the side of the head, kn0cking her down temporarily, and took a piece of Paige's shadow. When Paige stood up to att@ck, her shadow's head had a h0le in its eye. The hole was a perfect match to Paige's purple sc@r. Pxl took the piece of shadow, and pressed it into her back. It hurt like a million n33dles trying to st1tch her broken pieces together, but her ‘skin’ began to heal itself. /I need to work on the application,/ she thought. /I haven't even started it yet!/

Ella felt the pain hit her like a tidal wave, knocking her to her knees. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pxl and Paige go outside and start fighting. She mustered up all her strength and crawled outside.

“Pxl!” Ella shrieked, “Can you help me?” Her hope was for Pxl to be able to heal her st@b w0und.

Pxl turned, and saw Ella barely sitting up. She hesitated. If she tried to heal a human using shadow magic, it could be seriously d@amaging. But if she did nothing, then… Pxl ran over, picking up a chunk of the tree's shadow. “Stay still,” she said, as she formed the shadow into a ball. Ella winced as she sh0ved it into the w0und, but it seemed to work well enough.

“Thank you, Pxl. You saved me.” Ella said, looking up at Pxl graciously.

Ella stood up, grinning, and turned around, facing Paige. “Let's go beat the hosts!” she said triumphantly, “They want us to turn on each other, so they can take over, but we can't let that happen. We have to work together. We have no other choice. Paige, you can k!ll me after we do this, but we have to do this first. Remember why this all started. We all are fighting for the rebellion.”

Ella walked back inside the lobby, limping ever so slightly with every step. She only hoped Paige and Pxl would help her defeat the Hosts. There would be no hope for the future of horror, or any of the cabins for that matter, if they didn't work together.

Paige was standing over Alba's w0und3d body. She smiled with an I-told-you-I-could look.

Pxl walked over to Ella, a look of concern on her face. “Hey, uh, I kind of have to tell you something.” She gestured at Ella's w0und. “I healed that with a shadow. For someone like me, who's made of shadows, it's not gonna affect anything. But you're a human, and humans are SUPER weird. That piece of shadow in your cvt is gonna start spreading soon. It'll make all your bl00d black and make you almost incorporeal. You'll still be half-human, but being half-shadow is a scary thing.” She didn't know how to help her. “Just… Don't get too scared if you accidentally start m3lting into shadows, or phasing out of reality. That's normal.”

Paige zips up her black windbreaker. She sighs and goes to find Li and Icy. She thinks about what Pxl said about how she would get praise if she eliminated Paige. /Maybe I should have given up, I've caused a truck load of issues. Everyone h@tes me now, and I have zero friends./ She lets herself think for a minute. Then she started walking again, still deep in thought.

“HIYA FREN!” Cheese jumped out from behind Paige, spooking her. “Sorry it took me so long, Eevee made me stay behind and fix up my bandages. So what's going on? Did ya murder that host?”

“Only w0unded, I want to save my am0.” Paige says.

“Ah, wise choice. Maybe we can interrogate them and stuff, like detectives!” Cheese struck a pose. “We'll need a lightbulb, and a dusty room with chairs and a table. You don't happen to have handcuffs by any chance, do y-”

“HEYO EVERYONE!” Potato burst through the door shouting. “GUESS WHAT! CHEESE JR MADE A NEW FRIEND WITH MY RED PANDA PAM PAM!” Everyone stares at her. “Now was not a good time was it?” “Welp watcha' doing?” she said taking a seat. “Is- ” Potato was interrupted by a big boom. Everyone scurried outside to see what had happened. “Cheese-” Potato started. “Your comic relief is very much needed.” Potato said with a tear coming down her cheek.

“YES thank you finally someone appreciates my talent. What happe-?” Cheese looked upon, not really understanding what she was seeing.

Back inside, Ella takes in Pxl's news. “Cool! I can melt into shadows!” she replies, trying to be optimistic. “Am I immortal now?” she asks Pxl.

Paige walks outside. She sneaks into Alba’s cabin and st3@ls Alba’s ukulele and plays it outside in the rain, she starts playing, ‘Consequences’ by Camila Cabello. “‘Glasses on the sink they didn’t fix you…’” she start crying silently while singing.

“Woah, drama.” Cheese sits in front of Paige.

After hearing from Pxl, Ella joins Paige outside, and retrieves her own ukulele, strumming along peacefully. Tears fall down both of their cheeks as they reflect on the past few days, but you wouldn't be able to tell they were crying because of the rain, other than a few soft sniffles.

Ella turns to Paige and says, “Paige. I am your friend. I will always be your friend. I hope you understand that. I will never stop fighting for you.”

Cheese sniffed and mimed wiping a tear from her eye, “This is so beautiful, my eyeballs are sweating. Just pause a moment I need to take a video of this.” She ran into the cabin and ran out with a camera. Clicking record, she held it up. “Aight, you guys just ignore me keep going.”

Pxl slaps the camera out of Cheese's hand, at it shatters on impact with the ground. They both stare at it, before Pxl takes some pieces from Cheese's shadow to repair the camera. Soon the camera is covered in black tendrils and mist, but it works! “Don't tape this,” she said. “That's just… really weird.”

“Why would you even THINK about recording them in this rain?” Eevee walks up from behind them with a strange green glow radiating from her skin. They turn and stare at her. “What? Staring isn't very nice. Oh. Yeah.” She closes her eyes and the glow dims. Fawn trots past them and places herself down next to Cheese listening to the music.

“I was kidding it's called a joke. It doesn't even actually have film in it.” Cheese grinned and picked up the now broken camera. “Sorry for weirding you guys out though. Thanks for fixing it for me. I was worried I might have to get a new one. These things are expensive.” She squeezed Cheese Jr and got up, turning towards the cabin. “Imma head in, bye.”

Paige ignores them all, walking away, /this is the reason I wrote iiaew, no one lets me be alone…/. “‘Blond girl, smile lights up the crowd. I’m looking for the girl who helped me come out…’”

“COME LOOK!” Potato exclaimed. “PAM PAM CHEESE JR AND FAWN ARE PLAYING TOGETHER! ITS THE CUTEST THING EVER.” Everyone but Cheese and Paige came over.

Paige was trying to sneak away. She had enough. She grabs her bag and runs. She wants to have time alone, she is an introvert in an extroverts' world. Cheese JR runs after her, “CAN I EVER GET SOME PRIVACY!” Paige snapped. All of a sudden the other animals come over. Paige screams.

“PAM PAM COME BACK” Potato yelled. “YOU TOO CHEESE JR AND FAWN” All the animals were growling at Paige which wasnt like them. “Whats going on?” Potato asked.

“Just leave me alone!” Paige cries. She picks up her bag and makes a run for it. She’ll live in the woods until next session.

Fawn starts forming a small ball of water on her nose and aims it at Potato.

Paige starts to play ‘Control’ by Hasley on her phone but forgets to put her headphones in so it played loudly for everyone to hear. “Dang it.” Paige says to herself while putting in her headphones and running even faster.

Everyone comes to see where the music is coming from. “Paige where are you going?”

Fawn makes the water bubble bigger and aims it at Paige's head, running after her.

Paige finds a log and jumps over it, /that should slow them down/.

Fawn jumps and blasts the bubble at her, licking the access water off of the tip of her nose.

Paige pulls out the thing the st0le from sci-fi and starts to walk in midair.

A familiar bright green light glows and Fawn floats in the air doing somersaults and making water bubbles everywhere.

Paige calls for her Barn Owl, Jocelyn, and signals for Jocelyn to deal with Fawn.

“Since when did you have a Barn Owl?” Eevee asks.

“Since I got it to dystopian last November,” Paige says while Jocelyn was pecking at Fawn. Jocelyn’s eyes glow purple and then go back to yellow.

Fawn starts shooting blobs of water at Jocelyn and manages to spray Paige as well.

Paige held her hand near her pocket. “‘Who is in control…’” Paige’s headphones buzzed out and shocked her. She fell down from midair and landed in a creek. She was kn0cked out…

Pxl didn't trust Paige with a single inch of her body, so it was beyond anyone why she was the one carrying her over her shoulder to the ruins of Fantasy, the others following. She could already see the familiar bits of pineapple-yellow gr@ffiti and obsidian-black stones. This place had a lot of shadows, and it made her calmer. She unceremoniously dropped her on a nearby purple couch, lined with ridiculous amounts of gold. Pxl threw Paige's bag to the other side of the room. The interrogation setup wasn't as ideal as Cheese had wanted it, but they could all probably get SOMETHING to help defeat the Hosts out of the girl.

Paige was dreaming. “A girl around 17 in a yellow dress was walking with Paige who was wearing a purple dress down a road in what looks like a town in the 1700’s. ‘John just proposed to me!’ The yellow dress girl said. ‘I am so happy for you!’ Paige says, a girl around 25 in a blue dress walks up, ‘Pegs I just got the news! I am so excited! I already started designing your dress!’ The blue dress girl says. ‘I’m doing the bridesmaids dresses though, Eliza.’ Paige says. It flips to what seems like years later in a castle. Paige was wearing her present day clothes. ‘Eliza, why do you h@te your own mother!’ Paige cries out. ‘Because she fell in l0ve with a k!ll3r!’ Eliza says. ‘Peggy, help me, please!’ Paige pleas. ‘I’m sorry I h@te Andrew and Catherine too.’ Paige storms out with her kn!fe in hand.” Back in the real world she gasps awake, “Eliza, no!”

“Took you long enough to wake up,” Pxl said. She had been so frantic and unfocused for the past few days, that she was only now REALLY seeing Paige for the first time. Her surv1val skills, her sc@rs, her quick temper and her determination. She was Dystopian through and through. Any shred of sympathy left for her was stomped down when she had st@bbed her own friends. They weren't people she knew very well, but it unsettled her how much she could change from one second to another. Paige was… too familiar for comfort. /She's too much like June,/ Pxl thought. /At least June apologized before her d3ath. I don't think Paige even knows what ‘sorry’ means./ “Well, shall we get to the… interrogation?” she asked, talking to the other Horror campers. She deliberately turned away from Paige. Those green eyes… People with such short tempers always had short l1ves to match.

Paige shuddered at the word ‘interrogation’, “L-like Eliza d-did with C-corn?” She asked shaking, memories of Eliza locking Corn, Medda, and Catherine up came back. Paige had to rescue them which ended in her having to get interrogated.

“I don't know?! I wasn't there to see it. That's not the point. Where was the Host when you 1njured her? Why didn't you follow through? What w3apon did you use??” She had to stop herself from going through the entire Em3rgency Protocol script, used when a dragon-sl@yer from the Scalers was revealed to be taking some of the dragon's hoard for themself. She shuddered. She missed her old life, but she did NOT miss when Burrito Man had her tied to a chair in a bright room because Mina had told him that she had p0cketed one of the dragon's coins. Em3rgency protocol scripts were a pain to memorize and were practically bvrned into her brain. Pxl turned to Paige. “Answer me.”

/Abby. D!3d. Because. Of. Eliza/, that filled Paige’s mind. She shook the thoughts out of her mind /focus/. She could retrieve the thoughts correctly, she tried to reach for her back to get out her gloves and make lightning orbs to distract herself but it want there. She instead gets out her broken headphones and fixes them. She knew the answers, “Right near the board where they posted the dailies and weeklies. M-my b0w.” She said still fixing up her headphones. “At least you d- Not important.” She was going to say ‘At least you don’t have a lie detector like Eliza.’

“Oh, it's IMPORTANT all right. What were you gonna say?” Pxl asks menacingly.

In a flash, there appears an orange flaming cat, perching on a beam above Paige, looking like an oversized dim lightbulb and setting a better vibe (she’d shorted out all the rest of the electricity with her water power).
“Yeah! And for the record, I’ve been following you, and you’ve gotten, like five incredible inspirational speeches so far, so we deserve a novel-worthy explanation.” She ducked with a squeal Paige’s extra kn1fe, which had been concealed as a hair clip. After a few seconds, there was a clatter as it hit a stone wall. There was also a lighter clatter as tiny piece of the fourth wall fell out. It was filled up with a bit of granite, which didn’t quite match but was fairly hard to see unless you were looking for it.

“I will tell you what I was going to say if you give me my bag, I won’t harm you, I just have stuff to help me keep my cool in there. You see, I already have fixed my headphones and my hands need something to do. PLEASE GIVE ME MY BAG!” Paige starts to yell, panic attacks. She takes deep breathes and starts to sing/mumble, “on the outside always looking in, will I be more than I have always been…” She was calm now but caused a bit of damage. She threw the water across the room h!tting Pxl. “I H@T3 YOU!”

Pxl's breath became short. /I h@t3 you. I h@te you./ An unwanted memory appeared in her head.
“I H@T3 YOU!” June yelled. “We were gonna get enough gold to live like queens, but you just let that million-aurum dragonfly on its merry way!” She put her hand to her temples. “We're the Scalers. We don't worry about morality or laws or any sort of code. PROFIT is our code, do you understand?” Pxl had nodded meekly. “Good,” she said, pretending nothing had happened. “Now, let's go hvnt ourselves an Icewing.”
June had always been so short-tempered, and she wasn't a good person by any stretch of the imagination, but she cared about her team. She cared about Pxl.
Pxl took her bag and rummaged through it. She removed things that looked even remotely sharp, as well as items she couldn't recognize. If she didn't know what it was, it was probably something that could have her k1lled in two seconds flat.

An empty jewelry box is what Paige snatched. She lifts a secret hatch and pulls out a bunch of burnt letters. She lets out a small laugh, “It's like I’m Eliza Schuyler herself.” The letters were signed with Elizabeth and Margret Schuyler, Eliza, and Peggy’s official names. She rips them apart letting the ashes on them fall onto her lap. “Don’t lose your head,” Paige says with no context. He b0w and qu!ver fly over to her. She grabs her kn!fe cvtting herself loose. She snatches all her belongings and leaves.

Pxl had no idea how Paige had summoned her w3apons from halfway across the room, but she didn't have time to think. She grabbed the qu1ver out of the air. The kn1fe and b0w still got to Paige, but she didn't have any arrows. She threw them at the flaming cat in the rafters, leaving nothing left of the arr0ws but ash.

Paige grabs an umbrella and shreds it. She turns it into arrows. “I’m sorry, not sorry about what I said, don’t lose your head,” Paige says quoting Broadway musicals like it was just a normal day. She sh00ts one of the @rr0ws at Pxl but they didn’t work. Paige mumbles something to herself.

Arobot yowled and jumped onto Paige’s head in earth cat form, sending dull lumps of rock to cover the tips, making them fall short. Paige just shook her off, standing her ground in the mini-tornado Arobot was summoning.

“Gosh, no way out of this.” Paige says under her breath, “They are on Pxl’s side now.” Her body was still in shock from the fall. She flashes back to when she saved John, “‘Take my hand’ Paige says. She hauls John back to land.” Paige tightens her fishtail braids, “This is for everyone I left in the past.” She grabs her gloves and starts levitating.

“Woah!” Ella says, melting out of a shadow to the surprise of everyone around her, “That's so cool, Paige!! When'd ya learn to levitate? And the b0w and arr0w thing! That was awesome! You've got to teach me! Maybe I can teach you how to turn into shadows!” She was obviously trying to de-escalate the situation, and everyone stared at her.

“Listen, remember when Pxl healed me? And when Paige and I played ukulele's? We were together. We can't let stupid differences, or things, like the past, divide us?” Ella said. “So stop fighting. We're not two year old's, for heaven's sake. Come on. We have to do better.” She looked around the room, making eye contact with each and every person (or other being), to prove her point.

Paige does the b0w thing, “No.” she says simply. She grabs her stuff and walks right out. She knows she made the right choice, they would end up b@ck$t@bb!ng her anyway.

Pxl sighed. “It's not like I want her to go. I don't hate her yet,” she says. “But she keeps hvrting you guys. You guys, my friends, the ones who are ACTUALLY there for me. She doesn't feel glee when she st@bs people, but she doesn't feel sympathetic either. If she's running away from us at every turn, then what's the point in trying to chase her?” Pxl thought about chases. Chasing aurum and fame and everything she wasn't. Chasing someone through a dark forest, a w@nted poster in hand. Chasing a girl through a tall corn maze, with a flash of green eyes or coffee-brown hair or a smug smile… People who hated could be changed, have a spark set alight to the dry wood that replaced their hearts. People who felt nothing, however, had nothing in their hearts but ash. The other campers held onto hope, but Pxl knew her heart was as good as dust.

Paige voices over, “Then I knew it, I am d3@d to them, all I want is to be alone. I wrote ‘Introvert In An Extroverts’ World’ because I wanted to vent about how it feels the be an introvert surrounded by outgoing extroverts. I don’t care if I am like the 8’s in The Selection, I want to feel like myself.”

Paige lays down in a creek, finally feeling joy again. She was alone with nature. The only sounds were made by her and nature. She didn’t care how wet and muddy her hair was, she was free. She stood up and started dancing in the creek as it started to rain. She laughed with delight. She was wearing one of her sunflower dresses which was soaked but she didn’t care. She kept on dancing, it was not spontaneous it was just little spins but it still sparked joy in her, she hadn’t felt this since the early days of her and Peggy’s friendship.

Pxl was standing in the rain on the other side of the ruins, looking out at the moonrise. She was covered in water, but it was fine. She wished Paige would apologize. Even if it were a fake apology, at least it'd be something to hold onto. Pxl wasn't a person who had the ability to fight for someone when that someone gave nothing in return. She had been raised by c0n men and fed by profit, and she didn't understand how Paige kept on expecting everyone to either hate her or drop to their knees and forgive her. Friendships were complex, but they boiled down to the thing she knew best: transaction. Give one thing, get another. Give an apology, get forgiveness. Either Paige was deliberately avoiding them, or she simply had nothing to give.

Meanwhile, Eevee and Potato were playing with their pets. Eevee freaks out because she won a WTA and Fawn spray her with water.

Paige felt like she had wings she was so happy. She got out her kn!fe, b0w, @rr0ws, sci-fi thing, and used her hands and buried them. She sat on a log watching the sunset. She plans to stay up all night and watch the sunrise. She wanted to make the best of her life,

Pxl was standing in the rain on the other side of the ruins, looking out at the moonrise. She was covered in water, but it was fine. She wished Paige would apologize. Even if it were a fake apology, at least it'd be something to hold onto. Pxl wasn't a person who had the ability to fight for someone when that someone gave nothing in return. She had been raised by c0n men and fed by profit, and she didn't understand how Paige kept on expecting everyone to either hate her or drop to their knees and forgive her. Friendships were complex, but they boiled down to the thing she knew best: transaction. Give one thing, get another. Give an apology, get forgiveness. Either Paige was deliberately avoiding them, or she simply had nothing to give.

Meanwhile, Eevee, and Potato were playing with their pets. Eevee freaks out because she won a WTA and Fawn spray her with water.

Paige felt like she had wings she was so happy. She got out her kn!fe, b0w, @rr0ws, sci-fi thing, and used her hands and buried them. She sat on a log watching the sunset. She plans to stay up all night and watch the sunrise. She wanted to make the best of her life. She wants to rent a van, decorate it, and visit as many national parks before July.

Ham secretly continues to st@lk Paige. She had been following her for sometime now. She's been Paige's cabin mate for a few sessions now. Bet no one even knows who she is. She was always on the sidelines. And Paige held some info Ham needed to get back. Ham faded away and proceeds after Paige.

Paige started to sing ‘Only Us’ from Dear Evan Hansen. It gave her hope for the future. She gets out a sandwich she snagged from Pxl, she starts to feel sick. “Ughhhhh…” She v0m!ts over near ham not know she was there.

/Ugh. Gross. It's okay. I've faced worse./ Ham thought, calming herself down. /I have a new set of clothes I can go and get in a few minutes. I have to wait until my teleporter cools down./

Pxl was woken from half-slumber by the sound of vomit. She grinned. Her plan had worked! Her favorite t@vern in her old home, Rhett's had some delicious food. But it was a rule to anyone worth their salt that you NEVER ordered the sandwiches. Mitchell had learned this the hard way, and she remembered the Scalers all laughing and helping him as he stumbled back into his room in the abandoned town-house.

Paige v0mited all night. She decided to collect some food in the morning. She found berries she knew were edible and roasted some dandelions. They are actually good. She carefully gets honey from a bee hive. She has food for a few days. She finds herbs and tries to slow down the b@rf.

Cheese stepped out from behind a tree, looking oddly timid for someone who was rather crazy. “Heyo! I-I… Sorry I went missing for a couple days! I had some work to do. I brought some supplies, they might help with your sickness. Dunno what your doing o-out here. Care to catch me up?” She set a bag full of food and medicine in front of Paige, and smiled.

Her long black hair was knotted and messy. She usually wore her hair in a loose and slightly messy braid, adding to her purposefully wild look. But the long black strands stuck to her pale face, and her sunken eyes told a different story than her smile.

She sat next to Paige, hoping she wouldn't notice the way her hands were shaking. Cheese sat on them just in case.

Paige wipes a tear from her cheek. “All I want is…” she starts sobbing. Her braids were mud covered. Her overalls were fraying, she looked a mess.

Cheese looked at Paige. Saying nothing, she just held her tight. She didn't care if Paige would push her away, she wasn't the type to let people go when they need someone.

“You should go,” Paige says looking down at her bare feet, “I’m dangerous, I can’t control myself…”

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Cheese took out two pieces of bread from her bag, cut them in two, and spread butter on both. She handed them to Paige.

“Do you promise not to tell anyone, ever.” Paige says devouring the bread.

Cheese smiles, putting a hand over her heart. “Of course. I promise I will not tell anything or anyone, living or dead. Ever.”

“It’s my gloves, when I have both and get too OP I’ll turn well, not myself.” She explains, “But I don’t want to get rid of them without Peggy, she always helped me.”

“Ah.” She wasn't sure what to think about that. “That's actually pretty awesome.” Cheese pulled out some berry juice and gave it to Paige. “Drink this. It'll help with your sickness.”

“Thanks…” Paige takes it hesitantly. She gets out her jewelry box. “This was Peggy’s,” she puts one of her gloves in it, “Goodbye, forever this time, I mean it.” She closes the box and when she opens it the glove is gone, Paige smiles.

Cheese hugs her again. “It's getting dark. Judging by the dark circles under your eyes, you either didn't make camp or you haven't been sleeping well. Or both.” She started clearing out some leaves and sticks in two circles, then froze. “Would you rather be alone right now or…?”

Paige sniffles. “‘You are my destroyer’ That’s a quote from one of my favorite songs, Destroyer, Of Monsters and Men. Power is the destroyer of me.”

Tilting her head, she thought about what Paige said. “I'm gonna take that as a no.” Cheese continued to clear out the leaves. “Power can destroy anyone and anything. It all comes down to two things: 1) How you choose to use it, and 2) How it affects you and the people around you.” She brought out two small blankets from her bag, and placed them on the cleared out space. She surrounded each of their spaces with sticks, placed her bag on one of the spaces as a pillow, and sat in the other makeshift bed.

“Ella’s gonna go dark, a third of it is my fault, the other two thirds are Pxl’s and power.” Paige says while putting up fairy lights.

“No, she's smart and strong. Like me.” Cheese pretended to push up invisible glasses and laughed. A calm laugh. “She really wants you to trust her ya know?”

“I have an idea, but…I’m going to have to get Pxl’s permission, I am going to time travel, to her past.” Paige says.

The soft light from the fairy lights uncovered a small frown on Cheese's face. “The past is a dangerous thing. Knowing it wouldn't make a difference, as a secret uncovered could ruin or fix the future in the blink of an eye if you told anyone. The smallest change in the past or present would result in death of something or someone in the world. Plus, you and Pxl aren't on the best terms, with all the killing each other and stuff. Ella might not want you to look into her past either. It's probably best if you just ask her. She might tell you.” She laid down, the world reflecting in her eyes.

“1) I can get clothes from any place, any era if I don’t already have it. 2) I can change myself in a snap. 3) I won’t change anything. 4) Sandwiches.” Paige explains.

Cheese couldn't help but smile. “There are cloths and sandwiches in the bag. Take as many as you need, but don't eat too many or you won't be able to sleep for an hour or so. Also, your very presence in the past will change something or the other. Every breath, every sound. I'm not stopping you though, as long as I get to come with you. And that you agree not to tell anyone about what you find there.”

Paige knew Cheese had a kind soul, no glint in her eye. “I’m going to use it has a last resort, actually.”

“Ah.” Cheese closed her eyes.

Ella melts out of a shadow and walks down to the riverbank. She stops beside Paige, and wraps her arms around her, in a hug. “I'll tell you what you want to know. I trust you. I just hope you trust me.”

Paige gasps when she sees Ella’s eyes, the same glint as Eliza, Pxl, Aree, Dot, and her own right eye.

Cheese jolted out of her sleepiness. “HOLY-” She looked at Ella with wide eyes. “I- I knew you'd be around here somewhere but I was not expecting that.”

Ella laughs quietly. “I've been practicing.” she says in reply to Cheese.

Calm and peace fills the air around them, and for the first time in her life, Ella felt whole. They watch the fairy lights flicker around them, listen to the crickets chirping, in silence, thinking.

For some reason, Cheese couldn't bring herself to relax again. She kept shaking, without knowing why. Darkness filled her mind, and worries rushed in with them. “Is it just me, or is it super cold out?” She asked to no one in particular.

“Not exactly cold, you are surrounded by a full and a half, well umm how do I explain this…Everyone has a glint in their eye, I have two ever since the forklift thing. My good eye has no glint which means I have a good soul but my bad eye has a glint which means I have a dark soul. I am half good half bad. Eliza, Pxl, Aree, Dot, Ella are bad but deny it because they want to be good.” Paige explains.

Cheese starts to get chills. “I-I know that. I've noticed that glint stuff. B-but doesn't that m-mean I should have a glint too? And I d-don't think that's why it's s-so c-c-cold.” She curled up into a ball to stop the shivers.

Paige hands her a blanket, “Shh, breath with me.”

Cheese takes a shaky breath in and pulls the blanket tighter around her. It felt like something was churning up her insides, leaving a trail of ice wherever it went. She didn't want to let go of the breath. “Gee w-why is it so c-cold?” She shuddered when her heart felt like in was beating in her stomach. “Ack- I'm f-fine. Y-you and Ella g-go to sleep.”

“I'm c-c-cold too.” Ella said, shivering in her sweatshirt. “I
d-don't understand. I'm a-a-a bad
s-soul? What d-does t-t-that mean?” She lay down beside Paige and Cheese, pondering what she just heard, trying to make sense of her identity.

“A third of it is my fault, the other 2/3s were Pxl and power. You are destined to do bad…” Paige says.

“B-b-b-but I can't. I'm n-not bad.” Ella says, her shivering taking over, “Was I ever g-g-good? I understand how Pxl a-and h-her shadow made me p-p-partly bad, but h-how did you make m-me bad?”

Cheese took a couple more breaths, and the shivering subsided. /Another one of those, huh/ she thought, and sighed. “Yeah. I've done some really bad things. I- My jokes are so bad they should be a sin deserving for the worst level of hell.” She smirked, hoping they wouldn't notice her small slip-up. “But still shouldn't everyone have a glint?”

“Yeah.” Ella agreed. “We all have bad spots, like a banana, but we all have delicious sweet spots. And those are what matter. I don't think anybody is truly bad. We can't be. Because we've all done good things. And even one good thing out weighs all of the bad things.”

All of a sudden, the cold air was gone. Ella's chest filled with warmth and love. She looked at Cheese and Paige, and could see they felt it too. “What was that?” Ella asked, in awe, and also partly out of fear.

Fear thudded in Cheese's chest, but she was determined to not let it show. “I'm not sure, but we should let Paige sleep. She had a long day. I needa sleep too, G'night!” She covered Paige with half of the blanket, and tried to sleep. She was suddenly hyper-aware of every sound, every little scuttle.

“Good night, Cheese. Good night, Paige.” Ella whispered so quietly she could barely hear herself. She pulled a blanket over herself and rolled over, settling into a comfortable position, but sleep didn't come. She could feel her uneasiness rising and falling with her breathing, and felt from the pit of her stomach that something was wrong.

She couldn't place what was wrong, and let her thoughts drift to all sorts of crazy conclusions. /What if something happened to Eevee?/ /Or what if something happened to Pxl?/ /What if Paige was right about the darkness?/ /What if Paige hated her?/ /What if something was out there, coming to get them?/ /What if the Hosts were angry, and tracking them down?/

Ella reflected on Paige's words, thinking about how the glint in her eyes made her “destined to do bad.” She realized that everyone was destined to do bad, after all, no one was perfect. But, everyone was also destined to do good. It's just the way the world worked. Life was a roller coaster, with ups and downs, failure and success, mistakes and victories, but you could't just have one. It was a packaged deal, you can't pick and choose.

All of these thoughts took over Ella's brain, and anxiety washed over her as she began thinking about her mistakes and failures. Ella's breathing became short and heavy as her mind raced through all the things that could go wrong. She stared at the night sky for what felt like eternity, but it could have only been minutes, for all she knew. Eventually, the sleep deprivation outweighed her insomnia, and Ella felt herself drifting off, slowly to sleep.

Ham stood on the sidelines, back from changing her clothes and having a good dinner. /Huh. Asleep I see. I can't confront her now! She has two friends that are on her side./ Ham thought. /I better go to sleep to though. Stalking people can be exhausting./ She creeps back into the trees and lets out a soft yawn. She makes her way to a hill and finds a place to sleep for the night. Staring at the stars above, she closed her eyes and into a deep slumber.

“Good MORNING!!” Cheese screamed into Paige and Ella's faces. She looked less pale, with her hair combed and tied back in her trademark braid. Her eyes were still so dark they seemed almost bruised. Leaned over with one hand on her knees, Cheese poked at Ella's nose. “WAKE UP I'M GETTING BOOORRREDD!! IT'S 8 AM GET UP! I wasn't able to sleep last night HAHA.” She flopped over and stared at the sky.

Pxl stared hard at a mirror in the half-destroyed bathroom of the castle. She had melted into the shadows in the woods that night, spreading herself as far as the eye could see. She could hear their conversations, about the darkness of some souls and trying to learn about her own past. She didn't care about that last part. Pxl's past had caused her pain, but it was no secret worth keeping. The only thing that stilled her mouth when she tried to talk about her past is how much of it was bad. Who cared if Paige started pawing through her memories? She might've beShe stared into the mirror, edging closer. Both eyes glinted a deep magenta. Almost everyone in the world who had ever done something worth doing had a purple eye glint, but most could outweigh that. Pxl was one of those rare souls, completely taken over by shadows and destined to do nothing but evil. Maybe that was true. She wished she knew how to be good, and wished it were an easy feat. But every single circumstance in her miserable life gave her no choice but to be bad. It was Fate, some may say. Maybe destiny. Pxl reckoned it was just good old-fashioned bad luck. She closed her eyes. A shadowperson with a shadowy soul. How cliche! Most people like her had one eye glinted, the other silver as moonlight. She felt sorry for Ella. She was probably scared, and her good eye was probably starting to go grey. Pxl melted into a nearby mirror, filled with self-l0athing, and not a drop of self-kindness.

Arobot walked among the sleeping former cabin mates, when she noticed that the form of Pxl appeared in the mirror, but not in real life. After a few seconds, she figured it out. She turned into a blue-grey fluffy kitten and curled up where her reflection was near pxl’s.

Pxl stayed silent for an uncomfortable amount of time. “Hi, Arobot.” she said. “…I don't-” She froze. Not because she saw anything, or heard anything, but because she didn't know what to say. She sat down on the tiles, close to the cat. “I feel like I keep doing things wrong. Ella and Cheese and you and every single person I KNOW is just so… good. It's like it takes no effort for you to do things right. Is there a secret? A formula? An algorithm? I don't know if you know, but most people have a purple glint in their eye. One eye with it, and one without. Equal potential to be good OR bad. But apparently, I'm all bad. Both eyes glinting. Can you…” Pxl sighed, laughing at herself. “Can you teach me how to be good?” She starting wheezing, laughing. It was the desperate laugh of a desperate girl, the sort of laugh that made you scared of someone. It was a pathetic scene, really. Pxl was on the floor, crying out bits of shadow that splattered the tiles.

|That's not true,| Cheese whispered into her mind. |Everyone does terrible things. It's… I guess there is a secret. Everyone does something that clears their glint, sometimes without knowing it. Paige thought I don't have one. You just have to learn how to clear it, then things will look up from there. Don't think about how I'm in your head, let's just say I'm part of your consciousness. You're not bad Pxl, you're just like everyone else. Don't cry.|

Ella woke up immediately, after being poked in the nose. “Jeez, Cheese!” she said, “Hey, that rhymes!” Ella doubles over laughing for no reason, visibly still half asleep. Her eyes are still droopy, and her hair is in a ratty pile on top of her head. She grabs a hairbrush out of her bag, and starts combing through the knots. Eventually, she finishes, and styles it into two Dutch side braids, tying it off with her black hair bands.

Her eyes were alive now, no longer looking dreary and life-less. You could see the eagerness come to fill her face with a keen sense of joy and excitement for what was to come that day. This was how she felt every morning. A new day, all her own, to do whatever she pleased!

“FINALLY!” Cheese looked up. “I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE OF BOREDOM.”

Paige laughed, a small laugh. She gets dressed and drags everyone over to the creek. She splashes them.

Pxl had no idea how Paige had summoned her w3apons from halfway across the room, but she didn't have time to think. She grabbed the qu1ver out of the air. The kn1fe and b0w still got to Paige, but she didn't have any arrows. She threw them at the flaming cat in the rafters, leaving nothing left of the arr0ws but ash.

Paige grabs an umbrella and shreds it. She turns it into arrows. “I’m sorry, not sorry about what I said, don’t lose your head.” Paige says quoting Broadway musicals like it was just a normal day. She sh00ts one of the @rr0ws at Pxl but they didn’t work. Paige mumbles something to herself.

Arobot yowled and jumped onto Paige’s head in earth cat form, sending dull lumps of rock to cover the tips, making them fall short. Paige just shook her off, standing her ground in the mini-tornado Arobot was summoning.

Her eyes were alive now, no longer looking dreary and life-less. You could see the eagerness come to fill her face with a keen sense of joy and excitement for what was to come that day. This was how she felt every morning. A new day, all her own, to do whatever she pleased!

“FINALLY!” Cheese looked up. “I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE OF BOREDOM.”

Paige laughed, a small laugh. She gets dressed and drags everyone over to the creek. She splashes them.

A scream comes from the sky and something green plops into the creek. As the wet creature comes out, it is identified as Eevee. “Blech. Oh, hi guys.” Eevee waves sheepishly, shaking some of the water off. “Uh. Don't mind me. Fawn and I will just be going now, I guess.” Fawn pops out from behind her, dry and untouched.

“Wait! Eevee, don't go! It's so good to see you!” Ella says, laughing and splashing everyone. “How are you doing? How is everyone else doing?” asks Ella, while continually splashing everyone. “Here, let's get you some dry clothes.” Ella says without waiting for a response, and heads out of the creek towards their little camp.

She pulls out a purple shirt and some black leggings, and hands them over to Eevee, who has followed her up the bank. “Come on, go get changed! You know you want too!” she tells Eevee, pushing her towards a thicket of trees to change behind. Then, she slips and slides down the mud of the bank towards the creek, and starts splashing Paige and Cheese again.

Cheese splutters. “Jeez you guys are energetic for just waking up.”

Paige starts to shake, she runs, she grabs her belongings and runs. She finds a huge tree she could climb and she climbs into it. She pulls out her ukulele, “So, before you go, was there something I coulda said…”

Looking up into the tree, Cheese packs up camp and slowly makes her way up. “Too many people?” She asked quietly, and carefully.

“I have social anxiety and I’m very very introverted.” Paige says still playing the ukulele but not singing.

“Wanna know a secret?” Cheese smiles and brings out the packaged beans and egg which she cooked earlier that day.

“I guess.” Paige says swinging her feet.

Cheese hands Paige the food. “I'm the same, actually. My family-” she cringed, “-Told me to get rid of it in some way or another. So I've been trying to get over it by cracking terrible jokes and jumping around like a madman.” Grinning, she pulled out some milk cartons, threw some down to Eevee and Ella, and handed the last one to Paige.

“I just realized I've been handing you stuff without asking if you were allergic to anything. Are you?” Cheese asks.

“It’s complicated…” Paige says, she has an oral allergy to peanuts. “Basically because of my birch tree allergy my mouth gets itchy when I have peanuts but I am not allergic to peanuts.”

“Okay, so peanuts itchy so peanuts bad.” Cheese sums up, unbraiding her long hair to squeeze the water out.

“Yeah,” Paige rolls up the wet ends of her overalls, revealing sc@rs, “Oops!” She rolls them back down.

“Where'd you get them from?” Cheese curls up into a ball and smiles. “You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.”

“When I was saving John…” Paige meant John as in John Laurens.

“Dunno who that is, but he sounds important to you,” Cheese says. “Mine…” She looked away for a moment, before looking back with a grin on her face. “So you gonna eat your breakfast or what?”

“John was Peggy’s Ex, you may know him better as John Laurens.” She says while take a piece of bread, “Something seems to be bothering you, what is it?”

Cheese looks down. “I… I forgot to pack extra cheese and milk and now Cheese Jr in going to slaughter me when we go back.” she sniffed and put her hand on her forehead dramatically. “Paige if I die at Cheese Jr's hands, can you bury me in a coffin full of milk?”

Paige felt something, “Oh gosh, Pxl!” She knew that Pxl was in her shadow so she didn’t ask Cheese anymore though she knew Cheese was lying.

Eye's wide open, Cheese looks around. “PXL!! Stalking is bad, you should have just told us you were here!” She places a carton of orange juice on Paige's shadow. “Want some?” She asks.

Pxl sighs and melts out of paige's shadow. “There's a difference between st@lking and sulking,” she says through a mouthful of orange juice. “I just HAPPENED to hear your conversation. Anyway, Paige,” she says, turning to her, “Apparently you want to visit my past, huh? That's fine with me, on one condition. I get to go with you.”

“I think it's best if you come with us, especially since it's your past. You sure you don't wanna just tell us? Side note, do you want beans and egg?” Cheese replies.

Pxl shrugged. “My past is.. Complicated. It might be a bit much to talk about all at once, but I can try to tell you pieces. What is it that you wanna know?” Her voice began to grow bitter. “Do you want to know how I became a disgrace to all dragon hvnters? How I was almost left to d1e in a cave at the mercy of another hvnting team? How about how June d1ed, leaving Mitchell and Mina to try and care for Burrito Man?” She removed her glasses again. “How about why I have both of my eyes completely purple, without even a glint of goodness??!” She stopped herself. “I- I'm sorry. I just.. Talking about this makes me a bit angry.” She tried to laugh it off, but was clearly in a lot of pain. “See, this is why I don't want to tell. Going back and watching would be easier. Would..” she paused. “Paige, I know you're the one with the time-travelling power, but could Cheese maybe come with us?” She turns to Cheese. “Like, only if you want to. We need someone to make sure we don't k!ll each other on the way there.”

“Yes I'm coming, for sure. Also SHHH all I wanna know is if you want beans and egg. First food, then scary complicated past stuff.” Cheese looks at her with the stern-mom look. “Also I would like to know where Burrito Man got their name. Also last I checked goodness doesn't glint. Also purple is a pretty color-”

“Ok, slow down. Fist of all, beans sound delicious. Maybe not the eggs. Second of all, Burrito Man got his name because he sold burritos before he started up the Scalers to go dragon-hvnting. And lastly, most bad people have a purple GLINT in their eye. My entire eye is purple, making me probably one of the most evil people to ever exist.”

Cheese hands Pxl (aka the most-evil-person-to-ever-exist) a plateful of beans. “You better eat the full thing, I spent a lot of time heating that. Also, you're nice not evil. The fact that you're letting Paige into your past and talking to us is proof of that.” Cheese smiled at both of them. She found it funny that the both of them thought they were so evil when they were one of the few people who actually accepted her into their lives.

“Maybe. Really, it's too early to tell. Speaking of early, what time should we be going?” she asked through a mouthful of delicious baked beans. She said it casually, like someone asking what time they should go to the store and buy some beans.

“I'm pretty sure Paige is already at her house packing. In case she's thinking of leaving without us, we should go to her shouldn't we?” Cheese looks in the direction where Paige ran.

“Yeah, let's go!” She started to run.

“CAN'T YOU JUST LIKE, SHADOW TRAVEL TO HER OR SOMETHING??” Cheese yelled after Pxl.

“Right!” She said, grabbing Cheese's arm and melting both of them into a shadow, re-forming them next to Paige. “Hi!”

Cheese facepalms, “I can't believe you forgot that- OH HIYA!” She grabbed Paiges arm and held on tight. “Don't you even think about leaving without us.”

Paige was throwing her clothes all around her barbie-dream-house closet. “You can't come with me.” Her phone dings, “Actually you can but Pxl, you can't see yourself, and Cheese you need a makeover, its protocol that Marie says we have to follow.”

“Dunno who Marie is but okay. Makes sense, since Pxl might have the urge to fix something in the past. I'll update you on everything, and make sure neither of us oversteps our stay though.” Cheese says the last part to Pxl. She drew a smiley face on a piece of note paper, put some tape on it, and stuck it on her face. “Kay' I'm ready.”

Paige puts her blond hair into a brown wig, she went and changed. She packed up and went to one of the many screens, a name came up, ‘Everleigh’ /good/. She gives everyone necklaces, “I have my gloves, these will give you the ability to time travel but you have to give them back after.”

“Zero intention of keeping them.” Cheese took them and put them on.

“Also, you have to call me ‘Everleigh’ not Paige, you need a ‘name’ too.” Paige pulls her over to the generator.

“Uh ok Pa- I mean, Everleigh.” Cheese looks at the generator. “What do we do now?”

“It'll give you a name in 3…2…1…” Paige replies.

Cheese continues to squint at the name on the generator. “I am NOT going in as Bartholomew.”

Paige adjusts the settings a new name pops up, ‘Bex’, “Better?”

“Honestly, doesn't suit me but it's definitely a step up from ‘Bartholomew’” She drew some hair on the smily face she stuck to her face. “Aight', I ain't Cheese anymore now I'm Bex.”

“We can still call each other by our regular names until we get there,” Paige says.

“Noh I'm Bex you're Everleigh deal with it,” Cheese cackled. “So can we leave now?”

“3, 2, 1!” Paige says. A blinding light flashed. They landed behind a bush /perfect/. “I guess we are here.” She looks around. She points at a younger version of Pxl, “Spotted.” She stands up and motions Cheese to do the same.

Cheese nods and follows Paige.

“Uh. Hi. I exist,” Eevee says while awkwardly laughing. She threw her arms down in frustration. “Hi. I'm Eevee. This is my pet. Fawn, an original species called an almezeen. I exist and HI PEOPLE.”

Cheese jumped, “AHH- oh uh, hi.” She blinked. “Wait how are you- nevermind. Sorry we haven't seen much of you around these days. You okay mate?” She hands her some lemonade.

“I exist too!” Ella said, melting out of Paige's shadow. “I can't believe that worked!! I time traveled with you, through your shadow! That's insane! I thought I was gonna die, but here I am!” says Ella, ranting, and out of breath.

“Sorry, I probably should have just asked to come too, and while I /may/ have been eavesdropping, I heard that you have social anxiety! I do too! And, I'm an introvert too! See, around new people, I am silent, but when I get uncomfortable with my friends, I don't think, and I don't talk! That's why I haven't stopped talking since I came out of Paige's shadow. Hey, did you know that Scotland has 429 words for snow?” Ella says without taking a breath. Everyone gawks at her. “Sorry, that was probably a lot. Still, I can't believe it worked!!!!!”

Cheese scratched her chin. “I think you guys probably should have asked Pxl if you could come…? Dunno I’m a sucker for privacy and stuff but like-“

“Yeah, I'm really sorry, Pxl,” Ella said solemnly, looking at the ground. “I should have asked. I just couldn't bear you guys taking off without me, not knowing when you would come back. I'm sorry. If you want me to leave, I understand.”

“I'm doing fine. And thanks.” Eevee takes the lemonade and takes a sip. “What have you guys been up to?”

In the distance, Ham listens in intently. /WHEN ARE THEY JUST GOING TO LET PAIGE BE ALONE? It wasn't too long ago that she barely had one friend hanging around her and now Paige has got a gang. Great. How am I going to execute my plan now?/ Ham lets her thoughts wander off, still keeping her eyes on Paige and hidden the trees.

|Yeah, why are you going around following Paige anyway? I’ve been noticing you for a while now.| Cheese whispers to Ham. |Also who are you?|

“OML, CHEESE! Wait, you are Cheese right? Yada Yada Yada. I have my reasons, just like she has reasons to keep you guys hanging around her.” Ham whispers back. “Now, if you would please stay away from me, it would be very much appreciated.” Ham gets up and walks to a spot where the light shines through the trees. She gives a wave and disappears with a puff of smoke.

|I-| Cheese took a moment to process what she just heard. |I’m no where near you? I don’t even know where you are. But bye I guess.| Cheese whispers back.

“Stay out of young Pxl’s way, Pxl, if young you sees present you it’ll get messy.” Paige says. She goes alone to young Pxl. She looks around and observes where she is. The key to fitting in is learning how to be one of them, much like animals do when they are young. She adjusts her shirt. She taps her watch, makes sure no one is looking and she turns invisible. She’ll meet up with the others later. She knew a few things young Pxl is going to meet up with that June girl soon and it avoid the sandwiches, she doesn’t want to repeat the other night. She always trusts her gut and will run if she senses danger.

Pxl looked at her younger self with a sense of pity. She had no idea what was coming for her. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog of melancholy. “This is gonna be tricky. Usually I'd just hide in a shadow, but shadowpeople are uncannily good at sensing when someone's hiding in a nearby shadow. Thankfully, I was the stealth girl of the Scalers!” She gave a proud beam. “Even if I can't use shadows very often, I'm still great at sneaking around. By the way, what are Ella and I's fake name? I know Cheese is Bex and you're Everleigh, but I can't go by Pxl.” She winced. “Pxl is a nickname, but it's very conspicuous in an old town like this. I can't use my REAL name, because it'd give me away.”

“Stay out of young Pxl’s way, Pxl, if young you sees present you, it’ll get messy,” Paige says. She goes alone to young Pxl. She looks around and observes where she is. The key to fitting in is learning how to be one of them, much like animals do when they are young. She adjusts her shirt. She taps her watch, makes sure no one is looking and she turns invisible. She’ll meet up with the others later. She knew a few things young Pxl is going to meet up with that June girl soon and to avoid the sandwiches, she doesn’t want to repeat the other night. She always trusts her gut and will run if she senses danger.

Pxl looked at her younger self with a sense of pity. She had no idea what was coming for her. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog of melancholy. “This is gonna be tricky. Usually, I'd just hide in a shadow, but shadow people are uncannily good at sensing when someone's hiding in a nearby shadow. Thankfully, I was the stealth girl of the Scalers!” She gave a proud beam. “Even if I can't use shadows very often, I'm still great at sneaking around. By the way, what are Ella and I's fake names? I know Cheese is Bex and you're Everleigh, but I can't go by Pxl.” She winced. “Pxl is a nickname, but it's very conspicuous in an old town like this. I can't use my REAL name, because it'd give me away.”

“What about me?” Eevee asks, setting her cup down.
A gasp issued from next to Paige, as Arobot tumbled out of Paige’s knapsack.
Everyone stared at her.
“What? I turned into a kitten and got into her bag. I’m not missing out on time travel! This is the coolest thing ever!”
She turned into a ratty old yellow barn cat who happened to be able to fly. “No alibi needed, either! I’m a cat!”
With the catlike independent spirit, she set off in the unknown town, heedless of Paige’s warnings. Arobot flew up to the roof, where she could have more visibility and be less visible because people always forget to look up. Suddenly, she heard paw steps on the roof behind her. The other cat pounced on her, rolling her away from the roof edge, and had the element of surprise on her side.
“Shh!” The cat hissed. Another talking cat? This cat looked exactly like Arobot in Water cat form…
“Wait…”
“Shh!” The gray cat repeated. “Yeah it’s you from the future, or the future of when you left for here, I mean. Sorry, I was sent here to keep you from messing up big-time with Pxl’s future.”
“Ohh. Dang, I really thought I could follow the rules and everything.”
“Two teenagers chase after you, get lost, fall in love, have a kid, and that kid convinces Pxl to kill a dragon to protect them, which changes her personality forever in some not-so-good ways.”
“Got it. Sorry.”
They make their way back to the group, and Future Arobot goes back into the woods, where an alternate Paige is crouching.

Paige pulled up her black hood and tried to keep distance between her and young Pxl, she motions for the others to go with Pxl, “We need shelter.” She whispers. She ran and saw someone, /Mazie!/. Mazie walks up to Paige, “Ad Astra.” Mazie says. “H-how that was this week’s password, but your d-d3@d,” Paige says in astonishment. “The IAOTT has a secret, that’s why I ran. All the people if they aren’t fit to be in the rankings will get 3x3cut3d.” Paige gasps in horror. Mazie continues explaining, “I followed you here, I think you should have so former time traveler backup.” Paige laughs and puts her arm around Mazie’s shoulder.

Mazie and Paige find an inn for everyone, “It's not the cleanest but it works, I've had to stay in way worse, I don't know what the others would think, I mean Pxl is kinda used to this but no one else.” Mazie nods, in agreement with what Paige just said. Paige puts down faer bag and starts to unpack. Fae goes to get the others. “I found a place for us to stay,” Paige says smiling because they get to also meet her sister, “Oh and my older sister is alive and well!”

Pxl was sulking in the corner. “Is anyone going to explain this??” she demanded. “First, like 3 people came into my actual PAST completely uninvited. And now there's this Mazie person who's Paige's SISTER- I didn't know she even HAD a sister!- and she probably doesn't even know all of the stuff that's happened-” Pxl goes on a tirade that conveniently explains the entire timeline of events up until now to Mazie.

“I mentioned that my older sister d!3d well uh it’s a loooooong story, also Marie only said to bring 2 others and then Mazie was a former member so she still was able to and…” Paige starts to shake, /deep breaths, don’t have a panic attack/.

Cheese facepalms again. “Listen, I know I've been quiet this whole time but we need to send a LOT of people back. People who somehow managed to get a ride when you were time traveling. And I thought Pxl was going to stay behind? This trip was only gonna be two people, plus maybe Pxl. A huge group of weird looking people with zero disguises will make people talk, maybe not like HUGE talk but just between their families. That small change is big enough. Those people who see us here might recognize us in our own time, and that could lead to some problems. At the moment, we are interacting with people from the past WAY too much. In fact I'm pretty sure Arobot met and talked to her past self. That little change is going to ripple throughout time until it affects present Arobot. It might be just a change in style, or in attitude. But she might also be dead. Isn't it best to just go back all together? Wherever we are, they will be too. Whatever we say they'll hear. Lets go back, and let Pxl tell us. It's much safer letting her be mad then risking death.”

Mazie is sitting on the ground, “Look guys, I am here for business, aka taking ‘care’ of the Marie problem. She k!ll$ everyone who doesn’t get in the ranks so um you can guess what I’m gonna do. I’m going to be out of your hair in no time flat.”

“Okay. Is there any way you can, I don't know, take the other people back to the present with you? Our year is 202X, in case you were wondering,” Pxl added.

“I can’t, Marie will find me…but I can drop them off.” Mazie replies. Paige jumps in, “I am letting Pxl and Cheese stay, Cheese knows about my past and some of my rather secret stuff and Pxl can help us around.”

“Yeah, so you don't try to go around an eat any sandwiches from Rhett's again,” Pxl joked. “But they DO have great muffins.”

“I have have eaten freaking p0s!n !vy and I was alright!” Paige says. Mazie puts her hand on faer shoulder, “I’m gonna go, whoever is coming with me gather your stuff.” Mazie says. “The plan is I’ll drop you off then I’ll teleport to my house.”

“Uh Arobot ran off somewhere as a cat. I tried to whisper into her mind to come back, but then she was talking to someone else. I think her past self? Is it possible to like, erase her past selves memories of it?” Cheese asks while straightening the piece of paper on her face.

“It is risky, last time I tried something like that was to save someone's life and he d!3d anyways.” Paige says crouching.

“What, erasing someones memories?” Cheese follows her lead.

“I don't want to either, it brings back bad memories.” Paige says, walking forward, towards the inn.

Pxl had been hanging back the entire time, nervous. This inn was where Mina's uncle worked. He didn't know her beyond acquaintance, but if Mina was there… She hated her. She was strong and good with an @xe, but the only reason she put up with her was because she was Mitchell's twin. Everyone loved Mitchell. “Pxl- well, I should be on the other side of town right now,” she told the group. “Mina, someone who knew me really well, might be working here. But it's fine! I'll melt into a shadow, and one of you guys can talk to her.” She winced. “Just be careful, she's not the nicest girl in Helius. Don't insult her, don't antagonize her, and NEVER talk about her pinkie finger. Got that?”

Paige turned invisible for a sec. When fae was visible again fae was wearing the makeup on faer eye, “Ok.” Paige walks in, fae made sure all faer scars were covered, they always arouse suspicion. Fae let faer mind wander to Marina, she h@t3d her. Once she sh0t one of her friends and h!t one of Rachael’s daughters. Fae walk up to the front desk, “Hi! Um could I get a room?” Fae says trying to hold back faer social anxiety. Fae kept faer bag close, it had faer weap0ns in it. (I’m gonna go back to she/her for writing for now) She takes the keys and heads upstairs.

Pxl slithered along in Paige's shadow, apprehensive of the inn's room. Most rooms were average, with amenities and a little plate of fruits. OTHER rooms, however, had burn marks and scratches all over the walls. This is why people starting making dragon att@cks.“ The room was big enough for their whole party, with three bunk beds plus a sofa. It smelled like must and really old grapes, and Pxl took a deep inhale. It smelled like home.

Ella noticed Pxl relaxing as soon as they settled into their room.
“This feel like home?” Ella asks Pxl, as she looks around, taking in Victorian-style decor. It reminded Ella of home too. Of her family's old farmhouse. Back before she left her family, for Horror.

“Look, I'm really, really sorry I came. I shouldn't have done that. I invaded your privacy. I understand if you want me to leave. I'll go if you want…” Ella trails off, and starts grabbing her bags, which she had just set down, and starts moving towards the door. “I'm sorry, Pxl, I hope you forgive me.”

Pxl laughs. “Look, my past isn't gonna be a secret for much longer. You can stay if you'd like.”

/FIVE YEARS INTO THE FUTURE, IN THE PRESENT/ Zapping back into existence in her native timeline, Arobot collapsed. Finally, she jumped into a river and made it flow uphill to the camp.
/I just saw my future self. I just saw my future self. I just saw my future self./ It was all she could think of. She started thinking of what her future self would be like. That self from just a few hours later hadn’t seemed too different… but no, she had a lot more strength to her, like she was motivated by something. The sound of her voice had been different, too. She started thinking about everything that had happened the past weeks to change her.
“Arobot! Arobot!” It was present Paige coming to get her, to bring them to help her past self from hurting present Pxl. Arobot stared at Paige. She remembered the layers of lying makeup draining to reveal her scar. She remembered as she turned her back on the rest, stabbing Cheese and Ella for trying to help. She bounded back into the past with her, but she knew what she had to do now. She had to protect the others from Paige.
She tackled herself. /That yellow color really did not suit me/ she thought. She explained the situation and watched herself go back, bewildered and embarrassed. On her guard, Present Arobot came back with Paige into the future. In human form, she stalked off to make preparations.

/FIVE YEARS EARLIER IN PXL’S PAST/

Paige opens her bag to get out her pajamas and as she dug in a bunch of random things came out, a ruler, a combat boot, a j@ckh@mm3r, and the tiny gold plastic shard. She finally got out her pajamas and went to the bathroom to change. She will never ever change in front of anyone because of a huge sc@r on her b#tt from when one of Marina’s friends st@bb3d it. /The wooden inn was like my cabin, it was like-/. She starts humming ‘Wait For It’.

Outside a 14-year-old hung in the shadows, “I have something to rep0rt, meet me at the t@v3rn in five.” They walked off their short, wavy, beach blond hair shining in the dim light. Before they left they wrote something in the dust, ‘Juniper Lewis was here.’

Paige got out of the bathroom dressed for bed, she saw the message. “Uh guys, look at this.”

”Looking! Also, where did you get pj's?“ Cheese peeked over her shoulder.

“I pack, does anyone know who Juniper Lewis is?” Paige says, she had a theory it may be the June Pxl has been talking about.

”No. Her name sounds a lot like June, but June has way darker hair and an accent. I think this message just got delivered to the wrong room.“ Pxl paused. ”Besides, June h@tes the tav3rn, she'd never meet up with us there.

Paige whispered her name over and over and it clicked, “Juniper (Junior) Lewis, they were my partner until they betrayed us. They are a m#rd3r3r, they almost k!ll3d Prof. Elliot.” She explains memories of training bursting into her head, “Last time I saw them, they said they would k!ll me if it was the last thing they did.”

“Wow, getting chased around by an @ssassin? Sounds great. Probably won't interfere with my past or mess with the timeline at all! Everything is fine.” It was, quite obviously, NOT fine.

Paige didn’t listen, she jumped out of the window and ran towards Junior, since Paige was a master of disguise she could easily fit in. When she got there she sat down at a table near Junior. She nearly yelled when she saw who they were meeting, /Abby!/. She decided to multiply task, she tried to spot the Scalers, she got a good description from Pxl so it was easy to locate them from the other side of the room. Paige plays with her bracelet. She goes over what she knows in her head, /Junior is out for me, Abby is alive, Mazie is alive, the iaott could k!II her if she does bad, and stay away from the sandwiches…The sandwiches! I have to get them to order the sandwiches!/.

“When was the last time you saw her?” Abby asked Junior, “I don’t know, but I saw a big group of people earlier, seems like an IAOTT thing.” Paige made sure she was listening in. She thinks they are talking about her. “I hoped Eliza would have finished her off.” Paige knew they were talking about her, she was going to take the biggest risk ever, it could end with her d3@d or with an unimaginable amount of knowledge. She stands up and heads towards the back. She sneaks into the kitchen and grabs one of the waiters, she thr3@t3ns them into giving her their uniform.

“Stop changing the past.” Cheese whispers into her ear and grabs her shoulder, holding her tight. “Doing whatever you're going to do will only do more harm than good. I keep telling you! I don't know what you're doing, but whatever you plan to change will still happen anyway. That's how it works. It will still follow through, but along with it something else will happen that makes things worse. And what makes you think those people won't recognize you? I can take you back in an instant, no matter where in time we are. Don't do this. I won't let you interfere with your past.”

“Nothing will happen unless Pxl sees herself. I do this all the time.” Paige says, “Right now the younger me is in the training center in Toronto. She is 10,000 miles from us and I won’t get recognized. 2021 Abby and Juniper aka Junior are out there, I need to take them out, they are out for me. If you don’t believe me look at the history of the US, is there anything there that says Eliza and Peggy Schuyler ran off to a small island off the coast of the UK and because of royalty? No, so see nothing will happen.” She knows she didn’t make any sense but time is precious here.

“That's still not how it works. Maybe it won't affect your life, but it WILL affect someone else's. Leave the past be. Unless they're from the future, then they obviously won't reach you since you're still alive. We're here to learn about the past, not change it. I know I sound like a mom but I'm sure this Marie lady would say the same.” Cheese countered, still not letting go.

“Get a sandwich,” Paige says leaving. She runs to the nearest pond and jumps in, she swims into a hatch. The IAOTT has tons of these setups. She drys off and taps her watch, a screen shows up in midair. She puts in a code, she takes a deep breath, “Junior?”

Juniper runs out of the t@v3rn with Abby, “Wassup, traitor.”

“Why the heck are you here?” Paige asks her right eye gleaming with h@te.

“To k!II you, we hoped Eliza would but she didn’t so we have to do the dirty work.” They say.

Paige shuts down the call. She has to get to safety.

Cheese facepalms. “I don't get why you think you can run from me just because you jumped into a pond and swam away.” She sighed. “At this point Imma just let you do what you wanna do but be careful at least. And don't say I didn't warn you.” She walked off shaking her head.

Paige shoved Cheese back into the pond and closed the hatch. She walks to a room with a sign that says ‘Case Files’ she wanted to check the longest going on, the one that she failed at. ‘1795, America’. She opens the file, she knew she wasn’t supposed to do it but she did. She read it aloud to herself, “‘This was not a real case it was one to get rid of…Paige Ellen Turner…’” She trailed off, they wanted to get rid of her.

|Was that seriously needed?! I was already leaving mate. I-| Cheese whispered to Paige. |Nevermind. Good luck.|

Paige got back at the inn around midnight. Her eyes were tear-stained, her cheeks were pink. She had a file underneath her shoulder. She plopped it down. “L-look at this.” This is what the file read, ‘This was a failed fake case. Its purpose was to dispose of the agent Paige Ellen Turner. The reason is her rebellious personality and causing the betrayal of her former partner, Juniper Jane Lewis.’ Tears quietly stream down her cheeks.

Cheese sighed. “I agree with the rebellious part. You’re the most rebellious-y person I know.” She scooted over on the bed and patted the seat beside her.

“Not helping…” Paige groaned with her face in a pillow. She smashes her necklace and pulls out the small picture inside. It was Junior but her hair was black not blond.

“It’s not a bad thing though. It means you can be independent and powerful. Plus you’re nice which is an added bonus.” Cheese told her.

“They wanted to k!ll me, ok?” Paige says snapping up.

“Wait I thought you already knew that.”

“I knew they would ex3cut3 everyone who wasn’t in the rankings but I was number one! NUMBER ONE! On the rankings!” Paige snapped, she looked at the picture, it was of Junior and her at a costume party, Junior was dressed as Anne Boleyn from ‘Six’ and Paige was Katniss Everdeen. It was there first case, basically a robbery was going to happen and they had to go to a costume party blah blah blah.

Cheese flinched. “I can’t tell if you’re mad, or sad. Or both.” She paused for a moment. “Probably both. This is a problem I don’t completely understand. So they wanted to kill you, despite you being number one. I’m assuming the organization or someone in the organization was important to you? If so, are they the one who wrote this file? If so, have you hurt them in the past in some way? If so, doesn’t that mean you aren’t on good terms with them?”

“Marie always h@t3d me, she wrote the files.“

”Soooo why are you sad?“

(~CJ's Random Side-Character Interruption~)

The tense and emotional scene that was unfolding was being watched. Unaware to the people below, a well-meaning moth had happened to be in the middle of a meal when the two started talking. Was it rude to eavesdrop? Yes. Would it be ruder to leave halfway through eavesdropping on a conversation? The moth sure didn't know, so it continued to listen on in rapt silence.

“We’ll have to get back to the present tomorrow night, I’ll st@lk other Pxl, the one from this time. I have a good enough look but I need a bit more info.” Paige says wanting to change the subject. She doesn’t fall asleep though, her mind was racing.

Cheese lets her go since Paige lets her be with many of her own attempts at avoiding something. She set up her bed on the couch, sending Paige quiet little tunes that helped her sleep at night. ”Night night,“ she whispered to herself.”Don't let the nightmares bite.“

Morning came, Paige got only a bit of sleep but she is used to it. She gets dressed quickly, grabs some food, and runs out of the inn. She st@lks young Pxl for a few hours then goes back to the inn and gets her bags and everyone. She gets them back to the present. ”Welcome back everyone!“

”FINALLY!!“ Cheese ran to Cheese Jr and jumped on top of them. mooing in protest, the cow flipped over and sat on Cheese. ”Did'ya learn anything you're willing to share?“ She asked from under the cow.

“Not anything you don’t already know.” Paige plops down the file.

”Ooh! Yay! We're back to the present!! Also, it was never clear to me why we were going to Pxl's past. Could you explain?“ Ella asks.

“It’s not a present unless you want me d3@d.” Paige opens the file. It had her smiling face on it. ‘Agent: Paige Ellen Turner. Year: 1795. Place: America. About the case: This was a failed fake case. Its purpose was to dispose of the agent Paige Ellen Turner. The reason is her rebellious personality and causing the betrayal of her former partner, Juniper Jane Lewis.’ She waited for everyone’s reactions.

Cheese still wasn't surprised. ”I still thought you knew about this sooner but aight. Have a Snickers.“ She says handing Paige a Snickers bar.

”Hm… Yes, betrayal is not good,“ a voice comes from behind. ”You guys finally came back. I got a good amount of food while you were gone.“ Eevee was behind them, pointing at a fairly small pile of food. ”Uh, about that. Uh, BLAME THE ANIMALS!“ Fawn scurries away with a bag of fruit, startled by the sudden yell.

“Sorry Cheese, I can’t have peanuts unless I have a whole gallon of water with it.” Paige said being sarcastic. She sat down, a feeling of remorse inside her. She stares into the creased photo of her and Junior. She was to do the right thing, she did the mockingjay hand salute thingy, she wasn’t worried if they judged her. She felt real determination. “We are going to do what we were here for, rebelling against the hosts. It doesn’t care about what came before, it’s how we act now!”

“Oh right, peanuts. Also inspiring speech but can we have a teeeeeeny break? I doubt I'm speaking for myself when I say it's been chaotic. Personally I've escaped from a burning cabin, gotten stabbed twice, crushed by Cheese Jr two times, time traveled, and pushed into a pond. Twice. I mean the first time I technically tripped but you get the point. Plus a whole bunch of emotional baggage and Whispering to a bunch of different people. Let's act later pleeeeeeease?” Cheese got on the ground clutching her waist, where the knife wounds still throbbed whenever she moved. She was cold, exhausted, and she probably had a fever.

“Yeah, let’s take a little break,” came a familiar but somehow slightly creepy voice. Arobot walked into the light of the campfire they were sitting by. She was wearing some kind of superhero suit, in her trademark white, with a flowing black cloak. A streak of her hair was dyed the blue-grey of her eyes. “Hey, Paige, could you come with me alone for a minute? I found something.”

Paige but on her boots, “Uh yeah.” She said biting her lip, her blond, purple tipped hair gleamed in the moonlight. When they were outside she sat on a log, “so wassup?” She had a bad feeling about thing so she kept her pocket kn!fe near.

Junior watched them from the bushes. They had the same photo Paige has in their hand.

Paige makes a campf!re and sits down next to Arobot. “So what did you wanna talk about?” She waits a bit, “Arobot…Arobot!” Paige was getting concerned. She needs to act now, she sl@p$ Arobot.

As the small group spoke, a soulful roar sounded throughout the area. It was a melancholy, guttural noise, that did not quite sound like any specific animal. It was as if the sound was simply the personification of the emotion it so clearly conveyed. It was also a haunting reminder of the terrors that night time brought.

Paige heard the noise, “Probably an animal, I will go take care of it.” Paige gets her hunt!ng b0w and heads into the woods but she never came back…

Ham had decided not to follow Paige, thinking that fae would come back fairly quickly. After a while of Paige missing, it started to worry her. /If Paige is gone, the information I seek will go to the grave with faer./ Knowing that, she got ready and headed off into the wood.

A low but feminine scream came from the woods, Paige. It sounded more like she was being t0rch3d than a scream of fear.

Ham proceeded cautiously. “Paige?” she asked, almost in a whisper. Ham made sure that she was well hidden with every step closer to the source of the noise.

Meanwhile, unwary to what was going on, Eevee and Fawn were in a tree. Eevee was scribbling some stuff down on paper as she mumbled some words.

Meanwhile in the woods Paige was gone, though her pocket kn!fe, b0w, and beanie were on the ground. The beanie was stained with bl00d.

Cheese picked up the blood stained beanie and pocket knife, her face not giving away any emotions. Paige was still alive, there was no doubt about it. |Paige?| she whispered, |Just think something, I'm here. Are you there?|.

/They can’t chain my soul, but they can chain my heart/ Paige whispers back.

|Is it the hosts?| Cheese guessed.

/I don't know, I haven't heard their voices or seen their faces./ Paige explains.

Cheese thought for a bit. |About how long do you think it's been since they took you, and can you get anything out of your surroundings? Smells? Noises? Are you still traveling?|

/they left the room, I’m going to try to undo my zip ties./ She hears voices form the other room “How about this one, they have been a camper twice and a coleader once?” Paige gasps, she was captured by the hosts. /It’s the hosts!/

|Figured. I'll try and track you're thoughts and bring people to get you. Do your best to stall them.| Cheese gathered medical supplies for Paige, and brought her watch with her. /Sigh, never thought I would have to use this again./

Meanwhile Paige got out of the zip ties and is working on her application.

”GUYS!! Paige got kidnapped by the hosts! If anyone wants to come save her then pleeease do.“ Cheese shouts to the rest.

Paige turns in her application risking everything, sure she was under disguise but she had her name in her application. She dropped it off and ran, she had to make it to dystopian.

Ella picks up a letter in familiar handwriting off the ground. She starts to read it out loud. ”Hey guys.“ the letter starts, ”I won't be here for the next session due to some family issues going on right now (not irl) I am really sorry that I won't be there to help you guys. I do have a quick way of reaching you guys, but it has to be used sparingly. Fawn and I have already been packed for a few days. By the time you read this letter, I'll be gone. Really sorry, and I hope that once this all ends, to see you guys soon.“ The letter cut off with a few notes to specific friends as it signed off, ”Love, Eevee and Fawn ♥“

Paige was running, sweating, panting to dystopian. She had to get there before the hosts find out she is gone.

|Hey are you good? Where are you? I'm there but there are only a couple angry hosts left, minus a certain Paige. Darn, I was really hoping to murder some hosts today Paige, why didn't you stay?| Cheese joked, running away from a couple angry hosts.

/Birdi is on my tail so I can’t ‘talk’/ Paige responds, she jumps over a huge log, /finally track and field is helpful!/, she realizes Birdi is dystopian, /Dang it!/.

Arobot watched Paige running away from the hosts, not sure how to react. Finally, Paige was getting what she deserved, but now Arobot wouldn’t get to do it herself. Paige did some awesome trick that set her enemies back, and Arobot followed them.

Paige takes out her glove and uses a force field to push them back not knowing that Arobot was there. Electricity fills her body, she hair turns the bright purple of her scar for a split second. She continues to run, she looks back and sees Arobot on the ground. /Save my life or someone else’s?/. She kept on moving, crying.

Arobot felt torn. How could she let her friend (part of her scoffed at the word) get killed by these people, but after all she’d done…
Paige tripped. Without thinking, Arobot morphed with a flash and sent a tornado at Paige’s opponent, driving her back into a tree, knocking her out. She bounded up to Paige, but she had gotten on her feet again.

Paige’s right eye looked mad but her left looked thankful. She got up and brushed the dirt off her and started to run again. Arobot whipped her tail around and picked them off the ground with an air current, speeding them toward Dystopian. At least that might damage Paige’s pride, even if it actually saved them.
Dystopian was now in sight, a row of creepily similar houses came into view. Paige whispers something to herself, “Abegnation houses…” She smells the air, “Peeta’s bread.” She saw no news papers only TV’s. The TV’s flickered on, “The Report, The Selection…” The Hosts come into view on the TV, “One of the campers who is the biggest threat to us has escaped our grasps.” Alba says, a picture of Paige fills the screen, she gasps. Birdi continues, “If you find her bring her to our office. Don’t try to harm her because she has been known to st@b people.” Paige looked to Arobot, “Two questions. One, what were you gonna say earlier. Two, WHAT THE HECK DO WE DO!”

|*Cough cough* Should I come get you guys or what?| Cheese whispered from the tops of a tree, hiding.

/no offense but you wouldn’t fit in/. Paige explains.

|Pff- like I fit in in any of the cabins.| She snickered, nearly giving away her position. |Okay mate, I trust you. Buh bye for now!|

|Bye, be careful!| Thought Aria.
She sighed. “I don’t know. What you deserve is to be litterally $tabbed in the back like you did to Cheese and Ella. But you’ve also seemed to change. And I just can’t seem to let someone die, not when I can help it. For now, I’m an ally.” Her voice raised again, and she nailed Paige with a gaze that would have looked at home on a disdainful cat. “But don’t try anything.”

She looked around and pulled Paige into a convenience store with some non perishable food.
“You’re the Dystopian. Find the best resources to keep us alive, then come meet me down here.” She morphed into a huge gray cat and made a tunnel in the corner of the store down into the earth, shaping a little bunker.

/Cheese, do you read me?/ she thought, /let me know where you are and I’ll try and help bring you to our safe place. Let me know if there’s anyone else who needs help, too./

/Take care of the others./ Paige looked around, she needed to find a disguise first. She spots the laundry building, /perfect/. Every cabin has a uniform, well a loose dress code. Horror’s was you had to wear black and white with a hood, Mystery was red and a white collared shirt, Dystopian’s was gray and dark blue with safety goggles. Paige grabs some of the clothes that seem like they would fit her and Arobot. She then changed, but the rest of the clothes in her bag and headed to the bakery. That was maybe the one thing she missed the most, bakery bread. Of course it was a reference to The Hunger Games. Oh and the tarts, a reference to The Selection. She then snuck her way into the w3@p0ntery and grabbed some w3@p0n$. Then she finally headed back to Arobot with everything. “Sorry it’s a lot.”

|Wait Paige did you call for me?| Cheese admittedly was peeking around some other peoples thoughts to pass time.

/No, hold on-/, Paige runs to a group of people huddled around a poster, a ‘Wanted’ poster, with her face of on it. She quickly walks away, trying to raise minimal suspicion. She heads back to the bunker. She dials Pxl's number, ”Hey person who hasn't been around for the past few days.“ Paige says while putting away everything.

”Hey,“ she replies, clambering out of the phone and into physical form. She really needed to stop scaring people like that. ”I, uh, kinda got lost in some other town.“

”You gotta stop doing that! Well anyways, welcome to dystopian where there is awsome bread, tarts, and cakes. Ok all three of those were references.“ Paige pulls Pxl outside, ”Also I am a wanted criminal!“

Pxl chugged a potion from out of her satchel, a yellow-green liquid bubbling inside of a clear thermos. Drinking a potion scared people away if they didn't know what it could do, which was a handy tactic. Unbeknownst to the people of Dystopian, it was just a thermos full of Mountain Dew. ”So, what are you wanted for?“ she asked. ”I'm wanted for abandoning the Scalers, st3aling a lot of stuff, and the usual unsavory activity.“ She grinned.

Paige twirled her metallic kn!fe, ”Well I escaped the Hosts' jail and I was in there because of when I wounded Alba.“ She took out a raspberry tart, ”You said you have read The Selection,“ She handed Pxl a tart, ”The pants bet. First book.“

Pxl grinned. ”I've eaten a lot of good food, so I don't know if this'd make me cry.“ She st0le the tart from Paige's hand, and popped it into her mouth. She didn't cry, but her purple eyes widened and she let out a colorful variety of cvrse words AND actual cvrses.”Wow. Holy- heck. Sorry, forgot you were there for a second.“ She smiled apologetically.

”It's fine just please don't do that again.“ Paige said showing her cross bracelet. She puts on her bl00d covered beanie while munching on bread.

”Okay, boss, whatever you say,“ Pxl jokes. ”So, uh, why are we at Dystopian? Okay, it makes sense that you're going back home or whatever, but why am I here?“

”Long story…“ Paige trailed off. She saw a wet paper, the exact date was smeared on it but the month and year was November 2020. The title of the unfinished story was ‘Diary of A Moon’. Paige gasped and picked it up. Her eyes filled with tears. Dystopian was her home. She starts to read the paper out loud, ”'Bye Mare see you tonight.' My Dad said as he and my Mom left. ‘Bye Dad, bye Mom.’…“ Paige was amazed, she almost forgot about this. ”M-my s-story from November, i-it's still here.“ She gets a call from someone. “Excuse me for a sec.” Paige walks ahead, “This better be important because if this goes too long that Pxl girl I was talking to you about, is gonna k!ll me…Michigan Avenue…Alright, bye.”

Pxl melted out of a nearby shadow, her boots stomping on the asphalt. ”Paige, don't you know it's not safe to walk in shadowy alleyways?“ She laughed. ”So, you still think I'm out to k!ll you, huh? It's a fair assumption…“ Pxl twirled her m4chete around in her hand.

“Relax, it’s just a girl that I met while waiting for the leader results.” Paige didn’t include the fact that that girl was a Sci-fi camper, and a fellow time traveler. “Anyways is there a chance you still h@t3 me because I still h@t3 you.”

“Well, this is awkward,” said Ara. “So I guess you still hate us for not being Dystopian?”
She rolled her eyes and turned away from the girls, flying back to the bunker.
“Pxl, give her another inspirational speech sometime,” she shouted behind her, “she needs it, and it worked once for Cheese.”
“But again,” she muttered to herself, “Pxl isn’t exactly Cheese”

Paige walked away to the building of Sci-fi cabin. She wanted to create chaos there. She hasn’t seen Eevee in a while so she calls her but it goes to voicemail. She also realized she hasn’t talked to Ella lately either so she tries to call her, “Ella? Hello?” No service. Paige continues to walk on the back ally ways. About halfway there she saw construction for mystery and decided to create chaos there instead

Ella noticed an alert on her phone that Paige had tried to call her. She immediately tried to call her back. Ella was worried about Paige. She hadn't seen Paige since they'd gotten back, and Ella had been journeying through the woods since, with no sense of where she would go next. She slept in the trees, tying herself in every night, with inspiration from The Hunger Games. If she could contact Paige, maybe she would be able to sleep in a bed tonight. That would be nice. Ella pressed call, and held the phone to her ear, ”Hello? Paige?“ she asked.

“Hi Ella,” Paige says exasperated while explos!0n$ go off in the background. Man it’s leader remind her of Aree.

”Oh my gosh! Paige! You're okay!“ Ella almost screams. She was so worried. ”Where are you? Can I meet you there?“

“I am alright,” Paige laughed “I’m currently at the new mystery cabin. Hold on I’m going to share my location,” Paige turns on her phone location.

”Okay!“ Ella says, not questioning Paige. Paige knew what she was doing, and she was careful. ”I'm gonna hang up, and check your location, and then call you back, okay?“ Ella ends the call, and goes to her location app. She see's Paige's dot on the map, sure enough, right where the new mystery cabin is. It reminded her of the old days, back when she was tracking Paige through her phone. This time, Paige wanted to be found.

Ella called Paige back immediately. By now, she had Paige on speed dial. ”Hi Paige! I've got your location! I think I'll stop by Walmart to pick up some donuts!“

Paige was down on her phone texting with the leader of sci-fi, Bookie, “Hi Ella, I’m just talking to Bookie”

”Cool! I think I'll be able to make it to Mystery by sundown. I'll just have to move quickly.“ Ella says, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she packs everything up and begins walking.

Ara turned over and over on her cot in the bunker until she realized she couldn’t just lie there. She sighed and went aboveground in human form to check and make sure Paige wasn’t either causing or in too much trouble.

Paige felt a cold hand on her shoulder. She took a split second to analyze it. It seemed bigger or from a slightly older body than any of the others. Paige knew who it was: Alba.

“Paige! Why were you going to cause chaos in Sci-fi! I literally told you guys that chaos energy was what the hosts… oh.” Ara stepped back.

Paige shook the hand off and turned around, a whole crew was here. Ara and Ella, but also Alba, Birdi, Alyelle, Bookie, and Sprout. She tries to run but f!r3 blocks both her exits. /Alba really is a freaking ars0nist/. They were surrounded in a ring of f!r3. Paige scanned the area, she saw a water pump. She started pumping water as quick as possible and started to throw it out onto the f!r3. She made an exit and pulled everyone towards it. “Ok we need a plan. Ella distract them, Pxl get all the pedestrians to safety with your teleporter thingy. Ara try to stop the f!r3. We have to f!ght back.”

That’s what they did, the f0ught back for days until finally Birdi waved something in the air. A white flag. Paige gasped, they won, they are no longer being hunt3d down. Everyone packs up and walks over to the main cabin. Paige gets out her guitar and starts singing a song that reminds her of the fun times they had before all this chaos. She plucks the strings, “Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school ring the bell. Brand new shoes walking blues. Climb the fence, books and pens. I can tell that we are gonna be friends, I can tell that we are gonna be friends.” They all sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows. Paige finally felt it, the thing she never felt before in her life, friendship. She teared up, happy tears. She hit the last G chord and starts to cry. ”I-I really have never had friends. I have always had a cheap imitation of something that wasn't meant to be imitated…Until now…“ She throws her gl0v3s into the f!r3. They are the only thing that gives her the ability to time travel. “I can get new ones if I decide to start time traveling again but for now I want to enjoy the present day.”

Ara smiled. “I think that’s a great idea!”

Paige smiles, “Um could you guys excuse me for a sec.” she grabs Ara and pulls her over to a place out of earshot of the others. “Before I left for dystopian you said you needed to talk to me about something, what is it?”

“Look, to be honest, you know all these tensions that have been happening since you revealed yourself. I’m not sad you did that, just that you hurt people because of it. I was going to stab you to make you feel like the others you’d given up on. But now I wouldn’t. We’ve been through a lot, and I trust you guys. I know I can always trust you to help us when we need it!”
She sighed.
“That was confusing. In other words, I was angry about what you’ve done in the past, but now I think you’ve made the most of your second chance. We’re friends.”

Paige shook her head. She couldn’t process anything correctly at the moment. She sighs, “I’m going to go to bed.” She grabs her bag and heads into the main cabin which has extra bunks on the second floor. She showers and gets in her pajamas. She takes out her notebook and writes some things down then moves on to continue reading ‘Allegent’. She finally gets to bed around 10:30pm. She dreams about when Peggy and John’s wedding was r@!d3d. Paige gasps as she wakes up, hyperventilating.

Ara sat up in bed. She was still awake working on her book on her phone.
“Are you ok?” She checked the time. 2:15. /oops./

“J-just bad dreams.” Paige says Turning on a lamp. She got out of bed and grabbed some water.

Paige drank it, and Ara popped into a cat and made it swirl full again with a wink as she became human again.

She starts whistling We are Gonna Be Friends.
“What do you dream about?”

“Peggy and John’s w3dd!ng.” Paige says not including the fact that she left in the beginning and after she left it got r@!d3d. “They didn’t end up m@rr!3d though.”

Pxl was still eating a marshmallow, staring at the main cabin. The Mango Alliance. Who were they kidding? Mangoes weren't that great. But she had better things to worry about than her old rebellion. Paige was finally acting like a normal person. \That's nice, I guess,\ Pxl thought, \but how do I know I can trust her? How do I know she won't try to go back to her old self again?\

“I see. That sounds sad.” She saw that there was more to the story, but decided not to push it.
“You know, according to my research, Dystopian really was the best possible cabin this year, when it came to all the regular techniques for winning. It would have won by a landslide if Mystery hadn’t changed the game.”

Paige mumbles a lyric from ‘The Election of 1800’ from Hamilton. She take in a deep breath, “I want to forget the past but I can’t. It has physically and mentally sc@r3d me.”

Arobot hums a piece from “It’s quiet uptown.”
“I can’t imagine what you’re going through. But even if you can’t we see past all your scars, inside and outside. Cheese literally brought you back to the rest of us after being st@bb3d, and if you don’t call that seeing the best in someone, I don’t know what is!” She paused, looking out the window. She saw Pxl’s little campfire, where she was all alone.
“Anyway, I’m so sorry. I hope you’ll be able to come to peace with it someday. In the meantime, we’re here.”

She heard a sound outside, a splash, with a hiss. Pxl’s fire was out and the lawn was completely black, the very edge of the sky showing the jagged remains of destroyed cabins.
“Hey Paige? I’m going to head down and make sure Pxl’s ok. You can come if you want, I’lll leave an air cushion.” She jumped out the window, transforming in mid air, her new cat eyes allowing her to see the scene more clearly.

Paige stayed inside, she put on her headphones and opened up the app ‘Peacock’ and turned on ‘The Voice’ when she got to Anna Grace’s performance of ‘Let Her Go’ Paige reared up, that’s how she felt right now.

Ara’s cat ears heard it, and she half smiled. She touched down and looked around for Pxl. Where was she?

Paige turned off ‘The Voice’ and put on music. She shuffled her playlist and ‘Arcade’ came up. She started crying. She didn’t know what to be happy about.

The horror cabin was a mere shadow of its former glory. Sleek concrete walls had given way to time and disaster, and were now nothing but remains. The ruin and rubble of the horror cabin began to stir, and within it a great entity of chaos began to rise. Where had those horror campers gone? The entity was starving. The chaos created by those campers had fed it for many weeks, but now it was alone and hungry; It was time to create some chaos.

Paige tried to fall back asleep but she couldn’t. She sighs, turns back on the light and pulls up her pc to play bedw@rs. She v!0l3ntly clicks away.

Pxl sat outside in the rain, by the ashes of her campfire. It was lonely.

Paige wanted to come down but just couldn’t get the courage. She tries to call Eevee again but it went to voicemail, “Hi! You've reached Eevee! It looks like I'm not available right now. Leave a message!” *beep*’ Uh hey Eevee, it’s Paige where have you been? I- I miss you,” A tear slides down her face, “A lot has happened. The Hosts surrendered, Pxl and I are on good ish sides, and a lot of other stuff. Anyways I miss you so much it hurts, I hope your having a good life.” She stops the recording and sends it.

|MISS ME?| Cheese slide into Paiges mind, whispering with a loudness that probably wasn’t necessary. |Sorry I had to do something again. How’s life? Where’s Eevee?|

/I tried to call her again just a second ago but no response, how are you?/ Paige replies.

|Ah fine, same as always.| She paused for a moment. |So heard you destroyed some cabins?|

/Maybe…I miss you/. Paige lays down,

A quiet gasp left Cheese’s mouth, and her jaw fell open. “Really?” She grinned. |I miss you too. Haha, I’m a little surprised. Most people find me annoying, or rude. Let’s just say that I’m not the person people tend to miss.|

Ara morphed from a yellow to an orange cat. Pxl’s fire came to life again. Becoming human, Ara came and sat of the other side of the fireplace.
“Do you have another marshmallow?” She asked. She wanted to use her water or wind power to keep the rain off, but she wanted to stay in human form to more easily understand speech. Her brain worked like a cat when she was one.
“I saw you out here, and I sure wouldn’t want to be alone on a night like this. Doesn’t it feel like something bad’s going to happen?”

“I agree,” Ella said, also morphing out of a shadow. “It feels like something is going to go wrong any second. Also, can I have a marshmallow?

Paige was scrolling through her Sp0t!fy and came upon a song, ‘Drive By’ by Train. She turned it on. It brought back so many memories of training. She knew this song was kinda a happy song but she cried. She heard the others outside and she knew they could hear her. The window was open and a slight breeze flowed in. She walked over and spied on them from the window. She smiles as she watches everyone.

Pxl hands Ara and Ella some marshmallows out of a comically large bag, smiling a little bit. She always hated trusting people but maybe, just this once, she could trust them. SHe looked into the crackling fire, a fire that cast away every nearby shadow. Pxl didn't mind that there weren't any shadows to hide in. She didn't really feel like hiding anymore.

Paige turns off her music and just watches them, humming a bit. She accidentally dropped her bagel, something that reminded her of Phoenix. “Fr!ck!” She jumps out of the window trying to catch it in midair but she failed crashing into a bush. She gets out pulling twigs out of her hair. She mumbles something, “Phoenix stop planting the bagel trees, you know Eliza would yell at me for not being able to ch0p them down.” She tripped on a rock and fell face first onto the path. “Uh hey guys…” She stood up and brushed off the debris.

Cheese stared open mouthed. ”Um, are you okay?“ She walked over, pulling out a med kit from her bag.

“Yeah…I’ve been through worse.” Paige scratches her back. She looks up at everyone, “Well, this is awkward…”

Oh no, it’s totally fine!” Ara laughed.
“Well, as long as you’re fine!” She tried to see what she could do. “Oh no.”
In the fall, Paige’s $car across her eye had broken open. Out of it, there were subtle streams of purple light coming out.
“Paige… are you sure it was a forklift that made that $car?”

“Yeah, well that’s what everyone said. I got knocked out when it happened. Apparently it caused me to fall back and I hit the ground hard. I never thought about other possibilities. Why do you ask?” Paige says, oblivious to what is happening to her eye. Her hair glows purple for a split second then back to her normal color. She stood up.

”Um, well, uh-“ Ella starts, ”Your scar broke open. And purple light is coming out of it. It's weird, but also really cool. Do you know what could have caused that?“ Ella looks around at Pxl and Ara, questioningly.

Paige searched her memory for anything that could lead to this. She was silent until, “A flash of neon!”

”Kay' Imma scoot cause Cheese Jr wants me to join their ritual also I have no idea what's going on. Tata.“ Cheese tossed Paige a bandaid and a KitKat to everyone before getting dragged away by the angry and left out Cheese Jr. ”PRAY THAT I MAKE IT OUT ALI-“ She shouted as she got swallowed into the floofyness.

”…Well then,“ Pxl said. ”So, what the heck do you mean by ‘a flash of neon?’“

Paige’s mind is racing; it felt like a thousand moths were flapping their wings. Paige’s vision started getting blurry, not because she’s crying, which she is not. She was getting dizzy. It felt like she was going to p@$$ out. “T-that’s what I saw…b-before I, I, I got kn0ck3d out.” She tried to make sense of it, “S-short hair.” She looked up at everyone, her vision could focus. “I th-think I know.” Even though it hurt she stood up and looked someone right in their eyes, which equally matched her right eye in uniqueness. Magenta eyes, neon clothes, half shav3d hair, Pxl. The moths flew out of her head. She felt her strength regain. She mumbled a lyric of Alba’s song ‘Symphony’, sure she doesn’t like @rs0n but that lyric gave her strength. “Pxl! I thought we were friends. You and I were friends. Remember! Even before the world declared us enemies you wanted to get rid of me! And I’m not sorry about this.” Paige took the lime vial off of her necklace and thr3w it at Pxl. Her eye completely spl!t open.

Ella runs over to Paige and catches her just before she p@$$3$ out. Ella lays Paige's head down gently onto the ground.

”Okay,“ Ella says slowly, ”What is happening? Can someone explain to me?“ she takes a bite out of her KitKat bar. ”Also, is Paige okay? Like, will something happen to her, considering that her eye is completely spl!t open?“

Pxl was was silent and still. She addressed the crowd. ”I have no excuse,“ she said lamely. ” I was a terrible-absolutely terrible- person back then. I could go on and on about what I felt after leaving the Scalers, but I have no excuse.“ She looked at Paige. ”Every time I see you happy, which is never, I look at that sc4r. It's the only reason your eyes is like mine, after all. They both used to be as green- green as a leaf. We got in fights a-all the time, kind of h4ted each other. One day it all… boiled over, and the rest is history.“ She had started shaking uncontrollably in the middle of her speech, magenta tears falling to the ground and seeping in like p0ison. ”Both eyes magenta, that's how it's always been!“ she screamed. ”I'm destined to do bad, whether I want to or not. It was STUPID of me to think I could change fate. I'm the same angry girl I was before, and always will be. The sneaky, tr1gger-happy, secretive girl.“ Her limbs were phasing in and out of existence. ”Paige, I don't want to hurt anyone anymore.“ It was said plaintively. ”But you all need to get as far away from me as possible. Defeat the Hosts, build a new cabin, live happily ever after. Just not with me, because you don't need me and you'd be cr@zy to want me.“ She crumpled to the ground. ”Go.“ No one went. ”PLEASE, JUST GO! BEFORE IT'S TOO LA-“ But Pxl's distress had taken over. Her limbs felt like water, then like real fl3sh. Usually, pxl gracefully melted into shadows, like candle wax onto a table. But this was not graceful. It was messy and painful, all angles and crumbling, not melting. She tried to hold herself together, pressure building up in ever crevice of her shadowed body.
The pressure released, and Pxl finally felt free.
A sh0ckwave was sent washing over the others like a tidal wave, leaving them scared and injured. They eventually braved the center of the still-growing shadow dome, now thinning out enough to see. Nothing was left there but a lime-green hoodie.

Paige knew she owed something to the universe. She uses the last bit of power to make a force field. She didn't want to let go. She put the dome over everyone. She screamed in p@!n, she had to do this. When it was over Paige saw nothing of Pxl besides the sweatshirt. Paige knew she had to do something. ”John.“ She remembers something. She says a little something closing her eyes squeezing the sweatshirt. ”PLEASE WORK!“ It worked for John but she has 5 others helping her. ”I- need it to work…“ The color was draining from her face by the second but she kept on going. She screamed, her words blurred out by sobs. ”YOU CAN TAKE ME, SPARE HER! SHE STILL HAS SO MUCH TO DO!“ Paige was now on her knees sobbing, screaming at the universe. She never felt so much p@!n.

”PXL!“ Ella screamed, ”PAIGE!“ Ella ran over to Paige and knelt beside her. ”Paige, Paige, Paige, it's okay. It's okay. Let the force field down.“ she felt Paige collapse into her arms.

Paige wouldn't stop fighting. Her mind full of moths, flapping, flapping, flapping. She wanted to stop but she had to do this. She will take the p@!n. She knew this was the first time everyone saw her truly break. She screamed, the sound echoing in the bubble. She went quiet for a few seconds then started singing her favorite song, ‘Good For You’ from Dear Evan Hansen, ”I just gotta find a way to stop it stop it just let me out!“ She screamed out the lyrics hoping someway they'll help her even though she knew it was useless. Her skin was near blue but she didn't give up, ”SPARE PXL! TAKE ME! PXL IS MEANT TO DO MORE, I KNOW IT!“ She had to get Pxl back for everyone's sake, even if that means having to 4!3. The moths grew louder and louder, still she kept fighting. Her hair glowed, but it didn't fade back to her regular colors, it stayed at that bright purple.

A voice came out of the shadows, quietly surrounding them. ”Don't m0urn me.“

Paige doesn’t hear. She is deafened by the sounds of her own screams. Heartbreak, something she hasn’t felt ever.

Paige feels the shadows wrap around her. She expects them to be cold and unforgiving, but it feels like a hug. ”Don't m0urn me. I'm not gone yet,“ said a voice, louder. It was soothing and familiar. Pxl. It begun to rain. ”I don't know how to leave. I might find out someday, but it's not time for you to m0urn me yet.“

“I couldn’t save John. I have to save you. I couldn’t save Peggy, I have to save you. I couldn’t save myself…” Tears run down Paige’s face. “I am the problem. If I didn’t tell you guys we would be in the mess!”

”Paige, you aren't the problem.“ Ella says, trying to soothe her. ”Pxl, I have no idea if you can hear me, but all of us are destined to make mistakes. No one's perfect. It's okay. Pxl isn't gone. Paige, it isn't your responsibility to save everyone. You have to live with that, okay?“

Paige stared off. She silently cried. She had to save Pxl. She owed Pxl something, everything.

Ella felt tears well up in her eyes. She let them fall, and tried not to sniffle too much. She was worried about Paige. And Pxl. None of what happened made sense to her, but she would be there supporting both of them, nonetheless.

The shadow dome completely collapsed, falling to the ground like a sandcastle washed with waves. A piece of shadow the size of a water bottle swirled. It was slow, like it took a lot of effort to re-form. It formed into a tiny, water-bottle sized version of Pxl, who was coughing up magenta and looked weak. She had somehow gotten a tiny hoodie and boots. ”Hey guys,“ she yelled. It was hard to hear her from so far down.

Paige dried here tears, still sniffling. She was blue, her hair glowing, her cheeks red. She looked like she was going to f@!nt, which she did.

Paige woke up a week later in the h0$p!t@l, “Hello?” She looked around the room. Everyone was there.

Pxl was sitting on top of a nearby alarm clock, legs dangling off the edge of it. ”Paige!“ she exclaimed. ”You're awake! I would hug you, but it's kind of a far leap from the table to the h0sp1tal bed“

Paige was confused, she forgot what happened near the end of the ‘situation’, “why are you so tiny?”

”Oh thank goodness!“ Ella says, relief shining through her voice, ”I'm so glad you're okay.“ Ella gives Paige a long hard hug, and then let's Pxl hop into her hand. She carefully places Pxl next Paige. Small tears begin to drip down her face, but they are happy tears. A smile is filling her mouth and eyes the entire time, even as she begins to soak her face.

“W-what happened, all I remember is clutching Pxl’s sweatshirt while having flashbacks of bringing John back alive.” Paige explains. She looks around at Ara, Cheese, and Ella.

”I'm not sure what happened either, because Ella and Eevee just saved me from Cheese Jr by doing some magic stuff on the vat of boiling cheese I was about to be cooked in. I think floofy cow might be having another one of their episodes.“ She scraped at the dried cheese on her shirt. ”Sooooo wanna talk about it? The dream, I mean. And someone care to explain what's going on here?“

Paige noticed her hair was still glowing, “Pxl did this.” She points to her right eye which is now spI!t open. “She melted but never could come back to human form. I used all my power to get her back, but it didn’t work fully.” She nods at Pxl. “I am guessing I p@$$3d out. I need time alone with my thoughts, so if you could leave that would be appreciated.”

Pxl frowned. ”I don't know whether or not I actually d!ed, she admitted, “but I think it IS possible to get me back to normal size. I mean, it's not like the rest of me disappeared. It just melted into other shadows. It might take a few years, but I might get powerful enough to absorb the shadow back into me and get to normal size.”

Pxl paused tentatively, sitting Ella's hand as they all walked away to give Paige space. “However… There have been rumors of a way for a Shadowperson to get a lot of strength at once. A p0tion made with squid ink, a wild purple mushroom and..” She winced. “An onyx from a dragon's hoard. The first two are easy enough to find, but if I wanted to get that dragon's onyx, I'd need to head back to the Scalers and hvnt one last dragon. I don't know if I should do it. Any advice?”

“Well since it’s obvious neither of us are in a state to f!ght anything living besides a house plant,” Paige says referring to her and Pxl. In the background Paige’s heart monitor beeps, “I may have to trust my worst enemy, well enemies. Abby and…Juniper. They are the only people who can time travel besides myself. They have the strength and wits but I don’t know if I could trust them…” Paige pauses playing with her now glowing, now bright, purple hair. “They say you only have one shot at someone strongly trusting you. Once that’s gone they will trust you differently, less even.”

Cheese suddenly got uncomfortable. “Um, sooo well you see about the whole trusting-your-worst-enemies-for-something-because-they-are-the-only-people-who-can-time-travel part sooo you might now have to do that?” She coughed and looked away, with one hand cupped around her neck.

Paige toyed with a loose thread on her h0sp!t@l gown. “Abby…Abby l0ck3d me in a basement! You think this is easy? It isn’t! I don’t trust Junior and Abby! But I am willing to risk it all if it means Pxl will be normal again. If you have read the ‘Divergent’ series you will remember the factions. Well if it was real I would be a divergent so a thr3@t. And I am a thr3@t here right now. The thing is, I’m probably the same factions Tris was.”

Pxl cleared her throat. “You don't actually have to time-travel. All the Scalers are still out there, doing their dragon things. I'm the only one who left.”

Biting the inside of her mouth, Cheese pulled off a black band hidden by the sleeves of her shirt. “So I guess me and Pxl are going? Since I don't really know what we're looking for, and Pxl does…”

“Hold on.” Ella says, putting a stop to the conversation, “Are we really sure there is no one else? Nobody else who could sl@y a dragon for Pxl? Nobody else who could get her that onyx or get her back to normal size, any other way?” Her brow creased with concentration, trying to think of someone, anyone who could help them, and that wasn't their sworn enemy. “Do we really want to trust them? Isn't there anyone else?” Ella looked at Pxl and Paige, questioningly, wondering if there was any other choice.

Paige thought about it, “Mazie is off ‘dealing with the Marie problem’…” Paige used air quotes to emphasize her words, “Rozlynn aka Roze is in a m3nt@l h0sp!t@l…Um Ella…I don’t trust her but I know you do…Aree?” Paige is digging through one of the last people she would trust, “Aree at least knows how to f!ght…” Paige looks like she’s holding an imaginary guitar; fingering out chords, humming along to the song she was ‘playing’. ‘Little Talks’ by Of Monsters and Men. “To be honest…I was scared you wouldn’t like me at the beginning because of the Aree thing.” She hugs her knees, waiting for everyones' responses. She bit her lip.

Pxl sighed. “We can trust the Scalers. They probably want to stick a sw0rd in my back, but they'll like you all just fine! After all, I'm the one who left. They stayed together.” She didn't know if she regretted leaving them.

Paige sat up, rocking herself, “I- I don’t know. People tend to not like me, I have more enemies than friends. It’s worth a shot though. I mean, the doctor said I can leave in a day or two.” Her eyes follow Pxl who was climbing up the window blinds.

“Wait guys all we need to do is k!ll some dragon right?” Cheese asks.

Paige turns her head to Cheese, “I once- actually twice time traveled into a dragon sl@y!ng time/place. It’d harder than you think.” Paige shows them her left foot, “I almost lost my small toe during the first one. The second one was the one with Pxl.”

Ella, who had been quiet for a moment, spoke up, “I can trust Aree. Paige, I don't know if you can, but I trust her. She'll get the job done. She doesn't even have to know she's sl@y!ng the dragon for you and Pxl. I can just ask her for the favor. I think it's safer than, well, than the other option.” Ella shifted her weight uncomfortably from foot to foot, glancing around the room.

“Yeah your right, she doesn’t know we’re friends now…” Paige stares off into space. “I guess that’ll work…”

Cheese looks at all of them. “From what you guys are saying I'm assuming these people aren't trustworthy, or

“Long story…” Paige sighs, “It has to do with 21 year old who kept children in her b@$3m3nt. I thought they were mistreated…” She looks at Ella, “Ella was one of Aree’s closest inside girls…I don’t want to get into it.”


”I was.“ Ella sighed, ”It was kind of complicated. First, I was with Aree, then I was with Paige, then Aree again, and- let's just say it was… um, interesting.“ Ella looked down at her feet uncomfortably.

”I don't know whose side I ended up on at the end of the day. It was kind of fun though, we were all silly, without a care in the world. It certainly, well, it wasn't a boring Monday.“ she looks down at Pxl, who was still in her hand. ”So, are we going to talk to Aree?“

”Isn't it best to send someone in our group though? I could go with Ara or Ella. I know how to fight, and pretty well too-“ Cheese says.

Paige shot up, she didn’t realize she laid back down and started to sleep, “Listen to me! Cheese, if any of us d!3 the Hosts will win! I don’t care if Aree d!3$!” She realizes what she said wrong, “S-sorry.” Paige’s bracelet shakes, she smiles as a screen pops up. A girl with rose colored hair in space buns pops up on the screen. In a way, that girl looked like Paige. “Roze!” Paige smiled so wide, “Paige! I got your news, I can’t believe Mazie is alive. And guess what! I’m getting released today! What time are you in?” Roze was talking her head off. She looked around 11 or 12. Paige sighs, “Um 2021, May 27, 8:38AM.” In a flash Roze was there. She looked younger in person, a little closer to ten. Paige sees everyone’s shock, “This is my little sister Roze. Roze this is Ara, Ella, Cheese, and Pxl.” She pointed to everyone. They looked confused about how much younger Roze was in person, “The time barrier causes us to be a bit younger or older when we time travel.” Paige had another secret, she was born in 2050.

Pxl crossed her arms. “I don't know who this Aree person is, but I don't think we need her. I can just go talk to the Scalers or something. So, can you all just calm down?!” She looked at Roze. “Also, hi. I'm Pxl.”

Roze's bubbly personality took over, “Hi! Did you know that Paige was born in 20-” Paige didn't want them knowing her birth year. She gets up and sl@p$ Roze right across the face. “Owww, what was that for!” Roze puts her hand to her cheek, “They know too much,” Paige hissed, “Pxl is a friend and an enemy I don't want her knowing…Sorry about that.”

“OKAY okay sorry Paige chill it’s fine. Also sorry I’ve been leaving a whole bunch recently but I gotta go somewhere real quick. I’ll be back in a couple days. Bye!” Cheese grabbed Cheese Jr and jumped out the window, landing in a bush and running off somewhere.

Paige sucked in a breath, “She’s hiding something. Always sneaking off, it’s real suspicious.”

Ella nodded in agreement. Cheese was acting weird lately.

Paige talked with her hands, “I mean right now both Pxl and I’s lives are in danger and she just sneaks off!”


“I know!” Ella shook her head in disapproval, wondering what could possibly be up with Cheese. “Welp, do you want me to make the call here?”

“Yes,” Paige nods, “Now or never.”

“Alright” Ella pulls out her phone, and scrolls through her contacts. “I think I still have her number.” she says, starting to get worried. Finally, she finds Aree's name, and presses ‘call’.

Soft nods in agreement, despite not reading of this.

Aree picks up, “Hello?” Meanwhile, Paige read through the papers on her bedside table, she could leave today.

“Hi, uh, Aree, this is Ella. Do you remember me?” Ella asks, anxiously. She pops her fingers, a habit she often does when she is nervous.

“Ella! How have you been?” Aree was surprised but delighted.

“I'm doing well! I'm so sorry, we haven't talked in a long time. How are you doing?” Ella's voice wavered, partly with sadness, and partly with anxiety.

“Pretty well, what is the reason for this unexpected call?” Aree responded.

“Well, I have a favor to ask. Could you, uh, well, could you sl@y a dragon for me? I kind of need the onyx. I understand if that is to dangerous for you, but you're so good at it.”

Aree was skeptical, “What for?” Paige saw Ella’s worry and whispered, “She always wants to beat me, maybe if it was a ‘race’ she would accept.”

“It's a race. I have another friend who is trying to do it, but I figured you could do it faster. Of course, if you don't think you could be quicker, I could always have them continue as they were doing.” Ella says, playing out her words carefully, trying to make it so Aree would not, could not, back down from the challenge.

Aree accepts, “I accept the challenge, now who is that friend you were talking about.” Paige nods to Ella, kinda saying ‘say the friend is me’ without any words.

Two dark haired teens fall onto the door causing them to fall into the room. Junior and Abby, “Uh hey guys…” Junior sounded embarrassed.

Ella waves slightly, then goes back to Aree, “It's Paige. Do you remember her? Well, I thought you could do it faster and better. But don't tell her, we want to keep it a secret. She might try to beat you if you tell her there is a competition, and, frankly, I trust you more.” Ella says, clearly uncomfortable with with the lies.

Paige runs over to Junior and pushed them out of the room. Aree smirks, “Perfect, it was a shame that the w@r ended in a peace treaty last time.”

“I guess-” Ella says, not really sure what answer Aree wanted, but not wanting to give the wrong answer for fear that Aree would see through her lies.

“Bye.” Aree hangs up. Meanwhile it looks like Paige is trying to wrap her mind around something. She turns over to Pxl, “How did you exactly do this?” She points to her eye, “I mean, I don’t think shadow magic could do this…”

Pxl shrugged. “Shadow magic's some pretty volatile stuff. Combine it with the power of my undulating evilness, and you've got yourself a recipe for disaster.” Pxl sat criss-cross in Ella's hand, fiddling with her visor.

Paige wasn’t satisfied, “No but really how did you do it?”

“I. Don't. Remember. Okay? Can we just move on?”

“I DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! I’M THE ONE WHO’S FR!CK!NG EYE SPL!T OPEN!” Paige says a little too loud.

“I have to agree with Paige on this one,” Ella says, picking up Pxl and bringing her over to Paige's nightstand. “She deserves to know what happened to her.”

Ara sat in a corner, willing herself not to turn into a cat and fiddle around nervously with elements, because in cat form she had the insurmountable urge to pounce on the tiny Pxl.
“Guys…” she wasn’t sure, she felt bad for all parties, “I don’t know. I think Pxl really can’t think of it right now. It might take a while, there sounds like a lot of variables.”
She started pacing.
“Paige, what makes your hair turn purple when you do magic? Did it happen before the incident?”

“Only once, then Martha yelled at me.” Paige says flipping through memories.

“Paige, I know you have literally zero reason to trust me, but I seriously can't remember what happened. Any time I try to think of it, I start melting a bit. See?” She held up her hand. The pinky finger was gone.

“Your life is perfect compared to mine. You are never wondering if your gonna l!v3 another day. The reason I never break down is because if I show the slightest bit of fear, insecurity, or weakness it’s game over. But you don’t get it! Nobody gets it…” Paige had no friends anymore, only enemies. She started crying, horrible, ugIy, sobs. She watches the others stare but she does nothing about it. She would normally p#n(h the nearest person, but that isn't the case here.

Ella walked over to Paige and wrapper her arms around her. “I'm so sorry.” she says, over and over again. After a few minutes, she picks up Pxl and says, “I really would like to hug you, but I don't want to hurt you.”

Paige fake yawns, “I’m kinda tired, could you guys leave so I can get some rest?”

“Uh- sure,” Ella says, unsure whether she should leave Paige alone. Pxl hops onto her hand, and she leads the others out the door. “Just let me know if you need anything.” Ella says over her shoulder, as they file out.

Paige waits a few minutes. She slips on her cargo pants, black shirt, boots, and windbreaker. She lowers herself down to the ground and runs. She dodges cars, people, dogs, and even one crazy mail truck.

Pxl had crawled under the doorframe, hoping to talk strategy with Paige. It had been a few hours, so she should be well rested by now. Actually, as pxl found out, she was gone. She ran back to where the others were chatting in the hallway. She poked Ella in the leg until she picked her up, so they could actually hear Pxl. “I think we have a problem,” she said. “Paige is gone.”

Paige ran by the docks, the mist from the ocean touching her skin. She hopes to get lost in the crowd of people. The hustle and bustle of the preparations being made at Adventure made her perfectly blend in. She spotted Alyelle chatting with her co’s and her friend Phoenix (@purple_crewmate), not the bagel one, she has two friends named Phoenix. Paige stops for a breath. Panting, she starts walking. She walks over to a small stand a buys a water. She can't help but start st@|k!ng Phoenix from a nearby bench.

“Oh no!” Ella exclaimed, jumping up from the cold, hard, chairs in the waiting room. “What should we do? Should we try to find her? Or should we let her have some time? I know all of, well, all of the recent events have taken a toll on her.”

Meanwhile, Zura and Birdi walk by Paige. Zura and Birdi each ring a bell while repeating the same phrase but with a different cabin. Zura says, “Join Fairy Tales!” While Birdi says, “Join Contemporary!” Paige frowns, /everyone else has real, true friends, besides me/. When Zura comes up to her, Paige replies with the truth, “Sorry, I already signed up for dystopian back on Tuesday.”

“Hmm” Ella said, unsure of the next move. “I guess with my experience with Paige, she want's us, no, need's us. Whether she'll admit it or not. Quite frankly, I need y'all too.” Ella paused a moment, looking around the room.

“So, I think I'm gonna try to track her again, just like the good old days, back when we were running around the forest.” Ella slips her phone out of her hoodie, and pulls up the tracking app. “Looks like she's down by the boardwalk. I wonder why she went there.” she pondered with worry for a moment, then turned her attention back to the group. “Um- should I go by myself? Does any one want to come with me? Someone should stay behind, just in case she comes back.”

Paige stands back up. She gets back into a light run, she doesn’t know where the heck she is going but anywhere is better than no where. She plans to run all the way to Dystopian, that may be hard though because Dystopian is in the middle of the desert, at least she has some extra water.

Ara stands up.
“She’s going to Dystopian.” She starts to the door.
“That’s where she thinks she belongs, where she thinks she needs right now.”



“You're right. It's her safe place. Where she's originally from. And, she never stops talking about it. I should have known.” Ella says, looking down at her phone. “Now, it looks like she's heading in that direction.” she paused thoughtfully for a second. “Wait, isn't Dystopian in the middle of nowhere? Like, in a desert or something? How is Paige going to get there? How are we going to get there? Who's all going with me? Why can I not stop talking when I get nervous around you guys. Sorry for all the questions.” she quickly apologizes, suddenly self-conscious of her talking habits.

Ara wanted to sing “Talk less; smile more!” From Hamilton to tease, but she decided against it.
“You’re right. Does anyone know what supplies she had with her?”

Paige mumbled a Hamilton lyric to herself, it was from the song ‘Non-stop’ which kinda summed her up. Hamilton was relentless, much like Paige. They didn't always make the best choices, and they always did it their way.

“Her backpack, I think, she has with her,” Ella says, “Which has some snacks and supplies. And probably water. Can anyone drive? I can in a year, but I'm not super great at it yet.”

Ara cringed just thinking of turning 16. “Yeah, I think you’re our best bet. Unless cats are somehow better at driving; I’ve never tried.” She swapped into earth cat form and dug some linoleum out of the floor with her mind, shaping it into a bottle. Her fur rustled as if she was in a breeze and turned grey-blue, and she filled it. /If only plastic was an element,/ she thought, as she expanded again.

Paige pulls out her compass, she sighs, remembering the first day. She takes out her other phone and plants it on a truck going to dystopian. She then gets out a necklace and teleports to outside Pxl's village.

About halfway there, Paige's real phone rings. Caller ID: ‘Mazie da older sister’. Paige picks up, “Hello?” She was not expecting Mazie's response, “Happy bday!” Paige sighs, her family was never big on celebrating because how their ages switched.

Pxl cleared her throat. “Uhm. I can't drive, per se, but I CAN get you there pretty fast. I think.” She frowned. “I might dissolve into nothingness on the way but…” She shrugged. “Anyway, I'd basically turn you all into shadows, drag you along through the shadows really fast, then, uh, un-shadow you? I'm still not sure how this all works. ANyway, shadows move REALLY quickly, so it's better than driving. Plus, you'll probably only throw up a little bit!”

Paige sees the line of houses along the horizon. She puts away the blue object back in her pocket. She feels a small bit of regret, after all she st0l3 that object from Pxl. Well it's more she found it in the pocket of her old sweatshirt.

Pxl lit up. “Or- and this would be far less painful- I could open a portal with my m4chete! Can someone go grab it? I'm afraid it didn't shrink down to my size.” The room was silent. “I'll get it myself, I guess, but I'll need help carrying it.” She walked into Paige's room, sliding under the door,since she had left her w3apon in there.
Wait.
Pxl had left her weapon. In a room. With PAIGE. She ran across the floor, thinking /Please be here, Machie. Please./ Yes, Pxl had named her m4chete. Yes, it was weird.
And yes, it was gone. “Guys?” Pxl called. “We have a problem. Even worse, I can't solve it using luck, money, or f1ghting.”

Paige enters the village. It was bustling with life, a contrast to where she usually hangs out in. She pulls up her hood, hoping to attract minimum eyes. She heads to the most familiar building here, the one which she, Cheese, and Pxl held base down in. The inn. She got her room keys and headed upstairs, but not before she got a good staring. When she made it into her room she started to wonder about June, she was mentioned in passing but nothing more than that. In the end Paige's curiosity got the better of her and she pulled out a small device. She set it up on the desk, a screen pops up. The last time she did this she was showing Eliza what she would have done if she didn't run off to be a queen. Paige puts on VR goggles and flips a switch on the small device. An almost video thing plays across the VR goggles.

/If June hadn't died…/ The goggles were taking a while to load. Finally, a scene. 5 people were cheering loudly through the streets of a ramshackle village, holding large burlap bags. They dumped these bags in the town square, revealing gold coins. Children rushed to meet the spectacle with glee, and adults did the same with a frantic urgency. Paige could tell by their clothes and muddy faces that this town wasn't used to such a haul. A girl grinned ear to ear, using one hand to braid her hand behind her. “We did it!” she exclaimed. She had a bit of an accent. Maybe Spanish? “We finally did it! They'll never forget our names. We're already practically famous!” Paige could tell this was June. A sort of center of gravity, the kind of person that everyone revolved around. Another girl snorted, a big girl with auburn hair and a splattering of freckles. “We aren't done yet. We still need to, y'know, ACTUALLY k!ll the dragon.” She was twirling her hair. “Leave June alone, Mina,” said a tall and lanky boy. “Well, you're only defending her because she's your girlfriend,” she grumbled. “You two, shut it.” said Pxl. “We can fight later. Right now, we're going to spend a WHOLE lot of money.” Pxl looked different. Her magenta hair was long and in a ponytail. A forest-green cloak replaced her hoodie. Most noticeable of all, her eyes were bright blue, without a drop of purple in sight.

Back in the present, Paige was breathing 100mph. She took out one of her *many* notebooks from her bag and wrote down everything she saw. Some of the dots were not connected, like, how did June d!3? Pxl said something happened to her, her eyes used to be well, green, like her right one, but greener (since Paige's were green, blue, and gray). Paige didn't understand, she, as usual, was left with more questions than answers. She put everything away, ducked under the covers and fell asleep.


She wakes up to the sound of her little sister calling her, “Roze, what do you want?” Roze sniffs the cleaning supplies in the janitors closet, “I NEED TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!” Paige huffs, “Pxl's town, teleport to this location.” Paige sends a location. Roze teleports there as Paige runs to the location. Right outside of the t@v3rn. Roze and Paige walk in, Paige explaining everything through sibling telepathy. /So basically that big group is The Scalers, Pxl was a part of that group. Emphasis on ‘was’. I have to talk to them to get an onyx from a dragon's hoard.. I may need your help since it's obvious I'm not good at long distance comb@t./ Roze nods as they walk in and sit down. After a few minutes, Aree walks in, /LOOK AWAY!/ Paige did not want to get recognized today. Once Aree was out of sight Paige walks of to the Scalers' table, “H-hello.” Her voice was shaky, but she saw a face from the viewing (that's what she calls the thing with the VR goggles.), Mina. “I- I need your help…For a friend. I know when people say that they usually are lying but I swear I'm not. My friend- well, I wouldn't really call her a friend, is the size of my palm right now and the only way to get her back to her normal height is to make a surem with- hold on.” Paige opens her bag and a whole load of notebooks fall out. She quickly picks them up and opens one. “Uh- squid ink, a wild purple mushroom and uh- an onyx from a dragon's hoard…” She bites her lip.

“Wow, didn't know our resident shadow had lackeys now,” Mina laughed. “But really, I'm not gonna do that. You know how many times that.. girl has sauntered over and reminded us about that stupid legend?” Paige could tell that Mina wanted to use a far meaner word than ‘girl’ to describe Pxl. “Too many times. I wouldn't care if she were as big as a fly, because she probably deserves to STAY that way.” She took a long drink from a wooden mug. “Why would you want to work for Ave anyway? She's a mvrderer.”

Paige fiddled with the lime green vial on her necklace, the other vials contain things like, the phony crown, corn, rose petals, yellow fabric, a piece of wood, a piece of salami, etc. “I owe her, ish. What I meant by ‘I wouldn’t call her a friend' is that she and I were friends, until one day I wanted to be free, I wanted to be alone. She 1v1ed me and she made me spill my deepest secret. She became a temporary villain in my life, she l13d to the others, framed me. A few other things happened, and here we are.” Paige said the whole thing with a bit more confidence. She learned in training how to explain something but giving away minuimim information. Her thoughts flip to Aree “If you see another girl, around 22 come in and ask you something similar, let her do it. I would like to see her fail for once.” She waited for their reaction as she takes out the m4chete she st0le from Pxl/Ave.

“You don't owe her anything. She's the reason June is d3ad, okay? The Scalers' number one rule used to be ‘stick together like family or glue.’ Now, our rule is ‘don’t give stuff to people who don't deserve it.' Ave is the reason for all of this.” Mina took another drink from the wooden mug. “We were all out hvnting down an Icewing dragon, one of the rarest kinds out there. She was our lookout, a 10-foot-3 giant who still managed to be the stealthiest of us all. What happened next is… It's baloney. My uncle doesn't love it when I curse, so I'll just leave it at that. Ave starts trying to talk to this dragon, and I'm assuming she's calming it down so it's easier to k!ll. Good strategy. June had this double-bladed 4x3 thing.. Yeah. But Ave didn't like that. Two of them got in a fight, ‘cause apparently Ave has morals now or something. At least, she was good at acting. She started melting a bit, all that weird shadowy stuff swirling around her. Then..” Mina waved her hand, and Paige noticed her pinkie finger was missing. “It’s like Ave impl0ded on herself. This finger of mine melted into shadow- even though that should've been completely impossible for a human. And June… She was dissipated into a cloud of black mist, and that was the last we saw of her. Ave, too. She just ran. It wasn't until later we noticed some things. First, she was no longer 10-foot-three. She was 5 feet exactly. Even worse..” Mina gulped. “Both of her eyes were purple from end to end. So, yeah. Don't even think about helping that witch. Because I know better than ANYONE that she's gonna be out for bl00d.”

Paige uses her sleeve to wipe up her right eye and she pulls off her hood. “That- what you just described, happened again. Well it was actually at a camp with genre based factions- but that's not relevant. Basically everything is in this notebook.” Paige opens the one that she was carrying. “Since everyone knows, I mine as well tell you, I'm an ex time traveler. Pxl- well Ave, caused my eye and hair to be like this. I am now learning now that I shouldn't have fought for her. That is why she is a midget, as Peggy Schuyler, my only friend, would say. She could have been gone by now!” Paige pounded on the table. She had to bend down to do that because she's 5'10“, oddly tall for a 14 year old girl. ”I am so stup!d. I should have seen the signs!“

”Don't worry, kid,“ Mina said. ”She had us all fooled. I mean, for a while she really did seem good.“ They both ate some muffins in silence for a while, unsure of what to do. Mina was thinking. She laughed. ”So, Ave's about the size of my mug now, huh? Serves her right! Ha, never thought I'd see the day. And she goes by Pxl now.“ She exhaled. ”She always was a fan of strange nicknames. She had this one friend who lived in Dallas, right? She nicknamed her Salad.“ She laughed, and Paige did too. ”I think I have a secret,“ Mina said. ”I kind of miss A- I mean, Pxl. I was mean to her, and for a bit I felt bad about that. Until… You know.“ She drained her mug and slammed it down on the table. ”I bet I could flip this mug upside down and use it to trap Pxl. Imagine that! The all-powerful Pxl, trapped in a root b33r mug.“

Paige had a generally low voice for a female but when she laughs it goes up like five octaves. She sat down, having to empty her back pockets to do so. She puts her kn!f3 and Pxl's m4chete in her bag. ”Yknow I know what would have happened if June didn't d!3.“ Paige flipped to a page in her notebook with a drawing of the scene. ”One of the perks of still having my time traveling equipment.“ Paige flipped through a few pages of her notebook.

Mina slammed it shut on Paige's hand. ”Don't wanna know what happened,“ she explained. ”If there was a better reality out there, then I don't want to get all sad because I can't have it. I just need to suck it up and accept the fact that life is kind of trash right now. It's fine. So please,“ she said, ”Don't make it harder for me to accept this world. It's the only world I've got.“

Paige puts her notebook away ”Sorry, force of habit- I'm used to hanging around people who constantly make bad choices. Such as Eliza or Pxl.“ She said the last part under her breath. ”I am just used to having to show people what better they could have done…“ They sit in silence, ”Why do you give off the vibe that you h@t3 me? I mean like I don't blame you, everybody in the world must h@t3 Paige Ellen Turner“ Paige's curiosity was getting the better of her…again.

”Relax, kid. I hate everyone.“ Mina tugged at a lock of hair. ”You'd better be a good kid. I sure as.. heck.. wasn't. I don't think anyone in the Scalers had been good.“ She asked a nearby server for a rootb33r refill. ”Thing is, us Scalers have taken in a new kid. Bailey. They're such a nice person.”

“I’m not a kid, well I may be only 14 in this time but I’m 19 in 1805! I’ve seen things most people wouldn’t see in their whole life. I have the power to bring back June!” The words just slid out Paige regretted the last sentence immediately.

“…We'll talk about that later. And sorry, but you're a kid.” She laughed. “I don't look it, but I'm about 37 years old. That Pxl friend of yours probably didn't tell you her age, huh?” She laughed.

●●●●●●●●●●●
TBC…
●●●●●●●●●●●

Thanks, Paige! <333 I'll miss doing this mostly every day!

I'll miss you every day </3

That's so sweet qwq
But because I'm not updating it, I miss out on the updates. Going to read a couple of paragraphs that I missed rn. XD

XD night! If your still on tomorrow I’ll find out if i am a leader so I’m so scared lol

I like the description grammar police for @AmazaEevee

Yeah Eevee once yelled at me for not using proper grammar, and I was on my iPad

YEAH, I DID. I am the self-proclaimed grammar police of horror. UvU Also if you're talking about grammar after the ‘Yeah’ there should be a comma and the other comma should be deleted. UvU UvU UvU

We ran out of characters on the first post, I’ll make this one pretty later


“Age is just a number, that’s what my parents say, well said…We didn’t celebrate our birthdays, mostly because of how our ages switch when we travel. Yesterday was mine, I got little more than a call from my older sister. She’s 21 in this time…” Paige turned sour when she brought up her family. One of her other secrets; Her parents are d3@d and her adopted parents are distant. Her real last name is ‘Harris’ but she started using ‘Turner’ right after her parents d!3d. She wanted to forget about them ASAP. She whispers a word under her breath, “Hyperloop…” That’s how her parents d!3d. A hyperloop cr4sh. “Info is valuable to me, I’ll take any piece I can, big or small. Anything I can use against her.” Paige fell silent for a bit, “Y’know all of my ‘friends’,” Paige uses air quotes, “Are legal adults. Sure in the time my only real friend is in I’m 19 but that’s not relevant.”

“Bold for you to shut me out that quick.” Juniper says from the entrance.

Paige takes out her kn!f3, “Juniper. Get. Out. Of. Here.” She turns to Mina, “That’s my ex partner, Juniper Lewis, 15 years old, musical obsessed, and another person who wants me d3@d.”

“I want you d3@d because your a tr8er. You were the youngest person ever to be first in The Rankings. You were a machine. You could grind out one case in less than a week! But then you got a hard case and gave up! I H@T3 YOU!” Juniper’s brown and green hair was up in space buns so you could clearly see her eyes. They were full of rage.

‘I H@T3 YOU!’ That’s what Paige told Pxl/Ave when she interrogated Paige. That’s when Pxl compared Paige to June.

Mina stood, grabbing something from a worn satchel. An 4xe. “I don't know who the heck you are, but this tav3rn is a safe spot. And I'm not gonna let a bunch of kids run around trying to k!ll each other in a safe spot!” She was breathing heavily. “I'm not gonna let you hurt Paige anywhere you go.”

Paige slipped out a cube. She double tapped it and it turned into an electric powered bow. She aimed at Juniper and slowly moved towards her until Junior was finally out the door. Paige double tapped her bow and it turned back into a cube, “Chances are she’s gonna report that to Marie, I really don’t care cause I’m already fired.” Paige opened her duffle bag to put her cube back, she saw a light flashing, “The IAOTT is tracking me, dang it!” She knew that Mina would most likely ask what the IAOTT is but Paige didn’t want to explain.

Mina actually had a vague idea of what the IAOTT was. “Those guys? You WORK for them?!”

“Used to,” Paige corrected.

“Right. I'm kinda glad you got out of there. I've heard stories about other kids there and it's.. not a pretty picture.” Mina checked the rusted clock on the wall. “I have to go now. Be careful out there, alright?” She walked away, disappearing into the night like she was nothing but a dream.

ELSEWHERE…

“So, did your tracker-magic whatever work? Where's Paige?” Pxl asked.

Ara cleared her throat.
“Well… how much time is it going to take to use a portal?” She tried to do some math in her head, but failed. “I can go about fifty miles an hour with wind power, and I go as the crow flies. But there’s the small chance I’ll run out of energy from holding up both of us,” she gestured to her and Ella, because Pxl didn’t really count in weight, “and then we’ll be stranded in the desert on the way to Dystopian. So… what do you guys think?”

heheheh maybe eevee and I should have a grammar contest

I’m actually a grammar control freak irl

lol