Dixie had been fazing in and out of reality. He didn't know how many times... but if didn't feel long. But it did feel long. Was this what time really felt like? When you're too tired to keep conscious?

America had finally caught him at a time he was partially awake. He had heard it before... but he was too tired to respond.

Dixie?

The battle flag heard the distant echo of his brothers voice.

America...

Dixie. What-

I can't focus...

Oh how his head throbbed! It was a loud, obnoxious beat that made it hard to understand anything.

Dixie what happened? Dixie?

He can touch me-

How?

I don't know. But he can and he needs my blood America. It makes him manifest or somethin'.

Where are you?

Dixie could hear the pain in his brothers thoughts. It's only done it twice but...

Dixie where are you? What has it done?

In some sort of abandoned basement or something. Its dark and smells bad. Another pulse of pain thudded through his head... he wanted to fall asleep...

We will find you alright? Dixie are you there?

Dixie's mind was so fogged. He collapsed yet again against the cool stone wall.

∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆¶∆

America shot out of the chair he had been sitting in and rushed up the stairs. He burst into New Mexico's and Arizona's room.

"What's it dad?" Arizona asked turning to look at his father.

"Dixie's asleep." America approached where New Mexico was sitting on the ground, cross legged.

New Mexico stood up and walked past Oklahoma. "I'll do my thing. And this was just?"

America nodded.

"Alright. It might take a bit then."

"Thank you." Before New Mexico or any of the others could respond, he hurried past them and back into the hall.

Finding Dixie seemed to be nearly impossible. A large chunk of states had been combing through local news stories and such to see if they could find any of the irregular. There seemed to be nothing. But this communication gave them a new treasure trove of information.

He sat back down on his chair and grabbed the note pad and pen that was resting next to it.

America scribbled in his messy handwriting:

- thing can touch Dixie

- thing needs Dixie's blood to become corporeal

- thing is keeping Dixie in an abandoned possibility smelly place

America stopped and tapped the pen on the side of the notepad. He wrote down a new heading:

- how can the shadow touch Dixie?

- how does Dixie's blood make it corporeal?

America let out a soft growl and chewed on the end of the pen. At least they knew along the lines of why it took the battle flag.

"Hey Dad!"

The call from the dinning room table caught America's attention. He stood up for the billionth time that day and walked into the hall.

The table was filled with tablets and phones and computers, but the states were gathered around Arkansas who had puffed his chest out proudly.

"What is it Arkie?" America came over to see what the state was silently bragging about.

The state handed the country the tablet and America read aloud:

America looked at Arkansas with confusion. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"No not that." Arkansas scrolled down to a picture. "Take a look at this."

The picture was taken in front of your local fast food place, but who was in the picture caught America's eye.

The picture had caught a rather normal looking human shaking hands with what another human would see as, well, another human. Except it wasn't another normal human. There the shadow stood, looking a bit confused while shaking the hand of the clueless human on the left.

"When and where was this taken?"

"It was just published a few minutes ago."

"Well good we can narrow things down finally." America sat next to Arkansas.

They looked for more out of the ordinary articles, but there were none to be found.

"Well its better than nothing." America pulled up the article again and pulled up Google maps. He searched the location.

It was a little town. And it wasn't too far away. America had a good feeling about this. "Good job Arkansas."

The state grinned.

"Hey Dad!"

America's head snapped towards the stairs. Arizona gestured him over. "New Mexico's got 'em!"

America stood up yet again. "We're looking for an abandoned place or something. Do your best while I'm gone." He turned and made it to the stairs as Arizona zoomed back into his and New Mexico's shared room.

The county came into the room and stood next to Arizona. New Mexico was laying down on his bed on the bottom bunk. He looked asleep.

"So what now?" America said, looking down at the Grand Canyon state.

Arizona dragged over a chair that had been sitting under the desk and put it next to New Mexico's bed. "Sit here."

America sat.

Arizona then grabber New Mexico's limp arm and held it out to America. The country gave him a weird look.

"I know its a bit weird." The state shrugged. "But hold his hand."

Slowly, America took New Mexico's hand. The effect was instantaneous. A weird feeling of lightheaded drowsiness came over him.

"Weird right?" Arizona sounded fat away.

"Now what?" America blinked, trying to stay awake.

"Just fall asleep." America felt his eyes begin to close. "New Mexico will connect you two and you can speak to each other." Arizona's voice was fading away. And then he woke up.

Well, it felt like jumping awake. But everything was different. He seemed to be suspended in the air. There was no ground in sight. He was just hovering. There were strange little strands of what looked like glowing pieces of hair drifting around, too.

There was no color to where he was either. Either that or he couldn't decide on a color to think of. It was weird. Really, really weird.

"Hey Padre."

America turned towards the sound. New Mexico was there, floating over to him. "Cool, isn't it?"

"Ya... cool." America looked over his shoulder. "Where are we?"

The state of enchantment shrugged. "Its a world between minds sort of. Not really sure."

"Oh." America rubbed the back of his neck. "You spend a lot of time here?"

He just shrugged again. "I'll tell you about it later. We need to find Dixie's strand."

"Dixie's... strand?"

New Mexico turned away from him. "That's what I call them. They're all these wiggly things."

"Oh." America said again, feeling stupid. "What do I look for? They all look the same."

New Mexico turned back around and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a strand. "This one is yours." He held it up for America to look at. "Touching me while I use my power makes you sleepy, but this is really what my ability circles around. This is how I can talk to people when they're asleep." He put it back in his pocket. "And it's sort of a 'you know when you see it' thing."

So they drifted around, poking through strands. They all looked the same to America. But then he found one.

It looked like all the others, but for some reason it caught his eye. "Hey New Mexico? Is that his it?"

The state drifted over and gave the strand a look. "I believe so. Lets see." He reached out and touched it.

America felt a shockwave roll through his body, and suddenly he felt another presence. He turned around and found Dixie floating there beside him, looking a bit confused.

"Woah." The battle flag blinked. "That's a rush ain't it?"

Dixie's clothes were in tatters, and he was an awful pale color. Numerous cuts were scabbing and already starting to heal on his face, arms, and even on his waist. His wrists were in bad shape too.

America drifted over to him. "Long time no see."

"Can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm glad to see your face." Dixie snorted.

The country chuckled. "Still haven't lost your sense of humor I see."

"Sorry to interrupt the reunion." New Mexico cut in. "But it would be great if Dixie could tell us what happened."

"The kids right." Dixie folded his arms. "So turns out, I'm a historical artifact..."