Alejandro sat in front of a mirror combing out his hair, which he had maintained at just past ear-length, with Ryuk floating along in the background, munching an apple from the fruit basket.
Putting on a black dress shirt while leaving the top two buttons undone, a dark blue jeans pants and a black belt with a silver bull buckle which he got replaced after a certain volcano incident and black lace-up boots, he examined himself, apparently pleased with what he saw.
"Those doctors certainly did their jobs well. My scars aren't nearly as visible as they were months ago. Of course, I only accept the best." He grinned, showing off perfect, pearly white teeth.
"Now, I believe it's time to head down to Toronto for a certain television reunion, isn't it?" He reached for his newly replaced bull pendant and fastened it around his neck, before grabbing his luggage and coat and heading downstairs.
A few hours later, he stood outside the hotel that would be hosting the Total Drama Reunion in Toronto, smirking.
"I usually hate reunions, Ryuk. With the passion of a thousand burning suns. Boring, irritating people… Well, that might be the case here, but I'm going to make it more fun. For me, that is…"
He and Ryuk chuckled as they entered the building.
The former Total Drama contestants, both the old and the new, were all mingling together in the ballroom hired out for that purpose when Alejandro came down.
Most of the older former contestants and a few of the newer former contestants looked at him with varying negative expressions while the others were indifferent.
"Hm. Nice place for a party…" Ryuk commented, floating behind him.
"Define nice…" Alejandro grumbled.
A few more ex-contestants entered the room and as the lights dimmed, people gathered around different tables.
Alejandro, of course was the only one sitting at his table- if one didn't count the Shinigami perched on the back of his chair, that is.
He glanced around and saw that even Heather had a few people sitting with her. She looked him right in the eyes with an expression of pure loathing.
"We'll see about that, ángel. I'll wipe that expression off your face and replace it with one of fear soon enough…" He thought.
He looked around some more and saw that Courtney was also by herself. She waved at him and he waved back. Who knows? Maybe he might be able to trust her with his knowledge someday. She'd certainly be easy for him to manipulate…
"Hey guys! Welcome to the Total Drama Reunion. Missed me?" Chris strode out in an expensive looking suit even though the invitations to the reunion had stated that it was only a semi-formal event.
"NO!" They all called out in unison.
"Too bad, because you're going to have to spend the next two weeks with me!" Chris laughed.
They all groaned.
"Now, on your tables are programmes with activities available to you this week and some reunion activities which are compulsory…"
"Didn't know he knew such a large word…" Alejandro thought.
"And some that you don't have to be a part of. Which is lame." Chris continued. "And all of you have received tickets to invite a guest of your choice. Some of you brought guests and some… didn't have anyone who wanted to come so they might have had to bribe them. HA!" Chris laughed as a few of the former contestants started sulking.
"They'll be brought here tomorrow and will join you in the compulsory activities. I hope they like you after that! Hehehehehehe…" Chris chuckled and rubbed his hands together in glee as the former contestants groaned.
"Now, why don't you run along and enjoy this place while you can, huh?" The host waved them off.
The next day, the former contestants gathered in the lobby, awaiting the vehicles bringing their guests to the hotel.
"Hello there, Alejandro…"
He turned around to see Courtney there, dressed in an olive green knee-length off-shoulder dress with matching heels and black leggings.
"Oh. Her…" Alejandro thought, rolling his eyes, but Courtney failed to notice this reaction.
"It's been a little while. How are things with you?" He asked politely, though he really didn't care.
"Okay, I suppose. After I went back to school, people there started to turn their back on me, but what do they know? I'll be going to Dalhousie this year anyway and half of them will probably be stuck working in a low-end job in Tim Horton's…" Courtney got a crazed look in her eye for a moment.
"So how about you?"
Alejandro was saved from answering when Chris entered the room.
"Okay guys. The vehicles are almost here with your guests. The interns will let you know when it's your turn to go out and bring in your guest for the cameras. Remember: smile and look pretty! Or handsome as the case might be…" Chris chuckled.
The interns started reading off names and the mentioned contestants went outside and brought in each of their guests.
Alejandro noticed that Courtney brought in a woman who looked to be around her late twenties and Heather brought in a girl who could only be her sister.
Even Gwen and Duncan brought in guests, who were supposedly their younger and older brothers respectively.
When it was Alejandro's turn to go out, the black jeep opened its doors to reveal a stunning looking Carmen.
Her wavy, black hair fell to her shoulders and her dark gold sleeveless high-collared halter top complimented her hazel eyes and hugged her frame perfectly as did the black skinny jeans she wore with black stiletto ankle boots.
"Why hello there, my beautiful special guest. Ready to go join the party in Canada?" Alejandro asked as he took her hand.
"Is this going to be a Kira-themed party?" Carmen smiled.
"You'll see…" Alejandro chuckled and so did Ryuk.
"Okay guys and gals! Now that you've all assembled, it's time for a nice game of Reveal All Your Secrets!" Chris grinned.
They all (former contestants and guests alike) groaned.
"And this is one of the compulsory activities!" He grinned an even larger grin.
The former contestants groaned even more.
"And your guests have to be a part of it too!"
The guests groaned the loudest this time.
"I don't suppose you can Kira his ass right now, can you?" Carmen whispered.
"Nope. But he's at the top of my list right now…" Alejandro whispered back.
"First up, we have Dawn and her guest, some random hippie friend from her school's nature club!"
Dawn and the friend glared at him.
"That would be my boyfriend Marco, you dimwit." she said, her usual dreamy voice gaining an edge as she retorted.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody cares, Dawn." Chris waved them off.
"Here's how it's gonna work. I'm gonna ask you guys a series of potentially embarrassing or incriminating questions. Each question you answer truthfully gets you a point. Each question you don't answer truthfully... Hehehehehe..." Chris chuckled mischievously.
Most of the contestants and their guests looked worried, but Alejandro and Carmen seemed unbothered by it.
"If I ask Person A and they don't or won't answer, Person B can instead though. And the pair with the most points gets a sweet prize. A luxury trip to Japan, all paid for by the production company!" Chris exclaimed, beginning to show pictures on a projector behind him.
"I've been to Japan already. It's nice enough." Alejandro shrugged.
"I haven't. I've never left Europe. I have been to Portugal, England, France and Italy, which are all amazing places true, but never Japan. I'd love to see it someday." Carmen said quietly, a dreamy smile on her face.
"I've been to a lot more places than that. All of them have their ups and downs." Alejandro shrugged.
"I really wish I could go..." Carmen said wistfully.
"Then I will try my best to help us both win this challenge." Alejandro held her hand.
"Aww... Aren't you two sweet?" Ryuk said mockingly, from where he hovered behind the pair.
Alejandro simply glared at him.
As the various pairs of contestants competed, they all learned interesting secrets about one another.
Dawn once streaked naked through her high school as a form of protest and got suspended for it; Izzy was crazier than anyone ever knew, Noah actually had a bit of a wild streak and Heather actually used to be a fat, ugly, pathetic little girl.
Alejandro smiled to himself. She was even more pathetic than he was.
Not that he was ever pathetic...
Ever.
"Okay! That was all very amusing! Last and not least, is everyone's favourite manipulator, Alejandro and his guest, the lovely..." Chris looked at Carmen in a way that made her shudder and Alejandro glared at the host, but he shrugged it off. "...the lovely Carmen. Step up here you two!"
Alejandro and Carmen got up hesitantly from their seats and went up on the stage, both of them receiving looks on the way.
Many of the looks directed at her were curious as most didn't know how she and Alejandro came to meet, but most of the looks directed at him, on the other hand... were filled with loathing, Heather's most notably.
They sat in the red plush chairs on the stage what had several wires connected to them and looked at one another uneasily.
Ryuk sat on the back of Alejandro's vacated chair and grinned eagerly.
"Old bastard..." Alejandro thought crabbily. "Him and Chris..."
"Okay you two! Let's begin! What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever had happen to you, Alejandro?" Chris asked.
"Being on this show for certain." Alejandro asked quickly.
Chris seemed almost disappointed that the chair didn't shock him. "Which he probably was, the sadist..." Alejandro thought.
"Carmen, Alejandro's pretty lady friend!" Chris looked at her leeringly.
"That face... reminds me of how Raul used to look at me..." Carmen thought with a shudder.
"Keep on creeping her out like that and I'll pencil in an even more painful death than the one I originally had planned for you- and sooner too..." he thought angrily.
"...what's the most embarrassing thing you've ever had happen to you?" the host grinned.
"I fell on stage in front of hundreds of people at a concert back home once. And most of the people there laughed at my pain and embarrassment..." Carmen winced at the memory.
"You can sing?" Alejandro raised an eyebrow at her, covering the mike on his shirt so no one else could hear.
"I can indeed. Show me how you do what you do and I'll sing for you sometime." Carmen smiled flirtatiously, covering her microphone as well.
"In time, quierida. In time..." Alejandro smiled back.
Carmen nodded.
"Alright! Let's get into the more embarrassing and revealing questions!" Chris went through several, most of which the two of them managed to answer between them, others, they point blank refused to answer.
Receiving several unpleasant shocks in the process.
"Perhaps his death will involve electric shocks." Alejandro muttered darkly
"Okay! Last question! What's the worst thing you've ever done?" Chris asked.
Alejandro looked at Carmen and she nodded, understanding that him answering the question truthfully would spell trouble- and not answering at all would result in another unpleasant shock.
"I will answer this one. I have once wished someone dead. A very, very unpleasant person in my life. He actually is dead now and I find myself not caring." Carmen said, putting on a neutral face.
"Ooh! Cold!" Chris exclaimed and some of the former contestants and their guests looked as if they felt the same way.
"I just can't help it. He was a despicable human being." Carmen's Spanish accent got slightly thicker as she spoke, as it tended to do when she was unhappy about something, Alejandro noticed.
"Okay then. Enough of that. Chef here will tally up the points..." Chris gestured to the oversized hulk of a man that helped Chris torture them all.
"...and we'll see the winner!" Chris exclaimed.
Chef pressed a button and a screen descended from behind him.
"And the winner is... Courtney and Ana!"
"Yes!" Courtney pumped a fist into the air.
Carmen pouted.
"You are cute when you pout. But no worries. I am rich, remember? I can pay for a trip to Japan all on my own." Alejandro smiled at her.
"¿En serio? ¿Es usted realmente quiere decir eso?" Carmen was so excited she forgot to speak English for a moment.
Alejandro chuckled at her excitement. "Really. I can interpret for you and everything. My father used to be a diplomat in Japan so I had to learn the language while there with my family..."
Carmen looked at him with an expression akin to someone finding out they won the lottery.
"I could kiss you right now." Carmen admitted.
"And I would welcome that, but not right now." Alejandro smiled back at her, but eyed the Shinigami leering in the background.
"Let's go for a walk, shall we?" he held her hand as they stood up from their table and left the room.
Later on, all the contestants and their guests had gathered together for a buffet-style dinner.
There was only one long table with several chairs around it and Chris sat at one end while Chef sat at another.
"Food from all around the world is here! Better than any of the stuff we ate in World Tour for sure..." Alejandro said.
"Hate to say it, but I agree with you on that one, Al." Noah said as he walked past him to reach for a scoop of rice and peas.
Alejandro twitched and Carmen giggled at his reaction.
"Look at it! Not only is there food from Canada and back home, but lots of other places as well! I will get so fat by the time we leave here..." Carmen moaned as she took a little bit of everything she could.
"Fat or thin, you will always look gorgeous." Alejandro said smoothly as he helped himself to some stew.
"Why do you not have a girlfriend?!" Carmen demanded.
"Yeah, Al. Why don't you? Even the last Kira had a girlfriend. He didn't really like her all that much, but she was still a girlfriend." Ryuk grinned. "Pretty too. Annoying, but pretty. For a human..." the rogue Shiniami snickered.
"I have not had much time for dating since the volcano incident in World Tour. Being sealed away in a robot and then afterwards, having to be broken out of the thing and spending several months in hospital... That sort of thing will put a damper on your dating life..." Alejandro answered.
"The fact that you suck would also have something to do with it..." Duncan said snidely as he walked past.
"I hate them all..." Alejandro grumbled. "I really do..."
"They hate you so much for doing what you did, but many of them played some nasty tricks too. Duncan is no innocent and let's not even talk about that witch, Heather." Carmen growled as she glared at Heather, who was on the other side of the buffet, who glared right back.
"Witch is not a foul enough name to address her by." Alejandro said, giving Heather the side-eye.
"Oh, I quite agree. I can think of a lot of names to call her, but I do not think she would like them." Carmen's glare was steady as she moved to put her free arm around Alejandro's free arm.
Heather practically stuck her nose in the air as she walked off.
"Oh Carmen. You are fun to be around. Unlike the rest of these former contestants and their pathetic little friends..." he and Carmen finished collecting their food and sat together at the table with Dawn and her friend sitting across from them, Lightning and his guest sitting on one side of them and Eva and her guest sitting on the other side of them.
They continued their conversation in Spanish, although they were mindful of what they said as they didn't know if anyone around them could understand the language.
"What was it truly like, behind the scenes of Total Drama? Was it really as bad as they made it look on television?" Carmen asked between mouthfuls of salad.
"Worse. I hated them all and there are several moments of interaction between us that have never been aired on television or released otherwise." Alejandro answered after swallowing a mouthful of mashed potatoes.
"Hey Al. Chatting about how much of a loser you turned out to be?" Duncan called out from a few seats away.
"No. Just chatting about how much of a loser you are, you... how you say in English? Oh yes. You scumbag!" Carmen snapped.
"Ooh! I like her! You should ask her out on an official date!" Ryuk cackled.
"She's just a friend, Ryuk. Though if she seems open to the idea, that might change..." Alejandro whispered back.
"So he's got his little girlfriend defending him now? How pathetic. You're probably just some little fangirl that followed him around and he took pity on you." Heather rolled her eyes.
Carmen stood up suddenly and flung a bowl of salad dressing over in Heather's direction, splashing it all over the former Queen Bee's dress.
"Not that it is any of your business, but he saved my life. That is how we became such good friends. Come, Alejandro. We can eat elsewhere." Carmen grabbed him by the arm and hauled him up with a surprisingly strong grip.
"Yep. She's a keeper." Ryuk cackled.
"I'm beginning to think so too..." Alejandro whispered to him after Carmen chucked a bowl of ketchup at Chris, who was trying to get them to stay.
The bowl landed on his head and the host panicked, trying to get the sticky condiment out of his hair.
The entire table of guests burst out laughing at this.
Whether they hated Alejandro or not, they would always hate Chris even more.
"I never knew you could get so angry. What I saw back there... you truly have a fire within you." Alejandro smiled at her as they walked up to their room.
"Thank you. I guess when I get truly upset..." Carmen blushed.
"Aww..." Ryuk cooed mockingly.
Alejandro briefly glared at the Shinigami.
He kissed Carmen lightly on the lips.
"Dios mío..." Carmen touched her lips lightly, smiling.
Ryuk wolf-whistled at this, but Alejandro ignored him.
"I think... I think I can trust you with the secret now..." Alejandro smiled at her reaction. "Come." he took her hand and led her into the room, making sure to lock the door behind them.
He rummaged around in his locked suitcase and pulled out the Death Note.
"This... is the Death Note. Whoever's name you write in will die." Alejandro held it up.
"Really?" Carmen looked at it in awe. "Wait. Is that the notebook that... you wrote in to save me from Raul? I vaguely remember it..."
"It is. And if you touch it, you can see the Shinigami that it used to belong to..." he held it out to her as Ryuk cackled in glee behind him.
"The... Shinigami... Like a God of Death..." she took the Death Note hesitantly.
As soon as her fingers brushed the cover, Ryuk shimmered into view.
"Wha...?" Carmen stepped back in shock. "...this... demonio is the source of your power?" she sat in a chair, looking faint.
"She took the sight of me way better than you did." Ryuk chortled.
"You hush." Alejandro waved the Shinigami off as he calmly explained to Carmen all he could about the Death Note, how it worked and how he came to have it.
