(Kalepa Tribe)
"Luther just got eliminated, leaving me without a real ally. We were at least hoping Carly and Inferno would come through and make it 5-4 to get rid of Yori, but that didn't happen." Tokyo folded his arms. "I'm mad at the two of them now for not sticking with us, but Liz seems to be angry again. I don't think I need to say why."
"Grace didn't tell you anything, did she?" Tokyo asked.
"No. In all honesty, it's really frustrating me that she's excluding me from all alliance decisions." Liz shook her head. "The only reason I knew she was targeting Luther at all was because Edwina came to me and told me."
"And you still voted against her?"
"If she's not telling me anything, then how am I supposed to know how to vote?"
"This is just getting ridiculous. I aligned with Grace when we started because I thought we could rely on each other." Liz rolled her eyes. "Now she's voted off TWO people without confiding in me ONCE. I need to tell her that this has to stop. She can't keep disregarding me like this."
Meanwhile, Grace and the other girls were talking to Carly and Inferno about the vote.
"Thanks for coming through for us, guys." Grace nodded. "I'm glad you decided to vote for Luther."
"Well, it wasn't that hard. Luther was the strongest one here." Inferno shrugged.
"Okay. Maybe tomorrow we can decide who we can target next. For now, we'll say that Tokyo can go next." Grace suggested.
"Sounds good. We'll see how things pan out."
Grace and the others walked off. When they did, Carly turned to Inferno. "Are you sure it was a good idea to do that?" She asked.
"What are you talking about?" Inferno asked.
"Remember that Luther and Tokyo found out about our alliance?" Carly asked. "What if Tokyo decides to expose us for voting out Luther?"
"Relax. I've got it covered."
"I trust Inferno to come up with a way to avoid an exposure of our alliance, but this is serious. I know Tokyo will try and tell everyone else about us." Carly pointed out. "Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do to counter it or how we can avoid it, so I'm just going to have to hope Inferno knows what he's doing."
The remaining eight players decided to go to bed, knowing that not much else could get done tonight…
(Kalepa Tribe; Day 25)
"It feels good to control a vote, especially since I've controlled the last three votes. Of course, the one thing I can't control is that someone else has the Immunity Idol." Grace explained. "I need to find out who has it so I can arrange a blindside that they don't see coming. Since it was gone when I arrived, one of the Roka players has it…"
"Liz, can we talk?" Grace asked as she approached Liz.
"So NOW you want to talk?" Liz asked as she turned, arms folded. "You've done nothing but ignore me ever since we merged."
"I've been trying to expand the alliance." Grace insisted. "I need to work more on the others."
"Whatever." Liz muttered. "What did you want to say?"
"I need you to find out which Roka player has the Hidden Immunity Idol. You've been here longer so you may have better luck than I would."
"Fine. I'll check things out."
"Thank you." Grace said as she walked off.
"The first time Grace talks to me about the game since the merge and it's to give me an espionage job. Frankly, I just don't feel up to it." Liz mused. "If she involved me more, then sure, I'd do it no problem. But the fact that she doesn't appear to be interested in keeping me in the loop, I just say 'Screw it' and just carry on myself."
"What was that about?" Tokyo asked as he approached and watched Grace walk off.
"Grace finally talked to me about the game. She wants me to see which of you Roka players has the Hidden Immunity Idol." Liz said casually.
"Uh…Hidden Immunity Idol?" Tokyo asked. "We all searched the camp top to bottom."
"The idol's apparently gone already." Liz shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah. You know those emblems on the treemail boxes? They're the Hidden Immunity Idols."
Tokyo's eyes widened. "Seriously?" He asked.
"Yep. Grace checked it out the instant she got here, but the idol was already gone."
"And why are you telling me this?" Tokyo asked.
"Because I don't have any intention of actually doing this spy work." Liz shook her head and wandered off.
"Liz is surprising me. She just TOLD me what Grace was up to, which is good for me. The fact that the emblems are the Hidden Immunity Idols really threw me for a loop, though." Tokyo said before smirking and pulling the green emblem out of his shirt. "Good thing I took it from the treemail box a while ago 'just in case'. I just wish I would have known this was the real idol earlier. I would have given it to Luther for him to use…"
Grace returned to where Bianca and Edwina were and smirked. "Okay. Liz will keep an eye on the Roka players to see if she can figure out which of them has the idol." She explained.
"You're sure she's on board?" Edwina asked.
"Liz has been in my alliance since we started." Grace assured.
"But…You haven't really been involving her in anything." Edwina noted.
"Yeah. If you didn't say that you were in an alliance with her, I would have guessed that you just met her after we merged." Bianca added.
Grace blinked. "Really?" She asked.
"Liz has been looking pretty mad lately, Grace." Edwina reminded. "I talked to her before the last vote and she said you never told her how the vote was going."
"Because I assumed the votes would be obvious." Grace shrugged.
"I don't get what the big deal is. Liz should know who to target because that was the original plan from when we were on Malabar." Grace explained. "My plan never changed. I wanted to get rid of Kayo and Mugg and then eliminate the physical threats, and that's what I'm doing."
"Grace is digging herself even deeper and she doesn't even realize it. She played smart back on Sa'zan, but now that we've merged, she's assuming too much." Bianca pointed out. "Edwina and I need to try and get her to realize this, but at the moment, Grace just seems determined to play the game she's been planning to play."
"Hey, girls." The trio turned and saw Tokyo coming over.
"What is it, Tokyo?" Grace asked.
"I just wondered if you wanted to know a little bit of insider information." Tokyo said with a smirk. "While you were gone, Inferno made a side alliance with Carly behind your back."
Grace paused. "Wait. Why are you telling me this?" She asked.
"We tried to get their votes last night and they didn't come through for us." Tokyo replied.
"Why would we trust you, though?" Grace asked.
"Because you don't know about this other alliance. Those two WILL get the better of you if you let them." Tokyo said with a smirk.
"I said I'd keep the secret alliance a secret if Carly and Inferno voted with me, and they didn't. I don't see a reason to keep their alliance a secret now." Tokyo said. "Up until now, I've been playing the nice guy, but now I think it's time to show that I'm capable of more than a little scheming."
Bianca looked at Grace as Tokyo walked off. "Do you believe him, Grace?" She asked. "I mean, you obviously know Inferno better than Edwina and I do."
"It's a hard call. If I question Inferno, he'll probably tell me." Grace mused as she wandered off.
"It's entirely plausible that Inferno could have created a side alliance while Grace wasn't around. I mean, he obviously needed to pick a side when he first arrived, right?" Edwina asked. "I mean, it only makes sense, so while Grace may not believe Tokyo, I think that there may be some truth in what we were told."
Grace looked around and saw Inferno sitting at the fire pit. She approached him. "Inferno, can I talk to you for a second?" She asked.
"Sure, Grace. What's up?" Inferno asked.
"Tokyo literally just came to us and told us that you were in a secret alliance with Carly." Grace replied. "Is that true?"
Inferno laughed. "Ah, the dude's probably just mad that he lost his ally last night." He replied. "Seriously, Grace. Who's more-likely to tell the truth? The guy who's been aligned with you since the start or the guy that lost his ally to a blindside?"
"Good point. I never really believed it, myself." Grace replied. "I just wanted to make sure."
With that, Grace walked off. After she was gone, Carly emerged from a bush near where Inferno was sitting. "I can't believe that actually worked." She said.
"I told you I had it covered." Inferno assured.
"You see, because I was aligned with Grace at the start, she won't suspect me if I make sure I bring it up." Inferno pointed out. "She assumes that, just because I joined forces with her when we started, I won't have any spare plans going on the side once she goes to the other tribe."
Meanwhile, Tokyo had gone over to the treemail box, where Yori was. He was telling her what he told Grace and the other girls.
"So Inferno and Carly are in a secret alliance?" Yori asked.
"Yeah. Luther and I stumbled upon one of their meetings." Tokyo replied.
"And…You're telling me this…Why?"
"Because they didn't vote with us like we were hoping."
"You attempted a little blackmail, right?"
"I guess you can say that."
"I have to admit that if I came upon an opportunity like the one Tokyo did, then I probably would have done the same thing." Yori admitted. "Opportunities like that don't come up often in Survivor, and when it does, you need to make sure you go for it. This may prove to help me later on in the game…"
Night eventually came. Knowing that there would be a challenge the following day, the eight remaining players decided to go to bed.
(Kalepa Tribe; Day 26)
"I'm thinking that we're going to have a Reward Challenge today." Edwina said as she and Bianca walked away from the shelter.
"Yeah? Why?" Bianca asked.
"We haven't had one since we merged. I'd say we're overdue." Edwina replied simply.
"I find it odd how we've gone five days as a merged tribe and we've had no Reward Challenges. The next challenge HAS to be a Reward." Edwina shook her head. "Not that it would really matter to most, but Reward Challenges are still important. It just comes down to how important they are to some people."
"So what do you think we should do?" Edwina asked. "I think that if Grace comes up with another idea, we should run it past Liz."
"Because Liz apparently knows Grace better than we do. I know." Bianca nodded. "But Liz probably won't like it if we're just relaying the message to her."
"If she doesn't hear the message at all, she'll just be even madder."
"Also true."
Yori was walking to the treemail box alone. She appeared to be in thought.
"I need to find ways to save myself as time goes on because it's obvious the Sa'zan girls don't like me." Yori explained. "I need to get the Roka players to vote them out over me if I want to make it to the end, but that's going to be hard work. It's not impossible, but I need to weaken Sa'zan influence on camp…"
Yori reached into the treemail box and pulled out an envelope. "Time for the next challenge." She mused as she returned to camp. "Treemail came in."
The other seven players approached Yori as she read the contents of the letter. "It's wondering how well we are at playing 'Cupid'." Yori explained.
Liz blinked. "What the heck does THAT mean?" She asked.
"Well, we're about to find out." Inferno replied. "Let's head out."
"I say it's a Reward Challenge." Edwina said, putting a hand up.
"No bet here." Grace shook her head.
(Reward Challenge)
The eight remaining players exited the jungle and walked into a clearing. Quickly seeing their tribe's mat on the ground, they all walked over and stepped on to wait for the challenge to begin.
"Welcome to your first Reward Challenge, Kalepa Tribe. Here, we will be seeing exactly how accurate you are with a bow and arrow." SSBFreak said. Everyone saw a large bullseye target attached to a bale of hay, and eight arrows sitting a good ways away from it. "The goal here is simple: You are each given one arrow and will shoot it at this target one at a time. Whoever hits closest to the middle of the target will win Reward. The Reward today will be a day-long trip to a spa we have on another part of the island."
A few of the contestants look indifferent, but some looked eager to get the challenge going, knowing what was at stake now.
"If you'll all come over here with me, we'll decide shooting order and begin." SSBFreak said.
(Later…)
Carly was up first. It looked almost comical because the bow that she was trying to shoot the arrow from was almost as tall as she was.
"Carly is up. Remember to shoot for the middle. You can go when ready." SSBFreak said.
"Okay. Give me a minute." Carly said as she struggled with the bow. She finally managed to get it into a position she could fire, pulled back on the bow and show her arrow at the target. The arrow soared through the air and hit the target, but it only landed in one of the outer rings.
"Not bad. You hit the target, but it wasn't close to the middle." SSBFreak said. "Carly sets the bar."
"This bow was not made for me." Carly shook her head.
Liz was next, and she showed to have a better handle on the bow than Carly did.
"Up next is Liz, hoping to beat Carly's shot." SSBFreak said. "You can go whenever you want."
"Thank you." Liz said as she took aim and fired. The arrow hit the target, but everyone saw that it was about two rings closer to the middle than Carly's.
"Not a bad shot. Liz has overtaken Carly and is the current leader." SSBFreak pointed out.
Tokyo held the bow in his hands and shook his head. Nevertheless, he readied himself to shoot.
"Tokyo is up next and needs to beat Liz's shot to take the lead." SSBFreak said.
Giving a nod, Tokyo took aim and launched his arrow. However, the arrow wasn't as good a shot as Liz's was, or even Carly's. Tokyo's arrow struck the outermost ring.
"It's not good enough. Liz still leads."
"Serves me right for training with a dagger more than a bow and arrow." Tokyo shook his head and walked off.
Bianca stood at the starting line, holding the bow and her arrow. She looked determined.
"Next up is Bianca. Like Tokyo, she needs to beat Liz's shot to take the lead."
Taking this as her cue, Bianca pulled the string of her bow back and fired her arrow at the target. The arrow struck the target about four rings from the center, which still beat out Liz's shot by around two rings.
"Nice shot. Bianca now has the lead."
"That wasn't so hard." Bianca mused as she handed the bow to the next person.
This person was Inferno. The disco fanatic gave a smirk and readied himself.
"Inferno is up next. Bianca's shot is now the one to beat to take the lead."
"Got it." Inferno said as he took aim. After a couple of seconds, he let go of the string and fired the arrow. The arrow soared through the air and hit the target amazingly close to Bianca's shot. However, on closer inspection, people saw that Bianca's shot was just a hair better.
"Close, but not quite. Bianca still has the lead."
Grace was next. She confidently held the bow in her hands and prepared to launch it.
"Up next is Grace. Bianca's shot needs to be beaten to take the lead."
"Fine by me." Grace said as she took aim. After pausing to aim properly, Grace fired her arrow, sticking it in the target. People noticed it was about two and a half rings closer to the middle than anyone else so far.
"Grace has beaten Bianca and has taken the lead."
Edwina held the bow and took a couple of deep breaths as she prepared to fire it at the target.
"Edwina is next. Grace's record is the new high score."
Taking aim, Edwina let go of the string on her bow and sent her arrow flying at the target. The arrow struck the target, but it was nowhere close to matching Grace's score.
"Not good enough. Grace still leads."
"Rub it in, why don't you?" Edwina asked as she left the range.
Yori was the last one to go. She held the bow and gave a smirk.
"Last up is Yori. If she beats Grace's score, she'll win Reward."
Yori took aim and fired. Most people were expecting a great shot, but the arrow landed around the same area as Bianca's shot.
"It's not good enough! The challenge is over!" SSBFreak announced. "Grace wins Reward!"
"Alright!" Grace cheered.
(Later…)
"Congratulations on winning Reward, Grace. For winning this challenge, you will be spending the day at a spa. However, it would be pretty boring to go there by yourself." SSBFreak said. "You can choose one person to go with you, but I'd like to mention an added twist we have to this season."
"Uh…What is it?" Grace asked.
"For every post-merge Reward Challenge this season, the winner will be given an option. They can either choose to share their Reward with someone at camp, or with someone that was voted out pre-merge."
This caught everyone by surprise. "Seriously?" Tokyo asked.
"Yes, but only those options. No one on the jury is to be chosen to take the Reward with the winner." SSBFreak reminded. "That being said, who will you take on Reward, Grace?"
"I'll take Liz with me." Grace replied. Liz nodded and approached her.
"With that, Grace and Liz will be going on their Reward and be reunited with the rest of you at tomorrow's Immunity Challenge." SSBFreak said. "You can all head back to camp."
(Kalepa Tribe)
"Grace won Reward and took Liz with her, but that's not what caught us by surprise. Apparently, we can actually take people that were voted out pre-merge with us if we win." Bianca said. "Man. If I had known that before the challenge, I would have tried harder. Then again, I'm sure several of the others would have as well."
"So we've got a day without Grace and Liz. What do you think we should focus on?" Bianca asked. "Grace wanted us to target Tokyo."
"We could try talking to Inferno at least." Edwina suggested. "And, although I'm sure you don't like it, we can get Yori to vote with us since she knows she'll be a target otherwise."
"I don't see why we just can't vote off Yori now while we can." Bianca pointed out. "There IS a chance she won't vote with us, you know."
"I know, but Grace says that Yori can't do anything since she doesn't have power." Edwina sighed.
Meanwhile, Yori was walking through camp. She saw Tokyo and wandered over.
"On any other day, I would have easily decimated an accuracy challenge. However, that would take me away from camp and I need to be here to work." Yori explained. "Yeah, I basically threw the challenge, but I wanted to make sure it didn't look like I was. I plan on doing this for any Reward Challenges that involve leaving camp, focusing only on Immunity Challenges."
"Tokyo, I think, for now, we should think about targeting Grace." Yori suggested.
"Wait. Wait. Why?" Tokyo demanded.
"You have to admit that she's getting too controlling. She's even getting Liz mad at her." Yori explained. "Liz DID tell you that they were aligned at the start, right?"
"Yeah. Liz mentioned that a couple of times." Tokyo shrugged. "But I still fail to see any real logic in voting out Grace."
"Just keep it in the back of your mind for now, okay?" Yori asked. "We'll just see how the next challenge pans out."
"So Yori comes up to me with the idea of voting out Grace. I don't think it's a good idea socially, but it may be a good move game-wise." Tokyo mused. "However, I'm not doing anything of the sort without telling Liz about it, and I doubt that she's going to jump on board with voting out her earliest ally."
(Spa)
"This is the life, isn't it?" Grace sighed happily as she relaxed on a beach chair.
"Yeah. It's definitely better than what we've been used to having." Liz nodded as she relaxed on a chair beside Grace.
"Grace won Reward and she brought me along. I thought it was nice of her because she's been spending more time with Bianca and Edwina lately." Liz noted. "However, now that she and I are alone, maybe I can finally tell her that excluding me from every decision has been kinda hurting me."
"Grace, we need to talk." Liz said.
"Sure. What is it?" Grace asked.
"I really don't like the fact that you're not telling me what's going on with the votes." Liz pointed out. "Frankly, it's frustrating."
Grace sighed. "Okay. I can see how you may be mad for me not telling you my ideas, but I was just going with my original plan." She said.
"Well, MY plan changed while we were separated, Grace. Mugg and I DID befriend each other." Liz reminded. "He's a lot nicer person than you've been giving him credit for. Just because he was aligned with your mortal enemy didn't make him bad."
"You don't know that for sure." Grace said.
"Liz is acting too emotionally to this. She was upset that I used the fake idol to eliminate Mugg, but she'll realize that it was to help her in the long run." Grace pointed out. "I know Mugg was trying to get on her good side because he was completely incompetent on his own. I don't see any other way around it."
"Can't you just accept the fact that you're wrong?" Liz asked.
"I'm not wrong. I couldn't have been." Grace insisted. "Liz, you'll eventually see that I did what I did to help the both of us."
"How is keeping me out of the loop of things helping?" Liz demanded. "I didn't know you were even TARGETING Luther until EDWINA told me!"
"Liz, what's done is done. It's in the past." Grace said. "If it makes any difference, I'll involve you more and tell you what's going to happen so you at least know how the vote will go."
"Fine. Whatever."
"I thought this Reward would be good for us, but it only seems to have made things worse. Grace was there and she was the only one to talk to, and we still didn't accomplish anything." Liz sighed. "I really thought I could get Grace to realize that she's been wrong, but it's just not happening…"
Night eventually rolled in. The eight remaining players, no matter where they were, decided to go to bed to prepare for the Immunity Challenge the following day.
(Kalepa Tribe, Day 27)
"So what's the plan?" Carly asked. "From what I gathered, Yori is trying to lobby voting out Grace."
"Well, I don't want to do that." Inferno shook his head. "I don't want to vote out Grace or Liz. I say we focus on Yori."
"Because she's the one in charge of the lobbying?"
"Grace told us she isn't to be trusted." Inferno shrugged.
"In my opinion, I'm not sure if getting rid of Yori is a good idea yet. I mean, if she's as disliked by the others as Grace says she is, wouldn't it make sense to take her further?" Carly asked. "I think Inferno is more against voting out Grace and Liz because he's their friend."
"Yeah, I don't really want to vote the girls out. I mean, they were both my earliest allies, so I want to do what I can to keep them around." Inferno pointed out. "If Yori wants to vote out Grace, then I may have to start lobbying to vote her out instead."
Meanwhile, Bianca and Edwina were at the fire pit, talking.
"Okay. Depending on the challenge, we're going to try and make sure Tokyo doesn't win it." Edwina suggested. "If we want to get rid of the physical threats, we need to keep them from winning."
"Yeah, but it'll only depend on what type of challenge it is." Bianca replied. "There are a lot of challenges where we won't be allowed to interfere."
"I know. We'll just have to hope for the right challenge."
"If we want to eliminate the physical threats, they can't win Immunity. However, there are few challenges where we would be allowed to prevent them from doing so." Bianca said. "We know we can't beat them in the strength department, but maybe the rules of some challenges will allow us to hinder their progress. We can only hope, anyway."
"I'd have a hard time winning Immunity Challenges as it is. The only reason I won the last one was because it was a trivia challenge about Survivor." Edwina said. "If the physical threats win all of the challenges, the rest of us will get picked off."
"We've got treemail, guys." Tokyo announced as he came into camp. "Looks like it's time for the Immunity Challenge."
"Alright! What's it say?" Edwina asked.
"It's wondering how good we are at targeting other people." Tokyo replied.
"That sounds familiar. I can't place it." Inferno noted.
"I know. I've heard that question somewhere before…"
(Immunity Challenge)
The Kalepa Tribe emerged from the jungle and walked out into another clearing. Seeing their mat, the six players walked over and stepped on.
"Before we start, let's bring out Grace and Liz, who are returning from their Reward." SSBFreak said.
Grace and Liz approached from the side. The two girls joined the rest of the tribe and everyone waited for the challenge to start.
"Welcome to your next Immunity Challenge, Kalepa Tribe. Here, we will be testing your accuracy as well as your luck in a return challenge from last season." SSBFreak said. Everyone saw a large board covered with pictures of the contestants in the game, but noticed that a lot of pictures were ones of contestants already voted out. "When I give the word, you will all throw a stone at this big board at the same time with the intent on breaking other people's pictures. You each have three pictures, and if all of yours are broken, you're out. In addition, there are three pictures for each of the players already voted out, so any stone that breaks one of their pictures will be a wasted stone. The person with at least one picture remaining at the end will win Immunity and be safe from tonight's Tribal Council."
Everyone looked at each other, knowing that Immunity was coming down to, once again, a game of chance.
"If you'll all take your positions, we can begin."
(Later…)
The eight players stood in a horizontal line in front of the large board, staring down the many pictures attached to it.
"Okay. For Immunity, Survivors ready…" SSBFreak said. "Go!"
The eight players threw their first rocks. A picture was broken by each rock, but a number of the stones hit pictures that didn't count.
"Okay. Tokyo, Liz and Bianca each got hit once. They are down to two pictures." SSBFreak noted. "Uh…Bianca, did you MEAN to throw the rock at one of Det's pictures since there wasn't any that would have counted around it?"
"I had to get it out of my system." Bianca replied.
"Okay. Second throw…" SSBFreak said as everyone got ready. "Go!"
Once again, the rocks flew at the pictures. All eight rocks hit a picture, but like before, most of the pictures hit didn't count.
"Yori, Grace and Inferno get their first hit, while Tokyo gets his second."
"This isn't good." Tokyo muttered.
"Hey. You hit Renaldo's picture last time." Edwina said with a smirk. "It's the least I could do."
"Time to throw again…" SSBFreak said. "Go!"
The eight players hurled their rocks at the board, once again striking pictures with each projectile.
"Liz gets her second hit and Edwina gets her first. Tokyo got his third hit and he's out, but Yori got two hits, so she's out as well." SSBFreak said.
"That was some serious double-teaming." Tokyo shook his head as he and Yori left the field.
"Here's where we stand. Liz has two strikes, while Bianca, Grace, Edwina and Inferno have one. Carly is yet to be hit." SSBFreak announced. "Prepare to throw…Go!"
The remaining six players threw their stones at the pictures. A couple of the pictures were already broken, and only a couple of pictures that counted were hit at all.
"Okay. Carly got her first hit and Edwina got her second. Everyone else hit a picture that didn't count."
The remaining players knew things would be close and prepared for the next round.
"Get ready…" SSBFreak said. "Go!"
The six players threw their rocks at the pictures. Some went through already-broken pictures, but a couple of throws landed.
"Liz gets her last hit and is out. Bianca got her second hit." SSBFreak said.
"So much for that." Liz said as she left the field.
"Get ready…" SSBFreak said. "Go!"
The remaining five players threw rocks at the pictures. Unlike previous rounds, most of stones managed to hit a picture that counted.
"Edwina gets her third hit and she's out, while Carly gets two and she's out as well. Inferno, in the meantime, gets his second hit." SSBFreak said.
"That didn't go as well as I thought it would." Carly shook her head.
"Here's where we stand. Grace still has two pictures while Bianca and Inferno have one." SSBFreak announced. "Get ready…Go!"
The remaining three players threw their rocks at the pictures. One of the rocks went through an already-broken space, but the other two rocks managed to hit targets that counted.
"Bianca got her third hit and she's out, but Grace got her second hit, meaning that she and Inferno each have one picture left." SSBFreak said.
"Well, I lasted a while." Bianca shrugged as she walked off.
"Get ready…" SSBFreak said. "Go!"
Grace and Inferno each threw a rock at the remaining pictures. One rock managed to hit its target while the other soared through a pre-broken picture.
"That's it! Grace just lost her last picture! The challenge is over!" SSBFreak announced. "Inferno wins Immunity!"
Inferno cheered loudly as Grace and Liz clapped for him. The others looked pretty indifferent, but Tokyo looked worried.
(Later…)
"Congratulations on winning Immunity, Inferno. You have a one-in-seven chance at winning the game." SSBFreak said as he handed the Immunity Necklace to Inferno.
"It took me three challenges, but I finally got it." Inferno said with a smirk.
The host looked at the remaining players. "Inferno is safe tonight, but I'll be seeing you all at Tribal Council, where you will be voting someone else out of the game. By now, since things are getting down to the wire, I imagine that the choices will get harder. I'll give you the rest of the day to make your decisions, but for now, you can head back to camp."
(Kalepa Tribe)
"Inferno won Immunity, which is good for him because it means he won't be targeted. Now we can vote Tokyo out." Grace said. "The two of them together are the strongest players left, so we should take Tokyo out now before he has a chance to win any future challenges. I have Edwina, Bianca and Liz, and I'm sure I can get Inferno's vote."
"Okay. We have four votes locked for Tokyo, and I imagine Inferno will have no problem voting with us." Grace noted.
"Uh…I don't see Liz around. Did you tell her what we're doing?" Edwina asked.
"Yeah. I told her at the Reward."
"And she's okay with it?"
"She didn't have any objections, if that's what you mean."
Meanwhile, Tokyo approached Yori, whom was talking to Carly.
"Yori." Tokyo greeted. "I'd like to take you up on your offer for now, but only because I know I don't have any other choice."
"So you'll vote for Grace?" Yori asked.
"Yes, but like I said, I don't have a lot of choice." Tokyo folded his arms.
"I told myself I wouldn't be swayed by Yori's talk, but when the odds are stacked against you, you kinda have to do what you can to stay alive." Tokyo explained. "Yori wants to take out Grace and, while I can see her logic, I'd be pushing to vote out Inferno if he didn't have Immunity."
"I know I'm likely a target, but I want to make sure I take out the Sa'zan girls because I know they won't want to make any deals with me." Yori pointed out. "I consider Grace the most-threatening of the three and the most-capable leader, so I need to take her out first."
"So I take it you're wanting to vote out Grace as well, Carly?" Tokyo asked.
"Strategy-wise, it's a good move." Carly nodded. "However, Inferno's got his heart set on voting for Yori."
"What about the girls?" Yori asked.
"I think they're voting for Tokyo."
"Well…We'd still need one more vote." Tokyo supplied.
"Maybe I can help you."
The three turned to see a new figure approaching.
"Maybe this will work. I just hope Inferno doesn't mind me not voting with him…" Carly noted.
(Tribal Council)
The eight remaining players entered Tribal Council, carrying their torches. Finding their places on the stumps, everyone sat down to wait for Tribal Council to commence.
"Before we begin, let's bring out the members of our jury." SSBFreak said. "Mugg and Luther, who was voted out at the last Tribal Council."
Everyone watched as Mugg and Luther walked into Tribal Council. Luther was still hearing his executioner hood, but he had changed the rest of his outfit to look like a black and white version of the Castle Crashers uniforms. The two jury members sat down on the jury bench.
"These two are only here to observe the outcome of Tribal Council. You will not address them and they won't address you." SSBFreak said as he started asking questions. "Tokyo, your earliest ally was voted out of the game last time you were here. How did that affect you?"
"Come on. Luther and I were pretty much partners from the start. It's always hard to see an ally go down like that, but on the upside, at least it wasn't a unanimous vote like most would assume it to be." Tokyo said.
"He has a point." Luther shrugged.
"Bianca, what seems to be the general strategy for the group at the moment?" SSBFreak asked.
"Right now, it appears that we're just trying to get rid of the physical threats. If we keep them in the game, they'll demolish us in the challenges and take us all out." Bianca replied. "If one of us wants to win, we need to take out the physical threats first."
"Is that why we were taken out first?" Mugg asked.
"Maybe, but I sense an ulterior motive." Luther mused.
"Grace, are there any people outside of the group that has this strategy?" SSBFreak asked.
"Well, Tokyo and Yori are for sure, and I don't know about Carly." Grace replied. "I think the rest of us are in the same boat, though."
Liz rolled her eyes. "You have something to say, Liz?" SSBFreak asked.
"Yeah. When exactly did this 'strategy' get discussed? I don't recall ever being told about it." Liz told Grace. "I told you at the Reward that I wanted to be included in decisions, Grace!"
"You are. I just thought that was what the most-obvious strategy was." Grace pointed out.
"This is Survivor! There IS no obvious strategy!"
"Someone's angry." Luther shook her head.
"I'm almost glad I'm not in the game anymore." Mugg added.
"Carly, it appears there seems to be some tension on the tribe. Where do you stand on this since you aren't familiar with either of those two girls?" SSBFreak asked.
"Well, I know that the key part of having an alliance is to make sure you don't leave out any partners." Carly pointed out. "I don't know much about either of the two, but from what I've seen and heard, I think I side with Liz."
"Well, I think that's enough questions." SSBFreak said. "However, before I proceed, I have to ask this: Inferno, you have Immunity. Are you keeping it?"
"You got it."
"Inferno is safe and can't be voted out. It's time to vote." SSBFreak said. "Liz, you're up."
Liz nodded and walked out of the hut to go vote. She quickly wrote a name down on the ballot and placed it into the urn.
Carly walked up to the table and scribbled a name down. Placing the vote into the jar, Carly left the table.
Grace wrote a name down and turned it around to show the camera. "You're the biggest physical threat. Consider it a compliment." She said, having voted for Tokyo.
Yori wrote a name down and double-checked it. "This is going to be good regardless." She said as she voted and left the table.
Inferno approached the table and quickly wrote a name down. He gave a nod and placed the vote into the urn.
Edwina quickly scribbled a name down, hoping the others wouldn't be able to guess what she was writing. She voted and quickly left the table.
Tokyo quickly voted and showed his ballot to the camera, revealing Grace's name. "I want to save my idol. Hopefully, I won't need it." He said.
Bianca, the last to vote, approached the table and wrote a name down. She wasted no time in placing her ballot into the urn.
After everyone voted, SSBFreak left to fetch the urn and returned with it moments later. "When I read the names, the person with the most votes will be asked to bring forward their torch and leave Tribal Council immediately." He said, pausing a moment. Tokyo bit his lip, but decided against playing the idol. "It's time to read the votes…"
"…First vote; Tokyo." Tokyo continued to bite his lip.
"Tokyo." Tokyo wondered if he should have played his idol.
"Yori." Yori remained silent.
"…Grace." Grace's eyebrow lifted in surprise.
"Grace." Grace was starting to look a little worried.
"Grace. She now leads." Yori couldn't help but smirk.
"…Tokyo. We are tied." The entire Tribal Council was silent in anticipation, wondering how the vote had gone. "Last vote, third member of the jury and eleventh person voted out of Survivor: Central Hub…"
"…Grace. You need to bring me your torch." SSBFreak said.
Grace was stunned, wondering what had just happened. "But…But I had the numbers…" She said. Regardless, she still picked up her torch and brought it to the host.
"Grace, the tribe has spoken." SSBFreak said as he extinguished Grace's torch. "It's time for you to go."
Grace sighed. "Fine." She said as she left Tribal Council.
Once Grace was gone, SSBFreak turned to look at the remaining players. "Another Tribal Council ends and yet another blindside occurs. Grace obviously didn't see that coming." He said. "The end is fast approaching and there are only seven of you left. By now, you should probably start thinking of who you want to take to the end, because you may not get another chance. You can all head back to camp."
The seven remaining players stood up, grabbed their torches and left Tribal Council. Liz brought up the rear, looking guilty. She really didn't want to do that to Grace, but after spending so long being excluded from everything, she figured that it was time to make a move. She was just sorry that Grace had to pay for it…
"I'm shocked that I was even a target, let alone one to get four votes when I thought I had a majority." Grace said, still surprised. "Someone in my alliance obviously voted for me, but I don't know who. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure things out as the days go by. Good luck to my alliance, because you'll all be needing it."
Voting History:
Grace – Carly, Liz, Tokyo and Yori
Tokyo – Bianca, Edwina and Grace
Yori – Inferno
Author's Note: I wanted Grace to be an early winner pick when we started. She knew what she was doing and she was a major character when the tribes dissolved. However, I wanted her to crash and burn after the merge, and I figured that isolating her oldest ally would be the perfect way to do it.
