The merge...and an episode I know all Duncan fans hate. Thanks for reviewing, Ali6132 and the guest reviewer.

I'm glad it was two to a room in the spa hotel, because Gwen and Courtney had started sharing a room, while I had one of my own. I didn't want to hear Katie & Sadie 2.0 babbling on about how much they loved being friends again.

But just as everyone did, I got bored by the morning and knocked on the door of the boys room. "Hey, can I come in?"

Cameron was still wearing pyjamas, but Scott was dressed. He was holding a glass to the side of the wall. "These walls are way too thick!" he grumbled. "Speak up!"

I shrugged. "I don't know what you expect to hear. When I passed, all I heard was 'I love being friends with you, Gwen' and 'I like being your friend even more, Courtney' and 'you're amazing and so cool' and 'if I don't win the money, I hope you do'. Not very interesting."

Cameron was in a good mood. "Well, as long as Sierra's far far away, I'm good."

"Don't be too sure." Scott said dangerously. "Just cause she's gone don't mean you're safe."

Cameron looked worried.

"Stop trying to scare us, Scott." I snapped. "You're no threat. And after a night on Boney Island, Alejandro probably isn't either."

As it was, Alejandro arrived back just as we gathered round to find Duncan accidentally fixing Chef's vehicle, and as a result, Chris said through the loudspeaker that he was "being all sweet", and Chef called him a good kid. After having a bit of a laugh at that, I saw that Alejandro was absolutely fine, without any visible difference to last night.

"How'd you pull it off?" Cameron asked.

"It was all about attitude." he said airily. "Survival was easy. Also, I have a special way with animals."

"Enough with the self-promotion, Al!" Chris yelled through a loudspeaker. "I have a big announcement. Today, the teams are being merged!" We gasped. "That's right! From now on, the challenges are for individual winners only. And everyone is at risk of getting the not-so-royal flush."

No matter that it was being said by smug-face Chris "World's Biggest Sadist" McLean. The words were those of an angel. I was finally free of Katie and Sadie 2.0, Stalker Turned Crushing-On-Courtney, and Mr Too-Perfect.

At that moment, Chris' phone rang. "I have to take this. It's my stylist." He walked off as he answered. "Yeah, how come my socks don't match my shirt?"

Of course, I wasn't getting out of teaming up with Cameron. I would've done it if he hadn't switched teams.

"Stick together no matter what?" Zoey said, smiling at Cameron and I.

"Friendship Finale Version 2.0, here we come!" Cameron grinned back.

"And this time, we'll all make it further than everyone else." I added.

"Hey, can I get in on that?" Mike asked.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why would you think we'd leave you out, Mike? We're your friends – you're stuck with us." Zoey and Cameron nodded with me.

I exchanged a glance with Cameron. That was sort of suspicious. Why would Mike think we wouldn't include him. We hadn't ditched him last time he was acting strange, and we weren't ditching him now, either. And we needed to watch him carefully, in case this 'Mal' personality was taking him over sometimes, lurking around.

I made a confessional about that. "If this Mal thing is real, I need to watch Mike carefully. If he's not in control, then there's trouble. I can't help but imagine that the guy I met that one time a few years ago was Mal, and he injured me! If he could've done that a few years ago, imagine what he could do to me now! And I'd bet anything that because we're closest to Mike, we're the most at risk. Especially Zoey."

I couldn't help wondering if Mal was real, though. There were no changes to Mike's appearance, or voice, but on the other hand, Mal could just use some hairspray and put on a voice. I didn't need to be told that if Mal was still around, he wouldn't be like the other personalities. Not to mention, what I'd seen of Mike showed that he wasn't self-aware when Mal was in control.

Finally, Chris came back to tell us about the challenge. It was a regatta – boat race – around the perimeter of the island. There were a bunch of boats at the dock, first come first serve. Winner got immunity and a night in the spa hotel, and we would have some obstacles.

Zoey, Cameron and I were behind Mike, but he took one of the boats on his own, just as we got there.

"He left us the powerboat!" Zoey pointed. But as soon as we got in, the boat sank.

"It was...already rusty..." Zoey began. We'd have to take the raft, and Duncan and Scott had to come with us, because the inflatable boat and the dinghy didn't float either. All of us paddled, Zoey and I with the paddles, and the boys with their hands.

We caught up to Alejandro, who had stopped for some reason. "Hey, Alejandro, boat trouble?" Duncan called.

"Not any more!" Alejandro suddenly sped off again, his motor drenching us in water. "Adios, non-amigos!"

We needed a motor, and Cameron knew how to get one. He pushed Scott into the water. "Sorry, Scott, nothing personal. Just attracting our motor."

I took one look at the fin slicing through the water, and I understood.

Scott screamed. We soon hoisted him out of the water, but used a paddle to use him as bait. We had a rope which we tied to the raft. Our plan was that Fang would see Scott, go straight for him, and swim right into our rope. If we kept Scott just out of his reach, he'd swim us right to the finish line.

"You guys, this is crazy!" Zoey protested, but she helped us anyway. And it did work.

"Great idea, dude." Duncan complimented Cameron. "Very villainous!"

"Huh?"

"No big deal." I whispered. "We're not actually hurting Scott – look at it this way: he's facing his fear."

We passed Courtney and Gwen, whose boat's engine had been exploded.

A small object came at us.
"Incoming!" Duncan warned. "Hold tight." It was a dynamite stick, which he extinguished easily. "Don't mind if I do."

We passed a house. "Is that where Chris lives?" Zoey wondered out loud.

I scowled. "So the spa hotel is wonderful? Trust Chris to spend more on himself than on fifteen of us."

"It's beautiful." Duncan commented. He began to smirk. "Just beautiful." He suddenly jumped off the raft and swam off.

"Piranhas!" Scott suddenly called out. "Dead ahead! Snappy toothy piranhas!"

"And Mike!" Cameron added, seeing the boat ahead. "We might just catch up!"

"But who are we going to catch up to?" Zoey pointed out.

"We need to find a way to work out who he really is." I agreed. "I'm still not convinced that he's not that Mal guy."

That's when Zoey had the stupidest idea she's ever had. She knew that if anything would bring Mike out, her being close to death would do the trick. She grabbed the extra paddle, stuck it in the sand around the piranhas, clung to the top, and started screaming for help. Specifically for Mike.

Cameron and I struggled to hold Scott up, Zoey's screams still echoing in my ears. "MIIIIIIKE!"

"Mike, Zoey's in danger!" we called as we passed his boat. It took him some time to go there, but at least he saved Zoey. But I still couldn't be sure what was going on. My guess was that Mike and Mal were constantly fighting each other, so he was sometimes himself and sometimes Mal. But the thing was, Mal was faking being Mike when he was in control.

We were still having trouble holding Scott up. He nearly got caught by Fang, but ended up back on the raft. "Your turn to be fish food!" he snarled, pushing Cameron into the water.

I reached down to pull Cameron out, but Fang got there first. Suddenly, he sniffed at Cameron, and then just...swam away.

"Seriously?" Scott scowled. "Guess he wanted a meal, not a snack."

I scowled at him. "You're lucky I'm not pushing you into the water. As for now, I'll just do what I always do when you annoy me." I delivered one of my famous slaps, then we all paddled to the end.

"Cameron, Shannon and Scott may have come in last, but they were definitely the funniest!" Chris announced as we passed. "'A meal, not a snack'!"

None of us found it that funny. Even Chef was rolling his eyes. It didn't matter, anyway...Alejandro had won

"Wait..." Chris said. "Where's Duncan?"

At that exact moment, we heard an explosion. "I think we just discovered what happened to him." I smirked.

Duncan had blown up Chris' pad. I say 'pad' because Chris called it a cottage, but it wasn't. Courtney got especially annoyed at him saying that. "You call that a cottage? It was a mansion!"

Even from there, we could hear Duncan's manic laughter. "Now who's gone soft?"

Chris became lifeless, but he was at least able to mention that Alejandro had immunity, access to the spa hotel, and he got to take one person with him.

"As much as I would love to bring you all," he said, "I cannot play favourites and break all of your hearts."

I groaned and teased "Bet you wouldn't be saying that if Heather was here, huh? By this time, I'd bet you two would already be up in the most comfortable bedroom undressing."

Courtney and Scott both chuckled, although everyone looked a bit creeped out by my jibe.

"Okay...not airing that comment..." muttered Chris. He let us go until the bonfire ceremony that night.

Obviously, the host was still depressed about the explosion. Duncan was triumphant. "Told you!" He had finally been able to get back his "bad-boy" status. Except...Chris had some surprises for him before we voted.

A hand landed on the delinquent's shoulder. "You're under arrest for destruction of a private cottage."

Two policemen were here.

"It was NOT a...uggghh!" Courtney scowled.

"Way to go, bad boy!" Gwen said sarcastically. "I hope looking cool is worth getting locked up again!"

"It is!" Duncan answered. "I'm gonna rule juvie!"

But Duncan had forgotten something. He wasn't a kid any more, and Chris was powerful. He wasn't going to juvie – this time, he was going to jail, and that scared him tons. The last I heard of him as he was escorted away was his pleas. "Wait, it was an accident! Come on, guys, have a heart! I didn't know you weren't supposed to put a toaster in the microwave!"

And no one was going to miss him, Gwen and Courtney, his two ex-girlfriends, least of all. But after Duncan was gone, it was time to vote.

I deliberated over who should go, but eventually, I voted for Scott. Nothing personal, but after how horrible Lightning had been last season after Cameron accidentally stole victory from him, I didn't want a repeat with Scott.

"The votes are unanimous!" Chris told us all. He showed us a picture of...

Cameron?

"How can it be unanimous?" my boyfriend cried. "I didn't vote for myself!"

"I didn't vote for him, either!" Zoey and I said at the same time. Luckily, Cameron wasn't gone. Duncan had already gone, so he would stay.

Rest assured, that evening wasn't exactly cheery.

We'll pick up again soon! Hope you liked this chapter.