Survivor - Emperors vs Knights

Chapter 32 - Day 26 Part 2

Alright, time for another vote chapter and it's basically a battle between the Pirate Crew and the Knights Alliance that the Knights Alliance doesn't even know about, and we have Marth and Zelda being in the middle after being approached by the Pirate Crew to join their alliance, even with Shadow wanting to bury the hatchet with them. Hmm...

And then to top it all off, Marth won immunity, so that just eliminates one of the possible targets for tonight, only increasing the chances of Shadow being targeted, so let's see how it works out as usual.

(New character reveal for "Survivor - Mexico" tonight! Hint: It's going to be a Pokemon.)

Historyfan15: It'd be rather interesting and they all actually work together again. And as for All Stars, the all star season is going to be Heroes vs Villains. So for this season in particular, Shadow will most likely come back since he's the main villain of this season.

~KF

Bikutā

Day 26

Greninja, Foxy, Shovel Knight, Marth, Freddy, Zelda, Sheik, Bonnie, Shadow, Luigi, Knuckles

-/-

"Good job, Marth."

"Great work!"

"Thanks, everyone. I don't know how I was able to pull it off, but I'll take it!"

"Ugh... I feel like I hold some sort of responsibility for today..." Greninja heaved a sigh of guilt. "I couldn't prevent Marth from winning immunity, and now that he has, it just eliminates one target off the board, and now we're down to either Zelda, Shadow, or somehow Freddy... Now, I feel that I'm closer to Zelda than the other two. I still trust Freddy to an extent, so that automatically leaves us with one more option to consider..."

The entire Knights Alliance were all standing in the water to discuss.

"I kinda feel bad that I couldn't prevent Marth from winning immunity, guys..." The Pokemon admitted.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that..." Sheik had a finger beneath her chin. "It might not even matter..."

He glanced up to her. "You think so?"

"We were all really thinking about Shadow yesterday on that reward." Shovel Knight brought up. "Marth and Zelda made some pretty valid points about him. He flipped on his alliance not once, but twice. ...And I'd rather not work with people that are untrustworthy. I think they're trying to give us a warning. And if we don't take that, we're all sitting on the jury thanks to Shadow the Hedgehog."

"You think he'd try to work with Marth and Zelda again?" Knuckles asked.

"He... could if he wanted too..." Greninja thought out loud. "I mean, that seems to be sort of his rep at this point. ...Freddy doesn't seem to be that big of a problem even though he's a physical guy. Probably because Marth and Zelda thought that Freddy had valid reasons to turn on them."

"Uh, you guys don't think we should write someone like Zelda instead?" Foxy spoke up. "I mean, I know she's not that big of a physical threat in challenges, but I think that she's a long-term social threat. If we can get rid of Zelda now, we already have the numbers, giving Shadow an even smaller room to work with to decrease his chances of pulling something over us. Even if he somehow gets to the end, he might not get the votes... Zelda's the exact opposite. Maybe we can keep Shadow for at least one more tribal and get rid of the social threat first?"

"I agree that Zelda's more of a social threat. But I think with Shadow, he's more risky to keep around than Zelda is. He's stronger than Zelda and I think he's more likely to find idols. Plus, I think with Shadow gone, we can at least have a breath of fresh air."

"Sure I would play more aggressively, but I think I'm in a comfortable spot at the moment, so I doubt is necessary at this time. I'd rather not paint a big target on my back. I'm still solid with Sheik and Shovel Knight, who is still solid on Luigi, and we're all still solid with the rest of our alliance. For my game, basically I'm working with people that are showing that they wanna work with me, and when you have this many people wanting to work with you, that's a good thing. So it's best to find common ground for all of us. The only thing that can go wrong is if someone is ready to flip. And if I get that vibe from someone, that means I gotta make sure they go home before I do."

"Good point there." Sheik immediately nodded. "Let's just write down Shadow."

Foxy's eyes remained staring at the water.

"I threw Zelda's name out there to give Zelda pretty much a number one reason why she needs to work with us, and to also test my alliance to see what they thought of it. And unsurprisingly, Greninja and Sheik shut it down. I knew it. I mean, even though Freddy stayed last time, those two plus Shovel Knight are always controlling the direction of the Knights Alliance, since they still tested Freddy by telling him to write down Shulk. But this time I was a little ticked to be honest, since I feel like those three plus Luigi never even took that much time out of their day to get to know me, Knuckles, and Bonnie. Nowadays we barely even have a say of how the vote's gonna turn out. That's fine, though. I'm not working with them anymore, anyway."

And to top that off, all four of the original emperors were watching the seven of them from the shelter.

"And there they go again..." Freddy blinked. "I mean, I for all we know could be target for being the biggest physical threat..."

"I could be targeted for being a strategic threat..."

"I could also be targeted for being a strategic threat..." Shadow crossed his arms at the knights.

"And I could be..." Lowell suddenly paused. "Wait, I'm going to be immune. Nevermind..."

"Marth and Zelda at this point have gone right back to think that it's still Emperors vs Knights, and that the Knights Alliance are still a strong group of seven." Shadow leaned his back against a tree. "But that's not the truth; the knights are clearly not a strong group of seven. The truth is that me and Fazbear have built connections with three of the knights and we're voting out whoever we want. However, due to the fact that my head is really on the chopping block for this upcoming Tribal Council, it's better to be safe than sorry. Marth and Zelda needed to be approached before the Knights Alliance so that I could really show them how much we needed to work together my game, while at the same time having them thinking we need to work together for 'our' game... Whatever... Bottom line is that I need to make sure I'm not going home."

"I just wish Knuckles, Foxy, and Bonnie can hurry up and make their way over here so we can discuss the plan for tonight." Shadow turned from the septet of knights to the two emperors he was attempting at rebuilding a connection with. "...You two are in on our seven, right?"

"It seems that we have to..." Marth nodded. "We just need to all get together and talk it out. It is not as if Tribal Council is going to wait for us."

"It makes sense for us to work together, anyway. Because if we do, we all outnumbered those three knights that we're relying on anyway. We can easily just have us make it to the final four, and that would please the jury that the emperors can in fact stick together as long as it's in their best interest."

"Well, I don't think we should all talk right here, because the shelter... is quite literally our home." Marth brought up. "People are gonna be in and out for the rest of the day. We need somewhere more private... I'd say at treemail."

Zelda bobbed up and down. "I think so, too."

"Why not just hang by the water well?" Shadow suggested with a popped invisible eyebrow. "We can easily just convince them that we're going to get water for everybody..."

"Because, I feel that treemail would be the last place they would look, since we're clearly not going to a second challenge today."

"And I disagree..." Shadow barely let him finish his sentence. "I think it's best for them to know where we are exactly, or else they're gonna get suspicious if we're out for a while and nobodies know where we are, and then we're all in trouble."

"Shadow," Marth inhaled. "just think about it for a second."

"Guys," Freddy interrupted with hands out. "can we not? Now is not exactly a good time to fight..."

"Just like I said back on old Nago." Freddy turned his head sideways a couple times. "The emperors are all over the place. It's difficult for us to come to a unanimous decision at times. We're all wanting to dominate the conversation and just refuse to listen to each other while the knights can all decide on something in like, three seconds."

But eventually, the group decided to have a talk with the three old Chatan members by the tree mail, much to Shadow's slight annoyance, yet he dealt with it in the end.

"Okay,..." Foxy started it off. "Greninja. What do you guys think?"

"Well, he has been top three for every single immunity challenge so far." Freddy realized. "He's the biggest physical threat on the board."

"Shovel Knight and Sheik are the two people that are in question in regards to idols." Bonnie reminded the group. "In my opinion, they are both just as threatening. Me, Knuckles, and Foxy have all been with them since day one. Foxy had Shovel, and I had Sheik when we swapped. Sheik appears to be more strategic than Shovel Knight, and we all know she's Greninja's right hand man. She can easily just run this whole game..."

"And on the other hand, everybody likes Shovel Knight. He has a likable personality and tries his hardest to be friends with everyone. And you know what happens when someone like that stays around..."

"I agree with both of those choices." Knuckles nodded. "So if it's gonna be one of those two, I don't care which one of them goes home first, as long as we're all surviving at the end of the night..."

"But what if they actually sense us out?" Freddy thought out loud. "'Cause worst case scenario, they plan an idol correctly and one of us is on the jury. Maybe if the two would figure we're going after one of them we just vote for Greninja just to be safe?"

Marth was trying his hardest to think it through. "This is quite a predicament... I suppose when it comes to blindsides and flashy moves, this is without a doubt the hardest part..."

"I don't think Greninja's that safe enough of an option, either..." Bonnie was hesitant on the Greninja vote. "Sure, he's probably the biggest threat of them all, but I think they're all smart enough to figure that out themselves that we would try to target him... Why don't we just vote for Luigi?"

"What? ...Seriously?" Shadow immediately rejected that idea. "No way... Just... I don't think that's smart... He is not a threat! That would be a horrible move!"

Marth sighed and shook his head. There they went again...

"Look, Shad,..." Bonnie desired to make himself clear. "We know that Luigi isn't exactly the biggest threat of those four, but the thing is, we're all talking about who's going to suspect that they're going to be the target by us if they in fact sniff us out. And what I'm saying is that even though voting for Luigi doesn't sound satisfying on paper by him not being the biggest threat of those four, at the same time, he's the least likely person they'd give an idol to..."

"...Okay, I guess that makes sense to an extent..." Shadow actually took time to think about it. "But I'm not as down on Luigi. I'd still push for us to actually get a threat out first to increase our chances of getting rid of all four of them. The last thing we need is to have one of them go on an immunity run that would screw all seven of our games."

"You know what... I don't know about you guys, but Shadow actually have a point." Knuckles was not as down on the Luigi vote either. "Even though Luigi's the safest target, Shovel Knight literally has the word 'knight' in his name, Greninja's physical, and Sheik's smart. One of them has to go."

"The alliance of seven that me and Marth just became a part of is struggling to find out who's the right person to send home." Zelda summarized. "When you have both emperors and knights in the mix, things can get a little... complicated... You know, at this point for my game, it's about who stays, rather than who goes. And if it were up to me, I suppose I can't afford to have Sheik go yet because I have the closest relationship with her than Luigi, Greninja, and Shovel. Though at the same time, if the majority of people want her out at the end of the day, then I guess I just have to deal with it. If they all really need me, I'd rather not actually dictate and tell all of them what to do, because I of course have no intentions on alienating anybody..."

-/-

"Why is it some empty here?"

"They said that they were all going to gather coconuts for everybody. I had to go to the bathroom so I told them that I'd meet with them shortly." Greninja told Sheik. "They all took their canteens including ours, so I assume that they're out to get water as well. ...I thought you went with them."

"I went off to do some laundry with Luigi over here and Shovel Knight's tending to the fire."

The remaining four all stayed behind at the shelter, Shovel Knight putting yet another piece of wood down.

"Please, Survivor Gods..." He stared up into the sky. "We beg of you to spare us at least one night free of rain over here..."

That actually made the other three knights laugh.

"Well," Shovel himself giggled a bit. "that's what I heard the community calls it, anyway. They're always asking these... 'Survivor Gods' to send help their way in order for them to advance properly in the competition."

"I think we really need to talk to Marth and Zelda, though." Greninja suggested. "To avoid having a distant relationship with the two of them, we'll let them know that we're writing down Shadow just to give them both a break."

"Good idea." Sheik was on board with that plan a hundred percent. "I don't think it would hurt to tell Freddy, too. Everyone else is writing down Shadow, anyway. So Freddy would be too outnumbered to do anything if he wanted to."

"So basically a unanimous vote on Shadow?" Shovel Knight wanted to make sure he understood exactly what the plan was.

"Yep." Greninja confirmed with a nod. "I don't think he has an idol."

"I don't either." Sheik doubted that possibility as well. "Let's just go and look for them."

"Luigi, you coming?"

"No..." He sat on the bamboo of the shelter. "I'll stay here and watch Shovel Knight in case he needs help with the fire. We're about to eat, anyway."

"Suit yourself."

Upon Greninja leaving with Sheik, Shovel Knight took advantage of the situation to have a brief check on his number one ally.

"You doing alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. This vote seems to be pretty simply and I don't even think I'm being looked at right now, so I'm actually feeling pretty good. ...What are we going to tell Shadow, though?"

"Zelda seems to be the only option." Shovel Knight assumed. "...But I gotta say... I've been with you since the beginning and I have watched you grow. You gained quite a bit of self-confidence throughout the days."

"...You really think so?" Luigi smiled warmly. "Thanks. I guess that's because I found out that I wasn't going to be the first vote off of my tribe, then I made to the swap where I was actually in the majority for once, and now the knights are really up in numbers these days. ...Am I getting a little too confident, though?"

"Oh, no, not at all." The shovel wielder immediately disagreed. "If anything, I would say that feeling confident when it comes to things like this is something that you're not exactly used to that much."

"Oh, I can get confident, but..." He scratched his head for a bit. "I guess sometimes I just gotta get used to things... Does that make sense?"

"I think it makes perfect sense." Shovel Knight bobbed his head up and down understanding. "Sometimes for certain individuals, one has to adjust in order for them to adapt to certain situations."

"Shovel Knight has taught me many things since I've been out here. He's sort of reminding of Mario from back home and we both ended up on the same tribe. It's a good thing, too. Because as long as he's here and he notices that I'm feeling some type of way, he's always the number one person that's always giving me advice. I don't know if he's going to be targeted eventually. Though if he is, maybe if I have the opportunity to, I'd save him like he saved me, since I really do feel like I owe him something. I have to be useful for somebody."

-/-

"You alright?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"Well, I think it is safe to say that neither of us are going anywhere tonight... I'm starting to even think at this point, perhaps I did not even need to win the challenge today..."

"Me and Zelda have just been approached by Greninja and Sheik, and they wanted to inform us that Shadow is in fact the target for tonight, and that they wanted us to help them in voting him out. ...So I guess the plan worked last somewhat, but obviously plans are changing as of now."

Marth and Zelda were standing with each other from behind the shelter.

After a few brief moments of silence, Zelda spoke up again. "Do you think it's even worth it to work with Shadow at this point?"

"I don't know, but I don't blame you for thinking that way. You can not work with people who can't trust... Though at the same time, imagine if we could actually work together again..."

"Valid point there." Zelda slowly nodded. "I guess this is what happens when we're the swing votes..."

"Alright, Tribal Council here we come..."

Knuckles meanwhile was standing with Shadow in front of the shelter, gathering their belongings so that they could being to make their way to tribal.

The echidna looked up from his bag for a bit. "...You okay?"

"...I'm fine..." Shadow seemed to be lost in his thoughts as he now had his bag around his shoulder. "But I think I'll feel even better when I come back here..."

"I suppose no matter what happens, the person I clearly trust the most is Zelda. So wherever she goes, I go as well."

Off the group went.

Tribal Council

Night 26

Shadow, Zelda, Foxy, Marth, Shovel Knight, Freddy, Luigi, Bonnie, Marth, Knuckles, Greninja, and Sheik all returned for the tenth Tribal Council of the season, taking their time in places down their torches and sitting down in the seats in front of them.

"We'll now bring in the members of our jury..."

Jurors one and two made their way over to the jury bench.

"Shulk... and Roy voted out at the last Tribal Council."

Marth showed a bittersweet smirk in Roy's direction, along with Zelda's smile of sympathy as Roy smiled back, sitting down beside Shulk in the middle of the bench.

Shadow promptly eyed the master ready to discuss.

"So Shadow, at the last Tribal Council, the remaining emperors in the game, including Roy, but except Freddy, all threw you under the bus for not being trustworthy. As a result, we basically had another Tribal Council that had some sort of 'whispering session.' And in the end, even though you weren't voted out, you still received three votes. What was your overall feeling when you got back to camp?"

"Long story short, quite annoyed. I chose to not talk with Marth and Zelda for a while until I had to work with them at the reward challenge."

Roy shook his head slightly.

"Were you doing that just to prove a point?"

"Not necessarily." He answered the master. "If anything, they were lucky enough that I chose not to argue with them, since I figured that it would have wasted my time, and theirs. I wanted to at least get a good night's sleep, so I didn't want to go to bed even more irritated."

"So Marth, last Tribal Council was particularly brutal for Shadow to the point to where he didn't wanna talk to you or Zelda for the next twelve hours or so until you were all put together with Freddy at the next reward challenge. Did you feel like you were being ignored on purpose?"

"Well, the few times I did actually look at Shadow he immediately glanced the other way as if he wanted nothing to do with me, so basically, yes." He admitted. "But I suppose since he stated that it was better than to get into another squabble with him, then perhaps it was the best for all three of us."

"Zelda, what about you?"

She sighed to start it off. "Well,... just to make myself clear, last tribal wasn't meant to hurt Shadow's feeling at all. We basically have different strategies and for the most part our strategies just don't mesh together that well. We're two completely different people, but at the same time, in life you have to deal with all different types of people daily. I wasn't exactly mad that Shadow never said a single word to me after the tribal. So I hope Shadow understands that me and Marth didn't mean to offend him. It was uncertain to whether not it would be Roy or myself since Shadow had an idol, so I was simply fighting at my hardest to stay in the competition."

"So Shadow, Zelda made a pretty good point." Master Hand had to admit. "Sometimes strategies don't mix, and that would describe your relationship with both Marth and Zelda in a nutshell. Do you understand where she's coming from?"

"As long as she understands where I'm coming from, then it really doesn't matter at this point." Shadow sounded as if he never cared less. "Bottom line is that it's a brand new day, and if I make it here tonight, what happened last tribal would become irrelevant."

"Fair enough." Marth replied.

"And Freddy, besides those three, you are the only emperor that is left." Master Hand noted. "Shadow was thrown under the bus last tribal, Marth and Zelda were on the outs, and it seemed like last tribal didn't hurt you at all."

"Well, I guess that's because maybe they don't see me as the 'flip-flopper' or 'Mr. Untrustworthy.' I think it's because they knew that I was a big target at the merge, so that's probably why I got less heat than Shadow, who wasn't targeted at merge."

"Marth, what is your opinion on Freddy at this moment?"

"I think Freddy is a nice bear." Lowell told him. "If jumping ship was his best interest, than I have no reason to blame the guy. He is not going to simply lie around and wait until his time comes. So when he turned, me and Zelda never thought of him as a flip-flopper. We thought of him as someone that desires to be here no matter what it takes, and will do whatever it takes to make it as far as he possibly could."

"I mean, it's not that we're being sore losers or anything." Zelda backed him up. "We understand people's decisions as long as we feel that it makes sense for their own game."

"So based on last tribal, you felt that Shadow's reasons for turning on others is not justified enough."

She was not hesitant in nodding her head. "That's exactly what we were all feeling after Shulk's departure. We tried our hardest to understand where Shadow was coming from, but it just didn't add up. Maybe Shadow had his own plans that we didn't know about at the time, especially since like what was said, me and Shadow are playing two completely different games here."

"I have my game, you have your game. That's pretty much all I have to say."

"I know, that's what I'm trying to say."

...

"Greninja, so far the emperors are the only people that we've talked about. Clearly they were all not at the same page at the first post-merge Tribal Council. Surprised in any way?"

"Not at all." He turned his head side to side. "I mean if this is what happens when they all come together, how they communicate with one another is rather, um... interesting to watch. ...I feel like I'm at home on the couch watching two people trying to settle their differences."

That earned a couple laughs from his fellow castaways.

"I mean," He continued. "this is basically like people trying to put their feud to an end but they still have some issues that need to be worked out. It's happened times before, but of course only this time I'm actually part of it."

"Alright, so there's seven of you, including you, Greninja, that was part of old Chatan. Marth and Zelda clearly weren't on the same page as Shadow after Shulk was voted out, and you admitted that you weren't surprised since it was the emperors' way of handling things since they all think differently. But what about your tribe alliance? All seven of you are still in the game. Are each and every one of you on the same page, even at this stage of the game?"

"How exactly do I put this..." Greninja caused a few moments of silence to strike the Tribal Council, as he was now the center of attention of literally everyone. "Well, basically, we're all seven people. And even though we're still knights, no one thinks the same. Everybody always has his or her own agenda of how they're gonna play the game. However, I think it all comes down to one word: communication."

Shulk and Roy remained watching from the bench.

"We have people that are from typical working environments, and people that were put into situations they had to get out of, and with those similarities, we were all put together on one tribe. We've worked with others before, so we already sort of have this basic idea of how to communicate with one another. So even if we have our differences since no two people are alike, we all still manage to find common ground, and I think it's because of us having similar strategies in a way, based on the name that was given to us on day one. The emperors are living up to their name by all of them doing our own thing, we're more used to being together and finding ways that will work for all of us."

A few of his fellow members of the new tribe glanced around a little.

"Well put..." said Master Hand. "Bonnie, Greninja made a very good point about knights in general. You guys are used to working together, and you all worked together to put two emperors on the table for the merge vote, and taking in two of the emperors, Shadow and Freddy, at the same time. How do you think that strategy's working out for you all so far?"

"Pretty good it seems. Freddy was one of the two emperors we brought in to our group." The bunny elaborated. "But the reason why some of us still wrote his name down was simply because we weren't a hundred percent sure if he was telling the truth. We'd only known him for a couple days at the time, and because of what tribe he was on, there was already a perception of him of what he might do. Now I don't know if he had the intention of being perceived a certain way, but at the end of it all, it was what tribe he was put on. So of course we had to be cautious. Otherwise, he could have easily just worked with the rest of the emperors to get one of us out and then we're sitting over there."

The first two jury members watched him point over.

"But after the fact, Freddy did turn out to be pretty truthful, he followed through on what was told of him to do, and he proved that he was willing to work with us."

"So Foxy, what would you all do, if say, one of the knights start behaving like one of the emperors, and they've proven to be untrustworthy?"

"Pretty good question, master. I mean, I'm sure we all aren't just gonna sit there and watch that person backstab us and get away with it. If there is word that someone is jumping our ship (no pun intended if you know where I'm getting at)."

"Okay, Pirate Foxy." Sheik laughed as well as a few other Bikutā members.

"Thank you." He said with a smirk. "But if there is word that someone is trying to jump ship, that's a betrayal. And of course us voting that person out and getting their torch snuffed is what happens if we find out that there is a traitor among us. Gotta get rid of the traitors first, you know? Because if a fellow pirate of mine betrays my trust, than that pirate is no use to me anymore."

"Like the words of a Survivor legend once said: 'If you ain't with me, you against me.'"

"My thoughts exactly." The pirate fox made a big nod at that. "Loose lips sink ships, too."

"Luigi, so that means, if it is still Emperors vs Knights at this point, are the emperors basically a sinking ship?"

"Umm..." He took time to think, yet eventually he disagreed. "That is something that I can not say. It's half and half. Shadow and Freddy are on one side of the fence and Zelda and Marth are on the other. It depends on how long we can trust Shadow and Freddy. And as long as they keep proving that they are still open to work with us, then it wouldn't be so hard to work with them. But if it is still Emperors vs Knights, then like Greninja said, they could easily re-connect with one another."

"Umm..." The plumber suddenly stopped to take a glance over at both Freddy and Shadow individually. "Before either of you think of it, this is not saying that we still don't trust you."

Freddy laughed a little. "You're fine, Luigi. I see what you're saying and I don't blame you."

He heaved a small sigh of relief. "Whew, thank you. Just wanted to make sure you both understand where I was getting at."

Master Hand decided to make another comment. "Shadow hasn't said anything, though..."

The green-capped man looked over again. "...You know where I'm getting at... right?"

All eyes were on the hedgehog, who never even eyed him back even though he responded with a nod of assurance. "I understand. Don't worry about it."

"Whew..." He said again, resulting in laughter once again.

"...Alright!" The authority of the show concluded. "I guess if everyone's good with where everybody stands with one another, then I guess everybody's good when I say that it is time to vote. ...Right?"

Every single member of the Bikutā answered 'yes' in multiple ways.

"Alright. Then it is time, to, vote. Sheik, you're up."

The ninja rose from his spot and walked past Roy and Shulk to the Tribal Council voting area, Knuckles uncapping the pen and began writing, Bonnie placing his vote in the urn.

Luigi made it back to the group to allow Freddy to stand and begin making his trip over.

"Unfortunately, based on the circumstances, I have no choice but to play the emperor card today. Sorry..."

Foxy was the very next to vote, Greninja and Marth following shortly after.

Shovel Knight placed his vote in the urn, but then he felt that it was not folded properly. Uncapping the urn, he took his vote out and made sure it was folded as perfectly as it possibly could have.

"There we go..." And back into the urn it went.

It was Shadow's turn to state his peace.

"Then it looks like when it comes to me, trust is gonna have to be broken once more..."

Zelda was the last to sit back down.

"I'll go tally the votes..."

Master Hand flew off to head to the voting booth himself as castaways waited, Roy briefly whispering to Shulk so that he knew his prediction of who was getting the boot.

"I think _ is going home..."

"We'll see..."

The urn was placed on the table.

"If anybody has a hidden immunity idol and you wanna play it, now would be the time to do so..."

Though this time people wanted to check on a couple others in case they were planning on standing, those same ones decided against it.

For Shovel Knight, however, he remained staring at the hand, making literally no movement whatsoever.

"...Okay."

That made Knuckles widened his eyes a little.

"Once the votes are read, the decision is final, person voted out will be asked to leave the Tribal Council area immediately. I'll read the votes..."

Shadow's eyes set straight on that urn the moment it was uncapped.

"First vote... Shadow."

"..."

"...Shadow. Two votes Shadow."

Not even a blink. Foxy took a look at some of the other members of his alliance for a brief moment.

"Shadow. Three votes Shadow."

Shulk had his mouth open a bit with a fist beneath his head, Greninja blinking once while Marth never blinked at all.

Knuckles bit his lip.

...

"Luigi."

Luigi Mario immediately lowered his head, Sheik exchanging a confused look with Greninja who hunched his shoulders. Shovel Knight, although confused, remained frozen in place.

"Luigi."

That was when Sheik began to look all over the place, with no look back from hardly anyone.

Roy's mouth slowly lowered.

"Shadow. Four votes Shadow, two votes Luigi."

Shadow remained rather confident as Freddy curled up his lip, Foxy keeping his arms folded and not looking at anyone.

"Luigi. That's three votes Luigi."

Luigi had a similar reaction to Sheik previously. Yet like last time, no one dared to look at him in the face.

"This is crazy..." Roy mumbled from the bench.

"We're tied."

Shovel Knight widened his eyes as Sheik held a hand over her mouth in shock.

"Four votes Luigi, four votes Shadow."

Shadow's eyes remained fixated.

...

"Luigi."

At that moment, Luigi covered his face out of complete distress.

"Five votes Luigi, four votes Shadow."

Shulk had a hand clasped over his mouth as well as Roy just let his dropped jaw be exposed in front of everyone.

Foxy started to form a small smirk of satisfaction with tied up arms.

"Oh, Arceus..." Greninja mumbled under his breath lowering his head a bit.

"Tied again."

!

This time, Shadow the Hedgehog let his mouth hang open as Luigi immediately lifted his head back up. A stunned Knuckles eyed around the tribal as Freddy turned his right to his fellow competitors out of disbelief. Though at the same time, it did not help Greninja, Shovel Knight, and Sheik from being even more surprised.

"Five votes Shadow, five votes Luigi, one vote left."

Marth's head rotated towards Zelda who waited patiently. Greninja shook his head from side to side not knowing what to think.

"Tenth person voted out of Survivor and the third member of our jury..."

...

"Shadow."

He cursed under his breath.

"You need to bring me your torch."

Greninja watched Bonnie hung his head down and facepalmed at his plan that failed, exhaling through his nose, Foxy shaking in disappointment, near a Knuckles that looked a bit ticked.

"I was right, but..." Roy mumbled staring at the castaways that were still in the running. "I didn't expect it to turn out like this..."

"Tried to play nice for once to get everybody on the same page, but... hope everyone's satisfied..."

Marth and Zelda watched Shadow placed down his torch.

"Shadow, the tribe has spoken."

Snuff.

"..."

"Time for you to go."

With no looking back, the Mobian hedgehog took his time heading down the stairs on his way out of the tribal.

"W-What...?" Luigi quietly whispered to no one in particular, being the most confused he was since the moment he stepped foot on the island.

"I guess I wasn't in the safest position after all..." Greninja muttered to himself.

"Alright, so here's where Bikutā stands in terms of communication..." said Master Hand. "Based on the shocked reactions from literally every single one of you including Shadow, maybe all ten of you really need to communicate with each other now to find out where each and every last person stands in regards to relationships. Grab your torches, head back to camp. Goodnight."

"Let the games begin..." Foxy mumbled as he and everybody else got up from their spots to retrieve their torches.

#Blindside

Votes:

Zelda - Shadow

Marth - Shadow

Shadow - Luigi

Freddy - Luigi

Luigi - Shadow

Sheik - Shadow

Greninja - Shadow

Knuckles - Luigi

Shovel Knight - Shadow

Bonnie - Luigi

Foxy - Luigi

11th Place: Shadow

"Ugh... I don't even know what to say... I had a feeling that I could be at least getting some votes, but I didn't expect to actually get the majority of the votes... I really feel like if I would survived tonight I would have made it a lot further than eleventh place. ...Though I suppose for the work that I did put in, I feel that I've played an all out game. I just hope that I get a second chance..."

Castaways Remaining:

Zelda, Marth, Freddy, Luigi, Sheik, Greninja, Knuckles, Shovel Knight, Bonnie, Foxy

Jury:

Shulk, Roy, Shadow

"Do you think it's even worth it to work with Shadow at this point?"

That's probably what did it lol. But dang... Shadow probably could have made it even further if Marth and Zelda chose to side with him again. But I guess the damage has already been done and they'd rather not take the risk of working with him again. Though anyway, it is safe to say that at this point, it's not Emperors vs Knights anymore since there are both emperors and knights on both sides. Oh and by the way, I think this is one of my favorite tribals of this story. Not just because of the outcome, but the discussion about the emperors and knights talking about each other in general of how they act and what has occurred thus far.

But dang again... Shadow, arguably the main villain of this fic is out! We'll see what he has to say in his Ponderosa chapter where he has to face both Shulk and Roy...

And off-topic, but... Incineroar joining Ryu on the Brawn tribe for "Survivor - Mexico!" I feel like Ryu, he is also literally the perfect fit for the tribe. So, why not? Even though Isabelle was the first Smash Ultimate newcomer revealed for Mexico, Incineroar was the first castaway from Ultimate that I considered.

Questions:

1. Do you see this blindside being bigger than Shulk's, or do you think Shulk's blindside was even bigger?

2. What do you make of Marth and Zelda's decision?

3. Just out of curiosity, who's your favorite character from this chapter?

4. Are you personally a fan of Incineroar?

Watch my YouTube intro if you haven't already, vote for your top five players on my poll if you haven't already, and I appreciate everyone to review! I'll see you all tomorrow for Shadow's jury chapter for Emperors vs Knights - Ponderosa! I encourage everyone to review!