Survivor - Emperors vs Knights

Chapter 35 - Day 28 Part 2

Welcome back to Survivor! Today, you know what's coming. We're about to have our fourth member of the jury and it seems to be a battle between the alliances after the line was finally drawn last tribal! We have Chatan Four + Marth and Zelda versus the Pirate Crew.

And also, at this point, starting next chapter I'm going to reveal a character every chapter until all eighteen castaways are revealed for Survivor - Mexico based on how many chapters that are left for this story.

But we'll focus on this for right now. Let's see which alliance will win this...

Historyfan15: Yeah, the cards aren't exactly in their favor at the moment, but fortunately Survivor has proven time and time again that nothing is impossible.

~KF

Bikutā

Day 28

"Good job, Shovel Knight!"

"Your stack never fell once!"

"You and Greninja had it in the bag, man."

"I had to facer off again Shovel Knight again in a challenge,... but for real this time." Greninja the Pokémon laughed. "We were leading the pack the entire time, but I was never able to catch up with him, because risking your stack falling to the ground is not going to help anything in the long run. But, Shovel turned out to be the winner today, and I'm happy for him. So, we're all gonna let him have his moment."

The shovel wielder all of a sudden felt a hand on his shoulder from the water-type himself. "Congrats. This is your day, man. You deserve it."

"Thank you."

"No prob. Just... pretend it's like your birthday or something." He made the people around him chuckle. "Of course you wouldn't want to be voted off on you're own birthday, so just... be yourself and have a good time with conditions like these."

"I'll do my best. I really appreciate it."

"Feel really fresh to win this immunity necklace! Still part of this great adventure, and now I can cross me winning the individual immunity necklace off the list so I can tell Shield Knight all about it when I return home... unless I make the Loved Ones visit. Hopefully I can make it to the Loved Ones visit. I mean, I'd very like it if I'm able to bring her out here. She told me that she didn't know about actually applying for the show, but maybe this would change her mind so that she would actually go for it. This will show here that nothing is impossible..." All of a sudden he began to struggle holding back tears. "And if I can somehow not only get her out here, but also win this game,... I... it will be everything..."

As the group of ten began to separate minutes after they arrived at the shelter, Luigi and Shovel Knight decided to find a separate spot on the beach to talk, with Zelda making her way over as well.

"I wasn't even paying attention to how you were doing of course." Shovel chortled. "How did you do?"

"I mean, I did alright, I'm suppose." Luigi chortled with him scratching his uncapped head with his bare fingers. "At least my stack never fell. Knuckles's stack fell twice."

"Yeah, I heard." He nodded in agreement. "Geez... He's really been on the radar the last couple days. Hasn't he?"

"He's still upset that things didn't work out for him last tribal..."

At that point, the brunette completed her journey to the two original Chatan members. "Alright, I do not mean to interrupt..."

"Oh, worry not." Shovel Knight shook his head, already knowing what was going to come up. "Go ahead..."

"Alright, let's make this quick before anyone else beside our alliance gets here." After a brief head turn for her own safety, she nimbly rotated her head back around. "...Knuckles?"

"That seems to be the plan still. We do not have enough room to split votes, so Knuckles is going to be our play for this evening... Hopefully after tonight, there will be less tension here."

"Alright, then." She nodded. "I'll go remind Marth so that you guys would not have to worry about looking for him to talk privately with all day."

By the time Zelda left, Luigi faced Shovel Knight one last time.

"...So today is Knuckles, done. Right?"

"Don't worry. I'll make sure you aren't going anywhere, because I'm not going anywhere. Once we get rid of Knuckles, then we will have enough room to split votes next time."

"I still can't believe that I almost got blindsided last time." Luigi of course could not have let that thought go just yet. "One more vote, I would have been eating all the spaghetti at Ponderosa right now. ...Well, I do like spaghetti, but even though being voted out is the only way I can get to it, of course I am not gonna just vote myself out of the game or anything. I'm trying to make it as far as I can. So since it was a close call last time, I suppose what goes around comes back around. I was apparently the 'safe vote' to the other alliance, so now I guess it's time for us to do the same thing... Sort of..."

-/-

"...And there goes Marth with Sheik and Greninja getting water..."

"Yeah, it's pretty clear that no one wants to work with us..."

Freddy and Bonnie turned out to be the only two remaining at the shelter, the former eyeing the latter cooking the rice over the fire.

"Maybe a full stomach can change their minds since I'm the one that's cooking today."

Though Freddy actually laughed at Bonnie's joke, it was a clear attempt for Bonnie to humor the unfortunate situation they were in. "Though that would be cool, they seem to have already made their message clear..."

"I won't even be surprised if people think that I have an idol at this point." Fazbear relaxed his back against a rock watching the waves crash on the shore. "Roy's already gone, so I'm the only emperor that was on Motobu, so for old Nago members, there's literally no other option here. That leaves me with two options. I could either A, get it over with and let them flush the idol by me playing it on whoever might get the votes so that I'm not paranoid anymore no matter what, or B, don't play anything at all, guaranteeing one of my allies going home without anything being played on them... including myself... And I need not one, but two people to flip. Marth and Zelda are the only two choices, but after the reward, I'm getting a vibe that Marth has no plans on working with me even though I'm the only emperor in my alliance these days, which means that he's going to tell Zelda everything I said, so that I'll be in even more hot water than ever before... Suddenly option A is turning out to be the better choice."

-/-

Getting closer to the time to where the castaways had to leave for the Tribal Council, Marth managed to find some much needed time alone with Zelda.

"...How comfortable are you?"

"Hmm... I think I'm in a rather comfortable position... which is quite relieving to say given my history in the game." Zelda answered Marth. "However,... I am curious to know what you think. Everyone knows that even though we're the two who are the most likely to stay, we're both being looked at by literally everyone. So as long as you're here, then I'm safe."

"After nearly thirty days in this game, I can say for the first time in the competition, I do not feel as if I am in a desperate situation." She said. "I was a target since the first Tribal Council, and then I became a crucial swing vote. It was up to me and Marth to make a decision, and even though we were considering on actually working with Shadow, despite him seemingly actually thinking twice about his decisions, in the end, we felt that in the long run, working with Shadow the Hedgehog... might not have been our best ally moving forward. To both me and Marth, he's the definition of a wildcard. One minute he's with you, next he's not. And unfortunately, as much as I may hate to say it, it is rather difficult to trust someone who is unpredictable as Shadow. For all we know, he could have been simply pretending that we're his allies long-term, when near the end of the game, he could suddenly turn on us again last minute. This is simply what happens when you work with people you don't think you can trust."

Marth meanwhile, was wandering in the forest with his canteen when he ran into Luigi Mario.

"Oh, hello Luigi. Didn't see you there. Zelda just informed me that the plan was still set on Knuckles for tonight. Is that the case?"

"Yes." He nodded. "He's one of the people from the enemy alliance that they don't expect for an idol to be played on with Freddy and Foxy in a way. ...And I'm really starting to believe that Freddy has an idol. That being said, our best play is to flush it out so that everyone here is safe."

"Right." By that logic, Marth could not have agreed more. "...Just one question, though. So the six of us are going to the final six, am I correct."

"Well, I in particular have no plans on turning on anyone before we get to the six... unless someone happens of course."

"Hmm..." Marth was suddenly thinking a bit more in his mind, allowing silence to step in for a few moments. "Do you really think we'll make it to six?"

"Depends on all the right moves that we need to make."

Now there was the main question that Marth desired to ask. "...So in your opinion, what do you think will happen once we get to six?"

"..."

"You know, even though me and Zelda are a duo out here, I feel like we are at the bottom no matter what alliance we are a part of." Marth had to admit. "We already turned on Shadow because he was not exactly trustworthy enough,... but that doesn't mean that we just don't trust everyone else in that alliance. ...But then again I don't know if I can really trust... Chatan Four (as their called) either... But they're called Chatan Four for obvious reasons. You simply count one, two, three, four, all original Chatan members. And I am afraid that me and Zelda have old Nago blood... So naturally, without a doubt, there's a possibility that Luigi, Greninja, Shovel Knight, and Sheik, are all going to go all the way as far as I'm concerned, and me and Zelda just get picked off one by one..."

"Well,... I guess nothing is ever certain until we all meet our common goal over here." was all Luigi could say, in spite of now having ten million thoughts flowing through his mind.

That made Luigi giggle slightly, slowly stroking his hand down his face. "That is what Shulk told me that people always say. ...I mean, not that I do not have any faith in your or anything. Don't get me wrong..."

"Oh no, we're still on the same page." The Mario brother immediately shook his head.

"I mean, I guess I can not blame you given your position, since coming into the merge I was not in the best position, anyway. ...Let us predict then. Who do you think is number six? Any of you four, or me and Zelda?"

"..."

"...?"

With even more silence rising Marth's concerns, Luigi finally managed to come up with a few words for his response. "The best I can tell you is that we will make sure we get to six, and then we can go from there."

"Obviously, Luigi is not making me feel any better when it comes to my new alliance..."

-/-

Lowell managed to find Zelda once again, Tribal Council time coming closer than ever.

"Excuse me, Zelda, but I am afraid I might have to borrow your time for a minute..."

"Oh, you're not interrupting me, Marth. Anything new?"

He prepared his words with a deep sigh. "Well, I've just had a small conversation with Luigi a little while ago, and I've asked him basically of where me and you stood in the alliance... since we're clearly the only two emperors in that alliance."

"That I am well aware of." Zelda was already bobbing her head up and down. "I mean Marth, we both know the consequences no matter what side we took. But I really think that aligning with Shadow of all people is far more dangerous than aligning with any of the knights. At least with the old Chatan members, they were never known for flipping and blindsiding others as much as Shadow."

"Valid point, indeed." Marth nodded in reaction. "I just... I mean, I understand what you say,... but Shadow is not even here anymore. Freddy's an emperor and he clearly isn't jumping ship again. ...Do you just think that it's possible to work with him again?"

"...I..." Now it was the Hyrulian's turn to sigh. "I really like Freddy, Marth. I really do. But, as long as we're in different alliances, I unfortunately don't see myself working with him again. We... we're not exactly on the same side of the fence..."

He blinked once. "Alright, so long story short, you don't think we should switch sides..."

"...I simply do no think so in my opinion, Marth." She slowly turned her head side to side.

"...I understand." The Altean hero was staring at the ground at that point. "I guess as long as the both of us are still in the game, that's all that matters right?"

She smiled warmly. "Well, without a doubt we do see eye to eye with that."

"Let me just check in with Freddy. He's been rather quiet today and I want to make sure he is not in a rather... depressed state of mind or anything if you know what I mean."

"Zelda clearly has no intentions on flipping... which does not help anything at all. I was trying to remind her that even though voting out Shadow was in our best interest, we still have more problems to deal with in regards to the Chatan Four. None of them I've known before the merge. Not one. Zelda herself did not know about half of them before we all merged here. And on top of that, Bonnie, Knuckles, and Foxy all felt like they would have been on the bottom of Chatan at different points, so naturally, those four are as tight as ever. I highly doubt me and Zelda are at least making it to four. Making it to six sounds nice, but I doubt Zelda realizes that one of us will be number six. Yet Zelda still wants to stick with them, even though I think Freddy is more trustworthy than any of Chatan Four. And it limits my options because if I don't have Zelda with me, then we're both in trouble..."

He was now with Freddy.

"Just so you know that whatever happens, the fact that all seven knights that made it to the merge are still in this competition right now, I am well aware of that. Just so you know."

Though Freddy grinned, Fazbear was clearly worried deep inside his mind. "Well, I guess this is what happens when ten emperors are going at each other's throats..."

Tribal Council

Night 28

The top half of the Survivor contestants all arrived at the Tribal Council area with their torches in hand, doing the usual routine before they each sat down in the seats before them.

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

Like the saying went: three was plenty. And in this case scenario, three jury members signaled that at that point in the game, the jury was really starting to build up. If one never thought of such, then it was certain to grow larger soon as each Tribal Council passed.

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

Upon his name being called, the anthropomorphic hedgehog simply shot a normal glance at the remaining competitors with no real emotion standing out from his face. He never appeared to be mind, yet at the same time, he never appeared to be happy to be on the jury either. Yet it seemed he finally got over it and was now just there to do his job: simply observe and gather information with the other jury members. The hedgehog of course had to vote for somebody at the final tribal.

Knuckles was already shaking his head in annoyance as he glanced at the master.

"Alright, so last Tribal Council, I finished the discussion off with the word, 'communication.'" The white-gloved hand recalled. "And clearly, judging by the reactions of everyone, there was so clear communication that needed to occur. Luigi, apparently your name was one of the two that was written down, but you're the one that's still here."

Shadow blinked with folded arms.

"I'll let you go first and explain to me what was the reaction when you guys returned to camp."

"Oh, okay. Well, after we got back to camp, I was trying to figure out who wrote my name down... Um..." He laughed nervously at the memory of Master Hand reading his name for the first time since his first tribal. "...Kind of nerve wracking to say the least."

Bonnie nearly chuckled at his laugh even though he was guilty. In fact, more guilty than anyone since the Luigi vote was one hundred percent his idea.

"But besides Shadow, apparently the people that went after me were..." He began with the finger pointing. "Bonnie, Foxy, Freddy, and Knuckles. Everybody else put Shadow's name, and that last vote saved my life."

"Last two votes." Marth reminded him.

"Oh yeah, right."

"Marth, what do you mean by last two votes?" Master Hand asked.

"You see, at the merge, Shulk and Roy got eliminated one after the other." He pointed to the jury with his whole hand. "There was nobody else I had to rely on but Zelda, so we were the only two that were on the bottom against nine other tribe members. But then suddenly, we were approached by this, um... Hidden Five alliance."

Now all of Chatan Four was dead focused on Marth.

"Shadow told me that all the emperors needed to work together to get rid of a knight, since there are no knights on the jury yet. Bonnie, Foxy, and Knuckles have apparently been ready to flip for a while, and so to them, last tribal was the perfect time for them to do that. Chatan Four, Greninja, Luigi, Sheik, and Shovel Knight, all wanted to write down Shadow, leaving me and Zelda in the middle. But in the end, we chose to vote out Shadow because we both thought that he was just not trusting enough."

Finally Shadow showed so emotion by greatly rolling his eyes as if he wanted them to pop out of his own head.

"Okay, so I guess I'll speak to Zelda." The master decided. "Zelda, like Marth said, you also were apparently in the middle, so I figure that besides him, you're probably the one with the most unbiased opinion. So you two decided to go one way, and as a result, it is safe to say that a line was probably drawn in the sand. What do exactly make of that?"

"Well, there is in fact quite a bit to say." She started. "Of course the alliance we went against was not satisfied since the plan was to vote out Luigi for safety, basically. They were uncertain of who had the idol. But as far as for everyone that was originally a knight in this game, let's just say that original Chatan are officially at opposite ends. Out of the people that we turned on, Knuckles was the most vocal."

"Okay, so Knuckles, care to take it from here?"

As all eyes were on him, the echidna surprisingly decided against it. "...Nah, not this way."

This caused a few confounded eyebrows to be raised.

"What I'm gonna do, is that we're all are gonna hear what someone from Chatan Four has to say, and then I'll talk. How about that?"

Aside from the couple smirks of laughter, everyone of 'Chatan Four was looking in quite a few directions, Sheik shaking her head while Greninja exhaled through his seemingly invisible nose.

"...Well," Master Hand held a hand out. "however you wanna do it. So, apparently Chatan Four consists of Sheik, Luigi, Greninja, and Shovel Knight. ...Let's go with Greninja on this one. Care to take it from here?"

"Alright, let me explain." He nodded his head. "Right after we found out that Knuckles, Bonnie, and Foxy all this time were never really on the same page as the rest of us and how they were working together on the low to get one of us out, Knuckles confronted us, called me and Sheik a 'power couple', called Luigi and Shovel Knight a power couple, and how we all formed a tight alliance of four to dictate things back on old Chatan, provoking them to get rid of us."

"..." Knuckles actually blinked a couple times. "Well, I initially expected you to try and exaggerate or something, but I suppose you were pretty spot on."

The Pokémon in return made no comment.

"Now I'm gonna talk. You see master, you know about modern Survivor. People have finally come to realize that in every alliance somebody's on the top, and somebody's on the bottom. No matter how hard those four tried to make it seem like we were all one happy tribe going to make it to final seven, there were three of us that were never part of the final plan. We all know there are not seven spots available at day thirty-nine. But for some reason, they really thought that we were stupid enough to actually believe that it was gonna be the seven for the whole way."

"Knuckles, it is not that we all thought that you were all stupid." Sheik stepped in, shaking her head to disagree with his comments. "We were all just wanting to work together with you three for as long as possible to get people out of the game that satisfy our common goal. I know that there are only three spots at the end. But what we didn't expect is that the knights were gonna be broken up this early in the merge at the Shadow vote."

"And to back up what Sheik is trying to say," now Greninja finally decided to reply. "everyone that was all part of old Chatan, including Cloud, Rouge, and Krystal, were all well aware of what we were trying to accomplish as a tribe. Harmony and bonding was the number one priority, one hundred percent. We thought that if we all didn't work together as a tribe, things would have took a turn for the worst and we would have been even more dysfunctional, rather than remaining as a unit... or basically the old Emperors tribe..."

He gave a brief look to Zelda. "No offense..."

"None taken..."

"Alright, so before we continue on with the main discussion, I just want to get this question out the way." Master Hand seemed to be directing his comments to the Chatan Four directly. "Is your relationship with Knuckles on the rocks?"

"Well,... not on the best of terms." Sheik responded with a small smile with a hint of sarcasm. "That is probably the nicest way I can put it."

Knuckles had nothing to say.

If Master Hand would have smirked just at that moment, he certainly would have. "Remember what I talked about last tribal?"

"Communication." said Greninja.

"Well,... there ya go."

Shulk slightly chuckled to himself from the bench.

"And I feel like me, Sheik, Luigi, and Shovel Knight tried our hardest to communicate with Knuckles, Bonnie, and Foxy properly, but Knuckles just felt as if we were trying to dictate everybody. I mean, I just wanted to make myself clear when I say that if we were trying to dictate the tribe, it was never my, or anyone from this 'Chatan Four Alliance's intention. I figured we were all just doing our part to stay unified to be the other tribe."

"But I think the thing is," Bonnie started to talk. "okay, I'm not trying to point fingers at anyone or call anyone out. I just wanna say that as a tribe, we without a doubt did a great job by keeping the Chatan family together for as long as we could. The knights are thought to be the underdogs in situations like this, and how we all prepared for that to happen if we were the ones that would have been at the bottom at merge. And the fact that we outnumbered the emperors at that point was amazing for all of our games. No matter how many different agendas there were, not all tribes care about tribe unification and harmony, so I believe that we all should be proud of ourselves by how far we have come."

And every single member of the old Chatan tribe agreed in some sort of way.

"But it's safe to say at this point, whether we all like it or not, we believed that it was simply time for us to part ways and... clearly things didn't exactly work out in our favor," The bunny referenced the previous tribal once again. "but basically when it came to us, we felt that we weren't exactly included in the final plan with you four. Sheik and Greninja were perceived to be a tight pair just as much as Luigi and Shovel Knight, leaving the rest of us in the dark, and you all know no matter what, none of us were just gonna sit still and do nothing about our own fate the few opportunities we had to control it. We took a shot last time, and unfortunately we missed. Now it's basically... game on for all of us."

"Well," Sheik smirked back. "I appreciate you for being a good sport."

Knuckles was not afraid to roll his eyes.

"So Bonnie, basically what you're trying to say is that... 'Yeah, we're all getting along well, but unfortunately, we're at the bottom. And as much as I like you, you leave me with no other choice but to vote you out.'"

He nodded in complete agreement. "Long story short. I think you explained it better than I did."

"You see, master," Sheik spoke once more. "it is not like we all have anything against these three. We all uplifted each other in a certain way back in the pre-merge, and then we all came together and discussed which was the best option for all of us... But I guess at that point was where new plans were beginning to form, and I think that was when we all unofficially became divided."

"Give me an example."

"Freddy for example was the target at merge for potentially being a physical threat, but then Foxy suggested we target Shulk instead because Freddy wanted to flip... and now we really see what he meant by that."

"Foxy."

"...Can't say that she's wrong, I'll admit." He found it pointless to lie. "And I'll be honest. For me personally, I still didn't want a knight to go home at that point. Even if I was working with Freddy and Shadow under the radar, I still wanted to work the Knights Alliance. I mean, we fought hard to have the advantage over the emperors for a reason. That benefitted us, and me personally because I thought that with the emperors in the minority, that was the advantage. So clearly I still cared about the tribe no matter how many differences we had."

"I'll put it like this: we have Marth and Zelda in the middle of the bunch at the final eleven, trying to decide which employees they wanted to hire for the job. We worked our butts off to make sure our interviews were on point, but unfortunately, they preferred Chatan Four over us, and that's fine. If that's who Marth and Zelda decided to play with, then that's on Marth and Zelda... but now I'm at the bottom where I really gotta live up to my name now."

"Well, we didn't prepare ourselves for nothing..." Bonnie gradually turned his head side to side. "If we gotta play from the bottom now, then that's how we gotta do it..."

...

"Alright, well, I believe after Bonnie's final words, then I guess it is time to vote to see how this all plays out. Shovel Knight, you're up."

He rose from his seat and began making his way over to the urn to cast his vote, him completely facing the camera before doing so. "No matter if an emperor or a knight goes home, I hope us knights have at least shown the world how to cooperate with one another."

Following Freddy and Bonnie, Knuckles was having his own voting confessional at the urn.

"I know I'm being painted the bad guy now, but if you come into the game expecting every single person from the same tribe to be with you each and every step of the way, especially these days, that's not how Survivor works. If Luigi would have went last time, you guys would have learned that the hard way."

Zelda calmly stood up from her seat and made her way past three of the other emperors that were on the jury, Shadow watching her writing a name down from his spot on the bench, still with arms folded.

Sheik followed right behind Greninja and Marth.

"Well, unlike back at camp, I can say that we had a bit of a healthy discussion about all of this. I suppose that it's a way of how we can all deal with everything right now..."

Foxy Michaels went ahead and wrote down his target, and Luigi was last, though certainly not least.

"To be honest, I don't even care which one of you goes home at this point. I just don't wanna go through the 'almost being voted out' process all over again. I've already gone through it twice, and it really could have been me last time. Though with respect, I wish you the very best of luck."

And with that, he sat back down.

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

Everyone, including the three jury members all waited patiently and quietly. Some stared into nowhere lost in their thoughts, while other eyed straight at Master Hand as the votes were tallied.

At long last, he made it back to the table to place down the urn.

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

All of Chatan Four slowly turned their heads towards Freddy Fazbear, with caused some stares in reaction from members of the Pirate Crew, all except Freddy himself.

...

And he stood up. "I'll go ahead and play it..."

Foxy looked rather surprised. "Wait, really?"

That caused a couple members of Bikutā to shoot stares of slight amusement as a reaction.

"You didn't know?" asked Greninja.

"No I really didn't." He hunched his shoulders with a grin. "Me, Shovel, and Luigi were watching him and Roy all the time."

"I found it at night." Freddy replied.

"Ah..."

By the time he made his way over to Master Hand, taking a good look at his tribe, before back at the Survivor host again. "You know, normally when you only have one idol on you, you clearly want to play this for yourself and be done with it, but even though it's the only one I'm holding onto, in a selfish game such as Survivor, sometimes you have to be the opposite and be selfless instead. That being said,..."

Bonnie, Knuckles, and Foxy all watched.

"...Knuckles, this is for you."

A mix of jaw dropping expressions and raised eyebrows from the other nine survivors nearly all exchanged glances, the shocked members of the jury witnessing it all as Master Hand received Freddy's idol.

"Alright, I'm staying no matter what, then..." Knuckles eventually nodded in acceptance.

"Let's see how it plays out..." Foxy put his fist beneath his chin cocking his head.

"This is a hidden immunity idol." Master Hand held it out. "Any votes cast against Knuckles, will not count. I'll read the votes..."

Literally everyone all stared and waited.

"First vote..."

Bonnie kept his eyes closed.

"...Knuckles. Does not count."

Immediately the echidna buried his face in his hands sighing in great relief, Foxy hanging his mouth open in amazement as Greninja shook his head in response not being satisfied at all.

Shadow being in the opposite mood however, he nodded as if it was what he wanted.

"Knuckles. Does not count."

"Knuckles. Does not count."

"...Aw, man..." Not having to worry, Knuckles shook Freddy's hand in defense. "Good job, man. I owe you one."

"No problem..."

Luigi just sat still and shook his head with a somewhat saddened expression since things were unable to turn out the way he wanted to.

"Knuckles. Does not count."

"Knuckles. Does not count."

...

"Greninja."

With his heart plummeting, the frog-like Pokémon found his eyes on the floor.

"One vote Greninja."

Sheik facepalmed with both of her hands.

Shadow bobbed his head up and down once more.

"Greninja. Two votes Greninja."

Freddy could not have been any happier, Foxy bringing his fist down feeling victorious.

Poor Greninja still could not have looked up at the master, feeling that his dreams were just seconds away from being crushed.

"Eleventh person voted out of Survivor and the fourth member of our jury, Greninja. That's three, that's enough. You need to bring me your torch."

With a vocal sigh, he calmly did what was told of him, right before he was immediately hugged by Sheik, Shovel Knight, and Luigi following behind.

"Well, it's official." Shulk spoke watching Greninja making his way over to Master Hand. "It's not an Emperors club anymore..."

Suddenly, Sheik immediately felt that something was wrong, whispering to Shovel Knight. "Wait... Greninja's name was read thrice, but only five votes were for Knuckles..."

Luigi almost instantly widened his eyes in reaction. "W-Wait... does that mean?"

Shovel Knight hunched his shoulders as a confused Zelda eyed the cast one by one. Yet when she faced a certain resident of Altea, her mouth slowly dropped.

Foxy, Knuckles, and Bonnie slowly began to follow suit out of great relief, eyeing the blue-haired castaway as well.

He made no eye contact.

"Wait..." Roy blinked out of disbelief. "...What?"

"No way..." Shulk commented.

Even Shadow the Hedgehog held his mouth open.

"Greninja, the tribe has spoken."

"They sure did..."

Snuff.

Foxy briefly turned to Freddy. "Did you know...?"

"We talked last minute."

"Time for you to go."

Zelda, who could not have kept her eyes off of Marth, suddenly found hers meeting his.

"You're not going anywhere. I'll explain later."

"..."

"Trust me..."

"...Well, looks like we have the shocked reactions once again." Master Hand analyzed. "I don't know what it is with this group, but as of late, you guys have developed some sort of a talent for blindsides. Maybe it's in your blood. Grab your torches, head back to camp. Goodnight."

With a million thoughts of feelings running through peoples' minds, they all picked up their torches and headed out of the tribal.

#Blindside

Votes:

Zelda - Knuckles

Marth - Greninja

Freddy - Greninja

Luigi - Knuckles

Sheik - Knuckles

Greninja - Knuckles

Knuckles - Greninja

Shovel Knight - Knuckles

Bonnie - Greninja

Foxy - Greninja

10th Place: Greninja

"Well, hashtag blindside for me. I thought that voting out Knuckles was a safe option because I had a feeling Freddy had that idol from Motobu, but that didn't work out. And to top it all off, apparently Marth flipped. Don't know why, but he did. Oh well. Win some, you lose some. I just want to take the time and thank my trainer Calem for signing me up for this. It was really a lot of fun and I had the time of my life out here. Wouldn't change a thing."

...

*Sighs* Here we go again I guess lol. Imma just jump right into the questions because I don't even know what to say lol. I don't even know what to focus on. The fact that the Pirate Crew prevailed or the fact that Marth flipped. ...Why not both? lol.

Questions:

1. What do you think about Marth's flip? Do you think he's actually playing smart, or do you think time will tell?

2. So now that the Pirate Crew is back in the majority, the rest of Chatan Four plus Zelda (or not based on what Marth said idk), who do you guys think might go home next?

Oh, and one more thing before anyone asks. Yes, the Loved Ones visit is happening in this story like last time. But I'm not telling when lol.

Vote for your top five characters of the season if you haven't already, watching my Emperors vs Knights YouTube intro, and I encourage everyone to review! See ya on Saturday! Greninja's Ponderosa chapter will be up soon! (I'm actually slightly behind on Ponderosa so if it's not coming out tomorrow, hopefully by Saturday.)