Silence reigned throughout economy class. The tension between Noah and Tyler was nerve wracking to put it mildly. I found it hard to concentrate on my picross puzzles in spite of desperately trying to distract myself. I was concerned.

I glanced at Tyler and swallowed. Well the first thing to do would be to apologize to him. Even if he didn't accept it, giving him an explanation would alleviate some of the tension. In theory at least. Humans are volatile creatures.

"H-hey...um Tyler?" He glanced at me. I wanted to shrink into a tiny ball and disappear. I took a deep breath. "I-I want you to know that I meant nothing by voting for you last night. I-it's just that I had to vote for someone, and y-you." I frowned. How did I put this delicately? "W-well I'm not really friends with you..."

Tyler sighed. "I've forgiven you and Owen already. It's Noah I'm mad at. I don't think he likes me."

I shook my head. "It's more like he doesn't have a better choice. Think about it. Owen is his best friend, Alejandro is our leader and he's not going to vote for himself."

"And he wouldn't vote you out since you like him so much. I wouldn't vote out a girl who liked me." I found myself blushing. Was I that easy to read? Tyler's brows furrowed. "What about Bridgette?"

"S-she's new to the team, and no offense Tyler, but she made it to the merge in season 1. We could use a player like her." I explained.

Tyler nodded. "I guess I can see that. Okay, I won't stay mad at him, but I'm not going out of my way to talk to him either."

I smiled. "I'm sure he'd prefer that anyway. "

I made a stop at the confessional. "I'm pretty sure there's more to it than I told Tyler. The words he said, about taking out the lesser pieces before the king? I'm pretty sure Alejandro is the king. Noah really doesn't trust the guy. Since Tyler is so close to him it makes sense that Noah would target him."

I returned to economy class and sat down. I picked up my book of Picross puzzles and was about to resume solving my current one when I noticed something. One of the boxes I'd filled in had been erased, and the box next to it had been filled instead. I glanced at my teammates. Had one of them changed it?

"U-um Bridgette?" The blonde turned to me. "Did anyone pick up my picross book?"

Her eyes widened in realization. "Is that what that is? Sorry I just saw Noah with a book and assumed it was his."

I looked at Noah. He shrugged. "You made a mistake." I looked at my puzzle. Sure enough I had filled in the wrong square before. Not too surprising considering the tension in the room earlier.

"Noah, did you fix my mistake without telling me to save my ego?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "I just don't like leaving stupid mistakes if I see them."

I smiled. Even if that was the case, I was happy he'd noticed. Sometime later the lights went out and the plane began to jerk wildly. Chris spoke over the intercom. "Attention potential crash victims. Please remain calm. Our autopilot is testing some equipment. Snacks in the common area if you don't believe me and want a last meal."

We went to the common area to find a bowl of fruit. I was pleasantly surprised. Owen on the other hand was not. "You call these snacks? We're all gonna die!" Despite this he threw an entire bunch of bananas down his throat. Peels and all. I really hoped his stomach could handle that. Owen did not need more bowel problems.

I saw Courtney glare at Gwen and the goth winced. I walked over. "H-how are things?"

Gwen groaned. "At this rate I'll be lucky to survive the next elimination. Let alone make it to the merge."

I nodded. Then I observed the other team. Heather was safer than ever with Courtney going after Gwen and her three strong alliance. I didn't want that alliance making it to the merge. Even if there was only two more eliminations that would leave us with nine. An entire third of which would be Heather's. The question was how did I change things around? Heather's alliance was the majority of her team.

Wait. If I had noticed this problem then surely so had Courtney? She had to be desperate to get rid of the queen bee. I smirked. "I think I know how to get Courtney off your back and on to someone else's. I'm saying you'll be friends but her anger will be focused on something else."

Gwen sighed. "At this rate I'd do just about anything to stop it. As long as it doesn't involve cheating... it doesn't right?"

I shook my head. "O-on the contrary I believe you will enjoy this. You know how you hate Heather?"

"Yeah? What does that-" Gwen began. She noticed Courtney and Heather arguing. I saw the wheel turn. She smirked. "Oh, I get it."

"Get what?" Courtney asked huffily. "Gwen, why are you talking to the enemy team?"

Gwen turned to the Type A. "Oh we were chatting about all the horrible things Heather did to me in season 1. Reading my diary, ripping my skirt, setting up Trent. You know?"

Courtney looked surprised. "Yeah. Heather's done all sorts of horrible things this season too. She whipped me in the Yukon you know?"

"No way! That's terrible." Gwen sympathized.

"That's not even the half of it." Courtney said. I watched the two walk off. Well it was a start.

"What are you up to? Gwen's on the other team." Noah told me.

"I know but I'm working on a plan that'll benefit their team in the short term but us in the long term." I explained.

Noah frowned. "You're sounding a lot like a certain eel." Before I could respond the plane took a dive. We all screamed as the aircraft headed straight towards the ground. A foot or two from impact the plane suddenly halted, moved back into a horizontal position and then landed.

I was speechless. That was not normal, not by a long shot, I didn't have time to ponder this information as my attention was drawn to Owen having a panic attack. This whole thing clearly wasn't helping is aerophobia.

Luckily for Owen Alejandro was there. "Three, two, one...and you're back!" He snapped his fingers. Instantly Owen's panic attack stopped. He looked around in confusion.

"Oh, we landed already? I am so over my flying thing." He said.

"Alejandro? What was that about?" I asked.

"My uncle Julio is a hypnotist. I just gave him some post hypnotic suggestions. He should be fine as far as flying goes."

"Hypno therapy? Your talents never cease to amaze." I complimented him.

Chris had us exit the plane, where he explained that we were in... area 52? "Area 51 is where all the cool alien stuff is." Gwen pointed.

"Are you so broke we have to fake an area now?" Heather scoffed.

"Nope this really is area 52 and that's area 51 right there." Chris explained pointing at an area just a bit from us. "We're just inside the border. Well, all of us except Heather." A laser hit the queen bee. Courtney and Gwen both laughed at the same time. The Type A gave the goth an odd look.

The challenge was somewhat complex this time. Each team would take a different route to 51's black box warehouse. There we would have to find a working piece of alien technology, after which we would bring it back to the starting line. The first team to do so won invincibility. He also told us we shouldn't get caught as legend had it that trespassers had their minds wiped, then they were sent to an alien planet. Where they would be enslaved or eaten. I didn't find that likely but hell if I was going to test it out.

We found the trek there easy. As we approached the fence Noah suggested we look for entry points. "A good idea. You take Owen and Tyler, The ladies are with me." Noah looked like he might protest but both Owen and Tyler agreed. Noah didn't look happy about it.

We headed toward the fence. "So I couldn't help but notice you talking to Gwen earlier." Alejandro told me.

"I was just making sure Courtney didn't get too mad at her." I said, leaving out the strategy involved.

"Seriously? Gwen hasn't done anything. Courtney has no reason to be upset." Bridgette sighed.

Alejandro placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's good you care about your friend." He whispered. Bridgette got that far off look in her eye, as promised I snapped my fingers. Bridgette shook her head.

"That's nice." She stumbled over her words, moving a distance away. From ahead Noah called us. We joined up with the other three at the fence. A rabbit hopped ahead.

"Think it's safe to cross?" Tyler asked. A moment after he said this the rabbit was fried by a laser.

"I'll be on the plane!" Owen exclaimed. Noah stopped him.

"Don't worry chubby buddy, there must be some way to get across." Noah frowned.

I examined the lasers. "What if the laser track movement? If we could distract them with some other movement we might be able to avoid them."

Owen thought about it. "You mean like in the movies when they throw something to distract the guards?"

"That could work!" Bridgette agreed. We all got rocks and threw them as we ran across the field. Our plan worked somehow. I'm not entirely sure why but I wasn't about to question it.

Everyone made it save for Owen who was hit by a laser. It knocked him over the fence. "How'd you over there?" He asked us, seeming confused. That didn't lost long as a tube came out of the ground. It tried to suck him in but Owen was too big. So a larger tube came out, that one did suck him in.

Tyler ran to the fence to try and get to Owen. Unfourtney he thought he had to climb the fence. So while the rest of us just went in the archway Tyler got shocked repeatedly. He did make it over though.

"Dude no one said you had to climb the fence." Noah said with an eye roll.

"Alright we're in. We have to find Owen. If we go back without him Chris probably won't count it. He didn't in the Amazon." I told them.

"Perhaps we should split up then. three of us look for an alien artifact, and the other two go find Owen." Alejandro suggested.

"I'm going, I have to make sure he's okay." I told him.

"He's my best friend. I'm going with you." Noah told me.

As we entered the warehouse we heard Gwen say. "Wicked we beat Chris is really, really, really, really, hot here!"

Alejandro led us in. "On the contrary I believe you'll find you have not."

We told the Warriors what had happened with Owen. We didn't really have time to talk about it before Chris made things a lot harder for us. ". "Welcome to the Black Box Warehouse! Finding a functioning alien artifact here is going to be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack – a haystack with a black box security system, which I accidentally set off when I hacked into this PA. My bad."

An alarm started flashing and beeping. We all scattered in different directions. I had made it a little ways into the maze of boxes when I stopped to take a breath. I heard breathing behind me. I screamed and someone covered my mouth.

"It's me. Now be quiet or you'll get us caught." I sighed in relief it was just Noah. We had agreed to look for Owen together, so I guess he'd had the presence of mind to follow me.

You would think someone was large as Owen would be easy to find. You would be wrong as we ended up searching for quite awhile. In fact when we found the rest of our Team they had already found Owen. Of course Tyler and Alejandro were both getting shocked by aliens, and Owen was made up in a way that looked like the Joker. The blonde was listing off all the things he didn't remember as Bridgette struggled to remove the alien on Tyler.

I decided to help her. It was slow going and we were getting shocked like crazy. I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around me, so imagine my surprise when Owen pulled his underwear over his head and started singing take me out to the ball game in an oddly well done falsetto.

The aliens seemed to hate the song as they detached from Alejandro and Tyler's faces just so they could shut him up. :Hurry they're getting angrier!" Tyler cried. Alejandro quickly threw the aliens into a nearby box.

Just before we left I spotted Alejandro counting down from three and snapping his fingers at Owen. He was quite disoriented. He passed out and most of us ended up dragging him out of the warehouse.

On the way out we were running across a minefield that smelled faintly of sugar. Why I had no idea, but evidently the Warriors had exploded most of the mines. Sadly Tyler always has the worst luck. He stepped on one of the few intact mines. Needless to say the aliens were not intact once we get them to Chris. Team Warriors on the other hand got back with an artifact intact.

I pondered on my elimination. There wasn't much choice really. Tyler was pretty badly injured. Bridgette was useful, I liked Alejandro and Noah. Owen wasn't injured. Also he was Noah's best friend.

"Quill, might I speak with you?" Alejandro asked me.

"I-I suppose. What is it?" I asked.

I was wondering if you would be willing to vote out Owen?" He asked.

I frowned. "I'm not against it, but Tyler is pretty much useless at the moment. While Owen is certainly one of our least good members he's not injured. Besides, I have to wonder what your motive is here."

"What do you mean?" He asked me.

"W-well... It's just I saw you break Owen from a hypnotic trance before we left. Are you the reason he started singing?" I asked.

He sighed. "Yes, but you must understand. Owen has been irritating me. I just wanted to vent. It's not like it hurt him."

I nodded. "He has a habit of calling you a nickname you are clearly not fond of. Still that seems petty."

"It was, I admit it. I apologize sincerely for my actions." Alejandro said with a bow.

"Okay. Listen I'm going to vote out Tyler tonight since he's injured, but the next time we lose I promise I'll vote out Owen. As long as you don't use that post hypnotic suggestion again."

I promise I won't.' he told me sincerely.

At elimination Chris gave a talking down. "Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot, not a lot of teamwork going on tonight. Owen, wasting time on a new hairdo? Not cool. Alejandro, hypnotizing a teammate? Underhanded. Noah taunting Alejandro before you help him? Cold. Tyler killed your alien and is now hurt. So the one going home is…" Chris paused, dragging the moment out.

"Tyler!" Chris said.

"What!" he said looking at us.

"You were injured, I didn't want you to hurt yourself." Bridgette admitted.

"What she said." Noah added. The rest of us nodded.

I gave him a smile. "On the bright side you can see Lindsay again."

He brightened. "Yeah thanks guys." He leapt from the plane. Our team was one member down, but somehow things felt a lot less tense.