All right! Not a great episode, but hey, that's OK. Thanks for reviewing, yeezynight14, Nicky Haugh, Pokemon FTW, OmniPlanckInstant, SuperKitty4789, Piecesxoxo and Bloodylilcorpse.

Oh yeah, and when Danni says "Pardon my French", she means "degage", which is French for "piss off".

During the free day, and the time Mike was back, he must have told Zoey what happened, because she approached me in the afternoon and asked me about it. There wasn't much to say, though.

All I could say was "I think one of Mike's personalities smashed my watch face. But judging everything, I think it's one who hasn't shown up before." That's when a memory came back to me. "Wait! Do you remember the campfire ceremony, the one after the statue building challenge? You thought Mike said something, but he hadn't."

Zoey gave a gasp. "I should've guessed! Of course Mike wouldn't remember saying anything if one of his personalities had taken hold for a second. Did you hear what he said, and what voice he said it in?"

I paused, trying to remember what he'd said. "I can't remember exactly. It was something about everyone falling, one by one. Like we're all targets. I guess the personality is just as desperate to win as the big villains. All I remember about the voice is that it was really deep. Sort of demonic, even."

Zoey frowned, nervousness crossing her face. "That's worrying. You think it's another personality, and it sounds like that to me too. Mike wouldn't tell me what he thought was going on. All he said was that he needed to figure things out for himself, and he'd tell me once he was sure."

I nodded. "Yeah, I think Mike knows something about this personality, if it is another personality. I wonder why he doesn't want to say anything? Does that mean..." I paused. "That this personality is dangerous? I read online that most people with Mike's condition has a personality that acts as an anger outlet. I know Chester is an outlet for frustration, but most of his other personalites seem pretty upbeat."

That evening, when I talked to Lightning, we swapped stories about our teams. I kept quiet about Mike, but I had a decade's worth of gossip from Sierra, as well as my own team stuff, so I had plenty to talk about. I confided that for one thing, Lindsay had told me that Brick reminded her of Tyler, her boyfriend, "Only not as cute and more bossy". Made sense – Brick had Tyler's nice-guy tendencies and couldn't help having a certain amount of goofiness. There were a few other things, too, but ultimately, what Lightning told me about the Villains was a lot more interesting. We were sitting together on a log, and I leaned into his hold as I listened.

Apparently, life was not harmonious among them. Heather had gone into major bossy mode, and so far, none of the stronger personalities had told her to shut up. Gwen went around looking not only pale, but drawn, too, talking to barely anyone.

"She does talk to Duncan, sometimes," Lightning admitted, "But you can tell he has to make an effort – and even he can't get her to smile for more than a second!"

Duncan was pretty much OK by himself. He was always one of the more easygoing members of the cast outside of challenges, so apparently he hadn't managed to annoy anyone else. Scott had mentioned throwing a challenge once, but he hadn't actually done anything to oust anyone so far.

That left Alejandro, who apparently wasn't trying to lead the team this time around. "So what is he doing?" I asked.

Lightning shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe nothin'."

I narrowed my eyes. "If World Tour taught me nothing else, it did let me know that if that's true, Alejandro's either planning something, or he's really doing a lot but is able to keep it hidden. I'm not surprised he's letting Heather get away with being bossy, though. I wish they'd just start dating already. I mean, Scott told me I'd lose focus once I started dating you, but have I?"

"I wouldn't have dated you if you had!" Lightning laughed, pulling me into a kiss. "You better be last Hero standing this time!"

"Not if you're last Villain standing." I countered. "You'd hate me forever if I outranked you again!"

"Can't hate the cutie of the cosmos." Lightning laughed again.

I pecked him on the lips. "Very poetic. I didn't even know you knew the word cosmos!"

"I had a good tutor." This time, when Lightning kissed me, I didn't have a chance to reply before he kissed me again, and we would've been making out properly if not for-

"Villains, head to the mess hall!" It was dinnertime, and Chris had decided to announce it through the loudspeaker. "And Lightning, you might want to make sure your teammates don't catch you frenching the enemy."

I gave a sigh and stood up. "Pardon my French, but Chris can go degage because I'm still your girlfriend." I blew Lightning one more kiss, and then went back to the spa hotel.

The next day started out rainy and grey. I only went out once – I was going stir-crazy that morning, and so I went to the confessional just for something to do, even though I got soaked (look, it didn't rain at all last summer – I didn't think to bring an umbrella). Then, I vented. "This season is weird, but things are actually going...well, mostly okay. I'm worried about what's going on with Mike. I hope his reaction means he knows what's going on, because then he might know how to fix it. Or it might give us some ideas on how to fix it...I don't know. But...well, at least the Villains haven't done too much. Apart from Scott hiding that puzzle piece of ours on the wrong side, there's been nothing else." I'd actually asked Sierra if it was normal for the Villainous Vultures she'd met to do nothing.

She'd paused as she thought, then said "Heather is more of an opportunist. If she doesn't see a way to make us lose, she'll play fair. Alejandro usually sought ways to mess with everyone. I think he's either trying to mend his ways, or, more likely, he's too into Heather to think about that." At that moment, she'd whispered to me "I totally wasn't the only one unsurprised when Alejandro said he was in love with her at the finale!"

"I know!" I'd said. "Didn't you say that by the final four, the show felt like a double date?"

Sierra giggled. "I totally forgot about that! After a while, though – it kind of felt like Cody and I were playing wingman – and wingwoman – to the other two, since Cody just wanted to be friends at the time."

Anyway, back to the present. I'd finished my confessional, so I went back to the hotel for a while. I even went to the masseuse room and got a great massage from one of the interns.

But once the weather cleared up, it was time to leave and start the next challenge. It became sunny before the morning was out. Mike returned, looking reasonably unhurt from his time on Boney Island, but he looked pretty tired, too.

"How did exile go?" I asked in a whisper. "Did you figure out whatever it was?"

"I think so. Tell you later, okay?" Mike whispered back. He directed the last sentence at Zoey, too, just so she wasn't left out of the loop.

As it turned out, today was eating challenge day. The poor Villains didn't even get proper cooked gruel, because Chef was busy making two giant stacks of pancakes for everyone. Basically, one member of each team would eat as much pancake as they could in one minute. Then, they'd run an obstacle course. "It's a callback to the Mad Skills course from last season." Chris said. "The toughest parts, anyway."

Gulp. I could take the obstacle course easy, but not after stuffing pancake in my mouth for a full minute. I'd barf for sure.

There was no Grand Slam for this particular course. It had pretty much the fifth, third and finally first obstacle. I momentarily wondered how Mike would do – last time, Svetlana had done the fifth obstacle for him.

"That won't be so hard." Scott scoffed.

"Really?" Chris scowled. "Huh. I wasn't gonna add this, but since Scott's not impressed..." He pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket and called "Bring it in!"

And that's when we discovered the new obstacle. Chris called it the Salad Spinner, but it was really just a device that spun the contestants majorly fast.

The winning team was the one that finished their pancakes and one last run of the obstacle course first.

Oh, and one more thing. Anyone who puked got taken out of the challenge. They wouldn't be allowed to eat again. So, let's say you've finished the obstacle course, then you puke. Meaning? You've just wasted a lot of time that the person going next could've taken eating. I hoped with all my heart I wouldn't do that.

I didn't. Really! Sierra started for us, and Alejandro began for the Villains. Things went OK. Sierra looked for a moment like she was about to puke when she found the first booby trap – yeah, Chris had forgotten to mention them. For Sierra, it was fish eyes, and she nearly ate them all, mistaking them for blueberries.

Alejandro got worse. He found a couple of rats in the Villains' stack.

Both Alejandro and Sierra were evenly matched, sort of. Sierra was very athletic, but Alejandro was at a disadvantage due to having a paralyzed lower body. Well, he should have – but he seemed to do fine. They finished at almost the same time, leaving Scott and Lindsay to eat next. Thing was, Lindsay was super slow. Scott had apparently eaten too much gruel earlier, but he still managed to eat more than Lindsay – and finish the obstacle course while she was still halfway through the rolling pins.

I felt duty-bound to volunteer once Lindsay had finished the spinner, and ran up, level with Gwen, who was stuffing pancake into her mouth like her life depended on it. Well, yeah, I got the idea why, but her pale complexion was almost green by the time she got to the obstacle course.

I wasn't much better, trying to eat past the mousetrap that had been a nightmare to get off my lips (and now they were probably swollen). And as if that wasn't enough, Gwen puked all over the rolling pins, and that prompted me. We both ended up on the benches.

Well, at least I didn't waste time doing the obstacle course.

I remembered Lightning saying that Gwen had been quiet and withdrawn all season, so I smiled at her and spoke up. "Hi."

Gwen looked up, muttered "hi" and looked back down.

"What's wrong?" I asked straight out. "I mean, yeah, I know, the obstacle course was killer and my throat feels like crap so yours probably does too, but I get the feeling there's something else. Is it your team?"

"Not really." Gwen muttered. "They're okay. Sort of. And it's not the label, either. I get it. It's just..."

She hesitated.
"I won't tell anyone if you tell me." I swore. "No one can get that out of me."

Gwen shrugged. "I guess I could say something. It's just...when I signed up for this season, I was sure Courtney would be on here."

I began to speak, but then stopped, thinking. Gwen was right. Why wasn't Courtney on here?

"But..." I frowned. "You two were at each other's throats last summer. I remember. Why did you want to see her?"

"I felt guilty." Gwen admitted. "Not that I got with Duncan – he told me they weren't dating at the time. But I didn't want Courtney to hate me. Before the whole thing went down, I thought we were close to becoming friends. I wouldn't have signed up if I'd known she wouldn't be here. And now that I am here, I feel like I have to try my best to win, even though I don't really care any more.

There wasn't much to say to that. I mean, what could I have said? I thought about it for a while, and then said "I didn't expect that. That's a really noble attitude. I think you should try to get in touch with Courtney after the show. I think, as long as you try, you can fix things. Is there a way you can get in touch?"

Gwen thought about it. "I still keep in touch with Bridgette..." she said slowly, "And I think she still has ties with Courtney, so maybe I could ask her."

I grinned. "You know, my big brother says I'm like the second-generation version of Bridgette."

Gwen managed a small smile. "I think I can see why. You talk a lot like she does – you even look sort of similar."

Who knew, first gen Villainous Vultures could make good friends for second gen Heroic Hamsters.

As it was, by the way, we lost the challenge. While my barfing at the same time as Gwen had closed the gap with our lead, we still had more to eat after three minutes, and the Villains were generally bigger eaters and better athletes.

Still the vote off was far too easy that night. Lightning and I met before the campfire ceremony, as usual. "So who you gonna vote off?" he asked.

I didn't miss a beat, telling him exactly who it was. "She slowed us down today, even if she wasn't the reason we lost. I don't think I was the reason, either. None of us went more than once, and because of that, all I really did was skip the obstacle course." I paused, thinking. "I'm curious – if you guys lost today, who would go home?"

Lightning thought about it. Then he said "Probably Heather. Most of us don't like her, and I keep thinking Al wants her out, anyway."

"You better not let him hear you calling him Al." I warned teasingly. "He really hates it. Owen did it all the time, and paid dearly by getting vibes of hate and uncertainty all season."

At the campfire ceremony, Scott volunteered eagerly for exile duty.

As for who we voted off? Well, my choice was my team's choice. I'd discussed it with Mike and Zoey again, and we'd decided, much as we liked her, she had to go.

Finally, it was just me and her, sitting there. "Tonight's loser is..." Chris began.

My teammate looked nervous. I probably looked the same.

Finally, we heard it.

"...Lindsay!"

I caught my marshmallow, and whispered "Sorry, Linds."

The blonde looked shocked and upset, but she made her exit with as much dignity as she had in the first season. She smiled and wished everyone luck, before us Heroes trudged off to the cabins and the Villains headed back to the hotel.

But before I went to join the girls, I nudged Mike. "Theory, remember? I want to know what the deal is, and we need Zoey to join us." He gave a nod, and while Sierra and Beth went into one side of the cabin and Brick into the other, the three of us sat on the cabin steps.

"Okay, there's something I need to tell you both." Mike said. He took a deep breath. "Back a while ago, when I was...I'm not sure, ten, maybe a bit older, I can't remember...I was in juvie for a while."

I couldn't stop a gasp from escaping. I couldn't imagine Mike in juvie, no matter who he was at the time. Zoey just nodded, eyes wide.

"The reason I was in there was because of another personality I had at the time." Mike explained. "He was charged with property damage and minor assault, and I had to take therapy sessions until I got rid of him. I don't remember actually being in juvie for a long time, but my sessions helped me get back in control. The thing is...this is how it began. Sleepwalking and breaking things – having brief memory lapses, not being able to find my other personalities – Danni, you gave me the idea when you said it might be another personality. I thought he was gone, but..."

Zoey's eyes were wide. Probably mine were the same. But Zoey spoke first. "So...what will happen next?"

Mike grimaced. "If it's anything like last time, it's only going to get worse, the longer it goes unchecked. It just started with him taking over while I was asleep. Then he started taking over for tiny periods of time, so I'd think I just spaced out for a moment. I was watching out for moments I wasn't really conscious, and they were there. I spaced out in the confessional today – I'm betting if you watch it back, you'll see him in there. The scary thing is...if it's left unchecked for too long, I can't do anything about it. He'll take over, and if I know him, he'll pretend to be me. That's why – I'm going to tell the others on the next challenge day what I'm about to say, but you two need to back me up. I have a request to make of you."

Then he told us what it was.

Zoey and I exchanged glances at his question. We didn't want to have to do that, we really didn't. But if it was really going to be for the best, for all of us...

We both gave him our promise that we would do it.

You can guess what Mike wants the girls to do. This scene was originally going to be in the next chapter, but I've got a pretty long-winded challenge to do next time. No, not the moon this time – next chapter will be a reimagining of one of my favourite Action challenges, though I would hate to actually do it. Take your guess – what do you think it is?