Now, for the boxing challenge! Thank you for reviewing, Ali6132 (there's an answer about the whistle near the end of this chapter).

The next morning, Chef gave us green food instead of gruel. Not really a step up, though.

"Mama calls this penicillin puree. Never had a cold in my life!" Scott boasted, swallowing the toast. A couple of us gagged, just as Alejandro came to join us.

Scott spoke again. "Well, well. Wakey wakey, Legs-A-Fakey."

"It truly is a miracle my legs finally woke up." Alejandro replied. "Now they can be put to good use for our team."

"After today, there won't be any teams." Courtney pointed out. "There are only ten players left. We have to merge soon! And after what you did to Heather, good luck finding an ally, Al."

Alejandro's eyebrow twitched, a sign of him being irritated. "I would prefer it if you did not call me that name."

"Okay, Al." I teased, remembering the reason he hated the name – his older brother Jose, who beat him at everything, called him that. "Get over it. You're not the only one with that name – it doesn't all go back to your childhood trauma."

"What's wrong with the name Al, anyway?" Scott asked, looking annoyed himself. "My sister's named Al, short for Albertha. She's the county hog caller." When he demonstrated, a pig actually ran over and knocked him down, just as Chris called us to the next challenge, and Chef arrived back with Mike in tow, looking shaken for some reason. "You have a run in with a big bad baby squirrel over on Boney Island?" Chris teased.

I heard Chef murmur "That kid ain't right." Sounded like he'd run into Mike's dark side, but he seemed back to normal now, simply walking over to Zoey happily. There were dark circles under his eyes that I'd never seen, but then again, I wouldn't have slept on Boney Island, either.

The challenge, according to our hated host, was like two of the first season challenges – No Pain No Game, plus some of Phobia Factor.

"Not hungry." Courtney said flatly.

Basically, we'd spin a wheel and have to last two minutes in a boxing ring with whatever the wheel landed on. The team that got three wins first won the challenge. Zoey, as the winner of the last challenge, got a point for her team without having to win a battle.

Sierra, who was holding her new pet from the last challenge (she'd named the heads "Cody 1" and "Cody 2"), spoke up. "But who's gonna watch the Codys while I fight?"

"No one, if they value their lives." Chris answered. But it wasn't a concern yet, because our team had to go first. Scott offered to start. He spun the wheel, confident...at least until the wheel stopped on Fang. After an initial scream, he just went lifeless.

"Chris, I think you broke him." I announced flatly. "Congratulations, Just as he was becoming less of a douche."

As you can guess, Scott didn't last very long. When Courtney yelled at him, he only came to life long enough to get out the words "I likes you, pretty lady. Heh heh, g'asleep."

Courtney glared at Fang. "You should be ashamed of yourself, you overgrown guppy!"

Gwen came and helped Courtney carry Scott back to our team, and for the first time, I realized something. Courtney and Gwen were becoming friendly again. Courtney smiled when Gwen went to help, and even thanked her! Wow. For Courtney, that was a major step.

Sierra was next. The wheel stopped on a two-headed creature. "No way!" Sierra cried. "I would never fight my sweetie pet!"

"Oh, you're not fighting your pet." Chris told her. "You're fighting your pet's mother!"

"I'm not afraid of a few heads and a lot of teeth and a bunch of claws." Sierra said defiantly. She gave her pets to Cameron. "Camdy, here, take the boys, and I'm sorry, it's just not going to work out. I'm breaking up with you!"

"What?" I whispered to him.

He grinned. "I wasn't going out with her before, but I'm glad she 'dumped' me."

Of course, once she lost the fight and the mom took back her baby, she took back the break-up. Poor Cam! I just wanted to run to the other side of the island and take him with me, while finding a way to restrain Sierra. But Chris called me up, and so I spun. The wheel stopped on...Oh. Freaking. No.

They literally brought in someone that was just about three times my height, just to intimidate me. They just had to know that the thing that scared me most was anything twice my size or more. Of course I wasn't going to win a fight when I was waist-high! Of course I got punched out! In fact, Chris decided it was so pathetic, he let the Villains go again, straight away.

"I'll earn us a point." Alejandro said confidently, stepping forward and spinning. It stopped on a silhouette of someone tall, muscly, and...very similar to Alejandro, actually. And he obviously knew what was coming.

"No! It can't be!"

A man appeared in the boxing ring, with the same caramel skin and very similar clothes.

"Jose."

Wow. Alejandro actually had to fight his older brother now? The one that was better than him at everything? This I had to watch...someone who was good at everything losing to someone who was better than him at everything.

I don't know whether I should've been disappointed or pleased. Jose actually lost the match. But I think he would've won, if he hadn't mocked Alejandro with the words "Your technique is almost as embarrassing as the way your girlfriend with the unattractive personality burned you on national TV." He started laughing, but was immediately punched out.

"That's for calling me Al!" Alejandro cried. He punched again, and hit dead on target. "That's for always hogging the bathroom mirror, and replacing my soap with a urinal cake!" He began winding up for the final punch. "And this is for calling any aspect of Heather unattractive!"

"Whoa, the Villains get a point!" Chris exclaimed. "And now we all know how Alejandro really feels about Heather!"

As a matter of fact, I heard Alejandro in the confessional before the bonfire ceremony that evening, while I waited for a turn. Later on, I found out his confessional was cut up and pieces were aired separately, but the one I remembered most was his last comment: "Heather, I know you're watching. Call me."

When he came out, I asked "So you sneaked a phone in? Does Heather even know your number?"

But back to the challenge. "Guess I'll go next." Mike volunteered.

But then Cameron spoke up, saying something we'd all started to realize. "What's the point of spinning the wheel? The game must be rigged!" He listed them. "Sierra fights Cody Jr's mom, Shannon fights someone twice her size, Scott fights Fang, Alejandro fights his big brother...the odds are too astronomical for this to be random!"

"It does seem a little rigged..." Gwen said slowly.

"More like a lot rigged." Courtney scowled.

"I should've guessed...Chris never plays fair." I muttered.

Chris was clearly annoyed, but he promised that Mike would not get a fear specific to him. So Mike spun.

"Just watch. It'll be exactly what Mike is afraid of." Cameron said confidently.

"Or is it what Cameron's afraid of?" Chris replied. The wheel stopped on a spider, and Cameron screamed.

"I thought you were over spiders." Zoey said.

"That is not a spider!"

It wasn't. Out of the floor rose a familiar giant spider...and then she took the mask off. "Greetings, spider food!" Cameron screamed again.

"It's an eight-legged Izzy!" I remembered that now. Cameron had conquered his fear of spiders during the treasure hunt challenge, but the giant spider had turned out to be Izzy. Now he was scared of her.

Mike stood in the ring, ready. Izzy suddenly sniffed and wrinkled her nose, saying he had a weird scent coming from him. "Like a honeycrueller wrapped in rotten ham. Good on the inside, poison on the outside!" There was a short pause, before Izzy spoke again. "Question – who's Mal?"

I heard Zoey and Duncan gasp behind me. Seconds later, it was my turn to gasp, as Mike completely pulverized Izzy. Our score was 2 – 1 Heroes.

Cameron went up for our team. "Now that spider Izzy's gone, anything else should be a walk in the park."

He ended up getting mutant gophers. Four of them. They crushed him within two seconds.

Finally, it was Duncan's turn. "Man, I've been itching for a fight all season long!" he said in his toughest voice.

"Are you sure you don't just want to give up the point and call it off?" Chris asked innocently.

"There's no calling off the fists of fire!"

"But you might really hurt someone."

"Well then, it sucks to be someone! Back home they call me Snake Hands." He waved his hands around, lightning fast, just to prove his point.

"Just don't hold back, Duncan!" I called out, giggling. "I know you're too nice to be too hard on most people, but you have to be ruthless in a fight like this!" I know, that was a little mean. I knew Duncan wanted to prove he was just as villainous as he'd always been, but it wasn't working out. Only yesterday, Chris had shown us a clip of him taking an egg off a three-eyed budgie, promising he'd bring it back and starting to cry when the budgie burst into tears.

Speaking of which, the budgie was his opponent. Gwen and Courtney burst out laughing. As if he could fight something that didn't fight back.

He tried, though. "Oh, you're going down! Get ready! Any second now! Come on, seriously!" Poor Duncan...he couldn't psych himself up to hurt the bird. "How am I supposed to fight something so helpless and weak?" He forfeited.

It was our team's turn again. "I'll go." Gwen and Courtney said at the same time. They giggled and then said "No, seriously, I'll go." They said at the same time, then started laughing again.

"Remember Katie and Sadie from the first season?" I whispered to Cameron.

He nodded. "This situation does seem pretty familiar."

Gwen was told to spin. Probably because she got Courtney. But both girls refused to fight...that was, until Chris brought up a screen that showed footage of Duncan and Gwen kissing. "Isn't it awesome? The producers found it on Sierra's Gwuncan blog."

Next to the video of their kisses was a picture of Sierra, long hair intact, with her arms holding Cody close.

It was working, I could tell. Courtney looked furious.

"Courtney, remember, we're past this!" Gwen tried to tell her. "We're friends again!"

Courtney scowled. "I guess I'm not as over it as I thought. Sorry, Gwen, this is going to hurt you more than it hurts me." She aimed a punch at Gwen. "That's for kissing my boyfriend!"

Gwen aimed her own punch. "That's for him not being your boyfriend when he kissed me!"

Duncan grinned, nudging Alejandro. "They're fighting over me." Alejandro rolled his eyes.

I looked up at my manipulative teammate. "Ever have this happen to you?" I asked. "Girls fighting over you? I mean, not counting Courtney and Heather a couple of seasons ago."

"Maybe. A few times." Alejandro answered nonchalantly. "As long as I pay every woman the same courtesy, they don't read enough into it to fight over me."

Gwen and Courtney continued to fight, even when the time was up. "I only came back on the show to make things right with you!" Gwen cried.

"I never really missed Duncan..." Courtney admitted, "But I really missed you."

Duncan's grin vanished. "Hey!"

The girls dropped to their knees. "So, friends?" Gwen asked.

"Totes." Courtney answered, putting her arms around Gwen. "Friends forever."

Zoey, Sierra and I couldn't help "aww"ing at that. And Chris? He actually had to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye, then give both girls a point "For putting a little warmth in my otherwise frozen heart". That made us the winners!

Before elimination, Zoey sought me out. "Duncan told me something this morning that I think is important." she said. "He said that when he was in juvie, he knew this guy called Mal who was basically really dangerous and caused trouble for the heck of it. Thing is, Mal was actually Mike."

I gasped. "So it's true! He does have another personality. So you think Mal was the one who broke all that stuff?"

Zoey nodded. "And Izzy knew about him, too. Remember, she asked who Mal was just before the fight?"

I gave a sigh. "I wish Dawn was here. She'd be able to tell us what was going on. She knew Mike had multiple personalities – remember the day you were depressed over the Vito thing and Dawn told you that she could see from 'the Mike parts' of his aura that he was into you?"

Zoey smiled faintly. "Yeah. I wish she'd said what she meant, though. I didn't understand what she was saying at the time."

"We better just keep an eye on Mike for now." I suggested. "It shouldn't be too hard to work out who's in control if we watch him. I know Mal can't have been in control much, because he's definitely been Mike some of the time. So when did Duncan work out he'd seen him before?"

Zoey shrugged. "I don't know. He said he worked out where he'd met Mike due to the tune he was whistling or something like that."

At that moment, a memory surfaced...

My friend Jess had a mom who worked in a juvenile detention centre, and sometimes, when Jess' dad was working at his office job, she had to take Jess with her. One day, she was working a shift when I was over at Jess' house and her dad was unexpectedly called to his office to deal with some minor crisis. So we had to go there, and I'd suggested slipping away. We were dumb thirteen-year-olds, so Jess agreed, and we went into the recreational room where a few guys around our age were sitting around, bullying one of the younger kids. Then they saw us.

"Hey, Jessie." one of them greeted her in a deep, almost demonic voice. "Your mom doesn't usually let you hang out alone with us. Who's your friend?"

Jess stood her ground. "Shannon." she said.

I smiled, trying to seem confident. "Hey. Nice to meet you guys."

"She's pretty." one of the other boys said, staring at me lewdly.

"Cradle-robber!" another boy said, laughing. "What is she, nine?"

The boy who had greeted Jess locked eyes with me for a moment (or eye – only one was visible), and said "She's a teenager." He held out a hand as if to shake mine, but when I took it, he twisted my arm so hard it felt like it had broken. I let out an involuntary squeal of pain. He chuckled darkly, and I heard him whistling as he let go.

Luckily, Jess' mom caught up with us then, and I'd almost forgotten the incident. The boy hadn't actually broken my arm, but it was sprained. But now I thought about it, the boy had looked a lot like a younger Mike – just with one eye hidden by his hair. That was worrying. I'd never connected the dots before, even if I had remembered, because the only thing that had remained clear was that scary, almost demonic voice. Mike sounded so non-threatening.

At the bonfire ceremony, Chris told us that we were doing things differently. This time, we got to choose the Hero heading home, and the Heroes would choose who got exiled.

"Villains, who's going home tonight?" Chris asked.

We conferred.

"Sierra, please!" Cameron begged in a whisper. "I can't take much more of her chasing me."

"And she's a threat." I added. "Remember how far she got last time?"

"I'm sick of her craziness, too." added Courtney. "I can't take much more of her, period."

Gwen nodded. "I agree."

Even if Alejandro and Scott wanted someone else gone, they were outnumbered. "We've decided," Gwen said.

"Reluctantly." Cameron piped up. "Very reluctantly..."

"To eliminate..." Gwen paused, making the heroes look worried. "Sierra."

"Me?" squeaked Sierra. "But why?"

Cameron went up to her. "You have a real Cody back home who needs you...for some reason. Now run, Sierra, run to him!"

"You mean swim." joked Chris. "But before Sierra takes the Flush of Shame, which villain is going to exile on Boney Island, Heroes?"

They didn't confer, but they all chorused the same name. "Alejandro!"

Sierra sobbed the whole time as she walked down the dock and got ready to be flushed.
"Sorry again!" called Gwen. "Say hi to Cody for me!"

"And make more of those Gwuncan videos!" Duncan added. Gwen glared at him. "What?"

"Hold your breath!" Chris called out, as he pressed the button.

"I'm coming, Cody!" Sierra cried as she disappeared under the water.

I have to admit, it was nice to walk to the spa hotel, hand in hand with Cameron, without having to worry about Sierra. We talked on the deck outside for awhile, then when we went to bed, we kissed each other goodnight and went to our separate rooms, happy.

Awww, what a nice ending to the chapter! Unlike the next one. Please review!