As Cody felt himself be taken into the warm gullet of one of Chris' bloodthirsty sharks, he only held no ill will towards anyone there. Not Chris, not Heather, not Sierra… okay, maybe a bit of resentment towards Alejandro, but he wasn't focused on that at the moment.
No, as he floated inside the shark's mouth, death imminently approaching him, only one thought rang out in his mind. One thought that had been there for nearly two years now, though it came to prominence in these last moments.
'Man… getting mauled by a bear sucked.'
Cody's eyes opened to the overpowering sunlight above. He clearly wasn't about to be vored by a bloodthirsty shark anymore… where was he anyways? Looking around he could see he was on a yacht? Was the competition over? Where was everyone? Who got him out of that shark?
These questions circled around his head for a good time, before he heard an intercom above him start up. The voice on the line was clearly not Chris or Chef, and definitely not one of the other contestants. Probably some poor intern that they shipped out to Hawaii to ferry them, but an intern and a yacht for just him? This show's budget must be something else.
"Alright, grab your things, you'll be arriving in five!"
My things? Cody hadn't remembered bringing anything with him to Hawaii. All of it got abandoned back at the plane, and was probably destroyed at this point thanks to Sierra's little birthday present. Not that he could blame her. Sighing, he stood and stretched, and that's when he noticed his hand had been reflexively clutching something.
Curious, he opened his hand to find the unmistakable faux-gold shine of a loonie. 'Guess whoever won wanted to rub it in a bit.' Cody bitterly thought, but that was before he noticed what was written on the loonie in nice, black print. Looked almost manufactured into the thing with how clean the handwriting was, but the words clearly showed that someone who saw his performance back in World Tour had been the one to give it to him.
SHARK
ATTACK
Cody stared at the loonie, before descending into a more spiteful expression, throwing the coin off the edge of the yacht. In doing so, he noticed the destination, and gasped. How could he not? Where everything started, where he got rejected by Gwen, where he nearly died… Camp Wawanakwa. The lethal hell house that even the YMCA or Tim Hortons' wouldn't set up a summer camp in. The place where he made his first real friends, as well as the place that led him to nearly becoming bear food, stalker food, and now shark food.
Cody glared at the island in unbridled hatred. He may have loved some of the guys in the cast (and after everything on Team Amazon, that's looking to be a pretty short list), but he refused to be roped in by another one of Chris' contracts. No more death-defying challenges, no more life threatening injuries, no more obsessive fangirls, no more fame.
It was with this in mind that he ignored Chris' jeerings of "The Codester!", instead opting to leap at the host much like Ezekial would have done, dragging the cocky bastard into the lake while he screamed in terror.
While he heard the rest of the cast scream ( 'Come on, like you guys haven't been wanting this the past two years.') Chris began shouting for the intern on the yacht to come help.
"Dude! You are so not on the show!"
Chris finally managed to get the upper hand, which wasn't hard to do with a sleep deprived kid that barely weighed more than a sack of potatoes, and Cody was soon tossed against the wooden support beam of the deck, falling unconscious.
Cody awoke on a yacht once more.
'Guess they couldn't handle the Codemeister.' He thought with a sharp grin. Hopefully he didn't get in too much shit for that, and considering he wasn't tied up, that probably meant they were just gonna sweep him under the rug. The Drama Brothers did music work for the studio behind the show after all.
Cody stretched out on the floor of the yacht, ready to lay back on his journey to civilization, ready to coast by on album earnings for a good few years. But, a warm and unpleasant object in his left hand snapped him out of his joy.
Looking down at his hand, he slowly opened it to reveal… a loonie. Gulping, he brought it close to his face to read what it said, this time in slightly smaller text to account for how long it was.
PHYSICALLY
ASSAULTING
THE HOST
"Wha-?" Cody gasped out but was cut off by the yacht's intercom.
"Alright, grab your things, you'll be arriving in five!"
Cody stared up in annoyance. No way was Chris doing this. The guy managed to drive Ezekial to psychosis, so he wouldn't put it past him to attempt… whatever this was. Making him think the attack was a dream? Or maybe just trying to drive him crazy for doing it?
Cody stood and faced the camp once more, and asked himself a question that was also burning in his mind.
Why Wawanakwa? Why the middle of nowhere Ontario, when Action had gone to Toronto, and last season was some kind of Broadway epic going all over the world? Surely they hadn't run out of money, they were still using private yachts for everyone instead of the crummy bus ride to an even crummier plane, and yachts certainly didn't fit the camp aesthetic. Hell, he'd heard from an intern at the time that the yachts were only used because the producers had told a few white lies when it came to where they were staying ( Playa Des Losers was far more accurate to what they'd been promised), so if they were going back to the island, why not just use crummy touring boats? Hell, even get them to canoe there themselves? Chris knew most people who participated in the last season would be desperate enough to do that.
His thoughts were cut short as the yacht finally reached its destination. Cody resolved himself to not play Chris' game. So, stepping out, he reacted to Chris' nicknames with finger guns, before promptly punching him in the face.
An intern rushed him from behind and began to choke hold him into unconsciousness.
PHYSICALLY
ASSAULTING
THE HOST
Chef kicked Cody hard enough in the gut to send him flying into one of the nearby trees, leaving him unconscious.
PHYSICALLY
ASSAULTING
THE HOST
Trent's guitar case was smashed onto Cody's head, knocking the boy onto the deck with a loud thud. Cody looked up to see Trent looking down at him in confusion, though he didn't have long to think on it as darkness slowly took hold of him.
PHYSICALLY
ASSAULTING
THE HOST
Around the seventh time this happened, Cody gave up. He wasn't cut out for violence anyways.
Sighing, he stared at the coin with the same overly long message, wondering what it all meant. He supposed this time he'd hear Chris out, and just let events unfold.
"Cody! The Codester! The Code meister! " Chris was grinning his usual TV perfect grin, though the malice was certainly on the lower end this time. Perhaps the excitement of World Tour caused him to cool off, or maybe he'd seen Cody suffer enough.
Cody, for his part, just walked past Chris, not taking note of Chris' annoyance at the action. There he saw… a bunch of the guys from Island. Even Katie and Sadie were here, and they'd agreed to stay on the outs for good after how much Island nearly destroyed their relationship.
He just awkwardly took his spot to one of the guys he could actually call a friend, that being Harold. The Drama Brothers beefing was basically over by this point, but it was still too awkward for someone like Cody to start a conversation about it, so he just stood there quietly. He zoned out thinking about the logistics of all of this, getting everyone back together ( 'And at the very least against my will.' Cody snidely added in his head), and in this train of thought he didn't notice Chris welcome another past participant… or that participant dumping their bag right on Cody's foot.
"Ow!" Cody yelped in pain, tugging his foot out from under the bag and grasping it in his hands. "What the hell Eva!" His seething seemed to catch Eva's anger, as she turned to face him, leveling a glare right at his puny face. Cody, for his part, could only eek out a small smile.
"Didn't realize we were on a first name basis, kid." She glowered at him, causing Cody to somewhat backoff. He didn't get what Eva's deal was, her anger management classes had been doing her really good during Action, and now here she was acting like… how she did… back on Total Drama Island…
Looking around, Cody saw everyone looking weirdly at him while Chris welcomed a new participant. He thought this grouping was familiar, and now he realized it- this was the group he saw when first arriving!
"N-no way…" Cody whispered out, shakily turning his head around, and taking note of who Chris just welcomed in. It was the screaming and ever obnoxious Owen, who was still doing that somewhat deeper voice he put on for what he thought would be a "Big party maaaan!"
Cody was freaking out. How the hell had he ended up back here? He, Harold, and Noah talked about science fiction all the time, and the two of them always laughed the idea of time travel on the face of it. A concept fit only for hacks and those who don't understand physics in the words of Harold, and 'Complete nonsense only a dullard like you would care about', in the words of Noah.
Yet here he was. On Total Drama Island. Two years in the past.
He didn't know whether to be excited or horrified.
Everything went on exactly as how Cody remembered, with the exception of anything to do with him and Gwen. Her cheating with Duncan back in World Tour put a… bit of a damper on his affection to say the least. His depression over her leaving was more down to being stuck with 3 girls he tolerated at best, whereas Gwen actually treated him like a friend. That, and he realized how his 'flirting' was close to Sierra's own attempts at trying to get with him, only Cody would like to believe he was less forceful about it.
Cody just watched everything happen as a bystander. The cockroach incident, the reactions to Chef's gruel, and the procession up to the top of the cliff. He watched as everyone from the Killer Bass except DJ and Courtney managed to jump off, and couldn't help but reflect on how in character DJ was here, and how out of character Courtney was. How much she changed after three consecutive seasons, the idea of World Tour Courtney taking a 'calculated risk' was laughable. How much had this game changed everyone? Had it changed him?
He didn't have much time to think about it as Chris' voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey uh, dude, it doesn't make good TV for one of my contestants to just stand like an idiot while the show is going on." Chris was leveling Cody an annoyed look, while Cody just stared back dismally. "You're the last one from your team. You make this jump, and you guys get yourself a nice reward."
Cody remembered all the torture he went through to make the final three in World Tour. As well as how much he went through to be hospitalized during Island. He considered leaving now, not doing the challenge and saving himself some trouble, he'd be sent home anyways. Then, he remembered the coin.
Admittedly, he was nowhere near as smart as Noah, hell, maybe even less smart than Harold. But, he could connect the dots. Some force wanted him to win, or at least not end up as shark bait thanks to good ol' Al back in Hawaii. That's why he couldn't attack Chris- he'd be booted off the island immediately. If he gave up now and his team lost, he'd surely be targeted for elimination. He had made an even worse impact than his prior incarnation, by not saying anything at all for this first episode, and he'd have to go through all the introductions all over again.
While it was comforting to know he had basically unlimited retries, it was also deeply aggravating that he was trapped on this godforsaken island once more. Glowering at Chris, he walked towards the edge. Looking down, he saw Owen scrambling onto Chef's boat, with everyone else off to the side looking on. All except little miss CIT down there, smugly looking up at Cody. Despite the distance, he could make out her saying "Runt's not gonna do it."
After a whole season of being carried around like a baby, being an object of pity, or just an annoyance, he directed his hatred down at Courtney. She hadn't explicitly been responsible for any of it, but in that moment, she was emblematic of all of his problems.
"You, uh, okay dude?" Chris came in from the side, looking at Cody in confusion. "If you don't want to jump, that's fine. Just don't waste my time. I got a haircut due later today, so if you wouldn't mind hurry-"
"I'M GONNA WIN THIS!" Cody declared, staring down at the now bemused people on the beach. He settled into an animalistic glare before leaping off the cliff, into the waters below.
After his outburst and subsequent dive, the challenge continued to go on as he remembered, though he decided to help a bit more with the hot tub. If anything, World Tour did improve his carpentry skills, though nobody seemed to appreciate them at the time.
The Screaming Gophers still won. The Killer Bass still lost, and at dinner, he knew what was going to happen. He anticipated it after Lindsey's own outburst at the suggestion that Tyler should get voted off. Ezekiel would make a sexist remark, and land himself on the loser boat.
Honestly, it probably sucked for him. First one out and all, but it was a valuable step in growth for the guy. But, in the back of Cody's mind he remembered just what became of Ezekial. The feral, animalistic nutjob that hid on the plane for months, and while they were never friends, that was still awful to witness.
But… he looked at Courtney. If Ezekiel was saved here, then Courtney would be the one to go. No Courtney means no relationship drama for Duncan, which would mean Team Amazon would never fall apart. But, would Team Amazon even exist if he stepped in here to save Ezekiel? Would Courtney even be the person he remembered if he hopped in to save her?
Leaning back on the bench, he watched as Ezekiel dug his own grave. The guy would have a better time on Playa Des Loser, and Courtney would just weasel her way back onto Island down the line anyways. She was a champ at doing it in Action. Changing history here would… probably be worse for everyone. Sure, Courtney went kind of crazy, but he couldn't imagine a stuck up personality like the one she has now making it through the trials ahead.
'I feel like one of the producers on this sick show.' Cody derisively thought, looking over at Ezekiel getting ganged up on, while Courtney had a snide smirk appear on her lips. 'Sorry Ezekiel. I can't imagine how things would go if Courtney went instead.'
Cody stood up and left the mess hall as everyone's attention was focused on the sexist homeschooled kid. Despite everything he told himself though, he still felt a little pang of shame in his heart, for not helping someone when he could've done so. All of the Team Amazon talk about this being a competition may have gotten to him, deep down.
CONFESSIONAL
Courtney
"That spineless little twerp cost my team the challenge… if he just acted like the pansy he looks like, my leadership would've never been questioned! Between him and people like Duncan , this game is going to be a struggle. If nobody listens to me, our team will be done for, and I'll be out a hundred thousand!
"The Screaming Gophers are going down! Every last one of them! Ow! *Courtney rubs her swollen eye.* Just as soon as this clears up…"