The rushing wind around them could almost be seen as pleasant, if it weren't for the fact that their presumed imminent death would be coming in mere moments.
Dawn sighed as she sat on Cody's lap, his seatbelt thankfully not having worn down in the slightest after the past year. As she watched everyone else fall past her, she tried to remember what the challenge even was this episode. She didn't have much of a chance to rewatch any of them, it wasn't like she was that interested in the show.
"What do you think the next challenge is?" She asked Cody airily, her voice almost completely drowned out by everyone's screaming and the wind rushing past them. She put a finger to her lips. "What does kissing have to do with anything? A kissing challenge?" She looked at Cody again, focusing intently, before her focus dropped. "Pachinko?"
A loud ding somehow managed to break through all of the noise, and everyone quieted down just enough for Noah to audibly shout, "Seriously?"
We're singing as we're falling!
While some are cannonballing!
"Another song?" Dawn mentally sighed, trying to figure out the best line she could use. Theoretically, she only had to contribute one, but it was hard to think of anything under this kind pressure.
Make it home to see my momma!
Revenge on Cody!
Be an actress in a drama!
Dawn bit her lips before an idea came to her mind. After all, 'the moon was beautiful', wasn't it?
Space explorer!
New food namer!
Repairman for the parallel bars!
The rhyming was a bit poor, but she had something. "You need to give me more ideas Cody. You know, if we survive." She looked at the unresponsive boy when a thought entered her mind. "What do rice bowls have to do with anything? I like katsu as much as the next person, but-" She was cut off as the group landed in a gigantic bowl of surprisingly soft rice.
"Oh, so this is what you meant by pachinko."
A giant pachinko machine was… somewhere in Dawn's memories. But where did the kissing come in? Well, it didn't matter since they weren't doing it.
"I volunteer Gwen to go." Heather stated simply, glaring at the goth who glared at her in turn.
"That's great, because I think you really should go in that ball." Gwen sniped back, a snarl on her lips. It seemed this rivalry was as strong as ever despite how aligned the two were on the island.
"I second Heather." Courtney smugly added, causing said girl to look positively scandalous. "I'd say Cody, but he'd be a bit of a drag on this challenge."
"Cody." Sierra stated simply, crossing her arms.
"I vote for anyone but myself." Duncan sighed, crossing his arms. He'd chosen to stand by Dawn and Cody for now, possibly to just avoid Courtney as much as possible.
Dawn looked to Cody. "So, who do you want?" Ignoring the somewhat concerned and freaked out stares of her teammates, she waited for Cody's response, giggling at who he chose. She looked back to the group and announced her decision.
"Well, Cody and I both chose Courtney."
"Great!" Chris shouted before either Heather or Courtney could protest, jumping from behind them to shove the two into the oversized ball. "Since we're out of animals, you two can go up together !"
It was difficult to feel bad for the two girls as they bounced around in the ball, but at least they got them some points. Not enough to get beyond last place though, and when the two fell out of the ball, it looked less like they bounced around and more like they had been ravaged by one of the animals the other teams had.
"I… am never letting that happen again!" Heather shouted, agitation clear in her voice as she attempted to clean herself up. "Miss CIT is a freaking nutjob! " Courtney just stuck her tongue out, as if she had won some grand battle.
Eventually, the three strong willed girls all broke off from the main group when deciding what to film, leaving Dawn, Cody, Duncan, and Sierra to figure stuff out on their own.
Duncan was the first to speak up. "Any of you ever see a Takeshi Miike film?"
Surprisingly, Duncan's idea of an action scene concluding with piles of fish tails pooling out of 'The Masked Killer's' body (just Duncan in a mask) won them first place. Chris complained it'd be too morbid to air during a morning time slot, but Chef didn't seem to care, especially compared to Harold's take on Kurosawa films or Kaiju by way of Owen.
So, they found themselves lounging in first class again. Well, most of them.
"I understand, Cody-san is worried for my standing, yes." Harold nodded, acting the role of a Three Kingdoms character flawlessly (ignoring the fact that he was channeling Japanese genre tropes rather than Chinese). "Alejandro-san and I had a conversation about the importance of a samurai's honour, and how we must strive to always uphold it! Therefore, I must go through with this sacrifice."
Dawn looked down to Cody. "Does that answer make sense to you?" Orange. She looked back to Harold. "Cody wishes you the best, and hopes you are able to maintain your honour. He hopes samsara treats you well." Dawn bowed her head to the samurai cosplayer, fully engaging in the LARP, while Cody's aura told her that she might be overdoing it a bit.
"Thank you for your understanding, Dawn-chan. I see you too, bear the warrior's code in your actions." Harold bowed back, his mess of genre trope speak somehow breaking through to Dawn… at least she thinks it did. "I hope we can reunite on the wheel of samsara."
As Dawn and Cody watched Harold walk off to the elimination room, only one thought echoed through their minds.
"Is that a real saying?"
"So, what are our thoughts on our little Cody problem?" Heather asked the gathered group of girls, including a very annoyed Gwen, an agitated Courtney, and a venomous Sierra.
"He's in a wheelchair Heather, he's not gonna be doing anything for a while." Gwen sighed, leaning back in her seat. "Besides, he probably knows he can't pull any of the same stuff he did last time."
"You may have forgotten Gwen, but I never forget!" Sierra shouted with pride, pulling out a… pizza box laptop? "Cody was one of the strongest contenders of the first season, even after he got exposed! He won several challenges on his own, and while he narrowly avoided elimination," a soft look to a murderous looking Courtney was shared, "that only happened once. Give him a chance and he'll probably win the whole thing!"
"Besides, for all we know he could be faking it!" Courtney accused, crossing her arms and legs as she did so, still intensely agitated by her 'unfair elimination'. "Chris would never let someone who can't even speak onto a gameshow, right? He probably made a deal with Cody that they could pretend."
Gwen was about to protest, when Dawn walked by with Cody. "Let's get you to the washroom, stew goes right through you."
The four girls all stared at the scene, mixtures of shock and slight disgust in their expressions. Gwen was the first to speak.
"If you want to investigate that , be my guest."
"So, what made Cody want to help me out back in Egypt?" Duncan asked, chewing on some leftover sushi from when they left Japan. "Considering he got me eliminated immediately back on the island, you'd think he wouldn't want anything to do with me. You know, unless 'Cody' is another way of saying you. " It was an accusation, but not a heavy one. Duncan didn't care either way- he knew he was reaching the end of his rope with Courtney.
"Cody just wants to help his friends." Dawn said dreamily, stroking said boy's hair. Duncan could only stare, not very impressed.
"We only spoke about three times. I wouldn't consider us friends." He said simply, leaning back in his chair.
"Oh, Cody doesn't consider you much of a friend either. But he thinks you're nice enough." Dawn smiled at Duncan, who could only roll his eyes in response.
Yukon was cold .
Dawn's oversized green sweater did little to help, and the hot water Cody requested just languished in his chair's side pack. What he wanted it for was a complete unknown for now, but Cody just asked her to follow his lead- something about hypothermia being 'very un fun'.
His lead was unneeded though, as Chris informed them that "Inability to perform the challenge would be taken into account," and the pair were made to wait at the finish line, being greeted by Leshawna and DJ's cheers of 'Victory', followed by Heather and Courtney's incessant bickering. It was enjoyable to see Heather win this argument out though, if only thanks to interference by Chris- Courtney having to pull the sled shut her up fast .
"We'd offer to help, but I don't think we could do much for you." Dawn told Courtney from inside the sled, as Heather prepared to encourage the CIT. Courtney just glared back.
"Damn gravity!" She cried as she began running with all of her might. "Damn arms! If both of those weren't an issue, I could take that twerp's chair and this challenge would be a cinch!" Cody's aura shrank back a bit at the shouting from the CIT directed very clearly at him.
They continued for a while, picking up Gwen and Sierra, before intruding on a familiar scene. A surfer girl, stuck to a pole.
Ooo~
She got stuck!
Should've ducked!
Worst of luck!
Stuck- Stuck to a po~le!
As the group sang, a song which Dawn could easily remember- it was one of the few episodes she had bothered to rewatch, if only for the song- Dawn pushed Cody towards Bridgette, the boy had inferred he wanted to be there for whatever reason. Bridgette only looked down at him confused as she confused, but as the song wrapped up she saw something significant.
"Wa'er!" She cried out, pulling the thermos Dawn had packed for Cody out of his side pack. She poured the hot water down the pole, eventually freeing her tongue. It was a funny sight, and honestly a bit warming considering her initially embarrassing exit from the game. Bridgette looked down at Cody and shouted something, her tongue still damaged from the pole kissing. "'ank eugh!"
Dawn pulled Cody away just as Bridgette forced the pole out of the ice (it seemed the hot water had loosened it a bit), and she re-enacted her plan from Egypt- surfing her way down to the finish.
"Nice job dorks!" Heather shouted, running back to the sled, the other three girls following. "We still have to grab Duncan, and you decide now is the best time to be helpful!?"
Despite all the shouting, Dawn could only feel the warmth of Cody's aura- at the very least he was happy.
The Amazons managed to hit their first elimination ceremony. Thanks to Bridgette's escape, Victory snagged second place, while Team Chris got a nice stay in first class. This could prove to be a fatal turn of events for either Dawn or Cody, but Cody seemed satisfied either way.
"Team Amazon!" Chris shouted, elated. "I'm sure all of you figured how this goes. Step into the confessional, stamp the person you want to see go outtie-" he pointed to the open exit door, "-and whoever gets the most votes gets kicked out first! Who's it going to be." He turned to Dawn and Cody. "Since you two will probably take the longest, we'll let you go first."
"Wait!" Heather shouted, glaring at the pair. "What if Dawn stamps Cody's passport for him?" Chris' dismissive look did little to calm Heather's nerves.
"Dawn is his legal caretaker. You have an issue, take it up with Cody's parents or whatever." Chris yawned. "Dawn can choose who Cody votes for while he's 'incapacitated'. Don't worry though, I hear she understands what Cody wants all the time- girl's an esper."
The obvious joke caused Heather's face to twist into a visage so horrifying, it forced Chris to look away, sweat on his brow.
Ah well. Time to vote.
"So, surprisingly the votes were pretty close. I'll start by saying who isn't getting cut." He threw peanut bags out as he said the names. "Duncan, Gwen, and Sierra. You're all safe." He looked over to the remaining four plays. "Heather, not making many friends with that whip of yours- you can decide if I mean your tongue or the actual thing."
"Can it Chris." Heather huffed, though she was clearly worried.
"Courtney! A bit bossy, a bit of an egomaniac, a bit of a pain in my-"
"You want to be sued again? " Courtney glowered, forcing Chris to back off.
"Sheesh! Dawn and Cody, helping the enemy. Maybe. Either way, if it weren't for Cody's hot water, Bridgette would probably be the one sailing out this door."
"I am glad we have helped at least one lost soul." Dawn said, not breaking her lotus pose on the bench. "And Cody says the same."
"...Cool." Chris nods, nonplussed by the response. "Now, to get rid of two of these… with one vote against him, Cody is staying!" It was expected that Cody wouldn't leave- nobody really wanted to throw a guy in a wheelchair out of a plane. It wasn't hard to figure out who the one vote was, with Sierra's heated death glare focused on them.
"The other safe player is… Heather!" Chris threw the queen bee her bag, the girl visibly relieved.
"What!?" Courtney shouted, fists clenched. "I got more votes than Heather!? Nobody even likes her!"
"Yeah, about that… Heather only got one vote as well- not hard to figure out who that was!" Chris laughed as Gwen crossed her arms, annoyance on her face, all while Heather glowered at the goth. Chris bounced the last bag of peanuts in his hand. "Two votes have been cast- one for Heather, one for Cody. You both should ask yourselves who would've voted for you, huh? Ooh~ that'd be suspenseful." Chris chuckled a bit before grabbing the passports from his pocket with his free hand. "One for Dawn. One for Courtney." Dawn looked calm, while Courtney looked incredibly agitated.
"Another for Courtney. Another for Dawn." Dawn hummed a soft tune while Courtney tugged at her own hair.
"And the first elimination from Team Amazon is… Courtney!" He threw Dawn her bag of peanuts, which sailed over her head and landed in Cody's lap.
"What!?" Courtney shouted, standing and glaring at the rest of her team. "Hang on, if Heather and I voted for Dawn, Sierra voted for Cody, and Gwen voted for Heather… then…" Her gaze landed on a certain delinquent who was leaning back in his seat, eyes closed. "You!"
"Yes Princess?" Duncan asked, clearly not wanting to give this the time of day.
"You voted for me! Your girlfriend! Again!" Courtney was in a sorry state at this, conflicted between crying and relishing in her anger, while Duncan apathetically looked on.
"Listen Courts', I can't do another season of forty page contracts or whatever. I think we need to take a break for a while."
"But… we just got back together!" Courtney clenched her teeth and glared at her former boyfriend. Duncan cast a solemn glance her way, but said nothing in response. "I hate you! Go… run off with pasty or whatever it is you're gonna do! See if I care!"
Gwen and Duncan looked scandalized by the accusation, but before they could say anything, something else was heard- something just as shocking.
"I'm sorry Courtney."
"Huh?" Courtney asked, voicing everyone else's thoughts. "Was that Co-", before being roughly shoved out of the plane by the host, her screams echoing through the night sky.
"Thirty minute program folks!" Chris chuckled, wiping his hands like he had just thrown out a bag of garbage. "Exciting drama and all, but Chef and I wanted to catch the premiere of Lost- crap, we'll have to cut that in post?" He sighed. "Whatever. Just go to bed you guys."
Despite everything that had happened, and how Cody hadn't wanted it to come to this, Courtney had been eliminated. Duncan had approached the pair about doing this- said he wanted some distance between her and himself otherwise they'd bring the whole team down, and the pair acquiesced.
That didn't matter anymore though. As Dawn wheeled Cody back to economy, she smiled softly at what had happened.
You're coming back to us.