"Why does it hurt to breathe?"
"Because you almost died, idiot."
"Yeah, I know that, but… maybe I need mouth to mouth?" Despite it all, I felt a grin painfully make its way to my lips as I looked up at the boy carrying me. Sure, all I could feel was pain, but if my reward for unending pain was this… maybe I could live with that.
"I'll see if Chef is up to it." Glen puffed out as he kept trudging through the forest, trying his best not to look down at the bloodied girl in his arms. He'd definitely need a change of clothes after this, but he found himself somewhat worried about the creepy girl that had basically been stalking him for weeks.
He tried his best to avoid her after the diary incident, but for whatever reason, God decided he should be the one to find Codie, splayed on the ground, deep wounds all over her body and limbs twisted at clearly wrong angles. It was a horrifying sight, and while he often wished the girl would leave him alone, even that was too much.
"Y'know, I kept telling Heather you were a nice guy…" Codie sighed softly, slightly opening her eyes once more. It was very clear she was just barely hanging onto consciousness, and Glen wouldn't fault her at all for passing out- he was surprised the pain hadn't done her in already. "But, I knew you were cool. So… how about that date?"
"Now isn't the time Codie." Glen couldn't help but smile despite the macabre situation and the bundle of annoyance in his arms. The way she distracted herself from the fact that she could probably die right here was admirable. The way she chose to distract herself was remarkably stupid, but still, admirable.
Codie laughed softly, and seemed to finally drift into unconsciousness. Glen got worried for a second, looking down at her, but quickly shook his head and continued rushing forward.
"Woah… you look awful." Codie laughed, though the action hurt immensely. She was rewarded with a soft slap upside her head.
"Like you're one to talk." Heather growled, clearly annoyed by the jab. She was drenched in orange paint, and had already thrown away her deer outfit, clearly just here for some mysterious other reason. "Heard what happened to you. That sucks."
"Eh, could be worse. Could've died." Codie shrugged at the depraved thought, which caused Heather to look over at her incredulously. "Heck, it could've been Duncan that found me." Genuine disgust reached her face.
"What, getting found by Duncan would be worse than dying? You do realize he's just a normal guy- you know, despite the sexist asshole part."
"I feel like if he found me, he'd just laugh and take pictures."
"Come on, he can't be that bad." Heather shook her head and plopped down next to Codie, who was currently laying in bed. She was still unable to move given the severity of her injuries, but Chef had said that since surprisingly nothing had actually been broken and there was no real damage to her internals, she'd probably be walking again pretty soon.
"So, what'd you want Heather?" Codie looked over at the preppy girl, who still seemed supremely annoyed. To be fair, she almost always looked annoyed, but right now she looked more annoyed than usual.
"Beth. She is going down. " Heather snarled. "I know I have myself and Lindsay, add in you and that's three against her, but there's eight of us on this team. Beth and LeShawna definitely hate me, and Glen seems to have an alliance with Trent. So, that's probably four for me. Our only option is to convince Owen and force a tie."
"Well, I don't know what you want me to do, I'm kind of stuck here." Codie playfully smiled, only to end up receiving the full brunt of one of Heather's glares. "Sorry." She added pitifully.
"Don't worry about it, just… remember who to vote for, okay?" Heather stood and walked off, leaving Codie alone. She couldn't help but think what she said seemed kind of strained, but the inner workings of Heather's mind were a mystery.
"So, Heather voted for me huh." Codie whined as Glen pushed her wheelchair forward- she'd kick her legs in frustration, but the jolt of pain when she tried to move them in their casts stopped that. "This is so unfair! And lame! It's lame and unfair!"
Codie hung her head back, which was remarkably more painful than usual, just to get a good look at her 'assistant'. Well, there was one upside to all of this at least. Lose a million dollars, probably never get to see the boy of her dreams again, but hey, at least the view was nice. Even when he glowered down at her it was kind of nice.
"So, no mouth to mouth?" Codie tried to laugh, but currently every action she made only caused intense pain, so it came off more as a hoarse cough, something completely uncute. Glen didn't even bother faking a smile or offering a sympathetic look, which was pretty expected after the past few weeks.
"Nope." He let the last syllable pop, an added emphasis as if to mimic the closing of a book. Was this really the last they'd see of each other? Was this really the end of such a one-sided relationship, one Codie wouldn't mind maintaining for maybe a few more months to potentially a year. Years, even.
Glen circled the wheelchair and got in front of Codie, blocking the view of the approaching 'boat of losers'. The goth looked down at her, shook his head, and…
…
…
"Think you fried her brain, kid."
"Yep."
The moon sure was pretty, huh?
"Hey, how come I didn't get anything like that?" Sure, infinite retries seems like the thing you want, but over here this Codie got that on their first try! He'd kill for something like that! He basically has!
The past eternity had happened all at once, but also over an infinitely prolonged period of time. Being trapped in one's own head does that to you, makes you feel timeless, though the daily check-ins from Codemeister helped keep him up to date. Cody had been hoping that his freedom from the spears would make his… self? Himself, even? Anyways, he was hoping… he'd… sweat a bit seeing that, but not much had really changed.
The two were trapped in a mostly one sided battle where Cody studied his alternate self to become free, but despite how much visible progress he'd made it went nowhere. He could easily punch the self-proclaimed Codemeister in the face, beat the ever loving crap out of him, but he didn't have the ability to take control back.
"Come on, what am I missing? Where's Dawn? Or Gwen? Heck, I'd take Noah or even Alejandro." Cody moaned as he fell back on the ground, staring up at the infinite void that sat above him. A blank canvas that he was thankful seemed to be either a purely mystical construct, or a supreme delusion derived from his egoism. One or the other really.
It was odd to see such a blank sky above him, pitch black with nothing at all in it.
"You're right, it is weird."
Cody turned his head, ready to berate Codemeister. For whatever reason, that asshole insisted on using the whiny voice he had before puberty hit and he got a mature whiny voice. It was one of many things that made the usurper of his consciousness completely detestable- you know, aside from just being an all around dick.
What surprised him was that Codemeister had taken to having long hair and wearing slightly more normal clothes.
What surprised him more was everything else.
"Why do you have boobs !" Cody shouted, jumping up and scurrying backwards, away from the apparition. "Dude, I'm already stuck here, don't remind me about what I'm missing out on!"
The girl-Cody had a blank look on her face at these actions, merely staring at her double in confusion, which turned to horror, revulsion, and then for some reason a smile emerged out of that, as if she was happy something was noticed.
"Wait. Girl-Cody. Cody." Cody stood, closing his eyes in thought, as he thought about the implications regarding a female version of himself. Thinking inside his own mind. He tried to ignore the part of his brain that was inside his brain that wanted to slam its theoretical head into the wall of his mind-brain. Whew.
"Codie!"
"How are you here!" Cody shouted, now examining his female self at all angles. It was way weirder than the alien clone he'd seen back in the first loop, heck, this was probably weirder than the lolita version of himself that got off on ruining friendly competitions. "You're supposed to be from another reality, it takes months of those boring astral projection sessions to do this!"
"Wuzzat?" Codie asked, the blank expression still on her face as the male version of herself continued to creepily look at her body. She'd put a stop to it, but honestly, after being around people like Heather and Lindsay, it was nice to get attention. Even if it was from herself.
"Better question- why does your Gwen get to do that! To you!" Cody cried out accusingly, jabbing a finger into Codie's cheek. The girl for her part was mostly unfazed, though she seemed to melt a bit at the memory, and Cody blushed darkly to match.
"It was the greatest moment of this lonely maiden's life… I'll make sure to tell our future children this, except maybe without the bear mauling." Codie walked away from Cody's accusing finger and placed her own index finger on her lips. "Though the mauling did make it more romantic. Wait, mauling…" She looked down at her perfectly normal legs, clearly in her standard pants rather than a full body cast. "Huh. I can walk."
"Don't get too excited about that, it's just because you're not actually here." A third Cody had appeared inside the mind of Cody to talk to the two other iterations of Cody. "It's just Cody's mind."
"But, I'm Codie." Codie said, being unable to read the narrative as it is written, and thus unable to see the difference in spelling where pronunciation would not suffice.
"Cody with a 'y'." This other Cody was really uncanny- he actually was like the alien clone. Just less evil looking, and hopefully less explod-y.
"He means me." Cody, the protagonist, finally stated. He'd need better names for himself if he was going insane right now, drowning in his own ego. "This is my head, which is why you shouldn't be here. Both of you for that matter."
"Well, I don't mind being here." Codie says, stretching out her arms and legs like a kid, clearly not getting the point and more happy she could move her body again- neither Cody could truly blame her.
"You know what, fine. I look into your life, so you get to crash in my head for a bit. Whatever." Cody conceded and looked over to… Cody-2? Cody-2. "But what about you? There's only one Cody with a 'y' here, and it's me."
"There's actually a ton of Codys- most of them with a 'y'." Cody-2 said, smiling with his… perfectly normal teeth?
"Hey! Where's your tooth gap!" Cody accused, once more jabbing out his finger at his doppelganger, and the brief commotion caused Codie to rush back over and look.
"He's right, you don't have a tooth gap!" She also pointed an accusing finger at the offender, all while Cody-2 bounced between mildly bemused and mildly annoyed. "You're not a real Codie or a Cody!"
"You caught on fast, huh?" That damned Cody-2 smiled his perfect , normal smile, no gap in sight, and laughed in a strained tone. "Alright, let's get to the point. Cody- the male one, that is, is under arrest."
"How can I be under arrest inside my own head?" 'Are all Codys utterly insane?' went unsaid.
"You aren't. This isn't your head anymore." Cody-2's damned smile faded briefly. "Right now, you're trespassing on this Cody's personal property despite him sending an eviction notice."
"How is he supposed to send an eviction notice inside his head? How am I supposed to follow it? It doesn't matter anyways because he just took over my- whatever, this is stupid! How can I get arrested for this! How do you even get arrested for this!"
"Like this." Cody-2 grabbed onto both Cody and Codie, and the trio were brought to… a courtroom. It was more like a house of parliament than anything, but there was still a judge's stand, preceded by… another Cody. Looking around, he saw many Codys, all similar, though with some variants. Some had a ton of scars- actually, why didn't he have any? Some were taller and you could feel the jealous stares radiating around them, though for the most part it was like a nightmare house of mirrors, where you don't get to see anything funny, you just see yourself. Infinitely. Forever.
"T-The accused has arrived, if everyone could now be uh… seated." Judge Cody stumbled over his words, but despite that, all the alternate selves seemed to fall in line rather quickly. It was almost unnerving- all except Cody and Codie.
"Psst." Cody-2 made a noise, obviously trying to get their attention- he'd already sat behind a table that had been right in front of them. "You're supposed to sit here."
Cody briefly considered listening to his doppelganger, but then realized how stupid this was.
"Wait, what the heck is happening here? Why am I holding a trial for myself?" He shook his head at how stupid that sounded, though the stares he received were less of reassurance, and more… God, is that how he looked when he thought he was smug?
"Because you trespassed on private mind space." Judge Cody said, Cody-2 reiterated, and throughout the waves of other Codys there were murmurs of agreement.
"But that's… stupid! Come on, it was my head in the first place!" He shouted in exasperation, looking around the courtroom. It seemed Codie was far worse off than him, this clearly being her introduction to the insanity that is the typical Cody mind, and her brazen look of confusion indicated this was not a very fun experience for her.
"'Was' is correct." Another Cody- Prosecutor sounds about right in the moment- spoke up. "When the entity you refer to as the 'Codemeister' appeared, you gave away your rights to that piece of land. The terms of the eviction notice were as soon as you were able to move freely- inviting more trespassers merely expedited the removal process."
"God, dude, stop talking like such a dork." Cody was thankful his other selves had similar murmurs of agreements to that. "Anyways, Codemeister is me- right? So it's still my head, and I didn't invite Codie! She let herself in."
"I kind of just woke up there." She shrugged, finally sitting down at the defendant's table. "After what happened with Glen… no wonder I'm having crazy dreams like this."
The Judge's desperate cries for order were drowned out by the various Codys screaming in jealousy, anger, sorrow, or the odd bit of congratulations from clearly more well off Codys in the crowd. Codie, for her part, was completely unphased by this.
"Order!" A slightly more familiar but decidedly un-Cody cadence entered, and quieted things down a bit. Codemeister had finally arrived for this farce.
"God, you're such an asshole dude. You can't evict me out of my own head." Cody growled, walking over to his real doppelganger- real in the sense that he was the only one he cared to acknowledge. What he didn't expect was to get dogpiled by several other doppelgangers.
"H-hey!" Cody yelped but was quickly punched down by a pathetically weak fist- one of his own. "What are you doing!"
"We all know what you were about to do!" "Yeah, you were gonna gang up on him!" "We gotta stop you before you do more damage!"
What the heck were these guys talking about? What was he , the other selves from other worlds, talking about? Sure, he wanted to punch Codemeister, but come on, wanting to punch people was the Cody experience! Especially yourself!
Eventually, the Codys managed to restrain him to a chair, a straightjacket with a demeaning Certifie sticker on it. This was starting to feel less like his mind and more like hell by the minute. Looking over at the Codemeister's smug grin, he decided it was definitely hell.
"So, I believe we are all already aware of the Codemeister's case, as was appealed to us prior. This Cody is merely a trespasser on occupied land, and as such needs to be properly punished."
"Wait- what?" Cody shouted, leaning forward in his chair despite the restraints. "That's it? I thought this was a trial? Why even bother bringing me here?"
"Oh, that's just so we can lord it over you." Codemeister laughed from the prosecutor's table, and Cody desperately wished he could fling himself over at the smug prick. "You lost your own mind. To yourself . Think about that."
"I am thinking about it right now, clearly, as we're in my own damn head having a trial over it!"
"Order!" Judge Cody shouted, clearly shouting it because he wanted to feel like he had some control over the situation, and maybe even relishing a bit in said control. "Cody, you are sentenced to… hm." The judge put a hand on his chin in thought. "We've never actually had this happen before."
"Just get rid of him. He's a parasite." Codemeister, the parasite, said.
"So, are you crazy?" Codie whispered to Cody as the proceedings went on, the various others debating over how to handle punishing this. Cody tried not to glare at the clueless girl as he saw the proceedings play out.
"No, I am not crazy. Crazy is what these idiots are doing, which is trying to create laws for infinite versions of themselves over how they use their minds." Cody grumbled, slumping onto the table, which was the closest thing to comfort he could achieve with these restraints.
"Well, if it means anything, you can crash in my brain. I think." Codie smiled good naturedly, and much as Cody had fantasized about it in the past, he didn't think seeing things from the girl's side would do him much good for presumably the rest of his existence. Maybe a one off would be neat.
"I'll think about it."
"Alright! We've reached a new verdict." Judge said, composing himself in his silly two layers of shirts only a dorky 16 year old would think looked stylish. "Trespasser Cody is sentenced to non-existence. Court adjourned."
"Hey wait, what!?" Cody wanted to scream and bite these rampant assholes. These guys were him? Really? Really? Man, time travel and constantly dying must have driven him far from his former sanity, because these guys were the worst. "You're just casually going to tell yourself to not exist? You're going to erase an existence based on what, because you feel like it? Because you made up some arbitrary rule that says it has to happen?"
"Well… we have to have this because, well, we…" Judge stumbled over his words again, and Cody cringed. That was all him up there.
"Because of Codys like you." Codemeister spoke, grabbing the audience of the infinite Codys gathered. "Those who can't really push themselves or move forward, who lay trapped in one spot, getting all wishy washy about what to do and how to behave. Tell me Cody, what do you think happened when you abandoned a timeline- there was over a hundred of those. I'm sure you could figure it out."
"I don't know, and that's not my issue." Cody glared across the room. He detested each and every single Cody in this room by now, but Codemeister harbored a special place in his heart.
"All of those Codys are here. They went on to lead utterly mediocre and predictable lives divorced from your loop, and achieved utterly mediocre rewards at the end. They all found a place here, even if it was completely pathetic." None of the other Codys had the balls to say anything in response beyond a few mumbled notions of being offended by that. "But, you didn't. You kept bouncing back and forth until I showed up to give you a direction. Now our Cody has gone from someone who barely knew what he was doing to an actual winner, someone who can actually bring this game to its knees- very few Codys can say they did that."
"That's a lot of words to say you don't have any friends." Surprisingly, it was Codie who said that. She looked over at the other boy, who clearly didn't recognize her, but seemed annoyed enough to be interested in her.
"Who are you?"
"Codie. With an 'i', not a 'y'." She said proudly, before realizing her mistake. "A-and an 'e'!"
"Right, so what would you know exactly? You're just another mediocre, pathetic loser who probably couldn't even win-"
"I got kissed by Glen!" She shouted defiantly, crossing her arms with a haughty expression on her face. The earlier outrage was nothing compared to this, Codys screaming and shouting, obviously recognizing (or perhaps misinterpreting) 'Glen' as 'Gwen'. It seemed a constant, no matter where one looked, was the goth obsession. Well, anywhere except at Codemeister.
He kept trying to say something, but was cut off by the shouts and heated arguments in the crowd of hormonal teenagers that all shared a singular dream girl, even his shouts of order did little to quell this.
"What happened, I thought you had it all under control?" Cody shouted at the body snatcher, who glowered in his direction. "I guess all Codys don't really care all that much about winning- sure, this might be way creepier, but I guess they all really care about this way more. So, what does that make you?"
"It still makes me better than any of these ones." Codemeister huffed and leaned back in his chair, the shouting clearly taking its toll already. "They're all obsessed with the same girl, it'd be admirable if it wasn't for something so stupid."
"Hey!" Codie shouted. "That's love! There's nothing wrong with love. Love is great! Love is amazing! Love is… well, this is pretty creepy, but it's way better than money!"
The shouting was beginning to die down as the discussion in the center of the courtroom began to get heated up, the pathetic Judge being unable to truly do anything about whatever was happening now.
"Love? Come on, get over yourself." He let out a loud, hollow laugh and turned to fully face Cody and Codie, head propped up by his fist. "Cody, you remember. All the loops with Beth, or Bridgette, how about that time with Courtney or when you almost snagged Heather. What about that time with Gwen. " The memories were Cody's greatest regret, but he wasn't about to let this guy lord it over him. "Love is easy. It's just playing another game."
"And how did any of those relationships work out for us?" Cody bit back, a snarl on his lips. "Tell me about how great it was to abuse Beth's trust? To lie right to Gwen's face for days?"
"All to win. Maybe one day you would've understood, but you just had to treat me like a cancer instead of recognizing the value." Codemeister smirked. "This love means nothing. It can be easily replicated, easily taken, it's just another tool to use when winning the game. Because that's what it's all about."
"Must be why you had to steal a mind then." Codie snarked- she really caught onto this trial quickly, huh? "Someone with a mindset like yours wouldn't be able to make it that far. You lose, and then what? You give up forever?"
"I don't lose." Codemeister detested being in the presence of Codie already.
"There's over a hundred timelines where we lost." Cody interjected. "In fact, I can't remember a single time we actually won. A single time where we beat all the obstacles and came out on top, a single time where you got us anywhere other than in a hospital or on a boat."
"That was the two of us together, and you clearly thought we were holding each other back. I decided to just give us a little kick- just look at Sierra this season." The mention of the girl caused a near unanimous shudder throughout the crowd. "She loses her love, and bam, she's a far stronger player."
"Maybe that's what you see, but I just see someone with too much love, forced to keep it all in. You're just a black hole."
Cody and Codemeister glared at one another, as they had been doing since this discussion started. But, Cody was beginning to recognize something. Something important, that neither of them had noticed until now. He looked at his female self, at Codie- the one who had miraculously succeeded where clearly the rest of these guys had failed. She won her game of love, albeit a kiss on the forehead. She held onto all of her vices and virtues and came out the other side just fine, yet here Cody was desperately trying to distance himself from the loveless clone of Alejandro he'd made to cope with his situation.
He hated that part of himself so much as to create an 'other' from it, to try and remove it from his mind entirely. But that removed his drive, it made him into some wannabe saint that innately thought he was better than everyone, even if he wasn't truly thinking it. It was sad and pathetic.
"All of you guys suck. Well, except you." Cody stood, struggling a bit due to the straight jacket he'd been forced into, looking over at Codie for his last sentence. "It seems like all of you are moping about not getting Gwen or whatever, but it just shows how shitty all of you are. You want the girl, but you're constantly only thinking of yourselves, only thinking about how cool it'd be to get her or how hot she is. Codie… Well, she's not that different, but she didn't just focus all on one aspect to try and get the girl. Or, boy in this case. Gah, who cares!
"All of you suck! You're all pretentious dicks who think that psycho over there is cool! Who think getting a kiss from Gwen at any cost is a dream!" Cody shoved past his female doppelganger and stumbled over to Codemeister, the silence of the Codys ringing in his ears. "This guy is just as pathetic as any of you- he just dressed it all up with this above it all, too smart for you attitude!"
Codemeister looked visibly shaken, though not by the constant berating it seemed. Cody smirked- maybe…
"Screw all of me!" Cody slammed his head into Codemeister's, and his mind seared, the world fading away.
He couldn't even get one last look at Codie before he found himself waking up in Africa.
"I'm back?" He was drowsy- which was to be expected. Taking another 'nap' that lasted more than a week wasn't exactly healthy. At least this one didn't last a full year. He took in his surroundings and saw he was next to Alejandro of all people, which he hoped was just a bit of irony. Thankfully, Alejandro wasn't in a position to throw him into the mouth of a lion or something, as the other boy also seemed to be struggling to get up.
"Well, mi amigo , it seems it'll be the end for one of us today." God, just what had that little bastard done while he was away? He vaguely knew Noah got eliminated, and so did a few others- honestly, he stopped paying attention, but maybe he should've listened to the seminar on completely ruining one's relationship with the strongest player in the game.
"Would you mind taking the fall? I don't think I'm in the mood to jump out of a plane anytime soon." Some light banter, surely this wasn't the worst case scenario.
"I am going to make sure your fall is painful, long, and filled with lament over this coup ." Alejandro was really pissed it seemed. Goddammit.
To make matters worse, it seemed that 'trial' wasn't entirely over. Cody blinked the sleep out of his eyes, making out the small figure of the Codemeister latched onto Alejandro's back- a parasite through and through.
The loud dinging made it clear what came next though.
Alejandro's swearing in Spanish ensued, and it was pretty amusing to see the typically composed boy lose it like this. If only it wasn't directed at Cody, and if only that little brat wasn't whispering into his ear the whole time.
"Time to take that idiot back home." Cody lamented, standing fully, facing Alejandro who did the same, and before Codemeister could whisper whatever dumb song ideas he had, Cody took control.
Seducer!
It wasn't much, but hey, he was on the spot. Alejandro and Codemeister both looked miffed, but had to roll with it as part of the song.
W-what do you mean by that… sir?
Cody grinned, the thoughts flowing into his head for what felt like the first time in forever. He missed working in a band!
To take out the competition, you'll abuse her!
Dawn, Gwen, Sierra. Cody knew those three were still around, and he knew how Alejandro played. He wouldn't let that happen.
A ridiculous accusation, you force me to refuse… gah! Sir!
The slow start to the song was something else, but it at least pissed Alejandro off and Codemeister was clearly thrown for a loop, not knowing how to take control of this. The doppelganger finally fed Alejandro some better material though, ready to take control away once more.
You're a loser.
An abomination in the eyes of any sensible man.
Cody smirked- of course these lines were predictable coming from himself.
And you're a blind alley cruiser.
Always heading down a losing street,
Dreaming that you're screaming at fate
You're a dead end, dead beat, nowhere-
Cody was cut off as Codemeister fed Alejandro more lines, though it didn't matter. He could tell that what little he had sung got on their nerves a ton.
I took as much of you as any man can!
You've lost your heart!
Cody smirked and only needed to respond with one line, the seething face of Codemeister telling him all he needed to know.
You've lost your cause.
Alejandro launched into further lyrics that were more Codemeister's own deranged ranting.
You lost your girl when you lost your balls.
You lost your mind
You lost your grip
So say bye-bye!
Alejandro, despite all that, was backing away from Cody, backing away from the boy who had taken so much of himself from him.
I lost my mom
I lost my dad
And if I'm losing you,
Well that's too bad.
Codemeister glowered at this, but could only get one line out of Alejandro, just as deranged and lost as the rest.
Well, the best thing you could ever do is die.
Cody shrugged, and the song continued, his absolute control winning out in every regard over his other half.
You're a failure.
A malformation in the guise of many
Who also ran.
Cody turned away, smirking at the last glimpse of Codemeister's infuriated face and Alejandro's annoyed look. Those two didn't deserve his acknowledgement.
And you're a weeper and whiner!
Always treading on the toes of fate!
Generally spreading your weight!
You're a spiteful, hateful, asinine creature-
Cody didn't need to hear any more of that.
I took as much of you as any man can!
You've lost your heart!
You've lost your cause.
You lost your girl when you lost your balls!
You lost your mind when you lost your grip
So say bye-bye!
I lost my home
My family
You've lost compassion now you're losing me.
Cody finally turned back to face his other self with his last lines, staring at the ranting mess that was barely hanging onto Alejandro at this point.
Well the best thing you could ever do is die!
Cody shook his head, strutted forward, and grabbed the parasite- no, himself, pulling it away from Alejandro.
Well, the best thing you could ever do is die!
The song ended with that last line, the two teens exhausted- both from just waking up and how over dramatic the song was. As Cody gripped the Codemeister, invisible to anyone not as far gone as he currently was, he saw the thing fade away. Just another construct he'd made, not gone… just a piece of him he didn't want to keep, but one he had to.
The negative parts of himself were something he tried to force to the forefront, and then expunge entirely, but that just created a worse relapse… he really had almost lost his mind huh. Maybe he already had.
Scratch that, the big trial with yourself where you call yourself pathetic is pretty crazy, he was already too far gone. He went right past Izzy and straight into Ezekiel territory on the crazy scale.
As Alejandro ran off, clearly wanting to return to the challenge at hand, Cody couldn't help but stand still, appreciating the African savanna, the sun on his face, and the fact that he was a miserable piece of crap. A completely flawed person, who loved all the wrong people in all the worst ways, someone who took all the help in the world from one person and did nothing to repay it.
Maybe it's time for the Codemeister to leave Total Drama behind for a bit.