Finale!

RYAN

"No Mom, I'm not coming home during the break...yes beacuse I'd rather spend time with Moira." Toby paced during his conversation. I guess this answered where he was going. Whatever he wanted I suppose.

"What about you?" T asks me. "Going home?"

"No," I say, because there's nothing for there anyway. Though I don't know where I'm going to go, and I hope he offers some kind of guidance.

"Ipod?"

"No" She signs. I know that word. "I'm going to travel." She finishes in thought speech.

"Same." Coty says.

"You should come with me." I know she's offering it to both of us, but she really only means him.

"I'll catch up with you somewhere if I can? The producers want to have some kind of a meeting with me? And they said I might not be done with whatever they have planned until a week or so." He shrugs. I'm a little disappointed. I want to spend more time with him and his brother, but I'm also sure the producers have something good for him since he was voted the MVP.

Ipod stares at me. "Just us girls then?"

I think this over, part of me wanting to be alone. At the same time, this would be good for me. Female time is always a plus, and I need to get my head in order before we start our next round of challenges.

I nod. "Sounds great."

Voting Time

Voting Time
(continued at Team Promethiad)

Toby walked to the bonfire with the rest of his team. He was tired, but glad to be

done with this final challenge. The bonfire in the middle of the jungle was all too familiar

to Survivor and he couldn't help but laugh about that one. Ryan gave him a weird look

for it of course, but she didn't have a sense of humor. Both her and Ipod clung to Cory.

He couldn't help but wonder if they were avoiding him because of his

second occurrence of turning into the monster. They were being more weird than usual.

All of those feelings faded however when he saw Moira enter with her team.


It was time for voting. Moira was relieved that the challenges were over-for now.

After this, they would be getting a break. They didn't know for how long. They were all

tired and a light film of soot covered their skin. The volcano was still erupting and the air

was heavy with the soot.


Moira laughed as she entered the clearing where a giant bonfire was blazing. It

reminded her all too much of another show. She looked around for Toby's team and

smiled as she met his eyes across the fire. She wandered over and sat down next to him,

not caring what either of their teams thought. "Looks a little familiar, doesn't it?" she

murmured to him.


"Yeah. I'm kind of hoping I get voted off the island." He sighed and watched as

Chance Cagney came out, looking as chipper and annoying as ever.


"Congratulations! You have survived our first run of challenges. We do in fact

have a winner but we would like to extend the opportunity to change things up a bit. As

you know, the rules originally said only one could win. We are willing to offer all of you

a chance at the thing you desperately desire. The catch? You have to compete for longer,

and we decide how long that will be. Majority rules will be the deciding factor. I will

hand each of you some paper and you may write your decision now as well as who you

think should be declared the ultimate player from your team."


As Chance passed around the paper and pens, Moira wondered what she should

do. If she stayed, that might be more of an opportunity to be with Toby--as long as he

stayed as well. If he left now, he might not get "healed" of his monster power. Making

sure no one was paying attention, she leaned over and whispered in Toby's ear: "What do

you want to do want to do?"


He sighed, unsure of what to do or think. "If it means you being okay, I'm willing

to keep going for as long as it takes." He wrote his vote, putting Ipod as his team's most

valuable player. She'd done so much for him.


Moira quickly wrote down her vote to stay. If Toby was staying, she was staying.

She paused as she tried to think about the most valuable teammate. Definitely not Lily or

Jesse. Neither one had really done anything. It had to be Will. He had saved her when she

was trapped in the funhouse at the fair, and he had come back for her and carried her

through the desert when she had fallen and sprained her ankle. She had to vote him MVP,

despite the growing drama between them. She sighed as she wrote down his name,

hoping it wouldn't come back to haunt her.


He watched as the others put their votes in the box and sighed, reaching for her

hand to hold her close. He needed the extra comfort right now.


"Well teams, it's unanimous! Everyone wants to continue with the competition,"

Chance announced, looking gleeful.


This actually surprised Toby. He'd have thought for sure that at least Ryan would

want to pick a winner and bail. He squeezed Moira's hand, unsure of what this would

mean for them now. What happened next?


"You have three months to prepare. See your families. See the world. Whatever

you do, figure out why you're here." Chance said.

Volcano!

IPOD

T and Ryan are missing, and all Toby and I have is a small blip of a GPS coordinate and a map to find them with. Toby is worthless at reading maps. I'm a little more than worthless at it. The whole time he drives all I can think about are Chance's words.

"I'd hurry because the longer you wait, the less treasure you will find, and I'd hate for the next time you see your comrades to be in a hospital."

Guilt racks my stomach because I don't want to last thing T hears from my being something so angry. Okay, so he's not going to die or anything, but I still pissed him off to the point where he left and thus he was put in harms way. He wouldn't have been taken otherwise.

I can't believe I was such an idiot and lead him on. Not like I did it on purpose or anything. Still, I feel like the scum of the earth. I have a boyfriend, so why should I care what he does or doesn't do with Ryan? I believe him when he says they only slept, but it's not my business. I don't care. I don't. He's a great guy, sweet, and hot as hell, but I have a boyfriend. We've been together for over a year. I love him, and when I get back the first thing I'm going to do is finally pounce him. So yeah, Coty can do whatever he wants with whoever. Even if I'm way cuter than Ryan, and he could do way better. Again though, not my business.

Toby speeds like a demon and we find ourselves at the base of a rather impressive mountain. And it's smoking.

He groans. "Volcano."

I sigh. Of course we'll be going out with a bang.

Where are you? It's a vain effort, but it's worth a try. I take one of those hunter demobilizing flashlights and hand it to Toby before taking one for myself. I had a feeling we'd need them. I gesture for us to move forward through the forest covering the volcano. The map said to head due North from where the GPS parked us. And we hiked. Neither of us said a word. Occasionally Toby hummed but for the most part it was completely silent. Which is good because I needed to hear.

"Team one is coming into position. Ready your weapons."

I swallowed hard. Weapons?

"Toby?" He turns to face me. "They're going to hurt us."

"I'll keep you safe." He whispers before taking my hand and pushing forward. I think this is the first time I've ever seen him be so mature and caring before. Maybe he realized though that he had to finally man up. And that's when the bullets started flying at us. None of them hit us, but I could hear them whiz by my head, along with the loud bang from the gun firing. "What the hell?"

"Run." I suggest, and agrees because he starts bolting, dragging me along with him. I struggle for a moment and trip over branches and rocks on the ground. Finally I start catching up and keeping my footing.

"Ow!" Toby screams and grabs at his arm. "I've been hit!"

It's then I realize they're using rubber bullets on us. I see it bounce off of him, and I know enough to know these hunters aren't far away from us.

"We need to find a big rock. That's what's on the map!"

"I keep getting hit by...ow!" Poor guy is taking the entire attack basically, and then I realize what they're trying to do and I gasp, especially when I notice Toby's arm starting to change shape and color. His skin is turning into a dark shade of purple, and his hands are no longer soft and fleshy but rough and like leather.

I let go. "We should separate. Lead them away so I can get the others."

"What are you...." He stops and stares at his arm. "No, not now!"

"Focus. I know you can."

"I'll try but...." He trails off and veers off to the right, out of my sight. I never know what he's going to say, and all I can hope for is a clear run to the rock. I see it, and there's no one in sight. I can barely make out the entrance of a cave. I venture forward and into the dark. I have the light from my phone, and a mini key-chain flashlight to guide me.

"T? Ryan? Can you hear me?"

"Ipod?" I hear Ryan's voice echo through out the cave. I do my best to pinpoint the direction of the source and continue moving forward.

Then I see movement from the side. It's subtle and I almost miss it, but thank goodness I did notice it because when I saw it move again I also saw the familiar black suit of the hunter. With my anti-hunter device ready, I'm set to point and shoot at anything that tries to get in my way. I blast the hunter, and listen to the satisfying thud on the ground. Moving a few feet forward, I see Ryan's dainty feet, and a slouching pant leg that looks like it belongs to T.

I rush over and get to work, untying them. T is unresponsive to any shaking or pleading I give him. He's out like a light.

"We need to carry him out." Ryan says and slips an arm under him. I do the same, and I'm surprised he's not as heavy as I thought he would be. He's a boy. I thought they were all like, three million pounds.

"Where's Toby?" She asks.

"Changing." And I hope he's keeping the rest of the hunters distracted because I don't know what we're going to do if they appear now. Of course, anything bad that can happen, will. At the front of the cave is, I kid you not, five hunters.

"Shit." Ryan whispers.

We stop and stare. The hunters have guns pointing at us. All hell breaks loose in a matter of seconds because we're shot at, the bullets pelting us wake up T, who flails and basically punches me in the arm hard. I drop him, he covers his head and a strange psychic shield covers us. We're protected but still out numbered and the hunters move forward towards us. That's when the cavalry shows up. Toby in all of his monster glory stomps in, grabs the hunters and tosses them out as though they weighted nothing. Then he continues towards us. Ryan cowers back, protectively leaning over Coty.

I flinch as I watch this, unsure of why exactly, but instead of hiding from him I move forward.

"Thank you Toby. You should come back to us now. We miss you."

He growls, reaching out to grab me. I take his enormous clawed hand and give it a squeeze. He recognizes me, I know, I can tell by the way he looks at me. "Go home."

"Yes, we'll go home now. Then you can rest. I promise."

The Set Up

N/A

TOBY

I wake up with a groan. Yeah, I was kind of up late last night talking with Moira online. I would have much rather preferred to do it in person, but her team was kind of uptight and mental. It's not fair because she's so close and I can't even see her? What kind of bullshit is this?

We're all staying in a suite which is nice because it means we each get our own room. It's nice to not have to share a bed for a change or sleep on a couch. My own, big, large, glorious bed. Sigh. I pass Ryan's bedroom on the way to the bathroom and notice she's sharing it. What's even more curious is that she and Coty are basically spooning. His arms are around her, cuddling her tightly, and she's all passed out contentedly. I wouldn't have pinned them as an item at all. I shrug, and go to take a piss. That's when things got a little chaotic.

"What happened? What am I doing here?" I hear T practically yell. Guy's having a meltdown. So maybe it wasn't him who was into her. I guess it was the other one. Even that didn't make sense though because Cory is so...cool. Really, he could do a lot better than Ryan.

"Nothing happened." She says.

"We didn't...."

"No, we didn't do anything. Just fell asleep. I had a bad night, Cory helped me through it. That's it."

Uh huh, not sure I'm buying it as completely innocent. I mean, maybe nothing happened, but something happened if you know what I mean.

"I-." T starts. "Ipod!"

That's when I got out of the bathroom just in time to see him bolt out of Ryan's room, grab a hold of Ipod who's on her way to the kitchen, and they're signing something fierce. I can pick up a few words. I'd been trying to study up on the language, but it's fast and hard to follow sometimes. Most of it is common sense though. She's pissed, that much is clear by the huge frown on her face. He's desperate because his eyes are wide and almost pleading as he explains whatever to her. I'm pretty sure I see something that resembles "boyfriend", and I get the jist of the fight.

T's got it bad for Ipod. I can tell by the way he gawks and looks all dopey every time they talk. I think she's interested in him too, but in denial. If it wasn't a big deal that he woke up in Ryan's bed because she had a boyfriend and didn't care, she wouldn't be so damn pissed. That's just my opinion though. No one has to listen to me.

Finally T responds verbally as Ipod turns away from him. "I know, but I thought something was happening. You can't tell me I'm the only one noticing."

I don't hear her reply because she's no doubt doing her thought speaky thing and guarding it well. He's right though. He's not the only one noticing either.

He sighs and leaves the room. "Well if it ever does matter, that's what really happened. Just thought you should know."

She stomps off to the balcony, slamming it shut on her way out. I get why she's frustrated. She's got a boyfriend. From what I know of the guy, he sounds kind of like a dick, but she says she loves him anyway. They have a pretty deep history together after all, but T and her obviously have a super tight bond. Whatever right?

Ryan comes out and she's all ready to go and run or something. I guess we have some free time since we haven't seen any instructions yet, so she leaves the room. I decide now is a good time to take advantage of the shower, and take a nap. Yeah, I know, I just got up. Whatever.

I wake up several hours later to Ipod shaking me.

"Something is wrong. I haven't seen T or Ryan for a while."

"Maybe they're getting frisky." I tease. She scowls and looks like I just stabbed her in the stomach with a knife. Yeah, she's into him. "I'm kidding. They're probably each doing whatever."

"We need to find them. We have an envelope. It's time."

"Oh!" I get up immediately and go to the kitchen where a large manilla envelope is waiting. She didn't open it without us, but I wasn't going to hold back. Hello, it could be important.

"Ryan isn't going to like this." But she doesn't stop me either.

I shrug, obviously I don't care. I tear it open and dump out a bunch of papers. They're maps. Inside is a DVD.

I stick it into our entertainment system and we both watch. Chance Cagney appears on our screen.

"Aloha Introversion with a three! I hope you are enjoying your stay in beautiful Hawaii. I'm sure by now you are wondering where your other team members are. The hunters gathered up anyone who left the hotel room today and brought them to X marks the spot. I'd hurry, because the longer you wait, the less treasure you will find, and I'd hate for the next time you see your comrades to be in the hospital. Aloha."

The screen went black and I turned off the TV.

"They're missing?" I ask Ipod. She bites her lip and nods. We had to rescue them before they got hurt. We did. This makes me more than a little nervous. Ryan and T were always super dependable, and a lot stronger players than I had ever anticipated them being. Our whole team as a whole functioned a lot better when we were all together and on the same page I noticed. Now it was just me and Ipod. The guy who had an unreliable power, and the girl who couldn't communicate effectively. Crap.

I go to grab my bag and start filling it with all of the necessary stuff. I'm determined. "Let's do this."

Thickening

"Keep me safe inside your arms like towers.
Tower over me."

CORY

We go to our hotel room and it’s late. Ryan basically demands we all stay in tonight despite most of us wanting to go out and play. We need to focus, or something. I think it’s lame. For most of us, this is our first time in Hawaii! It’s beautiful here, and we have to spend our first night, possibly our only free night, in a hotel room? Bogus. Something about her is off though and has been ever since we stepped onto the airplane.

“Hey, you okay?” I ask her when I finally get her alone. She’s unpacking her bag, just enough. She always unpacks it just enough.

“Yes.” is her stiff reply.

“You don’t seem it.”

She pauses and then stares up at me. “Do you remember me Cory?”

I stare back at her, shocked and confused because I didn’t think she’d make the connection from that night. Of course I had, but I didn’t want to say anything to her about it. Especially not without my body.

“Cory? I know you’re there. You’re glowing.”

“I know. Yes, I remember you.” I say, not allowing anymore silence to pass between us. I can’t avoid this forever after all.

“Why didn’t you say anything to me earlier?”

“What, that I was the guy who hooked up at you at a club, what, three years ago?” I shrug. “I didn’t think you’d care, or remember either.” Truth was, it was because I was afraid. Most of my hook ups I dont’ remember, but Ryan is more or less unforgettable. Along with that, she’s the last girl I was with in my own body. Of course I’m always going to remember that night. But I don’t say anything about any of this. I’d rather not have her pity.

“Of course I remember.” She mumbles. “You say that like I hook up with lots of random men.”

“I don’t know. I tend to not want to assume either way when it comes with that sort of thing. The point of the hook up is to be anonymous. After all, I didn’t know your name until now.” I say softly.

“Yes, I know.” She sighs. “Never mind, forget I mentioned it then. Go back to your anonymous world.”

“Ryan.” I sigh as well and I go to put a hand on her shoulder. She stares up at me and she has tears in her eyes. I don’t get it. At all. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m overwhelmed. It’s nothing.”

“Talk to me.”

“I’ve said everything I have to say to you.”

I sigh, and pull her into a hug and she starts to cry. Big, tough girl Ryan, crying in my arms. I frown and sit her down on the bed with me. She curls in and just sobs. Thankfully everyone else is away, so she doesn’t have to feel anymore embarrassed. I mean, I don’t know for sure, but just what I know of Ryan, I know she wouldn’t want everyone else to see. She probably didn’t even want me to see, so in a way I feel kind of honored.

We lay back in bed, she’s crying, I’m holding her, and it’s kind of nice. it’s silly, i know, but this is the sort of thing that always had me wanting a relationship. Being needed and thought of as important. It’s not like have commitment issues. I’d commit if I found the right girl. She could be that, but right now it’s kind of hard to have that sort of relationship when I don’t even have my own body.

“If it makes you feel better, I was going to go back to find out who you are when I get hit with the car.” I say quietly. “I wanted to know you.”

She stops for a moment and our eyes meet. “That was how you became like this?”

I nod, and she breaks down into more tears. Shit, that wasn’t what I was going for. “I-.”

“Don’t apologize.” She says in-between sniffles. “Please don’t say anything more.”

So i don’t. Instead I hold her until she falls asleep, and somewhere in there I fell asleep as well. I didn’t realize what big of a mistake that was until the next morning when Coty took over. But that is a whole other story.