The Season Finale: Part 2

"Okay, who's taking on who?" Cyrus asked. "Amber is going after Kalea, and I'll go after Leonie."

"I'll take Leonie too." Odebode replied.

"Okay, okay." Cyrus nodded. "Actually, Vanessa. If I may ask, could you come with me?"

"M-me?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes." Cyrus confirmed. "It's your ability. If I'm right about this, Leonie's ability is to make things switch between the three states of matter. But your parasites could sneak up and deal damage before she could notice or deal with them. And you could keep a low profile, so she wouldn't target you."

"Got it!" Vanessa nodded enthusiastically.

"And the rest of you can take care of Kalea, I take it?"

"Yep." Andrei replied.

"Got it." Wendy replied.

"Good." Cyrus nodded.

Cyrus group followed where Leonie's last signal came from, near the entertainment district. On the way there, several smilers began crawling up to them.

"Wait, guys."

Vanessa stepped in front of them and started scratching herself until a few small parasites emerged out of her, about twenty or so. All of them made their way past Cyrus and Odebode and to the smilers. They started easily cutting through the smilers and burrowed into their watches until they exploded.

"Did that…actually work?" Vanessa yelled, turning to Cyrus and Odebode with a massive smile on her face.

"Wait, what was that?" Odebode asked.

"I dunno, I just thought about the parasites coming out of my arm and in my mind, I asked them to attack the smilers. I think when I let them out, they knew what I wanted."

"So Cyrus whole thing about killing Leonie could happen?" Odebode asked, looking at Cyrus.

"It could!" Vanessa replied, shaking with excitement.

"Cyrus?" Odebode asked. "You ready."

"Yes." Cyrus nodded, checking his watch. "There's a reading by the pool, and it's not moving. She wants to meet us in there."

The three of them made their way to the pool, avoiding any smilers they came across, until they found the pool. The three of them stepped inside, witnessing each other be bathed in a sea of soft blue and pink hues from the lights above them. Walking past the empty lobby into the main pool, where the sounds of playful splashing could be heard.

"Oh hey, you three made it!" Leonie yelled from inside the water. "So hey, before the fight to the death starts, you down for a swim? Yay? Nay?"

Vanessa looked over by the edge of the pool, where Leonie's dress lay.

"Alright, I'll take it as a no." Leonie sighed sarcastically. She slowly began to get out of the pool, revealing her naked body.

"What? It's the last episode! Live a little!"

She smoothly moved past the three flustered competitors, flinging her dress into the air, merging herself with it as it touched her skin.

"Mind if we take this outside?" She asked calmly with a smirk on her face.

The three of them did as she obliged and followed her to a crossroads. Four directions, one to the arcade, one to the cinema, and two which led to buildings unknown.

"Now, I know what you're thinking." Leonie started calmly. "Our gorgeous host led us to a crossroads so a bunch of smilers can ambush and kill us. And that would be the plan if it were anyone but our friend Cyrus here!"

She tapped her watch a few times, and several explosions were heard all around them from every building.

"Because Cyrus here figured me out! Everyone looks at me like some kind of God, but my powers are simply matter shifting."

"You heard us?" Odebode asked.

"Honey, I hear everything. I hear Cyrus crying about Valentina, And Vanessa, the way you mumble about Amber in your sleep is so adorable! But yes, I can hear whatever I want. And I just so happened to listen to your little plan to kill me! I have to say, it's interesting. About six strategies I would have thought of beforehand. Or maybe seven, who knows. So with that said, it's time for Vanessa to go!"

The air tensed up around them, and Odebode swung his short just shy of Vanessa's head, feeling the invisible blade clash with his. He felt the solid chunk of air push against him, but it wasn't anything he couldn't deal with, especially with Cyrus on the other side. But he felt the air curl around him and slap him in the stomach, which caused him to retract his blade for a brief second. And once it did, he felt the sharp force pierce against his stomach and push him back.

"Vanessa, there's another thing about her power I want to test. If you can, make some parasites and try to throw them on her fingers. Think you can do that?"

Vanessa nodded, scratching her arm until parasites emerged into her hand. Quickly, she scooped them into her hands threw them over onto Leonie's, and the ones that made it started burrowing into her skin. Odebode felt the pressure leave his midsection as Cyrus's makeshift bone blade bounced off Leonie as she shook the parasites out of her skin before stomping on them.

"So Leonie, may I ask why you didn't just liquify those parasites?" Cyrus asked.

"Not able to." Leonie replied.

"So I was right to assume that your matter shifting can't work on living things?"

"Pretty much." Leonie grunted, slowly getting more annoyed with each word coming out of Cyrus mouth.

"And you undid the pressure around Odebode, so there's a limit to how many things you can manipulate."

"Perhaps." Leonie replied, her eyes screaming at a rate faster than any mouth could. "But I don't think it matters much. Five minutes. Five minutes, and you'll be a puddle on the ground! Sound good?"

Leonie instantly undid the barrier, and an invisible liquid made it's way across Cyrus mouth. Leonie leapt towards him, putting her hand across Cyrus mouth before he could do anything to stop it, solidifying the air around his mouth and nose. In retaliation, Cyrus got a jagged bone to come out of his arm and slashed it across Leonie's face.

Leonie screamed out in terror, stumbling back while clutching her face. When she was a bit back, her hands left her face. She looked at the blood across her pristine white gloves, and then back up at the three of them, and then towards a window.

On that window was her reflection looking back at her, with a scar under her eyes.

"What did you do to my face?!" Leonie screamed. "Do you have any idea what I did to the last people who did this to me?! They were…they were the reason I ended up here!"

"Vanessa, start making parasites!" Cyrus commanded. Vanessa did as she asked, scratching her arms until several parasites came out. She started at Leonie in her mind, hoping it would place the image of her in each parasite, and they would know who to kill.

Leonie leapt at Cyrus, clashing against him with another invisible blade Cyrus easily countered. She threw out another one which hit Cyrus in the ribs, but he quickly stabilised himself by growing some extra bones around his feet, pushing it away with his other arm. Odebode tried to dash behind Leonie, but she threw an invisible wall behind her back. She solidified the air around her, pushing all the air she could into a small ball, which eventually collapsed and made an explosion around her, sending Odebode flying back and left Cyrus fighting to keep his composure. She solidified the air just around both Cyrus and Odebode into a box to trap them into.

She made a small hole at the end of the box to get out off, jumping at Vanessa and her pile of parasites. Vanessa threw several parasites into her face, watching as they began to burrow into her skin. Leonie screamed out as she felt them work as quickly as they did, slashing Vanessa with a small blade of solidified air. A wound left on Vanessa's stomach, she quickly thought of her stomach, tracing the mental image of the parasites from her arm to her stomach, and then to Leonie.

She felt a bubbly sensation in her stomach. From the fresh wound emerged even more parasites. She held Leonie's head in her hands as she thought of her. The parasites went onto her skin, and she desperately tried to shake them off, but they kept coming.

Vanessa felt the air brush against her face, and she let go of Leonie and jumped back, feeling the air graze her nose. Leonie stumbled forward, creating a small barrier to push the parasites off her. She was breathing heavily, her body was scarred, and her dress was torn.

"You…you! You think I'm giving in? Just how smart do you think you are? You know the digits are in my dress, right? If your little parasites get me, they'll rip the paper out, too!"

Vanessa's watch buzzed as she said that. A message. From Silvia.

"Sorry, couldn't help but drop in on your conversation. There's a part of the rules I forgot to mention. I know what the digits are and am instructed to give them out should the others be unable to."

"Silvia! What are you doing?" Leonie screamed.

"Hey, gotta let the contestants know the rules." Silvia replied casually. "Have at it, Vanessa."

Vanessa slowly thought of more parasites, and all of them went towards Leonie. Leonie lunged towards Vanessa and was stopped by a wall of bones spawning between them. Leonie looked back to see Cyrus and Odebode walking up to her.

"Did…did I…."

"You undid it." Cyrus nodded slowly.

A small room of bones trapped her, and a hole opened up near where her heart would be, which Odebode plunged his sword into.

"You get her?" Cyrus asked.

Odebode pulled his sword out slowly, and the edge of his sword was stained with blood.

"Yep, I got her."

Cyrus retracted the bone wall, and Leonie was left in a heap on the floor, clutching the wound in her heart. She looked around at all three contestants, the furious intensity slowly leaving her eyes.

"Fine. You…you win, okay? Just take my fucking digits and let me have whatever dignity I have left."

She scrambled to her feet, handing Cyrus the bloodstained numbers. Cyrus could barely make out the 9346 on it.

"Now fuck off." Leonie snarled. She wandered into a building, and a faint thud was heard from inside it.

"So…we survived?" Vanessa sighed.

"Yeah, we made it!" Odebode yelled.

"We…we did it! Huang, I made it!" Vanessa yelled into the sky, tears flooding her eyes.

And then the pain set in. She had a pretty big hole in her stomach, and the adrenaline was wearing off.

"Well, are we ready to go to the exit?" Cyrus asked. He maintained his glum facial expression, but it was clear his spirits were lifted.

"Yeah, yeah." Vanessa nodded. She stood up and instantly started drooping, so Odebode picked her up and threw her arm around his shoulder.

Cyrus tucked the numbers neatly in his pocket.

"Well then, shall we go?"

As much as Cyrus tried to retain his composure, he couldn't. He actually survived everything. Even holding the winning numbers in his hand, it all felt so surreal. He tried lowering his hat to hide his tears, but even that wasn't working.

He won, Valentina.