Author: JustSkipIt
Rating: PG
Feedback: Please leave feedback on the Survivor - Ash Island thread on the Kitten Board.
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters nor do I own Survivor. And believe it or not, I also don't own any small islands. On the other hand, this island is fictional so let's say I own it. I'm making no money from this fiction and intend no copyright infringement.

Akathla Camp - Day 15
The four remaining Akathla members drink water and eat a bit of rice in the morning. "I wonder when the merge will happen," Mac muses.

"Can't happen soon enough?" Willow snaps, her sensitive nerves making evident the toll the game takes.

"I'm just saying," Mac tries to defend his comment, "that we're down to 10 players. That's about when they usually merge the tribes."

"Plus which you want to get your scheming self out of here?" Xander asks.

"I'm not sure I'm the schemer around here," Mac says. Frustrated he stands up and walks off. Xander the does the same leaving Willow and Buffy sitting at the fire.

Confessional Caption - Willow - Software Startup Owner
"The ranks are definitely breaking down around here," she smiles. "What I can't believe is that I didn't think of turning Mac on the other two. I mean who would have thought Buffy had the scheming in her. Makes me very glad I'm in her alliance rather than the other side."

Confessional Caption - Buffy - College Student
Buffy is ostensibly gathering wood but she talks to the camera as she does so. "Well, I don't want to toot my own horn but that went really well. Oz never knew what hit him. Xander cut his own throat with Mac and Mac helped the two of us get rid of a weak link."

MFashnek Camp - Day 15
Richard and Kendra gather firewood. "Kendra," Richard tells her sweetly, "I think you're walking on the wrong side of this thing. You could come with us and we'll take you to the final four." Kendra looks at him but doesn't say anything.

Faith, Tara, and Robin use the fishing hooks to try to catch fish. They have about 4 small fish piled on a rock and are using berries as bait. They work in silence as Joyce can be seen tending the fire.

Confessional Caption - Tara - Medical Receptionist/Aspiring Artist
"I really w-wonder who Akathla voted off. " She seems to show some upset and worry about the question. She takes a deep breath and says, "I never expected this to be like this. I'm r-really tired. I could use a day off."

As if Tara's wish has come true, we see that the teams do, in fact have the day off. We see various shots of competitors lying around their shelters, swimming or bathing, or even napping throughout the day.

Night falls and we see the MFashnek team eating their rice and beans as they sit around the campfire. Of all things, they appear to be playing Charades. Robin motions with his arms and pantomimes running across the sand, picking something from his feet, and shooting. "Butch and Sundance," Joyce screams; "Terminator 1," Kendra calls out; "Die Hard," Faith yells. When Robin indicates that she is right, she slaps high fives all around before taking her turn at acting out the next clue.

Confessional Caption - Joyce - Art Gallery Owner
We see everyone else asleep in the shelter or around the fire. Joyce whispers to the camera. "For a day that started so badly, this ended up well. I think we really needed this, not only for the break from the ‘game' but for the chance to reconnect."

MFashnek Camp - Day 16
"We've got mail," Tara and Kendra call as they carry the mail back from the tree. The two girls lay down pieces of a small boat puzzle. Once assembled, the boat has a message written on it in black ink.

Akathla Camp - Day 16
"Teamwork and strength may guarantee that you are safe for the day at least," Willow read from the puzzle.

"Why do you think it says ‘may'?" Willow asks.

"I really don't know," Xander says thoughtfully.

MFashnek Camp - Day 16
Confessional Caption - Faith - Personal Trainer
"I'll tell you this. I'm not thrilled that the tree mail said may. I mean what does that mean?"

Confessional Caption - Richard - Small-Town Mayor
"I'll tell you what. Everyone over here is wondering what this tree mail means. I don't really care what it means. We have the strength and the smarts over here. We'll win this tree-mail and then pick off the Akathlas," he sneers the name, "one by one."

Immunity Challenge
The Akathla and MFashnek teams enter simultaneously to take their places on their mats. Jeff takes the immunity idol back from MFashnek and holds up a canvas bag. "Ok," Jeff says, "today up for grabs are these two items." He holds them up. "I think you all know the immunity idol." The players of course all nod their heads.

Jeff continues, "This bag contains a reward that could and probably will change the game in a very important way. Today we will have two races. The first is for team immunity. The second for reward. The winner of reward will put him or herself in a position of power which will be very important in this game." The competitors look around somewhat confused at the statement and finally nod their heads.

Jeff points to the water. A few hundred feet out two rafts are tethered in place, one for each team. Also in the water are 12 floating shapes, six for each team. "The six pieces you see, when assembled, will form a boat. One at a time, players will swim from the raft to bring a piece back. Then you can assemble your boat," he explains. "Because Akathla has only four players, two of you will retrieve two pieces." Everyone nods their heads.

"Once the boat is assembled," he continued, "you will use the paddles to row toward the shore. MFashnek, two members of your team will not row but will stay on the raft. Which two members will not row?"

Again, Richard and Joyce raise their hands.

"The first team who has the four rowers reach their mat will win the challenge and the chance to win the reward," he says.

Next we see the team members all standing on their rafts waiting for Jeff to shout his "Go!" At his shout, it becomes apparent that the teams have decided on different strategies. Joyce is the first person into the water for the MFashnek team, while Mac goes first for Akathla. She swims to the closest piece, quickly unclipping it and pushing it back while he swims for the farthest.

"The two teams employing different strategies," Jeff comments, "Joyce is returning with the first MFashnek piece while Mac is still swimming to his." Joyce pushes her piece to the raft as Kendra dives off, swimming for a far piece. She passes the older gentleman on her way and he pushes his piece to the Akathla raft as Buffy dives off to get the next farthest piece. Akathla's strategy of allowing Buffy and Mac to swim first so they can rest appears to work well for them as they are slightly in the lead following Willow and Xander's swims, in comparison to Joyce, Kendra, Tara, and Robin's swims.

When the two strongest members of Akathla have to take their second swims, they begin to fall behind as first Richard and then Faith retrieve their pieces. MFashnek is slightly in the lead as they begin assembling their boat. Once again, Willow's puzzle-solving ability comes in useful as her team returns with all their pieces approximately ten seconds behind the MFashnek team. Because of the difficulty the MFashnek team has assembling their boat and disagreements between Richard and Faith over which slats to slide in place first, both teams complete their boats simultaneously.

As soon as the boats are complete, Robin helps Tara onto the MFashnek boat followed by Kendra and Faith before pushing the MFashnek boat out from the raft and leaping to the back of the boat. At the same time, Mac helps Willow onto the boat before Buffy, Xander, and he take their positions. Joyce and Richard cheer from the MFashnek raft as the eight players on the boats begin to row.

Both teams row hard for the shore as Mac and Robin use their position to keep them on target. About half-way between the raft and the shore, MFashnek pulls slightly ahead, spurring both teams to row harder. However, the greater strength of the MFashnek team is just too much for Akathla. The stronger team reaches the shore and stumbles to their mat, collapsing in exhaustion. The Akthala team valiantly finishes the race, collapsing on their mat about ten seconds behind the MFashnek team.

As both teams recover from their energy expenditure, Jeff waits for Joyce and Richard to swim to the shore and hands Robin the immunity idol. After giving MFashnek time to recover. Jeff announces that it is time to compete for the reward.

He points to the six small boats on the shore and explains that each participant will race their boat. They will row to the raft, go around it, and return to shore. Each participant has a flag on a pole behind the MFashnek mat. The first person to return and raise his or her flag will win the challenge and gain the powerful reward. He holds up a canvas bag and indicates the key to the reward is in the bag.

At his command all six MFashnek players run to their boats. Robin and Kendra reach theirs first and begin pushing them into the water, jumping in and starting to paddle. Faith is next, followed by Tara, Joyce, and finally Richard. All six begin paddling their hardest with Robin taking a slight lead. Kendra is right behind him and Tara surprisingly passes Faith to move into third place. By the time they are half-way to the raft, it is apparent that Richard has no chance and he stops paddling to float in the water. The other five players race furiously toward the raft with Robin and Kendra reaching it first with Tara close behind. While Kendra smoothly negotiates the turn-around by reaching her hand out to pivot on the edge of the raft, Robin has more trouble. The front of his boat hits the edge of the raft, knocking him off course. He is passed by Tara who sees Kendra's technique and similarly uses the raft to turn around.

Although Robin recovers to quickly overtake both Faith and Tara again, he can not catch up to Kendra who has gained a few precious yards of lead. Kendra reaches the shore ahead of Robin, Faith, Tara, and Joyce and jumps from her boat to raise her flag before again collapsing on the mat. The others follow quickly and also collapse in exhaustion.

Jeff allows the participants to recover before he congratulates Kendra and asks her to join him. He holds up the canvas bag and instructs the players to, "Drop your buffs." Everyone is obviously shocked but does as he says.

He hands Kendra the bag and announces, "I told you this bag contained a reward for the person who won it." She reaches into the bag and pulls out five buffs of each color. "You can distribute those however you want," he says.

Kendra looks at the buffs now in her hand and then looks up at all the players. Quickly she ties the MFashnek buff around her arm and walks over to hand the next two buffs to Tara and Faith simultaneously. Both girls breathe a sigh of relief. "A familiar group," Jeff comments.

Next she takes a step back and looks at the remaining players. Quickly she walks over and hands two Akathla buffs to Mac and Xander before again surveying the group. Returning to the MFashnek mat she hands a MFashnek buff to Robin and an Akathla buff to Richard.

Confessional Caption - Robin - High School Principal
"I was pretty worried about what Kendra would do with her day of power. It's getting close to merge and she could easily have cut me loose. I'm impressed that she kept me around but suspicious that she just wants to work me until they vote me off."

Confessional Caption - Willow - Software Startup Owner
"It was nerve-racking, let me tell you, waiting there for Kendra to decide who would be on which team. I mean on one hand, if she puts me on the MFashnek team, they'll get rid of me as soon as they can but on the other hand, my time may be running short with Akathla." She smiles sweetly: "Plus which, being on MFashnek would give me a little time to get to know Tara."

Taking a deep breath, Kendra walks over and hands a MFashnek buff to Willow, leaving Akathla buffs for Joyce and Buffy.

"Welcome to your new teams!" Jeff announces. "Akathla, I'll see you tonight at tribal council." The teams walk toward their camps.

We see both teams walking back to their camps. "Thanks, Kendra," Willow tells the young woman before dropping to walk next to Tara. "Maybe you can show me around your camp," she says flirtatiously, "your shelter, where you eat, where you sleep."

Tara blushes at Willow's intimation but nods that she can certainly be the redhead's guide.

Akathla Team
The team walks back to camp quietly. The tone is obviously uncomfortable and suspicious until Buffy apparently decides to welcome the new team members. "Welcome to Akathla camp," she says before showing the newcomers the camp and offering to let them use the bathing products.

Confessional Caption - Richard - Small-Town Mayor
"Well, I'll tell you what. This little girl, Kendra, really messed with me and Joyce. I think this will come back to bite her though when those others turn on her. In the meantime, Joyce and I just need to get one of these kids on our side."

We see Richard approach Mac and Xander on the sand to talk to them. "Buffy seems like a threat," he tells them openly.

"She's strong," the two men agree.

Joyce drinks water at the fire. She stands up and walks toward the woods and Buffy follows a few minutes later. As soon as the two women are sure they aren't being watched they embrace in a long hug. "How are you?" both ask simultaneously. They have an obviously joyous reunion, followed by whispering.

We see Richard approach Joyce as Buffy, Xander, and Mac fish. "Joyce," he says, "the guys are with me. We can vote off this girl: Buffy tonight."

Joyce nods.

Akathla Tribal Council
The new Akathla team enters and takes their seats. "Welcome," Jeff intones. "So how are things at camp?"

"It's nice to see the new camp," Richard reports, "we're hoping to make some friends to add to our existing friends."

"Buffy," Jeff asks, "do you think everyone would have tried harder if you had known how important this challenge was?"

"Jeff," Buffy answers seriously, "I think we all worked to exhaustion out there today. Nothing could make us any stronger than we are, no matter what the reward. The chance to avoid tribal council is enough of an incentive to give 100%."

"That sounds like you think your head is on the block," Jeff says.

"There are only five of us here," Buffy answers, "everyone is in danger."

"What about you Mac?" Jeff directs his next question, "are people thinking about merge and your strength in winning individual immunity?"

"They could be," Mac answers non-committally, "but I'd think we'd be thinking more of our team loyalty." We see Richard and Joyce frown at that statement.

"Let's just see," Jeff says, "Joyce you vote first."

Joyce votes and we don't see her vote. Buffy is next and she writes down "Richard" and addresses the camera: "Richard, you can't just come in and try to get rid of me. Bye." Xander, Mac, and Richard follow the blonde.

Jeff gets the bucket and returns with the ballots. "I'll read the votes," he declares. "First vote: Buffy." No one looks surprised at the vote nor at the following one for Richard. "One vote, Buffy. One vote, Richard," Jeff recaps. "Richard," he reads and Richard looks a little surprised. When he reads another vote for Richard, it is clear to the man that Joyce sold him out and that Mac and Xander both lied to him. He has his torch snuffed out and leaves the area. The Akathla team returns to their camp.

Parting Words - Richard
Richard looks at the camera as he speaks: "Well, Joyce, I thought we were in it until the end. I don't know why you sold me out but you did. You're still my wish to win it all so good luck!"

Next week on Survivor - Ash Island
Voice-over - "New friendships start." A shot of Tara and Willow talking as they pick plantains.

Voice-over - "Alliances questioned." Faith asking Tara, "Are you still in this alliance?"

Voice-over - "Tempers flare." Robin telling the four girls in MFashnek: "I don't want to just work hard and let you win the challenges. I want a chance to win it."

Voice-over - "And secrets at Akathla." Xander telling Joyce and Buffy, "You two are not telling us something!"

Next Week on Survivor - Ash Island