Flower shielded her eyes from the oncoming wind storm as the growing cake in the air soon took up the entire sky, blanketing everything in a thick layer of darkness.

"Why did she need to use up so much yea-aaaahh!" Flower was cut off as the harsh wind lifted her off the ground, shoving her back into the van. Pencil ran in after her to get away, only for the van to slowly begin lifting off of the ground.

Of all the things that could've happened over most of BFDI, Flower definitely didn't remember this . At one point, the TLC shook a lot, but most of the people inside brushed it off as some kind of earthquake. How was she supposed to guess that this was the cause?!

"Flower, hold onto something!" Pencil yelled, wrapping her arms around one of the seats as the van was hoisted off the cinder blocks and lifted into the air. The two alliance members were shaken around the inside of the van like pinballs as it lifted higher and higher, until...

Pop

The pop was barely noticeable, in stark contrast to the alliance van suddenly dropping out of the sky like a brick, Pencil and Flower stuck inside to feel the impact.

Crash!

The good news was, aside from a very dented side and a few lost pillows, the van itself looked relatively unharmed. The bad news was, the same could definitely not be said for the two who were inside.

Pencil was the first to crawl out, rubbing her head, a large crack running down her center. It really sucks they didn't have a Pencil Recovery Center at the ready, because she felt she definitely needed one.

Flower came out not long after. Her petals were wilted and bent, but she was definitely still alive. Winded, exhausted, and possibly injured, the two simply chose to lay in the grass for a bit. They were gonna show up for Cake at Stake in a few hours, of course, but that could wait. For now, all they wanted to do was recover from what just happened. What the actual petal was that?

"Gloop gloop! Doot Doot! It's time for Cake at Steak, for the Cherries."

Everyone would gather up once again, Flower sitting uneasily in her usual spot as she idly fumbled with her petals. She was doing her best not to cry, vomit or pass out from being thrown around in a van during that storm. Pencil was sitting by her alliance, where Match and Bubble were fretting over her injury.

"There's nine of you now, there will only be eight later." The Announcer explained, before the sign came up, "So we got fourteen votes."

The upside is, the Speaker went from an ice cake to an actual ice cream cake. Certainly tastier and a lot less painful than what the Grapes got last time.

"Match, Blocky and Flower, all of you have win tokens. Would any of you like to use them?"

"No." Match responded.

"Nah." Blocky added.

"Um..." Flower had to think about this again... more votes than last time, but would it still be too early?

"Okay, no one's using a win token." Announcer said, taking Flower's hesitation as another 'no'.

"W-wait, I wasn't-" Flower started, fearfully, but Announcer cut her off.

"Let's move on to the ones who have zero votes."

Bubble was the first one called on, at another zero votes. Before she could grab her cake, Pin would suddenly fall out of the sky, conveniently, right on top of her. Needle was greeted by a splat of cake covering her.

Pen, Pencil and Firey got the same result, leaving the other five splitting the fourteen. Unfortunately, Pen was the only one who actually got his cake. Pencil had it splat against her back and Firey's cake completely whiffed him to land in a nearby house's fireplace. Wait, who lived around here, anyways?

"Golf Ball and Woody. Both of you got one vote a piece."

The two slices of cake were hastily caught, with Woody handing the piece he got over to Pencil.

"Thanks, Woody."

"Flower, you still won't be going back to the TLC, because you're safe too, with three votes."

Flower grumbled. Announcer just couldn't let her forget that slip of the tongue, could she? At least she got some decent cake out of it.

Blocky and Match exchanged glances at each other, both knowing they did less than nice things in the competition already.

"The last one safe, at four votes is..." Announcer was cut off again.

"It's got to be Blocky." Pen repeated.

"No, it isn't." The Speaker Box tossed Match her cake. "It's Match. Blocky is eliminated, at six votes."

"I use my win token!" Blocky would try the same thing Pin would do in the other timeline, and get shut down just the same.

"Nope, you can only use it before the votes are called out." the Announcer explained, going back on his original description of the thing.

"Blocky, gone?" Pen asked, seeming distraught by that. "But that can't be! Blocky's a great guy!"

That statement was very much up for debate given what happened so far, but Flower kept her mouth shut.

"Well, whatever. It's time to fling him to the TLC." The Speaker didn't seem to care too much.

"Wait, why do you keep saying the TLC?" Golf Ball would ask, "Where is it, exactly?"

"Just over there." Announcer would turn around and point with an extending arm outward to... "The Tiny Loser Chamber."

So there it was. As soon as Flower looked to see, she immediately had to turn her head again, and catch her breath just as fast. For petal's sake, of course now she had to see it.

Blocky got to experience it first-hand, being sent hurtling through the air and landing with a lout, metal clang. While the latch closed, they could hear some of the eliminated contestants.

"C'mon, this is really cramped in here." Spongy cried out.

"You voted out Blocky , already? Man, you voters are lame!" Eraser shouted, to no one in particular.

"Bleh!" said Rocky, causing the others to let out a sudden scream before it was silenced with the closing of the lid. Yep, it had only been a matter of time before he started doing that.

"The fifth contest is to cross a bridge. The team with more people who crossed wins. The first to cross the bridge wins a win token."

Oh, great! Flower just had to re-encounter both her claustrophobia and her acrophobia. The bridge in question was made of wood, with two sets of black ropes being the closest it had to guard rails. To make matters worse, it was suspended above a gorge too high to see the bottom of. Instantly, Flower felt her legs start shaking and her breath halt. She knew for a fact that the Announcer must have hidden something about this bridge, for it to be a challenge.

"Flower. Do you have a second to talk?"

Flower turned around and looked down to see... great, Golf Ball. She had thankfully avoided her during the test and the cake challenges - everyone had their own projects to do, after all. Here, though? Now she couldn't avoid her.

"Boy, that canyon... sure looks deep, huh?" Flower asked, trying to distract GB from asking too much. "How deep do you think it is?"

"I would assume 2,763 miles at least ." Great, not only did Golf Ball have an immediate answer, but now Flower was even more afraid of the drop, "Flower, you haven't been making sense lately. What did you mean by going back to the TLC?"

"I panicked, it was a slip of the tongue." Flower brushed off, "Can we focus on the bridge, please?"

"No, no, that can wait. I have questions for you." Golf Ball walked in front of Flower before she could move away. Despite being barely half of her height, the tall flower was very off-put by Golf Ball's angry glare. "How did you know that balance beam wasn't the only challenge? How did you know the TLC was gonna be so bad in the first place? How did you know saying Needy would insult Needle? I've barely seen you- wait-"

Needle would, once again, run over to the other team to give Golf BalL a slap, before returning.

"Ow!" GB groaned, "The point I'm trying to make is, you haven't been acting like yourself since the competition started, and I want to know why !"

Flower was sweating bullets, feeling like she was being put on trial again. At least she had a quick and easy answer for whether or not she took the diary... much unlike here. She still couldn't just out herself as a time traveler. What were the chances Golf Ball would take that seriously?

"Will you leave her alone already, bozo ?" Pencil would attempt to stop the line of questioning in it's tracks, but Golf Ball wouldn't relent.

"I think Flower is cheating !" Golf Ball finally shouted, "She knows a little bit too much. I think she and the Announcer are in cahoots!"

"We're not." Flower responded, "We wouldn't have lost twice if we were."

"Yeah, and I don't think she actually touched the answer key for that long, so how could she have cheated?"

"She still held it!" GB noted. "We didn't see her results . Wasn't it just so convenient that her test went up in flames?"

Pencil gave Bozo Brain a rather cold glare, but chose to bite her tongue - simply because she doubted the golf ball would believe what had gone down.

"I don't know what to tell you, Golf Ball!" Flower finally snapped, "I don't just have explanations for every single question you have!"

"Well, you still have a lot of questions to answer. And mark my words, Flower, I'm gonna figure out every single-"

"Hold on, Coiny. I've got some business to take care of!"

Golf Ball didn't have time to react until it was too late, getting smacked right in the back of the head by Ice Cube, who had been thrown by Snowball like a baseball. She went soaring clean over Bubble... and right across the gorge, landing face down in the dirt.

"Golf Ball is the first one to cross the bridge. She gets the win token." The Announcer would appear beside her.

"Yaaaay." GB said weakly, still very much in pain.

"Wow, way to go help out the other team, SB." Pin went to chastise her teammate, before Snowball picked her up and tossed her too, popping Bubble on her way to cross the gorge, tying the two teams with one member across the bridge.

"Bubble!" Pencil buried her face in her hands "Ugh, stupid Snowball."

"Should one of us, like, go get her from the Recovery Center and bring her back?" Match asked. "It'd be a long walk for her by herself...she is pretty dumb after all."

Flower rolled her eyes at that. Bubble didn't get a chance to prove them wrong on the 'counting to three' thing, but she was still pretty sure she could manage. She'd just have to find out for herself sometime.

"I'll do it." Pencil said, doing just as Match wanted... she was finally out of the picture, and unable to defend Flower.

Unfortunately, the number of Grapes who crossed the bridge only seemed to grow. Leafy, Ice Cube and Needle all walking across in a group, moving them up to 4-1. They'd need to catch up quickly.

Woody, meanwhile, would be the next to approach the bridge. It was already scary enough to look at it in the first place, with his delightful mix of acrophobia and gephyrophobia. Actually stepping foot on it was another thing entirely.

"Come on, Woody! Cross already!" Coiny shouted, trying to walk past the wood block without much success.

"Woody! Remember what I told you!" Flower called out to him as well, doing the inhale and exhale. Woody nodded at that, took a deep breath, and tentatively placed his foot on the bridge, only to withdraw immediately when he heard the thing creak.

"Don't look down, Woody." Flower said, offering him a hand...which Woody didn't take.

"Duh wanneh han', Flah-wahh!" Woody was clearly getting frustrated, giving her a glare that felt strange coming from someone like him.

"Oh, uh... you really wanna do this on your own?" Flower asked, looking down at him worried.

"He's not really gonna do it." Coiny noted, a smirk on his face. "Woody would have a heart attack if he walked more than five..."

To his surprise, Woody would take one more deep breath and stepped forward, gripping onto the ropes for dear life as he carefully made his way across.

"Good job, Woody!" Flower called out, giving him a thumbs up from the other side.

"Grr, I'm not gonna be shown up by Woody ." Coiny said, quickly making his way across the bridge.

"Oh no you don't!" Not missing a chance to slap Coiny again, Firey ran across to catch up and knocked the coin right off of the bridge.

"Ha ha!" Firey laughed, watching Coiny scream as he plunged into the depths... before he realized something. "Wait, isn't this bridge made of wood ?"

Just as he thought that, the entire bridge erupted into flames, which not only singed Pen and Ice Cube, but caused the whole thing to collapse, sending them plunging into the gorge as well.

"Wow, Firey. That was smart . Was that worth it, just to be a jerk again?" GB chastised from the other side, "It's like I'm on a team of children, I swear."

"Tell me about it." Flower muttered under her breath as she looked on at the empty space where a bridge used to be. Great. There goes the challenge, she guessed, with them at two crossers to four.

"Look everyone, there's a second bridge!"

Flower looked to the side with the others. Thankfully, TB was right. One more identical bridge.

"Come on, Match." Flower offered to the only other Grape still left, aside from Pencil looking for the BRC. "Let's cross together."

"Oh, sure, yeah." Match decided, giving Flower a light shrug. It was best they got on first before the other three Grapes could jump at the chance.

"They're already ahead, we have to go after them!" TB noted, quickly running to the bridge...only to bump into the guard rails, "Ah, fault. I'm too wide."

"Move aside, let me try it!" Snowball pushed TB haphazardly to the side as he'd try and squeeze through.

"Okay, don't look down. Don't look down." Flower muttered to herself, looking to the left, to the right, anywhere she could as long as it wasn't downward. She was actually having a bit more trouble at her advice than Woody did.

"Are you, like, afraid of heights?" Match asked, noting Flower's hesitance as she walked behind her.

"Y-yeah, a little bit." Flower nodded, trying to ease her fears. "Why did Announcer need to pick this of all places for a challenge?"

"Yeah, I know how you feel." Match said. "Are you still afraid of bugs, by the way?"

"Not as much as I used to." Flower admitted, "That was years ago. Now I only..." Flower hesitated, did she mess up again.

"Um, I saw you scream at the top of your lungs over a caterpillar, like, a month ago."

Yep, definitely messed up. Oh well, Flower just had to change the subject, Match wouldn't be as likely to press on with these questions like GB would.

"So anyways, how did you and Pencil become friends anyways?"

"Oh yeah, we met at, like, cheer camp, over the summer." Match explained, looking like she was waiting for a chance to go over this. "Pencil was, like, the best one there. We just started, like, talking and we hit it off, like, super well."

Flower nodded along with that, "You two are really close, huh?"

"Of course we are." Match smiled. "We're besties for life . She's like, the coolest person I know, ya know, like... Loser levels of cool!"

Woah. That was cool. Flower knew these two were friends, but she didn't know Match looked up to her that much. Maybe that was also why Match was so... defensive over Pencil.

"I'm telling you, we're not gonna fit across!" TB reminded Snowball for the twelfth time now, while Teardrop struggled to squirm her way past them even with how much smaller she was compared to them.

"Of course we are!" Snowball retaliated, not wanting to seem wrong. "We just need to move... these out of the way."

Snowball would then lift the two posts from the ground, to the shock of his team mates. Flower and Match would notice too, as the boards of the bridge would start falling behind them.

"Uh oh! Run for it!" Match shouted, cutting her little story short as the two ran forward to not fall into the gorge. It wasn't that far... just a little further...

Snatch!

Right as Flower felt the planks give way from under her feet, she managed to grab a hold of the ledge, Match managing to save herself from falling by holding onto her leg.

"Flower!" Match squeaked, hanging desperately onto Flower to prevent herself from falling down the... holy matchstick factory, she really wished she took Flower's advice on not looking down.

"Almost... there!" Flower struggled, trying to pull up with her arms, but Match's added weight wasn't helping here. Thankfully, Woody, the only other member that made it to the other side with arms to help, took hold of Flower's hands and pulled as hard as he could, which seemed to just be enough to lift both her and Match up onto the ground.

"Thanks, Woody." Flower huffed a bit before breathing a sigh of relief. Both teams were now perfectly split on the other side of the gorge - four for four.

"Wow... you and Woody are... really close." Match observed, the winded matchstick making a valiant effort to stand up. "You've been, like... helping him a lot, haven't you?"

" Someone has to." Flower pointed out. "He's kinda been through a lot, you know?"

"Wow, great. You know what?" Match said, her clenched teeth betraying her smile. "Maybe you should go and, like, form an alliance with him , then, hm? Looks like he wants you to, anyways."

"Well, I think he's trying to be more independent, so..." Flower stopped, recognizing that tone. She's dealt with it one too many times - from her friends, from her classmates... from her own parents, even. It was the tone of trying to tell someone to get out of their sight in the nicest way possible.

"Do you... still not want me in the alliance?"

"No. No, I don't." Match's response was rather blunt. Wow, it didn't take much for her to lose the nice facade, especially with Pencil gone. "I don't want you in it, Bubble doesn't want you in it, and when Pencil figures out these games you're playing, she won't either."

Flower was taken aback. "Match, I'm trying my best here! Why won't you give me a chance?"

"Because, no matter what, you're still gonna be Flower !" Match retorted, crossing her arms. "And that's all you know how to be, until there's something you, like,