(i swear i had an idea somewhere around here)
Death P.A.C.T. Again seemed to be more concerned with saving itself than it was with saving others.
The goal, as it looked like when they started on that venture all those years ago, seemed completely fine and reasonable. Death, through years of Battling for Dream Island and the convenience of the recovery centers, had become an issue that was not given the proper attention and respect that it deserved. Everyone had spent years and years in this mad hunt for some island that probably didn't even exist, running around in circles and screaming at each other over basically every single thing they could think of. As a result, every little bit of dignity and decency had basically been scrubbed from them, replaced with the urge to backstab, betray, and belittle others on some vain mission to stay alive for one more episode, to get a *slightly* better chance of winning a prize that seemed more and more mythical by the moment. And all this was perpetuated by a series of ruthless and juvenile hosts, ones that think trapping people in a dimension beyond all possible and available help was a more reasonable way to deal with the eliminated than... *literally* anything else.
Any sane and reasonable person would take a single good look at all of that and would immediately start running in the opposite direction, hoping that they'd never have to deal with that, or even *think* about it, for the rest of their life. But despite all the ups and downs, the twists and turns, that the universe had endured throughout this competition, one thing held true: things aren't gonna get better unless you just do *something* about it.
It seemed like a win-win scenario at first. Preventing death no matter the cost was just... the *right* thing to do. The contestants of the Battle for Dream Island can, and do, argue plenty about every little thing that crosses their mind, but one of the rare instances in which they agree with is the matter of life and death: being alive on this Earth was far, far, *far* more preferable to being dead, whatever that entailed. Even though death was pretty much just another ailment at this point, they could all still find common ground on *that* issue. Working towards that singular goal ensured that everyone else would... *tolerate* them, at the very least. They prevented the deaths of everyone you hated, sure, but they also prevented *your* death as well, so it just about balances out. Also, the viewers are *bound* to love this as well. Under the assumption that there's still *some* underlying, logical set of rules governing the universe and its inhabitants, *surely* these faceless, nameless voters, enigmatic and mysterious as they are, would still value life just as much as they did. It was a universal constant, surely.
But, uh... it turns out... No.
The P.A.C.T. has seen far, *far* better days. Going into the new season, they were able to keep themselves together throughout a dozen or so episodes, only losing one of their own in the process. But upon making the switch to TPOT, their little team suddenly had a reshuffling of around half their members, lost the very first contest they participated in, has stumbled more times on average than the other teams ever since, and now the surviving members are starting to squabble amongst themselves about the feasibility and necessity of their mission, almost tearing the whole team apart at one point.
That's... *stellar*.
Tree was able to get away from all that following a little... *incident*, but it really wasn't the blessing that it initially seems to be. He was *physically* away from all the commotion and competition, sure, but that didn't really mean anything. The Battle for the Power of Two still went on without him, The P.A.C.T. continued to flounder, and deaths continued to occur whether or not he was there to stop them. Those days stuck at the Goiky Canal *seemed* like they could do wonders, the calm atmosphere and waters could probably help him to relax just a tiny bit, but having a bigger body comes with having a bigger brain, and with it the capacity to think of and panic about bigger worries. And so, when he was liberated from that horrific existence with a *necessary* killing (very necessary, he kept on stressing), he felt greatly relieved.
