And from your lips, she drew the Hallelujah

Dakota was too tired to be surprised when she saw the stringy-haired girl standing at the entrance of the dungeon.

Maybe a part of her was even glad, not that she would ever verbalize those feelings.

“Lynette… so it’s you,” she muttered. “How did you…?”

“How did I get my original body back? Shishishishi!” Lynette cackled, lurching forward. Her body swayed unnaturally, like she wasn’t quite used to her legs, and was struggling with her sense of balance. “Let’s see, let’s see, let’s see, let’s see? How could that be?”

Her cracked lips pulled taut into a twisted smile and she slumped her shoulders, pressing her pale face up against the bars of the cell. “It’s simple! After I was reduced to that pathetic state… Mr. S took me back… he restored my body… and now… we’re together again! Together, together, together, together! Forever, forever, forever, forever! Shishishishi! Shishishishi!”

Dakota let out an exasperated sigh. She was too exhausted to even bother arguing at this point. She could see how depraved Lynette was.

“Finally…” the doll girl clutched at her face, shivering with delight as her pale cheeks flushed crimson. “Finally, mommy… we’re together again! Finally, finally, finally, finally! Shishishishi!”

“Dakota…” Mary looked warily at Dakota, completely at a loss. What could the other woman be going through right now? Mary knew fragments of what had happened between Dakota and Lynette; the host’s breakdown when she saw the doll interrupt her challenge had painted a clear picture. But after considering all those factors… what did that mean for Dakota now?

“Mr. S gave me my body back, and in exchange, I would help him,” Lynette explained. She opened the cell door and flounced inside, swaying back and forth as she rubbed her hands together gleefully. The one good thing Mary realized about this whole situation was that the producer hadn’t given her back her scissors.

“And now…”

Lynette loomed over Dakota, trembling. Her hands crawled up her stained, patchwork dress, until they reached her face again. She pulled her stringy hair aside and leaned forward, her hollow blue eyes staring deeply into Dakota’s.

“…Aren’t you happy to see me… …Mommy?”

Dakota looked up at Lynette. Shaking, her lips parted, and a whispered word Mary couldn’t hear slipped out of them.

Lynette recoiled like she was slapped.

“What!?” She screeched, staggering backwards. “No, that-! Why!? Why would you say that?! Why? Why? Why? WHY?!”

“Lynette?!” Mary’s heart began to race. “What’s wrong? What-what did she say?!” Countless worst-case scenarios immediately flooded Mary’s mind, and she started to panic.

“She lied! LIED!” Lynette swung her head back and forth in refusal and stomped her feet on the cobblestone floor. “Mommy, you LIAR!”

“I’m not lying,” Dakota said tiredly, looking up at the animated doll. “I’m just… too tired.”

Mary looked at Dakota and for the first time, she realized that the fire in the other woman had been truly snuffed out. After everything she went through… everything that happened to her… she’s come so far, and now… now this happens… it can’t be… has she really…?

The notion that Dakota could have truly given up after an eternity of persistence was inconceivable to Mary, given what she knew about the other woman. And yet, she couldn’t deny the truth she saw before her eyes.

“Dakota!” She shouted, banging her cowboy boots against the floor of their cell. “Snap out of it! What’s the matter with you?!”

Dakota glanced at Mary for a moment. But before she could say anything…

“Shut UP!” Lynette screamed, turning and glaring at Mary. Her eyes were wild with fury and she clenched her teeth together so tightly it looked like they might crack apart in her mouth. “Mommy and I were TALKING! We don’t need you to interfere! You’re just an EXTRA!”

Snarling like a feral animal she clenched and unclenched her gaunt fingers and turned on Mary, stalking towards the helpless woman.

“Lynette!” Dakota snapped, some of her fire returning. “Stop that! Leave her alone!”

To Mary’s surprise, Lynette obeyed. She turned and looked back at her “mommy”, wearing an expression on her face that was a mixture of fury, yearning, and wonder.

“I was telling you the truth,” Dakota said, forcing herself to sit a little more upright. “I… was.”

Lynette bristled, her eyes flashing with frustration. “No! You’re lying! You’re just trying to trick me!”

“I am… happy to see you,” Dakota said, loud enough for Mary to hear her this time.

The redhead’s eyes widened with wonder. “Dakota…?”

“No, no, no, NO!” Lynette clamped her hands over her ears and fell to her knees, getting even more dirt on her dress. “You aren’t fooling me again! I won’t believe you! No!”

“Lynette, listen to her!” Mary cried, her hope reignited after hearing Dakota’s admission. “I know how things went between the two of you last time, but didn’t you hear Amelia? Dakota never wanted to throw you away! She wouldn’t ever do that, and she never replaced you!”

“SHUT UP!” Lynette screamed, shaking her head and refusing to listen. “You don’t know anything, you stupid wench! NO NO NO NO!”

Mary grimaced. “I know what Dakota went through,” she snapped. “I know that she lived with a mother who was struck with a transformation that kept her from properly loving her own daughter. I know that… it twisted her. It hurt her terribly…”

“Mary, shut your mouth,” Dakota spat. She knew what Mary was trying to do, but she didn’t want it like this.

“No! I’m sick and tired of the both of you!” Mary snapped. “You two are both so obsessed with being tough and stubborn and right that you won’t just look at each other and BE HONEST! Dakota, you meant what you said, didn’t you!? That you were happy to see Lynette again, after everything that happened! Even though you’re a prisoner!”

Dakota hesitated to respond, which only pissed Mary off more.

“Stop being stubborn!” She shouted. “You know what it’s like to never have a mother’s love! That’s why you treasured Lynette so much! And that’s why you denied Sylvia, isn’t that right!? Why you refused to acknowledge that you cared about her, that you were her mother! Because if Sylvia was a person, if she was your child… then that meant you were just as bad as your own mother! But you’re NOT!”

“SHUT UP, MARY!” Dakota screamed, kicking her feet against the floor and rattling her cuffs. If she wasn’t chained to the wall, she would have thrown herself at the redhead again. But now that Dakota couldn’t interfere with violence, Mary could finally say what she wanted to say.

“I won’t! I-!”

“What do you know!?” Dakota was practically foaming at the mouth. The light in her eyes had returned, but not necessarily in a good way. “NOTHING! That girl, I-! I-!”

“You’re not like your mother!” Mary said again. “Because you DO have a heart! No matter how twisted and broken and damaged it might be, it exists! You CAN care about other people! You care about Nick, you care about Lynette, and you care about Sylvia! And no matter how badly you’ve treated her, I am NOT going to let you deny that heart of yours is real!”

She pictured Dakota as she imagined her, as a sad child desperate for her mother’s love.

“You don’t have to keep closing it up anymore…” Mary sniffled, tears rolling down her cheeks. “You can love someone other than Nick, Dakota. It’s alright. Please…”

“I…” Dakota started to shake. “I…”

“Mommy?” Lynette was paralyzed. She may have been the strongest person in the room right now, but her heart was too weak to act on what she was feeling. In the end, even if Dakota’s love had given her a soul and her body had been animated by the producers, she was still just a doll, and she found herself helpless.

Mary slumped against the wall and exhaled. She’d said everything she needed to say. After this… it would be up to Dakota to make a choice.

Not that it mattered. In the end, they were still prisoners.

But at least this way… Dakota maybe… can heal that ache in her chest.

“…You know… Mary… you really do have a big mouth…”

Mary didn’t expect that to be Dakota’s first response to her outburst.

“Huh?”

Dakota raised her head and their eyes met. There was a strange glimmer of resolve in the host’s gaze, and it gave Mary shivers.

“Dakota?”

“You… you’re not… me,” she spat, clenching her teeth. “Who gave you the right… to tread into my heart… to pry into my soul and drag those thoughts out of me, huh!?”

Mary didn’t care how angry Dakota had gotten. None of that mattered to her.

“Dakota, I won’t let you give up on yourself,” she said firmly. “It isn’t too late for you. You can make amends with Nick and the others. You can become a better person. I believe that you can do it. For Nick’s sake, for Sylvia’s sake, and… for yours.”

“NO!” Lynette screamed, stomping her foot. “Mommy isn’t going anywhere! She’s staying right here with me, forever, and we’re going to have tea parties and play dress up like a mommy is supposed to with her daughter!”

Dakota pinched her lips together in an exhausted smile. “Dress up, huh… that… doesn’t sound too bad, honestly…”

She looked down at the ground. “All this time… that’s all this was, wasn’t it? I was just… playing dress up. Pretending to be better than I was. Pretending that… anything I did… that it actually mattered. But in the end, this isn’t even the real me… is it, Mary?”

“Dakota…” Mary didn’t like the way Dakota was talking.

“I never had a chance in the end… did I?” Dakota mused. “I was always going to end up like this. Not like you. From the very beginning, that was how fate dealt its hand, isn’t it? That line… between the winners and the losers… I tried so hard to cross it… but no matter what I did… it was always there. I never had a chance.”

“Don’t say that!” Mary shouted. “I told you, you DO have a chance to do better, Dakota! All you have to do is try! If you work on yourself, then-”

“I’m too tired for that,” Dakota replied. “Too tired. Don’t you get it, Mary? I’m one of them now. I’m with the producers. No matter how this show ends, there’s nothing left for me. Not Nick… not even Sylvia or Lynette… I’ll be trapped here until they decide what to do with me. Until I cave completely… and that bastard turns me into his puppet again.”

“Dakota…” Mary’s heart crumbled as she watched Dakota wilt right before her eyes. She couldn’t blame the poor woman for giving up after everything that happened, but…

“My life was never mine to begin with, that’s the difference,” Dakota spat. “You saw the tape. From the moment I was conceived, it was for his sake. I thought I was a person, that I had free will… but in the end… I wasn’t.”

All those things she’d said about Sylvia… they had been about herself.

“Dakota…” Mary wished she could say that Dakota was wrong. “You’re wrong…”

But she knew her words wouldn’t reach the other woman’s ears.

Dakota’s spirit had been completely crushed from the moment she saw that tape, and learned about her mother’s dark, twisted secret.

“I told you,” Dakota muttered. “This is as far as I’ll ever go. He wants to remake me into his perfect host again. And until I give in, it’s this cell.”

She raised her head. And that’s when Mary saw that in spite of the other woman’s words, the fire in her eyes hadn’t gone out just yet.

“But this isn’t where you belong,” Dakota said, clenching her fist. Her hand began to glow.

“What!?” Lynette backed away and shielded her eyes.

“Dakota?” Mary squinted, barely able to make out her fellow prisoner through the blinding light.

“It’s ironic… you remember, don’t you? At your wedding… I received a blessing from another Mary… a devilish thing resisting the producers in her own way.” Dakota twisted her lips into a wry smile. “It won’t be much… you might end up right back here, depending on how it goes… but I feel like that won’t happen. Not when Nick catches wind.”

“Dakota!” Mary’s eyes widened.

“See ya. Tell him… …No, don’t tell him anything. Don’t you dare.” With one last bit of menace in her voice, Dakota opened her hand, and a flash of light illuminated the cell.

When Lynette could see again, Mary was gone.

“What!? Where did she go!?” The doll screeched. She whirled around, her eyes frenzied as she looked at Dakota. “Mommy!”

“She’s where she belongs,” Dakota said, as the last remnants of Mary’s magic faded from her hand. “…Just like me…”

It was hard to say who was more surprised when Mary popped into existence in the middle of the Master’s Suite. Echo? Nick? Mary herself?

The three stared at one another for a few seconds, stunned.

“Mary?” Nick’s eyes widened as he looked at his wife. “Are you…?”

“Nick!” Tears rolled down Mary’s face and she threw herself into Nick’s arms. She pressed her lips tightly against his and he kissed her back, confirming for himself that this really was his wife.

From the bed, Echo stared on in outrage. “No!” She snarled, pounding her fists against the golden sheets. “No! That’s impossible! You were supposed to be locked away! You-!”

“Oh? What’s this now?”

A rumbling voice filled the room, and the three of them froze.

The color drained from Echo’s cheeks.

“N-no! Wait! I-! This-this isn’t-!” She frantically tried to defend what had happened, but it was no use. One moment she was there, and the next, she was gone.

“Ah-!” Nick’s eyes widened and he looked in horror at the spot where just a second ago, an evil copy of his wife had been cowering in fear.

And then, the producer manifested himself atop the sheets. His face was as indecipherable as always, but there was one thing Nick could make out in the ambiguity-

Rage.

“I go to all this trouble,” Mr. S rumbled. “And what should happen… but a wrench gets thrown into my plans.”

Nick jumped in front of Mary. He glared furiously at the producer, and felt even more fury towards himself for getting fooled into thinking that this bastard ever could have been doing anything helpful for any of them.

“Get away from her!” Nick snapped. “You’re not doing anything to Mary ever again! You hear me!? Not a chance!”

Mr. S sighed. “No, of course I won’t, certainly,” he replied, and Nick blinked.

“H-huh?”

“He can’t do anything to me anymore,” Mary said, hugging her husband’s arm while giving the producer the most hate-filled look she could muster. Even more than Nick she knew how much of a monster he was. “That’s why he created her. My copy. He wanted her to fool you, so you wouldn’t notice I was missing. Because he knows that if anything happened to me, you wouldn’t stand for it. You might stop participating altogether.”

“You’re damn right I would,” Nick snapped. “And if that happens, I can’t imagine the audience would be thrilled, would they?”

That was their one advantage. No matter how strong the producers were, they answered to the audience. They needed the show to get ratings.

Which means they needed Nick to cooperate.

That had always been the case, all the way back since the beginning, when Sylvia first made her bargain with him.

“…I won’t do anything to your wife,” Mr. S conceded, holding up his hands. “But- that’s only as long as she plays nice. Right, Mary?”

He looked directly at her. A shiver ran down Mary’s spine.

“That-”

“In her present condition,” Mr. S continued, “knowing what she knows, things won’t go so well. So what will it be, Mary? Will you go along with your husband? Hmm?”

Mary understood what he was threatening her with. If she went too far “off script” then the whole show might get cancelled.

Who knows what would happen to them if THAT occurred?

“Bring Dakota back!” Nick snapped. “I’m not doing any of this without her!”

Mr. S sighed. “See? Now you’re overplaying your hand. Right now, Dakota is in no condition to run this season. Don’t you agree, Mary?”

Nick looked at his wife, shocked and confused. “Mary? What’s he talking about?” He asked.

Mary winced, picturing Dakota’s ragged, surrendered state in that cell. She shook her head and looked down.

Nick couldn’t believe it. “Mary-”

“So with that in mind,” Mr. S interrupted, “your season will need a new host to run things after all. This little act of defiance on Dakota’s part, sending you here, Mary, shows that she needs more than just a little time-out. So in the interim, I’ll have to appoint an actual acting host, I’m afraid. What a pity… I was hoping she’d be back up to snuff sooner, rather than later.”

“Wait, no!” Nick exclaimed. “You said-”

“Don’t worry,” Mr. S cut him off with a sneer, as the room faded away from Nick and Mary’s sight. “I have no intention of bringing in anybody… new.”

Everything was white. Until it wasn’t.

“What the hell!?” Nick found himself back on the stage, looking out over the beach, and the night sky lit up with millions of stars. Mary sat beside him, her eyes wide with shock.

“We-we’re back… back here?” She stammered in confusion. It was the first time they’d come out at night.

And they weren’t alone.

“What the heck!?” Holly sat up from where she was lying at their feet, shaking her head in confusion. “How did-? What happened!?”

“Where are we?!” Carly exclaimed. “I was just getting ready for bed, when…”

“Did the producers do this?” Sylvia asked, scratching her head and looking around.

“Of course they fucking did,” Kim muttered furiously.

“What the fuck!?” Cinder screamed.

Nick’s entire harem had been gathered on the beach, in various states of undress. They’d all been torn from their beds and forced to come out for the big show.

“Greetings, everyone,” Mr. S presented himself with a bow. “There’s been a slight change of plans, I’m afraid. I know I said that I would be filling in until Dakota was fit to return to duty as host… but it seems that may take longer than expected. So, until she’s ready to reclaim her role… allow me to present your new host… the lovely Miss Echo!”

Mary’s heart stopped in her chest and Nick’s blood ran cold.

There, sitting on the host’s throne, cradling the shiny black cane with a wicked sneer on her lips… was a face that they had thought for a brief moment they would never see again.

“Oh, yes,” Echo sneered, rising from her seat. “This will do just fine…”