A/N: I wanted to pop in and clarify that Krystal is not representing myself. She's just a character I made up for the purpose of this story, and she won't end up becoming the main focus or anything like that. I originally wanted to add at least one more OC into the mix, but came to the conclusion that one was enough. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!

Part 4: The White Tail of Surrender

Within the Deadly Seals' cabin, on the girls' side, Gwen awoke to the sound of joyous singing by Ella, prancing around already fully dressed in pink.

"Do you mind?" Gwen asked, picking her head up off of her pillow with messy hair and dark bags under her eyes. Their cabins were nearly identical to those used in the first season, except for the snow and ice lining the windows and the built-in heaters to prevent them freezing to death in their sleep. She had been resting on the bunk above Ella's, but was considering sleeping somewhere else if this is what she had to look forward to every morning. "I'm not what you would call a morning person."

"Oh, but morning is the most wonderful time of the day! The birds are singing, the sun is waking up to give us warmth and love, and the day begins anew!"

"Have you looked around lately?" asked Gwen. "No birds, no warmth, and definitely no love. This is an arctic tundra we're in, not some magical forest. Now let me get some sleep, okay?"

Ella frowned in dismay, heading out of the cabin for breakfast.

*Confessional*

"I do wish Cody was still here..." said a neglected Ella. "It doesn't seem fair that he was voted off so soon, but I suppose Gwen is right... This just isn't the place for love."

*End Confessional*

"And here I thought I was the mean one," said Heather from the top bunk across from hers. She was wearing a bulky white t-shirt and violet pajama bottoms as she hopped down from her bed, Krystal still asleep on the lower bunk. "She's right, you know. Morning is the most important part of the day. The early bird crushes the worm. Now if you don't mind, I'm off to hit the showers. That is, if the water isn't frozen along with everything else in this hellhole."

She left as well, leaving Gwen and Dakota alone while Krystal continued to lay silently in bed.

"What about you?" asked Gwen, turning her focus to Dakota who was on a bunk bed to herself. "You haven't said much since we got here."

"What about me?" she responded. "If you're going to tell me how un-famous I am and how my entire life is a flash in the pan, then get it over with." She hung a blanket from the top bunk over hers and proceeded to change behind it.

"What are you talking about? I don't even know you."

Dakota's head peaked out from behind the blanket briefly as she said, "That's the problem!"

"Umm... Okay?" Gwen watched as Dakota took down the blanket and stormed out of the cabin in her usual clothes underneath the big burlap coat they had to wear. "What a drama queen..."

"This island is going to get to all of us eventually," said Krystal, her head turned towards the wall beside her bunk.

"What?" said Gwen with a raised eyebrow. "Can anyone here just make sense for once?"

"You said it yourself," Krystal went on. "There's no warmth here, or love. It's a cold, heartless, desolate place, and it's going to break us one by one."

Gwen was a little more than disturbed to hear this, but her concerned expression faded as she decided to get out of bed finally. "That's a little grim, even for me."


Inside the boy's side of the Fearless Penguins cabin, Lightning had set up a mirror beside his bunk and spent the early morning flexing in front of it while the others either got dressed or headed off to the shower.

"You have a very impressive form, Lightning," said Alejandro as he pulled his shirt on.

Lightning sent him a strange look into the mirror and said, "Are you trying to hit on me? Because Lightning doesn't swing that way! Sha-bam!"

"I'm only saying that it is good to have you on the team. You could prove to be an invaluable ally in the physical challenges, don't you think?"

"Think? I know! I could have ran that idol to its shrine in half the time it took DJ!"

"I don't doubt it," Alejandro agreed. "I wanted to ask; what do you think of a potential alliance? I may understand your strengths, but the rest of the team might not, and the sooner we have a plan, the better."

"Sha-nope!" Lightning exclaimed. "I work alone, and I've seen how sneaky you can be! No deal!"

*Confessional*

"Lightning isn't quite as stupid as I was hoping," said Alejandro. "If I can't get him on my side, then perhaps I need to change my sights to Jasmine and turn the charm on..."

*End Confessional*


Chris had been waiting for both teams to arrive outside of their cabins so that he could introduce the second challenge. The last one to make it there was Duncan, still chewing on a stale biscuit from the kitchen.

"Good morning, campers!" Chris said enthusiastically as none of them gave him even the slightest bit of excitement in return. "I know what you're all thinking; this island is completely uninhabitable. No life could be sustained here whatsoever. But you're wrong! There is one animal that lives on this island, and his name is Tibb! Your challenge is to locate Tibb and bring him back to me by the end of the day. The first team to hand him to me wins the challenge! If neither team finds him by the end of the day, both teams will be sending someone home tonight!" This grabbed their attention, making both teams anxious to be let loose so they could hurry up with the challenge. "Oh, and Ella," Chris added. "If any of my cameras catch you singing to try and lure him out, your team will immediately forfeit the challenge! You're lucky to even be here after what you put everyone through last season!"

Ella hung her head low, more saddened than she had ever appeared.

"Let the hunt begin!"

"Hunt?" said Bridgette. "We're bringing it back alive, right?"

"Yes, Bridgette," Chris said with a sigh. "If not, I suppose I won't be too upset if I get its carcass instead. It wouldn't necessarily be breaking the rules. Thanks for clearing that up for everyone, Bridge!"

Bridgette groaned audibly as she went with the rest of her team in search of the mystery animal.

The Deadly Seals went the opposite way, with Gwen slowing down so she could be in the back of the line with Ella for a moment.

"Hey," she said mildly to the moping girl in pink. "Look, I'm really sorry for what I said earlier today. I can be grumpy at times, and I didn't mean it. You have every right to sing- while we're in our cabin, that is."

"Oh, that's not why I'm sad..." said Ella. "You're right about this place. It feels so... lonely... especially now that Cody isn't here."

"It doesn't have to be lonely," Gwen said with a smile. "You have me, and I'm sure the rest of the team is glad to have you here as well."

"Come on, you dweebs! Hurry up!" Heather called from the front of their pack.

"Well, most of us are glad," Gwen added with a nervous grin.

Ella turned and smiled at Gwen, her hope rekindled by the show of generosity. "I'll remember that," she said. "Thank you, Gwen."

*Confessional*

Gwen was hunched over on the toilet of the outhouse, exhaling. "Sometimes... you forget that everyone is still human. I've known Ella for such a short period of time, and yet I already had her marked down as someone who couldn't be disheartened. I still don't know who voted for Cody, though. It certainly has nothing to do with being the weakest, since I'm pretty sure Dakota holds that title if I had to guess. It was probably Heather and whoever else she's dragged into her schemes."

*New Confessional*

"Believe it or not," Heather began, "it wasn't me who was responsible for that twerp's elimination. Krystal and I both voted for Shawn. I was actually hoping to keep Cody around for a while, maybe dangle him on the end of a string to get him voting with me, but whatever. If I were to guess who's responsible, and I do have an educated guess, it would be Trent. I saw the way he smiled at Gwen before the first challenge. He wants to get good with her again, and this team is the perfect setup for that. Think about it; she's uncomfortable with almost everyone on this team and her ex is our enemy. All she needs is a little swooning and any unwanted competition to be out of the picture and they're as good as new again."

*End Confessional*


The Fearless Penguins had split up into two searching parties, and Jasmine had been placed in the one with Lightning, Izzy, Alejandro, and Bridgette, who agreed to be in a different search team than DJ so they could focus more on the challenge. They had been hugging the foothills of the mountains underneath the minimum cover of the dead trees for half an hour as they made their way around the island, keeping their eyes peeled for any slight movement.

"There he is!" Lightning exclaimed as he pounced on a snow-covered shrub only to come up empty-handed. "Coulda sworn that was it!"

"That's the fifth time you've said that," said Jasmine, walking past him with the rest of the group. "There are too many places it could be on this island. It'll take some kind of miracle to find a single animal."

"Maybe we could split up again," Alejandro suggested. "Bridgette, Lightning, and Izzy could go one way, and me and Jasmine could go another."

"I hunt best alone..." Izzy said in a suddenly dramatic way. The rest of them gave her strange looks before she dove behind a tree, disappearing from sight.

"I guess that simplifies it, then," said Alejandro. "Come, Jasmine."

"Hold on a moment," Bridgette interrupted.

"We're wasting valuable time by waiting, remember..." Alejandro said impatiently.

"I'll go with Jasmine," she said to schemer's dismay. "Don't think I don't remember what happened in Would Tour, because it won't happen again."

*Confessional*

"Right..." said Alejandro resentfully. "I had almost forgotten about my short history with Bridgette. She would rather see me brought back dead to Chris than the animal we're after. This isn't shaping out to be my season, it would seem..."

*End Confessional*

"What makes you think I would want to make a move on Jasmine?" Alejandro asked. "Besides, she's already taken."

Glaring as hard as she could, Bridgette responded, "So was I."

"Yes," he said with his famous, devious grin, "and you still are."

Bridgette broke her glare and pulled the confused Jasmine along with her, leaving Alejandro and Lightning alone. "That evil, manipulative, back-stabbing, lying..." she mumbled to herself.

"Is he really that bad?" Jasmine asked. "He is awfully handsome, I'll give him that much..."

Bridgette turned around, her hand still wrapped around Jasmine's wrist, and said, "Whatever you do on this island, do not fall for Alejandro. It'll be your last mistake..."

Jasmine was a bit taken aback by this response, but she took it to heart regardless. She wasn't sure what to think of Bridgette so far, but it was hard to argue against such a passionate reaction from someone. It wasn't as though she was going to cheat on Shawn, regardless.


"Hey, Krystal?" said Heather as the two of them were trudging through the snow near the shore. Similarly to the Penguins, they had split up to cover more ground. "I was thinking, because I'm helping you out with Alejandro and all, that maybe... I could borrow your coat? That would just be great."

Krystal let out a single sigh, her breath forming a cloud in front of her from the intense cold.

*Confessional*

"I know that Heather's using me," said Krystal. "And she knows that I'm aware of that. So why are we still in an alliance? Well... Besides the fact that we both hate Alejandro, I have my own plans for later." She still had her usual half-interested expression as she said this. "Whether or not they'll pan out for me is another question entirely."

*End Confessional*

"You're so nice!" said Heather as she relaxed in her new comfortable purple coat while Krystal reluctantly wore Heather's rugged burlap one. "It is so going to be you and me in the finale."

Just then, Krystal's eyes came across something rather interesting. It was far away, but she could see the tiny shape of a white and gray fox staring back at them. When she took a step forward, however, she made another interesting observation; they had come across a sizable patch of ice blocking their path.

"Is that a fox?" Heather asked as she squinted into the distance. "Oh my god, it is a fox! There it is!" She slid forward a bit and had to balance herself out once she had made it onto the ice. "Oh, of course this would happen... Come on, Krystal." She turned to her side to see Krystal still at the very beginning of the ice, having not moved an inch since. "Umm, hello? We have a fox to catch?"

"I'm, uhh..." Krystal said nervously. "I don't do so well on ice..."

With a disbelieving stare, Heather said, "You're kidding me, right? You live in Canada, your name is Krystal, and you can't keep your balance on a little bit of ice?"

Krystal's footing slipped out from underneath her as she fell on her backside, hoping that there weren't any cameras around to see it. "It's not like I haven't tried before!" she raised her voice for the first time since coming to Total Drama while Heather couldn't help but crack up at her misfortune. "Just go on without me and I'll go the long way around. Vote me off if we lose for all I care."

"As you say, ice princess." Heather inched her way forward until she was eventually on the other side of the strip of ice where she began stalking her prey. Each footstep forward was executed carefully as the arctic fox merely stared in her direction the entire time. "Alright, you little rodent-wannabe..." she whispered. "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be..."

She was frustrated to see it begin to move, and devastated when it broke into a sprint away from her. She growled and chased after it, no longer being gentle with her footsteps.

It was making its way into an area dense with trees as Alejandro and Lightning came at it from the other side with Zoey and DJ rounding out an enclosure around the little fox. Heather caught all of the eyes of the enemy team against her as they all acknowledged her except for Lightning. Through an impressive display of speed and agility, Lightning managed to trap the fox in his arms as his team cheered him on.

"Oh, yeah!" Lightning exclaimed, more impressed with himself than ever.

"Now we just need to get it to Chris!" said Zoey.

"No problem!" Lightning replied. "This little guy's in the Lightning prison, and nothing's escaped these arms!"

As Krystal arrived at the scene, wiping off her clothes of the snow and ice that had gotten on her after falling, she said to Heather, "I guess this is my fault." She took her coat off to shake it dry, wearing a tight black shirt underneath.

The moment Lightning laid eyes on Krystal, his jaw dropped and his brain went numb. "Sha-dayum!" His hold on the fox loosened as it scampered off away from him, but he couldn't hear the angered cries of his team.

"No," said Heather, "but that was. Nice work!"


Cutting through the silence of the woods was the peculiar mooing of a cow as both Bridgette and Jasmine looked at one another in confusion.

"The animal we're looking for is a cow?" Bridgette said as they began moving in that direction.

As soon as they arrived at what sounded like the source of the noises, they both fell through the snow and into a pit.

"You can't be serious!" Jasmine yelled. The pit was just barely wide enough for both of them to fit inside of, and even taller than Jasmine with her arms raised in the air. "No, no, no..." she muttered as she started breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" said Bridgette as she stood up, rubbing her head from the pain of the fall.

"Does it look like I'm okay!?" Jasmine replied, her eyes wide with terror.

"Guess that's two less to worry about," said someone's voice from up above. "Who have we got here?" Shawn peaked over the edge of the pit as he saw Jasmine and Bridgette's angered eyes looking back at him. "Oh, crap..."

"Shawn!" shouted Jasmine out of rage. "Get me out of here right now!"

Shawn immediately lowered a shovel into the pit for her to grab onto and climb up. Once she was out, she took a deep breath and gazed around. "Where was that cow?"

Beardo then walked out from behind a tree and began mooing, making her groan in humiliation.

"Hey, what about me?" said Bridgette, still looking up at Shawn.

"Uhh, yeah..." Shawn said awkwardly. "You're not really my girlfriend..."

Jasmine smacked the back of his head and told him, "Get her out of there! Nobody deserved to be holed up in a tight space like that!"

As Shawn held his shovel into the pit for Bridgette, he said, "I would have come back for her..."

"We're not trying to capture the enemy team here, Shawn," Jasmine said to him. "We're here to... fox?"

"Excuse me?" said both Shawn and Bridgette as Jasmine's gaze was fixed on the arctic fox scurrying through the woods nearby.

She started running ahead of the others, keeping her eyes fixed on the white fox. From the trees, she could see a certain orange-haired maniac dropping from her perch to grab the fox in both arms. "Alright, Izzy!" said Jasmine. "Let's hurry back! It's getting late!"

"You're a cute little thing, aren't you?" Izzy said as she held the fox in front of her, running with Jasmine back to the cabins.

"Pay attention, Izzy. We can't afford to lose it now."

"Don't worry so much!" Izzy said as she turned to grin at Jasmine. "I've got everything under control." She turned to her front again and realized the fox was had vanished from her hands. "Wait, what?"

"Thanks! Bye!" said a triumphant Dakota as she ran off with the fox in her hands.

"I demand to know how you did that!" Izzy called after her.

Dakota wore a grin on her face as she continued running, although her grin wore off as she saw Jasmine closing the gap between them quickly. Her lips then turned into an outright frown when she remembered she had forgotten the way back to camp.

"Need some directions?" said Alejandro, showing up beside her. "I would do anything to help a lady as beautiful as yourself."

Dakota's eyes narrowed a bit. "Aren't you on the other team?"

Alejandro snatched the fox out of her hands and said, "Why yes! I am!" While he still lingered on the sour expression of Dakota that he left behind, he didn't notice the raging bull of a human being charge right into him, knocking the wind out of him.

As much as Heather would have loved to stare longer at Alejandro lying in the snow breathless, she had a challenge to win. She snatched the fox and started running alongside Dakota while Jasmine was still hot on their trail. All she needed to do was make it a little further and she would be in sight of Chris, but Jasmine was nearly about to catch up to them and wasn't slowing down anytime soon. With a heavy sigh, Heather decided to make the best choice she could in the given circumstances and handed Tibb over to Dakota. "You'd better make sure that gets to Chris!" she said.

"But what are you going to do?" Dakota asked before Heather turned around and lunged at Jasmine, knocking them both over as Dakota was then in the clear. Not a single member of either team was around at that point, and as she kept running, she could see the camp through the remaining trees before making it out into the clearing.

"Get off me!" Jasmine grunted as she pushed Heather aside, both getting to their feet to face each other. "Not bad," she said, covered in snow. "Didn't think you'd have the guts to come at me like that."

"Puh-lease," Heather scoffed. "If this show's taught me anything, it's that you should never go in outnumbered. Challenges, alliances, votes... You always have to be the boss or else you'll just get stomped on by everyone else. And that's why you lost last season."

"Oh yeah?" Jasmine said back. "I still had half of the million split with me, didn't I? That's half a million more than you got for winning."

Heather growled in frustration as they both heard Chris over the loudspeakers announcing that the Deadly Seals had won the challenge. "Hah!" she said with a grin. "Let's hope your team values its resident giant!"

*Confessional*

"I've heard bad things about that one," said Jasmine, "but I didn't think she would be so rude!" She sat and thought for a moment. "Then again, she may have had a point about being the boss..."

*End Confessional*


"Welcome back, teams!" said Chris after everyone had rejoined him back in front of the cabins, exhausted from the day of running around the island. He held Tibb in his arms as he spoke to them, the sun hidden behind the mountains. "As you all know, the Deadly Seals were the ones to retrieve Tibb, making them safe for tonight! You'd better have someone in mind to eliminate, Fearless Penguins, because voting time is on its way!"

"Don't we get something for winning the challenge one person short?" asked Heather. "I should at least get something for carrying my team to victory."

"Hmm..." Chris said with a smile on his face. "You're right. Here you go!" He handed the white fox to her as she looked at it in surprise. "Congratulations! You're now the proud owner of an arctic fox!"

"That's not funny, Chris!" she said in retaliation as some of her teammates giggled. "I am not taking care of this mangy little furball!"

"She's right, Chris," said Gwen. "It's not fair for Tibb to have to take care of Heather."

"Watch it," Heather said with a glare.

"I've stopped caring," Chris said as he turned to the Penguins. "Meet me by the Rocket of Disgrace after you've decided on a new loser! Chop chop! Get to it!"


While the rest of the Seals were celebrating outside of the cabins after night had fallen, Gwen took the time to visit the boys' sleeping area, knowing Trent was alone there. "Hey... Trent? Can I come in?" she said outside the door.

"Gwen? Sure, of course."

Taking a deep breath, Gwen entered and closed the door behind her. "If you don't mind, I had something I wanted to ask you..."

"Yeah?" said Trent, sitting on the side of his bunk as he tuned his guitar. "What's that?"

She took a seat beside him, looking at the ground with concern on her face. "Did you vote for Cody?"

Trent didn't respond at first, his eyes focused on the strings of his guitar, but then said, "No way," in his usual chill, relaxed tone. "Me and Cody were cool. Why would I want him voted off?"

Gwen hesitated, feeling more awkward around him than she ever had before. And with their history, that was saying something. "Do you..." She stopped and started over again. "Do you still have feelings for me?"

Again, it took time for Trent to respond. His blank stare at his guitar left Gwen feeling worried, like there was something deeply rooted that he had yet to tell her about. "We've went over that," he said. "You're over me, and that's all there is to it."

"That doesn't answer my question," she said.

They could hear the door to the girls' side of the cabin open up with a slam as Heather's voice could be heard. "Eww, eww, eww, it's peeing!"

'Maybe you should go help her," Trent suggested as he got back to tuning his guitar.

Feeling even worse than she did coming in, Gwen stood up and slowly went to the door, taking one last look at Trent, who was still too occupied to look back at her.


"So!" Chris said in front of the audience of Penguins. "One of you is going home tonight! As for the rest of you..." He began picking up marshmallows and throwing them at those who were safe. "Izzy, Duncan, Alejandro, DJ, Zoey, Tyler, and Jasmine are all safe tonight! Which leaves Bridgette and Lightning!" The two of them seemed surprised with the results. "Bridgette, for someone who hates the idea of violence towards animals, you sure are hostile towards a certain someone on the team!"

Bridgette looked at Alejandro with a glare, feeling sick to her stomach knowing that she could go home that night because of him.

"And Lightning!" Chris continued. "You seemed more concerned with staring at a certain someone on the other team than winning the challenge for your own team."

"I was blindsided!" Lightning said in his own defense. "Until today, I didn't even realize there was someone new here! That's all!"

"Riiiight," said Chris. "The final marshmallow goes to..." He looked at both of them for several seconds to build the frustrating tension. "Bridgette!"

"Sha-what!?" shouted Lightning. "You can't all be serious!"

"Bye-bye, Lightning!" said Chris as Chef came to drag him over to the new rocket of the day.

"You all know I'm the strongest member of this team! You just threw away your hopes of winning!"

Alejandro walked closer to the cannon after Lightning had been tied up, saying softly so none of the others could hear, "If only you had an alliance right now..."

"You're dead, Alejandro!" he said as the rocket began to shoot into the sky. "SHA-DEAD!"

"And so!" Chris said in front of the remaining Fearless Penguins. "The teams have evened out after the second challenge, and tensions are already running high! Who's going to crack under the pressure!? Who's going to be next to experience the ride of their lifetime on the Rocket of Disgrace!? Find out next time on: Total! Drama! Aaaaaarctic Tundra!"