Author's Notes: Well, sorry for the long wait ladies and gentle-readers. I wanted to wait until I was done with my spring semester of college and back home before starting to write the seventh chapter of the story. There won't be too many more waits left after this since there's only three more chapters left in this story. I know that only ten chapter seems a tad bit short for a story that's supposed to cover an entire season, but remember that "Candy for Your Thoughts" was originally only supposed to be a one chapter story. I'm happy that I managed to stretch it out as far as I did, plus since most of the chapters are close to forty pages long so, if you think about it, this fanfiction could be the length of a full book if I printed it all out, hehe.

Anyway, a lot of reviewers have addressed me with complaints about Sierra and the match-making quiz she took. Perhaps I should have been a little clearer, but the match-making quiz IS NOT the sole reason Sierra was attracted to Cody. However, obsessions have to start from some point and I believe that a match-making quiz was what got Sierra to first take notice of Cody. It was the starting point of the obsession. After that she probably rewatched all the episodes and started discovering real reasons why Cody is such an attracting person. If it offers any consolation, know that Sierra really steps up and shines in this chapter.

I would also like to note to the readers that besides college and finals, one of the other reasons this chapter is much later than the others is solely because it was one of the most difficult to write. Unlike the rest of the chapters, I did not have a clear idea of how this chapter was going to go. The only scene I had planned out was the last scenes of the chapter, but I did not know what to write to get from point A to point B. This might be due to the fact that I have not watched the African episode of World Tour. Why? Simply because by the time the episode aired I was sick of the direction the series was going. My attitude was "Screw it! I'm going to watch Dragonball Z Abridged instead!" And I did. I have no regrets.

Also, the song of this chapter gave me a world of trouble. It is solely because of my dear friend and reviewer "LuckyNumber18" that this chapter has its song. I had written several different songs to use for this chapter, but none of them quite worked like the one Lucky started for me. Thank you again my faithful friend!

Anywho, that author's note has lasted long enough! Let's get on with the story!


The atmosphere in first class was a melancholy one. Usually, the first class hold held an air of celebration, but this morning there was absolutely nothing to celebrate- not for the two sole occupants of the high-class compartments. Though both Sierra and Cody had escaped elimination from the game, the victory felt like a hollow one.

Cody had lost the girl that had captured his heart…and Sierra was forced to watch her beloved suffer because of it.

It was during the late hours of the previous night that Sierra finally managed to gently prod Cody into joining her in First Class. Sierra felt that the economy section was clearly not an option with the foul company it offered.

Cody hardly put up a fight. He didn't do much of anything but sit and stare out the window with dull blue eyes, lost in his own bleak thoughts of Courtney, Duncan, and the whole game. Sierra tried to start up a conversation with Cody, but her words fell muddled and foreign to his ears. He soon got tired of listening.

When the black skies had slowly shifted to the soft grays of dawn, Cody tried to clear his mind by messing around with his deck of cards. He listlessly flipped card after card from the deck, arranging them into neat rows on top the pull-out table in front of his seat. There was no game in mind, only a course of distraction from the guilt and pain he feels.

It doesn't work. The cards only reminded Cody of the cards games he had played with Courtney. The dull pain in his chest intensified the moment he notices the black Queen of Hearts missing her twin. Cody squeezed his eyes shut against the inner agony and tossed the card away.

The tossed card floated like a dying autumn leaf in front of Sierra.

Sierra picked up the card and stared from it to Cody's slumped, forlorn figure. A day before, Sierra would have relished the idea of Courtney being voted off. After all, the bossy brunette had been one to steal her crush's affections. Now that Courtney was permanently gone from the game, Sierra had the chance of a lifetime to actually spend time alone with Cody.

However, this pitiful creature was a shell of the Cody Sierra so desperately loved. It hurt so much to see Cody grieving over Courtney's absence. Cody shouldn't have his mind so focused on Courtney when there was still so much left competition left in the game. Sierra tried to her hardest to shift Cody out of his disconsolate state.

The purple-haired girl pasted a forced smile on her face and stepped over to the pitiful boy.

"Goo…" Sierra started to say 'good morning', but that hardly seemed appropriate a greeting. "…er… morning, Cody!"

Cody made no gesture of hearing the greeting. He continued to flip cards from his deck in an almost robotic manner.

Sierra's smile faltered slightly at cold shoulder, but the girl hunched her shoulders and continued on with the determination of a soldier.

"You know, I'm kind of hungry. How about you?" She asked pleasantly, slightly angling her purple head towards Cody.

He responded with the vocal enthusiasm of a flower pot.

Sierra tutted like a mother hen. "Now, now, I will not take no for an answer! If I recall, you haven't had dinner last night! I will not allow my sweet Codikins to go on skipping two meals!" She clapped her hands and an airline assistant quickly wheeled in a plate of steaming hot pancakes. "After all…" Sierra noted with a smile as the assistant departed, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"

Sierra jabbed a fork into the syrup-covered dish and held a single pancake up to Cody's downcast face.

"Come on!" She cooed, waving the pancake so that drops of syrup flung everywhere. "I know for a fact that chocolate-chip pancakes are your absolute favorite breakfast food! You eat a stack of them for breakfast on all your most important days! Like your birthday…on Christmas…the day you get a new haircut…."

"Chocolate was Courtney's favorite…" Cody spoke so softly that Sierra almost missed what he said.

Sierra's own appetite immediately vanished. "Um…on second thought, who needs breakfast? Brunch is so much better!" Sierra said, smiling as she tossed the dish of chocolate-chip pancakes aside. "How about we talk? Or think of strategies on how to beat those awful meanies down in the economy section?" Sierra suggested.

Cody gave a sad sigh. "Courtney loved to strategize…"

Sierra bit her bottom lip, thinking hard. "Would you like to play a card game instead?" she asked, spying the cards.

"Courtney sucked at card games…" said Cody wistfully.


Confessional

"Courtney, if you can hear me in whatever place you've landed…probably somewhere in Beijing- and if so, say hello to my Aunt Mei-Mei!- I demand that you GET OUT OF CODY'S HEAD!" Sierra shrieked into the camera.

End of Confessional


This would not do…this would not do at all. Having Cody win the competition was Sierra's primary goal now. She did not care much for herself winning- the sole reason she had entered that game in the first place was to be close to Cody. But Cody's moping wasn't going to help him any in the game especially if he was Heather, Alejandro, and Duncan's next target. Sierra would do everything in her power to help her beloved Cody, but to win he have to help himself too.

Sierra dropped the facade of cheer. A hint of desperation was in her voice as she spoke to Cody. "Cody, I know that you're still very upset about Courtney being voted off, but you can't keep this up. Don't you want to stay in the game?"

Cody turned away from Sierra, face pinched up with pain. "No, I don't."

"WHAT?" Sierra made a sound similar to a parrot being stepped on.

"Courtney was the one meant to win and I…I ruined her chance." Cody's shoulders sagged as if physically weighed down by guilt. Sierra grabbed them and whirled Cody around so that he was face to face with her.

"No." Sierra's voice held a furious, unyielding tone. "Cody it. Is. Not. Your. Fault! You are the most honest, compassionate, handsome, cool, kind, noble, cute, utterly adorable, super-fantastic-romantic-amazing- "

"I'm very flattered, but is there a point to this?" Cody asked.

Sierra realized that she was rambling. "Oh yeah, your depression…forgot. Sorry sweety!" she apologized with a tight hug and a smile.

Cody hung his head over her shoulder with a sigh. Perhaps he should pull an Izzy and just find a parachute and jump off…

"As I was saying," Sierra continued, "It was those three who voted Courtney off, especially that nasty Duncan!" The fangirl curled her hands into fists and shook them angrily with a growl. "Ooh, that delinquent has moved up to number two on my list of Most Horrible Total Drama Contestants on my blog site…and all the way down to number 20 on my list of favorite contestants!"

"But it was because of me that Duncan managed to stay on!" Cody argued in distressed tone. "I was the idiot that was convinced that Duncan still liked Courtney. I voted for Heather thinking that Courtney would be safe…" He gave his head a savage shake. "I should have never trusted that two-faced jerk!"

"Then why did you break up with Courtney so that she could be with him?" Sierra asked.

"Because I honestly thought Duncan had changed." Cody said.

"But that's still no reason to break up with Courtney." Sierra pointed out, still not understanding. "Even if he had stopped being a meanie, that doesn't change the fact that he still cheated on her in the first place."

"Yeah…but it also doesn't change that fact that Courtney still liked him." Cody said in bitter tones. He looked at Sierra with blue eyes full of despair. "If Duncan had truly changed for the better, then how could I have ever competed with him over Courtney? She would have gone back to him eventually." Cody sighed and looked down at his knees. "Choosing between me and Duncan is no contest."

"Well, I would never choose Duncan over you." Sierra sniffed haughtily.

"Yeah, I know." Cody sounded more disappointed than assured by her statement.

"You don't know for sure that Courtney would have gone back to Duncan if you hadn't broken up with her." Sierra stated, hoping to brighten his spirit and raise his self-esteem.

"No, but it's too late now." Cody sadly said. "I failed her and now she'll probably never consider getting back with me."

"Only if you sit around and do nothing! What would Courtney say if she saw you moping around like this?" Sierra proclaimed, throwing her hands up for emphasis. "It's your duty to reclaim the honor of your love and yourself by defeating all the vile villains and one villainess left in the game! You have hundreds of fans that are clinging to their seats watching and praying for you win the game! Would you dare disappoint them?"

As Sierra spoke, Cody had been slowly focusing his attention on her. Now he said with a shake of head, "How can I win? Some of the best players from this season and the other seasons are still on!"

"Yes, true." Sierra confirmed. "But none of them have as solid of an alliance as you do! With me! I'll help you every step of the way!"

As improbable as the idea of winning seemed, it was so tempting…so incredible to think about…that Cody found himself listening to Sierra, half hoping that what she was saying could perhaps be true.

"Do you really thing we can beat them?" Cody asked, his blue eyes starting to light up for the first time since Courtney's elimination.

"Just ask all your fans!" Sierra said with a grin. She then frowned. "Well…I mean ask them once we have a laptop again. But by that time you'll have won!"

Cody couldn't help but brighten up at Sierra's enthusiasm. Perhaps he could win. Perhaps he and Courtney could get back together again.

After all, Courtney had always been a fan of winners.


"Welcome, fellow globe-trotters, to the world famous Serengeti, one of Africa's largest national parks and game reserves." Chris theatrically announced with arms spread out wide.

The contestants all gave low giggles and chuckles at Chris's newest appearance.

"Dude, did you shave your head?" Duncan asked, laughing mockingly.

Chris glared. "It's just a bald cap!"

Bald cap or not, Chris was definitely dressed in most of his most unusual attires of the season. In honor of the exotic location, the host had decked out in traditional Tanzanian robes that were colored a deep red. Bracelets of colorful stones adored his wrists and Chris's head indeed looked shaved.

The next couple challenges of Total Drama World Tour were going to take place in the African country of Tanzania, where the famous wildlife preserve Serengeti was partially located in. Despite still feeling down-hearted about Courtney, Cody could not help but feel a slight tingle of excitement as he gazed around at the vast grasslands. Even at a great distance, herds of various large animals could easily be seen. Once or twice, Cody could have sworn that he'd heard the trumpet-like call of an elephant. He just wished Courtney was here to see such fabulous sights too…

Chris took a deep refreshing breath and sighed. "Ah, Africa! Kids, take a good, long whiff of it."

"All I smell is elephant crap." Heather muttered.

"Enjoy the experience of it, contestants!" Chris happily continued, ignoring Heather's smart ass remark. "Cause it's the only place in the world where literally everything you touch has the tendency to kill you."

As the very country itself wanted to make a point, just a short distance away from the Canadian group, a male lion stalked over to a river's edge and was about to take a drink. However, before the giant yellow feline could do so, a large crocodile leaped from the water, bit the lion, and dragged it under. A moment later, the crocodile resurfaced and let out a satisfied burp. Then a hippo emerged and swallowed the crocodile whole in one gulp. Then a tiny mosquito landed on the hippo's giant butt and bit down. A second later, the hippo succumbed to a rapidly spread disease (which turned it pink with yellow spots) and died. It floated to the top of the river, belly in the air like a dead goldfish.

After watching the entire gruesome scene, Chris wiped away a tear. "The circle of life," he said, sounding emotionally moved, "Isn't it a beautiful thing?"

The contestants could only stare, each looking quite appalled and freaked out by what they had just witnessed.

"Wow, the circle of life looks a lot less disturbing in Disney movies." Sierra finally said.

Alejandro crossed his arms over his broad chest. "So tell us, what is the challenge for today?" he asked impatiently.

"I think you mean to ask, what are the challenges of the day are." Chris cheekily corrected. "There will be two challenges today!"

"Which means twice the pain." Cody thought mournfully. In China, only one challenge was bad enough. He lost count of all the times he had almost been killed!

"And we'll start as soon as SOMEBODY," Chris snapped, beady eyes glinting in Chef's direction, "starts setting everything up!"

Chef shook his large head, clucking dismissively. "No can do! Today, I'm taking advantage of my one vacation day!"

"VACATION DAY?" Chris spluttered. "Those are saved until AFTER the season is over! You can't just pull a stunt like that in the middle of the game!"

"Oh yes I can!" Chef smugly said. He raised up his arms and spread them wide as he joyfully cried, "This is the land of my ancestors!"

"Don't say that too loud or you'll insult the natives." Duncan snidely remarked.

"And as the land of my brothers and sisters," Chef continued, "I want to take in the full experience of enjoying it by fulfilling my dream of becoming a true warrior of Africa!"

Without any further ado, Chef ripped off his clothes.

The teens, as well as Chris, all made noises of horrors and hastily covered their eyes. "Children, cover your eyes!" Chris wailed.

Thankfully, Chef was not fully nude. He was merely clothed in traditional warrior attire. Though his greatly muscled chest was bare of anything but several tattoos, Chef was wearing a red loincloth and had several bands of colored feathers (mostly a variety of reds and golds) on his arms and legs. Chef had also managed to pull out a wooden spear from out of nowhere.

Seeing that it was safe to look, Chris uncovered his eyes and looked at Chef and his wardrobe with obvious distaste. "Oh, and how you going about to fulfill this dream?" the host asked with a slight sneer.

"By capturing the most dangerous animal in all of Africa!" Chef pulled out a paper that had a poorly drawn giant crocodile on it.

"GUSTAVE!" he proclaimed loudly and complete with dramatic background music.

None of the teens or Chris looked very much impressed.

Cody stared at the picture and scratched his chestnut hair, voicing out loud, "Who's Gustave?"

Instead of Chef, it was Alejandro that answered, "It's a Nile crocodile that's grown to an incredible size and is world famous for its killer instinct. It's supposedly consumed 300 people."

"And I'm going to catch it!" Chef proudly proclaimed. "Later fools!" The chef raised up his spear and, with every eye watching him, ran off into the savannah.

A couple of rather awkward moments passed in which all were silent. Finally, Chris sighed, took out a walkie-talkie, and spoke into it.

"Hey, can I get a couple of interns to help set up? Oh, and start typing up a help wanted ad for a new cook. Something tells me we're going to need it."


About half an hour later, the setup for the first challenge of the day was ready to go. In a dirt-covered clearing free of any tall grasses or bush trees, three interns (quite the nervous looking bunch) had drawn up three large circles on the ground with white chalk. Sandbags surrounded the borders of the white-chalk ring.

As the first challenge was being set up, the contestants had waited on the sidelines. Cody naturally stuck close with Sierra, the only person he was on good terms with in the competition. Heather and Alejandro hung close as well, though by this time many were growing well aware of the attraction between the two. Duncan hung away from everyone.

Cody, for the most part, had tried to stay as far away from Duncan as possible all day. Since Courtney's elimination, Duncan had grown increasingly cocky and took pleasure in voicing out loud how much better everything was now that Courtney was off the plane, especially when Cody was present. Duncan made no secret in letting everyone know that he was pleased that Courtney was gone.

"Someone hasn't been getting a lot of sleep." Sierra quietly observed.

Confused, Cody took a closer look at Duncan and, for the first time, noticed dark rings under Duncan's eyes. Had Duncan been awake all night as well?

"Probably celebrating Courtney's elimination…" Cody bitterly thought.

Uncharacteristic anger bubbled up in Cody at the thought of Duncan. He gritted his teeth and focused his thoughts on Chris, who was about to explain the first challenge.

"In the last challenge, you guys got lazy and made poor little animals do all the work. At least," Chris added with a grumble, "That's what PETA repeatedly told me in their complaints." He clapped his hands together and said in brighter tones, "So for this challenge, you guys are going to get down and dirty the old fashion way!"

The host gestured towards the circular rings of chalk.

"WITH WRESTLING!"

Heather cocked a skeptical brow. "Wrestling?"

"Yes," Chris confirmed with a Cheshire grin, "Wrestling…Laamb wrestling to be exact. For hundreds of years, wrestling has been used by the warriors of African tribes to solve village disputes, win honor, and to court the ladies." Chris added with a wink to the boys.

Alejandro's gaze shifted towards Heather and he smirked when Heather looked away with a scowl.

"But a pathetic bunch like yourselves," Chris continued, "You will be wrestling for an advantage in the next part of the African challenge."

Chris launched into an explanation of the rules.

"The rules are simple; I randomly draw names to see who wrestles with who. In order to win a match, you'll have to either get your opponent out of the ring, on all fours or in the air, or beat them down so hard that they call 'uncle' in order to win. Easy as pie right?"

Cody wasn't so sure. He eyed Duncan and Alejandro and felt his stomach start to drop. His chances of winning would not be too good if pit against either of them.

Duncan, on the contrary, felt a trill of savage excitement. He was hoping to give Cody a pounding for scheming with Courtney.

Chris pulled out a reed woven basket that had little pieces of paper in it and started to pull out names.

"One couple that will fight will be Cody and Heather." He said.

Heather sent a deadly glare the scrawny boy's way. Cody groaned at the prospect.

"Then there's Duncan and Sierra…"

"What about me?" Alejandro asked. "There's no other contestants."

Chris grinned. "Aw, don't worry. You get to wrestle with Cupcake."

"….Cupcake?"

A ferocious roar rattled the air. A jittery looking intern pushed forward a large, iron barred cage towards one of the rings. Inside the cage was a fully grown male lion.

Chris gestured towards the large wild feline.

"Meet Cupcake!"

"You want me…to wrestle…a lion…" Alejandro squeaked, looking quite faint.

Chris shrugged. "What? I thought you'd be happy. In Japan you said you wanted to be a lion tamer."

Alejandro cursed his big, silver-tongued mouth.

Despite Alejandro's extreme reluctance to participate, Chris soon herded all the contestants into their correct positions for the challenge to begin. On each ring, two opponents faced each other on the opposite ends. Since it was wrestling, all the boys were shirtless and everyone was shoeless.

Cody stared at Duncan and Alejandro's more muscular build and then at his own scrawny self. He tried to puff out his chest, but it made little different. The poor boy finally just glared at them with envy and pouted.

The blonde, jittery intern named Billy was standing beside Chris with a djembe, type of African drum, in front of him. Chris slapped a palm down on the djembe's rawhide drumhead to get everyone's attention.

"Now before we start the match," Chris said, "we shall perform the sacred act of bowing in respect to your opponent as a sign of respect like so." Chris placed a fist in the palm of his hand and gave a short, but formal bow.

"You're only supposed to do that in martial art matches." Alejandro pointed out. He jumped back when Cupcake the lion took a swipe at him.

"Once again," Chris replied with an annoyed frown. "People complained that I did not make last episode's challenge Chinese enough. 'Ooh, where's the martial arts?' 'Where's all the kimonos?' 'Where's the karate-chopping pandas?' Hopefully, this will make up for it."

"Then won't the wrestling fans complain after this episode?" Sierra asked.

"SHUT UP AND BOW TO YOUR PARTNER!"

"I don't bow to anyone." Duncan muttered stubbornly. However, the delinquent did jerk his head at Sierra in what seemed like a nod. Sierra did the bow, but glared that delinquent all the while. Of all the contestants, only Alejandro failed to bow to his opponent. Showing your neck to a lion wasn't really the smartest thing to do.

Looking satisfied, Chris raised his hand, "Ready…set….WRESTLE!" The host brought his hand down, signaling for the challenge to begin.

Billy the intern started to beat down on the djembe drum, creating a rapid, but steady beat, for the contestants to fight to.

Heather wasted no time. Grey eyes narrowed, Heather gave a cat-like hiss and lounged at Cody.

With a fearful squeak, Cody swiftly ducked and scampered out of Heather's way. Heather was almost overbalanced by Cody's hasty retreat.

"Fight me like a man!" Heather spat, taking a swing at Cody which he again ducked.

"I'm not going to hit a girl!" Cody rebuked. Not to mention Courtney would probably kill him if he got anywhere close to Heather's boobs…

Duncan, on the other hand, had no qualms about wrestling with Sierra. He and Sierra circled one another. Duncan flexed his muscles and scowled threateningly at the taller girl.

"I got beat by a girl once, and I'm not letting it happen again!" Duncan warned. The memory of his wrestling match with Courtney in season two still stung him.

"Well, I'm not going to let you win this either!" Sierra spat. She stood up straight and tapped her chin in a thoughtful manner. "Now, if Courtney was here what would she do?..." she pondered, thinking back on all the episodes she had watched.

While Sierra was distracted, Duncan took the opportunity to leap forward, hoping to push Sierra out of the ring. But before he could touch her, Sierra's eyes grew bright.

"Oh!" She proclaimed. "Now I remember!"

Sierra swung her leg back and kicked Duncan right in the groin.

The delinquent fell to his knees, holding his stinging kiwis. With eyes watering, Duncan croaked out in a strangled voice. "U-Uncle!"

Meanwhile, Alejandro was actually trying to crawl out of his ring, but Cupcake the lion kept dragging the teen back in for more damage.

Cody was still ducking and dodging away from Heather's strikes. The girl was growing more and more frustrated with each miss.

"HOLD STILL!" She snarled, aiming her fist to Cody's nose. Suddenly, an idea came to her. Heather ran close to Cody and threw an arm to box Cody's left ear. As expected, Cody started to move toward his right to evade the blow. However, at the last minute, Heather faked the blow, and actually kicked her right leg out and swung it around Cody's heels. The boy was knocked off his feet and fell with a loud 'thump' on the ground. His left hand was outside of the white line.

Chris called a halt. The drums grew silent.

"Let's see how well you guys have done." Chris announced. The handsome host strolled over to the wrestling rings, looking each teen up and down while critiquing and tutting in bemusement.

"Well, we have one person out of bounds," Chris said, nodding at Cody, "one that's called 'Uncle'," he added gesturing towards Duncan's kneeling and groaning form, "And…" Chris stopped at the ring where Alejandro and the lion had been wrestling.

Chris stared at the scene for several seconds, blinked, and then laughed. "And one that's been knocked off his feet! Haha!"

Alejandro, lying on his stomach on the ground, glared up the chuckling host while the large lion sat on Ale's back, busily gnawing on his rattlesnake-skinned boots.

"So that means," Chris continued, "Heather and Sierra are the winners!"

The two girls cheered while the boys groaned and grumbled.


The grand prize for winning came as a shock for all of the teens. Both Sierra and Heather stared at the little, black pellets that Chris had dumped into their hands.

"Are these bullets?" Sierra cautiously asked.

"Relax," Chris said. "They're just tranquilizer bullets- worse they can do is paralyze a person for a couple of hours. Both you and Heather, as the winners, get ten bullets each. Everyone else gets just five."

An intern started to pass out paintball guns to each contestant.

"But what are we shooting for?" asked Heather.

"Big game!" Chris said. He walked over a cage that was covered with a white cloth. The teens stared in alarm when the cage started to rattle. "But not just any big game…"

He whipped the white cloth off and every contestant gasped in a mix of horror and shock.

Inside the cage was Ezekiel the stowaway. None besides Courtney had seen Zekey since leaving London so all of them were deeply surprised by how feral-like the former contestant had become. Besides his tattered pants and wool cap, the pimpled teen wore no clothes. His brown hair was matted and dirty; dirt and grime covered his body and vented a rancid smell. Worst of all was how skinny the poor boy was. They could count each rib sticking out.

At the sight of the contestant, Ezekiel pressed his face against the bars and snarled, baring his teeth like a dog. His grey eyes glared most hatefully at Heather, Alejandro, and Duncan. Sierra and Cody were ignored.

"Sad sight, ain't it?" Chris said, shaking his head with pity. "Lack of nutrition, light, and communication does that to a person. You'll all look like this in senior year of college."

Cody stared at his deranged friend and shuddered. "Poor Zekey." He muttered sympathetically. The poor guy had only wanted to stay in the game.

"Don't feel too sorry for him." Chris warned. "Zekey here is going to be the only thing keeping you from being eliminated. Whoever manages to shoot Zekey and bring him back to the plane first wins immunity."

"It won't hurt him, will it?" Sierra asked, raising her hand.

"Like I said before, he'll only be paralyzed. He won't be hurt the slightest in this challenge." Chris's black eyes twinkled with humor. "But I can't say the same for the rest of you. Africa is full of surprises!"

With that said, Chris opened the door of the cage and Ezekiel sprung out, racing past the contestants and disappearing into the grasslands.

"Let the hunt begin!"


Duncan was the last to leave for Zekey. He watched the rest of his fellow teens leave before going off in a different direction from the rest. The mohawked delinquent stifled a yawn as he walked through the sea of golden grass. The grasslands of the Serengeti were truly a sight to behold. Whenever the wind blew, the grass rippled as if the land itself was breathing. Duncan only wished he could enjoy it more.

Sleep had not come to him well the previous night. Booting Courtney out had not been as satisfying as he had hoped it would be though there was no way he'd ever let anyone believe it. The sting of her betrayal was still sore in his heart. Whenever Duncan had managed to fall into a fitful sleep, his mind was plagued by nightmares of the most horrible kind. They were all the same- an endless, horrible cycle of nasty hell-like dingos, evil giant rattlesnakes, and burning fire. Sometimes the rattlesnake would have Alejandro's voice and then switch to Courtney's voice and then switch back. But no matter what voice they possessed, the vile serpents were as terrible as ever.

After the fifth nightmare, Duncan had forsaken sleep and dragged himself into the cargo hold with only Mohawk as company. The dog was well hidden among the crates and was Duncan's only comfort at the moment.

"Mohawk would be really useful right now." The delinquent mused. "With Zekey stinking as bad as he does, Mohawk would have no trouble tracking that idiot down."

For a moment Duncan wondered what Courtney's course of action would be in tracking Zekey, but then he remembered her betrayal and scowled at himself. He did not need any help her.

"As if she'd give it without a price." He growled, ignoring the stab of pain in his heart.

Alone and broken in more ways than one, Duncan continued onwards without a second glance.


In unspoken agreement, Cody and Sierra choose to dash after Zekey in one direction while the rest of the contestants spread out elsewhere. Cody was not sure if he and Sierra were on the right track, but anywhere was a good way to start.

"Ezekiel's kind of your friend." Sierra said, "Do you think he'll let you catch him with any trouble?"

Cody shook his head. "I'm not sure. Right now his mind doesn't seem to be all the way there. Courtney told me that she's spoken with him a few times on the plane, but there's no telling if he'll be as social with me."

"Well, then, where do you think Ezekiel would be?" Sierra asked.

Cody thought for a second. "Well…" he slowly mused, "he did look pretty hungry. Perhaps he'd go someplace where there's some kind of food."

"That's a genius idea!" Sierra gushed, batting her eyes and fawning over Cody. Then she frowned. "Er….but where do you find food in the middle of the Serengeti?"

Cody was at a lost with that question. He was an intelligent boy, but he wasn't a nature expert. However, after a couple of minutes of walking in silence, Cody spotted an answer.

"Look over there!" Cody pointed out. Not but a short walk away in a cluster of gangly trees, a couple of giraffes were grazing on the leaves in the tree. Hanging from the branches were purple-colored fruits.

Cody and Sierra raced down towards the trees and looked around, but besides the giraffes, no other creatures were there. Cody looked crestfallen, but Sierra had an idea.

"Okay, so what if Zekey isn't here? Maybe he just hasn't found the tree yet." Sierra said, "But maybe we can pick the fruits and lure Zekey to us!"

Cody stared at Sierra in surprised. "You know…" he said, starting to smile, "That's not a bad idea, Sierra."

The purple-haired girl beamed with pride at the compliment. She rushed forward to help the short boy get the fruits. "Here! Let me give you a boost!"

After a few moments of awkward repositioning and cooperation, Cody found himself hoisted up on Sierra's shoulders. Even with Sierra's tall height combined with his own, Cody barely managed to reach and grab hold to the purple fruits on the lowest branches. The giraffes stared down at the human boy with expressions of great disdain.

"What?" Cody mumbled to the peeved-looking giraffes. "You guys weren't eating them!"

One giraffes gave an almost snob-like sniff and turned away to continue eating the leaves of the tree.

Cody stuck his tongue out at the giraffe before focusing back on gathering the fruits. He already had a large bundle nestled in his arms. The tip of his tongue stuck out of the side of his mouth as he reached for a rather plump specimen. "Come to papa…"

All of the sudden, a large baboon leapt down on the branch in front of Cody and screeched viciously in the boy's face.

"WHOA!" Cody gave a gasp of fright and almost toppled off Sierra's shoulders. Luckily, none of the fruits fell out of his arms. He stared in shock at the species of animal now growling at him.

It was a baboon…and a rather vicious one at that. It had long, yellow-brown fur and a wrinkly dog-like snout below two mean, orange eyes. Its black lips were curled to reveal the tips of two razor-sharp fangs.

Cody gulped, but then remembered that he had faced worst creatures before and put on a scowling face. "Go away!" he said in a stern voice.

The baboon did not move. Its orange eyes stared hungrily at the fruits in Cody's arms.

"No!" Cody said, hugging the fruits close to his chest and glaring at the primate. "You can't have them! Go get your own!" Cody would not let a stupid baboon get in his way of winning for Courtney.

Unfortunately, Cody did not know that the fruit he held in his hands were Jackalberries and though giraffes had no taste for them, the berries were a favorite of baboons…

…And baboons did not give up food very easily.

The baboon gave an angrily screech and immediately several others fell down from the higher branches of the tree. They clambered on top of Cody, pulling his hair and trying to tug the jackalberries out of the human boy's grip.

Sierra felt Cody thrashing around and heard his mumbled screams. She glanced up to see what the racket was and gasped, dark eyes wide. "CODY!" In her shock, she accidentally loosened her grip on Cody's legs and the boy was sent tumbling to the ground.

The baboons scattered off the human. Sierra rushed to Cody's side and helped him sit up. "Are you okay?"

Cody rubbed his aching head. "Yeah...I think so…" A jolt of alarm went through Cody when he felt wetness on the front of his shirt and saw red. However, it was only jackalberries that had been squashed during the fall.

The baboons smelled the scent of fruit clinging to Cody and, before anyone could act, ran up to the bewildered boy, hoisted him up on their tiny shoulders, and, together as a troop, ran away, carrying Cody with him.

Sierra set off after them, waving her gun at them and shouting. "GIVE HIM BACK YOU THIEVES!"

As the troop retreated, Cody struggled to get out of their grasp. "Let me go! I'm not a fruit!"

The baboons didn't listen.

Thinking quickly, Cody took his gun and aimed it at one of the primates holding him. He took aim and shot it. The baboon let out a surprised shriek before it fell to the ground, completely immobilized. Cody was tipped over and rolled away into a clump of tall grass, shielding him from view.

Not noticing that their captive was gone, the baboon troop obliviously ran on with Sierra chasing after them.

Cody regained his senses and hastily stood up, waving his arms wildly. "Sierra! I'm right here! SI-ER-RAAAA!"

The girl was too far to hear and she, along with the baboon troop, was soon out of the sight.

Cody's shoulders hung low with the realization that he was now entirely on his own now. With a grimace, Cody kicked at the ground and slapped a palm over his face.

"Great…just great…" Cody muttered to himself, "I missed up…again….Argh!" Cody threw back his head and let out a deep noise of pent up frustration. He began to pace back and forth, muttering to himself.

"If Courtney was here this challenge would be in the bag." He knelt down and stared gloomily at the ground, chin resting the palm of his hand. "She wouldn't have been mistaken for a fruit and kidnapped by baboons." He bowed his head and sighed, whispering, "I need you, Court. I wouldn't have gotten through half of the challenges in game without your help."

At that moment, a familiar chime rang out.

"….Why can't you stay broken?" Cody flatly asked with a deadpan glare.

The chime, wherever it was, made no answer.

Cody bowed his head and sighed. In a soft, sad voice, the boy began to sang, "How can I get you off my mind? There's no promise the future will be kind." Cody brushed his hand over the bark of a knobby tree. In one of the branches above him, there hung the woven nest of a pair of yellow weaver birds. Cody watched them with a lonesome heart.

"I wanna win, but I gotta decide…" he sang as one bird flew leaving the other behind, "Will it all be worth it if I have to leave you behind?"

A distance away, Duncan was about to cross a small creek. Shouldering his paint gun, the delinquent started to hop from stone to stone across the water's surface. As he jumped, he sang as well.

"I've got no idea what tomorrow holds." The delinquent sang, thinking about the secret conversation about Courtney that he had overheard between Ale and Heather. "There are new twists and traps as this journey unfolds."

As Sierra sang herself as she tracked down the Mandrill baboons that had kidnapped Cody through the tall, golden grass. "I'm chasing down all of my dreams," she sang, hugging her gun close. "But when my story is all told…."

Unknownst to one another, the three each sang out loud in distressed voices.

"Is a happy ending what it'll be?"

Cody trekked onwards, head down and following a small well-worn dirt path. He did not notice Ezekiel following him sneakily from behind, jumping from bush to bush and observing his every movement. "

"I've traveled far…and kept up a long, good fight." Cody sang. He jumped on top of a small boulder and then slid down a short hill, singing. "But in the end, how do you know what path is right?"

Duncan stood up straight and stared up in the ever-stretching blue sky, singing, "Why is it, instead of stars, I see your face in the sky?" Duncan jerked his face away and, remembering the conversation between Ale and Heather, singing bitterly, "How can it be? That all I've thought of you was a lie!"

"I've tried so hard," Sierra sang, walking and recalling all of her failed attempts in becoming Cody's girlfriend, only to beaten by Courtney. "But now it seemed I've run out of time…"

The three sang together but still separate, "Oh, why, oh why, can't I get you out of my mind?"

Cody started to walk up a steep, grassy hill and singing, "Can I win it for both of us in the end?"

Duncan, meanwhile, was leaving the river's side and returning to a grassy clearing. "Was it all really all just a game of pretend?"

"Can I really be happy just being his friend?" asked Sierra, climbing up a pile of large, grey boulders.

"Will our nightmares vanish in time?"

Cody reached the top of the hill. A cool, soft wind through his light brown hair, brush up his long bangs. Alone, Cody softly sang, "Oh why, oh why, can't I get you off my…miiind?"

As the last note hung in the air, Cody took an awkward step and tripped. With a gasp and squeal, the poor boy fell head over heels down the steep hill. He only came to a halt once he crashed into something.

And that something was Duncan.

Duncan, who had been walking at the bottom, was flung to the ground when Cody rammed into his side. Both boys laid dazed in the dusty ground before finally finding their senses again. They stared across the clearing in shock at who was staring back.

"YOU!" Duncan snarled, eyes flashing.

"You know," Cody said, resting his chin on his elbow and rolling his blue eyes, "If you had listened back in China, you'd know that I, believe it or not, do have a name."

Duncan rolled onto his feet, standing crouched and leering at Cody with hostility. Cody eased onto his feet, picked up his gun, and held up a hand in peace.

"Look," Cody said, fighting to keep his voice calm and steady. "Sorry I ran…er….fell…into you. You hate me and I hate you. I totally get that. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be on my way to win the challenge." Cody walked away at brisk pace, hoping to get back to the challenge without any confrontation.

Duncan watched the scrawny boy walk away with a nasty sneer starting to curl his lips. "You know," he called out to Cody. "I never that Courtney hated me when I cheated on her, but I never imagined she hated me so much that she'd actually be willing to team up with pathetic, spineless coward like you!"

Cody stopped in his tracks.

"Then again, Courtney was always one to take me by surprise." Duncan continued, smirking at Cody's still and silent form. He swaggered closer to the skinny boy, deeply enjoying himself. "For example, I never knew she could sing like she's done this season. Oh, and I never imagined I'd ever see her expertly ride an emu like she did in Australia. That was actually a work of beauty." Duncan edged even closer.

"But you what totally blew my mind this season?" the mohawked boy asked. Duncan's teal eyes turned cold and voice became hard with undisguised hatred as he snarled.

"It was that Courtney became an even bigger bitch than I ever thought she could be!"

Throughout Duncan's tiny speech, Cody had started to loose focus on his surroundings. With the blood pounding in his ears rose to a defeating volume, drowning out all sound besides Duncan's voice. Cody did not feel his teeth grinding against each other; nor was he aware of his right hand slowly curling into a fist. Cody couldn't even remember pondering on the decision on either or not he should punch Duncan in the nose.

Either way, Cody did it.

And it felt good.

Duncan certainly hadn't expected an attack from Cody. The delinquent took the full blunt of the surprise attack and stumbled backwards, momentarily seeing an explosion of stars. Duncan shook his head, rapidly blinking in shock.

Wow…that had actually hurt. Really bad. His jaw was throbbing and Duncan could already feel an ugly bruise start to swell up.

But what surprised Duncan the most was not the fact that Cody had punched him (though that did come in as a rather painful shocker), but the look on the other boy's face disturbed Duncan the most. A smoldering fire seemed to blaze in the depths of Cody's blue eyes as he glared at Duncan, fists raised.

"That's enough!" Cody spat. "I won't let you talk about Courtney like that! I challenge you to a laamb match! Right here, right now!"

Duncan rubbed his aching jaw. "You're kidding, right?" he sneered. The scrawny little wimp wouldn't last a second.

"What?" Cody challenged in mocking tones, "Is a pathetic, spineless coward too much for you to handle?"

Duncan slammed a fist into the palm of his hand and growled, "Guess, I forget to mention stupid as well." He rolled his broad shoulders and cracked his knuckles threateningly. "Prepare for a pounding."

Cody raised his arms in a defensive position, readying himself for probably the biggest beat down in history. But, for some lunatic reason, the boy did not feel scared. At last, he had a moment to prove himself as able a challenger as everyone else.

Courtney wasn't here anymore to win the challenges or to put Duncan back in his place.

But Cody was. And he was ready to step up to the challenge.

"Aren't you going to bow first?" Cody asked as Duncan began to stalk closer.

"I don't bow down to losers like you." The delinquent sneered.

Cody's blue eyes narrowed and the fire in them burned even brighter.

"Well, neither do I."


For the first hour or two of the hunt, Heather and Alejandro stuck close to each other, tracking down the feral Ezekiel and discussing future courses of action at the same time.

"Duncan should be the next target." Alejandro said, peeling his emerald eyes for any sign that Ezekiel had passed- a foot print, pieces of hair or clothing, or, god forbid, excrement. The teen had been hunting before so was rather adept at skill of tracking.

"Duncan?" Heather sounded surprised at the suggestion. "No way. Cody's the most obvious choice!"

"But chica, Duncan's a better player than Cody." Alejandro pointed out. "He's more of a danger to keep in."

"But Cody has an unbreakable alliance with Sierra!" Heather argued. "If we vote Duncan off, then those two will be on even playing ground with us. It's better if Sierra and Cody are separated."

"No alliance is unbreakable."

"It's less of an alliance and more of an weird, and extremely creepy obsession." Heather said. "Besides, we'll be killing two birds with one stone if we vote off Cody."

Alejandro raised a curious eyebrow. "Nicely phrased but do explain, senorita."

"Think about it! Sierra's goal in life is to be wherever Cody is! If Cody gets voted off, then I bet that Sierra will get herself voted off on purpose in the next challenge just to be with him!" Heather sounded pleased that she had managed to think so far ahead.

However, Alejandro did not seem too impressed. "Don't be upset if that little scene doesn't play out the way you expect it to."

Heather crossed her arms in ill-temper and huffed "What are you talking about?"

A large, rotten log was in the middle of their path. Alejandro nimbly jumped over it and said, "Well, think about it, if I was voted off, would you purposely get yourself eliminated just to be with me?"

Heather glared coldly at the handsome Latino. What kind of stupid question was that?

"Of course not!" She spat. "Would you?"

Alejandro offered a hand to help Heather climb over the log. "No, I wouldn't." After a moment's pause, he looked Heather in the eye and low voice, "Though if you were voted off, I would fight and compete twice as ruthlessly to make sure everyone that voted for you is eliminated."

Taken by surprise, Heather slipped off the log and was caught in Alejandro's arms. The villainous teens stared into each other faces and, for a single moment, felt their cruel, cold hearts melt.

Then Heather roughly shoved Alejandro away and, turning her back towards the smirking Latino, began to stalk off in a different direction.

"We're voting for Cody and that's that!" she barked in a vicious voice, hoping and praying that Alejandro had not caught sight of the pink blush spreading across her pale cheeks.

Alejandro watched her leave through content, half-lidded eyes. "Cody it is, then." He called to her. Turning back to the task on hand- finding that addle-minded wild boy. Alejandro was well assured that Heather could take care of herself.

An imprint in the ground close by caught Alejandro's attention. He wandered over to it and knelt down close, scrutinizing it. After a moment or two, Ale smirked. It was definitely a human foot print. Unless the rest of the contestants had decided to go bare-foot, it had to be Zekey.

He straightened up and looked around the grassy area through narrowed, searching eyes. "Now where can you be?" Alejandro pondered out loud.

A pebble suddenly flew by and hit Alejandro right in the temple. Alejandro gave a gasp of pain and shock, hand flying to the injured area.

A growl-like chuckle caught Alejandro's attention.

Zekey stood crouched like a wild ape on boulder a short distance away. His grey eyes held a feral gleam and his grin was positively wolf-like.

In an instant, Alejandro had his paintball gun up and aimed at the feral teen's head. "Don't take it personal, una salvaje." Alejandro said, green eyes glinting with a predator-like gleam. "It's just part of the hunt." With that, he pulled the trigger.

Unfortunately, Zekey was faster than Alejandro had expected. Quicker than a startled antelope, Ezekiel scampered away on all fours. The tranquilizer bullet bounced harmlessly off the boulder's stone surface.

Not one to be evaded so easily, Alejandro took chase, disappearing after the feral teen into the savannah bush.

Within minutes, the chase proved to be highly strenuous for Alejandro. Despite Ale being physically fit and athlete, Zekye was proving to be a different catch. To Alejandro's ever growing frustration, Zekey was an unusually canny victim. Whenever Alejandro got within shooting distance of the fleeing boy, Ezekiel, would suddenly duck behind the tall golden grass out of sight. After moments of silent creeping, Ezekiel would pop back up like a meerkat in a different location and dash off again.

After two missed shots, Alejandro quit firing. He had to save his eight tranquilizer bullets until Ezekiel was within perfect aim. If he could just get Zekey to stay still for a moment or two then he would have him.

Ezekiel darted off in another direction, disrupting some ostriches that scurried away.

A sense of wariness tingled through Alejandro. At first, Ezekiel's movements had seemed chaotic, but now they seemed more focused…more purposeful…

"It's almost like he's leading me somewhere." Alejandro murmured out loud. "Like a…"

The ground beneath Alejandro's feet suddenly dipped down to almost a precipice. With a cry of surprise, Alejandro tumbled down the vertical hill, landing in the most ungraceful heap at the bottom.

"…trap." He croaked.

Alejandro eased himself up gingerly onto his elbows. An enraged growl rumbled deep in his throat, but Ale quickly silenced it the moment he got a good look of his surroundings. His tan face paled and his pupils shrunk into tiny pinpoints with horror.

Lions….

An entire pride of lions….

All around him….

Ezekiel had led Alejandro literally into the lions' den. At least ten of the giant felines were lounging around in the sun, taking a snooze. Thankfully, Alejandro's fall had not awaken any.

"Ahem."

Alejandro's head jerked at the small, cough. He saw Ezekiel a fair distance away from the lion pride, staring straight at Alejandro. A chill went down Alejandro's spine at the sight of the devious smile on Ezekiel's face. The former home-schooled teen stood up and sucked in his scrawny chest with a deep breath.

Too choked up with horror to speak, Alejandro rapidly shook his head back and forth, begging the feral boy not to do what he was thinking of doing.

Alejandro's fear only made Ezekiel's grin grow bigger. Taking no notice to the Hispanic teen's frantic pleads, Ezekiel unleashed a loud belch into the air. It echoed all across the savannah.

One by one, the lions woke up with yellow eyes glaring and growls rumbling in their throats. And the first thing the felines saw was Alejandro.

Alejandro gulped in fear as the growling lioness all started to creep towards him with claws and fangs gleaming. The poor handsome teen held up his hands and tried to talk soothingly to the mostly female felines.

"Now, now, ladies, I'm sure we can talk this out. I happen to be a great fan of your smaller, domesticated cousins." Alejandro let out a loud, girlish scream as the felines pounced.

Amidst the lady-like screams and ferocious feline roars, Ezekiel managed to creep by unnoticed, snickering all the while.

That would teach that manipulating snake not to eliminate Zekey's primary source of food.


Unlike Alejandro, Heather wasn't really much of fan of the outdoors. She had never tracked down anything besides great sales at the local mall. She had also never hunted anything unless it was hunting down her younger brother Damien after he posted humiliating videos of her on the internet.

However, despite Heather's many disadvantages, there was still a million dollars at stake and there were few things that Heather would not do for a million dollars.

Tramping around in a zebra herd was not one of them.

"Here Zekey, Zekey Zekey." Heather called in a syrupy-sweet voice as she pushed her away through dozens of grazing zebras. She cocked the paintball gun. "Your friend Heather has a little treat for youuuu!"

A zebra tail smacked her in the face. Heather let out an undignified shriek and batted it away, screeching, "Move you smelly animals! Out of my way before I make a designer's purse out of you…with a wallet to match!"

Heather pushed the last of the zebras out of the way and accidently tripped in a puddle of mud. The zebras had been grazing around a large watering hole. Several other herds of animals- including wildebeest, antelopes, and water buffalo- were gathered around as well.

Heather lifted herself up and aggressively wiped the slimy mud off her face. With teeth clenched in anger, she stood up and began to stalk around, looking for any sign of the wild child Zekey.

"Come out you freaky loser!" She snarled. Suddenly she felt her gun being tugged out of her hands. She looked down and saw a baby elephant with its grey trunk wrapped around the gun. It blinked up at her and seemed to grin happy.

For a moment, Heather's face softened. "Aww, aren't you sweet?" she cooed.

The baby elephant smiled even wider and flapped its large ears.

Then Heather's scowling expression returned and she roughly yanked the gun out of the infant's grip, screeching, "NOW GIVE ME MY GUN!"

The baby elephant let out a high-pitched squeal of fright and ran off, splashing through the shallow water.

"Yeah, well, next time don't get in my way!" Heather yelled after it. She grinned nastily and turned, saying, "Now to find that loser…" As she turned around, she ran smack into a solid, grey leg. She glanced up into the giant, angry face of the mommy elephant.

"Oh, was that your kid?" Heather asked with a nervous chuckle. "Well, he's absolutely adorable! You must be so proud! Honor roll student, right?"

The mother elephant continued to glare stonily at the Asian girl.

Heather crouched down low and started to slowly back away from the gigantic beast.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a challenge to win." Heather said with a fearful smile. "Just send me a text if you ever need a babysitter. Good-byyy- AHHH!"

Heather's words were lost when the mother elephant shot a powerful jet of water at the girl with her trunk, sending Heather flying into the middle of the watering hole.

Up on the bank, Ezekiel was rolling on the ground in a fit of laughter, having seen the entire scene. Karma truly did exist...


Sierra had finally made it too the top of the mountainous pile of boulders. She rested her chin on the hard, sun-warmed surface, and panted with exhaustion for several moments. After a short rest, Sierra was about to take a good, long look at her surroundings.

She had followed the baboon troop into a large kopje which was an outcropping of boulders and rock. Lounging all around on every piece of rocky surface were baboons- dozens of them. There were sleeping baboons, eating baboons, baboons grooming each other, arguing baboons- but no Cody.

Not one for being subtle, Sierra stood up at the top of the pile of boulders and shouted down at the primate troop.

"HEY, YOU WITH THE GIANT BUTTS!"

Every baboon looked down at the large, red butts, and then lifted their glaring faces up to the screaming girl.

"YOU GUYS BETTER GIVE ME BACK MY FRIEND CODY!"

The baboons glanced at each other in confusion. A very large baboon that sat on a small throne-like boulder appeared to be the leader of troop. The boss baboon flared its nostrils and made a noise between a chirp and a back as if asking, "who the hell are you?"

"I'm here to rescue my teammate!" Sierra boldly proclaimed. She pointed her gun down at the primates. "So give him up now and I'll go easy on you!"

The boss baboon leaned over and chattered in a confused manner at his neighbor. The smaller baboon shrugged its furry shoulders in an 'I-have-no-idea' gesture.

Sierra took their silence as an act of defiance. "Fine!" She barked, "Don't say I didn't warn you!"

With a roar, the tall Amazon girl leapt straight down from tall pile and straight in the midst of the baboon territory. The baboons scattered away from the girl, shrieking in surprise. However, the boss baboon stood up on his hind legs and snarled. It pointed its long, black finger at Sierra and screeched out an order to its subordinates. The rest of the baboons stopped what they were doing and began to race towards Sierra, ready to attack and drive off the strange trespasser.

Sierra stood fearlessly before them and raised her gun.

"BRING IT!"


Duncan wasted no time in attacking. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time, since the very second he had first seen Cody and Courtney hanging out together. Cody was going down.

When Duncan came charging at him, teeth clenched and fists raised, Cody reacted. What the skinny teen lacked in physical strength, he more than made up with quickness. Face clenched with nervousness, Cody ran forward like a jackrabbit and, sucking in his stomach, arched his back as Duncan ran past him, avoiding the punch. Cody then whirled around and kicked out a leg to give Duncan a blow to the back of the knee.

Duncan's knees buckled from the impact and the delinquent almost fell before quickly rebalancing himself. Duncan shot Cody a bewildered look.

Cody himself looked deeply shocked that his idea worked. Confidence bubbled up inside and the techno-geek found himself smirking.

"Not as pathetic as you thought, huh?" he taunted, raising his fists and lightly bouncing on the heels of his feet with excitement.

Duncan popped his shoulder. "We'll see." He said darkly before launching himself at Cody with a infuriated growl.

Cody's confident expression shifted into one of fright and he scrawny boy began to frantically scramble away backwards, nimbly ducking, dodging, and jumping out of the way from all the powerful kicks and punches Duncan was throwing at him.

At one point, Cody tripped over a log, falling on his butt. Duncan smirked in victory and rushed forward to sock Cody in the face.

Seeing the oncoming attack, Cody fearfully glanced from side to side, looking for any defense. Then he spotted it….

Just as Duncan's fist was about to nail him in the face, Cody reached inside a hole in the hollow log and pulled out a startled African porcupine. He held the porcupine up to his face with the sharp quills pointing out toward Duncan.

With a noise of surprise, Duncan stopped his fist in mid-punch before it could come in contact with the porcupine's quills. An almost evil grin crossed Cody's face. With a chuckle, Cody leapt up and began to chase Duncan around with the porcupine.

Now it was Duncan who was in the defensive mode. He was doing everything he could to keep away from the sharp porcupine quills. The porcupine in Cody's arms flicked it tail, sending a barrage of needle-like quills in Duncan's direction.

Teal eyes wide with fear, Duncan ducked by a tree. The quills embedded themselves into the bark in the shape of a skull. When the mohawked boy jumped out from the behind the tree's safety, Cody held up the porcupine and the spiky creature flicked more quills at Duncan.

However, Duncan was now smirking. As the deadly quills drew closer, Duncan pulled out a creature from behind his back.

It was a pangolin, otherwise known as a scaly anteater.

Duncan held the docile creature out in front of him and the quills bounced harmlessly off the hard plate-like armor covering the pangolin's back. Duncan eyed Cody with a smirk and a dangerous gleam in his teal eyes.

Cody's expression turned into one that clearly read "Oh crap!"

With a growl, Duncan leapt back into the fighting ring with the pangolin clinging to on one of his arms.

That fight taking place was certainly turning out to be one of the most unusual ever witnesses. Both Duncan and Cody were fighting at close hand and feet range, dodging and jabbing with all their worth, but still clinging to their arms was the terrified porcupine and pangolin. In some parts of the fight, Cody bring up his arm and porcupine would either fan its quills out to halt one of Duncan's attacks or try to strike at Duncan with its bristling tail. Duncan, in return, would bring up his arm to have the pangolin defend him with its body plates. Between these animal-weapon attacks, Duncan and Cody would try to get past these living defenses and get their own punches and kicks in.

At long last, Cody's porcupine sent in another wave of quills at Duncan. Duncan and the pangolin ducked and the quills went flying over their heads. They shot a short distance away and hit a large, dark grey boulder.

At least… they thought it was only a boulder.

However, boulders don't usually let out a rumbling bellows of pain and anger when impaled in the butt by quills.

Duncan and Cody stopped their traces and stared in horror as a rhino stood up and stared to charge blinding towards them, too blind with pain and rage to see where it was going. The porcupine and pangolin squealed in terror, jumped off the humans, and scampered away, abandoning Duncan and Cody for fend on their own.

The boys began to run away screaming, but were swiftly swept up by the raging rhino's horns. It flung them into the air and when the boys came down, they had landed on the rhino's back. Duncan and Cody held on tightly to the rhino's hide as the maddened beast charged across the savannah.

The rhino charged through several herds of African animals, not caring who or what it ran into. It ran through a herd of skittish gazelle, scaring them into leaping all about. Both Duncan and Cody were hit in the face by tiny hooves as the gazelles leaped out the way.

Then the rhino ran into a flock of flamingos near the riverside, sending them flying into the air like a giant cloud of pink. By the time the rhino had charged out of the flamingo area, Duncan and Cody were covered in a ridiculous amount of pink feathers.

The rhino about to run through a herd of elephants, but a giant bull elephant, seeing the other large animal approached it herd, fearlessly stood in front of its path. It lowered its giant, deadly looking tusks and glared menacingly at the charging rhino.

The rhino, looking heart at the sight of the larger mammal, came to a skidding halt. However, that did not stop Duncan and Cody from flying off its back.

"AAARRGGHH!" The two teen boys screamed as the shot forwards and landed, tangled up in the bull elephant's ivory tusks.

Bellowing in anger, the bull elephant tossed both boys into the air and then grabbed them by their legs with his long trunk. The giant grey mammal effortlessly swung Duncan and Cody around and around before powerfully swinging them straight up into the sky and long out of sight.

Duncan and Cody soared up into the blue yonder, screaming their heads off and startling two flying buzzards. At last, when they had been thrown at their highest peak (which was pretty high), gravity started to do its work. The two started to go crashing back towards the ground.

"AAAAARRRGGHHH!"

As they fell, the paintball guns came loose from Duncan and Cody's grip. Out of nowhere, a Secretary bird flew by and grabbed one of the guns in its beak and flew off. Duncan and Cody stared at the only gun remaining and then at each other. Both sets of blue eyes narrowed into hostile, competitive glare. Without warning, the two boys, still falling in the air, started fight over the sole remaining gun.

They tumbled through the air, rolling around, kicking and punching one another as they grappled over the only thing that could help them win the challenge.

Neither of them noticed the ground start to get closer and closer….

Down below, in one of the Serengeti rivers, a fat, purple hippo was dozing off, floating peacefully in the calm waters.

Then two feuding human boys came falling right out of the sky and landed, with a loud splash, right into the murky river. The hippo let out a gasp and dove under the water.

Dripping wet, Duncan and Cody swam into the shallow water (pushing and shoving each other the entire way) and, standing in the knee deep water, resumed their tug-of-war match over the paintball gun.

"Give me it, pipsqueak, it's mine!" Duncan snarled.

"No way! Yours was the one that got stole by the bird!" Cody argued, tugging furiously at the gun.

"I'm going to win this challenge!"

"I didn't beat a dragon and tiger just to be beaten by you!"

"It's mine!"

"No, mine!"

"MINE!"

"MINE!"

A deep growl rumbled through the air, causing the water to ripple menacingly.

The two boys stopped fighting over the paintball gun and slowly turn their heads to come face to face with the scaly face of a giant crocodile. Its yellow eyes stared hungrily at the feuding humans before it.

"Gu…Gu…Gu…" Duncan and Cody were stuttering too much in fear to get the name out.

It was Gustave.

The behemoth crocodile of legend opened its giant jaws, filled to the brink with hundreds of jagged fangs, and unleashed of ferocious roar. It got the two teens moving. Quivering and yelping with fear, Duncan and Cody stopped fighting for the gun and set to scrambling up the muddy bank. They dug into their nails into the moist dirt, trying to claw their way up from the brown water unto the safety of dry land. Their fighting was all but forgotten.

A deep rumble vibrated from the depths of Gustave's scaled throat. With an almost causal turn of the head, the behemoth crocodile opened its maw and flicked out its long, pink tongue. It licked Duncan and Cody and drew the two boys into the depths of its mouth, swallowing the screaming duo whole.

Gustave licked its lips and let out a loud, deeply satisfied belch.

Inside the gut of the giant Nile crocodile, two sets of blue eyes blinked in absolute darkness. One set was bouncing up and down in fright.

"WE'RE DEAD! WE'RE DEAD! WE'RE INSIDE A CROCODILE WHICH IS KINDA COOL BUT WE'RE DEAD!" Cody cried, voice cracked with consuming panic. He hugged the paintball gun in his hands to his chest.

The other set of blue eyes rolled upward in annoyance.

"Stop being a spazz. At least ol' Gustave didn't have the manners to chew." Duncan said. He rummaged around in his pocket. "Hold up…let me get my lighter out."

"Oh a light would be nice." Said a new, a slightly high-pitched voice.

Both Cody's and Duncan's blue eyes grew wide with shock. There was a click as Duncan switched on his cigarette light, producing a small flame that lit up the moist darkness of the stomach just enough for Duncan and Cody to see each other standing in a pool of green stomach fluid…as well as a third person.

The hook-handed psycho killer from season one stared down at the two boys through a terrifying hockey mask. The serial killer waved his hook at the boy. "Hi! Long time, no see!"

There was a single moment of horrific shock before Cody and Duncan hugged each other and began to holler and scream in fright. They backed away only to bump into someone else.

"Heya fellas," a round-bellied, sleek-haired man in a white jumpsuit, that look greatly similar to Elvis Presley, greeted the two with a dashing smile. "You two aren't staying long are you? Gotta save room for when my pal MJ arrives."

Duncan and Cody once again screamed and jumped back, bumping into something else. Duncan whirled the lighter around and its light revealed a bunch of creepy looking voo-doo dolls that, oddly enough, looked like all of the Total Drama contestants.

"Oops, wrong story." The Duncan voodoo doll hissed, grinning evilly at its human counter-part.

Back on the outside, Gustave was relaxing in the murky river water. Suddenly two loud, and, embarrassingly high-pitched, screams erupted from the giant crocodile's belly. Gustave's yellow eyes grew round and wide when he felt punches and kicks pounding him from the inside out. The crocodile groaned and clamped its jaws shut, trying to hold in its dinner.

Finally the pain grew too intense and the colossal reptile retched and gagged before spitting out Duncan and Cody onto the river shore.

Grumbling and lashing its scaled tail in agitation, Gustave shot the humans a glare before diving down and disappearing underneath the river's surface. Hardly a ripple stirred to show a tell-tale sign of the monster ever being there.

Duncan and Cody laid sprawled on the dry ground, panting and winded after their Pinocchio-like experience. Slowly, their energy returned into their tired limbs and memories of the fight surfaced back to mind. Duncan was first to get to his feet.

Duncan spat on the ground- a bit of blood was mixed in the spit- and scowled where Cody was slowly rising. "Let's…finish this…"

Cody was exhausted. He had never been in a fight before, and had certainly never participated in anything as physically punishing as this. His body was screaming from all cuts and bruises covering his battered body. However, the blue fire in Cody's eyes still burned as furiously as before.

"You can…*huff*...quit any time you want to." Cody panted, raising his clenched fists and glaring.

Duncan chuckled mockingly, moving steadily closer. "I will the moment…*huff*…you're…*huff*…thrown off the plane!"

With that threat, Duncan swung his fist at Cody. However, exhaustion made Duncan's movements sluggish. Cody managed to dodge the slow moving fist and kicked out at Duncan's knees, his lanky body swaying from the effort. Duncan moved away and almost stumbled over, huffing and puffing wearily.

A couple of animals had gathered to watch the rather pitiful fight take place. A pride of lions watched with mid-interest, lounging in the golden grass. A giraffe watched, towering over the savannah with some zebras and gazelles staring at its hooves. Ezekiel was watching the fight with amusement from a branch on a lone tree. Even Gustave the crocodile emerged its giant head from the river to peek at the feuding boys.

The fight was quite a pathetic sight to see. Duncan and Cody were so worn out that their punches and kicks were all half-hearted and most of them completely fell short of their mark. If the spirits of ancient African warriors were watching, they'd be shaking their spiritual heads in disappointment. These white Canadians make such a shame to the art of Laamb wrestling.

"Better…give…up…soon…pip…squeak…" Duncan huffed, wiping strands of green hair sticking to his forehead. Even his mohawk was wilting in exhaustion under the Serengeti sun.

One of Cody's eyes had swollen shut from one of the few punches that had hit true. "I'll…never…back…down…from…a…jerk like you!" Cody spat, his single open eye glaring defiantly at the delinquent. "Not after what you did to Courtney!"

Duncan made a terrible sound between a cough and jeering laugh. "What I did? WHAT I DID?" There was pure venom in Duncan's voice as he snarled, "That stuck up snob had it coming! You thought you two could fool me! But I know the truth!" Duncan circled Cody, head swinging and blue eyes darting back and forth deliriously. "Courtney's a snake! A giant rattlesnake! Cold…cruel….lying…"

Cody eyed the delinquent with a cautious air. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. Duncan sounded like one gone insane.

"Always playing innocent aren't we?" Duncan spat, pupils dilated and glaring at his enemy. A mad sort of hatred swam in the teal orbs. "People think I'm bad, but I at least I don't pretend to be anything otherwise! Like you and her!"

"The sun's officially burned away all your remaining brain cells." Cody retorted. He remained tense and ready to fight or flee the moment Duncan snapped. Something was definitely off with the mohawked punk. Duncan was rambling nonsense and muttering strange words under his breath. Cody only managed to catch a few words such as 'dingos', 'snake', and 'drowning'.

"How can you hate Courtney so much after she saved you from falling in China?" Cody asked.

"LIAR!" Duncan yelled with aggression, his expression so savage that it bordered on the line of madness. "She only saved me so that I would think she cared. All she wanted was a stupid alliance! Nothing more! She's too heartless to care about anything but winning!"

At those words…those vile breathes of slander…something in Cody snapped.

"SHE LEFT ME FOR YOU!" The smaller boy yelled, anger erupted in his words like embers bursting from a fiery infernal.

From his passionate outburst, silence followed. Moments stretched by with only the natural sounds of the grassland- insects buzzing and the calls of birds- to be heard. At last, when the silence had reached the point of becoming deafening, a voice spoke.

"…W…What did you say?" Duncan asked, his voice soft and cautious, almost sounding frightened. The madness in Duncan's eyes had vanished like ice breaking up on a lake…allowing the water to be clear once again…

The shift in attitude only fueled the Cody's anger more. It burned and boiled in Cody's blood, pumping through his veins as word after angry word spilled from his mouth to sate his new, savage mood.

"You heard me! She chose to give you another chance because she still loved you!" Cody growled. He stood at his tallest in front of Duncan, gapped teeth bared angrily. "Right before last night's voting ceremony!"

Duncan stumbled back as punched in the face. A dull numbness had started to creep on his body as Cody's enraged words sank in. With teal eyes wide and staring, Duncan was barely aware that his head was slightly shaking back and forth, unable to believe the truth.

"No…that's not true….I heard…Heather and Alejandro…" the mohawked boy started to murmur.

Cody stared at Duncan in disbelief. "Heather and Alejandro?" His usually calm voice rose to that of a roar. "HEATHER AND ALEJANDRO?" Cody found himself shaking. Courtney…his beloved Courtney…had been eliminated because of the Duncan had trusted the words of Heather…the queen of lying and trickery…and Alejandro…the one person that was solely responsible for most of the eliminations this season…Duncan…had…believed…them….

Cody exploded. "YOU IDIOT! YOU STUPID, BLEEPING IDIOT! YOU BELIEVED HEATHER, THE QUEEN BEE OF LIES, AND ALEJANDRO, THE BIGGEST SNAKE-IN-THE-GRASS THAT'S EVER SLITHERED FROM UNDER A ROCK OVER THE GIRL THAT'S SAVED YOUR SORRY MOHAWKED BUTT?" Cody literally hollered in Duncan's face. "WHAT THE BLEEP IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

It was unclear whether it was because of the truth being revealed or from the fact that Cody was raging in Duncan's face with no restraints, but for either reason Duncan was too shocked to move and make a sound. All he was capable of doing was staring down at Cody, with eyes wide and mouth hanging open as he listened to Cody's rant.

"You know what?" Cody continued now ready to unleash all the negative emotions that had slowly built up during the course of the season. "Someone as completely idiotic as you doesn't deserve a girl like Courtney. Oh sure, you can complain about Courtney all you want! You can throw every damn excuse in the book on why you cheated on her! She's bossy! She's jealous! She's ambitious! She's violent! She can be as psychotic and demanding as a leech on a hippo's butt cheeks! But she's also honest, smart, hard-working, loyal, beautiful, completely hardcore, and she cares! She may show it in the most horribly demanding of ways, BUT SHE CARES! If someone like her is willing to break down whatever lone wall of solitude that they've built up in order to give you a chance to be with them, you take it AND YOU DON'T LET GO!"

At his own words, Cody's blue eyes grew downcast and his shoulders lowered. Mostly to himself, he slowly repeated the words. "And…you don't let go." The chestnut-haired boy sighed and said, "I should have never let her go…" Cody's gaze hardened as he shifted it back to Duncan, "…especially not to you."

Duncan looked as though he was about to speak, but was silenced when Cody straightened up and pointed a finger at him.

"Before last night, I was willing to believe that there was some scrap of redeeming quality in you like what you've show in the past two seasons." Cody's blue eyes smoldered darkly. "But you know what I think of you now?"

Not waiting for Duncan to speak, Cody took a deep breath, saying, "I THINK YOU'RE NOTHING MORE THAN A NO-GOOD, LOUSY, SON OF A…"

A long string of profanity erupted from Cody, much to the shock of every creature there. Curses and insults that would make a seasoned pirate turn pink with blushing spilled out of normally good-natured teen like water.

"YOU BLEEPING BLEEP! SHOULDN'T EVEN BE ABLE TO BLEEP IN THE MOST BLEEPING BLEEP ANYONE'S EVER BLEEP!"

A wide-eyed mother lioness quickly covered the ears of her tiny cub. A couple of ostriches quickly stuck their heads under the ground to save their ears from hearing such vulgarity.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT BLEEP YOU'VE BEEN BLEEPING PULLING THIS BLEEPING SEASON, BUT YOU AND YOUR BLEEPING MOHAWK SHOULD TAKE A BIG BLEEPING STEP BACK AND KEEP STEPPING BACK UNTIL YOU BLEEPING FALL OFF A BLEEPING PLANE! OFF. A. BLEEPING. PLANE!"

In the tree, a shocked Zekey struck a finger in his ear, try to clean it t make sure he was hearing everything correctly. In the river, Gustave the crocodile had a frightened look on his face and had sunk into the water so that only its wide, yellow eyes were showing.

One of Duncan's eyes was twitching from shock, but Cody was not quite done yet.

"And you know what else?" Cody hissed with eyes narrowed. He thrust himself close to Duncan until the two were almost nose to nose.

"I may be the shortest guy on the show, but even with that stupid mohawk, you're still the SECOND SHORTEST!" Cody viciously hissed in Duncan's face. "So how do you like that, you….you…PIPSQUEAK!"

Duncan could only gape and stare.


Confessional

"I. Am. Not. Short!" Duncan growled into the camera, folding his arms over his skulled chest. After a moment's pause, he grumbled quietly, "Maybe I should make my mohawk bigger…."


Cody stared down at the ground sheepishly. "Okay…maybe…maybe I might have gone a little overboard back there." He brushed away some of his bangs. "Guess I must have just snapped. Mom and Dad will probably blow a casket when they hear the language I used…"

Cody's troubled look fell and a grin replaced it.

"But it felt so awesome!"

End of Confessional


Cody's scrawny chest was heaving heavily after his rant. The fight had taken less effort than releasing such a buildup of steam; the rage melted like snow from his system. Cody only felt drained and weary.

Duncan remained still and silent as if carved out of stone. The larger and strong teen was numb and stared at his rival as if this was the first time he had truly looked at Cody.

As for Cody, he was tired of being around the delinquent. There was still a challenge to win, but it hardly seemed to matter now.

"Er…just thought…um…you should know." Cody said, showing embarrassment for the first time for his outburst. With that, he roughly threw the paintball gun to the ground, accidentally (and unknowingly) setting it off. A tranquilizer bullet shot out and hit Zekey right in the gut. The feral boy let out a painful yelp and toppled off the tree branch to the ground, completely paralyzed. Neither Duncan nor Cody noticed.

Ears burning red and head lowered, Cody turned and left, walking right past a group of bewildered lions.

Left alone, the full weight of Cody's words fell upon Duncan. He had been tricked. He, the one who had managed to keep his head throughout all these seasons, had been played like a pawn. He had eliminated Courtney…who had wanted to be with him…who had saved him…

A sensation of ice-like numbness filled his chest. No…it could not be true. Duncan refused to believe that he had fallen so low. That he had committed such a crime…such a horrendous crime…

Duncan jerked his head left to right, teal eyes wide and wild, as if searching for some clue…a single shred of light…a tell tale sign that this was all a dream…a mad illusion of his guilty sub-conscious…a figment of nightmares…like the serpents and hounds that haunted the dark corner of his mind…and nothing more! Insanity would be much sweeter than the reality of what the truth offered!

But real it was, from the sandy ground behind his sneakers to the wetness that stung the back of his eyes. Duncan's breath came in sharp, short gasps as this realization dawned on him. Courtney's words from last night came back to him on dark, ominous wings…

"One day Duncan, you and I are going to look back on this moment, and one of us will regret it…"

"…and that person won't be me."

Duncan felt his legs go weak. The full knowledge of what he had almost gained and what he completely lost hit him. He stumbled and fell onto his knees as the entire world came crashing down.

As his fist pounded the ground, a sound, full of remorse and endless anguish, rose within Duncan in the form of a scream.


Back at the mounds of boulders and rocks, Sierra was almost done laying siege upon the baboon troop. All across the rocky terrain, bodies of beaten baboons were sprawled out, moaning and whimpering from the beat down of Sierra's one-woman army.

Punching and kicking like a kung fu expert, Sierra beat baboon after baboon until the only one left undefeated was the head red-booty himself.

The leader of the baboon troop glared its ugly face down the tall, purple-haired warrioress that dared challenge his primates.

Sierra punched the last olive baboon right in the snout, sending it flying, and then turned her attention to the baboon leader. She held up her ammo-less gun and pointed it threateningly at the big-butted primate.

"Time for you give up my Codikins!" Sierra demanded.

The baboon grinned, showing off his nasty yellow fangs and leaped down from its stone throne. It landed in front of Sierra. The head baboon threw its hideous head back, beat its fists on his chest, and screeched out a challenge.

Unimpressed, Sierra slapped the gun to the palm of her hand, testing its hardness. "When I get done with you, your nasty big butt's going to actually have a reason to be red!"

The baboon's orange eyes narrowed and glared into Sierra's own dark ones. The baboons that were still conscious peeked out fearfully from behind rocks to view the epic showdown about the take place. A gust of wind blew between the two challengers.

At last, the head baboon screamed and charged at Sierra, fangs bared and butt wiggling.

Sierra, likewise, let out her own vicious battle cry and charged, banishing her gun like a flag standard.

Yelling out their individual war-cries, both opponents ran full-speed at the other without any restraints. The moment the baboon and girl were only a few mere feet away from the other, they jumped and soared towards, fangs and weapons ready.

At this moment, time itself seemed to slow down. As the feral animal and Amazon-like girl were about to collide, Sierra pulled her head back and, in the epic motion of slow-mo, jerked her head forward again, swinging her long, purple braid like a whip to give the baboon boss a uppercut strike right under its hairy chin.

Drool, blood, and a loose fang went flying upwards from the awesome strike. Still in slow motion, the baboon fell to the ground, and laid out, gangly limbs sprawled, in defeat.

Time returned back to normal as Sierra gracefully landed back on the ground. She held up the gun like a spear and did a warrior-like victory cry over the body of the defeated primate.

With a smug smirk, she pointed into the face of the baboon, which held quite a pained expression, and said, "Your face is becoming my new screen saver! HA!"

The baboon moaned in misery.

Chuckling in self-satisfaction, Sierra tossed away the gun. "Now to rescue Cody." She glanced around, trying to catch sight of her friend. "Er…Cody? You can come out now! I've beaten all your kidnappers!"

There was not a single trace of Cody anywhere in the rock-covered terrain.

A look of panic spread across the tall girl's face. "Oh no," she gasped, falling to her knees and clutching her cheeks in horror. "I'm too late! THEY'VE ALREADY ATE CODY!"

She fell to her knees and let out a wail of despair to the heavens. "NOOOOOOO! DARN YOU! DARN YOU DIRTY APES! DARN YOU DIRTY APES AND YOUR STINKING PAWS ALL THE WAY TO HECK!"

Sierra's melodrama grief scene was cut short by a quiet voice.

"Sierra?"

After the fight and yelling fit with Duncan, Cody had done his best to retrace his steps back to where he and Sierra had separated. The baboon troop had left plenty enough traces for the teen boy to follow, leading him straight into the outcrop of boulders that served as the troop's territory. Cody had not expected to stumble upon the sight of dozens upon dozens of injured primates lying around nor to see Sierra standing, unharmed, and in the midst of it.

"CODY!" With a jubilant cry, Sierra dashed like a hare over to her not-so-secret crush. The fangirl gave Cody a quick up-and-down look, scrutinizing his ruffled appearance. The happy look fell at the sight of Cody's numerous minor injuries.

"Oh, you look horrible! Did you get into a fight?" she asked in worried tones.

"Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing." Cody deadpanned, taking a glance at the many wounded baboons crawling around and moaning in pain. "It's a long story…"

Sierra flipped her braid back and gave an excited clap.

"Well, I'm all ears!"

So Cody told her, starting from the point when he had escaped the kidnapping baboons; he spoke of Duncan's insults towards Courtney, the fight he and the Duncan engaged in, being eaten by a crocodile, and then Cody's terrible outburst. He wrapped it all up with explaining how he had found Sierra.

Sierra, for the most part, had been a good listener. She had kept her interruptions and loud remarks down to a minimum. Cody secretly admitted that he enjoyed the fact that the fangirl was hung on every word he said.

By the time the tale was complete, the sun was slowly starting to sink lower over the western grasslands. Above them, the sky had turned a rosy red with the first streaks of purple and dark blue starting to show.

"Wow, I can't believe it…" Sierra squealed in fangirl-ish awe. "You called Duncan short right in his face! I can't wait to record that scene on television when I get home!"

Cody shook his head in disbelief. "I get in a wrestling match, get eaten by Africa's most deadly crocodile, and basically cuss Duncan out with every colorful word in the book and the thing that amazes you the most is that I called Duncan short?"

Sierra shrugged carelessly. "What? No one's ever said it before!"

"And for good reason!" Cody blew at his bangs and rested his elbows on his knees. "I'm as good as voted off tonight." He lamented.

"You don't know that!" Sierra argued. "You can still catch Zekey and get immunity!"

"With what?" Cody held out his bare hands. "I lost a gun!"

Sierra held up hers. "I still have one!"

"Any ammo?"

"…No…" Sierra admitted, "Used it all on the first wave of baboons." She gestured towards a couple of baboons that were still paralyzed.

Cody bowed his head in defeat. "Looks like this is the end of the road for me."

Sierra watched Cody fall into despair and felt her heart break. She wrung her hands fretfully and bit her lip with uncertainty as a small idea took hold.

"You know…" she at last spoke, "there might be a way for you to stay on." When Cody raised his head to stare at her, Sierra continued, "If I quit, then you can stay on even if everyone else votes you off!"

Cody gawked at her. "You can't do that!"

"Sure I can! DJ did it the same in season 2 and it worked. I was pretty sure that Lindsay was going get the boot that episode…"

"No!" Cody exclaimed, his voice strained with shock. "There's no way I can ever ask you to do that!" How could she ask such a request? To give up the million dollars just so that he could have an opportunity to remain in the game! It was absurd!

"You don't have to ask then." Sierra said with a smile. "I'll do it on my own."

"That's crazy!" Cody cried, staring at her as if she were mad. He knew that she had moments of complete insanity, but this was pushing obsession much too far. "How can you possibly give up a million dollars just for me?"

"Because I didn't come on this show for the money," Sierra stared at Cody with deep affection and spoke in a gentle voice full of sincerity. "I came to be close to you."

The fangirl raised a hand to silence Cody as he opened his mouth to speak. Her expression was a knowing one.

"I know, I know…you love Courtney." Sierra's voice held no bitterness, only a small trace of sadness. "After what you've told me today, I can see that clearly. She makes you a happier and braver person. And trust me, as a fan, I can tell that Courtney's a far better person with you, even if she doesn't see it quite yet." She offered her crush a small smile. "As long as that CIT makes you happy, I'll be okay just being your friend."

"My best friend." Cody managed to say despite the sudden tightness in his throat. A wave of warm affection spread through him for Sierra, the bothersome fangirl that had caused him so much trouble in the past, but now appeared calm and wise.

The serene moment was shattered when Sierra suddenly unleashed a loud squeal and tackled Cody into a tight hug.

"Oh, that face! That confused expression of yours!" she giggled wildly. "IT'S JUST SO CUTE!"


The first few stars had begun to dot the vast African sky. From a low branch of a baobab tree, Duncan gazed upward at them through hooded and disinterested eyes. It was probably time for the contestants to start heading back to the jet, but Duncan found that he didn't really care much about the challenge anymore. He didn't care about much of anything at the moment actually…

Far off, a trumpet-like sound echoed towards him.

Duncan brought his blue gaze downward and spotted in the distance a pair of elephants. One was a male, large with long, white tusks and the other, a smaller female. Between them trotted a long-limbed calf. As the delinquent watched, the parent elephants brought their foreheads close together and intertwined their trunks in a loving gesture.

Duncan scoffed and turned away from the sight, muttering, "Sure, rub it in why don't ya?"

The guilt of finding out the truth about Courtney's elimination still stung Duncan like an open wound. One part of him wanted to go rush over to find Alejandro in order to beat the crap out of the snake…and for good measure, he'd shave Heather's hair off while she slept. But another part of him…a much larger part…was too embarrassed to face everyone else.

Duncan, the master of street smarts, had been played like a fool. To make matters even worse, Duncan could not blame anyone but himself for the tangled web he was stuck in. Even though Heather and Alejandro had said the words, it was Duncan that had chosen to believe it.

Perhaps…as much as the thought of Courtney tricking him had hurt…the idea of her being innocent bothered Duncan just as much if not more. He wanted her to be the bad guy. Not him.

"If Courtney was truly as horrible as they said," Duncan whispered, "then cheating on her wouldn't hurt as much as does now."

Suddenly a whistling noise, getting readily louder, slashed through the air.

It was Duncan's quick reflexes that saved him. Duncan only managed to duck under the branch he was laying on, clinging to the limb with one hand, seconds before a long, wooden spear embedded itself into the bark that had previously been covered by Duncan's head. A few strands of green hair were stuck on the pointed tip.

Hanging from the branch, Duncan glanced down below and saw Chef, still decked out in traditional African attire, running towards the tree.

"ARE YOU INSANE?" Duncan hollered, teal eyes glaring angrily down at the heavily-muscled black man. "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!"

"Sorry! Thought you were Gustav!" Chef shouted up, not sounding sorry at all.

"You thoughts I was Gustav…a crocodile…IN A TREE?"

Chef shrugged his broad, tattooed shoulders. "Eh, it could happen. Gotta be a reason nobody's been able to catch him yet. Now throw me down my spear!"

Duncan lifted himself back onto the branch and grumbled darkly. "What? So that you can try and run me through like a piece of pork? No thanks!" The delinquent resettled himself on the branch and lazily flicked the pierced in spear causing it to vibrate. "Go carve another walking stick, ol' Uncle Remus!"

Chef fumed at the delinquent's sarcastic retort. "DON'T MAKE HAVE TO CLIMB UP THERE YOU FILTHY MAGGOT!"

Duncan faked a yawn and casually leaned against the tree trunk (though careful next to bump into the spear). "Oh, deary me! I'm sooooo scared! Somebody help!" Duncan mockingly cried, "The big African warrior's going to come up and do some witch-doctor magic on me! Oooohh!"

Chef started to attempt to climb up the tall tree. "Boy, when I get up there, there won't be enough witch-doctors in the whole of Africa to fix you up after I'm done with your smart-ass self!"

The branch that Chef had been holding on to suddenly snapped from the weight. The black man fell the short distance to the ground, landing straight on his behind.

Duncan, lounging on the branch like a dark jungle cat, stared down at Chef and rudely laughed. "Hope you didn't break a hip, gramps!"

The black man was up on his bare feet in no time, dusting himself off and scowling up at the teenager, duly agitated.

"Bet you weren't laughing, maggot," Chef growled, baring his gapped teeth, "When that pipsqueak gone blabbed to you bout' the truth bout old bossy britches!"

All laughter died from Duncan's face at Chef's words.

"You…you heard that?" he asked quietly. The sarcasm and swaggering confidence had vanished in his voice. It sounded sad and weary.

"Kinda hard not to hear all the yelling you two maggots did. I've heard hyenas make less of a racket." Chef said, smirking in a self-satisfied way now that he scored a point against the over-confident delinquent. In a moment of airy aloofness, Chef leaned his back against the tree trunk and scratched at his armpits.

"But really fool, you should not have been that surprised that ponytail girl and Latino tricked you. It was kinda obvious." Chef casually remarked.

"If you already knew, then why didn't you say something?" Duncan spat, tempering besting him.

Chef shot the teen in the tree a deadpan look. "Fool, do I look like your daddy?"

Duncan gagged and physically shivered in disgust at the mental image. "Ew, do NOT make this day any worse!"

"And I'm not you guys babysitter either!" Chef continued as if Duncan hadn't spoken. "Not my job to fix every little drama problem you teens are dumb enough to get into!"

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT!" Duncan growled. After a moment, the anger in his expression faded and Duncan was left looking greatly saddened. "At least…not all of it was…"

Chef was about to call out another stinging insult up at the mohawked punk, but something in the young man's face silenced him. As he stared up at Duncan's forlorn appearance, something in Chef's permanently scowling face turned less sour.

"You know," Chef called up in a booming voice. "My African ancestors have a saying…"

"Don't speak too loud or they'll be insulted." Duncan grumbled under his breath.

"It's called "Unyawu aluna mpumulo." Chef shouted out in an unfamiliar African language.

"…Wow. That makes so much sense to me."

"It means," Chef continued, ignoring Duncan's sarcasm. "The foot does not have a nose!"

Duncan blinked down at Chef and stared for several moments as if the black man had really grown a nose on his foot. Finally, with a dead-pan expression on his face, Duncan replied down to him.

"Yeah, my foot doesn't have a nose, but my middle finger has an ass. Want me to show you?"

"Shut your mouth, maggot!" Chef growled, his large temper flaring. "It's a proverb, you idiot! It means that it's a person's own fault if they walk into a trap. Should of had more sense than to trust a couple of bigger troublemakers than you."

"FINE! It's ALL my fault! " Duncan snarled, clenching his teeth. If there was one thing he hated most in the world it was older authorities lecturing him…especially if they were right. Might as well get the nag-fest over with it…

"I jumped into something without bothering to think and now I have nothing! Happy now, Chef?"

"Then what are you going to do about it, punk?" Chef asked taking out a large, carving knife from his belt. He started to flip up in the air and catch it in his hand in an almost bored manner.

Duncan rolled his teal eyes and asked in steely voice. "Why do you care?"

Chef stopped flipping his knife and fingered its tip for a couple moments as if gathering thoughts. At last, he spoke, "Believe it or not, maggot even men as physically attractive, as intelligent, as talented as myself were young and stupid once too."

Duncan was now seriously considering using his leftover tranquilizer bullets on the cook.

"Not all of us had someone to turn to for advice," Chef's voice was strangely solemn and distant. "And even if we do, fewer of us are just too stubborn to listen."

Duncan was felt genuinely surprised- he had expected snarky insults from Chef, not honesty. Slowly, the hardness in Duncan's resentful face softened at Chef's words. With a heavy sigh, Duncan rolled onto his back and faced the open sky. The sun had almost completely dipped under the horizon. Several stars now twinkled down at him.

"I don't know." Duncan admitted regretfully. "What can I do? I pretty much made a complete mess of everything." He gave a chuckle that lacked any humor. "I bet that's not one person in the world that doesn't hate me right now...and I can't blame them." Duncan added in a sad voice, turning his head away from the light of the stars.

Duncan was stuck, lost of any opinion or direction. He wanted to fight, but fighting wouldn't get Courtney to him. He wanted to hide, but how was that possible when the whole world was watching? Nothing he did would be able to change what he had done.

Chef's loud, gruff voice called up to him.

"Well, I know what you have to do!"

Duncan's eyes remained squeezed shut as he tried his best to ignore Chef.

"You have to climb down that tree!"

Duncan slid his eyes open and glanced down at the black man, shooting Chef an annoyed glare. "What does that have to do with anything we've been talking about?"

Chef merely gave a deep-throated chuckle. "Well, everybody knows that you climb up a tree, you're going to have to climb down the same one." He persisted.

"Well, yeah, that's kind of the entire point of climbing a tree in the first place!" Duncan scoffed, rolling his eyes and waving his hands this way and that. Why was this idiot stating the obvious?

"If you climb something," Duncan said in frustrated tones, "then sooner or later you're going to have to…" the delinquent's voice faltered and the words he had been about to speak suddenly died. The true meaning behind the seemingly obvious statement slowly, ever so slowly, sunk in.

Duncan gingerly straightened himself up from his slouching position on the tree branch. He titled his neck back and silently fixed his gaze upwards to the black heavens. Stars, as endless and ancient as the land itself, illuminated their warm light against the overwhelming dark. Their light reflected the newfound understanding that now shone in Duncan's teal eyes.

Somewhere far way, Courtney was out there, perhaps looking up at the stars too.

But not here. Not where he was.

For the first time today, an honest smile spread across Duncan's face. The next course of action was pretty obvious after all…

Chef gave a surprised jerk when his wooden spear suddenly embedded itself in the ground beside him. Chef looked up just in time to see Duncan nimbly jump down from the tree and start dashing across the savannah.

"Now where are you scurrying off to, maggot?" Chef hollered after the delinquent.

"I have a plane to catch!"


Chris shook his head in bewilderment as he examined each of the contestants that had arrived back to the jet and were seated for the elimination ceremony.

"Jeez, Africa doesn't treat you guys nicely, does it?" The host asked, not bothering to hide the amused smirk on his face.

All of the contestants looked worse for wear. Heather was dripping wet and covered in mud and murk from the river, curtsey of her visit with the elephant herd. Sierra was dusty, sweaty, and her purple hair was rather tangled and messy after her personal war with the baboon troop. Duncan and Cody equally looked rather beat up due to their own personal experiences.

But, hands down, Alejandro looked the worst. Most of his clothes had been ripped and torn and every inch of skin was covered in various cuts and scratches from being mangled by an entire pride of lions. It was safe to say that Alejandro's secret dream of becoming a lion tamer had come to a very abrupt and painful end.

However, even with all his injuries, Alejandro had managed to win the challenge. He had found a paralyzed Ezekiel in the spot that Duncan and Cody had had their fight. Though Ale had been puzzled on the find, he did not question such good fortune.

"Guess Lady Luck was looking out for her favorite chico." Alejandro cockily remarked to Heather. He winced in pain when his secret crush purposely tied his bandage too tight.

"Lady Luck won't be giving Cody much help tonight." Heather snidely remarked, eyeing Cody and Sierra a cat would to a pair of mice. Once those two were separated, she and Alejandro would be the only iron-strong alliance left in the competition. Duncan and Sierra would each be alone and defenseless- easy pickings for future eliminations.

When the voting the done, the air was unusually tense, especially for Cody. An instinct told him that he had been the prime target of tonight's elimination. Duncan was sure to vote him off and Heather and Alejandro would solely because of his alliance with Sierra.

Cody had told Sierra not to go on with her plan of eliminating herself. As much as he wanted to stay in the game for Courtney, he wouldn't be able to handle the guilt of Sierra losing for him.

Sierra, of course, still planned on eliminating herself. It would be her moment to shine. Truth to be told, she was wiggling with excitement at the prospect. Cody would consider her his most faithful friend for going on with such a noble sacrifice! Plus, she'd be a hero in the Total Drama franchise! Her friends back home would be so excited!

Duncan sat apart from everyone else on the benches. Every once in while, Cody could feel the other boy's teal gaze glance over in his direction for only a second. But, for the most part, Duncan kept his emotionless face fixed on Chris and the passports in the host's hands.

"Let's get counting." Chris said, signaling the start of the ceremony. He got out the first passport. "Duncan…"

Duncan didn't blink an eye, but remained seated as calmly as before.

"Cody…"

Cody felt Sierra's hand tighten around his and gave it a comforting squeeze.

"Duncan…"

Cody dared to take a glance at the delinquent, but Duncan's gaze remained firmly planted on the passports. Cody doubted Duncan expected to be voted off. Cody didn't blame him- those two votes had been from himself and Sierra.

"Cody…."

Heather and Alejandro stared down at Cody with eyes gleaming wickedly. Only one more vote to go…"

"And…" Chris paused to allow the suspense to hang in the air.

Cody squeezed his eyes shut, unable to bear to hear his name called. "Sorry Courtney. I tried…"

"….Duncan!" the host finished.

Cody's blue eyes shot open in shock.

Sierra instantly leaped up. "NO! It is I that shall be eliminated tonight!" She proclaimed, in dramatized, but still noble, tones. "Not my precious….." she paused and tilted her head in confusion at the Chris. "Wait, you said Cody right?"

"No, he said me." Duncan said, smiling as he stood up from his seat. Ignoring the shocked silence and astounded faces following his movements, the green mohawked boy casually walked over to Chris and took the parachute out of the surprised host's hands.

"I'll be taking that." Duncan calmly said.

Cody finally found his voice. "I don't understand...

"You voted yourself off?" Heather screeched in disbelief. The very idea was beyond the raven-haired girl's grasping.

Alejandro remained silent but his green eyes had turned hard. So Duncan had discovered the truth of his and Heather's trickery. There was no other explanation for such odd behavior. Still, such an absurd path of direction befuddled Alejandro as it did everyone else.

"I'm sick and tired of this show." Duncan explained, "And I'm setting things right again. Besides, I'm not the one who deserves to win it." And at this, Duncan turned his head and focused his teal gaze on Cody.

Cody stared back at Duncan with his own blue eyes wide and full of surprise. After their previous encounter, Cody had expected only hatred from Duncan (as well as a painful pounding). This was quite the opposite. Only respect was kindling in the delinquent's gaze.

"Look…umm…" Duncan's eyes flickered to the side in slight embarrassment as he mumbled to Cody, "Thanks for…you know….telling me what really happened."

Cody's own anger at Duncan slowly drained away. It had to take a lot for the proud delinquent to actually publicly apologize.

"Yeah, well, I should have spoken up much earlier." Cody admitted. He began his own awkward apology. "Sorry for…um…punching you." As well as cussing you out with every foul word known to man, Cody mentally added.

"I deserved it. Beside, for such a geek, you put up a good fight." Duncan said smirking with amusement. "I can see why Courtney likes you so much."

Cody felt his ears grow warm. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and said, "Er…thanks. You get the hang of it...you know...after the first couple punches to head..."

Duncan said nothing, but did something that no one could have foreseen.

He clamped his fist in the palm of his other hand and performed the short bow that the five contestants had had to do before facing their opponents in the laamb wrestling tournament earlier.

A smile of understanding slowly spread across the Cody's round face. Without hesitation, the Cody stood up and, facing Duncan, performed the same gesture. It was solemn and sacred moment for both boys as it signaled the end of their enmity and beginning of a rivalry fueled only by respect. They were, after all, after the same goal.

Sierra was trying her best to hold in a wild squeal that was threatening to come out. She leaned towards Heather and whispered gleefully, "Ooooh, the yaoi fans are going to be sooo pleased when they see this episode!"

Heather's only reply was to look disgusted.

"Hey, spazz girl," Duncan called to Sierra, "Make sure that you help Cody give those two hell while I'm gone." He jerked his head to gesture toward Heather and Alejandro. There was cold vengeance burning in Duncan's winter-like gaze, especially as his eyes met with Alejandro's.

It was not over between him and that snake….not by a long shot.

A happy barking pulled Duncan out of his darkening thoughts. Mohawk came bounding into the elimination room, fluffy tail wagging with excitement.

"Dude!" Chris threw his arms up in the air with annoyance. "Somebody put this dog back in the cage! Chef? HELLO?"

Chef was nowhere to be seen.

A true smile lit up Duncan's handsome features. He threw his arms wide open and called to the dog, "Here boy!"

Mohawk stopped sniffing Cody's sneakers, twitched its pointed ear, and turned towards its master. With a bark and snap of its jaws, Mohawk scrambled over to Duncan as fast as its four legs could carry it. The dog kept coming and coming….and coming…

Duncan's happy expression began to shift into one of slight worry when Mohawk showed no signs of slowing its pace.

"Er…heel? Stay! No, Mohawk!"

With a bark and leap, Mohawk pounced towards Duncan, hitting the young man in the chest with all the force and powerful of a wolf leaping on a deer. It sent both Duncan and Mohawk tumbling out of the plane door.

Chris shrugged as he shut the plane door and commented, "Well, PETA can't complain this time. At least they had a parachute!"

Cody was almost toppled over when Sierra ran to him and glomped him like a stuffed animal, hugging Cody to her bosom to the point of suffocation. "You're on! You're on! You're on! We get to be in more episodes together! Sierra and Cody! The most unstoppable alliance ever! You can still win for Courtney!" She spun herself and Cody around, squealing, "THIS. IS. SO. AWESOOOMMMEEEEE!"

Though a smile was pasted on Cody's face, the boy was still in shock. "I can't believe it…did all of that just happen?" Did Duncan just acknowledge Cody with actual respect?

Sierra giggled and hugged Cody (if possible) even tighter than before. "Guess Duncan finally just saw how epically awesome you are! You should yell at people more often."

Cody's gap-toothed grin grew wider. "I guess so…"

"We can still win this!" Sierra confirmed with dark eyes shining. "You can still win it!"

Cody listened to Sierra's statement and, for the very first time, actually believed it.

"Seriously." Chris said, looking more than peeved. "Where's Chef?"


Down on the riverbank of the Serengeti, a familiar giant reptile lazily floated down the moon-lit river. As Gustav swam, several voices could be heard coming from its belly.

"Ha! And that idiot Chris said that I'd never find Gustave! Well, look who's laughing now pretty boy! Haha!" Chef cackled.

"Now, ain't that a pretty tale." commented a voice that sounded extremely like that of Elvis Presley's. "What'd you think MJ?"

"I thought it was beautiful, hehe!" replied another voice that sounded like another rather famous (and supposedly dead) celebrity.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, thank you very much." The King of Rock and Roll said.

"Yeah, it's great meeting my favorite musicians and all," Chef said, "But…er…how long will it take to get out of here?"

"Probably another couple hours." replied Elvis. "How about we kill time with a song? Start it off for us MJ!"

With that, the King of Pop began to sing loudly, "Oh, in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight! In the jungle, the might jungle, the lion sleeps tonight, teehehe!"

Chef, Elvis, and the psycho, hook-handed killer, all started to sing along.

"Oh Wee-ee-ee-he-he-ee-um-umbuway! A Wimoweh-a-wimoweh!"

Gustave the crocodile happily flicked the tip of his tail back and forth with the music as the voices in its belly sang on.

"Oh Wee-ee-ee-he-he-ee-um-umbuway! A Wimoweh-a-wimoweh!"


Holy. Shit. I thought chapter seven would be my shortest chapter, but no, no, no! It had to go on for 51 pages! 51 PAGES! But yeah, long story short, this chapter was a freaking hell to write. The song sequence was not my best (at least action-wise) and I wont' pretend that it was. As I stated before, the song for this chapter gave me trouble. In the planning stages, I had written up three different songs for this chapter and none of them ever seemed to work. The first two were solely Duncan and Cody singing and it took place after Cody told Duncan the truth about Courtney. The third one actually had Sierra singing the first part at the beginning of the chapter and Duncan and Cody singing a reprise of it later in the chapter. But it didn't work. I would actually have preferred this chapter to be songless now, but I have to keep it musically themed.

Yeah, as for all the themes of this chapters, I did lots of research on various aspects of African culture in order to write it. Laamb wrestling is a real sport in many countries in Africa. Jackalberries are real fruits in the savannah and the favorite foods of many creatures including baboons. Gustave is a real killer Nile crocodile, though he is no where near as large as depicted in this story.

"Your foot does no have a nose" and "If you climb up a tree then you have to climb down the same one" are actually real African proverbs.

As a note of interest, while writing this chapter, I actually started writing the chapter not from the beginning, but from the point when Duncan and Cody are eaten by Gustave. Sometimes I do that.

About the little Elvis and Michael Jackson gag. I am honestly a fan of both, but I wanted to poke at the fact that when great celebrities die, there is always a large group of people that solemnly believe that they aren't dead but in hiding. My friends and I joke that that Elvis and MJ aren't dead, but either live in a mansion in the Bermuda Triangle or play the Wii at the second floor of Elvis' house (the part that's closed to the public). In here, the two Kings of music hang out with the King of crocodiles.

In other news, while listening to this chapter, I mostly listened to the score soundtracks of The Lion King and Kung Fu Panda 2- both are awesome. The "Rickshaw Chase" score in Kung Fu Panda 2 was especially inspiring for the long, elaborated fight scene between Duncan and Cody, which was my favorite part to write. As a storyboard, I'm a sucker for great, visually appealing action sequences.

Anywho, I deeply hope this chapter did the African episode justice and was up to all of your expectations. Only three more chapters to go! So please read and review!