Living Room

As Luke waited for Lizzy in the dark, empty living room, he began to think about his team's loss. He couldn't believe that after all the hard work they went through, they lost to the team that had four players compared to their six players. As a member of the Terrific Tenors, he felt defeated, and as decided team representative, he felt scared for his place in Total Drama Arts.

He watched as Lizzy came into the room, sitting down quietly across from him, not turning any lights on to make sure nobody knew they were here.

"Hey." She said to him.

"Hey." He said back. The two of them stayed quiet for a few moments, thinking about how they got to a point of working together when throughout this entire game, Luke had been pondering how he could get Lizzy out. Luke broke their silence.

"I think I have an idea of who we could get out."

"Let me hear it." She said.

"Mickey." She scrunched her face.

"Mickey? You mean ally of Shawn, who's the ally of Piper, who's our ally? Who brought you through stupidtown to bring you to that conclusion?" She asked defensively, regretting she ever decided to confide in him. "And how do you propose we get him out without Piper suspecting it was us?"

"Well, that's the thing. I think we should get him out. Maybe… maybe we don't need Mickey, maybe we don't need Piper. You said it yourself, you don't trust her."

"I don't trust her!" She said, agreeing. She realized the volume in her voice and lowered it, leaning to him closer. "But she wants me out, so for now we have to pretend like we trust her. No, we have to get Lila out. She'll leave us with the most blood off of our hands."

"What did Lila ever do to us?" Luke asked. "Sometimes we gotta take a risk."

"That's the point, absolutely nothing. We have to adhere to Piper or else we could be next. We have to work on getting her out as painfully as we can and for that, we need Mickey in order for Shawn to be happy, and for Piper to be happy."

"But are you trying to save us, or save yourself?" Lizzy stopped in her tracks, and thought about what she had said to him.

"Obviously I'm trying to save both of us, which is why I am not voting for Mickey. You can vote Mickey out, but I'm not doing it. But if you don't do it, we won't be able to take Lila out." She lied. She was only working with him to try to get her out to save herself, as she knows she's on Piper's radar, but she couldn't admit that to him.

Luke sighed.

"But I already talked to Lila." Luke said. "She's voting for Mickey."

"Then maybe you should have talked to me first before making any rash decisions. Did you ever think of that?" Lizzy stared into his eyes, disappointed.

"I just feel like I'd be betraying her trust."

Lizzy scoffed. "Whatever, that's not my problem, the girl can barely speak English. She won't know. If you make it to the finals, you can get other people to vote in your favor, she didn't have any attachments to anyone besides Denzel, anyhow." Luke looked up at her.

"I guess."

"Great!" She said. "Then it's settled - you talk to Piper, Shawn and Mickey about voting Lila out." She got up from her seat, leaving the room as if she were never there.

Luke slumped into his seat and sighed, hoping this would work, and he wouldn't regret anything he had said.

Screaming Sopranos Girls' Room

With just two girls left on the team, the room of the girls of the Screaming Sopranos was the most barren room of an entire mansion. As morning rose and everyone was getting up, Sami and Naomi had already been up and completed a morning run. As they sit in their beds, thinking about today's elimination ceremony and when a merge should happen, they began to debate their future as teammates.

"You know, I think you, me, Dustin and Xavier work really well together." Naomi said. "I can't believe we won! That was awesome."

"It really was!" Sami said. She began to feel nervous for what came next.

"Maybe we can think about working together after the merge. Well, continuing to work together."

Sami panicked inside, knowing she already had a deal going on with Piper, Mickey, Shawn, Luke and Lizzy. She couldn't bear to tell Naomi that out of losing her trust, but she also couldn't say no to her deal out of suspicion that she's working in secret with someone else.

"I would love that, we should definitely do it!"

Naomi smiled at her, happy she said yes. "Great! Hopefully the merge comes soon. Don't you?"

Sami nodded. At this point, she was in her own thoughts. "Yeah."

"I wonder if they're up, we should have a team meeting to discuss everything." Naomi wondered. "You wanna come?"

"I'll catch up with you! I'm still sort of sore. I might go take a hot shower or something." Sami lied.

"Okay, well I'll meet you back in here."

"Sounds good." She kept her smile on as she waved her goodbye, but as soon as the door closed, Sami dropped her back and sighed heavily as she laid on her bed, thinking about how this will impact her in the long run.

Confession Cam

Sami: I can't be working with Naomi, Dustin, and Xavier while working with Luke, Lizzy, Piper, Shawn and Mickey! That's like everyone who's left except for Lila. *she puts her elbows on her knees as she sighs into her hands, then gets back up* I don't know how to turn this around.

Auditorium

As the teams filed into the auditorium later in the day, it is noticeable how instead of walking in as a team, the contestants are walking in individually, signifying how they've begun their descent out of their placed team. The contestants are ready for a merger, and are desperately hoping this will be the time Chris announces a merge.

As all the contestants filed in, Chris came up the podium, ready to announce the next contestant to be eliminated.

"Good afternoon, campers." Chris said.

"Campers?" Xavier exclaimed.

"Uh… contestants. Sorry. Force of habit." He said, looking down at the contestants, who didn't look amused. "Anywho, I have some very exciting news for you all!" The contestants grinned, hoping it was what they thought it was, and waited for his response.

"I have… finally been able to poop." The contestants sighed. "It's been really difficult for me this past week, and I thank you all for dealing with me. You see, it all started when-" As he began his rant, an angered Dustin raised his voice.

"We don't care about your bowel movements, Chris! Get on with the elimination!" He screamed, raising his arms in the air.

"Woah, dude. Harsh." Chris said defensively. "I guess I'll get onto it, then." He faced the Terrific Tenors. "Please cast your votes on the tablet in front of you."

The Terrific Tenors did not budge when picking who they wanted to go home, and immediately signed off their pick. Chris looked down at the notification and tallied the contestants' pick, then composed himself back to both teams.

"All right! This is going to be a good one. The first three people safe are… Piper, Luke and Shawn!" Piper knew she would be safe, as she had protection with over half the group, so she wasn't worried at all.

"Also safe, we have Lizzy." She smiled, knowing she was safe, but appreciated hearing the validation.

"We also have Lila safe." Lila breathed a sigh of relief. Ever since Denzel left, she was sure she'd be next, but the game keeps surprising her.

"That leaves us with Luke and Mickey… One of you have two votes against each other, and another one of you has four votes against you, so your team seemed to be torn on who to take out. Not cool for you." Luke stopped in his tracks, wondering who could have been the other vote. He boldly assumed he was the one with the two votes, trusting Lizzy took care of everything.

"With only two votes against them is… Mickey! You are safe!" Mickey breathed a sigh of relief, to show that he had no idea he was even in danger. With the news of Luke being safe, that only meant one thing for the Terrific Tenors.

"Luke. You're out, dude." In that moment, Luke felt frustrated, but also confused. He had no idea how it turned into him getting out, and he thought it must be a mistake.

"Are you sure about that? But my teammates would never-" He faced Piper, Shawn, Mickey and Lizzy, who turned their heads, not wanting to get into it.

"You were cool, dude, but it was just time for you to go." Mickey frowned.

"You were too powerful for us to keep. Please take it as a compliment." Piper smiled.

Luke looked over to Lizzy, who gave him a grin while nobody looked. He was angry, but also sad, and very confused. But in that moment when Lizzy gave him that look, he knew exactly what happened. He had no idea that Lizzy went behind his back to Piper and used his idea against him.

As Lizzy and Luke went their separate ways, back into their rooms, Lizzy knew she had to do something. She didn't want Luke thinking she had to go, so as she walked into the room, she walked over to Piper, who was sleeping. She quickly tapped her shoulder, to no avail. She tapped her again, in which she stayed fast asleep. Finally, she tried one more time, with a little more force, and Piper began to stir, moaning. Her eyes opened little by little, and in her half-awake, half-asleep stance, she saw a concerned Lizzy in front of her.

"Hey, I really need to talk to you." She said sweetly. She had to keep up the "girl trying to be good" act if she wanted this to work and for Piper to trust her and not have it blow up in her face. Piper looked over to her alarm clock and saw that it said 2:30am.

"Can we talk tomorrow?" She asked, annoyed but trying not to show it.

"No, it has to be done now, I'm really sorry, can we step out?" Piper, now waking up a bit, slowly got out of the covers, and the two of them went to a quiet place in the mansion. As they walked over to a book room, Lizzy looked around, making sure no one was around, and they closed the door behind them slowly. The two sat across from each other.

"So, what's up?" She asked.

"Well, this news may be very upsetting to hear, but… Luke is trying to get you out." Piper didn't want to believe her, but she let her keep going.

"He brought me out for this secret meeting, as if we had a side alliance, and he said he had this great idea to get Mickey out, which would lead to getting you out. I told him he shouldn't do it, that we need to trust you! But he said it had to be done, and was counting on my vote and had even talked to Lila about it."

Piper looked at her, not wanting to believe her. She had no reason to believe her, but then again, what did Luke ever do to make anyone on the Terrific Tenors believe he was worthy enough to be their team captain in the beginning? They had lost under his leadership, maybe he had planned this in order to get Mickey out while it was still safe to.

"I'll talk to Luke tomorrow."

"No!" Lizzy exclaimed. Her bad girl side was getting out in that exclamation, but she calmed down a bit, going back to her cheerful side. "Just trust me, please, like I trust you. Tomorrow, we vote out Luke. You, me, Shawn, and Mickey, no questions asked. I promise I'll make it worth it."

Piper was hesitant to trust Lizzy, but in this statement she was showing some potential that she could use. She suddenly felt bad for ever believing she shouldn't be trusted.

"Okay. I'm trusting you." She said cautiously. "Tomorrow let's re-group with Shawn and Mickey, and try to avoid talking to Luke at all. You got it?" Lizzy smiled.

"I got it."

"Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Didn't know you had it in you." She said as she stood up, walking to the door, Lizzy following behind me.

"Yeah. I guess I've finally figured out my mojo."

Chris sat at the podium, watching this unfold, and pointed to his watch as he leaned on his podium.

"Sorry dude, time's up. You gotta go." Chef walked over to Luke, waiting for him to be escorted out.

"No, I have to know how this happened! There's something you're not telling me." Luke screamed.

"Dude, just watch it at home, we're running out of time. If we lapse over Ridonculous Race one more time, the network's gonna kill me. Literally."

Chef came out from backstage, grabbing Luke by the arm and forcing him to walk out of the auditorium and to the limos with him. As Luke was being taken away, he looked over to his team and noticed Lizzy waving and smiling, but smiling deviously while nobody looked. He couldn't believe he trusted in her.

The teens watched as Luke was sent out the door while Chef closed the door behind him, going back to the stage with Chris. Everyone was shocked at what happened, and confused on why they would flip on Luke. Everyone knew Luke was very high on the team's hierarchy for the entire game, so something must have happened for them to want to get rid of such a strong player.

"Now that we've moved on to that, I can finally announce…" The teens watched on the edge of their seats in anticipation. "We are officially in merger territory! No longer are you bound to your teammates. You are your own entity. You make the decisions, and with the merge, you have the chance of being voted off every elimination ceremony."

The teens smiled and clapped their hands, feeling excited that they had made it this far in the game.

"You are now part of the final nine contestants of Total Drama Arts, season 2. Your next challenge, we're going back to the basics, to show us what you've got. Perform anything you'd like, it is free realm, BUT, your song or monologue must have the word you will all pick out of a hat, and it cannot be in the title." Chris walked down to the podium, going over to Sami first.

"Sami, you first." Sami looked up and spent a few seconds circling her hand in the hat until she picked the one that felt just right. "What is your word, Sami?"

"Insect." She said.

"Great." Chris walked over to Naomi. "You next." Naomi put her hand in the hat, and opened her folded up paper.

"My word is death."

"All right, great work, there's a lot that can be done with that." Chris walked to the next person, Dustin. He put his hand in the hat, then lifted his hand out of it, revealing his word.

"Scene."

"Perfect. Now, onto Xavier." He walked to the next row to get to Xavier, and he put his hand into the hat, revealing his word.

"Birthday."

"Good." He walked over to the next person, Lizzy, and waited as she picked out a word, and unfolded the paper she made her decision to pick.

"Blood."

"Oooh, interesting stuff, Lizzy. Now onto Piper." He walked over to Piper as she put her hand into the hat, choosing her word and unfolding the paper.

"Mom. Hmm, that should be easy."

"You didn't have to say anything else, but okay." Chris laughed it off as he went onto the next person, Shawn. He quickly picked a word from the hat.

"Insurance? People got blood, mom, and insect, and I got insurance?"

"I guess, man, it's your word." Chris said, listening to him question what he got. He moved onto Lila, and let her choose a word out of the hat until she settled on the paper she felt was right. She unfolded it to look at the word.

"Organization." She said out loud.

"Great. Next person!" He moved onto Mickey, the last person to pick, and he pondered as he moved around the hat with his hand. Chris sighed and took the paper out for him, moving his hand and giving it to him.

"Seriously, dude? There was only one paper in there."

"Oh," He chuckled. "That makes a lot of sense." Chris cleared his throat, waiting for his response. "Right, sorry. Uh, it's…" He looked down. "Love."

"What? You got love?" Shawn was clearly salty he got a word like 'insurance' and Mickey got 'love'.

"That's the game, gotta respect it." Chris shrugged and looked over at the camera. "That's all from us tonight, folks, on Total Drama Arts!"

A/N: And there we have it, the merge! It was hard to take away Luke, honestly, it really was a last-minute decision. I've loved writing everyone so much, and I wish I could make everyone left win in a 9-way tie! Thank you all for reading, and I hope you leave a review and an optional confessional for how your character may be feeling right now. Luke's creator, if you're out there, this will not be the last of Luke, so please stay tuned for his segment next chapter when he joins the Playa De Losers island! For those still around, if you have any suggestions on what to do based on your character's word, please let me know! I will list the people and their words below if you can't keep track or just forgot.

I hope everyone's staying safe out there. See you next time!

~Sami

Everyone must use this one word in their performance:

Sami - Insect

Lila - Organization

Dustin - Scene

Xavier - Birthday

Shawn - Insurance

Mickey - Love

Piper - Mom

Lizzy - Blood

Naomi - Death

PS - I actually did use a random word generator to get these words!