Chris groaned as he got up from his new sleeping quarters, his eyes drooping worse than ever. He looked back down at his bed while he rubbed his aching back, frowning as he saw how uncomfortable it looked. The bed frame looked like it was made of cheap plastic, and the mattress was…well, incredibly thin, for lack of a better way to describe it. A knocking came to his door, and he begrudgingly tossed his bunny slippers on to walk over and answer the knocking, only to see Dana standing in the doorway, looking miserable as ever. "You…what do you want?"

"How'd you like the bed? Pretty uncomfortable, right? Heh…heh…heh…" Despite the fact that the little twerp was laughing, her expression didn't show many signs of enthusiasm. Chris rubbed his eyes and let out an obnoxious yawn of morning breath right in her face, which she waved away with her hand. "Your breath is utterly rancid, dude…"

"Yeah, well, so is your style. Now, beat it, I've got an intro to be doing." Chris went to slam the door in Dana's face, though she stuck her foot in the doorway before he could and stopped it from closing. He opened it back up and narrowed his gaze at her, getting more annoyed by the second. "Didn't you just hear me? Intro? Me? Doing? Now?"

"I heard you, old man, but I've gotta break some bad news to you…you aren't gonna be doing the intro today." Dana pulled her foot back from the doorway and hopped up on one foot so she could rub it gently. "Also…ow."

"What do you mean I'm not doing the intro? This is my show, I always do the intros! You had your own show, you don't need to be stealing the spotlight from me here, too!" Chris attempted to slam the door a second time, but Dana shoved her hand in, causing it immediately to swell up, completely red…in contrast to her powdery, white skin. "Would you stop with that!?"

"No way, no how…remember when you barged into my show in a tin suit and tried to get rid of everyone on the island? Yeah, I remember that little tidbit…guess you could say this is my way of taking revenge on you…or whatever." Dana pulled her hand back and shook it off while deadpanning at the host. "It's my submarine, so, like…my rules and stuff. And my rules say that I get to be in charge until you guys leave, so…bleh." She stuck her tongue out at the host, and finally let him slam the door shut. He could be heard grumbling behind the door, but it was muffled. "Yeah, I can just cut the camera feed of your room, so you won't be able to do your intro…"

Dana started to shuffle away from the host's temporary dwellings, smiling ever so slightly as she did. She heard him screaming out in anger and pounding his fists against the door while she walked, and it just brought her some bitter joy. "Heh…heh…heh…payback is nice. Oh, right…the intro, or whatever…last time on Total Drama: Lost City…the contestants came aboard my submarine for the first time…pretty neat place, right?" Dana pointed to the dull and dark decor with her thumb over her shoulder, staring dead at the camera with no expression other than emptiness. "Yeah, it's pretty cool…anyways, they got to meet me and Charlize, my…'assistant' for the next few days. She took them to her virtual world pods or whatever stupid thing she's got in the main chamber so they could go to the lame challenge…where they had to reach level ten first. Nicolás did pretty well…so did Luna…Jianne and Amelia weren't half bad either…and Vicente seemed kinda cool with his dragon stuff. Oh…but there was Zachary, who just wanted to fight Charlize the whole time…and Natt, who got merced in the middle of his barbarian rage. It was pretty funny…heh…heh…heh. In the end, no contestant won, as the cords to the pods were cut by some unknown third party. They thankfully spared us from that blah world of color and fantasy. In any case, the challenge is currently postponed while we fix the pods. There are still seven contestants left. I'm droning…I hate droning. New challenge, maybe someone leaves, right now, Total Wet Land, watch it."

The camera hovered over an ocean, quickly descending beneath the water and happening upon Atlantis, zooming in on the wreck of the Chris space station, where the host himself was on his knees, sad that there was an asteroid in his face, while Poseidon patted him on the shoulder and Amphitrite sighed in annoyance.

"Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," the camera quickly shifted over to the carnival zone in Atlantis, showing Natt and Anne on a large Ferris wheel, enjoying their time together until it suddenly fell out of place and rolled away.

"You guys are on my mind," down at the controls, Zachary and Amelia were revealed to be messing with them, laughing maniacally until Vicente came over and bonked both of them on the head with plastic baseball bats.

"You asked me what I wanted to be and I think the answer's plain to see," in one of the carnival tents, March and Luna watched Benjamin in awe as he rode a unicycle while bouncing on a trampoline, juggling bowling pins, and holding a torch with his teeth.

"I wanna be famous!" Tony tossed a frisbee at the wheel, causing Benjamin to fall on top of an unsuspecting Bonnie, and the torch to set his shirt on fire before the bowling pins landed on his head, which caused Liz to give him a thumbs up with an evil grin on her face.

"I wanna live close to the sun," out in the ocean, Alex was in his diving suit, trying to catch a sea monkey, but failing utterly, just like he had when it was a space monkey, while Dusty shook her head in disappointment, lassoing the creature back to them, but catching Jett instead.

"So pack your bags, cause I've already won," on the seafloor, Archie studied a squid closely until it shot ink all over his helmet's glass shield, which made Jianne giggle a little bit before wiping it off.

"Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day," not too far from where the two were, Damien and Gretchen ran away from a massive shark, which knocked them off to the side, showing that it was swimming away from Flint, who was throwing rocks at it while Alexis chased after him.

"I wanna be famous!" the camera switched gears to show a submarine, with arcade-esque machines in it that Taylor and Crustacean were fighting over.

"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," zooming into a "pod" of sorts near the arcade games, a virtual world that was full of immaculate fantasy aspects and monsters was shown.

"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Nicolás, dressed as a knight, was running in fear as blasts of dark energy were tossed at the ground behind him, each blast destroying part of the ground.

"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" the camera revealed Thomas, in dark mage garb, as the source of the blasts, floating in the sky and laughing maniacally until Maggie, dressed as a witch, flew over to him on her broom and tackled him to the ground, making out with him before he blasted the camera with one of the energy balls.

Afterwards, the whole group was seen on a nautically themed aftermath stage, which Sebastian and Haley were at the center of, glaring at each other while all of the contestants, accompanied by Maggie, who was hugging Thomas tightly, whistled.

Natt fumbled his way around to Poseidon's new quarters, though it did take him a good deal of time, considering that no one would tell him where it was. He seemed to be out of breath from all the running around, from how he was hunched over at the doorway, resting his hand against the wall. "Run away from Atlantis for a week and don't tell anyone where you are…tell the other people here not to tell anyone where your room is…you really put in a lot of effort to keep me away, you geezer." The boy knocked his fist against the door and stood himself up, trying his best to catch his breath.

Poseidon eventually came to open the door, though as he saw Natt standing there, he went pale with nervousness. "N-Natt, my boy! I was under the impression that no one would know where my quarters were for…r-reasons. May I ask what it is that you need of me?"

"You…you've been hiding from me this whole time, but it's finally time that I got to ask you my question again." Natt stepped into the doorway so that the director was unable to shut him out of the room, causing the man in question to back up slightly. Natt wasn't quite as tall as him, but he was still an imposing figure, nonetheless. "I asked you before, and I want my answer now. Who…or what…is Father Time?" Poseidon gulped nervously after Natt demanded the answer, not sure what to say.

"W-well…that's nothing important! What did I tell you before? My answer is the same as back then, it's simply unimportant!" Poseidon let out a chuckle to try and get Natt off his back, but the boy made it clear he wasn't budging. "You've got a big day ahead of you, what with the next challenge coming up and all! Why worry about some silly organization when you could be worrying about how close you are to winning the five million dollars, hm?"

"It's an organization, you said that last time. But what is this organization for? Don't say it's some other TV production thing, you wouldn't be this worried about it if that were the case." Poseidon's lip quivered as he tried to figure out what words to spit out in response, and with Natt walking even closer to him, he found himself backed into a corner. "It's simple, geezer. You just have to answer my question, that's all I'm asking for."

Poseidon kept stepping back until he was literally in the corner of the room. Natt still stared him down as intensely as the emotion lacking boy could do, but after a moment of being unsure, Poseidon came to his senses and stood up tall, seeming…quite angry. "That's quite enough, my boy. I have made it clear that this was unimportant, and you're now breaking into my room and threatening me for answers. You will drop this matter immediately or I will have no choice but to have you expelled from the competition. No ifs, ands, or buts. Do I make myself clear?"

Natt paused for a brief moment, looking at the man that no longer seemed to be the same person as before. The seriousness and rage in his eyes made it clear that he wasn't messing around, so the space enthusiast began to back away. He turned to head back for the doorway, but when he reached it, he stopped. "I understand…you're scared right now. That's the only thing that could cause you to act like this. But you aren't scared for you…you're scared for us. That's right, isn't it?"

Natt looked back at Poseidon, taking note that his expression hadn't changed and he was entirely silent. He ever so slightly smiled at the man, forcing the best smile he could, at least. "I'm right…that's fine, then. I'll figure it out one way or another, I'm sure. I'll see you around." With those words, Natt shut the door behind him, leaving the room with just Poseidon in it.

Confessional

"That Natt is just too curious for his own good. I've watched the previous season, and I noticed him attempting to pry into Thomas' belongings then, too. That was the reason he lost back then…sabotaged for knowing too much." Poseidon rubbed his forehead and let out an exasperated sigh. "He's a great kid, I know that…but if he finds out what Father Time is, there's no doubt in my mind that he'll try to do something about it…I just have to-to-to-to-to-to-to-" Strangely, the video freed of this confessional seemed to be skipping over itself repeatedly, and soon enough, it was replaced with someone else in the confessional.

"That's enough of that old man yapping, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh! I'm sure you guys were all pretty tired of him, right, right? Yeah! You were!" A familiar face displayed itself in front of the camera…one with terribly tired eyes. She was in a a dress, one that was black and sparkly. It was a spaghetti strap, and the skirt part of said dress had its cutoff at her knees. Her slippers, which had a slight heel to them, matched the black, sparkliness of the dress. Her emerald green eyes stared deep into the camera, and she cackled like a witch. Her dirty blonde hair was done up in a messy bun, with plenty of strands poking out all over the place. "You missed me, right? Ha! I know you did! Kukuku! I swear, I'm here for a very important reason!"

Confessional End

Vicente made his way to the main chamber, where he was met with Charlize, who was working hard at fixing the virtual world pods that she loved so much. Her typically expressionless mug actually had some mixed grief and annoyance abundant on it, understandably so. "Ah, señorita, still working on the pods, huh? Did you maybe want a hand with anything? I'm sure it must be annoying to do it all on your own, and it seems like rewiring could be a nice skill to learn."

"I'm just fine on my own, thank you. I don't want to allow you to help me…it's things like that that lead to forbidden alliances between staff and contestants, you know." She waved her finger at the boy, who shrugged slightly. "I'm quite serious about my job, just as you should be quite serious about making sure your ready for whatever challenge comes next…no need for you to stick around here and pester me."

"You sure do like to show how stern you are…you probably would've fit pretty well as a host on one of these shows, since you're all about the rules." Charlize didn't even glance at the boy when he made this remark, as she just sunk back into her work. "I'm just saying, things definitely would be pretty clear cut with you around permanently."

"Well, too bad, so sad. Now, stop trying to woo me over and run along, I'll not be tolerating your blabbering any longer…it's severely distract-" As she went on, some sparks flew from the pod and she dropped her screwdriver into its core. "...Just go away before I throw a wrench at you." Vicente shrugged again, taking her advice and heading out of the room.

Confessional

"Natt told me about how Charlize handled Zach's brutishness in the last challenge…I gotta say, it made me respect her more than I expected to initially. Not that I wish death on him in real life, but it's just nice to see him getting put in his place for that attitude of his." Vicente chuckled to himself, shaking his head slightly. "I was really hoping that would be the end of him in that challenge…he still needs to pay for all that mayhem he caused a while back."

Confessional End

Luna walked through one of the halls in the sub, this one in particular being the one that had all of the rooms attached to it. Further down the hallway, Amelia was heading right towards her. The two girls stared at each other with smiles on their faces, but they seemed to be thinking things that contrasted those smiles. "Look at the miserable actress…you just know she's thinking she's so much smarter than me. You can tell from that stupid grin on her face. She'll be in for a shock when I bamboozle her and get her sent right out of the game!"

"That Luna, so cute and naive…oh, I do love having a loyal follower that did whatever I needed her too up to this point. It's a shame that I really need to get rid of her now, but I suspect she is plotting against me, anyways." The two girls then got closer to each other than before, each of them waving at the other. "How's it going, Luna dear?"

"Oh, it's just another marvelous day in the middle of the ocean!" They both exchanged a brief laugh before passing each other and losing the smiles, switching them out for looks that were a bit more menacing. They went to continue their journey, but at that point, the speakers in the submarine seemed to turn on.

"Hey, contestants, or whatever…we're at the destination for the next challenge, so you should probably get yourselves into your diving suits…if you don't, it's just going to end up being pretty bad. Like…the pressure will turn you into a bunch of blood and guts, just floating around. …Actually, that sounds pretty cool. …But a lawsuit doesn't, so just put the suits on…yeah…whatever…" Dana's uninterested voice could be heard through the speakers before they cut out, and the two girls sighed before looking back at each other with smiles on their faces again.

"I guess that means we should get ready now, huh?" Amelia turned back to start walking towards her room, where she had come from. "I'll see you out in the challenge, Luna…hopefully we both make it to the next one."

"I sure hope so!" Luna kept on smiling until Amelia went back in her room and shut the door. It was then that she dropped the smile and glared at the door before going to her own door and going back to her room.

Confessional

"She definitely wants me gone, which is a good thing that I'll be able to get rid of her before she can get rid of me!" Amelia seemed as confident as ever, with a cheesy grin on her face. "With the rest of the competitors dead focused on the game or each other, it won't be difficult for me to get Luna out while flying completely under their radars. Say your prayers, model."

"I really can't stand her! She's arrogant, she's a total bitch, and she uses everybody as if they're her playthings! It's so…obnoxious! What's that?" Luna stared at the camera as if it had just asked her a question before suddenly seeming to be quite offended. "No, she doesn't remind me of myself at all! I have class, I'll have you know!"

Confessional End

The contestants got geared up in their diving suits, as they were instructed to, and made their way to the main chamber of the submarine, but when they did, they were met with a sign that told them to go directly outside. They shared some glances of confusion, but after a brief moment, they each started towards the exit of the submarine via the compression chamber. This submarine was a lot larger than the previous one in all aspects, so it made sense that the compression chamber it was equipped with was able to contain each of the contestants at the same time.

When they were released from the chamber, they were met with a most spectacular sight. Of course, Dana was standing on the ocean floor in a diving suit that was entirely black with some red accents, but behind her, there was a sunken hotel. They found themselves at a loss for words as they admired the barnacles, algae, and other sea life growing out of the infrastructure. "Yeah, the hotel is pretty cool or whatever, I guess. It's nice to see man's achievements being reduced to nothing by the dark depths of the ocean and all that…"

"How did this get down here…? Like, who is just dumping a hotel in the bottom of the ocean?" Nicolás looked closer at the hotel to see what was up with it, but it was too hard to tell exactly what was going on with it. "Urk…I just feel uneasy even seeing this thing."

"Yeah, it's kind of unsightly…it's like trying to go to bed at night and something you did or said a few years ago keeps playing back in your head." Dana seemed to cringe behind the glass of her helmet, but the fact that said glass was nearly black in color made it difficult to see whether or not that was the case. "Anyways…the challenge involves this hotel. It's jam packed with goodies…and by goodies, I mean treasures and stuff. It's crazy cause it's like theft and vandalism…but no one's gonna care because no one lives there. Yeah…you guys get to go inside and loot the place."

"D-do we get to keep the treasure that we haul back?" Zach's mouth started to water and he rubbed his hands together, getting glares shot his way from both Vicente and Jianne. "Oh, come on! Don't you guys go acting like you weren't thinking about it, too!"

"You don't get to keep the treasure…the treasure gets confiscated by us at the end to tally some stuff up. Basically, whoever comes back with the most treasure in the end will be the winner of the challenge…which means you should be well aware that the person that comes back with the least amount of treasure is going to be the loser." The contestants murmured among themselves at hearing this, "The winner gets their room upgraded to a luxury suite…I know, the rooms you're in currently aren't too comfortable or anything. Not that they should be, but whatever…all anyone cares about these days is material possessions."

"That's all there is to this challenge, then? Well, let's just get right into it! I bet I can gather enough treasure to sweep everyone else under the table!" Jianne started to rush towards the hotel, but she was stopped by Dana holding her arm out in front of her. "Come on, I wanna win the challenge already! Momma needs some more victories under her belt."

"Not so fast…you dummies didn't let me finish talking yet. You're gonna need something to hold onto your treasure, so we have these for you." Dana moved slightly to the side, revealing these large, glass bottles that each had pirate ships in them. "Obviously, they're nautically themed, but you'll notice you don't have much room for the big things…guess you'll have to focus on quantity over the size. You know, like, a gold coin is better than a fancy crown, yadda yadda…explaining this to you bozos is such a bore."

"So, we're just putting treasure in those bottles…doesn't seem like it'll be too bad." Vicente stepped forward to grab one of the bottles, holding it up and admiring the ship that laid within it. "Is there any other catch? Usually there's some sort of something to keep us on our toes."

"There is…but again, you guys just won't shut up and let me finish talking. The catch is…these…" Dana rummaged around on the sea floor before pulling up a pair of handcuffs. The contestants were unsure of why she was showing them to her. "Don't look at me like a bunch of monkeys that just saw a magic trick for the first time…though monkeys are probably more intelligible than you guys. These handcuffs are meant for one thing and one thing only…making sure someone can't finish the challenge. That's right, someone will lost the challenge by coming back with the least treasure, but if anyone gets handcuffed inside the building, they can't complete the challenge…so…yeah…we could have multiple losers tonight."

"Those are some high stakes…how many pairs of cuffs are in the hotel?" Nicolás seemed to be a bit more worried when she introduced the cuffs, and the worry worsened when he noticed that she was tapping at her glass in thought. "D-did you forget!?"

"Eh…kinda, but it's really not that important. Just don't let anyone else handcuff you and you'll be fine…probably." Dana got up from the ocean floor and stepped out of the way, leaning against a post while glancing off to the side. "Anyways…just go in there and start rummaging around for treasure already. You've got thirty minutes before I call the challenge, so you don't have all the time in the world. You start…now…" On Dana's cue, the contestants started running towards the hotel, Jianne taking the lead and Nicolás trailing behind at the end.

Confessional

"This is a perfect chance to show my shining skills! We all know how much the world loves to see me go crazy in these challenges, it's only fair that I put my prowess on full display in this challenge! Not only will I turn up with the most treasure, but I'll be done at the fifteen minute mark! That's a promise!" Jianne grinned brightly at the camera while swiping her nose with her thumb.

"I'm a bit nervous about this…I was really in my element in the last challenge, but this one is the kind of thing that I kinda struggle with. It would really be a shame if I wasn't around to finish off the VR challenge." Nicolás sighed and shrunk down in his seat a bit. "I wish I could be as tough as Jianne outside of the virtual world, too."

Confessional End

Vicente stumbled into the hotel, looking around to see what kind of floor plan it had going on about it. The bottom floor, which he was currently on, seemed to be mainly office rooms for the staff, not many actual bedrooms there or anything. He looked around, seeing two hallways on either side of him. Down the one, he noticed that Zachary was happily trailing about, scooping up every little shiny thing he happened to come across. "There's that pendejo…looks like he's already having some good luck."

Strangely, even though he was kind of lost thinking to himself, Vicente's feet started to walk towards the path that Zachary was taking. "I can't believe this, but I think I have to sabotage him here and now…it's the only way to make sure he gets the payback he deserves. Sabotage…it's definitely not a tactic I like to resort to, but if I have to…" The reality TV pro shook his head before getting a determined look on his face and following Zachary.

It was then that the next two contestants fumbled into the foyer, those being Natt and Nicolás. The shrimpy nerd seemed a bit overwhelmed by the massiveness of the foyer along, and as he looked around, he felt more tiny and insignificant than ever. Natt noticed the boy seeming out of place and walked over to him. "Nic, you okay man? You seem kinda…wonked out by the atmosphere."

"Oh, I'm fine…I'm just in one of those moods of mine again, you know. The ones where I feel like I'm going to lose because I just can't measure up to you guys." Nicolás sighed as he clutched his bottle tightly in his hands. "I mean, I'm not fast at these physical challenges, so running around and collecting treasure seems like a challenge I can't handle…at least compared to the other six of us finalists."

"Eh, I don't know about that. I think you could do just fine…after all, you really just need to get more treasure than one person at the end, right? That can't be too bad." Natt shrugged and started up a flight of stairs on one end of the foyer, leaving Nicolás by himself. The nerd sat there, staring down at the empty bottle in his hands, deep in thought. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a shimmering, gold coin laying on the floor.

"O-oh! That's one of the gold pieces, isn't it?" Nicolás fumbled over to the gold piece, picking it up and looking at it closely. He seemed to smile faintly before he tucked it into the bottle. "Well, that's a start I guess. All that remains now is finding…" While he was rambling onto himself, he noticed a path made of gold pieces being laid out in front of him, leading down one of the many hallways. "...More treasure. Well, it must be my lucky day!" Happily, he started to pick up each of the gold pieces, following the trail nonchalantly and tossing each gold piece into his bottle.

Confessional

"That Nicolás is always so down on himself…I bet he hasn't realized how amazingly he's actually grown during this whole time. Seriously, you can't look at him and think that he's the exact same person that he was when he got here." Natt smirked slightly as he leaned back against the wall. "He still has self doubt, but he's accomplished so much."

Confessional End

Jianne whistled proudly to herself while she rooted around in one of the office rooms from before, putting every shimmery piece of gold she found in her bottle. Eventually, when she was digging around in the desk that was at the far end of the room, she found a pair of the handcuffs that were mentioned by Dana earlier. "Eh?" She stared closely at the cuffs for a brief moment before tossing them aside. "Why would I need to resort to some stupid sabotage? Clearly I'm just going to win this challenge the normal way!"

The competitive spirit kept on trotting along before she left the room to go and scoop up more gold pieces, and that was the moment that Luna weaseled her way into the office, tapping her fingers together deviously while giggling. She had slung her bottle over her shoulder on a string of sorts, making it easy and convenient for her to carry around. "Don't mind if I do! Gotta love Jianne's need to toss out all things useful!" The model scuttled to the cuffs and picked them right up, giggling even more as she carried them with her out of the room.

Confessional

"Of course I would seize the opportunity to get a pair of these cuffs in a challenge where sabotage is expected…do you take me for a fool?" Luna spun the cuffs around her finger and whistled while closing her eyes, ultimately resulting in her slamming the cuffs against her face. "Ah! My perfect nose!"

Confessional End

Zachary took a good look at the hallway he was walking through, taking in all the interesting art pieces there were scattered about the walls. He noticed a lot of apocalyptic type posters, things with zombies on them and such. "Huh, looks like the old set for that movie I was an extra in, 'Zombie Hotel.' Pretty neat…I wonder if the actual zombie props are chilling around somewhere?"

The actor bubbled around some more before happening upon a crusty looking door with plenty of barnacles garnishing it. He shrugged his shoulders before opening the door wide open, revealing an enormous pile of gold coins. His jaw dropped at the glorious sight, and he soon started to drool. "Woah, momma! That's enough gold for me to win this challenge twenty times over! Don't mind if I do, heheh!"

Zachary got down to his knees, scooping up piles of gold right into his bottle without so much as a second thought. After a good deal of digging, he uncovered something rather odd, that being a busted up robot that had little clamps for hands and algae growing out of a hole in its cortex. "Huh…I mean, it's definitely no zombie, but it sure is an interesting prop!" He dug his hands around in the algae-infested crevice before pulling out some larger gold pieces. "Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about!"

"Looks like you really hit the jackpot over here, eh amigo?" Zachary perked up as he heard the voice behind him, and he snapped around to face Vicente, who was standing further down the hall. "You don't mind if I share in a bit of that gold, do you?"

"I think I would mind quite a lot, actually. It's mine, I found it fair and square." Zachary shut the door to the little closet behind him and started to walk towards Vicente, glaring through the glass of his helmet. "Isn't that what you're all about, Mr. Reality TV Vet?"

"Under normal circumstances, sure, but me and you both know well that these aren't normal circumstances." Vicente started walking towards Zachary, taking deep breaths although carrying himself to appear as calm as could be. "Let's get right to the point…the orb." The actor inhaled sharply when the orb was mentioned, entirely confirming Vicente's suspicions. "You know, a lot of us could've been hurt…or even died when that whale attacked us."

"But everyone's fine, right? I don't see a scratch on a single person." Zachary chuckled and shook his head, "I'd understand being upset if anything bad actually came from it, but we all survived just fine. Now, I suggest you just go find your own gold pile to rummage through, neither of us want this to get messy."

"We're beyond me just dropping this and letting you get off scot free. You had this coming for a long time now, I'm just sorry that I waited this long. It's only fair to Alex, right?" Zachary's mouth curved into a bitter frown upon hearing the adventurer's name. "He just wanted to help get everyone to safety…but you couldn't have that, could you?"

"That's none of your business! Alex knew too much, and it was only a matter of time before he had to be taken out of the picture! Who cares how it was done? What's done is done and that's that…you're messing around in things that have nothing to do with you." Zachary and Vicente came face to face at this point, each of them staring intensely at the other. "So, are you going to run along? Let the big star have his time in the spotlight…your fifteen seconds of fame came and went. Go ahead and sink back into being a 'who' before you get the same fate that Alex got."

"You know…I think, as selfish as it is, my time to shine isn't over just yet. And I'm not scared of you, Mr. Hollywood…that's just what you want. It's the only reason you got rid of Alex. Because he just wasn't scared of you." There was silence as the two boys just stared at each other, which was broken when Zachary started to chuckle. "What's so funny, compadre?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just that…" Vicente waited for Zachary to finish his thought, but that never happened, as the actor took the opportunity to stomp on his foot hard. He yelled out in pain, lifting his foot up and cradling it while Zachary made a break for it. Once the actor was out of sight, the reality TV pro gritted his teeth and started darting after him.

Confessional

"I hate to have to do this, but Zachary's just gonna cheat out more and more people until he's the winner of the game. He needs a taste of his own medicine…he can stomp my toes as much as he'd like, but I'm not stopping until this is all over." Vicente punched his fist into his open palm, a determined look on his face.

"This is just like that movie I was in, 'Guerilla Attack.' I, of course, played a guerilla warrior that used plenty of cheap tactics, but only so I could persevere! It'll be the same here, I'll end up on top!" Zachary stood up tall and pounded his fist against his chest.

Confessional End

Natt walked around the upstairs of the hotel, looking around to see that there was a plethora of bedrooms on this floor, in contrast to the prior. He walked to one of them, opening the door to see the most bland room imaginable. Seriously, the only characteristic thing about it was the fact that there was a blackish blanket floating above the soaked bed. No decorations, no pictures, nothing, just emptiness and sadness. "Why do I get an eerily familiar feeling about this place?"

The emotionless boy shrugged and left the room, seeing as there really wasn't any gold for him to grab from it. Further down the hall, he noticed that another door had been opened. He raised an eyebrow at the opened entrance, soon starting to walk over towards it full of his usual curiosity. As he got to the door, he saw that the room had a lot of rockstar memorabilia, with guitars along the wall and records that were once probably amazing floating around in the water. Outside of that, there was one thing that stuck out among the rest. "Amelia?"

"Ah!" The actress jumped up, slamming her head against the bed frame, as she was digging around under the bed. She groaned and rubbed the back of her helmet before shaking her head rapidly and turning to face Natt. "You! You can't just sneak up on me like that, you scared the daylights out of me! If I end up having a bruise on the back of my head because of this, you'll be paying to have it taken care of! That kind of thing ain't cheap, you know?"

"Uh…okay, I guess? Did you find something interesting under the bed, there?" Natt had noticed that Amelia was holding her hands behind her back, trying her best to hide whatever it was that she was holding. "I mean, you must've if you're trying that hard to hide it. It's just gold, right? Don't worry, I don't care about taking it from you."

"It's none of your business what I found and whether or not it may be of any interest to you, you peon!" As Amelia berated the boy, she seemed to be sneaking around him, making sure to keep her back facing the same direction as he was so that he couldn't see what she had. She kept shuffling away, but that didn't deter the dull boy from watching her with loads of suspicion. "I'll be taking my leave from this room, now, but you had better heed my warning and stay out of my business if you know what's best for you, humph!"

With those words, Amelia ran away as fast as her legs could carry her, making sure she was going so fast that Natt couldn't even get a glimpse of what she may have found under the bed. He shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the bed, getting down on the floor to look under the frame and see a heap of gold bigger than anything he had imagined possibly finding. "Huh…why didn't she keep digging around in the…you know, I've got enough on my mind already, I'm just not gonna think about it." The boy went right to picking the gold pieces from the heap and placing them in his bottle.

Confessional

"Amelia has always been a bit weird…you can tell when she's putting on some grand facade and you can tell when she's being genuine, but then there are times when she kinda slips and it just makes you look at her like she's insane." Natt held a small amount of gold pieces in his hand before dropping them into his bottle. "I mean, it's not like I would've stopped her from grabbing the gold, I don't know why she felt the need to run away like that."

Confessional End

"This trail is just so convenient, who could've laid out all this gold like this?" Nicolás giggled shakily as he kept following the gold trail he had found before, making sure to pocket each piece in his bottle. He had pretty much had his eyes fixed on the floor, since he was just focusing on the gold in front of him, and he hardly realized that he was headed straight for a door, which he bumped his helmet against. "Yowch!"

The nerd's head was all shaken up by the sudden bumping into the door, and he stumbled back a bit, but managed to catch himself before he tumbled down to the floor. He took a good look at the door, which seemed to be quite heavy, and almost made entirely of metal. He stopped to look behind him, trying to gather where exactly this trail had taken him, only to see that he had traveled down a flight of stairs and was in a narrow hallway. He was a bit uneasy by the area, but he pressed on and opened the door nonetheless.

The door led Nicolás to a small bedroom of sorts, but it definitely was no ordinary bedroom, as there seemed to be a wall of computer monitors on one side of it. He looked the monitors up and down, his lips slanted as he was a bit confused. "Gee, someone really abandoned all this tech when this place went under…heh, imagine if it could still function! That'd be something-" He found his hand wandering towards the monitor screens, but before he could touch them, they managed to flash on. "...Wouldn't…it…?"

As each of the screens lit up, Nicolás was granted vision of a different room in the hotel. They seemed to be old security footage links, but it was odd that they were still functional despite being completely drowned. He took a look at a couple of the screens in the top left corner, where he saw Zachary running through hall to hall. Coincidentally, Vicente trailed behind the actor in each of the rooms. "Scooby Buu chase scene…neat."

The geek's eyes shifted to a camera that was more towards the center of the alignment, one that showed Natt in that record-filled room, digging under the bed and pulling out more pieces of gold. "Natt's gotten himself some success already, not bad, not bad at all. Ah! I wonder…" Nicolás started scanning over each of the screens, looking around for something in particular. He passed over Amelia running down a flight of stairs in one, but it didn't seem to interest him at all. In another, he saw Luna creeping through a hall, but again, he didn't really care about that. "She's gotta be around here somewhere, right? Right?"

Meanwhile, just outside of the hotel, Dana was leaning against a rock while staring down at the ocean floor. She didn't seem all too interested in being alone, as she let out a very long sigh to symbolize her eternal boredom. "These have got to be the longest thirty minutes my poor, mortal soul will ever endure…can't it just be over already?"

"It sure could be over if you'd like it to be over! In fact, for me, it's already over!" One of the contestants had made her way outside, and dropped her glass bottle on the ground in front of the temporary host, striking a victorious pose while bearing an enormous grin. "I knew I was gonna finish well before any of the others! The bottle's packed to the brim, ain't no way to get another gold piece in it!"

"Jianne…Poseidon warned me that you would probably pull something like this. Can't you just go back inside…? I honestly preferred the deafening silence of waiting alone." Dana started to slide down against the rock until she was laying on the sandy ocean floor. She let out another sigh, and soon turned to lay on her side, though Jianne jumped over and squatted down right next to her, soon pulling her up by the shoulders. "...Don't touch me."

"I'll stop touching you when you agree to count out my gold pieces! I wanna know the number that the other goons have to work towards beating so I can grin when I hear them all fall short!" Dana stared blankly at Jianne's obnoxious smile for a brief moment before sighing a third time and grabbing the bottle and staring at it. "Yeah, that'll probably take you a while, so I'll just sit here and watch! That way you'll be graced by my presence, so you won't have to worry about being alone."

"Ugh…whatever…" Dana sat down, criss-cross applesauce style. She placed the bottle in the center of her lap and began to pick it apart to count everything, while Jianne plopped down on the ground to watch her do so.

Back in the hotel's security room, Nicolás had officially given up on searching for Jianne on the monitors, as she didn't seem to be on a single one of them. However, he did see that there was a monitor showing the feed of the room that he was currently standing in. He looked very closely at the screen, which showed that there was a bunch of gold stashed behind the screens. "Huh…looks like I'll have to squeeze in behind there somehow…but how am I gonna do that?"

Nicolás looked down at himself, frowning when he remembered just how much of a toothpick he really was in comparison to some of the others…well, all of the other contestants, actually. "Right, I almost forgot that I was impossible to shove into lockers because of how comfy I could make myself feel in them. Welp, here goes nothing." He set his glass bottle down on the desk with all the monitors, soon climbing up onto said desk and sneaking behind the screens. There was a brief moment of silence, but soon enough, gold pieces were being flung over the monitors, each landing in the bottle that was sitting there.

Confessional

"Yeah, I'm that guy who got bullied by everyone else in the school. I was actually further down on the pecking order than the regular nerds, they called me the mega nerd. It didn't help that I got absolutely embarrassed in front of everyone the one time that I tried to ask a girl out…" Nicolás shuddered, hating remembering that moment. "But Natt and Jianne were right, I'm different than I was before…a lot different. I've made friends while I've been on the show!" The boy's eyes started to well up with tears of joy, and he smiled wider than he ever had before. "I…I have friends!"

Jianne lounged in the confessional seat, filing her nails down with what seemed to be a shark tooth. She held it up and showed it to the camera with a grin on her face. "You like it? I got bored when I was waiting for Dana to count my gold, so I decided to go wrestle the local sea life. Showed them bitches who's boss round this corner of the salty sea alright!"

Confessional End

Luna whistled as she walked into another room, this one seeming to be the women's restroom on the first floor. She looked around a bit, but didn't really seem to find anything of much interest. Ultimately, she walked over to where the mirror was, staring at herself through her helmet and smiling at the reflection. "Wow, I really am even hotter than usual today, who would've thought? Who am I kidding, I get hotter every single day!" The model giggled slightly, but stopped when she heard some footsteps heading towards her general direction. She shifted her glance to the part of the mirror that showed the reflection of the doorway, and grinned when she noticed who was coming in. "Why, hello, Amelia."

"Luna! I'm so glad I've found you, I was looking all over the place for you." The actress made her way into the restroom with her, walking right up to her with an equally cheesy grin on her face. "It seems you've had some decent luck with your search for gold…as you can see, my bottle is quite full already." Amelia patted her glass bottle with one hand, snickering as she heard the shaking of gold pieces in said bottle.

"That's good, very good indeed. You know, Amelia, I've been thinking…" Luna grabbed Amelia's hand in her own, holding it tightly while pulling it over to the counter where the sink was attached to. "You and I had been working together all this time, I think we made pretty amazing partners. I was thinking…wouldn't it be even more amazing if we were more than just partners in some alliance?"

"Why, whatever do you mean, my dear crumpet?" Amelia smiled sweetly at Luna, getting a rather seductive smirk back from the model, who was rubbing her hand gently now.

"Oh, I mean that we should really take our relationship to the next level…" With her free hand, Luna dug around behind her back, trying to grab at the pair of handcuffs that she had tucked back there. "I mean, we're both funny, we're both smart, and we're both drop dead gorgeous. I think we would just make the perfect…" Luna finally managed to grab the cuffs, and she started moving her hand, though a loud click noise shocked her. "...Couple?"

The model glanced down at her hand on the counter, noticing that Amelia had just cuffed her right to it. She looked back up to the actress, a look of confusion present on her speechless face. "Sorry, Luna, I just don't have time to play around with you anymore. I know, and I have known for quite some time that you've been plotting to get rid of me, so I had to make a move pretty quickly. If it helps, you are rather cute, and I maybe would've considered dating you, but the game is just too important at the moment, I'm sure you understand, right?"

"Right, I understand completely." Amelia started to chuckle when she saw Luna nodding her head, but the chuckling was brought to a sudden halt when Luna clamped her own pair of handcuffs down on each of their wrists, successfully getting them stuck together. Amelia glanced down at her own wrist, a bit shocked by this turn of events. "I guess I should've expected something like this to happen…we really do know each other too well, don't we."

"It would seem we do…well, this is quite unfortunate. I was planning on winning the game, but I can't much do that if we're stuck together like this, can I?" Amelia groaned and sat down on the floor, Luna soon following in suit. "Well, if we're both gonna be stuck here, what should we do to kill the time?"

"Not sure…I gotta process this, I was really banking on getting rid of you here and now so that I could go on and take care of the others." The two girls sighed in unison, resting their heads on each other's shoulders while they sat on the grimey, bathroom floor.

Confessional

Luna and Amelia sat together in the confessional, each of them still handcuffed to the other. "Well, I hate to admit that I've been outplayed, but the evidence can't be denied at this point. Oh well, I'm just glad that it wasn't that obnoxious Zachary that did me in." The actress giggled to herself, "It really would've been embarrassing to have to tell other people that he was the reason I had to leave the show."

"Oh, I agree entirely, that moron has less brain cells intact than a sloth. It's a miracle that he's been able to last in the game this long with how ridiculous stupid he is." Luna's remark on Zachary made Amelia giggle even more than before, and the model couldn't help but smile. "In any case, well played, Amelia…well played, indeed."

Confessional End

Zachary kept on running through the halls, but he eventually came upon a dead end in the third floor of the hotel. He looked around frantically for a way out, but he couldn't seem to find one, no matter where his eyes wandered. He turned around to try and make a break for it, but it was too late, as Vicente now had him cornered in the dead end. "Y-you…you really know how to take my breath away…"

"Are you saying you've taken a fall for me? How romantic, chasing me all this way to confess your true feelings!" Zachary fake laughed, stopping when he saw the glare that Vicente was firing his way. "Something tells me that you don't really have any feelings for me. Don't tell me it's true, Vicho!"

"Don't you call me Vicho, that right is reserved for friends. Bah, nevermind that! You've got nowhere else to run, Zach…just give up and accept that it's over for you. I hate to do this, but you've left me with no choice." Vicente started to encroach upon Zachary, but the actor didn't back away or anything, he just smiled at the boy that was facing him. "Making me be the bad guy just so your reign of chaos will end…you really do bring out the worst in everyone."

"What can I say, I just have that effect on people." Zachary smiled calmly while Vicente finally made his way to stand right in front of him. "You know what else I've heard people say about me?"

"What might that be?" Vicente stopped where he stood, staring at the boy inquisitively.

"That I'm a real…knockout!" Vicente didn't quite understand what Zachary meant until the actor grabbed his glass bottle full of coins and smashed it against his helmet, knocking him flat to the floor. He was discombobulated, and in that brief time period of him being dazed, it gave the actor an opportunity to snatch his bottle from him, grabbing a couple handfuls of gold coins that had spilled out on the ground and shoveling them into it before running to the doorway. "I'd love to stick around for this payback or whatever it is you're doing, but I believe the challenge is just about over…so, toodles!"

Zachary made a run for it, leaving Vicente to groggily stumble back up to his feet, though he definitely almost fell back down a couple of times. "Zachary…get back here…you…polla." The reality TV pro held his hand against his helmet while he started to shuffle after the actor, but he was well out of sight in a matter of seconds. He tried his best to keep up, but it just wasn't working. "I've gotta stop him…he can't go on…he'll just keep doing this to everyone! He'll just…"

Vicente was lost in thought, and by the time Zachary was back in his sights, he hadn't realized that he was standing outside of the hotel, surrounded by Nicolás, Jianne, Natt, Dana, and the fiend that had struck him with the bottle. "It's…it can't be…did I…?"

"Well…seeing as you are out here without your bottle, much less any gold pieces in it…yes, it's safe to say that you've up and lost the challenge. You know that means one thing…that you're out of the game." Dana didn't seem too interested in what she was saying, but those words echoed through Vicente's head as he stood there. He fell to his knees, utterly distraught, while Zachary just stood there and smirked at him. "And by my count…Jianne, even though she was out here before everyone else, she still won. Guess she'll be upgrading to the new suite in the submarine."

"As expected!" Jianne threw up her fists and hollered in victory while Natt and Nicolás clapped for her, though Zachary just seemed to be a bit annoyed by this. Dana took a brief moment to count the heads around her, and this caused her to find something fishy.

"Shouldn't there be two others…?" The dark and gloomy host started walking back into the hotel, and after a short walk, she found herself standing in the entranceway of the girl's restroom, where Luna and Amelia were still sitting on the floor, their wrists still cuffed together. They looked back at her, and there was some brief silence. "...Heh…heh…heh…you guys are out, too." The girls knew this already, but hearing it said made them sigh, nonetheless.

Confessional

"I can't believe it…I had him trapped in a corner, but I still couldn't do what I needed to do to finish the job…heh, guess I'll never change." Vicente slapped his hand against his forehead, letting out a soft chuckle. "That's just the difference between me and Zach, I suppose…he's willing to go that extra step to make sure people hurt, and I just can't do that. Well…can't say I feel bad to lose this way."

Confessional End

The contestants met back in the main chamber of the massive submarine, where Vicente, Amelia, and Luna had all been loaded up into their individual game pods while Dana and the remaining contestants were standing and watching them. "It really is a good thing that Charlize managed to get these fixed before we got back…it would bother me unimaginably if I was forced to deal with three losers just floating around here for more time than they had to. Yeah…you three lost today…wacky stuff, three in one. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Do you have any last words, or can I just kick you out already?"

"I'd like to say that none of you remaining contestants deserve this win, I hope you all know that. Two of you are total nerds, one of you is a complete numbskull, and the other one is an obsessive freak." Amelia spat her harsh words out at the final four, each of which glared back at her before the game pod closed on her and fired her out of the submarine, sending her away for good.

"Huh…didn't expect that to happen that fast. We don't get, like, a warning or anything? What if I have motion sickness? Is it going to be dark in here? I better be comfortable while I'm in here or I'll su-" Luna's pod closed up on her before she could finish speaking her piece, firing her away from the submarine just as the other had done with Amelia.

This only left Vicente staring at the final four, though he had a comfortable smile on his face as he looked towards Zachary. "Well, Zach…it looks like I couldn't be the one to teach you a lesson. Whether I'm too weak to step past the border of things that are okay to do, or I just have my consciousness intact, I think it's for the best that it happened this way. You know why? Because…something in my heart tells me you'll get yours before the show is over. I can feel it. For the rest of you guys…adiós!"

The three remaining contestants that weren't Zachary waved to the boy before his pod shut on him, shipping him away from the submarine. Jianne stretched her arms out, letting out a colossal yawn. "Man, winning a challenge in half the time that it takes the rest of you guys sure does make me one sleepy lady! Speaking of ladies…it looks like I'm the only lady left! Ha! This one girl is gonna have to outclass these three boys…shouldn't be too tough!"

"You keep telling yourself that, Jianne. Just you wait, you'll be on my bench, cheering for me in the finale!" Zachary proudly pointed to himself, getting an elbow to the gut from the competitive girl, which shut him up right quick. "Oof…my…intestines…the pain is unbearable…"

"Meh, that's what you get for existing. In any case, I'm gonna head on up to my new suite! I'll see you babies later…you can tell me all about what it means to be a loser, then!" Jianne gave Nicolás a playful noogie before leaving the main chamber to go to her new room.

Confessional

"I'm…I'm in the final four! It's crazy to think about it, but it's really happened!" Nicolás was completely shocked, but happily surprised by this fact, as he had a big, dumb smile on his face.

"Yeah, I expected to make it here, it just makes sense, you know?" Zachary checked his nails as he lounged against the back wall. "Pretty soon I'll win this whole thing and everyone will have to give me the respect I rightfully deserve."

"Just three more competitors? It ain't no problem for me, I'll take 'em all on! Bring on the real challenges, because I'm only gonna get better from this point on!" Jianne stood proudly and pointed towards the camera while grinning.

"Final four, huh? It's pretty cool…and my time ain't done here, yet. I have a lot more to discover…I'll get to the bottom of this Father Time soon enough." Natt nodded at the camera, a slight smirk on his face.

Confessional End

Natt sighed as he shut the door to his room, tired after the long day that he had had in the challenge. He turned around to face his bed, but when he saw what was there, he froze in place, unsure what to say. "...Kukuku! It's been a while, Natt! I've come…"

The screen cut to black, "...to make a deal!"

Author's Notes:

*T-t-triple elimination, what the deuce!? Some people speculated I would do a few doubles, some thought I may eliminate someone in the next aftermath, though a few did jokingly guess that I would do something like this. Well, surprise! You may notice I am listing Vicente as 5th place rather than 7th/6th/5th. This is because Luna and Amelia lost at the same time before the challenge was over, while he didn't lose until the challenge was finished. Anywho, thanks for reading and see you next time!

*Placements: No Placement - Sebastian, Haley, Jett; 22nd - Crustacean; 21st - Thomas; 20th - Archie; 19th - Anne; 18th - Alex; 17th - Taylor; 16th/15th - Liz/Tony; 14th - Flint; 13th - Gretchen; 12th - March; 11th - Damien; 10th - Alexis; 9th - Benjamin; 8th - Dusty; 7th/6th - Amelia/Luna; 5th - Vicente