Backstabbers Ahoy? Can Dawn avoid being backstabbed? Even I'm not sure yet. Thanks for reviewing, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla, lordgemini and AnonBrowser.

Sure enough, when I got to my trailer, I found two blondes chatting amicably.

"Bridgette!" I pulled my surfer friend into a hug. "How's it been going since I last saw you?"

"Pretty well," Bridgette smiled. "Geoff is super jealous that you asked me back and not him."
"So you guys are still going strong?" I asked, pleased. Bridgette had fallen for Alejandro's charms early in the third season and almost cheated on Geoff. I'd rescued her and she'd made sure to keep away from Alejandro for the rest of the season until she began to genuinely dislike him. Geoff hadn't spoken to her in anything less than a professional tone when they hosted the last Aftermath together, and he still was of two minds about making up with her on the way home. They'd been back together since May, but I had wondered how long it would last. But now it was already the end of June, and things were working, which I knew had to be a good sign.

"Still together," Bridgette confirmed, a light blush turning her cheeks pink. "And as you can see, Dakota and I have met. So what am I here for exactly?"

"Basically just brand name recognition." I admitted. "Apparently you're really popular with the female fans. Lots of younger girls really look up to you. So you're basically a ratings tool. We just want you and Dakota to chum the waters while the contestants do the challenge. I hope that's okay?"

Bridgette smiled a little. "I guess. I'm kind of glad I don't have to demonstrate anything."

As it was, when everyone was lined up on the dock in swimming costumes, my first statement was "Before we start, let's introduce our classic TD competitor of the episode, Bridgette!"

Bridgette managed a shaky smile, sitting in the canoe with Dakota. "So let's just get this over with."

"Here you are – just be careful of Fang – he might jump up if he's hanging around this area." I said, tossing the chum bucket down.
"Eeew!" Dakota squealed. "What is this stuff?"

I shrugged. "Not sure. I think Chrissy might have told Chef to put last season's leftovers in there." As it was, Fang did jump up. They almost lost half the canoe and had to scrunch up small on the same part of it.

The first part of the challenge was pretty easy. One person had to get into a diving suit and untie a pair of skis from an underwater rock to use in the second part of the challenge. "And trust me, you want that first." I added. "The advantage is seriously good." The rest of the team would be responsible for pumping air to the diver from the surface.

Jo and Brick had yet another argument over who got to dive, and Jo won again. I'd have to talk to Team Maggot about that at some point – couldn't Jo delegate sometimes? As it was, Mike and Brick took turns pumping. On the Rats' team, Dawn suddenly declared that she wanted to dive, and although Lightning argued, she eventually convinced him he should pump the air to her and even though she was really too tiny for the diving suit, she did pretty well.

I was watching jealously as Mike pumped air, talking to Zoey at the same time, so that's probably how I noticed what was going on there. "Zoey, take a step back immediately!" I yelled, not even bothering to try not to sound aggressive. "You're standing on the air hose!"

Zoey jumped, looking shocked at my tone, but then looked down and immediately jumped off the hose, looking horrified at what she'd almost done.

I walked over to the team, feeling a bit guilty. "Sorry for screaming at you," I said, "But you were blocking the air – there was an oxygen bubble building up there, so it could have exploded the hose if you didn't move as well as suffocating Jo."

Zoey shook her head quickly. "No, you were right. I can't believe I didn't even notice – you had to get my attention somehow."

"It's my fault, I was distracting you." Mike said guiltily, still pumping the oxygen.

"It's no one's fault," I said quickly. "Just a simple mistake – no worries, no one died. We've got underwater cameras with divers, so one of them would have told us if anyone was in danger." I didn't flirt with Mike right then, since it wasn't the time. But I purposely made eye contact with him longer than Zoey and smiled reassuringly with more of an effort.

Shockingly enough, tiny Dawn with her nimble fingers had the skis untied and floating up just a fraction before Jo had hers. So the Rats had a motorboat, and the Maggots got a leaky dinghy.

"And since the lake is going to be kind of a minefield," I said thoughtfully, "Dakota, Bridgette, I need you two out of the water for the rest of the challenge. Dakota, I won't need you for the rest of the challenge, so you can go back to your trailer whenever you want. Bridgette, same – you can stay or not, but the boat's supposed to arrive back to take you home in three hours, so you can do what you like until then." I turned to the cast. "Okay, so you need to get some things worked out." I told them, as I set the cannons up in the boats. "You get three gulls in these cannons. What you need, is to use them to hit these mines you can see. Well, not the mines as much as the bells on them. You don't want to get blown up. So you need someone to drive your boat, and someone to man your cannon. Everyone else needs to waterski. You can choose."

On the Maggots, Jo grabbed the cannon for herself, and Zoey offered to drive, "If that's okay with everyone." Honestly, at first her underconfidence was cute, but everyone on her team liked her. She didn't need to be so self-conscious. As for the Rats, Lightning enthusiastically took the wheel, and Scott insisted on getting the cannon.

It wasn't a very interesting challenge. Scott got the first bell perfectly, and the Maggots managed the second. Then Lightning got knocked out (again), and Dawn took charge, telling Sam to drive and Scott not to fire any more gulls. He immediately fired another one. Later on, he even fired the third one at Sam, just to knock him out too. Jo ended up actually throwing poor Cameron at the last mine, ringing the bell.

Poor Cam had to go to the infirmary for the next day, but was promised to be fine in 24 hours, and left with compliments from his teammates.

I hadn't known about Scott's deception and Jo's gun being jammed (which is why she'd used Cameron) at the time, but when I went to my trailer, I actually caught a confessional live, from Dawn. She was scowling as she spoke. "Jo's gun was jammed," she told the camera. "The gull that hit Sam could only have come from our boat. I swear by the Great Earth Mother, I will expose Scott for the traitor he is!"

This was the first time someone had actually figured out that Scott was up to anything. What I didn't find out until later is that he'd actually overheard Dawn vowing to expose him. Luckily, he'd already had some plans to get rid of her. See, Dawn had been collecting little things around the island, stowing them in a bin bag. And everyone else had been noticing stuff disappearing. No, Dawn hadn't taken it – Scott took them and then slipped them into her bag. Even Anne Maria's hairbrush was in there, so he'd clearly been planning it for a while. And no one believed Dawn when she claimed someone had framed her. If I hadn't had access to the footage, I would have had my own doubts – she was nice, but very weird and never gave away much about herself, just everyone else.

I went to the Campfire Ceremony straight after I saw Bridgette off at the dock and said goodbye. Then I was ready to have a look at the Rats' votes.

Well, easy enough. Lightning and Sam were safe. "And the Rat going home is…" I paused, the way Chris always did. "…Dawn!"

Dawn gave a little gasp as she ducked the Toxic Marshmallow. "Wait!" she added, pulling a little figurine out of her bag. "You can't eliminate me! For I have found the McLean Invincibility Statue!"

I took the figurine from her. "Well, that's nice! So instead of Dawn, today, you will be…wait a second, there's supposed to be a McLean Seal of Approval on here."

Dawn looked confused, and Scott laughed openly at her. "Sorry, fairy princess. Looked like you dug up one of my knockoffs!" He held up a little branch and a shark tooth he'd acquired when Fang tried to eat him in the second challenge, scraping away at the stumpy block. "I do love me some whittling!"

So he'd been making knockoffs of the invincibility statue? I scowled and said "Okay, Scott, new rule. How many knockoffs have you made?"

Scott shrugged. "A few are lying around. I left that one on the beach."

"No more." I told him. "And I'll watch the cameras tonight to make sure you pick up all the other ones so you can't pull that trick again. Chrissy might think it's funny to get people's hopes up, but you haven't got Chrissy, you've got me, and I don't want this to happen again."

This time, Scott scowled, but he looked resigned, muttering "Okay, okay, I'll go back for them."

I put my host smile back on again and said "Dawn, if you have anything to say, I think the catapult can wait so I don't cheat you out of one by accident like with B. So go ahead."

"I knew the universe wouldn't want me to win such a perverse game." Dawn said bravely. I could tell she was gutted, but she wasn't going to show it. "But what the universe does want me to do is to sell these TDR keepsakes on Craig's List, so I can start a reserve for all the poor mutant creatures on this island!"

I couldn't help smiling. "I'm sorry you got eliminated if that was your plan for the money, but go ahead. If you can wait with the other losers after the season's over, I'll find something of mine for you to sell too. You know, more Total Drama memorabilia?"

Dawn gave me a nod, and then went on to tell her teammates "And to my fellow victims of reality TV, I urge you to open your eyes to the soulless, sociopathic scoundrel hiding among you!"

"Okay, that's enough." I interrupted her before she could say another word. "This show is called Total Drama for a reason, and I can't let you tell them any more. It's time to leave the island!"

I had to basically drag Dawn to the dock with a hand over her mouth to stop her mentioning Scott's name (not a hard task, since she was light as…well, let's just say she had another trait to add to her resemblance to a fairy). Even when she was in the catapult, she begged me to let her warn them, but really, did she expect me to allow that? I didn't like Scott and his throwing challenges any more than she did, but the producers wouldn't have let me throw him off because of that. Villains made good TV. Dawn was sweet, but she didn't say much and didn't really warrant a longer stay the way Scott did.

All the same, I'd have to apologize to her when I next saw her.

This is probably the writers' way of justifying why Dawn was sent home so early. Don't get me wrong, I adore Dawn, but as I mentioned, elimination changes are minimal in this version and once Dawn knew Scott was trouble, that was the end for her. She didn't have many meaningful interactions with her teammates, but hopefully her interactions with Toni helped somewhat.