Let's just head straight to Episode 12. Also, you know Larry's baby that looked like Chris? I still think it was artificial insemination, so Toni is going to mention it. Thanks for reviewing, AnonBrowser, OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla and lordgemini

There were no more break days. The last two challenges would take place straight off, but I knew these would be interesting ones. I mean, I hadn't known about Chris and his flytrap until that point, but he had mentioned in passing something about imprinting his DNA on a plant, or injecting it. And he didn't have any plants at home and he'd never been in a production of Little Shop Of Horrors, so this flytrap had to be it. As the producers told me, it even had a name – Larry. And it was just as hungry as my darling cousin. Just for food, not fame.

At breakfast, I still stayed with the contestants. Cameron was starting to get a little nervous of Zoey. He tried chatting away to her brightly, but Zoey didn't seem to be paying any attention. The one time she did, it was because he started talking about the next challenge, shooting nervous looks at Lightning. I guess he'd figured out that it was something physical – not exactly a no-brainer. At this point, Zoey, seeing his nervous looks, leaned right over the table, up in Cameron's face and said "You know what you gotta do?"

I could see the beats of sweat forming on Cameron's forehead. "Start backing away from you quietly?" he said in a trembly voice.

I didn't give Zoey an opportunity to continue here. "Zoey, just cool down," I suggested in a firm tone. "Cameron, quit being nervous – you've made it this far. Lightning is going to play to win. All you two need to do is the same thing. Anyway, aren't you planning to go to the finale together or something? There's a good chance one of you will win it. Get through today before you start going all crazy nervous."

Cameron nodded, looking a little better, but Zoey, although she sat back, scowled at me.

"What? Are you not planning to have a friendship finale or something?" I asked.

"Of course I am," Zoey said in her harsh voice, "But like you said, I need to win this first."

"You mean we need to win," Cameron reminded her.

"That's what I said."

Things didn't get any better when the challenge started, in the most dangerous part of the forest, full of the sinkholes where the toxic marshmallows came from. I explained to them that Larry had a flower they needed to bring to the finish line, but that flowers were his favourite food, although humans were a close second. "And if you take the flower, chances are he could chase you," I warned them. "You just need to get it across the finish line before I can give it back to him. So hopefully he won't digest anyone – the producers won't give me any more details. Anyway, since this is the semifinals, it won't be too easy. Each of you get a third of the map around the area – it might mean some false starts unless you work together."

Lightning, of course, charged off as soon as he got his third of the map (the last third). Cameron and Zoey still worked together, having to pull each other out of sinkholes (which enabled everyone to learn that a tiny doll weighed more than him). When I checked the confessionals, I discovered that Lightning thought he was meant to be looking for a literal giant X, and Zoey thought she was having to do everything, while Cameron was mutant bait (and she added earlier that she didn't see why Cameron was being so meticulous about saying "we" when she kept saying "I"). I didn't think that was fair. Okay, so Cameron was hit on by Beelzebub's mutated cousin (lord of the flies, right?) while Zoey hit a sinkhole and Lightning managed to steal their parts of the map (it didn't do much good though, because he stuck the thirds together wrongly). But I reckoned Zoey and Cameron were still stronger together. Zoey was showing some serious skills that I swear she never had before she went psycho, and Cameron's giant brain wasn't exactly slowing them down either.

As it was, since Lightning couldn't read the map, Zoey and Cameron still got to Larry first.

Zoey insisted on tying Cameron to a vine and lowering him down to reach the flower. He didn't like it one bit, especially as he started sneezing as soon as he reached the flower. I was literally afraid Larry would snap him up in a heartbeat, but it didn't happen.
Actually, the ending was pretty anticlimactic. Everyone was throwing the flower to and fro. Lightning didn't get there too long after the flower was out of Larry's possession. It was a good thing I'd warned everyone that Larry would chase them, because they all knew to run.

I was a little worried about Cameron. He wasn't willing to toss the flower to Zoey because she'd almost let him get eaten, and Lightning kept trying to grab it off him, too.

Eventually, I just had to say something from the intercom. "Cameron, this is for a million dollars, not your life! If you'd rather die than lose that money, then that's your choice, but if you care at all about my life, toss the flower because Chrissy will kill me if this season gets the show cancelled!"

That definitely made Cameron think, because I could see him considering. He threw to Zoey, who was ahead. They managed to play keep-away all the way to the finish. So who had the flower by the end?

…Cameron.

Yes. I hadn't expected that – I'd thought the scary Zoey would want to have the win for herself. Either way, when she and Lightning charged up, I already had the flower, and Larry was on his way!
"Hey, Larry!" I called. "Found it for you! Here you go!" And the flytrap delicately sucked up the flower from me and took it back.

I turned back to the contestants. "Congratulations, Cam!" I smiled. "You have full control of who goes home tonight. And considering your hyper-competitive opponents…" I paused, "I think we all know. But you know, you can surprise me."

We all started walking back to camp. Lightning was watching as Cameron walked ahead, not looking at anyone. I think he must have been nervous about the finale – he'd already come so far, but Total Drama's finales were always physical, and that was still his weakness.

I was walking behind the contestants at first, but Zoey suddenly hung back, keeping time with me. At first she said nothing, so I didn't say a word either. She wasn't looking at me, either, just making sure we kept pace.

Finally, she just said "Um, Toni? I know we don't really get on, but I need some advice. Can I ask you?"

We'd come into view of the cabins by then, so I said "I guess. Look, if this is about me advising Cameron and not you-"

"No, no – it's more about me." Zoey said quickly. This time, I noticed it. She'd dropped the savage, harsh tone to her voice from yesterday. We sat on the common area steps and she explained "I just wanted to tell you that you were kind of right. You said you liked the old me better. I think I do, too." She gave a sigh. "I don't know what came over me – I think the stress just got to me. But as soon as Cameron won today, I just – I don't know, I got turned around. I started seeing the way I was acting, and…I hated it." She finally looked me straight in the eye and said "I'm sorry. I don't care if Cameron doesn't choose me tonight – either way, I won't be that way tomorrow."

I sighed too. "No need to apologize. I'm glad you're going to be your old self again. But the thing is – did you know how tough you were today? I've never seen you slay like that in other challenges."

Zoey suddenly laughed. "You noticed that? I didn't know I had it in me, either. I suppose that's one part of me I can keep. Now I know I can do that, I guess that could give me a million dollars if I end up in the finale. But I swear, I won't be the way I was today."

I smiled back at her. "Glad to hear it. Now go tell Cameron, before he starts wondering whether he should choose Lightning."

Predictable to the core – Cameron wanted Zoey in the final. Lightning got hurled. And no one was sorry to see him go.

"And one more thing," I told the finalists. "I know you guys want a friendship finale and all that mushy, sweet stuff, but please – try your hardest tomorrow, okay? You can split the money in the end, but we need the viewers to actually like it the finale."

Cameron and Zoey exchanged glances. "I won't give you an easy win," Cameron said, finally, smiling. "I'll fight as hard as possible."

Zoey grinned back. "I wouldn't expect anything else! But I'm sure I'll let you borrow some money off me."

I figured the finale couldn't come fast enough.

Yeah, I've been driving this towards having Zoey in the finale for a while. While Cameron wanted a friendship finale, again, his Iron Cam tendencies give Zoey a harder time. She's still retained her Commando confidence. I'm sorry if this episode wasn't very good, but it was pretty bad in canon, too, so I wanted to rush it.