Author's Notes

Hi all, Clem here, I'll make this quick. Blade wrote this chapter so do send him some love! I'll be responding to the previous reviews, however, thank you so much for all the reviews and favs! We hit 100 reviews! Amazing ^^

Aztec 13 - You have a good brain, my friend. I'm enjoying your theories a lot as usual. Let's see if that's proven ^^

Guest - I'm glad you loved the chapter, the reveal is something huh ^^

Fodini Cyan - Thank you so much! I'm surprised people enjoy this chapter so much! It was worrying a bit as I thought it was too long and such. I'm sure Ezekiel will have his time to shine.

Guest 2 - Cliffhangersss hehe

Guest 3 - Perdi will be back don't worry ^^

And a note from Blade himself.

Hey, after long time not writing the chapter i decided to write this one. Originally this chapter supposed to be actually very different according to my original draft. But as i was writing, i actually took this chapter into different direction and well that's what it came from it. I will be writing next chapter as well, which is basically more what was of my original draft for this chapter. But anyway hope you enjoy

"They…? Who are you talking about?" asked Trent.

Scarlett hadn't responded to the question for a while, it's like she was stuck in another world.

"Hey, Scarlett what's wrong?" Trent asked as he waved right in front of her eyes. Suddenly she snapped and looked at Trent.

"We need to prepare more." She said blankly.

"Prepare for what?" asked Trent confused.

Scarlett sighed "it's a long story, but know one thing for sure. The one who you met is not Gwen."

"B-but she looked like Gwen. She even had the same voice!"

"Trust me Trent, there's more than what you think it is" sighed Scarlett, still shaken from news.

"Huzah! We have returned!" a voice was heard, and both Scarlett and Trent already knew who it belonged to. They looked around and saw an excited Leonard and Dwayne along with a tired Noah entering the room.

"Woohoo..." said Noah in a monotone voice.

"Oh come on, son, aren't you excited after our crazy adventure to be back to our sweet home?" asked Dwayne, elbowing Noah playfully.

"First of all, I wouldn't call teaching a wizard wannabe to swim an adventure really. Second, it's not really our home" Noah grunted and continued to stay deadpan.

Dwayne just shrugged in response. "Like it or not son, it's our home as long as we are here."

Scarlett coughed to catch the group's attention to her.

"Please don't tell me that you got sick while we were gone." snaked Noah.

"Very funny," said Scarlett with a serious tone that made Noah raise his eyebrow "Good thing you arrived right now because I have to say that our plans might change a little bit"

Noah raised an eyebrow "what?"

"Aww, so we are not gonna fight a dragon?" muttered Leonard, a bit disappointed.

"No, we still gonna stick with the old plan," said Scarlett.

"So how will our plan change now?" asked Dwayne.

"Well the main change is that we have to prepare even more than I originally planned"

"More? Are you kidding me, I legit would have died yesterday and it was only the introduction!" Noah complained while Dwayne tried to comfort him by patting his shoulder.

Scarlett sighed "Look, this is serious, Noah. Like it or not, but if we do not train hard enough we might… die."

Silence filled the room.

"Okay, that escalated quickly. Why the change of plan anyway? Did queen Staci found a watch that would allow her to turn into different aliens? Or did she found 7 orbs that would grant her a wish?"

Scarlett took a breath and said, "Well you see, we are not dealing with only Staci anymore."

"Are you saying that there's more danger than just a corrupt queen?!" gasped Leonard

"Yes," Scarlett replied bluntly.

"Man, I just wanted to read a book" Noah whined.

"Hey it doesn't sound bad, more adventures haha" Dwayne tried to cheer everyone up.

"Wait if Staci is not only a threat right now, who are we dealing with now?" Noah asked

"When we were separated, I met someone who looked and sounded like Gwen! Heck, I was convinced that it was Gwen! But if Scarlett says the truth, it seems it wasn't the real Gwen" Trent sighed disappointedly.

"Sorry Trent, I just was-" Scarlett was interrupted by Trent

"Hey it's not your fault, you are probably right. She did run away immediately after she saw me, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a clone or shapeshifter. I am just a bit bummed about it not being a real Gwen that's all. I… miss her" he put his head down.

Dwayne put his hand on Trent's shoulder "It's okay son, I miss my wife and son too, so you are not the only one here. Hey, even Noah misses his girlfriend too."

"Hey!" Noah frowned.

Dwayne smiled. "but hey at least we still have each other, and I would say we make quite a good team."

"Sir Dwayne is right! Our team has Wise knight Dwayne, the king of music, the good witch, knowledgeable gremlin" Leonard started rumbling

"Please tell me that by knowledgeable gremlin, he wasn't referring to me" Noah groaned.

"I think he did" Trent chuckled.

"and me the greatest wizard in the universe. Oh, we even have our own beast!" Leonard pointed at Perdi who was playing with a ball of yarn.

"Not gonna lie, I even forgot we had that cat" admitted Noah

"Aww, Perdi! I missed you, my little friend" said Dwayne excitedly as he started petting her.

Perdi purred and nuzzled against his hand.

Trent chuckled "I guess you are right, we are really an awesome team"

"Well awesome is kind of an over-exaggeration, but I must agree, we are quite an interesting team," Scarlett smirked.

"Don't wanna break the mood, but I think we got distracted," Noah said

"Oh right sorry" Trent scratched his head sheepishly.

"So" Noah turned to Scarlett "You seem to know more about this place than any of us do. So... The Gwen that Trent encountered if it wasn't real Gwen, who was it then?"

Scarlett wanted to say something before Leonard interrupted "Could it be a shapeshifter? These creatures love disguising themselves as other beings, so we could be dealing with a shapeshifter!"

After Leonard stop talking, Scarlett finally responded "Well kinda. They do take forms of different people, but it works not the way you might think" Scarlett explained.

"Oh?" Noah tilted his hand being a bit confused.

"Uhm guys what's a shapeshifter? I don't think I heard about something like that before" asked Dwayne.

Leonard said "No worries Sir Dwayne I can explain. A shapeshifter is someone who can take the forms of different creatures, people or even objects."

"Ohhh, that's so cool! But why I never saw something like that before?" asked Dwayne.

"Because shapeshifters mostly exist in fiction, you will not see any of them in real life," explained Noah.

"Lies! I encountered shapeshifters before" Leonard exclaimed.

"Of course you did" Noah rolled his eyes.

"Well, it seems that I did meet a shapeshifter for the first time. And according to Scarlett, we are not dealing with average shapeshifter" Trent mused.

"How they are different from average shapeshifter anyway," Noah asked, he seemed to be genuinely curious.

Scarlett held her hand under her chin "hmm I don't know how to explain it, honestly. Their power is something that I couldn't imagine"

"Oh my God" gasped Dwayne "they can bake pie under 10 seconds?"

Scarlett glared at him "no"

"They can change clothes instantly?" asked Trent .

"Kinda, but no"

"They can use their moustache as a weapon?"

"what."

Noah facepalmed "Guys, how do any of these powers relate to shapeshifting."

"I mean changing form of moustache is an art of shapeshifting" Leonard said.

"Hey, come on man, my guess was kinda close" Trent whined.

"Anyway," Scarlett tried to catch the other's attention "It seems that they don't have the power to change their form at will."

"But how do they change their form then," Trent asked.

"That's the thing. They don't" She said, which shocked others.

"Okay I am confused" Dwayne admitted

"Honestly, me too," Noah said.

"Wait if they can't change their form and they are not Gwen, then why they look like Gwen. Man, this thing is so weird" Trent groaned.

"I had met them before and from my past experience, I assume that somehow our vision of them changes depending on who we are," Scarlett said.

Everyone looked at her confused.

Noah was 1st to say his mind "Uhm English?"

Scarlett sighed "From what I have seen each of us would see them in a different form. Trent sees them as Gwen, but to us, they will not look like Gwen at all."

"Huh" that's all Noah could mutter. This information was too much for him.

"interesting" Leonard muttered with a serious look as he was stroking his fake beard.

"B-but how would they look to others?" Trent asked still shaken by this thing.

Scarlett started explaining "By my experience, I assume that they take forms depending on a person's loved ones. For example, they looked like Gwen to Trent, because he loves her"

"Woah what else is new" Noah deadpanned.

Scarlett just ignored him and continued "They would look like Emma in Noah's eyes. In Dwayne's vision, they would be his wife. And Leonard would see them as uhmm"

"Princess Violet the third!" Leonard exclaimed.

"Yeah, that."

"Hold on" Noah was 1st to say "So their power is to look like loved ones in person's eyes?"

"Well, it seems like it" Scarlett confirmed.

"Huh, doesn't sound that bad actually," Noah said with confidence which surprised others.

Scarlett glared at him "Excuse me?"

Noah shrugged "I mean they do have dangerous power, but they seem harmless? I mean they don't do it on purpose, it's just the power."

Leonard keep stroking his fake beard "Knowledgeable gremlin is right! They could be even our potential ally!"

"Please stop calling me that" Noah groaned.

Even Trent seemed to agree with this "I can see that. They didn't even try to harm me when they see me, they just… ran away"

Scarlett took a breath "Look, Noah, they are definitely a threat. In fact, they did kill people."

That took Noah by surprise

"I- are you serious?" Trent asked, his voice a bit shaken.

Scarlett sighed "Yes, you see when I first arrived here, I met some of the former total drama contestants"

Others looked at her with shock.

"You did? And you didn't even tell us about it?" Noah asked, seems dumbfounded by the fact that Scarlett didn't tell them.

Scarlett didn't say anything.

"Look, Noah, she probably does has a reason why she never told us about it. I guess from where this conversation started, they…. Were killed?" Trent gulped.

Scarlett nodded solemnly.

Noah's eyes widen a bit, but he decided to not say anything.

After several minutes of silence, Scarlett decided to continue "it was my fault really. When I saw them in disguise, I suspected something wasn't right but didn't do anything about it. And because of my foolishness… they all died…" tears rolled down her cheeks as she started sobbing a bit. Others looked at her with pity, even Noah seems to genuinely feel bad for her.

"Sorry to hear, Scarlett," Trent said trying to comfort her, but she just shook his hand off.

"I will be fine. It's painful, but I already moved on from it" she said still sobbing "I don't know why they didn't kill you on spot, Trent, I really don't, but I assume you weren't their target… yet."

"Oh boy it sounds even more dangerous than queen Staci doesn't it?" asked Dwayne a bit worried.

"Indeed. It seems we are dealing not with just shapeshifter… We are dealing with a demon!" Leonard said, seems genuinely to be angry at what that thing did, even if he still seemed like his usual self.

Noah asked," What's their plan anyway?"

Scarlett stopped sobbing as she looked at Noah "I…. Don't know! I have no idea why they do this."

Trent clenched his fists "whoever they are, they definitely not a human."

"So what now?" Dwayne asked.

After calming down and fixing her glasses, Scarlett finally said "Now we still gonna focus on queen Staci stuff. No changes on that. Of course, I don't have any plans on how we are going to deal with a shapeshifter, yet. So for now the only thing I can say for sure is that you still train for the dragon. But I recommend you all stick together, and even try to find more allies."

"ooo more allies" Leonard gasped with excitement.

"Yup, that's all for now. Sorry for not coming up with a more detailed plan, I just have no idea what to do now." Scarlett sighed.

"It's fine, Scarlett, creating a plan will take some time, we will wait for sure," Trent said calmly with a smile.

Scarlett smiled a little "Well then I am heading to sleep, that was a long day."

Dwayne yawned "Couldn't agree more. After all, we need some energy for tomorrow's training, right Noah?"

Noah groaned "Ohh right, the training."

"Wizard needs some to recharge his mana so I will be going to deep slumber as well," Leonard said.

"Well, night guys," Trent said as he was heading out as well.

Noah was heading to his room as well before he stopped. He remembered something.

"Hey Scarlett, can I ask you something?"

Scarlett looked at him tiredly and yawned "What's it, Noah?"

"You met former contestants, right?" after receiving a nod from her, he continued "What were their names?"

"Anne Maria, Tyler and Devin. Why you wanna know?" She raised his eyebrow.

Noah didn't respond as he picked up a notepad and started writing down the names of Anne Maria, Tyler and Devin.

"Noah, what's this?"

"it's a notepad. I usually write down deaths of former total drama contestants here. So if we ever gonna return to our home, we can let their family know what happened to them." Noah explained.

"That's… actually really sweet. How long have you had it?" She asked.

"Since the time when Trent and I returned from the graveyard."

"And you didn't tell me" she raised her eyebrow.

"Hey, you didn't tell me that you met other total drama contestants. I guess we are even" he smirked.

Scarlett chuckled at his comment.

She watched as Noah finished writing and walk off to rest.

Scarlett thought for a moment as he left.

Devin, Anne Maria, Tyler… I am sorry I couldn't save you last time.

But I will not let your deaths go in vain.

I will make them pay.