Let's hop right into Transyvania! Someone's about to get yeeted out the plane!

All eleven campers had gathered in the dining hall, ready to hear what Chris had to say regarding this challenge.

"Woohoo!" Owen cheered, "this'll be a cinch! I totally remember this challenge!"

"Do you?" Scott asked him curiously. "Any pointers you can give?"

"Well sure," Owen said amicably, nodding his large head eagerly, "first we had to eat a whole bunch of gross Transylvanian food, then we had to walk on hot coals! After that, Noah had to bungee jump off a bridge, and then we had to fill baskets with tea leaves!"

Noah gave Owen a playful smack, "dude, we didn't even make it to India. What are you even talking about?"

"Yeah, Transylvania had coffins and horseback riding," Bridgette corrected him.

"How do you know that?" Duncan asked.

"Um, Geoff was on that show, of course I watched it," Bridgette told him, as if he were stupid.

"Oh yeah…"

Chris chose that moment to enter the Dining Area, hands folded calmly behind his back and his signature smile on his face. "Alright campers, are you ready to get this insufferable suck-up fest on the road?"

"Wow," Noah crossed his arms, "you're really bitter, aren't you?"

"Bitter?! Me?" Chris tugged at his collar and avoided eye contact with the brainiac, "whatever gave you that idea?!"

"Aw, Chris," Owen came up to the host and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He stuck his other chubby arm out and moved it across his chest, indicating an unseen horizon. "It's okay that Don was a cooler, handsomer, younger host who had way better critical reception than you! Heehee, not to mention that Ridonculous Race was lauded for having actual characters and not over the top caricatures of people that no one really gave a crud about!" He chuckled, shaking his head philosophically, "we still love you because you're Chris, right guys?!" He looked to the other ten for help.

"Nah, I hate his guts," Gwen said off-handedly.

"He tried to kill me several times," Jasmine added.

"He also smells like dirt," Scott smirked.

"Um, that's you, Dirt-Breath!" Jo rolled her eyes.

Chris threw off Owen's arm, obviously in a tizzy. He tried to shove Owen away from him and back towards the group, but Owen was much too large to be moved by a single shove from the older man. Thus, Chris fell to the ground with a pitiful whimper, and Owen winced his sympathies.

"Uh…you okay, dude?"

"It's time's like these where I miss being able to torture you guys!" Chris whined, regaining his feet and brushing himself off. "Note to self, remember to have the editors cut this whole bit from the episode…"

"Fat chance, pretty boy," Chef grumbled, walking into the Dining Area too. "I've got the autopilot on for landing. We'll be hitting asphalt in five minutes."

"Transylvania, huh?" Gwen asked, a wry smile on her face, "I hate to be predictable and all, but I think this is pretty sweet."

"Transylvania indeed," Chris agreed, "and you won't see me being stupid and wearing fake teeth so you can't understand what I'm saying. No sir!"

"We get it, you hate Don!" Scott rolled his eyes, "can we get on with the challenge already?!"

"That poor, inferior soul of his," Dawn tutted.

Chris ignored them, but conveniently changed tracks. "So, here's how it works. You guys will be divided up into three teams of three, and one team of two. Your teams have been randomly assigned, and here they are! Team one is Jasmine, Dawn and Noah!"

The three didn't look too stoked about this, but none commented verbally.

"Team two is Lightning, Duncan and Scott!"

"Now that's a team!" Lightning grinned, "we'll own this!"

Scott shrugged, "meh, could be worse."

"Team three is Owen, Bridgette and Jo!"

"Woohoo!" Owen grabbed the two blondes in a hug, "we're team blonde, baby! Let's get it!"

Jo elbowed Owen in the gut, and he dropped her to the ground.

"That leaves Gwen and Sammy as our delightful duo," Chris finished.

The plane jolted, signifying that they had finally touched down.

(Confessional: Jasmine.)

"I'm not thrilled about my teammates," Jasmine admits, "Noah's a slippery little dingo, and Dawn is just…strange." After a moment of silence, she shakes her head, "but I can't be too quick to judge the Shelia. I mean, look who I'm dating, it's not exactly like strange and I can't get along." She chuckles and snorts.

(End Confessional: Jasmine.)

(Confessional: Duncan.)

"Scott may be a smelly hick and Lightning might be as smart as a sack of bricks," Duncan rolls his eyes, "but they're both pretty capable in challenges. I was thinking we might just be able to pull this off."

(End Confessional: Duncan.)

(Confessional: Lightning.)

"Sha-bam! The long streak of Lightning victories begins today!" Lightning says confidently, grinning at the camera, "get ready, viewers! Lightning's not making the finale this season on alliances or strategy, he's just gonna win his way to the end! Sha-lieve it!"

(End Confessional: Lightning.)

The door to the plane opened up, and an inflatable slide flopped out, connecting the plane door to the ground.

"Mind the exit!" Chris called.

One by one, the contestants slid down out onto the gravelly ground.

"Wow," Noah remarked, "it's even the same landing spot as in Ridonculous Race," he eyed Chris curiously, "Are you seriously doing an entire rip off of the challenge? I'm surprised it's not pouring rain…"

"The forecast said it would rain, but here we are with a dry sky," Chris pouted, "but, worry not! While this challenge will definitely have several similar sections to the Ridonculous challenge, we've added our own little twist to it!" He pointed out into the distance, where Dracula's castle loomed. "Here's how the challenge works! Your first part is to race to Dracula's castle! Once there, you need to locate secret tunnels that connects to a nearby graveyard! Then, you have to defile graves until you find a crossbow! Once a team has at least one crossbow between them, you can find and ride one of the local stallions into the spooky forest, where Dracula is roaming!"

Chris pulled out a picture of Alejandro in crappy vampire makeup. "The first team to shoot Alejandro, er, Dracula with the crossbow wins! But be careful, there's also a werewolf hunting you!" He pulled out another picture of Heather in an equally lame werewolf costume. "She'll hinder you at every turn, and will do anything to protect her vampire boyfriend!"

Everyone erupted into chuckles seeing the arch-villains dressed so comically.

"Man, seeing that almost makes coming back completely worth it," Gwen smirked to Sammy. The nice twin responded with an awkward chuckle, and avoided Gwen's eyes.

"Does everyone from the winning team get immunity, or only the one who shoots Alejandro?" Scott asked suspiciously.

"Worry not, freckle-face!" Chris told him rudely, "everyone on the team scores an immunity, so it's in your guy's best interest to work together!"

"Hear that?" The ginger called to Noah, who looked surprised at being singled out. "Work together, Eel-boy. No funny business."

Noah crossed his arms and glared at Scott. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Like you don't know," was Scott's cryptic response.

"Enough chitter chatter," Chris told them as he pulled out his signature airhorn. "Your challenge begins right…about…now!" He blasted the airhorn, and the eleven campers sprinted up the hill towards the castle.

Noah found himself instantly being scooped up by Jasmine. Before he could offer an indignant cry, Jasmine cut him off. "Look, mate. We both know I'll still be faster carrying you than if you were running on your own."

"Fair point," Noah conceded, letting himself be hoisted over Jasmine's shoulders like a sack of potatoes. As Jasmine took off running, the brainiac looked around, "wow, so this is what it's like to be super tall."

"Yeah, it's pretty great," Jasmine smirked.

"Wait, where's Dawn?"

Jasmine looked around, but did not see Dawn anywhere in the running mass of bodies. "Dunno. Don't have time to worry, though. She'll catch up. I dunno if I could carry both of you!"

Lightning, who was already way ahead of the pack, saw Jasmine coming from behind with Noah. "Sha-hey! That's a great idea!"

Jasmine just gave him a strange look as the big jock turned around and ran back towards the group, his eyes zoned in on Scott and Duncan, who were running side-by-side.

"What the hell is he doing?" Duncan muttered to Scott.

"Beats me, he's an idiot," Scott snarked.

"Hey teammies! Why so slow?" Lightning asked the two.

"What do you mean, slow? We're ahead of most of the others!" Duncan argued.

"Nah, still too slow!" Still running, Lightning reached out and grabbed Scott around the middle. "Sha-yoink!"

"Hey! Put me down!" Scott grunted as he was hoisted over Lightning's shoulder. "What the heck is the matter with you!? Do you want to-HURK!" He had the air crushed from his lungs as Lightning reached out with one hand and hoisted Duncan on top of Scott, pinning the farmer under the delinquents weight.

Lightning, now with both boy's weighing him down, turned and sprinted up the steep incline, breezing past Jasmine despite the two protesting boys on his back.

"Put me down, man!" Duncan shouted, "I'm not a toddler, I can run on my own!"

"Glurrrrrchumfreeferrrtarterwackandfortahgreahuhguea!" Scott added with the utmost eloquence, still pinned under Duncan.

"You can run, but not fast enough," Lightning retorted, "so shut up and Lightning do the heavy lifting!"

The rest of the group watched Lightning speed ahead, and redoubled their efforts to sprint.

At the very back of the group, Owen jogged along. The big guy was sweating despite the cool night air, and was panting heavily.

"Come on, lardball!" Jo called from further up, "we gotta move it!"

"I'm-gasp-trying!" Owen wheezed, "this hill-gasp-is-gasp-steeper-gasp…" he collapsed to the ground, "than I remember…"

Jo slapped her forehead.

(Confessional: Jo.)

"I can't believe I got the hippie chick and fatty ginormous slowing me down!" Jo complains, "This is the merge, right? As in every person for themselves? Why the hell am I shackled to some deadweight?!"

(Confessional: Jo.)

The shot cut to Dracula's castle. Clouds had started to form in the night sky, blocking out the moonlight.

Sammy and Gwen roamed through the castle. The goth's neck was on a swivel as she looked around, her eyes shining with excitement.

"This place is so cool," Gwen noted, "I mean…look at all this stuff!"

Sammy was a little more interested in finding the secret tunnels. "I think we need to find a basement or something," she said nervously. "That's our best bet to find tunnels, right?"

"Who knows," Gwen shrugged, "they could be in like the master bedroom for an escape from angry peasants. I know some castles in London had those."

"Okay, but how do we get there? We need to hurry, we're down a person so we really need to work hard if we want to win."

"Don't worry, we'll find it!" Gwen assured her, her tone confident.

The two continued to walk in silence down the dim hallways. Every now and then, there was a strange creak our clattering noise in the distance.

"By the way, I'm really happy you're back, Sammy," Gwen told the twin happily. "I felt terrible about how things ended when you got eliminated."

"Well, yeah," Sammy said, still nervous, "I guess that-"

"But you don't need to worry," Gwen assured her, unintentionally interrupting the twin, "I'm not working with Duncan any more. Now we can have a kick butt girls alliance!" Excitement bloomed in her voice, and she actually clapped her hands together a couple times. "You, me, Bridgette and Jasmine! We'll own the game!"

"Well, I dunno," Sammy told her.

"Look, you don't ever have to worry about me in this game," Gwen told her, stopping in her tracks and turning to face the anxious blonde. "It was because I stuck to my promises that I had to vote you out, and I'm gonna stick to this promise when I say that, no matter what, I will never vote for you again." She offered her hand to Sammy, a warm smile on her face. "I swear."

Sammy bit her lip, but shook Gwen's outstretched hand with her own. "Alright, I believe you," she told the goth. "Can we focus on the challenge now?"

Gwen gave her a thumbs up, "yeah, do you want to check the basement or the master bedroom first?"

"Let's do the bedroom."

"Alright, sounds good!"

(Confessional: Gwen.)

"What a weight off my shoulders," Gwen admits, "now that that's taken care of, we can win this challenge and figure out who to vote off. I know Duncan and I have had our issues this season, but I don't think I'm ready to target him just yet. I owe it to Bridgette to have that talk with him, even if Dawn is a bit creepy."

(End Confessional: Gwen.)

Jasmine and Noah arrived at the entrance to the castle. Jasmine plopped Noah onto his feet and looked around. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Where the heck is Dawn?" Jasmine asked, looking back down the hill. "I don't want to go on without her, it's easy to get lost in a castle that big."

"I'm right here," came Dawn's voice from right behind Jasmine.

Noah and Jasmine both yelped and whirled around to see Dawn resting on a tree stump outside the front gate.

"I'm glad you two finally arrived," Dawn said, rising from the stump. She seemed to float off the stump and drift over to the two. "Let's go. I believe I know where the tunnels are located."

Noah and Jasmine shared a skeptical look.

"What makes you think you know?" Noah asked, eyeing the girl with distaste, "did a little birdie tell you?"

Dawn chose not to answer that, and instead turned her back and headed into the courtyard. The courtyard was huge and enclosed by a 10 foot high wall. The floor was cobblestone, and the centerpiece was a huge, creepy statue of Vlad the Impaler.

"Vlad the Impaler," Noah noted, "not a nice guy…"

"No, he was a truly corrupt soul," Dawn agreed.

"You know a person is evil when they're known to be more vicious than monsters based off them," Jasmine agreed. She gave Dawn a strange look, "so why are we heading right towards it?"

The trio arrived at the statue, and Dawn reached out a dainty hand.

"Not to state the obvious, but do we have the time to fondle a statue?" Noah asked impatiently, "we are in a bit of a hurry…"

Dawn's hand grasped the handle of the sword in Statue-Vlad's belt and gave it a tug. The stone pulled out about a foot, and a loud rumbling was heard.

"What the…" Jasmine took a step back as the statue shifted to the side, revealing a set of rough-hewn stone steps leading down into darkness.

"Wow," Noah blinked away his shock, "uh…nice work, I guess…"

"Oh no…" Jasmine gulped, "that's…really dark and cramped…"

"They're underground secret tunnels," Noah told her, "did you think they'd be spacious?"

"It never hurts to hope…" was her anxious reply.

"The way forward is this way," Dawn gestured down the stairs.

"How did you even know this was here?" Noah asked her.

"I scouted around while I was waiting for you two," Dawn told him cryptically, "but I do suggest we hurry. This is not the only entrance to the tunnels, though it is the shortest to the graveyard."

Without another word, she began to descend into the darkness.

Noah looked at Jasmine, who's face was now shiny with sweat. "Jasmine, look at me."

Jasmine tore her eyes away from the tunnel and stared at Noah.

"I'm not gonna coddle you, and I'll try not to be a jerk about it," the bookworm told her sternly. "But here's the facts. This is a tight race, and we have an upper hand here. I know this sucks for you, but if you want immunity we need to power through and you cannot slow down. Understand?"

Jasmine swallowed noisily, "I…suppose." She took a deep breath, "Alright, let's go."

"You first," Noah gestured to her, "I can't have you booking it on us midway. At least if I'm there, it'd be tough to trample over me to escape."

Jasmine, still sweating, began her descent.

Lightning was running aimlessly through the halls of the castle, Duncan and Scott still slung over his back. "Sha-dang! Where the heck are you, stupid tunnels? Lightning has a challenge to win!"

"Dude, put us down or I'm gonna punch you in the throat," Duncan warned the jock, "getting us up the hill quick was one thing, but we might need to actually incorporate some teamwork here if we want to win this challenge."

That made Lightning skid to a stop, and he quickly shrugged the two boy's off of him.

"You're right," Lightning agreed, "sorry. Lightning shouldn't try and be a one-man team. I guess he just got a little caught up in the excitement."

Scott slowly got to his feet, his entire body crumpled and throbbing from being crushed between Lightning and Duncan. "Ugh…well at least you got us up here way faster than anyone else."

"Maybe we should find the basement," Duncan suggested, "seems like a good place to start."

"Yeah," Lightning agreed, "tunnels and basements are both underground! It's foolproof!"

Scott, ever the optimistic one, chose to interject his own sunshiny-vibes. "Only one problem, fellas," he drawled, "we don't know where the stupid basement is!"

"I think there's more than one problem," Duncan groaned, pointing past the two boys to further down the hallway. "Looks like Ms. Queen Bee has found us."

All three of them turned to see Heather standing at the end of the hallway, dressed up in her sub-par werewolf costume.

"Oh wow," Scott mocked, "I'm so terrified…"

"Y'know," Heather told them, beginning to walk towards them, "at first I thought this intern crap would be humiliating and disgusting. But…" she pulled out a leechball gun. "Maybe it won't be so bad!"

"Leeches!" Scott shrieked.

"We're sha-done for!" Lightning gripped his head in panic.

Heather unleashed a barrage of leeches down the hallway at the three boys, two of whom closed their eyes and braced for impact.

Clangclangclangclangclangclang!

Scott opened his eyes and ran his hands over his leech-free body. "…huh?"

"Nice try, Heather!" Duncan smirked. The punk had grabbed a decorative shield off the wall next to him and jumped to the front of the group, intercepting the leeches with the shield. He reared his arm back and, Captain America-style, hurled the shield down the hallway at Heather.

Heather let out a scream and ducked, dropping her leechball gun to the ground. "What the hell, Duncan? You could've brained me with that!"

The three boys were already running away. "So sorry, Heather!" Duncan laughed as he waved mockingly at her over his shoulder.

Heather stamped her foot and growled.

(Confessional: Duncan.)

"Any day you get to hurl things at Heather is a pretty good day," Duncan says fondly, "that's for Africa, toots!"

(End Confessional: Duncan.)

(Confessional: Heather.)

"Ugh, the leeches spilled out of the stupid gun so I had to pick them up!" Heather raises her hands and wiggles them for emphasis, "with my bare hands!" She massages her temples, "Duncan is so dead."

(End Confessional: Heather.)

With much effort, Jo had managed to drag Owen up the hill to the castle. The normally-irate girl was even angrier than usual given how far behind they were, and she had no problem sharing this with the other two people in her group.

"Great, just great!" She grunted, leaving a gasping Owen in a heap on the ground. "We're so far behind the others now, there's no way we'll win!"

"We can't just give up!" Owen told her from the ground. With a mighty heave and lots of grunting, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "Let's go!"

"It's a little late for that," Jo grumbled, slapping her hands over her eyes in frustration. "We're hosed."

"Maybe not," Bridgette said, squinting into the courtyard. "Does that statue look weird to you guys?"

The three quickly made their way over to the Vlad statue and saw the steps leading down into darkness. The statue didn't move itself back into place after being used, so it was still open.

"Alright!" Owen cheered, "maybe we're not hosed after all!"

"Maybe," Jo admitted, "let's move it, maggots! Go go go!" She took off down the stairs, disappearing into the dark.

"Woohoo! Onwards and upwards!" Owen followed Jo, with Bridgette close behind.

"Finally!" Gwen sighed, entering a huge, ornate bedroom with Sammy right behind her.

"Let's look for tunnels, quickly," Sammy said, instantly rushing to under the bed.

"It probably wouldn't be under the bed," Gwen surmised, walking over to one of the built-in cabinets and examine the objects on it. "My first thought would be a book case, but…"

"But there's no bookcases in here," Sammy pointed out.

"Exactly," Gwen nodded, reaching up and yanking random things on the shelf. "Which means…" she pulled a candlestick, but it wouldn't detach. Instead, it leaned forward, and a loud creaking noise reverberated throughout the room.

Sammy gasped as the bookshelf swung in, revealing stone steps going down. Strangely enough, unlike the tunnel out in the courtyard, this one had torches lining the walls.

"Alright, it's lit," Gwen was visibly relieved. "Let's go, we can win this!"

Sammy nodded her agreement, and the two girls quickly ran deeper into the darkness.

"Sha-bizzle, sha-swizzle, sha-drizzle!" Lightning hollered, running around the basement of the castle.

"Dude, what the heck are you doing!?" Scott snapped, hands firmly over his ears as Lightning ran around screeching.

"Uh, duh? He's using echo-location to figure out where the hidden tunnels are!"

The force of Scott's facepalm was almost enough to bruise his forehead. "I don't even know how to respond to that!"

Click!

The two turned to see Duncan removing his hand from an indented stone in the wall, and grinned as that indented part swung in to reveal a tunnel.

"If you two losers are done being lame, can we get on with the challenge?" Duncan asked, his tone dripping with his signature super cool panty-dropping badboy attitude.

"You may be cool as ice, but Lightning is still gonna get first!" Lightning gloated, sprinting past the two boys and deeper into the tunnel. He quickly vanished from sight, leaving the other two boys in his dust.

Duncan and Scott exchanged a tired look.

"Should we try and get him to slow down?" Scott asked, scratching his chin as he walked into the tunnel.

Duncan followed him in, his expression bored. "Nah, let him clear out any booby traps there might be. Dudes tough, he can tank 'em for us."

Scott chuckled deviously, "Nice plan."

"I do my best," Duncan answered, a confident smirk on his face. The smirk quickly died as he stared at the back of Scott's ginger head. "So, while we're alone, lemme ask you. You're pretty close with Sammy, yeah?"

Scott tensed up, but kept walking. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you guys were always hanging out together before you got booted," Duncan pointed out, "now you guys happen to return together. One Courtney-ex to another, you tappin' that ass or what?"

With no hesitation, Scott spun on his heel and shoved Duncan into the side of the rocky tunnel. Duncan grunted as his back collided with the wall, but he was able to get his arms up to intercept Scott before the dirt farmer could grab him by the collar of his shirt.

They struggled against each other in momentary silence, though Duncan had a bemused smirk on his face as he slowly but surely began to outmuscle Scott.

"Don't…" Scott panted from the exertion, "talk about her…like that..you dick…"

Duncan finally shoved Scott away from him, and proceeded to brush himself off. "Chill, dorkwad, I was just messing with you." His smirk grew larger, "though you basically just confirmed with that tantrum that you've got something go on with her. Thanks for that." The punk slipped by him and continued down the tunnel. "Maybe you two could join up with me, Gwen and Bridgette? 5 strong would be really solid, and I know Gwen's itching to make things right with Sammy."

Since he had passed Scott, he missed the wicked grin Scott shot his back before moving to follow the delinquent down the tunnel. "Yeah, maybe," he smirked, "but do you really think Gwen's taking your side still? After all that's happened?"

"It just makes sense for us to stick together now that the teams are dissolved," Duncan told him, his tone suggesting that he wasn't super worried about it.

"Well, maybe we could work together, but let's just focus on winning the challenge for now," Scott said vaguely, "last thing I need is Sammy and me having targets on out back because we're returnees."

"Sammy and you, huh?" Duncan repeated, his tone mocking. "Man, you are weak for this girl!"

"Shut up," Scott protested, though it lacked his usual bite. If anything, there was a note of defeat in his voice as he gave Duncan's back a pouty look.

(Cockpit Confessional: Scott.)

"Look," Scott tells the camera stoutly, "let me get one thing straight…" Behind him, Chef is fiddling with the controls of the plane. "Sammy and I are not a couple, okay! Well at least not yet…" As he speaks, his cheeks and ears get slowly redder and redder, "I mean yeah, okay, maybe I like her a little, but my game and reputation as a game player was destroyed in All-Stars once I got gaga over Courtney!"

"Pfft," Chef chimes in, "that was gone way before that, Dirt Boy!"

"It was not!" Scott tells him defensively, "anyways I'm totally gonna ask Sammy out eventually, but I don't know if the game is a good time to do that." He hangs his head and sighs, "even though I really wanna ask her out…"

"Yeah,you were a real game player before Courtney!" Chef continues to mock, "Mr. 'Help, I'm getting taken down by a gang of bunnies!'! Hahahah!"

"Hey! Those bunnies were vicious!"

(End Cockpit Confessional: Scott.)

"Jasmine?" Noah's tone was nervous. "How're you holding up?"

Jasmine was breathing shallowly, her head stooped to avoid grazing the ceiling and her arms wrapped around herself tightly. Every few steps she whimpered pitifully, and Noah was starting to worry she would actually trample him in an attempt to escape.

When the large woman didn't answer, Noah instead tried talking to the other girl in their group.

"Dawn?" Noah called ahead, unable to see much in the dark and past Jasmine's body, "you see any light up ahead?"

"Yes!" Came Dawn's faint voice. "Come, the exit is up here!"

"Exit!?" Jasmine shrieked, "EXIT!"

Noah could only watch as Jasmine sprinted ahead.

"Dawn!" He called ahead frantically, "Jasmine's stampeding! Try and get out of the way or something!"

Again, he was met with silence. Starting to worry, Noah began to run ahead. After a minute or so, he could see some faint light ahead.

"Dawn? Jasmine? Where are you guys?!" Noah emerged into the dim light to find himself in a creepy, small stone building. The door in front of him was wide open and blasted off one of its hinges, and Noah had only one guess as to who would've been the cause.

The brainiac exited the building to find himself in a spooky graveyard.

"Jasmine? Dawn?" He called again, "Hello?"

He heard some rustling in the bushes, and rolled his eyes. "Really funny, Dawn," he scoffed as he walked over to the bush.

An extremely pale Jasmine stumbled out of the bushes, collapsing into a heap in front of him. Noah could see the half dozen leeches in her back, sucking away at her blood.

"Noah…Heather's here," she croaked out, "…run…"

Noah didn't need to be told twice, and he quickly ducked behind a headstone as a barrage of leeches flew over his head.

"Where's Dawn?" He barked to Jasmine, but the giant girl had passed out.

"I'm right here," came Dawn's calm voice from right next to Noah. He jumped once again due to her sudden appearance, but he was at least glad to know he wasn't the only member of his team left in the challenge.

"Do you know where Heather is?" He asked, not daring to peek over the gravestone.

"I do not," Dawn shook her head, "but I do have this," she held up a crossbow and a quiver of arrows. Each arrow in the quiver was tipped with a large orange suction cup.

"Wow, how'd you get that so fast?" Noah asked, eying the crossbow with interest, "And I guess I won't be able to skewer Alejandro…ah well."

Dawn just peered at him. "Soon," she told him, a hint of sadness in her voice, "everything will crumble."

"What?"

She reached out and touched his arm gently, "but do not fret, it will ultimately be a relief."

Noah jerked his arm away, "look, save the cryptic crap for after the challenge, okay? We need to get some horses, and I think we need to leave Jasmine behind."

"Neiiigh!" Whinnied a horse, also jammed behind the same gravestone as Noah and Dawn.

"What the hell, how big is this gravestone anyways?!" Noah yelped, "and how did that horse get here?"

"I talked to him before you got here. Antonio has agreed to let us ride him while we search for Alejandro." She stood up and elegantly climbed up onto the horse. "Let's go." Noah opened his mouth to say something, but Dawn interrupted him. "You can ask questions later, I do believe you said we were in a rush."

Noah grunted and closed his mouth, clambering up onto the horse to sit behind Dawn.

(Confessional: Noah.)

"What is it with that girl?" Noah asks the camera with a roll of his eyes. "Is she even human?"

(End Confessional: Noah.)

(Confessional: Jasmine.)

Jasmine is still groggy and pale, "ugh, when you're as big as me, losing a bunch of blood like that drains you like a bloomin' snake drains a Joey's innards."

(End Confessional: Jasmine.)

Sammy and Gwen peeked out from behind a different gravestone while Noah and Dawn raced into the woods on Antonio the horse.

"I didn't see where Heather was shooting them from," Gwen muttered, "did you see?"

"I didn't," Sammy replied. "But we have to be careful."

Gwen nodded her agreement. "I guess the question is whether or not we need a crossbow each, or if we wanna just find one and then get the heck out of here."

Thunder rumbled overhead, and rain began to sprinkle down.

"Ugh, great," Gwen shivered, annoyed as she began to get wet, "just perfect."

"Let's just get one crossbow. We can do what Noah and Dawn did and share a horse," Sammy suggested.

"Fine with me," Gwen said.

The graveyard was large and square, with a bunch of gravestones equidistant from each other. Visibility was getting worse as the rain began to increase in intensity.

"Alright," the goth continued, "let's stick together, that way if one of us gets hit by the leeches we can yank them off before we get too drained. Let's just hope most of the graves have crossbows."

"Yeah, let's check the one we're on right now!" Sammy realized. She went to dig through the dirt, but found it hardpacked. "Wait…how are we supposed to dig through this?"

"I'm pretty sure certain graves have fresh dug dirt," Gwen noted, pointing a few graves down to some dark brown dirt that looked like it had been disturbed recently. "We're likely to find crossbows there."

"SHA-YEAH!"

Lightning burst out of one of the graves, sending bits of dirt everywhere. He quickly brushed himself off and leapt up out of the disturbed grave. "Alright, crossbows…where y'all at?!"

A stray leech caught him in the elbow, and he yelped in surprise. The rest of the onslaught flew wide of him.

From her hiding position, Heather grunted in annoyance. "Stupid rain…makes it hard to see."

Lightning pried the leech of and tossed it behind him. "It's gonna be a while until his teammates catch up, so Lighting's just gonna grab a crossbow and horse, and jet!"

"Who is he talking to?" Sammy whispered.

"No idea, he never shuts up," Gwen rolled her eyes. "But he's a good distraction, let's keep going."

Now more alert, Lightning backflipped over a headstone to dodge the next barrage of leeches.

"Sha-show yourselves, coward!" Lightning yelled into the rainy night air, shaking his fist in a random direction.

Sammy and Gwen used this opportunity to run out from their hiding spot and to the nearest grave that looked like what they needed. They began digging through the soft, loose dirt, which had now started to turn into mud.

"Got one!" Sammy cheered, yanking out the crossbow and quiver from the depths of the grave.

"Nice work!" Gwen pointed over to a rundown building that looked like an open-faced barn. "That looks like stables, I bet we can find some horses there!"

The two stood up and began to run over to the stables.

Heather, who had grown bored at firing at Lightning, who was now just randomly leaping around and constantly being on the move, zoned in on Gwen with a vicious grin. "Sucks to suck, Weird Goth Girl," she grinned, holding down the trigger

"Whoa!" Gwen shrieked as the leeches narrowly missed her, but the surprise of it sent her stumbling to the side. Her foot sunk into the loose dirt of the grave, and she fell heavily to the ground. She yanked her leg, but it was stuck.

Thunder boomed overhead as lightning illuminated the sky.

"Sammy!" Gwen called, "help, I'm stuck!"

Sammy kept running towards the stables, and it wasn't long before Heather was able to spray down the immobile season one finalist with leeches.

"Ugh…" Gwen collapsed back into the mud, woozy and faint. "Sammy…"

(Confessional: Gwen.)

"Weird," Gwen sighs, "she must not have heard me because of the thunder. I hope she can still win the challenge, though!"

(End Confessional: Gwen.)

Sammy bit her lip as she looked back at the now semi-conscious Gwen. She slung the quiver over her shoulder as she approached the stables.

It was nice reprieve from the rain, and Sammy took a second to breathe in the comforting smell of damp hay as she looked around the stable. A single candle lantern hung from the rafters, shining comfortable, flickering light on the horses, who were all looking at Sammy with curiosity.

"Aww, how cute," Sammy gushed, walking up to the nearest stall in the stable and patting the horse on the snout. The horse sniffed her hand, and giggled.

Footfalls thudded behind her, and a filthy Lightning leapt into the stables. He had two leeches sticking out of his head like bizarre antlers, but seemed to pay them no mind as he struggled to get the quiver over his broad shoulders.

"Hey Lightning," Sammy greeted the jock.

Lightning raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, hey…you…"

Sammy's face fell. "It's Sammy…"

"Whatever you say, girl," Lightning said, "sorry, but Lightning ain't got no time to chat, he's gotta get a horsey! Who wants to help Lightning win!?" He gazed expectantly over the dozen or so horses in the stable as if expecting an answer.

Surprisingly, one of the horses whinnied loudly, and Lightning jogged over to it. The horse was black, but had a white lightning bolt patch of hair that went from it's eye to it's back leg.

"Sha-dang! You're Lightning!" Lightning christened the new horse, "Let's go, Lightning! Help Lightning win, okay?!"

Horse-Lightning knickered happily, and Lightning opened the door to it's pen and nimbly leapt on.

Sammy flinched as both Lightning's flew out of the barn. The girl hopped on a horse of her own, and raced off too. As she left the barn, she nearly trampled over a startled Duncan and Scott.

Both boys had managed to secure a crossbow, though neither had seen the fallen Jasmine or Gwen amongst all the mud, rain, and darkness.

Each boy quickly hopped on a horse and quickly sped off after Sammy.

"This is awesome!" Scott whooped, squinting through the rain as they entered the forest. He unslung his crossbow from his shoulder and loaded a bolt. "Keep an eye out for Alejandro!" He yelled to Duncan, who was just behind him.

"Don't gotta tell me twice!" Duncan shouted back. "But this forest is huge! How the heck are we supposed to find him?!"

"No clue, maybe we…hey!" Scott had looked down at his crossbow only to find there was a small screen etched into the stock. It was a GPS screen, and a red dot pinged off to thier northwest.

"The crossbows have a GPS tracker!" Scott yelled back, "sweet!"

"Alright, let's hunt this jerk!"

Noah and Dawn galloped through the forest, Dawn whispering words of encouragement to their horse.

"We're getting close," Noah said, eyeing the GPS in the crossbow. "Have him go a little more that way," he stuck his hand out past Dawn's head so she could see.

Dawn nodded and whispered more to her horse, and they veered the right direction.

"Now let's just hope I can actually use one of these things," Noah grunted, loading the crossbow.

A huge bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, and a new horse appeared behind them. The person riding them withdrew one of their arrows, loaded it, and aimed at the two ahead of them. Due to the noise of the storm and the fact that Noah and Dawn were, y'know, galloping on a horse, they had no idea of this unknown assailant's presence.

Their arrow, tipped with a large red boxing glove, flew from their crossbow and nailed Dawn in the side of the head, knocking the girl off the horse and onto the ground with a painful shriek.

Noah also shrieked, but more out of surprise from Dawn being flung from the horse. He turned and saw Heather gaining on them with her own horse, and his eyes narrowed.

"You can't protect your boyfriend forever!" He taunted, raising his crossbow up and firing it at the approaching villain.

The arrow bounced harmlessly off the horse's muscular flank, and Noah cursed.

"It's called aiming, dweeb!" Heather yelled back, looking much scarier now that her corny werewolf make-up had started to run in the rain. "Let me show you how it's done!" She loaded another bolt and aimed at the brainiac.

Noah grabbed the reins of his horse and jerked them to the side, veering out of the way of the much heavier projectile but nearly losing his seating in the process.

Another flash of lightning, and this time it was Lightning on Lightning who appeared, charging down Heather with a triumphant whinny.

"You leave Big-Brain alone!" Lightning cried, "he's Lightning's pal!" Instead of going for an arrow shot, he rode up side-by-side with Heather and threw out a muscular arm, striking the girl in the side and bodily shoving her off her horse.

Heather splashed into the mud with an angry shout, and her crossbow shattered against a tree.

Lightning and Noah both slowed down, soaked to the bone but unhurt.

"Wow," Noah panted, "thanks, Lightning."

"Don't sha-mention it," Lightning grinned, "we may be on different teams for this challenge, but we're still in an alliance!"

Noah smirked, "that's right." He checked his GPS, "Alejandro, he's close!"

Lightning whistled, and Horse-Lightning sprung into a gallop, "Lightning still gonna win, though! See ya, Big-Brain!"

Noah brushed off his shock and trotted after them, but then he and his horse both froze instantly.

"We forgot Dawn," he told the horse in a panic, "this is London all over again!"

The horse let out an anxious whinny, obviously concerned for the petite blonde, and turned around, going back to look for the wispy woman.

(Confessional: Noah.)

"That's called the 'pay-off', people," Noah tells the camera smugly, "all that hard work was worth it. We're only one challenge into the merge and Lightning's already helped me big time!" His smug smile fades, and turns into a wince, "good thing I didn't completely forget about Dawn, though…that could've been awkward…"

(End Confessional: Noah.)

(Confessional: Heather.)

Heather is covered in mud and bruises. "Okay, I can't tell if today sucked or not. On one hand, I got to shoot up some losers with leeches and boxing gloves. On the other hand…" she gestures to herself, "Look at me!"

(End Confessional: Heather.)

Sammy, who had been fortunate not to run into anyone, was gaining on Alejandro. She was practically on top of the red dot shown on the GPS, and the nice twin was on high alert as she squinted through the trees. The trunks were thick, but the trees were so massive that most didn't have branches for at least twenty or thirty feet, leaving it difficult for anyone to hide…and making it easy to take a shot with a crossbow.

Once Alejandro was found, it would not be long until he was shot.

Sure enough, after a few more minutes, she glimpsed a figure peeking out from behind a trunk, and quickly turned her horse towards it. A flash of the almost constant lightning confirmed it was Alejandro, his vampire make-up long washed away. He shot Sammy a mischievous smirk, then ducked behind the tree.

Sammy galloped past the tree, turning and aiming at the fleeing boy. Right as she pulled the trigger, something heavy bumped into her horse, nearly unearthing her from her saddle. She managed to keep a grip on her crossbow, but her fired shot was nowhere near Alejandro.

"Nice try," Duncan smirked, having intercepted her course and bumped her with his own horse. "But you ain't winning this challenge, toots!"

"Wanna bet?" Sammy said hotly, still none too pleased with Duncan after all that had happened when they were on Team Nuclear. She loaded another bolt and reared her horse into high gear, spraying Duncan with dirt as she galloped past him.

Duncan spewed soiled, and had to slow down so he didn't blindly collide into a tree.

Sammy zoned in on Alejandro's sprinting back, but before she could fire another bolt whizzed past her, colliding into the Latin teen and sending him sprawling into the mud.

Sammy gasped, and she skidded her horse to a stop. A flash of ginger hit her peripheral vision, and before she knew it Scott had arrived at her side, sopping wet and grinning.

"Sorry, beautiful," he winked, pushing his drenched hair out of his eyes, "but I've got plenty o' experience shooting kitchen rats with my Pappy. This was a cinch."

Sammy tried to glare at him, but the redneck was too happy for her to be successful with her anger. She opted for a coy smile instead. "Aww, guess you sniped the win, Scott. Nice job."

Scott, who was in the process of stroking his chin in a self-congratulatory manner, looked startled. "Wait…you're not mad at me for winning?"

Sammy giggled, "of course not. I'm happy for you, silly!"

Scott just gaped at her, happy the dark skies and stormy weather his burning face. "Um…uh, thanks…"

"ALRIGHT!" Jo bellowed, bursting out of the secret tunnel with Bridgette and Owen in tow. "Let's rock this challenge!"

The jockette was met with the eight other campers plus Chris standing in the rain, tired and bored.

"Yeah," Chris told the group, "the challenge is already over, guys."

"What?" Bridgette gaped, "how is that possible?!"

"Probably because it took you guys four hours to get here," Chris told them snidely. "You guys should've just ditched Owen, honestly."

Jo glared at the big lug, who giggled sheepishly.

"Alright, since Scott bagged Alejandro," Chris gestured to the soaked, muddy, very annoyed Alejandro, "he wins immunity for himself, Lightning, and Duncan. None of them can be voted off tonight. The rest of you are fair game. Now, head back through the secret tunnels, the castle, and down the hill to get back to the jet."

"What?" Gwen asked, still pale and sickly from her encounter with the leeches. "We have to basically redo the challenge just to get bak to the plane?!"

Chris winked at her. "Have fun!"

The goth teetered dangerously as her knees gave out, and she would've thumped to the ground if Duncan had swooped in to grab her by the shoulders. "Whoa, easy there." He shifted in front of her and bent down. "C'mon, hop on."

"I'm fine," Gwen said tiredly, "I can walk…"

"Don't be stubborn," Duncan chided her, "and don't make it weird. Let me help you, okay?"

"…" Gwen said nothing, but leaned forward into Duncan's back, wrapping her arms around his neck and hooking her legs around his hips, allowing him to carry her piggyback style. Bridgette smiled at this.

"Ugh, I wish someone would carry me," Jasmine yawned, "I'm bloody drained…"

"Lightning's got you, girl!" Lightning grinned. He ran forward to scoop her up, but was met with Jasmine's palm in his face, stopping his momentum.

"I'll be alright, mate," she told him with a small smile. "Thanks, though."

Scott walked up and prodded Lightning in the ribs, making him yelp. "Yeah, and you've carried enough people today."

(Confessional: Gwen.)

"Yeah, I let Duncan carry me back," Gwen admits, "I guess that's a good step in whatever Bridgette wants done between us, right? Besides, I was so tired, and his body was familiar." She trails off for a second, lost in thought, and her cheeks turn the faintest shade of pink. "Oh god, I didn't say that out loud, did I?" She seems to realize that whatever she had been thinking didn't escape her lips, and relaxes slightly. "Phew."

(End Confessional: Gwen.)

(Confessional: Lightning.)

"Sha-diggity! First win under the Lightning's belt!" Lightning kisses one of his massive biceps. "He ain't goin' anywhere anytime soon, so buckle in!"

(End Confessional: Lightning.)

(Confessional: Jo.)

Jo does not look happy, "Ugh, talk about failing to make an impression!" She grumbles, "I totally sucked in today's challenge! Why couldn't I have run into Heather or gotten to shoot arrows from horseback? Instead I got stuck with deadweight! This game sucks!"

(End Confessional: Jo.)

The shot cut to the eleven campers, still soaked to the bone and freezing, in the Dining Hall of the Jumbo Jet.

"Alright, campers," Chris told them, walking into the hall. "Couple things before you guys can go shower up and clean off."

"This oughta be good," Noah said to Owen, who giggled.

"So, remember those areas I mentioned earlier that you haven't seen?" The host asked the room, "one of those is a new class for you guys to sleep in! It's known as Second Class. Think of it as a 'middle of the road' type of sleeping quarters for you guys. It'll be for those who didn't win the challenge, but didn't suck majorly. Economy section is reserved for Alejandro, Heather, an the ultimate losers of each challenge!"

Gwen shivered, "oh man, spending a night with those two? That's horrible…"

"I'm glad you think so, Gwen," Chris told her amicably, "because you'll be staying there tonight, along with Jasmine!"

"What?!" Gwen yelped, "Why?"

Jasmine didn't look to upset, "probably because we were downed by the leeches, eh?"

"Correctamundo," Chris confirmed, shooting her finger guns and a snazzy smile. "Now, elimination ceremony is gonna be in a couple of hours. We'll be taking off in forty five minutes."

"Where can we find Second Class?" Jo asked.

"You have to walk through Economy Section to get there," Chris smirked, "so good luck trying to have any privacy."

As everyone separated off, Scott grabbed Sammy by the elbow and pulled her in close. The nice twin tried unsuccessfully not to flush as Scott's lips tickled her hair as he whispered.

"Get everyone to meet in the Cargo Hold in half an hour. Be there yourself in twenty, okay?"

"A-a-alright," Sammy whispered back, "I'll tell them…"

Scott seemed to suddenly realize how close they were and he quickly stepped back, nearly tripping over himself. "Umm…great! I'll see you later then, I guess, heheh…"

The camera panned a little to show Jasmine standing across the Hall, an uneasy look on her face as she observed the interaction. The tall girl rubbed her arm nervously as Sammy hurried over to her, still clasping her flaming cheeks with her hands.

"Alright, Sammy?" Jasmine asked quietly, her eyes on the others as they slowly tricked out of the Dining Hall. "Scott wasn't pestering you, was he?"

Sammy rubbed her cheeks, as if hoping to push the color away from them. "No, he wasn't," she told her friend, "but he wants to have a meeting in half an hour at the Cargo Hold."

Jasmine raised an eyebrow, "what for?"

"Probably about the alliance," Sammy said off-handedly.

"Did you tell him about it?" Jasmine asked curiously.

Sammy froze. Scott wasn't supposed to know about the alliance yet, since she hadn't told him. But he did know due to his dirty little secret…

"Uhhh….yeah, I ran into him during the challenge" Sammy said quickly, "and filled him in. I think we're discussing who we want to target."

"Alright then," Jasmine said, "I'm gonna go rinse off in the shower. Normally I don't mind a little mud, but I still feel like leeches are crawling on me…"

Sammy couldn't help a sympathetic shudder, "Ugh, yuck."

"You can say that again," Jasmine chuckled.

"Thanks for letting us hang in First Class for a bit, Duncan," Bridgette smiled, sipping from a glass of red wine.

"No problem," Duncan said distractedly. The punk had his knees on his plush chair, leaning on the back as he looked back towards the entrance. "Okay, while it's just the three of us, let's discuss the vote."

"What makes you think we're voting with you?" Gwen asked him curiously, "after all the crap you pulled, there's no way I'm gonna be under your thumb anymore."

Duncan winced, and turned around to face the unamused goth. "I mean, doesn't it make sense to stick together?"

"Sure," Bridgette agreed, sharing a smirk with Gwen, "you can join up with Gwen and I if you want. But we're doing our own thing, and calling our own shots."

"What she said," Gwen agreed, fist-bumping the surfer.

Duncan didn't look particularly happy about this, and sighed. "…alright. Fine, what did you girls have in mind?"

Gwen quirked an eyebrow, "That's it really? The oh-so-great Duncan is okay with being a follower?"

"Shut up," Duncan shot back, no real venom in his voice, "you girls are smart, and I guess I deserve that after the Sammy crap. Who do you want to vote for?"

"Jo," Bridgette answered for Gwen. "She's a jerk, and she's a threat. It's a win-win, really."

Duncan nodded, "not my first choice, but that's fine. I talked to Scott earlier today about alliance stuff. I'll go pick his brain and see if he's down to join us."

"Good idea," Gwen agreed, "three of us probably isn't gonna be enough. I'll talk to Sammy too. If we can get her and Jasmine and Scott, that'll be majority."

Duncan relaxed in his seat, "alright, sweet."

Bridgette stood up, "alright, I'm gonna go shower," she said with a pointed look at Gwen. Now's the time to talk.

Gwen paled a little and instantly hopped up to join Bridgette. "Oh, uh, good idea! I'll come too, I need to get these leech vibes off of me."

"I don't know how many showers there are, Gwen," Bridgette told her, "maybe you should just stay here until I'm done…" she raised her eyebrows at the goth.

"Nah, it's fine," Gwen said with a hasty look at Duncan. The punk took a sip of his drink and yawned, not paying much attention to their conversation as he mulled over what he would say to Scott. Gwen hooked her arm through Bridgette's and led her out of First Class.

"Gwen," Bridgette whispered forcefully once they were alone in the dim metal hallway, "I thought you were gonna talk to Duncan!"

"I will, I will," Gwen told her uncomfortably, "I just…need a little more time to prepare myself."

Bridgette raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Promise me you'll talk to him after the ceremony."

"After the ceremony!? But that's so soon…"

"Enough with the cold feet! Just rip off the bandaid. After the ceremony."

"Oh…okay…"

Bridgette stared her down, "promise me."

"Okay, okay, I promise," Gwen pouted, "it's not nice to exploit the fact that I stick to my promises."

Bridgette put her arms behind her head and grinned mischievously, "it comes in handy, that's for sure…"

"Jerk!"

"So this is second class, huh?" Noah said, walking into the room with Owen, Jo and Dawn.

Second Class was….mediocre. Not horrible and purposefully uncomfortable, but not desirable either.

Five chairs lined each wall. They were the type you would get in Economy Section on an actual plane. Not as bad as wooden benches, but certainly not comfortable. They were just a little too small and at just the wrong angle to ensure a wonderful night's sleep…but you would sleep.

A snack cart was established in the corner, with peanuts, pretzels, and sodas. Owen, of course, made a beeline right for this and began pigging out.

"Easy, Owen," Noah sighed, "we don't know if those even get replenished." His words fell on deaf ears, of course.

Dawn looked around the interior, "my, this is quite basic, isn't it?"

"Meh, better than Economy," Noah shrugged, walking over to one of the chairs and sitting down on it. "Sorry again about almost leaving you behind, Dawn."

"Do not fret," Dawn told him, "I cannot blame you for wanting to win the challenge." She turned on her heel and began to drift out of the room.

Noah just watched her go, perplexed as she vanished without a word from view. "Okay…bye, then."

"Girl's weird," Jo scoffed, "always has been, always will be."

"She's oddly good at challenges, though," Noah noted. He settled down into his chair, watching his big friend continue to gorge himself on the in-flight snacks. "I might take a nap before the ceremony."

Sammy walked into the room, drawing the attention of both Noah and Jo. The nice twin quickly made a beeline for Jo, and leaned in to whisper something to her.

Noah watched this go down with a quirked eyebrow, and it wasn't long before Jo noticed Noah noticing.

"Alright, already!" Jo barked, roughly shoving Sammy away from her, "I got it, okay? Leave me alone."

Sammy quickly hurried out of Second Class.

"Real subtle," Noah snarked, "did she go to the Austin Powers school of sneaking around?"

"Pfft, I know right?" Jo scoffed, opting to play along and attempt to misdirect rather than straight up denying. "She's just filling me in on the scoop with Scott. I don't trust that little weasel, and I wanted to know what he's been up to at the Playa."

"And?" Noah pressed, but Jo just laughed at him.

"Yeah, I think it was you that told me to get lost when I mentioned keeping this alliance going past the merge. Get stuffed, nerdling." She walked past Noah and kicked his chair, making him wince. Her mocking laughter rang in his ears.

Owen finally ceased his pigging out to see Noah fuming in his chair. "What's wrong, little buddy?"

Noah gnawed on his bottom lip, "they're up to something," he said seriously, "and I'm going to find out what." He rose from his chair.

"Aw, look at you gettin' all serious," Owen said happily, "you want some backup?"

"No thanks," Noah told him, "I think this is gonna require some stealth…"

Owen held his gut in mock offense, "Hey, I can be stealthy!" His face clenched as he ripped a massive fart. Green mist began to form around him.

Noah pinched his nose, his expression more dead-inside than anything else, "and there's my cue to leave."

(Confessional: Noah.)

"Sammy has a lot to learn in this game," Noah scoffs, "I was literally right there and she just waltzed in and started whispering to Jo. I don't buy for a second that she was just giving her an intel briefing, and it's no coincidence that Jo left right after. They're having a meeting, and I intend to find out what it's about." He clenches his fist. "If Scott and Sammy think they can waltz back in halfway through the competition when the rest of us have worked so hard to get here…they have another thing coming."

(End Confessional: Noah.)

Sammy nervously crept into the Cargo Hold. "S-Scott?" She whispered, peering around all the crates and whatnot.

The Cargohold was definitely messier than it had been in Total Drama World Tour. Different boxes and odd pieces of furniture and broken junk littered the hold. There was a path barely wide enough for people to walk through that led in a circle around the bay.

"Over here," Came a voice from above her, making her jump.

Bang bang bang!

Sammy jumped again, and quickly looked up. She couldn't see anything over a bunch of stacked crates, though. "Scott…are you up on top of all this junk?"

Scott peeked his head over the crate, his mischievous smirk glinting in the dim artificial light. "Yeah, just installing a little security…heheh."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'll tell you later," Scott grinned. He began to clamber down from the junk pile, but lost his footing halfway down. With a startled yelp, he fell to the ground, right on top of Sammy.

"Whoa!" Came a new voice, "am I interrupting something here or what?"

Sammy and Scott, who's faces were inches apart due to the fall, quickly scrambled away from each other and looked up to see Jo and Jasmine walking into the cargo boy.

"I-it's not what it looks like!" A crimson Sammy spluttered, "he fell on top of me!"

"That's what they all say," Jo smirked. Behind her, Jasmine was doing her best not to glare at the redhead, something that Sammy noticed. The twin tucked her hand into the crook of her other arm's elbow nervously, unsure of what to say.

Scott ignored Jasmine's fiery gaze, and cleared his throat. "Alright, let's get this meeting started…"

(Confessional: Jasmine.)

"Ugh, something about them really just doesn't sit right with me," Jasmine says uncomfortably. "I'm trying to let Sammy do her own thing, but…I dunno. Sabotaging Team Alpha was one thing, but I can't help but feel that Scott is just using her. I think it's time we have a chat and I can share my concerns. She'll see that I'm only looking out for her." She finished her Confessional with a confident look.

(End Confessional: Jasmine.)

Noah crept down the hallway that led to the Cargo Bay from the Dining Hall. His light footfalls hardly made any sound as he slowly paced towards the other room. He had casually been sitting reading a book in the Dining Hall when, over the course of fifteen minutes, had seen Scott head to the Cargo Hold by himself. Sammy joined him ten minutes later, and then Jo and Jasmine soon after, both loudly taking about how they would find the coolest piece of junk.

Noah had to bite back a bemused noise. They thought they were so slick…but he was going to get the skinny on what was going down.

As he crept into the room, he heard hushed voices further down. Peeking into the Cargo Hold, he could tell that the group was on the far end of the circular path that cut through the Hold. He couldn't see or hear anything due to the mountain of assorted stuff that was in the center…which meant…

"Two options," Noah muttered to himself, "over the junk, or around the path…" both had their positive and negative attributes, but in the end he decided to just stick to the path. The last thing he wanted to do was dislodged some useless doo-dad from the pile and alert whoever was gathered that he was there. Going undiscovered was imperative here, and Noah was not blind to that fact.

He crept ever closer, and was finally able to make out some words from the group.

"Alright, so it's decided…" That was definitely Scott's voice. "With them gone, the glue that holds those three together is gone, and the other two will be useless without each other."

Noah's eyes widened.

"Sounds good to me, mate," Jasmine sighed, "it's harsh, sure, but that's Total Drama. We didn't have too many merge votes on my season, but I understand what needs to be done. You sure you're okay with this, Sammy?"

"Definitely," Sammy's voice was firm.

He head some clapping, "alright!" Jo barked, "good meeting! Lets…hey, Scott, why are you grinning like that?"

"Huh? No reason," Scott said quickly, "just happy this plan is going into place. I'll talk to Duncan and Sammy's gonna talk to Gwen."

"You sure you're up for that, Sammy?" Jasmine asked.

An impatient sigh, "yes, Jasmine…"

"Alright, let's get outta here."

Noah's eyes widened, and he quickly crept back out of the Cargo Hold and ran down the hallway towards the Dining Hall. His but skidded into the seat and he picked up his forgotten book and flipped to a random page.

Not twenty seconds later, Jasmine and Jo came back through, each holding some random knick-knack and bragging about how it was better than the other's.

Noah surveyed the rest of the Dining Hall and saw Lightning giving him an inquisitive look. The bookworm held up one finger in response. Wait a minute.

Sure enough, Sammy came out from the Cargo Hold a minute later, hurrying off towards the showers in pursuit of Gwen.

Noah quickly walked over to Lightning and sat down across from him. "Okay, we've got a plan," he smirked, "I overheard something juicy, and I know who we need to target."

Lightning blinked. "Who?"

"They're going after Bridgette," Noah told him, "because she holds Duncan and Gwen together. I think it's a good idea, and we should vote for her."

Lightning shrugged, "fine by Lightning. He ain't hardly said two words to her at all. But is Fatty McFatterson gonna be cool with it? They're friends, right?"

"I'll make him understand," Noah assured him, "it's different now that the teams have merged. Owen's the type of guy that'll feel less bad about sending home a friend in 11th place rather than 18th."

"If you say so," Lightning shrugged. "But fine, Lighting'll vote for Bridgette."

Noah stood up. "Good, I'll go talk to Owen now."

As Noah walked out, the camera cut back through the hallway to get back into the Cargo Hold. It showed Scott, smirking to himself as he whistled a happy tune.

"My, my, my…" He tutted, staring up at the ceiling. The camera followed his gaze to reveal a giant mirror hammered and taped shoddily onto the ceiling, angled to show the entrance to the big room. His eyes narrowed dangerously, and he chuckled, "looks like we got a little sneak on our hands…"

(Confessional: Scott.)

"So the little twerp heard everything," Scott says, his tone bored, "I kept glancing at the mirror to see if we had any eavesdroppers, small plane y'know? Well...that's an issue. Fortunately, I have just the thing to deal with Noah the Eel."

(End Confessional: Scott.)

(Confessional: Owen.)

"Aw, Bridgette?!" Owen says glumly, "Noah talked to me, and I don't really wanna vote for her…but this is a game." He sighs unhappily, "she'll understand…"

(End Confessional: Owen.)

Sammy entered the girl's bathroom and took a look around for he first time.

It was about as dingy as you would expect. Six showers lined one of the walls, with flimsy curtains and less than ideal shower heads and stalls. Rusty sinks lined the opposite wall, with a bench underneath it to hold toiletry bags.

The back wall had more stalls with toilets. The walls were a dingy white, with chipped paint. The floor was chipped tile and the ceiling was rusty metal.

"Jeez," Sammy muttered, heading deeper into the bathroom. "Gwen, you in here?"

"Yeah!" Came a raspy voice from one of the shower stalls. "What's up, Sammy?"

The twin noticed there was another shower running. "Who else is here?"

"Just me," came Bridgette's voice.

"Okay, well I talked to Scott about the votes," she said, "and Jasmine…"

"Yeah," Bridgette piped up, "we were thinking about voting for Jo. We got Duncan on board too!"

"Oh!" Sammy blinked, "uh…okay, that's perfect! That's, uh…who we were thinking about!"

"Great!" Gwen said.

"Okay, well…bye." Sammy quickly took her leave. As she exited, she put a hand over her chest and exhaled, "whew. That was easier than expected."

"Hey," Scott's voice came from behind her.

Sammy jumped a little and whirled around. "H-hey," she said, "I talked to them, they're down for the plan."

"The plan might have to change," Scott told her, "guess who I caught lurking…"

Sammy raised an eyebrow.

(Confessional: Dawn.)

"Nobody talked to me about the vote," Dawn says stoically, "so I will go ahead and vote for what I feel is right."

(End Confessional: Dawn.)

Dinner came and went, and the eleven merges found themselves in the elimination area. A tense tune began to play as everyone shuffled uncomfortably on the benches. Benches, you say? Yes, there were three in total, one on the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom. You remember what it looked like, surely.

On the top row sat Jo, Dawn, Duncan, and Noah.

In the middle were Gwen, Bridgette, Scott and Sammy.

On the bottom row were the bigguns in Jasmine, Owen and Lightning.

Chris arrived, a mischievous grin on his face. He took his place behind his wooden podium, and turned to the large crate behind him that red "PEANUTS". He pried the container open, and pulled out ten barf bags full of airline peanuts.

"Alright guys, normally we have you guys do the voting on the way here, but that's not how it works on the Jumbo Jet! I'll call your name one-by-one, and you'll vote! So…let's get to it!"

(Voting Confessional: Noah.)

Noah stamps Bridgette's passport calmly. "Nothing personal."

(End Voting Confessional: Noah.)

(Voting Confessional: Dawn.)

Dawn stamps an unknown passport. "I am confident that this person will not go home…but it is how I feel regardless."

(End Voting Confessional: Dawn.)

(Voting Confessional: Duncan.)

"See ya, Jo," Duncan smirks, stamping Jo's passport.

(End Voting Confessional: Duncan.)

(Voting Confessional: Scott.)

Scott is silent, but shoots the camera a cocky look as he stamps a passport.

(End Voting Confessional: Scott.)

Lightning, being hte last to vote, took his seat back on the bench. A few moments later, Chef came on screen and handed the stack of passports to Chris. The host took a second to fan through them, his eyebrows slowly rising up his face as he did so. When he was finished, he let out a low whistle, but said nothing.

The eleven campers all looked amongst each other, wondering who would be first to take the plunge.

"Alright guys, I have ten barf bags of peanuts," Chris told them solemnly, "if you do not receive a barf bag…" He gestured to his left, where Chef opened up the door to the plane. "It's time to drop!" He enjoyed the way all the camper's face paled, and he raised his voice, needing to speak up over the howling wind. "The following players are safe: Duncan, Scott, and Lightning! Congrats on immunity."

The three boys happily caught their peanuts.

"Also safe tonight are Owen, Dawn, and Jasmine." Chris recited, tossing each player a bag. "Sammy, you're safe too."

Sammy gulped as she caught her bag, her eyes glued to the ground. Next to her, Scott put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Noah, Gwen, Bridgette, Jo, you four each got votes tonight!" Chris announced, "but the person going home is…"

"Wait, you're not gonna hand out two more barf bags?" Bridgette cried nervously.

Jo had her arms crossed and a triumphant smirk on her face. "Who cares? I know I'm safe."

Noah didn't look particularly concerned either. "Whatever, just get this over with already."

"Oh no…" Gwen said quietly, looking at Bridgette with fear in her eyes.

"The person going home tonight, with 4 votes, is..."

Noah's eyes widened, "only four?" He asked aloud. He turned to look at Scott, who winked at him.

"What's going on?" Bridgette asked nervously.

"Oh, you'll see," Jo laughed.

"…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Gwen!"

Gasps filled the room, heard even above the noise coming from the open plane door. Pandemonium was instant.

"What?!" Gwen shouted, jumping to her feet. Beside her, Bridgette buried her face in her hands. Noah's jaw was wide open, and it took all his power not to gawp at Scott. Duncan looked shell-shocked, and his hands, which were gripping the bench, were white. Scott looked very pleased with himself indeed, and Jo was openly laughing. Owen had his face buried in his hands, and Sammy was still staring at the ground.

Gwen's first instinct was to turn to Duncan, but one look at his flabbergasted face told her that it wasn't him responsible for this. Stumped, she collapsed back onto her seat and buried her face in her hands, "this can't be happening…not after all I've been through…"

"Sorry Gwen," Chris said, his beaming grin kind of ruining the sympathy vibe, "but the group has spoken. You've been eliminated."

Bridgette, who was sitting right next to Gwen, wrapped her distraught friend in a tight hug. "No way…no way…'

Gwen rubbed furiously at her eyes and stood up, glaring at everyone. "Before I go, can someone at least fess up?"

After a few moments of silence, someone stood up.

Gwen's eyes widened. "…Sammy?"

Sammy bit her lip, forcing herself to meet Gwen's eyes. "It…it was me, Gwen. I…I couldn't forgive you for eliminating me earlier this season."

"I'm so proud of her," Scott chuckled.

Gwen's face crumbled, and she hung her head in defeat, "but…I promised you I would never vote for you."

"I know," Sammy said morosely, "and I don't care." She turned away from the goth, "I hope you understand why I had to do this…to avenge myself. I do like you, Gwen. I hope we can be friends after this."

Gwen jerked her head up to glare at the nice twin, her steely resolve ever-present. "Fat chance," she spat, "maybe you're more like your psycho sister than I thought. I hope your vengeance is sweet."

Sammy winced, but held firm. "I understand you're upset…now you know how I felt."

Gwen didn't have anything to say to that, so she instead turned to Bridgette, who had tears in her eyes.

"Okay Bridgette, it's up to you. Win some challenges and the whole game, okay? I know you can do it," she told her friend warmly. "I'll be rooting for you."

A couple of tears spilled from Bridgette's lashes, "o-okay…I'll try my best."

She turned to Owen next, who was bawling noisily into his hands in the row below her. She reached over and rubbed his back affectionately. "You too, Owen. Kick some butt for me, okay?"

Owen lifted his head from his hands, "WAAAAAH! Oh-oh-OKAY! BYEE GWEN!" Unable to take anymore, he reburied his face into his tent-sized shirts and resumed his wails.

She spared a half glance at Duncan, but no more than that before she turned to Chris. "Alright, where's my stupid parachute?"

Chris held it up, "right here! There will be a crew on your LZ to escort you to the Aftermath set."

Gwen's snub seemed to snap Duncan out of his stupor, and he shook his head quickly to clear it. "Wait, Gwen!" He called out, desperation evident in his tone.

Gwen tensed when he called her, but still said nothing as she grabbed the parachute from Chris.

Duncan stood up as Gwen walked over to the drop. "Wait!" He called again, trying to extricate himself from between Dawn and Noah. "Hold on a sec, Gwen!"

Gwen approached the edge of the Drop and looked down into the swirling blue sky. She turned back to Duncan as he freed himself from the confines of the bench, and let out a heavy sigh.

"Goodbye, Duncan."

Duncan ran towards her, but before he got within 10 feet…she jumped.

"No!" Duncan skidded to a halt, his face chalk white and his eyes wide. "What…why…"

Chris walked over to him and clapped his shoulder. "The ultimate and final rejection, huh Dunc?" He sucked in a breath through his teeth, "that's gotta sting." He stared at the nine campers reamaining on the bench. "The rest of you are safe, for now…Jasmine, since Gwen's gone, enjoy Economy Class all by your lonesome…with Al and Heather, of course…hehehe."

Jasmine rolled her eyes. On the bench above him, Scott gave Sammy a one-armed hug, the latter of which was now smiling softly, an excited gleam in her eyes.

"You're free to go," Chris continued, "sleep tight!"

One by one, everyone trickled out of the Elimination Room. Noah was still shocked, and Lightning was scratching his head, confused. Owen was still crying softly into his hands, and Bridgette was trying to comfort him while also crying. Scott had an arm around Sammy's waist in his victory, and Sammy was happily leaning into his side as they walked. Jasmine had her hands in her pockets, eyeing the duo nervously. Jo still had her smug grin on her face, relishing in the successful alliance move. Only Dawn seemed truly unbothered as she floated along towards Second Class.

Duncan alone remained in the Elimination Room, still staring down into the blue sky despite the fact that Gwen was long gone.

Chris eyed him curiously. "You can follow her if you want, man."

Still silent, Duncan looked like he was actually contemplating it for a second…but the look faded from his eyes quickly enough. "Tch," he scoffed, brushing roughly past Chris and stomping towards First Class.

"Touchy," Chris remarked, before turning back to the camera and giving it a wink, "but like I would've actually let him quit. We may be on the Jumbo Jet, but Duncan will be forced to stick it out for the whole time this time! Gwen is gone, and everyone is shook? Where we will take the Final 10 next time? Find out, on the next episode of Total! Drama! Generations!"

Drop of Shame Clip:

Gwen screamed as she free-fell through the air. She grabbed for her chute-pull, she yanked it hard. The parachute bloomed to life, jerking her momentum to a slow glide. The goth let out a sigh of relief as she looked out over gloomy Transylvania. "Damn it...after all that turmoil just to get cut right as the merge starts!" She lets out a yell of frustration, and briefly thrashes in her straps.

Calming down, she let out another long sigh. "I already regret not saying anything to Duncan...I know he's gonna be hurt by it...but I just couldn't face him. Not with everyone there. Not after everything thats happened this season..." She hung her head in shame, "but I'm just delaying the inevitable, I guess. I'm sure whoever is hosting the Aftermath will grill the crap out of us once we're there together. It's gonna be ugly."

Passport Stamps:

Gwen - 4 Stamps (Jasmine, Jo, Sammy, Scott)

Jo - 3 Stamps (Bridgette, Duncan, Gwen)

Bridgette - 3 Stamps (Lightning, Noah, Owen)

Noah - 1 Stamp (Dawn)

Remaining Contestants: Bridgette, Dawn, Duncan, Jasmine, Jo, Lightning, Noah, Owen, Sammy, Scott.

Eliminated: Anne Maria, Brick, Scott (1), Sky, Rodney, Zoey, Sammy (1), Izzy, Beardo, Shawn, Gwen.

Reasoning For Elimination:

Ahhh, I still can't really believe she's gone. Are you surprised?! I really hope you're surprised. I love Gwen and I loved writing her in this story...but it was time for her to go. I made the decision later on in the story to cut her in 11th, as the first merge boot. In the first draft, she made it to 7th...but I've changed what I've wanted to do with Gwen and Duncan whole story like a half dozen times since the story started, and the idea I finally settled on means that she had to go here.

So, basically in the original draft, Sammy and Beardo's placements were switched, with Beardo being the seventh eliminated after messing up in the animal challenge, and Gwen patching things up enough with Duncan enough to have her vote Sammy off when Team Nuclear lost again two challenges later...however I decided to swap those to give Beardo a little more screen time (and since at this point I knew Sammy was coming back for the merge). Thus, I came up with the idea of Duncan 'strong-arming' her into eliminating Sammy before Beardo. Strong-arm in quotes because technically Gwen didn't have to...but still did. Thus, Sammy would come back as a grudge against Gwen. Same with Scott, as it was Gwen's deal with Duncan that got him cut all the way back in Team Nuclear's second elimination ceremony. BAM, instant huge target on Gwen's back. I was hoping to fake people out thinking Bridgette was going with the whole 'glue' thing. Don't worry, that'll get reaaaaaly explained in the next few chapters muhahaha...

So yeah, let's talk about Gwuncan. I think one person in my reviews predicted it ending completely unfinished but...yeah, that's how it be. I really wanted to showcase the brutality of this endgame, and how no one is safe. That's not to say the Gwuncan storyline is over in this story, but it is in the competition. Whether they will end up as enemies, friends or something more remains to be seen...for now. I do hope people enjoyed how I wrote their interactions though. I know the fandom has tilted heavily to Duncney over Gwuncan in recent years, and while I personally am a Gwuncan lover, I wanted to portray the toxic, shitty relationship that these two would've probably had following all the crap that happened on All-Stars. I hope that, even if you didn't ship them, you at least found it interesting.

I also adored writing her friendship with Bridgette. They were just so fun and easy to write, and I'm definitely gonna miss Gwen. I hope everyone else enjoyed her too. May she rest easy. It was tough giving her such a sad ending, as she really wanted to overcome her past struggles and succeed hard...but ended up falling short.

Definitely could've had this done two weekends ago, but I was lazy. Sorry guys! Hope it was worth the wait though!

- Were you surprised by the elimination?

- How do you feel about Alejandro and Heather's utilization as interns? Did we see them too much? Not enough? Just right?

- Who do you think is getting eliminated next?

Catch you guys next time! Ciao!